Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amity Blight is just about the unluckiest girl on the boiling isles.

She is currently (unwillingly) sitting in the back of a needlessly tacky abomination carriage, rumbling through Bonesborough. Her arms are crossed and she’s glaring grumpily out of the window, fully aware that her mother and father are paying no attention to her. The glare isn’t for them. It’s for whatever cruel god decided to ruin Amity’s day and, if she’s being honest, probably her whole week. 

She sighs, letting her anger melt a little as she glances down at her rapidly tapping foot. 

“Amity, stop that incessant clicking.” Amity jerks her head up to glare at Odalia, who doesn’t hesitate to send a glare back. A former Amity would’ve backed down, muttering some bullshit apology. This Amity does not. The spiteful staredown only lasts a few moments, before Odailia huffs and turns back to tapping on her scroll. Amity settles into the cushiony seats of the carriage, letting her lavender hair scrunch up around her face. She twirls it with her finger. She loves her hair now. The color, how the breeze flows through it, and the way it fluffs up at Luz’s touch. She doesn’t regret changing it, not one bit. She does wish she hadn’t underestimated her mother’s prissiness, though.

For about two weeks now, Amity’s managed to avoid Odalia. It seems like Odalia’s been avoiding her, too. She’s been keeping her grades up, and spending every moment she can out of the manor. The library, the Owl House- even hanging with Gus and Willow one day. Anything to stay up and away. Except for the occasional chance meeting at breakfast before Odalia heads off to work, the two have barely interacted since the hair dye and the.. abomaton incident. Amity took the peace and quiet for granted.

“WHAT?!” It was earlier that morning when Amity shouted at Em, still groggy from her fitful night’s sleep. Emira didn’t hesitate to shush her, sighing. 

“I’m sorry, Amity. But there’s only so much more we can do to keep mom off your back.” Emira looked at Amity with real concern, and Amity could feel her anger start to slip. It's been doing that more often now, and she thinks it’s an improvement. 

“I know, I know- but I am not going to a meeting at the Emperor’s castle! That’s like… not a good idea!”

“C’mon Mittens, it’s probably like, the safest place on the isles.” Ed strode over, taking his place next to Em. 

“My girlfriend lives with a criminal!!” Amity was more worried than angry by this point. “It’d be a huge betrayal, and-”

“I’m pretty sure she technically hasn't been convicted of any crimes since the-”

“Ed, not helping.” Emira fortunately stepped in before something horribly stupid could escape Edric’s mouth. Emir put an arm on Amity’s shoulder, smiling. “It’ll be fine. You know Luz doesn’t care about that.” Amity took a deep breath. She knew, and still does know, that Luz won’t blame her for visiting the Emperor’s palace. It’s not a betrayal, just… an unfortunately timed visitation. 

Amity sighed. “Do I really have to go?” 

“I convinced mom that you getting a feel for the Emperor’s coven and making a good impression would be enough to make up for all of,” Emira gestured vaguely to Amity, “this.”

Amity grumbled. “It’s just a hair color, for Titan’s sake.”

“Well… it’s probably about sneaking out too.”

Ed pushed Em’s face to the side so he could address Amity. “Mostly the sneaking out.”

By then, Amity knew her grumbles would all be pointless. Ed and Em did their best, but there’s only so much you can do to tame the beast that is their mother. 

“I guess… thanks for the save, Em.” Amity said. She didn’t sound particularly grateful, but Emira got the point. No matter how much the three may quarrel, they look out for each other. Especially for Amity; she faces the bulk of Odalia’s tantrums.

Everything in the Blight household revolves around Odalia. What’s Odalia’s mood today? Is there a big project coming up? Is she leaving for the weekend, so the kids can finally have some wiggle room? Having to center her life around her mother’s whims has always left a rotten feeling in Amity’s stomach. When Odalia’s in a mood, it’s like walking around on eggshells. Well, for everyone except Alador. He doesn’t pay attention to her. To anyone, really. 

As much as Amity’s loved brushing off her mother for the past few days, she’s not going to force Ed and Em to cover for her any longer. She’ll go to this stupid meeting, get the whole hair issue dealt with, and then go back to spending 90% of her time at the library or with Luz. She’s not going to spend her life appeasing Odalia Blight anymore.

Amity takes a peek through the window yet again, nerves rising as the cart rolls out of town and into the woods, along a fittingly eerie path. It’s just some meeting about the abamatons: she doubts the emperor has time to deal with something so trifling. They’ll probably just go in, talk to some scout about improvements, make small talk, and leave. 

Hopefully.

Amity missed her class field trip to the palace (fortunate, considering the events that transpired after it), so when she gets a glimpse through her window, she can feel her stomach drop.

It’s a building designed to inspire fear, that much she can tell. It reminds the young witch of the conformatorium, but much more imposing and far less smelly. Despite the massive stone towers and pit of unnaturally sharp rocks surrounding the actual castle itself, Belos seems to have upped security. Amity and her parents have to go through layers of coven scouts, checking identification, searching the carriage, etcetera. By the time they actually get through the castle doors (with a coven escort, of course), Odalia is thoroughly fed up. Amity would probably be enjoying her mom’s petty frustration if she weren’t also in such a sour mood. She instinctively flinches whenever a coven scout passes by her. She can’t believe that mere months ago she wanted to join these bozos. When you aren’t looking at it as the pinnacle of achievement, the Emperor’s Coven is really just a collection of snobby, mindless witches who prance around a ridiculously over-decorated palace. Seriously, the walls are covered in tapestries. Nobody even uses tapestries anymore.

The coven scout leads them down the main hall, Amity tuning out to analyze her surroundings. She looks for exits: windows and vents. How many guards are wandering about, and how many could she take down in an altercation. She bites down on her tongue. She’s not going to get in a fight. If Luz or Eda were here, they’d probably run into some issues, sure. But she isn’t them. She’s Amity Blight, here on business. Nothing more, nothing less.

She’s only picking up on some of the conversation happening by her. She can hear her mother raving to the poor sap escorting them.

“I do not deserve to be treated this way!”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Are we going to receive no compensation for all that invasive security we went through?!”

“You will, ma’am.”

“It may be a great honor to work with the Emperor, but if his men are so ignorant as to not recognize who they have in their presence, why I ought to-”

“Mrs. Blight.” Amity jerks her head over, snapping to where that voice came from. Her eyes go wide. She knows that voice.

A small creature stands before them, her head tilted slightly to the side. Her posture is impeccable, and her three fingers are clasped in front of her. There’s a moment where her visible eye locks onto Amity, and Amity’s stomach drops. Recognition flashes across the coven officials face for a brief moment, and Amity tenses. She’s that demon from Eclipse Lake. Amity can feel her magic buzzing up inside her, muscles flexing. She should have known someone from that damned lake would’ve seen her. This was a horrible idea to go along with-

Amity’s thoughts are cut off as the creature, Kikimora she believes her name is, looks away from Amity, face falling back into a calm and content look. Amity can feel her body relax a bit, letting out the quietest breath of release. Of course she wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack a Blight in the middle of the castle. Amity eyes Kikimora warily, but lets her magical buzz subside. Amity is a Blight. And as far as anyone else is concerned, a Blight would never attack a coven official. It’d be treasonous to even suggest such a thing. That accusation could ruin Odalia’s reputation.

And if there’s one thing Amity can count on her mother for, it’s defending her reputation with her life.

Kikimora waves one of her little clawed hands, dismissing the guard, who quickly scurries away. Amity can feel her mother’s demeanor change, a saccharine smile crossing the older Blight’s face. She has to pretend to be polite now that she isn’t the biggest authority around. 

“I am Kikimora, a manager and assistant for Lord Belos. I welcome you to the Emperor’s Castle.” Kikimora says, eye flicking back and forth from Odalia and Alador. She notably dodges eye contact with Amity. 

“An honor to meet you, Miss Kikimora.” Odalia responds, giving Kikimora a courteous bow. Alador does as well, although he has to be poked by Odalia to do so. 

“Follow me, please.” Kikimora turns on her heel and begins to stride down the hall, all three Blights in tow. Amity stares down at her feet, swallowing subtle breaths. She has years of experience perfectly masking her anxiety, and those skills are really coming in clutch right now.  She just needs to think of this as another dinner with coven officials or pompous investors. She’ll nod when she’s looked at, smile when it's required of her, and not make a comment unless she’s directly asked a question. She used to hate following these little unspoken rules, but right now, she’s glad for them. The less she has to participate in building the Emperor’s little abomination army, the better. 

Amity doesn’t listen much as Kikimora speaks. It’s all formal jargon about opportunity, scientific advances, payment, the usual slog of a speech people like her give when their bosses force them to function like a real person for a day. Kikimora leads the family to a large door, stopping in front of it. 

“I will lead our discussions on what improvements need to be made, direct orders from our Lord Belos himself.” Amity can feel her parents' bodies tense up a bit beside her. Not much shakes them, but direct expectations from the Emperor? That would scare anyone. “My subordinate will take over to handle payment, shipping, etcetera. If we are lucky, Emperor Belos himself may make an appearance to ensure the process goes smoothly. Any questions?” 

Odalia clears her throat, a small, nervous laugh escaping her. She smiles. “Of course not! May I say again how it truly is an honor to work with your coven. Isn’t it, dear?” The last words are said through clenched teeth. 

Alador glances down at Kikimora, still vaguely bored. “Ah, yes. Of course darling.” 

Kikimora laughs, but it's cold and dry. “You should feel honored.” The tension in the air is palpable. Fortunately, the doors swing open, and Kikimora gestures for them to step inside. Amity’s parents do, but just as she is about to enter the conference space, Kikimora’s hand extends, blocking her way. 

“I’m afraid this meeting is for Mr. and Mrs. Blight only.” There’s a glint of malice in the coven official's eye, and Amity glares. Odalia giggles nervously again, stepping behind her daughter.

“I-I’m sorry, we can send her home if necessary-”

“There will be no need, Mrs. Blight.” Amity swears she can see Kikimora smirk under her uniform. “Your daughter is interested in joining our coven someday, correct?”

Odalia eagerly places her hands on Amity’s shoulder, and Amity has to resist the urge to shove her off. “Of course! Our daughter is incredibly talented, and joining the Emperor would be such a great success for us- her.” Amity decides now is the time to not add to the conversation.

“Lord Belos thought it would be a great opportunity to have a coworker of mine show Amity here around the palace. Let her get a feel for how the coven works, hmm?”

Amity can practically feel her mother light up, and she wants to keel over right here and now. She takes a deep breath. This is good, she reminds herself. You just have to wander around with some guard today. Maybe you’ll even learn something. 

“That’s a wonderful idea!” Odalia beams. She gives Amity a squeeze on her shoulders as she steps away, sending her daughter a pointed look. Amity knows what that means: Don’t mess this up. Her mother is lucky Amity doesn’t want to draw attention to herself either, because frankly, she doesn’t care about her opinion. Ever since crushing that oracle necklace, Odalia’s threats have felt more and more empty, and her approval absolutely worthless. Amity runs her hands through her hair. Kikimora turns, facing Amity as the doors begin to shut.

“My colleague will be arriving very shortly. Have fun, Ms. Blight.” Her tone is thick with condescension, and Amity glowers as the door slams, leaving her alone in the hallway. 

She lets out a long sigh. Maybe she isn't so unlucky. This could've turned out a lot worse.

At least, that’s what Amity thinks. Until she hears a voice behind her.

“Hello, Blight.” Her ears perk up as she spins around. 

Standing in the center of the hall is a boy clad in armor, an owl mask obscuring his face. He has his hands behind his back. Amity’s stomach drops. The Golden Guard.

Oh.

Oh no.

Hunter awakens to the sound of a blaring alarm in his ear.

He slams down on the clock with his hand, nearly crushing it in his attempt to shut it up. It silences, thank the Titan, but Hunter’s awake now. Again.

He grumbles as he rolls to the side, seemingly forgetting how big his own bed is as he tumbles to the ground in a pile of blankets, a book he left on the floor jamming into his side. Just his luck. He groans, shoving the book to the side and laying face down on the ground, buried in a pile of blankets. He can hear tweeting above him. Two little feet plant themselves in his hair and Hunter sighs. He waves one of his hands up half-heartedly.

“Go away.” He mumbles, barely audible from his place on the floor. There’s another tweet, and the bird does not leave. Hunter didn’t expect him to. 

Hunter forces himself up, peeling off blankets and letting them fall around him in a heap. He had another nightmare last night, a bad one. He swears he can still feel his cheek throbbing. He rubs the scar absentmindedly as he yawns, peering at the cardinal now perched on his first aid kit. 

“Morning, Rascal.” He says. The little bird tweets back in response, and Hunter laughs. 

He learned the palisman’s name not too long ago, after the… Eclipse Lake incident. He knows he shouldn’t be using it, or even encouraging the thing to continue speaking to him, but it’s been a long time since the witch has had somebody who listens. Even if that somebody is a bird he definitely should’ve turned in to Belos by now. Something in him refuses to just hand Rascal over, and so far, that something is winning. Hunter tries not to think about it too hard. Hurts his head.

The sun is just starting to rise, peeking in through the window. He starts pulling on his clothes, ignoring Rascal’s usual pleas to take the day off.

“You know I can’t just ‘have a vacation day,’ Rascal.” Hunter says, grunting as he pulls on his chestplate. “That’s not how this works.” Rascal has either failed to grasp the concept of Hunter’s position or simply chooses to ignore it, as he tweets out in frustration again. “Besides, what would I even do on a day off?” 

Rascal chirps in response. Hunter snorts, switching his attention to wrapping his upper right arm with a fresh bandage. “Thought you’d have picked up on my lack of friends by now, bird.” 

Hunter says it with his usual tone of spite and sarcasm, half expecting Rascal to just get up and fly out of the room right there. But he doesn’t. Instead, the palisman swoops over to Hunter’s shoulder, nuzzling up against his face. Hunter still feels the urge to push him away, but doesn’t. Instead, he lets a little smile creep onto his face, scratching the bird’s feathery chin.

“Thanks buddy.” He says, giving Rascal a final pat on the head. He finishes tying off his bandage with a sigh, slapping a healing glyph onto it. This one was from training, so he got to it pretty fast. Hopefully it won’t scar. Not that another one would matter, anyway. He glances at Rascal, who has been hopping around the books stacked beneath Hunter’s healing kit. Honestly, he’s expected Rascal to have left many times over by now. He wasn’t particularly nice after the Latissa incident, mostly telling the bird to go away and fly home. Sure, he gave him a few pats here and there, and a hiding space under his bed, but that’s not really enough enticement to want to stay in probably the most dangerous place for a palisman on the isles. But Rascal has stayed. He’s followed Hunter around far more frequently than he should, too. It fills Hunter’s gut with a sort of fluffy feeling, like pixies all twitching around. He doesn’t hate it. 

Hunter stands up, dragging himself over to his desk, where his cape and mask lay across the wood. He sighs, picking up the mask and looking at his reflection in the golden metal. He looks… awful today, frankly. His hair’s in a frenzy, and his eye bags are worse than usual. It’s a good thing he has the mask, honestly, so that nobody has to look at what a mess he is. He glances over at his window, glowing with early morning light. 

“I’m guessing you won’t take my offer to leave today, huh?” He asks. Rascal chirps back, and Hunter chuckles, a genuine chuckle that leaves a bittersweet smile on his face. “I figured.”

He slides his mask over his face, taking a deep breath. Today’s a work day. That means he needs focus, confidence, and a little bit of the Titan’s good will. He slings his cape over his shoulder, straightening his posture into something much more Golden Guard-esque. He heads for the door.

“Stay in your hiding spot, okay? Tomorrow’s a training day, so we can spend some time together.” Rascal tweets again, and in a strange, palisman way, Hunter can understand what he says. Promise? 

Hunter smiles under his mask. “Promise.”

Hunter steps into Emperor Belos’ chamber, carefully letting the very tall doors shut behind him. He can feel his heart rate slow a little as he glances over at Belos, who is currently tinkering with something at the foot of his throne. He has his mask on, since his door is unlocked and he’ll likely be meeting with coven soldiers today. Still, the energy in the room is relaxed. The heart strung up at the back of the throne room is beating quietly and consistently, and Belos’s breathing is not labored. Today must be a good day for his uncle, and the thought fills Hunter with relief. He doesn’t know if he could’ve handled a bad day with the nightmare he had last night.

“Uncle Belos.” Hunter says, and the Emperor slowly raises his masked face, looking at his nephew. Belos stands slowly, letting his armored hands fall to his side.

“Hunter. Punctual as usual, I see.” He chuckles a little, gliding over to Hunter. Hunter’s heart soars. His uncle’s been in a good mood the past few, and the anxiety that usually clenches Hunter’s chest when he steps into the throne room has started to subside a bit. Hunter dips his head in sort of a half bow, thankful that today the full ‘my lord’ routine won’t be necessary. He keeps his mask on, since typically the two only show their faces when Belos initiates it, or if Hunter’s training.

“Of course, uncle. You… wanted to see me?” Belos is now standing in front of Hunter, looming over him. Emperor Belos’ is unnaturally tall, and it’s disturbing to most who haven’t been around him much. Hunter’s grown up around the Emperor, however. He knows that his height is the least frightening thing about him.

“Yes, yes. I have an important job for you today.” Belos’s voice is even, no sign of his condition flaring up. Hunter stands up a little straighter. An important job.

Each day after he brought back the Titan’s blood from Eclipse Lake has just been so… successful. Belos was disappointed the key was broken, but Hunter brought back Titan’s blood. Kikimora didn’t. He proved himself useful again. Hell, he’s even made Belos feel better! The emperor hasn’t had an episode since the mission, and he’s been in a much better mood. No scolding, no fighting - Hunter hasn’t gotten so much as a warning shot for the past week. 

Hunter nods once, beating his exhaustion down to appear as attentive as possible. He’s being trusted with missions again, and Titan knows he’s not going to let Belos down.

“What is it?” Hunter asks, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice. Belos just chuckles again, but this time it's a little less warm. 

“We have some important guests meeting with Kikimora today. I’ve had you look into the Blight family, haven’t I?”

Hunter can feel his throat clench a little. He swallows. “Yes, you did.”

Belos nods to himself, reaching a finger up to his chin. “Good, good… Odalia and Alador Blight are coming to discuss some changes to the abamatons. They are bringing their youngest along with them - Amity Blight.”

Hunter clenches his hands together. Shit. He’s suddenly very grateful for the mask hiding his expression. 

“She shows a lot of promise. Former Coven Head Lilith spoke very highly of her.” Despite his relaxed tone, there’s a bit of venom in Belos’ voice as he speaks Lilith’s name. Hunter winces. He tries not to bring up Lilith Clawthorne. He didn’t know her well- from what he did see she was winey and bossy- but generally the subject of coven traitors is avoided.

Belos notices Hunter isn’t talking, and tips his head to the side a little, continuing on. “I would like you to show her around the castle, answer her questions about the coven.” Belos looks directly into Hunter’s eyes through the slits in their masks. “We have a powerful ally in the making, and keeping the Blight’s loyal is essential.”

Hunter clasps his hands behind his back, trying to keep them from shaking. He shakes his head in agreement, managing to keep his voice even. “Understood, Emperor Belos. It won’t be a problem.” 

“Oh, I know it won’t.” Belos turns around, striding up to his throne and elegantly sitting in it as he stares down at Hunter, whose feet are still glued to the floor. “Well?”

Hunter considers telling him everything right then and there. About the Eclipse Lake mission. Why he absolutely cannot let Amity Blight into the castle, why she definitely won’t want to hear all about the ‘glory of the Emperor’s Coven’, why Hunter would really rather NOT spend hours with her. But Belos is finally, finally in a good mood, and Hunter is not about to ruin that with his own stupid choices. Belos doesn’t need to know; nobody needs to know. Amity wouldn’t be stupid enough to admit to attacking a coven head.

Right?

Chapter Text

“ You. ” Amity’s stares out the carriage window this morning were just warm up for the absolutely soul shattering glare she’s currently sending the Golden Guard. He doesn’t respond to her, just stands with his back completely straight and gloved hands hidden behind his back. The silence that settles between them is deafening, and the tension in the air is so thick it would probably suffocate any bystanders. The guard’s mask is annoyingly good at hiding his reaction, but from the little time Amity unfortunately spent with him in Eclipse Lake, she can guess he either looks smug or grumpy. Those seem to be the only two emotions he can express. 

The Golden Guard dares to take a small step forward and Amity nearly hisses, narrowing her eyes further.

“Are you… not gonna say anything?” He asks, voice grating and tone frustratingly indiscernible. Amity straightens her back as well, staring him down. 

“I have half a mind not to sucker punch you right now.” If Amity’s being honest, she’s tempted. Very tempted.

The Golden Guard lets out a tch noise, shuffling quickly to close the gap between them. “Do not pick a fight with me in the middle of the castle, Blight.” He’s standing only a few feet in front of her now, and Amity bares her teeth, cocking her head to the side.

“Why not?” She smirks. “Afraid I’ll beat you again?”

The boy groans, pinching the bridge of his nose through his mask. He shoots a look behind him before turning back to Amity, hunching down so their faces are closer.

“Are you an idiot?! You’re surrounded by guards right now, and the Emperor’s outposts go out for miles.” He says it like a threat, but Amity can hear the fear laced in his voice. Despite the growing pit in her stomach, she refuses to give in to her fears again. 

She smiles coyly at the masked figure before her. “Almost sounds like you don’t want me to do something, huh?”

The Golden Guard grumbles, throwing his hands up in exasperation. He’s only a few feet away from her now, and he hisses at Amity in a hushed tone. “Okay! Fine! I don’t want you causing problems! Is that so much to ask for?” Amity responds with a glare, to which the masked boy groans yet again. “It is in both our interests to just play along.”

“If you’re so concerned, why are you trying to drag me around the castle?!”

“Oh ho ho, you think I WANTED this?!” He jabs a finger into Amity’s chest, voice rising. She slaps his hand away.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Don’t tell me what to do-”

He freezes, whipping his head back to see a guard standing at the end of the hall. When the scout is noticed he gives the pair a quick salute before scurrying off, eager to escape the Golden Guard’s pointed stare. He turns back to Amity, standing back up straight and rubbing his temples. 

“Just… let’s at least get out of everyone’s sight, okay?” 

Amity wants to protest, but unfortunately finds herself grumbling in agreement. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she’s in his territory now, and beating him up in the middle of a hall would benefit no one. Well, it would benefit her a little. She’d highly enjoy it. But the cons of that scenario outweigh the pros. 

The Golden Guard turns on his heel and begins down the hall, Amity dragging herself behind him. She stays a few feet away, highly alert. She can assume she’s in a decently safe position: He hasn’t arrested her yet, and he clearly doesn’t want to draw attention to their… recent history. She thinks back to their conversations in the cave. Picking apart what bits of his words there were truth and what was manipulation has been difficult, but from what she’s gathered he probably wasn’t supposed to fight her. It doesn’t seem like he wants anybody knowing, for whatever reason.

Amity talked about the mission with Luz for a little while, and while her encounter with the Golden Guard was more… favorable, Amity still glares at him from behind. He threatened Luz. That does not bode well in Amity’s book.

Eventually, the teen stops, glancing side to side to make sure nobody’s around before pushing some short double door open. He ushers Amity inside, who bristles as the door shuts behind them. She can hear the guard let out a sigh of relief as he pushes his back against the doors, crossing his arms. She looks him up and down as neither speak, fists clenched.

They appear to be in a sort of small library. It definitely isn’t the official coven one; it’s not nearly big enough for that. There are carts and bookshelves scattered around the relatively small room, dust covering many  thick tomes shoved into the wood. It looks like a book storage room, and the only real piece of furniture is a significantly less dusty plush chair shoved unceremoniously in the corner. Amity turns back to the Golden Guard, annoyed to see his face still obscured.

“Take off the mask already. I know what you look like.” The guard looks over at Amity, scoffing. She wishes he would take the damn thing off already so she could actually see his expressions. 

“I’m on the job, Blight. You aren’t even supposed to know what I look like.” 

Amity raises an eyebrow, letting her magic simmer to the surface. “Okay then. Take it off, or I’ll light these books on fire.” She points to a few novels lying haphazardly on the surface of a metal book cart by her hip.

The boy perks up, getting out of his leaning position to loom in front of Amity. “You wouldn’t.” He growls.

Amity gives him a challenging smirk. “Would I?” She begins the process of drawing a spell circle (albeit slowly), watching the Golden Guard’s posture tighten. He reaches a hand out.

“Wait-” Amity lowers her arm as he sighs angrily, pulling off his mask and tucking it into his cape. He glares at her. “Happy?” 

Amity can feel her smug malice slip a little as she takes in the Golden Guards face yet again. You’d think after his ill gotten victory at their last meeting he’d look a bit better, but he really doesn’t. His hair’s not as much of a mess, sure, and he’s much more composed, but his eye bags seem to have gotten bigger. She swears she can see amalgamation goop still crusted behind his right ear. Titan, has he even showered since then?

He goes back to leaning against the wall, staring down at the ground with a grimace glued to his face. She’s glad she can see his expression now, at least, but really she was just testing what she could get away with. Apparently quite a bit. She spares a glance at the books on the cart, which appear to be some research journals on herbalism. Enlightening, she’s sure, but not particularly valuable. 

There’s a few more moments of silence as the teens stand in their places, unmoving. Amity taps her foot on the ground a few times. She’s used to quiet, but here it's heavy and awkward. The Golden Guard eventually kicks his foot at a ball of dust on the ground, watching it go flying across the room.

“I’m supposed to be showing you around the palace right now, but I’m guessing you aren’t interested, huh?”

Amity crosses her arms, leveling another stare at the boy who is currently avoiding eye contact with her. “Not particularly.” More silence. Amity’s glad she’s here instead of Luz. She doesn’t know if her poor girlfriend would be able to handle so much tense quiet. Amity clears her throat. “Unless you’d like to show me where the key is.”

The teenaged soldier doesn’t bother to look up at Amity as he laughs, a cold, dry laugh. He kicks his boot at nothing in particular, scuffing it on the stone floors. “It’s gone. Belos discarded it after draining the titan’s blood.”

“And I should believe you because…?”

“You shouldn’t,” he says simply, shrugging. “But that doesn’t change the truth. I’m surprised you held onto it so long, anyway, with a crack like that.” 

Amity’s ears perk up. He doesn’t know that she broke it. She’s still quite proud of herself for coming up with that one, letting the titan’s blood drain and sink into her glove. (Ruined a perfectly good pair of gloves, but those are replaceable.) 

“Clearly it still had some use.”

“Mm.”

Amity starts to wander around the small space, inspecting a couple of the lightly used books lying flat on a shelf. She picks one up, blowing off the dust. ‘A History of Demonic Nose Shapes’. No wonder these books are in storage.  She turns back to the guard, who is now staring grumpily at the wall.

“Well, thanks for the… ample entertainment, Golden Guard.” Amity says, voice leaking with sarcasm. “You can go do whatever it is you do all day. I’ll be here until my parents are done.”

“Oh, I would love to just leave you locked in a closet, believe me.” The Golden Guard says, finally bringing his eyes up to meet Amity’s. His stare is cool, nothing like the desperation that cracked his face during their fight. “Unfortunately, Kikimora took it upon herself to inform the guard of our tour.” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Captain will be waiting for us in the main hall in about five minutes to give an unnecessarily long recruitment speech, I’m sure.”

Amity drops the book back on its shelf, kicking up even more dust. Her face contorts in disgust. “You’re kidding.”

“Unfortunately, no. Making my life miserable is a hobby of Kiki’s.”

“Can’t blame her for that.” Amity can feel her laughter bubbling up at the look the Golden Guard shoots her. His face is bright red, and he looks like he’s about to throw a temper tantrum. Instead, he just huffs at her, pulling out his mask and slapping it back onto his face.

“Come on, Blight.” He takes a step forward, promptly falling flat on his face. Amity snickers.

“Oops!” She bends down, grinning as she lets a miniature abomination crawl into her hand, spell circling it away. The guard looks up, no doubt glaring behind his mask. “Looks like my little abomination accidentally tied your shoelaces together. What a shame.” 

The guard points at her as she stands back, still smirking. 

“You’re lucky your parents are in a meeting right now, or I’d blast you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Amity pushes open the door, striding out of the storage room and into the golden halls of the Emperor’s palace.

Hunter is about this close to slapping that Blight girl right across her smug face. 

He’s currently stomping down the hall, said witch a few paces behind him. The few guards they pass give him a wide girth, which the guard is thankful for. He does not want to deal with anyone right now.

To say Amity Blight is annoying would be an understatement. So far she has made multiple threats to destroy property, tripped him, and made three unnecessary comments on how ugly the castle’s tapestries are. He may have made a point to be as obnoxious as possible when she held him hostage in Eclipse Lake, but at least he knew when to shut up. 

“Do you ever take the mask off? Seems a bit tacky to me.” Amity Blight says, proving Hunter’s point. He continues walking, not bothering to face her. 

“I’m not going to respond to that.” He can practically feel her smug look and he whips his head around, blush rising to his masked face. He jabs a finger at her. “And if you say ‘you just did’, I will send you careening off the nearest tower.”

She gives him an exaggerated shrug. “I didn’t say anything.”

Hunter simply grunts as he quickens his pace, eager to get to the Captain as soon as possible. He can just tune out the woman’s speech on the Emperor’s Coven, which he’s heard about fifty times now, and that should swallow at least thirty minutes of their time. 

Hunter just wants Amity Blight out of here. Partially because she's infuriating, yes, but mostly because he's anxious. From what he's seen, her and that human Luz have a frightening lack of self preservation. He has no doubt she'd put herself and her family in danger just to rat him out to Belos. At the end of the day, he can always just threaten her human again…

Hunter lets that thought process die out, a knot forming in his stomach. No, he’d rather not have to do that again. He decides not to try and unpack just why it makes him so… uncomfortable.

Hunter may or may not have left out most, if not all, important details out of his retelling of his Eclipse Lake mission to Belos. Including the fact that the key was even at Eclipse Lake. (Technically Kikimora didn't see him there; she just thought she did.) And then there was a whole other incident with Kikimora, and well…

Basically, it's for the best nobody sees Hunter associating with Amity Blight. Ever.

For now he just needs to keep her in his sight.

It is at that moment Hunter realizes he can no longer hear a pair of footsteps behind him. He whips his head around to reveal an empty hall, Amity nowhere to be found.

"Blight?" He calls out, doing his best to keep the rising panic out of his voice and to sound as grouchy as possible. There's no response. He starts retracing his steps, heart pounding. "Amity?!" His voice cracks as he shouts, quickening his pace into a half jog. Shit, he was so stupid to take his eyes off her, now she’s probably gone after the Titan’s blood-

Hunter skids to a halt at a crossroads in the hall, turning his head to see Amity Blight standing in front of a wall, impatiently tapping her foot.

“There you are! What the hell?! You can’t just run off like that-”

“I was thirsty,” Amity gestures to the wall in front of her, which in fact, has a shoddily made vending machine leaning up against it. She bangs her fist on it once, rolling her eyes as Hunter slows to a stop beside her. “I’m surprised you even have these around here.”

“Oh, we’re not supposed to. Steve brought it in a month ago and no one’s bothered to remove it.” Hunter remembers the night that scout brought it in. He thought he was being so stealthy, dragging the thing in with a bunch of ropes at the small hours of the morning, and causing way more of a ruckus than necessary. Hunter decided to turn a blind eye. He ends up doing that for a lot of behavior in the coven. What Belos doesn’t know can’t hurt him. Besides, he can’t say he hates having a bag of chips for his insomnia fueled night walks. 

Amity reaches down to grab a can of off-brand soda, popping it open. “Probably for the best. Titan knows you need some of those nutrition bars. You’re scrawny.”

“I am NOT!” Hunter crosses his arms, feeling his face go red. He wills it away. Who cares if these stupid criminals think he’s weak. He’s not! They don’t know anything, anyway. They’re just messing with him.

Despite his mental affirmations, Hunter still finds himself poking at his arm muscles. Scrawny his ass.

“You keep telling yourself that.” Amity says as she strolls by, patting him lightly on the shoulder. He tenses at the touch, flicking a hand at her arm. 

“The Guard Captain is probably waiting for us by now, thanks to your little snack brea’.” He scowls at Amity’s back behind his mask, striding past her. “Hurry up.”

The two start down the hall yet again, this time with Hunter making sure Amity is behind him. She seems to be taking her time on purpose. 

“Why do you keep calling her ‘Captain’? Does she not have a name?” Amity asks, and Hunter mentally groans. So many questions. 

“Typically, you only refer to coven members by their titles. Helps separate life from work.” Hunter indulges Amity in an explanation, moving his hands around for emphasis. He’s telling her so maybe she’ll finally shut up, not because he feels bad for being so standoffish or anything. That’d be stupid. “We call Kikimora by her name because she doesn’t have a title, and Steve… well Steve is Steve.” Nobody’s quite sure how Steve managed to get into the Emperor’s Coven, nor how he hasn’t died yet. Hunter once found him duct taped to a pole. 

There’s a few moments of quiet footsteps before Amity speaks again, this time without sarcasm in her voice. 

“Does she wear like… a dress? And a mask with holes in it?”

Hunter stops, turning around. “Yes, how did you-” He pauses to look at Amity, who is notably avoiding his face by staring at the wall. “You ran into her at the cavern, didn’t you.”

“Yeah.”

Hunter slams a hand into his face, letting out an exasperated sigh. Well that’s just great.

“Maybe she won’t recognize me-” Hunter puts a gloved hand up to silence Amity, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“It’s fine, I’ll come up with something.” He can make up some sort of excuse, and he’ll pull rank on her if he has to. He glances nervously around the hall, which is currently devoid of guards, before making a sharp turn and heading left. “Come on. Let’s just go somewhere where no one will see you.” To his surprise, Amity doesn’t grumble or comment on this, just gives him a curt nod and begins to follow a respectable distance behind.

Unfortunately, there’s only one place Hunter can think of where nobody will bust in, and he’d rather not go there. He inhales through his nose, trying to think. He can either keep his dignity or his job. Dignity or job.

He sighs. Goodbye to dignity it is.

Chapter Text

Wherever Amity expected the Golden Guard to take her, it wasn’t here.

She barely kept up with the teen as he powered through countless corridors and way more staircases than one building should even hold. She has no idea how he can navigate this place; it’s a maze, although it's possible that's by design. The ceilings are all ridiculously high, at least on the first floor, and all important rooms have wide double doors trimmed with gold. And she thought her family’s manor is excessive. Now she steps through far less gilded doors into the first non-closet so far with a reasonable ceiling height, hearing the boy groan and mutter as he shuts and locks the door behind them.

She’s standing in what she can immediately recognize as a bedroom, and she’s guessing it’s his. It's surprisingly small, about a third the size of her own room at home, although the absolute mess on the floor may contribute to that. Books and blankets scatter the ground, and the guard stomps over them in his muddy boots, making Amity instinctively wince. There’s no mud allowed in the Blight house, despite the fact her father drags literal abomination goop all over the furniture whenever he’s in crunch mode.

Awkwardness immediately fills the air as the Golden Guard shuffles around, trying (and failing) to tuck away and hide certain things he doesn’t want her to see, including some thick non fiction tomes and what looks like a pink frog plush. She considers giggling at it, but stops herself, a small pocket of guilt forming in her stomach. Laughing at someone for having a stuffed animal is a very Boscha thing to do, and lately Amity’s guiding factor in life has been ‘do the opposite of what Boscha would.’ (Besides, Luz apparently has a whole collection of plushies at home; which Amity finds adorable, by the way.) 

The guilt in her stomach only grows as she watches the Golden Guard sit down on his bed with an exasperated sigh, pulling off his mask not to reveal a glare or smirk but just a thoroughly exhausted grimace. Amity’s been letting herself slip back into some… old habits during this visit. She knows that. This time her taunting may be FULLY justified, but still. She’s worked really hard to start kicking her habits of condescension and general rudeness to the curb, and she’s found it frighteningly easy to fall back into petty insults and jabs.

She just needs to think: What would kind, sweet, caring Luz do in this situation?

Amity glances around the room, still standing very awkwardly as the Golden Guard kicks his feet aimlessly. Luz would probably (naively) push aside all grudges and logical thinking that the man before her ATTACKED and THREATENED her, and see him instead as a, quote, ‘bad but sad boy’. Amity quietly sighs. The Luz mentality is harder to master than you’d think. Still, it’s worth a shot.

Amity lets Hunter finish shoving things beneath his covers, including what she’s pretty sure is a first aid kit, without making a single comment. Eventually, the teenage boy sighs, looking Amity up and down suspiciously. 

“So… I’m guessing this is your room?” Amity asks tentatively. The guard tosses off his cape, letting it fall onto the floor with the jumble of blankets.

“Great observation skills, Blight.” Amity grits her teeth, suddenly gaining a newfound appreciation for her girlfriend’s amazing patience. He runs a hand through his hair, smoothing it out slightly. “Don’t touch anything.”

“A bit difficult considering…” Amity gestures to the piles of things on the floor around her, earning a glare from the boy. Okay, he set himself up for that one. Even Luz would’ve taken it.

Another moment of silence passes before Amity hear’s a faint tweet, turning her head up to the rafters where it came from. A small red cardinal swoops down, and Amity recognizes it as the guards palisman. She smiles a little at it as it dives into the Golden Guard’s cheek, nuzzling his face. She doesn’t blame the little pet for their fight; palismen are well known to be loyal to a fault. How else could Boscha get one.

The boy smiles as his bird perches on his hand, letting out the first genuine laugh she’s heard from him. He seems to have momentarily forgotten Amity is there, patting the cardinal’s feathery head. She maneuvers her way over to his dresser, leaning on it so she isn’t quite so awkwardly hovering by the door. 

“What’s their name?” She asks, cocking her head towards the bird chirping happily in the Golden Guards hand. He lifts his chin up the slightest bit, not looking smug, but not seeming particularly humble either.

“That’s none of your business.” The cardinal chirps at that, and the teen grumbles in response. He points his free hand at Amity. “And the no touching rule applies to him, too.” 

Amity can practically see the bird’s eyes roll as they immediately detach from their witch’s shoulder to land on Amity’s. She’s all too happy to oblige in giving the bird a pat, laughing. The Golden Guard shoots the two a glare, but it's more reminiscent of the looks Amity would send to Edric at sibling board game night than anything actually intimidating.

“I will not forget this betrayal.” The guard says to the bird, trying to keep a straight face. He fails, a small smile cracking his lips as his palisman shakes and gives off a little tweet. They have a moment of paliman-witch communication, the guard responding to his bird’s chirps with a series of grunts and grumbles. It makes Amity wish she had been allowed to bring Ghost. Eventually, the Golden Guard sighs, raising his hands in mock defeat.

“Alright, alright.” He directs his eyes to Amity. “His name’s Rascal.”

Amity smiles, scratching Rascal on his chin. “Rascal, huh? Well, nice to meet you too.” Amity giggles as Rascal gives her a final nuzzle, flying back to perch on his witch’s hair. Said witch looks annoyed, but doesn’t try to shoo the palisman away. He lets out a long huff of a sigh, staring down at the ground. He looks very uncomfortable.

“Welp, congratulations. You’ve seen the private quarters of the great ‘Golden Guard’.” He says with sarcastic jazz hands, letting them fall to his side with a grimace. “We should be able to hide in here until Kiki’s done lecturing your parents to death.”

Amity nods, glancing down at her hands as she starts to fiddle with them. You’d think being locked in the room of your enemy would be a lot more exciting and a lot less… awkward. Neither of the teens really know what to say, just sitting in eerie silence as Rascal hops around. 

“What is your name, by the way?” When Amity finally speaks it immediately gets the Golden Guards attention, his head snapping up. She doesn’t really expect an answer, just another glare or ‘it’s none of your concern’. Instead, he tilts his head to the side.

“Oh, I’m surprised your human didn’t tell you.” He says. Amity can feel a bitter bile rising in her throat.

“Her name is Luz.” She’s trying her best to be civil, but everytime he mentions her awesome girlfriend a bitter taste fills her mouth. 

“I probably shouldn’t- well she’ll just tell you anyway, won’t she.” He sighs, stroking Rascal on his head. “It’s Hunter.”

“Hunter?” Amity’s never met a ‘Hunter’ before. Not exactly a common name for young witches on the isles. “That’s unique.”

“It’s a common name in the human realm,” He says, before his eyes widen and he perks up, quickly adding to his comment. “Or-or so I’ve heard.” 

Amity watches him fiddle with his gloves, trying to wrap her head around the fact that this is the same boy on all those recruitment posters. THIS is the Emperor’s right hand man, poster child of the coven system. He’s who she wanted to be. But his behavior seems to turn on a dime; she finds herself forgetting he’s the same one who threatened her girlfriend, and stole her key. Amity can feel her anger at him joining the mix of confusion and guilt swirling in the cavity of her chest. 

Think like Luz, she reminds herself, trying to keep her bubbling frustration in check. Fighting isn’t going to do any good. 

She turns her head to the guard, or Hunter, who has curled his knees up to his chest and is staring out the small window in his room. It’s wide open. His expression, pose- it’s a scene painfully familiar to Amity. Amity taps her toes, glancing around for an available chair. 

“Is there anywhere I can, uh, sit?”

“Oh, yeah.” He casually gestures to a chair by his disk, which Amity has to crawl over a pile of blankets and rags to get to. “Sorry, I uh, don’t really get visitors.” Amity pulls it out and sits on the edge of the seat, still trying not to touch much. 

She looks at him, and even from this distance she can see how tense his muscles are, a little red creeping onto his ears. She can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. It doesn’t seem like anyone comes in here, and Amity’s thrown back into the memory of finding out Ed and Em broke into her library room. That was her space, and seeing them just digging through it was a soul-shattering break of privacy, especially considering how little she gets at home. She knows Ed and Em didn’t mean to hurt her like that, but those two struggle with seeing the consequences of their actions. Especially when it comes to Amity. They’ve never had to deal with Odalia the way she has. She used to blame them for that, but fortunately she got over it. Odalia’s behavior is no fault but her own, and Amity’s lucky to have known that for a while now.

Hunter falls onto his back, avoiding having to look at Amity by staring at the ceiling. “Why don’t you just go on penstagram or whatever it is you do with scrolls until you can finally leave.”

Amity’s sheer confusion trumps her frustration at his rude tone. “You don’t have a scroll?” He’s a teenager on the isles, and he doesn’t have a scroll? That’s like, unheard of. He just shrugs.

“Belos didn’t find it necessary. I have a direct line of communication to him, anyway.” He pulls out a handheld golden compact. “And don’t think about stealing this. They’re cheap as hell. We’ve got a whole box in storage somewhere.”

“Wow, awfully accusatory, aren’t we?” Amity says, letting that sweet sarcasm slip into her voice again. She’s missed having someone other than Ed to prod at. There's only so many times she can bring up the one incident where he accidentally put itching buds in his own pants instead of Amity’s.

Hunter lazily points a finger at her. “Shut up.” She laughs, letting her eyes fall onto the mask he tossed to the side.

“Why does this coven wear masks anyway? A little cliche.” Amity says it in the joking tone they’ve been using for the past few exchanges, but Hunter doesn’t respond with a quip. He sits up, stare now dead serious. 

“Stop asking me this stuff. It’s coven only information. Why would you expect me to give it to you?”

Amity narrows her eyes. “I’m starting a conversation. Need I remind you I am giving you a ton of grace right now.” 

He doesn’t back down, staring right back. “I’m giving you grace, too. I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

Amity can feel her patience whittle away. “I am trying to be nice.”

“Maybe I don’t want your ‘niceness’.”

“You should appreciate it after you manipulated me-”

“I didn’t-” Hunter cuts himself off and Amity stops, taking a deep breath to calm herself. He sounds genuinely confused, and he’s staring at the wall now, brows furrowed. Still, it could be more lies. It’s so difficult to tell with him, and it’s frustrating. 

He sighs, throwing his hands down in exasperation. “What do you want from me, Blight? A ‘sorry’? Because I’m not sorry, okay? I did what I was told. Because of me, Belos can continue his plan to help the boiling isles and this titan-forsaken coven can actually function for another day.” His voice raises, and Amity doesn’t say anything, just looks at him with a blank stare. He grunts in frustration, looking down and mumbling. “I’m not sorry.” It sounds like he’s saying it more to himself.

Amity would like to say her silence is a tactic, but really, she just doesn’t know how to respond. The visceral fear his threat towards Luz shot through her chest still throbs. But she also remembers looking on in, frankly, horror as he dug into the dirt, fully prepared to just lie there and give up after one mistake. She can feel that rock of familiarity in her stomach again. Messing up hurts more when you’re expected to be perfect. Amity knows that better than anyone. 

He lies back down on his bed, turning around so his back is towards Amity. His words are softer now. “Why’d you have to come here, anyway?”

Amity scoffs, about to raise her voice at him. But she stops, taking a breath to calm herself. Time to try for that Luz mentality. 

“I didn’t want to, but mom thought it’d be a grand idea for me to ‘make a good impression on the coven’.” Amity laughs, but it’s harsh around the edges.

“Really? You’d be a terrible fit for the coven.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Hunter laughs, rolling over to his other side as Racal hops over. He doesn’t stroke the bird this time, just letting him curl up in the nook of his arm. “I’m supposed to be recruiting you right now or whatever, but honestly, don’t try to join.” His face goes dark. “To succeed here, you have to be completely dedicated to the cause; to Belos. And clearly, you aren’t.” He tacks on the last bit as a jab, but Amity doesn’t see it that way.

“Are you?”

“Of course. The Emperor’s Coven is my life.” Hunter says it with no hesitation, but Amity recognizes that tone of voice. It’s a programmed response, the kind of thing that’s just drilled into you after you hear it over and over and over again. Like ‘being a coven head is my dream’, or ‘I’m a Blight; we only associate with a select few’. Amity shudders a little, recalling that last sentence. Countless people have heard it from her mouth. It used to be her mother’s favorite phrase.

Hunter begins to pick at his nails, rolling so he’s lying flat on his back and able to glance up at Amity. “Can’t imagine why Odalia Blight would drag her daughter to an important meeting she could mess up.”

“You must not have met my mother. She’s a complete control freak.” Amity once again feels her grudge against the Golden Guard slip away as he looks up at her, intrigued and quiet. He just looks like a teenager, the kind of kid her brother would hang out with. Titan, he could be going to Hexide right now. What kind of person makes someone a year and a half older than her a coven head?

“She dragged me here because of my hair ,” Amity starts again, unable to stop the anger at her mother from flowing now. “I dye it one new color and it’s the end of the world.”

“Geez.” Hunter says, looking somewhat concerned. Amity hope’s it’s genuine. 

“She’s just always right about everything, and if she’s not, oops! It’s your fault.” Amity groans, running a hand through her hair. “She’s just… obsessive.”

“Sounds like a Kikimora type, to be frank.” Hunter says, a little snicker creeping into his voice. “Titan, I can’t imagine having to live with her. ‘Get me my coffee before I THROW you off a CLIFF’.” He starts laughing, and Amity can’t help but join in. She hates to admit it, but he has a spot on Kikimora impression. 

“Is she always that paranoid?”

“It really depends, but when she’s in a mood, oh ho ho.” Hunter shakes his head, still grinning. “The coven scouts think I don’t know, but they actually have a whiteboard down in the kitchen with a ‘days without Kikimora incident’ counter.”

“No way.”

“Never seen it go above 5.”

They both laugh, Hunter slowing to stare sadly at the floor without an obvious reason. Amity doesn’t mention it, desperate to keep the atmosphere light. She feels a twinge of guilt, playing along and feeling so carefree around Luz’s enemy, but… well… no. Amity shakes her head, the thought of Luz pulling at the corners of her mouth. This is exactly what Luz would do. Connect with someone, even if they’re rude to you, or push you away with fear in their eyes..

After all, that’s exactly what the human did with Amity. 

Amity’s smile fades, remembering how this was about her mom. From the few encounters she’s had with Kikimora, the two definitely share an ego, but, well, even Odalia’s a little less… unhinged. She traces a figure eight on Hunter’s surprisingly uncomfortable desk chair, dragging along the wooden back. 

“If we could get away with it, there’d be an Odalia Blight incident counter too.” Amity sighs. “Probably last a few hours at most. She shouts a lot.” Amity sinks her head into her arm, speech now somewhat muffled. “I think she just likes to listen to herself yell.” Silence. Amity can feel her stomach drop a little. She probably went too far, dumping that on him. Then there’s panic. Shit, he works with Belos, what if he uses that against her-

“I’m uh… sorry. About that.” He says. He’s looking away, awkward and stilted, but it still calms Amity’s now racing heart. Rascal swoops over to Amity, providing a little comfort as she pets him. There’s a few more moments of quiet, not comfortable, but not uncomfortable.

“Typically, this would be the part where you share something emotionally vulnerable about YOUR parents,” Amity says, raising an eyebrow. She keeps her tone light, but she’s never been the best at regulating how she sounds. Fortunately, Hunter doesn’t seem offended. Instead, he just shrugs.

“Oh. My parents are dead.” Oops. Amity stares at her foot, which has now started rapidly tapping. Yeah, she probably should’ve expected that. Not her best move. To her surprise, the boy just laughs lightly waving his hand at her reaction. “Oh, it’s fine. I didn’t know them. I don’t even remember what they look like.” He laughs again, but it’s darker this time, a pained smile planting itself on his face. “Isn’t that funny?” 

“No, it-” Amity reaches out a hand, but she’s cut off by a sharp knock at the door. Hunter’s eyes widen and he snatches his mask, sliding it on in one swift movement. Rascal darts up to the rafters, disappearing into what must be a little hiding place. The Golden Guard marches to the door.

“Who’s there?!” He shouts, and the drastic change in tone causes Amity to bristle. He’s back to sounding vaguely bored and annoyed in a flash. 

“Uhm… Golden Guard? Sir?”

“What is it? I’m busy.”

“S-Sorry, uhm… Miss Kikimora wants to see you? Down by the relic room. She says it’s important.” Hunter clenches his fist, cursing under his breath. He looks at the door, taking a deep breath. 

“Understood. Thank you for the message. You are excused.”

“R-Right away, sir.” Amity can hear the shuffling of feet as Hunter groans, looking at her through the intimidating slits in his mask. 

“Come on. Apparently she’s not done with us yet.”

Chapter Text

If Kikimora were standing at the edge of a cliff, Hunter would probably shove her.

He’s back to stomping down the hall, Amity in tow, although this time his anger is directed at Kiki rather than the lilac haired girl shuffling behind him. 

Of course Kikimora has more plans to ruin his life. That’s like, her main goal! Hunter wouldn’t put it past her to have fabricated this whole thing just so he’d get caught disobeying Belos and working with an enemy. 

Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Hunter isn’t that much of a paranoid revenge-seeking lunatic to believe everything bad that happens to him is some sort of great master plan from Kiki. Unlike how she apparently views him. 

“Can’t you just make up an excuse? Aren’t you her superior?” Amity asks, speeding up so she’s standing just behind him. He scoffs. He’s her superior, but not by much.

“No.” He says flatly, continuing to power walk down the halls. He doesn’t elaborate on why. She has a good idea but, well… because of the incident he’s not exactly in a place to bargain with Kiki. 

It was right after Hunter’s meeting with Belos. He was standing out in the hall leading to the throne room, sort of staring into space. He actually did it. Belos bought his story of tracking down the key while Kikimora searched for Titan’s blood. Belos was happy. He forgave Hunter. Belos promised more missions. Hunter was useful again. But his gut still felt hollow, and the exhaustion quickly seeping into bones made celebration difficult. 

It was after a few minutes of him standing, back to the wall, staring at the ceiling that Kikimora burst in, covered in goop and fuming. Hunter tucked himself into a crevice, not wanting to deal with her right then. He never meant to eavesdrop. 

“Kikimora, I believe you, but you have no evidence the Golden Guard was actually there!” He could hear Kikimora’s assigned Captain shout as they stomped into the room. 

He could hear Kikimora growl, a low, guttural sound. “Fine! Whatever! We’ll just blame it on the Owl Lady and that girl. That good enough for you?!”

“Ma’am-”

“GET OUT!” Silence fell over the room, and Hunter was holding his breath. He heard a mumbled ‘yes Kikimora’ before the Captain shuffled around the corner, leaving Kikimora huffing in the hall. 

Hunter should’ve been happy about this, right? Kikimora wasn’t going to ruin his cover, just shove blame onto the Owl Lady and the Blight girl. It seemed like the ideal scenario.

Looking back, Hunter blames it on his exhaustion. He was tired and frazzled, so he was thinking illogically. Or he makes excuses, about how hearing the news would make Belos angry. How going after the Owl Lady would be an unnecessary distraction. How the youngest Blight’s traitorous activities could ruin their supply of abomatons.

Hunter refuses to admit he felt bad.

He made the incredibly illogical and moronic choice to step out of his enclave, artificial staff clutched in his hand as he glared down at the demonic coven official.

“Golden Guard,” She hissed, posture coiled in tension and rage. “You may have won this time, but I’ll get you back for this treachery.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hunter said, voice frighteningly smooth and cold. The mask always makes him feel more confident. Bold. 

“Get out of the way, brat. I have your mess to clean up.” She tried to move forward, but Hunter extended his stick, stopping her. He stared straight ahead, and despite every logical part of his brain screaming at him to leave it be, he found himself speaking.

“I wouldn’t recommend bringing up Amity Blight and the Owl Lady.” Kikimora looked absolutely flabbergasted.

“Wh- why?!” She narrowed her eyes at him, a glare that shook him to his core. He put every ounce into not shaking, too deep in now to back down. “Are you… threatening me?”

He shrugged. “It’s a suggestion. And a warning.”

“Are you siding with a criminal, Golden Guard?” She asked, her voice dripping with condescension and sick glee. “Because that would make you a traitor.”

He finally tilted his head to stare down at her. “So would attempting to kill a coven head.” 

The silence that filled the corridor was deafening, as the two coven officials glared daggers at each other, each word spoken filled with venom. 

Hunter let a spark of magic flicker at the end of his staff, and he could feel Kikimora tense. “Just come up with some other excuse, okay?” He flipped his staff back up, walking away from Kikimora. “And consider us even.”

What wishful thinking that was. Hunter and Kikimora have too many things dangling over each other's heads, too many secrets kept from Belos for them to ever be ‘even’ again. The only reason one of them hasn't ended up at the mercy of Belos yet is because they’re too afraid to bring it up. Nobody wants to be the one in the room when Belos is informed his top officials have been quarreling. Nobody wants to appear weak in front of the Emperor, either. 

Although even if Hunter had solid evidence of Kikimora’s insubordination, he isn’t sure if he would bring it to Belos, at least not right away. He hates Kiki’s guts, don’t get him wrong, but attempting to kill a coven head from inside the coven… he shudders. He can’t even imagine what the punishment for that would be. 

Hunter grabbed his staff from his room and now clutches it in his gloved hands as he and the Blight girl get closer to the relic room. He’s not counting on an altercation, but he feels better with it in his hands. 

He holds out the staff to stop Amity as they reach the wide, unnecessarily decorated doors to the relic room. The relics are phonies; they’re just there to make Belos look powerful to outsiders. Amity glances over at Hunter, visibly nervous but holding it together surprisingly well. 

Hunter turns his head to face her, twirling his staff so it stands vertically by his side. “Listen. If Kikimora’s out of the meeting already, that means Belos decided to handle matters with your parents personally.” Amity shifts on her feet, but doesn’t interrupt. “He’s preoccupied; he won’t realize we’re here, and that gives Kiki more free range than usual.” He puts a finger to his chin, facing the door. “Be alert.”

Amity scoffs, eyes narrowing. “Already am.”

Hunter pushes open the doors, hearing them shut behind him as his eyes fall on Kiki, who is casually standing in the center of the ornate room. She’s completely alone, and Hunter can’t tell if that's a good or a bad thing.

“Hello, Golden Guard. Amity Blight.” Her greeting is polite, but Hunter doesn’t want to hear it.

“Cut the crap, Kiki. What do you want?” He sneers, grip around his staff tightening. Talking to Amity like that in his room… it loosened him up too much, and now he’s overly on edge. 

She laughs, and a shiver runs down Hunter’s spine. “Nothing more than to make sure you’re doing your job. My subordinate told me you were in your room.” She tilts her head. “Not exactly showing Miss Blight around, hm?”

“I don’t want a house tour.” Hunter is surprised as Amity joins in, stepping up beside him. 

“What a delightful coincidence; I happen to want to speak with you.” Her eyes flick to Hunter as her stare bores into his head. “ Alone. ”

“What?! No!” Hunter can feel his voice raise as panic fills his throat. “I’m not leaving you two alone in here-”

“I don’t think you have much of a choice, Golden Guard. Unless you want to be interrogated for conspiring with a criminal.”

“Amity isn’t a criminal-”

“I meant the other criminal.” His heart sinks. “I know what you did at Latissa.” Well. That’s a problem. There’s a moment of silence, where Hunter can only hear his beating heart in his ears. No, no, he can still salvage this. 

“And I know you tried to kill me.” He crosses his arms, trying his best to sound cocky. “Who’s the Emperor going to believe? His nephew, or you. ” Hunter doesn’t know how true that is, if his uncle would give him the benefit of the doubt because of their relationship. He doesn’t think it's likely. Despite what others in the coven may think, Hunter doesn’t get special treatment for being the Emperor’s family. He doesn’t care. It’s for his own good. So he can be strong.

But Kikimora doesn’t need to know that.

She takes a step closer. “Alright then, go tell him. Right. Now.” Hunter freezes. Shit. She called his bluff. He glances back at Amity, who gives him a small nod. He sighs, slumping his shoulders. 

“Fine.” He says. “You get five minutes. That’s all.”

“Appreciate it.”

Hunter walks back to the door, pressing his hand on it’s gilded surface. He doesn’t know where he stands with that Blight- she hates him, obviously. Most people do. He can only hope she hates Kikimora more, and that she can hold her own if Kiki tries anything. He pushes open the door, praying to the Titan to let things go well for once in his life.

The air is tense. 

Hunter just left the relic room, leaving Amity and Kikimora alone, standing across from each other on the long, royal blue rug. She’s guarded, ready for Kikimora to strike at any moment. 

If she’s being honest, she has no idea what’s going on. Emperor’s Coven blackmail is apparently a few leagues above her understanding; she mostly just stood in confusion as the two argued over who knows what information. 

Amity glares down at Kikimora, putting away the ‘Luz mentality.’ She was actually getting somewhere with Hunter, but the air around Kikimora is distinctly different. There isn’t room for banter.

“Well, I’m alone. So what do you want?” Amity shoots Kikimora the best death glare she can muster, but the small demon is unphased. “And if you attack me, my parents will make sure you never see the light of day again.”

Kikimora laughs, approaching Amity with an intimidating ease. “Oh, child, my ways are not as brute as the Golden Guard’s, I assure you.” Amity doubts that. “I want to propose a deal.”

Amity’s posture relaxes a little, but she remains suspicious. “A… deal?”

“Yes.” Kikimora unfolds her clawed hands from in front of her, waving them around for emphasis. “You may have noticed I have an… interest in seeing the Golden Guard face consequences for his actions. You must think he deserves it too, hm?” Amity does't respond, but that doesn’t stop Kikimora from continuing on, beginning to pace. “Your troublemaking at Eclipse Lake could land you and your family in a lot of hot water. So here is my offer: you provide witness to the Golden Guard’s treasonous actions during the Eclipse Lake mission, and I provide you and the Owl Lady’s full pardon, as well as the privilege of assisting in the guard’s arrest.”

Amity has to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Does Kikimora seriously think she’d be stupid enough to take that? That she’d be so naïve to believe in the pardon for a second, and so spiteful she’d help this awful woman take down her coworker? Amity manages to keep a straight face, however, simply glaring.

“Absolutely not.” She says, watching as Kikimora’s expression hardens. Even if the deal was better, she wouldn’t toss the Golden Guard- Hunter- under the bus like that. He may be awful and annoying and definitely NOT a nice person, but she saw the way he reacted to the possibility of failure. Just based on the moments she spent with him, she can tell he’s not a great liar. Sure, he can puff up his ego, but lie to manipulate? She remembers the desperate look on his face. ‘ Please. I don’t want to be replaced.’ That wasn’t a lie. And just like how Luz would never subject someone to their worst fear, Amity’s not going to do it either. 

Amity expects Kikimora to start bargaining or hurling threats, but she doesn’t. Instead she starts laughing. Well, cackling would be a better word. Amity watches with rising concern as Kikimora’s laughs grow louder and louder, her pupils dilating.

“HA! I knew it! You two ARE working in cohorts!” She starts rubbing her hands together, as Amity grows more and more uncomfortable. “When Lord Belos finds out about this treachery he’ll have your heads stuck on a pike-”

“Woah, I am not working with the Golden Guard-”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” Kikimora jabs a finger at Amity, and the young witch goes silent. Kikimora’s pacing quickens as Amity slowly begins to back her way to the door. “There’s no use in hiding it anymore. HE got you to steal the Titan’s Blood from me, didn’t he? To ruin my mission!” Amity’s about to mention how the lake was already empty, but judging by the look on Kikimora’s face, the demon is not about to listen to logic. 

“What did he offer you? Money? Power? That traitor!” Kikimora’s voice just keeps getting louder, more raspy and desperate. Amity just keeps growing more and more thankful Luz pulled her off the track of joining the Emperor’s Coven and becoming like… this. 

Amity raises up her hands, still slowly backing away. “I told you, we aren’t working together-”

“LIES! Why ELSE would he protect you!?” Protect her? Amity’s going to have to ask Hunter about that one. Amity’s about to reach back for the door handle when Kikimora’s head jerks up. “Where do you think you’re going!?” She flicks her claw around in a fast spell circle, hurling fire right towards Amity’s head. She ducks down, yelping as the spell smacks into the door, which almost immediately bursts open, Hunter flying in. He has his staff in hand, landing in front of Amity and brandishing it towards Kiki. 

“Kikimora, are you insane?!” He asks, as Amity rolls to the side and pops up, letting her own magic bubble to the surface of her hands. She’s not sure why he asked. One look at the coven official could tell him that much. “You are attacking a guest in the Emperor’s Castle! Stop this before I have to call in backup!”

“Oh you would just love that, wouldn’t you?” She hisses, ignoring his warnings to prepare another spell. It blasts at both Amity and Hunter, although Hunter easily deflects it with his staff and Amity uses an absorption spell, summoning some abomination goop to flow between her hands. “Emperor Belos thinks you’re so perfect, but now I know the truth!” Kikimora’s attacks have shifted to a full on barrage on Hunter, who is now busy defending himself. Amity begins to run. “You’re just a no good, traitorous, wimpy little brat ruining my chances of ever succeeding in this coven again and again,” She takes a deep breath, heaving. “ And I cannot wait to oversee your petrification- ” Kikimora finally silences as Amity appears behind her, smacking the top of her head with an abomination gauntlet. Kikimora gasps before toppling over, knocked out cold. Hunter and Amity stand still a moment, their magic buzzing out as their chests rise and fall. He looks at her through his mask, still poised for battle.

“I… thanks.” Hunter says between his breaths. Amity lets her abomination goo fade away, leaving only a small puddle of it on the ground.

“Don’t thank me just yet, blondie.” She smirks. “You owe me now.”

“Yeah, yeah, I can deal with that later.” He gestures down to Kikimora’s unconscious form, letting out an exasperated sigh. “We’ve got a bigger issue right now.”

Chapter Text

This is it. This is where he dies.

Hunter is standing in the relic room of the castle, breathing heavily, with a Blight girl, tattered rug, and oh, right, Kikimora unconscious out on the floor.

The Titan must really hate Hunter, cause if he had any mercy at all, Hunter would now be dead from a sudden heart attack.

The Golden Guard stares down at Kikimora, the thousands of ways her erratic behavior could lead to the end of his existence running through his mind at breakneck speeds. He must’ve been staring at her for a long time, as Amity Blight is now standing next to him, gently poking his shoulder.

“Uhm… Hunter? You there?” The guard manages to half heartedly swat her hand away, refusing to look away from Kiki in fear she’ll pop back up somehow and stab him in the back. 

Although, is that really such a bad way to go? 

Suddenly, three of the Emperor’s guards rush in. Amity jumps behind Hunter, but the boy doesn’t flinch.

“Sir! We heard fighting…” The guard’s voice trails off as he sees Kikimora on the ground. He can hear the rustling of a spear as the speaker walks up beside him, posture frozen in shock. “What happened?!” 

Hunter turns his head to see the other two guards spears raised at Amity, who has her arms up in defense. He waves a hand at them, and their weapons go down. 

“...sir?” Hunter sighs. There’s nothing he can tell but the truth now.

“Kikimora has been… on edge lately. I believe she finally snapped.” He lowers his chin, a subtle, professional gesture to Kikimora. He’s so numb he can barely taste the bitterness filling his mouth. “She attacked Miss Blight here. I was forced to step in.” He can hear the largest guard gasp.

“She wouldn’t…” They all turn to Amity, who simply nods, giving confirmation. The smaller of the guards slaps a hand to their mask, shaking their head. “Sir, should we alert Emperor Belos?”

“No.” The word comes out harsher than Hunter intended, and the guards in the room tense. A quick dismissive flick of his wrist is enough to ease their postures, however. “I mean, Lord Belos is preoccupied right now. I will alert him as soon as the Blight family are safely escorted from the palace. For now just… place her in a holding cell. I can handle it.” Hunter grimaces, clasping his hands together behind his back and muttering, “I can handle it all.”

The guard by him gives a quick salute, hesitantly stepping forward. “Right away, sir.” He hoists up Kikimora, gesturing to the other guards to assist. But Hunter stops one of them. 

“Wait. I will go with them,” He snaps his head down to the smaller guard. “I need you to escort Amity Blight; take her to the gallery until the Blight Industry heads have finished their meeting.” He pulls a small rubber seal out of his cloak pocket, handing it the stunned scout. “If anyone stops or questions you, tell them you have direct orders from the Golden Guard. Understood?”

The guard salutes, and despite being obviously shaken, can’t keep the eagerness out of their voice. It would be endearing to Hunter, if his mind weren’t so desperately trying to keep himself together right now. “Understood, sir! I won’t let you down!”

As the two others begin to cautiously hoist Kikimora out of the room, Amity stomps up to Hunter, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him down to her level. She’s glaring, her fangs bared.

“You’re ditching me?!” She hisses quietly, so her new assigned escort cannot hear. They are busy straightening out their uniform. 

Hunter shoves her hand off of him. “This is an internal matter of the Emperor’s coven; it is none of your concern.” 

“None of my concern?! I- If you push me out of this I swear to the Titan I’ll-”

“You’ll what, Blight?!” The words come out louder than he intended, and he winces, glad the other two guards have left the room by now. He straightens his posture, sending a glare to Amity’s new escort which sends them scurrying away, busying themself with examining a relic. Hunter can feel his mask starting to slip, a laugh bubbling in his throat. “I am already screwed like you couldn’t imagine. So frankly, I don’t care what you do. If you want to go burn down the library or confront Belos, be my guest .” Hunter almost feels bad as Amity curls in on herself, but his mind simply doesn’t have room for any guilt. He can feel his barely suppressed panic rising to his chest. “So just… go home.” Hunter’s shoulders slump, exhaustion and desperation slipping into his tone. “Please.”

There’s no response. He takes a deep breath, straightening himself yet again as he snaps his gloved fingers, garnering the attention of the scout who has been pretending to study tapestries on the wall. “You may take her to the gallery, now. And what’s your name?”

“U-Uhm, Eil?”

“Mm. I’ll make sure you’re adequately compensated for your work, Eil.” Hunter’s words have lost their edge now, his tone dull and dead. Eil doesn’t seem to notice, as they just nod furiously, rushing over to Amity with a final salute.

“Thank you, Golden Guard, sir!” They begin to corral Amity out of the room, who shoots Hunter a last, indescifrable look as she is pushed out of the room and the door closes. 

Hunter exhales, pulling his mask off his face. He’s alone. He can feel his body start to shake as all of his emotions rush up to his head, threatening to make it explode. He slides to the floor.

And he cries.

Amity is feeling a lot of things right now. But mostly, frustration.

She’s standing in another overly decorated hall of the Emperor’s palace, glaring at a painting on the wall. It’s a portrait of Belos, all grand and imperial. She deepens her glare. She feels like it's mocking her. 

She stares over at her babysitter, the guard who is rocking on their heels and whistling a few feet away from Amity. They tried to start up conversation, but Amity responded with a surprisingly cold grunt and glare. The scout shut up, and is now pretending to leave her alone.

She doesn’t need a babysitter, what she needs is answers. She keeps glancing at the door, hoping the Golden Guard will peek his infuriating owl mask through the crack so she can pummel him to the ground and demand responses to her questions. What could he possibly have done to piss off Kikimora that much, and drag her into it?

And what did that Kikimora mean about her being ‘protected’? 

Amity shakes her head, gnawing on the inside of her cheek. The woman is clearly unhinged, she probably just drew a conclusion that is not there. Still…

Amity sighs. She forgot for a moment there what Hunter is. He’s the Golden Guard. The amount of authority he has, the way he can control an entire guard force with the flick of a wrist… it terrifies Amity how she let her guard down and forgot that. Hell, he even said it himself; he could give the order to kill Luz if he wanted too. Amity’s chewing intensifies, losing herself in thought. He could kill Luz.

So why hasn’t he?

The logical answers fly past Amity’s mind first: Maybe her amazing girlfriend is more useful to him alive, so he can dangle her life over Amity’s head. Maybe she’s not worth it. Maybe he was bluffing and he can’t get to Luz, and the human girl is safe and sound in Eda’s care. Amity honestly can’t decide if one of those answers is worse, or the idea that’s been nagging the back of her mind; he chooses not to. 

Some part of Amity so desperately wants it to be right. To find some shred of good in the Golden Guard, the way Luz was able to find it in her. It dawns on her how much she really does want him to be good. 

But there’s also the doubt. Amity was bad; she knows that. The bullying, the fighting, the anger, she was not a good person. Sometimes, she still doubts if she is now, with the way Willow looks at her in the halls on her bad days, or how she finds herself longing for the familiarity of her old, toxic friends. She was a bully. But even if she aspired to, she never worked for Belos. She never hurt people for him.

Hunter does. 

Amity has to take a deep breath as the slight taste of copper fills her mouth, her chewing tearing a whole in her inner cheek. She looks up at the ceiling, head swirling. She doesn’t want to bother Luz with all this, but, well… Luz has got to know. She smiles a little to herself. Luz doesn’t consider her a bother, she has to remember that. Luz will know what to do. And even if she doesn’t, she’ll listen to Amity. And they’ll figure something out. Together.

Hunter’s everything aches. His heart, his head; even his eyebags are still itchy and sore from the tears that poured down his face over an hour ago. He’s standing in front of Belos’s throne room door, the pit in his stomach growing with every second he hesitates. The Blight’s have gone, so at least that Amity is out of the picture. His stomach drops further.

Hunter hates her and that stupid human for what they do to him. They cloud his judgement. They make him question things, things he doesn’t need to be thinking about. They’re… well, they’re a lot like his palisman. They’re a lot like Rascal. 

But at least Rascal isn’t so loud.

Hunter swallows his nerves, rapping his knuckles on the imposing doors. He might as well get this over with. 

The doors slowly open as Hunter steps inside to Belos’ chamber. His Uncle is perched on his throne, looking over some sort of scroll. He has his mask on, presumably from his meeting with the Blight’s. Hunter flinches as the doors shut behind him, trying to take calming breaths as he wrings his hands. He’s too jumpy.

Belos doesn’t bother to look up as Hunter enters the room, giving a quick bow.

“Hunter. Seeing me awfully soon, hm? You must know I am busy after my meeting with the Blights, so this had better be important.” 

“Of course, Uncle. I know. It’s just-”

“If you want a review on your job performance today, it was adequate. But really, you must stop-”

“It’s not-” Hunter’s shoulders scrunch as Belos’s head snaps up, eyes flashing blue for a moment before settling into the mask's usual unsettling darkness. Belos tilts his head, not angry, but his interest piqued. Hunter never interrupts Belos when he’s speaking. Not unless he is very, very on edge. 

Hunter swallows hard. “I-I… something happened today, sir. Something… something you aren’t going to like.” Hunter can’t keep his voice even, and he can hear his heart pound in his ears as Belos stands, gliding down towards him silently. His silence is somehow worse than when he’s lashing out. 

“Did you do something, Hunter?” Belos’ voice is smooth and calm, but it’s cold. Hunter has become a master at reading Belos’ tone, and while he isn’t angry yet, he could be very soon. 

“Of course not! I…” Hunter sighs, unable to look at Belos as the Emperor stands in front of the boy, looming. Hunter suddenly feels very, very small. “I think it’s better if you see it for yourself.” Hunter can’t help but flinch as Belos places a hand on his shoulder. But no pain comes, just pressure as Belos’ gloves squeeze the skin. Belos extends his other hand. 

“Lead the way.”

Hunter and Belos stand in front of a cell, four or five guards hovering at an adequate distance around them. Hunter is staring straight ahead, eyes coming in and out of focus. Hunter has never minded his uncle’s mask, but it’s situations like these the boy wishes his mentor wouldn’t insist on wearing it; Belos is completely unreadable as he stares into the cell.

Kikimora is huddled in the corner, seemingly not knowing the Emperor is looming a mere few feet away. He clears his throat, and Kikimora groggily raises her head, pupils dilating as her eyes fall on Belos. She scrambles up, immediately bowing.

“My lord! Are you here to-” She then spots Hunter, a snarl rising from her throat. “You SNAKE! He attacked me! Threw me in prison with these baseless claims oh the Titan will not look kindly upon you-”

“Silence.” Belos raises his hand, voice ringing out with an authority Kikimora and Hunter could never hope to recreate. Kikimora quiets her frantic shouting, lowering her head as she collects herself. 

“My lord, I promise I can explain.” She says. Belos simply turns to Hunter, still painfully unreadable under his mask.

“Golden Guard, what is the meaning of this?”

“Kikimora attacked me and the youngest Blight, sir. I know it sounds impossible, but it's true.”

“Lies!”

“It wasn’t the first time either. She’s… made attempts on my life before. I know I should have come to you before, I am so sorry-”

“I would never! He’s lying to you to cover up how he worked with that human to-”

“Emperor, if you would just listen- ”

“HE’S the one who sabotaged the Eclipse Lake mission-”

“I said SILENCE.” The entire room goes quiet, and even the uninvolved guards shiver. Hunter can feel himself start to gag, veins running cold with terror. Oh he’s so, so screwed. He focuses on keeping his meager lunch down. He can’t afford to panic, not now. He squeezes his eyes shut, furiously clenching his teeth as he inhales shaky breaths. He resists the urge to curl into a ball, keeping his hands from flapping and his leg bouncing. He will not panic. He won’t.

Belos mutters something under his breath, sighing. “I am incredibly disappointed. My top officials, the pride of the Emperor’s Coven, quarreling like children.”

“My lord, I apologize deeply.”

“Please forgive me.”

Belos turns, cape fluttering across the dungeon stones. “However, these are serious accusations. Do you wish to pursue them, Golden Guard?” 

Hunter swallows, looking at the ground. Does he really have much of a choice? 

He looks up to Belos’ back, nodding. “I do.”

Belos glances back at the pair: one pleading behind bars, one practically crumpled on the floor with the way his shoulders are hunched, doing his best to subtly clutch his stomach. 

“While I would like to believe you, Golden Guard, as my most trusted associate,” Belos says the word with emphasis, driving a metaphorical spear into Hunter’s gut. “I unfortunately require evidence.” The emperor sighs. “I was hoping to use these for a more appropriate occasion, but this is a matter that must be resolved. Davis?”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Retrieve the truth potions.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Hunter’s stomach drops.

Shit.

Chapter Text

Truth potions are a rarity for a reason. The knowledge and skill required to put an effective one together takes years to acquire. The ingredients are difficult to come by. But beyond that, the only consistent recipe for a truth potion creates one that isn’t perfectly effective. A truth potion reveals what its taker perceives is the truth; if a drinker truly believes they are a king, then it does not matter the land they own or power they have. It is their truth.

Still, a truth potion has its uses. No amount of self-delusion can blind a person from something they saw. Truth potions dig up that which is buried, forcing words out of its victims mouth. It can be excruciating if resisted. 

Emperor Belos acquired the assistance of a master potion maker to brew him a few. He doubted they would be necessary, seeing as traditional Emperor’s Coven interrogation methods were suiting his needs just fine. The Emperor has learned through years of experience, however, that it never hurts to be prepared.

Case in point: The trusted subordinates lying before him.

Belos is reclining on his throne, trying to ease his aching back. He can feel that damned curse rising up again, and will need a new palisman soon. Unfortunately, he is still running low. The incompetence of his nephew is to blame for that, although he now knows Kikimora may have been involved as well. 

He inhales a deep, strained breath, pushing down the mud that creeps around his neck and drips down his arms beneath his heavy layers of armor. The Emperor levels a stare at the two in front him, who stand with their hands glued to their sides. The heavy feeling of fear permeates the room. It's an atmosphere Belos knows well, as he ensures it follows him wherever he goes. Fear is a tool; it keeps people in line. It maintains order, and promotes efficiency. Fear works. And even when fear fails, pushing a subordinate away from their loyalty, they can be used. As an example. Creating more fear to make up for the loss. Fear works well.

Although sometimes clearly not well enough.

Kikimora has always had a bit of an ego, but her talent as a witch and loyalty as an associate had overshadowed that flaw. Belos made care to praise her scarcely, and keep her humble.

It seems that didn’t work.

The Emperor has no doubts Kikimora attacked the Golden Guard and the Blight girl. Hunter would never lie to him about something like that. The boy knows better. No matter what the truth potions bring out of the pair, Belos knows one thing for sure: Kikimora is done. Attacking his Golden Guard is unacceptable, and she will face severe consequences. 

Belos can feel his rage at yet another coven betrayal boiling up inside of him. This is why he prefers Hunter. He pushes it down, however, bottling it up to inevitably explode in short bursts, as he does with all his emotions. Instead, he rests his hand on his fist, watching as a guard hands Kikimora and Hunter each a bottle of elixir. The two clutch the flasks in their hands, staring at it as if it's poison. If anything, Emperor Belos is intrigued. Hunter doesn’t hide things from him, or at least, he didn’t until recently. Belos frowns a little under his mask. He was hoping that the typical teenage rebellious streak wouldn’t plague someone as competent as his little Hunter. Kikimora may be doomed, but Belos would like to know what really happened those nights at Latissa and Eclipse Lake. Perhaps Kikimora’s accusations have some sort of merit. Perhaps the potion will reveal some of her traitorous thought process, so he can examine and prevent it in the rest of his staff. 

No matter what occurs, the Emperor knows one thing: Tonight shall be very interesting.

Hunter can only stare at the sickly, dark green liquid in his hands. He’s not even sure he can swallow it, with the way his throat feels clenched and swollen. He can feel his vision go in and out of clarity, and only one thing shoots through his mind: Panic.

He can’t resist magic this strong, he knows that. He has so few things to hide from Belos, but the things he does are awful, horrible things. His wild magic studies. His growing attachment to his enemies. His palisman- oh Titan, Rascal. 

Hunter forces his shaking hands to open the bottle as the Emperor broadly waves his arm, and the boy stares into the swirling liquid. He swallows it in one gulp, barely able to set the glass down on the floor without dropping it. He hardly tastes the bitter slush as it slides down his throat, settling in his now close to being sick stomach. He squeezes his eyes shut, inhaling a shaky breath. His mask is off now, and he tries not to let too much terror seep into his face. He has to clear his mind of Rascal, of everything. He inhales breaths, in and out, thinking of anything except the secrets he has to hide. He can feel the potion start to work, his tongue growing slimy and cold. He feels words and stories and things he would never think of saying aloud being brought to the surface, waiting on the tip of his tongue for any sign to slip out. 

He peels his eyes open, swaying a little before falling to the ground, dizzy from a mixture of the potion and his anxiety. He can only hope this doesn’t make Belos upset.

“I should have warned you; the potions can be a little rough. Feel free to sit down.” Belos says coolly. Hunter is aware of Kikimora practically falling beside him, landing on her knees. “Now, let us not stall any longer: Kikimora, did you in fact attack the Golden Guard and Amity Blight in my own castle, against my orders?”

“Y-Yes!” The word is choked out, and Kikimora slaps a hand to her mouth, eyes going wide with fear. Hunters own pupils dilate, too. The potions work. Kikimora starts frantically waving her hands about. “I-I.. my lord! Please forgive me I only felt threatened-”

“Quiet.” Belos growls, a familiar, cold anger creeping into his voice. Hunter instinctively lowers his head, staring at the floor as he picks at his fingers through gloves. Kikimora confessed; that’s all he needed, right? Oh please, dear Titan, let that be all he needed- 

The Titan ignores Hunter’s silent pleas, as Belos stands from his throne, approaching Kikimora, staff in hand. He uses it to help him walk, stopping a few feet away from a groveling Kiki. Despite his controlled demeanor, the Emperor radiates rage.

“You attacked him before as well, correct? An attempt on his life in Latissa?”

There’s a moment of choked silence as Kiki grapples with ground, trying to keep her mouth shut. Eventually, to nobody’s surprise, an answer wrangles it’s way out of her mouth. “Yes I ordered my dragon to attack his airship it was meant to appear as an accident.” The words all come tumbling out at once as Kikimora starts to shake. 

“Why in the good name of the Titan would you ever attack MY Coven Head? My Golden Guard.” Belos sneers, leaning down slightly so Kikimora can have an easier view of his terrifying mask. 

Tears start to roll down Kikimora’s cheeks, as she buries her head in her claws. “He ruins EVERYTHING! He’s the one who's close to you. He’s the one who’s successful. He never had to put in an OUNCE of the work I did! I… I EARNED THIS!!” Kikimora’s words grow louder and louder as she forgets all of her manners and formal procedure. She’s let the truth potion take control now. “I...I-” Kikimora’s words trail off, sniffles overtaking her body. 

Hunter can’t help but feel a sick bit of pride at Belos’ words. His Coven Head. His Golden Guard. All that rage, directed at Kikimora for hurting him… Hunter never knew Belos cared that much about him after all. It’s reassuring, in a twisted way. 

Hunter’s gratefulness immediately slips away as Belos snaps his head over at the teen. “You were aware of Kikimora’s plan, correct, Golden Guard?”

“Y-Yes.” Hunter attempts to say no, but the word does not come out. The longer he holds in a yes, the more bile and nausea rises in his throat, trying to push it out. He gives in quickly. He was just seeing if there was a chance the mixture didn’t work. 

“He worked with that human! Attacked me!” Kikimora says, blubbering. She points her claw, and while its a feeble attempt to divert blame considering she’s certainly already screwed, it tightens the knot in Hunter’s stomach.

“You worked with the… human?” Belos’ words are calm and slow. Hunter nods once, hanging his head.

“She… she offered me a truce, in order to keep Kikimora from delivering the palismen, and to get back at her for the attempt.” 

“He-He also worked with Amity! At Eclipse Lake to take the blood!”

“You idiot, I took the key from Amity, I fought her!” Hunter looks up, shooting Kikimora a confused glare. “The lake was empty; how could I have done that?!”
“I…” Kikimora lowers her hand, staring at the ground. “I don’t know.”

Belos, unfortunately, seems to have shifted his focus over to Hunter now that Kikimora’s guilt has been solidified. The Emperor stands up straight as Hunter hangs his head yet again, unable to look his Uncle in his eyes. 

“So you did lie to me, Golden Guard.” Hunter winces, shoulders crunching up. 

“I-I-I’m sorry Emperor. I was afraid you would be angry at me for interfering with Kikimora’s mission and disobeying your orders, I am so sorry I will never do it again,” Hunter pauses, the potion pushing up on his chest. That was a lie. He would do it again. “Unless-” Luckily, Kikimora cuts Hunter off before the potion can force anymore feelings out of his lips. He can feel the tears start to pool in his eyes, and he wipes them away with a rough brush of his hand. This potion makes him look weak. It makes him feel weak, frankly, spilling out his guts. 

Kikimora narrows a glare at Hunter. “Oh, but there was another reason you were afraid, right, Golden Guard?” She hisses out the question, and Hunter’s chest squeezes. She’s determined to bring him down with her.

“I-I.. I THREATENED KIKIMORA!” Hunter whips his head up to Belos, bringing his hands to his mouth. “I-It isn’t what it sounds like! It was a stupid decision made on stupid emotions.” He tries to shout out ‘I regret it’, but it must be a lie, because the magical effects prevent him. He wants to regret it, and he knows he should. But even he can’t lie that much to himself. 

Belos stands there for an ominous moment, nothing but Kikimora’s sniffles and Hunter’s ragged breathing filling the room. After what feels like an eternity of bracing for something, Belos turns around. 

“I am disappointed, to say the very least. Lying, threats, outright attacks- this behavior is unacceptable for people like you.” Hunter curls in on himself even further, again praying for the Titan to just strike him dead right now. “But Kikimora… attacking your coworkers? Betraying my orders?” Belos stalks over to Kiki, whose anger has faded and has been fully replaced by terror. “That is treason.”

Hunter can practically hear Kikimora’s heart rate multiply by ten. “B-B-But… my lord I- he disobeyed orders too! He attacked me he… he’s a traitor too!!” 

Kikimora silences as Belos smashes the edge of his staff down a mere inch or two from her face. “You do not get to tell me who is and isn’t a traitor. Guards!” 

The two guards who were rigidly watching from the sidelines step forward, saluting with far more effort than necessary. They’re terrified, too. 

“Take her away. I will see her for sentencing tomorrow.” The guards nod, rushing forward to take Kikimora by the arms and drag her away. Hunter bites his cheek and looks to the side as he hears her start to cry out.

He’s seen it countless times before; even prior to his designation as the Golden Guard, Hunter would attend some court proceedings, and watch as guilty witches were dragged away, crying and screaming and begging with Belos for mercy. They should have known that the Emperor has no mercy to spare. The Golden Guard has become numb to the sight of criminals being dragged by guards, and their cries no longer haunt him at night. Still, he doesn’t visit the dungeons. He doesn’t need to.

He doesn’t want to.

Kikimora’s shouts are a mixture of panic and anger, cries of ‘NO!’ turning into sobs. 

“I know you’re covering something, Golden Guard! You’re a liar! What are you hiding ?!” The question is screamed as Kikimora is about to be shoved through the doors, but it’s still a question, and the truth potion running through Hunter’s veins is begging him to answer. He can feel the answer press to the roof of his throat: I have a palisman I have a palisman I have a palisman-

“I still sleep with a stuffed animal from when I was a kid!” Hunter shouts. The room freezes, even the guards pulling Kikimora away stopping in confusion. Hunter can feel the tension in his chest uncoil a bit, a light blush creeping onto his ears. It’s embarrassing, sure. He hopes his uncle won’t take Spriggy away. But it was something. Something he was hiding. The truth potions magic seems appeased by Hunter’s honest answer, sinking back into his stomach. The boy lets out a small sigh, hearing the doors slam shut behind him.

Leaving him alone in the throne room with Emperor Belos.

Hunter cringes as he hears Belos approach, staring down at the floor to see the toes of Belos’ boots. Tears fill Hunter’s eyes as cloth wrapped fingers grasp his chin, pulling his face up to meet Belos’ line of sight. The Emperor’s hand squeezes Hunter’s face. It's firm, but not painful. Hunter sniffles as tears start to pour down his cheeks, making his eyes puffy in what he’s sure is a childish and unprofessional way. But he can’t hold them back any longer. He sits there, his face in Belos’ hand, crying in front of him for the first time in two years.

“I-I’m sorry.. I’m sorry…” Hunter can feel his brain start to turn to mush as he squeezes his eyes shut, tears rolling out faster. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-”

Belos gives Hunter’s cheeks a light squeeze, silencing him. The teen watches with blurry vision as Belos pulls off his mask slowly with his other hand. The Emperor gives his nephew a dead eyed smile, some invisible muscle pulling up at the corner of his mouth. He puts the hand on Hunter’s shoulder. 

“I know you are, Hunter.” Belos lets a few moments pass, watching as Hunter quietly sobs. “I am disappointed in you. And you will need to make this up to me. However…” Belos gives Hunter a gentle squeeze on the shoulder with one hand, his other making its way around Hunter’s face, moving from his chin to nestle just below his ear. He can feel Belos’ thumb brush his hair, a display of physical affection Hunter has only received a few times in his life. Titan, what he would give for Belos to treat him like this every day. It’s unrealistic. Hunter knows that. Still, he lets himself sink into the touch, tears starting to slow. 

Belos leans down just a little closer, eyes boring into Hunter’s. “...I forgive you.” 

Hunter can feel as relief floods his body. Belos… forgives him. Kikimora was right: he could’ve been considered a traitor. But he wasn’t. Hunter can feel his whole body sag as Belos pulls away, resisting the urge to reach out for the Emperor’s hand like a child. The Emperor picks up his mask, sliding it back onto his face. 

“Take the rest of today and tomorrow off, Hunter: The potion will wear off in an hour or so, so do not interact with anyone else until then. When I summon you next, we can discuss further missions.” Belos begins to walk away, heading for a back door that leads to his study. “Try not to let this whole incident affect your performance. I can handle Kikimora. All you need to worry about is being the Golden Guard. Is that doable?” 

Hunter frantically wipes the tears from his face, nodding his head furiously. “Y-Yes sir.” 

Belos starts to stand, watching as Belos reaches the door, turning back to Hunter as his hand grasps the doorknob. “Oh, and Hunter?” Hunter’s ears perk up, as Belos’ tone darkens. “Don’t disappoint me again.” The door clicks shut.

“Luz… are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Come on Amity, you said it yourself: He might be in trouble!”

“I know, I know. And I do want to help! I’m just worried…”

“All we’re doing is offering a little assistance; no risk at all!”

“We’re offering him help, Luz. What if he tries to take advantage of that?”

“Then we’ll be ready. C’mon, Amity. Belos is not a good guy. He hurt Lilith a lot. I just don’t want him to hurt Hunter, too.”

“...you’re too nice for your own good, you know that, Luz?”

“I know. That’s why you love me.”

“It is. It really is.”

Hunter only curls up into his bed after he’s finally stopped crying.

His cheeks are red and sore, burning from all the hot tears, and his mouth feels dry. But most of all, he’s tired. Absolutely bone deep tired. The adrenaline and anxiety of today all just come crashing down on him, leaving him curled up in a nestle of blankets, Spriggy in his arms, essentially unable to move. He’s still in his work clothes, but he doesn’t care. He’s too damn tired to care. 

He half-heartedly strokes Rascals feathery head with one finger. The cardinal is perched on his pillow, chirping nervously; he seems worried about his witch. 

“You really need to get out of here, buddy.” Hunter says. His voice is hoarse and scratchy from sobbing. “I got really close to telling Uncle Belos about you I… it’s not safe for you.” The bird, of course, does not fly away. Instead he nuzzles even closer to Hunter, and the boy just weakly pushes his palisman away.

“No, no no no, I mean it. You have to go.” Hunter tugs his blankets closer to his chest. “It’s for your own sake.”

Do you want me to go?

Hunter can ‘hear’ Rascal say with a chirp. He still hasn’t quite gotten used to palisman communication, the way he can just understand what Rascal means. But despite the fact the words weren’t physically spoken, the remnants of the truth potions still push their way into Hunter’s throat. He’s too weak to resist. 

“No.” Hunter winces at the sound of the truth. “Please… please don’t go.” Rascal nuzzles into Hunter’s cheek again. This time, the witch doesn’t stop him. 

Then I won’t leave.

Hunter coughs out a small, sad laugh. “Everyone hates me Rascal- everyone except Belos. Why won’t you go pick somebody else?”

Because I chose you.

“But… why?”

I love you, Hunter.

Even through the pit of anxiety in Hunter’s stomach, those words make him feel something; warm and fluffy. He gives Rascal a little, real smile, feeling his eyes water as he pats the cardinal on the head again. 

“I… I love you too, Rascal.” He takes Rascal in his hands, carefully nestling the creature in the crook of his neck as he closes his eyes, letting exhaustion overtake his body. “I won’t leave you either.”

Belos’s room is covered in mud. Things are broken and shattered. The emperor himself sits hunched on the edge of his bed, pupils dilated, breathing ragged.

He is lucky he was able to hold off his episode this long: if it had happened while his staff were around, well, someone would be dead.

And deaths are such a hassle to cover up.

Belos grunts, pulling himself up to slump in his desk chair, hands gripping the edge of the seat. 

He knows about that damned bird, of course: The palisman his very own Golden Guard has been keeping from him. In his own castle.

Belos has a certain knowledge of things that go in the castle. If he spends even a portion of his energy and focus on it, he can feel things; see things. Connect to the walls and veins of stone that keep his palace intact. He knew about the Titan-forsaken thing the day it arrived.

He wanted to dispose of it right then and there. To take it right from Hunter’s room and teach that boy a lesson about loyalty. But that would have been a flawed plan. 

The boy is far too unstable right now. Taking away something he’s grown attached to might push him away, not draw him in. More betrayal is not something the Emperor needs right now. 

No, no: the bird will be plenty useful later. Perhaps Hunter will take Belos’ words to heart, and turn the palisman in himself.

And if he doesn’t, well, Belos has plenty of other plans. He just needs to wait for the right time.

When Hunter wakes up, the sun is already in the sky. He momentarily panics, before remembering Belos gave him the day off after everything that… occurred. He rubs his head. Crying headache. 

He looks to the side, noticing a paper on his end table that wasn’t there before. He picks it up, squinting.

Dear Hunter,

This is Luz! The human! (Plus Amity)

We know, we know; you think we’re your ‘enemies’ or whatever. But just hear me out.

Amity, even if she won’t admit it, is a little worried about you. She said you seemed scared that Belos would find out about your adventures or Kikimora. 

I don’t know what’s going on; and I DEFINITELY don’t trust you. But, that can change. Just like how people can change.

As long as you promise not to attack us, the Owl House is always open if you need help. Enemy or not, we don’t like people getting hurt. (Well, I don’t like people getting hurt. Amity thinks it’s funny sometimes.)

My point is, if you’re willing to try it out, the Owl House is a nice place. And if you feel scared of something, you can come here. Eda’s pretty much a master at hiding from the Emperor’s Coven, so you won’t have to worry.

Sincerely,

Luz Noceda and Amity Blight

Hunter scoffs, staring down at the note. Really, how dumb do they think he is? Of course he’s not going to walk right into what is obviously a trap. Even if it was genuine, why would he want help from criminals? He doesn’t need help! He feels fine.

Hunter starts subconsciously gnawing on his cheek as he scans over the letter again. He’s not gonna respond, why would he ever respond-

“Rascal? Do you… know where the Owl House is?” Rascal chirps cheerily in response, nodding. Hunter stares at the ceiling for a moment. “Can you grab me a pen?”