Chapter Text
29th of October 2018
10th of Pausa 1000
Eda closed her book and looked around the room.
Luz was sitting on the floor working on some of her homework while King slept in his little corner of stuffed animals and toys.
She wasn’t oblivious to the tension between the two, nor did she forget about what Strange said a few days ago. She just didn’t know how she should handle this.
How was one supposed to talk to kids about this? She wasn’t even sure how she had become responsible for these two, both of whom were amazing but that didn’t change the fact that King had done something absolutely horrific.
Something that she had talked to him about before.
She rubbed her hands against her face and groaned. How was she supposed to do this?
“Eda? Are you okay?” Luz’s voice replaced the silence in the room. Eda looked up. Both Luz and King were staring at her. Her son looked at her with concern while Luz looked at her with apprehension.
It hurt to see just how much her transformation had scared Luz, and she kicked herself for not telling her apprentice about her condition sooner.
“Mom? You’re okay right?” She waved away King’s concerns.
“I’m fine now King, but all of us need to talk.” A carefully constructed blank look filled Luz’s face while she could practically feel the guilt and shame rolling off of King.
“Firstly, I would like to apologize to you both for what happened. I won’t lie, my curse has been worsening recently, and I didn’t account for that when I took my potions that day. I’m sorry to both of you for scaring you.”
“It’s okay Mom,” King said at the same time Luz said, “We just want you to be safe.”
She smiled at both of her kids before gesturing for King to come over to her. He climbed down his little tower of blankets and stuffed animals before climbing up her lap. She smiled as she ran her fingers through his fur, undoing any knots that had formed since King had last brushed himself.
Something he clearly needed to do more often given how many knots she found.
“I did want to talk to you guys about what happened while I was transformed though.” King stiffened beneath her fingers, guilt pouring off of him in waves. Luz looked at the wall over her shoulder, taking great care to not look at both King and Eda.
“Luz,” she said while still combing King’s fur. “Can you tell me what happened that day?”
“We-” she interrupted her son with a tap on his horns. “I just want Luz to speak right now okay buddy?” King nodded before curling into a ball on her lap.
Luz sat staring at the wall in silence for several minutes. Eda was willing to let her wait as long as she needed before talking. It was the least she could do for the sorceress after the kindness the girl had shown her after her transformation.
After several minutes of silence Luz spoke, “Hooty sealed the kitchen off from the living room when you transformed. I couldn’t hear anything except for the Beast and Hooty fighting. That’s when King came downstairs.”
Whimpers rose from King, and she scratched underneath his horns to calm him.
“He was so scared when I told him you had transformed. He asked me what was going on and what had happened to you, and I couldn’t answer him.” Luz’s voice was flat and monotone although the girl was rocking on her spot on the ground. “Instead of waiting for me to answer he shoved his way through my mind.”
The smell of smoke filled her nose as Luz's voice cracked. “Everything I had been taught about protecting my mind was nothing against King. How did he do that? What is King?” Eda remembered the night she had found Luz in the middle of her nightmare. How her room had seemed charged and smoky.
The living room felt similar, if not quite as strong. She gently scooped King off of her lap and sat down next to Luz on the floor. She wrapped her arms around the girl and gently ran her fingers through her hair. She could feel her apprentice relax in her arms as her hands wove through her hair.
The smoky smell dissipated as Luz calmed down.
“King,” she made sure to keep her voice low and calm. “Can you explain what happened?”
King nodded from his spot on the couch. She didn’t remember him having Francios when he was on her lap, but he was now clutching his toy. “I had been sleeping and was woken up by your transformation. I came down to see what was happening, but I panicked when I saw the living room blocked off. I had never seen Hooty do that before! I hadn’t meant to invade Luz’s mind like that, but I had to know what was going on. I had to make sure you were okay.”
Eda shifted so that Luz was leaning against her side and opened up one of her arms for King to crawl into her other side. She sat on the ground for a while, holding her two kids in her arms and consoling both of them.
“I’m so sorry Luz,” King whispered. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I did. If I could take it back, I would. You’re like a sister to me, I would never want to hurt you.”
The room was quiet after King’s apology and was only broken several minutes later by Luz. Eda thanked the Titan that Hooty had enough tack to stay away from the living room right now.
“What are you, King?” Luz’s voice was hard and cold, but she could see the way her eyes crinkled when she invested in something. King shrugged into her side.
“No one knows what I am. I don’t really fit any of the demon categories. And Mom was never able to find someone who has abilities similar to mine. As far as we know I’m the only demon like me. I’m like Mom in that way.” Eda’s heart throbbed for her son.
She really wished she had been able to find answers to the question. The first time King had invaded someone's mind it had taken her several favors and threats in order to keep the situation quiet. She didn’t need the Empire getting curious about her son. But she did do some research and found absolutely nothing on what kind of demon King was. Every test and spell that she did came back inconclusive.
She lightly scratched his skull as the silence wound between the three of them. It was finally broken by Luz.
“What other abilities do you have?”
She met King’s eyes. It was up to him if he wanted to tell her or not.
King sighed and said, “There's the mind scans, I can take on a beastal form-”
“Like beast keeping spells?” Luz interrupted. King nodded, “except I can do it without a spell circle. I also have some fleshbending skills too.”
That certainly got Luz’s attention. She sat up and looked at King. “You’re a fleshbender?!?” King nodded, “Yeah, Mom suggested I not tell anyone when we found out. She didn’t want me to face the Coven Guards for this.”
Eda nodded. “The less you have to deal with them the better.”
“I guess that's fair, but you’re showing me some fleshbending stuff at some point!”
King nodded, “I’ll do that when you talk to Eda.” Eda wanted to groan as Luz’s face shut down. They had been doing so good! Why’d King have to jeopardize it?
When it became clear that Luz wasn’t going to speak, she looked at King. “King, what’d you mean by that?”
He shook his head, “It’s not my place to say. But Luz needs help.”
Luz jumped up from her side and paced around the living room. Eda could taste campfire smoke on her tongue, and she knew that everything in the living room was going to reek of smoke after this.
“I don’t need help!” Luz bit out. Eda moved King and stood up.
“Luz, talk to me. I’m here for you.” She slowly approached her apprentice who stood in the middle of the room. Luz’s eyes seemed to be locked on her little notebook in her hands. Eda recognized it as the one that she had been using to create her abomination spell.
Luz flipped to a few pages and folded the corners before shoving the book into her chest. “Don’t you ever do something because you think it’s best for me,” she spat at King. “You don’t know me!”
“Luz.” She had to put a stop to this now. She was not gonna tolerate her kids fighting like this. Eda scooped her apprentice into her arms and threw herself down on the couch. Luz squeaked as she was picked up.
“Eda what are you doing?!” Luz tried to squirm out of her grip, but Eda was stronger and knew how to get her to relax. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt Luz melt into her arms. King came up next to them and slipped Francios into her arms. Luz’s fingers went white from clutching the bunny.
“Luz we’re not leaving this couch until you tell me what’s going on.”
“You’re not going to let me get out of this are you?” Eda went to answer but was beaten to it by King.
“No. You're family Luz. We just want to help.”
Luz lifted her head up from where it was resting on her shoulder and looked at King. “I can’t forgive you. Not yet. Not for what you did.” Eda could practically feel King’s heart break, but she could only deal with one kid falling apart so she just inched closer to her son. He immediately cuddled into her side underneath Luz.
“Luz tell me what’s going on. We’re here for you, no matter what.”
Despite Luz’s response to King, she could feel the girl slightly shift to the side to make it easier for King to curl up next to them. “It was on my first day at Hexside.
I got in trouble in History for asking why witches and demons never faced consequences for mixing magic before Belos.” Both Eda and King winced. Luz nodded. “Yeah, I was quickly sent to detention for that question. And I was just so mad at the hypocrisy of everything, at how everyone just seemed to be willing to ignore how obviously corrupt this government is! I got into an argument with the detention teacher that day and he… possessed me, I guess? In order to get me to sit down and be quiet.”
Everything stilled within Eda’s mind. She could feel the Beast prowling back and forth begging to be released in order to attack the ones that hurt its owlet. She had half a mind to let it.
Eda thumbed the little sun charm that hung around Luz’s neck. “I’ll brew up a potion and apply it to your necklace, Witchlet. Nothing like that will ever happen again, I swear it on the Humors.” Luz seemed to try and get closer to Eda and the witch let her. She would have to talk to Bump about this. Especially because it might not be the first time this teacher has done that.
“I promise everything will be okay again my Witchlet. I promise.” The three of them sat in semi-comfortable silence as they processed everything that happened. Eda needed a distraction from the heavy topics, and she knew just the thing.
"What's this about you finding some sort of Glyph Luz?" The girl immediately sat up and grabbed her notebook, her eyes shining with familiar curiosity.