Chapter Text
Chapter 21
Mami was at the airport and she remembered she probably should have remembered early, and that was airports could get stupidly busy. As was currently the case at the airport she found herself at. “Thank goodness I left early.” she quietly said to herself, manoeuvring through the crowd with as much grace as she could muster, her suitcase trailing behind her and backpack on her back. Her flight was leaving in about five hours and Mami, not wanting to test her luck knowing how bad it could get, left early so she could check in and get through security well before her flight left.
She eventually found the airline she was flying with and lined up to get her and her luggage checked in. The line was fairly long, but Mami was a patient girl, she could wait a while. Also she had her phone on her, so she could look at stuff on it while waiting in line. Ah the wonders of technology.
An errant thought of Kyoko loudly complaining about having to wait in line crossed her mind. Her lips slightly twitched upward at the thought, amused by the mental image. She shook her head trying to get the thought of Kyoko out of her mind. Thinking about how things had ended between the two always made Mami remember the pain of that day, of how Kyoko left her after what her father did to her and her family. She tried to distract herself by looking at news stories on her phone. It didn’t help much. It was mostly really depressing, to the point Mami could notice her soul gem starting to cloud ever so slightly. She made a mental not to top herself up when she could find somewhere a bit more private.
So instead she decided to look up some more information about the town she was heading to. After fumbling with the spelling for a few moments, she managed to type ‘Gravesfield’ into the search bar. She hit search and went to the first page on the search screen.
She began to read the Wikipedia page for Gravesfield.
Gravesfield is a small town located in the state of Connecticut in the United States of America. It was founded by Puritans in approximately 1644, but any definitive proof has not been found- as much of documentation had been burnt following a series of fires, so this is purely speculative. They had settled there for the abundant forests nearby as well as fertile soil. Had a series of witch hunts from 1646 -1647, where many people where accused of witchcraft and executed. Mami winced at the mention of witch hunts. Well know for the local legend of the Witterbane brothers, whose statue can be found at the centre of the town.
Mami, curious about this local legend clicked the relevant link about the Witterbane brothers which bought her to a page about the two brothers named Caleb and Philip respectively. It had a picture of the statue that was mentioned in the previous page.
The story of the Witterbane brothers is a local Gravesfield tale of the disappearance of Caleb and Philip Witterbane. The two brothers were orphans from a young age, with Caleb doing odd jobs to help provide for him and his younger brother, Philip on the other hand worked at becoming a witch hunter. Very few records of what happened have survived to this day, but what does survive all mention a red haired woman that Caleb was seen talking to on multiple occasions. The woman was constantly seen wearing a hood that covered her ears and much of her face, with only her red hair visible from most angles. Many records that talk about this woman do not mention a name, but they do talk about the common view that this woman was a witch who was trying ensnare Caleb with her magic. While this is likely not the case- Mami gave a small snort at that. it is know that the two would often disappear for long periods of time, with Philip Witterbane trying to chase after the two, believing that she was a witch trying to steal his brother away from him, and to make him fall into a life of sinfulness-.
Mami stopped reading at the point, noticing she was nearly at the front of the line. Putting her phone away for the moment, she made a mental note to continue reading that article later.
. . . .
Once Mami got through security she found a place to sit down, and pulled out her phone and continued to read about the Witterbane brothers. The rest of an article wasn’t very long, culminating in mentioning that Caleb seemed to be transforming into another person because of the red haired woman – taken to be proof of witchcraft by the people of Gravesfield and how the two disappeared into the woods one day with Philip Witterbane chasing the pair of them down, swearing to chase them to the ends of the earth. What happened after that was left unsaid, but Mami had a feeling things didn’t end well.
“Hmmm.” Mami hummed to herself in thought as she digested the story in her head. To Mami it honestly seemed like Philip couldn’t handle someone else spending time with his brother.
Mami let her head loll backwards, knowing she had a lot of time to kill before she could board her flight to Connecticut. Her stomach grumbling gave her an idea on something she could do to occupy her time, even if for just a moment. Seeing a nearby cafe, she got up and made a beeline right for it.
- - - -
Amity was blushing from the close contact she was sharing with Luz. It was nice. It was nice to take a moment to just exist, not having to worry about some of her problems, except for the whole being trapped in a room thing. While Luz was holding her, Amity could see that the other girl was frowning while looking up at the snowflakes dancing in the air. “What are you looking at?” Amity asked the girl giving her a warm hug. A part of Amity also pondered what purpose a room like this served for the catacombs, and her best guess was that it was some sort of trial or obstacle that they needed to get past. Why one would have an obstacle course in catacombs she couldn’t really say.
“The snowflakes, something about them bothers me.” Luz replied, a thoughtful gleam in her eyes. She seemed to be thinking about something until Amity could see her make a realisation. “Wait I think I’ve got an idea.” she said leaping to her feet, making Amity briefly mourn the loss of contact. “Maybe it’ll be like my light glyph.” Luz said to herself, making Amity and King realise what she was getting at. She then turned to Amity a grin on her face, making Amity grin back. “Do you think you can get me up there?”
Amity nodded her head, bringing out a flask of specially prepared abomination muck. “I can, you think you can find a glyph in those snowflakes?” she asked, glad that she had specifically prepared some abomination muck for the cold weather beforehand. Most abominations tended to freeze around the same temperature water would, so by adding a fair bit of salt Amity had lowered the freezing temperature by a fair margin.
“I know so.”
“In that case, Abomination lift.” she ordered her abomination to lift Luz up to the snowflakes in the air. It did so by creating a platform with its two hands, allowing Luz to have a platform to stand on.
Luz was lifted up to the cloud of snowflakes and examined the snowflakes with a discerning gaze, whatever she found causing her to gain an excited smile. “I’ve found it!” she said, prompting Amity to order her abomination to lower Luz back to the ground. Amity knew Luz could make the jump unscathed, but Amity didn’t want Luz to have to do so. King got up and walked closer to his sister.
Luz got out her note book and pen and began to draw with a steadfast hand. Within seconds she showed Amity and King the finished glyph. To Amity it honestly looked like a kite with a small hill behind it.
“Let’s see what this can do shall we?” Luz asked holding the glyph towards the roaring river.
Amity and King nodded their head, Luz then touched the glyph with her hand. It launched a pillar of ice that then promptly fell to the floor and smashed into small innumerable fragments. “Well at least we know it’s an ice glyph.” King chimed in, a slight huff of amusement at seeing what Luz just did.
Luz, adorable blush on her face, nodded her head. “Hehe yep. Let’s try that again, I think I know what to do now.”
She then placed the glyph on the bank of the river, and tried again.
- - - -
Luz upon seeing the patterns in the snow, couldn’t help the surge of excitement at her discovery. Upon committing the glyph to memory, she could feel it represent resilience, of staying steadfast even in this world.
After the first mishap with the ice glyph borne from her excitement, she placed the ice glyph down on the river and visualised what she needed. She needed a way for them to cross over, a bridge between one place and the next.
Upon touching the glyph, frost began to crawl out from under it, heading towards the river, and slowly but surely it began to freeze, turning the rapid river into steadfast ice.
As Luz stood up and looked at what she just did, she could feel Amity hug her. “You did it Luz!” she congratulated the magical girl with a proud smile. “You learned your second spell!”
Luz couldn’t help but smile as well, proud of what she had just done. “Heck yeah I did!” she cheered hugging Amity back, briefly spinning round with the green haired girl in her arms.
Upon realising what she just did Luz let go, and looked away a vibrant red blush on her face. In the corner of her eye Luz could see that Amity had just as vibrant blush on her face. Luz hoped she didn’t upset Amity with that.
- - - -
Amity’s current thoughts weren’t upset in any way, they went more along the lines of ‘aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh cute girl help!’ At times Amity was a very useless lesbian.
“Ah sorry.” Luz said after putting Amity down, bringing Amity out of her thoughts.
“It’s fine, perfectly fine. I didn’t mind it all.” a flustered Amity said, her hands nervously fluttering about. “I wouldn’t mind doing something like that again.” Amity quietly said to herself, already imagining Luz doing that to her again, she also imagined Luz doing the same thing to Willow and found the mental image to be an appealing one.
“Uh what was that?” Luz asked, apparently noticing Amity say something.
“Uh nothing!” Amity shouted again, her face becoming an even more brilliant scarlet.
Before Luz could press her, they both heard King go “Weh!” as he slipped face first on the ice with a small thud. “Curse you ice! You’ll rue the day you caused the king of demons to slip! You hear me?! Rue!” King promised vengeance on the ice he slipped on making both Luz and Amity snort in amusement, it also served as a nice way to take Luz’s attention off of Amity, whose blush was still plainly visible.
“Let’s pick him up and get a move on yeah?” Luz suggested and Amity was all to happy to agree.
“Yeah sounds good to me.” Amity replied, then without thinking about it, she instinctively slipped her hand into Luz’s, enjoying the warmth she felt radiate from Luz’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.” With that said, Luz gather King up into her arms, and they all crossed the frozen river.
Once they left the cold room, they were greeted by a pitch black room, so dark that one wouldn’t be able to see their own hand waving in front of them. The only bit of light Amity could really perceive were faint lights glimmering on the ceiling, too far away to be of any use. It was like looking at the night sky with its constellations, beautiful and ever distant.
“Oh come on!” King complained which Amity agreed with whole heartedly. Amity and Luz then quickly cast a light spell illuminating the new room they were in. “Oh that’s better.”
Then Amity’s light spell was immediately snuffed out, like blowing out a candle. “Wait what?” she exclaimed in shock at seeing her light go out. Amity couldn’t help but blink in confusion at what just happened. Why was her light extinguished and Luz’s left alone?
- - - -
Mami Tomoe found that she loathed air travel, she loathed it with an absolute passion. Boarding went by easily enough, it was the flying that was getting to her. She wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, her head hurt, she wanted desperately to sleep but couldn’t and to add to it there was a baby screaming their lungs out somewhere nearby. The person in front of her had reclined their seat, smacking Mami in the nose as they did so.
If it was this bad now, Mami was dreading the return trip.
She tried to distract herself by watching an in flight movie, but found the flickering screen hurt her eyes too much for her to watch. Before turning the screen off she checked how much longer she had flying, and found that she wasn’t even halfway there. If Kyoko was here, Mami knew the red haired girl would be cursing up a storm at how things are going.
She let out a groan of exhaustion, slumping over in her uncomfortable seat.
She closed her eyes, and tried to get some sleep, trying to let the noises wash over her and leave her unbothered, calm and serene like a still lake.
It didn’t really work and Mami still a lot of flying in her future.
- - - -
Sayaka Miki’s face was a bright scarlet at hearing what Madoka said to her.
“I love you Sayaka.” Sayaka knew she often joked about Madoka being her wife, but actually hearing Madoka say that in a way that very clearly wasn’t platonic made her heart flutter with a nervous excitement.
It also didn’t help that Madoka’s mom walked in on her daughter laying atop of a very flustered Sayaka. Sayaka could see that woman’s teasing grin as she shut the door behind her, leaving both Sayaka and Madoka to their own devices.
Eventually Madoka got off of Sayaka, who privately mourned the lost of the close contact they just had, which allowed Sayaka to go out of Madoka’s room so her best friend could get changed. She found herself leaning against the wall by Madoka’s door, waiting for her best friend to get changed.
Sure Madoka and Sayaka had changed around each other before, now with Madoka saying she loved Sayaka, Sayaka knew she would practically ignite from how hard she would blush. Hell her face was well on the way to be mistaken for an inferno.
Soon enough Sayaka could hear the sound of Madoka’s bedroom door opening, making the blue haired girl look and see what outfit Madoka decided to put on.
Sayaka’s first thought on seeing Madoka was ‘cute’ and her second was ‘what would it be like to kiss her?’ Sayaka slapped her cheeks, trying to get her thoughts under control. “Ready to go?” she asked, her mind constantly and very unhelpfully bringing up the fact Madoka had just told Sayaka she loved her. Thanks brain real helpful.
Madoka, briefly looking confused as to why Sayaka just slapped her cheeks, responded with a nod. “Yeah.” Madoka said with an adorable smile. “Let’s go to the mall.”
Sayaka nodded, and seemingly by instinct Madoka reached out and grabbed her hand making both of the girls blush brightly, it seemed Madoka was still shaken from whatever dream she woke up from. “Is this alright?” she asked hesitantly, in response Sayaka made sure to have a firm grip.
“It’s perfectly fine.” the blue haired girl replied. “I won’t let go.” she promised both herself and Madoka. She never wanted to let go of her, she would hold on unlike last time. Her thoughts paused, halting in their tracks. What last time?
“You promise?”
“I promise. You won’t be able to get rid of me that easily Doka, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.” she said in a faux threatening manner.
Madoka laughed at Sayaka’s antics, making the bluenette happy to see her best friend laugh. “Thanks Sayaka I needed that.” Madoka said once she stopped laughing.
“You’re welcome Madoka.”
. . . .
Eventually the two girls found themselves at the local mall’s food court eating lunch. Madoka had gotten herself a slice of chocolate cake as well as a strawberry milkshake. Sayaka on the other hand got herself three cheeseburgers, some fries and a cherry soda. What? She was really hungry.
Just after taking a sip of her soda, Sayaka decided to ask the question currently on her mind. “Do you mind if I ask you what you dream was about?”
Madoka hesitated for a second, unsure whether or not answer Sayaka’s question. Before Sayaka could say that Madoka didn’t have to answer if she didn’t want to, the pink haired girl answered the question. “It... it was really weird. Like I was fighting this great big monster that was destroying the city, it had killed my friends and I was one of the only two people left. I was a magical girl as well, wearing this super pretty white and pink dress.” Madoka’s eyes, dimmer than they ever should be, looked out the windows behind Sayaka, her gaze lost in the remembrance of her dream. If Sayaka turned and look, Madoka’s gaze would line up with the nearby coast. “I had a bow, and.... and I could feel like I was fighting to buy someone time.”
“Buying them time for what?” Sayaka couldn’t help but ask.
Madoka shook her head, seemingly unaware of the answer. “I don’t know. But I knew it was important.” Madoka reached a hand out, as if by instinct in order to seek comfort. Sayaka was quite happy to oblige her best friend, and grasped Madoka’s hand with her own.
“No matter what happens,” Sayaka promised her friend with all her heart, “I’ll be there for you no matter what. Success, as Madoka couldn’t help but smile, some of the shine returning to her eyes. But still something lingered in those eyes, something Sayaka didn’t want Madoka to experience. So she made an oath to herself like a knight swearing an oath to her princess, that she would always be by Madoka’s side ready to fight for the girl she loved. So caught up in her thoughts, Sayaka didn’t realise what she called Madoka at that moment. However she would soon enough.
“Thank you Sayaka.”
- - - -
King was glad that Luz and Amity knew how to cast light spells even if Amity’s one had been snuffed out, because looking down the young demon could see that the path forward was a treacherous one. As if they took another step they would have fallen into a bottomless pit. There was one path they could take. It was narrow, made of glass and stretched beyond the limits of their light source.
“Why did my light go out?” Amity couldn’t help but ask about what happened a moment ago. “What makes mine and Luz’s so different?” she asked looking at Luz, clearly thinking hard on the topic.
She and Luz looked at each other, twins look of realisation on their faces. “The Glyphs!” they shouted in unison, their voices echoing throughout the room.
“Since the last room needed the ice glyph to pass through it-.” Luz began, her excitement growing, as she got her note book at the ready once more.
“This one must need the light glyph to get through it.” Amity finished, graciously accepting Luz’s pre drawn light glyphs activating them as Luz activated some more as well, illuminating the room much more than Luz’s singular light did. It also allowed them to see that a fair distance away the path began to split into many branching paths, all of them leading in wildly different diractions.
“Well that doesn’t look very safe.” Amity couldn’t help but dryly note, tracing the path with her eyes as far as she could manage. King couldn’t help but the snort of agreement that he let out as he looked at the path ahead of them.
“Yeah, I know it doesn’t need to be said but watch your step.” Luz said, letting go of Amity’s hand, much to their obvious mutual displeasure. King couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the two, their actions reminding him of the rom-coms he and Eda occasionally watched on the crystal ball. Before Luz did anything else she handed King over to Amity who placed the young monarch on her shoulder like Luz did. King much preferred Luz’s shoulder as a perch however, but he knew it wasn’t the time to comment on it.
Luz took a tentative step on on the path, ready to jump back if something happened to it.
A moment passes. King feels his heart race, his small fur covered body tensing up.
Then another.
The path holds firm, and everyone breaths a sigh of relief.
Luz took another couple of steps. “This looks like it should hold us.” she said, trying her best not to look down. She briefly managed to look down a quick flash of fear crossing her face before she managed to look back up.
Amity trusting Luz took her own step onto the narrow glass path, her heart racing to the point King could feel it from his current position. Luz reached her hand back and, quick as a flash, Amity took it, grasping it tightly. If Luz felt how tight that grip was she didn’t say anything.
Soon the two young witches began to walk the perilous path, with the abyss below them, and uncertainty in front of them.
As they walk their path, lights accompanying them like a small swarm of fireflies, they came across the first fork in the road, between the two paths, as if by magic appeared a stained glass image of tall furry being, holding a light in the palm of its hand. Said tall being had no head, seemingly from some sort of damage or vandalism. Beneath the figure was writing that King was wholly unfamiliar with. King tried his best to read it, and all he got out of it was a headache. He rubbed at his skull with his claws, trying his best to drive the pain away.
“Any idea what that says?” Luz asked the other two. “I don’t know what this language is.”
Amity shook her head. “No sorry.” But she took a picture of it anyway, probably so she could have someone else take a look at it later. “I’m not familiar with it.... whatever it is it looks ancient.”
While the two girls puzzled over the weird language, King was looking at the two paths they had in front of them, he noticed the fact the lights they had seemingly attempt to drift down the path to their left. Like they were showing them the way.
“Look.” King prompted, making the girls follow his finger pointing towards the lights.
“They’re drifting towards the left path.” Luz quickly noticed. “Should we follow them?”
“Yeah I think we should.” King suggested, feeling like the lights were trustworthy in this scenario. That and the other option was blindly guessing which King had a feeling would not end well for them.
Amity, her own gaze following the drifting lights, nodded her head. “it’s a good a suggestion as any.”
With that agreement made the trio followed the light’s suggestion and walked down the path to their left.
They continued on, following the light’s path and witnessed several more stained glass scenes, each with their own paths to choose. All beautiful and awe inspiring, with the range of colours all vibrant even after titan knows how long they’ve been down here.
One scene showed a red haired woman leading a blonde woman through a door, hand in hand, both of them smiling at each other as they looked each other in the eyes. They looked to be hopelessly in love with each other, to the point even King, as young as he was, could easily tell.
Another scene showed what looked to be a child of the stars, half of their face as bright as the sun, the other as gentle as the moon. They were emerging as a shadow from an old looking mirror. The child looked lonely, King couldn’t help but note.
Yet another scene showed the titan’s corpse, somehow moving like it was coming back to life, or being reanimated by something. Whatever it was, it made King feel a strong instinctual revulsion at the desecration he was witnessing.
There was a scene that showed an eclipse, the moon blotting out the sun. Down below people were gathered, for what King had no clue. Maybe some sort of festival maybe?
They saw those scenes and more, all of them completely divorced from any context, leaving King to wonder what exactly these scenes were supposed to represent. It was like having only half a script with some concept art. They stopped and took photos of every one of the scenes.
Eventually the group reached the other side, where the ground was thankfully much more solid. Right in front of them was their exit.
So they exited the room to a hallway that had the other end blocked off by rubble and off to the side there was a tunnel one that looked fairly recent in geological terms, seeing nowhere else they could really go, they entered the tunnel.
They were greeted by a wide open room, and wearing a suite of armour he wasn’t before was Gerson. In his hands was a hammer that looked absolutely enormous.
“Hey kiddos!” the old man greeted them with a smile. “Looks like you made it!”
“Gerson?!” King asked feeling a bit lost, wondering how the old man beat them here. King wouldn’t have pegged the old man as someone fast, or as someone who carried a hammer that was twice his own height. “Where’s the treasure?!” he demanded of the turtle. He was promised treasure dangit.
“That’s my name tiny, don’t wear it out! Gehaha!” Gerson laughed, his mirth echoing throughout the room. “Well if things went well Luz would have found one!”
“You mean the ice glyph?” Luz asked, her eyes narrowed as she examined the turtle demon standing in front of them. She seemed like she was standing there waiting for the other shoe to drop. He think that what the expression was, but that was beside the point. She was clearly very wary and considering what King knew of her past it made sense.
“That’s right! Back in the day this place helped people with learning the language of this Titan as well as making sure the dead have a peaceful place to rest, but alas....” Gerson trailed off, his voice echoing with an old sense of grief. Luz and Amity looked at each other with troubled expression on their faces. He then shook his head. “But good job on finding the ice glyph kid!” he said to Luz, congratulating her on what she found.
“Uh thanks... I guess.” Luz said, “so what are we doing now?” she asked gesturing to Gerson and his enormous hammer.
“Well missy,” Gerson said ignoring Luz saying that’s not her name, “I was thinking a spar one on one.”
“Why?” Luz asked grabbing hold of her ring.
“Just humour an old man would ya? I want to see you fight.” he then pointed a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to an axe King was fairly certain wasn’t there before. “Also I’ll give you three this cool axe I have lying around if you win.” King had to admit it was a cool axe.
Luz seemed to think it over for a moment before she sighed and said “sure why not.”
“Uh Luz?” Amity asked sounding some what hesitant, prompting Luz to turn and face her once more.
“I’ll be fine.” Luz said, stretching her arms above her head, before being engulfed in a flash of light that smelled of fire and unkept promises to King’s nose. “It’s just a spar right?”
“Yup,” Gerson said with a grin, adjusting his body into a stance fit for fighting, “Cut a hair off my head and it’ll be your win.” He pointed his hammer at Luz. “I’m not going to make it easy for you, so give it all you got!”
King and Amity moved as far back as they could, and once they did so Luz leapt at Gerson, fire erupting from her feet, making her rocket towards the old turtle.
When she reached Gerson, the turtle faded away like an afterimage, he reappeared right behind Luz, and before she could react the old man was right above her swinging his hammer into her back, sending her crashing into the floor. Gerson disappeared again, reappearing a few metres away, looking completely unharmed. “You have to do better than that.” Gerson said from his new position, challenging the magical girl with his taunt.
Both King and Amity winced at the visceral sounding impact. “I’m okay.” Luz said as she picked herself off the floor.
She got back to her feet, her eyes having a twinkle of determination in them. “I’m not done yet.”
- - - -
Despite her claim earlier things weren’t going as well as she had hoped, Luz’s mind was racing as she tried to land one blow on the old man. Her fire afforded her a great deal of speed but it wasn’t enough to catch up with him forcing her to be on the back foot, a position no magical girl with any amount of sense liked to be in. She had to think and think fast, the old man was faster than anything she had fought before. It felt like she was trying to attack a mirage.
At the moment she was doing her best to dodge a storm of smaller hammers that had been thrown her way. Some had clipped her arms leaving minor wounds but they healed up quickly. Luz healed fast, a benefit of being a magical girl she used quite a lot. She hissed in pain as she barely dodged another hammer. The storm was relentless reminding the magical girl of the time Gravesfield was flooded for a week because of a really bad storm.
“You can do better than that!” Gerson said as the storm of hammers abated for the moment. Luz watched the turtle with a wary eye, readying herself for anything. He began to swing his hammer at her again, the steel head flying towards her like a meteor.
Luz her mind racing as fast it could, tried to think of something anything she could do. Her fire wasn’t doing much in the way of helping her succeed. But she remembered she didn’t just have fire in her arsenal. She could use the three other elements as well. However with water there wasn’t much in the way for her to control the room being arid and with earth she never had to best time with controlling it. So that left wind. Unbidden the moments she was happiest began to flash through her mind, the time she spent with her mami, the day she met Eda and King or when she met Raine and Lilith, the time she spent with her friends Ashley, Sarah, Amity, Gus and Willow. Learning about the magic of the isles, talking about Azura with Amity happy to share her love of the series with a fellow fan. She loved her life despite the pain, despite the despair. She loved all the people who cared for her. She would not lose here.
The wind began to roar in her ears as she swung her staff at the hammer, her weapon of choice covered with howling winds.
The weapons collided with each other, the sound of their impact echoing throughout the rocky room. They were locked together, Luz slowly but surely being pushed back by Gerson’s strength.
But Luz gathered her strength and pushed back, she willed the winds to increase their ferocity. She swung again turning the tables and began pushing Gerson back. His face had a quick flash of surprise that was soon replaced with a smile.
Gerson disengaged form the lock, causing Luz to stumble slightly before she quickly righted herself. Gerson, with a great big toothy grin quickly reappearing several steps away, looking proud of Luz, it kind of reminded her of her papi, back in the last few days Luz got to see him before his passing. “Haha good job kid.” Gerson boomed, before readying himself once more. “But you’ll have to do better than that.”
“Oh I plan to.” Luz said trying her best to project a level of confidence she didn’t have at the moment. She swing her staff again, sending a pillar of fierce wind in Gerson’s direction. As she did so she thought about ways to finish this battle. Plans were made and quickly discarded in turn as she did her best to fight against the onslaught that was Gerson.
Unbeknownst to Luz she had a smile growing on her face at the fact this fight wasn’t a battle for survival or to settle a grudge, it felt like a friendly spar more than anything. She was having fun.
“There we go!” Gerson said once more coming to a stop. Luz could feel herself panting from exhaustion, this fight was tiring and Luz knew she had to end this as soon as she possibly could.
“In that case,” Luz said a desperate plan forming in her head, she had one shot and she couldn’t blow it, “take this!” she launched a fireball at Gerson who ducked his head allowing it to sail over his head and crash against the rocky wall dissipating completely. Perfect.
“Ha you missed-.” Gerson was cut of by Luz once more swinging her staff, willing the winds to be as sharp as razors. “-me.” he finished as several strands of his head drifted gently to the floor. “Well I’ll be damned. You win kid.”
She had won. Yay, she thought as she fell to the floor in a heap feeling very exhausted, her magical girl outfit vanishing only to be replaced with her usual outfit. “Yeah I did. Phew.” Luz said as Amity rushed over to help her to her feet. “Thanks Amity.” she said turning her attention to the mint haired girl. “Thanks Gerson.” she then said to Gerson.
There was no response. Only the wind howling in the tunnels could be heard.
Luz looked over to where Gerson was standing, and apart from the axe leaning against the wall, it was like he was never here at all.
“Where did he go?” King asked the question that was on everyone’s minds.
However there was no answer forthcoming, so seeing nothing else they could do, they picked up the axe, Luz finding it quite easy for her to carry, and left the room through the door in front of them.
- - - -
After the pair finished up their lunch, Madoka and Sayaka decided to hit up the music store, a place they tended to visit frequently as Sayaka liked getting her friend Kyousuke music for him to listen to while he was in the hospital. At the moment however Sayaka was focused on watching Madoka listen to some music, her head bobbing up and down to a beat only she could hear.
It was adorable, Sayaka thought with a smile glad to see her best friend feeling a bit happier after that weird dream she had told Sayaka about. Sayaka wasn’t really listening to anything at the moment more content to watch Madoka enjoy the music.
However as all things must, whatever track Madoka was listening to finished, prompting the rosy haired girl to take off the headphones she was using and but them back on their holder.
“Enjoy what you were listening to?” Sayaka asked Madoka receiving a nod from the other girl.
“Yeah I did.” Madoka replied with a smile. “I think I might just buy it.” Madoka said as she pulled a cd off of the shelf.
“What is it?” Sayaka asked as she tried to get a better look at the cd case in Madoka’s hands, peering over Madoka’s shoulder to do so.
“Oh it’s a collection of Kamen Rider songs from over the years.” The cd case depicted Kamen Rider Ichigo, the armoured bug man riding his motorbike on a dusty road. It seemed fitting to Sayaka in all honesty.
“Oh nice. I might listen to it with you next time I visit your place.”
Madoka smiled once more, brightening up Sayaka’s day immensely. “I’d like that quite a lot actually.”
The rest of the day for the pair of friends was much the same in how they explored the mall as they tended to do, enjoying each other’s company all the while. Sayaka even bought Madoka another plushie for her enormous collection she kept on her bed. Madoka’s grateful look was one Sayaka wouldn’t be forgetting any time soon.
- - - -
Amity walked alongside Luz and King, none of them really speaking at the moment. Amity was trying to process Gerson and what had happened to him and safe to say she had no idea what was going on.
The tunnel they were walking in only echoed the sound of their footsteps until they all found themselves back in Gerson’s study on the upper level looking down on the rest of the room but now it felt like a memorial than a place someone resided in. The fire was out leaving a noticeable chill in the air and making it hard to see, the shelves seemed to covered in dust and there was a musty scent in the air that wasn’t there before. Luz created another light glyph making it wasier to
It felt sombre, Amity could help but feel.
“There’s a note on the desk.” King pointed out and like he said there was a note on the desk.
They walked down the stairs, Amity looking around at the room, part of her hoping the books wouldn’t get too damaged from the room they were in.
As they got to the desk Amity could see it was addressed to all three of them.
Luz picked up the letter and tore open the envelope, pulling the letter out.
Luz began to read the letter, her voice driving away the silence as she did so.
~Hello Luz, Amity and King.
If you’re reading this, I’ve finally shuffled off the mortal coil, it was a long time coming after all. But I know the fight I’m going to have with Luz is going to be a great one. So thanks for that Luz.
Luz gave a sad little smile as she read that.
Anyway things might get real rough for you kids in the near nurture but I know you can pull through it. Things may seem dark but I’m sure you’ll find a way to write the ending you desire. Just hold things like hope close to your heart and you should make it. I just know it.
Also since I’m gone now, my library is yours do with it as you wish, so enjoy my collection will ya?
Sincerely Gerson.
Luz finished reading tucking the letter away in her pocket, treating it like a precious and fragile treasure. Amity could see that Luz’s eyes were wet as she dabbed away at the corners of her eyes.
“Wow.... that was a lot.” King said with a touch of understatement.
“Yeah it was.” Amity said before hearing the sounds of flapping wings coming towards them.
Amity turned and saw... Eda?
Wait what?
Eda compared to the last time Amity saw the criminal witch was covered in feathers almost like a harpy. Luz and King looked relieved to see the witch and Amity was feeling very much on the same lines.
“Are you alright?” Eda asked after she landed letting Amity get a better look at the wings on her back they were quite large. The older witch looked over Luz, then King and ending on Amity looking for any form of injures or classical harm she could find. When she didn’t find any Eda let out a sigh of relief.
“Physically we’re all fine-.” Luz said, making Amity want to interject as Luz had in fact been hurt. Yes the injuries have long since healed but Eda actually gave a damn about the children under her care so she needed to know.
King, however beat her to the punch, “Luz got hit by a whole bunch of hammers-.
“-and she got slammed into the floor.” Amity finished, making Eda focus on Luz again as the pair revealed what had happened to Luz.
“Luz!” Eda said in a chastising manner.
“What? They’ve healed now and it doesn’t hurt at all now.” Luz said clearly downplaying her injuries making Amity worry about the magical girl. It also made Amity wonder if Luz had downplayed her injured before and if so why?
“Kid please next time you get hurt just tell me okay? I don’t want you to think you can’t come to me if you get hurt.”
Luz looked conflicted, her lips pursed before she responded “Okay I will.”
“That’s all I ask.” Eda said before looking to King and Amity. “That goes for you two as well got it?” Amity and King nod in unison. Eda let out a small sigh. “Good, come on kids let’s blow this joint, cause I don’t know about you but I’m drained.”
“Yeah let’s go home!” King said, letting Eda pick him up and place him on her shoulder.
“Yeah home sounds very nice right about now.” Amity said, not having taken long at all to see the Owl House as her home compared to her prior residence.
Eda looked down and finally noticed the axe Luz was carrying. “What’s with the axe?”
“We’ll tell you as we walk.” Amity promised Luz’s mentor, pointing to the way Eda had come from. Frankly Amity wanted to see the sky again as being so far underground was getting to her a bit.
“Also why are you feathery now?” King asked in a way only a kid could ask.
“Well Artemis and I came to an agreement.” Eda said she began to explain as the group began to walk out of the room.
- - - -
Lilith just wondered why her life was like this as she processed what Raine had told her. The fact Belos had bought back the basilisks from extinction, the ones he had exterminated in the first place mind you.
“Why would he do that?” Lilith asked, not expecting Raine to know the answer either, her mind racing as she thought of possible reasons why. There was the ability to shape shift and the ability to drain magic, which were the main things basilisk were known for. Lilith immediately discarded the idea that they were bought back for their ability as there were many less dangerous animals on the Boiling isles that could shape shift so they must have been bought back for their ability to drain magic but why? “What would he need with the ability to drain magic?” Lilith asked leaning back on the couch she was sitting on.
“I’m not sure but whatever it is it’s clearly bad news.” Raine said from their seat.
“I won’t dispute that.” Lilith said in total agreement.
The front door then opened revealing her sister who was now some sort of bird woman which was a new one Lilith had to admit and Luz, Amity and King who looked like they had a pretty long day.
“We’re back!” Eda said, completely unnecessary.
“Welcome back it seems your trip was eventful.” Lilith noted.
“Boy was it.” Eda said, clearly exhausted as the feathers receded leaving the sister Lilith had spent the last decade or two trying to chase. She then made her way to the kitchen, probably to make something for the kids.
Luz and Amity took a seat, King sitting on Luz’s knee. “I found a new glyph.” Luz said looking proud of herself and Lilith couldn’t blame her.
“Congratulations Luz.” Luz smiled at the small bit of praise, her cheeks gaining a small blush. The rest of the day was spent recounting the trip to Lilith and Raine.
- - - -
Mami was finally in Gravesfield after a long flight and a longer bus ride, but now she was finally here.
All she had to do now was find the place where she would be staying for the next while and get herself situated.
Phone in hand she used the map on it to figure out where to, she walked down the streets, her suitcase trundling along right behind her.
Eventually she found herself walking down the street her motel was located and began to smell smoke and burnt wood, reminding her of the burning church, prompting her to look up and see that right were the map was leading her, there was only a pile of wet smouldering ashes that had just been put out. Firefighters having just finished putting out the fire looking on with wary gazes.
Seeing that made her want to curse at her misfortune.
She came to a complete stop wondering where she was going to stay.
“You okay miss?” a warm voice asked her, prompting Mami to turn around so she could see who was talking to her. She was a much older woman with tanned skin and brown hair with several steaks of grey in her hair. Mami noticed the woman’s eyes dart to the soul gem ring Mami kept on her ring finger, it was almost like she recognised it. Which made Mami very wary of the woman. She could have know of magical girls because she knew one personally but still Mami would remain cautious until she knew her intentions.
“I’m fine miss,” Mami said glad she had a decent handle on the English language, “It’s just the motel I was going to stay in burned down and I have no idea where I’m, going to stay now.” It didn’t help that was the only motel in this town leaving Mami with very little in the way of options.
“You could with stay with me if you want.” the woman offered, before lowering her voice into a whisper. “Besides I want to ask you some questions about magical girls.”
“Fine I’ll answer what I can,” Mami said not seeing a whole lot of options. “I’m Mami Tomoe.” she introduced herself, not wanting to be rude.
“I’m Camila Noceda,” the woman introduced herself, looking quite relieved Mami said yes. “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”