Chapter Text
25th of December, 2018
27th of Maha, 1000
Luz awoke to the soft sounds of beeping, the bright lights above her forcing her to close her eyes again.
“Mija, are you awake?” Her Mama’s voice came from somewhere above her. She gave a small nod, before regretting that as a spike of pain shot through her head. She opened her mouth to say something but felt her Mama’s finger on her lips.
“Don’t say anything cariño, Mr. Strange will be here shortly.” Luz stopped herself from nodding just in time and instead resolved to try to figure out where she was.
Juding from the consistent beeping above her and the bright lights in the room, she was in some sort of hospitals. It was probably one of the Order’s hospitals if her Maestro was here. Standard hospitals new better than to let him in.
It wasn’t long before she felt the lights turn off and a “Hello Ms. Noceda.” Luz weakly waved hello.
She could hear her Maestro huff in amusement before stepping closer to her. “Try not to do much. You were severely starved and dehydrated by the time Ms. Clawthorne was able to remove the wall you conjured. We’ve had you on an IV drip this whole time.”
“How long?” She croaked out. Her throat was so dry that the act of breathing was painful let alone speaking.
“Seven days,” Maestro said. She could hear him fidgeting with the machines above her.
She counted the days out in her head and felt her stomach drop when she realized what today was. She cracked her eyes open, thankfully to darkness, and looked towards her Mama. “Feliz Navidad,” she mouthed. Her Mom had tears in her eyes as she reached forward and cupped her face.
“Feliz Navidad cariño.” She pressed a soft kiss to her face and looked at her Maestro. Luz followed her gaze and smiled as she watched him continue to mess with the machines above her. She knew that a lot of people considered him cold, especially in the Order, but he really wasn’t. He just cared about people in his own way. Even if he didn’t know how to appropriately express it. She was like that sometimes when overwhelmed.
“When can she come home?” Her Mama asked.
Pretending to be satisfied with what he had been doing, he looked to her Mama. “I’d like to keep her here overnight to keep an eye on her vitals and then discharge her tomorrow.” Her Mama nodded, seemingly satisfied.
“Are you okay if I run home really quick cariño?” She wanted to tell her Mama not to worry about her, that she’ll be fine but all she could do was nod.
“Okay,” her Mama said standing up. “I’ll grab some fresh clothes for you for tomorrow and gather all the things your friends sent. Eda and King have been staying at our place, so I’ll let them know that you’re coming home tomorrow.” Her Mama was more talking to herself than she was Luz, so she just sat back and watched her Mama dart around the hospital room.
Luz recognized a few of the things scattered about; Eda's favorite blanket, some of King’s drawings, there was a stack of ‘Get Well Soon’ cards sitting on the table next to her. She recognized Willow’s handwriting on the card on top.
“I’ll be back real soon okay Mija?” Luz nodded as her Mama pressed a kiss to her forehead and practically ran out of the room.
It was silent save for continuous beeping of the machines. “I wish to ask you a few questions about what happened, do you feel up to writing?” Luz nodded. Her Maestro nodded and popped out to grab some writing supplies.
He came back and handed her the clipboard with some paper and a pencil and sat in the chair her Mama just left.
Question for a question? Luz wrote on the paper. Her Maestro nodded. “Usual rules?” Luz gave a thumbs up.
“Tell me about this creature.”
It was unnatural, like it was missing certain dimensions. It reminded me of Hong Kong.
“Elaborate please.”
Its proportions were always in flux, and it seemed to have some sort of appendage that I couldn’t completely comprehend. I don’t remember it very well; Luz wrote with a frown. I think my memory of it is degrading.
“If you remember, the same thing happened after Hong Kong. Such degradation is common when dealing with these kinds of beasts, so I’m not overly concerned. How did you stop it?”
Amity and I were chased into a dead end, and I have to wonder if it was herding us towards there. I was able to conjure a wall between us and it.
“How’d you do that?”
Luz shrugged. I had a lot of energy in me at the time and all I remember is reaching towards the rock and willing it shut. Why?
“Mrs. Clawthorne returned to the site a few days ago and had some peculiar reactions to your chosen mode of defense. I was just curious as to what you did.” She apologetically shrugged.
Her Maestro waved it off. “It’s not a big deal right now but I would like you to follow up with her when you get the chance. Is there anything else you’d like to say?”
A new glyph. She drew it out really quick. Might not be completely correct but the frost in the cave formed this symbol. It feels and looks similar to the light glyph from before.
Her Maestro nodded and stood up. “Follow up with Ms. Clawthrone about that too, I expect a detailed essay on everything you find about it, understood?” Luz nodded.
“Good. I’ll leave you to get some rest for now before your mother comes.” He was out of the room before she could fully wave goodbye to him.
The next few days were a blur. King hadn’t left her alone since she got back from the hospital, constantly curling up on her lap whenever she sat down. Eda was no better as she’d usually pull both her and King onto her lap and comb her fingers through her hair.
Her Mama and Vee were a bit better, although they both constantly checked up on her. She did catch her Mama taking a few photos every now and then when the occupants of the Owl House forced her to cuddle with them.
She didn’t want to think of how clingy Hooty was going to be.
Her Maestro wanted her to stay on Earth for about another week before returning to the Boiling Isles. The few times he had come by, he always brought Christine to act as a buffer to all the people that we're in their house.
It was nice to see everyone, and a little weird to see her Mama and Eda acting so familiar with each other, but by day three of this she was going mad from all the attention and coddling and was ready to blow up.
Thankfully she was able to slip away a few times as her Mama started catching on to her frustrations and began distracting Eda and King.
It gave her a few quiet moments to read the cards her friends had sent her. Both Willow and Gus had sent something, both demanding to see her again as soon as she was back on their side of the portal.
She was surprised but touched to see something from each of the Blight siblings. She picked up the card with Amity's handwriting and-
She jumped when she heard a knock on the door. “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Witchlet. Can I come in?” Luz took a deep breath and prepared herself to be smothered in hugs. “Yeah sure!” Luz called back.
Eda opened the door and slipped in, careful not to make too much sound. She was holding a little brown bag in her hands. She walked over and held out the bag to her.
“Camilla explained to me what Christ-mas was. And also, that you had missed it while recovering.” That wasn’t technically true, and Eda knew that. A day or two after she had come home, her, her Mama, and Vee all had a little celebration and exchanged some gifts. Eda had been busy distracting King so they could all have their time together.
Luz was just glad she didn’t wait for the last moment to get her presents like she did last year.
Pushing her thoughts to the side she reached into the bag and pulled out a book. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. The cover was black with the mandala for her shield spell embossed on the front in orange. The texture of the cover felt like something between leather and scales.
Luz opened the pages to find all but the back few one's blank. The ones that did have stuff on it had so many interconnecting symbols, all softly glowing with their own unique colors that she couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
“I made it myself for you. I’ve seen you carrying around and taking notes in your journal and I figured it’s probably starting to get full.” She had actually already had to replace her journal twice with how many notes she was taking but she wasn’t going to tell Eda that.
Her mentor pointed towards some of the symbols, “These will allow you to take as many notes as you want without losing room.” Luz scrunched her eyes in confusion, and she caught Eda rolling hers with a smile on her face. “You can write as much as you want in there and the pages will never run out. It’s a tricky enchantment though so let me know when this start degrading so I can touch them up for you.”
Luz dove forward off of her chair and wrapped Eda in a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered. Any louder and she was afraid her mentor would realize she was crying.
Happy tears of course.
“Merry Christ-mas Witchlet.” Luz snorted at Eda’s attempt to pronounce Christmas. The two of them made no move to let go of the other.
~-~
23rd of January, 2019
28th of Laguna, 1000
Luz followed behind Eda at the market; a stand filled with old books catching her eye. “Come on Witchlet,” Eda's hand weighed on her shoulder as she tried to steer her away from the stand. Reluctantly she let herself be dragged away from the stand, all to the disappointment of the demon behind the counter.
“What exactly are we here for again?” She asked.
“Tomorrow’s the Feast of Renewal, and I need to get some seeds.” Edas explanation devolved into mutterings as she looked at the stands around them.
Luz looked to King for an answer. “It’s the only day that’s not on the Calendar,” he said, jumping from Eda’s hair to her shoulder. “We have all the stuff for the actual feast tomorrow, but Mom always likes to plant some seeds on this day.”
“Why?” She asked but King just shrugged. She’d have to ask Willow about it at some point and just contented herself to follow behind her mentor.
She had spent the last month recovering from her adventures on the Knee. Her Maestro hadn’t let her return to the Boiling Isles until after the New Years, so she had spent a lot of time reassuring her friends that she actually was okay.
Her and Eda had also spent a significant amount of time working on the new glyph she had found. It was some sort of ice glyph and functioned much the same way as the light glyph had. They had been able to add some more symbols to it though to create different structures, such as pillars and platforms, but she was starting to think that had more to do with the intent behind the glyph than the actual symbol itself.
She had been wondering for the past few days if it was possible to combine the two glyphs to make an additional effect. So far, she hadn’t had any results but- “Hey kid you good?” Eda’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she looked up. They were in a completely different part of the market, and Eda was getting ready to hop on Owlbert.
“Yeah! Sorry, I was just thinking about the new glyph.” She said as she got on behind her mentor. Eda pushed off the ground and began the flight back home.
“You need to think of something else; we’ve been working on that glyph for the past week.” Luz rolled her eyes and stayed silent.
The flight back was peaceful, the most peaceful it had ever been since she had first come to the Isles.
She remembered how she felt on that first flight. How terrified she was of falling, of the strange animals and plants that whipped by below her. Now when she looked around all she felt was a sense of home.
They landed in front of Hooty, King immediately running off, so he didn’t have to help Eda with the chores. Luz herself tried to book it for her gym so she could work on her alchemy before Eda grabbed her shoulder.
“Hey Witchlet, can we talk?” Luz sighed and nodded. Eda fidgeted with her hands, picking at the ends of her dress before taking a deep breath and committing to what she wanted to say.
“Are you okay? You’ve just been a little off since what happened on the Knee.” This wasn’t the first time Eda had asked her this since she got back to the Isles. Usually, Luz just made up some excuse to get out of answering but she couldn’t bring herself to do so again.
Luz slowly nodded, “I think I am. It’s just-” Eda crouched down on the grass, her knees cratering the red blades.
“Just what Witchlet?”
The memories that she had been trying to ignore ran through her mind. Memories of her and Robin standing in the Hong Kong Sanctum. Her pleading for Robin to stay awake, to not leave her like her Dad did. The pool of blood that sunk into the dark wood around them gave her her answer she just didn't want to listen to it.
She remembered looking up, covered in her friend's blood and meeting Its eyes. The hunger that had been within had been the same hunger she had seen in the Flesh. The same hunger that had plagued her nightmares for years afterwards.
“I was so scared,” she whispered. Tears marched down her face as her knees buckled and collapsed. Eda easily caught her and pulled her into her lap.
“I was so scared it would happen again, that I wouldn’t be enough.” She clutched her mentor's dress.
“But you were enough,” Eda softly cooed. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Luz thought for a second before shaking her head. She wasn't ready. She didn't know if she'd ever be ready to talk about it.
“Okay,” Eda said. She could feel her shifting her legs under her body. She ran her fingers through Luz’s hair. “It’ll be okay my little Witchlet. I’m here for you if you ever want to talk, or scream, or punch something. And hey, look at me.”
Luz shifted and looked up at her mentor, at the woman who had been caring for her for months now. The woman who had become like a second mom to her. All she saw in Eda’s eyes was love and support. She felt Eda’s strong arms wrap around her just a little bit tighter.
“You are one of the strongest people I’ve had the joy of knowing Luz Noceda. I love you.” The sincerity with which Eda said that caused Luz to burst out into tears. She pulled herself up so she could give Eda a proper hug.
“Thank you.”