Chapter Text
“Everyone...Eda!”
Luz jumped in front of Eda, arms splayed out to present the older witch while she walked inside. Hooty was...sleeping to the best of Eda’s explanations so the access into the house was left unattended by the annoying wood owl. Much to the glee of King, who launched himself inside without hesitation.
The many children in the room barely gave much of a reaction-
A nod and wave from Amity, a distant harp of glee from the Blight twins and then they all proceeded to go back into what they were doing before her arrival, except for a few.
There were collective gasps from three kids Eda didn’t know. One was lanky and had a vague look of familiarity that Eda couldn’t place for the life of her, the second was a female witch with a hooked earring and-
Is that a canine witch? Eda raised an eyebrow at the group, a long time since she’s seen one of those-
“Lord Calamity?!”
The scream of the first two of the group had her blinking back into reality when faces that were few meters away were now few inches.
“Lord-whatsa-whosa, now?” Eda snarls as she steps back, side eyeing her apprentice to the left.
Luz blinked between her and the three other kids that started to crow around her before realization struck, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys! Eda’s Lord Calamity.”
Amity narrowed her eyes from her spot on the couch, “That announcement is so late.”
Luz shrugged, scratching the back of her head before joining the Blight girl on the couch and leaving her mentor to the kids around.
Eda narrowed her eyes at the two but her attention was quickly brought to the other kids. wanted to shudder, this look was pure idolization. Meaning expectations. Ugh…
“How did you make the permanent graffiti?!”
“Or make the girls locker room haunted?!”
“Grrarph!”
Eda sighed before pointing at two of the kids, “Permanent illusion with sentience. I didn’t make the ghosts, I found them. I have a bag of ‘em in the back- no you can’t have them but you can buy them tomorrow.”
She looked to the canine witch, “And I don’t want to tell you how I made that.”
The three of them nodded and Eda turned to head into the kitchen for a needed break of coffee and maybe decent food-
An arm hooked around her neck and Eda could feel the snap of her back as she was forced down into the view of a scroll with three witches.
A flash sent her eyes spotting and Eda winced, “Hey!”
She slapped away the arm on her neck and the three squealed as they ran off to the other side of the room to open up that ‘Hexagram’ thing.
With a sigh, Eda turned on her heel to move on from her path to the kitchen towards the couch and dropped on it next to Luz unceremoniously with a timed groan of exhaustion.
Her mentee had King on her lap, already asleep with ear scratches while Luz was talking up a storm to Amity and the pink triclops. Angelo’s brat was next to the two but wasn’t saying anything. Everything about her screamed her father- the three eyes included...
“Edric-“ A high-pitched voice broke out.
A more familiar voice spoke, “C’mon, let’s find it.”
Eda sighed and looked back over to the three kids who idolized her and The Blight twins, the two boys were whispering very...radically. The lanky, brown haired one was whispered refusesals with a frown while the Blight boy led a teasing tone with a practical glee that Eda knew well- but didn’t like it when it was most certain that the fallout would be on her...so, she spun a finger in the air to seal up the door that she hid the ghosts in. As well as her room. And Luz’s. And every other room except the kitchen and the bathroom.
The two must’ve heard the doors slamming shut because they both looked over at her and Eda gave them both a smirk that knew had no mercy of incompetence to what she knew.
The lanky one blushed in embarrassment but Edric fell back with a whistle of innocence until they were brought into a conversation with the other witches in their group.
Eda snorted but hell quiet. Someone was missing- no...two. Two witches were missing.
“Where’s that…” Eda began, stalking to think of the blue haired witch and illusion master kid, “-Porter’s boy and the plant one? Gus and Willow, right?”
Luz looked over at Eda with an honest expression of disappointment, “They went home. They didn’t want to worry their parents, everyone else is…” The human gazed off to the side, “I don’t know.”
Eda sighed, looking back around the room. They all helped Luz with getting Eda back, it’s late, and she doesn’t want to waste magic kicking everyone out so…
“You can have a sleepover.” Eda states, regretting it as soon as it leaves her lips.
Luz blinked at her before jumping off of the couch with a cheer, King was flown off onto the coffee table as she jumped on it before running around.
“Sleepover! Sleepover! Sleepover!”
Everyone in the room turned to look at her as she screamed out the word over and over. She flew past the group that was in front of the stairwell before shooting it up the stairs.
They were all silent until a thump echoed and Hooty’s shrill voice followed, “Are you okaaay, Luz? Hoot!”
“I really need to make a new house demon.”
-
Eda slammed back into her arm chair with a loud and tired sigh, the kids were all packed up into Luz’s room- most of them, anyways.
She had just gotten back from dropping off two of those kids that idolized her at the edge of the forest past the mountains and in all honesty, Wda was fucking exhausted with the day. She couldn’t wait to go back up to her nest and just sleep with no nightmares or- or...well, anything at all.
Eda opened her eyes and started to get up from her chair-
“Fuck you, Amity!”
Titan damn it…
Eda let her head drop with a beaten whine and walked herself to her window and spotted Hooty’s noodle body looped off to the side, she groaned and went to her door.
“Hooty, what-“ Eda fell silent as she spotted the pink hair as she turned the corner, “-never mind.”
Lopped and held in Hooty’s brown tube body was the pinkette witch that was Angelos daughter, growling with a snarl that would’ve made Eda scared if she was a lesser witch but she wasn’t so she waited until Hooty had dropped the student down on the ground before cupping her hands above her mouth to shout.
“Brat!”
“What?” She snapped.
“C’mon, let me walk ya home.” Eda nodded to the forest and in all honesty expected the girl to brush her off but she didn’t. The pinkette nodded with no words and Eda blinked owlishly with a nod of her own as she turned around.
“Let’s go.” Eda summoned her staff-
“We don’t need that,” The girl scoffed, stomping past Eda. “Let’s just fucking just walk.”
Eda raised an eyebrow, “If you say so…”
While the younger witch stomped off to the forest, Eda waved a spell for a ball of light to hover overhead before she started to follow the kid, letting the light illuminate the two witches and the path they were taking.
As they walked, no conversations were said and no direct dialogue was conjured, just pure bonafide silence in the dead of a night on their path. The silence wasn’t awkward, nor was it comfortable, it was just pure silence between two people who knew nothing about each other and...Eda didn’t exactly like it.
She whisked her eyes to the side towards the trees as the light casted out the shadows and illuminated the trees and grass around. Eda moved her head down but kept her eyes on the pinkette in front of her, keen on making sure the girl made it to her house or else her father wouldn’t hesitate to decapitate the owl witch- he made that clear the last time he'd seen her.
Eda held a sigh of nostalgia in her throat and continued to walk-
“My moms Blair.” A voice cuts through her thoughts.
A scratch of a music disk erupted in Eda’s ear while she froze before she looked up to the girl who stepped from a few feet to a few meters when she came to.
When the distance is finally processed, Eda races to leap in front of the pink witch. “Blair? Like in, Blair Thulian?”
Boscha scoffed, “Yeah. That’s her.”
“You’re Blair’s brat-“ Eda grabbed into the girls shoulders and started to shake her in high disbelief, “Angelo Anodyne fucked your mom? Pink hair, huge glasses- hates men?!”
“Yeah.” The girl groaned, “I know. So unbelievable- she hated him, he hated her- yada-yada-yada.”
The pinkette pulled Eda’s hands off of her shoulders with talon lined claws before shrugging past Eda, “Same shit as always…”
“Huh.” Is the only thing Eda says before they start to walk again.
Eda side-eyed the girl who was strolling through a scroll without a care, it was almost enviable how placid the girl was whenever she had that thing...
The kids a little different from what she's used to, she’s used to puppy excitement with muddled hyper...imagination.
Eda looked off to the side at the image of Luz cheering about a griffin-
“They do have spider breath! I was right!”
Yeah, imagination.
“You live at the Anodyne mansion, right?” Asks Eda, attempting to bore through the upcoming paranoia that sunk into her.
The girl grunts, “Of course, where else would I live?”
“I don’t know, your parents might’ve gotten a divorce or they might live in different places? I don’t know, kid, I don’t know.”
“My parents are still married,” The kid says and she spells away the scroll that was in her grasp.
“That’s a surprise,” Hums Eda because, really, it was. To hear Blair and Angelo still together? Even after having the obligation-
Eda almost chortled at the memories. Angelo and Blair seemed like a shot in the dark and a ‘way no way’ possibility if they heard about it when they were kids...or if they even spoke about it.
But if this was Blair’s kid...it made a lot of sense with her appearance.
“...how’s your mom?” Eda edged, trying hard not to wince at the poor option of small talk but it’s been awhile since she’s asked about her old friends- especially Blair.
She doesn’t get a reply for one second, then two, then finally…
“She’s fine.”
“...that’s good, that’s...that’s really good.”
The girl hums before they finally cut through the forest and Eda spots the Anodyne mansion in the mountain distance but it’s a figure cradling a staff with a glass that has her attention, so Eda backs away as Boscha nudged her way past the older to walk towards the other witch.
Eda waves at them and she gets a curt wave back from the glass before the two of them leave.
-
Out of all the things Eda has done and did throughout her life, this one took the cake at being the second most…motherly thing she had done.
Cooking for children.
But she had a nice sleep, without the thought of feathers, which was a huge improvement. A nice warm cup of apple blood, and a few sips of this ‘mystery’ stew that was being made fresh from the ingredients in her fridge, there should be an emphasis on the ‘mystery’ part of the stew.
Eda stirred the pot, she was gonna have to lay low for a while. She and everyone else. Welp, back to black market dealings. Again.
She sighed and took a long sip of her apple blood. She’s forgetting something. She knows it. She doesn’t know what though…
Odalia, maybe? No, not that bitch. Alador? No. Be-
Belos. Oh shit. Wait, what day was it? Eda gazed up to a calendar, no day was marked out since the day she left…
“Eda! Whatcha making?”
“Mystery stew-“ Eda whipped her head to look at King, “How long was I gone?”
“Just a day. Or one and a half.”
“One and a half? I need a timeline, brat.” Snarled Eda.
King rolled his eyes, “You got your ass handed to you by Lilith, Luz came home unscathed after that. It was a weekend so the kid slept the whole day till five in the morning yesterday and rescued you at dusk and here we are.”
Eda blinked, “Why such a rushed rescue?”
“You were gonna get petrified.” King scratched his arm, a nervous tick Eda found cute. “We got scared.”
“I was only with the Emperors Coven for a day! It wasn’t going to be over night for me to get cured, so-“
She broke off when King looked up at she caught a paranoid and anxious look in their eyes.
Eda sagged when the echoes of her words reached her ears, “And of course they knew.”
She put her mug to the side to look at the back of her right hand. The paper was like plaster on her skin and she couldn’t wait till they found some permanent pen or something to make sure the glyph stayed on her skin.
She hated it but it worked.
It worked damn well. She never felt better in years.
“My siblings said the more you have, the better it’ll work. It worked for me, at least.”
Eda glanced up to look at Amity as the brunette walked inside the kitchen. She waited until the young one sat down on a stool, “Luz told me that they might fade.”
Amity shrugged, “All the more reason to have more on you.”
Eda let out a laugh, first laugh of the day. Things are looking up for her.
She gave another once over at Amity, she was wearing an old dress of Liliths. Black and fit perfectly on the girl. Eda took a bunch of old clothes that used to belong to both of them when she decided to run from Coven life. After getting a good hold of her away life, she started to collect random clothes that were all different sizes, they finally came in handy last night and today.
So fuck you, Mom! Hoarding does come in handy!
Eda raised an eyebrow, “Pretty early for that dress.”
Amity gave a short shrug and toppled over to a stool, “All the others didn’t match me, so why try mixing and matching? You’re just going look weird.”
“You know, this is the first time Luz wasn’t with us.” Stated Eda after chortling out a few laughs of her own.
“I guess it is,” Amity looked around the kitchen and shrugged before freezing, looking down at the counter with an expression Eda couldn’t see but felt she understood. “...I actually have a question for you- it’s about my dad and…”
Amity hesitated, “Mother.”
Oh Titan. Eda almost dropped her spoon, she wasn’t mentally prepared for a conversation like this...
Eda opened her mouth for a sentence but fell short on any details of the Blight families current head and spouse…so she opts to nod at the girl for her to continue.
Silence enveloped the kitchen as Amity hesitated to continue her talk, “You- I…When you and my parents were still in school, was my mom…always controlling?”
“She…” Eda glazed her eyes at the stew, “…had her eyes on the future.”
The younger witch raised an eyebrow at the wording but Eda let her head drop.
“Controlling, yes. She didn’t like when things didn’t go according to her predictions and your father was a huge part in her future when we were little.”
Amity hummed, leaning across the counter before reaching down at a purple necklace that even Eda felt was brimming with magic. Thumbing it with a forlorn look.
“Odalia…your mom was going through things when she was in school though.”
Glazed eyes gazed up, gold eyes bearing a curious look.
“I don’t know anything past that, okay? But…you’re a smart kid and I think…despite hoaxes and a very twisted idea of what’s best- you can get whatever you want from your mother and she’ll do her best to give you a happy life…” Eda grinned when the minty witch narrowed her eyes in doubt, “And if twisting a knife in your mothers logic doesn’t make your life any better, you can come hang out and join…”
Summoning up whatever she could from badges to cheaply painted on shirts, Eda leaned back as smoke engulfed her.
“The Bad Girls Coven!”
Her arms splayed out in presentation of the coven wares, her pins hopped on a stash while wearing the custom shirt that Luz crafted.
Amity smiled and gave a small chortle but she started to wave, dissuading Eda from going forward with the perverse skit Luz made. Smoking, Eda eased away the merchandise as the younger witch gave a small smile at Eda before she started to spoon the soup for her breakfast with a light expression of ease.
Eda turned around to grab more bowls and spoons, “Also, don’t be a coward and confess to Luz. The girl is more oblivious than King.”
Hack- Cough!
“Ew…” King whined.
“How do you- you-“ Amity wheezed and coughed out a few more syllables but nothing that could be understood until Eda turned back to the two, “-know about that?”
The witch raised an eyebrow and flicked her fingers as a torn note appeared next to her, “You really think that Grom note went in the trash? Your siblings were looking for it after they saw what your fear was.” She felt her ear twitch as grinned, “I got it first, though.”
Amity’s face went red as blush rose throughout her face and Eda started to let out chortles.
Eda leaned forward to snap her fingers in front of Amity, “Stop that pity party and wake up everyone else, I made this stew for everyone. Even...Ugh, what were their names…”
She tapped her fingers on the counter for theatrics, “Gus and Willow! Go have someone get them! Shoo!” She tapped the ladle against King’s head and waved off Amity with the other.
The two looked at her before jumping out of the room, well, more like prancing out for Amity. She snorted and stirred the stew again, then frowned. The feeling was back, so it wasn’t Belos she forgot about...then what was it?
…
“Oh shit. Lily!”
-
Far inside the Emperor's Castle, Lilith shuddered.
“You alright, Miss Lilith?”
“Fine.” Lilith settles with, turning her head a nudge as Steve grasps her hand and takes a step down- at least she thinks it’s a step. Lilith frowned and placed her foot forward a notch in hesitance to find an absence step.
The cloth on her eyes is cold, and her trust in her subordinates is not very strong.