Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Wooo!” Luz cheers. “Cool aunt Lilith!”

Lilith rises from the sand, adjusting her glasses. She brushes off her skirt and gives a tentative smile. “It was nothing, really. I… oh, Titan, I can’t believe I did that.”

“What? It was so cool! You punched an old jerk, and you got to see Deadwardian banisters.” She crosses her arms and grins.

“No, I mean—Luz, we just took something from the past and brought it into the present.” Lilith holds up the tablet, waving it. “Why did I do that?!

“Well… I do feel kind of bad stealing from an injured guy.”

“The bloodyfly effect! I could have just destroyed our universe, caused a paradox, Titan knows what! You should never take from the past. Any second now, our entire world could reset back to the beginning of time!” Lilith swings out her arms.

Waves calmly roll.

“Any… any second now!”

Luz blinks.

“Well.” Lilith puts down her arms.

“Maybe we were supposed to take the tablet, so it all works out?”

“Hmm, that could certainly be a possibility…” Lilith pulls out her staff, waving for Luz to sit behind her. “If time travel works as a closed loop instead of being paradoxical, perhaps we never could change the future, and what we did in the past already happened.”

Luz hangs on tight, watching the beach as they fly up. “Everything seems fine.”

“Yes, or it creates an alternate timeline, and we did change our universe, but since the future has been altered so have our memories.”

“Augh, that hurts to think about.”  

Trees fly past in a blur, the Owl House steadily growing closer.

“It’s probably best not to overthink it. As it seems, we just have to accept our actions and move forward. The tide’s already washed in, and we had our brief window of time.”

The search felt like it took hours, but it’s only a few minutes of flying until they stop in front of the Owl House, Eda just outside. Luz hops off and glances toward Lilith as she speaks.

“We got lucky today, Luz,” Lilith says. “Next time those timepools show up, they could be on the other side of the world.”

Eda turns, grinning. “Hey nerds. How was your nerd quest?” She places her hands on her hips. “You find that dead nerd?”

“Laying it on a little thick there, Eda.” She smiles. “But, yeah. We found Philip.”

“Woah. Seriously?”

“Yeah…” She looks down despondently. “He stunk.”

“I punched him in the face,” Lilith says.

She grins. “Groovy aunty.” She punctuates with two finger guns.

Lilith smiles, places the tablet under her other arm and waves a finger gun back.

Eda stares. “Uh, you guys—you guys need to stop that.” She looks at the tablet. “Hey Lily, what’s that?”

“Uh, well, you see…”

“We maaay have stolen from Philip too?” Luz finishes with an awkward shrug.

“You what?”

“He was surely going to use it for something nefarious!” Lilith defends, clutching the tablet. “After what he did to us, there was simply no way I could trust this being in his hands.”

Eda laughs. “Oh Titan, you stole from a dead guy? That’s rich! What is that, anyway?”

Luz leads the way inside, waving a hand to Hooty. “Well… we’re not really sure,” she says. “Philip was looking for The Collector, and this is what he got.”

“Luz!” King beams from his spot on the couch. “How was it?”

“Hi, King!” She picks him up, squeezing him. “Not the way I’d hope, but Lilith punched Philip in the face. And we got this tablet thingy!”

“Aw, I missed all the fun.”

“I’ll make sure you get lots of action in our next adventure.” She sets King on her lap. 

Lilith places the tablet on the table, her and Eda sitting on the couch. 

“He didn’t need it for his portal, apparently, so we didn’t steal his only way home,” Lilith says, inadvertently reassuring Luz. “But then what is its purpose?”

“Well, from what you’ve told me, isn’t this The Collector guy?” Eda waves a hand.

Lilith leans forward, examining the circle of stone. It sits innocuously, the only sign of its importance a crescent moon. “But why would this, ah, collector, be a… tablet?”

“See, that’s what I don’t get!” Luz throws up her hands. “Philip called him he. Like he’s a person!”

“Maybe it’s like how people call boats she?” King suggests.

“Philip doesn’t strike me as that type of guy. But I guess I know nothing about him, except he’s a big dumb jerk,” Luz mutters.

“It could be something’s in the tablet.” Lilith holds a hand to her chin. “It’s not impossible… sealing dangerous magic to get rid of it, or keep it from unwanted hands.”

“Hmm.” Luz brushes her fingers across the surface. “Oh, do we… break it?”

“Break it!” King leans up.

“No!” Lilith shouts. “I—I mean, we don’t know what we’ll release if we do. Let’s just—”

Luz splays her hand, intending to wipe some sand off the tablet, but the moment she does a swirling, brilliant light beams from the tablet.

“Waugh!” She jumps back.

“What did you do?!” Lilith cries.

“I don’t know! I just touched it, and now it’s—”

The light turns into streaks of yellow, green and pink, projecting a dazzling image of stars and moon phases circling the sun. A deep ring echoes, reminiscent of a church bell. The sun bears a face, blue on one side with a yellow crescent moon on the other.

Mismatched eyes look down. Colorful light flashes into blinding white.

Luz raises her arm, shielding her eyes. After a moment, she lowers it, blinking hard.

In place of the strange sun and moon light show, a shadowy figure is now projected on white brick.

The black and gray figure turns.

She stares. They blink back, eyes widening.

“Huh?” The shadow says. “What? Who are you all?” They squint, flitting around the walls, remaining a flat shadow.

She doesn’t realize her jaw is agape until she attempts to speak. “Oh! I—” She laughs, far too aware of its nervous edge. “I’m Luz! Luz Noceda! Um… and are you The Collector?”

“Yeah, duh.” He waves a hand. “Oh, wait, are you a human?! I’ve never seen one up close before!”

“I am! I’m from a different realm, having traveled far and wide to get here.”

“Mister Collector,” Lilith interrupts. “Could you fill us in as to who , exactly, you are? We just found you, see, and—”

“Mister?” The Collector sighs deeply, kicking his legs. “You are sooo boring. But hey, since you’re all here anyway, why don’t you help me? Convince the guy up top he made a big mistake putting me in here. Oh, did he already change his mind? Is that why you’re here?!”

“Um, I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about…”

“Ey, shadowy guy,” Eda says. “Who are you and what’s your deal? And who names themself The Collector?”

“Name myself? Wow, you really don’t know anything.” They prop up their head, as much as a shadow can, and slide across the ceiling to peer down at Eda. “Hey, why don’t I ask you questions?! Who are you and what’s your deal? Do you wanna play with me? We can have lots of fun!”

“I’m Eda the Owl Lady,” she says and crosses her arms. “Most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles?”

“Hmm… that’s funny, because I’ve never heard of you! Can’t be that powerful, huh?”

“Hey!”

“I bet I’m more powerful than a thousand of you combined! A bajillion! More powerful than you and every other living being in this realm combined!” His form turns into the world.

“You better take that back, cause—”

“Edalyn, we must stay on topic,” Lilith scolds.

Eda huffs. “Fine. C’mon, we introduced ourselves, now tell us who you are.”

“You didn’t all introduce yourselves!” They hold up a three, oddly enough. “That doesn’t seem much fair at all.”

“Well, I’m Lilith, and that’s my dear sister Eda.”

“And I’m King!”

“Huh?” The Collector whips around. “Who said that?”

Luz glances at King. “He did,” she says. “I guess you missed him cause he’s so little.”

“I am not little!”

“No… I know someone else is there, but why can’t I see you?” He mimics binoculars with his hands.

She frowns. Then, just barely noticeable, she realizes there’s a faint glow to King’s collar. “Hey, King, what’s up with your collar?”

“Weh?” King looks down. Tentatively, he unclasps it.

The Collector gasps. “You look like the bully who put me in here!” They circle Luz and King around the couch, changing shape to a horned creature. “Are you his little Titan baby?”

It seems, for a moment, everything stops.

Then:

“Wait—”

“Did he say Titan—”

“What’s the weird guy talking about?!”

“Weh?”

“You are!” The Collector cries. “I can’t believe you already hatched! Ugh, he wouldn’t let me play with you, but now it looks like we can have all the fun in the world!”

“Wait, wait, hold up.” Luz waves her hands. “Did you call King… a Titan? But—but he’s just a little guy!”

“Uh, that is so obviously a baby Titan. Are you blind?”

“Wait, no.” Eda holds up a hand. “Stop. What in the world are you going on about? What do you mean he’s a… he’s a…”

“I mean he’s a Titan!” They throw out their hands, changing shape to a horned creature again. “Jeez, how many times do I gotta say it? He’s a Titan, a Titan, a TITAAAN!”

“Stop!” King yells.

Luz feels her heart drop at his voice. “King…”

“Stop—stop, no, I don’t… I don’t understand,” he says.

The Collector crosses his arms. “Don’t understand what? Didn’t your ol dad teach you anything?”

“I don’t know my dad!”

Luz’s chest twists, and a nauseating feeling rises to her head. The break in his voice ignites sympathy and a deep ache from a much older hurt.

The Collector seems taken aback. “What do you mean?” he asks, scrutinizing King. “Hey, you aren’t lying, right? He wouldn’t put his dirty work on his kid… would he?” They ponder.

“Collector, please, I don’t know what you’re talking about or what this Titan stuff is!” King trembles in Luz’s lap. “Just—”

“What age is it?”

King pauses, stunned out of his distress. “Wha?”

The Collector turns into a landscape of trees and ancient looking buildings. “You know, the age? Like, a period in history! It’s gotta have been at least a couple hundred years if you’re already like, what, eight?”

“The 22nd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century,” Lilith says. “2022.”

“Well, if you’re gonna put it into riddles, I guess I’m not telling you anything about myself!” He huffs.

“What? What did I say?”

“Complete gibberish, lady.”

That sinking feeling in Luz catches her throat in a choke hold. She swallows it down, stepping forward. “Collector… were… was the Titan alive before you were sealed?”

He blinks. “Why wouldn’t he be? You’re all so weird.”

A chill settles over the room.

“How… long have you been in there, Collector?” Luz manages to ask.

“Oh, I dunno. Couple hundred years? A thousand years? He wouldn’t keep me in there for too long, I mean you guys seem fine, so the fighting must be over, right? That’s why you’re here, to set me free?” They laugh. “Oh, I bet he was too embarrassed to get me himself! He must be feeling pretty stupid right now—jokes on him, I’m gonna destroy him! Blow him up to smithereens! Then destroy those smithereens! And turn them into shells, drop them in the ocean, then make a tsunami, then—”

“The Titan is dead, Collector,” Lilith says. “He’s been dead for a long, long time.”

The Collector stares.

“…what?”

Chapter Text

“One of the first known forms of life to spring from the Titan were stonesleepers, and they came about three point seven billion years ago.” Lilith jabs her pen at the timeline she set up half an hour ago, scrawled with various time periods and additional information.

Luz groans. The living room’s become a mess of papers, articles, books and charts, all provided by her stubborn aunt Lilith. No matter what she says or does, The Collector hasn’t budged.

“No, no, you’re wrong!” They shake their fists.

“I am not! Witches and demons came about millions of years ago. We have ages worth of history and civilization”—Lilith gestures to the myriad of books she’s pulled out—“and that only happened because of the Titan’s death!”

“Liar!” The Collector covers his ears. “I would know all of this!”

“Weren’t you locked up for hundreds of years?” Luz can’t help but ask.

“That doesn’t count!” they screech, flailing about. “A few hundred years isn’t that long! You’re all making this stuff up!”

“There are countless records of these periods which I have been providing you with. We are living proof of what I’m saying, why won’t you just listen to me?!”

“You’re fibbing! Titans are not gone, and how have you never heard of Collectors before?!”

“Because you are ancient beings!” Lilith stresses. “Ancient, old, powerful beings! To come into contact with you—it’s basically a divine miracle. Claimed immortality aside, you shouldn’t be here right now. You only are because we brought you here, and we found you in the Deadwardian Era, hundreds of years ago, in the Titan skull!”

The Collector blows a raspberry. “Yeah, right. Even if you did, which you didn’t, it’s not the guy I’m talking about. You don’t know anything!”

“I am a historian, I beg to differ—”

“Oookay!” Luz claps her hands. “Break time!”

“Wh-what? But Luz—”

“Nope! Break time,” she says. “You guys have been yelling way too much and personally, I’m a little tired. Let’s just all relax for a bit.”

“But I don’t wanna relaaax,” The Collector whines. “I wanna play!”

“We can play tomorrow,” she tries.

“No, I want to play now! Let me out, let me out, let me out!”

“Collector, I don’t know how to let you out.”

“But King can!” He points at King. “You’re a Titan, so you can free me! We’ll have a blast together! Come on, pleaaase?” They pull their best puppy eyes.

“I…” King looks stricken. Luz frowns at him, gently touching his skull. “I’m—I can’t be a Titan, Collector. You’ve got the wrong demon.”

He groans, spinning around. “Fine, be a meanie pants! When I’m out, you’re all gonna regret it!”

“Really not doing yourself any favors, kid,” Eda says.

They blow another raspberry.

“I’m gonna make hot chocolate,” Luz decides, standing with King in her arms. “Eda, Lilith, do you want anything?”

“Apple blood.”

Lilith barely spares a glance, glaring at The Collector. “Just earl rot tea, if we have any.”

“Hey, I want a drink!” he says. “Why don’t I get anything?”

“Erm… can you even drink like that?”

They scoff. “I could if you’d let. Me. Out!” He engulfs the floor, pinning his enraged eyes on Luz.

“Wah!” She jumps. “No can do, sorry.”

She scurries into the kitchen and gently places King on his chair. A sigh escapes her, some tension leaving her bones. Whoo boy, it’s been a long day. She looks down, concern replacing her exhaustion at King’s conflicted expression.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

King stares at the table. “I don’t know.”

Truthfully, Luz is having a difficult time writing off The Collector’s words. It sounded impossible, but now that she’s thinking… with King’s new powers, his appearance, how no other demon seems to be like him… she frowns at King. He seems so upset by the idea, though.

She rummages the cabinets and pulls out various mugs and packets. “I’m sure they’re just confused,” she decides, for King’s sake. “It’s been a long time since they’ve seen the world, right?”

He sighs. “It’s just that Hooty couldn’t figure out what type of demon I was, even with a blood test. It’s—it’s crazy, there’s no way I’m a Titan, but…”

“But you’re worried?”

“Why can’t I figure it out, Luz? Why am I so different?”

“Oh, hey…” She sets down the mugs, nearly dropping one. “King, there is nothing wrong with being different. We’ll figure it out together.”

King sniffs, looking far too miserable for his size. Luz drops and kisses his head. “You think some hot chocolate will make you feel better?” She gives what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

He nods. “Yeah. Thanks, Luz.”

“Anything for my little guy.”

Eda crosses her arms, squinting at The Collector. Something’s been bugging her. Their mannerisms, speech, heck, even their vague appearance all scream child. Honestly, he reminds her of how King used to be. Such a cute little tyrant.

Luz comes in, hands Eda her thirty and flirty mug, and sets down another one filled with whipped cream. “Your tea is almost ready,” she tells Lilith, leaving yet again.

“Thanks, Luz,” Eda calls over her shoulder.

The Collector eyes the mug of hot chocolate, snaking across the table to examine it. “What’s that?” They turn into a mug, shadowing it.

“Have you never heard of hot chocolate before?” she asks, then remembers The Collector’s been trapped for thousands of years. Yeah, of course they haven’t.

“Nope!” He pops the p. “I want some. Can I try it? Give me a mug! I haven’t held something in sooo long, I don’t remember what it feels like.”

That’s not concerning. “Sorry kid, but we can’t free you.”

“C’monnn! I haven’t even done anything, why’re you being such big jerks?!”

“Collector, I would like to ask you a few questions,” Lilith cuts in, interrupting their tantrum before it can start.

“Ugh, what?”

She taps a pen against her notebook. “First, how are you speaking modern day English? Presumably you’ve been buried since your sealing, so there’s no way you’ve come in contact with the developed language.”

The Collector slides over Eda’s chests. “What’s in these?”

“Collector—”

“Riches beyond your wildest imagination!” Eda splays her hands dramatically. “The most rare, most dangerous items!”

“Really?!”

“Nah. They’re just filled with junk I haven’t cleaned out.”

Lilith looks at the edge of her rope. “Collector, could you please consider answering anything I have to ask?”

They groan, flinging their head back. “But your questions are so boring. I wanna do something fun, like a game! Do you guys have any good games around here?”

Eda smirks. Yeah, definitely a bit of a brat.

Luz comes back, a mug and King in hand. “There’s a game called twenty questions!” she says, handing Lilith her tea.

Eda glances at King. The Collector made a lot of big claims earlier, and as unlikely as they are, she doesn’t want King fretting over them.

The Collector zeroes in on Luz, tilting his head. “How do you play?”

Luz plops down beside Eda. “Well, usually you have two people, and you take turns asking each other twenty questions. Maybe us four can ask you anything, and then you can ask us whatever you want.”

“Hmm.” A pause. “Sure!”

Lilith gawks. “What—why did that work?!”

“Don’t question the expert,” Luz says. Eda smiles, a little in pride. “First question! What’s… your name?”

“The Collector.”

“Well, I meant outside your title. What’s your actual name?”

“Too late! It’s my turn now. Hmmm…” They swing their legs. “Oh! Why are your ears pointy?” His form splits into two shadows of Eda and Lilith.

“Oh, that is uncanny,” Eda says. “It’s cause were witches. Natural quirk, or whatever. Now you, why are you called The Collector? You a big fan of collecting?”

“It’s cause I’m a Collector, duh. Titans are Titans, Collectors are Collectors. We preserve things!” They shift to hold a bird, a lizard, a diamond. “That was two questions, cheater. Now I get two. Why’d you find me? Are you criminals?”

“We didn’t find you, exactly, an old human did,” Lilith explains. “I didn’t trust what he might do with you, as he proved himself duplicitous. So I took you back with us, and now we’re here.”

“Duplicitous?”

“We’re hardened criminals!” Luz rises, holding up a fist. “In hiding from the nefarious Emperor Belos!”

“Oooh!”

“Alright, settle down.” Eda pats Luz. “She’s technically right. That wanted poster above me is no joke, the Emperor hates wild witches. He’s such a stuck up.”

That’s an understatement, but she won’t curse him out with all the kids present. The Collector’s already adjusting to heavy change anyway, they don’t need the history of a dictatorship and oppression against wild witches on them too.

“Hey kid, what’s with your sun and moon shtick?” she asks. It’s hard getting anything coherent from The Collector, so she’s grasping at straws for questions, but she is curious.

“Oh, yes!” Lilith brightens. “I’ve been wondering about your celestial attire. Even your tablet has a moon symbol.”

“Of course I have that! I’m a celestial being.” He turns into a sun and moon, looking like those drawings of celestial objects with crude faces. “This stuff’s practically my domain.”

“Aw! You’re like a little star!” Luz gushes.

Eda rolls her eyes. Of course Luz finds this cute. She looks up, finding The Collector staring at them. “What?”

Their gaze is faraway, like they’re not really seeing what’s in front of them.

“Kid? You okay?” She rises a little, furrowing her brows.

He jolts, then flings himself across the ceiling. “I don’t wanna play this game anymore. It’s just a bunch of stupid questions!” they declare.

“It is called twenty questions,” Luz says, her words turning into a heavy yawn.

“Aw, you should go to bed, Luz,” Eda says.

“But I wanna stay up and talk—” She’s interrupted with another yawn. “Okay, maybe I should sleep…”

“Alright, up.” Eda shoos at Luz. “That goes for you too, King. I know you’re tired.”

“I’m not tired!” he says, then yawns.

“Yeah, sure. You need all your beauty sleep.”

“Wait, are they leaving?” The Collector asks. “No, no, no, don’t leave! You can’t leave me!”

She frowns. “Kid, they gotta sleep. We can’t stay up forever.”

“NO!” they shout. “We can play something! We can keep doing that dumb twenty questions thing! Come on, who needs sleep anyway?”

“Actually, we require sleep to not die,” Luz says helpfully.

“What?! Ugh, you’re all so finicky. It’s not like you’ll explode without sleep. Right? Oh, but that’d be funny. You don’t close your eyes for a bit, and bam! Gone!” He laughs like it’s the funniest thing in the world.

She quirks a brow. “That’d certainly be interesting, but I don’t want my kids exploding. They gotta sleep, kiddo.”

“No!” They grab at Luz and King, holding on as if they’re a physical person. “Don’t leaaave! You’re being all mean again!”

“Aw…” Luz looks at The Collector’s scowl. “Eda, maybe I could sleep down here tonight?”

“Really? I doubt you’re getting much sleep with this guy around.”

“Just for tonight! I can bring my sleeping bag down and we can make it a sleepover!” she squeals. “I haven’t had a sleepover in forever! Eda, please?”

Most people aren’t a match against Luz’s puppy eyes, Eda included. “Oh, whatever. Go get your sleeping bag.”

“Yes!” She dashes up the stairs with King.

“Did I hear something about a sleepoveeer?” Hooty pokes into the room.

“Hooty!” Eda scolds. “You’re supposed to be keeping guard.”

“I’m part of the family too! I should get to be in the sleepover!” he shrieks.

“Well, he has a point, Edalyn,” Lilith says.

Darn. Now she’s outmatched. She sighs, sinking into the couch.

“Who’s thiiis?” Hooty pokes at the wall, where The Collector’s shadow is.

They swerve around his beak. “Who are you?” he rebuttals. “You’re like a weird worm owl!”

“You don’t have to say it like that! I’m a normal worm owl!”

“He’s sensitive, Collector,” Lilith frowns.

They pay no mind, circling Hooty. “Betcha can’t catch me, betcha can’t catch me! Your neck is so long, what do you need all that for?”

“It’s my body!” Hooty screeches, chasing The Collector around the room.

Luz hops back into the living room. “Woah, what did I miss?”

“It’s just like the laser pointer,” King mutters.

“Nothin,” Eda says, watching in amusement. “Here, let me move the table for you.”

She stretches her arms, cracks her knuckles, and in one push slides the table out of the way. Luz shakes her sleeping bag before dropping it.

“I wish we had popcorn.” Luz tsks and sits down. “That’s sleepover 101. And summoning the dark arts.”

“What’s popcorn?” The Collector slides across the floor, peering at Luz.

King spins around. “Summoning the dark arts?”

“We’re not doing that,” Eda says.

“Popcorn,” Luz says, “is one of the most delicious snacks! It’s cooked corn kernels. You can put butter and salt on them, or make caramel popcorn. I like my popcorn a little spicy.”

“Spicy?” he echoes, frowning at Luz. “Spicy’s supposed’ta kill you!”

“Not me,” she says, looking proud.

“Spicy kills me,” King says. “I don’t know how you stand it, Luz, it’s like my mouth is on fire.”

“Nothing kills Titans.” The Collector crosses their arms.

That awkward silence again. Eda shifts, unsure where to place her eyes. It makes no sense, yet shadow over here keeps insisting King is a Titan. What is she supposed to think? She can tell the idea makes King uncomfortable. If The Collector doesn’t lay off…

“If I may, Collector,” Lilith says, which either means another hour argument or she gets blown off immediately, “why are you so sure King is a Titan? I mean, it’s absurd.”

“Cause he looks exactly like one?” They give her a look, like everyone knows that, idiot. “Is this a game? It’s not a very good one.”

“Okay, look.” Eda holds out her hands. “Let’s stop with the Titan nonsense. Collector, don’t bug King about it anymore, Lily, stop trying to dig for more information. We’re here to have a normal sleepover.”

Luz smirks. “Normal? Pshh.”

“Okay, a weird sleepover,” she concedes. “But one that doesn’t involve talking about Titans! Capiche?”

“Caposh.”

The Collector giggles. “Capiche. I like that word. Capiche, caposh, capiche, caposh!”

“Capiche, caposh, capiche, caposh!” Luz repeats.

He spins “Capiche! Caposh!” They explode into fiery stars.

“You know, it’s cool how you do that,” Luz says. “Can you turn into anything?”

“Hmm…” He changes into a thinking Luz. “I can turn into you!”

“Ah!” Luz points at them. “My shadow self! Oh, this is just like in book four of The Good Witch Azura—”

“When she has her depressive episode?” Eda interrupts. “And the entire power of friendship thing, bleh. It’s somehow cheesier than the rest of the book.”

Luz blinks. Her eyes widen. Oh, no.

“You were listening!”

Shoot. “Uhh, I mean, just because I think the prose is flowery—” Who is she kidding. She sighs. “Of course I was listening to your rambles, Luz. You talk about it so much.”

She beams like Eda handed her the world, which is unfair. That simple act shouldn’t make Luz so happy.

“What’s the what?” The Collector asks.

“Oh my gosh, I have to read you the books. Hold on!”

“Nooo.” She groans and throws her head back. It’s too late, Luz bounds up the stairs before anyone can blink.

Lilith rises. “Well, that’s my cue to leave. I’ve stayed far longer than planned.”

“No!” Hooty cries. “You just got here!”

“I’ve been here all day, Hootsifer,” she says, giving him a gentle look.

Eda gets up, placing a hand on her shoulder. She lowers her voice. “Wait. You can just leave in the morning, yeah? I know you don’t wanna leave with this kid still around.”

“I suppose not…” Lilith glances back at said child. “I still have a lot of questions, but they don’t seem keen on answering any.”

“You’re going about it in the wrong way. They’re a kid, not a nerd like you.”

Lilith huffs. “Kids can be nerdy too, you know. Luz appreciates my knowledge.”

“I’m sure she does. Now sit, I can get us more blankets.”

She pats Lilith and goes for the nearest closet. Over the months of Luz’s presence, it’s changed from a mess into a storage of blankets, towels, pillows, brooms, and a few knickknacks Eda’s never found a place for. She snags a few things and kicks the door shut.

Luz beats her to the living room, plopping down with her book in hand just as Eda comes in. The Collector ‘lays’ next to Luz, eyeing her with rapt attention. Eda rolls her eyes.

“Get ready for the purplest prose you’ve ever heard,” she tells The Collector.

“I like purple!”

She hands Lilith her blanket and pillow, then kicks back on the couch. Luz opens the book.

“Chapter one!” Luz starts. “Azura aroused from her kip…”

Chapter Text

Lilith doesn’t manage to get much out of the Collector.

Eda can amend the effort, Titan knows kids hate giving direct answers. But no matter what advice she took or direction she went, an hour flew by and only ended in frustration. It’s, in her opinion, too early for this.

“No, people don’t kill griffins for their eggs.”

She stands at the stove, cooking up eggs for the others now seated at the table. Luckily, she managed to convince Lilith to cool it and take some breakfast before her departure. With her interrogation over, The Collector’s gotten distracted asking, quite frankly, very mundane questions that Luz answers with excitement or worry.

Such as now.

“But why?” The Collector asks. “Then you could get all the meat!”

“Well, because—” Luz stops. “Eda, we don’t use griffin meat, right? Right?”

“Nah, we need them for flying.” She pushes around the scrambled eggs, careful not to burn them. “We have other animals as cattle. Cow serpents, monster sheep—those are tricky, rare meat—octoeye, geese…”

“Just regular geese?” Luz asks.

“Geese are anyone's worst nightmare.”

“Nightmares taste delicious,” King says. He eyes the pan hungrily.

She adds extra salt for good measure, then turns off the stove. “Alright, alright, here’s breakfast.” She divides the eggs among each plate and gives everyone two strips of bacon.

“Thank you, Eda,” Lilith says. “I’ll be heading off after I eat. It was pleasant visiting, and sincerely, thank you all for the celebration.”

“Anything for you, Lulu!” Hooty wraps himself around her.

The Collector frowns just as Eda sits. “Why don’t I get any?”

“You can’t eat anything, kid.”

“I want breakfast!” they yell. “Give me it! GIVE ME IT!”

“Collector—”

“I WANT BREAKFAST!” He shrieks in frustration and spins about. “It’s not FAIR! Everyone else gets it and I don’t!”

Oh, Titan. She raises her hands. “Collector, I’m not trying to single you out—”

“I have an idea!” Luz interrupts.

She hops from her chair and swings open a cabinet. Eda watches her with a raised brow. Luz pulls out a small plate, sets it beside hers, and forks off a portion of her scrambled eggs onto it.

The Collector immediately stops screaming. They zip to their plate with wide eyes. “Is that mine?”

“All yours, buddy.”

He smiles, looking far too pleased for a plate of food he can’t eat.

“You’re coddling them,” Eda teases.

Luz gasps. “I am not!”

“You’re supposed to say thank you,” King says. It takes her a moment to realize he’s speaking to The Collector.

“Huh?” They squint. “Thank… you?” he says, like someone handed him the ugliest outfit in the world as a gift and now he has to pretend to like it.

“You’re welcome,” Luz says.

Eda leans over the table. “Since when do you know manners?” 

“Since Luz.”

“Oh, yeah.”

With a bit of congratulatory crying from Hooty, a surprisingly quiet Collector, and one last hug, Lilith is waved out of the house.

“Bye tía Lilith!” Luz waves her hand until Lilith is out of sight.

Eda turns and walks back into the kitchen. She begins picking up everyone’s plates, then pauses at The Collector’s.

“I need to clean this up,” she tells them.

They whip around. “What? No! That’s mine!”

“Hey, I bought the plate, it’s technically mine.”

“No, it’s mine, mine, mine!” He stomps his foot. “Luz said it was all mine!”

“Umm, I didn’t exactly mean it like that…” Luz says.

“It’s MINE! I didn’t get to finish!”

Luz looks around. “Uhh, hey! What’s that over there?” She points to the window.

“Huh?”

Eda dashes to the fridge and nearly chucks their plate in. She and Luz sigh in relief as The Collector stays distracted.

“I don’t get it,” they say after a moment.

“Sorry, I guess you missed it.” Luz shrugs with a smile. “Anyway, I gotta go to school.”

“Don’t have too much fun,” she says.

“I will!”

The Collector swerves to the wall beside Luz. “You’re leaving? Why? What’s school? Is it a game? Can I come?”

“It’s a place of learning,” Luz says. “Sorry, I can’t take you with me.”

“Why not?” he whines.

“Because you’re not a student.” She walks into the living room and Eda follows suit with The Collector’s tablet in hand. “Honestly, you’d probably think it’s boring.”

“But why do you have to go if it’s boring?”

“Boring things can be important. Oh, there’s my bag!” Luz ducks to grab it.

“No they can’t.”

“Well, in any case, I think it’s fun.”

She snorts. “You’re an anomaly for thinking that. School sucks.”

Luz swings open the front door. “Yeah, yeah. But today we’re having a club fair and I really don’t wanna miss it. Bye, see you all later!”

“Bye, Luz,” Eda and King say, the latter more loudly.

The Collector throws their shadow against the door. “When is she coming back?”

“Oh, I dunno. School ends for her at around two or three, and right now it’s eight.” She takes a sip from her mug, looking at the clock. She used to never get up this early. “But right now we’re going on an adventure!” She slams down her mug.

He peers at her. “An adventure?”

“Yep! You haven’t seen the Boiling Isles yet, so I gotta show you around.”

“I’ve traveled the whole Earth like, a gazillion times,” they say, yet watch Eda with rapt attention.

“I hope you’re ready for something new, then.”

What to do about transportation, though? She can’t easily hold them while flying her staff, and she doesn’t trust herself to not drop them.

“Hey, do you know how your whole… shadow projection thing works?” she asks them.

“Weeell.” He hums. “I can’t go very far.”

Yeah, she figured. “If I’m gonna take you with me, I need to carry you in something.”

“You could use my carrier?” King suggests.

“But then I won’t be able to see!” The Collector says.

Darn. If Eda could just have a see-through carrier—she grins. “I have an idea.”

“It looks…”

Eda holds up her invention. Two sheets of transparent plastic welded together, attached to the straps of a now ruined baby carrier. Luckily, she has a few spares for King.

“Great!” she says.

King looks at the singes on the floor, then the burnt edges of the carrier, meeting melted plastic. “I was gonna say bad.”

She rolls her eyes. “Everyone’s a critic.”

“Can we go now?” The Collector is nearly vibrating. They beam, holding up their fists.

“In a moment.”

She stands and fastens the baby carrier around her waist. The top is openable, kept together with a sticky substance, while the bottom is completely clipped shut. She puts The Collector’s tablet inside.

“Look good?” she asks, then shifts to test its stability.

She didn’t realize they can appear on the tablet itself until their face is on it. “Yep!” he chirps.

“Alright, let’s go! King, you coming?”

King shakes his head. “I… need some time alone.”

She pats him. “Don’t think too hard on things,” she says, a bit vaguely. King knows what she’s referring to. Despite her rule of no Titan talk, it’s been weighing on the room.

“What?!” The Collector presses themself against the tablet. “No! No, you still haven’t played with me yet!”

“Now, now.” Eda taps the tablet. “We don’t force people into doing things.”

He whines. “But I wanna play with King! What about me?”

“How would you feel if someone tried making you play when you didn’t want to?”

“Why wouldn’t I want to?”

“Oh, huh.” She holds a hand to her chin. “I guess that example doesn’t work with you.”

“So why can’t we plaaay?” He gives his best puppy eyes.

“Cause you gotta respect others.” She pokes their nose. “Now let’s go.”

She nearly kicks open the door, thinks better of it (wouldn’t want Hooty yelling at her), and opens it normally. Owlbert turns into her staff, and with a push, they’re in the air.

“What’s that?” The Collector points at Owlbert.

“That’s my palisman, Owlbert. Every witch gets one.”

“A palisman?” he echoes doubtfully. “But it’s so small! I guess you’re all small, too, though.”

She quirks a brow. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Palismen are big! Bigger than me!” They wave out their arms. “You’d need forests and forests to create just one.”

“Alright, now you’re making stuff up.”

“I’m not!” His eyes widen and he flits to the bottom of the tablet. “Ooh, what’s that?”

“That is Bonesborough. It’s the largest town on the Isles, and where I used to sell human junk. See the marketplace?”

“There’s so many people…” they say with wonder.

She flies them down and stops. “I had a bit of an ulterior motive for this trip,” she says. “I need to buy more of my elixir from Morton, and I thought it’d be good to get you outside. Multitask it, you know.”

“Elixir?” he asks, but he’s barely looking at her, eyes darting toward every possible thing.

A witch pushes past her and she just bites back an insult. The road isn’t even that packed, come on. “For my curse,” she answers. “The details don’t really matter.”

She maneuvers past a crowd gathered around Skin N’ Linen. There must be a sale. Brisk bouts of wind catch her, softening the cling of August’s heat. The Collector seems content just staring, eyes perpetually wide as they gawk at witches and demons alike.

“Don’t stare so much,” she whispers. “We don’t want attention on ourselves.”

“Why?”

I don’t know what you are and that human guy wanted you for a reason, she thinks. She says, “I’m still a wanted criminal. Not that anyone here’s ever snitched on me.”

Of course, they zero in on that information. “What criminally things have you done? Theft? Arson? MURDER?!” He looks increasingly excited by each option.

“You kids and your violence. Nah, mostly the Emperor hates me for being a wild witch.” She waves a hand. “And I have illegally sold and bought things. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

He looks at passing witches and people stationed at their shops. After enough silence, she assumes they’re done with that conversation.

“Hey, Morton!” she calls, a few steps from Mr. Elixir. “Got any potions for me?”

“Hi, Eda.” He’s already digging under the counter. After a moment, he pulls out a leather bag. “I sure do—” He stops, blinking at The Collector.

“Hi!” they say.

“Should I ask?”

“No,” she says. “Here’s your payment.”

She hands him some snails and he passes her the bag. The Collector waves as she leaves, and Morton hesitantly waves back.

“Aberrant Meat’s got good quality, I’m also a fan of Bones Appetit.” She points as they pass rows and rows of stands. “Fangs ‘n’ Thangs is where I got my gold tooth! They sell a buncha other stuff too, I like to check them out once and awhile for the odd watch or pen or haunted doll.”

He looks up and around, eyes eventually settling above. “Are those bones?” they ask.

She looks up. They’ve pointed at the Titan’s ribcage. “Uh… yeah, they are. The Boiling Isles, it, well.” There’s really not a tactful way to say this, is there? “It was made upon the remains of the Titan. Its skeleton is still around.”

He hmphs. “Lilith said that.”

“She wasn’t lying, you know. Do you… want a better look?”

He nods.

She flies up higher, until they’re overlooking the entirety of the Isles in its natural, wild beauty. Arches of bone shadow dusty red trees, hills and mountains curving up around houses and towns, spaced between crevices and cracks. Boiling sea crashes upon the edges, steam and clouds rolling overhead. The Titan’s skull lays heavy far north.

The Collector has an unreadable expression.

“Hey…” she starts tentatively. “If you wanna talk about anything, I’ll listen.”

“Huh? Okay! I was thinking about how cool that skull looks. Though you guys should give the Boiling Isles more blue,” they say.

Yeah, okay. Maybe she shouldn’t have expected emotional honesty after a day.

“Is blue your favorite color?” she asks.

“It’s better than all this sad red. At least make it pink.”

“You got some weird taste. Who would want everything to be pink and blue?” She thinks. “Luz would, but she’s weird too. Looks like I got my hands full with weirdo kids.”

He giggles.

“Speaking of her, that’s her school, Hexside.” She flies closer and circles around it. “They teach kids all the boring necessities they need for magic and covens, blah blah.” She mimes a mouth speaking. “Covens are the end goal, and the dumbest thing about the Emperor’s reign.”

The Collector seems to be hanging on her every word. She almost smiles, but her words sour the expression.

“They give you these tattoos and put witches through a secret ritual”—she air quotes—“that blocks all their magic, ‘cept for one kind. I never went through it, so I’m wild.”

“I bet I already know everything they teach. I could be a teacher, easy.”

She smiles now. “You do not want to be a teacher.”

“First lesson: BLOW UP THE SCHOOL!” They throw out their arms and make a pshhh sound. “Rebuild it from the ashes! But—but don’t make a school. They’ll make… a training course,” he says. “With spike pits! And lava! And they have to climb to the MOON! First to make it back alive gets their own palisman!”

“Yeah? How are they gonna breathe up there?”

“Uh, they’ll hold their breaths?” She can almost hear the duh.

“I’d pay some money to see that,” she says. “You know, swimmers have to learn to hold their breath for really long times. Get a bunch of swimmers, see how they do on the moon.”

“People swim in the boiling sea? Oh, oh! Are witches fire resistant?”

“Not there, no.”

She angles Owlbert higher and flies them toward the Titan’s chest cavity, where a large lake and sandy shores reside.

“Lake Lacuna,” she says. “People teach their kids how to swim here. Even me and Lily were taken when we were young—barely remember it, now, but the muscle memory sticks with you.”

“I don’t know how to swim,” he says quietly, as if sharing a grave secret.

She softens. “I could teach ya, when you’re out of that tablet.”

For a moment, it’s easy to forget they must be an ancient, powerful being, sealed for a reason. For a moment, all he looks like is a hopeful child. “Really? You pinky swear?”

She clinks her pinky against their shadow. “Pinky swear.”

Chapter Text

King isn’t sure how to feel about The Collector.

They’ve only been around a few days, and boy, have they been a loud presence. The Collector insists Luz read him a bedtime story (which is always The Good Witch Azura, since she’s gotten them invested) and it’s the only thing that will make him sleep without throwing a fit—they learned that the hard way. They need a portion of food despite being unable to eat, they’re constantly bugging everyone in the house, and they get very clingy very fast.

But none of that would really be an issue, if it wasn’t how every time they’re together, he thinks about the first thing they said to King.

Little Titan baby.

You could say King has been avoiding them.

So when Eda and Luz announce they’re leaving for an hour, all he feels is a pit of dread.

“Why can’t I just come with?” he asks Eda. “Hooty’s here, they won’t be alone.”

Eda pats his head. “King, The Collector’s gonna be staying with us for a while. You need to learn to get along with each other. I think this will be good for the both of you.”

“Besides, we won’t be gone for long!” Luz says as she slips on her shoes. “We’re just getting more stuff for the portal, since uh, all my ingredients disappeared with it.” A peeved expression briefly overtakes her smile.

“I just have a bad feeling about this,” he says.

Eda gives him a look. “If it really bothers you, you can run Hooty as interference.”

“That’s even worse.”

“Yeah, yeah. Good luck, don’t blow up the house.”

He hugs her leg. “No promises.”

It’s just an hour, he reminds himself, once they leave. How bad can that be?

“Boo!”

King yelps, his tail puffing up twice its size. He whips around to find The Collector giggling on the ceiling.

“Got youuu!” They laugh.

He holds his tail, smoothing it out. “Collector, you gotta stop doing that.”

“What, scaring you? It’s not my fault you don’t notice me.”

“You’re doing it on purpose, though!” he argues.

“Cause I’m booored. I wanna play!”

Here we go. “Collector, why can’t we just… not do anything?”

They give him an incredulous look. “How could anyone stand that? Jeez. You guys have such short lives, I would think you’d wanna do something all the time.”

He’s about to respond with something like relaxing is fun, which is true—naps are one of life's greatest indulgences—but makes him sound super old, and maybe he should wait a few decades before talking like Eda.

He sighs. “Okay, let’s play something.”

“Really? What should we play? Maybe statues—no, wait… tag—no, I can’t do that… umm.” He spins, holding a hand to his chin. “That also needs an actual body… why can’t I think of anything—”

“Hide and seek?” he suggests.

The Collector blinks. They smile. “Yes! Yes, yes, I’ll count! Wait—we need rules!”

“Um… you can’t go very far, right?”

They nod. “So we have to hide in the living room!” they say. “Nowhere else. Anddd… the seeker counts to ten. Okay? I’m gonna count now!”

King jumps as The Collector begins to count, covering their eyes. Shoot. He needs somewhere to hide, fast.

He scans the room, eyes landing on the chests Eda’s kept around for years. The Collector hits six, just as King dives behind a chest.

“Seven, eight, nine, ten, ready or not, here I come!”

King presses flat against the chest and curls down. It seems like a pretty good hiding place, as long as The Collector doesn’t go onto the ceiling.

“Hmm… are you here? Nope. Maybe… here! Aw, no.” A pause. “Where would I hide if I was a little guy?”

The Collector’s voice grows farther away. He resists the urge to look up—he learned his lesson last time he played hide and seek.

“Maybe…”

He jolts at the sudden proximity of their voice.

“Here! Hah, got you!”

The Collector points at King, right beside him on the wall. He stands and flicks a ball of dust off his fur. “Darn. I thought that was a good spot… guess there’s not many places to check in just one room.”

“Well, I can’t leave unless you move my tablet, and then it’s not really hide and seek. But you know what would make things easier?” they ask. “If you’d let me out.”

“Collector—”

“You can’t, I get ittt. Even though you can. If you’d—” He stops. Surprisingly, he seems to consider his next words, then groans. “You’re the seeker now, come on!” They clap. “Start counting.”

“Weh? Uh, okay,” he says. He closes his eyes. “One, two, three…”

He’s half expecting them to be somewhere obvious, but when he opens his eyes he doesn’t immediately spot them.

“Hmm…”

He looks behind the curtain. When they’re not there, he wiggles over the chest and checks behind the couch. There’s not many places to hide in the living room, half of it is empty space. With that in mind, he scurries to the other curtains, frowning when The Collector is behind none.

He realizes, belatedly, that playing hide and seek with a shadow is a bad idea.

“Where would a shadow hide?” he ponders. He looks up, just in case he missed them on the ceiling. Not there.

They could be anywhere, but the best place for a shadow to hide… would be in a shadow.

He dives to the floor and pokes under the table. When The Collector isn’t there, he feels momentarily defeated, before remembering the couch. There’s a spot he didn’t notice before, where its shadow suddenly turns darker.

“Found you!” He pokes The Collector.

They giggle and zip out. “You found meee! Pretty good spot, huh? But you took longer, so I win!”

He squawks. “What?! You didn’t tell me this was a contest.”

“It’s kind of assumed…”

“You have an unfair advantage!” he accuses. “We’d need to be on even playing ground.”

“No I don’t.”

“You’re a shadow,” he says, crossing his arms. “You can hide in impossible spaces.”

“Maybe you should get better at fitting wherever.”

His tail fluffs in indignation. “If I was a shadow—if you had a body, I would absolutely beat you in hide and seek.”

“Nuh uh. No you wouldn’t,” the say.

“I would. I’m the king of hide and seek.”

They squint, mouth curling. “When was that decided?”

“Right now, by me.”

“I’m usurping you.”

He opens his mouth, interrupted by a BOOM!

King and The Collector jump, the latter flying halfway across the room.

“What was that?” they ask, eyes wide. “An explosion?”

King runs to the window. He tilts his head, looking at the dark clouds rolling overhead. “I think it was thunder.”

“Aw, that sucks. You can’t see the stars when it’s cloudy.”

“Eda and Luz should be back soon…”

He hops down and beelines to The Collector’s tablet. “You haven’t been upstairs yet, right? Luz’s bed is coziest when it’s raining.”

It’s a perfect nap opportunity. If he plays his cards right, The Collector might even calm down enough to let him take it.

“Ooh, I haven’t! Gimme a tour!”

He hefts up their tablet. It’s somehow lighter and heavier than he expected—not quite a mirror or block of stone, just… a regular slab. A regular slab containing a possible god. That’s normal.

“These are the stairs,” he says. “Not very interesting. Except for the time I fell down them and needed a bandaid.”

The Collector nods rapidly.

“And this is the hallway. Eda really likes her candles and weird owl furniture.” He looks at the candle stand shaped like an owl. “She also keeps this cabinet of questionable substances and some real plants… I never see her water them.”

“They look pretty healthy,” they say.

“I know, it’s weird. I would think she can’t keep anything alive.” She did keep King alive, maybe that counts for something. “That’s Eda’s closet of bathrobes and traffic cones she’s stolen.”

“I wanna steal traffic cones.”

“And here’s Luz’s room!” He pushes open the door and scurries inside.

The oncoming storm has washed her room in deep, hazy grays, leaving only dim light. Rain begins to onslaught the window, creating a gentle pitter patter as white noise. It’s the perfect conditions for a four p.m nap. He can even wake up in an hour for dinner.

The Collector zips around the room. “Is that a sword? What’s in the chest? Who’s that?”

He follows their pointed finger, to the photo of Luz and her mom.

“That’s Luz’s mom. She’s also a human.”

“So Eda isn’t her mom?” they ask.

“Not blood-related, but—she’s, like, our parental figure, or—she is legally my mom, and Luz is like a sister to me… so Eda must be like another mom to her?” He shrugs.

“Oh! That’s why she needs a portal to the human realm, to see her human mom?”

“Basically.”

“Is she gonna stay there? Humans aren’t usually in the demon realm, you know, I thought that was weird.”

“I… well… she says she’s not leaving forever,” he whispers, holding his claws together.

The Collector moves on, unaware of the emotions their question dug up. “What’s that?” He points at Jean-Luc, sitting immobile in the corner.

“That’s Jean-Luc. We got him from the island I used to live at.”

“You lived at an island?”

“In a huge castle! He was guarding me, I think. But it doesn’t seem like he can move outside the place, so we just keep him in here.”

The Collector opens their mouth, then closes it with a sour expression.

King frowns. “Why do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what?”

He doesn’t want to ask this, really, but curiosity makes his words spill. “Collector, is this about…”

Something weird happens.

Jean-Luc’s eyes flare blue, and that’s the only warning King gets before a stone arm slams itself onto the wall.

“Weh!” He jumps back.

The stone guardian clicks and creaks as he keeps moving. His arm reels back and he attempts to slam it onto The Collector’s shadow.

"Wha—” King falters, half sure he’s hallucinating.

The Collector shouts from another missed blow. Okay, he’s not hallucinating! Jean-Luc is definitely, absolutely moving.

And hostile.

He stumbles back, picks up The Collector’s tablet, and runs.

“I thought you said it couldn’t move,” The Collector says, appearing on the tablet.

King skids around a corner, heart hammering as he hears something heavy slam into a wall behind him.

“He can’t! I don’t know how—did you do something?!”

“I can’t do anything, I’m a shadow!”

King's eyes go wide when he hits an end in the hall, marked by a mocking window. A flash of movement crawls overhead and Jean-Luc slams down in front of him.

“Wah! Wait, stop—” He ducks under a swing. “You shouldn’t be attacking me!”

“Door!” The Collector shouts.

"Where?!"

He dives under another swing, Jean-Luc just missing The Collector's tablet.

"Back—go back!"

King nearly trips in his haste to turn around and yelps when a claw drags beside him. He stumbles and barrels into wood. Door. A door!

He swings it open, scurries inside, and slams the door shut. Jean-Luc thuds against it, causing King to scramble for the lock. It takes a few tries with his shaking hands.

When Jean-Luc doesn’t immediately throw down the door, King takes a deep breath and slides onto the floor.

They’re in the bathrobe and traffic cone closet, he notices dimly. There’s no window, but there’s a hatch on the floor, if he needs to make an escape.

“Is this like… advanced hide and seek?” The Collector asks after a moment.

He drags his claw from his chest, steadying his breathing. “This is the running and hiding and trying not to die game,” he says.

“Tag hide and seek.”

“I don’t get it.” He puts his face in his claws. “Jean-Luc’s never done that before. He can’t move outside the castle, how did he activate now?”

Maybe Jean-Luc doesn’t recognize him outside the castle? How does his magic even work?

“Hmm.” The Collector puts a finger to their chin. “I can think of a few reasons why.”

“You can?”

“It couldn’t leave the castle, cause it was supposed to protect you. Can’t do that if it wanders off.” He morphs his hands into a small Jean-Luc and King, the former walking away, and King’s silhouette being marked with x-eyes. “But there’s probably an activation system to protect you even when it’s outside the castle, just in case you were in danger. I guess I triggered that.”

King blinks. That’s the most information The Collector’s ever willingly given. “Why you?” he asks.

They open their mouth with a raised finger, then snap it shut. “I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he says with a huff.

“What?!”

“The Owl Lady said no Titan talk.”

Oh. His gut coils. He was afraid that was the reason for their behavior. “And how is that… related?”

They cross their arms, giving him a look.

Right. “Eda only said that cause I didn’t want to hear it, but—but if it could help us, then just spit it out.” He braces himself.

“Nuh uh. I’m not gonna get in trouble.”

He blinks. “Seriously? You couldn’t shut up about it before and now you don’t wanna talk?”

“You can if you want to! But I won’t be your accomplice.”

He groans. “I don’t understand you! You show up out of nowhere, you—you talk about me being a Titan, you just turned over my entire life and you don’t even seem to realize! This isn’t fun for me, I don’t want to be a Titan!” he shouts.

His throat stings from the weight of his words as he heaves for air, a burning ache building behind his eyes.

The Collector stares. For once, they genuinely seem at a loss for words.

Misery overtakes his anger in seconds. He stares at the floor.

Don’t blast the messenger, he remembers Eda saying once, years ago. He sighs. She finished it with just steal their money and run as fast as possible, but he doesn’t think that’s actually part of the saying.

He opens his mouth, deciding between an explanation or apology.

Something slams against the door.

“Hatch,” The Collector says.

King leaps for the hatch on the floor. He fumbles to open it, pushing the ladder down. Another slam against the door.

“What are you waiting for!”

He can’t carry the Collector down.

Slam!

He can’t carry them. He can’t leave them. What is he supposed to… he pushes their tablet over, hopes for the best, and drops it through the hatchway.

The Collector shrieks from below. Okay, they’re still alive. He slides down the ladder and hops to the floor.

“Why’d you do that?!” they screech.

He grabs the tablet. “I couldn’t carry you down! Besides, there’s a rug, your tablet wouldn’t break,” he says, ignoring he had no idea if it wouldn’t.

“It could have! And then I’d have to break you.”

A series of thumps ring overhead. “We gotta get out of here.”

They landed in the hall connecting to the living room. He runs straight for the front door.

“Hooty!” King yells as he opens the door. “Wake up! We need help!”

“Hoot?” Hooty spins slowly, blinking open his eyes. “I’ll save you!” he screeches, flinging himself about. “Where’s the danger?!”

“Inside! Jean-Luc started attacking us for some reason, just hold him off until…”

King squints into the distance, past the boiling rain. He thinks he sees two blobs moving, shielded under a protective sheet.

“Eda!” he yells. “Luz!”

The blobs grow closer. Luz runs toward him.

“King!” she cries, holding a bag. “What are you doing out in the rain?”

He hops a bit to meet her. “Luz! Guys, you gotta help us—”

A loud crash and hoot sound from inside.

“What was that?” Eda asks.

“Jean-Luc tried to kill me,” The Collector says cheerily.

“What?”

“Oh no,” Luz says. “I’m coming, Hooty!”

“I thought that thing couldn’t move anymore,” Eda says, somewhat accusingly.

King shrugs. “I don’t know! He was fine until ten minutes ago, which we really gotta take care of that!”

“Right, right, priorities.” She spins her staff. “Time for round three.”

Compared to last time, it goes by pretty fast.

Probably because of Hooty’s limitless ability to capture people, Eda’s harpy mode, and Luz being much more adept at glyph fighting. He tries to catch a glimpse of the commotion inside and promptly gives up when a flower pot nearly hits his face. So he waits outside, under Eda’s tarp, and winces at every crash and scream.

Eventually, the noise dies down.

“You can come in now!” Eda’s voice calls.

King clutches The Collector’s tablet tightly, and he steps inside. 

The living room’s a mess. Paper’s strewn about, the table knocked over and scratches on the couch, some of its fluffing stuck in the oddest places. They’ve gotten Jean-Luc trapped between two sheets of ice, only his head unfrozen.

“Wow,” The Collector says, appearing on the wall beside Jean-Luc. He surveys the damage. “You guys are bad at this.”

“Hey, we got him in the end, didn’t we?” Eda asks.

King passes the tablet off to Eda. He stands in front of Jean-Luc, wringing his claws together.

“I know you’re just trying to protect me, but… The Collector isn’t a threat to me. Can you stop trying to attack him? Please?”

Jean-Luc’s head cracks as he swivels around, blue eyes following The Collector’s shadow.

“Is he broken?” Eda asks.

The ice cracks. King cringes. “He’s not listening to me.”

“So what should we do? Decapitate him?”

“Decapitate him! Decapitate him!” The Collector chants, shaking their fists.

King frowns. He can’t think of another way, but he doesn’t feel great about this one.“I’m sorry, Jean-Luc,” he whispers. “We’ll try to get you working again when it’s safe.”

Eda raises her staff and in one swift swing knocks Jean-Luc’s head off. Finally, his blue stare fizzles out.

“Welp, that’s another weird souvenir,” Eda says, picking up his head. “Kids, help me clean up this mess. Hooty, please don’t.”

“What should I do?” The Collector asks.

“You stay there and don’t cause any trouble.”

“Okay!”

King stares at Jean-Luc’s body. As weird as it is, the stone guardian kind of raised him, those first years. And, sure, he couldn’t move outside the castle—but the reality of it sets in with his head chopped off. Jean-Luc isn’t going to be moving for a while.

He glances at The Collector. They giggle behind their hand, poking at Luz when she slips on a bit of ice.

Slowly, the tight feeling in his chest loosens.

Chapter Text

Luz chews on her lip. “You’re all sure this isn’t too much trouble?”

Willow places a hand on her shoulder. “It’s nothing, really! Besides, this is about getting you home.”

“We know how much this means to you,” Amity adds, giving a gentle smile.

“Yeah! And I, for one, really want to see the human realm,” Gus says. “Better we start building this sooner than later.”

After her first attempt, Luz hasn’t tried building a portal since. Admittedly, she’s been paralyzed with fear of failure, and having no idea what she’d do if it did work. What is she going to say to her Mom? What would she do if it doesn't work again?

At least her friends are willing to help. Practically insisting on it, but she doesn’t mind. Between them and The Collector, who hopefully knows something, she's been given a new drive to try again.

“Hi, Hooty!” Luz stops in front of the Owl House. “Just got some backup for making another portal. You mind letting us in?”

“Hmm…” Hooty’s head spins on the door. “What’s the password?”

“Oh! Is it opera whale?” Gus asks.

“Or is it—” Willow makes a chittering sound, similar to an owl.

“No! It’s not—” Amity gives Hooty a withering glare. “—I mean that’s the password! Jeez. Can’t have any fun around here.”

“You’re playing monopoly with us right now!” Luz hears King say, as Hooty opens the door.

“I’m just the banker!” Hooty cries.

Luz skips inside, pausing in the living room. They really are playing monopoly.

“I’m surprised you guys haven’t destroyed the house,” she says. “Last time we played, Lilith was still living with us and things got real dicey,” she tells her friends.

“Hey, Luz,” Eda says. She’s staring intently at the board.

“Luz!” The Collector zips across the wall. “I got so lucky, now I’m in jail,” he says, the way you’d say I won the lottery! “And I have the knife.”

“Aw, that’s… nice?”

“Hooty keeps raising and lowering prices,” King says. “It’s making the game way more confusing.”

“It’s not realistic otherwise!” Hooty defends.

Luz realizes her friends are staring at The Collector. “Oh! Right, guys, this is The Collector. I mentioned him. Collector, this my girlfriend Amity, and my friends Willow and Gus.”

Gus waves. "Hi! Full name Augustus, but Gus is my human nickname." He winks. "I didn't think Luz was being this literal about you being a shadow. What's it like?"

He tries poking The Collector, but they flit away. They giggle as Gus keeps trying to catch them, until they swerve around and grab his hand.

“Got you! I got youuu and you didn’t get meee,” The Collector sings. “I win!”

“Ah!” Gus jumps. He waves his hand, watching it ripple through The Collector’s shadow. “Woah. I was expecting a sorta cold feeling, but I’m not feeling anything.”

The Collector spins toward Amity. “Ooh, I like your necklace,” he says. “What are you? A ‘girlfriend’, what’s that?”

“I’m Luz’s girlfriend,” she corrects. “A girlfriend is, uh…” She gives Luz a look that says help me.

“Umm, we’ll talk about that later!” Luz expertly deflects. “Right now it’s portal makin’ time.”

“You’re trying that again?” Eda asks, then tacks on, “Collector, it’s your turn.”

They go back to the couch, appearing as if they’re sitting. “Roll!” Eda obliges. She must be rolling his dice for him. “ROLL FASTER! And… stop! Throw it!”

She tosses the dice.

“Doubles again? Now, how do you keep doing that?”

“I’m a lucky boy.”

“Um, Luz…” Willow says.

“I know, I didn’t really explain them very well,” she says quickly. “Or the time pool thing, or the Philip thing, or anything else—but let’s get the portal stuff first!”

“No, well, I do need you to explain that. But, did you leave something cooking?”

She points to the kitchen where a pot is on fire.

“Waugh—Eda!” Luz yells.

“Whoops,” Eda says, remarkably calm. “What’s that ice glyph? Let me just—”

“Wait, I don’t think you should—”

She jumps back as a wall of ice bursts in front of her.

“Eda!”

“Okay.” Luz rubs her face. “Did we get the last of it?”

Gus picks up a shard of ice. “Yeah, I think so.”

There’s a few puddles of water here and there, but the wall has finally been taken care of. Thankfully, with careful use of fire glyphs, it didn’t take too long to clean. Even if she’s a little frustrated about losing precious time.

“Sorry, kid,” Eda says. “I really thought I got the hang of that.”

“You’ve done that before?”

She shrugs. “Anyway, you know I got another door in the shed. Come get me when you’re ready to boot up the portal.”

“Will do.” Luz salutes. “Oh, speaking of which…”

She steps around the board game and various cards scattered across the floor. “Collector, can I borrow you for a while?”

“Borrow me, or steal me?” they ask.

“We already stole you.”

He considers this. “Whatcha need me for?”

“I was hoping you could help with the portal. I know Philip didn’t need you for it, but maybe you know something anyway,” she says, pausing in case they want to interject with yes, I do know everything about portals! When he doesn’t, she continues, “At the very least, you could tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

“Hmm… okay!”

“Really? Thank you so much!” She picks up their tablet and spins.

He makes a whoosh sound and spins with her. “But you gotta do something for me,” they say.

“Yes, of course, whatever you want.”

“Anything I want?”

“Umm…” She looks at his devious grin. “Maybe not literally whatever. Anything within reason. But I’ll do it.”

“I crave the most dangerous game.”

“And nope.”

“No fair.”

“What’s the most dangerous game?” Gus asks.

“Do not encourage them,” Luz says, not actually bothered.

She takes them outside and dashes into the shed. The others follow her, stopping to look at Eda’s strange collection of junk.

“Nice wood,” Willow says, examining the door Eda bought. She brushes a hand over it, then picks it up. “Aw, I thought maybe it was maple, but it’s just regular red oak.”

“Do you think the wood type affects the door?” Luz asks. She picks up two planks of wood.

Amity hefts up the jar of abomination goop. “Probably not, I mean… it can’t be that finicky, can it?”

Gus examines the skull he’s picked up. “It could be! We don’t know anything about portals.”

Luz glances at The Collector. “Do you know?”

“Huh?” They seem distracted. “Oh. I dunno.” He shrugs. “Why would it matter?”

“That’s what I’m asking, silly.”

“Let’s consider that later,” Amity says. “Unless you know the particular type of wood the old portal was?”

Luz pauses. “It was… brown.”

Amity smiles with a soft sigh. “That’s not gonna narrow it down much, batata.”

“It was medium brown?”

“We can ask Eda!” Gus jumps up. “She might know.”

“I don’t think Eda knows wood,” Willow says.

“But she’s all mysterious and brooding, she could know anything.” He holds out his hands.

Luz laughs. “Eda’s not mysterious.”

“Cause you live with her! Do you know what it’s like for us? The crazy rumors people spread? Some people said she actually ate owls, and that’s how she got her name.”

“Well, that’s not true.”

“We know that now. She’s still pretty much a mystery to everyone in town, though.”

“Hmm.” She thinks. “I guess I can see why she’d get that reputation.”

“She ate owls?” The Collector asks.

“She didn’t! She just eats rodents now. Maybe always ate rodents, actually.”

“It’s true, I saw her eat nine voles once,” Amity says. “Whole.”

Willow stomps a foot, catching the groups attention. “Alright gang! No more distractions, it’s portal making time.”

“Portal making time!” Gus cheers.

They file out of the shed and dump their supplies onto the soft dirt. Willow props up the portal against a few cinder blocks and Amity sets the abomination jar beside it. Gus puts the skull on top of the jar.

“You know, how does this work?” he asks. “What do you need in a portal?”

Luz grabs the pile of wire. “You need natural elements. Wood, mud, water, stone… that’s why everything’s pretty easy to find. The harmony of those elements, plus the blood, gives it enough power to create a gateway. I think. I tried writing it all down, but Philip talks fast.” She wraps the wire around the planks. “And this wire helps connect the natural magic in everything!”

“Ooh.” Gus grabs the end of the wire and ties it around a metal gate. “So… what’s up with that Philip guy, anyway?” 

She sighs. “He sucks.”

“You mentioned,” Willow says. “What’d he do? Do you need us to beat him up?”

She smiles. “I appreciate it, but no. We don’t know where the time pools even are now. But… ugh, he was just so mean. He tried to use Lilith and I as a sacrifice so he could take The Collector. So we stole them from him.”

“What?!” Amity fumbles with the bags in her hands. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Luz.” She pats Luz’s head and gives it a kiss.

Her face heats up. “It’s okay… at least we got a new friend from it.”

“Huh. Why did he want The Collector?” Willow asks.

“I’m right here,” The Collector says.

Luz jumps. “Gah! Why were you being so quiet?”

“I was listening. And I’m watching you build, like you asked me to.”

Willow looks at their shadow, casted across the door. “Hi again. What could Philip want with a little guy like you?”

The Collector giggles. “I dunno! Probably wanted my magic.”

“You have magic?” Gus asks. “Oh, are you a witch?”

“No, I’m a Collector.”

“What is that?”

He hums. He turns into a pair of scissors cutting into the night, “Cloth cut from stars, we are the endless dark,” into a crowd of Collector's, “Our birthright the sun and moon, our cause to preserve what's doomed,” which morph into a rotating sun and moon, and finishes by holding out a string of creatures.

Luz gasps. “You can write poetry?!”

“Woah, can you turn into anything?" Gus asks. “Are you a star?”

“Hmm… kinda! More like made from them.”

“That was interesting." Amity hangs a bag of water. “I'm still confused, though. You collect things and you might be space? That seems a little thematically incoherent.”

They groan. “You’re not getting it, it’s preservation. We live a really long time, you know, so we keep stuff to make sure it’s not all forgotten.”

“That seems nice,” Willow remarks.

“I guess. Everything else is dumb,” he mutters. “Hey, do you guys wanna play a game?”

Luz jumps back when the planks she stacked up fall over. “Uhh, little busy!”

“We can do something simple, like I Spy?” Amity suggests. “If it’d help, you don’t have to play, Luz. Just keep your focus on the portal.”

“Aw, thanks. I might still join.”

“I’ll go first!” The Collector hums. “I spy with my little eye… something round.”

“Is it the window?” Willow asks.

“Nope.”

“Hooty?” Gus asks.

“No!”

Luz ties the planks back together and hands the end of the wire to Amity, who wraps it around a rod.

“Hm, oh… is it…” Willow looks up, squinting. “The sun?”

“Close.”

“Oh!” Amity points at something overhead. “You can see the moon, is it that?”

“Yes!”

“Nice,” Amity says, quiet enough Luz assumes it’s to herself. She rolls out some tape. “Okay then, it’s my turn. I spy with my little eye… something… red.”

“What?!” Gus exclaims. “Everything’s red around here!”

Amity shrugs with a smile.

“The trees?” The Collector asks.

“Nope.”

Gus slings a coil of metal around one of the brooms. “The grass,” he says. “No. The, uh… that plant, over there!” Luz follows his hand, pointed to the red bush in a wooden pot.

“No, but it is a plant.”

“Hmm.” Willow takes the tape from Amity and does a full turn around. “The moss growing on the tower?” she guesses.

“Yes! Good job, Willow.”

“Alright, I spy something…” She tapes a piece of paper to the door. “Yellow.”

“Picking your favorite color, huh?” Gus says.

“It’s a tie with green.”

“Is it… that overgrown bush?”

“Nope.”

“Can we guess the window again?” Amity asks.

“No, that’s red and yellow.”

“The… clouds!” The Collector says.

“Aaand no. But it is high up.”

Luz looks up from her work. “The weathervane!” She swings a hand to point at it.

“That’s right! Nice, Luz.”

She grins and hops back. “My turn! I spy with my little eye…” she pauses dramatically, “a finished portal door!”

“That’s not how you play.” The Collector frowns.

“Is it actually done?” Gus steps forward and looks around the door. “Is it… supposed to look like that? No offense to your portal skills, I mean, just…” He gestures.

The door leans against several cinder blocks, wrapped in wire connecting to planks of wood, bags of water, a jar of abomination goop, a metal grate, and various other things that could plausibly help. For extra measure, various sheets of paper and cardboard have been taped on. All in all, it’s similar to her first attempt, but she likes to think it’s the tiniest bit cleaner.

“I will admit it looks messy,” she says. “But we’re portal amateurs and it almost worked last time! It was just… wonky. Needs a bit of trial and error.”

“I’m surprised it’s holding up so well. I thought it would fall over right away,” Willow admits.

“As long as it works, then it’s worth it,” Amity says. “Wanna go get Eda?”

“Yep!” she chirps.

She bounds to the front door and pokes her head inside. “Eda! The portal’s ready, come get the bathtub!”

“Alright! Hang on a minute,” Eda calls back.

Luz bounces on her feet the whole three minutes it takes Eda to push the bathtub out of the shed and plug in the wire.

“Alright!” She tears off a finger from Amity’s glove and tapes it to the door. “Eda, ready?”

“Yep. Let’s try this again.”

Worst case scenario is the door doesn’t work at all. Best case scenario, it goes so perfectly she has a stable, working portal on her hands.

She steps back and watches the wire light up around each item. Most likely, the mirror dimension thing happens again. And she’ll take that! She just… needs to see her mom. She needs to make sure things are okay between them, she needs to explain.

She holds her breath.

The door and surrounding objects light up. Hope soars in her chest when the light turns blinding and everything merges into one.

There’s a single moment where she sees a portal door.

And then it shudders.

“No,” she whispers, realizing all too late. “No!”

She stumbles forward and throws out a hand like she can stop it, but before her very eyes the portal collapses into nothing.

She drops to the ground.

It’s gone.

Amity kneels beside her and pulls her into a hug. Willow and Eda come over, and she’s surrounded by tight arms and a loving feeling.

“I’m sorry, Luz,” Eda says.

She sniffles. “I can’t mess this up again. I barely have any Titan’s blood left, I’m not any closer to figuring out how this stupid portal works, why won’t it just stay open?”

“Oh.”

She looks up at The Collector’s voice. He’s got a spark in his eyes, igniting a prelude to hope in Luz. “What is it?”

“You’re not trying to make a one use portal?”

“No! No, I want it to be permanent, do you—do you know something?” she asks, barely daring to hope.

“Yeah, you’re using up the Titan’s blood way too fast. Gotta contain it! Otherwise it just dries up, and then you don’t have a portal anymore.”

“Like…” Something clicks. “Like a key?”

“I was thinking something cooler, but sure, a key works.”

She jumps up with renewed vigor. “Ohh, thank you! Thank you, thank you! Oh my gosh. I just needed a key this whole time! I didn’t even think about why the old door had one.”

“Sooo… I guess you don’t know you need blood in the door too?”

“What? No, tell me everything you know!” She scrambles to their tablet.

“That’s it.”

“Well, you’ve already helped more than enough. I know how to make a better portal, and that’s all I need!” She pumps a fist into the air.

Amity hugs her again. “Tell us when you get your portal, okay?”

“Things will work out with your mom,” Willow says, placing a hand on Luz’s shoulder.

“Thanks. And I will, dulzura.”

Amity’s face turns that beautiful red. “You’re sweet,” she mumbles, smiling.

“Ohh, I get it now,” The Collector says.

Luz turns to look at him. They have a hand on their chin and seem to have realized something.

“Girlfriends are like parents!”

Luz chokes on her spit with an eloquent ah just as Amity screams.

“Oh, that was priceless! Your faces! And she ran away!”

Eda’s still laughing. Luz stomps across the living room, blushing furiously.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Luz says. Eda snorts and she quickens her pace. “I’m going to my room!”

She doesn’t realize King’s followed her until her brother’s at her heels.

“You’re not gonna make fun of me, are you?” she asks.

“Eugh, no.” He hops onto her sleeping bag. “Romance is weird and mushy, and not in a fun way.”

“Yeah, I guess you’d think that.” She slides down the door and pulls out her notebook. “I really hope I get the portal right next time,” she says, half desperate for a change in topic. “There’s not a lot of Titan’s blood left on Amity’s glove.”

He slows in his spin to get comfortable. “Yeah… but, um, even if you run out of that glove, you… still got me.”

She freezes. “King?”

He sighs. “I literally have blue blood, Luz. I don’t fit with any species of demon, I have these weird powers, and—and the only thing that’s come close to looking like me has been…”

She thinks about The Collector’s depictions of Titan’s, and though it was a shadow of their image, she can’t deny the close resemblance to King. It only gets worse when comparing him to the corpse they’re living on.

“I didn’t want to think about it,” he continues. “But The Collector is right, aren’t they?”

Her lip wobbles and she blinks hard. “Yeah.” She inhales. “Yeah, I think he is.”

They sit in silence, letting the revelation soak in the air. She half believed it from the start, but it’s different hearing the words. When you say it out loud, then there’s really no going back.

“I guess we could see if my blood works with the door,” he says, after a minute. “That’d be pretty good confirmation, huh?”

She breathes out a laugh. “Let’s hope we don’t have to go there.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want another shot.”

“Another?”

“Hooty took my blood, like, two weeks ago.”

“You think he kept the syringe? We could just use that! Easy.”

“Oh, ew—he would keep it, wouldn’t he?”

“He definitely would.”

She smiles at King. They’ll figure it all out, she’s sure of it.

Chapter Text

Water crashes up against the shore. It just ghosts his shoes and leaves behind a wake of glittering stones.

They kneel and scoop up the sea glass. It tumbles in his hands, clinking together and sparkling in the sunlight. Green, white, amber…

A shine of blue catches their eye.

He sifts through the stones and pick out a lone glimmering piece of glass. They’ve never seen a blue one before.

Curious, he holds it up to his eye, viewing the world through frosted blue.

Something slams into them. They stumble forward and nearly fall into the water. Water rushes just below his knees, suddenly a deep blue.

It’s night. They look up at a pitch black sky, every star gone.

Dread washes over them. He whips his head around, finding a vast expanse of ocean stretching on and on.

Where is… anyone?

The water rises higher, turning further into an unnaturally blue and thick substance. They scramble back and try to call out, finding no voice. The water swirls up to his chest, pulling down, down, down.

A blurry figure stands in the distance.

Wait! they try to scream, words sticking in their throat.

The figure grows farther away. Desperate, he kicks through the water, slowing with each step.

Come back, they think desperately, water blurring their vision. Come back—!

CRASH!

The Collector wakes up with a start.

Muddy browns and greens swirl around them. He blinks a few times.

Oh.

Just a dream.

They heave a sigh and slide down their prison. Like every day, he presses a flat hand against the wall and pushes.

Nothing happens. The sigh turns into a groan of despair.

A bang makes him jolt. They waste no time projecting their shadow, landing on the pile of blankets and pillow’s Eda left on the couch for their ‘bed’.

“Who’s—” He stops and blinks owlishly. “Luz?”

She stands in the center of the room, backlit by morning light. Her hands are held out mid-grab, with a few books scattered across the floor.

“What are you doing? It’s like, 6:11 in the morning.”

She straightens and glances at her phone. “Oh, huh, you got that exactly. Well!” She claps. “I’m just… preparing! For a big day!”

“A big day?” they ask. “Oh, oh, is it someone’s birthday?!”

“Unfortunately not. I just thought it’d be nice to have a productive day.” She kneels and picks up the fallen books. “Gotta work on another portal now that I know the issue with it, find new glyph combinations, maybe up heave Belos’ rule while I’m at it and have everyone realize he’s a big stinking jerk and get at him for everything he’s done—” She pauses. “Anyway, sorry for waking you up. You can go back to sleep.”

“I don’t wanna.” He sits cross legged on the couch. “Oo, you could make him walk the plank!”

“I’m thinking a less physically violent and more emotionally devastating solution.”

“Violence is devastating,” he says.

“I just wanna show people who he really is! That he’s a big lying piece of… that he’s really bad. I saw the ‘savage era’ with Lilith, it was fine!” She swings out her arms. “Wild witches aren’t bad people, but everyone listens to him cause of the Titan’s will, or whatever.”

“The Titan’s will?”

“Ugh.” She sighs. “He says he can speak to the Titan, but I don’t believe it.”

They frown. “The Titan’s dead. He can’t speak to it.”

“See?! It’s so simple! A nine year old can understand it!” She waves a book.

“Why would he lie about that?” he asks. Something about it… makes them feel weird.

“He just wants to control people,” she says. “I think. I mean, lots of people become rulers for the power and all he’s ever done is give himself more of that and other people less.”

“Maybe he’s immortal?” They hold a hand to their chin. “Then he coulda known the Boiling Isles Titan.”

She spreads out some papers and uncaps a marker with her teeth. “I’ve seen him and he looks super old.”

“Immortal beings can age!”

She circles something, then pokes The Collector’s cheeks with a smile. “Aw, so you’re not gonna be so little forever?”

He giggles. “If I had my physical body, I would have at least been an adult by now.”

“Only at least? What’s past adult?”

“You just get more adult.” They wave a hand. “And taller. But if you get old enough, you can be called the elder one. Then you’re super old.”

“We have the elderly… but it’s not really a title for us.” She looks around. “I should get a whiteboard, hold on.”

After a minute, she comes back pushing a whiteboard into the living room. She drops down more books on the table and cracks one open.

They peer around her shoulder, finding walls of text going on about magic. “Watcha doing?” he asks.

“Trying to think up new glyph combos by taking inspiration from known spells. I’m working from it backwards, taking the finished spell and figuring out what could go into it.” She circles a passage. “I don’t think there’s any natural glyphs left to find, so I gotta make do with what I have.”

“Find?” he repeats. “Don’t they teach you this in school or something?”

“You’d think, but witches took a shortcut by developing bile sacs to draw magic from. They don’t need glyphs, so I guess no one thought to keep teaching them.”

“What?!” They tsk. “Come on, has no one ever closely looked at a flower before?”

She hmm’s. “It… is kind of weird. Glyphs aren’t very hard to find. Maybe… when people did find them, they just didn’t know what to do with them?”

“Did no one ever think to draw one?”

“I’m not sure.” She flips through the book and stops near the end. She squints, reads a page, then snaps it shut. “This book isn’t very useful. The jargon’s all old time-y and hard to read.” She sighs.

Her eyes widen. “Maybe they couldn’t find glyphs! There’s one in every spell circle, yet no witch seems to have recognized that. And I haven’t seen a plant glyph in every flower, or seen the light glyph every night. Maybe… the Boiling Isles has to show you them?” She taps her marker against the books front. “Actually, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

He rotates around her. “Magic’s got a mind of its own. I think it makes sense.”

“Really? Well, I don’t want to get in my head that I’m special after that time with the wizard.” She grimaces. “I’m a human, so I could be predisposed to seeing glyphs because I don’t have magic. Or… because I’m trying to find them? I’ll think about it.”

She gets back to writing. For a while she switches between researching, scrawling out long lists and half-baked ideas, building a new portal (that looks pretty bad without an actual door) and failing at making new glyphs.

They mostly watch, finding an odd sense of peace while she works. Luz is always doing something. It’s what makes her interesting.

She scribbles something. He looks at the open page beside her. It’s left on a levitation spell, connected to a few notes on light and fire glyphs and a glyph combo she half finishes before crossing out with a groan.

“I thought tackling basic spells would be easier, but I’m having trouble,” she explains. “I still don’t understand everything each glyph can do. Like, I think fire glyphs also cover pressure because of steam power, so mixed with a light spell that should cover levitation, but it’s not working. Maybe if I add ice? Out of process of elimination, since uh, plant wouldn’t make much sense.”

She draws a light glyph and a circle around it, with a smaller fire and ice glyph. She tapes the glyph to a book and throws it up.

It falls just short of the ground, levitating for a moment and then dropping.

“Huh,” they say. “You broke levitation.”

“It’s like a safety hover!” she exclaims. “Not what I wanted, but useful. Let me just write it down again before I forget the combo… thanks for being my rubber duck.”

He changes shape to a rubber duck bobbing in water. “What’s that mean?”

She sort of laughs, making a breathy noise. “It’s when you explain a problem to someone or something, usually a rubber duck, so you can solve it. Something about saying it out loud helps.”

“Hmm… what’s that red string for?” They point to said string, taped on the whiteboard.

“Helps me connect my thoughts,” she says. “It’d be a lot easier to just pin stuff on a corkboard, but then I wouldn’t be able to write and also we don’t have a corkboard. You shoulda seen some of the stuff I’ve made trying to theorize about my favorite shows and books.”

He looks at the paper and books scattered across the floor. “I think I have an idea.”

“Yeah, it’s not very organized.” She steps over a stack of books, then picks one off the top. “Aw, no, I already took notes in this one. Maybe I could carve a key,” she suddenly says. “I’m pretty okay at carving. Yeah, I’m sure Eda would have a block of wood laying around, should get my carving knife too.” Her brows furrow. “I guess it’s Eda’s carving knife, I just didn’t give it back. Whoops.”

“I can carve,” he says. “I’ve carved lots of stuff before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Seashells and little people and tools and stuff, I did it with—” They stop. “Well anyway, I’d say I’m pretty good.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” She caps her marker. “Say, Collector…” Her face goes all twisty, the way people do when they’re sad or confused. “Did you ever have parents?”

He halts at the non-sequitur.

Did they?

He spins on the wall in contemplation. What makes someone a parent, anyway? Do you just have to live together? Hmm… Eda is King’s mom, Luz has that human mom, what’s connecting them as mom’s? Parents do stuff like take care of you and raise you, but taking care of a kid doesn’t mean you’re a parent, does it? Most adults and parents are tall… do they just have to be tall? If a kid gets taller than their parent are they the parent now?

“Um, you don’t have to think so hard about it—”

“Yes,” he says, then, “actually, no. Maybe?” They shrug. “Other people had parents, though! I know what they’re like cause of that.”

“Others?”

Eda uplifted the ban on Titan talk, they remind themself. “Titan’s,” he says. “Usually they’d have one parent, cause they make eggs a—as… symm… that’s not the right word…”

“Asexually,” she supplies.

“Like that!” They point. “But sometimes they’d have more cause adults would fall in love.”

“And Collector’s… wouldn’t do that?”

His mouth twists. “No. That would be weird.”

She laughs. “That’s fair. Together your species can not desire things.”

“I desire lots of stuff! Like making a black hole.” They shape one between their hands. “But no one ever let me, because it’d be ‘inconvenient to deal with’.” He air quotes.

“You can do that?”

“You can’t?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of impossible for us.”

“It’s just collapsing stuff into an infinitely small point. It’s easy.”

“I’m a little scared by your idea of easy.”

He crosses his arms. “I don’t see the big deal.”

“Well, another weird question for you, but um…” She tilts her head. “Do you ever miss anyone?” she asks. “From before?”

An explosion would feel quieter than her words.

They stare, not finding an answer on their tongue, or much of anything. It’s like everything was sucked out of him in one fell swoop, leaving an odd floatiness.

A tight feeling squirms in his gut. It’s quickly murdered by an overwhelming sense of bitterness.

“No,” he says, left feeling a bit confused.

“Oh. Hm.” She uncaps her marker again and writes on the board. “That’s okay. Oh, I was gonna borrow Eda’s scroll, too...”

They take the change in topic.

It’s almost a relief when Eda and King pop in not long after. It’s definitely a relief when The Collector’s taken out of the house with them, and Luz’s question finally falls from his head.

Okay, so maybe he wishes he saw the Bonesborough Brawl, and maybe he was expecting that the whole time since Eda brought up that’s where they were going, and maybe it’s disappointing they didn’t actually watch it.

But Eda had other plans in mind—something about a blabber serum. Then the Blight brother got involved, then they spent the whole day running around and trapping animals.

Was it more fun than a potential brawl? Maybe. Probably not. It was at least a little fun.

It’s nearly night now. Thick branches of leaves blanket the forest in even darker shadows, only illuminated by the fire Eda built.

She sits at the cauldron full of bubbling, purple liquid, and stirs it gently with her ladle. The Collector’s projected themself against a wooden crate below King, appearing as if they’re seated on the ground. The Blight brother who’s name The Collector totally remembers sits on a log opposite from the three of them.

“Why are you making a blabber serum, anyway?” he asks, voicing a question The Collector forgot to ask in the midst of catching ingredients.

Eda stirs a bit faster. “I just need to ask Warden Wrath about, um… Raine, the head of the bard coven.”

“Who’s her ex-partner,” King says.

“King!”

“You have an ex?” The Collector asks.

In a better world he could have been watching the tournament right now. They can still hear cheering in the distance.

She sighs. “Yes, but—but that’s not the point.”

“So the blabber serum should get your ex to tell you about your other… ex?” He pauses. “Man, being an adult gets complicated—”

She swings out her arms, serum flying off her ladle. “Warden Wrath is not my—!” She holds a hand to her forehead. “King, can you stop telling people that?”

King laughs.

The Collector tries to imagine what would lead to someone having two exes. He decides to close that station of thought.

“Wrath may know why my… friend, can’t seem to remember me. And it has something to do with the Day of Unity. But! With this, he’ll tell me everything I need to know.” She grins. “…dang, the fire needs to be hotter. Keep stirring while I find more fuel.”

Blight brother stands and salutes. “Ma’am.”

She passes the ladle to him and darts off into the trees.

The Collector seizes the opportunity and steals her seat. Blight brother gives them a pained look, clearly having intended to take her seat before they did.

They smile at him.

Blight brother sits back down.

“So… do you like collecting things?” he asks, doing his task of stirring.

“Why does everyone keep asking that?”

“Oh, uh, sorry.”

“One day I’m going to lie and say I hate collecting things,” he says. “It’s in my top hated things to do.”

“Ignore them,” King says.

They feel a spike of indignation. “Don’t listen to him! I can tell you really cool facts.”

Blight brother squints, leaning back. “Uhh… like what?”

“Like the middle of our galaxy tastes like ichorberries cause of all the ethyl formate,” he says, off the top of his head.

“Huh, that is pretty cool. You know a lot about space?”

“I know a biiit.” They wave a hand and project the planets beside them. “And you know a lot about beast keeping stuff! I never really learned any of that,” he says.

Animals are fascinating, but he never had any pets or interacted with them much outside of curiosity. Now the world is full of millions of species.

“It’s not that impressive, really, I just like it as a… hobby, you know?” He shrugs, smiling a little.

“I don’t actually know. Most of the animals in my day were in the sea, and most of those are extinct now.”

“Huh—what?” He stops stirring. “How old are you?”

“I’m pretty young.”

“Billions of years is young? Jeez, we must be like babies to you.”

“Collector, Eda said to keep it on the down low,” King hisses.

“I was joking,” they lie. “I’ve lived a normal amount of time.”

King face palms.

“No, no, it’s okay, I get it.” Blight brother holds out a hand. “Little kids are just like that, uh, shadowy ones included. Amity might have always been uptight, but even she had her share of make believe… one time she was a ‘knight princess’ who had to keep the invaders—me and Emira—out. She kept hitting us with an abomination sword.”

“It’s not make be—” King shoots him a look. The Collector leans forward on their hands and gracefully changes the subject. “You know Luz’s girlfriend?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’m her older brother. I thought you knew…?”

“Ohh.” That explains why Eda kept calling him Blight brother. “She’s a girlfriend and a little sister?”

“Did you think people could only be one?” King asks.

“I dunno, I’ve never thought about it.”

“People can be lots of things,” Blight brother says. “You’re never really limited.”

“What are you?” they ask.

He points to himself. “Me? I’m just… Edric. Not really into a lot of labels. Except for being pan,” he huffs out a laugh like he made a joke.

The Collector hums. He can’t imagine not being viewed through a title. Or having an individual name that lacks information as to who, or what you are. Eda is the Owl Lady, Luz is the human, King’s a Titan… but some people don’t care about that stuff at all. That’s one of the weirdest things about witches, they’ve decided.

“It’s good you said your name again,” he says, “because I forgot it.”

“Seriously?”

“I also forgot it,” King admits with a guilty look.

Edric sighs. “Guess that’s what I get for being born with a name too close to Eda.” Despite his despair, there’s a smile at the edge of his mouth.

“You’re enjoying this, though, aren’t you?” King says, probably taking notice of that.

He gives a full smile. “It’s just nice to be taken seriously for once.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean.”

A burst of fire shoots out in the distance, barely visible above the trees. The three of them whip their heads toward it.

“Uh,” Edric says.

“Should we check that out?” King asks.

Edric stands and holds out his arm for King to hop onto. “I’m going to. Uh, Collector, how do I…?” He gestures at them.

“Just pick up my tablet.” He points. “I’ll move with it.”

He does so and the three of them edge to the treeline. The brawl looks pretty normal, though Edric and King focus on a brown-haired man outside the ring.

“Aw, weak,” King says. “Your dad’s here.”

“But look! Wrath’s tied up!”

Wrath sits in the middle of the ring, covered in abomination goop. A robed person frantically tries to dig him out.

“This is the perfect chance to give him the serum,” Edric continues.

“But it isn’t ready,” King protests. “Hey!” he yells when Edric runs back to their potion making setup.

He kneels in front of Eda’s bag and unties it.

“You shouldn’t go through her stuff,” The Collector says.

“I just need to find something.”

“But it’s rude.”

King raises an eye at them. “When do you care about being rude?”

“Um, always?”

Edric mutters as he rummages around. “No, not this one… oh!” He holds out a jar labeled ‘FIRE BEE HONEY’.

“Whaaat are you doing?” King asks slowly.

“If the blabber serum needs more heat to finish, then this should do just the trick.” He tilts the jar and lets a single drop plop into the serum.

A pause.

King starts to lean away, just as the serum explodes in a flash of light. The Collector’s half-expecting everything to be destroyed when it dies down, but instead, the serum’s turned a sickly green.

He’s pretty sure that’s not right, but he also doesn’t know anything about beast-based potions.

“You two find miss Eda,” Edric says. “I’ll head over to Wrath.”

King nods and picks up The Collector’s tablet.

“Do ya think the serum’s gonna be all messed up now?” they ask when the two of them leave.

“It definitely is.”

“It’d be funny, if it like… turned into a lying serum. No, that’s boring. It’d be funny if it turned into a curse where he can only quack forever.”

It doesn’t turn into a curse where Warden Wrath can only quack. But Wrath transforming into a monstrous, giant, terrifying beast was so cool it almost made up for not watching the entire tournament.

Luz comes back home late.

“Did you have fun with Amity?” Eda asks.

“Huh?” She has a bit of a dazed look. “Oh. Yeah, I did, we… picked some flowers together,” she smiles.

The Collector peers at her from the wall. “You look tired. You’re not going to bed, are you?”

“Nooo.” She waves a hand. “You know I wouldn’t miss reading time with you. Besides, I—I think it’d be nice reading some Azura books right now,” she says vaguely.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Umm… nothing, really, just—well, I guess I’m just missing someone, is all. And… the books help.” Her smile flickers. “Anyway, we’re starting the second book! The Field of Deadly Fates. It’s pretty underrated, in my opinion.”

She pulls it from the stack she’s left in the living room since The Collector’s first night here. It has a colorful, rainbow-y cover that doesn’t match the title’s tone at all.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” Eda says. “Glad you had fun, kid, I’m heading in for the night. Gotta figure some stuff out.” She sips from her mug.

“Aw, you sure you don’t wanna hear about the sports festival?” Luz waves the book.

“Pass.”

The Collector watches her leave, King on her shoulder.

Missing someone…

“Ready?” Luz asks, startling him out of his head.

They grin and sit on the couch. “Yep!”

Luz’s words wash over him. Slowly, he finds his eyes closing, until the world is blanketed in darkness.

The Collector does not dream.

Chapter Text

Luz couldn’t sleep.

After Hunter left, it was like all words stuck in her throat and refused to get out. Eda's patience was undeserving, she barely prodded Luz before eventually telling her to get some rest. They’d talk about it in the morning.

She didn’t want to. They don’t have time to sit around when Belos’ plan has nearly reared its head, but she just couldn’t say something. Her body felt floaty. Walking to her room was like a skipped memory, and before she knew it, she’d been laying in bed, wide awake, until the sun rose.

The living room’s table stays unchanging. She’s been staring at it for a while.

“Luz?” Eda’s voice comes from the left, gentle in a way she rarely hears.

Something soft falls on her shoulders. She blinks slowly at the green blanket, then tugs it around herself.

“ …thanks,” she mutters.

Eda places a notebook and various pencils on the table. “Drawing helps you sort things out, right? Use that if you need it. I’ll get you a drink, and… then we can talk.”

She’s almost touched, but any feeling is washed out by looming dread.

King hops off Eda’s shoulder. He goes somewhere behind Luz, and she finds him moving his pile of stuffed animals to surround her.

The Collector slides across the table and stares up at her.

“You look sad,” they say with an air of casualty. “Did you see something scary in there?”

She presses her fingers together. “I guess I did. How do you figure?”

“Sad people are sad cause they’re scared. I don’t really get why you are, though. Old people are fragile. You can really just punch them and they’re down.”

That does something to startle her out of the fog in her brain. “Are you… suggesting I punch Belos?”

“Yes.”

She’s pretty sure he’s being serious.

“Well, I would like to,” she says. “But it’s not that simple.”

“Wouldn’t we all.” Eda walks back in and sets Luz’s blue mug on the table. She sits on the couch, King, The Collector, and Hooty joining her. It’s like the world’s smallest audience for the worst play of Luz’s life.

“You ready?” Eda asks.

She takes a deep breath.

“After we were done on the walkie talkie, this… what I thought was a kid Belos, uh, helped us before. He took us to another memory, where Belos was preaching to the towns people about how wild magic is ‘dangerous’ but how he saw the—the nine healing lights. He—I’m pretty sure he set it all up, there was another Golden Guard, and they had explosives! He staged the attack! I knew he wasn’t—” She stops herself, then grabs her mug. The heat is grounding. “And then, after that, there… was another memory…”

Luz holds herself for warmth the moment she hits the snow.

Despite being in a mindscape, the memory feels cold. She chases after kid-Belos, up a perfectly round slope of snow she distantly recognizes as the knee. A small crowd stands overhead, in front of a wooden stage, with none other than Belos himself on it.

Kid-Belos laughs, taking a rope from one of the witches and disappearing into the crowd.

“What’s the kid doing?” Hunter asks.

Luz shushes him.

“Look at what wild magic has done to your city.” Belos gestures out to a burning town. “Now imagine what it’s doing to you. A city can rise from the ashes!” He brings up his arms. “But a soul…” He shakes his head.

The crowd gasps. “What does that mean?” A horned witch whispers.

“I can make your magic pure again.” He swings out his staff. “As the Titan intended. Simply step into the circle ”

She leans forward and squints at the design carved into the snow. Her eyes widen at the complex series of interlocking circles. “Is that a…?”

The witches shudder. With a sudden retch one vomits, a dark substance splattering onto snow. The others follow suit, coughing or heaving up what almost looks like tar.

Luz steps back, covering her mouth.

The witches collapse.

The Golden Guard kneels beside the horned witch and touches her. "They're… still alive."

"Then we still have some work to do," Belos says. He steps down and walks toward the Golden Guard. "Gather the palismen," he orders.

The Golden Guard does so. Belos rips one right off its staff and turns, leaving, and The Golden Guard follows soon after.

Luz stares at one of the witches collapsed in front of her. They're the horned one, shuddering in a small pool of that thick, blackish mess. She feels like she might throw up herself.

Hunter suddenly turns and marches back to the painting. Luz runs after him.

"I… can't believe Belos has been using glyph magic," she says, more to herself, as she hops through the painting. "Or that it can do that. I don't understand what—nevermind that. You can't deny it now, Belos is trying to hurt people!" She points to the memory behind her.

He stops. "He was just… perfecting sigil magic! Besides, maybe, he's remembering things wrong." He holds out a hand, nose scrunching. "Who knows how mindscapes work!"

Kid Belos laughs from somewhere behind the trees.

"I thought you did,” she says with a frown.

“Well maybe I'm an idiot!” He whips his head to the kid. “You! Get back here!”

He takes chase. Luz would call for him to slow down if she wasn't so focused on catching up to him in the first place. The kid stops at a dead end, Hunter and Luz kidding not far behind. A screech sounds from behind her.

“Huh?”

She looks up to find monster Belos looming over her and Hunter. They scream. She jumps as it just misses catching them and scrambles to run away. Kid Belos stays a few steps ahead of her and she trains her vision to follow him, desperately trying to ignore the drumming in her ears. It's when she hops through a memory does she realize Hunter isn't behind her.

She swerves halfway out the memory and finds Hunter backing away from monster Belos.

“Hunter,” she pleads, holding out her hand.

He takes it.

She pulls him through and nearly falls back. Monster Belos' face-snout just pokes through the painting, sniffing like a dog. She holds her breath. It disappears back into the painting.

Some energy leaves her in a sigh of relief.

She freezes the moment she looks up.

Belos drags a white cloak behind him. He drops it with a sick thud, blood splattering on the ground. It lays flat enough to show nothing’s underneath it, a tiny detail that gives barely any relief.

“So troublesome,” he mutters.

She gags and covers her mouth, attempting to block the stench of iron. Oh, god.

Belos pushes a stack of papers to the side. Her eyes go to the papers pinned above him. Automatically she reads them, anything to get her attention away from—from that.

There’s a diagram of some sort of person and a list of ingredients. Selkidomus scales, palistrom wood, bone of ortet… complex drawings of glyphs catch her eye. There's lines connecting them to coven sigils—indicating a magical tie? Is the ‘secret ritual’ to block a witches magic actually glyph magic? she wonders. Beside them is a crude drawing of a sun and moon, and notes that she can barely make out from the pages aged state.

She manages to read just one: Quietus Spell, Possible to delay a pictoglyph's reaction? (see third book, 23rd page) Devise a way to trigger the other half of the process under set circumstances—use the specific shade of an eclipse?

“And here I thought this Golden Guard would last longer,” Belos voice startles her.

What?

He rummages through the papers and books on the table and picks up a pen. She squints to read what he writes. Note: Be sure to stage a fire for disposal of the body— she flinches and squeezes her eyes shut.

Calm down, she thinks, similar to her Mom’s voice . Deep breaths. It’s just a memory.

“No matter. The next one should be much easier to deal with…”

He steps over a broken palisman and kneels at a bed of dirt. She just sees the hand sticking out of it.

“Won’t you be, Hunter?”

Luz stumbles through the rest of the retelling. From the hall of dead Golden Guards, to Belos revealing his true intentions as a witch hunter, to her throat nearly closing in when she admits to him being Philip. She draws with a trembling hand the most important scenes.

“I taught him that light spell,” she chokes through her words. “He could have never learned it if I hadn’t been there, he—he wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.”

It’s been a nagging thought since that torturous moment. The idea that maybe, just maybe, he could have never found the light glyph. It almost seems stupid compared to how quick she found the glyphs, but he didn’t.

Took years to find them. Almost as if the world wanted to hide them from me.

If she hadn’t met him, would that have been enough?

“Here,” she whispers and passes the drawings to Eda. “That’s… that’s all of it.”

There’s a long stretch of silence. King, Hooty and The Collector all give her wide-eyed stares while Eda examines her drawings.

Eda inhales through her teeth and presses a hand to her face. “This is just a lot to take in,” she says.

“We don’t have time to take anything in.” She sets her mug down and shoots up. “We have to stop Belos! I—I was a part of his plan. I fell for everything.”

“King, Hooty, you know what to do.”

Hooty wraps around her and King hugs her leg. She leans into the embrace, squeezing her eyes to push back tears.

“Well, one thing’s for sure.” Eda stands, her arms crossed. “People can tell when you’ve been inside their head. It’s only a matter of time before Belos sends his scouts over here. You need to hide.”

She scowls, hands curling into fists. “I am not hiding. I’m gonna stop Belos from hurting everyone. I just… need to figure out how.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure murder is… bad,” The Collector says.

“Do you know anything about what he’s planning?” Luz asks. “I don’t really understand how the spell’s supposed to work. Maybe if I knew, I could do something.”

Eda frowns. “Luz—”

“I’m pretty sure he reverse engineered the spell that trapped me,” The Collector says. “But since you witches are made up of a similar magic, it overloads your bodies and kinda turns you into goop. Or returns you to the goop?” He waves a hand. “He musta used something similar to block your magic in a rebound reaction—overloading your magic so that it gets weaker instead of getting more powerful. But it’d have to be more of a slow acting poison… that he’d want to reactivate later to complete the process of gooping… which is probably his big plan.”

Luz blinks, pinching her brows.

“Murder,” he says plainly. “It’s murder and going to kill everyone.” They hold out their arms.

“Which is even more reason you should be safe and not throwing yourself into a fight with him!” Eda exclaims.

She glares. “I can’t sit around while—”

“Edalyn!” Lilith suddenly bursts through the doorway.

“Lulu!” Hooty cries, crushing Luz around him in his haste to greet Lilith.

“I came as fast as I could,” she says. “Owlbert filled me in on the Quietus Spell, oh, Titan, I can’t believe this is what the Day of Unity was about this whole time. Ugh, I was such a fool. A dolt. A chump! A—”

“Hey!” Eda points at her. “No pity parties in this house. Besides, Luz is upset enough as it is.”

Luz whines, feeling an oncoming of tears.

“You’re right,” Lilith near whispers. “I’ll do anything to help.”

“Lulu!” Hooty smooshes his face against hers. “I am so happy to see you, I could—I could…” He gags. A round ball of something moves through his tube, inadvertently picking up King. “Oh, here it comes.”

He coughs up a pile of junk that buries poor King.

“Augh.” Luz cringes.

Lilith rears back. “Oh, my word.”

“Hooty, you gotta stop eating garbage from the ground,” Eda says.

King bursts free from the pile and waves out a black letter. “Weh! He’s also been eating our mail, look!” He holds it out. In gold lettering, it says to King. “Dear King Clawthorne,” he reads, “if you wish to know who you truly are, come to this location and meet our warrior clan.” He lowers the letter. “Is it just me, or is that kind of weird?”

“Huh, yeah, I thought Titan’s were—” She stops herself, unwilling to remind King.

“Extinct?” Lilith finishes, oblivious. “They are, but I don’t see how that has any correlation.”

“Cause King’s a Titan,” The Collector says. “We’ve been over this.”

Her eyes narrow. “You said, but I thought we agreed you must be wrong.”

“Actually, um…” King swings an arm. “I thought about it for a while and I think they’re… probably right?”

She blinks, stunned. “What?”

“Told you sooo,” The Collector sings. “You wouldn’t listen to me but I was right! And you were wrong!” They laugh.

“Eda,” she says desperately, “you can’t also possibly think—”

“Well, Lily, me and King talked about it and, as absurd as it is, it’s kinda the only thing that makes sense.” Eda shrugs. “I know, I didn’t believe it at first either. But the evidence lines up almost scarily so.”

Lilith backs into the doorframe and slides halfway down the wall. “R-really? I’ve known a Titan this whole time?” She stares at her hands.

“But this still doesn’t explain the letter,” Luz says. “If the other Titan’s are gone, how did…?”

“Maybe they’re not gone!” The Collector pipes in. “Maybe they just went into hiding and they were waiting for the right moment.”

Lilith shakes her head. “No, no—fine, I can accept there’s one left alive, but a whole race? It’s just not possible they could have stayed hidden for this long.”

“What do you know?” He scowls. “You weren’t right about, like, anything else you said.”

She swings her arm out the door. “You can literally see the Titan’s corpse were all living on!”

“That guy’s always been dead,” they scoff. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“You said the Titan was alive when you were—”

“Cause I didn't know who you were talkin' about! I thought you meant King's papa, not this random guy you all decided to worship!”

“Wait.” King's eyes scrunch. “The Boiling Isle's Titan and my dad are… different people?”

The Collector gives him a confused look. “How would your papa bury me in his own skull?”

“You know, I didn’t really think about it. But Titan’s or not, maybe they’re an answer to all our problems!” He holds up the letter again.

Luz kneels to get a better look. “How’s it supposed to help us stop Belos?”

“They’re a clan of warriors. How else do you defeat a tyrant with their own army? By making an army of your own!” He shakes a fist.

“Well, it’s… not like we have many allies,” Lilith concedes, seated on the couch.

“Not to mention, it’s a chance for King to find out more about his heritage,” Luz adds. “I say let’s go for it!”

Eda slams her hands on the table. “Well, I say you two need a safe place to hide while the adults take care of things.”

Luz groans, crossing her arms as she turns away. 

“I’m actually in favor of this plan,” Lilith says.

Her eyes widen. She whips around, “You are?!” she exclaims.

“Though I have my doubts—” She gives a pointed look toward The Collector, who only blows a raspberry. “It wouldn’t hurt to check. Plus, judging by King’s map, you two would be taken far, far away from the Boiling Isles. And Emperor Belos,” she enunciates.

Eda looks to the side. “What if something goes wrong?”

“Hooty could accompany them. Their safety would be your responsibility, my dear, brave Hootsifer.” She gestures out to him.

Hooty’s eyes glisten as he smiles. “I would protect these silly children with my life!” He bows before Lilith, which she returns with a smile and pull of her skirt.

Eda grumbles. “Yeah, but how—how would they even get there?”

Luz gasps. “I know a ship that might take us.”

King runs up to hug around her neck. “Yeah! The old selkidomus crew! Think about it! Belos won’t be able to withstand a whole army!”

“Such allies would be quite valuable,” Lilith tacks on.

“I wonder if I still have my sailor’s hat?” Luz wonders aloud.

“Does anyone else feel that marching drum around the edge of the forest?” Hooty asks.

“Fine,” Eda says. “You can go. We’ll find out all we can on our end to create a plan for, uh…” She glances at Lilith. “When you get back.”

Luz dashes across the room. “Thank you Eda!” She hugs her. “We won’t let you down!”

“Let’s pack for the trip!” King says.

She picks up The Collector’s tablet and follows King out of the room.

“Wait for me!” Hooty cries, hopping around the corner. 

“Oh, sorry!” She skids to a stop and picks Hooty’s weird backpack form up, swinging him around her shoulders. “Alright, now let’s pack.”

“How are you detached from your door?” The Collector asks.

King shudders. “Trust me, you don’t wanna know.”

She hops into her room and sets The Collector down. The mess might be a roadblock in trying to find her hat… or anything.

“Do you really think there might be more Titan’s?” King asks, somewhere behind her.

“I think it makes more sense than you being the only one,” The Collector replies. “Besides, who else would send that letter?”

Luz digs through a pile of clothes. “Maybe they’re like… evolutionary descendants?” 

“Ehh. Not very likely,” The Collector says. She can hear their hand wave. “Titan's don't really do that.”

What does that even mean?

“But…” King sounds quiet. “Why didn’t they come back for me?”

“Uh—” The Collector stutters a little, sounding, for the first time since she’s met him, almost hesitant. “Maybe they didn’t know you were out there, um—if they’re hiding, it makes sense… I dunno. They still sent a letter now, didn’t they?”

She raises a brow. Are they trying to reassure King?

“Besides, I really, really want it to be Titan’s. Cause then I could convince one of them to let me out, since you won’t,” he says pointedly.

Maybe not.

“I don’t know what I’d be unleashing!” King defends. “You could consider acting more trustworthy.”

They whine. “Why are you so mean to me?”

“Like you’re not mean to me!”

She tears through another pile of clothes. Jeez, she really needs to clean up.

“Uh, when have I ever been mean to you?”

“Just last week you said there’s tiny people in all our food that scream as we eat them to death.”

“It’s not mean if it’s true.”

Those are her pajama’s, oh, that’s her grom tuxedo top! She was wondering where it went. But it’s not her pirates hat.

“And a few days ago you scared me, again, while I was on the stairs and I fell!”

They giggle. “Yeah, that was pretty funny.”

“I found it!” She exclaims, holding up her beloved hat. It’s more of a bandana, but semantics. “Now I’m all set for pirate-ing.”

“I hope you’re packing more than that,” King says.

“I am, don’t worry.”

She’ll need a change of clothes, just in case, water bottles, non-perishables… maybe she’s over packing, but after a lifetime of not packing enough, she’s learned that compensation is a must.

“Oh! You should bring an Azura book incase we gotta stay overnight,” The Collector suggests.

“Good idea!” She turns to smile at him, but seeing his face—

Belos’ voice worms into her head, unbidden. I will admit, you impeded some of my progress by taking The Collector, but that only meant I had to be more creative.

Her heart lurches in her chest. She smacks her head in attempt to push the thought down. It’s fine. They’re not with Belos, and any idea of what he could have done to them is just that, a thought. She is going to focus on getting allies, and it’s going to be fine.

“Um… you okay, Luz?” King asks, bringing her back to reality.

She must have some distress on her face. She tries to wash it away with a smile. “Yep! I got my stuff, so we better go soon.”

“Okay! Hold on.” He rummages through some of her papers and pulls out his old collar. “I just want to see if any of them know what it says,” he explains. “Or if they recognize the language?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.” She ruffles his cute little head and stands. “Alright, let’s go!”

Chapter Text

Luz isn’t afraid of water, but paddling through a boiling sea does make her heart race, so she heaves a sigh of relief when they hit land.

“It’s good that Salty took us most of the way,” she says as she climbs out of the tub. “And that this was only a few hours.”

The sky’s turned a beautiful indigo, with rolling, purplish clouds and bright flecks of red stars. She wonders, not for the first time, if the constellations here are different.

The Collector seems especially taken by the view. He’s been looking up since the sun set, completely ignoring everything else.

“You haven’t seen the night sky in a while, right?” she asks.

“It looks… different,” they say.

King’s already ahead of her. She picks up the pace, hot sand crunching under her shoes. Despite living here for months now, she always forgets the beach is not a good place for a leisurely stroll.

She hops onto the winding path of stone stairs. “Oh, that’s a long way up,” she mumbles.

“It’s not as bright,” The Collector eventually continues.

“There is a lot more light pollution, nowadays.” Not that this area is particularly polluted… or much of the Boiling Isles, she's noticed. Perhaps her comment is more relevant to the human realm.

“No, it’s just… not as bright.” He frowns. “There’s less stars. I guess everything would be a little more spread out now…” They squint, mimicking binoculars around their hands. “Are you guys missing constellations?!”

“Are we?”

“You are! The stars must have moved far enough it doesn't form now,” he says.

“Huh! That’s kinda cool. I wonder if my home had different constellations earlier on?” she asks.

“It probably did, stuff was a lot closer to each other.” He projects a shadow of the galaxy, with stars and planets close to each other, which begin to drift apart. “But the universe isn’t done expanding! Actually, it’s going faster than it was before.”

She can see the top of the stairs. “Isn’t it weird that the universe is creating more of itself? Weird in like, a cool way.”

“It is pretty cool,” they agree.

A brisk wind breezes past, just as she reaches the top. There’s a large indent in the finger, along with a cracked wall, but the place is empty.

“Is anyone here…?” she asks.

“Maybe were a buncha early birds!” Hooty says.

King’s eyes furrow and he runs up to the wall. “Or maybe they got sick of waiting. That letter was over a month old…” he mumbles.

“Hang on,” she says.

There’s a rune carved around a small triangle where the cracks meet. She brushes her hand over the stone. “There’s something here…” 

She pulls the letter’s rock from her pocket, which King lended her for safe keeping. An idea forming in her mind, she slots the rock into the triangle.

Yellow and blue light bursts from the bone, exploding in a ring with a force of wind that nearly knocks her off her feet. It runs up the finger in jagged lines, up to the point where a glowing portal forms above it. Lightning cracks from above and they’re enveloped in a strong blue light.

She yelps when she’s suddenly in the air, an invisible force pushing them up.

“Here we go!” she yells.

The light flashes, something tugs inside her, and then she’s falling.

The four of them hit the ground with various noises of pain.

“Luz!” Hooty cries. “Are you okay?! Where’s your other arm?!” He wraps himself tighter around her.

She pushes herself up, quickly checks The Collector’s tablet is unharmed, then looks toward Hooty. “I only ever had two, Hooty.” She unwraps him from her. “Did you think I had more?”

“Luz,” King says with a tone of urgency. “Look!”

She turns. The skyline is one of Titan skeletons, ribs and hands and legs poking out, covering an early morning sun. A gigantic skull stands far in the distance, with a much narrower build than the Boiling Isles Titan.

“I’ve seen this place before,” The Collector says. “There was just less, erm…” He gestures vaguely at the skeletons. “The big skull was always there, though.”

“It doesn’t look like the Boiling Isles at all,” Hooty says.

A deep voice cuts through the wind. “That’s because it isn’t.”

A large creature steps through the mist, glaring down with red-on-yellow eyes, framed by a skull strikingly similar to King’s. “Welcome to the other side of the world,” they boom, not sounding welcoming at all. “You dare trespass on this sacred—”

They gasp, eyes wide. “By the Huntsman, it is King! My name is Tarak.” He bows. “Hail and…” Impossibly, his eyes widen even further, and his words turn into a stuttering gasp.

“It—it can’t be… you have brought the Grand Huntsman to us?”

It takes her a moment to realize he’s speaking to The Collector. They look as confused as she feels.

“Uh, what?” he says.

“Oh, forgive me for my rudeness!” He kneels. “I am honored to be in your presence, Grand Huntsman. Our civilization has tried valiantly to continue your legacy and—and to one day free you from your prison. I am… sorry it has taken so long for us to find you again.”

The Collector reels back as much as they can on a flat disc. “Why are you calling me that? I don’t hunt things, I’m a Collector.”

“I—I apologize, Grand—I mean… I was not aware you preferred a different name. What is it, if I may ask?”

“The Collector,” he says, tone going distinctly flat. Uh oh.

“Um!” She jumps in, before their chances of a good introduction are ruined. “Sorry about uh, whatever this all was, but this is King—you know that—and we got… your letter?”

“Uh…” King looks at her, then at Tarak. “Y-yeah! Tis King!” He holds out his arms.

Luz crouches. “Psst, King! Introduce us!”

“Right! Uh… this is Luz the human slash friend slash sister, and this is Hooty, the uh… door?”

“Your warriorship,” she says and bows for extra measure. Hopefully that was non-offensive enough.

“Was it you who sent me that letter?” King asks. “Are—a-are you my…?”

“Father?” Tarak finishes. “Alas, no. Nor is he here.” He kneels before King. “But I did send the letter. And by the sight of you I know he was one of us. He passed down that handsome skull of yours, didn’t he?” He taps King’s skull.

King giggles.

“Now we celebrate!” Tarak rises. “Everyone will be so happy to meet you, and see our God has returned!”

“Okay, suggestion,” The Collector starts, “stop with the… god… huntsman thing.”

“Does our worship displease you?”

“Worship?!” Their mouth curls in appallment. “I’m still a third dimensional being, and not even omnipresent—you can’t—that’s not something to worship, much less call a god.”

She deigns not to mention she was considering The Collector a god-like being.

“Ah… I suppose it’d look strange to you, given you are being so humble. Perhaps you’ll find an easier time speaking with our elder again, the wisest hunter of them all—second to you… Bill!” He gestures above.

She gasps. “Is that short for something?”

“Nope.” He shrugs. “Just Bill.”

“Well, that sounds really cool!” she exclaims. “Right, King?”

He startles. “Yeah! Um… would you mind giving us a tour too while you’re at it?”

“Of course I can do that for you, King,” Tarak says. “Let us walk forth!”

Tarak guides them down a slope, more of the town coming into view. Houses with spiked shells for roofs, squares of crops, fences and archways lining the houses. Most notably, dozens of Titan’s walk around.

Have they really managed to hide this long? Lilith did think nothing was of note at the finger and Luz doesn’t hear much about people leaving the Isles, so it could be possible. Wouldn’t that be a cool, a species living right under everyone’s noses!

“So, what do you think?” she whispers to The Collector. “Are they King’s family?”

They eye the surrounding area, expression perturbed. “This is… wrong. They shouldn’t be worshiping me.”

“Yeah, I don’t get why’d they ever do that,” King says.

“Hey, I’d be a great god to worship.”

She notices some warriors training nearby. “Hmm, well, cultures can change, and it has been a while. Maybe it’s a more recent religion.”

“But—they just shouldn’t—it’s not right.” He throws out his hands. “And they look weird. I don’t like this.”

“Why is it so strange?” she asks.

“Because…” They make a frustrated noise. “Titan’s and Collector’s just don’t have that sort of relationship. And that wouldn’t change just cause it’s been thousands of years!”

King balls his hands into fists, glaring. “It could have. And they look exactly like me! Titan’s might not be extinct, I might have found my family. I… I think I did. Why are you being so weird about it?”

They groan. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“Look,” she buts in before the two can start a full on argument, “I understand this is all sorta weird, especially the god thing. But things change, especially in ways we don’t expect. And like King said, they could be his people. Isn’t that great?”

“Mmm.”

“Maybe just be a bit nicer?” she suggests.

“‘m not being mean,” he mutters.

“Well… more polite? Less… judgy, perhaps?”

They sigh. “Okay.”

She jogs to catch up to Tarak. “So, where is this Bill person?” she asks.

“He spends most his days just in here!” Tarak leads them to a tower, with a giant sun tied around the broken top.

He throws open the double doors. She gasps. A large skeleton towers above them, planets and asteroids orbiting it, with a staircase spiraling up between it. Sunlight shines through the top, giving the building a greenish hue.

“Woah,” The Collector marvels. “Sick.”

King cranes his head up. “Kinda morbid?”

“It’s not that morbid,” she says. “It’s like how we get skeletons of ourselves all the time.”

“It reminds us of our duty,” Tarak says solemnly. 

The Titan’s around them suddenly crowd closer. Instinctively, Luz presses The Collector’s tablet close and half-hides him under her jacket. They were already uncomfortable with Tarak’s intense greeting, she doesn’t want them subjected to a crowd of people doing the same thing.

“And now, dear King,” Tarak continues, “you can join us and have it be your duty as well!”

“Weh?”

The crowd cheers.

“Oh my gosh.” She kneels to King’s eye level. “King, that’s amazing!” She stands. “Well, duty or not, the world could definitely use your guys help. We came here on a quest!”

“That’s right!” King says. “It's a lot to explain right now, but could you—I mean, we—help the people of the Boiling Isles?”

“Any enemy of yours is an enemy of ours!” A demon raises their fist.

They all cheer again and the crowd closes in to whisk King away.

“Ah, wait—” Luz tries to reach for him.

“But we can make no vows,” Tarak interrupts. “For that you must beseech Bill. Thankfully, we are already heading there.”

“Um… okay! Yeah, let’s do that,” she says.

Hooty looks at her doubtfully. “Are we really leaving him alone?”

“He should have time to get to know his family.” She follows Tarak to the stairs. “Besides, we have a job to do.”

“I like your stuff,” The Collector says. “The planets and marble. Reminds me of…”

“Yes!” Tarak’s eyes scrunch up. “We’ve tried our best to emulate your architecture. I am glad there’s a resemblance to your beautiful castles.”

“Castles? You had castles?!” she exclaims.

“Kinda? But I haven’t seen any around,” they respond.

“Well, they do not exactly exist anymore,” Tarak says, looking a bit nervous, “but that simply means we must let them live on through our own buildings. It would be a shame to let the world forget of your noble deeds.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waves a hand. “Hey, are you sure you haven’t confused me with another guy? Like some other Collector? Cause I don’t remember doing anything to warrant this.”

“Another huntsman…?” Tarak questions. “There simply isn’t another one to confuse you with.”

“What do you mean?”

He looks away. “Well, I would not wish to remind you of the tragedy.”

They stop in front of another double door, gold and teal with a shining sun painted above it.

“I shall take my leave,” Tarak says, already retreating. “Tell Bill I said hi.”

She waves a little, then pushes open the door.

“Hello?” she calls.

The room is cluttered with drawers, chests, books, pots and scrolls. Weapons are half haphazardly placed, from the floor to a sword sitting in a bucket.

“Whoa.” She grins. “Look at all this stuff!” She takes out the sword and swings it up. “This’ll help us defeat Belos for sure!”

It turns to dust. Nevermind then.

“Oh!” She takes notice of the weapons on display, particularly a red spear hoisted against the wall. “Ohoho, yeah!”

She grabs it, the end spinning, then suddenly turning limp. She frowns with a disappointed hm.

“These are pretty bad weapons,” The Collector notes.

“Tarak?” A high pitched voice suddenly calls. She turns to see a short demon sitting on a chair, reading a book almost as big as him. “Is that you? I told you to stop rummaging through my stuff!”

She walks up in front of him. “Tarak’s not here! It’s just us.” She clears her throat and bows. “Greetings. My name is…”

“What’s that?” He pulls a horn over to his ear. “Speak up! You barge in here like an angry Titan only to whisper like the wind?”

She steps forward. “Greetings! Uh, this lowly traveler begs an audience with the great… Bill! Uh, mayhaps”—She crawls closer and puts her head in the horn—“we might perchance to venture to, uh…”

“Oh, for the love of—” Bill pushes the horn aside. “Tarak sent you here, didn’t he?”

She straightens. “He said you were the wisest. And also his friend. He says hi.” She waves.

“Of course he does. What do you—” He nearly falls out of his chair. “No… i-impossible. You have found the Grand Huntsman?”

“Not my name,” The Collector says.

“Yes, of course! How did you…” He clears his throat. “Forgive me, lord! I can only assume the worthy has come and found the last Titan, finally bringing you back to us… yet you’re not free? Is it possible you’ve come for my help?”

“Uhh. What?”

“That’s cool,” she says quickly, ignoring what a confusing statement that was. “But um, we’re actually here because we need your mighty warriors. Emperor Belos has threatened to—”

“Yes, yes, we will aid you in whatever our lord desires!” He hops off his chair. “Oh, I must show you my shrine. It’s been my little D.I.Y project for years. Come, right this way!”

He holds out a red curtain, gesturing for them to follow.

Luz looks at The Collector. They shrug. She shrugs in return, and hesitantly steps inside.

Initial weirdness aside, King’s never felt so happy in a group he just met.

Playing hit the piñata, training under a hot spring, using his sonic scream to hit a Griffin, through every activity someone was beside him and cheering him on. He was even given a fake beard! It felt too itchy, though, so he took it off.

“Now…” Tarak leads him to a smaller building and pushes aside it’s curtain opening. “Behold! Our armory.”

Barrels and crates of spears, swords and axes greet him from every angle, with many mounted to the wall. There’s even chests and Titan dummies on display, holding their own weapons.

“Woah!” He walks farther in. “There’s all sorts of things I shouldn’t touch!”

“Aye, for now.” Tarak crosses his arms behind his back. “But when you grow older…” he chuckles, “I will be delighted to show you how to dismember your enemies.”

“You would do that?” he asks eagerly. He pulls out his collar. “Can you also tell me what this means?”

Tarak kneels with a befuddled expression. “I-I’m not sure what that is. But maybe we can find out together! I assume your father was lost in a hunt of yore. But a Titan Trapper is never alone.” He places a hand on King’s shoulder.

“Yeah—w-wait, what?” He stumbles back. “Titan… Trapper?”

Tarak blinks. “Oh, I suppose I didn’t properly explain—sorry, I was just so excited to see our god returned, my mind has not been focused. Ahem. We are Titan Trappers, under oath to protect the world from giant monsters of death and destruction!”

“But I thought you guys were Titan’s!” he blurts out.

“What? Oh, no, you misunderstand. They’re only costumes to lure in the last remaining Titan. You’re wearing one too, aren’t you?”

He tries to still his trembling body. “Uh. Y-yeah, uh… yeah, a costume! Sorry, I got… confused!”

“Hmm, yes, yours is quite realistic.” Tarak’s eyes narrow. “And your power…”

“I should go—”

“No, no, actually, I think the time has come to celebrate your, uh… induction into the Titan Trappers. It is very important. Come!” He herds King out the door.

“Um, I appreciate the thought, but I think—”

“Really, it is our honor. Let me just… call Bill and inform him of the celebration.”

He swallows down his rising dread. “Can—can you just let me go back to Luz after? I need to talk to her.”

“…yes.”

The first thing Luz notices is the huge sun and moon statue, illuminated behind an altar, its blank eyes staring into her. The second thing she notices are the skulls.

Dozens crowd the altar, Titan skull after Titan skull. Tons of hundreds of bones line the walkway itself, some so big they stick above the railing. Bowls, plates and goblets litter the space, filled with bones themselves. If she wasn’t disturbed enough, murals line the walls, depicting various deaths of Titan’s.

“Isn’t it fantastic?” Bill asks. “Oh, do you like our disguises, too?” He rolls up his sleeve and takes off his… claw… glove, revealing a regular hand beneath. “You gotta look like a Titan to trap one.”

She works her mouth, unable to find anything to say.

“Wh…” The Collector looks horrified. “W-why—” They school their expression, leaving only distress. “You guys aren’t Collectors, why would you—”

“Hm? Of course we’re not! You’re the last one left, you know, after the Great War of the Gods,” he says, oblivious to the groups mounting shock. “So we valiantly took up the deed of your kind, to find and kill every last Titan! If I ever find that missing one, I’d hunt it down, tear it limb from limb, and mount its head in pride as we release you. Then... we can finally go from being Titan Trappers to Titan Slayers!” he declares, shaking his fists.

She shares a glance with Hooty.

“Uh…” She steps around Bill. “This has all been super cool, but I gotta go check on, um, things!”

“Wait, wait, but what about the uh... what were you talking about?” He taps his faux skull. “The—the thing with Belos.”

She stops in the doorway. “Oh, ha! I’m sure it’ll work itself out, really.”

“But our god! You’re not just leaving with him, are you?”

“I… am,” she says. “Oookay, bye!”

She slams the doors shut and runs.

“We gotta get King out of here now!” she says.

“Then run faster!” Hooty stretches forward and pulls her along.

“I’m trying!”

She dashes down the stairs, finding a difficult time seeing with the sun faded. It nearly costs her, taking one too many stumbles for comfort, but Hooty keeps her balanced.

Before she can reach the doors, a figure slides in front of her.

“Halt!” Bill yells.

“Waugh!” She jumps back. “How did you get here so fast?!”

He hefts up a spear. “I won’t let you leave with our god when we’re so close to releasing him!”

“Well they’re my friend and I’m not letting you take them!”

She ducks under a jab from his spear and swings a leg, kicking his feet out from under him. She lunges for the door, only to fall flat. Bill’s grabbed her leg. She tries to kick him, then rolls away with a yelp when his spear stabs the ground beside her.

“Leave her alone!” The Collector yells.

“Can’t you see they’re tricking you?! I will set you free! They’ve only kept you imprisoned!” He rams the end of his spear into her chest.

She falls back with an oof, and, unbiddenly, loses grasp on The Collector’s tablet.

“Gah—no!”

Bill snatches it before she can.

“LET ME GO!” they scream. “Let me go, let me go, let ME—”

He throws a piece of cloth over the tablet, suddenly silencing The Collector. The sharp end of his spear points at her throat and she jumps back, not reacting fast enough as he turns and runs out the tower.

She slams against the door, surprised when it doesn’t budge. “Huh? Did he lock it?! That’s a safety hazard!”

“Luz!” Hooty says, snapping her back to attention.

“Right, right, uh…” She rummages through her pockets. Light glyph, light, invisibility…

She forgot to restock on glyphs.

Her hand hits a rock. Oh, thank god. She stabs it into the door and begins carving a plant glyph. It’s hard to see, the room darker than ever with Bill’s candle gone, but after a minute too long she taps the finished glyph.

The doors turn into a wall of plants with an opening in the middle. She leaps through into the thick fog.

“Alright, Hooty, when I say now, hold your breath as long as you can,” she says, and readies her invisibility glyph.

She trudges up the hill, peeking over to find a small crowd gathered around a platform. Tarak, Bill, and two other people she doesn’t recognize stand on it. She squints, spotting the blurry image of King.

She creeps down the hill, feeling far too exposed. Hopefully the fog works to her advantage.

“In the ashes of your old life, your destiny awaits,” Tarak’s voice comes into range. “Carry this torch to the cloth and set it aflame.”

King does so, a little hesitantly. It looks like the cloth Bill threw over The Collector’s tablet. Is it under it?

She slides down farther, as close as she can without being spotted.

“Now,” she whispers and takes a deep breath.

“The connection has been made,” Tarak continues.

“Ah, you’re taking too long!” Bill rushes forward and throws a cloth over King’s head. “Don’t worry, child. We’re almost done.” He pulls out a dagger, raising it.

She leaps forward.

“Uh… did you pull something, Bill?” Tarak asks, after a moment.

Bill’s frozen under her grip. “I can’t move!”

She picks him up and throws him as hard as she can. King makes a noise of surprise and she pulls out a light glyph.

In the bright flash, she grabs King, and against better judgment grabs the still burning cloth. Perhaps it’s adrenaline, or the fire isn’t that hot, but she barely feels the burn.

She dashes to the nearest rock large enough to hide them and gasps.

“Hoohh,” she breathes out, sagging against the rock. She sets King and what she hopes is The Collector’s tablet down, which she confirms by brushing the cloth from it. “Is everyone okay?”

“I’m on fire.” The Collector appears on the rock, looking unbothered despite his complaint.

She airs the fire out with a swipe of the cloth. “King?” she asks.

“Luz!” He shakes a patterned cloth from his head. “Those guys—they’re not Titan’s, they’re—”

“Titan Trappers?” she finishes. “We found that out too. God, I was so worried.”

“Y-yeah.” He looks down. “I… I really thought they might have been the answer to everything. I just feel dumb now.”

“Oh, King.” She reaches out a hand. “Even if it’s not the same, you still have a family.”

“But you’re not always going to be here!” he chokes out.

She stops, taken aback.

“You’ll eventually go back to the human realm, I know how it works.” He looks away, eyes downturned. “I’ve read your Azura books. You even promised your mom. I just thought I had to… prepare for a world without you in it,” he says quietly. “But I guess these guys weren’t going to make it better.”

The assumption she’d leave without looking back—something close to anger stuns her. She’s been trying so hard to keep both worlds in her life, hasn’t she made it clear enough how much this one matters to her?

Maybe she hasn’t.

“Hark!”

Tarak's voice calls across the clearing. She whips her head, stumbling back from the sight of the crowd.

“Tis the wretched spawn of—”

Bill swings over his shoulder. “Shut up and get that Titan!”

Tarak forms a spell circle and fires shots of magic.

“Come on!” She picks up King under one arm and the tablet under her other.

King climbs up her shoulder, freeing a hand to more securely hold The Collector’s tablet. She grits her teeth and wills her legs to move faster.

“Uh—” King suddenly lifts up from her. “Ah!”

She skids to a stop. “King!” She runs back, throwing out a hand as a Trapper lifts him away with magic. “King!”

She takes her last light glyph and flings it, casting a flash of light to stun the Trapper. King slings off his cape mid-fall, using it as a parachute.

“I gotcha—” She yelps as shots fire at her.

Hooty quickly covers her. He swerves around the shots, only to be caught by a bolas. Multiple shots hit him and he crashes to the ground.

“Hooty!” She runs up and tugs at the rope.

“Tell Lulu… how brave I was,” he croaks.

Tarak ignites a blue flame in his palm, looming over with a glare. He steps forward—

“STOP!”

The Collector’s voice rings out. She looks up, finding them projected on a curved rock. He grits his teeth with a glare. “Why are you doing this?!” they spit out.

The crowd gasps. Murmurs float about, Luz unable to catch any over the rush in her ears, and the people kneel, discarding their skulls. All bear sun or moons painted on their faces, Tarak’s whole right half being painted blue.

Bill makes the brazen decision to speak. “We’re only trying to help you—”

“Well you’re not.”

She works on untying Hooty, King joining her.

“—that thing you’re with is a Titan!”

“I already know that!” he yells. “What’s your point?!”

“Wh-what? B-b-but, but the Great War! Your kind slayed the monstrous Titan’s, leading many great hunts. We’re only following in your footsteps!”

King’s claws still.

Bill continues, “Don’t you… w-want to be… f-free…?” His eyes widen as he speaks and he slowly steps back.

She looks up. At first glance, The Collector’s face is blank, but something in their eyes makes her freeze. She’s seen him at his most childish and innocent, making her brush aside his supposed otherworldly powers. They’re just a kid, after all. Harmless.

The cold fury on his face screams dangerous.

“We’re leaving,” they say lowly, “and if you ever use my name again to hurt people, it’ll be your blood on the ground.”

The witches are stunned into silence. Slowly, they direct their glares toward Bill, who stammers something she doesn’t hear.

Her brain starts working again. She finally unties Hooty, stands on shaky legs, and takes the distraction.

No one follows, but she runs the whole way back to the bridge.

“Time to go home!” she says, and slams the letter’s rock into its triangular hole.

A column of light shoots down. They float up, that same tug coming to her chest, and with a flash, they’re falling.

Specifically, falling from very high up.

She screams.

Oh god she’s gonna die, she’s gonna die, she doesn’t want to die—

Suddenly they stop midair, being pulled up a little, then gently set on the ground. She looks up, finding Hooty wrapped himself around the finger to halt their fall. Relief floods her.

“We can’t let them get through,” she says, staring up at the still lit portal. “We have to destroy this thing.”

King squints. “Then step back.”

He takes a few steps forward, inhales twice, and with one final breath lets out a sonic scream.

The finger cracks, huge fractures running up until the tip wobbles and slowly tilts over. She runs to pick up King and shields him beneath her, Hooty following suit by wrapping himself around the three of them.

Her eardrums are nearly blown out with the resounding BOOM that shakes the earth.

She half expects to be crushed any moment, but Hooty holds steady. Eventually, he wobbles, then unwraps himself.

She blinks through the dust. Her mouth falls open.

The finger’s been reduced to a pile of rubble. Large plumes of smoke and dust waft up into the very, very early morning sky, and a few rocks still tumble out.

She looks down at King.

He hugs her leg and looks down, tears brimming in his eyes. “I wanna go home,” he mumbles.

She leans down to give him a one armed hug. “C’mon,” she whispers.

Not another word is said during their walk back to the ship.

Salty offers to make breakfast before she can say a word.

“I don’t mind,” he says when she initially objects. “Just give me some time ta prepare.”

“Okay,” she sighs, too tired to make it herself anyway.

Hooty decides he wants to help, so she leaves him with Salty before trudging back to her and the others shared room. 

Her hand brushes over a ridge in The Collector’s tablet. Belatedly, she realizes it’s cracked by just a hair. She grimaces. If she’s reckless one more time—no, she’s going to do better. She can’t afford to make anymore mistakes.

Speaking of them, The Collector’s been worryingly quiet. She wants to ask if he’s okay, but…

The moment she and King stepped into their room, a palpable tension formed in the air, so thick she wouldn’t trust herself with the task of breaking it. And she has a funny feeling as to why it’s there in the first place.

King cuts through the silence. “When were you going to tell me?”

She knows he isn’t talking to her.

A pause. The Collector taps his fingers together with a distant expression. “Tell you… what?”

King whirls around. “About—about the war! The Titan Trappers! Anything! You—why did you keep it a secret?”

They look away, frowning. “I wasn’t keeping it a secret, you just… never asked,” he says.

“And you didn’t think it was important to mention?!”

They bristle. “It was a long time ago! Why does it matter now?”

She holds out a hand. “Guys—”

“Why does it—because it’s about my family!” King holds his claws over his chest. “My—my entire species, and you just thought it wasn’t important? The Titan Trappers still exist! They literally tried to kill me!”

He winces. “I didn’t—”

“What else are you not telling me?” King demands. “What, do you know what happened to my dad too?!”

“I don’t KNOW!” they snap, any remnant of guilt on their face overtaken by anger. “I wasn’t even there, I was trapped in this tablet because of your stupid lying dad!”

“Could you even pretend to care about this?” King asks. “About him?”

She tries again, “Guys!”

“Why should I care?! He LEFT ME!”

“Maybe he did for a REASON!”

It’s like a bang.

The Collector makes a choked sound. A white streak runs down his face. The half-sob turns into a frustrated shriek, and they disappear back into their tablet.

King trembles, eyes wide with dismay. He steps back, turns on his heel, and runs out of the room.

“W-wait,” she tries to call out, but her voice is quiet. “King!”

Her heart pounds against her chest. She tears her eyes from the doorway and looks around the empty room. “Collector…?”

All she can hear is the ocean.

Chapter Text

Luz stares at The Collector’s pitch black tablet. She shakes it a little, making a distressed sound.

“Come on, Collector,” she pleads. “Just say something so I know you didn’t just… disappear into the ether.”

Silence.

She throws her head back with a whine. Ten-ish minutes and no luck. What is she supposed to do? She wants to talk to King, but leaving The Collector doesn’t sit right, especially not while they’re unresponsive.

She touches the crack on their tablet. Did something happen? Can something happen?

“Come on,” she repeats in a whisper. “What do I have to do?”

Maybe…

She wracks her memory for what her mom’s done when she was upset. She pulls further back, until she reaches hazy memories with gentle voices, her mom softly singing to put her to sleep.

She gently sets his tablet down and opens her mouth. “Estrellita que al brillar, me pregunto cómo estás,” she sings softly. “Arriba en la inmensidad, un diamante celestial. Estrellita que al brillar, me pregunto cómo estás.”

A sniffle. “Was that… Spanish?”

She sags in relief. “Yeah, it was. I’m surprised you noticed.”

Their shadow projects onto the wall, The Collector curled up. She scoots closer to them.

“Hey,” she says. “Are you, um…” No, that’s a dumb question. “Do you wanna talk about it?” she settles on.

“What, you’re not gonna yell at me?” he mutters.

“No!” she exclaims, then wrangles her volume down. “I—look, what King said wasn’t nice, and I don’t think he should have said it. But you, um, you also hurt his feelings. It’s not an excuse, just…”

“I don’t get it.” They rub their face. “None of that stuff matters anymore.”

She fiddles with her hands. “Being in the past doesn’t mean it’s not important. And for King, he just learned about this.”

He drops his head and looks away.

“Hmm. You weren’t trying to be mean, right?” she asks.

“I wasn’t,” they mumble.

“But you can be accidentally mean,” she says. “And that’s as real as purposefully doing it.”

“That’s… stupid.”

She breathes out a laugh. “It is kinda confusing. But brushing people’s emotions aside just because you don’t understand them isn’t nice, either. You have to try and meet them halfway. Does that make sense?”

“Mmm.”

“We’ll work on it.” She pats his shoulder. “Just try to understand where he’s coming from and he’ll try to understand you, too.”

His head shoots up. “Isn’t he mad at me?”

She furrows her brows. “He’s not going to be forever.”

They make a face, one she can only describe as abject confusion. It turns to hesitance, then something more unreadable. “…right.”

She leans forward and pokes his nose. “Boop.” She makes a fist. “Got your nose.”

“Wah!” Their hands fly up to their face. “Hey, I need that!”

“Not anymore, it’s mine now.”

“Luuuz!”

She holds up her fist. “Whaaat?”

“Give it back! Give it back!”

“Oh, I dunno…” She pretends to think. “What’s the magic word?”

“Pleaaase! Give it back, give it back, give it back!” They punch at her shoulder.

She giggles. “Oh, wow, you’ve convinced me. Well, here you go. Boop!” She touches his nose again.

“Ah!” They laugh.

Her smile softens. “Let’s get breakfast. And, um, I gotta find King first. Will you be alright with Salty and Hooty?”

“Mhm.”

She picks up his tablet off her bed and spins. They giggle again.

“Oh, let’s not forget this.” She picks up his tablet’s stand—bought by Eda when Luz suggested it. “Now, try to be nice to Salty. He’s been working really hard, with his crew gone and all.”

“I will,” he draws out his words as his shadow follows Luz outside their room.

The ship’s beautiful, really, and furnished super well with a full sized bed, cabinets and drawers, red rugs, lamps posted beside doors and even paintings. Take out the rocking, plus sound of waves splashing against the sides, and she could think she was in a regular house.

Of course, the illusion fades when she heads onto the deck, but it’s still a pretty sight. She shrugs off her jacket and ties it around her waist when the heat hits her. Contrary to her realm, the air is much hotter at sea.

“Heya, Salty,” she greets. She puts The Collector’s tablet and their stand on the table. “Ooh, you have bacon!”

“Ey, Luz.” Salty briefly looks up from the fire. “Your fellow here’s a pretty good cook.”

“Hooty?” she asks.

Surprisingly, Hooty is genuinely helping Salty with the food. She thought he would just make conversation.

“Oh, huh,” she says. “Well, I gotta go find King. Can one of you keep an eye on The Collector? Make sure his tablet doesn’t fall over or anything.”

Hooty spits out the pan he was handling. “On it!” he cries.

She salutes, then turns to search the deck.

He could be in one of the rooms, but King isn’t one to stay far from food. She checks behind barrels, peeks under tarps, even doubles back around a few times. It’s right when she cups her mouth, about to call his name, does she look up.

Up above on the crows nest she can just make out the tuft of a tail.

She really should have checked there first, huh.

That doesn’t matter, because she found him now. She marches with renewed determination, grabs the ladder, and makes her way up. Wind blows into her face and floods her nose with the scent of salt. Bleh.

She finally crawls onto the crows nest with an oof, and adjusts herself to scoot beside King.

“Hey,” she says. “Nice view.”

He sighs.

She holds out an arm. He leans into her side and she squeezes him.

“I didn’t mean it,” he says after a moment. “I don’t know. This all feels way too big.”

“The war?”

“That, but also being a Titan.” He gestures with a claw. “I just thought I was a weird demon. And right as I was getting used to that, I learn I’m the last one.” He sighs again and presses into her side. “It’s not like I really hoped there might have been more, I know no one’s seen a Titan in ages, it’s just…”

“It’s different hearing it,” she finishes.

“Yeah.” He grabs onto her shirt. “It feels so… lonely.”

She pets his skull. “You know,” she starts, “they’re the last Collector.”

He blinks and looks up. “He—he is?”

“That Bill guy brought it up. Their kind didn’t exactly make it out either,” she says softly.

“Oh.” Slowly, he groans and buries his face in a claw. “I was such a jerk.”

“Hey, hey, I didn’t say that to make you feel bad!” She holds up a hand. “I told you because… I think you two have more in common than you realize. So it might be good to talk stuff out a little.”

He groans again, despairing this time.

“I knowww,” she says.

“It’s so hard talking to them,” he complains. “It’s like he tries to be as cryptic as possible.”

“I know. But that’s why you guys gotta learn how to do this.” She tries for a reassuring smile. “I could be there if it would help,” she offers.

A pause. “No, I should do it myself. But… thanks, Luz.”

“Anytime.” She scoots back. “Now, are you hungry? Cause I really, really am.”

His eyes light up. “Ooh, breakfast is done?”

She begins climbing down the ladder. “Yep! Bacon and eggs. Did you know Hooty can cook?”

He follows shortly after. “Eugh, yeah. It’s so weird watching him do it. But it’s better than all the times Eda tried making food cook itself.”

“Eda did what?” She hops off the ladder and picks King up.

“She hasn’t done it in a while,” he says.

Salty’s voice comes into range as Luz rounds the corner. “—knowing all that’s out there, it may send a shiver up my spine.”

The three of them are seated around the table, plates of steaming food set out. Salty, possibly asked to do so, or unaware of The Collector’s limitations, has also given them a plate.

“But that stuff is so far away!” The Collector says, projecting an image of various celestial objects, which he then throws out. “We’re all living on the same rock as killer whales and octoeye and seals.”

“Ya think seals are scary?” Salty raises a brow.

“They have an evil look in their eyes,” he mutters and crosses his arms. “But I’m more worried about the octoeye, have you seen how intelligent they are? They’re gonna start an uprising.”

“Watcha guys talking about?” she asks. She seats herself at the table.

“Matey here thinks the ocean is more scary than outer space. At least we know the ocean.”

“Barely. You can’t even classify fish.”

“I know what a fish looks like, what a fish acts like.” Salty shrugs. “Can’t say the same for your dark energy and what have you.”

“Dark energy isn’t dark matter. That’s a different thing.”

“Same difference ta me.”

“What’s the difference?” she asks, after swallowing a bite of food. It tastes good.

They beam. “Dark energy is what we think is empty space! Dark matter is why galaxies exist. Cause all the matter we can see wouldn’t have enough gravity to pull itself together, unless there was some other invisible matter doing that instead.” He gives a visual as he speaks.

“Oh, hm, isn’t there like…” She thinks. “A black hole at the center of every galaxy?”

“Not every galaxy. Besides, they’re not strong enough to pull together that much stuff.”

“So, ya think a weird death orb at the center of most galaxies isn’t weird, but little sea urchins are?” Salty asks.

“I could make a black hole right now if I wasn’t in this tablet,” they reply. “I can’t make sea urchins.”

Salty sets his fork down. “Is that how you measure bein' afraid of something?”

“I’m not afraid of the ocean!” they exclaim. “It’s just weirder.”

“I beg ta differ.”

“You can beg all you want, you’ll still be wrong.”

Salty laughs. “You remind me of my ol’ crewmates kid.” He picks up his plate, then frowns at The Collector’s. “You gonna eat that, lad?”

“Oh, um, he can’t actually eat,” she says. “He just likes to be included.”

“Bit strange, aren’t you?” Salty says.

They giggle.

Beside her, King yawns.

She leans over. “You gettin sleepy?” she whispers.

He makes a tired sort of sound, which she takes as a yes.

“Go nap for a bit, then you can talk, okay?” she says. “Better to do this stuff well rested.”

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“I think you two need a bit of time anyway.”

He looks down, then pushes his empty plate away. He gives The Collector one last glance. “…thanks,” he whispers.

She kisses his cute little head. “Sleep tight!”

She’s not as worried, now. Fights happen, and—well, maybe The Collector and King were sort of due. She just hopes they can work it out civilly.

King’s sleep is fitful.

He’s so tired he almost passes out as soon as he reaches the bed. He fades in and out, only briefly aware of his surroundings before being pulled back under.

It’s when the air changes does he startle.

His eyes fly open. He blinks, almost mistaking his surroundings as normal.

The room’s sickly tone dispels that idea. He sits up and intends to push himself off Luz’s bed, but stops short when he doesn’t really feel it.

He looks down and gasps. His body’s half-transparent, glowing faintly.

Is he… dreaming? What is this?

He hops off the bed. “Luz?” he calls, stepping down the hall. “Hooty?”

Outside, the world’s turned into a dark cavern, pitch black walls framed by jagged, brown-green rocks. Light shines from the bottom of each one, casting down into the deep dark water. Little cubes spin slowly in the air.

“Collector?” he tries.

There’s a low whirring, coming from… somewhere. He walks down the stairs, floating instead of falling when he misses a step.

“Wha—whoa!” He grabs onto the side of the ship.

Indistinct chattering comes from above. He looks up. There’s a strange orb floating at the top of the cavern, emitting a light blue glow.

“Is someone there?” he asks. “Hello?”

He strains to hear the voices. There’s two… three? They sound familiar.

“Hello?!” he calls again.

The talking stops. He steps back, feeling like he did something wrong. A shadow crosses over the orb.

“…King?”

Before he can process it, the scenery around him shifts and speeds around him until he blinks and suddenly,

King shoots out of bed.

He holds himself with a gasp.

Luz is above him. “Hey, sleepyhead,” she smiles. “We’re back in Bonesborough.”

“H-huh?” He touches the bed, just to make sure this isn’t a dream. “Oh. Are we leaving now?”

“Mhm. Salty already docked the ship. I was gonna get you earlier, but you looked so tired,” she explains with a sheepish smile.

He hops onto the floor.

It’s a quiet relief to step out into normal, familiar scenery, a purplish sky and the Boiling Isles upfront. Still, he keeps eyeing it, as if it’ll turn into a blackened cavern any moment. It was probably just a weird dream, yet…

He frowns and shakes his head.

Luz leads him to the deck. Everyone else is already gathered, in the midst of a conversation.

“—thought I heard something,” he catches The Collector saying.

“There’s always something to hear,” Hooty says. “Unless it’s a tree falling in a forest.”

“Ay, but the birds hear it,” Salty chimes in.

Luz stops in front of him and salutes. “Thank you so much for helping us!” She bows, for extra drama.

“No thanks needed,” he says. “Though I’m surprised you didn’t take anyone back. Weren’t’cha finding some warriors?”

“Uhh.” She straightens. “That… didn’t really work out. But it’s okay! We’ll figure something out.”

“Well, good luck, lassie. If ya ever need me again, I got nothing better to do.” He tips his hat.

She slings Hooty over her shoulders and picks up The Collector. The stairs down to the dock are a bit long, yet she waves at Salty the whole way down.

“Hmm.” She’s pulled out her tamagotchi and reads aloud the message. “‘Mom took Pensta, but we're safe. We'll contact.’ Aww, she sent so many hearts! Hope she's doing okay.”

“Is that… Amity?” King asks. “It’s okay if you wanna check on her, we can get to the Owl House on our own.”

Maybe it’d be a chance for him to talk to The Collector? He doesn’t get the sense they’re outright ignoring him, but they also haven’t said a word directed to him since… since their argument.

Luz frowns.

“Hey, look!” Hooty says. “Everyone missed us so much they put up pretty signs!”

All four of them look to where he’s pointed with his head. Tons of wanted posters have been taped up, of Luz, Eda, Lilith, and Hooty, his an especially vile depiction. King’s been saddled onto Luz’s poster, simply named ‘THE HUMAN’.

Two witches turn and growl at the group.

Luz turns away with a nervous smile. “Let’s take the long way home,” she hisses and pulls her hood up.

King can’t shake the feeling of being watched. And he’s not talking about how all the trees have eye markings. Maybe it's nerves, or paranoia from the wanted posters, but the feeling crawls up his fur and sets him on edge.

A voice comes into range. “Without that bird tube thing, this place was wide open!”

Luz’s eyes widen. She scoops up King and darts into the trees. Two coven scouts pass by with a carriage full of their stuff, led by a worm rat.

“I still haven’t recovered from that tea party,” one says and shudders.

He and Luz share a worried glance. They creep back onto the trail and half-run to the Owl House.

All the windows are cracked, parts of the walls smashed in and the doors falling apart. Dread fills him at the sight.

Luz swings open the door. The living room’s been completely ransacked, not a single item left.

He steps inside behind her. “Do you think they were arrested?” he asks.

She walks farther in and picks a paper up, then takes it to the light coming in through the front door. “No…” She shows the paper to him, bearing a drawing of a leg, the knee circled with red letters saying ‘HERE!!!’ “They’re hiding out on the knee!”

“The knee?” The Collector makes a face.

“It’s like a snowy mountain. I’m gonna see if they didn’t steal my winter clothes.” She darts out the room.

Even the halls have been emptied. Dim light seeps in, giving the house a fuzzy look. He holds his claws together and tries to ignore his fur standing on end.

“Ah!” Luz runs into her room. “Oh, thank goodness.”

It looks untouched, her sleeping bag in its same position surrounded by books and papers. She rummages through a pile and pulls out some boots.

“Why do you always wear shoes inside?” The Collector asks with a frown.

“It’s more convenient.” She chucks off her slip-ons and tugs on her boots. “Also, I forget to take them off.”

“It’s evil.”

She swaps her pirates bandana for her chullo. She grabs a scarf and hat, giving them to King. “And this.” She grabs sticky notes, her book and a pencil. “Gotta make more glyphs. Okay, anyone else need anything?”

King shakes his head.

“I need you to stop wearing shoes inside,” The Collector says.

She stands. “It's not gonna be for long! We're leaving now.”

“Luz,” King whispers as they head back down the stairs.

“What is it?”

“Um, I just feel like—I dunno.” He wrings his claws. “Like someone's watching—”

The moment they step back into the living room, there's a shout and then blasts of magic shoot at them.

“Waugh!” Luz ducks, pushing King onto the floor. “Oh, come on! ”

Coven scouts block the door. They must have been waiting to get the jump on them. One readies a spell circle, only to be launched by Hooty.

“Not again!” they cry.

“The worm’s still here?!”

The scouts have half a mind to hesitate, but hold their ground and keep firing. Hooty swings around with a cry and picks one up, chucking them at another scout. Luz trips a scout that gets too close and evades an attack, still holding King.

“Ugh, this isn’t worth it,” one says from the ground. “Just get the tablet! The Emperor said it was the most important.”

What?

A scout jumps and grabs Hooty. “Hoot!” He swings around, causing Luz to fall back with him.

“Augh—” They all collapse in a pile of limbs and Hooty.

One scout grabs The Collector’s now defenseless tablet. “Got it!”

“No!” Luz yells. She shoves herself up and leaps for the scout, only to be dragged down by another. “Get off—” She kicks them.

A scout yells when Hooty wrenches himself free and knocks down three in a row. “Go, go, go!” One throws an arm out for the door. “I am not having another tea party!” another yells as they run out.

A sharp whistle blows and King makes out a gryphon landing in front.

Before he can move, though, one of the scouts takes Hooty’s attention and causes him to whip around Luz and King, effectively tying them up.

“Wah—Hooty!” King yells.

“They’re getting away!” Luz says.

By the time Luz gets them untangled, the scouts are in the sky. “No, no, no!” She runs out, King not far behind.

It's too late.

Her chest heaves. She stares at the sky. Slowly, she sinks to the ground.

“Mghh.” She buries her face in her hands, then abruptly slams them into the dirt. “No! I can’t believe I let them—”

“Luz, it wasn’t your fault—”

“I should have hid him! I knew Belos wanted him before, I didn’t even think he might still want them.” She holds her head and digs her hand into her hair. “I—”

He hugs her. “Luz. Please,” he says shakily.

Luz tried, all while he couldn’t do anything . If it's her fault—then… then what does that say about him?

He didn’t even say sorry.

She blinks back tears. Grim determination settles over her face. “We’re gonna find Eda and Lilith,” she starts, “and we’re gonna make a plan. And I’m gonna punch Belos in the face.”

“O-okay,” he says.

She picks him up and squeezes him. “Let’s do this.”

King wraps his scarf around his newly made snow Francois.

They found Eda and Lilith after what felt like hours of stumbling around towns, making sure to keep low. It loads off some weight knowing they’re okay, but when Luz jumped into explaining what happened, there was a horrible, sinking feeling in his chest, and all he wanted to do was leave and wander off to who knows where.

He settled for standing outside and feeling the snow beneath his claws.

It doesn’t do much to ease him.

He steps back and looks out onto the isles. The Titan’s hollowed eyes stare into him.

His chest tightens, breath catching in his throat, and he looks down. Hooty wraps around him after a moment.

“We have to get them back!” he hears Luz say distantly. “You guys have a plan, right? Fill me in!”

“Uh, right,” Eda responds. “Well… it’s a secret!”

Luz pouts.

“Just for now. I'll fill you in closer to go time.”

He tries packing an arm onto the snow Francois.

“Go time should be now. Every second we’re not doing something—”

“I know . I’m worried too, I just…”

“Luz, could you give us a moment?” Lilith asks.

He finishes. “There! All done! Nice to meet you Fran-snow…ois.” The arm slips off. He sighs.

“Okay,” Luz mutters. Her voice comes closer. “Aw, King, let me help with that.”

Eda watches with a frown.

“What are you doing?” Lilith hisses lowly. “Tell her!”

She whirls around. “Tell her what?” she whispers. “That we have no plan? That Belos is gonna win, that the Boiling Isles are doomed?”

Guilt crosses Lilith’s face. Eda continues, feeling her hands shake, “He already got one of my kids.” She rubs her face with a glare. “And believe me, I’m going to march up there and do whatever it takes to get them back. I’m not going to give up on them. But I know how it’s going to end, Lilith. If Luz and King get caught up in my recklessness, if I fail—I can’t let him take them too.”

If she hadn’t had months of learning to be patient, she would have already been trying to claw the Emperor’s face off.

It hit her, after Luz nearly burst into tears during her retelling, that she never really got to know The Collector well. They were—are—most attached to Luz, so she initially thought they just favored her in little kid fashion, but she always felt this… distance about them, regarding herself.

Thinking about their imprisonment, the logical conclusion they must be harboring feelings of betrayal, it was easy to think that, in turn, created trust issues.

She made the foolish mistake of thinking she had time to work it out with them.

She sighs. “Those two deserve one nice day before they realize how dire things are,” she says. “I’ll do what I can, but… they can’t be apart of this.”

“But King’s a Titan,” Lilith says. “He’s one of the most powerful creatures here right now.”

“King’s my kid, and I’m not putting him in danger.” She jabs a finger.

“He could help us stop Belos!”

“Or Belos could take him too! He doesn’t know how to fight, Lilith,” she argues. “He shouldn’t have to.”

“This is your problem. You’re not willing to consider all our options. Worst case scenario is everyone dying!” She throws out an arm. “We can’t get worse than that!”

“Luz and King don’t have sigils. They have options, and I’d never forgive myself if I took them away.”

Lilith has the decency to look away.

Eda turns on her heel and heads up to Luz and King.

“Alright, kids! The, uh… plan isn’t gonna be ready til tomorrow. But if you could do anything in the world today…” she softens her voice, “what would it be?”

“Thanks, Eda, but I just want things to be normal right now,” King says.

Luz frowns at him, then holds a hand to her chin. “Well, I wanna go on a heist!” She raises a fist.

Eda raises one back. “Of course you do.”

King leans against snow Francois. Eda and Luz left for their heist, so now he’s left wondering what to do. Again.

The crunch of snow sounds from behind him. “King of, um, Titans, would you…”

He turns to look at Lilith.

She kneels to his height, holding out a cup. “Like some tea?”

“Uh, no thanks.” He waves a hand. “I’m—I’m good.”

“Of course! Titan’s don’t care for such lowly pleasures.” She tosses the teacup back. It shatters behind her. “Perhaps I could offer you”—She pulls out a worn sword with skeletal hands on the hilt—“dark deeds carried out in your name?”

“Ah!” He falls back. “No!”

She huffs in disappointment and steps back, then kneels. 

“L-listen, it’s okay. I just, uh, need some alone time. Your Titan… commands it?”

She stands and bows. Her hair falls over her face. She picks up Hooty and walks away.

He turns, looking back at the isles below. Finally, he gives into his urge to just get lost, and he carefully begins the trek down.

The stinging cold nearly keeps his thoughts at bay.

But every time he lingers a moment too long, another wave of guilt threatens to take him under.

He felt so angry. All that hope, the idea this loneliness wouldn't stick with him forever, gone down the drain in a horrifying revelation.

He’s not new to fights, or the guilt of saying something hurtful. That one, though, was with a hundred complicated feelings coursing through him, tied to something bigger than he could ever comprehend. A war between gods. It all felt so different. In that moment, he was the only person in the world.

The Collector's unfortunately good at breaking last straws, and… it was like everything tipped over.

Now, all he can think is will that be the last thing I ever said to them?

It makes him want to crawl into a hole and hide forever.

It doesn’t take long for to reach an unfamiliar town. He lets himself walk the streets, uncaring if someone recognizes him from a poster.

A hooded person holding a candle bumps into him, causing him to stumble a little. He sighs when they simply brush past.

“Lose your way, little guy?”

He turns to the voice. “Huh?”

A coven scout, wearing a leather jacket, is leaned back on their motorcycle.

He takes their odd casualty as a sign they’re not here to attack him. “Actually, I got to where I was going, but now I… eh?” He shrugs.

Wait. “Hey, I know you,” he says, walking up to the scout. “You’re Steve, from Lilith’s party! Shouldn't you be, like, kissing the Emperor's butt right now?

“Probably.” Steve leans forward, arms crossed. “Heck, growing up, all I wanted was to be an Emperor's Coven Scout. To be considered one of the best. I got what I wanted, but it's not what I thought it was.”

He rubs his skull. “I hear that.”

“Belos is supposed to know everything, but why should he know what the Titan wants?” Steve holds out a hand. “Maybe the Titan doesn't even know what he wants? Maybe he's just some normal guy, you know?” He sighs. 

He stares out at the Titan. The Collector’s appallment at being worshiped comes to mind.

It used to be everything King wanted. He’s not sure what he wants, now.

“Anyway, you going somewhere?” Steve pulls up a helmet. “Cause I got a sidecar and nothing but time.”

He hesitates. Then he scurries and hops into the sidecar. Steve puts the helmet on him, his horns breaking through the top.

“I point, you drive,” he says.

King’s relieved more than words can express.

There’s actually hope for stopping Belos. They have allies. There’s a plan. He could help, too!

It almost felt too good to be real, being taken to the C.A.T’s hideout and given several explanations and smart-sounding ideas. They have an entire group of powerful witches to back them up and insiders with deeper information. Luz and Eda even got Francois back!

Exhaustion hits him like a truck.

He’s been on and off shaking all day from nerves and the rolling turmoil in his gut, that the moment he feels like he can relax just a smidge, his eyelids refuse to budge back open.

Until the air changes.

He gets the sense of where he is just a moment before he swings up and confirms it.

The room’s gone dull and green. He looks down at a half-transparent body.

Okay, one weird dream means nothing, but two weird dreams of the same exact scenario? He’s not buying it.

He carefully crawls off the bunkbed. Luz and Eda are gone from their place, where he fell asleep to them carving her palisman. The others are gone, too, table devoid of low chattering and where Lilith and Hooty fell asleep.

Every step sounds too loud. They’re muffled intermediately by rugs—why do they have three—but it does nothing to cease his awareness of every small noise he makes.

He swings open the balcony doors. Outside is yet again a black, endless cavern, steeped in deep water.

And he hears talking.

He squints up, finding that same weird orb again. “Hello?” he calls.

A pause.

There’s a sound, almost like an inhale, before— “King?!”

“Wh… Collector? Collector! Is—is that you?!” He hauls himself onto the railing to get a better look.

The shadow that’s crossed over the orb looks like them, yet he can’t see their face. He squints, just in case he’s missing the details, but it’s really not there. It’s a little eerie.

“How did you—” They stop. “Ohhh. Oh, okay. I get it now.”

“Get what?” he asks. “Wait, how am I talking to you? Am I talking to you? Is this just a really weird lucid dream?”

“It’s not a dream, well—it is a dream, but it’s not a dream. Like, I’m real, and you’re real, but you’re not actually here and you’re also dreaming. The guys from the island did that ritual, sooo… now this can happen.” He shrugs. “Anyway, you’re like, my third pick for who I’d want to see right now but it’s still better than nothing!”

He’s not sure why he expected a coherent answer. “Are you okay? Where—where are you? What is this place?”

“Somewhere between dimensions. Very Titan-y magic. Very not me magic.” They wave a hand. “I’m with that Emperor person.”

“Belos?!” he exclaims.

“Oh, yeah, that’s his name.”

This is bad. He thought maybe it’d be okay if Belos just confiscated them, but for them to be around him?

“Collector—”

“I’m fine. He just really, really likes monologuing. A lot. I tried to ignore him, and that got boring, so I tried to wage psychological warfare, but he figured out he can just cover my tablet which has been super boring.” He crosses his arms.

Well, they do seem… fine? He hesitantly takes their word for it.

“We’re gonna get you, you know,” he says. “There’s a resistance against Belos! Some of the head coven members are even in it. It’s—it’s not hopeless.”

They’re quiet for a moment.

“…you’re waking up,” they say.

“Huh?”

To his horror, the scene around him blurs, looking it’s almost about to collapse in on itself.

“W-wait!” he says. “Wait, I still need to tell y—”

He shoots up with a gasp.

“King?” Luz’s voice comes from the side, sounding a bit groggy. “You okay?”

He looks down, finding a normal body, in a normal room. Luz sits up from her bed, giving him a tired, vaguely concerned look.

Everything’s gone.

“Y-yeah,” he says. He inhales. “Yeah.”

Chapter Text

“Alright, let’s get this briefing over with.”

At Darius’ command, everyone crowds around the table. King sits beside Luz who wraps an arm around him.

He’s been feeling jittery all morning. The tense atmosphere doesn’t do much to ease his nerves, or the grave expression Raine takes before they speak.

“Okay,” Raine says, sitting down. “We have twenty-four hours until the Day of Unity begins and Belos activates the Quietus Spell.”

“And everyone on the Boiling Isles is taken out in one fell swoop.” Darius knocks over their battle planning figurines.

Raine gives him an annoyed look. “Well, not everyone. The spell targets those who underwent sealing their magic.” They hold up their arm, showing their bard coven sigil. “It’s a complicated ritual that gives us much more power than our bodies can handle. Normally, it’d make us combust, but Belos made it slow acting, ensuring we lost most of our power as a defense mechanism without him having to be on the run of convicting murder.”

Eda snorts.

Raine continues, “The second phase will be activated only under the eclipse.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Lilith asks. “We can’t stop the eclipse itself.”

“You’re right that we can’t stop the Quietus Spell, but we can corrupt it,” Darius says. “That’s where the Owl Lady comes in.” He gestures toward Eda.

“Huh?” Eda says.

He groans. “The curse, Eda.”

Her surprise turns to a realization. “That’s right! My curse warps magic.” She leans forward and points at Darius. “Huh, did quite a number on you two, if I remember correctly.”

“You remember incorrectly. I was completely unfazed.” He crosses his arms. He reels back when Eberwolf hisses at him. “Eda would have to sneak into the tower and here’s how.” He summons small abominations of himself, Eberwolf, and two regular ones. “I’ll control a pair of abominations to release Eberwolf's flesh-eating beetles into the crowd.”

They skitter into a crowd, which begin screaming, their tiny abominations arms waving. “It’ll create a distraction so big, we can get Eda up with the coven heads. The spell will halt once it comes in contact with the curse, and the day will be saved! No problem.”

Goo splatters onto everyone. He cringes away from the mess as Luz leans back with him, Lilith covering her eyes.

“What?” he asks. “Only a few people would get eaten. Even then, just the small ones.”

Raine flicks goop off their hair. “If we must do this, the safest bet is to have Eda tap into the spell by taking someone’s place as Coven Head. My place. Sealing your magic and all.”

Eda gasps.

Luz places her hand on the table. “Why can’t you guys just give her a fake sigil? Belos won’t know the difference!”

Raine shakes their head. “It wouldn’t work. To corrupt the spell, she needs to be part of it.”

“As Head Bard, you'll also be flanked by me and Eber, where we can keep an eye on the others.” Darius points at the diagram.

Lilith stands. “Why are we acting like Edalyn’s the only one with a curse here? Please, let me do this, as a—”

“No,” Eda says firmly. “You haven't had your curse that long. You don't know how it would react. But I do.” She stands up with a grin. “And how can I say no to sticking it to Belos one final time? Not only that, but I got the Raine Whispers watching out for me.”

Katya raises a fist. “Heck yes, Owl Lady!”

In the midst of everyone’s clapping, King can’t help but feel a sense of looming dread.

That sense of dread doesn’t go away, all throughout Luz saving her girlfriend, to him being left outside Blight Industries because it’s ‘safer’.

He sits with a groan and sighs for extra measure. He’s not useless. Even if he doesn’t have all his powers figured out, he knows his sonic scream can do some damage. He’s a good liar, he’s flexible and can easily infiltrate places, there’s stuff he could help with! But everyone keeps pushing him to the side.

All he can do is sit by and watch while everyone does the real work.

He’s never felt so small.

Black spots crowd his vision. He stumbles up, surprised, and the whole world blurs into a sea of browns.

The air is stale. Low whirring fills it, coming from all directions. Water laps at his legs. He’s a lot farther down this time, the cave seeming taller than ever before.

How…? He knows he didn’t fall asleep.

No, this is an advantage! Immediately, he tries to find the glowing blue prison above.

“Collector!” he shouts.

Their shadow crosses over it. He can see their face this time. “King! Oh, wow, you look so tiny from here.”

“You look tiny. Are you okay? Belos hasn’t done anything…?”

“Pshh, he’s basically done nothing. I don’t know why he wanted me if he was just gonna keep ignoring—Wait!” Their eyes go wide. “King, are you guys working with some of the coven heads?”

“We are,” he says hesitantly. “W-why? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, whatever plan you have, it’s not going to work.”

His heart drops. “What?”

“Belos knows they’re gonna betray him. I finally got something useful out of him,” they say with an air of annoyance, which turns back to urgency. “Look, do you have a backup plan? Cause you need it.”

Shoot.

“We… we don’t,” he says, mouth dry.

“Oh. Hm. On the bright side, none of the kids are gonna die, so you guys could probably rebuild society.” They shrug. “Really a big oversight on his part.”

“We’re not gonna fail!” he yells. “We—I—I’ll…”

He’ll do what? What in the world could he possibly do against the laws of nature or a dictator that’s been planning this for years?

“I’ll come up with something,” he says. “I just have to…”

A realization sparks.

“Could you stop the spell?” he asks.

They spin around in their prison. “Hmm. Yes!”

“So… uh, then, how would I go about freeing you? Would you need my—my blood?” He holds out an arm.

“No, silly.” They wave a hand. “You’d need to be with my tablet, or actually in this place, but you don’t have a portal for that…”

The world starts blurring.

“Ah!” He jumps back. “Wait, wait! What am I supposed to do?!”

He looks up, only to see a fading blue sky.

He sags.

Of course, somehow everything manages to get worse… when it turns out Luz’s grand plan was to get taken by Kikimora and sent straight to Belos himself.

Luz braces herself for the battle to come.

It was a risky move she made, one she was almost worried wouldn’t pay off—bless her friends and how hard they tried to keep ‘her’ from being captured. Even now, as she waits with baited breath, she fears this won’t amount to anything. But she has to do something.

If facing Belos one on one is that something, so be it.

She tenses when she finally hears his voice.

“Of course she’d mess up such a simple task.”

The bubble pops.

“But I am glad to see you, my fellow human,” Belos continues. “What? No fight left?” he asks, when she doesn’t move. “Or did you learn your lesson from last time?”

“You wish.”

She takes a deep breath and uses her invisibility glyph. She skids behind him, pulls out two fire glyphs and throws them.

“Spicy toss!” she yells.

He deflects with a swipe of his staff. “Of course not.”

He smiles and sends a blast of artificial magic. She dodges with a duck and swings a vine toward him with a glyph, trying to knock his staff away. He simply shreds the vine.

It’s then she notices the finished portal behind him. Her surprise costs her, as he picks her up with his magic and sends her across the room.

She yelps and slaps herself with a safety hover glyph, halting her fall. She scurries up and runs from a blast that just misses her, then skids behind a pillar. Her heart pounds as she struggles to fill her lungs with air.

“I didn't realize you're already combining glyphs!” he says.

She places an ice glyph on the pillar, then the next.

“You do have a strange intuition with these. It took me years to figure that out. Almost like the Titan himself didn't want me to have that knowledge.”

She activates the glyphs around him, sending shards of ice from all directions.

He destroys them with ease. “Though you're still decades away from beating me.”

He narrowly avoids her fire attack, throws a now goopy hand and grabs her, bringing her closer as she struggles against his grip.

She screams in anger. “Eat dirt, Belos!”

He’s unamused. “It’s Philip. And despite our differences, I want to help you, Luz. I can send you home.”

She glances at the portal, then doubles down in trying to wrench free. “If you really wanna help, tell me where The Collector is!” she yells. “What do you want with them?!”

“I don’t want him for anything. But perhaps we’re not so different, if you’re trying to use him.”

“I am not using them,” she hisses. “Just tell me where they are!”

He sighs and picks up a piece of cloth from the table behind him. “Do you know what a Collector is, Luz? They’re one of the oldest sources of all magic. Just one could raze the entire earth. Quite dangerous, indeed. Luckily for me, the last one left is trapped in a measly little tablet.”

He drops the cloth.

She jerks forward with renewed vigor. “Collector!”

Their tablet shines in the dim light. “Luz?!” Their face appears with a shocked expression. “How did you—”

“Collector, I’m gonna get you out of here, I swear—” She growls at Belos. “Let go of me! You just said you don’t need him, what’s the point of this?!”

He gives her his stupid, calm, I’m sooo smart and know everything and I’m gonna be really smug about it smile. She needs to get out of his grip. There’s glyphs in her pockets, she remembers now that she’s had a minute to think. If she could just angle her hand to grab one, maybe she could—

“Oh, Luz, you misunderstand. I have to make sure no one else can use him.”

Something about how he says it sets alarm bells ringing.

Belos sets their tablet down and raises his staff. With a glow of red, she hears a cracking sound.

Then stone begins to spread over the tablet.

“Wha—” The Collector gasps. For the first time since meeting him, there’s terror in his eyes. “W-wait—wait, no—”

“Stop it!” she screams. She can’t get her stupid hand to move right, come on. “No, no, Belos, please, I’ll do anything, what do you want?” She strains against his hold.

“No offering would be worth someone having that power,” he says, so casually, like he isn’t ruining her life this very moment. 

“No, no, no, wait, don’t—” The stone rises agonizingly farther, The Collector’s face being more and more obscured. “L-Luz! LUZ!” he cries.

A choked gasp leaves her in lieu of words. Ringing grows in her ears with her mounting horror, reaching its peak as in the blink of an eye their voice cuts out, replaced with a silent, empty stone slab.

Belos slams his staff into the tablets small crack and breaks it in half. 

She feels the hollow pit in her chest where her heart was.

For a moment, there’s nothing but a numb feeling under her skin. Slowly, it rises through her, a buzz screeching louder and louder in her head. Pure rage crashes through her. One moment she’s still and the next she finds herself slapping a fire glyph onto Belos’ arm.

He screams, arm bursting into flames. She’s dropped to the ground.

She skids around him, grabs the tablets broken pieces, and backs away from Belos. His scream shifts into a furious roar, the rest of his body morphing to goop until he’s changed into a monstrous resemblance of himself.

Uh oh.

His body twitches and jerks, moving in an unnatural manner as he looms over her and rears up a strike. She dodges the swing. In a flash of movement he lunges for her and hits the table when she runs out of the way, sending it flying into the wall.

“Okay, I-I know you’re mad, but—” She yelps when he lunges again, narrowly missing.

He ends up hitting the portal. It sparks and shakes, electricity crackling up it before it stills, just easing her terror it was about to collapse. His eyes land back on her. She reels back and slaps herself with an invisibility glyph.

The tablet sits heavy in her hands. She’s going to fix this. She’s going to fix this.

She grits her teeth and runs for the door.

King blearily opens his eyes.

Gah, his head. He groans and squints through the blur. They… crashed? There’s a ringing in his skull, amidst vague sounds of shouting.

“Willow, are you okay? Come on, I’ll help you up.” Hunter’s voice is muffled like a film of wax paper.

“Dad, Dad!” Amity’s voice is even fuzzier. She runs up to Alador. “Dad, are you—”

He says something and hands her a small object.

“Dad, no! We’re not gonna leave you—”

He kisses her head and turns, fighting off a crowd of abomatons. Willow and Hunter drag Amity away, yelling at her to go.

“King.”

He startles, looking up at Gus’ face, suddenly close. “King, are you okay?”

Everything blinks out for a moment. When he opens his eyes again, he’s being carried. Witches scream in what sounds like agony, thick, darkish goop coating the ground. The platform holding the coven heads come into view. They lay on the ground, shaking as the same goop trickles out of their mouths, skin darkened to sickly colors.

“Darius! Darius? Darius, wake up!” Hunter yells.

“Eda! I’ve got her!” Willow says, somewhat alerting his attention.

His mom is unconscious, arm gray-ish, but looks far better than the others. Screaming fills the air.

“She’s not waking up.” Willow’s voice grows more distant.

“We have to get to the head,” Amity says. “Luz could be in trouble.”

He closes his eyes.

When he comes to again, he’s far more aware. He blinks, finding himself held by Gus and flying in the air. Darkness surrounds them. He groans and rubs his skull.

“Eh… eh?”

The Titan’s odd looking brain comes into view with a platform extending from it. They must already be in the skull.

“King!” Gus exclaims. “Are you okay?”

He can hear better. “I… think so. Are we… are we going to Luz?”

“Yeah, she’s definitely in trouble. And we gotta see if Belos can stop the spell.”

They fly farther up. The tall doors swing open, Luz running through them with a goopy monster hot on her heels. It jerks around in a way that’s uncanny. Luz skids to a halt as it rises behind her.

“We. Don’t. Belong here!” it hisses through a deep voice that he realizes is Belos.

They land on the ground. Willow slams her hands down.

“I’m not like you!” Luz yells.

Belos rears up. He’s halted by Willow’s vines and falls hard.

“We’re here to help!” Willow says.

“Did you really think we wouldn’t follow you?” Amity’s angered expression turns to a smirk.

Gus clutches him tighter. “Yeah, girl. Get with it.”

Luz holds something. “You guys are literally the coolest!” Belos raises a little. “We have to get him to stop the Quietus Spell, but he’s all… beserk mad!”

Willow ties him down with more vines. The bridge rumbles as he struggles, then breaks an arm free, hand slamming into a few pillars. Rocks tumble down from the crash. Gus leaps away from one and bumps into Luz.

“King!” she says.

The eclipses red glow illuminates her face. Shadow snakes dance across the bridge, together combining for an eerie look.

“I—” She looks down at what she’s holding, then presses it into King’s claws. “Belos… he broke it.”

He holds out the object. It’s like cold water douses him when he notices the moon symbol broken in half. The feeling sinks deep into his bones and shakes his claws.

“I’m—I’m gonna figure out a way to fix it, I swear.” Her voice trembles. “Hold onto them, okay?”

He can’t say anything.

Gus set him down, somewhere between talking to Luz. Amity calls for her and she’s off.

He reaches out a claw, words on the tip of his tongue, but falls short. Desperately, he looks down at the silent tablet in his hands. The eclipse can’t be stopped, Belos has turned into a monster, The Collector isn’t here—every worst case scenario has just unfolded before his eyes. He tries and fails to still his shaking claws. This can’t be happening.

That’s when he sees the portal through the doors.

You’d need to be with my tablet, or actually in this place, but you don’t have a portal for that…

An opportunity.

He jumps up, clutching their broken tablet. It’s not too late. It’s not too late!

A rock lands beside him. He jumps. The movement propels him into a run, each shake of the bridge stumbling him closer to the portal. He runs through the double doors and stops in front of the glowing, crackling portal.

Gently, he sets down the broken tablet. He steps up to the door.

With a deep breath, he swings it open.

Thunder booms. Rain pelts oddly green grass, trees looming over. The human realm. He puts his claw on the hinge of the door. How does he get it to go to that in between dimension?

Very Titan-y magic.

He must be able to do something. He has to. Think.

The scenery mocks him. He grips the door from both sides “Take me to… the in between dimension?”

Nothing.

“Come on! What do you want me to do?” He shakes the door.

Panic nearly grips him. He catches it before it does and shuts his eyes This is his magic. He must have some control over it.

He just… needs to… make it bend to him.

There’s a tug. He feels the strange sensation of grabbing something, and opens his eyes to see the image of the human realm flickering out, being replaced by browns and greens and whites. Yes! He reaches farther, mentally pulling as hard as he can, until the image sticks.

With no time to waste, he leaps in.

It’s like jumping into the lake. Water rushes around him, dark and murky. Unlike the lake, instead of sinking farther, he suddenly finds himself sticking out of the water.

He looks down, half expecting a transparent, shimmery body again, but he’s still corporeal. He looks up. It’s a bit different. There’s no jagged spikes, or much of a visible ceiling. It’s just endless dark and whirring, floating cubes.

“Collector?” he calls.

The ground shudders. He jolts when water swirls at his feet. “Weh—”

Suddenly, a large, gaping hole opens up beneath him. He yells. There’s two terrifying seconds where he’s in the air, waterfalls rushing past him, before he slams into something.

He scrambles to keep his footing as he slips down the round surface before ultimately falling, this time being caught by a floating cube.

He groans. Realizing what he landed on before, he jumps up.

It’s The Collector’s prison. Up close, he now sees colorful stars on the glowing blue orb. It has four pieces of gold metal that all end just before a golden plate. Light blue lines cover its surface, creating a shape that resembles… a glyph?

“Collector!” he shouts.

There’s a shakingly long moment, enough time King almost thinks of hopping on there and figuring out how to break the prison himself, before The Collector’s voice comes.

“…King?” Their shadow comes into view, curved in way to indicate them being on the opposite side of the orb. “Wh—what—” Their voice is thick. They wipe their eyes and subsequently the misery off their face. “King! How—why… w-wait, is Luz—”

“Luz is okay! I used Belos’ portal to get here,” he says. “There’s, uh, not a lot of time to explain. Listen, we need your help to stop the Day of Unity. I’m getting you out.”

“What?” they repeat, eyes scrunching.

“You know, the—”

“Aren’t you mad at me?”

The non-sequitur jars him. “Huh?”

“You were… you were, right?” they ask. “I don’t know why else you were like that. Why would you be getting me out?”

“Collector, that was days ago. I’m not gonna still be hung up on it,” he says, for lack of something better.

“But I kept something really important from you!”

He’s losing the thread. “Do you want me to still be mad?”

“No! I just don’t—you don’t make sense!” They hold their head. “Are you upset or not?”

“I was,” he emphasizes. “It really hurt that you didn’t say anything about the Titans, or the war. But I said something hurtful, too, so I’m… I’m really sorry. I just think,” he whispers, “that I’ve been scared maybe my dad left… me for a reason. And I took it out on you. I promise I’m not mad anymore.”

They seem stunned. Their almost blank, slightly surprised expression shifts as they look away, turning to doubt. “Why… why are you only freeing me now?” they ask.

He’s confused for a second, thinking maybe they didn’t understand what he said before, when their emphasis hits him.

Oh.

It’s hard finding the right words.

“Because—because I trust you now,” is what he ends up saying. “I didn’t before. And I, well—you’re literally, like, a powerful person that’s been imprisoned. I didn’t know what I’d be getting into! But… I think I get it now. You’re not some dangerous god that should be kept from people.” He looks at his claws. “I’d let you out even if the world wasn’t about to end.”

The doubt almost breaks before coming back tenfold. They cross their arms and pointedly look away. “You’re… you’re just saying that.”

Some of his patience wears thin. “Why are you being so difficult?! I want to free you!”

“I’m not trying to be! I just—I don’t get why—” Their face crumbles. “I don’t…”

Right.

He sighs. “Just try to understand where I’m coming from. And I promise I’ll try to understand you. I can’t say that I’ll always get you, but we have to try, right?” He holds out a claw. “No more getting left behind.”

They give him a wide-eyed, almost desperate stare. They look down, then slowly lift their hand. “Do you pinky swear?”

He holds out his pinky and touches the surface of their prison. “Pinky swear.”

They reach back.

His claw snags their finger and he pulls back, blinking in surprise at the yellow hand.

The Collector’s prison cracks. It breaks open like an egg, the once dull rocks orbiting it glowing bright, then exploding into stars that spin faster and faster until a brilliant white light envelopes it. Their hand raises up. Light poofs out into shapes of starry fabric and wraps tighter into something that begins to resemble a person.

He stares at the display, leaning forward.

And his claws slip.

He tumbles off the cube with a strangled shout. His heart lurches at the sight of jagged spikes below him. He winces and squeezes his eyes shut, bracing for impact—

A hand grabs him.

“Got youuu.”

He blinks. He’s raised up, meeting face to face with…

The colors are all changed. Gone is black and gray, replaced with a yellow and blue face. Their previously less defined shapes make more sense now, with their long sleeves and what he can only describe as a night cap with earflaps. Actually, their whole outfit resembles purple, celestial pajamas.

It’s different, but seeing their same smile and wide eyes, all he can think is of course they look like this.

The Collector grins. “Let’s go save everyone!”

This fight’s been going on far too long.

Luz’s energy is fading fast. She can tell the others are stumbling too, and it brings the group crowded against the wall, Belos as bloodthirsty as ever.

He shifts his hand into a sharp edge and raises it. She flinches, squeezing her eyes shut.

The blow never comes.

Hesitantly, she opens her eyes.

There’s a familiar looking kid who’s grabbed the end of Belos hand-sword-thing like it’s harmless. King sits on their shoulder, looking relieved.

“Hi Luz!” The kid waves with a cheery smile.

She knows that voice. “C-Collector?”

Belos steps back. “Collector! You’re… free…”

The Collector turns to glare at him. “Oh, right. You. Hey, you were just about to attack my friends, right?” They barrel on before he can respond. “I’m not angry though. Say, you wanna play tag?”

They twirl their finger and Belos is suddenly shoved toward them.

“I’m it.”

They tap his nose. Belos is launched into the wall and splatters into goop.

They laugh. “Too slow!”

Her jaw drops.

King looks similarly startled as The Collector turns and brushes past Luz.

“D-did you just kill him?!” he exclaims.

She gets her limbs to work after that surprise. Haltingly, she follows them to a small hole in the skulls wall, brilliant red light spilling from it.

The Collector pauses at King's remark. “Uhhh…” He squints back at Belos' splatted form. “Oh. Maybe?”

“Maybe?”

“Well, he was tryna kill everyone else!” They throw out their arms.

“Uh—I—you’re not… exactly… wrong? But—”

“Can you stop the spell?” she blurts out past the million other questions in her mind.

The Collector cranes his head back to look at her. “Yeah, duh. Just give me a sec.” They peer out the hole. “Hmm.” They point a finger at the eclipse, and with a swipe, move the moon. “Boop!”

Her jaw could not get any lower.

“Did… that work?” King asks. He hops off their shoulder and onto the ledge.

“I still need to get rid of the goop,” they say. “Which, umm… King, I need you for that.”

“Weh?”

“The spell’s earthy magic. You have more power to stop it than I do.”

“What?” he asks. “But—but I don’t know how to—”

They grab his claw. A surge of blues and pinks transfer from their hand to surround King’s body in a colorful glow. His tail fluffs up in surprise.

“You do. Look.” They point at the crowd below. “You know the place we were just in? Focus on the goopy stuff from there. Now think about pulling it. Concentrate it”—they guide his claw over the crowd—“into your hand.”

With a flick, an amorphous globby shape forms just in front of King’s claw. He jumps back and it splats onto the ground. 

“What is that?!” He reels away.

“The spell,” they say.

“Can we just leave it there?”

“Well, you can do whatever you want with it—”

Luz stumbles forward and pulls The Collector into a hug.

He freezes under her.

She’s caught between sobbing or laughing, an explosion of too much building in her chest as she thinks, I thought you were gone.

In the span of a minute, he waltzed in and solved all their problems. Everything she was terrified of for a month, the adrenaline rushing from her pounding heart, her near grief—it expands like a bubble, suddenly with nowhere to go as relief tries and fails to wash it over.

Her arms tighten around them.

“Mmm,” she lets out, then picks him up. “You’re so cute!” she exclaims with a spin.

“Wah!”

“¡Mi estrellita!” She puts them down and cups their face. Their white hair is tousled around a split face resembling a moon against the night sky, with eyes similar to King’s—red on yellow. “Oh my gosh, you even have star freckles,” she says.

He giggles, grabbing her hand, and he plops his head against her chest. Her heart is going to explode.

“Is… is it over?” Amity asks quietly, coming up beside Luz.

“I think it is!” she says. “Everything’s okay now. I’m pretty sure, at least,” she tacks on, despite being unwilling to believe it’s not fine now. She’s not doing this again, no sir.

Gus tentatively comes closer. “Err, is uh, is he—?” He gestures vaguely behind him.

She looks at the Belos goop on the wall. “Uhhh.”

“Well,” Willow says. “No one has to know we were involved.”

Hunter’s been hovering around her and Gus like a worried mother hen. “What?!” he exclaims. “You guys are just—you’re just fine with that?”

“I like to think of it as one less problem.”

“His body seemed really… unstable,” Luz says, unsure if she’s trying to reassure herself. “I don’t know if he was going to last long either way.”

She’s not quite sure how she feels about it. On one hand, she doesn’t believe murder is ever deserved, much less the right option. There’s always a better way. On the other hand, if she’s fully honest with herself?

She wanted him to burn.

“It was either that or prison for life,” King says. “I think, uh, it’s probably fine? He kinda had it coming.”

Hunter opens his mouth. He closes it. He tries again, “But we can’t just—they just killed someone!” He points at The Collector.

“Hi,” they say.

“Who even is that?!”

“This is The Collector,” she says. “They’ve been living with us for almost a month. Collector, this is Hunter. Don’t mind him.”

“Oh, great, you live with them. No wonder.” He crosses his arms.

“I think we should focus on the fact we’re all mostly alive, emperors aside.” Amity says. “And on that note, I’d really like to check on my dad and siblings. Could we…?”

“Yes!” She jumps. “Uh. How do we get out of here?”

“Well, you could ride with me on my staff,” Amity offers with a light blush.

“Or I can just take you guys down,” The Collector says.

She ruffles his head. “And how are you gonna do that?” she asks teasingly.

They laugh again and bump into her hand. “Easy!” He flicks a hand.

Suddenly, she feels lighter, and then she floats a few inches off the ground. She makes a noise of surprise.

“What is happening—” Hunter squeaks.

“Uhh, woah!” Gus spins around. “This is so cool!”

The Collector make a fist and the skulls wall collapses into a larger opening. Oh, okay, sure. She’s not sure why she’s shocked anymore when they already demonstrated they have the power to move the moon—which is crazy awesome, by the way, and a little terrifying.

He waves his hand, bringing the group closer. “Come on!”

They pick up King and step off the ledge, simply floating instead of falling. He takes Luz’s hand and spins her around him.

“Wah!” She laughs. “Oh my gosh, this is so weird.”

Her heart nearly melts again at the sight of their smiling face. “I’m free! I’m finally free!” they exclaim, grinning bright. “I haven’t felt fresh air in so long! And your hand is really warm and I forgot how soft my pajamas are and, and King your fur is nice but you don’t smell that great—”

“Hey—”

“It’s like the whole world is singing!” He spins again and shoots out a few stars. “Aahh, I can’t believe you came back for me!”

“Of course we did,” she says gently, cheeks beginning to hurt from how hard she’s smiling.

They all land gently on the ground. She takes in the collapsed witches. Most are waking up with various groans of confusion or possibly pain, but seem relatively fine.

“Dad!” Amity yells.

Alador is near a few destroyed abomatons. He rubs his eyes and looks up, a bit shocked, then relieved upon seeing Amity. “Amity—”

He cuts off when she hugs him. “O-Oh.” His arms splay out awkwardly. “Am I…”

“Just this once,” she murmurs.

He smiles and wraps his arms around her.

She pulls away after a moment. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

His smile dims. “Yes, I… how did—?”

“Oh!” She straightens. “Um, The Collector stopped the spell.” She gestures to them. “Thank you for doing that,” she tells them.

“You’re welcome,” they respond. Ah, they remembered their manners.

Alador adjusts his goggles. “What a peculiar looking—no, you couldn’t be a demon…” Amity jabs him. “Oh, right, I apologize. Thank you for ending the Day of Unity and saving us all.” He bows.

“You’re… welcome…?” They look up at Luz, seemingly asking if that was the right response. She gives a thumbs up.

She steps forward and takes Amity’s hand. “Go find your siblings.”

“Are you sure?” she asks. “If you need me here—”

“It’s okay. I’ve got Willow and Gus! And Hunter too, I guess.” She smiles and kisses Amity on the cheek. “Call me.”

Amity blushes. “Thank you.”

She kisses Luz on her cheek, causing her to flush.

“Wait, Luz.” Alador holds up a hand. “I just wanted to say you are always welcome in our home. I am sorry for the trouble Odalia caused.”

“Aw, it’s no problem.” She waves a hand. “But thanks. See you, sweet potato.” She winks at Amity.

With that, she heads up the stairs. She breaks out into a sprint, hops up the last few steps, and her heart soars upon seeing Eda, awake and safe.

“Eeedaaa!” she yells and barrels into her.

“Waugh!” Eda catches her. “Luz!”

“And meee,” King says and hops up, joining the hug.

Eda gasps, voice going watery. “King! Kids, you’re okay!”

Luz feels tears building up. “We’re okay,” she says around the tightness in her throat.

An lack of something becomes apparent. She raises her head a bit, trying to find what’s causing this odd feeling, when she notices it.

She jumps back in horror. “Eda! Oh my god, where is your arm?!”

King startles. “Wha—ah! It’s gone!”

“Kids, it’s fine—”

She whips her head to Raine. “Did you do that?” she says through gritted teeth.

“Luz!” Eda baps her. “They saved me. My curse was going to overtake my body, so… they did the only thing they could do. It’s alright. I’m not hurt, in fact, I feel better than ever.”

Raine gives a hesitant smile. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” they say.

She softens. “No, it’s… sorry, I overreacted. Thank you for watching her,” she says.

“You little goober.” Eda ruffles her head. “Hey, how did you guys stop the spell? I could have sworn the moon just moved?”

“Uh, about that.”

She points to The Collector.

They hold up a hand in a half-wave. “Hi,” he says, almost timid.

Eda’s eyes go wide. “Wha… Collector, it’s you?”

“It’s me.”

“I let him free,” King says. “He stopped the spell and also kinda maybe splatted Belos?”

The tears in Eda’s eyes finally fall. “Oh, I’m so proud. Kid, I—I’m glad you’re okay.” She tries for a smile. “Come on, there’s room for one more.”

The Collector takes a bewildered expression. Still, they step forward and let Luz drag them into the hug pile. He tenses up, then, after a moment, finally relaxes into the warmth.

“Did you get another kid when I wasn’t looking?” Raine asks teasingly.

Eda shushes them. “They were stuck in this little tablet. I, uh, I think I mentioned him to you…”

“Ohh, that Collector. I remember.”

“Luz?”

She looks up at Willow’s voice.

“I’m gonna leave to find my dads. Will you all be okay?” Willow asks.

She smiles. “We will, thanks. Good luck!”

“I’m… going with her.” Hunter scoots behind Willow like he can hide, despite being a head taller. Hmm.

“Me too!” Gus jumps up. “I gotta find my dad and make sure he’s okay.”

“Bye, you three!” She waves. “Text me later!”

“I will!” Willow says.

“You already spam my messages even when I don’t respond,” Hunter says with a frown.

Willow leans in conspiratorially. “He still doesn’t know how to block people.”

“Never tell him how,” she whispers.

“Oh, I won’t.”

“I can hear you!” Hunter yells.

Willow laughs. “Come on, you two.” She grabs his hand and drags him away with her.

Hunter’s face goes a bit red as he stares at their intertwined hands. Ohhh. Luz is so going to tease him later.

“Well, I don’t know about you four, but I’m beat from the whole trying to save the day thing,” Eda says. “How about we go back home?”

She thinks about the portal Belos built.

Sleep first, she tells herself. Then nothing’s going to get in the way of seeing her mom.

“I’m not tired,” King says, immediately ruined by a yawn.

“Yeah, yeah.” Eda stands. “Don’t suppose we could stay in your little hideout until I can refurnish the Owl House?” she asks Raine.

“Of course you can stay,” they say. “I’ll—I’ll even help you with refurnishing later, if… you’ll have me.”

She grins. “I already got you, Rainestorm.”

Ohoho. Luz wonders how long it’ll take for them to get back together.

The Collector bounces up with a floatiness to their weight. “Well, I’m not tired. I could do anything right now! Like… like finally make the Boiling Isles look better! Get rid of all this red, make it starry and bright and blue and pink—”

“Oh, that’d be pretty,” Luz says, picking up King.

“And make a castle and blow up the school and make a better one—”

“Wait, what?” Raine says.

“But I like Hexside,” she frowns.

They stop. “Mm… blow up only… part of the school?”

“No blowing stuff up, kiddo,” Eda says. “Unless it’s funny. Let’s go and get some rest, alright?”

“Okaaay,” they sigh. “But I’m not tired.”

“I’m also strangely full of energy?” Luz says. “Maybe it’s the adrenaline.”

“That adrenaline crash is gonna hit you hard, Luz,” Eda warns.

“Pshh, I’ll be fine,” she says.

Only ten minutes into being back, and her kids have fallen into a sleeping pile on the floor.

Eda smiles at the sight. She pulls a blanket over the trio. Here she thought everything was over, and now she’s finding a strange sense of peace.

“They’re an interesting bunch, aren’t they?” Raine says.

They hand her a mug. Apple blood, of course.

“I really didn’t think we’d make it this far,” she admits. She sips from the mug. “It’s like a miracle, huh?”

They give her a soft smile. “Well, I’m glad it worked out.”

Her face heats up. She hides it behind her mug.

“I’m glad it did, too. They’ve been through too much,” she mumbles. “What are we gonna do now? Belos is gone, there’s no leadership, people are going to be restless.” She leans against the wall. “Jeez. I never thought about the aftermath to all this.”

“I can convene with the other coven heads, but I’m thinking we cross that bridge when we get there,” they say. “Right now, I just want a moment of peace.”

They give her another soft look that makes her heart jump. 

So badly, she wants to blurt out all she’s kept from them, impulsively shout I never stopped loving you, or, perhaps, if she thought about it more, would you like to go out sometime?

Now’s not the time. Emotions are running high, only exacerbated with exhaustion seeping in.

But for once, she can rest assured knowing there will always be tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Luz flops back onto the couch. After an exhausting amount of hours, they’ve finally moved most of the furniture back into the Owl House. Her arms are sore, she’s out of breath, but man, is it worth it to sit back in the living room.

In everyone’s haste to get moving and Eda’s distraction by her long conversation with Lilith on the scroll, everyone forgot about breakfast. She’s facing the consequences now with her poor stomach pangs, but luckily Eda called for a food break, so a salivating scent wafts through the air. It adds to her quiet relief. She could almost close her eyes and go back to sleep right here.

Thwump. Thwump. Thwump.

“Collector, stop terrorizing King,” she says.

The Collector pauses from their spot on the floor, a pillow raised over King where they’ve halfway pinned him down. “Does this look like terrorizing to you?” they ask.

“What do you think this is?!” King exclaims, muffled by the floor.

“If I wanted to terrorize you, I’d be doing a lot worse,” they say with a huff. He thwacks King with the pillow again.

“How many times are you going to do this?” King groans.

They hold a finger to their chin in thought. “As many times as it takes,” he says.

“As it takes for what?”

They smush his face with the pillow.

King grabs it and hurls it back at The Collector. They gasp and giggle as he keeps hitting them with it.

“This is what you get!” King yells and topples them over.

“Nooo!” they whine through laughter.

She smiles. The Collector could have been more helpful moving furniture, but he kept getting distracted by various sensations, sounds, and of course, bugging people. Mostly King. She can’t bring herself to mind when they’ve been beaming all day. If she thought he was lively in the tablet, it’s nothing against him with a body and magic.

They notice her staring and sit up, accidentally sending King onto the floor. With a leap, they grab her into a tight hug.

She ruffles his hair. “Hi there.”

“Hiii,” they giggle.

That’s another thing: it seems he hugs her every time he remembers he can. She’s had more in three hours from them alone than the past three years—and she gets a lot of hugs from Mom.

Speaking of which.

She looks to the kitchen. Eda and Raine have been speaking in low tones over the stove for a bit now. She’s been waiting for a good time to tell Eda about the portal, but it’s starting to feel like there won’t be one.

“Hold on a moment,” she tells The Collector. She raises from the couch and just peels them away from her.

“Luz, you can’t leave me with him,” King protests. “He’s going to suffocate me in pillows.”

“You’ll be fiiine.”

She leaves her siblings to it. Eda looks up from the stove as she approaches and gives her a smile.

“Hey, Luz. You need something?” she asks.

“Umm, well.” She holds her hands. “Belos kinda… had a finished portal up in the Titan’s skull. And I, uh, I want to try and see Mom. But we—we don’t have a key, or a lot of Titan’s blood left, and I don’t know if Belos’ door is even that stable but I—”

Eda holds up a hand. “Hey, hey. Slow down a little bit. So Belos has a portal door, but you can’t use it?”

She runs a hand through her hair. “I—I don’t know. The Collector said, um, for the portal to stay open you need something to contain the Titan’s blood, like the key, and the door itself needs blood too. But the key was broken, so I don’t think it works like that anymore?”

“Then we can make a new one!” Eda says. “Easy peasy. Or modify an old key, I prolly have one laying around.”

“Really?”

Eda places a hand on her shoulder. “Luz, of course. I know how important it is for you to see your mom. And if it’s as easy as just getting a darn key, we can do that.”

The back of her eyes burn. “Thank you so much.” She hugs Eda.

Eda smiles and pats her back. “You can go look around if you want, we’ll be done cooking soon.”

“Okay!” she says.

She hops back to the living room. Immediately she’s given whiplash by the display. The Collector’s rolled King up into a blanket burrito, and sings while rolling him back and forth.

“Little baby Titan with a skull like chiton, little baby Titan how you’ll grow to reach the skies, but right now you have a small pair of eyes, little horns and a cry that warns.” They pause. “Usually they’d scream after that line.”

“Aaaaaa,” King says. 

“There you go!”

“Watcha guys doing?” she asks.

King responds with a suffering groan.

“Singing a Titan lullaby,” The Collector says, nonplussed.

He perks up. “That’s really a lullaby they’d sing?”

“Uhuh. There’s more, but a lot of times they wouldn’t get past the first part.”

“Do you know a lot about Titan’s?” he asks. “Or, uh, anything about them, I’m not picky.”

The Collector’s smile takes an uncomfortable edge, how it always does when Titan’s (and especially other Collector’s) are brought up. She imagines it’s difficult for him to speak about the long extinct species.

She scoops up The Collector and King under her arms. “I have a job for you two!”

“Wah!” The Collector laughs and kicks his feet.

“How do you guys feel about some scavenging?” she asks.

“Scavenging?” King looks up at her.

“Yes!” The Collector says. “I love scavenging! What are we scavenging for? I know every kind of rock and I’m good at finding bugs and whenever someone loses something I can always get it in like, thirty minutes tops.”

“That’s a lotta scavenging skills you got,” she says.

“It’s the same thing as collecting, of course I got skills,” he says breezily.

She spins and beams at their laughter. “Wellll, I need help finding a key around here. Eda said she might have one and it’d be good to have a replacement for the old one.”

“I can do that!” They squirm out of her arm and hop onto the floor. “Waaait. Am I allowed to touch stuff?”

“I don’t see why you wouldn’t be,” she says.

They frown at her. “Okay, but if you’re lying to get me in trouble, you’re gonna regret it.”

She waits for them to run out of the room. Then she unwraps King from his blanket and sets him on the floor.

“Are you two good?” she asks.

She noticed that The Collector’s actually talking to King again, even showing him affection in their own weird way. The air’s lighter around them.

“Mhm,” King affirms. “I don’t actually mind his bullying,” he says, somewhat misassuming her reason for the question. “In fact, it’d be weird if they stopped? But don’t tell them that.”

“That’s good, but I’m asking if you guys made up.” She pets his skull.

“Oh! Yeah, we did.” He twiddles his claws. “I think everything’s gonna be okay now. But I still wish he’d tell me more about our species,” he adds.

“You gotta let them go at their own pace, buddy,” she says. “They’re probably grieving too.”

He leans into her hand. “But we could do it together.”

She softens. “It can be difficult to realize that.”

There’s a series of thuds from down the hall which end in a loud crash. She and King share a wide eyed glance, then unanimously decide to book it out the living room.

“Collector!” She skids to the open basement door.

Oh, no, she’s almost fallen down those stairs several times. She opens the door, and in not remembering they have a basement, steps into empty air. She really should—riding through the tunnel of love is a memory burned into her forever, but she always forgets the basement is connected to it. She’s lucky enough to have caught herself each time.

Just like she feared, The Collector was not.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” She runs down the stairs.

They push themself from the pile of boxes they landed on. “You guys have a basement?!” he exclaims.

She gently grabs his head and examines for any bruises or bumps. It’s then she realizes she wouldn’t know what a bruise would look like on them.

“What color is your blood?” she asks.

He grabs her hand and pushes into it like a cat. “Red,” they say eventually.

“Huh, really?” She pushes his hair back. “I would have thought it’d be like, purple or blue.”

She pulls up their sleeves. There doesn’t seem to be any marks, thankfully, so she drops her check over.

“Blue is Titan’s blood. That’d be weird.” The Collector clearly still wants physical affection, because they hold onto her hand and push it back onto his head.

King treads down the stairs. “Are you calling my blood weird?”

“Yes,” they say. “Why does it make portals? That’s weird.”

“What, your blood doesn’t do anything like that?” he asks.

“My blood is normal.”

“Define normal,” he says flatly.

“It doesn’t do anything!” They stick their tongue at him. “You Titan’s… store all your magic in your squishy inside parts and blood. My magic comes from my core.”

“Core?” he echoes. “Like, your heart?”

“No, my core.”

“Like how stars have cores?” she asks.

“Kinda.” They duck under Luz’s arm and float over the boxes. “My fleshy parts aren’t really fleshy, they’re more for show cause I’m a purely magical being. ‘s why I’m immortal and you’re not. The core’s where it’s all at.”

She steps over the boxes and surveys how many are in the room with a feeling of despair. How are they gonna look through all of this?

The Collector turns to the boxes in contemplation. Then he lifts them all up and shoots out every object from them, turning into a spiral of objects around him.

That works.

“Ah! I found a key!” They pick one from the object tornado and subsequently drop everything with an assortment of crashes.

He simply moves everything back into their boxes within a second. They skip to Luz and present the key.

It’s long and bronze, with a small owl attached to the end, its eyes hollowed out holes.

“This is perfect!” She takes the key. “Hmm, I wonder where we could store the blood. Maybe in the eye holes?”

“Eda never fails to astound me in how she’ll get owl themed anything,” King says, squinting.

“She’s the Owl Lady, she’s gotta,” The Collector says. “I’m glad she lives up to her title. So many people barely try these days.”

“Do I live up to mine?” she asks.

“Are you still a human?”

She looks down and touches her chest to feel her beating heart. “Yes.”

He gives her a thumbs up. They take her hand and drag her up the stairs.

At the top, she closes the door with a kick. “We should really put a sign on this thing. ‘Basement Door: Stop Forgetting This Exists’. You know, Hooty built a whole tunnel under it. Or the tunnel always existed and he just put in the romantic stuff.”

“Ooo, tunnel!”

“Why do we have a tunnel?” she wonders aloud.

“To put things in?” King suggests.

She shrugs and heads down the hall. “Well, whatever was in it is long gone now, cause Hooty turned it into a tunnel of love.”

“Eugh.” He shudders. “Hooty has the strangest ideas.”

“Tunnel of love? What do you do in that?” The Collector asks. “Why not a tunnel of… I dunno, treachery?”

“It’s supposed to be romantic, but I don’t think Hooty’s idea of using one for a confession is how they’re normally used,” she says.

“Tunnel. Tun-nel. Tun-nel,” The Collector repeats in different intonations. “Tunnel, Tun-nel, that’s fun to say.”

“Tunnel,” King says. “Hmm. I kind of see it?”

“Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel—”

“Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel, tunnel…”

She tunes out the two and walks up to Eda, who grins at Raine, bearing a loving expression.

“Edaaa,” she draws out. “Guess what we found!”

Eda turns to her. “A nuclear bomb?”

“No, a key!” She waves it out. “It was in the basement. I think the eyes could be sockets for blood?”

“Ooo, nice find.” Eda momentarily takes the key and looks it over. “Sorry I didn’t help, kid. Someone’s been distracting me.” She glances at Raine.

“I’m helping you!” Raine defends, head resting on their hand. “You can stop cooking anytime you want, I’ll gladly take over.”

“Keeping me here against my will.”

Raine sighs. “We’re almost done, Luz. Sorry about the wait.”

“It’s no problem! You guys are down an arm. I can help set out the plates,” she offers.

“I may have one less arm, but I think I’m adjusting pretty well.” Eda’s boast is counteracted by the visible pile of burnt eggs, no doubt her first attempts.

She deigns not to point it out. She opens the cupboards, finding a somewhat difficult time managing her space between the small kitchen and two other people, but she successfully gets out enough plates onto the table.

“King! Collector!” she calls. “Brunch is done!”

They both shoot up from their spots on the floor. The Collector gives King a run for his money, in that they beat him to the table in their enthusiasm for food.

“Excited, aren’t you?” she says and sits.

They sit in their ‘usual’ spot beside her with a bright smile. “I haven’t had food in sooo long! It’s fun trying the weird stuff you guys make and there’s so many new foods now! And fruits! I want to eat all of them.”

King climbs onto his high chair. “Fruit is bad.”

“How could you say that,” they say flatly with an expression of disgust.

“It’s bad,” he says candidly. “Meat’s better.”

“Meat gets all tough and weird! Then you can’t swallow it cause you’re just chewing it forever and the chewing never stops,” they say while gesturing.

“But fruit gets squishy and it’s gross, how can you stand that?” he asks, baffled.

“I’ve never had a squishy fruit.”

“I’ve never had tough meat!”

They point a fork. “Look, one of us has the objectively correct experience, and it’s not you.”

She holds out a hand. “Okay, there isn’t any objectively right opinion about food—”

“Yes there is.”

“—except that vegetables are the best,” she finishes.

“NO!” The Collector and King yell.

She laughs.

Eda comes over with a pan and heaps on two pancakes and scrambled eggs onto Luz’s plate. “Okay, settle down, kids,” she says. She adds food to the others plates. “We can all agree on one thing and that’s breakfast.”

“Brunch,” she says.

“Brunch, whatever. It’s basically breakfast.” Eda sits down. “Raine is joining us since they helped. If the food is bad, blame it on them.”

“Hey,” Raine says. “Though, um, sorry if it is bad. I don’t cook a lot.” They smile sheepishly and hold the back of their head.

“I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” she says.

Just to confirm, she spoons a bit of goreberry sauce on and takes a bite. Oh, wow. “This is really good!” she exclaims.

“Ah, really? Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Eda says around a mouthful of food.

“Oh, so it’s my fault if it’s bad, but your doing if it’s good?” Raine asks with a wry smile.

Eda swallows. “Yes,” she says.

Luz smiles into her cup. She looks over to The Collector and blinks at their untouched plate. They smile slightly, but keep glancing around, seeming… unsure?

“You can eat, you know,” she whispers.

They stare at her. Slowly, he grabs the jar of goreberry sauce. He still glances around, but when nobody does anything, his movements become more confident and he dumps half the sauce onto his pancakes.

She waits until they take a bite. “Do you like it?”

He nods vigorously. Hesitance abandoned, they tear into their plate with the speed she originally expected.

“So…” She swings her legs. “What happens now? With Belos gone, people are gonna stop upholding the coven system, right?” she asks.

It’s been on her mind. She didn’t realize until early this morning the repercussions of suddenly no emperor and abandoning a system that’s been instated for thirty years officially, hundreds non-officially.

Raine shrugs a little. “We don’t really know yet. It’s hard to say this early, but I imagine there will be a slight state of… chaos to come, so to speak, as people scramble to be the new person in charge. Some people might not take kindly to overthrowing the coven system. I plan to speak to some of the more reasonable coven heads and sort out a plan of action.”

“It’s basically anybody’s game right now,” Eda says. “Most likely, someone’s gonna try to uphold Belos’ image, but there’s sure as heck gonna be protest against that. We just have to hope things settle down sooner rather than later.”

“Hmm.” She frowns. “It’d really suck if we overthrew Belos just for a Belos 2.0 to come on in.”

“I could squish ‘em,” The Collector says.

She pats their shoulder. “Please don’t squish anymore people.”

“Aww.”

“Belos is a rare example where the violence method isn’t exactly terrible,” Eda says. “But—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—usually you should just try talking to people. Find a peaceful option. So like Luz said, no more squishing, okay?”

They sigh deeply. “Okaaay. I don’t really like doing it, anyway. But he was mean.”

“Good riddance,” King says.

“Do you think we could move the portal over here?” she asks. She realizes how sudden her question is. “I mean, it’d be a lot more convenient, but I don’t know how we’d get it out of the skull. It was kinda big.”

“I could move it!” The Collector says.

“Without breaking it?”

They tap their fork against their empty plate. “Mm… yes.”

“Do you think we should do something with the Belos goop back there?” King asks. “Like, I dunno, chuck it into a volcano?”

“Throw it into the boiling sea!” she says.

“Crush it into an infinitely small point and make a very tiny black hole,” The Collector says.

“The boiling sea idea’s probably the easiest,” Eda says. She leans over to Raine. “Sooo? Are you too busy to join us?”

They push her head away. “Unfortunately, yes. I should really work sooner than later.”

“Aww,” she pouts. “I see how it is, only staying for breakfast.”

“I did help you move the furniture,” they say.

“Hmm, really? I don’t remember that.”

“Eda, that is the whole reason I came over.”

She sighs and leans back. “Alright, you scammer. But don’t think I’m done with you! You better call me later, okay?”

“Of course,” they smile.

The Collector leans toward Luz. “Why are they acting weird?” he whispers.

“It’s looove,” she whispers.

They all finish eating (or in some people’s cases, flirting) soon enough. Eda forgoes washing dishes in favor of immediately getting the portal. Luz doesn’t have much patience herself, too nervous and excited at the prospect, but she does think about how the dishes aren’t going to get done for a week now.

It’s strange going back to the Titan’s skull after yesterday.

Gone is seeping red light and her heart pounding. Yellow sunlight filters in through the destroyed wall, particles of dust visible in its rays, giving it a softer atmosphere. The sound of them landing echoes endlessly through the cavern-like skull.

She can see the large double doors at the end of the somewhat ruined bridge. Through them, the portal.

“Is it just me, or is this kind of eerie?” King hops down onto the stone.

Eda wields Owlbert in a slightly defensive stance. “Kids, be careful. I don’t trust any place Belos spent his time in.”

“I don’t think anyone would be in here. Everyone thinks it’s too sacred,” she says.

“There’s nothing sacred about a dead guy,” The Collector says. Instead of walking, they float a few inches above the ground.

Eda snorts. “True. I’m not worried about that, just watch out for any traps or something.”

She watches her every step, partially due to what Eda said, and also because the bridge looks like it could collapse any moment. The closer they get, the more a missing something becomes apparent to her.

“Hey, guys?” she asks.

The others look at her with questioning faces.

“Umm, I didn’t imagine Belos being splattered against that wall, right?”

She points. The wall above the door is stained green, but glaringly lacks any goop. She pulls out a light glyph and holds it up. The wall remains the same, clear evidence of Belos having been there, but now suddenly gone. A disturbed feeling sinks into her.

The Collector taps onto the ground and looks up. “No, I definitely splatted him there.”

“Wait, so his corpse is gone?” Eda asks.

“I… guess?” She shrugs. “I don’t know how that could have happened. Did someone move it before us?”

The Collector hums. He floats up and examines the wall. They make a fist and the stained part breaks out, then he pulls out the floor in front of her. She steps back as he smashes both chunks together into a compact greenish gray ball.

“He probably just melted into the stone. I’m gonna throw it out now,” they say.

He floats to the walls opening, Luz following behind. They reel back their arm, pause, and then hurl it out.

She watches in slight terror as it flies away so fast it bursts into flames. She quickly loses sight of it. The Collector presumably doesn’t, since he keeps watching intently, until dropping his hand in satisfaction.

“He’s sleeping with the fishes now,” they say brightly. 

Eda looks out the opening. “Jeez, kid. You’ve got some arm strength.”

“Really?” he gasps. “I’ve always been bad at that.”

“That’s what you call bad?” King asks.

“Well, my aim isn’t really good and I never use enough force…”

“Kid, I never would have noticed, you did great.”

It’s basic praise, but The Collector looks at her like she’s hung the stars. They giggle and run down the bridge.

“Ah, wait up!” She runs after them.

She has to step around the newly made hole, and comes to a stop in front of the portal. It’s no longer lit, nor is electricity crackling around it. It’s not working, she knows, but she still opens the door. 

Of course she doesn’t have the luck to be met with her home.

“Well, having a portal base is still better than nothing,” she says, more for herself.

The Collector hops up beside her. He looks at something on the ground. She follows their line of sight, stopping at their broken tablet laid beside the door. Oh.

He slowly picks it up. She hesitates, not quite finding the words as they float down the short set of stairs.

Then he smashes the tablet against the ground. They stomp on its shattered remains furiously, ignite their hand in blue flame with colorful stars and set the thoroughly destroyed tablet on fire. Despite it being dust at this point, he stomps on it again and sends it flying into the wall with a kick.

Wow.

“I needed that,” they say. He turns back to Luz. “Okayyy, time to move this!”

“Oh!” She scrambles down.

With several creaks, the portal lifts up. She winces when dust rains down, fearful the portal will collapse any moment, but it holds firm.

The platform it was built on looks familiar. In fact… that’s where The Collector was buried, isn’t it?

Her inner treasure hunter has her examining the circle of dirt. She’s not actually expecting anything, yet is surprised by a blue gleam in the earth.

She picks out three pieces of frosty turquoise glass, caked in dirt. Huh.

“Luz, you coming?” Eda calls.

“Yep!” She stands and jogs over to the group.

“I’m gonna ‘teleport’ the portal over and also you guys cause it’s easier,” The Collector says, air quoting the word teleport. “It might feel weird. Possibly painful? We’ll see!”

“Wait, what?” she asks.

“You’ll be fine,” The Collector says instead of explaining anything.

They wave their hand and—

She gasps and stumbles onto the ground. Augh. Her stomach lurches as bile rises than falls in her throat.

“Ohh god, my body does not agree with teleportation,” she chokes on another wave of nausea.

Thankfully, it wears off pretty quick. She blinks and looks around, seeing they’ve ended in front of the Owl House. Eda and King look similarly startled and woozy.

“Please don’t ever do that again,” King gasps.

“No promises,” The Collector says.

They gently set the portal down.

She bounces on her heels. “We just need to modify the key and door and hopefully I’ll have a portal on my hands!”

Eda pats her. “Looks good. Do you think we should hide this somewhere? I wouldn’t want anyone being able to go to the human realm.”

She deflates a little. “Oh, yeah. How would we…?”

She jumps when The Collector tugs at her hair. They pick a strand from Eda’s and a tuft of fur from King, then pluck a strand of their own hair. He lays them around the portal, stands and claps his hands. A blue-pink sheen washes over the portal before fading.

“There! No one can see it now except for us,” they say.

“Thank you!” She ruffles his hair.

They grin and hug her side. She then remembers the rocks in her hand.

“Oh, these were at the place we found your tablet.” She holds them out. “I don’t know if they were there for a reason…? But I thought you’d wanna keep them.”

He blinks and slowly takes the rocks. They stare at them a moment longer before pocketing them.

Eda taps her. “So, what do say about fixing up the portal now?”

“Wait, right right now?” She gasps.

“Yes, right now, silly,” Eda says with a fond smile. “Let’s get you to your mom already. You know where the glove is?”

Her cheeks hurt from smiling. “Yep! Oo, Collector, do you think you could like… extract the Titan’s blood from the glove so we can put it in the key?”

He looks up. “Mhm.”

“Nice, nice.” She bounces. “Alright, let’s do this!”

With that, they get to work.

Chapter Text

The portal’s done.

Luz looks over their work. It didn’t take long, all things considered. They took off the glass eye, intending to use it as a socket for blood, only to find Titan’s blood was already in it. All that was left was modifying the key (The Collector mostly took care of that) and ensuring it’d fit into the lock.

Wind ruffles her hair. She feels it rise in her chest, making her tremble in anticipation.

Eda places a hand on her shoulder. “You ready?” she asks.

She nods. Taking hold of all her nervous energy, she grabs the doors handle and with baited breath swings it open.

Luscious, beautiful, familiar green pine trees meet her.

The Collector walks up beside her. “Is that the human realm? It looks… nice,” he says, sounding disgruntled by the observation.

She bounces on her feet and lets out a noise combining her anxiety and excitement. “Yes! Yes, it is!” She hops around and throws out her arms, grinning at everyone. “I did it! Guys, we did it! I—”

She blinks and stares back at the portal, looks around, then hefts up a suitable rock to use as a door stopper. “There.” She wiggles it in place. “Nooo closing.” She smiles back at the group and pulls them all into a tight hug.

“Come back soon,” King murmurs when she pulls back.

“I will!” She kisses his head and smiles up at Eda when her hair is ruffled. “Really, a few hours tops. I’ll figure out a way to convince Mom.”

“Don’t forget thiiiis.” Hooty drops a vial of blue blood in her hand. “In case you get stuck in the human realm!”

“I still don’t like that you just had my blood, Hooty,” King says.

She puts the vial in her bag. As she turns, there’s a tug on her sleeve. The Collector opens their mouth, closes it, looks down. She kisses his head. Reluctantly, they let go.

Seeing everyone’s melancholic faces, The Collector’s hand raised in a wave, it feels like…

It feels like she’s saying goodbye.

She pushes down the feeling and looks out the door with new determination. She’s not saying goodbye, and she’s going to make sure of it.

With renewed vigor and one last look back, she steps out.

She takes the familiar path back home. It’s disorientating and welcoming to see green trees again, silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky with no hints of red or orange. Pinecones crunch under her shoes. The grass is wet with dew. She takes a few deep breaths and inhales the petrichor and wood-y scent around her.

The closer she gets, the faster her legs take her, until she breaks out into a sprint the last few feet.

Just like that, home is in front of her.

She can almost imagine Mom’s face. The only thing between them now is a door. She just has to raise her hand and knock.

It takes an agonizing moment to move, but she manages to do it.

She steps back and holds her hands.

Muffled voices. Footsteps.

Camila opens the door.

A trembling smile forms on her face. Words spill out like nature. “Hi, Mom,” she says and holds out her arms. “I’m back.”

Camila’s hands fly to her mouth. Her eyes glisten and then she throws her arms around Luz in a tight hug.

An explosion of warmth cradles her, and she hugs back, leaning into the comfort of finally being in her moms arms. Tears prick at her eyes and she pushes her head into the crook of Camila’s neck.

“Oh, mija, you’re home,” Camila says thickly. “You’re home, you’re safe.”

She sniffles and clutches tighter, tears spilling over. “I-I tried so hard to find a way back, I can’t believe—I can’t believe I finally—”

Camila gently shh’s, dispelling Luz’s impulse for explanation . She holds Luz’s head and kisses the side.

She doesn’t want to let go.

Camila pulls away just enough to cup Luz’s face, wiping a thumb against her tears. “Baby, are you okay? Oh, what happened to your brow?” She touches the bandaid.

She weakly attempts to wipe her eyes and holds Camila’s hand.  “It’s just a scratch, Mamá,” she says, leaning into the doting.

Camila pats her over with her free hand. “Have you been eating enough? You don’t seem any thinner… is that muscle? Oh, you’ve grown so much!” she says, choking up again.

“M-om,” she says around the block in her throat. “You’re gonna make me cry again.”

“I’m sorry, Luz, I’m just so relieved.” Camila smiles gently and squeezes her. “Come inside, come on, you must be hungry. We can talk at the table.”

She lets herself be led in, taking in the familiar walls. “Well, I had brunch—”

“It’s la bandera,” Camila sings.

“Yes please,” she says, turning straight to desperation for the tantalizing taste of braised chicken, rice and beans! She hasn’t had edible beans in months!

There’s lots of things Luz missed from home, but standing in her home with its familiar smell has her remembering just how much she missed human food. Oh, plantains, mangoes and stews here she comes.

Vee’s voice comes from the kitchen. “Who was at the door, Mom—?” She stops and blinks in surprise at Luz. “Oh, hi, Luz.”

“Hi!” She waves.

“Vee, can you heat up lunch?” Camila asks. “I should put on the kettle, sit down, Luz.”

She does. At the table, surrounded by the comforting waft of meat and rice, humming sound of the microwave and the faucets rushing water, it’s like she never left.

But she did.

She stares at the scuffed table. Her hand brushes over a mark, caused by the stab of her fork when she was younger. Just say something, she tells herself, anxiety rolling at the thought. Avoiding this will only make it worse. But how does she start? Small, maybe? Butter Mom up to the idea of the Boiling Isles. Or she has to come out strong: she has friends now, more family, even a girlfriend! Well, no, she should save the girlfriend thing for later. 

Her leg bounces. Come on, she’s had so long to think about this. Yet suddenly all the words have left her head.

Vee sets a steaming plate in front of her.

Luz opens her mouth to thank her, but hesitates when Vee turns and begins to leave. Wait. She makes a grabbing motion toward Vee. Don’t leave me here alone!

Vee shrugs at her. She makes her escape from the impending conversation.

Luz sags. Abandoned.

She startles when Camila sets down a cup of tea. Camila gives her a patient, though still worried look, clearly expecting her to start.

Oh, no. Come on, come on, think. Say literally anything! She can’t possibly do worse than how their last conversation ended so she just needs to—

“MomIdon’twanttoleavetheBoilingIsles,” she blurts out in a rush of words.

Shoot.

“I—I mean!” She waves out a hand. “I don’t wanna leave you either! And I’m not going to! I love you, it was never you who made me feel…” She rubs her face. “I-It’s just, I really found my place in the Boiling Isles, like, I have these super cool friends and Eda and King and—”

Camila steps forward as she speaks and kneels in front of her. Seeing her mom’s face, still so patient in a way where Luz can tell she’s listening, it breaks the dam behind her eyes.

“A-and I don’t wanna leave them forever,” she sobs. “I-I’m sorry!”

Camila hugs her. She clings on and cries into her moms shirt. Camila softly hums and pets her hair, slowly easing her into a sense of calm.

“Luz, it’s okay,” she says. “It’s okay.”

“It’s—it’s not, I-I was being dumb, but I met so many important people and I—”

“Luz.” Camila wipes her tears. “Slow down a little, honey. Why are you afraid you won’t be able to see your friends again?”

She sniffles. “I thought you wouldn’t want me going back if I stayed here,” she whispers.

Camila’s frown softens. “I… I was scared you were going to walk out my door and never come back. But I never meant you had to leave anyone important to you. I said things were going to be different now, and I mean it, so if this… Boiling Isles means a lot, then I’ll try to accommodate for that.”

Her terror comes to a halt, intercepted with disbelief. “R-really?”

Camila gives a slight smile. “This is all a little bit confusing, but I can see how important this is to you. Though I do want to meet these friends of yours.”

She straightens. “Y-yeah! They wanna meet you too! Wait, can I eat first?”

“Of course, you’re a growing girl.” Camila kisses her head. She slides out a chair and sits at the table. “Can you tell me about your friends?”

She wipes her eyes and nods. “Mhm. Um, the first person I met was Eda…”

Eda stares at the open portal.

It’s a feeble, though useful distraction, watching like a hawk for any disturbances or signs of closing.

No one’s said anything since Luz walked out the door. The silence has been tense, heavy, weighed down by a question she’s desperate not to answer.

Of course, someone grabs hold of it and brings it to the light.

“Is she coming back?” The Collector asks quietly.

“She said it’d be a few hours, tops. She, uh… she wouldn’t lie,” King says, unsure.

“But… what if she likes it there more?”

Eda winces. She inhales. Here we go. “Then we’d have to respect her decision,” she says slowly, to ensure nothing else comes out of her mouth, certainly not the gnawing worry in her chest.

The Collector recoils, then glares. “I don’t want to respect that!”

“It’s not fair if we tried keeping her here—”

“It’s not fair if she leaves!” they shout.

He picks up King from her shoulder and stomps away. They sit on the ground to sulk, making clear an invisible barrier between her and them she knows not to cross.

“Kid—” she tries.

“You’re being mean,” he hisses.

King looks at her from over their shoulder. “Yeah, you’re being mean,” he says.

She rubs her temple. Great, now they’re both mad. “Kids… not everyone stays forever, and if someone you care about decides to leave, you gotta let them go. I’m not saying Luz is going to, but if she did, it would be better to accept that.”

“Well,” The Collector says after a moment, “I’ve decided she’s not going to leave. So you’re wrong.”

The sudden confidence makes her pause. “Really?”

“Yeah, cause Luz isn’t a liar, and even if she was I would just go to the human realm,” he says.

“You can’t just follow her everywhere.”

“I can! Watch me!”

She scratches her head. “I guess I don’t have a good counter argument for that.”

“You don’t really think she’s going to leave us, do you?” King asks. “I mean… I know I was worried she would, but maybe… that wasn’t fair to think either?”

She stills.

“She’s our family too,” King whispers.

She works her mouth until something comes out. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” is what she lands on. “But, you are right, and it’s that Luz isn’t a liar. She said she’s coming back. I guess we’ll just have to trust her on that.”

“Hmm.” The Collector sighs and flops onto the ground.

King squirms out of their arms and hops to sit beside them.

“It sure is green over there,” they note, staring forlornly at the portal.

King hums.

“Real pretty,” he continues, “much prettier than this red.”

“You really don’t like red, huh?” she asks.

“No.”

“I like red,” King says.

“Well, we’re all wrong sometimes.” They grab a fistful of grass and drop it on King. “What if… I made a lot of little holes that went straight through the world? What would happen?”

King retaliates with more grass. “Erm, don’t do that.”

“Why nooot?” They throw more grass. “It could do nothing! We don’t know.”

“What if it, like, crumbled too much of the ground and then the world split in half?” he asks.

“Then we build a bridge between the two halves!”

She’s pretty sure that’s not how it works.

“But there’d be sinkholes everywhere straight to the center of the world and it’d kill people,” King says.

They wave a hand. “People die all the time, cycle of life.”

“It’s not the cycle of life if you do it on purpose!”

“Have you heard of the predator and prey food chain?” they ask.

“Are you calling yourself a predator—” King stops. “No, no… that makes sense, actually.”

The Collector swipes the grass off them and onto King, then bounces up. “We should do something while we wait for Luz!” he suggests. “Like a game.”

“Only if it doesn’t take us away from the portal,” she says. “I don’t wanna miss Luz coming back.”

“What can we even do in that small of an area?” King asks.

The Collector grins deviously. “I have an idea.”

“He wanted to ask her out?” Camila asks, a hand over her mouth. “All of that, and he thought she’d say yes?!”

Luz sips on her ginger tea, food mostly gone. “Yeah!” She leans forward. “So then I knocked him out and got us out on Owlbert! But Warden Wrath caught up to us, so I had to rally the prisoners into helping.”

“My daughter, starting a prison riot…”

“They trapped him long enough for me to hit him with a firecracker! He’s fine, but we got him to leave. And after that, I, um…” she trails off, realizing the part of the story she’s gotten to.

She grips her mug. It wasn’t a logical decision, she knows now, she just can’t regret it when it led to some of the greatest things in her life. But trying to say out loud and then I stayed with this total stranger on an impulse! makes her feel really dumb. She didn’t have the best idea of safety, huh? Not in the face of her greatest fantasy unfolding before her eyes.

“Well… when can I meet them?” Camila asks. “I have some reservations about you staying with a couple of strangers for months.”

She nearly laughs at Camila saying her thoughts. “They’re not bad people, Mom.”

“I just need to make sure of that myself,” she says.

“We can see them right now!” She stands. “They’re waiting for me to make sure the portal didn’t screw up.”

“Ah, right, the… portal. Between our… dimensions?” Camila holds her head. “To think there’s been another dimension this whole time. Scientists would have a field day with that, I’m sure.” She pauses. “I’m not going to tell anyone! I understand it’d be a bad idea.”

“Not with people like that Jacob guy existing,” she agrees.

“I will get ready,” Camila says. “We should really talk about your education after, though.”

“Aah, okaaay,” she groans. She is not looking forward to school again.

Camila peers down the hall. “Vee? We’re leaving for a bit!”

She hears a faint, “Bye!” and then, “I’ll do the dishes!”

“Thank you!” Camila goes to tug on her shoes in the hall. “How far is the portal? I hope you didn’t have to walk for too long,” she says.

“It’s actually pretty close,” she answers. “You know that old shed around the back of our house?”

“Yes, I found Vee there.” Camila pauses, then asks with a note of horror, “That’s had a portal this whole time?”

“Sort of. It’s not open all the time, which is why you and I never noticed it before.” She steps onto the porch and slows her pace for Camila. “Um, look, the Boiling Isles—it’s a great place! But it’s also kind of intense.”

Camila raises a brow, following Luz down the steps and onto the trail.

She sweats. “Like, um, just like this world, it has its own kinda scary or dangerous stuff. But the earth has loads of scary and dangerous stuff! So the Boiling Isles really isn’t that different. It just has a different flavor of problems?”

“Sweetie…”

“It’s not a bad place, really!” She waves her hands. “I just want you to know it might take some getting used to.”

“Yes, of course. This demon realm,” she says.

“With cool and nice demons also that are my friends.”

“Like your little friend King?”

“Yes! Exactly like him!” The thicket peters out as they get closer to the shed. She glances at Camila. “Can you wait here a second? I just want them to be um, ready for you.”

Camila quirks her mouth in a frown. “Luz…”

“It’ll just be a minute!”

“And you’re not leaving?”

Camila isn’t trying to be mean, but it still feels like a stab to the heart. “I’m not,” she says. “Just a few minutes.”

Camila relents. “Don’t get into too much trouble, okay?”

She nearly laughs. “What could I even do in three minutes?”

“You underestimate yourself.”

She sighs with a smile. Maybe that was deserved.

She quickly walks the rest of the way, Camila staying in place. Interest piques at the sound of voices. She pushes the door open farther.

The place has been washed over in pink. Various toy weapons and small platforms of different scenery are scattered across the ground, along with, shockingly, two whole miniature castles. Most grabbing is Eda in a princess-esque dress holding a squirming King, and The Collector with a dagger raised over Hooty, who wears a royal cloak.

“Your reign ends here!” The Collector yells. He opens his mouth to speak again, but his demeanor drops completely when he notices Luz, face lighting up.

They chuck the dagger behind them, perfectly nailing a tree. “Luz!” he cries, bounding over to her for a hug.

“Hello!” she says. “I’m not interrupting something, am I?”

“Nah, we were just playing a game,” Eda says, also wearing a party hat for some reason. “Glad to see you’re back. How did—”

King hops out of Eda’s arms. “Luz, you’re back!”

“Of course I am!” She holds out an arm to grab King too.

“We were just about to win,” he says. “You missed all the best parts.”

“Umm, you weren’t about to win, I was in the middle of assassinating the fabricated ruler,” The Collector says, frowning.

“Yeah, yeah, but remember in the third turn when I got that ring? It was actually—”

“The time ring, and you were gonna turn back time to before the assassination?” they interrupt.

“Yes,” he says proudly. Then, “Wait, how did you—”

“Everyone gets really smug and secretive when they get the time ring cause they think they can use it to get an end game win,” they say. “But I didn’t use any magic slots the whole game, even when Hooty betrayed me, because I was maxing out my magic—”

“Wait.”

“Since I knew one of you were gonna try that—”

“Wait, no!”

“So I was going to cancel out your spell as soon as you tried it! Which MEANS—”

“NO!” he wails.

“I WIN!” They punch the air. “Sorry, King, but you can’t beat the master. Shoulda defected onto my team.”

King makes a miserable sound. He jumps up and points at The Collector. “I demand a rematch!”

“Like, right now? Oh, Luz, you could play with us!” He grabs her sleeve. “But we’d need a sixth player to make the teams even…”

Eda walks over. “Luz, how did seeing your mom go?” she asks.

She startles. “Oh, uh, good! Really good. And speaking of having more people here, I well, kind of brought her over. So you all could meet each other and she could make sure you’re not all secret serial killers. So maybe if you guys could… tone it down a little?” She pushes her hand down in the air.

They all stare at her.

“You MOM’S here?!” The Collector yells.

“Well—”

Horror descends upon everyone’s faces, as they then look at the mess around them. Panic mode visibly hits. “Ah, I’m not ready!” The Collector peels away from her and begins to frantically fix the surrounding area.

“Luz, we coulda cleaned up!” Eda says, discarding her accessories.

“Umm, I don’t think she’s going to mind some mess,” she says and ducks under a plastic sword being tossed aside. “Really, you guys don’t have to go all out, I just want to ease her into this instead of hitting her with all the crazy stuff upfront.”

“Are you crazy?” The Collector asks, restructuring the ground. “You have to look nice for people’s parents! King, take off the crown, she’s not supposed to think you’re royalty.”

In less than a minute, any traces of chaos has been purged and everyone stands in front of her with mild, polite expressions.

The Collector looks down at his clothes. With a swish of his hand, his pajamas turn into similar looking robes with white leggings. Seeing the surprise on her face, they explain, “Robes are more professional.”

She holds her hands together. “So cute. Okay, I’m getting her now!”

It’s a quick run back to Mom. “Mom! Mom, we’re ready now, come on!” She grabs Camila’s hand and tugs her along.

Camila stumbles after her. “Slow down a little!”

“I’m just so excited!” she says. She halts in front of the door. “Okay, okay, okay, are you ready?”

“I’m ready, Luz.”

She smiles, pushes down her lingering anxiety, and swings open the door.

Everyone’s right where she left them. Their eyes collectively widen at the sight of Camila, who also seems surprised, blinking at her surroundings.

“I thought there would be a lot more… fire?” Camila questions, looking up.

She laughs nervously. “Um… well, um… Mom, meet Eda, King, The Collector, and Hooty! Everyone, meet my mom!” She clasps her hands together.

Camila blinks at the group. “Oh!” She squints at Eda. “You have been taking care of my daughter?”

Eda walks forward and holds out her hand. “Edalyn Clawthorne. Nice to meet you. I, um, understand if you might be upset, but yes, I kept her under my roof for a few months. Kid was insistent on being a witch, you know?”

Camila shakes her hand. “Camila Noceda. No, I… I am not mad at you, if you kept her safe.”

Eda winces a little. “Well—”

“She did!” Luz interjects. “Keep me safe! Very safe. Anyway, um, thats King there, I told you about him, I couldn’t get to The Collector yet but they’re a more recent addition the house, that’s them… and, uh, Hooty’s the… owl. Thing. On the door.” She presses her hands outward.

“That’s King?” Camila turns to look at him, sitting on The Collector’s shoulder. “Ay, que lindo,” she whispers. “Hello there!”

“Hi,” King says. “Miss Noceda?”

“Please, call me Camila.”

The Collector stares at her outstretched hand. They shake it. “Hi Luz’s mama!” he beams. Then, “You’re not gonna keep Luz in the human realm, right?”

It had to be asked, but she still grimaces.

“Why don’t we talk about that inside!” Eda interrupts before Camila can answer. “Get to know each other, have a nice talk over drinks, you know, before making any big decisions!”

Camila straightens. “I’ve already decided to give this whole… thing”—She gestures vaguely—“a chance, so yes, that sounds nice. I have many questions for you.”

“Yes, yes—wait, you’re giving us a shot?” Eda asks, any pretense of formality dropped.

“Well, this is important to Luz,” Camila says. “Do I need any other reason?”

Everyone glances at each other. She didn’t realize a spark was missing from their eyes until it reignites, brimming hope clear as day on their faces. The Collector whispers, “I told you so,” at Eda, who sighs and shrugs, smile now genuine.

She finds herself smiling so wide her cheeks hurt. Seeing her mom and the Owl House standing in the same place, talking, and for everything to be fine, it feels unreal. This was something out of her wildest dreams, in the midst of her anxiety ridden nights, wondering how she would keep both worlds.

The answer turned out to be very easily.

Don’t get too excited. Something could still go wrong. Camila could be a bit too disturbed by the realm, or Eda could get over zealous, or, or… ah, whatever, she can’t bring herself to feel any less happy over this.

“Is there anything I should be worried about?” Camila asks, letting Eda lead the way inside. “Any, uh, traps in here…?”

“Traps?” Eda laughs. “That’s so old school. Besides, I got a top notch security system.”

“You do?”

“Hooty, of course!”

“It’s fine, Mom,” Luz says. “Nothing super dangerous is in the house. I would know, I’ve been staying here for months.”

“But you didn’t know there was a basement for two of them,” King says.

“Besides that.”

Eda rummages through the cupboards. “Tea? I’m sure there’s a human safe one somewhere.”

“Human safe?” Camila questions, nervousness rising dangerously close to horror.

“It makes sense for another realm to have their own food and stuff that may or may not be inedible for us!” she exclaims. “Like, we have different chemical makeups, that’s already how different species can work on Earth.”

Camila frowns at her. “Hmm. And you have been eating?”

“Yes, just fine. Eda always makes sure to get stuff that’s good for me.” She holds out a chair for Camila to sit in.

“Well, that’s good.” She touches Luz’s cheek. “I know you’re worried. But I would like a discussion with Eda alone. Is that okay?”

Underlying dread seeps into her chest. Still, she keeps her smile. “Um, yeah!” She glances at Eda, hoping to convey please act normal with her expression alone.

Eda gives her a thumbs up.

With that, Luz reluctantly exits the kitchen. She spots The Collector and King peering at her from the stairs.

“Come on, we’re gonna hang out in my room,” she says. “The adults gotta talk.”

“About what?” The Collector asks.

“About these past few months, probably.” She enters her room.

They close the door and sit on her sleeping bag. King follows suit. “So you’re not leaving?” he asks.

She gets out her glyph notebook. “Um, hopefully it’ll be like, a shared custody thing? Even if I’m not allowed to stay the night here anymore I still wanna visit as often as I can. But Mom’s willing to have an open mind, so things should be fine.”

The Collector leans against her. “Your mama isn’t upset?”

“She doesn’t seem as upset as I thought she’d be,” she admits. “This is all going a lot better than I feared.”

“That’s good, right?” King asks.

“It is.”

“But you’re still worried,” he says.

She sighs. “Yeaaah.”

“Why?” The Collector asks.

“I dunno.” She opens her notebook. “Mom is like, super great, really nice. She’s been there for me my whole life. But I keep thinking…”

Camila should be mad. Luz left her for months on a whim and is throwing so much at her, insisting Camila change her whole life just for one impulsive decision, yet she hasn’t shown a hint of anger. She can’t wrap her head around it.

“Nevermind,” she says.

A moment of silence.

The Collector makes various shapes with his hands. “What’s it like in the human realm?” they ask.

“There’s seasons, for one,” she says.

“Seasons?” King asks.

“Yeah! Like summer, spring, fall, winter…”

It must be at least three hours of story telling when Luz finally hears a knock on the door.

The Collector and King startle out of their half-sleepy states, blinking wide. She jumps up and leaps for the door.

Two faces greet her. “Mom, Eda!” she exclaims. “Sooo, how did your talk go?”

They glance at each other. “For starters, you are going back to human school,” Camila says. “I heard from Eda your… witch school needs to be restructured, anyway. And that it doesn’t tend to be in session during ‘boiling rain season’?”

She nods. “And…?”

“And I want you to live at our house. But I will let you continue visiting the Boiling Isles—”

She throws her arms around Camila. “Oh, thank you, thank you!”

Camila laughs lightly. “I will let you do so, preferably with me chaperoning the first couple of times. I want to make sure you are safe here. If I feel like you are, perhaps in the future, you could stay on the weekends… we are still figuring things out.” She leans down. “But we’ll figure it out together.”

She couldn’t ask for anything more.

Eda is exhausted.

A whole day of not only physical, but emotional work. Moving everything back, meeting and talking with Luz’s mom for hours, handling three kids the whole time and Hooty. It’s barely turned night, and she’s about ready to pass out for twenty four hours.

Except she can’t, because even though Luz has left to spend her night with Camila, she still has two kids in the house.

The Collector and King sit on the couch, having gotten over their sulks of Luz not sleeping over. The Collector’s been showing him a trick with a bunch of string between their hands, forming them into different patterns and shapes.

For the past month, The Collector’s ‘slept’ on the couch, but with their physical body she feels weird keeping it like that. Even if it’s been cozied up with blankets and pillows.

She sits on the arm rest. “Hey, kids. It’s about your bedtimes.”

King drops his string with a frustrated sound. “I don’t know how you get it,” he mutters, then looks up at Eda. “It is?”

“It’s, like, ten o’clock.”

The Collector looks at the window. “Oh, it is. Welp!” He claps his hands together, dissipating the strings. “You’ll get it eventually, King.”

King crawls off the couch. “So… no Luz, huh?”

“Think you can sleep without her?” she asks.

“Of course I can,” he huffs. “I did that for years before she showed up.”

“Uhuh.” She grins. “Speaking of sleep, Collector, uh… we gotta figure out a better sleeping arrangement for you. You and King could take Luz’s room.”

They perk up. “Really?”

“You gotta be all rested up for tomorrow. Cause we’re going to the lake,” she says.

“Really?!” he repeats, far more excited.

“Yep. Might have to get swim stuff for you first, not sure if any shops will be open after the Day of Unity, but, hey, I got a lot of junk laying around that could probably work.” She waves a hand. “Go and move your stuff upstairs. My room will always be just down the hall, if either of you need me.”

“Thanks,” King says.

The Collector gathers up their blankets and pillows, then picks up the Azura book on top of the pile. “King, you gotta read the next chapter to me, since Luz isn’t here.”

“Agh, fine. But I’m not doing voices.”

“You’re doing voices.”

“I’m not good at voice acting! It’s gonna sound bad and you’ll hate it.”

They follow after him. “But then it’s funnier!”

She steps back, giving them both room to head upstairs. Their conversation grows quieter the farther they get, until she hears the quiet click of a door shutting.

Immediately, all energy drains from her.

She sighs.

Just one day at a time, she tells herself, in attempt to assuage her growing worries over the future, the state of the Boiling Isles, and most importantly where her little group of amazing kids and one weird house demon will end up.

One day at a time. 

Chapter Text

Eda stops in front of the small, lit store, one of the few lively places in the streets of indefinitely closed shops. Sun rays just peek over the Titan’s skeleton, early enough to be quiet, but late enough Skin N’ Linen could be open—that is, if it wasn’t closed for obvious reasons. The silence would be eerie, if not for The Collector and King’s bickering filling it the whole way here.

“I’m just saying, if you really wanted to make sure your henchmen don’t betray you—” The Collector bumps into Eda. He scrambles back and peers around her. “Skin N’ Linen,” they read the sign.

“I can’t believe it’s open. Woulda thought everything would be closed,” she says.

King hops off her shoulder. “Yeah, after everyone almost died. Who keeps their shop open?”

She shrugs. “Work is distracting for some people.”

“Do they sell skin?” The Collector asks.

“They sell a lotta clothes made from animal fur and other materials. This is where I get most my clothes.” She places her hand on the doorknob. “Remember, no magic without a spell circle, and nothing really flashy, okay? We’re not trying to draw attention to ourselves.”

The Collector gives a thumbs up.

Given his penchant for following rules, she’s tentatively going to trust him. They’ve been fairly amicable during their one and a half days of freedom.

The doors bell jingles as they step inside. The store owner, Wyn, looks up from where she’s organizing a rack of clothes.

“Oh, Eda!” she says. “We’re low on red dresses, so if you want any…”

“Nah, I’m getting clothes for this guy.” She gestures toward The Collector, then says to them, “Kids clothes are near the back, look for like… swim shorts and a shirt you wouldn’t mind getting wet.” She thinks. “Do you have anything but that robe and your pajama’s?”

“I don’t really wear much else,” he says.

“Go get regular clothes too. Uhh, let’s say, three shirts and three pants or skirts or whatever you want. Just make sure they’re not too pricey,” she says.

They seem surprised, but comply, bounding off with King. She waits until the kids are out of earshot.

“How are you handling things? Is your sister alright?” she asks Wyn.

“We’ve all been pretty stressed since everything happened. She said I didn’t have to keep the store open, but I feel too jittery not to do something.” She shrugs and brushes back her hair, then frowns. “You’re missing an arm?”

“It happens.”

“I could tailor your clothes to better fit that.”

“Oh, really? Sweet. Might take you up on that if I don’t just chop off the sleeves.”

“I noticed you ripped the hem of your dress. It was a good hem.”

“Hey, I gotta make it fit my style.”

The doors bell jingles. She and Wyn look over, and she nearly stumbles at the surprising sight of Raine.

“Wh—” She clears her throat. “Raine! Didn’t expect you to still be in Bonesborough.”

Raine’s brows raise. “Eda! I stuck around to regroup with the other coven heads, or at least Darius and Eberwolf… er, I’ll tell you more about that later. I thought I’d stop by here to get another formal outfit since my previous one was stained.”

Wyn nods. “That stupid goop is disastrous to wash out.”

Eda looks down at her somewhat ruined dress. “You know, maybe I will buy something for myself.”

“What else would you be here for?” Raine asks.

“The Collector needed other clothes, I’m taking him out today—” She’s cut off by a resounding crash from the back of the store. “Aaand that’s probably them.”

“Please don’t make me have to re-organize everything,” Wyn says.

“Yeah, yeah, hold on.”

She weaves through aisles of clothing until she reaches the sounds cause, expectedly The Collector and King by a knocked over display for accessories. They don star and heart-shaped sunglasses respectively, The Collector somehow getting on ten bracelets and two more necklaces in the time she was away.

They both jolt when she comes into view. The Collector looks at the mess. “That was always like that,” he says.

She picks up and rights the rack. “Have you found anything you like?”

They, along with King, pick the jewelry off the floor. “Your guys clothes are weird,” he says, taking off his bracelets and putting them back. “No robes or capes or I dunno, I’d take tunics. Where are the long sleeves?”

“Oversized ones?” she asks.

“No, like…” They throw out their arms and gesture at their hanging sleeves. “Like these ones!”

“You’d probably have more luck with the blouses,” she says. “I can help you look.”

King squints. “I think those are called bell sleeves.”

“Why bell?” they ask.

“Cause they look like half of a bell, I guess?”

“Hmm.” They wave out their sleeves again. “I don’t see it.”

She examines the shape. “Oh, huh, it does sorta look like one. Okay, let’s see what we’re working with.”

She looks at the smaller aisle of kids clothing, colorful with bright and loud patterns. Like The Collector said, there’s not much flowing capes or robes, since mostly adults wear those. She picks through the rack. The Collector likes blue, pink, probably purple, no red, likes bell sleeves and their attire is already space themed so she bets that’s a safe pick.

“Oh!” She pulls out a blue blouse with a bloodberry (which is dark blue, despite its name) surrounded by two rings and stars. Hmm, not the right kind of sleeves, but hopefully The Collector isn’t that picky. “How about this?” she asks.

They grab it from her. “Ooo, I like it!”

“And those are bishop sleeves,” King says.

“How do you know so much about sleeves?” she asks.

“The Azura books. I’ve learned more words from them than anything else in my whole life.”

The Collector jumps up to grab a shirt from the top row of clothes. It’s a white blouse with 3d stars, and miraculously they’ve found bell sleeves. “Yes!” he whispers. They look around and put a hand on their chin. “What do swimming clothes even look like?”

“Never been out in the water before?”

“Ehh, the ocean’s boring,” he says. “Don’t ever really go there. But lakes are better!”

She directs them to where she’s spotted swimwear. “The ocean? You can’t do much there with it boiling, true.”

“Right, you’re not fire resistant. But it’s still boring even without that—” They jump back.

She halts in front of the shorts. “What? What is it?”

He stares wide eyed at the clothes. “Why are they designed like that.”

She looks over them. They seem normal, most sporting sea creatures or the ocean itself, given they’re swimwear, so she doesn’t understand why they… oh. Ohhh.

“Are you scared of the ocean?” she asks.

“No,” they reply defensively.

“Right, yeah. I’ll just pick some non-ocean ones.” She sorts through, finding a blue shirt with pink and mint sleeves. “How do you feel about lemons?” she asks, holding up blue shorts with said pattern on them.

He keeps staring, like the overwhelming amount of ocean patterns could come to life any moment.

“Lemons it is,” she says and gestures for them to turn.

His sigh of relief doesn’t go unnoticed. There’s another crash and King’s yelp from around the corner. She picks up her speed, finding him on a toppled over rack.

“Were you climbing it again?” she asks.

King’s wearing a feather boa. “I was trying to get a necklace from the top… sorry.”

She rights the rack. “Which one?”

King glances at The Collector, seemingly checking if they’re watching—they’re not, examining another line of clothes—then points at a three piece heart necklace.

That is adorable. “For you three?” she asks

He nods. “Also, it’s felt kinda weird not wearing anything around my neck for over a month.”

“We can get it,” she says. Really, who could say no?

The Collector makes a gleeful sound. “Moon bunny!” they exclaim. He turns and presents a hooded cape with rabbit ears and a moon on the center, outlining the vague shape of a rabbit on its darker markings. “I can’t believe you guys still have this myth, it was one of my favorites. Can I get it?”

She checks the price and winces. She prepares to say no, but at their smiling face finds herself unable to. “Y-yeah, we can.”

King looks at the price tag. “What?! That’s like—”

She covers his mouth. “A super reasonable price! Now, uh, just make your next few picks really cheap.”

They beam and go back to looking for clothes.

“You’re just as bad as Luz,” King says.

“He said it was his favorite,” she sighs. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Say no.”

“Now, if I said no to everything I should, then you wouldn’t be as spoiled with your stuffed animals.” She puts her hand on her hip.

“Hmm, that’s true. I retract my statement, keep falling prey to our puppy eyes.”

The Collector gets a pair of overalls with rainbows and stickers, another bell sleeve blouse, these cool black pants with holographic moons and stars, and a blue skirt with constellations and moons. That, plus the outfit she got for herself (a maroon button up with a red vest and, shockingly, pants) racks up to more than she planned to spend.

They give her outfit pick a sour look.

“Red is my favorite color, you know,” she says.

“Mmm.”

“I think it’s pretty cool.”

“Mmm.”

She dumps their clothes onto the counter, for Wyn to count up how many snails she has to pay. Shortly after, Raine emerges from the right of the store, carrying a few folded up pieces of clothing.

“Hey,” she says. “How’d we finish before you? You only needed to get one outfit, didja get lost or something?”

Raine flushes. “I had to make sure it was perfect. Sizing is so different here.”

“Hi,” The Collector says. “What’s your name again?”

“Raine. Er, and what’s yours?” they ask, notably embarrassed by forgetting, despite The Collector not remembering theirs.

“The Collector.”

They pause awkwardly, no doubt racking their brain for a question to continue this unprecedented conversation. “Do you like collecting things?” Is what they land on.

“No, I hate it. It’s one of my top hated things to do,” he says sunnily. “Do you like rain or something?”

“Oh, uh, it’s Raine with an ‘e’. I just liked how it sounded.” They shrug with a faint smile.

“Wait, did you name yourself?”

“Yes?”

“You can do that?!” he exclaims.

“Anyone can change their name, if they want to. No one’s stuck with what they’re born with,” the say.

“No one told me.”

King looks in thought. “If I ever changed my name, it’d be funny if I went with like, Queen.”

“Or Prince,” The Collector says. “You got demoted.”

“No! My reign!”

Wyn pushes the bags of clothing toward her. “One hundred and sixty one snails,” she says.

“Thanks.” She fishes out the correct coins and slides them over, then takes the bags.

Raine quickly takes her spot. She finds herself hesitating. 

“You know,” she says to them, “we’re going to the lake. If you’re not busy… it’d be helpful having a swimmer with enough limbs to properly teach the kids.”

Raine blinks and looks around, as if she could be talking to anyone else. “R-really? Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to intrude on—”

“Raine.” Her smile softens. “It would be nice. Please?”

They must see something in her face, as they tentatively smile back. “Okay. What time?”

“In like an hour, Lake Lacuna. Be there, kay?” She winks.

She turns before embarrassment can get the best of her and herds the kids outside.

“Okaaay, we’re gonna go home, put this stuff away and eat,” she says. “Anything specific you’ve been wanting to try, Collector?”

He looks up at her with assumedly surprise. It’s hard to tell with their near-perpetually wide eyes. “I get to pick?”

“Yeah, you haven’t eaten much in who knows how long. Me and King aren’t that picky.”

“Except King thinks fruits are squishy,” they say sullenly.

“As long as there’s something else, I’m fine if we have fruit,” King says.

They blink and hold their hands together. “Umm… I dunno, I just want what you guys usually have. Trying more fruits would be nice, if, like, it could be a side thing…” he finishes quietly.

She nearly pats their shoulder, then stops upon remembering she’s carrying a few bags and has one hand. Not to mention, they’ve yet to initiate physical contact with her, and she’s worried it means they wouldn’t take it positively.

“We’ve got some chokeberries, monster fruit,” she says, “I could show you how to make jam—”

“Jam? Like when you crush up the fruit to goop?” they ask.

“Exactly like that. It’s really fun.”

“I can get behind jam,” King says. “Doesn’t have the weird texture.”

“Let’s make it!” The Collector says with renewed cheer. “I’ve never cooked before, well I have a couple of times but that always ended with explosions so I don’t think it counts, but it’ll be different this time!”

“You’re in luck for teaching, because I’d say we’re all pretty good cooks,” she says. “Even Hooty, somehow.”

“His baking is on point,” King agrees.

They keep discussing Hooty’s strange cooking abilities as they walk back, devolving into cooking mishap stories from Eda, to The Collector’s rambly list of food they’d like to make, her mentally noting each one to save for later.

Roughly an hour later, with only minimal damage to the kitchen, they’ve come to the main event of the day: Lake Lacuna.

“Here it is!” Eda gestures across the lake.

It’s surrounded by beautiful red trees and bushes, arches of bone overhead with sunlight streaming through the large spaces. The lake reflects the sharp blue sky. It’s the most idyllic place on the Boiling Isles, lacking its harsh features and bustling noise.

With how little time she’s spent here since childhood, it’s almost like she’s seven again, being brought here with Lilith to have a fun day in the water.

Now she’s in her thirties bringing two kids for the same reason.

“Ooo.” The Collector cranes their head out to look across the water. “Pretty!”

“The water’s probably cold,” she warns. “But you two can step in while we wait for Raine, if you want.”

King touches it with his claw and jumps back. “Auh, that’s really cold!”

The Collector hops into the water with a splash. He experimentally kicks it around. “It’s not that cold. I wonder how it formed… I guess rainfall? But then why isn’t the water boiling?”

“Whatever makes our sea and rain boil must be an outside source causing it,” she says. “So when it forms a lake like this, we get safe to swim in water. Pretty fun, not really useful, though. No one’s gonna be swimming out in the sea.”

“King could,” they say.

“I could?”

“Yeah, you and me aren’t really affected by the boiling sea all that much.” He makes a small wave within the water, then gets a mischievous look. “You’d just have to wear goggles.”

“Huh, that’s—wait, why are you making that expressio—”

They splash a huge wave of water onto King.

She cackles at the sight of poor King, sopping wet with his fur shrunk down, making him appear so much tinier.

The Collector laughs behind his hand. “Got youuu! Aw, man, your face—”

They cut off with a yelp when King barrels into them, crashing them both back into the water. The Collector resurfaces with a bewildered expression. King pops out of the water and leaps onto their back.

“Wah! Mercy, mercy—”

“No mercy is in this land!” King yells, dragging them back down.

“Try not to drown each other,” Eda says.

“I can’t drown,” The Collector says, right before King pushes their head into the water.

They flail and grab King’s arm, then shove him down with them. They break out of the water, laughter intercepted with shrieks when King continues to retaliate with waves of water and shoving.

She keeps a close eye on them, in case their tussling turns too aggressive, but they both seem to be enjoying themselves.

She’s alerted to soft crunching behind her.

Expectedly, though she still finds a swelling bubble of joy in her chest, she turns to see Raine.

They carry a few towels and a water bottle, along with their glasses case, and give a small wave. “Am I late? Sorry about that,” they say.

“No, we haven’t been here long.” She grins. “Looking good.”

They look down at their band t-shirt, the one they’ve always worn to the lake—it must be a decade old by now—and red shorts. They huff and smile at her. “You, um, you look nice too.”

She’s wearing her red swimsuit and side skirt, and her face must turn a similar shade at their compliment.

“W-well! You gotta help me with the kids, teach them to swim, all that.” She waves a hand and gestures them to the lake.

King’s gotten The Collector in a chokehold. They look up from their predicament and wave happily at Eda and Raine. Easily, they remove King and march back to the shore.

“You’re here!” they exclaim.

“I’m here,” Raine says. “You look like you’re having… fun?”

“I am! I haven’t been to a lake in sooo long, the water feels great and playing with King is great and it’s a really nice day!” He swings King in his arms.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” she says, instinctively ruffling their hair.

They tense under her hand and she immediately pulls back. Right. She tamps down her shame at forgetting The Collector isn’t as fond of her as they are of King and Luz.

They give her an odd look. She looks away and clears her throat. “Sooo, swimming! Let’s do that!”

“Yes, of course.” Raine sets their supplies down. “Do you two know any basics, or are we starting from scratch?”

“I know how to tread water,” King says.

The Collector shrugs. “I don’t know a lot.”

“Treading water is good for beginners, actually, so we can start with that.” They step into the water and shiver, becoming more tentative upon realizing how cold it is.

She pushes them farther in and laughs at their indignant expression. “It’s just a little water,” she teases.

“It’s cold,” they defend. “But I bet you’d be fine just canon balling in, wouldn’t you?”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea.”

They roll their eyes fondly. “We haven’t even started and you’re already getting distracted.”

“You’re the one who suggested it!”

The Collector and King share a look. 

She self consciously stops, then decides she doesn’t care, remembering how she’d react to adults flirting as a kid. “Alright, alright,” she says. “Collector, walk in until your heads just above the water.”

“Okay!”

King has to start treading before anyone else and stays around her and The Collector, keeping up quite easily. She feels a swell of pride.

“So, you hold out your arms like this.” Raine guides The Collector. “And you wave them back and forth, in and out. If you feel the water resisting against you, you’re doing it right.”

His first attempt is with so much force water splashes onto everyone.

“Oops,” they say.

She spits out a strand of hair. “Hey, you’ve got the spirit!” she encourages.

“Just be a bit more gentle,” Raine says and wipes their face.

“Gentle…” they mutter. He repeats the action, slower this time, and makes a noise of surprise. “Oh! I feel it!”

“There you go. Next is peddling your legs,” she says.

“Peddling?” they repeat.

“Like a bicycle,” Raine informs.

“Bicycle?”

“It’s just what I’m doing,” King says. “Kinda like you’re walking, but you extend your legs farther.”

“Ohh.” They look down. “Hm, how do I do that when I’m touchin the ground?”

Raine lifts him up from under his arms and pulls him farther into the deep end.

“Ah!” he says in shock, worrying Eda, and then giggles. He kicks his legs out and seems very pleased with their new floatiness.

“Do the same stuff as before. I’ll slowly let go of you, but if you’re not floating, I’ll hold back on,” Raine says.

“I don’t care if you drop me. King already tried to drown me like three times,” they say.

“Lies and slander,” King says.

The Collector looks at King’s motions, then repeats them. Steadily, Raine eases their hold, until fully letting go. They successfully stay afloat.

“Kid, you’re doing it!” she exclaims.

“I am?” They notice Raine’s let go. “I am! I did it!” He swings out his arms in joy, which disturbs their careful motion and immediately has him falling into the water.

She and Raine dart forward lightning fast to catch them. They pull him out of the water, him bearing a startled face as he clings onto Eda’s arm.

She exhales, reducing her brief panic. “Jeez, you’re gonna give me a heart attack one day,” she says.

He laughs weakly. “Sorry.”

Reluctantly, she pulls away. “Once you get the hang of treading, we can show you how to swim.”

“I can learn now!” he says. “Treading is really easy!”

“You just fell,” Raine says.

“That was one time.” He crosses his arms. “Look, let go, I can do it!” True to their word, they stay afloat when Raine lets go. “See? Can I swim now?”

“Let em do it, it’ll be funny,” King says.

He blows a raspberry. “It won’t be cause I’m gonna be great at it. In fact, I bet five snacks I’ll learn to swim before you.”

“I’ll take that bet!”

“Yes, free snacks!” They grin.

He squawks. “You don’t know if I’m gonna lose yet!”

“But you wiiill,” they sing song. “You’re gonna lose so bad and it’s gonna be hilarious.”

She holds her face. “Okay, we’ll teach you swimming now. But don’t be discouraged if it you don’t get it today, alright?”

“Don’t worry, I’m totally getting it today cause I have to beat King,” he smiles.

“Is foul play allowed?” King asks, contemplative.

“Do your worst!”

Turns out, teaching a kid to swim while another one actively tries to sabotage them is a bit difficult. Harder when you’re lacking an arm and have to relearn swimming yourself. She’s lucky to have Raine by her the whole time.

She should stop doubting The Collector’s capabilities, as a few hours later they’ve managed to swim—their victory thusly reigned over King.

Eventually, the skies taken over by orange and pink, and the four of them are wrapped in towels.

She ruffles King’s towel around him. “Aww, your furs all poofy,” she coos.

The Collector shakes their head, droplets flying off their hair. He clings to his towel, smile bright as ever. “That was fun!”

Raine drys their hair. “It was nice. Thanks for inviting me, Eda.”

“Of course. Kinda needed you anyway, with this and all.” She gestures to her stump.

Their smile dims and they open their mouth, but stop when looking at the kids. “Well, I’m glad you wanted my help, specifically.” They rub the back of their head. “I should probably get going now.”

“Right.”

“See you?”

Her mouth quirks up. “See you around, Rainestorm.”

Each time they leave, it feels less and less like a permanent goodbye. She still has their towels, after all, and things like that mean people stay in your life a little longer.

“Remember, Luz and Camila are coming over for dinner,” she tells the kids.

King climbs onto her shoulder and The Collector sits behind her on Owlbert. “Mhm!” they hum. “I’m excited to see her!”

“It’s been a thousand years,” King says dramatically.

“A million.”

“A billion.”

“We’re so old now,” they sigh.

“You two are still babies. Just wait until your backs give out,” she says.

“Nooo,” King groans.

“You still have a while before that!” The Collector says.

“Oh, yeah…” King frowns. “I guess I am gonna live a pretty long time.”

“Looks like you’re gonna be stuck with me, huh?”

“Great.”

It’s crossed her mind quite a few times how King’s going to long outlive everyone around him. It’s already difficult imagining him all grown up, much less hundreds or thousands of years old. The thought makes her gut twist. She understands now how kids growing up blindsides their parents. But with The Collector around, she’s just glad they’ll have each other.

They land in front of the Owl House. She scritches Owlbert as thanks, and the kids bound onto the grass.

There’s noise from the portal and she looks up just as Luz and Camila burst through the door.

“Guys!” Luz cheers. “I’m back!”

The Collector and King immediately stop what they’re doing to barrel into her for hugs.

“Luz!” they both cry.

She laughs and hugs them both. “Oh, you guys are wet.”

“We went to the lake!” The Collector says. “Eda and Raine taught us how to swim and I learned faster than King and now he has to give me some of his snacks and we also made jam earlier, it’s in the fridge now!”

“That sounds great!” She squeezes both of them and pulls back. “I’m glad you two had such a fun day.”

Eda walks forward and ruffles Luz’s hair, then turns to Camila. “Hey, you brought dinner?”

They already agreed on Camila and Luz sharing human food with them, partially so Camila wasn’t forced to eat Boiling Isles food, but admittedly Eda’s curious as to what it’s like.

Camila hefts up a bag. “Yes, I did. We’re not interrupting anything?”

“Nah, we just got back from the lake.” She waves her arm to the door. “Come inside! You can try the jam we made if you want.”

“Er, maybe…”

She and Camila follow behind the kids, who excitedly push themselves inside, chattering about all of their days. King drops his towel on the floor and The Collector uses theirs as a cape while they gesture energetically.

She smiles at the scene and shuts the door behind her.

Chapter Text

King wakes up on sand.

It takes him a moment to process. His thoughts blur together, fuzzy and not quite comprehending. How did he…?

He blinks up at the shifting blue sky, then shoots up, eyes wide.

That’s not the sky, it’s fire.

He whips his head around. A floating, crystal like castle in the sky crashes into the ocean. The impact sends a huge wave rushing straight toward him.

He jolts and holds an arm over his eyes, bracing for the splash of cold to hit him.

It doesn’t come. The wave passes seamlessly over him, which is a lot more surprising. He realizes with a start his body is slightly see through, fuzzy at the edges… he looks out again. The skyline blurs together.

Oh. He’s dreaming.

The realization isn’t as relieving as it should be.

He stands up and instinctively brushes his fur off, despite no sand sticking. Okay. He’s lucid dreaming of a… beach and castle? And he’s transparent again?

He waves his hands, like it’ll bring his opacity back. It’s strange. He’s only looked like this when seeing The Collector through their mental link, and he’s only had this lucidity in the same moments.

A heavy feeling sits in his gut.

“Collector?” he calls.

The ground rumbles. He yelps when he’s pulled through the trees and stumbles, not managing to catch himself. Something crunches under him.

He screams upon seeing the littering of bones and skulls.

He scrambles up and presses himself against a tree. It’s night suddenly, pitch black darkness seeping in through the trees canopy, the barest of moonlight illuminating what he desperately tries not to focus on.

It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream.

He squeezes his eyes shut. He blinks away his terror and steels himself. Titan corpse forest, okay, whatever! He can handle it! It’s not even real!

“It’s a dream, it’s a dream, it’s a dream,” he mutters and trudges through.

Thick foliage blocks his view, a blessing and a curse for how it blocks the gruesome scene and his vision. Cold wind blows by and he shivers. He could turn back and try to find the beach, yet he keeps walking farther in.

But as long as his gut feels heavy, he can’t bring himself to turn around. He just feels like… if The Collector is here…

He needs to find them. He’d feel a lot better knowing they’re together to figure this out.

Something hops out of the bushes.

“Waugh!” He skids to a stop.

A rabbit blinks at him, sniffing. He holds a claw over his racing heart. Oh, Tita— whatever. He heaves out a sigh. Just a rabbit.

It stares at him a moment longer, then hops through the bushes.

Hmm.

With renewed curiosity, he follows it. Trees and bones clear out to a small circle. He doesn’t see the rabbit, but he does see a rippling, shadowy figure sitting in the center.

He squints. Hesitantly, he steps forward and touches their shoulder.

With a swoosh the darkness slips off.

His surprise turns to complete and utter relief upon The Collector being revealed.

They startle and snap their head up. He pulls his claw back, watching them hesitantly.

“Collector—?”

They reel back and scramble against a tree. Something glimmers in their eyes, unfamiliar, but it makes his gut roll all the same.

It… it almost looks like fear.

Their hand touches a stray bone. They flinch at the crunch, eyes darting to the noise, and pale. Quickly, he looks back at King and raises an arm, pressing farther against the tree.

He doesn’t know what to say. He’s not sure he can say anything.

After what could be a minute or year, they open their mouth.

“Wh-why are you just standing there?” they ask. He lowers his arm, fear turning to frustration. “At least do something! This is weird, even for a drea—”

They stop.

They look up and around. Clarity lights their eyes.

“For a… I’m dreaming!” they exclaim.

He steps back as The Collector shoots up, pep back in their step.

They laugh with a deranged edge. “It's a dream, take that!” They punch the air. “Woah, I’ve never had a lucid dream before,” they say to themself. “How do you wake up from those? Pinching your arm…?”

He finally strangles his tongue into making words. “Collector!”

They jump. “Oh, right, you’re still here.”

“Collector, I think—”

“If you’re gonna try to yell at me or something, I really don’t care, cause I’m gonna wake up soon,” he says and puts their hands on their hips.

The statement throws him off farther. “What?” he asks, befuddled. “No, I’m not gonna yell at you.”

“Huh.” They frown at him. “You’re so responsive.”

“Collector, I’m not part of your dream! I’m actually King! I think we’re dream sharing, or something?” he questions. “I don’t really know, but I thought you would.”

“And so elaborate!”

“Collector!”

“Ugh, okay, I’ll humor you dream King,” they say, like this is the most suffering task he could possibly give them. “But us dream sharing is impossible without a spell and I’d remember doing one.”

He tries to think. “Last time this happened was because of those trapper guys, right?”

“Right.”

“Did the spell never wear off?”

“Ohh. Oh!” They jump. “Wait, you’re right! So that means—”

Their movement stutters to a halt.

“King…?” they ask.

“It’s me,” he says.

They stare at him a moment longer. Then they lurch forward and pull him into a tight hug.

“King!” they exclaim, squeezing him. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Crushing… me,” he wheezes.

They pull back. “Oops. King! Aw, I totally thought you were part of my dream for a second there.”

“I could tell. How do we get out of here?” he asks.

“Hmm.” They stand and snap their fingers. He frowns. “Yeah, my dream magic’s never been that good.”

“Is there a way to wake up?”

They pick up a stick and point it. “Probably not, it’s hard forcing yourself to wake up. Guess we gotta take the long way out.”

They scoop King up.

“Weh!”

“You can close your eyes,” they tell him.

He remembers the graveyard of Titan skeletons. Gratefully, he keeps his eyes shut.

“When we wake up, I’ll undo the spell. Probably shoulda done it in the first place,” they say.

His first instinct is to agree, but he thinks of how, without it, he would have lost all contact with The Collector when they were kidnapped. As distressing and vague as they were, he doesn’t think he could have handled losing all connection with them.

“Maybe we should keep it?” he suggests.

“What? Why?” they ask, incredulous.

“It’d let us keep talking, even if something happened to either of us,” he explains. “That’s pretty useful to have, right?”

“Umm, but you’re gonna have these dreams sometimes. Not every time, I think…”

“I can deal with a couple of nightmares!”

“Aw, but you’re so baby.”

“Luz never should have taught you that word.”

“Anyway, I can deal with this myself,” they say. “It’s better to undo it.”

He climbs up their shoulder, guessing at where their face is. “But I don’t want you to! It’d be helpful, besides, you have to respect me and my decisions at least a little bit, right?”

“Hmm…”

They go silent for quite a bit.

“You don’t have to think about it so hard!” he yells.

“I guess I do.”

“Great. Thanks,” he deadpans.

“You’re welcome.” Their footsteps turn crunchier. “You can open your eyes now,” they say.

He blinks them open, assaulted with bright blue in place of darkness.  He rubs his eyes as they slowly adjust.

The Collector sets him down.

The skies fire suddenly burns out to a dull sunset. It casts harsh shadows, darkening the looming castles front, giving it a much more intimidating appearance. Soft glows of blue emit from its windows and doorless entrance.

It’s almost pretty.

He looks at The Collector.

They clutch their piece of the heart necklace he gifted them and Luz, staring out with pinched eyes.

It hits him, now, how The Collector had a whole life before this.

Most days it’s easy to forget they’ve had hundreds or thousands of years to live, physically that is, until their eyes go distant and they seem to remember something that could have been billions of years ago. It’s jarring to imagine. Even now, he knows so little about them.

They look down at him, then lean over with a grin. “D’ya wanna see my old room?”

“Weh?”

They reach a hand out and make a grabbing motion, jerking the castles broken half to sit in front of them.

Water crashes over them both. The Collector flicks his hand and pulls the water off him into a bubble, then chucks it off to the side.

“I lived on the left tower there!” They point with their stick. “And this is the entrance, usually it’d have these big doors with suns and moons.”

“Huh.” He follows them inside the crystal or marble like structure, looking up and down.

It’s big. The walls extend so high the ceiling is dark, decorated with glowing pink, blue and purple stars. Various animals he’s never seen, plants and objects are on display, more than he can count, lit to show their best sides. Pillars support the structure, framing beautiful depictions of stars, galaxies and planets mounted on the walls. He realizes the paintings are moving, shifting ever so slightly.

“Collectors sure knew how to decorate,” he says.

“What, this stuff?” They pause to look at a fossil on display. “Eh. Mine’s better.”

“Yours?”

He looks up at a swirling depiction of space, in colors he never knew it could have. A crack to his left alerts him.

The rest of the hall’s crumbled into a swirling, black void that seems to grow closer at the edges. He gasps and stumbles back. Quickly, he runs around the corner and skids to a halt in front of two, large doors.

Above reads The Archives in big text.

One of the doors is slightly ajar. He can’t see anything but inky darkness.

There’s a tug in his chest, beckoning him to walk closer. Slowly, he steps forward.

Someone grabs his claw.

He looks up to find The Collector. “Come on, silly,” they say.

They drag him from the doors. He whips his head around, suddenly startled out of a strange, fuzzy feeling.

The Archives and subsequent hallway is gone.

The Collector doesn’t seem to have noticed anything weird. They drag him to the foot of a spiral staircase and gesture up.

“This one’s mine!” they say proudly.

Low and behold, a huge skeleton of a deep sea creature crawls up the middle. The sheer awe it brings wipes his previous anxiety.

“Woah!” he exclaims.

“The animal washed up on the beach some time ago 'n I put its bones here. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was really big!” he says and throws out his arms. “And had these weird teeth! Anyway, my room’s up there.”

“Uh, I think we should hurry…” He nervously checks behind him.

“Pshh, I wasn’t gonna make us walk up all those stairs.”

They grab King’s claw and with a burst of air they both shoot up to the top.

He yelps. As soon as they touch the ground, he quickly grabs the wall to ensure he won’t fall over the stairs.

The Collector steps around him and he hears a door swing open. He looks up, seeing them gesture for him to come inside.

If you asked King to imagine The Collector’s room, he’d think it’d be a complete mess. Unorganized and loud with color to match their personality, the floor barely seeable.

He missed the mark. While filled with more stuff than he could imagine fitting in a single room, it’s completely neat. The walls are lined with shells, coral, small winged things that look like ancestors to bloodyflies and bones at the bottom. Jars of rocks sit in rainbow order, their gleam only challenged by blue beads hanging above their bed.

A handwoven yellow, deep red and blue rug stands out against their cerulean room.

They step over it and hop onto their bed. A breeze blows in from the window, billowing sheer curtains. Tentatively, he crawls onto their bed with them.

“Pretty cool, right?” they ask, smiling.

“Yeah…” He looks down at their sun and moon quilted blanket, then to the jars. Huh. There's few orange rocks and no light blue ones. “How’d you get all this ocean stuff if you’re scared of the ocean?” he asks.

“I’m not scared of the ocean!” They groan and look away. “Most of that stuff washed up on the shore, anyway. Some were gifts—like this!”

They grab a bone by their bed and heft it up.

He scoots forward. “What’s that from?”

“One of the people in the village had to get their arm amputated. Something about a big fish.” He shudders. “I asked em if I could keep the bone after and they let me.”

“That’s someone’s bone?!”

They giggle and hold it out to him. “You wanna touch it?”

“I don’t want to—” He stops.

Their smile brightens.

Slowly, he touches the end of the bone.

They laugh and pull it back. “Cool, isn’t it?”

“Ehh, I’m never gonna get into collecting bones like you and Luz.”

Wait.

One of the people in the village.

The only other intelligent species at that time were… Titan’s. They have to be talking about Titan’s.

He never gave much thought about The Collector’s and Titan’s. There was war that ended both species, leaving him and his Collector, the end.

But what’s before a war?

He grips the blanket.

Luz said to give The Collector time, and he’s trying, but it’s so hard when all his answers keep being just out of reach. Can’t he ask at least one thing? They already showed him their old room, maybe they’re in a nostalgic mood.

If he gets one shot, he’s gotta set his priorities.

“You look funny,” they say. “Are you thinking ‘bout something?”

He blinks. “Uh, yeah, actually. I wanted to, uh, maybe ask you a question?”

“Mhm.”

Here he goes. “You… knew my dad, right?”

“Hmm? Yeah.”

“Uh, well, could you—could you tell me what he was like?”

Their grip tightens around their stick. They turn, holding a hand to their chin. “She was liiike… you!”

“She? Wait, really?!” he gasps.

“Uhuh.” They tap their stick. “Cared too much about stupid things, kinda stiff, super boring—”

“You can stop insulting me now.”

They grin back at him. “Fun to tease.”

He rolls his eyes. A realization strikes him. He thought The Collector might know a handful of things about his dad(?). Even that was a longshot, given their relationship of him imprisoning them. But they almost sound…

Fond.

A rumble is his only warning before the room jerks, then crashes.

Ocean water floods in from the window. He yells and stands up. “What’s going on?!”

“Oh.” The Collector is unbothered. “Don’t worry, this is always how it ends,” they say, watching the water.

“Always?” he repeats.

The water swirls at his feet and darkens deeper and deeper, until it’s a familiar blue.

“Collector—”

They stand, water lapping at their ankles and his knees. “Well, this was fun. See you when we wake up!”

Their wave is the last thing he sees, before water overtakes his vision and everything

turns

black.

King shoots up with a gasp.

He grabs his chest, gulping down air. Black spots crowd his vision. He blinks them away until soft light fills his vision, lighting up Luz’s old—now The Collector and King’s—room.

Slowly, his heart calms.

The blankets rustle behind him and he turns just as The Collector sits up. They rub their eyes, then stare at him, tilting their head.

“Uh,” he says eloquently. “Did we actually dream share or are my dreams just getting weirder?”

They blink, eyes widening.

“You were there!” they cry. “That’s good to know… bad to know? Are you sure you don’t want me to unmagic what those other guys did? You’re gonna have to keep dealing with all my…” He gestures a hand. “Stuff.”

He brushes himself off. “Erm, no, I stand by what I said. Besides, now we can deal with it together.”

They pause in pulling away their blanket and give him a blank look.

“What?” he asks.

“You’re weird,” they say.

“Huh?! No I’m not!”

They hop up, bonnet falling off their head. “You’re super weird. But that’s okay, cause we’re all weird.”

He groans. “You’re weirder.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“I don’t say confusing stuff like you do.” They poke his snout. “I’m gonna get dressed, leave.”

“Half of what you say is confusing! That’s like, your whole thing!” he argues.

They push him out of the room. “Goodbyeee!” they sing song.

“Hey, this is my room too, you know—”

“Uhuh!” They slam the door shut.

He sags in defeat.

He must be standing there stewing in annoyance for longer than intended, because eventually, Eda pokes her head around the corner.

“King!” she says. “You both doing alright? I was just about to get you for breakfast.”

“I got kicked out of my own room,” he says sullenly.

“It happens.”

“Does it?”

She shrugs. “Wanna come down and eat with me?”

He brightens at the thought of delicious food. “Ooo, what are we having?”

“Leftovers. I tried cooking, but I just kept burning everything…”

Chapter Text

“WAKE UP!”

King screams.

“Wh—what?! What?!” He whips his head around, heart pounding.

The Collector lowers the pot and pan they banged together. “It’s almost noon! You gotta get up!”

He rubs his skull to dispel the ringing in his ears. “Gah. Why did you do that?” he hisses.

“Luz and her mama are coming over for lunch, remember? And we gotta clean! Clean, clean, clean. So get up or I’m gonna hit these again.” He waves the pot and pan.

“I’m up, I’m up!”

Why they think the house needs more cleaning after they've already done so much the past week, he'll never know. His groan turns to a yawn and he stretches. The Collector bounces on their feet, watching him.

He yelps when they lose patience and push him out the room. “Hey!” He glares. “What’s up with you today?”

They drag him to the bathroom, place him on his stool and hand him his berry flavored toothpaste. The Collector uses mint because it makes them ‘feel cleaner’, but the taste is too strong for King.

“I’ve been up for hours!” They throw out an arm and begin brushing their teeth. “‘n Eda’s person has been over just talkin’ with her the whole time and you can’t interrupt adults when they’re talking so I’ve been sooo bored.”

“Eda’s person?” he asks. “Like, Raine?”

“Raine, whatever.” Impossibly he brushes faster. They’re done before King’s on his bottom canines. “So let’s play before everyone comes over!”

“I’m not done brushing.”

They throw their head back and groan. “You’re so slooow.”

“You’re way too hyper this early,” he says.

“It’s not early! It’s noon!” They lean onto the counter and bounce. “And Luz’s friends and girlfriend are coming over too, cause she wants to introduce them and her mama, so we’re gonna have no time to play the whole day cause everyone’s gonna be too busy, so we gotta do it now!”

He keeps brushing.

“Kiiing,” they whine.

“Hold on!”

He goes quicker just to get out of their scrutiny. “Alright,” he says when he’s done, “we can go now—”

The Collector yanks him up. Clearly without a seconds thought, they skid out the bathroom and run down the stairs. He can only be thankful for their secure hold as they bound outside, King only catching a glimpse of Eda and Raine in the kitchen.

“What should we do?” they ponder and spin on their heel.

He wriggles out of their arms and climbs onto their shoulder. “I dunno, not anything too exciting? I’m still tired.”

They hum and point a finger out, all the way til landing on the shed. Their eyes brighten and they grin.

“What are you making that face for?” he asks slowly.

“Okay”—They clap their hands together—“I know it’s not playing, but maybe I could teach ya more magic!” They throw out their hands with an explosion of glitter and stars.

He squints, skeptical. “I don’t have more magic.”

“Yes you do, silly.” They boop his snout. “Three of the main glyphs are under your domain! That’s a lot of stuff! Plant, fire, ice.” They count on their hand. “Your magic is all earthy and watery. Like mud.”

He looks down at his claws. “I have mud magic?”

“Basically. Then light is my stuff and everything that comes from space.” They point up.

“So Titan’s are… the ground, and Collector’s are space,” he says. “The sky?”

“Uhuh!”

“Aren’t you more powerful than me? Why do you only have one kind of glyph?” he asks.

“Glyphs aren’t the only typa magic, they’re just the most, ummm… accessible! Like, they make it so everyone can use them. We chose to give you guys light. Or, the others did… it was a long time ago,” they say, quieter.

He tosses the new concepts in his mind. He knows Titan’s were powerful, especially when living on the corpse of one that sprouted life itself. But he never tied that to himself. Being told directly this is his power, that he can do things like that, is… a lot.

In attempt to move his mind away from it, he asks, “Can someone’s domain be earthy magic and sky magic?” 

“Not really… you’d just be like a god, then.”

“You wouldn’t call us gods?”

They laugh. “Us? No way! We’re normal people.”

He frowns. “But if people act like we aren’t…”

They point at a pot. “Hey, if everyone said that pot was actually a thirty feet tall griffin, would it be true?”

“Uh—”

“It wouldn’t, cause that’s not how it works,” he says plainly. “So it doesn’t matter if some people say you’re anything other than King, cause they’re not you, and they don’t get to decide that.”

Oh.

Stunned by their eloquence, he doesn’t register them opening the shed and walking in until they’ve stopped.

“Now,” they start, “let’s resurrect Jean-Luc!”

“What?!”

“I said I was gonna teach you more magic. This is me doing that,” he says. 

He realizes they’re standing in front of Jean-Luc’s decapitated body, left in the shed by Eda and Luz.

“Didn’t he try to kill you?!” he half yells.

“I’m over it.”

“That’s not the point!”

They pick up Jean-Luc’s head. “I don’t understand the problem. Don’t you want your weird stone guy back?”

He has to admit, there was comfort in Jean-Luc’s presence, but… “What if he tries doing that again?” he asks. “I can’t control him!”

Instead of realizing the gravity of the situation and acting accordingly, The Collector turns to him with a sly grin. “Are you worriiied about meee?”

“No,” he deadpans.

“Look, you could drop an anvil on me and I’d be fine. This is nothing,” they say.

“Have you tried that before?”

They ignore him. “And the point of this is so you can control your magic! It’s weird he didn’t listen to you before, even with a failsafe he should have been under your command, but we can work on it.” 

Doubt permeates his mind. “Isn’t this too high level? Shouldn’t I start with something, I dunno, simpler?”

“This is simple! Makin' and controlling life is Titan 101.”

“Right. Just… making life. Super simple.”

“Jean-Luc’s already been made, anyway, so you’ve taken out sooo many steps. All you need to do is command him to turn off,” they say and wave his head. “Once I put this on.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” he says in case it’ll make them change their mind.

“All my ideas are good ideas.”

He’s not sure why he tries. Maybe he can stall until Luz gets here and she can convince them out of this. “What if I can’t figure it out and he wrecks the place?”

“I can just fix everything.” They twirl a finger. “Don’t you wanna learn more magic, King?”

“I do, but—”

“Okay then let’s do it!” They place his head.

“Wait—”

Blue eyes light up.

Oh no.

Luz has been sweating since she woke up.

Her nerves over Camila meeting her friends has kept her jittery and worse for wear. It’s not just about good impressions, but also the fact she’ll be… well, coming out. She knows her mom will react positively, just based on a handful of conversations they’ve had, but it’s different knowing versus experiencing. She and Amity agreed it’d be best to get it out of the way, both so they didn’t have to hide anything (they’re terrible liars) and so Luz could rest easy.

She clutches her laptop. She even made a whole cheesy presentation to help with coming out. Thankfully, her mom accepted her vague reasoning of ‘needing to show her something’, so she got to bring it along.

First she has to get through lunch.

“Are you sure I made enough?” Camila asks her, looking at the tupperware she holds. “I’ve seen how much King eats.”

“Mamá, they won’t starve,” she replies.

“Everyone deserves a big lunch,” Camila says resolutely.

She laughs. It’s a good sign Camila is worrying, she must like the Clawthornes.

She’s a little concerned when they draw closer to the portal door and she hears what sounds like yelling. With trepidation, she opens the door.

Of course, she can’t be met with normal, calm scenery.

The Collector casually holds back an active Jean-Luc, who’s desperately trying to get a hit on them, being stopped each time by a simple block of their hand. King holds his claws out frantically.

“You gotta focus and tug!” they say, throwing up a hand to catch Jean-Lucs weapon-like hand.

“I don’t know how!” King yells. “This isn’t natural to me like you!”

She dashes forward. “Collector! What’s going on?!”

“Oh, Luz!” The Collector smiles and waves. Jean-Luc strikes their shoulder. They wince and grab his arm and twist it back. “Ow.”

Shoot. She slaps down an ice glyph and sends it to Jean-Luc, effectively trapping him in a sheet of ice. She skids to a halt in front of The Collector.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay? Why is Jean-Luc here? What are you guys doing?” she asks rapidly. She touches their shoulder, then pulls up their sleeve to check for bruising.

The Collector is unbothered. “I’m trying to show King how to use his magic, but he’s really bad at it.”

“Couldn’t you have trapped Jean-Luc before doing this?” King asks, tail smoothing down.

“You know, I didn’t think of that,” they say.

She sighs and pats their head. “Please be safer next time.”

“What is going on?” Camila asks slowly, staring at Jean-Luc with a perturbed face.

“Umm,” Luz says.

“He’s my weird stone guardian,” King explains. “We had to decapitate him a month ago. The Collector thought we should re-activate him so I could learn more magic, but it’s not working.”

Camila doesn’t look any less unsettled.

“It’s not normally like this,” Luz says quickly.

“It would work, if you could just… grab onto your magic!” The Collector says.

“I told you, I don’t know what that means,” King complains.

They groan. “It’s just—you just feel it build up, like it’s in your chest and hands and you reach out to that feeling and you pull it. Shape it into what you want. You gotta notice the way magic—your magic—feels. So if you keep practicing, noticing that will be second nature.”

Camila takes her grimace off of Jean-Luc, looking in thought. “Like meditation?”

“Huh?” The Collector holds a hand to their chin. “Oh, yeah, I guess that could work. I always found that boring.”

“How’s that supposed to help me?” King asks.

“Well, when you meditate you’re trying to ground yourself and notice all the little sensations around you,” Camila says. “So if I understand correctly, magic is like that? And you have to do that to, er, control this little stone man?” She stares flatly at Jean-Luc.

“Yes!” The Collector shakes their fists. “Exactly like that!”

King looks at the ground. “Meditation, huh? If it works, then…”

He sits in front of Jean-Luc. He closes his eyes, holds his claws together and takes a deep breath.

Everyone waits in anticipatory silence.

King stands. With purpose, he strides forward and places a claw on Jean-Luc. He breathes out. Narrows his eyes. And…

Jean-Luc’s eyes fizzle to darkness.

King blinks. “I… I did it?”

The Collector bounces on his feet, then squeals and tackles King. “YOU DID IT!”

“Weh!”

They spin with King in their hold. “You did it, you did it, you did it!”

“I did it!” He throws out his arms. “You’re right, it is like—like a buzzing in my chest and then—”

“And then it goes to your hands!”

“And then I pulled!”

“Aaah!” They laugh and spin again.

“Oh my gosh!” She claps her hands together, then hops forward to join the hug. “King, congratulations!”

Camila smiles. “Good job, I… think? I’m glad it helped.”

“It did!” King exclaims. “It—augh, ow—!” He holds his head.

“That’ll happen the first few times,” The Collector says. “Dizziness, fatigue, black spots in your vision, usually for a few minutes.”

“It doesn’t mean anything bad, right?” Luz asks.

“Nope! He’s just so little that using stronger magic can take a toll. He just needs to get used to doin’ it,” they say.

“This didn’t happen with my sonic scream,” King groans.

“That’s not something you need to put a lotta focus on.”

“You know what can help with exhaustion?” Camila holds out the tupperware. “Food.”

King brightens. “Lunch!” he cries.

“Lunch!” Luz echoes. “Lunch, lunch lunch…”

The three of them parrot lunch as they head inside. The Collector ensures to excavate Jean-Luc so they can put him in his and King’s room again, because ‘the shed is so lonely’.

Eda looks up from the table where she and Raine sit. Her eyes widen. “Woah, what’d you guys get into? And why’s Jean-Luc here?”

“King fixed him by doing more magic!” The Collector declares.

“Eda, I did it!” King runs to her. “I learned how to control him better and I finally understand what The Collector was talking about with the buzzing and feeling your magic thing!”

Eda gasps. “You did more magic? Ohh…” She makes a choked sound and pulls King into a hug. “I’m so proud of you!”

King laughs and bumps into her jaw.

“They grow up so fast,” Eda sighs.

“I’m not that old yet!”

“Aww.” Raine grins, then bears a startled look upon seeing Camila. “Er, hello miss… Noceda? It’s nice to meet you.”

“Camila Noceda.” She reaches out to shake their hand.

“Yes, I’m Raine Whispers.”

Luz’s smile widens. She looks to the hall and waits until The Collector comes back. They hop in, notice her staring, and reach up to touch her nose.

“Boop!”

She giggles and touches theirs. “Boop!”

“Alright everyone, come sit at the table,” Eda calls.

She goes to her usual spot. It’s interesting that Raine is over today. Even more interesting they and Eda have been talking… she shoots a grin at Eda, subtly gestures to Raine, then tilts her head questioningly.

Eda blushes and waves her hand, either telling Luz to back off or indicating she’ll talk about it later. Works for her.

“What’d you make this time?” King asks Camila eagerly.

Camila sets the tupperware in what’s functionally a microwave, technically a box with fire glyphs. “It’s mofongo—Collector, you’ll like this—made from mashed plantains, garlic, salt and oil.”

“Plantains!” The Collector exclaims, leaning over.

So far it’s his favorite human food, Luz guesses because it’s technically a fruit. Camila’s picked up their preferences fast, along with King’s liking to meat and Eda’s odder tastes. It makes her chest feel warm.

“I should really make you morir soñando sometime,” Camila says.

“Ohh, what’s that?” they ask

“Orange juice and evaporated milk,” Luz answers. “It’s really good.”

“I dunno what either of those things are, but I want it!”

“What’s the meat?” King asks when Camila sets down and opens the tupperware.

“Chicharrón,” she answers, “and there’s a chicken broth in this one.”

As Camila serves the food, Luz notices The Collector ducking under the table. She looks down, curious, then with amused confusion as they take off her shoes.

“Watcha doing?” she asks.

He crawls back up from under the table and chucks her shoes at the front door.

At her expression they say, “You don’t wear shoes inside.”

“Luz! We are guests,” Camila chastises.

“Augh, but it’s so inconvenient!” she complains. “Aren’t you wearing shoes?” she asks The Collector.

He looks at his. “These are slippers. You’re supposed to wear them inside.”

“Good thing I don’t wear shoes,” King says around a mouthful of food.

“But you wear those outside, too,” she says, less to argue and more for clarification.

The Collector sits back in their chair. “Slippers are versatile.”

She laughs. “Alright, whatever you say. Sorry I keep wearing my shoes inside.”

“Thank you.”

He pokes at his food. They always do that, as in wait for the go ahead to eat. She’s not sure if it was a custom in his old home, or maybe he did something similar to human prayers before eating so now he’s thrown out of loop on when to eat, but either way it leaves her disconcerted.

“You don’t always need someone’s permission to start eating, you know,” she whispers.

“Mm.” Is their noncommittal response. Still, they begin eating.

It’s a, all things considered, normal lunch. Camila and Eda talk a lot about adult stuff she doesn’t get yet and Camila’s job. She hopes it’s a sign they’re getting along. 

Soon enough Hooty barges into the kitchen.

“Luuuz, your friends are heeere,” Hooty sings. “And the scary purple one!”

“Oh!” She jolts up and winces at her chair screeching back. “I’ll get it!”

She dashes to the door and swings it open.

“Guys!”

“Luz!” Her friends cheer.

“Is your—”

“Did your mom—”

“Can we see your mom?!” Gus asks loudly over the crowd of questions.

“Yes!” she says. “She’s just in the kitchen. How are you guys?”

“Good,” Amity smiles. “The library’s still really busy with us trying to upheave everything and get more reliably sourced historical books, but we’re making progress. Lilith’s been helping a lot, actually.”

“That’s really cool!” she says. “If you ever need any help…”

“I know, but you’re already so busy,” Amity says.

“Did you hear the rumors about the remaining heads plans for school?” Willow asks. “They’re gonna reshape the whole education system!”

“Oh, wow.”

“It’s probably for the best, but I’ll miss the illusion track,” Gus sighs.

“I hope they keep the sports,” Willow says.

“Yeah, I’d really like the chance to actually join flier derby next year,” Hunter says, in his usual place of keeping near Willow and Gus. Luz looked away for a week and they formed a trio.

Wait. “Hunter! You’re gonna go to school next year?!” she exclaims.

He looks embarrassed. “I was thinking it’d be nice…?”

“We’re gonna force him to,” Willow says.

“Luz?” Eda calls.

She jumps. “Gus, you can ask my mom as many questions as you want after I do my thing, uhh, I guess that goes for the rest of you too.”

“Right, your human ritual. Don’t worry, I’m ready for celebration.” He poofs in two bi flags.

“Oh my god,” she says, delighted.

“We’ve been studying the book you lent us in preparation,” Amity says. “A lot of our terms are similar, but, you know, just in case. It seems like the flags are mostly different.”

“I totally would have put something different on them without that book,” Gus says.

She laughs upon remembering how dramatic the Boiling Isles pride flags are. “I love your guys flags. Okay, okay, come inside!”

She waves them in. They all squish through the doorway, clearly impatient.

“Mom!” Luz bounds into the kitchen. “Mom, come meet my friends!”

Camila looks up. “Oh! Yes, of course, I’ve been so excited to meet you all!” She stands and faces the group.

“Hi, miss Noceda!” Gus extends a hand. “I’m Gus. It’s great to meet you! I had a whole human club back in school, so I’ve been really excited.”

“Oh, a… human club?”

“I’m Willow!

“I’m Amity. Thanks for agreeing to meet us,” she says politely.

“Uh, and I’m… Hunter.”

“These are my friends.” Luz gestures across everyone. “And, um… hold on!”

She skids to the living room, picks up her laptop and rushes back.

Eda rises. “You doing it now, Luz?”

“Mhm.”

“We’ll give you some privacy,” she says.

Eda and Raine stand, then King realizes the situation and follows suit. He pokes The Collector until they follow. “Come on,” he whispers.

She watches them go. Camila looks puzzled now. “What are you doing, Luz?” she asks.

Oh boy. Here goes nothing.

She opens her laptop and hits play.

Eda shuts the door behind her.

“I should go now, anyway,” Raine says, twiddling their thumbs. “Um… thanks for having me,” they smile.

Her cheeks heat up. It’s hard to believe they actually talked about anything, harder to believe Raine agreed on giving them another shot.

It’s just one date, she reminds herself. It hasn’t even happened yet. Raine could decide their feelings truly have faded, or she could screw up the evening, or someone much more put together and better than her could whisk them away and she'd be happy for them but damn if it wouldn't hurt.

That’s not now, though.

“Anytime,” she manages to say. “I’ll… see you next week.”

For their date.

Oh jeez.

They leave with a flushed face and smile.

King squints at her. She rolls her eyes and her smile dims to something more comfortable.

“Why do we have to be outside?” The Collector asks.

She leans against the house. “Luz is doing something very important right now, so we can’t bother her too much,” she says. “We’ll come back in when she’s done.”

“Hmm… okay!”

“She’s ‘coming out’, right?” King asks.

“Yep.” She pops the p. “It’s a bigger deal for humans, but Luz said it should go fine.”

The Collector flops onto the grass. “Coming out of what?”

“She’s coming out as bi,” King says.

“Bi?”

“When you like, uh, everyone?” King says, unsure. “Pan is also like that.”

She debates how to explain attraction. They’re too young for the talk, and oh boy, it’s just hit her she’ll have to deal with that someday, but she could explain other parts.

“Romantically like,” she clarifies. “Like when you enter a relationship with someone and kiss em and stuff. But you got it right.”

They stop rolling. “Ohh. I don’t get it.”

“I don’t really either.” King shrugs. “Why does love matter so much?”

They point at him. “That’s what I’m thinking!”

“Eh, you might understand when you’re older, you might not.” She waves a hand. “Lily’s like that too, cause she figured out she’s aromantic. But you two have a lot of time to decide on that stuff.”

“Ugh, Lilith?” they grimace. “I don’t want to have anything in common with her.”

“You know, you already have lots of things in common. You could get along with her,” she says with a toothy grin.

“Pshh, no way.” He continues rolling in the grass.

“Lilith isn’t that bad. We ate ice cream and talked about parental issues,” King says.

That must be why five cartons of ice cream were bought and gone in one day, she wondered about that.

“I can do that without Lilith!” they declare. “What’s ice cream?”

King sits in the grass beside them. “It’s like this frosty sweet treat, melts in your mouth.”

“Ooh!”

“We’ll get you some next time I shop,” she decides.

Turns out, Luz coming out went really well. If her cheer and Gus’ illusions of bi flags and a rainbow are anything to go off of.

Camila and Luz stuck around longer than usual, so Camila could have more time to get to know Luz’s friends, but it wasn’t long until Camila checked the time and said something about needing to get home.

Eda respects Camila’s wishes, but she does hope Luz will be allowed over longer and more often sooner rather than later.

She waves Camila and Luz away as they leave through the portal.

Twilight rapidly descends from the setting sun. In a few hours, she’ll be putting the kids to bed. But for now…

She heads back to the living room. The Collector’s trying to lead King through cat’s cradle, with little avail due to him having less fingers.

“Collector,” she starts, “you gotta have a bath. You’re dirty from rolling in the ground earlier and you’re overdue anyway.”

He blinks up at her with wide eyes.

“A… bath?”

She mentally grimaces, remembering how King didn’t take kindly to baths when he was younger. There was a lot of yelling. Hopefully The Collector isn’t as fussy—

The Collector shoots up, flings open a window and crawls out of it in the blink of an eye.

She almost doesn’t process it. King stares wide eyed at the window. Thankfully, mom mode kicks in packed with fast reflexives.

“Wh—get back here!” She runs out the door.

The Collector brushes himself off, then jolts, looking back at the window, to her, then the trees.

Of course, he makes a break for it.

Why. She grits her teeth and runs after them. Parenting sometimes means chasing your kid down when they don't want to do something that they have to.

“Kid!” she shouts. “Come on, baths aren't scary!”

“I’m not taking one! I’m clean!” they yell.

She groans. “You liked the lake so much, what’s wrong with a bath?”

He dives into the trees. She estimates his direction and swerves to cut him off. They yelp, try to course correct, only to be caught by her arm.

“Kid—”

“NO! No, no, no!” He squirms in her grip and pushes at her.

“At least just try it today—”

Quicker than she expected, they fall limp in her grip. “Nooo,” he whines, “you’re gonna make me do it again next week and the week after that and the week after that and it never ends!” They stomp their foot.

“I’m sorry, Collector, but it’s important. I see you clean the house for fun! What’s different with yourself?” she asks.

“Ughh, but I’m not touching the water when I clean other stuff,” they say, leaning back.

She doesn’t understand why this is an issue now but not at the lake.

“You’ll feel better after a bath,” she says. “It won’t be long—”

She makes the mistake of loosening her grip, foolishly assuming he would comply now.

Instead they blink once, clearly realizing their chance for escape, then darts out of her grip in less than a second.

She stares at her empty hand.

“Oh, dammit,” she mutters.