Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘And so set out, did brave Azura, through Whispering Woods, filled with thorny bramblles (Note to self: Mildew, remember to check dictionary for spelling before final publishing) and twisting vines. Yet armed with her trusty staff and a map from her new friend, the Elderwitch, she persevered-’

Luz Noceda giggled as she jumped over a patch of mud on her way through the forest. The fan group where she hung out online had exploded over the editing mistake, with Luz especially giggling how their favorite author could miss both an obvious spelling error and the giant note alongside it, and had started to find it being referenced in the tags of her favorite Azura fics. The girl couldn’t wait to add to it with her own works.

Luz’s engrossment in once again rereading of her favorite novel was halted by walking into a tree branch, with it bopping her on the forehead as she held her face firmly in the book. She yelped, and steadied herself. “I really need to stop doing that”, she muttered as she looked at the trees looming over her.

The vibrant green leaves sheltered her from the midday sun. As she squinted, she could just see the tips turning yellow, the first signs of fall showing.

Luz grinned. In just a couple weeks, the leaves would be fluttering down, and Mom would be paying her a whole twenty dollars to rake them up and out of the backyard. (Luz dreaded her teasing about making it just one of her normal chores now that she was ten and “a big girl”. Luz could never tell if she was joking or not.) It never took Luz more than a day to clean them up, even after cleaning up the mess left after jumping in the piles with Da–

The girl’s smile faded for a moment before reappearing with only a hint of strain.

No, she wasn’t going to let those feelings ruin her exploring and adventuring for the first time in weeks. Since that week.

Luz stared down at her The Good Witch Azura, and took in a deep breath.

Dad gave her the coolest book in the world. She was going to make an adventure out of it, just like Azura.

Luz let out a sigh, and the strain at the corner of her lips faded. She wandered deeper into the woods of Gravesfield, on a grand expedition, searching for adventure and magic. A tale that would span years! (or at least til dinnertime, where Mami expected her butt at the table before the food got there)

Luz knew that wherever her quest took her, she would find something wonderful.

***

Luz wasn't sure what she found counted.

The girl stood at the edge of a large misty pond hidden deep in the woods, the water murky and filled with algae. Luz had to step back so as to not sink into the soft mud.

Normally, Luz would be thrilled to find something like this. A mysterious secret pond? Luz could spend weeks here practicing her sketches, maybe even trying out her new watercolor set she got for her birthday! She could just imagine the sun shining down on the water, turning into a glittering festival of fairies or maybe a hidden hoard of gems for a friendly dragon!

However, the tombstones somewhat ruined the image.

Surrounding the rim of the pond, the trees, and even under the water lay dozens of haphazardly placed graves, cold and gray. None of them held a name, which Luz had first thought to be due to how old and uncared for this place seemed. However, when she looked closer, she realized that the stones were completely blank, no sign of a nameplate or anything ever having been carved there.

Whoever all these people had been, it looked like no one bothered to grant the dead even that simple courtesy, whether out of apathy or malice.

It –for lack of a better way of saying it– was really bumming Luz out.

This is depressing, thought Luz. Why wouldn’t someone take the time to write the names down?

Luz then thought back to her history class’s program on ‘Local History’, where the teacher had gone over the lore of Old Gravesfield, a town swept up in a panic over foul witchcraft a good deal earlier than most colonial towns in the 16th century. He talked about how nearly a hundred were found guilty of “conspiring with the devil”, (which usually meant being a lady who owned a cat, wasn’t married, or failing to pretend that other girls aren’t pretty, which Luz took particular offense, because look at them!) and were locked away. The teacher never went into what happened after being locked up, so an excited Luz had begged her mom to drive her to the Gravesfield Historical Society to learn more.

That little field trip (“a Gravesfield trip?” Luz had asked) ended with the older having regretted not asking what exactly her daughter had wanted to learn there, and the younger having nightmares for the next few days about angry old men in robes, rope and daggers in hand chasing her through the woods.

Luz looked at the mass of headstones lining the area and wondered if this was where the colonials buried those people, without date or title. It dimmed her spirits even more.

This isn’t okay, simmered Luz. This isn’t right.

Luz turned around, ready to leave this place and call her adventure a bust, when she spotted bunches of tiny round flowers growing around a nearby tree. The small bulbs were white with what looked like little yellow crowns around the top. Luz walked over and kneeled down next to them.

For a moment Luz sat there, staring blankly ahead until her face scrunched up with all the determination a ten-year-old could muster.

If no one is gonna give these people some kindness, then I will.

***

Luz spent hours combing the woods for flowers, prowling around every stump, and stuffing every blossom into the flap of her hoodie. She then washed and plucked every stem so it looked pristine before laying one on each grave, using small stones from the pond to protect them from a stray breeze. Starting from the edge of the woods, and spiraling in, the number of old stones without a flower fell, until Luz found herself back at the pond, scrubbing the dirt out of her fingernails, winching as the scrapes from digging with her bare hands twinged in the water.

“But it was worth it,” said Luz, heart feeling light and warm. She had been able to give this place a little light. Her Mami would be proud of that.

Luz sat up from the edge of the pond, ready to head home, when she thought she could see the shape of something through the mist on the pond. She squinted, hoping to make out what it was.

Before her, in the center of the pond was a small island with more graves, though she thought she could see some writing on those tablets. In the center was a large stone mausoleum, where a single grave stood covered by a tall archway.

Luz couldn’t believe the mist could have hidden such a thing. She had been there for hours, and hadn’t seen a glimpse of it. Her mind raced to her stories of secret glades and waterfalls hiding magical trinkets.

Luz looked for a way over to the island that wouldn’t end in a talking to about ruining her clothes. However, finding none, the girl simply accepted that this minor punishment would be worth it for the greater good.

And by greater good, she meant her curiosity being sated.

Luz jumped into the surprisingly deep water, swam over, and climbed up onto the small island.

Looking at the graves, there were indeed carvings on these tombstones, though none of the names stood out to Luz. A few had other things written on theirs, like God-Fearing Man or Warrior Against Evil.

Luz shuddered. She had a guess as to why these ones got names and a place in this place while the others didn’t.

Luz stepped up to the archway, and peered at the center grave.

~~~
Caleb Witterbane Phillip Witterbane

Lost to the darkness, but never forgotten.
~~~

Luz recognized those names from the statue near the center of town. Why would they have a statue, yet their grave be so… untended? And there was a sizable gash on the top corner. It didn’t look like debris was anywhere to be found, and Luz didn’t see anything that could have fallen on it.

Luz stepped back to see if any part of the archway looked like it was missing something that could have fallen, and was unprepared when something solid underneath her foot rolled, causing her to lose her balance and dunk her head into the pond.

Luz launched back up, sputtering. “Ack, cough water up my nose! cough”

Luz’s eyes darted around, searching for whatever had caused her to stumble, eventually catching a glint of light in the dirt. It looked like glass.

Luz crawled over and brushed aside the debris, to find a small glass vial. It was stoppered by a wooden plug whittled to look like an owl head. Inside was some liquid, as blue as midnight, with lighter shaded bubbles floating with it. Luz could feel warmth radiating from the bottle, even though she felt the wet grass and dirt were chilly from the mist.

“What are you, little guy? You look like you’ve been here a long time from all the scratches.”

Luz looked to her book, still sitting on a rock away from the water so as not to risk it getting soaked. A thought flashed across her mind. She looked closer at the vial and saw a dim blue light shining from the contents inside.

“Is this..?”

Magic.

Luz immediately stood up and squeed.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I actually found something! Oh I have to run tests on it at home! I have to find out what it does!”

Quick as can be, Luz dove into the water and swam back over to the forest side, and grabbed her book, ready to run back home as fast as she could.

“Maybe it's a magic potion that lets you make snowballs out of thin air! Or see into the future! Or turn you into a fluffy little owl baby!”

Before Luz fully dashed off babbling to herself about owls and magic, she remembered where she was, and turned back to the burial grounds, composing herself.

“Um, is it okay if I take this? I promise I’ll be good with it. I just wanna find out what it does.”

Luz waited a moment, and certain that no vengeful ghosts were going to come after her for stealing their treasure, dashed off back home, where she would study this new item.

And eat dinner. That too.

Chapter Text

Luz heard the oven beep just as she dashed through the front door. She laid against the wall gulping in great heaves of air, beads of sweat covering her brow, and feeling a bit light-headed from running as fast as she could down the sidewalk back home.

Just in time, Luz thought.

“Luz? Is that you?”

Luz saw her Mami poke her head out of the kitchen and find her daughter looking like she was a second away from collapsing in the hallway. She sighed fondly.

“Cariño, while I am glad you are making sure to be on time for dinner, maybe just walk home next time? You look exhausted.”

Luz popped back up, a wide grin on her face. “I’m fine! You know me—full of energy! Nothing can keep me down! I bet I could run a few laps around the house!”

Her mother giggled as she walked over to pat Luz on the head, trying to get her to slow down and breathe before supper. “Do you want a glass of water before all that?”

“Yes, please.”

Luz’s mami sent Luz to the dinner table with a glass of water as she pulled some sandwiches out of the oven, Luz recognized them from her favorite snack shop.

Luz should have been happy about her favorite meal. She knew she had to try to be, at least.

“Steak and chimichurri sandwiches again! What, are you buttering me up for something, mami? Trying to get me to do more chores?”

Luz’s mother chuckled. “No mija, I just thought it would be good to celebrate how much I love you.”

Luz ignored the fact that this had been the third time this week they had bought chimichurri sandwiches despite her mother's love of cooking.

“Awww. yo también te amo, mamá~”

Luz ignored the dark bags under her mother’s eyes.

Her mami sat down, and passed Luz’s sandwich over to her, ruffling her daughter’s hair as she did.

Luz ignored the days when her mom couldn’t bring herself to get out of bed.

Luz smiled warmly before chomping down on her meal, with her mother following after.

Camila tried to ignore that Luz had noticed it all.

They enjoyed their dinner in complete silence.

This was fine, right?

Everything's fine...

***

Luz wished her mother goodnight and ran up the stairs to her room. She locked the door, closed the curtains, and turned her stuffed otter to the wall.

“Sorry, Oscar. Not even you can be in on my secret magic biz.”

Luz pulled the strange vial from her jacket pocket and lifted it up to the light. The small bubbles seemed to swirl around on their own inside the liquid.

“Woah…”

Luz laid the vial on her desk as she started rifling through the moving boxes she hadn’t cleaned out yet; Searching for one specific item, she found it under her old school notebooks and a cute frog plush she sat next to Oscar (also turned around).

Her hunting bore fruit as she uncovered an old box, making a face at the cheap paint used to color it. It read:

‘Stanton Pinesburg’s Wacky Science Kit For Kids! (Contains REAL Asbestos: Test your immune system!!!!!)’

Luz remembered finding this in an old garage sale a year back and being enamored by the man on the box with his lab coat having the word ‘RADICAL’ emblazoned across its back and his sad mullet. She had asked the old man running the sale how much it was, with him huffing and telling her he’d just throw it away if he kept it any longer and handed it to her, telling her just not to show the cover to her parents. She had gone home excited to play with her new kit, only to find that the “asbestos” (whatever that was) so graciously advertised was missing from the set! Luz had chucked the set into the closet in disgust and never opened it again.

Now it had a chance to redeem itself.

Luz opened the box and pulled out two glass test tubes, a beaker, a broken stirring rod, a bundle of something called pipettes, and some baggies of what she assumed were components for kids to play with. She checked the baggies for anything useful, but it was for nought. The powders had hardened into chunks, and Luz didn’t even want to know what used to be in this fuzz–covered baggie of orange sludge.

Luz threw the baggies away and set up the rest of the kit on her desk. She fixed the stirring rod with a bit of glue and a bandaid, and flipped over her math homework; writing ‘Magic Item/Potion/Artifact-of-Great-Power Test!’ on the back with her favorite glitter pen (it was a sacrifice that had to be made). Luz thought through all the typical signs of magic she had read in her fantasy novels and wrote them down in neat little columns, ready to check them off as she went through them.

“Hmm. Color, Random bubbles, Glowy-ness. What other things could I be missing? Smell? Smoke or steam? Taste? I know I’m missing one…”

Luz mused before writing a few more tests down, then placed the pen down to grab the vial and uncork the stopper. The liquid hissed as it connected with fresh air for the first time in forever.

Luz smirked. Sound. That was the one.

***

Magic Item/Potion/Artifact-of-Great-Power Test! (100% Scientific!)

by: Luz noceda

Hypothesis: The potion is magic.

How to test: Look for signs of magic.

Research: The Good Witch Azura, The DirtPond Cycle, TurtlebackWorld, and Tiny Witch Schooling.

Tests done

Color: The stuff inside is a dark blue hue. Magic tends to be blue in video games. Conquincidence?! Probably, it could just be food coloring. But not certainly!
Results: Inconclusive.

Bubbling At Random (BAR): Poured some into one of the test tubes to sit and sure enough, we got bubbles forming! Every few minutes, another small orb floats up from the bottom. Everyone knows how magic cauldrons like to roil, so I think this is a good sign.
Results: Looking good!

Glowing: Yes. Definitely. Absolutely! Took the potion under my covers and the liquid glowed bright enough I could probably write down the rest of this test with the lights off. I dunno about you, but that sure sounds like magic to me.
Results: Oh Yeah!

Heat: Already knew this. Warm to the touch, even through the thick glass.
Results: Positive

Smell: Uh, I’m just now writing this down, and I don’t know what “magic” actually smells like. Rats. I’ll at least put down that the potion smells like salty pennies. Weird.
Results: Inconclusive.

Steam/Smoke: Poured it back and forth between test tubes. Nothing. Swirled it around in the beaker. Nothing. Tried to heat it up with the lighter I found on the sidewalk. Nothing, and I nearly set off the fire alarm and woke Mami. Darn.
Results: No :(

Sound: Hissed when opened but besides that, nothing. Think it might have been just the old air or something getting out.
Results: Prob not.

Taste:

Luz sat staring at the final word, brow furrowed. This was it. No matter how many tests she did, the only way she was gonna know what this potion did was to try it.

A part of her mind, which sounded kinda like her mom, spoke up. Maybe drinking an unknown substance isn’t the best idea. How do you know it isn’t toxic waste or something?

The rest of the parts—who had spent their time fantasizing about what type of owl they might turn into—quickly shushed the Mom part. Who would put an adorable owl stopper on something toxic? It’s totally a potion!

Oh, that’s true! Nevermind, let’s do it!

Yeah!

With that mental dilemma sorted, Luz put the potion to her lips, tipped it back, and gulped the navy concoction down.

It tasted… exactly how it smelled. Her mouth was filled with a copper tang with a bit of salt mixed in. Luz had to work not to gag.

“Ugh. Blek. Magic tastes real bad.”

Luz waited for a minute. Then another.

“How long does it take for potions to work?!” Luz frowned. “Maybe it was just food coloring.”

Luz grabbed her notebook and clicked her pen. At least she could write down the results for her last test while she waits.

Taste: Like pennies and salt. No matter how much I swallow, it still feels like it's still there.

Luz wandered over to the mirror to see if the liquid had stained her tongue blue or if it was just in her head.

No effects so far. Let’s hope it wasn’t all for r

Now, the r was supposed to be an n for “nought”. However, the writing had been halted by the girl collapsing to the floor, motionless.

Luz had no idea what had happened. In a moment, her entire body seemed to give out all at once; she was left unable to move, prone in front of the mirror.

W-what? What is this?

Her limbs felt numb, like she had rolled over onto them in her sleep.

C’mon. Get up. Get up!

She tried to move her arm, which had fallen in front of her face. No response.

What is going on?!

Minutes past. With every moment, she felt it harder to pull in a breath. Her gulps of air sounded like a wheeze. It didn’t help calm her mounting terror.

Please, I need to breath. I need to calm down. I—

Luz could feel her bones growing… soft. Pliable. Like at any moment they were going to fall apart like wet paper, and she would suffocate by the weight of her own flesh.

I don’t want- I don’t want to-

Luz tried to call out to her mami, but could only let out a wet, quiet whimper. She tried to move, to do anything at all.

Nothing.

Please!

Something was happening to her arm. From Luz’s blurred perspective, it looked like thick blue twine was wrapped around her arm. It seemed to twist and grow and move all over her arm. If I could just get my eyes to focus, she thought. After what felt like hours, she forced her eyes to narrow.

Luz regretted her efforts immediately.

¡Dios mío…

The wrapping over her arm was not twine. It as well was not over her arm, but rather in her arm. What she had mistaken for twine was her own veins wrapping around themselves, spasming as they grew, making nonsensical patterns. Each one would twitch and bulge with an ugly blue glow. Luz could only guess that this was why she couldn't move, and that this was happening all through her body.

Mami mami mami wake up for god’s sake wake up im scared

It was then, she saw a flicker in the mirror. Wanting to find anything to look at but the morbid crochet piece, she forced her gaze onto her reflection.

Only where her reflection should be, was something else. Something out of her nightmares.

What she found was a specter. A horned shadow. A blurred silhouette of what could only be a demon outlined in a sickly yellow glow. It was tall, the mirror barely able to keep its upper half in view; its head and shoulder lay against the frame. The creature’s body looked to be made up of black tar, droplets spilling down it at all times. It had a dull white skull with a snout like a dog, and two horns jutting upward, looking as sharp as spear points. Its jaw gnashed and twitched like it was trying to shatter its own teeth. What was worst of all were the two eye sockets, empty except for a pair of putrid green lights like stars in an impossibly dark night.

Those two lights were focused on her. Some form of ancient prey instincts within Luz were screaming right now.

Run.

Hide.

Freeze.

Die.

Do anything it took to get out of this long forgotten predator’s gaze, for its reach was forever, its age lost, its strength impassible.

The shadow’s jaw shuddered to a stop, and a crack formed between its teeth as if to whisper something.

Luz’s young mind froze in place. It searching desperately for a solution, a way to escape. It found one.

Luz’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she lost consciousness on her bedroom floor.

Chapter Text

For the longest moment, there was only the dark. There was only her.

There was no sight.

There was no sound.

There was no cold.

There were no memories, hopes, fears, or thoughts.

There was no Luz Noceda. Only her. Only the dark.

And then, in another moment, she was gone.

And Luz Noceda was back.

***

Luz found herself standing in a place unknown to her. Her mind slogged, unable to recall how it had arrived here, or when. Luz couldn’t bring herself to care, the buzzing in her head keeping her distracted. It was only until the noise faded that Luz could focus and take stock of her surroundings.

She found herself in a field of black grass, as far as the eye could see. The tufts were coated in an oily sheen, and were so dense, Luz could barely see the ground—though calling what she could see underneath ground was subject to scrutiny. It was muddy and gray and soft at the surface, but deeper the mud seemed to twist together like roots under a tree. Then again, roots didn’t tend to be the same color and texture of rotting meat. She gagged, then noticed she couldn’t smell anything at all. That somehow made this place even more uncomfortable and alien.

Luz looked to the sky, but found none to be. In its place was an ocean of tar, dark yet luminescent, which lay still in an impossible fashion above all. Only in a few small pockets did gravity seem to assert its will, where the sap flowed downwards upon the fields. She saw the sap seemed to eat away at the ground, digging holes into the surface.

As Luz took note of the strangeness of this new place, she also took note of herself. Despite the lack of any light source stronger than the glow from the tar, Luz was able to see the field around her, like the air itself was infused with a sickly yellow light. The only thing that seemed to hold a shadow was her. Her own body was bathed in shadow, not able to make out anything more than a silhouette. Whatever light this place was filled with, it didn’t seem to apply itself to her. Strange.

“Where am I? How did I get—”

Luz froze, remembering what had been going on before she found herself recalling everything.

The potion. The twisting flesh. The demon.

And just as she finished recalling it all, as fast as she found herself on this alien landscape, she disappeared from it just as quickly.

Luz woke up.

***

Luz’s eyes snapped open and she found herself back in her room, on the floor. Luz had never felt so relieved to find herself passed out on the floor (this was not the first time such a thing had happened).

Her breaths came in long heavy gulps, and she felt like gravity had pinned her to the carpet. As she tried to move, her body shuddered and ached. Luz groaned as she got to her knees and examined her arms.

On the surface, they looked back to normal. No bulging veins twisting around them, and the fact she could move her limbs at all was reason enough to be grateful and not look further. However, upon indeed looking further, Luz could tell something was off. Her veins, while back to the same size, weren’t in the same place. It wasn’t too noticeable, but she remembered from being bored in class once poking at her arm and seeing the weird tubes under her skin pop up. One she clearly remembered messing with went right over her tendon. Now though, the vein closest to there split off in two and went perpendicular to it. Every vein in her body had shifted or changed in some way. They also seemed to be more pronounced, but Luz wasn’t sure how. They weren’t any bigger, and they weren’t doing anything weird. There was just something. Something Luz couldn’t put her finger on.

Luz got to a knee and went to stand up, when she braced her hand against the door, only to find the surface cool and smooth. Luz was confused for a moment before remembering she had her mirror there.

The mirror.

The mirror.

Luz froze in place, this time out of a newfound instinctual terror roiling back up to her senses. Her breath became shallow. Her heart hammered in her chest.

Oh god is it still there oh god oh god oh god

Luz slowly tried to stand and take a deep breath.

Okay Luz. We just have to see if that thing is still there. No slow turn around, just do it. On three. One. Two…

Luz spun around, eyes darting to find her reflection.

Two vacant eye sockets with two dying green stars stared back.

Luz screamed and stumbled back, tripping over herself and collapsing onto her back.

“Luz?! Mija?!”

Luz heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. A moment later, the door swung open and Luz’s mother was standing there, worry etched on her face.

“Luz?! Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?!”

“T-the mirror! It’s in the mirror!”

Camila's worry was replaced by confusion. She stepped in and closed the door, turning to look at the offending door ornament. The demon stood there, partially obscured by the woman’s own reflection, staring past her at Luz, seemingly not perturbed by the introduction of the new person. Luz’s mother turned back to her.

“There’s nothing there, sweetie.”

Luz didn’t want to believe it. “You can’t— You can’t see it?”

Camila turned around and then back at Luz.

“I think you just had a nightmare, cariño. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Luz held out a hand to point at the monster, which her mother took in her own, gently.

“You're trembling so much. Don’t worry. Está bien. Please…”

Luz was about to open her mouth and continue to try and convince her mother when she realized her hands weren’t the only ones that were trembling. Mami’s hands were shaking, ever so slightly. Luz looked up to her mother’s eyes to see them red-rimmed and puffy.

She must have been crying again.

What can Mom do against this thing? She’ll just think I’m crazy. And then…

Luz knew she wasn’t the favorite in the neighborhood. Her antics always seemed to cause the adults around her to whisper and glare when they thought she couldn’t hear them. Some of them talked even when she was close, like they seemed to think she couldn’t understand them. It wasn’t like how they talked to or about the other kids, it somehow felt… worse.

She also knew her mom wasn’t asked to many events by the neighbors as well. Luz saw when Mami would happen to run into one of them how their demeanor would shift, how they would lean away from her and their tone would get rigid and awkward and brushed with a bit of pity.

Luz noticed how the shift always happened when they glanced at her standing beside her mother.

How much worse would it get if they heard that Luz might be seeing things that aren’t there. How much would they gossip? How much would she be putting on Mom.

Even more than she already did.

She can’t deal with anymore problems. She shouldn’t have to.

“Y-you’re right, Mami. I’m sorry I… woke you up. Just a nightmare from reading scary stories on the internet.”

Camila smiled, happy that Luz was feeling better (and hopeful that Luz hadn’t noticed how quick she had been able to hear her). “It’s no problem at all, mija. You can’t control when you have a nightmare. I’m just glad you’re okay. You want to sleep in my room?”

Luz shook her head. She didn’t want that thing in the room with her mom. Camila pecked her daughter on the cheek and left back to her room, shutting the door behind her.

The beast stood silent, grinding its teeth, staring at her once more.

Luz took a spare sheet and covered the mirror the best she could, and snuck into bed. There she sat, eyes refusing to close while under the demon’s gaze. And despite the cover, some part of her knew.

It was still watching. Glaring. Gnashing.

Luz spent that night under the covers, shivering, cowering, and horribly unalone.

***

It laid in The Dark Place, slowly rotting as this void ate away at whatever meager existence it had left. It remembered when it still could feel. How the tar ached at its form, and how little by little, they could feel themself sink deeper into it, unable to do a thing. Maybe if it still possessed true flesh, it could meld its way out, but it knew it had none. The flesh and fur upon it was nothing but a mimicry, one last comfort of a dying soul.

It watched the cubes slowly float above them. It was all it could do. Its senses had been devoured long ago by the sap, yet one still remained. Sight. It didn’t know how. Their eyes had rotted away as the tar sank into them eons ago, and their sockets were now nothing but twin pools for the liquid to sit in, eating away the rest of its skull.

Yet, its sight continues. Perhaps one last act of magic not yet fizzled out. With this, they could watch the boxes that float from the tar in its eyes and hope to see glimpses of its former home. Unfortunately, the boxes were fickle, sometimes showing realms beyond his own, and the ones that did ring true always disappearing back into the tar after awhile. They all did.

Except, one day, one didn’t.

It took them no time at all to notice. One box among dozens, hundreds did something no other had done. It had frozen in place, floating in front of it. Their interest had been immediately peeked. It let its vision narrow down to an impossible point (well, impossible for anyone but them. They had to see their spawn somehow). They looked upon the anomalous cube, wondering what curiosity it had in store for them.

At first, it showed nothing but darkness. Nothing but the same black pit it had suffered in for an eternity. But then, slowly, bloomed something it hadn’t seen since its death.

Color. Blurry, unfocused color, dancing within the box. The others had shown nothing but visions in putrid yellow, a color it hadn’t once had an issue with had become a much loathed hue. It saw brown and blue and white, and in its mind it sobbed. Relief from an everlasting torment. A possibility it thought to be an impossibility.

And yet, it somehow did not expect yet another impossible event.

It heard a voice.

It was unintelligible, garbled to the point of nonsense, but they could still make out it was a voice.

It greeted the voice, after a moment’s shock, but it got nothing back. The color flashed and faded, the box turning dark, even if it still stayed suspended where it was. It panicked, worried that this new interaction might be gone and it would be trapped in its isolation forevermore, before calming themself down.

The box wasn’t going anywhere. And it could wait.

It had spent a long time waiting beforehand. This would be no different.

Chapter Text

Well, at least the sunrise is pretty.

Luz stared dully at the orange glow shining through her window as she shivered under her bed covers. She felt cold down to her bones, tremors periodically running through her body hoping to warm her up.. Luz had spent nights staying up til dawn reading massive collections of fanfiction, she knew the symptoms. This was likely just the result of a night without sleep.

Likely, being the word that scared her.

Every shake from the cold, every ache in her head, every sting from the light touching her bloodshot eyes caused her dread to resurface, expecting some new horror to enact itself upon her. For her flesh to shift and bubble, and her bones to grow like the branches of a tree. For her mind to end up back in that world of tar and mud and never make it home again. For her to be trapped in her own body, unmoving as the thing in the mirror becomes bored of waiting and steps through the mirror to get her—

Luz realized she was hyperventilating, and tried to pace her breathing. In, out. In, out. Steady.

Luz rose up from her makeshift sleep cocoon, and stared at anything but the mirror. She knew it was there, she could feel its gaze piercing into her like knives. She didn’t need to look to check. She didn’t need to. She didn’t.

Luz slowly got off her bed, and shuffled over to her bedroom door like a crab (while also doing the pinchy hands, because the bit must be done no matter how tired she was) , so as not to face the mirror. Luz hovered her hand in the approximate position of the doorknob. Her fingers brushed against the cool surface of the mirror before jumping away like she had been shocked.

Luz froze in place, waiting for any sign that the demon had reacted to her touch and was about to reach through the mirror and drag her into it forever. Luz readied herself to bolt across the room and jump through the window.

Yet, no sign came to send her off on this task.

She relaxed, (just a smidge!) and felt her palm bump into the doorknob. Luz slowly turned it, opened the door, and walked backwards out of her room. Closing the door behind her, she let out a deep breath. Step one of Luz’s Plan to Survive The Mirror Demon She Hath Brought Into This Realm was complete.

Now all Luz had to do was think up the rest of the steps.

This’ll go great.

***

After Luz finished breakfast—where Mami held herself back from fussing about Luz’s eyebags a third time—she slogged her way out the door and into the early morning, air chilled and heavy. The breeze, while certainly not helping her shivering, did at least wake her up a little more. Enough to come up with ideas on where to start with her new “issue”.

“C’mon Luz, think about it. Where do you find stuff about magic and demons? The Magic Circle? I doubt it, they don’t even have real skulls there. The library? Maybe, but then there’s too much information to go through. I’d never find what I need to know til high school. The history place? Ugh, I don’t wanna see all that stuff about witch hunts again.” Luz pondered for a few minutes, before deciding to just scout out all of them, and hope for the best.

Luz sprinted down the sidewalk, until finally reaching the shops, dodging bikers and confused old people along the way. Luz caught her breath outside her first stop, the windows displaying different crystals and a cauldron. Luz got out a mini notebook and glitter pen (second favorite one this time, the best had snapped when she fell last night), and wrote down the name of her new plan and prepared space for her findings.

Location 1: The Magic Circle (magic shop)

***

Patricia was only thirty minutes into her shift and was already wanting to think up an excuse to go home.

Look, Patricia would be the first to tell you her gig at the magic shop wasn’t half bad. It got decent pay, it was easy going stocking shelves most of the day, and she didn’t have to deal with any asshole managers named Kimberly. Fuck you, Kim.

That being said, not everything about the job was peachy keen, as her grandfather would say. The entire store reeked of sage, which management said was supposed to “get the customers into the !!!SPIRIT!!! of buying things”. All it did for her was make her nauseous for the first ten minutes of every work day and confuse idiot teenagers that walk by the place into thinking she had weed on her, who would then inevitably try their horrible, horrible best at smoothly buying a joint from her before getting ran out (it wasn’t even the type of sage that smells like pot, morons).

Then there were the tourists. The folks who decided to take a weekend trip out to ol’ Gravefield to learn about how they used to murder random women and shit. They’d get done swarming out of the GHS after Tweed Guy (and she would be getting to Tweed Guy) taught them about pitchforks or something, and they’d see just a little bit down the road gasp… The Magic Circle! They would—without fault—rush over to her place of work to be dazzled at the majesty of cheap rocks in a barrel and plastic skulls. They would attempt, and somehow fail, at whispering, making way too much noise, and taking up way too much space as they start taking pictures. Oh God, the pictures. Patricia got to sit patiently as these people she wasn’t allowed to ask to move stood in front of the exact shelf she was trying to stock, taking a selfie with Timmothus, the Plastic Goat Head. Everytime, without fail.

And then there was Tweed Guy.

Tweed Guy.

Patricia was certain the company loved Tweed Guy. He came in at least twice each week to buy a couple items and stare at the merchandise like he was trying to crack some grand mystery, and the store made a pretty penny off of him.

What Patricia was also certain of was that she didn’t love Tweed Guy. In fact, she’d go far enough as to say she utterly loathed him. This bastard would come in twice a week, picking stock up and leaving it on the other side of the store, make the other customers uncomfortable by studying them out of the corner of his eye, and then try and woo her with his “findings” on witches and demons (while leering at her tits when he thought she wasn’t looking).

And the worst part of it was Patricia had to take all of it with a smile and nod along with his ramblings. She couldn’t tell this dude to just fuck off, he’d certainly complain, and it would be the guy who makes them a ton of dough over an easily replaceable employee. She knew she didn’t have a chance. Same thing if she complained about it to her manager, he’ll just ask HR about it, and then they’d go through the same process, just making sure to cover their tracks just enough as they throw her out to not risk legal action. So she was stuck just smiling through the urge to punch his lights out. Fucking capitalism.

Normally, these issues were manageable. Just close your eyes, take a deep breath away from where anyone can see it as a personal offense, and give an empty smile. It’ll all be over soon.

Not today, apparently, as 15 minutes into her shift, she was overloaded with not only a family of seven barging in and loudly debating where to take a picture as the children screamed as they tried to stab each other to death with the plastic pitchforks on sale, Tweed Guy decided to come over with them to inspect both the merchandise and her before trying to honest-to-god neg her into a date.

After dealing with both those atrocities, she laid her head on the counter and groaned, wondering whether she could get away with cutting work early, when she heard a high-pitched voice.

“Hi, excuse me!”

Patricia slowly lifted her head out of her arms to see a small figure standing a few feet away on the other side of the counter. Her eyes must’ve been blurry, since she was having trouble seeing any details about the individual, their form obscured in the dim light. Damn mood lighting.

Patricia, brain still fried from the previous ordeal, could only think to spout the phrase she usually threw at anyone under 5’7”

“No, we don’t sell pot here.”

The figure stilled, their voice coming back in bewilderment.

“Um. I didn’t ask for anything. I don’t want— uh, that. Um.”

Patricia realized whoever this was was way too short to even be in high school, and had the sense to look embarrassed at her outburst.

“Uh, sh- shoot. Sorry kid, I mistook you for someone… It doesn’t matter, what can I do for you?”

The child slowly approached the counter, the light above finally giving the cashier a good look at her new customer.

The kid was small, probably not even in middle school. She wore a pair of blue overalls and a yellow shirt which both seemed to have grass stains somehow already on it despite it being so early in the morning. Her dark brown hair was put in two short braids, outlining a light brown face, or what of it she could see. Her hair did a weirdly good job of blocking the light from getting to her face.

“I was wondering if you had any books on demons. Or mirrors. Especially mirror demons.”

Patricia felt like she should be more surprised by an elementary schooler asking for this stuff, but to be fair, she did know one girl about this kid’s age asking for the same kind of stuff. And that one asked for tomes about blood rituals. Weird kid, but nice. She wondered if this kid was a friend of hers.

“Uh, I know we have a collection of fantasy novels over in the corner by the gem barrel.”

The kid shook her head. “No, no. I need stuff about real demons. Like real life ones.”

“Uhhhh, I think we have a few over here on this table.” Patricia pointed at the nearby folding table next to the counter.

The kid’s voice perked up. “Thank you very much!” She wandered over and started flipping through the books, appearing to look for something.

This was the part where Patrica would normally check her phone or go back to stocking while waiting for the one customer to grab what she needed, yet Patricia couldn’t help but stare at the kid. Her mind just couldn’t let go of something about her. The longer she studied the girl, the more she was certain of what was bothering her. The girl’s shadow.

There had to be some trick of the light going on, because the shadows on her seemed odd. They almost looked too dark for the lighting the girl was in. In the folds of her clothes, her shadow on the ground, the hair a bit over her face. Each drop of shade looked a little darker than the ones around the shop.

She had to be seeing things.

The girl returned with a book titled ‘What Hides In The Dark: Demonology and Its Many Forms’ and handed it to her. “This one please!”

“Sure thing.” Patrica took her time scanning it up, and tried to nonchalantly pull the lamp on the desk over closer so she could prove to herself she was making stuff up. She held her breath a little, even if she wouldn’t admit it to herself.

The girl’s face was finally in the light. It was… just a face. Nothing weird about it. The cashier let out a small sigh of relief, and chastised herself for being so weird about this young girl. She handed the book back to her and told her how much, which the girl returned with a few wads of crumbled up cash, looking like they might have taken a swim in the washer.

As Patrica bagged up the book for her, the child’s eyes beamed up at her, unblinking like how children always seem to do. Patricia squirmed. She never liked eye contact, but she’s gotten warnings about complaints of “rudeness”. She kept eye contact with the girl, trying to focus on her own reflection in them to distract herself.

Except…

Try as she might, Patricia couldn’t find her reflection there, or any of that matter. Yes, there was a gleam of light from the lamp, but no sign of anything else. And even the light wasn’t quite right. It shined fine over the iris, but as soon as it got over the pupil, it was gone, making the center of the child’s eyes dark empty holes staring into her.

The eerie feeling washed over her again. Patricia gently gifted her the bag, and the child blinked before giving a wide grin and thanking her before running out the door and down the sidewalk.

Patrica stood there for a good five minutes, contemplating what just transpired, before noticing the girl had left a five dollar tip and a thank you note.

She took a moment to decide whether taking a gift from what might be one of those fae creatures she stocked books about was a good idea, before grabbing it and stuffing it in her pocket.

Eh, whatever. It still wouldn’t be as bad as getting screamed at by that bitch Kim, for turning a blind eye to a lady stealing a diaper from a box. The company doesn’t give a shit about you, Kim, stop sucking up to them for a damn extra quarter.

Fucking Kim. Fuck her.

Chapter Text

After Luz thanked the nice cashier lady and walked out with her new book, she headed down to the library to search for more books on demons and such. While Luz’s plan had bore fruit at the first stop, the other two were disappointingly bare. None of the books in the pitifully small “Occult” Section seemed to have anything sounding like her mirror demon problem, just stuff like ‘What Vampire Are You?! Quizzes from The Deep!’ and other such nonsense.

The GHS had even less, the only thing about demons there being in a dark prayer that a witch hunter had falsified to convict a lady who snubbed him at a dance. In other words: completely useless. Luz walked out in disgust, only stopping to say goodbye to the guy in the weird coat who worked there, but she thinks he didn’t see her, too busy listening to something about jet fuel or something. At least, she thinks he didn’t notice her.

Luz stomped down the sidewalk, grumbling to herself, as she flipped through her book to the chapter on ‘Mirror-walking’.

“Ghouls, Wraiths, Haunts. Where’s the stuff about demons?! You can’t tell me I wasted half my saved-up allowance for this!”

Luz was about ready to chuck the book when a. she remembered that hurting books was wrong, no matter how they spite you, and b. she spotted the word ‘Graveyard’ in the text.

Graveyard… The Graveyard!

“Where I found the potion! Maybe there’s more there I can find, like a dispelling potion or an actually useful book.” She sneered those last words at the offending manual.

Luz whipped her head to the left, staring at the start of the woods close by. She remembered a map of Gravesfield from the 1600s on display from the GHS, showing how a decent portion had been reclaimed by the woods nearby.

That graveyard was super old, probably 1600s old. If it was part of Old Gravesfield, then that means its close by!

Luz dashed into the woods, searching for anything that looked familiar, and after a couple minutes, discovered police tape and a sign warning of deep water. Going further, she found herself in the old gravesite. Luz cheered.

“I knew it! I found it!” Woo hoo! Go Luz!”

After her mini celebration, Luz strode over to the pond in the middle, looking down at the water before jumping back with a scream. The mirror demon was there, staring at her through the water.

Luz took a few quick breaths, calming herself down to keep from having a heart attack at age ten. Then she leaned back over so she could see her reflection. Yup, still there.

“So I guess you’re in every reflection I’m supposed to be in, huh?” Luz glared at the creature.

The demon said nothing, only glowering at her.

“Go away!” Luz yelled.

Nothing.

Welp, she tried.

Luz jumped over it, splashing into the water, ripples going across the surface. The infernal reflection didn’t budge, not even a waver in its form as the ripples hit it. Luz swam over to the island in the middle and chucked herself onto land, now shivering all over again.

“G-great. Didn’t even think to keep my clothes dry.”

Luz stood and walked over to the monument where she found the vial.

“Alrighty. C’mon, magic secrets, Mama’s gotta exorcize a heck-beast!”

Luz began combing through the dirt, humming her own little tune as she searched for something to help her dilemma.

***

The noise was back again. The new one, the one from the old box.

The noise unlike the other noises It heard. This new noise changed. It mutated. It went high and low, soft and loud, simple and complex.

Constantly changing and reforming, unlike anything in The Dark.

In The Dark, nothing changed. In the Dark, it was quiet.

It hated the quiet.

Then again, It hated a lot of things.

It hated the sap that ate away at it, and held Its body down, sunken.

It hated the dripping, the constant dripping noise echoing and echoing forever.

It hated the fact that It knew something was wrong with It. It could feel it. An emptiness where memories and more complex thoughts were once held. Thoughts more complex than flashes of emotion and instinct.

It had a name once, didn’t It? A name for Its children to call out.

Children. It had children. Spawn. The sap couldn’t take that memory away, It wouldn’t let it.

The noise changed again, distracting It from its eternal hate festering. The noise was now complex, strings of noise often repeating themselves. The noise was loud, frustrated babbling. Talking. Language. It remembered Its children used language. It did too, once. This language was a familiar one too, though new, if It remembered right. If only It retained such things, but the sap hadn’t eaten that too.

Something bothered It about the noise, if only It knew what. Perhaps it was the fact that the voice stemmed from The Box. The Box wasn’t like the other boxes, which floated around and could show It its children, at least a bit of them. The Box never moved, floating in place, never showing anything. It didn’t remember why exactly It resented The Box so, only that the object had been spurning It for a long, long time. A feeling of long dead hope filled It whenever It tried to remember more.

It had gotten distracted. It wasn’t The Box that caused the irritation with the noise. It was with the way the babbling went those teeth, the slight way It could hear the lips move. it wasn’t unsimilar to its children, but It could notice a difference. A difference that it only heard in one other. It took only a few moments to be certain of the difference.

The noise spoke without fangs.

Human.

It felt rage fill the void within and welcomed it as It thought of the one It knew impossible to forget.

It hated the False Prophet. It hated the one who butchered Its children, led them down a path of iron and gold, and poisoned their skulls with a sense of human order. The saint who cried death in Its own forgotten name. The thief who ripped the beating of Its own heart out of Its chest and claimed it as their own, stealing away the tether to Its land and to the flow of magic keeping Its mind intact.

All Its waking days were spent in eternal gnashing frenzy, screaming Its rage into The Dark, dreaming of torment and agony It wished to invoke upon Its dearest enemy.

It looked upon The Box, seeing nothing but blurs of blue and yellow, the surface of the object scarred and broken after a forgotten time of melting sap and other boxes encountering it. It felt something else bloom in the ocean of rage within.

A single spark of joy, at the possibility of inflicting what is deserved upon this voice. It did not know if this was the same evil—come to devour another piece of It—or a new one.

It did not matter. It was similar enough.

Snuffing the life out of it would satisfy its hunger, and leave one less threat to its children.

It only needed one step too close…

***

Luz sat down next to a tombstone and ran her very dirty hands through her now-dirty hair. Sweat covered her brow, and her fingers stung like crazy, and what did she have to show for it?

A pile of good ol’ nothing.

Luz had failed to find a single magic thing in the whole hour she had spent searching the monument. She had combed through the grass and rocks with her fingers to make sure there wasn’t another vial of body horror hiding around. Not even a little card to maybe explain what the potion even was or how to turn it off.

Luz huffed and threw another rock at the demon, it still not reacting in favor of staring. Big shocker.

Luz started to mouth off to the skull monster, before having it cut off with a long yawn.

“Wow, my eyes are heavy. I need to get home and take a nap. I deserve it after all this.”

Luz swam over to the edge of the pond, got out, and grabbed her book, turning behind her to look at her reflection.

“See you when I get home, I guess.”

Luz started her journey back home, out of the woods, seeing nothing amiss in the woods.

Good for her.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since Luz had drank the potion and summoned her new reflection, who had shown no sign of wanting to leave. In this time, Luz had decided that if this mirror demon was going to be sticking around, she might as well have something to call it besides “the mirror demon”. She went through lists of demon names from various media before wondering if calling this thing any of them might accidentally summon another hellspawn, and scrapped the idea. Eventually, she settled on a name.

“Morning, Skulley! How’s the mirror world treating you today?”

“Skulley” didn’t respond, as usual. Despite its monstrous appearance, the fear quickly faded when Luz realized it wouldn’t—or couldn’t—do anything. All it did, all day and night, was stare. That being said, Luz still mostly avoided looking into the lights in its sockets. Everytime her eyes met them, that primal terror would flare up, calling for her to escape its gaze. It left her shaking anytime she made that mistake.

Luz had made no progress in finding any information about Skulley or a dark blue potion. Sure there were stories and text about demons appearing in mirrors and dark blue potions galore, but nothing directly linking the two, nor anything that exactly fit the description of her own encounter. The same problem persisted in trying to find a method at exorcizing Skulley. None of the chants or prayers worked, not even with using salt (she tried both table salt and road salt!). The demon never even reacted to her attempts, just staring forwards like always.

After that, the fantasy-loving part of Luz shied her away from trying anymore. This is magic! It said. Real magic, in our very mirror! Why would we want to get rid of this?

Luz couldn’t help but agree.

Luz got ready for the day, taking a shower, brushing her teeth, and getting dressed. Her outfit was now a dark gray Azura t-shirt with athletic shorts. It was far drabber than she really liked to wear, but with her current “condition”, she knew it was necessary. Luz held her hand up above her and looked down at her shadow. It laid against the floor next to the shade of her desk.

Hers was noticeably darker than the other, just like the ones in-between her fingers, and poking out from her sleeves.

Luz had noticed this strange occurrence a day after she got that rubbish book. Any shadow born from her took on peculiar qualities. They would be shades darker than what they should be, darker than any of the others the light source caused. If the light source was moved, her shadows would move like the others, but just a bit slower. They would take their time, as if the light were a mere bother, something to be unafraid of as they slid along. Some of it even stuck around. Unless the light was right up to her, some of the shadow stayed, ignoring reality. It made Luz look like she was never quite fully under the light, at least when she wasn’t under the sun or directly under lighting.

Luz had trouble describing her own shadows, with only a few words bouncing around in her head that felt right to describe their relationship with the light.

Older.

Experienced.

Unimpressed.

That wasn’t the only odd quality that had appeared, however. Luz had found the other trait when trying to figure out how to see her own reflection so she could check her teeth after she brushed. Fortunately, she found a solution through her phone’s camera. It seemed like while Skulley appeared in any reflection of her, they didn’t overtake recordings. Luz could use her camera app to see herself and check for any spinach in her teeth or stuff. It was then when she stumbled upon something by accident.

That something would be the camera flash option, which Luz blinded herself with, causing her much surprise and pain.

When Luz picked her phone back up off the floor and looked at the fairly embarrassing photo taken, Luz saw herself in an instant of shock, mid-yelp as she tried to shield herself from the flash, her face brightly illuminated. Luz giggled at this until she noticed her eyes.

Her eyes, wide open and taking the full blast of the flash, didn’t have any reflection of the phone or her hand. They didn’t hold a reflection at all, only the flash of the camera. The flash came out like one big circle of light on her eyes, until it reached her pupil. The light was cut off completely, not a single glimmer as the center of her eyes were pitch black, like two dark pits.

Like the two eye sockets of the mirror demon that the eye-lights didn’t reach.

Luz… didn’t know what she felt about these changes. She thought they should worry her, and she should be at least anxious or the like.
But… they just felt… something.

Luz didn’t know what that something was, but it was something, even if she couldn’t describe it.

Luz did at least know she didn’t want anyone to find out. If someone finds out, Mami finds out. And Luz told herself she wasn’t going to put more on Mami than she already did by being… well, Luz.

Darker clothing was good enough at hiding the shade issue, dark hiding dark and all that. No one was going to be staring at her shadow long enough to notice the slight difference between it as the rest of the darkness. Staying out in the sun when she was in town was probably a good idea too.

As for the eye thing, Luz would just need to keep from holding eye contact for too long, to keep people from noticing. It wasn’t like she was a social butterfly, so she could keep her head down and be fine.

Luz walked downstairs, making sure to act natural to keep Mom from worrying and thinking something was wrong.

***

Something was definitely wrong with Luz and Camila was worried.

Luz had always liked a bit (usually more than a bit) of color in her wardrobe. Every outfit had to have at least one brightly hued flair in it. Wearing a gray shirt? Pink coat and blue jeans to go with it! Black dress? Grab a few lilies from the garden and you got a flower crown!

These past few days, however, Luz had been dressing very drably, sticking only to her darkest clothes. When Camila asked her about it, Luz had just mumbled about “trying new stuff”.

Now, Camila was aware Luz was growing up, and that she might want to try different things. Camila had heard all about her co-worker's teen son entering his goth phase. Sheila was doing her best to be supportive, despite her misgivings on the excess use of black hair dye. Camila wondered if Luz was going through the same thing. Then again, she was quite young for it.

Camila’s mind wandered to another possibility. A darker one.

Could this have anything to do with Manny?

Manny’s death had been devastating for Camila. She spent most days trying to hold herself together for Luz, and most nights trying to keep her sobs quiet. She knew it had to be just as bad for Luz, with Manny acting as her best (only) friend as well as a father. Luz didn’t show much of a reaction these last weeks however. She cried as he passed away of course, and a little at the funeral, but otherwise, she acted like nothing had changed. She was still the adventure-loving free spirit Luz had always been.

Maybe its finally sinking in? Camila wondered. Everything that happened…

Camila was conflicted. On one hand, she was relieved that Luz wasn’t repressing what happened. She wasn’t sure what she could do if that had been the case. Therapy was expensive, and Camila just didn’t have the money to pay for that kind of thing, or the time it would take out of her schedule. She spent most days working as long of hours as she could to get decent food for the two of them, and the extra went towards chipping away at the new medical debt she had acquired. Fancy hospital couldn’t save her husband, but it could charge her for the damn scalpel they used to—

Camila heard footsteps come down the stairs, and brushed her bitterness to the side. She turned to find Luz walking into the kitchen and pulling out the bread. Dark clothes again.

“Good morning mija! I got you some pancakes you can microwave in the freezer if you want them.”

Camila hated herself as the words came out. Microwavable pancakes. Yes, that’s what a grieving child needs, lukewarm syrupy slush. She should be making her daughter fresh homemade pancakes, topped with cut strawberries and powdered sugar, like she used to. Back when she had time for it. For anything.

“Nah, I’m just gonna make myself a sandwich and head out.” Luz pulled out the peanut butter and grape jelly and started on her meal.

She didn’t look Camila in the eyes once.

This was the other hand. The other side of the conflict. If this was how Luz was expressing her grief, how much further would she take it, and for how long? Camila was happy Luz was still reading the book Manny had given her, but what if she started pushing that away too? The idea of her daughter losing all her unique interests, her spark terrified Camila.

Manny had done so well at hyping up Luz’s hobbies, encouraging them, filling Luz’s eyes with that shine she got when she was excited.

Camila couldn’t hope to fill his shoes.

Camila didn’t even have the strength to look at his prints without breaking.

Luz finished making her sandwich, stuffed it in a paper bag, and threw herself out the door with a small “Bye Mami!” carried on the wind.

Camila watched before checking her phone, grabbing her keys, and running to her car to get to the vet center.

She had a long day ahead of her, after all.

***

Luz scrubbed her hands clean in the old graveyard’s pool and sat down to eat. She had spent the last week scouring the woods for any sign of magic, including rechecking the entire graveyard inch by inch and come up short. The only thing she had to show for it were grass stains and fingertips red and raw. Luz munched down on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich grumpily.

What could I be doing wrong? Luz thought. There had to be something to find if that potion was there. None of her research was coming up with anything. The only thing she had to show for it all was Skulley.

Luz glanced down at her morbid reflection. As soon as Luz realized that the demon wasn’t going to do anything, she started studying it. Black fur half submerged in tar. Bleached white skull. Twitching jaw and grinding teeth. The entire beast was outlined in a sickly yellow glow, but the light didn’t seem to leave the mirror. And those putrid green eye lights.

All these small details, yet she couldn’t figure out anything about it. She could barely even look it in the eye. In that moment, Luz felt small, felt weak.

What would Dad say to do?

Dad always knew what to do. When she had trouble with her homework, when she had a nightmare, when she was nervous about auditioning for a play. He always had some way of twisting the problem around so it made sense, or making her feel brave.

“Be brave for Mom, okay Luz?”

“O-okay Dad. I will be.”

Luz felt her frustration rise to the surface, and she jumped to her feet and glared at Skulley.

No more. She wasn’t gonna let this dumb skeleton scare her with just a mean look. She was gonna overcome this.

Luz forced herself to meet the demon’s gaze. Its hollow stare sunk a horrid quiver into Luz’s soul. She felt those dormant instincts within rise again to call out in feverish shrieking. Pleas to flee, to hide, to disappear swarmed her brain, yet Luz held her head in place with her hands, refusing to let herself turn away. Second upon second ticked away like hours until she could bear it no more and twisted herself around so fast she thought her neck would snap. Luz gasped for air, trying to clear this light headedness. It took minutes to compose herself.

Seven seconds.

Seven seconds she held the demon’s gaze. A mere seven seconds. An entire seven seconds.

It exceeded the time she had been able to endure it by double. More than that, even.

Luz would try again. Not today, definitely not today. But tomorrow. Tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day after that. She would stare and stare and stare some more, until those little green dots couldn’t scare her anymore.

She was gonna stare into that demon’s soul until it blinked first.

Chapter Text

She was gonna stare into that demon’s soul until it blinked first.

***

One Month Later

***

Luz slumped into one of the school cafeteria seats, pulled out her PB&J and started her lunchtime game: People watching.

Luz’s eyes would move from table to table and make up stories about what they were talking about with their friends. One pair of boys was planning a pirate voyage, another pair was practicing a duet. Another was a girl in a sky blue shirt—

Luz’s appetite dropped out of her stomach as soon as she saw her. The girl from today. The girl from the reading club.

Luz had spent all of last night planning out how to talk to a girl in the reading club. She was interested in fantasy novels, and was so laid back when reading. Luz practiced greetings and excuses to hang out. She grabbed her dad’s old beanie for luck. She practiced even more in the school bathroom. She made sure to stay a little late after the science class they both shared, and approached her.

“Hey there! I’m Luz. What’s your name?”

“Um, Sarah.”

“Good to meet you, Sarah. Hey, I actually have the first book of this really cool fantasy series called Azura, and I was wondering if you wanted to read it with me some—”

“I’ve already read it. It wasn’t for me.”

“O-oh. Well, that’s okay, I could find another book, and—”

“Sorry, I have to go, my friend’s waiting. Excuse me. I hope you have a good day.”

The girl walked past Luz out of the classroom, leaving the deflated young girl kicking herself. What had she done wrong? Was she not nice enough? Did she talk too loud?

Well, whatever it was, she was gonna do better next time! She just had to say hi after the next period and wow her!

But then Luz had stumbled across the girl and her friends in the hall.

“Yeah, that creepy girl cornered me after class.”

“Jeez, are you okay? Mom says she should be put in the special ed class with the way she spazzes out during class. She didn’t freak out at you, did she?”

“Nah, she just got up in my face. I tried to be nice as I left. Would rather wake up to a “don’t come to school” text than the other option.”

“Ugh, true. She seems the type, especially now she’s wearing all black and hiding in the corner.”

Luz fled to class before she could listen to anything more.

Luz looked down towards her sandwich and started nibbling on it, suddenly becoming very interested in picking every little shred of crust off her sandwich.

Huh. Guess I put too much jelly in this time. It’s all soggy.

That explanation didn’t explain the taste of salt slowly accumulating.

She did her best not to think about it.

***

Luz kicked her backpack across the room, and collapsed on the bed, moaning. Mami had noticed Luz’s expression when coming home, and Luz had made the mistake of telling her about her friendship failure. That set her mom off on her patented Mom Steps to Win Friends and Influence People™. Half the steps were the same “Be the same nice, sweet girl you’ve always been, and people will see that.”

The other half were trying out hobbies Luz didn’t like to hopefully fit in.

Luz heard these steps a lot.

Then again, she failed a lot.

Luz shook her head and focused on her real goal. She might not be able to win friends, but she was learning how to win staring contests.

With a demon.

Okay, that sounds a lot cooler when she mentions the demon. Luz tucked that note-to-self away for the next monologue.

Luz pulled out her notebook from under her bed and flipped through it until she found the timer section. Numerous days lined the sheet.

Day 1: 7 seconds.

Day 2: 7 seconds.

Day 3: 7 seconds.

Day 4: 6 seconds. :c

Day 5: 8 seconds!!! :D

It went on like this for an entire month, the seconds slowly increasing, bit by bit. Luz tried different ways of combating the dread that would fill her with each second of contact; using just one eye, squinting so it was kinda blurry, getting super close to the reflection. None of this worked, the terror would mount regardless. Any attempt to focus on anything else during the gaze would be swallowed up by a primal fear.

Still, she had found that exposure to it over a month made it just a inch more tolerable. While it was still just as panic-inducing when she met its eyelights, Luz didn’t have to spend the rest of the day hidden under the covers trying to still her heart. Now it only took a few minutes for her breath to even out.

Luz turned and faced the mirror.

58 seconds, 4 days straight. I’m getting a minute tonight. Now.

Luz stared into the unblinking sockets. The tingling in the back of her mind began screaming. She presses onwards.

Five, six, seven, eight,

Luz snarled at her reflection. The demon didn’t react, but it made Luz feel better to let a bit of that animal in her out. The pressure decreased for a few moments.

Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two,

Luz felt the tremors start, and lowered herself to the ground while holding the gaze. She had lost a few times when her arms gave out.

Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven,

Her eyes watered as she tried to keep her lunch in. She shouldn’t have eaten that sandwich.

Forty-three, forty-four, forty-five,

She couldn’t do this. Skulley’s stare was a wall unbreakable.

No. She just needed to find something to focus on. But nothing could break her away from the eyelights.<

Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty,

The eyelights.

Fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three,

Luz pulled what scraps were left of her together, and focused as hard as she could on the putrid green orbs of light.

Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six,

There was…

Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine.

There was something in the eyelights.

Sixty.

Luz’s head lulled forwards and she found herself face down in the carpet. She shut her eyes, and the thing, the shape in the lights burned in the darkness.

The fear lingered only for a short moment, before being washed away by the excitement of a new discovery. Luz clambered for her notebook and swiftly drew the shape into the pages. She stared down at it in awe.

It’s something. Something small, tiny even, but it’s something.

Luz gingerly touched the shape, as if she couldn’t believe it was anything more than a figment of her imagination.

What came next, however, put those doubts to rest.

Luz’s veins popped out against her skin and started shining with a faint blue light, the hue dancing across her skin. The shape glowed as well, a wisp of green smoke puffing from it. Luz was in awe.

It was disgusting. It was horrifying. It was fantastic. It was beautiful.

She found magic.

And for the second time that day, Luz Noceda weeped.

***

It gnashed its teeth as It felt the bond between It and Its prey buzz. It didn’t know what caused it, only that it reminded It that the leech was still attached. A horrible, wretched itch.

Then It pondered, as It watched the blur shift in the box. Perhaps this change would make the prey arrogant, proud. It was how It caught the False Prophet unaware before. And what justice did It bring.

It barked out a cry of deep joy, and waited. When such a itch had manifested before, It had felt something crawling nearby, something new in The Dark Place.

It would have to wait for the prey to try its luck again here, to delve too deep.

It held little sway in this horrid tomb of Its. But a little was enough. Enough to catch the leech again, and force out of it a song of perfect deserved agony.

It waited for Its prey.

It did not have to wait for long.

Luz fell asleep, and woke up someplace very, very dark.

Chapter Text

“Luz…”

Black grass stretched for miles over dark bruised mud.

"Luz..?"

Luminous pitch flowed above as a false sky, bathing the hills in a twilight that unsettled and inflicted a hint of nausea if looked upon for too long.

"Mija…"

She felt something wet and ice cold latch onto her shoulder. She spun around to find—

***

Luz jolted awake, her cheek on the dinner table and her Mami laying a hand on her head. Her brain felt like it had been soaked in syrup with how slow it was going. She must have been more exhausted than she thought from her discovery.

"You fell asleep right after dinner. You want me to carry you to bed?" Luz's mom looked down at her warmly.

"No, I can walk m'self. 'm a big girl…" Luz rubbed her face, stood up, and walked to her room as Mami started scrubbing dishes after a peck on the forehead goodnight (as well as prodding Luz for a promise to not stay up all night with her “stories”).

Luz smiled. Her mom had been doing better as the weeks went by. Her eyes weren’t as puffy as usual, and she had started to occasionally make food at home again. It wasn’t too big a change, but Luz was happy Mami was seeming better, even if she was pretty sure it was for Luz’s sake. The thought counted.

Luz stumbled into her room and snuck under the covers to get warm when she heard the crinkle of something beneath her. She wrestled around to find it and hold it up to the light, being rewarded with scraps of paper she had torn out of her notebook, her new glyph scribbled across them. She spent the past few days doodling them on every surface she could find. Notebook, homework, bedpost, school desk; nowhere was safe from the serial child artist, Luz Noceda.

Luz felt her heart soar as she clutched the sigils close, her hard work pressed against her chest.

I’ve done it, thought Luz. I’ve found my destiny. Magic…

As Luz hugged herself tight to keep from squealing (and failing), her palm met her shoulder only to pull away in shock. Luz stilled and felt it again.

The joint was frozen to the point of numbness. Luz pulled her shirt aside, and found the skin pale.

Luz quickly started rubbing it, and after a minute, her shoulder came alive, albeit with a screaming ache.

Why does my shoulder feel like it got snowgraved?

Luz's mind wandered back. Back to the dream of a lovecraftian abyss and an ice cold grip on her

Her shoulder.

That can't be a coincidence.

Luz glanced at Skulley in the corner of her eye. That dream hadn't been her first exposure to those tar-covered plains. She had encountered that place in her dreams before, right after passing out from her first meeting with her ghoulish reflection. In the over-a-month that followed, Luz had seen snippets of that place, for the briefest of moments before waking up. She dreamt of nothing else.

Luz squinted at Skulley from across the room.

Something's off with you. What is it?

Luz stared at the mirror (not the eyes, she was done with that for a good long while) and ground her teeth trying to crack the case. Funny enough, it was that tic that clued her into the difference regarding her mirror demon: it's teeth.

For as long as Skulley has been around, its jaw has been one of the few things not completely stationary. At all times, without end, they would gnash and twist its teeth, grinding them together so hard Luz was surprised they didn't shatter under their own force.

Now they were still, unmoving like the rest of it. They had sunken further into the void that made up any reflection Luz found herself in, like it was trying to make itself less noticeable.

To some, this might have felt like a blessing, the demon seemingly falling back, a sign of defeat.

To Luz, it was far more unnerving than anything else it could have done.

The beast had an energy to its form not seen before, hiding under the surface. Not an arcane one, or an electric one, or anything like that, but one she had seen at the clinic her mom worked at. Once.

One day, Luz had the misfortune of being there helping out by making sure all the cute kitties and puppies were comfortable and had enough blankets while they waited for their owners when someone had brought in a dog they had found in their yard. It was sickly-looking, foam flowing from the sides of its jaws, eyes wide and unfocused. She remembered it turned its head towards her and went completely still, every muscle tensed up and held in place, waiting.

When Mami had come in from the back and saw the dog, Luz had expected her to look sad or worried, sing sweet words at the poor puppy and make sure it was comfortable before approaching.

Mami didn't look sad.

Mami looked scared.

Mami froze only for a second, looking at the dog, then at Luz, and that look of horror only inspired Luz to feel the same, to step back.

And that was all it took. Suddenly, the dog was out of the stranger's grasp and lunging at Luz, jaws agape and snarling louder than Luz had ever heard, only slightly choked by the yellowish foam gargling from its throat.

Mami full-body-tackled the canine out of the air and sent them both slamming to the floor. In a moment, she was on top of it, both hands a vice holding the animal's mouth closed, the rest of her body being used as a weight to keep the dog pinned.

She screamed at the man to grab a syringe from the back of the clinic, and had him help as she jabbed the hound in the neck and pulled the plunger. The dog stopped moving after a few minutes.

Later in the car, Luz's mom had explained to her what rabies was, a violent sickness that drove animals mad and that the nicest thing to do for such a sick creature was to put it down so it couldn't hurt anyone else.

Luz looked at Skulley, how despite its seeming stillness, every bone and rotted muscle was poised with tension, a spring ready to release. It hid like a wolf ready to pounce and snap its jaws into a baby bunny's spine.

Luz slowly grabbed an old baseball bat from kindergarten, and pulled it under the covers along with her stack of glyphs. She watched the mirror until her eyelids grew heavy, and she drifted off to sleep.

Off into a land horrible and familiar.

Skulley's eyelights wavered and vanished as somewhere dark, in what remained of a mind, a cold whisper passed.

Found You, Little Leech.

***

Luz opened her eyes to find herself lying in the field of black grass she had grown accustomed to seeing in her dreams. The tar flowed above, some dripped down, the usual stuff.

"Geez, isn't that weird to think of all this as "usual", thought Luz. Sitting up, she looked around, waiting to wake up in a few seconds like always.

And waited.

And waited some more.

After a minute of sitting there, it dawned on Luz that she didn't seem to be waking up as usual, and she might be there for the long haul.

"Uh oh."

Luz jumped up and attempted to will herself back home, but to no avail. Her breathes came out harsher with each passing moment, and quickened in pace.

"No, no, no ,no! I can't be trapped in some weird magic realm! I- wait. What the…"

Luz stared down at herself. Her entire body, including her clothes, glowed a dim yellow and near see through. It was as if her form was made of solid light.

Patting herself and a clump of grass down to make sure she could touch things, ("not a ghost!") Luz felt something in her pocket, and revealed some crumbled paper.

"My glyphs! I can't believe these came with me!"

Luz poked one, and the light coming from her body glowed brighter, a beacon in this dark, dark place. She could only sit, stunned, basking in the glow.

Luz paused for a moment, her tiny ten-year-old brain whirring as she realized her predicament.

"Weird magic realm. I'm in a weird magic realm. There could be more magic."

Whatever small amount of sense within Luz's mind was pushed to the wayside as the far bigger magicmagicmagic part took over.

"I have to find all the stuff. All the magic. So much going on. Freaking out." Luz was now trying to keep herself steady as she felt herself buzzing with an energy only small children with ADHD could generate.

Luz began wandering the hills, using her glyphs to see ahead, and avoiding the sky-tar. She scoured the landscape for magic, glancing at every nook and cranny, always looking forward.

A shame then that the magic she hunted lay behind her the whole time.

And it hunted her just the same.

***

The girl walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Hours she walked, yet the black grassy landscape never seemed to give. There was always another hill, always another river of ooze to dodge. Luz's legs felt like rubber at this point, and she was down to her last glyphs.

"Alright. Just a few left, and I'm in the dark. What am I supposed to do then?!"

Luz in her frustration kicked the ground, and was surprised when something other than mud and grass came up. A chunk of something white as bone flew up and plunked down on the ground in front of her. Walking over and picking it up, Luz examined it. It was lighter than she expected, and looked like a giant tent stake. It didn't feel like stone, it was too porous. It had small pock marks over its surface and smelled sharp, like burnt hair. Luz wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, it's worse than when I burned my eraser off my pencil. That was not a fun talk with the principal."

Luz looked at it, and then the ground.

"Huh. Pencil. I think I know how I'm gonna keep the lights on~"

The girl stabbed the chuck into the mud and began drawing a circle. With a few slices and a poke, she had a light glyph fashioned in the ground.

"Alright, scary shadow place, here comes the light! Or should I say, the Luz~ hehe."

Luz stepped back, and braced herself to activate the sigil with a stomp.

Creeeeak. Snap—!

Luz froze. The noise echoed from behind.

She slowly turned around.

Two putrid green eyelights stared down at her from a very tall, very big form in the dark.

The hunt was over.

The prey was caught.

Chapter Text

The beast was big.

The beast was thin.

It was evershifting, and still as stone, and tall enough to loom over Luz effortlessly.

It brought tremors and nausea and repulsion and fascination. Every nerve screaming to escape was held back by every nerve begging to walk forward and see what waited in the dark.

And above all of it, the beast was old. Older than any tree or mountain, old enough to rival the stars.

It stood in the darkness, the only things that could be seen clearly being its eyelights and countless matchlight wisps of sickly green flame covering its body like fur. They gave neither heat nor light, but Luz was certain bringing her hand to it would burn her worse than any stove could.

And it was here for her.

Luz's body was ice, frigid and unyielding in its form, leaving her unmoving. Her makeshift pencil fell out of her hand and into the oily grass with a quiet splat, her other hand frozen in her pocket. She felt her feet slowly sink into the mud, and a part of her wished it would swallow her whole right here and now.

The beast tilted its head —the faint outline of it looking like a crescent moon— and stepped closer. Every movement followed what sounded like the sharp grinding and cracking of stone, and rustling of plant matter.

Luz struggled to move, to do anything, but to no avail.

The demon took another step closer. The creaks and pops were deafening.

Luz gritted her teeth.

Everytime.

Everytime she encountered this thing, she ended up like this.

Frozen. Helpless. Scared.

No more. She wasn't going to falter again. Not this time.

Her fingers twitched and felt the scrap of paper against their tips.

She is Luz Noceda: Witch Novice!

She sucked in a breath and let out a roar.

She made a promise to herself.

And she was gonna keep it.

Luz ripped a glyph from her pocket and shoved it in the face of Skulley, the sigil glowing bright.

"EAT LIGHT MAGIC, MALDITO!!!", shouted the girl and the glow exploded into a flash of blinding white. Luz shut her eyes tight and covered her face with an arm. She heard a loud crunch and then nothing.

Did… did I get it? Can I look now?

Luz put down her arm and opened her eyes, and promptly winced.

The light had not vanished, nor dimmed. It laid in the air, trapped at the moment of flashpoint. Tendrils of lights, once spilling out, stood frozen in time.

And holding the light above its claw, was the demon, now fully visible.

Its body wasn't made of the flesh and bone she saw in the reflection, but stranger materials. The scraping, grinding noises coming from it were not stone like Luz had thought, but solid ice, molded into the shape of a skeletal structure. The ice would stretch and creak as it moved, the cracks mending as quick as they came. Deep red, almost black vines wrapped around the bones and joints like muscle, contracting and pulling the form together, moving it like the strings of a marionette. The ice did not snuff out the fire covering the body, nor the fire burn the plant or melt the ice. They all worked together in impossible fashion.

The figure appeared far different than the demon in the reflection, the head being just a jutting crescent of ice with two holes borred in it, enough that one might assume they were different creatures all together. But Luz couldn't mistake those twin dying stars of green shining from its head. This was Skulley, at least in some sense, perhaps some form of construct it made to travel here and find her.

Yet its attention was not on her, for once. It stood, holding a limb out to the light, claws flexed under it. It had caught the light at its brightest moment. It held it there, staring at it, seeming entranced by the spectacle.

And then, it rotated its claw around it, the wrist-plant snapping against the tug of the ice as it turned before regrowing when the digit made its way back around to the correct position. The light slowly reversed, rewinding back to an ember the size and brightness of a lightbulb, an orb floating in the air.

It stared at the light for a second longer, before its head turned to her in an instant, its eyes burning a hole in her own. Luz felt a rush of familiar terror rise up, before she quashed it and snarled at the beast, glaring back in defiance.

You. Blink. First.

She stared the beast down, not even bothering to count the seconds as they passed. The fear flowed over her, yet she stood firm, letting it wash away.

A minute passed. Then two.

And an eternity later, the demon broke its gaze, looking away from her.

Now it wasn't technically a blink, but Luz was god-darn taking it as one (on the account that neither form of Skulley had eyelids, something Luz in the month since making her vow, had not considered nor noticed).

The beast turned its attention down, as did Luz a moment later, to the large glyph on the ground. It tilted its head to the side, observing it in a curious-like fashion. Luz glanced up at it, and slowly tapped her foot on the sigil, activating it to see what happened.

Light poured from the ground, not as blinding as the previous attempt, more of a warm ray of sun from below. Both figures stood in the glow, silent.

As the glow swelled, Luz suddenly felt off, like her mind was both here and elsewhere. It was like where her thoughts were located had expanded and something else had arrived in the new space. She reached out to that other.

Bewilderment. Confusion. Theat? Prey? Not?

Flashes of these feelings and ideas raced through her like the fear had when looking into the beast's eyelights. Luz nearly crumbled to the ground with the weight of these incoherent screams.

Wait. Not screams. Thoughts.

Luz looked to the demon and saw it swerve back from her its eyelights pulsing.

"Are these… your thoughts?"

Noises. Remember? Forgotten… Confusion. Prey?

These were not the thoughts of something sapient. These were the thoughts of an animal, just emotions and flashes of ideas churning around in a pool of instinct.

Prey? Steal Light? Kin Of THEM? Will Catch. Will Make. Suffering.

…a greatly disturbed animal, but an animal nonetheless.

"Okay, no making suffering, alright buddy? Nooo need for that." Luz tried to talk as soothingly as possible, like it was one of the animals at her Mami's clinic.

Light. Confusion. How? How?

"You want to know how I made the light? Wait, no, you seem to be able to mess with the light fine, that can't be right… Oh! You want to know how I made the glyph! Well, I found it in your eye! It was sorta… floating there in the light."

Noises. How? How?

"Right, can't understand me. Uh…" Luz thought for a moment on how to explain her journey before settling on a solution. She pointed to her eye, then to the construct, and then to the glyph. "You see? Eye, you, glyph!"

Eye. Light. Glyph… !!!

The beast raised a claw, and the digits melted and reformed thin and long. It somehow plucked one of its eyelights from the socket and studied it with the other. After a moment, it returned the light to its rightful place and stared back at Luz.

See Eye. How? How? How?

"Wait. What do you want to know this time? How I saw your eye- oh, the connection thing. Uh, that seems a little harder to explain…"

Luz ruminated on how she could fit an explanation into charades that would please the heckbeast. Deciding none word, and deducing that if it understood a glyph, it might understand a picture, she grabbed her trusty pencil-thing and thought up a drawing.

"Hmm. Can't make a blue potion without any blue… It might mistake a mirror as a person stuck in a box. Uh, think Luz, think!"

Luz suddenly remembered.

"The stopper! It had a cute owl stopper, maybe that means something to them!"

Luz quickly set apon drawing a simple looking owl into the ground and pointed at it. "See? Owl stopper. You know something about it?"

Sigil? Wrong. Drawing. Bird. Owl. Prey… Owl…

Realization. Shock.

Luz doubled over as the surprise hit her like a punch to the gut. She wheezed for a moment before looking up at the beast. It had stumbled back, out of the glyph, its eyelights now pinpricks staring at her.

"Um. So I guess you know what that means?"

The demon stood there staring for a moment before slouching over, its head twitching as if in thought. For over a minute it sat like that before seeming to come to a conclusion. It leaned up to look at her one last time before its eyelights faded and whatever was keeping the elements of its body from destroying each other faded with it, the ice melting to slush, the fire flitting out in smoke, and the plant matter rotting away within seconds. As this occurred, one last whisper of thought swirled through Luz's mind.

Not Prey. Edaspawn.

The light slowly dissipated from the glyph, and Luz was left standing in the dark, very confused.

"Uh, what does that mean? I don't know what that means. Thank you for not murdering me? I guess?!"

And that was the last thought before Luz Noceda woke up in her bed, the dawn creeping in through her window and her baseball bat firmly lodged against her cheek.

***

It sat in the dark, unsure of what to do next.

To think It had missed this. To think It hadn't realized it before. The uncovering of Its old gifts. The wildfire in the human's eye, the defiance, the passion. The mere fact they had been able to look upon Its gaze for minutes where all others not of It would cowered in terror, while Its children knew they would never need fear of Its gaze for it brought only love.

To think It had missed the birth of a new Clawthorne was abhorrent.

The portal was in their hands last time It saw, and It had seen Eda within that realm before. It knew Eda was of age enough to spawn. Even as they took care of Its spawn, they might wish for a spawn of their own as well.

But why was it in the human realm? Perhaps Eda did not know? But the Edaspawn knew, they had told It what they were with the drawing. The Edaspawn wanted It to know it was a spawn of Eda, and therefore, a child of It.

But were they a child of It? Blood had never mattered, only spirit. But this one was being raised in the human realm, It could sense it. That realm would poison the child, corrupt them with order and civility, break their spirit if they refused.

It would wait. Wait to see if the Edaspawn's spirit held firm before deciding.

Then mayhaps Its spawn would have kin, even across worlds.

***

Ever since that night, Luz no longer felt that primal fear when making eye-contact with her reflection, only a faint buzzing at the back of her head. She never found herself in that dark realm since that night either, nor did she dream. Only a quiet dark before waking up hours later.

The years went by, and Luz felt she had formed a bond with her reflection, and spent the end of every day telling Skulley about her day. It was almost like having an actual friend. At least Skulley listened to her…

Four years went by, and yet no new sigil or magic was found, despite Luz's efforts. None until there was a day involving a firework, a snake, summer camp, and an adorable hopping thief…

Chapter Text

Luz winced as a bump in the road caused her to knock her skull into the window she was using as a head rest. The hum of the car did nothing to help the oncoming ache, though Luz thought it might at least give her a distraction from her up-and-coming death sentence.

Great, now she was thinking about it again.

Luz caught her Mami in the corner of her eye trying to discreetly get her daughter's attention with a glance and a strained smile. Luz ignored it, even when her stomach squirmed with guilt.

'Oh stop being so melodramatic!', the part of her brain she dubbed "The Mom Voice" scolded. 'That's what got you into this mess. Don't pretend Mami is sending you to the guillotine, it's a summer camp!

Yeah, a summer camp full of more kids to make fun of me. Maybe I'll even get lucky and they'll find one of my drawings. I wonder how many different ways this councilor can call me "disturbed"...

Luz gave a long sigh and Camila did the same in turn. The slug of guilt squirmed harder, making the girl want to lose her half of a chimichurri sandwich all over the dashboard. Mami had taken her out to lessen the blow of leaving.

They turned into the driveway and Camilla parked the car before rubbing Luz's shoulder.

"Your clothes and toiletries are already at the camp. Why don't you run upstairs to grab anything else you need. Maybe something to read on the bus? I know you got the new Azura book. Book… Five?"

Luz gave a weak smile, nodded, and exited the vehicle, trudging in the front door and up the stairs to her room. She started packing her backpack for a day on the bus, collecting her new novel, and then after a moment of thinking, pulled the rest of the series off their shelf and into the bag. Then went in a pack of jerky, a water bottle, her phone charger, and filled the remaining space to the brim with art supplies.

As she pulled out extra charcoal pencils, she paused and looked to her open door. Speedwalking over and checking to make sure her Mami wasn't standing nearby, Luz quietly shut and locked her door before searching her bookcase— or rather, behind it.

From the thin cavity, she pulled an old notebook. Luz double checked the door before opening the covers and flipping the pages. Each page was filled with sketches of the arcane, bestial horned figures, golems of ice and vines, the light glyph styled in every way she could imagine. Hidden away was her book of stuff she didn't want Mami finding: the magic stuff, as well as… other things.

Those "other things" weren't in here because of any connection with the arcane, but rather the general theme of the magic she had found over the years. Drawings of twisting veins and sloughing flesh huddled over a crying child like a shield, a humanoid visage made of gray skin and entrails hanging from the torso, a devilish creature showing off their arms and legs, bare of any flesh or muscle, only pristine white bone left, like a woman on the cover of a fashion magazine.

Luz's time researching demons and magic had pulled her to artwork and forums she had never encountered before. Over time, her fascination over the things she got called into the counselor's office over had grown deeper. These were the things that got her looks from the teachers and whispers from the students. It wasn't like Luz showed these things to them, she knew already what they all thought of her. She just wished they would stop nosing in just to get grossed out.

Luz felt a pit of shame open up inside her and replace the warm feeling she felt at her work.

She didn't want to like these things. She just couldn't help it.

"She's just a freak."

Luz heard footsteps coming up the stairs and hid the artbook away, desperately jamming it back into its spot. She heard a knock at the door, and quickly opened it.

"Mija, why did you have your door locked?"

Luz feigned confusion. "I did? Sorry, I must've flicked it on instinct. Like going into the bathroom. Sorry."

Mami gave a confused snort. "Okay. Are you almost ready? I have to go to work soon."

"Almost."

Mami patted her head and walked back downstairs. Luz shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned against it. Looking up, Skulley was staring at her as always from the mirror.

"Look, she can't know about that stuff. I already slipped up with the taxidermy incident, she has to think that's just a one-time thing."

Luz eyes stung.

"Mami is the only one I have. I can't let her know how… how messed up I am."

Luz stood there for a moment, before grabbing her backpack and giving one last look to Skulley.

"Well, I guess I have you too, sorta. So there's that."

Luz walked out the door, and down the stairs to wait for the bus. She was gonna put on a brave face for Mami.

***

Okay, this absolutely sucked.

It had been ten minutes since Mami had left, and standing around was getting boring. She was ready to pull out 'The Good Witch Azura: Book One' and start rereading the series (again), when she heard something rattle near the trash can. Looking around the back, she found a burlap sack filled with various random objects.

Huh. What's that doing there? Where did the rattling come from?

Suddenly, the bag shifted, and with a chirp, the cutestmostadorablewonderfullittlefuzzball owl popped out from under the bag, and began pulling the bag along the sidewalk.

"Oh my gosh. Hi little buddy! What are you doing? Why are you stealing my garbage?!"

The owl looked up, and told her.

"Mama wants me to get new stuff to sell."

Now, the brown little fuzzball didn't actually say that in words or anything like that. It merely gave a small hoot as it dragged the sack along. Yet somehow, Luz understood what that hoot met, like an echo of it reverberated in her mind, slowly changing to something legible.

Luz was completely slackjawed. "I— Who's Mama— You talk?!"

The bird froze and looked at her with big, wide eyes that in any other situation would melt Luz into a weepy puddle. It gave an alarmed squeak.

"You can understand me?! Only Mama is supposed to understand me!"

Luz slowly stepped forward, but it was too late. The owl flew away into the woods, abandoning the bag altogether. Luz dashed off after it, close behind.

"Wait, hold up! Are you magic? I haven't been able to find more magic for like four years! Don't leave, I have so many questions!"

Luz watched the bird fly into a decrepit old house hidden in the woods. Luz had checked it out before, but Mami had made her swear to never go in again due to it "falling-apart-atude".

Sorry Mami, but magic owls await.

Luz dashed through the front door, and it slammed shut behind her with a bang. Slowly, silence returned to the area, save for the creaking of wood, and the quiet beeping of a multi-camera setup hidden in the bush near the door, one aimed at the old cabin, the other trained on the back of the Noceda's house.

And somewhere, in a dark, dark place. An old soul feels the barest hint of a familiar warmth eating away at the tar in its mind.

A title, a name echoes once more.

Chapter Text

Luz felt the heat and humidity skyrocket as she walked through the doorway, like she had walked into a greenhouse instead of a dilapidated old house. Instead of an empty wooden room, sunlight streaming through termite-eaten wood and broken filthy glass, Luz stepped onto packed dirt under a pale red canopy. The interior was filled with boxes of random objects, from clothes to an entire refrigerator. It smelled of mildew and something sharp that burnt her nose.

Luz pinched her nose as she looked around for the magic fluffball. The flutter of tiny wings drew the girl to a crack in the tent folds, the only other source of light other than the way she came in. Careful to peer out without touching the fabric, she looked through the crevice to see her prey flying circles around a tall gray-haired woman in red a few feet away. The small bird twittered away as it spun in the air.

"Mama! Mama! There was a- a-"

A voice, soft and growling, purred out.

"Calm down, Owlet. What's got you in a tizzy enough to forget the haul bag? Did you get distracted by a fat vole again?~"

The owl swooped down onto a table and puffed up, somehow getting even fluffier! The avian grumped (Luz stood by that that was a word) at the woman, doing an excellent cosplay of a flustered tennis ball.

"That only happened once! And I was small back then. I'm a big palismen now!" The birb stood tall to show its clear "not small-ness".

Luz gave a snort. That was her downfall. Both the owl and the lady swiveled their heads like… well, you know. The woman ripped the canvas open in a flash, staring the young girl down.

"Hey!"

Luz shrieked and twisted herself around, trying to dash through the door. Before she could, the door slammed shut in front of her, the giant yellow eye melded to the center staring into Luz's soul (she was used to that kind of thing). The door folded in on itself until it was a third of its original size and floated over her head. There was no sign of the opening to the outside, like the door had taken that with it.

Luz felt a grip on her shoulder and was suddenly spun around to face the lady, her face a foot away from Luz's. The owl fluttered over and perched on "Mama's" shoulder.

"It's her! The girl who could hear me! She asked me about you, Mama!"

"Oh, is that so?" Eda looked over Luz and picked her up by her sides and pulled her out of the tent, into the light of a new world.

Luz squinted as her eyes adjusted, and lost her breath soon after.

Instead of the light woods Luz expected, she found herself in a whole new realm. A land of hills of red grass and towering bone jutting from the earth. Small houses and towers were sprawled everywhere, with clusters of buildings packed horizontally up the spires of cartilage. Dark stone brick gave way to green molted flesh gave way to molar-filled maws and limbs grasping at the air. An honest-to-god wyvern flew through the air before being snatched by one of the many decaying claws and dragged down somewhere Luz couldn't see. The horizon was filled with billowing clouds, though something seemed off about them, with how they poured upwards like from a giant tea kettle.

Luz was in danger of catching flies. She held an aura of awe that did not stop a nearby fairy from bolting at her face trying to get its pound of flesh. Before Luz could blink, the sprite was pulled from the air by a pale hand. Turning around, Luz found the woman holding the squealing fairy, tight enough to keep its giant gnashing canines from clamping down on her skin. Wordlessly, the lady looked down at Luz and grinned, revealing a pair of sharp fangs, one gold one not.

And without hesitation, put the fairy to her mouth and bit through its head and neck with a small crunch, rainbow-colored fluids dribbling from its neck-stump and the corner of her mouth. The body spasmed one last time and was forever still.

Luz's mouth was now hanging in horror instead of awe. The woman's "Owlet" used her distraction to perch on her shoulder and hold its beak open, waiting for its portion.

"Mama, I want some! Give me some!"

"Yeah, yeah I know, you greedy beggar. You get the limbs, I know you like to crunch the bones."

The lady tore off the arms and legs of the sprite and dropped them into the bird's gullet, Luz hearing the joints snap and pop as the owl happily nommed on its "treat". The woman turned her gaze on the girl and seemed to take her mouth being agape the wrong way.

"Oh do you want some, human? First time trying some? I'll give you the wings then, best part!"

She pulled the wings off and flicked the pair into Luz's mouth, landing on her tongue. Luz snapped her trap shut without thinking before trying to spit them out, but to no avail. The wings had melted on her tongue like sugar, which coincidentally, was what they tasted like. Luz's face went green.

"I- that was- living-"

The lady shrugged. "Yeah. Was living. And now it isn't. Moving on, who are you and why is my familiar throwing a fit over you?"

Luz remembered why she came through the door and sputtered out a response. "I'm Luz Noceda, I followed your baby because it was magic and I kinda have a vested interest in that kind of stuff also is this place Hell and why did you just eat that tiny person?"

"...Uh, okay. Just gonna segment that into digestible pieces. First off: Greetings Human Luz, this is my palismen. While this place is certainly a hell, it is not any sort of hell your kind are familiar with. And that little sugar snack are one of countless flesh-eating pests that breed way too fast when out of their farm-hives. I'm just doing my civic duty, for once." She laughed at that last part.

The little featherball had relocated now to the top of the girl's head and was peering down, filling her vision with a fuzzy brown and big amber eyes. It's curiosity had clearly gotten the best of its initial wariness.

"My name is Owlbert. And I'm a he, not an it."

"Oh! Hi, Owlbert! Sorry for the pronoun mixup, and for scaring you."

Owlbert nodded contently, while his mama took on a look of utter shock.

"Did- did you just hear my palismen? As in, fully understand him, with words?!"

Luz was feeling pretty put on the spot right around then. "Uh, yeah? I mean I hear him making owl sounds, but it's like an echo just plays in my head until it forms words. Is that making any sense?"

The lady frowned in confusion. "That's how I hear him too, kid, that's the issue. I'm his bonded and his carver. Noone but me should be able to speak to him, yet here you are."

"Wait, really? No one at all?"

"Well, no one who isn't a palismen. The only ones who can truly speak to a palismen are their bonded— current or previous —or their carver. Some high quality Beastkeepers can communicate with any, but that's isn't quite the same, more like reading feelings and surface thoughts instead of an actual conversation."

"Beastkeepers? Carvers?"

"Ugh, that's a longer conversation, and one I don't feel like explaining right this minute. Owlbert didn't grab any human treasures for me to sell, and I've been in the same spot a bit too long today. Better head off before the coppers show up, 'ey… human..?"

Luz realized that she had been holding eye contact for far longer than she knew to be safe, and that the lady had caught on to the peculiarities of her eyes. She attempted to turn away and get some distance between them.

"Well this has been fun, eating a fairy alive and all, but I think—"

The woman's bony fingers latched onto Luz's arm like talons, her thin (but admittedly good-looking) face in a cold calculating grimace. Her other hand was clenched aside from her pointer finger, a faint amber glow spilling from the tip as she drew a circle in the air in front of the teen's face. The circlet of light floated there for a moment before changing to a cyan hue and the woman shoved it towards Luz. The light enveloped the girl, and she felt like her entire body gave a near imperceptible shiver.

Luz waited for whatever magic had been done on her to take effect, yet nothing seemed to happen. After a moment's looksover, the woman relaxed her grip and released the tension from her brow. "Whew. Sorry, kiddo, had to make sure you weren't a spy or undercover scout or something. Saw how weird your eyes are, and assumed someone messed up bad on an illusion or something. Went right into the uncanny valley there. No illusion it seems, just the strangest human I've ever met. Guessing not a shapeshifter either, considering how you reacted to sprite chomping. Noone in the EC has enough creativity for that."

"What do you mean human? Are you not..?"

Luz was wincing and rubbing feeling back into her arm when she spotted a crumpled up piece of parchment in the corner of the tent. Picking it up and straightening it out, Luz saw it was a poster of the woman standing right next to her along with Owlbert on a staff and…

Luz stared at the small figure to the side in the poster, a dark furred creature with face of bone and two small horns in the back.

All in all, it looked like a cartoonish drawing of the beast that lived in her mirror for the past four years.

"Skulley?", said Luz, bewildered.

"Oop, guess you figured out my little secret~ What's wrong? Never been in the presence of criminal royalty?"

"Wha? What are you—" As Luz went to look up, she noticed something written in large bold letters both top and bottom.

'WANTED'

'OWL LADY'
'1,000,000,000,000'

Luz turned to the one trillion worth criminal as they pulled off the head dressing off, revealing a pair of large, pointed, very-much-not-human ears.

"Now you're starting to get the picture! Now, time for a real introduction."

She snapped her fingers and the tent, along with everything in it, collapsed in on itself, until she had a trashbag-sized sack to haul around. Owlbert gave one last hoot before spinning in the air and transforming into a wooden statue, a staff of thr same material forming under him and falling into the lady's hand. She then spun the staff around in the air until it sat behind her, where she then sat upon it like a chair, the staff floating in the air to support her weight.

"I'm Eda the Owl Lady. I'm the most powerful Witch on the Boiling Isles. I'm wild, unpredictable, and an enemy of the state for the crime of mere existence. I am feared by the powerful, respected by the masses, and beloved by cute little owl palismen (that last part punctuated by a scritch on Owlbert's head). I'm off to my secret hideaway to plot the theft of my own property back from a corrupt officer."

Eda gave her a fang-filled grin.

"Wanna come with?"

Luz's eyes were big enough to rival Owlbert.

"So much…"

***

The Titan.

The Titan.

The Titan.

The Titan had spent every moment since they recalled their own name repeating it over and over again. Like a chisel to stone, it would hammer that same name, same title, into its mind until there was never a possibility they would forget it again.

It's mind wasn't completely back, nowhere close. It still was a beast in mind and their memories were ruined at best, but now a spark of sapience has graced them once more. It could remember its name, the nature of its prison, even the tongue of its children, the meanings set to vowels and consonants again.

The Titan, when tired of the repetition, grew curious. What had caused this mental regeneration? The tar seemed to have receded somewhat from the inside of its skull, like it had been dispersed by something.

A flash of light distracted The Titan from its musing. The light came from The Box, which seemed to be glowing a tad brighter than usual. Once in a while, the box would flash again, showing a flicker of something. A figure.

The Edaspawn?

The Titan would get to the bottom of this strange occurrence, and hope that the symptoms would stick.

***

Luz had had the strangest, most amazing day of her life.

She flew to a secret hideout house on a magic staff with a witch, got eaten by said house in order to enter, and met the cutest little demon lord to ever live.

A demon lord whose shadow resembled the construct she met in the dark realm years ago.

A demon lord who looked like a mini Skulley, from the face shape to the horns.

Luz had been overtaken by his smolness and giant puppydog eyes at first, but as the squealing in her heart subsided, Luz realized the similarities. She would have asked a couple questions, but Eda had been ready to get started on her plan.

Her plan, as Luz found out, was a quest to find King's (the mini Skulley) crown back from some weirdo jailor. Eda had mentioned that King used to be a super powerful lord of demons before an evil spell had been placed on him. Luz had wondered quietly to herself on whether this spell had been done around four years ago, and had made up a whole theory on Skulley being the other, bestial half of King's persona.

That hypothesis was quickly trounced by what Eda hadn't mentioned, being that the story was completely bunk. King's crown was just some cardboard from Burger Queen, and had no magical properties (except for making King positively beam, which Luz supposed was magic enough). Eda was quick to explain how important that thing was to her roommate, and how they had little but each other, so Luz felt better about nearly getting arrested for this mission.

It did not make Luz feel better about Eda being decapitated two feet in front of her, and her head landing in Luz's arms.

The hatchetman (or hatchetdemon as it were) was Warden Wraith, a giant figure who appeared to be made somewhat out of clay, which he could meld and form into different tools and weapons. However, that skill could not form him a healthy outlook on dating, as it was revealed his stealing of King's crown was an elaborate plan to catch Eda and ask her out.

He did not react well to the turn-down. Nor to the staff to the back of his soft gooey head.

Within a minute of all this, Luz with the help of Owlbert and a somehow-still-kicking Eda, caused a prison breakout and revolt, destroying a good chunk of the place. With Wraith duking it out with four different people, Luz decided to try out a new style of her light glyph. Pulling out a slip of paper with a glyph at each corner connected by a circle, Luz gave a quick tap and swung Owlbert like a bat, hitting the quivering mote of light right into the warden's face, going off like a flashbang. None of the guards could do a thing before the rebels escaped, too busy cradling their eyes (one rebel did that too, but they were eating theirs, so not the same).

The three flew back home, with Luz asking if maybe they should have let the tiny one go free, as she had taken a peek in the cell, and found the words 'THE MOUSE IS GOD' scarred all over the walls, not helped by the other half of the sentence in one big scrawl on the floor 'AND SO AM I'.

Eda just shrugged and told Luz that it would be fine. Probably. For them.

And now here she was, a newly witch's apprentice! Sure, she had to do some chores and whatnot, but an actual, tangible way of learning magic! Eda had seemed impressed and curious in Luz's way of doing magic, saying she hadn't seen such a way of casting before. The girl's heart swelled with pride at that.

Magic wasn't the only reason she took this opportunity, however. Eda had told her she would answer any non-puberty-based questions tomorrow, once she had time to sleep off the aches from today's combat. Perhaps tomorrow, Luz could tell her about Skulley, maybe she would know more about them, why they were there, why it looked like King.

Luz remembered the owl stopper on the potion that had started all this. Perhaps King wasn't the only connection she had.

Well, for now, it was time to wash her face and brush her teeth before heading to bed. Luz stood in the bathroom, holding her phone up so she could make sure she got everything using the camera. Spitting the froth out, Luz gave a glance to Skulley.

"Guess we're gonna find out what you are, buddy."

Skulley froze, mid teeth grinding. Luz did the same, in shock. Slowly, the eyelights twitched and moved. Once unfocused and empty, the gaze was now clear, pointed. The beast narrowed its sight to look her in the eyes. Its jaw creaked open, leaving a small crack between its teeth.

And from that fissure, a voice hardly decipherable from a howling wind pressed against her ears, making them pop. A voice which seemed to echo deeper in her mind than she ever wished it could.

"Edaspawn. Hello."

Chapter Text

"Edaspawn."

The voice was a roaring gale pressing down on her, she was sure she could hear her joints straining and creaking over the wind. Luz's vision swam and the color in the room spread over each other, bleeding together and growing denser, stronger in hue under the weight of the beast's tone.

And the tone. It's voice, the wind itself was made of its intent. It was a command set in stone, a demand to be heard and acknowledged hammered into her skull.

It did not speak in words, similar to Owlbert, but it was not exact. The tiny palismen spoke in bird calls, which then translated into words. Skulley's spoke in pure tone, intent somehow interpreted vividly by some old part of Luz's mind, back from before humans had language.

Luz leapt backwards, slamming into the wall behind her, staring at a beast she presumed stagnant and unresponsive, now actively staring her down and talking. Her mind was a blur of bewilderment and fear.

"Edaspawn."

The bathroom was broiling. The voice's presence alone was heating the air itself.

Luz tried to find her voice.

"S-stop ta-talking. H-h-how are…"

Her voice was lost just as quickly as it was found.

"Edaspawn."

As the voice repeated itself, Luz's nerves seemed to pulse with a horrible buzzing sensation, the same feeling as when she hit her funny bone when she was eight, all over her body. Every roar seemed to push these garbage signals deeper into her, until it reached her bones.

In all this cacophony of emotions and garbage signals, only one response made sense to her illogic.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!", the girl screamed, pulling back and slamming a fist against Skulley's image as hard as she could. Pain shot up her hand as the mirror cracked under the pressure, leaving a thin fissure splitting the mirror in half. Sangria red dripped down the flaw.

And the demon stood there, back to its silence for a moment, before responding.

"Spirited Little One, Indeed. Harm Is Not Meant, Not Yet. Your Exhaustion Is Seen. Rest Shall Clear Your Blood Of Its Temper.

Luz felt the tone alter, the demand change.

"Sleep."

Luz's eyelids became stone, and she collapsed to the floor.

***

Luz's first thought as she returned to consciousness was, Man, I am sore.

The second thought was, What is on my chest, and why is it snoring?

Luz blearily opened her eyes to find a black furry mass sleeping on her chest. Blinking the sleep away, she was able to see a little skull with its face in its floofy tail.

"...King?", Luz croaked out. A small weh? peeped out. King's tail twitched and a pair of rose pink eyes peeked out.

"Hm. Hi, human-slash-living-pillow. Trying to sleep, so would you keep it down?"

"Am I still in the bathroom? Why are you here?"

"Well, when you never returned to your sleep cocoon, I figured you might have fallen asleep in the bathroom. Eda ends up like this sometimes when she drinks too much apple blood. Which reminds me, is that why you're in here, because one: Eda will murder you for stealing it, and two: can I have some, because she says I'm too small to have any."

"So you decided to keep me company in my time of need? Aww~"

"You're like a heating pad, okay! Also, I had to keep Hooty from eating you."

"I was only tasting! Hoot!"

Luz leaned over to find Hooty sticking his head in through the window, a shoelace hanging from the corner of his beak.

(This was the exact time when Luz noticed one of her shoes was missing.)

"Ooo-kay, I gonna go find Eda before—"

Luz went to stand up when she remembered what was certainly awaiting her in the mirror, and laid back down, King snuggling back onto her.

"You know, I think I'm just gonna lie here and wait for Eda to come find us."

King gave a tiny nod, and Luz sat there on the bathroom floor, petting King and trying to process what had happened last night.

***

Edalyn Clawthorne, Greatest Witch of her Age, and Mistress of the Wild (and sometimes others if they asked nice) had found a stray sleeping on her bathroom floor, being used for their warmth by her room-demon and as a salt lick by her house-demon. The witch was already summoning some rope and a chair for interrogation when the furball reminded her that this wasn't a random child who somehow broke into her house, but her new apprentice. Oops.

Now plus one cup of apple blood (which her new student was squinting at suspiciously for some reason) and sitting down at the table, Eda was ready to talk about this “big thing” they seemed to be itching to tell her about.

“Okay, human. What is so important that you come to Eda the Owl Lady for?”

“Well, you are kinda the only witch I know, so you’re the one I’m talking to. And well…” Luz tensed up, rubbing her arms in an effort to soothe herself. The shadows on her seemed to grow darker and creep deeper on her body, as if trying to hide their maker. Is that a thing humans can do now? After a moment, she let out a sigh and furrowed her brow, staring the witch down.

“I’ve had a demon in my mirror for the past four years, and only I can see it.”

Eda sipped her morning brew, and waited for more words. When none came, she spoke bluntly.

“Okay.”

Luz looked a tad frustrated/confused by Eda’s tone. “Okay?! I just told you a—”

Eda raised a hand to stop her. “I heard what you said, human. I’m sure this is all strange for your kind, but here in the Boiling Isles, something like that isn’t entirely unheard of. I admit it is weird that this happened in the Human Realm, but it’s not like it's impossible for stuff to leak through. Now tell me, what does this demon do exactly?”

Her student shifted in her chair. “Uh, for the most part, Skulley just stares at me. Constantly.”

“Did you come up with that name, or did they give you it?”

There were some demons— sapient and not —that made their home in the land of mirrors. They were semi-rare, the biggest type being the mirror-ants, who were infamous for luring people into their realm by mimicking the voices of loved ones. Eda had an aunt who got consumed that way. Shouldn’t have left that candy jar out for so many decades, Auntie L. Luckily, the fact that the human was still alive ruled out that possibility.

“I made it up myself. It doesn’t talk. Well… it didn’t before.”

“Before?”

“It talked. Yesterday. I was in the bathroom and it started talking for the first time. Well, there was that time—”

“Waitwaitwait, the bathroom? Where is the mirror now, if you were in the bathroom all this time?”

“What do you mean where is the mirror, it's your mirror, on your wall!”

Eda was beginning to suspect something. “Kid, are you saying the demon is in your reflection or a mirror? Like a single one.”

The girl was looking slightly freaked out now. “Um, reflection? Sorry, I didn’t mean to confuse you.”

Eda tried to keep the concern off her face. How did the kid not think to mention that first?! A demon in your mirror was like seeing one out in the same place every day, a demon in your reflection was like seeing it behind every corner you walk past every day. It meant the demon was tied to you specifically, possibly even to your soul. More worrying, Eda knew she had wards, old and powerful ones, up to stop any kind of magic like this from coming in, from scrying to geas-es to even targeted foresight. How something could have slipped by her arcane walls was beyond her.

“Now don’t freak out, but tell me literally everything about this creature and what they’ve done.”

Surprisingly, that did not help her student keep calm, but they still managed to explain some of what they knew about the beast, from appearance to her dreams of tar, mentioning the construct, and even the potion Luz drank that seemed to lead to the appearance of the entity.

“I’m sorry, did you said you drank a potion you did no safety-testing on beforehand? At all?”

“I mean… yes?”

“Damn kid, brave and dumb. Good combo to have to get yourself killed.”

Luz pouted at Eda, which she rolled her eyes at.

“Okay, it's in every reflection you’re in, and it seems to have some connection with your dreams. Dreams are connected with the mind or mind magic. With what you’ve said, this sounds like either a very obsessed oracle stalking you. (quite concerning) or a demon that seems to have somehow, through a potion, latched onto a part of your mind itself (incredibly concerning). And with no prior connection to the Demon Realm, I’m sorry to say the first is looking unlikely.

The human was sitting on the chair, in the fetal position. “So what does that mean? What do we do?”

Eda snorted. “C’mon squirt, don’t look so down! Remember who your new mentor is! I have plenty of wards up and available to keep pesky spies from uh, spying. We’ll have this creep snatched up in a heartbeat!”

Eda did her best to ignore the dread surrounding the fact that this demon was somehow breaking through all of the already-up defenses she had for this kind of thing.

Luz smiled at that, giving a small giggle. “Okay, what do I gotta do to help?”

Eda grinned. “Go grab a mirror from the storeroom. We’re gonna have a talk with this ‘Skulley’”.

Chapter Text

On the right limb of The Lord-Titan, in the twisting forest that held the town of Bonesborough, from a strange and peculiar house overlooking the Boiling Sea, came a strange and peculiar chanting.

The chanting for an old and complex ritual.

If you were to look through one of the windows of this house, you would find the source of this noise sitting on her couch, a slow and dripping rhyme in a newly-dead language coming from her lips. The old woman stirred a small cauldron filled with a cerulean foam as thick as porridge. Beside her sat a young teenage girl digging her nails into her knees and staring at her teacher's mixing of her brew in awe.

"What is it..?" Luz whispered far too loud, patience overwritten by excitement over watching her first potion creation.

Eda held up a finger telling her pupil to wait. Seeming to finish her chant, Eda stuck out her tongue, which now glowed a faint gold. Pulling the glass stirring rod from the pot, she pressed the dry end to her tongue, collecting molten gold spit on the tip. Flipping the rod around and sticking it back in, the foam trembled for a minute before a noxious smoke poured out and a glittering cyan grit was left around the rim of the cauldron. The witch cackled.

"And they say bard magic is just for show! Vitimir himself couldn't make this concoction "purely" in a week, and we got it in a couple hours. Shows what they know~"

Luz looked confused. "I don't know who that is, or what this is, but I'm happy to be included!"

"Head witch of the Potion Coven. Probably the most wild out of the nine tracks, but that doesn't change he's a stooge. And this- ow!"

Eda winced as the foam left on the rod finished trailing down onto her finger. A faint hiss like hot oil spat out. The owl lady shook it off, inspecting the burn.

"Whew. Gonna have to take an antitoxin after this. Anyway, this right here is Hyli's Druff, a powder used for high end ward making. It'll help me figure out how your little friend is slipping through my defenses and maybe even contain them in this."

Eda tapped on the other item on the table: a mirror in an odd frame lying facedown, a series of runes etched into the back. Luz did not share her certainty.

"Uh, Eda? This looks like you tore it off someone's medicine cabinet. It's even still got the knob."

"Oh that's because it was. I was… in desperate need of some of that headache medication you humans got."

Luz had no response, which Eda took as completely understanding her perfectly reasonable explanation, and started scraping the powder off and sprinkling some of it over the mirror. The runes flashed blue and were left with the scent of rubbing alcohol.

Eda clapped her hands. "Now we're ready! All you gotta do is keep this creep talking while I test the runes, and we'll figure out what their deal is and lock em up! You got it?"

Luz gave a shaky smile. "Y-yup. So ready."

"King, you ready if it tries to possess Luz?"

King stood in the corner with a hammer, positively buzzing with a "I get to smash something without getting into trouble" energy and cackled to himself. "Ready!!!"

"Hooty, you ready to hold King back from breaking stuff too early?"

Hooty held a tiny tack hammer in his beak, wriggling with the same energy. "I make no promises, ma'am. READY!"

Eda sighed. "Welp, I'll be watching the wards right here, so whenever you're ready." She made a large spell circle and began studying it intensely.

With a nervous gulp, Luz carefully picked up the mirror and with a deep breath, turned it towards herself.

"Edaspawn."

"Mirror demon."

Luz counted her lucky stars. The voice was still there, and it still made her eardrums feel like they had been freezerburned raw, but it at least seemed tolerable now. She wondered if that "rest" Skulley forced on her did more than give her aches and bruises.

"Has Your Blood Cooled?"

Luz glanced at her mentor for what to say. Eda looked over at her and then to the mirror, and whispered. "What is it?"

"Can you hear it?"

"No. Can't see it either, all I see is you. The runes should be binding it to the mirror, making it show up."

"What does it mean if they don't?"

"I don't know."

"There Is Another."

Luz flinched, forgetting somehow that the beast was still there. "Another? You mean more than me? Pfft, what would give you that idea?!"

"I Can Hear You. With Whom Do You Speak."

"Oh, uh. Just my teacher. I'm at her place right now, on her couch as you can see."

"I Cannot See. There Is Only You And The Darkness Surrounding."

"Okay, that's nice, uhhhh…"

Luz flipped the mirror over again and turned to Eda.

"What am I supposed to say?! It's just talking about darkness and my blood cooling!"

"Bones below, just ask questions! Ask it why it's tethered to you, how old it is, what's allowing it to get through my damn wards!" Eda shook the disc in front of her in frustration. Apparently, it wasn't telling her what she wanted.

"Well, it can't seem to see or hear or interact with anything but me, so at least we got that."

Luz flipped the mirror over again.

"Edaspawn."

"Hi. So uhh, what's your deal?"

"Your Name."

"What?"

"What Is Your Common-Name."

Luz opened her mouth to say before clamping it shut. Luz wasn't an idiot. She knew what names meant in fantasy, even if it usually applies to fae creatures more than demonic. "Luzura Hecate."

"False." Skulley hardly gave a pause.

"Connie Demayo."

"False."

"Skelly McJerkface."

"You Are Lying."

"No, that last one was just an insult. Two outta three ain't bad though."

"Why Do You Hide Your Name."

"Because I'm not stupid. I'm not going to lose my soul just so I'm not being "impolite" Names have power and all that.

"Your Soul Means Nothing To Me."

"And so does my name, so why don't we just cut it here."

Skulley glowered at the child for a minute. The child glowered back. One of them relented first, and it wasn't the one still with flesh.

"Edaspawn Shall Suffice. A Good Title."

"You called me that before, years back, with the construct ice thingy. You attacked me"

"This Is …Remembered. I Grant My Apologies Onto You. My Mind Was Lost."

"Lost?"

"Eaten Away. Devoured By The Dark Place."

"Ah. Well. Okay."

Luz flipped the mirror again.

"It asked for my name. I didn't give it."

Eda smirked. "Good. Never give the enemy an edge. There are a couple spells that require names, so it's good it doesn't know."

"It also said something about "The Dark Place". That ring a bell?"

"Not a clue."

"Great." Luz huffed and went back to Skulley."

"So what's your name?"

The beast was silent long enough to be suspicious, before answering.

"Skulley Shall Suffice."

"Ha. Hypocrite."

"I Shall Grant No Insight If Not Granted The Same."

"...Then how about this, we take turns asking questions, and we either answer and ask our own, or pass for another question. Sounds good?"

Skulley paused again. The tone engulfing Luz grew into a curious one.

"Acceptable. I Shall Grant You First Cut."

"Alrighty. Why are you in my reflection?"

"You Bound Me To You. My Question Is How."

"Me?! I just drank a potion I found in the dirt— wow that sounds stupid when I say it out loud."

"No Potion Alone Is Capable Of Such A Feat."

"I don't know what to tell you. That's what happened. I drank the stuff, my veins got weird and then you showed up."

"Curious."

"My turn. You used that construct thing to attack me. Why?"

"My Mind Was Gone. I Heard Your Mummerings And Assumed You As Just A Human From Your Lack Of Fangs. You Proved Otherwise Thankfully."

Luz sputtered in shock. Not just human?! "Wait, proved?! You think- I- How did I prove that?!"

"The Drawing. The Owl. I Suppose If Anyone Were To Meld A Connection To Me It Would Be One Of Your Kind Edaspawn."

"What does that mean?!"

"You Have Asked Three Questions And Were Twice Answered. One Of My Own Is Prepared. What Realm Do You Find Yourself In."

"The Demon Realm. Why?"

The tone of curiosity faded a bit, like one of its main concerns was answered.

"That Does Explain The Magic Creeping Through The Bond. It Is What Has Allowed My Mind Some Relief."

"Okay, that explains why you've started talking. Now, what do you mean by not just human? Why 'Edaspawn'?"

Eda took a break from dusting what Luz assumed to be the wards with Hyli's Druff to look over at Luz, hearing her name brought up.

"Edaspawn. As In Spawn Of Eda. I Would Think This Clear. I Assumed She Did Not Raise You But I Would Expect You To Have Been Given Her Name."

Luz felt like her brain was frying. Flipping the mirror over once more, she took a moment to breath and get a grasp on it all.

She was weird. She could do magic. She somehow stumbled through a portal into another world like destiny.

This woman just took one look at her and started helping her. For no reason. And let her stay at her house.

Oh God no.

Eda took this silence as the perfect time to talk.

"Okay, I've touched up every ward and added new ones to fill in the gaps, and I'm getting jacksh- squat. None of the scrying attempts picked up anyone else here but us four. I'm thinking if I can borrow a bit of your blood, I can check your soul—"

"Eda, you haven't had kids, have you?"

That shut her mentor up. "W-what?! Why are you asking that?!"

"Skulley keeps calling me Edaspawn, called me it when I talked to his ice thingy. And just now they said I was 'Spawn of Eda', and something about owls and while I'm fairly certain I know who my parents are, I would just like to nip any plot twists in the butt becauseI'mfreakingoutalready!"

Eda's eyes were pinpricks at this point, trying to translate everything her student had said. After a long, long, far-too-long-for-Luz-to-be-comfortable pause, Eda let out a long breath and answered.

"Kid, while you seem cool and all, I am quite certain I have never given birth before—"

Luz crumbled into the couch. "Oh thank god."

"However, that also isn't the only way witches can make a kid."

"What?!"

"Calm down, that won't make this any easier, trust me. There are spells and potions that can help. Either giving one or more partner's different… bits… or… Titan why do I have to explain this to you, I barely know your name…"

Student and teacher alike were both extremely uncomfortable with the conversation. Luz had her face in her hands and her body as small as possible, while Eda did her best to trail lines in the ceiling with her eyeballs.

"There are times when such things are used…"

"Oh god…"

"...Recreationally."

"I would like to die now."

"So would I kiddo, so would I. So—"

Luz threw her arms to the sky. "Okay, okay, I get it! Did you… y'know, with a human lady? Brown skin, looks like me, speaks Spanish?!"

"I don't know, you got a picture?"

Luz fumed, her face flushed. Grabbing her phone, Luz found a photo of her mom and her at the zoo and shoved it in her mentor's face. "Here!"

Eda took it and looked for a moment, brow furrowed. Luz took that time to forget how to breathe.

Eda gave a low whistle and seemed to relax as she stared at the photo.

"What?! What is it?!"

"I have never met this gal in my life."

Back to Crumbled Luz. "Oh thank—"

"Believe me, I would remember a woman like her. Hoo dang."

"God—wait, EW! Gross! That's my mom!"

Luz snatched her phone back while Eda burst out laughing.

"Sorry, sorry! Couldn't help myself. You feel better knowing you don't got this nutcase as your ma?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Welcome. In fact, I know how you can thank me! I've went through all the wards with nothing to show for it, and it'll be a little longer until I can start work on soul-scrying, so why don't you and King go do some chores for me?"

Luz was unimpressed. "Chores…"

"They're magic chores~"

Luz was impressed again.

Suddenly, a loud crunch echoed through the room, startling both occupiers of the couch. The sound of glass shattering wasn't a pleasant one.

Standing by the now very broken mirror was King and Hooty, their hammers lying stuck in the frame. King was the first to speak.

"We got tired of waiting!"

"HOOOOT!"

Chapter Text

Eda wiped the sweat from her brow as she studied the crystal, the sun beating down on her from her window. She cursed the sun, wishing nothing more than to be able to close the blinds and sit in the shade, but she knew that wasn't happening. 'A spell for seeing all things under the sun' the old tome said, 'a twist of a trick to see one's soul'.

Eda was quite familiar with the traditions of the great witches of old. They loved their tricks, hiding their items of power in random caves and their spell instructions vague at best. It took years to get good at cracking each author's code, recognizing each one's wordplay and gimmicks. It was fun when she finally cracked it, but frustrating for the rest of it.

Ah nuts, I'll do the same if I ever write a book. What's the fun of giving up all your knowledge without making em put the effort in?

The witch chuckled. She bet she could playtest her own wordplay on her new apprentice when she got back. Have the kid running around in circles trying to unravel Eda's verbal web.

Thoughts of her pupil translating old arcane tomes soon turned to her own years as a young witch doing the same. She remembered waking up, eyes red from staying up all night, and throwing her alarm against the wall to stop its racket.

"C'mon, just give me the translation key, I know you got it!"

"Aww, is the "genius teen prodigy" stumped by some old book?~"

"You're the one obsessed about old junk! Pleeeease?"

"Hmph, fine. Sixty snails."

"Sixty?! Lilllllyyyyy…"

"Ugh. Thirty. Baby sister discount, happy?"

"Heh heh. Now the haggling starts…"

Eda felt the memories turn sour just as she heard the slam of the front door, giving her an excuse to distract herself from them. Eda waited as her ward sprinted into the kitchen, King tucked under her arm like a Grugby ball. Her apprentice looked like she had eaten a cup of fairydust with how hyperactive she seemed.

"Eda, you won't believe what happened to us on our trip! It was our last stop, and—"

Luz was waving her arms every which way as she paced back and forth, an errant swing jostling the crystal, nearly knocking it off the table entirely had Eda not snatched it.

"Hey, kiddo, watch the weak nerd arms, they nearly cost me my best oracle focus!"

An indignant hoot came from the witch's hair.

"You're the best focus of all, Owlet, you know that" Eda said, patting the part of her mane she thought her familiar nested (sometimes the Clawthorne hair was too much even for their bearers).

"Oops, sorry. Heh." The kid awkwardly laughed, clearly trying to hold in her excitement. Her roommate used his remaining energy to lift his head and give Eda an eye roll (turning his eyes, not an eye rolled in seaweed and noodles, though speaking of dinner plans…) before the act of being held midair caused him to fall asleep against Luz's side.

Eda held her hand in front of her pupil's face, halting the unyielding stare boring into the sphere. "Relax the peepers, they're causing the psychic energy to flare up. The focus is sensitive."

Luz turned her head towards the ceiling and the violet fog forming on the outside dissipated, the last wisps forming a THX on their way out. Eda smiled. Poor Terry and his anxiety.

"Well, the spell is still salvageable, just need the last ingredient. Mind losing an eyelash or two?"

Luz pulled a few with a wince and handed them over, and Eda sprinkled them onto the ball. Each one floated down and sunk into the glass like water, melting into dark caramel blotches filling the focus. The glass went dark, as did Eda's eyes, pupils expanding until they encapsulated the rest of her eyes. A hum reverberated throughout the house.

After a couple minutes, the hum faded, and Eda's eyes turned back to normal. The focus returned to transparency with a pop. The witch gave a frustrated huff.

"Nothing. I checked your soul out, and there's no sign of this damn creep. If the place didn't heat up like a bonfire when you used that mirror, I would like you were making this whole thing up."

The human looked down at her shoes, mouth downcast. Eda felt a shard of guilt worm its way into her, and she quickly continued. "Which you are not, I know that! I just wish I could get a read on this thing."

Her student looked over to the remains of the mirror in the garbage bin.

"Skulley and I never finished our questions game, did we?"

Eda grimaced. "No you didn't. Unfortunately, it sounds like that might be our only option to figure out its deal."

Eda glanced over at her furry friend, his horned skull bobbing up and down as he scored.

"You said this thing looks like King?"

Luz nodded. "Larger, more skeletal, and more eldritch, but yeah, like King."

Eda pondered. King's features weren't uncommon, most demons had at least one of those features. The whole of demonkind was filled with every shape and trait. It wasn't unimaginable that at least one demon would share similarities to her roommate.

Yet by the same logic, would she not have met someone like that already? She had explored all over the island in her youth, yet in all her travels she hadn't met someone looking like King. Strange.

"Maybe we can ask about it tonight. Right now, I have a quest to go on."

"Yeah, I could do with a break from this— wait, quest?"

And so, Luz told her mentor of her noble quest.

And so, the teasing commenced.

***

"Ha hahaha! Chosen one?! Really kiddo, I know you're new here, but I didn't think you would fall for that kind of a scam! Hehehehe…"

Luz's face was a deep violet as she stomped down the hall and into the bathroom. Grabbing her backpack off the floor, and checking to see her extra snacks weren't stolen by tiny demon hands (they were). Groaning, she put her pack on and got ready to head out on her quest, no matter what some jerks say!

"I'm not stupid, I'm not a mark. I'll go on this quest and show them."

"Blood Boiling Again Edaspawn. Must I Send You To Rest Once More."

Luz flinched, still not used to Skulley's new talkativeness. She gave her reflection a severe glare.

"You are not putting me to sleep again. I have a quest to go on for a magic staff. No matter what they say…"

"You Are In Battle With Another."

"Sorta, I guess? More of a spat, making fun of me. You got any suggestions?"

"Have You Considered Taking A Chunk Of Their Flesh."

"I have not. Thank you for your horrible input. Goodbye."

"I Am Not Saying Keep It. Merely Withholding It Until They Apologize."

Luz left the bathroom, and went out onto her quest, out of Bonesborough.

A figure stood among the trees, staring at her from afar, before following behind unseen.

The forest grew quiet in such a presence, though whether it was the girl's or the other's, noone knew.

Chapter Text

For the millionth— no, billionth– for a time truly unfathomable to all but themself, The Titan cursed their mental limitations. Once, when the moon was unmarred and unblemished, and the great serpents were so plentiful they could be plucked from the sea to be swallowed by the clawful, a question like this would be nothing. The solution would be swift, with no need for mulling over complexities and contradiction.

But its mind was whole then —without flaw— like the orb hanging in the night sky.

And what now would one see when they stare upon the moon, but a pock-marked slate made more of broken shards than what it once was.

The old beast turned its mind away from the night sky. It knew better than to stare.

'Forbid your eyes from the stars, lest they turn their attention on you in return.'

A lesson learned much too late, and with no one left to tell.

It was becoming distracted again. Holding its focus on anything was like scaling a tower of loose sand, pulling itself up for as long as it could until it was too exhausted to resist being dragged down to the bottom.

What was their focus on?

Ah yes, the Edaspawn. Now it remembered.

The Titan had spent time observing them as they went about their little "quest". It knew something was amiss from the moment The Cube connected to them again. The intense static fuzz of mind magic drifted through into the beast's bones. A trap, most likely, was set for the Edaspawn for whatever reason. Perhaps a puppeteer demon had become hungry and chosen the Edaspawn as its prey.

And there was the dilemma. To warn the Edaspawn of this deceit, or allow it? The Edaspawn, as its namesake suggested, carried the blood of Clawthornes within. Blood that had been sworn protection by The Titan as recompense. For what, the beast did not know, its memory an abyss that ached the longer it gazed in. It only knew it must repay what was lost in some form. Such thought should make it obvious to them to speak out and grant the child relief from this ruse.

And yet, the beast found the idea lacking. Despite their parentage, this one had been raised in the human realm, taught by them, corrupted by their sickness. They were not one of The Titan's children, for it was not blood alone that decided this. Even had they been, to warn them would be leaving another of its own, the ensnaring demon, without. It would be snatching a meal or reward from its own child. It was after all, the demon's right to hunt and devour its prey, just as it was its prey's right to defend itself and devour its pursuer in turn.

And what of the risk the Edaspawn still possessed. The Titan knew of the child's curiosity towards them, adamant on studying the beast. The Edaspawn had already enlisted their elder to help uncover the entity's identity. It was mere luck that its corpse was not a dead giveaway, thanks to millennia of decay and the molding it had done to itself before its death.

It had already heard snippets of the human's quest. Talk of "prophecy" and "chosen" with the same awe as Them.

No, they cannot be revealed. Not when the connection would be tainted with poison and falsehood. Not if the connection turned eyes upon their spawn.

The Titan finally turned its gaze to The Box, and watched silently as the child moved away from whatever reflection she was near and the image faded.

The Edaspawn would be safe from its wrath, yes. But if it wanted to claim the Titan's realm as their own, it must rip the necrosis from its skin and let something greater grow in its place.

The beast already had an inkling of what could be done with what remained if they failed.

***

Luz was having the time of her life. She and her new partner-in-questing, Nevareth, walked through the quaint village of adorable cat people talking to everyone. There was the carpenter Wodcut who liked pie, Dr. Posh-Ian the teeny doctor with a bandage on their head, and Mrs. Tanner the shoe maker! Everyone was so nice, it was a blast!

Well, she was enjoying talking to everyone. Her new compatriot seemed determined to get a move on.

"Oh, Champion Luz. While I am… happy you are so invested in these people, the Celestial Staff awaits its wielder."

"Five more minutes, Nev. I have to learn about the baker and her stance on the ancient evil. So what did you say your name was again."

The little fuzball holding a fresh loaf of bread froze, sweat forming on her brow.

"Uhhh… my name? W-well my name isssss…"

Her eyes darted around, as Luz waited patiently. The human knew how stressful talking to new people could be, after all.

"...Kitty… Fur-baker..?"

The cat stood silent, scanning the girl's face nervously. After a moment, Luz burst into a giant grin.

"Nice to meet you Kitty! I think it's cool how the Demon Realm can have such interesting names! So tell me, what's your stance on the upcoming evil I'm gonna save the world from?"

Luz didn't notice every "living" thing in the town simultaneously relaxed, their shoulders going limp as if one long string had been loosened.

"Chosen one, we must—"

"Fine, fine. I just wanted to make a connection, really know who I'm fighting for when I go up against the bad… guy."

Luz's gaze latched onto one of the small shops a few blocks away, a stall selling cloth and simple clothes in various colors, from normal shirts and leggings to cloaks and clasps.

That wasn't what caught her attention however.

Standing at the front of the shop was a mannequin. Or at what Luz could guess that's what it was. It wore a white cloak with gold trim, with most of the figure hidden under it. The face was impossible to see under the hood, despite it staring directly at her (creepy).

What caught her eye about it though was the state it was in. Even far away, Luz could see the cloak was torn to ribbons on one side, and the trim seemed to be missing in spots. Where the whole town was animated and colorful, this thing seemed out of place, bleak and still as stone. An uncomfortable thought wriggled into her mind.

How do I know that's really a mannequin?

It had to be, right? It was still as stone, too still to be a person, and no salesperson would leave this torn cloak put for customers to see. But then again, Luz had seen the mall sell torn jeans in the Human Realm. And considering how weird the Demon Realm was, it wasn't out of the question to have some unusual fashion here.

There was just something about the figure that made Luz… uncomfortable, like it was a stain on a perfect painting.

Nevareth suddenly appeared in her vision, ignoring the surprised squeak from the Chosen One.

"You ready?"

"I…"

Luz stuck her head around the hunk, to check.

The mannequin stood as frozen as ever.

"...I think I'm ready. Let's go get that staff and fight the final boss, you and me!"

***

"Welp." said Luz, wiping the dust off her face as she checked King for any boo-boos and Eda held a squirming octo-demon so he didn't run off. "Guess I got my wish then. Just didn't mean it to be me vs you…"

Eda had been right. It had been a scam. Nev, Chris, the pixies, even Mr. Wizard had been puppets strung along by Adagast to kill Eda for taking customers from his business. She was never someone special, just a pawn in someone else's game.

Her thoughts were interrupted by King (no owies here) patting her face.

"It's okay if you're not some special chosen one, you can be a cog in my army of world domination! I'll even make you a cap-eral! It's like a captain of generals!"

Luz looked down and smiled at her tiny friend. "Yeah, I can do that!"

Eda came over with Adagast hung upside down in her grasp, the tiny tentacled fraud ranting and raving.

"—and she wouldn't stop questioning their stance on everything! I didn't even have names for them, why would I have their political views or some shit?! Can you imagine the anxiety?!"

Eda silenened Adagast with some vigorous shaking before speaking.

"You two okay? Injuries taken care of?"

The kids nodded. Eda grinned.

"Good. Now—"

Eda tilted her head back, dropped Adagast into her mouth, and unceremoniously swallowed him whole with a gulp.

"We ready to fly off back home?"

Luz was aghast (a-da-ghast, ha). "I— That was a person! I was iffy on the fairy, but that was an honest-to-god sapient being! And you ATE HIM!"

King, leaning against her at the time, winced. "I mean, it was a full swallow, no chewing or nothing, just leaving him to burn in stomach acid. Eda must be real pissed for that."

Eda scratches King under the chin as she pats Luz on the shoulder. "Language, and yes I am pissed. That little creep lied to my protégé, threatened my roommate, and hurt you both. Oh, and he tried to kill me, whatever. He's getting what he deserves."

Eda looked a tad queasy and held her stomach.

"Though I kinda wish I did just chomp 'em a bit first. The death spasms are not doing great to my insides."

Luz was now doing the same, along with a shade of green.

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

After a few minutes of Luz dry heaving into the bushes and Eda holding King's ears shut so he didn't have to hear that, Luz wandered back over with a small "Okay, I'm good."

"Sup squirt. Having second thoughts about this magic biz?"

Luz frowned. "I just… I don't know how to feel about all this. I do like the crazy weird stuff here, believe it or not, but sometimes stuff goes…"

Eda pondered for a moment, and smiled. "Hey. Why don't I show you something?"

Eda sat down on her staff and gestured for them to get on. Luz sat down with King in between them, and the witch floated them all up, higher and higher, until they were far above the treeline. Luz gasped.

From their spot, she could see the whole of the island. Luz had wondered why so many of the landmarks King had mentioned off hand seemed to be based on flesh and bone. This was why.

The island was the fallen corpse of a giant. A colossal horned being who seemed to stare over the land. It's face was ape-like, with small, cracked horns jutting back.

"What is that..?"

"That. Is The Titan. Or The Lord-Titan if you're a brainwashed stooge. Their decaying flesh is what the demons were born from, and eventually the witches too. What do you think?"

Luz just stared. The Boiling Ilses was like a macabre piece of art, a beautiful horror show depicting new life born from gore and death, a ribcage torn open for fresh water to run through and feed the new plantlife growing from the rot like a mold upon a carcass. Luz told her flying buddies this much.

"I… uh, wow, kiddo. I think I know what you said, I hope? I was gonna to say 'it can be gross but also pretty', but you kinda nailed it far better."

"You speak words good" was King's contribution.

Luz blushed, muttering about how it wasn't that good, but her smile dimmed, brows furrowed, looking lost.

"You killed that guy, that demon, Adagast, and the fairy. And everyone treats it like— like normal. Like it's nothing."

Eda sighed. "I understand that tone enough that I can guess that's something unheard of in the human world, so I'll try and explain."

Eda paused, tapping her staff with her nails as she thought.

"Death— is a fact here. It's everywhere, it's obvious. And so, by that nature, it is unspecial. Unbothersome. Mundane. There are a thousand different things wanting to eat you, or poison you, or lay eggs in your liver. So to live here, we act in turn. Life is important, of course, we all share it and want to keep it. But we know the price of it in this world is to learn how to survive against it all. And sometimes, you might decide that price is the end of another. To protect yourself, or the ones you care about."

Eda looked down to the mighty King of demons falling asleep against her side and smiled.

"Life sprouts from death, just as we all did so long ago. And so now, does it continue to grow from it. Everyone dies eventually, no matter how grand." Eda raised a hand to The Titan as immutable proof. "Maybe you die getting eaten by another, and your meat fuels that creature's life that bit more. Maybe you pass from being too dang old, and your body is placed under a sapling or a seed or your favorite mold, and you decompose to give nutrients to something new. One day, we shall give up our flesh to birth fresh growth unknown, just as the Titan did for us."

Eda looked to Luz, her eyes hardening just a bit.

"This land is born of, and shaped by death. This is a place of death. Rot and change rule above all, and in that we are free to decide what we are while we are here. That is how I knew the prophecy was false. There is no such thing as a chosen one except by the act of choosing yourself. Does that sound like a world you wish to inhabit, at the very least for a short time?"

Luz hadn't realized there were tears in her eyes. She wiped them away and thought, looking over a landscape of decay and wonder. And answered.

"I think I would like to, yes."

Her mentor smiled proud, her eyes softer than ever.

"Then welcome home, apprentice."

***

Luz walked into the bathroom, ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Turning on the sink and washing her face, she grabbed for her hairbrush only to find it missing from where she left it.

"Gosh dannit— KING! DID YOU STEAL MY HAIRBRUSH?"

From down the hallway, a voice yelled back.

"NO? ASK HOOTY! HE MIGHT HAVE EATEN IT OR SOMETHING, HE DOES THAT SOMETIMES."

Luz groaned and grabbed the stepping stool, and pushed open the bathroom window, ready to call Hooty over to ask about her missing brush when the words died in her throat.

Standing just inside the treeline surrounding The Owl House, was the mannequin.

It stood facing the house, just staring, arms limp to the side, as still as it was in front of the clothing shop. Except, Luz could see something clutched in its right hand, just barely.

Squinting to try and see what it was, Luz was taken aback the next time a quick glance was pointed away from just its hand, and she realized that while she wasn't paying attention, it had fully locked its gaze on her. It's hood was a mask of shadow all on its own right, but Luz could swear she could see the barest hint of gold shining from within.

This was when Eda decided to slam something metal down in the kitchen, startling Luz and causing her to near tumble to the floor, luckily catching herself on the sink. Pulling herself up, she turned around and was about to run into the kitchen and get Eda about whatever this thing was when she felt the room warm up like a sauna.

"Do Not Leave. My Thoughts Are To Be Laid Bare Before You."

The same tone as when she first heard Skulley pressed down upon her, and she gritted her teeth.

"I'm busy. I have to tell Eda—"

"You Shall Learn Patience Then From This. Now Be Still."

Luz glared at her reflection, but didn't talk back. She'd admit she would rather not deal with a ticked off demon with ties to her soul.

"You Have Been Raised By Humans. You Have Been Taught By Them. Shaped By Them. And You Have Entered The Demon Realm Uninvited. The Action Upon This Knowledge Is Your Elimination."

Luz didn't let the mounting anxiety worm its way to her face. The message might be dire, but the tone hadn't changed yet. There had to be more.

"...And Yet… A Debt Of Protection Is Owed To The Clawthorne. One That As Edaspawn Is Owed To You In Part."

A debt. Alright. That's something I can ask Eda about. I'm sure there has to be something about that somewhere.

"This Contradiction Must Be Severed. You May Be Able To Leave Alive Back To Your Old Realm If You So Wish."

Luz got up in the beast's face as best she could.

"Well, sorry, McJerkFace, but that's not happening. I just got my first taste of this world, and I'm not budging just because you don't like my ears or something."

Skulley tone hardened, the air now thick and hard to breathe.

"As Expected Of The Spawn Of Eda. This Is Understood. Then You Now Have A Task Set Before You."

"What is it?" Luz choked out.

"Prove To Me You Are As Capable Of Escaping The Prison Your Kind Have Locked Their Spirits Away In. Prove You Are Able To Be One With The Children Of The Titan. Prove You Understand This Realm And Embrace It. Do This And I Will Know You Are No Threat To This Land And Allow You The Old Magics In Full."

"And if I fail?"

The air shimmered with heat at that question.

"Two Lunar Cycles."

"W-what?"

"You Will Prove Yourself Within Two Cycles. I Shall Not Protect You From This World For I Shall Not Choose Between Kin and Debt. You Survived Today And You Shall Survive The Next On Your Own Merits. Fail Or Call Upon Me For Help And You Shall Grant Me What I Desire."

"And what is that?"

The tone seemed to shake and intensify as Skulley paused for a moment before answering.

"You Will Give Me Your Name."

Chapter Text

Luz balked. "My— no! No."

"No."

"Yeah, no. I refuse. This deal sucks. I don't know what you want with my name, but those terms and conditions are bunk. Your task is vague at best, and there's no way for me to know if you are willing to be proven anything. I've gotten into a lot of fights online, and if there's one thing I know from that, it's that not everyone talks in good faith."

The weight of Skulley's tone lessened a bit, giving Luz some room to breathe.

"I See."

"Huh?"

"You Have Formed A False Understanding."

Luz was put aback by the shift in tone.

"O-oh? And what would that be?"

"This Is Not A Deal."

The girl was confused.

"Then what do you call this?"

"An Ultimatum."

With those two words, the weight came crashing back down. The tone dripped like honey coating her bones, the words punched from betwixt its teeth with carefully constructed clarity. She had refused the out it gave her, this was the alternative. The beast wanted her full understanding of the situation she found herself in. And it worked.

Luz realized she had made a grave mistake. She had forgotten this was the same beast who disregarded every one of Eda's wards, apparently regarded (at least by herself) as the strongest witch around. She had assumed, with it seemingly staying in her reflection and its willingness to play the question game, that they were on equal footing with each other. She mistook them as akin to a trickster devil making contracts with mortals, finding agreements and with a way for a clever hero to get around it.

She couldn't have been more wrong. This wasn't human enough to be that. And her gasping for air was proof.

"F-fine." It was out of Luz's mouth before she could even think to say it. Whatever it wanted, it could have.

"Then You Understand. Good."

The weight faded, but never fully left.

"You Have Been Patient. Go. Speak To Eda As You Wish."

Luz was out of the room before she blinked.

***

Eda wasn't worried. Not. At. All. It didn't matter that she was trying to burn a hole into the wall with her eyes. It didn't matter that her first instinct was to scream into her feather-down pillow (the one good thing from her "incidents" was plenty of feather fluff).

It didn't matter that her new apprentice was also trying to burn a hole into the same wall with her eyes, and looking pale enough to rival the Blight family. Wait, was she breathing?

Eda winded up and thumped the kid on the back, resulting in a sharp gasp from them, drawing in fresh air. The color slowly returned to her face.

"Okay kid, I need you to keep breathing without my input, otherwise no one is getting your name. Which I suppose is a way of keeping the creep from getting it…"

Luz stared at her. "That's not… heh. Hehehehehe."

The girl's face slowly grew into a smile, tension cracking apart into helpless giggling.

"Therrrre we go, that's better. Deep breathes. Owlbert, to me."

Eda's Owlet unraveled himself from his staff and with a flick of his Mama's fingers, fluttered over onto Luz, nuzzling her cheek with a coo.

"It'll be okay! I won't let anything hurt you."

Luz gave the fluffball some scratches under the chin. "Thanks, buddy."

Eda smiled, before it faded just as quickly as it came. "This isn't good, human. Making weird deals with unknown forces is never a move you want to make. Especially when forced."

Luz worried her lip. "It said it would have killed me if not for a debt owed to 'the Clawthornes'. Is that you? Your last name, I mean."

Eda grimaced as she took in a sharp breath at her student's words. "Yes, I'm Eda Clawthorne of the Clawthorne family. It's freaky that whatever this thing is has some form of connection to my kin. Then again, the whole 'Edaspawn' fiasco should 'ave tipped me off. Anyway, if there is a connection to my family, I might be able to go through storage and find something about it. See if I can find out more about this debt."

"I hope we find something. I don't want to end up losing my name to whatever Skulley is."

"It is strange they asked for your name of all things. Have to wonder why."

"I mean, I figured it was a "Names have power" thing, like the fae. Wait, do fae exist here? Is that what Skulley is?!"

"Nah, not the way humans think of em, I'm pretty sure. Fae is more a description or an aesthetic than anything here. Was pretty popular when I was your age, in fact, lots of singing til your eyes bleed and poison ivy dresses. Wonder if that's considered retro now. Oh no. I'm old."

Eda had to be woken from her spiraling thoughts about her age by Luz clearing her throat. Eda briskly shook the thoughts out of her head and continued.

"Names sometimes have power. They are used mostly in a couple mid-to-high oracle spells, usually along with other bits of the person being targeted. The problem here is why your little parasite would bother. Those spells seek to gain some sort of power or sight over a person. But it already seems to have some latch onto your mind, far more than any of those spells could give it, if it's able to put you to sleep with a thought. It just doesn't make sense."

Luz went to say something before being cut off with a yawn. Eda watched her blink away sleepy tears.

"Alright, you should head off to bed. We'll figure out how to prove to this creep you should stay tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Maybe I can find where my hairbrush went as well. Hey, Eda?"

"Yeah, squirt?"

"Did you see the mannequin at all today?"

"Afraid not. Wasn't anything in front of the shops when I found them, though they were all rubble at that point."

"Mm, great. Another creepy weirdo only I can see. Hooray. Goodnight. "

"Night, kiddo."

Eda watched her student sleepily wander off into the closet— her room. A happy little weh squeaked out before the door closed.

Eda slowly stood up, cracked her back, and walked out the door into the yard. Checking to see where the bathroom window was, the witch made her way to the treeline, and looked around.

She didn't have to search for long.

The smell tipped her off first. A faint tinge of wet moldy cloth and sweet decay led her to a patch of disturbed earth. Kneeling down, Eda surveyed the anomaly. A pair of footprints, one of a boot, another of bare toes were pressed into the dirt. No other tracks were found around it, to or from.

Something in the mud snagged Eda's attention. Slowly picking at it, she slowly pulled out what looked to be a clump of pale blond hair, short and dry and smelling awful.

The witch glared, then smirked. Seems she had some extra patrol duties for her house demon from now on.

***

Vee— Luz Noceda was having an excellent time at camp! Her classes were interesting (and informative for someone who might not know anything about being a human being), her cabin mates were nice (and were weirdos enough that she could play off her oddities as humor), and the meal house was stocked with all sorts of different snacks and meals. (there's enough food to go around there's enough food to go around there's enough food to go).

Sure, she couldn't help but worry at how Mrs. Noceda— Mom— Camila seemed to look her in the eyes, like she was looking for something she wasn't finding, and she could swear that the red vehicle behind them during the "car ride" was following them for too long, but here in this place, she was safe.

She could tell herself it was safe.

She could not flinch when one of her cabin mates mentioned the "red truck" that they had seen parked on the side of the road for a few days now.

She could keep herself from panicking when she thought she saw bloodshot eyes staring at her from the dark one night.

She could pretend it's safe for her anywhere.

She could.

Chapter Text

Willow Park had never met someone like her new friend.

It started with her standing in the woods near Hexside, staring at her toppled muck container, thinking about how she was pretty sure the only thing Professor Hermonculus had taught her about abomination magic was that she hated it.

Her dads and her had gotten into a fight about her track. They told her last night that abominations were "just like plants, fluid and growing! Think of the opportunities!"

Snorsecrap. Plants were living, breathing things. You coaxed them to grow and twist like you wanted. Abominations were not. Abominations were empty husks, having to be filled with false life by their creator, a noxious bubbling mix of ingredients which have to be micromanaged to keep from going unstable or blowing up or whatever. They have to be molded, forced into stability and order unless you want them growing disobedient. Which had happened to Willow. Multiple times.

She sighed. Then again, she hadn't been able to dismiss the opportunities talk. Abominations were always seen helping her Papa at construction sites, and Blight Industries probably employed a tenth of the entire town.

Then again (again), a ton of kids went into it. When the Coven head could do the closest thing to fleshbending seen since the breakthrough in the Healing Coven, what kid wouldn't join up for a chance to mimic the sacred art? But with her abysmal talents at it, she wasn't gonna ever get a caw back for work when so many other better witches were ripe for the picking.

Willow dug her fingernails into her palms. She hated this. She hated abominations. She hated bad grades. She hated that her parents wouldn't tell her the actual reason she wasn't allowed in the Plant classes.

She felt the bile flow through her veins and the roots buried underneath her change course towards the witchlet. The tendrils dug through the dirt and the bottoms of their caller's shoes. They pricked at her feet, most digging at the birth mark on her left heel. She only gave a twitch as the hairs found the miniscule pockmarks left from their last visit and wormed their way into the flesh of her soles, taking root there. As the vegetation drank directly from her magic, they swelled and spasmed with growth. Creeping claw vines whipped around in a frenzy. Razorgrass sliced at the air like newly sharpened blades. The nevergreen bushes thumped against the ground in a drumbeat. All drank from the well of anger within their mistress.

Calm down, Willow. Deep breathes.

In. Two. Three. Four. Five.

The foliage slowed, swaying in tandem with the breath.

Out. Two. Three. Four. Five.

She let her eyes wander over the forest, taking it in, letting the sights and smells comfort her.

In. Two. Thre—

Two soulless eyes stared at her from the hedges.

Willow jumped back and flicked a circle in the air. A vine burst forward and attacked the figure. A muffled cry rang out and the plant pulled its victim into the light.

It was a girl around her age with light brown skin and wearing dull gray and black like she was in the Dreary Coven, directly opposed by a comical expression of shock on her face, eyes big as dinner plates.

Eyes whose pupils held no light nor reflection. Eyes that made Willow feel squeamish and shivery.

It took her a second too late not to be awkward to realize that she was standing over a fellow witchlet who she had just attacked and bound on the forest floor.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Willow squeaked out as she tore the creeping claw off the other girl. "You startled me! Are you okay?"

The girl nodded, weirdly excited for someone getting thrashed about by plant matter. "Don't worry! It only went through the first few layers of skin. I'm Luz."

Willow hastily got the newcomer to her feet, brushing off leaves and dirt, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I'm Willow. I'm sorry, again. I just wasn't thinking."

"Are you kidding me? That was the coolest magic thing I've ever seen! Can you show me how you did it?"

She thought I was cool? "I wish I could, but I can't. I'm not allowed. Supposed to be doing abominations."

The girl quirked her head to the side like a confused cerberus puppy. "But you're so good at plants. Why can't you at least do both?"

She said it so innocently, as if she wasn't recommending an act of blasphemy. Willow did her best not to blanch at the suggestion. Was she one of those feral witches the EC scout talked to the class about last year? As the witchlet studied this possibly-crazy person, said person turned their head to observe the forest, her rounded ears more apparent.

Willow gasped. “Oh my gosh! You’re human! What are you doing here? How did you get here? Are all human eyes like that?”

Her questions were halted by a familiar scream combined with a bell tone. It was time for school. Dread pooled in Willow’s belly as her attention was pulled to the quietly bubbling froth that was supposed to be her abomination homework.

“Oh… sorry. I can’t stay. I have to go disappoint my teacher…” The sad witchlet murmured and turned away from the human and began hauling the sludge away to be mocked by her classmates.

“Hey wait!”

The huma— Luz ran around the cart to face her.

“You said teacher, there was an alarm. Are you in a magic school?!"

"Um, yeah. Hexside: School for Witchcraft and Demonics"

Luz let out a high pitched squeal. "That's it, that's what I need! Where better to learn about the demon realm than a demon school! You gotta let me come with! Also, I'd rather not stay in the woods for... reasons."

Willow was a bit confused. “Do you not go to school?”

“Well, not officially, but I do have a mentor. One who is currently sick in bed right now, but exists. I think eating that one demon-guy didn’t sit right or something.”

Willow nodded. “You have to make sure your stomach can handle it. Stomach wards are especially important if you’re gonna eat them alive.”

The bell screamed off again, and Willow looked around Luz (who was muttering to herself “so that is normal here, not just her…”) at the school through the brush.

“I don’t think they would just let you come with me. Though it would probably be fun if you did.” Willow giggled at the thought, leaving Luz beaming.

“Well, maybe I’ll just have to sneak in!” Luz said gleefully as she began looking around for something to do just that with, finally landing on the failed homework the witchlet was pulling behind her. A smile that Willow could almost call devious if Luz wasn’t so cute formed on the human’s face.

“I have an ideaaaa~”

Willow couldn’t help but break out into a smirk of her own. Maybe today wasn’t too bad.

Maybe today, she made a friend.

***

This was the best day of Agustus Porter’s life.

No, not Agustus. That name had been lowered into the crucible of human ingenuity and reforged into one greater and denser, the fluff scorched from it.

He was Gus now. And the world trembles as it was spoken.

Okay, maybe not to that extent, but he thought it was cool, and that’s all that mattered.

The witchlet’s lungs filled with pride as he stood in the halls where his name was made, staring up at the smith who hammered it. Her round ears gave her away as not from this world, even if not many other witches would pick up on it.

Her name was Luz the Human. Gus wasn’t sure if all humans went by “the Human” or if Luz was part of the line of original humans that all others stemmed from, but it was awesome to meet her either way. While he was disappointed that humans, in fact, do not have gills, he did at least get to learn the secret art of secret-snack-storing used by human kids instead of pockets.

Willow had somehow found her in the woods on her way to school and had enlisted her help in getting a decent grade for once (Gus apologized for that last part in case Willow somehow gained mind reading). Willow said that sadly, the two had been a bit late to class, otherwise she would have made Gus’s best day ever happen a little sooner. Gus was just happy Willow thought of him.

Currently enjoying lunch, the three sat at their usual benches and were listening to how the “new student” was enjoying their time at Hexside. Gus would flick bits of his sandwitch (made with real, edible sand) to her, while Willow would explain some of what the girl found confusing.

Now Willow and Gus had been friends for a long time, best friends in fact. This gave the two of them certain perks, one of them being the best-friend-secret-pointed-looks power. As the human went over how cool the runes looked, Gus noticed Willow giving him a patented look-over-at-me look. Glancing at her, Gus gave her the questioning look. Willow gave a subtle tap to her eye disguised as an itch and flicked her gaze over to Luz. Gus gave a tiny nod.

Gus was a witch who had been called by his teachers and father detail-oriented. He noticed small facts and data that others overlooked. It came with learning how to be an illusionist, with that skill being incredibly important for the field. But even among other illusionists, Gus was good. He had this way of picking out the slightest flaw in another’s mirage or adding the subtlest touchings on her own to really sell it. So when a manifestation of his hyperfixation came popping out of his best friend’s homework jar, Gus couldn’t help but study them, and equally couldn’t help noticing the peculiarities surrounding her. Willow had noticed the eyes, yes, but that wasn’t all there was. Her shadows were a shade too dark to be right, and her veins seemed too many under her skin than the pictures of humans he had seen. The dark clothes Luz wore and the way she seemed to keep her eyes on the move were probably to make these facts less noticeable. Usually, Gus would assume a poorly made illusion, maybe a concealment stone malfunctioning. Yet there wasn’t any shimmer that would usually accompany such a botched or broken mess. Gus had also seen Willow brush against her arm, which would tend to break something of this caliber, yet nothing changed.

Willow checked to make sure Luz was still distracted talking about the hell-fissures she heard about in History class, and then did a wave over her eyes. She had to be asking for a phantom pulse. It was a simple illusion spell, one of the first students were taught. Just a bolt of illusion magic to counteract another’s. It would be easy.

And it would be wrong. Gus gave a small head shake no, and took a bite of his food.

Willow looked confused. After a minute of looking between her two companions, she did the gesture again. This time, Gus put his food down and did something uncharacteristic of him: he stared angrily at Willow. It was a look so sour, it was almost a full-on glare. Willow was shocked, before staring down at her plate and mouthing sorry, looking very guilty to have caused this reaction from her normally-cheerful friend.

Gus huffed and glanced at his own food, a bit of guilt for making his friend feel bad in his stomach before he quashed it. No, this was a boundary, and he had to stick by it. One of the first rules Ms.Gasty told both aspiring illusionists and oracles was you don’t know why witches do what they do, stay out of their privacy just as they should yours. Gus was a prodigy, enough so that he could tell immediately who he passed during the school day had a cosmetic charm or concealment stone or other mirage on them. He could flick the enchantment away without a second glance easily and let everyone see their true face.

But that wouldn’t make it right. Just because Gus could usually see under the charm doesn’t mean he has the right to show it off or take that comfort away from them. So what if Terry likes his nose more crooked than it is? So what if the twins in his class had some bad acne. So what if Amity made her jaw look a little softer when she couldn’t get her hormone potion that day? If they thought of the illusion as their true face who was he to say otherwise. The reasons could be just looking nice, to hide something they find unflattering, or as much as expressing themselves, gender-wise or other.

No, he wasn’t going to try and take a peak under the curtain, and he wasn’t gonna mention there was a curtain at all. It wasn’t anyone’s business but the user’s.

Gus gave Willow a small smile to show everything was okay, and went back to listening to an increasingly out-of-breath human rant. That was, until a certain abomination student dramatically jumped onto the table and things got chaotic, ending with Willow having to take her dagger out over the prone body of their new friend.

And from the whispering, Gus learned that human children didn’t all carry knives like witchlets did. How weirdly underprepared. What if there’s a giraffe?

***

Amity Blight gasped as she watched the human who ruined everything escape out into the woods. She could feel her bile sac pounding with exertion and her fists shaking. Her face was red and burning with anger and the realization of how truly awful this day had been caught up to her.

First it was Dad forgetting to have the A-butler-nation pick up her meds again, leaving her feeling like her own body was judging her almost as much as her mother. Speaking of, Mom decided that she needed to make a comment about Amity’s roots growing out again and almost had her go re-dye them 30 minutes before school started. Then there was the encounter with Willow, which made her feel even hollower than she normally did. And finally, she had this horrific mess.

The witchlet ground her fangs together and let out a torrent of snarling and hissing as she clawed at her skirt, sharp nails digging holes into the front. Her leggings were soaked with abomination goop by the time she was done stomping into her failures with her heel.

Then she was there, anger down to a simmer, leaving room for a sickening nausea of bitterness and misery to flood in, hot tears threatening to spill out.

But she pulled herself back, as a proper Blight does, and forced it to go away. She couldn’t be doing this. Mom would know.

Amity felt the weight of the amulet like a stone, humming away with oracle magic, connecting her with her mother. The girl had to hope the older Blight was too busy to have noticed her transgression.

Oh, Titan what had she been thinking? She was doing it again. Pitying herself for her own lack of effort. If she had tried harder, she wouldn’t had lost her badge. She clearly didn’t care enough about making her family proud. She wished she wasn’t so selfish. Why can’t she learn from mom…

Amity dug her nails into her skin and focused. She needed to get better. She would spend less time playing around at the library and more making her abominations absolutely perfect. Maybe that would actually get some sense into her.

Amity felt a tap on her shoulder, and spun around to find Principal Bump looking down at her worried. She pulled the Blight mask on and answered accordingly, even as her legs felt stiff from the hardening mud. Bump looked at her for a second, face unreadable as hers, before her produced a spell circle to pull the goop off her and handed her something as he walked away with a confused Willow not looking at her.

Amity looked down. It was her top student badge.

Amity walked back to class, feeling the pulse of her necklace and doing her best to ignore the constant worry that the thoughts in her head might not entirely be her own.

Chapter Text

‘The archlich stood from her throne plunged claws into their center, ripping her decayed chest in half. Each of her exposed ribs jerked and shook in their place before they snapped open like a hunter setting a bear trap. The bones cracked and grew outward until they touched the floor and lifted their owner up like a gargantuan skeletal arachnid above Azura—’

“Hi Luz!”

Luz jumped from her seat on the porch, looking up from her phone to see Willow and Gus, her new friends, standing next to her (she wasn’t still reeling at the fact that she had those, and no she didn’t spend the night after meeting them crying).

“Whatcha up to?” Gus excitedly, seeming still a bit in awe of being around a human. Willow leaned closer. Luz quickly punched the power button, turning the screen dark. “Oh, nothing.” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. The pair looked a bit confused, but thankfully didn’t pry.

“So, what do you wanna do now that it’s the weekend? You said you wanted to learn more about the isles?” Willow piped up.

“Oh yeah! I haven’t really gotten to see around the place. I went around with King, but we were kinda too busy selling stuff to look around.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to give you a tour ourselves then!” Gus smirked and twirled his finger, transforming the dirt path into a trail of golden bricks.

Both girls giggle, leaving Gus beaming. It was then that the human half of the laughing pair noticed two things regarding the smaller witch's mouth. First was that instead of the flat-edged row of teeth Luz expected, the witch had a pair of short stubby fangs nestled in the top row. Second was the gap where one of the pair was missing.

“You have fangs?!” Luz gasped, making her friends jump.

Gus was confused for a second. “Whu— oh yeah. Humans don’t, do they?”

Luz responded by baring her teeth cheerily at Gus, who oohed at the chance to indulge in some human study and bared his teeth in turn. The two of them inspected each other’s teeth, holding their mouths open like at the dentist until their older friend reminded them she existed with a small cough, ending both their studying with quiet embarrassment and quiet apologies.

“Sorry, Willow… Got excited.”

“Not at all! No problem here.”

Willow grinned, revealing a pair of large blunt teeth reminiscent of a bat lined her entire mouth.

"Just wanted to be a part of it, that's all~"

"OhmygoshwillowhowdidInotnoticethosebeforetheyresocoollll! They’re like a big baby bat’s!”

Gus spoke up. “Yeah, witches can look like and have all sorts of differences with em. Nearly everyone’s got some demon or other back in the family vein, so you never know exactly how a kid gonna turn out. The H.A.S. had debates for months over how a lack of demons affected human life, and such!"

"Woah. Weird. Hey Gus, what's up with the teeny gap where your teeny fang should be?"

"My baby fangs are finally coming out. Soon you and the rest of Hexside will be graced with a brand new smile~"

"Well, I'll be prepared to cheer when we do! Did you remember to put your tooth under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy to get?"

"Kid, no one on the Isles had made dealings with that shady spite ever since her price gouging got exposed. Teeth go for 10 snails a piece in the Night Market and she only gives out a single snail? That's garbage, even for a garbage seller like myself. And don't even get me started on if she takes a liking to the sample you gave her while you're asleep. Ugh."

The voice came from Edalyn Clawthorne: the Owl Lady, who flew down from the top window on her staff, hovering above the children. Luz didn't have to wonder if this was just to show off with that devilish smirk she had.

“What are you little idiots yammering about? If you’re planning a break-in into my house, I will sic Hooty on all of you.”

“Hoot hoot! I will devour you all with a smile!” Came the cry from the front door.

"Oh hey, Eda. Glad to see you're up and out of the house. Finally knocked that sickness out of the park, eh?"

Her mentor laughed awkwardly, tugging on the dark yellow jewel that laid upon her chest (Luz could have sworn it was shinier last time she saw it).

"Well, a little, uh, cold can't keep the baddest witch around down!"

Eda preened, backdrops by the midday sun. Luz bathed in the glow of her teacher's bombastic-ness, and turned to her friends.

"Oh, I totally forgot! You guys haven't met Eda yet, have you? Well, introducinggg…"

Luz's theatrics tapered off as she saw the looks on her friends' faces. Willow seemed uncertain, lightly grinding the sole of her foot into the dirt. Gus seemed anxious, halfway into taking a step back from the owl lady. Both seemed uncomfortable.

"Uh, guys? What's wrong?"

Willow started to say something before falling silent.

"Gus? What's up? I thought you would love to take to Eda. She sells a ton of human stuff. That's like her whole job."

Gus's eyes don't meet her own.

Eda got off her broom and walked over to her apprentice, tapping her on the head to get her attention.

"Remember kid, most powerful Witch on the Boiling Ilses. Respected and feared. Comes with the territory."

Eda looked over to Gus.

"Heard you gave ol' Bumpikins a bit of a spill. Nice job, even if I'm guessing Perry didn't approve, the damn stickler."

The boy's head jolted up quick. "You know my dad?!"

Eda guffawed. "Of course I knew him, we went to Hexside together! Played one of my best pranks on him. His hair was never the same since."

Gus gingerly touched his hair. "So that's why…" He said breathily..

Eda chuckled at turned her head to Willow. "I also heard how you saved this little troublemaker with some trouble yourself. You got some power, kiddo. Don't let it go to waste."

Instead of accepting the compliment, Willow seemed to bristle, her hair looking like an upset bush. "Thank you, ma'am. I'm sure I'll enjoy the Plant Coven very much."

Eda half-scoffed-half-snorted at the remark. "Sure you will, kid. Sure you will."

Willow seemed stunned at Eda's response for a reason Luz couldn't possibly understand.

Luz decided to pull her two friends down the gold-paved road (which played an off-key rendition of "Follow the Bellow Brick Road" and groaned with each step).

"Okay, we're off to explore the town, bye Eda! Drink plenty of fluids. And I mean water, not apple blood!"

With Eda's cry of "too late!" echoing behind her, Luz stopped and spun around to stare at her friends a few minutes down the path.

"What the heck was that all about?! Why were you acting so weird about my teacher?

Willow and Gus looked at each other in an odd manner and looked back to Luz with the same look.

"Sorry, Luz. We shouldn't have been so rude to her. If she's taking care of you and you think she's okay, then she's fine by us."

The tone they used when talking about Eda was all wrong. It was like they saw her as something wrong, bad, needing of fixing. She hadn't heard this tone from them at all the past week she had hung out with them. It was like a switch had been flipped when seeing her mentor. Like they got flipped into a mindset made of judgyness and pity.

It felt like the other kids back home.

Gus seemed desperate to switch the topic. "Hey, you were pretty out there for a while when we walked up. It took a bit to reach you. What were you so invested in on your foo-ne?"

Luz felt her phone heavy in her pocket as she thought back to her writing. It was just a small Azura fanfic she had started a month ago. Unlike her other fics, she hadn't shown anyone this one. Azura found herself within a world nothing like the dreamy lands she once called home. She could only trek through the realm struggling to survive in this horrid place of nightmares. With the twisting bones and splattering organs, it was an outlet like her hidden sketchbook.

But since being here, it had felt less and less like she needed to bury any trace of her imagination, the nature of it getting darker and more warped, the monsters Azura fought became more grotesque and vivid. It felt freeing.

And it felt like she might be able to show someone else this type of her work.

And then Luz looked upon the faces of her friends, and thought back to the looks they gave Eda. She had just gotten some friends. Did she really want to risk losing them over some stupid drabble?

"Luz?" Willow asked gently "Are you alright?"

No, it wasn't.

"...Yeah, I'm fine. I was just typing up a letter to my mom. Nothing exciting, really."

"Oh, okay!" You ready to explore the town?"

"Sure!"

The three began running along to see the sights of Bonesborough, stopping to get Hot Nots, scope out the eyes-cream, and take pictures by the different land marks.

It didn't seem important to anyone to notice that one pair of feet started to lag behind the other two. Just a bit more hesitant to follow than they were before.

Chapter Text

Luz watched as King scurried back and forth carrying various arts and crafts materials and what she graciously called “tomes of knowledge”, much to the tiny demon’s glee. She quietly read the closest one (‘Cuthulu’s First Step’) as he stacked all his items next to a whiteboard covered in different pictures of monstrous figures which the demon had perched up on a chest almost as tall as him. The pretend-monarch whirled his head around eyes darting over the floor, prompting Luz to look up from the children’s book.

“Whatcha doing, buddy? Looking for something?”

King shushed his favorite Captain General and continued to scan the ground, searching for something unknown. The hunt halted, along with King’s head swivel, as his gaze landed on a navy blue beret lying on the floor. The demon fell into a tense crouch, his pupils nearly overtaking his irises. With a little butt wiggle, the fearsome predator pounced on top of his prey, ending its life before stuffing it over his horns as a grisly crown atop the lord’s brow.

The infernal creature’s revelry over his kill was shortly interrupted by a familiar sharp sound rising behind him. Accepting his fate, King turned around to find Luz squealing in delight, twin black abysses staring down into his soul. King stared back with an unamused look.

“Kinda ruining the moment here, Luz.”

Luz giggled and swept him up in an apology hug. “Sorry, your majesty. I was just impressed by your might, that’s all.

The wise ruler nodded wisely. “I understand. It's easy to be overwhelmed with awe when around my mighty self.”

Another giggle from the human. King hoped she didn’t have The Laughing Fits. “Indeed.”

A soft rumble reverberated from above the two, pausing their banter. As the sound faded, King shook himself out of his distraction and Luz's arms. Jumping up onto the chest, the demon cleared his throat and produced a sparkling pen from his hat.

"Human Luz! As much as you have seen about witches and the towns they live in, you haven't learned about the other half. My half. Welcome…"

King flipped over the whiteboard revealing a large marker title all in red.

"To Demons 101!"

Luz clapped and hollered, leaving King beaming despite his attempt to be the stoic teacher.

"We demons are grim tricksters of the twilight. Creatures of sulfur and bone! We were the first creatures to emerge from the bone marrow oozing from the shattered ribs of The Titan. We cultivated the lands long before the witches showed up. We live to conquer and command, and our only weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments, sometimes."

Luz cooed. "Aww, sensitive~ Wait, purified water? What's that, like, holy water?"

"Nah, no holey water. That only thing that stuff does is fall out of the bottle, no matter how tight you cork it. Purified water is just what I decided to call human water to make it sound cooler. One time, Owlbert came back with a case of water thinking they were potions. Tried one, and I was sick the whole day. Think I tasted metal, which is probably why it was so bad."

King looked like he was turning green at the memory of it.

"You're allergic to metal?"

"Everyone is allergic to metal. Well, iron in particular, especially raw iron. Not as bad for demons with fur to protect them, as long as it doesn't get in you. Witches get it so much worse. Rashes and swelling. It's super gross, even for me."

Luz winced. "Oof. So are there different types of demons?"

"The Three Bs. Bug. Biped. Beast. All demons fall into those types. Mostly because the government squishes them into one of em, according to Eda."

"Figures. What type are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

King puffed out his chest. "The King type! The one that rules all the others!"

Luz nodded approvingly, but pressed forward. "And are there any other King types?"

King seemed to deflate at that question, wringing his claws, agitated. "Uh, not that I've seen. Noone looks exactly like me, but it's the Boiling Isles. Noone looks exactly like anyone."

Luz cringed internally. Clearly she had hit a soft spot. "Well, I'm glad my lord has no equal."

King quickly went back to his self preening, massaging the dark spot out of his mind. "Y-yeah! I'm one of a kind! I don't need to know what I'm gonna look like. It's gonna be great, I know it!"

Luz patted him on the head and smiled, before a light seemed to go off in her head.

"Wait, I do know someone who looks like you!”

King nearly knocked his own hat off mid-scratch. “What?! Where?!”

“Skulley.”

“The mirror creep?”

“Yeah. Like, weirdly similar. Almost mistook you for them the first time we met. Never got around to asking about it.”

King ran off, coming back with a hand mirror and shoving it in her hands. “Quick, ask it! Ask it!”

Luz held the reflective side to the floor, far away from her. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I haven’t spoken to them since the… ultimatum. I don’t wanna find out what happens if I make it mad somehow.”

King held her free hand in his tiny, tiny paws. “Its your reflection. You can’t hide from it all your life. You just gotta confront it. Please?”

Luz blinked. Wow. Did not expect that coming from King.

She looked down at the mirror. King was right. Avoiding Skulley would probably just make it more difficult for her than it would for them.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned the mirror over, facing her. A familiar figure stood in the dark.

“Edaspawn.”

“Skulley. Been a while.”

“Has it.”

The tone didn't seem particularly bothered, Luz was relieved to note.

“Well, it's been a week, week and a half. I don’t know how time works in ‘The Dark Place’.”

“It Doesnt.”

"Alright then, cool, non-terrifying answer. Um, would asking a question count as asking for your help and make me lose my name or whatever it is you want to do with it?"

"If It Did You Would Have Now Just Failed Then And There. Should I Be Expecting Your Name Now."

Luz couldn't help but feel that touch of want laced into the last question. This demon hadn't picked its prize out of a hat, she was certain.

"Nope, nopenopenope, I am good. I just wanted to know what kind of demon you are."

"An Old One."

"I don't think that's a classification, but I respect it!"

"I Am Far Older Than These Bindings New And Strained To The Breaking Point To Fit As They Are. I Am Me. I Alone Will Carve What That Means Into The Stone. This Is The Only Definition Needed Of Any Creature For Themselves."

"I was just asking because my friend K— Klaus looked really similar to you. Well, less dead-looking, I guess."

The tone then changed in a way Luz hadn't expected. Instead of a flash of emotion or will, the air seemed to still. The tone seemed to empty like a cup of boiling water being dumped out as quickly as it could be. The tone was made void, Luz unable to feel anything from Skulley.

"King."

"W-what?!"

"You Speak Of King. I Have Watched Over The Clawthornes For A Long Time Edaspawn. I Know Who Enters Into Their Fold."

Well, you didn't notice when one never did, old one. Luz mused sarcastically.

"Well, I was hoping that you might be able to shed some light on the similarities."

Skulley went silent. Luz waited for an entire minute before giving a small cough to remind Skulley she was there. Skulley then finally spoke.

"There Are An Uncountable Number Of Demon With An Even Vastly Uncountable Variety Of Features. That Nature Would Deed One To Look As If Another Is Not Cause For Surprise."

Luz wasn't sure she bought that. "Uh huh. Is that why you just went dead silent for what felt like an hour when I asked the question?

"It Is As I Told. This Bleak Prison Of Mine Does Not Bend Its Knee To Time."

Luz was coming up with a retort when a rumble, louder than before, boomed from outside. King groaned.

“Ah, beans. It's gonna rain soon."

Luz perked up. "Ooo, I love rain! I'm gonna watch the first few drops come down."

Luz ran out the door and watched the clouds roll over, dark and heavy. The tops of the trees shook and bent to the wind.

"Alright, clouds. Time to water the plants. C'mon."

"Luz!""

The girl turned around to see King frantically waving his arms in the doorframe.

"Huh?"

Before Luz could call out to ask what was wrong, a spattering of pain like hot grease hit her arm. She yelped and clutched her arm close. She looked down to see what hit her, finding a small burn on her arm, a water droplet trailing down from it.

"What?"

"BOILING RAIN!"

Luz was suddenly being lifted up by a pair of pale arms and dragged back to the house. Looking up, Luz saw Eda gritting her teeth as she pulled her along, a golden barrier protecting them from the rain now pouring down on top of them.

Plopping her student down onto the door mat, Eda turned and started making another spell circle with two hands.

"Boiling Rain. Pretty tame compared to the other forms of weather we have, but it can kill you dead if you don't watch out for it."

"Man, you guys have fun weather!"

"Fun is one way of putting it."

Eda threw her arms up and the circle flew up into the sky. A moment later, a golden shimmer surrounded the house, and the rain pitter pattered off the light.

"That should keep us and the house safe from harm. Alright everyone, inside!"

"Oh boy!"

"Not you, Hooty. You'll be in more danger sticking yourself out of the door."

"Aww…"

The group (sans bird-worm) strode inside, Luz quickly running to the kitchen and returning with colorful bandaids.

"Okay, folks. Line up for boo-boo checks!"

King, being royalty, clearly ran to the line first. Luz checked him over, but couldn't find any welts to apply onto. He was giving her puppydog eyes though, so she settled on sticking one over a small crack on his nose which King had proclaimed was from his bloody harrowing fight with the profane entity known as the ducky sock.

Eda was next, but she refused a patch. "I'm a grown witch, I don't need medical attention for a few minor burns!" She said. King shrugged and flopped against Luz's leg, while his student tried to pull the same puppydog look on Eda, to no avail. Luz frowned and went to walk back to the makeshift classroom when King tugged on her leg.

"Luuuuuzz! You forgot to give yourself a bandaid!"

"Oh, yeah. I'll do that real quick."

Luz quickly slapped on a few band aids on her burns and showed his lordship she was fine and dandy. However, now he just looked away from her dully, like his whole world had been crushed in front of him.

"What's wrong buddy?"

King's gaze dipped to the floor. His vocie came out quiet "...I wanted to put the bandages on you…"

Luz tried not to cry. "Aww, I'm sorry King. How about I let you patch me up next time, okay?"

King thought and nodded solemnly. "That will do…"

"Urrgh. Can you two please stop being so cutesy? I'm trying to sleep here."

Eda had changed into some sleepwear and was now curled up on the couch with a blanket on top of her, eyes shut tight.

Luz noticed the dark, heavy bags Eda sported under her eyes. "Woah, Eda. You look exhausted, what happened?"

Eda groaned and muttered into her pillow. "Reinforced the wards again to try and hold off the white cloaked creep you talked about. Anything we don't want coming in will get zapped. Powerful stuff but don't tend to use it since— yaaaawn —it drains so much magic."

"Got any ideas on what they wanted?"

"My guess? White cloak means Emperor's Coven. A certain Coven Head must have heard I was palling around with a human and wanted to investigate. Don't worry, they're just after me, you're just a pawn to them."

Luz pouted at her teacher "Well thanks, I really appreciate that."

"Welcome, squirt. Mind dragging me up the stairs to my nest? I'm too tired to move."

Luz sighed and rolled her eyes, but did as her mentor asked, enlisting King to help heave her up the stairs and into her room, depositing her in a bone-inlaid nest.

"Gnarly. You sure we're safe while you're asleep?"

"It'll be fine. Hooty's been briefed on who to watch out for and we got wards ready. Let me nap."

Luz nodded and exited the room, only taking a moment to look at the golden bottle on the stand before being led down by an excited King who was using the time they had alone to attempt to convince his taller friend to steal the candy from the top of the fridge.

Outside, the rain poured on, steam coming up from the dirt masking everything from the trees to the figure in white standing deep in the woods, unresponsive to the scalding liquid bolting down on them.

They simply stood there silent, staring at the warded home.

Waiting.

Chapter Text

Luz and King sat inside at the kitchen table eating PB&Js, watching the scalding rain hit the ground outside. Well, Luz did. King was hard at work drawing in red crayon what looked like a guppy with a bowler hat and human feet.

Thunder boomed through the house, startling a "weh!" out of the smaller one and a jump from the other. All of a sudden, the arcane lights brightening the home dimmed and soon after, died. Luz quietly spoke.

"Wow. I didn't know magic lights worked like normal lights. You think a power line is down or something?"

"Power lines?" questioned King. "Like wards? The wards don't control the lights, Eda or Hooty do. They both probably fell asleep."

Luz pulled a glyph from her pocket and summoned a light to hover above them. Her veins pulsed a dim blue before fading. She smiled.

"Alright, looks like we got—"

The sound of splintering wood and the terrified shrieks of Hooty interrupted the girl. Both children whirled towards the doorway where the cacophony came from. Luz dashed through to investigate, a nervous King running in after her.

The living room was a mess. Claw marks large as a plate and deep into the wood covered the floor, the couch was ripped open with the stuffing seeming to be missing, and the hand mirror Luz had left on the floor was in pieces, as if crushed by an enormous pressure.

That wasn't the most alarming part, however. The front door was lying on its front in the yard, the doorframe completely shattered to pieces. Hooty had fallen silent, unseen underneath his door. Rain poured down on it, the storm shield nowhere to be found.

And standing atop the fallen house demon was a massive beastial silhouette, large as a bear. The rain obscured any details of the creature, the only things that could be gleaned were two black eyes reflecting the light from Luz's glyph and a snarling maw of needle sharp teeth. It stood on all fours, talons digging into the back of the door.

King whispered half-frantic, half-excited. "Luz, that's a Snaggleback! It hunts through the rail looking for freshly boiled meat! You get to see one up close!"

Luz, meanwhile, was having flashbacks to the rabid dog incident. The human did her best to put herself between the creature and King without alarming either. The beast growled, somehow letting out a high keening and a guttural growl all at once. Reasoning she needed to see the thing in order to deal with it, she steeled herself, and slowly pulled a pair of glyphs out. Taking a deep breath, she gently tapped one in between her fingers and sent the small mote of light towards the creature.

It was, for the second time in her life, that Luz had wished she had just let the monsters stay in the dark.

"Buddy, I don't think that's a Snaggleback…"

The beast indeed had the body of a bear, but instead of fur, the entire thing was covered in charcoal gray feathers, save for its back where a shaggy mane of a lighter quality flowed. It had the hind legs of an owl and a pair of ghostly white human arms, thin as could be and producing long yellow talons as its front legs. A pair of towering feathered wings it held above its body, shielding it from the rain.

But the face.

The face.

The face was a maw of dull yellow jagged teeth and long crooked ears. The skin looked like it was made of moonlight.

It was horrifying.

And it was undoubtedly the face of her mentor, Eda Clawthorne.

"E-Eda?!" King whimpered, aghast at the sight of his caretaker twisted into such a form.

Eda ignored him, staring at Luz, a low tone rumbling from its throat. The witch-turned-monster clacked its teeth aggressively at the student, snapping its teeth shut with the sound of a rifle crack.

"King, go upstairs. Slowly."

King did not, in fact, do that. He instead walked forward, and Luz felt two tiny claws grip her leg. She felt her heart stutter with panic. She glanced down at her furry friend staring up at her defiantly before resuming her staredown with the beast.

Eda growled when their eyes met once more, its body flaring up, feathers quivering. Yet despite its obvious agitation, the creature couldn't seem to bring itself to attack.

What is going on? Is Eda holding herself back, or…

A bright flash exploded from around the side of the house with a loud BZZZZT. The place was engulfed in white, blinding everyone. The last thing Luz saw before the light hit was Eda quickly covering its eyes with a wing.

Did lightning just hit the house?!

The skin on Luz's knees split open as they hit the floor. She cried out along with King’s yelp and the Edabeast's pained howl. She felt around for King, pulling him close and crawled backwards, away from the enraged beast. She could only hope she was going in the right direction.

The snarling and heavy breathing of the animal quieted. The human didn't know if it had left or was just getting prepared to pounce. Sweat was pouring down her face. Her breaths were near impossible to pull in.

Please let me save King. Please let me save King. Please let me—

Something rough and soft brushed against her face and off her ear.

Okay, now it was completely impossible for her to breathe.

Luz froze, clutching King to her like a living teddy bear. Despite the heat from the boiling rain, she had never felt so cold.

King squirmed in her arms, and Luz was snapped out of her daze. Forcing her eyes open, she blinked away the burning sensation in her eyes. Her vision returned to her and she cast her gaze around the room, searching for her feathered mentor.

The room was empty except for her and King, the pitter-patter of rain deafening.

Luz shakely got to her feet and did her best not to vomit, nausea making her brain feel like soup, not helped by the sickly sweet smell in the room that made her stomach churn with each breath.

"Luz!"

The girl jumped. "King! Wh-what is it?"

King tugged on her sleeve, pointing to a room next to the stairs. "We need to get somewhere safe and figure out what to do! C'mon."

Luz nodded and let herself be pulled around by the small monarch down the hallway and into a small room Luz hadn't been in yet. It was covered from wall to wall in weaponry. Bows— both of the cross varieties and not— blades, axes, maces, spears, and a collection of throwing weapons from cheap mall shurikens to a row of shelves holding honest-to-god zelda bombs. All of these were in a multitude of sizes and designs.

"Eda has a weapon roo— who am I kidding, it's the Boiling Isles. I would have one too. Probably one in the Human Realm too, if I'm honest."

King ignored Luz's awe-inspired-mummerimg and shimmied up one of the mace hills and leapt onto a cabinet, where he pulled a small curved dagger from the wall and clipped it onto the back of his collar.

"Grab something. You're bigger, so maybe one of those maces or clubs. You might be able to bonk her out of commission or something."

Luz was horrified. "You want us to attack Eda?! We cant do that, that's insane!"

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?! Eda's turned into whatever that thing is, and we have no way to change her back! If I distract her with swinging this thing around, you can knock her out. And then…"

The little infernal trailed off. Luz took this time to speak. "And then what?"

King's fur puffed out in frustration. "I don't know, something! Something that isn't just standing there like a bozo! That isn't being coddled like a baby when your friend is telling you to leave and getting her hurt!"

Luz paused and knelt down (wincing as she did) to look at King. His jaw was scrunched up tight, but she could still see a faint quiver in it. His eyes were wet and filled with guilt. In short, King looked miserable.

Luz gulped and spoke like she remembered her Mami talking to her when she came home sad. "King… Its not your fault any of this is happening. It's okay. I'm not even that hurt." She patted her knees, only slightly twitching as she did. King just looked at her.

"I'm the King of Demons. I should have ordered her to stop, or call her off, or done anything."

Luz sucked air through her teeth as she thought of King trying to do any of those thing to the feathered monster the size of a bear. "I… don't think that would have helped, King."

His head fell, and Luz tried to rectify her friend's perceived failure.

"It's okay to be scared, buddy. Everyone gets scared, even monarchs."

"You didn't."

"I did. I still am. I just have more important things to me to focus on."

King looked up at his friend. The mist fading from his eyes. He wiped them clear and after a moment, stood tall and nodded to Luz.

"And now, so do I."

Luz smiled, and steadied her voice. "Alright. Now, how do we save Eda without giving her a concussion? You're the demon expert here."

King thought for a minute, absent-mindedly carving an approximation of the Edabeast's face. He got halfway through carving the eye into the side of the cabinet when he stopped with a gasp.

"Black eyes!"

"What?" Luz was hoping she didn't have the dumbfounded look she was worried she currently had.

"Demons with black eyes are way more sensitive to light. Their pupils are completely overtaking the rest of their eyes, so it's alot more disorienting for them. That's why the lightning flash scared it off!"

Luz pulled pulled a out a piece of paper inscribed with a ring of light glyphs. "I have a 'flash' glyph right here! But it'll just cover its eyes with its wings again…"

"Maybe I can jump on it and grab its wings!"

Luz winced. "Maybe I do that while you go and use the flash glyph."

"That is also an idea that works!" King didn't miss a beat.

Luz rubbed her forehead trying to get the thought juices flowing. "That'll protect us for now, but we still need a way to bring Eda back to normal."

"She was probably asleep in her room when she turned into this. We should check there for any clues." King's skull jolted back as he remembered something. "There's a bar on the inside of Eda's door! That can keep us safe as we search!"

Luz nodded and walked over, placing her hand on the doorknob and turning back to King. "We ready?"

King nodded and jumped over next to her. Luz took a breath and slowly open the door and looked around. No danger in sight. She slowly stepped out and motioned for King to follow, tip-toeing through the hallway, careful not to make a sound.

They were around the corner where the bottom of the stairs starter when they heard the clik clak of talons in the living room. Luz stopped dead in her tracks, and peered around the wall.

The Edabeast was pulling fluff from the couch with its teeth, kneeding the floor with its claws, pulling up shards of wood with each swipe. Its ears were up and twitching, clearly listening for any sign of the two.

Okay, thought Luz. We just have to duck into my room and throw something down the hall and sneak up the stairs while it's investigating.

With her plan set, Luz reached for the door.

And the plan was immediately ruined by the doorknob refusing to turn with a loud chik.

The fabric tearing ceased, a quizzical chirp soon followed. Luz desperately tried turning the knob again and again, to no avail. The door was locked.

The door to her own room was locked.

Okay. Don't have time to think about this. Plan B.

Luz grabbed King, tucked the little guy under her arm, and dashed around the corner, pounding steps up to the upper floor. The monster twisted its head to look at them and let out a sound that was like a mix of an angry roar and a bird screech. It leapt after the children, smashing through the banister and trying to cling to the stairs, the steps too small for its form.

Luz made it to the top of the stairs and threw King through the open doorway to Eda's room, sprinting through the threshold close behind. The floor shook with each heavy footfall as the demon pulled itself up the stairs and charged at the kids with a disturbed cry.

"Luz!" King cried, straining to lift a large bar made of stone. Luz slammed the door closed, and with the help of her furry friend, lifted the bar up and onto the fastening fixed into the stone doorframe (how she had missed it her first time in here, she had no idea). The edges of the bar glowed a dull violet before the two ends of the bar melded into the doorframe while the middle stretched out to make a vertical bar over the door and melding into the frame as well.

The wall shook as the Edabeast slammed into it, the two holding their breath, hoping it would be enough. The door rattled and creaked as it withstood blow after blow, but held firm thanks to its new braces. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the beast ceased its onslaught and stomped away with a growl. Luz and King let out a sigh. Luz spoke first.

"We're safe, thank… magic, I guess. Now let's see if we can find something to help Eda."

King nodded and began sniffing around for… Luz wasn't sure what, but she was hoping his nose cavity turned up something. She started looking around the room. It was a mess in here, however one less destructive than the living room. The scratches in here were light, like the kind you would get from pushing heavy furniture instead of an animal's territorial rage-marking. The nest actually looked better than before, having been filled with a lining of fluff Luz assumed was from the couch. The most concerning piece was the giant circular stained-glass window in the design of an eye hanging wide open, letting some of the scalding rain spill in. Luz grabbed a oven mitt off a display reading 'HUMAN CLOTHES' and used it to pull the window shut. As she turned back, she spotted a flash of gold on the nightstand and went over to investigate.

"Hey, I remember you."

It was the gold potion she has noticed while leaving Eda's room the first time. It glowed faintly and was thick enough to entrap air bubbles in itself. What she now discovered looking at it more closely was a little brown tag wrapped around the opening.

Alright Luz, learn from your potion drinking mistakes: Read. The. Labels.

Luz picked up the elixir and squinted at the label.

'An Elixir A Day/\/\/\/'

The label was torn in two, the other half missing. Luz pondered what it could mean before remembering she had someone who might already know.

"Hey King, do you know what this elixir is for?"

King sprang to his feet and waddled over to Luz, his search only resulting in a small tag stuck to his nose.

"Oh yeah, that's Eda's. She says it's her 'old people medicine'. She doesn't like to talk about it. I think she hates being reminded she's an old lady." King giggled, a breath of fresh air from the bleak situation they found themselves in.

Luz showed him the tag on the potion. "I think we need to find the other half of this tag. Do you know where it could have ended up? We'll need to scan the floor, maybe search the nest, going through the twigs and fluff bit by bit—"

King interrupted his friend's muttering with a poke. As she paused to look at him, he looked to the small tag stuck to his nose and pulled it off, holding it out for her. Luz took it, confused, before recognizing what it was.

"The other half! Couldn't have done it without you, buddy!" King looked away and waved the complement away bashfully. Luz stuck the two half together and read the tag in full.

'An Elixir A Day/\/Keeps The Curse At Bay.'

King went bugeyed. "A curse?! That has to be what's turned Eda into that thing!"

Luz nodded grimly, but smiled regardless. "And now we know what we can do to bring her back. We knock her out with the flash glyph and shove this bad boy down her gullet and save the day!"

Luz and King did a joint weh! and high-fived. Pulling out a flash glyph in one hand with the potion in the other, she started workshoping a plan with the King of Demons when the room suddenly got dimmer, a shadow blocking the light from the eye-window. With a sinking feeling in her gut, Luz turned to the window.

The shadow of a great winged beast could be seen on the other side. And with each passing second, the shadow grew bigger and bigger alarmingly fast.

King moved first this time, grabbing a comforter stuffed in the corner and throwing it over them both with a squeaking yell of "GET DOWN!". Not a moment later, Luz heard the shattering of glass and the feeling of many tiny particles peppering her in the face and chest, made harmless thanks to her ruler's quick thinking. Something heavy slammed into the room, shaking it with a massive THUD as the glass finished tinkling over the floor.

Luz pulled off the blanket to see the beast standing in the middle of the room, shaking off bits of glass, unfazed by the sharp edges. Giving a rage-filled bellow, the animal glared with empty black eyes at the girl. The girl glared back, staring the monster in the eyes dead-on. As their eyes met, the beast's growling faltered and grew quieter, though never fading entirely. It's fur/feathers raised up to make it look even bigger and it twitched its head back and forth, as if uncomfortable with the eye contact.

It was then Luz came up with a theory. "King, I don't think it likes my eyes very much. Seems to spook it enough to keep it from full on attacking. I can keep this up, but I don't think I can do this and jump on its back to restrain its wings."

Luz heard King's voice come from behind the monster.

"Got it, on it!"

Luz's heart leapt to her throat. "Wait, King, no—!"

It was too late, King jumped up to top of the Edabeast from behind and grabbed the base of its wings. With the only option Luz could think to do now, she lifted the glyph up with her palm and slammed her thumb into the page, covering her eyes as she did so. The flash went off, but instead of the howl she was expecting, she heard King cry out, his voice going from in front of her to suddenly ending up to her far left. Opening her eyes, Luz saw what had happened and dread filled her stomach.

The beast had easily flung King off it, a flick of its wings sending him bouncing off the nest and into the corner, luckily glass-free. With its wings free, it had covered its face as the flash went off and now was standing closer, no more unconscious than it had been a moment before.

Luz jammed her hand into her pocket for another glyph and finding none. It was too late anyway. The beast whipped it's wing back, the tip catching her in the chest, sending her flying back onto the comforter with the cushioning acting as a makeshift sled as she slid across the room, her head knocking into the door. Lucky again, most of her body and limbs were laid flat on the blanket, saving her from the glass shards.

Unluckily, most was the key words.

She had tried to catch herself using her left hand, the other still jammed in her pocket. She got to recognize how short-sighted an idea that was when a sliver of glass kicked up from her fingers and the next thing she knew, an excruciating pain stabbing through her palm and fingers. With her head swimming from hitting the door, she sluggishly pulled her hand to her face to see what was wrong. Her second major mistake.

In her palm, in the muscles between her thumb and forefinger, a shard of glass had pieced into the skin and muscle, the force at which she had been flung driving it deep, the tip nearly breaking through the skin on the other side, instead just making a horrid bump, a flesh pyramid of sorts. Luz felt her stomach heave as she stared at the protrusion.

The more pressing concern reminded Luz it was here by lunging on top of her, it's maw of teeth being stuck in the girl's face. In a desperate attempt to save herself, Luz committed her third mistake: tearing the shard from her palm. Blood, red and thick (through not as red as it should be) gushed from the wound, staining her hand as she took both her palms and slapped them into the center of the demon's face, trying to push it off her to no avail. The beast growled at this display, before something took over the animal.

Instead of biting the head off of its prey, the beast sniffed, blood smearing over its face, including under its nose. As it did so, the monster froze, still as a statue, its eyes glazing over with something Luz didn't recognize until it began screaming.

That something was a raw, primal terror.

The beast threw itself off of Luz, staring at her with abject fear. It flung its head back and forth, trying to get whatever scent it caught away from it. The creature’s gazes flew to the ground searching for something Luz couldn't guess. The beast whimpered and jumped at any shadow that sat near it, it soon trying to fly out the shattered window. As ot lifted its wings, it seemed to catch a glimpse of the sky between the clouds and howled, snapping its wings against its body and instead leaping at the door, clawing at the stone in hopes of escape. When that failed, it scrambled into Eda's nest, seeming to try and give itself any sort of comfort or peace.

It was then Luz pulled herself up into a sitting position. Seeing her move, and stare at it, the demon let out a mournful wail. Luz had only held this type of noise from bunnies at her Mami's clinic after being grabbed. It was a call announcing to its kin to flee for their lives, that it had been caught by something bigger than it and that it was about to die.

And with that final cry, the body of the beast twisted in on itself, growing smaller and less fuzzy, until an unconscious— but very much witch— Eda Clawthorne was slumped in her nest, the blood of her student staining her dress.

Luz panted, holding her hand trying to stem the flow of blood, and trying not to go from dazed to completely passed out. King rushed over close to her, trying to carefully step over the glass. Luz stopped him, however.

"No. Go give this to Eda first, I'll be fine til then."

Luz tossed King the potion (which had been spared joining its window-creating-brethern by falling onto the comforter, man this thing is doing work) and pointed to her mentor. King looked worriedly at her before jumping into the nest, pulling Eda's mouth open, and draining the elixir down her throat before rushing back to his friend.

***

Eda woke up with a ringing in her ears and the worst stress headache she had ever experienced. She sat up from her nest to find her window smashed to pieces, the glass swept up into a corner, and sitting in another corner was her roommate and student, the former wrapping gauze around the latter's palm.

"I told you you got to patch me up next time!"

"Well, hopefully next time, its just a normal boo-boo instead of this. Either way though, boo-boo buddies!"

Luz cheered, and gulped down a thin vial of some light blue mixture of sand and glue.

"Why are you drinking a healing tonic?"

The two of them jumped at her voice and turned to look at Eda worried. King spoke first.

"Hey, Eda. Are you feeling okay? No, uh, weirdness?"

Eda was confused. "Uh, I'm feeling pretty sh- not so great right now, since you ask. What, did you hit me with the same boulder you sent through my window, or something? Don't think I haven't noticed that hole, buster."

King squirmed, clearly uncomfortable, yet not in the guilty way Eda was expecting. Luz placed a hand on his back and spoke up.

"We didn't do anything to the window, Eda. You— or cursed you i guess— did."

Eda's stomach dropped into the abyss. Curse?! The witch looked down to find her nest covered in fluff that wasn't there before, and an empty elixir bottle agiasnt her hip. One she realized she did not remember drinking before she fell asleep.

"Oh no. Oh Titan no. Don't tell me you know— dont tell me I turned…"

Luz went to speak, but Eda's focus zeroed in on the bandages on her palm and knees.

"Did I do that. Luz, tell me. I have to know if I did that to you. Please."

Luz waved her hands (much to the frustration of King) in a negative motion. "No, no! The knees are from getting blinded by lightning striking the house, and the hand was because I tried grabbing glass as I fell over."

Eda clutched her heart and gave a shaky sigh of desperate relief. "Thank Titan. Thank Titan."

Purring her hand to her face, Eda gasped in horror as her hand came back bloody. Luz winced.

"Oh yeah, but I kinda had to walk you off me, and I think my blood seemed to give cursed you a panic attack."

King walked over with a wet rag, and the witch snatched it up and dragged it over her face til her skin was raw and red. With a shudder, Eda dropped the filthy thing into her lap.

"How did you get it to drink the potion? Usually it just tuckers itself out and I wake up in a tree somewhere."

"Oh, uh. It kinda, sorta, left by choice?"

Eda was flummoxed. "That's impossible. It's never just released command over me when it's in charge."

Luz shrugged. "It did when it got a whiff of my blood. It freaked out and I think it used you as an escape from, uh, me."

Eda wanted to laugh this off. A teenager scaring the bane of her life into releasing its time in control over her early? It was a joke, perhaps even an insulting one with how much effort she had wasted in her early years trying to find a way to do just that.

But she could feel an echo of terror emanating from deep within her. A feeling of horror that welled up when her eyes met her student's. She wasn't making this up.

"I— okay… Okay."

Eda felt her body tetter as exhaustion overtook her. She tried to stay awake, but as the two noticed her expression, they gently pushed her down, handing her another bottle of elixir and some water.

"Hey, ya old hag. Drink up if you're feeling all feathery again and go to bed. I still haven't convinced Luz to help me raid the top of the fridge."

"We'll be alright, Eda. Get some rest."

Eda's protests turned to murmers as her eyes closed without her control and she drifted to sleep.

When she opened them back up, she found herself in a familiar abyss, a blank void.

"Ah shit, this place again."

This was where the Owlbeast stalked her through her lapses of control. She had no magic here, the only option was to run as fast as she could and hope this time wasn't the time the demon didn't catch up to her.

And yet, as she searched around, she saw no towering owl neck screeching at her. There were no claws, nor the sound of wings buffeting her as she fled. There was only the shallow breathes coming from somewhere further into the nothingness.

Steeling herself as the greatest witch to ever live, Eda marched to where the labored breathes came from. A short (or possibly long, time was weird in dreams) walk later, she stood in front of the embodiment of the thing that ruined her life. It laid there small, and shivering. The fear was palpable. But it wasn't fear for her. An echoing voice appeared in her head.

Kill it! You have to kill it before it eats us!

"Kill? Kill what, Luz? She's my student, I'm not doing that!"

Can't you smell it?! You are tricked. That is not human. That is a trick to lure us in to eat us! Why can't you see?!

"Luz is from the Human Realm, she's barely okay with eating fairies, much less her own teacher."

Not human. Know humans, have smelled humans. Not. Human.

Eda felt almost afraid to ask. "Then what do you think she is?"

Predator Above All. It has masked itself in weaker form to hunt. The big has hidden among the small. Don't you get it?! We're going to die! It's going to eat us! We are going to die!

Eda jolted wide awake. Luz had gone to bed and King was sleeping next to her nest, the foolish little tyke.

She laid there for a long time, the desperate screams of the Owlbeast replaying in her mind. The question circled around her.

"What the hell are you, kiddo?"

***

Luz stumbled out of the bathroom, teeth brushed and pj's on. She had spent an hour propping Hooty back up and administering boo-boo checks for him. Hooty was quite happy getting so much attention, but Luz was running on fumes at that point.

Luz trudged over to her bedroom door and stared at the knob. Grabbing it, she turned it, listening to it pop open without an issue. As the door slowly swung open, she looked around to make sure no one was nearby when tp here as she muttered under her breath. "¡Mierda…"

She didn't have the energy to figure out why her door acted up for the first time ever, nor why her room seemed like more of a mess then it was before. She flopped onto her bedroom and groaned her way to sleep.

It would be the next day by the time Luz realized one of her things had gone missing from her room.

And just as well would it be the next day when Eda realized the ringing in her head was coming not from her exhaustion, but from her wards.

Chapter Text

Eda found Luz early in the morning desperately rummaging through her things. Her backpack was splayed open, bedroll flipped over, a pile of her items thrown in the corner. The old witch knocked on the doorframe to announce her presence.

"Hey kid. What's got you so worked up?"

Luz turned to Eda, her disposition brightening immediately. "Hey Eda, glad to see you're up. You okay? No after effects or anything?"

Eda didn't speak for a moment. The girl had just had to fight for her life against the worst of Eda, seen the worst of Eda, and her first question was wondering if she was okay.

Eda felt her throat go tight and cursed the allergies she didn't have.

"Nah, I'm fine. Bit of ringing in my ears, but I have a suspicion that doesn't have to do with my… condition."

Her pupil perked up at that last part, and Eda winced, which she tried to mask with a cough. "Speaking of… I think me, you, and King need to have a talk. About that. You mind stalling your search for a bit while we do that?"

Luz worried her lip and looked around her room before gently nodding and standing up, grunting as she did. Eda guessed she probably still had some knee pains from last night and reminded herself to grab some more healing tonic from the basement.

"I can look some more later. I just don't know where I could have lost it. I don't remember moving it since I got here."

Eda stepped aside and nodded to the kitchen as Luz walked past, then took a glance into the room and gagged, swiftly drawing a spell circle and opening the window to let in some fresh air. She had never wondered what teen body odor, damp cloth, and gangrene smelled like mixed together, and she never wanted to know again. She would get Hooty to go eat whatever died under the floorboards or something.

Eda strode into the kitchen after a quick stop to grab a healing tonic and handed it to Luz as she sat down. Luz had King in her lap and tapped her fingertips on the counter in a manner Eda couldn't tell if nervous or just stimming. Eda looked at them for a moment, trying to keep her desperate want for some vintage apple blood in check. Finally, Eda croaked out a few words.

"So. You know I'm cursed."

Silence. The children looked to each other and then to her, nodded. King seemed to be having a hard time wrapping the idea around his head, while Luz seemed more confused than anything. As the pupil's eyes (Eda would be loving the pun if not for the mindless dread that strangled her as she stared into the twin cold voids at their center) met mentor's, the former murmured, embarrassed.

"Um, what does that mean, exactly? Like, what is a curse?"

King opened his mouth to answer a couple times, and each time failing to utter a word, clearly unsure of how to explain. Eda waved him down and took her time to come up with something at least close to coherent.

"First off, where do you think magic comes from?"

Luz brightened. "The heart?!"

Eda blinked in astonishment. "That's actually right on."

Luz squeed, squeezing King, who was still wearing that worried puppydog eyes look on him.

Eda continued. "Yeah, it comes from a sac of bile attached to a witch's heart."

Eda pulled put a scroll depicting the very thing and showed it to her pupil. Luz oohed and aahed over it, quickly snatching it up and handing it to King for him to hold onto.

"You can't keep that."

"Too late~"

Eda relented, if not for rewarding her student's boldness and willingness of theft. She'd make a decent criminal yet.

"Well, that sac produces magic bile which flows through our veins along with our blood. It's what allows us to draw spell circles and do magic."

Luz looked filled with delight until she seemed to remember why they were having this talk.

"That's really cool and all, but what does this have to do with curses?"

"It all has to do with a witch's bile. At somepoint, when even the Savage Ages were still young, a deeply screwed-up witch with a mastery of regeneration and wards, the school of what we call healing magic, decided to try something new. The people of the Ilses were smart, they knew about bile by that point, of course. They just found it impossible to keep outside the body of one who had a bile sac. The stuff couldn't be separated from the blood by any means, and the bile sac spoiled immediately upon death."

Eda took a breath.

"That was, until this witch did it."

The kids looked uncomfortable, likely catching on to what was to follow.

"If bile couldn't be taken from the blood, and couldn't be taken from the sac when dead, what could be done? Take from it as the heart still beats, of course. The witch kept their prisoner alive as they worked, forcing their heart to keep on going. They forced the bile sac to keep pumping more bile into a cut vein before it mixed with the blood, and took it for themself, leaving the victim to die without their magic."

Luz looked sick, even King was starting to turn green.

"They etched their will into parchment, using the bile as ink. They crafted something in the same manner as you would a ward, but far different in purpose and far more complex. It was magic that bled into the victim's bile sac and caused complete debilitation.

This was the start of what we know today as a curse. A spell formed from torturing out the bile of another and made to latch onto a target and never let go. Time cannot erase it, shields cannot halt it, and only the cleverest usage of magic could even scratch the surface of breaking one."

Her student looked disgusted. "That's sick. That- that's wrong. Why would anyone—"

"Why wouldn't you? If all it took was snatching a single witch or demon off the streets and hiring some nut job healer to get the edge over an opponent, revenge on an enemy, etc?"

"Because it's evil! How can you justify torturing someone to death for a leg-up on someone?"

Eda shrugged. "The same way those folks justify any other horrible thing they do, I guess."

Luz held onto King, who was at this point trying to tuck himself into as tight a ball as he could, hiding from the world. Luz whispered, afraid of the answer she would get.

"Have you ever… harvested someone?"

Eda was quick to reassure her. "Oh bones below, no! Well, I mean, if something (or someone) is dead, yeah. But not someone's bile sac! Magic is a gift from the Isles, you can't just steal it away from someone like that. It'd be monstrous, and not the hot kind."

Luz sighed with relief.

"Yeah, torture is great and all, but that's too much. Just stick to fleshrot beetles, those always do the trick."

Luz was no longer relieved.

"Anyway, curses suck and are near impossible to remove and I've got one. I don't know who cursed me and mine is too strong to ever get rid of. It ain't fun is what I'm saying. So knowing this."

Eda made sure to meet her student's eyes (no matter how hard it was).

"Do you still want to be my apprentice?"

Luz blinked once, then twice.

And in the next moment, burst out in a yell.

"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I?!"

Eda was stunned (so was King, but that was because of the sudden noise). "Kid, the Owlbeast chased you throughout the house and tried to kill you. Muck, it nearly succeeded."

"And now I can help you remember to take your elixir."

"Me too! I decree by my right as lord that there will not be a single feather shed in this house from this day forth!" squeaked King, before quickly adding "Except Hooty's!" as the owl tube slowly rose from under the window with a devious smile.

Eda continued to argue. "You are in danger, kid. I don't know what is up with you that freaks the beast out, but it does not like you. It's not safe to be around. I'm not safe to be around."

Luz gave her a nonplussed look. "Eda. Someone tried to kill me for being associated with you for a single day. You've never been safe to be around."

Luz ended it with a wide grin, with Eda matching it a second later. Both tried to keep it together for a grand total of four seconds before absolutely losing it, laughing to near hysterical levels. King took it as a chance to practice his evil cackle, which did not help the situation.

Eda wiped tears from her eyes (from laughing too hard, dammit!, she hissed to herself) and chuckled. "Can't seem to scare you off, can I?"

"Nope!" Luz beamed.

Eda sighed. "Welp, the least I can do is impress upon you that I do have measures to protect you kids. I've known how… volatile my curse can be for years now. That's why if I am at risk of turning, I should do it in my room, with the stone bar up. If everything is set up right, the beast will have no choice but to either stay in the room— its 'nest'— or push open the window and head out. It seems to prefer the woods than going into town, so the deaths are kept to a minimum. I assume."

King raised his paw. "Uh, what stops the feather duster from coming back in through a window and eating us?"

"Oh it used to try, alright. That's why we have—"

The 'Owl, part of the 'Owl House' smashed a hole through the ceiling with his face and announced himself. "MEEEE!!!"

Another sigh from Eda. "Yes, Hooty, you."

King was aghast. "Wait, wait a min— YOU KNEW?!" The tiny demon pointed a finger at the house demon so accusatory, it would make a defense attorney blush.

Hooty, an entity devoid of shame, enthusiastically professed his guilt. "Yup! I've been holding off the Owlbeast for longer than you've been alive, hoot hoot!"

King was not convinced. "Then how did you end up getting KO-ed by it in like, a second?"

Eda took this one. "I usually have the stone door trick to keep it from wrecking anything inside or getting to you. Since it wasn't up, the Owlbeast was able to sneak up on Hooty and get the jump on him. Long as that doesn't happen again, he should be able to hold it off if it tries to enter."

Hooty nodded along, enjoying some rare praise.

Luz patted Hooty on the head, happy her strange compatriot was looking out for them, blacheing as her hand came away coated in a strange mucus. "Welp, if that's all, I'm gonna go back to searching—"

Eda raised her hand. "Hold on, kiddo. There is one last thing we need to do. Come with me."

The old witch stood up, cracking her back before motioning to follow as she walked out of the room and through the hallway. Luz stood up and ran after her mentor, furball friend in hand. The trio ended up in the weapon room with the witch kneeling down and rummaging through one of the chests, finally pulling out a long, thin object wrapped in a gray cloth.

Eda turned to her student. "You got a pocket knife, right?"

Luz shook her head clear from being transfixed by the mystery in her mentor's hands and nodded. She went into her pocket and produced a small metal multi-tool, flipping it open to show the many miniature instruments inside, from pliers to screwdrivers. "It's stainless steel. Is that too close to iron, or…?"

"Steel is safe, hand it over."

Luz did as she was told. Eda flicked open the small knife and examined it, testing its edge and flexibility, ending with her stabbing it as hard as she could into the wall, it only going a few centimeters deep. A startled cry was heard from the living room.

"Sorry, Hooty!" Luz yelled down the hallway.

"Well, the blade is about how I expected. Can't stab for crap and more likely to just snap down on your fingers than anything. Better edge than I was expecting though. You sharpen?"

Luz nodded, and the witch took a moment to smirk with pride at her apprentice. "Smart kid. Means I don't have to teach you how to do it."

Eda looked back to her student's trinket. "It's a decent carving tool in a pinch, but it ain't gonna save your life. That's what this is for."

She placed the multi-tool down and unvealed the object, revealing a jet black stiletto in a chocolate brown sheath. Eda handed it to a stunned Luz.

"Every witch worth their salt keeps a dagger on them. Every witch not worth their salt also keeps a dagger on them. Everyone has a knife here, especially the kids, that's what I'm going for here."

"Don't forget everydemon!" King waved the same curved dagger from last night, made of a bone hilt and blade made of bronze.

Luz was attempting to turn various sputtering and squeaks into English. "But awesome dagger. But stabbing people bad. But dagger. But morality. But—"

"Kid, breathe. I'm not expecting you to go on hits for me."

Yet. Eda wanted to say, but she figured her student wouldn't appreciate the joke.

"Defending yourself from bastards and creeps doesn't make you as bad as bastards and creeps. Anyone who tells you that is either stupid or trying to gaslight you and probably a creep themselves. Some people just need punching. There are plenty of both in the Demon Realm, same as yours. Ours are just packed in on a single island, so it's a denser sample size. And you need every advantage you can get without magic."

"I guess, but why a dagger?"

"Many reasons. First, it's small and lightweight. You can hide it easy, and get the jump on anyone messing with you. Second, it's real pointy."

Eda summoned a small shield bubble into her palm and brought Luz's hand clutching the dagger against it. With a small push, not even a real stab, the shield popped like a balloon against the tip of the blade.

"A witch's shield is fantastic at standing up to spells and raw force, but against something pointy, it is as defenseless as the witch who cast it. Magic can try to fit the bill, but it can't beat sharpened metal. It's why Coven scouts and bounty hunters use spears and swords and such. Most cloaks and defenses aren't ready for your average blade."

Luz's eyes welled with worry. "Is yours?"

Eda snorted. "Nah, too draining to constantly re-up those ones. My curse actually tends to help in that regard. Don't need to worry about defense if I can just put myself back together again." Eda demonstrated her claim by tearing her arm off and waving it around, getting a chuckle out of Luz, before her student looked around at the multitude of other weapons around.

"Wait, wouldn't a sword or something like that be better if all the people who use weapons use those?"

"Oh certainly, if you had the years of training to wield one. Plus you'd need a decent excuse as to why you're running around armed."

"You're telling me BI has laws about carrying weapons around?" Luz said incredulously.

"Pffft, of course not, you've seen the place. It's not about legality. People see a rando strapped with a weapon, they assume they are either here to start some crap, or are too weak of bile to defend themselves. Neither option tends to go well for the wielder, and in our line of work, it pays to not draw unwanted attention."

Luz oohed in understanding. Eda continued.

"Daggers are seen as normal enough to be beneath notice. What does that make this next one? Third? Fourth? Whatever. Lastly, daggers are… uh. Well, they are… Beans, what was the last one?"

King paused from his knife-duel with the chest to chip in. "Daggers are cool!"

Eda and Luz turned to the tiny demon as he went back to his duel, then to each other. The younger spoke first.

"Daggers are cool?"

The older shrugged. "Daggers are cool."

Luz smirked and (with a little help from Eda) looped the sheath on the back of her shorts, the knife flat against the small of her back. The apprentice gave her mentor a quick hug.

"Thank you, Eda."

"Don't mention it, kiddo. I owe it to you for last night."

Eda's smile dropped as she glanced at the girl's left palm. A thin red line, still scabbing over laid there. The beginnings of a small, but visible scar.

Luz waved her off and put her hands behind her back. "It's okay, Eda. Really. I'm gonna keep searching my room, okay?"

"Alright. I'll be there in a minute. I just gotta check something real quick."

Luz nodded and jogged back to her room. King, now confident he had beaten the container in worthy combat, went off to take a post-bloodshed-nap. Eda stood there for a moment before the ringing in her head became too much to ignore. She marched through her living room and out the door. Scanning her yard, she saw nothing amiss, aside from some garbage Hooty had recently thrown-up.

The ringing had become louder in her right ear. Eda turned and strode in that direction, making an arc around her house. That is where she found it.

Around ten feet from her house, a patch of grass had been obliterated, leaving only a blackened scorch mark in the dirt from some intense heat.

Eda formed a spell circle and looked through it. The arcane lens showed a spider's webbing-thick line of glowing navy, encircling the entire house.

Encircling entirely, except for the scorch mark, where the line was broken, the ends swaying in a breeze Eda knew not of.

The Owl Lady took the ends and gave one quick jerk, and the spell dispersed, the ringing ceasing along with it.

"Anything we don't want coming in will get zapped. Powerful stuff but don't tend to use it since— yaaaawn —it drains so much magic."

The kids had said lightning had struck near the house— an impossibility due to one of the wards Eda had set up. It was near the simplest wards she knew, and it had been doing its job for years now. The problem wasn't lightning.

Eda studied the dirt to find any clue to what set off the trap, but found none. Dammit.

This was why Eda hated working with physical wards and left it up to her house demon. Oracle wards were— to most witches' surprise— relatively easy. All you had to do was go over a list of oracle spells from most used to least and block them out. A fucking hassle, yeah, but it was doable when there are only a certain amount of oracle spells in existence.

Physical wards had no such relief. Compared to the mental variant, the list of things you had to include or disallow was infinite. Wards were set upon a foundation of carefully constructed minute details. Something, if you had ever met Edalyn Clawthorne would know, was not her forte.

Any mistake she made with what was allowed in could have triggered the trap's payload— that being an electric charge enough to knock out a Coven Head Mason roided out on power glyphs. A wayward fairy, a beetle, a rock made of something the magic didn't recognize. Something so small would have been completely vaporized, leaving nothing to find (these were examples of course, Eda had been sure she had been through).

The witch grimaced. Which possibility was worse: that whatever had triggered it has been obliterated and I've just been sloppy?

Or that what triggered it had tanked the blast and walked it off?

Eda shook her head. She had been put here too long. She'd think over it tonight. She said she'd help Luz.

She walked back inside (asking Hooty got her nowhere, he had been unconscious for most of last night) and into Luz's room. The girl was looking under her bedroll. Eda coughed and Luz turned to look at her, frustration on her cheeks.

"Still found diddly-squat?"

"Yup. I swear I didn't move it."

"Well, maybe I can use some arcane hand-waving and dig it up. What are you looking for, anyway?"

Luz gripped her phone, looking somber.

"Oh, it's not much."

"So not much, you've spent over an hour turning your room over looking for it?"

Luz turned her head down and muttered what she was looking for.

"I— I have copies on my phone, it's just having something more is… nice."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Why don't we check if Hooty swallowed it or something."

A small smile returned to the young girl, and the two of them went to interrogate the bird worm who controlled the house lighting.

Eda snorted. Sometimes (always) her life was weird. The people in it especially.

Though she had to admit, she didn't think Hooty would be weird enough to steal a photo of Luz and her mother. Who does that?!

Chapter Text

"Okay, you got the list? Patient note? Map?"

"In my pocket."

"Bag of snails?"

"Same pocket, tied to the note."

"Dagger?"

"In its sheath, strapped to my back."

"Good pupil. Off you go. Tell Morton not to taste test poison late at night if he starts giving you sass."

And with that, Eda shut the door on Luz, leaving her to her task. What task might this be, you ask? Develing into dark caves for lost treasure? Collecting fairy dust? Acquiring materials for arcane use?!

No, not any one of those, actually…

…It was all three~!

Luz was on her first mission she felt really qualified as a "magic adventure". Eda had told her that after her encounter with the Owlbeast, "You're probably ready to do some more chores— I mean quests, for me."

Luz had been given a list of stuff to pick up for her mentor, which she pulled out and checked it over once again.

× pick up weekly elixir dosage from morton

× pick up ingredients for potions
slitherbeast flem 2.5 fl oz(from morton)
cowering pine root 4oz (from morton)
powdered chalk 6 oz(from morton)
fairy dust 2 lb(fairy farm, use map)
fire bee honey 8 fl oz(use ice pot, map)

× follow map to sir bleak's cavern, check for loot (you'll know it when you see it ;])

Luz put it away with a nod and gave one last look to the house, finding a tiny demon pressing his face against the window giving her the saddest puppydog eyes.

"It's okay, King! I'm going on a ques— adventure! I'll be back soon!"

Luz gave him a double thumbs-up.

His eyes got even sadder and quivery.

Luz pulled herself away with tears in her eyes, resisting the call of cute demon doggy.

Walking down the path out to Bonesborough until the house is out of sight, Luz slipped her hand into her back pocket and retrieved her final, unofficial quest item.

With a click, the pocket mirror popped open, a familiar monster found within. Curious whispers sang over her skin, producing goosebumps. Luz did her best not to get overwhelmed with dread. Something was up with Skulley.

"Hey there, Your Freakiness."

"Edaspawn. How Goes Your Attempts To Rend Your Self Imposed Shackles."

"I think I'm doing pretty great." Luz managed to eek out. "I was just hoping you were up for some questions thrown your way."

And maybe I'll be able to figure out a few of your secrets.

Luz had been tossing and turning over her plan to extract all the info she could out of her reflection ever since the Owlbeast Incident. Whatever this bond with the entity had done to her, it had driven the beast mad with terror. Luz could tell Eda had been shaken from it as well. Her mentor was a terrific liar, but even she couldn't hide the fact she now found it difficult to keep Luz's gaze.

'The young girl tried to keep enraptured by her brand new Azura book three as she walked home from school, doing her best to ignore the fact that she had seen the man from the history thing on her way three times now.

The fear of admitting something was wrong to Mami won out.'

"You Should Be Finding Answers Out In The World Not Stealing Them From Me. My Knowledge Is Not Free."

It was free two days ago. Or did hearing about King count as payment? Need to test later. I'm not letting this hitchhiker get away with no answers. Not after all this time.

"What's the price?"

"Answers For Answers. That Game Of Yours Proved Fruitful. Might We Continue Such Play."

"Game? Oh, Twenty Questions! Uh, sure."

Luz made sure to keep walking down the path as she spoke.

"Good. I Shall Start. A Short Time After Our Last Meeting A Magic Not Known To Me Drifted Through Your Side Into Mine. I Would Wish Its Origin Known To Me."

Luz winced. Ah. So that's why it was acting up. "Uh, pass."

"...Pass." Luz could feel the irritation set in its tone.

"Yeah, pass. It's not my place to tell."

"It Could Be A Threat To The Clawthorne Line."

"It's not, I know it isn't, believe me."

Luz's skin felt like it was going to split open from the sudden heat spike. The demon's full-on agitation was palpable. Literally.

"You Would Do Well To Remember Who Decides Such Things."

The girl wheezed. "I do remember. Her name's Eda Clawthrone, and her decision is that you butt out of this question. Pass."

Luz gritted her teeth, hoping the entity's unexplained respect to her mentor would counteract its defensive obsession. She kept one foot going in front of the other, trying to keep herself from toppling over.

Eons after the sun burned itself out and the moon crumbled to dust, the beast seemed to relent. Good thing too, the cheap mirror was starting to warp from the pressurized heat.

"Have You Found Any More Of The Hieroglyphs."

Luz wiped the sweat off her face, glaring at her reflection. "No, I haven't. Still just the light glyph."

"Magic Comes From The Wild, Edaspawn. Relinquish Yourself From Human Sickness And You Might Learn Of It."

"Yay, another talk about how bad humanity is, joy of joys. Here's my question: what is your deal with the human hate? All this 'Humanity is a sickness' shtick ain't doing you any favors in my book."

The heat was back, though only an unpleasant breeze instead of a scorching gale. “Humanity Is Not The Sickness I Tell Of. It Is Inflicted By It. One Millennia Old And Made By Their Own Hands. I Do Not Want This Illness To Be Set Upon My Realm As Well. This Is A Reasoning Nothing Else But Pure And Sound.”

“Suuuuure. That totally doesn’t sound like bigotry finding a way to justify itself. Next you’ll be talking about how we need to kill off all of humanity for the safety of everyone.

“Why Bother Killing What Will Kill Itself. Humanity Will Succumb To The Madness Or Rise Above It And Be Free Of It. Either Way That Which I Must Preserve Is Safe. To Reach Across Would Only Risk My Homes Longevity.”

Luz hummed at that in discontent. “Still doesn’t sound too far off from justification.”

The entity did not respond for a good while. In that silence, the witch's apprentice made her way out of the woodland path and onto a more well-traveled road of simple black cobble. The red roof covered in sloughing green tendrils of skin and bone like ivy could be seen in the distance.

"Thinking Up A Question Edaspawn."

"What?"

"I Asked A Question. Then I Asked Another. The Cut Is Yours."

Luz was pretty sure it wasn't, but she also wasn't going to correct them. She racked her brain for what to ask, eventually deciding on a response to Skulley's own.

"How many glyphs are there?"

The reply was instant.

"No."

"Are they all encompassed by a circ—"

"End This."

"Are th—"

"Do Not Ask Me Of The Old Magics Again. The Trials Are Set. Your Subversions Are Unwelcome."

Luz was just fed up at this point. "Fine, you jerk. I guess we'll just sit in silence for the rest of the trip."

"Patience Is Nothing New To Me."

Luz's reply was that of a gesture that would get her in so much trouble if Mami saw her do it, and her quiet stroll became zealous stomping, doubling her pace. Within just a few minutes, she was standing in front of a small square adobe hut nestled on the corner of Albert and Hackingway Street. Knocking on the large shutters that seemed to be the only feature the building had, Luz waited patiently (she can be that too, Skulley! Ha!). Just enough time to be a tad uncomfortable passed when the window opened and a gangly witch in what looked to be his mid twenties wearing a gray funnel as a hat stared down at the girl. His eye brows seemed to be trying to merge with his hairline in surprise.

"Did you just knock on my shop?"

His incredulous tone set Luz off balance. "Uh-uh, yes? I mean: yeah! Is there a problem?" C'mon, Luz. Apprentice of The Owl Lady. Be confident, be cool! Okay, at least pretend to be. Don't look at me that way, brain.

"I wasn't sure I heard right. No one knocks that gently on my shop, ever. It's either drunkards demanding hangover cures, drunkards demanding the opposite, or my one regular. And usually, those three are the same crabby old witch. Point is I have to replace these every six months, so I'm not used to soft knocks."

"O-oh. Ummm, do you want me to try again? I can slam on them real loud. My mom can testify."

"Titan, please don't."

"Heh, right, sorry. Uh, I'm here for Eda's prescription. I'm her apprentice."

"And Her Spawn. Mention That. A Healthy Amount Of Fear Will Keep You From Harms Way While You Are Weak And Frail."

"Waaah! ¡Dios Mío!, I forgot you were there. And I'm not frail!"

"I Forget I'm Here Too."

Morton looked at the makeup mirror pinched in between the Luz's fingers and was probably wondering about some new scroll the kids used these days. "Eda's got a student, huh? Titan help us all. Anyway, I got the elixir where I can get it. Since you're new, I'll give you the spiel."

Morton slapped his hands on the counter with surprising force and leaned over to get in the girl's face, startling her. His gaze wasn't as piercing as Eda's or Skulley's, but it was close.

"Here's the deal." He uttered in a low whisper. "You want something from my shop, you pay. In snails. Up front. No bartering. No tab. No wishy washy. Got it?"

"yes…" Luz squeaked, trying to make herself as small as possible. She remembered Eda's message for the vendor, but decided she didn't wanna risk making him do that again.

Morton nodded and walked to the back of his crowded workspace and digging out some elixir. Luz just stood there quietly like a nice polite statue.

"Why Is There Fear Wafting Into The Dark Place. The Fear Is Supposed To Be From Other Creatures Not You. What Is Happening And Why Havent You Begun Stabbing."

"I'm not stabbing him!" Luz hissed down at her reflection, before remembering how close she was to the counter and looking to see Morton staring at her unamused with a sack of golden bottles. Luz tried to laugh it off, choking on her own spit halfway through, and muttered the rest of her order at the grass, sliding most of the coins to him, methodically counting out the payment.

The potion seller double-checked the payment, and with a nod, scooped it up and handed Luz her things, all in their own small cloth baggies. Luz carefully set them into her backpack and waved goodbye to Morton. Morton gave her a nod, and after a pause, spoke. "Sorry about the skin flaying earlier. I just got bad experience with this kind of thing. And with you being Eda's…"

Morton stared into an empty vial.

"Well, let's just say I know better now. There's a line between friend and customer that needs to stay uncrossed. Otherwise… nevermind. Enjoy your day."

And with that, the young man closed the shutters and Luz was left staring at a dent in the wood, wondering.

"Did You Stab The Fear."

And with that, Luz forgot what she was thinking about and started her walk down to the town square. "Quiet, You. We still need to get the sweet stuff and look for treasure. Hopefully, none of it will involve stabbing anything sapient."

"Such Needless Resistance. I Remember When It Was All Anyone Could Imagine. The Best Of Times Those Were. Now All You Young Want Is Peace."

The final line boring into the inside of Luz's skull soured from an almost fond remembrance to a disgusted nausea that burned her throat with a sudden flood of stomach acid trying to escape its flesh prison. Luz clutched her neck and blinked away tears, reminding herself why she kept the connection open.

Do it for the answers, Luz. Do it for the answers.

"What's wrong with peace? Balance among things is pretty great, so sayeth the great cartoon, Avatar. Maybe I'll make you watch it."

The beast seemed to at least notice it had caused her pain, and drifted back to a less overwhelming intensity. The feeling of revulsion did not, however.

"Balance Is Natural. Balance Is Right. Peace Is Not Balance. Peace Is The Mask Order Takes To Make It Look Good. And Order."

Skulley paused, like it too seemed to become momentarily aware of how its voiceless speech had taken an edge of deep personal ranting rage.

"Order Is The Annul Of Life Itself. And I Will Protect The Lives I Care For From Its Cloying Grasp With All I Have."

Luz paused in her step. For just a moment, right at the end, the tone had flickered to something both new and strangely familiar. Like this something had been some background noise that sung unerringly every moment the beast had ever conversed with her, now finally recognizable that it took over for the briefest of moments.

That something was a dark, bitter, everflowing regret. Like it thought it had lost such a battle all too long ago.

And Luz, in that moment, thought she might have gotten a glimpse of the shadow of the secret her mirror had held so tightly.

The pair walked off, in silence for a time.

Chapter Text

In the middle of the fields of thick black ash known as the East Cinder Meadows, a few trees stood, far apart from one another. These sparse living plants with leaves of deep red and purple flourished when none other could, for they were the battlements and castle walls for the hive of fire bees that lived deep inside the core of the tree.

A hive that was preparing for war.

It all started when earlier that day, a worker bee from the north hive had dared to take nectar from a flower that was clearly in the east side's territory. At this thorax-churning transgression, the east hive was livid, and quickly called for war. Within the hive, the workers polished their stingers, the honey coating being lit ablaze with worker pairs sticking their stingers together, sending sparks flying.

The warriors flew out to the east hive, where the other army flew out to greet them. Tensions were high. The leader of the east army responded first, dancing midair to communicate.

"Bzzz! Bzz bzz bzzz bz!"

The warnings fell on deaf ears (or eyes in this case). The northern army called out.

"Bzzzz! Bzzzz! Bzzzzz!"

The north had clearly been driven mad with bloodlust. The east waited to see what the north leader would say.

The north leader was silent, unmoving, until they decided to finally respond. She waved her front legs near their thorax and waddled her back legs out in the air, ending with a point at the east leader.

The east bees gasped (very tiny gasps, for they possessed teeny-tiny lungs). How dare they say that about their mother-queen! The shock was replaced soon by burning (heh) rage. They threw themselves at the enemy, butt-blades thrust out. The war had begun.

Yet as soon as it started, the fight ended just as quickly. The heat of battle was suddenly cooled.

By a steamy secret love affair causing the two to halt, mayhaps?~

No actually, it was just that the air literally cooled around the whole hive.

One by one, the warriors slowly and sleepily drifted down, nestling into the ash below. The east leader murmured a final apology to her mother-queen.

"bzzz bzz bzz, bzzzz…"

***

"What Was That." Skulley asked in complete bafflement.

"That." Luz proudly retorted. "Was narration. Was raised on Mami's favorite animal documentaries."

"I Do Not Believe Fire Bees Have Armies."

"It's creative license, shush!"

Luz carefully tippy-toed her way to the hive, avoiding stepping on the little ones. Pulling out her dagger, she made a small incision in the wood. After a moment, the wound began weeping a dark yellow liquid, warm to the touch. Quickly funneling the fluid into a bottle, Luz dropped it into her bag and leaned down to collect the last of her things: another bottle, which had been spraying a light mist smelling of peppermint from between the cork, the glass frosted over from the inside. With a light tap on the cork, the bottle ceased its spewing, and Luz collected it back into her pack. The girl shivered.

"Wow, that stuff works wonders. I gotta get a steady supply for my room at night. So darn hot in there. Remind me to make Eda actually teach me how to make it. Y'know, like a teacher should…"

Eda had gifted her the potion this morning to cool down the hive and make the bees go night night. While Luz was ecstatic to have a new magic thing to use, she was still disappointed that she hadn't been given a chance to actually learn some potion crafting. Eda had just brushed it off as boring. Ugh.

"Perhaps The Reward For This Quest Is The Chance To Learn."

Luz shrugged and strode away from the hive (she wasn't going to be there when they woke up, thank you very much). Pulling out the map, the girl searched for the last spot on her journey.

"There it is, Sir Bleak's Cavern. Darn, it's on the whole other side of Bonesborough! Hmph. I think we should stop for lunch in town, and then head out after. What do you say?"

"..."

"Oh, right. Don't eat. Uh, we're doing it."

"As You Say."

***

Luz stepped away from the food stand, a "Not Dog" in her hand. Luz wasn't sure what the meat was made of in between her bun, with it being charred black on the outside and having an eye sticking out of it. Asking the cook didn't reveal much either.

"So what is the meat made out of?"

"Not dog." The stand owner was made entirely out of some strange green goop like jello, so it was hard to tell if it was looking at her with boredom or annoyance.

"Yeah, I know that. I'm asking what it is made from."

"It ain't dog. Screw off."

Okay, definitely annoyance. Luz backed off and into the town square, taking a look around for somewhere to sit and eat. Eventually, she decided the steps shaded by the big statue in the center was a good enough resting place, and plopped herself down. Steeling herself to take a bite, the young witch-in-training chomped down on her lunch. The flavor was odd, a burnt skin giving way to a strange sweetness, reminding her a bit of barbecued pork somehow given the texture and chewiness of chicken. The eyeball wasn't bad either, even if Luz had to keep telling herself it was a super-sized boba.

"HERE YE, HERE YE! OUR GREAT EMPEROR HAS PASSED DOWN ANOTHER DECREE FROM OUR LORD-TITAN!"

Luz saw her life flash before her eyes as she struggled a far-too-big chunk of her lunch down her throat, coughing and gasping once it finally went all the way down. Turning to see what such a horrible racket was doing so close to her, she saw a coven scout wearing a gold overcloak standing a few feet away in front of the statue. They had one hand producing a red spell circle in front of their mask and the other holding up a box of scrolls in the other.

"What is this, a street preacher?" Luz whispered. As she observed the scout, she noticed everyone around her had stopped what they were doing and gave the figure their undivided attention. It was kinda creepy.

"IF YOU ARE OF TRUE BELIEF, COME FORTH AND ANNOUNCE YOUR TRUTH! READ OF OUR LORD'S DISSERTATION AND PROCLAIM YOUR LOVE AS HE HAS GIFTED ONTO YOU!"

With that, the entirety of the populace milling around the town square quickly grouped around the figure, taking a scroll and shouting to each other, creating an overbearing noise. Luz covered her ears and moved away from the din. Standing at the edge of the crowd, Luz watched as adults would shout out their tales of good luck with their harvest, or of an escape of a terrible beast they proclaimed was due to their steadfast faith. The preacher would reward them with a hearty slap on the back and a glowing compliment. Parents would thrust their children to the front, where they would be prompted to murmur their own stories, with everyone staring them down.

Luz shivered. She never suffered from stage fright at any age, but that wouldn't change the fact that she would hate to be put upon like this. It reminded her of the time when one of Mami's friends had invited her to church and brought her along with her own kids. The pastor had noticed her as new, and Luz had to listen to Mami's friend present her to the congregation like a trophy.

Luz shook her head in hopes of getting those bad feelings away. It seemed to work a bit too well, as those feelings seemed to find themselves falling into the mirror.

"What Is Happening."

"Nothing. Looks like there's a street preacher yelling in the town square."

"Preacher?"

"Yeah, yelling about what the 'Lord-Titan' wants. Folks are flocking to them. I didn't take the Isles to be particularly religious. Uh, Skulley? You doing okay?"

Skulley had ceased grinding its teeth and their jaw was unclenched, which Luz took to mean was the equivalent of someone's jaw hanging open for anyone else. The howling gale had went dead quiet, and an unnatural silence bled through the reflection, muting the sounds of the townsfolk and leaving Luz profoundly unnerved.

"Skulley…?"

"...Lord… Titan. What Do You Mean By That."

"I-I don't know, it just what they call their god."

Luz held her stomach as she felt a wave of nausea and chills wash over her at Skulley's disgust and horror hit her.

"God. They Think. Their Father A God. No. No This Cannot Be. This Cannot Stand. What Path Of Falsehoods Have The Children Been Dragged Down. The Sickness Yet Spreads."

"Skulley?"

"It's The Fault Of Them. It Always Is."

A single word rumbled through her and the world seemed to quake, the air peeling apart, the light grasping at her flesh.

Prophet.

Luz yelped as the mirror grew blisteringly hot, dropping it and then immediately regretting the impulse. The mirror didn't even shatter upon hitting the bricks, so high a temperature it was that it merely splattered on the payment, sizzling quietly.

Softly cursing, Luz knelt down to try and salvage anything from the slag. In her efforts, she had not noticed that the cacophony had remained silent even after Skulley's influence had left. Her realization that something was off came in the form of a fist clenching around her arm and forcibly lifting her up to a standing position.

"There we are, my child. Up we go."

The stomach-churning sweet tone was well practiced. Luz looked up to see who had their hands on her only to find herself staring into the eye holes of a mask. Brown, almost black eyes could barely be seen from inside. They held a warmth to them Luz thought should be comforting, yet she could only imagine it like standing just at the edge of a puritanical pyre. As the girl looked around, she realized the mass had now congregated around her, a disquieting silence now noticed.

Luz didn't have to try to know the grip around her was of unbendable iron.

"It seems you haven't joined in the revelries." The preacher noted softly. "Why don't we hear how the Lord-Titan had gifted you, young one."

Chapter Text

Luz couldn’t speak, only sputtering and strangled noises came out. The preacher stood there, patiently waiting. Eventually, the girl regained control of her tongue and eeked out a small question.

“...w-what?”

The preacher’s smile curved in all the wrong ways. Their grip pulsed on her arm. “I said: How has the Lord-Titan impacted your life? How has The Ever-Rotting shown their power over you?"

The crowd stood around her, expecting an answer, their eyes burrowing into the girl. They seemed almost... nervous for the girl as she continued to not say anything.

Luz's mouth went dry. What was she supposed to say? She knew nothing about this world's faith, she didn't know any of the rules or tenants, and the only thing she knew about the Titan (or Lord-Titan, as they were being called) was that they were the giant corpse everyone was living on.

"I-I don't know…" Luz stuttered. The preacher sighed, their tone growing tense and more impatient.

"You don't know? Has never a good thing happened to you? Why are you not grateful for the fortune The All-Father has given to you? Are you so self-absorbed that you are blind to it?"

Luz's throat closed up on her. What had she done to deserve this? Why were they berating her for no reason?

Why was no one helping her?

Just like...

***

Luz was almost nine when she was pushed to the front of the church altar by Mami's friend. The pastor looked down at her with a tepid smile and lightless eyes.

"Now, let's celebrate your arrival with learning how God has blessed you. Go on, like the other kids."

The man turned Luz towards the pews, of dozens of eyes staring at her, demanding her devoted speech.

Luz quickly tried to think something up but kept coming up blank. As the silence continued, Mami's friend leaned forward and whispered.

"Maybe something that happened today?"

Luz desperately searched through her memories of the day, finally stumbling upon something.

"U-um, I am thankful for my dad."

The pastor smiled, and seemed to be ready to usher her off the stage.

But Luz wasn't done.

"I visited him in the hospital today, and he said he was feeling better, but he didn't look better."

Everyone's warm smile dropped. Luz didn't notice, her mind flashing back to how thin her father looked in his bed.

"A-and we played Phantom Hourglass on my DS, and that was f-fun, even- even if he kept falling asleep because he was so t-tired."

The people in the pews got increasingly uncomfortable. The pastor developed a nervous twitch in his eye. Mami's friend tried to cut her off.

"Now, sweetie, I don't think these people want to hear about—"

"The doctors keep being nice, but I know Dad's cancer is being bad, and it's not getting better!"

"Sweetie, stop ta—"

"One of the kids at school said God could fix him, so I've been praying and asking each night, and nothing is happening- Why won't he fix my dad?!"

Luz shakily gulped in air as tears and snot gushed down her face. The church was absolutely silent aside from the little girl's hiccups and sniffs.

Luz felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to the pastor, hoping for something, anything, that could bring her some comfort.

But the man didn't look solemn like she expected.

The pastor looked annoyed, a little bit angry even. His eyes were narrowed in frustration, glaring at her. Mami's friend turned away from her, an angry blush on her face. Like she was embarrassed by Luz's outburst.

The pastor's response was strained and gritted.

"Well, perhaps there is a reason why he has not cleared your father's ailment. Have you not given yourself to the Lord yet?"

Luz blinked, once, then twice. "W-what?! I just want my dad to be okay! He's a good person, he's the nicest person I know!

The pastor's smile twitched into sneer before smoothing it back.

"Your tone is unbecoming for a young lady. The Bible tells that children—"

Luz was shouting now. "I don't care what it says! Just save my dad!"

Gasps rose throughout the church. The pastor was incensed, hellfire in his eyes. His voice came out cold.

"This is deplorable. A child raised with no respect for God or morals. No wonder your prayers aren't being heard, if you're not willing to put your heart into them."

Luz

Luz couldn't breathe.

There isn't

He didn't say

He couldn't have

Someone would say something, right?

Someone would come to her rescue, right?

One of the people in the pews would speak up, tell him off if the pastor actually had said that…

…right?

Luz turned to the congregation to see their reaction to those horrible words.

The church attendance all stared with eyes filled with scorn and disgust.

But none of them were directed at the man.

All of them were pointed to her.

They blamed her.

It was

Her fault.

***

"...Let go of me."

The preacher tilted his head. His voice was a hiss. "Pardon?"

"I said: let go of me." Luz hissed back.

The crowd murmured worriedly. The preacher motioned for a nearby scout to come over and thrust Luz into their arms.

"Take her to the Conformatoriam to wait for her parents. Let her think about how she talks to the E.C."

Luz was about to think of something witty to say (she hoped) when she heard a yelp from the townsfolk. Someone cried out.

"Fairy swarm! Look out!"

In an instant, the air was filled with the sound of buzzing wings, sparkling pink blurs, and grinning oversized maws of teeth. The crowd was thrown into a panic and began fleeing in all directions. Luz took her captor's distraction as a sign, and threw herself upwards into the air so as to slam back down with her full body weight onto the scout's foot. Their subsequent cry and release of her was all she needed to dash away into the stampede.

Ducking and weaving past frothing fairies and scared townsfolk, Luz ran into a small dark alleyway. Always the best place to go. The girl laid against the wall for a moment while she caught her breath. The din seemed to dim a tad behind her, allowing her to hear a faint buzzing close to her ear. Luz's eyes sprang back open.

"I know that noise!"

Luz twisted around to see a lone fairy hovering a foot from her head, twitching erratically. The girl ran through her game plans when she remembered what that weight on the small of her back was. Unsheathing her dagger with a flourish, Luz charged and stabbed through the torso of the tiny terror.

But instead of skewering on the tip of her blade like Luz expected, the fairy popped into a baby blue mist, fading away in seconds. She had hung around Gus long enough by now to know what that meant.

"Huh? An illusion?"

A twin pair of chuckles rang out from behind her, light and soft. 'Who could that have been', pondered Luz.

As it so happened, a pair of twins.

Luz turned around to find two teens, looking a year or two older than her, sporting dark green hair, extremely similar faces, and mischievous eyes. One looked feminine, the other masculine. They both leaned over to her, less than a foot between them and her. The girl spoke first.

"Nice aim you got, hotshot. You like our little display we cooked up for you?~"

Chapter Text

"Uh, hi? Who are you?" Luz said, trying to decide whether to put her dagger away or not in response to these two.

The feminine one took the lead again, which Luz was already able to guess was a running thing. "I'm Emira, and this bansheep-looking-dipshit is Edric, here to serve and protect~"

Edric took that as his cue. "Well, protect when it comes to dealing with Xavier. Titan, that witch is an asshole. Hey, how am I anything like a bansheep?!"

"Pale, scrawny, and a high-pitched wail that can send you to your death."

"Shouldn't have walked into that one. Harsh."

Luz let the two finish snarking at each other before questioning. "Xavier was that scout in gold that grabbed me, right?"

Edric nodded. "Yeah, they're the chaplain for Bonesborough. They're also a Holier-than-thou prick who swings their power around like one. Word of advice: don't piss em off without an escape route."

Edric winked and Luz felt her cheeks redden, wondering why this particular alleyway had suddenly gotten warmer. Luz guessed the twins were causing it, since the heat grew as Emira sauntered over and stared down at her.

Luz gulped, and turned herself sound. "I'll remember that well thanks for helping me I would love to stay and chat but I have treasure to find—!"

She almost got out of the alley when a slender hand dropped onto her shoulder and Emira's voice flowed into her ear.

"Aww, c'mon. We haven't even gotten your name yet."

Luz squeaked as she tried to remember how to breathe. "iT's LUz!"

Luz heard Edric snort at her voice crack, the blush deepening. Emira rolled her eyes and looked back down.

"Nice to meet you, Luz. You said something about a treasure?"

Luz nodded, and pulled out her list without thinking. "Yeah, I'm heading to Sir Bleak's Cavern to check it out. Hoping to find some", Luz squinted at her list, "...loot."

Edric appeared in front of Luz in a puff of blue smoke (totally not startling her). "We've been to Sir Bleak's Cavern! We went there when we were kids."

"We still are kids, Ed."

"I mean kid-kids. Now we're sixteen. Basically adults, if you think about it."

"True, but not the point. Either way: I think we could come to an arrangement, Ms. Luz."

Luz felt like she was a mouse being batted around between two cats. "O-oh? And what's that?"

"We come with you to the cave and help you through to the loot, and you give us a cut. Fifty fifty."

Emira held out her hand, while Edric entertained himself with a mini light show.

Luz narrowed her eyes. Just because these two were dazzling, with their lights (and faces) and everything, didn't mean she forgot what Eda had taught her about deals and scams. "What skills are you bringing?"

Emira gave a scoff and smirked. "You wanna try to find your plunder in the pitch dark, be my guest."

Luz pulled a glyph out and lit up the alleyway. "I think I'm good on that front."

Edric craned his head to look over his sister's shoulder, studying at the strangely-casted light spell. Emira's expression didn't shift and continued the bidding.

"Caverns make good homes for crazies and monsters. You'll be safer with some master illusionists at your side, ready to ensnare anyone who tries to stop us."

Luz whipped out her stiletto. "I took care of your fairy pretty well."

"Yes, and I'm sure that little toothpick is gonna take down a Grizzlystare or a Snarling Cowl."

"But with three toothpicks, you might stand a chance." Edric piped up, flourishing his own dagger, a thick hunting knife with blade made of shining emerald and dark violet hilt.

Emira pulled out hers, which was as much a twin of Edric's blade as the twins were.

Luz pondered for a moment before raising her hand to shake. "Make it sixty forty, and we have a deal."

Emira grasped Luz's hand and they shook on it. Edric clapped his hands."Alright. Let's get a move on." He started walking out onto the street, before the youngest among them raised a hand to stop.

"Wait, I still need to replace something of mine before we head out."

***

Luz walked behind the twins down the path to the coast and looked over her new mirror, a thick, heavy thing covered in a cloth to keep its surface unblemished. Hopefully this one would be strong enough to keep from melting.

"We should be there in a few minutes. Say your prayers or whatever!" Edric called back to her.

"Got it!" Luz shouted back, slowing her pace to get some distance between her and her compatriots. She made sure those two weren't looking and then pulled the fabric off her mirror.

'Oof, heatblast. Guess someone's still fuming.'

"Edaspawn. You Disappeared."

Luz whispered back. "Well, someone melted the mirror I was using to talk to you."

"Hmm. How Rude Of Them."

Luz held back from facepalming. "Yeah, I agree. Anyway, what's up? You had a bit of a temper when we lost connection."

Skulley made it apparent that was still the case with a wave of heat.

"Ack- yeah thanks. I wanted to ask what that was all about. The Lord-Titan seems to be a touchy subject with both you and the people here."

"Titan."

"Huh?"

"It's The Titan. The Titan Is Lord Of Nothing."

"I mean, the folks here seem to disagree. The cops here like to enforce its worship while still in uniform. What's up with that, too? Noone acted like this was abnormal."

"Worship The—"

Skulley clacked his teeth together so hard Luz felt her ears pop. The beast was silent for a moment before letting the wind die down and responding.

"Listen Well. The Titan Is Neither King Nor God. The Idea That It Demands Worship Or Praise Is A Sickening Lie. The Titan Demands Nothing Of Its Children Except To Live Unbound."

"So it's like their creator deity?"

"Not. A Deity. The Titan Is One Thing. One Thing Alone."

"And that is?"

"A Father. The All Father of Witch and Demonkind. It Grants Them Its Flesh and Bone To Till And Carve So They Might Grow And Thrive. They Are All Born Of It So Why Pretend They Are Somehow Lesser. Tell me. What Would You Think Of A Parent Who Demanded Utter Fealty From Their Spawn All Their Lives. For Its Young To Swear Their Lives And Spirits Over To It For Its Own Ego."

Luz's answer was automatic. "I'd say they shouldn't be a parent."

"Indeed. You Cannot Be Both God And Parent. I Would Think The Choice Of Which To Be Would Be Obvious To Anyone."

"That… kinda makes sense. Huh."

The demon huffed.

"I Always Make Sense. I Don't Know Why You Pretend I Don't."

"Heh. Sure you do."

They walked in something resembling a comfortable silence. Luz couldn't remember if she and Skulley had ever done that.

'Welp, that was fun. Time to ruin it.'

"So, before you liquefied my other mirror, you mentioned someone you called 'Prophet'. Who're they?"

Luz was glad she turned the mirror at an angle as she said that. She felt the sweat on her forehead evaporate immediately upon Skulley's rage poured through the reflection, missing her already sunburned face.

"You Speak Of The False Prophet."

"Yeah, them. What's their deal? What did they do to piss you off?"

"They Trick The Titan's Children Into Worshiping It For Their Own Gain. They Poison Their Minds And Chain Their Magic."

"Sounds like a bad dude."

"They Also Tore My Heart From Me And Forced It To Beat For Them. It Is Why I Can Only Talk To You."

"...Ah. I see the reason for resentment now."

Emira's voice yelled back to Luz.

"We're almost to the cavern!"

"Gotta go. I'll talk later."

Luz stuffed the mirror back into her pack and ran after the twins, who stood on the cliffside above the cave. The drop was steep, and ended in waves of boiling seawater bashing against jagged rocks. Not a fun way to die.

"So, you got any ideas on how to get down to the opening?"

The twins looked at each other and smiled. They each took an arm of Luz's, and without a word, jumped off the cliff face. Their fingertips glowing, the two formed a spell circle mid air together, the spell flashed a bronze hue before vanishing. As the three of them were falling past the mouth of the cavern, a large hand made from stone jutted out from the cliff and pulled them into the darkness.

A light ball formed from inbetween Edric's hands, brightening the slimy, green walls "So? Thoughts on our idea?"

Luz wasn't sure when she stopped screaming. Actually, she wasn't sure she had.

"Oh my gosh, that was the coolest and scariest thing that's ever happened to me."

The boy chuckled. "We try."

Emira pulled Luz to her very shaky feet. "C'mon. The cave isn't that deep, so if your treasure is real, we'll find it soon."

"Wait, shouldn't we check for monsters or something? In case one decided to move in?"

"Pffft. In this small place? Nah, the only thing this place is good for is when demons drag themselves in here to croak. We just upsold it so you'd hire us."

Luz was red in the face. "Wh— Hey!"

"Sorry, cutie. You should have checked your sources. Get yourself a mentor who teaches you about scams."

Luz huffed, more embarrassed than really angry. "I do have one like that. How about you? Who taught you how to make underhanded deals like that?"

The twins froze like they had touched an electrical cable. Edric looked over to his sister, reaching a hand out. Emira had this dark look on her face, bitter and cold.

Emira shoved her brother's hand aside. "It doesn't matter. Let's just get this over with so I can… not think about that."

She quickened her pace and walked down further into the cavern. Luz just stood there awkwardly, not sure what she said to set the girl off.

"Hey, don't worry about it. She'll get over it quick, she always does." Edric patted her on the shoulder.

Luz turned to face the teen. "What is 'it'? What did I do? Why is she so upset?"

Edric sighed. "We… didn't really go with you for a chance at treasure. Not really to protect you either, sorry. Your quest just seemed very… we thought it was the sorta thing someone would get pissed off at if we did it. If we do this, we must be less like her, right! That's good, right?"

Edric laid his face in his palm, rubbing his temple. Luz blinked, and in that moment, she swore she saw bags under his eyes before they disappeared with another blink.

"But we are like her. We can't help it. And it's not fun to remember that."

Luz opened her mouth to ask who she was, but thought better of it. It really sounded like he didn't wanna talk about it. Edric gave a small smile and they both started down deeper into the dark.

After a few minutes, they found Emira glaring at the darkness like it had insulted her mother, her light spell dim for some reason. Luz stepped forward.

"Hey, Emira. What's up? You find the treasure?"

Emira turned toward her, Luz wincing as she wondered if the older girl was still upset with her. Luckily, Emira just chuckled with an air of bemused frustration.

"I suppose I did."

She upcasted the light spell, and the "loot" was there, taking up half the room. Edric gagged at the sight, while Luz stood stunned, before bursting into giggles.

Laying at the back of the cavern was a massive dead trash slug, mouth overflowing with human garbage, and a layer of salt on its side that must've proved fatal for it.

They had done it. Quest complete.

Chapter Text

'Sometimes, every once in a while' —thought Luz— 'the freakness of my eyes works to my benefit.'

Luz stood as still as she could in Eda's garbage stall, ignoring King's snores on top of her head, staring at her mentor checking for gunk underneath her nails.

This was now the fifth time her mentor had checked her fingernails.

"You can't ignore this gaze forever." Luz stated matter of fact.

"Try me." Eda replied in a similar monotone.

"This can all end if you meet my demands."

"Who says I care if it ends?"

"You're sweating awful hard for someone so nonchalant."

"It's hot outside, it's the literal Boiling Isles!"

The two went quiet for a minute before the younger one cracked, slamming her hands on the table and startling King awake ("Weh?!").

"Oh come on, Eda, there's not even anyone to sell garbage—"

"Trinkets."

Luz huffed. "Fine, there's not even anyone to sell trinkets to. We haven't seen a single person since we got here. Just teach me a quick elixir. Healing swig, fog brew, deadly poison, anything!"

"Uh-uh. I'm not getting potion funk stinking up my work tent."

"Then we can go home and you can teach me there!"

"Ugh, didn't you just go on a magic quest? Have some patience, kid."

Luz threw her arms up to the sky in frustration. "That was a few days ago! And a bunch of chores aren't going to teach me magic. What, is knowing how to count change for a silver snail gonna make me a witch?"

"I've taught you more than that! What other witch your age knows how to split open a trash slug with such efficiency?"

Luz paused, then sighed. "And I am grateful for that. Really, I am. I just want to get my hands on some of that nitty-gritty, practical magic. Something physical, something real."

Eda ruffled her student's hair. "Calm down, squirt. You're getting too worked up. Look, why don't I scrounge up one of my old potion manuals and let you go ham with it?"

Eda expected Luz to leap at this, but the girl's shoulders slumped even more.

"I don't want a book, Eda. I want you to teach me. Is that so bad?"

Eda gulped. Oh no. The guilt look was back. "W- well—"

Before she could come up with a way to dodge this uncomfortable conversation (as usual), two voices rang out at once.

"Luz!"

Willow and Gus waved as they ran up the road towards the stall. Luz squealed, leapt over the table, and hugged the two of them.

"Friends! What are you doing here?"

"We were making our way down to the covention. What are you doing?”

“Selling garbage.”

“Hey! It's trinkets to the marks!”

“So there’s a convention going on? Is that where everyone is? Huh, didn’t expect so many townsfolk to be so nerdy!”

Gus giggled. “Not convention, silly. Coven-tion. It’s the annual event showing off what the different covens are doing and providing. There’s practice duels, real duels, free stuff, and there’s supposed to be a surprise guest this year.”

“Ooo~” Luz ooo-ed.”

“No ooo!” Eda barked, leaping over the table. “No ‘prentice of mine is going to one of those cult’s brainwashing traps!”

“But Eda—”

“No buts except yours on this stool.”

Luz planted her feet on the pavement, crossed her arms, and stared into her mentor's eyes. Her pupils, twin ceaseless voids, dread raked over Eda’s skin, the hair on the back of her neck electrified with fright.

"Gah— uh, damn fairy biting me, I mean."

"There's a fairy?"

"Yes. There is." Eda hissed through her teeth, trying to keep her face as straight as possible. Muck, she could swear she felt feathers popping up.

It kept straight as much as she was, which naturally means it collapsed halfway through.

"Okay, fine, fine! Whatever makes this stop!"

The three cheered, followed by the ringleader's yelp as the sleepy demon being worn as a hat showed his displeasure at being woken up and bombarded with loud noises with a nom to her ear.

***

"Okay, this is turning out to be as cool as Mation-con, maybe even better!"

"Look! There's Coven Head Mason!"

"And there's… Oh no. Tiny-god-complex-person. We should back away before- Oop, she's gone mad with power. Let's leave."

The trio's giggling could only be overshadowed by the woman burying herself in her cloaks grumbling. Luz did her best to ignore her mentor while her compatriots subtly listened in and memorized each new swear she spat out.

"You know," Luz interrupted. "You might have fun if you didn't spend the entire time being grumpy."

"There's a coven for that. I bet she'd do swell with them~" Willow whispered. Gus tried to cover up his laughter and mostly just ended up sounding like a strangled duck.

Eda growled and the two nonstudents froze and skittered back like the witch had burst into flames, trying to pull Luz along by the arm with them. Luz stood firm, yanking herself away from them and resisted the urge to check if her dagger was still in place, waiting for Eda to calm down.

Eda took a couple breaths and glared at the two cowering from her. "I'm not joining a coven."

Luz turned to look at her friends. "C'mon guys, she isn't that scary. Relax."

Willow glanced at Eda and leaned in to talk to Luz. "But she's wild. There's no telling when she's going to lose it and hurt someone."

"She's not going to hurt anyone! She's done nothing but protect me since I've been here! Why do you think—"

"Kiddo, calm down. It's okay."

Luz felt a gentle pat on the head and saw Eda look down at her and give a smirk. It didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm used to it."

She looked so tired.

Eda turned to look at Willow and Gus. "I get you were taught a bunch of stuff about wild witches and how horrible they are, what evil deeds they commit."

Willow scuffed her heel back and forth on the floor, trying to burn off the nervous energy, saying nothing. Gus shrugged and spoke up.

"We just get told they're bad. The teachers don't really go into details. It's just something you don't talk about."

Eda rolled her eyes. "They don't want you talking about it because they don't want you realizing it's all bunk. I'm considered wild because I refuse to join a coven, right? Well, why is it any of their business if I do?"

It was Willow who retorted this time. "Wild magic makes the Lord-Titan angry."

Eda smirked. "It's not the Titan's business either."

The two witchlets gasped. "They gift us their flesh to live upon!"

"So that gives them the right to demand I have my own flesh branded against my will?"

"I…" Willow trailed off, confusion radiating off her face.

Luz had her own question. "Branded?!"

Eda wordlessly turned her pupil towards the Illusion stall they were just at. A tense young man with an afro and his sleeve pulled up sat with his arm laid across the table like an altar. The teens working the booth strapped the man's arm down and gave him something he quickly swallowed down, his muscles quickly losing their rigidness. The lady running the exhibit walked over wearing a strange thick glove. In the palm, the crest of the Illusion coven glowed and gave off a faint smoke.

Luz paled. "Oh God. They're not going to…"

The young man nodded faintly, clearly out of it from whatever he took, and one of the teens put something thick and made of leather between his teeth. The lady pressed the glove into his wrist and the smoke thickened. The arm weakly jittered, and the man clenched his teeth, a muffled cry piercing his lips and into the horrified human's ears. It was over in a few eternal seconds, and the lady let go of his arm and checked it over. An Illusion crest was left on his wrist, thin blue strips of light running down his arm. The man was given some refreshments and he sat there, teetering on a bench.

Luz spun around, trying desperately to burn (don't think of burning do not think of burning) what she just saw out of her mind. Her friends grimaced and patted her on the shoulders.

"Yeah, we know it looks bad, but trust us: the scout promised us it hurts a lot less than it looks. It won't be so bad when it's our turn over there."

And then they smiled at her.

That was the worst of it. Her friends' smiles.

They weren't sad, or scared, or holding a single shred of mockery in their face. It was an expression of complete and utter sincerity.

This was, to them, completely acceptable and normal.

And in that, Luz realized there was something terribly, terribly wrong in the Boiling Isles.

"I— I need some spac— some air. Right now." Luz stuttered, stepping away from the group, waiting until she was no longer in sight of them before going into a full sprint.

Dodging past confused families and annoyed stall workers, Luz found herself a shadowy divot in the wall where a stand must have been meant to go. She slid against the wall, trying to process everything.

'How could Willow and Gus think that is okay?! How could anyone think that?! Do I even know my friends if they're okay with this?'

"I know."

Luz jumped, spooked at the familiar voice. Looking farther in, she noticed someone standing in the back, clutching something around her neck. Someone with emerald green hair and pale skin.

Luz gasped.

Amity Blight, the dissection girl from school was standing in the corner, leaning on the wall.

"What do you want?" She asked emptily.

Chapter Text

'Cranky abomination girl?'

Luz sat quiet, in shock from her hiding spot holding another person. The girl sharing the space held her back against the wall opposite of Luz, her head turned to the corner. She stood stiff as a board, clutching something around her neck so hard Luz was worried it would snap off the chain.

It was then Luz finally processed that the girl had said something. “Ah, hahaha… Hi Am—"

Amity flinched. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You're right. You're right."

'Uh, what?'

Luz slowly stood up and walked over to Amity. Looking closer, she realized that the thing the witch was clutching was hidden within the girl's grasp, the only thing she could see was a faint magenta glow between the owner's trembling fingers.

Before Luz could think more about that detail, Amity stuffed the chain into her uniform (why was she wearing her school stuff) and turned around to find Luz standing right behind her.

Amity shrieked.

Luz shrieked at her shrieking.

Tiny Nose shrieked as she ran past evading the cops, just because she could.

“I- Who are-” Amity stuttered, forming a light spell and thrusting it in Luz’s direction. “Human!”

“Hi there, Amity. What’s up?”

“Why are you here, staring at me like a creep?”

Luz flinched, remembering when that had been thrown at her before. “I wasn’t. We just happened to be similar fans of dark, spooky alleyways. Reminds me of a similar haired duo, actually. Huh.”

Amity bristled, her pupils shrinking into pointed slits. Her fingers twitched at her side, her nails —curved, thinner, and sharper than anyone she’d ever met— scraping at her leggings.

'Woah… Cool…'

Amity huffed and knocked Luz to the side, storming out of the alley, muttering.

“You don’t even belong here.”

A spark of anger ignited in Luz’s stomach. “What does that mean?!”

Luz followed Amity back out into the cheery crowds and coven tables, the latter glancing back and huffing as the former waited for an answer.

"Humans don't have magic. This place is for those with magic to find their place in the Lord-Titan's eye. Therefore, you shouldn't be here." She punctuated the last words by jabbing her finger into the human's chest (causing that claw to get stuck in the shirt, and Amity having to clumsily jerk it away).

Luz winced and rubbed the sort spot, looking at Amity sourly. "I can do magic."

"Oh?"

Luz smirked, and without a word pulled out a glyph and summoned up a light mote.

Amity's eyes widened a bit before returning to scorn. "A child could do that spell. You have anything that can't be outdone by a candle?"

It was Luz's turn to glance away at that point. "Well, uh…"

Amity sniffed. "I thought so."

"Luz!"

A sudden Gus was now wrapping his arms around Luz, lip trembling.

"Me and Willow went out to find you because you seemed upset and we're sorry for whatever we did to upset you we didn't mean to hurt you and—"

"Woah, woah. Gus, buddy. You didn't hurt me, neither of you did. It's just… a lot of culture shock I'm dealing with, that's all."

Gus looked up at Luz and managed to give King a run for his money with his puppydog eyes. "You sure..?"

Luz held out a high five which Gus responded to with gusto. "I'm sure."

Luz glanced back to Amity, who seemed to be glaring even harder at the two of them.

"Great, a real witch is here. Now you can make her leave."

Gus narrowed her eyes at the older witch. "Maybe you should leave. No one's stopping you."

"I'm supposed to be here. She isn't. The only thing she does is cause trouble for those witches working hard to improve. What, are you clinging onto her in the hopes she'll help you cheat at illusions too?"

A reedy, familiar voice rang out.

"Nah, he doesn't need it from what we've seen in class. Certainly better than you are, from what we hear."

Amity froze, her face darkening red. Her voice came out in a croak. "Oh no…"

Walking out from behind the Fireworks Coven, Emira and Edric sauntered over to Amity, the former patting the smaller witch on the head condescendingly while the latter pocketed a nondescript snail purse the stall worker snuck him.

"Baby sis, why are you being so rude to our friend? Seems to me you're just being insecure about yourself."

Luz gasped. "Baby sis?!" She then thought about it, and facepalmed. "Actually, that makes sense. I'm a dummy."

Edric waved her off. "Nah, I get it. I sometimes don't believe it myself. Or want not to. I'm kidding, Mittens~"

Amity spat like an angry kitten. "Don't call me Mittens!"

Emira cooed and leaned on her little sister. "But it's so cute. Remember when you couldn't control your claws and you had to wear those tiny gloves so you would stop tearing up your clothes?"

Amity let out a growl and shoved Emira off her with heavy breaths. "Leave me ALONE!"

The twins just giggled. Amity dragged her claws into her sleeves,shredding them, the tiniest hint of red showing up from between.

A high-pitched voice wailed out near Amity. "Ha ha, someone who isn't me getting mocked! Hey Luz, look at the offering the Baking Cov—"

That's when it happened.

Amity roared and turned around. King stood there, obscured partly from Luz by the amount of legs standing around. Amity threw her foot up and stomped.

Luz's spine was chilled. Her breath wouldn't move from her lungs. Everything felt like it was going in slow motion.

She couldn't see King clearly, but she heard his yelp. Was it fear or pain? What is that red stuff flying through the air—

Her little buddy was hurt.

Luz launched forward and shoved Amity away from the little monarch, a loud thud and yowl rang out after. Luz didn't care. She knelt down and examined her tiny liege.

King sat on the floor, stunned. His eyes were as big as dinner plates, with pupils smaller than mustard seeds. He looked a little dusty from falling on the floor, but there seemed to be nothing amiss aside from that. He stared at something on the floor in front of him. A cupcake, pink with red frosting was decimated by a shoeprint, the frosting a crimson spray over the brick.

Frosting.

It was frosting.

Her furry friend was okay.

Luz breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him. King just shattered and took it, the only response was a squeaky "my offering…"

It was after releasing him that Luz noticed that a crowd had formed around them and their section of the venue had gone silent.

'Well, this is bringing back bad memories. What's happening now? If Xavier is here, I'm going with the stiletto.'

A pained grunt to her side answered her question and Luz turned around.

Amity sat against a toppled over coven stand, the worker trying to bundle up some makeshift fireworks that for some reason had Edric's face on them. She rubbed her back, showing off her bruised elbows.

Her pale yellow eyes, slowly filling with fury, never left Luz's.

She shot up, her fangs, slender and sharp, bared as she let out a deep hiss at her enemy.

Her enemy, caught off guard and unable to think of a better idea, loudly hissed back as best she could. Amity reeled back, utterly baffled, the other two Blights sharing the same manner of expression.

The youngest Blight shook her confusion off, going back to rage. "You. Me. We're settling this."

Luz glared. "Oh yeah?~ How's that?"

Amity took a deep breath and settled herself. "Luz the Human: I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!"

Chapter Text

“Fine!”

Murmurs flowed through the crowd as the two children faced each other. Gus speedwalked to his friend, cupped his hand around her ear and whispered harshly. “Luz, you know I always got your back, but do you… have any secret lazer glyphs or human weapons to actually win a witch’s duel? Like one of those- what are those called… firing arms?”

The young man’s words fell on deaf ears, the blood rushing in her veins like fire too loud to hear anything else. She stepped closer to Amity.

"How we doing this?"

Amity smirked. "Well first we set terms. When I win, you admit you aren't a witch and stop disgracing yourself by trying to be one."

"And if I win, you admit I can be a witch, you apologize to King about his cupcake, and you leave my friends alone."

Amity tched. "Fine. We'll start in one hour, in the auditorium. I want this seen."

Luz raised her hand to shake before realizing she wasn't actually sure that was how these kinds of things were set. "So do we shake hands? Do we say some spell? Oh, is it that one where you prick your finger and shake? Blood exchange type deal?"

At that last guess, the witch's face exploded into crimson, expression aghast. Edric let out a low whistle. "Wow human. Bit quick, and probably not the girl for you. Bold, though."

Before Luz could ask what that meant, Amity spat out an interruption.

"Enough!"

She drew a spell circle and stuck her hand halfway through.

"Shake on it."

Luz reached out and took Amity’s hand in her own, giving a single solid shake to seal the deal. The circle turned a pale violet, the glow condensing into a solid beam around their hands. A feeling like a cold metal chain had wrapped around her wrist.

Amity looked up from the spell circle, arcane light dancing on her face. “The Everlasting Oath is—”

The witch’s eyes unfocused for a split second and she stumbled back. She held her head and quickly flicked her fingers in a circle.

Luz began. “Uhh…”

Amity reoriented herself, taking on a bewildered expression. “It’s not supposed to suck up that much magic. What’s going on?”

Luz forgot she was mad at this girl for a moment. “Are you okay?”

Amity’s tone lightened. “I cut off the spell. It can’t take any more magic.”

“So it's just gonna sit here?”

Amity stopped massaging her forehead and turned to Luz, sounding a bit more normal (see: mad at her). “Do you know anything about magic? It can’t just stay free floating, it needs a sourc…”

The words died in Amity’s throat. The spell circle held its place in the air around Luz’s hand, refusing to fade.

“What the hell?” Amity muttered. “What is it doing? H-how is it doing this..?”

Luz gently removed her hand from the circlet, yet the cold feeling stayed, growing tighter on her wrist. The spell circle kept solidifying, the glow condensing until it hurt to look at.

“Is it still bound? Is it still binding? I’m sure I did it correctly, I saw Mom do it enough times.”

Luz wasn’t listening however. Her gaze was focused on her wrist.

Or more accurately, her veins.

They were spreading under her forearm, wriggling under and over each other, forking into different nonsensical paths, all lit by an indigo blue glow. Her skin felt thin there, like it would split open and reveal the countless crawling worms underneath. Her breath felt like steam.

A sudden pop noise rang out like a lightbulb had gone out, and Luz felt something like a strong zap, like she had touched a live wire. Amity let out a small gasp, and the human looked up.

The spell circle had a piece missing near the bottom right, the ends white hot where the break was. It was like it popped a fuse. It sat there dimming for a bit before losing its immunity to gravity and crumbing to pieces on the floor.

Amity looked in shock at this, her eyes slowly moving to Luz, and freezing. Luz followed her gaze and found it at her wrist, the glow fading, and the veins retracting back to something that could be mistaken as normal. They still weren’t where they were this morning.

Luz gulped and tried to think up something to say, when Amity looked to the ground and made a small spell circle. She put her hand next to it, and flexed her fingers out like she had for a hand shake. The witch looked back and forth between the two, her expression like she was working something out. Luz realized what it was after a second.

The spot on the circle that had popped would be where Luz’s wrist would have rested.

Amity looked up and stared at Luz, who tried to come up with an explanation. Neither said a word.

Emira’s voice —sounding a bit confused— jolted them both out of whatever they were doing. “So I don’t know what that was, but is the fight still on?”

Amity turned towards the pair and opened her mouth, raising her hands back to Luz as if she was going to make sure they had seen it too, before she tensed up and snapped it shut. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow, looking immensely frustrated.

“Of course.” Amity whispered just loud enough for Luz to hear. “Illusions. So stupid.”

Amity looked back to Luz, eyes hard and pupils narrow. “One hour. Prepare.”

And with that, the witch stomped off without another word. The crowd fell apart quickly, with the twins being nowhere in sight when Luz glanced back at them.

Luz felt a tapping on her shoulder and found Gus standing behind her, holding King up so he could poke her with his claw. The demon still had frosting in his fur as he pouted.

“You’re gonna avenge my cupcake, right?!”

Luz felt like she was in a daze. Her nod felt like she was pushing her skull through molasses. She slowly took King in her arms and looked down at Gus. He stared up at her, worried.

“You need to call off the fight. Amity is really good with abominations and she’ll definitely pull out the good crafting muck for this, not the stuff we get at school.”

Luz steeled herself, a flicker of fire in her belly. “No. She treats Willow awfully, she says I can’t be a witch, and she stomps on King’s cupcake. Someone needs to teach her to keep her mouth shut.”

“But the oath failed, right? You don’t have to do this.”

“That’s exactly right.” growled Luz. “I don’t have to.”

***

The trio wandered until they found Eda and Willow arguing in a secluded part of the hall. The older witch rubbed her forehead while the younger was being climbed by a very lively ivy. It started from her right foot and grew up her side, the roots clinging into her clothes and sinking through her skin where it could find it.

“Dios mío! Willow!”

Willow spun towards the two, eyes completely consumed with an emerald glow. Her fangs were on full display, gums startling red.

Luz froze in place, holding King close. Gus brushed past her and walked closer to his friend, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Willow. Breathe. Remember the breathing trick?”

Willow pulled at her hair. “Gus, you heard what Amity did, right?! She challenged Luz to a- to a-"

Willow's voice was strange. Her words held an echo to them, one that bounced around the skull as well the ears. If her friend wasn't in such distress, Luz would be finding this awesome.

“A witch’s duel, I know. I was there.”

“And you didn’t stop her?!”

“I tried!”

“Hi, Willow…”

Willow finally seemed to fully register that Luz was there. After staring at her friend for a minute, Willow relaxed her shoulders and started to count, taking a long breath in and out

"One, two, three, four, five… …Five, four, three, two, one."

The glow over her eyes faded away, the echo following close behind. A few more breaths and she loosened her hold on her hair. She walked over and threw her arms around Luz.

“I’m so sorry, Luz. This is my fault, isn’t it?”

“Wha— No! Why do my friends seem to keep blaming themselves for unrelated problems in my life?! What past sins have you committed to prime yourself for all this guilt?!”

“Cult doctrine.” muttered her mentor nearby.

Willow stepped back and wiped her eyes. “I heard you were really mad at Amity, and I remembered how upset you seemed when you ran off an- and- Me and Gus aren’t going to make you take a sigil, we promise!”

“No- well yes, seeing someone branded was very upsetting. But no, I’m not fighting Amity because I’m secretly upset at you. And I didn’t think you were gonna do that.”

Willow clutched the ivy now slithering up her arm. “Oh… I- I’m glad to hear that.”

Willow looked to Gus and the two seemed like they wanted to say more, but that was when Eda decided it was her time to talk to her student, dammit! And brushed the other two students aside.

“Alright, kid. First off, congratulations for getting in trouble the moment I lay eyes off you. Most of the time, I’m the one enabling that kind of chaos, so it’s good to know my apprentice can manage it in the dumbest way possible without my supervision.”

“I can’t tell if that was a genuine compliment or a scathing insult.” Gus wondered.

“It’s both.” King and Eda said simultaneously.

“Second of all, I think I can deal with this hissy fit (heh) of a rival.”

Willow asked, confused and slightly impressed. “Wait, you’re helping?”

Eda sighed. “Yeah, don’t get used to it. I happened to run into a familiar face here, and I made a bet on this one winning.”

“You’re trying to win blood money of your own student.” Willow no longer looked impressed.

“It’s not money I’m after. This time, at least. Anyway, I have a few traps I can set up in the arena that you can lure her abomina—”

“No.”

Luz stood there, fists clenched at her side and burning holes in the floor (and Eda’s foot tapping) with her eyes.

“I’m not cheating my way to victory. I’m winning this on my own merits.”

Eda felt her headache rise back up. “Kid, you don’t know any spells aside from that light spell. You can’t win a witch’s duel with just that.”

Luz grit her teeth. “And whose—”

The girl cut herself off and took a deep breath.

“I’m going to prove to her and to you that I can be a real witch.”

Eda’s foot stilled. Luz heard her teacher murmur something to her friends, and after a moment of hesitation, two sets of small feet made their steps away from the mentor and mentee.

“Luz. Luz, look at me.”

The human looked up. Eda smirked at her.

“What that rich girl says doesn’t matter. She doesn’t decide who’s a witch and who’s not.”

“Then why don’t you teach me anything? Why don’t you show me how to do more?”

Eda’s smirk dropped. “W-well, its… Well—”

“The only spell I know is the light glyph. The only spell I know is one I taught myself, before I even met you. You haven’t been teaching me anything since I arrived.”

“I mean, I’ve taught you how—”

“Magic-wise, Eda. I haven’t learned a single spell from you. I know you’ve been researching how to help me with Skulley, and I thank you, but… am I just supposed to do your errands until you get bored of me and send me back through the portal?”

“No- kiddo—”

“Why won’t you teach me?”

“Because I don’t know how.”

Eda looked ashamed. Her eyes wouldn’t meet Luz’s.

That didn’t surprise Luz. Eda hadn’t been able to look her dead in the eye for awhile now.

“When I took you on as a pupil, I wasn’t thinking of how I would teach you. I thought about how it would be nice to have someone around the house along with King. About how it would be helpful to have someone help with the day-to-day work. And when I heard about your demon problem, I related. I saw a younger me, someone who needed help with something no one else could understand. So when I tried to figure out how to be the teacher you wanted of me, and realized I didn’t know the first thing about it, I worried. I worried I would lose all of it if I admitted I didn’t know what to do, like if I admitted to King about my curse, I would somehow lose him too.”

Eda sighed again.

“So I delayed. I made excuses as to why I couldn’t teach that day, and the day after that. I tried distracting you with those bits of magic my chores had with them. I put it off, and off, and off, until here we are. Finally admitting it after all those little things you’ve done to me.”

Eda looked to the floor.

“It’s not fair to you. I know that now.”

Luz stood there, contemplating everything for a minute. She spoke.

“That was a selfish thing to do.”

Eda nodded softly. “Yeah. It was.”

“Do you want to try and make up for it?”

Eda looked back to Luz, locking eyes with her pupil, no matter the difficulty.

“Yeah. Yeah I do.”

Luz stared back. “Then try to teach me this time.”

Eda nodded and started pulling things from her hair and spell circles.

They had an hour. Time to use it.

Chapter Text

The auditorium at the Covention Hall was a lot different than the one at Luz’s high school. Instead of massive shining lights affixed to metal walls and squeaky linoleum floors, the entire place was made completely out of sand in some form or another. The floor was a flat circle of deep, compacted sand. The walls, the dome ceiling, even the steps the audience used as seats were all made of a tannish sandstone. The only light the structure got was from sunlight pouring from the triangular windows encircling the seats, having been purposefully set so as to focus the light into the center pit. Even so, the lighting couldn’t be called bright by any means, the edges of the pit already turned dim, anything outside of it enshrouded in lukewarm darkness.

Luz stood in the hall to the pit floor in said darkness, the only sign of her mentor’s presence was a thin hand on her shoulder and a pair of golden eyes glowing in the dark. The girl thought about taking out a light glyph, but thought better of it. Something about this place felt like it warranted this atmosphere, like it would be disrespectful to brighten it up.

“Okay, kid. You got your tote bag?”

Luz shifted, feeling the weight of the bag on her shoulder and nodded, before remembering how dark it was. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Don’t lose it. King is gonna rage squeal if you end up destroying one of his ‘offerings’. I already had to promise him ice scream afterwards just so you could borrow it.”

“Do I get some too?”

“Only if you’re good.”

The giggling pair were interrupted by footsteps coming their way down the hall. A spell circle summoned a mote of light and standing in the hall with them was Amity, along with a tall shrewd-looking goth woman.

That was Amity’s mentor, Luz thought. It was how they both did That Walk, where each footstep was too perfectly in time with the last one and too exact in their pace not to have been practiced meticulously. It was how someone who thought themselves important and wanted everyone to know how important they are stepped. She remembered her old middle school principal, Mr. Henderson doing the same thing around the halls.

As they met Luz and Eda, the elder witch glanced at the human, before putting on a small condescending smile that was not appreciated. She looked the biggest criminal in the Boiling Isles dead in the eye.

"Edalyn."

‘Woah. Is this lady trying to start a fight? I don't think I've ever heard anyone use her full name. Well, first full name.’

Eda just rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. "Glad you finally showed up with your pupil, Lils. You used to act like you'd rather look into a painbow instead of being tardy. Guess you can't keep up with your holier-than-thou excellence anymore, huh?"

The smile twitched, but held. "What would you know about excellence, collecting trash for a living?"

"Excuse me, the things I find aren't trash, they're treasures! And this one I dug up is gonna kick your student's butt!"

Gasp! "You think I’m a treasure?” Luz beamed up at her teacher. Eda smooshed her mentee’s face away (which just ended up covering up everything except her eldritch puppy-dog eyes).

Luz stood there, basking in the complement as the adults bickered and the small goth glared, until her gaze fell on what the tall goth was holding: a staff of a stark white staff bearing a gaunt avian of some kind on the top. Luz marveled at the clear craftsmanship that had gone into making it.

‘Still like Owlbert more though, the little fluff ball~’

‘Wait a minute.’

Luz nonchalantly (everyone noticed) scooted over to Tall Goth’s side and whispered to the carving.

“Hi there, buddy. Are you a palisman? Am I just talking to wood? I mean, that’s not unusual for me.”

Tall Goth was giving her the ‘what is wrong with this child’ look. “Eda, what is your apprentice doing and how do you make her- OH MY TITAN!”

The staffhead shifted suddenly, twisting off its post, with each turn becoming bigger and fluffier until sitting perched on the top of the staff was a large raven with bulbous yellow eyes.

Said eyes locked onto the human and the palisman let out a low croak.

"Hello! I've never talked to anyone who isn't Lily or my carver. You are a strange one!"

"Yeah, I know! It's all part of my charm. I'm Luz, what's your name? I've never met a palisman besides Owlbert before!"

"I'm Mike Socks! Just call me Mike though. Edalyn always laughs and gets my witch all worked up."

"Nice to meet you, Mike! Mike I say, you're feathers are looking fine today?~"

Mike just squinted and shook their head at the pun. They enjoyed the finger guns, though.

Meanwhile, a certain part of the party were doing an excellent job mimicking the avian's eyes bulging out of their head.

That is to say, they were losing their absolute minds.

Tall Goth was left sputtering, staring down at her palisman (who was using their time off the staff to preen their witch's hair).

"Bleh! Hair dye! Tastes bad!"

"Mike?! How did you-?! How is this-?!"

Eda let out a quiet groan, shutting her eyes and rubbing her forehead. "Titan-dammit, kid. Why did you have to do that…"

Amity though, was quiet. She just stared, unwavering and unblinkingly. Luz felt like a frog with its innards exposed, trapped under an apathetic student's gaze.

A voice came from the auditorium. "Lilith? ma'am?"

Tall Goth (or Lilith, apparently) went still, eyes filled with a sudden fear before snatching Mike and twisting them back onto the staff. A moment later, a coven scout appeared in the threshold.

"We've double checked the arena. It's clear."

The woman's face was a mask of stone. "Thank you, Steve. That will be all that's needed of you."

Steve nodded and poofed away. A few seconds later, Lilith's shoulders sagged, a hand gently brushing the top of her palisman's head.

"Edalyn. We will discuss this later. There is a witch's duel to commence."

Eda nodded, patting her student one last time before leaving down the hallway.

"Remember my tips!"

"I will!" Luz yelled down the hall. She chuckled to herself as she turned back around to the arena.

The tingle down her back wasn't going away.

Amity was still staring.

Luz gulped. Should she say something?

She heard the other girl breath in like she was going to say something, but as she did, a mirage of a coven scout appeared before them.

"It's time. Step out into the auditorium and take your places."

Amity knocked her way past Luz onto the sand, with Luz coming in close behind, rubbing her shoulder.

"Ow. Jerk." Luz muttered.

Amity strode to the far side of the pit while Luz followed the glowing spots to the x floating a few centimeters off the ground. It reminded Luz of a video game marker.

A familiar scout in a gold uniform came out and started welcoming those in attendance. 'Ugh. Xavier.'

What distracted Luz from the nonsense that jerk was spewing was a glint of gold. She felt her heart stutter for a moment, imagining that "mannequin" might be here, watching her. Luckily, it wasn't that enigma. What had caught her eye was the symbol of the Emperor's Coven displayed above the auditorium soapbox, where the only flat part of the walls could be found. She studied it, looking back and forth from it to the rest of the building, and with each look, she got the feeling more and more that it did not belong here. It was the only truly bright thing in this muted room, a shining golden scar on a muted hushed painting. It came off as garish and glaring; hungry to be seen, to be known which clashed with the arena's somber calm.

It was ugly. It didn't belong here.

"Are you ready, dear witches?! Let the duel begin in: Five!"

Oop. Well, time to be ready.

"Four!"

Luz checked her saddle bag. The clinking of glass in there was oddly reassuring.

"Three!"

Luz scanned the stands for her familiar faces, and found Willow and Gus decked out with flags and jerseys depicting her face (thank you, Gus), cheering her on despite their clear stress causing their smiles to be a tad manic. She could also see Eda standing in the back to not be noticed. She winked. No Emira and Edric though. Weird, and kinda sad if Luz was being honest.

"Two!"

Luz turned back to face Amity. The witch stared her down, raising her arms slowly.

Fine, two could play at that game. Luz met her in kind.

"One!"

The human whispered to herself.

"You're going down, Blight."

"Begin!"

And they were off.

Chapter Text

Amity started the duel with a full two-armed spell circle from which a torrent of dark violet sludge came pouring, forming into the melting hulking visage of a man, nearly as tall as the pit walls themselves. Numerous dull green eyes glowed in their soft sockets. They reminded the human a bit of Skulley's, though lacking the latter's psyche-dissolving nature, thankfully.

"Abo- abomination" Amity huffed, clearly out of breath from the feat. "Attack!"

The golem lumbered over slowly, the sheer weight of its mass hindering it. It's arms shot out from the rest of the mass towards its target, reforming new limbs just to fire them again. The human ducked and dodged around, barely keeping ahead of the shots.

"What?" Luz said, out of breath "Can't hit me?".

The witch narrowed her eyes. "Abomination, attack directly."

The abomination threw itself at its opponent, giant footfalls sending tremors though the stadium.

Luz bounded backwards and threw her hand into her saddle bag, the sound of clinking glass bottles matched with the pounding stomps of the giant like windchimes and drums.

Luz steadied herself and thought back to her and her mentor's preparations.

***

Eda pulled out some small packets from her hair and handed them to Luz. Looking them over, each one had a few letters jot down on them. SbS, CC, HD.

Luz looked up at Eda. "What are these?"

Eda summoned a small pot and a glass stirring rod. "Pre-portioned ingredients. We used these kinds of things back in Hexside so we could cut down on potion-making time and goof off."

"We?"

"Uh, me and other folks in the Potions track. Doesn't matter. What matters is that you can go into this fight armed. Potions are a witch's multitool; they're the great equalizer. No matter the size of your bile sac, no matter your skill in the arcane, you can get things done with a glass and a cork. Speaking of—"

Eda opened her hand and revealed a set of corks with different heads, from rounded to squared to wavy like a cloud.

"These bad boys will let you tell which potion you're grabbing at a touch. We'll go over what matches what after we start brewing the three sets. Ready to get started?"

The wild witch-in-training grinned.

***

The girl stuffed her hand down into her saddle bag and felt around the corks until her fingers brushed against a bumpy one. Snatching the potion out and glancing at it to check for an orange hue, Luz chucked it sans cork at the feet of the construct (while shouting out her attack like an anime character, because there was no way in heck she wasn't going to do that).

"Fog Brew!"

As soon as the glass hit the sand, sour-smelling fumes came spewing from the mouth of the flask with a loud hisssss. In seconds, the air was filled with an orange haze, obscuring everything. As sight was made nearly useless, the musk monster halted its movement a few feet away from its target.

"Witch Tip Number Two, kid: Abominations have eyes all over their body for a reason. They're like babies; no object permanence whatsoever. Their memory extends only as far as their owner's command."

Luz ducked around the abomination and acquired a square-corked elixir.

"Chill Touch!" She tossed this one at the monster's feet, the thin glass shattering and encasing the abomination's lower half in ice. The golem moaned in confusion as it found its form slowing.

"Witch Tip Number Three: Abominations —being made from specialized mud— aren't something you can just stab with a knife or blast into pieces and kill. When in their normal environment, they are unkillable with basic means. You gotta mess with the stuff they're made of. Heat em up til they dry out and crumble or chill the place down til they shatter. Dont try hitting em with potions directly though. Will just sink in."

Luz gave herself time for a little "heh~" before grabbing another Chilling Brew and aimed for the sand below the construct's arm. Her aim was true, and the abomination found its right side frozen in place.

'I'm actually doing it! I'll win this in a flash if it keeps going like this!'

And as that thought —stained with hubris— ran through Luz Noceda's mind, Murphy let out a silent, bone-chilling laugh from his coffin.

She snuck away from the behemoth and towards the other side of the arena and her opponent. As the fog thinned out, Luz pulled out one of the final set, Sleeping Nettle Concentrate.

"Witch Tip Number One: (she really should be remembering these in order, it makes much more sense narratively) The weakest point of an abomination is their owner. Traditional abominations are brought to life and puppeted by pouring some of their soul into specially made mud solution. That means using them is a constant drain on a witch's magic. It's why you never see me using em for stuff, thanks to ol' Feathers. You win by playing the waiting game and hitting the witch directly as they exhaust themselves. That's what this last potion set is for. One whiff of the stuff and Miss Perfect is out for the count."

Luz steadied herself and dashed out of the cloud, ready to throw her elixir and win this fight. She aimed…

There was no green-haired witch to be found.

What.

'Where is she?! I gotta find her before—'

A noise cut her thought process off.

No. Not a noise. The absence of a noise. Something had gone quiet.

The fog brew's hissing.

The girl spun around to find the mist dispersing, the abomination's silhouette becoming clearer and clearer.

And as it did, a shape too thin and dainty to be muck could be seen on looking over it.

***

Amity Blight started the duel off the same way she would have when she was Grugby Captain: analyzing.

'Human (I think) has a bag. She didn't have it before. Probably is for holding potions considering its size. Solution: destroy bag so she can't use them. You've practiced with Boscha, you know how this works.'

The scout shouted, and she summoned her abomination. But instead of the (pathetically) average sized one the girl was used to producing, the mud seemed to be never ending. It poured and poured until the servant was three times over her height.

Amity was stunned. She had never been able to form an abomination of this scale before. This wasn't anywhere near the level she could make yesterday. This was on Dad's level.

This was it. Her work had finally paid off. This ache in her chest was nothing compared to this feeling of jubilation running through her.

They're going to be proud of her.

She called for her construct to attack through haggard breath. It started blasting at its creator's enemy, who desperately scrambled away.

A part of her mind nagged at her. 'We need to conserve energy, we've already used too much on our abomination.'

Amity pushed that notion aside. This was her chance to prove herself. She felt her anxieties tug at her like hooks under her skin.

'What if this is just a fluke? What if you can't do it again when it really matters? What if this is it?'

Amity watched the human toss a fog brew down and fill the arena with foul-smelling clouds. She felt a twinge as her bile cooled rapidly in her veins. The human had to be using frost magic on her creation.

'I have to push as hard as I can with this new strength. I need to keep it. I need to.'

Amity dashed into the fog, keeping light on her feet so as not to alert her enemy. The human was going to go after her now that her abomination was occupied. It was the only sensible thing to do.

Amity heard the shifting of sand by her and saw the girl's silhouette pass by her, unaware.

She stared at the shadow, too dark, too dense to be quite right, and her thought of charging the figure right then and there was quietly put away.

Amity felt her way through her connection to her construct and found it moaning and trapped in its own frozen muck. Running around to its back, the witch hopped up onto the least-frozen-but-still-cold side and commanded the mud to pull her to its shoulder.

Amity scanned the ground in front of her golem and found the densest patch of mist. Her golem formed its hand into fan blades and revealed the small glass hidden in its fumes.

'Gotcha~'

She tore a dollop of mud off her stead and flicked it into the mouth of the bottle, sealing it up and dispelling the fog.

And as the air cleared, she found her target standing exactly where she expected, slowly turning towards her.

"What? Did you think I was just gonna stand around like we're in a Pokémon battle?" Amity said snidely. The witch formed twin spell circles and clutched them in her palms, squeezing them down as hard as she could. The abomination shuddered underneath her, shrinking into a denser and denser form, bubbling violently as the pressure increased.

"Well it seems your main has the stunned condi— wait, you know what Pokémon is?!"

Amity smirked and released her grip, and with it, the pressure holding down her golem.

The golem promptly exploded, shattering the frost holding it hostage. The witch held its grip on the construct, staring her foe down.

'If you don't think I know what you're doing, you're dead wrong. You're not tiring me out, human.

"Wanna try again, not-a-witch?"

Chapter Text

Luz was too slow digging into her bag for a potion. A rope of abomination goo spat out of the larger mass, snagged onto the sealed bottle of fog brew in the sand, and flung it into her chest. Luz felt the glass shatter against her like a punch to the gut, knocking her onto her back and leaving her silently gasping for air. The fog burst out like a smoke bomb, the smell searing into her sinuses.

As she caught her breath, the girl heard the squelch of muck and a woosh as something whizzed over her body and into the wall behind her, the shadow of something big and melty above her. Luz let out a fearful squeak and quickly rolled herself away, careful not to let the shrapnel stuck in her shirt from the bottle do any more damage than some shallow cuts. Considering the many, many bits of violet mud now on her, Luz could guess what the mystery projectile was.

As Luz stumbled shakily to her feet, the mist cleared and revealed the golem’s arm splattered against the arena wall less than a foot from her. The golem turned towards her as the air cleared, the dim light catching on the eyes of the witch riding it, making them look like they glowed the same as her creation's.

'Ferocious.' Luz thought. That was not what she said, however.

"Hey Miss Perfect! You missed!" Luz yelled.

Amity glowered at her opponent. "Abomination, repeat-fire at the enemy until victory."

"Uh oh."

Luz dashed along the rim of the pit as the construct blasted its arms at her, the mud nipping her ankles. The girl felt like her lungs were about to catch fire.

She was halfway around the arena when she started desperately chucking potions in hopes of stalling her pursuer. Her opponent was expecting this. Multiple tendrils shot out and snatched the bottles as they neared the ground and slurped them into the greater mass.

Luz was sure her heart was going to burst. Her throat and mouth felt raw and like it was going to start bleeding from how the air cut into it.

'Gotta think of something. Gotta think of something.'

A bit of cold abomination goo splattered against her neck as another fist narrowly missed its mark.

'That's it!'

Luz swerved and bolted towards her antagonizer, snagging two bottles from her bag. Amity's eyes widened, shocked by her rival's sudden onset of madness. The golem did not care, continuing on the orders its mistress had given it. It fired down on its target.

Just as its target planned.

Luz slammed down a Fog Brew behind her before it could be snatched up and reserved course, throwing herself backwards onto her back. As the mud blast hit the sand by her feet, she tucked her legs into her chest and slammed down a Chill Touch to the ground nearby, creating a large abstract wall of frozen abomination muck in between the two fighters.

‘Finally, some breathing room. Now what do we have to work with?’

The girl opened her bag and looked through it.

‘Inventory: Chill Touch, two. Fog Brew, two. Sleeping Nettle Concentrate, one. Crap, that can’t be it, right?! C’mon Luz, think— glyphs!’

Luz dug into her pockets, pulling out some old cards she had drawn her sigils on. She had over a dozen glyphs, half basic light spells and half flashbangs.

‘Okay, I can probably do something with this. I can’t just flash her— oof, phrasing —without blinding myself too. What can I—’

A smug voice rang out. “Abomination, break the ice wall.”

Luz heard the construct moan. Moments later, the wall shook with an immense and wet thud, forcing her to dodge falling icicles broken from the top. Still, the ice held firm.

‘What is she doing? She has to know she could just walk around the wall, why is she wasting her energy on brute force?’

There was a small gap in the wall the girl used as a peephole. Staring through it, she could see the abomination readying another attack, with the witch controlling it…

Looking off somewhere else.

Confused, Luz followed her gaze to the stands. Expecting maybe the twins to be there, instead what seemed to be catching the Blight’s eye was Xavier and Lilith, with the former jotting down something on a clipboard as they watched.

‘The Emperor’s Coven! She’s trying to impress them with this duel! I can trick her up if she’s distracted. That’s it!’

Luz did her best to ignore the assault on her lone defense as she put together her plan, pulling out glyphs and emptying her bag of its contents into her pockets. Finally, she was ready. Just as the cracks in the icy gunk neared total collapse, Luz jumped to the side with the bag held closed in her arms and aimed its mouth at the witch and her creation.

Amity growled. "What are you— AAAAGH!"

As Luz ripped open the bag, an excruciatingly bright light burst from it as all the glyphs activated at once, becoming the world's most overpowered flashlight. It drowned her enemies in an agonizingly blinding light the witch and golem collectively reared back and clutched their eyes (the latter having much difficulty on account of the excessive amount it had). Luz held the bag strap by the teeth and used her hands to fish a Fog Brew and ice pot out, flicking the corks out and— bracing herself —poured the contents into a single bottle. The mixed brew was painfully cold to the touch, like holding onto something you pulled out of the freezer for too long and spewing freezing gas just as cold. Luz ignored it and threw the potion between the construct’s feet and dropped the bag to the sand.

Massaging the spots out of her eyes, Amity felt the frigid vapors flowing from below, and looked down to see the offending elixir. She looked to the human.

"Did you not learn your lesson from before?"

She brought her servant's stump of a leg down on the potion, shattering it and releasing the cold all at once, the golem now over half encased in its own frozen mud. Rolling her eyes, the witch retread old ground and pressurized her golem, squeezing it into itself. She stared up at the stands, ready to show them her skill.

The cacophony of broken glass that came after was music to Luz's ears.

Amity’s look of confusion was replaced by dawning horror as the several potions of ice and fog she had snatched and absorbed into her golem crack and break under the pressure, unloading their contents all at once.

Amity could only leap for safety as the golem— as well as the pit —exploded in a wave of mud and ice, knocking back both contestants and leaving their vision dark.

Chapter Text

Luz’s vision was dark with her eyes and upper body sunk into something cold and wet. She could feel her fingers sting against whatever gripped her face as she tore at it. Pulling her other arm from her encasing with a wet slorp, she got to work with both hands. Getting her fingertips underneath the liquid blindfold, she finally was able to rip it off (with a couple brow hairs going with it).

Opening her eyes, Luz found the air filled with a pale blue mist, chilling her to the bone as it curled around her. Peering through it revealed the arena pit floor’s state of desolation. The sand now formed a crater shallowly filled with abomination mud either drooling into the dip or frozen into sharp chunks of icy shrapnel. The outside was equally sullied, the muck peppering the walls and first few stands, the coven scouts checking over the wounded and applying first aid and healing magics if the cyan hue was anything to go by. A stone fell heavy in the girl’s stomach. She hadn’t thought her plan through enough, not recognizing the risk to anyone but herself. She just wanted to show up Amity.

Amity.

‘Dios mío. Amity.’

Luz dragged herself out of the muck, forcing herself to her feet despite her body’s protests. Her muscles were stiff, her limbs shaking with cold. She scanned the auditorium for a glimpse of verdant green hair or charcoal cloth.

“A-Amity…?” Luz’s teeth chattered as she called out.

She had to be okay. She had to be okay.

It would be all her fault if—

A bout of coughing and the sound of frozen goo cracking turned Luz’s head. The figure of Amity Blight stood teetering on the other side of the pit within the pit. She looked dazed, rubbing her neck as she blinked slowly, dazed. Shallow cuts adorned her face and shards of glass stuck out from her clothes. Luz wasn’t sure if the bags under the witch’s eyes were there before.

And then Amity’s eyes locked onto Luz and the glaze was gone, replaced with cold fury.

If Luz wasn’t terrified at that moment, she would’ve laughed at the accidental wordplay.

Amity stumbled forward, raising a finger and forming a spell circle so dim Luz doubted anyone in the stands could see it. “Abo-Abomination, ri-rise.”

The puddle of purple slurry draining into the cavern rose, struggling upward before succumbing to gravity and splattering weakly against the floor. The witch swooned, looking like she was going to faint before steadying herself. The human wasn't sure if she should fight or just wait for her rival to collapse on her own.

'I mean… If she's running on fumes now, she can't do anything, right?'

A growl rumbled in her rival's throat. Amity took a deep breath and— with tense, trembling fingers —formed another spell circle, this one a tad more visible. The mud surrounding them both shifted, slow as molasses. It too, seemed to do nothing for her.

Luz had enough. She took out her final Chill Touch. The girl popped the lid and threw the bottle at her opponent's feet, ready to let the muck they were sunk into freeze over and lock the witch down, securing her competitor, as well her own victory.

Before the potion could reach its intended target, its target met the potion. In a flash, Amity had hooked the bottle in the crook of her foot and kicked, the brew whizzing through Luz's legs and into the mud behind. She stared her enemy down, cool as a mountain breeze, and started wading through the mud like it was nothing more than still water.

Luz’s breath was caught in her throat. 'Okay. So. She's got some fancy footwork in her bag of tricks. Maybe I should do some retreating about now…'

But as she pulled herself back, the mud clung to her feet like tar. Every step was a struggle for the human.

And still the witch strode closer with ease.

Luz twisted around the best she could, searching for a dry spot. The crater might be getting more submerged by the minute, but that just meant the outside would have less, plus the level ground would mean what goop was there would be shallow. Yet all she saw were chunks of ice surrounding the rim. Chunks that had been yards away now formed a wall for her to be cornered in.

It then hit Luz what that "failed" spell had been. Amity didn't have much magic left, so she made what little she had count. She used the barest amount of magic to collect the ice and entrap her foe, and soften the mud just around herself.

In the few short seconds of hesitation, Amity had completely taken control of their environment.

Luz wasn't panicking just yet, nope, definitely not. She quickly tried to catch her pursuer off guard with a Fog Brew aimed directly for her face, but that merely gave her time to watch in awe as the witch snatched the bottle from the air without blinking and tossing it behind her. Luz dug in her pocket for her glyphs and the witch flicked a spell circle, arcane muck splattering against her, gluing her arm to her side.

And still, Amity continued forward.

Yup, panicking now. Luz grabbed at her pockets desperately, hoping to find something, anything to defend herself. Her last potion might be able to knock her foe out, but the last two potions had shown such a trick to be useless. But what else did she have?

Her fingers brushed against another option, one she took without another thought.

Foolish.

It took a moment before Luz fully processed what she was doing.

The cold steel of Luz's stiletto was heavy in her grip, the blade aimed at the witch in front of her.

Amity finally paused, the fear flickering across her face matching Luz’s own.

“Stay back!” Luz half-shrieked. ‘WhatamIdoingWhatamIdoingWhatamIdoing?!’

Amity stared at the blade, and then at Luz. With a breath, the fear was toned down to a mild wariness. The girl huffed and without a word, grabbed under her skirt and produced her own blade, a silver dagger with a crossguard shaped like a u. It glimmered even in the low light, polished to perfection as it aimed at its target a foot away. Something twitched in the human’s mind at the shape and design of the implement, something about old swashbuckling movies she had watched. What sort of dagger was that?

Luz’s body, meanwhile, was frozen in place. What was she supposed to do? She just escalated the situation and turned the duel into a knife fight! She couldn’t actually stab Amity! What was she thinking?!

‘Okay, you have a dagger and she has a dagger. Hers is shorter, so we have range. We’re not going to stab her, obviously, so what can we do with it? Uhhhh- The Mud!’

Luz dug at the muck binding her arm, slicing away at it until she could rip her arm free from her pocket, wet, muddy paper mush coming with it. Great, glyphs are out. That means our last potion.

‘I really hope this works.’

Amity closed the distance between the two and Luz steeled herself. They took their final action in this duel.

Luz swung her blade. It was a useless attack. Even unimpeded, the blade would never touch her opponent.

It wasn’t meant to. The attack was a distraction; for her foe to slip up in panic and not notice Luz pulling her last potion out. She popped the cork and without letting go of the bottle, splashed the witch in the face as she reeled back, unable to clear the distance

That was the plan.

The plan fell to ruin.

Amity’s blade stabbed into the air and connected with the stiletto, trapping it in its guard. A flick of the wrist sent Luz’s weapon tumbling into the mud. Her other hand formed a spell circle and something long and thin formed out of the mud between them. Luz could only watch with dawning horror as the girl grasped it.

Luz realized what dagger Amity held.

‘She’s using a parrying dagger.’

What Amity Blight held in her right hand was a newly formed small sword, a fencing blade of abomination mud made impossibly thin and sharp.

And as Luz swung her potion, the fencer shifted into a stance and thrust the tip straight for the human’s throat.

Luz’s eyes forced themselves shut, and waited to feel her esophagus to be skewered.

…

And yet, death didn’t come. Something sliced shallowly against the sides of her neck, but the end never came.

After an eternity of fighting her own body for sight, Luz opened her eyes.

Amity had indeed struck, the angle of the blade perfectly aimed for the center of Luz’s windpipe. But where the blade should have met flesh, the tip forked like a hotdog roaster, holding the girl in place against what Luz found to be a large ice shard now at her back. Guess Amity wasn’t just showing off with her stolen ice potion.

Luz looked to the girl who had her pinned. Amity stood there, her nose and mouth covered in a mask of muck. A gray, gritty solution was stuck in it, dripping down to the mud puddle where her potion lay, dripping the same stuff.

She… didn’t look angry or haughty or bitter anymore. Just determined and more than a little worn out.

Amity pulled off the mask and placed it on Luz, inside out. A smell like pine filled Luz’s throat, and her eyelids grew heavier than stone.

Her mind drifted off to thoughts of tired yellow eyes with slit pupils.

Amity Blight had won.

Chapter Text

"C'mon, kiddo. Time to come back to the land of the sometimes-living."

Luz’s first sensation as she awoke was something gritty on her tongue and a horrible bitterness flowing from it. She sat up and spat out the disgusting flavor, her eyes slowly adjusting to wakefulness.

Her mentor put a hand on her back and brought a water bottle up to her lips, which Luz took thankfully. She swished the first sip around to clear her palette and spat. Eda chuckled.

"You're reaching King-trying-a-bean levels of drama there, kid. It's not that bad."

Luz wrinkled her nose. "Says you. Bleh. What nightmare food did you put in my mouth?!"

"A coffee bean, dumb-dumb. Same kind you get in the human world, ground down. Woke you up fast enough, it seems like."

The apprentice stuck her tongue out at her mentor. "I think I'd rather be in a coma."

"Pfft. Come on, you. Up." Eda lifted her student up to her feet.

The auditorium was still just as messy, if a bit drier. The two of them had moved out of the crater by a few feet. The scouts had their work cut out for them, hacking away at the ice-mud slurry with floating balls of fire to dry it out before forming shovels out of the stone walls to start digging it up. Lilith stood in a dry spot, watching them.

“An entire party of scouts, and not a single one of them had a passing grade in Abominations. How is this my life?” She muttered with her palm over her face.

Luz scoffed quietly. ‘I don't see you with a shovel.’ Her judgment was put on hold when she saw her two companions making their way across the sand.

“Luz! You're okay!” Willow cheered.

“You did fantastic!” Gus gushed.

“Guys!”

The three embraced, with Eda dodging her student's attempt to drag her into it. Luz took her time checking over her babies for scratches or bruises, applying bandaids she stole from Eda whenever she came across a cut.

“Luzzzz! I’m fine! I don’t even— none of my cuts are bleeding!” The botany witch squeaked as Luz looked her over.

“Yeah, Luz. Willow’s tough enough to deal with a few scratches.” The illusionist said, poking his friend in the side to elicit another squeak.

Luz blushed, stepping back and rubbing her arms. “Sorry, sorry. Just felt responsible for letting the duel get out of hand.”

“Are you kidding?! You gave Amity Blight a run for her money! You nearly won!”

“Yeah.” Luz’s smile slowly faded. “Nearly won.”

Luz looked around until she found the victor standing alone in the crater. She looked absolutely exhausted, staring at the floor and holding her neck like it was bothering her. The girl wondered if the blast had injured her.

‘The blast I caused…’

“Am—”

“Miss Lilith? What is this?”

Amity's voice felt louder than it actually was. It had to be in the tone. It was a tone that demanded your attention, no matter the volume. Everyone turned to the speaker, including her teacher.

Amity had what looked to be a gauze patch about the size of a playing card in her hand. With its faint glow and familiar fist symbol emblazoned in the center, even Luz could tell what it was the witch held.

“A power glyph~” Eda said with a hiss, her face breaking into a triumphant grin. In a flash, she was behind Amity, brushing away her hair to look at the spot on her neck the girl had been picking at. The witchlet startled, jumping away and spinning around, revealing on her neck to be an inflamed weeping red sore.

“The power glyph left quite a nasty burn there from overuse. Had to compensate for the fact that the witch is a child. Never took you for a cheater, Lily.” That last part Eda stressed as hard as she could in Lilith's direction.

The accused winced before her expression smoothed over. “As if you weren't doing the same. I know you, Edalyn. You don't think I know how you operate. What little trick did you pull for your student?”

Eda erupted into a fit of cackling laughter worthy of the most powerful witch in the Isles. The scouts paused their shoveling, the oldest ones quietly tiptoeing away from her.

“That's the best part! I didn't do anything! The one time you drop down to my level is the one time I take the high road! This is fantastic!”

Lilith looked over Eda, searching for any trace of deceit, and found none. She looked like she would have rather been slapped, horror dawning on her face only to be snuffed out a moment later. She grit her teeth.

“W-Well it doesn't matter. You saw how the battle changed at the end. The patch had been knocked off from the blast. Despite the drain on her magic, my student still won the duel, without the patch.”

Eda spat fire. “Are you out of your mind?! The only way Furball didn't get turned into a popsickle a minute in was that patch! Luz won, and you know it, prissy!”

As the two bickered, Luz’s focus wandered to her rival. A trembling hand held the patch as the other dug its claws into its arm. Thin shoulders shuddered as lungs spasmed in its chest trying to hold back its contents. With another tremor, something sounding suspiciously like a sob escaped. Her voice came out raw and cracking.

“I thought all my work finally meant something.” She whispered. “I thought I was finally good enough.”

Luz opened her mouth, unsure of what she could say.

It didn't matter. Something interrupted them before she could say a word.

A cold, magenta light pulsed from Amity's amulet, and the girl's breath held in her throat. She was terrified. The gem pulsed again, and Amity was suddenly bolting out of the auditorium and into the hallway. Luz looked around to see if anyone knew what was going on.

Noone gave anything more than a quick glance. Their mentors didn't give that, more interested in their own squabble.

‘Why is no one saying anything?’

‘Why is nobody coming to her rescue?’

For a second, Luz wasn't age fourteen, covered in grime in the arena. She was age ten, covered in snot and tears in a cold church, waiting for a kindness that wouldn't come.

But…

But a kindness did come, didn't it?

Suddenly, the doors were thrown open, and a familiar silhouette appeared in the light.

“Mija!”

“Mamá!”

Luz nearly tripped over herself rushing down the aisle to her mother's warm embrace. She smelled like wet fur and pet food, and it was the most comforting thing she could imagine.

“Mija, what on earth are you doing here?! I had no idea where you were, I was worried sick!”

Luz tried to explain herself through her stuffy nose and heaving breaths. “B-But M-M-Miss— B-But M-Miss— sh-e said that— she said th-at you said I sh- should go…”

Little Luz felt every muscle in her Mami's body go rigid for a moment before slowly (purposefully) relaxing.

“It's okay, Cariño. I'm not angry with you. Why don't we go home, and I make you something to eat? We still have some croqueta de papa from last night, if you want.”

Luz sniffed and nodded. With that, Mami picked her up, turned around, and brought her out into the warm morning air.

She was saved.

Luz was back in the auditorium for only a second later before she forced shaking knees and numb feet forward out of the pit, and after her rival.

***

“You know, I'm kinda enjoying this switch of dynamics. Maybe I'll try to harass you when you're trying to do your job.”

Lilith seethed. “You already do that! Once a month! Maybe twice!”

“Maybe twice? Wow, I've gotten sloppy. Need to get back to a solid three a month. Guess you were right: I am getting too lax.”

Lilith let out a screech between gritted teeth. ‘That makes four. I think I might get a new record before she whips out Mike.’

The head of the Emperor's Coven formed a spell circle and in a blaze of cobalt fire, slammed her staff into the sand.

‘Aw, beans. So much for that then.’

Producing her own staff, Eda got into a proper stance (the best she could while not under the influence) and readied her spell-casting-fingers (wiggling her fingers and popping her joints).

“Go ahead and try.” Eda growled.

A sharp glow appeared in Lilith's eyes. “Oh, sister. I will do more than simply try.”

As the staves sparked with arcane energy, the witches channeled their first spells into their fingertips and prepared to fire.

“WAIT, YOU'RE COVEN HEAD LILITH'S SISTER?!”

“YOU'RE UNCLE DELL'S DAUGHTER!?”

Twin shouts rang out, startling both women out of their stances. Both looked down at the two witchlets staring up at them.

Lily found her voice first. “Well, yes. Edalyn is my younger sister. Believe me, she takes every moment to remind me. More importantly, did one of you just call my father Uncle?”

Eda swallowed the guilt rising to the surface from hearing her old man's name and spoke to the latter witchlet. “Glasses, how the hell do you know my fa— that name?” Now Scrawny was staring at his friend along with the sisters.

The witchlet with pigtails blinked at her before responding. “Oh! Mister Dell has been close friends with my dad and papa ever since I was born! He comes around every once and a while to hang out. He likes to bring me sweets.”

Now it was the adults’ time to blink at each other.

“Did you know…?” The younger one started.

The elder one huffed. “Of course not. I'm the left-hand-witch of The Emperor. Those of us working to improve the Isles in accordance with The Titan's wishes cannot forgo their duties and stray from the path.”

“You mean see your family.”

Lilith at least still had enough of a heart to look glum over it. The two looked away from each other for a few, silent minutes.

“...What did you want. If your human won the duel, that is.”

Eda narrowed her brow. “A promise.”

“For what.”

Eda got right up in Lilith's face. “For calling off your freak of a spy and to make them stop targeting my apprentice. I know they've been stalking her, stealing from her. And you should know that if I get my hands on them, they'll be owlfood. Either for Owlbert, Hooty, or you-know-what.”

The wild witch expected frustration on her sister's face at the reveal that her scout had been spotted. Maybe a quiet curse about the incompetence of her subordinates. She hadn’t expected bewilderment, however. Plain confusion written across her face and in her eyes.

“Spy? I haven't sent a scout after you ever since The Last Marrow’s Eve Incident. You're loud enough about your goings on as it is. I didn't even know you had an apprentice until today.”

Eda refused to be put off-kilter. “Oh for muck’s sake, don't try this innocence ruse, it ain't working. I've found your little golden stalker’s footprints near my home and had my wards broken in.”

Lilith just kept at her game, whatever it was. “Golden? Golden… No, that can't be right. The Emperor said this was my mission.”

Wait. Maybe it wasn't a trick.

“Lily? Sis?”

“Why would he… Wait, I haven't even seen him for… When did I last see him? Months ago, it had to be.”

“Lily!”

That jerked her out of her stupor. “O-Oh! Edalyn. I… I'm sorry, but I don't have any con— I mean, I can't make that promise. I-I need to go. Need to check some things.”

Eda watched, utterly confused as Lilith, apparently shook by something, left the arena in a hurry. The two kids stood nearby, looking up at their elder, probably hoping for some context or greater insight from her, something she didn't have.

‘What the fuck was that, Lily?’

***

‘How did you manage to ruin this for yourself.’

‘no, no, no.’

‘This is shameful behavior. Are you a Blight or not?’

‘no no no no’

‘Must you squander every opportunity your family gives you?’

nononononohowdidshefindoutshealwaysfindsoutshealwaysknows

‘Mom knows. ’

Amity's thoughts were a cacophony of shame and dread as they battered around in her head, robbing her of any chance to breathe. She was pretty ‘You utter failure.’ sure she had punctured her palm with her claws, but she wasn't sure because she couldn't feel them, or ‘Pathetic.’ much of anything at this moment.

She was somewhere ‘Everyone hates you.’ dark and ‘Why do you keep doing this?’ somewhat quiet. She ran here for some reason. There wasn't anything to look ‘Everyone is sick of you.’ at or grate her ears. Except her ‘Worthless.’ sobbing. She couldn't make it stop like she was supposed to. Stop shaking. Stop. ‘Just stop.’

‘Okay, okay. Focus. Watch the gem. Which thoughts line up with your thoughts and which come when the gem glow brighter? You can do this.’

‘Whining little girl.’

‘Too direct, Too short. That was me.’

‘Stop making excuses for yourself. No one is messing up your head but you.’

‘Was the gem glowing brighter now? Did I make it up?’

‘Blaming everyone else except yourself. It's sad.’

‘Dammit dammit, was that one Mom or the last one?! Was it both?! None?!’

The air was warmer. Someone was here with her.

Amity pulled her head up from her knees and looked around. She was in a small, shadowy alley, a plain brick wall in front of her ‘Useless.’ and to her back. It was hard to see with it being so dark and her eyes blurry and wet. Was it her imagination—

A footstep to her left alerted her. Her gaze darted to the side, flicking ‘They'll never be proud of you.’ away tears, and she saw her.

A familiar silhouette, darker than the darkness surrounding it stood there, close enough to reach out and touch.

“Are you okay?”

She knew it was Luz. She had seen the same figure in the mists of battle and before in an alley like this one. Maybe this one was the same one. Would explain how she found her. And yet that question of how never felt needed, like it was a given fact that this shadow could find her, would find her.

She knew it was Luz, and yet the urge to put on that mask and hide herself away didn't come. It didn't make sense.

This silhouette is Luz. Luz is a person, a watcher, a somebody, if a magicless one. Amity is not supposed to show anybody any form of weakness or frailty. That's how you fail your kin, fail to give them back for everything they gave to you, fail to matter to them (like the twins).

And yet in this darkness, where she couldn't see anything more of the human but a shadow, some deep, animalistic part of Amity couldn't recognize it as a person in that way.

That deep part couldn't actualize what it saw. Merely shallow descriptions. The shadow was like the trees outside the manor she screamed at when no one was around. The shadow was like the rock where she scraped her knee up bad when she was seven. The shadow was the old family cat she would hold when she felt bad before he passed away. Mom helped make a eulogy for her to say as the family buried it. Mom didn't yell at her for the whole day.

Luz was a person. She could judge Amity, expose Amity. But when she was just a silhouette, too dark and too warm?

She was something that didn't know nor care to judge her.

“N-No…” Amity sobbed. “I-I'm a failure, an-an awful wi-witch who can n-never be- be good enough!”

“No you're not.” The shadow said. Why did she expect for the voice to echo? “All I hear from people is how good you are at it.”

“N-Not my p-parents.” The witch retorted. “I tr-try so hard to get it right, a-and it's never enough!”

“It?” The silhouette questioned.

Amity threw her hands back. “Everything! My magic, my future, my mind! I try and I t-ry and I-I work so hard to be enough and I can't!

“I’m—”

“And I can't ever be! I don't have an abnormally large bile sac like my dad! I can't make abominations like he can, and once Mom and Dad realize that—”

Her speech was cut off by heaving sobs. She sat there for what felt like an eternity, until she was left gasping for breath.

“What does it matter what your parents think? I saw you at the end of the duel. You beat me with barely any magic left. If that power glyph hadn't upped your power and made you cocky, I bet you would've won even faster, fair and square.”

Amity sniffed. “It doesn't matter. Even with Mom stepping in to correct me, I still can't be good enough. All I am is my parent's daughter.” She tore at the pendant around her neck. “All I can hear is how much of a disappointment, a worthless leech I am, and I can't even tell which thoughts are mine and which Mom is putting in!

The figure was quiet for a moment. Amity could see her tilt her gaze down at the necklace, muttering “Purple means mind magic. ¡La madre que te parió!”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Another pause. This one went on for a minute before the figure spoke.

“Do you want this to end?”

Amity was rattled. “W-What?!”

“Do you want this to end?”

The silhouette waited for a response. Amity didn't know what to say. What did she mean? In the back of the witch's mind, the many stories warning of making deals with things you do not understand. Old things. Powerful things. All led to ruin.

The hair on the back of Amity's neck stood up. She couldn't be sure if it was from fear, and if it was, of what.

And yet.

Somehow.

Amity felt that this would be a deal followed through.

“Yes.” She whispered.

“Then give me the necklace.”

Amity slowly took off the pendent and handed it bunched up to the shadow. The human's hand felt far warmer than it should have been.

The silhouette held the necklace in front of her face, and Amity could see her face, the pits in the center of the eyes staring into the light unflinching. The figure pressed their fingers into a cut sustained from their battle and they came back wet. She wiped the dark liquid onto the gem, and the gem began glowing brighter, banishing the shadows in the alleyway save for the ones cast by the pendant's keeper.

As the gem made a faint keening noise, the silhouette dropped the jewelry to the floor and slammed their heel down on it, snuffing the light with a loud crunch.

“I'm going to guess whatever my blood did really weirded out the magic and made whoever is on the other side have a not fun time, so when you get back home, tell your parents I broke it trying to get a rematch from you.”

The shadow turned around.

“I'll be seeing you, Amity.”

And with that, she walked out of the alley and around the corner, leaving the young witch to ponder.

Chapter Text

Luz flopped onto her bedroll and groaned. Everything hurt. Her limbs hurt. Her back hurt. Her head hurt. Everything. Just. Hurt.

“Everyone likes to talk about their first duel, but nobody likes to talk about the time after the first duel.” King spoke sagely as he flopped beside her with an effort and weight like he had been the one to fight a duel. His tiny body felt like a heatpack against Luz's side.

“Where'd you hear that from? From what I've seen, the only duel you've fought was with that rat you found in the pantry.” Eda stood leaned against the door. She turned towards her apprentice and stage-whispered. “He lost, by the way.”

“It was a strategic surrender! To catch it off guard! You know nothing of battle!”

Luz chuckled weakly, already feeling the pull of the sandman. She wondered if that was an actual person in this world? He probably was, she decided. Probably was also a way more screwed up version than she was thinking. Like, made of eye booger crust. Yeah, that sounded gross enough for the Demon Realm…

Before she knew it, the bickering of her housemates faded away into white noise. When she next opened her eyes, the room was dark and the huffy snoring of her monarch was the only thing breaking the silence.

‘Night already, huh?’ Luz's mouth tasted like she had used Amity's abomination mud as mouthwash. Bleh. ‘It's dry too. Gotta brush the taste out and get a drink of water.’

The girl slowly pulled herself up from her sleeping bag, careful not to disturb her cuddle buddy. Slowly trudging through the hallway, Luz entered the bathroom. She turned on the faucet and began flushing the foul taste off her palette. The sound of the faucet running was oddly soothing.

And then, the sound was overwhelmed by the noise of harsh winds and hissing steam.

“I Smell Skin Scraped From The Flesh And Blood Seeping From Fresh Wounds. Might You Have Taken The Nature Of This World To Heart.”

Skulley's tone crept its way inside Luz, searching through her veins for answers to questions not bothered to be asked. The colors in the restroom bled into each other, cannibalizing each other until the room looked like a garish oil painting left out in the boiling rain. Luz did her best to ignore it and look to her reflection, pulsating green stars staring back at her.

“You mean did I get the crap beaten out of me? Cuz if so, yeah I did.”

“You Survived.”

“I nearly didn't. And what if I hadn't, huh?”

“Then You Would Have Made Another Stronger Through Your Death. Take Solace In That If You Must.”

“Wow. Great to have your support, pal.” Luz went back to the faucet, only to whip her hand back she saw the water was turning to steam before it hit the sink.

“My Allegiance Is Not For You. Not Yet. Prove Yourself Strong Enough In Some Form To Take Root Here. Or Die And Allow Myself”

The hot gale faltered. Luz's curiosity peaked. “Allow you to what? What were you going to say?”

The wind was still and the beast stayed silent (or whatever the equivalent was for the fey monstrosity's way of communication). Luz hung her head low.

“Your whole mystery shtick is getting old, you know that? I get your not gonna tell me what terrible fate you have planned for me if I fail your stupid test or die or whatever. But you can't expect to give me nothing to go off of and succeed. At least tell me how I'm supposed to prove myself. What, am I supposed to find your name?”

The faucet wailed as steam burst from its base. The air burned her esophagus with each breath. The demon's eyelights were a blinding wildfire, the rest of its form wrapping darkness around itself.

A single note of pure conviction engulfed Luz's mind.

“No.”

The room went silent, save for the hissing steam and Luz's teeth chattering despite the heat. A moment later the girl was out and back in her room, the buzzing numbness in her bones slowly trickling out. She did her best to keep from grasping her sleeping friend and squeezing him until the echoing slivers of her encounter faded away.

‘What was the deal with it's name? Why would he—’

And a thought, a memory, hit the girl.

"Good. Never give the enemy an edge. There are a couple spells that require names, so it's good it doesn't know.”

She had to speak with Eda. Now.

Chapter Text

“Kid, what has my living room been transformed into? This looks like you're trying to get this place infested with bookworms.”

The ‘this’ Eda was talking about was the mountain of history books filling the room, her student somehow nestled in a cave at the bottom with her feet just barely sticking out the bottom.

“Eda! I'm so glad you're awake, I have so many questions for you! I would have woken you up earlier, but King said I would not see another sunrise if I did.”

Eda mulled that over and nodded in agreement. That sounded like her.

Luz continued. “So I might have spent the night looking up everything there is to know about names and their relation to magic.”

A voice came from someone unseen inside the tower of paper. “And I made the book fort.”

“And King made the book fort.”

Eda held her hands up. “Kid, slow down. What's this new obsession about names?”

Her student pushed out a thick tome relating to banisters or something (where did she even get that book) to form a gap in the wall, her eyes and nose now poking out of the new window. “Last night Skulley was acting all weird about my name and being vaguely threatening like always, and so I made a comment about finding out its name and it was all like ‘NO.’ and made the walls get filled with melty colors and—”

“Dear Titan, Kid, get to the point.”

Her apprentice went flush in the face, before leaning back quietly into the darkness of the fort.

“Sorry…” She whispered.

Eda's gut squirmed with guilt. ‘Damn you, you black-hearted witch.’ “Hey, no. I'm sorry. Shouldn't have squashed your excitement. Sounds like you got something good going.”

“I know I'm annoying when I get like this. I should just—”

“Me being a crabby old lady doesn't mean you did anything wrong. Seems like the other person's problem if they spit venom at your joy.”

After a moment, a small sniff came from the shadows. Eda certainly, definitely, did not hear it.

“So, uh.” The witch coughed, “You asked ol’ Bones their name?”

“And I got melty walls in return, yeah.”

Luz pushed a small notepad through the gap, and Eda snatched it up, flitting through it. Jotted down was a hodgepodge of information. Paragraphs about the use of names in magic combined with lists of the different types of beasts and creatures combined with a baby book about popular demonic names.

“If Skulley is so fixed on getting my name, there's gotta be a reason for it. So I've been looking up everything I can about true names.”

“True names?” Eda questioned.

“They're a big thing in fairytales. Fey and other otherworldly entities can use the full name of someone to control or steal them away. I have to guess that's what it is trying to do for some reason.”

Eda sits down on the couch (noticing one of the cushions is missing, probably hidden away in the bookfort) and taps her nails on her chin, thinking. “That… isn't the most outrageous thing I've heard. Names can be used to tether oracle spells to their targets, so maybe it's trying to keep its connection stable, or strengthen it for some reason. What I don't understand is this last stuff about demon babies or whatever.”

Luz let out a giggle brimming with mischief, a lilt in her voice. “Well… If my reflection is plotting something to do with my name, who's to say I can't do some plotting myself and do it right back at it?~”

Eda squatted down to eye level with her pupil, matching her tone. “I'm listening~”

“We find Skulley’s true name and use it to parley with them, maybe get some answers it keeps clamming up about. They keep being tight-lipped —or I guess tight-teethed— about this challenge they placed on me, and it makes completing it absurd!”

The mumbling of her roommate came from the bookfort. “Maybe they want you to fail. It kinda sounds like a huge jerk with how you say it talks to you.”

The girl shrugged. “I don’t really know. It put me to sleep the first day I was here. If it really wanted me gone, it could just keep doing that until I starved to death or ended up in front of traffic. They need me alive for this connection to hold, I’m sure of it. Whatever it's doing, I have to figure it out.”

“And this book of baby names is going to help?”

Her student winked. What did she have up her sleeve?

“Yup! There’s over a thousand names in here, right?”

“...Yeah?”

“We’re gonna make one of those scrying circles and say names into the spell until we find the right one!”

“And if it isn't in there? Or doesn’t work on Skulley like how the wards didn’t? Or if it has a last name?”

“...Oh.”

Nothing. She had nothing up her sleeve the whole time.

Eda leaned closer to her apprentice. “Okay. So. We're not doing that, least of all because the spell components cost a premium. If we wanna find this creep's name, we should be looking into everything we know about em, pooling our knowledge. Whatcha got?”

A low hum came from the makeshift tower. “Well we know it calls itself Skulley?”

“I thought you gave it that name.”

“Oh right, I did. Uhhhh, it stans you and the Clawthorne name?”

“What in the abyss does ‘stans’ mean? Doesn't matter, I get the jist. I already looked through what family junk I have in the house. Nothing mentioning a demon anything like them.”

An accusatory inner voice hissed. ‘There's so many more records you could search. She would bring every single one over with nothing but a single call. You coward.’

Eda growled back internally. ‘Under no circumstances am I calling my mother. It's not worth it, even for the kid.’

The sound of her student going through her mind (singing something she called “a cool anime song”, whatever that was) filled the silence until she shrugged.

“He looks like King? We already kind of knew that, but does that ring a bell?”

“You think he was one of my many terrible servants, slaying anyone who got in my way?” The tiny mentioned monarch said excitedly.

Eda chuckled. “I'm gonna have to say no to the latter. As to the former, I have no clue.”

King's snout pushed through the window into the open air of the living room. “They could be! We could check my castle!”

Luz's voice went up a few dozen pitches. “You have a castle?!”

Eda was feeling the beginning of a headache. “We're not going to his castle. It takes hours to get there, most of the trip is spent avoiding steam burns and I have absolutely no desire to go. That thing can have the damn islan—”

That thing

Edalyn Clawthorne scooped up this tiny dog creature in a single hand as she aimed Owlbert at the monster, setting it ablaze with a torrent of flame. Mottled flesh sizzled and tendons dried and snapped, yet the thing persisted forward, unfaltering. New meat bubbled out from old bone as it split with a squelch somehow both too dry and too wet. The cartilage at the end of its arm stubs splintering into thin, jagged claws. In but a moment, this stark, hollow thing had regrown its lost mass and stood above her.

And yet the worst of it were its eyes. Cerulean lights stared down at her and into her soul as it shriveled under its gaze. Something within her shuddered and shrieked as it stepped closer. Eda could feel teeth grow and pierce through the inner tissue of her throat, creating spirals of sharp twisting pain. The light of the monstrosity's eyes burned the young witch's eyes as her pupils began to grow over her rest of her eyes.

The creature's eyelights stared down all the while, and that primeval fear pulsed deeper.

A fear now made familiar from the eyes of her apprentice and one other place. A cold and ancient place.

“-da? Eda?”

Eda blinked and she was back in her house with her living room being overtaken by her wards’ fort of books. The words were out of her mouth before she realized she said them.

“I know where we need to go.”

A squeak rang out and her student burst out of the bookfort, causing an avalanche of paper and leather across the old witch's living room. Two voice called out at once.

“You do?!”

“My castle!”

Eda shook her head. “Not your castle. Somewhere closer, still on The Titan.” She stood and started walking up the stairs before halting suddenly.

“Luz, grab the coin purse from Hooty. We'll need to go into town to buy you warm layers. Boots too. You'll need them.”

Eda began her ascent up the steps anew. There would be much more of that in the day ahead.

“We're climbing the Knee.”

Chapter Text

Deep dry snow crunched underfoot as elder and apprentice trudged up the mountain of petrified bone. An icy gale blew down on the two of them, a chill biting at any bit of exposed flesh it could reach. The smell of pine from the trees around them would be nice if not complemented with the stench of acrid pus dripping from weeping gashes in the wood.

“Ahh~ The smell of Pustulant Pine in the afternoon! No better scent to trek up the Knee!”

Eda's voice echoed off the mountains, the reverberations knocking a clump of snow from the top of a tree and onto the human

“Oops. Sorry, kid.”

Luz shook like a dog, the snow becoming a puff of white around her, and grinned. “I'm all good. I expected it to be colder up here to be honest.”

Eda squinted at her apprentice and shrugged. “Eh. It's probably because you're young. These old bones don't run as hot anymore. It's why we wanna get up this last bit. We'll make a fire and plan the next step there.”

Luz dashed up the last hurdle on their journey and stood at the peak of the mountain, looking down on a rocky plateau. Points of black stone jutted out from the land all over, light glinting off them just as much as the snow they were smothered in. The wind picked up the top layer of snow and made tiny little blizzards with it, the air seen with a white tint to it.

Eda summoned a pile of sticks crashing to the ground and flicked a spark down with them, forming a campfire in seconds. Twin blasts of fire left two dry spots on a rock for the witches to collapse onto, both pairs of legs feeling like jelly (one from age and another from the effort of the day prior). Luz hummed to herself as she warmed her hands while Eda began tapping her nails on her arms.

“Whew. Good to get a rest, huh? Just a nice sit. Here.”

Luz smiled. It was nice seeing Eda cares. “Yup.”

“Nice and warm by the fire? Comfortable?”

Uh, what? “Yeah…?”

Eda went silent for a minute, before finding her voice again.

“So are you sure you're comfortable—”

Luz turned to look at her mentor. “Okay, what is happening right now?!”

Eda was grinding her teeth and looking incredibly uncomfortable, eyes burning a hole into the landscape before her.

“Kid, I'm trying to figure out the right words for this type of thing, relax. Give me a moment.”

Luz’s voice grew quiet, yet her mind did not. Eda's voice had lost its warmth. Her expression went tight, strained, and her eyes shadowed. The girl frowned. For a moment, Eda looked older than ever. What was up here that would make her look like this? Memories of Eda explaining “recreational elixirs and spells” her first day of witch training came to the forefront of her mind.

‘Oh God, or Titan, or Satan, or whoever— please don't let this be a repeat of that talk! What is this, the third time I've had The Talk with a parental— uh, authority figure? The first one with Mami was enough.’

Yet as Luz continued to gaze at Eda, something about her elder's posture made her dismiss the idea. Back on that first day, Eda had looked like she wanted to bolt as she explained everything (thankfully not in detail). At this point, however, the witch's form held a weight to it as if each bone was coated in lead. That look of uncomfortability wasn't embarrassment, it was one of deep and complex sorrow. It was…

It was the look an adult gives when they look at a child and know they have to explain something horrible or sad that won't leave the child the same once they know.

Luz’s stomach churned. “Eda? What do you want to tell me?”

Eda sighed and massaged her forehead.

Luz pressed on. “Does it have to do with King? Is that why you didn't bring him along with us?”

Her mentor went still; her shoulders sagged. “Yes, it is. I'll have to give some explanation before that part, though.” She turned to look at Luz and pulled from her coat a pair of binoculars. She handed them to the girl and pointed to a point in the snowfield far away. Looking through her new scopes, Luz saw a flurry darker and grittier than snow.

“On the other side of the mountain from here lies the city of Marro. Or, well, it's ruins. It burned down a long time ago, folks blamed wild witches, it's a whole thing that isn't important right now. Normally, I would take you there if we were going up The Knee, with it having actual paths and being safer there in general. However, what we are hoping to find won't be found there. That old place got picked clean before I was born. We need somewhere like… like Fort Marro.”

“I'm guessing that's different from the city Marro?”

“It was named after the city. It was the last bastion of people like us before it fell.”

“Like us?”

“Wild, Luz. Wild demons and witches trying to hold back the tide known as Emperor Belos and his growing cult. This was nearing the end of the Savage Ages, as it was being…”

“Tamed?” Luz's face held no emotion. Eda gulped.

“You got it. The last hangers-on set up Fort Marro in and around the mining tunnels the old city had prospered from. It gave them a place to easily defend from. At least, it should have been.”

Eda took a deep breath. “And then the Emperor was at their door, and it was over.”

Luz looked puzzled. “Like he had snuck his army inside?”

Eda shook her head. “No, no army. Just him and a few of his loyal to witness what he did. He stood at the peak of the mountain and used his supposedly sacred magic gifted by the Titan to…”

Eda went quiet again. Luz could guess what happened next.

“He killed everyone?”

“He did. He called to the bone underneath the rock and made it shift and grow into grasping limbs and tear at the walls of the cave from the inside until the ceiling came down on it all. A wall of flesh formed around the encampment and the limbs snatched the survivors and held them down. Then…”

Luz waited for her mentor to find her voice again. Eda took a swig of something from a flask and continued.

“The reason the city Marro was founded here was twofold. The inexplicable raw magic here, and the massive iron deposit found buried in the Knee. These chunks are embedded into the island like they pierced its flesh long ago. Some think they're fragments of what killed the Titan. Either way, they are the easiest way to acquire metal in the Demon Realm. But raw iron— as you know —is toxic for witches and demons. Those who mine it have to wear special masks and keep themselves covered while they do it. And as you can imagine, a mineshaft so old and well used would have a lot of rubble. A lot of dust left over.”

Luz peered through the binoculars again. The wild stirred up again, the black blizzard coming to life once again.

“The Emperor summoned a raging windstorm, blasting every speck of iron grit off the ground and into the air. With the people held to the ground… They didn't have a chance. They all died within the hour.”

The two were silent for a few minutes, One waiting to see how the other would react. Luz didn't cry, or yell. She just sat there.

And then —with a tight nod— she spoke.

“Yeah, alright.”

Eda blinked. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. They're those people. I get it.”

The old woman was more than a bit shocked. “I-I gotta admit, Kid. I honestly thought you be— or maybe just look —more horrified about all this. It’s something awful.”

“Things tend to be more horrifying when they're new.”

It was evident on Eda's face she had nothing to respond to that statement with, nor the bitterness that lined her apprentice's face. Luz moved on.

“Does everyone know about this? What happened here?”

A sigh. “They know it how the coven’s history books say it: That after attacking his flock, the wildfolk had chosen to be savages instead of taking the freedom afforded to those following the Titan's will, and the Titan punished them.”

Luz growled. “That doesn't make sense. On its face it doesn't make sense.”

“It doesn't have to make sense, kiddo. It doesn't have to be logical. Something an explanation just has to be there so people can stop thinking about it and pretend they have a reason to keep their beliefs.”

“Well that's stupid.”

“Yup.”

Eda summoned more wood for the fire, which fell into the flame with a scream. Luz sat slumped against the rock, until she asked.

“What's next? What do we do now, what does it all have to do with Skulley?”

Eda stood up and began putting on long mismatched gloves, a mask to cover her nose and mouth, and some large swimming goggles. “There's only one good thing about the vile way the fort was taken out, and that's that the amount of iron in the air is so much that no one, not even the scouts have ever cleaned up anything. That means we could find stuff relating to the demons that died here, maybe something relating to your tag along nightmare.”

“Are you sure? How do you know there's even a connection?”

“Because I ventured into the fort once, a long time ago. And going in there I felt a panic in me I had never felt before. A panic I only now realize wasn't mine, but my own tag along’s.”

Luz gasped. “The Owlbeast!”

Eda nodded. “I've never felt such the same terror from Ol’ Feathers, save for three instances: Fort Marro, that thing that attacked me and King at his castle—”

Eda leaned down to Luz.

“—And you.”

Chapter Text

“We get in, find whatever scrolls or sources of information we can, and we get out. Do not take off your mask, do not get near the mine, and do not touch the bodies. Let's go.”

The air got thicker and grittier with every step closer to the fort. Dust covered everything. On the ground as a blanket of ankle-deep slurry and on the wind as snow mixed with the iron to form black flakes pelting the travelers. The entire storm seemed to be set in perpetual shade, not a single beam of sunlight making it through the blizzard. The travelers themselves were wrapped up in such a way as to leave as little skin exposed as possible. Both wore gloves, eyewear (Luz's pair appeared to be swimming goggles), facemasks, and loops of thin rope tied around each wrist and ankle to keep debris out.

Luz looked over to her mentor and gestured to her sullied garments, then rubbed some dust off to point to it.

‘Iron can soak through our cloaks. You okay?’, Luz tried to spell out with her charades.

Eda seemed to get it after a moment, and gestured to a bit of raincoat peeking out from her coat. Luz relaxed until Eda gestured at her facemask, making an up motion with her fingers. The girl pulled her own mask up, noticing it had been slipping. The tips of her gloves came back a ghostly white, and she grimaced.

The last thing Eda had pulled out was a tub of cream and directed Luz to take half of it. The solution was as thick and sticky as taffy, and her mentor had her spread it over her mouth and nose. It was like breathing through a bowl of yogurt that was just about to go bad.

“Basilisk Flem. Not actually from basilisks of course, that's just its name because it's supposed to let you breathe underwater like one. Had this pack of it from my childhood before the maker went out of business. Turns out on an island where the sea boils, swimming is a hard sell. The hope for us is that if it can filter clean air out of water, it can filter clean air out of this Titan-forsaken smog long enough to find something.”

The cream seemed to be working, if not with some issues. The facemasks were all that kept the goo on their faces, and Luz's was not as well fit as she would like. Every breath in felt like you weren't getting quite enough in, and every breath out felt like it was going to pop the cream off your face. But those didn't compare to the real downside, being that it muffled any noise out of your mouth into intelligibility. Not a word could be said between them, leaving them to find other methods of communication.

Eda pointed to something deeper into the storm and led them towards it. It wasn't until they were a couple feet away from it that Luz could see what it was. A wall of rough stone stood as tall as the trees, like it was pulled from the ground itself. The stone was utterly bare without a single sprig of ivy or clump of moss. Luz supposed it made sense, with every plant being left a withered husk in this place.

Eda waved her hand down and pressed her ear to the wall. Luz took that to mean she shouldn't bother her and craned her neck to look around, hoping to find anything of note. Seeing nothing, she started walking along the wall before her mentor snatched her by the arm and yanked her back. Eda repeated the hand motion —more forcefully this time— and returned to her work. Luz rubbed the soreness from her arm and waited, only a little annoyed by the miscommunication.

Eda found what she was looking for. She took a spool of thread from her pocket and a bit of Basilisk Flem from under her mask and made a rectangle the size of a door stuck to the wall. She then formed a large spell circle and plucked the magic from the air, shaping it along the thread and leaving the string glowing a faint gold. Taking a step back, the witch tightened her hands into fists and threw herself forward, punching the center of the shape with both hands as hard as she could. A sound like a gunshot rang out, and the stone split where the thread was laid, a rectangular slab sliding into the wall and out the other side with a massive THUD. Eda ducked to the side as a thick plume of dust soared out the opening. Once it cleared, Eda waved Luz over and ducked through the newly-made gap.

Luz hopped into the fort, the dark slurry now coming up to her knees. The fort was filled with a variety of shelters, all in a severe case of ruin. Piles of rotting tarp and wood that must have been tents at one point laid half sunk in the dirty ice close to the pair. Near the center, a large stone hut sat crumbling into itself, overgrown with something red squeezing between the bricks like ivy. Finally, near the back, the charred remains of some small wooden cabins stood flush against the sheer mountain wall.

Luz turned to her mentor for direction. Eda was staring down at her gloves, rubbing her knuckles before shrugging and looking at her student. She pointed to the ruins at the back, then to Luz, then back. The girl nodded and went to go, but was interrupted by the witch flailing her arm to get her attention again. Eda pointed at the hut in the middle and used her other hand to slice over her neck repeatedly, intensely. ‘Do. Not. Go. There.’ was the message, clear as crystal.

Luz gulped, (regretting it as she swallowed a bit of Basilisk Flem by mistake) and nodded to her teacher. Trudging her way around the inside of the wall, she made her way to the cabin closest to her. One of the walls was charred down to the beams, and the other three weren't looking too good either. Looking inside, the roof had kept most of the snow out, leaving the room as it had been long ago, save decades of decay. A pile of thick fur blankets sat in the corner by a small fireplace. A dining table sagged in the middle, rot having completely overtaken the center. A large chest sat pressed against the doorframe, the actual door having collapsed to splinters years ago.

Luz gingerly stepped through the beams into the house. The boards groaned in pain, sagging a little even under the girl's meager weight. Stepping towards the chest, she examined the front, finding a thick rusty lock holding it shut. After a quick tug to check its security, she walked over to the fireplace and searched around. She found what she wanted hanging off to the side of the fireplace: a fire poker.

Grabbing it off the wall, Luz stabbed into the side of the lock, sparks and rust flying with every hit. The lock remained. Muttering curses in her head, Luz tried to figure out another way to get the lock off, twisting it to apply constant pressure. No dice, it wouldn't budge.

It was then Luz noticed the latch itself shift as she pulled. Releasing the lock, the young witch pulled on the latch, finding that the nails holding it in place had deteriorated as well. Luz jammed the poker in between the latch and the wood and ripped her side of the tool down like a crowbar. With a sharp crack the nails snapped. The lid was free, and the young witch pulled the lid up and looked inside.

Clothes. Shirts and leggings and socks filled the chest to near bursting. This was what was locked up? No, there had to be more. Luz dug through the apparel until her hand brushed against something smooth and hard.

She had been right. A small collection of items lay nestled in the center of the clothes. A jade amulet cut in the shape of a reptile scale, a photo frame covered in ash, a cracked crystal ball, and a wand splitting apart at the tip. Wiping the soot away, Luz saw the photo within was that of a massive family of bipedal lizard people. Rows and rows of green scaled folks standing in sanguine sand and backdropped by trees covered in spines. Three children stood at the very front, trying to be very serious-looking and failing miserably. One had a forked tongue sticking out.

Luz smiled for a moment before a thought like cold water drained down her spine. The rest of the home was bare, without a personal effect in sight. Luz thumbed through the clothes, noting each set in her head. In the end, she counted three sets of clothing. One set was small enough to fit a child.

Only one set was fit for a child.

Luz put everything back how it was, and shut the lid, walking out to find her mentor.

The cold felt so much worse all of a sudden.

Chapter Text

Eda watched her mentee make her way to the cabins and took as deep a breath as she could with this flem crap on her face (the air barely made it to her lungs). The cabins were relatively safe, despite their proximity to the mine entrance, being free of bodies. She used one of the cabins as a shelter from the dust, and other, fouler things.

Eda felt her mind drifting back to her first time standing within these walls. The sound of snapping bone and fingernails cracking, splintering into nubs against stone played back to her before she shut it down with a fang piercing her lip.

Ignoring the sensation of drowning in molasses (now blood-flavored), Eda pushed through the wet soot towards the home of her nightmares standing in the center of the fort.

The shifting in the back of her mind started almost immediately. Looking down and brushing aside her layers, she checked her cursefinder gem. The darkness at the bottom was bubbling, lapping at the gold above. Eda mentally snarled at her feathered parasite and pressed on.

As she made it closer, the red strands clutching the bricks came into focus, their material now evident. What encased the remains of the structure was a web of sinew and raw muscle growing from below. It squeezed the building, crushing it to death like a snorse did its hoof-battered prey. Wiping her goggles clean and squinting as hard as she could, Eda studied the fibers.

They weren't moving. Good. Maybe it had finally died.

Maybe it was just resting.

She made it a couple meters away from the hut before her march became a crawl. Eda kept her steps as soft and quiet as possible. Every crunch of snow caused a violent flinch. The witch slowly made her way around to the front, keeping an eye on the web for signs of activity. They remained still as she found what was left of the doorway and ducked inside, careful not to let her cloak billow and touch the stone.

Within, the roof had collapsed in on itself, leaving the floor a mixture of soot-slurry and stone brick fragments. A repeating lattice of meat stretched over the walls. Whatever this place had been before, time and malice had eroded its meaning away a long time ago.

The black snow she dived into burned at her skin like acid, sores dripping bloody reds and viscous yellows formed on her body. The bruises on her back marked where the remains of the ceiling dropped on her, pinning her to the floor. Her lungs felt shriveled and raw.

And yet, as she listened to that wretched thing slither closer and began clawing at the rubble on top of her, her limbs remained frozen in place. She couldn't bring herself to move.

The feathers began to sprout.

Eda doubled over as what was at first an ache filling her esophagus down into her stomach became countless piercing stings. Several small protrusions pushed through the lining of her throat and deeper. The teeth were already wriggling inside her, growing to fill the space with every second. She couldn't dawdle. Her own panic at being back here was feeding this thing inside her.

She dug into her cloak and felt her elixir nestled safe within. She could take it once she was out of this death cloud.

Eda’s gaze caught on the corner of the room. A square had been cut into the buildup of snow, a thin layer of frost covered the odd section. Sending a lick of flame across the room, it revealed a trapdoor nestled into the floor. In a few short strides, she dug against the edge and flipped the latch open. The hatch went down to a small cave cloaked in shadow. It was dry, save for a small pile of snow that seemed to have laid at the bottom of the ladder for a while.

Ignoring the dread pooling in her belly, Eda hopped down, the jolt upon landing being none too pleasant on her old joints. Summoning a light, she surveyed her surroundings.

The cave below was a respite from the bitter chill. The area wasn't warm, per se, but it held a strange aura about it that kept the cold out. Maybe an elemental ward had somehow weathered everything and kept going. The walls were covered in writing, deep groves chiseled into the stone spelling out words in the language of both old demons.

No, not words. Names. Over a hundred of them, if she counted right. Eda racked her brain for her time in Demonology 103 at Hexside, hoping to decipher the text. Memories of doing everything she could to distract herself from the boredom in class came flooding back.

‘Ahh, young Eda— ruining current Eda's life once again, you scamp~’

The old witch continued her search into the back of the cave. Walking deeper and deeper, she found that the cave seemed to grow warmer. Strange. Near the back, something glinted in the light. Eda kneeled down to find an old scroll case capped in gold. A symbol, likely a family crest, was emblazoned on either end.

As she went to pick it up, something other than taste or smell or sight or sound alerted her. It was a thing of suffocation and darkness and burning. It was a thing of void and that which defined such an emptiness, and it enveloped this space like a fog.

It was not familiar to Eda, and yet a feeling of an absolute and familiar terror ran through her body. It pushed the spirals of teeth within to grow and the goosebumps on her skin to bloom with plumage. It pulled at the edge of her irises, engulfing the rest of her eyes.

‘I need the elixir. Now.’

Eda dug into her cloak, claws slicing open her gloves and leaving tears in her cape. Pulling out her elixir and holding it in the crook of her arm, she ripped the basilisk flem off her face. Immediately the smell bad yogurt left, replaced with the stench of stale decay flooding her nostrils, coming from somewhere dangerously close. As she stared into the darkness, those few extra beams of light now able to enter her pupils gave her the ability to see a figure hanging from the ceiling.

A tremor ran through her body, and Eda felt the bottle slip away, clinking against the cave floor and rolling away into the shadows. Before she could look for it, another tremor sent her crashing to the ground. Her palms burned as they dug into the iron-encrusted rock. Her breathing began to taste wet. A scream, a screech, was forced from lungs without her consent. The light of her magic went out like a candle in an ocean, casting the cave in pitch black.

And all the while, the figure in the dark began to shift and shake, as something began to take notice of her presence.

Chapter Text

The scream reached Luz's ears just as she left the cabin, the shriek reverberating throughout the fort.

“Eda?! EDA?!” Luz yelled back, but the flem trapped the noise before it could escape. She tore it off and tried again.

There was no answer.

Her heart leapt into her throat. It had come from the vine-covered hut. Sprinting as fast as she could through the heavy snow, Luz made her way to the center. As she dashed around the ruin to the door, the girl realized the “vines” for what they were, the realization all the easier to make as she watched the flesh web throb and clench and twitch and writhe against the brick. The mass split and grew over itself like a moss, painfully slow yet unerring. Luz forced herself to ignore it and shoved the door open, scanning the room for her mentor. The sound of retching led her to an opening in the floor, which the girl jumped down without a second thought.

Meeting the ground with a thump, Luz quickly pulled out a light glyph and lit up the cavern, finding not but some writing on the walls she couldn't decipher.

Luz ripped her eyes away from the curiosity. Whatever it was wasn't important right now, she had to get to Eda! Another retch came echoing from further in the dark, and the girl moved deeper inward. The cave seemed to have its natural endpoint several feet in, yet a bizarre sight was found in the far wall. Where the cave wall met the floor was a perfectly circular hole. The wall, rough and pock-marked, turned to a smooth melted clay-like complexion. It was like no kind of magic she had ever seen. Climbing through it, the warped passage went downhill until it deposited the young apprentice somewhere new. A square tunnel stretched on before her, held up by crumbling stone supports and choked with black dust. The Marro mines.

And crumpled on the floor of the mine was her mentor, shaking and coughing and covered in feathers. Her face and hands were red and splitting.

“Eda! Don't worry, I'll get the elixir!” Luz threw herself towards her mentor, desperate to help.

A claw sprang out and flung the young girl away into a wall.

“gET BAcK!” Eda snarled, irises eclipsing the color of her eyes. “DOn'T gET CLOse To THat THinG!”

Wincing, Luz caught her breath after it had been knocked out of her. Pulling out another light glyph, Luz activated it, ready to slow down the curse if she couldn't stop it.

It was in that light that she saw it.

It was on the edge of the light's radius, left half in shadows. Still, the sight left stomach acid licking at her throat.

A corpse hung from the ceiling. Only tatters of moldy clothes and stinking flesh were left on the bones. Dull green scales littered the ground, having rotted off ages ago and joining the copious amount of dried blood underneath the figure. It had a claw dug into the thing holding it in the air, with the other hanging limp by its side.

What sparked the most alarm wasn't the body, however. It was the thing holding it there.

It was not a rope that suspended the body, nor a chain, but an arm. An arm, withered and devoid of skin, sprouted from the wall like it had grown there. It was mottled red muscle covering up sickly yellow bone that paid no heed to any sane concept of anatomy. Over half a dozen times the limb snapped in some unnatural manner or direction, where crooked joints and tendons stretched like taffy formed to continue the travesty. White fleshy growths covered the thing. The hand was turned around at completely the wrong angle, the wrist broken yet holding steady regardless. It held the body by the face. Two fingers each plunged into the eyes with the thumb buried into the roof of the mouth, its long yellow fingernails stuck in the back of the sockets. Bloody tears caked the victim's face.

Every once in a while, a muscle twitched in place.

Luz had sat horrified too long. Eda let out another screech. Tearing her eyes away from the horror, she slowly stood up, her legs wobbling.

“Eda? How do I help? What do I do?”

Eda gurgled, then shakily raised a hand. With a trembling finger, she traced a spell circle. With a golden flash, a bindle wrapped around Owlbert and his staff. Shoving it into Luz's hands, she backed up, her fingernails clawing into the stone pillar behind her.

“KeeP. yoUrSeLF. SAfe.” Eda uttered before her eyes went completely black. Her form grew and grew until a feathery back brushed against the ceiling. A twisting neck swiveled as the hulking thing stared down at the little human. A deafening screech was forced through the wrong vocal chords.

The Owlbeast huffed and hacked as it steadied itself. It's eyes reflected the fear evident in Luz's own. It backed away from the girl, clacking it's teeth. It threw its wings back, a horrible crunch ringing out as one of them smacked against the corpse.

The scar on the girl's palm itched. Luz pressed her back flat against the wall, iron dust choking her breath. She couldn't move. She couldn't fight. All she could do was maintain eye contact and hope whatever the beast saw in her was enough to scare it into hiding within Eda like it did before.

And it worked, somewhat. The beast stumbled back again and screeched. When it saw Luz wasn't running, it did. The Owlbeast turned and fled into the darkness of the mine. The young apprentice's relief was immediately drowned in panic.

“Wait! Eda! Eda's curse! Come back, it's not safe in there!”

As she started to run after the creature, a quiet squelching and cracking began behind her. Where the body had been. A smell of fresh rot engulfed her nose and mouth.

Luz's legs froze up. She forced herself to turn around.

The body lay still. The arm did not. It spasmed and jerked, the flesh near the joints bulged and split as new bone ripped from it, forming new grasping arms. Like a tree, or a coral, it spread and grew.

And suddenly, with a lurch, it launched a dozen grasping hands at the closest warm flesh.

The main hand, coated in dry blood, pressed a nail into Luz's forehead before she could blink.

It felt wet blood run for the first time in decades.

Chapter Text

Luz couldn't move fast enough. In a single moment, she felt a dull, cracked fingernail pressing into her temple. It pushed against her skin, the pressure building, her flesh straining against it until it simply couldn't anymore and the filaments gave way.

Something wet trailed down her face.

And in another moment, Eda's staff threw itself backward and pulled Luz along with it. Her arm was wrenched back and nearly out of its socket, yanking the rest of her out of the monstrosity’s hands and down the tunnel. A series of frightened screeches blasted into Luz's ear. She turned to see Owlbert animated on his staff, puffed up with fear.

“Why are you just standing around?! That hand thing is attacking and Mama is transformed into Scary Mama and Scary Mama is lost in this scary dark cave alone! We need to get going!”

Luz saw her little bird friend quiver in place as he turned his head around to search for his carver in the darkness and went to comfort him. “We’re getting your mama and my teacher back. Don’t you worry.”

Luz heard a cacophony of crackling and popping from behind and threw herself to the ground. A series of rotting arms, fresh formed yet decrepit all the same, snatched at the space she was in a moment ago. Missing their target, they crashed into the walls. They dragged their palms over it, unresponsive to the gashes and cuts suffered on the rough surface. Each hand found a crack in the wall and buried their digits into the purchase, tearing open the split. More masses of meat came spilling from the fissures, creaking awake. The flesh surrounded the girl, and a new batch of arms clawed their way across the floor towards their prey.

Luz ripped open the bindle wrapped around the staff and pulled out a bottle capped with a square cork. The girl pitched it as hard as she could at the abomination approaching her. Frost flowed over the limbs, what little moisture they had left forming splinters of ice stabbing into them with every twitch.

And it barely slowed it down.

As frozen tendons snapped under their own strain, needles of bone split from the arm and knit the broken sinew together. As muscle slowed in the cold and tore against ice, the fibers unraveled and reformed into a crude mockery of the correct anatomy. It dragged itself forward without pause, without pain, without pity.

Luz caught herself freezing up again and forced herself around the staff, hugging it tightly and letting out a panicked shriek. “Owlbert fly! Go go gO GO GO!”

The staff and its rider went rocketing over the flesh. A claw peeled from the mass and swiped at the two, carving a few wood shavings from the butt of the staff. Luz looked down to the small mote floating over her palm. The light in her hand wasn't bright enough to scout a course through the mine, not at these speeds. Luz pulled a handful of light glyphs and tossed one ahead, but narrowly missed being smacked in the face by her own paper scrap. Iron dust caught on her goggles, clouding her vision even more.

“I can barely see a thing in this place.”

“I was carved in the image of a nocturnal avian predator, my eyes were made for this. That tiny sun you have is enough for me.”

“We'll have to go slow. Can you steer without me? Do you not need a witch while on your staff to direct?”

“...You know how much Mama drinks, right?”

“Ah. Yes. You'll do great.”

“I haven't seen her go a week without apple blood in over a decade.”

“I know. We just had the Roof Incident last week.”

“Another one?”

The palisman and his rider fell into silence as they slowly flew through the mines. Owlbert would coo as he drifted through the bends, alerting his human friend of the fresh scratches in the floor and the dust wiped from the walls by tremendous wings. Luz kept her ear out for any creaking of bone or snapping of flesh and holding back the urge to vomit as the heavy stench of iron filled her mouth with every breath. She might be human, but she knew this much iron particulate could not be good for anyone. Luz closed her eyes, trying to push her worry down.

‘We just gotta save Eda. We just gotta save Eda. Don't think about what those things did to these people. Don't think about what they might do to Eda. Don't think about what they might have already done to Eda. Just. Stop. Thinking. Please. Please be okay.’

It was this distraction that left Luz unprepared for the sudden lurch as the staff halted an inch from a sharp turn in the mine. The witch-in-training tumbled over herself and nearly off the staff, hitting the cave wall with a painful thud.

“Ow! Owlbert, why did you—”

The smell of sweet rot caught the girl's attention. In the corner of her vision, something slithered just out of the light's reach, hidden in the darkness. Owlbert let out a strangled, terrified squeak.

“The flesh is right! There!”

Luz blew on the mote and let it gently drift into the darkness, exposing streams of flesh and bone flowing and weaving into clawing shapes. The remains of old victims could be seen poking out from the mass. The creaking and scratching got louder, yet the flesh didn't seem to be getting closer—

Luz spun around. Claws dug their way out of a crack in the ceiling and became a wall of tendrils within seconds. They were surrounded. Luz heard the first mass lurch upwards and watched as the massive shadow of crooked fingers spilled over the walls. Turning around, Luz only got a glimpse of a hand closing around the mote of light.

The last thing burned into Luz's memory before the mine went dark was that hand. Soaked red, covered in bloody feathers and bits of fresh skin that was not its own, it snatched the mote and snuffed it out, plunging everything into pitch black.

The scratching grew louder, and closer.

Chapter Text

Luz could swear the darkness was choking her.

It was a tight, heavy blanket smothering her, constricting around her chest and esophagus.

It was a creeping, viscous liquid, squeezing into her nose and mouth and throat and lungs.

It felt like drowning in the slowest possible way. Like being submerged in a well of rotting molasses.

Was she breathing? Was she still alive?

Was it the darkness suffocating her, or had the writhing flesh found its target at last?

Maybe it had found her, and she was just blocking what it was doing to her out of her mind. Luz remembered the knuckles buried deep into eye sockets. Scraping fingernails dug into the backs of the cavities, and then through.

She wondered if it was truly darkness she was looking at. Could she tell the difference between it and nothing at all?

She wondered if the mass had done to her what it did to the first body. If she moved her hand to her face, would her fingers brush against others, wet with whatever fluids were in her eyes as they popped? Would she feel the warmth of gorey, red tears running down her face as the last time she would ever cry?

Would doing so make her remember what was happening to her, remember the agony she should be in and the feeling of being entombed in countless clawing hands as they dug into her?

It felt like drowning.

Luz

slowly raised a hard

to her face.

. 

.

.

.

A nail scratched against her eye.

It was her own.

She could feel her lungs, her heart, her veins again.

She could hear her own shaky breaths, and the terrified, panicked wheezes of her companion.

“Owlbert? Are you okay?” Luz whispered as low as she could.

“No! We are surrounded and about to die and Mama is hurt somewhere! I saw the feathers!” The palisman let out a high-pitched keen. Luz's heart jumped in her chest at the pitch, straining her ears for signs that the flesh was going after the sound.

The wretched sounds of the monstrosity continued as they were. Horrible to be sure, but unchanged.

“I don't think we're being attacked. The flesh would have gotten us by now if it was.”

“Are you sure?”

‘Ha ha ha, nope!’ Luz felt like saying, but kept that thought quiet for the small comfort she could give her small friend. “I can still feel where that fingernail entered my forehead," she explained with a shudder. “If it sprung at me that fast, why would it take so long now?”

“So what is it doing?” Owlbert whispered.

“You can’t see?”

“I might not need as much light to see as you, but I still need some. In this absolute darkness, I’m as blind as you.”

Luz went silent, drummed her fingers on the wood of the staff as she tried working through the dilemma she was in.

‘How would Eda get out of this?’, one part of Luz’s brain asked.

‘Pyrotechnics and fire?’, the other part responded.

‘Those are the same thing and we have neither of them. Fool. Utter fool.’

‘You’re a fool!’

The witch apprentice shook her head, displacing her argumentative imagination to the far reaches of her mind. Okay, if she couldn’t do it like her teacher, maybe she could think it like she did. Luz remembered Eda’s tips for the duel yesterday (Luz needed a break).

“If even an abomination made of living mud and magic needs eyes to see, so does a mass of unliving meat. It doesn’t have eyes that I know of, so it can’t see, and if it sensed me “through magic”, it would have caught us.”

“Well yeah. Everything hunts somehow. Maybe it uses hearing? I didn’t see any ears, but I don’t have any either.”

“You were pretty high-pitched with your wailing a few moments ago. I think they’d have caught on if that was the case.”

“I don’t wail!”, Owlbert wailed.

Luz glared at the tiny screeching bird lad. Or at least where she assumed he was. It was still pitch dark.

“I can feel that look. Are you sure you aren’t Mama’s kid? I can feel the heat from your eyes, and it’s just like hers. I never get the look like King does though, I’m the good son~”

The girl sighed. “So sight and sound are out of the picture. I wonder…”

Feeling around in her bag, Luz wrapped her hand around something heavy, made of metal and covered in leather. Feeling it over, the fantasy-obsessed teenager recognized the shape of a thick dagger. Eda must have packed an extra just in case. ‘Thanks, Eda…’

Luz held it up in the air as high as she could reach. Before she could let the fear take hold, she let it slip from her hands.

The blade fell, a second later crashing into the floor with a loud metal clang on the stone below. Immediately, the gruesome noises increased, the sound of boney hands surging along the ground towards its target. After a moment, the din settled down, returning to small pops and creaks.

“Was that you?! Was that that Mama?! My teeny heart can’t take much more of this!”

“Sorry, that was me. I figured it out. They use vibrations to hunt in the mine.”

“Like your footsteps?”

“And like me slamming into the wall during the turn. Flying on you is probably the thing keeping me alive. Thanks for that, buddy.”

Luz felt Owlbert wiggle a bit in excitement.

“You’re welcome~ I— wait. If they sense through touch, why did they grab the light?”
That was the snag in her theory, wasn’t it? How did it even know the light was there with it floating in the air? The mote was closer to the mass than the two of them currently were, but it didn’t give off any vibration. What could the flesh have noticed about it besides that?

Her answer came in a sniffle. Her nose and mouth— without their cover —were exposed to the cold.

“Heat.” Luz gasped. “The light mote gives off heat. Not much, but maybe enough to be noticeable.”

“And they haven’t noticed your warmth, because?”

“My coat is still covered in snow from outside. Wait a minute… That’s why it went for my face! It was the only part of me it could see!”

Pulling a light glyph carefully out of her pocket, Luz imagined an ember, a spark, a tiny flicker of candlelight. Low light, low heat.

“I’m gonna try making a small light to see if I’m right, okay? Are you ready?”

“I believe you. I’m ready.”

Luz pressed her thumb into the paper. Slowly, oh so slowly, the light grew. Unlike the warm, starlike shine of her normal glyph, or a blinding, quick flash like her combo glyph, this one was a dim, trembling matchstick glow. She could see little but her own hands in this weak light.

But she didn’t have to. She had a master of the dark and the night on her side.

“I can see again! The flesh isn’t coming closer!”

“What about Eda? I saw—”

“I can smell blood and see feathers. Scary Mama was here and got hurt. Bad. I don’t- I don’t see a body. I’d see a body. The body is too big and I don’t see one, so there isn’t a body and she’s. fine.”

Luz didn’t ask if he knew whether cursed forms stuck after the death of a host. She didn’t want to know either right now.

“Can we get further into the mine? Away from danger?”

It took a moment for Owlbert to respond. “Maybe? There’s some space up at the top where it hasn’t fully grown, but I don’t know how far it stays that way. It all keeps shifting and undulating and I can’t see too far in. ”

Luz let out a trembling breath. She could figure something out to get them both out of this. She could do something. She couldn’t see, but that’s fine.

“Owlbert, I’m going to need you to lead me on this, okay? It’s like when Mama drinks too much apple blood. You have to tell me what to do, where to duck, how to lean, what direction to move, and where to stop. Do you understand?”

Owlbert was shivering beneath her. “Y-yes. Duck down and aim up a bit.”

Luz nodded. “Okay. Let’s go. Up near the top, alright.”

The two inched up and over the tendrils. Luz could just barely smell the fresh blood, covered up mostly by the iron. With her body pressed low and legs curled against the staff, Luz could feel herself teeter back and forth with every twitch of muscle. A gap the size of a small door, like a toothless maw, awaited them near the ceiling. The flesh had already begun to hang overhead.

With a breath small enough to not make her presence bigger, Luz and co flew deeper still. The breath didn’t feel like enough.

It felt like drowning.

Chapter Text

Luz had never felt claustrophobic before.

In her old home, there was an old vent big enough for a little girl to squeeze into in the basement.

(Putrid meat shivered beneath her, beside her, above her.)

Having discovered it in the middle of Hide and Seek, Luz hadn’t given it a single thought before crawling in and immediately getting stuck.

(Barely room for air. Barely room to breathe.)

Dad had heard her voice coming out of his office vent and screamed when he found two small feet dangling out of a hole in the wall.

(“Don’t lift your head an inch. Bones are pressing through the muscle above, I think they’re fingers growing out. Hide the light under your coat and cover your face.”)

Everyone was alright in the end. They both got a good laugh out of it. No one got hurt.

Don’t think about it.

(Don’t think about it.)

“We’re gonna have to move up against the wall on our right. Keep your head low.”

Luz, try as she might, couldn't keep her thoughts on better times. The memory faded away and left her in stark, horrid reality. A reality of rotting, growing walls where any brush with her surroundings was a brush with death. Suspended in the air on a dowel in the dark as the corridor grew tighter and tighter.

if Luz survived this, she was putting all of this in the next chapter of her fic.

In one of the many membranes covering the mineshaft like webbing, there was a large jagged gash from what looked like massive claws.

“I think we're catching up to your mama.” Luz whispered. Owlbert trilled in excitement.

Aiming for the gap and making sure not to touch the hanging tatters, the two made their way through the grisly corridor. As they squeezed through, another membrane laid over the next section of wall, another gash ripped in it. As they went through each one, the flesh became more and more active, forming more limbs and twisting upon itself in ever more extravagant ways, like the arm covered by fingers on every inch which nearly hit Owlbert in the side of the head as it broke half its digits on the cave wall it dug into.

Something agitated the mass, and Luz was pretty sure she knew what it was.

A muffled screech came roaring through the shaft. Owlbert let out his own cry and began increasing speed, jostling Luz and leaving her clambering to stay upright. Barely making it clean through the gaps, the two saw what the meat was after.

Pinned by at least half-a-dozen claws was the twitching feathered arm of Eda’s cursed form.

Owlbert screeched. Luz could feel his intentions flash through the sound, rage and pain and fear. He was going to dive on the meat like a mouse, tear into it with beak and claw and never stop until he got his bonded back.

“Owlbert, don't! It’s Eda, she removes limbs all the time!”

“She's never done it when she's cursed! How do you know it works the same!? How do you know she isn't… isn't…”

Her little bird friend was hyperventilating, his eyes bulging out as he tried to catch a glimpse of the rest of his mama. Every feather on his body stood on end.

Luz shakily raised out a hand and scratched the poor boy's head like she saw Eda do sometimes. Owlbert froze.

And slowly, gently, his feathers went down, and the staff merely buzzed instead of violently shaking with arcane energy. Luz had never heard an owl weep, but she knew then and there that she never wanted to hear such a sad noise ever again.

Pulling her dagger from her sheath, she tested the edge. Sharp enough for a decent slice into flesh, but bone? It wasn't gonna cut it.

(“It's not the time for puns!” Owlbert squeaked huffily.

“I didn't even say anything!”

“You did the face...”)

Luz checked what potions she had in her bag. There were freeze pots galore with a few (sadly useless) fog brews, and a mystery vial at the bottom of the sack. The vial was made of a thin amber crystal with a raindrop cork, and as she held it, she heard and felt a hum emanating from it, a long, ringing note carrying on forever. A small note was tied around the lip.

‘A bit of bard magic I learned after Hexside. Shows you how useful school actually is, huh? Use after icing something for best effect! -Eda.’

Luz smiled. She'd thank Eda after she got her out of her cursed form and the mine. Pulling the fog brews and amber bottle out and into her coat, she began cutting away at the bag with her blade. Leaving strips to wrap together into cord connecting the bottom of the pouch, she now had what was probably the shoddiest, oversized sling ever made.

She just had to hope it did its job.

Swinging the bag over her head over and over, the girl with a heave threw it as hard as she could down at the base of the limbs. The package detonated it all at once, the vials focused out of the bag at the meat, freezing them all in place like a horrid art piece. Before it had time to respond, Luz hurled the bit of bard magic down. A piercing shriek emanated out as the vial broke, a force like a bomb going off along with it. The ice shattered to glass-like bits, dropping the arm and leaving it free. Luz was ready to cheer before the force made its way to her, knocking her off of Owlbert and onto the painful stone floor. The staff went sailing down the tunnel ahead of her.

“Owlbert!” Luz cried. Not letting herself freeze up again, she snatched up the arm of her mentor and ran after her fuzzy friend. The sound of something ghastly reforming left her cursing. Even iced and shattered, it didn’t stop.

Luz found herself at the end of an incline where the tunnel began to look more derelict, the walls cracked and the floor sagging. She could hear dripping water echoing from somewhere.

The staff was nowhere to be seen.

“Owlbert?”

Luz scanned the floor for the palisman. She couldn’t have missed him in the chaos of it all, right?

Suddenly, she heard muffled hoots coming from behind her, as well as a deep, rumbling growl.

Turning around, she found the Owlbeast, hobbling on three legs and covered in scrapes and gashes, bearing its teeth at her. Owlbert in his full animal form was being held under one wing, struggling to escape, but not looking worse for wear besides that.

“Eda.” Luz squeaked. “It’s- It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I just need you to take your elixir, okay? Is Owlbert—”

As she reached a hand out to Owlbert, the beast flared its feathers, shifting so it was between Luz and the tiny owl as much as possible. An ear-piercing screech rang out.

The girl stepped back, holding her hands up. “Okay, it's okay, don’t be scared. I won’t hurt him either. Neither of us want anything bad to happen to him, I promise.”

Her cursed mentor just stared at her. Luz racked her brain to figure out what to do. She had a flash glyph in her pocket she could use if she could get to it, but the creature seemed incredibly jumpy already. Every second she was keeping eye contact, it was looking more and more stressed.

So Luz made a decision.

Breaking eye contact to stare at the floor, Luz slowly placed the Owlbeast’s arm down and slid back inch by inch.

Luz heard the growling catch for a moment before continuing, a drop of confusion laced into it now. The limb twitched, then scuttled away to its host. A small twist and pop, and Luz was sure it was back on.

The cracking of bone continued. The growling suddenly ramped up into a clacking of teeth, and Luz realized it was no longer just her it was snarling at. Looking up, the flesh had arrived, gushing out of the tunnel walls through the cracks and sliding out of the way back.

“Uh, Edacurse? I really need you to fly us away now…”

The curse couldn’t decide between keeping its focus on the current threat or the new one. It kept taking bites in the air at either, yet neither seemed to go away.

“Edacurse?”

After a moment, it made its own decision.

Barreling towards Luz in an instant, The slammed into the girl as it went to flee both of them. The girl, in her own panic, couldn’t think to do anything but grab onto what was underneath it all, her mentor. This left the bird creature even more frightened, letting out cries of terror as it shook to get free.

It was this terror that blinded the Owlbeast to the sheer drop that awaited them at the end of the tunnel.

With a single slip, the three of them went plummeting down into darkness, the walls not giving the beast room to open its wings to fly (not that it would matter with one of them being used to hold onto Owlbert for dear life).

Just as Luz felt her grip failing, she slammed back into her teacher for the briefest of moments as they hit something before they were falling again, for another of those briefest of moments.

And then she wasn’t falling.

She was floating.

Her skin screamed before slowly going numb. Her hands and feet grew slow and sluggish. The shock of the cold left her gasping, breathing in frigid water as she did.

She was floating somewhere deep in the darkest, coldest water she had ever known.

She couldn’t find Eda.

She couldn’t find Owlbert.

She felt like she was drowning.

She was.

Chapter Text

Luz thrashed trying to find any purchase in the frigid black waters to no avail. Every second without air felt like an eternity. Every second her arms and legs grew increasingly numb as they tried to drag themselves out of this watery grave.

Light. She needed light. She needed to see through this choking dark. Slowly, Luz dragged her hand to the pocket where she kept her glyphs. Wasting a couple seconds trying and failing to work her fingers inside, the young witch resorted to slapping the outside of the pouch in desperation and hoping for sight.

One second, then two, passed like a century.

On the turn of the third, a weak, thin glow leaked out of her pocket. Motes of light gently floated out and away. Up.

She followed the trail of mini suns up to the surface. The water was murky and reddish black, stinging her eyes. It tasted like metal or blood.

A thick layer of ice, tinted red met her head on the way up, another barrier between the girl and the surface.

Her lungs burned.

Luz scanned the ice for her entry point.

A bubble escaped from her throat.

The entry point was a couple feet away from her, a massive hole broken into the ice by a massive shape. Had Eda gotten out?

Was the water messing with her eyes or was her vision going blurry?

She had to swim.

Three feet. Two feet.

She couldn't feel her hands at all.

One foot. Grabbing the edge.

Were her legs kicking still?

Breach.

Luz burst out of the water, hurling herself onto the ice. Coughing and sputtering out mouthfuls of iron-infused water, she forced herself to crawl away from the hole. She knew if she fell in again, there was a good chance she was never coming back up.

Bleary-eyed, Luz searched for any sign of land around the underground pond, only seeing ice and darkness.

‘I wish you were still with me, Owlbert.’ 

An idea. Turning to investigate the breach in the ice, Luz found what she was looking for instantly. Shallow scars were left in the ice, scratch marks leading into the shadows, some deeper where it seemed the beast had slipped.

‘I might not have my fuzzy owl friend to guide me, but maybe a scary owl enemy will do the trick. Is the beast an enemy? I can’t think about this now, I’m too tired.’

Luz followed the tracks until she could see a single smudge of gray in the dark.  Slowly creeping along to keep her weight from breaking the ice, she made her way toward the smudge, willing her limbs to just keep going a bit more. A terrible shivering ran through her body without end, her limbs shaking violently. Her teeth couldn’t stop chattering.

Finally close enough to make out what she was seeing, Luz realized she had made it to a small rocky beach against one of the cave walls. Ten feet up the wall was her escape, another strange hole of melted stone leading out into darkness. A hole just like the one that first led Eda, and then her, into the mine, save for the fresh claw marks it bore.

As Luz made her way onto the beach, a viscous tremor loosened a rock she was holding onto, sending her sprawling to the ground. Staring up at the cavity above, she knew she wasn’t going to be climbing up to freedom with the state she was in.

Luz continued to shiver. She wasn’t going to survive in the state she was in. It was a miracle she hadn’t succumbed to hypothermia already.

She felt her veins, still giving off that little bit of warmth with every heartbeat (which she could feel getting weaker, minute by minute). Maybe it was something else keeping her going.

Miracle or not, it wouldn’t last, she knew that. Luz could feel the cold creeping into her bones, into her mind. Her clothes stuck to her body, the drenched fabrics sucking the remaining warmth and energy from her body. She had minutes until her brain was too muddled to do anything to stop it, to save herself.

Luz forced herself up and began looking around. ‘What can I do to warm myself up? What’s around? There’s ice and rocks and more stupid ice and more stupid rusty rock— Iron! I can make a spark! I can make a fire! I can… do nothing because I don’t have any wood. Or any type of kindling. ¡Mierda!’

Her skin had numbed to the stinging sensation already. She had to hurry. Luz desperately searched for anything she could find to help her. Her eyes eventually landed on a light that had escaped from under the ice with her. Grasping the mote out of the air and holding it close to her chest, Luz waited for the warmth from it to bring back her senses, to no avail. It alone wouldn't give nearly enough warmth to save her, even if she wasn't soaked to the bone.

‘And the rest of the lights are trapped under the ice. What's left to try?’

Luz stared at her lone source of warmth, trying to think through the mud slowly filling her mind. She stared until her eyes adjusted to the light, and the light sigil was visible, hiding faintly in the center.

‘What happens to the paper when you use a light glyph.’

Luz's answer was found.

The young witch pulled out her dagger and began carving into the ice. Circles upon circles upon circles drawn into the frost, markings obscuring markings until they are nothing more than scribbles. It was a poor artwork she had to admit, with what little dexterity she had left being used to keep her upright. She didn’t have time to perfect her linework.

 Finishing the last details, Luz stood up. Without a moment to spare, Luz gave the sigil mass a kick and stepped as far back as she could with her eyes covered. This was going to be a pretty big flash.

It began with a hum.

‘That’s good.’

Then a whine.

‘Wait, that’s not supposed to happen.’

Then a warbling in the air got louder and louder, which was the exact point Luz recalled two years ago when she had last gotten a bit sloppy with her linework.

‘Oh this is going to be bad, isn’t it—’

 The entire cave flashed pure white for an instant, a crack like a whip the length of mountains going off and knocking her off her feet with a wave of heat. A horrible dizziness engulfed Luz, leaving her quivering on the beach. A smell like chlorine filled the air.

Luz opened her eyes. What had been a solid sheet of ice on the underground pond was now fractured into several floating chunks of ice around a steaming hole. The shore nearest to the blast zone was scoured black, jagged lines fanning out from the center. Glowing sparks ran through the water underneath, zapping bits of exposed iron at the bottom.

Luz struggled to finish the final step, crawling her way over to the hole and swiping away the steam. Staring into the water, Luz grinned as she felt heat like a giant blow dryer come pouring from it.

Well, not it. What it showed.

“Edaspawn. How And Why Was I Accosted By Such A Horrid Cacophony.”

Chapter Text

Hallo!

I assume you have noticed that it is taking longer than usual for the chapter to come out.

This is due to my life being filled with studying for an exam to help me get a job, hanging out with my new boyfriend (Hi, T!), and contuinely rerighting the chapter bit by bit due to not finding it right for helping progress the story beats I want.

So to apologize, I will be taking the next week to try and write a chapter double the length of my normal one since it is taking double the time.

Sorry for the wait, and I hope to have this "chapter" replaced by an actual chapter soon.

Thanks!

Alex.

(PS, would love to hear what you all want from the story and what your theories/criticisms are for said story. I think getting feedback helps when you don't have an editor to help talk through these things. Thanks!)

Chapter Text

The steam pouring from the pond hissed in worry, bringing a gale of thought to its receiver.

“So Edalyn Has Lost You Within This Place.”

Luz sat on the edge of the beach, wringing out her jacket and holding it up to her reflection to dry it off, trying to keep her body from shuttering.  “More like I lost her, but yeah. She, uh, got lost in the mine and now I'm trying to locate her.”

“You Should Not Have Come Here. Neither Of You.”

“I know that now. I figured that when I plummeted into an icy pond escaping a clawing mass of arms wit- looking for Eda.

The water changed from a simmer to a bubbling froth. “That Is Not What I Warn Of.”

Luz stopped wringing. More? There could be something worse than the horrors she had witnessed in this horrible place? “There's something else?”

“I Know Of The Ceaseless Black Storm That Covers These Ruins. The Old Magic That Guides The Titan Flesh Against Its Children Is Only A Foundation For The True Threat To Hold Itself Here. Mixed In To Keep It Working. Can You Not Taste What Flows In The Air And Under The Flesh.”

Luz gulped. “I don't understand.”

The pond stilled.

“Magic. Of A Special Kind. It Is Magic Made Living Yet Without Life. Magic Made Thinking Without Thought. A Leach Of Pure Bile Shifting And Twisting Itself To Better Dig Into The Host And Refuse Relief From It. I Believe The Name Granted To It By My Kin Is Curse.”

‘A curse?’ Luz thought. ‘Did Eda know about this? Is this why she wanted to come here? To maybe find something out about her curse? No, that wouldn't make sense. Eda only wanted to go here after they talked about Skulley, and they don't have any connections to curses… do they?’

“The Dark Flakes Coat The Walls And The Winds. Edalyn Will Not Survive Long In Here If She Can Not Find Her Way Out. Nor Will You.”

“That's why I need to find her as soon as possible.” Luz threw her clothes on as fast as she could, ignoring the trembling of her bones and the feeling of the damp cloth sucking what heat she had acquired from her.

“No. Not Yet.”

Luz startled, then looked to her reflection, incensed. “No? What do you mean no?! Your favorite person, one of the people you say you're supposed to protect is in trouble, and you expect me to just sit here?!”

“My Debt Means I Must Protect The Clawthorne Line. You Are Edaspawn. I Cannot Help Edalyn At This Moment. I Can Help You. Warm Yourself. You Have Not Recovered From Your Fall Into The Ice.”

“She doesn't have time! I might be a bit cold, but she's still soaked! I have to find her!”

Luz stood and took a step towards the way out, but as she did, she gasped and held her chest. She had suddenly become hyper aware of her heartbeat. The muscles in her chest had tightened on her heart. She felt something wrap around the organ like a spider wraps webbing around a fly.

A second later, the tightness was gone, the wrapping unwound, and all Luz could hear was her heartbeat in her ears.

“Do You Take Notice Now. The Rhythm Of Your Heart Has Not Returned To Normal Yet. Go Now And You Will Have Only Delayed Your Death And Left Edalyn To Find Your Corpse.”

She could feel it now. Her heart was just a tad too slow, an extra second between each beat. Skulley noticed? “I—”

“Are You Cruel Enough To Leave Your Parent Without A Spawn.”

That last question came through into Luz's mind like a flood, dousing the girl's resolve. Luz went quiet for a few moments. Then, slowly, she turned back to Skulley and sat back down, a grimace on her face.

The two of them spent the next few minutes in silence, the bubbling of the pond being the only noise to echo off the walls. Then, Luz asked.

“Why do you care now?”

Skulley seemed confused.

“What Do You Mean.”

“I mean you've refused to give me the slightest hint or help ever since I got to this realm. You've been adamant about letting me die if I don't save myself. Is it because Eda is in trouble now? Is that what overcame your dislike of me?”

Skulley stopped grinding its teeth, and the bubbling stopped. Its eyes met Luz's.

“I Do Not Help Because I Can Not Allow Myself To Choose. The Witches And Demons On This Body Are My Family. My Kin. To Choose To Honor My Debt And Assist You Over One Of Them Would Be To Forsake Them.”

The next words shook through Luz's bones in booming clarity, a whirlwind surrounded her like a hurricane. The heat left the ice over the pond cracked.

“And I Will Never Forsake One Of My Kin. Ever.”

Skulley paused, its eyelights drifting to the side, staring off into nothing. Luz went to speak. but before she could, she felt the wind stop in place. Something flashed through her, an emotion as dense as the core of the sun and with the speed of starlight had gone rocketing in and out of her mind before she could tell what the feeling was. All she knew was that it made her want to puke.

Skulley seemed to pull itself out of whatever funk or memory they had been in and turned back to Luz, returning to conversation.

“You Ask Why I Help Now. I Help Because This Is A Rare Hunt Where I Need Not Be Fair. What You Fight Is Not One Of Mine.”

Luz huddled deeper into her jacket trying to piece everything together when she noticed her clothes were finally dry. Hopping up to her feet, she checked her pulse through her wrist. Back to normal. Well, save for the shaking, but she could deal with it.

“I'm going to find Eda. For real this time, don't try to stop me.”

Skulley went back to teeth-grinding, clearly frustrated.

“I Will Not Attempt To Halt You But I Cannot Keep You Warm Away From Here. I Cannot Keep You Safe.”

“I'll be fine.” Luz cracked her neck, checked that the bottle of golden elixir was still in her pocket, and smiled as she walked towards the hole leading out of the cave. “Because I won't forsake one of my own either.”

***

The tunnel up and out of the pond made the hairs on Luz's neck stand on end for reasons she couldn't explain. Maybe it was how the walls felt too smooth to be natural, without any hint of the wear and tear that the rest of the mine had. Maybe it was the smell, like a lightbulb that had recently popped and burnt out. Or maybe it was the air, so still and lifeless that every inhale felt too thin, and every exhale felt like it had to be forced out.

Luz struggled up the inclined passage, her knees covered in bruises from slipping on the smooth stone time and time again. It was a relief when Luz finally pulled herself through, leaving herself sprawled on the floor. As she pulled herself upright, she realized several things.

1. She was back in the mine, (don't play the song in your hea- its already started).
2. She could see far more of the room than what her little light mote could possibly show.
3. She was being engulfed in the smell of stale, rotting meat.

Luz took in the room she found herself in slowly. It looked like it had been the site of a major excavation. The walls were carved into, expanding the room and leaving small nooks where miners dug out the deposit. On her right was one of the mineshafts she had been chased through, back the way she came. On her left looked to be a cave-in, mostly shrouded in darkness, save for the top of the rock slide.

At the top of the rock slide, there was a small gap where a beam of sunlight and the smallest flurry of white, powdered snow came through.

‘The way out!’ Luz was overjoyed. ‘And it's even out of the iron blizzard too! I just gotta find Eda and Owlbert and we can get out of here!’

As Luz walked towards the rock slide, something caught her eye on the floor. Many small splinters of something glinting in the dark. Luz leaned down to get a closer look. It was glass, littering the ground in shards, with a broken band of brass lying further along. The floor underneath the mess was changed from rough uneven stone to that same porcelain smooth and that same burning scent as the tunnel.

Luz took a step forward, ready to investigate, before she stopped herself. She had a job to do. Make sure the gap to the surface was wide enough to escape through, and cure her Mentor. She tried and failed to hold back a tremor running through her body as she walked to the rock slide. ‘See, Luz? You still need to recover from the cold, you don't have time to—’

The bottom of the rock slide was no longer hidden in darkness.

At the base of the cave-in was her mentor.

Curse Eda lay shivering at the base of the pile. Chunks of stone spilled over the ground and scratches left on the mouth of the gap showed that it had tried to force its way out, depleting what remaining energy it had. It was balled up on itself, its head, and presumably Owlbert, were hidden in its wings.

Luz rushed over to the beast and placed her hand on it, her hand coming back wet and cold. It wasn't dead, its bulk of feathers keeping it insulated, but it still didn't mean it was doing well. The fact it didn't respond to the touch was proof enough. Her mentor needed warmth.

Luz moved her gaze from her teacher to look for a solution. That's when she realized.

The two of them were not the only ones here.

Bodies, over a dozen of them. Withered skin sticking to thin bone cloaked in winter garb falling apart.

Some laid with their hands deep into the rocks, having died trying to make their own gaps, their own way out.

Some had climbed partway up, trying to reach the gap up top, none of them making it.

And some just sat huddled together, hugging their knees or each other.

But each of them, each and every one of them, was far, far too small for it to be fair.

“Oh god, you're kids…” Luz despaired, her eyes filling with tears. She felt she was going to be sick. “I… Oh, I'm…”

Luz couldn't pull her eyes away from one of the corpses left digging into the rock forever. Their skull had a small snout and half-formed ridges running from the top of their forehead to their back. Their sockets with dull green scales flaking off stared back at her.

Luz clamped her eyes shut. This was awful. Her breath quickens, the horrible taste of spoiled meat filling her lungs more and more. She turned away from the cave-in, hoping the smell would lessen.

It got worse. Wait, what?

Luz opened her bleary eyes. The smell wasn't coming from the bodies, but something nearby.

Searching the room, it wasn't long until she found the source.

Near the mess of shattered glass was the remains of a large stalactite broken on the stone floor. Gallons of dried blood coated everything, peppered in flecks of white shards and black lumps of gore closest to the stalactite. Looking closer, Luz recognized the shards to be bone, but couldn't identify the other, save that it was the stuff giving off the awful odor. Small slivers of dull brass could be seen embedded in it as shrapnel. The main piece of brass could be found pinned and crumbled under the rock. It looked like it was one half of a whole, with the other half nowhere to be found. Either way, it was too damaged to tell what it had been.

Scars of smooth stone, shattered stone fragments, and blast marks decorated the floor and walls. This was a fight. A murder.

‘The smell must mean it's fresher than the other stuff down here, but how long? A month? Year? Decade? Why isn't there a body? Why is this place so horrib—’

Luz's train of thought was derailed as a burning sensation flared in her lungs. A horrible coughing fit left the girl doubled over in pain. A dribble of red-tinged-spit fell from her mouth. She couldn't tell if it was from the iron dust she inhaled or blood.

This was the final straw. The tears finally began to flow down her cheeks. This place, all of it. It was all just too much. Horrible. This place was horrible. She wanted to be back at the Owl House. She wanted to be back home with Mami. A sob squeaked out.

But a single sob it remained. Fear and sadness quickly grew into something cold and fierce. A freezing, seething rage filled the core of her being.

‘How dare. How dare these people be forgotten in the cold and the dark. How dare they be slaughtered for not conforming to some stupid, bullshit cult!’

Luz turned to the children left to rot and looked to the light from the gap staining the floor. Having sized out everything in her head, Luz kneeled next to the child with scales and began gingerly removing their arms from the rock slide. As the child was pulled free, Luz carefully moved the body next to the patch of light, making sure that a hand was left in the glow of the sun. Their coat was removed and placed over her shivering friend. Luz muttered an apology to both of them.

‘It doesn't matter.’ Some small, scared part of her brain muttered. ‘We just need to save Eda and get out! Why are we wasting our time with this?! I want to leave!’

‘These people died here, were forgotten here. Someone needs to remember them.’ She replied.

Luz did the same with each one, making sure each was able to touch a bit of the hope they had longed for. She kept the ones huddled together, together. It was short work. They were all too light. Curse Eda was left covered in small coats, helping to absorb some of the moisture and keep the chill at bay.

Luz placed the final small hand into the light and kneeled there. Was she supposed to say something? Something to send them off? She fumbled for words, a few false starts before ultimately choosing silence. As she took the last coat, she noticed a clump of snow stuck to one of their skulls and gently brushed it away, leaving them just a little less cold. She couldn't find words, but she could at least do that. She stood up and went to her mentor, adding another coat on.

The beast had stopped shivering.

The beast had stopped moving altogether.

Panic rose through Luz like fire. “Eda? Eda?! No no no, you gotta be okay!”

She pressed the coats into Eda’s feathers and rubbed aggressively, desperate to create more heat. It wasn't going to be enough.

Luz felt a furious sob climbing up her throat. She can't let this happen. She won't let this happen!

Something on her glove caught her attention. A few snowflakes from the clump she brushed away had stuck to the fabric. Something about them kept her gaze locked on it. Luz squinted closer. Some feature. Some detail.

Some pattern.

“You are kidding me…”

In the center of each snowflake was the exact same mesh of twisting lines and shapes. A mesh too similar to one other.

A new glyph.

Luz grabbed her dagger and began carving into the stone floor, careful not to let a warm breath touch her glove. As she finished the last line, she sheathed her dagger and held her hands above her work.

‘Ice. Smooth, flat, reflective wall of ice.’

She slammed her hands down. The glyph shined with a navy hue before its light burst upwards and calcified into cold peaks.

Before her was a square pillar of ice just as she had willed it. And more importantly, so was what it showed inside.

“Skulley, I need you to pump out as much heat as you can! Eda needs it!”

Heat poured in from the reflection in waves. The ice squeaked and cracked, but held firm. Skulley…

Skulley didn't move. Luz paused. “Skulley?”

The demon’s eyelights flickered for a moment before extinguishing into empty, black pits. Its jaw shuddered open into a silent scream. A  thick miasma of horror and loss hissed from the ice. It tasted of copper and saltwater and boiling meat. It felt like a bad memory that never happened to her.

“No. No. No No No Edalyn. This Can Not Be.”

Luz tried not to gag on the scent now filling her lungs and pushed on. “I know, she's cursed and transformed, but it's still Eda. She still needs our help.”

The wind wailed and wept, the girl's voice unheard. The ice shrieked as steam pouring from every inch, save for the window between flesh and reflection. Luz gasped as her biology responded to the demon's agitation. Her lungs became feverishly hot like she was breathing out a sauna, her skin felt like it was one step away from dripping off her bones, and her bones didn't feel too far off from joining them.

She should have been scared.

“Celestial Magic. Hollow Unwithering Order. How Much Will You Take Of Me. Of My Children.”

She let out a roar. “SKULLEY!”

It was the force behind the word rather than the volume that seemed to snap the old demon out of their stupor. While Skulley’s eyelights did not return, Luz could feel its gaze briefly return to her.

“She's going to be fine. I've done this before, she just needs her elixir to transform back and to keep warm.”

Skulley stared at her silently. Luz couldn't tell if they had really heard her or not at first. After what felt like an eternity, its eyelights returned as pale, shivering imitations of themselves.

“Happened. Before.”

“Yes.”

Skulley's shuddering slowed to a halt.

“I See. Do What You Must To Bring Your Parent Back.”

Luz nodded, making a note to ask what the heck that had been, pulling the elixir out and starting towards the prone body of her “parent”.

Which is exactly when Eda decided to wake up. Because God (or the Titan or whoever) had gotten bored again. Thanks~~~

The avian's wings whipped back, exposing a crooked face in absolute hysterics. The creature's eyes were sheer panic, its jaws jittering and shaking together. Its gaze was locked on the ice, nose twitching. While Luz was sure it couldn't see Skulley, it could definitely smell their presence. And it was driving the bird mad.

A small shriek rang out from under one of the beast's claws.

“Owlbert!” Luz cried. A tiny foot stuck out from between Curse Eda's claws, grasping at its cage, trying to pull the digits apart and escape.

Luz stepped forward, but a strangled, booming, terrified screech pierced the air at her movement. The animal pounded the cave floor with its other claw, a loud thud sounding out each fearful strike.

Luz stepped back. “Okay, okay, I know you're scared. I just need my witch back. You changed back when you were scared of me last time, right? You used Eda to hide? Can you do that again?”

The beast responded with another screech and turned to flee, bolting away with Owlbert in its palm.

She couldn't chase it through the mines again. She had to stop it! “No, NO! NOT AGAIN! STOP!!”

Curse Eda skidded to a stop. Luz balked. Did it… listen to her?

No, Luz realized quickly, there was something else. The avian was staring down at the smooth scars in the stone. It shifted, bolted this way and that, but halting immediately before passing over the marks. It shivered, and slowly it stepped backwards, away from the strange scars and towards Luz and her ghastly reflection.

Luz was baffled. It stopped fleeing?

‘No.’ whispered the part of Luz's brain that used to reel at the eyes in her mirror, ‘It stopped fleeing us.’

Luz shook herself out of it. This was her moment. She launched herself towards Curse Eda, uncorking the bottle. Landing beside the bird, she grabbed the back of its neck with one hand, pulled it back so its head was tilted back, and with the other hand she shoved the elixir down her mentor's throat.

The beast screamed and pounded its claws into the ground in panic as it grew smaller and smaller, weaker and weaker until it finally collapsed to the floor.

And within just a few moments, Eda the-no-longer-Owl Lady was prone on the floor.

A trill rang out as Owlbert scurried out of his carver’s grasp and fluttered up to meet Luz's eyes.

“YOU DID IT YOU DID IT YOU SAVED MAMA YOU DID IT!” The little fluff ball was clearly so happy. Luz smiled as she teetered on her feet, exhausted. Her heart was really beating hard, wasn't it?

“I did it. Yay. Home time. Yay.”

“Home time! Yay!!!”

Luz shakily knelt and checked her mentor over, pressing her hand against her forehead. Still a bit cold, and Eda's cheek was sprouting a horrible welt where it met the floor. Right, iron allergy. The girl rolled her teacher over so no skin directly touched the stone. All there was left to do was protect the old lady while she woke up so she could fly them out of there.

She could see Eda was already starting to wake, her eyelids shifting and twitching. Good. She wouldn't have to defend long.

“Edaspawn.”

Luz's stomach dropped. Skulley didn't seem to be feeling the same relief.

Creaking, scratching echos came from the mineshaft leading back into the dark.

“The Old Flesh Is Coming. Arm Yourself.”

Luz and her feathery compatriot faced the mineshaft.

“Uh. Luz? You heard that too, right?”

The slithering and scraping of flesh against stone grew louder.

“...Owlbert, sta—”

A bloody, rotting arm lunged from the corridor, knocking Luz down and smashing into the ice pillar, splitting it into chunks all over the room.

A sea of rage, pure and white-hot, came rushing from the ice chunks. Luz's veins were suddenly sprouting like overgrown ivy, making rivers and roots inside her. The marrow in her bones bubbled. Skulley's visage appeared in multitude across all the pillar fragments.

“Wretched Construct. You Come To Me Bearing The Blood Of My Kin. Be As You Should And ROT.”

In the blink of an eye, meat and bone were reduced to a fetid powder. The arm was rended down to the third joint, hanging over Luz. More arms crawled from the dark and attacked, but each attempt at killing whatever was producing such heat was met with decay.

Even still, more meat came. As Luz jumped back up, her feet hitting the ground alerted the mass. A claw instantly wrapped around her, pinning her arms together against her front. It began to squeeze like a boa constrictor, forcing the air out of the young girl's lungs.

Luz struggled to fight, to escape, to even breathe. As more breath left her, her flesh writhed against its captor.

The monstrosity faltered, many of the limbs twisting to face her. Many, but not all. She could still see a few sliding towards Eda and Owlbert, the latter trying desperately to somehow intimidate them with shrill shrieks and quick bites. Skulley was unmaking any of the flesh it could, but their power seemed incredibly limited in its range. It wouldn't be enough.

‘No… Need to… Save… Them… Need… Glyph… Need a way… to make a…’

The limbs began picking at her, They dug in, pinching at exposed skin that felt as it had softened to be as malleable as clay.

They were going to peel her alive, she realized as the lack of oxygen left her vision spotty. Peel her apart. It didn't hurt, strangely enough. Just felt like bits of her were going away. Maybe Skulley's otherworldly influence on her biology was a blessing in disguise.

Wait.

Luz looked down and dragged her sleeve up her arm, revealing the mess of tendons and veins wriggling around her flesh like worms in mud. She spotted a loop of veins near the surface,  and holding what little breath she had left, dragged her thumb to the circle, and plunged it into the center down to her first knuckle.

She worked on her flesh, dragging veins up from below and molding them into lines and curves, pulling them across one another. She imagined it like knitting something with her own form. It was hard to keep digging for more veins as she had to work around what she had already made, not wanting to push that deeper and risk it coming undone. Yet somehow, as she sculpted, it became easier. The veins seemed to pull themselves up, forming into the exact shape she wanted with the lightest nudge.

Luz could feel Skulley's magic brush against her craftsmanship. As it touched, the palpable rage flowing over the room switched to absolute shock.

“EDASPAWN. HOW”

Luz ignored them. The last vein was set into place, and an ice glyph now laid under her surface. The girl did not waste a moment, punching her thumb into the glyph and bring her will to the forefront of her mind.

‘STOP.’

The glyph blazed an electric blue, the hue flashing through Luz's entire vascular system, humming with a burning cold energy.

The light overtook Luz's vision, and her entire body went numb.

***

Eda woke up to the coldest place she had ever been. Fuck walk-in freezers, fuck the talllest peak of the Knee, this blew them both out of the Boiling Sea.

“The Predator and The Hunter! The Predator and The Hunter! They stain this place and we sit here waiting to die!!” The Owlbeast cried as it faded back to wherever it hid in her soul when it wasn't tormenting her. Huh, that's—

Eda's eyes snapped open, remembering everything. She had turned. She had turned in the worst place possible she could have! She forced herself upright, rubbing her eyes to get the film from them and scan the place for threats.

“Titan, this place is freezing.” She muttered. Finally having clear sight, she blinked and observed her surroundings.

“Oh. That's why.”

The witch had found herself in a room half coated floor to ceiling in sharp, solid ice. Icicles as large as stalactites hung from the ceiling like spears, blades of frost stuck out from the walls like a wave had been frozen in an instant, and the floor was split and warped like a bomb had gone off, the cracks filled in with clear ice going down for who knows how long.

Eda felt something nip her leg and prepared to swat the fairy away before she realized it was her palisman staring up at her with his big old eyes. He was shaking like a leaf.

“Owlbert. Oh, my poor little owlet. You're shaking so much!” She raised him in her hands and nestled him to her bosom inside her coat, trying to warm him up. Her baby mumbled against her.

“Mama, its Luz. She's—”

Luz! Oh sweet hell, she had brought Luz here! What had she been thinking?! This had the most dangerous place on the Isles, and she—

“Heyyy, Edaaaa… I'm glad you're back…”

Eda's head twisted so fast, her neck screamed in protest. Peeking around a wall of ice was her young apprentice, prone on the floor. She looked exhausted, but gave her mentor a small smile as she saw her.

The old woman was up in a flash, dashing around the wall to get to Luz. What she saw made her entire spine shudder.

Dozens of limbs lay under a thick sheet of ice unmoving, frozen to their very core. The mineshaft was completely filled with ice, refusing any and all way in and more importantly, out.

And her student.

Luz laid on her back in the center of a circle where the ice did not reach. Eerie hotspots filled the space between her and the ice, spots that left her skin itchy. The girl herself had her coat and shirt in left in tatters on her left side.

That side of her body was much the same.

“Kiddo,” Eda said, forcing her voice as hard as she could to stay calm, “I'm going to get you to a healer, but first I need to take this.”

Shakily, she summoned a stopper of thick, black ooze, a thin needle poking out from it. Painkiller from the Night Market, strong as they come, but Luz had to have it.

Her girl just laughed, and Eda felt like she was going to puke. “Its okay, Eda. I can't feel it. I mean, I can, but it doesn't hurt at all. It's weird, being aware of it without it, but it's not a really bad feeling. Kinda interesting, actually.”

Strips of skin and flesh a spotty, unhealthy white hung from her student's inner elbow down to her wrist. Raw muscle left exposed to the open air sat still and unresponsive, that same hue spread like a horrid blight on it. Near the wrist, a pattern made of veins was blackened with frostbite, spread out like the corona of the foulest eclipse.

Eda knelt down to Luz, who the woman was certain was going through some shock-induced-delirium, and tried to find a large enough vein to jab.

“You don't gotta do that. I think Skulley is about to take care of it.”

Eda startled. ‘Skulley? How is—’

And that is how far her thoughts got to go before the impossible happened.

The frostbitten parts of Luz's arm split off from the larger whole, rotting away in seconds. The unmarred skin on the other side bubbled and swelled, growing and stretching into the air. Eda flinched back, watching her apprentice’s flesh twist and morph the same way the mine’s flesh had done. The meat kept stretching like putty until it hovered over the wound. It wrapped around the mark, lacing together with tendon and vein and newly grown muscle until it was flush against its framework. The excess skin molted off and the arm was left pristine as it had been yesterday, albeit a bit pinker.

“Wow~ It's all better…” Luz said breathily, staring down at the new skin, eyes seeming to shine with a feeling Eda was not privy to.

Eda didn't speak. Ignoring the whirling in her mind, she grabbed her cloak and applied as many heating charms as she could muster. Wrapping it around Luz and using the arms to tie Luz to her back, she summoned her staff and found the gap, flying through it and out into the safety of the Knee.

And once again, Marro Mines returned to its silence, to not be disturbed for many moons.

Chapter Text

Luz stirred awake, finding herself cocooned in something incredibly warm and dark. Fabric? As she began struggling to escape whatever web she was in, she felt a chill emanating from her bones, leaving her in a constant tremble. Her throat felt raw and sticky. Her body felt clumsy and exhausted.

Her hand felt a breach into the open air, and Luz pulled the ensnaring material off her. She was in the Owl House's living room laying on the sofa, the cocoon had actually been a selection of thick blankets she had been buried under. There was a thin mattress on the other side of the room.

The film in her throat tickled the wrong spot, and a painful cough began working its way up the girl's esophagus. Hacking pitifully into the blanket, Luz jumped a bit when the sheet was gently pulled away from her mouth, and a box of tissues was placed in her lap by a familiar, incredibly shaky hand.

Luz rolled over to look at her caretaker. “Eda! How are…”

Eda stood over her, looking horrible. The old witch’s skin had taken a gray complexion with angry-looking welts spread over her face and palms, and her entire body shook with an unceasing tremor. She leaned against the edge of the couch to keep upright and gave Luz a look for her silence.

“Yeah, it's bad, I know. Thanks for asking, kiddo.” Eda croaked out.

If Luz's face wasn't flushed red already, she would have been blushing. “Sorry, sorry! Uh, you sick too, huh?”

Eda groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Wow, how'd you tell?”, she bit sarcastically, “Yeah, I’m sick, which is working wonders with the iron poisoning.” She coughed, hacking up a bit of grainy red sludge leaking from the corner of her mouth. The woman swayed on her feet, leaving Luz to grab onto her wrists in case her teacher decided to collapse there and then. Eda batted her off and stumbled over to the mattress, flopping down onto it with another groan.

“Are you going to be alright?” Luz gulped. Eda took a warm pad from the table and placed it on her forehead.

“Yeah, I'll be fine, probably will just take a bit. I got King out with a grocery list. He'll grab some medicine from Morton’s and then some soup from Mourge-anna for us. Ze like King ‘cuz they both got skull faces, so he can weasel a discount out of zir.”

“You let King go get groceries? Isn't that dangerous? What if something tries to eat him?”

Eda shrugged. “He has his dagger and he knows what to look out for, he'll be fine. Besides, the little menace is surprisingly durable. No joke, I don't think I've ever even seen a drop of blood from him, he clots that quickly.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Yeah…”

Eda's voice trailed off. Luz squirmed. She was getting Mom-wants-to-talk-in-the-car energy all of a sudden.

‘Welp.’ thought Luz, ‘Better to get this over quickly.’ “So was that the only reason you sent him out, or…?”

Eda let out a deep sigh and sat back up. Already a bad sign. “No. No it wasn't. I must be losing my touch if this old con woman can't keep anything from some teenager.”

She turned to stare at Luz. “Do you know what happened at the end there? What you did, what Skulley did?”

Luz didn't. “I know my skin got all melty and soft. I know I dug into it to make a glyph out of my veins. And I know Skulley fixed me up after the glyph ripped up my arm. But there was something weird.”

Eda deadpanned. “Oh, only one thing?”

“The veins started to move to where I wanted them to go without me pulling them there. Skulley seemed surprised by it, or me doing it. What was that?”

Eda sucked in air through her teeth, a hand idly tugging at her hair. It was a full two minutes before she unglued her teeth and answered.

“Flesh Sculpting. What you and Skulley did is known as True Flesh Sculpting.”

Luz felt a rush in her veins at finally having a name to tack to the oddity apparent in her biology. A thrill echoing from the same part of her mind that left her gaze lingering on roadkill and papercuts. She buried the feeling as quickly as it came.

“A-and I'm guessing that means something big in the Demon Realm?”

Eda held her face in her hands. “Oh kiddo, you have no idea the significance of this! If word gets out that you can do this… Muck.”

Luz was quickly finding out that stress, excitement, and sickness did not mix well together. “Is this like some special Boiling Isles type super dark magic?”

Eda shook her head. “Not dark. Sacred. On an island made of meat and bone, what is more divine than the form, the body, itself?”

The old witch stopped, closing her eyes as if to remember a long-forgotten memory. Then, she held her left hand— palm out —in a fist level to her head, with her pointer finger tilted up to the sky. With her other hand on her chest, she chanted.

The last words echoed throughout the home, leaving Luz speechless. Eda stared at the floor, something bitter in her expression for a moment before returning her focus to her student.

“It's an old ritual saying from far back, before the time of witches. Idea is that our bodies were once the body of the Titan until it sculpted the first demons from itself. Because of that, it supposedly means that our bodies are, in part, divine. Flesh Sculpting is the use of magic to mold that ‘piece of divinity’ to your will. It is literally called The Sacred Art because of that, supposed to be a direct blessing from the Titan itself.”

Luz furrowed her brow, confused. “But on my first day here, the creep running the jail twisted his arms into weapons and stuff. And I saw someone drink a potion and their neck grew three feet at Hexside. And you're using your own arm as a back scratcher right now! Isn't that—”

Eda placed her forearm back into her elbow and snorted. “It doesn't count. Those little tricks might be the basics, but the ability is supposed to be limitless in its potential and comes from innate magic. Endless regeneration, impossible changes, a form unkillable. None of what you've seen counts as True Flesh Sculpting kid, not even close. Still, even those tricks can give you some major social standing. There's a reason Wraith is the warden despite his blatant incompetence.”

‘Still feels like it's not that different from what I did.’ Luz thought before another, more worrisome one came crashing in. “Wait, if Willow and Gus find out, they aren't going to start worshiping me like the Emperor, are they?!”

The old woman snorted before shaking her head. “No!”

Luz sighed in relief.

Then Eda paused, leaving Luz to try to suck the sigh back in. “Well… I don’t think so.”

“Think so?!”

Eda drummed her fingers on the coffee table. “There is only one witch known to be capable of True Flesh Sculpting. The same one able to bend the bones of the very Titan we live upon as well as his own.”

Luz shrunk in on herself, images of twisting, fleshless hands flashing through her mind. “Emperor Belos.”

Eda nodded gravely. “The ability to manipulate the flesh of the Titan like it was his own was his main claim to divine connection, and the blade he used to take out all who opposed him. You've already seen what he can do with it.”

Luz shivered, for more reasons than the cold this time. She couldn't imagine how someone could even begin to fight that sort of power. How do you fight someone who can command the land under your feet? The families in the mines were proof of that.

Eda looked at Luz for a second before perking up. “At the very least, I don’t think you’ll be getting a cult anytime soon. Well, maybe a small one, if you're good. On your birthday.”

Luz actually laughed way too hard at that, for way too long. It wasn’t that funny. God, she needed some levity. After the giggle-fest tapered out, Luz wiped away the tears and turned her focus back on the topic at hand.

“So this power has to have come from Skulley, right? They fixed me up after, uh, my plan worked. So it can fleshbend too. Does that mean it’s been blessed by the Titan?”

Deep in the back of her mind, Luz suddenly felt a possibility wriggling, a potential answer she couldn’t quite get a grasp on. Trying to get a grip on the idea, Luz snatched at it, the thing squirming at the palm of her hand, ready to be—

“No.”

Eda’s voice caused Luz to jump, the interruption giving the answer the chance to slip through her fingers, vanishing into nothingness. Luz cursed quietly, (much to her mentor’s silent approval) and looked confused at her mentor. “Why not? If fleshbending—”

“Flesh Sculpting.”

“If Flesh Sculpting is a blessing from the Titan in some way…”

Eda silently twirled her finger, summoning an open scroll case with a gold cap on one end. Sliding a weathered-looking scroll from its hiding spot, Eda rolled it out and stared intensely at her pupil.

“I found this at the mine right before I started to turn. Bonehead doesn’t need any blessing from anyone to get this power. It never did. And this right here proves it.”

Chapter Text

The writing on the scroll was in a language and style Luz had never seen before. The words were made up of characters drawn from numerous swirls and snags, and the sentences were incredibly short. Luz felt an odd familiarity to it, like looking at an old sketchbook. At the bottom of the page was a series of circles on top of each other, words interspersed in a pattern Luz couldn't figure out.

Eda tapped the parchment hard enough to leave indents in it. “You see it, right?! You see what this means?!”

Luz didn't want to admit to being clueless while her mentor was burning a hole into the scroll with her pupils. “Uhhh, that the Emperor ruined a ton of people's lives?”

“Well, yeah, duh, we knew that already. But more importantly is this.”

Eda pointed at the final third of the letter.

“This bit of circles on circles from what I could gather is an alchemical list of ingredients. I couldn't fully translate, it's Old Demon like the rest of the letter, but its in the Old Demon format they used before they started changing to left and right like we use. It seems to be for the ritual the author described: one that allows the wielder to be able to Sculpt. One used by the wild demon families wiped out by the Emperor. Powerful old demons like—”

“Skulley.” Luz gasped.

Eda thumped her fist into the table. “Your friend really hates anything to do with Belos, right?”

“It's a grudge the size of a mountain.”

“Would make sense if it had fought against him. Maybe Belos was the one who threw them into wherever it is in the first place.”

“Could… Could Belos have used whatever this ritual is to get his powers?”

Eda nodded. “Would explain why Belos was so ruthless with the older demons. Couldn't let it get out.”

“Eda, this is nuts!”

“You're telling me, kid. My mind hasn't stopped racing since I finished translating this thing. Though that could be medicine I took. It was expired.”

“Oh. Are you gonna be okay?”

“No clue. I feel like I'm three minutes from passing out.”

Luz just decided to move on from that and use her mentor's time remaining consciousness wisely. “Eda, are you sure this is even real? For all we know, this could be just some old legend.”

Eda grimaced. “I know it's not much, but it's all we have to go on. I… I can't have brought you to that place and let you get hurt just for all of it to have meant nothing.”

Luz frowned. “Eda…”

It was at that moment, before Luz could say anymore, that the front door slammed open with a surprised hoot and a tremendous thud. King walked in with arms full of groceries, unperturbed by the intense green glow coming from behind him.

“I return with the stuff! Also two children who accosted me during my trip!”

From around the door frame, in walked in a little witch girl, eyes ever-so tinted with green light and a body half wrapped in brambles up her left side. Her mouth (the side being poked at by a thorn) was set in a firm line, her voice came out like a whisper.

“You couldn't keep. Yourself at home. For a day.”

Luz had at least the decency to look ashamed.

Eda took this opportunity to pass out.

Chapter Text

“So you went into a cursed storm for… no reason?”

Luz avoided meeting Willow's gaze as she sat next to her on the couch, the former busying herself by working the thorns out the latter's body. The brambles squirmed, twisting to aim its spikes at the offending human, digging just that bit deeper into the witchling’s skin. Luz paused long enough to come up with an explanation.

“It wasn't for no reason. It's just…”

She trailed off. Willow frowned.

“Not a reason you can tell me?”

Luz winced, her stomach tying itself into knots. “It's… wild witch stuff.”

Willow turned and looked sternly at Eda, which had little effect due to the old witch being conked out drooling over the table. Turning back to Luz, Willow's gaze softened.

“I hope whatever mystery stuff you went there for was worth it. I haven't seen eyebags like those since Gus found a collection of human magazines. I think he memorized those in two days.”

“Two and a half, but who's counting.” Gus said as he left the kitchen with a small vial of brown liquid and a glass of water. “King’s finishing up the groceries, so I've brought you your medicine!”

Luz shotgunned the contents of the vial and cleared out the gritty, gooey aftertaste with a cool sip. “Bleh. Good to know that medicine tastes bad no matter what world you're in. Thanks, Gus.”

Gus waved her off, settling on the couch and pulling out a small metal handle with a button on the side.

“Is that a switchblade or a switchcomb?”

Gus smirked and twirled his implement between his fingers, clicking the button. A steel blade sprang out from one end, a cheap plastic comb popped out from the other, which he used to finish his flourish with a comb of his hair.

“Wow Gus, smooth! How many times have you nicked yourself with the sharp bit on accident?”

Gus remained silent, simply forming a light on his temple to show many, many tiny not-quite-healed marks near his hairline.

“Nooo, my poor sweet boy!” Luz cooed. As the trio joked and giggled, they worked to remove the briars from the soft flesh it was trying to take root in. Eventually, after much hacking and slashing from Gus and polite asking by Willow, the last thorn was pulled free and dropped into a sack for future mulching. Luz felt a fresh wave of worry hit as she saw the countless pock marks dotting her friend's skin.

“¡Dios mío! Willow, stay still, I'm going to get some bandages!” Luz cried, beginning to crawl over the couch before a dizzy spell pulled her back down onto the pillows. Willow and Gus placed a hand on each of her shoulders, keeping her from trying to get up again.

“Nope. You're sick, and you are staying right here. I don't need any bandages, my flesh has seen plenty of work from over-eager vines and foliage. They've never dug deep enough to weep- er, bleed.”

‘Some of them look really deep though,’ Luz worried. ‘and if Willow has been dealing with this for a long time, how is she okay?’

Luz looked over Willow. While the left half of the plant witch's body was peppered with tiny holes, they all seemed to be fresh from today. The rest of the girl's skin was free of blemish, devoid of any scar. The human wondered at the power of healing magic that must have been used for that kind of result. She subconsciously brushed her thumb against the scar on her palm.

“U-um.”

Luz looked up and had the realization that her study of her friend was not playing out in hyper-slow motion Anime Time!™, but in fact, Real Time, and so had been looking over her friend for about thirty terribly awkward seconds.

“Oh! Sorry, Willow!” Luz said, turning her eyes to the ceiling.

Willow giggled, a faint dusting on red on her cheeks. “It's fine! I don't mind.”

“Aww. My friends are adorable.” Gus chuckled.

“No cuteness in my living room. It ruins the mystique.” mumbled the old witch sprawled out on the floor.

“Good afternoon, Miss Clawthorne!”

“Quiet, I'm asleep.” Eda began to snore again.

Luz ignored her teacher's antics even as the others found themselves distracted. She instead saw her attention turned to the scroll still laying open on the table. A pit opened up in her stomach as she saw her friends follow her gaze and take notice of the old parchment before another obnoxious snore broke their concentration. The girl snatched the scroll, hastily stuffed it into its case, and tossed it under her pillow. She turned back to see Gus glancing at her from the corner of his eye, flicking his gaze from the pillow to her and back again as if waiting for an answer.

‘Wild witch stuff.’ She mouthed, adding a smile that felt stitched on. Gus blinked at her for a moment before glancing at Willow with an expression Luz couldn't decipher before he pushed the glass of water and a box of tissues into the human’s hands and walked into the kitchen. A minute later, he and King came out with bowls of soup, much to everyone's (even Eda's) rejoice.

As Luz scooped up a bit of meat and let it plop back into the bowl, she looked at her friends, and then at her side. Only visible to her, a bit of the golden cap stuck out from under the pillow, its reflection dark and murky, the figure in it warped too badly to make out.

Luz, of course, knew what it was.

Something that she would be asking questions to very soon. Something that would be her ticket to magic.

The girl looked back at her friends' smiling faces. Would they still be so comfortable sitting next to her if they knew of a voice talking to her in her head? Would they slowly find ways to disappear from her life, fearful of her? Even if she proved it was real, if they knew the abilities it possessed, would they stop seeing her as a person all together?

She couldn't bear to lose them.

She could never risk telling her friends any of it.

Chapter Text

Wiping the last drops of their meals from their chins, the trio set their bowls down and laid back into their seats. Luz silently thanked King as a warm cloth was set on her brow before turning to her witch friends.

“Thanks for coming over, guys. I really needed this. I hope I don't get you sick.”

Gus threw his arms up and waved them around. “Oh no! Having to stay home from school! The horror!”

The three giggled until Luz's laughter sent her into a coughing fit. Wincing at the harsh noise, Gus and Willow looked to each other before a light seemed to go on in the latter.

“Oh! Do you think you'll feel better in time for Abuae Marih? Pleeeeeease tell me you will!”

Luz blinked before wrinkling her brow in confusion (causing the towel to fall and flop onto her eyes). “Abuu-ae Marhi? What's that?”

Gus perked up, excited to teach his human friend part of his own culture. “It's pronounced Ab-u-all Mar-i, and it's the time where the moon and stars shine like the sun, enveloping the Isles in their magic. It begin with Abuae: Night of the Living Moon, and ends a week later with Marih: Night of the Wailing Star!”

Willow cleared her throat. “Actually, it's Abu-ya Maa-rIGH.” The last syllable came out as something between a hacking noise and a snarl, her fangs jutting out as she spoke.

Gus blustered at this retort. “What?! No, it's totally pronounced my way! There's no second u to ‘ya’ sound with!”

“Old Demon has ‘uae’ spoken as ‘u-ya’ when at the end of a word. Looks like Mr. Smartypants needs to brush up on his languages~”

“Every second you two dare to correct each other over the pronunciation of words in my dwelling is a second of restraint not calling Hooty to deal with you lost. Dare not to defile the house of The Owl Lady with nerdspeak.”

Eda was sitting up holding her own warm towel to her head as King slowly fed her soup. She narrowed her eyes at the offenders, who both found it a great time to focus their attention on their sick compatriot.

“B-but anyway!” Willow said hastily. “On the first night, you can use the moonlight to bring things to life in a Moonlight Conjuring! Teens get together in groups and bring things like dolls and stuff to life.”

Luz was up in an instant with excitement before nausea sent her back down. “We’re a group! We should do a Moonlight Conjuring!”

Willow and Gus cheered.

Luz continued. “We can do it here!”

Willow and Gus stopped cheering and froze in place. Their heads did not move, but their eyes slowly turned in the direction of Her Majesty Most Grumpy. King had frozen as well, mid-spoonful of broth. The one whose reaction was anticipated with bated breath blinked once, then again.

And then she spoke.

“Okay.”

Silence followed for approximately two seconds before Luz shouted out, causing everyone to jump (the spoonful of soup did not survive the jolt).

“Really?! We can have it he- urgh, bleh…” Luz slumped back down onto the couch once again.

Eda smiled, the corners a bit too far apart, the wrinkles around her eyes too downcast. “Yeah, yeah. Just stay in the living room and don’t try nicking momma’s night juice. And no giving any to King.”

“What?! This is blasphemy I tell you, blasphemy! Why I oughta–”

Luz tuned out King’s roars of indignation (as cute as they were) and leaned over to her mentor, gripping the armrest to keep from slipping.

“Thank you Eda, but are you okay?”

The old witch’s grin weakened slightly before sighing.

“Yeah, kiddo. Just… Promise to get better.”

Luz paused before nodding. “I promise.”

***

As Luz watched her friends leave, (waving as they did, the sweeties) she carefully stood from her spot on the couch and kept herself up with a hand on the wall, wobbling her way into the bathroom.

She wondered if she couldn’t wait a few days before doing this, let this illness die down first, then prove her theory right. She swatted the thought away quickly. She had to know. Now.

Taking a breath, the girl turned to the mirror.

Skully did not speak. It ground its teeth silently, eyes staring down hers. The air thickened with a wary tension, moisture condensing at the corners of the glass. That was fine. Luz could start this.

“I found a new glyph. It’s ice.”

“I Felt It. Both It And The Other.”

“The Fleshsculpting- err, True Fleshsculpting? The special one, I’m told?”

Their eyelights twitched in confusion. “There Is No True Form Of It. To Alter Your Body Is To Sculpt It. Why Would It Not Be Seen As Any Other Magic.”

“Seems to be treated as pretty important. Gifted by The Titan, apparently. Is that how you got it?”

The demon paused, their eyes flashing bright.

“The Titan Is Long Dead.”

‘Wasn’t a no~’ Luz noted. “So you have the power, now I have it?”

Irritation chasing fear sparked through the mirror and her mind. “That Power Is Not Like The Glyphs. It Is A Power You Were Not Meant To Take. I Will Do Better To Keep It Safe From Abuse.”

Luz sighed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“You Did Well Finding Ice However. The Scent Of Rage Coated It. Not The Same Feeling I Connect With It But Equal In The Purpose It Serves.”

“Magic does seem to pop up when you’re around. They’re your magic too, right?” Luz smirked at Skulley, testing for a reaction she could note. She got it in the disquiet that permeated its next words.

“Indeed. I Do Not Like How It Impacts You On Your Test. There Are Understandings You Are Meant To Reach. These Distractions Should Not Be A Part Of It. I Should Not Be A Part In It.”

Now for the kicker. The question she had been waiting to ask. “So, light and ice are two of the glyphs, right? ”

“You Have Them. You Know This Already.”

“It’s just funny. When I was in the mine on the floor after everything, I thought of the weirdest thing. The last time I was so scared. When we first spoke. Where you first called me Edaspawn. You were a big scary monster made of a bunch of stuff.”

“I Apologize For Frightening You. I Did Not Know Of What Intent You Had Made Me Bound To You.”

“All in the past now. Anyway, I remember really well what you looked like. Probably drew it a couple dozen times over the years. Bones of ice. Eyes of light.”

“Yes. It Was All I Could Muster In That State.”

“And a few other things too.”

Skulley mounting confusion was suddenly replaced by vivid shock, the light of the bulb popping and fizzling, leaving the demon’s eyelights apparent in their sudden freezing.

The girl leaned over the sink, face inches from the reflection’s own “I think your reaction tells me enough, but just to make sure…”

In the dim light from the hallway, Luz smiled and whispered.“The other two are plant and fire… aren’t they?”

Chapter Text

Luz breathed in the last trails of steam coming off the grass, the echo of last night's rainfall helping to clear her sinuses. Enjoying the first clear breath she had in three days, Luz rubbed her arms, trying to pull the cold from her bones.

“How's my favorite mostly-human?!” The face of Hooty filled her vision, beady eyes staring unblinkingly into her own. “Looks like you're getting alllllllll better now!”

“Pretty sure I'm fully human, Hooty, but yeah I'm doing good now! Basically at full health now!” Luz flexed her “muscles” and leaned on her bird-worm friend, instantly regretting it as she felt her arm get coated in a viscous, lukewarm slime. ‘Bleh. Why do you do this?’

“So what's up, early bird? What are you doing up with the sun? Ooo, and what's this?”

Hooty looped around himself eerily as he stared at Luz's backpack. It bulged at odd angles and with every nudge came the sound of shifting metal. The girl tightened the straps on her bag and gave the demon a wink. “Just the tools I need for my adventure~”

Hooty bobbed around. “Adventure, huh? Well, I hope you have a good time! I heard King is going to make some waffles for Eda, and I have devised a plan of plans to snatch some!”

“Is it breaking through the kitchen window and eating it with a glass topping?”

“I see you are also a planner of plans. Of plans.”

A loud thunk came from inside, followed by a bellowing rage of a still-sick Owl Lady recently woken. “Ow! Who the hell left the weapon room open?”

“Welp. That's my cue to leave. Have fun with your chaos, Hooty!” With that, Luz marched into the woods with a skip and a hop.

“You know I always doooo!”

“Shut up, Hooty. It's too early for this shit.”

***

Luz had been walking through the woods for half an hour when she found what she was looking for. A small clearing showed itself from behind the trees. Where once it could have been seen as serene and soft, with a colony of ferns covered in fur lining the creek, now was the sight of many an arcane experiment. Bare dirt covered in scorch marks and brown, trickling water was all the clearing was now. The circles and lines in the dirt she had carved had been washed away in the rain, leaving only mud. Just some failed attempts at making her own glyphs, nothing to be bothered by.

Especially now that she had found a second glyph to add to her studies. And if she had her way, another two by tonight.

This was the “Luz Unobstructed Zone” Zone, the space where the human studied and practiced her glyphwork. Well to be honest, this was the L.U.Z. numerous dos. Numerous uno was back in the human world, next to the graveyard that had started this whole journey. It felt poetic to do her work there, plus it acted as a source of water for the many times her experiments had started a forest fire. Twelve year old Luz: novice witch and firefighter!

The girl strode into the center of the clearing and began her work. Drawing the new glyph into the dirt, Luz summoned a pillar of ice like the one in the mines. A horned shape filled the space within.

Skulley had been silent since their last encounter. After the initial shock died down into frustration, and then into a dull discontent, Skulley had not spoken a word to her. In fact, Luz didn't think they had moved an inch since that day. ‘It seems almost deep in thought?’

Luz shook her head. She had work to do and couldn't spend time staring at her reflection. She had two glyphs to find. All she needed to do was find them.

And if her theory was right, she'd have them by nightfall.

***;

The Titan did not like uncertainty.

Uncertainty had rarely helped it in its long life. Hesitation meant falling to catch a meal or being too late to save one of its young from a predator. Self doubt, no matter how often it plagued them, did nothing but wear on its mind.

Self doubt had left it stranded in this place between worlds, after all.

Yet now, the strain of it festered within its mind. The source of the feeling lay on the other side of The Box. With the Edaspawn.

They had two of the four now, and had managed through their own wit to guess the other two. This would have been a cause for celebration in the Titan's eyes, if not for the method of discovering them.

And there lay the discomfort.

The Edaspawn was clever, too clever, and therein lay the problem. They were too clever to truly learn, able to weave around the lessons they should have learned in order to find the glyphs. Able to use their bond and ability to outwit it to get what they want, not understanding what they missed by doing it. True understanding lost to ease and content.

It was very… human of them.

Would they have found the glyphs without it? Was the connection as much a burden to them as a boon? The Titan knew it would be praising their resourcefulness had they been used properly.

Whatever the answer, the world is how it is. The Titan would do what it must, and hope that the Edaspawn would understand in time before it had to step in and deal with them.

Chapter Text

It was by the third time she felt something dig its teeth into her flesh that Luz was fed up.

“Ow! You mean little bug!”

Luz slapped the back of her neck, winching at the feeling of fairy dust sprinkling against her skin. The texture and smell was like warm honey covered in gritty sugar.

“Ow! Mean Little Bug!” The fairy mimicked nasally before fluttering off. Luz stuck her tongue out at it before turning back to the fruits of her labor.

The landscape lay in ruins before her, dead and dying vegetation littering the ground. Flowers wilted under the scorching stares of miniature suns, lifeless vines curled weakly around blocks of ice, roots drowned in the runoff of frost. Each and every attempt to bind the magic of the glyphs to the plant life; all failures.

‘What am I doing wrong? Skulley was how I found the light glyph, and I'm certain their abomination-type thing used the ice glyph to make part of its body. They have some sort of connection to the glyphs, I can feel it. I just need to figure out how to make that connection react with the plants.’

Luz sighed and began clearing the board. She'll try the grass this time. Maybe being more down-to-earth (well, down-to-titan) would help?

***

Down-to-earth didn't mean dung. Why would that mean anything? What was she thinking? Ugh. Better try something else. There had been some lichen on her way here, right? Eda used some of the same stuff in her potions, so maybe…

***

Okay, so the lichen just drowned in the runoff instead of doing anything useful. Wonderful.

But that's fine. Luz still had options. She had tried all the small stuff, but maybe it wasn't showing up because it needed a bigger canvas. Apply the glyphs to the tree…

***

The dirt! She had to try the dirt! That had to be it! She's tried everything else so it had to be the dirt! Yes, she's dug the glyphs into the ground constantly, but there had to be something she was missing!!!

***

Luz sat in the overturned earth, staring daggers at the vegetation between her knees. Picking out one of the flowers, she pressed it up against the light glyph.

‘Drink. The. Magic.’

Its bulb smoked and burst into flames, causing Luz to drop it with a yelp, which then turned into a snarl.

‘Come on! I've spent so long figuring this magic in me out, I've gone through eldritch nonsense and dangerous quests, I've gone through that creep from the museum stalking me. I've gone through years of not having anyone but Mami because of this!’

Luz glared down at her shadow, slower and darker than any other.

“Why does she act so creepy?”
“Stop staring at me!”
“Heh, you think what they say about crazy chicks in bed is true?”

‘I need more glyphs. I need this to have meant something. I need it all to have been worth something!’

Luz looked at the smoldering stem and sighed. If she can't find one glyph, she'll just have to try for the other. Let this ruin go up in smoke and see if that does anything.

Luz glanced at Skulley, silent as the void as they stared over the polluted site from their frozen window.

Luz scoffed, her teeth grinding as she stomped to her backpack. They can melt too for all she cared. If it didn't want to help her after all she had missed out on because of it, fine. She'd make it help her, whether they knew it or not.

Scavenging the land, Luz began snapping any fallen branches she could find apart. Crimson sap flowed from the wounds in the bark, splattering everything in red. Luz did her best to wipe the gunk from her face.

‘Guess that's why it's called bleeding pine. The sap should catch quick, and burn long.’ Luz mused.

Collecting the plant matter into a pile, Luz stepped back and pulled out an irregular light glyph, one where the bottom of the sigil mirrored the top. As Luz held it as far away from her as she could, she tapped it. The paper began crackling and warping, and without another moment passing by, Luz flicked it into a hole in the heap. She could see sparks flying out from the center like a firecracker. It took only a few minutes for smoke to smother the area. In another few, she had a bonfire. It smelled bitter. Luz's eyes watered as she stared unerringly into the blaze.

‘Come on. Where is it? Where is it?!’

The girl stared into the fire until it was nearly embers.

Nothing.

Luz held herself back from screaming every curse she knew (both English and Spanish) into the pyre. Not in front of the far-too-slowly melting visage of Skulley. She wouldn't let it win.

‘Alright, Noceda, walk. You gotta wash all this gunk off of you. Maybe you'll find something tomorrow.’

Luz stormed over to the stream and scrubbed the sap from her skin with the trickle running through the creak. The water was still warm from the boiling rain.

Then it clicked.

‘Wait, where's the rest of the water? The storm went on all night, this should be flooded.’

Luz walked along and up the creek, keeping an ear out for the bubbling of water and the hiss of steam. Following the bend, she soon found the noise, and the water after.

A part of the creekbed had collapsed into itself, a dam of dirt and stone turning the creek into a small pool. Crowning the dam, nearly on its side was a type of sapling Luz had never seen before.

It twisted around itself, bluish-green bark swirling in an oddly beautiful pattern. It swayed in the breeze, a single root keeping the wrist-thick body from completely toppling over. Climbing over to it, Luz placed a hand on the tree. It felt like it was sliding around itself as she pressed against it. Her mind buzzed.

This. This was magic. Luz could feel it, smell it in the wood. This would get her the next glyph. Her hatchet was in her hand before she knew it.

Something wriggled in her brain, a hesitation in her swing. She hadn't seen anything like this in the rest of the forest, but Eda had talked about something fitting the description. Maybe she shouldn't…

No. This was her ticket. Her prize for her efforts. She had earned this.

Luz the human chopped through the root and the sapling dropped, rolling into the creekbed with a quiet thump.

She dragged it back to her workshop. The ashes had not gone dark yet. Chopping the thing to pieces, she pulled a small bottle of lighter fluid out, dumped it over the newly-made firewood, and tossed it all onto the embers.The fluid caught immediately, encasing the arcane fuel in flame.

The wood seemed to resist at first, refusing to burn or even char. One minute. Two minutes.

The buzz in the back of her mind grew louder. It was just noise.

Three minutes.

The wood began to emit a glittering green smoke, swirling around the fire like the now peeling bark did around itself.

Four.

The wood gave a hiss, and popped open like a kernel, surrendering to the blaze. The fire flared, flashing a brilliant blue. Luz ignored the swarming chatter in her head and looked into her pyre for the sign. Her sign.

Twisting flame was all she saw.

No. No, this had to be it. She stepped closer to the fire, the smoke billowing against her face. She could smell the magic in it. She could take it, she could breath it, she could—

The flame was made into rotten ash in an instant.

“What?” Luz breathed.

Only now did she notice the air bleeding colors and tasting of horror.

“What. Have. You. Done.”

Chapter Text

“You Know Nothing Of Being A Witch.”

***

Luz woke up with a pillow to the face and a fluffy demon soon on top of it.

“Wake up or die, human! It's today!”

She mumbled groggily from under the weight of the furball, trying to move her head to the side in order to breathe. “Urrrghh… Kingggg nooooo, you can't assassinate me today. We can't do the Moonlight Conjuring if I'm dead.”

“It only takes three. You're unnecessary.” The demon teased.

The human responded by wrapping her arms around him and forcing him to share her fate: smothered with the same pillow.

“Weh! Nooo! Comeuppance!” he cried, wriggling desperately.

Their giggles were interrupted by a familiar clearing of the throat. A weight was removed from her face, along with the pillow, and Luz found herself staring up at her mentor holding King up by the scruff.

Eda smirked down at her. “Rub the crust from your eyes, kid. I know I know, but if I have to get up at this Titan-awful time, so do you!”

Luz checked her phone. “It’s noon.”

“I know. Urgh. Bleh.”

Eda left the room, her nose still wrinkled in disgust at the audacity of it all. Luz rolled her eyes, and then herself, out of bed. Changing into her day clothes (she should do a laundry one of these days), the witch apprentice made her way into the kitchen and tried to dig into some leftover grub. The odor lured another to her food.

“Are you gonna finish that or…?”

King's adorable little face poked up just barely over the table, staring at Luz with his big ol’ eyes. She looked down at her plate, more absently poking at the creamy white meat than she was actually eating it. To be fair to herself though, she still wasn't used to eating things with their heads still on.

Or mandibles still twitching when she stabbed it.

Yup, it’s sounding like griffin eggs are what’s for lunch today! Luz wordlessly passed her plate over to the eager demon and went to fetch a pre-boiled snack while trying to ignore the ravenous wet crunching she heard behind her.

“King, stop using your wiles to steal Luz's food. Luz, stop being so easily scammed by King, he needs a tougher mark to practice on if he's going to improve.” Eda ordered as she walked into the kitchen wearing something most unlike her. A dusty white cloak lay upon her shoulders, covering a formal blouse and leggings.

Luz was, of course, as tactful as ever, “Uh, did someone die?”

“Maybe my fashion sense,” Eda muttered as she fidgeted with a pair of thick boots, “I have a meeting with someone and I have to keep it on the down low. This- titan these things are clunky- disguise was the stipulation. Oh, along with this.”

Eda pulled the old scroll case from within the endless expanse of her hair.

“Oh, did you find someone that can translate the last part?” Luz managed to ask with a mouth full of egg.

Eda stuffed the case back into her tangles. “Maybe. That's not what the meeting's about, but if I can use this old rag to entice ‘em into translating it for us, then that's more snails in our pocket.”

As the grumpy witch walked by, she stopped and sniffed. Her nose wrinkled. “Yeash. Kid, when was the last time you showered? You reek as bad as Furball here.”

“Hey!”

Luz squirmed in her seat. “Oh, uh, well…”

“She and Skulley had a fight.”

Luz could feel the beads of sweat beginning to roll down her back. “Ehehehe! King doesn’t know what he’s talking about! I’ve just—”

“Oh come on. (munch munch) I've seen you avoiding mirrors for days now. You're about as subtle as Hooty.”

“I CAN BE SUBTLE!” Came a thundering screech down the hall.

Eda peered down at Luz, squinting. “Did Bonehead do something? You let me know and I'll find a way to make them pay, divine power be damned.”

“No no, it's fine! We just shared some… strong feelings. That's all.”

Eda stared her down for another few gut-churning moments before shrugging and walking away.

Luz watched her leave and gave a long sigh. She didn't want to get into what happened between her and Skulley. Not today right before Gus and Willow came over. Clearing the table and grabbing a bin and a shovel, the girl trudged into the living room to start battling the living room mess.

Unfortunately for her, the scraping of mud shavings left her mind idle and ready to playback the things she wished to ignore.

***

Every color around her was sticky and sharp, pointing their razor edges at her, against her. Steam engulfed the woods, folding into the smoke billowing from the ashes and encircling the area like the beginning of a hurricane, with all the heat and humidity that comes with it.

Yet even the heat wasn't enough to topple with the monolith of ice standing opposite the firepit, and with it the image that stood within, glowering.

“What. Have. You. Done.”

The beast in the reflection stared her down, a maw of snarling bone and eyes of a burning, baleful light making its fury at her clear. The pressure of its will demanded the girl answer.

Luz tried to speak, to sputter some reason that could satisfy the demon. The attempt died in her throat, the sweet promise of magic the smoke whispered fading into a bitter taste on her tongue and a scorching pain in her lungs. She held herself back from coughing, already having done quite enough of that the past few days, and forced herself to hold steady with slow deep breaths.

The pressure around her shifted in response to her exhaustion, a muted hue drizzled through the red of rage before being swallowed up again. Luz felt Skulley's sight ripple through skin and muscle to peel apart her lungs, hunting through her in search of something. When whatever it was did not show, the demon returned their gaze to meet hers, it's tone ran like a dull chime.

“You Are Lucky To Be Alive.”

That shouldn't have been what did it.

When Luz looked back on this moment, she couldn't believe this was what did it. It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a jab at her. It wasn't even meant to be mean.

And yet it was those words that caused something in Luz to snap. Something in the tone, something in its vague, know-it-all attitude that sent her over the edge.

A voice– a hiss– struck against the face of the ice.

“Fuck you.”

It took her a second to recognize the voice as her own.

Luz's breath hitched, stunned at her own outburst. Skulley was in a similar state of shock, its surprise leaving the air shimmering. Both stood in that silence for eons.

And yet in those eons, before Luz could think of anything to salvage her mistake, her mouth kept going.

“Why do you have to make my life so hard?! I am so sick and tired of you getting in my way! I've spent years trying to figure out magic and the moment I find a lead, you lay waste to all my efforts!”

The initial shock of the beast flipped into an irritating buzzing on the girl's skin, its outrage prickling.

“Lay Waste. My Act Was An Act Of Mercy Unto You. Do You Not Know Of What You Have Done.”

“What I've done? What I've done?! What about what you've done you rotten husk!? All I did was get around your stupid rules so I can learn to be a witch!”

Skulley paused before a slow, rolling growl rumbled forth.

“Ah. So That Is What You Were Attempting. You Tried To Use My Presence To Draw The Magic Out. How Clever.”

Those last words rang out with a dry thunderclap, leaving the human wincing.

“Do You Know The Name Of What You Have Burned.”

Luz's stomach twisted in knots for reasons she couldn't explain. “...No.”

“Correct. Just As You Do Not Know Of How The Bones Of Your Ancestors Are Respected. Of The Bonds Taken In Blood. Of The Reverence Of The Self.”

“Great, so I don't know your trivia—”

The ice cracked.

“It. Is. Not. Trivia. These Are Things That Should Mean Something To You. You Claim To Seek To Be A Witch Yet You Ignore What Makes A Witch. Instead You Claw For Magic You Hold No Care For. You Say You Want Magic. Edalyn Has Granted You It Through Potions. Is That Not True Magic.”

“I—”

“Yet You Are Not Satisfied. You Seek In Your Greed To Claim The Magic You Have Stolen. To Force It To Appear Before You Have Even An Idea Of What It Means. Of What It Meant.”

The beast stewed in its fury for a moment before speaking again.

“Tell Me Edaspawn I Beg You. What Is Magic.”

Luz…

Luz opened her mouth and found…

…nothing.

…

Which was ridiculous! She knew what magic was! She had spent all of her life reading and studying about magic. She had plenty of definitions she could throw out! It was the ability to influence reality through mystical means and ritual. It was spells and alchemy and summoning and amazing! It was what makes a witch a witch!!

And yet she still stood here, unable to speak.

Why did all those answers sound so hollow to her? Why did none of them fit right? Or, was it the question that was out of place; the right keys for the wrong lock.

She did not understand.

The two sat in silence until patience ran dry.

“Many A Supposedly Powerless Witch There Have Been. Many Found With Not A Single Spell Etched Through Their Finger. And All Of Them. Every One Of Them Held An Answer. You May Hold As Much Magic As You Could Dream Of Human.

But You Know Nothing Of Being A Witch.”

Luz couldn't say anything. With trembling limbs, she turned and ran. And ran.

And

ran.

***

“Luz? Human? You there?”

Eda stood with one foot out the door staring back at her. Said human realized she had been poking the same piece of floor with her spade for a minute (Mami would be very upset by the scuff marks she had left).

“Uh, yeah, I'm here! What did you say?”

Eda sighed. “I said I'm heading out now. There's some of takeout in the fridge and some frozen human foods I swiped on my last visit in case you have trouble with the takeout. Remember to feed King and Hooty their vitamins. King will tell you he takes it wrapped in snorse cheese, but don't be fooled, he’ll just eat around it and spit it out when you aren't looking. Enlist Hooty: he likes the vitamins and will hold King down while you make him take it. Don't destroy my house and don't you dare try to open the nice cabinet with my good Apple Blood. It has plenty of alarm spells to let me know if you do and a few shock spells for if you do anyway.”

“Is that why I hear a zapping noise and you swearing at night?”

“Shut up and have a good time,” Eda grumped her way out the door with a slam of the door (a surprised HOOT! accompanying it).

Luz sighed, pressing her forehead against the wall. Why was the fight still bothering her? It was just Skulley being Skulley again. Just some more mindless, meaningless rage it happened to throw her way.

Luz's face twisted into a slight sneer. Can't be a witch, huh? Shows what it knows. She was about to throw the greatest Abe- Abuu- Moonlight Conjuring her friends have ever had!

Luz tossed the shovel behind the couch, quickly sprayed herself down with deodorant, and threw blankets over every mirror she could find. She was not going to have her night ruined.

Whittling the hour away watching as a corona of blue energy slowly shone from the moon's pale surface, the doorbell finally rang and Luz led her friends inside, certain of her victory.

***

Eda walked as fast as she could past the Night Market glowering at the pavement. Her skin, where it peaked out from her ridiculous outfit, itched at the touch of strange moonlight. The witch snatched an elixir from her pocket and forced the swill down, dropping the empty bottle into her pocket with the other two she had taken this day. Stocking up last week had been an ugly wound in her savings, but absolutely necessary. She wasn't letting the bird out of its cage to threaten those children ever again.

She used the sight of the bar to distract her from the fact she knew that wasn't up to her.

Clomping through the door (Eda was burning these boots when she got back home), she scanned the room. There, at the corner table in a nondescript brown cloak, was just the witch she was looking for.

Throwing herself into the chair and kicking her feet up on the table, Eda chuckled as the figure froze, clearly holding themselves back from startling before digging their nails into the wood in frustration.

“Heya, sis. How's the night of Abuae treating you?”

***

The Titan stared at The Box as It pondered.

It had been some time since It had spoken to the Edaspawn, since the young one had spoken to It.

They had been so angry, so confused.

The Edaspawn had burned a palistrom tree. One born of carvers and woodsmiths had taken something so cared for and cherished by their people and threw it apon a fire.

The Edaspawn had done the unthinkable.

The Edaspawn had done it without thinking anything of it. Without knowing what they were doing. Without knowing any of the care they should have for their home, of magic.

How could the Edaspawn not know what magic is?! What it means?!

What it had meant.

“Show Me The Bright One Again! The Bright One!”

The Titan resisted the call to memory and returned to the matter at hand.

Why didn't the Edaspawn know? Why had Edalyn not taught them of the trees their familiars were formed from? Of the care one should have for them? Of the dangers they held within? Had It not scattered the smoke and embers quickly enough, the child would have been gone by nightfall. The wild sap was certain death when ingested, its interaction with internal magic fatal.

Well, near certain. One had found a way.

It thought back to the Edaspawn standing over the fire, over the screaming wood.

Standing over it as they smiled, eyes glowing greenbluegreenyellowredgreenblueblueblue—

No. No, that wasn't right. The Box had never been clear enough to see their expression. That could not have happened. It must have not happened.

The Titan cursed the Dark Place. It had eaten away so much. Telling what had happened from what had been dreamed by errant thought was difficult on the best days, and those were few and far between. How could it know any of what it knew of itself was real or imagined?

The Titan shrank away from the thought, too horrible to contemplate.

The problem stood nonetheless: the Edaspawn knew nothing of being a witch. Things that should have been apparent to them were not, things that should have been taught to them much earlier. It had guessed that Edalyn had not known of their spawn until recently and so could not raise them, but even then they would have assumed the parent to teach the child what it must know before they learn to cast a spell.

What was It missing?

Something was wrong.

The Titan smelled it before It felt it. Of lightning and burning and pain and death. The silent single note of order playing ceaseless and without breath or life.

Celestial Magic.

It was coming from The Box. The other boxes. Every one that was bound to Its home.

No NoNoNoThisWasn'tPossible. The dead magicLingers across ITsbody.

NoNoNONONO. THEYCANNOTBEBACK. ITWASDEAD. ALLWEREDEAD. THEYHAVENOREASONTORETURN.

Beware The Stars For They Are Watching.

Its spawn. It's children. THEYWEREHEREAGAIN. HERETOHUNTAGAIN. RUN. RUN.

It Watched As The Sky Was Eaten. The Sun Crackled.

SAVEYOURSELVES. ___ _itan thrashed in Its tomb and howled at The Box. It did not move. It did not respond.

The _it__’s mind was crumbling, the panic and MEMORIES flooding and collapsing into It.

The _it__ cried out for Its children to hide.
The _It__ cried out for Its children to hide.
The _It__ Cried Out For Its Spawn To Hide But It Was All Too Late.

It needed out. It needed a way out.

EDaSPAWN.

HELPME.

***

The moon sits high in the sky.

Abuae has begun.

Chapter Text

“Hi friends! ” Luz beamed as her compatriots walked into the home to find a buffet of snacks littering the table. “We have notdogs you can heat up, frozen pizza from the Human Realm thanks to Eda, and a rapidly shrinking bowl of pretzels!”

King stopped gnawing on the bowl long enough to spook at the sight of potential snack thieves and darted under the table with his prize.

“Wow, Luz! You really went all out!” Willow exclaimed. Gus did all the agreeing he could while stuffing his face with pizza.

Luz felt like she could fly at this very moment. Everyone was so excited! Nothing was going to ruin this night. She looked to the window, the curtain pulled shut and taped to the wall to obscure it.

She went through her lines one last time before speaking. “I just remembered! Eda told me that we might have a mirror ant infestation going on, so try to avoid them!”

“Got it. Ignore the voices, they are not your family, yada yada.”

Luz nodded, a tenseness in her soul dissipating. That should keep the house safe and reflection-free.

***

The cloaked figure pulled her hood down over her head and hissed “Edalyn, so help me Titan if you don't shut up and stop drawing attention to us, I will turn this meeting into an arrest!”

Typical Lily~ Eda cackled at the blustering witch and summoned a pair of apple blood juice boxes from the bar. “Calm your tits, Lil. Lighten up! Call it an interrogation if you need to do paperwork about it.”

Lily huffed. “I can't believe I'm doing this. All over a stupid bet.”

“Hey, you're the one who chose to cheat, not me.”

“Because I knew—” Lilith began to retort before remembering, her pride deflating just as quickly as it rose (giving her sister no small satisfaction).

Eda took a sip from her night juice and took the time for a nice long stretch, using the gesture to mask her scan of the room. No white cloaks or faces turned their way. Good. “Yeah yeah, just spill the details. Did you figure out who it was?”

Lily tapped her fingers together and stared down at the table. “I've… investigated your claim.”

“Uhuh.

“I looked through the scouting missions and my subordinates’ reports.”

“Uhuh. And?”

“And the results have been inconclusive.”

The apple blood nearly toppled at the fist pounding into the table. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Eda, if someone was… following your student—”

“Stalking.”

“If someone was after your student, I would know. I am the Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven, and the one tasked with bringing you in. If one of my subordinates was tracking her, I would have had to sign off on it. What's more likely: that a random scout is taking time out of their schedule to stalk a child instead of you, the one with an actual bounty, or that your student has picked up some of your bad habits?”

Eda was getting ready to test the integrity of the bolts holding the table down. She might not be good at math, but she could guess well enough they scored higher than anyone in the white and gold. “Luz couldn't lie her way out of an FUI, you think she could pull one over on me? Even if she could, the tripped wards and footprints can't.”

“Your wards have always been spotty. One of your many enemies must have just stolen a guard cloak.”

“None of them fit the bill. From what I can tell the intruder didn't go after me, and the only thing I found missing was Luz's bedside photo.”

“So she lost it.”

“She didn't—” Eda groaned. This was going nowhere. “Fine, fine. I get you aren't going to listen to me, so let's switch topics.”

Lilith waved her off. “I’m sorry, but I can’t risk any more time than needed. If I have fulfilled my obligations, dear sister, I will take my leave.”

As Lily made to stand up, Eda made a show of taking the scroll case out and placing it on the table, making sure her guest got an eyeful of the crest inlaid on its end. “Well, that is a shame. I was about to ask my dear old-thing-nerd sister to check out something I had recently acquired. Just some old demon text talking about something or other. Nothing too exciting.”

Lilith paused, staring at the item, her expression unmoving. To anyone else, they wouldn't have noticed anything off. To Eda, the small, fervid twitches at the tips of her sister's ears were a better tell than any other that she'd just won.”

Lilith caught herself staring and looked away, muttering “The term's historian.”

“I know~”

Lilith sighed, slowly sitting back in her chair, and Eda grinned.

***

The sleepover gang laid in various states of lethargy across the couch, stomach full of unhealthy snacks and processed meals. Luz sat half slumped on the floor.

“Welp,” burped King, covered in pretzel dust, “that was a good time. Goodnight, minions. And heretic.”

“We’ve barely started, and you should have shared willingly.” Gus muttered, also covered in pretzel dust, along with small bite marks.

“Guys, stop fighting. ‘m too full.” Luz groaned. “Ugh… Too much pepperoni…”

“I told you eating an entire pizza was dumb.” Willow mumbled.

“Then why did you eat the other one?”

“I wanted to be dumb too. It’s fun.”

Willow’s scroll screamed in alarm from the table. Reaching over and silencing it with a quick poke, its owner sprung up and beckoned to her compatriots. “Everyone, get up! It's almost time for the ritual!”

The excitement was infectious. Luz and the others were up and giddy in an instant. The boys were tussling over which doll (“Action Figure!”) they would bring to life while the girls discussed the intricacies of moon magic.

“So what is moon magic like, anyhow? I hadn't heard of it until you brought it up.”

“Lunar magic isn’t like the magic of the bile, It uses words and ritual instead of blood and passion. It doesn't need to feed off of any source of magic, since it feeds off the moon. It feels like… the best way I can say is that it’s like a sticky dullness, in a buzzy sort of way. You’ll feel it once the moon reaches its zenith.”

“Ooo-hoo-hoo! Weird!”

“I know, right!? Now if you'll excuse me, the boys are beginning to tucker out from fighting each other, which is the perfect time for me to step in.” The pair got to their feet.

“To stop them?” Luz asked.

Willow rolled up her sleeves and marched away. “Uhuh, yeah, sure.”

‘Welp,’ thought Luz, ‘guess we’re animating the fern tonight.' And it was so within a scant few minutes, leaving a boy under either arm of the triumphant plant nerd. Walking out into the radiant beauty of the moonlight, the children watched as the moon centered itself in the swirling dark sea of night.

“We're ready.”

The four took their places around each other, their hands clasped in one another, with Willow explaining the chant. As they began their rhythmic chant, the human among them felt a cold sweat run forming on her. An ugly taste overriding the tang of meat and cheese from before.

‘What's gotten into me? I took a lactaid, the pizza shouldn't be wrecking me this bad.’

“Moonlight, we call, we sing,

Moonlight, take this chance.

Moonlight, come tie the string,

Moonlight, start the dance.”

The chant repeated, a chorus of various different stages of puberty trying to sing as one. It repeated on and on, each repetition growing duller with practice and focus. A pale glow began to surround them.

As Luz engulfed herself in this new magic, her ears were deaf to the screams that rang through her blood.