Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luz Noceda was aware she wasn't the most normal student. In fact, she was pretty damn far down the ‘normal’ list. Probably at the bottom. Others found the whimsy and over-the-top fantasy theming to her school projects to be ‘disruptive’ and ‘juvenile’, they thought snakes and spiders were ‘dangerous’ and you ‘shouldnt bring them to school’.  But Luz wasn't about to kill her fun additions just because someone told her to!  Doing things “normally” just wasn’t Luz. 

Though… Her fantasy obsession wasn’t the only thing that marked out Luz as different. Other kids didn’t put spiders into their art projects, other kids also didn't have fangs that barely fit in their mouth. Other kids had white eyes, sclera unstained by pitch and amber. Other kids got sick sometimes. Other kids didn’t have purple hair, or purple blood .

The doctors said it was some sort of novel pigment mutation, with a few extra side effects- like the lengthening of her canine teeth. Luz didn’t think that was quite right. There were other things the doctors couldn’t possibly rationalize. How do you explain away putting your hand into a lit fireplace and pulling it back without a singe? Her mother didn’t know why she was different, or decided to never tell Luz, and had stopped taking her to medical professionals a long time ago, afraid that Luz would be dissected and stuffed into all sorts of machines. Luz was happy she didn’t have to explain the behavioral quirks, and the other little changes that would occasionally pop their head up. She was pretty sure she wasn't human. Not fully, anyway.

But being human was overrated! Those differences made her feel more special, like the protagonists in her books. She could be Luzura, The Good Demon. There were plenty of downsides; sure, like constantly being bullied. A lot. To her classmates she wasnt ‘the good demon’, just ‘the demon’. Gravesfield was still superstitious even hundreds of years after the witch hunts. Just an extra gut punch on top of the casual racism she experienced regularly. She preferred to stay at home mostly, where she could bury herself in fantasy away from judgemental and cruel eyes. Luz was very sure it was that superstition and judgement that had led to her currently sitting in the principal’s office. It certainly had nothing to do with the snake(s) she had brought to school for the latest book report. Probably. 

Ugh. She’d been sitting in this chair for what felt like an hour, and her shoulders were hurting again-

The door into the office clicked open loudly, Luz startled and looked behind her.

“weh!..”

Mom had finally arrived. Camila sat down and the principal started talking about Luz’s awesome book report, which was made better with the inclusion of live snakes! He pulled out the firecrackers, which she didn't even get to use for the grand finale. Luz tuned out most of their conversation. Her mother turned to her. 

“Mija, I love your creativity, but it's gotten out of hand. Do you remember why you were in the principal's office the last three times?..”

Yeah. she did. Not her fault that the other kids couldn't tell between actual intestines and sausages. 

 “We all love that you express yourself, but you need to learn what’s appropriate for reality, honey.”

She was handed a pamphlet for ‘reality check summer camp’. Right. Well… if her mother wanted a normal child so bad, even if it hurt, she might as well try. She stood up from her chair, striking a confident pose.

“Don’t worry mom, I won't let you down! No more weirdness!”

The snake in her hoodie lunged at the principal, knocking him out of his chair, the principal trying to pry it off of his face. So that was where the last little guy was hiding! Hehe. whoops.

“That doesn’t count, right?”

Luz was quiet on the ride home. She gazed into the side mirror, looking at those black, unnatural eyes. Her amber irises looked like they were glowing. Sometimes she felt like this, and she hated it. It felt like something about her was wrong. Even her own mother knew that. No matter how many times mami would cradle her, saying how much she loved her mija, Luz knew she would rather have a normal daughter. One that didn’t start rumors of camila making deals with a demon to have a child. That her father’s cancer was punishment from god. She tried smiling at herself in the mirror, but her fangs stood out prominently, the inside her of mouth a dark purple, rather than the regular pink. A side-effect of her strange blood. It all just reminded her of how wrong she really was. She didn’t look human. Maybe… maybe that was a bad thing. 

Luz had a file at home, she could use that on her fangs. Some contacts would help her eyes look white. Brown hair dye, industrial nail clippers, all things she could use to make herself look more normal.  The car stopped, and Luz shook her head to bring herself out of those thoughts. Those were bad thoughts. 

“We’re home,  mija. Don’t worry about the summer camp, it's only for 3 months. You’ll learn to balance checkbooks and… appreciate public radio!”

She stayed quiet, getting out of the car and stumbling towards the front door. Luz liked convoluted fantasy books, and editing anime AMVs, not public radio. Camila came up from behind and wrapped her in a hug.

“Honey, camp will be an amazing opportunity to make some friends- real ones, not imagined, drawn, or reptilian! If you just try, I'm sure the other kids there would love you.” her mother encouraged.

Luz turned her head towards Camila, “... but what if they just think I'm a demon? Like everyone else does? What if I can't be normal mami, can't be human like everyone else?”  she whispered out.

Camila turned her daughter around, looking into Luz’s downturned eyes.
“Oh Querida, no, you’re not a demon. You may look different, but you’ll always be mi angelita, mi hija . If you just talk and show them who you are, they’ll see past all that. I’m sure they’ll love you, just like I do. Now, we gotta get inside and start packing- the bus comes early tomorrow.”

Her mother let go and walked inside, leaving Luz feeling… not much better. Of course mami would say that after deciding to send her to a camp with the expressed purpose to stymie any of her individuality. A camp made to fix her. She might as well go to her room and start packing. She could cry there instead of on the front porch.

An hour of misty-eyed laundry folding had left Luz’s shoulders incredibly sore and itchy, something she had to deal with constantly now. Taking a break from packing, she snuck over to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Yep. that was her, just like always.

She removed her shirt and turned around so her back was visible. Two little nubs just a bit below her shoulder blades stuck out, plus an extra nub right at the end of her tailbone. These little nubbins were new, growing in during the past month. She could move them a bit if she really tried. Luz was fairly sure she knew what they were. Or, more accurately, what they would become.

“A little bigger today, huh? And… is that… fuzz? Ohh boy.” all of the little bumps had a bit of dark fuzz on them, nearly black. It wasn't there yesterday. It was pretty apparent to Luz that she was growing wings or something, and the bump on her tailbone was definitely a tail! What else could they be? They were in just the right places.

“Won’t be able to hide these lil’ guys for much longer… ugh. No way i can ‘pigment condition’ outta this one” Luz sighed. 

Was this the start of some sort of demon puberty? Regular human puberty was tough enough, she really didn’t need this on top of that. Though… it was pretty cool she would have wings (probably). It would look awesome, for sure! Maybe she could even fly! But it would also bump up that ‘inhuman’ status, and she might not be able to ever show herself in public again. Yay. totally not nerve wracking and terrifying whatsoever.

Luz put her shirt back on and returned to her room to finish packing. She should tell her mom about the new additions to her body, but she knew mami wouldn’t know what to do. There wasn’t a precedent for this sort of thing, Luz had never heard of another person with the same issues she had, let alone what to do about those issues. She doubted that they would stay unnoticed during camp, a worry she could procrastinate on for now.

After she was done packing, Luz flomphed onto her bed face first, and rolled onto her side. Laying on her back was a no-go now. 

“Wehhhh…” being some half human half demon thing in real life was way harder than it had any right to be.  Count Smorag never had any of these issues in The Good Witch Azura, vol 4. He just got cool dragon magic from it. Why couldn't she get cool demon magic?! Why couldn’t her mom ever understand her? Sigh..

“Luz! Dinner is ready! I made your favorite steak!” Camila shouted from downstairs. 

Well, some rare steaks would make today a bit less stressful. Luz loved steak. She had an unending appetite, and lots of meat was usually the only way to feel kind of satisfied. Probably a demon thing? Either way she was happy to go to bed on a full stomach.

——————————————————————

Luz was waiting on the sidewalk outside her house waiting for the bus to arrive to take her to summer camp. Her mother had just left for work. They hadn't talked much that morning, her mother just asking for Luz to actually try at camp, to give a proper effort to make friends and make the most of her time there. She put her favorite book, the good witch azura, in the trash can as a sort of promise. This, obviously, could not be allowed to stand! As soon as Luz saw mom’s car leave sight, she rushed over to dig the book out of the can and,

There was a distinct lack of book. What? Where did- Luz heard a rustling noise and turned towards it. A little fluffy owl (omigod adorable!!!!) was staring up at her. With a familiar book in its mouth (are owls that strong?), and carrying an entire sack of who knows what.

“Hey! Tiny trash thief!” She ran after the owl as it flew off into the forest. That was her book! Her favorite book! No way a little (so damn cute!!) owl was gonna make off with it!

Luz kept chasing until it flew into an abandoned, decrepit cabin in the middle of the woods. wow, how long had she been following it? She hesitated. hrm. She concluded the book was more important than a splinter or two. She rushed into the cabin’s door. The owl flew into another room, and Luz spent no time following. 

She ran into- some sort of cluttered storage area? It was suddenly really hot- and-

Woah. 

Luz felt weird.

The full body tingly? warm? full? feeling took her by surprise and knocked Luz onto her knees, suddenly out of breath.

“Haah.. haah.. wehh.. Bluhg..” she wheezed out. The feeling wasn’t going away.

“Aah, finally, you’re back” a new voice spoke.

Luz squeaked and looked up just in time to see through the doorway to the tent (wait, tent?) where an incredibly pale lady, wearing a bandana to hold her hair back, was screwing the owl onto a staff of some sort and oh, it was a wooden owl now yeah that’s cool and totally normal. Luz was too out of breath to gasp at it.

The lady reached into a sack, judging each item she pulled out, and tossing them aside.

A phone. “Garbage” a diamond ring “Garbage” a shining golden chalice “Garbage” a pair of gag slinky glasses. “ gasp…  now this ” she put the glasses on. “Will make me a fortune! Oh, and this looks like good kindling.” She pulled out Luz’s book and held it over a lit candle. NO!

Luz pushed through the fatigue and jumped out to grab the book from the lady, trying to rush back into the tent.

“Excuse-me-sorry-that’s-mine-thankyou!” She quickly stammered out, running towards the door she just came through (weird, Did it always have that creepy eye on it?), but before she can open it, the door folds, up and up into a briefcase, flying over to the lady behind her. 

“You’re not going anywhere.” The now very intimidating lady took off the glasses.

“Weh- AH!” Luz screamed and ran out the back of the tent- stopping at the end of a cliff, looking out at an impossible vista. A purple sky, A landscape of red vegetation and bones towering into the sky, a massive skull off in the distance, limbs of unimaginable size- WOW that was a lot of teeth and flesh on those buildings, and that building just ate a massive dragonfly- She stared at the monster townsfolk going about their everyday business on the streets below.

“Oh no no no no no no no no! What’s going on?!”  oh god oh god oh god

A cute little purple fairy was slowly flying towards her face. Finally! Normalcy! 

“Oh, hello little fairy! Are you gonna tell me this is all a fantastical dream?”

 The fairy opened its mouth, showing massive, ugly teeth.

“GIVE ME YOUR SKIN!”

“AH!” Luz screamed and slapped the fairy into the red grass.

“Where am i? Did I die? Is this the bad place?" She was panicking. A hand touched her shoulder.

“You wish.” it was the pale lady again. Hooray…

She was lifted up by the hoodie scruff and plopped into a stool by the front of the tent. Luz was quick to defend herself.

“I'm so sorry! I just wanted my book! If you're gonna eat my skin, just make it quick! Just do it now!” she held out her arm, to an amused look from the pale lady.

“Eat you? Why would I eat… a potential customer!” 

The lady bombarded Luz with a variety of misnamed regular objects, ending by holding up a portable TV.

“This black box reflects only your sadness!” the lady looked at Luz, expectant.

“Hehehe, that's not all it can do” Luz looked to a bowl filled with decidedly not candy, and picked out two batteries. Stuffing them into the TV. It began playing an old jazzercise video. “Voila!”

The sounds from the video attracted monsters all along the street, who quickly began a screaming match vying for rights to buy the box.

“What did you say your name was?” the lady was asking her.

“I didn’t say my name, but, Luz! Luz Noceda.” Luz preened.

“That was pretty clever of you! For a human. Uhm. I think you’re human, anyway.” 

“I’m definitely, totally human!  and that's a weird thing for another definitely totally human to say!” Luz naively added.

“Oh dear child,” she took off the bandana, revealing large, pointed ears “I’m not like you,” she climbed onto the table “I'm Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!” Eda boasted, with her arms splayed out.

Well. This was a lot of information to process at once. “A witch?” 

“I am a respected, feared-- ” Eda started, but was cut off by a fist slamming into the jazzercise TV, crushing it.

“ BUSTED! ” A large man in a beaked mask (probably a guard) appeared, glaring at Eda. The crowd quickly dispersed with his arrival. The guard lifted up a wanted poster- one clearly depicting “Eda, The Owl Lady” and a bounty with a lot of zeroes. It looked so cool!

“Eda the Owl Lady, you are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors.”

“Woah! Witch criminal!” Luz said with stars in her eyes. The guard grabbed Eda’s arm.

“You are hereby ordered to come with me to the conformatorium!” Eda quickly freed her arm from his grip.

“Would you guys quit following me around? I haven't done squat.” Eda spat out, and the guard picked Luz up by her hoodie scruff. Was that gonna keep happening?

“And you’re coming too, for fraternizing with a criminal.” the guard narrowed their eyes at Luz.

“W-weh!? That’s not cool!” it was time to start panicking again.

“Oh, all right, all right, you win. Just let me get my stuff…” Eda reached beneath the table, grabbing her staff and quickly smacking the guard in the face with it. He falls to the ground, dropping Luz. She saw the owl lady using magic (magic!!!!) to float everything on the table into a big ball, wrapping it all in a tablecloth. Luz stood back up, clutching her book. Woah.

“Whoops, can’t forget this” Eda clicked a key, and the door / briefcase flew into the tablecloth sack. “Follow me, human thing.”

“This is crazy! If I die here my mom’s going to kill me!!” Luz decided to follow the owl lady, surely it would be worse if she stayed in the market. And now she was on Eda’s staff, flying above a forest! The terror of flying so fast was drawing attention away from the feeling of her hands on the staff, the wood itself felt alive, like something was moving just under the surface and uh oh her hand slipped

“wEH!!” She screamed and nearly fell off the thin stick, barely grabbing on and re-steadying herself. Eda exposited about the Boiling Isles, Luz was pretty confused about the giraffe part, but it did explain why she always felt off around them whenever she went to the zoo. And gryphons did vomit spiders!

The staff came to a soft stop next to a clearing in the woods, Eda hopping off into the soft grass. Eda’s hand stayed behind, wriggling with the bone sticking out.

Luz screamed again, falling off the staff.

“Oops.” Eda picks the hand back up and screws it on, with a pop. “That happens sometimes.”

Luz stood, trying to get the image of the hand out of her mind. ew. “Well. I've had enough adventure for today. This is clearly not the PG fantasy world I always dreamed about. So, can you help me get back home?”

The owl lady walks over to Luz and hunches down, staring intently at her face, making note of her round ears.

“Hmmm.. I think you can help me, kid. I’ll send ya’ home afterwards. Now come along, human.”

She followed Eda into the clearing, and took in the shack standing by a cliff- with a notable massive, stained glass eye window thing, and a castle tower sticking out the back. Now that was a witch hut, if Luz ever did see.  “Whoa..” 

They walked towards the door, Luz looking around nervously.
“Aren’t you worried about the guards finding us?”

“Nope. My house has a state of the art defense system.”

“Hoot hoot!! Password, please!” The living round owl head in the door luz has somehow only just noticed spoke. Eda poked it in the eyes.

“We got no time for this, Hooty.” Eda said, like this was the millionth time.

“All right, all right! Geez! You never want to have any fun! Ow! Hoot!” Hooty’s mouth-beak thing stretched open to cover the entire door. Luz and Eda stepped right in.

“Welcome to,” Eda spun and snapped her fingers with a flourish, “The Owl House…” The interior came to life, fireplace roaring, candles and lights glowing, illuminating the breathtaking decorations, art, and magic on the walls, Eda’s wanted poster framed and given a position of honor. The stars in Luz’s eyes multiplied by several times.

“...where I hide away from the pressures of modern life. Also the cops. Mm.. also ex-boyfriends. and ex-girlfriends. and ex-themfriends. Etc etc.”

The house itself felt like it was breathing, kind of like eda’s staff felt. It was just a bit more intense than the ambient, tingly warm feeling she felt when she stumbled into Eda’s tent. Actually, she was still feeling that, but the fatigue was gone. Felt kinda nice. Weird. No time to dwell on it just yet.

“This place is beautiful! Do you live here all alone?”

“Actually, I have a roomate.” Eda gestured towards the open hallway arch, Where she could hear clicky footsteps.

“ WHO DARES INtrude up on I, ” the source of the voice rounded the corner, “The King of demons!?” Luz’s pupils tripled in size as she saw the most adorable widdle guy she’d ever seen!!! She squeed and ran over to the skull-adorned boy. He was in a bath robe!!! With a rubber ducky!!!!

“¡Ay, que lindo!” Luz scooped him up into a hug ohhh he was so fluffy!!!! King resisted, trying to wiggle out of her grasp.

“Eda! He’s so cute! Aww.. who’s a widdle guy? Who’s a widdle guy? Is it you? Is it you!?” her face nuzzled against his, soft! Adorable! And he smelled really really nice, she could just hang on to him forever and ever and she had to protect him and bring his fluffiness everywhere she went and there was no way she was ever letting go no-one would ever be able to hurt him-

“No! nyeh! I don’t know who your little guy is! Eda, who is this monster?! Stop nuzzling me!” He was trying so hard to get out of the hug. Eda approached to pull them apart, but Luz stepped away, baring her fangs and hissing at Eda. What a weird human.

“Alright kid, stop traumatizing King.” Eda waved her staff, and the two were separated, floating away in opposite directions. Luz was staring at king and pawing in the air. Eda set them gently on the ground.

“This is Luz, the human. She’s here to help with our little… situation.”

Luz tore her eyes from king and looked to the threat Owl Lady. “ ‘Situation?’ wait, wait, wait, I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Just… let me explain.” Eda spun up a magic circle, conjuring visuals of king losing his crown and seat of power, how it was locked away by Warden Wrath behind a force field, and…

“Only a human can break through?”  so That was why they needed her. Oh. Luz was suddenly very unsure. That could also become a complication very quickly.

“Yep! A human like you. If you help us retrieve the crown, we’ll send you back to your realm. So, whadda ya’ say?  Plus, who could say no to this cute face?” Eda picked up King and jangled him like a pair of keys. Luz was firmly part of the ‘couldn’t say no to that cute face’ crowd, this truly was a dastardly ploy.

“No! Please don’t encourage her!” King whined.

 Eda added, “I mean, we’re kinda your only way home.”

“So I don't really have a choice, do I?” dastardly, indeed.

“Nope.” Eda picked up Luz and slung the girl over her shoulder like a sack of flour, heading out the front door. “Now, we’ve got no time to lose. We’re gonna go somewhere super fun.”

“Soon, Mr. Ducky, we shall drink the fear of those who mocked us…”

——————————————————————

The Conformatorium was far more terrifying than Luz initially thought it would be, in a desolate grey landscape dominated with deep moats of spikes, and massive bones jutting out around the walled off spire prison like a field of desiccated teeth.

Good thing they could fly over all of that.

The place was used to lock up anyone that didn’t fit in, people in here got locked up just for writing fan-fiction, having conspiracy theories, or eating their own eyes! Other people shouldn't be able to tell you what to do with your own eyeballs!

Noone here got locked up for any actual crimes. Just for being different. Unacceptable. 

The place had sucked the motivation and life out of the prisoners, too afraid to even try to escape, even if the bars to their cells were opened.

They had just reached a large room titled “contraband”, where a massive sillhouetteed pile of junk sat in the middle of a massive cylindrical forcefield, thrumming with teal energy. King, all too excited to get his crown back, ran head first into the field.

“weh!” he was shocked, and thrown back.

“Aw, he gets so cute when he’s thirsting for power.” Luz couldn't help but agree.

“Hey Eda? I don't really think it's fair that these people are all locked up in here. I mean- all they did was be a little different! Why does everyone think that's so bad?” if a place like this existed in the human realm, she surely would've been locked up years ago. Actually, she was about to go to that camp, which served essentially the same purpose. And if she had kept going to doctors appointments… surely she would've been dissected at some point.

“There’s a lot of bad shit happening in the Isles, but honestly this place is a bit of an outlier. Warden Wrath is just doped up on power and authority. Now come on, we got a crown to re-steal. Before King hurts himself more.”

They all walked up to the field. Luz looked back to Eda, then nervously back at the pillar of teal energy. 

“C’mon kid, the field ain’t gonna touch you. Can’t affect humans.”

But… Luz wasn’t a human. Almost definitely! She’d never absolutely confirmed it, but it was pretty glaringly obvious, especially with her newly growing appendages. Was half-human good enough for this force field? Probably not.

Would Eda think that she lied if she couldn't get through? That Luz made them break into this place for nothing, knowing she wasn’t human the whole time?

Luz reached out towards the barrier, the air around it buzzed like TV static to her skin. She touched it and-  ZAP

“OW!” Luz yelped and jumped back, landing on her butt.  She looked back towards Eda, slightly panicked

“Um. heheh. I maybe should have mentioned the. Uh. caveat to my ‘human’-ness”

Eda looks at her with an eyebrow raised. “Huh. shoulda figured with the fangs and the black eyes look you’ve got goin.”

“I really should have told you, I'm so sorry, I wasn't sure if I could get the crown- I'm pretty sure I'm only half human and I understand if you’re mad at me! I mean, we broke into this prison for nothing and-” Eda covered the half-human’s mouth to stop the torrent of words.

“Calm down. Damn. It's fine. You were the easiest way to get the crown, not the only way. They don’t call me the most powerful witch on the boiling isles for nothing!”

Eda scooted Luz off to the side, and raised her staff towards the force field.

She spun the staff, hands outstretched, owlbert floating slightly away from her palms. It glowed intensely, before a beam exploded out towards the barrier.

The beam was so bright it was hard to look at, and Luz could feel an intense energy from it. The sensation made her feel a little nauseous and overstimulated.

The barrier struggled against the beam for a few seconds, before giving way and shattering. Eda took hold of owlbert and slammed the staff on the ground.

“Hooh.. that was the slightly harder method. Now go get that crown. I ain't crawlin all the way up that trash heap.” Eda seemed a little out of breath. Luz stood back up and shook her head to recoup from the strange magic-y feeling. She then processed what had just happened. Her eyes widened.

“Was that a giant magic BEAM?!? Oh my gosh that was the coolest thing ever!! ”

Luz jumped up and down by Eda’s side, too excited to contain herself.

“Yeah yeah I'm very strong and cool and badass but could you please go get the crown?”

Right. Luz turned to the pile and began scaling it. Oh what she’d give to learn magic like that! Maybe Eda could teach her? Those dreams of being a witch didn’t feel that far off now. If all this wasn't a dream, anyway. The chances of this being a dream were still pretty high, even if it all felt so real.

At the top of the pile was… a burger queen crown? She grabbed it and yeah, that was definitely plastic. This was all for a stupid toy crown? Luz climbed back down with the fast-food crown.

King quickly snatched it from her hands and began celebrating, also taking a plush rabbit from the pile. He named it ‘Francois’. The cuteness was near unbearable, but the frustration she felt kept any high pitched squees away.

“That crown doesnt give him any powers, does it?” 

“Uh, no” Luz glared at her.

“Oh, look at us, Luz. King and I don't have much in this world. We only have each other. So if that dumb crown is important to him, it's important to me. And besides, us weirdos have to stick together, you know? “ well.. That wasn’t so bad. It certainly was making king happy, and that pleasantly itched some part of her brain. 

“Well, even if you couldn’t get through the barrier, thanks for helping. Now, let's get outta here before that warden finds us and loses his head.”

“Too late.” A shadow loomed over Eda’s back, warden wrath coming into view. His hand reformed into a giant rounded blade, which swung down before Eda could move away- cutting her head clean off. Eda’s head flew into Luz and she reflexively caught it, holding it out in front of her face. Luz screamed.

“Ow! Ugh, damn. Hate when that happens.” the head spoke .

Luz screamed louder.

“Eda?! Are you okay?!” 

“Yeah, this is just what happens when you get older.” 

“Does it??” Luz was fairly sure that didn’t happen as you aged. Or at all. Ever.

“Finally, I have you cornered, Owl Lady.” Wrath plucked King’s crown off of his head.  King gave an offended ‘Weh!’, jumping up futilely trying to get it back. What an awful thing to do, it made Luz mad.

“My guards knew if we took your pet's little toy, you’d come running.” He crushed the crown in his grip. He was hurting King. Making King cry.

“No! My power!” King cried out.

“What do you want with me? I've never actually broken any of your stupid laws… in front of you.”

“I want you…” Wrath pulled out a bouquet of flowers from.. Somewhere. “To go out with me, Eda.”  what?

“Wha..?” Eda seemed taken aback, Luz made a disgusted face.

“What?” ew. Gross. Several of the guards that came with wrath were cheering on their boss’s love life. 

“You've always eluded our capture. You've always been the one who got away. I found that alluring. “

“I hate everything you’re saying and doing right now.” Luz spoke, disgusted.  First he makes king cry and crumples his toy, and now he dares to ask out their effective mother?  And this was the guy locking people up for no good reason riding the high of a power trip? Just the worst kind of guy.

“You stay out of this, child.” Wrath’s arm morphed into a bundle of tentacles and wiped toward Luz. Before she could even react, they wrapped around her and wrath lifted Luz in the air, constricting her. “Weh!” Luz tried not to panic.

She wasn’t a half-monster thing for nothing, it certainly came with some perks. Luz was a fair bit stronger than the average human, and came pre-equipped with fangs, in addition to very sharp, very tough nails. They would probably be better described as ‘claws’ since they were so much thicker than normal nails would be, and a boney stark white. They were anchored far deeper into her finger than a normal nailbed would allow, and naturally tapered to a point that all the furniture in Camila’s house feared.  Luz never had much success clipping them back much. they kinda felt like actual bone, Luz thought they probably were. That is all to say, Luz could really mess up somebody’s face with them if she wanted to. And boy did she want to right now.

Luz bit down hard on Wrath’s tentacle arm, and brought up her claws to scratch deep into the flesh. The Warden screeched and hot blood flowed into Luz's mouth as she was dropped to the ground. She was bracing for the inevitable blood to be disgusting, but it really wasn’t that bad. Tasted better than squirrel blood. Eugh, not thinking about that right now. Even if it tasted nice, it was still gross knowing who it came from.

While she couldn’t read the Warden’s face under that mask, it could be inferred that he was fairly mad with all the cussing and yelling he was putting out. It didn’t seem he was scratched enough yet.

“YOU LITTLE-” Luz jumped at Wrath’s face before he could finish, knocking the large man to the ground, she took a hearty swipe at his mask, tearing it open.

“Hah! Nice!” Eda cheered on in the background.

“You made King cry!” a few swipes at his chest and shoulder.

“Imprisoned innocent people! All because they were different!! ”  Luz scratched at his face more, showing the toothy maw underneath filled with bleeding gums. That was his whole face, but Luz was too angry to process how gross it was.

“And you have the gall to harass Eda for a date ?!?!” She dug into the man's chest, shoulders, and neck, drawing out more red blood. It looked pretty. And delicious. Boy she was hungry, and whatever magic buzz was in the air was just making her stomach rumble more. Before she could continue that thought, as Wrath’s body was flailing, a bleeding tentacle wrapped around her body and ripped her off of his chest. She was thrown across the room, slamming back-first into a stone wall. Luz gasped at the pain. 

The Warden slowly stood up, clearly pissed and remarkably scratched. Wow, that was way more blood than Luz thought there would be, she really went at it. Much further than she intended. He took a few steps in her direction.
He made a deep growl towards her, clearly done playing around. Before he could take another step, Wrath was smacked in the back of the head with the swipe of a staff. The lumbering man fell forwards onto the floor, Eda holding up owlbert.

She walked over to where Luz was recovering from being thrown across the room. 

“Holy Titan, kid! Hah! You were vicious! Nice to see that son of a b-.. witch get what’s comin to him.” She offered a hand to Luz, who grabbed it and stood back up with the help.

Luz looked down, she was covered in blood. She really had been vicious. 

“Do… do you think he’ll be okay? I didn't kill him did I?!?! I'm so sorry, I just got so mad… I-I couldn't control myself!” Luz stammered out, shaking as the adrenaline wore off. The warden looked really hurt.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. Made of some tough stuff. though he’ll need a trip to the healing coven with what you did to him. You got some sharp spunk, there.” Eda looked proud, rather than horrified at what she’d just done.

“Are you okay? You just got thrown into that wall pretty damn hard.”

Luz was really sore, and the wall hurt, but she, too, was made of some tough stuff. Whatever demon that stuff came from, she didn’t know.

“Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Might need to lay down for a bit later. I'm gonna be sore for days…” Luz sighed.

“Well, let’s get the hell outta here, before those guards start getting brave.” However much Luz wanted to leave, she had something to do here first.

“Before we go, we need to free the prisoners here! I'm not just going to leave them.” She pleaded to Eda.

“Eh, alright. We can flip some levers and walk with ‘em on the way out. With wrath here knocked out there ain’t much danger.”

As they walked along the stairs towards the occupied cell blocks, Luz stared at her nails. They were still bloody, stained thoroughly. Getting the blood out from under them would take a lot of scrubbing in the shower. She wanted to feel sick at the red liquid covering her, at the smell of it. Other humans would certainly be freaking out about it, maybe vomiting. But she didn’t. The smell was just making her stomach feel emptier.

Sometimes, it was so easy for Luz to just… fall into instincts. To focus in on a rabbit running through the underbrush, she couldn't tear her eyes away.  Stalking something like it was a reflex, not making a sound. The overwhelming urge to pounce, to make a single solid strike and hold until it stopped moving and squeaking. It felt good . It was hard to stop, like it was hard-wired into her. She tried to stop herself, but Luz had brought in plenty of small animals to her distraught mother over her lifetime.

It scared Luz. they had just lost their temper, scared that this man had attacked them, and they just lost it. If he hadn't thrown her away, would she have stopped? Could she have? Wrath wasn’t the first person to meet her claws, but he was the first to bear that much from them. What if she had done that to someone at school?

As they walked along, Eda and Luz flipped open levers to let out as many people as they could, taking down a few guards along the way, the owl lady explaining that the warden was knocked out. They had a gaggle of cheering and rioting folks behind them as they walked out of the front gate.

Eda hopped on owlbert, and patted the staff for luz to follow. The thrum of something just under the wood as she sat down distracted her as they flew back to the Owl House. She assumed it was magic or something at this point, having felt a similar sensation not only from the owl house and Eda’s magic beam, but from the air itself. It was like suddenly having an extra sense. It was fascinating, if a little overwhelming.

——————————————————————

Eda clicked the eye on her key, summoning the eye briefcase. It flew to the center of the living room and unfolded into a doorway.

“Alright kid, a deal’s a deal. You can head home now.”

Luz walked towards the door, hand hovering just over the handle.

“Uhm, actually.. Before i go..” she scrounged around for the azura figurine in her backpack, and clicked off the crown adorning the witch’s hat.

“A king shouldnt be without a crown.”

King jumped up and accepted the crown, placing it atop his head.

“This shall suffice. You there! Plant! You are now under my command! Let us Raze the ground with my new general, Francois! Weheheheh!”

“Oh, don’t forget your weird book” Eda picked up the copy of azura that had been on the fireplace mantle and handed it to Luz.

She felt… sad. Today, despite how harrowing it was, was fun. Exciting. Luz had finally found the magic and adventure she always longed for and now… she had to go back. Back to a soul-sucking camp her mother forced onto her. Back to being an outcast to the rest of humanity. Back to normalcy. Back to Azura being her only escape from that.

The cover of the book showed Azura and her mentor, with their feisty little beast companion, all standing proudly. She held up the book, her gaze dragged to the mirror over the fireplace. There stood Luz, Eda, and king, all there just like the characters on the cover. Maybe…. Maybe Luz could have this. She could have a mentor, learn magic, go on adventures. Be Luzura. Neither Eda nor King were human, and noone in this world would judge her for any demonic features. Hell, what Luz had going on was more plain than half of the market goers she saw earlier in the day.

Eda could maybe teach her some magic, she could be an apprentice! And King, he was just adorable. Luz could feel something tugging at her, not to leave him, not to abandon him. 

The Door stayed closed.

“Okay, i know you got your head cut off, and we sorta started a prison riot, and i clawed a dudes face off, but this was.. The most fun I've ever had.”  Eda blinked in surprise as Luz talked.

“Back at home… I don't really fit in. you saw just today, i'm not particularly human , and, well, people don’t like that very much. I don't fit in at home, but here, we could all not fit in together!” She dug out the packet to reality check camp and tore it in half, then in half again. She let the pieces fall to the floor.

“I’m not going back there just to get squirreled away in a summer camp.”

“ What's a summer camp? What are we talking about here?”

“I want to stay and I want to be a witch like you, and Azura. Figure out what I really am.” Luz held up the book to Eda.

“Hah! Well, normally humans can’t become witches. Aint got no magic. But that other half in you has a chance. Are you sure you don’t want to go home?”

“... yeah. I don't think I want to go back for a while. I’ll do anything if you teach me to be a witch.”

King tugged at Eda’s dress.

“Let her stay! She can make us snacks. And find more artefacts of Kingly power to give to me!” 

“Well, I could use a hand keeping this furball outta the cupboards, and i know some of what you’re goin through. I’ll teach you how to be a witch, maybe even take you on as an apprentice if you’re good enough. But you’re gonna be workin your ass off before you learn any spells. I got chores that need doin and I sure as hell ain't doin them.” Eda held out her hand for a handshake.

Luz was on the verge of tears. She rushed forwards and scooped King and Eda into a crushing hug, ignoring the other two’s protests.

“Too tight! Too tight!”

——————————————————————

Eda gave Luz a giant closet upstairs, filled with all manner of junk, but plenty of space leftover to use as a makeshift room. She got to work cleaning the space up a bit, and unrolled a plush sleeping back onto the floor. She took out her phone and got snuggled up into the comfy bag.

Her phone buzzed, displaying a message.

‘Mom❤️: How’s your first day at summer camp?’

Luz frowned at the message. She would have to lie to mami. 

“Ahem! your sleep cocoon looks fluffy.” King walked into the room with francois under his arms. Luz patted the top of the sleeping bag, inviting King to curl up on top of her. His adorable pitter patter as he got comfortable brought a smile back to her face. She typed out a reply to her mother.

‘I think I’m gonna Like it here.’

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

Despite being so tired from yesterday’s adventure, Luz could barely sleep that night. There was far too much to think about, too much to process. It's easy to accept while it's happening and the adrenaline is running, but getting transported to another realm filled with magic, when she didn’t even know magic existed, let alone other dimensions? Sure, Luz had been obsessed with magical worlds from fantasy, and sort-of was a fantasy creature; but her entire worldview had been shattered in the course of mere hours.

And… she had left her mami. It wasn’t something she wanted to think about, so she shifted to the fantastical, replaying memories of the day and picking apart details she didn't have time to think about in the moment. She laid there, just feeling the magic around her. It was warm, pleasant. It was in the air, in the walls, in the very light that surrounded her. It was like something she had been missing her whole life. Like she had opened an extra eye that never had anything to see, so stayed closed. 

She did eventually fall asleep, long after king had done so, lulled by the very magic of the isles into a dreamless slumber.

She was woken up by a beam of sunlight streaming in from the window directly onto her face. Their eyes blinked open, focusing in on the unfamiliar locale, and then widened. 

“It wasn’t a dream! It wasn’t a dream!!” Luz cheered, disturbing something fluffy by her chest.

“urmhm.. weh… zz..  zzzz..” 

She had moved while sleeping, apparently curling up around king, who was in the sleeping bag with her now. The squee was impossible to hold back this time.

She rubbed her hand along the top of his protruded skull, which sent his tail wagging. 

“awwwwww!”

Carefully and methodically, she scooted out of the sleeping bag without waking the fluffball up, and walked over to the window. She opened it.

“Oh man! Hello terrifying fantasy world!”  A large creature out in the sea had apparently heard her, and waved back before submerging.  Kind of creepy.  

Luz began to pick up her clothes and get dressed, starting their new witch-y morning routine. She’d probably need to sneak into her house in the human realm and grab all that stuff that got left behind.

King stirred awake, rubbing at his eyes. Luz quickly turned around and rushed to him, scooping the boy up in a tight hug.

“Ay! King! Good morning, you little cutie-pie!” Luz planted kisses on his skull while he tried fruitlessly to wriggle out of her hold.

“I’m not your cutie-pie!”

“Yes. yes you are.” Luz gave him one last squeeze before setting him back on the sleeping bag. She’d only known him for a day, but If anything ever happened to King, Luz would kill everyone on the Isles and then herself.

“I know.” King sighed.

Eda had given Luz a quick tour of the house before showing her the closet she was to move into, so Luz knew where the bathroom was to get ready for the incredibly witch-y day that surely was before her. 

The door to the bathroom opened up to a face-full of owls as they flew past the human’s hair. Was the entire house filled with owls like that? It was called ‘the owl house’, so it was a safe assumption.

“HI LUZ! HOOT!” a round snake-like owl creature was suddenly shoved in her face, incredibly loudly. Luz screamed, jumped back and scratched at the offending owl-tube, leaving deep marks in its woody feathery face.

“OW! I’m just wishing you a good morning!” The wooden wounds closed just as fast as they were made, and hooty retreated back to the front door. “Geez! Hoot! Ow!”

“Oh, sorry hooty.” Hooty was something she was going to have to get used to.

Luz followed as much of her regular morning routine as possible with the scant usual supplies that were available, and walked back into the main room, finding another closet in the attached hallway. She was excited to find a stock of witch-y clothes within, her new apprentice garbs. The hat was strangely… rubbery and heavy. A roll of human nametags were also in the closet, Luz proudly wrote ‘Witch Apprentice Luz’ and stuck it to her chest. She heard footsteps from upstairs.

Luz stood at the bottom of the steps, striking a confident pose. It was possibly the most excited she had ever been, the start of her first day with her new witch mentor, and learning real spells! And probably the start of many chores.  Sacrifices had to be made.

Eda, walking down the stairs in a ratty old robe, yawning, and picking spiders out her hair didn’t exactly strike an imposing figure. But Luz knew she could teach them so much.

“Good morning, Eda the Owl Lady. I am ready for my first day of Witch Apprenticeship.” Luz proclaimed proudly.

“Ugh.” Eda picked a stray spider from her ear. “Uh.. who are you, again? Why are you in my house?”

“Huh?”  Luz chased after Eda as she made way to the kitchen, pulling out a large glass jug from the fridge.

“Don’t you remember? It's me, Luz! From yesterday? We freed a bunch of prisoners from the hands of oppression and I nearly killed that evil warden guy? I’m your new student?”

“Kid, lay off the details. Haven’t had my apple blood yet.”

“You mean apple juice?” 

“No.” Eda set down a large mug labeled ‘Thirty & Flirty’, popped the cap off of the glass jug, and began pouring a liquid that certainly looked like apple juice. The stinging scent of alcohol that quickly overwhelmed Luz’s sensitive nose dispelled that illusion.

King had apparently situated himself in a high-chair by the table while Eda was getting out cooking utensils and beginning breakfast.

“Your overlord requires Eye-Fruit! And slitherbeast steak!”

Luz walked over to the owl lady, observing the strange new foods on the skillet. Oh man they smelled good.

“Eda! Teach me some spells. When do I get a magic staff? Was I supposed to bring my own runes? Do I have to go on a magic quest?!”

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa, slow down, kid. Learning magic doesn’t happen overnight, we’ll get into some of the basics later today, alright? Now get outta that old bathrobe and please take that dirty ass traffic cone off’a your head.” 

Oh. That's why the hat was so rubbery. Luz quickly discards the ‘witch costume’, to king’s amusement.

“But a magic staff, hm? You really want one?”

“More than anything” Luz was going to wear herself out if everything all the time was so exciting forever.

“Magic staff, come to me!” Eda shouts and holds her hand towards the archway into the kitchen. for a moment, nothing happens. Then, the sound of crashing far off in the house, clattering as objects and wall fixtures are knocked to the floor elsewhere, quickly getting closer, until-

bonk

The staff flies into the kitchen, smacking Eda directly in the face and dropping to the ground. Eda groans and picks the staff up, spinning it before slamming it into the floor.

“First lesson, Luz. This is my staff. Every witch should have one! Really though, a staff is simply an extension of your Palisman. This is mine, Owlbert.”

Owlbert screws off of the staff, changing from wood to living feathers and fluff, chirping as it flies into Eda’s rat nest of a hairstyle.

“Woah.. it’s like a familiar..” Luz reached out to the owl, who lowered its head a bit to allow for a few scritches.

“Yep! These guys are carved from the wood of a palistrom tree, the stuff is sacred and packed with raw magic. I carved Owlbert here on my own, with a bit of help from someone dear.” Eda continued talking as she flipped what looked like eggs in a frying pan.

“After that, you make a bond with them by expressing your truest, deepest wishes. It's real strong stuff, the kind of bond that goes down to the very soul, forever. Owlbert can’t talk but I can understand him just fine, since only the carver and the owner of a palisman can hear their words. if a witch dies, their palisman can choose to bond to another.”

Owlbert jumped out of Eda’s hair and into Luz’s hands. The thrum underneath his feathers let Luz feel just how much magic was packed into such a little guy.

“Wow, that seems… pretty important. I was kind of expecting, I don't know, a magic crystal stick honestly? This is like a soulbonding thing!”

“Very important. There are alternatives to palismen, magic crystal sticks included, but they’re really just shoddy knock-offs. A palisman is a lifelong companion who helps cast and amplify your magic, and their innate magic lets them do some pretty strong stuff all by themselves if they want. Without Owlbert, I’d be a shell of myself.” Owlbert flies back to Eda’s staff and screws on, turning back to wood.

“If you take to learning magic well, I’ll help you carve your own when the time comes. Until then, Owlbert’s willing to lend himself occasionally.” Eda began pulling out plates and setting the table for the three of them. 

“I would love to carve my own palisman! It sounds amazing! I’m really really really really really happy to be your apprentice! I promise I’ll treat Owlbert with the utmost care and respect!”

“Woah kid, slow down with the ‘apprentice’ thing. Maybe that’ll happen in the future, but right now you’re just my student, kay? Being an apprentice is another one of those big things, so don’t go callin yourself that just yet. Now eat, today’s busy.” 

King’s plate mostly consisted of eyeballs and a slab of pink meat, the setting for Luz was bubbling eggs and bright purple, writhing sausages.

And oh titan did they smell amazing.

She sat down, drooling at the plate. It was definitely strange, and looked a bit gross, but nothing in the human realm had ever set off her hunger like this. Luz stabbed a sausage with the generously provided fork-like device and lifted the sausage to her face unsure about the.. Wrigglyness .

The amazing savory smell quickly quelled any of her hesitance, and she bit the purple sausage in half, Eyes widening.

It was savory, salty, a little sweet, juicy, tender, very spicy, and something else amazing she didn’t recognize.

The taste was beyond anything she’d ever had, far superior to any meats she had on earth. It brought actual tears to her eyes as she fervently dug into the meal, demolishing it in a mere minute.

Luz leaned back into the chair, Eda staring at her crying face with bewilderment while king was laughing at her. Despite it just being a few eggs and sausages, It was the most delicious and satisfying meal Luz had ever eaten. Nothing had even come close.

“Eda.. sniff…   T-that was the best.. sniff.. best food i’ve ever had.. Is there any more? Please? sniff.. ”

“Uhhhh.. Sure? I can make some more I guess. Are you okay? Have you been eating dirt your entire life? It’s just gryphon sausage.”

Luz wiped at her eyes. “No way it’s ‘just gryphon sausage’! You have to have done some magic flavor thing! I might as well have been eating dirt forever if that’s what the food here is like all the time!! ”

“No magic flavor thing here kiddo, I added a bit of seasoning but that’s it, it’s even a little subpar today. Hooty’s a way better cook than I am.” Eda waved her hand and hooty came crashing in through the window, startling Luz.

“Hey Hooty, cook the girl some more gryphon sausage, please and thank you.” Hooty took to the task, but it was hard for Luz to look at whatever the hell he was doing to the kitchen. Gross.

“Really? Is human food really just that bad compared to the weird half-alive stuff you have here?” Luz looked confused, desperately trying not to look at Hooty’s efforts.

Eda squints her eyes at Luz, studying her features carefully, deep in thought.

“Well, maybe it's just because it's human food and you ain’t human? I’d probably hate eating what you humans have over there 24/7. All the food here’s got magic ingrained in it. You have the fangs of any witch or demon, maybe you’ve got the stomach of one, too.”

Well that was certainly something to consider. Luz hadn’t ever had any non -human food before, how could she have? And as clearly proven yesterday, Luz was only part human. If she was really a half-demon from a magical realm, she would need to eat like one. Was magic an essential part of her diet or something?

What even was she? Not the first time she’d asked such a question, but now she had a chance to maybe get an answer.

“So basically… you’re saying i’m magically malnourished? Is that even possible?”

“Oh yeah. Witches need foods high in natural magic or else it can really screw up their development, especially the bile sack. Varies a lot more for demons. We should probably get you in for a check-up honestly. Hooty! Double the amount of whatever sausage abomination you’re making back there!”

“OKAY EDA! MOO OOOOOOOO OORE COMIN UP!!” Luz gagged and looked away towards the floor.

“My advice? Just face away from him and plug your ears. Or go to another room” King added in.

Luz left the room for a few minutes, followed by King. After the horrible sounds had ceased she walked back in and was greeted to a smaller recreation of the owl house made entirely out of sausage, with a tiny version of each of the residents. There was smoke coming out of the chimney, and light coming from the ‘windows’. It took up 1/4th of the available table space. Everything made of bright purple sausage. It was as impressive as it was disturbing, and Hooty was immensely proud of his creation.

Luz ate the entire thing and gave compliments to the chef, then promptly told hooty to never cook in front of her again, even if he was damn good at it.

She wandered into the living room and nearly instantly fell asleep on the couch after the best meal of her life.

——————————————————————

After having been woken up by a sack of potions being dropped on her, Luz and King were sent out to deliver potions to Eda’s many clients. Apparently she ran a potion brewing business on the weekends.

It didn’t really feel like a chore when it gave her the opportunity to really take in Bonesborough and the Boiling Isles as a whole. The air smelled faintly of sulfur, and the inhabitants had eyes and limbs ranging in amounts from 1 to 40, though most of the people were humanoid like Eda. Everything was brimming with the feeling she had come to know as magic, of all different types she couldn't recognize. It was all so wondrous, but truly the best part was giving King a piggy-back ride.

There was a lot more flesh, teeth, and horrifying food stalls with food that tries to eat you than typical for the fantasy world she usually read about. But it had a mystical appeal even then, still so compelling.

She had been approached a few times by people wondering if she was human because of the round ears, but a flash of her fangs seemed to quell their curiosity. She was just a witch with an uncommon birth defect, apparently.

One of the people paying for potions was the most stereotypical wizard Luz had ever seen. Suspiciously stereotypical. He was way too insistent about a ‘magical destiny’, but didn’t seem to know she was human, and his magic seemed… off somehow. Like he wasn’t really there. Plus, he was wearing slippers! Eda had told her not to trust anyone wearing slippers! The guy seemed pretty angry when she left, so she just ran faster back to the owl house.

Luz made it back after hours of potion delivery and gawking at the town, with a sack of snails in hand.

“HOOT! Welcome back Luz!! What’s the PASSWORD?”

“Hooty just let us in!” King shouted.

“Uhm.. I don't know? Could i get a hint maybe?” 

“What's a group of OWLS caaaaaaaaaaaalled?” Hooty sing-songed.

It was time for Luz’s remarkable knowledge of random trivia to strike true.

“A Parliament!”

“HOOT HOOT! That’s right! Welcome back!” The door swung open, and Luz rushed inside. King was baffled.

“Eda! I'm back, and I have a bag of money!” Luz could barely brace herself from the oncoming footsteps before Eda crashed into the room, staring at the bag in her hand. 

“Hah! And you’re still alive! Any near death experiences while you were out?” She swiped the bag from Luz’s hands, counting the coins inside. “Ahh, sweet sweet snails.”

“Nope! I spent most of the time looking around bonesborough, this place is so amazing! I mean, a few people did try to eat me but I think that's just normal here? And there was this suspicious creepy wizard guy in sandals who kept telling me about my “promised destiny” or whatever, and I think he wasn’t real? I left when he started getting mad”

“Musta been Adegast. Runs a rival potions business and has a nasty habit of scamming, tricking, and eating people. Unlike me, of course. Good on you for not falling for it. Now get cleaned up and wait in here, you’ve got some basics that need learning.” Eda walked back upstairs with the bag of money.

Luz took a quick shower and ran back to the living room grabbing king along the way. She sat on the couch with King in her lap. The little demon still complained a bit, but one can only argue so much against chin scritchies.

Eda opened the door to the house from the outside. “Come on, we’re gonna do this outside. I got a spot to show you.” Luz jumps from the couch and follows Eda out, coming to a stop after a few minutes at the edge of a massive cliff, the view stretching as far as Luz could see. Woah.

“This is the boiling Isles, one of the best views you can get of it. All that you can see are the bones and flesh of the Titan, what we all live on. Every witch and demon was borne of its decaying body.”

Luz could barely believe the sight, sure she had seen some views in the past day, but nothing like this. That giant skull in the distance wasn't just a land feature, it was the head of a corpse . A corpse she was standing on right now. Looking at such a clear view of the obviously humanoid-ish figure the size of a continent was strangely awe-inspiring, and oddly familiar somehow. Luz sat with her legs dangling off of the cliff. “Whoa…”

“Up close, the Isles can be slimy”

“And very Stinky!” king interrupted.

“And gross. But if you look at it from a different perspective…” Eda put her hand on Luz’s shoulder, and guided her view to the Titan’s skull, where a few dots of light shot across the evening sky. 

“It’s Beautiful.” Luz breathed out as she looked back at Eda.

“yeah. it sure is.”

The Owl Lady spun a magic circle in the air, and a large whiteboard poofed into existence beside her. It was already covered in diagrams and scribbles.

“Alright. Since you’re my student now I guess I actually have to teach. Augh.. what have i become…   anyway! Lesson one: Boiling Isles Basics” Eda gestures to the big bold letters on the board.

“Didn’t we have lesson one earlier today? About palismen?”

“You’re getting two lesson ones. Don’t question it. Now, Where do you think magic comes from?”

“The heart?”

“Huh. good guess, cuz that’s correct. More specifically-” Eda tapped her staff to a drawing of a heart with some sort of growth on the side. “Magic comes from the Bile Sack, which is attached to the heart. It draws in magic from a variety of sources; from your food to the ambient energy in the air, and turns it into magic bile.”

Luz was expecting a far more spiritual answer to the ‘where does magic come from’ question. It made sense that it was so biological, but… why did they have to call it ‘Bile’? It's like they’re trying to make it more gross.

“The heart then pumps that bile through a Witch’s bloodstream, and voila!” Eda drew a glowing circle with her finger, and levitated a nearby rock. “We can use that energy to make spells. Witches and most humanoid demons are born with Bile Sacks, but some demons have a more innate form of magic. Do you know if you’ve got one?”

Did she? Mami had stopped taking her to the doctor at a very young age, so if she had an extra organ strapped onto her heart it hadn’t been discovered.

“No idea! Going to the doctor in the human realm was a pretty bad idea due to the whole not human thing. I’ve actually been meaning to ask if… if you know what i am? If it helps, I think that i’m. Um. growing wings? and a tail?”

“No idea, kid. We’ll get you checked out sometime soon but I’d bet on some sort of half-demon. Frankly, I still have no idea what King is either.”

“Oh. okay.” So the answer wasn’t gonna be that easy, then. 

“A lot of basic magic is simply will . Channeling all that energy in you is just something you’ve gotta get a feel for. Simple stuff like fire or light spells are almost instinctual, but higher complexity spells need a lot more concentration, logic, and intention.”  Eda spun up a simple little spell, a glowing circle with a blurry pattern in it, creating a tiny orb of light with the same symbol buried inside it.  Luz squinted at the pattern, but trying to discern it was making her head hurt.

“I’m assuming you’ve never cast a spell before?”

“Uh, yeah. I didn’t even know magic was real for sure until yesterday.”

“Wanna try?” Eda asked with a smirk.

“YES!” Luz jumps up next to Eda, vibrating with excitement. “How do I do it? What spell should I do? Do I need to learn that symbol? Do i need to-”  Eda puts her hand over Luz’s mouth.

“Just follow my lead.” Eda moves behind Luz and guides Luz’s hand out with her own.
“Stick out your finger, and focus on the tip of your claw. Focus on it as hard as you can, and think about light. As much light as you can muster.”

Luz closes her eyes and does as Eda says, focus. focus. She tries thinking about light, as blinding as she can make it.

Focus.

Light.

She tries thinking of the magic she feels in the air. In Eda’s hand against her skin, that warm, buzzing feeling. She tries looking for it in herself.

Light.

Focus.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Luz clenches her eyelids and focuses even harder, trying to find something inside herself.

Focus. concentrate, damnit.

Another symbol appeared on the edge of Luz’s mind, blurry and unreadable. There was something inside her, but it was slippery. She lost any grip on it.

“urgh.. c’mon.. anything..” 

“Don’t think too hard about it, it’s alright if you can’t get it on the first try.”

Luz took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Focus. Light. Focus. Light.

she found that tiny mote of something inside of her again, barely brushing up against it, but it was enough to pinch off just the tiniest bit. She felt dizzy. Focusing on the tip of her claw, she pushed that something up to it. Light. Light. Light. Light. 

Please, light.

She feels it touch and go through the tip of her claw, and opens her eyes just in time to see a little spark of what looks like electricity, deep purple, jet black, and bright yellow all at the same time. A tingle lingers up her arm as she stares wide-eyed at the empty space where the spark was just a second ago.

“Congrats, kid. It wasn’t much but you just did magic. Knew you had it in ya.” Eda takes her guiding hand off of Luz, and takes a step back. 

“Magic? I just did magic. I just did magic!!” She cheered, jumping up and down aimlessly in celebration. “MAGIIIC!!!!” 

——————————————————————

Eda had been worried about Luz for a while now. ‘for a while’ being about 2 days. Having once done it herself, she could recognize when someone was running away from home, running away from something you didn’t want to go back to. Not to mention that little spark Luz just produced. That was barely anything , and the girl was clearly straining herself. They obviously had magic, but they were horrifically underdeveloped.

No wonder she cried eating breakfast. She was malnourished. Direly so.

Marilyn had visited the human realm enough to know what humans were like, they were scared of and rejected things that were different, things they couldn’t understand. She could imagine what Luz had gone through living there. Nevermind the bullies you could find at hexside, in the human realm Luz was the perfect target for cruel children. She had caught Luz a few times already in the past 2 days looking at herself in reflections, a bit sad, confused, and almost angry at herself. Eda knows the kind of ridicule that would make someone look at themselves like that.

The girl had mentioned some kind of ‘summer camp’, and torn up a folded paper, one which Eda picked back up after the kid went to bed. She stitched it back together with a bit of magic, and read it. It was horrifying. Of course Luz didn’t want to go back home if her own parents were sending the girl to what was essentially a prison made to brainwash her, like the conformatorium.

Luz was a child who had been ridiculed by their peers, and rejected by the adults in her life. Always different from everyone around her, confused by themselves and forced to be ashamed. One that had been starving since birth, never able to use the magic that was so innately part of her. 

It broke Eda's damn heart.

And so Luz was running away, and Eda was glad to take her in. She didn’t know whether the girl’s parents were abusive, and it would probably take time to get all that info out of her, but it was obvious they weren’t doing enough to help her. She wouldn’t question Luz about all this yet, they deserved some time just learning magic and having the little adventures that all young witches should go on.

It helped that she was an eager student, so unbelievably excited by every little thing she’s seen. Eda never thought she’d be a teacher, but now she had a student and the opportunity to teach the proper ways of wild magic to someone free of coven brainwashing. Being a teacher was a small price to pay to pass on the old ways that the emperor was trying so hard to snuff out.

The Owl Lady felt bad having to interrupt the kid while she was celebrating doing magic for the first time, but she was probably about to pass out and needed to learn the basic runic alphabet.

“Luz! That wasn’t the end of the lesson. Faster we get through this the faster we eat dinner, and the faster I stop being a teacher.” 

Luz took a second to calm down, and sat down in front of the whiteboard. It was obvious she could barely sit still. Her eyes were wide with wonder. How cruel, this bright girl living with those who only wanted to crush that wonder and sweep it away.

“The last thing we’re gonna talk about today is runic. It's the basic alphabet used to channel magic, and describe magic concepts. It’s been unfortunately simplified lately, so you’re gonna be learnin old runic, it ain't dumbed down.” Eda pointed to a basic sentence she had written, not that Luz would be able to read it. Oh, the girl had gotten out a notepad. 

“Most books about spellcasting, potion making, etc, are written in runic. Especially the old ones. Otherwise, they’re used more practically to make enchanted objects or to channel magic through machines or structures. If you carve some runes into a doorway just right and pump some magic into the structure, that grammar can make a gateway or a barrier.” Eda sticks a hand into her owl’s nest of a hairdo, and pulls out an old thick book, and drops it on the ground in front of Luz with a thumph.

Luz picks the book up and flips it open, then looks back to Eda.

“That’s your guide through runic. I’ll get you some kiddie books to read, too. Try to take some time out of the next few days to study that. Once you’ve got the very basics down I’ll help you through the more intermediate and advanced stuff. Try to mix in some basic sentences when we’re talking, k?” Oh. The kid was crying again.

“Eda… I…” Luz stood up and crashed into her, wrapping up the Owl Lady in a tight hug. She was quickly learning Luz was a very touchy person. She returned the hug.

“Thank you, so, so much. Has hecho muy por mí.. I’m gonna learn everything I can.”  Shit. Eda could feel her heart melting in real time. She wasn’t made for this kind of sincerity.

Eda ruffled Luz’s hair affectionately. She already had one stray, two couldn’t be that hard to take care of, right? She was still the fierce owl lady, no matter how many kids she was feeding and mentoring. It's not like she was adopting the girl, not like King. Luz was just a student and would stay that way.

Owlet.

Ah. fuck. well, that significantly complicates things. 

“Luz, you should head on inside and start looking over your new book alright? I’ll make something for dinner.”

“Okay! And, Thank you again, Eda. I know you don’t have to be doing any of this. It means a lot.” With that, Luz ran off towards the house clutching the runic textbook.

Bring owlet food. Starving. needs meal. much. much food.

It had been a while since her upstairs roommate had made itself vocal, usually only active when Eda hadnt taken her dose for a while or occasionally when King got hurt. She couldn’t exactly argue about King being her ‘owlet’, she certainly saw him as a son after the past 8 years, even if Eda wasn’t shouting it from the rooftops. But Luz? They had met yesterday for titan’s sake! She might need to drink a second elixir today.

Eda walked into the kitchen, past where the purple-haired girl was staring, enraptured, at the pages of the textbook with king in her lap. King had gotten used to Luz’s affection rather quickly, it was out of character for what Eda knew. Sure, he couldn’t argue with chin scritchies, but he was a feisty little thing most of the time, usually too proud to admit that he liked to cuddle.

Owlets find family. Recognize scent.

Sure, whatever ya’ crazy birdbrain. Eda supposed those two did smell weirdly similar to her owl-sharpened nose. Doesn’t mean the girl is her daughter. She looked at the ingredients on offer in the cabinet, and decided on razorbeetle pasta for tonight. They would have to go on a grocery run soon, since Eda hadn’t been planning on another mouth to feed, especially one who was gonna need as much food as Luz would. She felt the spike of a headache, and the prick of a feather on her wrist. Yes, she would be making pasta. No , she would not be hunting for voles in the forest. It doesn’t matter if the kids would be better off with fresh meat. Razorbeetle pasta is plenty nutritious enough. 

Eda opened the kitchen potion stash, finding just one glowing bottle of liquid. She was running low, and would have to make a potion run while getting groceries soon. She certainly couldn't afford the extra potion for today. What if it rained tomorrow, or the next day? She’d have to just deal with the bickering of a wild animal in her head for now. No, I am NOT going to feed them uncooked, bleeding rodents! No matter how much you complain!

She hadn’t transformed in a decade and she wasn’t about to let some fucking pasta break that record. She winced as she picked the feather from her wrist, and mentally forced the owlbeast back in its confines at the back of her mind. She had a hell of a lot of noodles to cook.

——————————————————————

Luz fell onto her sleeping bag, not even having the energy to properly snuggle up inside. Today was another busy day, something luz figured wouldn’t stop any time soon. That combined with the five entire bowls of bug pasta she just ate, and staying awake wasn’t an option. She was a little confused about the mechanics as to how so much food would even fit in her stomach, eating that much in the human realm would at least give her a hell of a stomach ache. It was probably another demon thing. She couldn't think on it much before sleep dragged her down with an unyielding hand.

——————————————————————

“Aw, c’mon Luz, it’s a majestic creature! Look at the bounty it’s blessed us with!”

Eda gestured to the massive pile of stinking slime and trash that was rotting atop the sand.

“Yeah no. I’m not sticking around for this adventure. This slime ball is… neat? But I was kinda hoping to study more? Get a lesson? Read some ancient scrolls, brew a potion or two?” She put away the hairy slime ball into her pocket, not wanting to insult Eda by just throwing it away. Putting her hand into that gunky slime pool was unpleasant in many ways.

“Bah, that sounds like a bunch of magic school baloney.” The owl lady got to work sorting through the pile of junk, throwing things behind her haphazardly.

“Wait. Is there a magic school here? Like, winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?” 

“Mm-hmm. What's worse, they force you to learn magic the "proper" way. But magic isn't proper. It's wild and unpredictable. And that's why it's so beautiful! I didn't finish school, and look at me! Who wouldn't envy where I am right now?” Eda stood up, covered in green mucus that all the flies buzzing around seemed to love.

“Mmn.. actually, if it's okay I’m just gonna head back inside and study my runes, maybe take a walk to admire the scenery. Love you, King.” She reaches for the cute little fuzzball’s stomach for some tummy rubs. King giggles, and Luz was never gonna get used to how adorable he was.

The girl went back inside, to wash the awful gunk off of her hands. A walk in the woods sounded good right now. Luz wanted to explore nature and the nubs on her back were acting up again, vying in competition for which body part could be the most sore. A calming stroll would help, probably.

Washing her hands was always tricky business, her claws sharp enough to cut her own skin easily if she wasn’t careful. The cuts healed quick enough, though coming out of the bathroom with purple blood on your hands was not only painful, but opened up the possibility that others would realize her blood wasn’t red.

She looked up to the bathroom mirror while drying her hands, and- huh.

Her amber eyes were a lot brighter than usual. They always seemed to glow a bit, especially in the dark, but Luz assumed they just reflected light like cats did for better night vision. But now, in a room illuminated by little magic lightbulbs, Luz’s eyes unmistakably shone in the mirror.  She leaned closer to her reflection, looking into her own eyes. She supposed her eye-sight seemed a little better today than usual. 

The light was emanating from her irises, it was really pretty. woah. Her eyes were literally glowing!!   If it was a permanent thing, Luz couldn’t wait to sneak up behind somebody in a pitch black room, and open her scary glowing eyes to scare them! Just like in her books. 

There was something else in her eyes too, glowing faintly behind her iris. It was a bit… purple? It was in her pupil, however that was possible. It was a little circular pattern, very blurry. She squinted at her reflection to try and get a clearer look at it, but it was making her head hurt again. She gave up.

If her eyes had changed…    her shoulders were sore. did that mean..? Luz lifted up her shirt and turned around.

“Wow… Fluffy!!”  The bumps had grown just a bit for sure, but that was hardly noticeable next to the straight up fur that had grown. It was a deep black and looked almost like King’s fur, when Luz awkwardly reached her arm around to touch it, it felt a lot like King’s fur too. She noticed, parting the fur just a bit, that the skin underneath had darkened considerably. 

They giggled, but stopped abruptly when she noticed a wisp of fur traveling just a bit up from her tailbone, along her spine. A bit of fur that had clearly not gotten the memo that it was supposed to be growing on her new tail, and not away from it. 

“Uhh… I really hope that's as far as the fur is gonna go.” Luz was excited about the prospects of cool as heck wings and a freakin’ tail, but was kind of expecting that to be… it. Eda had said she was magically malnourished, That it would have affected her development significantly. She was suddenly nervous that the ‘demon puberty’ Luz had been worried about could possibly be more than she had bargained for.

She tried shifting attention to the rest of her body, searching for any abnormal feelings. Her whole body, especially her feet, was a bit more uncomfortable and sore than usual, but that was probably because of getting thrown into a wall 2 days ago. There was a strange pressure on the top of her head, but that was probably a headache from the strange magic sense she’d seemingly developed. Her ears were itchy, but that was probably allergies from such a new environment. Yeah, sure.

“Oh well! I’m gonna stuff that worry in the back of my head and forget about it now!”

And so she did, wandering back outside and into the forest. Half an hour of wandering beneath the swaying red trees did wonders to banish her worries away, the Isles really were beautiful.

“Aw, c’mon little one. It's okay, growing’s not scary, you can do it! I believe in you” 

Luz looked around for the voice. “Mysterious voice of encouragement?” she turned towards the source, parting some bushes. “No! Little witch girl!” The owlet spotted a girl with dark blue hair, round glasses, wearing a purple and gray uniform kneeling over a little sprout in the ground. At her continued words of encouragement, the seedling shot up, and quickly blossomed into a tiny pink flower.

Luz noticed the large wooden cart and accompanying pot while the flower girl stood up and began pacing worriedly. 

“ You can do it. Even if you get a bad grade, it's not a reflection of you as a witch. And my parents are right. There are better opportunities in this track. Now, get to school!” she points forwards and takes a step, landing on the flower she had just helped bloom.  “Oh, no! Oh, little friend! I'm sorry!” She kneels down and makes a green spell circle, causing the flower to bloom back ever stronger than it had been. Luz gasps.

Another girl rolled up to the flower girl, sitting atop her own cart and pot. The new girl had green hair, yellow eyes, and the same uniform flower girl was wearing. She closed the book she was holding, looking almost sad for a moment before settling into a firmly haughty attitude.

“Willow! Wow.” she hopped down. “You’re so unnoticable i almost rolled into ya’. Hah.” 

“Hi, Amity.”

“Uh, shouldn’t you get to class early to prep your…” As amity spoke, willow’s pot rumbled and tipped onto the ground, spilling the runny purple contents into the dirt. Smelled like magic and mud.

“Oh, Willow. You don’t have anything to show, do you?” she smirked. Luz was giddy over the witch drama, and Willow was embarrassed.

“ Sigh … this is why people call you ‘half-a-witch’, willow. You shouldn’t even bother to be in the abomination track. ” Amity’s pot rumbled, and the lid popped open. “Oh? Looks like someone else wants to speak to you!” A far more solid and humanoid shape rose from the pot, purple, gooey, and covered in green glowing eyes. It walked to Willow, and poked her forehead, leaving behind a goopy purple star. It spoke.

“Yo URe.. a . STarr.. .   .” 

 Amity points to the golden star on her uniform, labeled ‘Top Student’.

“Aw. it’s like mine, except smaller and more meaningless. Maybe if you picked another track, you might be able to get a passing grade some day, and stop stinking up the abomination classroom with your watery failures. Abomination, Cower.” The goop monster shuffles back into the pot and encloses itself within.

“See you in class, superstar .”  Amity snickers and continues walking down the path.

“Oh, See in class superstar! ” Willow mocks, “I hate it when she does that.”

Willow stomps her foot on the ground, leaves whirling around her in a non-existent wind. Luz flinches at the outburst. “I HATE making abominations, I HATE getting bad grades. Ugh! I can’t stand this anymore!” her eyes glow a bright green, and the flower at her feet bursts open, unleashing a mass of thrashing, thorny vines.

One of the vines whips out to Luz’s hiding spot, wrapping around her ankle, and lifting her up into the air.

“WeH!” Luz yelped as she crashed face first into the dirt by Willow’s feet. She looked up to see Willow, eyes glowing, staring down at her. Her new fur bristled. 

The angry scowl was wiped away, green glow disappearing, as flower girl realized what had just happened. The flailing roots drop to the ground, the one around Luz’s leg gently unwrapping.

“Oh no no no no no! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?” She offered a hand to the girl on the ground.

“No, no it's okay. The thorns didn’t even break skin!” Willow was suddenly very close to her face, eyes clearly staring at her round ears.

“ Gasp…  You’re human! This is astounding!” She grabs Luz’s face and drags her up to a standing position. “A human on the boiling isles! How did you get here? What are you doing here?”

“Oh! Uh, half-human actually! But I was raised in-” Luz was cut off by a loud screeching, like a very loud man with a bell for a uvula screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Uh, I'm sorry. I can't stay. I have to go disappoint my teacher, It was nice to meet you, half-human.”

“Wait! You need to make one of those purple sludge monsters for a grade, right? At magic school , right!?” Luz asks with a mischievous grin.

“Yeah, and I'm terrible at it. I'm really good at plant magic, like you just saw. But I'm not even supposed to be doing plant magic! I got stuck in the abomination track because my dads thought it has better job opportunities..”

“Well, Willow, I have a fantastic idea of how I could help you.”

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

It turned out to not be such a fantastic idea. Oh sure, it was fantastic that Luz had finally made some proper friends with Willow and Gus! But she had almost gotten dissected, thoroughly pissed off the pretty green-haired girl Amity, been banned from the school she wanted to go to, and was currently busy picking through the worst after-effect of the day’s adventure.

Luz was learning how to wash abomination goop out of your hair the hard way.

She was picking out curdled chunks of the substance that had glued themselves into infuriating knots, under the hottest water the shower could muster, and had been doing so continuously for the past 2 hours. She wanted to scream. 

Sigh … It was worth it. Willow was an amazing friend, as was Gus. She couldn't wait to actually get to hang out with them. Luz would work to find a way to get unbanned and attend hexside, and learn magic with her new witch friends. As long as Gus didn’t try any weird experiments on her since she was human. The younger witch had been slightly disappointed when he found out Luz was only half human, but being a half-human raised in the human realm was plenty enough to provide an expert opinion on the subject, an opinion Gus was endlessly happy to listen to.

Willow, after demonstrating the absurd level of power she had over plant magic, was moved to the plant track instead of being punished for the incident, even! Gus was happy to have a human friend, and Amity could get over a bit of embarrassment. Luz had been a positive impact even through all of the chaos. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

“AUGH!! This stupid goop wont. Get. OFF!” Luz yelled into the humid air, giving up out of sheer frustration. She let herself sink into the hot bath. There was a knock at the bathroom door.

“I brewed up something for your hair, So stop wasting all of my hot water! I'm gonna have to feed hooty more wood at this rate! ” oh thank titan, Eda had come to rescue her.

“You can just open the door up a bit and roll it in. I have been thoroughly defeated.”  A few seconds of staring at the ceiling later, Luz heard a tink as a small glass vial rolled into the wall of the tub. She picked up the teal potion. “Thank you Eda!” assuming it was something like a shampoo lather, she poured it onto her hair and began to work it in. The abomination goop washed away like cheap hair dye. She got out, dried off, and got into some borrowed bad girl coven pajamas.

“King! It’s bed time! And my hair’s not gross anymore!” King came rushing up to her, holding francois. He had been avoiding contact ever since Luz had come covered in goop. 

“weh! You’re not all stinky and muddy. Let us retreat and recoup our losses from battle!”  King marched to Luz’s closet bedroom, and she followed. Sleeping curled up with King was something she was hoping would become a routine, he was just so cute and fluffy! Like the floofy little brother she never had. 

——————————————————————

Luz had her phone out, recording what would certainly be an important battle, written in history books for decades to come. It had been 2 days since she got banned from hexside and used magic for the first time. It had been more uneventful than she was expecting, but Luz knew that even in a magic alternate dimension not every day could be exciting. She spent the time studying runic, exploring the isles while delivering potions, and trying to pull more sparks to her fingers.

Runes weren’t too hard, the basic stuff was pretty similar to english and spanish grammar-wise. Luz hadn’t gotten into any of the advanced magic syntax yet, but knew Eda would be there to help with that when the time came. Or at least, if Eda decided to give her any more lessons. She’d barely gotten any more magic info out of her over the past 2 days! Luz wasn’t mad about it, it gave her more time for runes and the inner magic she now had. She had it the whole time, apparently, but it was unusable until now.

By now Luz could reliably bring sparks to her fingers, and could draw about  one third of a circle before it sputtered out! Those purple-black-yellow sparks were able to make her feel giddy for hours. Even if it wasn’t much, it was magic, and a precursor to how much she could really learn. She looked at King, struggling on the floor, focusing back on her recording.

“And here we have the most fearsome creature in the world, the King of Demons. Facing his natural enemy, the ducky sock!” King fights to pull the sock that was stuck to his nose, eventually succeeding by tearing it to pieces.

“So why’d you call me here again?”

“Oh, yeah.” He scrambles onto a side-table set up in front of a pile of something covered in a sheet. “Half-demon Luz, you've been so obsessed with Witchcraft that you haven't learned anything about my kind. Prepare yourself for…” He rips the cloth off of the pile, revealing a cork-board covered in crude drawings and photos of various creatures.  “Demons 101! Demons like me are grim tricksters of the twilight, creatures of sulfur and bone.” King puts on a scholar’s hat that was far too big for him.

“And cute widdle paws!” she zoomed in on his barely visible toe-beans for emphasis. By the end of the summer, Luz was going to have a catalogue of these videos ready at a moment's notice. 

“ Sigh … and cute little paws. True. But we live only to create chaos and misery! Our only weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments. Sometimes.”

“Oh, you guys are sensitive.”

“Even demons have inner demons,” King tears off a picture of a giant spiky tortoise-shelled creature. “The most powerful demon of all is the snaggleback, He’s a-”

“Bad boy!” She was busy adding filters, stickers and scary emojis to the image while recording. hehehe.

“Luz, pay attention. This information could save your life someday. Claws aren’t enough to ensure your victory! You need intel!”

“No, no. I am so paying attention. This is my paying attention face. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. “

KRAKATHOOM

King startled at a loud rumble of thunder outside, that same sound immediately sending Luz into a joyful mood. 

“Uh-oh. Looks like it's gonna rain” King scuttled to look out one of the front windows.

“ Gasp! I love the rain!” Luz bursts through the door, taking a deep breath of the magic-laden petrichor. King calls after her, seemingly panicked. “Ah..  always love feeling the first few drops in my hair.” She kneels down to a little flower, “I bet you do too, little buddy.” The first drop of rain falls squarely on top of the flower, wilting it instantly with a hot sizzle. That wasn't normal.

“What?” She looked around, watching each new raindrop hit the ground with a steaming hiss. King was screaming after her even louder now, was this some sort of horrible acid rain? Was that why king was so panicked? Uh oh.

“Luz! Get back inside! Please!” 

She winced as a drop hit her arm, another hitting her head, then the rain started in earnest. 

Luz opened her clenched shut eyes, the expected pain wasn't coming. The rain was abnormally warm, but was otherwise normal, discounting the sizzling noises. The warm water felt nice. Luz relaxed and sat down, letting the slowly increasing pitter patter of rain hit her. She was interrupted by a hurried Eda running out of the forest, covered by some sort of shield umbrella. 

“Boiling rain! Everyone in the house now! ”

“Huh? Weh!?” she yelped as Eda yanked her arm, dragging Luz back inside as fast as the older witch could. She was practically thrown into the living room. Eda shuffled up to Luz, taking a first-aid kit from her hair.

“Holy titan kid, are you okay? You’re soaked!” The owl lady moved her hands along Luz’s arms, frantically searching for burns and injuries, while king looked on afraid. What did Eda call it? Boiling rain ? She noticed the little burn marks that peppered her mentor’s arms. Oh. that rain wasn’t just ‘warm’, it must have been hot.

“I’m fine! Really! Was that rain actually boiling?” Eda and King stared at her in shock. There wasn't a burn on her skin.

“ Yes, that’s a boiling rainstorm outside, one of the more common and dangerous weather events on the isles. More pressing, how the hell are you not scalded right now?”

“Oh, I'm pretty much immune to high temperatures? I always figured it was part of my demon heritage or something. I didn’t even notice that the rain was that hot! I've never actually found something that could burn me, so I'm fine! The rain was kinda comfy, actually. Sorry for worrying you.” Luz shrugged at the guffaw Eda was giving her.

“No.. no, it's fine, kid. Gave me a bit of a heart attack, sure, but it's fine. You’re just makin answering what kinda demon you are even harder. I just keep getting stuck with the most unidentifiable strays on the isles.”

“Is that… uncommon?” Luz frowned at that.

“yeah, immunity to the boiling rain is pretty darn rare. Sigh.. I'm just glad noone got hurt.” Eda summons a warm gust of wind to dry her off. 

“I think I got a little bruise on my shoulder when you threw me into the house?”  Eda walks out the front door, casting some sort of spell. Luz and King shuffle under the stone awning over the front door.

“Sorry about that. I think I was reasonably freaked out.” Luz can't argue with that, nor does she want to. King walks up to her with a bandage, lifts up her sleeve, and places the bandage on her developing bruise. Then, he sticks another one atop his nose. So. adorable.

“Look, now we’re boo-boo buddies!” Luz promptly lets out an unholy squee, falling over towards King.

“Oh gosh i love you so much!” she drags the boy into a hug, he doesn't resist. “So, boiling rains on the boiling isles? The weather here is so fun.”

“We don't have ‘weather’. We have gore-nadoes, plagues, shale hale, and painbows.”

“It’s like a rainbow, but if you look at it too long your insides become outsides!” King delightfully added. Luz pulls the drawstrings of her hoodie closed, she doubts temperature resistance helps against that .

“So, until the boiling rain stops, heat tolerance or not, no one is allowed outside tonight.”

“Yeah! If the rain doesn't get you, the snaggleback will. He wanders out in the rain eating boiled tourists..” King flips open to the previous picture of the snaggleback in his book of demonology.

“Well, whatever the case, this force field spell should protect the house from boiling rains and made-up demons.“

“Hoot! Well, hurry it up with that force field. That rain is getting closer to my precious stucco.” could Hooty… feel the rain? Hooty was a house demon, but did that mean he could feel the house? WAS he the house? Oh titan. That's another thought to add to the repression pile.

“Yeah yeah I got it.” Eda slams her staff into the ground, finishing the giant amber dome surrounding the house, which shrink-wraps around walls.

“Wow! Someday I'd like to be as cool as you, Owl Lady. magical, sassy, surprisingly foxy for your age. Hey, why do they call you the Owl Lady, anyway?” Eda sure was owl-themed, but that was about it as far as Luz knew. Was there a specific reason that ‘owl lady’ was the moniker that stuck?

“It's cause i’m so wise.”

“It’s cause she coughs up rat bones!” Did she really? Hooty seemed to have known her for a while so… 

“I think it's cuz she gets distracted by shiny objects easily.” King takes out a pen from the human world, with a dull plastic gem on top.

“No, i dont.”  King rebuffs Eda’s denial by clicking a button on the pen, making the gem shine a brilliant pink color, the little light inside rotating slowly to make the effect more eye-catching. Eda is instantly enamored.

“It sparkles and shimmers. It shines and delights. I must have it for my nest... “ She lunges for the pen, but king puts it behind his back, and Eda hits the ground without a hint of grace. Hilarious to watch, but Luz focuses on the last bit of Eda’s sentence.

“You have a nest? I want a nest! Lets have a nest party!” another clue to why she was the ‘owl lady’ to add to the conspiracy board! Eda stood up, clearly exhausted.

“Ugh… that forcefield really took it outta me…” 

“Uh-oh, moving a little slow there. Old age finally catching up to ya?” King’s snark was replied to by Eda pulling his hat over his face. “Darkness!” He was a lot more quippy than the average 8 year old.

The owl lady enters the house, followed distantly by King and Luz. 

“This is perfect. Since we'll be stuck in the house all night, Eda won't have any excuse not to give me another magic lesson! I can even almost kinda make a magic circle now!”

“But don't you wanna finish our lesson? I was gonna let you scratch a demon's tummy. Me!” King insisted. That offer wasn’t worth much, since he let her give tummy scratches all the time.

“Oh, uh, im really sorry, King. But... magic. I’d love to learn about demonology, later, okay?” The boy sighed and deflated. It hurt her heart to be the reason he looked so sad, but this was the perfect opportunity to get another magic lesson. She looked over to the owl lady, who was walking out from behind a privacy screen with pajamas on. She flops onto the couch.

Luz leans over Eda’s face, putting on a smile. Eda opens her eyes and yelps, sitting up and almost smacking her in the chin.

“Oh, Eda, have I told you how rad your fang looks today?” 

“Whatever it is you want, no.” 

“Uh! And your hair, is like, goirl!”  

“I’m not giving you another lesson tonight.” Eda buries herself underneath a blanket. “Im sleepy. A sleepy little owl.”

Click.   Click.    Eda’s eyes open wide, recognizing the sound. “ Gasp! Sparkle thing”  She threw the blanket off, perched on the couch arm, and stared at the source. Luz stood with a smug grin on her face holding the sparkly gem pen.

“Oh, this?”  she waves the pen around, Eda’s eyes trained on the gem. The owl lady lunges for the gem, but Luz pulls it away and she hits the ground.

“Nope, teach me something magic and you can have your sparkle thing.”

“I respect your cunning, but i also hate you for it. Fine. I’m gonna… yaaawn… show you a variety of basic spells, for you to try out when you’ve got enough oomph to actually finish a spell circle.” she holds up a finger, traces a circle, and it summons a little trickle of water. “this one’s a basic fountain spell. The bigger the circle, the more powerful the spell.” 

“Wait! Wait! I gotta record this!” Luz pulls out her phone so she can study all of this later too.  “Okay, do another one!” 

Eda yawns and draws another circle, Luz recognizes it as the light spell from a few days ago with the blurry pattern in it, but this one is all shaky. “Now you see… the spell circle really is.. the key.. because…” The owl lady unceremoniously falls to the floor before the spell is finished.

“Hah! You killed Eda!”

“Weh! Oh gosh! My obsession with spells knocked Eda out! Im a monster!” she moves to Eda’s sleeping form, and King slaps her face. 

“Bap! Heheh.  Bap! Yep, shes out. One more for good measure. Bap!”

“We should get help!” Luz turns to run through the open door, but King grabs her leg to stop her just before she makes it outside, causing both of them to tumble out the door.

“Hey! What was that for!” he was so cute, but he really was a little menace sometimes. Now she was wet for no reason.

“Boiling rains, remember! Its dangerous out there!” King did have a point, the rains were really hot, and there were supposedly a few predators that could… wait, why was she wet?

Both her and King had stumbled just outside of the shrink-wrapped forcefield, and were standing in the rain. He didn’t seem to have even noticed.

“Uh, King?”

“You could get eaten by a snaggleback!”

“Dude.”

“And noone from the healing coven is just gonna follow you this far into the woods in the boiling rain!”

“King, look up.” He looked confused, still mad that she’d left the house. Then he looks up at the cloudy sky, then at the house behind them, then at the soaked fur on his arms. 

“AAHH!!! I’m in the rain!! WEEEHHH!!!” King screams and runs back inside. Luz follows. He was curled up on the floor, freaking out, so she kneels down to comfort him. He didn’t look injured by the rain at all, just like her. Was he immune too? Did he even know?

“Uhm, King? I think you’re fine. You didn’t even notice you were in the rain for a while there? You don’t look all burned to me.”

“Huh? I.. I guess i dont feel all cooked and blistery. Just wet. And warm. That’s weird.” He looked like he was re-evaluating a few things, staring at his un-seared body.

“Have you ever been in the rain before?”

“No, Eda doesnt let me out in the rain, and i avoid it just like everyone else does!” If even king was immune to the rain, then it probably wasn’t as rare as Eda said it was. Or King and her were lucky exceptions that by some fate lived together.

“Well… looks like we’re not just boo-boo buddies, but boiling buddies!” she scooped him up in another hug. “Haha you smell like wet dog!” 

“Well so do you! I guess we’re also wet-dog buddies! i can’t believe it! I, the king of demons, immune to the horrid boiling rains!” King returned the hug, which was becoming uncomfortable. Luz grabbed some towels from the hall closet. Luz stared at Eda’s unconscious body while they both dried off.

“So… should we just bring her up to bed? Is she gonna be okay?” Luz was worried still.

“Mmhh.. shiny thing… big nest…” Eda murmured in her sleep.

“She got her head cut off earlier this week, remember? That lady can survive anything! She’s probably just tired from hunting for shrews and voles all night.”

“Let’s just get her upstairs. Ugh.. sorry for pushing you miss Eda, please don’t hurt me when you wake up..”

——————————————————————

Luz was playing the video on repeat, staring at the circle Eda made. Damn the headache, she just wanted to make out that pattern! King was sitting beside her at the foot of the couch, sketching out demons to show Luz. she was pretty sure most of them weren’t real demons.

Whatever the symbol was, it felt important, even if Eda had never directly mentioned it. Maybe that was a future lesson? BLUH! She could almost make it out, there was definitely a line down the middle- King slaps his notebook onto her phone screen, halting any progress.

“You look like you’re about to have a stroke! Maybe some demonology will help you calm down!” the notebook depicted some sort of fish demon with a bunch of limbs and puckered lips. “One of the most terrifying demons, smoochie-pie the sweety baby!  …he’s a lot more threatening than the name implies.”

“Not now, king. I want to figure out this spell! Light is the easiest of the easiest spells, and i can’t even finish the darn circle!” Luz lifts her finger up, tracing an arc. Partway through, the dark line crackles and fades away. She scowls. King scoots to her side as she plays the video again. “And i cant even make out what’s going on inside the circle!”

“Inside the circle?”

“Yeah, I know there’s a pattern in there, but its all blurry and makes my head hurt..” 

“Im pretty sure its just a circle? Its empty.” King taps at the center of Eda’s spell.

“What? No, look! There’s like a.. Line down the center… there’s a smaller circle, i think..” She traces out what lines she can make out from the blur. 

“I think all this magic learning is starting to make you go crazy. Listen, if i help you learn this spell, would you let me finish my demon lesson?” King pushes the phone away slightly.

“Yes! I’ll let you teach me about demons all week if you can help me get this working!”

“Alright, i have a theory! Almost every day, i see Eda sneaking drinks of this elixir stuff! Afterwards, she always gets a burst of energy. I think its where she gets her power from!”

“Really? So if i drink some ill get the oomph to finish my circle?” Luz puts down her phone, full attention on King.

“Sí. and I know where to find some.” Luz scoops him up in a hug again. Titan, he is so fluffy! She’ll never get tired of it.

King ran upstairs for a minute, bringing back down a round potion bottle filled with a glowing golden liquid. “Got it!” he hands it to Luz.

“Okay. no big deal. About to get a magic power spike and cast an actual spell .” she brings it to her lips, the potion beginning to flow into her mouth-

KRAKATHOOM

“Weh!” both her and king exclaim at once, as the loudest thunder yet strikes. Luz startles and drops the bottle, which shatters onto the floor. “The Golden elixir! Gone!!”

“Bah, who even needs a light spell when you have tons of lamps?”

The lights in the house flicker off. Luz glares at him.

“Ugh, hooty controls the lights, he probably just fell asleep.” King’s sentence was punctuated by a loud crash from the living room, and a terrified ‘HOOT! HOOT!’ from Hooty. Luz and king rushed into the room, finding Hooty’s door knocked off of its hinges and covered in claw marks. She was able to see just a glimpse of the shadowed monster that had done this, before it jumps away. Luz felt a chill go down her spine. The fur on her back stood up beneath her shirt.

“Hooty! Are you in there?” his eyes were comically crossed out, and Hooty was unresponsive. “Whatever did this escaped into the rain, i guess that makes 3 of us.” King gasps at Luz’s words, looking almost giddy.

“The snaggleback! It comes out to feed during the rains, it must have seen us while we were outside!” 

She sees the monster for a split second again as it smashes through an upper window. “King! This is terrifying! Why do you look so happy?”

“Becaaauuse.. This is could be a lesson! You get to see a scary demon up close and personal. Other than myself, of course.” yeah, absolutely not.

“You want to go towards that thing? No way!”

“But what if Eda get eaten? She’s upstairs and defenseless cuz you knocked her out.” She groans at that. He can be so frustratingly reasonable at times. They sneak back into the house, and Luz pulls King into the hall closet.

She gets to work putting on some make-shift armor for both herself and the fluffball. Pillows, duct tape, a hockey stick, gloves, war paint. They sneak upstairs, into Eda’s room.

“Oh my gosh, Eda!” She stumbles over to the nest, finding it empty. The window has been shattered inwards. What happened to Eda? What had the creature done to her!?

“She got Snaggle-backed.” 

Eda’s pillow had slash marks on it, and there was absolutely no blood at the scene.

“No! See, slash marks! King, you’re the demon expert, i need some help here”  He muttered something about a book, and when Luz looked back he was gone.

“King? King!?”  oh no, she could not do this right now. Today was supposed to be a fun rained-in magic lesson day, Not a horror game! She needed to find King and Eda before it was too late. Luz crept towards the door and looked down the dark hallway, thank titan her night-vision was decent enough for this. Tip-toeing through the hallways, ears perked for any tiny noise. 

The hallways were quiet, far too quiet for the creature she knew to be in the house. Was it hiding somewhere, digesting her new mentor and little bro?! Was it going to come for her next? The tiniest tap on the wood behind her made her freeze. Everything in her mind was shouting danger . How was it behind her? It barely made a noise!

She spun around, claws at the ready- and came face to face with… “Eda?”

Her eyes were pitched entirely black, her face attached to the giant quadripedal body of a feathered monster. Enormous fangs burst from her mouth, huge claws each the length of Luz’s forearm dug into the floor, massive wings tucked into her back. The Eda-monster stared a hole into Luz, and made a chirping sound. Eda or not, now was the time to run. 

She tried to dash away further into the hallway, but the creature caught the back of her cat hoodie in its mouth, stopping Luz in her tracks.

“WeehhHHH!!! Let go of me! I’m gonna get rid of this stupid hoodie if people keep grabbing it! ” She struggled against it, but the beast didn’t seem to mind. It simply picked her up, Luz dangling like a baby kitten as it walked towards Eda’s room.

So. the creature was Eda, apparently. Obviously she wasn’t in her right mind, but she wasnt hurting Luz. She decided to not scratch Eda’s face off, just trust that she wasn’t about to be eaten. Plus, if she tried to fight back, Luz didn’t like her chances against those huge claws.

The Eda-beast creeps towards her nest, and Luz can see King is curled up into a ball within. His fur looks wet and spiky. 

“King! You’re okay!” good, he wasn’t hurt. Trusting Eda here was the right choice.

“Luz! I think the monster is Eda! I don’t think she wants to hurt us!”

Luz is set down in the nest beside King, and the beast climbs in too, putting its arms around both of them. 

“Yeah, I knew it was Eda when I saw her face. Is this why she’s called the Owl Lady?” The Eda-beast takes a long-drag lick over King’s fur, and Luz swears she hears a rumble from it’s throat. Is it purring ? How?! Isn’t it a bird? Can Eda purr too?

“Nooo!! Stop licking me!” He puts his hands on Eda’s face and tries to scramble away, but its useless. “I don’t need to be groomed! I’m already clean! Stop it!” awwww… how adorable and gross at the same time!

“Hehehe, aww, King it thinks you’re it’s baby! Which you kinda are, actua-” Luz was interrupted by a giant bird tongue scraping along half of her face. “What! No! Not me, King! Aghh gross!!”  King pointed and laughed at her, reveling in their shared pain.

“How do we turn her back? I dont wanna be stuck in this nest all day with  bird-mama!” She tried to push away said bird-mama, but not even Luz was strong enough. Bird-mama then hacked up a still intact rodent of some sort. Gross. Luz was not going to eat that after it had been in someone else’s stomach. 

“I’m not sure, but i found this tag ripped off of the elixir!”  Luz inspected the tag, which King stuck back together. ‘An elixir a day keeps the curse at bay’.
“The elixir I gave you doesn't give Eda powers. It prevents her from turning into that thing. She's turned into a nightmare and it's all my fault! I'm so sorry, Luz. I-I just wanted you to be into demons like you're into magic. I don't have many friends, and no one even pays that much attention to me.. I thought maybe if I taught you, finally someone would care about creatures like me. ”’

“Oh.. King, i never meant to make you feel like that..” Lus holds up the gem pen.  “How about we finish up that demonology lesson? Eda’s turned into a big monster and we need to save her. And who knows more about demons than the best teacher in the world?”

“Heheheh! Hmm… if I remember from demonology volume 2.. Lets see.. She’s bigger, covered in feathers, and has big black eyes. Oh! Demons with black eyes are highly sensitive to light, Luz, use your human wonder rectangle!” King points to her phone. She picks it up and holds it up to Eda’s face. Eda looks confused at the wonder rectangle.

“Okay, here goes nothing..” She flips on the flashlight app, the bright light making the Eda-beast scream and rear back. Luz and King try to make a break for it out of the nest, but Eda recovers and drags them back in, swatting away Luz’s phone to the ground. She went right back to grooming King, as if nothing happened.

“Arrhgh!! Stoooop licking meeee! nyeh! weh!”

“Well, that didn’t work.” if only Luz had a method to make more light… now would be a fantastic time for that light spell to work. Luz picked her phone back up and began looping the video she took of Eda’s ‘lesson’ earlier.  “I’m gonna try and get this light spell working.”

“Hurry! Your great and wonderful teacher is out of ideas and in peril!” 

Luz puts all of her focus into the video, pausing the video where she can see the light spell circle, squinting at the pattern. The harder she focused the more it felt like a nail was driving itself into her head, trying to discern finer detail. It was like her brain was working full time just to try and process whatever it was. Then, suddenly, it clicked. The nail being driven behind her eyes vanished in an instant. 

On the screen, inside Eda’s spell circle, Luz could clearly define the symbol. A glyph. It burned itself into her brain, the image so sharp and clear it was forced to the forefront of her mind. It was Light , her mind provided. pure and undiluted. Looking at it sparked a lot of feelings, some intrusive and incomprehensible, but mostly the very comprehensible feeling of happiness. Luz’s smile spread across her entire face.

“King! King! Look! I can see it! It’s light! It’s so clear . So bright . Titan, How couldn’t I see it before?” Eda seemed to sense her cheer, and switched from King to start ‘cleaning’ Luz’s hair.

“Luz, i still don’t see anything. But I guess im happy for you?” King was still skeptical. She’d have to show him. She picked up a leaf from the nest, and placed it over the paused video. 

“Here, I’ll show you. It looks like this.” Luz traced the light glyph on the leaf with her shiny pen, and tapped it as she finished. The leaf folded in on itself, becoming brighter and brighter- until it was a gently floating orb of light. She stared at it, letting loose a gasp. She cupped it in her hands, and brought it up to her face. She could still see the glyph within. It was so.. pretty. and warm, and comforting. Like someone was offering gentle words directly into her head. King climbed onto Luz’s lap, to look closer. He was almost as enamored as her. Even the Eda beast thought it was pretty.

“It’s beautiful… and my first spell. I-I did it! I cast a spell! King, i really did it!” 

“Yeah, you sure did! Its really pretty n’ warm but its kinda small. I’m not sure how much help this is.” King poked a claw at the light, it flickered and dissipated.

“Hmm.. i wonder if i can..” Luz brought a claw forward and focused on it. She thought of the glyph, still so clear in her mind, and traced it out in the air. Luz didn’t have to search for any of the magic inside her, or push it out with force, it just flowed naturally. Like there was someone casting it with her, taking care of all the hard parts. As the circle finished, Luz simply thought and the glyph filled the inside and- a tiny ball of light appeared in the middle while the circle faded away. Just like Eda’s staff, she could feel the magic within, silently thrumming away. Luz was still trying to get the hang of all the intricacies of her ‘magic sense’, but she could kind of feel a.. Connection? Sort of? to herself. It was connected to other stuff too, but to what she couldn’t say. All she knew was that the light was tied to herself. Luz decided to experiment a bit.

“Oh! I can see the pattern in it this time!” King clapped.

She tried think of the light moving towards king, pulling on that connection she barely felt. And.. it did. The Light slowly drifted down into King’s hands. “Wow! Okay, so im still connected to it. Hey King could you close your eyes for a few seconds?”

“Huh? Why? Okay, i guess.” King shut his eyes, and Luz did too. She found the connection again, and thought ‘ brighter’ at the ball of light. Thought of as much light as she could, as she had done in her last proper lesson with her mentor.
Light. Light. Light. Brighter. 

The ball responded all at once, She heard King’s yelp, and the Eda-beast’s screech as the sudden flashbang forced Luz to clench her eyes shut even harder.

——————————————————————

Eda wakes up with a killer headache, and several things in her mouth. She sits up, her fuzzy mind trying to take account of the surroundings. There is a very long straw in her mouth, connected to an elixir. Her left side is covered in feathers.

“Ahh!” She quickly slurps away the remaining potion, calming as the feathers recede. “Augh.. W-What happened? Oh, I have the worst headache.. and my mouth tastes like roadkill.”  She gags up an owl pellet in a way physiology shouldn’t allow, then grabs her now empty potion. “Hm? i was looking for that.” 

Wait. She had just transformed, hadn’t she? Titan , a decade free of becoming the owlbeast and she relapses just when she has to take care of a new kid. And it was boiling rain outside  …And those two kids were stuck in the house. With the owlbeast.

“King! Oh titan are you okay, are you hurt? where’s Luz? Did i hurt either of you?! Please please tell me you’re okay.” If she had touched a hair on either of those two, Eda would give custody to Lily, then throw herself into the boiling sea.

“No, no! We’re fine, Eda! You just turned into a big feather monster and like.. Took us to your nest. I think you thought we were your babies or something. But we were able to find an extra potion in your closet to turn you back!” King approached, looking suspiciously ashamed. Oh. Oh, he was in so much trouble.

“King? King! You stole my elixir? I ought to break every bone in your-” Eda started, but King shushed her.

“Shhh, over there.” the fluffy boy points to the corner of the room, where Eda can see Luz. and a whole lot of floating light orbs. She now saw how they were floating all throughout the room, some even drifting out the door and the window. There had to be hundreds. The girl was laying on the ground, a pillow under her head, hand stretched out, drawing circle after circle. Cute. 

“Wow. and she could barely form a circle just this morning. I’m damn proud. How did she manage this?”

“I don't know, but she did it all on her own. Something about an invisible glyph?  And... I, uh, kind of messed a bunch of things up back there. And I just wanted to say I'm sorry.”  He certainly looked repentant. Eda couldn’t hold it against him too much, he didnt know.

“Well, you better be. I got a long list of disgusting chores with your name on it.  ..But it's not entirely your fault.” Luz seems to have noticed she was awake now, and shakes away her fixation on the lights for now. She walks over to the nest to listen. 

“I haven't been completely honest with you guys. When I was younger, I was cursed. I don't know exactly how it happened, all I know is that if I don't take my elixir... Well, that's why people call me the Owl Lady. The Owlbeast takes over. No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, it's manageable.”

“Whoa. so, are you okay?” her owlet Luz responds, worried.

“There's nothing for you to worry about. It's all under control, and as long as no one steals my elixir-  King  - then I'm fine. But, hey, look at this! You’re doing magic. Full spells. And a whole ton of ‘em, too! Good on you, kid.” Luz preens under the compliment.

“I had some encouragement from a great teacher.”

“Oh, you” King looks away bashfully.

That really was a lot of light spells. Too many. How did Luz, who couldn’t draw a full spell circle this morning, go from that to hundreds of consecutive light spells in one day? And the circles themselves had a complex pattern in them that Eda didnt recognize. Her casting even lacked the purple sparking that had marked Luz’s attempts the past 3 days. How the hell was she doing all this?

“Hey Kid.” Luz tenses at being called.  “You’re not in trouble, I’m just curious about your new spell, alright? I don’t recognize that symbol.” The girl looks a bit confused, and draws up a new circle so Eda can look at it.

“You dont? But it was in your spell too! That’s where i found it.”

What?

“Yeah no, I’ve never seen that before in my life. My spells dont got any sorta symbols in ‘em. Explain exactly how you found it, please? It might be something innate from your demon heritage.” Frankly, Eda was speaking out of her ass with that last part. Innate demon magic never involved spell circles at all, but Luz didn’t know that and she didnt want to explain how weird Luz’s magic was at the moment.

“Well, whenever you cast spells, i see a super blurry pattern in them. King tells me they’re all empty circles, but,” The girls pulls up her human scroll device, and plays the video of Eda casting a light spell. “See? Its right in the middle there. It used to be all blurry and make my head hurt when i looked at it too hard.”

Her spell circle was totally empty in the video. 

“So i’ve been trying all morning to make out the lines, right? Gave me a huge headache. I think i see something similar in my eyes too? It’s purple though. Anyway, when you dragged me and king to your nest, i looked at it more and it suddenly- clicked , yknow?”

“No, no i really dont, but continue.”  The girl was so excited she was vibrating, Eda could barely parse her ramblings.

“Suddenly i could see the pattern! It was so… sharp , sorta felt like it etched itself into my brain! Its a word I think, it means ‘Light’. Honestly it still feels really weird. Like, its still there in my head. So i drew it onto a leaf to show it to king, since he couldnt see it in the video like you cant, and the leaf turned into a light ball!”

What?

“And then i tried drawing a circle with my finger thinking about the glyph, and it was so easy! And it just worked ! And I didn’t feel drained at all! I was still connected to the light, so i could move it around and stuff. I made it really bright to knock out your Owlbeast form, since you wouldnt stop grooming us and hacking up dead rodents. Honestly, The glyph is just kinda.. Sitting there at the back of my mind now. I don’t think it’s mine. y-yeah, yeah… its not.. My light? Its someone else’s. Whatever that means?” Luz looked slightly uncomfortable, like she was confused by something that should be obvious.

Huh. what the fuck.   Eda was actually worried now, that didn’t sound like anything she had ever heard of, and she was the titan-damned Owl Lady. Versed in near every form of wild magic to exist, the strongest witch in the Isles, owner of the largest stack of un-returned library books. It had worked drawn onto a leaf? It was inside her head and wouldnt leave?  

“D’ya think you could demonstrate the leaf thing for me?”

Luz took out her pocket notebook, and drew the symbol on the page perfectly. Absolutely perfectly, those circles and lines were the cleanest she’d ever seen on paper. It didn’t do anything until the owlet girl tapped it, making the paper crumple up and turn into a floating light, just like the ones still floating in the room.

“Here, Eda, you try it. Also you can keep the shiny pen.” The owl lady took the pen (finally), and traced the symbol as best she could. She had a pretty steady hand from spellcasting, studying, and writing runes for 40 years, but it wasn’t quite as good as what Luz had drawn. Eda tapped the paper, half expecting nothing to happen, but the paper turned into a light just like her protoge’s did.

“Well i’ll be. Frankly, Luz, I have absolutely no idea what this is. I’ve never seen any magic like this. Innate or otherwise. You’ve got something unique here, and a bit scary. Maybe just because its unfamiliar. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Just enjoy your first spell, alright? Unless… are you alright with it Luz? That it’s in your head?” She had talked of quite a bit of brain-pain. Eda really hoped this wasn’t some sort of parasitic memetic magic that the girl had chanced across.

“I’m okay with it, more than okay. Now that its so clear its like… how could I not have seen it sooner?  Its there in my head and it feels like it should be there. Its comforting. I can move it around and draw it so effortlessly.” Luz’s brow furrowed.  “Actually, do you think i could…?”

Phew.. so it didnt seem to be hurting her anymore, at least. If she described it like that, it probably was something innate, or something she used instinctually. Those headaches were likely from how underdeveloped she was. good. good. The purple-haired girl was now just.. Staring at a wall. Really hard. Squinting at nothing. Or, perhaps Luz was going crazy.

Eda tried staring at the same spot, and was startled by a little blink of light. As Luz stared, a yellow circle slowly formed in mid-air, completing with the glyph appearing at its center. A little floating light popped out.

“Woah..” the owlet stared in awe at the light she’d just made without even touching it.

“Oh! Also, King isn’t hurt by the boiling rain either. We found that out earlier.”

“Hey kid?”

“Yeah?” Luz turned her head back to Eda.

“ What.  the.  fuck. ”

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

Eda sat in the kitchen, staring into her morning cup of apple blood. A tiny ball of light had just slipped into her drink, and the owl lady didn’t really know what to think of it. Could she drink it? Would the apple blood taste any different? 

She watched, with tired eyes, another mote of light slowly drift down into the liquid. Huh. oh well. She took a swig, and it tasted of regular apple blood. The lights were gone now, so she probably ate them. Didn't taste like anything. Eda picked another light out of the air, it taking her hand more as a suggestion to move than a command, and popped it in her mouth. Didn’t taste like anything. Didn’t feel like anything. How many could she eat? Would anything change?

Eda shuffled out of the kitchen and into the living room, catching a few more lights in her mouth. nom.  nom.     nom.  Stopping in the entryway, she laid eyes upon the source of all the tiny lights.

“I know you just learned your first spell but.. Don’t you think this is a little overboard? You’re getting lights tangled up in my morning routine.”

Luz lay with King on the couch, staring with bright eyes up at the veritable night sky she’d made in the house. She’d woken up early and just started pumpin’ out light glyphs, one after another. A few more glyphs popped into existence around the room and the kid wasn’t even looking at them. At this point, there had to be thousands of those little balls floating around, they’d clogged up every room in the house, and Eda could see an abundance even out the windows.

Eda walked up to a glyph that was just sitting there. It hadn’t spawned a light ball, and wasn't the only one in the room that simply glowed, inert. She tapped it, and its form cracked and sputtered into nothing. Another one popped up right next to it, then another. Was the kid even making these on purpose? Her and King were just… laying there all hypnotized, making ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ noises every once in a while. She walks up to them and waves her hand in front of Luz’s face. Even her eyes were glowing.

“Luz? Snap snap. We have a market stand to work today! Gotta sell human junk to suckers with loose pockets! Are you even listening to me?” Her protege sleepily turned to her, paying half-attention.

“It feels like I'm on a cloud right now… it's so warm and nice and they're so pretty. I don’t wanna get up. I just wanna be a couch slug..” While the entranced girl spoke to Eda, King raised his tiny arms up to catch a little light, giggling.

Titan, was she high or something? The lights weren’t warm to Eda, nor did she feel like she licked a grumtoad, but they were clearly doing something to Luz and King. They looked so abnormally calm.  She wanted whatever they were on right now. Had they found her secret kitchen mushroom stash? 

“Seriously Luz, I’m all for the little trip you two are going on, but we can make a day of it later. I’ll make some breakfast, and if we don’t miss market day, then we’ll grab some not-dogs, alright?” Eda bargained.

“But Edaa aaa ! King is so comfy! If I get up, he has to get up, and that would be an unforgivable sin! Plus, I’m practicing. I’m getting really good at this.” Luz threw her arms up, and another 30 or so light glyphs appeared scattered around the room. Eda had to admit, she was impressed by the sudden and incredible progress. But…

“I’m proud of your first spell, and just how much you can cast it. I’ll admit the floaty lights do add a certain je ne sais quoi to the place, but how ‘bout you try a fire spell?” she smirked. Luz frowned.

“I-I.. uh.. I’m still working on that.” 

She still couldn’t finish any other spell circle, so whatever this light glyph thing  was was an entirely separate type of magic. This whole situation was a juicy mystery the owl lady would dive into later, when she had the time. She was a busy, busy owl.

“Personally, some not-dogs don’t sound too bad. Also I think Eda’s gonna move us herself if we don’t come along willingly.” The fluffy boy jumped off of Luz, his little feet clacking into the kitchen, much to the girl’s dismay.

“Fiiine i’ll get up.” Luz groaned.

“You still gotta earn your keep, brat.” No, she didn’t, but Eda wasn’t gonna let Luz wiggle out of chores that easy.

“Actually, before we eat, do you think I could get some help with some… demon stuff? I’ve got a bit of a situation growing on my back. Please?”  Luz scratched the back of her head, all shy.

In for a penny, in for a teenager, Eda supposed. 

“Alright, let's see what weird demon puberty stuff the Titan decided to bless you with.”

The purple-haired girl tugged her hoodie and shirt off, turning around to show Eda her back. Unlike the rest of her body, the kid’s back was covered in a thick black fur.

“All this hair just decided to show up ! And it kinda won't stop spreading?”

“Mind if I touch?”

“Sure, if it helps.”

Eda put her hand in the middle of Luz’s back, hand nearly absorbed into the fluff. It was really soft- and very familiar. It was not only the exact same color as King’s fur, it was the same texture, too. Weird, but lots of creatures on the isles had soft fur like King did. She moves her hand up towards the obvious proto-wing bumps coming out of her back. Those suckers are gonna hurt when the wings developing inside decide to pop out. Luz flinches at the contact.

“They hurt?”

“Yeah, a lot, actually. They’re wings right?”

“Oh yeah, growing in pretty fast from the looks of it. No wonder they hurt. Don’t expect that to stop anytime soon by the way. I don’t wanna freak you out but it only gets worse. Same with your tail.” Eda warned. Luz grumbles in frustration.

“Any other changes you’ve noticed? I highly doubt this is gonna be it.” Eda throws the kid’s shirt onto her face.

“Not really? Not that I’ve noticed. But honestly.. I’m kinda sore all over . Like my wings and tail have been.” She looks down to the floor, clearly a bit scared. 

“Just keep an eye on yourself, pay attention to any weird feelings you get. I’ll see if I can get you some pain killers and other supplies. I can alter your clothes when I get the chance to let your wings and tail breathe. And you're just gonna have to get used to the fur. Use King’s shampoo for now. Demon puberty can be real scary, sure, but think about those sick-ass wings you’ll have once you’re all done, eh?” The owl lady put her hand on Luz’s shoulder, looking at her with a reassuring smile

“Yeah. I guess I will have some sick as heck wings! Man that is weird to think about. Heheh.”

“One last thing before breakfast. Do any of these changes feel wrong to you? Like they shouldn’t be on your body? Like you want to take them off? I know it's a strange question, but it's important.”

“Uhm, no. They don't really feel.. Wrong, or anything. It’s just kind of a lot, you know?” Luz frowns. “I’m worried about… going back home. My tail and stuff were already growing so i guess it was just a matter of time anyway, but people already see me as a monster back in the human realm! There’s no way i can just go back to school, or be in public, or.. or.. dios, what would mami think!?” She was on the verge of tears now. Alright, delicate subject. How do you calm down a teenager? 

“Hey, hey. We’ll work something out. We can get you a concealment stone, so it’ll look like you never changed when you get back, alright? Wild magic can solve just about any problem. This one included. We’ll work out the specifics when we get there” That seemed to comfort the girl just fine. But, what Luz had said still rattled around in Eda’s head unpleasantly. ‘What would mami think?!’ , The girl had said with a particular emotional gusto, and it was incredibly worrying. Eda had been trying to dance around that particular topic, but if the owlet was afraid her mother would react negatively to this… Eda needed to ask just to be sure. She wouldn’t risk sending a child back into a bad situation. Deep breaths, Eda. you can do this. Those motherly owlbeast instincts didn’t exist for nothing.

“Uh, I know this can be difficult to talk about, but, Luz.” She tried to speak as gently as possible. No sudden movements, kneel down to her level, don't let her feel trapped.

“Yeah?”

“Does… your mom not… like what you are?” Eda struggled to articulate.

“W-what?” Luz stammered.

“Your mother. Im… Luz, does she hurt you?”

“ WHAT!? No! No! Not at all, Eda, she’s never hit me, I swear! She wouldn’t!” Luz yelled out, semi-confidently, swiping her hands back and forth. A little too defensively.

“I didn’t ask if she hit you, Luz. I asked if she hurt you. It doesn’t have to be physical. And I'm glad that she hasn't hit you, that's good. But there are other ways to be hurt.”

Luz stayed silent, seemingly trying to process Eda’s words. 

“Does she make you feel bad for not being human? Do you feel safe with her? Does she take care of you?”

Still silent. More light glyphs popped into the room, more erratic than usual.

Owlet is distressed.

“It’s okay Luz, you can tell me anything, alright? I’m not gonna tell anyone, you’re not gonna get in any trouble. I just want to make sure. Do you feel safe in the human realm?”

Luz’s lips warbled, tears finally breaking from her eyes. Eda had really hoped she hadn’t been right.

Comfort her. Preen her.

She pulls The crying girl into a hug, leaning them both against the foot of the couch, and running her fingers through Luz’s purple poof of hair. She notices King standing in the kitchen doorway, holding francois. She brings one arm out, gesturing for King to join the hug, he scrambles over and clings to Luz’s side. 

She lets Luz sob into her shoulder for a while, until she was all dried up, sniffling into Eda’s dress. King offered francois, who Luz clung to her chest. They sat there for a while longer. They’d be late to market day, but this was far more important.

“Are you feeling any better?” a nod.

“We can talk about it if you want to. We can also not talk about it. You can tell me whatever, whenever you need to, okay?” another nod. “Do you wanna talk about it now?” Titan, she was going soft. 

“Mmn.. i think.. n-no. not now. Maybe later? Please?”

“Yeah, that's alright. Are you down for some breakfast?” Eda smiled, putting back on a more jovial attitude, and getting up for the kitchen. The kid didn’t need to think about any more bad stuff right now. What she needed were syrup-blasted paincakes.

“Ooh! Can I help cook this time? I wanna learn how to make the food here. And also kinda need to.” Luz picks up King, quickly regaining her cheery demeanor, and follows Eda into the kitchen, stopping in the door frame.

“Uhm. Eda, I.. I love my Mami. I’ll admit it's a bit complicated, but. I love her.” Luz Clarifies.

“I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not gonna assume what was going on with you beyond that door. Now c’mon, I’ll teach you how to make smashbrowns. “

——————————————————————

“This is a bad idea, I hope you know that.” Eda had her arms crossed, looking all grumpy. Pshhh, it couldn’t be that bad!  She knew her mentor was very anti-establishment, but just learning about it wasn’t gonna hurt. Luz wanted to know everything about witch culture. And now, she had an opportunity to go to a giant job fair for witches and hang out with her friends at the same time! Pfft. ‘ covention ’. No event with a silly pun name like that could be evil.

“It’ll be fine! I’m just gonna look around and learn about witch society. All very important things. Oh, and don’t think I forgot about your secret backstory!” the ‘we’ Eda had mentioned, and refused to elaborate on. So mysterious. so intriguing.

“Would you stop yelling? I gotta keep a low profile and you ain’t helping.” Eda ripped a wanted poster off of the wall.

“Is the cowl really necessary? Packing it wasn't fun. Your hair is like a constant explosion.” 

“Do you think these wanted posters are all for petty theft?” A few trinkets fell from her hair. “Partly. But, the big whammy is that I refused to join a coven. That makes me a ‘wild witch’, which is illegal. Incredibly illegal.” 

“Maybe this informative event will inspire you to join a coven?” Willow added, walking alongside Eda as they entered the main convention hall. Eda used a quick spell to pull Willow’s cowl over her head.

“Let's just get this over with.”

“Woah.. was i even alive before now?” Luz gasps as she catches sight of the massive interior, covered wall to wall in stalls, banners, and excited convention goers. 9 huge banners hung from the ceiling, marking the main pathway. This place was bursting with magic, admittedly making her a bit dizzy. But there were so many booths! This looked fun, not evil. She needed to visit every stall. 

“Those are the main nine covens,” Willow offered to exposit while they walked down the main path, “ But there are hundreds of others you can join that are offshoots. There's the Flower Coven, Artist Coven, Big Dog Coven, Small Cat Coven, Tiniest Cat Coven-”

Eda groans overdramatically.

“And the Grumpy Coven ” Willow whispers into Luz’s ear.

“What was that you just said?” Eda narrows her eyes at Willow, the girl yelps and runs off, followed by the other 3 kids. A man taps Eda on the shoulder.

“Uh, excuse me, ma'am, but you look rather familiar?” 

“Eum. no i dont! Distraction spell!” She throws a bag of hex mix at the man’s face and runs away.

“What's that coven?” Luz points to a large display, a man in a hard hat surrounded by loads of bricks and wood. She had been overloading Willow and Gus with questions for the past few minutes, but they didn’t seem to mind. Willow was taking the lead role in answering her onslaught.

“That’s the construction coven. One of the main nine! They use magic to reinforce their bodies with power glyphs, and are big on precise and powerful levitation spells.” Luz watches in awe as a power glyph is stuck on that nose lady from the conformatorium, and she goes mad with power, before she gets tackled down.

“Yowza-Wowza!”

“ Yowza Wowza! ” huh?

“Yowza whaaa-?” A transparent bright blue copy of Luz moves out from just behind her, and excitedly jots over to two older teenage witches, who dismiss the illusion with a poof, waving jazz hands. So! Cool! Gus runs over to join the two.

“Ah, I see you’ve been taken in by the allure of the illusion coven!  We like to use magic with a hint…” Gus poofs into nothingness, before poofing back in a few feet away, the two other illusionists following suit. “...Of showmanship” So this was the coven Gus was in? 

“It's also one of the main nine. The title is pretty accurate, they make illusions.  It's way more complicated than that but I can't really keep up with Gus when he talks about the mechanics of it all.” Gus had started chatting up the two other illusionist while Willow explained. He seemed real happy and excited talking to them.

“Wow! Acceptance? Comradery? A sense of belonging? Covens sound incredible! Eda, why haven't you ever joined one?” Luz had never really gotten an explanation as to why Eda was so against the covens as she was. Her mentor made a face and pointed to the side of the illusionists’ booth, where a student looked to be getting initiated or something?

“Watch closely, Luz.”

Luz watched. The boy winced as he was branded with a metal glove, leaving the mark of the illusion coven on his skin. Luz could feel a pulse of noxious energy from the action, seeing blue lines cross like angular veins over his entire body, leaving the boy looking pale and sick. The magic she felt was.. wrong , like it had violated her in some way even from this distance. She gagged. What the hell was that?

“When you join a coven, all your other magic gets sealed away. From now on, barring a few basic universal spells, that poor kid will only ever be able to cast illusion magic. It restricts the bile sack itself, and is completely irreversible.”

Luz paled, looking at Eda horrified. What?! That… that couldn’t be true. 

“Since I never joined a coven, I can still do every type of magic.” She conjures a sphere of water and a sphere of flame as a demonstration, then dispells them. “It’s got all sorts of side-effects, but the emperor keeps that pretty hush-hush. They don’t let you join until you’re seventeen because of what it does to your health. The covens aren’t fun-clubs for witches, they’re shackles. Heavy ones.” Eda stated gravely.

“Okay, yeah, I think I get why you hate them so much now. That’s mortiying, Eda! But… I still wanna learn about all this. Even if it's bad. Though, I’d prefer not to be around anyone getting branded again, that felt super gross and bad. I think I almost threw up. eugh.”

“Alright mystery child, what does that mean?” Eda leveled a look at her, clearly Luz had done or said something out of the ordinary again. How was she supposed to know!?

“Uhm. didn’t you feel it? When he got branded?”

“No. Are you saying you felt something? Like, something physical?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah! It felt kinda like magic usually does, but it was Icky with a capital i. I’m assuming that's another not normal thing?”  Luz sighed.

“You know what? We’ll touch on this later, when we’re not in a crowded public space. But yeah, no, that’s not a normal thing.” sigh… even on the boiling isles Luz was weirdo. But here, no one rejected her for that. It was a very, very, very nice change of pace. Her attention was pulled away by a small crowd of people shuffling into another room. It looked a lot more ostentatious and grand than the other booths, red carpet, guards in uniform and all. 

“That panel looks popular.” 

“ GASP! It's the emperor’s coven! They always do the best presentations! And there’s a special guest this time! Do you think they’ll sign my forehead?!” Gus excitedly proclaimed, running into the room, Willow and Luz following. She notices Eda isn’t budging.

“Aren’t you coming Eda?”

“No way. Nuh-uh. Out of all the covens, they’re the worst. Don’t get too involved with them.” She crossed her arms, refusing to take a step on the red carpet.

“I know the covens are bad, but I'm still figuring this world out, so I'm gonna go in there and take a look, okay?” Luz walks in, leaving Eda to mope. 

Luz took a seat in the theater, wooden bleachers surrounding a circular pit of dirt with a stage built by it. For whatever reason, Eda actually came in and sat beside her, still all grumpy. Principal Bump was the speaker for the event, and introduced the emperor’s coven. The best of the best, enforcers of the emperor's will, and blessed to use most all forms of magic in a ‘controlled manner’. Luz knew that those promises were probably baloney in some way, but when the masked coven guards started shooting off spells, Eda laughing at them, she still sat in awe.

“And now, I'm pleased to introduce the esteemed leader of this coven and this year's mystery guest. You know her, you love her! Lilith!” Bump threw his arms up in flourish. Eda stopped laughing, Luz noticing a flinch from her mentor.

“Huh?”

Luz wanted to ask a question, but a bright blue flash of light from the ceiling made her wince. A giant blue illusory raven flies down, landing on the stage before screeching and fading away with another flash. Standing in its place, a tall woman wearing a bird mask, with long dark teal hair, pale skin, and green eyes. She walks forward slightly, and takes the mask off. Huh, other than the hair and generally more well-put together appearance, she kinda looks like Eda.

“You know her?”

“You could say that.” she was being dodgy, but they definitely had some relation! That flinch meant..

“ Gasp! Mysterious past!” 

The woman on stage spoke up.
“Thank you, all. It wasn't easy for me to rise to the top. I also started from humble beginnings. Now I have the highest honor of enforcing the Emperor's will. So be more! The Emperor's Coven awaits you!” While Lilith continued on with the presentation, the owl lady glared at the woman, then got up and walked out of the theater. Luz followed, not letting this juicy drama just escape like that.

“Eda! Where are you going? How do you know that lady?”

“I’m going home to wash the con funk off my skin. You can stay and enjoy yourself for a while.” Eda looked disgruntled. Whoever Lilith was to her they weren’t on good terms.

“But we haven’t even taken the ‘which coven are you’ quiz yet!” Luz pulls the quiz pamphlet from her pocket, Eda immediately shooting a hole through it. Oh well, if Eda wanted to go home so bad, Luz would just take the quiz herself. She opens the quiz, walking around without really looking where she’s going. “Ooh, I'm a punky potionist. Just like Ed- oomph!” She walks right into someone. Whoops.

“Hey, watch where you’-! Oh, it's you. Willow's… abomination thing." It was Amity, the pretty green girl from school that was bullying willow.

“Uh... Hey, Amity. So, funny story. Not an abomination. Sorry for the confusion last week. I-I'm Luz. The half-human! Hi!” She sticks her hand out for a friendly handshake. Bygones be bygones, right? Maybe she could even make another friend! 

Amity smacks away her hand, remarkably hostile. “Ugh. Put that away. You're the one that got me in trouble with Principal Bump. And I never get in trouble.” She turns to walk away, and Luz just follows her.

“Well, to be fair, you were okay with him trying to dissect me, so I got in trouble too. I even got banned from the school!”

“Yeah, serves you right. Should you even be here? You’re hardly a witch. Can you even do magic? Or is your bilesack a deformed lump , half-human?”

“Hey! I’ll have you know I can do magic just fine! Mostly. I happen to be taking magic lessons from a powerful witch and a ferocious demon. Hmpph.” She crosses her arms.

“Uh huh. And is that your ‘ferocious demon’ there?” Amity points behind Luz, King walking up to them covered in all sorts of merch that the coven booths were handing out, with a cupcake too. Aww, that shirt is so oversized and adorable. 

“Cupcakes in my tummy-tum makes the King say yummy-yum! Luz! Look at all these offerings- weh!” King trips on the poorly wrapped scarf, dropping his cupcake by Amity.

Luz rushes to the boy’s side to help him back up, the poor little guy had lost his cupcake! She really hoped he didn’t mind groundcakes. When they got back home maybe she’d make him something? She reaches for the cupcake on the ground, not reaching in time before it’s squished beneath Amity’s shoe.

“Oops. That was an accident.” Amity’s smug face implied it was anything but. How dare she?! That was her brothe- King’s cupcake! She growled at the green-haired girl.

“Why are you being so mean, Amity!? 

“Because you and your pet are giving witches in training a bad name.”

King sat scratching his face with his hind leg like a dog. “I’m not a pet!” Luz picks him up in a hug, taking a firm stance across from Amity.

“He's a very good boy and the King of Demons! I'll tell you what, Amity. It's one thing to say my bile sack is defective-”

“Cause it is.”

“But it's another thing to bully my friends. I must protect their honor, and protect King’s cupcakes! Just like The Good Witch Azura said when facing down her rival Hecate at the Bog of Immediate Regret…” Luz points at Amity dramatically .

“I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!! ” She yells. Everyone’s attention is drawn by the bold, loud statement, all gasping in surprise. Amity gets impossibly more smug and takes a few steps forward, getting real close to Luz’s face.

“I Accept. Let's set the terms for this duel, shall we?” wait. Were witch duels actual things in the boiling isles?

“Alright. One, if I win, you have to apologize to King for smashing his cupcake, and you can’t be mean to me or any of my friends again! Two, you can’t insult somebody because of their species ever again.” Those seemed like fair terms to Luz.

“Fine by me. But when I win, not only do you have to tell the whole covention you're a defective demon, you have to stop training forever.” Amity’s terms were more than a little scary. Luz just wouldn’t lose. Easy!

“Do it Luz! For my honor!” king screeched.

“Fine. let's shake on it.” Luz offers her hand again, and Amity draws a spell circle around it before shaking. She feels an intense tingling sensation travel up from her arm, settling like a bracelet on her wrist. Luz chuckles nervously. “That’s probably fine!”

“The everlasting oath is sealed. Meet back in the theater in one hour. Let's see what kind of witch you really are.” Amity takes just a moment to glare at Luz, then walks away.

“King, I-I can win this, right?” An everlasting oath sounded pretty bad. Could she win this? Amity was one of the top students at hexside!

King looks up from his place devouring the stomped-on cupcake. “Hmm? Oh, yeah. no.”

——————————————————————

Lilith was having a bad week. First, the Golden guard drops 3 wild witches into her lap, and gets sent off on a mission immediately- leaving her with the paperwork and handling. Second, Kikimora was continuing her infuriating habit of existing. Third, Steve had bungled an entire stack of the personal information and files on a new batch of recruits, forcing her to take them through the entire In-doc process for a second time. And fourth, Warden Wrath had been hospitalized with severe lacerations to his upper body. Not only did she now have to manage the conformatorium temporarily in his absence, but she had to deal with the knowledge that her sister was the one who caused it. Not that Lilith… particularly minded having Wrath in a hospital, He was a special kind of bastard. While lecturing the man for trying to ask out her sister by luring her to break in to the place he was supposed to be guarding, He had mentioned an interesting detail. 

Lilith had at first assumed that Eda had turned into the owlbeast considering Wrath’s wounds. However, according to Wrath, the owl lady had a protege with her. One with very sharp claws, and a propensity to use them. One with Amber eyes, laid in void-black sclera. Wrath had mentioned feeling wing bumps on the girl’s back, clearly just beginning to grow. Other scouts had mentioned the girl appearing around town ever since, often attached to Eda or helping with her stand. One report said they were holding hands walking down the market. The other physical traits weren’t particularly like Eda’s, but…. It wasn’t like her sister to take on an apprentice. She would rather die than become a teacher. As well the girl didn’t have the requisite cloak, so she was likely just living with her sister rather than solely studying. But why?

Lilith had tried not to entertain the notion that Eda might have… a child . But every time she saw a report with the girl, it chipped away at the doubt. The vision of her sister, standing next to a child with eyes so similar to not only Eda’s own, but the owlbeast’s as well. A girl who would have wings soon. The coven head dearly hoped the curse wasn’t hereditary. Even if they weren’t genetically related, had she adopted? Why would Eda ever harbor a child otherwise? How long ago had this witchling been taken in? Was she hidden this whole time, or with another parent? A request to the records department had been sent to find a trace of a “Luz”, but no paperwork existed for her. At least, not within the reach of the emperor’s coven. It would certainly be like her to keep a child out from any records. Lilith wanted to ask why Eda would have never told her, but that answer was fairly clear. The two sisters hadn’t been on friendly speaking terms for a while. 

Lilith’s mind had been running in circles all week. It was getting in the way of her work performance. She had needed a day like today, A simple guest appearance was just about all she had on her plate, other than the back-log of paperwork that was an ever present time sink. She would show off some magic, say some pretty words about the coven, and then lead a group of children through the event. Easy. Then, She saw Eda casually strolling around the convention. Why in the Titan’s name would she be here!? What could she possibly have to gain? And why was her hair so awful! Lilith would admit that Eda’s regular hair style had a certain appeal to it, a long rats nest fit her, the hammer-space storage she kept there was endearing. But eugh , it was currently stuffed into a horrible cowl, like a misshapen stress ball poorly holding back an explosion of trash.

“Sister?” LIlith couldn’t hide her surprise. Eda stops abruptly, and slowly turns towards her. The kids around her feet all gasp.

“It's been so long since I've seen you last! What are you wearing? You look like some sort of trash collector. Oh, right. You are.”

“Oh, Lily. I just had to see the leader of the emperor's coven in action.” The owl lady leans down to talk to the children.  “You know, when we were kids, Lilith was so excited to see the emperor's coven at tryouts, she peed a little.” The children devolve into a fit of giggling. Typical Eda, baring her sisterly blackmail for all to see. LIlith can’t help the frustration and blush rising to her cheeks. She politely shoos the children away.

“You shouldn't even be here. You're a wanted criminal! Unless…” Why else would she be here, at a convention? Was she finally going to… 

 “I don't believe it! You’re here to join the emperor's coven!”

Lilith’s hopes are dashed by her sister’s snorting laughter. “In your dreams, Lily! Hahah ah !”

What infuriating family she has.

“You think being covenless makes you so much smarter than everyone else. But while you run from the law like a degenerate, I'm mentoring the next generation of powerful witch students into the world.”

“You’re not the only one who’s a mentor. I happen to have a kid who could wipe the floor with any of your prissy little blue bloods!” Ah. Lilith had gotten so worked up she forgot to ask about the child Eda was harboring. The phrasing her sister used was too vague to parse anything but the fact she was teaching the kid her wild witch ways. Oh well, Lilith took a step closer.

“Is that a challenge?”

“Oh, it's a promise .” How damn smug could she get?

Lilith nearly jumped back when a stammering purple-haired girl popped up in between them suddenly.

“Eda, I need your help! I accidentally challenged Amity to a witch's duel, and I think she's going to kill me all the way dead!!!” The girl slumped to the ground, obviously immediately regretting her rash mistake. Purple hair, amber and black eyes, boney claws, premature adult fangs, and running to Eda for help. This was Luz, then. She was wearing a hoodie, but Lilith could clearly see the bumps indicative of her growing wings. Though… how strange, Her ears were rounded. A birth defect or human heritage? LIlith knew how much time Eda spent as ’Marilyn’ in the human realm, could she have had a relationship with a human? One more point for the ‘Eda’s daughter’ theory. And those eyes…

“My my, Edalyn. It seems your… child .. Has found my strongest protege.” Lilith spun up a spell, burning up every owl lady wanted poster in the building. “For one day, you won’t have to run from the law. I wish to see how good a teacher you are, and how Amity’s training sessions are resulting. Before I leave, may I talk to you for a moment, alone?”

Eda raised an eyebrow, but accepted, nodding to a more secluded space nearby. “I’ll be right back Luz, try not to freak out too bad. That blight won’t know what hit her.” They both walk away, Eda taking her hair out of that awful cowl.

“Edalyn.”

“Lily.”

“When were you going to tell me you have a daughter!? ” Eda’s jaw drops, and she descends into a fit of hacking and coughing.

“W-What!? No, that's not- What the hell are you talking about, Lily!?”

“Don’t think I haven’t heard of the girl living with you! She hospitalized Warden Wrath, for Titan’s sake. I’m honestly impressed.” Was her sister simply going to deny it, or did she have a rational explanation for raising a child?

“Okay, yes, Luz is living with me, but she’s not my owlet! I-I mean- daughter. She’s not my daughter.” 

“Owlet? Oh, hahah! That is just precious! But I sincerely doubt that. She isn’t your apprentice, and seeing you become a teacher and just- take in some stray kid- I simply can’t imagine it. Her ears seem to hint at a human heritage, a realm I know only you are even capable of visiting. Her eyes are just like yours and- and…” Her expression makes a sudden downturn. “The owlbeast’s. I can see her growing wings, sister. Please don't tell me that the curse is…”

“Woah woah woah woah! Slow your roll there, sis. I’m almost positive she ain’t my kid, i just met her a week ago, alright? And i’m pretty sure i havent… well, not with many humans, at least. Though I did get a little too flagrant with the apple blood around that time…”

Lilith glared at her, unimpressed.

“Okay! Okay! You’re right that she’s part human, and I’m not one hundred percent sure, since my memories of 14 years ago are spotty at best. And her eyes are eerily similar, yes, But! She’s not feathery, and has no owlbeast in her. She’s got fur, and the demon traits she’s showin’ don’t run in the family. It would be wildly unlikely.”

“I… see. And you’re sure it wasn’t…”

“It wasn’t a three-way. Never took anyone with me to the human realm, I know that for sure. No idea how a half-demon half-human happened.”

“Have you done a test?”

“I plan to.”

“Alright. I’ll believe she’s not yours biologically for now.” Lilith relented.

“Thank you, now if i could-”

“But you are adopting her.” Lilith un-relented.

“Lily, that’s not… I, I-I mean… I’m just not sure that i can- can send her back. Or if she wants to go back at all. I’m not adopting her.” Eda stuttered out, clearly flustered.

“I’m sensing a ‘yet’ there. Why can’t you send her back? I’d like to know what I can do to help if I’m going to be an Aunt, Edalyn.”

“Hold your gryphons, Lil. I’m still figuring things out. She hasn’t fully opened up about her situation in the human realm, but… it’s pretty bad, from what I can tell. She isn’t human, and people over there can tell. Humans don’t tend to like people that are different.”  She spat out the last part, angry at the situation the girl was in. “If… if you really want to help, and play that ‘Aunt’ role, to King right now, or if Luz does end up sticking around, I would be glad to have you there, Lily. Really.” Her sister looked her in the eyes, genuinely. It caught her off guard.

“O-Oh. I would be happy to, sister. Does that mean-?”

“No, I'm not joining the emperor’s coven. If you’re gonna be around, I want it to be as my sister. Not as coven head.” Not surprising, but fair, Lilith supposed. This was an opportunity to rekindle her relationship with Eda. It had been so long since they had just… visited each other as siblings.

“I’d still like to see how Luz matches up against my protege. Shall we go fulfill our role as mentors?”

“Hell yeah. Luz is gonna kick that blight’s ass ! Just you wait!” Edalyn pumped her fist, making an obscene gesture. Just like always.

Lilith let out a chuckle. Her week had taken an upturn, it seemed.

——————————————————————

Luz was lying curled up in a hallway, hoodie up and drawstrings closed. Right now, laying in a corner was comfortable. She felt at peace with the world. She was absolutely, under no circumstances, panicking. 

It was fine! Everything was fine. Amity would kick her butt, then she would never be able to learn magic ever again, enforced with an eternal spell! Things were looking fantastic for Luz. Her week had taken an upturn, it seemed.

“Kid. I know you’re freaked out, but moping on the floor isn’t gonna help.” Eda had finally come back. Now Luz could die with her mentor watching! Yay.

“Edaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” Luz groaned. 

“Listen, as long as you didn’t make an everlasting oath or whatever, you’ll be fine . You sure did Wrath’s face in earlier this week.” 

“Everlasting oath? Is there like… a glowy purple ring, and you shake hands and stuff?” Luz undid her hoodie just a bit, so she could actually see Eda.

“Oh. yikes. Me and Lilith are gonna have to undo those for you two afterwards. Whatever, get up and we can start your duel training.” Eda offered a hand, and she took it, standing back up.

“Uhm.. any particular ideas on what i should do? How do I beat her? She’s a top student, so I don’t really have any ideas.”

“Top student doesn't mean top fighter. The Blight brat uses abominations almost exclusively, and they work off of commands from the caster. They have some autonomy and sight of their own, but if you can blind the Blight, they’ll be less effective. Oh, and-” the owl lady pulls out a tin lunchbox with ‘EDA’S RAD CHEATZ’ loudly proclaimed on the front.

“I’m not cheating! I gotta spare some of my pride, Eda!”

“Okay, yeah yeah, you frikkin’ goody two shoes. If you’re not gonna cheat this is gonna be way harder. Amity has a huge meat shield advantage on you.”

“What if I blind her with a bunch of light glyphs, and then rush her down with some claw action?” She takes a few dramatic swipes with her claws.

“Good idea, but then she puts up a goop shield, what do you do?”

“Uhm. I claw at it harder?”

“That doesn’t work. She shoots a fireball at you.” 

“I… I just take it? Fire can’t really hurt me, so…” Oh titan she was so nervous. Why did she challenge Amity to this stupid duel in the first place?

“ Sigh… you’re gonna kill me, kid.”

——————————————————————

“Beloved citizens, the emperor's coven proudly presents an impromptu demonstration of the sort of witch we seek every year. Introducing Amity Blight, Top student of the Abomination track at Hexside, and a protege of mine.” Lilith gestures to the crowd, who all cheer as Amity walks into the arena below.

“Versus… Luz Clawthorne! My niece, and a newcomer to Bonesborough.” She shoots a snarky glance to Eda. Surprisingly, Luz gets a cheer as well. Probably because of the way Lilith introduced her- did she really think they were related? She had overheard that her and Eda were sisters, which was juicy , but something to think on after the duel was over. She’d have to clarify later that she wasn’t Eda’s daughter.

Luz walks into the dirt pit, shakily waving at Amity across the arena. Amity scoffs. The owl lady had done her best to prepare her and calm her nerves… but it wasn’t enough. At least Eda could undo the oath. Probably. Luz takes a brief stretch, and gets into a rough approximation of a fighting stance, baring her fangs at Amity. The girl across the arena seems rather surprised at the display, is she blushing? No, she’s probably just nervous too. 

She tries her hardest not to flinch as the bell screams, and Amity immediately draws out a spell circle.

“Abomination, Rise!”  A massive 9-foot tall abomination appears from the ground. Luz whimpers, that was bigger than she was expecting. Amity seemed to be just as caught off guard for some reason, but she quickly regained herself and ordered it to attack, taking the time to summon more smaller abominations.

“Show me what you got, half-witch!”

The giant abomination walks and smashes the ground where Luz just was, the girl taking off and running in an arc around Amity. The abominations were slow, so if she just kept running she’d probably be-  A goopy hand reaches up from the ground and grabs Luz’s legs, and she faceplants. She looks up and sees another abomination right above her. Bad. this was already going bad.

“Poor showing, Clawthorne.” Amity orders the abomination to slam down onto Luz’s back, she lets out a ‘weh’ at the impact. She hears cheers of her name from the bleachers, the voices from Willow, King, and Gus. She hopes to be able to put on a good showing for them.

She growls and wills a light glyph in front of Amity’s face. The girl looks at it in confusion for a moment, before the light flares into a miniature flash-bang. Amity clutches at her eyes and stumbles back. The abominations falter for a moment. Luz takes the opportunity to wrestle her legs from the grasp and take a swipe at the abomination’s head, her claws lopping the head clean off. It didn’t seem to care much, but Luz was able to slip past. She would have to keep an eye on the ground, lest more hands grab her. 

While amity was recovering, Luz tried summoning as many little lights as she could in the time she had. Ten, thirty, a hundred, two hundred, and a muck projectile lands squarely on her face, knocking her back. The crowd makes an ‘ooh!’ dazzled by the swarming lightshow and Luz getting hit in the face. She wiped the muck off just in time to see Amity rushing at her with a sword!? What!?

Luz jumps back, Amity’s sword colliding with the dirt. Luz flashbangs her again, and jumps at her to claw the girl’s arm holding the hardened goop sword, But her hands are intercepted by a hastily summoned abomination. Titan, they were so goopy and gross. She couldn't get her hand out in time before she took a goopy punch to the chest, knocking her back yet again and taking her breath. Just as Amity wiped her eyes clear, Luz shot off another flashbang in her face, hearing the green-haired girl yelp.

“Would you STOP THAT!”

“Not if it keeps working!”  Keeping Amity from seeing right was leveling the playing field just a bit, Though Luz hadn’t scored an actual hit yet. Luz might not be able to land anything else, but she could make the fight a sensory nightmare for her opponent. Luz willed as many lights as she could to swarm around Amity, flashing in her face every few seconds. It took some of her concentration, but not nearly as much as she had expected. Amity was swiping away at the lights fruitlessly, and the abominations were still unfazed. Oh wow there were a lot of abominations. And they were real busy closing in on her.

Luz tried dodging and weaving, but soon discovered she was pretty bad at it. What damage she managed to deal to the abominations by swatting off limbs and heads was healed quickly, and they just continued their onslaught. Luz could take a lot of hits, but there were at least 10 small abominations ganging up on her, it took all she had just to not get pinned down in a mound of slime. They hit pretty hard for how muddy they were. The largest abomination landed a particularly nasty hit, throwing her into the wall for the second time in a week.

She was bleeding, small cuts and bruises peppering her body, leaking noticeable purple blood. She just didn’t have the offensive capability to outpace Amity’s squad of goopy bodyguards. The Blight was still mostly pre-occupied by Luz’s light swarm, but was adapting. It was a matter of time before the sword came back out. Luz tried to get up and run from the abominations surrounding her, but her legs were caught again. Blight was crafty. More notably, Luz now had no way to escape the incoming abominations as the goop arms crawled up her legs.

Her defensive swipes were mostly useless as the goopy fists came down, so Luz took her chances by curling into a ball. 

“Are you done yet, Half-witch?”

“N-no! I haven't even starte- OOF” It felt like she was back in school, curled into a ball on the floor as a group of cruel kids took turns punching and kicking her for being a demon. The adrenaline was dampening the pain, but the abominations weren’t letting up, and Luz was starting to panic. More than she had been. She was going to lose without even having landed a hit. She could barely open her eyes before another foot made of hardened goop collided with her face.

“w-weh!” 

“Give up! Titan, you can’t even cast anything but a light spell!”

“Wehh!”

“Your bile sack really must be nothing but a lump, you half- demon .”

“WEH!!”

“Why won’t you just pass out already!? You’re embarrassing me in front of everyone! stupid demon resilience!”

Luz couldn’t take it anymore, everything was just too much. The lights of the arena were like suns above her, the cheering of the crowd a loudspeaker directly into her ear, each impact from the abominations a shockwave through her body. And every time she heard that damned word, ‘demon’, felt like a hammer into her head. Why couldn’t she get away from that word? 

She clutched her head, completely overwhelmed. All she could do was scream, just to get everything away, To push everything back , to make it all stop . Make it stop!

“WEEHHH!!!”  

A shockwave burst forth from Luz, Crackling with a dark purple energy. It swept across the arena and turned every abomination that Amity had conjured into a streak of muck on the floor, and knocked Amity down into the dirt. The crowd yelled in surprise as they too were knocked out of their seats and the foundation of the building rattled for a moment. Finally, Luz could breathe. It had stopped.

Slowly, she stood up, seeing Amity lying on the ground across the arena, shaking her head to regain her bearings. Blood dripped from Luz’s nose, streaking down along with the cuts on her face and in her mouth. She was basically a giant bruise. The adrenaline was already wearing off, so Luz only had a short time to finish this. She rushed towards Amity, claws at the ready.

The green-haired girl had already gotten up, and summoned another sword, seemingly too dazed or exhausted to summon another full abomination. The two girls clashed, Amity’s blade making a cut down her left arm, Luz’s right claw raking marks across the blight’s chest. Finally, she had drawn some blood of her own. Luz punches Amity in the face, knocking her onto her ass. Amity swipes Luz’s feet out from under her, they both stand back up ready to trade more blows.

“What the hell was that scream, Clawthorne!?” Luz didn’t respond, and they clashed again, making more cuts to both of their skin. This close, Luz’s magic sense could pick up the blight’s energy. It was… strangely concentrated in her neck. Luz ran around with what little strength she had left to try and get a look and- there was a paper stuck to her neck, mostly hidden by her green hair.

“H-hey Blight, what’s on your neck?”

“What? I don't have anything…” They both stopped for a moment, panting as Amity reached around, eyes widening as she felt the paper. She peeled it off and brought it to fore. It was a power glyph, the same type Luz had seen at the construction coven’s display earlier. Amity was staring at it in disbelief.

“W-why…? Luz, I didn’t put this on, I swear!”

“It is.. haah.. Sort of attached to your neck. Haah.. ”

Amity looked around, ashamed, and raised her voice to the crowd.

“I-  I call this duel null!” She lifted up the glyph for all to see. “I didn’t put on this glyph willingly! There was cheating involved, not agreed to by either party, by the rites this duel is null!” The crowd gasped in scandal. Eda’s face had broken into a wide grin, and Lilith was glancing around embarrassed.

Amity winced as she spoke, starting to feel the pain from the claw marks across her body. Luz, hearing her words, collapsed into the dirt, too tired and in pain to keep standing. Too tired to keep thinking. Amity was cheating the whole time? cool. yeah. She had yelled so loud she destroyed all the abominations and knocked Amity over? yeah. That apparently happened, probably. She just wanted to sleep. She barely noticed Eda and Lilith entering the Arena, Eda laughing so hard she was crying. Luz did notice, however, Amity running out of the arena as fast as she could. Luz pried herself out of her stupor, and began slowly following the green girl. 

“Amity, wait!” She couldn’t just let her leave like that, she clearly needed someone to help her right now. And probably bandages.

“Ah-ha! Yes, yes, yesyesyes! You cheated!” Eda jumped around her sister, pointing her finger in her face, taunting. “Perfect, prissy little Lilith cheated. Hot dang, I love coventions! Hahahahah! Woop woop!” Lilith grumbled, blushing like a tomato.

“I only did it because I knew you would cheat! You always do!” Lilith accused Eda.

“Oh, oh! But that’s the best part! I didn’t! Hah! Oh, don’t get me wrong, I tried! But Luz was too stubborn to let me barge in, so she went in there perfectly within the rules! Ohh my Titan this is the best day ever! Welcome down to my level!”

The coven head huffs and looks away.

“And here I thought we had reached some sort of amicable agreement earlier, Sister.”

“Oh don’t give me that! I ain’t mad Lily! Sure, this is fucking hilarious, but i’m actually real proud of ‘ya! I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“I really don’t want to have it in me.”

“Yeah, well, you do, and now everyone knows it too. It’s in the Clawthorne blood, don't deny it! Oh, and don’t think I didn’t notice you attaching our last name to Luz during the announcements. Out there fostering misinformation and chaos, like a true Clawthorne.” Eda had recovered from the torrential laughing fit.

“And you don’t think I didn't notice Luz’s magic. What even was all that? What have you been teaching her!? She cast two hundred light spells in the span of three seconds! And that shockwave!?”

“Short story: I’ve got no damn clue. I’m just as surprised as you. She was getting her ass beat, and then she just knocks everything away in one hit, and me outta my seat. You’re gonna need to come by the house for the long story.”

“I suppose I’ll have to, sometime later this week perhaps? I should be able to find some freetime to discuss all… this. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a mountain of work to do because of this mess of a duel.” Lilith turned to walk away.

“I’d be more worried about the Blight girl if I were you. Publicly shaming your student like you just did is.. How do I put it? Bad Etiquette.”

“I will have to apologize to her. I do hope she doesn’t resent me for this.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

——————————————————————

Luz shambled beside Amity, sitting against the wall in the shadowed nook the girl had found. They were both exhausted and dripping blood onto the ground. Amity looked despondent, her face buried in her knees.

“What do you want?” She bit out.

“I wanted to make sure you’re okay, and… apologize.”

“Apologize? What, for making a fool out of me in front of the entirety of bonesborough? My parents ? You made me look like an idiot in front of the emperor's coven. My future! You think it's so easy to be a witch. I have been working my whole life to get to the top!”

“Uhm… yeah. I’m sorry for challenging you to a duel. It was, well, stupid. Really stupid. All I did was hurt both of us.. And embarrass you in front of everyone. I’m sorry.”

Amity looked at Luz, who was trying to put on her nicest smile. She looked surprised by the apology, Luz hoped that meant it came across as genuine. Amity shoved her face back into her knees.

“Ugh! And my own stupid mentor! I-I’ll never live this down, what am I even supposed to do now?”  Amity’s eyes were clouded with tears she was desperately trying to hold back, so she clutched them tightly shut.

Luz summoned light glyphs to sparkle around Amity, softly illuminating her. To Luz, when they were floating there so gently, they helped her calm down. They were so warm, so comforting simply by floating there. 

The green-haired girl wiped her eyes of tears as best she could, and looked up just a bit, attention caught by a little floating lights.

“What, are you gonna blind me again?”

“No. I thought they might be nice for you. They calm me down. When i dont turn them into flashbangs, anyway.” Luz nervously added.

“....I g-guess it's kinda pretty. sniff.   What even are these? I’ve never seen a light spell like this. And you made so many..”

“You were right, Amity. I’m… not really that good at magic. I can barely do it at all, It doesn’t come as naturally to me.” Luz attempts to trace a spell circle in the air, but it fizzles out before she can finish. “But I’m trying real hard to improve. This…” Luz conjures a light glyph in her hands, and holds it out for Amity. “Is my way of doing magic. I’m still figuring it all out, training hard to make myself the witch I wanna be.”

“That's Nothing. A child could make a light spell. But… I’ve never seen it cast like that. And y'know, all over the place. And I guess you’re.. pretty durable. sigh.. ”  Amity looks at Luz like she’s a puzzle. The girl abruptly grabs her arm by the wrist, and the glowing purple spell circle re-appears, before shattering. Luz feels the magic weight of the spell leave her.

“There. The oath is unbound.” She lets go of Luz and stands.

“So.. I can still learn magic?”

“Yeah. Just don’t get too ahead of yourself.”

——————————————————————

The convention center had a small make-up room dedicated to guests or stage performers that would occasionally host themselves here. Lilith had commandeered it for the day, and walked in. The day had been tiring and she had half expected to fight Edalyn at some point there, but it thankfully didn’t pan out that way. A few hours later and she suddenly had a niece, and apparently a nephew. LIlith could tell how much her sister had latched onto the girl, even if she didn’t want to admit it. She was always in denial when it came to her more touchy emotions. A click from the make-up table. Her communications mirror popped open and the last person she wanted to see right now greeted her. Great.

“Lilith, You’d better have an explanation for whatever that impromptu duel was. Why didn’t you attempt to capture The Owl Lady? Remember what Emperor Belos has promised you.” the tiny red gremlin goaded.

“My family matters are highly complicated, as you are well aware , Kikimora. Rest assured I will capture her.”

“Hmph. very good” Her voice almost in quotations. Her face faded out of the mirror, and Lilith clicked it shut.

“Bitch.” 

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

Camila’s eyes shot open, a loud bang resounding from downstairs. It immediately put her on edge. She quickly, as quietly as possible, put on her glasses and grabbed the bat underneath her bed. Luz was asleep, and Manny was… gone. No one should be downstairs.

She creeps down the stairs, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness as she tip-toes into the living room. 

Her heart nearly jumps out of her body when she spots the still silhouette standing in the middle of the living room, its eyes immediately lock onto Camila’s. Its glowing, amber eyes. 

A few moments pass before Camila’s body is able to calm down and assess the figure. It's Luz, of course it’s Luz. She breathes out a relieved sigh. Why on earth would she be up and about at this hour, creeping around in the dark? She knows that her daughter’s night vision makes the lights in the house optional, but this behavior is unlike her. She’s just standing there, staring at Camila. And… What is that smell?

“Luz? What are you doing up?”

No response.

Camila shuffles around her daughter and a toppled end-table to the front door, flipping on the light switch. She turns around to see-

“ ¡¡ AY DIOS MÍO !! ¡¡LUZ!! Put that down, right! Now! ” Camila yelled, wide eyed at the hybrid girl.

Luz was standing in the middle of the living room, blood running down from her chin and all over her shirt. A fully-grown rabbit was dangling from her mouth, twitching. The back of its neck was clamped down on tightly by the girl’s jaw, her fangs digging deep into the muscle.

“¿¡Qué diablos estás pensando!?” Camila rushed to her stock-still daughter and grabbed her by her arms, guiding the girl to sit down on the couch. “ Get that out of your mouth, mija, or I’m taking it out for you. ”

Luz, still staring wide eyed at her mami, slowly opened her mouth up. Camila watched as the rabbit lazily slid off of red stained fangs, and heavily dropped into Luz’s lap, depressurized blood spraying from its wounds and getting onto her pajamas.

She rushed to grab a towel and wrap up the poor creature. It was already dead. Luz had bitten into its neck and broken the spine, if it didn’t die right away, the shock would have killed it instantly. It looked like the hunting style of a weasel, something that brought plenty of pet rabbits into her operating room, but much larger. She would have to give it a proper burial. She glanced at her hija still sitting on the couch, licking the blood from her lips and fingers. What the hell had possessed her 6 year old child to do this!?

Camila already knew the answer, unfortunately. One isn’t born with fangs without the instinct to use them. She sat on the couch next to Luz after setting the wrapped-up rabbit by the back door, looking at her concerned.

“Honey. Are you alright?”

Luz nods, still preoccupied with licking her fangs.

“Why did you bring in the rabbit?” She sets a hand on the young girl’s shoulder.

“uhm…. i was hungry.” Camila really hoped Luz wasn’t growing into any hunting instincts she’d have to curb.

“It's 2 am, Luz. If you’re hungry, you can just grab a snack from the kitchen, that’s okay. Would you like one of your cheddar whale baggies?”

‘i, uh, wanted chicken nuggets… but i don't know how to make them. i don't really want crackers. there wasn’t any meat in the fridge.” She makes a mental note to replace the contents of her snack baggies with jerky. Owch, right in the wallet.

“So… you went outside and… caught a rabbit?”

“yeah. i-is that.. bad? did i do something bad mami?” The downcast look on her daughter’s face was heartmelting. 

“No, no you didn’t do anything bad , querida. Just…” How would she handle this? No parenting books had ever mentioned what to do when your child brings in a dead animal. “Please tell me if you’re hungry, okay? Getting your food from outside like that can be dangerous, Honey. You could get sick, and I don’t want you to get sick.” She wasn’t actually sure if Luz would get sick, her daughter hadn’t actually ever gotten sick. And if she had fangs and… the compulsion to hunt, then it was likely she’d be fine. But it would be better if she wasnt encouraged to eat the local animal population.

“..mmkay” Luz frowned, looking over to the bundled rabbit by the back door. Camila picked her up, she didn’t want Luz eating raw rabbit.

“How about I fry up some chicken nuggets for you, baby?” Her smile returned.

“yay! what about the bunny? can i have more of it? the bunny juice was really yummy!” Camila tried not to wince at the term “bunny juice”.  She reminded herself that Luz was after the meat, not the blood. Her baby was not a vampire. She was, however, apparently a predator. And at the age of 6, apparently had the necessary skills to catch a wild rabbit in the dead of night. How would she teach Luz to not hurt animals like this if it was something her body was telling her to do? She didn’t want to guilt her hija out of anything if she could help it, that would be cruel.

“No, we’re not eating the rabbit. We get our food from the grocery store, not from outside, I already told you. We’re gonna have nuggies.”  

“okaaaay….”

“And you’re taking a bath.”

“noooooooooooooooo!!!”

——————————————————————

In the following 5 months, Luz turned 7. She also brought in no less than 3 squirrels, a raccoon, 5 pigeons, 2 more rabbits, and one other particularly impressive catch. A catch which Camila was currently standing over. Her daughter was standing nervously across from her, ashamedly clasping her hands together and looking at the floor.

“Mija.”

“y-yes, mama?”

“Why is there a deer bleeding out on my carpet?” She angrily gestured to the dead creature. A nearly fully grown doe with its neck ripped out.

“.....i was hungry?”

“ How is there a deer on my carpet!? It’s bigger than you! ”

“.............................i was really hungry?”

“ Luz! This needs to stop, I’ve told you enough times already! We have food here, en la casa!! ” Camila yelled, and Luz pulled into herself.

“b-but.. mami, i just… i can’t stop myself! i-it was just  there and it wasnt paying attention a-and then it tried running away and i..” The girl pulled at her hair in frustration. “i dont know!! i just did it!”

“Cariño, I know it's hard for you but you need to learn to control yourself! You are absolutely covered in blood and there is a dead deer in my house! T-this is just.. No. you’re grounded.” Her hija was beginning to tear up, But Camila needed to stand firm on this. She took a deep breath and continued. “You’re grounded until you can get this under control. No more going outside, You will go to school, you will eat what is in the kitchen , and then you will be in your room unless i tell you otherwise, do you understand?”

“no! that’s not fair!” She shook her head frantically, to get across the point that she did not, in fact, understand.

“Luz.” The mother warned.

“i don’t wanna sit in my room all day! it’s not my fault i’m hungry!” 

“ Luz. ” She said more firmly.  

Then, Camila heard a noise she wasn’t expecting. A low rumble that she was highly familiar with, something so frequently heard at the veterinarian clinic she worked at. A growl, a defensive one. Her daughter was growling at her. She even had her bloody fangs bared. Camila was taken aback, even slightly scared for a moment. 

“You do not growl at your mother! Luz María Noceda, get here this instant! You are taking a bath and going to bed. Now. ” She crossed her arms and stomped her foot, making sure her hija was aware she was in big trouble.

Luz bolted. To where she was running? She had no idea. The flighty girl tried to run past Camila, and she went to grab her. She barely avoided getting got, and went for the alternative pathway over the couch. 

The angry mother went after her daughter, catching her by the ankles before she could get over the couch’s back.

“nooooo!!!! weh! i’m not gonna do any of that!” Luz’s claws dug into the couch cushion as her mother attempted to drag her in the direction of the bathroom. Her hands were stubbornly rooted to the spot.

“You. Are. Taking! A! Bath! And then, you’re going straight to-” Camila was suddenly making progress in dragging Luz.

RRIIII~IIIII~IIII~IIIII~IIIII~IIII~IIIIPP—

Her daughter was no longer rooted to one spot, but her claws had stayed in the fabric. The mother’s eye twitched. She dropped the girl’s ankles, and Luz scrambled away onto the floor. She wasn’t running away anymore, Luz was frozen, terrified.

A series of 10 long gashes had ripped themselves open- across the entirety of the couch. The piece of furniture was absolutely ruined. Sure, Luz’s claws had caused some unintentional damage before, they were sharp. It happened. But this? This would cost Camila hundreds. Because her daughter was stubborn and just wouldn’t listen to her. She breathed in, then out, trying to calm herself. It was partially successful.

“ Luz. ” Breathe in. Breathe out.

“...y-yes mamá?...”

“ Get in the bathtub. Now. ” She shut her eyes and heard scrambling in the direction of the bathroom. Good. Luz was listening to her. She didn’t mean to scare her baby, but if it meant she was gonna sit still in the tub while Camila scrubbed blood off of her skin for an hour, it was acceptable for now.

Sigh… What was she going to do with that girl?

——————————————————————

“Manny! I brought you some lemonade, Luz picked all of the lemons herself. How’s my hardworking Hubby?” She set the glass on the table where her husband was sitting. He laughed, and she smiled. It was getting dark outside, they’d have to come in soon.

“More like I’m hard- ly working! I’m just watching her chase crickets around. Surprisingly well, might I add! She’s shown me like, seven of them now” He sits up in the patio chair, Watching a little Luz stumble around in the backyard after bugs. She was two years old now, and ostensibly a normal child. 

“So, are you finally ready to admit that you’re a vampire? I could absolutely mix some blood into your lemonade if you ask nicely.” Camila Teased. 

“Not in a million years, but I'm not a vampire so I won't even live that long! I think I just read too many fantasy novels at your baby bump. She loved ‘em in there.” 

“Yes, I was so happy she loved them. Loved them enough to use my uterus as a kickboxing ring.” Ever since Luz’s fangs had come in, both parents had been playing a bit of a game, guessing exactly what she, and by extension the other parent, was. Her eyes, sharp nails, and purple hair had been the only strange traits their daughter had for the first 6-ish months. The fangs were a surprise. So far, that was it. Luz was a very normal child with black sclera, sharp bone-y nails, purple hair, and fangs. At least, physically. Neither parent could say Luz acted like a normal human child all the time. She sure did say ‘weh’ a lot, but whether that was a behavioral quirk or something genetic they didn’t know.

“So, what’s next? I think she’s gonna get horns.” Manny spoke while sipping on his lemonade.

“Horns? Hedging your bet on ‘demon’ again? Hmm, I think it’d be cute if she was fluffy. I think she’ll get fur.”

“Right. You wanna try getting knots out of that? I would prefer my daughter stay fur-free. It's cute in theory, a logistical nightmare in practice.” He groaned.

A smug smile spread across Camila’s face.

“Oh? So you’re saying you have experience with fur? My my, I may have to trash the vampire theory.” 

“Keep guessin, cuz my skin has always been one hundred percent blemish and fur fre-” Her husband was interrupted by a shrill squeal. Both parents rushed to the side of their daughter, who was stumbling away from and hissing at a raccoon. They had gotten too caught up in banter, and had stopped paying attention to the girl.

“Hey! Trash bandit! Get away from my daughter!!” Camila grabbed the raccoon, and with as much grace as possible, ‘carefully’ threw it over the fence and into the woods. It would be fine. They were tough little bastards.

Manny came to Luz’s side, inspecting the crying child for any wounds. Camila came to her aid as well, Eyes immediately locking onto a series of bleeding scratches on the girl’s arm.

“Oh cariño, are you okay? Let’s get you inside and bandaged up. That was such a mean raccoon!”

“weehhh! he- sniff .. he was takin my criket budies! he wuz a bully!! wehh!!!” Luz wiped her eyes, angry. Both of her parents froze at the surge of emotion, in the poor lighting outside, The girl’s eyes were glowing in phase with her crying. Another new thing to add to the list.

They rushed her inside, putting her glowing irises to the side for now, disinfecting and bandaging her wound was more important than another inhuman trait popping up. The mother’s first target was the medicine cabinet, taking out a well-stocked first-aid kit.

“Camila! What does purple mean!? Is that bad!?” Purple? What was he talking about? Was the wound turning purple? If it was, that was worrying. Bruises weren’t supposed to develop that fast.

She ran into the kitchen, where Luz was propped up on the kitchen island. she set down the kit- Oh. that’s what he meant. 

Her daughter’s arm was bleeding, that she already knew. In the darkness outside she couldn’t quite make out the color, but had just assumed it was normal. Perhaps she should stop making assumptions about her hija. The blood dripping from the wounds was a dark purple, and just a little bit thicker than one should expect. She was briefly stunned by the revelation, mind flipping through hundreds of possibilities as to how , or why , before she settled on the firm determination that it was simply Luz. 

They disinfected the wound and wrapped it up without further incident, and set Luz down for bed with their normal night-time routine. Both parents sat at the dining room table.

“So… purple, huh?”

“Apparently.”

“Wasn’t it… red? Like, it was red a few months ago.” He was right, it  was red the last time she got hurt. Maybe slightly… off the regular shade, but nothing alarming.

“It was. It isn’t anymore. I guess my ‘fur’ guess was pretty far off.”

“Yeah, and her eyes were glowing, right? I wasn’t seeing things? I gotta revise all of my theories now, at least until I see horns starting to come in.”

“Yeah, no, they were glowing. Two in one night. What are we going to do Manny? What if she just keeps changing? Can she even go to school like this?”

“We’ll just.. Keep calling it a pigment condition. I know it's not perfect but… She can’t have a normal life like this either way, what else are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, honey. I really don’t know.”

——————————————————————

Camila was a stressed woman. Being a veterinarian was a demanding job, and she had a child to take care of. She had been taking care of one kid for 9 years, and had been doing so alone for 3 of those. Sending Luz to daycare was a tricky business due to her more inhuman traits, so balancing making money for her daughter, and actually taking care of her daughter, was tough.

She had several methods to destress. She kept a budget set aside for semi-frequent spa-days. She spent much of what little freetime she had available at night to read Space Frontier romance fanfictions. Whenever she had a lull at work, she would stretch and practice yoga in the breakroom- something her coworkers had picked up as well. Recently, she had read an article about how candles can affect mood, and went out to buy some scents for the house. Lavender, chamomile, and rosemary.

She had lit a lavender candle in the living room, a scent Luz was particularly fond of. It wasn’t like Camila was the only one having a hard time, Luz had her own difficulties. If only She would tell her mother what those difficulties were. She could make guesses, but Luz was tight-lipped when she was asked. Why couldn’t she just trust her mother to help? Things had gotten so much more difficult when Manny was taken. Camila didn’t want to do this alone.

Today was a Saturday, but she had been called into work anyway. She was exhausted. An emergency case for a pair of racing horses who had gotten into a scuffle. One had a broken leg, and having to put down any animal always made her day worse. Every night, Camila would be haunted by the desperate yet trusting gazes that animals under the needle would give her. She knew it was a mercy, But that could only make her feel so much better.

Camila sleepily opens the front door, finally getting home at 3 pm. The oh so trusting eyes of the colt as it fell asleep for the final time stuck in her mind are whisked away as she sees Luz, sitting by the coffee table and enjoying her tri-wick Lavender candle. A cartoon was on in the background, but Luz was staring at her hand against the flames enamored. Like the fire curling around her fingers was the coolest thing in the world.

Wait.

Hand?

Fire? 

Hand in fire.

That was bad. 

Camila’s tired brain takes a moment to process the sight, before coming to the very final conclusion: 'oh dear god I left my young daughter around an open flame and her hand is in the flames oh lord my baby is on fire.’

She runs to Luz as fast as she can manage, picking the girl up and dropping her onto the couch. She ignores the panicked ‘Weh!’s that the girl produces. She examines the hand that was just in an open flame for injuries.

“Luz, are you alright? Why would you do that!? I told you to be careful with.. open…  …flames…   ..qué?” Luz’s hand is.. Fine. totally unblemished, completely free of burns. The skin is hot , the hand is painful to touch, but free of injury. 

“mama, i’m fine! really! it doesn't even hurt! look!” Luz tries to reassure.

“I.. can see that, mija. May I ask how?”

“uhh.. well, i just thought the candle was really pretty and. yknow. touched-it-even-though-you-told-me-not-to?” She finishes telling her mother, smiling like she knows she just did something wrong.

“Luz.” Camila glares.

“but it didn’t hurt! it wasn’t hot like you said it would be! it’s just warm! i-i thought it looked cool… and it felt really neat…” She shrugs.

“So… you’re fireproof? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“yeah. i think. unless that candle has magic cold fire which would also be awesome but way less awesome than me being fireproof!”

Right. She shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Of course Luz was fireproof. It wasn’t the strangest thing about her daughter, just one more little quirk that defined her. 

“does this mean i can touch the stove now? i wanna know how much i can take! hehehehehehe!” She laughs excitedly.

“You- you know what? Sure. Let's go turn on the stove. That's a great idea mija.” why not? Might as well experiment to see what’s safe.

They ended up outside after a while, where Luz had gathered a rather impressive pile of firewood and kindling from the woods just by their house. She didn’t even bring back a single dead animal, she was improving. Now, Camila just watches as Luz douses the pile of wood in lighter fluid, and throws a lit match into it. She’s too tired for this.

She flinches at the sudden burst of flames, and can immediately feel the intense heat emanating from the bonfire. 

“Luz… are you entirely sure about this? I trust you mija, but this seems like a bit… much.” It felt like she was forgetting something.

Her question is answered when the girl jumps into the inferno, taller than herself. Camila couldn’t control her worry, but there weren’t any screams, just a fit of giggling from the young girl. Giggling that slowly turned into cackling. She was enjoying this far too much. The mother could see the silhouette of her daughter  in the dancing flames, striking a maniacal pose and laughing into the sky. 

…as long as she was having fun?

Several minutes pass as Luz enjoys the blaze before she steps out. She didn’t have the barest of singes, even her hair totally untouched. Oh, Camila knew she was forgetting something. Her body was fireproof. Her clothes, however, were very much not.  

Camila sighs and goes inside to fetch a blanket for her poor daughter.

——————————————————————

It had been two weeks since they left the hospital for the final time. Camila never wanted to step foot into those wretched white halls ever again. Dealing with the reality of the situation was… hard. But she was a mother, and that fact weighed on her heavier than ever. It was her responsibility to pick up the broken pieces and keep going. She needed to be strong. For Luz. For her little Light.

Luz was inconsolable for the first few days, crying until she would inevitably fall asleep, clutching the book she was given like a lifeline. When she woke up, she would sob herself back to sleep again. It was hard to watch. After that, She was quiet. Her little Light would break down crying at random, and then go back to stoic silence. She was barely eating, wasn’t reading or watching cartoons, and Camila just had to watch Luz suffer. She tried giving reassurances, but they were empty. She could provide food, a safe place to sleep, and a shoulder to cry on, but beyond that she was powerless.

It was an absolute miracle when she managed to coax Luz out of her bedroom, and watch her actually eat. They sat on the couch, watching reruns of ducktective, Luz nibbling on a bowl of shells and cheese. She was laying against her mother’s side, half-paying attention.

“Papa’s really not coming back, is he?” Luz asks abruptly.

How does she respond to that?

“I’m sorry, Luz, but… no. Papa is… really gone. He’s not coming back. I’m so, so sorry.” She pulls Her little Light into a hug, and Luz breaks down once more.

She would be here, whenever her daughter needed her mami to lean on. And Luz would be there for her mami. Camila was crying now, too. 

They took comfort in each other until they were dehydrated and exhausted from their tears. Luz was in her lap, sleepily enjoying her mother’s fingers running through her purple mop of hair. 

Camila felt a rumble underneath her hand, and into her lap. Her little Light was purring. She smiled. Her baby hadn’t purred in weeks. Just now Luz was, however slight it might be, experiencing some happiness and comfort. Enough to let her throat rumble in the most adorable way that only Luz could manage.

Maybe, just maybe, things were already beginning to heal. Camila could only hope.

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

“We ehhhhhh …..Edaaaa aaaaaaa ……”

“Can I guess?”

“Everything huuuu uuurtsss …”

“Yeah that’s what I was gonna guess.”

Luz was lying on a cushy clinic bed, suffering the consequences of refusing to cheat in a witch’s duel. She’d learn her lesson eventually. Even if the girl had kinda brought this upon herself by challenging a top student without knowing any offensive magic, It didn’t make Eda feel much better. Seeing the witchlet in pain like this made her feel awful, and she could feel the owlbeast clawing at the back of her mind to bring the chick back to the nest. She was bleeding pretty badly due to the slash wounds from the Blight’s sword, and painted all the colors of the painbow from bruising. Mostly purple though.

“The apothecary’ll be here soon to get you all healed up, I brought us to one of the only good ones left. I hope you know you sorta asked for this.”

“I know! I was an idiot. Of course Amity Blight was gonna kick my butt. She just stepped on King’s cupcake and, and, he was so sad! And now, bluuurghh..” She slumps in the bed.

“My honor was defended! I think you did great when you weren’t getting all beat up by those abominations.” King scrambles up onto the bed, Luz wincing when he sits on her leg.

“That was all the time.” 

“No, that was only most of the time! You drew some blood at the end after your cool shockwave thingy!”

‘cool shockwave thingy’ indeed. Eda could barely believe it when it happened, the cornered girl had let off an impressive wave of magical energy. Luz couldn’t cast a simple fire spell, but seemingly had no trouble making 200 light spells pop up all at once, and had a built-in magic cannon. That a malnourished, poorly developed child had that sort of output was slightly terrifying. Whatever demon was the kid’s dad, they were a powerhouse. 

“Yeah, though to be honest I don’t really know what happened. I just really wanted to stop getting beat up. I was getting kicked, and then I wasn’t anymore.” She looked contemplative, probably trying to remember how she did it.

“Well, you get a handle on that, and Blight never would’ve gotten close. More importantly, do you wanna handle that checkup today? Since we’re already at the healer’s and all?” Eda didn’t want to have to block out more time in a doctor’s office than strictly necessary. She had some rather unfortunate experiences. Doctors tend to get a bit overzealous about curses.

“If they do it after all the healing stuff, sure. Do you think they’ll figure out what my demon half is? Wait. when you say checkup… are they gonna poke me with needles and other stuff?” 

“For your first question, hard maybe. Whatever you are it certainly ain’t common. Second, probably one or two needles, it’ll mostly be a painless scanning spell. Are you bad with needles?”

“I don’t know, actually. It's been a while. I guess we’ll find out!” Luz yells with a nervous laugh. The door creaks open.

——

“Indeed we will, little Clawthorne!” An older pale woman stepped into the room, shooting a friendly smile towards Luz. Her piercing green eyes were just a tiny bit unsettling. She was wearing simple attire, draped pure-white cloth over most of her body, with a few brown belts holding things together, and a green headband to keep her long chestnut hair out of her face. She was holding a glowing lantern by a chain in one hand (definitely magic!), and a deep red potion in the other. Luz sheepishly waves.

“Oy, Zestasia, you know damn well what her last name is.”

“Is it not? I happened to see the fight pop up on my penstagram, and she was not introduced as a Noceda. And by your sister no less! What am I supposed to think?” The healer seemed a little smug, was this one of Eda’s friends? The owl lady grumbles.

“Hi! Hello! Yeah, it’s still Noceda. That didn’t change, I don’t think. I’m Luz! Nice to meet you miss Zestasia. Ow.” Luz introduced.

The robed woman approaches to sit down at a stool by the bedside, and holds the potion out for the injured girl.

“Zest is just fine, Luz. This is a potent healing potion of my own brew, please drink it. Eda has been hounding me for the past several days to get you in for a, and I quote, ‘Checkup for one of the little monsters.’ She’s told me a little bit about your situation.”

Luz looked unsure at the potion. In her books, these always tasted terrible. She takes it anyway, and slooowly brings it to her mouth. A faint smell catches her nose, Strawberries. Oh please be strawberry flavored, please be strawberry flavored. 

She tilts her head back and chugs as fast as she can.

The texture is slightly too thick and unpleasant, but it is, much to Luz’s relief, strawberry flavored. Or something close to strawberry. She can feel the tingle of magic run into her stomach, then spread outwards.

“Hmhmhm. Not as bad as you were expecting, hmm? I added quite a bit of sawberry purée to the finished potion to help it go down better.”

It took a few seconds, but the tingly magic feeling deepened into a warm, numb sensation that takes hold of her entire body. She could nearly instantly feel all of the pain fade away. She closed her eyes, barely feeling the cuts on her skin start to close.

“Ohhhh yeahhhh.. That’s niiiice…” Her throat rumbled against her will. Not that she minded purring or anything, it was just embarrassing. Right now though? She felt too relieved to care.

After just a few minutes the tingly numbness fades away, and Luz opens her eyes again. Her body didn’t feel amazing or anything, but it was an extraordinary improvement. Thank Titan for healing magic. The cuts, scrapes, and bruises were all but completely eliminated. Zest smiled at her.

“I hope you know I’m paying for that, kiddo.” Eda murmurs. She should’ve known there was a catch! But a few extra chores for a painless recovery wasn’t too bad.

“Good, looks like you’re receptive to standard healing blends! And you can purr like any other witch when sufficiently comfortable. Are you alright if we begin the checkup now?” Zest asks. Kinda sounds like it already started. The girl blushes at the mention of her purring, at least now she knows it’s normal here.

“Yeah, we can start. What’s first?” She sits up in the bed and pushes the blanket off of her legs.

“First, I’ll be casting a scanning spell that should help me assess your health and physiology. As it is a more in-depth scan, it may take a few minutes. Tell me if you feel anything, alright?” Luz nodded, and the woman drew up a very large spell circle above Luz, her right in the middle as it slowly inches downwards. Very tingly. 

“I feel tingly? If that’s important?” Zest just nods and shuts her eyes, her face concentrating on something. Was this scan just… going directly into her brain? That’s kind of uncomfortable to think about. 

She sat there, awkwardly exchanging glances with Eda until the apothecary was finished and her eyes opened, looking at Luz a little confused and surprised. That was probably not good.

“Hmm… Well, I can say for certain I have absolutely no idea what you are, Luz Noceda.” Oh… If Eda’s trusted apothecary didn’t know what she was, would anybody?

“So, What’d you find, Zest? Don’t go all cryptic on me.” Eda chided.

“Alright, fine. Luz, could you please demonstrate a spell or two for me? Preferably that light glyph of yours and something else simple.” 

She easily makes a light glyph floating in midair. She frowns as the spell circle she attempts to draw fizzles out again.

“Interesting. You lack a bile sack entirely, Your heart is much larger than I’d expect for a creature your size. Witches like myself and your mentor have four-chambered hearts attached to a bilesack with 9 much smaller chambers. Your heart; however, has 8 full chambers solely for pumping blood, from what I could tell. Your blood is highly resistant to my scans, which suggests a dense magical content like bile.”

Eda raised an eyebrow while Luz sat, processing the information.

“That all sounds pretty familiar to me, Zest.”

“I’m aware. Secondly, You’re going through one hell of a puberty. I can’t say what exactly to expect yet, But I have a few notable things to mention. Have you been feeling a pressure in your scalp?”

Luz got the feeling she wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight.

“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt too much. Just kinda uncomfortable.”

“Those would be your horns coming in. And as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, you’re developing wings and a tail. Normally you would’ve been born with your tail already developed, but maybe that’s a human thing. Now, While your tail should keep growing at a fairly steady pace without too much pain, I cannot say the same for wings or horns.” The healer clasped her hands together and leaned to Luz.  gulp.

“Much of a witch’s development can be painful, it is not abnormal, it is expected. Newly growing wings and horns develop subdermally, Horns underneath the scalp, and juvenile wings within ‘wing bumps’ as we call them. This creates an issue many other changes do not have. There is skin in the way of these features growing.”

Luz did not like where this was going.

“As you may already guess, the skin needs to be moved out of the way eventually.”

“So… They’re gonna…?”

“Yes, They’ll be tearing through the skin. I will prescribe you a painkiller to take for when you need it. And you will need it. You are also obviously growing fur. You may experience itchiness as hair follicles increase in density and activate, which I see happening… mostly everywhere. Your face and neck will likely stay clear. There is one other notable change that I’m seeing, The bones in your toes and fingers have signs of recent growth. I’d expect some more ferocious claws in your future.” Oh! Good. a single good thing. Fantastic.

“Now onto your general health! Other than your lack of proper nourishment and resulting underdevelopment, I’m not seeing anything concerning. Make sure to eat plenty, especially magically dense foods.”

“Uhm.. anything else?” Being ‘generally healthy’ was a small comfort in the face of new appendages bursting through her skin! What was she supposed to do with that information!? Was there going to be blood? And she was going to be completely furry!? That’s just. A lot. Demon puberty is scary. She takes a deep breath. Eda scooches her chair closer to the bed.

“Are you doing alright, Luz? We can get outta here if you’re uncomfortable.” Good to know that’s an option, But not knowing these things is far worse than knowing them. At least she can prepare now, even if it’s overwhelming.

“I’m good, I need to know this stuff. I just wanna get it over with.”

Eda nods and leans back. Zest continues.

“Just a few more things before I let you go. You felt a tingling sensation during the scan, correct?”

“Mhm.”

“Do you have a magic sense, to your knowledge?”

“I’m pretty sure I do. I can kinda, yknow, feel it? In the air and when I touch Eda’s palisman, or when someone casts a spell. Eda said that isn’t normal?”

“Well, it’s uncommon, but not unheard of. And some oracles can develop such a sense with training, It’s good that you’re able to recognize it. keep in mind that just like any other sense, a magic sense can cause overstimulation, be wary of that around powerful spells. Now,” The apothecary pulls out a worryingly large needle. “I’d like a blood sample if you don’t mind.”

Luz firmly decided that she wasn’t missing out on anything when her mother stopped taking her to the doctor.

——————————————————————

Boy, that kid cries a lot. Not that Eda doesn’t understand why. They were able to get through the rest of the check-up without too much incident, just having to stop for a few minutes for Luz to clear her eyes before the vision exam. Apparently, beyond just her magic sense, she had the ability to see magic, just barely, and hadn’t noticed.

Eda could tell that the girl was pretty freaked out by the end of the check-up, It was a lot of information to take in at once. Even the owl lady was a little freaked out, Luz was about to go through a very unpleasant and drastic puberty that would change her entire life. And there was something she noticed during the appointment, something that shouldn’t be possible.

Zestasia gives Luz an extra large lollipop, and tells her to wait outside in the lobby until her mentor comes to get her. Looks like the healer wants to have a talk too. They both wait until Luz is out of the room to begin speaking.

“Zest, could it be a coincidence?” 

“It could be. I don’t think it is.” 

She could really use some apple blood right about now. She leans back in the chair and groans.

The apothecary pulls out a sheet of paper from a drawer, one from the Clawthorne’s last visit.

“Her heart is nearly identical. Her blood has the same scan resistant properties, despite its color. Her fur is exactly the same. They both possess a magic sense. Her fangs have the same bone structure. While much of her biology is different due to her human half, far too much is similar to be a coincidence. Are you aware if they have any similar behavior?”

“They both say ‘Weh’ a whole lot. They can both walk in the boiling rain. they both get all giddy with those light glyphs… Titan, they even smell the same.. How is this even possible? I’ve never gotten a single damn clue of what King is, and another one of his species just drops in my lap!” It was beyond unlikely.

“Maybe you should ask an oracle, fate works in mysterious ways. Perhaps their innate magic drew them together? I’m unsure. What I am sure of; however, is that Luz is half of whatever your other little monster is. I would highly recommend brewing a familial test potion.” She hands a small stack of papers to Eda, Copies of both Luz and King’s checkups. 

“What, you think they’re siblings? That’s stretching from ‘unlikely’ to…” Eda stops, The Owlbeast making itself known again. It didn’t communicate in words, but feelings. She could understand the intent as if it were speaking plain common.

Owlets find family. Recognize scent. You do not listen, Witch.

Damnit. That potion would take days to brew. 

“...yeah, I’ll make a familial test potion.”

——————————————————————

Despite rekindling a connection with her sister, and the opportunity to soon meet her niece and nephew, Lilith was still having a bad week. The duel yesterday had been posted to penstagram by several spectators, and the coven head’s declaration of Luz as her niece was coming back to bite her in the ass. Rumors were running wild, and She only had herself to blame. 

The Emperor had called her into the throne room near immediately as she woke up, and questioned her loyalty. Questioned why her protege had lost, even when she had gone through such lengths to cheat . Of course Kikimora and the Golden guard were there to watch her be humiliated. She had been holed up in her office all day doing paperwork, but angrily. Her scroll unrolled next to her head, making a ping. She did not want to be bothered right now, who messaged her?

Ah. Amity Blight. Of course. She wouldn’t allow Lilith to even approach her after the duel. The message was short and concise.

‘Amity B: I will no longer be attending sessions under your tutelage.’

Sigh… As if she needed her day to be worse. It was obvious this was coming, She had really screwed up with the girl. The Coven head faceplants onto her pile of papers.                     

       ping.

                                                                    ping.

 ping.  ping.      ping.                ping. ping.        ping.    ping.      ping.                         ping.                   ping.          ping.           ping.                                        ping. 

Her head rolls to the side with a deep grimace. What the hell was so important!? It couldn’t be Amity, that short sentence was likely the last she’d ever hear from the girl. She grouchily plucked the scroll from the air, trying to find whatever the hell was spamming her. Ah, Penstagram.     …78 notifications? That was abnormal. Her account was set up so that only direct messages on the app would ping her, and that only Emperor's coven members could DM her. The ones she didn’t find annoying, anyway. She opened the first message from Steve, somehow the least annoying scout she’d ever met.

…

…

She was going to kill Edalyn.

Steve had sent a picture, punctuated with a single question mark. It was of Luz and two other young witches standing in a circle with their hands clasped by Eda’s doorstep. The doorstep of the house. The house on giant legs. Giant legs standing in the middle of bonesborough. 

How, even? That formation looked like.. A midnight conjuring? Oh right, that was today. But that made even less sense! The conjuring was a ritual to funnel some enchanted moonlight onto a toy, and bring it to life for a few minutes at best. It was a child’s sleepover game. The amount of power that bringing an entire house to life like that would require, three children simply wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a thing, even with the help of the moonlight. 

But she bet Eda could, with the help of that accursed house demon.

Lilith grabbed her staff and flew out of her office window. Tonight was as good a time as any to take up that offer to visit her sister. And smack her in the face.

The house was back in its proper place when she approached, but the house demon was asleep. Walking around town like that must’ve been exhausting. There were large clumps of dirt scattered all over, and signs of a recent one-sided battle. Lots of cut ropes and harpoons. Some demon hunters must’ve thought that Eda’s walking castle was a good target. Idiots.

And then… she just. just walked up to the door. No owl tube swatting her away and kidnapping her team for a ‘tea party’. No booby traps. No explosions. No defenses. She knew if Hooty had been ordered to keep her away, then he would’ve woken up as soon as she crossed the boundary, but he hadn’t. 

Lilith was welcome .

That simple fact took the breath from her lungs. 

Was it this easy the entire time? If I had just asked, Would she have let me in? I could have been visiting this entire time, I could have been there for my nephew. I could have been there for Eda. I could have-

No.

No.

Maybe, just maybe, she could have visited. Could have been there. But Edalyn doesn’t know what sort of a monster Lilith really is. She’d find out eventually, what that monster did. She’d see her sister for the horrible person they really are. 

She slumps down onto the ground, back against the wall of the house, head in her hands. 

Titan, what was she thinking? She shouldn’t be here. Agreeing to this was a mistake. She needed to leave. It was selfish that she wanted to force herself into the lives of her niece and nephew. They didn’t deserve to have to deal with Lilith. They deserved better. She’d already hurt Luz, she looked awful walking out of that arena, all because Lilith let her frustration get to her head. She had hurt Amity as well, exposing her to such public embarrassment. Is that all she’s good for? Hurting people? The curse. The hunts. The basilisks. The palismen.

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!”

Lilith nearly jumps out of her skin, scrambling away from the awakened hooty desperately, covering her dress in dirt. She points her staff at the offending house demon.
“wauAUuhH!! Get away from me you accursed cylinder!”

Hooty stopped just a foot away from her.

“Hello miss Lilith! I didn’t think you’d visit so sooooon! HOOT! Lemme tell Eda!” The creature retracts into the door again.

Oh good, It wasn’t trying to attack her. It was a miracle she didn’t die from a heart attack just then. She stands up. Now, she just needs to get out of here before-

The door opens. Shit. That was incredibly fast.

There stands her sister, appraising Lilith’s mess of an appearance. Today hadn’t been the best day, so she hadn’t put as much effort into maintaining that pristine coven head facade. And she was covered in dirt. There was no running away from this now, was there?

“Damn Lily, you look like you got into a fight with a dust devil and lost. Really showin’ off that emperor’s coven perfection!” Eda snorts. “Come on in and sit down.” 

“It’s nice to see you too, sister.”

She walks past her sister into a house she’s never been in. She should have been there. It’s… frankly it’s a mess. Just what she expected from her sister, unfortunately.

“It’s about as dirty as I expected.” She takes a seat on the couch.

“Well, Luz and her friends decided to take my house on a joyride around the town. It was much neater this morning, I assure you.” Eda takes a seat beside her.

“...are you saying that you had no hand in the messages I received earlier? I have at least 75 photos of your house on chicken legs.” She stares at her sister in disbelief. Was it actually just 3 children that did it?

“I was out all day at the night market trying to restock on elixir. Had a bit of an emergency. Came back to my house on legs, and demon hunters tryin’ to take it down for materials. I’m just as confused as you are, Lil.” She levitates two cups and a bottle of apple blood into the room, and begins pouring drinks. The coven head averts her eyes when elixir is mentioned. How much had she been suffering?

“Edalyn. You are suggesting that those three children animated an entire house with a midnight conjuring? Long enough to make a round trip through Bonesborough?”

“I’m pretty sure it was mostly just one kid.” Eda takes a hearty drink of her apple blood. Lilith doesn’t partake often, but this is a rare occasion. She takes a polite sip. The taste of alcohol is unpleasant, but the drink is otherwise unoffensive. 

“You mean Luz?”

“Yep. Apparently, they were trying to animate an action figure. Accidentally animated Hooty and the entire house.” She takes another drink. “And Hooty would only listen to her. Not the other two.”

“That is… patently absurd. I know her magic is strange, I saw it first hand, but that suggests… Well, I suppose it would be your daughter doing something so unbelievable.” Her sister blushes again. Still not ready to admit it? Not surprising.

“Still not my daughter, But she’s real good at doing that. Are you just here to talk about a wacky adventure the kid went on, or..?”

“Well, I did expedite my trip here because of that, but no. I suppose I’m here as a sister. I’d like to hear about my niece and nephew, and how your life has been going.” Lilith takes a breath in through her teeth. “I… have missed much of your life.”

Both of them are silent after that, unsure how to respond.

 Lilith speaks up.

“So.. where are the kids now?”

“They’re all asleep. The kid’s friends conked out soon after the ritual, must’ve been incredibly draining for the poor things. The problem child went to bed soon after, and King usually curls up with her now.” Eda seemed relieved to not have to broach the awkward silence herself.

“Oh my, Edalyn, calling her a ‘problem child’? Finally getting a taste of your own medicine I see.”

“I’m proud of her, not listening to authority and causing issues. Problem child is a compliment. Mostly. Still gotta clean up my house if she breaks my shit. Don’t pretend you weren’t just as bad as me when we were kids.” Eda pokes her in the shoulder. 

“I was a bit of a troublemaker because of you. Makes me wonder exactly how you went so soft, taking in two children. How did that happen?” She questions, taking another sip of appleblood. Oh, the cup is already empty? Surely she hadn’t drunk that much yet. 

“Ah, well I was trying to find somewhere to hide away for a while about eight years ago. Ended up finding an uncharted island with this big old tower on it. It was all overgrown and crumbled. When I went inside, A little baby King was just  sitting there all cute like, playing with rocks. Some monster attacked us, and I got us both out of there. I brought him home, thought he was a pet at first! Put a collar on him and everything!” Eda slaps her knee, laughing.

“I was also under that impression until yesterday.” So many years, She knew her sister lived with the little demon. The thought that he was an adopted son had never crossed her mind.

“Lotsa people get that impression. He’s a brat. Once he started speakin’ words I started treating him more like an actual kid. Somewhere along the way I guess I became his mother. We don’t really call each other mom or son or whatever, but we know that we’re family. He acts like a little tyrant, always ruling over plushie kingdoms and fighting fake battles. Likes demonology too, he was so curious about whatever the hell he is that he learned everything he could about other demons. He’s just adorbable!”

 He did sound adorable. Maybe they could spend some time together? She was rather well versed on the subject of demonology. 

“Just wish I could help him more, yaknow? So scared he’ll never know what he really is.”

Was that Eda’s fifth glass? Lilith had stopped paying attention to when the woman was refilling her cup. 

“Have you been to a healer?”

“Oh, plenty! I’ve scoured erry damn book on the subject I could find! Zilch. Nada. Nothin. Zero. His demon traits are unique, there ain’t anything like ‘im on the isles. Until last week apparently!!”

“Oh, so you found a hint? I’m sure I could be of some aid in solving that issue. I know my way around demonology.”

“Ooohh, yeah I’m sure you could help. But sis, I’m talking about Luz. She just stumbled in outta nowhere from the human realm last week, a half-demon! And yknow what? I just took her to an apothecary. "The owl lady tried to pour another cup, but Lilith politely pushed her hand away from the bottle. Her sister barely noticed.

“Y’know what I find out? They’re the same species!! Like they’re magnetically attracted to me or somethin. She’s half-a whatever King is. They might be siblings! And she’s going through this whack puberty, And she’s got it bad in the human realm and whadda hell am I supposed to do, sis? I’m the world's least qualified candidate to take care’a children!” She flops back against the couch arm, her head dangling over just slightly.

It would be a stretch to say that Lilith had ever imagined Eda would be a particularly good fit for motherhood, but it’s also hard to imagine Edalyn being an outright bad mother. She had a dense core of kindness and care underneath the outer layers of rebellious chaos goblin. This was a problem that her sister could solve. She was always so good at magical puzzles and mysteries.

“I’m sure you’re a fine mother. You’re much softer than you believe, Edalyn. I would prefer to have the firsthand experience to say so for sure, but that’s why I’m here, is it not?” 

Eda sits back up, a little slumpily from the apple buzz.

“Aw hell, Lils. You’ve got too much faith in me. I may be the strongest witch around, but even my plate’s got a capacity limit. King and Luz are so… complicated. And, for fucks sake Lily, I’m a wanted criminal!”

“Then it’s a good thing you have a state of the art home defense system.” Both chuckle. Lilith takes a moment to collect herself before speaking again.

  She shouldn’t be here.   No, she was invited. She was welcome.

  She’ll find out. You’re a monster. So shouldn’t I try to be better? 

  You’ll hurt her again. You’ll hurt them all. You shouldn’t be here.   No. She needed to be here. 

She had missed too much. She had caused too much damage. What had she been doing for so long? Running away from her mistakes? She didn’t want to hurt Edalyn again, but distancing herself  just hurt her more. She had done even more damage. She left Eda alone. 

Lilith couldn’t fix the curse, Edalyn stubbornly refused to let Emperor Belos remove it. But this? She could fix. 

If it meant she had to be reminded every day of the true ramifications of her mistakes, of the horrific thing she had done, then so be it. 

“...I’m here now, Edalyn. I’m sorry. I left you alone. I’m sorry. I’ve had a nephew for eight years, and I didn’t have a clue. I… want to be there for them. I want to be there for you. I’m sorry. ”

Eda smiles at her. Lilith smiles back.

“It’s about damn time, Lily. I’ve missed having a sister.” She opens her arms in an obvious invitation for a hug.

“As have I.” She accepts her sister’s embrace.

They separate, with completely and totally dry eyes , and Lilith reaches behind her back to pull off the ‘Hex Me!’ sign that she knows is going to be there.

And it is.

She attempts to stifle a giggle, but it breaks with a snort, and the Clawthornes descend into a fit of laughter.

“So, does this mean I get a free crime pass?” Eda recovers herself and wipes at her eyes.

“Oh, absolutely not. Dear sister, I’m afraid you’ve just invited even more accountability into your home.” 

“Really? Somehow I doubt that.” The owl lady pours 2 more cups of appleblood. Oh, It couldn’t hurt to have just a bit more, could it?

“I hate to spoil the mood so soon, but how the hell do you plan to make this work? You’re welcome in my house anytime as long as you’re not hauling me off to be petrified.”

Ah, and that was the question, wasn’t it? Her sister was a wanted criminal, and Lilith was the head of the law enforcement trying to catch her. Such an obvious conflict of interest. Could they keep their personal and work lives separate?

“I’m unsure. I’d prefer to keep our work out of this, but I don’t think that’s entirely possible. We’ll figure something out. For now, I can just visit as often as I can manage.”

“I’m probs too drunk to make a solid plan anyway. How ‘bout we play hexes hold’em and just enjoy this for now? You can meet the lil’ bastards in the morning.” She holds out a deck of cards. 

“Oh, what the hell, why not?”

——————————————————————

“-and that form is pathetic. You are better than this! By the Titan you’re an embarrassment.”

Amity was desperately trying to control her breathing. 

“This… this thing came in armed with nothing but mere light spells.  and. you. lost. ”

She could try to clarify that no, she nullified the duel, but that distinction mattered little. 

“That hack you call a mentor gave you an advantage! Not only did you throw it away at the first opportunity, you used it to broadcast your shame, our shame , to everyone watching.”

If she tried to speak up, she’d break down.

“You are a Blight. ”

She just had to keep it together for a little longer.

“You must act like a Blight. You looked like a pitiful, cowering dog bleeding all over the dirt like that.”

Her mother would forget this eventually. This was temporary.

“If you’re going to act like a dog, surely you don't mind sleeping like one, hm?” 

Wait, what?

“Apparently, I’ve been too lenient on you. You shouldn’t need a power glyph to summon such piddly abominations. You shouldn’t be putting on such a pathetic showing in public, against the Clawthorne’s half-breed brat of all things. You shouldn’t be so vulnerable to a single attack.”

Her mother turned away, apparently too disgusted to even look at her anymore.

“Do not expect to find a bed in your room tonight. And do not expect to receive treatment for those wounds of yours.”

There are worse things that could happen. She’d dealt with worse before. Her mother makes to leave the room.

“Do not let this happen again, Amity. I expect you to impress me.”

…

Amity finally collapses to the floor. 

She was a Blight. She couldn’t let herself fall apart.

She was a Blight. She would be better.

She was a Blight. She had to be.

She didn’t want to be.

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

Luz woke to a room full of floating lights, filling the space with their special  warmth. She didn’t have the grogginess waking up that she usually did, she actually felt fantastic . Probably the best sleep she’d ever gotten.

Stretching, she looks around the room to see her two friends huddled in their respective blanket piles, and King curled up into her side. Yesterday was quite the adventure and it looked pretty early in the morning, so she probably shouldn’t wake them just yet.

Not that she’s complaining about it, but the light glyphs floating around were a bit unusual. Willow, Gus, and King are asleep. Luz was asleep until just a moment ago, and there are like, a lot of light glyphs. Was Eda practicing with them or something? The door and the window were both closed, so they couldn’t have drifted in, and she can’t imagine her mentor practicing for so long in a room full of sleeping children.

That left one slightly unnerving possibility, Luz only knows one person that can make so many light glyphs like that. Did she do it in her sleep? Was that why she slept so well? Had she been doing it all night? Did other people cast spells unconsciously? Was that even possible? Why were her arms so damn itchy ? 

Uh oh.

She pulls her arms from the sleeping bag and looks at the hairs beginning to surface, reaching up until her totally fur-free fingers.  The hybrid had been trying to forget all about the apothecary visit the other day, shoving it to the back of her mind. Demon puberty was just… too much. Way too much. It felt like everything was happening so fast.

She tip-toes out of the room into the nearby bathroom. Her feet hurt. 

It smells a little of appleblood in the hallway, Eda must be awake already.

Taking a look in the mirror (something she’d been doing a lot lately), It was obvious the shirt she was wearing didn’t fit her anymore. Her wing bumps made it too tight up top even with the holes cut out for them, and the fabric just looked lumpy and poofed out. 

She took it off- it didn’t look like it was all that necessary anymore anyway, there wasn’t anything to see. 

The fur had crept from her back to cover her entire torso, and was beginning to take over her arms as well. Luz couldn’t believe just how quickly it happened. Yesterday her chest was itchy with a dusting of fuzz, and now her entire torso  was as fluffy as King. would her arms be fully engulfed before the end of the day? Would her legs be all fluffed over before the end of the week? It was such a massive change and yet… why didn’t she hate it?

When it was just her back, it felt incomplete and uncomfortable. She was so scared of what it would look like, but, now…

It felt right , looking in the mirror. She felt giddy.

How long had it been since looking at her reflection made her happy? The black matt of soft fur covering her chest felt like it was completing something, something that had been empty and bare before. The look had really filled in. She smiles at herself, showing off fangs any adult witch would be jealous of. Those fangs didn’t make people hate her here. They were normal, even cool here. 

Would it still feel right when her arms shared the same coat? She hoped it would. 

Maybe not being human wasn’t such a bad thing. 

There is a startling tug on her spine as she feels muscles activate against her will. Muscles that have never properly been used before, and sting painfully with every contraction.  Once those muscles start, they keep going. She looks down, seeing a swish of fur. It takes a second for her brain to compute what’s happening.

Oh my gosh oh Titan is that my tail!?!? is my tail is wagging!?!? what!?!? 

The little tail was barely 7 inches long, sticking out of a hole Eda had cut in her shorts yesterday morning. It was already so fluffy, and apparently, had gotten strong enough last night to start moving in earnest.

Luz tries willing it to stop. It doesn’t. She could sense the muscles there, and move it in a general direction, but the wagging didn’t seem to be something she had any control over. Oh she does not want this to happen any time she gets happy! This is horrible, actually!

It stops.

Oh, yay! It finally stopped!

It starts again.

She groans and puts her shirt back on. As she turns to leave, she notices a few more light glyphs floating in the room. 

Okay, she definitely didn’t cast those on purpose, and there wasn’t anyone else around. 

 …another thing she couldn’t control.

Maybe not being human was a mixed bag.

The hybrid makes her way downstairs, trying not to stew on the conflicting emotions swirling inside her. She liked some of the changes, and hoped that maybe she could feel more of that amazing ‘right’-ness in the mirror in the future.

But going home was becoming more difficult by the day, and there were apparently some things she had no control over. Would her instincts ramp up over time as well? 

It took so much restraint not to pounce on any hapless animal she saw twitching in the underbrush when she felt hungry.

What if she gets especially hungry and Willow or another friend walks in? Or Eda? Or Mami? What if her head starts seeing people as tempting as bunnies?

Maybe that wouldn’t happen and she was worrying over absolutely nothing. Or maybe she’ll lose control one day. It would only take a few seconds. Her brain always seemed to know exactly where to sink her teeth into for the least struggle possible. 

She was some type of demon, but exactly what type was a question that seemed more unanswerable by the day. 

Some demons are incredibly hostile- towards everything and everyone. What if she would be that way too? 

Everything is fine. All she has to do is not worry about it, shove it into the back of her mind just like everything else, and things will work out in the end. Focus on how amazing it will be to get wings and fly , even if the process of getting those wings is going to be incredibly painful.

Don’t think about that when those wings come in, any chance of living in the human realm disappears. Luz knows a concealment stone can only do so much. 

Don’t think about how much Mami will freak out when she sees how much Luz has changed. How she might not accept her hybrid daughter. How she’ll want to suppress how different Luz is, fit her back into a box just like always. 

As soon as Luz enters the living room, her nose is assaulted by the overwhelming sting of appleblood, far more than she’d ever been exposed to. She pinches her nose. 

The room is an absolute mess, The table and couch are flipped over, Cards are scattered everywhere, several glasses are tipped over spilling appleblood onto the wooden floors, A single untouched glass of water is on fire? There are scorch marks and gouges in the walls, and the contents of a closet or two look to be emptied into the space. Her mentor is splayed across the floor, snoring.

What the hell happened here!?

Eda must have gotten a bit overzealous with the drinking last night, but even then, this was a lot. Luz was scared to go into the kitchen, what sort of mess would await her there?

A drop of liquid falls to the floor right in front of her. There isn’t something on the ceiling, is there…?

Luz looks up and yes, yes there is something on the ceiling. 

A person. A person is on the ceiling.

A person is duct taped to the ceiling.

No, not just any person, either. She recognizes this person, they had been there for the duel with Amity.

The pale skin, seafoam eyes, dark blue hair. This was Eda’s sister!!!

… The head of the emperor’s coven was duct taped to the ceiling. Luz still didn’t have all of the context for this world’s government, but she’s pretty sure this woman is the equivalent of like…  the head of homeland security or something? The FBI? Luz should’ve paid more attention in civics class. 

Either way, this had to be shared. She snapped a picture of both sisters, and snuck back upstairs to wake up her friends.

“Luz, is that… is that covenness Lilith!?!? ” Willow whisper-yelled into her ear. Gus was looking at the woman stuck to the ceiling wordless, with his mouth gaped open. King was giggling, trying and failing to stay quiet.

“Yeah, that’s her alright. She’s Eda’s sister, I guess she came by for a visit. So regal, right?” 

Gus passes out. King baps his face. bap bap.

“Do… we… help her?” The green girl seems a bit nervous, both star-struck and dumbfounded at the same time.

“Maybe we should ask Eda first.” Luz walks up to her mentor’s unconscious body. Her nose was absolutely shot at this point, the smell of alcohol in the room too strong, but Luz was thankful. Eda looked gross.

She crouches down and shakes her gently. Do witches get hangovers? “Eda? Eda, it’s wake up time! Hey Willow, could you please get a glass of water? And a bucket?” Willow nods and scurries to the kitchen.

The owl lady whines into the floorboards, grumbling something incomprehensible. 

“Eda! I found some snails in the couch, I’m gonna put ‘em in my pocket!”

The owl lady abruptly pushes herself up, wide awake, and glowers at Luz.

“The hell you ain’t! Those are- augh.. hurk ..” Willow sets down a wooden bucket in front of her just in time for the most powerful witch on the boiling isles to hurl into it.

The hybrid looks away. Gross. “Thanks, Willow.”

“Bluergh… I feel like I got hit by a muscledrake… Luz?” Eda leans back against the flipped couch, hand clutching her forehead. Witches do get hangovers apparently.

“Are you alright? Willow brought you some water if you need it?”

She considers the glass for a moment, but decides against it.

“Nah, I got somethin’ way better.” The owl lady reaches into her massive pomf of hair and pulls out a dark brown potion bottle, and chugs it. She lets out a long sigh. “Anti-hangover potion. Works like a damn charm! Took me five years to get right.” Luz hopes this won’t be a regular occurrence. She knows her mentor has a bit of a drinking issue, but for how long had it been going on? She’d have to ask about that at some point. Maybe Luz could do something to help her.

Eda looks around the room, taking in the utter destruction. “Huh.”

“Uhm.. Miss Eda?” Willow speaks up and points to the lady taped to the ceiling. “Should we do something about Covenness Lilith?”

The Clawthorne’s eyes follow to where Lilith is bound, and she does a double take. 

“Pfffttt… pft-ha HAHAHAHAHA! Oh my TITAN, oh, oh Lily is-” She can’t even finish the thought before she rolls over, clutching at her stomach laughing.

The two kids look at each other, and Luz shrugs. It is pretty funny.

“Oh hot damn I wish I could remember doing that!” Eda stands up and moves underneath where Lilith is stuck. “I blacked out around the 3rd game of Hexes Hold’em. Wonder how long we were up drinkin’.”

The three conscious children look to Eda, waiting for her to do something.

“Well, who wants to wake up the pissed off hungover raven? Alternatively, who wants to draw on her face before we wake her up?” She pulls out a glittery magic sharpie of some sort. King immediately raises his hand.

Eda picks him up and lifts him so he can scribble all over the coven head’s face, giggling the whole time. What adorable mischief. The owl lady tosses a long stick to Luz, she stumbles a bit trying to catch it.

“Alright kid, poke her with that stick till she wakes up. The rest of us are gonna stand back.” Eda herds everyone a few meters away, Willow shooting Luz a nervous double-thumbs-up.

Was this child endangerment? Almost certainly. Frankly speaking, she was the most durable person here, but Eda has shields and experience with her sister. Luz half suspects this is some sort of lesson about poking firebee nests or something. Maybe a lesson in how to deal with an angry Clawthorne sibling. She glances at the twirly mustache and ‘King wUZ hEre!’ scribbled onto her peaceful face. She nervously smiles back at her friend.

“Here goes nothing!”

She gently pokes Lilith’s cheek with the stick. poke. poke. 

Luz narrowly dodges a droopy drop of drool.

poke.  poke. 

The ceiling woman stirs. Luz pokes her once more and takes a step back, holding the stick with both hands defensively. 

“wuerh.. bleugh..  Hmumm..?” Lilith’s eyes slowly flutter open. Her eyebrows furrow, no doubt feeling the effects of a hangover come on, probably a bit less intense than Eda’s though. It’s doubtful that she would drink as much as the owl lady.

Her face scrunches up in what seems like confusion. She looks around, bleary eyes locking onto Luz. She gives a little wave with the most convincing smile she can muster. It's not particularly convincing. 

“Augh.. Luz? Why ar’ you upside down? Why do I feel like I got hit by a muscledrake? Why can't.. I.. move..?” Lilith questions, blinking the fog from her eyes. Everyone takes another step back.

As her eyes dart around, The Clawthorne takes inventory of the situation.

“Ah. I’m on the ceiling. Taped to the ceiling. I see.”

She seems calm. Eda takes a quiet sigh of relief.

“Edalyn? You have five seconds.”

The relief on the Clawthorne sister’s face melts in an instant, and she blows through the front door as fast as owlbert can take her.

The duct tape bursts into a bright blue flame, burning through entirely in a matter of seconds. Lilith drops to the ground, landing on her feet, and calls her staff to her side. She takes off after Eda, the resulting burst of wind frizzing up Luz’s hair.

King speaks up as the other two are stunned.

“I’m taking bets on if she comes back conscious or unconscious!” 

Luz bets on the latter.

——————————————————————

Willow and Gus Leave the house shortly after, since it’s past time for them to get back, and butting in on what is obviously a family matter doesn't seem appropriate. Eda spins up a quick spell to put the couch and table back into their proper upright place. She floats over another plush chair and sets it down for Luz.

The purple-haired girl sits down in the chair, placing King in her lap. Eda and Lilith sit across from her on the couch, both covered in numerous minor scrapes, burns, and red leaves.

They all sit in awkward silence for a moment. Eda clears her throat.

“So, King. Luz. This is my sister, Lily. She’s gonna be here a lot more often, so you should all get introduced. Now , If you’ll excuse me-” Eda stands up and takes a step to walk away, but Lilith grabs her before she can get away.

“No avoiding serious conversations. I’d like you to be here, sister.” Eda grumbles and plops back down.

Luz flaps her hands in her lap.

“So. uhm.. Hi? I’m Luz Noceda! It’s nice to meet you, oh wise ‘covenness Lilith’ ! I’m not actually your niece by the way! Just thought I’d clarify since you sorta told everyone that I was?”

“And I am King! Hi! Even though you work for the super evil despicable demiurge usurper emperor, you’re family! You shall be spared in the great purge! Mweheheheh!” King stands up and strikes the pose of a great conqueror. Luz settles him back in her lap by giving him a few scritches at the back of his neck. He’s so excitable.

“...right. It’s nice to finally meet you two. Luz, my apologies for introducing you as such during the duel the other day. If it causes you any trouble or bothers you, I can make a public clarification statement?”

The hybrid thinks about it for a second. It hadn’t really caused any trouble yet, wouldn’t being the niece of someone like Lilith be a good thing? People are less likely to mess with you if you’re related to someone influential. On the other hand, Eda is also a Clawthorne, and it was heavily implied that Luz was her daughter . Being the daughter of an infamous wanted criminal also made people less likely to screw with you, but came with a bit of discrimination and trouble with the law. Maybe it all balances out? Either way, It doesn’t really bother her. It’d be nice to have a separate identity in the demon realm. Maybe people will just assume that she’s a native demon, and one related to two super powerful witches, Not to be crossed! She makes a quick glance to the growing fur on her arms.  ‘Luz Clawthorne’ doesn’t sound too bad. Especially if she has to stay here permanently.

“No, it’s alright! I think being a ‘Clawthorne’ actually helps out! Reduces the amount of questions I get, you know?”

“Ah, good. And King, I should have properly met you years ago. I have been incredibly remiss in my duties as an aunt.”

King startles a bit at the word ‘aunt’. He’s not used to such direct familial language being used. He doesn’t contradict her.

“Well! i-it’s about time! I require many snacks and offerings. Oh! You need to meet Francois!” He jumps off of her lap, and grabs his favorite plushie rabbit, and jumps right back on, holding francois up.

“He is my top general! If you are to be here, you need his approval! What offer ye, a-aunt Lilith?” He flusters a bit at the use of the word.

The clawthorne sister chuckles. “I have an expertise in the area of demonology, as well as many other subjects. I may offer you counsel perhaps?”

King perks up at the mention of demonology, and seems ready to accept, but pulls back at the last moment, narrowing his eyes.

“... and cupcakes?”

“Yes. yes, that is acceptable. Francois declares you worthy! Keep up that attitude and one day, maybe, I will even grant you the opportunity to give tummy rubs!” awwwww! Luz tickles under his chin and scratches at his belly. King dissolves into a fit of giggling and purring into her lap. He never stops being world-endingly adorable.

“So… are you just gonna be living here now?” Luz asks.

“I will not be living here, I will simply be visiting frequently. The situation may alter in the future as I make arrangements with my work to allow for family accommodations within my schedule, but I do still have an important job I must do. I’ll be taking some of the workload of caring for two children, you two, off of my sister. One of the first things I’d like to assist in is your educations. Edalyn is not, in my experience, particularly qualified to be a teacher.”

“Hold on, we didn’t talk about that last night, Lily. I’m not letting you brainwash these two with your coven bull-crap.” Eda points an accusatory finger at her sister. Luz thinks that it’s actually a great idea! Lilith is a super powerful witch, and Eda is a great teacher, but isn’t very consistent with their lessons. Maybe Lilith would help Luz get into Hexside?

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to butt in on what you intend to teach the children. Like we agreed, I am your sister while I’m here. I’ll run my lesson plans by you first. I am fully capable of teaching Luz any forms of magic, wild or not. Neither of them are attending a traditional school setting and will need a lot of support in their academics. Support I know you are unequipped to provide.”

Eda grumbles for a little while but seems to accept the terms.

Lilith might be the head of the big bad coven, but she seems so nice. Watching the two sisters bicker is a fun bonus. Luz has never had an aunt before. Not that she’s her actual aunt or anything. Just filling the role temporarily! Just like Eda is temporarily filling the role of mother.  

“I hope we can all get to know each other better. Now,” She pulls out a thick seafoam binder from a spell circle. “How about we bond over constructing some routines and an academic schedule for you two?” She smiles at Luz and King. kind of a strange thing to bond over, but Luz is practically vibrating anyway at the prospect of putting together a magic class schedule. 

“I’d love to!”

As she leans in to look at the oversized binder, the doorbell rings. Luz was unaware there even was a doorbell. Eda opens the door to a basket lying on the ground with a note inside.

Looks like Lilith was gonna be putting her new aunt skills to the test already.

——————————————————————

Chapter Text

Luz wanders into the library with a substantial stack of books in her hands. Eda had sent her out to return some of her far overdue library books after the basket of babies arrived because she didn’t want to share the cash reward. Lilith stayed behind, Eda sending her a death glare, threatening her if she didn’t help out. 

The Clawthorne sister probably wasn’t getting any of the reward money either. Once the bat-baby started shrieking, Luz left as fast as she could before the owl lady changed her mind. No way was she gonna deal with that right now.

Her thoughts had been jumbled up since this morning, a mix of happiness, apprehension, and confusion. ‘Aunt’ Lily joined in, and only added to those feelings. She hoped Lilith was a good teacher, and would stick around to help out. She seemed nice. Luz didn’t want to watch the two sisters have another falling out. It was obvious that they bickered, fought, and disagreed, but it didn’t seem particularly hostile . They seemed to still love eachother, even with the complicated past that Luz wanted to learn more about.

The book atop the heavy stack glows with a green aura, and lifts away towards the front desk. The rest of the books follow shortly after, all being directed by an old librarian putting them into some sort of tiny portal circle. He does not look impressed. 

“Late. Late. Late. Late. Late, and… coffee, grass, tearing, appleblood, fur, sauce, feathers, grease, and bloodstains?” He looks up to Luz’s awkward wave. “These are Eda’s, then?”

“Yeah! Sorry about that last one. We tried making breakfast outside with this big thing we caught. Turned out it wasn’t dead! heheh.” 

“Hrm. I’ll put it on her tab. You’re welcome in the library, but please try not to bleed on the books.” He points to a flier on the wall behind him. “Please keep in mind we are closing early today due to the wailing star.”

Wailing star? Ooh! Sounds fun. “What’s the wailing star?”

“You’re in a library. Read a book.” He thusly stops paying any attention to Luz.

“Huh. I am in a library! I will read a book.” She is in a library. She will read a book.

The purple-haired girl walks past the old librarian into the library proper, and looks in awe at the huge trove of bookshelves. Was the building bigger on the inside? Bonesborough had an impressively sized library. She could see two floors, all packed with bookshelves. There were a few spaces filled with tables and chairs for studying and reading, crystal balls set up like computers. 

She stalks around, looking at the crystal balls playing videos, mostly of magic study material or cute cat-like creatures. In various nooks and crannies, Luz sees more comfortable chairs: recliners, beanbags, lounge chairs, a few couches, all with little side tables and reading lamps. All places to sit down for a while and just enjoy a book. She sits down and sinks into a large beanbag chair, it could easily fit two or more people. So soft and comfy…

Another benefit to her new fur was that everything was more comfy. Even already soft and comfy stuff like the beanbag chair were made even softer and comfier by the extra layer of fluffy padding. Even if her wing bumps mostly counteracted any comfort gained. The tail was… Weird. It was a little uncomfortable if she laid or sat on it, but she could stick it out to the side and it wasn’t too bad, and the extra fluff did add something kinda nice. It was mostly just unpleasant to have the thing wagging, like it was right now. The muscles still hurt a bit.

The hybrid looks up from where her face is buried in the beanbag chair at the nearest bookshelf. She hadn’t actually been paying much attention to the books themselves as she walks around, but she might as well try and see what was on offer here.

Half of the books on display were written in runic, which she wasn’t so great at reading yet, and what titles she could make out probably weren’t readable anyway since the insides were likely far too complex for her. The other half though, were in plain common. It looked like the section she was in was medical study material, all sorts of highly complicated books about biology and healing spells. Her gaze drifts to an oddly familiar title. ‘Healing Magic 4 Useless Idiots’. She takes it off the bookshelf.

The language inside the book was a little rude and demeaning, mostly a lot of insults about how stupid the reader is for not understanding basic healing magic already, but there seemed to be some actually useful information contained within. Little tidbits of advice for how to cast a basic spell and what sort of mindset you need, basic forms and descriptions of witch biology and how to mend it. Most of it was very similar to human biology, with the exception of the bile sack. And apparently witches regrow their teeth every so often. Would Luz do the same? The book mentions that most demons do as well, but she doesn’t get to the chapter about demon biology before she closes the book. She stuffs it in a little bag, one that Eda gave her. It's bigger on the inside, so it can hold a bunch of stuff. Super convenient. Now it can just stay in there. Not like she can even cast a spell, anyway.

It was unfair, really. She could conjure hundreds of lights! Hell, she was casting them on accident just earlier today! She fired off a shockwave that shook an entire building! And yet she can’t cast the simplest of spells. Her magic was confusing. Hadn’t the apothecary said her blood had a high magical content? It felt like she had so much and so little magic all at once.

…is it even really her magic? Is that why she couldn’t cast anything else? The light glyph isn’t hers. Luz doesn’t know how she knows that, but the fact is as obvious as breathing. The glyph means ‘light’ and so much more, its glow so warm and relaxing, so clear and bright and present, made of an energy she feels so connected to, and it isn’t hers. 

Whose is it, if it’s not hers? Why does she even know that? Is Luz just borrowing it? 

…could she borrow more?

No, that’s greedy. A true witch trains power for themselves, or accepts power and assistance from a loved one under dire circumstances! Maybe even steals power from a villain, and then uses it for good! What’s a worse punishment for the most horrific of villains than to use their own hands to help those they would wish to hurt? Nothing, nothing is what. Okay, maybe whatever Giorno did to Diavolo is worse, but that’s an outlier.

She would eventually be able to cast a spell all on her own, and once she could do that, her true training would begin. Luz would be the greatest witch the earth and the boiling isles had ever seen.

For now, she’ll make do with what she has. Flashbangs and a sonic shockwave she doesn’t know how to control.

Luz pries herself from the beanbag and gets back to exploring the library, grabbing onto the occasional magical conveyor belt of books going who knows where, feeding the ‘demon decimal system’, and getting shushed by everyone when she gets a bit too loud.

She tries to find a trace of the ‘Wailing Star’, but she can’t find much that actually explains what it is. Information on it is either pretty scarce, or she can’t navigate the demon decimal system for crap. Probably the latter. All she finds are poems too dense to really get anything from. Something about an archivist sad about a lost sibling? Must’ve been crying for a long time if they’ve become a cosmic event.

She spends a little time trying to find anything on her light glyph, but there isn’t anything beyond books on basic light spells and how to use them creatively. Luz doesn’t need anyone to tell her how to be creative. She gets distracted by a sign before she gets too frustrated trying to search in futility. The sign has a single, simple word. Amongst the billions of words one can find in a well-stocked library, one is by far the most exciting: ‘Café’ .

She has some pocket change to spare, and could absolutely go for some coffee and a flaky pastry.

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

Luz startles and dashes behind a bookshelf and does her best to pretend to be a book. That was Amity’s voice! Was she still mad at her for the whole duel thing? There isn’t any follow-up, all Luz hears is children giggling.

The hybrid peeks around the bookshelf, and spots Amity. She’s sitting at the front of the children’s section, reading a book to a gaggle of enamored pre-school kids.

“ ‘We're your friends and we wanna help,’ said the Tin Boy with a yelp. Otabin smiled and paced the floor. ‘I've never had real friends before.’ ”

It was such a stark contrast to a few days ago. Instead of sneering, haughty, and mean; The girl still in her abominations uniform was nothing but gentle and kind. The relaxed smile on her face fit Amity much better than a scowl or tears. The whole scene was cute, really.

Luz walks over all stealthy-like and crouches behind a tiny bookshelf, peeking just a few feet from the reading group. 

“ ’Then we'll be your first,’ the Chicken Witch clucked. Otabin couldn't believe his luck. So, Bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship with all of them, so he could keep the memories forever, true bonds to never sever. The end.” Amity closes the book and stands up. The kids scramble around thanking her and run off, giggling. The kids really seem to love her. Luz ducks underneath the bookshelf to avoid her view, and puts a book over her head for extra camouflage.

Amity was all nice and smiley right now. Maybe Luz could befriend her just like Azura befriends her rival Hecate! She’d ignore what happens between them in book 4 for now.

The green haired girl walks past the bookshelf and takes a quick glance at Luz, seemingly not caring. Then, she stops. She turns her head and yelps, staring at the hybrid. That caring smile and nice attitude drops in an instant.

“Ugh. you. What are you doing here?”

Oh, she seemed pretty peeved off. To be fair, Luz did sort of humiliate her in front of everyone that matters. Even if Lilith played a big part in that due to the whole cheating thing, It was Luz that challenged her to the stupid duel in the first place. But even with a shaky past, rivals can become the best of allies! She just has to find a way to peel through the layers of angst surrounding the sweet core of the lemon-drop.

And sure, Luz got her fair share of punishment from the duel too, but she doesn’t hold it against Amity. She got her ass kicked and that’s what she deserved for challenging someone so obviously way stronger than her. Amity just did what was expected of her. She even canceled the duel after the cheating was revealed, such sportsmanship! And they had like, a moment at the end there! Luz realizes she’s been crouched and silent for a few seconds too long.

She stands up and leans her arm on the bookshelf, putting on a silly smug face. Before she can say a word, her arm slips from the bookshelf and she falls down, smacking her head on the wood. “weH!” Ow. Damn stupid fur! Another thing she’d have to get used to: much of her body was now slippery on flat surfaces.

She shoots back up and carefully leans on the bookshelf. The green haired girl does not look impressed.

“ I’m just hanging out at the library! Y’know, a thing that people do. And look at you, Amity! Reading to kids! This sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center.” Operation: ‘Hecate Redemption’ begin.

“It’s for extra credit, don’t get your…” Amity squints her eyes at Luz’s lumpy shirt and exposed arms. “... fur in a tangle.” She turns on her heel and walks away. Luz follows her.

“Hey, I could help with the kids, we could take turns reading! I do a fantastic monster voice! Watch-”  Amity stops for a moment to watch, clearly not enjoying being followed. The hybrid hunches down slightly and brings her claws up, tail wagging. She bares her fangs in a wide smile, staring Amity in the eyes in mock intimidation, and produces the loudest guttural growl she can manage.

Amity stumbles back and stares at Luz with her mouth open in shock for a few seconds, a dusting of pink on her cheeks. The hybrid holds the pose, confused at her reaction. Did she scare Amity by accident? Oh, man.. Operation Hecate Redemption was already off to a rocky start.

The Blight girl’s eyes widen, like she just fully processed what had happened, and her face lights up like a tomato. She takes off running without bothering to respond to Luz. It almost looks like she has a bit of a limp, but that’s probably just because she was startled.

Damn. she didn’t mean to terrify her!!! Her monster voice was way too fantastic! She’s gotta get a handle on that, all of the sharp pointy bits on her are maybe a bit too intimidating. Luz deflates with a sigh.

“So much for befriending rivals…”

She hears someone blow out a long whistle behind her.

“ Woah there , little Clawthorne! Haven’t seen a move that bold since my 8th grade Grom.” A feminine voice says.

Luz turns to see a pair of teenagers leaning down to her, both looking highly amused. One girl, one boy. Their green hair and facial features reminded her of Amity, were they related? And- Bold? Grom? What are they talking about? She takes a step back, the two teens were really close to her face.

“Uh.. hi? Who are you? What are you talking about?”

She could sense magic radiating off of them, concentrated in little blue gems embedded in their illusion-track uniforms. Both chuckle.

“Well-wishers on a mission! We were gonna give Mittens her lunch,” The boy holds up a cute winking doggy lunch bag. The girl takes over the sentence fluidly.

“Buuuut, doesn’t seem like she’s coming back. I’m Emira, and this is Edric.”

“We’re Amity’s older siblings. We heard about your abomination escapade,”

“ And we saw that duel you two put on last week. You did quite the number on her! No wonder she hates you.”

“Heheh, yeah, ‘hates’ . You got a nice growl there. A real charmer.”

Luz blushes. She doesn’t really understand what they’re getting at, but it’s nice to meet Amity’s older siblings. They seem nice, if not a little tricky.

“I know, but I didn't mean to embarrass or hurt her! I thought we were cool as cucumbers after the duel! And now I scared her off, we’re as sour as pickles…”

“ ‘Scared’ her off, huh?” The two look at each other, then back at Luz, smirking.

“Right. Well, don’t worry about Mittens for now. You should hang out with us, Ed and Em!”

“We’re way more fun. Follow us.”

‘Mittens’? Was that what they called Amity? How adorable! Sibling nicknames! She’s never been able to have that before, Luz is actually a bit jealous. Amity seems to have such great family. …Maybe she and King could have sibling nicknames? They aren’t actually siblings, but it sure felt like it.

Might as well see what she could get up to with the blight siblings, Amity wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Darn intimidating fangs.

“Alright, whadda you guys wanna do?”

——————————————————————

Unsurprisingly, they get kicked out. The Blight siblings’ idea of fun was playing pranks and causing mischief, which was certainly something Luz could get behind, but also came with the one dreaded thing Luz hates the most: Consequences.

Fortunately they can just get back inside after hours. The wailing star was going to happen soon, and she didn’t want to miss that- plus whatever else the twins had planned. 

She had some time to plan how to be cool in front of the twins while she waits. She tries a few poses and demos some ‘cool’ lines for when they arrive, but nothing seems to hit. There has to be something she can do to impress them! Growling again would be a horrible idea, seeing what it did to Amity. Doing her light glyph trick would draw unnecessary attention to their location..

Maybe this pose? Or this one? Maybe a cool hand sign?

Cool. cool as a cucumber.

“Keep going.”

“Huh?” She slips and falls onto her butt in surprise. They’re already here!?

“No, seriously! This is fun to watch.”

“Are you ready to bring… whatever this is inside?”

“Yep! Very much so gonna bring this inside. This cool, awesome thing that I’m doing. On the floor.”

…

The twins walk to the giant library door, mercifully ignoring how apocalyptically awkward Luz is.

“It says ‘no trespassing’ but I’m allergic to the rules.” He holds up a scroll to the door.

“And dairy.”

“Wow, really just gonna expose me like that?”

Emira presses her hand to the scroll against the door’s lock, the paper glowing and fizzling into dust.

The lock grows in size, creating a huge hole in the door, big enough for all three to walk through comfortably. Woah. They all walk inside.

“Standing in a dimly lit lobby! You guys really know how to party.”

Edric guides Luz’s attention to the stained glass window above the entrance.

“Shh, look, it’s the wailing star!”

A bright green shooting star passes in the sky, visible through the window. Its pale green glow streams through and shines on the interior, and the event passes. Luz feels sick. The light felt so much like that awful magic back at the convention, the branding. She leans against a wall, trying to assuage the nausea.

The feeling is fading slowly, but she’s still too dizzy to walk. The twins are suddenly by her side, actually looking slightly worried.

“Uhhh, you alright?”

“Don’t like the color green or something?”

“Mmuhh.. I’ll be good in a second, I just… some magic makes me feel sick. It's a demon thing." 

“Oh, cool, You have a magic sense?”

“That’s super rare. And super useful.”

The hybrid shakes her head and gets back to her feet. The feeling hadn’t fully gone away, it was lightly radiating from every direction, but she could manage it for now. “Sooo… is anything gonna happen?”

“Well, the books are all glowing green now, so probably.” Emira picks out a book from the nearest shelf, glowing green just like she said. It’s titled ‘Extinct birds of the boiling isles’. She opens the book- and a bunch of live birds fly out of the pages into the air. They squawk around until Em closes the book, and they all go poof. 

“Wow!”

“The wailing star magic’d all the books to life.”

All three share a look and grin. Tonight was gonna be fun. Even if she felt kinda sick. 

They spend an hour opening up random books, in awe at all of the things that pop out. A few had a character pop out, some changed your clothing, some summoned animals or objects, and a particularly fun trio of books were snowball gatling guns. Why there were three copies of ‘Snowballs: A History’ Luz didn’t know. Why was there even one copy? Why would anyone write a book on the history of snowballs? At least all the cold and wet snow disappears after the books close, no clean up necessary!

Ed and Em show off their duck with horrifyingly muscular legs, much to Luz’s and the Duck’s despair. Ew. 

Luz finds the book that Amity was reading earlier in the day, ‘Otabin the Bookmaker’, a cute children’s story. She didn’t really want to scribble on the poor little guy’s face, but… peer pressure is a powerful motivator. She closes the book before the new Otabin can get out, not wanting to see what she had just done to him. She drops the book behind her.

“This was lots of fun, but are you ready for what we really came here for?” Edric begins leading her over to the romance section of the library.

“Oh, wow, Boiling Isles romance. That’s totally lame. I mean, unless you guys are into it?” 

“I think I’m into..” He reaches for a book on the shelf, ‘The Lone Witch and the Secret Room’. Halfway through pulling it out, Luz hears a click. “This one.” secret bookshelf lever!

The entire bookshelf shakes and recedes into the wall, before sliding off to the side to reveal a secret room. Woah… She had always wanted to see one of these before. Secret rooms are the coolest! This one looks particularly well stocked. There are moon and star lights hanging from the ceiling, providing a nice dim ambience to the space. The walls are covered in books, and a comfy looking desk and chair combo laid on the opposite side of the small room. Some big pillows scattered about could probably be used to make a little reading nest. Was this the twins’ library hideout? She enters, taking in all the different books on the shelves. This was a personally curated collection!

“Wowie.. Your clubhouse is like the ultimate secret hideaway.”

Edric and Emira scoff.

“We don’t hang out in the library. ‘Uh. teacher! I’m in love with a dictionary. Bluhh’”

“‘Bluhbluh I’m studying the dark arts, durr’”

“This is Amity’s secret hideaway.”

Oh. This suddenly feels like an invasion of privacy. The twins look incredibly smug and mischievous… uh-oh. They must be here to prank their little sister! They stand on either side of Luz, each placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Mittens has gotten too.. full of herself. She keeps tattling on us when we skip class.”

“She needs to learn that it’s not okay to mess with people like that. So…”

“We’re gonna find her diary.”

“And then post the pages all around the school for everyone to see!”

They laugh like it's such a great prank.

It's really not.

“What? Isn’t that taking it a bit too far?” It's not just a ‘bit’ too far, it's way too far! That sort of humiliation and privacy breach isn’t something anyone should go through. Luz didn’t want to be part of this, she already hurt Amity before.

“No. See, we’re her family! It’s tough love. She needs to learn to lighten up.” They both separate from her and begin looking through the bookshelves, on the prowl for Amity’s diary.  Luz pretends to look around.

“Well, y’know I-I don’t see any diaries in here. Nope, nothin’! Let’s just leave! We should really just go.”  Wait.. are those.. No, it couldn’t possibly be.

Underneath a plaque that reads ‘My Favorite Books’, Azura book 4 is prominently displayed. She squeals.

“No way! Good Witch Azura volumes one through four!! You get these on the Boiling Isles?” Amity likes Azura. Amity likes Azura. She’d never met anyone else who likes Azura before! Maybe operation: Hecate redemption wasn’t so doomed after all. 

She grabs a book behind the one on display, one with a custom cover. It kind of looks like.. Amity in an Azura costume?
“Is this cover hand-drawn..?”

She opens the book to a random page, and a tiny projection of the youngest Blight sibling pops out and begins talking.

“ I saw that half-human girl again. I may have overreacted last time. I don’t want to come across as cruel… but I can’t show weakness. Maybe I should say I’m-” She closes the book. No way she’s letting any more of that play out. Those are private thoughts, she’s not supposed to hear them.

“Whatcha got there, Luz?” Both Edric and Emira are leaning over her. She quickly hides the book behind her back, claws digging slightly into the cover.

“Oh! n-nothing! Just the Good Witch Azura volume five! She goes through a goth phase in this one, its-” Edric spins up a spell circle and the book is nearly tugged out of her hands, She tightens her grip and crosses the book over her chest protectively.

“No! No way! You’re not getting this! It's private!”

“Why were you trying to hide it from us? Give us the diary, Luz.”

“You see how she treats people, how she treats you .”

“I know Amity can be kind of cold sometimes but no one deserves this. These are private thoughts.”

Emira tries to grab the book from her, but the hybrid jumps back and shows her fangs. A little intimidation was necessary here.

“She needs this!”

“It’s for her own good.”

“No! She doesn’t! We’re gonna put this book back where we found it, and then we’re going to leave the library and never think about this diary again.”

“So we’re doing this the hard way, then?” The twins nod at each other, and then leap for the purple-haired girl. She tries to dodge out of the way again, but the space is too small and they pin her to the ground.

She clutches the book as hard as she can, claws digging deep into the binding.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be!”
“We’re gonna teach her a lesson one way or another!”

“Hrrnngg… No! I’m not letting you do that to her! What kind of family does that!?”

“ Unbelievable. ”

The three fighting over the book freeze in place, turning to the new voice. Amity was standing in the doorway, looking absolutely furious . Both twins immediately shuffle off to the side, leaving Luz with the diary in her hands. 

“Amity! It's not what it looks like!”

The Blight girl walks up to the hybrid and snatches the damaged diary out of her hands. She glares at her siblings.

“You two. are. the. worst. What the hell were you thinking!?” Amity Yells.

“Listen, Mittens-”

“No! I’m not going to listen! This is too far, getting into my-” She stops suddenly, sucking in a breath through her teeth, clutching at her chest. The twins look at her a bit confused and concerned.

“Ams, what’s-”

“ Out .”

“If you’re hurt, we can help! Did mom-”

“ Get out! ” Abomination goo rises from the floor, forming into a menacing collection of tendrils around Amity. Her siblings take the hint and scramble out of the room, leaving Luz paralyzed behind the angry girl.

Amity sighs and the abomination goo drains back into the floor. She turns around and looks at the half-human.

“Mittens- I-I mean, A-Amity, I-”

“Thanks.”

“Huh?”  Huh? 

“Thank you. I… heard most of that. You stopped them. That means a lot.”

“Oh! Uh. yeah. I did do that! It’s not okay to air someone’s private thoughts like that. It's cruel. I mean, if it was a more harmless prank I probably would’ve been fine with it, since you have been kinda rude, but that would’ve just been in good fun, and-”

“You should probably shut up.”

“Right! Heheh. Shutting up now.”

She holds the book up, taking in the gashes left in it.

“Your claws are really sharp, by the way.” She winces.

“Thanks? Sorry about ruining your diary…  So… uhm… are we cool or whatever?” Luz fidgets with her hands nervously.

“...I suppose.” She leans down and picks up azura book 4, placing it back on the shelf. “I don’t really… get you. One moment you’re dueling and embarrassing me, then you’re all friendly, then you’re taunting me with your midnight conjuring, then you do…” She flusters for a moment. “weird stuff. What’s your deal, Clawthorne?”

“Oh! Heh, I’m not actually a Clawthorne, not really. I’m just living with the owl lady right now. I don’t really have ‘a deal’, I think. I just wanna be friends? I think it kinda sucks you bullied my broth- King. But I don’t think you’re, uh, bad or anything.”

“Really? I’m… sorry for treating your brother like that, I may have gone a bit overboard.”

“Thanks. Here, how about we start over?” Luz holds out a hand.

“Hello! My name is Luz, what’s yours?”

Amity stares at the hand for a second, huffing with a small smile. She takes the hand and gives it a shake.

“Amity. Nice to meet you, Luz.”

The hybrid jumps in excitement, then grabs the fourth Azura book.

“Well, new friend, I just so happened to notice your interest in the Good Witch Azura series.”

“Oh, that old series? I-I’m not really that into them.” She’s embarrassed. 

“Oh really?” Luz pulls out the fifth book in the series from her handy extra-dimensional sack. “Guess I’ll just keep this book aaall to myself, then!”

The green-haired witch stares at the newest Azura book.

“Wait. you have volume five!? I’ve been looking for it for ages!”

A smug smile breaks across Luz’s face.

“It's my favorite book series. If you wanna borrow it, you can. Maybe we can even start an Azura book club!”

“I think I’ll borrow it for a while.” She snatches the book and stores it in her own school bag. “The book club thing is a hard maybe. I’m not super keen on people knowing I like the series.”

“Well that’s fine, It can just be an us thing! No need for anyone else to barge in. You’ve already got a little private hideaway in the library, we could do it here.” She puts on a larger, purposeful smile. 

“Y-yeah, how about we discuss that later?”

“Sure! We can do it later. Why don’t we go have some fun with the wailing star while it's still happening?”

“As long as you don’t do your ‘monster voice’ again, sure.”

——————————————————————

Luz Clawthorne is a walking hurricane. 

Every time she runs into the half-human, something massive and destructive happens. Trouble follows her like a lost duckling.

At first, Amity doesn’t think much of it. The girl breaking into school and pretending to be Willow’s abomination project was annoying, yes, but not much more shenanigan-y than other stuff the student body regularly gets up to. She just assumed that Luz was a bit of a troublemaker with barely any brain cells left.

Then, they ran into each other again at the covention, and she challenged Amity to a duel. The rest of that day was an absolute nightmare. 

She had thought the duel would be a breeze, and it was for the first half. Because she cheated. Even unknowingly, she cheated. It wasn’t a fair fight whatsoever. Luz was kind of annoying, but Amity, frankly, was being a jerk. The hybrid girl was just protecting her brother from a bully.

She got so caught up in trying to impress everyone, she didn’t notice how odd it was that she could make so many abominations. She was so annoyed at the flashbangs her opponent used, and the audacity for her to still be standing, embarrassing her in front of everybody , that Amity went overboard. Luz was really beat up at the end. If she wasn’t so tough…  

Another witch would’ve been unconscious. Or dead.

Amity got hurt, but Luz was hurt way worse. She didn’t deserve that. Even if it was stupid to challenge her to a witch’s duel.

After the duel, even with all of those injuries, The purple-haired girl had come to comfort Amity. It confused her to no end.

Luz Noceda is insane.

She is so nice that Amity would call it a character flaw.

After she went home and had a ‘talk’ with her mother, she resented Luz. She was dealing with the pain of her claw marks, the disdain from her mother, the embarrassment of cheating and losing a duel. Everything sucked- and it was all Luz’s fault.

She wasn’t happy to see the hybrid show up to the library. The library was Amity’s safe space, where she could work, read, and exist away from the expectations and the social hierarchy- where Amity could just be herself. The twins didn’t come here, barely anyone she knew ever did. Her hideaway, a gift from Malphas, was the one truly private place she had left.

So when the girl that had caused so many awful things to happen barged in at the tail end of kid’s story hour? Amity just wanted her to leave. She was on the verge of just kicking her out.

But Luz was still trying to be nice.

And then- she does that . Amity’s cheeks flush just remembering it. It only confused Amity even more, was Luz interested in her? That kind of display was right out of her cheesy romance books. 

Now, she knew that the girl was just oblivious to a comical degree.

She was working late to keep any damage from the wailing star under wraps, she didn’t expect to find anyone inside. It felt like her heart stopped when she heard her sibling’s voices in her hideaway. It was the worst case scenario- It took everything she had not to break down then and there. Her space was no longer private. They would find her diary, would find out everything about her, and Amity wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Her siblings had stronger magic, and their illusions were powerful when they weren’t messing around. Then she hears Luz inside as well.

She thought Luz was helping them, but as she stayed to listen- The half-human was defending her. Standing up to the twins just so that they couldn’t make Amity’s life any worse.

Luz Clawthorne (Noceda? whatever.) is a good person, probably.

She chewed out her siblings a bit, and thanked Luz. And Luz still wanted to be friends. Her tail was even wagging.

Amity realizes she was being unreasonable and mean to Luz before, that’s what Amity is in public. The bad stuff that happened wasn’t really Luz’s fault, she just needed someone to blame.

Maybe they could be friends.

Amity is currently laying in a pile of dangerously soft kittens as she thinks about all of this. The Clawthorne had ambushed her with a book, ‘Cutest and fluffiest kittens’, and opened it above her head, and kept it open. The cats didn’t even trigger her allergies, It was heaven.

“I would totally jump in but I don't wanna crush any of the wittle baby cats. Or deal with the moral and ethical implications of making temporary life with magic.”

“It's a bit late for that, don’t you think? I think the cats will be fine if you jump in. It's great in here.”

The past hour was fun. Edric and Emira seemed to have left the library, leaving Luz and Amity alone together to play around with the wailing star’s effects. She just had to make sure things didn’t get too destructive- If you open up the wrong book and spawn a dragon or something, you’re in for some big trouble.

“Honestly, the magic from the books and stuff makes me feel a bit sick. It's taking every bit of restraint in my body not to get swaddled by cats, so I'm trying to rationalize it.”

“Oh. That's fair, I guess. More fluff for me. You have a magic sense?”

Luz was busy scanning the shelves for more interesting books to open.
“Yep! It's how I saw the thing on your neck. It's nice, but gets pretty overwhelming sometimes. Ooh! ‘Weapons of Deadwardian Conquerors?’”

“Maybe don’t open that one? Some of those weapons are sentient.” That makes sense, That must’ve been why she strafed around her in the fight so strangely at the end. Amity would’ve been suspicious too. “So… what was with that big shockwave?”

“I thought we were starting over?” Amity shoots her a glare. “I don’t really know, actually. I got desperate and it just sorta happened. I haven’t been able to do it again. I don’t even know what type of demon I am.”

“So you really went into the duel with nothing but light spells?”

“Uhm…. yeah. It was dumb. I found out a few days ago that I don’t even have a bile sack. At all.” 

Oh. didn’t she call Luz a malformed demon with a lump instead of a bile sack? She cringes.

“Sorry for, y’know, everything. Messing with your little brother and constantly insulting you. For what it's worth.”

“It’s worth quite a lot! Thanks. And, I already apologized, but I’m sorry for challenging you to that duel. Lilith is also sorry for the cheating thing.” So they actually know each other? Wasn’t Clawthorne not her real name?

“I thought Clawthorne was a fake name for you?”

“It is! But I live with her sister, and they’re sorta mending their familial relationship right now. It’s really heartwarming to watch. Hmm.. What about ‘Confectionary Methods of the Ancient Eismalok Peoples’?”

“If I remember correctly, dinner was a bloodsport for those guys. No thanks.”  Luz groans at her and puts the book back. Not her fault so many of these books have dangerous topics. It's the Boiling Isles, not the Lukewarm Shores.

“Ughh.. wish this stuff didn’t make me sick.”

“Not to be insensitive or anything, but you’re a lot more… fluffy than the last time I saw you. Demon puberty?” The fur was obviously still growing, and the tail was new. It was really wagging up a storm ever since they started hanging out. It was cute. The new changes really agreed with Luz, Amity decides. Plus.. those fangs. 

Amity had to admit that… well, Luz was attractive. Her accidental displays didn’t help the matter whatsoever, baring her fangs so haphazardly. Growling at Amity like she did. That genuine smile could kill someone if she aimed it wrong. She should really tell Luz what she was doing. …later.

“Yep! It's a lot. But I’m gonna get wings and horns and stuff and I like the fur, so I’m not too torn up about it.” She continues to rifle through books.

Wings, huh? The wing bumps made it pretty obvious. Luz was lucky. Amity liked wings.

Nope! No. nuh-uh. Not thinking about that! She is not crushing on a girl she just met. They were enemies just an hour ago! Absolutely no way. Luz is oblivious and trying anything right now would just be taking advantage of that. Plus, there’s always the chance that Luz doesn’t even like girls.

Why is she thinking about this still!?!?!?!?

Titan, the first modicum of genuine affection she gets from someone and she’s falling over at their heels.

Just because the hybrid girl could growl like that, and had big pretty fangs, and a cute face, nice purple hair, and an adorable little tail, and fluffy-

Amity’s thoughts are interrupted but a loud thump behind the kitten pile. She turns around to see a massive troll-like creature, a book in its chest beating like a heart. It almost looked like…

“Otabin?”

“With claws and fangs and breaking bones, I found a friend to make my own.”

Its hand swipes down faster than Amity can react and picks her up. Ogre Otabin (Ogrebin?) is far too strong for her to struggle against.

“Amity!” Her new friend calls after her.

“Luz!” She calls back, getting carried away.

Ogrebin takes her back to the children’s reading corner, where a massive blank book stands. He thrusts her against the book and takes out his signature needle & thread, sewing around her arm. Her arm fuses into the page, becoming an illustration. 

“W-what? Why are you doing this? I’ve been reading you since I was a kid! I know you’re not like this. Someone changed you.” She saw the book in his chest, The illustration of Otabin scribbled over with mean eyes and claws. It must’ve been her siblings. There wasn’t anyone else around.

“But friends are what I've always sought. And now a friend my claws have caught.”

A Swirling purple cloud dramatically enters the room, drawing Ogrebin’s attention. The cloud coalesces into a familiar witch costume.

“Azura!?”

The Azura looks up, revealing Luz’s face. Of course. Is she holding Amity’s diary?

“Close! Is this drawn okay? I kind of interpreted the descriptions..”

“Luz!” Now was not the time to be such a dunderhead!

“Ah, right.” She scribbles something in the diary. “The good witch, Luzura, grabs her trusty staff.” Azura’s staff rises from the book, and the girl grabs it. “All right, beloved work of children's fiction. Let go of her!” 

Could Luz actually do this?

She rushes up to Ogrebin, swinging the staff around like an amateur. Ogrebin just grabs it and throws it away. Luz could not actually do this. She gets grabbed and sewn into the book just like Amity.

“Making friends, taking friends, never be without my friends.” Ogrebin sings.

“You fiend. You can't rhyme friends with friends!”

“Great work, ‘Luzura’.” Amity deadpans.

“Hey! I was trying to save you!”

“Well, you tried. Can you use that shout thing, maybe?”

“Hmm… I can try! Weh! weH! Weh! Weh! wehwehwehweh!” She takes in a deep breath.

“WEH!       … yeah, nothin’. Sorry. But I might have an idea!”

“Shoot.” Whatever it is can’t be any worse than getting sewn into a book forever.

“Follow my lead.” Luz rocks back and forth, screaming and pulling on the pages, and Amity follows suit.

The book falls over, smacking Ogrebin in the head and dazing him for a moment, the two girls take the opportunity to run past, further into the library.

“Now what!?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t even think that would work. I was all like- ‘rawrrr’”

The purple-haired girl just couldn’t be serious, could she? Amity lets out a real laugh at her antics. A needle stabs through the page right next to her face. Both girls scream as the book is reeled back.

“Flashbang him or something!”

“Oh, right! I can totally do that, good Idea Ams!”

Ams? Whatever, later. Luz closes her eyes and Amity hears Ogrebin letting out a startled scream. Seriously, what sort of magic is that? The book is stationary as presumably, Luz is chain flashbanging the poor children’s charcter.

Amity takes the time to try pulling at the stitches to no avail. She hears the sound of ripping paper from the other girl- Luz was just cutting her arm out of the page. Having claws sure seemed convenient.

“Cool! I’m out! Having claws sure is convenient. Here, I’ll get you out too, take my hand.”

Amity takes her hand, and pushes against the page while Luz pulls. The force was stretching the threads to their breaking point, and wow the hybrid girl was strong. She already knew that from getting punched in the face, but it was another thing to feel that strength not on the wrong side of a fight- 

She tries not to visibly wince. ow. ow. pain.

She’s almost out of the book- The threads snap and the momentum throws her out of the book, falling directly on top of Luz. She hisses between her teeth and tries desperately not to scream at the pain.

She can feel the wounds on her chest re-open. 

“Amity? Are you alright?” great, of course she noticed.

“I’m fine.” The Blight struggles off of Luz and sets her back against a bookshelf. The hybrid girl rushes to her side, apparently noticing the blood quickly soaking her uniform.

“No you’re not! That’s- ohmygosh that’s a lot of blood why are you bleeding so much!?” She doesn’t seem to know what to do, her hands paralyzed hovering over the bloody clothing.

“Just- we need to deal with Otabin first!” Amity bites out, a bit too snappily.

“Right. Okay. Just stay here Ams. I’ll be right back.” She turns towards Ogrebin, still swatting at the bright flashing lights pestering him. Amity knows the feeling. 

The half-human runs towards Ogrebin and stops just a few feet from him, taking deep breaths, focusing. What was she doing?

“Alright Luz, you can do this. All you gotta do is scream really loud. You’ve done it before” 

Amity focuses on her, anything other than the pain. She would’ve gotten a healing potion herself days ago, If she didn’t know that her mother would notice. 

One more deep breath, Ogrebin starting to wade his way through the storm of lights towards Luz, and The hybrid girl screams.

“ WEH!!! ” 

An identical purple crackling shockwave to last time rips through the air in front of Luz, in a much more directed manner. The lights blow away in an instant, and the illusory form of the mutated Otabin is ripped apart, then fades away into nothing. The library shakes from the force of the attack. The children’s section has books scattered everywhere. Amity doesn’t really care right now.

“Woo-hoo! I did it! Yippee! Yippee! Amity- did you see that!? Oh, right, we gotta get you help!

Luz hastily picks up the otabin book and gets back to Amity’s side.

“Okay. uhm.. What should I do?”

“I just need to get back home. I can take care of it there.” She tries getting back up on her feet, but Luz stops.

“Nope! No way. I’m not letting you leave like this! Did the Otabin monster do this?”

“...Yeah, sure. Whatever, just let me take care of myself please?” Amity pleads.

“Hmmm. not a chance. Sorry about this in advance.” what?

Luz swipes her off the ground, and the Blight girl lets out a pained yelp. She gets taken to a nearby corner, the one with the huge beanbag chair. It's a nice, cozy part of the library. The hybrid lays her down on the chair softly and takes a book out of her pouch. ‘Healing Magic 4 Useless Idiots’. 

“Luz, really , I’m fine. It’s not a bad wound, I’m serious.” 

“It's super obvious you’re in a bunch of pain right now, so I’m making the executive decision: you are not fine and I'm going to help you, because you are my friend . Can I see the wound? I think I found something in the book that can help. I was reading it earlier.”

…Luz really looked genuinely worried. It made Amity feel terrible. This wasn’t something she wanted her to know about, but it was unlikely she’d give up while Amity was bleeding so much. She sighs, and lifts up her shirt to show the gashes across her stomach.

Luz’s eyes widen as she gasps. 

“B-but.. That was- Amity- Why didn’t you heal!? Or use a potion o-or something!? This is...”

Amity looks away. She doesn’t want to explain this. There is no rational explanation. Luz looks on the verge of tears.

“A-Amity.. I did this! It's been hurting you for days ! Why? ”

“You said you found something in the book, right? Then do it. I… really don’t want to talk about this. It’s not your fault.”

Luz looks like she really wants to say something, but she just sniffs and looks back at the book, reading something intently. She has some time to think.

This was going poorly. Amity really did want Luz to help, the pain wasn’t fun. 

She’ll just have to let her new friend help, and then hide it from her mother. Maybe she’ll even get her bed back if she can keep up the act well enough.

What about her siblings? How would she deal with them? The ‘tough love’ as they so called it had gone too far this time. They hadn’t succeeded, thank Titan, but even still this was the last straw. They hadn’t even noticed her latest punishment. They knew she got in trouble, but didn’t see the extent of it. Maybe Amity should’ve told them. They would’ve understood, maybe lightened up their pranks, but what else could they have done? They can’t stand up to mom either. If she finds them trying to help Amity- They’ll just get punished too.

“Okay, just sit really still and I think I can help with this. Please, Amity?” Titan, those puppy dog eyes are devastating. 

“Fine.”

“Alright, here goes nothing.” The half-human hovers her claw above the wounds, a purple-black-yellow electricity sparking from it. She slowly, at an agonizing snail’s pace, traces out a circle. It wasn’t like any spell circle Amity had ever seen- The girl had traced half of one out after the duel, but she didn’t get a good look at it.

Luz looked so focused, like any momentary lapse would break her concentration, her eyes glowing abnormally brightly. She’s whispering quietly ‘ please, please, please, let me heal her. I need to fix this’. Amity can feel the guilt radiating off of her as she repeats over and over. The Blight girl stares at the slowly forming ring, trying to make out what it is. It's pretty, the yellow and purple work pleasantly together accenting the deep void black. Amity swears she can almost feel it, so close to her skin. Not just warm, but something else. Something she’s never felt before. But that’s definitely not possible. Amity doesn’t have a magic sense- not in the slightest.

The circle completes and Amity barely has any warning before she feels the most overwhelming sensation break out across her body, She swears she sees the air deforming outward from the ring before the spell fades out, and she blacks out for a few seconds from the sensation. She sluggishly regains her bearings and looks down to her stomach. Not a scratch. No pain. Her skin looks fantastic, actually. She feels fantastic. What sort of spell had she just cast? That was a basic healing magic book, nothing in there was this effective.

“Woah..” Luz gasps, eyes locked onto the hand she just cast the spell with. Why does the library smell like flowers suddenly?

Amity sits up, taking in the new scene around her. There are plants everywhere . 

an entire section of the library had been overgrown in an instant, flowers and vines crawling up from the floor and wrapping around the books and the shelves. A few wrapped themselves around Luz’s feet, and the beanbag chair Amity was sitting on was completely surrounded by hundreds of crowding little flowers- all purple.

“Amity! I did it! I cast my first spell! My first real spell!” She’s crying now.

“Yeah.. yeah, you sure did. But what is all this?”

“What is what?” Luz finally takes her eyes off of her hand, and takes in her surroundings, just as dumbfounded as Amity.

“ HUH!? ”

————————————————————————————————————

Chapter Text

“ I did this!?” Luz yells in confusion.

She was just trying to heal her new friend, not all this! The spell in the book was just a minor wound closing spell, it wasn't supposed to leave unblemished skin or a freaking jungle ! Magic is way too confusing.

“It certainly wasn’t me.” Amity picks a purple flower and looks at it for a moment. “I think you went a little overboard trying to heal me. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“I wasn’t just gonna leave you to bleed out! Especially not when those were my claw marks! I know you don’t want me to ask about it, so I won’t, but I’m keeping my eye on you.” Why didn’t she heal? Weren’t the Blights like, rich rich? Super crazy mega rich? There are very few reasons why she’d have such a large days-old wound, and none of them are good. She wouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet, but… didn’t the twins say something about their mother, before Amity cut them off? She’d be paying much more attention to the green-haired girl from now on.

“ Sigh.. you really don’t need to, but I doubt anything I say is gonna stop you. Can we focus on your plant magic explosion for now?”

“I’m gonna ask Eda about it, I’m not qualified to figure out what the heck just happened. Just gonna let the confusion wrap around me like a warm blanket of pure anxiety.”

“...okay? I guess that’s… yeah, I’ve got no clue either. Didn’t you say you don’t have a bile sack?” Amity preoccupies herself picking more purple flowers.

“Yep. Pretty sure the apothecary said the magic is in my blood or something?”

“And that was the first spell circle you’ve ever gotten to work before?”

“Mmhmm. I’m like, magically malnourished from living in the human realm. I haven’t had enough magic to even finish a circle before now.” Luz nods. 

“Malnourished? I really doubt a lack of magic is your problem. Your other magic is weird, sure, but that shout of yours alone has to eat up a huge amount of energy. Hmm..” The Blight looks around thoughtfully at the vines and flowers surrounding them. “Could you cast another spell? Preferably something not destructive?”

“I’ll try!” The hybrid works on making another spell circle, simple levitation, eyes squinted in concentration, tongue hanging out just a bit. More fun experiments to find out what the hell is going on with her. She was kinda getting tired of being a mystery. Amity floats her hand close to the forming circle, not quite touching it.

The circle cracks and fades away halfway through, and Luz groans. “Ugh. That's what happens every frickin’ time.” She looks back up the Blight, who looks both a little amused and surprised.

“Luz. I can practically feel your spell, and I don’t even have a magic sense! I don’t think your problem is ‘not enough’ magic. Your issue is too much . Way too much.” She chuckles. Luz’s face scrunches up in further confusion.

“You’re throwing an ocean at a spell that needs a puddle. It's unstable. You’ve got absolutely no control over your output.”

“Okay, so.. I just have to tone it down?” too much magic? That makes sense, kinda. That’s gotta be why she doesn’t have any issues casting so many light glyphs. Maybe she isn’t borrowing the magic to cast those? Even though they’re not hers? Okay no, that’s still confusing. 

“Way down. You’ve gotta have a lot of raw power packed away if you managed to make a dinky recovery spell into a healing explosion like that. I think you ‘healed’ all of the little seeds in the dirt underneath the floor. Don’t have any ideas as to how an insta-jungle would’ve happened otherwise.”

“Alright. I’m gonna try again.” She brings her finger back up and pushes magic to it, and experiences the same result as before. Huh. “Hey Amity?”

“Yeah?”

“How do you control how much magic you use?”

“...I’m not your kindergarten teacher. What the hell are they teaching you in the human realm?”

“The human realm doesn’t have any magic, so, not magic stuff.”

“Right. I’ll never understand how humans live like that. Anyways, It’s just something you have to get a feel for, I can’t teach you how. You’ve just gotta practice.” Amity stands up, and Luz follows suit.

“I need to get back home, are you alright to get back yourself?”

“Yep! Got night vision and a nasty weh, I think I’ll be fine. When did you wanna schedule our first Azura book club?” Luz beams a smile.

“I haven’t agreed to do that yet.” She just keeps smiling at Amity. the green-haired girl blushes.

“But… I am free tomorrow after school. Come back to the library then? You need to help me clean up your mess anyway.”

“Fair enough! I’ll see you tomorrow, Ams! Good night!” 

“Goodnight, Luz.”

——————————————————————

3 bottles poured and capped. Potions like these have a small chance of false positives or negatives, so she makes 3 separate recipes in separate tiny cauldrons. So much work. These damn things were a nightmare to brew, but you sacrifice time for effect and accuracy.

She pulls out 2 baggies, one filled with black hair and the other purple. 

“Time to see how much more complicated my life’s about to get.” The owl lady groans. Her life was already far too complicated, being the most powerful wild witch and most wanted criminal on the isles. King and Luz stacked so much shit on her already full plate, and now one of them was apparently a bulldozer when it came to sheer magical might. 

Scratch that, both of them. King hadn’t grown into any of the abilities the girl had yet, but almost certainly would. If they’re the same species. If they’re siblings. 

Luz had come back a few days ago yelling all about how she ‘cast her first spell’, as if she hadn’t reached that benchmark like 3 times in different ways already. She had healed the Blight girl, (who shouldn't have been injured, Eda will be having a talk with Odalia later.), and accidentally sent out a shockwave of healing magic that summoned a tiny forest in the library.

Eda should have seen it coming, She hadn’t been paying enough attention to Luz’s attempts at spellcasting. She was suspicious when she started pumping out light spells and sonic screeches like second nature, but it just didn’t click in her brain. 

The half-demon certainly had been magically malnourished and underdeveloped, (And still seemed to be to some extent), but was developing extremely quickly in her new environment. It sparked way more questions in Eda’s mind about the girl, adding to the already huge pile.

Thankfully, She wasn’t pumping out super powerful spells just yet. The house was still intact. She had basically zero control over her own magic, so any spell circle she tried got overwhelmed pretty quickly. It would take Luz some time to get used to her own pool of magic and manipulate it properly in any sense, that gave Eda some time to prepare.

She’d be keeping a close eye on King to see when his magic starts to develop. Witches usually start casting their first spells on instinct by the age of 5 or 6, but demons varied a lot more.

She pops the corks off of the 3 bottles, and distributes a single strand of black hair into each. The liquid stays light blue. Good, nothing going off prematurely. Eda is so fucking good at brewing potions.

She puts a strand of purple hair into the first potion, re-corks it, and gives it a shake. A few seconds pass.

Light blue slowly becomes teal, then green.

She tries the next one, it too becomes green.

She already knows the third bottle is going to be green before it is.

Owlets find family. They will be happy. Tell them.

“...yeah, I will. They deserve to know. Don’t get your feathers in a bunch.” She preps an extra bottle for later.

How does she go about telling them? It’s not exactly grave news or anything, but it's a strange pill to swallow.

 ‘Hey, I know you guys just randomly met a few weeks ago but you’re actually brother and sister. And one of you is a half-human born in another dimension. I found the other one of you on a secret uncharted Island that only reveals itself if you’re travelling with me and you’re both completely unidentifiable and unique demons I can’t find any information on.”

Titan, she’s gonna have to break the news to King, isn’t she? He really believes he used to be the king of demons. It’s gonna break his poor heart.

At least he’ll have his sister to comfort him.

——————————————————————

Luz had moved a full length mirror into her room so she can get a good look at herself without having to walk to the bathroom all the time.

She stands in front of it, stripped down completely naked.

Or, well, as naked as she can be, which isn’t much.

Her coat had finished growing in, leaving much of her body covered in a thick fur. Most of it is deep black, but a few gray accents had shown up on her stomach and the tip of her tail. She swishes to the side to get a better look at the nearly foot-long wagging appendage, it’s hard to ignore how much it looks like King’s, not that she knows what that’s even supposed to mean.

It’s strange, having so little bare skin anymore. It’s very warm and comfortable, like she’s always swaddled in a super soft blanket, but she can feel the blanket, or at least feel when the hairs get moved or tugged. It's a foreign sensation, but not an unwelcome one.

She runs her claws through the fur and poses at herself in the mirror. That person in the mirror with the cute tail is Luz Noceda . Her brain really likes the image of herself with fur, like she should’ve had it this entire time. She smiles as light glyphs pop into the room. 

“Lookin’ good there, Noceda! Does this make me a furry now? Eh, whatever.” She spends the next few minutes struggling to get her outfit on. Leggings are an absolute nightmare now, so she foregoes them. She really needs to go buy some new clothes.

“Luth!” King barges into the room calling her name, an impressively sized rodent dangling from his mouth. “Loo wha I Caughph!”

“Heheheh, That’s a big one! Where’d you find it?”

He throws the rodent up and catches it in a big chomp, and takes a few seconds to finish chewing through it.
“It was in the cupboard eating my choco-flakes. It has received the ultimate punishment for its sins! Weh!”

She hadn’t hunted a rodent like that in a while. The one King had just eaten was eating choco-flakes. Did it taste like chocolate? Maybe that’s something she could test later. Her mother wasn’t here to tell her not to. Eating dead animals was… vaguely gross, Luz knew, but that never stopped her from wanting to. In the human realm it was a huge taboo to go around eating raw meat, but in the boiling isles it wasn’t a huge deal. Eda didn’t care, and King certainly didn’t care.

She could, if she wanted to, go hunting for her own dinner. 

…yeah, she kind of wants to. Maybe King would like to go with her? Eda would appreciate the extra meat. She’ll bring it up later. For now, she has a promise to make good on.

“Oh great King, what justice you have brought upon the thieving rodent! Now, is your highness ready to learn from the renowned magic professor Luz?”

“Yes! Yes! Finally! Once I have your power, none will stand in my way!” He shouts into the air, and then scuttles back downstairs.

The little guy really wanted to learn how to evoke the ‘Sonic Weh’ as they had titled it. He reasoned that since he also says ‘weh’, he must be able to do it as well. He does in fact say ‘weh’, the only other person to say ‘weh’ other than Luz. By now she figured that ‘weh’ was a weird instinctual thing that some demons did. 

She follows King outside, passing by Lilith and Eda talking about something, a green potion sitting on the coffee table. They clam up as soon as she’s in the room. Suspicious! She’ll ask about it later, it's lesson time.

“ WEH!!! ”

“Weh!”

“C’mon, really focus on it! You gotta breathe in super deep, and then put as much power into it as you can!” They’d been doing this for a while. Luz could put out a surprising amount of the shockwaves, but King was having a much harder time of it.

“WEH!”

“Feel it! Feel it! Get pumped up!”

“WEH!!!”

“You’ve got the touch ! You’ve got the POWER! ”

Luz picks up King, holding him to the sky. 

“Give this one everything you’ve got!”

King nods and takes in a big gulp of air, closing his eyes. He rears his head back, and..

“ WEH!! ”

Him and luz both get blown back from the force as the shockwave dissipates into the air over the cliff-side. They both stare dumbfounded at each other.

Luz didn’t actually expect that to work! King probably didn’t either. It wasn’t the same color, King’s ‘weh’ was blue, yellow, and orange as opposed to Luz’s black, purple, and yellow. But it was definitely the same kind of magic, she could tell.

“I… I did it! I did it! Didja see that!? I was all like ‘weh!’ and then it was all like ‘bvoom!’ wehehehahaha!!” He runs around in circles, exclaiming victory. Luz gives him plenty of chin scritchies as a reward.

“You sure did! I can’t believe it, it’s barely been thirty minutes!”

“My first magic! The armies of Sharp-back the tortoise don’t stand a chance with my new powers!”

“If either of you do that in the house, it’s your ass.” They both turn to see the owl lady leaning on the front door. King wiggles out of Luz’s grasp and runs up to his mom.

“Eda! Eda! Eda! Eda! I can do magic! Watch!” He turns around and attempts to bellow out another weh, as loud as he can manage, but no shockwave comes out. He coughs a little bit. Luz pulls a water bottle from her pouch and offers it to King, who takes it and chugs.

“Yeah, I saw. Really impressive. You got it a whole six years earlier than the girl did! Don’t overdo it though, Don’t want you hurtin’ your throat.” Eda picks him up once he’s done with the water bottle. 

“He picked it up super fast! Just what I’d expect from the ever so mighty king of demons. Hey Eda, what other kinds of demons can do that?” There’s no way it's just her and King. 

“Uh… right. Actually, I’ve got something I need to talk to you two about. Mind coming in and taking a seat?” Suspicious!!

“Sure! This doesn’t perchance have anything to do with what you and Tía Lily were talking about?” They walk inside and Luz takes a seat on the couch across from the fancy chair. The owl lady sets King down beside her, and he sits up intrigued. Lilith was gone. (she probably just went back to work but still… Suspicious!!!)

“It does, yes.” She takes a light blue potion out of her hair and sets it down on the table, uncorked, Then takes the seat across from Luz.

“I’ve been doing some research on demons, trying to find out what you two are.”

King jumps in her lap. “Did you find something!?”

“Actually, I did. Taking Luz to that check-up shed some light on things. I’m sure you two have noticed some… similarities between yourselves by now. I sure have.” 

Yeah, they both have pretty similar fur, are immune to the boiling rains, and can both let out the ‘sonic weh’. It’s hard not to notice.

“Are we like, a similar species?” she asks. 

“Very similar species. Do you know what this potion is?” The owl lady gestures to the bottle sitting on the coffee table.

“Blue?” No way she can identify a specific potion based on sight alone! Eda hadn’t even started teaching her potion brewing yet.

“It is blue, yes.    … sigh . This is a familial relations potion. It changes color based on two people’s blood relation. Whether they’re family or not.” Luz and King look at each other, confused. Was Eda trying to tell her that..? No, no way!

“Eda.. are you saying that you’re my…?” The hybrid questions, anxious at the possible answer.

“What? No! I ain’t your mom, kid. Your other mom has that covered already. We’re not related.” She pulls out a tiny bag from her pocket, and plucks out one strand of black hair, and one strand of purple.

“This one is King’s, This one is yours.”

Oh. 

The owl lady puts both hairs into the potion and corks it, and sits back.

The potion slowly changes color, turning teal, then a verdant green.

“W-what does green mean?” King speaks up. Luz feels like she already knows what it means.

Eda takes another green potion out of her hair, then another, and then another. She sets the other 3 on the table besides the first.

“ Green, ” She takes in a breath. 

“means siblings . Directly blood related.”

…

… but how?

“I made three different recipes to make sure, and they all came up positive. You two share at least one parent.”

They’re from different dimensions for crying out loud! How the hell does that happen!? Luz stays quiet and contemplative, trying to wrap her mind around it.

It's not a bad thing, just… surprising. She already thought of King like a new brother, so it’s not like this would change things between them much. Probably. Luz would want to get closer to her… brother. Weird to think about, but it doesn’t feel wrong. 

King shuffles in her lap. “Luz is.. my sister? For real?”

“And you’re her brother, yes.” Eda shoots a concerned look to the half-human. “Are you alright Luz?”

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine. Just… confused.” She pulls King into a hug, not wanting him to think she’s upset about the news. She looks down to him.

“Hehehe, hey there little bro. Nice to finally meet you.” She’d always wanted a sibling, brother or not.

“It's nice to meet you too… Sis. wai- HEY! I’m not little!” he huffs.

“Hmm… nope! You’re younger than me, so that means you’re my little brother, regardless of your actual size. Which is also pretty little, by the by.” She puts on a smug grin.

“I’m not younger! You’re younger! Edaaa!!! Luz is already bullying me!” King whines, but his sister pushes him over and starts tickling his belly, much to his laughing chagrin. Let the adorable sibling torment commence! Muahahahaha!

Eda looks amusedly at the two. “You guys are takin’ this a lot better than I thought. Guess it makes sense now how well you two get along. Also, you’re gonna have to get used to it, King. sisters are just like that.”

“ Hehe ! no! Mwehehe! stop! N-no tickles! hehahaha! Having a sister is terrible! Nyeh! ” Luz decides to give him a break, the sibling torment can resume later. He gives her a glare, but stays in her lap. 

“So.. you guys got any questions?”

Luz raises her hand.

“Oh! A million! I literally cannot fathom how this is possible, so I’ll start with this one: uhh,,, what the heck? ” 

“Yeah… and, aren’t I older than Luz? I know I lost my memories, but, uhm, I don’t really get it. How can Luz’s parents also be my parents?” Wait, did King actually believe that? Of course he wasn’t really the king of demons. 

“Yeesh, okay. I expected this. So, first, I don’t really get it either. I’m damn near a hundred percent sure you two are blood siblings, but I don’t get the mechanics behind it. My best theory is that your two’s dad or mom or whatever went canoodling in the human realm with a human somehow, and then came back to have you, King. Your mom is human right, Luz?”

Eda sounds like she’s implying something impossible.

“My mom is totally human, she’s never done anything not human, she was even more confused about me than I was! And, there’s just, absolutely no way my dad wasn’t human either! He wasn’t some multi-dimensional demon or whatever, and, I mean, he… died. He died a while ago. That’s not possible.”

“Sorry that happened. Listen kid, I really hate to ask this but… how long ago?” Eda scrunches her face up in distaste at the question. Luz’s gaze falls to the floor.

“He died when I was six. We buried him. So, yeah. Not possible. I mean, that was…” She counts on her fingers.

“That was over… eight… years… ago...? ” 

Eight years. A little over Eight years. That’s.. That’s how old King is. 

No, no no, no way! Her dad wasn’t a demon, he would’ve said something! He would’ve told her! He wouldn’t have let Luz and Mami live in confusion and hurt for fourteen years! He wouldn’t…

He wouldn’t have left her.

Eda seems to read the conflict on her face. “So the timeline matches up. Luz, I’m not saying that your human dad is your, y’know, demon dad, there’s other ways that kids can happen. But… I am saying it’s possible.”

“H-hold on! You guys are talking like I was born eight years ago! Which, you know, I wasn’t! How do I fit into this timeline!? M-my castle!?” King interjects.

“Alright, yeah, fuck. This is more how I expected you two to take this. C'mere, King.” Eda picks him out of Luz’s lap while the hybrid sits, mind rushing. Her father wouldn’t do that. Manny wouldn’t abandon them.

“King, You’ve been under the assumption that you were the king of demons, that you lost your memories, I know. And that’s my fault. I guess I haven’t been straightforward with you. You don’t know the truth.”

“W-what? What are you talking about? I was!” King jumps from her arms to the floor. 

“Just listen to me, King. it’ll make sense. Please?”

“...fine.”

Luz shakes herself out of her spiraling thoughts. What are they talking about?

“Eight years ago I was looking for a place to hide from the Emperor's Coven. I flew out into the sea, and an island just… appeared from the mist. The ruins where I found you.”

“My castle! My island!”

“Yes, your castle. It was raining. Now, I’m one hot tamale, but the boiling rains are even hotter, so I needed a place to hide. I looked for shelter, and went inside your castle. But I wasn’t alone.”

“And.. that’s when you found me, right?”

“That’s when I found you. You were a baby, a tiny little thing. Damn adorable. Stackin’ rocks, jumping around and knocking ‘em over again. I assumed you were some stray dog and then..” Eda shuffles with her hands.

“We were attacked. Titan only knows what the hell it was, some sorta flesh golem. It was gonna kill both of us, So I picked you up and bounced. On the way out, it hit you. Broke your horn.” She stops, waiting for King to respond. When he doesn’t, she continues.

“Against my better judgement, I took you home with me. I'd gotten you the collar, 'cause... well, that's what you do when you get a new pet. But then… you started talking. Your first word was ‘king’. So.. That’s what I named you.”

Kings shakes his head, a look of horror and disbelief on his face.

“I started telling you all about kings and their kingdoms… and that’s how you got the idea you were some despotic overlord. But you were so happy, so I went along with it. I never told you it wasn’t true.”

“Y-you’re lying! That’s not true, I-I remember my armies! My feasts! The fall!” He backs away defensively.  Eda takes something from her hair, A sharpened piece of broken bone.

“I’m not.” She hands the piece of broken horn to him. He nervously lets it rest in his hands.

“My army…? My feasts… n-no! No! It's not true! This thing’s messing with my head!” He throws the offending bone to the floor. 

“You’re lying! Y-you’re just making fun of me, like always!” He sounds like he’s near hyperventilating. Wow.. so King really did believe he was once the great king of demons. Luz just thought it was some big game he liked to play. Had she just been feeding into it this whole time? Does she say something to him? He is her brother. She walks to him and rests a hand on his shoulder, kneeling down.

“Y-you believe me, right, Luz?”

“King, It’s gonna be okay. You may not have armies yet, but you have us .” She tries to reassure, with limited success. He looks like he’s about to cry.

“No! no, no, no, no, no, no! It’s not… It’s not true…” he nearly runs away, but Luz drags him into a full-body hug, whispering reassurances while he sobs. Eda gets down from her chair to wrap herself around both of them.

“Hey, how about we visit there? Your island?” 

He seems too choked up to answer for a while, but eventually gathers himself enough to answer.

“ sniff .. My island? sniff.. Yeah… yeah. Let's go to my castle. I can show Luz where I used t-to rule. Sniff.. ”

“Would you like your horn back?” Eda holds it back out for him. King stares at it, unsure. He looks to the side, then slowly reaches out for it. He takes it.

Luz didn’t realize this would be such a big deal for him. When you’re living under a delusion like that for so long… King was having his world shattered.  He didn’t seem to fully believe it yet, but she could tell it was settling in. 

“Then let’s head out. The flight’s gonna be a few minutes, so if you gotta pee, do it now.”

——————————————————————

Luz cradles King while they ride to the misty Island. He is quiet on the way there, eyes locked onto the broken horn cradled in his hands.

“I noticed that your coat finished filling in last night. How ya’ feeling, kid?” The owl lady turns her head back, asking her.

“Uhm.. It’s nice. I like it. I’m glad I won’t be itchy anymore, that kinda sucked, but I feel great now. Something about it feels right. It feels Luz , yknow?”

“Good. I get it, it means your body was expecting it, that it’s supposed to happen. Are you still worried about…?”

“Yeah. I am. I think I’m ready to talk about it, but… later. King needs your shoulder more than I do right now.”

“Take your time. We’re about there, probably another minute or two.” She focuses back ahead, flying steadily.

Luz had just about gotten used to flying by now, having gone between the house and bonesborough so many times. Another minute and she sees it coming into view. It's way smaller than she thought it’d be. It's a really small island, but she can easily see the main spire through the mist.

They land a few moments later on the beach. It’s very jungle-y

King grabs her hand and jumps off, pointing further into the jungle. “This way! My castle is down here!” She runs to keep up pace with him, nearly tripping. 

“Hey! Wait, you two!” Eda calls after them, but he doesn’t slow down. Eh, Eda could catch up.

The vegetation is unpleasantly dense to run through on the way to the clearing that her brother is rushing to, she brings her arms down from protecting her face to see a massive stone doorway. Or, what looks like a doorway. It's completely stuffed with rocks and boulders. 

“Behold! My castle, the seat of my kingdom! Uhm.. or at least… what I thought was the seat of my kingdom.” They both walk up to the blocked doorway.

“Hmm.. lemme make a way in!”

King takes in a deep breath and rears his head back, before letting out a mighty ‘WEH!’ fit for a tiny tyrant. It doesn’t quite manage to make a shockwave, but it’s got spirit!

“Aww.. darn it.    …hey Luz? Could you…?”

“Yeah, I got it, no problem bro!” It broke her heart to see him so dejected. However tough the thought of her father was right now, King was having it worse. She’ll just have to be an awesome sister to make up for it. Breathe in..

“WEH!!!”

The sonic weh blasts through the stones, causing them to tumble inwards. They were heavy enough not to completely scatter and damage the inside… mostly. Man, Eda sure is taking her time. Oh well.

King runs inside and Luz follows, taking in the massive room. It's a little dim, so she conjures up light glyphs to fill the space. It's a real-life ancient ruined structure! The walls are chipped, broken, and covered in moss, but she can clearly see murals covering them, Giant demons doing battle against fearsome… other giant demons. The floor is messy with rocks scattered everywhere, until Luz notices they’re actually stacked quite neatly. Like tiny little figurines, each with a crescent shaped rock as a head. The space is awe-inspiring.

“Woah…”

“It’s amazing in here, isn’t it? It’s where Eda found me.” He looks back to the horn, still in his hands. “I thought I knew what this place was… But… I’m not so sure anymore.” King crouches down to one of the little rock-stacks.

“This was one of my soldiers.” He flicks it in the head, and the stack falls over. “And… one of my enemies. Is this all my conquests were?”

Luz picks him up and cradles him again. Sometimes memories hurt. She tries to draw his attention to the art on the walls.
“What’s up with the murals? They do kinda look like you, with the skull and horns and fur and whatnot. I guess that's my fur too, huh.”

“I don’t know. I thought they were of me. Maybe they’re an adult?”

“Probably. They look super cool. And super big. What about that hole up there?” She points to a hole in the middle of the ceiling, blocked up with rocks and boulders. How the hell did they get up there?

“Luz, I don’t… I don’t know! I don’t know if I know anything, anymore! Everyone lied to me a-and I’ve just been remembering and… it’s all wrong. I don’t even know what’s real.” He curls up into her chest and cries. Luz sits down on a nearby rock and scratches behind where his ear would be, if he had any. How else could she- oh! Maybe if she…

Luz always felt comforted being held by her Mami, when she could hear her breathing and her heart beating. And whenever she felt like that, she would purr. When she felt safe.

She rests her head atop King’s and lets her throat rumble, letting him feel the vibration. It takes a few seconds, but she feels her new brother start to purr as well. 

She’d be here for him, when things get rough. Nobody would get to him, not even himself. She’d protect him. She wouldn’t let go. Even if he wasn’t her brother by blood, she’d still be his big sister, and she’d be here for him.

They stay in a purr-ball for a few minutes before Luz starts feeling... On edge. Where is Eda?

She looks up, taking her head off of King’s, and comes face to face with two piercing blue eyes, just a few inches away, staring directly into hers.

Her heart skips several beats. How long had this thing been standing there!?!?!?! What the hell!?!!?!?!?!?

She tenses, holding onto her little brother tighter. He mumbles a bit. She’s too scared to move. If she does, is it going to attack? Could she avoid an attack? How can she keep King safe?

She tries to steady her breath. Its head looks like old, dirtied stone. It’s a familiar crescent shape. The rest of its body is the same stone as the head, connected and covered messily with red sinew and flesh. It looks like a.. Flesh golem . Just like in Eda’s story. The one that broke King’s horn. It was still here. And it wasn’t doing anything.

She taps King with her hand. “Hey King, I need you not to move, okay?”

He grumbles out a confirmation, he must’ve gotten sleepy. It would be cute if she wasn’t so terrified.

She takes as deep a breath as she can without moving too much. If there’s gonna be a fight, She’s gonna start it with a bang.

“WEH!!!!”

The fleshy construct is thrown backwards into a wall as Luz jumps back as far as she can, holding King in one hand, the other in a defensive posture. She lets out an intimidating growl and a hiss.

“Weh! Luz, wha- what’s going on!?” King startles at the sudden movement and loud noise. She barely manages to hold onto him while he wriggles in panic.

“Sshhh, there’s a flesh-golem thing. It snuck up on us. I blew it away, sorry if I spooked you.” She speaks to King, her eyes unmoving from the slumped figure across the room.

The golem stands back up, form seemingly undamaged. Its head tracks to their new position, and tilts to the side. It doesn’t move any more than that. 

“Woah, that thing is kinda creepy. And super cool. Why isn’t it moving?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s the thing that attacked you and Eda.”

“It looks… familiar. yeah, I’ve definitely seen that thing before!” He wiggles to get let out of her grip, so she sets him down.

“What do you remember?”

“Apples!” his eyes widen.

“...apples.”

“I-It brought me apples! Mostly. I think it brought me other stuff too. A-and.. When I fell, It protected me. It’s not bad!” King walks forward, and Luz nearly reaches out to stop him. She has a hard time believing it's ‘not bad’, but if King is remembering stuff… she’ll have to trust him. 

“Hey, you! Subject! Kneel!” 

Surprisingly, it follows the command, kneeling to the ground in reverence. Luz relaxes.

“Huh.” 

“Yes! Hahahah! Come over here and kneel before me, subject! Oh, oh, and do a dance when you get here!” King excitedly hops up and down, His sister sits on a rock beside him. Looks like he really does have a subject.

The golem slowly walks up to King, does a weird shaking thing, then kneels again. 

Can she command it?

“Was that supposed to be a dance? Hmm.. hey, subject!” It looks over to her. Creepy. “Can you… get me an apple? That’s something you do, right?”

The construct nods, and scurries out of the room on all fours way faster than Luz was expecting.

“Hey! That’s my subject!” King whines.

“Oh, right. Sorry! I was just curious if it’d listen to me, since we’re apparently siblings.”

“It’s okay. But you’d better share that apple.” She nods and they sit in silence for a few seconds.

“What do you think it is? Kinda looks like all the little rock guys you made.”

King shrugs.

“I’m not sure. I think it’s just always been here. It listens to what I say, though! So, it’s my subject! Probably my only one.”

She’s about to respond before the flesh-golem crawls into the room at an unsettling speed, sets down an old basket, and kneels before her. The basket is full of fresh apples. She just asked it for one, but who is she to complain about extra free apples?

“Oh! Thanks! They look like they just got picked, too!” She grabs two apples, hands one to her brother, and they both dig in. fresh and juicy!

“I wanna call him apple-bot.”

“No! His name is Jean-luc! You don’t get to name him. He’s mine.” he says, biting into a second apple.

“ ‘kay. Jean-luc it is. So, uhm… Are you feeling any better? I know it’s been a lot to take in, I’ve been trying to fit all this into my head, too.” She offers him a third apple.

“mmh.. I t-think so. It’s a lot. I was so caught up in the fantasy I stopped separating it from reality. I… I know Eda was telling the truth. Maybe I should apologize… I kinda freaked out, didn’t I?” He sets down the fourth apple and gets back into Luz’s lap, she gives him more pets.

“I don’t blame you. I think I was about to freak out too, about my dad. Or, uh, our dad.” It can’t be Manny. But if not him, then who? Who even is her dad? Their dad?

She needs to not think about this. She might freak out right here, right now. What else is…oh!

“Hey King, didn’t you say one of your memories is falling?”

“Yeah, somewhere up really high. Jean-luc protected me.. But, I don’t remember much else.”

She looks up to the shaft in the ceiling, blocked with stones. “Maybe there’s something up there? Maybe that’s where you fell from?”

“Yeah, do you wanna check it out?”

“But how do we get up there? If Eda were here we could just use owlbert- where is Eda, anyway?”

“Hey! Get away from them!”  Luz and King look over just in time to see the owl lady lob an orange potion, hitting Jean-luc head on. The potion explodes.

They scramble back from the sudden explosion. What the hell!?

Eda glides in on her staff, throwing another potion as the construct gets back up.

The flesh-golem’s demeanor is entirely different now, sinew and stone rattling.

It dodges out of the way of the potion, and its hand morphs into a large blade. It jumps towards Eda with a speed much faster than it jumped for apples.

“Eda! Jean-luc! Stop! He’s Friendly!” King calls out. The construct stops instantly, Inches from the owl lady. It looks back to King in what seems like confusion. Eda takes the chance to fly over to her two kids.

“Oh my Titan, are you two alright!?” She jumps from the staff, checking them for wounds. “Why the hell did you two run ahead? It's dangerous in here!”

“We’re fine! The flesh-golem thingy listens to us. Forget about us , what took you so long?” Luz crosses her arms in mock outrage.

“I couldn’t find this damn place! The jungle got all misty when you two ran into it, I’ve been searching for you for nearly half an hour! I thought you two got lost, or died, or something!” Eda brushes a few feathers out of her hair. Weird, the tower wasn’t that far from shore.

Eda takes an uneasy glance to Jean-luc standing motionless. “That thing gives me the heebee-geebees. You sure you’ve got it under control?”

“Eda! Eda! We need to borrow owlbert! We gotta go up that hole in the ceiling!” King interrupts.

“Huh? I want to know how you’re doing, before anything. I’m.. sorry for doing this so abruptly. I shouldn’t have. I really should’ve been honest with you the whole time.” She looks apologetically down to him, rubbing her thumb over the spot where his horn had broken.

“Luz helped me out, so I’m doing… better. I’ve been trying to set all my memories ‘round right. I’m sorry for freaking out. Though... I hope you know how many cupcakes you owe me. It’s a lot. ”

“You’ll get your cupcakes, just not all at once. I’m not letting that happen again.”

“And! No more Hooty cleaning duty!”

“Don’t push it.”

“Could I be excused from cleaning Hooty too?” Luz puts on her best hopeful puppy eyes.

“No, Neither of you can! You can get a break for like, a week, but then it's back to the regular rotation, got it?”

King and Luz both grumble. There’s no fighting Hooty cleaning duty.

“So, Eda, we need to get up that shaft since King has a memory of falling from somewhere high up! I’m pretty sure it was up there, but it's blocked up with rocks and we need owlbert to fly. Do you think you can help?” 

“Sure can! Got loads of these explod’o’potions for fighting off that flesh golem, but you two seem to have the problem solved somehow. If I just aim it right..” 

Eda grabs another glowy orange bottle from her hair and lines up a shot, then throws the explod’o’potion up to the ceiling. Luz covers her ears as the explosion rings out, rocks tumbling to the floor violently.

“Jeez. Sorry about your castle, King. This is definitely not how you’re supposed to treat ancient ruins.” She picks up a pebble as it rolls to her feet. Yikes. 

“Ruins desecration is what being a wild witch is all about! Now stop complaining and hop on.” 

She hopes that Eda isn’t gonna take them grave robbing any time soon. Desecrating ancient structures already feels like taking it a bit far, but… They’re King’s ruins, right? Wait.. are they? King doesn’t really seem old enough to actually own the castle, so it was probably his dad that did. Or… their dad. But even then, could their dad be old enough for a place as rundown and grown over as this? Ugh… It’s just getting more confusing. Her and King hop on owlbert.

There are a bunch of tiny platforms and openings to other small rooms as they fly up the shaft. This castle wasn’t made for walking, it seems. They reach the top, landing in an empty semi-circular room, with a single closed door in the wall.

“Huh.. seems pretty nothing up here.” Eda walks up to the wall, admiring the patterns carved into the sparse metal accents. “Lily would go wild in this place. She’s all for ancient ruins and mystery languages,”

“We should bring her here later! She’s gotta have more answers than we can make up. And look, a door without a handle! There’s something in here, but it's probably got some puzzle to unlock it.” She walks up to the stone door and places a hand on it. She pulls her hand back quickly as she feels magic suddenly emanate from the stone.

Bright blue waves emanate from the spot she touched, the magic sheen taking over the entirety of the door. The slabs swing inwards, revealing another, smaller room.

“Or… not?”

The room is a similar dome shape, but the walls are covered in murals of dancing golems and stars. In the center of the room sits what looks like a golden altar platform, pieces of a shattered egg resting atop.

“Woah… I knew there was something up here! I’m like the mystery whisperer. Secret doors bow to my great detective might!”

 They all walk inside the newly opened room. King stands in front of the altar, staring mesmerized at it. 

He takes a step onto the golden platform, and kneels next to the broken eggshells. He gently grabs one of them.

“King, does any of this feel familiar to you?” Luz kneels next to him.

“I’m not sure… I think I know how to jog my memory.” Her brother lifts up the broken part of his horn and sets it back in place. He takes in a quiet breath.

“I remember a deep roar. I couldn’t see. And then, something happened… but I couldn’t do anything. So, I went back to sleep.”

“When I woke up… I broke out. I crawled to the door and it opened. Jean-luc was there. He picked me up and we fell. T-This is.. My egg.” King takes the bone from his horn. It wouldn’t stay on by itself anyway.

“King…” Luz pulls him into another hug. It can’t be easy to remember all of this so suddenly.

“That roar. It meant ‘son’. I don't know how I know that, but I do. Someone called me their son. Luz, I think it was our dad!”

“Maybe that was him in all those wall carvings. And Jean-luc, he must’ve been here to take care of you, he was protecting you from Eda!”

“Did a fantastic job of that.” Eda sarcastically remarks.

“You may not have been the king of demons, but you were important to someone . And you’re important to me .” She looks him in the eyes with all the sincerity she can muster.