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Eda couldn't help but feel a confusing type of bittersweet that Belos was defeated after she lost her magic. Sure, she was proud of herself and the progress she had made with her curse and quite enjoyed her harpy form, but she couldn't help but think how it would be so great to go around doing all sorts of wild magic as a way to rub it in Belos' face, even though he was nothing more than a green blob now. What a shame she had to spend all those years where she had her magic running from the Emperor's Coven instead of practicing it freely!
Still, she was glad she made it out of fighting Belos alive. Especially with all the escapades she encountered along the way, nearly being petrified and all. Sometimes she found herself spending a lot of time thinking about all the wild witches who lost their lives due to Belos' reign. They probably would've been so overjoyed to be finally able to practice wild magic freely after so many years of his empire. She imagined all the great things they would've done, along what she would've done if she still had her magic.
So, as a former wild witch, Eda came up with the idea to honor the wild witches who weren't here to witnesses the return to order in the Boiling Isles She got together with Raine and Lilith to try to find as many archival information about specific wild witches as possible so she could highlight their legacies. It wasn't easy, not in the slightest. Even with Belos' stockpile of "banned books" now being returned to the public, many of these works were not in good condition.
There was also just so much information. Spending hours scanning over details of books was quite boring. Eda also had to admit she did not have the attention span or the background knowledge to understand most of the texts. Lilith and Raine both had experience as forever coven heads and Lilith also had the historical knowledge.
So today, Eda, along with King and Lilith, decided to pay a visit to some wild witch gravesites tucked away in the corners of the Boiling Isles in the hopes they could parse together bits of information from grave headstones. It felt much better to get some fresh air and explore new areas of the Boiling Isles instead of spending all day cooped up inside hunched over hundred-year-old manuscripts.
It was King's idea to check out of grave headstones. He had noticed before that some of the headstones had a lot of words on them, possibly detailing information about their craft. However, not all the headstones they encountered were particularly useful. The Emperor's Coven vandalized some of the gravesites, and those that were not vandalized were either not in great condition or not particularly useful. Still, even getting the names of some of these wild witches was a helpful start.
King showed particular curiosity in learning more about wild witches. His imagination was running wild from all the possibilities. "I wonder if any of them ever used glyphs in their magic… Who knows what sort of things they were able to come up, being able to have whole groups of wild witches together and all that! I wonder if any of them have secret codes too…" He was definitely planning on telling some of this information to Luz to see if it could help with her magic studies.
"It's quite possible they used a secret code" Lilith chimed in. "Based on what I've read so far, some wild witches worked with some pretty risky spells. It would've been a disaster if that knowledge was easy to find!"
As Eda scanned the different headstones, one in particular caught her eye. It was rather simple looking and definitely looked like it had undergone some damage, but the last name on this headstone looked familiar to her. As she got closer to it and tried to remove some of the moss that was growing on the headstone, she was shocked to see the name "Clawthorne" written on the headstone!
"Lily! King! You won't believe what I just found!" She motioned for them to come over right away, trying to contain the burst of excitement she felt.
"Oh my Titan… a relative of ours! But why would they be buried out here?" Eda shrugged in response, thinking of at least a dozen possible reasons.
"See if there's more you can read!" King added.
Carefully, Eda worked to try to remove more of the moss growth. The words "Talented palisman carver" stood out to her. Definitely a Clawthorne! She also saw the word "mother" on the headstone too. She wondered if her mom knew this relative.
The top of the headstone had been damaged, with a few pieces broken off. Lilith helped Eda be extra careful while cleaning up the top to try to reveal the first time.
Once progress was made, King got close and tried to expect it. "Eva… wait. Does that say Edalyn? Are you not the first Edalyn Clawthorne?"
Lilith tried to get a closer look. "No, no, wait. I think that might be an v and an e… possibly Evelyn…?"
Eda suddenly remembered something Luz had told her. "Wait… hold on. Isn't that the witch who used to travel to the Human Realm like 400 years ago?"
"Titan, you're right! This is so exciting!" Lilith's eyes lit up. They were uncovering some of their family history!
King also tried to remember as much as what Luz said about the witch who traveled to the Human Realm. "Wait… but didn't she fall in love with a human? Belos'… brother?"
Lilith glanced at the headstone next to Evelyn's and noticed what looked like the name "Caleb"…
"Yes, yes, you're right!" Lilith removed some of the moss overgrowth from the neighboring headstone and saw the full name read "Caleb Clawthorne-Wittebane".
Eda's jaw dropped. "You mean we're RELATED to Belos?!"
Lilith laughed nervously in response as King continue to inspect the headstones. "Look here, it says he was also a palisman carver! And he was… killed by his brother. Yeesh."
"Well this is a lot to process!" Lilith blurted out, the visible discomfort only growing in her face. "I… can't even imagine what mom and dad will have to say about all this."
"This actually makes sense though!" Eda said. "Mom mentioned something about Luz not being the first human in the Boiling Isles but she didn't really know anything about Philip. Maybe there's family heirlooms that will tell us more?"
"You guys, maybe we can learn about the type of magic they used… and about their palisman carving techniques! Your dad would probably love to hear about what we find!" King couldn't sit still from all the excitement. He knew how complex it was to learn more about your family history, but his mind was also filled with ideas about all the ways they could use the information to learn even more about lost magic and wild witches!
Both Eda and Lilith smiled at King, finding his enthusiasm quite pleasant despite the awkward situation. He continued on as a particular idea popped in his head. "And the fact that there was another human witch… maybe we can learn how he did magic! I can't wait to tell Luz about what we find!"
"Alright King, don't get your hopes up." Eda said as he patted his head. "We got a lot of work to do, and we still have to look at the other headstones before we get back. But you have a good point… if we can go back in family records, there's probably stuff that's not included in the Wild Magic Archives…"
Lilith was now pondering the possibilities. "I also wonder what their children were like… they're probably our great great grandparents! Half human half witch… I wonder what percent human we are!"
"Lily, we gotta keep movin'! We'll talk more about this when we get back, okay?" Eda started walking over to the next headstone to try to see what she could decipher. She didn't want to think too much about this. It was just so much to take in.
Though, while inspecting the other headstones, her mind kept drifting to the thought that the portal door she had been using was the same one Evelyn used…