Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luz was under the bed reading the good witch Azura, usually the eight year old would be more open with her tastes. Though for the last eight months, she stopped being so open about them. Even though she still loved snakes, Azura, anime, putting anime music on clips. The child became used to hiding those.

She remembered how in her new school she brought up Azura. But no one wanted to listen to her. The child was from them on deemed as a weirdo. It also got her in trouble because they said the story was evil.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Luz wasn’t quick enough in hiding her book. Her eyes were glaring down at her. She grabbed her arm, nails digging right through her skin, there was blood coming out of it but the adult didn’t care. She ripped her book out of her hands, “this will finally teach you,” she dragged her in front of the chimney.

A thunder coming from the outside took her out of her thoughts. Usually, Luz would try to go outside to feel the raindrops, but the told her she couldn’t do that here. So, reading her book under the bed was her best option. Even though there wasn’t the best light, the child could get use to some darkness. It put a little mood.

Luz was as careful as possible with the pages, there was some water damage on them, even though they helped her dry it up. Some of the drawings were smudged, but the words were still legible.

There was an itch on her arm, she tried to scratch it but it didn’t bring any kind of relief. The wound was covered in a bandage. It had been there for almost two weeks now, in theory her injury should’ve healed earlier. However, because of the nightmares Luz would try to scratch it reopening it. Luz felt incredibly guilty after this happened, that meant the adult had to work more for her, but they wouldn’t get mad at her, they would just put the bandage again.

The child wished she didn’t leave the second volume behind. Even though she loved the first volume with all of her heart, it would’ve been nice to have more Azura. Now she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to read the rest of the volumes again. Let alone getting new ones.

Luz finally reached her favourite part, where Azura challenges Hecate to a witches duel. She loved reading it out loud for her mamá… but now she couldn’t do that. She wished there was anyone to do it. But there wasn’t really anyone else.

Just as she was getting to the end of the fight, a ball a light appeared in front of her, startling her. The child jumped a bit and hit her head with the top of the bed. “There you are,” Luz looked up and saw Raine, the witch who had been taking care of her for almost two weeks. The fox was laying on their shoulders.

She rubbed the spot where she hit her head, “Mx. Raine?” The adult told her that she didn’t have to be formal with them. But she didn’t want to risk them getting upset at some point because she did something wrong. Though they never seemed to get upset with her. It felt really nice to not have someone judging her for any kind of movement she made.

Even though that meant that she somehow ended up in another world.

The child gasped for breath, she was too tired, her mamá told her that when someone lost a lot of blood, they get really tired. Was that what was happening to her? Luz wasn’t completely sure, but she was clinging to her book as strong as she could.

Maybe that was why she fell into the water, she wasn’t too focused on where she was going, just that she wanted out. The water felt cold, and the child was starting to feel really tired. She used the strength she had left to make sure the book stayed with her.

As she closed her eyes, Luz somehow felt more calm, there were some arms holding her. “No… not yet…” she could feel a warm light around her and the arms were one.

After that the child was back in the water, though this time, she was right next to the border of the lake.

“Dinner’s ready, are you hungry?” Luz snapped back from her thoughts. At the mention of dinner her body remembered that she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch. And even then the human didn’t eat a lot. She gave a small nod and the witch offered a hand, “let’s get you out.” The child grabbed their hand and dragged her out. Raine picked her up and took her out of the room.

The witch’s apartment was pretty simple, there was only one room and they gave it to her. Luz felt guilty that she made them sleep on the couch, in spite of them saying they didn’t care. Speaking of, they passed right next to it. There was a blanket and a pillow on it, there were also a bunch of papers sprawled around the couch, table and floor.

She remembered how insistent they were about not minding sleeping on the couch. Luz was still hesitant about it but in the end she agreed with them. Just to not argue with the adult.

Raine sat her down on a chair and put a plate in front of her, it looked like a… pie? She wasn’t sure since there were wings, arms and legs peeking out. It didn’t really look appetizing, but she was going to try anyway.

“This is called fairy pie,” were the arms and legs of fairies? Boiling Isles food was really weird, “please, tell me if you don’t feel well.” Luz nodded, “I mean it, it’s nothing bad,” the child remembered the one time something didn’t feel good in her stomach. She tried to hold back the vomit and in the end Raine got more worried. The human would have to e honest with that.

Well, she could just think of it as a normal pie, she grabbed a piece and ate it. The adult was taking a closer look at her.

It tasted good.

—

Raine made sure to pay attention to Luz’s reaction to the food. One scare was more than enough for them. Even though she promised to tell next time, the bard wanted to be sure the human was completely healthy. For now it seemed fine, but it could change at any moment and they didn’t know if the human would ask for help.

The witch didn’t really know why the human was so apprehensive on telling them anything. Their best idea was that she was nervous about getting to a new world. She was understandably scared of everything.

Their eyes moved towards the bandage on her arm.

But what if there was another reason?

They didn’t want to assume the worst on Luz’s parents. But Luz was always so hesitant to say anything about them. The bard couldn’t help but wonder.

Raine would find a way to get her back to the human realm, however, they’d make sure the child was safe with them. Now, if only they knew how to create a portal to another world. The only thing the child remembered was falling into the water in the human realm and then suddenly appearing in the Boiling Isles.

There was nothing they could go with. For now, the thing to focus on was mostly on things Luz could eat. Also, learning actual things about humans since the child mentioned a lot of the things witches had on humans were wrong.

Also the other things they needed to take care of were piling up, Raine couldn’t work from home every day, they needed someone they could trust with Luz. The BATTs were an option, but Titan, they still haven’t told them about Luz. Another thing to add to the never ending list. At least the whole legal side of things were taken care of.

According to the papers Luz was their daughter, it was the best way to explain why they had a child living with them. Raine still didn’t know how the child felt about the whole situation. When they explained it to her, she just nodded, as if she was trying to avoid any kind of argument. The bard asked her if she was fine with it, but she kept insisting she was.

“Raine?” They got out of their thoughts. Luz was showing them an empty plate where the fairy pie was. “I’m finished,” she continued with a yawn, right, she must be really tired. Luz hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep since arriving here. The worst part of that was how she’d try to keep it as quiet as possible. Fortunately Fiddlesticks would usually wake them up if the human needed help.

Was there something they could do to help her? Raine didn’t want to just put a sleeping spell on her and they didn’t know if sleeping nettles were safe for her. Titan, what if the medicine here was just poison to her?

These worries would do for a later time, “and you’re feeling ok?” The child didn’t look too sickly, and she nodded. So, they could write down that dried up fairies were safe.

Luz was struggling to keep her eyes open, “do you need help with anything?” Maybe there was something that could make her sleep more constant. A light? Children used that when they were scared of the dark, a bedtime story? There was that book the human was glued to. But if they asked about it she’d flinch and try to hide it. Better not go down that route for now.

Though, as expected, the child shook her head, “no, don’t worry, everything’s fine!” She jumped out of the chair and rant to the bathroom. She always avoided asking for help.

It reminded them of Eda.

No, now it wasn’t the time to think about their ex, Luz was her own person. Besides, she was now stuck in a different world, of course she’d be afraid. The child didn’t know if she’d ever see her family again.

Raine nudged Fiddlesticks, who was still on their shoulder, “mind checking on her?” The palisman went with Luz without hesitation. It was surprising how they had taken a liking to the human. If only the same thing happened with the BATTs.

Raine ate what was left of the fairy pie, a bit bland but the child could eat it. They started to organize all of the scrolls and papers, sending the ones involved with work away. Once they finished that, the bard sat down on the couch and started to look more about the different foods Luz might be able to eat.

For now most animal meats needed some kind of special treatment, with beastkeeping magic it would be easy to do. However, the sigil on their arm reminded them that they couldn’t do that. The bard would have to buy it, fortunately their job pays well. Not like they were using the extra money before.

As they were reading, they heard Fiddlesticks call for them, ‘she’s already asleep, I’ll stay with her.’ The bard turned around and saw their palisman peeking from the door, ‘I’ll wake you if something happens.’ Raine nodded and the fox went back into the room.

The bard relaxed into the couch, another tiring day for everyone in their one bedroom apartment. They needed to tie up some loose ends soon. For not their main objective was to find someone who would be available to take care of her.

A groan came out of them, so many problems and no easy solution. They were so tired, so many things have happened in such a short time. The sound of the raindrops hitting the window were starting to slowly sound more soothing.

It wouldn’t be harmful to take a break.

The bard slowly closed their eyes.

Usually people wouldn’t be out in the forest so late in the night. But this was the best way for Fiddlesticks to move around and not get caught. At this point they weren’t supposed to have them so they hid him on their violin.

Although, they did want to get home before any neighbour got suspicious, “stretch a bit more and then we go home!” They warned their palisman. However, he didn’t seem to have listened, “Fiddlesticks?” The fox was completely still, this was strange.

The palisman’s ear twitched and started to run, “hey!” Raine didn’t have time for games. They followed him, “stop! We need to get Home!” But they didn’t stop. Come on, the palisman usually listened to them.

‘I heard someone,’ what? It was rare for that to happen but not impossible. Beast hunters were a thing, ‘and I smell blood.’ What? Was there a witch hurt somewhere? Maybe it was a beast.

Finally they reached a clearing, there was a lake in the middle of it. Their palisman tugged on their leg, ‘there!’ He pointed at one part of the shore, specifically someone that was close to it.

A child.

Without a second thought they ran towards the witchlet. Titan knew what kind of dangerous beasts inhabited the water. But also, how did she get here? Where were her parents? No, those questions would be for later.

Fiddlesticks dragged her further awary from the water, “ugh…” oh thank Titan, the witchlet was alive. They looked at her, checking for any injuries, but Raine’s eyes went first to the child’s ears.

They were round

She wasn’t a witchlet.

She was a human.

What? How? They shook their head, this wasn’t the right time to panic about the logistics. The child needed help, she was shivering from the cold and… her arm was bleeding. The injury had to have been really bad since there was already a puddle of blood forming under it. Staining what looked to be a book.

Their palisman was looking at them to do something, right. First the injury, they tried to take away the book to get a better look at it, “no!” The human said and then curling into herself.

Raine moved their hand away, “s-sorry…” Titan, how were they so bad at this? They were a teacher for Titan’s sake. The human needed to be healed as soon as possible, “you’re freezing.” She didn’t give them an answer, “do you mind if I put my cloak over you?” Just something to get her to be a bit warmer.

The child didn’t give an answer, the bard was starting to get more worried. Was she unconscious? Fiddlesticks tried to nudge her but the child flinched and curled tighter, the puddle of blood was becoming larger. “Please, I know you’re scared but we don’t want to hurt you, I promise,” she stayed quiet, “just to take care of your wound, maybe we can find a he-” “NO DOCTORS!” Raine jumped. Alright, she was afraid of healers? Maybe?

“Ok, ok, but please, we just want to help you,” Titan knew what could happen to a human in the Boiling Isles. Specially a child. “Once that’s over I’ll find a way to get you back to your family, ok?” Their promise made her react.

The child sat up, by the Titan, she looked exhausted, “my… family?” She looked up at them and they nodded, “why are your ears pointy?” She looked around, “and why do the trees look weird?” Their blood turned cold, she didn’t know she was in the demon realm.

“I… will explain later, but first we need to get out of here, I can take care of your arm back in my home,” the human looked down. She didn’t looked surprised at the injury, but once she looked at the book she moved her arm away. “I… can try to help with your book also,” that made her immediately look up in surprise.

“Really?” The bard nodded, “you won’t try to burn it?” What? No, why would they even do that?

“Titan no, I would never, now, please, you’re still shivering,” the very second the human nodded they wrapped her with their cloak. “Mind if I pick you up? It’ll be faster,” it looked like she was thinking about it but in the end she nodded. Without any kind of hesitation, they picked her up and ran back to their home.

—

Luz couldn’t sleep.

That was normal for her, even before arriving to the Boiling Isles. She’d been having difficulties with nightmares, though back with her foster parents she learnt that they wouldn’t help her, unlike her mamá and papá. And the times Raine found out she was crying they’d try to help her. Even though the child kept telling them it was fine.

But right now she was in the living room, the adult was sleeping on the couch. “I don’t want to wake them up…” however, the fox wasn’t willing to give up so easily and tugged on her pajama pants. “Ok, ok!” Luz tried to shake them awake. “Mx. Raine?” There was no answer.

The human tried to move away, “oh well, guess they’re too deep in their sleep!” Fiddlesticks immediately stopped her. But what could she even do now?

“Ay cariño, ¿otra pesadilla?” The child nodded and climbed onto her parents bed. Too afraid of being on her own. The warmth of both of them made her feel much safer, Luz managed to relax more as her parents embraced her.

They wouldn’t mind, right? Raine always said they wanted to help in anything they could. The many papers on her world showed it. There was also the other stuff, like tucking her into bed most nights and making sure the food she ate was safe.

The child climbed onto the sofa and leaned closer to them. The witch was still sleeping, no sign of annoyance coming from them. They were warmth, it reminded her of her parents. It also made her feel much safer.

She missed it.

Chapter Text

There was a loud knock on the door. It made Raine immediately wake up and almost jump out of the couch. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, they tried to check the time. It was six in the morning, it was embarrassing that this had to be the most sleep they’d gotten, even before Luz. But a rebellion couldn’t be built out of thin air.

The bard tried to get up, but there was a weight on top of them. They were used to this, before Luz arrived he would just sleep on their chest. However, this was heavier than the palisman. They looked down and saw Luz. With Fiddlesticks on top of the couch glaring at the door.

When did she?

No time to ask themself any questions since whoever was on the other side kept slamming the door. Who could even be? It couldn’t be some neighbour with a noise complaint, they had a spell around the apartment so no one could hear anything that happened inside. It was already useful for them with the rebellion. Though now with the human it also proved more useful.

“Ugh…” Luz was close to waking up, they weren’t sure for how long had she been sleeping. But the bard was sure this must have been the longest sleep the child has had since getting here. They weren’t going to let the stranger ruin it.

The bard held her and stood up, “TEACH, WE KNOW YOU’RE HERE!” Wait a minute, why was Amber knocking at their door? “THE OTHER TWO ARE WITH ME!” Great, all of the BATTs were right in front of their apartment. Probably on the verge of creating a noise complaint for them from their neighbours.

“Hey, we’re not the ones slamming the door,” Katya protested. Without thinking a lot about it they ran to the entrance door.

Raine opened and saw their three students, “what are you three doing here?” It wasn’t like them to even wake up this early, let alone visit their home. The bard tried to keep in contact with them while they were taking care of the human. Though it was a bit complicated.

Also, they were reminded that Raine still hadn’t told the BATTs about Luz. Which was even clearer when they started to stare at her.

“Did you finally snap and kidnapped a kid?” What was Amber even asking? It was way to early to deal with this.

“What? No, and why’s that your first question?” The younger witch shrugged.

Katya cleared her throat, “so…” she pointed at Luz, “where did you get her?” The bard sighed, it was the time to tell their students a really long story.

Before though, Derwin’s eyes widened and pointed at the child’s ears. They forgot to cover them, “SHE’S HU-” ok time to drag their students into their apartment. Before his words came out, they pushed them into their home.

They closed the door behind them, “don’t say it out loud!” Thank Titan they decided to visit them so early in the morning. That meant nobody would’ve seen Luz.

Their students still looked in shock at the human. They sighed, “look, I can explain…” Raine used their free hand to point at Luz, “her, but let’s sit down for this.” This was going to be a really long conversation.

“OW!” Fiddlesticks bit and scratched Derwin. Unfortunately, the bard didn’t know how to move their palisman away without waking the human up.

Amber grabbed them by the tail, “that’ enough you little fuck!” They needed to ask their students to be more careful with saying swear words in front of Luz. Raine got closer to them and the fox climbed up to rest on their shoulder.

Then he blew a raspberry.

Before anything could go any worse, the bard patted the palisman’s head, “let’s just sit down and I’ll explain everything.” They pointed at the couch, which was still covered in papers that had information about humans. Most of it innacurate.

“Have you… been sleeping on the couch?” The only thing they could do is nod.

The bard moved away a bunch of the papers and sat down on the cough, “alright, start asking your questions.” The three started bombarding Raine with questions.

—

Luz slowly woke up, though she kept her eyes closed, for the first time in a while, she felt well-rested. She felt really warm and if she was honest, the child wouldn’t mind a bit more sleep.

“Also, who hurt her?” She heard a voice ask, it was unfamiliar it sounded a bit scratchy. Whoever this person was, it wasn’t Raine.

The child felt a hand rest on top of her head, “I… don’t really know, she didn’t talk about it.” That was Raine’s voice. Were they talking about her arm? It was true that she never told the adult how she got it. Or anything about her foster parents.

The human kept her eyes closed, eavesdropping wasn’t a good thing to do but she was curious about who the adult was talking to. “Do you think her parents…” Luz was about to argue back with the new voice, this one was more squeaky.

“No!” Raine immediately responded, “I don’t think so…” they stayed silent for a few seconds. “She hasn’t said a lot about her life back in the human realm,” it was true, but her mamá and papá would never hurt her. Though the people that took her in… Specifically Adelaide…

“That is… strange,” there was third voice, this one deeper, Luz felt a bit bad. But she didn’t want to annoy the adult with more details, they were already doing so much for her.

She felt the adult sigh, “I should probably ask her more in the future.” They didn’t have to! Raine had already been helping her so much, the child didn’t want to bother them with more work. It was better if they just help her go back to the human realm. Luz could figure out later what to do.

“So… are you gonna keep her?” The person with the squeaky voice asked. The human felt the adult flinch. The surprise made her finally open her eyes.

“What? No, she has a family to go back to, besides,” Luz looked up at them. “It’s to risky with theeeEEEEEE LUZ! You’re awake!” What were they going to mention? Maybe something about their job, better not to ask about that, instead, she nodded in response. The witch sat her down on the couch next to them, “I know this might be a bit fast, but these are Katya, Amber and Derwin, my students.” They pointed at three witches on the opposite side of the table.

All of them had pointy ears, well, except the one with purple skin, was it normal in the Boiling Isles to have purple skin? Maybe, she hadn’t gone outside a lot and even when she did, there weren’t many people around and Luz tried to cover her face with the hat. Which also hindered her vision.

Her hands tightened in Raine’s shirt, “hi…” Were they nice? They could be since the three were Raine’s students. The adult wouldn’t make her meet someone who’d be mean to her, right? The child didn’t know enough about them to be sure. For now they didn’t say or do anything mean, the three were just staring. Were they judging her? She got used to that back with her foster parents.

The very first one to say anything was Amber, “where are your gills?” What? Raine also asked her that the first time. After they bandaged her arm and they calmed down.

The adult sighed, “yeah, about that, humans don’t have gills.” Luz kind of wished she did, it would be so cool to breathe underwater. Though she wouldn’t be able to survive on the surface, and there were cool things on the outside.

The witch with small glasses continued, “how did you even get here?” If only the child knew.

She shrugged, “I don’t know, just fell into the water.” The child felt really tired at that time, she also heard weird things. But it was probably because of her imagination. If only she knew what she did to get here. The grip on Raine’s shirt tightened as they ruffled her head.

A few seconds of her staying quiet and Fiddlesticks nudged on her arm. Luz picked him up and hugged him.

The child heard a few gasps, they came from the three witches, “what the fffffffffffff,” the human looked up and saw Raine glaring at Amber. “fudge? All of them were staring at the palisman in awe. Was something weird happening? The fox had been really nice to her this whole time.

Though at least Fiddlesticks didn’t seem to mind, he cuddled closer to her.

Then they blew a raspberry at the three witches.

The white haired witch tried to jump the fox, however, Raine stop her. She noticed that Katya and Derwin looked disappointed, “please, if you want to fight my palisman make sure Luz isn’t in the middle of it.” The palisman started to laugh at the scenario.

The adult sighed as they stood up, “I’ll make some breakfast, do some toast and griffin eggs sound good?” The human nodded and the witch went to the kitchen.

Now she was alone with Raine’s students.

Luz clung tighter to Fiddlesticks, they didn’t seem to mind. It was a relief since she didn’t want to hurt him.

Derwin was the first one to say something, “so, anything you like?” The human looked away nervously, her book was from another world. So they wouldn’t be able to make fun of it or call it evil if they heard the name, right? And Raine could still hear them, they’d say something if they start saying mean things.

“I like Azura…” the adult already saw the book, though she never read it with them. Luz didn’t want anyone to make fun of her.

The witches didn’t seem to know what she meant, “it’s a book series from the human realm.” Raine informed them from the kitchen.

“Oooooh,” the three said in unison.

The adult came back to the four and gave her breakfast. The child started to eat it as Fiddlesticks jumped out of the couch, “huh, maybe we can find it on the boiling sea.” Everyone looked at Katya, what did she mean by that? “What? There’s a chance that someone lost it and then it got here,” that could happen? Was that what happened to her? But she didn’t end up in any boiling water.

The withes noticed her confusion, “you didn’t teach her about how the boiling sea works?” Derwin asked Raine.

They rubbed the back of their neck, “it didn’t even cross my mind to teach her that.” The adult sighed, “it’s been a really busy few weeks.” Luz felt a bit guilty but she also wanted to learn more about magic water that brought things from her world. Could the human also try that? Wait, boiling water could hurt her.

Her curiosity must’ve been obvious, because Raine ruffled her hair, “I can teach you things about the Boiling Isles another day.” The child felt a bit embarrassed, but the thought of learning new things out of school made her feel excited.

The three other witches smiled, “we can also teach you stuff we know.” Really? Would they do that for her? They were so nice, Luz wanted to know more about this place full of magic and weird things.

This place was really nice.

Nicer than…

No, the child shouldn’t think about that. This was only temporary, Raine said it, they had a life outside of her. The witch was just helping her so one day she would go back to her world. It might take some time, but in the end that’s what was going to happen.

Once she finished her breakfast, the child put the empty plate on an empty spot on the table. It was then when Katya’s eyes widened, “hey, where’s Fi- ACK!” The palisman jumped towards the three from the bottom of the coffee table.

“Oh Titan…” Raine created a circle with the finger and everyone except them started to float. Woah, this was the first time she ever floated. It was pretty cool. The adult glared at Fiddlesticks, “just one day without you trying to cause mayhem to my students.” The fox just looked disappointed they got caught so fast.

Derwin raised a finger to point at Luz, “I know this might be a bad moment but were you planning on making Luz float?” The adult’s eyes widened and looked at her. In response she just waved at them, right after that the spell deactivated and she fell onto the couch again.

Aw… it was pretty cool.

Raine kneeled to be on her eye level, “oh Titan, are you hurt? Do you feel sick?” They held her face and was looking at it from all angles.

Luz shook her head, “estoy bien, no te preocupes.” The child paused, she hadn’t spoken Spanish in such a long time. Her foster parents didn’t like it, “I mean! Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry!” She braced herself to be scolded, but it never came.

All of the witches were looking at her confused, “sorry Luz, what was that first thing you said?” Oh, right, no one knew Spanish in this world.

The child started to fidget in her shirt, “I just said that I was fine in Spanish.” None of them knew what that meant, “it’s just a language from my world…” She prepared herself for the worst, “sorry, I won’t speak it again.” Luz was so used to talking to her parents in Spanish from time to time. Guess that habit still hadn’t disappeared.

One part of her was glad for that, she still didn’t want to forget them.

As the child started at the floor, she felt a hand on her head and looked up, “no, no, it’s alright, we just didn’t know what you said.” They weren’t… mad? “You can speak it any time you want,” really? But her foster parents got upset whenever she did.

Amber got closer to her and put her hands on her shoulders, “you need to teach me every single curse word you know in that language.” Raine immediately moved her away from the witch. “What? I just wanna learn more, you said learning more things is good,” Luz looked at Raine.

“Don’t twist my words like that!” The younger witch smiled.

The human didn’t know what it was, but she felt warm, this place was really nice. And none of them had gotten upset with her.

It felt like before…

—

It was pretty late now, Katya was still shocked Raine took a human child in. Though to be fair, it wasn’t like they really planned for this to happen. Her teacher left the bedroom, “ok, she’s asleep and Fiddlesticks is watching her.” The young adult was still shocked about how the palisman was pretty much playing favourites.

Little shit was probably aware and didn’t care about that.

The adult didn’t fully close the door, probably for Fiddlesticks to tell them if something was wrong with her.

Then they gave her and Derwin some coffee and hot snocoa milk for Amber. “Are we still doing the raids?” Derwin was the first one to ask the main question everyone had.

Her teacher looked surprised, “what? Yeah, of course, why would we stop?” The three pointed at the bedroom the human was. “This is just a temporary situation,” sure, if that was what they wanted to believe. But even with the whole ‘temporary’ thing, how would they find a way to get her back to the human realm?

Amber squinted, “sure…” what did she mean? “There’s something not adding up with her,” everyone turned to look at her, “I don’t like how she was so afraid of speaking… Speenish and the arm thing.” Katya didn’t like what she was implying.

Raine cleared their throat, “I’ll keep in mind to ask her about that another day…” that was a relief. Hopefully it was just a small misunderstanding, not like the kid was a runnaway or something like that. Titan that would be such a complicated situation.

Though there was also another problem, “what about the whole… hiding she’s human thing?” Sure, hats worked, but there had to be a safer way.

Her teacher thought about it, “I’ll think about getting a concealment stone some day.” The adult then sighed, “though right now, I need to think more about who will take care of her…” Right, they couldn’t just work from whole every single day. Specially if they were insistent on continuing the rebellion.

Katya got an idea, “I can help with that.” Raine looked up in surprise, “you need help, and you helped us, besides, you need someone you can trust, and who better than your rebellion buddies?” They were also the only ones who also knew Luz was a human. It was a flawless plan.

Her teacher chuckled, “if all of you are willing to help.” The three nodded in unison, “thanks, it means a lot…” everyone smiled. It was the least they could do for Raine. They were the one doing the most work for the BATTs after all.

Derwin pointed at the calendar, “we should probably organize ourselves.” Everyone agreed and they started talking about what days each witch would take care of Luz.

Chapter Text

Luz was sitting on the couch as Raine kept walking around the apartment. She wanted to help them, but the child didn’t know how. And sometimes not helping someone was the best way of helping.

Today was the first day the adult would go back to their work, the human had been dreading a bit this moment. She kept reassuring herself that they’d be fine, they were just like any other adult. They’d work their hours and then come back home completely fine. That was it, it was simple to understand. Nothing bad was going to happen, it would be just a normal day for Raine before they took her in.

The adult looked through some papers and put them on the fridge, “ok, this is my crow number in case something happens and this is the healing coven crow number in case some emergency happens.” They looked at her and the human nodded.

“Alright, what else am I forgetting?” Before they could check anything else the door knocked, “that must be Katya.” Raine opened the door and as they said, Katya was on the other side.

She smiled at them, “morning teach, ready to go back to work and have a normal day like everyone else in the bard coven?” The adult groaned in response and walked towards the child.

They kneeled down to be on her eye level, “will you be ok with Katya?” Luz was a bit nervous staying with her, not because the young adult was mean. But because the human didn’t know how long until they came back.

Or if they would come back.

Without thinking, she shook her head, which made Raine worried, “hey, hey, it’s ok, what’s wrong?” Luz paused, she didn’t mean for them to see.

“Y-yeah,” she stuttered. Some excuse so they would leave for their job, “just that… I… don’t know what will happen today…” Just a few more words out, “so I’m a bit nervous!” There, that should do the trick for them right? It sounded convincing enough for her.

Katya then laid on top of the adult, “aw, don’t worry, I’ll make sure we both have a lot of fun!” The young adult’s smile was a bit contagious. The witch did seem fun to hang out with.

Raine chuckled and moved her away to stand up, “well, remember to call me if she’s sick, ok?” The witch rolled her eyes. But then, the bard seemed to remember something, “oh Titan, her lunch!” They were about to run to the kitchen, however, Katya stopped them.

She started to drag them out of the apartment, “don’t worry Raine, it will be fine, I can cook just fine.” The look the adult gave her didn’t look like they were sure about that, “shut up, I only burnt the kitchen that time and it was more because of spite.” Why would someone burn a kitchen out of spite? What did the kitchen do to deserve that?

Though maybe that one was alive, a lot of things that shouldn’t be alive were in the demon realm.

The witch stopped right in front of the door, “ok, fine, but remember to read what food Luz can, and can’t eat.” Raine was trying to avoid getting kicked out.

Meanwhile Katya was trying to get them out of the apartment with force, “yeah, yeah, you made that clear multiple times, now.” The young adult managed to open the door and kicked Raine out, “have fun at your job, byeeeeee.” They looked like they were about to say something but she closed the door right on their face, “ish, talk about being paranoid.”

Luz stared at the door, it was going to be fine, just a normal work day for them. Everything was going to be fine, “everything alright?” Luz jumped, she didn’t see Katya getting so close to her.

The child stared at the door, “they’ll come back, right?” The young adult raised an eyebrow, “nevermind! Just me being nervous!” Why was this such a big deal for her? It wasn’t, of course Raine would try to go back to their normal life. They didn’t plan to find her.

The young adult ruffled her hair, “of course they will, just another boring day in the bard coven.” Boring? Working in a coven didn’t sound boring. But Luz also didn’t know in what they worked on so she shouldn’t question it.

“So? Anything you wanna do? I can see you no longer have that bandage of yours, so maybe something more active?” Oh, right, the human almost forgot that the injury was finally gone from her arms. Though there were still some marks of Adelaide’s nails on there. She remembered when Raine finally unwrapped the bandage and saw it.

Today was finally the day that her injury was fully healed. It helped that after meeting Raine’s students the nightmares for some reason became less intense. Even though there were times Luz would wake up in the middle of the night. She was getting better, she could feel it.

But what about once she had to go back to her world? Things would go back to how they were and she might not be able to see Raine again.

The adult took off the bandage, some marks were still visible, “looks you don’t need those bandages any longer.” Luz smiled and nodded, though Raine looked concerned at the marks. They really looked like nails, like someone dug them through her skin.

Well, it was what actually happened after all.

“Would you… mind telling me what happened?” The human tensed up, she didn’t expect them to ask that. “I’m just worried about you,” no, she made them worry again.

“I…” something to not alarm them, “while I was running in the forest I tripped and my arm fell onto a bush… with spines! That’s how I ended up with that!” Yeah, that sounded good enough for her.

However, Raine didn’t think the same, “you were running?” She tensed up, “from what?” She dug herself into a deeper hole.

“I… uhm…” what would be a good reason to be running in a forest at night? “Night tag!” The adult looked confused, “we were… playing night tag and that happened, that was why I was running, I didn’t want to get caught.” It was true the part that she didn’t want to get caught, but the reasons were different.

The adult looked confused, “are you… sure?” She nodded, “guess it’s a human thing…” yup! That, a human thing. Playing in the forest in the middle of the night, just something normal to do in her world.

Fortunately for her, Raine didn’t ask any more questions and just ruffled her hair, “well… that isn’t really a thing in this world, specially with the wild beasts.” Yup, Luz wouldn’t get out late in the night to risk that. She already saw a fairy once trying to eat someone’s sking and that was during the day and in the city! She wouldn’t risk it.

Later that night, she woke up, this time because she wanted to go to the bathroom, when she left the bedroom. She noticed that Raine was awake, “ok yeah, there’s something wrong.” Wrong? Wrong with what?

The child stepped a bit further form the room, “mx. Raine?” The adult jumped, almost dropping the crow. “Is everything alright?” They looked at the crow then at her.

“Y-yeah, what about you?” Oh, right, bathroom.

The child yawned, “just needed to use the bathroom.” Raine relaxed a bit and smiled.

“Alright, I won’t stop you,” she nodded and started walking towards it, “oh, Luz.” The human looked up at them again, “if there’s anything wrong, or if something hurt you in the past, you can tell me, alright?” Her grip on the doorknob tightened.

“Y-yeah, sure,” she hurried into the bathroom. Trying to avoid talking to Raine later.

The child smiled and looked up at the young adult, “nope! No more need for bandages here!” The marks were even starting to fade away now. Barely visible at this point unless someone looked closer.

Then Katya poked her cheek, “sweet, but remember, if there’s something you need help with, we’re here for you.” Luz tilted her head, what was she talking about? “Nevermind, say, anything you wanna do today?” She had to think a little bit about it.

Usually Raine would ask her if she wanted to go to the park, or well, slayground, at this hour no other kid would usually be around. Since school was also a thing here. How would magic school be? Maybe with a lot of magical classes, were there also bullies? Would they also scold her for moving too much in the uncomfortable chairs? Wait, that wasn’t the point now. What could both do today? The human didn’t feel like going to the slayground, she wanted to be here if Raine came back.

No, it wasn’t if, it would be when they came back. There wasn’t a thing to worry about, the Boiling Isles didn’t even have cars. So everything was fine, Luz was just overthinking this.

“Uuuuuh, Boiling Isles to Luz?” She jumped a bit, “sorry, it looked like you were lost in thought.” Right, something to do, something to do…

“Draw!” That was something she could do. The human did it all the time with Raine while they were doing whatever work they had.

The young adult chuckled, “alright,” she created a circle with her finger and a bunch of pencils and papers appeared on the table. “Let’s get drawing,” the child nodded.

—

Katya stood a safe distance away from the pan. Alright, maybe she exaggerated in saying she knew how to cook. But hey in comparison to Amber and Derwin she didn’t burn as much food. Besides, her teacher was in a hurry and they didn’t need to know her somplications.

The bard gave the human the vole sausage, “alright, food is here!” Luz grabbed a fork and a knife and took a bite of the food. She immediately made a grossed out face. Then she tried to hide it but it was obvious it was somehow bad, “come on, what did I do aaaaaaand they’re undercooked.” Probably cold on the inside.

She grabbed the plate to properly cook the food this time.

She burnt the sausages.

Alright, this was going to be her lunch, “I’ll make you some good ones.” And hey, this time they turned out alright-ish. The burnt bits could be chopped off anyway.

As the human ate, she kept glancing at the clock, “they’ll… come back soon, right?” There was a hint of nervousness in her voice. Why? Raine was just going back to work, it wasn’t like they were going to fight someone or anything.

“Uuuuh, yeah, don’t know at what hour exactly but they’ll come back soon enough,” she noticed that Luz let out a sigh of relief. There had to be something there, was the human scared that they would get hurt? Maybe there was some way to reassure her, “hey, wanna know something fun?” She looked up at the young adult and nodded, “Raine is one of the strongest witches I know.” The human looked surprise, “it’s true, they can play pretty much every single instrument in the Boiling Isles and is able to fight almost anyone.”

The child looked at her surprised, but she noticed she was calming down. So it was that, Luz was scared something might happen to Raine.

Could it be just that?

Then the door opened, revealing her teacher, “Raine!” Luz exclaimed happily, the adult was happy to see her too. The very second the bard closed the door Fiddlestickes jumped out of the violin and jumped into Luz’s arm, “I’m happy to see you too!” How in the actual fuck did the human have the hellish palisman wrapped around her finger?

They got closer to them and ruffled the human’s head, “hey, did you have fun with Katya?” She nodded without hesitation. Sweet that meant she did a good job taking care of her. The child then went to the table to go back to her drawings.

Her teacher moved right next to the young adult, “everything ok with her?” Raine looked pretty worried, well, a thing those two had in common.

Katya shrugged, “I think so but…” she remembered Luz almost looking afraid when the bard left the home. “Pretty sure she was afraid when you left,” Raine nodded, “I think she was worried you weren’t coming back? I’m not really sure.” Both bards looked at Luz who started another drawing.

Her teacher smiled, “we’ll figure out what happened to her in the human realm, let’s just give her some time.” Yeah, it wasn’t like they could force it out of her, or ask someone from the human realm about what happened to her.

—

Amber babysitting was a bit more active in comparison to Katya. This time the human did agree on going outside to play, the slayground was empty, but even then, she was still wearing the hat that covered her ears. Just in case.

Right now she was on the swings, with the older teen pushing her, “wanna go higher?” The human nodded, “well, you asked for it.” Luz almost did a complete circle.

She giggled, “again! Again!” It was so fun, almost like when her…

The swing suddenly stopped, “oh ssssssssshhhhhhhoot, too fast?” What? Why did she stop?

Her eyes were getting a bit watery.

The human tried to wipe them away, “no! No… just remembering back home… there were also swings there.” She had a lot of fun in the playgrounds, even though most kids would avoid her. Specially whenever she found some snake’s skin. But they were so interesting, and who wouldn’t like to know there was a snake closer to them? Her parents liked it.

Amber put her back down on the floor, “ok… wanna play with the grudgby ball?” Sure, that could also work. Both started passing it around, “this brings memories from school,” the witch laughed. “Nobody expected me to use a recorder as an actual weapon,” how would that even work?

Well, Raine explained that they could create magic by playing music. Maybe it was that? But she mentioned weapon.

Did she hit people with the recorder?

That would hurt a lot.

Both stopped passing the grudgby ball when the crow started to scream. “Huh, weird,” the witch answered it and Luz got closer. Amber then crouched down a bit so both could listen, “what’s up?” The human wondered who called her.

“Where are you? Are you hurt? Did something happen?” Raine’s panicked voice answered her question. Wait, they were back home? What time was it?

“We’re… at the slayground?” The witch pulled out her scroll, “why panic? It isn’t even- oh fuck it’s late.” The scroll showed that it was a few hours after lunch time.

Now that Luz thought about it, she was pretty hungry.

Amber picked her up and she was over her head, “ok teach, we’re running to your apartment, byeeeeee.” True to her word, she started running while holding her. “Titan, I even forgot I was hungry,” oh hey, she was feeling the same.

The human tried to calm her, “it’s ok, lately I got used to sometimes not have food for a long time.” Now that she said it out loud, it didn’t sound ok.

“What?” She questioned Luz.

“What?” Was the only answer the child let out.

—

Amber was gasping for air when she finally reached Raine’s home. The door opened, revealing a worried adult, “heyyyyyy teach.” They just gave her a deadpan look, “we just lost track of time, whoops.” It was a good thing overall. That meant everyone had fun.

The adult sighed, “just warn next time if you’re staying out late.” In Amber’s defence, she had no idea that they were in the slayground for that long. “Did you eat something?” The rumbling of both stomachs pretty much answered that question. Which made them chuckle, “the food is heated up already.” Great, she was starving.

The teen put Luz down, and she ran to the table, before going, she had to tell that weird thing to Raine. “She said something about getting used to not having food for some time,” that immediately caught their attention. “She didn’t say anything else,” the child tried to avoid any conversation after that.

Didn’t help that she was running through the streets of Bonesborough though.

Both looked at the child as she ate the food, “thanks for the warning…” Maybe none of the BATTs knew exactly what was going on. But something was obvious, there was something wrong between Luz and the human realm.

She could see it, her hesitance with everything, her teacher mentioned how she had a hard time asking for help and then mentioning that. At least the adult admitted there was something up with her.

While at this point the bard was sure it was something bad. At the same time, she wished it wasn’t, Luz was a good kid. Besides, no kid deserved to have a bad time.

Though the only mystery now was what it was.

If it was someone that hurt her, it didn’t matter who it might be, Amber would teach them a really good lesson.

—

Luz had never been in the library of Bonesborough before. Until now, “anything you want to learn?” Derwin asked her, the human didn’t even know where to start. She wanted to see everything of this place.

The human looked up at the young adult, “whatever you want.” She couldn’t even decide with so many books.

The witch thought about it, “well, maybe you should learn a bit about this world,” she nodded. “How about the coven system?” Covens… Raine sometimes mentioned things about a coven meeting or some coven head having to prepare for a concert. Oh, and Katya saying they worked at the bard coven too.

It sounded interesting, “ok!” Derwin then guided her to a one of the sections in the library and grabbed a book. The title said ‘basics of the covens’ and both went to sit down on some chairs. There were only a few people around who didn’t pay any mind to them.

He opened the book, “anything you know about the coven system?” She tried to remember anything Raine said beforehand.

“That… you guys are in some music coven?” All of them had some tattoos on the shape of a lyre and Katya mentioned Raine could play many instruments.

Derwin chuckled, was she wrong? Luz should’ve listened to the adult better, “you’re kind of right.” Wait, really? She didn’t get it wrong, that was nice. He went to a page which had different drawings of different colours, “the Boiling Isles has a coven system, these are the main nine ones.” The drawings were pretty.

She recognized one, “you guys have this one on your arm,” she pointed at in and the young adult nodded.

“Yeah, do you know what it is?” The human never really asked, she just thought it was a tattoo. Some people had those back in her world.

But the four had it, “a friendship tattoo?” The four witches did seem pretty close.

He looked surprised by that answer, “no, no, not really.” Aw, but friendship tattoos sounded really cool. Luz wished she had friends so they could do that some day. “These are our coven sigils,” he showed off his sigils, “we get them when we’re recruited for the coven we want to join.” Wow, that sounded fun, “this makes it so we can only do one type of magic.” The child paused.

“WHAT?” She covered her mouth as the people in the library glared at her for screaming, “sorry…” Everyone went back to whatever they were doing. “Why did you guys do that?” If she had magic, she couldn’t imagine wanting to join any kind of coven if that’s what it did.

The young adult looked away, “it’s kind of the law here,” what kind of law did that? “If you don’t join a coven, you’re considered a wild witch and let’s just say wild witches aren’t treated kindly,” it didn’t sound fair.

“But… why?” It didn’t sound like something fun to do.

“Because the Titan said that’s what Belos said the Titan wants,” Belos? The name was familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint from when. “Did… Raine ever mention the emperor to you?” The human tried to remember, but didn’t get a thing.

“Maybe? I’m not sure…” she did hear them sometimes having to do some kind of report for an emperor’s coven now that she thought about it. “They said something about an emperor’s coven,” it was all she could think about.

Derwin then turned the page, there was another sigil she assumed, “yeah, this is the emperor’s coven, they directly work under Belos.” Something told her they weren’t exactly nice, “they enforce the rules for witches to join a coven,” yeah, people that wouldn’t be nice. “Also the only coven allowed to do all kinds of magic,” what?

Luz tried to not talk too loudly, “then why the covens? And why only those are allowed to use all kinds of magic?” Nothing about this sounded fair to her.

“Guess what, life isn’t fair,” her foster parents words came to her at that moment.

The child felt a hand on her hair, it was from Derwin, “it’s just what Belos said the Titan wanted.” The Titan had to be some kind of God here. Well, this supposed Titan was a jerk, saying that his way was the right one and that anyone who didn’t follow the rules were bad people.

It reminded her from the church.

“Then the Titan is mean,” the witch covered her mouth and looked around. Nobody was paying any attention to them.

Luz gave him a questioning look, “it’s better if you don’t say those things out loud.” The human paused, so this place was also like back with her foster parents. At least a lot of people were like them.

She avoided looking at the book, “sorry…” This always happened to her, ending up saying too many things out loud. Making people get upset with her.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t know,” she looked up at Derwin, “you can talk about this with us, just make sure you don’t go too far with other people.” Luz nodded, she could do that, the child did it before ending up in the Boiling Isles. The young adult then closed the book, “how about we look at something else?” She nodded, the human didn’t feel like learning anything else about the Boiling Isles.

They walked around the different sections of the library, but nothing really caught her attention. There were way too many books, most about magic. Something she couldn’t really do since she was human.

Once they both were in another section, there was a book that caught her eye. The cover was familiar, it was a book she knew well, Luz practically knew every single page of it. “AZURA?!” She covered her mouth the second after she exclaimed that out loud. Fortunately no one at the library was around the area both were in.

Derwin gave her a questioning look, “the book you brought here?” The human just pointed towards the first volume of the good witch Azura. The library also had the second volume.

“What’s it doing here? This is from my world,” Raine explained to her the Boiling sea and how some things came to this world. But she neved expected to see it again.

The young adult took a good look at it, “uuuuuh, I’m not really sure…” Luz checked the inside of the book and yup, it was the exact same book. The human was ready to accept that she might only have one volume Azura for the rest of her life, even if she was back in her world. But this practically changed everything.

“Can we borrow it?” She looked at him, “porfiiiiii,” Luz really wanted to read something other than the first volume.

Derwin looked doubtful, “uuuuuh, I don’t have my library card with me,” aw, but fair. It was important to have the permission of the library. Specially a magical one, would it curse a person if they didn’t bring back a book or stole it? “We’ll get it another day, ok?” She nodded excitedly as he looked at his scroll, “it’s almost lunch time anyway, let’s go back.” Luz took his hand, really happy about her discovery today.

—

Raine sighed, they forgot how tense they were every time they had to go to the castle for whatever job. This time it was just to accompany Scooter Crane for his recruitment meeting. The bard found it extremely boring, but this was one of the best ways to get information for raids.

They just needed to bear this a bit more and then they could back to their home.

The voices were practically blending in at this point. Not really talking about how to recruit people and more of passively aggressively insulting each other. Usually, they’d listen to the heartbeat from the heart in the throne room. Titan it was creepy. But for some reason, it stopped completely. Maybe some problem with whatever mechanism it hat to mimic an actual heart? The adult wouldn’t question it, not important for the rebellion.

However, a thing that was important that wasn’t the rebellion was the hext they just got form the student who was taking care of Luz today. Oh Titan, hopefully nothing happened to either of them. They were going to the library, what was the worst that could happen in a library?

Wait, did they take care of the plague of bookworms?

Raine tried to sneakily check on the hexts.

Der🦇: guess what we found

He then sent a photo of a very familiar book, next to it there was another one with a very similar artstyle.

Der🦇: the book series Luz loves so much

They put back the scroll in their pocket. There was the good witch Azura in the library, Raine noticed how happy the human got any time she read it. Even though she always hid away whenever she read it.

The bard would look more into it later.

—

Derwin put the scroll back in his pocket, Raine already saw the messages but didn’t answer. They were probably at an important meeting right now. He was pretty surprised the adult even read it so fast.

The bard then felt a tug on his sleeve, “Derwin?” He looked down at the human, “why does it smell like burning.” Oh Titan she was right.

As fast as he could he took the pot off the stove. Some part of the soup was burnt, but there were enough salvageable parts for Luz to at least have a decent lunch. But for him… well, there was always hex mix. The bard tried to remove as many burnt parts as possible and gave a plate to the human, “here,” hopefully it didn’t taste too burnt.

The face she made told him otherwise, “tastes… smokey?” Luz gave him an awkward smile and kept eating. He just sat on the chair looking at her eat, “what about you?” The child used a spoon to point at him.

“Oh… the rest wasn’t edible enough,” was the pot even salvageable? The human looked at him and then put part of her lunch on an empty plate, “hey, what are you doing?” He tried to stop her to no avail. Then she put the plate right in front of him.

“For you!” What? “Nini wouldn’t like anyone to starve, so here,” what did she just say?

Wait, did Luz mean, “you mean Raine?” The child looked confused.

“Yeah, that’s what I said, Raine,” no she didn’t. “Here,” she put it closer to him and Derwin felt like there was no point in arguing with her about this. They took a spoonful and the human was right before, it tasted like smoke. Titan him, Katya and Amber were terrible at cooking, if it weren’t for Raine the three would live off of hex mix.

Though Katya would say she was better at it because she didn’t set a pan on fire while making fried griffin eggs. To be fair he couldn’t argue with that.

“Derwin?” The young adult looked at the human, “did I say something else when I mentioned Raine?” He stopped chewing, so she knew?

Or maybe not, he should probably check, “what did you think you said?” Real subtle of him, and he was supposed to be the smarter out of the three.

Luz then looked at the plate, “nevermind…” she continued eating the food in silence.

When Raine came back, he couldn’t help but notice how incredibly happy she was. It was a bit later than the other days where Katya and Amber took care of the human. However, the book on their hand explained it. It was from the good witch Azura.

Derwin almost needed to cover his ears when Luz squeaked in joy, “¡GRACIAS! ¡ME ENCANTA!” She tackled them into a hug, his teacher returned it without hesitation.

Chapter Text

Luz’s hold on Raine’s hand tightened as they entered a store. This wasn’t the grocery store both usually went to. She didn’t even think this place had actual food, edible for her or not. This place had a bunch of necklaces, wrist bands and what looked like jewels.

This didn’t look like a store they would usually enter. Though it wasn’t like the child knew a lot about what the adult liked. Maybe music and playing the violin. But not much else. Well, there was the whole not enjoying talking to people think, she remembered how once they had to do small talk with a random stranger. They looked like they were about to pick her up and run away from the queue.

The adult went to the counter and took a deep breath, “h-hi, I think you have an order from Raine Whispers?” The cashier raised an eyebrow and looked at her. The human hid further into the adult as a response.

The worker sat up, “let me look for it.” As she left, her nini let out a sigh of relief and ruffled her hair.

Wait, what did she just call them?

Before she could question it, the worker came back, “yup, one concealment stone.” Oh, Luz remembered the witches mentioning something similar to that before. She wondered what that was for.

The adult gave them however many snails it costed, “thank you.” They grabbed the box and guided her out of the store. Now they were walking through the streets of Bonesborough, going back to Raine’s apartment. “Do you want to go play in the slayground?” Oh, she didn’t even notice they were right in front of it.

There were a lot of other kids today.

Luz walked up to some kids, “can I play with you?” The other children looked at her in disgust and walked away from her.

“As if we’d want to talk with the weirdo with no parents,” then they started to laugh.

“No!” Luz even surprised herself with how loudly that came out. “I mean, no thanks, I don’t feel like playing today.” Just like every day they asked whenever there were multiple children in the slayground. The human didn’t know if Raine noticed by now. At least they didn’t question it.

The adult just smiled, “that’s ok,” and both went back to walk towards the apartment.

Once they finally arrived to Raine’s home, Fiddlesticks got out from whenever he hid when they got out and landed on her head. Making the hat cover her eyes, “¡no veo!” The child said as she started giggling. Then she picked him up and with her free hand she removed her hat. Finally, it was getting a bit itchy.

The adult chuckled and gave her the box, “here.” While confused Luz grabbed it and opened it. There was a purple gem in it, she didn’t know exactly what it was, “this is a concealment stone, it can create an illusion so it looks like you have witch’s ears.” The child gasped, she didn’t think something like that existed. So that was what it was for.

But… this couldn’t have been cheap, “how much did it cost?” Why would they spend so much money in helping her blending in the Boiling Isles? She was making them work more and Luz wouldn’t be here forever.

Raine looked started at that question, “you don’t have to worry about that,” the human wasn’t so sure. “It’s true, I got promoted before you got here and my salary is pretty good,” if they said so…

Even then, there were some doubts in her head, “why would you do this for me?” Her foster parents wouldn’t even think of helping her if she had some difficulties. They’d just tell her to figure it out on her own and then get upset if the child didn’t know how to do it.

After that they kneeled down onto her eye level, “Luz…” she hesitantly looked at them. “I told you I’ll be taking care of you while you stayed in the Boiling Isles and this…” they pointed at the stone. “Is just another thing to keep you safe, and I want to do this, I wan to help you, ok?” She tried to hold back the tears the best way she could.

No other adult took care of her like this except for her parents.

She took a deep breath, “o-ok.” She hugged them, wrapping her arms around their neck, the witch returned it.

As they rubbed circles on her back, they stood up and also picked her. “Want to try it?” The child looked at the purple stone and nodded. There was some curiosity in her to see how this thing worked. Both sat down on the couch, “so, the instructions said just to put the stone close to you and the illusion will appear.” Luz looked at the stone and put it right in front of her face, and some smoke appeared.

The human didn’t feel any different, “did it work?” She couldn’t really look at her ears like this.

“Uuuh, hold on,” they ran out to the bathroom and came back with a portable mirror, “here.” She looked at her reflection and saw that while everything else was the same, her eyes were pointy, just like the other witches she knew.

“Woah,” she tried to touch them but her hands passed right through them. Right, illusion, it was kind of like those holograms in sci fi stuff. “Weird,” but in a good way.

A hand laid on top of her head, “I’m glad you like it.” The human smiled and nodded.

Guess now she’d just have to think where to put this stone, maybe in a pocket? But what if it slipped out of it. Luz swore that there was a black hole in her pocket that made it so her stuff would go missing after putting it in there.

That situation would have to come later since someone was knocking the door, “that must be my students.” Really? She was happy to see them, Raine opened the door and yup, Amber, Katya and Derwin were on the other side.

“Hey kid,” the child waved at the three, “nice new ears.” She giggled at Katya’s comment and the three got closer, “finally got the concealment stone huh.” The three looked at Raine who turned their head away.

“Just… thought that because she might stay longer than expected so it was the best thing to do,” Luz felt bad for admitting it to herself. But she didn’t feel like going back, it was much better here.

But it didn’t matter what she wanted, she learnt that very well after her parents died.

Amber looked at the cloaking stone, Luz offered it and she took it, “hm, I wonder how tough it is.” She grabbed her recorder and she was about to smash it, fortunately Derwin was fast enough to take it away from her, “hey! That’s supposed to be indestructible.” He gave it back to the human.

“Doesn’t mean you have to test it out,” the older teen looked disappointed at Derwin’s comment but didn’t try to break it again.

Raine let out a sigh of relief, “do you mind keeping an eye on Luz? I need to check on some stuff.” The three shook their heads and the adult went to the bedroom.

Katya leaned into her, “so, is that the look you’re going with?” She gave the young adult a questioning look, “you can change more stuff with that thing, pretty sure teach got you a high quality one.” High quality meant more expensive usually.

They did so many things for her…

“Uuuuh, I just thought about getting pointy ears, like you guys,” not like she needed to change anything else of her appearance. It was only her round ears that gave away she was human.

Amber gasped as if she got an idea, “come on, let’s try different stuff.” The three looked at her in confusion, “teach didn’t say we couldn’t experiment with it.” It did sound fun, that was something friends did right?

Derwin shrugged, “not like it will hurt it,” the child looked at the concealment stone. Maybe change the color of her eyes, how about yellow? Like the crown in Azura’s hat, she thought of it and another could of smoke appeared.

The three looked at her, “cool,” they gave her a mirror and it showed that the pointy ears were still there, just that her eyes were a golden color. It looked funny, “try something else, how about your hair?” Her hair? Maybe she she could… she thought of green like…

Another cloud of smoke and she saw that her hair turned green, “ooooh, like the main character in your Azura book.” Yup! Katya was right, it was like the good witch Azura.

“Hey teach! Look at this!” The door of the bedroom opened, Raine was grabbing a few papers. Huh, she never saw those in the bedroom.

“Remember to be careful with the concealment sto-” they looked at her, the adult was completely in shock.

Amber whined, “come on, it’s fun.” The witch stayed silent.

The four looked at each other, “is… everything ok Raine?” Derwin’s question made them react.

“Uuuuh, yeah, yeah,” they created a circle and the paper appeared right on the table. “I just need to go to the bathroom and process some stuff,” they opened the door to the bathroom as the paper went towards the four. “This is for you three ok?” The younger witches nodded and Katya grabbed the paper and put it in her pocket. She wondered what was in there.

Something about Raine’s expression made her feel bad, so she thought about going back to just have the pointy ears. Another cloud of smoke and she guessed she was back to just having pointy ears.

“So…” the three looked at Katya, “any way you want to wear that thing?” Oh right, it was technically jewelry.

Before Luz could think of the answer, “earring.” It came right out of her mouth, the three looked surprised. “Uuuuuh, I just had the holes on my ears made,” with her parents she’d sometimes wear some small earrings. Though not all the time, “and it’s been so long that I don’t want them to close so…” it was technically true. With her foster parents she wasn’t allowed to wear earrings for some weird reason.

The three looked at each other, “sure, we can do that.” Katya created a spell circle and the concealment stone turned into a small earring. Just a purple stud, it would do the job.

The young adult got closer to her, “which ear do you-” “right ear please.” Luz just said it without thinking about it.

None of them questioned her about it, “whatever you say kid.” The witch got closer to her ear, fortunately, the holes weren’t fully closed yet so it became pretty easy to put them on. “And done, now you own a concealment stone as an earring,” she looked at herself in the mirror. Still with the pointy ears.

“I like it…” the human wasn’t sure if they could hear her, even then, she looked up at the witches. “Thanks,” Luz took it off, now in her normal human form.

Right after that, the door opened, “ok, I think I’m good,” Raine looked at the four. “Are you done with the concealment stone?” The four nodded.

Amber smile, “she decided to have it as an earring, wonder where she got that from.” Oh no, they noticed. Where were pillows to hide when she needed one?

She felt a hand on her head, “I’m glad you had fun,” Luz looked up and smiled at them. “Thanks for looking after her for a bit,” the three of them gave a thumbs up and stood up.

“Well, we should get going to-” the crow started to screech.

Everyone covered their ears, it was pretty loud, even louder than normal. Raine hurried to answer, “hello?” A voice came from the other side, “yes it’s me,” they started to walk away further from them. “That Jeremy did what?” Luz had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this, “are you sure you need me?” Dread started to crawl through her, “ok, but this better not take long.”

Her mom was talking on the phone, “are you sure you need me?” The voice illegible to her answered. Her mamá sighed, “alright, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

No, no, it wasn’t the same.

Raine turned around, looking tired, “I’m sorry for asking this, but do you think you can stay a bit more? Something came up at work.” No, no no no no no, this wasn’t going to happen, “it won’t take long, just getting Jeremy out of the mountain of instruments.” They couldn’t leave, her nini couldn’t just leave like that.

Her mamá kissed her forehead, “no te preocupes amor, it will just getting there and leave, not a long time.” Luz wanted to insist, why couldn’t they just go back to playing the Azura video game?

“Sure, no problem teach,” everyone seemed so calm about it. Luz should be too, why was she so nervous? It was just them needing to go to work for a little emergency. They even said it wouldn’t take long.

Her hands dug into the couch, “a-are you sure you can’t stay?” All of them looked at her, surprised, “please?” She didn’t want them to go.

She hugged her mamá, “are you sure no one else can do it? I wanna keep playing,” her mamá chuckled and kissed her forehead.

“I’m sorry mija, but I promise I won’t take long, after I do this we can do whatever you want, ¿cómo suena eso?” The child nodded excitedly.

Raine ruffled her head, “sorry, but they really want to keep the instruments fully functional, and I know how to take care of all of them.” Then they looked at the three witches, “do you think you can handle dinner?” Dinner? That would be way too long for her.

The three younger witches smiled, “don’t worry teach, she’s in good hands.” They looked unsure about that.

Amber then got closer to her, “do you like hex mix?” She giggled while Raine glared at the older teen.

The adult sighed, “ok, I’ll trust you,” they opened the door.

Her mamá opened the door, “te quiero mucho amor.” She gave her one last kiss on the cheek.

Luz waved her goodbye, “y yo a ti mami.” The adult gave her one last smile as she left the home to pick up her car.

It would be the last time she’d ever see her.

“Bye…” she said in a small voice as the door closed.

Luz didn’t want this to be the last time they ever saw her nini.

—

Katya knew Luz was a pretty particular kid. She was hiding a lot of stuff from them, and from what her gut was telling her it couldn’t be good.

Bad parents?

Bullying?

The bard didn’t know, neither did Amber, Derwin and most importantly, Raine. Everyone knew there was something up with her, but none of them could pinpoint exactly what. And the little human was determined to convince them that she was completely fine in the human realm.

But right now? The child wasn’t even trying to hide she was nervous, Titan, she looked stressed out, as if there was some kind of life or death situation about to happen. She barely touched her dinner.

Granted that could be because it wasn’t the most… edible looking thing she made. But hey, by taste she’d call it mediocre at worst.

Right now Luz was quietly reading one of her Azura books, maybe, she’d been on the same page for thirty minutes. However, watching over the human was interrupted by Amber dragging her into a private group conversations, “ok, anyone know what’s up with her?” Her and Derwin shook their heads, “then we have to ask her.”

The older bard didn’t look to happy about the idea, “have you seen her? If we ask her right now she’d try to deflect, she’s stressed.” She agreed with him on the stressed part.

“Then what the fuck do we do?” That was something the young adult didn’t have an answer for.

She checked the time, it was pretty late now, someone should’ve asked Raine what was her bedtime. “For now, let’s just tuck her into bed, ok?” None of them looked really happy with that idea but there wasn’t any other better option.

Katya looked up, “Luz?” The child snapped her head to look at them, she was on full alert mode. “Let’s get ready for bed,” her eyes widened.

“No,” what? Why not? “I want to wait until Raine comes back,” that was the reason why? Strange, but even then she still needed to sleep.

Derwin stepped forward, “Luz, Raine might take a while, and you don’t want to be tired in the morning, right?” The human didn’t give in, her hands started to cling onto the couch. Oh Titan, this was somehow the worst route.

“I just want to see if Raine comes back,” wait, that was a weird way of wording it. “Just that, then I’ll immediately go to sleep, please,” her eyes were starting to look more water. “I just want to make sure they’re here,” there was more up to it, Katya just knew it.

Amber then joined in, “come on, tomorrow I’ll be taking care of you and I wanted to teach you grudgby.” Was it even safe for a human to learn that game? Well, if it convince her to go to sleep. Which didn’t it just made her grip on the couch stronger, “hey, it’s ok, Raine’s just late, why’s that a problem?” The human didn’t answer.

Something was up.

Katya made an attempt to approach her, “come on, at least-” “¡NO QUIERO!” Everyone was taken aback by the human raising her tone. Luz immediately hid on the couch.

“Luz, it’s ok, Raine will come back,” Derwin tried to comfort her. “Once you wake up, you’ll see they got back and went to sleep on the couch, like normal,” Amber and Katya nodded. Even then, Luz wasn’t convinced and didn’t move.

What were they going to do? They weren’t just going to drag her to go to sleep.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the door opened revealing Raine. Who was very confused by the scenario in front of them, “what… happened?” No one answered.

Luz started to run, “you’re back!” She hugged them and from what it looked, it was a strong one. The human hid her face on her legs.

Raine put a hand on her head, “yeah… I am…” They picked her up, “let’s get ready for bed, ok?” Thankfully she nodded while rubbing her eyes.

They let her enter alone in the bathroom, her teacher looked at them, “what happened?” Titan if they knew.

Amber was the first one to say soemthing, “she refused to go to sleep…” yeah that was part of it.

Derwin continued, “she almost looked… afraid.” Yup, she wondered why.

Katya cleared her throat, Raine should know this, “she looked incredibly tense while you were gone.” The three of them nodded.

The adult looked at the door, on the opposite Luz must be brushing her teeth, “there’s definitely something wrong.” At this point it was stating a fact.

The door opened, “I’m ready…” the human looked incredibly tired. Raine guided her to the room, the three peeked through the door, the child was pretty much immediately asleep the very second her head touched the pillow. It was something having in mind that little stressful moment between the four.

Fiddlesticks joined her, laying on her stomach and Raine exited the room, “thanks for this, I’ll… see what I can do about what you told me.” Hopefully there was something they could do.

Because something was definitely going on with Luz. She just refused to tell anyone about it.

—

Luz opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in Raine’s room. She was in her old room, but not the one she had with her foster parents. Instead, the one the child had back with her mamá and papá.

Could it be?

The child got out of the bed, running out of her room. Without hesitation she opened the door of her parents bedroom. Two people jumped, “mija! What?” She knew who they were.

Her parents.

Tears started to run down her face, “¡mami! ¡Papi!” She got on the bed and hugged both of them. Letting loud sobs out, “I-I thought I’d never see you again.” Was all of that just a dream? Were her parents dying a nightmare? Was the Boiling Isles not real?

Her papá picked her up, she nuzzled his face.

However, the familiar itch of his beard wasn’t there.

“It’s ok cariño, they won’t hurt you anymore,” she nodded and tried to wipe away her tears. Much to no avail since they got replaced with new ones.

“Was…” she looked at both adults, “was all of that just a dream? Are you really ok?” That was what she wanted to hear, that all of that was just a weird dream. It started as a nightmare but then with Raine things got better. But in the end, just a dream.

Neither of them answered.

Both gave her sad smiles, “you’ll be ok and that’s all that matters.” Her mamá put a hand on her head, but she swore she didn’t feel any kind of warmth.

Her hands started to shake, “w-what do you mean? You’re here, right? This is real life and you’re alright, we can eat some sancocho later, right?” In her dreams missed a lot her parents cooking.

“Amor…” she looked up at her papá, “I think you need to wake up,” wake up? What did he mean? Luz was awake, fully awake sitting on her parents bed. “We love you so much and we wish we could have spent more time with you,” the child didn’t like it. She didn’t want to hear those words, no, whatever happened before was a dream and this was reality.

Just, Luz wanted to enjoy this for a bit longer.

“Disfruta de tu vida, nuestra pequeña luz,” those were the last words she heard from her parents before everything around her got blurry. Until she started to float in a void.

“¿Mami? ¿Papi?” No one answered.

Luz opened her eyes and sat up on the bed. This time the room she was in was form Raine’s home, she was in the Boiling Isles.

This was real life.

All of that was just a dream.

Sobs started to come out of her, tears following right after, the child curled in on herself, “mamá… papá…” She called for them, but no one answered.

The human attempted to make as little noise as possible. However, that was complicated with the palisman sleeping in the same room, and was putting a paw on her arm. Without thinking too much about it, she turned to where Fiddlesticks was. Not hiding her tears.

He started to walk away.

They were going to warn Raine.

Luz jumped and grabbed the fox, “wait!” The palisman struggled, but she didn’t let them go, “please don’t wake up Raine.” He tried to bite so she’d let them go. Even then, she didn’t budge, she was used to snakes biting her.

“I’m fine, I swear,” she said as more tears were running down her face.

‘No you’re not!’ The child froze she didn’t say that.

Luz looked at Fiddlesticks, “did you just talk?” The palisman was also surprised by what she asked and stopped trying to break free.

‘You can finally understand me now?’ She just nodded at their question, ‘great, now, set me free so Raine can help you!’ The human shook her head, this was just her problem, ‘come on! You’re not fine and they want to help!’ But what would they say if she told them everything?

“B-but, they’re already doing so much for me, this is just something not important for them,” the palisman looked at her unsurprised.

They tried to squirm again, ‘let me go, I promise I won’t run to tell Raine.’ Luz hesitated a bit but in the end she let him go, ‘ok, now, you’re gonna listen to me,” the human nodded. Anything to avoid waking the adult up. ‘Raine cares about you, even their stupid students do,’ ok… but why was he saying that? ‘If you keep hiding things from them then they’ll get more upset and worried about you, this is hurting you and they want to help, why won’t you let them in?’

The human took a shaky breath, “b-because… I’m scared…” scared of that they might say to her. Scared of giving them her problems. Scared of losing them and having to go back to her foster parents.

‘Did you hurt someone?’ Luz looked at the fox in shocked but shook her head, ‘then you’re good, tell them, ask them for help, it’s the only thing they want to do, help you.’ The child hesitated, ‘this is only hurting you and them, trust me, I know this kind of thing.’ The child curled in on herself, thinking about it.

Asking for help…

When was the last time she did that?

Her whole body was shaking, “R-Raine?” Her voice was too quiet for anyone to hear. She took a deep breath and tried again, “Raine?! Are you there?!” This time it was loud enough, but she didn’t know if that could wake them up, “Raine! Please! I’m scared!” She let out some loud sobs and finally she heard some hurried footsteps.

The door fully opened, “Luz!” She turned to look at them, “did you call for me?” The child nodded as she tried to wipe away the tears. The witch started to hold her, “it’s alright, it’s ok, it was just a nightmare.” That was the problem, it wasn’t a nightmare.

She hid her face on their chest, clinging to their shirt, “I… miss my parents.” The human let out a loud sob, “I’ll never see them again.” The adult made the hold a bit stronger, though careful that she was still able to breathe.

“Oh Luz…” they started to rub circles on her back. “I promise you’ll see them, we’ll find a way to get you back to the human realm,” more tears fell down her face, soaking their shirt. She still hadn’t told them the truth.

Trying to hide further into their shirt, she shook her head, “no, I won’t…” No one said anything for a few seconds.

Once she managed to even her breathing, Raine spoke again, “I know I said it might take a long time, but you’ll see them again, ok?” Luz took a few shaky breaths.

“No…” the child’s hand started to tremble, she needed to say this out loud, “my parents…” Her voice was quiet, but the adult could hear her.

“They’re dead…”

Chapter Text

“They’re dead…” was the last thing Luz said before she went back to sobbing and clinging to Raine’s shirt.

Her parents were dead.

Raine knew something was wrong but they didn’t think it was this, “I…” Come on, they had to say something, “I’m so sorry.” It didn’t do anything, in fact it only made the child start wailing even louder. What were they supposed to do to comfort a child who just admitted her parents were dead?

“Mx. Raine,” oh no, they thought she already stopped with that. “I’m sorry, for not saying it earlier,” if it was possible, the bard brought her even closer to them.

“You don’t have to apologize for that, it must’ve been hard to say it out loud,” the bard knew of people who didn’t like opening up. Guess Luz was even more like her than they first thought, “and you don’t need to call me that.” The child stayed quiet.

Titan, what could they do? Raine wasn’t able to bring people back to life, not even the best person at healing magic was capable of that. “They…” they paused their train of thought to listen to Luz, “they died nine months ago.” Nine months… that was such a short time for an eight year old to process her parents death. Let alone probably living in a new place and ending up in another realm.

Wait… if the human’s parents died all those months ago and they’d been taking care of Luz for a bit more of a month then… “Who… took care of you?” The injury on her arm, her parents actually being good but the child at the same time being afraid of an adult getting upset…

Maybe some family member? She never talked about grandparents or siblings of her parents.
She’d been so secretive about her family and her whole life in the human realm. All of this new information came crashing down. But Raine knew that Luz needed this, she needed to let out all of her feelings.

However, the human didn’t answer their question. Instead, she was trying to hide further into them, this was too much pressure for her. “You don’t have to tell me right now,” they started patting her head, “I just want to make sure you’re ok.” They were able to hear some small sniffles.

Some more moments of silence and the bard started to assume that Luz wasn’t going to tell them anything else. But they didn’t want to leave her like this. Maybe they’d stay until she falls asleep again.

“Promise?” Raine barely heard the child’s voice, they looked down at her, “can you promise to not get mad?” Titan, why would they even be mad at her? The bard was sure Luz didn’t do anything wrong.

But right now, it was what the human needed to hear, “I promise I won’t get mad at you.” The human seemed satisfied with their answer and took a deep breath.

“Well, my mamá cut off her entire family after an incident,” they didn’t like the sound of that, “and my papá didn’t really have any living relatives so, I have foster parents.” The bard nodded along, as if she wasn’t holding onto them for dear life and she could see them listening. The child’s sob became louder, “they…” she started to shake and tried to rub circles on her back, “they were mean…” Raine and Fiddlesticks looked at each other. This was the confirmation they were looking for. “I’m sorry…” the hold on their shirt tightened.

Luz started crying harder, “hey, hey, it’s ok, you don’t need to apologize for anything.” Titan what did those people do to her? “Whatever happened to you, it wasn’t your fault, ok?” The child looked up at them in surprise, shocked at their statement, “you’re not to blame.” Raine would repeat that to her as many times as she needed.

***

The human looked away, “they… weren’t nice…” the bard nodded, “they would drag me to the church even though I didn’t want to, everyone judged me there for anything I did, if someone at school was mean then they would put the blame on me, they wouldn’t let me eat unless I studied all they wanted and they almost let Adelaide burn my book.” Raine tried to hold back their anger, they wanted to find those people and make them pay. “Adelaide dug her nails into my arm and tried to force me to watch as she was about to burn the book,” the child looked away, “that’s when I ran away…” Luz stayed quiet for a few seconds.

***

What… could they say to all of that? That it was horrible? Raine was sure the child already knew that.

“I…” they went back to fully pay attention to the human, “I don’t want to go back there.” She went back to hugging them as strong as she could. “I’m scared of what they might do…” the bard curled around Luz while she sobbed, as if that would protect her from all dangers.

“Then you won’t,” the child’s cries stopped as the words slipped out of their mouth, “I will make sure that they won’t hurt you, I promise.” What were they saying? They couldn’t just promise that.

Luz shifted as she looked up, eyes now full of hope, “really?” The bard knew they couldn’t just retract that statement. Not like they would just let those people get custody of her again and hurt her even more.

So, they just nodded, “I promise.” Her response was to start crying again, burying her head on their chest. Was… was that the wrong thing to say?

“Thank you…” that small voice immediately removed their worries. They held their daughter close, until she cried herself to sleep.

The bard turned to look at their palisman, “do you think I did the right thing?” The fox just gave them a deadpan look, “yeah, I know.” But this whole situation has gotten way more complicated than it already was.

Another glance at Luz, she somehow looked more calm than the past few days.

Raine wouldn’t let anyone hurt her anymore.

The adult laid down on the bed, as they started to close their eyes and curled around their daughter. “I promise you’ll be alright…” they noticed Fiddlesticks laying next to them as the bard welcomed sleep again.

—

Her useless daughter and her husband answered the door, revealing another family. “We’re so sorry about what happened, by the lord you didn’t deserve such a wild child,” the woman sighed, “hopefully she learnt her lesson now that’s she’s in the kind arms of God.” Both tried to give out their best at acting sad. At least it worked for this family.

Her daughter gave out a sad smile, “it’s alright, we both just want the police to find her so we can properly bury her.” If that child was somehow alive, then Adelaide would take care of things herself.

The husband kept his hold on the door, “we thank you for your kindness, but for now we’d like to mourn in peace.” The family gave them an understanding look, good thing they were foolish enough to believe that story.

After they closed the door, Adelaide looked down on them and both tensed up, “you’re lucky they still hadn’t found her.” She turned to sit on the living room, grabbing one of the child’s shirt. It was practically insulting, trying to worship a sinful act such as witches. She threw it onto the fire just like that brat’s past belongings. “And I hope this is a lesson to not bring any more charity cases,” both nodded nervously. “Good,” she didn’t want to deal with any more of her daughter’s troubles.

—

As Raine woke up, they just wanted to go back to sleep. But the sound of the scream clock was a reminder that the adult had a job to prepare for.

It was then when they noticed they were holding Luz close. Right… last night… she basically told them everything. The adult didn’t want to leave her alone now. Well, Amber was going to take care of her today, so it’d be fine, she could trust the teen. She would make sure the human was safe and by Titan wasn’t she determined to make things right.

Raine remembered how insistent she was in joining the BATTs even though they were concerned about her age. In the end they had to give in.

However, it still didn’t feel right, to just leave her for work after everything.

Well, the bard coven did make them go to work last night for a problem. They deserved a supposed break. Or even just fake being sick, anything to just stay with the human a while longer.

Now with a plan more or less formed in their head, the only thing they needed was to have the energy to actually do it. Last night was draining. Fortunately, their palisman was ready to take on that job, Fiddlesticks put a paw on their face, ‘make it shut up!’ Alright fine, the adult would leave the bed.

After they turned off the scream clock and got ready for one of the worst things in their life… Calling someone.

Alright, they could do this, for Luz. Just a simple call acting sick and everything would be fine, not like they’d send scouts to their home to properly check they were sick. Only for them to discover the human living with them and then asking even more questions and suddenly finding out they were the leader of a rebel group.

…

Yeah, how about they stopped thinking and did the thing?

Raine grabbed the crow and dialed the number, “hello? Mx. Whispers?” A voice answered, this was the moment of truth. “Are you that excited for work?” They could feel an eye twitch, but the bard didn’t pay it any mind.

They did their best impression of a sick cough, “uh… hi, I’ve noticed that I haven’t been feeling well, I think I might’ve caught… the common mold.” By the Titan they hoped this was convincing.

The voice on the other side answered, “oh, but you looked so well yesterday night.” Crap, they forgot about that last part.

“I just… started feeling bad when I got hoooME,” they almost lost her balance when something tackled their legs. Raine looked down and saw Luz, clinging to them, with Fiddlesticks laying on top of her head.

The adult thought she was still sleeping, “you… weren’t there…” Raine should’ve gotten the crow and then went back to the bedroom. They shouldn’t have left the still distressed child alone.

“What was that?” Right, the conversation.

“Sorry I… lost my balance a bit…” with their free hand they put it on top of the human’s head.

“Oh Titan, it must be bad, I’ll warn the coven headquarters you won’t be here today, bye,” with that the call ended. They let out a sigh of relief, at least that was over.

Raine looked down at their daughter, wait… what did they call her? “Who were you talking to?” Nevermind, first answering her question.

The bard picked her up, “just someone from work, I won’t go today.” Luz looked surprised at what they said, “I didn’t want to leave you alone after last night,” if their act wasn’t convincing enough they would have found another way.

“A-are you really…” she hid her face in their neck, “really gonna help?” They didn’t know how but their heart even broke more. If there was a way, they would make sure those people face the consequences of their actions.

But for now, the only thing the bard could do for Luz was give her comfort, “of course, I wouldn’t just lie about something that important.” They heard some whimpering and the bard started to rub circles on her back. She must’ve been through so much, “it’s alright, let it all out,” they could feel the tears start to soak their shirt. But as if they cared.

Right now their main objective with Luz had changed, not only would they bring her back to the human realm. Raine also had to find a way for her to not go back to those people.

The door opened and both got startled, “WHO’S READY TO LEARN SOME GRUDGBY TODAY?!” Oh no, they forgot to warn Amber, their student took a good look at them, “uuuuuuh, are you two ok? No offence but you look terrible,” there… might have been a better way to introduce the topic. But this wasn’t surprising coming from Amber.

Luz tried to wipe away the tears, “I think we might need to sit down for this.” They guided the teen to the couch. The bard was willing to tell their students everything but first, “is it ok to tell her about this?” The human thought for a few seconds and nodded.

They took a deep breath, even with her permission this was something complicated to talk about, “alright, so, long story short, your suspicions were right.” Amber tried to look calm, but somehow they felt as if she was ready to murder someone. “Now, the long story is…” and then they explained everything Luz told them that night. Her parents death, how she didn’t really have any more family in the human realm, her foster parents and how she ended up here. The child didn’t really said anything, instead, nodding along to put more weight into what they were saying.

Raine could see their student getting angrier and angrier and they wouldn’t lie, they could also feel their blood boiling the more they remembered. It only strengthened their resolve to make sure Luz was safe.

Finally, the adult finished telling her everything. At some point Luz tried to hide on their shoulder, they let her do it, “and, I think that’s all… right?” A slight nod came out of the child.

They looked back at their student, “teach…” oh Titan, even Fiddlesticks looked afraid of her expression. “Is there a way to beat those people to death right now?” For now they didn’t have a portal that took them to the human realm. And they were pretty sure that even though Eda sold human trash. She didn’t actually have a portal to the human realm and instead used the trash slugs or got stuff that got washed away by the boiling sea.

The teen looked at Luz, “hey,” she touched her shoulder and she peeked out of their shoulder. “If you ever need me to beat up someone, then I’m here, ok?” The child looked at her in shock, “aw screw it,” Amber jumped in to hug her.

She… never did that before.

Luz returned it, though with a hand still holding onto their shirt, “thank you…” Raine couldn’t help but smile a bit.

When Amber let go of her, the child went back to clinging onto them, “tell Katya or Derwin about this and you’re dead.” She then pointed at Fiddlesticks, “specially YOU.” The palisman just rolled their eyes and blew a raspberry.

They chuckled, “anyway, let’s just get some breakfast, do you want griffin eggs?” Their student shrugged but nodded and went to the kitchen to prepare some.

“You know,” the bard turned to look at the teen, “you can let go of her.” Both Luz and Raine looked at each other.

“She’s been holding onto me for some time now,” not like they wanted to stop.

“You’re also holding onto her teach,” they couldn’t deny that.

—

Raine also told Katya and Derwin about her foster parents. They asked to come to the apartment because it was important. Luz didn’t think it was actually that important. However, the witches thought otherwise.

Right after the adult told the whole story, she was suddenly getting crushed by the two young adults, “we’re beating those humans up for hurting this little ball of light.” None of them were upset at her… They were worried for her.

It was… something she kind of missed. Something the child thought she lost after she lost her parents. No one else would care for her this much. But in the end the human found some people that did, sure, they were from an entire different world. And this stay was still temporary but even then, they cared about her.

Yeah, Luz needed to remind herself, this was only temporary. Nothing permanent about this, it could be extended until Raine found someone who cared for her. But even then, still not permanent. She had to remind herself of that.

When she was clinging onto Raine because she didn’t want them gone, the child had to remember they were just taking her for a limited time.

When she was laughing with all of the witches and having fun with them.

When it felt like this was more like home than back in her world.

None of this would last forever.

Finally, the night arrived in the Boiling Isles, “see you tomorrow Luz!” Katya said to her. Right, tomorrow Raine would go back to work and the young adult would babysit her. It was the routine.

The witch went to the bedroom and tucked her into bed, she was still holding their hand, “are you feeling better?” The child thought about it and nodded. All of this was a lot, but she somehow felt better… much lighter. The adult smiled, “that’s good…” they looked like they were considering something, “want me to stay with you?” Oh… right, they practically spent the day glued to each other.

Luz gave their hand one last squeeze, “I think… I can sleep on my own…” Raine smiled and laid the covers over her. Fiddlesticks joining her, curling on himself laying on top of a pillow.

Then, the adult kissed her forehead, “good night Luz…” they turned off the lights. “If you need something you know where I am,” she gave out a small nod.

The child got herself comfortable, “good night nini…” she muttered out loud. She heard some shifting from behind her. Probably Fiddlesticks trying to find a more comfortable position. Luz didn’t pay it any mind and closed her eyes.

Chapter Text

Today Raine had the day off, a holiday for most of the Boiling Isles. Which meant they could spent more time with Luz. The human said she wanted to go to the park, that was pretty normal. Since usually at this time there wouldn’t be too many people, just how the child liked it.

The problem was that today was a holiday, which meant that there were kids running around in the park. Something they forgot about until they were in front of the slayground.

The bard felt Luz’s hold on their hand tighten, “we can do something else if you don’t want to play here.” Maybe their students could get to their home sooner. Or the two could go to buy groceries, there had to be something the child hadn’t tried yet and she would be able to digest. No one would know until they tried it.

To their surprise, Luz shook her head, “no… I think… I wanna try to play.” Then she looked up at them, “you’ll be watching me right?” They felt the hold on their hand tighten as she asked that.

In response, the bard smiled, “of course.” Even if she didn’t ask Raine would keep their eyes on her, Titan knew that the worst things could happen when they were looking away. With that, their daughter ran to the swings.

Wait… what did they just call Luz?

Raine scolded themself, sure, they promised the human she wouldn’t have to go back to those people. But again, they were leading a dangerous rebellion which might end up with them being arrested or worse. And if the child ever got caught in the mess they wouldn’t be able to ever forgive themself. Finding a way to get her back to the human realm and then how to make sure those people paid was the safest option for her.

While trying to shut down those thoughts they found a spot where they could keep a close look at Luz and not have to socialize with anyone. “So, which one is yours?” Unfortunately, another parent appeared right out of nowhere.

It was just some small talk… please let this be over soon, “uh… her…” They pointed at Luz who was on the swings.

“Aw, mine’s that one over there,” he pointed at a witch who was playing with other children, “can’t believe they’re almost ten.” Yeah… people usually grew up… specially children, “man I can’t wait to see them grow up, I’m sure you can’t too with your little witchlet.” That made them flinch, watching Luz… grow up.

This conversation was getting uncomfortable, “I-I’m sorry, I think I’m getting a call,” they walked away from that witch. Though still making sure the human was on their eyesight.

Luz… growing up… would they even be able to do that once she got to the human realm? It wasn’t like there was a portal somewhere that could travel between both realms. Once they found a way to get her back and also make sure she was safe and happy, it would be the end. Neither them nor their students would ever see her again. It was for the best, being the leader of a rebellion didn’t bring the safes environment for a child. Specially a human who couldn’t do magic.

Not to mention they weren’t even sure they were parent material. One thing was teaching for the bard coven, and that was usually for people that already joined the coven. A whole other world was raising someone.

Raine’s eyes travelled back to the child, she looked so happy… They noticed Luz had become happier ever since she told them everything.

At least they could enjoy some moments, right?

—

Her time at the park had gone better than she expected. Luz got to play on the swings for a while climb on the bars that she was just going to assume they looked like bones. Nope, she definitely didn’t climb real bones and now she was having fun in the play porch, going down the slide.

This would be more fun if she had friends to play with. But she didn’t have those in the demon realm, well, unless Raine, Katya, Amber and Derwin counted as friends. Though they were adults.

Besides, would they be considered friends? Specially her ni- Raine. The human kept having those slip-ups in her head. Hopefully it just stayed like that and she didn’t say it out loud. Specially not in front of them.

Luz climbed onto the top of the play porch, getting ready to go down the slide again, “Luz!” Before that, she looked at her nini- wait, Raine. “One last time at the slide and then we go, ok?” Aw, but she was having fun. Though, they said both would see Katya, Amber and Derwin today she gave them a thumbs up and got ready to go down.

However, she got interrupted by something breaking into the play porch, it startled her a bit. The human turned her head and noticed it was a grudgby ball.

Someone probably threw it there accidentally, she picked it up and looked for someone who just lost a ball. “Hey! Down here!” Luz looked down and saw a witch around her age, her hair was black, she had green eyes and wore glasses. “I think my grudgby ball got caught in there,” oh, she must be the owner.

The human nodded, “yup!” She showed it to the witch, “here you go!”

Luz was about to drop it, “wait!” The child stopped herself before doing anything, “I want to try a spell, do you mind?” Seeing magic right in front of her? That sounded great, she’d never stop being amazed by it, even though Amber, Katya, Derwin and nini always did it in front of her.

Wait, how did she call Raine?

The human shook her head, “no prob bob!” The witch didn’t understand what she meant, right human sayings, “I mean, that you can go ahead and do your spell.” She looked happy and created a spell circle.

Then the place she was standing on completely disappeared.

Huh, that was a weird spell to use to get a ball back.

“Luz!” Before she hit the floor, someone stopped her fall by picking her up. The child looked down and saw Raine, who had their face on the floor. The adult groaned as they sat up and put her on the ground, “are you ok?” The human nodded. Though the scratches on their face told her they should be more worried about themself. Faceplanting couldn’t be good for anyone.

“I-I’m sorry!” Both turned to look at the witch, who looked incredibly guilty and a bit teary eyed. “I thought I had the spell under control, but something always goes wrong,” the other child then looked away.

Raine tried to reach her, “hey, it’s ok, it was a mis-” “Willow!” Two other adults approached them, one had square glasses, black hair and gray eyes while the other witch had a big brown beard and eyes of a similar color.

Both stood up after that, “we’re so sorry about this.” Willow hid behind the leg of the witch with a beard as the one with glasses apologized.

The human looked up and noticed that Raine looked a bit uncomfortable, “it’s ok, no one got hurt.” They looked at where the play fort used to be, “they’ll fix that, probably.” Bummer, she liked the slide on that one.

The adult with square glasses squinted his eyes and looked at Raine, “wait, I know you…” The adult looked surprised, “you’re Raine Whispers, right?” How did he know? “I’m Gilbert, from St. Epiderm,” what was a ‘St. Epiderm’?

While Luz didn’t know, the witch did seem, “oh, right, I saw you in the I.F.W.O.T.” The what? Was it some kind of witch event? It had to be very fun.

The three adults started to talk about whatever adults talked about. The human didn’t care about that, she was more interested on the witch hiding behind the adults. “Pssst, hey,” the witch, the adults called her Willow, right? “Here’s your ball,” the child offered it to her and she took it hesitantly.

“Thank you…” she looked at the floor, Luz did the same, there wasn’t anything interesting down there for now. “Why aren’t you angry?” Angry? Why would she be angry?

“Because nothing to be angry about happened?” She didn’t do it on purpose.

Willow then looked away, “other witches my age get angry because I don’t get my spells right.” Well then they must be bullies, Luz couldn’t even do magic. She probably wouldn’t like those people if they were like that.

Even then, the witch looked upset, she had an idea! “Hey! Look at this!” She turned her eyelid upside down, that always made her papá laugh, “bleep bloop bleep!” Willow looked a bit startled but then started giggling.

“Weird! How did you do that?” Her mamá taught her!

—

Usually Raine would ask Luz to stop doing that since it could hurt her eyes but they’d make an exception this time. “They’re both getting along,” Harvey pointed out, yeah, their daughter was happy.

Wait, what was that last part?

“Raine?” They jumped a bit, no time to think about their past thoughts. Gilbert looked at his husband who nodded, “would you mind scheduling some playdates? For the kids?” That wasn’t something they’d expect to hear, ever. Though they never expected to meet Luz, “Willow’s been having… some troubles in the friends department, and it looks like both are getting along,” they looked down at the two girls who were still happily talking.

Luz could use some friends. It looked like her stay in the human realm was going to be long, specially since they still needed to think of a way for her to not end up with those foster parents.

She also said that she never managed to make friends in her world. Maybe this could be a good idea.

They looked at the two adults, “sure, here’s my crow number.” They summoned a piece of paper and wrote it down. The bard picked the human up, “now we’re in a bit of a hurry, we’ll talk later.” Raine didn’t want to make their students wait.

—

Katya was waiting with Amber and Derwin for Raine and Luz. “You remember the plan right?” She asked the younger witch who nodded. Good, everyone was on the same page, now it was time to convince her teacher.

Speaking of, they finally saw the two getting close. Raine mentioned they wanted to hang out in the forest where people usually didn’t pass by. So no one had to worry about some rando finding out the kid was a human.

Amber immediately jumped in, “you better convince them!” The witch picked Luz from the adult’s arm, “let’s learn some grudgby techniques while these old farts talk about boring things!” Hey! She was almost an adult too. The human began to laugh as she took her somewhere where she couldn’t hear them.

Raine watched as the younger witch started playing a more family friendly version of grudgby with the human and approached the two. “Sorry for being late, Luz met another witch and I think they became friends,” ooooh, that sounded good. And probably would make it easier to convince them.

“You need to tell us about that later,” Katya nodded, that kid deserved to be happy and those foster parents deserved to be kicked in the ass.

Both young adults looked at each other, Derwin made a gesture saying that she should start. Well, it was her idea after all. Even though the two immediately jumped in, “so, teach, we were wondering something.” The adult gave her their full attention, “you know with the whole thing of Luz staying until you can be sure she’s safe, how about moving?” Katya gave an awkward smile.

Raine stared at them for a few seconds.

Then a couple more.

…

This was getting uncomfortable…

None of them expected their ideal reaction, but this was getting weird, “uuuuh, anyone in there?” Her teacher was still alive, right? The BATTs needed them for practically the entire rebellion.

Finally the adult snapped, “WHAT?” There was the expected reaction, “why are you even? No, there is no need for me to move.” They had to be joking right now.

“Come on teach,” she was surprised the adult hadn’t thought about it before, or even considered it, “it’s clear that Luz’s stay is going to be long, don’t you miss sleeping on an actual bed?” That many nights of sleeping on a couch couldn’t be good for them. Or any other witch.

“Besides,” Derwin backed her up, “you have the money for it and it would be good for Luz to be in a place she couldn’t be spotted easily.” The young adult nodded, the less people around, the less risk there was for anyone finding out the child was actually human.

Raine cleared her throat, “first of all, I’m completely fine sleeping on the couch.” She had her doubts about that, “also, moving out is practically permanent, Luz isn’t going to stay with me forever.” She even had more doubts about that. The young adult didn’t know how they dealt with orphans in the human realm, but she wasn’t sure someone from an entire different realm, would be able to convince whoever needed convincing to give her an actual good family.

Katya raised an eyebrow, “you just don’t want to deal with talking to people to get a new home.” They couldn’t argue with that, even before Luz her teacher would have been perfectly capable of getting a better home. Also one that was closer to where they worked, but even then they still refused.

Though it was clear the bard wasn’t going to give up that easily, “look, I know you are trying to help, but just moving out would just give more stress to Luz.” Alright fine, they had a point there, but it would be better for her in the long run.

Before they could argue any further, Fiddlesticks appeared on Raine’s shoulder. The fox immediately jumped to her face, she braced herself for scratches and bites. However they never came.

Even her teacher looked shocked, he was just laying on top of her head.

The palisman never did that before.

The three looked shocked at the palisman, ‘I agree with the losers.’ The fuck did they just say? Fiddlesticks was on their side?

This was unbelievable, “WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FU-” in a second everything got muted.

—

Amber had the grudgby ball in her hands, “ok kid, now, do you remember how to steal the rival’s ball?” However, she didn’t get an answer, “kid?” The witch looked around, she couldn’t find Luz anywhere.

Until the bard heard the rustling of leaves coming from behind, “sneak attack!” The human appeared right behind her. The teen managed to move her ball away from her before she could steal it. “Aw, I thought I got it this time,” Amber cackled as she picked up Luz by the back of her shirt. The kid still had a long way to go to be able to steal from her.

“Don’t worry, I was just one of the best grudgby players,” she grinned, “and the most bloody one.” The many times someone told her a person from a rival team got nightmares because of her brought her so much joy. No one expected the small one to have the most blood thirst.

Luz’s eyes brightened, “do you still play grudgby?”

Well, no harm in telling her, “nah, I already graduated,” and also joined a coven even though she didn’t really want to. Good thing Raine was her teacher, and she was also annoying them to join the group. “But man, I’m happy with the trauma I inflicted on those people,” their horrified faces were a treat.

The human laughed, “guess your time at school was fun,” eh, it was more or less normal. “I wish I had that,” oh fuck, she forgot about Luz and school.

She put her down on the floor and she sat down, “meh, not like you’re missing much.” Wait, if the human was going to stay for longer, would Raine think of enrolling her in some school? Things could get complicated since she didn’t have magic. “I bet it’s way more fun to learn things from us,” Raine was a good teacher anyway. Not like the child really needed to step foot in school.

Sadly, those words didn’t really bring her comfort, “how was school like?” The human looked at her with pure admiration. Oh no, this was too much pressure.

Well, if they were going that route, might as well tell her, “aside from grudgby pretty boring, boring classes, also you can only pick a single track, in my case it was bard.” Some people thought that Amber didn’t have enough patience to learn how to play an instrument. Well those people could suck it, now she was a strong witch even with the stupid coven sigil holding her back.

After telling her a few more things about her time in Glandus, she stayed quiet. Was she comparing her experience with hers? Amber couldn’t really tell.

The thought of her studying at a school came back, it would be kind of improtant. Since her teacher would have accepted that yes, Luz’s stay would be more long-term, or even permanent. “Luz?” The human looked up at her, “do you enjoy living with Raine?” She was taken aback by her question.

“Uhm…” Amber could practically see the gears going off on her head. “Yeah, I guess I do…” why did she look guilty by admitting that?

She’d think about that later, “what would you think about staying for-” “WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FU-” the two got startled. Why the fuck did Katya scream like that?

The teen turned to look at Luz, who mouthed something. But the bard didn’t hear a thing, she tried to ask her to repeat that, however her voice also didn’t come out.

Oooooh…

She knew what spell that was.

Time to use an alternative method of communication. Amber pulled out her scroll and wrote down a message, ‘don’t worry, I think it was just one of Raine’s muting spells.’ She then showed it to Luz, then nodded in understatement.

The human pointed at the scroll, she gave it to her and wrote down another message, ‘why did they use that?’ Probably because Katya was going to say a curse word out loud. Raine wasn’t a fan of anyone saying curse words in front of Luz. Some day she’d get her hands on those Spanish curse words.

While it was funny to think that her teacher freaked out about Luz hearing a single curse word. It was pretty annoying to not be able to talk normally. Amber stood up and offered a hand to the child, she took it and went to where the other witches were.

Before getting next to them, she threw the ball and it hit the four of them. Nice, it even hit Fiddlesticks, everyone turned to look at her and she pointed at her throat. Finally, Raine created a spell circle and the sound came back.

“Talk about overreacting,” her teacher glared at Katya because of her comment. But they didn’t respond. Meanwhile, Luz went to their side and the adult ruffled her hair.

Raine cleared their throat, “about what you said before, no, I don’t see any need for that.” Amber had her doubts. “It’s getting a bit late, let’s go home ok?” The human while a bit confused, nodded.

The adult picked her up and started to walk away, “bye guys! It was nice seeing you!” The three waved back.

“We’re not gonna drop this, are we?” Amber asked the two older witches.

“Nope,” Derwin responded.

“Like Titan we are,” Katya backed up.

Good, she had different ideas no annoy Raine into giving in.

Chapter Text

To say Willow was nervous was an understatement.

She was actually scared, terrified of this playdate and how it would go. Sure, the witch she met was nice when they first met. But that was because she didn’t know her as half-a-witch Willow like the rest of the class did.

Would it be a bad idea to cancel the playdate her dads organized with that other adult? “Dad, papa?” The adults looked at her, “are you sure… it’ll be fun?” She didn’t want to things end up like Amity. Maybe she could wait until her magic got better. The child just needed to get her spells right and then everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, her dads didn’t look convinced, “are you sure Willow?” She hesitated but gave a small nod, “I met Raine when I was younger, they’re a nice witch, I’m sure their daughter will be the same.” She didn’t look mean when both first met.

Also, the witch was curious about that weird thing she did with her eyelids. She also didn’t know her from school… Then there was a chance this witch wouldn’t call her weak or other things! “Ok, I think I can try,” her dads smiled at her.

“Speaking of…” her papa pointed at two witches. Willow managed to recognized both of them. However, she didn’t know the name of the other kid.

“Don’t worry, her name is Luz,” her dad told her as if he just read her mind. Luz… that wasn’t a name she heard before.

When the other witch noticed Willow, she started to run. “Willow!” She screamed out loud and before she could utter out any response, the witch tackled her. On the next few seconds she feel onto the floor because of the force of the other witchlet. She could also see Raine trying to catch up to her.

Finally, they reached her dads, “sorry…” they took a deep breath, “she was just really excited to see her again.” Luz let her go and nodded at what the bard said.

“I’ve never had friends before, so this is new to me!” She considered Willow… her friend? The witch then hesitated, “if you want to be friends…” Was this real? Of course she would love to be her friend!

Willow beamed, “of course!” The witch looked incredibly happy at that, now she needed to think of something fun to do. “Wanna play on the swings?” She nodded and both ran towards the free swings.

Though for a second, Luz turned back, “bye nini!” For some reason the adult looked surprised but then smiled and waved at her. Then they started to talk to her dad about whatever adults talked about.

Willow got on one of the swings while her friend sat on the one next to her, “I… didn’t hesitate when saying it…” What was she talking about?

“Did you say something?” Why would she even hesitate calling her parent, her parent?

Luz’s eyes widened, “uh… well… I just noticed something from these past few days.” That was a weird thing to say. “Just… getting used to things!” Willow raised an eyebrow, getting used to what? “Like having a friend! Yeah, that,” she looked at the floor, “I… never managed to make friends before…” It was a bit hard to believe, she seemed like a really nice witch.

Though Amity was also a nice person at the beginning. Then she said all of those mean things to her. At least Luz didn’t say anything to her when she messed up her spell the first time they met. Besides, her dads were encouraging her on this, she didn’t want to make them sad.

Specially after she came back home crying and told them everything that happened in Amity’s birthday.

“I used to have a friend…” she really missed hanging out with her. “But, she said I’m too weak so she didn’t want to be friends anymore,” if only Willow managed to get the spells right, she knew she could. Her dads told her the child was just a late bloomer, “if only I got the hang of magic…” Then maybe she would still have friends and her classmates wouldn’t have started calling her half-a-witch Willow.

“Well, I think your magic is really cool,” really? But the only time she ever saw her try a spell the witch almost hurt her. “I can’t do any magic so…” the child looked at her surprised. She couldn’t do magic? Even Luz was shocked at her admission, “I… just said that didn’t I?” The witch nodded.

It was hard to believe, “you’re a powerless witch?” There were a few stories about them, but Willow never expected to meet one in person.

Luz looked nervous, oh no, she must’ve asked an uncomfortable question, “yeah, that, let’s go with that.” She just made her friend feel bad.

“I’m… sorry, for bringing it up,” if people already called her half-a-witch Willow because she couldn’t get her spells right, she didn’t want to imagine the names people must’ve called Luz. “I didn’t want to hurt you…” if only she didn’t say anything.

“Hurt?” The child looked at herself, “but you didn’t hurt me.” What? Of course she did, “oh, you meant the no magic thing.” What else would the witch refer to? “Don’t worry about it, I’m used to not having any magic, it’s fine,” she… took it far better than she expected. Willow didn’t know what she would do if she didn’t have any magic, “besides…” the witch looked away. “That means I learnt how to do this!” She did the eyelid thing again, “bleep bloop bleep.” The kid couldn’t help but giggle, how did she do it?

“Luz! You’re going to hurt your eyes like that!” Both children jumped. Luz’s parent reacted pretty fast to that.

“Aw farts,” the witch put her eyelids back to normal. “Well, it made you laugh again! That’s what I wanted,” she wanted to make her happy? That felt… nice, Willow really missed having someone she could call a friend. And it looked like Luz was going to be that someone.

Yeah, both being friends felt right.

—

Raine could consider this playdate a success.

Sure, they weren’t sure how playdates usually went, but Luz and Willow looked happy by the time they had to go home. So the bard was pretty sure that meant good.

“Willow said she went to Hexide, is that a witch school?” Right, Gilbert and Harvey told them about the school. It’d been a long time since they last heard about that place. Raine graduated years ago after all, and they didn’t really see any point in revisiting the place.

The bard nodded, “yeah, I studied there.” Some memories from back then came to their mind, mostly all of the pranks they pulled with Eda. While they still had friends, it didn’t feel the same after she dropped out. Lilith started to act weird and avoided talking to them or anyone else in the friend group and the rest started to slowly drift apart.

The hold on their hand tightened, “was it… good?” The school? Well, the bard definitely had a better time in Hexide than in St. Epiderm.

Now that they thought about it, what could they do with Luz’s education? Sure, what they had now was fine, but if they were aiming for the long run. Raine wasn’t sure this would completely be good for her. The human needed to talk to more people her age. “N-Raine?” Right, the question she asked them.

“Yeah, yeah, it was good, I had some friends and I enjoyed learning in the bard track,” with a bit of the other tracks on the side thanks to Eda’s secret room. But for now Luz didn’t need to know about that, “are you interested in Hexide?” Willow did go there, but there was still the issue that the child was human. And if witches with weaker magic already had a hard time, the bard didn’t want to imagine what would happen to someone without any kind of magic.

Unexpectedly, she shook her head, “no… I… don’t really want to go to school again…” Right… the child was bullied in her old school. Of course Luz didn’t want another school.

Finally they got to the entrance of their apartment, “it’s alright, what we’re doing now works just fine to all of us.” The human smiled and nodded. However, they didn’t know if this was what was best for the human. If only they had a way to get whatever humans studied in their realm, the child would be better prepared for returning to her world.

The human nodded, “yeah, I really have fun with you guys.” Even though she was smiling, for some reason that made them extremely upset. But not towards Luz, just at the reminder that she had to go back. No, Raine was leading a rebellion and she would be in danger. Besides, it wasn’t like they were fit to be a parent. “Raine?” The bard got out of their thoughts, “are you… gonna open the door?” Right, home.

They should stop thinking about that, the human didn’t need to know about their worries. She already had plenty of her own, if only there was an easy way for them to get rid of them. “Sorry, got lost in thought,” they were about to unlock the door.

However, it was already open.

This couldn’t be happening, specially when Luz was with them. Did someone catch onto them? Was the rebellion already a failure? They barely did anything, “stay back.” The bard moved the child so she’d be right behind them. With Fiddlesticks already in their violin form, Raine slowly approached the door.

Luz was clinging onto their shirt, “is everything going to be ok?” They looked down at her and smiled, whoever entered their home, they were going to regret it.

“Don’t worry Luz, I’m strong,” yeah, it didn’t matter how many intruders there were. The adult would protect her. One last deep breath and they opened the door, moving their bow to the strings of the violin, ready to attack.

“Hey teach! You weren’t here, so I lockpicked the door,” wait, that was the voice of Amber. Katya and Derwin were also there. “Why do you look ready to kill someone?” After her question, their palisman turned back, only to jump at their student’s face. Knowing what was about to happen, Raine covered Luz’s ears, “WHAT THE FUCK YOU LITTLE SHIT?!” Yup, as they expected.

Before this situation started to bother the neighbours, they closed the door behind them, “you should’ve warned me and I gave you a key for a reason.” Raine gave all of them keys when they started babysitting Luz.

Katya shrugged, “we all forgot.” They weren’t even going to ask how the three of them just forgot the one thing they needed to enter their apartment.

“We just wanted to know how Luz’s first playdate went,” Derwin informed as he helped Amber with getting Fiddlesticks off her face. Which he managed to do, though now the fox was biting and scratching his fingers.

The human smiled, “it went great! I didn’t know playing with someone could be so fun! We first talked at the swings, then we went down the sleds many times and then she showed me some of the spells she knew!” Yeah, though that ended up with a bit more fire than they would have liked, probably the witchlet thought the same. Though that didn’t erase the fun they had.

Luz looked so much happier.

Unfortunately for them, Raine couldn’t admire the scenario when Katya and Amber nudged them. Now Derwin had Luz’s entire focus, why did they have a bad feeling about this? “So, any kind of advances in finding a new home?” The bard tried to hold back a groan from Katya’s question.

Even Fiddlesticks bothered them with that idea. For once, their students and palisman got along on something and it just had to be on bugging them with moving out.

This was going to be a headache, “no, and I don’t plan to.” It wouldn’t even matter, the human wouldn’t stay with them forever. Their students frown, “come on, I’m not going to discuss this in front of Luz.” This had been a good day for her and they weren’t going to ruin it.

Fiddlesticks then landed on their head, ‘I’m gonna annoy you so much about this,’ why did he have to agree with their students on THIS? Would be nice if they actually got along the whole time.

“I still can’t believe they’re with us,” Katya nodded. Dear Titan, this was going to last a while wasn’t it?

—

Usually, when Luz woke up in the middle of the night, it was because she had a nightmare. Back with her parents, she would run to their room to be with them, with her foster parents, after an incident she would just stay in her room and then hope to be able to stay awake during the day and with her ni-Raine, at first, they would come to her after Fiddlesticks warned them, though after that night, she would sometimes ask for their help.

However, this time the reason she woke up was a bit different, “ow…” The child fell out of the bed.

She felt fine, the only problem was waking up. She was planning on just going back to sleep but the human wanted a glass of water.

Luz tried to open as carefully as she could. The human didn’t want to wake up her ni-RAINE, why did she keep messing that up? They were just helping her, just that, the witch was just taking care of her TEMPORARILY, nothing permanent. Sure, they didn’t know how to get her back home and they promised her she’d never go back to her foster parents. But at some point the child would have to leave them.

Hopefully there’d be a way to see them from time to time when that happened.

Enough about thinking the future, right now the thing she wanted was water. The child peeked out of the door slowly, expecting the witch to be asleep. But to her surprise, the light was on and she could hear some voices.

‘Do it,’ that was from Fiddlesticks.

“No,” Raine responded.

‘Do it,’ she walked towards the living room slowly. Were they arguing? Luz never saw the witch and palisman argue.

“No,” well, it didn’t really feel like arguing and more like the adult being really tired at responding the same thing.

‘Do it,’ finally she could see the two. The fox was smacking a paw on Raine’s face, it was pretty funny to see.

The adult sighed, “do you think that smacking me on the face will work out?” Fiddlesticks didn’t respond.

He smacked them again on the face. This time, knocking their glasses down, which made them groan and pick them up again.

Luz couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, which was enough for them to notice she was awake. “Oh, hey, everything alright?” The human nodded and they got closer to the couch, there were a bunch of papers on it. Though it looked like for some reason Raine was trying to hide some of them. Maybe just some whatever important stuff they had to do.

“Yeah, just wanted some water,” after saying that, the adult put a hand on her head and with the free one they used a spell to summon one. Luz took it, “thanks!” She drank the water without hesitation.

The child couldn’t help herself and tried to see what was on the table, “what are you working on?” It was pretty late in the night. If they weren’t sleeping then that meant it was something important.

For some reason, Raine hesitated a bit, “just… some boring work stuff, you don’t need to know…” That was a weird response. Specially when they kept stacking the papers as if they didn’t want her to see what was written in there.

Though she did catch something, “what’s a Day of Unity?” It sounded important, maybe a witch holiday? Derwin taught her a couple of the but he never told her about that one.

Fiddlesticks and Raine looked nervously at each other. Was she missing something? It didn’t feel like a rude question to ask, “it’s… uhm…” Luz tilted her head, “it’s a special day.” Oh, like someone’s birthday? “Belos… said that during the Day of Unity a new world will be created, completely free of wild magic,” a… new world? Was that even possible?

Besides, another thing felt weird, “free of wild magic?” Sure, she knew that technically wild magic was practising all kinds and also not being part of a coven. But could someone even do that?

The adult nodded, “yeah, that’s what Belos says.” That emperor again, she didn’t feel like she’d like this guy, “well, more like the Titan says.” Also that mention of the Titan, “the emperor says that once the Day of Unity arrives, every witch who’s part of a coven will be a part of this new world, and the wild witches…” they stayed quiet for a few seconds, “he never said anything specific about them, just that the Titan won’t like them…” Luz thought about what the witch told her.

All of that… felt really weird… however, it was somehow familiar. Some of the sermons claiming that people should behave a specific way to be welcomed to paradise. Also that scary rapture thing…

It was completely different, but for some reason, it felt like she already knew about that. “Luz?” She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Raine, “I’m sorry, I just thought it was a bit scary for you…”

The child shook her head, “no… no… it’s ok, it was just…” How could she put it into words? “All of what you said felt… like I already heard it?” The adult raised an eyebrow at that, “I’m not really sure, the whole ‘new world’ thing and that ‘behave like the God likes so everything will be fine’ thing just… reminded me of some stuff from my world…” It must be a coincidence, nothing else, surely religions had a lot of things in common even between realms.

Yeah, nothing important, at least for her, since when Luz looked up she saw Raine as if they were really lost in thought. “Raine?” She didn’t say anything bad, right?

The adult reacted and shook their head, “yeah, yeah, sorry about that.” They stood up, “ready to go back to sleep?” Right, sleep, Luz yawned in response, which made them chuckle. “Let’s get you back to bed,” they guided her back to the room.

Raine looked a bit concerned after she told them back, maybe she could do something to cheer them up, “today was really fun.” Hanging out with Willow, then meeting again with Derwin, Katya and Amber. It was a great day.

After saying that, the witch smiled, “really?” They entered the room and the human got on the bed once again.

She nodded, “yeah!” Lately the days had been much more enjoyable, she even managed to make a friend. Her parents would’ve been so happy for her.

If only… they were here, “I… just wished mamá and papá could see me…” Maybe not the part with her foster parents, but right now, it’d be nice if they could see her. Making friends, learning things of a completely different world form hers. Specially a world where magic was real and witches were an actual thing.

The witch let out a sad smile, “I’m sure they’d be really happy for you.” She remembered that dream… it was just a dream but Luz liked to think that would be how her parents reacted.

“Yeah…” ok, she was getting more tired and they started to tuck her in, “and I’m sure they’d really like you too.” Her parents were nice and surely both would really enjoy meeting them.

For some reason they looked surprised at what she said, but then smiled, “well, I’m glad to hear that.” Finally, she was tucked in and her eyes were starting to close, “good night Luz.” The last thing she felt was a hand ruffling her hair and the child immediately went back to sleep.

Chapter Text

Luz knew who her parents were.

They were her mamá and papá and they were gone. After they died, some people told her that her foster parents were just temporary until new parents wanted to adopt her. But that never felt right, she didn’t want new parents. She wanted her parents back, though she knew that would never happen.

The child even expected to not consider anyone else her parent, sure, she didn’t know a lot about other parents. But she was pretty sure her mamá and papá were good ones.

However, it felt like something changed for a while now…

Lately, she’d been having more slip-ups, a lot of them in her mind and what was more worrisome, sometimes out loud. Luckily, no one else heard her for now, but she needed to fix this before she said it in front of someone. Specially in front of her nini…

RAINE, IN FRONT OF RAINE!

She groaned, this was something the human didn’t really have an answer for and she couldn’t just ask the adult about this. So, she opted for her second best option, the good witch Azura.

Unfortunately for her, Azura was an adult in the story and she didn’t have to deal with this sort of situation. She only had to fight bad guys and sometimes even help them get to the right path. Nothing about how parents worked. And she checked both volumes, multiple times.

This was going nowhere, Luz buried her face inside the pages and let out a muffled scream. Why was it so complicated? The human didn’t think those things back with her parents.

“What are you doing?” She jumped when her nini asked her that question.

RAINE.

Luz stared at her books, “trying to read the good witch Azura from a different perspective?” The adult raised an eyebrow, “I practically know them by memory now, I wanted to try something different.” That wasn’t a bad idea, maybe one day she could try learning the good witch Azura in reverse.

Katya was taking care of her, she could know some stuff about that.

The witch chuckled, “I don’t really know how that works but whatever you want to do with your books.” They ruffled her hair, “now, where’s Katya? She was supposed to get here ten minutes ago,” the witch checked their scroll.

Almost immediately after, the door was slammed open, “TITAN FFFFFFF,” Katya looked at her as she stalled. “Fluff fluffers, THAT DAMNED LANDLORD, I SWEAR IF I EVER GET MY HANDS ON HER AND THERE ARE NO WITNESSES!” What made her so angry? Also screaming so much couldn’t be good.

The human and witch looked at each other, “uuuuh, Katya? What happened?” Luz grabbed a pillow to protect herself just in case.

In response, the young adult groaned, “it’s my landlord, she raised my FU-, ok not gonna curse, but, SHE RAISED MY RENT AGAIN.” Oh, the child knew about rents, more or less. Katya and Derwin complained about those, meanwhile Amber was dreading the day she had to do those.

Raine nodded, this must be something familiar to them, “are you sure you three don’t want to try to move out together?” That… didn’t sound like a good idea. The three got along but Luz saw how many pranks they played on each other, she didn’t think any place could survive too long having in mind that, “nevermind, please don’t do that.” Ah, they must’ve thought the same.

Katya threw herself onto the couch, “Luz, help me, surely you can weaponize your cuteness against her…” Could that even work?

“I don’t think that will work and I’m not too fond of the idea of any of you trying to use her as a weapon…” the adult ruffled her hair as they got ready for their job.

“Right, she doesn’t even have a heart to pity someone,” she didn’t think it was possible for people to not have hearts. Did this landlord only have a bile sack?

Finally, the adult approached the door, “not exactly my point but I don’t want you to use Luz as… whatever you were thinking.” Then they looked at her, “have fun with Katya.” She waved her nini goodbye and they closed the door.

Wait, what did she just call them?

Her thoughts were interrupting by the young adult poking her cheek, “any idea on how to make her lower my rent?” Luz didn’t know, she was still a kid. Though before saying anything, Katya looked like she just got an idea, “I just need to scare her! But with what?” The witch looked at her? Did she have to wear a scary costume? It’d been a while since she last made one, and the child didn’t know if Raine would trust her with a needle. Just like her mamá and papá didn’t.

“Say…” the child gave all of her attention to the witch, “do you know how giraffes look like?” While confused, she nodded.

“There’s a zoo with a bunch of giraffes back in the human world,” she even got to feed one of them! It was pretty fun.

Katya looked horrified at what she said, “ok, don’t know why anyone would risk that but that’s good enough knowledge.” With a spell circle, a bunch of papers, paint, and brushes fell on top of the table, “we’re gonna make a giraffe head!” Luz gasped in joy, she didn’t know how that would help her with rent but that sounded fun!

“We can make it even look decapitated! I remember the pictures of books my mamá and papá forbade me of reading,” both said something about them being too gory for her. Sure, it was gross, but it looked so cool.

“Sounds concerning but I’ll take it!”

—

From Katya’s point of view, this giraffe head looked pretty realistic, but Luz was the expert so, “how’s it looking?” It looked pretty much done to her.

The child examined it very thoroughly, “yeah! It doesn’t need any more fake blood.” Thank Titan, this was starting to look like a murder scene, good thing she brought up to put the blood after eating lunch. “Bap!” The human smacked her on the face, specifically with the hand full with fake blood. And the little shit didn’t look regretful at all, in fact, she was giggling.

“Oh, you little, get over here!” the young adult picked her up and gave the human a noogie. Which made her laugh even louder. She started to move around the living room.

Until the young adult bumped onto the couch and both fell. Katya let go of Luz, both now gasping for air from laughing so hard. The child shook her, “again, again again!” Well, look at who had way too much energy for her own good.

Titan, was she getting old?

Katya ruffled her hair, “let me take a breather first.” Thankfully, she understood. As the young adult took a few deep breaths she looked around the room. Her teacher always tried to organize the papers when one of the three had to take care of Luz. But she could still catch a couple of them from under the table. They must’ve organized the plans every night and then going to sleep on the couch. It couldn’t be good for Raine.

If only they listened to them, even Fiddlesticks was with them. But they were probably too afraid of accepting that Luz was staying with them for much longer than they initially thought. With, or without rebellion. Katya was sure that whatever they wanted to do to convince the people in the human realm to not put her in that family again, wouldn’t work out.

“Say…” she got the human’s attention, “do you enjoy living with Raine?” Her question took her aback.

The child looked away, “uuuuh, yeah, yeah I do…” she could barely hear that. “Amber also asked me a similar question,” yeah, she told her and Derwin.

Now that she thought about it, no one ever really asked about Luz’s thoughts on Raine getting a new home. That part was also pretty important, might as well ask her, “and… what are your thoughts on… moving?” Luz jumped at that.

Oh no, bad memories? Did she need to tell Amber and Derwin to stop with the plan? “Uuuh… well… when I moved into a new homes with my parents it was to find a better hospital for papá…” alright, time to tell the two to maybe reconsider. “But… I remember finding it pretty fun to decorate my new room back then,” wait, so she wasn’t against the idea? “Why? Are you guys gonna move out?” Titan, if only.

Might as well put her in the plan, “we… actually wanted to convince Raine to move out.” She nodded, “but… let’s say they’re a bit… hard headed when it comes to some stuff so we’re having a hard time with that.” Even with their palisman trying to convince them, the bard still refused to even listen to them.

Even though Luz looked a bit confused, it looked like she understood the gist of it, “but why? Aren’t they fine living here?” Oh boy time for a long explanation.

She rubbed the back of her neck, “well, they say that but, we don’t really think sleeping on a couch is exactly healthy, we just want them to find somewhere maybe bigger for you two and also maybe a place where you don’t have to worry about nosy neighbours.” She didn’t know when their luck would run out and someone asked why was Raine with a child in a one bedroom apartment. When they could pretty much get a house big enough for both of them.

However, instead of being convinced, she looked extremely guilty, “maybe I should give them back their bed… I’ve been taking so much stuff from them…” NOPE, nope, nope, nope, this wasn’t the route she wanted!

Katya sat up and looked at Luz directly in the eye, “hey, no, none of that,” the child wasn’t convinced. “Raine did that because they wanted what’s best for you in this situation, before they didn’t have the best sleep schedule, this is just so they’d take care better of themself ok? Nothing about you feeling guilty about anything,” finally, the human relaxed.

Suddenly, a plan started to form in her mind, all thanks to her teacher’s idea of using Luz as a little adorable weapon. “Wanna help us with that?” The human looked surprised, maybe a little bribe, “me, Amber and Derwin will get you spookies,” Raine told them the brand they got. Would be pretty easy to find, though maybe a bit pricey.

The child nodded, “what can I do?” She grabbed one piece of paper and wrote down a few messages.

Those sounded good enough, “need you to follow this instructions and then tell them those things.” She pointed at the bottom at the bottom of the paper. Luz read it a couple of times, “got it?” The child nodded, “great, now, onto how we can get rid of this fake blood.” It was going to be a pain to get rid of that was for sure.

“Uuuuh, water and soap?” She pointed at the bottle of soap right next to the kitchen sink. Yeah, that was a good place to start with.

…

Ok, Katya might have underestimated how much this fake blood would stain. Also how messy a child could be, “how in Titan’s name did you get this behind your ears!?” Luz face was full of soap now, “and I’m not even gonna question the scalp,” the only response she got was a bunch of giggles.

This is gonna be complicated to rinse off.

Her eyes went to the sink.

Unless…

Once the kitchen sink was filled up, she grabbed the child by her ankles, “ready to submerge?” Luz gave her a thumbs up and took a deep breath. Katya dipped her head under the water.

Then the door opened, “hey, I’m ba-” Raine entered the apartment. They paused staring at the giraffe head the two made before, “what in Ti-” then they saw her.

“Hey teach! How was work?” For some reason they just stood completely still, even Fiddlesticks completely stopped in his tracks. “What’s up?” Suddenly Luz’s arms started to flail, “oh right!” Katya took her out of the water.

“¡Que no tengo branquias!” She had no idea what she just said, “did the blood come off?” Katya let go of one of her ankles and gave her a thumbs up. Then Luz noticed Raine was back, “hi ni-Raine! Do you like what we did?” The human pointed at the giraffe’s head.

“WHERE IN THIS REALM DID YOU FIND A GIRAFFE?!” Was their only response.

“That means it works!” The young adult and the child looked at each other excitedly.

“Yay!” As Luz cheered, Raine and even Fiddlesticks looked incredibly confused at what was happening.

—

Luanne knew raising the rents on those suckers was a good idea. It wasn’t like her renters would be able to find some other place without taking a while. The witch was going to swim in snails!

Before she could enjoy how many snails she earned, someone knocked at the door. Must be one of her renters to complain again, “I told you, this raise is final and you won’t change my mind.” She opened the door and yeah, it was one of her renters.

She was covered in blood.

And worst of all, she had a giraffe head in her hands.

Where did she get that?

“Hey there Luanne, I was doing some… stuff this morning,” she patted the head of the giraffe. “And I just wanted to talk about my rent,” this witch then shoved the head to her face. She fell back to avoid getting it even close to her.

“I-I… no…” she couldn’t even utter the words out of her mouth.

The renter smiled, “oh, I guess you’re at a loss of words, no problem.” She took back the head, “we can have a talk tomorrow, byeeeeee!” She closed the door harshly.

—

It was already Luz’s bedtime, aside from the… situation earlier today. Everything today went smoothly, they even taught her some history of the Boiling Isles to the human after Katya left. But it looked like getting her to bed was going to be more complicated.

Because for some reason, she wouldn’t leave the couch, “Luz.” She looked up at them, as if she didn’t know what she was doing. “It’s time to go to sleep,” even with that reminded, the child didn’t move.

“I know! I’m gonna sleep here tonight!” No, no she wasn’t, she was going to sleep on the bed and that was final.

They were a teacher of people that already joined the bard coven, convincing a child shouldn’t be that complicated, “no, Luz, sleeping on the couch isn’t good for you.” She was eight years old, she was going to sleep on the bed.

“But don’t you sleep on the couch everyday?” Why didn’t they like where this was going?

For now they’d just try to convince her, they weren’t just going to drag her to the bed, “that’s different, I’m an adult, and you might get hurt.” Titan knew the bard wouldn’t forgive themself if she fell from the couch and broke something. Or even worse, better to not think of the possibilities.

Luz then looked down, staying quiet for a few seconds, what was she staring at? “But I wanna try since you do it?” Wait, was this because of them? Were they a bad influence? But she never argued with them on this before. There was definitely something going on.

The bard sighed, “it’s better if you don’t, you might sleep worse.” She needed a good night’s sleep, that was something they knew was important for children.

And again, the human looked down, “is that why you’re always so sleep deprived?” What in the? Ok something was going on. Who taught her that? The adult noticed a piece of paper stick out of the blanket Luz was covering herself with. They quickly grabbed it and read what was inside… it was a step by step instruction onto convincing them to move out.

Were their students seriously going to bring Luz into this? “Katya promised me they’d get me spookies…” of course she would. “Also… I wanted for you to feel better…” they sighed, if this continued, things would get out of hand.

Raine put a hand on her head, “I’m happy you worry, but it should be the opposite, ok?” She hesitated a bit but nodded, “now, let’s go to bed, ok?” But she didn’t move, “Luz?”

“I… kind of wanna try now,” this had to be a joke.

“Luz…” the human looked determined, “bed, now.” Fortunately, this time she did listen to them and went to the bedroom, they’d tuck her in later. First, the bard needed to deal with some students trying to meddle with their life.

Me: Really?

Kat🦇: FUCK

Am🦇: dang, it was so close

Der🦇: told you they’d see through her

Am🦇: but who can say no to Luz’s little face?

Der🦇: she’s eight

Me: Why are you using Luz as a way to convince me to move out?

Kat🦇: you gave me the idea

Kat🦇: you mentioned about using Luz as a cute weapon

Me: I told you NOT TO!

Kat🦇: details

The bard groan, there wasn’t a single bit of shame in any of them. Why were they surprised by any of this? Raine should’ve expected this would’ve come sooner rather than later.

Fiddlesticks then smacked their cheek, of course, after tucking Luz in they were in for a night with their palisman trying to convince them. “None of you are going to stop, aren’t you?” The bard didn’t know why they even asked. The answer was pretty obvious.

And pretty much confirming their suspicions, he nodded, ‘you literally taught them to be determined for their goals.’ Yeah… yeah they did. ‘Also, friendly reminder that Eda taught me many, many things,’ yeah… she did… Raine remembered her smile whenever either palisman managed to successfully pick any lock or pickpocket some random witch.

The bard sighed, there was just one way to end this, and they knew it. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to talk to a lot of people for this.

Me: If I do this, promise me you’ll leave me alone on this topic.

Kat🦇: YES

Am🦇: about damn time

Der🦇: took you some time, but we’re glad you finally gave in

They weren’t even going to bother answering them. Raine would have to brace themself for a probably headache inducing house searching. One without neighbours preferably, aside from them not wanting to talk to people. Also for Luz, to mostly avoid any prying eyes and for anyone to find the child was a human.

But first, they needed to tuck their daughter into bed.

Chapter Text

Luz stared inside of the oven, she didn’t want to assume things, but the child wasn’t sure if this was how Boiling Isles cooking worked. Her ni- Raine would cook in front of her and from what she saw, aside from the… less tasty-looking ingredients, the cooking was pretty similar from back in her realm. Though she could be wrong and have some exceptions.

Katya, Amber and Derwin were… unavailable right now, so her only option was to call the adult. The human hesitated a bit, but they did tell her to call her in case she needed them.

So, in the end, Luz gathered enough courage and called the most responsible adult she knew. No offence to the others, but Raine never burnt water. She didn’t even know that was possible. Either way, the child called the crow number on the fridge.

Someone answered immediately, “what happened? Is Luz ok? Oh Titan, did she eat some of the raw dough? I knew I shouldn’t have allowed Fi-” “Raine? It’s me Luz,” she heard a sigh of relief from the other side.

“Oh thank Titan, is everything ok?” Well, she was, though she wasn’t sure about the thing that was in the oven.

Luz nodded even though they couldn’t see her, “yeah, I just had a question.” And this was kind of important for her to know. All of them were always concerned for anything she ate, so it had to be for the better.

“Sure, what do you want to know?” She stared at the oven.

“Are spookies supposed to boil?” When the human told Raine about Katya’s promise on the three getting her spookies. They wanted them to keep up with the promise as soon as possible. Though apparently, the brand the adult usually got her changed its recipe and now it had stuff she couldn’t eat. So, they went with the second best option, baking them from scratch, they got the three a recipe and ingredients to bake them. “I don’t know how baking works in this world so I just wanted to know,” also all the spookies merged together to create one big glob of dough.

A few seconds of silence, did she lose connection? Was that how crows worked? “Raine?” The child was sure she didn’t hang up accidentally.

“How?!” Oh, that tone told her this wasn’t exactly normal, “I gave them everything so they wouldn’t mess up.” Well, sometimes people messed up even with instructions. “Also, where are the three?” Luz looked up and saw them on the couch, groaning in pain.

“They tried the dough and now they have stomach aches,” the human tried to eat the dough. But with three people guarding it was pretty much an impossible task. But she was still curious about how it tasted. The child went back to the oven, to stare at the now recognized, not spookie, “it looks like soup, is spookie soup a thing?” Would be a pretty cool thing.

The oven was really hot, so she couldn’t just try it, Luz tried to reach the bowl, “don’t try to eat the dough, you’ll end up sick.” Farts! Was Raine secretly here? But she looked around and they weren’t there. “Also, please don’t try the spookie,” dang, but fair.

She groaned, “ok…” She went back to look at the soup, there was something new in there, “Raine?”

“Yes?” Luz took a closer look at it, and yeah, it confirmed her suspicions.

“The soup’s on fire,” how do you turn an oven off? Her parents never taught her how to do it. She could hear some footsteps behind her, “it’s starting to expand, the middle is completely black and-” “alright kiddo, that’s enough information for Raine.” Katya picked her up and took the crow away from her hands.

“The place better not be on fire when I get back,” she could still hear them. “I already gave into finding a new house, you don’t need anything else to motivate me,” right, they practically started the day after. On the crystal ball there were a couple of houses that were on sale. But the adult still hadn’t decided on where to move out.

The young adult let out a nervous laugh and managed to turn the oven off, “don’t worry, everything will be fine.” She hung up and looked at her, “snitch,” Luz stuck out her tongue.

Amber and Derwin then joined them, the three tried to get the spookie out. It was pretty much inedible. While the middle part was burnt, the rest was still pretty much soup. The child tried to give it a taste, but they stopped her. “I’ll give you twenty snails if you two try it,” the teen dared the two young adults. However, neither of them did it and it was just thrown in the trash can.

Luz was a bit sad, she wanted to at least try something. It had been so long since she last baked with her family.

The child stopped in her tracks.

Family?

Sure, the human enjoyed spending time with them, but that couldn’t mean they were her family. They were just doing this to help her, this wasn’t going to last forever, how many times did she have to hammer that into her mind? This wasn’t permanent, once she was back in the human realm and her nini helped her, they would stay in her world and live her normal life.

RAINE, once Raine helped her.

All of these slip-ups… she was starting to get really frustrated with them. At least no one heard her say that out loud. The human would have to fix that before it could happen.

Though that also made her consider something else, how should she see all of them? Caretakers? Sure, they took care of her but that didn’t feel right. What about friends? That one… sounded better but there was just something in it that didn’t exactly fit.

“So, now that our plan was… burnt to the ground,” the human got out of her mind with Katya’s words. She noticed that the three witches were looking at her, “anything in mind kiddo?”

Right, they wouldn’t just stand still in the living room until Raine got back. Hey! She didn’t have a slip-up this time! That was an improvement, though right now, something to do, what could she do with the three of them together? “Draw?” It was an idea, after saying it Katya summoned a bunch of stuff the four could use.

Once the adult arrived home, they came back with more ingredients. After Raine’s students left while complaining about not getting any spookies the two made them together. Well, the three with Fiddlesticks. However she wasn’t sure if it actually counted since they would only try to sneak and eat some of the dough. He’d get noticed almost immediately and the witch would move the fox away from the counter much to the palisman’s dismay.

This… brought some memories… good ones…

It reminded her of her parents…

—

Derwin wasn’t sure what to say. Luz looked like she was really focused on something, and it wasn’t the book they were reading.

By this point she’d been staring at the same page for ten minutes, maybe it was a good idea to ask her what was wrong. He gently nudged her shoulder, “Lu-” “THE HECTACIOUS PERIOD!” The child jumped, and one of the workers in the library glared at them. Fortunately he then went of with his work.

After the scream, Luz covered her mouth and both looked at each other. It was a few awkward seconds. Finally, the child uncovered her mouth, “sorry… was thinking about stuff…” Derwin raised an eyebrow.

It sounded important, he should ask about it, “what kind of stuff?” The human looked unsure on answering, “you don’t have to say it right now if you don’t want.” Maybe she’d be more comfortable in telling Raine about it. Both were pretty much inseparable by now, and even though his teached denied it, they pretty much saw the child as their daughter. If only the adult would accept it instead of trying to deny it. The young adult was sure that even Fiddlesticks agreed with him Amber and Katya by now.

She looked around, as if someone was listening to them. For now there wasn’t any risk of being followed, but once they did more with the BATTs, things would be more dangerous. And that would put the human in danger, the rebellion was the main reason his teacher didn’t want to keep Luz with them. He could see that point of view, but the human practically had nowhere else to go.

“Just…” the bard gave his full attention to the human, “about my family…” oh… This could be bad, maybe they should go back to his teacher’s apartment. But… she didn’t look exactly sad.

Against his better judgement, he tried to get more information, “is it… about your parents?” Luz had been telling multiple things about them from time to time. The human clearly loved them and she missed them a lot.

Much to his surprise, the child shrugged, “kind of? I’m not really sure…” what did that mean? If she wasn’t thinking about her parents then who? It couldn’t be her extended family or her foster family. The last thing the human wanted was to think about them, or even get closer to them. “I know Raine will help me with not going back to my foster family but…” she took a deep breath, “even if I go back to the human realm, I still want to see you.” Derwin nodded along what she said.

This wasn’t exactly the most surprising thing, all of them had gotten pretty attached to the child. Of course the four of them would want to have a way to see each other even if Luz returned to the human realm permanently because Raine was too much in denial. Also, to make sure the human was completely fine and had a way to come back to them in case things went wrong.

“Well, once we find a way for you to access the human realm, we’ll make sure you are able to visit us whenever you want,” none of them would be too willing to find a way to get her back without being able to see her anyway. “You don’t have to worry about that, not like Raine would let you get hurt again,” the could deny all they wanted that they weren’t to keep Luz. But his teacher was the most attached to the human out of all of them.

Now, if only they could just accept it.

The human smiled, but her expression turned serious quickly, “what should I call you guys?” What? That was a weird question.

“What do you mean?” The witch was a bit confused.

Luz averted her eyes and tried to focus on the table, “well… I just… thought about some stuff and…” she took a deep breath, as if she was preparing herself for something bad. “Are you guys my friends?” Oh… that was not something he expected her to ask.

Guess she could consider it that? And whatever made Luz happier, “is that what you want?” The human looked unsure, “Luz?” There was something else.

“Well…” the human started playing with her hair. Thankfully she was wearing the concealment stone, so it wouldn’t matter if her ears were visible. “So, you know I told you about my family, but it wasn’t all about my parents…” now it was going in the way he thought. “Just like… you guys made me feel so… welcomed and it kind of reminded me of my parents back home…” Luz then looked directly at Derwin, “is it bad to consider you guys family?”

Alright, the child just gave her a big question, he needed to think this thoroughly, Titan, he would have expected for Raine to face this, not him. But she probably had some encountered feelings with them. For now, giving Luz some comfort, “I don’t really think it’s bad…” great way to start.

However, she didn’t seem too convinced, “but… when I get back to the human realm then we’ll…” She took a shaky breath, “not be together anymore…” Derwin almost couldn’t hear her.

“Luz…” the bard called for her attention. And while hesitant, she looked up at him, “even if we, for whatever reason, have to be separated.” Not like they’d be since his teacher was probably going to keep her with how things were going, “we’d still care about each other.” They were practically a family once they formed the BATTs Raine cared so much about each of them. Even though they tried to deny that they were parental. The adult definitely was, “and hey, if it helps, we already think you are a part of our family.” He could swear her eyes brightened at that, “whatever you want to call us, we’ll still care about you, ok?” Those… were the right words, right?

Derwin got reassured almost immediately when Luz jumped to hug him, “THANK YOU!” He returned the hug, however, the moment got interrupted quickly by one of the library workers asking them to leave.

Well, it didn’t really matter that much, since after that, the human looked really happy.

Yeah, Raine was definitely going to keep her.

—

It was another morning and Luz would NOT think about the topic of family. Not at all, what Derwin told her made her extremely happy. But that didn’t mean she’d just stay with them forever in the demon realm. Yup, it was better to not overthink this.

Besides, the thing she should focus more on was that today she was going to see Willow again! From what her nini told her… from what RAINE told her.

The child left the room, it was still a bit early to leave, but the adult must be awake by now. Her suspicions were confirmed when she looked over the couch, they were looking at different papers of houses. Meanwhile Fiddlesticks was laying on their shoulders. “MORNING RAINE!” The witch jumped in surprise while the palisman fell off the couch.

“Luz!” They let out a sigh of relief, “Titan you scared me.” They ruffled her hair, “did you sleep well?” She nodded in response.

However the peaceful moment didn’t last long when Fiddlesticks jumped onto her face, ‘that scared me!’ He just lightly smacked her face, the human started to laugh, it tickled. Then they immediately climbed on top of her head, ‘you’re my bed now.’ Then the fox pretty much curled up and started to sleep.

Her ni- Raine chuckled at the sight, “well he never liked being waken up.” They tried to scratch the fox’s ears but they whined at the contact.

Luz sat next to them, being careful so Fiddlesticks wouldn’t fall, “did you find a new home?” Her mamá was much faster in finding a new home. Though she was mostly focused on being close to the hospital. At least it wasn’t too far from the veterinary clinic… hopefully they were alright without her. She enjoyed seeing the little animals.

In contrast the witch felt more… picky? Maybe? Choosing a new home must be complicated.

They sighed, “maybe… at least I have three in mind but… I’m not really sure…” She glanced at the images they got, all of them looked pretty far away from other people. “There’s one closer to Hexide but…” they muttered. Wait, Hexide? Like the school Willow went to?

“Why’s that important?” It wasn’t like she went to any school. That shouldn’t be an important part on which home to choose.

Raine looked surprised, “just… wanting to keep options open.” Oh right, the adult was a teacher, or ex-teacher, she wasn’t really sure what they did in their coven. But it sometimes sounded as if they didn’t particularly enjoy it. Did they want to become a teacher again?

Better to not think too much about it, “ok!” The child remembered about the plans of today, “when do we have to leave to see Willow?” She was so excited to see her friend again and have fun in the slayground. Maybe the witch could even show her what they taught her in school, and the spells she was learning!

The adult chuckled at her enthusiasm, “it’s still a bit early, and you need to eat breakfast first.” Right, food! Luz almost forgot she was a bit hungry.

‘Speaking of food!’ Fiddlesticks suddenly woke up and jumped to the table, ‘can I have something special?’ Special? Did they mean the treats the witch had to hide and lock on top of the closet and the adult asked her to not tell the palisman? ‘I feel like coffee!’ Could palismans eat coffee?

After that request the human looked at Raine and their face was something she could only describe as someone who already knew the horrors of what could happen if Fiddlesticks took some coffee. “No,” the fox seemed pretty ready to protest, “no, I know what will happen and I am not going to repeat that day.” What in the world happened for them to react like that?

The palisman wasn’t surprised, and then turned towards her, ‘Lu-’ “whatever happens, don’t give Fiddlesticks coffee.” For some reason, Luz was going to trust the adult on this one.

“Uuuuuh, sure,” while the fox grumbled, her nini let out a sigh of relief.

Before she could question what she called them, a bunch of scrolls dropped right on top of the table. Effectively burying Fiddlesticks, ‘WHAT THE HECK?!’ Raine and Luz looked at each other confused.

A note landed on top of the scrolls, the adult moved her so she was behind them and opened it.

“This has to be some kind of joke,” Luz was confused. She tried her best to read her note, it said something about how they needed to approve the budget of the different concerts happening soon and that they needed to do it now. Wait, this made the child realise something, this probably meant that they wouldn’t be able to see her friend. But the child really wanted to.

“Ni…” Luz stopped herself before she made a big mistake, “Raine?” The adult looked down at her, “does that mean I’m not seeing Willow today?” She didn’t really know the way to the slayground after all.

They looked at the note, “I…” She tried her best to not appear disappointed but she was. Until they grabbed the crow, “let me ask my students if they can take you alright?” The child smiled widely as they started calling them.

In the end the three were going to join her, when the door opened the child ran to hug them, “aw, we missed you too.” Katya picked her up, Derwin ruffled her hair and Amber pinched her cheeks.

Raine ran outside, “wait, you’re forgetting your earring!” Oh right, how could she forget? They helped her put it on her ear and then looked back at the other witches, “I already warned Willow’s parents that you’d be taking care of Luz, you know the way, right?” They nodded and her nini looked down towards her, “have fun with your friend.” The adult smiled at her.

As Katya put her on the floor again, the human returned it, “I will! Bye nini!” The words slipped out of her mouth without thinking about it.

She… called them nini…

Out loud.

Chapter Text

Luz was in a lot of trouble.

She just called Raine nini, not only in front of other people, but particularly in front of Katya, Amber, Derwin and specially, Raine.

Well, maybe no one understood her, she would sometimes speak a bit too fast for many people to be able to understand her. The child would conveniently forget how the adult could pretty much comprehend everything she said. No matter how fast she went.

However, the gasps of everyone around her proved her otherwise.

She needed to get out of this situation, “whoops! I don’t know where that came from!” Luz let out a nervous laugh, “anyway! Bye Raine! Hope you can finish all your work stuff soon!” The child closed the door quickly and slowly turned around to look at the other witches. They were giving her blank stares and their eyes were wide open.

All of this attention, she didn’t like this.

“L-let’s just go, I don’t want to make Willow wait,” the human started to walk away. Fortunately, Katya, Amber and Derwin didn’t say anything and just followed her.

—

Luz was quiet.

Way too quiet for comfort.

By this point, the child would tell them how excited she was to see her friend, maybe some ideas of what they could play in the slayground. Just say anything.

But, Katya knew why she wasn’t saying a thing, and when she looked at Amber and Derwin, it was clear that both also were aware. The older witch suddenly created a spell circle, “this way she won’t hear us.” He was right, she was just walking while holding her hand, not reacting at all, “so, we need to discuss what just happened,” oh Titan they needed to.

The younger witch raised her hand, “I think we should just start annoying them into actually taking care of Luz permanently.” She wasn’t sure that would work this time, one thing was moving out, but a whole other thing was convincing them into actually being a parent.

She shrugged, “I think maybe we should try something different…” the bard looked at Luz, still unaware of their conversation. “We also need to know what she truly wants,” sure, the human didn’t want to go back, at least to her foster parents. But what if she didn’t want to stay with Raine?

“Really?” Amber questioned, “come on, at this point it’s obvious!” Alright fine, she’d give it to her, it was. But Luz was still processing her parents dying. Katya might know a lot about how children grieve, but losing parents must be a lot and the human didn’t have a lot of time to do that thanks to the treatment of her foster parents. Titan, if the young adult ever got her hands on them, she’d make sure to make them regret every single thing they did to her.

Derwin raised his hand, “either way we should ask Luz about this,” yeah, it would be a life changing thing to her. “We just need to know how,” now that was the main problem.

The younger witch intervened, “one thing for sure, we need to ask her before we take her back to teach.”

While it might sound fine, Katya was still doubtful about that idea, “wouldn’t it be too soon?” The child literal first reaction to calling Raine ‘nini’ was to close the door right on their face, and then not talk about it.

“Are you kidding?!” Amber exclaimed, “more like this is taking way too long!” She then pointed at Luz, “if things go on like this, she’ll somehow find a portal to the homan realm before either of them decide to talk about becoming a family!” Ok fine, she had a point on that. “I’m tired of this back and forth, we need this solved now!” If only it was that easy.

The young adult jumped when something tugged on her sleeve, “guys?” For how long had Luz been looking at them? “What are you talking about? I couldn’t hear you,” probably for a while.

They looked at each other, none of them could come up with an excuse.

“Just…” Derwin was the first to speak up, “boring, grown up stuff,” Amber then rolled her eyes. Katya elbowed her, now it wasn’t the time to ask her the family question. The human had a friend she was going to hang out with.

However, the child stared at them. Why did she have a feeling she didn’t believe his words? Curse this little smart child, “mind if I ask you something?” Luz looked at them, the three looked at each other confused but then shook their heads. “I wanted to know about-” “LUZ! YOU’RE HERE!” A witchlet called for her. That must be Willow.

A child with glasses kept waving at her, the human hesitated a bit, and looked back at them, “go, we can talk later about whatever you want,” Katya encouraged her. The human nodded and went with her friend.

As both kids started playing in the slayground, the witchlet’s dads approached them, “you must be Raine’s students.”

Derwin was the first one to speak, “yeah, I’m Derwin, this is Katya and Amber.” Both witches waved that them, “sorry about this change, Raine’s job sometimes makes them… have to do some extra work.” Sometimes that extra work also meant to look for something for the BATTs but they didn’t need to know that.

The witch with glasses nodded, “that’s alright, we’re just glad Willow finally found a friend.” If she was honest, Katya was also glad Luz found a new friend. It didn’t sound like she had friends back in her world.

—

Luz just didn’t get why all of this was so complicated. The human never had any difficulties calling her mamá and papá her parents. So, why couldn’t she just find an actual answer with Raine?

Maybe it was because she still missed her parents? Would she miss them for the rest of her life? Probably, there was no way anyone could change her parents. Though that made her a bit sad to think about, since she’d never be able to see them again. At the very least she’d wish she could visit their graves, at least once.

The child passed the ball to Willow. The witch had parents, and she looked really happy with having them as a family. Would the witch know more about how she knew when someone was her parent?

Luz was holding the ball as she looked at Amber, Katya and Derwin, who were looking at her while talking to the her friend’s dads. The adult waved at her and she waved back, then they went back to the call, “Luz?” The human looked back to her friend, “wanna keep going?” Right, the game, “is something wrong?” The witch sat down next to her and she did the same.

“You… have two dads, right?” Both were sitting on the floor, her friend nodded, “and you consider them your dads.” She looked confused but nodded at her question, “how do you know that?”

Willow tilted her head, “how I know that my dads are… my dads?” The human nodded, “well… because… they are!” It sounded so easy, why were these questions rising up now? There weren’t any doubts with her mamá and papá. But now it felt so weird.

She still had so many questions with no clear answer, “yeah, I know, but how? Why do you see them as your parents and not… nice people that are taking care of you?” The witch was clearly confused by her question, “sorry, just… a lot of things in my head lately…” All of this, it didn’t have to be so hard, and yet her mind was making it like that.

Her friend scratched her chin, “well… it’s true they take care of me but… there’s more?” Luz listened to her, “like, when I feel sad they’re the first ones to listen to me and comfort me…” Raine did that with her. “Or when I have a nightmare and I call for them, they will run to my room and stay with me until I’m not scared anymore,” they also did that. “And… I don’t know, I just… feel safe with them, I know they’d be there for me if things get bad or they’d help me no matter what,” it also felt like that with the witch. “Guess… it’s that? Is that the right- oh my titan! I’m sorry!” What? Why was she apologizing?

Luz looked at the floor there were some drops of water, she touched her face. When did she start crying? “I…” the child tried to wipe them away with her sleeve, “it’s ok, I don’t even know why I’m crying…” she tried to laugh it off. The huuman did have a feeling she knew the reason for her tears, but she didn’t want to think about it. Instead, she hugged Willow, “thank you, you helped me a lot.”

The human felt her friend hug back, “I… don’t really get how, but I’m glad I helped.” Well, she did, and a lot.

Maybe the child did see Raine as her parent. Not too long after they started taking care of her, she’d felt safe, with her foster parents she almost forgot how it could be. Even though they weren’t like her parents, they still managed to do that.

But, how would she be able to tell them that?

Should Luz even tell them? The witch was helping her but this was until they found a way to go back to the human realm, also, they promised she wouldn’t have to see her foster parents again.

“Yeah… you did…” the human hugged her, “I’m really happy you are my first friend ever.” Sometimes she found herself not really missing the human realm, if it weren’t for her parents, she wouldn’t really want to go back. In this new world she managed to make a friend, something the human never thought she’d be capable of.

Willow returned it, “and I’m really happy I met you Luz.” This place felt more and more like home every day…

While she had fun with the witch, at some point it had to end, “see you another day!” The human said out loud as her friend was walking further away with her dads. Her friend started talking excitedly with them. That image made her happy, though somewhat jealous, Luz missed doing that with her parents.

Though the human did that with her… nini? Was it even ok to call them that?

Well, Amber, Katya and Derwin where the adult’s students and they knew them for far longer than she did. Maybe it was ok to ask them? Besides, they were also older, they’d probably have an answer.

Alright, no more avoid thinking about it. Luz tried it before and it just ended up with her being more hurt, the human felt really relieved when she told Raine about her parents. This was just like this, but with Katya, Amber and Derwin, maybe things would even turn for the better. Yeah, that was what she needed.

“Nada funcionará, a no ser que lo hagas funcionar,” that was what her mamá said.

She took a deep breath and gathered as much courage as she could, “guys?” “Luz, can we talk?” Her and Katya said at the same time. The four stayed quiet for a few seconds.

It had to be important whatever they wanted to talk about, “you first.” The human smiled.

“No, no, you first,” Derwin suggested. Luz was pretty sure that if she refused, this would be just a back and forth and she wanted to see her… nini? Soon.

There was no going back now, “I just wanted to ask about ni…” she should hold that back for the moment. “Raine…” here went nothing, “about earlier…” it was still a bit embarrassing to think about. The child called them her parent right in front of them.

“About calling them nini?” Amber asked, then Katya elbowed her.

The child looked away, “yeah… that…” Luz wasn’t wearing her hat, so she couldn’t use it to hide her face. “Uh… that wasn’t really the first time it happened…” after admitting it, the teen gasped, only for the other two witches to cover her mouth. She tilted her head in confusion.

Katya and Derwin gave her a nervous smile, “it’s fine, just messing around, don’t mind us.” He encouraged, “ack! Did you have ot lick our hands?!” The older witches were grossed out while the younger one cackled.

The three went back to look at her, guess it was time to keep explaining, “well… I keep having these… slip-ups, but this was the first time I said it in front of anyone.” Maybe, sometimes Fiddlesticks acted weird when she almost said it out loud. Kind of as if he knew what she was about to say, but the child didn’t think she said it out loud in front of them.

Or maybe just them messing with her, she couldn’t really tell.

“So…” Katya was the first one to talk, “what do you want to do with it?” Luz looked up at her surprised, “come on, there has to be a reason you told us this, so, what do you want?” What did she want?

The child lowered her head, “I… it’s just that…” the words were stuck in her throat. “I don’t want to…” no matter how hard she tried, she words wouldn’t come out. She felt being picked up.

A hand landed on her back, “you don’t want to leave them, right?” She froze for a second.

The child sniffled, “no… I don’t want to…” it was then that she noticed that there were tears running down her face.

“Then tell them!” Amber encouraged, “if you don’t tell Raine, then they’ll think you want to leave!” But she didn’t want to! And how would she tell them, she wasn’t even sure they’d even want her to stay.

The only adults who wanted to be with her were her parents. And now they were gone.

Luz sniffled, “but would nini want to?” A second later, she noticed her mistake, “I mean RAINE!” She hid her face with her hands.

“Well…” Katya said, “you’ll never know unless you talk to them.” That sounded really terrifying.

“But then…” she wasn’t sure what to say. The child was so scared of Raine telling her they didn’t want to be her parent.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” The human looked at Amber, surprised at what she said, “you’re afraid that they might tell you that no, they don’t want you, right?” Luz nodded as she wiped away her tears, though it didn’t do much since more appeared. “But Raine isn’t like that, they’re a kind witch and believe it or not, they care about you, a lot, sure, maybe their head is a bit up their aaaaaaa… forget about that last part, but anyway, just, they need some help to see for themself that you want to be with them, and they can’t figure it out if you don’t tell them, ok?” It… sounded fair, though she was still terrified.

“Also, you already talked to Raine before, about your parents,” Derwin added, and he was right. “And they were completely supportive of you and promised to help you, I’m sure they’ll be understanding,” he was right… they would…

Yeah… maybe things wouldn’t end up terribly if she talked with them. Though… “how… do I start with that topic?” The child did want to tell them, but she wasn’t sure what was the best way to introduce it.

However, the adults didn’t see a problem with that, “don’t worry kid, we got you,” all of them smiled at her. Even though she was nervous and crying a bit, it somehow felt like things would get better.

—

Raine already finished that paperwork and sent it to their coven. They also managed to narrow down the possible houses them and Luz could move it to two. Unfortunately for them, they weren’t sure which one to pick so they needed to see them in person. The bard checked multiple times and every single chore they could do was already done.

Wait what about the dishes?

No, they already did that after they made that call on the crow. Trying to forget the few times they stuttered, just that and nothing else.

It wasn’t about Luz and… no, not about that. It must have been an accident, the human had been calling them that multiple times to keep up with the image. It was just a matter of time until she got things crossed. It didn’t mean a thing.

Nothing.

Even if they didn’t hate the idea of being a parent…

Titan, what were they even thinking? Raine? A parent? Someone who was slowly climbing up the ranks of the bard coven to stop whatever plans Belos had for the wild witches? Something that could get them accused of treason and petrified at best? Becoming a parent of a human, who would be in constant danger because she didn’t have magic? There was no way in this realm that would happen. The adult needed to find a way for her to go back to the human realm and deal with those foster parents. But that was it, one day, she’d go back to her world, find a good family and stay in her world with a high chance of never seeing them again.

Why did they hate that last part?

This wasn’t about what they wanted, but what was best for Luz.

Raine sighed, this wasn’t going anywhere, “maybe I can reorganize the maps for raids…” Just something to get their mind off things.

Oh, who were they kidding? By this point they couldn’t find a new way to organise the maps, but they didn’t want to think about the main topic bothering them. ‘Still trying to avoid things?’ Oh, for Titan’s sake, even Fiddlesticks could see through them, ‘looks like you ran out of things.’ Unfortunately, he was right ‘ready to talk now?’

The bard sighed, “there’s nothing to talk about.” The palisman gave them an incredulous look, “she just made a little mistake, that’s all.” All of that overthinking was just their mind playing tricks on them.

Their palisman rolled his eyes, ‘this isn’t the first time she’s called you that.’ What? ‘Come on, she’s really attached to you, Titan knows you’ve been the only decent adult figure she’s gotten after her parents death,’ but that didn’t mean they would be a good parent. ‘And you’ve gotten attached too, so just accept it!’

“And what if something happens to me?” Raine argued, “she’s already lost her parents and I’m doing something more dangerous, I don’t want her to go through something similar again.” They would never forgive themself if they did that to her.

But their palisman didn’t give up, ‘do you really think that?’ The fox’s answer surprised them, ‘do you really think that you’ll fail in stopping Belos’s plans?’ The bard stopped on their tracks.

Raine couldn’t find the words, “I…” There was a knock on the door. Right, it must be time for their daughter to come back home. Hopefully she had more fun than they did.

Wait, for Luz to come home.

They left the couch to open the door, ‘this conversation isn’t over!’ The adult decided to ignore him.

One deep breath, trying to avoid thinking about before and they opened the door, “hey, did you have fun with-” why was their daughter crying? “Hey hey, are you ok?” The human sobbed, “what ha- woah!” Luz jumped towards Raine, thankfully they managed to catch her. Now she was clinging onto her, her sobs becoming stronger. The bard looked at their students for some explanation.

“Yeah… we had a little talk after she had fun with Willow…” that didn’t answer a thing, “and we think you two should really talk about stuff, tell us how it goes later.” Then the three closed the door right in front of their face.

What in Titan’s name happened?

No, now it wasn’t the time to question their students decisions. They shook their head and looked at the human, “Luz?” The child whimpered and held onto them tighter. “Let’s sit down and talk, ok?” She nodded while hiding her face on their neck. The bard went to sit down on the couch.

They did mention they were going to talk, but neither of them started. The child was still whimpering, and Raine would want her to let it all out before saying anything.

Finally, her cries stop, now it was the time to say something right? “Uhm… how are you feeling?” They wanted to kick themself after that, she wasn’t ok, she had just finished crying a second ago for Titan’s sake.

Luz moved a bit further away from them, though still holding to their shirt, “better…” The human wiped away some tears and took a deep breath, “I think I can talk now…” Her hands were shaking, without thinking much about it they picked her up again and held her close. The child then returned the hug and whimpered a bit more.

“It’s alright, you can take your time, we have all the time,” they comforted. Which seemed to work since they felt her relax a bit.

“Ok, ok, I think I can now,” the child let go of their shirt. “I called you nini earlier…” Raine nodded, “just… I kept having these slip-ups, even before, but no one heard me and I tried to stop, but it just kept becoming more and more often until well… that happened.” They didn’t say anything, but the bard did notice Fiddlesticks nodding, did he know this whole time? Of course they did, though Raine wasn’t surprised. “Sorry…” her voice could barely be heard.

The adult put a hand on her back, “you don’t need to apologize,” Luz looked at them surprised. “This is nothing you have to say sorry for,” she nodded and let out a sigh of relief. As if there was a weight off her shoulders.

Then Luz tried to avoid looking at them, “there’s another thing…” Raine stayed quiet, “I…” tears started to reappear on her face, “I really don’t want to leave…” much to their frustration, words weren’t able to come out of their mouth after the child told them that. “You’ve been taking care of me all this time, and you were always there ever since I got here, I didn’t feel safe after my parents died until you started taking care of me and… I’m sorry…” she began to wail and sob, clinging to them and soaking their shirts with tears.

The bard held her close, finally the words coming to them, “hey, it’s ok, I told you before that there’s no need to be sorry, not from before and not from now.” It didn’t do anything to calm her down.

Fiddlesticks glared at them, ‘tell her! For Titan’s sake!” The human didn’t hear them.

The adult looked at the child in their arms.

This was already decided a long time ago, wasn’t it?

“Luz…” one deep breath, “can you look at me for a second?” The human paused and hesitantly looked up, her eyes still full of tears. “Are you sure of what you said?” She looked confused, “about staying here,” while the human seemed surprised but nodded.

They were really doing this, “if there’s some way to see the human realm again, we will find it, but, if you really want to you can stay and…” this felt unreal, “be a family.” Her eyes widened, “is that alright with you?”

She started to cry more, oh no, what did they do wrong? But their doubts quickly dissipated when she jumped to hug them again, “can I call you nini all the time now?” Raine tried to hold back the tears as they held their daughter close to them. At some point Fiddlesticks joined the two by nuzzling the human’s cheek.

“Of course.”

Chapter Text

The real estate agent opened the door, “you will see Mx. Whispers, you will love this house, it’s perfect family home for you and your daughter.” Said daughter was holding their hand, curiously looking around the new place.

Raine let out an awkward laugh, “yeah, yeah, can you please show me the different rooms?” The three entered the house, it was on the outsides of Bonesborough, without any people around. So that meant no neighbours they’d have to deal with and most importantly, no one who’d be able to notice that their daughter was actually human.

The kitchen and living room looked fine, overall functional, the furniture would fit in this house. Maybe it’d be a bit empty, but they could deal with that later. The house also had a basement, the bard should install a security system there. Titan knew what beasts could appear in the night and they wanted their daughter to be safe. Raine would do some research on that topic some other day, for now they were already exhausted from this. And this was just the first house.

“And now for the rooms upstairs,” the witch announced, they looked at Luz, who nodded and the three climbed up the stairs.

The housing agent opened the door, “I think this room would be perfect for your daughter,” for now, it was mostly empty, though it had a built-in closet on the right. The bard would need to check on some new furniture. So many things to do, they were already tired just by thinking about it. “You know, I don’t always say this, but if I wasn’t selling it, I would think about moving here,” sure, just like the other houses she showed pictures of back when they started talking first.

Raine was going to check the homes in person whether she wanted to or not.

Their daughter… daughter, it still felt surreal, the only time they thought about being a parent was back with… No, that was in the past. Either way, their daughter started to look around curiously, “want to check this room while the agent shows me the others?” The human nodded and they let go of her hand, “go ahead.” She entered a bit hesitant but then gained more confident. Better like this, the child would be bored if she had to stay with them. If only Raine could join her, unfortunately, they were an adult.

Their daughter then grabbed some paper and a pencil to draw. She must be excited about this, “good luck nini!” The bard, much to their dismay, went back to talk with the agent.

She continued showing them rooms, what would their bedroom be, the bathroom and a study. Maybe the bard could use that one to keep some instruments, also to hide the more rebellion involved things. It would definitely be better than hiding it on top of the closet back in the apartment’s closet. Not like Luz could reach it, but she had come close a few times to seeing some stuff she shouldn’t because they were trying to reach it or were planning things in the living room.

‘This is boring!’ Fiddlesticks got out of their hiding spot. For Titan’s sake, there was someone else and by now the bard shouldn’t have their palisman.

Fortunately, the agent was still talking and not paying attention to them. Though they weren’t going to test their luck now, “ok, go with Luz, but be careful,” the bard whispered. The palisman jumped out and went to where their daughter was.

“So, what do you think? Already seeing your future here?” TITAN! She scared them. “Just a little signature and the house is yours,” oh great, peer pressure, their favourite thing in this realm.

Raine took one step back, “uhm…” Wasn’t this going too fast? “I would like to think about it more,” besides, there was another house, “not jump too quickly into things.” She kept shoving the signing papers onto their face. The bard did want for this to be over, but choosing the proper home was really important.

“Oh come on, you know this place is the best place for you and your daughter, better snatch it up before another client does,” they weren’t sure and that was the problem. The bard needed a bit more time.

The adult looked around the room to find some excuse, “well…” Come on, they were the leader of a rebellion against Belos. Some negotiation with a complete stranger shouldn’t be that nerve wracking.

Unfortunately for them, it was.

Their eyes landed on the window, oh thank Titan, they got an idea, “I… just wanted to know about… security? I don’t want any wild beast entering.” Perfect! Now Raine had some time to think.

“Of course! Now, this house doesn’t have a built-in one, but we work with a couple of companies that…” the bard immediately tuned her out. It was time for them to actually decide. This house was nice, not too far away from Bonesborough or Hexide. If Luz ever wanted to study in school she could go there by walking.

However, the bard wasn’t even sure if their daughter would be able to go there. Sure, at her age it was normal to be in the baby class, the magic on children was still developing, though most were capable of it by her age. There was also the high chance that she’d be with Willow. But what about later? Students needed to know at the very least two spells to enter higher grades. And the human had no magic.

Though at the end of the day, this was something they’d need to discuss with Luz. Probably not the best thing to think about right now.

Another distraction came to them in the shape of their palisman. One quick glance at the agent and she was too distracted to notice Fiddlesticks, so they stepped back to talk to him, “why aren’t you with Luz?” The fox literally left because they were too bored not that long ago.

‘She’s scaring me,’ the palisman answered bluntly. What? ‘She’s saying weird things, weirder than normal,’ what in the world did he see?

Well, better to look into it now because Raine just knew the question would eat them alive unless they learnt what it was. The adult cleared their throat which caught the agent’s attention. “Sorry for interrupting, but I want to check on my daughter,” Fiddlesticks hid before she could see him. Now, time to see what the human was doing that had their palisman freak out.

How bad could it be anyway? They already walked in on Luz and Katya with a realistic giraffe head and their student almost drowning the child. The bard could already feel their hair greying just by remembering that.

Raine braced themself for the worse, “Luz? Are you having fun?” They opened the door. She was just sitting on the floor, drawing.

The child smiled, “hi nini! Are you done?” Titan, they wish they were. Their daughter showed off a drawing, “I made this!” It was a drawing, it looked like a man, though there were teeth running across its body. It was a bit scary, but there were way scarier things in this realm. Besides, Luz was a fan of scarier stuff. If only they knew what a ‘lego minifigure’ was before. Those things brought shivers down their spine with those weird looking hands.

“Just a bit left…” they laid a hand on top of her head. She gave them the drawing and they picked it up, “who’s this?” They never saw a witch like that.

Much to their surprise, their daughter pointed at the closet, “the man who lives in the closet,” what? “He’s shy, he left when F-you know who…” thank Titan they told her about keeping the palisman a secret. “Appeared and now he left when you opened the door,” now they knew why Fiddlesticks was freaking out. “Look! He can even open his mouth so much, that he can lay down completely flat on the floor!” Their daughter showed them another drawing. Oh Titan, they didn’t like this, specially for the safety of their daughter.

Raine picked her up, stepping away from the closet, “what’s wrong? You don’t want to meet him?” They were actually really close to destroying this whole room.

A nervous laugh came out of the agent, “kids these days and their imagination, am I right?” Luz’s imagination was really active, but they’ve been slowly learning what came out of their daughter’s imagination and what was an actual thing.

Then they heard it.

Soft scratches, that were coming from the closet.

Their daughter gasped, “that must be him!” Before she even tried to reach it, Raine held her closer to them and got out of the room.

The sound began to get louder and louder. Until the scratches were getting really aggressive.

“Get in… we will play even more…” if it weren’t for their trained hearing, they would have missed it. And that message was more than enough to run out of the room and slam the door close. That did it, this wasn’t their new home.

“I… know a good oracle and beastkeeper you ca-” the glare they gave her immediately made the witch shut up. “I’ll just prepare everything so you can see the other home,” good.

—

The nine year old was sitting on a chair, reading Azura. She was in a store that sold security systems for homes, those existed in her world too. Though Luz had a feeling it wasn’t exactly like in the human realm. Either way her nini said it was important to have one, since the house was going to be surrounded by forests. Making it more vulnerable for beasts.

Her nini… after a few months with foster parents she thought that the idea of having a new parent would be impossible, specially so soon. But the child was really happy with them, even though she still missed her mamá and papá a lot.

But now, they were going to a new home, well, in a few weeks since moving took a while and something about having to stay until the end of the month because of some contract. It was too complicated for her to understand.

And there was no need to think about that adult stuff since Raine was in front of her, “Titan this was tiring…” They laid a hand on top of her head, “but it’s all done, how about we get home and I’ll prepare something quick?” Yes! Luz was getting a bit hungry with everything that happened today.

Well, there was no need to wait anymore. She jumped out of the chair, “I can’t wait to see the new home!” The human grabbed the adult’s hand and they guided her out of the store.

A door opened from behind them, the child wouldn’t pay it any mind, “my oh my, do my eyes deceive me?” Her nini flinched just as they were about to open the door and grimaced. “Raine Whispers, it’s been so long,” wait this person knew her nini? The adult took a deep breath and turned around, trying to smile.

Luz also looked at whoever called them, it was a lady she never saw before, she had green hair tied up in a bun, light skin and blue eyes. Where did she knew her nini from? “Hi Odalia…” oh, so that was her name, “I didn’t expect to see you here…” then they murmured something. Though she didn’t understand what they said.

Odalia chuckled, “oh well, I was just expanding business, Blight industries is doing really well after all.” Blight what? Luz never heard about those people. “Say, what are you doing here? I never thought you’d be in a place like this, having to talk to people and all…” did people usually hang out in stores that sold security systems from home? Or was this some demon realm thing that the human wasn’t used to?

“Just… getting a bit of security for the new home I’m getting since… it’s pretty outside of Bonesborough…” it was practically in a forest! Maybe Luz could find some little angels in the future.

The witch gasped, “oh, then why didn’t you say it before, in Blight industries we have the best systems to keep strangers out of your home and make sure they don’t come back.” For some reason, the human had a bad feeling about her last statement. “I heard you are climbing ranks in your coven, I’m sure you’re going to need something for security and also maybe even tell people about your experience,” she pulled out a card from her pocket. “Here, we have a demonstration pretty soon,” her nini took it.

The witch smiled, “thanks, I will think about it.” Then they put it behind their back and made it disappear. “Now, it was… something, to catch up, but we need to get home,” thank goodness this wasn’t a long adult conversation. She had to go through some of those with her parents whenever they went grocery shopping.

Odalia looked surprised, “we?” She looked directly at her, “oh my!” Wait, did she just notice her?

The witch stared at her.

Luz began to get a big uncomfortable and tried to hide behind her nini, “uhm… Odalia?” They put a hand on her head. Now she wanted to leave.

“WHAT A SURPRISE!” The raise in her voice surprised both of them, “I didn’t know you had a child.” Then Odalia looked back at her nervously, was there something she was missing, “never heard you and Eda…” Eda? Who was this ‘Eda’?

Her nini choked, “what? No, nonono, she’s adopted!” Wow, that really made them freak out. It wasn’t that bad, at least Luz didn’t think so.

Odalia’s eyes widened, “oh!” She looked back at her in silence. Could she stop doing that? It felt like she was judging her. The human then tried to hide even more behind her nini, if only they were wearing their cloak so she could fully hide in it.

Maybe just saying her name would stop the adult from doing that? “My name’s Luz,” there, a proper presentation. Now she wanted to go back home and maybe read Azura.

Unfortunately for her, and she had a feeling that also for her nini, neither of them were able to open the door to get out or no one entered the store to interrupt their conversation. “Well, isn’t she a darling!” What? The last thing she expected an adult to call her was that, “good thing she’s adopted, we wouldn’t want another one of those walking around the isles.” Her nini’s grip on her hand suddenly became painful.

One looked up and she saw an expression she rarely ever saw. Maybe the other time was when she told them about her foster parents?

Her nini was angry, really angry.

The grip was becoming a bit more painful, Luz didn’t know if she could stand it for much longer. So, the child tugged on their shirt, “nini, you’re too strong…” They looked back at her.

“Oh! Oh Titan, sorry about that,” the hold softened. “Well, it’s been a long day for us so, we’ll take our leave,” however, Odalia grabbed her nini’s shoulder to stop them.

“You know, I have a daughter just about her age, oh, I just got a great idea,” she gave her nini another card. “We should organise a playdate for our daughters, that way we can catch up for old time’s sake,” for some reason, she didn’t think her nini was thrilled about that idea. Also, Luz wasn’t sure about that, with Willow she met her in a park, but this person, she didn’t know anything about.

But surprisingly, this time the adult glanced at her put the card in their pocket, “I’ll… think about it, thanks for the offer.” Finally, they were out of the store.

Well, that lady was certainly something.

Her nini sighed, “I never thought I’d see her again.” Luz wondered where the two knew each other from. She didn’t want to miss on some good backstory.

“Are you guys friends?” The human didn’t exactly get if they got along or not. There were so many mixed reactions coming from her nini. Specially when this ‘Eda’ was mentioned. Maybe a good friend? But they never mentioned this witch before.

Her nini looked unsure at her question, “we… know each other… from back when I was studying in Hexide…” She had a feeling that was the best answer she’d get.

So, onto the other question, “am I gonna meet this lady’s daughter?” The adult looked at her surprised, “you got rid of her first card about that exhibition thing, but you kept the one with her number, why?” Luz didn’t really get it, maybe her nini did want to talk to her again.

They looked away, “well…” The adult pulled out the card, “since you don’t go to school, your chances of making friends aren’t many so… just thought maybe you’d like that oportunity.” Luz didn’t get it.

“But I already have Willow,” and she was a great friend. Every time they hung out it was really fun, she would even show her different plant spells. The witch was really good at those. Maybe, she didn’t know how to identify someone who was good at magic. But Luz had a feeling her friend was really good with those.

Her nini put a hand on their neck, “well, maybe you’ll want more friends.” More? Oh right, people usually had more than one friend, “but this is if you want to, we can just ignore the offer if you’re uncomfortable.” The child thought about it.

Having more than a friend sounded fun, and maybe this other witch could meet Willow and then be more friends. However, Odalia brought her a bad feeling, “is she going to be like Odalia?” She wasn’t comfortable if this witch would be like that adult. That comment of being glad that she wasn’t like another witch Luz didn’t know felt wrong. Specially when it made her nini very angry.

‘Titan, I hope not,’ Fiddlesticks popped out of his hiding spot. Raine pushed them back in, right, that weird rule of her nini supposedly not having a palisman. The human didn’t get why anyone would care if someone had a cute animal companion with them.

“Fiddlesticks’s comment aside…” she heard a grunt, probably from the fox. “I can’t really tell you, children can be very different or very similar to their parents,” right, the adult couldn’t know this witch.

Luz still wasn’t sure, “can I… maybe think about it more?” Besides, she was too hungry to make a decision right now.

Her nini smiled and nodded, “of course, now, what do you want to eat?” The human thought about it.

“A mountain of cupcakes with abomi-berry frosting!” They were so good!

The adult chuckled, “well, maybe one and for dessert.” Aw, but Luz would take it.

Chapter Text

Willow coughed a bit and brought the blanket closer to her. She was a bit cold, but that wouldn’t stop her from seeing what board games Luz would like. Her friend said she didn’t know many one time, and she was determined to change that.

There was connect six, she’d put on the ‘maybe’ pile. Then she looked at emporium, that game could be fun, but most of the times they could get a bit overcompetitive. It took her dad a week to fix the ceiling after she landed on her papa’s property. In her defence it had three claws and the child had to pay way too much money. She didn’t want to do that, and at that time he was in jail. Willow wasn’t going to help a criminal.

Yeah, probably leave that out for another day.

The child sniffled, ugh, her nose was really clogged up, and she felt a bit tired. But today was special, it was the day Luz and her parent were moving to a new house. Raine asked her dads if her friend could stay here for the whole day. It was also the first time she was coming to her home to visit. This was something she needed to prepare.

Once she was done with her nose being annoying. She decided to take a little break and try to find get a tissue. As the witch got up, she wanted to sit back down.

The child whined and curled in on herself, it was too cold. Willow heard the door open, “hey Willow, ready for Luz’s vi- oh TITAN!” It was her papa’s voice, “come here little leaf.” He picked her up and held her close, the child nuzzled his chest in response.

“I wanted a tissue but when I tried to get up I got too tired and it’s cold,” the adult was really warm. If she could, the child would get even closer to him.

A hand landed on her forehead, “you’re burning, probably the common mold…” the common mold? But that meant… “Gilbert! Willow’s sick, call Raine and tell them we can’t take care of Luz.” Wait, if her dads couldn’t take care of Luz then that meant…

“Luz is not visiting?” But Willow was so excited for that.

The adult shook his head, “you’re sick honey, now what you need is rest.” But she was so excited about her friend seeing her home. She was even looking at what games they could play.

She tried to move out of her papa’s hold, “oh! Look at that! I’m fine now! Dad doesn’t need to call Raine! Luz can visit us now!” However, her own body betrayed her by letting out a coughing fit, and that made the adult even more convinced on his initial decision. “Please? I was really excited about this…” who knew when this could happen again.

Her papa laid her down on the bed, “I know witchlet, but you’re not feeling ok, I’m sure there will be a next time once you’re completely healthy.” Willow whined, and tried to get out of bed. Only for her papa to put her in again, “none of that, me and dad will be paying full attention to you until you get better.” This time she stayed on the bed, the child knew nothing would stop them from making sure she rested.

Even then, she still felt a bit sad, “I really wanted to see Luz today…” every day of playing with her was so fun. She even said some strange words she didn’t understand from time to time.

It was some strange language she mentioned before. From what the witch remembred it was something called, Spinsh? Willow couldn’t remember the exact word for it.

Her papa tucked grabbed more blankets and laid them on top of her. “And you will, once you get better,” all of the blankets felt a bit heavy on her, “and that’s a promise.” She began to feel tired and the witch gave her papa her glasses. He picked them up and put it on the nightstand.

—

“I’m so sorry Raine, I know we promised but Willow’s very sick,” Raine was trying to not let their panic be known. They were already panicking on the inside, no need for their daughter to know. Because one thing they learnt these past weeks of having a child under their roof was that if they were nervous, the child could sense it and would be too.

One glance and yup, the human was staring at them, she might have even noticed. The bard would explain things later, “it’s alright, focus on taking care of her, see you.” They hung up.

Now, onto the problem of finding someone to take care of Luz on such short notice.

By now all of the things in the apartment were in boxes. All they needed to do was wait for the construction coven to arrive and move everything to the new home with the new furniture. Which was something a child couldn’t have a lot of fun with, but it was something that asked for their full attention. That was why originally their daughter was going to stay with the Parks all day. Now that plan was ruined.

Maybe their students could take on the task? No, Derwin was on the shoulder preparing for the opening of the bard museum, Katya was helping with an incident due to someone’s disastrous organ performance and Amber was preparing for her finals.

Well, surely they had some other adult friends who they could trust their daughter with.

…

Raine walked themself into that one, what a reminder that they didn’t have a social life. The perks of leading a rebellion and unexpectedly adopting a human. They would ignore the fact that they avoided talking to their coworkers as much as possible.

The adult was taken off their thoughts when they felt a tug their shirt, “nini?” Luz approached them, “am I seeing Willow today?” Right the conversation.

There was no point in pushing the topic aside, “I’m sorry, but no, her dad just told me she’s sick, she needs to rest now.” The child’s eyes widened, almost like she was afraid. Raine kneeled to be on her eye level, “hey, what’s wrong?” The bard knew she’d be at the very least a bit upset, but not like this.

Luz’s lips trembled, “i-is she going to die?” The reminder of how her dad died appeared into their mind.

They had to clear things up right this second, “no, nonono, it’s just the common mold, a few days of rest and she’ll be completely fine.” Raine would skip the part of growing mushrooms on the head. That would just make her more worried.

Or fascinated, they weren’t sure.

Either way, the explanation worked out since their daughter calmed down, “is that like the common cold?” The what? It must be one of the human diseases. Like asthma or antivaxxer.

“Uuuuh, sure?” If it took away any concern from her, then they’d go with that. Which seemed like the right choice since she completely relaxed.

Though, now for their original problem. Who would take care of their daughter? It had to be for the majority of the day, not everyone would have that much free time. Guess the only option was to take her with them. Titan, Luz was going to be bored out of her mind, even Azura wouldn’t be able to keep her entertained for that long. Maybe, would the construction coven workers be willing to listen to her?

The human tugged on their shirt again, “where am I going then?” Well, it was going to be tiring for them, but at this point there was no other option, “am I going to see that lady’s daughter?” Say what now?

Raine blinked, not knowing what she meant, “who… are you talking about?” Their daughter grabbed a piece of paper on the counter and gave it to them.

It had Odalia’s full name and her crow number.

“Remember that lady from the house security store?” The child asked them.

Oh…

OH!

They completely forgot about her, well not forget exactly, more like Raine didn’t want to remember the witch. Her comment about Eda made them really upset. Also, she practically dropped her after she was cursed, the bard didn’t want someone like her close to their daughter. Moreover, there was something about her insistence that told them to not trust her intentions.

Odalia definitely didn’t want for Luz and her daughter to get along just for the sake of it.

But also, this could be a chance for the human to make more friends her age. One day both should discuss about her going to school. The one thing holding them back from that idea was that she couldn’t do any magic. And they knew witches without magic had it really hard in school.

Though first, for the matter at hand, “well… yeah, I remember her…” Much to their dismay.

‘I wish I scratched her face,’ while that was uncalled for. The bard kind of agreed with Fiddlesticks. The comment about Eda was still vivid in their mind. Sure, they weren’t dating her anymore, but that didn’t mean the bard would accept hearing vile things about her.

Was this alright? Odalia’s daughter wasn’t Odalia, but it had been many years since they last saw each other. And from the looks of it, the witch had gotten worse over time.

“Are you… sure about this?” There was no guarantee she’d even accept this.

Luz nodded, “yeah! Maybe I’ll make a new friend!” The adult chuckled at her optimism.

While still hesitant, Raine approached the crow, “let’s see first if they are available,” time to do something they thought they’d never do.

Call Odalia Blight.

Maybe she’d reject it, some part of them hoped that was the case. Maybe the human trying to talk to the construction coven workers wouldn’t be so bad. But either way, they dialed the number in the card.

Raine explained everything to her. Please, let her reject this so then they would also have an excuse to not talk to her again, “of course she can! I’m sure our daughters will get along!” Titan fucking dammit.

—

Luz gasped at the view of the mansion, so there were rich people in the Boiling Isles. Well, Luz kind of assumed there were since her nini mentioned they went to a castle from time to time. But seeing a rich people’s home in real life was a different experience. Was there were that lady lived? She must have a lot of money then.

“I… didn’t know their business went so well…” the adult added. Some day she’d have to ask them about their mysterious past. The small mentiones just made her want more. “I wonder when was the last time Alador saw the light of day,” THAT’S what she meant. Her nini would just say those vague things and they expected her to not ask for details? No way José.

Well, there was a chance she’d get more glimpses in there, “let’s go!” But for some reason, the witch didn’t move yet, “nini?” She thought they were in a hurry for the move.

Her nini kneeled to be on her eye level, “is your earring secure?” Yeah? They checked multiple times already. Even then, she nodded. “Alright, and what do we do if the earring falls?” Oh, the child knew what they meant.

Luz grabbed the hat from her backpack, “emergency beanie!” She put it on to show it off.

The adult chuckled, “yeah, that’s right,” the child smiled. Meanwhile, her nini grabbed something from their pocket. It looked like one of their scroll things, “here, keep this with you.” She tilted her head in confusion, why would she need something like this?

Her nini noticed her confusion, “this is just in case you’re uncomfortable in the house.” They showed her how it worked, it was a bit more simplified in comparison to the ones them, Katya, Amber and Derwin had. “You can just click here and I’ll immediately come to pick you up, no matter what I’m doing,” she nodded.

However, all this preparation was a bit weird, “why all of this?” The witch wasn’t that worried when they talked to Willow’s dads about her staying with them for the day.

They were taken aback by her question, “just… want to play it safe.” Didn’t they know Odalia? That should be enough to trust her.

Surely the adult wouldn’t make her do something dangerous.

Well, Luz would ask them about it later, “ok!” She put the scroll in her backpack, “I’m ready to make a new friend!” The human always was, “and I won’t be worried about whether or not they’ll be making fun of me!” She already had some issues with other children back in the human realm. Also with them getting grossed out by the pajamas of the snakes, but they were so cool. Even though it felt as if her parents were the only people who agreed.

Would her nini also find them cool? The child hadn’t found any animal that shed their pajamas, yet.

For some reason, the adult’s eyes went pretty wide, “alright, we’ll circle back to that another day…” why? She couldn’t really ask since they stood up, “but for now, let’s go.” The witch offered a hand and Luz took it without hesitation.

‘Wait!’ Before either of them could take a single step. Fiddlesticks jumped out of their hiding spot and buried himself into her backpack, ‘I’m staying with her!’ Both were surprised by their declaration.

Her nini sighed, “Fiddlesticks, this isn’t a game or something you can pull a prank with.” They tried to get the palisman back, but he hid further.

‘I know, just in case this one over here decides to bottle things up for the sake of not bothering,’ hey! Luz was… getting better at that. ‘Also, easy access for the burner scroll,’ they put a paw on her cheek. ‘If there’s some fancy snack at your reach put it in here,’ she didn’t know if she’d be able to do that.

The adult let out a defeated sigh, “alright, no time for arguing.” The fox cheered, “but no trying to pull a prank, no matter how infuriating she is,” he rolled their eyes. Was Odalia really that bad?

—

“Oooh Amity!” Amity jumped at her mom’s call. What could she want? The witch already finished her homework and the extra work. And she couldn’t have noticed Edric and Emira sneaking into her room to play single card.

Her and her siblings looked at each other, “did you forget to do something?” The child shook her head at Edric’s question.

“Then what does mom want? You already did everything she asked from you,” Amity couldn’t really answer Emira.

She also didn’t remember doing anything bad, “Amity Blight! I’m not repeating myself! Get downstairs right now!” This was the first time the adult told her what she wanted her to do. Also, the child didn’t want to, she’d rather have fun with her siblings. But she knew her mom wouldn’t like that.

Her sister put a hand on her shoulder for comfort, “go, me and Eric will be right behind you.” That was a bit reasuring.

“Really?” Emira elbowed her brother at his complaint.

One last glare at him and her sister looked back at her, “just go…” the older witch encouraged. “None of us want an upset mom,” yeah…

Amity took a deep breath, “coming!” The child then ran downstairs. What would her mom even want right now? She was still too young to find someone from the emperor’s coven to tutor her. The adult checked, multiple times.

Her mom was waiting for her at the front of the entrance door. Were they expecting guests? But she didn’t mention any potential clients today. The exhibition would be in a few days, that was why her dad was in the basement working on whatever abomination project her mom asked him to do. The child wished she could watch him work, but he said his laboratory wasn’t a ‘place for children.’

“Ah, there you are princess,” the adult noticed her. “Just in time to receive our guests!” So there were people visiting.

But, “why do I need to be here?” Maybe it was Boscha or Skara? Amity still wasn’t used to them. The witch missed being friends with Willow. But Blights should only get along with the best of the best.

Her mom smiled, “well, remember that old friend I encountered?” The witch believed so, something about getting a chance to have another investor, “today you’re getting the chance of making a new friend!” The child didn’t really like the sound of that. She was tired of how the only witches she was allowed to be friends with to be mean or have parents her parents got along with.

Maybe she could get away, the child had gotten the best grades amongst her class, “do I… really have to?” Amity would rather spend time with her siblings. Even though they lived together it was rare to have enough time to play together.

“Oh Mittens…” the adult smiled down at her. “This witchlet is just your age, and I for sure know you two will get along,” so basically she had to do this. “And this old friend of mine is climbing up ranks in their coven, so I know this witchlet is strong, and it is important to have the strong witches on our side,” pretty much she wanted her to be friend with this witch.

Before she could properly prepare herself for this, someone knocked on the door, “that must be them.” The child was dreading this. One look back and saw her siblings, they gave her a thumbs up, cheering for her.

“Remember that we are Blights,” Amity nodded and the adult opened the door. On the other side, there was a witch with green hair, eyes with a similar colour and round glasses. There was something familiar about them. Maybe she saw them in some concert announcement? Since they had a bard coven sigil.

But nevermind them, where was the other witch?

As she was searching for the child her age, her mom smiled, “welcome to our humble little home!” Wait, there was something behind the bard, “now, where’s that daughter of yours Raine?” Was she hiding?

Raine turned their head, “Luz? Wanna get out?” So her name was Luz. That was a weird name.

A witch jumped into frame and somehow, confetti jumped out, “hi! I’m Luz! Nice to meet you!” She offered a hand, but she didn’t take it immediately, which made her look up at the adult, “are handshakes not a thing here?” She tried to whisper, but it was pretty audible.

Also, what kind of question was that?

Her mom laughed, “my, but of course they are.” The adult used her leg to nudge Amity closer to Luz.

The witch then grabbed the hand, “y-yeah, nice to meet you too.” Then the other witch began to shake her hand with a bit too much energy. Alright, Luz was definitely different to Boscha and Skara.

But then again, both just met, she could have some other similarities.

She heard Raine chuckle, “oh, by the way, here’s Luz’s food.” The adult gave her mom a big bag.

She looked confused, “you didn’t have to, we can feed Luz with no problem.” Though a whole other thing if the food tasted good. Her dad was still perfecting the abomacooker, and the stuff it made was usually incredibly bland mush. The few times her and her siblings tried it was horrible and in the end either her dad had an abomination do it or her mom summoned a ghost to do it.

“No, no, you see, Luz has a lot of dietary restrictions, and since you took her in in such short time, this was much easier,” like allergies? Amity had some classmates like that, and her brother couldn’t eat any dairy without getting sick.

Her mom’s eyes widened, oh no, she knew that look, “oh! Then I’m sure you’ll love the product we are developing! The abomacooker! It makes proper meals and you won’t need to lift a finger, and you can adjust it to your daughter’s allergies!” Yup, she saw a chance to sell something, “my husband is developing that with his team, but you can get one of the prototypes once they’re ready!” If only it worked as the adult said.

Raine stared for a few seconds, “her voice reminds me of teletienda.” A what now? What was Luz even talking about?

The bard blinked twice, “I’ll… think about it.” They looked around as if they were searching for someone, “where’s Alador by the way?” The witch knew her dad too?

Her mom didn’t seem to mind the question, “he’s in the basement developing new products, you remember him and his obsession with abominations.” Amity was pretty familiar with dad, her dad would sometimes do all-nighters to develop something in time. Since he had to reach the agreed deadline.

“Sure…” they looked down and smiled at Luz, “you ready?” Huh, they seemed to get along differently in comparison to her and her parents.

The witch smiled, “yeah!” Then the witch squeezed Raine into a hug, “I love you nini!” The bard then returned it.

“Love you too Luz,” they finally let her go, “well… thank you for the help, I’ll pick her up as soon as I can.” And with that, they left. Now it was just her, the witch she just met and her mom.

Though that wouldn’t last long, “well, now I’m sure Amity is fully capable of showing you around Luz, isn’t that right?” Even though she asked, it didn’t feel like her mom was giving her much of a choice over this. Specially when she left without waiting for her answer.

Finally, it was only her and the witch Amity was supposed to befriend.

Her siblings were also there, but mostly to see what would happen. And also intervene if something went horribly wrong.

Luz was staring at her, was she looking for weaknesses? Her mom always told her to be careful with people she didn’t know since they might look for something to exploit later. Amity should be wary for the time being, “guess you can follow me, I’ll show you my room.” The witch nodded excitedly and followed her.

Yeah, she got this, she was a Blight after all.

Chapter Text

Well, after a few minutes of sitting still in Amity’s room, there was something Luz could easily say.

This was completely different to when she first met Willow.

Not like the witch was mean or anything, it was just more… awkward? With Willow things went so easily, she would show her what she could do with magic. Both would play with the grudgby ball, the human even taught her thumb wrestling, she was fascinated with it. Must be something that only existed in the human realm.

Should she try her trick with her eyelids? Her nini wasn’t here to tell her she could hurt her eyes, but usually people were more grossed out than fascinated by it.

Another thing that was making this a bit more awkward was that Amity wasn’t looking at her. Maybe avoiding her? Did she do something wrong? Was her introduction with confetti too much for her? The human already messed up a chance of making a friend.

No, she shouldn’t think of it like that. Alright, first step, what did Luz do with Willow for both to become friends? The witch failed a spell and the child almost fell onto the ground. Yeah, that might not work with Amity. How about with Hecate and Azura? Well, both started as enemies, they had a couple of witches duels, Azura saved Hecate from mortal danger then Hecate protected Azura so she could banish the wizard of void to the empty realm.

That probably was not the most viable option in this case. Her nini wouldn’t be happy if she ended up in mortal danger.

“So,” Luz immediately put her whole attention towards Amity. She was the one to speak up first, “which school do you go to? I’ve never seen you at Hexide.” Oh, right, school, wait, was homeschooling a thing in the demon realm? Her nini did it with her and their students, but were there other people like her?

It wasn’t like she could lie about that, “I… don’t go to any…” the human wasn’t even sure if she’d want to go again any time soon. “My nini teaches me stuff,” that was pretty fun.

Amity looked shocked at that, “oh! Guess… that makes sense…” she’d take that as a more or less good thing. “So that means you’re going to study bard magic?” What? Luz looked at her confused, “you know, since your parent is a bard, they could only really teach you that.” She… never thought about it. Sure, her nini could only do bard magic, she enjoyed listening them practice in the night, but meanwhile, Luz wasn’t capable of doing any kind of magic.

Also, the child didn’t really like the idea of being stuck with one type of magic. Bard magic was pretty cool, but from what her family showed her, also abomination, plant, construction, potion, beastkeeping and so much more. How could anyone think she could only choose one?

But also, Derwin mentioned that thought wasn’t… really appreciated, so she’d keep it to herself, “I… guess? I don’t know, I’m not sure which one to pick, or if I can even pick one,” since she didn’t have magic and all that. She let out an awkward laugh.

Amity stared at her, “well, you better begin to choose, because in a few years, in our school we will have to choose tracks.” Wow, that sounded as if it was too quick. Luz wouldn’t be capable of choosing something like that so early.

Though the witch looked so sure of herself, “do you know which one you’ll pick?”

The witch looked confused, “I’m picking abomination of course.” Wow, her nini mentioned that one’s complicated, “I am already learning the basics of it.” That sounded so cool.

“Are you some kind of genius?” Since it sounded like she was learning advanced stuff.

Her face turned red, “no, I’m not, I just study a lot to become the top witch in my class.” That sounded amazing, Amity must work really hard, “you can see it in the books over there, I studied all of them.” She pointed at a bookshelf, full of books that sounded pretty complicated.

As cool as all of the textbooks sounded, there were two that caught her particular attention, “do you… mind if I check them?” While confused, the witch agreed. So, Luz took a look at the shelf, the spine was definitely the same, now the only thing left was to check if this was some kind of funny coincidence. The child grabbed one of them.

“W-wait, those two aren’t,” she pulled one of them out and checked the cover.

It was the first volume of the good witch Azura, so the one next to it had to be the second one.

She couldn’t believe it, from what she saw people weren’t really interested in the story. Probably because it wasn’t accurate to how witches in this world actually worked, “look, I know how it looks like but this has a really good explanation.” Luz gasped as she slowly turned around. For some reason Amity looked afraid.

She couldn’t contain her excitement, “AZURA FAN, YAY!” The child tacked the witch in a giant hug. “I’VE NEVER MET ANYONE WHO ALSO LIKED IT!” Sure, her family listened to her talk about it, and Willow also liked to hear her rambling. But none of them actively read them.

The witch was on the floor with a blank face, whoops, maybe she should have thought first before doing that. “You… like Azura too?” The human nodded happily.

—

“Mx. Whispers?” A witch asked Raine, “where does this one go?” They were carrying the new bed for Luz.

The pointed at the stairs, “first room to the left.” The witch nodded and called for their coworkers and they went back to doing their job. Titan, this was incredibly boring, but this was just for today and their new home was completely done.

Hopefully their daughter was having more fun than Raine was.

Since there wasn’t anything on their scroll alerting them that Luz was uncomfortable in the Blight household, and it had been a while. They would assume that she was having a good time.

The bard took a look in the kitchen, it was all done so there was no one else here. Good, they needed some time alone, all of this communication was tiring them out. The kitchen looked nice, they got a better stove and fridge so they could avoid cross-contamination with the human-friendly versions of food for Luz. There was also a table and a few chairs where they could eat most of the time.

Raine would have appreciated the silence for a bit longer if it weren’t for someone picked them up OUT OF NOWHERE. They elbowed the person and dropped them. The bard looked at who just did that.

Wait a minute…

“Mom!?” What? How? How did she know they were moving? The bard still hadn’t told them they were moving out.

Wait, Raine hadn’t told their mom they had a child. None of their moms in fact.

They’d think about that later, “what are you doing here? You were in the right palm.” And that was pretty far away from the ribs. Also, “oh Titan, I just elbowed you, are you ok?” So many questions running through their mind right now. Their moms were supposed to be enjoying retirement in the palm. Not here in the home they just got.

Fortunately, their mom was tough, “good to see you too.” She rubbed her ribs for a second but stood up. She was pretty tall, pretty much the tallest amongst their moms, she had dark skin, hair that covered her green eyes and was part of the construction coven.

While their mom was pretty tough, she was still a bit old, “you sure you’re not hurt anywhere? You can sit down.” Raine offered a chair but she refused.

“Hey, I might be old but I still got it,” the witch showed off her muscles and she chuckled. “Also, I thought you enjoyed surprised hugs,” yeah, they did, back then. But now with planning a rebellion and the thought of constantly being in danger soured that experience. It was a bit sad, Raine enjoyed their mom’s hugs.

But nevermind that, “why are you here? You and mama, ma and ama are supposed to be in the palm.” This wasn’t the closest place from their home, “are the others here?” They’d appreciate more of a warning.

The older witch shook her head, “nah, I just sometimes to little jobs when I’m bored of retirement.” Of course, why where they even surprised? “So, when I saw your name I decided to see out little Raine to see how they were doing.” She ruffled their head, “glad you finally got over your dislike of socialization and get a new home, not surprised you pick this one, far away from people.” Why was she able to read them like a book?

The only thing they could do is laugh awkwardly, “yeah, just thought of a change of pace would be nice.” Also for Luz to not have to wear the concealment stone every time she took a step outside. Oh Titan, Raine still needed to explain that.

This time, the bard expected the hug as she gave it to them and without hesitation, they returned it. “Also…” she took a step back and they looked up at her, “I saw that there were going to be two people moving in here.” Immediately, they froze, it was time for a very awkward explanation, maybe they’d have some time because their mom would warn the others? “Any friend you’re gonna move in with?” A knot was forming on their throat.

There was no way to get out of this, “well, you see…”

Suddenly, another witch appeared, “hey Mx. Whispers, there’s this box full of small things, any place we need to put them?” Oh, that must the decorations for Luz’s room and pictures.

“Y-yeah, you can put them on the table,” he nodded and put it where the bard pointed at.

Then the witch looked at their mom, “listen Marianne, you can talk with your kid but remember to not slack off.” The older witch wasn’t bothered by it.

“Yeah, yeah, let me catch up with my child and I’ll go back to helping,” he finally left the kitchen. The box caught her attention, “what’s in there?” Right after that a photo fell out of it, “oh shoot, let me get that.” From the corner of their eye, they saw it was a picture their students took of them an Luz playing in the slayground.

They panicked, “wait, mom, before that let me expla-” too late, she grabbed the picture. Their mom was completely silent while looking at it.

The words were stuck on their throat, “Raine Whispers…” oh Titan, full name, they were in trouble. She slowly turned around, staring daggers at them, “you better have a good explanation for this.” As expected, the older witch pointed at Luz.

In spite of being a full grown adult, they began to sweat bullets, “please let’s calm down a little.” Nope, bad answer, bad answer, she looked even more upset.

“You have thirty seconds before I call your other moms and you won’t hear the end of it,” they knew full well that was a real threat. Raine would be bombarded with multiple questions and also probably multiple groundings. Even though they were a fully grown, independent adult.

Raine took a deep breath, “please don’t freak out about this.” The bard began to explain the situation to her, skipping the part where she was human and also a runaway. They weren’t sure if Luz would like that to be known, even though it would be to her technically grandmother. But they did tell her how they took care of her for some time, then both decided to become a full family. Also that she wasn’t going to any school yet.

Hopefully that was a good explanation for her. And one that wouldn’t get them grounded for not telling their moms about her for some time.

Raine fidgeted with the buttons on their shirt, “so… that’s more or less all of it…” their mom was silent. She looked at them and then back at the picture, the witch repeated that motion multiple times. “Mom?” They didn’t know what her reaction would be, but it definitely wasn’t that.

“And… you’re telling me, this girl isn’t yours and Eda’s daughter?” WHY WAS THAT THE FIRST THING PEOPLE THOUGHT?

“NO!” Alright, that was a bit too loud, “sorry, no, no she isn’t.” Hopefully that was enough.

Their mom stared at them, then at the picture and then at them, “really?” Was she joking around? Luz wasn’t their biological daughter.

Raine sighed, “yeah mom, I’m sure.” Pretty sure two witches couldn’t make a human anyway.

She slapped their back maybe a bit too harshly, “well, aside from that, I’m happy you decided to try out parenthood!” They chuckled, the bard never expected to become a parent, “also, I’m glad you moved out, last I knew you had a one bedroom apartment, but I’m sure you figured out and you didn’t like, sleep in the couch for months.” Raine did sleep on the couch for months. Better for her to not find it out. “Anyway, when will we meet the little witchlet?” They looked up confused, “did you really think you could tell me this and not expect to meet my granddaughter?” Oh! Right, of course she’d want that. Their moms would love that.

Though, they weren’t sure if Luz would like that. She was so wary of adults most of the times, it would be better to prepare her beforehand.

“I… promise to talk to her about it, but, I’ll introduce the idea slowly to her,” better that than freak her out.

The older witch sighed, “alright,” this went better than expected. “But you’re still not safe from not being grounded,” oh come on!

—

Amity was eating lunch with Luz in her room. Her mom made an exception just this once so both could get to know each other more. The witch was eating some vole wreckington while the other was eating… some simple soup and griffin egg. There was certainly a difference between both of her foods.

She looked at her, “how’s your food Amity?” It tasted the same way it always did, but she wouldn’t say that out loud.

“It’s fine…” this time the abomination made the food, so that was a bit of a relief. The last time she tried something made by the abomacooker she began to gag just by the texture of it. “How about yours?” It seemed like as if she was enjoying it.

The child beamed, “it’s good, I even helped nini by putting some ingredients in the pot.” Luz… cooked with her parent? She never did that with either of them.

Both finished their food, though to her surprise she dug through her backpack again. The witch pulled out a bag with some spookies, they were in the shape of a hat and a staff. The icing decorations while a bit messy, showed that it was inspired by Azura. “Want one?” Luz offered one to her.

Amity hesitantly took it, “you… also made this?” There wasn’t any store that sold anything like this. To further prove her point, the witch nodded.

“There isn’t a lot of food I can eat, so, we made this as a special occasion!” All of that sounded really fun. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever done this. “It was so fun, we even made foods inspired by the good witch Azura books,” they DID? That was so cool.

“Wait, you and Raine just, made dishes from a fantasy book?” How were they even able to make such things as ‘butterfly pea tea’ or ‘spaguetti’?

Luz looked confused, “no? I made them with my mom, back in… oh…” wait, she thought it was only Raine. For some reason, the witch looked incredibly sad, “sorry about that, can we change topic?” While she was confused, she nodded. It didn’t feel proper to budge her with whatever she was thinking about.

“Sure? Well…” what other topic could they talk about? They already talked about Azura a lot, “what kind of spells can you do?” Luz never mentioned her abilities as a witch.

She looked surprised at her question, “oh!” The witch looked away, it was a pretty simple question to answer, “well, I don’t know any.” What? But if she was the same age as her she’d at least know one, “it’s just, I don’t have magic.” Amity’s face went completely one. Her mom said Luz had to be a powerful witch, not someone without any magic, this didn’t make any sense. The adult asked her to befriend her because she had to be good with it, what would she even say if she found this out?

“What!?” The witch exclaimed, no, that couldn’t be true. Even Willow, while not being good at it had magic, “come on, not even a little!?” Luz was taken aback.

The child looked away and grabbed her backpack, “uuuuh, no? I don’t have a bile sack or anything like that.” For some reason, she dug through it, “is that… a problem?” The witch clung to the object tightly.

Luz was looking at her now, expecting an answer. “I…” she hesitated, her mom told her that she needed to be friends with her. But she also said that Blights could only get along with the best of the best and she didn’t want to repeat the same incident that happened in her birthday. Besides, this witch didn’t go to Hexide, so she wouldn’t have to see her every single day.

However, no other witch was a fan of the good witch Azura. Sometimes Boscha would even make fun of it whenever she saw it at the library. She even forgot to hide them before Luz got here. But that mistake turned out to be a good thing.

Amity didn’t want to be mean to her, but she didn’t meet the Blight standards, “well…” She looked at Luz, her eyes were wider and her lips trembling. “It’s not!” She said out loud, “it’s fine if you don’t have any kind of magic at all, you’re a nice witch anyway.” The witch took a few deep breaths, saying that somehow felt relieving, but also horrible. “I… really want to be your friend and talk about the good witch Azura together,” that was the actual truth.

The other witch pulled the hand out of the backpack and smiled, “ok!” She got closer to her, “hey, how about we reennact one of the scenes in the second book.” Just like that, the child was happy again.

“Y-yeah, sure,” they’d need to read the book again to see which one they could do.

Luz smiled, “that’s great, here, have the last spookie, for energy.” Amity took it and hesitantly ate it.

However, it didn’t taste as good as before.

—

Raine arrived to the main door of the Blight manor. The house was finally habitable, the only thing left was to put up the decorations. But they’d deal with that another day and their daughter probably wanted to do something of her own in her new room.

Hopefully Odalia wouldn’t try to sell them something, they rang the bell and a few seconds later the witch they wanted to see the least was in front of the bard. “Raine! I’m so happy to see you again, how was your little move?” Tiring, they were praying their mom would properly explain things to their other moms, also that Luz’s reaction to their moms wasn’t negative.

“It was fine, thank you for taking in my daughter, where is she?” The human wasn’t here. Maybe she did have a good time, she didn’t call for them after all.

The other witch smiled, “my, you are in such a hurry, they are just in Amity’s room playing around, how about I show you some of our goods, since I know you don’t like crowded places.” Nope, they’d rather do a recital right in front of Belos and the entire castle.

Time to be more diplomatic, “it’s alright Odalia, I don’t want to overstay my welcome, where’s your daughter’s room?” She must have sensed that this would be a losing battle. So the witch guided them upstairs to the child’s room. The mansion was pretty dark and… was that an abomination butler? Dang, Alador must have made many things so Odalia could avoid paying people.

She was ahead of her when she opened the witchlet’s room, “Amity Blight!” The witch screamed, were they hurt? “What kind of attitude is this from a Blight?” What? Raine entered to see what she was talking about.

The bard entered then and both were laying down, though Odalia was trying to make Amity stand up.

Wow.

It was really rare to have Luz be to tired after a playdate, usually she’d have to jump on the bed or the couch to be properly tired. Even Willow sometimes couldn’t keep up with her daughter’s energy in spite of having fun with her.

But first, she needed to stop whatever the witch was doing to keep the child standing up, “Odalia, there’s really no need for any kind of formalities, they’re both children,” this made the adult stop. By the Titan, it wasn’t a big deal to encounter two children that were tired after playing for a long time. Raine approached their daughter, “Luz? Are you awake?” The bard nudged her and she groggily stood up.

The child rubbed her eyes, “wut tm izzit?” They chuckled and picked her up and then grabbed her backpack, “is the house ready?” Raine nodded at her question.

“Yup, and there’s a room ready for you to fill with posters and stickers,” that immediately brought their daughter’s energy back. Well, hopefully she would be able to go to bed without any problem. “Thank you for taking care of her, it’s clear that you two had fun,” Luz nodded in agreement. “I guess we’ll have to talk about this another time,” much to their dismay. But if it meant the human would be happy, they could deal with Odalia for some time.

The other adult immediately ignored Amity, “oh, isn’t that delightful?” They didn’t really like that answer, “well, we’ll see when the next playdate will be.” Raine nodded and they left the mansion.

They couldn’t wait to get back home.

Once they were far away enough, Fiddlesticks left the backpack. Why did he look so tired? They didn’t do anything as far as they knew, “did you know Amity’s also an Azura fan?” There was an answer as to why both had so much fun.

‘So many ramblings over the story, so many hours of hyperfixation talk…’ they… kind of felt bad for Fiddlesticks. But the palisman did go in there voluntarily. ‘And you didn’t even get me some rich people snack!’ The fox pointed a paw towards Luz.

The human froze, “ah, I… forgot.” Having in mind how much she loved Azura, not surprising.

But the palisman wasn’t happy, well, they did do this for Luz’s sake, “how about I open one of those palisman treats?” That immediately changed the palisman’s mood to a better one.

At some point, Luz wanted to walk on her own and they were going through the forest holding each other’s hands. “What about you nini?” Raine looked at her a bit confused, “did you have fun with the move?” Nope, they didn’t, it was tiring and they were glad it was over.

However, there was something that was a bit more enjoyable, also, a good point to introduce the topic. “Well, it was boring, but I did meet someone,” that caught Luz’s attention, “it was one of my moms.” That surprised both Luz and Fiddlesticks, “she’s in the construction coven and it was a bit of a surprise since my moms are retired.” Now onto their daughter’s reaction towards her.

Even though they were waiting for Luz’s respond, Fiddlesticks was first, ‘how was she? Did she bring any treats? Are we gonna see any of them soon?’ Alright, at least one was excited.

Meanwhile, their daughter was quiet, maybe a bit of encouragement, could help her, “do you want to meet them?” She looked up, “I told her a bit about you, she’d love to meet you, also, I’m sure my other moms would love to too.” Even with that, the human still didn’t say anything and seemed a bit nervous, “is everything alright? I promise you my moms are nice.” They stopped their walk.

Luz fidgeted with her fingers, “is just… I never got along with grandparents…” she looked down. “Like something about me makes them immediately hate me and I never really got what,” tears began to form in her eyes, “this wasn’t even a foster parent thing, this happened even with my grandparents.”

“Luz…” they put a hand on her head as comfort.

“I don’t want you to fight them when they don’t like me,” oh no, they wouldn’t allow Luz to talk to herself like that.

They kneeled down to be on the same eye level as her, “Luz, I want you to look at me.” The human while hesitant, looked at them, “whatever happened with your grandparents wasn’t your fault, and I’m sure your parents said the same thing to you.” The child nodded, “look, I don’t know what happened with them, but I can tell you my moms will love you, and if they don’t then that’s their problem, got it?”

She hesitated, “you sure?”

“Yeah, you’re a really good kid, creative, imaginative, energetic and really cheerful, I am sure they will really like you,” thankfully, it seemed to raise a bit of her confidence. “Right now my mom must be telling them about you, but we will meet them once you’re comfortable, alright?” She nodded.

Out of nowhere, the human hugged them, “thank you…” she sniffled a bit, “for being patient with me…” Raine returned it.

“There’s no need for that, I’m your parent, that’s my job,” and they were so happy to have met Luz.

—

Amity looked at her mom, who had a neutral expression on her face. The witch wasn’t sure whether she’d be disappointed in her or not.

Her mother turned to look at her and out of reflex, she tensed up.

“You did good,” was all the adult said and then she left the room.

Amity sighed in relief as she remembered her day with Luz. She genuinely had fun with her, at some points even forgetting she was supposed to befriend her. It was so different to Boscha and Skara.

Maybe, this time she could have a genuine friend.

—

After her nini opened the door, she ran in to take a good look to the new house. There was a hallway, she saw a box that had photos inside, on the right there was a living room, it had the same couch and coffee table as from the apartment. But there was a fireplace this was the first time lived in a house that had one. On the left there was a kitchen, her nini already put a few magnets on the fridge, but the drawings weren’t there yet. At the back of the hallway there were some stairs that took people to the second floor, but right under it there was a door to enter the basement. The human tried to enter but her nini stopped her, “down there it’s the whole security system, let’s just wait until you’re older to go in there and do things.” Dang, but fair.

She ran upstairs, the first door took her to the bathroom, on the right side of the hallway there were two doors, the one on the left took one to her room and the other one to her nini’s room. She wanted to be close to them, in case she had a nightmare, on the left side there was a single door, in there it was the study room of her nini. They mentioned they would put a lot of books and instruments. However, there wasn’t the only thing, there was also a trap door on the ceiling that could take someone to the attic. The adult said they would keep some stuff they couldn’t need as often in there.

Also, she couldn’t reach it because it was too tall.

“Luz! Come for dinner,” oh, the human didn’t notice how hungry she was until the witch mentioned food. She ran downstairs, it was some simple sandwiches for dinner today, “sorry, I’m a bit tired today.” That was alright, the child happily ate the food.

Right after dinner, it was as if her body reminded her of all the energy she used today. The human yawned, “tired…” But she wanted to decorate her room.

Her nini picked her up, “let’s get ready to bed, alright?” She tried to protest, but at the same time they felt so warm and just made her more sleepy. It was so hard to keep her eyes open.

But Luz wasn’t going to give up that easily, “no… stickers… posters…” The adult took her to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth before going to bed.

“You can do it tomorrow, today was a big day,” while they were right, it didn’t mean she liked it.

However, there was some stuff the child wouldn’t be able to argue with her nini, and bedtime was definitely one of them. King of like her parents every time she tried to draw for a bit longer even though it was past her bedtime.

So, Luz begrudgingly brushed her teeth and put on her pajamas. Right after her nini tucked her in the bed, her new bed. In her new home, this was all so surreal. The adult tried to turn on the lamp but it didn’t work, “I forgot getting some light orbs for it.” They sighed and used their magic to create a light spell, “this will work in the meantime.” It was so beautiful, “good night Luz.” After her nini kissed her forehead, Fiddlesticks jumped to be on the adult’s shoulders.

‘I bet you’re excited on sleeping on an actual bed now,’ her and the palisman laughed while the witch gave them a deadpan look.

“Very funny you two, but now we all need some rest,” she’d admit they were right on that. The child felt so cozy under the new blankets.

“Good night nini,” as they made the light disappear, she closed her eyes. And Luz immediately fell asleep.

Luz was floating in complete darkness, there wasn’t a single sound around, “hello?” She tried to call for someone but there was nobody there. For some reason, she didn’t feel afraid. It somehow felt… familiar. The silence was also comforting.

However, it wouldn’t last for long as slowly the sound of a heartbeat appeared.

At first, it was slow, way too slow for a living being to be alive, but then it began to beat faster. Now this was of something that could be alive.

The child slowly moved her hand to her chest, to feel her own heartbeat.

Huh, strange.

The heartbeat she was hearing and the one in her were beating at the same time.

“It’s starting…” a voice said.

It was late in the night when Luz woke up, that was a weird dream, but now she wanted some water. The child tried to reach for the light, but when she tried to turn the light on, it didn’t work. Right, new home, her nini said they would put that in there tomorrow, or now it would be today? Nevermind, the thing she wanted at this moment was some light to at least know where she was going since she wasn’t familiar with the home yet.

As if someone heard her, a source of light appeared right behind her. The child turned around in surprise, there was a ball of light right in front of her eyes.

Who?

What?

Her nini wasn’t in her room, they were sleeping on their own, “Fiddlesticks?” She tried to look for the palisman, but it seemed like this was one of the rare nights where they slept with the witch.

Luz put her hands under the light. Where did it come from? Was this some kind of magic where the house could summon some light? She could ask her nini in the morning, now, she’d use this spell to get the water.

The child got off the bed, keeping the light close to her, she was about to leave the room, until something else distracted her. There was some weird drawing on the wall, as if the spell was projecting it.

Weird.

Luz tried to touch the projection, however nothing happened. This was strange, maybe her nini knew about this, the child would draw it and show them in the morning.

She searched through the boxes and grabbed some paper and pencils. The human made a copy of the projection, she was glad she drew so much back with her parents. Now she was an expert in drawing circles, “there…” she tapped it. The paper started to curl in on itself and another ball of light appeared right in front of her.

Luz stared at it for a few seconds.

“What?” She muttered, “did I just…” Forget about the water, Luz needed to try this again.

So she drew the glyph again, she tapped it and the same thing as before happened.

And again.

And again.

And again.

The whole room was covered in light spells by now, “I just did magic…” the realization was coming to her. “I just did magic!” She grabbed one of the papers with a spell and ran to her nini’s room.

Luz slammed the door open, not caring about the hour, “NINI!” The adult jumped awake, and Fiddlesticks got so startled that they jumped right onto the ceiling and was clinging to it.

“Luz!” They put on their glasses, “Titan you scared me,” the child felt a bit bad. “Did you have a nightmare?” She shook her head, “then why did you come into the room screaming?” Luz could feel Fiddlesticks glare, but she didn’t pay it any mind, instead, she showed her the glyph she drew. “Nice… drawing?” Right, they didn’t know, she tapped it and another light spell appeared.

Both Fiddlesticks and her nini’s eyes widened, “did you just…” The child smiled brightly and nodded.

She ran towards them and jumped to their bed, “I DID MAGIC!” The child hugged her nini tightly, she was so happy. The adult returned her hug and chuckled.

“That’s amazing Luz,” she nodded and they ruffled her head.

—

The heart started beating again.

Chapter Text

Raine hanged the last photo in the hallway, it was of Luz and their students sleeping on the couch. The bard couldn’t help themself, all of them looked adorable together. Also, it was rare to see Katya, Amber and Derwin get along for more than five minutes. Less if Fiddlesticks was walking around.

Speaking of, they heard the footsteps coming from outside. The door slammed open “RAINE!” All of them said at the same time. The three were struggling to enter the door.

“One by one please,” begrudgingly, they did so and finally, all of them were in the new home.

Their students looked around, “the house looks nice.” Yeah, even though they were here for a single night it felt more like home than that apartment ever did.

Amber covered Derwin’s mouth, “yeah, yeah, cute home, blah blah blah, enough formalities, we all know why we are here.” Then she showed off the scroll with one of their hext messages. On second thought, maybe just saying ‘Luz can do magic’ without any proper context wasn’t the best idea.

Raine pointed at the living room where their daughter was, “why don’t you see it for yourselves?” The three then looked behind the walls. There was Luz, drawing those glyphs and activating them. “She’s been going at it ever since she woke up,” it had been a challenge to get her out of her spell making corner to eat breakfast. The bandage covering the bite on their hand was living proof of it.

Raine entered the living room, their daughter was still making light spells. It was amazing, a human doing magic, “Luz?” The child didn’t answer and kept drawing glyphs, “it’s time for breakfast.” No reaction at all.

Was she too focused on the spells? Probably, they looked at Fiddlesticks for some idea but he just shrugged.

“Hey, let’s go to the kitchen, you can then go back to your glyphs,” the adult touched her shoulder this time to get her attention. However, all they got was a hiss coming from the child. The adult was taken aback by this, “alright, I’m sorry about this.” Raine tried to pick her up but then got BITTEN, they dropped her, “LUZ!” She went back to ignoring them to get back to her glyphs.

This was getting tiring, “alright, we’re getting breakfast.” This time they grabbed her by the legs to avoid the face.

Unfortunately the human began to clung to the floor, “ONE MORE SPELL.” Oh no, they knew that didn’t mean an actual single spell.

They kept pulling, “you can go back to doing magic after this!” How was she so strong? At least they were capable of moving her, even though the child was trying her best to go back to her corner. “Luz, I swear to Titan, this isn’t funny!” In spite of Fiddlesticks thinking otherwise and laughing out loud at the situation.

“I DON’T NEED FOOD, I NEED MAGIC!” Finally, they were out of the living room, now to reach the kitchen.

She tried to hold onto the door frame, “you do need food!” Somehow, Raine managed to separate the child from the door frame. They weren’t going to ask how but they were going to run to the kitchen. Because Luz was trying to squirm out of her hold.

Maybe Fiddlesticks drinking coffee wasn’t so bad.

Raine shuddered at the memory.

“But, how?” Katya asked them. They wished they got an answer too.

Unfortunately, they didn’t “she just said she saw a light orb project the glyph, she copied it and she managed to do… well, all of this.” By this point the room was mostly light spells. Thank Titan they disappeared after some time. The house would have become a beacon if it weren’t for that. Even then, it might have been a good idea to put on some sunglasses.

Derwin seemed to think of something, “we once read that ancient witches did magic a different way than now, maybe is that?” He suggested. Could that be? Could their daughter really have discovered a way of using magic that no other witch managed to find out? It sounded impossible, but somehow the only explanation for this.

“Maybe…” they responded, “I’m just happy Luz managed to find a way to do magic, she looks so happy.” In spite of being harshly woken up at that time, the bard could remember how ecstatic Luz was when she showed off that spell.

“Hey Luz! Guess who’s here,” Amber called for the human. Getting her attention was going to be a challenge. One Raine wasn’t willing to take again.

Their students looked at them, “if you want to talk to her, good luck.” But they definitely weren’t going to go through that again… until probably lunch time. “I have a first aid kit in the kitchen and in the bathroom,” better to be safe than sorry.

The three began to think of way to call for her. Raine wasn’t sure if that would work.

Derwin was the first to go, “Luz, we found your favourite, griffin eggs.” The child was still drawing without any care for food.

“Hey kid! Guess what,” Amber summoned a grudgby ball, “now that you moved here, we can play much more grudgby and way more accurate!” That also didn’t work, the bard wasn’t surprised by that. Even though the human enjoyed playing with their students. She was fascinated by the light glyph.

“I think we need a different approach,” Katya suggested. Why did the bard have a bad feeling about this? “Hey kiddo, we found some good witch Azura stickers,” all of them looked at the child expectantly.

She stopped making light spells.

Their student celebrated it, “hah! I win!” Then the next turn of events went by way too fast.

One second, Luz was still in the corner, the next in that corner there were only papers and a pencil. And the human was jumping Katya, “AZURA, ¡ENSÉÑAMELO!” Raine, Amber and Derwin leaned into the wall out of pure fear.

Their student hesitated, “uuuuuh.” She then looked at them, clearly asking for help.

“You’re on your own, girl,” Amber added.

The human was staring at her, they definitely did not want to be in Katya’s place right now. “Uuuh, Luz, actually,” even Fiddlesticks was afraid of what their daughter’s reaction would be. “I… got it wrong! It was actually, good vegetable Aaron stickers,” was that even a thing?

As bad as that excuse was, it did seem to calm Luz down, “n-no Azura.” Oh no, this was worse, her eyes were getting watery and she began to sob.

The young adult realised her mistake, “hey, hey hey hey, there’s no need to cry.” That didn’t stop her crying, the three began to glare at her. “Uuuuh, how about you tell me the theories you have on what might happen on the third volume?” That had the human cheer up almost immediately. Their daughter then guided her to her room.

Well, at least that would keep her a bit away from drawing. The position she had couldn’t be good for her back.

This was a good time to catch up with their students, “how are things going?” The threw practically dropped what they were doing for the sake of learning what happened with Luz. Hopefully they could go back without much problem.

“Someone left an ancient instrument under the boiling rain,” they physically flinched at that. Poor instrument, that bard must have had a bad time after that happened.

Amber groaned, “I wish to destroy whoever created theory of music.” Unfortunately, they could relate to that statement. Theory of music was a nightmare to learn, not only for them but pretty much everyone in their class. “Please, one of you take my place for my final exam,” unfortunately for their student, they pretty much wanted to forget everything about that topic.

“Sorry Amber, we all had to go through it so you too,” the teen whined. Derwin then turned to look at them, “would you mind if we checked what Luz was doing?” Raine didn’t see why not.

They nodded, “go ahead,” the two approached the corner where their daughter was drawing the glyphs. There were still a bunch of papers scattered around, some of them were blank, but others did have the spell drawn.

“How does she draw circles so perfectly?” Amber questioned.

Titan if they knew, they were also surprised by it, “the only thing she mentioned was something about an alchemist full of metal and an atelier… that made witches hats?” It was too early in the morning when they asked her that.

Neither of them understood what Raine was talking about. To be fair, they didn’t either, “well, aside from that, do you think there’ll be more of this?” They didn’t know, just yesterday the bard thought it would be impossible for Luz to be able of doing magic.

Amber activated one of the glyphs, having the light join the many hanging on the ceiling, “I sure hope there are.” The bard also wished that, at least for their daughter.

—

Luz watched as her nini put the final violin in place. She never knew someone could have that many instruments, also that many of the same kind. Her papá only had a guitar he played from time to time.

Though when he was in the hospital, he couldn’t really play it.

The child remembered being interested to learn, but never really actually going through with it, specially after her papá was sick. She wanted him to teach her, not some other music teacher who would tell her everything she did was wrong and that she wasn’t trying hard enough even though she really was.

There weren’t any guitars in the demon realm. The one that sounded the most similar was the gui-scar, but the fact that it’d bite you if it didn’t like you kind of made her not want to try it. She liked her fingers.

“There, with this, we are completely done with getting all out of the boxes,” they made the last box disappear.

“Yay!” Luz really liked this new home, the child never lived in the middle of a forest. It sounded so fun, she couldn’t wait to see if there were any little angels around.

Her nini picked her up and the human nuzzled their cheek, “so, what do you want to do now?” Huh, she didn’t think that far ahead, “maybe we can watch a movie, or you can show me how that glyph works.” While tempting, it wasn’t the exact thing she wanted to do.

But she was already eight, other kids began when she was younger and she was already too late to learn from her dad, “nini?” The adult looked at her confused, “is there an age limit on when you can begin learning music?”

They looked surprised at her question, “what? No, it’s never too late to start to learn something like that.” She felt relief wash over her, “why are you asking?” Oh right, she needed to answer that.

Why was it embarrassing to say it out loud? They were her parent, and they never made fun of her for as long as she stayed with them, “well… I was wondering if…” The child took a deep breath, “do you think you can teach me the violin?” She wanted to hide right now.

Luz noticed their surprise, “huh?” They stuttered a bit, “I mean, sure, but, are you sure is that the one you want to learn?” Her nini gestured at the many instruments in the room. There’s plenty to choose from. Yeah, the human was sure this was what she wanted.

Without hesitation, the child nodded, “yeah, I sometimes heard you practising it back in the apartment.” It even helped her with sleeping, or if she had a hard time sleeping it remind her that she was with them and not back with her foster parents. It was really comforting every time that happened.

Her nini was shocked, “wait you heard those?” While confused, she nodded. The apartment was pretty small anyway. She thought they might knew the child was able to hear them.

For some reason, the adult groaned, Luz looked at Fiddlesticks for some context but they just laughed.

Well, the human didn’t want them to feel embarrassed, “I really like how you play.” For some reason, that made them want to hide their face, “nini?” Were they alright? Could people get sick from getting compliments? That wasn’t a thing in the human realm.

The adult took a deep breath, “sorry about that,” they smiled. “I’m just… not the biggest fan of having people listening to me, let alone practice,” wait, wasn’t their job to have other people listen to their music? That was how musicians worked. Maybe her nini did something different, but she heard Katya mention once how they had to prepare for a concert. Though right after that the adult had groaned at the mention of that.

“So…” back to the main topic, “can you teach me?” Maybe just some of the basics if they didn’t really feel like doing it.

Her nini smiled, “of course, I’m so happy you want to learn.” They hugged her and the child giggled and returned it, “first, I wanna know, is human music really different from demon realm music.” She did see some of the music sheets and they looked similar to the ones from her world.

“I… don’t think so?” There might be some differences in the smaller details. “The music classes in school weren’t that much detailed,” they just taught her how to read music in treble clef.

The adult seemed curious, “did you learn another instrument back there.” Yeah, she shuddered at the memory.

“The recorder,” her fist clenched on her nini’s shirt, “it was horrible…” Luz wouldn’t say she was the best player from the whole class. But the mixed sound of everyone in class trying to play the same thing was ingrained in her memory. “I think a teacher had to get out and scream once because of how bad it sounded,” also probably crying. Since the mascara was running down her face.

The only thing the witch could do was stare, “alright… I won’t ask about that right now.” Fair enough, her parents also were surprised when she told them that. “But well, all of my violins are way too big for you, but I’m sure I can find one your size back in my workplace, what do you think?” Were the kidding? This had to be the best option! The child couldn’t wait to learn the violin with her nini.

Without hesitation, she hugged them, “yes! Thank you!” Her nini chuckled and returned the hug.

“Now what do you want to do?” Well, since Luz couldn’t really start learning the violin right now, there was another thing she wanted to do.

“I wanna keep doing the light spells,” sure, she’d been doing that for the whole day. Even after the child put all of the stickers in her room with Katya. It still felt so unreal that she managed to find a way to do magic. The child was sure she could keep doing it forever and never get tired of it.

Not being able to do magic was something she already assumed. Specially with her foster parents, so now that she could, it was so amazing.

Oh man, she still had to show Willow and Amity was she was capable of doing. Wait, some day both had to meet and then, the three would be able to become friends. It would be just like those friend groups she saw constantly in anime.

The adult nodded, “alright, but one, if it’s time for food we get it and you won’t bite me because I try to get you to eat something.” They pointed at the bandaged bite mark.

Maybe Luz went a bit too far with that one.

Chapter Text

Luz couldn’t keep still as her nini rang the bell to Willow’s home. She was so excited to see her friend again, also show her her new light spell. “Remember Luz, Willow just recovered, she might still be a bit tired,” the human nodded.

Finally, the door opened, revealing one of Willow’s dad, if she remembered correctly this one was Gilbert. “Hey, hope it wasn’t too hard to find our home,” well, it was her nini the one who knew how to get here. The child would have a complicated time to figure out directions. Now, where was Willow? She wasn’t in the entrance door.

She tried to look further into the home, but there was no sign. Luz heard her nini chuckle, “careful, you might fall.” Whoops, maybe she should’ve bee a bit more discreet.

The child took a step back, a bit embarrassed, “don’t worry about it, Willow was also really excited about this.” Really!? Sure, the human knew both were friends but somehow hearing that someone wanted to see her felt unreal. That made her want to see the witch even more. Harvey winked at her and pointed up, “her room’s upstairs, it’s the first one on the right.” Then he moved away, the adult was inviting her in.

Well, Luz wouldn’t think about this twice, she ran upstairs, “WILLOW!” The human waited for so long and she couldn’t wait any longer.

The child opened the door Willow’s dad said her room was and she wasn’t sure if it actually was her friend’s room, but her friend was in there and that was the part that mattered, “Luz?” The witch looked up and she jumped in for a hug which she returned, “I’m so glad to see you again!” She was too, even though hanging out with Amity was fun too.

“Me too!” Wait, she almost forgot to show her, “look at what I learnt, you won’t believe this!” The child grabbed the notebook her nini got her and drew the glyph to show it to her friend.

However, Willow didn’t get it at first, “it’s… great that you know how to draw perfect circles? Not everyone can do that.” Oh right, her nini was also confused at first when she showed her the glyphs.

“No, no, what this,” the human tapped it, the paper crumbled and a light appeared. Then the witch was surprised what she did. “This way I can do magic, even without a bile sack!” Sure maybe it was just a light spell, but it was still really special to the child and no one was able to tell her otherwise.

Her friend gasped, “that’s so cool, I never saw someone casting magic like that!” Her nini also mentioned that, “can you do anything else?”

Luz hesitated a bit, “uuuuh, no? Maybe? For now I can only do light spells…” Sure, it wasn’t summoning plants like Willow or altering the weather by playing the violin like her nini. But it was special to her, specially since at first she thought she would never be able to do magic.

The witch didn’t seem bothered, “that’s fine.” She looked at the notebook, “how about you teach me your way of doing magic?” Her friend gave her a pencil.

“Of course!” The human was always happy to show someone something she liked.

—

Raine mostly expected to drop Luz on Willow’s home and probably just go back to their home to do… something. There weren’t any raids planned out and somehow they didn’t have any work to pay attention to. However, Harvey and Gilbert had another idea and invited the bard in for some tea.

This was new, the adult never really had adult friends their age after they broke up with Eda.

And they would ignore how sad that sounded, it was because of the rebellion and that climbing up ranks in the bard coven was time consuming. Yeah, that was the reason why.

What kind of conversations adults their age had anyway? Because it probably wasn’t what were Belos’s plans for the day of unity or why were wild witches mysteriously disappearing whenever they refused to join a coven. Also why the emperor’s coven always emphasized recruitment by force instead of people actually wishing to join the coven.

Yeah, those couldn’t be the most popular topics to talk about with other people. But it sure was with their students.

“So, Raine,” Gilbert spoke out first, “I know we already did it, but I just want to apologize again for cancelling so last minute.” Oh, it was about that.

The bard smiled, “don’t worry, of course you’d want to prioritize Willow’s health.” They were pretty sure they’d have done the same if it happened to Luz, “and if it helps, I did find someone who was able to take care of her during the move.” Though they wished it wasn’t Odalia. But at least their daughter managed to make a new friend.

Both sighed in relief, “well, how was the moving?” Harvey asked.

“Tiring…” that was the best way to describe it, though to as much as they expected since they saw their mom. Some day Raine would have to call them, it had been a while since they last saw their moms. For now the adult would wait for Luz, even though the child was hesitant, they had the feeling she might like them. “But the house ended up looking nice, Luz really likes her new room,” it probably helped that now she got an actual room for herself. Not one that used to be theirs and still had some of their plans for the rebellion.

Also, it was away from people, so their daughter could run around without hiding her ears and not be concerned about someone seeing her.

Both witches seemed happy, “and how’s your daughter doing? She looked really excited to see Willow.” Yeah, she couldn’t stand still during breakfast.

Raine remembered fondly the time Luz showed them her light glyph, “she actually learnt how to cast spells recently.” Ever since that night, there hadn’t been a day where their daughter didn’t draw at the very least one light glyph.

Harvey and Gilbert were surprised, “didn’t you say she didn’t have any magic?” Yeah, she didn’t, perks of being a human.

The adult nodded, “yeah, the thing is she found another way of using magic.” Both were surprised, Titan if they weren’t the first time she showed them. Though the sleep deprivation might have helped with that, “she draws this glyphs and a light appears from it.” By this point the child must have muscle memory with it, “she was so happy to find it out, I’m sure she’s showing it to Willow right now.” Everyone who was willing to see it, their daughter would happily show them.

The two witches were shocked at the news, fair enough, they still remembered their students shock about it. “So, if you don’t mind me asking…” Harvey began, “have you considered enrolling Luz in some school since she can do magic now?” Raine was surprised at the question, “you don’t have to answer but since that was one of your main concerns.” That was true…

They looked down at their cup, “I won’t say I hadn’t thought about it.” The bard did consider it, multiple times, even before she learnt the glyph, “but well, before I adopted her Luz’s had… bad experiences with school, so I don’t know how to bring it up to her.” Besides, in spite of being able to do magic, they knew some kids could be mean and for now what the human needed was to feel safe. This was still a world the child was unfamiliar with.

“She’s adopted?” Harvey asked and Gilbert elbowed him. Wait, the bard thought it was pretty clear they adopted the human.

Raine blinked twice, “yeah? I thought it was obvious.” It wasn’t like the two were that much alike, they’d forget the time Luz tested her concealment stone and somehow ended up like a blend of them and Eda. Nope, they weren’t going to think about that right now. Luz was their adopted daughter and she was human, nothing that involved the wild witch.

Now it was the time for the two witches to be confused, “we honestly thought she was your biological daughter.” What? Why? They weren’t that much alike, besides, Luz was fully human.

Wait, neither of them knew the human part.

Well, it was better to avoid a really uncomfortable conversation, besides, they could also poke holes in their story on how they adopted her. Better to avoid that, so Raine laughed nervously, “I can promise you that I’m not her biological parent.” The human would also argue with that, since she loved her human parents a lot.

Luz probably wouldn’t appreciate having someone ignore the existence of her biological parents.

Raine should continue asking about the children, that sounded like a good topic to talk about with them, right? “So, how about Willow? Is she doing alright?” They recalled her having some trouble with making friends in her school. Hopefully that changed for the better during this time.

Unfortunately, the looks on the witches told them otherwise, “she… still has difficulties with getting the spells right, and you know how children are…” Yeah, after Eda was cursed they really saw how some cruel people could be. The wild witch didn’t spend a long time in school after the emperor’s coven tryouts. Lilith no longer being in school helped with her decision.

“Ever since she stopped being friends with her it had been harder for her,” Harvey added. Wait, who? Must be one of Willow’s old friends.

“But at least with Luz she’s been really happy,” Gilbert intervened, “she always looks forward to seeing Luz the days we agreed for the two to hang out.” Yeah, the human was the same, always looking forward for the next day the two would hang out. Though now she also wondered when she’d be able to see Amity again.

That would take a while, Raine still needed to recover from the last time.

“I can say the same about Luz…” the human had gotten much happier ever since she met the witchlet. And now it felt like she was a lot happier after moving into the new home and officially becoming a family.

It felt… good…

Though they still were unsure about the rebellion. The only thing the bard could hope for now was that Luz never got involved with it. This was their fight, not hers.

However, now they needed to socialize with other adults, what was other topic the three could talk about aside from their daughters? Oh no, Raine didn’t know anything else about them, “so… Raine… how’s work?” Oh, thank Titan Harvey asked first.

Even though it wasn’t their most exciting topic, it was something, “it’s… fine, they finally managed to fix something in the castle.” Though fixing might be too strong of a word, that heart had sudden spikes on its heartbeats that took everyone by surprise. The other day some scout got so freaked out by it they dropped a drink on Darius’s face, Raine felt a bit bad for them.

Everyone was completely silent after what happened, well with the exception of the heart who’s heartbeat was going really fast. But all of them knew better than to say anything, this time it was a recruitment meeting and Belos wasn’t in the throne room. He was probably doing something strange for the day of unity. If only they could see what.

The poor scout took a step back, “I-I’m sorry head witch, I got startled.” Darius looked annoyed, even part of his body seemed to be close to turn into abomination.

However, all he did was take a deep breath, “this meeting’s over,” and with that, he left the room. Being followed by the other coven heads. Well, except for Scooter, who instead was getting closer to them.

“Can you get me some papers from my office, I forgot to take them with me before and I’m in a hurry,” he asked. Of course the head witch would forget something like that, “don’t worry, this time they’re just on top of my desk.” By this point Raine was used to the bard’s forgetfulness and them having to do chores.

Luckily for them, that gave them leeway to see what was the emperor planning, “right away head witch.” And they left to their boss’s office.

As expected, the whole place was a mess, but the bard wouldn’t think too much about it. The papers were on top of the desk as the head witch said, but first they’d try to take a look around to see if the head witch had something on raids.

Unfortunately, Raine didn’t, they weren’t sure if it was because Scooter genuinely didn’t have anything on what they wanted or that it was such a mess that they couldn’t find it. Either way, the bard left the room, a bit disappointed that they couldn’t find anything of use for the BATTs. Maybe next time.

Speaking of, they just got a message from one of them. Without a second thought they looked for the hext, it might be an emergency.

Fortunately, it wasn’t, Derwin just sent them an image of Luz and Amber, who looked scared out of their minds, but the human was smiling. There was also a laughing Katya in the back.

Der🦇: Katya did a good number on the two with that trick of hers

Der🦇: she used a muting spell while both were watching the crystal ball and them played the tambourine as loud as she could

While they would prefer that their students didn’t play pranks on each other. It seemed like Luz had fun with it and they couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the image.

Though that fondness didn’t last long when a shadow appeared from right behind them. Out of reflex they looked back to see who it was. But they saw nothing, weird, maybe they were getting a bit over paranoid with the rebellion. However, it had been a bit risky to look at the image here, since it was showing Luz’s round ears, they wouldn’t want anyone in the castle to find out their daughter was actually human.

Yeah, better to not do that in public again.

The castle usually gave them the creeps anyway, better to not reveal too much personal information around here.

They shuddered at the memory. Sometimes, that place felt like it had eyes everywhere, “didn’t know you worked in the castle,” Gilbert mentioned. “How is it in there?” Well, of course they’d be curious about that. Not everyone was really allowed to visit the castle, mostly high ranking officials, scouts and criminals to get thrown in the conformatorium.

Titan, the conformatorium, that place was horrible.

“It’s mostly an occasional thing…” mostly to remind the head witch of his responsibilities and to make sure he didn’t forget there was an important meeting for Titan knew how many times by now. “I wouldn’t really recommend it though,” that place was humid, cold and not the most welcoming place.

Wait, now that they mentioned their job, “I still need to find a violin for Luz.” They were so surprised their daughter wanted to learn. Also, when they mentioned it to their students they began to comment on how cute that was that the human wanted to be like them. The adult didn’t appreciate those comments because they were mostly embarrassing. Also the fact that the child had been able to hear them practising. Titan, they made too many errors while learning those.

“And you expect us to not think Luz isn’t like you,” Raine gave a blank stare at Harvey’s comment.

—

Willow was pretty sure she grabbed two sunglasses. Though it wasn’t completely sure since she had her eyes close, after grabbing the two objects that felt like sunglasses she slowly went back to where Luz was. Her hand was extended, “tell me if I’m close.” Finally, she found something squishy that felt like skin.

“It me!” Yup, this was her friend. Willow gave her what she thought were sunglasses and as she put hers on, the child opened her eyes. Thankfully, she did grab the sunglasses.

The witch stared at all the light spells, “we might have gone a little bit overboard.” The random person screaming ‘too bright’ should’ve been the first sign of that. But Luz just seemed so excited with her way of doing magic.

It was so interesting, she’d never seen anything like that before. Not even her teachers ever mentioned something about using drawings to make light.

She wondered what her classmates would think about it. Luz didn’t go to any school, well, now, her friend mentioned form time to time being in a school. But the child never got a name, maybe it was Glandus? Or St. Epiderm? Those were the main ones that came into her mind. Sometimes her friend had some weird things about her, like knowing a strange language she never heard about, going to some mysterious school she didn’t know or knowing some weird facts about humans. The last one was something she didn’t say too often, but every time she mentioned something, she seemed pretty sure of it.

Maybe the witch had a fascination for humans? Willow had seen some people wanting some human stuff from some stand in the market. But the child never saw it, not really interested in that stuff. The child preferred more learning about plants and growing them.

“Should we make more?” Well, they were protected by the sunglasses now, so it should be safe.

Willow nodded, “let’s make my room the brightest.” Besides, what’s the worst harm it could do? Luz went back to drawing her glyphs, the witch tried to mimic her. But it was a bit complicated to draw good circles, for her it was easier to just cast the spell like normal.

Her friend finished a spell, “so, how’s school going?” Huh, she didn’t think she’d be interested in that stuff, “just curious.” Fair, her friend was pretty curious about stuff.

“It’s… going…” she still hadn’t been able to make friends in her class. All of them called her half-a-witch Willow and would try to play with her. At least most of them would do that, but the worst was Amity with her friends, saying all of those mean things about her, “but it’s hard to make friends there…” She created another light, which floated up to the ceiling.

“Yeah… I know the feeling,” Luz finished drawing a spell and activated it, “it’s hard to make friends.” Yeah, how did some people do it? “At least I managed to make a new one not too long ago,” really? That was amazing, “she mentioned she went to Hexide too.” Wait, really? Then who could it be? “Maybe you know her,” the witch wasn’t sure whether that would be good or bad. At least in her class there was no one she got along with.

Well, maybe she should just give it a chance, “what’s her name?” Who knew? Maybe this witch could be a friend since she also friended Luz.

“Oh right, her name’s A-” “are you two having fu- AGH MY EYES!” Both jumped at her papa’s scream.

Footsteps could be heard, “Harvey, Raine already told us to be careful.” Her dad and Raine appeared, this time both were wearing sunglasses. He then gave her papa some sunglasses to protect his eyes.

The bard then sighed, “well this isn’t surprising at all.” Luz just smiled at them, which made them chuckle, “how about you hold off a bit on the light glyphs, none of us want you to get some sunburn.” Oh right, that was a dangerous thing to get, “at least this time Luz’s wearing something for her eyes,” wait, did she do that before without wearing sunglasses?

Her friend didn’t deny it, “whoops.” How many could she really make in a short time?

Either way, Raine sighed, “it’s getting late Luz, ready to go home?” What? Really? But it felt like she just got here.

Her friend looked like she felt the same, “five more minutes?” Yeah, just a few more minutes to hang out together. Unfortunately, neither of the adults seemed to be happy with that idea.

“Remember this is a school night little leaf,” aw, her papa was right. She forgot about that.

“Ok…” both children said in unison and Luz went to be next to Raine.

She waved at her, “hope you have fun at school.” Willow probably wouldn’t but she appreciated the encouragement her friend gave her. The witch wished she went to Hexide with her, that way she’d have a friend in school again.

The witch waved back, “I hope to see you soon Luz.” And after the adults said their goodbyes, the two left for their home.

Chapter Text

Her nini was on their study room with the crystal ball, she overheard something about the new young members of the bard coven and what position they could have. It sounded pretty boring so she tried to find something to entertain herself.

Much to her surprise, Azura didn’t do the trick, also her nini told her to take a break from drawing glyphs. Mainly because her hand hurt. If only it didn’t do that after she drew a lot.

The child looked under the coffee table in the living room and noticed something in there. She grabbed it and it looked like a photo album. Huh, she didn’t know those were a thing in the Boiling Isles. She thought those kinds of things would be more like a magical picture that showed multiple photos every few seconds. But this was cool too.

She sat down on the couch and opened it. The very first picture she saw had her nini in it, it said something about coven initiation. Their smile seemed a bit weird, but she couldn’t pinpoint why. They also looked tired here.

Though the other thing that called her attention, it was the four people around them.

One of them was really tall and muscular with dark skin, she had curly dark brown hair that seemed to cover both of her eyes, but she had one hand that moved part of the hair away to reveal green eyes similar to her nini’s. Luz also noticed that she had a sigil of the construction coven if she could remember the sigils right.

The one next to the tall witch was shorter in comparison, but still taller than her nini, her really long hair was black with twists, her skin was also dark and had dark brown eyes. Though something she noticed was that this witch had what she assumed was the equivalent of a prosthetic leg, it reached to the middle of her thigh. She also had a coven sigil though this time it was from the abomination coven.

Then on the other side next to her nini there was another witch who was the shortest amongst them, though her nini wasn’t much taller than her. The witch’s hair was really long and a similar green to her nini’s, though also a bit… burnt? Her eyes were blue and she was wearing glasses. On her shoulder there was a coven sigil that indicated she was from the potions coven.

Finally, the fourth person was also taller than her nini, her skin was light brown, her hair was a dark green though there were some signs of it greying and her eyes were dark blue, though there was something that looked like… eyelashes? The child wasn’t sure, on her cheek. She was also carrying a book, but she couldn’t figure out what it might be from the picture. The human also noticed that the witch’s coven sigil showed she was from the oracle coven.

The four strange witches were smiling, though they were directly looking at her nini. Wait, all of them shared some characteristic with the witch. Could these be their moms? They mentioned they had four moms.

All of them looked… nice.

Would they technically be her… grandparents? Well, yeah, since they’re her nini’s moms that was how those things worked. But she never met them and they never met her. Would they like her? She didn’t have the best track record when it came to grandparents.

Her thoughts got cut off when she heard a whine, “I swear to Titan, where did that trend of smashing music instruments after a performance come from?” What? Huh, she remembered some of that happening in her world. Though Luz never saw that happening in person. Also, her papá would flinch and close his eyes whenever something like that happened on the TV.

“I saw it sometimes back in my world,” her nini looked at her, “I don’t know, I think they thought it looked cool.” That was her idea, since there were also some sparks when that happened.

The adult sighed, “well, I’d prefer if they didn’t try that in the middle of the classes.” They approached her, “what were you looking at?” The child showed them the photo album, “oh, forgot I still had this,” they began to look at the different pages. Most of them were of them doing some kind of performance, or even conducting an orchestra. “It had been a few years now…” they put it away.

Luz remembered the first picture she saw, “were those ladies your moms?” Her nini seemed confused, “in the first picture, something about an initiation.” She wondered how those things worked. The child never went to one.

It looked like they figured out what the human meant, “oh, yeah, that picture was when I began teaching for the bard coven.” Her nini looked away, “it was a… day.” That was a weird way to put it.

The child began to fidget with her fingers, “they looked nice.” Luz wondered if she’d be able to get along with them.

The adult smiled, “yeah, they are…” even her nini was confident she’d like them. In spite of what she told them about her past experiences with grandparents. If only the child had a way to see into the future and see how things would turn out.

Well, like her mamá said, nada funcionará, a no ser que lo hagas funcionar. “Do you remember when you said I could meet them whenever I felt comfortable?” Her nini nodded, “well, I think maybe I can do it now.” She took a deep breath, “but… can you stay with me?” The child didn’t want to do this alone.

The adult put a hand on her head, “of course,” thank… Titan? “Say, how about I call them now to see when we can see them,” wait, right now? Like, they’re going to get their crow right now? Things were going quick right now.

She hesitated a bit, “y-yeah, it’s fine.” Was this going too fast? But she told them she was alright, they were already calling the crow number.

Well, probably they would ask for some day far away. Her nini said they lived in the palm, and they lived in the ribs of the Titan, so maybe she had some days to brace herself. “Hey ama,” a voice answered, but she couldn’t tell what it said, “yeah, I’m good, but I was wondering, my daughter told me that she wanted to meet you four, maybe we could choose a date so we can visit you?” There was no answer from the other side.

The silence was weird, “did they say yes?” Luz asked them, but they were focused on the crow now.

“I… don’t know,” the adult checked the crow, “I didn’t hang up and neither did she, ama?” They put the crow back in their ear again, “did you hear-” “YES!” This time she understood what the other person said, well this time it sounded like multiple people. Her nini got so startled that they almost dropped the crow onto the floor.

Luz looked at the witch, “was that them?” They nodded.

“Alright, so whe-” “RIGHT NOW!” This time, her nini put the crow far away from their ear. “But, it’s far away, and-” “YOU CAN STAY THE NIGHT!” Wow, the adult’s moms liked to scream through the crow.

“Let me ask her first!” They managed to say quickly, “so… you heard them, what do you say? I don’t have work tomorrow, so it should be fine.” Luz could meet her… grandparents? Today. Was this going a bit too fast? But the human did want to meet them, her nini said they were nice, maybe this time it’d be different. Just like how she expected to have a hard time making friends here but now she had Willow and Amity.

Yeah, her parents would be happy that she was meeting new people too. Also, her nini was going to stay with her, so everything should be fine, “alright.” They smiled and went back to the crow.

“She said yes,” Luz heard some cheering as the adult hung up. “Well, guess… we need to prepare some clothes,” oh right, she forgot about that part.

—

Raine didn’t know how but they managed to grab the last airship to the palm. The adult was glad for it, they did kind of miss their moms, it had been a while since they last saw them, with the exception of their mom of course.

One of the main reasons the bard didn’t visit a lot, aside from the distance is that they wanted to be as far away from the rebellion as possible. When they found out that for their retirement they would move to the palm they were relieved. At that time they were starting to think about going against Belos so it would be the best for them.

Just like with Luz, the less she knew about the rebellion, the better.

“Is that the home they live in?” Raine got taken out of their thoughts as their daughter pointed at a single story home. It pretty much matched the address their moms gave her.

The bard nodded, “yeah, it is, ready to meet them?” She stayed silent, “what’s wrong?” Luz then tightened the hold on their hand.

“Just… nervous,” she looked up at them. “Will you stay with me all the time?” Right, even though the human was willing to do this, it still must be a bit of a stressful experience for her. Well, it wasn’t like they were going anywhere any time soon. The bard would stay with their daughter.

Raine smiled, “of course,” finally they were in front of the door. The bard looked down at their daughter, “you ready?” The child hesitated a bit but nodded.

As Luz held their hand tighter, the adult knocked on the door. Immediately, footsteps coming from the other side could be heard. Wait, Raine forgot to tell their moms the human could get overwhelmed with all of them at the same time. “Uh, maybe take a little step back,” while confused, their daughter listened. Just in time since the door was open in a second.

“RAINE!” Suddenly, they were wrapped into a hug, it felt nice to see them again.

The four witches let go of them, “how have you been doing?” Their ama asked, she was sitting on her wheelchair and tried to take a look at their face. “Looks like you’ve been eating well,” to be fair, the adult needed to make sure their daughter ate well.

“Tell me, does your house have enough space for experiments? I love it when you try to be more creative with your spells,” their ma continued with the questions. Though the adult would never be able to reach the same level of destruction she did. Maybe Eda would beat her with it, though it had been years since they last saw her. Wait, was her hair burnt? Oh Titan, what could she have tried now?

“Marianne was right, you are more tense now,” their mama commented, great, hopefully she didn’t find out that they were planning a rebellion. Because Titan knew what would happen if she saw that. “We are seriously surprised on how determined you are in rising the ranks in… let’s not talk about that now,” yeah, Raine would admit it wasn’t like them. Unless they knew all the background.

Their mom then appeared and ruffled their hair, “well, enough about seeing each other again, where is she?” Now their moms were looking at them.

“Well…” the bard looked back and saw Luz was way more nervous than before. “Hey, it’s alright,” they picked her up and she calmed down a bit. Finally she was face to face with their moms and luckily, all of them backed up a little bit.

Time for some introductions, “this is my mom, Marianne,” they pointed at the tall witch. “My ama, Layla,” the witch sitting in the wheelchair waved at the child. “My ma, Ignis,” they pointed at the one with burnt hair, their ama lit off a strand of hear in the meantime. “And my mama, Charlotte,” they gestured at the witch with four eyes. Though it looked like one of her eyes were gone, she must be reading a book somewhere.

Their daughter clenched their shirt, “hi…” None of them said anything and just stared at the human. Come on, Luz gathered this must courage to meet them, at least one of their moms could say something.

Their ma was the first one to react, “wow, Marianne wasn’t kidding, she really could be her daughter too.” THEY TOOK IT BACK.

The human tilted her head, “who?” Oh great, now she was confused, well, confused was better than nervous, maybe.

Just a mention of the wild witch wouldn’t hurt her, “just an… old friend.” There, that should be enough explanation for the child. No need to meddle in their past romantic relationships. Much less with an eight year old they adopted. “And like I told mom, she has no relation to her, so there’s no need to bring her up anymore,” they gave their moms a glare and they got the message, luckily.

However, their ma got too close to Luz’s face, “come on, you can’t deny the similarities.” Yeah, there were but they’d rather just assume they were coincidences.

Also, their daughter seemed pretty uncomfortable, at least their ama intervened, “come on Ignis, while we love your curiosity for everything, maybe move away a little bit, at least until she’s more used to this.” The human let out a sigh of relief when she moved away.

“So, introductions are done, how about we get in and eat the food Charlotte made,” wait, Raine hadn’t told them about what Luz could and couldn’t eat.

“It’s alright Raine, I already know what things Luz can’t eat,” their mama informed. Right, oracle magic.

They looked at their daughter, “you ready?” The human looked at the inside of the home, there wasn’t a lot to see from that angle. But even then, their daughter nodded and smiled. It seemed like Luz was warming up fine to their moms.

—

This felt… weird…

But not in a bad way, more in like, Luz really wasn’t used to these many adults talking to her in a non condescending or mean manner. Sure, she had her nini and their students. However, her nini’s moms? Now that was a surprisingly amount of people that didn’t look at her like she was doing something wrong.

What they made tasted pretty good, the human heard grandparents made the best food. She wasn’t sure if that was true since the child still liked her mamá and papá’s food, but this was good too.

Although as weird as this was…

Luz didn’t mind getting used to this.

Still, she’d hold onto her nini for a little while longer. After all, the child didn’t know if they’d suddenly change their attitude when no one was around. That was something her foster parents did when they first met. Pretty much become different people when she entered her supposed new home.

Even though it never felt like it for her.

“So, Luz,” the child jumped a bit but turned to look at Layla. “Anything you like?” Oh, she was just asking about her tastes. That was a normal thing to ask.

There was no need to be nervous about it, they probably don’t even know about the books she read. Besides, her nini was with her, no need to be scared as long as she was with them. “I… like the good witch Azura,” only her nini got what she meant. “It’s a book, I really like it,” well… that might be an understatement. If only the human found some posters in this world, she already found another fan, it could be possible.

She smiled, “that sounds great! Also some idea for your birthday,” the witch said. Her birthday? Oh right, with everything that happened she didn’t put much thought into it.

It had been her first birthday without her parents.

The child tried not to think too much about that, right now it should be a more or less happy moment. Though her nini began to tense up. Why? As far as she knew, she didn’t say anything rude while talking to their moms.

Before Luz could ask them if they were fine, Marianne spoke up, “oh right, before we forget, when’s your birthday?” She chuckled, “I forgot to ask when I talked with Raine.” While her nini stayed silent, the others laughed.

“You are the one who forgets things the most,” Charlotte added. Much to Marianne’s dismay.

All of them were happy and comfortable with each other. It brought her memories of her mamá and papá, they loved each other a lot. Though the laughing stopped and went back to pay back attention to her. Right, her birthday, “well…” farts, she forgot how the dates worked in the Demon Realm. “I think it was a… a few weeks ago?” A couple of days before the move, she was sure about that.

After saying that the room went completely silent.

There was no sound or any movement.

Did her nini mute the place and she didn’t notice?

“I should have asked earlier,” Luz heard them say. Why? It wasn’t a big deal or anything like that, right? After everything they’d done for her, there was no need for a birthday party, gifts or anything.

Also, for some reason her nini’s moms were glaring at them.

“Quick question!” Marianne exclaimed, “do you like magic Luz?” She nodded excitedly, there were so many types of magic and the child still hadn’t seen all of them, “how about you and I go to the backyard and I show you some construction magic, since you weren’t during the move.” Wow, she didn’t really saw a lot of construction magic in action.

But… “can nini comes with us?” Luz still didn’t want to be too far away from them.

“Of cour-” “you’re not getting away that easily witchlet,” Charlotte said. Wait, what was she talking about?

Marianne approached her, “they have… some things to tell Raine, but if you want to come back in at any moment, you can.” That did sound good and she’d probably see them even while outside. It should be fine for her.

Yeah, also, this could be like some kind of trial for herself, the child shouldn’t be nervous all the time around adults. Specially not ones her nini trusted, “alright.” She could do this.

The witch guided her out of the house and she closed the door, “RAINE WHISPERS!” Was the last thing she heard until the adult closed the door. Should she be worried about her nini?

“Don’t worry, they just want to… make things clear, and I’m not good with expressing that stuff,” Luz didn’t get what she was talking about, but alright. Now to focus on the new thing, magic! The human wondered what could construction magic do. Well, the building part is obvious because of the name, but there had to be something else, “wanna see me build a pillar in a second?” Oh, did she?

She jumped in excitement, “yes! Yes! Yes!” The witch seemed happy and created a spell circle, creating a pillar from the ground. “That was so cool! Again! Again!” No matter how many times she saw it in person, it was still amazing.

The witch kneeled in front of her, “mind if I pick you up?” She offered her hands, well, she was a pretty tall witch. The view from up there must be cool, so the child nodded and Marianne smiled, “alright, up we go!” She sat on her shoulders, wow, everything seemed so different from up there. Luz could even see the fingers of the Titan.

She gasped as she looked at her surroundings, “aw, glad you like it.” The child nodded, it was so fun to be at an adult’s height.

“What else can construction magic do?” Derwin and her nini gave her some of the basics, but never something in real life. Since they got those coven sigils, they could only do bard magic, as much of a bummer as that sounded, it wasn’t something they could change. It was so weird to choose something like that. Why was it so bad for everyone to do all types of magic? It wasn’t fair that only Belos could do it just because a supposed Titan said so.

Marianne chuckled, “Raine wasn’t lying, you really like to learn about all types of magic.” Ah, did they tell her that? Wait, was that a bad thing? With the whole coven system, “don’t worry, you’re still young…” the child eyed her coven sigil, “no need to rush these things, I know someone who did.” Who? “Well let’s forget about that!” That changed fast, “in the construction coven aside from building things we get to destroy lots of buildings,” ooooh, like destroying a lego tower, it was fun to do. “We are also capable of making ourselves stronger and we do some rescue stuff,” rescuing? She noticed her confusion, “you know, if there’s some kind of building falling down or a natural disaster, aside from the healing coven, we are the first people who deal with the damaged areas to rescue people,” oooooh, there were people like that in her world.

Though it was a bad thing she couldn’t see that in person now. Wait no, that was a good thing, it meant no one was hurt.

Aside from that, the human was curious, “what other stuff did you do?” Being in the construction coven sounded fun.

The witch pointed at the house, “I fixed that,” wait, she meant the HOUSE!? “Yeah, me and my wives were looking for a place to retire and this house looked just perfect, and a good project to say goodbye for my working days,” wow, that was so cool, “for a week at most.” Guess she still had some energy for that.

“Yaya, can you tell me more?” Luz froze, what did she just call her?

This was just like with her nini all over again, “sorry, what did you just call me?” Farts, that must be a term from her world.

“Uuuuuh…” well, it wouldn’t hurt to tell her part of the truth. That was what her nini said in case they asked some questions, just to avoid revealing the human realm part. “With my biological parents, we had this… language, and that’s a way to call grandma’s,” maybe she was pushing it too far, “sorry, it just slipped out, if you don’t like it I can stop.” Not like she ever had a grandparent to call that.

She must have ruined the happy mood right now, “are you kidding?” The witch picked her up and now she was right in front of her, “I love it! Of course you can!” Luz was then in a hug.

It was pretty strong.

The human returned it, “I’m glad you do.” Maybe now she could have grandparents that liked her.

—

Their head still hurt from their moms scolding, but if Raine was honest, they kind of earned it. The adult should have asked Luz when was her birthday earlier. Specially for the fact that they literally missed it.

However, there was another thing bothering them, why didn’t she say anything? Sure, the adult knew the child had a hard time sharing things, but they never expected for one of them to be her birthday. But it didn’t matter how many theories they had over it, the bard should ask Luz about it directly.

The guest room was decent enough, there was only a single bed so both would share. Their daughter was pretty much ready to go to sleep. It seemed like a good moment to ask her, “Luz?” The human looked up at them, “I wanted to ask you about earlier.”

She tilted her head, “about my birthday?” Well, at least they didn’t have to introduce the topic awkwardly.

They nodded, “yeah just…” Raine sat down on the bed next to her, “did you know it was your birthday the day it was?” The human nodded, “then… why didn’t you say anything?” Sure, maybe it would have been with very little preparation, but they would have been able to do something. Maybe something like whatever humans did in their world.

The child looked away, “well… it was during the time you were preparing the move, I noticed in the calendar it was my birthday but since you were so busy I just… didn’t think it was that important.” Of course it was important, “since you already did so much for me, I just thought that was more than enough, no need for any birthday celebration stuff.” Every single thing they did was the least they could do to help her. Luz should be alright with wanting to celebrate her birthday.

“Luz…” the child looked up, “if your birthday is special for you then it’s alright to tell me, it doesn’t matter if I’m working in other stuff, after adopting you, one of my main priorities became you and everything that comes with it.” They patted her head, “so with these kinds of things, just tell me ok?” Raine would have to tell their students too, but maybe once they were done with their things. Amber was currently working on her final exams, meanwhile Derwin and Katya were preparing for a recital.

Fortunately, it seemed like the human understood, “ok.” She began to hug them and Raine returned it, “but you really don’t have to do anything this year,” they’d see what their students have to say about it. Also their moms.

Though for now the only thing they could do was chuckle, “alright, I get it, now, let’s sleep, tomorrow’s going to be a long day too.” Since their moms probably still wanted to get to know Luz a bit more. At least their mom was happy with the time she spent with their daughter, the human even began to call her ‘yaya’ much to their other moms jealousy.

The child stared at her earring, “can I take it off? It’s starting to hurt a bit.” She pointed at her concealment stone. Right, she’d been wearing it for the entire day, that couldn’t be good for her. Raine should check properly for how long she’d been wearing something.

They nodded, “of course,” they removed the earring and put it next to their glasses. “Ready to sleep now?”

Luz nodded and clung onto them, the bard tucked both of them in, with Fiddlesticks finding a spot to get comfortable in and they removed their glasses. “Good night nini,” she nuzzled closer to them.

Raine smiled, “good night Luz.” And after getting rid of the light spells, they closed their eyes holding their daughter close.

Chapter Text

Raine was in the castle, it was supposedly a normal day where they had to accompany Scooter Crane. But there was a slight problem in that.

There was no one else around.

Not a single witch on their sight, they were alone in this massive place. The bard didn’t know whether that was good or bad. But for now, they should look for their head witch.

As they walked through the hallways, they didn’t find anyone else. Where did everyone go? This place was usually full of scouts preparing for some raid or changing shifts. Sure, the places where the offices of the head witches usually didn’t have people walking around, but this was strange. Even creepier than normal.

Finally, Raine reached the throne room, they tried to make as little noise as possible to not have the attention on them. However, that proved to not be a problem, the room was pretty much empty.

Except for someone in the middle of the room.

“Luz!?” How did she even… no, now it wasn’t to question those things. They didn’t want her to be in the castle, this was no place for a child to be in, “I don’t know how you got here, but we’re getting you out of here.” The child didn’t move, she was just staring at the giant heart in the room, its beating was even.

Raine grabbed her hand, “let’s go, it’s better if no one else sees you.” They tried to drag her out, but she didn’t budge, “Luz?” Their daughter wasn’t even looking back at them.

“He knows…” the adult paused. What? Who knew what? “He’s watching and he knows…” the room began to distort. All of the walls were warping and blue eyes began to appear. They picked their daughter up and held her protectively.

Then, they attempted to whistle to make those eyes go away.

But it didn’t work.

Some green sludge appeared on the floor it was beginning to climb up their legs. Raine tried to get it off but they couldn’t move.

“Remember who she is,” their daughter said, looking directly at them, her eyes were completely black and water pooled out of her mouth.

Raine jerked awake, only for a light to be right on the face. Making them close their eyes, “ugh…” dear Titan what a nightmare. They tried to take deep breaths, no one but their students knew about the rebellion, their daughter was fine, right next to them holding onto their shirt. Yeah, everything was alright, it was just their paranoid mind playing tricks on them.

The bard tried to open their eyes again, only to be met with the same light. They closed them again and moved the light away to safely take a look at the room.

Where did that light spell even come from?

One look at their daughter’s hair and yup, she had a few glyphs stored in her hair. Raine should have told her to remove those when she was going to bed. At least it was just light and not something more dangerous like fire.

They should go back to sleep now. But the bard didn’t feel tired at all, and they didn’t want to have that nightmare again.

Maybe their moms had something to help them go back to sleep?

It sounded like a good idea, Raine tried to get Luz off of them, however, they ran into some complications. Those complications being her refusing to let go even while sleeping. The bard tried to use a bit more force, but Luz began to whine and stiffen, nope, they weren’t going to be the one to wake her up.

Guess they’d just have to carry her.

The bard carefully opened the door, they didn’t want to wake up their moms. With a simple light spell the adult went to the kitchen.

“Oh wow, this brings memories,” Raine jumped and looked back, when did their ama appear? Fortunately, they were fast enough to hide Luz’s ears. “Couldn’t sleep? You don’t have any concerts tomorrow,” well, while it was true they always had a bad time sleeping the day before a performance, they didn’t appreciate the comment.

“Very funny ama…” they let out, “I just… had a weird dream and couldn’t go back to sleep.” Fortunately, the older witch didn’t ask for details of the nightmare.

Instead, she pointed at Luz, “and… any reason to be carrying her? She looks asleep,” yeah, the child definitely was sleeping.

Raine looked away, “she… wouldn’t let go of me in her sleep.” Not like they were complaining, since that nightmare made them a bit paranoid over their daughter’s safety. Their mom would have put some security system and also it would be weird for anything dangerous to appear in the house.

Their ama smiled, “aw, you used to do that too.” Huh? “There was even one time you clung to the four of us and we couldn’t move!” Good thing the human was sleeping right now.

The older witch went ahead of them, “come on, Ignis made that broth you liked not too long ago, way more effective than any sleeping nettle.” With that, she went to the kitchen, Raine followed her and tried to help her with preparing things. Only to have some abomination drag them to sit down on a chair, “you’re not doing any work.” The bard would protest, but they knew it wouldn’t work out.

A few moments later, there was a cup with warm broth inside. Raine wasn’t sure if Luz would be able to try it unfortunately. The taste reminded of things from when they were younger.

The adult took a sip of it, “you are still in trouble by the way.” They almost chocked on their drink. None of them were going to let go of it, were they? “We could have gotten something special for her,” yeah, they would have done the same if they knew at the time. But the child never told them and they weren’t sure if it was too late by now.

“I’m… sorry for that…” Raine stared at their daughter, who was sleeping peacefully. “Just, it all happened really fast,” they’d only known Luz for a few months but there were so many changes thanks to her.

Their ama’s expression softened, “alright, I get it, but we’re still not happy about that.” They understood, anyone would be, “guess also taking care of a human has been complicated.” Raine slowly looked up, their eyes widening, “oh come on, you know darling Charlotte has loose lips when she’s asleep.” THEIR MAMA KNEW THIS WHOLE TIME!? “We all know by now actually,” oh great.

The bard groaned, “we tried to keep it secret…” Since the Boiling Isles wasn’t kind with people without magic, let alone a human.

Their ama smiled, “I’m sure you did.” She glanced at their daughter, “but that still doesn’t excuse not telling us her birthday.” Nope they were never going to let this go.

“Any way to make it up to you?” The bard said awkwardly. Something to have them be less upset.

“How about you give us some more clues about her?” Really? But there wasn’t really anything Luz wanted. Maybe more things involving the good witch Azura, though none of them found anything else other than the volumes. And all of them checked, in many places.

Also didn’t help how most of those supposed author’s signings, ended up getting cancelled last minute.

However, there was the other thing, “she mentioned being interested in learning the violin…” It came out of their mouth. Crap, not in front of her, “I mea-” “you can talk about music stuff in front of me Raine.” They immediately stopped.

None of their moms told them the whole story, but even then they got some glimpses on it, “I know I rushed to get a sigil and maybe I was too afraid that I wouldn’t get as many chances if I joined the bard coven, but I don’t regret it.” The older witch looked at her coven sigil, “it was all to make sure you got the best and besides.” She created a spell circles and a few abominations appeared, playing some instruments made out of abomination goop, “doesn’t mean I have sneaky ways of doing it,” the abominations disappeared right after.

Yeah, all of them mentioned they wanted the best future for the bard. At least their moms didn’t know where that took them, preparing a rebellion against the empire.

“Yeah… sorry…” at least their moms were able to do whatever they wanted now. Far away from most of the emperor’s influence.

Their ama smiled, “don’t worry about that, now, tell me, she wants to learn the violin, right?” The adult nodded, “this brought some memories from when you started to learn music,” she chuckled and grabbed a crystal ball. “I think we have some videos in here,” nope, they didn’t want to remember anything of that.

Raine grabbed the crystal ball, “no need to go down memory lane that much ama.” Also, Luz was sleeping, she didn’t need to hear their first attempts with an organ.

It had been a bloodbath.

Their ama gave up and sighed, “fine…” She took a look at Luz, “you know, when Marianne told us you adopted a little girl we were all shocked.” Fair, it was also a very big surprise, “we thought that if you were to have children it’d be with Eda.” Alright, there wasn’t a need to bring her up, “but we’re glad you decided a path of your own,” she smiled, “you seem happier than when you joined the bard coven, or the many promotions you got.” Yeah, those moments weren’t… exactly the happiest.

When they joined their coven they broke up with Eda not too long ago and those promotions weren’t because they wanted to climb up the ranks. But because the bard needed the information on Belos’s plans.

“I… guess…” there were still some things they weren’t sure about. If what they were doing was best for Luz, Raine didn’t know about her birthday until not too long ago, she also wasn’t going to school. “I still have my doubts though…” there were probably better parents out there. Specially ones that weren’t planning a dangerous rebellion against a tyrant where their children could be affected.

“Raine…” they looked up at their ama, “you’re always been a good witch, always finding new ways of doing bard magic and learning as many things as you can, but also many times you were stressed about things and nervous about things going wrong.” She then pointed at the human, “no child who doesn’t trust their parent would be so comfortable around them,” but it wasn’t that much of a big deal, they were just taking care of her and making sure she was safe. “You are doing great,” they tensed up and held Luz closer to them.

“I…” everything Raine wanted was to her to be alright and to have a good life. The human had already gone through enough.

Then they felt a hand on their back, the bard didn’t notice their ama was next to them now, “our magical musician has grown so much.” Wow, the adult hadn’t heard that in a long time, “now, let’s get back to bed.” Yeah, it was about time.

Which reminded them to ask, “why were you awake ama?”

The witch paused, “oh, I just fell out of the bed.” They blinked twice, of course, even when they were younger, their moms bed wasn’t big enough for four people. Even then all of them refused to get a bigger one. So that shouldn’t surprise them, “was a bit of a hassle to find my wheelchair in the dark.” Raine wasn’t even gonna question that.

“You know, you could always get a bigger bed,” all of their moms would try to stay as close as they could in the bed. But the four could still do that even with a bigger one.

However, their ama slowly turned around to look at Raine in the eyes, “never.” She answered bluntly.

Not surprising at all.

—

Luz slowly woke up and looked around, while it was still dark, she noticed that the room didn’t look like hers. Though her nini was right next to her and Fiddlesticks was sleeping on the pillow.

Oh right, they were in her nini’s moms home.

The child talked with them a bit yesterday, it had been pretty fun. For now the witch she got along the best with within the four was with her yaya, though she wondered how getting along with the others would be. Since the human didn’t talk with them that much.

It still felt weird to meet a grandparent and not have them immediately dislike her. But she preferred this by far.

So, what could she do now? Luz wasn’t sleepy anymore but her nini was. It wouldn’t be nice to make them wake up just because she was. Maybe she could leave and take a look around? The child wouldn’t touch anything so it should be fine.

As careful as she could, she slipped out of the bed and left the room.

Now, where could she go? The child wasn’t that familiar with this place, she knew where the basic places were, but nothing else.

A bit of a look around and saw the other bedroom, the witches were sleeping, was she the only one awake? If that was the case she should go back to sleep, just in case. The child began their way back to the room, however, on the corner of her eye she saw through the gap of a closed door, a bit of light.

Luz knew it was rude to enter a room without permission, but she was also curious. The human considered the possibilities, “you can come in, you know?” A voice said. If she remembered correctly it was from Charlotte.

Even with the confirmation, she hesitantly opened the door. The room’s walls were full of books, even part of the ceiling had a bunch, it was like a book room. It was so cool, the human wondered how many books there might be in here. However, she wasn’t alone, in front of her there was another one of her nini’s moms. She was holding one book on her hand, however, there were two others floating close to her and also two eyes staring at them. Wait, was the witch reading three books at the same time?

Both stared at each other, her ears were covered by her hair, so that shouldn’t be a problem. But right now, she didn’t know how to start a conversation with her.

Luz looked around, “I like your… book room?” She’d never seen a place with so many books in the same place that wasn’t a library. Did Charlotte read all of them? How many were there? She wondered what all of them were about.

The witch stared at her for a few seconds, and stretched, “alright.” She began to look at the bookshelves, the child tilted her head in confusion.

Finally, a book floated to her hands, “here you go.” Then the witch offered it to her. Was she offering it to her? But she barely knew the human, “don’t worry, I know you’d like it.” Luz hesitantly picked it up. Then the witch looked around, “oh right, you need something to sit on,” then she moved a bunch of pillows with her magic and made a seat next to her.

Then Charlotte picked her up and sat her down, “there we go, now you can read comfortably.” Luz was… a bit confused.

The child took a look at the book, it was called ‘Fairy Birch’ she didn’t hear about it. But the adult mentioned she would like it. And she was an oracle, oracles are supposed to know a lot about things that were happening.

Wait, did she know Luz was human?

Well, the witch never mentioned it, so hopefully not? That would be something complicated to explain, like how she ran away, then her nini found her and took care of her, initially trying to help her a way back but then deciding to fully become a family. Even then they said that if there was a way to visit the human realm they’d find it.

Now that she put everything together, it was a lot.

Hopefully that would be the craziest thing in her life. Now all the child wanted was live her life with her new family and learn magic.

And right now, try this book Charlotte recommended.

The book was nice, it was about twins who had completely different fairy powers. How even with their differences they stayed being sisters and loved each others, also the magic was a bit different to the one in the Boiling Isles. Guess even in a fantasy world, there were people that created their own fantasy world.

It also wasn’t too long, so she got done with it pretty quickly, “did you like it?” The witch questioned and Luz nodded.

Though while she had some fun this was confusing, “why did you give me this book to read?” Sure, it was nice of her, but she thought that people usually talked to each other to get to know them better. This definitely wasn’t what happened.

Charlotte shrugged, “I’m not the best with words,” the child tilted her head. “But what I am good is recommending books, so, just for you to have a good time for a bit,” Luz went back to stare at the book she recommended. She did have a good time reading it, also, she didn’t know how much time had passed.

This… brought her some memories, “mi papá recommended me the good with Azura…” Luz froze, was it rude to mention her biological parents in front of her nini’s moms?

However, the witch didn’t seem bothered, “well, guess he was a person of taste.” Well, he did like reading books, just like her mamá did too. Both enjoyed this specific book, it looked more like science fiction which she wasn’t really that interested in. Also, her parents mentioned she was a bit too young for it.

Now the human really wanted to read them, just to see what her parents liked.

“He really knew what I’d enjoy,” she remember loving it so much when she first read it. Her mamá then got her posters of Azura and the second volume. She wondered if it was safe back in her home in Gravesfield.

It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy the Boiling Isles. But there were times she really missed her world, at least the time her parents were with her.

Now there was some awkward silence between the two. Maybe she should’ve kept it to herself the talk about her papá. Since they didn’t know him and he didn’t know them. But the child missed him, just like her mamá, hopefully both knew she was alright with her new nini.

“So…” the witch began to talk, “I know I mostly focus on books, but a kid like you must enjoy other things…” Then she looked at her.

Oh, she wanted to know about what the human liked. Well, Luz already mentioned yesterday the good witch Azura, and she probably didn’t have those volumes here. Fortunately, there was another thing she liked doing, “I like casting spells.” Even though she’d… calmed down a little bit, mostly because of her nini’s insistence of ‘needing to eat, sleep and clean.’

Charlotte raised an eyebrow, “I thought Marianne said you didn’t have magic.” Oh, right the human never mentioned that.

Luz looked around, “do you have paper and a pencil?” While confused, the witch summoned what she needed and gave it to her. The child then drew the light glyph and tapped it, making a ball of light out of the glyph.

“This is how I can do magic,” the witch’s eyes widened at her demonstration.

Immediately, she summoned another pencil and… a lot of paper, “mind showing me that again?” Luz smiled and nodded.

—

When Raine woke up, Luz wasn’t with them. They freaked out a bit, but remembered this was their moms home, she couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air. Maybe she was with her moms or exploring the rest of the home.

Well, even though their moms knew about their daughter’s limited choice of foods. The bard would rather keep an eye on her for that. Firt they nudged their palismen, “want to wake up or sleep for a bit longer?” The only response they got, was the fox moving a bit to be even more under the covers. The adult chuckled, “guess I got my answer.” They’d come back for him later.

Just as they left the room, they saw their ama, ma and mom watching over their mama’s book room. “Uuuuh, what are you-” the three sushed them and pointed inside.

One look in the room and saw Luz was with their mama drawing light glyphs. “You didn’t tell us she knew magic like that,” their ma said. “I wonder if I could do some experiments on it,” oh Titan, this could end up in disaster.

“Her doing magic has been… something recent,” even though Luz did it as if she knew it from birth.

However, there was a new concern from them, “how long have they been doing this?” If it were for Luz, they would do it every single second of the day.

Their mom shrugged, “found them like this.” Guess it would stay a mystery.

Finally, their daughter looked up and noticed them, “hi nini! Look at what me and grandma are doing!” The child declared happily, even though their mama was shocked at what she just called her. Guess the human was warming up to their moms.

Unfortunately, their ma and ama were defeated, “good to see you’re getting along with her Charlotte.” Their ama said, in spite of sounding disappointed.

The human then stood up and hugged them, “I’m glad you’re getting along.” They picked her up, “did you sleep well?” The child nodded happily and then nuzzled their cheek. “Well, we have a whole day before we have to go, so how about we get started?” Luz then turned to look at their moms, who were still happy of seeing her.

“Ok!” She said excitedly.

Chapter Text

“Alright, I’m taking her,” just as Luz finished breakfast. Ignis picked her up and left the house, the human was a bit confused, also a bit concerned that her nini seemed worried.

They stood up, “uuuuh, are you sure?” What did the adult think it would happen? When the child met her for the first time there was some fire on her hair. Her mamá always told her to be careful with fire, since it could hurt anyone and if someone wasn’t careful, thing would get out of control. Also, her papá also told her that burns could be really bad.

Then Layla put a hand on their shoulder, “it’s ok Raine, Ignis might be a bit careless with herself, but she makes sure other people are safe.” Luz didn’t know whether that was actually good or bad.

However, now the child was curious.

She looked at her nini, “I’ll be fine!” The human waved at them as the witch took her outside.

“I don’t know why they are so worried,” she finally put her on the floor and Luz stared at her confused. “You destroy property because of experiments…” she began to count with her fingers, “I don’t know how many times and suddenly, I’m a danger to children.” Maybe it was better if Luz didn’t comment on that.

Then Ignis summoned a bunch of stuff that fell to the floor. “Besides, a child should be curious about things that happen in the world,” she paused for a second. “With some proper supervision from adults,” that was what her mamá did whenever she tried to get closer to some critter.

She approached the things to her. The human looked up at her confused, “you… want me to make a potion with them?” But no one taught her about potions, “I don’t know how to make any.” Though it would be cool to learn.

After she said that out loud she got nervous, maybe the child should have known at least the basics of potion making? But her nini never taught her. However, with adapting to this new life with her and the new home, the adult didn’t have a lot of time to teach her that stuff. Besides, Derwin saw more important to teach her about the Boiling Isles. Luz should have used the time at the library to look at potion making books and not the different stories.

Out of nowhere, Ignis laughed, “then that’s even better!” What? “Baby’s first potion, oh man, I love those,” the human stood there confused. “Come on, go wild, mix whatever you want, doesn’t matter if things explode,” she pointed at the different stuff she had.

Luz looked up at her, “are you sure it’s… safe?” Even her nini was a bit concerned even though the others seemed fine with it.

The witch didn’t seem too concerned, “don’t you worry, I experimented with aaaaaaaall kinds of things that I just find around.” Was that how potion making worked? The human thought there’d be more recipes and that kind of stuff. “I know what kinds of things could put you in mortal danger, it’s fine, I’ll warn you,” well, if she said so. “Also, I didn’t put the ingredients I had no idea what they could do to the potion,” well, that was a bit relieving.

One look at the ingredients and there were plants, some liquids, powders and… hair? Well, potion making was weird. Even in Azura they made magical potions with some weird ingredients from that world.

So, as Ignis recommended, she put in some different ingredients. She didn’t really take measures or anything, after she put some weird powder, one whole flower and some water, the witch then summoned some fire. “Take one step back,” the child assumed she knew better than her so she did as told.

A second later, there was a mini explosion, it destroyed the glass the potion was being contained, it fell onto the ground and made some plants grow. “Hah! You made one that makes plants grow faster,” the child stared at the few flowers. There weren’t many, but they were pretty.

Did she… do that?

Luz actually created a potion on her own.

It was so fun.

The child looked up at the witch, “abuelita,” she seemed surprised but looked down. “Can you show me more cool potions?” The others mentioned something about explosions, maybe she could show her that. Or maybe something to make someone change their hair colour. There were so many things Luz wanted to try out.

Her abuelita then smiled at her enthusiasm, “oh Titan, we’re gonna have so much fun.” The child cheered.

—

Raine and their moms watched as Luz and their ma had fun making whatever chaotic potions their minds came up with. “So, she’s definitely not yours and Eda’s daughter?” For the Titan didn’t know how many times, they shook their head. Luz wasn’t their daughter biologically speaking, it was true that there were some similarities but definitely not their child by blood.

“No ama, I swear,” they looked at Luz who was playing with their ma. “Besides, you know she’s human,” something unexpected, but not the worst people to know.

“Still a bit unbelievable,” the bard could agree with that. “Do you know how she ended up here?” Titan if they knew.

They rubbed the back of their neck, “just that she ran away, fell into a pond in the human realm and then I found her.” The adult would skip the part of those foster parents they’d love to have a good talk with.

Their ama smiled, “well, I’m glad you found her, Titan knows what could have happened to her in the forest.” Nope, not something they’d want to think about.

But either way, the bard was glad to have met Luz. So many changes in their life, they became a parent, moved out to a new home, though there was the part of plotting against the emperor. However, that was a part their daughter needed to know.

They kept a good look on the two all of their experiments were surprisingly peaceful. Guess today there wouldn’t be any kind of chaos.

Until a giant explosion came out of nowhere.

Why did they have to jinx it?

Raine, their mama, their ama and their mom all stood up in worry. However, once the smoke dissipated, it showed she and their mom were completely fine. In fact, Luz started to laugh at the whole thing. Almost like Eda.

“Raine, we love you and we want to fully trust you, but are you sure?” Their mama asked. The human started to grin and their ma. Really happy with the results.

“Again! Again! Even bigger this time!” Oh Titan, they forgot she enjoyed some chaos.

“I… I’m not even sure at this point,” the bard should probably stop this before things went too far and one of them got hurt. Sure, Raine trusted their ma, but they were still worried if something went wrong, they wouldn’t forgive themself for it.

Though much to their surprise, their ama stopped her, “don’t worry dear, I’ll go out with them, just let me grab my leg for outside.” The older witch then went further into the house.

“Need some help finding it?” Their mom asked.

“Don’t worry sweetie, this time I put it in the right spot,” with that, she went into the hallway towards the bedroom.

Their mama rolled her eyes, “no she didn’t, I actually did before she woke up.” Their mom snorted.

—

Who knew making potions was so fun? Luz didn’t, this was very different to when she tried back in the human realm. Mixing mud, twigs, leaves and some of her parents makeup just was not the same as this.

“Well, it looks like you two are enjoying yourselves,” both looked up and saw Layla was approaching the two. She wasn’t on her wheelchair anymore.

The child nodded, “yeah, abuelita is showing me so many cool things about potions.” Different recipes, how to make faster reactions, how to find new ingredients in nature.

Layla at first looked confused, was it the name she called her? Oh right, they didn’t know Spanish, “don’t worry, it’s just human language for human.” Luz paused, what did she just say? “Oh shoot, no one told you we knew you were human, right?” The child slowly shook her head. How? She was even wearing her earring.

Wait…

She wasn’t…

Luz should be more mindful about wearing it.

Before the human could freak out even more, Layla put a hand on her head, “it’s alright honey, Charlotte found out when she tried to make food you could eat and we did because she talks in her sleep.” Oh, wait, should she be concerned about other oracles? Well, as long as they didn’t look too much into her it should be fine.

Maybe…

Her abuelita nodded, “yeah, and as long as you and Raine are happy, we’re happy.” All of them were so nice. Was this how it felt like to have nice grandparents?

It was great.

She could get used to it.

As Luz was thinking about other combinations she could try, she noticed that Layla pulled out something from her pocket. “Oh, by the way Ignis, I found this while putting on my leg,” it was a potion bottle with light blue liquid inside.

Her abuelita grabbed it, “you found a test for the instant ice potion.” The human looked at her confused, which her abuelita noticed, “well, the palm is great, but sometimes it gets a bit too hot for us, so I wanted to have something that could create something instantaneous for the four of us to cool down.” That sounded great.

Layla smiled, “aw, I remember your first attempts, you’re always so caring.” Both of them then blushed.

Now Luz was curious about it, “can I take a look at it?” Her abuelita took a look at in and then gave it to her. It looked like a normal potion, light blue and everything. She wondered why this one wasn’t the final one.

“I still need to work out on it,” aw, the child would have loved to see it work. “It sometimes doesn’t even work, or it makes too much ice,” ice… it had been a while since she last saw real snow. Her nini mentioned the knee was the highest point in the Boiling Isles and it was completely covered in snow. And that in the past, wild witches went there to supposedly fully connect to the Titan.

Though the child believed… a bit less that part of connecting to the Titan. Sometimes the things the adult mentioned about following the word of the Titan without doubting Belos felt… strangely familiar. But not in a good way.

She frowned, great, remembering that soured her mood. Now, the child should think about what cool ice spell this could make, “yeah, also, instead of ice it would create a mist…” For some reason, her hands felt a bit colder, “or-” her abuelita was interrupted by an explosion coming from the potion bottle.

Fortunately, Layla was fast enough to use an abomination to moved away from them. “Huh, that’s new, it never just created ice at random,” Luz didn’t see that coming.

“Ignis!” The witch scolded her abuelita. The child noticed that the other witches were about to run towards them, “we’re fine! Don’t worry!” Layla reassured them. “How about we go back to the house?” Aw, but she was having so much fun.

Also, Luz was a bit curious about the ice, it had a weird drawing on it.

The human released herself from the abomination and took a closer look, “uh, Luz, maybe we shouldn’t get close to it.” But there was something like a glyph on it.

Like a glyph…

Wait, what if… Luz grabbed a random twig and copied it on the floor, “what is she-” “shhhh, let her continue.” Her abuelita covered Layla’s mouth, the child decided she’d rather focus on what she was suspicious about.

Finally, she copied the entire drawing, this was different from the light one. But the child decided to tap it and a second later, a block of ice fromed from the ground.

Luz gasped, “oh wow…” she heard Layla mutter.

But nevermind that, “NINI!” The human had to show this to them, she ran to where her nini was and tackled them into a hug, her head hit their ribs.

“Oh Titan, what happened?” The adult rubbed their side but still managed to hold her.

Luz then pointed at where her abuelita and Layla still were, “abuelita was showing me her test potion then it exploded and then I saw some weird drawing on the ice so I decided to copy it and suddenly, there was ice, I found another glyph! Come on! Come on! I wanna show you!” The child managed to say all of that in a single breath.

Her nini blinked twice, “a… new glyph?” She nodded happily.

“You understood all of that?” Her grandma questioned.

But the child didn’t pay that any mind, now she wanted her new spell to the adult, “come on, come on, I wanna show you.” They chuckled and put her on the floor, she guided them to where the other two witches were and drew the ice glyph again and again.

Now the child could create ice. This was so cool, she was learning new kinds of magic.

“Do you see nini? It’s so cool!” She could stay here drawing ice glyphs and light glyphs for the rest of the day without stopping.

Luz heard her nini chuckle, “yeah, it’s amazing.” They said.

—

Raine checked the time, it wouldn’t be long until they told Luz they needed to get back home. For now she was having fun with their ma and mama making ice. Who knew the human would find a new glyph during the visit? Definitely not them, but the bard was happy for Luz.

“Those three are having the time of their lives,” their mom said, and yeah, they were. “Say, this reminds me, how are your students doing?” Oh right, none of them contacted Raine during their stay here. Also, today was Amber’s final exam.

The bard smiled, “they’re great, they even helped me with babysitting Luz while I had to go to work.” They didn’t know what they would have done if none of them were available.

Their ama smiled, “next time you visit, you need to bring them too, they were such sweethears.” They had a feeling their mom just wanted to share some embarrassing stories from back when they were younger. Good thing Luz didn’t ask them for pictures of them when they were younger. There was no way in this realm they’d let her see the outfits for the Rats musical.

Wait, Raine just remembered something, “I need to tell them about Luz’s birthday.” Maybe they could make a long-run plan to celebrate her next birthday.

“You better prepare her the best birthday party,” their mom said, though the bard wasn’t sure if the human would really be a fan of big parties. Maybe something with her two friends and their students, but not much else.

—

While the stay with her nini’s moms was really fun, it had to end at some point. No matter for how many extra minutes she asked for, they said they needed time to get to the airship.

So, now they were on the door, “it was great seeing you.” Her nini told the four witches.

“We’ll call you as much as we can to see what Luz is up to,” her yaya said.

They began talking about what time it should be and some boring adult stuff. This was something her parents also did whenever they found someone they knew from work. It was really boring and Luz wanted to go back to her glyphs.

“Pssst,” the child jumped a bit and noticed Layla calling for her, “follow me for a second.” She began to walk away, while hesitant, the human sneaked away following her.

Luz followed her to a room that had a bunch of boxes, and judging by the smell, there was a lot of dust. She tried to hold back the need to sneeze, “I’ll apologize to Raine later, but I just can’t bear the thought of you not getting a birthday gift.” What? But she was completely fine with not getting anything for this year. Her getting adopted and even learning magic was more than enough for the child.

Finally, the witch found a box, “here.” She dug through it and pulled out a violin case, Layla then opened it and took the violin out. Then she played a few strings, “a bit out of tune, but still works.” The child tilted her head. Why did the witch guide her here, “now, this is for you.”

Luz stared at the violin case.

Then she looked back at the witch.

“Huh?” Were the only words she could muster out.

The witch chuckled, “you see, this was the first violin Raine ever played.” Luz gasped, really? But it was so small in comparison to the one they used now. Wait, they used to be smaller too, “this was my first violin too, back when I was a witchlet.” She gasped, but Layla was from the abomination coven, not the bard coven.

And now, she was giving this to her?

Luz hesitated, “are you… sure you want me to keep this?” It had to be very important, and this was thought for witches, not humans.

Even with that, Layla nodded, “yes, Raine mentioned you were interested in learning it, and what better way to start than with the first one we practised with.” While still doubtful, the child picked up the case. “Even if it’s with this, I want you to be able to learn everything you want, no matter the limitations the world puts you through,” then the witch stared at her coven sigil. “So, do you like it?” She look at the case.

Then immediately nodded, “thank you gran gran!” She hugged the witch, and she returned it.

A few seconds later, her gran gran pulled away, “now, how about we show this to Raine?” The child nodded and the witch guided her out.

Once they were back to the main door, the four witches put their whole attention to the two, “what did ama give you Luz?” Her nini asked and showed it to them, “oh wow, you kept it this whole time?” So they knew what it was.

Her gran gran chuckled, “of course I did, it’s a good violin and it would be sad to just letting it accumulate dust.” The child hugged her parent. Luz couldn’t wait to learn how to play it with her nini.

“Well, I hope you’re ready to learn,” the child nodded in excitement. Meanwhile, they looked up, “thanks for this,” yeah, the human was so ready to learn music. “We need to go now,” aw farts, but fair. The child couldn’t wait to go back to her home. Also, maybe she could show Katya, Amber, Derwin, Amity and Willow her new spell.

Now that she thought about it, Amity still needed to see her light glyph too.

Both then left the house and waved at her grandmas, “bye yaya, bye gran gran, bye abuelita, bye grandma, I’m really happy you’re my grandmas.” She was so happy to have met them.

—

Am🦇: hey there teach!

Am🦇: just wanted to warn that me, Katya and Derwin are in your home, so don’t freak out for strangers in your household

Raine looked at the scroll, “at least they warned this time.” They looked at their daughter, who was still holding onto the violin case. “Guess we’re seeing my students earlier than we expect,” their daughter was really happy at the mention of that.

“That means I can show them the violin gran gran gifted me!” The bard was really surprised by how happy she was at the thought of learning music. But they were also glad to hear it. The idea of teaching their daughter music sounded great, it had been a while since they last taught someone. It would be the first time they taught a child music.

Oh Titan, what if they did it wrong? Would that push her out of music? The bard heard many stories of bad teachers souring the experiences of children. They didn’t want to be like that.

“Luz?” Their daughter looked up at her, “do you promise if you’re not having fun you’ll tell me?” While confused at their request, she nodded.

Good enough for now.

Finally, they reached their home, even though seeing their moms was great. The bard was eager to get back home.

However, that feeling completely disappeared when they smelled like something was burning, “did we leave the oven on?” That was impossible, Raine checked multiple times that nothing would magically set on fire while they were away.

“Ugh…” they heard a groan coming from the living room. One look at the couch and saw one of their students.

“Amber?” She was laying on her stomach, “where are the others?” She told them Katya and Derwin were also here? “Also, how were your exams? And why does it smell like burning?” The witch then hugged a pillow.

Something told them she wasn’t going to say a lot, “exams were exhausting and brain is mush, the burning is because of those two.” As she stood up, she pointed at the kitchen.

One look inside and yup, the smell of burnt was much stronger, “oh Titan, what did you two do?” Katya and Derwin looked as if they were caught doing something wrong. Come on, they weren’t in the mood for any kind of prank.

Specially when Fiddlesticks jumped out of their shirt, ‘I suggest them throwing into the pit.’ They didn’t even have a pit, also, they couldn’t lose members of the rebellion.

Katya pointed at the palisman, “you watch it, and well… the burning’s because…” Derwin stood in front of something.

Raine pinched the bridge of their nose, “just show it to us.” The students stepped away and there was a cake that was burnt to a crisp.

What?

“You mentioned her birthday before…” oh right, they were surprised at the incredibly calm response the three had. The bard should have known better, “and we freaked out because we missed it.” Yup, they should have expected this, “so, we wanted to make a surprise cake for her.” That was really sweet.

Amber stepped in the kitchen, “my brain was too much mush to do anything.” Understandable, exams were very draining.

Raine sighed, Luz was no longer next to them, “look while I appreciate it, please make sure you don’t burn my house down.” They just bought this place.

Katya showed off what looked like frosting, they recognized the Azura colours. “We wanted to themed it after Azura,” Titan, they couldn’t stay mad at them after doing all of this for Luz. “Maybe we can try another time?” Alright, they’d allow it, but not today, there was enough damage.

Raine sighed, “I guess we can schedule some other day, right Luz?” Wait, they weren’t next to her? “Luz? Where did you go?” Did she go back to her room already.

However, it didn’t take long to find her again, she had the burn cake in her hands, she was eating it, “Luz! What are you doing?” That was inedible, no one should be eating that. While they really appreciated the thought it should go directly into the trash.

Now there were tears on her face, “buff ish goo.” The child took another bite, “you guysh maif a bifey cake fo me.” She said while burnt cake was in her mouth.

Raine tried to take it away from her hands, the others just stood there, “you should stop that, it will upset your stomach.” However, the child moved away from them and took another bite. “I’m serious,” they tried to grab the cake again, only for her to move it out of their reach.

“Luz, I-” “if you try to take it away, I will go back to call you Mx. Raine,” that made them hesitate. Wait, no, that shouldn’t make them hesitate. This was for her health.

“Alright, just give it ba-” she then ran out of the room. Oh Titan, she was serious about eating the whole thing.

They felt a hand on their shoulders, “you better give up teach, she’s gonna eat the whole thing.” Yeah, and that was the problem.

“If she gets sick, I blame you for it,” and sick she got after eating an entire burnt cake.

Chapter Text

Luz took a deep breath as she finished the piece for beginners her nini gave her. She felt a hand on her back, “remember you can breathe next time.” Right, she was so focused on the notes that the human forgot about that. Also, the child was pretty sure she forgot to blink too.

As she rubbed her eyes, the child thought about how she played. It didn’t sound really good, much less like her nini.

“You did great,” the adult said. Though she had some doubts.

The human looked up at them, “are you sure?” She remembered the many times the witch was simply practising and it still sounded amazing, “it doesn’t sound as good as you do…” What if she didn’t improve? Her nini was spending a lot of time with her to teach her, Luz didn’t want to make them feel as if they wasted their time.

Though the witch didn’t seem to agree with her, “no, no, it was good, I sound different because I’ve been studying it for many years.” That was true… her papá mentioned how he had a hard time reading the music sheets when he was first studying music. But when she had a hard time, he sat down with her and helped her learn it. One time, he was so enthusiastic about it that he went past her bedtime to explain her something.

Even though both had a fun time, her mamá wasn’t a fan of her staying up late.

“You’ll get the hang of it some day, I promise,” she looked up at her nini and smiled. The child couldn’t wait to learn more things with them. “My first times with the many instruments I’ve learnt weren’t perfect either,” guess it was right. “I still remember struggling with the organ,” the organ?

Huh, she didn’t know it also existed in the Boiling Isles, “like, the piano with the tubes?” Her nini was confused by what she said.

“No? It’s actually a beast’s different organs, you use valves to put air in them and then they let the air out to make sound,” well, that was certainly different to the ones she saw. Mainly because the child never saw an instrument that used organs. “Also, piano? Like the indication to play quietly,” well, it did also indicate that in human realm music.

Though it was probably better to clear it up, “well… yes, but it’s also an instrument.” She had some classmates that played them. Aside from maybe pressing the keys from the piano in the music class when the teacher wasn’t in the classroom, Luz didn’t do much with it.

Her nini scratched the back or their neck, “well, human music had to have its differences.” Yeah, she was still surprised that the closest to a guitar here was something that could eat someone’s finger if the instrument didn’t like them. That sounded really scary and the child didn’t want to try playing that.

But nevermind that, “can we continue please?” It had been a little while, she wanted to continue spending time with her nini.

The adult smiled, “yeah, sure, one moment.” They went to their desk, “I got a book that had some pieces for beginners.” They opened the different drawers in there, “now the problem is remembering where I put it.” The human tried to help by looking in one of them. She started with the big one at the bottom left, “oh wait Luz.” When she tried to open it, it didn’t budge at all.

Weird, “nini, I think this one’s stuck.” Maybe if she use some force it would work. The human was about to try that theory until her nini stopped her.

“No no, there’s no need for that, I just locked that one,” the child looked up at them, why would they do that? “It just has some stuff from work that’s confidential,” confidential? Like, not a lot of people were allowed to see it? “And it would be better if you didn’t see things, just… for the better,” the child raised an eyebrow. That was a weird thing for them to say, they were usually pretty honest with her about things, “sorry, I’d tell you if I could.” She looked back at the drawer.

Now Luz wanted more to know what was in there. But her papá once told her about privacy of the patients he took care of, and how it was important for her to not read them because people deserved to have their troubles private if they didn’t want complete strangers to know. Also that he’d have some problems if someone found out he disrespected someone’s privacy.

She let go of the handle, “ok.” Her nini let out a sigh of relief, wow, guess they’d get in a lot of trouble if someone saw she saw whatever was in there.

The adult ruffled her hair, “I know for sure it isn’t in there so let’s look for-” out of nowhere the crow entered the room. Which made both of them jumped a bit. Her nini groaned, “who is it now?” The adult grabbed it and answered the crow, “hello?” Someone answered, but she couldn’t hear clearly.

Luz wondered what it was, “uuuuh, hold on a second.” They looked down at her, “I’ll be outside of the room, think you can look for it in the meantime?” She nodded and they left the room. “Ok, now, what are you talking about that a bunch of scouts locked themselves in Scooter Crane’s office?” Was the last thing she really paid attention to.

Well, guess the human could look for it. She opened another one of the drawers and there was some incredibly complicated looking music sheet. Definitely not for her, she moved it aside and saw a book that said ‘music sheets for beginner witchlets’, oh, it must be what the witch was looking for.

That was much easier than expected. She grabbed it and she was about to close it again. However, there was something under it, there was a pamphlet.

Her curious self decided to look at it. There shouldn’t be a problem since it wasn’t in the omniously locked drawer. So, she decided to take a little peek.

It was one announcing Hexide.

This one specifically was talking about the different classes for people her age, how witchlets were prepared for when they had to choose one of the many tracks. Showing them all types of magic so it would be easier for them to choose. Also the way they taught children and also the different trips they did.

Why would her nini have this?

Sure, sometimes she noticed they were annoyed with the job they had. But seemed way more happy when they were teaching stuff to Katya, Amber and Derwin. Though in spite of that, they would still continue working in the same spot.

Her grandmas also mentioned them climbing up the ranks pretty quickly, so there was also that. Was that what they were aiming for? To become a higher-up in their coven? Could be, though she thought they hated that kind of attention. But at the same time, they would be willing to participate in some public events, at least from what the others had told her.

Her nini hadn’t gone to one for the time she’d stayed with them.

So, why would they have this? The adult probably wasn’t going to work in Hexide, specially people around her age. Katya, Amber and Derwin told her that the people they taught were already in the coven, so it maybe was for someone else.

Maybe her older siblings wanted to teach in Hexide? But none of them had said they wanted to teach others music.

So, if it wasn’t for her nini or the others then that left… her…

But she didn’t want to go back to school, at least not yet. Luz was happy with what she had now, her nini teaching her or Derwin teaching her different stuff in the library. The human also had friends now, and they both went to Hexide. One thing she knew about school was that somehow even if she managed to make friends, they’d end up leaving her for people they considered better.

The child shook her head, it wasn’t time to freak out. Also, maybe this was just something random that her nini forgot to throw away. Maybe, the child just put it back where it was.

After that, she decided to check on her nini, who was still talking to someone in the crow. “Look, just tell the locksmith to unlock the door, I can explain head witch Crane what happened, just, make sure they leave without causing too much damage,” the adult hung up and sighed.

Finally, they noticed her, “hey there, did you find the book?” The child happily nodded and showed it to them. Her nini smiled, “good, then want to keep going?”

Luz tried to forget the pamphlet she saw earlier, “yeah! Let’s continue with the music!” Her nini chuckled and they guided her back into the office.

Yeah, it was probably for the better to ignore what she saw earlier.

—

Raine remembered their first time playing an instrument, they didn’t want to stop. They kept going until their hands were hurt.

Which was something the bard should have expected from their daughter.

“Ow…” the adult continued treating the wounds on Luz’s hands. They should have known better, she was just starting. But they were so used to having students who were already experimented with musical instruments that they lost track of time.

At least it was just some small cuts. The very second the adult saw them they asked her to stop and immediately grabbed the first-aid kit.

Finally, they put the finally band aid on the cut, “there we go.” All of the band-aids had some musical themed drawings in them. Their students call it dorky, but they thought it was cute, also Luz loved them. Probably because there weren’t any Azura themed ones. Oh Titan, if those existed in this realm.

The child stared at her hands, “does that mean we can go back to practice now?” While they really liked how willing she was to learn. Raine would also love if she didn’t focus so much on a thing once it starts to hurting her.

However, they didn’t want to let her down. The adult ruffled her head, “let’s wait until your hands heal a bit more, ok? An important part of learning is also knowing when to take a break.” The many all nighters they pulled to get something perfect came to their mind. Nope, Raine would not pay any attention to that. This was for the sake of their daughter.

The child pouted, “ok…” at least she accepted it. “Then I wanna draw magic!” Of course, they should have expected that.

There was no way to stop her when she got that in mind, “if you want to create big ice glyphs do it outside.” The child nodded and run upstairs, a few seconds later she ran back down. They heard her open the front door and saw through the window she was already starting to draw her glyphs.

While Raine was fully aware that pretty much nothing could distract her not from doing magic, it wouldn’t hurt to still have some surveillance. They looked at their palisman, “mind keeping an eye on her?” Fiddlesticks nodded and went outside with the human. It wasn’t because the bard didn’t trust her. But mostly because they didn’t want her to see what they would work on, which was on a way to fight the emperor.

The adult went to their office room and unlocked the drawer. Good thing they thought about sealing it, their daughter would look everywhere if she could.

Once the drawer was opened, they grabbed a bunch of papers, they tried to take notes on what information Scooter Crane had for the Day Of Unity. Though for now it didn’t seem like any of the coven heads had any idea of what it could be. Which was something concerning.

They should consult with their students too. There might be something the bard might miss while trying to get an answer.

Also, while Luz saw them not too long ago, it wasn’t for a pretty short time. Since she did get sick with that cake. The human would enjoy their company and also showing off the new glyph she learnt in their moms home.

They’d grab the crow in a bit.

—

Derwin finally saw Raine’s home. He was with Katya and Amber, the adult asked them to come here to see some of the papers his teacher managed to get.

“Oh hey, there’s Luz,” Katya pointed out. The child was currently drawing some of her glyphs. This time not only light, but also ice. The adult had told them about the new thing she learnt, but it was still surprising to see.

None of them believed it was possible for a human to do magic. Except for maybe the help of a palisman. But there was Luz, proving them wrong.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the child looked up from her glyph making and noticed the three. “Guys!” She ran towards the witches and tacked the three into a hug. The child managed to catch the three, though after a few seconds, Derwin was the one who was holding her. “What are you doing here? Nini didn’t tell me you were going to come,” she asked excitedly.

Katya pinched her cheek, “aw, they just saw something from their job and they wanted some feedback, and we can’t say no to a chance to see our favourite human.” The child giggled.

“I’m the only human you know!” She exclaimed.

The witch shrugged, “eh, I think we got a good one.” That made Luz happier.

Right after, Raine opened the door, “hey there, you three, thanks for coming today.” Well, it was for the rebellion, so it was pretty important. “Mind if we check it upstairs? There are some things I want you to look at,” probably also didn’t want Luz to hear.

Though, as much as his teacher wanted to keep the human safe. Maybe it would be good to at least tell her something about the BATTs, he didn’t know how the child would react if she found out on her own. She clearly had issues with missing people she cared about. Well, more than the average person, but still, there had to be a long-term plan for this.

Raine must be thinking of something. The witch shouldn’t be too concerned about it.

At the mention of them having to go upstairs, Luz’s happiness faded a bit, “aw, I thought I could show you the ice glyph.”

“Hey, don’t worry, you can show us after we see what Raine wanted us to see,” Amber said. She was pretty much right, and having in mind this might be about the rebellion. There might be a slight chance they might have to discuss things when Luz was asleep.

Though the child still wasn’t happy, then Derwin had an idea. “How about I stay with you?” The human looked up at him in excitement, “you three can tell me later what happened, I will spend some time with Luz.” She immediately cheered, “besides, there’s so much fun you can have with Fiddlesticks.” Unsurprisingly, the palisman took offend to that and began to scratch his leg.

Wouldn’t be the worst thing they’d ever done to him or Katya and Amber.

Finally, the three witches entered the house and he was alone with Luz and Fiddlesticks. “Want to show me that new spell?” Luz happily nodded and jumped out of his arms.

She then grabbed a stick from the floor and drew one of her glyphs. It looked pretty different form the light one, that was for sure. He still wasn’t sure how the child managed to memorize them and also draw perfect circles, but either way good on her for managing to learn something new. Clearly it was something very important for her.

Which also reminded him, “funny thing, I found a book that could talk a bit about this magic.” It wasn’t a complete answer to the question of how many glyphs existed. But it was one step forward.

Moreover, Luz certainly was interested in what he found, “really!? What is it called? Can we read it the next time we go to the library?” Yup, she was excited to hear it. With some luck, no one would have taken it that day.

He smiled, “it was called From Bones to Earth: a study of wild magic.” Yeah, probably no one would want to give it a read. Since while it was an important part of history. Wild magic was seen as something dangerous, and more importantly, that the Titan didn’t like it, so Belos was only allowed to practice it. So people would mostly avoid any book that touched on the topic of wild magic.

Unless it talked about its dangers and how things were worse during the days where wild magic was the norm.

Luz gasped, “it sounds so cool.” Well, he was glad the child was interested in it.

Derwin chuckled, “well, I will have it in mind, but it has a lot of complicated words, think you can handle them?” It was a book that had a lot of information. Even for someone who wanted to learn much more stuff.

The human seemed offended by that question, “there’s no way I won’t be able to learn from that book, now I want to read it even more.” Well, he was glad she was still keeping that enthusiasm for learning. Derwin sure saw people that lost a lot of it after a good time happened. Specially in bard classes. There weren’t that many exits after graduation, so many people just gave up and would change tracks.

However, that excitement didn’t seem to last long. The human began to frown about something, “is something wrong?” The young adult thought she’d be happier for much longer than that.

She looked up at him again, “do you enjoy teaching me stuff?” What kind of question was that?

While confused, he answered, “yeah, it’s fun to see you happy to learn a new thing about the Boiling Isles.” Sure, he never thought himself as a teacher, but at least with the human it was a good time. Probably not something he’d really do as a constant thing.

Luz stayed quiet for a few seconds, “I also enjoy it too…” where was this going? “I also have fun when nini teaches me, it was really fun to learn the violin with them,” oh right, Raine said they were starting today with the violin lessons. “Look at the cool band-aids I got,” guess someone went too far with practising an instrument. Hopefully this wouldn’t be a common occurrence.

Who was he kidding? Unless his teacher kept an eye close on her, it was probably bound to happen multiple times.

He smiled, “well, I’m glad to hear you say it out loud.” Though that question was a bit strange, “why did you ask me that?” Now the child jumped a bit at his question.

Immediately she tried to avoid any kind of eye contact. With both him and Fiddlesticks, “I just… wanted to make sure, I wasn’t bothering anyone…” Wait, he heard things like that before. Guess some old habits died hard.

He put a hand on top of her head, “you don’t have to worry about that Luz, we enjoy having you on our lives.” While hesitant she smiled.

‘I swear if we ever get to the human realm, I will find those people and…’ Derwin quickly covered Luz’s ears. The descriptions the palisman was giving out were a bit too graphic for a nine year old to hear. Maybe even himself if the bard was honest. This was one of the moments he wished he had more than two arms.

The child looked up at him, “Fiddlesticks will what? I can’t hear him with you covering my ears.” Yeah, that was a bit of the point.

Finally, the palisman stopped, and he uncovered Luz’s ears, “you’ll learn about it when you’re older.” Was the one thing he was willing to say, even though that just made her want more to learn what were they saying.

Nope, he’d leave that stuff to Raine.

Chapter Text

Amity wasn’t really used to hanging out in the park. Usually, what would happen is that her mom would organize some playdate with either Boscha, Skara or both and then they would go to someone’s house.

Not really hanging outside, specially in a park where there were more children. Her mom wasn’t a fan of doing that. Saying something that the witch shouldn’t talk with the lesser witches around. Meanwhile her dad just agreed with whatever the adult said and went back to work. It was so hard to catch his attention lately.

However, today was different, not her dad, he was back in the mansion taking care of something. The witch was going to hang out with Luz in the slayground.

It had been a while since she came to this one.

Maybe the last time both were and Willow… were still friends. Well, at least she wasn’t here so there was nothing to worry about. Besides there was a really low chance she’d see them since this wasn’t the usual one she went to.

Her mom was pretty insistent about coming to this one though.

“AMITY!” That was what she thought a few seconds ago. Now the child should worry about her ears being intact after Luz yelled her name. “It’s been so long, I’m so glad to see you!” The witch then tackled her into a hug.

This felt weird, neither Skara nor Boscha did this. Not even Willow, this was so different to her other friends.

Also, this was a bit constricting, “you… too…” though she wasn’t sure how long that was going to last. Amity tried to take a deep breath the best way she could, “please Luz… let me breathe.” She still hadn’t even gotten the chance for the emperor’s coven tryouts. Or to have someone from the emperor’s coven train her to become a stronger witch.

Fortunately, she let go of her, “sorry, I was just so excited for this.” Well, that was fine, but she could also be careful with how she expressed things.

Besides, Amity might have been looking forward to seeing Luz again. When both hung out in her home it was so different to hanging out with the witches her parents accepted. Well, her mom also saw that the witch was also a good pick for a friend. But this time, she’d take it.

The child smiled, and grabbed her hand, “come on, there are many things I want to tell you.” She glanced at her mom, the adult was talking with Raine. She’d probably send some ghost to look over them. The witch would rarely tend to her or her siblings whenever they were doing something and someone got hurt. Maybe a scrape of a bruise, but it would be mostly the ghost or an abomination that’d take care of it.

Amity remembered when she wasn’t used to it. Emira would heal her injuries if she wasn’t able to have one of her dad’s inventions take care of her.

Then Luz’s parent noticed them looking at her. They just smiled and waved at her, the bard was so different to her parents.

—

While Raine wasn’t the biggest fan of having to talk with Odalia. They could handle some of it if it meant Luz could have more friends. The bard just wished the witch wouldn’t try to pitch them with whatever thing they were selling every time they saw each other.

“I am so glad you accepted my invitation, it had been a while since we’ve met,” and they could have loved to keep it that way. But Luz really wanted to see Amity and they had to take care of some things in their workplace. And the best way to ease their daughter into some outliers in their schedule was to have people around her.

They still hadn’t tried the nights though.

Fortunately they didn’t have any concert schedule yet. But it was something that could happen some day and they needed to have Luz prepared for the night.

The bard looked at Odalia, “yeah… thanks for looking over her while I take care of things at my job.” Some scrolls that were sent were from the wrong covens. Also, other coven headquarters got their scrolls, this was something they needed to take care of quick.

It was a good thing that this slayground was closer to their work than the one they usually took Luz to. Even though Odalia was the one that suggested it. Being pretty insistent about it.

The witch brushed it off, “oh what are old friends for?” They really hoped she was joking, “besides, you don’t have to worry, my ghost will make sure to keep an eye on them.” What? Through the crow she said she was the one to keep an eye on the children. Sure, the ghost was convenient, but not something people used as babysitting.

They raised an eyebrow, “what about you?” Thank Titan they have Luz that scroll again in case she was uncomfortable. Also, Fiddlesticks accompanying her again.

She jumped, and began to look nervous. Good, she should be, “well, I also do! This is just a failsafe.” For what exactly? This was literally just a slayground where children would play. And the bloodthirsty beasts were usually leashed with their owners keeping a close eye.

Alright, something was up with Odalia, also, “where’s Alador? I thought I’d see him today,” they didn’t even see a glimpse of him back when they visited their literal home. The witch couldn’t be working all this time.

She just smiled, “oh, he’s just busy with his team in the production of new things for us to sell, Alador’s been going at it for a week now.” That just raised the question of when did he see his children. Was… was he even in their lives at all? The bard wasn’t sure what to think of that, but it definitely wasn’t something that could be good for their children.

“When does he take breaks!?” Odalia looked surprise at the question, “you know, to be with your kids? The kids that you are raising together?” Both were the parents of those witchlets and they had more than enough money to live comfortably and be in their lives.

The witch then calmed down, “oh, you don’t need to worry about that, sometimes the kids spend time with him while he’s working.” That was NOT where they were going with it, “also, if both of us are busy, they can get what they want with the abominations and they also make sure they excel at their studies.” Raine… didn’t know how to answer that.

But they couldn’t just tell her to be more involved with her children. That would just upset her and make it so Luz would lose a friend, Titan knew what might happen to the kids after. So, instead, they sighed, “alright sure, if your children are happy…” they rubbed the back of their neck. “I’m going to my job, I’ll come back as soon as I can,” hopefully that mess with the mixed up scrolls was just an exaggeration and not encounter a literal mountain of papers other covens were supposed to have.

Somehow, they had a feeling that this was going to be a big headache.

Odalia smiled, “alright, and hey, if you have someone who might be interested in our products, make sure to tell them.” Not doing that at all.

Raine began to walk away, “BYE NINI!” Their daughter said and they waved at her.

As they looked back at her something turned in their stomach. Why did they have a bad feeling about this?

Well, they wouldn’t pay it much mind, Luz had her easy way of calling for them and they would go back to her whatever the situation was.

—

It was fun to hang out with Amity. Definitely different to Willow, but Luz didn’t mind different things. The child was pretty different to most people anyway. With her being human and… her normal weirdness.

Like, they’d talk about the good witch Azura and their favourite parts of the first and second volume. Luz wondered when the third one would come out. She was sure she saw it once in her world before she ran away, but the child couldn’t just go back to the human realm and check properly. Much less take Amity so both could enjoy it.

She also wondered how it ended up here, the author in the first volume showed she was human, but the one her nini got had her being a witch. Did this person have a way to send the book back to the Boiling Isles? Would be neat if she met her and asked her.

There were some times she missed her world, her parents were the biggest reason. Luz fully knew nothing could bring them back, but she would love to at the very least visit their graves. The human never got a chance to do that with her foster parents. Though another main reason was for the food, would be nice to eat something without worrying how it was made and what were the ingredients for it.

Unfortunately today, her friend for some reason didn’t bring her books on the good witch Azura. Good thing she brought hers.

While she looked through it, the human scratched Fiddlesticks’ ear. The palisman must be a bit bored in there, she didn’t get exactly why they wanted to stay with her again. Probably because what her nini was doing sounded boring. But she wasn’t completely sure.

However, when she showed it to Amity, the witch flinched, “what happened to it!?” Oh, right, it wasn’t… in its best state.

Luz carefully opened it, “I fell into the water…” her friend took a look inside and noticed some dried up blood. She was understandably freaking out about that part too. “Oh, that’s just… someone hurt my arm and I didn’t notice until it was too late,” her nini did tried their best to keep it as intact as possible.

It might be damaged, but she didn’t want another copy. This one was special since her papá gifted it to her.

Her friend looked concerned, oh farts, that wasn’t good, “it’s fine, I ran away and nini found me, so it’s all good!” Now that she said it out loud maybe it didn’t sound as reassuring. But that was most of it. Her nini adopted her and now they were a family, Luz was really happy.

Amity looked at her confused, “I… guess if you say so…” The human let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t feel like talking about her time with her foster parents.

The child hoped no one else got hurt because of them.

“Wanna read it together?” Sure, they did that the other time, and both had the second volume. But sometimes reading outside was fun too.

Surprisingly for her, Amity hesitated and began to look around. Was everything alright? The human also remembered her being a bit nervous when she first saw her Azura collection. But it should be fine, the good witch Azura was a really cool book with complicated magic system and elaborate backstories. Sure, it might not really be like the Demon Realm, but it was still cool and Luz loved the story.

This was weird, “Amity? Is there a problem?” The witch jumped and turned towards her, “we don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.” There are other things the two could do in the slayground.

Once again, her friend took a look at their surroundings, “no, no, it’s fine, we can start reading.” Oh great, though she wondered what had her so worried. Maybe that the book might burn? There was no need to worry about that, it had been through a lot of things.

Both began to read, she loved the beginning. Where Azura decides to take the responsibility of saving the people around her and learning dangerous magic.

Before she could even notice, they were halfway through, “no matter how many times I read it, I always love Hecate’s first appearance.” The art was so cool in that page. It showed how much stronger she was in comparison to Azura in the beginning. But that just motivated her to improve her knowledge in magic.

Her friend nodded, “yeah, I really like-” “Amity?” A voice from behind said. The witch then shoved the book into her bag. She flinched a bit, it must have hit Fiddlesticks for sure.

‘Ow! What the heck was that for!?’ Yup, it definitely did.

Luz put the bag closer to her, “sorry,” she’d ask her nini later if they could give him some extra treats. But what made her friend react like that? She looked up and saw two other witches, one of them had pink skin, dark pink hair and three eyes, the other one had dark skin, white hair and her eyes were gray. The human had never seen these witches.

“Who are you talking to?” The person with three eyes asked her, “and who’s this?” She turned to Amity. She didn’t even give her time to answer.

Amity looked at her, then at the other two witches and then at Odalia, “did she know they’d be here?” The witch muttered out. Luz could barely heard but she managed to. Though she wasn’t sure if the others managed to make it out.

Her friend shook her head, “well, this is Luz, a… friend I made.” Both turned to look at her, the human smiled and waved at them.

The witch with white hair waved back, “hi Luz! I’m Skara!” Immediately the witch with three eyes elbowed her, “what? She’s friends with Amity, she must be fine to hang out with,” that was… a weird thing to say.

Well… maybe she was just shy, that was fine with her. Back when she first arrived here, she was a bit scared of everything around her too. Wondering if at some point her nini would just get tired of her and give up on taking care of her and finding a way back to her realm. But now she was living with them more permanently. The adult did want to have her in her life.

Luz extended a hand, “nice to meet you uhm…” she never said her name.

“Boscha,” she answered bluntly. A second after, she turned to look at Amity, “how did you meet her? I’ve never seen her at Hexide.” Oh, both studied at Hexide too? Just like Amity and Willow! The human wondered if they knew her.

Amity looked at her and went back with Skara and Boscha, “my mom and her parent knew each other, she visited my home and we got along.” Yeah! Both had a lot of fun talking about Azura and trying to recreate some scenes of the books. She wondered if they also liked the good witch Azura too, though her friend mentioned not knowing anyone else in real life who liked it. So, maybe not, or maybe they just didn’t know about it and were missing out!

“Yeah! It was really fun talking about A-mffff!” Did Amity just cover her mouth? What was that for?

Her friend removed her hand a second later, “yeah! We… talked about magic! Like the track I want to study!” Well, they did do that, but it wasn’t what Luz was going to talk about.

Then both witches eyed her, “right…” Boscha stared at her. The human shifted a bit, it reminded her of the people back in the human realm trying to see if there was something wrong about her. She didn’t really like it, “and what kind of magic can you do? Luz?” The witch asked.

Oh, that was an easy thing to answer.

Also, the child almost forgot to tell Amity about her discovery, she was going to be so amazed by it. However, her friend didn’t seem as happy, “uuuh, maybe we don’t need to ask about that, how about we talk about another thing?” Why was she acting so weird?

Luz tilted her head, “but I was just gonna show you the spells I learnt.” The witch seemed surprised, “yeah, that was something I wanted to show you!”

Amity looked at her in disbelief, “but I-” “don’t worry Amity, show us what you can do Luz.” Boscha encouraged. Without hesitating, the human began to draw on the sand. “What the heck are you doing?” She continued drawing the light glyph and she tapped it, a ball of light appearing right after.

While she was still amazed by the fact she could do magic. The human couldn’t say the same about the other three, the witches yelped and took a step back, “she just did magic by drawing!” Skara said out loud. “Is that possible? How’s that possible? Our teacher never showed us something like that!” The witch kept asking.

Luz remembered that even her nini didn’t know about this before, “well… I actually can’t do magic like you guys…” she heard Amity take a deep breath and glance at the other two witches. “But I just learnt how to do magic! I even learnt an ice spell!” To demonstrate it, she drew the ice glyph on the ground. A block of ice appeared from the spell, she still needed to see what she could do with all these spells.

The child turned to Amity, “I was going to tell you about this, but I kind of forgot.” What could she say? The very second Azura was the topic, everything else wasn’t as important.

“So…” Boscha stepped forward, “you are a powerless witch…” well, she was actually human, but she didn’t know that. “You managed to hang out with Amity, one of the best witches of our class and somehow found a way to do magic with… drawings,” she… pretty much summed things up. But why did the human have a bad feeling about this?

Luz took a step back, “yeah… I guess…” right now, she wanted her nini to at least be watching over her.

At least Fiddlesticks was with her.

Boscha raised an eyebrow, “guess it isn’t too bad.” That was… a weird thing say, “at least you took care of the problem of not being able to do magic.” huh? What did she mean? There was never a problem with her not doing magic. At first, she thought the human would just have to live in a world with magic, but her not really be able to do it.

Skara nodded, “yeah, not like another witch who just keeps messing up spells.” Luz stayed silent, this was getting kind of uncomfortable.

“Yeah!” Amity added, “and then she keeps whining about it constantly, how she can’t get the spells right, how she just needs more time, when other people are perfectly capable of doing the same simple spells with no problem.” The witch grabbed the bottom of her dress, “it’s so annoying!” Did… did she hear that right?

Was this how the witch was? Neither Boscha nor Skara were surprised by this, instead they snickered about it. But this was so different from when they hung out together.

“Well, some people have it, and others don’t, like my mom says,” the witch looked at her. “Guess you’re not too bad in spite of not having magic,” she offered a hand. “Nice to meet you, Luz,” the human nervously looked at it.

All of this just took a turn that she didn’t like.

It was like the classmates she had back in the human realm. They’d get annoyed when she wouldn’t answer fast enough, or when they laughed when she got something wrong.

She wanted her nini.

While with one hand she took one hand, she put one on her bag, hopefully the child found a way to tell the adult to please come without looking. “Y-Yeah, sure,” she stuttered a bit. At least none of them saw anything weird about it.

Did that work?

‘Don’t worry they’re on their way,’ the child heard Fiddlesticks say. Luz couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

“Did anyone else hear that?” Skara asked. Oh no, what if the others found it suspicious? Was it weird to have a palisman in her bag? Specially since it was her nini’s palisman and they weren’t supposed to have for some readon the adult still hadn’t told her.

Fortunately, none of them seemed to pay any more mind, “well, nevermind that, say Luz, do you know grudgby?” Boscha asked.

The human nodded, “yeah one of my siblings taught me a bit.”

Boscha smiled then summoned a grudgby ball, “good then create one of your ice pillars, we’re gonna see who’s best at it.” Then the witch set the ball on fire. Luz looked at Odalia who wasn’t looking at them. Wasn’t using that a bit dangerous?

The human took a deep breath, this was only for a little bit, “sure, one second.” She created a pretty tall ice block. Fortunately, it seemed good enough for them.

“Good, what we gotta do is see who’s best at hitting it, I’ll go first,” Boscha then kicked the ball as hard as she could. The fire made the ice melt a bit, but it wasn’t fully destroyed, “you next, but I’m sure you won’t beat me.” She paused for a second, “well, maybe Amity, but definitely not you,” the witch pointed at her.

Luz definitely wanted to go now.

“Hey! Luz already helped us with making something to hit,” Amity argued. Which left her surprised, guess she wasn’t fully mean? Maybe? She was nice back when she visited her home.

Boscha rolled her eyes, “yeah, yeah, whatever.” Hopefully her nini wouldn’t take too long.

The human didn’t know how much time both spend. But surprisingly, none of them managed to break the ice, “how!? Did you do something to it!?” The witch with three eyes questioned, she immediately shook her head. It was just a normal ice glyph, just frozen water in the shape of a pillar, nothing weird about it.

“It’s ok Boscha, maybe we just need to practice to make the fire even stronger,” the human wasn’t sure if that was the solution for it.

Luz once again looked around, searching for her nini. Luckily, she finally saw them, “NINI!” The child ran towards them and jumped at them into a hug. She was so relieved to see them, the time spent playing grudgby wasn’t too bad. But it was still too uncomfortable for her.

The adult returned it, “I’m happy to see you too,” she nuzzled their cheek. The child wanted to tell them if they could leave now. However, Odalia was now approaching them.

“Oh wow, what a surprise…” she looked away, “I thought it would… take longer than it did.” The other three witches approached them.

After the adult said that, she noticed the hold her nini had on her tightened a bit, “yeah, I just… took a bit of a break from it, we saw that it was going to take a bit longer than expected so one of my students offered to take care of her during the night.” Wait, was that true? But she didn’t want them to stay out the whole night while she was at home, “but I need to take her now.”

Fortunately, Odalia didn’t argue, “well, I sure hope you had fun, and I’m glad you managed to make friends with Amity’s other friends.” She pointed at Skara and Boscha.

“Y-yeah, it was… nice to meet you,” while Skara smiled at her, Boscha didn’t say or do anything.

Her nini began to take a few steps back, “well, I better take her so I can get back to work, thanks for… taking care of her.” With that, her nini finally walked away.

She was so glad they came here as soon as they could.

As soon as the slayground was out of view, Luz hid her face on her nini’s neck, “do you want to talk about what happened?” The child hesitated a bit, she wasn’t sure where to start exactly. Maybe the weird shift on Amity’s behaviour with the other witches? Or those weird things Boscha said.

Well, first she should start with her… friend? “Can people… be mean sometimes with other people but then not be as mean?” The adult made a questioning noise, “it’s just, it was fine when it was just me and Amity, but then her other friends came and the three began saying… mean things? Specially about people who don’t have magic.” She tightened the hold on their shirt, “Boscha also said something weird that in spite of my disadvantage I managed to learn magic.”

After finishing her explanation, she noticed that the adult stopped, “nini?” Right after the child asked, they walked towards a bench and sat her down. They sat down right next to her.

“Luz…” they stayed quiet for a few seconds, “that question is a bit hard to answer…” Oh… maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. “But the thing is that… people are complicated, and sometimes we don’t see the entirety of them,” then they put a hand on her head, “you only met Amity one time, and I guess you were surprised by that.” The human looked away and nodded.

“I had so much fun with her in her home, but then with Boscha and Skara it was different,” the child tried to remember the whole thing. “Well, she did try to defend me when Boscha was trying to tease me,” there was also that. Though Luz didn’t think she could be friends with the other two witches.

“I guess you’re having a lot of complicated feelings now,” she nodded. The child didn’t like having all of those complications, she just wanted to have fun with her new friend without problems. “Well, maybe you need to process it more, say, how about I finish the mess at my work we get you some eye scream? There’s a store with the kind you can eat close by,” the child looked up excitedly at the mention of something sweet. Luz nodded without hesitation.

Though there was a problem with that, “where do I go while you’re walking?” They never took her to their work before. Also, from the things she got, her nini wasn’t really a fan of that idea.

However, the adult sighed, “guess it wouldn’t hurt to take you just one time.” She perked up, really? She was going to see where her nini worked? Back in the human realm she would visit her mom’s veterinary clinic, it was a fun time.

Before she could get too excited, the witch glanced at her, “but you need to promise me some things.” The child nodded, “no magic casting,” aw, but fair, they already didn’t like her doing ice glyphs in the house, “also, I need you to not mention Fiddlesticks to anyone from my job, do you think you can do that?” While it was a bit weird, she nodded.

“Don’t worry nini, I’ll be on my best behaviour, like I was when I was with my mom in her clinic,” though unfortunately this time, she wouldn’t be able to help feed the baby animals.

The adult smiled and stood up, “ok, you ready?” They offered a hand and she took it. Both began to go to the building where her nini worked. “At least it isn’t the castle,” oh right, they sometimes worked there. Though that place the witch definitely did not want her to go.

She wondered why. Sure, the castle looked a bit sinister form a distance, but it couldn’t be too bad.

Well, either way, she was excited to see what her nini’s workplace was like. Maybe it had a lot of instruments, or music sheets with cursed music. Luz couldn’t wait and see it.

Chapter Text

Luz remembered the hospital her papá used to work in. He would drive an ambulance and take them there, once, he even took her there because she hit her head with one of the swings after chasing a squirrel.

The child also remembered that hospital being pretty tall.

Just like the place her nini worked in.

In fact, it was so tall than when she tried to look up to fully see it, she fell onto the floor, “ow.” Rocks weren’t the best thing to fall onto.

Her nini chuckled, “careful,” they helped her stand up and she rubbed her head.

“You work in a really big building nini,” though the human sometimes preferred how cozy her mom’s veterinary clinic was. There were times they would even hold some baby animals. The kittens were so cute when they began climbing up her legs.

The adult smiled awkwardly, “yeah… though not as big as the castle.” Oh right! They sometimes went to that scary looking castle. Luz wondered how it looked like inside.

Maybe they had something like a parent bringing their child to work day, “will I ever visit it with you?” While it was scary and she didn’t like the many things Belos said. A castle was still cool no matter what. Back where she lived, there weren’t many her family could visit. But the human knew there were ones in other countries that people visited.

Her nini stared at her for a few seconds, “not even if they paid me.” The child flinched at that, it sounded a bit harsh. The adult noticed her reaction, “sorry… just… the emperor’s castle… isn’t the best place for a child.” Luz wondered why. It couldn’t be too bad of a place if they had to go a few days a week.

Probably to not ask more about it. The witch looked pretty tired every time they had to go to the castle for work.

For some reason, her nini hesitated a bit while staring at the building, “can you promise me a few things before going in?” While confused, Luz nodded, “alright, first, please don’t tell anyone about Fiddlesticks,” alright, the child already knew that. Something about not being allowed to having. She didn’t get why though, Fiddlesticks was really nice… usually… when Katya, Amber and Derwin weren’t around. “Also, you can’t use glyphs here,” what? But why? “I know how you get with those and the building is already pretty hectic, can you promise me that?”

The child looked at the floor, good thing she had the good with Azura with her. “Ok…” the adult smiled and ruffled her hair.

Then they held her hand, “also, just a warning, once we go in, the place is really chaotic, hold onto my hand until we get to my office, ok?” The child nodded, it must be like when she took the subway with her parents. There were a lot of people inside. And she almost slipped out of her mama’s hold, good thing papá was there to the rescue.

Both approached the building, and just as her nini was about to open the door, someone slammed the door open. “I swear to Titan, whoever did this, they better get petrified!” The stranger didn’t mean that… probably.

Either way, her nini took advantage of it and slipped in and… they weren’t exaggerating that the place was chaotic. It also wasn’t the fun kind of chaotic.

There were people running around everywhere, some of them even pushing each other out of the way. Plenty of them couldn’t see what was in front of them since they were carrying so many scrolls. Also, it didn’t help that plenty of them were littered around the floor.

She held onto her nini’s hands a little bit tighter.

“Alright, forget this,” they immediately picked her up. “Do you mind?” The child immediately shook her head, she’d much rather cling onto her nini for as long as she was here. “Good, we’re going to my office, it’s on the top floor and…” they glanced at what she assumed was the elevator? Maybe, though it was a bit different than she assumed. However, there were plenty of witches entering and leaving, “guess we’re taking the stairs.” With that they hurried towards them and began to go up.

Even in the other floors, there were people running around.

“These are the final exams of the bard students.”

“Finally! Let me… IDIOT! These are oracle coven scrolls!”

“Wait, then what did Penelope take?”

“You better start running… right now.”

“Found more construction blueprints!”

“Then you better hurry! Because someone just left with those!”

“oh Titan, this is impossible!”

“I want to go home!

“Everyone wants to, Samsom.”

All of these people were talking really loudly and running around everywhere were making her dizzy. How did her nini handle this? Also, how long until they reached that office? Hopefully it would be sooner rather than later.

Finally, they reached a floor where there weren’t that many people, also, the stairs ended. So this had to be the top floor. Her suspicions here confirmed when her nini sighed in relief, “Titan, what a nightmare.” The child could agree with that, “you can let go of me now if you want,” her only response was to cling to them tighter. Luz still wasn’t ready to do that.

At least her nini understood and still let her hold onto them. The adult was about to open the door to their office when another one opened, “what a day, I’m so taking the day off after this.” It was another witch she’d never seen. “Oh hey Raine, how was your little break?” Then her eyes fell onto her, “uuuuuuuh…” The witch then slowly pointed at the human.

Her nini sighed, “she’s my daughter, she wasn’t feeling well so I picked her up.” They stepped into their office, “I’m going back to see what scrolls I have left, I’ll go downstairs later.” The adult immediately closed the door after that.

Luz finally managed to breathe, “I think I wanna puke.” There were so many people running around, hopefully when they left it wouldn’t be like that.

The adult sat her down on a chair, it looked like the sigil on their arm. “Better?” Now that they weren’t out there, yeah, she was beginning to feel much better. The child nodded and took a look around, she noticed there was a flower next to a window. There were shelves with different books and on the back she noticed a table with some violins on top.

Huh, weird, they were pretty similar to how Fiddlesticks looked in their violin shape.

Aside from that, it just looked like a normal office, there was a stack of papers on their desk. It looked like music sheets. Though it was something that looked way too complicated for her to practice. It also had a picture, it was her while wearing the concealment stone. She was showing Katya, Amber and Derwin one of her glyphs.

Luz stopped looking at the pictures when nini put a hand on her head, “this shouldn’t take long, can you entertain yourself a little bit?” The child nodded and pulled out her book. Meanwhile, Fiddlesticks jumped to be on the adult’s shoulder. The witch scratched his ears and they began digging through a box with scrolls and papers, sorting them on different piles, “who could even make this big of a mistake?” They murmured and continued sorting.

As she was reading, she heard some complaints from the adult. Also, the palisman saying something like it felt like it was done on purpose. But the human didn’t know what to exactly say to that.

Though it definitely didn’t seem fun. Judging from how tired her nini was and the other witches running and complaining.

“Luz?” The human was halfway through the book when her nini called for her. She looked up from where she was sitting, they were holding all of the scrolls and paper they sorted earlier. “I need to get these down to where they belong, then we can go home, want to go with me?” The mere thought of going back to that chaos made her immediately shake her head without thinking about it.

Before Luz could take it back, the witch smiled, “that’s ok, you can stay here, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She wasn’t a fan of being away from them. But they were still in the building, no one died while they were in the job, normally.

So, the child could probably handle this, “ok, I’ll be here.” They nodded, Fiddlesticks then hid in her nini’s shirt and the adult left the room.

The footsteps were slowly getting further and further away.

Well, now it was just here in their office. So, the best thing to do right now was to go back to reading her good witch Azura.

She read one page, and it was still exciting.

The next one it was the same story.

However, once she needed to turn the page, her hand was feeling a bit… heavy.

Luz made an attempt to continue reading, but the letters were becoming blurry. Pretty much unreadable, it was the same with the illustrations. She couldn’t make out which one was Azura and which one was Hecate.

It was getting harder and harder to even keep her eyes open.

Was she tired? But the child had a full night’s sleep and a good breakfast and lunch. She shouldn’t be feeling that way.

However, Luz let the tiredness win, she closed her eyes, then dropped her book and leaned into the side of the chair. Completely falling asleep.

—

Raine was tired.

This whole day had been exhausting, they’d never seen this much chaos in the bard coven since they joined. It certainly didn’t help that for some reason, Scooter Crane took the day off and it was them who had to organize the messed up scrolls in his office.

At least they’d gotten a lot of intel from the other covens. Most of them also planned recruitments by force, but they’d notice that some of them would take a look at some wild witches and see which coven would they fit best. At some point the BATTs would have to act so no one would be forced into a coven.

However, none of them said what Belos had exactly planned for the Day of Unity. In fact, the oracle coven was forbidden to look into the future for that day onward. The excuse that was given was because the Titan already said it would be paradise, so none of them had to worry. But the bard didn’t like the implications it might have.

Guess it was just another thing they’d have to look into, maybe some day the adult would learn about it once they managed to become head witch. While that was the final objective for the rebellion, aside from stopping Belos, they still dreaded that day.

But that day wasn’t today, today they needed to fix part of this mess. Which was done, so now Raine could pick up their daughter and go home.

The bard opened the door of their office, “hey Luz, I’m done with the- oh.” The human was sleeping on their chair. “How?” She would have a hard time going to sleep on her bed, but there she was sleeping soundly on a chair definitely not made for sleeping.

Fiddlesticks jumped and went to be on top of her head. He then smacked her face constantly, the child didn’t wake up, ‘she’s out cold.’ Maybe that little incident with Amity’s friends made her more tired than they thought.

Raine frowned, they wouldn’t just tell Luz to stop seeing her. But the adult would definitely keep an eye on this.

They’d think about it another day, now time to go back home. The bard tood one step forward and kicked something. It was their daughter’s book. She must have been pretty tired, because if not, the child wouldn’t have forgiven herself for dropping the good witch Azura. Either way, Raine picked it from the floor and put it in their daughter’s bag.

Now it was time to pick their daughter, “Fiddlesticks, stop smacking her face, she’s not going to wake up.” Their palisman stopped and tried to act all innocent.

The adult couldn’t help but roll their eyes, “let’s just go back home.” The fox nodded and they hid in their shirt, then they picked their daughter up. Even though she was fully asleep, she noticed how the child immediately clung to their shirt.

They smiled and kissed her forehead and went on their way back home.

—

Luz was in a place full of trees, and inside of them there were portraits, it was of her and her family. Some of them had her nini, others her siblings or even Willow or Amity.

The child frowned at the memory of Amity, she still didn’t know how to feel about her. After what happened earlier, she didn’t know if the witch was actually mean or nice. Maybe things would go back to normal once both hung out again. Yeah, she should think positive.

Now, onto find out what kind of place this was. Was she dreaming? Maybe, wait, in dreams she usually didn’t notice she was dreaming until she woke up and that was how she knew it was a dream. So could this not be a dream? But she remembered falling asleep and people dreamed when they were asleep, and there were times people knew they were dreaming, was that what was happening? Was Luz dreaming and she knew she was dreaming?

“Uuuuh…” what was the child even trying to go with that?

However, before she was able of thinking about the logistics. A shadow appeared from behind her, “so, that’s what you call that witch.” The child quickly turned around, now there was a man in front of her. His clothes were weird, it reminded her of those historical recreations. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly which period though. Also, he had blue eyes and his face had a green streak across his face.

Behind him there was a portrait of her and her nini, they were teaching her the violin in that one.

But nevermind that, who was this stranger? She’d never seen him before. Luz took one step back, “uuuuh… who are you talking about?” He mentioned a witch, was she talking about one of her friends or family.

The man slowly turned their head to the portrait. Wait, did he mean… “are you talking about my nini?” She questioned him.

After mentioning them, he glared at the portrait the adult was in, “you don’t have to call them that here.” What? But she wanted to call them that. They were her nini and Luz would continue to call them that for a long time. She wasn’t going to stop because he said so.

“But they’re my nini,” the human protested.

Her answer just made him more upset, the human just took a few steps back. He noticed that and his expression changed to… pity? “You poor girl,” he began to step forward, she tried to get further away from him. “Has that witch really corrupted you that much in such a short time?” What was he talking about? Did he think her nini was bad? There was no way they’d think the witch was like that. This guy didn’t know anything.

“Stop saying mean things about my nini!” She told them, why was he even saying that? He didn’t even know them.

For some reason, that just made him angrier, his eyes began to glow blue and the streak on his face became larger. “You’re a human little girl…” the man said in a calm voice. Even then, it was still unnerving, “you should be better than those savages.” He gestured at all the portraits. Did he mean her friends? Was he calling all of her friends savages?

Why would he… no, she didn’t care why. This man was saying mean, and Luz had enough of people saying mean things about others.

The human clenched her fists, “I don’t know who you are… or why are you telling me this things, but… leave me alone.” She didn’t want to hear anything else from him. The child wanted him to just go to… another place that wasn’t close to her.

Instead of leaving, the man just tilted his head, glaring down at her, “I am disappointed in your attitude.” What? “I would have expected your parents to have raised you better than… this,” he pointed at her.

What did he just say about her parents?

Her mamá and papá were the best, they always made her feel loved, they taught her so much stuff and would always comfort her. And this man was no one to say otherwise, “you…” everything around her began to distort. Out of nowhere, water began to rise, the child didn’t know where it come from.

In spite of this, the man was still calm, “guess those savages truly manipulated your mind.” There he was again calling the people she cared about mean things.

Luz wouldn’t stand for it.

“You…” she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, “LEAVE ME ALONE, NOW!” The child opened her eyes now, she was no longer in the weird forest with portraits.

She was in her room, on her bed.

When did she get here?

Luz took a look around and saw her nini, Fiddlesticks was laying on their shoulder. Both seemed a bit frightened, “I was… just going to tuck you in.” The adult had a blanket on their hands.

Wait…

The human just screamed at her nini.

“I… nini I’m… sorry!” She jumped out of her bed to hug them, “that wasn’t for you, I’m sorry.” So it was a nightmare, a weirdly realistic one, but still, a really bad one.

Her nini kneeled down to return the hug, “hey, hey, it’s alright, I’m not mad, just a bit confused.” They began to rub circles on her back, “can you tell me what happened?” Luz tightened the hug, she’d rather stay like this for a bit more.

That man was so mean to her nini, siblings and friends for no reason. Even if it was a nightmare she hated it.

Why would anyone even say those things? The child didn’t even know who that man was but it felt like he genuinely hated all of them. Even though she’d never seen him in her life. And the human would rather keep it that way, just a one time nightmare, no repeats for her. She didn’t want to hear anyone else say bad things about the people she loved to much.

Ever since Luz arrived to the Boiling Isles, she’d been much happier. It felt like she was in a place she belonged.

A few deep breaths later and one last squeeze, the child finally moved a bit away from her nini. “Are you feeling better?” She nodded.

Luz then tried to remember the nightmare, even though she didn’t want to, “I just had a nightmare…” Her nini looked at her, they were holding her hand in comfort. “There was this weird guy, he was wearing old-timey clothes,” she braced herself to remember the things he said. “I don’t know why, but he began saying mean things about you, Katya, Amber, Derwin and my friends and I didn’t know why,” just remembering it made her angry. “He then insulted my parents and then you again and I woke up,” hopefully she’d never have that nightmare again.

The child looked up at them, “must have been really bad?” She nodded, “well, it’s over now and he can’t hurt you now.” Yeah, they were right.

Then her nini pointed at the bed, “want to go back to sleep?” Luz considered it but she wasn’t tired anymore.

Instead, the child wanted to do something else, “can you teach me more violin?” That would surely keep that nightmare off her mind. Spending time with her nini always made her feel better and forget about the bad stuff.

The adult smiled, “of course.” Yes!

Yeah, her nini taught her many things, just like her siblings. All of them made her really happy and did their best to have her happy. They were also excited for her when she learnt magic.

That man from her nightmare had no idea what he was talking about.

Good thing it would stay like that, just a weird nightmare she had.

Chapter Text

“Are you going to the parade tomorrow?” Willow asked her friend. Tomorrow was going to be the coven day parade and she was going with her dads. Her dad even helped to build the construction coven float. He was pretty proud of it from what she heard him say over breakfast.

Luz turned her head to look at her, “there’s gonna be a parade tomorrow?” What!? She didn’t know!? But it was one of the biggest events in the Boiling Isles. Some coven heads would even attend the parades of towns.

“Yes! The coven day parade, they show off all of the different covens, there’s music and confetti and fireworks!” It was so fun to go. The teachers would also ask them to talk about what was their experience during that day. Talking about what float they liked the most and what track they’d want to join once they could choose.

Her friend thought about it, “I don’t think my nini mentioned it…” why wouldn’t they? It was always a fun time. Specially listening to the emperor’s speech at the end of it.

He was so inspiring, he’d encourage everyone to follow the will of the Titan. Also, there was always the chance that the witch would finally reveal when was the Day of Unity. It hadn’t happened yet, but some day would and surely it would be amazing.

“You should go! Most of Bonesborough will be there!” Her dads said they should leave the house early to get a good spot. But the witch could handle it.

Luz seemed to consider it, “I don’t think nini enjoys being around a lot of people.” Aw, that was sad, Willow would have liked to encounter her friend during the parade. “But maybe I can ask them for the next time,” the next time would be next year. That was really far away. However, if there was a chance to talk to her about the parade.

Well, at least she said she’d try for the next time the parade occurs, “you’ll enjoy it, trust me, it’s so fun.” Her friend smiled. “Maybe this time you two can watch it on the crystal ball?” She knew they showed it there.

Her friend thought about it, “yeah, maybe I can watch it through the crystal ball, nini has the day off tomorrow too.” Great! Maybe the next time they hung out both could talk about the parade.

“Kids! Raine’s here to pick up Luz!” Her papa said out loud.

Both whined, it didn’t feel like it had been a long time, but the sky getting darker from her window told her otherwise. “Think we can squeeze in a few minutes while they talk?” Willow considered it, maybe if Raine was willing to talk with her dads.

“It’s getting late! I want to be home before it completely darkens!” Guess not.

Luz pouted a bit, “let’s just go slowly,” Willow nodded at the suggestion. Both left the room while taking their good time. Similar thing while going through the hallway, the next thing was the stairway. The two took slow steps.

Unfortunately, even by going as slow as possible, they still reached the staircase to go down.

“Doesn’t sound like it’s changed a lot since I went there,” both heard Raine say. For some reason Luz stopped in her tracks. Willow stayed by her side.

The witch peeked her head a bit, her dads were talking with the bard. “Yeah, while we’ve had some issues with Willow’s treatment, it’s overall a good school and the teacher from the baby class is good,” yeah, she could agree with that. Normally Amity and the others wouldn’t bother her as long as the teacher was around. So Willow would make sure to have her nearby in case they tried anything.

But why were they talking about Hexide? Luz didn’t go there.

“Thanks for this, most things I got from Hexide itself were all… positive things, in the way that it’s too good to be true,” wait, they were talking as if her friend would join Hexide at some point. Were they planning that? Then why didn’t her friend tell her? Luz already showed her excitedly the new spell she learnt, but nothing about becoming classmates.

It would be so cool to have a friend in school again.

Her papa nodded, “it’s ok, we get that, can’t really be sure of a school until your child goes in.” The bard nodded.

“Need something else to know?” Her dad asked Raine.

They rubbed the back of their neck, “no… not really, I am still a bit unsure about this.” Unsure about what?

Maybe they could ask them, Willow was about to go downstairs but Luz wasn’t following, “Luz?” She asked her, the child was staring at the floor. Why did she look sad? “Everything alright? I’m sure we can hang out another day,” both had a great time when they were together. So it shouldn’t be a problem for their parents.

“I saw a pamphlet talking about Hexide in their office,” the witch turned her head in confusion. “Are they tired of teaching me at home? They know I don’t want to go to school,” oh… so this was something she didn’t know.

Willow held her hand, “I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.” The witch wasn’t going to assume the worst from Raine, maybe this was some kind of misunderstanding. Luz always said good things about them, “maybe you can… talk to them?” Her dads mentioned communication was very important to understand each other.

However, her friend wasn’t too happy with her solution, “I guess I can do that.” Her hold tightened, “but I really don’t wanna go to school, I didn’t have friends in my old one and it was horrible.” The witch could understand that.

But if she went to Hexide, maybe things would be different.

Willow had Luz and Luz had Willow, “but it can be different.” Her friend looked up at her, “we could be in the same class, and spend even more time together.” That was something fun.

Even she thought the same, “I guess…”

The witch nodded, “and if I’m being honest, I think it’d be great to have you as a classmate too.” She admitted, “I… kind of miss having a friend in school.” It might not be the same friendship as with Amity, but different could be good. Different could also mean that Luz wouldn’t be upset with her for not getting the spells right.

Her friend’s eyes were getting a bit watery. Oh no, did she say the wrong thing? Luz then began to wipe them, “y-yeah… I think that sounds pretty fun.” The witch smiled, “but… I still don’t know…” she couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.

But maybe… maybe she could hope a bit that her friend would join her school.

Then, after rubbing her eyes again, Luz took a deep breath, “nini! I’m ready!” All of the adults turned to look at the staircase.

It didn’t look like they noticed they were listening to them before, “hey, ready to go home?” She hesitated a bit and glanced at Willow. But then turned to look back at the adult, and nodded. She let go of her hand and hugged them.

She didn’t seem upset anymore, “yup! And Willow told me about a parade happening tomorrow!” Luz told them, “can we see it? Porfiiiii,” huh, that was a weird word she just said.

Raine chuckled, “oh right, coven day’s tomorrow…” They didn’t know? Well then it was normal her friend wasn’t aware that it was happening.

“Yeah, I actually helped in making the construction coven float,” her dad said proudly.

Her papa chuckled, “he’s been bragging about it the whole week,” he teased. The other witch in response nudged him with his elbow. “Aw, I know you did a great work honey,” the witch told him, which made him blush.

Willow enjoyed seeing how happy they were with each other.

Raine smiled, “well, we’ll see it tomorrow night, ok?” Luz nodded and they opened the door, “thanks for this, we’ll see when we can repeat this.” With that, both witches were out of the house.

Her dad looked up at her, “did you have fun?” The child happily nodded, it was always a blast whenever Luz visited.

Then her papa stretched, “alright, let’s see how your room’s turned out.” Whoops, it might be a bit of a mess, “please tell me you didn’t make your room a place to blind people with lights.” Nah, this time her friend just showed her the ice glyph. But both managed to avoid freezing her whole room.

Didn’t erase the mess both made though.

“Don’t worry papa, everything’s fine,” he went to her room. “Aside from the toys on the floor,” she added.

He sighed and gestured for her to come closer, “come here and help your papa.” The child went next to him and both began to clean up the room. Willow put one of her dolls back into the box as she saw her papa grabbed a notebook, weird, she didn’t show her anything from school. “What’s this?” The adult opened it at a random page.

He seemed pretty surprised by its contents, “why didn’t you tell us you began drawing?” Because she didn’t? What was he talking about?

“But… I haven’t really done that,” aside from maybe drawing some plants outside. The witch took a look at it and saw a drawing of her and Luz. Willow was creating a spell circle while Luz was holding one of her glyphs.

Oh farts, she knew who drew that.

Her papa turned the page, “the rest are just those glyphs Luz does.” That wasn’t her notebook.

“That’s Luz’s notebook,” the adult slowly turned to look at her. “She showed me that drawing before,” she was pretty proud of it too.

He then picked her up and ran out of the room, “Gilbert, please tell me that Raine and Luz are still close.” Her dad then appeared from the bottom of the staircase.

He raised an eyebrow, “uuuh, no? They must be outside of Bonesborough by now, why are you asking that?” The witch then showed him Luz’s notebook, “that’s Luz’s, isn’t it?” Both slowly nodded, and the witch sighed “I’ll call them.” He went to where the crow was.

—

Raine knew that their daughter knew a lot of things. There were times they were amazed at how much information she could take in. Also, the fact that the child could practically recite the entirety of the good witch Azura from memory was something even their students couldn’t believe it sometimes.

However, their daughter was still a child.

And she’d sometimes forget things, like for example, in this case, her notebook. Fortunately, it was in Willow’s house and they found it.

“Are you in a hurry to get it back?” Gilbert asked through the crow.

They glanced at their daughter, who was sitting on the couch, drawing on another notebook. “No, no, it’s fine, really, no rush on getting it back,” there definitely wasn’t a lack of materials Luz could draw in. The one she left in Willow’s house was one where she’d put most of her glyphs in and a few quick drawings. So it shouldn’t be much of a problem for the human to draw them again.

If there wasn’t any drawings of those glyphs in her hair. Raine should check it later.

Having to inspect their daughter’s aside, the bard was still trying to talk with one of the dads of their daughter’s friend. “Well, then we’ll keep it safe until we see each other again,” yeah, that sounded like a proper plan.

The adult nodded, “sure, thanks for this.” After that they hung up and went to the living room where their daughter was drawing Fiddlesticks. Meanwhile, the palisman was posing.

“You two having fun?” Surprisingly, the human noticed them.

The child nodded, “sorry for forgetting the notebook.” They ruffled her hair in response, she shouldn’t worry about it that much.

“It’s fine, it was an accident,” could have happened to anyone.

Luz went back to stare at the paper, however, she wasn’t drawing, one look at her face and they could see she was frowning. “Is something wrong?” The bard was pretty sure the child had fun with Willow. It wasn’t like with Amity.

“Nini…” she took a deep breath, “are you tired of teaching me stuff?” They were taken aback by her question.

“What? No, I’m not, I enjoy teaching you things,” where did that question even come from? Raine couldn’t remember their daughter having a negative experience learning with them or Derwin. Did they miss something that was obvious for Luz? No, they wouldn’t figure out unless they directly asked her, “why are you asking?” The bard tried to sound as calm as possible.

Immediately, the child tensed up, “uuuh, no reason!” A clear lie, “just curious since you work and then teach me, it must be a lot.” That wasn’t something she was worried about before.

The child stood up, “I feel like reading Azura in my room, call me for dinner bye!” Before they could stop her, Luz ran upstairs and closed the door to her room.

That felt… uncomfortably familiar.

Raine looked at Fiddlesticks, “should I… go to her room?” But maybe if they tried to ask her again she’d feel more pressure and try to close herself even more. Even their palisman wasn’t sure on what could be the best thing to do right now.

‘Maybe wait? She normally tells you things in due time,’ that was true. They’d see if tomorrow she brings it up again and then they’d have to see.

—

Today was the day of the coven day parade, and Luz didn’t know whether to be excited for it or not. She was in the living room sitting on the couch and holding the pamphlet announcing Hexide. The child grabbed it without them noticing.

The morning was great, her nini teaching her the violin and later some runes. The child always enjoyed learning with her family.

But… what if it was different for them?

Her nini said they enjoyed it, same thing with Derwin. However, Luz knew sometimes adults lied about stuff. What if they said that they did like it but then they didn’t and just wanted to stop teaching her? What if the human was actually bothering them this whole time and she didn’t notice? She should have.

Right now the adult was talking with someone on the crow. The child covered herself with a blanket, only her head was peeking out and she kept the pamphlet close to her.

Maybe turning on earlier the crystal ball would ease her mind a bit. Her nini wouldn’t mind, so the child turned it on. They were showing the different preparations of all the floats across the Boiling Isles. Willow wasn’t exaggerating when she said this was very important.

In the crystal ball they were showing off the people that worked on them. Making interviews on what inspired them, also how joining a coven changed their life for the better. That last part was a bit weird. There was also a bunch of coven scouts helping around and just guarding the different floats. Weird, would anyone really try to attack in a parade?

Well, definitely not this one since it was so heavily guarded.

After different reporters interviewed the members of all the parades. Finally, the main event happened. “Nini?” She looked from behind the couch and they were already going with her.

The adult ruffled her hair and sat down next to her, “I’m here.” Yeah, they were, and just in time for the parade in Bonesborough to begin.

Luz then began to focus on the crowd, “do you think we’ll be able to see Willow.” It would be so cool if she saw the witch, and to tell her she saw her through the crystal ball looking at the parade. Now the human began her search. She tried to scan through the crowd, unfortunately, there was no friend to be seen. Well, the child wasn’t going to give up that easily.

Her nini chuckled, “there is a chance, but you won’t be able to see properly if you fall.” Luz looked down and oh… she was leaning a bit too far out of the couch.

After noticing it, the adult helped her sit back properly, though she made sure they didn’t see the pamphlet. The human tried to ignore it and went back to focus on the crystal ball. She wasn’t going to tell them about it, why would she? If the child didn’t bring it up then at some point her nini would. When they were completely done with teaching her.

So, instead of focusing on that stuff, she would focus on the parade. Now the one representing the bard coven was on screen “is that Scooter Crane?” They were pulling a bunch of levers and there was definitely a new instrument sounding aside from the ones the scouts were playing.

Her nini nodded, “yeah, was talking to some people that were helping him before.” She looked up at them confused, “he forgot to tune it and multiple bards had to do it in a hurry.” Oh wow, that sounded intense. Her nini would sometimes take a good while tuning some instruments. Also something about dreading when the seasons changed because then the string instruments would be all out of tune.

Having in mind how many violins they had in their office. Luz shuddered at the thought of taking care of all of them.

Once the bard’s float moved away from the scene, there were some abominations dancing with a stick. “Cool,” surely Willow was having even more fun out there. Must be exciting to see all of that in real life.

She heard her nini snort, “Darius would be upset because the abominations aren’t fully neat.” The human turned to look at them in confusion. Who was this Darius? “Just an old friend from back in school, just remembered him because I sometimes see him in the castle,” the castle? Then he must work there too. They knew many people that worked there.

“Is working in the castle fun?” Though Luz might have an idea with the reaction they had when she asked if she could ever visit it.

As expected, her nini grimaced, “there are better places to work in…” So they didn’t enjoy it.

Luz went back to focus on the crystal ball, she finally noticed a familiar witch, “¡LA ENCONTRÉ! LOOK NINI I FOUND HER!” She shook them and pointed at the ball. The witch was sitting on one of her dads shoulders. It didn’t look like she knew the camera was showing her. Sadly, it didn’t last that long since then the image was focused on another float. “Aw farts,” the child whined. Well, the good thing was that she found her friend and now the human would be able to tell her about it.

The adult then put a hand on her shoulder, “that’s great Luz… but please stop shaking me.” Oh right, she forgot she was doing that. The child let go of them and they sighed in relief.

She continued watching the parade, “now, the parade representing the students, here we have Hexide!” The child tensed up when she saw that one. It was the school her friends went to and her nini was wondering if she would study there.

On top there were some adults, she assumed those were the teachers. Waving at the people.

The human couldn’t help but curl into herself and hide a bit into the blanket, she didn’t want to think about the chance of having to go back to school. Unsurprisingly, her nini noticed this, “everything alright?” Their focus was on her now.

She tightened the hold on the pamphlet and stayed quiet.

That definitely made them more worried, “what’s wrong? Did something happen?” They asked again, but she didn’t answer.

Instead, the human just covered her face with the blanket.

Luz didn’t want to ask them if they were tired of teaching her. Maybe this time they would just tell her that yes and make her go to school even if she didn’t want to. The human would want to just learn like this for longer.

But right now, she was pretty much caught.

And maybe right now there was a little chance that they could agree on something where the child wouldn’t have to go to Hexide. However, the words weren’t coming out of her mouth and she didn’t want to directly look at them. So instead, she showed them the pamphlet she’d been hiding for a while now. It was a bit wrinkly since she held it so tightly.

Her nini picked it up and then noticed what it was, “oh… you saw it…” Yeah, she did. The child first saw it when they began teaching her the violin.

Luz nodded, she tried to take a deep breath, it was a bit shaky, “why didn’t you tell me you didn’t want to teach me anymore?” It would have been better than finding this out on her own. Or listening to the adult talking with Willow’s dads. She wiped the tears that were appearing on her face, “I… I could’ve changed something, but please don’t make me go to school.” That was the last thing she wanted, she didn’t want anything with school anytime soon.

Immediately, the child heard some kind of movement, though she still refused to get out of the blanket. However, the child did feel a hand touching her arm over the blanket, “Luz, that isn’t true, you got it wrong.” Then why would they be looking at a Hexide pamphlet and ask other people about the school?

Why would they not tell her what she did wrong?

“But then why would you want to enrol me in school?” The child didn’t want to repeat what happened in her old schools.

The adult took a deep breath, “because I wanted to give you more chances.” Luz finally removed the blanket from her face and looked up at them in confusion, “it had been something I’ve thought about, me and Derwin can only teach you so much, but there are things that we lack that a school could teach you.” Then maybe she could do it on her own, “it was just an option, I wasn’t even sure about it, I was going to ask you to consider your opinion some other day.” Really? They wanted to ask her?

“You… were going to?” It was pretty strange for adults to ask what she wanted. No one ever asked her if she wanted to go with her foster parents, they just told her to pack her things so she could go to her new home.

Though every time there was something important, her nini would ask her if she was alright with it. Like when they first told her she’d have to act as if she was their adopted daughter. That becoming real a while later. Also making sure the food she was eating didn’t make her sick.

They nodded, “I know you had really bad experiences in your other schools, I also know fully well that Hexide isn’t perfect, but I still wanted to give you the chance to choose and since you already have friends there, I thought it would be the best one between all of them.” Luz continued listening to them. Going back to school again… she still didn’t like that idea.

She tried to wipe away her tears, but they wouldn’t stop, “I… I don’t think I can…” Not right now, specially not like this.

“Oh Luz…” they picked her up and held her close. The child nuzzled into their chest and curled tighter into the blanket, “I wasn’t even thinking about telling you until a bit more time had passed.” At least they planned talking to her about it.

“And now! Emperor Belos will give out a speech!” Right, the parade.

A masked man was now on screen, right now she didn’t want to hear someone give out a speech on whatever was happening. “Let me just…” her nini turned the crystal ball off. “There we go, want to keep talking?” They asked her, while she was still a bit hesitant, the human tried to gather enough courage to nod.

Alright, her nini was honest with her, it was time for her to be honest too. “Even with mamá and papá… school wasn’t really fun, the teachers never really liked me for… I don’t know, maybe it was the bugs, maybe it was the drawing in class or something else,” it sometimes felt like they just didn’t like her for no reason. As if they thought she would be trouble. “And it was worse after they… died because they weren’t there to help,” also, the weekends just felt like it was just preparation to brace herself for another exhausting week.

They rubbed circles on her back, “I understand you don’t want to try soon.” No, she didn’t, “but are you sure you want this forever?” That was… something the child hadn’t thought about.

Luz hadn’t really thought about wanting to go to school at some point. Definitely not right now, but forever? She wasn’t sure, the human enjoyed learning, maybe a magical school would be different to a human realm school.

“Your friends are also there, maybe it might be fun to spend more time with them,” Willow did say she would enjoy being with her in school.

And Luz would also really like to spend more time with her and Amity.

But… also Amity with her friends… she acted a bit weird. Almost like those classmates that made fun of her whenever she would have a hard time learning something. Or when she lost her parents and some kids would remind her of that constantly.

The human wondered if they would even want to spend time with her if she never learnt glyphs.

“Maybe…” though she still wasn’t sure. “But I don’t know how the school looks like,” sure, Willow told her some things about it and Amity told her about the tracks. But she didn’t really know the place.

“We can visit it,” what? “Yeah, we can take a look around the school to see if we like it,” her nini rubbed the back of their neck. “I was thinking of suggesting you that first when we had the talk for it?” Oh… that didn’t sound too bad.

However, she had more questions, “if we visit, does that mean I have to enrol?”

Fortunately, the adult shook their head, “no, it’s just to take a look around, with maybe the principal explaining how things work.” She felt a lot of relief knowing that.

But… there was another thing that worried her, “if I go to school… does that mean you and Derwin will stop teaching me things?” Luz genuinely enjoyed the time she had with the young adult in the library and her nini teaching her the violin.

“No, of course not,” thank goodness, she didn’t want them to just stop teaching her things because she would go to school. It also meant neither of them were done with showing her new things.

The thought of going back to school… but it was a school in a new world. This time she would have friends in there, and her nini thought she might enjoy it. And they were willing to show her the school and let her decided whether she wanted to go there or not.

Luz took a deep breath, “then maybe… I want to try?” Just to test things out, maybe the human could be surprised.

Her nini smiled, “you sure?” Even though the child was a bit hesitant, she nodded, “then I’ll see when we can visit the school and talk with principal Bump.” Principal Bump… huh, she wondered what kind of principal he was. Hopefully he was the nice kind.

“Ok!” She hugged them and the adult chuckled as they returned it.

Chapter Text

It had been a long time since Raine last saw Hexide. When they graduated, they didn’t think they’d ever come back. However, now they were proven wrong since the witch was once again in school grounds, with their daughter.

There were other children entering the building, no one paid them any mind. But Luz was pretty much vigilant of everyone.

This was expected, sure, the human said she could handle going to the school. Though this must still be something very stressful for her. The best thing to do for her right now was to be with her as long as this visit lasted. After all, they were just here for a visit, not enrol her. The bard made sure she was fully aware of that.

Now, to the next step.

Being able to enter the building with Luz clinging to their leg. They’d been doing it since they left the house, but this was getting a bit tiring.

“Luz…” the human looked up to them, “we need to meet the principal, mind letting go of my leg?” She was a bit hesitant, “remember what I told you, I’ll stick with you for the full visit, we won’t get separated.” The child thought about it and finally let go of their leg. Instead she took a hold of their hand, progress.

“I’m a bit nervous…” yeah, even before leaving the house it was pretty obvious. The human could barely eat breakfast, good thing they packed something for her.

They smiled, “I know, but I’ll stay with you, I promise.” The child nodded and looked at the building.

She took a deep breath, “I think I’m ready,” good, hopefully after this they find her friends. Maybe it would encourage her to see more of the school.

“Then let’s go,” their daughter nodded. Hopefully Bump would be calm about seeing them again.

—

Bump sat down in his office, the students were already entering their classes and today, he had a reunion with a parent interested in having their child join the school. Hopefully he’d manage to convince them, Hexide was always willing to welcome new students.

However, for some reason, he had a bad feeling about this reunion.

Might be because earlier today, the handle on his coffee cup broke off for no apparent reason. Not only that, but the oracle teacher today predicted something bad would happen.

Nevertheless, the witch decided to ignore those. He wouldn’t be a good principal if he just rejected enrolling a student just because he had a bad feeling. The principal was also a believer that every witch had their own potential. He wouldn’t be living up to his words if he made an exception on just one child.

Though he was curious about what kind of parent was interested in enrolling their child here. The one time he remembered a teacher this frightened, was when Edalyn was still a student.

But there was no chance Edalyn would just walk in here and announce she had a child. Now the wild witch was selling potions and human trash at the market. And the only witch she’d been with where that was a possibility broke up with her years ago.

Bump had no more time speculating when he heard a knock on the door. The principal checked the time and it was the hour when the parent was supposed to arrive. A punctual witch, that was always something good. “Come in,” he announced to whoever was on the other side of the door as it slowly opened.

Only to see Raine Whispers stand in front of him.

What?

Was the principal back to his younger years?

No, that couldn’t be, they looked way too old to be a Hexide student.

He rubbed his eyes to see if he was just seeing things, but no, Raine Whispers was still standing on his office. “Uuuuh, hi?” And they also sounded like them. So it must be them.

Again, what?

What was going on? Was he still in bed dreaming? A single pinch on his arm proved him wrong, then why was Raine Whispers here? It couldn’t be possible that they had a daughter, right? That couldn’t be.

“Can we… come in?” The bard questioned. Right, he had a reunion.

The principal snapped out of it, “yeah, yeah, sure.” He pointed at the two chairs in front of his desk. The other witch sat down with no problem.

Then they looked down, “need some help?” The bard asked someone, then they leaned down and sat down a little witchlet on the other chair, “there we go.” The child then looked up at him, she seemed a bit nervous. She immediately went to hold Raine’s hand and they immediately held her hand too.

For some reason, Bump couldn’t find himself to start the conversation. This wasn’t something he was ready to face. The principal should have listened to the teacher.

“So… my daughter’s interested in seeing a bit of the school, we still haven’t decided on whether or not to enroll her here,” he slowly nodded. Trying to process the existence of the child in front of him. Even though the living proof was in front of him, his mind still couldn’t believe it.

Wait a minute, he just remembered, even though they were more sneaky and couldn’t find any definitive proof, Raine was also a prank maker. That was right, somehow, during those years those two reconnected and now they were playing one last prank of him by creating a little girl as a daughter. Yeah, wow, they almost got him. Surely Raine wasn’t even in contact with the illusion and was just keeping their hands just close enough so it would look like they were holding hands.

Just a little poke to her head and she would immediately disappear.

He touched her forehead.

She didn’t disappear.

“Uuuuuh, is this a normal thing here?” The witchlet asked Raine. Who just looked just as confused.

The adult removed his hand and moved their chair closer to the child’s, “everything ok Bump?” This wasn’t an elaborate prank. Raine Whispers was here with their daughter, a daughter that could be a mix of them and Edalyn Clawthorne.

Hexide was doomed.

Edalyn…

Raine…

Daughter…

“I don’t get it… did I do something?” The witchlet questioned, and he just noticed that he was on a corner of the office. When did that happen?

Raine put their free hand on her head, “no, no, this is just Bump playing a little joke, right?” They turned to look at him and the adult definitely was glaring at him. “Come on, stop joking around and let’s talk about the school,” that sounded way more as a threat than a suggestion. The witch felt like an ‘or else’ was missed in what they said.

The principal needed something to calm his nerves, good thing the plant teacher always prepared some tea to brew for the teachers that got stressed. It water was already boiling and he put the tea leaves in the mug, “yes, yes, I apologize for earlier.” He began to pour water, “so, it’s been a while, Mx. Whispers, mind telling me what made you interested in having your daughter join Hexide?” If the witchlet really was theirs and Edalyn’s daughter, there was a chance she had the curse, or maybe she had powerful magic.

Fortunately, now all of them were back to the main topic. He’d ignore the many pranks a younger version of Edalyn Clawthorne pulled. “Well, there’s been some… issues with other schools before,” so Hexide wasn’t the first option for the couple. “But we talked and Luz said she was willing to maybe try it out again,” so the witchlet’s name was Luz.

Huh, he never heard of a name like that before.

Well, not surprising, Edalyn would have liked to have a child with a unique name.

The principal nodded, “Hexide will be more than willing to welcome you.” He’d ignore the future pleas of the teachers when they hear who this child is related to. “Mx. Whispers already studied here, but assuming you’re not old enough to go to any tracks…” yeah, that was right. He remembered the appointment mentioning the witchlet was nine years old, “you are more than welcome to take a look around the school and see your future classmates,” the principal did the typical speech to invite the children to see the school.

This usually worked out and motivated the parents of the child to see what kind of classes there were. Then Bump would talk about the installations and the advantages of it.

However, when he looked up, Raine was covering the child’s eyes. They seemed pretty terrified.

The principal rased an eyebrow, “is something the matter?” This was some strange behaviour coming from the adult.

“Uuuuh…” the bard pointed at his hand, “I think you poured more than enough.” One look at his hand and there was boiling water pooling out of the cup and onto his hand. It was already beginning to turn red and Titan knew what would happen in the long-run.

Bump quickly stood up, this wasn’t the best way to give a good impression on potential students, but his hand needed to be treated, “excuse me, I will be back.” He ran to the school healer. Surprisingly, it still didn’t hurt, however, he wasn’t going to take in his luck, the shock might wear off at some point.

—

Willow was sitting on her own, that was normal for her. But this time she was excited for the school day.

Her dads told her Luz was coming to visit the school today, the witch couldn’t wait to show her the cool things it had. Also, hopefully she might join her class if she liked it enough. The witch would be so happy if she had friends in school again.

Also, this was the perfect chance to give her friend the notebook back.

She froze.

Did Willow put Luz’s notebook in her backpack?

The witch hurried to her backpack, which was hanging on the wall. She dug through it and managed to grab a familiar notebook. Just to be sure, she opened it and noticed that a note feel from it. Willow picked it up to check what it was.

‘Hello little leaf!

We noticed that you almost missed Luz’s notebook so we put it in here.

Have a fun day at school!

Love, your dad and papa

PS: this is dad, also be careful with closing it too hard, your papa got scared to death after some light glyphs activated.’

The child giggled at that last message. She’d make sure to listen to it, as she sat down back in her usual spot while the class waited for the teacher, the child took a peek to all of the glyphs inside the notebook. By this point her friend could draw them with her eyes closed. She wondered if Luz would ever find more of these kinds of spells. They were really interesting.

After turning a few pages and seeing it was pretty much all spells by now. She decided to put it back in her pocket.

However, a gasp coming from behind her made her stop in her tracks.

Willow turned to her back, when did Amity get here? And why was she so close? She usually didn’t do anything before the classes began, it was more during recess time.

Her ex-friend looked at the notebook, would she try to take it away from her? But she never did that before. However, she never thought both would stop being friends and she would start picking on her. Well, whatever happened, Willow wouldn’t let her take this notebook away from her. This belonged to Luz and the witch was going to return it.

“You…” the witch braced herself for the worst, “YOU THIEF!” What? “You stole those spells!” What was she talking about? Willow didn’t steal anything!

She referred some spells. Was this about the notebook?

Willow kept the notebook close to her, “I am not a thief!” She responded. The witch didn’t know how Amity would even know about these kinds of spells. Luz did mention having another friend from Hexide, but there was no way her ex-friend would be friends with her. Her friend didn’t have magic and Amity stopped being friends with her because she couldn’t get the spells right.

Unfortunately, the witch didn’t give up, “yes you are! Those spells aren’t yours!” Yeah, they weren’t, but she was planning on giving it back to her friend!

Then out of nowhere, Amity tried to take the notebook from her hands, “give me that!” Willow wasn’t going to do that! Her friend counted on her to give it back and she wasn’t going to let her take it away because of something that wasn’t true.

Why did things have to turn out this way? If only they could still be friends, but the witch was clear on it. “No!” She pulled back.

Willow was able to bring it closer to her. Unfortunately, Boscha and Skara arrived to class, “hey, what’s Amity doing?” The witch with three eyes was, “oooh, maybe it’s a secret diary!” No it wasn’t, it was Luz’s notebook she used to draw glyphs and do normal drawings. Either way, the two witches joined Amity’s side and the witch wasn’t able to fight three witches on her own,

After getting the notebook on her hands, Amity pushed her so harshly she fell back. “That’ll teach you not to steal!” But she wasn’t stealing!

The witch stood up, “give it back! That’s not yours!” Why was she doing this? The witch used to be so nice but out of nowhere, she began to say mean things to her. Maybe it was her fault, if only she never tried to do that spell back in lake Kakuna.

If only she wasn’t so weak, if only Amity just stopped berating her with her new friends. The ground began to shake a bit.

“What is going on in here!?” Everyone froze when the voice of the teacher appeared.

The four witches focused on the adult, miss Silk was crossing her arms and looking directly at them.

“It’s all her fault!” Amity spoke up first, “she’s stealing someone else’s magic!” No she wasn’t! She was just keeping her friend’s notebook until they met!

“That’s not true!” Willow defended herself.

Amity opened the notebook, showing one of the light glyphs, “then how do you know about these spells!?” Why was she accusing her of doing bad things?

“That notebook is from a friend!” Finally she said out loud, “we were hanging out at my house one day and she forgot it there.” The child took a few deep breaths, “my dads said she was going to visit the school today and I was going to give it back!” There, there was the whole story Amity didn’t let her say.

Finally, the witch didn’t say anything to accuse her from stealing, “but Willow doesn’t have any friends.” Unfortunately, Skara had to say that out loud.

“That’s true, Willow’s magic’s so weak that she had to steal someone else’s spell,” why were they siding with Amity? Wait, they were her new friends, of course they’d do that. Meanwhile, right now, she was completely alone. Hopefully the teacher had in mind her side of the story.

The adult stayed quiet for a few seconds, “Amity, can you give me that notebook?” But it was Luz’s, not Amity’s. She looked inside of it, “how are these spells anyway? They are just drawings,” yeah, that was what Willow first thought.

“You need to tap it and the spell will activate,” both her and Amity said at the same time. Wait, how did she know this?

The witch seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Even miss Silk was surprised at their answer, “ok, so… here’s what we can do.” Oh, was she going to give her back the notebook? “How about I keep it completely safe and once Willow’s friend arrive, we can give it back to her?” What? She didn’t believe her? But it was the truth. The witch was completely honest, “now, how about we apologize to each other and being class,” but she didn’t do anything wrong.

However, she knew that arguing more would just make the teacher more upset.

Amity crossed her arms and looked away, “sorry…” The witch muttered.

Now the attention was on her, “Willow, anything to say?” She really didn’t want to apologize, the child didn’t do anything wrong.

Better to just end this, “sorry…” there, she said it.

The teacher seemed happy, “alright, that’s good, however, I would prefer if you cool off a bit and stay separate from each other.” That could work for her. Miss Silk then looked at the other witches who were staring at her, Amity, Skara and Boscha, “alright class, let’s start with the runes.” Everyone sat on the floor, Willow made sure to stay away from Amity and her friends.

However, the witch kept glaring at her as the class continued.

—

Hexide was… definitely better than what Luz expected.

Sure, her idea on how the school would be was to see the adults look at her in disgust and annoyance. But that wasn’t really what the principal did.

Well, he did look at her as if he was scared, which was a bit weird. The human still wasn’t sure what to think of that. She was sure she didn’t do anything to scare him, though her nini was kind of annoyed at his reaction. So the child shouldn’t think about it that much.

Specially now with principal Bump showing them the different classes. There was a bandage on his hand. Luz didn’t know exactly what happened to it since her nini covered her eyes.

At least it looked like he was better now? Though there was still those nervous glances towards her while he was showing some of the classrooms.

Speaking of classrooms, finally they were showing one with people her age. Maybe Willow and Amity were in there, “now, this would be her class in case she joins the next semester.” The next semester… Luz wasn’t soon whether that was soon or later, but knowing there was something like a time limit until she would have to go to school again made her nervous.

No, her nini said the human could choose to join Hexide or not. Yeah, they’d let her pick whatever she wanted. It also didn’t mean it had to be forever, she could change her decision later.

The adult slowly opened the door, “excuse me, sorry to interrupt but we have some visitors.” He announced and she took a look at the people that were in there. The first person she saw was the teacher, she had the head of a spider and four arms. Cool, she’d never seen someone that looked like a spider.

Then the human focused on the people her age. Finally she saw a familiar witch.

“Willow!” Luz ran in to hug her, her friend immediately returned it, “I’m so happy to see you!” Even though it hadn’t been that long.

The witch laughed, “me too!” It was always great to see her friend.

“Luz?” She heard another familiar witch say, this time it was Amity. Wait, so they were on the same class. Weird, the child thought they wouldn’t know each other.

In spite of what happened the last time they hung out, the human was still happy to see her. “Hi Amity! It’s great to see you too!” However, the witch didn’t respond to her. Her eyes began widening as she looked at her hugging Willow.

Luz tilted her head and looked at the other witch, who was also frozen in place, “is something wrong?” Why were they reacting like that?

Chapter Text

Amity couldn’t understand what she was seeing.

Well, she actually did, but she didn’t want to accept it. However, that would explain why she had that notebook with Luz’s spells or why she knew how those worked.

Out of every witch her age, of course Willow would be friends with her friend. Because some way or another, she somehow had to ruin things. First with her messing up the spells so her parents wouldn’t let the two be friends and now being friends with the only other witch who liked the Good Witch Azura just as much as she did.

Even though she was happy at first, now she noticed her and Willow’s expression. “Is something wrong?” Yeah, there was, it was the witch trying to steal her friend.

“Wow, what a coincidence,” Skara said, “you two used to be friends and now have the same friend.” Amity really wasn’t appreciating her comments right now. At least Boscha elbowed her to not say anything else.

Before things could escalate any more, the teacher stepped between them, “so you are Willow’s friend.” While confused, she nodded, “then this must be yours,” she showed off the notebook the witch used to have. Amity still didn’t understand how both witches could have even met and become friends.

Luz gasped and let go of the witch, “yes!” She took it from her hands, “thanks for bringing it Willow.” The witch smiled and Amity felt… unhappy? Why was she getting all the praise?

Willow looked at her friend, “yeah! That’s what friends are for.” That was true, the witch always helped her in whatever she could. Even though she never got the spells right, she always tried to do something to cheer her up.

The child missed that…

But that was in the past, her parents already said to stop being friends with the witch. And she did that, Amity wasn’t going to lose another friend.

Though before she could say something, someone else came in, “uuuh, hey, I’m Luz’s parent.” It was Raine, they were greeting the teacher. “Sorry for her barging in, she was just excited to see her friends,” the witch wanted to protest that Luz was her friend. There had to be a reason why she made friends Willow.

The teacher just smiled, “it’s alright, I’m glad to see young witchlets making new friends.” The adult smiled.

Meanwhile, Luz went to Raine’s side and put the notebook in her pocket. “Does that mean that we can all be friends?” She was asking that to her and Willow. Both witches looked at each other, there was no way the child would accept anything like that.

Before her friend could question what was going on, she heard another adult clear up his throat. “Sorry about interrupting your class, now, we need to see the other installations of the school,” the principal explained. “I think you remember the grudgby field, right Mx. Whispers?” Amity always saw the older kids playing it. The game looked fun, also, her mom thought it would be a good way to make her family look good, so she’d probably play it as soon as she could.

Luz gasped, “I always play it with Amber!” Raine smiled and ruffled her hair.

“Yeah, I think we can do that,” she nodded and the three left the room. Though before leaving, the bard glanced at her and Willow.

Once the door closed, Amity glared at the witch, “how do you know her!?” She pointed at accusatory finger towards her ex-friend.

However, miss Silk separated them once again, “remember what I told you earlier, even though you two have the same friend I’ll still rather you both cool down for today.” But she wanted answers. Unfortunately, the teacher wasn’t going to give them any leeway, so she just sat once again with Boscha and Skara and Willow sat alone. “You two used to be such good friends, what happened with you?” Well, people changed.

It was her… who changed.

That didn’t matter right now, she glared at Willow. Though she wasn’t paying attention to her, she was now curling in on herself.

So she was going to react like this. Well, it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t do her spells right and that she was a better friend.

—

Raine wasn’t sure what to think of Amity and Willow.

Well, not like they didn’t like the kids, Willow was a great friend for Luz and while the last time their daughter and Amity met it didn’t go well, the human was pretty happy with her. So overall, the bard should be happy with the friends she made.

However, what happened back in that class was… worrisome.

Something they noticed that it was possible that the two witchlets had some history.

The bad kind of history.

Did Luz notice it? She did seem to notice that both of them were acting weird when they found out the human was their friend. And while Raine didn’t get everything from Harvey and Gilbert, they did know there was some bullying towards Willow in the school.

Oh Titan, that explained way more that incident when their daughter hung out with Amity and met her other friends.

How could they explain this to Luz? The human was already a bit doubtful about her friendship with Amity. This would probably make it worse. But then again, she was so happy with having friends and from what they got, the child also had a hard time making friends in the human realm.

Without really noticing, the tour ended and now were back in front of Bump’s office. “So, what did you think? The school hasn’t changed a lot since you last studied here,” that was true, it brought them some memories of the pranks they’d get into with Eda. They wondered if some other student ever found the secret room.

He opened the door and all of them sat down on a seat. Raine helped their daughter, “I guess it’s fine… what did you think Luz?” It was important for her to be comfortable.

The human thought about it, “it was cool, maybe… going back to school wouldn’t be so bad.” They were glad she was willing to try again, “maybe Willow and Amity can be friends too.” They really needed to find a way to explain to her the possible situation between those two witchlets.

Bump seemed happy, “well I’m glad you think high of this school, now for other matters…” Wait, were they going to do the paperwork right now? The bard didn’t prepare for that. Though the principal had another idea since he brought a really big stack of papers, “I have some questions for you mx. Whispers.” What?

He dropped the huge stack of papers. Both Raine and Luz took a look at what it was written on top.

‘Edalyn Clawthorne’s permanent record’

Excuse them what now?

“Is this some kind of test?” The child asked them. Unfortunately, they also didn’t know what the heck Bump was going with this.

“Uuuuh, Bump, why are you showing me Eda’s permanent records?” They already knew about all the things the witch did in Hexide back when she studied here. Heck, she even bragged about it every chance she got.

He pointed at them, “do not play dumb with me mx. Whispers.” They really had no clue what was he talking about. Finally, the older witch opened the permanent record in some random page, “admit it, you helped Edalyn Clawthorne in luring those ratworms into the grudgby field.” There were a few seconds of awkward silence.

Luz gasped, “they look like they’d like scritchies.” Their daughter picked a picture of the beast. Meanwhile, Bump was just glaring at them.

Ah…

So it was for that…

Well, at least they knew what excuse to use.

“Prove it.”

—

“And what about the abominations incident!?” Luz jerked awake. When did she fall asleep? Maybe it was at the mention of someone’s teeth? The human couldn’t really remember.

Though what she was sure of was that she was incredibly bored. When would Bump stop accusing her nini of doing things? Only for her nini to ask for proof and him not having it. All of this was fun at first, but now she just wanted to go home. Or maybe spend more time with her friends.

Both were acting… weird after they found out she was friends with each. But maybe it was just the surprise of all.

Luz would definitely be surprised if a classmate was friends with another friend of hers.

She saw her nini pinch the bridge of their nose, “I swear to Titan, do you even have any kind of evidence for this?” She didn’t know how many times the adult had said they wanted proof for everything Bump accused them of.

The child yawned, “how many crimes are there left?” She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to handle any more of this. Also, a chair wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep in.

Her nini looked at the principal, “you’re not getting any kind of information about that.” Wait, did that mean they somehow had something to do with it? Or maybe not? Luz wasn’t sure, and if she had to think any more about it, then her head would explode. Besides, her nini followed the rules, they wouldn’t be able to see that Belos guy if they broke rules. The human was pretty sure that was how things usually worked.

Bump sighed, “guess I’m not getting an explanation on how Eda managed to do most of these ‘on her own’…” Why was he so determined to say that her nini did all of that? And whatever else he said while she was sleeping. “But before you leave, I believe right now students of Luz’s age must be on recess would you like to see that area? It’ll also let her meet the other witchlets.” Wait, that meant Willow and Amity wouldn’t be busy with their classes.

Luz tugged on the witch’s sleeve, “can we see it nini? Can we? Can we?” The human didn’t get to talk to them a lot before.

They smiled, “guess a few more minutes can’t hurt,” she cheered.

—

Amity and Luz were friends.

Her ex friend was friends with her current friend.

Willow didn’t get how Luz managed to get along with Amity. She literally told her in the birthday party she didn’t want to be friends with her anymore because the witch couldn’t get her spells right. But it seemed that she got along perfectly with her friend, and she didn’t have any magic.

Maybe it turned out that it was something about her that made Amity not want to be friends.

Did Luz know about this all along? What if this was some kind of new plan the witch made up so then she would make fun of her for thinking both could be real friends.

Willow wished for the day to be over.

Right now she was sitting down in a corner, neither Amity nor her friends were bothering her today. At least that was good. Since the witch had been glaring at her for most of the class, she thought she’d do something.

“Hey Willow!” The child jumped a bit, she looked up and saw Luz. “The principal said I could spend time during your recess,” she pointed at the two adults. Huh, why did Raine look so annoyed while Bump was talking to them? “He’s been asking about some pranks he says they did, it… might take a while for that to be over,” what could have the adult done to have Bump asking them that kind of stuff?

Willow looked at her, “why are you with me?” Luz seemed confused at the question, “you’re friends with Amity, you should go with her and her friends.” There was no way both would stay as friends for much longer.

Luz tilted her head, “I’m here because you’re my friend too!” Really? She wasn’t going to leave her for the other witch? “Besides…” she saw down next to her, “I… don’t like the things Amity says when she’s around her other friends…” what kind of things? From her experience, the witch was mean most of the time.

The witch looked away, “how did you manage to stay friends with Amity?” Her friend seemed confused, “she doesn’t like people who are weak with magic.” And Luz didn’t have any.

She looked at the witch, “really?” What? Now it was her time to be confused, “I told Amity I didn’t have magic the first time we met and she was fine with it.” What!? But that was the main reason the witch didn’t want to be friends with her anymore. Were there more reasons? Did the witch just hate her and didn’t want to say it out loud?

“But she-” the witch paused. Was she going to ruin a friendship her friend had? Sure, Amity was mean but it looked like the witch wasn’t mean to Luz.

Though after saying that, her friend was now curious, “she what?” Willow said too much, “did something happen between you and Amity?” She figured it out pretty fast, “maybe you guys can fix it, talks things out?” The witch froze. There was no way things could be like they were before.

No matter how much she missed it.

Luz stood up, “come on, we can try.” She offered a hand, immediately, Willow shook her head, there was no way to fix this. Specially not with her other friends around.

She looked confused, “I don’t think Amity wants to fix things…” she made it pretty clear.

Her friend thought about it, “if I was Amity, I would have liked to stay being your friend.” She didn’t get it, she wasn’t there when the witch told her she was weak and didn’t want to be friends with her anymore.

“But you aren’t!” She snapped, which immediately made her feel bad, her dads taught her not to yell things if she could talk it out with the person. “Sorry for yelling, but Amity’s made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to be friends with me,” all of the teasing and times making fun of her came back to her. Yeah, Willow might miss being friends with her. But she also knew that wasn’t going to happen again.

Now Luz looked sad, “sorry…” she sat down, “I’m still not used to having friends.” If the witch was honest, she wasn’t either “and the thought of my friends being friends sounded so cool…”

Willow nudged closer to her, “to be honest, I’ve started to think I also don’t know that much,” Amity stopping being friends with her taught her that. She looked at her friend and smiled. “So we can learn together!” Both of them seemed happy with that conclusion.

She sighed in relief.

It didn’t look like Luz was going to abandon her.

However, that peace didn’t last long, “there you are.” Amity was here with Boscha and Skara. “The class is going to play tag, I told them to wait so you can meet them,” the witch then grabbed her hand and tried to drag her away from Willow.

Her friend looked at both witches, “can Willow come too?” She asked, and now, all the attention was on her.

Why did she have to mention her?

Amity rolled her eyes, “of course not.” Luz looked at her surprised, “no one wants to play with half-a-witch Willow, she just makes the games worse.” Everyone told her that, even though her dads said that wasn’t true. But all of her classmates agreed, what if they were actually right? No one wanted to play with her so maybe she did ruin things for others.

Then Luz took a step back, “why are you calling her that? It sounds mean…” she replied. “And when I hang out with Willow, I always have fun, she doesn’t make anything worse,” her friend defended.

Wait…

Was she standing up for her?

It had been so long since someone did that.

Even Amity, Boscha and Skara were surprised, “uuuh… is she really defending half-a-witch Willow?” The witch with three eyes questioned.

This was going to get ugly, “Luz, it’s ok, I didn’t even want to play.” That wasn’t really true, she’d much prefer to not stay alone during recess and actually have fun with her classmates. But now, she didn’t want a fight to happen.

“Stop calling her that!” She said a bit louder, “her name’s Willow!”

Everyone stared at Luz on shock, “she’s actually talking back to Amity?” Skara blurted out.

After shaking off the shock, Amity took a deep breath, “look Luz, you are also a witch without magic, but unlike her, you made up for it.” Her friend didn’t answer, “so, I’m going to tell you this one last time, you either stay friends with me and have everyone else like you, or you stay with half-a-witch Willow and ruin any chances of making any other friendships, ok?” It sounded like a threat, because it was.

Luz stayed quiet.

Dread filled her, of course she didn’t…

It was much better to stay friends with Amity, she was more popular than her.

The witch smiled, “good, now, let’s go.” She tried to drag her away. Willow slowly let her go. She just lost another friend.

What was she going to tell her dads?

However, Luz shoved her hand away from Amity and held hers strongly.

“AS IF I’D WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH BULLIES LIKE YOU!” She yelled at the witch.

No one said a word.

Even other witches heard Luz’s scream. Though no one else dared now to come closer to them, and the witches here just stayed quiet.

Willow was the first to step forward, “Lu-” the child let go of her hand and ran away. Leaving her with a still surprised Amity, Boscha and Skara.

Though, a few seconds later, Amity snapped out of it and began glaring at her, “you!” She took one step forward, Willow braced herself for the worst. Only for the bell to begin screeching, it was time to go back to the classroom, “you got lucky this time,” the witch warned.

As she entered the building, she noticed that Luz and Raine were leaving. The child’s head hiding in the adult’s neck.

—

“And what about the singing bell!?” Raine remembered that one. Eda let them pick the songs.

The bard sighed, “if you have any proof for this, please tell me.” Once again, Bump didn’t have anything to frame them with. While all of this started with begin amusing, it was starting to get incredibly annoying.

“One day I’ll find the proof…” they wished him good luck.

“...YOU!” They heard a scream. The voice sounded pretty familiar. But was it really Luz? It could’ve been from someone else that sounded like her.

Bump looked at the kids panicked, “did the beastkeeping students release another bloodthirsty beast on accident?” Say what now? The principal looked at them nervously, “it was just a one off thing, nothing to be really concerned about,” they had their doubts.

Raine would question the security later.

But right now, their daughter appeared almost out of nowhere and ran into their legs.

Odd, recess wasn’t over, though once they checked the time, it was going to end soon. Maybe their daughter knew? Well, it was about time they’d consider going back home, “hey, did you have fun?” The adult asked and their daughter looked up at them.

The child began sobbing.

Raine immediately panicked and kneeled down, “what’s wrong? What happened?” Her sobs began to become louder and she wrapped her arms around their neck, hiding her face in it. Their first reaction was to comfort her and lift her up, “it’s alright, it’s ok, whatever happened, it’ll be fine.” That just made her muffled sobs louder.

What could have even happened? They thought she was just spending some time with Willow outside.

Those questions would have to come later, right now they needed to comfort their daughter. “Well Bump, thanks for showing us around the school, we’ll see what will happen another day,” no way they were going to ask her when she was like this.

The principal looked a bit nervous, “well mx. Whispers, I hope this final incident doesn’t sway you form not letting her study here.” Was he serious right now? “Apologies, that was inappropiate,” at least he apologized.

They sighed, “please, think about how the school treats bullied victims, I heard things and you and I know too well what happened to her to make her drop out of school.” Sure, Eda’s home situation certainly wasn’t ideal for continuing in Hexide after she got cursed. But how other people treated her after the curse occurred was a heavy contributor for her to stop studying.

It was lonely after she left.

But now it wasn’t the time to think about the past, now their daughter was more important. They began to walk away from the school.

Her sobs were muffled, but they could still hear them. Though as they got closer to their home, they began to be quieter.

Finally, they reached the house, once the adult opened the door they saw their students. Right, the three wanted to congratulate Luz on being able to visit the school. Fortunately, they noticed their gesture to not say anything since right now the human wasn’t alright.

They sat down on the couch, their daughter still hadn’t let go of them, “what happened?” Katya asked as the three approached them.

“I… don’t know,” and it didn’t look like anyone was going to get an answer soon.

Amber tried to nudge the human’s shoulder, “hey Luz! We’re here to visit you!” Surprisingly, the child moved her head a bit, “how was Hexide?” That question immediately made her go back to crying and hiding her face, “maybe not the best question…” No, it wasn’t.

Now it was Katya’s turn, “hey kiddo, want to read the good witch Azura with us?” Much to everyone’s shock, she immediately shook her head. The bards looked at each other, if that didn’t work out then no one knew what could help.

“For now… just let it out, we’ll talk later,” after that encouragement Luz continued sobbing and crying until she fell asleep.

Guess they weren’t getting an answer today.

Hopefully it was something they could help her with.

“Was there any clue of what could have happened?” Raine thought about it, sure, when Amity and Willow discovered both were friends with Luz, their reaction was… not ideal. But it wasn’t anything that seemed to be too bad.

What if it was that? They didn’t keep a close eye on their daughter during recess. Maybe they should have done that? But she was willing to explore a bit more of the school on her own and the bard wanted her to be able to be more confident for learning new things. Was it a mistake? No, it couldn’t be, but Luz was human, one that ran away from her world and ended up here, the Boiling Isles could be more dangerous for her.

Titan, this was so complicated.

“I… think I might have a clue?” They answered Derwin’s question. “But I can’t really say…” they looked at their daughter. She seemed so peaceful now, completely different form when she was awake. “Let me tuck her in and we can talk about…” they stared at the child, sure, she was asleep, but they weren’t going to risk it. “You know what,” their students understood and the bard went to Luz’s room.

As they tucked her in, Fiddlesticks came out, ‘can watch over her.’ The palisman immediately yawned and curled on the pillow right next to the human’s head.

Raine chuckled, “you just wanted some extra nap time, didn’t you?” He didn’t answer and instead curled up.

They sighed and went to look back at their daughter. “Hope everything turns alright for you,” they didn’t want her to have a bad experience in school once again. From what the human let out, she already had more than enough from her world.

As carefully as they could, the bard closed the door of their daughter’s room, sparing one last glance towards Luz. Hopefully some sleep would help her clear her mind somehow.

Chapter Text

Luz was beginning to feel too cold, she changed positions and tossed around until she decided to just cover her entire body with the covers.

It didn’t really fix it, she was still cold, in fact, she felt herself shiver.

So, the child tried to bring the covers even closer to her and tried to go back to sleep. She was so tired, her body felt sore and her head fuzzy, the only thing the human wanted right now was to go back to sleep. Also try to forget what happened before.

In spite of trying again, she still couldn’t sleep. Why was this happening?

The only thing the child could do right now was whine in frustration. What time was it even right now? It was dark outside so maybe late? When did it get so late?

Luz stopped squirming around when she felt two familiar paws on her forehead. She knew fully well who was it, “Fiddlesticks, stop…” She didn’t want to play with him right now. At least the palisman immediately removed their paws after she asked.

The child closed her eyes and curled in on herself. Her attempt at trying to go back to sleep wasn’t successful. Then, a few seconds later she felt something bite her ear. It didn’t feel like when he would play bite, also, it wasn’t their teeth. The child whined and tried to get away, but the palisman was insistent, “I really don’t feel like playing,” however, this time the fox didn’t move it out. That was until there was some kind of beeping sound.

Then the palisman finally stopped biting her ear. With all of her strength she opened her eyes and saw Fiddlesticks leave her bedroom.

What was that about?

She tried to think of an answer, but her head was too fuzzy to even have an idea. “Ugh…” she really wanted to just sleep peacefully without feeling too warm or too cold. Without her body feeling achey.

Though being alone didn’t last really long when she noticed some light coming from the door. Her nini was standing there, “Fiddlesticks said you had a fever.” They did? But before she was feeling completely fine. The child wanted to protest a bit, but she was too tired to argue with it.

Her nini picked her up, they felt really warm and she nuzzled closer to them. Though she was still shivering a bit, “I’m cold…” Luz murmured. She immediately felt a blanket covering her back.

This time, she felt a bit more comfortable, still a bit cold, but definitely better.

She felt her body relax as her nini touched her forehead. What was up with them and Fiddlesticks touching her forehead, “oh Titan, Luz, you’re burning.” No she wasn’t, the child was really cold right not, if anything, she was the complete opposite of burning.

For some reason, the adult stood up while still holding her. “What do I do? Healer?” Her nini began talking about going to some healer or if it would be better to just stay home.

Healers were like the doctors of the Boiling Isles, right?

The siren of the ambulance kept sounding in her head. As she was holding her mamá’s hand both watched as the vehicle took her papá away.

Even as it was out of sight, that sound echoed in her mind, it still felt like the light of that ambulance was covering her surroundings. None of that would just go away. Unlike her papá who was taken away by some doctors.

That wasn’t right, he was supposed to be the one putting people in ambulances to take them to the hospital. Not the other way around.

“No…” Luz let out. “No doctors… please…” she wasn’t ready to visit one. “Not yet…” she sniffled, “papá…” why did she even call for him? The child already knew he wasn’t coming back. But just the thought of going to a hospital and remembering the many visits, the hope of maybe him getting better only for the adult to still go…

After a few seconds of silence, she felt a hand on her back, “alright, but if it gets worse we’ll have to find a way.” The child could only hope it didn’t reach that. “For now, just rest, I’ll stay with you, ok?” She gave a small nod, the witch was warm, it was easy to finally get some sleep.

“Ok…” finally, Luz began to close her eyes and feel warm enough to rest.

—

Today their students were supposed to take care of Luz. That was why all of them stayed the night even though the visit to Hexide didn’t… end up really well. In fact, after checking the schedules of Scooter Crane to see if one of the could get some more information, they were thinking of different things to do to cheer the human up.

But now Luz had a fever, and they didn’t know if their students were ready to take care of a sick Luz. Well, Derwin knew some things but he didn’t have the experience.

Titan, Raine didn’t even know if they could take care of their sick daughter.

She was a human, were fevers a sign someone was dying? Titan, what if it wasn’t a simple fever. The adult didn’t know if Demon Realm illnesses could be lethal for humans. Even some of the most simple ones.

Would it be alright to take the day off? Sure, they were supposed to go to the castle and make sure Scooter Crane didn’t get lost in the castle. But maybe someone else could do it.

They heard a yawn coming from the living room, “morning teach,” Amber said. Right, it was almost eight in the morning, around the time their students would wake up. The bard couldn’t sleep much more after finding out the human had a fever. “Why are you holding Luz?” She asked while pointing at the child.

The adult held her closer, “she… has a fever.” That made their student’s eyes widen. “Fiddlesticks just woke up and showed me the thermometer, and she gets cold easily.” Speaking of, they made sure the blanket was secured on their daughter. “I need to take the day off so I can be with her,” whatever they were going to miss couldn’t be that important.

Then again, it sometimes felt like the most crucial for them, happened when they couldn’t be there for different reasons.

“Ugh…” their daughter groaned and clung closer to them.

Guess… one time wouldn’t hurt. Luz was also important after all.

They looked at Amber, “mind holding her while I do a call?” She shook her head and their student was picking her up to have the human on her side.

Only to hear a whine from Luz. “No…” the human said quietly as she held on tighter to them.

“Must be dreaming something,” she still had her eyes close. The teen tried to have her let go of them with a stronger tug.

Though that only made her begin to sob and gripping their shirt even tighter. This time Amber let go of the human and Raine kept her in their arms. Alright, letting go of her wasn’t an option now. The bard really hoped they could take the day off.

While keeping their daughter close they called their work with the crow. “Hello mx. Whispers, everything prepared to accompany Scooter Crane and make sure he doesn’t fall into the pit… again?” Why did the castle even have that anyway? It would be much less of a headache if it had some kind of barrier that took people that feel back to the ground.

Alright, time to talk over the crow, Titan they hated this, “yeah… about that… you see…” Raine glanced at their daughter. The bard had to stay with her, “my daughter’s sick, is there a chance that… someone could take my place?” There, it was said and done. Now to hope that luck was on their side.

The few seconds of silence were agonizing, “sure! Let me ask Priya, one moment,” the sigh of relief they let out.

After a short while, they got a response, “yeah! She said she can, but you have to do the paperwork she had for today.” Oh thank Titan, that was something they could work from home. “She’ll give me the paperwork later for now-” there was a loud crash coming from the crow. Raine had to move it away to avoid getting their ears hurt.

“WHO TOUCHED THE ARSON LYRE!” Could be heard from the other side.

“Uuuuh, about that confirmation…” he didn’t need to continue. Raine already knew where this was going.

The bard sighed, “it’s alright, I think I can take care of this…” Even though they didn’t like it.

They turned and saw Amber, now with Katya and Derwin. It seemed like all of them knew what was happening, “no luck?” One of them asked, and unfortunately, they shook their head.

—

Luz slowly opened her eyes, her nini was still holding her. She nuzzled into the warmth, “alright, I think I’m ready.” Ready for what? Nevermind, she was too tired to ask them.

“Now the only problem is…” she heard Katya’s voice say. Was there a problem? The human didn’t feel like there was any kind of problem. Sure, her head felt a little heavy and still felt cold easily, but she was holding onto her nini. As long as she stayed with them then everything was fine.

Then the child felt their hold tighten, “are you sure you’ll be alright with her?” She heard them ask.

“Well…” Katya said, “there isn’t really another option.” Then she felt some hands pick her up and try to get her away from her nini.

No! She didn’t want to leave their side!

The child clung tighter to the adult, she didn’t want to be away from them, and Luz would make sure no one would be able to do it. Even though she was also feeling tired.

“This… might be more complicated than we thought,” what could be more complicated? The human only wanted to stay with her nini, there wasn’t anything complicated in that. Derwin was probably talking about something else.

“Luz? Are you awake?” She slowly looked up at her nini and nodded. “I need to go to work, my students will take care of you,” the child looked back and saw the three of them. The witches smiled at her and Katya made a gesture trying to pick her up again. While they were nice and had fun with them. Luz wanted to stay with her nini today.

As the young adult was getting closer, the child tried to hold on tighter to her nini. “No, don’t want you to leave,” couldn’t they just stay here? Her mamá or papá would do that when she didn’t feel well.

“It’s alright Luz, they’ll come back as soon as they can,” but they were right here now.

“Hey, we can read both volumes of Azura all you want,” Amber suggested. However, the mention of the book made her flinch.

She shook her head, “NO!” Which proved to be a mistake since it made her head hurt. “Ow…” maybe it was a good idea to not do that again. Right now thinking about Azura made her remember Amity, which was someone she didn’t want to think about. Luz hid her face in the adult’s shirt, “don’t want to think about Azura…” she sniffled, “please just stay… can you ask if you can stay just for today?” It wouldn’t be too bad, right?

The adult sighed, “I already tried earlier, I can’t.” That just made her hold onto them tighter.

“Come on Luz, we will have fun… in a way that it won’t make it worse,” Derwin said. She turned around to look at the witches, “come on, Raine will come back before you know it.” He offered to pick her up.

“Hey,” she heard her nini asked and looked back at them, “is this because of what happened yesterday?” The human hesitated a bit, but gave a small nod. It wasn’t only because of that, but the child definitely did not want to lose someone else today. Aside from Amity, she didn’t even know if Willow would want to stay friends with her.

The child wouldn’t really liked if someone she was friends with, was also a friend of a bully.

After remembering it, Luz tried to wipe some of the tears in her eyes, “it was bad…” She didn’t want to think about it now.

Her nini rubbed some circles behind her back, “whatever happened, I’m sure there’s a solution for it.” As much as the human would like that, she wasn’t really sure, “we’ll talk about this once you feel better, alright?” While still not sure, she nodded. “Alright, but now, can you please let me go?” The child didn’t really want to.

But she also knew that work was important for adults.

Hesitantly, she let them go and let Derwin pick her up. The child was back to feeling cold, but as she began to shiver, her nini put another blanket around her, “make sure she gets some more rest, and if it gets worse, call me.” Luz saw the three of them nod and they walk towards the door, “I’ll see you soon.” And then the witch left.

Now it was going to be a full day without them.

A whole day without her nini…

“So, do you feel ready for some breakfast?” Immediately, Luz began to sob, she already wanted them back.

“NINI!” She hugged Derwin tighter while sobbing and crying.

—

Raine began to shake as they left the door. They could hear their daughter crying for them to come back.

Were they… a bad parent for leaving her like this?

Just checking in wouldn’t hurt, “I’ll just-” Fiddlesticks then pinched their ear.

‘If you go back then you won’t be able to go to work,’ they hated how the palisman was right. While letting out a defeated sigh, they began their path to their job. ‘Alright you have fun,’ he was about to jump off their shoulders. But Raine wouldn’t let them.

“I’m not going to the castle alone,” much less today. Because they truly didn’t want to deal with Scooter’s weaponized incompetence alone while knowing their daughter was sick.

—

Derwin, Katya and Amber stared at the human while she was sleeping. The child was under multiple blankets and with a cold towel on her forehead. “Alright, it looks like she was able to keep the crab apple in,” Katya said. And she was right, the first breakfast Luz tried to eat made her vomit.

At least with this one she managed to keep it in.

Though for now, Luz was awake, he didn’t know for how long, but she was, “hey kid, want us to read Aaaaaa.” Fortunately Katya stopped herself before mentioning Azura. The young adult didn’t get why the human didn’t like it anymore. But she didn’t. “Any other book?” The three looked at her waiting for an answer.

She immediately hid her face under the blankets. “No…” she said, “I odn’t want to think about books.” Alright, so that was out of the question.

“How about a movie?” Amber suggested, “teach told us which ones you liked.”

Luz didn’t seem against that idea, after a few seconds of thinking about it she nodded. “Can it be the one under the boiling sea?” She asked, “it has the least Belos stuff…” He could barely hear that last part. It was pretty clear the human wasn’t a fan of the emperor. Though from what Raine said, this came mostly from how he reminded her of things from her world. To be more specific the stuff after the death of her parents.

Derwin had a weird feeling about that.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why. At most it was due to Luz’s bad feelings about him. But that was pretty much him and all of the BATTs. All of them were suspicious of him and the Day of Unity.

“I know which one she’s talking about, I’ll grab everything we need,” Katya then left the room and went downstairs. It didn’t take her long to come back and put the movie.

It took like… ten minutes of the movie for any of them to notice Luz was already asleep.

That was fast, though it was better that she rested as much as possible. Maybe? Were humans different? Well, witches also got fevers when they were sick and she still hadn’t shown any signs of having some kind of sickness.

It had been a long time since he last had a healing class. The witch couldn’t remember everything from back then.

Katya then paused the movie, “let’s leave it here before Raine gets back.” She put the crystal ball aside.

The three stayed quiet for a few seconds.

“You guys think she’s dying?” Amber asked out of nowhere. Derwin and Katya looked at her with shocked faces.

“Who asks questions like that!?” Katya was faster than in him answering her. “No, I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” she look at the child, “probably.” Derwin thought Luz was going to be fine too, after resting for some time.

He nodded, “it doesn’t look like she has anything serious.” He looked at her and checked her fever, surprisingly, it was getting a bit better. “At worst she either has the common mold,” Titan knew how could that affect a human. “The bad thing is that we’re not sure how her body would react to normal potions,” would be nice to know which potions could be a go-to for her in case of an emergency. Then the bard looked at sigil, “though the best thing would be to find someone to do healing magic,” but there was no way that was possible.

Unless they took her to a hospital. And from the child’s reaction to any mentions of it, she wasn’t a fan of it.

Both witches stared at him, “huh, you know your thing aro-” “sush!” Katya covered Amber’s mouth. Which made her unhappy, “ew! Did you just lick my hand!?” She took her hand away and yup, it had spit on it. “Have this!” The witch shoved the hand into her face.

As Amber was about to retaliate, Luz whined. All of them stopped and silently agreed that if there was some argument, they would take it out of her room.

—

Raine took a deep breath, as they entered the house, it was fine. Luz wasn’t going to be upset at them, she was just sick. They would make sure to spend as much time with her as possible. Also, the bard made sure to take tomorrow off so there wouldn’t be any problem with Scooter not having anyone accompany him into the castle.

Which also, today was extra tiring because apparently, he forgot the papers for recruitment. And that made them have to leave and get them.

Raine was thankful of the chances moments like these gave them. But it was also so annoying.

Well, time to forget that for now, the adult would think about the castle and weird way the heart thing was behaving later. They cleared their throat, “hey I’m ba-” Raine felt something tackle right into their ribs.

It was their daughter.

How?

“Where did she go!? She was here a few seconds ago!” They heard one of their students yell. A second later, all of them appeared on top of the staircase.

“How?” Derwin asked. And they didn’t have the answer.

Luz tightened her grip, “I missed you…” Was the very first thing she said. Then she began to shiver, “I’m also cold…” Fortunately, Amber had a blanket on her hands and threw it towards them. They immediately wrapped her with it, making her shivering stop.

“I missed you too,” they positioned her so her head would be resting on their shoulder, “and I’m not leaving your side anytime soon.” Hopefully it was just a fever. Either way, it looked like Luz was relaxing more and closing her eyes.

Their students now approached them, “did everything go well?” Luckily, all of them nodded.

“Well, she still hasn’t had lunch and she vomited the breakfast, but she managed to eat a crab apple,” it was something. “But judging from before it looks like she’s feeling better,” Derwin added. Yeah, it also felt like her fever was going down.

They nodded, “you three take some rest, it must’ve been hard for you.” Now it was their time to take care of things.

“Can we eat food first?” Katya asked. Of course they’d want that.

Raine sighed, “of course, you just need to heat it up.” And now they’d hope for the Titan that none of them would burn anything. Well, Katya was better at it in comparison to the other two, so they wouldn’t be too worried… “Watch over them,” they asked Fiddlesticks. Now they’d be completely comfortable leaving them in the kitchen.

The adult looked at Luz, “I guess you’re not feeling eating?” She shook her head and nuzzled closer to them. “Alright, we’ll see later,” it was important for her to eat too if she wanted to feel better.

Though nevermind that, someone was calling them from the crow. “Please don’t let it be my job,” they answered it bracing themself for the worst.

“Hey Raine, how’s our grandaughter feeling?” Oh thank Titan, it was their moms.

Wait, they didn’t tell them about, “your mama’s an oracle honey.” Right, they forgot about that part.

“Hey grandmas…” she heard their daughter mutter. And judging from the coos coming from the crow, they also heard it too.

The bard chuckled, “much better than this morning.” Which was a huge relief.

“And how did you do?” Their mom asked.

Raine hesitated a bit, “I did… fine, my students were able to help while I was at my work.” There wasn’t any need to tell them about their doubts because they heard their daughter cry while they left the house.

Though they were met with silence.

“Did she cry when you had to go to work?” Their ma asked and they froze.

“Yeah…” the adult answered.

“Did you feel like a horrible parent?” Were they sure that only their mama was the oracle out of the four of them.

“Yeah…” Raine said quieter.

“Don’t worry honey,” their ama said. “When you were younger you always clung to the one of us that couldn’t stay,” they could feel their face getting red from embarrassment. Good thing none of their students were able to hear this, “you’re not a bad parent for needing to go to work.”

Raine took a deep breath and smiled, “thanks…”

Chapter Text

Her Nini put the thermometer on her ear. It still felt weird that it had to bite her to get her temperature, “alright, your fever’s gone.” Finally, staying at home was getting boring.

“Yay!” She cheered.

“Does that mean Derwin can take me to the library today?” Luz had wanted to discover new stories. Since for now Azura was a no-go after… no, she wasn’t going to think about her today. The human just stopped being sick, now it was time to have fun. And see what other story could get her interest.

Her nini smiled, “well, if he’s up to it.” Both looked at the witch who nodded.

Luz began to jump of excitement, “books! Books! Books!” It had been a good time since both went to the library together. So she wanted to make up for the lost time.

—

Amity picked up a book that could tell her more about abominations. Some of the other kids were shocked she was picking up an advanced book but the witch was supposed to become the best of the best. It was better to start early instead of not doing anything about it.

And maybe her dad would also teach her the things she didn’t understand. That way both could spend some time.

He’d been so caught up with all the work that he didn’t even know she made a new friend.

“AS IF I’D WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH BULLIES LIKE YOU!” Luz’s words began to resonate in her mind. Just as it did for the rest of that day and the following one. At some point the child didn’t even notice Edric and Emira sneaked into her room.

Stupid Willow, if only she didn’t ruin things for her. Why did she just have to go and make a friend with specifically her?

The witch didn’t even tell her mom about that incident. She was too scared to say it out loud, not only for the adult’s reaction but because it would feel more real that Luz was no longer her friend. The first friend she was comfortable with after her and Willow stopped being friends.

Why did Amity always have to mess things up with people she actually liked?

The witch shook her head, now it wasn’t the time to think about her. It wasn’t like she was going to appear in the library out of nowhere, “maybe this one?” Yeah, probably for the better, she could swear she just imagined her voice.

Wait…

“Well, if you want that one, but you can also enjoy Azura?” She turned around and saw Luz with an adult she didn’t know.

Why was the witch here?

The child had in her hands a book from the collection Tina Stelta. “I just wanna… change things up! Take a break from Azura.” She said to that adult. But Azura was supposed to be their favourite book series.

“Well… if you say so,” the adult said. Amity immediately looked away from them. Should she say something to her? But… from what she yelled the other day it was clear she didn’t want to be friends anymore. Ugh, if it weren’t for Willow…

Or maybe… if she just didn’t say those things in front of Luz…

Before she could think more of her chances of just sneaking away to avoid talking with her. The witch bumped into someone taller than her. “Oh, sorry,” Amity was about to tell them to watch it, she noticed who was right next to the adult.

“Amity?” Her luck was horrible, Luz was staring at her.

The witch didn’t know what to say. So now there was an awkward silence, the adult clearly not knowing what to say.

“Is e-” “let’s go to that corner!” Luz said a bit too loudly, she saw some of the workers glaring at her. But for now didn’t say anything. And the witch dragged him away to a corner to read the book she just picked.

—

Derwin didn’t want to assume the situation. But something told him that whatever happened during Luz and Raine’s visit to Hexide, it involved that witchlet. If the young adult recalled correctly, her name was Amity.

Yeah, his teacher mentioned that aside from Willow, she had another friend with that name. Something about them and the witchlet’s mom knowing each other back in school. Though they immediately added something about not really liking her. He couldn’t really remember what his teacher said about the mom.

Ignoring that, would it be a good idea to ask Luz about it? By now she wasn’t even capable of focusing on the book on her hands. Always looking up as if searching for someone. And he had a feeling on who it was.

By the time fifteen minutes passed and Luz still hadn’t turned the page. He thought that might as well ask her, “is… everything alright there?” The child jumped. Derwin tried to calm her down, “it’s alright, you just seem… a bit out of it,” that was putting it lightly. He then pointed at the book, “and I don’t think you’re in the best place to enjoy the story.” In response, Luz looked away and put the book down.

“I wanna read a new book…” she said ina shaky voice. “I really want to…” the human curled into herself.

Derwin panicked a little, “you don’t have to if you don’t want,” he tried his best to comfort her. But it didn’t do a lot, Raine was much better at it than him, “we can come to the library another day.” Maybe it would be better for the human.

However, she immediately shook her head, “no, I don’t want to be like this just because I saw Amity.” After saying that she covered her mouth, but he heard it.

Alright, the bard would try to ask her, “you mean the witch from before?” Hesitantly, she nodded. “Is she… related to whatever happened in Hexide?” Once again, she nodded.

So that was it.

“I don’t get it…” Luz whispered. “She was so nice to me, even said that it didn’t matter if I didn’t have magic, but then, when she’s around her other friends she acts so… different. And she said all those mean things to Willow and I exploded,” he put a hand on her back to give her some comfort. Luz leaned into him, “that means… we’re not friends anymore, right?” The child sounded so sad after saying it out loud.

This was clearly too much for a child to handle. Though even an older person could have a hard time with it too. At least he was… familiar with that kind of thing, even if he wished he wasn’t.

The young adult looked around, good, there wasn’t anyone else around, “guess… it’s mostly up to you.” The human looked up at him and his eyes fell into his coven sigil. “You were hurt by someone you cared about, and she turned to be a different person from what you thought…” he looked at her, “do you want to stay friends with the kind of person Amity is? Not only when she’s nice, but also when she’s with her other friends.” Luz began to think about it.

Then, after considering it for a few seconds, she shook her head, “no, I don’t wanna be friends with someone who bullies my friend.” He nods at her response, Derwin wouldn’t pin his opinions on her. “Can we go back home? I don’t wanna read anymore,” the young adult stood up and offered a hand to help her.

While walking out of the library, they saw Amity again. But Luz immediately turned her head away.

—

Luz was doing a pretty good job on holding back her tears.

She didn’t really expect to see Amity again so soon. But at least now there was something she could be sure about.

They weren’t friends anymore.

Even though she really enjoyed her time with her talking about… that book. Her bullying Willow wasn’t worth it. Back in her old schools the other kids also bullied her, so she wouldn’t stand being friends with people that were as mean as her. The witch had been her very first friend and she was amazing.

The human wondered how she was doing right now.

Was the witch upset at her because she was friends with Amity? Or maybe because the human ran away after yelling. What if they did something to Willow because of her?

Before Luz could think about it further, her home was right in front of her.

Derwin opened the door, “we’re back!” He announced and saw her nini with Amber and Katya. Cool! She didn’t think she’d see them today!

Her nini was holding the crow, but they immediately put it down to approach her and pick her up, “hey, you’re early.” Luz immediately hugged them and nuzzled their cheek. “Did you have fun?” The child wouldn’t really say that… at first it was fine, but then Amity came and…

“Uhm…” she hesitated in saying it out loud. The human should probably tell them, maybe her nini would know more, but she wasn’t sure.

Fortunately, Amber jumped in first, “oh, oh, first, you need to see what Katya and I got you!” A present? That sounded nice, the teen pulled out a book… a book she was familiar with, but not at the same time, “they just released the third one! And we obtained it through very legal and ethical ways.” Luz tightened her grip on her nini’s shirt.

She tried to hold back the tears, but it was getting much harder the more she stared at the cover, “if the scouts ask, Amber was the one to kick the guy to the other side of the town.” Her nini sighed, Luz stayed quiet.

Though the child couldn’t hold it in anymore.

The tears were now falling down her face, and the four witches saw it. “Nini…” the child said between her sobs and then she hid her face on their neck.

—

Raine and their students as luz explained everything between sobs.

Some part of them wanted to hope that their daughter and Amity would be good friends. But that incident at the park might have been the first sign that would not be the case. And well, their argument at Hexide pretty much solidified it.

Even then, it didn’t make it easier seeing their daughter cry for losing a friend in such way.

After she told them everything her crying turned into sniffles, though the child was still hiding her face on their neck. None of the bards said anything. The only one to take action was them by putting the book away from the human’s sight. Raine considered maybe throwing it away, but something told them not to. Just in case she wanted to read the books again. In spite of that seeming impossible today.

“Nini…” their daughter spoke up, “I really wanted to be friends with Amity… but, it just doesn’t feel right after what she said to Willow, but I still wish we were still friends.” Raine rubbed circles on her back.

“I know Luz, it’s ok,” it really wasn’t, but the human needed some comfort. “Today maybe it doesn’t feel like the right decision, it feels horrible to do that kind of thing, but I promise you, you’ll feel better after some time,” maybe not tomorrow, or the next day. But their daughter would be alright, she had them and their students.

Luz let out a few sobs but moved a bit so she was looking at them, “ok…” The adult smiled, “will… Willow be alright too?” She sounded unsure, “does she hate me because I was friend with her bully?” Oh, of course she would be concerned about that.

“No Luz, I’m sure she isn’t, you didn’t know,” their daughter looked unsure. They needed to talk with Willow’s dads, “look, I need to make a call, do you mind staying with my students?” Hesitantly, the human nodded and Katya extended her arms so she could pick her up.

The three of them distracted her with things she enjoyed to do that weren’t related to Azura.

Raine braced themself to grab the crow and do a call.

They hoped they were right and everything would be alright between the two.

—

Willow was holding her papa’s hand. Both of her dads were insistent on her going to the park, they assured her both would be keeping a close eye on her.

After that day at Hexide the only times she got out of the house was to go to class. So this was the first time in a while that she went out to play in the park and according to her dads, ‘have some fun’. But she didn’t know if she would be capable of doing it.

But well, one look up and showed that they were here now, “oh look, Luz is here too.” Her dad’s words made her search for her and yeah, she was there, with Raine.

She was also staring at her.

“You should go ahead and play with her,” her papa encouraged and her dad nodded in agreement. However… what if she didn’t want to?

Neither of them spoke to each other for a long time, Willow just assumed the witch didn’t want to talk to her anymore. Specially since it was because of her that Luz yelled at Amity. The witch knew it wasn’t that much worth to be friends with half-a-witch Willow and probably regretted that decision the second it happened.

Why would she run away if not?

“Uhm… I” the child stuttered. How was she supposed to tell her dads that now she wanted to run away from here too?

“Willow…” nevermind, it was too late to consider that now. Luz was right in front of her.

The silence that followed was… a bit awkward.

However, her dads decided to take action first, “alright, we’ll be with Raine over there.” Her dad pointed at a bench that could be visible from anywhere in the slayground, “if you witchlets need anything, just call for us, ok?” Both children nodded and the adults were away.

Willow didn’t know whether this was better or worse.

Fortunately, Luz spoke up, “wanna go to the swings?” She pointed at them, both were empty, the witch nodded. It was better than just staying completely still in silence.

Both of them swung in silence, not really saying anything for a good while. From the corner of her eye the child noticed the adults giving them worried glances and talking to each other. She wondered what they were talking about. Maybe Hexide? Or perhaps other adult things like taxes or what happened at their jobs.

There were so many things she wanted to ask Luz. How did she meet Amity? What did she do for her to like her even though she didn’t have any magic? Were both of them still friends after what happened?

But at the same time, the witch was scared of those answers.

Her dads always told her that talking with each other about the hard things, even though it might not feel good at first, it was better in the end. And her dads were happy when they were with each other.

Willow wanted to be happy too…

Alright, she was going to speak with Luz, even though it might hurt.

The grip on the bones of the swing became stronger, “Luz?” She gathered enough courage to look at her in the eye, she did the same. Alright, it was now or never, “are we… still friends?” There, she asked it, now she had to get ready for whatever outcome it came towards her.

Luz seemed unsure, “do you… still want to be?” The witch asked.

Her eyes widened, “what? Of course I want to!” She didn’t have any friend after her and Amity fought. “Why do you think I wouldn’t want to?” If anything, she thought Luz wouldn’t want to keep being friends with her.

“Because I was friends with Amity…” she explained, “and I know how mean bullies can be, and she was bullying you, for sure I wouldn’t want my friends to be friends with someone who was mean to me.” That was true, but it didn’t sound like Luz knew what the witch did to her in school. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know,” that was what she thought. “When it was just me and Amity, she was so nice, she even liked Azura! But when she was with Boscha and Skara, also in school… she acted differently…” that sounded… strange.

Willow stayed quiet for a few moments, “I guess you’re not friends with her anymore…” Just like her, though it was Amity who broke it off, calling her weak and half-a-witch.

Luz nodded without hesitation, “I don’t want to be friends with a bully, and besides, you’re the first friend I ever had.” Really? “So, friends?” She gave her a hesitant look.

However, Willow didn’t have any doubt that she wanted to keep the friendship with her, “friends!” Wow, she felt so much lighter now that everything was resolved. Her dads were completely right! Talking did make things better, “bummer that you won’t be coming to my school though…” After what happened, she wouldn’t want to.

Luz stopped swinging, which confused her, her friend was staring at the ground, “everything alright?” The witch didn’t think she said anything wrong.

“I’m going,” she said.

“What?” Was the first thing to come out of Willow’s mouth.

Luz turned around, “I’m going to Hexide with you!” She declared, “I’m not scared of some mean bullies, and we’ll be together,” she offered a hand, “buddies against bullies?”

Willow had to hold back her tears, she’d never met someone like Luz. She was so happy she wanted to stay friends, instead of taking her hand, she tackled her into a hug, “YES!” However, that proved to be a bit of a mistake since both lost their balance from where they were sitting and fell to the ground.

Both laid on the floor completely still, she could hear the worried voices of their parents on the distance.

Willow stared at Luz, and she stared back.

Both began to laugh out loud.