Chapter 1: I failed
Notes:
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Chapter Text
"And this is where I've been living"
"Hoopa de boopa!"
Sasha has just abducted Anne from the apology banquet the toads have held for all the residents of Wartwood, for so often taking too many taxes from them, for occasionally looting the village, or, for the fact that the toads in general have never really behaved kindly towards the frogs so far.
Well, until now anyway. In the big main hall of Toad Tower, all the frogs were gathered to celebrate extensively, to dance, to dine and to have fun. There are rows of tables that cross the entire room, completely full of deliciously steaming food.
Shortly after the banquet was officially opened, jointly by Sasha and Captain Grime, Grime left rather quickly. Sasha herself didn't want to stay on site too long either, so she took the opportunity to show Anne around the tower a bit, especially her own room.
Anne and Sasha are now standing in front of the open double doors leading to Sasha's residence within the tower. Residence because, to be classified merely as a room, there should not be so many annexes and adjoining rooms. It is basically an apartment in its own right.
Full of pride and with a touch of swagger, Sasha now stands in the doorway, presenting the interior, while Anne is still completely overwhelmed, standing rooted to the ground.
A huge room, probably the most noble and luxuriously furnished Anne has ever seen in her time in Amphibia, with the possible exception of Mayor Toadstool's residence: A huge bed all to herself, filled with oversized stuffed animals and curtains of velvet around the edges. She has her own closet, which could supply all of Wartwood with clothes. A small library of her own, of which Sasha probably hasn't even touched a single book of. Yet she also has her own desk, made of polished granite, the table sockets modeled after various toads. And speaking of statues scattered throughout the room, there are several statues of Sasha herself, showing her in various situations. One shows her doing a skateboard trick, another in her uniform, merely standing gracefully. And for Anne, the highlight so far: a balcony overlooking the entire valley. Although everything is already dark at the moment, isolated sources of light can still be made out in the distance.
"So, what do you think?", Sasha asks in anticipation.
"Sash... I live in a basement..."
"You already mentioned that... Wait, lemme throw in something more.", Sasha smirks before turning to the still open door to her room.
"Yo Brunton!", she calls out, snapping her fingers. A toad in a white uniform and chef's hat steps into her room.
"Oui, Commander?", he asks in a clearly fake french accent.
"Bring us the usual", Sasha orders and the toad disappears right back.
Anne looks at Sasha with a questioning look. She herself just grins back diabolically.
Less than a minute later, the same toad comes back, only this time carrying a large table over his head. He places it in the middle of the room before leaving again without a word.
The two best friends spend the next twenty minutes telling stories about their time in Amphibia. Sasha also casually mentions that she knows where Anne's second shoe is. Well, rather, where it was. Grime had once held it up to her as proof that there would be other humans while she was still his prisoner. Fortunately, Anne is quite happy, even without her other shoe.
When the cook re-enters Sasha's room again shortly after, Anne can't believe her eyes.
"Hot dogs?? Pancakes?? Pizza? You've got to be kidding me... ", Anne claims incredulously. Sasha merely grins at Anne's utter joy.
"Whoa, you've got ketchup???", Anne asks in disbelief, just before the memory of her first encounter with a tomato plant flashes back into her mind. "I just realized; I've been eating nothing but bugs for a month..."
"Anything else, Commander?", the cook asks after serving the entire table filled with food.
"Run the hot water, please. For the shower", Sasha orders before turning directly to Anne. "Sorry girl, but you need it badly".
"Hot... water? Shower?", Anne's questions make Sasha's smile gradually turn into concern.
"Girl, how did you survive out there for the last month???"
"I slept in a cave for the first week", Anne answers, with her mouth full, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Sasha merely responds with a plain "Bruh..."
While Anne enjoys a hot shower and Sasha helps herself to the lavish buffet in her room, the Wartwood frogs all enjoy their banquet. Well, all except for Sprig.
"Uh, hey, Hop Pop? Something's wrong here", he whispers to him overcautiously.
The frogs all seem to be celebrating exuberantly and completely carefree, but the toads on the other hand... They seem completely disinterested... and nervous.
"Not right, yeah, sure.", his grandfather replies, who seems to be completely absorbed in something else right now and pays no attention at all to his grandson. Instead, he hands him an empty plate. "Here, Sprig. Load up on crab legs... These babies go fast..."
"No, I'm serious. Don't the toads seem a little... on edge?"
"Eh", my Hop Pop dismissively, "they have a military culture. I'm not surprised they don't know how to loosen up"
Sprig rolls his eyes audibly, "Ah, forget it! I'm going to go find Anne."
"Good idea. She can help carrying more crab legs", Hop Pop states. However, Sprig was already out of earshot by then.
In fact, he is already approaching one of the rather nervous looking toad soldiers who is guarding one of the hall's doors. He is already inwardly preparing himself to have to use his innocent voice.
"Hey pal, I'm just gonna go for a walk, get some fresh air", Sprig says.
"No! Sorry.", he replies, "You frogs aren't allowed to leave this room", he explains further. Clearly visible beads of sweat form on his forehead and Sprig decides to dig deeper.
"We are not allowed to leave? Why is that?", he asks. The sweat production on the toad's forehead only intensifies. Individual drops are already falling to the ground and he begins to tremble slightly.
"Uh... I've said too much. Please just return to the party and remain calm."
"Remain calm", Sprig repeats, "You got it, buddy", Sprig adds in a reassuring tone, knowing exactly what he's going to do next.
Sprig walks leisurely back to the celebrating crowd and climbs onto a table. Smiling, he extends an thumbs up to the toad he was talking to a moment ago. The toad does the same and seems to have visibly calmed down.
However, before he is able to continue his plan of warning the other frogs that they are not guests, but prisoners, the entire hall suddenly begins to shake wildly, just before out of nowhere, a bright light appears just in front of the large gate that leads to the courtyard.
All the light sources in the room die out as a visible blast wave quickly spreads from the light throughout the room, eliminating one light source after another. Even more bizarre: No one could feel it. All the torches had gone out, as had the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Only the softly pulsating white light hovers above the floor, with no discernible source, flooding the room.
Everyone in the room stopped talking and the room filled with an ominous silence. No one dared to speak. Or to move. Everyone just looked toward the light.
But… nothing is happening.
Eventually the tension became too much for the toad Sprig had just been talking to. He opens the door behind him and runs up the long spiral staircase to Sasha's rooms.
Once there, he knocks twice on her door before ultimately just entering.
"Uh, Lieutenant Sasha?", he asks, drenched in sweat.
"Didn't I say I didn't want to be interrupted?", Sasha asks in an annoyed tone.
"Y-Yes, Lieutenant. E-except for emergencies", he recites.
"And what is the emergency?", Sasha asks sternly. Anne had just joined them from the bathroom after her shower, looking back and forth between them questioningly, but without saying anything.
"Something has appeared in the main hall. You better take a look at it. It's um... it's pretty creepy", he stutters.
"What is it exactly?", Sasha demands.
"Light.", he replies.
"Light? Seriously?"
"A-And the ground was shaking...", he adds.
"Fine... Anne, you wait here. I won't be long", Sasha says as she and the toad leave her room, closing the doors behind them.
'Oh Sash...you should know better than anyone that I can't just wait here... ', Anne whispers to herself.
She opens Sasha's door and looks into the staircase, before ultimately sneaking down the same stairs Sasha just took.
Just as Sasha and the guard arrive in the main hall, she immediately catches sight of the mentioned light, while the guard fearfully hides immediately behind her.
"What the...?", she asks to herself in confusion, before turning her attention back to the guard. "You said the ground was shaking, right?", he nods at that. "I hadn't noticed anything", she mutters to herself as Anne suddenly entered the room as well.
"Whoa..."
"Anne? I told you to wait in my room."
"As if you really expected me to wait patiently in your room while my friends might be in danger...", Anne replies in an unusually serious tone.
Suddenly, everyone hears a very loud but muffled thud coming from the light, like something quite heavy has hit the tower. Everyone in the room flinches.
Anne quickly scans the room looking for her family when Sasha suddenly begins to yell loudly, "All toads! Surround the light!"
Hesitantly and frightened, the toads surround the light with their spears and swords drawn. Everyone is waiting for something to happen.
Suddenly, a voice. Very deep and deafeningly loud.
"What's wrong, human? I thought you wanted to fight."
Anne and Sasha look at each other worriedly. What did the voice want from her or Sasha?
Suddenly it flickers.
"Get ready to fight!", Sasha yells. "It's an attack!"
But before anyone could react, something shot out of the light at an enormously high speed, and hit the opposite wall of the hall, not far away from Hop Pop.
"ANNE!", he shouts urgently.
Immediately Anne dashed off and jumps over one of the tables to his direction. That thing might have hit him...
It wasn't a thing. Hop Pop is standing in front of a person, a human, who is trying with all their might to stay on all fours, but yet collapsing.
It's another human girl. She stretched out her hand towards the light
"Need... to... go... back...", she says with the last of her strength before losing consciousness. Anne doesn't believe what she is seeing in front of her right now.
"I don't believe it... It-it's a h-human... SASHA!", Anne shouts with all her might. Sasha runs up to her, while Anne checks for a pulse on the unknown girl’s neck.
The girl seemed to be about the same age as Anne and Sasha. She is wearing a dark blue cape, a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts over dark gray leggings and white but dirty sneakers. In addition, she is holding a wooden stick with an owl-like figure on one end with a tight grip in one of her hands.
"She seems to have had a hard time, judging from all the bruises on her", Sasha observes as she points a sword directly at the unknown girl, which she took from one of the guards.
While Sasha's observation is not wrong, it is far from the truth. The girl has many bleeding flesh wounds all over her body, quite a few broken limbs, and a big laceration on her head. Nobody could tell anymore which of the injuries were from before or during the impact on the wall.
"Put that thing away, Sasha. That girl needs help!", Anne demands.
"I can help"
A small frog with white hair and only one eye, not covered by it, suddenly emerges from the crowd of onlookers that has formed around the girls. It's Maddie, the strange girl which Anne once forcibly engaged Sprig to in exchange for pizza dough.
"I always have some healing potions with me. Turn her around so she can drink it"
Anne, already kneeling next to the injured girl, grabs her by her bleeding arms, turns her around and straightens her up before Maddie holds the potion to her mouth and slowly pours its contents.
Once the potion has been emptied, Maddie turns to Anne and Sasha, who in turn still has the sword outstretched, and says "This will stabilize her, but we need to take her back to Wartwood for proper treatment."
"No way", Sasha objects, though a bit unsettled. "She- she attacked the tower. She needs to stay here."
"Sash... look at her. Does she really seem like a threat?", Anne inquires. Sasha lowers her sword and carefully bends over the girl, seeing a few of her wounds already beginning to close, though very slowly.
"Besides, I doubt you have anything like an infirmary here... They probably just let all their injured toads die."
While Sasha is thinking of a suitable answer to keep the girl there and use her for possible information gathering and the collective attention of everyone present in the room is focused on the four girls, no one noticed that the floating light had dissipated in the meantime and the original illumination had reignited on its own.
Suddenly, Grime enters the main hall, announcing himself with the noise of a door loudly slamming open.
"Lieutenant?", he asks expectantly. Sasha then turns around and walks to him, handing the sword back to toad on the way to her, whom she has taken it from.
"What's going on down here?", he demands to know.
"Another human has appeared here out of nowhere. Badly injured, no immediate danger", Sasha reports.
"Is this that Marcy girl you were telling me about?"
"Umm no. I have no idea who she is."
"Any recommendations?", Grime inquires.
"Anne and the Frogs would like to take her to Wartwood for better treatment than we can provide."
"What if we just kept her here? For some interrogation...", Grime asks in a whisper, evoking unpleasant memories in Sasha of her own time in captivity.
"Possibly succumb to her injuries rather quickly. And that's before we could even start an interrogation."
"So, we're supposed to let her go, do I understand that correctly?!", Grime asks Sasha for confirmation with an undertone she doesn't like at all. Sasha nods to which Grime sighs.
"You do realize that we wanted to make a statement here today... If we let the frogs go now, we can forget about that. An opportunity like this may never come up ever again."
"Don't worry. I'm sure there will definitely be more opportunities to prove the obvious superiority of toads over these puny frogs, once and for all." Despite Sasha's attempt at flattery, Grime wrinkles his nose and growls.
"Fine", he decides reluctantly, "they may leave. But you personally take responsibility for any consequences that occur. And I hope you know what you're doing."
"Alright.", Sasha confirms and Grime leaves the hall again, only this time clearly trying to suppress his anger at this failure of their plan. At least in front of the frogs, in front of whom he has to keep at least the appearance that there are no superior goals that might be the real reason for their attendance.
Shortly after Grime left, Sasha climbs onto one of the long tables behind her. "Alright guys, the party's over", Sasha calls out, "We're going to bring you home now."
There were many disappointed sounds coming from some of the frogs, and as they head towards the main gate, Sasha is able to pick up a few isolated comments:
"That was a great party"
"That the toads are doing something nice for once, maybe this is the start of something neat"
"Mom, can we get crab legs at home? That creepy old man took them all for himself"
Once a large chunk of the frogs has passed Sasha and left the main hall, she jumps off the table and heads back to Anne and Maddie, who are still kneeling by the injured girl.
"Wow, Sash... I'm so glad you changed your mind after all. Didn't think you'd care so much...", Anne said, "Just too bad our girls' night is ruined now."
"Don't worry about it", Sasha tries to cheer up her best friend, "we can try another time. Besides, this girl could actually help us find a way back home. If she survives, that is..."
"Yeah, you're right... You know, if you want you could come visit me in Wartwood sometime and we'll have another girls' night", Anne suggests, getting increasingly enthusiastic.
"Love to", Sasha replies equally excitedly and the two friends engage in a hug. Both girls remain in that position until they eventually hear someone clear their throat. They look down at Maddie.
"Could you guys maybe help carry her to one of the wagons? I'm not weak, but you humans are really heavy..."
The two friends giggle at that. Anne bends down to lift the girl by her legs when Sasha suddenly stops her.
"Wait, I have a better idea", she says, whistling into the now-empty hall, and several toad soldiers appear immediately in front of her, saluting.
"I need a stretcher. Use it to load the injured human into the golden carriage", Sasha orders in a tone not unfamiliar to Anne.
"Dang girl, I still can't believe they have to take orders from you...", Anne comments, seemingly impressed.
"I know, right? I have my own army- well, actually it's Grime's army. But they obey me", Sasha brags.
"Heh. I understand very well why you like it here. You have everything you ever wanted."
The conversation between the two girls is unceremoniously interrupted when the toads unexpectedly start hacking loudly at a table with axes, making a makeshift stretcher. Sasha and Anne move aside a bit while the toads load the girl onto that very stretcher.
"You're right, I like it here a lot. But I miss you too. And Marcy... Wouldn't you maybe like it better if you just stayed here?", Sasha asks softly. Anne smiles.
"You know I can't. This is your life. Not mine. My life... my family is just climbing into the golden carriage...", Anne says contentedly while peering outside. "And don't worry. We'll find Marcy. And a way home. Together."
Sasha pulls Anne into a hug again before the two girls also leave the main hall, and head to the same golden carriage that Anne and the Plantars arrived in at the tower earlier.
Sasha reaches the carriage first and wants to check if the toads have loaded the other human girl safely enough, when she suddenly sees Maddie sitting in it unexpectedly.
"Why are you in there?", Sasha asks roughly.
"I'm responsible for keeping my patient stable", Maddie explains.
"Your patient?", Sasha is skeptical.
"Unless someone else has the necessary skills to heal and care for this girl, she is and will remain my patient", Maddie said with unwavering confidence in her abilities.
"Fine, whatever", Sasha says ultimately before turning to Anne, who is standing next to her.
"Hey Anne, a hug goodbye?", she asks expectantly with a sad smile on her face, holding her arms open. Anne is only too happy to oblige, and they both hug for the last time for the evening.
"Thank you soo much for all of this. That was by far the best reunion party I could have hoped for, even if it ended so abruptly...", Anne sounds so incredibly happy that Sasha couldn't help but smile, even if her heart is just cracking under the weight of the truth.
"I'm going to miss you so much", Anne continues, "And I hope you'll remember my invitation", before joining Maddie, the unknown girl, and the Plantars in the carriage. Sprig, sitting right next to the open door, had overheard the last part of the conversation and couldn't help but worry before Anne sat down next to him, and they all finally make their way to Wartwood. On their way home.
As the wagons with the frogs gradually disappear on the horizon, Sasha is still standing at the main gate, before she is eventually ready to face what is now awaiting her. And it's not going to be pretty.
She turns around, closes the large gate behind her, and lets herself slide to the ground at that gate, sighing. Many of the toads have already started cleaning up while others are eating the food that hasn't been finished. And Sasha remembers that Grime probably wants to talk to her.
With that, she gets up from the floor and walks up the long staircase to Grime's command room, where he merely looks in the direction where the frogs disappeared. Expressionless.
"Heeey Grimseey...", she announces her arrival, hoping that Grime won't be too angry. Unfortunately, this hope is quickly dashed.
"My dear Lieutenant...", Grime begins rather calmly.
'Yup, he's definitely pissed,' Sasha thinks to herself at that moment.
"What happened down there? Our plan was foolproof", he asks in frustration.
"Well, generally speaking, everything was going great at first. At least until some strange light appeared in the main hall. Completely without any apparent origin. And all the other lights in the hall went out, it was quite creepy. There were strange noises coming from the light, and I had instructed the soldiers to surround the light when suddenly this human girl came shooting out of there and slammed into a wall. Oh, and there was this creepy voice saying something about a human and a fight and-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!", Grime yells suddenly. "Today was our chance to make an example of that old frog. All this effort for NOTHING!"
"Oh Grimsey... You might like to hear that I already have an idea of how we can get to him again...", Sasha teases him with a smirk on her face.
"I'm all ears", Grime replies, seemingly a bit calmer.
"Anne invited me to Wartwood to thank me for the party today. And while I'm there, why don't I grab the old frog and bring him over so you can finish things up? What do you think?" Internally, Sasha is very proud of herself right now for being able to save her own skin with this idea she just came up with.
"No...", Grime said after a short time of consideration and with a diabolical grin. "I don't want you to bring him here. I don't want him to just die either, I want his death to send a message, that no frog will ever rise against us ever again. If we kill him here, no one will know..."
'I don't know if I like where this is going', Sasha thinks to herself.
"I want you to travel to Wartwood and accept Anne's invitation. Then when you get there, YOU are going to kill the old frog."
"Oh no no nononono...", Sasha says anxiously.
"And to top it off, you will drag his corpse to the center of the village, and present it there for everyone to see.", Grime continues. Sasha, on the other hand, is completely speechless and just stares at him in utter horror.
"How could you ask such a thing of me- That was never the plan", she argues.
"Right, because the old frog was supposed to be dead by now", Grime counter-argues. "Besides, let me remind you of our deal: as long as that frog is alive, I won't help you send you and your friends back home to your world."
Sasha is speechless. 'Does he... Is he trying to blackmail me??'
"I will not betray Anne!", Sasha yells, to which Grime sighs.
"Let me put it this way then: You accept the invitation, travel to Wartwood, kill the old frog and display his corpse, OR I'll have my army overrun that tiny village and have everyone killed without exceptions. Even your friend Anne..."
This is the first time Sasha has seen Grime so fundamentally evil. And what's worse, his threat seems to actually work on her. But since she doesn't want to show any weakness in front of him, she finally just answers dryly: "Okay, fine. I'll do it... But now I'm going to bed".
"Good night, Lieutenant", Grime says with a self-satisfied tone. Sasha remains silent as she leaves the command room, heading back to her own space.
She slams her room doors behind her, falls face first onto her bed and begins to cry hard.
'How dare he give me such a cruel choice? I don't want to- no, I can't betray Anne... She would never forgive me should she find out...
Huh... 'should'... Of course she would find out... Maybe I'm lucky and Grime isn't that serious about it, but I'm not that convinced. I don't want to betray Anne, nor do I want to live with the knowledge that she will die if I don't follow Grime's order...'
"Sooo, guys... How did you like the party?", Anne asks expectantly, just shortly after the carriage has left Toad Tower. Hop Pop is the first to speak up
"Can't. Talk... Soo. Many. Crab. Legs...", he says, feeling as if he feels the biggest burst is in the making.
"Hehe", Anne giggles, "How about you, Polly?"
"Urgh... Can't talk either... Too full", Polly replies shortly before letting out a massive belch.
"That's my girl", Anne said proudly. "Sprig?"
Unlike the others, Sprig thinks about it a little longer.
"Say, didn't the whole thing seem a little... weird to you? Like a trap?", he asks questioningly.
"No.", Anne, Polly and Hop Pop say in unison.
"I do, Sprig.", Maddie says, to Sprig's surprise.
"YOU believe me? You?"
"Why are you so surprised?", she asks in irritation, "All those restricted areas and uber-nervous toads were already pretty suspicious... However, I don't have the slightest idea why they would make such an effort, just to let us go again in the end."
"Maybe they actually wanted to apologize for their behavior all those years of terror?!", Hop Pop says half conscious, whereupon everyone burst into raucous laughter.
"That was a good one, HP", Anne comments as after several minutes, the hearty laughter died down again and everyone turns back to their own thoughts. Suddenly, Anne believes she sees movement from the human girl lying on the floor between the two facing benches.
"Eda... noo...", she whispers barely audible from the girl who's still far from consciousness.
"Did you hear that?", Anne asks the others.
"Hear what?", Sprig asks.
"The girl said something.... She said 'Eda'…", Anne explains. Sprig merely shrugs his shoulders.
"Oh, I just remembered something else", Anne begins, "When she wakes up, I think it would be better if I'm the first one to talk to her. I have no idea how she would react to you guys."
"Probably not much different than you...", Maddie guesses.
"That's exactly my point", Anne says in shame, "Before Sprig found me, I attacked everything that moved"
"Oh... yeah. That makes sense"
"Yeah... I think I should close my eyes for a while. Wake me up when we are back in Wartwood, yeah?"
Chapter 2: Adaptation
Summary:
The convoy reached Wartwood and all of them managed to make the journey back unharmed.
Will the unknown girl wake up soon and if so, what will she have to say?
Notes:
[Edit: 14.08.2022] - Chapter two has been completely rewritten. I hope you enjoy it <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It took four hours to complete the journey from Toad Tower back to Wartwood. The route led along rough, bumpy dirt roads, where all the carts were shaken vigorously. It went through eerily quiet forest paths, where the toads steering the column did not dare to drive too fast, out of fear of spontaneous attacks by wild, nocturnal creatures. Only in the last part of the route did they ride on more relaxed, quieter paths and trails.
Within the golden carriage, all its occupants are still deeply asleep. On one side, with their backs facing the direction of travel, are sitting Hop Pop and Polly, who are sleeping with Polly snuggled up to her grandfather. To their right sits Anne, who uses her own hair as a pillow. Across from Anne sits Maddie, who involuntarily fell asleep at some point, and is curled up on the cushion with her knees angled. Next to her and across from Hop Pop and Polly, Sprig sits at the far edge of the velvet bench, like all of them, just as deeply asleep. And last but not least, between the two benches on a wooden makeshift stretcher, lies the still unknown, unconscious human girl. In the meantime, thanks to Maddie's healing potions, the girl's most serious injuries have already healed, even if all the blood on her clothes suggests otherwise.
The pleasant silence within the wagon is suddenly disturbed by several loud knocks on the metal of the wagon and a loud, raspy voice is heard from outside.
"Hey, wake up! You're home!"
Anne is the first to wake up from the driver's loud knocking, though still somewhat refuses to open her eyes. A few moments pass before she tries anyway. She expects the sun to shine directly into her eyes, so she squints them. As she realizes that it's still dark outside, and the only light within the car comes from candles encased in glass, she opens her eyes fully.
Generally speaking, Anne slept very well and noticed absolutely nothing of all the rough roads. Whether she was simply overeaten by Sasha's buffet and therefore in a food coma, or it was due to the incredibly comfortable bench cushions, she can't say for sure.
Anne looks around a bit in the wagon, trying to get her bearings. Hop Pop and Polly also seem to be gradually waking up. Sprig has tried to put the greatest possible distance between himself and Maddie and has practically squeezed himself against the sidewall, at the sight of which Anne cannot help but giggle to herself. And then, of course, there's the girl on the floor. Anne grabs one of her arms to check her pulse.
It is strong and steady, whereupon Anne sighs in relief.
Next, she nudges Hop Pop.
"Hey, wake up. We're home", she says softly. Hop Pop, on the other hand, doesn't want to hear about that right now.
"Just a few more minutes...", he mumbles, being still half asleep.
"Yeah, shut up...", Polly adds in annoyance.
"All right", Anne says, "Then the car will take you back to Toad Tower..."
"Urgh... Fine", Polly grunts in resignation. "Come on Hop Pop."
During this interaction, Maddie and Sprig have now woken up as well. While Maddie wakes up surprisingly quickly and is already sitting upright on the bench cushion again, Sprig seems to be having trouble becoming aware of his surroundings. He inadvertently opens a door, against which he leant with his whole bodyweight, doesn't notice the steps, and falls face-first out of the carriage. Polly can't help but laugh out loud at her brother, but Anne also cannot help but grin in amusement.
"Okay, I'm up. I'm awake", Sprig says after standing back up and wiping dirt off his clothes. Fortunately, he's otherwise unharmed.
Anne gives the rest a few moments to wake up before asking the next question that runs through her mind.
"Hop Pop, Sprig. Can you help me carry the girl into the house?"
"But of course, Anne", Hop Pop replies.
"Sure", Sprig agrees as well.
"Can I help too?", Maddie asks unexpectedly.
"Thanks Maddie, but you already saved her life. I could never possibly expect you to do anything more", Anne opines.
"I'm happy to help, after all. Besides, this way I can be closer to Sprig's heart...", Sprig swallows hard and is visibly intimidated by Maddie's statement.
"No no no no no no", Sprig stutters, "We'll figure it out as we go."
"Alright", Maddie replies shrugging, "I'm going to go home and brew some more potions later. I would then come by later and check on my patient"
"Thanks a lot Maddie.", Anne waves goodbye to Maddie, as she walks away from wagon, "Come on guys, we can do this"
Anne gets out of the cart and only now realizes where the wagon is located: In the middle of Wartwood, a very long way from the Plantars' farm. What she also notices right away, is that all the decorations from Anne's party for her Frog of the Year award are still spread around the village. She makes a mental note to take care of it later.
Anne grabs one end of the stretcher and, with the girl on it, pulls it a little way out of the car so that Sprig and Hop Pop can grab the other end together. And Polly being Polly, she jumps on the stretcher as Sprig and Hop Pop try to lift it. They are angry for a moment, until she puts on her innocent face.
The stretcher is just barely unloaded from the golden carriage when the driver of the carriage speeds off with it, leaving the Plantars just standing there.
"Typical toads...", Hop Pop comments deprecatingly, shaking his head.
The group sets off in the direction of the Plantar farm, when suddenly the rest of the carriages from Toad Tower arrive at the village limits, and the frogs are being unloaded.
An extremely tiring ten minutes later, they finally arrive at the farm and Polly opens the front door, whereupon they carefully place the girl on the floor inside, shortly before Sprig and Hop Pop fall over, completely exhausted.
"Anne", Sprig pants out of breath, "Don't ever ask me to carry you anywhere, okay?"
"Sure, no problem, dude.", Anne replies with a small smile on her face. "We can't leave her here on the floor though".
"We could carry her down to the basement, so you can keep an eye on her every now and then.", Sprig suggests.
Generally, Anne is not thrilled about having an unknown girl sleeping in 'her room'. However, she also can't think of an alternative where she can prevent the first thing she sees when she wakes up, being oversized talking frogs, leaving her possibly utterly frightened.
Hop Pop and Sprig take a few minutes to take a deep breath, before joining Anne in carrying the girl down the stairs to the basement, and laying her down onto Anne's bed.
The three of them head back upstairs, close the basement hatch and drop down together onto the living room couch, where Polly has already made herself comfortable.
"Sooo...", Sprig begins, "what do you think happened to that girl?"
Hop Pop, sitting right next to Sprig, asks "Anne, are there things in your world that might be respon-"
"No!", Anne abruptly interrupts Hop Pop, "I know she's a human too, but nothing about her arrival here even comes close to what humans are technologically capable of."
Hop Pop ponders intensely while Anne, Sprig and Polly continue to exchange baseless ideas. Hop Pop has an apprehension about the girl's origin, but is unwilling to share it just yet out of concern for his kids' reaction. Instead, he merely says:
"So, this has been a very long evening. Why don't we all go to sleep for a few hours until at least the sun comes up? After that, and if the girl should be awake by then, you can ask her yourselves where she came from and how she got here?"
"That's probably the best idea so far HP", Anne states, "I'm crashing here on the couch."
Hop Pop gets up without a word and waddles towards his study, wishes the others a good sleep, shuts the double doors behind him, and goes straight to bed. Sprig is still feeling quite awake because of his nap on the trip back from Toad Tower, but carrying the girl has taken some of his strength. He decides to just close his eyes and rest a while in his room. Polly, on the other hand, refuses to go back to sleep, even though no one has said that she MUST do it. She starts an infuriated speech about how she is always treated like a little tadpole, and how everyone is always telling her what to do and what not to do, and how she already has much bigger ambitions and so on. While Polly continues to rant, Anne has already fallen asleep again.
Several hours pass before Anne wakes up again. The sun has risen in the meantime, and despite dense cloud cover outside, the house is now somewhat better illuminated. She looks around the house to see who else is awake. There is no trace of Polly, whose background ranting helped Anne fall asleep quite fast. However, she sees Hop Pop standing in the kitchen.
"Hey Hop Pop. How'd you sleep?", she asks as she gets up from the couch and walks over to him.
"Very well, thank you very much. However, Polly had woken me up at one point, complaining about being 'oppressed by the ones at the top'"
Anne chuckles. "I was asleep, like a little baby... Do you have any idea if the girl has woken up yet?"
"No idea."
"All right. I'll go check on her then."
Anne opens the basement hatch as quietly as possible, and sees the girl shifting back and forth uneasily, as if she’s having a nightmare. Anne quietly descends the stairs and closes the hatch behind her, when suddenly the girl tears her eyes open, shoots upright, and screams out completely distraught and with all her might
"EEEEEEEDDDDDDAAAAAA!!!"
She pants heavily and doesn't seem to have realized where she is yet. The girl looks totally terrified and traumatized.
"Hey... everything's okay", Anne says gently and empathetically.
The girl's gaze jerks to Anne. She starts to panic and quickly crawls backwards until she reaches a wall, where she presses against it with all her might.
"Y-You are human... Wha- How-", she stammers, absolutely terrified, and her gaze now bounces around the room in panic. "W-Where am I? Wh-who are you? Where is Eda?"
Anne takes a few steps towards the girl, but not too close so as not to make the situation worse, and kneels down in front of her.
"You don't have to be afraid. You are safe here... My name is Anne..."
"I'm Luz", she stammers. "Where am I? How did I get here? ... How did you get here?"
The girl seems to have calmed down slightly, but nonetheless she is still fast- and heavy-breathing.
"You are in the basement of the Plantar family. You were badly injured when we found you, and we brought you here. Actually, I've been living down here myself most of the time, since I was stranded here. However, I thought you might rest and recover better down here on your own."
Luz's gaze continues to wander around the room a bit and falls on a crate with several pictures hanging from it. On one of them Anne herself can be seen, together with two other human girls.
"Figured you'd be living down here", Luz says somewhat more calmly, her face yet contorting slightly in pain as she tried to move.
"Like I said, you were hurt very bad when we found you. You've been given some healing potions, but I don't think you're quite healed yet."
"Yeah, I feel pretty weak too, and actually it still hurts a little- well everywhere... Heh, I didn't think I'd see anyone another human in the Boiling Isles..."
Anne is a bit taken aback. "The boiling-what?"
She sees the color drain from Luz's face abruptly, and the expression of pure fear return.
"Anne... Where exactly am I right now?"
"This is Amphibia", Anne explains calmly, and immediately regrets telling her as tears seem to form in Luz' eyes, and shock is written all over her face.
"A- Anne... C-Could you pl-please leave m-me a-alone for a- a while?", Luz asks in an extremely shaky voice.
Anne knows exactly why she is asking her this. She merely nods in agreement and makes her way back out of the basement. Anne hears Luz actively trying to suppress her tears and sobs until she has exited the basement. Once upstairs, she closes the hatch, but not before she hears Luz failing to hold back any longer and starting to cry hard. Anne feels bad.
Shortly after Anne closes the hatch, she sees Sprig coming down the stairs from the upper floor.
"Oh, she's awake, I guess?", he remarks. Anne nods. "And it didn't go well?"
Anne walks toward the living room couch, where she flops down on it in frustration. Hop Pop, still standing in the kitchen, notices and joins her.
"From the sounds of it, I guess it didn't go too well...", he guesses. Anne shakes her head.
"Hop Pop, have you ever heard of a place called 'Boiling Isles'?", she asks.
'Oh for frogs’ sake...', he thinks to himself, 'First this cursed box and now a girl from hell...'
"I'm sorry, unfortunately not", he lies, "but that doesn't sound like a pleasant place."
"Maybe. But when I told her she was in Amphibia, she immediately burst into tears", Anne tells.
"Yeah, you can't miss that.", Sprig comments.
"Ugh, I feel so terrible. I wish I hadn't told her about that yet."
A sudden knock on the front door interrupts the conversation. Anne gets up and opens the door to see Maddie standing in front of it, along with a bag of potions.
"Hey Maddie, bad timing.", Anne states while pointing to the floor hatch from where Luz can be heard.
"Oh... I see. At least she's awake…", Maddie replies.
"Speaking of awake, you don't look like you've been sleeping", Anne notes jokingly.
"I had enough sleep on the drive back. I spent the last couple of hours brewing a few more healing potions in case she needs them"
"Thanks Maddie. I owe you one", Anne says gratefully.
"I have to head right back out too. Goodbye Anne. See you later Sprig.", Maddie says as she looks past Anne and straight into Sprig's eyes. He winces at that.
"She's really scary", he whispers to no one in particular.
"Come on boy… Maddie may be a little weird, but she has a good heart.", Hop Pop notes.
"Yeah... You're probably right...", Sprig sighs, "Hey Anne, you feel like going for a swim in the lake?".
Anne thinks about it for a moment, though still feeling guilty for making Luz cry.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Sprig. I don't want to leave Luz all alone like that", Anne says, "Oh, almost forgot: The girl's name is Luz"
"Go with him, Anne. I'll stay here and make sure she's safe. Besides, I don't want you in the house today, because I want to try something new in the kitchen"
Anne and Sprig look past Hop Pop and see quite a few ingredients lying on the countertop. They gasp heavily.
"You, want to try something new? You, Hop Pop?", Anne asks in shock. Suddenly, Polly drops down from somewhere above Hop Pop, yelling
"Who are you and what have you done to Hop Pop?"
Apparently, Polly had been hiding on the ceiling struts in the living room for some reason. Hop Pop laughs.
"I know that I talk a lot about ye olde times, and I want to experiment a bit with the old recipes. You're gonna like it. And now get out with you three", he said, shooing the kids out of the house. Anne, Sprig and Polly are now standing at the back of the house, and only hear the door being locked from the inside behind them.
"Oh man, it doesn't feel right leaving Luz alone with Hop Pop. Especially considering what she's going through right now…", Anne says heavy heartedly.
"You heard the old frog, he'll be fine. Besides, from the sounds of it, Luz wants to be alone right now too. We'll be back when she's better, and then she'll talk to you again, Anne.", Sprig tries to cheer her up.
"Thanks buddy. I actually feel a little relieved right now", Anne gives Sprig a hug.
"No problem. Besides, there's no use beating yourself up over something you can't change", Sprig says. "Now: LAST ONE TO THE LAKE HAS TO DO THE DISHES LATER!"
Sprig hops off, Anne runs after, and Polly yells "UNFAIR!"
Several hours have passed during which Luz has done nothing but cry her eyes out entirely. In the last few hours, there have been no more tears though, but her eyes are still completely swollen. Emotionally, Luz feels minimally better now, but her physical injuries are still quite painful. There are still several wounds and abrasions on her arms and legs, and she has heavy back pain.
At some point within the day, Luz had moved herself from the wall back to Anne's bed. Getting up was not really possible even then, so she had to crawl on the floor. Even now she finds it quite difficult to move, so now she uses her time to look around a bit more closely at the place where she is, which she has not done in detail so far.
Luz' first glance goes to a window of the basement, where she sees that it is gradually getting dark already. Are the days in Amphibia shorter than in the Isles? She hadn't realized that a whole day had already passed without her noticing. Luz turns her gaze back to the interior of the room, especially the furnishings. Actually, there is surprisingly little furniture in Anne's room, yet it feels very lively. Glowing mushrooms on the walls for lighting, as well as partially broken stone walls, and moss that hangs down on them in some places, give the room a very cozy atmosphere. And this, despite the fact that the basement is generally quite dirty.
Luz herself is currently sitting with her knees to her chest on Anne's seemingly self-built bed, consisting of several thin chopped wooden logs placed around a somewhat old-looking mattress. To her right, Luz sees a couple of wooden crates and barrels that she was sitting in front of earlier, and right next to them is a ladder that probably leads outside. To the left of Anne's bed is another wooden crate, albeit smaller, that Luz had briefly looked at before, with a photo of Anne and probably her friends. Immediately next to it hangs a small fairly detailed drawing of her with... three unusual tall frogs... Of which two are standing on two legs... and wearing clothes? That's something Luz would worry about sometime later. Leaning next to the box is a pink backpack with a light brown bottom, with various stickers and patches on it. The last things that catch her eye, are the large heating stove that stands in a corner of the basement and a stone staircase whose steps consist of tree trunks, cut unevenly in half. Her gaze falls back to the photo beside the bed.
'Is Anne perhaps in a similar position here as I am, and she is the only human in this world? It's not hard to imagine that she's also looking for a way to leave this world, and find her way back to her friends... Maybe she can also help me get home and help Eda-', Luz stops herself, 'No, I'd better not think about that any more right now... I should talk to Anne'
Luz tries to get up from the bed, however both her legs and her back don't want to cooperate.
'Come on, I can do it', she encourages herself.
On her second attempt, she takes the box that is next to Anne's bed to help her, and actually manages to stand up. In pain and with a pain-filled face, Luz slowly makes her way to the stairs. One step after the other.
Once there, she drops onto the steps and uses them to pull herself up. Again, one step after the other.
Luz now sits on one of the upper steps and uses all her body strength to open the hatch.
"Ouch", Luz mutters after opening the hatch, climbing the last few steps and now sitting on the edge of the upper floor, holding her arm, which feels slightly throbbing.
"Hey Anne, can we-", Luz starts talking ahead of herself, expecting Anne to be around, but interrupts herself when she sees a surprisingly tall and old frog, even wearing clothes and walking on two legs. Exactly the same one Anne drew in the basement, and exactly this one just comes into Luz's field of vision. She stares at him in fascination.
"Whoa", she says. The frog smiles at her and walks leisurely toward her.
"Ah, hi there. By the looks of you, I guess you're feeling a little better...", Luz fascination turns to surprise, then to confusion, then to admiration, then back to confusion again. Actually, Luz had thought that after all the witches and demons she had seen on the Isles, nothing could surprise her anymore. But she was wrong. The frog seems amused at how Luz is trying to mentally process this current encounter.
The frog offers Luz a hand.
"My name is Hopediah Plantar, but everyone calls me Hop Pop. And you're Luz, right?", he asks in a friendly tone. Luz takes his hand and nods, though when he shakes her hand, she contorts her face in pain.
"Oh, right, your injuries... Um, wait here for a second", Hop Pop remembered and walked briskly towards a shelf next to the front door, from where he took a vial of yellow liquid and brought it back to Luz.
"Here, drink this. This will make you feel better.", he says, holding the vial out to Luz. Luz eyes it briefly, takes it, opens it, and drinks it all completely. She returns the vial back to Hop Pop and he holds his hand out to her again in response. "May I help you up?"
Luz smiles as she accepts his offer of assistance, and he helps her stand up. To Luz's surprise, she already finds it easier to stand up now than she did just a moment ago in the basement.
"Come, let me take you to the living room. Anne should be back soon.", he says as he leisurely moves Luz into the living room, and sits down on the couch next to her.
"Wow... Whatever that stuff was, it seems to be working already", Luz remarks, "Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me. An... acquaintance, Maddie, brewed the potion for you", Hop Pop explains.
'Potions? ', Luz wonders to herself, 'Is there magic here as well?'.
"Where is Anne anyway?", she asks.
"I had thrown her out of the house earlier, along with my grandchildren. Once to distract themselves for a while, but also so that I can cook peacefully", Hop Pop calmly tells her. Nevertheless, this statement seems to cause some uneasiness in Luz.
"Did- did I disturb you? I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to-", she asks worriedly, already wanting to apologize a thousand times for that. Hop Pop though, steps in preemptively.
"No no, not at all. In fact, I was already done when you crawled out of the basement", he speaks sympathetically.
"Oh... that's good. I don't want to cause anyone any inconvenience."
"Oh frog, I'm always happy when I can help someone. For example, when Anne arrived here a few months ago, she needed help too. And when she saved my grandson Sprig from being eaten, I took her in. Your situation is no different: when you arrived here you were badly injured and you needed help too", Luz was about to say something, but Hop Pop beat her to it and continues, "And if you think now that you don't deserve this, let me tell you this: If it were up to Sprig, you may have already saved the lives of everyone in the entire village. He thinks that the place where you appeared, was a trap. I don't know why or for whom, but your arrival provided us with a perfect escape strategy. If that didn't happen, maybe they would' have fed me to a frog-eating plant or something", Hop Pop laughs incredulously, and Luz smiles with a slight feeling of relief.
Hop Pop and Luz are startled when suddenly the front door is kicked open from outside.
"AHH, for frog's sake...", Hop Pop screams.
It's Anne, Sprig and Polly standing at the front door, completely soaked and clearly having a good time.
"Remember Sprig: you're doing the dishes today", Polly reminds her brother, full of pride, and with a devilish grin on her face.
"I still don't understand how you managed to get to the lake faster than me..."
"A winner never tells their secrets", Polly says slyly before turning her gaze towards the living room. "Oh, hi, Hop Pop. Hi unknown human girl", Luz waves in Polly's direction with a shy smile.
'I think this is going to take me a while to get used to', Luz thinks to herself before Anne runs up to her, shouting overjoyed.
"LUZ! You are doing better again-"
"Stop right there, young lady!", Hop Pop gets in Anne's way with a serious look on his face, "You're getting the whole floor wet... Dry yourself off, then feel free to chat with Luz... That includes all of you, by the way"
"Yes, Hop Pop.", the three kids reply in unison. Anne then heads down to the basement, while Sprig and Polly walk up the stairs to the top floor to dry off. When the three of them are out of sight, Hop Pop turns to Luz again.
"Luz, would you like to join us for dinner?", he asks kindly.
"I'd love to. I am starving already", Luz replies without having to think about it.
"Great. There will be cricket pie with baked eel and roasted flies for dessert", he tells her. For a few seconds Luz looked at him in disgust before she shrugged her shoulders indifferently.
"Meh, probably tastes better than it sounds like".
Due to the sheer volume of her hair, Anne has always taken longer than others to dry it. Nonetheless, Anne tries to hurry extra to try Hop Pop actually good smelling cooking experiment. Besides, she is quite hungry.
So she wraps her hair in a dry towel and heads back upstairs, where the others are already patiently waiting for her. She sits down in the last free seat and Hop Pop wishes everyone a bon appétit. Well, not literally.
Both Sprig and Polly are reluctant to try the plates that Hop Pop has put in front of them, but then they do decide to try some of the food. Both Sprig and Polly are pleasantly surprised.
"Hop Pop, this is the best thing you've ever cooked", Sprig praises.
"Agreed", Polly adds. Anne, who hasn't tried anything yet, is stunned.
"Seriously?", she asks incredulously, but is eventually willing to give Hop Pop's food experiment a try. "Oh... my frog... That's actually edible. In fact, it is... good. I don't believe it"
"Aww, thank you very much. You have no idea how much that means to me.", Hop Pop is deeply touched by the feedback he receives from his family, "And what does our guest has to say about it?"
His gaze moves to Luz and sees her plate being already hallway empty again. With her mouth stuffed full, she returns his gaze and compulsively swallows down what food she has in her mouth in order to answer him.
"This is better than anything I've ever eaten in the Boiling Isles before", Small tears of joy form on Hop Pop's eyes.
"I think I should experiment with old recipes more often in the future...", he says, to which, with the exception of Polly, everyone agrees. She, on the other hand, has something else on her mind right now.
"Sorry, but... Boiling what now?", she asks, to which Luz looks up from her plate towards her.
"Oh, that's where I was before I was 'sent' here", Luz explains as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
"Ooohh… sounds dangerous. Likey like..."
"Luz, I'm curious. Can you maybe tell a bit about that place? Or how you got here?", Hop Pop asks, trying to sound rather casual.
"Nope", Luz immediately replies with a neutral non-smile, "However, I do have a question myself. You gave me a potion earlier-"
"Yeah, brewed by Maddie. It's supposed to help you heal your injuries", Hop Pop says.
"Right. Um... So magic is a thing here too?", Luz continues to ask.
"Too?", Anne asks with a raised eyebrow. And Luz feels caught.
'I shouldn't have said that', Luz thinks to herself and sighs. "Okay, I will show you something, but you have to promise me that you'll keep it to yourself. I don't want more people to know about it than necessary, until I roughly know how this world works"
Everyone at the table nods and Luz grabs a tissue and finds a pen lying around and draws a symbol on it that appears odd to the others. She places it on the table and taps it once. The lines begin to glow, the tissue crumples up on itself and turns into a ball of light. Anne's jaw drops, just as Hop Pops does.
"Oh. My. Frog... You've did magic", Anne squeaks, to which Luz smiles.
"Yeah... Back on Earth, my mom wanted to send me to summer camp because I was 'too weird' for her and she wanted me to become 'more normal'... So, by pure luck I found a door that led me to the Boiling Isles and that's where I started learning magic", Anne still can't get her mouth to close.
"Can I try it too?", Anne squeaks in excitement.
"Of course.", Luz replies, but Hop Pop interrupts her.
"But not with my tissues!", he prohibits, whereupon Anne gets up from the table, retrieves her diary from the basement, tears out a page and gives it to Luz, who draws the same symbol on it as before and hands it back to Anne.
"This is a light glyph. You just have to tap it and then... voila", Luz explains. Anne taps the glyph, but nothing... She tries again and again, but nothing happens.
"Why doesn't it work?", Anne asks in disappointment and Luz is similarly confused. Sprig, sitting next to Anne also taps the glyph but again, nothing happens. Everyone at the table tries it once, always with the same result. Finally, the glyph lands again at Luz, who taps it. A ball of light forms, just like the first time.
"Hmm...", Luz ponders for a moment before contorting her face, as if she had forgotten something extremely important just before. She practically jumps up from the table and runs to the basement panicking. The Plantars exchange confused looks, before Anne also gets up and heads after her.
"Luz, what's wrong?", Anne asks. Luz is in the basement and seems to be looking for something, riddled with panic.
"Where is he? He must be here...", she speaks quietly to herself.
"Who has to be here?", Anne asks. Luz doesn't answer and turns the entire room upside down until she pulls out a longer, brown, wooden object. Luz smiles with relief as she holds it in her hand. It is the wooden stick, the tip of which resembles an owl's face, that came shooting out of the light along with Luz. Luz presses it against her chest before getting up from the floor and returning to Anne at the stairs.
"Anne, this is Owlbert"
"Um...", Anne isn't sure what is expected of her right now. Is anything supposed to happen? Luz holds the figure closer to her own face.
"Come on buddy. We're safe here", Luz whispers.
After a few seconds, the wooden figure seems to transform into a real, little owl.
"Awww, ohmygosh how cute…", Anne squeaks.
"Anne, Owlbert. Owlbert, Anne."
The owl looks at Anne intimidated, and a moment later flies onto Luz's shoulder to hide from Anne's gaze. A low howl can be heard.
"I know, but she's all right. She saved my life.", Luz talks to the owl, and Anne is again utterly confused. Luz can talk to animals?
"You can understand her??", she asks incredulously.
"Him. And yes, he is a palisman. A loyal companion, and there's nothing I wouldn't do to protect him", Luz counters.
"Nawww... Really very cute"
"Hooot", the little owl makes before flying from Luz shoulder to Anne's and smearing his head along hers. This sight is almost too cute, which is why Luz can't help but lets out a long drawn "Nawww".
"Let's go back upstairs", Anne suggests before Owlbert flies back onto Luz's shoulder.
"Good idea. Go ahead", Luz says, but waits a few more seconds in the basement.
"Hooot."
"I know, I miss her too. But she's all right. She has to be… Don't worry, we'll find our way back.", Luz whispers to Owlbert before they walk up the stairs together, and back to the kitchen table. Once there, Luz gets ready to introduce Owlbert to the others as well.
"Guys, meet Owlbert. He's a palisman and I think he's the reason why I can use glyphs, and all of you unfortunately can't."
In response, Luz hears a lot of "Aww "s and "Cool "s and she assumes she saw Owlbert blush slightly.
"How did you get him?", Hop Pop asks. Unfortunately, that's a question Luz has to pull herself together quite a bit.
"He... used to belong to a person I was very close to, and I miss really badly".
"I... I'm sorry if I opened a yet fresh wound", Hop Pop apologizes. Luz sniffles once in an attempt to hold back her tears.
"It's okay. You couldn't have known", Luz soothes him. Hop Pop stands up and takes one of Luz's hands in his and looks right at her.
"Luz, I want to promise you something", he begins, "I promise to help you get back. Be it together with Anne to Earth or to the Boiling Isles".
Luz can't hold back anymore and tears flow down her cheeks. However, these are not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. She shows her gratitude by going to give him a heartfelt hug.
"Thank you so much, Hop Pop. You don't know how much this means to me", she says. Owlbert, meanwhile, also hops on his head, spreads his wings and tries to hug him as well. Anne, Sprig and even Polly join in the hug.
"Thanks kids. However, it's late by now, you guys should start going to sleep", he says after breaking up the group hug again.
"You're ruining the moment, HP.", Anne comments, to which he laughs.
"I know. But I'm serious... Luz, where do you want to sleep? I could offer you the couch in the living room or the one in my study..."
"Um...", Luz thinks about it.
"She could also sleep with me in the basement", Anne suddenly suggests, seeming quite excited. "We could hang a hammock for her..."
"Hammock?", Luz abruptly looks up at Anne with a sparkle in her eyes. "I love hammocks. I'm in", she says excitedly.
"All right", Hop Pop says. Anne sprints down to the basement, and all the others hear are construction noises.
"Ou-kay...", Luz says to herself, "I'll say goodnight to you guys then. And thanks again. For everything."
"You're welcome, Luz", Hop Pop says before turning around, and starts clearing the dining table while Sprig has already reluctantly started to clean the dishes.
Luz descends to the basement, where she sees that Anne has hung a hammock between the stairs and the heating stove.
"Girls' night?", Anne asks, grinning expectantly. Luz, on the other hand, is a bit hesitant.
"I'd rather not. At least not tonight... I would really like to just sleep right now", she replies to Anne. While it is understandable, she is now a bit disappointed about this.
"It's all right. Maybe some other time", she says, to which Luz yawns heavily. "Oh, before I forget: I put some healing potions under your hammock. You should drink some before you lie down. If all goes well, you should be feeling much better by tomorrow"
"Thank you. I guess I should thank that Maddie for what she did for me tomorrow.", Luz says.
"Yeah... Anyway, sleep well Luz"
"You too Anne"
Notes:
Hi. Thanks for reading and the great feedback.
It's not much, but it's quite motivating to keep writing.
Quick survey: 'MarcAnne and Lumity' or 'LuzAnne'?
The result may or may not have a say in whether and how characters will interact with each other in the future. No promises though ;)
Chapter 3: Dinner Preparations
Summary:
Luz has agreed to help Anne with the preparation of the dinner Anne has invited her friend Sasha to. In the process, Luz discovers an object of great importance, which is definitely not native to Amphibia...
Notes:
[Edit: 20.08.2022] - Chapter three has now been completely rewritten. I hope, you enjoy it <3
Chapter Text
Luz is lying in her cozy hammock wrapped in a very fluffy blanket, when she suddenly wakes up and starts opening her eyes. Her gaze travels to the basement window, where she realizes that it is still dark outside. Only the soft moonlight shines into the basement, which appears to be red in this world. She realizes that she has only been asleep for a couple of hours.
Luz lifts her head and recognizes another light source in the room. It's Anne, holding her phone in her hands.
"Anne?", Luz asks in a very sleepy voice.
"Oh, hey Luz. Did I wake you up?", Anne asks quietly, to which Luz thinks for a moment.
"I don't think so", she replies, "You can't sleep either?"
"Not really. I'm way too excited", Anne tells.
"About what?"
"Well, a messenger bird came earlier after Sprig, Polly and I left the lake, with a confirmation that my best friend, Sasha, is coming for dinner tomorrow. We had met again recently for the first time since we got stranded in Amphibia. Wait, one second...", Anne seems to be looking for something on her phone before holding it out to Luz, "Here, this is Sasha".
Anne shows Luz a picture of Sasha, depicting her in the same school uniform Anne is wearing, apparently being a cheerleader cheering someone on.
"She seems... nice."
"Yeah. She showed up here in Wartwood a while back with toads in tow, and invited everyone to a banquet. It was awesome and she even had food prepared from Earth, just for me as a reunion gift... Okay, that's not exactly what she called it, but for me it was just that.", Anne smiles at that memory.
Luz thinks for a while about what Anne tells her and her mind starts to fill with unpleasant thoughts once again.
"Anne? Why am I here?"
"... What do you mean?"
"Well, with the exception of my mom, no human has ever been as nice to me as you are. And yet you hardly know me..."
Anne looks at Luz with wide eyes for a few seconds.
"Luz? ... Don't you have any friends at home?", Anne asks in concern, now sitting upright on her bed so that she can look directly at Luz. Luz snorts dismissively.
"On Earth? No. School days were always hell for me, no one there liked me. But I tried to make the best of it and at least express myself creatively... But that made me even more of an outsider.", a single tear rolls down Luz's cheek, "And I don't even know where to begin to tell you about all the times my creativity got me sent to the principal's office... The last time, it was because of a book report..."
"You had to go to the principal's office because of a book report???", Anne asks incredulously and Luz chuckles briefly.
"Do you know the Good Witch Azura? I had brought some illustrative material for my report, made some figures and had borrowed some harmless snakes from a pet shop to illustrate the fight between Azura and the Gildersnake... Later my replacement snakes broke out of my locker, panic broke out in the school, the principal called my mom, who then came from work, I delivered my report as I had done before in class, only now my mom was there as well. The snake had ended up attacking my principal, and my mom had decided to send me to a camp over the summer, where I was supposed to learn to become 'normal'..."
"Hold on, timeout... You had taken real snakes to school? Snakes? More than one?", Anne asks, puzzled.
"Um... I think there were twelve of them...", Luz guesses, Anne slaps her own hand to her forehead and slumps backwards.
"Uff... Wow..."
"Yeah... And the thing is, while I now understand why my mom wanted to send me away, it was still deeply hurtful. Now though, I'm actually grateful that she wanted to send me there", a soft smile appears on Luz' face.
"Huh, why?"
"Well, on the day I was supposed to go to camp, I discovered the cutie Owlbert here", Luz narrates as she pats Owlbert's head, "And he had led me, though not necessarily intentionally, to a portal to the Boiling Isles, where I ended up staying. Although the name itself seems quite off-putting at first, and there are a few off-putting things there as well, I would call the place more home than Earth... Not only did I learn magic there, I also made great friends and even... a family."
Anne could clearly hear Luz's voice breaking at the end, as well as a quiet sob.
"You really miss them, don't you?"
"More than you imagine..."
"What happened?", Anne asks cautiously.
"Um... N-no. I… I don't think I'm ready to talk about it yet. I'm sorry."
"I get it. But if you ever want to talk about it to someone, I'll be there to listen if you want. I promise."
"Thanks, Anne", Luz says before lying back down and trying to go back to sleep. Anne feels bad for her new roommate, even if she doesn't know exactly what happened to Luz before she came to Amphibia.
Anne puts her phone back down and lies back down as well, thinking about what Luz told her about her past, before eventually falling back asleep as well.
'She really seems to have a lot in common with Marcy. They both even know The Good Witch Azura, what are the chances of that? I might have to ask Luz later if she's also read Cynthia Coven or played that game Marcy played almost continuously on her Switch, that I forgot the name of... But the snakes-thing also sounded like something Marcy would have done if she dared...'
Anne turns her gaze out the basement window.
'Don't worry Marcy. Sasha and I will find you'
More hours passed and the sun was rising eventually. Overall, it is currently quite peaceful. Golden rays of sunshine flooding the house, no sounds whatsoever from the outside, and you could almost believe you could hear harp music and a flute melody from somewhere.
Unfortunately, as with almost all lovely moments, this one is abruptly interrupted when several loud thumping noises could be heard from the main floor. Anne and Luz awake from it almost simultaneously.
"What the...", Luz asks, feeling absolutely drowsy, before quickly pulling out a fire glyph and activating it just as fast, just before she uncontrollably falls out of her hammock onto the floor and the ball of flame dies out.
"Bruh... Luz, are you hurt?", Anne asks, having witnessed everything.
"Are we under attack?", Luz asks in panic.
"No no... It's probably just Hop Pop", Anne replies placatingly. Luz looks at Anne with total confusion and incomprehension.
"Huh?", she asks.
"This house has absolutely no soundproofing", Anne explains.
"Good morning to you too, kids", Hop Pop calls down through the basement ceiling. Luz, who is still lying completely twisted on the floor from her fall, grunts in embarrassment.
"Sorry", she apologizes.
"No problem. You didn't end up setting anything on fire, so you're good", Anne jokes, whereupon Luz smiles slightly and slowly tries to get up from the ground. She checks on Owlbert within her hammock, hoping that she hasn't thrown him out as well in her panic. But fortunately, he is all right, just shaken up a bit.
While Luz is still taking care of Owlbert, Anne sits up straight, yawns her heart out and stands up.
"Say, Luz, would you feel like helping me prepare for dinner later?"
"Sure", Luz replies enthusiastically.
"Great. I'll have to go shopping later, since I don't think Hop Pop has enough supplies after his experiment yesterday"
"I'll help where I can", Luz promises, "And I might as well thank Maddie then, and maybe explore the village as well"
"I would recommend you not to go exploring the village all by yourself... Although nothing would happen to you here, the inhabitants don't necessarily welcome strangers with open arms…", Anne says with her first experience in the village in mind.
"Can't be worse than how humans are treated in the Isles. We're kind of like magic-less mythical creatures there", Luz tells.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Instead, creatures like Griffins are real there... You know, half bird of prey, half lion."
"Yeah yeah, I know", Anne lies, "Um... I think I should go take a shower now. See you in a bit."
Anne leaves the basement and Luz turns her attention back to Owlbert who has snuggled back into himself. She gently rocks the hammock while her cute little friend tries to get a little more sleep.
After what just felt like a few minutes, Luz gives Owlbert a little kiss and quietly sneaks up the stairs to the main floor.
Once upstairs, she has just closed the basement hatch behind her again, and turns around, she notices Anne already descending the stairs from the upper floor, freshly showered and fully dressed. She looks at Anne in disbelief and confusion.
"Whoa... How can you be ready already? Didn't you just leave the basement?"
Now Anne is a bit confused herself.
"Luz... That was fifteen minutes ago", Anne corrects whereupon Luz rubs the back of her neck, slightly embarrassed.
"I guess I got caught up in Owlbert's cuteness a little too long".
Anne laughs, but Luz can't help a small grin either.
"Yeah... Um, here's the thing: If you want to take a shower: Up the stairs, first door on the left. Unfortunately, there's no hot water here. Takes some getting used to."
"Thank you", Luz replies, and heads up the stairs. Anne had no way of knowing that Luz already knew where the bathroom was, because Hop Pop had already told her. It would be quite weird to stay in one place for soo long, without having to use the bathroom once. Without thinking any further about it, Luz walks up the stairs where she came across a tired Sprig, who probably just got up as well.
He heads downstairs and joins Anne and Hop Pop in the kitchen, where Anne, already fully dressed, is making herself breakfast. He had already noticed Anne's huge joy yesterday when she got the news that Sasha would be coming to dinner tonight, but nonetheless he is a bit surprised by Anne's currently rather unusually energetic state. He wonders if Anne was as energetic in her world when she wanted to meet up with her friends, or if it's an exception now since she and Sasha haven't seen each other in so long... Well, except for the fortunately crashed banquet. The dinner later will probably be some kind of reunion-replacement party for both of them.
"Hey buddy", Anne greets Sprig shortly after he enters the kitchen.
"Goood morning, Anne", he tries to sound less tired than he actually is, "How did you sleep, now that you have a new roommate?"
"I don't think I slept much. Too excited about Sasha."
"Kinda figured that... I hope she doesn't bring her toad army this time"
Anne laughs as Sprig gives her a serious look, which she doesn't immediately notice.
"Oh, you're serious?"
"She's working with the toads. And she does it voluntarily. Of course, I don't trust her... And the fact that I think Toad Tower was a trap for us, doesn't let me shake the feeling that she's planning something", Sprig says, "I know she's your friend and you've known her far longer than I have, but my intuition has never failed me."
"I really appreciate your concern, but I trust Sasha. She knows I care deeply for everyone here, and she would never betray me.", Sprig sighs while Anne talks "Buut.... I'll keep an eye on her. For you."
"Thank you, Anne.", Sprig says with a satisfied smile on his face, "But now I'm hungry".
Sprig sits down right next to Anne. Hop Pop, on the other hand, has gotten up in between to wake Polly up for breakfast. When he returns with her into the kitchen, both Anne and Sprig notice massive dark circles under Polly's eyes.
"Whoa, Polly... You don't look very good...", Sprig notices worriedly.
"You wouldn't win any beauty contests either!", Polly replies aggressively. Anne and Sprig look at her in horror. "I'm sorry, I slept horribly.... I might need a new bucket after Sprig 'accidentally' fell on it so many times"
"Polly, if you need a new bucket, we should visit Loggle later and have him make one for you... Maybe I can even negotiate a good price", Hop Pop announces, whereupon Polly sighs loudly in exasperation.
"If you try to negotiate for a lower price again, he'll just use rotten wood again. Do you remember how long my last bucket lasted?"
Hop Pop remembers it perfectly well. He had negotiated a perfect deal with Loggle, and got a bucket for only a fraction of the regular price. But on the same day, it broke down entirely, and he had to buy a new one at the regular price. A very embarrassing memory.
"Yes. But Polly, you're getting older and you're almost overdue to grow your legs. And once they're there, you won't need a bucket anymore...", Hop Pop tries to argue, only unfortunately Polly is currently deaf to any logical reasoning.
"Quick question", Luz interrupts, "Who's Loggle?"
"Leopold Loggle is the village woodworker and former blacksmith", Hop Pop explains.
"Hold on... His name is Loggle and he is working with... logs? Is that a pun?", Luz asks, to which Anne replies with her mouth full.
"Nope. No pun"
Luz just shrugs her shoulders, having judged this topic to be of no further importance.
"Anne, have you actually thought about what you want to buy later?", she asks.
"Yes and no. I feel like making sushi later", Anne says, causing Luz's eyes to light up.
"Uhh, I haven't had sushi in ages...", she exclaims.
"Really?", Anne inquires,
"Yeah, the food in the Boiling Isles is definitely not made for humans. There's extremely little there that I can actually eat... So, yes, I really like your idea."
"I hope Sasha feels the same way. There wasn't any sushi at the tower, and I hope we can buy everything here somewhere, and that it won't be like when we tried to make pizza...", Anne recalls.
"What happened?", Luz asks her, however Sprig answers before her.
"Well, we almost got eaten by a tomato plant. And I got forcibly engaged to Maddie for some dough-"
"Mmm, I could go for some pizza right now", Luz interrupts.
"Nope, not with me...", Sprig completely blocks, "But I'm wondering one thing right now: What is sushi anyway?"
"Basically, sushi is just a few ingredients: Nori leaves, which is something like paper-thin seaweed, rice, and fish", Anne explains. The Plantars, however, can't yet imagine how something delicious is supposed to be made from that. Especially because Anne unfortunately has no images of sushi to show on her phone. Neither does Luz.
Breakfast went on for a while, with Anne and Luz actually just talking about food from Earth, and trying to explain to the Plantars what is what. Unsurprisingly, though, they are rather unsuccessful. A while after breakfast, Polly and Hop Pop leave the house together to have her new bucket made for Polly. Hop Pop has left some coppers for Anne's shopping, which she is very grateful for.
Sprig had gone to his room to get ready, since he was only wearing his sleeping clothes so far, and Luz and Anne are now waiting for him at the front door.
"Say Luz, wouldn't you like to change into something else as well?", Anne asks cautiously, to which Luz looks down at herself.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well... you still have blood on your hoodie. And on your leggings...", Anne remarks.
"... In case you haven't noticed, I don't have too much choice in this world when it comes to spare clothes."
"Oh, right", Anne says in embarrassment as she realizes this, "I guess I'm not quite awake yet. After all, I'm still wearing the exact same clothes I came to Amphibia in as well."
"Eww", Luz replies slightly disgusted.
"Well, even though there is no electricity here as we know it from Earth, it is perfectly possible to wash clothes", Anne says.
"True, I guess...", Luz agrees.
"By the way, do you actually have any healing potions left?", Anne asks.
"Uh... I drank one of them last night.... There should be one left"
"Okay, great. I'd suggest you leave that one for now. Just in case...", Anne suggests and that's exactly when Sprig comes down the stairs, and the three of them now head out of the house as well towards the center of the village, where all the stores are located.
After only a few minutes the group arrives, and at the village center there is already a lively crowd of villagers. Luz looks around with huge eyes.
Immediately to the right and left of the path that leads to the Plantars' farm are a few mushroom-shaped houses. On the right side of the place are several stores: 'Grub & Co', 'Leopold Loggle's', 'Bricks "R" Us' and 'Felicia's Tea Shoppe'. In the center is a flagpole that sits on a small, stone pedestal. To Luz's left are a few more buildings, though probably not stores, and a small bridge that crosses a small river toward another open plaza.
"Whoa...", Luz exhales in amazement as she looks there. Anne's gaze follows hers.
"Oh, yeah. Um... That's when we had a rather small party because I was voted Frog of the Year", Anne explains.
"There's a dabbing statue of you that's at least seven meters tall. How can you call that a small party???", Luz asks.
"I have to admit, I'm surprised that's the only thing left there. I was actually afraid I'd have to clear everything myself... Oh, fun fact: the statue originally stood on a stone pedestal at least as high as the chocolate fountain", Anne narrates as if it was the most normal thing in the world. For Luz, on the other hand, it sounds absolutely incredulous. But before she could say anything more about it, Anne and Sprig already continued walking on and practically dragging Luz along behind them.
"So, Luz, this is our first stop", Anne announces as they arrive right in front of the 'Grub & Co'.
"So, what exactly do we need to get again, Anne?", Sprig asks.
"Um... the thinnest seaweed you can find.... Fish, ideally salmon, although I'm not sure if there are any fish here at all..."
"There are.", Sprig interrupts Anne.
"Great. And we need rice, as well as smoked flies."
"... For sushi?", Luz asks critically.
"No. Hop Pop wants to make yesterday's meal again, though, and had asked me to bring some back for him before he and Polly left."
And so, the three of them entered the store, and to save time, Anne had suggested that they split up. Anne to take care of the seaweed and fish, Sprig to take care of Hop Pops flies, and Luz to look for rice. Or at least something close to it.
'Hm, actually looks like a normal supermarket on Earth,' Luz thinks to herself as she walks through the aisles, 'Well, albeit with more living stuff.... And why is there a whole section here just for glue?'
Luz is so lost in thought that she almost knocked over an elderly frog.
"Watch out, Anne- Oh... You're not Anne... You're the new human", the old frog observes, while Luz just grins awkwardly.
"I'm soo sorry I almost knocked you over, Mrs...?"
"Croaker. I own the dairy farm, Croaker Dairy, and the Cowapillar farm on the edge of town", she proudly announces.
"Impressive. I'm Luz.", Right after saying that, Luz turns to the small, yet oversized spider next to her, "Aww, and who is this cute little creature?", Luz asks as she pets Mrs. Croaker's spider pet, which seems to like the affection.
"That's Archie. It's most unusual that he's so calm around strangers...", Mrs. Croaker observes.
"What can I say, I'm adorable", Luz states, bursting with self-confidence. Mrs. Croaker, on the other hand, starts laughing out loud.
"Ahh, that was delightful... You know, I like you, kid", Luz starts to smile, "But in the future, you better be careful not to knock people down."
"Consider it done", Luz says, about to take a proud step forward, and runs face first into a shelf and falls backwards to the floor.
Instead of pain from the impact, she rejoices. She has found... the rice. In fact, it's the last package on the shelf.
At the same time, Sprig and Anne emerge suddenly from the end of the shelf with their things and find Luz, cheering while lying on her back on the floor. They exchange confused and worried looks.
"Are you okay?", Sprig asks worriedly and Luz stands up and takes the rice from the shelf.
"Sure, I’m fine. Why do you ask?"
Anne and Sprig are currently a bit creeped out by Luz, and quietly decide not to think about it any further, and to leave the store again as quickly as possible.
Back outside, this time Anne turns to Luz and asks her, as Sprig did before "Luz, are you sure you’re, okay? That was a little creepy in there"
"Oh... yeah... That was most likely just the trauma of being brutally torn away from all my friends on the Isles, and not being able to save my family there from being turned to stone by a thoroughly evil guy, who for some reason had it in for the portal door between the Isles and Earth, which I also failed to save before I was pulled here, and as a result PROBABLY PUT ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE ON EARTH IN THE GREATEST DANGER...", Luz babbles increasingly panicked, "So yeah, I'm fine. Where are we heading to now?"
Anne, staring at Luz wide-eyed in terror, turns to Sprig, who looks at her the same.
"That girl needs therapy badly", she whispers before turning back to Luz, "You said you wanted to talk to Maddie, so next we're going to her dad's bakery."
Luckily, the bakery isn't far away. Once there, Anne turns to Sprig.
"Are you sure you don't want come in with us?"
Sprig nods decisively, and Anne and Luz step through the door. A small bell announces their entrance. Immediately as the two girls enter the bakery, Luz notices the absolutely amazing smells coming from a small display, where a wide variety of warm steaming breads, rolls, and other types of pastries are laid out.
"Wow, that smells so goood", Luz whispers to herself as the owner turns to them.
"Hi Mr. Flour", Anne greets him warmly.
"Oh, good morning, Anne and...", he looks at Luz.
"Oh, yes, I'm Luz"
"Well, welcome. What can I do for you two?", he asks.
"A friend is coming over for dinner later and I wanted to see if you might have something appropriate for that…", Anne says, whereupon Luz nudges her with her elbow, "And Luz would like to see Maddie."
"Is that so? Did my oldest light something on fire again, or did another curse go astray?", he asks jokingly, probably. It's not quite clear.
"Oh no, nothing like that", Luz replies, "She had saved my life in Toad Tower actually".
"Yeah, that's how I know my daughter. Always wanting to help others... MADDIE! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!", he yells.
A short time later, Maddie appears in the open doorway behind the counter. Luz gives her a slight wave and Maddie smiles back.
"I'm so glad to see you're feeling better", she says.
"Yes, but it's also thanks to you", Luz replies.
Suddenly they hear Mr. Flour clear his throat vocally and they both glare at him. He makes a subtle suggestion that they'd better talk among themselves.
"Oh, right. Come along, human."
"My name's Luz, by the way"
Maddie leads Luz to a place in the back of the building. The door is plastered with 'Do Not Enter' signs in various designs, as well as a drawing of three tadpoles, each crossed out in red. Maddie opens the door.
"Welcome Luz... to my personal lab."
"Wow, wow, woow...", Luz awes as she enters the room.
It's a small room with several tables, all cluttered with alchemical items and tools. There are several bubbling cauldrons, each with a different colored liquid, a couple of bookshelves with the thickest books Luz has ever seen, and another shelf with quite a few potions on display. Luz can't stop marveling and doesn't realize that Maddie has asked her a question.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"I asked how your injuries were? Do you need more healing potions? I actually just finished a new concoction", Maddie states.
"Oh no no, my injuries are all healed for the most part. And I still have one potion left, but I'll save that for emergencies", Luz explains.
"Good thinking... Is there anything else I can do for you then?", Maddie asks.
"Actually, I don't need anything. I just wanted to thank you personally for saving my life... Aand maybe I also wanted to ask you how you know so much about potions..."
Maddie raises an eyebrow. Or maybe both. It's hard to tell when half of her face is covered by her hair. Do frogs even have eyebrows? ... Anyway. Maddie takes one of the thick books from her shelf and shows it to Luz, who sits down on the floor with it and opens it.
She can't believe her eyes.
"This is the same book that Eda always used for brewing potions...", Luz exclaims. Maddie was about to ask a question, but Luz immediately interrupts her, "Where did you get that from???"
"To my knowledge, the book originally came from Newtopia. My ancestors...", she clears her throat, "- umm… stole it from there."
"That is sooo cool"
"What?", Maddie wonders in utter confusion. This is not the reaction she expected when she admitted to owning a stolen object.
"This book is not from Newtopia. It's from the Boiling Isles. You know, that's the place I was before I was dragged here to Amphibia... And that means there is a way back", Luz is overjoyed and pulls Maddie into a hug, which she just as quickly lets go of, "Sorry. I was told to keep my distance."
"Actually, I don't have a problem with that. Most people- whew", Maddie couldn't finish that sentence before she was already caught in another heartfelt hug. And she was enjoying it.
After a while Luz let go of Maddie again, but still couldn't stop smiling.
"What I was just trying to say", Maddie continues, "most people think I'm too weird to want anything to do with me. Well, with the exception of my three little sisters. But they get on my nerves too much, and prevent me from doing my work here..."
"You know, back on Earth, other people never wanted anything to do with me either, because I was too different. Too weird. But I like you, Maddie... And I'm not just saying that because you saved me from certain death", Luz said with a sincere smile on her face until there was a knock on the door shortly after. It's Anne standing in front of the door when Maddie opens it.
"I'm finished. If you want, we can go", she says.
"You go ahead. I'll catch up with you guys later. I want to show Maddie something first", Luz states, to which Maddie raises one(?) eyebrow.
"Alright. I'll see you later Luz. I'll start cooking then", Anne waves her goodbye and ultimately leaves the bakery.
"You want to show me something?", Maddie asks as soon as Anne had left. Luz, who still has the biggest smile on her face, takes out some sheets of paper from her pocket and puts them on the floor in front of her. Each of the papers has a different symbol drawn on it. Luz touches one after the other.
The first sheet folds in on itself and creates a floating ball of light.
The second one forms a column of ice.
A plant grows from the third.
And the last piece Luz takes in her hand before she touches it, because it begins to burn briefly.
To say that Maddie is impressed is a massive understatement and is still trying to understand what exactly she just saw. She does get one question formulated, though.
"Those are glyphs, right?"
"Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who can activate them, because I have a connection to a magic source. Anne had tried it before too and nothing happened, otherwise I'd let you have some too."
"What kind of magic source?", Maddie asks.
"A palisman. It's a mix of pet and talisman, made up of magic from the Boiling Isles. Well, sort of, anyway", Luz replies.
"Is that all the glyphs there are, or do you have more as well?", Maddie wonders.
"That's all I've been able to find so far, I'm afraid. Two I found in nature and the other two from spells cast by witches who can inherently cast magic, other than with glyphs", Luz explains.
"Can I still keep the ones you showed me? I would like to study them"
"Sure you can. You might even find more", Luz says, handing her one of each glyph she knows.
"I think this is the beginning of an interesting partnership", Maddie says.
"Or a friendship...", Luz grins broadly. Maddie smiles back as well, whereupon Luz invites her to another hug, which she is only too happy to accept.
"I think I should start getting back to the Plantars. I promised Anne, I'd help her before her friend Sasha comes over for dinner later."
"Be careful with that Sasha. She's definitely planning something bad...", Maddie warns Luz.
"Thanks for the warning. I'll keep my back covered", Luz replies, "And let me know if you find out anything new about the glyphs… new friend."
And with that Luz says goodbye, leaves the bakery, and sprints off to tell Anne and Sprig about the exciting news.
Chapter 4: A Happy Happening
Summary:
The group returns from shopping and Luz and Sprig help prepare the farm's backyard for dinner later, just in time for Sasha to arrive.
Notes:
[Edit: 27.08.2022] - Chapter four has now been completely rewritten <3
Hi everyone. I think it's absolutely great how many people have already read my story, even if it's not particularly long yet.
Chapter Text
Patiently, Sprig is waiting just outside the Flour Bakery. With his back leaning against the wall, right next to the front door, waiting for his friends to finish whatever it is they're doing in there.
To pass the time, he starts observing the people who are walking around the village right now. But with his more than short attention span, however, he can't keep it up for long. Luckily for him, just at that very moment, Anne exits the bakery, together with a warm steaming and delicious smelling piece of rye bread. Though without Luz...
"Where is Luz", he asks, "Did you trade her for the bread? Does she have to marry Maddie now?", Sprig asks increasingly energetic, causing Anne to chuckle.
"Nah, don't worry about it. She just wanted to spend a little more time with Maddie. I think they like each other", Anne tells him, to which Sprig gives her an irritated look, as if she just shattered his entire worldview. But since it's not really like that, he just shrugs his shoulders and says "Let's go then".
The two friends have almost arrived back at the Plantars' farm, when they suddenly hear someone yelling. And this yelling is getting closer and closer.
"ANNE ANNE ANNE ANNE ANNE"
They turn around and see Luz running towards them at her highest possible speed. As she gets closer, they see a huge grin on her face. Luz widens her arms for a hug as she continues to run towards them, but unfortunately doesn't slow down fast enough and throws herself, as well as the other two, to the ground. Realizing what just happened, Luz starts laughing. Anne and Sprig can't help but join in.
"What's wrong, Luz?", Sprig asks, a short time later and after sitting somewhat upright. Luz takes a deep breath.
"MaddiehasabookfromtheBoilingIslesandthereiswayback", she practically shouts far too quickly for anyone to understand even one clear word.
"What?", Anne and Sprig ask in unison. Luz backs up a bit and kneels in front of them both before taking another deep breath and trying it again.
"Maddie has a book on potions that she thinks originated in Newtopia. But it's not, it's from the Boiling Isles. That means there is or was a way to travel back and forth between Amphibia and the Isles, and I could get back", Luz shares her sheer joy and excitement. Luz is flapping her hands to express her happiness, and to calm down a bit.
"Oh my frog, I'm so happy for you Luz", Anne says before wrapping her in a quick hug, "You know, we've been planning a trip to Newtopia for a while now, in search of a way to travel between worlds. Perhaps we could find a way that I could travel back to Earth, the same way you would if you were traveling back to the Isles"
"That would be great... Um... Can I travel with you to Newtopia?", Luz asks shyly.
"Duh... Like we'd just leave you here", Anne replies with a wink.
Almost at the same time, Hop Pop and Polly happen to wander into the group, who are just about to get up from the ground again.
"Hey kids, I see your shopping was successful?", Hop Pop asks, to which the three of them nod. Anne's gaze then falls on Polly, who is lying proudly within her new bucket, which is being carried by Hop Pop.
"Fancy new bucket", she comments.
"I hope the bucket is worth the money", Hop Pop grumbles. "This thing cost me four coppers..."
"That doesn't sound like soo much", Luz remarks.
"I bet I could have knocked it down by half…", Hop Pop whines.
"Not so much whining old frog. At least I can sleep in here like a little baby now...", Polly says completely relaxed.
"But aren't you a ba...-", Luz was about to say, until being interrupted by Anne and Sprig, who attract Luz's attention with hand gestures and strong head shaking.
Tension’s building up. Slowly and threateningly, Polly, who had been relaxed until just now, turns to Luz.
"I'm a what?", Polly asks tensely. She stares deeply into Luz's eyes. "I'm a what, Luz?", Polly repeats.
"Ba- ba- badass. You're a badass... ", Luz stutters.
"Very good", Polly retorts before turning back to the front and Hop Pop walks into the house with her.
"Okay, what was that about?", Luz asks as Anne and Sprig breathe a sigh of relief.
"It's happened several times before, that in situations where Polly's age is brought up, or that she's a baby, that they've escalated completely", Sprig explains. "For example, on her last birthday, there was an incident with a guest who called her a 'little girl' and she completely snapped... Uncle Grain was never the same after that..."
"Ou-kay. Will keep that in mind", Luz said hesitantly before the three of them re-entered the house as well.
Back in the house, Anne heads straight into the kitchen, where Hop Pop also happens to be.
"Did you manage to get the flies?", he asks.
"But of course. Right here", Anne replies, opening her backpack and pulling out a bulging bag full of flies. Hop Pop is delighted. "And I got everything I need for sushi as well. I love that all the ingredients I need actually exist here in Amphibia..."
While Anne is now unpacking all her own purchases in the kitchen, and Hop Pop is already starting to prepare his dish for dinner, Luz and Sprig are approaching her.
"Anne, is there anything I can help you with?", Sprig asks.
"Hmm... I don't think so, but thank you", she replies.
"Can I, or rather we, be helpful in any other way? I would like to be of some use", Luz asks, hoping that Anne has something for her to do, that she doesn't feel useless and out of place. Or has to deal with her own thoughts. Anne ponders about it for a moment.
"This may be a bold guess now, but you wouldn't happen to have any experience with party decorations, would you?", Anne asks, causing Luz' eyes to light up.
"I hosted a sleepover party in the Isles once. And I have a good twelve hundred hours in Sims 3.", Luz says proudly. Anne shifts into a strained, thoughtful pose, carefully weighing Luz's qualifications.
"You're more than qualified", she decides.
"YES!"
"If you'd like, you two can prepare the area behind the house for dinner later", Anne suggests.
"Yes. Yes, will do. Come on Sprig", Luz, who is completely excited right now, grabs Sprig and practically runs out of the house with him.
"What's a Sims?", they hear Hop Pop ask before they were out of earshot.
It takes Luz and Sprig a significant amount of time to finish decorating the place for dinner. The sun isn't far from the horizon anymore and the sky has taken on a beautiful reddish hue, and together with the scattered fleecy clouds, the whole scene looks downright magical.
While this is not an unfamiliar sight for Sprig, Luz is completely caught up in it. As if in a trance, she has been sitting on a roof overhang with Sprig for twenty minutes, gazing dreamily into the distance.
Luz and Sprig had spent hours discussing what kind of decorations would be appropriate and what furniture they should move out of the house and into the outside. Sprig was in favor of bringing the dining table from the kitchen outside, which was actually too small to fit everyone, while Luz wanted to make a long dining table out of solid wood. Sprig was in favor of small barrels to use as seating, but Luz preferred something cushioned. For lighting, Sprig wanted to use fireflies, while Luz was in favor of light glyphs. Both of them spent an eternity discussing solutions, so both could be satisfied. And on top of that, they both had a lot of fun in the process.
The solution that now finally sits behind the Plantars' house consists of a solid wooden table, as Luz originally suggested. Sprig's original counter-argument was that such a large table would be way too heavy to carry outside by hand. However, when Luz showed him that she is quite capable of effortlessly moving large and heavy objects using plant glyphs, all his resistance to Luz's idea vanished. For the seating, they agreed on Sprig's idea with the barrels, though Luz had insisted on adding some padding. Consequently, there were now five barrels around the table, for which the two of them jointly created back and seat cushions of their own out of cushions that were no longer in use. For Polly though, they got a special high chair out of the house.
At least as much as they are proud of the chairs, the two of them are equally proud when it comes to the lighting. That's because it's made up of alternating fireflies and light glyphs, each tucked into a glass ball, attached to garlands at regular intervals, and attached to wooden posts that Luz grew out of the ground herself by using plant glyphs. When they were done, they climbed up onto the roof overhang above the door at the back of the house, to look at their handiwork with both enormous pride and physical exhaustion.
"That was fun", Luz says at one point as the colorful sky begins to fade and the moon to rise.
"I think so, too. And we created something great together. Hop Pop and Anne will love it", Sprig says proudly.
"You want to go in the house and grab them for a minute? By the way, I also think we need dishes", Luz notes. Sprig nods and climbs through a window behind her that leads into his own room, and enters the house. Luz, on the other hand, continues to admire her work. It is a piece she worked on with her own hands and her own physical strength, and it is also probably the most elaborate thing she has ever created to date. Sure, Luz wasn't inexperienced with crafts, but unlike just assembling furniture with her mom, and tinkering together small models she used for her Azura reenactments, this is a whole new experience.
"Knock Knock"
A new and unfamiliar voice to Luz speaks, which catches her attention. A blonde, human girl emerges from behind the house.
'That must be Sasha', Luz thinks to herself. Sasha's blonde hair is tied in an elegant ponytail at the back of her head, with a long bang hanging down to her right side. Luz instantly notices that she is wearing a uniform, some sort of armor. The chest plate is made up of countless brown scales, arranged neatly next to and below each other. In addition, she wears a dark gray skirt held by a spiked belt worn over gray leggings. In addition, she is wearing armored boots. Strangely, she wears only one shoulder pad and also only one glove. Luz has no idea what the reason for such a thing could be. But now Luz' personal highlight: Sasha is wearing a black cape. It seems to have been damaged more than once, judging from all the patches on it. What is also immediately noticeable is Sasha's apparent nervousness, as if she is expecting an attack, an ambush or something like that at any time.
"Hi there", Luz greets her in a friendly manner. Sasha flinches briefly before her eyes meet Luz's. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you... I'm Luz, by the way", Luz introduces herself, however Sasha seems to have no interest in exchanging any pleasantries with her.
"Oh... It’s you…", Sasha begins derogatory, "You're the one who crashed my party at the Tower..."
"I… I didn't mean to", Luz says, lowering her head ashamed.
"Mhm, whateveeer", Sasha says dryly, "At least you managed not to bleed all over the place. Well, apart from your outfit... Eww", she adds in disgust, when she notices the blood stains on Luz's clothes.
"Hmm, thanks, I guess...", Luz tries not to let on how hurtful that just was and quickly changes the subject, "If you're looking for Anne, she's inside still preparing dinner"
Luz points to the door underneath the overhang she's sitting on, to which Sasha heads without saying another word. Immediately Luz realizes that she and Sasha are most certainly not going to become friends. On the contrary, Sasha has a certain bully-aura, like some of the people Luz knows from Earth, as well from the Isles.
'I officially hate her… So much for her actually seeming pretty nice', Luz thinks to herself, remembering the picture Anne had shown her of Sasha a while back. Fortunately, at the exact same time, Anne comes out of the house with two large sushi plates. 'Thank you, Anne. You are a lifesaver. I really don’t want to spend more time alone with Sasha as necessary', Luz thinks to herself.
Seeing Sasha, Anne throws the plates on the table unsightly and runs straight to Sasha to hug her heartily.
"SASHA!", Anne screams overjoyed.
"ANNE!", Sasha shrieks almost simultaneously.
"Your timing is absolutely perfect", Anne says excitedly, "We can eat right now if you want."
"Totally, I'm starving…", Sasha says as she sits down at an empty seat at the table and the smell of the food hits her nose, "Uhh, Sushi á la Anne. Very nice...". Anne joins her, and Luz also begins to climb back down from the roof overhang.
"You spoiled me with soo much amazing food in the tower, so I figured the least I could do is serve you my specialty.", Anne states proudly. Sasha is flattered.
"Aww, thank you Anne"
Suddenly Hop Pop bursts out of the house with his face contorted in pain.
"Get out of the way. This is hot!", he bellows, placing a large bowl full of steaming food in the middle on the table. He shakes and blows violently against his hands. Anne giggles.
"We also have something like oven gloves, HP…", she notes. He doesn't respond to that, instead he just walks back into the house and comes back out with Sprig, who brings some plates and silverware back out with him, which they all spread out on the table.
"Oh... Hello Sasha", Hop Pop only now notices that she is already sitting at the table, "I didn't realize you were already here."
"Yes, I had already seen the lights here from a distance, and I was beginning to think I was late.", Sasha smiles politely.
"Speaking of which", Anne started and turns to Luz and Sprig, "Guys, this place looks absolutely amazing"
"Thank you. That was a lot of hard work too", Sprig says proudly.
"Thank you, Anne. And well, I told you I was good. And I had a trick or two up my sleeve as well", Luz adds.
"That was soo cool how you carried that table out of the house. I had never seen anything like that", Sprig says and pride fills her. Sasha briefly eyes the massive size of the table before looking at Luz with a raised eyebrow.
"You just have to know what you're doing", she teases, raising a hand for a high five. Sprig hits her hand with his tongue. "Gross..."
Anne giggles before inviting everyone else to the table. Sasha is already sitting at one end of the table with Anne right next to her. Sprig sits down directly in the seat to Anne's left. Luz sits down across from him, Hop Pop next to her, and next to him, on the raised chair sits Polly.
Before they're all properly seated, Sasha is the first to grab a couple of sushi rolls.
"Oh. My. God... Anne, these are soo good", Sasha compliments her.
"Thank you, Sash. But you better not ask me what exactly is in there...", Anne warns her sternly and with a serious look on her face. Sasha, who has just shoved an entire roll into her mouth, suddenly froze and slowly looked up at Anne, looking somewhat frightened. In her other hand she is already holding another roll, which she is now examining very closely and in great detail. She looks at the sushi roll very critically for half a minute, until Anne suddenly starts laughing out loud.
"Oh my god, Sasha, you should have seen your face", she continues laughing while wiping away a tear of laughter, "The sushi is pretty much exactly how I would make it on Earth... Well, the seaweed might be a little thicker here, but that's about it. I was just trying to lighten the mood."
"Dammit Anne!", Sasha cries out, while inwardly she is relieved though. Anne continues to laugh, but everyone else at the table can't help but at least giggle.
'Well, Sasha has embarrassed herself now, but at least the mood is better now', Anne thought to herself at that moment. And indeed, she was right. For most of the rest of the evening, the general mood was actually somewhat lighter, even if the conversations are practically split into two camps. First of all, there are Anne and Sasha, who are genuinely having a great time. They tell each other about all their new experiences from Amphibia or even rather embarrassing stories about Anne's life from Earth, which they had failed to do in Toad Tower a few days ago. Anne had tried to include the others at the table in her conversations, which worked for Hop Pop and Polly, but rather less so for Luz and Sprig. While Sprig is still actively involved in the conversations to an absolute minimum, Luz is uncharacteristically quiet. That the reason for that is named Sasha, is not far-fetched, but the others at the table don't know anything about that yet. Fortunately, for Luz, Sasha is so far completely focused on Anne, and seems not only not to pay attention to Luz at all, but to ignore her completely.
After a while, as the food on the table gradually became scarcer, Anne got up from the table to get sushi from the house one last time. So far, she has had to do this four times. But not only Anne stood up, Luz also excused herself from the table to stretch her legs and move around a bit. And that actually wasn't even a lie or just an excuse to get away from Sasha. Luz can't remember the last time she ate so much and accordingly she now feels pretty... full.
She's about halfway around the house and barely out of sight of the others at the table when she suddenly hears metallic footsteps coming from behind her.
'Please don't be Sasha. Please don't be Sasha. Please don't be- Ugh', Luz mumbles to herself as she slowly turns around and sees Sasha now standing right in front of her. 'She seemed taller from the roof'
"Heeeey... Your name is Luz, isn't it?", Sasha asks suspiciously friendly.
"Yes...", Luz confirms cautiously.
"So, tell me, how did you end up in Amphibia?", Sasha demands to know.
"I have no idea", Luz replies. And even though that's the truth, Luz knew that wasn't an answer Sasha would be satisfied with. And as predicted, she now postures herself with her arms crossed in an aggressive pose.
"Are you serious?", she questions skeptically, "Just like that, without any warning, a floating light appears in the Tower, the ground has started to shake, you shoot out of there like a bullet, slam into a wall, ruining my party... and you're seriously trying to tell me that you have no idea how you 'accidentally' got from Earth to the very place where I was reunited with my best friend???"
"Um... I...", Luz stammers nervously to herself as Sasha steps uncomfortably closer to her and guilt begins to spread through Luz' mind.
"So? ... I'm waiting...", Sasha taps her foot impatiently on the floor and sees tears forming in Luz' eyes. She keeps pushing, "And as if it wasn't enough that you ruined the party, now you're living here in Anne's house like a dirty scrounger!"
That last part broke Luz. Now fully crying and with compulsively suppressed sobs, she runs past Sasha, back into the house and down to the basement. Before she ran into the house, she had heard Hop Pop and Sprig worriedly asking what was going on. Anne, on the other hand, had just finished the last sushi plate when Luz ran past her. With the plate, Anne walks back outside.
"What happened?", she asks with concern, while Sasha also came back to the table from the opposite side of the house.
"Maybe all this experience in this new world here is just too much for her...", Sasha says dryly.
"That was actually not the first time she cries so hard...", Anne says thoughtfully, reflecting on her first conversation with Luz, "I should talk to her"
"We'd better give her some time alone. She'll calm down and come out again eventually", Sasha says while grabbing Anne's arm before she can enter the house.
"Yeah, you're probably right", Anne agrees. Hop Pop and Sprig, on the other hand, don't seem to completely believe Sasha's explanation. Hop Pop instructs Sprig with a subtle head gesture to go check on Luz. He gets up from the table and walks into the house towards the closed basement hatch, from where he can already clearly hear Luz sobbing.
Sprig softly knocks on the hatch before slowly opening it and taking a look into the basement. Although the basement is completely dark, he can make out Luz sitting curled up right in front of the heating stove, its reddish light shining slightly on her.
"Luz, may I come in?", he asks softly. She looks up at him briefly with wet eyes and nods before burying her face in her knees again.
He slowly descends the steps and with a respectful distance between the both of them, sits down next to Luz, leaning his back against the wall. He doesn't say a word. He just sits there, with his hands folded on his lap. The only audible sounds are Luz's sobs, which she is trying to suppress, as well as occasional laughter from Anne and Sasha, which can be heard faintly through the basement ceiling.
"Sprig?", Luz begins quietly after another few minutes as her sobs gradually subside, "Is it really okay for me to be here?"
"What do you mean?", Sprig enquires sympathetically.
"Is it really okay that I'm staying here with you guys, eating your food, and taking advantage of your hospitality?", Luz asks between renewed sobs and a cracked voice. Sprig doesn't know what to say to that at first.
"Did... Did Sasha tell you that you're not welcome here?", he asks cautiously, to which Luz nods.
"She said I was a scrounger... And she's right, isn't she?"
"N-no... No, not at all. We really like having you here Luz", Sprig responds with horror, "You don't seriously believe what that Sasha said, do you?"
Luz doesn't respond, just continues to bury her face in her knees.
"Luz... Look at me... Please", Sprig pleads. Though hesitant at first, Luz eventually straightens her head and looks at Sprig with her puffy red eyes.
"Sasha's in the wrong…", Sprig says with determination, "and I think you know that.", Luz buries her face in her knees again.
"I hate her... I hate her so much...", Luz mutters in a tone Sprig has not heard her use before. Once again, a momentary silence falls, before she eventually continues.
"She's a bully. I knew that from the moment I encountered her outside the house earlier...", Luz says while now wiping away a tear from her eyes, "Back on Earth, I knew a lot of people like her. They used to make fun of me for everything they could find, be it my short hair, my own interests, my clothing style... And at the time, I just took it in."
"I think I could understand pretty well if you never wanted to go back there", Sprig says sympathetically. "So back to Earth, I mean"
"But not to dinner either", Luz adds, to which Sprig snorts in amusement. But Luz can't help smiling a little either.
"... Luz, I want you to know that you're always welcome here. Even if you and Anne may never return to your worlds, you will both be welcome here. Forever. No strings attached, no price, no guilt.", Luz is touched and leans her head against Sprig for a moment now.
"Thank you so much"
"You know, I hate it when my friends get treated so badly. And I really want to be able to do something about it...", Sprig says with now more serious tone, "But Anne for example is so, so oblivious about Sasha's true intentions and I just can't get through to her...", Luz is just quite grateful about Sprig's change of subject, "I already knew in Toad Tower that she has some bigger goal"
"She... She followed me behind the house earlier, and accused me of ruining her party... She was quite furious", Luz resumes and Sprig moves into a thoughtful pose.
"Whatever had been planned at Toad Tower hadn't worked out because of your arrival there...", he concludes.
"And now Sasha is here to carry on that plan?", Luz finishes Sprig's sentence for him.
"Exactly. I don't know who she's targeting or why, though...", An idea begins to form in Sprig's mind, "Luz, do you want to help me protect the people here from Sasha? No matter what it takes?", He continues and holds out a hand for Luz to take. She doesn't notice, though, and lunges for a hug, which he is only too happy to accept.
"I'd love to.", Luz says, already feeling a little better thanks to him, "Do you happen to have a plan already?"
"Basically, it's enough to keep an eye on Sasha for the whole time she's still here for dinner, and intervene, if necessary.", Sprig explains as the basement hatch suddenly opens with a jolt and a happy, broadly grinning Anne pokes her head down.
"Guess what? Sasha is staying over here tonight and we're having a sleepover. She won't be going back to the Toads until tomorrow", Anne announces, just before letting the hatch slam shut as well. Luz and Sprig roll their eyes in annoyance.
"Okay, new plan: we take turns watching Sasha until she leaves tomorrow. I would suggest... We take turns every three hours and I would also cover the first shift", Sprig suggests.
"Okay, good plan", Luz agrees decisively.
"That way we can sleep when it's not our shift, and additionally we won't be quite as overtired tomorrow...", Sprig added.
"Alright", Luz and Sprig hug again, and Luz wipes a last tear from her face, "Let's do this."
Both of them immediately jumped into action. Translated, that means something like Sprig walking out of the basement and observing the two girls from the stairs as inconspicuously as possible for the next three hours, and Luz preparing a few glyphs just in case. Anne had noticed Sprig watching them after a short while and asked if he would like to watch 'Suspicion Island' with her and Sasha in the living room. He didn't really want to be near Sasha, however he liked Anne and 'Suspicion Island', and this way he can better keep an eye on Sasha until it's Luz's turn and he can go to sleep.
The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Hop Pop and Polly went to sleep at some point, as did Sprig after his first shift was over.
It's been two hours so far since Luz's shift started and nothing has happened yet. She had previously prepared a deck of various glyphs in case she had to take Sasha out of action, but now she sits at the top of the basement stairs, taking advantage of the lack of sound isolation, to react as quickly as possible to any movement above her. Currently, however, Luz is rather bored. Sprig went to his own room upstairs, Polly and Hop Pop are also in their own rooms, and Anne and Sasha have not left the living room except for a brief bathroom break. Also, Luz has found out that Anne has some snoring potential, which she didn't knew about until now.
Suddenly, a loud wooden thump startles Luz. She opens the basement hatch a little bit to see what's going on. Her first glance is at the front door, which is standing wide open.
'Oh no... Although, maybe it was just a strong gust of wind that pushed it open...'
She opens the hatch a bit further to get a better look into the living room. The whole house was eerily dark so far. Only Anne's phone is lighting up. Luz sees that Anne is fast asleep.
'Wait... where's Sasha?', Luz wonders urgently, and opens the hatch entirely in order to climb out. However, as she is about to brace herself on the ledge to climb out, Luz suddenly notices a liquid at her hand.
With her other hand, she quickly activates a light glyph and she freezes in shock.
'That's blood... Whose blood is this???', horror is drawn on Luz's face as she has now climbed completely out of the basement, and illuminates the floor with the light orb. With the dim light emitted by the orb, Luz spots a trail of blood leading from Hop Pop's study out the front door.
Luz runs back to the basement, gets her staff and cloak, runs back up to the living room and wakes Anne.
"Anne... Anne! ANNE!", Luz tries to wake her up, with increasing urgency and volume.
"What's wrong?", Anne asks sleepily and slightly annoyed.
"Sasha's gone and there's a trail of blood leading out of Hop Pop's room", Anne immediately snaps her eyes open in disbelief and jerkily turns to her side to see if Sasha is still lying next to her. But she's gone. And so are her clothes.
Now panicking, she looks at Luz, and sees the light orb hovering over the open basement hatch and now spots the trail of blood with her own eyes as well. Instant tears burst from Anne's eyes as she sees the trail.
"W-w-w-what?", Anne stutters in terror. Luz reaches out a hand to help her stand up.
"Come with me", Luz asks her and together they run out of the house and follow the trail. Anne holds her hand over her mouth in shock as they pass the trail of blood.
'N-No, it can't be', Anne thinks to herself, 'Sasha would never do such a thing... Maybe... a monster attacked him. And Sasha went to save him. Yeah, that must be it'
Anne's fear continues to rise with every step the two girls take.
The darkness and thick fog make it difficult for the girls to see the blood trail clearly, though it seems to lead to the village center. As they approach, they make out a tall silhouette that seems to be walking swiftly towards somewhere, illuminated by the lamps that are spread out in the area. The tall silhouette appears to be carrying a smaller one by its collar.
"SASHA!", Luz yells with all her might, and in absolute fury. Anne's whole world collapses as she figures seems to react and stops. Completely broken, Anne collapses on the floor next to Luz, sobbing in tears.
'No no no no,' Anne whispers to herself, 'This can't be... This can't be happening'
The taller figure drops the smaller one on the sandy ground, and slowly turns around.
"Oh Luz, I was so hoping you would-", Sasha completely freezes as she sees not only Luz standing there, looking totally furious, but also Anne kneeling next to Luz, completely broken, crying hard and holding her hands over her mouth with Sasha’s gaze meeting hers.
Luz's rage and fury at Sasha now no longer knows any limits, and she lunges forward for an attack.
"YOU KILLED HOP POP!"
Chapter 5: The Knife in My Back
Summary:
Sasha carries out a morally dubious mission, whose attempt to carry it out unnoticed fails miserably.
Notes:
[Edit: 03.09.2022] - Chapter five has now been completely rewritten. And that concludes the first few rewrites for now.
Also, 'A Lost Owl' now has its own Discord server: https://discord.gg/79H6Mkve3K
Be it to talk/discuss about the story, chat with people or just to be informed about new chapters and other updates (Maybe interesting for those who don't have an AO3 account).
The server is also a partner of Polychroma_Izu, the author of 'Don't Look Back'. Highly recommended to check it out <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A few hours earlier...
"And as if it wasn't enough that you ruined the party, now you're living here in Anne's house like a dirty scrounger!", Sasha practically shouts right into Luz's face with an extremely accusatory tone, just before Luz runs off in tears.
'Wow, that was almost too easy.... Well, I definitely won't hear from her again today', Sasha thinks to herself almost proudly, 'Actually, I should make sure Anne isn't here later either. That could cause problems otherwise...'
Sasha walks back around the house again, coming back to the outside area from the side, where she originally left from.
"What happened?", she hears Anne ask.
"Maybe all this experience in this new world here is just too much for her...", Sasha answers her dryly.
"That was actually not the first time she cries so hard... I should talk to her", Anne concludes.
'Hell no', Sasha thinks to herself and grabs Anne's arm. "We'd better give her some time alone. She'll calm down and come out again eventually."
Thankfully, Anne agrees with her.
'There, I've managed that now too. Now I just have to think of something to keep Anne occupied for the rest of the evening until she falls asleep... Hmm, she's already eaten a lot, and knowing her, she always goes to sleep early when she's in her food coma. Maybe I could watch something with her on my phone that she will definitely fall asleep to. The sooner she nods off, the sooner I can get this over with'.
"Hey Anne", Sasha begins, "Would you mind if I spent the night? I'd hate to travel at night..."
Sparkles form in Annes eyes and she begins to squeal in excitement.
"Yes, yes, yes. We'll have a girls’ night together... Uhh, I have the latest season of 'Suspicion Island' on my phone. I've already watched it a couple of times, but I just can't get enough of it."
"Sounds like a plan", Sasha replies, albeit with mixed feelings, just before Anne hastily runs into the house but comes back out shortly after.
"Sorry, but I had to tell Luz and Sprig the good news", Anne explains, having quite a bit of trouble keeping herself calm with her excitement and anticipation.
'How I missed seeing her so happy... And that's what I'm going to take away from her later...', Sasha sighs inwardly, 'Focus Sasha! You're doing this so we can get home. What's one sacrifice to achieve that goal?'
Sasha is abruptly pulled out of her thoughts when Anne suddenly puts her hand on Sasha's shoulder.
"Is everything okay?", she asks with genuine concern, whereupon Sasha jerks around the table and sees that she and Anne are not only sitting outside alone, but also that everything has already been cleared away.
"When did everyone leave?", she asks in confusion.
"Um, I don't know, ten minutes...", Anne answers hesitantly, "Is something wrong?"
"Oh no, everything's fine. I was just a little lost in thought... And apparently lost my sense of time, hehe.", Sasha replies roughly, just before Anne's smile returns and she gets up from the table.
"Come on then, let's go to the living room. I'll get us pillows and blankets", Anne smiles happily and enters the house, sprinting up the stairs to the upper floor. Sasha enters the house as well, but stays in the living room, sits down on the couch and strips off the top layers of her armor, as well as her boots.
After a few minutes, Anne comes running down the stairs, only this time fully loaded with several pillows and blankets. And apparently, she's already changed into some more comfortable and casual clothes.
On her way into the living room, she accidentally steps on part of one of the blankets that are dragging across the floor and loses her balance. Sasha reacts quickly and is able to catch Anne before she would have fallen face first onto the floor.
"Whew, thanks Sash. I knew it was an awesome idea to invite you", Anne says with a smile on her face as she puts the pillows in front of the couch, and the blankets right in front of them.
'Oh Anne, why are you making this so difficult for me?', Sasha just thinks to herself, until she suddenly notices Anne staring at her strangely.
"You're lost in thought again, huh?", she asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Um... I'm just thinking about when exactly I have to leave again tomorrow morning, so I can get back to the tower on time...", Sasha lies rapidly.
"Then I guess I'm not trying hard enough to distract you accordingly. Come here", Anne grabs Sasha by the arm and pulls her down to her in front of the couch before pulling out her phone. "I'm going to assume you haven't seen the latest season yet. I downloaded it just after it was completely available, just before we-", And that was already the point at which Sasha's thoughts began to wander. She hadn't noticed anything about the show itself. Admittedly, she never really liked it. That was more like Anne's thing. What she had noticed was Anne inviting one of the frogs to watch along, though Sasha was too much in automatic mode for it to bother her.
It took about four hours before Anne finally fell asleep. Fortunately, the frog went to sleep a while before that. Sasha isn't sure right now how long Anne has actually been sleeping, so to be on the safe side, she waits a little longer before she's ready to do what she was sent here to do.
Within the house, all the lights are off and only Anne's phone is still on, illuminating her slightly. The only other light source is dim moonlight, shining through the windows into the house. Dimmed because in the meantime a rather dense fog has rolled in. The house is pretty quiet and the only thing Sasha can hear is Anne's calm and regular breathing.
After another half hour, Sasha is ready to get up. As quietly as possible, she puts her armor back on, and her armored boots as well. If they were ordinary metal boots though, Sasha's mission would now be in pretty serious jeopardy. Fortunately, they are a special design, mainly used for intelligence missions, where noise, or rather the avoidance of it, plays a very important role, and the underside is therefore equipped with noise-absorbing material.
Sasha tiptoes toward the front door, but stops at a double door to the left, where she saw the old frog go in earlier. She opens one of the two doors, enters the room, and closes it again as quietly as possible behind her. When she turns around, she realizes that this is probably just a study. On the left side of the room is another door, through which Sasha also scurries quickly and quietly.
'There he is', Sasha thinks to herself, as she sees the old frog lying in his large bed, with his back towards the window. Right next to him lies a rather large book, but it happens to be lying in such a way that Sasha can't make out the title, even if she would care. She creeps around the bed to the window.
Slowly, she reaches into a boot with one hand and pulls out a small knife, holding it tightly in her hand. She looks at it rather intently for a few moments.
'Can I really do this? Can I really take someone's life just to find a possible way home?', she asks herself and simply takes a very deep breath. 'It's too late to back out now'. She just holds the knife tighter in her hand. Her pulse rate quickens.
"I'm sorry", she whispers, just before ramming the knife into the old frog's back. Hop Pop wakes up immediately and has the urge to scream in pain, but he can't make a single sound. With all his strength he tries to find out what is causing him such pain. His eyes meet Sasha’s, who is also trying with all her might to keep her composure. She stumbles back a few steps when she sees the absolute fear and terror in his eyes. Though he can't speak right now, his eyes say so much more.
She approaches him again, grabs him by his collar, and drags him out of his bed. He himself, especially with the knife still stuck in his back, no longer has the strength to move himself, let alone free himself from her grip.
Sasha looks at the bed and sees how it is already turning red from the blood. She drags him, with his face to the floor and as quietly as she can, to the front door. However, as she tries to open it quietly, a strong gust of wind throws it open with a loud noise, and mere centimeters in front of her face.
'Fuck', Sasha thinks to herself as she realizes that her plan for a silent and undetected escape is now out the window. However, when she hears a noise from inside the house, she dashes out of the house into the thick fog, as fast as she can, with the dying frog in her grip, hopefully right before anyone realizes what exactly has happened and that she left.
After only a short time, she arrives in the center of the village, which is well lit by towering torches, despite the tight fog. In the center of the place is a stone pedestal with a flagpole set up in the middle.
'Hmm, I could position him right there and put the poster right next to him...'
Before she can continue her planning though, she can hear footsteps approaching her rather fast from behind.
"SASHA!", she hears someone yelling in fury. It's that Luz, who Sasha actually thought had already taken care of. She sounds like her blood is about to boil.
'Maybe I can repeat my little trick from earlier…', Sasha thought to herself confidently, before stopping in her tracks and just letting Hop Pop fall to the floor, who is letting out a painful pant in the process. Slowly and dramatically, Sasha turns around, trying to intimidate Luz in the process.
"Oh Luz...", Sasha teases, "I was so hoping that you would-", but stops abruptly when she sees that Luz is not the only one facing her.
Sasha's gaze falls immediately on Anne, who is kneeling on the floor next to Luz, crying, completely broken, with her hands held in front of her mouth. Absolutely devastated and uncomprehending, Anne looks up, straight into Sasha's eyes, and straight into what's left of her soul.
'Oh no, Anne... I tried so hard to prevent you from seeing this...', Sasha thought to herself at that moment, as her own gaze falls from her devastated best friend to the old frog, knife in his back and bleeding onto the ground, lying motionless next to her metal boots.
When suddenly two fireballs fly just past her head, her gaze snaps back to Luz, who runs screaming directly at her.
"YOU KILLED HOP POP!", she screams. Sasha has just enough time to take a hidden retractable sword from her cloak, before Luz nearly pierces her shoulder with an ice blade of her own.
Sasha sprints towards Luz, leaping onto her chest, and catapulting herself backwards with a backflip while Luz stumbles backwards helself and falling to the ground.
Sasha walks toward Luz, who is kneeling on all fours on the ground, with her sword drawn menacingly.
"Leave! This is not your fight. This is none of your business"
"You bet it is!", Luz suddenly looks up smirking as suddenly two thorny vines shoot out of the ground right next to Sasha directly towards her.
'What the fuck...', she thinks to herself and cuts through both vines expertly.
Luz stands up and, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly throws massive icicles at Sasha. She can only dodge them with major difficulty, until suddenly a fireball hits her directly in her back, knocking her to the ground.
Her cape completely bursts into flames, and Sasha throws it to the ground. But not before she brings out a second retractable sword.
Luz continues shooting icicles and fireballs at Sasha in turn, which she easily dodges this time before sprinting towards Luz, swinging her sword and gives Luz a minor bleeding scar, right below her eye.
"Give up already!", Sasha demands, as Luz lies on the ground again.
"Never!", Luz screams, smashing two fire glyphs against each other and creating an explosion that hurls both girls apart from each other.
While Luz continues to attack Sasha with unprecedented aggression, and she tries to dodge and counterattack, when possible, Anne hasn't moved the slightest bit from her position. Her gaze is fully locked on Hop Pops body. When she recognizes slight movement on him, she charges forward hastily, coming to a halt right next to him.
"Oh my god, Hop Pop?", Anne cries in a broken voice. With all his remaining strength, he opens his eyes and his gaze wanders across the floor up to Anne. Strained, he tries to smile.
"A-Anne...", he whispers softly. Anne takes Hop Pop's hand, which is lying next to his head.
"I'm here...", Anne sobs, while her tears don't stop flowing. Hop Pop's eyes get wet as well.
For a moment, the two of them just look deeply into each other's eyes.
"I... I don't want to believe it's going to end like this... There's still so much-"
"Shhhh", Hop Pop softly interrupts Anne, "You... will still... have many... adventures... You'll ugh... grow up... and someday... go... home..."
Anne's sobs only get stronger and she just holds his hand even tighter.
"Anne... ... I... love... you... ... like... my... own... grand-daughter...", and with that last sentence, his body goes completely limp, and Anne breaks down loudly crying again, all over him, louder and harder than ever before.
"Nooo... no no no no no no no...", She can't understand it. Hop Pop was by far the nicest and kindest person she had ever had the pleasure to know. When everyone wanted to hunt Anne down when she arrived in Amphibia, he took her in. He always did everything in his power to take care of her, as if she was a part of his family. A part of his heart... An incredibly kind heart that was brutally torn apart...
By Sasha... Her best friend, the one she invited over, the one she trusted... She killed him, she violently ripped him from her life....
Anne's initial grief, now slowly turns to anger, hate, and fury. Heartbroken, she looks up from Hop Pop, directly at Sasha, who has just sent Luz once again knocking her down to the ground.
Her vision begins to become blue, the blood in her veins feels like it’s beginning to boil, and with every second her furious panting intensifies.
In the meantime, Sasha had beaten Luz so badly that when she went down this time, she didn't have the strength to get up again, no matter how much she wanted to keep fighting. Besides, it's quite possible that Sasha broke a few of her bones, while Luz just managed to demolish Sasha's armor. A lot.
Standing triumphantly, Sasha is standing right in front of Luz when she sees something glowing out of the corner of her eye.
Cautiously turning around, she spots Anne, who is.... glowing?
A luminous blue aura envelopes Anne as she lifts herself up from the ground. Her hair bursts into a brilliant fiery blue. The leaves in her hair are multiplying and the twigs are growing. Anne's eyes are turning blue as well, but not only that, there are blue flames erupting from them.
With clenched fists and clenched teeth, she shoots Sasha a deadly glare, and for the first time in her life, she is terrified of Anne.
"A... Anne?", Sasha asks in a shaking voice, right before she takes a anxious step backwards.
At the same moment, Anne steps off, heading straight for Sasha. She continues to back further away from her. The closer Anne gets, the more apparent becomes the pain, grief, and rage in her eyes.
Anne begins to run and Sasha immediately spins around and runs away from her in increasing panic. That is, until a powerful blow directly in her back, causes her to be launched forward uncontrollably for several meters, where she hits the ground face-first. Agonized in pain, Sasha rolls over onto her back, watching Anne come running at her again, with superhuman speed, and rage beyond control.
Unexpectedly, Anne stops right in front of Sasha, grabs her by her chest plate and lifts her up with ease so that her feet no longer touch the ground.
"Anne? It's me, Sasha. Your best friend...", Sasha's voice as well as her whole body are shaking, as she is truly scared for her life.
"Friend?", Anne speaks, but in a deeper and more distorted voice than normal.
"YOU stopped being my friend the moment you attacked my family!", Anne punches Sasha in the stomach area, and she hurls again further backwards.
"YOU KILLED HOP POP!", Anne leaps high into the air, her fists clenched together and Sasha is barely able to roll to the side before Anne strikes the ground and now there is a crater where Sasha's head was only a moment ago.
Stunned, Sasha stares at the crater just before Anne's fist lands a direct hit in her face and she is knocked to the ground once again. Her entire body aches in pain, like she's never experienced before, and on one of her eyes, Sasha can no longer see anything.
Laying helplessly on her back with her armor partially cracked and severely damaged, Sasha remains on the ground with Anne standing directly in front of her. She points one of her swords directly at Anne. She had lost the other one earlier.
"Please... Please have mercy on me...", Sasha pleads desperately, but realizes by looking into Anne's eyes, that she is already dead. Anne kneels down directly in front of Sasha, the tip of the sword barely centimeters from her face. She grabs the blade with her bare hand, and lets it shatter into pieces right in front of Sasha's eyes. She stares at it in disbelieve.
"YOU STABBED HOP POP IN THE BACK WHILE HE WAS ASLEEP, YOU… DON'T DESERVE ANY MERCY!"
Sasha squints her eyes in painful anticipation as Anne stands up and lunges for what is probably a final blow.
"Ahhhh... What the...", Sasha hears Anne say in sudden confusion before cautiously opening her one eye again, and seeing all the blue on Anne flickering. Anne's legs suddenly give out, and moments later, Anne falls to the floor, unconscious, and completely drained of all her energy.
Succumbing to the shock, Sasha takes a few moments to realize what just happened. Anne has transformed from the massively intimidating woman, back into the frailer girl who used to be her best friend, who now lies unconscious next to Sasha's now shattered remains of her sword.
With extreme effort and severe pain all over her body, she tries to stand up. She looks once more at Anne, and also once more in the direction of Wartwood, where Luz is also still lying exhausted on the floor about ninety meters away, and flees from the area as quickly as she is currently able to.
A considerable amount of time passes before Luz regains her strength, and is able to get up and begin to assess how she is feeling physically.
She immediately notices that her ribs hurt, as well as one arm, which does make getting up no less tedious. The wound under her eye is bleeding, as is a small laceration on the back of her head.
Luz catches sight of Anne in some distance, and slowly limps towards her using Owlbert as walking aid. She has seen the fight between her and Sasha in its entirety, and to say that Luz was not intimidated by Anne's appearance, would definitely be a lie.
Arriving next to her, Luz kneels down next to Anne.
"Anne?", she whispers. Anne startles, but calms down just as quickly when she notices Luz next to her.
"Luz, she's gone...", Anne tells her, her voice sounding broken.
"I know... I couldn't stop her...", Luz recounts, whereupon tears begin to break out on Anne's part.
"Hop Pop...", Anne sobs. Luz immediately understands, and despite her own injuries, helps Anne get up. The first attempt ends unsuccessfully, with Anne falling back down, but the second one succeeds.
They support each other as they slowly walk back to the center of the place. In the meantime, the sky has already lightened a bit and a new day has dawned, which means that a few scattered villagers can see the two girls limping through Wartwood.
When they arrive at the stone pedestal, Anne is the first to break down crying loudly next to Hop Pop, who lies completely motionless in the dirt, his clothes soaked by his blood. Luz, however, can't hold back her tears either.
More and more inhabitants step outside, pulled by Anne's crying, until a dense, wildly whispering cluster of frogs has gathered around the two girls.
Among the residents is Sprig, who carries Polly in his arms. His face slips away completely when he sees Anne and Luz mourning and crying over his grandfather's body. Polly feels the same way.
Luz notices him and they look briefly, yet meaningfully, into each other's tear-streaked eyes. Luz shakes her head.
"No...", Sprig whispers, tears already streaming down his cheeks and along with his sister he runs to the two girls. "No no no no no", he repeats over and over as he runs. When he gets to them and sees the knife in his back, both he and Polly completely break down.
"Sasha?", Sprig asks the two human friends in tears. Anne and Luz nod.
"But... But we had a plan... Why didn't it work?", he asks uncomprehending to no one in particular.
"By the time I noticed her, it was already too late.", Luz answers in a broken voice. Sprig looks at her.
"Luz, your face... You're bleeding…", he notices. "What happened? Where is she?"
Before anyone would be able to tell what happened, Maddie suddenly joins the grieving family. Luz is the first to notice her.
"Maddie?", she asks, at which point the others look up at her as well. Her gaze, however, is focused on the lifeless body among the grieving ones.
"How long has he been dead?"
"WHAT?", Anne asks incredulously as she wipes away a tear.
"How. Long. Has. He. Been. Dead?"
"Why does that matter?", Anne asks, still aghast at Maddie's insensitivity.
"Because it might not be too late to bring him back", Maddie explains, sending all of them straight into state of shock. "So, how long?", Maddie repeats her question once again, but more urgent.
"An hour. Maybe two", Luz guesses.
"Good, I can work with that.", Maddie says, sounding pretty convinced of herself, "Luz, could you maybe do something about all these spectators? I can't work with that many people watching."
Luz pulls out the remaining few ice glyphs and uses them to create an opaque, hollow ice dome, several meters in diameter, right around them. Anne, Sprig and Polly are still pretty rattled, Luz on the other hand is surprisingly lucid.
"Luz, come here, you need to help.", Maddie demands, kneeling right next to Hop Pop. "And the rest of you, please keep a little distance".
"What do you want me to do?", Luz asks with a serious tone. Maddie pulls out a few small pieces of paper from her shoulder bag and hands them to Luz.
"Take these. Hold one of them up to the knife and then put the other one directly on the wound while I pull the knife out. I'll explain later."
Luz does exactly what Maddie told her to do, while the others just stand by and try to understand what is happening.
"I'm going to count to three, then pull out the knife and you activate the glyphs. Got it?", Maddie asks, to which Luz nods. "Okay... One. Two. Three."
Maddie pulls the knife out of Hop Pop's back and places it next to her, before Luz activates the glyphs. Hop Pop's back begins to glow slightly green and the two girls watch the wound close. Maddie pulls out a few more glyphs, which she gives to Luz.
"Here, for your own wounds.", she explains.
"These... are healing glyphs, right?"
"Almost right. These are regeneration glyphs. Only work on organic matter and only on wounds.", Maddie explains, whereupon Luz places one glyph on her torso, one on her injured arm, and the last on the laceration on her head. The wound under her eye is not quite as critical.
Hop Pop's back stops glowing and Maddie turns to Anne.
"The wound is closed, but he's not alive again yet. For that, we need to get him to one of my hideouts, and we need to do it fast... Anne, can you help me carry him?", Maddie asks, but Luz interrupts her before she can even respond.
"We'd be a lot faster if we’re flying there.", Luz says, just before she pulls out her staff, readies it for flight, sits on it, and now just hovers in place.
"Impressive", Maddie says. Luz takes Hop Pop in her arms and sits on the staff with Maddie.
Before Luz can take off, however, Maddie once again turns to Anne, Sprig and Polly, whose tears are still flowing.
"Please go home. I'll come right back to you as soon as I have any news. I promise.", Maddie says sympathetically. Anne, speaking for everyone, nods in agreement, before Luz just moments later, breaks through the ice dome with her staff, causing it to collapse completely.
"Maddie's right. We should go home...", Anne says, still grieving. Sprig and Polly silently agree with her.
Before she leaves, however, two objects catch her eye: the knife and a poster. She takes both of them and follows the two siblings back to the Plantar farm.
Far too many hours later, at the edge of the forest near Toad Tower....
It felt like an eternity that Sasha had been running through forests and fields. Fortunately, so far, the adrenaline had prevented the pain from hindering her too much, however, that is exactly what is gradually wearing off more and more.
The fact that Sasha can now only see with one eye, does not make the situation any easier for her. Nevertheless, she feels absolutely relieved as she spots Toad Tower in the distance. Well, she would normally be, but considering the events of the last night...
With each step, Sasha becomes increasingly weaker and more tired, requiring more and more strength. She is also falling down increasingly more often, a sign that she will not be able to endure this ordeal much longer.
The last hundred meters she only manages under great agony, but when she reaches the big gate, she lets herself fall against it with her whole bodyweight. She knocks several times with the back of her head.
The door opens behind her, and she falls directly to the ground, without the slightest effort to support her fall.
Her vision blurs, she only perceives the silhouette of a toad bending over her.
"CAPTAIN GRIME!", the toad yells, and that's the last thing Sasha catches before everything around her goes dark.
Notes:
So... what do you think?
BTW: The part where Anne breaks Sasha's sword is inspired by fanart, which I think is pretty cool. Check it out: https://instagram.com/p/CVD-QBBpgTj (xexthex)
[Edit: 15.12.2024] - The glorious piece of art earlier has been drawn by the amazing Dr. Ñeque. You can find this art on Reddit and Instagram
Chapter 6: Conscience
Summary:
Luz and Maddie try to save a frog's life.
Chapter Text
Luz lands softly in a clearing Maddie led her to. Maddie begins to explain where they are now.
"Years ago, I found several places where I can conduct different types of magic. At home, I do my research and brew potions, as long as my siblings don't bother me. I'm experimenting with curses and potions not far from here. It would be too dangerous to do that at home. This place is however, perfect for all kinds of higher rituals. You'll see why..."
As Luz descends from her staff with Hop Pop in her arms, she notices Maddie walking towards a rather old looking ruin. Maddie turns to Luz and waves her over, before walking through a very tall archway and disappearing right in front of Luz. 'Whoa', Luz thought to herself. She slowly approaches the archway where Maddie disappeared, but stops herself just in front of it, and takes a deep breath. Suddenly a hand appears, grabs Luz’ free arm, and quickly pulls her through the archway.
Luz has her eyes closed, when she suddenly hears Maddie again.
"You're too slow, we don't have that much time."
Luz opens her eyes and her jaw drops to the floor. The two girls are no longer in a forest clearing, they are now standing in a gigantic cave, lit by large purple crystals. In general, the walls of the cave are made of colored crystals, and there are only a few of them who are not glowing brightly. Luz and Maddie are standing in a small stone clearing inside the cave, which features the same archway they saw in the larger clearing in the forest a moment ago. Two small streams flow around the clearing on either side, leading Luz's gaze further ahead to a similar stone path that leads straight ahead deeper into the cavern. Luz takes a moment to absorb the atmosphere, despite Maddie's urging to move on. The clean, fresh, but cold air, the gentle splashing of the stream, and even the crystals seem to emit some kind of comfortable sound. She takes one deep breath before following Maddie.
While following Maddie, Luz suddenly hears a sound. "Hoot". It's Owlbert, who has freed himself from Luz's staff, and is flying past her at high speed. He does a few figures in the air, before flying back to Luz. Luz giggles a little when she sees how happy Owlbert seems to be right now.
"Maddie, this place is amazing", Luz marvels as she catches up with the frog.
"Hoot.", Maddie turns to Luz and observes Owlbert gliding alongside Luz. She raises at least one eyebrow.
"It's new to me that staffs can partially come alive.", she states to which Luz giggles and replies.
"That's Owlbert, my palisman. It's the reason I can use glyph magic here in Amphibia."
"Then its core must be magic in its purest form. Interesting…", Maddie pauses shortly, "You know, I suspect that this place is also made of pure magic, but I haven't yet figured out how to use this magic effectively. That's why I'm experimenting here..."
"Where is 'here' anyway?", Luz wonders.
"Actually, I'm not so sure about that. I think we're still in Amphibia, but I can't tell where we are exactly. Until a while ago I had the theory that this is some kind of micro dimension, but I hid no evidence of the existence of other dimensions until the arrival of you and Anne. Well, other worlds, dimensions, all the same. By the way, we'll be right there."
The two of them walk around a larger rock formation just to find a small lake with an island in it, with a stone pedestal in its middle. A wooden bridge connects the path to the island which the two girls are about to cross. Owlbert flies ahead and lands on the stone pedestal.
"Luz, put him on the pedestal. I need to grab a few things...", Maddie orders Luz before she turns around, runs back down the path, and disappears from Luz sight behind the rock formation. Luz just shrugs and carries Hop Pop to the pedestal.
"Come on, buddy. Hop Pop has to lie there.", Luz says to Owlbert, who then takes off, and starts exploring the cave. She watches him for a few more seconds before carefully laying Hop Pop down. She then leans herself with both hands against the pedestal, and merely stares at Hop Pop’s body.
"I'm so sorry Hop Pop.", she quietly mutters to herself, a tear rolling down her cheek, "I wish I'd been more careful so I could have protected you from Sasha... No one deserves that. Especially- huh?"
Luz suddenly notices how the pedestal and the floor beneath it begin to vibrate, and a few of the larger crystals that are all over the cave walls begin to flicker briefly. She abruptly backs away from the pedestal and everything stops again. At the same time, Maddie returns into view.
"What was that? What did you do?", Maddie wonders, and although there was not a hint of accusation or blame in her voice, Luz fears she has done something terribly wrong. As Maddie runs toward her, Luz answers, stuttering.
"So... Um... I... I just... leaned on the pedestal and...", Maddie notices the fear in her voice and tries to calm her down.
"Luz, you did nothing wrong.", Maddie says, putting a hand on Luz’ hand.
"Not?"
"I think the cave somehow reacted to you", Maddie thinks.
"But how? I... I don't have any magic in me. It comes from Owlbert..."
"Are you sure? Where is he then?", Luz looks around the cave for any sign of the little owl. Nothing.
"But how?"
"I don't know. Well, not yet. I... I'd like to try something", Maddie says. "You know, I usually use various runes, herbs, and potions for revive people and other creatures. Now, I would like to test to see if YOU can bring him back to life."
"Me? But how? I've never done any magic without glyphs, let alone resurrected a person...", Luz says in a panic.
"Okay, fair point... But let's just assume for now, that the cave actually reacted to you. What exactly did you do before everything started to vibrate?"
"Umm... I leaned against the pedestal. Here, like this...", Luz reenacts her previous pose, "And then I thought about the fact that I couldn't protect him."
"You were mad, right?", Maddie asks to which Luz nods. "Try to remember something more positive…", she suggests.
Luz closes her eyes and begins to contemplate. In fact, Luz has quite a few fond memories: The first time she had finished reading 'The Good Witch Azura' book for the first time, that her father had gifted to her... The time when her mother took her to her first book fair and she got to meet the author... The great feeling when she met Willow and helped her get a good grade, when she snuck into Hexside for the first time...
Several minutes pass, but nothing happens. Luz sighs in disappointment before opening her eyes again and looking questioningly at Maddie. She now ponders for a while herself.
"Do you have any memories where you actively helped someone? Or maybe where you fixed something?", Maddie asks.
Luz doesn’t reply and just closes her eyes again. She thinks back to the time she was in Willow's head along with Amity, and fixed her memories. And when they, along with Amity, restored Willow's confidence in after standing up for herself against Boscha...
Suddenly, Luz hears an unfamiliar, extremely deep voice: "LUUUUZ..."
"What?", she asks loudly before the whole cave started shaking again.
Many of the purple glowing crystals now begin to flicker, and the tremor becomes increasingly stronger. So strong, in fact, that neither Luz nor Maddie can continue to stand upright and fall over.
Luz looks up and spots that the giant crystal directly above the island has broken loose from the cave ceiling, and appears to be falling down on Luz, Maddie, and Hop Pop. Luz and Maddie quickly rush under the pedestal. Terrified, they cling to each other in anticipation of their inevitable end.
Suddenly it quiets down again, the vibrations in the floor diminishing. Luz cautiously opens her eyes as she notices something picking at her fingers, and realizes that they are indeed still alive. And that Owlbert is back.
"Maddie...", Luz says, whereupon she too carefully opens her eyes. Slowly, the two girls crawl out from under the pedestal and are astonished as they look up.
"Whoa...", Luz marvels.
The crystal that was threatening to crush them just a moment ago, is now hovering a little less than a meter, slowly spinning, above the pedestal.
"The crystal... It's floating... And it's yellow?", Maddie remarks.
"I think... it wants me to touch it...", Luz speaks to herself, slowly moving her hand towards the gigantic, levitating crystal.
Luz touches the crystal and both she and the crystal begin to glow yellow. Luz' eyes have also changed color, from brown to a bright yellow. As Luz's second hand touches the crystal, a yellow beam shoots out from the crystal, directly into Hop Pop's lifeless body. Maddie watches the scene in amazement.
A few minutes pass and the crystal slowly darkens, until it is completely colorless. The beam breaks off, the yellow aura around Luz disappears, and her eyes turn back to their normal color. The now dark crystal starts hovering upwards again, on its own, leaving Luz’ hands. Luz doesn't seem to have been quite herself for the past few minutes, as it was a few more seconds before she could lower her arms again. As she does so, she now has to support herself on the pedestal, so as not to lose her balance.
"That... That was amazing. It... I don't know... I think it'll take me a while to process that.", Luz stammers. Maddie on the other hand as other priorities.
"That's secondary. How are you feeling?"
"I don't know. I... Hop Pop!", Luz shouts before quickly putting her hand on his arm to check for a pulse. Her eyes widen when she actually finds it. She begins to sob and lies her head on his chest in relief. Maddie takes one of his arms and checks for a pulse as well.
"Oh. My. Gosh... He's alive.", Maddie exclaims happily, "You did it, Luz."
"I have no idea how I did it, and to be honest I don't really care right now…", Luz states with tears of joy in her eyes.
"Luz? I… I think I should confess something to you... I've never really resuscitated complex creatures before. Only bugs and insects... And not always successfully either... I was actually planning on throwing you out when I picked up my stuff. I wouldn't have wanted you here if it hadn't worked out… If I failed and he-"
"Shhh. He's alive. ", Luz tries to cheer her up, "That's all that matters"
The two comfort each other when they suddenly hear a familiar voice.
"What? Who's alive?"
"Hop Pop!", Luz yells, "I'm so sorry, Hop Pop. I could have stopped Sasha, but-", Luz's mind is simultaneously filled with joy, about Hop Pop being alive again, and guilt, about not being able to protect him earlier.
"Sasha… She- She killed me...", he mutters quietly, before looking around, "Luz? Maddie? Where am I? Am I still dead?"
Luz chuckles a little, but with a sad undertone.
"We brought you back. It's a long story..."
"We should take you home first. You need to rest and regain your strength.", Maddie adds.
"I could use a nap...", Hop Pop says before losing conscience again, and falling asleep.
Luz lifts Hop Pop high in her arms, but still notices a faint yellow aura around him. She looks up at the now colorless crystal, which has lifted itself back up to the top of the cave. Luz feels a little too exhausted to think about it too much. Instead, she walks slowly, along with Maddie, back to the cave entrance.
Only outside do they both sit down on Luz' staff and make their way back towards Wartwood. After a while, Maddie asks if Luz could drop her off at her house, as she would like to do some more research on what exactly just happened. Needless to say, Luz complies with Maddie's request, and drops her off at the bakery, before flying on to the Plantars' farm herself.
Luz lands right in front of their front door and knocks on it with the end of her staff, which she holds in her left hand. In her right, Luz struggles to hold the sleeping Hop Pop. Anne opens the door and Luz immediately realizes that she has been crying non-stop for the last few hours. When Anne catches sight of Luz holding him, she can barely contain her joy, but quickly realizes that he has a slight yellow glow. She looks at Luz with a questioning expression, who in response, merely nods with a smile on her face.
This answer is probably reason enough for Anne to burst into tears again. Only this time, they are not tears of sadness, but tears of joy.
"He needs to rest.", Luz says softly, and enters the house, heading for Hop Pop's room.
On the way there, she notices Sprig descending the stairs, and sees Anne and Luz with his grandfather in their arms. He looks at Anne, who smiles at him in relief. He falls back on the stairs and, like Anne, starts crying again from happiness. Anne sits down with him and embraces him closely.
Luz, meanwhile, enters Hop Pop's bedroom and sees that his bed is completely stained red. Stained by his own blood. Instead of his bed, she puts him on the couch in his study. She takes a nearby clean blanket and covers him with it before quietly leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
Luz notices that Anne and Sprig have sat down on the couch in the living room. They both look at Luz as she heads over and sits down with them.
"What happened?", Anne asks, at which Luz takes a deep breath.
"After we left, Maddie directed me to one of her hiding places-"
"No!", Anne cuts in, "Even before that. When Maddie arrived. What were those glyphs?"
"Oh. She said they were regeneration glyphs. She must have been experimenting with the ones I left her. I don't think she has slept for a second since then... I didn't ask about those or any other glyphs though. Anyway, when we got to her hideout after a while, we went through some kind of portal that led to a gigantic purple cave. Speaking of which, did you happen to feel any kind of earthquake in the meantime?"
"No. I didn't notice anything", Sprig replies.
"Neither did I. Why?", Anne asks.
"I'll get to that in a moment. Anyway, we walked through this cave for a while until we got to an island where there was a kind of stone pedestal. I put Hop Pop on it and as I leaned on it the cave started shaking. Maddie said to do it again and the cave shook even harder when we saw a crystal... oh, by the way, the cave was almost completely covered by purple crystals. Anyway, we saw a crystal had come loose from the ceiling and saw it falling at us. Maddie and I hid under the pedestal, and when we came out, the crystal was hovering above Hop Pop, and it was suddenly yellow with about the same aura as you had earlier. Just with a different color tho’"
Sprig looks at Anne questioningly, but she just signals him, that she’ll tell him about it later.
"I had touched the crystal and it was like a trance. I regained consciousness as the crystal floated back toward the ceiling. I don't know what happened in the meantime, but as I leaned over Hop Pop, I realized he was alive again. And well, that's pretty much it..."
"And where is Maddie now?", Sprig wonders.
"She's back home. She said she wants to do more research, but I think she'll go to sleep."
"Okay, that’s good…"
"Speaking of home... I think, I should tell you what happened- what happened before I came to Amphibia...", Luz starts to tell them. Anne and Sprig merely look at Luz with big, wet eyes. "When I arrived on the Boiling Isles, I met a woman. Well, not just a woman, a witch. Eda, the Owl Lady. The most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. And sadly, she was the most wanted person there, for not following the rules set up by the wild-magic-suppressing dictator to guarantee that people could only use exactly the magic he allowed. She took me in, and she helped me discover glyph magic. Well, her and some friends I made. An additional problem for Eda was that when she was young, she was cursed by her sister Lilith-"
"Ouch", Anne cuts in.
"Anyway... Her sister Lilith is in the Emperor's Coven, and has been trying to capture Eda for years, because he promised her, that he would free Eda from her curse. And surprise... He lied. To capture Eda, Lilith had held me hostage. The two of them, that being Eda und Lilith, fought each other until Eda could no longer fight Lilith AND her curse at the same time. Eda lost both fights, and Lilith sent me away. She was found guilty of her 'crimes' by the emperor and her sentence was... petrification.", it's really hard for Luz to let that last part escape her lips.
"Oh shit", Anne comments.
"Of course, I couldn't let that happen, and together with King- Uh, a cute demon who lived with me and Eda, we let ourselves be captured to be taken to the Emperor's Castle. However, we were found by Lilith, who told us that she was switching sides. She had taken King and I to a room that was supposed to be directly below where Eda was being held. But surprise, it was a trap. Not by Lilith, but by Emperor Belos. He had captured King and Lilith and... took them... somewhere. However, Belos then had me pinned to the ground and said he just wanted to talk to me. I threw some ice glyphs his way, to show him what I'd think of a conversation. We fought each other for a while and I knew I couldn't beat him, but I didn't care. Suddenly a bright light came up behind me and I was pulled in... And you know the rest..."
These memories were extremely painful for Luz and she had to stop a few times to keep from crying.
"Well, not quite yet. Anne, when you told me I was in Amphibia, I realized what that really meant. It meant that I was in yet another world, but also... that I wasn’t able save Eda."
Before Luz could finish this last part, tears started to form in her eyes. Anne and Sprig look at each other with concern, and Anne tries to find something sympathetic to say.
"Oh frog, Luz... I'm so sorry."
"Eda was like a mother... I loved her so much...", Luz replies sobbing and with a broken voice. Both Anne and Sprig hug her, as streams of tears flow down her face.
"But you brought Hop Pop back to us, and I will never be able to thank you enough for that...", Sprig says as Luz has calmed down a bit, but is still sobbing.
"I wouldn't have forgiven myself either if it hadn't worked out. I'd already lost someone who was extremely important to me. If Hop Pop hadn't come back, I probably would have broken down completely..."
"No, it's my fault.", Anne cuts in, " Sprig, you had warned me about Sasha, but I hadn't seen the truth. I hadn't seen how she was manipulating me. I hadn't seen the extent to which she would go to get what she wants, but I never thought she would be capable of murder... I won't repeat that mistake again..."
"Anne? What was Sasha like on Earth, actually?"
"She was the one who always wanted to get her way, and was offended when she didn't get it. On my last birthday, she wanted me to skip school with her. She pushed me to steal things and stuff.", Luz and Sprig both begin to notice Anne getting more and more angry as she talks. "Why didn't I notice? Why Did I Think All Friendships Were Like This? WHY DID I NOT RECOGNIZE WHAT AN ASSHOLE SASHA WAS?"
Anne's hair turns blue and a shock wave emanates from her that roams the entire house. Luz and Sprig duck, shouting "ANNE!"
Anne calms down fairly quickly and only now realizes what has just happened.
"Oh...", is all she says. Luz now turns to Sprig.
"That's what I meant with Anne turning blue"
"Oh, okay...", Sprig says, his voice still shaky. "Can all humans do that?"
Luz and Anne both shake their heads.
"My best friend has superpowers…", Sprig mutters to himself. Anne hears this and smiles, though it doesn’t last for very long.
"Has this happened any time before this morning? Or do you have any idea where these powers are coming from, Anne?", Luz asks, to which Anne merely shakes her head.
"We could see if we could find more information about it in Newtopia.", Anne suggests, "Well, as soon as Hop Pop is healthy again..."
"And Luz, you could fly ahead with your staff", Sprig adds.
"What? No...", Luz replies. "I won't leave you alone."
"I agree with Sprig.", Anne objects, " You should fly ahead and before you say anything else... listen to me: if you're ahead you can try to get more information right away. We'd get there about a week or two after you. Besides, there's not that much space on Bessie, and I don't think you'd be able to put up with us on her for that long..."
"Bessie?"
"The Amphibia-equivalent to horses. Just as a large snail"
"Alright, fine. But I won't fly until you leave too. Alright?"
"Yeah, okay."
Suddenly there's a knock at the front door. Anne gets up, opens the door, and sees Mayor Toadstool, but without his characteristic sleazy grin. In fact, he seems rather upset.
"Hello Anne", he greets her, "I'm here to express my condolences on the death of Hopediah."
"Oh, um... thanks", Anne replies, "But he's alive again. He's recovering right now…"
Suddenly, his grief seems never to have existed.
"Oh, is that so?", he asks, "Well then, forget what I just said. I just wanted to invite you to a town meeting tonight to talk about what happened this morning."
"All right, we'll be there"
Chapter 7: A Different Path
Summary:
The residents of Wartwood vote on how to deal with the brutal attack on one of their own.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The sun is low, almost ready to disappear behind the horizon. Almost fourteen hours have passed since Luz brought Hop Pop back home. Luz herself had used the time since then to catch up on some sleep. Anne, Sprig and Polly have, to pass the time, taken turns to check on Hop Pop and let the rest of them know when he wakes up. So far, unfortunately, this hasn't happened and he was still fast asleep when they last checked.
Now, however, the four of them are on their way to the village meeting to which Mayor Toadstool has personally invited them. As the four children approach the heart of the village, they see that countless other frogs have already gathered in front of, and around a makeshift wooden stage and are chattering wildly. Anne realizes that they must be among the last people to arrive. The crowd quiets down a bit, and Anne gets the feeling that everyone is looking at her. Unfortunately, the feeling is not new to her. For the first few weeks at Wartwood, she felt exactly the same way. She was considered a monster by everyone for who she is. At that time, she was just a human. Not a human with a super power. She knows deep down that no one saw her but Luz, but the thought that anyone else could have seen her, is extremely uncomfortable. Especially considering what she did with that power...
Mayor Toadstool steps onto the platform and gestures for everyone present to be quiet before he himself begins to speak.
"It looks like most of the people are here.... ... As some of you may have witnessed, there was an incident last night. A valued member of our community has been brutally attacked.", Many of the frogs whisper wildly before Toadstool continues, "The victim was our esteemed Hopediah Plantar. My information is that he will survive though. Now, before we all discuss how to condemn and respond to this attack, I'd like to ask Anne and her friend to come up on stage, to tell us exactly what happened, since they were the first to find the good Hopediah."
Anne and Luz hesitate for a moment, but now that all eyes are actually on them, they head towards the platform. Since the two girls are the largest creatures in Wartwood, it would not have been necessary for them to climb onto the platform to be seen better. But nonetheless, they accepted Toadstool's invitation.
"I'd have to go back a bit to get it all right. It started a few days ago in Toad Tower when everyone here was invited to the banquet. What most of us didn't know, however, was that this was a trap for Hop Pop. I'll get to the reasons for that in a moment. Then, when Luz showed up, and we all left, she kinda nullified that trap. Then I invited Sasha, my former best friend, to dinner at the Plantars yesterday evening. She must have been ordered to kill Hop Pop by Captain Grime, because Luz and I ended up finding her around here with Hop Pop next to her. Luz and I fought Sasha for a while, who then escaped heavily injured. I don’t know if she had other targets though… Or if she survived…", Anne’s voice trails off to which Luz continues.
"Although the mayor said Hop Pop survived and would pull through, that wasn't the case the whole time. For about two to three hours, he was dead. Bled to death. With Maddie's help and guidance, we managed to bring him back to life."
Again, some wild, concerned and puzzled chatter spreads among the listening crowd, shortly before Mayor Toadstool re-enters the platform.
"Are there any questions?", he asks the crowd.
Sylvia Sundew raises her arm.
"Why did your friend wanted to see Hoppy dead? What did he do?", she asks full of worry, to which Anne remembers that she forgot to mention that part.
"Oh right.", she mutters before pulling Hop Pop's revolution poster out of a bag, and holding it out in front of the crowd for everyone to see. They look quite little confused. Anne explains.
"When Hop Pop ran for mayor, frogs from all over the valley saw it as an opportunity, or motivation, to stand up to the domineering toads. In response, the toads may have decided to make an example of Hop Pop. Most likely they wanted to kill him already at the tower, with all of us as witnesses. Thanks to Luz's appearance there, this plan probably failed.", the crowd begins whispering wildly again, before Anne continues, "I have to confess something too... After the tower, I was warned several times that Sasha was up to something. But I ignored those warnings. This didn't apply to Luz and Sprig, though. Both suspected Sasha from the start and watched her. Luz noticed Sasha, but only after she had already left the house with Hop Pop. She woke me up and we ran after her."
Leopold Loggle, the carpenter, now raises his hand.
"What was that ball of ice this morning?", he asks. Luz excitedly responds to this question.
"That was me.", she says before pulling an ice glyph out of a trouser pocket, which she quickly activates. She hears several "Uhh"s and "Ahh"s coming from the crowd. Luz continues.
"Although I'm originally from Earth, like Anne, before I came to Amphibia, I lived and learned magic on the Boiling Isles, yet another world."
"Thank you, Anne and Luz.", Mayor Toadstool now takes the floor again as the two girls leave the platform, "If anyone else has a question, that person is now out of luck. So, now that everyone has been informed about what happened, I would like to start a discussion about how we should handle this situation. Any suggestions?"
In fact, several residents are calling out ideas.
"Revenge!", one shouts.
"Let's improve the village defenses!", another shouts.
"Let's blow up Toad Tower!", Polly yells enthusiastically.
"Rebellion!", Luz yells, whereupon Anne looks at her questioningly.
"Seriously?", Anne asks her. Luz merely shrugs her shoulders.
"Sure. I'm always in for proving jerks wrong... ", Luz explains calmly.
Anne is unsure about all those plans. 'These suggestions all sound like they're going to go awry pretty quickly, with really bad consequences... I don't like it, but people seem pretty determined right now.’, she ponders. Shortly after, Anne comes up with an idea of her own.
"How about we combine these ideas together. Improving village defenses is a good idea, but overdoing it also makes us a target. We could spread the word that the toads tried to kill Hop Pop, thus making him a martyr, which would start some kind of rebellion that could reach all the frogs in the whole valley, possibly strong enough that the toads could be driven out of the valley...", Anne notices Polly being all fidgety, "And Polly could blow up Toad Tower afterwards."
Mayor Toadstool speaks up again and asks, if there were any other suggestions. When no one else answers, he holds a vote. Towards the end of the vote, Anne's proposal is neck and neck with the proposal to improve village defenses. Ultimately, Anne's proposal wins, albeit narrowly. Toadstool speaks up.
"Anne, since your proposal won, you are automatically involved in the organization. However, knowing that you will not stay here in Amphibia forever, you may choose representatives to take care of everything, just in case you're not available. Hopediah maybe?"
"Ugh, not a good idea. Hop Pop is still recovering and I'm about to travel to Newtopia with the Plantars to look for a way back home. Can we take care of that when we get back from Newtopia?", Anne asks.
"All right. I'll make sure that other villages in the valley get the news. If there are no further questions, the meeting is hereby dissolved.", Toadstool states as he’s already leaving the platform without even looking back at the crowd, which is slowly dissolving. Luz leans towards Anne, as they are leaving as well.
"Is he always like that?", she asks.
"Oh, yeah.", Anne, Sprig, and Polly reply in unison
"Most of the time he's actually even worse.", Sprig adds to their previous reply, "He's making a good living at everyone else's expense. I was surprised that he called this village meeting at all... "
"Sorry if I interrupt you", Luz cuts in, "but I just thought of something: I'm probably flying earlier to Newtopia than you guys."
The group stops at that. Anne speaks up.
"Why this sudden change of plans?", she wonders.
"Well, I could take a look around Newtopia in advance together with Maddie, and also look for ways to support the rebellion. I might also find some helpful allies... You can always use them...", Luz argues, "Oh, almost forgot: I haven't even asked Maddie if she wants to go... Um, I'll see you guys later."
And with that said, Luz runs back towards the stage, while Anne, Sprig, and Polly continue their way home.
"Anne?", Sprig asks after a while, "Why didn't you tell people about your power? You're Super-Anne now..."
"First of all: Not Super-Anne. Never. Second: What do you think I should have told them? Hey guys, I discovered a superpower this morning and almost killed my friend with it?!", she sounds quite upset.
"Okay I understand. But I think eventually people will find out..."
"I know. But until then, I want to find out for myself what it's about, and why I have that power…"
The day ends without any further events. The kids just ate something and then went to sleep.
The next morning came surprisingly quickly, and Anne is surprisingly the first one to wake up. Well, she hadn't slept very well either. The memories of last night are still too fresh in her mind, for her to sleep peacefully. Strangely enough, even if it was actually just a little over 24 hours ago, it already feels like an eternity. Anne carries herself out of her bed and, when she sees that Luz is still asleep, she walks very quietly up the stairs out of the basement, directly towards Hop Pop's study. The last time she checked on him was just before she went to sleep, but his condition was still the same. Yesterday, she and Sprig had taken care of the blood trail and Hop Pop's blood-soaked bed. Originally, Luz wanted to help as well, but she stayed longer at Maddie’s that anticipated. Anne opens the door to his room and, to her surprise, sees Hop Pop sitting upright on his couch.
"HOP POP!", she shouts while running towards him to hug him tightly. Coincidentally, Sprig and Polly are also coming down the stairs, and hears what Anne just yelled. They look into Hop Pop's room and as they realize that he's awake again, they also run towards him and join in in the hug. They are over the moon that Hop Pop is with them again.
"How are you feeling?", Anne asks, feeling relieved beyond her ears.
"Ugh kids, I feel like I slept all day..."
"Well, you did.", Polly replies happily.
"Oh. I feel pretty good then, considering I was dead... Heh... I am actually alive again though, aren't I?" Anne gives Hop Pop a doubtful look while Sprig replies.
"Yes, Hop Pop, you're alive"
"What do you remember?", Anne asks.
"Let me think... I was lying in bed and woke up thinking someone had come into my room. I thought it was one of you, so I hadn't thought too much about it. Then I heard your friend Sasha behind me. She said, 'I'm sorry'.", Anne snorted at that statement. He continues, "Immediately afterwards, she stabbed me in the back with a knife. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. She grabbed me by my shirt and dragged me out of the house. Somewhere along the way I think I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember, I woke up in a cave with Luz and Maddie standing next to me."
Anne, Sprig and Polly look at each other worried. The way Hop Pop just told them, it felt like he was just telling one of his stories. As if this whole experience hadn't affected him at all. The kids know though, that he went through an extremely traumatic experience, and that Hop Pop is only now beginning to process it. It's most likely going to be quite a long process...
Suddenly the basement hatch opens and a completely sleepy Luz crawls out.
"What's all this noise about?", Luz complains. Hop Pop notices her and smiles a little.
"You know that I have to be well rested for the trip... ... Oh, Hop Pop, you're awake...", Luz now notices as well, and she couldn't help but smile as she slowly walked towards the door, but does not enter the room itself.
"What do you mean 'for the trip later'?", Hop Pop wonders.
"Oh right. I'm flying to Newtopia today, together with Maddie, to do some research."
"But I thought you would ride in the fwagon with us...", Hop Pop mentions sadly.
"Fwagon?", Sprig asks.
"Uhh, listen kids. I've owned a wagon for a while that I wanted to surprise you with so that everyone doesn't have to squeeze onto Bessy, and it makes the ride a little more comfortable."
"Aww, Hop Pop... Thank you", Sprig says.
"I actually knew that already. Glad I don't have to keep this secret anymore...", Polly sighs in relief.
"How could you have known?", Sprig asks his sister with a critical tone.
"We picked up the fwagon together after he bought me my new bucket.", Polly explains.
"The reason Luz is flying ahead, is that Sprig, Polly and I are not ready to leave until you are fully recovered. Originally Luz wanted to wait too, but a village meeting yesterday changed the plan a bit. I think you can think what the meeting was about..."
"Let me guess...", Hop Pop begins, "it was about my death, and there was going to be a vote on how to deal with it. What was decided: Sheer revenge or improvement of village defenses?"
Anne's jaw drops to the floor.
"How did you know those were options?", she asks. Hop Pop laughs dryly.
"Oh, you know kid… I've been to a lot of meetings like this in my life and the propositions have always been the same. So? What is it this time?", he wonders. Everyone hesitates at first. Anne replies.
"None of that. The plan is to start a rebellion against the toads to drive them out of the valley..."
"Wow, that's a really, really stupid idea. Who suggested it? Steve? Chuck? He's always craving for violence..."
"Let's talk about it later and have breakfast first.", Anne immediately tries to change the subject, "You must be quite hungry, am I right?"
"Oh, absolutely. Will you help me get up, kids?"
Anne helps Hop Pop stand up, and aids him out of the room towards the kitchen. Sprig, Polly and Luz follow them. Everyone sits down and Hop Pop repeats his last question.
"So? Who came up with the idea of rebelling against the toads?"
"It was me. I had this idea", Anne admits after some hesitancy.
"Say whaaaatt??", Hop Pop says, shocked. "Why did you do that?"
"Quite simply: On the one hand, all other ideas were trash. On the other hand, something had to happen. Sasha attacked my family on behalf of Grime."
"What actually happened to her?", Sprig wonders. Anne replies coldly.
"If it was up to me, she's dead. And if I hadn't fallen over, I would have killed her myself..."
"Whoa, that's cold", Hop Pop replies terrified.
"She deserved it. She Killed You. SHE…", Anne gets loud again.
"Anne. You're turning blue again...", Sprig says.
"I don't care", Anne states, her voice filled with anger and pain.
Before Hop Pop could react in any way, a knock on the front door distracts him. Luz gets up and opens the door. It's Maddie who seems unusually energetic.
"Good morning... Why are you here already? Or even awake?"
"Oh, I've been up for a few hours getting ready for the trip...", Maddie explains before noticing that Luz was still half asleep. "You apparently haven't yet, right?"
"Nah, I just woke up a few minutes ago. We're just having breakfast. Would you like to eat with us, while I try to wake up a little?"
"Yes of course.", Maddie gladly accepts the invitation and walks towards the rest of the Plantars, while Luz goes up the stairs to get ready. Maddie notices the blue aura around Anne.
"Hi... Is it inappropriate right now?", she wonders.
"No, it's alright...", Anne replies as her aura is fading out already. Hop Pop now looks at Maddie.
"I guess it's thanks to you that I'm alive again, right?"
"Not really.", Maddie replies, to his surprise, "Luz brought you back. I actually have no idea how she did it. That's one reason why I'm going to accompany her to Newtopia."
"I see", Hop Pop says, not knowing what to do with this new information.
"By the way... I'd like to ask you a few questions to see how fit you are now."
"Alright", he agrees.
"First question: Can you move your arms and legs?", Maddie asks. Hop Pop stands up from his chair, trying to stretch himself.
"Well, they still feel a little stiff", he notices.
"Okay, that's part of rigor mortis, which probably hasn't completely subsided yet. Next question: Do you have a putrid taste in your mouth? Like when you ate expired meat?"
"No, I don't", he answers.
"Very good. So, we weren't too late. Last question: How good are the reflexes in your tongue?"
"You tell me", Hop Pop says while catching a small fly in the air.
"Impressive. You passed all the tests.", Maddie replies contently. Now Anne speaks up.
"Maddie, do you have an estimate on how long your journey to Newtopia actually takes?"
"I guess we'll get there tonight.", Maddie replies, "Though you should ask that question to Luz. She’s the one with the flying staff…", Hop Pop chokes on water that he had in his mouth.
"JUST ONE DAY? With Bessie, the journey takes almost two weeks. One and a half if we hurry and never stop...", he states in shock.
"Well… flying has its advantages... Do you and Luz have any plans other than just research?"
"Well, I have a few contacts who would take us in.", Maddie remains vaguely, "I also have opportunities to get us access to the royal library. And before you ask Anne, we'll keep our eyes open for your other friend." Anne smiles at that.
"Thank you, Maddie. I miss Marcy terribly."
"What's Marcy like? Hopefully not like Sasha, otherwise you have pretty questionable taste in friends... ...excluding everyone present.", Sprig wonders, to Anne smiles as some memories begin to occupy her mind.
"Marcy is by far the clumsiest person I know. She's incredibly intelligent, and she was the one who had the idea to get hold of the music box and try it out."
"Music box?"
"Oh, wait...", Anne says before pulling out her phone, and showing Maddie a picture of the box. She continues, "The box is currently with Hop Pop contacts who are also trying to find out more about it."
"I'm not ready to believe she's harmless until I meet her in person," Sprig clarifies dubiously, "Until then, I remain skeptical."
Meanwhile, Luz walks down the stairs from the upper floor, now looking both a bit more awake and ready to fly. She heads into the kitchen.
"Maddie, I'm ready. If you want, we can leave", Luz says. Maddie stands up, but before she and Luz can start heading out, Anne stops them.
"Not so fast... I won't let you go without a proper goodbye.", she states sternly and pulls Luz in for a tight, warm hug.
"It would be great if you could find Marcy in Newtopia. And also, if you could keep my power to yourself.", she whispers.
"No problem, Anne."
Shortly afterwards, Sprig, Polly and even Hop Pop join in and say goodbye to Luz, well, for now, before everyone follows Luz and Maddie outside. Luz picks Maddie up on her staff.
"See you in a few weeks", she waves goodbye, before taking off and flying toward Newtopia.
"I already miss her.", Anne says.
"Me too", Sprig agrees.
"She was only here for a while, and she left such a deep impression... I'll miss her too. But we will see her again sooner than we even realize. You'll see, time will fly...", Hop Pop says, before heading back into the house.
Notes:
Soo... Luz and Maddie are on their way to Newtopia now and this is a perfect opportunity to share what I have roughly planned for the next few chapters. No spoilers, I promise.
Chapter 8 will consist of at least three short stories that may or may not be related to the overarching storyline. At least two of the stories are about Luz and Maddie's journey to Newtopia.
I won't write anything about what the Plantars will experience on their journey, as their adventures aren't much different from those in the series until they arrive in Newtpoia.
Chapter 8: Short Stories - Large Spaces, Lessons and Losses
Summary:
- Luz and Maddie take a break and find something very old.
- Maddie teaches Luz a few new glyphs.
- Sasha regains consciousness.
Chapter Text
[ Large Spaces ]
"Luz?"
"Yes?"
"I know we haven't been traveling very long, but would you mind if we took a short break? Sitting on a stick for so long isn't very pleasant..."
"But of course. It's normal for the staff to feel very uncomfortable at first. Is everything else okay so far?"
"Oh yeah. I'm fine. See all those weird, small hills down there? I'd like to take a closer look..."
"All right. Hold on!", Luz warns her way too shortly, before she abruptly tilts the staff ninety degrees downwards and rushes towards the ground at maximum speed. Maddie gulps at first, and holds on to Luz tighter and tighter, before Luz finally pulls the staff back to level, much too close to the ground, and finally comes to a stop. Maddie immediately jumps off and throws up, not far from Luz.
"Please... Please NEVER do that again!"
"Okay...", Luz says remorsefully, after Maddie somewhat recovers and returns to Luz.
"Better?", Luz asks.
"Mhm...", Maddie is leaning against the big stone wall Luz landed next to, "I just need a moment to gather myself again... My insides need to sort themselves out first..."
"Sorry"
For her trip to Newtopia, Maddie actually doesn't have too much stuff with her. Besides the dark gray shirt that she is usually wearing, this time she has taken the precaution of putting a light gray fur scarf around her neck for the cold temperatures when flying. In addition, she wears a loose, gray cape with the equally gray hood over her head. A small shoulder bag hangs down around her shoulder, in which she has packed a few books and a small notebook. Luz, on the other hand, wears largely the same clothes with which she landed in Amphibia, but with two small changes, or rather additions: First, she has been able to wash her clothes and remove most of her blood stains. The second enhancement is the backpack that Anne lent her for the trip. In it she carries a few more books that Maddie didn't have space for in her own bag, some money that Hop Pop gave her, several prepared glyphs, some food, and also an empty notebook.
A sudden mechanical click, along with a slight vibration in the floor, startles both girls for a moment. In the previously apparant wall, against which Maddie has been leaning, a huge door opens with a height of at least nine meters. Astonished, Luz looks at the slowly opening door before turning around and looking in the other directions to see if anything has changed there as well. In fact, Luz sees several similar stone walls, albeit much smaller ones, compared this one. Nothing has changed there, however.
Directly behind the now open door is an equally huge, dark, light gray room.
"Luz, light?", Maddie asks before Luz activates several light glyphs and enters the room along with Maddie. The floor is completely covered with a stone mosaic, while the walls are made of smooth, gray stone. At each of the corners of the square room, Luz places a light orb to better appreciate its dimensions.
"This thing is so big, my house at home would fit in here twice. Well, stacked on top of each other.", Luz compares.
"Maybe this was used for storage?", Maddie surmises.
"There's surprisingly little stored here for that, though...", Luz observes.
"There are thieves in this world too...", Maddie argues.
"Maybe this was used as a hiding place. Although, scratch that."
Both girls wander aimlessly around the seemingly empty room, looking for.... anything.
"Luz! I think I found something..."
As Luz runs to Maddie, she is already beginning to realize what she is standing in front of. Above Maddie are two stone frog feet, mirrored above each other. Each of them as big as Maddie. Luz gasps.
"Oh my gosh... This is an elevator...", she states in amazement.
"What?"
"I think these are buttons that can take us to another floor...", Luz explains.
Luz tries to press the lower button, but it doesn't really work. Only when Maddie jumps on Luz' shoulders and they press it together, the button moves and finally locks into place, before the gigantic doors close and the room starts moving.
Luz grins proudly.
"I love it when I'm right...", she says.
"I'm sure you do. Let's just hope the door upstairs opens again too, once we're back upstairs...", Maddie hopes, to which Luz' grin disappears right away.
"Oh... yeah... you're right."
The elevator travels downward for almost two minutes before finally coming to a stop. The large doors open and a large amount of stuffy air and dust fills the room within seconds.
"Mask!", Luz yells before both girls wrap their capes in several layers around their noses and mouths. They walk up to the door, both with a light orb in one hand, created by Luz.
"Okay... We've either found a room so big that our light orbs can't reach the other side, or we're facing absolute emptiness.", Luz notes. Maddie is the first to take a step out of the elevator.
"No void.", she says.
The air is completely permeated with dust, and both girls are now walking further into the room. The dust is so dense, it acts like a light-dampening fog. Luz and Maddie would lose sight of each other if they moved too far apart.
"It seems like this room has been untouched for hundreds, or even thousands of years.", Maddie surmises, just before a light dawns on her, "Wait a minute, Luz... The glyphs. is there a correlation between the size of the glyph and the strength of the spell?"
Luz immediately knows what Maddie is alluding to.
"Oh yes, absolutely...", Luz replies. With her shoes, she draws a light glyph several meters in diameter on the dust that has settled on the ground over time. "Cover your eyes!", Luz warns Maddie before activating the glyph with her hand.
A light orb with the perceived strength of the sun rises from the ground and floats several meters into the air. The previously completely dark room is now brightly lit.
It is very hard to imagine that this place was created for, or used by frogs or toads. There are stone pillars at regular intervals along the walls, which are probably intended to stabilize the ceiling. Between the pillars are a couple more doors, slightly smaller than the front door, all closed and sealed off. Opposite the door are three different sized chairs, all slightly raised from the floor. Luz and Maddie could easily fit on the outer two chairs. However, five Luz' could sit on the middle one at the same time. Just in front of the chairs is a stone column that, unlike the others, doesn't reach the ceiling, but is only about the same size as Luz. Above the door are several dark rectangles of various sizes. They remind Luz a bit of the monitors on her computer at home.
"I don't get it. I don't see any practical use in this room. It's far too easy to reach for a bunker. An abandoned, underground city perhaps? No, this room is too big for that with too few paths in other directions. An emergency shelter for the king? Maybe, but why are there three chairs? Were there perhaps other species in Amphibia that no longer exist today, that used this structure?"
"Maddie?", Luz interrupted Maddie's thought processes.
"Huh?"
"Let's head back up."
"Why? We've only just arrived"
"See how dusty the air is? If I stay here much longer, I'll probably develop a breathing disorder..."
"But...", Maddie begins, noticing that she was finding it harder to breathe too. "Fine. But we'll stop by again on the way back"
"Sure. We can try to leave the doors open so that we can breathe better when we come back.", Luz suggested as the two girls walked towards the elevator again.
[ Lessons ]
"Luz, can we maybe take a break? I’m getting hungry..."
"Sure. I'm getting hungry now too. Are you interested in a picnic?"
"You have food with you?"
"But of course... Such a long journey without having something to eat is torture...", Luz jokes as she leisurely glides towards the ground.
At this point, the girls have made it about two-thirds of the way to Newtopia, and they're well on schedule so far. Luz lands on an open meadow, from which it is easy to watch the sunset.
After Luz and Maddie have descended and now have solid ground under their feet again, they both take off their capes, lay them on the ground and use them as a picnic blanket.
"I don't have much with me, but it should last for a while", Luz says, offering Maddie a sandwich. She accepts it gladly and takes a bite. Her face grimaces a little.
"It doesn't taste like bread dad made...", Luz chuckles at that.
"Right. Anne baked it to distract herself from constantly checking on Hop Pop while he was still recovering."
"I can taste that..."
Not knowing why, both girls suddenly start laughing. It lasts for quite a few minutes before Luz wipes a laughing tear from her face.
"Actually, that's not funny at all...", she says.
"Absolutely not.", Maddie continues to giggle.
"We really should stop laughing"
"Yes, definitely"
Some time passes before the two of them are able to pull themselves back together.
"Maddie, can you remind me later to ask Anne what exactly was in that bread?"
"I'll try."
"Great... Um, on another subject, could you explain to me how you managed to develop the regeneration glyph?"
"I'm so glad you asked.", Maddie replies with a smirk on her face, "But before I explain, I'd like you to tell me what you call the glyphs you already know."
"Well... Light, Fire, Ice and Plants"
"I've been doing some research, trying to figure out what each individual glyph actually does. As for light, there's not much to interpret. Fire and ice, on the other hand, both have to do with energy. In the case of fire, energy is added to something, and in the case of ice, energy gets removed. Plants has to do with organic matter, not specifically just plants. And with this basic knowledge it is possible to create different combinations. For example, for the Regeneration Glyph, I combined the Matter Glyph with the Fire Glyph. Actually, I wanted to give the Fire and Ice Glyphs other names, but so far, I haven't come up with anything better those sounds good and at the same time describes their properties… Umm, where was I?"
"You wanted to-"
"Ah yes, regeneration. By emitting energy through the Fire Glyph, I was able to channel that energy into the Matter Glyph to enhance a body's natural healing abilities."
"I had actually tried to combine glyphs at home before, but it never worked..."
"Did you stack the glyphs or put them side by side?", Maddie wonders.
"Is that important?"
"Yes, it is. Imagine each glyph corresponding to a single word or letter, and your goal is to form a sentence. So, when you tried-"
"When I tried to stack glyphs on top of each other, it was like trying to pronounce multiple words at once."
"Exactly.", Maddie confirms.
"Oh my gosh... That's why I never found more glyphs. There are only four..."
"Well, maybe there's another one for non-organic matter"
"Hey, please don't ruin the moment.", Luz warns her, to which Maddie smiles. And when she sees how energetic Luz suddenly looks, she can't help but get infected.
"We need to experiment with this", Luz says with utter excitement.
"Definitely. It's good that I've prepared a little something"
Luz gasps when she sees that Maddie has pulled several different glyph combinations out of her bag.
"Maddie, you're the best. When did you have time to set everything up?", Luz asks.
"Well, when you left me the original glyphs, I experimented all night. I didn't go to sleep until you flew me home from the cave."
"Oh, I'm sorry"
"Why? I had so much fun experimenting that I forgot the time. Things like that happen..."
"Right. So, what do you have for me?"
"Let's start with this one. Here I have four lightglyphs arranged in a circle around a matter glyph. In this case, the matter represents you. Ideally, you can make yourself invisible with it."
Luz gasps in anticipation, stands up, and activates the glyph as she presses it against herself. And indeed, she becomes invisible. Well, at least as long as she can hold her breath.
"Okay, that's really cool. The fact that it only works when I hold my breath is an inconvenience, I'm willing to accept."
"Perhaps I can tweak this further so that the effect lasts even if you're breathing while staying invisible. Now, next is a combination of a fire and a water glyph. Ideally, it should produce steam."
Luz takes the glyph, activates it, and steam erupts, filling the ground around the two girls.
"Cool.", Luz marvels, " What else?"
"Let's see... This combines light, ice and fire and can cause explosions. Don't try this here, please."
Luz giggles in anticipation, but ultimately agrees.
"This is my penultimate glyph. It allows you to cause a gust of wind."
Luz takes the glyph and points it at a tree before activating it. The tree shakes vigorously once, and loses a few leaves in the process.
"Okay, that's strong. And the last one?"
"The last is a combination of Ice and Matter glyphs. It drains energy from organic objects and turns them into inorganic objects."
When Maddie explains this, Luz suddenly becomes sad.
"So, they're kind of getting petrified?", she asks.
"Exactly."
Maddie notices Luz staring at this last glyph.
"What’s wrong?", Luz simply puts the glyph away, before turning back to Maddie.
"We should move on. We should arrive in Newtopia in a few hours."
[ Losses ]
'What? Where am I?'
Nothing. Silence. She can feel her heart pounding under her skin.
'Have I been captured? Why don't I know where I am?'
'I remember trees. I ran. Through a forest. But why?'
'Okay, keep calm. And don't move. Otherwise, whoever might be here will know I'm awake...'
'What's the last thing I remember?'
'I was with Anne. And there was this other girl...'
'I don't know her name anymore'
'I remember... frogs'
'Why frogs? Why was I there?'
'Someone had spoken to me. But it wasn't a frog...'
'And then... And... then...'
'Ugh, why can't I remember?'
Suddenly she hears a slow creaking noise. Someone takes a startled breath and runs away.
'Oh no, have I given myself away? Through facial expressions maybe?'
'Shit. If I could just somehow find out if I'm here alone, I could see if I can move...'
Again, she hears a creaking noise. Only this time she can make out two people.
"There. I swear she moved.", the first voice says.
"Hmm... Thanks Percy", the second says.
'Percy? I know someone with that name'
One of the people walks away while the other comes closer. Something drags across the floor. Something metallic.
'A sword? No, that sounds too dull to-'
"Oh Sasha...", the second voice begins. It sounds… sad? The sound of metal being scraped across the floor stops, followed by a short thump, followed by a worried sigh. "I was hoping you would be awake by now. It's been three days now...Your injuries have been treated as best as possible here-"
'Injuries? What injuries?'
"- and most of it seems to heal well and quickly... What happened that could hurt you like this?"
'It's... Grime, isn't it? Yes, it's Grime'
Suddenly, Grime notices Sasha moving.
"Grimsey?"
"Sasha, you're alive", Grime says happily. Sasha smiles and tries to sit up.
"It's really nice to see-", Sasha stops abruptly, realizing that something is wrong.
"Grime...", Sasha says worried, "What is... why can't I..."
"Unfortunately, I have to tell you that one of your eyes could not be saved. You are blind in one eye. Probably forever.", Sasha doesn't know how to react to this news and just sits there, completely shocked. "The good news is we have something in common now, hehe", Grime says, trying to cheer Sasha up. She doesn't even notice.
"How- How did that happen?"
"I was hoping you could tell me... After you left Toad Tower for your mission-"
"Mission? What kind of mission?"
"You do not remember?", Sasha just shakes her head.
"That's bad. That's very bad... Umm, you were commissioned to kill a frog in a village called Wartwood. Don't you remember?", Sasha shakes her head again.
"So… you don't know if you've completed the mission, nor what hurt you badly...", Sasha keeps shaking her head and Grime sighs in concern.
"All right. Maybe your memory will come back in a few days. Until then, you will stay here and recover. In the meantime, I'll tell the kitchen that someone should bring you something to eat."
"Thank you, Grimsey."
Grime makes his way back to the door, but stops briefly before doing so.
"Oh, that reminds me of something else. While cleaning up the banquet, someone found this in the hall." He reaches into a pocket of his uniform and pulls out a key. The key is brown and has an eye-shaped button on its bow. Grime throws the key to Sasha.
"Could it belong to that other human girl?"
"I don't know. Maybe..."
"All right. I'll leave you alone then..."
Sasha inspects the key and notices that the button can be pressed. She presses it, but nothing happens.
Chapter 9: Ivora Odal
Summary:
Luz and Maddie meet Maddie's contact in Newtopia.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Luz and Maddie have been flying for most of the day, finally reaching Newtopia's outer border. It is the middle of the night, and from the skies, they could already see that there is extremely little activity in the city. The two of them landed on a small cliff just outside the city gates, its metallic surface reflecting the moonlight into the city and illuminating the immediate area beyond.
From the cliff, the two girls can clearly make out the dimensions of this huge city, well, huge by the standards of this world. The entire area around Newtopia is flooded with water, which at first glance does not seem to be too high up. The same cannot be said about the enormously high city walls that encircle Newtopia. Even from a distance, it seems disproportionately huge, at least a hundred meters tall. Unfortunately, at this distance it is not possible to identify individual buildings within the city, with the exception of those located just beyond the city gate and the castle(?) looming above it. Just outside the wall, they can make out a few ruins, but it is too dark to spot any details.
The two girls move down the cliff towards the water, and Luz checks to see exactly how deep the water is, and whether she might have to carry Maddie on her shoulders. This is not the case, and the two girls make the two-kilometer walk to the gates of the metropolis.
When they arrive at the open gates, Luz in particular is astonished.
"Whoa... These gates are as tall as Hexside as a whole...", she marvels. Maddie, who stopped just a few meters ahead of Luz, turns around.
"Come on, Luz. We've got to keep moving. We both need enough sleep, in case we want to go check out the library later..."
"Coming..."
They stroll for a while through the alleys and streets of the city. While Luz admires all the strange buildings they walk past, not knowing exactly where they're going, Maddie seems to know the exact way, and she has to remind Luz every now and then not to fall too far behind to admire the architecture.
Newtopia is huge. While Luz is familiar with big cities on Earth as well, this one is different. While everything on Earth is gray and made of concrete and asphalt, here no two houses are alike. Each building is made of a different colored rock or other material. They are all decorated differently from each other, with different designs, mostly based on coral and mushroom optics.
Maddie suddenly stops in front of a multi-story building. On the lowest floor, a few lights are visible through the glass in the door. Maddie knocks.
"Here? How can you be so sure this is the right place?", Luz wonders.
"I announced us by letter. Should have arrived a few hours ago. Besides, I have a map of the city at home that I've memorized."
"And who-", Luz is cut off when suddenly the door opens. Standing before them is a slender figure, about Luz's height.
"Hi Iva.", Maddie greets the figure.
"Oh... Hey Maddie. I didn't think you would actually arrive today already... "
"Yeah... Turns out flying speeds things up quite a bit...", Maddie jokingly says.
Maddie and Iva giggle before Maddie continues.
"Oh, by the way, this is Luz. Luz, this is Ivora"
"You can call me Iva", she says with a friendly smile.
"I suppose you two want to go straight to sleep, don't you?", Iva asks, wo which both Maddie and Luz nod.
"Okay. I'll show you your room then."
While all of them are now entering the house, Luz can now get a better look at Maddie's acquaintance. Luz originally thought she was just a newt, like the guards she saw earlier, stationed outside the city gates, but that's not quite true. She appears to be part newt, as well as part axolotl.
Iva's general body shape is quite slender, but her head is rounder, and her tail shorter than that of other newts. The gills, which are usually on the side of the axolotl's head, are usually not very long. In Iva's case, they actually extend past her shoulders, and appear to Luz as if she is wearing them like hair, as her head otherwise appears quite devoid of regular hair. Her skin is largely light blue, while her gills appear only minimally lighter. But that could just be due to the light.
Iva, currently wearing nothing more than a plain white bathrobe, walks ahead and leads Luz and Maddie through a living room, past a small kitchen, and to a door next to a staircase going up.
Luz's eyes begin to water as Iva opens the door and sees the room, which looks exactly like Amity's hideout in the Bonesborough library. All the walls and the ceiling are covered with brown wood, the floor is made of cyan parquet and the room is filled with bookshelves. At the end of the room, there is a desk with a chair in front of it. A few shroomlights are hanging from the ceiling, and on the floor is a round gray carpet with two mattresses on it. There are also a few large pillows in one corner of the room.
"You know, I'd really like to cry right now if I wasn't so tired...", Luz mutters.
"How comes?", Maddie asks curiously.
"I had a friend back in the Isles, and she had a room that looks exactly like this"
"We will find a way, Luz…"
"I hope so, Maddie…", Luz says, before Iva speaks up again.
"Um... I'll let you both rest. See you tomorrow", Iva waves goodbye and heads up the stairs.
Maddie and Luz fall onto the provided mattresses almost simultaneously. Maddie turns to face Luz.
"I know you miss the Boiling Isles, and we will definitely find a way for you to get back there. And even if it doesn't work, you could at least try to get back to Earth with Anne. And if that doesn't work either, you can start a new life here, and we both could be the most powerful witches in Amphibia. Well, you at least. But I'll help.", Luz chuckles at that.
"Thanks Maddie… you know, for trying to cheer me up, but I don't think it'll work. But maybe I'll feel better tomorrow"
"It was worth a try. Good night, Luz"
"By the way: you have to tell me tomorrow how you and Iva met"
Maddie doesn't answer that. Luz turns onto her side, noticing that Owlbert has detached himself from his staff, and is standing right next to Luz's head. He snuggles up to Luz and they both quickly fall asleep.
The next morning came surprisingly quickly, and Maddie is the first one to wake up. Since the room in which the two girls (and Owlbert) were placed has no windows, it is not possible to tell what time it is now.
Maddie sees that Luz is still asleep, and moves quietly towards the door. She notices Owlbert looking at her and waves him over. As soon as he lands on her shoulder, and she closes the door behind her. She hears noises roughly from the direction where the front door is. On the way there, Maddie looks into the kitchen. It's not really a room, but more just a side area, that is separated from the rest of the apartment by an open archway rather than a door. The kitchen is not particularly furnished. There are some cupboards, a stove, an oven and a larger worktop. As in the rest of the apartment, the floor is made of cyan parquet.
Maddie walks past the kitchen and into the living room. Iva is sitting there on a red couch, with a cup of tea in her hand, and a book in front of her on a wooden, dark brown coffee table. It's ironic, because Iva doesn't have any coffee in her apartment.
The living room is almost three times the size of the kitchen, although not too big. In the middle of the room lies a huge, colorful carpet on which are standing two couches, an armchair, and the coffee table. Behind the couch that Iva is sitting on, is a bookshelf that goes from floor to ceiling, along the entire wall. And the whole bookshelf is full of books. Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify what kind of books these are. There is a fireplace on the opposite side of the room, but there is currently no fire burning in it.
"Good morning. Tea?"
"That would be nice"
"Here you go. And who is this?", Iva asks, pointing to Maddie's shoulder.
"This is Owlbert. Luz's...pet...", Owlbert rolls his eyes as Maddie sits down.
"How did you sleep?", Iva asks kindly
"Like a baby", Maddie replies with a chuckle.
"Glad to hear. How was your journey? You said you two flew here..."
Maddie ponders for a moment, not sure if Luz would be okay with divulging that she has a flying staff. "We were travelling for almost a whole day, but we also took a few breaks here and there"
"And what did you fly here with? Did you have access to a Sparrow?", Iva asks with sparkles in her eyes.
"No. It's more of a human thing. I think... you'd have to ask Luz.", Maddie replies, to which Iva is visibly disappointed.
"So, Luz is a human too?"
"Too?", Maddie asks in surprise.
"Well, a human was made Newtopia's new Chief Ranger a while ago.", Iva tells her. Maddie raises at least one eyebrow.
"Do you think, you could maybe arrange a meeting?"
"Unfortunately, I have no contact to that human, or the palace. I'm sorry."
"Not? I thought you worked at the Royal Library..."
"Not anymore. I resigned earlier this year in order to be able to study at the university."
"Great..." Maddie says sarcastically. "To be honest I was hoping you help us get access to the Royal Library."
"I'm sorry Maddie"
"No problem. We'll find a way in. ... ...just out of curiosity, what are you studying at the university?"
"The history of Amphibia", Iva replies proudly. Maddie snorts through her nose.
"Of course. With your gigantic private library, I should have guessed that.", Maddie laughs and Iva blushes slightly.
Suddenly, Maddie hears a door opening from the left. It's Luz, who steps out of the room where they were housed, seemingly still asleep. Maddie and Iva greet her, and Owlbert flies over for a hug.
"Aww, good morning, buddy. Did you sleep well?", she asks, to which he nods, and cuddles up to Luz.
"Is he always like this?", Maddie wonders.
"He's never said no to cuddling before. But I think he misses Eda."
"Who was- Oh wait, I remember. Your mentor", she remembers.
"Yup... Anyway... Iva, thank you so much for letting us sleep here."
"That's absolutely no problem.", Iva assures Luz, "Maddie and her friends are always welcome"
"I asked Maddie a question last night, but it was too late by then. So now I'm going to ask you now: how did you two met?"
"Uh, this story is almost funny", Iva starts to tell.
"Almost funny?", Luz asks doubtfully.
"Yeah, hear me out..."
It was about three years ago. I was on a research trip in southern Amphibia with my parents...
"Hey mom?"
"Yes darling?"
"We've been down here for months now, and I know you're dying to open that door to see what's behind it, but it would be really great if we could go back to the surface and maybe travel further..."
"Oh darling, it's only been a few weeks, not months. Besides, behind that door might be the greatest archaeological wonders, the greatest find of the last thousand years."
"Yeah, I know. You've been saying that for a long time. And at first, I was just as excited as you are, but I don't think we're going to get very far with this kind of equipment."
"Kate, I think our daughter is right. We can't get any further here without better equipment."
"It seems I've just been outvoted... Alright. Ivora, you go back towards the exit, and prepare Bruno for the journey. Your father and I will gather the equipment and follow you in a moment."
"Okay... See you soon"
As I made my way towards the exit, I heard a heavy door slam shut behind me, that we had been able to open a few days earlier. I ran back, quite scared...
"Mom? Dad? Are you okay?"
"..."
"Can you hear me?"
"..."
"Please tell me you're alright"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Mom? ... Dad? ..."
"..."
"... Please don't leave me..."
"..."
Unfortunately, I can't say how long I sat and cried in front of the closed door. But at some point, the door opened again. My parents were lying unconscious on the floor, and there was a horrible smell coming from the room, but I was happy to see that they were still alive. I had pulled them both out of the tunnels back to our beetle, and made my way to seek help.
When they woke up in the meantime, I had the impression that both of them were no longer able to… think. They couldn't speak anymore and their eyes were totally unfocused. It's been a few days and I've stopped at several villages before eventually arriving in Wartwood. When I arrived, I ran immediately into Maddie.
"Hello stranger. Do you need anything?"
"I need help. Something happened to my parents"
"Maybe I can help. Follow me"
"Where are we going?"
"To my house. There we can find out what's going on"
[A few minutes later]
"So... who are you and what happened?"
"My name is Iva and I was on a research trip with my parents. We were in a huge underground facility, that is several hundred to thousands of years old. We were down there for several weeks and before we wanted to move on, the facility trapped my parents and did something to them."
"Were there any signs that the facility was active?"
"No"
"Did you spot any traps?"
"Also no."
"Any chance someone else was down there?"
"No. The entrance to it was sealed when we arrived. We were also able to explore the entire facility, with the exception of one last door."
"Hmm... Were you able to find out what the purpose of the facility was?"
"My father thinks it was some kind of underground city. My mother thinks it was a military base. I am not sure myself. I mean, there were many places to sleep and live, places to gather, places to exercise... However, we hadn't found anything that indicated food and water production..."
"So... hidden facility, perhaps military use. You were alone and there were no other signs of activity. Nothing indicated traps, but your parents seemed to have lost their higher brain functions. Hmm... When you found them, did the room smell any different than before?"
"Oh yes, definitely. It smelled absolutely disgusting."
"Did you have an unpleasant tingling in your nose?"
"How do you know?"
"Many curses that rely on low levels of magic are based on different gases. Usually, curses are cast by one person and could only be removed by the same person..."
"Oh..."
"But fortunately, this curse was cast by the facility and can therefore be lifted by anyone who knows how it works."
"Aaand you know how it works?"
"As a matter of fact, I dooo... not know. Yet"
"That was weird. Umm... What do you mean 'yet'?"
"In order to create an antidote, I need to know exactly how the curse works. We need to travel to the facility and dissect the place where your parents were cursed. I need to know exactly how they were cursed."
"Ugh... I was hoping not to have to go back there, but ok"
Not long later we drove back to the place where my parents were cursed. We had pickaxes, explosive potions, boomshrooms, and gas masks with us to avoid being cursed in the facility. And so that we wouldn't be locked in, we had kept all the gates and doors open with supports.
"This is where your parents were cursed?"
"Mmm."
"Interesting. No open areas in the walls, nothing in the ceiling and nothing in the floor. However, there are cracks in the walls here... Maybe that wasn't a curse at all, but an accident... Hey Iva!"
"Yes?"
"Can you open this wall here with the pickaxe? Right at this crack here"
"Pipes?"
"Maybe that could be the water supply. We couldn't find it last time."
"I remember you had told me about it"
"We'd better not touch the pipes until we know exactly what's in them, and where they lead to. Besides, my parents will kill me anyway if they find out that we've damaged this facility."
"Bullshit. They'll be glad you saved them"
"I'm not so sure about that..."
"We need to move on. The pipes all lead into this room and you haven't gotten in there yet, do I understand that correctly?"
"Yes, that's right. The door isn't made of stone like the rest of the base. It appears to be made of iron or steel..."
"Hmm... Soo no pickaxe... Unfortunately, I don't have any potions to melt steel... Boomshrooms maybe?"
"I guess we don't have a choice. But let's not blow it all up"
When we burst open the door, there was an awful lot of stuff inside that I had never seen before. It was pretty advanced technology. What interested me the most, however, was a glass container that held a green liquid, and the pipes we uncovered leading into it.
"Well, I definitely have no idea what anything in here can do. Look, there's an outlet on the tank. We'll take a sample with us."
"All right. And then?"
"Well, I don't think we're going to find anything else in here that can help in any way. So, I would suggest we go back and hope this liquid can help your parents."
"My parents would love it in here... ...but let's head back to Wartwood"
Ultimately, this liquid helped my parents, although we could not find out exactly what happened to them, and how this liquid helped them. When I told them how Maddie and I had helped them, they wanted to go straight back to the facility, but I talked them out of it.
"That's... um...", Luz stutters, as she tries to break the silence.
"I think we ended up doing three weeks of research. Unfortunately, I wasn't even able to cast level 1 spells at the time, so we had to do a lot of guessing", Maddie explains.
"But she made it through in the end and I owe her a lot for that", Iva says.
"Impressive", Luz remarks, "And where was that 'almost funny' part?"
"Um... Well... I'm not good at telling stories.", Iva tries to justify herself, which Luz doesn't question any further.
"Just out of curiosity, where are your parents now?"
"Umm... They are both working. My father teaches at the university and my mother works at the museum."
"Newtopia has museums?", Luz asks with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Just one. It doesn't really specialize in anything, but-"
"Maddie, we have to go there", Luz beams.
"To the museum? Why? I don't think there's anything that can help us with our research there..."
"I know, but I haven't been to one of them in ages. I love museums. Back on Earth, I've always gone there or to a library when I was upset or feeling down in general. Libraries and museums have a pretty calming effect...", Luz states, with a touch of nostalgia in her voice, "...and I have hope that it will help against my homesickness."
"I assume you are looking for a way to travel between Amphibia and Earth?", Iva asks.
"Well... yes and no. Even though I'm originally from Earth, I'm not sure I want to go back there. Before I came to Amphibia, I was on the- Um... I was somewhere else. But Anne and her friends do want to go back to Earth though, and maybe we can find some useful information about that."
"Anne?", Iva asks.
"Another human stuck here. Including Luz, there are four", Maddie responds.
"Interesting. How can I help?", Iva asks.
"Hmm...", Maddie hums and thinks for a moment. "Do you think you could get us access to the University Library?"
"University? OH FROGGERS! I'm late, my class is about to start.", Iva yells, jumping up off the couch, grabbing the bag that was lying on the floor next to her, and running towards the door. Luz and Maddie look after her with questioning expressions.
"I'll get you access to the university library, but that won't happen today. See you later", Iva quickly says before closing the door behind her and running off, leaving Luz and Maddie alone in Iva's apartment. Luz, who is a bit perplexed, looks at the closed front door a little longer before finally turning her attention back to Maddie again. She looks at Maddie with a confused look
"Wait a minute... University Library? I thought we were going to do research in the Royal Library... Or are they the same thing?"
"No, the royal library is in the palace.", Maddie explains.
"And why did you ask for the university library?"
"Well, I actually thought that Iva could get us in there, because she wrote to me that she would work there. Unfortunately, she told me earlier today, that that's not the case anymore."
"Then we'll probably have to sneak in there", Luz suggests with a smirk on her face.
"I had thought of that too. But first we should take a look at the university library."
"Ugh, fine…", Luz says, pretending to be annoyed. "But we have to go to the museum before that."
"All right. Today we're going to check out Newtopia, and as soon as Iva gets us access to the library tomorrow, we'll start researching."
"Deal. Let’s go then", Luz beams before jumping off the couch, and running to the front door, but stopping abruptly and turning back to Maddie, "I don't even know where the museum is... You wouldn't happen to have a map with you, would you? Or do you happen to remember, where it is located?"
Maddie just shrugs, gets up, and walks back into the room where they spent the night before. She comes back with her bag, and sits back down on the couch. After digging for something in her bag, she pulls out a folded paper, and places it on the coffee table. Luz sits down next to her. After Maddie unfolded the paper, a map of Newtopia revealed itself. However, it is not clear how up-to-date this map is. Nevertheless, it was possible for both of them to recognize fairly quickly, where they are at the moment, but also where the museum is located.
Immediately after the two of them set their destination for the day and got ready, they leave Iva's house.
"I hope we'll find Iva's house again later. And I hope we can get into the house if she isn't back yet...", Luz worries.
"Let's only worry about it if it really happens. I also have the map with me...", Maddie reassures Luz.
"Okay... I'll try not to worry about that…", Luz says, actually quite appreciative of Maddie's advice. In fact, not only this time, but all the time, Maddie was quite attentive when Luz wasn't feeling well. She always managed, or at least tried, to cheer her up. Luz wonders if there's a way, she can show Maddie how much she appreciates what she's already done for her. She plans to at least talk to her about it sometime.
The two girls wandered around the colorful, bustling streets of the city for a long while. At a rather high spot, however, they decided to take a break, and sat down on a bench overlooking the city. They watch all the newts, axolotls, and other creatures going about their daily lives. On the other side of the bench is an unfenced ledge that descends very steeply almost vertically. This is one of the reasons why the girls chose this bench in particular. While Luz continues to watch the people, Maddie looks around elsewhere, until suddenly something very interesting catches her eye. She taps Luz on the shoulder.
"I think I found Marcy..."
Notes:
Who would have thought that creating an original character would take two and a half weeks. And what a cliffhanger, right?
What do you think will happen next? Are they actually going to meet Marcy? Are they really going to the museum? Will Luz make herself a sandwich?
These and other exciting questions may be answered next time.
Chapter 10: Gotcha
Summary:
Luz' and Maddie's first day actually doing some research. What could go wrong?
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"I still can't believe how many statues of Marcy have been put up here in Newtopia...", Luz says incredulously, "I mean, sure, there are people everywhere who have done great things, and should perhaps be honored with a statue... But four of them? Seriously???"
"Four that we know of...", Maddie adds.
"Thank you, Maddie...", Luz grits her teeth, "Oh, by the way, did you hear Iva come home yesterday? I'd love to know if she was successful in getting us access to the university library..."
"Nah, as far as I know, she didn't come home yesterday. But even if we don't have the official permission, we could check out Iva's private library first... What do you think?"
"I like the way you think.", Luz compliments her.
Luz and Maddie are back at Iva's house making breakfast after coming home exhausted from their trip around town yesterday. Maddie pours herself grilled flies in an empty bowl, while Luz makes herself an unexciting sandwich.
Yesterday was an overall great day for both of them. They explored the city, popped into a few stores but didn't spend any money in them, and ended up going to the museum, which Luz was completely in awe with. In the end, they both just fell onto their respective mattresses and fell asleep immediately.
Suddenly Iva enters the apartment. Well, entering might be an understatement: she kicks the door open and falls face first to the ground. Luz, who is standing between the kitchen and the living room, watches this and tries really hard to suppress a loud laugh. Maddie comes in, not quite understanding what Luz finds funny about it. Maddie walks over to Iva.
"Long night?"
"Mmm...", Iva hums into the floor.
"We were wondering when you would be coming home. Have you had any success with the library?"
Instead of answering, Iva pulls out two small, but thick pieces of paper. At the top it says 'University of Newtopia' in bold letters and immediately below it says 'Library - Guest Access'.
"Thank you, Iva. Luz, we can start right away-", Maddie calls in the direction of the kitchen.
"No!", Iva interrupts Maddie, who has just rolled onto her back, "you can't go there today."
"Why not?", Maddie asks.
"The university is closed today, that's why I'm coming home just now. I worked through the night to be able to enjoy the day today.", Iva explains. Luz sticks her head out of the kitchen after grinning away her fit of laughter.
"Is there anything special today?", she asks.
"Oh right, you can’t know that…", Iva begins to explain, "Today is King Andrias' birthday, and there is a huge celebration and parades all throughout in the city. It's one of the few days where he's mingling himself with us normal people."
Luz peeks out from the kitchen and frowns upon hearing this, thinking 'Hopefully not another one...'
"This Andrias guy... What's he like?", she asks.
"I ran into him a few times when I was still working at the Royal Library. He always made quite a relaxed and friendly impression on me, even though we had never talked before. He spends most of his time in his palace and only comes to town very rarely, usually only for special events. Like today, for example...", Iva explains sounding excited. A rather nasty grin just emerges on Luz' face. She leans over to Maddie.
"I know exactly what we're going to do today..."
Iva looks back and forth between the two girls in turn.
"I think... I don't want to know what you guys are planning. I'm going to hit the hay though, and should you not plan on breaking into the palace later, I can highly recommend checking out the parade. I'll go watch the evening parade later...", Iva keeps talking, while she is already climbing the stairs to the upper floor and at some point, she can no longer be heard. Luz turns back to Maddie.
"Uhuhu, this opportunity is perfect. We sneak into the palace while no one is there, find the Royal Library, and can spend the whole day there undisturbed before everyone comes back and realizes we shouldn't be there. Easy."
"You've broken into somewhere before, haven't you?", Maddie wonders, to which Luz replies with extra excitement.
"Yes. Into a prison. Twice."
"You broke into a prison??? Well, never mind. We should probably make some invisibility glyphs, just in case-", Maddie cuts herself off as Luz is waving several sheets of paper in front of her, "I see you're prepared for anything... How long have you been planning-"
"-breaking into the palace? Ever since I knew there was something in the palace that I wanted. Why do you ask?", Luz asks, to which Maddie merely shakes her head dismissively.
"I'd also like to suggest for once that we fly up instead of walking. Not only are we faster that way, I'd hate to have to walk so much for two days in a row...", Maddie groans, "These roads aren't very pleasant in the long run."
"Have you ever thought about getting shoes?", Luz asks curiously.
"Back home in Wartwood, shoes are more of a hindrance than a help. The ground is pretty soft there, but here... Maybe. But I don't think I have enough coppers on me for that...", Maddie digs around in her bag a bit while Luz calls Owlbert over, who also has her backpack with her. Luz emptied out all of its contents on the living room table to make room for books she might want to 'borrow' later.
"I didn't say anything about buying-", Luz says with a wink before mumbling to herself, "… Oh- my god, Eda really had a terrible influence on me..."
Immediately outside the front door, quite a few people can be heard cheering and shouting in a muffled manner. And just as Luz and Maddie are leaving Iva's house, they are met by the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of city residents gathered all along the street. Luz recognizes several talented acrobats passing by, followed by several floats designed in various themes, representing the life of King Andrias and all the good deeds he has done for the people of Amphibia. The floats are pulled by four beetles each, and on top of the floats are newts throwing stuff into the cheering crowd.
Since Maddie is not tall enough to see over the heads of all the celebrants like Luz can, Luz offers to let her jump on her shoulders if she wants to watch the parade. She hesitates at first, but eventually accepts Luz's offer, just in time for the float with King Andrias himself to come into view.
"Uh, uh. I can see King Andrias over there.", Maddie observes.
"What, where?", Luz asks.
"All the way in the back. You should be able to see him in a minute. He's sitting on one of the floats waving to people.", Maddie explains pointed in his direction.
"Oh yeah, you're right. Whoa... he's huge... Do you know how tall he is?", Luz asks the frog standing on her shoulders.
"Seven to nine meters, depending on which source you look it up in...", Maddie guesses.
"I'm... I would say that I would be impressed... But I don't think that word is really appropriate.", Luz says with a hint of discomfort in her voice as his float approaches.
King Andrias' float, like the others before him, is being pulled by giant beetles. He sits there on a replica of his throne, ornamented with golden corals, waving and greeting the people he passes until he is about to pass Luz and Maddie. For an uncomfortably long time, his gaze is fixed firmly on Luz. When the float has passed, and eye contact is broken, he waves to the crowd again, smiling. Visibly uncomfortable, Luz turns to Maddie.
"We should go. Now."
Maddie jumps off Luz's shoulders and they both head down a secluded alleyway, away from the parade.
"Is something wrong?", Maddie asks curiously.
"That Andrias guy. Did you see the way he was looking at me?"
"I saw THAT he was looking at you, but unfortunately not HOW...", Maddie says sarcastically, at which point Luz gives her a frustrated look. "I'm sorry"
"The way he looked at me gave me a feeling I've had before, when I first met Belos. Unlike him, Andrias may seem nice, but my intuition tells me that I shouldn't trust him.", Maddie is unsure how to react appropriately to this.
"Well, how lucky that we want to break into his palace now...", Luz can't help but giggle as she mounts her staff with Maddie behind her.
"Say, Maddie... How long can you hold your breath?", Luz asks as she pulls out an invisibility glyph.
"Long enough.", she answers confidently and Luz uses the glyph on herself, turning herself, Maddie, and her staff invisible. With a powerful push, Luz pushes herself off the ground, and quickly flies up into the air towards the palace, as fast as possible, avoiding having to remain invisible and hold her breath any longer than necessary. The two girls stop near a window and take a deep breath, breaking the invisibility. Luz flies closer to the window to see what's behind it. Oddly enough, there is a single, small room, without any other windows or doors. The window next to it leads into an identical room. The next few windows lead to various corridors and larger rooms, but there is no trace of the Royal Library.
Luz and Maddie fly around the palace several times after discovering several quite interesting locations, but not what they are actually looking for: several bedrooms, a kitchen, a tall room that appears to be the throne room and so on…
"Luz, we've been flying around the palace for twenty minutes now. I think we should have thought this through better...", Maddie remarks, a little frustrated, and thinking that maybe the whole thing was a mistake after all.
"Hmm... maybe. But since the palace is mostly empty, I'd like to try something. Hold your breath!" Luz orders, bursting with self-confidence.
Luz flies in front of the open window, activates an invisibility glyph and shoots through an empty hallway at high speed, coming out of another window on the opposite side. With the same speed, Luz flies in a circle and flies again through the middle of the palace on the next floor.
After a few more attempts, Luz suddenly stops in mid-air in the middle of the palace, and they both become visible again.
"This looks like a library, doesn't it?", Luz comments, while Maddie falls off the staff. "MADDIE!".
After a brief moment of shock, Maddie gets back up, but still has visible difficulties in keeping on her feet. Luz dismounts from her staff and helps Maddie stand up.
"Oh Maddie, I'm so, so sorry-", Luz apologizes, who is cut short by Maddie who is still trying to regain her balance.
"Apparently it's not good for me to fly for so long and so fast, especially without breathing. I… I just need a minute...", Maddie assures Luz.
While Maddie is still kneeling on the floor waiting for the corridor to stop spinning, Luz checks to see if the library doors are somehow locked. To Luz's surprise, they aren't, which she finds weird, considering that the whole palace looks abandoned.
Luz opens one of the double doors. Her eyes widen and she marvels at the gigantic variety of books. A large room, with some free-standing, meter-high bookshelves, so high that they cover two floors. There are also slightly smaller bookshelves on the walls, on both floors, and there are also a few secluded reading nooks scattered around.
As Luz wanders the room in awe, Maddie feels better in that she no longer has to worry about losing her balance trying to stand up. She follows Luz into the library and quietly closes the door behind her. A small adjoining room appeared next to the now closed door.
"Hey Luz, come over here. I found something here that might interest you..."
"Uh, what is it?"
"Read for yourself!"
"'Marcy Wu's Recommendations'? How nice that- ... No way!", Luz gasps heavily, "THE GOOD WITCH AZURA EXISTS HERE TOO???"
"Pssst!", Maddie warns her.
"Oops, sorry. I just can't believe it. This series is originally from Earth, but I found it on the Boiling Isles as well."
"Maybe that's an interdimensional constant...", Maddie suspects.
"A what?"
"An interdimensional constant. Or interplanetary constant, depending on how you like to think of it. These are objects, or even people, versions of which can exist on multiple worlds at the same time. Like your book series, for example. However, since it is extremely difficult to find evidence for such things, so far it was only a theory until-", Maddie explains, just before stopping herself, "Luz? You weren't listening to me, were you?"
Luz grins at Maddie in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry. I was listening until 'Interplanetary Constant', but then I saw that Marcy has 'Cynthia Coven' here as well. I can't stand the author, but-"
"Ugh... Luz! Focus!", Maddie orders her with an annoyed look.
"Right right, I’m focusing. We're looking for something on interdimensional travel... I'll go upstairs and see what I can find there."
After a few hours of searching, the two girls sat down in one of the reading nooks downstairs, along with stacks of books they'd picked up from everywhere. Luckily, the shelves were organized by theme as well as alphabetically. That made the whole search a little easier, which nonetheless took two hours.
Scattered around Luz and Maddie are various books on history, astronomy, geology, physics, a short series of novels about lovers from different worlds, and also two children's books. Maddie and Luz are each sitting on a beanbag, each with an open book on their laps, and a snack that the two have passed back and forth. Neither of them shows interest in talking, and there is a comfortable silence in the room. Only a few distant sounds of the celebration on the streets of Newtopia can be heard.
A couple more hours pass before Luz breaks the comfortable silence. She closes the book that is still on her lap and sighs.
"There's nothing about interdimensional travel in the sixth book either. How about you, Maddie? Found anything?"
"Nothing yet either. This is about astronomy, but whoever wrote this didn't even consider the possibility that there might be life on other planets", Maddie says, to which Luz snorts.
"To be honest, I'd be surprised if we actually found anything useful here... But regardless, I'm having a great time", Luz admits with a smile.
"Really? How comes?", Maddie asks curiously.
"Well, I'm in a library in a huge palace, and I have the opportunity to spend time here with an amazing friend. And you smuggled in snacks", Luz smiles happily, "I would even go so far as to say that is the best day since I arrived in Amphibia"
"Thank you, Luz. It means a lot to me to hear that"
"I really enjoy your company", Luz says, who is about to get up, "But for now, I'm leaving you and sort back some of the books we've already finished"
"You will do no such thing!", a previously unfamiliar voice orders her, at which Luz shrieks for a second, before she realizes that someone is standing in front of her. A female aquamarine newt with blue hair. She wears a dress that consists of a scale pattern in the upper half, the color of which fades smoothly from yellow to purple, and has a wave pattern in different shades of white in the lower half. Two guards are standing next to her.
After noticing and eyeing Luz, her expression changes from annoyance to surprise.
"Another Human? Interesting…", the newt says, "Normally you would be sent to the dungeons for trespassing in the Royal Library- However, by order of Master Marcy Wu, all humans and their companions are to be taken to her.", Luz's eyes widen as she hears Marcy's name. "However, since Master Marcy is not present at the moment, the two of you will spend the time until then, in one of the guest quarters. Follow me."
Maddie slowly stands up and she and Luz exchange different looks.
"That was not a request!", the newt says in a determined tone. Without saying anything, they both make their way to the newt, with the guards behind them.
"Who are you?", Luz asks.
"My name is Lady Olivia, and I am responsible for everything that happens in and around the palace. Your names are of no interest at this time.", she explains.
"Oh, okay. You just said that Marcy isn't here at the moment-", Luz repeats, but is interrupted by Lady Olivia.
"That's correct. She is currently on an important mission to protect the city and its residents"
"Yeah, I see... We couldn't miss all the statues of her in the city... One question: when is she expected back?", Luz asks.
"She is expected back in up to seven days. However, past experience has shown her ability to complete her quests early. She may even return tomorrow. As a friend of Master Marcy, you may have a better idea of her abilities ...", Luz doesn’t reply to that statement and lets her mind merely spin in confusion.
"How did you actually know we were here? I thought everyone here was at the party in town...", Luz wonders.
"Even on an occasion like this, the palace always requires a minimum of staff. Also, all the paintings in the palace hung askew, except for those in front of the Royal Library. I can't explain how you did that, and I don't want to know at the moment either. I actually have more important things to do than taking care of you."
The group walks through the palace for quite a while, before stopping in front of an inconspicuous door, and Lady Olivia turns to Luz and Maddie.
"You will remain in this room for the next few days until Master Marcy returns, and a decision is made on how to deal with this situation. You are not allowed to leave this room. You will be provided with food and drinks on a regular basis. These guards here will be your contacts. If you have any questions, comments, or requests, talk to them. Do you have any questions for me for now?"
Luz and Maddie shake their heads and Lady Olivia opens the door and shoos both girls into the room, before shutting and locking the door behind them.
"Perfect. Have a pleasant stay"
"Okay, that was weird.", Maddie notes after a few seconds of silence.
"Definitely. Say, remember earlier when you told me to better think things through? The painting thing was pretty obvious in retrospect..."
"I was actually thinking more about what she said about Marcy. I don't think she knows that you don't know her at all."
"That's right. She probably doesn't even know that there are four humans in Amphibia... Does this knowledge help us in any way?", Luz wonders.
"I don't think so.", Maddie answers.
"Hmm...What are we going to do in the meantime, while we're waiting here for Marcy? I mean, obviously we can't go to the library anymore..."
"We could experiment with glyphs. If for some reason we need to go invisible again, it would be nice not to have to hold our breath to do so...", Maddie suggests while Luz can't help but giggle at that.
"Alright. What about Iva? Should we tell her we won't be back for a few days?"
"Hmm... I don't want other people to know about her... Maybe tomorrow you can sneak out and fly to her to let her know"
"I like that plan."
Later at night, in a gloomy place:
"My Lord, I have news to report. One of Marcy's friends is already here in Newtopia. I saw her at the festivities today-"
No!
"What do you mean 'No', my lord?"
Heart and Strength have not arrived yet.
"With all due respect, my lord, I saw a human girl earlier today..."
Unknown variable. Negligible. No adjustment of plans necessary.
"I understand."
Notes:
I know, I know. The cliffhanger at the end of chapter 9 was pretty stupid. Marcy will appear in the next chapter, I promise.
So, 10 chapters are finished. I still can't believe I only started writing a little over a month ago and have already finished ten chapters. More than 30000 words... Almost 1000 views... More than 30 kudos and several comments...
Thank you for accompanying me through this story so far and I really hope, you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.
Chapter 11: Marcy Wu
Summary:
Isn't the name of the chapter summary enough?
No? Bruh...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It's been a few days since Maddie and Luz were locked in- umm... since they were received as guests and settled in. Their room is quite large, with a fairly large bed covered with a number of different colored pillows of various sizes, a few closets and dressers, a desk, and a separate bathroom. In Maddie's opinion, the food they are provided with is absolutely delicious and better than anything she has ever tasted before. Luz is still a little put off by all the insect pieces within the food, but from what she's tasted on the Boiling Isles, the food here is in the top 5 if Earth food doesn’t count.
Aside from a guard who regularly brought food and drinks, both girls were undisturbed for most of the time. Once in-between, Lady Olivia came by to apologize for her rude behavior towards both of them. She was apparently under enormous stress that day. Luz had taken the chance to ask her if they could get some books from the library, but Luz could already guess the answer even as she asked the question.
One night, Luz had snuck out to tell Iva that she and Maddie were being caught and being held at the palace. After a lecture along the lines of 'I told you so', she offered Luz her help. But since no one had been in trouble so far, Luz had politely declined the offer, but had been given a few books by Iva against boredom, before flying back to the palace.
Since the short trip, both girls have stayed in their room, and have used the time to continue working on glyphs. There were certainly new findings, but nothing really useful.
Maddie was complaining about the invisibility glyph requiring her to hold her breath for it to work. After some experimentation, they were able to solve the air problem, but now they have to keep their eyes closed to do so. Whether this is really an improvement is questionable.
Luz, on the other hand, is trying something that is much more challenging for her: illusions. While she knows that what she envisions in her mind can affect the outcome of glyph magic, such as plant- er... glyphs for organic matter, unfortunately there is no glyph for Illusions. The light glyph comes closest, but redirecting, or shaping light to represent complex structures without any physical matter, is incredibly difficult. When she gets back to the Boiling Isles, she definitely needs to talk to Gus about how elaborate illusions actually are...
Meanwhile, a few kilometers outside of Newtopia, and a couple hundred meters above the surface...
"Ugh, I don't like that at all, Joe... The Barbari-Ants aren't in their nest anymore. But at least it's a good thing they didn't find our camp, huh? Those pheromones really work wonders. Soooo... Where are my research notes?"
Knowing full well that Joe Sparrow won't be able to answer her, Marcy rummages through the tent that has been hastily thrown onto Joe's back.
"So, let's go through the whole thing again... In their basic structure, Barbari-Ants are quite comparable to ants seen on Earth: One queen, several thousand to millions of worker ants working in a state. What seems to be different here is the distribution of tasks. You know, Joe, back on Earth all the ants live for their respective colony. Some ants take care of defending the colony, some take care of larvae rearing, some take care of food gathering and so on. Never the whole colony, always just a part of it. But here the entire colony is gone, even the queen. Hmm... On Earth, the only reasons ants leave the safety of the colony are either to search for food, or to go and fight against another colony. But there aren't any other colonies around... ... And I haven't seen them go in search of food either... … Oh no... Joe, hurry to Newtopia! Quick!"
Joe Sparrow picks up speed in a flash and within a minute, he and Marcy are already back in Newtopia. Joe lands on the outermost wall of the city and Marcy jumps off his back, observing the water surrounding the city. In the distance she notices some vibrations in the water and a few holes forming in the sand.
One of the guards patrolling the wall approaches Marcy and sees the worried look on her face.
"Master Marcy?", he reports.
"Trigger the alarm! Bring in everyone who is outside and near the city in, and close all the gates!" Marcy orders.
"And the traveling merchants we're expecting?", he asks.
Marcy thinks for a moment and says with a cold undertone "I hope they know how dangerous Barbari-Ants are and turn around in time if they see any"
"Barbari-Ants?", the guard asks worriedly, whereupon Marcy just nods. The guard salutes and runs toward the main gate. Shortly thereafter, an alarm goes off all over the outermost wall, and Marcy watches people outside the city gates, running quickly back to safety. Shortly thereafter, several dull noises can be heard. A few Barbari-Ants tried to rush through the gate before it was completely closed. Luckily none of them made it into town, and they merely ran into the closed gate before retreating into the ground.
Relieved, Marcy turns to Joe Sparrow.
"That was really close... Thank you Joe. You're just the best", she says proudly. Joe lets out a chirp of delight. "How about we take you home and you can relax a bit for the rest of the day? I'll have to gather some specialists for the Barbari-Ants later..."
Joe is very excited about this suggestion after being on a research trip with Marcy for over a week now. Luckily his stable isn't far from where he landed. Marcy jumps on his back, he spreads his wings, jumps off the ground vigorously, and slowly glides towards the barracks.
Once there, Marcy and Joe are greeted by several armored Newts.
"Joe has the rest of the day off! Please store that stuff up there near one of the city gates! And tell Bartley, Branson and Blair to come to my office for tomorrow morning!", Marcy orders. But before the Newts unload Joe's back, Marcy quickly grabs her research notes and heads towards the palace.
Arriving at the palace, Marcy is already expected. Lady Olivia is standing at the gate.
"Greetings, Master Marcy. Am I correct in assuming that you have sealed off the city and raised the alarm?", Lady Olivia asks.
"That's right. Barbari-Ants were about to attack"
"Then we owe it to you, that the inhabitants of Newtopia are safe..."
"Ehh... Not quite yet. Feel free to thank me once the danger is gone and we can reopen the gates."
"Very well, Master Marcy. I assume you wish to report this to King Andrias?"
"Yup. And after that I'll get to work to stop the ants.", Marcy states confidently.
"A good idea. However, before you delve back into work, I have a surprise for you that you will find extremely gratifying."
"Uhh, I'm looking forward to it. I'll watch out for you once I've talked to King Andrias", Marcy says while making her way to the throne room.
"Hey Mar-Mar. Nice to see you again.", King Andrias says quite cheerful. "How was your expedition?"
"Pretty good. Well, at least until the Barbari-Ants have all left their nest, and made their way to Newtopia.", Marcy says, slightly disappointed.
"Oof, that sucks. But... you made sure they didn't come into town, didn't you?"
"But of course. Even if it was quite close", Marcy confesses with an embarrassed smile.
"Great", Andrias says loudly. "A king couldn't wish for a nicer present than uneaten subjects for his birthday."
"THAT WAS TODAY?", she screamed in horror.
"Actually already a few days ago…", Andrias corrects her, being quite amused.
"Oh no... I missed the party... I'm so, so sorry..."
"Oh Mar-Mar... After over a thousand years, birthdays are nothing special anymore. I'm expected to show up around town, and give people the impression that I'm enjoying myself on the day. Also, next year I have another birthday party", he said with a wink.
"Thank you", Marcy says, now feeling a little relieved, "I'll be there next year. Nothing will stop me."
"I'm really looking forward to that. Oh, it looks like Lady Olivia is waiting for you...", Andrias looks towards the entrance of the throne room. Marcy turns around and sees that she is actually standing at the door.
"Uh, yeah. She said she had a surprise for me...", Marcy remarks excitedly.
"I think I already know what it is...", Andrias says teasingly.
"No spoilers!"
"My lips are sealed", Andrias motions with a hand gesture in front of his mouth. "You may go."
"Thanks. I'll take care of our ant problem later, too.", Marcy promises while already running to Lady Olivia.
Marcy and Lady Olivia walk around the palace for a few minutes, and Marcy is getting more and more excited.
"What is it? What is it? What is it?", Marcy asks, who is over the moon with excitement.
"Patience, Master Marcy. We'll be right there", Lady Olivia assures her, who can't help but be carried away by Marcy's anticipation.
Marcy walks a few more steps before noticing that Lady Olivia has stopped next to a door with two guards outside. She raises an eyebrow, slightly confused.
"Someone is waiting for you in here.", Lady Olivia announces as she opens the door.
Marcy's eyes widen and her pulse increases. She enters the room, and when she sees an unknown human girl sitting on the floor, her brain completely shuts down and her jaw drops to the floor. Lady Olivia smiles contentedly.
"I'll leave the three of you alone.", she says as she closes the door behind her as she leaves.
There is an awkward silence in the room for far too long. Since entering the room, Marcy hasn't moved a bit, as if frozen.
"Hi... I'm Luz. This is Maddie...", Luz introduces herself with a sheepish smile on her face. Marcy then starts blinking wildly.
"I... I can't believe it... Another human in Amphibia...", she mutters in disbelief, before her mind probably switched to the fast lane. "Who are you? Oh wait, you just said that already. By the way, I'm Marcy. Where are you from? How did you get here? How did you travel between worlds? Can you control it? Have you met Sasha? Or Anne? Do you know where they are? Are they okay? Are they mad at me? No, I don't want to know. How long have you been here? Why are you here? Urgh, I have sooo many questions...", Marcy sits down with Luz and Maddie, and pulls out her notepad.
"Maddie, right?", Marcy asks. Maddie doesn't have time to reply, though, before Marcy continues, "Frog, country style, judging by the earth beneath your feet I'd say... Wartwood, right?"
"Impressive", Maddie confirms.
"And Luz... have you ever stood inside a volcano?"
"Um... No...", Luz replies, somewhat perplexed.
"Hmm... The bottoms of your shoes are singed a bit. And there's some blood... Who is it from?"
"Um... It's either mine... Or someone else's you'll meet soon...", Luz says, causing Marcy to look confused.
"Uh, a secret. Alright... Alright..."
"But I can tell you one thing...", Luz starts, "... I've been here for maybe two weeks, I have no sense of time here, and I've met both Anne and Sasha...", Marcy squeals in relief.
"OH MY GOD... They're here... Are they both okay? Where are they?"
"The last time I saw Anne, she was fine. She lives in Wartwood too, and was taken in by a family of frogs, the Plantars", Luz explains.
"Aww, how nice. I like the Found Family trope. And Sasha?", Marcy asks, at which point Luz and Maddie exchange sad looks.
"The last time I saw Sasha... She fled. And if she's still alive-"
"What do you mean 'if'?", Marcy asks worried, "What happened?"
"Please let me finish. If she's still alive, she's in Toad Tower. She's the second-in-command to Captain Grime..."
"What happened?", Marcy repeats her question.
"Something very bad. Anne can tell you more when she arrives..."
"Can't you just- Wait... did you just say that Anne is on her way to Newtopia?", Marcy asks incredulously, whereupon Luz nods, and Marcy's mood increases enormously, which quickly turned into mild panic.
"Marcy, are you okay? You're so red all of a sudden...", Maddie asks in response.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm great..."
"Ugh, I know that look you have on your face... I said something wrong, right?", Luz says, concerned.
"Heh... No, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm just not sure if I'm really ready to see Anne again yet... I might have missed her a little more than I thought...", Marcy confesses with an embarrassed smile on her face.
"But that's completely normal. I miss my friends a lot too and I've only been separated from them for a few weeks. It's been months since you last saw Anne and Sasha…", Luz argues, trying to cheer Marcy up, not realizing that Maddie is rolling her eyes. Marcy isn't sure how to respond without exposing herself too much, so she gives a quick cough, and tries to change the subject as gently as possible.
"Um... Thanks, Luz. Another question: How did you actually end up in Amphibia? I didn't know that there was more than the one music box that we originally came here with..."
"To be honest, I have no idea. One minute I was... doing stuff, and the next I'm slamming into a wall at Toad Tower at high speed."
"Ouch...", Marcy comments at that.
"I was told I was hurt pretty badly... And if it weren't for Maddie's skills, I'd probably be dead...", Luz says, causing Marcy to look at Maddie.
"Had some healing potions with me that day. I'm a student of magic and witchcraft", Maddie explains as Marcy widens her eyes and lets out a squeal of delight.
"Oh my god that's sooo cool", she almost screams, "I've been looking for people to learn from for ages. But people with knowledge about this, are few and far between... Can you teach me?"
A certain sparkle can be seen in Marcy's eyes. But even without it, it's not hard to see how excited Marcy is right now. What Luz told her about Sasha or that Anne is about to arrive in Amphibia, she has completely forgotten by now.
"Actually, magic was one of the reasons why we came to Newtopia. We wanted to do some research here in the Royal Library before Lady Olivia caught us and locked us in this room.", Maddie explains.
"Luz, are you interested in magic too?", Marcy asks.
"Absolutely. Ever since my mom got me the first issue of 'The Good Witch Azura' I wanted so badly to be a witch myself-", Luz explains before being interrupted by Marcy.
"AHHH! Another 'Good Witch Azura' fan... I've been trying to get Anne and Sasha excited about the series for ages... I've got the whole series", Marcy beams.
"Me too.", Luz replies with the same energy.
"Uh, before we were transported to Amphibia, I picked up a rumor online that the latest book was going to be made into a movie. Do you know if there's any truth to that?"
"Really???", Luz asks surprised, "I thought the actress ended her career when she suffered a concussion while shooting the last movie"
"I wouldn't be surprised if they recast their role. Even though I love all the films apart from the third one, the studio behind it really sucks...", Marcy complains, "When I was on Earth, the studio had just sponsored a campaign against queer portrayals in media. To be honest, I'm glad I'm not there anymore. Even though I can't wait for the upcoming one movie would love to see... I hate this dilemma"
"I think I can understand you. The only reason to return to Earth is my mom. Before I left, she wanted to send me to a summer camp to 'fit in better with society'... I don't know if I'd want to go back forever, but I'd give anything to see my mom again...", Luz says, who is now a little sadder. Marcy is not unaffected by the sudden change in mood in the room.
After a pause, Marcy recounts, "The day we were stranded in Amphibia was, up until that point, a total disaster. Well, not quite... It was Anne's birthday. I had spent most of the day in the library before Sasha reminded me of the party at Anne's later. At the same time, a message came from my father telling me to come home because he had something to discuss with me. And 'discuss' in this case means that he told me that he had taken a job in another state and that we would be moving there. I would have lost everything. And here... I'll soon be reunited with the most important people in my life. I fulfill a purpose here, people like me for what I do. On Earth I did well in school and my parents had everything planned out for my life, but... the fact is, I was a nobody there. I didn't fit in there. I couldn't go back there...", Suddenly Marcy realizes her eyes are a little watery and a few tears are rolling down her cheeks. Luz leans forward and gives Marcy a tight hug, which Maddie also joins in.
After a while, the hug breaks up and Marcy just says, "Thank you both. I really needed that..."
"Sometimes the best thing to do when you don't know what to say, is just listen to someone and offer a hug.", Luz says with a warm smile on her face. Marcy turns her head towards the window.
"Froggers, it's dark already. I still have to write a report...", Marcy remembers as she stands up.
"Maddie, Luz, I'm going to talk to Lady Olivia so that you’re allowed to leave, and I'll see that you get access to the Royal Library. Hopefully you can teach me a little about magic soon then", Marcy says hopefully.
"That would be nice", Maddie says.
"I'll come back tomorrow and let you know what Lady Olivia has decided. See you later", Marcy says before walking out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Now alone again, Maddie turns to Luz.
"So, what do you think?", she asks.
"I like her. She seems... sincere", Luz says.
"Do you feel the same way about her as you did about Andrias? Or Sasha?"
"Not at all. Though I'm not sure if I can tell her about the Boiling Isles yet. Or the glyphs..."
"I think at some point she'll find out one way or the other..."
"You're probably right. But she works directly for Andrias, and you know how I feel about him. I... need to think about it..."
Notes:
I really had a great time writing this chapter. Maybe it's already recognizable where my story is currently in comparison to the second season of 'Amphibia' and maybe who will appear again soon... ;)
Chapter 12: Ant-Infestation
Summary:
Luz and Maddie help Marcy to save Newtopia.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It's a beautiful morning when Luz wakes up in the bed in the palace. Maddie, who is at the other end of the bed, looks like to be still asleep. Originally, Luz suggested taking one of the mattresses that are stacked on top of each other and sleeping on the floor, but Maddie says that given the sheer size of the bed, there shouldn't be a problem if they both sleep in it. To reinforce her point, she flopped onto the bed and stretched out all her limbs, covering less than a fifth of the width of the bed.
Although Luz has slept with other people in the same room in her past, such as after her moonlight conjuring with Willow and Gus, or King always at the foot of her mattress, or Anne sleeping with Luz in the Plantars' basement, it certainly took a little getting used to sharing a bed with someone, even if they each had their own blanket.
The nice, calm atmosphere in the room is quickly broken when the door to the room slams open and a hyper-charged Marcy Wu stomps into the room, a tired Lady Olivia standing beside her and Maddie jumps up immediately.
"Good, you guys are awake", Marcy remarks, to which Maddie just yawns into a pillow before sitting up.
"After Master Marcy jerked me on my nap to try and persuade me to allow you access to the Royal Library as well as restricted access to the palace grounds, I have come to offer you a proposition..." Lady Olivia recounts with a raspy voice while Marcy stands next to her, grinning widely and arms trembling.
"If you agree to help Master Marcy with our... ant problem, I am willing to drop all charges against you and grant you limited privileges."
Instead of Luz and Maddie getting excited, as Marcy had hoped, the two sit on the bed with no discernible emotion. Maddie can't stop yawning and her hair is completely disheveled and Luz just takes turns looking at Marcy and Lady Olivia, along with a touch of confusion.
"Ant problem?" Luz asks.
"Barbari-Ants. A colony has settled in front of the city and I have to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there is a long-term risk that we will no longer be able to feed the people if goods cannot be delivered from outside", Marcy explains the situation.
"And how are we supposed to help with that?" Luz asks.
"I have no idea", Marcy says, "So far there is no strategy. I'm going to meet up with a couple of consultants to work something out. So? What do you think?"
Luz looks at Maddie, who doesn't seem to have realized what is happening.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh... Okay, we'll help", Luz says.
"YAAAY! This is gonna be sooo much fun", Marcy says, walking back out of the room. She sticks her head back into the room and says, "Come to my office in an hour" and sprints away.
Lady Olivia, who is still at the door, says "Master Marcy's office is near the entrance to the palace. I will arrange for a guard to escort you there." and leaves the room as well.
Some time has passed and meanwhile both Maddie and Luz have gotten up and are also halfway awake when suddenly someone knocks on the door. Luz goes over and opens it.
There is a guard in front of the door. The guard says "Good morning. I have been assigned to escort you to Master Marcy. Can we leave?"
Luz looks over at Maddie, who is just about putting on her cloak and stuffing some glyphs into her pocket before giving Luz a thumbs-up. Luz grabs her backpack that's by the door and says "We're ready"
Immediately after the group sets off, Luz says, with relief in her voice, "Oh boi, I'm so glad to finally be out of this room... Don't get me wrong, luxury can be nice, but I prefer rooms with character..."
Nobody reacts to this and Luz looks at Maddie, who takes a moment to realize that Luz is looking at her.
Concerned, Luz asks "Maddie, are you alright? You seem unusually exhausted and you can hardly keep your eyes open..."
"I'm... I'm just not fully awake yet. If I can eat anything soon, I'll feel better. I promise", Maddie assures Luz, which isn't very effective at allaying Luz's worries.
"I hope you're right", Luz says as the group gradually approaches the palace entrance. But instead of going into one of the rooms on the sides, they continue to go straight towards the large front gate.
Luz asks "Shouldn't we meet Marcy in her office?"
"Master Marcy has already left the palace and set up a temporary command post outside the city walls", the guard explains.
Luz is not thrilled.
After what felt like an eternity, the small group arrived at the edge of town. The gate opened briefly especially for them and Luz and Maddie went through. They did expect the gate to be closed behind them, but not that the guard would not accompany them any further.
"Seriously?" Luz asks, "You're leaving us alone out here?"
A small voice can be heard from the other side of the gate: "I was only supposed to escort you to the city walls. Anything after that is not my problem."
"¿Me estás tomando el pelo? Cobarde!", Luz shouted, "Come on. We'll find Marcy even without them..."
"What did the guard say earlier? Marcy has set up a base of operations out here somewhere..." Maddie repeated.
"Right. Hop up, I don't want to walk", Luz suggests after preparing her staff.
The search doesn't take long. After maybe half a minute, the two girls see a big tent and Luz lands a few meters behind it. The tent stands on a tiny mound that juts out of the water that surrounds the city. It is mostly orange, though decorated with gold designs on all sides, a large gold sigil over the entrance, and a purple flag at the top flapping in the wind. There are already a few voices that seem to be energetically arguing about something. One of the voices definitely belongs to Marcy.
"Knock knock", Luz says while entering the tent with Maddie.
"Luz! Maddie! It's great that you made it. Eh... Where's Eric?" Marcy asks, quite happy to see the two girls.
From the outside, the tent seemed quite small and unimpressive. So, it was particularly surprising to see how big it looks from the inside and how cluttered it is. There are several large carpets on the floor, maps and banners are hanging all over the walls, there is a round, wooden table in the middle with some very thick books under it, and around the table there are three other Newts who look quite alike standing next to Marcy, each wearing a gray cloak.
"Who?" Luz asks.
"The guard I assigned to bring you here...", Marcy explains.
"Oh... He kicked us out at the gate and said he did his job", Maddie explains.
"Master Marcy, who are these... creatures?" one of the Newts asked in disgust.
"Oh, right. Triple B, this is Luz and Maddie. Luz and Maddie, this is Bartley, Branson and Blair. They're going to help us with the Barbari-ants later", Marcy explains with anticipation, "Come sit down. We're just having breakfast and trying to figure out if it would be worth growing seaweed here outside the city."
"And like I said before, Blair, there's no point in planting seaweed to compact the soil because seaweed doesn't have roots that go deep enough..." Bartley said.
"Maybe. But then we would be able to provide food for the people of the city in situations like this", Blair explains.
"Shut up, Blair. No one wants to eat seaweed. I'd rather be dependent on imports", Bartley counters.
This discussion, which everyone present knows is going nowhere, continues for more than thirty minutes and while Bartley, Branson and Blair argue wildly, Maddie, Marcy and Luz enjoy their breakfast.
"Marcy?"
"Hm?"
"Just out of curiosity: You told us earlier that you would expect us in your office. Why are we here instead?"
"Well... In order to be able to develop a strategy to drive out the Barbari-Ants, I need to know exactly where they are and how they are forming. I can't do that from my office in the palace."
"What actually are Barbari Ants?" Luz asks.
"Basically, they're like regular ants from Earth. Only bigger. Much bigger. And much more aggressive", Marcy explains.
"How much bigger?" asks Luz, slightly intimidated when she feels the ground shake beneath her feet.
Suddenly there's a roar and Luz and Marcy run to the tent entrance. A few meters in front of them, a few mounds form in the ground, from which rather large creatures crawl out and run straight towards the tent.
While Luz searches for her glyphs in a bit of a panic, Marcy calmly picks up her crossbow and fires a few arrows in quick succession in the direction of the critters. Just before the first arrow hits one of the critters, the arrowhead splits in two and a net comes out, catching the critter, causing it to fall to the ground, unable to move. The other arrows probably contained a flammable liquid, because when they hit the rest, several burning spots formed on the water surface, after which the critters retreat to the ground.
"That... Oh my God... Marcy...", Luz stutters, "That was crazy"
"Those are my trick arrows. I'm kind of like Hawkeye. You know, from the Marvel comics..."
"That's sooo cooool", says Luz in awe, whereupon Marcy blushes and looks at the floor.
"Oh, that's nothing. But- We now have a living Barbari-Ant to study. Okay, admittedly, I haven't been doing much else than that lately, now we have to find a way to scare them away."
"Luz, will you help me pull it in front of the tent?" Marcy asks.
"What about your advisors in there?" Luz asks, pointing to the tent behind her.
From the tent, the girls hear yelling, "We're analysts. We don't do... field work."
Both of them can't help but giggle and Luz agrees to help. Arriving at the Barbari-Ant, Luz is amazed at the motionless animal. "You really didn't understate when you said they were big"
Their general physique is not dissimilar to that of Earth ants. Three body sections: the head, from which pincers hang, the thoracic part, from which six legs extend, and the massive lower part, in which most of the organs and some glands are located. However, this type of ant has brightly colored, coral-like antennae on its head and is a meter tall and almost two meters long...
Halfway back to the tent with the immobilized ant in tow, Marcy asks "Out of curiosity, what's the matter with your frog friend? What was her name again? Maddie or something?"
Luz sighs. "Since I woke up, Maddie seems kind of... drained... like she's about to pass out. She assured me that she only needed to eat something, but so far I don't see any change."
"You really care about her, don't you?" Marcy asks.
"Well... I don't like it when my friends aren't feeling well and I don't know how to help. Plus, she's a tremendous help in finding a way home."
After a short pause Marcy says "You know Luz, you remind me a bit of Anne... On Earth she was always the one who looked out for me. She always warned me when I accidentally ran into or towards somewhere I shouldn't be. If I got too deep into something, she made sure I wasn't hurt. And whenever I discovered a new interest for me, she was always attentive and always tried to participate. Even if she had trouble understanding it..."
Luz, you spent some time with Anne here in Amphibia. Do you think she...um...will be glad to see me when she gets here?" Luz is a bit confused by Marcy's sudden insecurity.
"Um... yes, definitely. Anne had suggested I sleep in the same room with her and when she mentioned a hammock, I couldn't say no. When we couldn't sleep there was a lot to talk about, among other things she had told me several times how much she missed you. In fact, she always had a photo of the three of you next to her mattress."
Marcy sniffles "Thank you Luz"
A few hours pass, filled with a number of experiments on the trapped ant, most of them consisting of reactions to various pheromones, sounds, light...
In hindsight, the light tests had proved pointless after Marcy remembered that the Queen is blind. What had also proved to be pointless was the presence of Marcy's advisers Bartley, Branson and Blair. Not only have they consistently refused to help, they just bickered about all sorts of unimportant things the whole time. While it was entertaining to listen to, it wasn't helpful in the slightest.
Eventually just Marcy, Luz and Maddie had been working on a potential solution: By measuring the Barbari-Ant's brainwaves, the girls realized how it was possible to use pheromones to activate the ants' instinct to flee, and after Maddie reminded Marcy that boomshrooms are actually a thing in Amphibia, the idea of stinkshrooms was born quite quickly and in order not to waste any more time or give the ants another chance to attack, it was decided to deploy the stinkshrooms that same day.
Since the three Newts, as expected, refused to come along, it was only Maddie, Marcy and Luz who made their way towards the largest hole leading into the ground and, in Marcy's opinion, straight to the ant queen. When Marcy falls into a large cavity full of Barbari-Ants, the girls quickly realize that they are on the right track.
"That's a bad idea...", Maddie mutters.
"Oh yes, definitely. But that wouldn't be the first one", comments Luz and jumps into the hole in the ground after Marcy. Maddie follows her. When Luz and Maddie arrive at the bottom of the hole, the first few ants are already on their way to attack the girls.
Luckily, before heading towards the cave, Luz and Maddie were both outfitted with appropriate weaponry and equipment. With Luz having absolutely no hands-on experience with swordsmanship, and at the same time not ready to reveal her glyph magic in front of Marcy, Maddie was willing to hand over her throwing curses to the Luz while she will wield the sword herself should the need arise.
And right now, there's such a need: the group is surrounded by ants, Marcy is about to get up, Maddie draws her sword, which is longer than she is tall, and Luz is holding some throwable curses.
Luz throws the first curse, which explodes in front of the ants like a firecracker. After a few more of these, they retreat...
„That was surprisingly easy,” Luz comments.
"Aww frog, I wish I could have chopped off some heads with this thing", Maddie complains as adrenaline rushes through her body.
"Uh, that was easy", Marcy says, who is now on her feet and walking toward some sort of plant, seeming to mix some concoction together.
She throws the mixture at a nearby wall, which explodes on impact, shaking the entire cave. Marcy shouts for Luz and Maddie to follow her into the newly blown hole. The ants that just ran away from the group now come back in larger numbers into the cavity. Luz and Maddie grab their legs and run as fast as they can with an army of Barbari Ants behind them.
As soon as they both slip through the opening, Marcy throws in... something, causing purple tendrils to shoot out of the ground and seal the opening.
"Instavines! Bred 'em myself." Marcy says proudly, pointing at her creation.
After a short breather, Luz asks "Okay, what's next?"
"I'll give you some stinkshrooms already. As soon as we get to the queen's chamber, we'll split up and position her in such a way that the queen has no choice but to flee. All the other Barbari-Ants will follow her immediately"
"Won't the queen notice us and attack?", Luz asks.
"In contrast to the workers, the queen is completely blind. However, her hearing and sense of smell are better developed. If we are particularly quiet and keep as many gases in us as possible, nothing bad should happen.", Marcy explains as the girls walk through a rather small tunnel.
Luz walks next to Marcy and chats with her about everything she has learned here in Amphibia, until she suddenly notices that Maddie is a little further behind the other two girls. Marcy continues to walk normally, but Luz waits for Maddie to catch up.
She asks "Okay Maddie, what's going on? You seem to be having some trouble right now... Is that sword too heavy? Do you want me to carry it?"
"No thanks, I'm fine. I'm just still tired... But as soon as we're done here, I'll try to get some sleep at Iva's."
Luz doesn't comment on this, but knows that Maddie isn't doing as well as she pretends. Not only is she less communicative than usual, her mind seems to be completely elsewhere and she seems to have a hard time walking in a straight line. Maybe she's sick somehow, which Luz has a hard time proving or disproving because she has no idea about frog anatomy. Maybe she was cursed. Luz would like to suspect Andrias for that, but that would be a bit too much paranoia. The fact that Luz has no idea what's going on with Maddie and they are about to face off against the queen of an aggressive species of ants worries Luz more than she would like.
The tunnel the girls are in opens into another large cavity and Marcy appears to be waiting for Luz and Maddie at the entrance, crouched behind a larger rock.
Reaching her, Marcy whispers, "That's the queen over there."
All three girls look inconspicuously from behind the stone and see a huge creature, for which this one cavity seems to be much too small.
"As I said before, she's pretty much blind. So be quiet and when you've placed all the charges come back here", Marcy continues.
Maddie and Luz nod before all three of them split off in different directions. All try to be extra quiet while placing a stinkshroom every few meters. Only the queen can be heard laying a few eggs and covering them with a viscous liquid that is better left unspecified.
The silence in the cavity is broken when a sudden thump is heard, followed by a metallic clank. Everyone looks around the room and eyes fall on Maddie, who seems to be lying on the floor, motionless.
Luz and Marcy exchange a panicked look as the Queen seems to have noticed Maddie too.
She lets out a high-pitched squeal, opens her mouth and lashes out with her tongue, which grabs the unconscious Maddie like a prehensile arm and jerkily pulls back.
"MADDIE!" shouts Luz.
Marcy runs over to Luz "It's alright, she's still alive."
"How would you know that?"
Marcy drags Luz to a point in the cavity where it is possible to see incoming light through the queen and a dark spot is shown inside her.
"I can save her", claims Marcy.
"What? How?" asks Luz in disbelief.
"I'm going to jump in the queen's mouth and get Maddie out of there"
"What? Are you crazy?"
The cavity fills with more and more Barbari-Ants.
"Yes. But I know what I'm doing. I've studied them... Can you distract the smaller ants?"
"Fine... ...but please keep quiet about what you are about to see"
Marcy looks confused for a moment, but immediately starts sprinting and jumping over several Barbari-Ants towards the queen. At the same time, she sees several ants in front of her being hit by fireballs and vines sprouting from the ground. Marcy takes her crossbow, aims it at a rock hanging from the ceiling, draws herself up in the air, and pours straight into the queen's maw.
After Luz just saw out of the corner of her eye how the queen's maw snapped shut after Marcy jumped in, Luz sprints straight towards the tunnel the group originally came from. Several ants follow her, which Luz tries to fend off with fireballs. She uses an Ice Glyph, which covers the ground immediately around her in black ice, causing several ants to lose their balance crashing into the cave walls.
Luz uses this moment to take a deep breath as her attention falls on the queen, who is making strange noises.
It looks like the queen is about to throw up when Marcy suddenly shoots out of her mouth with the still unconscious Maddie under her arm, landing right next to Luz.
"Marcy, that was..." Luz stops before gasping "Your eyes... They are-"
"No time. The stinkshrooms are about to blow up. Run!" Marcy calls before she runs into the tunnel, Luz immediately behind her.
Halfway through the tunnel, the tunnel is shaken by violent tremors, causing Marcy and Luz to lose their balance. A lot of roaring can be heard, the distance of which continues to grow.
"It worked. The Barbari-Ants are retreating inland", Marcy cheers before continuing "We should get out of here quickly. In the long run, the steam can cause permanent damage."
Luz just nods, but is still completely focused on Marcy's eyes, whose green glow is slowly changing back to its original color.
Suddenly, Luz' train of thought is interrupted by a noise that can only be identified as snoring. She and Marcy look confused at Maddie
"She's... sleeping? How?" Luz asks.
"Luz... maybe we should talk when we get back to the tent", Marcy suggests as she gets back to her feet, still carrying Maddie and walking toward the exit with Luz next to her.
Instead of going back to the tent, the girls decided to chat at Iva's without fear of being overheard by three annoying Newts. Upon arriving at Iva's house, Iva herself had just been preparing for lectures later in the day. Seeing that Maddie was unconscious, Iva expressed immense concern, which fortunately was allayed by the explanation that she was merely asleep.
"Is there anything else I can be of service to you before I leave for university, Master Marcy?" Iva asks.
Before Marcy can answer, Luz comes into Iva's living room "Maddie seems totally exhausted. I hope she can catch up on some sleep here now."
"Were there any signs in the palace that something was wrong, Luz?"
"Nothing I know of. Maybe she had seen ghosts and couldn't sleep because of that...", Luz jokes, "I think we'll have to wait until she wakes up again."
"Exactly. Anyway, I'm off to my evening lectures now. If you need anything, you can get me at any time.", Iva explains.
"Thank you, Iva"
"See you tomorrow, Luz. Master Marcy", Iva bids farewell and leaves the house.
"Why does everyone call you 'Master' Marcy?" Luz asks curiously.
"Well, when I got here, King Andrias took me in and gave me an honorary title so I could move around the palace freely. And apparently that's a big deal."
"Cool. At home, most people just called me 'Luz, the human'"
Confusion spread across Marcy's face, which amuses Luz.
"I see I should explain that... You see, before I got here in Amphibia, I was somewhere else. In a place called 'Boiling Isles'. It's kind of another world next to this one and Earth. I ran away from home at the beginning of the summer and had been living there in the demon realm ever since."
"Demons? That doesn't sound particularly inviting..." Marcy comments.
"Yes, but it's so much more than that", Luz hints, pulling out a glyph of light that activates it in front of Marcy. Her eyes widen at this sight.
"Magic???"
Luz grins. "Not only demons live there, but also witches and wizards. A society has established itself there that is not unlike that here in Amphibia or even on Earth. Maybe a little more dystopian on the islands than on Earth... But yes, I was able to learn magic there, albeit in a different way than the witches there."
"I want too... Can I try the light thing too?" Marcy asks, barely able to hide her excitement.
"It's a light glyph. But it probably won't work for you. Anne had already tried it...", Luz explains and pulls out a light glyph which she gives to Marcy.
Hesitantly, she taps the glyph, and as expected, nothing happens. Marcy is a little disappointed.
"Why are you telling me this right now? And not before?" Marcy asks, whereupon Luz' eyes go towards the floor.
"Well...", she says hesitantly, "I wasn't sure if I could trust you."
Marcy looks at Luz in horror. Luz continues "But then you saved Maddie's life...I can't tell how far that trust goes yet since you work directly for the King, but-"
"What does King Andrias have to do with this?" Marcy asks, whose terror has changed to confusion.
"When Maddie and I arrived here in Newtopia we ran into him at Andrias' birthday parade and we exchanged looks. His look had triggered an all too familiar feeling in me. One that tells me never to trust him or to cross his path. When I last had it, Emperor Belos had captured my mentor Eda on the Boiling Isles and was ready to petrify her. During my fight with him, somehow, I got dragged here to Amphibia and ended up in Toad Tower. And you know the rest..."
Now that Luz has revealed her secret to Marcy, the room has been quiet for a while. Luz's gaze never left the ground while she was talking.
After a few more minutes, Marcy speaks "That... is quite a lot...".
Nothing more can be heard of Marcy's previously excited nature. Instead, her voice is filled with... concern.
"I think... I should leave. I won't tell King Andrias what you just told me, Luz. I have to think... If you want, I can come back tomorrow..."
"That would be nice"
"Good night", Marcy says as she leaves Iva's house and makes her way back to the palace.
Notes:
Soo... What do you think?
Chapter 13: Reunion - Second Try
Summary:
Anne and the Plantars arrive in Newtopia
Chapter Text
Anne and Sprig are both sitting in the Plantar family fwagon at a large, solid, round wooden table on which lies an abstract map of Amphibia.
Anne is holding a polaroid photo of herself, Sasha and Marcy, all in their school uniforms, taken some time before they came to Amphibia with Anne being on the left, holding up a peace sign with the widest grin imaginable, Sasha in the middle with an uncharacteristically insecure look but also smiling, and Marcy on the other end, looking at Anne with a raised eyebrow.
While Anne looks at the picture with a rather sad look, Sprig enthusiastically runs two fingers over the map along the route the group has traveled in the fwagon over the past week and a half.
"Ugh, I can’t believe it! It’s been a long journey, but we’re almost there.", Sprig says excitedly, before noticing that Anne Is kinda zoned out. "Anne?"
"Huh?"
"Uh, thought you’d be more excited"
"I am excited. It’s just… ", Anne pauses, "We’ve been traveling Amphibia for an eternity. I thought there’d be some sign of Marcy by now. But nothing… "
"Maybe that’s a good thing", Sprig says, causing Anne to look up from her picture. "Your last friend was kind of… totally evil", Sprig sneaks up next to Anne and points at Sasha in her picture, causing Anne to slap his hand away.
"Hey! Look, I know that Sasha has done something absolutely despicable-"
"She killed Hop Pop", Sprig cuts her off.
"-and I'll never be able to forgive her for that either. But... and this may sound absolutely stupid... As much as I try to hate her for what she's done, I can't. Quite the opposite: I'm worried about her. Something's happened to her since she's been in Amphibia that has changed her... I'm just as worried about Marcy, although for different reasons. I mean, since Sasha got zapped here with me, Marcy must be here too, right?", Sprig gives her a skeptical look before continuing.
"Also, Marcy is completely different from Sasha. She’s harmless. Back on earth, she would have gotten in all kinds of trouble, if me and Sasha wouldn’t be around. She was super smart, but also insanely clumsy and super oblivious… Like, maybe the clumsiest person alive… Back home, we were there to protect her. But here, she’s alone and instead of kickballs…"
"She could get mauled by an elephant scarab. Or crushed to death by a heron. Or worse, flayed alive by a-", Anne's hand flashes forward to cover Sprig's mouth.
"Not helping.", Sprig nods in understanding (and in shock) and Anne withdraws her hand, exposing Sprig's mouth. He clears his throat.
"Even if you won't find Marcy here, she will definitely be somewhere... But who will definitely be there, is Luz. Maybe she has a few clues as to where she could be..."
Before Anne can reply, the fwagon's roof hatch shoots open and Polly interrupts the two friends, frantic with excitement, "Guys! Come- It's- I- Not gonna believe- Aaah! Just get out here!"
Polly hops aside and Anne and Sprig peer out of the roof hatch, breathless at what lies ahead: A huge city in the water, with walls taller than anything they've ever seen before… Tons of gigantic, mushroom-shaped structures and a spiraling tower in the center towering over absolutely everything.
Everyone descends from the fwagon and stares at the city in awe. After a few whoa's from everyone present, Hop Pop says "There she is, gang- Newtopia... If there's a way to get you home, it's in that city."
"Well, then let's go down there", Anne calls just before she, Sprig, and Polly jump down the cliff and slide down a sand hill toward the water. Only Hop Pop doesn't jump, turns around and walks with Bessie next to him down the safe, albeit longer, path to the kids. Anne patiently waits for Hop Pop while she buttons all the sand off her clothes. Polly jumps into the fairly shallow water and lets herself be carried along in the gentle current. Sprig, on the other hand, sees a lot of small hills sticking up out of the water and runs from one hill to the next.
It doesn't take long for the group to arrive in front of the town, and Anne cranes her head back to take in the sheer size of the town walls and the gate that leads through into the town. The only comparison she can think of, are the walls of 'Ba Sing Se' from 'Avatar: The Last Airbender', which she watched with Marcy quite a while back.
Anne notices that the Plantars have already moved on and sprints after them, until they all stop in the middle of a huge plaza. It's difficult to capture all the impressions that the big city has on the Plantars. The plaza is surrounded by a number of different buildings, none of which resemble the other. Everything is made of marble or other stones or minerals, with golden decorations and various statues everywhere.
It takes a while before this overwhelming first impression can be digested, and the group can start looking for a hotel. Hop Pop speaks to a few of the locals about where to find a suitable hotel and gets some rough directions in return.
Many disgusted and derogatory looks from the residents, as well as some disorientation later, the Plantars actually found the hotel. Hop Pop has been told that this is the only hotel that also includes a stable for Bessie to use.
Hop Pop and Anne enter the hotel lobby, while Sprig and Polly are tasked with watching over Bessie and the fwaggon, as long as it's in the middle of a street.
Hop Pop and Anne are astonished as they enter the lobby.
The splendor seen from the outside, and to a lesser extent throughout Newtopia up until now, extends to the buildings as well. On the floor is a huge noble carpet, surrounded by equally noble marble with golden ornaments. Next to the carpet are a couple of sofas with coffee tables between two sofas each, and across from these is the reception desk, which is staffed by an older axolotl wearing a fancy suit. Sitting at one of the coffee tables is a similarly aged couple of Newts, dressed rather flamboyantly, giving Hop Pop disgusted looks, which he skillfully ignores. Anne notices this.
"Why are they all looking at you so weirdly?", she whispers to him. Hop Pop takes a deep breath before replying.
"Remember what I told you in Ribbitvale about society here in Amphibia?"
"Umm... That Newts are discriminatory assholes who act snooty and look down on the frogs? Yeah"
"And also, that even the more affluent have a hard time?"
"Mmm"
"Well, as a farmer, people look at me the same way people looked at you back in Wartwood when you first got there"
"I don't see any torches or pitchforks..."
"You know what I mean, Anne."
"Yeah... I think I do...", Anne says, feeling slightly bad now. Hop Pop walks towards the receptionist, who greets him in an unexpectedly friendly manner.
"Hello and welcome to the Golden Seaweed Hotel. How can I be of service to you?"
"Yes, good afternoon. I would like a room for four. And how much does it cost to use the hutches for my snail?"
"Use of the stables is free for all guests of this hotel. How long do you plan to stay here?"
"One week."
"Excellent. Then all I need is your name and you can move into your room immediately."
"Before I answer that, I have one more question: How much is a night here?"
"A room with four beds costs 20 coppers per night. Breakfast included"
As Hop Pop hears that, all the color drains off of his face, and Anne gave him a worried look.
"Hop Pop, if that's too expensive, I'm sure we'll find a cheaper hotel. O-Or we'll sleep in the Fwaggon. Or-"
"No, Anne", he interrupts, "this family vacation has been in the planning for longer than you think, and I've put some money aside for the occasion. It's alright."
"Well, if you say so..."
"Name's Hopediah Plantar", Hop Pop tells the receptionist.
"Oh...", he replies in surprise.
"Oh? What oh? What do you mean by oh?", Anne asks, still concerned.
"Calm down, ma'am. I'm just seeing that the name 'Plantar' already has a reservation." Anne looks at Hop Pop, who in return just shrugs his shoulders. The receptionist continues, "It appears a suite in the penthouse has been booked for your name-"
"What? We can never afford that", Hop Pop shouts.
"- and paid in advance...".
Both Anne and Hop Pop's jaws drop and their eyes widen in disbelief. "What? From whom?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have this information. However, next to your reservation it says that I should give you something. One moment, please...", the receptionist says, before quickly disappearing through a door behind the reception.
"Luz maybe?", Anne asks.
"I don't know how she could have made so many coppers in such a short time... Penthouse suites are expensive everywhere, not even Mayor Toadstool could afford a night in here..."
Before the two can continue brooding over who might have given them such an amazing gift, the receptionist comes back holding both a key and a colored envelope.
"Here, for you, sir.", the receptionist says, handing both items over to Hop Pop. "Enjoy your stay"
"We- Well then, let's get the kids and unpack...", Hop Pop stutters and turns back towards the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the two Newts still sitting at one of the coffee tables in the lobby, glaring at him. But instead of staring in disgust, they look completely aghast. The Newts must have overheard the conversation. A huge grin spreads across Hop Pop's face.
Back at the fwagon, Sprig and Polly are sitting on Bessie and they seem to be arguing about something.
"What do you mean you get the top bunk when there are bunk beds?"
"Well, if we get attacked, you'll get eaten first. Also, you're older, which means-", Polly interrupts herself and looks towards Hop Pop and Anne, who have just left the hotel.
"Whoa, I've never seen you smile like that.", Sprig asks, noticing the gigantic grin that spreads across Hop Pop’s face.
"Well, dear kids, that's a smile of superiority.", Sprig and Polly give him a confused look. Anne explains.
"Someone reserved a room in the penthouse for us and even paid for it in advance. A few snobs probably noticed and maybe died from it or something.
"This. Will. The. Best. Vacation. Ever!", Polly roars, grabs Sprig, and shakes him vigorously.
"Y-Y-Yeah P-P-Polly. Th-This will b-bbe a-awesome", Sprig stutters.
"Hey HP", Anne asks Hop Pop, "can we see what's in the envelope? Maybe they'll ask for something in return."
"Maybe... but no. First you help unpack, then you get the envelope"
"Uggghhhh", Anne wails, "Fine!"
Luckily, it doesn't take long before everything necessary is unpacked, and Bessie and fwagon are quartered in the hotel stables and the Plantars can finally have a look at their hotel room. But while Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly try to agree on who gets which of the four huge beds, Anne's mind seems to be on something else entirely. Before the three frogs went to explore their penthouse, Anne asked Hop Pop for the envelope, which she is now holding, reluctant to open it.
"What is it, Anne?"
"AAHH... Dude...", Anne jumps out of her skin
"Sorry", Sprig apologizes with a smile on his face
"You can't just sneak up behind me like that..."
"Understood", Sprig salutes, bringing a small smile to Anne's face. "So, what's wrong?"
Anne sighs. "I don't know. I guess I'm just a little scared of what might be in here. Maybe it's from Luz finding out that Marcy... isn't... anymore... Well, or it's an extortionist who captured Luz and Maddie and wants me in return-"
"Anne."
"-Or it's a threat because someone-"
"Anne!"
"Huh?"
"Open the envelope!", Sprig says firmly.
"But..."
"No buts. Open it and only then will you know for sure. Otherwise, you’re making yourself crazy..."
"You're right, buddy. Alright, here we go"
Snailswood Way 12, Lower Ring
We’ll meet there
"That's an address... Probably somewhere around here in Newtopia", Sprig assumes.
"Hey Hop Pop, there was an address in the envelope. Mind if Sprig and I take a look around?", Anne asks.
"Of course, I mind... big cities are dangerous.", Hop Pop claims, whereupon Anne just rolls her eyes.
"But after you, everything is dangerous"
"But that's just because it is..."
"You... That's... argh... Listen, I don't want to argue with you right now. Would you change your mind if you came with us?"
"Of course, it is. After all, this is a family vacation."
"Thanks, Hop Pop", Anne says, "We'll wait in the lobby", The door to the room slams and Hop Pop turns to look for Polly.
"You're getting weak, old man", Hop Pop hears coming from one of the bedrooms.
"Excuse me?"
"Your hard shell is softening. You let us get away with more and more things that you would never have allowed us to do, just a few months ago...", Polly states.
"And what made you think of that all of a sudden?"
"Anne and Sprig want to go visit someone we don't know who it is and what they want from us. And you're ready to fall into a potential trap..."
"And you'd really like to come with me, right?"
"Absolutely. Someone has to take responsibility here sometime.", Hop Pop laughs at that and heads towards the hotel lobby together with Polly. Arriving in the lobby, Hop Pop notices Anne and Sprig standing by the receptionist. Shortly afterwards, she tells him that she has asked for a few directions for that address.
Exactly 207 minutes and 12 seconds later, the Plantars finally seem to have found the right street.
"Ugh, finally... The directions from the receptionist guy sucked...", Anne complains.
"Think of it as a kind of city tour. But we'll also be doing a real city tour soon, kids", Hop Pop announces, ignoring the boo-sounds coming from his grandchildren. "So, where were we? Snailswood Way 8, Snailswood Way 10... Aha! Snailswood Way 12... We're in the right place"
He walks towards the wooden front door and reads the sign that is right next to it.
"Odal... Anne, that name doesn't mean anything to you, does it?", Anne shakes her head. Hop Pop knocks on the door.
No Response. He knocks again. This time noises can be heard from inside. Someone is coming to the door. Through the cathedran glass built into the door, a taller, slim, blue figure can be seen walking towards the waiting group and opening the door.
"Er, hello... Can I help you?"
"Good afternoon. Miss Odal I presume?", Hop Pop asks.
"That's right...", she says with a hint of skepticism and caution in her voice.
"My name is Hopediah Plantar. We arrived here in Newtopia a few hours ago, and upon checking into our hotel we were given an envelope with this address on it."
"May I take a look at it?", she asks, reading the message on the note. She looks up from the note and looks skeptically at Hop Pop. He tugs at his collar nervously. She continues to watch Sprig and Polly. And when her eyes finally fall on Anne, her expression changes from skepticism to a slight smile.
"I think I know why you are here. Come on in"
Slightly unsettled, the Plantars enter the house and are led into a rather cozy living room.
"So, Miss Odal-"
"You can call me Iva."
"All right. So, Iva, you mean you know why we got this message?"
"First of all, please sit down. Can I get you something to drink?"
"Some water would be nice."
"Alright.", Iva leaves the living room and comes back with a couple of cups of water.
"So-", Anne starts, "now can you tell us what it's about?"
"No. I don't know why you're here. But I might know someone who does...", Anne and the Plantars exchange confused looks when Iva knocks on a door just past the kitchen. They hear some whispering, but you cannot make out clear words.
Everyone is startled when they hear a sudden loud bang and see Luz running out of said door.
"LUZ!", Anne screams, jumping up, and running to her for a tight hug.
"Anne. Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly... It's so nice to see you guys", The remaining Plantars rise from their seats and join the embrace. "How did you know I'm here?"
"Didn't you leave this note for us?"
"Uh... nope. That must have been Marcy-"
"WHAT? MARCY IS HERE?? Where is she? I need to see her!"
"Anne, come down. Marcy wanted to come by today.", Luz says, while Anne literally cannot stand still because of her excitement, and keeps walking through the living room trying to calm down.
"Oh my god, Marcy is actually here. Luz, what does she look like? How did she end up here? What is she doing here? No, wait. Better not tell me. Does she miss me? Did she know we were coming and did she leave us that note paying for our hotel suite? Is she-"
"Anne, you're hyperventilating. Look at me... ... Good, good, and now take a deep breath in... ... and a deep breath out... ... And again, a deep breath in... and out again...", It takes a while for Anne to get over her initial excitement and calm down again. Everyone is now spread out on the couches, and Iva has also taken out some of the beanbags from the room where Luz was earlier.
"Hey Luz, where's Maddie by the way?", Sprig asks after looking around the room a bit.
"Oh... Yes... She's sleeping next door. Must be 26 hours or so by now...", Luz says with concern in her voice.
"Did something happen?", he asks.
"Well... We may or may not have helped Marcy repel a possible invasion of Barbari-Ants yesterday, and Maddie fell asleep in the middle of it, and was eaten by the ant queen before Marcy saved her."
"Dafuq?", Anne asks in disbelief.
"Oh, and Anne, Marcy might have... powers too. I saw her eyes light up green...", Luz says. Suddenly Anne plans to dig out her smartphone, which Luz comments in surprise, "How is it possible that your phone is still working? My battery has been dead for more than a week now..."
"I still have a few thousand percent"
"A few what?"
"There are electrically charged centipedes here, Zapapedes. We ran into a bunch of them a while ago and they charged my phone. My battery had a change of like ten thousand percent", Anne explains.
"I still feel the tingling today", Hop Pop comments. Luz and Iva look at each other in confusion, while Anne seems to be looking for something on her phone.
"Aha, there it is.", Anne says and shows Luz the picture she was apparently looking for. "Did her eyes look like this gem?"
Luz's eyes widen. "Is that... the box you came to Amphibia with?", she asks to which Anne nods. "I've seen it before. On the Boiling isles... Eda had shown it to me once..."
"WHAT???", Anne and Hop Pop shout in unison. Anne looks questioningly at Hop Pop, who is tugging nervously at his collar. Before Anne can ask, however, Luz continues: "The gems in the box were all grey, though. And yes, Marcy's eyes were the same color as the green gem."
"Okay, ok, ok... That means I have powers, Marcy has powers that she may or may not know about… and Sasha then probably has powers too... Oh boy, that's bad", Anne concludes.
"Um, I'm sorry-", Iva raises her hand shyly, "But why is that bad?"
Anne seems to have completely forgotten that Iva is not one of the people who actually know about Anne's powers, and she realizes that she just admitted to having powers before her. Her face turns red. Luckily, Luz speaks up. "We'll explain that as soon as Marcy gets here. That way we don't have to explain it twice."
Iva seems to accept that for now. The conversation in the large group splits into several smaller ones and about half an hour goes by when there is a sudden knock on the front door.
Anne, who is sitting on a beanbag with direct eye contact to the front door, watches Iva getting up and walking to the door. She tries to get a glimpse through the glass in the door before Iva opens it, but unfortunately Anne doesn't quite see who's in front of the door. Luckily, that's not necessary either. Luz had already revealed that Marcy would be coming. Her gaze is focused entirely on the front door. Her heart is racing with anticipation
Iva opens the door and Anne's eyes well up with tears of joy.
"Marcy?"
"Anne?"
"MARCY!"
"Anne!"
Anne jumps up from her beanbag, running towards Marcy with open arms, throwing them both to the ground.
"Oh my god, Marcy... I missed you so much..."
"Aww, I missed you too", Marcy giggles, hugging Anne even tighter. Eventually, Anne lets go of Marcy, but continues to kneel in front of her on the floor.
"Marcy... You look absolutely amazing. Your outfit, wow... You look like an Amazon warrior queen or something", Marcy blushes a little at Anne's compliments.
"I know, I know, right? This is my uniform", Marcy begins, standing up, "I'm the Chief Ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard."
Polly, who has been watching the whole scene, asks "Were those words?", while Anne just looks at Marcy with wide eyes. One could almost believe to have seen a sparkle in her eyes. When Marcy realizes that there are more people in the room, a certain nervousness rises in her.
"Umm... Anne?"
"Oh, right. Marcy, meet the Plantars. They are-", Anne introduces them in an amused tone.
"Oh, my gosh. Are they your surrogate frog family? Did they find you and took you in? Ugh, I love the found family trope!"
"Yep, the Plantars took me in. The one you got there is Hop Pop", Anne notes, while Marcy seems to be measuring Hop Pop's head.
"As I thought, 62 centimeters!", Marcy says, "Judging from the size of your cranium and flecks of sediment, you're a farmer in frog valley, right?", Hop Pop gasps at that.
"You can tell all that from just that?"
"Kinda. Maddie told me you're from Wartwood. But not, that you're a farmer. Oh Anne, I’m so jealous that you've found a farming community. I've been studying Amphibia history-", at that moment Iva listens up, "-and farm culture is super underappreciated in my opinion. You’re the backbone of society and do not get enough credit for it."
Luckily Hop Pop is sitting on a couch as he is about to fall backwards with his eyes wide open and dropped jar. "Thank you, thank you!"
"Hey, a pollywog!", Marcy says, turning to Polly.
"Hey there- Whoa", Polly says as she is held up by Marcy and against the large window that floods the entire living room with sunlight.
"Hmm, I'd say those legs should be coming in about... lemme think... two months, give or take.", Marcy guesses, to which Polly gasps.
"Can I get that in writing?", she asks hysterically.
While Marcy gladly creates a note for Polly with the approximate date, Sprig gives Luz a skeptical look, as if he wants to ask her something. He nods his head towards Marcy, whereupon Luz raises a hand and shakes her head. Sprig nods to Luz in acknowledgment and pulls a slingshot from his pants pocket. With a sense of confusion and concern, Luz watches Sprig, and as he picks something up off the ground to load his slingshot, Luz's arm shoots out to prevent what she thinks he was about to do.
"Don't.", she whispers.
"But I thought-"
"No!", Luz admonishes and Marcy turns to Sprig.
"Uhh, cool slingshot. Is that hardened hard-bog wood?", Marcy asks, to which Sprig nods. "Look, my crossbow is made of the same wood but has a ceramic coating on it. This makes the base pretty much indestructible. If you want, I could offer that for your slingshot as well."
"Interesting offer... But no, thanks", Sprig denies her offer in a clearly faked uninterested tone.
Meanwhile, Anne hears Polly and Hop Pop talking about a crossbow of her own, but quickly focuses her attention back on Marcy.
"Um, hey Mar-Mar..."
"Huh?"
"Just out of curiosity: did you leave this note for us?"
"Hm? Oh, that one... Yes. After I told King Andrias that you were about to arrive here in Amphibia, he insisted on taking care of your accommodation."
Suddenly Hop Pop screams.
"What? You know the king of Amphibia?"
"Uh-huh", Marcy confirms, "As Chief Ranger, I report directly to him. He also took me into his palace when I first arrived here in Amphibia-"
"You live in the palace?", Anne asks incredulously.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool", Marcy says as if it's nothing special while all the Plantars stare at her wide-eyed. When the silence in the room starts to get uncomfortable, Anne is the first to break the silence.
"I... I still can't believe you're actually here... You have to tell me everything you've experienced so far."
Marcy giggles "So do you. I hope you have photos... But that will have to wait a while. Because I have to talk to Luz first. Preferably not here."
Luz goes into an adjoining room with Marcy, and Iva, Anne, and the Plantars are now sitting alone in the living room.
"So... What do you guys think of Marcy?", Anne asks euphorically.
"I like her", Polly is the first to speak up.
"Oh, me too.", Hop Pop says.
"And you, buddy?", Anne asks, looking at Sprig who is visibly undecided. "I still don't know what to make of her. Luz seems to like her too and sure, on the surface she seems nice and harmless and all... But don't you remember Sasha?"
"Eh, I try not to", Hop Pop throws in between.
"Maybe it just takes time before you can trust her...", Anne says.
Meanwhile, Luz, Marcy, and the still-sleeping Maddie are in the next room, next to the stairs to the upper floor.
"Ohhh, cool...", Marcy marvels after Luz has closed the door behind her.
"Yeah, right? I had a friend on the Isles, Amity. She has a job at the largest library there and has her own private study room there. Except for the sleeping bags and the selection of books, this room looks exactly like her study room...", Luz recounts.
"You miss her…", Marcy observes.
"I miss all my friends... but yeah."
"Then I have good news. Here, for you.", Marcy pulls out two cards from a small fanny pack, which she hands over to Luz. "This will give you both unlimited access to the Royal Library. I have one for Anne too, but I'll give it to her later."
Luz is speechless and Marcy smiles slightly. Luz lunges forward and gives Marcy a big hug, which she is only too happy to return.
"Thank you.", Luz whispers.
"But there's also something else that you probably won't like that much...", Marcy says, now a bit more serious, whereupon Luz looks at her questioningly. "It's about what you told me yesterday before I left…"
Luz, needs a few seconds to remember what it was about.
"So? Do you believe me?", she asks, but Marcy hesitates.
"... ... I'm sorry, no.", Luz is disappointed, even though she actually expected this answer. But Marcy continues: "I... believe that you don't trust him. But try to look at it from my perspective: He took me in to his palace and took care of me. He helped me to become a better person and to reach my true potential. I trust him... But I trust you too. However, I don’t know of any evidence that he has anything other than the best in mind for me, as well as for Amphibia, and he will also help find a way back to Earth."
Suddenly, Luz isn't so sure about her doubts about King Andrias anymore.
'She's right... I don't have any evidence-'
Luz is jolted out of her thought process when suddenly something moves on the floor next to her.
"Could you two talk a little quieter? Some of us are trying to sleep...", Maddie mutters, in an extremely sleepy voice that is even deeper than usual.
"Maddie! You're awake", Luz rejoices and kneels down next to Maddie, "How are you? How are you feeling?"
"What? I just closed my eyes for a few minutes. No need to worry...", Luz and Marcy look at each other with concern.
"Maddie... You've slept for almost 30 hours...", Luz states, causing Maddie's eyes to widen. Marcy kneels down next to her.
"Maddie, what's the last thing you remember?", Marcy asks. There’re a few minutes of silence while Maddie tries to remember.
"You and Lady Olivia came bursting into our room. You were saying something about ants..."
"Extreme drowsiness, above-average sleep duration, partial memory loss...", Marcy murmurs to herself.
"You don't remember our fight with the Barbari-Ants? Or that you were eaten by their queen?", Luz wonders.
"I was what?", Maddie asks in shock and a certain concern is now visible on her face.
"Maddie, when was the last time you slept?", Marcy asks and Luz turns to her with a questioning look.
"The last time we were here I guess..."
"You haven't slept for almost a week??", Luz asks, a little louder than intended.
"Apparently…", Maddie replies.
"How? And why?", Luz asks.
"I guess I just couldn't. I mean, the occasional all-nighter is pretty normal for me, but almost a full week is something I would never do voluntarily..."
"When I'm back at the palace, I'll check what you guys got to eat. Maybe I can find out something..." Marcy says in a serious tone.
"Or maybe the palace is haunted...", Luz says jokingly, causing Maddie to roll her eyes.
"I should go back. Anne and I have a lot of catching up to do...", Marcy says, getting up from the floor.
"Anne? The Plantars are here?", Maddie asks, to which Luz and Marcy both nod.
"Oh, Marcy. Before you go, one more question: was your reunion with Anne the way you thought it would be?", Luz asks, and Marcy blushes slightly.
"Oh, um... actually, yes!", she says, looking at the floor, "I'm really curious about her adventures... And what happened to Sasha... See ya later"
Chapter 14: Painful Truths
Summary:
Anne and Marcy take time to share stories of past incidents.
Chapter Text
"So... What was it that you had to discuss so secretly with Luz?", Anne asks presumptuously, shortly after she and Marcy have left Iva's house together.
"I had gotten her something from the palace. Something she thinks can help her...", Marcy tells, "Besides, yesterday, she had confided something to me that I had to think about for a while for myself, and I wanted to avoid a possibly awkward situation..."
Anne gasps sharply.
"Does she have a crush on you?", Anne asks in a feigned hurt tone, to which Marcy starts laughing.
"Oh no, not at all. It was about King Andrias... She thinks he's up to something bad.", Marcy explains.
"Oh, okay. I'm reassured then...", Anne says before moving on to change the subject, "So what did you bring Luz from the palace?"
"Anne?", Marcy asks teasingly, "Are you jealous of her?"
"Nonono", Anne repeats evasively, "I'm just.... curious?"
"Well, I'm not going to tell you."
"What? Why not?"
"Because it's something I want to give you later, too. And I don't want to spoil the surprise..."
"Oh, come on Marbles...", Anne puts on her sad puppy eyes. It's very effective.
'Oh no... Not those cute puppy eyes...', Marcy muses, and her inner restraints disappear.
"I surrender. Here.", Marcy pulls out a small metal card from her tiny shoulder bag, and hands it to Anne. It's the same one Marcy gave to Luz and Maddie earlier. Marcy explains.
"Luz had told me that you were also looking for a way back to Earth. With this card, you have unlimited access to the Royal Library, and you can use it to visit me at the palace anytime while you're in Newtopia."
Anne is speechless. She slides her fingers over the card for several seconds before pressing it to herself.
"I don't know what to say... This is amazing. Thank you so much...", Anne says happily, taking Marcy into a tight, grateful hug. "So, you haven't found a way home yet either, have you?"
"No.", Marcy confirms, "But I also have to admit that I haven't really had the head to do extensive research."
Marcy's gaze is fixed on the ground as she and Anne continue walking at a leisurely pace.
"You know, it's kinda funny... I was hoping to find you for so long, but now that I've found you, I have no idea what to do next... Well, except find a way home."
"Well, even if we should find a way back, it's useless without Sasha...", Marcy unfortunately realizes just too late what exactly she just said. Immediately she begins to regret it as she looks into Anne's eyes, in which tears are already forming, "I'm sorry, Anne... Luz had told me that something had happened between you two... I shouldn't have mentioned her- I'm so sorry."
"She did?", Anne merely asks, without a trace of negativity in her voice. "What did she tell you?"
"She just said that something happened, and that it didn't end well. Luz said I'd better hear it from you..."
"Hm... Part of me wishes she had told you...", Anne says with sadness in her voice. Marcy quickly looks around the area, remembering that there is a small park nearby that is hardly visited at this time of day. She takes Anne's hand and leads her into the park, and to a secluded bench where both girls sit down together.
"Do you want to talk about it?", Marcy asks softly, trying to be as supportive as possible. Anne leans her head onto Marcy's shoulder, who in turn leans her head against Anne's head.
"Sasha, she... ... I failed, Marcy. I failed and couldn’t... And- and Luz and Sprig... they suspected it, and they warned me... But I didn't listen-", Anne started to explain, before heavy tears begin to flow from her eyes. Marcy embraces her tightly, trying to comfort her.
"Shh, it's okay. You don't have to tell me if it's too hard for you...", Marcy whispers.
Anne takes a few moments to catch her breath, before continuing, "Sasha... She killed Hop Pop."
Marcy gasps sharply and tightens her embrace around Anne.
"I was so stupid, Marcy. Luz and Sprig suspected that Sasha was up to something... But I trusted her instead of them. I thought she was my friend and that she wouldn't hurt anyone...", heavy sobbing follows.
"It's alright, Anne. You couldn't have known...", Marcy reassures her, stroking her hair. But Anne shakes her head.
"No... ... Luz woke me up in the middle of the night. And... and there was blood on the floor- his blood... All the way from his room, out to the front door...", Anne hiccups, "Luz and I, we- we followed the trail of blood. and eventually, we- we..."
"You found them.", Marcy finishes her sentence. Anne nods shakingly, and takes a deep shuddering breath before continuing.
"We found her... Both of us... And Sasha, she just stood there... She dropped him onto the ground... There was a... a...", Anne hiccups again, "She stabbed him. In the back."
Anne buries her face into Marcy's shoulder, grabbing tightly onto her shirt as if she was trying to hold onto something for dear life. Marcy holds her close and tight, letting her cry her heart out, heavier that she ever seen her cry before.
As soon as Anne breaks the hug again, she moves back into an upright position and wipes some tears from her face. Marcy notices her hair start moving.
"Luz... she attacked her first, but I... I ran to him. He was barely breathing, and he was so pale. I knew he was going to die, Marcy... I just knew it... I was so scared, and I couldn't do anything to help him... But- but he smiled at me. He said he loved me... like- like his own... granddaughter"
At that very moment, Anne collapses into Marcy's embrace, her face buried in Marcy's shoulder again, just as a very strong blue shock wave spreads out from her, rippling through all of Newtopia and beyond. Marcy, being quite perplexed and close to tears herself, can only hold onto Anne, feeling as she clings onto her with more and more strength.
"A-Anne... please stop...", Marcy pleads as Anne continues crying, "I can't bear that you're torturing yourself like this..."
"You should- you have to know what happened...", Anne replies between sobs. Marcy falls silent and looks away, too afraid to speak. Seconds pass in silence and then, Anne continues.
"After that... he dies in my arms... ... and- and everything was blue. I was so... so full of hate. I attacked Sasha- I punched her again and again and again... I... broke her swords... I wanted to kill her, Marcy. I wanted to kill her so badly..."
"Oh, Anne..."
"... I... I passed out, right before... I was able to... to...", Anne can't finish her sentence, "And when I regained consciousness... she was gone. Sprig and Polly found us shortly after that... and after them, the whole village. Maddie was there too... She and Luz took Hop Pop's body somewhere... Luz came back after a while, and... And he was alive. I was so happy at that moment..."
Annes grief and sorrow slowly begin to subside as she recounts her story. Marcy, too, finds her tears slowly disappearing, and her heart finally starting to feel lighter. Yet Anne's body is still shaking. Marcy hugs Anne tightly.
"I'm so, so sorry, Anne...", Marcy puts her arms on Anne's shoulders, and she leans her forehead against Anne's. The tips of their noses are touching too. Anne looks up, and their eyes meet, "I'm so sorry you had to go through this, Anne... And I'll be there for you, anytime. Whenever you need me."
The two girls remain in their embrace for a long time. They were lucky that this part of Newtopia was almost empty at this time, as no one would disturb that comfortable silence.
"Anne?", Marcy whispers softly.
"Yes?", Anne replies, her voice still trembling a little. She wipes the last tears from her eyes.
"I... I missed you soo much."
"I missed you too, Marcy." Anne smiles, her face still wet from her tears, but she looks calmer now.
"A-and I think... I have something to confess to you. I... did something incredibly stupid and selfish and... maybe you'll hate me for it."
"Marcy, I could never hate you.", Marcy takes a deep breath.
'I want to believe you so much...', Marcy thinks to herself, before summoning up enough courage to finally tell Anne the truth.
"It's my fault that we were teleported to Amphibia. Please don't hate me...", Marcy squeezes her eyes shut, waiting for Anne's reaction and anticipation of something bad happening. It takes a while before Anne's voice breaks the silence again.
"What?", Anne asks softly and Marcy looks up, meeting Anne's gaze. "H-How could that be your fault?? No one could have known what would happen!"
Marcy hesitates for a second, lowering her eyes.
"M-Marcy? What did you do?", Annes voice is now filled with concern. Concern and confusion. Marcy takes a deep breath and finally let's it out.
"The day we left, your birthday, they told me my dad got a new job out of state... They were making me move away, they were gonna tear us apart... Then I... I found the box. I... I had no idea it would actually work, but it did... It sent us to a place where we'd never have to grow apart, where we could stay together forever... But... that was wrong. I ripped you and Sasha out of your lives, away from your parents... It's my fault, you had to go through so much pain and suffering... ... Just because I didn't want to be alone... I'm so sorry, Anne.", Marcy looks back up from the ground, into Anne's eyes, hoping she would understand... However, Anne's face doesn't show understanding, but rather shock and betrayal... "Can- can you ever forgive me?"
Anne jumps up from the bench and starts pacing, trying to understand what Marcy just told her. She doesn't say anything for a few moments, and Marcy starts to feel more and more scared.
"I... I can't believe it!", Anne stammers, shaking her head, "I-I mean... How could you? How could you do something so selfish and stupid?"
Marcy looks down again, and starts trembling, not knowing what to say.
"A-Anne... I-", Marcy stammers, but Anne interrupts her.
"No, Marcy... Stop. Don't say anything else. I... I need some time to think about this. I... I need to be alone right now."
Anne turns around and starts running away, leaving Marcy behind on the bench, feeling completely devastated. She curls up into a ball, her mind and heart racing in confusion and guilt. She should have told Anne the truth sooner, she shouldn't have let herself be so selfish... Marcy looks up to the sky, a few tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I just didn't want to be alone...", she whispers, before burying her face in her hands.
The sun has already set, and the night has fully settled in, as Marcy slowly begins to realize that Anne isn't coming back. She slowly stands up, and starts walking back towards the palace, her head down and her heart heavy. She's already planning to cry herself to sleep once she's back in her own room.
'Great job Marcy. Not only is it my fault that Sasha might be dead, the most important person in my life hates me now... If I only had never found that stupid box...'
Arriving at the palace, she immediately makes her way straight to her room. To her surprise, she runs into King Andrias, who seems to notice the sadness in her body language.
"Marcy, it's late... Is something wrong?", he asks her in a concerned voice.
"Not now.", she replies void of emotion, not even looking up.
"Mar-"
"I said NOT NOW!", she yells, her voice echoing in the hallway. The King takes a step back, startled by Marcy's sudden outburst. She runs away from him, crying her eyes out as she runs up the stairs leading to her room.
Once she arrives in her room, she slams the door shut and falls onto her bed, burying her face in her pillow and letting out a heart-wrenching sob and lets her tears flow freely. She had been so scared of being alone, but now she was alone and in pain, and it was all her own fault.
'Why do I always have to ruin everything??'
Marcy remains in the position, until she eventually gathers the strength to get back up and change into her pyjamas. Before she goes back to bed, there's a knock on her door.
She ignores it.
Another knock.
"Go away! I don't want to talk to anyone right now!", Marcy yells and buries her face in her pillow again.
"Marcy?"
Marcy's eyes are wide open in surprise as she recognizes the voice. She rapidly gets up from the bed and runs to the door, her pulse racing.
Marcy opens the door and Anne rushes in, her eyes red from crying, and she wraps her arms around Marcy, pulling her into a tight hug. Marcy freezes for a couple of seconds, before gradually returning the hug, wrapping her arms around Anne and burying her face in her shoulder.
"But... but I thought you hated me?", Marcy whispers, her voice trembling. Anne pulls away and looks into Marcy's eyes.
"I was angry and sad, Marcy. But I said I could never hate you, and I meant it."
"So... Can you forgive me?", Marcy asks, her voice still trembling. Anne smiles and wipes away the last tears from her eyes.
"No. But you are extremely important to me, Marcy. And you told me the truth when didn't have to. It... it will probably take me a while to forgive you, but this... this is a start."
Anne and Marcy stand in silence for a few moments, before they both break out of their hug.
"May I... stay here tonight?", Anne asks, "If not, it's not too far to-"
"YES!", Marcy interrupts her, her eyes beaming with joy, "Of course you can stay! I... I don't want to be alone tonight either."
Chapter 15: A Tower's Tale
Summary:
*clears throat* Sasha
Notes:
Hi everyone.
I was so excited to finally be able to write this chapter. Actually, my plan was to reiterate the principle of chapter 8: A few shorter stories combined into one chapter. But the thing is, what I wrote is more than twice as long as the whole of Chapter 8. So I'm releasing the stories as Chapters 15 and 16 pretty much back-to-back.Great things are waiting for you. Enjoy
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Dear Diary...
Today I was finally allowed to g
Ugh… This sucks. Grime told me to keep this stupid journal to help me recover my memories. Well, at least I'm not tied to the hospital wing anymore, and I'm even allowed to lead missions again, if only recon missions.
Having only one good eye sucks, and the blind spot is pretty much a hindrance when it comes to fighting.
Speaking of fights: A few days ago, I was able to remember something. I had done the job, but this other human girl, Liz or something, had spotted me. We fought against each other. But then again, that was all I can remember.
In fact, if she was the one who could hurt me that badly, I would have to admit that I grossly underestimated her. She may be as strong as a twig emotionally, but she can fight...
Anyway, it's great to finally have something to do again. Grime said some people from Newtopia would be arriving in a few days. However, I haven't the slightest idea what could be the reason for this... *sarcasm off*
Ohhh, I know…
It could possibly have something to do with the burgeoning frog rebellions that are happening in some of the villages in the valley. They’re considering that one frog what-was-his-name a martyr.
Grime's first idea, of course, was to flood the valley with soldiers and kill capture all the frogs associated with the rebellion.
I would really be interested to know where this murderous lust suddenly came from.
Well, whateveeer. I was able to talk him out of it and persuade him to take a more diplomatic route instead. I mean, sure, Grime wants to be feared and respected. But he can forget that when there is nobody left to fear and respect him.
So, I suggested that he and I meet with the leaders of the rebellion somewhere neutral and have a... chat. The meeting is scheduled for this evening. Percy and Braddock will be with us.
"What? Seriously? Here?"
"Is there a problem with this location, Lieutenant?"
"This is a cemetery..."
"May I remind you that this whole thing was your idea?"
The sun has just disappeared behind Amphibia's horizon when a small troop, led by Sasha and Grime, arrives at the spot that Grime and the representatives of the rebellion, had previously agreed upon.
Believe it or not, this isn't the first time the frogs in the valley have attempted to rebel against the toads. Every two to three generations there is a major conflict between these two parties, which has always resulted in losses for the frogs. The last really big war between frogs and toads took place four-hundred-and-ninety-eight years ago, and resulted in the almost complete extinction of the frogs that lived in the valley. Even the Newtopian army has had to get involved in the war after a while to protect the frog population, but without actively attacking the toads. That this turned out to be ineffective was shown some time later when the toads and frogs faced each other in an open battle. A great many lives were taken on both sides that day and over time this place has been used time and time again for gatherings in times of crisis.
"This is the 'Point Weatrôj', named after the biggest battle in all of Amphibia between toads and frogs. And yes, it does not just look like a cemetery, it's a cemetery. For centuries, frogs, toads, and even newts from all of Amphibia have come here again and again to, in one way or another, end their conflicts. And since we have no army with us today, I really hope you do have a plan, Sasha."
"I just do what I’m the best at.", Sasha says full of conviction, while Grime sighs. "What was that? Do you doubt me?"
"I'm aware of your abilities to manipulate people, and I know you're making good use out of it. But this is not just a few simple soldiers that you can easily wrap around your finger. Every frog here in the valley wants to get rid of us, and that for centuries, and since it was not possible to end this rebellion still in their early stages, we are facing a problem. I hope you understand that..."
"But of course, I understand that. Nothing to worry about, Grimsey"
Grime grumbles, but Sasha overhears that and the group continues towards a lighted area. Once they arrive there, Grime orders the other toads to wait, and only intervene when things seem to escalate.
Sasha and Grime approach a big, heavy-looking stone table standing by some burning torches that protrude out of the ground. There are several very old looking blood stains on the table. The whole area around the table is surrounded with a pretty low, almost round and partially broken wall. At some distance, a few bald trees can be seen, which are illuminated only by the reflecting red light of the moon. This whole scenery reminds Sasha on cliché horror movies.
It doesn't take long for the representatives of the Frog Rebellion to arrive. While Sasha didn't really have a clear idea of what to expect from the rebels, she's still quite surprised right now.
No weapons, no armor... They seem almost too harmless. One of the two frogs is quite small, has light green skin, wears a dark overall and a hat so big that it completely covers his eyes.
'Why is he wearing a hat that completely blocks his vision? And why at night?', Sasha wonders to herself.
The other frog is built similar to Grime. He has two small horns on his head. Marcy might be better able to tell her what kind of frog he is. He also wears a dark overall, but with a light-colored shirt underneath.
"Howdy", the larger frog greets Sasha and Grime. "Name's Ben. This is Chuck"
"I grow tulips.", the smaller frog says.
"Greetings. I'm Captain Grime. This is my second-in-commend, Sasha.", Grime introduces them in a serious tone. The two frogs are looking at each other.
'Seriously... how can this guy see anything???', she thinks to herself before being elbowed by Grime.
"Oh right. What are your demands?", Sasha asks.
"We wan’ the independence of Frog Valley, ‘s well as the surrender of the tower. In addition, all toads b’longing to the Toad Army must leave the valley."
"THIS IS RIDICULOUS... That's totally-", Grime yells and walks away from the table before Sasha starts whistling, which gets his attention. "Hey. Remember what we talked about?"
As Grime furiously stomps back toward the table, Ben leans in to whisper something to Sasha.
"’mpressive. Grime listens to ya?"
"Oh, he does everything I say"
"Interesting…", Ben responds as he leans away again and Grime arrives at the table.
"Say Ben, why do you want to be independent?"
"Every year the Toad Army raids o’r villages, destroys o’r fields and robs us. Not to mention the outrageous taxes that r’ barely enough to live with. And the toads live like kings. They take everything from us and we r’ left with almost nothing "
"And what about all the good things the toads are doing for you?", Sasha asks to which Ben starts laughing out loud in response.
"Never in the history of Amphibia have the toads done anything good for us.", he explains a few minutes later. Sasha looks at Grime, who just shrugs. The prerequisites for Sasha to find an optimal solution to this conflict are more than bad. In hindsight, Sasha should have thought it through better, but she's not ready to admit defeat.
"How about we change that, then?", Sasha suggests.
"How d’ ya mean dat?"
"Well…", Sasha begins, "if the Toads have been treating you so badly for so long, we'll just change that..."
This time, not only Ben starts laughing, but everyone except Sasha. Her serious expression remains unchanged.
"Oh, you're serious?", Grime asks, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Uh... YES!", she says in frustration.
"Even I know that's an impossibility", Ben states, who now somehow lost his accent, "Being nice isn't possible for toads. It's against their nature."
"We can be nice...", Grime replies roughly.
"It's true. I had shown him that it would make him... umm... more respected."
Ben snorts derogatory.
"Listen, Sasha. Just having Captain Grime at this table with us right now, is something no one would have thought possible just a few months ago, so I'm willing to give you a leap of faith. If you can get all the toads not to behave like, well...toads towards the frogs, it might prevent further escalation from here.", Ben says.
"Grimsey, what do you think?", Sasha whispers to Grime.
"That sounds... time-consuming, but doable in the long term...", he says loudly and holds out his hand to Ben. Ben takes his hand and holds it with unexpected force, while looking straight at Sasha.
"You made a lot of promises here today, Sasha Waybright..."
"Wait, how do you know my full name?"
"I know quite a few things about you. Like that you enjoy manipulating people for your own advantages. That you are ready to stab people in the back who are close to you. I know you killed Hopediah Plantar. Well, at least for a while...", Ben says with an intimidating look.
"B-but... what??? He's alive? How?"
"Thanks for just admitting that, Sasha. Granted, I don't know exactly how it's possible that he's alive. But he is."
"One last question, Ben. How do you know so much about me?"
Ben lets go of Grime's hand, which has turned red in the meantime, and leans onto the table to Sasha, looking intently into her eyes.
"Sasha, do you know who's leading this rebellion?"
"That plantar frog?!", she guesses, hoping that her suspicions would not be confirmed. Ben watches the fear in her eyes, that she's trying to hide.
"No. You know exactly who's leading it... Good night, Captain Grime. Sasha..."
Ben turns and Chuck takes off his hat, bows and says goodbye with the words "I grow tulips". Sasha and Grime are still standing at the table, a bit speechless, when Ben turns to the two of them one last time.
"One more thing: If nothing changes on the part of the toads, you will lose a lot more than maybe your remaining good eyes."
And before they know it, Ben and Chuck are disappearing into the darkness.
"I wasn't expecting that...", Grime admits while walking back. "He completely saw through you..."
"So, what do we do now?", Sasha asks, a little stumped.
"If you don't intend to actually keep your promise, we may have to get rid of your friend Anne-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW IF SHE IS LEADING THE REBELLION!", she yells into Grime's face.
"But you know!", he replies loudly.
"No! Anne could never hurt even a butterfly without crying like a baby for days afterwards"
"Maybe you don't know Anne as well as you thought you did"
Grime and Sasha arrive back at where they left Percy and Braddock earlier, who must have been having a good time. The entire time on the way back to Toad Tower, the group remained silent.
It wasn't long before the group came into view from the tower again and Sasha just wanted to throw herself into bed to finally end this day. However, there was one thing she wasn't expecting. The entire group falls to the ground as a shock wave suddenly swept over them. Thanks to her acrobatic skills, Sasha was able to quickly get up again, and watched the shock wave follow and she noticed something weird yet familiar: It’s blue.
"Anne...", she whispers to herself, her eyes widening in shock as a buried memory resurfaces. She falls to her knees with her hands in front of her mouth, and with tears in her eyes. Grime gets up again and walks to her.
"Are you okay, Sasha?", She merely looks at him.
"I remember again... You... you were right"
"What was I right about? What do you remember?". Grime sounds... genuinely concerned.
"Anne... she did this to me... she... almost killed me..."
"You know, sometimes I wish I was wrong. Come on. It's not far anymore", Grime offers Sasha a hand and the group, a little slower, make their way to the tower.
Notes:
Soo... Tell me what you guys think.
[No comments about Ben's accent]
Chapter 16: Meanwhile on the Boiling Isles
Summary:
The chapter you've all been waiting for
Notes:
With this chapter we reached a huge milestone: 50,000 words
I never thought I could ever write a story that long. And the best thing is: I'm far from done <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A few weeks ago…
"Well, folks, Eda the Owl Lady has appeared on stage, which means the petrification process is about to begin", the reporter seen in the crystal ball reports. The camera is aimed at a high platform, from the center of which a gate opens and a cage is raises out of the ground.
'Is that Eda? That must be this curse that Luz told me about'
Amity is lying on her bed, still with her broken ankle that she sustained in her Grudgby match. To pass the time, she's been flipping through all the countless boring channels and now she's stuck on this live broadcast.
Next to Eda's cage, another person appears, who doesn't introduce themselves. However, Amity knows that this is Kikimora. Her mentor Lilith had once introduced them to each other during a tour of the Emperor's Palace.
Kikimora walks over to a set of switches on the left end of the platform and flips a few of them. Another hatch opens next to Eda's cage and a strange contraption emerges. Amity has never witnessed a petrification in her life, and this contraption is just as intimidating as the thought of petrification itself.
'Knowing Luz, she's going to try to save Eda... Stupid cast... If I didn't have you, I could help her'
Suddenly more people enter the platform while the petrification device begins charging up.
"LILITH???", Amity screams, aghast.
"And in a shocking turn of events, head coven leader Lilith Clawthorne is now in the holding cage, escorted by what appears to be a deranged cat.", the reporter comments from the crystal ball, when suddenly Augustus appears in the picture and Willow takes the microphone away from him.
'Willow???'
"Yeah, what's happening to Eda isn't right. She might not always follow the rules, but she hasn't done anything worthy of petrification. The emperor should let Eda go."
"Let Eda go!", Augustus calls from behind Willow. The spectators who have gathered for the petrification at the Conformatorium join in, shouting alongside Willow and Augustus.
"Let Eda go! Let Eda go!".
During the tracking shot across the crowd, not only are many of Amity's acquaintances there demanding Eda's release, surprisingly even a few guards join in.
'Did Lilith betray the emperor? Why? The Emperor’s Coven has been her whole life...' Amity looks up from the crystal ball to the poster hanging on the wall next to her. 'Are all of these just lies? TALK TO ME!'
Before she can continue mentally yelling at the poster on her wall, something strange seems to be happening at the Conformatorium. The whole area seems to shake unusually violently and the petrification machine activates. The tremors calm down quickly, but painful screams can be heard from the cage. In a close-up shot she can now see how the two witches and the demon are slowly being turned into stone. Eda is the first to complete the petrification process. Her demon is the next one. Lilith looks helplessly and desperately at the camera, and she too has now been completely petrified.
Amity's stomach turns at the sight, and she is forced to look away from the crystal ball.
'Wait... Why hasn't Luz shown up? Eda and her demon were the only family that she had here. She would never stand by while they were taken away from her forever'
She opens her scroll and immediately opens up Willow's contact:
HELLO_WILLOW
Willow. Where is Luz?
I don’t know. Gus and I had thought that she would also be here in the Conformatorium to free Eda but we didn't see her
Suddenly, Amity notices Emperor Belos stepping onto the platform. There seems to be a small piece missing from his mask
"Children of the Isles... By the Titan's will, these criminals were turned to stone. Let their fate be a lesson about the dangers of wild magic. The body of the Owl Lady will be on display in Bonesborough Market as a warning never to defy the Titan's will."
HELLO_WILLOW
I'm sure something happened to her. Did you see the emperors cracked mask?
Gus and I are going to go look for her. I've even asked a few people who are going to help us.
I'm coming too
No!
What no? Of course I will help find her
Do you still have your cast?
…
I’ll take that as a yes. You're not going to be of any help to us if you only have one working leg
I can create an Abomination that can carry me
I know you're dying to help, but you're no help while hurt.
Curse you, Boscha!
Hehe
Look, if you really want to help, your mother knows oracle magic, right? Maybe she can- wait, never mind. I was just remembering what kind of witch she is
Willow…
Yeah, sorry.
You can't expect me to sit idly by at home while you guys go off looking for Luz
Look at it this way: the quicker your leg heals, the quicker you'll both be reunited.
Is this an allusion for something?
I'll let you know when we find her.
Bye
Amity reluctantly decides to stay in bed and follow Willow's advice. She tries to convince herself that Luz has nothing to do with the fact that Emperor Belos’ mask is missing a piece. Although in vain.
She tries to get her mind off things. Like her own mentor, Lilith, betraying her coven, throwing away the future she theoretically would have had. But Amity's future is also uncertain now. She's only sure of two things: on the one hand, she definitely doesn't want to be in the Emperor’s Coven anymore, and on the other hand, she wants Luz to be okay. The latter perhaps more than anything else...
A couple days later…
Yesterday Amity's cast has been removed, and today is the first day she's able to go back to school. Her mother urged the healers to take down the cast sooner and for once, she actually agreed with her.
For the past few days, Amity has been chatting with Willow and even Gus almost non-stop, hoping they'll find Luz. However, there is no sign of her so far. Since school starts again today, she hopes that Luz will be there, even if the odds are not too good.
She doesn't really care about school at the moment. In fact, nothing matters right now. Not the classes, not her grades, not her parents, not her siblings, not her status as a top student... Absolutely nothing, except to find Luz.
Usually, Amity walks to school together with Edric and Emira, but eventually breaks away from them and waits for Boscha, Skara, and/or Amelia. Today, however, she runs past her mother, who wishes Ed and Em a productive day, out of the house, ignoring her mother's urging her to come back, focused on her destination: Hexside. She ignores everything and everyone until she reaches her destination. She's criss-crossing the whole campus and through the whole building and... nothing. No sign of Luz.
She heads back to the main entrance. Since school hasn't started yet, she hopes there's a chance she just hasn't arrived yet. So, with that, Amity waits at the main entrance for a while, as the whole student body walks past her. No one seems to notice Amity, even though she's sitting right on the steps leading up to the entrance.
After a while, Willow and Augustus appear, who seem to head straight towards Amity.
"Hey Amity...", Willow greets.
"Hey, Willow. Augustus.", she greets back.
"You really don't look well right now... quite depressed actually…", Augustus notes. Usually, she would give him at least a verbal slap in the face for that, but right now, he's absolutely right. For a while, silence surrounds the group. Willow and Augustus look at her, but Amity's gaze is on the floor.
"It's because of Luz, isn't it?", Willow asks in a sad voice. Amity nods. Silence again. "I know how you feel. Luz is my best friend-", Willow says, but is cut off by Amity, who is now starring directly into her eyes.
"You haven't the slightest idea how I feel!", she says sharply, "She... she's the best thing that ever happened to me in my fucking life.", Willow is shocked at that. She has never heard her former best friend swear like that before, "She managed to make me feel like someone would actually be happy to see me for once for who I am, and make me feel like I meant something to her. I never got to tell her how much she actually meant to me. And now she's gone. Just like-"
Amity suddenly realizes what she actually said just now, as Willow and Augustus stare at her wide-eyed.
"I... need to go", she says, and runs off.
She runs for a while to make sure no one is following her. She had heard Willow call her name a couple of times, but now all is quiet. She doesn't know for sure where she is. Except that she's probably in the middle of a forest.
'I can't do this... I can't be among witches who all pretend nothing happened. As if Luz didn't...'
Sorrow washes over her as she wanders aimlessly through the forest for what feels like hours. At some point she begins to hear the boiling sea, and directly walks towards this source of noise. She crosses a path that she doesn't immediately recognize and walks along this path towards the source of the noise. In addition to the waves crashing against a shore somewhere, Amity now hears something else.
"HOOOT!"
"AAHHH!", Amity yells before falling backwards. "You? I walked all the way to the Owl House?"
"You look sad. Who hurt my best friend's friend? Hoot"
Amity chuckles. Quite unusual for her. However, that is changing quickly as she asks "Say, is Luz home?"
"Nope. I haven't seen her since she went to save Eda. That must have been a few hours ago..."
Amity's heart breaks into a thousand pieces as she hears this, and more tears form in her eyes. 'Oh no... he has no idea what happened... Can I really tell him?'
"Hooty, um... That was several days ago"
"Hm?", Hooty gives her a questioning look after being distracted by a bug flying through the air next to him. "Eda... She was petrified. Just like King. And Lilith... And Luz is... she's... gone…", Amity admits, her gaze never leaving the ground. And again, silence fills the the space around her. Only the water of the boiling sea can be heard. Hooty speaks up
"You can come in if you want. I won't bother you.", Nothing more can be heard of his eccentric, optimistically cheerful nature. "I'll be back later".
He rams his head into the ground and seems to be burrowing somewhere. Amity carefully enters the Owl Lady's house. And as if her heart wasn't broken enough, it only gets worse as she enters the living room. Multi-colored garlands, balloons, confetti and party hats are scattered throughout the room. There is a huge cake on the living room table, and something must have exploded on top. And next to the cake is a loose ribbon with a card next to it, which Amity picks up and sits down on a couch before reading it.
TO A YOUNG WITCH FROM HER PROUD MENTOR - EDA
That's when all the dams burst inside Amity and she breaks down completely. She falls sideways onto the couch and pulls her legs up to her chest. The sorrow in their tears and the intensity of her sobs can be felt throughout the house. Fortunately, there is currently no one who can see her so emotionally vulnerable at the moment. Unfortunately, she knows that that bird tube will come back sooner or later. But before that can actually happen, Amity falls asleep.
She herself has only been to the Owl Lady's house three time in her life before. The first time, she helped Luz restore Willow's memories, which she had accidentally destroyed… The second time she had helped Luz train for Grom, and the third time, she was invited to celebrate her victory in the Grudgby match against Boscha, along with Luz and her other friends. Well, it wasn't a victory on points, just on an emotional level. It was still nice though.
And now... Amity is alone in the owl lady's house, and she knows that she really shouldn't be there. At the same time, it feels like a safe haven. Like a place where she can be herself, without any expectations being laid on her, without any stress and without worries. Perhaps she will come here more often in the future. Despite Hooty...
Amity wakes up again when she hears a loud knock against wood.
'Is he back already?', she wonders and opens her eyes, which are still pretty red and a somewhat swollen.
"Willow?", she asks when she notices who is standing in the doorway.
"Oh, Ami..."
"No, stop! I don't want your pity... What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing", she says snippy, and gradually walks over to the couch, and sits down next to her.
"Hooty came into school earlier and told me you were here. Got everyone pretty rattled as he meandered through the hallways", Willow says, amused.
"I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you earlier."
"Apology accepted. But why did you go here of all places?"
Amity chuckles. "When I ran away, I just wanted to get away. I had no destination. Just wanted to get away… From everything. After a while I ran into Hooty, and he said I could come in if I wanted to."
"And the way you look, you've been crying for a long time..."
Amity nods.
"I have to apologize too", Willow says at which Amity looks confused, "I said earlier that I know how you would feel. That was insensitive of me. I know you care more about Luz than anyone else... and also that you feel more towards her than towards others... right?"
"You got me...", Amity blushes and grins. "How did you find out?"
"Seriously? Your crush on Luz was so obvious, I think everyone knew it. Well, except Gus... and Luz herself..."
Amity and Willow continue talking for a while, mostly about how oblivious Luz is. Hooty joins them too eventually, which neither girl seems to mind. Plans are even thrown around about how they could get the two girls together. There is a lot of laughter and some eating of the huge cake, which, considering its age, still tastes surprisingly good.
After a little more than two hours, Willow says it's time to go home.
"Amity, do you want me to walk you home?", Willow offers.
"Yes, that would be nice. I think I can expect some trouble from Mom for skipping class today..."
"Unlikely.", Willow says to Amity’s surprise, "Gus created an illusion of you that took your place today. You don't need to worry about that..." Amity has tears in her eyes again. Tears of joy.
"Willow... I really didn't deserve you as a friend.", Amity wraps Willow in a big hug.
"You really should say thank you to Gus. But I'm happy to pass your hug on to him.", Willow jokes and Amity laughs.
"I'll thank him when I get home. Oh, I almost forgot something...", Amity says, turning back towards the Owl House and calling out to Hooty.
"Hey, Hooty. If you want, I'll come visit you again soon", She doesn't understand what Hooty is replying due to her distance from the house, but he curls up and seems pretty happy about it.
"You know, after what Luz once told me, you really can't stand him...", Willow notes.
"It was like that too. But today... was nice. And I have the feeling that I'm changing too..."
"I think that's great. You're really becoming a better version of yourself... And Luz will see that too once she gets back here."
"You think?"
"But absolutely. Not even Belos would be able to keep Luz away from you. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow tricked her and sent her back to the human realm. And I wouldn't be surprised if she's there, working on a way to come back and kick his ass."
"Thank you, Willow. You’re really a great friend"
"The best.", Willow corrects her with a content smile on her face.
The rest of the week is fairly uneventful. Amity goes to school normally, and it doesn't seem to bother anyone that suddenly a student, especially a human student, suddenly no longer shows up. But she tries to hold back her distaste for this behavior, and not break anyone’s bones on Hexside because of that.
For the weekend, Amity had promised her parents that she would help out at the Blight Industries demonstration. So far, Edric and Emira had always done it, but she was probably old enough to be on stage herself. For the most part, that was going well, up until the moment a photo detached from a sleeve of her dress, fell to the ground, and was almost destroyed by one of her father's Abomaton soldiers, and Amity instinctively destroyed the Abomaton herself. Her mother was quite upset about this and told her to put on a better show at the next demonstration.
Of course, this action did not go unpunished, and that's why her parents showed up in Hexside the next day. Amity is talking to Willow and Gus when suddenly the speakers in the hall activate.
"You can't just come in here", they hear Principal Bump argue.
"Yes, we can.", they hear a second female voice speaking, "We are the parent-creature-association... Luz Noceda, Willow Park and Augustus Porter. Report to Principal Bumps office immediately. And you too, Amity."
"MOM??", Amity calls out in surprise, and Willow and Gus look at her. "This is not good..."
"I'm sure nothing bad will happen. Right, Willow?", Gus asks optimistically, to which Willow looks skeptical.
"Come on. We shouldn't keep her waiting", Amity rushes.
Arriving in Bump's office, Amity notices her parents standing on either side of Principal Bump. Her mother, Odalia, looks visibly angry, while her father, Alador, just looks tired and bored.
Since Amity is the last one to enter the room, she closes the door behind her and sits down in one of the two free chairs, right next to Willow.
"Where's the human?", Odalia demands to know.
"We don't know.", Amity replies.
"Don't lie to me! I know you're friends with this... human", she says reproachfully.
"We really don't know where she is. She disappeared during the last petrification ceremony…", Willow explains.
"Oh... I didn't... realize that", Bump admits. He sounds sad.
"Of course, you didn't notice! Nobody seems to have noticed! The only human on the Isles disappears without a trace, and absolutely nobody seems to care!", Amity calls out with an unprecedented aggressiveness. Willow puts a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
"AMITY!", Odalia yells, who seems to calm down quickly. "We'll talk about that later... First we'll talk about you both, since the human doesn't want to show up."
She now looks at Willow and Gus, while Amity gives her an exasperated look.
"The Abomination situation, the destruction of detention, the rampage of Grom... These are but a few incidents that have endangered Hexside students, including our daughter. So, the PCA has decided...", she clears her throat as a prompt for Alador to continue now.
"Oh, right. These two are bad influences and must be executed." The three students gasp heavily until he corrects himself. "I mean, expelled." Willow and Gus are even more shocked now and Amity now looks over at her friends worriedly. However, before she can say anything, her talisman activates and she hears her mother’s voice within her head.
‘Take this as a lesson, mittens. A Blight always upholds their end of the deal’
Amity is now visibly unsettled and looks down ashamed.
Bump now speaks up: "Sadly, I have no choice in the matter. Willow, Augustus, effective immediately, you are no longer students of Hexside. Should Luz reappear, this order will apply to her as well."
Willow and Augustus look at Amity for help.
"NO!", Amity shouts, surprising Odalia. "I won't let you ruin my friends' lives."
"Amity, I think you're forgetting where your place is…", Odalia says in a direct tone to Amity, whose blood appears to be boiling at the moment.
"No, now you listen to me, mother!", Amity yells angrily as she rips the necklace with the talisman from her neck, and breaks it into small pieces with one hand. "I promised you that I would help with your stupid demonstration and if you don't leave my friends alone now and, in the future, I will personally make sure that you never sell a single weapon or Abomaton ever again."
"You're bluffing! You would also damage your own future by doing so", Odalia warns her. It's never been easy for Amity to gauge what her mother is thinking or feeling (if she has any feelings at all), but right now she notices fear in her mother's eyes. Amity has never stood up to her parents ever before, but it seems effective.
"Are you willing to take the risk?", Odalia remains silent and appears to be weighing her options. Everyone else in the room, including Alador, is watching this interaction with great interest.
"This is taking too long. Father, is the intruder alarm activated at home?", Alador nods at that, and she walks over to the window of Principal Bump's office, opens it and yells "HOOTY!" as loud as she can. She turns to the people in the office and coolly says "He'll be right here"
Willow and Gus sense Amity's plans and exchange meaningful looks. Amity's parents and Bump are just confused right now. Less than a minute later, Hooty appears at the window Amity just called him from.
"Hello, bestie. Uh, are those your parents?"
"Yes, that's right. Hold on, I have a favor to ask of you", Amity says in a very friendly tone.
"I'll do anything for you, best friend"
"Great. You know where I live, right?", she asks, to which Hooty nods energetically. "I'd really appreciate it if you could break in there and destroy every Abomination you find. But only those, nothing else"
Hootys widens his eyes with anticipation at her wish, and vanishes just as quickly as he appeared. Amity turns back to her mother and her voice turns venomous.
"Do you still think I'm bluffing?", before Odalia can even think about what just happened though, a beeping noise can be heard from Alador. He picks up a round glass plate on his coat.
Just seconds after Hooty left Hexside, he is now seen on her father's glass plate, crashing through the front door screaming 'HOOT', and tearing up all the Abomination butlers in the Blights' Mansion. Odalia stands open-mouthed in shock as she follows the happenings within the Blight household. Amity, on the other hand, has the biggest smug grin on her face right now.
"Fine!", she says reluctantly, "You won. Willow and Augustus can stay. But Amity, this will have consequences. Come on Alador, we're leaving."
As soon as Amity's parents close the door behind them, Willow and Augustus erupt in cheers.
"Oh my titan, that was sooo cool", Augustus celebrates.
"Amity, I’m so proud of you", Willow says before hearing Principal Bump clear his throat. All three are immediately calm and look at Bump.
"I... am impressed, too, Miss Blight. The PCA has far too much power in these matters. Willow Park, Augustus Porter, your ban is lifted effective immediately."
"Thank you, Principal Bump. I still have one thing to do though...", Amity heads back to the window, and calls Hooty over to her again.
"You did great, Hooty. I'll come by later and tell you what that was about."
Hooty retreats back towards the Owl House. Amity closes the window and says to herself "Sometimes it's quite beneficial to befriend a powerful demon."
Principal Bump just nods before Amity leaves the room, happier than ever.
Later Amity met her siblings and of course they wanted to know what their parents wanted from her. Amity gave them the synopsis and they congratulated her. That same day, Amity went to the Owl House to tell Hooty everything again, and that evening itself was the last presentation, Amity had promised to help out with. While Amity found her father's Abomaton 2.0 more challenging than the last version, the show she pulled off was effective enough to meet her mother's expectations.
As Amity walked past her mother from the stage, she just said to her, "You're welcome."
Notes:
Okay, now i really wanna know, what you're thinking...
Btw: I just watched the latest episode of TOH (Them's the Breaks, Kid) and i can't believe that the petrification-glyph i wrote about in chapter 8 is actually canon now...
Chapter 17: Invitations
Summary:
Marcy invites her friends to lunch.
Chapter Text
Anne wakes up and experiences the wonderful moment when lies is still in bed, and is not yet sure where exactly she is. She sits up straight, yawns whole-heartedly, and stretches her arms out in front of her. She freezes as she becomes more aware of where she is and with whom she is currently sharing a bed.
'This is Marcy's room... And Marcy is lying next to me. In bed. Oh my frog, I slept in the same bed with Marcy... Calm down, Anne. This is no big deal... This isn't the first time we've spent the night together... Well, we've never slept in the same bed before, but-'
"It's rude to stare, Anna-Banana."
Anne only now realizes that she couldn't take her eyes off Marcy during her inner soliloquy. Although Marcy still has her eyes closed, a slight grin spreads across her face to which Anne blushes.
"Sorry Marbles", Anne whispers, at which Marcy giggles but also gradually begins to open her eyes.
"And?", Marcy asks in a sleepy voice, "Did you sleep well?"
"After more than a week in the Plantars' fwagon, this is absolutely amazing", she replies.
"Great. Did you know that this bed and mattress were custom-made? The mattress, for example, is filled with feathers from the Pkao bird. These feathers have special properties because of my allergies. You know that I'm allergic to house dust-"
'She just woke up and is already able to talk about so much... Oh how I missed that... I could listen to her forever'
"I see you're probably not awake yet…", Marcy notes, tearing Anne out of her thoughts again.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I thought so. Would you like to use my shower? I'm guessing it's been a while since your last real shower..."
Anne looks down at herself and sniffs the shirt she slept in, before she grimaces in disgust. "Yeah, maybe that would be better"
'I smell absolutely horrible. How can she want to be near me at all right now?'
Anne gets a towel thrown at by Marcy, and she quickly disappears through a door to the bathroom.
During the trip to Newtopia, Anne was lucky when they stopped at a pond or hotel to be able to wash. Since her time at Amphibia, she has gotten used to the fact that hygiene is something that is not a priority here, but waiting for an opportunity like this is always worth it.
Not only is there running water here, it is even warm. And to top it all off: There are soap and shampoo. A few tears of joy are welling up in Anne's eyes.
In the end, Anne was in the shower for almost an hour. She's wearing the same clothes she entered the bathroom in, but now with her hair wrapped in a towel and feeling totally relaxed. She sees Marcy sitting on her bed, writing something into her journal.
"You have no idea how much I missed showering…", Anne comments and Marcy looks at her.
"I'm guessing you didn't have a shower in Wartwood, did you?"
"Nu-uh. The Plantars did have a bathtub, but neither soap nor warm water"
"You know, if you want, I could have your clothes washed. I can well imagine that they are a bit smelly too... Generally speaking, I'm quite impressed that you're still wearing our old school uniform... and only one shoe..."
"Well... I actually have more than just this outfit. I have a dress woven from seaweed fibers when I opened a Thai restaurant, and a fancy suit when I was voted frog of the year… It was a mess, I'm telling ya... And I lost my shoe as soon as I got here in Amphibia."
"Wait a second... Frog of the Year?"
"Oh yes. All of Wartwood voted on it. I was quite... surprised, given that I'm not a frog-"
"You're a frog... in spirit", Marcy jokes, to which Anne chuckles.
"In fact, they told me the exact same thing back then"
"No way!", Marcy says in astonishment.
"Totally. Anyway, tradition required me to throw a party and boy that was exhausting. In the beginning it was actually fun, but then I asked too much from everyone and burned down half the village in the process"
"That last part sounds a lot like the old me"
"Your old me?", Anne asks skeptically.
"Yeah. I've really grown out here, Anne. Come into my own. Leveled up. No more clumsy, klutzy Marcy..."
"Yes, that's probably true. You've changed... We've changed", Anne says thoughtfully, sitting next to Marcy on her bed.
"Hmm? What do you mean?", Marcy tilts her head slightly. After a short pause, Anne sighs.
"There's something else I need to tell you..."
"Spill it, Anna-Banana", Marcy says in her cute, encouraging way.
"It was when Sasha was in Wartwood and... you know. When I attacked Sasha, something changed inside me. I think I have some kind of power. It made me faster and stronger, though it didn't last long. It felt absolutely horrible. And when I told you yesterday about what she did and what I did, that feeling came back..."
"When that shock wave radiated from you?"
"Did that really happen? Oh frog... well, never mind then. My point is this: I think you have similar powers. And Sasha probably does too."
"That would be really cool. But how did you come up with that?"
"Luz told me that when you saved Maddie, your eyes were glowing bright green, just like mine were glowing blue"
Marcy's eyes widen while Anne is telling this and she pulls out her smartphone and seems to be looking for something.
"Aha!", Marcy proclaims. "Here. On Earth I found this in relation to the music box. Didn't think it would matter..."
Marcy shows Anne a photo from a book page. At the top is 'Calamity Box' in large letters, and next to it is a picture of the box itself. Also visible are the three gems that are part of the box. One green, one blue, and one purple. In addition to that, there is also a lot of text, but unfortunately the image is too blurred to see anything more clearly.
"Oh. My. God. This is so cool. We have powers! We could be superheroes", Marcy exclaims, bursting with excitement. Anne winces at the word 'superheroes', which Marcy doesn't seem to notice. "I need to run some tests later. With your help, we could make Amphibia a better place... Anne? Are you okay?"
"I'd rather not explore those powers. They just remind me of sorrow and pain, and I definitely didn’t feel like a hero."
"Okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. But if you ever change your mind, I might have some theoretical data that might help giving you a head start."
"Thanks, MarMar. I... suppose you'd like to start experimenting right now..."
"Hmm... no."
"Not?", Anne asks in surprise.
"Not today. Today I want to spend time with you... Uhh, I have an idea. How about I take you and the Plantars out for lunch?"
'Wow, Marcy really changed', Anne thinks to herself. "Aww, that would be very kind of you. But what about Luz and Maddie?"
"Well, now that Maddie is awake again, I'm assuming they will be spending some time in the library. But if they wanna join us, they’re invited too"
"So just the five of us?"
"Yeah. I would also suggest that you go back to the hotel and I'll pick you up later."
"Or... I'll wait here until you're finished and we'll pick them up together", Anne suggests, "That way we can spend even more time together"
Marcy's eyes light up from joy and after a short but all the more sincere hug from Anne, Marcy disappears in the bathroom. Surprisingly for Anne, after only a few minutes, Marcy comes back into her bedroom, now looking a lot more awake and refreshed, and and wearing her Ranger uniform. Anne, on the other hand, only just managed to take off the towel that she had wrapped around her still damp hair in the same period of time. Marcy gives her a confused look.
"What?", Anne asks noticing Marcy staring at her.
"You washed your hair, right?"
"Yeah... why?"
"I don't know how to tell you this..."
"Spill it Marbles", Anne demands with a certain urgency in her voice.
"Okay, okay...", Marcy pauses, "Do you know you still have leaves in your hair?"
Anne looks at her best friend with a startled look and carefully raises her hands up to her head, and gropes through her messy hair before pulling out one of the several leaves and holds it in front of her face, shortly before Marcy suddenly bursts out laughing.
"I think... your powers want to turn you... into a tree", Marcy wheezes.
Anne compulsively tries to put on an offended grimace, but fails miserably when she hears the sheer joy in Marcy's laugh.
Ever since she was a child, Anne believes that Marcy's laugh has had unique empathetic qualities. A few years ago, when Anne was in the hospital with a broken arm, Marcy came to visit her every day. They played games together, made up stories, and laughed endlessly. Anne never felt any pain when Marcy was with her. At her first prom, she got rejected for the first time, at the same time after asking her first crush to go there with her. Anne locked herself in her room for days, and didn't want to see or talk to anyone. Not even with Marcy and Sasha. However, Marcy wasn't ready to give up and was still with her, even if she was just sitting on the floor in front of Anne's closed door. Since Anne's parents weren't home at the time, nobody could stop Marcy from spending the whole night there.
And the next day.
And the next night.
All that time, she tried to cheer Anne up, tried to talk to her. At some point she had started slipping small pieces of paper under her bedroom door, hoping that Anne would come out again sometime.
The next day, Marcy was still at Anne's house, but no longer sitting in front of her closed door, but in the living room, where she watched cartoons that her own parents hadn't allowed her to watch. Her occasional laughter had filled the house and eventually Anne joined Marcy in the living room, and it was as if Anne was never rejected and locked herself in her room in the first place.
And that's exactly how it is now. All her worries are gone, nothing else matters right now. Not how to find a way home, not what she did to Sasha, nothing. Just this fleeting moment.
Anne is so lost in her memories that she doesn't realize that Marcy is now holding her.
"You alright Anne?"
"mmmm"
"Come on, Anna-Banana. We shouldn't keep the Plantars waiting any longer. And maybe we'll find Luz and Maddie on the way..."
"Oh right... Lunch... Wait, what do you mean, 'keep the Plantars waiting'? They don't even know you're inviting them yet..."
"That's right...", Marcy says, "But that doesn’t mean I want them to wait any longer than necessary"
"Let's go then"
Immediately afterwards, the two girls leave Marcy's room, instead of heading towards the exit, they first go to the Royal Library to see if Luz and Marcy are already there. They are not. Halfway between the palace and the Plantar's hotel, the two girls met Luz and Maddie and immediately invited them both to lunch, which they were only too happy to accept. Since the restaurant is halfway between here and the palace, Marcy had given Luz a map of the city with some of Marcy's personal highlights marked on it. Marcy shows Luz and Maddie exactly where the restaurant is and tells them to wait there, while she and Anne pick up the Plantars, which turned out to be very easy. Marcy only had to mention the words 'lunch' and 'free' for Hop Pop to accept the invitation.
Arriving at the restaurant, the group sees Luz and Maddie waiting. The restaurant is on the ground floor of a three-storey building. The top two floors appear to be apartments only. On a balcony on the top floor stands an axolotl singing something vaguely reminiscent of an Italian opera. Immediately above the front door into the restaurant is a glass image of a burger and right next to it is a beetle-shaped sign fixed to the wall of the house that reads 'BURG' in big letters, with an image of a burger just below it. A little further from the entrance is a wooden sign of the restaurant's owner holding up a large burger.
Gradually, one might hypothetically get the impression that they would be selling burgers there. There is also a smaller wooden plaque on the wall of the house advertising today's special dish. It shouldn't be hard to guess what it might be.
That's right, ice cream.
The group sits down at a table outside, and shortly thereafter the owner comes out to take the orders. Marcy insists on surprising everyone, which is why she just ordered '6 times the usual'. A short time later, the owner returned with burgers for everyone.
"Enjoy, everyone! This place makes the best beetle burger in all of Newtopia", Marcy states happily. Luz comments on the burger in front of her with an "eww", before she takes a hearty bite.
"Luz, I just noticed something...", Anne begins and attracts Luz's attention, "you didn't have your staff with you today."
"Yup. I left Owlbert at Iva's. He can't roam freely in the Royal Library, and since we usually spend a full day there, I didn't want to ask him to spend a full day in staff form."
"Nice of you"
Marcy doesn't have a burger herself, but kneels between Polly and Hop Pop and pulls out a book.
While still chewing on the burger herself, Polly asks Marcy "What's that?"
"Oh, just my journal. I like jottin' down theories and observations. You know, all about indigenous fauna, medicinal techniques, customs and nuances of Amphibious species-based caste systems... Sometime I even do drawings"
Marcy turns her journal over to Polly and in it she sees a hyper-realistic sketch of herself. Polly marvels at the sketch and Sprig turns to Anne.
"Wow! Anne, have you been keeping a journal too?"
"Nah", says Anne, still chewing, "I only have my diary. But there are also a few drawings in there."
After a while, the owner comes back to the table with the bill and before he can say anything, Marcy easily guesses the correct price.
"Wow! Can you do math like that too, Anne?", Sprig asks, "Anne, you alr-?"
"Psst, be quiet", she cuts him off. She's trying to focus on something in particular, but she's not quite sure what it is yet. Her right ear starts twitching
She hears an object flying in her direction. Without looking at it, stretches out one arm and grabs an arrow midair, which otherwise might have hit one of them.
"An attack!", Hop Pop screams.
"Oh no, NOT THIS TIME!", Anne grits her teeth and throws the arrow back in its original direction so hard, that it almost breaks the sound barrier. Everyone at the table is staring at Anne with wide eyes.
"What?", Anne asks innocently. At first, no one reacts.
"Erm... Anne...", Marcy begins, "that was probably a message from the... king"
"I don't care. Then next time he should use something less dangerous"
"Uh, Lady Olivia. May I assume Master Marcy received my riddle?"
"I bring bad news, my king. The arrow with your message came back again"
"Excuse me?"
"The arrow that the messenger had sent, was sent back to the palace... in the process... it penetrated two walls and got stuck in a third."
"Fascinating. Show me where"
Lady Olivia guides King Andrias from his throne room through the palace north, and about two floors up to one of the outer walls of the palace. A circular hole in the wall, one meter wide and half a meter deep. Andrias looks curiously through the hole and from there to the smaller hole behind it. The second is just as deep, but only half the size, and Andrias peered through to see an arrow with a piece of parchment attached to it stick in the wall behind.
There are energy residues from Heart on the object. Bring them to us for a situation analysis
"Then we'll take the more boring route... Lady Olivia, bring me Anne, the Plantars and the other two kids immediately"
"Yes, my king"
And immediately thereafter, Lady Olivia was on her way to fulfill Andria's errand, while he himself turned to the arrow that was still half stuck in a wall in the room next door.
Apparently, Heart's abilities have evolved faster than anticipated
"We should try to make sure that Marcy doesn't discover her own abilities. Otherwise, she could endanger the whole plan"
So far, no energy residues have been measured on Wit. If that changes, you have to eliminate them
"Eliminate? Isn't the plan to use her as a new body for you, my lord?"
You know about Wit's abilities
"Yes, my Lord. Wouldn't it serve our cause better if you could use her abilities yourself?"
Calculate scenarios... Suggestion is acceptable should Wit discover their abilities earlier
"Thank you, my lord"
Your empathy for Wit shouldn't get in the way of our goals, Andrias!
"It won't"
Andrias slowly walks back to his throne room, knowing that Lady Olivia should be back shortly. And as soon as he was back on his throne, a few voices could be heard from outside the door.
"Okay Frog-Family. And you two... You are about to meet King Andrias. This Is A. Big. Deal."
Lady Olivia seems to want to say a few last words to her entourage. Andrias smiles slightly at the thought.
'Okay, showtime'
The great doors of the throne room open and the group walk towards Andrias, marveling at the room. Several "uhh"s and "ahh"s can be heard from almost all of them except for two. Marcy knows the throne room well, of course, and this other, unknown, human girl seems completely fixated on Andrias.
"May I present to you, King Andrias Leviathan. Lord of Amphibia, Peacekeeper of a thousand years and the first of his name.", Lady Olivia introduces Andrias.
"Now that's King-sized…", the girl with the messy hair says.
"HELLO MY NEW FRIENDS", Andrias speaks very loudly and laughs. "Oh bring it in you guys. Bring it in"
Andrias descends from his throne, takes all the frogs in his huge arms and hugs them tightly.
"It's soo good to finally meet you", he says before bringing them back down onto the floor.
"Oh, I love this guy", pink tadpole says to which Andrias laughs again with a big smile on his face.
"Dear King Andrias-", Lady Olivia approaches him, "just once, it would be nice if you followed the castles etiquette."
"Oh, etiquette schmettiquette", he says with a dismissive gesture, before turning to the girl standing next to Marcy, who is more than obviously quite nervous.
"And who do we have here?", Andrias takes a few steps and kneels in front of the girl. "You must be Anne... 'Sup? Am I saying that right: 'sup?"
"You got it", Marcy replies, giving him a thumbs up, whereupon Andrias starts laughing again. "The thumb of approval. And here's a thumb for you, Anne"
"Right back at ya", Anne replies, touching his hand with her fist. He starts laughing again, albeit louder this time.
"Delightful", he says excitedly, and jumps once for joy, knocking everyone else present to the ground.
"And here we have someone else. I think I've seen you before... You were at the parade, weren't you?", the girl with the short black hair and the blue cape just nods, but just stands there with her arms crossed. "Let me guess, you are... Sasha?", Andrias guesses and the girl's expression changes to anger. Marcy feels the urge to step in.
"King Andrias, this is Luz. She arrived in Amphibia after us"
"Perfect. Then we can get down to business straight away: Getting you girls back home safe and sound", he notes gently, before his tone took on a touch of disappointment, "But without the music box, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do. Marcy doesn't have it. And I assume you two don't have it neither."
"OH! Actually, I do have the box", Anne admits with a big grin on her face.
"Are you serious?", Marcy asks incredulously.
"Well, this is marvelous news. Come, let's see it", Andrias requests with renewed joy.
"Well, I don't 'have it'-have it. Hop Pop leant it to some contacts to see what they could learn about it. But I do have a photo of it"
Anne pulls out a device that Andrias has already seen in Marcy's possession, and on it was a picture of the box. Andrias pulls out a set of pink and silver glasses, studded with assorted diamonds, which he puts on and squints at the picture.
"Hmm... how peculiar. Marcy, didn't you say the gems were colored? Look here, they're gray", Andrias notes.
"Oh, you're right. I actually never noticed that", Anne says, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"This requires further study in the deepest of our archives. Give me a few days to work with this information- Whoa, wait a second...", Andrias looks at Luz, "You arrived here in Amphibia after the others. How did you do this?"
Luz shrugs.
"Really? No idea?", Luz shakes her head disinterestedly. "Hmm... Alright. In a few days, we shall reconvene and set a glorious plan in motion.", Andrias says full of conviction.
"Great", Anne says, "Mar-Mar, how can I do to help?"
"Can you translate ancient Amphibian runes?"
"I sure... can't!"
Marcy chuckles, "Don't worry, dude. But maybe Luz and Maddie have already found something useful in the Royal Library. They've got a head start.", Marcy looks at Luz, who gives her an uncertain look, "Or maybe not."
"Until then, my dear Plantars, go forth and enjoy the sights of Newtopia. You've probably already discovered the suite we booked for you. My treat. But I have something else for you.", As if out of nowhere, Andrias suddenly holds a golden card in his hand, which he hands over to the older orange frog.
"The Royal Credit Card!", Andrias explains, "It will grant you access to do anything in Newtopia. Be safe with this now. Wars have been waged for less."
With the exception of the light pink frog, everyone is amazed at the gift they just received. Everyone says their goodbyes and they all walk leisurely back out of the throne room, Andrias sits back down on his throne and while the others leave, he can't help but listen to their conversation a little longer.
"Mar-Mar, I have an idea: sleepover. All of us. Here in the palace. Luz, Maddie, of course you would be invited too."
"Without me. I'm sorry Anne, but I've had too many sleepless nights here already."
"Anne, that's a great idea. What do you think of the day after tomorrow? Until then, you can explore Newtopia a bit while I make some preparations here at the palace."
"Good idea, Marcy. Sprig, what do you think if we-"
And already they were out of Andrias hearing range. He himself has made his way into the locked and hidden part of the palace basement.
"My Lord, have you been able to complete the necessary investigations?"
Indeed, we have. Heart does not yet have full control over their abilities. At Wit only minimal energy signatures are present. Negligible.
"What about the third human girl that was present? How can she travel between worlds without the stones?"
That human is still an anomaly. No known energy signatures.
"So, she's just an ordinary human?"
No!
"But you said-"
There are energy signatures with the anomaly that are not known to us. Possible indication of the existence of the source
"The source? The source is just a legend. In the last 10 generations of our family, no one has been able to confirm its existence. The only evidence are the gems themselves"
The anomaly has been in Frog Valley for a short time and has made direct contact with the source. Find the source, but keep discretion
"I'll send out Yunan. Within a week she should return with results"
Indeed. If the source exists, there is no longer any use for the humans. Otherwise, we proceed as planned
A little later back in the throne room. Andrias has General Yunan summoned.
"General Yunan. Have you ever heard of a place called 'The Source'?"
"No, my king"
"The source is a mythical location that probably doesn't exist. However, we have received indications that this location may be in Frog Valley. Go there and find it."
"Yes. May I ask first what this place might look like?"
"According to the legends, it is a cave older than Amphibia itself, and not accessible by ordinary routes. You will know what it looks like once you find it."
"I'll be on my way immediately"
"One more thing... This mission is top secret. Nobody must know about the nature of this mission or the existence of the cave if you find it. Send me a report if you find it and come back in a week if you don't. We don't want to waste too much time looking for a place that might not even exist. Also, you're the fastest Newt alive. So, I entrust you with this mission"
General Yunan salutes and immediately sprints out of the throne room.
Chapter 18: The Search
Summary:
General Yunan's expedition log for her quest to find 'the Source'
Notes:
Hey there.
The idea for this chapter came to me quite spontaneously and was actually not pre-planned... (One might notice)
Chapter Text
General Yunan – Expedition journal
Day 0:
King Andrias is sending me to Frog Valley. I have 7 days to find something called 'the Source'. I have no idea what it looks like, all I know is that whatever it is, it's inside a large cave. And I know that there is ‘no classic cave entrance’. Worst case scenario, I'll have to dig up all of Frog Valley with a shovel. In just 7 days...
But that shouldn't be a problem for General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, the youngest newt ever to…
Writing that is far more tiring than saying it. I should probably stop doing that in the future.
Oh yes, this mission is also super-secret, by the way. Basically, that means I have to destroy this journal once the mission is complete. Again.
Day 1:
I had decided to take the most direct route into the valley. This means that I only had to climb over a few mountains before I would reach the edge of it.
Easy practice.
It was about 6 hours from Newtopia to the lower range of the mountain range. In total I had to climb 4 mountains and then back down again. A masterful exercise in moving over rough terrain, breathing in thin air, and hoping I might set a new personal speed record. Unfortunately, I couldn't.
The first mountain was climbed fairly quickly. 3 hours for 900 meters. Good Average. I was able to use my previous markings to save time.
Second mountain, 3800 meters, 11 hours. Broke my previous record by half. Never been so fast. At the top I had found my supplies from last time.
The descent from the third mountain proved to be difficult as I injured my right leg at its top. So much for my record attempt. Between the last two mountains I had set up a camp to heal the injury. Not sure if I broke a bone or just sprained an ankle. Whatever it is, it should be healed by the next day.
I should have arrived in the valley by noon tomorrow at the latest.
Day 2:
As planned, I had overcome the last mountain by noon, my leg was fine again and I was able to start looking for this cave. Well, not really. I was still missing some important key information.
King Andrias said the entrance to the cave, according to legend, was unconventional. What does that mean?
It is self-explanatory that caves are underground, and all known caves have a direct connection to the surface. What I'm looking for may have an artificial entrance, perhaps in the form of a tunnel. Or a well. Or something completely different.
But just the fact that this legend exists means that at some point someone must have seen a cave that could be attributed with mystical properties and that means that there must be an entrance.
I feel like I'm repeating myself...
Doesn't matter. I needed more information. I wanted to walk to the nearest village to ask around on how I could get the information I needed. The only problem was that there was no one there. It’s called 'Orkori' and it actually has a population of almost a thousand. The houses all looked as if they had been recently abandoned, but without any sign of violence or property damages.
Even the local town hall is empty. I was in the village mayor's office. The records suggested that another conflict between Toads and Frogs was imminent and probably all the villagers had volunteered. I could still remember the last rebellions very well, where only a few hundred frogs took part. Based on the theory that the villagers all did indeed join the rebellion, and nothing worse happened to them after all, and other villages in the valley are just as empty as this one, I believe the frogs have the capacity to actually drive the toads away. I would have to investigate this further sometime later.
Before I moved on, I checked a few well shafts and tried to find out if there might have been geologists among the missing inhabitants. I was hoping to find underground maps. Unfortunately, there were only farmers, artisans and a blacksmith in the village. Eventually I moved on. In the next village, I was hoping for one of four things that might theoretically provide me with helpful information: a geologist, a historian, an archaeologist, or an archive.
'Sheiro Swamp' was approximately 15 minutes from 'Orkori'. Well, for me at least. 3208 inhabitants. One of the largest towns in the valley. This city was also largely deserted. Only a few elderly civilians and children were walking the streets. I had approached a few people and there was actually a geologist in town.
An axolotl. Pretty old. Perfect. Was able to provide me with a number of geographical data and underground maps of the whole valley. I was there until late into the night, studying the data. In the meantime, I had also asked her about the legend of the source and whether she might know where it could be. She had heard of it once, but didn't believe in its existence.
The maps were ultimately useless. I had actually hoped that I would be able to use cave maps to identify potentially uncharted caves in order to exclude certain areas of the valley from the search. While it is possible to mark cave entrances on surface maps, it is not possible to see what is underneath. Ergo, no new findings, but a trace. The axolotl had told me she remembered who told her about the legend. A historian named Odal, who recently joined the rebellion against the toads. Ergo I have to get to the base of the rebellion tomorrow.
Day 3:
I think Marcy would be far better suited for this type of task than I am. Okay, admittedly no one is faster or more battle-hardened than me, I'm good at interrogating people and squeezing information out of people, but science and tracking down ancient legends isn't necessarily one of my fortes. I would actually be interested to know why King Andrias sent me on this mission instead of Marcy, but who am I to ask?
Unimportant. It was early morning when I left the geologist's house. I went to the market in town for new rations. Saw a trader selling exotic goods. Just one arm, glove on the tail, weird woman. Had asked if she knew of the source. With a strange determination, she said that it would no longer exist. She knew something, but before I could ask any more questions, she said she was going to lunch now and went to the back of her tent. I followed right behind and when I ripped a cloth aside, she was gone. Dissolved into thin air.
Imagination? Hallucination? Magic? I'll have to deal with that when I'm done. So, I had bought supplies and then made my way to a place near a village called 'Wartwood', the base of the rebellion as I’ve been told, and hopefully the whereabouts of Odal. On the way there I stopped for a while at Point Weatrôj to pay my respects to the fallen of the past.
I don't remember how long I was on the road until I saw the first tents that were set up on a huge meadow next to the road. This multitude of tents stretched out as far as the eye could see.
There are over 22000 individuals living in Frog Valley, and from what I saw in the other two villages it was estimated that around 60-70% of them are here right now. While I know that frogs' fighting abilities are no match for toads or newts, their superior numbers should not be neglected. When I get back to Newtopia, I should report the king about it.
As I was scouring the area to find Odal, I noticed something strange: nobody seems to know exactly who is leading this rebellion. The people I had interrogated... questioned had given me several names: Plantar, Toadstool, Boonchuy, Gardner, and Flawrik. I made a separate note of those names for a future investigation.
Later in the evening I finally found him. Andrew Odal, Professor of History and Archeology from Newtopia. Was sent by the university to the rebellion as a neutral observer.
Had asked him about the source. He knows the legend. A few decades ago, he had even looked for it himself, but eventually gave up. He still has his documents about it, but they are in his office in Newtopia and it would take too long to get them.
Fortunately, he still remembered a few things that might prove helpful. During his research, he found that the source predates all of the communities in Frog Valley and is therefore likely not in any of the villages there. Perhaps there are still ruins to be found somewhere that are older. I'll follow this lead tomorrow. Professor Odal had told me more, but nothing that would help me.
Day 4:
Before I left today, I had another chat with Professor Odal. Not only had he pointed out the locations of some of the ruins on a map of the area, he was also able to tell me who was in command of the rebellion. 'Ben Flawrik' is deputy leader. I will pass this name on to King Andrias as soon as I return to Newtopia.
I left early when the sun was barely visible on the horizon. The markers on my map all lead me south-east into a dense forest, which unfortunately meant I can't move as fast as I'd like.
It didn't take long for me to come across the first ruin. It was basically just a gray wall made up of large, rectangular stones. I assume this was part of a larger house. It is no longer possible to determine more precisely. On the wall hung a couple of pictures that appeared to be taken from a book on magic, and a couple of round glass bottles filled with some kind of liquid. Not of interest per se, but an indication that maybe someone else could be staying in this forest. Until now, as I write about this day, I have not noticed any other people.
At the second position there were only a few stones scattered on the ground. A few stones were burned and appeared to have been partially melted. However, these events were too far in the past for it to be possible to determine the cause.
At the third position, I found the remains of a few dozen pillars, seemingly lined up in two rows. Could be trail markers. On some of the pillars were symbols that I could not interpret. Could also have been writing. I'm sure Marcy would be able to translate that.
At the fourth position there were the largest ruins so far. An almost intact stone arch. Several meters high. Around it was a circle of stones that had protruded from the ground. A little way down from the archway were the remains of what might have been towers that have collapsed. I took a closer look at the archway, as this is the only structure that is almost completely intact. There were also symbols which, as with the pillars, I wasn’t able to interpret.
When I walked through the gate and found myself in a completely different place, I was stunned. First, I was in the clearing and suddenly in a huge underground cavity, on all the walls gigantic, yellow glowing crystals.
I'd been exploring this cave a bit and I found a few items that prove my theory from earlier that someone else knows about this place: A few books on witchcraft and wizardry, and a dropped straw basket with miscellaneous stuff. Didn't think there would be any magic users left.
So far, I hadn't found anything that would justify the name 'Source', but I'm pretty sure this is the place King Andrias wanted me to find.
Thing is, finding this place was almost too easy. I mean, I only had a rough idea of the area and just talking to a few people got me here? Granted, the ruins are pretty remote and there are some pretty aggressive creatures in the forest that will attack anything that can't defend themselves, but there aren't any traps, guards or anything like that at the gate or in the cave itself. So why didn't anyone know about this place? And is there a defense mechanism that I wasn’t able to identify yet?
In light of my safety concerns, I decided not to set up camp inside the cave. Outside, I've set up a security perimeter around the stone arch, to ward off potential known threats, as well as other slightly more intelligent unexpected guests.
Up until now I was still in the process of writing the report about my find for the king and sending it to Newtopia with a messenger bird. Since it's already dark again, I'll take care of the further security of the area tomorrow, and defend this find with my life until I receive new orders from Newtopia.
Day 5:
Something happened.
When I woke up, I was no longer in my tent where I had gone to sleep yesterday, I was lying in the cave. Wounded in multiple places. The sun was setting when I first left the cave, and I have no memory of what happened. In most cases, this is a sign of a concussion or traumatic brain injury, not a serious thing in and of itself.
Oh yeah, another thing worth noting is that all of the crystals in the cave have lost their color and luminosity. Everything was gray and dark. In the center of the cave a crystal lay shattered on the floor. Probably detached from the ceiling and fell down. Perhaps a couple of the pieces had hit me and hence the injuries. There were no other life forms to be seen.
I've collected one of the gray shards and I'm making my way back to Newtopia now. I'm a fair bit slower than usual with my injuries, but if I'm lucky, I'll be fully healed by then. If new orders from the king should arrive, the messenger bird will be able to find me. The camp remains in place to show presence and this journal is now being destroyed.
Chapter 19: Ghosts [Part 1]
Summary:
Luz, Anne, Marcy, Sprig, and Polly having a sleepover in the palace.
Notes:
AAAAHHHH!!!
I'm so excited! I've been waiting soo long to write this chapter and it's finally done.'Ghosts' serves as a kind of finale to the first part of 'A Lost Owl', so get ready for some big things.
One more thing: This chapter is at over 10k words, my longest chapter yet, so I decided to split it into two parts (And to make it 20 chapters exactly, but don't tell anyone)
Chapter Text
"SLEEP-O-VER! SLEEP-O-VER! SLEEP-O-VER!", Luz hears Anne, Sprig, and Polly cheering while waiting outside Iva's front door.
Luz opens the door and says "Come in, I'll be almost done. Just gotta get my stuff."
Anne and the Plantars enter Iva's house and go into the living room where Maddie is sitting with a thick book. While Luz disappears into her and Maddie's bedroom, Anne approaches Maddie.
"Are you really sure you don't want to come with us?"
"Pretty sure.", Maddie replies, "but I'll see you tomorrow at the audience with the King."
"Okay", Anne says and Luz rejoins the group in the living room with her staff in hand.
"You want to take Owlbert with you?"
"Yup. He's been looking forward to it all week. He's probably even more excited than I am"
Owlbert lets out a joyful "hoot" and then transforms back into his wooden form and sits on the staff. Luz, Anne and the Plantars say goodbye to Maddie and make their way to the palace as the day is already drawing to a close. With the exception of Hop Pop, who won't be at the sleepover, and Polly, who only wears a bow tie anyway, everyone else is already wearing comfortable pajamas. In preparation for that night, the Plantars had bought Luz a pair of pajamas of her own a few days ago at the city's shopping pier. She was very happy about the gift and of course she is now showing it off, only accompanied by her trusty cloak and her staff.
Anne wears a plain light gray t-shirt and loose brown shorts, Sprig wears a dark green t-shirt with the words 'BIG FROG' and an image of a toad wearing sunglasses and dark blue plaid shorts, as well as his characteristic hat. Polly's 'outfit' is the same as always. Luz pyjamas consist of a light gray plain shirt and purple pajama pants.
When they arrived at the palace, Lady Olivia was already waiting for the group. After a brief briefing on night-time regulations in the palace, she led them to Marcy's room. When she knocks on her door, an excited Marcy can already be heard from behind "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. They're here!"
Lady Olivia opens the door "Good evening, Master Marcy. Anne Boonchuy, Luz and the Plantars have arrived for your-"
Before Lady Olivia can continue, Anne, Polly and Sprig run into the room, all yelling "Sleepover!". Anne and Sprig jump around on Marcy's bed while Polly tears up a pillow screaming.
"-Sleepover..." Lady Olivia continues, "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the kitchen drinking...juice."
She turns and leaves the room before Luz enters the same. Hop Pop stands in the doorway and says goodbye, "Okay, kids, I'll be back in the morning for our meeting with the king. You enjoy yourselves. I'm off to spend a little much needed me time. And by me time, I mean a full body"
"Okay, bye HP", Anne interrupts by slamming the door in his face.
"This is gonna be-" Anne begins to say.
"-awesome!" Marcy finishes.
"It's the perfect way to spend the night before we hear from the king", Sprig says.
"I wonder what he learned about the music box", Anne wonders.
"I don't wanna give anything away, but it's gonna be pretty cool", Marcy teases.
"Luz, did you find anything helpful?" Anne asks.
"Nothing that would help to travel between dimensions. But... did you know that Amphibia used to be far more technologically advanced than it is today? Somehow the whole society has regressed... No offense guys"
"None taken", both Sprig and Polly say.
"Cool. How did you find out about this?" Marcy asks.
"Iva's parents have published a couple of books in which they have put forward this theory"
"Cool. I should ask the king about it soon. But first we have a whole night to waste.", Marcy says with a smile on her face.
"YEAH! Our first sleepover!" screams Polly.
"Better make it a good one. These will be formative memories", Sprig whispers in an eerie tone.
"Nothing easier than that- Whoa, I just realized, we've never done a sleepover without Sasha", Anne says buffled.
"Oh, you're right", Marcy agrees, "You think we can pull this off? Sasha's the sleepover queen. Not us"
"You don't need Sasha, you have me. At my first sleepover on the Boiling Isles, Willow, Gus and I had brought a house to life and taken it for a walk." Luz brags.
"Seriously? A house brought to life?", Marcy asks skeptically.
"You don't believe me?" Luz says smirking before activating a few Glyphs of Light and levitating them in front of her.
"Good point", Marcy admits and Luz continues to grin.
"Okay Ms. Luz 'party planner'... I just realized I don't even know your last name...", Anne states.
"Noceda. Luz 'Party Planner' Noceda", Luz joked.
"Alright Noceda. What's your plan?" Anne asks expectantly before Luz smacks a pillow in her face.
Anne looks at Luz with a little surprise while she is smirking herself. Everyone present copies the facial expression, arm themselves with various pillows and the biggest pillow fight in history breaks out.
Marcy is the first to give up. Sometime after that Sprig too. Then Luz. Then Anne and Polly triumphantly stood on Marcy's bed and celebrated her victory.
Marcy then came up with the idea of secretly breaking into King Andrias' dressing room. However, not before they all rushed down all the stairs in the palace, sitting on mattresses, cheering loudly. In the cloakroom itself, Anne, Marcy, Luz and Sprig had grabbed a few pairs of the king's socks and used them for a sack race through the endlessly long corridors of the palace. Unsurprisingly, Sprig could easily outperform his human competitors. Polly, on the other hand, has unleashed her creativity over the same period of time, building a life-size replica of King Andrias out of his clothing. Lady Olivia came along in the meantime and actually let herself be fooled by the replica.
After some creative vandalism on a couple of royal family portraits and pranks on Lady Olivia, followed by a speech about restricted areas, they were starting to get hungry. And that's how they came up with the brilliant idea of stealing a two-tiered ice cream cake from one of the kitchens and eating it whole in Marcy's room.
Now they are all lying on the floor with bloated bellies and some breathing heavily.
Polly burps, and Luz's stomach can be heard clearly.
"Eating that cake was a bad idea..." she complains.
"Yeah... That was awesome", Polly says, obviously not listening. Anne laughs weakly.
"Best sleepover ever!", Sprig adds.
"See? Told ya we could pull off an awesome sleepover without Sasha.", says Anne, lying shoulder to shoulder next to Marcy, "What time is it anyway? Five in the morning? Six?"
Marcy pulls out her phone while Luz gets up from her seat and runs in a panic to Marcy's bathroom. Fortunately for everyone involved, nothing can be heard from the next room. Owlbert, who has so far only watched the feast from one of Marcy's cupboards, glides down from his vantage point to Luz's seat and snuggles into her pillow.
"Maybe the cake really wasn't a good idea for her. Anyway, it's... just 10:30?" Marcy notes, startled.
"What?" Anne startles and Sprig chuckles.
"That early? But I'm so tired..."
He and Polly are lying on their respective pillows, almost falling asleep. Anne suddenly jumps up and shakes the two siblings awake again "No! Stay awake!", whereupon both groan in annoyance.
"Anne", Marcy sits up and holds Anne by the shoulder, "I think it's time"
"Really? Are you sure they're ready?" Anne asks in a mysterious voice, "And shouldn't we wait for Luz?"
"Who is ready for what?" Luz asks, who has just left Marcy's bathroom, walking back to her spot and picking up Owlbert.
"The Scare-Dare challenge", Marcy and Anne said in unison, followed by interested "Oooh's" from the others.
"The rules: One of us comes up with a scary dare and we all have to do it.", Marcy begins to explain before Anne continues.
"But whoever balls first gets their name added to the-"
"Book of Losers", both Anne and Marcy add in unison.
Anne continues "Yeah, and once your name is in the Book of Losers, it'll be there forever"
"Forever…", Marcy repeats in a deeper voice.
"Uhh, I like the sound of that", Luz said, shaking her arms with excitement. "What do you think buddy?" she asks Owlbert who chirps in agreement.
"Well, I'm sold too. Let's do this", Sprig and Polly said.
"Okay, all we need is a scary dare", Marcy explains, and Luz speaks up immediately and excitedly.
"I've got about twelve ideas"
"Twelve ideas?" asks Anne with a raised eyebrow, "We probably don't have time for all of them. Do you have a highlight?"
"Lady Olivia told us not to go down into the basement. I say: we'll do just that!"
"Luz, that place is probably off-limits for a reason. This may not be a smart idea", Marcy notes.
"We can alternatively spend the rest of the night in the palace dungeons, or sneak into the king's bedchamber one after the other and-" Luz suggests, but is interrupted by Marcy.
"Okay... Basement it is... I hereby accept this Scare-Dare challenge"
"I also accept this Scare-Dare challenge", Anne calls out.
"We also accept this Scare-Dare challenge", Sprig and Polly call out as well.
Shortly thereafter, everyone sneaks out of Marcy's room in the direction of the forbidden basement. Leading the way are Marcy and Anne, with Sprig, Polly and Luz with Owlbert as her staff just behind them. Because Luz doesn't look like she's feeling well, Sprig once wanted to ask, but was interrupted by Anne. Luz had assured him that her stomach just wouldn't respond well to the ice cream cake.
The walk through the palace to the basement is quite a long one and the fear of meeting Lady Olivia was present throughout. The group walked past several of their works that were created during the evening, such as 'improved' paintings, 'rearranged' armor and abandoned mattresses.
When they arrived at the area where the stairs to the basement are located, they saw Lady Olivia sitting on a chair asleep right next to it. A stone fell from everyone's heart as they grinningly tiptoed past her. Polly, however, couldn't resist trying to... 'embellish' Lady Olivia's face a little.
"This is the legendary forbidden basement?" Luz asks disappointedly when they reached the bottom of the stairs. They stood in a very high, circular room, the walls of which were completely covered by barrels stacked on top of one another. The whole room is lit only by two lanterns mounted at the bottom of the stairs.
"This is just a wine cellar." Marcy explains and walks to a floor hatch in the middle of the room, which she quickly opens dramatically, "This... is the forbidden basement"
A huge amount of dust comes towards her and after a collective coughing fit, they all look into a dark corridor that leads even further down into the ground. A narrow and steep stairway, walls of uneven dark gray stone covered with ivy-like purple coral growing towards what little light shines in through the normally closed floor hatch. For a while, everyone stares down the dark stairs, rooted to the ground.
"Soo...", Sprig is the first to break the silence, "Who wants to go first?"
"I vote Anne", Polly says, causing everyone to look at Anne.
"Why me? Marcy's older than me...", Anne states. Quite a few heads turn to Marcy.
"No way...", Polly doesn't believe it.
"Well, I think so, at least. Luz, how old are you? Twelve? Thirteen?", Anne asks.
"I'll be fifteen in two months...", Luz corrects her, whereupon Anne looks down in disappointment, "And don't worry, I'll lead the way."
Luz is the first down the stairs with Owlbert on her shoulder and immediately notices that the stairs are not only quite steep, but the individual steps are also unusually narrow compared to the rest of the palace. Anne, Marcy, Sprig and Polly follow her and as soon as everyone was moving, all they heard was a dull bang and absolute darkness enveloped the group. Anne and Marcy pull out their phones and activate the flashlights, and Luz activates a light glyph that levitates over her hand.
After what feels like an eternity, the group arrives downstairs and they immediately notice something strange: A long corridor with nothing but mirrors of various shapes and sizes. A thick layer of dust has gathered on all of them, and many of the mirrors have cobwebs with the remains of their creators on the floor. Some mirrors have lost their ability to reflect light, and moss has already grown on others. Only a single butterfly flies through the dark corridor. The pattern on its wings resembles sharp teeth.
"Whoa... That's a lot of mirrors...", Sprig comments.
"So, anyone want to turn back and go into the Book of Losers?", Anne chuckles nervously.
"Nu-uh. Come on, it's just a dark corridor", says Luz, trying to sound encouraging, as she slowly walks along, following the butterfly that has disappeared into the darkness while the others hesitate a bit. "Come on"
"You know, some cultures believe mirrors can ward off malevolent spirits...", Marcy tells as she walks next to Anne, "-or summon them. Muhaha"
Anne chuckles when she hears Marcy's sinister laughter. Luz taps Anne on the shoulder and says "That wasn't a joke" with a totally serious look, whereupon Anne slowly and carefully turns to Marcy, hoping that she isn't about to create any monsters.
In the meantime, Polly has jumped onto Sprig's hat and, with a racing heart and paying attention to every little noise, the two of them sneak through the corridor until they all stop in front of an elaborately barricaded door. Not only is the door nailed shut with wooden boards, twice, somehow, they managed to wrap a chain around the door as well as around the door frame.
There are white amphibian runes on the door itself and red amphibian runes on the foremost wooden plank.
"Umm, Marce, can you read that?", Anne asks.
"My command of Newtopian linguistics is limited, but what it says should be fairly obvious... Keep out!"
When a wooden creaking is suddenly heard, everyone jumps up in terror, their hearts beating at what feels like 200 beats per minute. Polly buries her face in Sprig's hat for a moment and Marcy clutches Anne's hand. When she has calmed down a little bit, she seems to have forgotten to let go of her again.
"Okay, somebody's gotta wanna go back by now...", Anne assumes, trying to hide her own fear.
"I ain't g-going in n-no Book of Losers." Sprig stutters.
"M-m-me n-n-neither..." Polly stutters.
"Guess we'll go a bit further then", Marcy says.
"Uh-huh...", Anne confirms and takes a deep breath before she turns to Luz, "Luz, are you ready to keep go- … What are you doing?"
Throughout the interaction, Luz has been rummaging in the pockets of her pajama pants and is now pulling out some glyphs.
"Okay, I could knock down the door with a fire glyph or I could blast it open... With an ice glyph I could break the chain... Those are the options", Luz explains. "What?" she asks as the others look at her with a look she can't interpret.
"How is it that you are the least afraid of us?", Anne asks, "It's dark and cold here, the air is stuffy and behind that door there could be something that could kill us all and you are completely calm..."
"Well, I don't think this place is scary. There are places like that pretty much everywhere on the Boiling Isles. Also, there was this one time I had to fight Grom. Short for 'Grometheus, the fear bringer'. It's a demon, an amorphous, telepathic shapeshifter who can transform into people's worst fears and feed off of those fears. He forced me to face my worst fear and together with Amity, we defeated him. A world full of magic also has its downsides", she explains.
"When we're back up later, you absolutely have to tell a few stories. But now... We'll break off the wooden planks and you take care of the chain"
And just a few movements later, the door is open and the group can see the new chamber. "What the heck?", Anne comments on the sight of chained coffins, some of which are floating on water.
"It's some kind of creepy crypt.", she continues.
"Whoa-ho", Polly exclaims, "You mean like with dead bodies? Cool", and jumps from the door onto the nearest coffin, trying to avoid touching the totally murky water. It is not clear to see how deep it goes. Maybe just a few centimeters, maybe a kilometer.
The coffins themselves are all made from the same basic materials, primarily dark brown wood with a metal rim, but gold detailing unique to each of the coffins. Like the door, all the coffins are chained somewhere, be it to each other, to the wall, or somewhere under water. The room itself looks like an octagonal cavity has been hollowed out. The room is illuminated with red glowing corals, each of which is attached to a corner of the room.
Sprig and Luz jump right after Polly. Anne and Marcy stay behind, both looking quite worried. Marcy grabs Anne's hand with both hands and says "Anne, we shouldn't be here. This feels all sorts of wrong."
"Guys, I, uh, think Marcy's right. We should head back upstairs."
Luz, Sprig and Polly, standing atop one of the floating coffins, turn and exchange silent yet meaningful looks before all cracking smug grins.
"Oh, I see... So, I guess you two are okay with going in-", Sprig begins.
"-the Book of Loooosers.", all three shouting in unison.
"Pff... We don't wanna go back 'cause we're scared. This place just isn't our style…", Anne says, with a dismissive hand gesture.
"Okay... Prove it!", Sprig demands.
"Take a selfie by... that coffin." Luz adds, pointing to the largest coffin hanging from the ceiling at the other end of the room. Below the large hanging coffin, a few smaller moss-covered coffins are also floating on the water, along with a few rotted corpses and skeletons.
"Eww!" Anne and Marcy yell in disgust.
"Would Sasha do this?" Marcy whispers.
"Oh yeah, definitely", Anne replies with the same volume.
After some hesitation, Anne decided to lead the way. She set foot in the polluted water to find out just how deep it actually is. When she realized that the water was only about ankle-high, she climbed in. Marcy follows her, still holding onto Anne's hand. However, she already regrets her decision after the first step when her long pajama pants get soaked with water. She tries to suppress her disgust only to be able to leave this crypt again.
When they get to the coffin, Anne pulls out her phone and opens the front camera.
"All right, say desecration"
"Desecration", both girls say and Anne takes the photo. Marcy gives the camera a peace sign and they both smile in a rather forced manner.
"Ha! Nailed it." Anne says proudly as she looks at the picture she just took, "Oh, wait. This photo's kinda jank"
Suddenly her phone display starts shimmering blue while one of Anne's eyes turns yellow in the picture. The blue tint has gained mass and appears to be detaching from the phone. Suddenly, a blue, semi-transparent creature with a yellow eyeball and tentacles hovers right in front of Anne and Marcy. The two of them start screaming in panic, and Anne briefly had the urge to throw her phone at the creature. Instead, she just wiggles one arm to shoo it away. Successfully. At least for a few seconds, until the water turns from a murky brown to a murky purple and the whole room starts to tremble.
"What's going on here?", Polly asks, scared.
But before anyone can answer her, more creatures emerge from the water and some of the coffins. They are all different sizes and shapes, but the same color. Some have claws, some have tentacles.
"What the heck are these things?" Anne asks as she and Marcy take a few steps backwards before another being appears from a coffin behind them.
"They look like ghosts", Luz comments.
"They're actually kinda cute", Sprig says, "I wanna touch 'em"
"Don't touch it", Marcy warns.
"Look!" Anne points to one of the creatures, which has sucked up some of the bones that were floating on the water and is decomposing them inside.
"AHH! They're gonna eat our bones!", Polly screams.
"Okay...", Luz says, "I'm slowly starting to think that we should go back..."
As Sprig and Polly flee from one of the beings that has risen from the coffin they were on, Anne, Marcy and Luz slowly walk back towards the corridor they originally came from.
"I don't get it. Are they aliens? Alien-ghosts?" Anne asks.
"Does it matter? Let's get outta here, Scoob." Marcy interrupts Anne's thought process.
"Roger that... Wait, what did you just call me?"
Just before the girls can flee, another giant creature comes out of the corridor blocking the way. Luz jumps between it and Anne and Marcy and pulls out some glyphs.
"I got this!", she yells, hurling a fireball at the creature. It didn't even flinch. She tries to get it out of the way with plants. The plants dissolve as they touch it. She tries to freeze it, also to no avail!
"What? That's not possible...", Luz says, frustrated.
"Guys, this way! We found another exit!" Sprig and Polly yell from an open door at the other end of the room, where the three human girls immediately run to.
They run down the corridor as fast as they can, but the beings are chasing them. At a junction they find another corridor, which is already like the first one, full of mirrors.
"Man, someone really loves mirrors", Anne comments.
As the beings get closer, they keep running down the hallway with the mirrors, when suddenly another being appears in the middle of the hallway. Luz starts and stumbles.
"Luz, you can study ghosts later, come on!" Anne yells before the group turns into another junction.
This time, however, there are no mirrors, but plants.
"What the... a garden? But how are these plants growing so well without sunlight?", Marcy wonders and stops. Anne notices, turns around and grabs Marcy's arm.
"Mar-Mar, we don't have time for this. Come on!"
They keep running, pass some paintings, one of them destroyed and finally run up a spiral stone staircase until they discover a heavy hatch at the top, which Anne and Marcy push open together.
"My room?" Marcy asks confused.
"Don't question it!", Anne replies and Sprig closes the wooden hatch.
"Oh, thank goodness that's-", Anne wanted to say relieved, before a few of the creatures slowly slide through the closed hatch.
Sprig and Polly now have their backs to Marcy's door, while Anne and Marcy have been pushed back to Marcy's window. Marcy herself is terrified right now while Anne is looking for options.
She sees a book lying on a shelf, picks it up and throws it at one of the creatures.
"Take this, you overgrown gummy worm!", she calls out as she tosses the book. Although it slides through it almost unaffected, the book smokes briefly as it lands at Sprig's feet.
"Quick! More books", he yells.
"Way ahead of you", Polly says, and the two of them throw whatever book they can find at the semi-transparent creatures.
Anne does the same and throws every book she can find as well. Only Marcy stands there petrified, unable to move at all.
"This isn't working. Why are the books passing right through them?"
"Maybe they prefer audiobooks", Anne replies after picking up a sprayworm and shooting a kind of liquid liquorice straight through one of the creatures at high speed. Sprig picks up a hand mirror to shield himself from the licorice.
Suddenly a ray of light comes out of the mirror and before you can even blink, the largest creature in the room is no longer transparent but completely solid.
"What the..." Marcy asks before grabbing a pillow off her bed and slamming it on the creature's head. "It's physical? But how?"
"The mirrors.", Anne and Marcy call out as they look over at Sprig.
"Both hallways to the crypt were filled with mirrors.", Anne remembers.
"It looks like the reflection of their own light turns these creatures physical, which means..."
"Quick, everyone, grab a mirror!" Anne shouts and throws a mirror at everyone.
One by one, the creatures solidify and, with the help of pillows, are pushed back down the stairway.
When all creatures were finally expelled from the room, Anne closed the hatch, Polly threw a large mirror on it and Marcy pushed a chair onto the mirror for extra weight.
"We did it!", Anne exclaims relieved and lets herself fall on Marcy's bed, "we drove away the alien-ghost-things"
"And no one got eaten.", Marcy adds, lying down next to Anne.
"A great victory", Anne says.
"Umm guys...", Sprig begins nervously, "Where's Luz?"
Immediately after this question, Anne shoots up and looks around the room.
"She… must still be in the basement", she concludes.
"Anne, we need to get back down and help her", Marcy pleads.
"But the creatures are probably still on the stairs", Polly notes.
"We can't just leave our friend down there with those things. She doesn't even know how to-", argues Sprig, but is interrupted by Anne
"GUYS!" she yells, "why are you trying to convince me? As if I'm going to leave Luz down there... Arm yourself, we're going back!"
Marcy lifts the chair from the hatch while the others equip themselves with hand mirrors and pillows. Anne even takes an additional mirror for Luz while wondering why Marcy has so many hand mirrors in her room at all.
"Are you ready to kick some alien ghosts' butt?" Anne asks encouragingly.
"Yeah, let's go.", says Marcy
"FOR LUZ!" Polly yells and is the first to throw herself down the spiral staircase.
The creatures had already retreated a bit down the stairs and are also transparent again, but Polly beats them up one by one. The others call after her that she shouldn't go ahead alone, but it quickly became clear that once Polly was in a fighting frenzy, she wouldn't stop that easily.
Anne, Sprig and Marcy follow Polly only a short time later and can still hear her battle cries in the distance. As they descended the spiral staircase, they encountered several solid creatures lying motionless on the stairs.
"Luckily she only has a pillow... I don't want to know what she would do with a real weapon", Marcy comments, whereupon Anne and Sprig exchange meaningful looks.
"Yeah, it's better if you don't know", Sprig replies, whereupon Marcy doesn't ask any further, just nods.
At the bottom, they see a contented Polly, breathing heavily.
"That. Was. Awesome."
"We haven't found Luz yet. Maybe there's more..." Anne says teasingly, causing Polly's eyes to widen.
"Yes. Yes. Yes... Let's goooo", she yells and hops off and Marcy looks at Anne with a raised eyebrow.
"What? A little motivation is good. Helps make this place feel a little less spooky", Anne explains.
"Aha! So you were scared after all", Sprig claims.
"I thought we had that sorted out already", Anne shoots back, "Now let's look for Luz"
"Anne, she was right behind you. Where was the last time you saw her?", Marcy asks.
"By the mirrors. She tripped and fell. But got up again."
"Are you sure?" Marcy asks skeptically.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you sure you saw her get up again?"
Anne doesn't answer, but swallows heavily. Ashamed, but determined, Anne makes her way through the underground garden with the rest of the group.
Marcy keeps getting lost admiring the different plants that she hasn't seen anywhere in Amphibia before. But Anne also sees something that looks quite familiar to her and makes her stop in her tracks in shock. Sprig notices that Anne has stopped and turns to her.
"Anne? Did you find Luz?" he asks, whereupon she shakes her head, "Then what- oh... um, Marcy..."
"Hmm? Whoa..." she says as she sees what Anne and Sprig have found.
"That's a Mossman..." Anne explains.
"You were right... He's real. Why is he chained up?" Sprig says.
"It's not the same one Wally and I found"
The Mossman, who is chained to a wall with a massive iron chain and has only been sitting on the floor with his legs bent, now turns to Anne, who kneels down to him in turn.
He's looking at her as if he's waiting for something.
"Yes, that's right. I've met someone like you before. Out there in Frog Valley", she says in a sad voice, "It must have been forever since you've seen the sun, or been out in the fresh air... Or had company ..."
The Mossman offers Anne a hand, which she hesitantly takes. Pictures appear in her mind. A pink frog with red hair. Many of his own kind who lived in the basement. Like him, some were in chains too.
Anne flinches as the pictures ended.
"Anne, are you okay? What happened?" Marcy asks worried.
"He... showed me pictures... memories. This place, it used to be a garden tended by a frog", she explains. When she has calmed down again, she turns back to the Mossman, "What happened? Why are you the only one here? Why the chains? Did the others escape like the one I met?"
The Mossman takes his eyes off Anne and looks at Sprig for a few moments. He looks back at Anne and extends his hand to her again.
Pictures pop into her head again. The same pink frog, but perched on the back of another unchained Mossman. Crying, with a box in one hand and a weapon in the other. They ride past. There's a roar. Leif. The pictures disappear again.
Anne falls backwards to the ground and turns to Marcy, "That frog, Leif... She had the music box... and was running from something."
"What? Although, there were frogs on the box itself too. It doesn't surprise me that this is where the box originated from", Marcy says.
"But what did she flee from and why? We should ask King Andrias about it tomorrow", suggests Anne.
"Good idea", Marcy says, and the Mossman makes a painful noise. Anne turns back to him and sees that he is now sitting on the floor with his legs against his chest and his back to the group.
A question forms in Anne's head that she thinks Marcy won't like the answer to. She turns back to the Mossman facing his back now.
"Did...did King Andrias do...something bad?" she asks him cautiously. He doesn't turn around. Only the same, painful noise can be heard again.
"It's okay. I'm sorry if I brought up painful memories. It wasn't my intention... You know, maybe we could help you. In a few days we'll be leaving Newtopia and heading back to Frog Valley. Maybe we can try to smuggle you out of the palace and the city so you can see your friend again", Anne suggests hopefully.
"Anne, I don't know if Hop Pop would agree with that. Besides, we'd have to get him out of the palace and to the fwagon undetected before we even got out of town..." Sprig explains, very doubtful.
"But we can't just leave him here and pretend we never found him", Anne says, making Sprig feel guilty.
"I'm all for Anne's idea...I mean, I teleported us to another world because I didn't want to be alone. I don't want to imagine how he must be", Marcy says.
"Wait, what?", Sprig asks and looks at Marcy with big eyes.
"Oh right", Anne begins, "I hadn't told you that before... I'll do that later."
"Fine... Maybe we can take him with us. But first we need to talk to Hop Pop and plan it thoroughly. I mean, we're stealing from the king... Can't believe I just said that", Sprig says.
The Mossman turns around and a joyful humming can be heard. The three friends intuitively start smiling.
"Look, we're looking for a friend right now who's probably lost down here. Any idea where she might be?" Anne asks him.
He nods, stands up and points in the direction of the corridor with the mirrors, where Anne last saw Luz.
"Thank you very much. We'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with a good plan", says Anne and walks through the rest of the garden with Sprig and Marcy. Marcy waves goodbye to the Mossman, who waves back as well.
When they arrive at the hole in the wall that connects the garden to the mirror-corridor, they see Polly standing in the middle of the opening.
"Guys, I've found Luz", she says.
As the others can see down the corridor, they freeze.
"What's that?", Sprig asks scared.
In the middle of the corridor, to the left of the opening, stands a transparent being. At first glance, Polly thought it was another alien ghost because it was just as transparent, but the shape was nothing like the other creatures. It seemed much more intimidating.
"It looks... like a wolf", Marcy observes the creature standing just a few meters in front of her. It has gray fur, white claws and its skull outside of its head. His eyes are glowing bright yellow and his gaze is focused on something in front of him.
"Luz?" Anne calls, causing everyone to look to the right of the opening where Luz is standing motionless in the corridor with Owlbert on her shoulder. Both her and Owlbert's eyes glow the same color as well. Luz and Owlbert's eyes meet the wolf's.
"Luz? What's going on here?" Sprig asks with apprehension in his voice. He pulls out his hand mirror and points it at the wolf, but without any effect.
"That must be something else if the mirrors aren't having any effect." Marcy observed.
"I'll pull her away from there", Anne decides and steps out of the opening into the corridor.
Chapter 20: Ghosts [Part 2]
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
She takes just one step and immediately something changes. The wolf, Luz and Owlbert now look directly at Anne, the glowing eyes unchanged. They seem angry.
Anne gasps and stops immediately.
After a few seconds, Anne takes another step towards Luz, still six glowing yellow angry eyes fixed on her. The wolf starts growling.
"Anne, maybe you should come back", suggests Sprig, "Something's not right here at all"
"But... we can't leave her behind…", Anne argues and takes another step.
The wolf is still growling and Luz now has both hands on Owlbert in his staff form. She looks at Anne with absolute fury.
"Anne, seriously. You shouldn't go any further", Marcy yells.
Anne thinks about it for a moment.
"Oh, fuck it", she says and runs towards Luz.
"ANNE!!", Marcy, Sprig and Polly scream. Anne turns and sees that the wolf is running towards her.
Her eyes widen and just a second before he hits her, she dives to the side.
The wolf doesn't stop. He keeps running. Heading straight for Luz.
"LUZ!" Anne roars, lying on the ground, just before the wolf hits Luz.
But instead of hitting, knocking over, or otherwise hurting her, he jumps into her, causing Luz to briefly lose her balance and stumble back a few steps.
Now that the wolf is gone, Marcy, Sprig and Polly dare to go into the corridor and run to help Anne up.
"Luz? Are you alright?" she asks when she gets back on her feet. Luz herself is still slightly crouched with her hands on her face.
Anne cautiously takes a few steps towards her.
Luz takes her hands off her face and Anne flinches.
"Guys, go back!" Anne yells urgently when she sees Luz's still yellow eyes and her furious look.
Luz extends her right palm to Anne. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an unfamiliar symbol appears in the air, just in front of her palm, and a strong gust of wind knocks Anne off her feet and throws her across the corridor.
"WHAT THE???", Anne exclaims in complete bewilderment as she lands on the ground several meters behind her. Her friends watch the scene with the same expression.
"HUMAN. YOU’RE LUCKY THIS ONE DESPISES VIOLENCE AGAINST THOSE SHE LIKES"
Everyone could see that the voice came from Luz's mouth, but it wasn't hers. This voice was much deeper and distorted.
"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR FRIEND?" Anne yells back.
Luz looks away from Anne and turns sideways to one wall of the corridor. She raises her arm again and after another symbol materializes in front of Luz's hand, a huge explosion shakes the whole room. Marcy lost her balance momentarily but was caught by Sprig. While Anne is still trying to get up, Polly goes to the site of the explosion. There is now a large hole in the wall leading outside and Luz herself is gone.
By the time the dust from the explosion settles, the others have also arrived at the hole in the palace wall.
"What the frog was that?" asks Sprig, still not understanding what just happened, "Has Luz been possessed by that... wolf?"
"I hope not, but we have to- wait, I can still see her. Over there, she's flying out of Newtopia", Anne observes.
"I have an idea, come with me", Marcy calls and runs back towards the garden. "Polly, can you break this iron chain here?"
"Sure", she replies, and Marcy turns to the Mossman. "Good news big guy, you don't have to wait until tomorrow to escape. There's a big hole ahead. Get out of there as fast as you can."
The Mossman nods and Polly does manage to break the chain, albeit at the cost of one of Marcy's hand mirrors.
As soon as the chain is broken, the Mossman sprints out of the garden on all fours. The others meanwhile sprint up the spiral stone staircase to Marcy's room.
"Mar-Mar, will you tell us what your plan is?" Anne asks, slightly out of breath.
"Luz or whatever was talking to us isn't flying that fast. If we take Joe, we can still catch up with her."
"And then what?"
"If we can't talk to the thing inside her, maybe we can at least find out where it's going with her", she explains.
"Awesome"
Once upstairs in Marcy's room, Marcy climbs to her window and whistles loudly downstairs. Her companion, Joe Sparrow, is at her window shortly after. The group climbs out the window onto Joe's back and Marcy orders him to fly in the same direction Luz flew.
A few kilometers outside the city walls, Luz comes into sight riding Owlbert.
"Damn, she saw us", Anne says as Luz turns and looks straight at her. But surprisingly, she's slowing down, "She is doing something to Owlbert..."
The staff that Luz is sitting on begins to glow more and more. The group keeps getting closer and closer to Luz.
Luz turns back briefly once more. Shortly after, she picks up speed. And she's getting faster. And faster. And faster. Joe Sparrow tries to keep up, but it drains him. Suddenly, there's a loud bang, followed by a shock wave that hits the group.
"What was that?" Polly asks after they've all been thoroughly shaken up.
"She... just broke the sound barrier. We can't catch up with her anymore..." Marcy explains with great disappointment in her voice. There is a moment of silence.
"And what are we doing now?"
"Well... She seems to have flown towards Frog Valley... We can look for her as soon as we drive back", Anne suggests, equally disappointed.
"Why not right now?", Sprig asks.
After checking her phone, Anne explains, "We're tired and Joe is exhausted. Also, the sun is about to rise and we're about to have an audience with the king."
"And what about 'no one gets left behind'?" he asks, making Anne looking down in guilt. He doesn't get an answer. "I see"
The sun has already risen when the group returns to Marcy's room at the palace. On the way back nobody dared to interrupt the silence.
Eventually the silence was broken when Lady Olivia, wide awake and quite frustrated, pushed open Marcy's room doors.
"Rise and shine, kids. Because of you, I barely slept a wink last night... Ugh, well, whatever. It's go-time. Your audience with King Andrias is about to begin. Get ready!"
She slams the doors again and a short time later Hop Pop shows up to bring Anne and Sprig their original clothes. Maddie is with him.
"I hope you had a nice night", he says enthusiastically. Marcy and Anne are lying on their bed, Sprig is sitting by Marcy's window and Polly has found a comfortable bucket and is taking a nap.
He takes turns looking at the children and says, very dryly, "That bad, yes?"
"Hey guys", Maddie looks past Hop Pop and heads around, "I've got Luz's stuff with me, since she's just... Um, where is she?"
Nobody answers.
"Guys, where's Luz?" she asks again with more pressure.
Again, no one answers. It even goes so far that no one even looks at her.
"Gone"
It's Sprig sitting by the window looking out.
"What do you mean 'gone', boy?" asks Hop Pop, seeing the increasingly concerned look in Maddie's eyes.
He turns to Hop Pop and Maddie, his eyes slightly swollen.
"She's gone. Not there anymore. She got possessed by some wolf-thing and ran away. She was going too fast for us to track her. She probably flew back to Frog Valley, that's all we know."
Maddie and Hop Pop stood in the doorway open-mouthed, not knowing how to handle this information. Sprig turns around again and looks outside again.
"Well, Maddie, it looks like you're going to come back with us", Hop Pop says, trying to ease the situation.
"Thank you", Maddie replies, "But I don't understand why Luz should just run off like that. We're all still here and so are her things..."
"Ugh... She didn't leave voluntarily... I hope at least", Sprig says, somewhat annoyed, "She had these creepy yellow glowing eyes and her voice was very different from her normal voice-"
Maddie's eyes widen as Sprig talks.
"Wait, what?"
"Huh?"
"Her eyes. They were glowing?"
"Yes, yellow. Is that important?"
"I think I know where she is..."
Anne and Marcy shoot up and stare straight at her "You know where she is? How? Where is she?"
"I'll tell you as soon as we're out of Newtopia. But don't worry. Where she is, nothing can happen to her."
Strong doubts linger in the room, but Maddie's belief that she knows where Luz is has been dispelled enough that they are willing to wait a little longer for the answers to their questions.
Shortly after, they are all getting ready for their audience with King Andrias.
Exactly thirty minutes later, Lady Olivia returns to collect the group, this time accompanied by two guards. Everyone has a hard time resisting the urge to giggle to themselves at the sight of Lady Olivia's painted twirl of mustache. She is visibly annoyed and ignoring the general fatigue of the group, she shoos them across the palace to the throne room. King Andrias is already waiting for them with great anticipation.
"Wonderful to see you all again"
"Hey King Andrias", greet him the two humans and the four frogs.
"So... Ask me if I found anything about the box", the king says playfully.
"Did you-" Anne began to ask
"BINGO!" he interrupts her and starts laughing, "Ta-daa"
He pulls out from behind his back a rather old looking book, which is several meters tall. The cover is made of brown leather with several golden decorations on the spine. The leather is partially already frayed and has minor water damage. There are three different colored gems drawn on the cover of the book, blue, green and pink.
The king opens it to a specific page and then places the book on the floor for the others to see.
"Here, take a look"
The groups gasps.
"It's the music box!", Sprig notes.
"According to this book, it's a magical artifact that is thousands of years old. Apparently, my ancestors used it to visit entirely different worlds. They were... peaceful explorers, scientists of you will. These stones are the key to getting it working again but they need to be recharged", he explains.
"Recharged? How?" Anne asks.
"The book mentions three different temples. Each channeling a different kind of energy. And once the stones are recharged..."
"WE HAVE A WAY HOME?" Anne calls excitedly and with stars in her eyes.
"Steal my thunder, why don't you?", King Andrias asks sarcastically, "But yes"
"I don't believe it. A real chance to get home..." says Anne with a newly found source of hope.
"Right? Now let's get out there and conquer these bad boys", Marcy shouts.
"Whoo-hoo", Anne cheers, but King Andrias slows her down a bit.
"Whoa-ho. Let's rein those snails for a sec. The book only mentions the location of one temple. Besides, you still have a lot of preparing to do before you set off", he explains.
"Good point", Marcy admits, "Gotta get equipped for a mega-quest like this. Armor to buy, maps to study, weapons to forge... This gonna take a few days"
"Few days, huh?" Hop Pop now also speaks up, "Well, I hate to say it, but we really need to get back to Wartwood. The harvest is coming up and we can't miss it."
"Okay, Marce, me and the Plantars will head back to Wartwood, and when you're ready we can just meet up.", Anne suggests
"Good idea, Anne", King Andrias says, "Besides, Marcy, I have an important mission for you, for which I need you while you are still here in Newtopia."
"Oh... What is it about?" Marcy asks.
"In a few days, General Yunan will be back from a classified assignment I sent her on. Once she gets back, I need your negotiating skills on a sensitive matter. Once this is done, you are free to travel to Wartwood and assist in the quest for the temples."
"Oh, umm... Alright", Marcy says disappointedly, and Anne takes Marcy's hands in hers.
"Don't be sad, Mar-Mar. We found each other and as soon as your commitments here are completed, we will meet again. I promise. And after that, nothing will separate us again."
Marcy wipes a tear from her face
"You're right. We've been waiting for months, what's another week?"
"That's the spirit", King Andrias exclaims, "Don't worry, you'll see each other again shortly... Speaking of seeing you again, I just noticed something. Where is that other girl who was here last time?"
"Oh... Luz is... umm..." Marcy stutters
"We overdid it a bit last night and we kinda lost her...", Anne says. King Andrias raises an eyebrow before bursting out in laughter.
"Oh, that brings back memories... When I was a young prince myself, I used to throw wild sleepovers with my friends from time to time. Sometimes we woke up all over town in the morning, it was fantastic...", he says nostalgically, "Don't worry, your friend will definitely show up again"
"Was the name of one of your friends purely by chance... Leif?" Anne asks, causing Andrias’ expressions to fall.
"How do you know that name?"
"Erm... something was scratched into a wall in Marcy's room. 'Leif and Andrias for ever'. There was also a third name, but it was no longer legible", Anne lied. King Andrias falls backwards onto the steps in front of his throne and sighs.
"Yes. Leif used to be my friend an eternity ago", he admitted in a sad voice.
"What happened?", Anne asks sympathetically.
"She had stolen a valuable family heirloom. It had been in my family for generations. To this day I don't know why she did it and both the heirloom and Leif never showed up again..." he said and the whole room was silent. Nobody really knew what to say.
"But don't worry, that was ages ago. Nothing to worry about. Now go, you have an adventure to prepare."
Shortly after everyone has said goodbye to the King and Lady Olivia and the heavy palace doors have slammed shut behind them, Sprig turns to Anne.
"He lied, didn't he?"
"Oh yeah, totally..."
"LUZ! LUZ, THE HUMAN!"
Those were the first words Luz heard as she regained consciousness and found herself in a place she could only describe as empty. She sits up and realizes that the ground she's sitting on isn't solid. She slides a hand over it.
"It's like water... but not wet... HELLO? IS THERE ANYONE?" she calls into the dark void that surrounds her on all sides.
No Answer. Luz gets up and tries again
"HELLOOO?? CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? WHERE AM I?"
"GOOD YOU ARE AWAKE"
A deep disembodied voice speaks to her. With every word, the void flashes brightly.
"Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here?"
"WHAT'S THE LAST YOU REMEMBER?"
"I was running away from these... things with my friends and then I saw this wolf. Then all I know is that I woke up here"
"YOU ARE IN YOUR OWN HEAD RIGHT NOW"
"What?"
"I COULDN'T TRUST THAT YOU WOULD COME BACK HERE BY YOURSELF SO I SENT MY COMPANION TO GET YOU"
"What you're saying doesn't make any sense. I've never been inside my own head. Well, at least not in that way. I'll ask you again: Who are you?"
"I THINK IT WOULD BE EASIER TO SHOW YOU"
Suddenly the void transforms and colors fill the room. A blue sky and white clouds. The liquid under her feet is now grass. Trees grow all around. And in the distance rises a gigantic skull, a bright yellow glow emanating from its eye sockets.
"No way!"
"YOU WOULD PROBABLY CALL ME THE TITAN"
"But... you... how... huh?" Luz struggles for words, "But- But... you're dead. How can you be here? HOW CAN YOU BE IN MY HEAD?"
"I SHOULD EXPLAIN MYSELF... WHAT YOU WOULD TERM DEATH IS NOT THE END FOR MY SPECIES. OUR BODIES WILL PASS AWAY BUT OUR CONSCIOUSNESS RISES TO A NEW LEVEL OF EXISTENCE. ONCE OUR BODIES PASS, WE ARE BOUND TO THE PLACE WHERE WE PASSED. I EXIST IN THE WHOLE WORLD YOU WOULD CALL THE DEMON REALM AND CONTROL THE MAGIC THAT WAS RELEASED AT MY DEATH"
"But... I'm in Amphibia... not the Demon Realm..."
"WHEN MY BODY DECOMPOSED, MY BLOOD COMBINED WITH THE WATER IN THAT REALM CREATE PORTALS THAT MAGIC WENT UP INTO OTHER REALMS AS WELL, AND WITH IT A PART OF MY SELF. IN THIS WORLD YOU CALL AMPHIBIA, MY BLOOD IN CONTACT WITH THE SOIL HAS CREATED A PLACE THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW."
Suddenly the surroundings change again. Luz is now standing in the middle of a large cave, which is surrounded by huge crystals that glow in different colors. In front of her is a stone altar, above which a huge glowing crystal is floating. Suddenly, people appear too. She sees Hop Pop lying on the altar. Maddie looking at him worried. And herself touching the crystal with both hands.
Luz looks at this still scene. She tries to put her hand on the shoulder of the image of herself, but her hand slips through.
"THIS PLACE IS FAMILIAR TO YOU, ISN'T IT?"
"Here... Maddie and I revived Hop Pop..."
"THE COMBINATION OF MY BLOOD WITH THE MINERALS OF THIS WORLD HAVE CREATED THIS PLACE. THE MAGIC OF MY BLOOD THAT WENT INTO THIS WORLD CREATED THESE CRYSTAL FORMATIONS. HERE IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT YOU."
"I remember... someone had called my name"
"INDEED."
Luz needs a moment to process this and takes a deep breath.
"Well...let's assume I believe you, that you really are the titan. Why am I here?"
"I HAVE MADE MISTAKES AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO CORRECT THEM"
"You are the Titan. What do you need my help for?"
"I NO LONGER HAVE A BODY. I CANNOT PERFORM SPELLS BUT ONLY CONTROL AND DIRECT MAGIC IN ITS PURE FORM."
"But why me? Why not one of the witches and demons from the Demon Realm?"
"THIS IS PART OF THE MISTAKE I MADE. I NO LONGER HAVE THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH MY CHILDREN"
"What happened?"
"HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO, TWO HUMANS FOUND A RIFT BETWEEN THE REALMS AND STRANDED THEMSELVES IN THE DEMON REALM"
"There were more humans in the Demon Realm before me?"
"INDEED. TWO HUMANS OF THE SAME BLOOD. ONE PEACEFUL AND KIND, THE OTHER FULL OF HATE AND CONTEMPT. THE DESPISING ONE LEARNED MY LANGUAGE AND CONTACTED ME. HE WANTED TO LEARN MAGIC SO I GRANTED HIM THIS WISH. MY GIFT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR HIM AND HE WANTED MORE. LIKE A PARASITE, IT ATTACHED TO ME AND ULTIMATELY ABSORBED ME"
"But if he absorbed you, how can you talk to me now? And how could you take me away from there?"
"I CAN PERCEIVE ALL INDIVIDUALS TRAVELLING BETWEEN REALMS. THE SPACE BETWEEN REALMS LEAVES A MARK ON THOSE WHO WANDER THROUGH. THAT'S HOW I WAS ABLE TO FIND YOU, EVEN OUTSIDE OF THAT REALM. THE PARASITE DOESN'T KNOW THIS WORLD. HE DOESN'T KNOW THAT A PART OF MY SELF IS HERE"
"I see... wait, you said that was only part of the mistake..."
"INDEED. IN THIS REALM, I HAVE MADE THE SAME MISTAKE. THE INHABITANTS OF THIS WORLD FOUND THIS PLACE MORE THAN TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO AND I PERMIT THEM TO USE THE CRYSTALS TO SPREAD THE USE OF MAGIC. IT WAS NOT LONG BEFORE THE FIRST INDIVIDUALS ABUSED MAGIC, BRINGING SUFFERING AND PAIN NOT ONLY OVER THIS WORLD, BUT ALSO OVER MANY OTHERS"
"The Gems... The music box..."
"INDEED"
"So I was right. I knew Andrias was a tyrant. I have to tell the others"
"THAT WOULD NOT BE WISE"
"What? Why not? You do want to stop him, don’t you?"
"THAT'S CORRECT. HOWEVER, THIS WORLD IS NO LONGER SAFE FOR YOU"
"What do you mean 'not safe'?"
"THE RULER OF THIS WORLD KNOWS ABOUT YOU AND THIS PLACE. HE CONSIDERS YOU A THREAT AND WILL TRY TO ELIMINATE YOU. I CANNOT LET THIS PLACE FALL INTO HIS HANDS OR THOUSANDS OF WORLDS WILL BE CONQUERED BY HIM AND ELIMINATED AS WELL"
"Oh..."
"ONCE HE FINDS THIS PLACE, YOUR FRIENDS HERE ARE IN MORTAL DANGER AS WELL. AS SOON AS HE SEES NO MORE USE FOR THEM, HE WILL END THEIR LIVES. FOR NOW, THEY ARE SAFE."
"Oh..."
"I BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS WORLD ORIGINALLY, BECAUSE YOUR LIFE IN THE DEMON REALM WAS JUST AS ENDANGERED AS IT-"
"Wait! YOU brought me here? You almost killed me as I arrived here. YOU robbed me of the chance to save Eda's life?? And now you're demanding me to fix YOUR mistakes???"
"NO. I BROUGHT YOU HERE TO MAKE YOU AN OFFER"
"An offer? What kind?"
"IT'S EASIER TO SHOW YOU"
The surroundings are changing again. The illustrations of Maddie and Hop Pop have dissolved. The image of Luz still stands in front of the crystal. Her image's eyes are still glowing yellow. Owlbert has now appeared on her shoulder, his eyes also glowing.
"WHAT YOU SEE NOW IS REALITY. BUT FOR YOU FROM AN EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE"
"I know you're watching me. Step forward"
A third voice can be heard. It is the image of Luz that speaks. She does hear her own voice, but it's deeper and a little distorted.
The image turns away from the floating crystal and faces an empty stone path leading away from the area where the altar is located towards the portal leading into the cave. A tall, slender figure emerges from the path. It's a pink Newt with blond hair and dark iron armor and a black cloak.
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, aaaaaand... the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian army! You have no right to be here. Leave this place"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken. YOU have no right to be here, General."
"Listen, I know you're a friend of Marcy's and I really shouldn't be telling you, but I've been given orders by King Andrias to ensure that no one knows of the existence of this place, by any means necessary. So I beg you: go, before you force me to use means that I would hate to use against a child."
"I don't like this", the real Luz comments. Luz's image moves into a fighting stance while General Yunan's sighs in disappointment.
"You leave me no choice then"
Luz stands a little apart from the two images and alternately looks back and forth between the two. Yunan extends metal claws from the ends of her arms and charges towards her opponent. The image of Luz shows no sign of wanting to dodge the attack. Instead, she balls her fists, stretches them out towards her attacker and immediately in front of them a symbol appears in the air and a strong gust of wind knocks Yunan off her feet and, trying not to be blown too far away, she rams her claws into the ground.
"What the…" the real Luz comments, wide-eyed. Yunan looks similarly horrified at her opponent.
Luz's image raises her arms and this time a different symbol appears on each hand. The water that flows around the area around the altar overflows the bank. As if trapped in an invisible pipe, two jets of water rush towards Yunan with great force.
She raises her arms in front of her face to protect herself, but that's when she's hit and thrown against a rock face and falls to the ground on all fours. The image of Luz now has blue glowing balls of flame on her hands and slowly walks towards Yunan.
Seeing the pain in Yunan's eyes, the real Luz runs between the images of Yunan and herself.
"Stop! Stop hurting her!"
Her image now looks Luz straight in the eye and the flame balls in her hands go out. They both kneel down to Yunan who is coughing up blood.
"This one, who owns this body, doesn't want you to get hurt any further", Yunan looks at her with a questioning look, "But I can't allow your king to know more about this place"
Luz' image puts her hand on Yunan's head and she collapses.
"What did you do?"
Her image goes back to the large floating crystal.
"A sleeping spell. Besides, she will have no memory of this altercation and I have healed the worst injuries."
"But how did you... did I do that? I'm a human after all"
"MY COMPANION, THE WOLF, AS YOU CALLING HIM, THE ONE, I HAVE TRAVELLED WITH FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS, HAD MERGED WITH YOU AND TRANSFERRED ALL HIS REMAINING MAGIC TO BRING YOU HERE. HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF. SO SURELY YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THAT I AM IN A VERY DESPERATE POSITION"
"So basically, you're offering me magical abilities in exchange for helping you with your problems?"
"THAT IS CORRECT"
"And what would you do if I declined the offer?"
"SHOULD YOU DECLINE, YOU ARE FREE TO GO. I WOULD EVEN SEND YOU TO A WORLD OF YOUR CHOICE."
"But what would happen to you then?"
"NOTHING"
"Nothing? What do you mean 'nothing'?"
"I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING, SHOULD MORE INDIVIDUALS DISCOVER THIS PLACE AND WISH TO CLAIM THE MAGIC. I WOULD BE FORCED TO STAND BY AND OBSERVE AS WORLDS GETTING HARVESTED FOR THEIR RESOURCES AND ULTIMATELY PERISHED BECAUSE OF MY MISTAKES"
Within a split second, Luz has an answer ready: "I'll help you."
"THEN THE TRANSMISSION WILL NOW BEGIN"
Suddenly Luz notices strong movements inside the cave. The ground trembles and as she takes a closer look around the cave some of the larger crystals appear to be moving and realigning. She turns to the image of herself, which has now let go of the giant crystal and is lying down on the altar beneath the crystal.
"How exactly is this going to work now, the magic transfer thing?"
"IN ORDER FOR YOUR BODY TO BE ABLE TO STORE AND USE MAGIC IN THE LONG TERM, I HAVE TO MAKE A FEW ADJUSTMENTS. YOUR VISUAL APPEARANCE WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THIS"
"Adjustments? What adjustments?"
The ground beneath her feet begins to shake again and cracks begin to form, leading away from the altar to the water surrounding the platform. The water flows into the resulting cracks and leads it like a canal to the altar. Luz marvels when, once there, it flows up the altar and watches as it envelops her body.
"YOUR BLOOD IS NOT RECEPTIVE ENOUGH. I WILL ENRICH IT WITH MINE"
"With your...? So that's not water?"
"CORRECT."
Luz gets closer to the altar her body is lying on and sees the liquid slowly seeping into her skin.
"Okay... what else?"
YOUR HEART IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO PUMP THE REINFORCED BLOOD THROUGH YOUR BODY. IT WILL BE REINFORCED AS WELL AND YOU WILL RECEIVE A SECOND ONE"
"A second heart? Uff... Then I'm not really a human anymore, am I?"
"INDEED. YOU WILL BE A CHILD OF TWO SPECIES"
"Forever?"
"IF IT SHOULD BE YOUR WISH, IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO UNDO THE CHANGES"
"Nice to know. What else are you doing?"
"A FEW OTHER ORGANS NEED TO BE REINFORCED AS WELL. THIS RESULTS IN INCREASED PERFORMANCE. YOUR LIFE EXPECTANCY WILL ALSO BE INCREASED"
"By how many years are we talking?"
"ACCORDING TO MY ESTIMATES, YOUR LIFE EXPECTANCY WILL INCREASE BY FIFTEEN MILLENNIA"
"WHAT???????"
"A FULLY EVOLVED TITAN HAS A LIFE EXPECTANCY OF UP TO FIFTY MILLION YEARS. MORE THAN FIFTEEN ADDITIONAL MILLENNIA IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR YOUR SPECIES"
"I... um... ugh... I'm not going to complain. I'm just... surprised, I guess"
"I THINK, IT'S IMPORTANT TO POINT OUT THAT THIS IS ONLY A MAXIMUM VALUE. YOU ARE BY NO MEANS IMMORTAL. ALSO, OVERUSE OF MAGIC CAN REDUCE YOUR LIFESPAN AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PRODUCE MORE ONCE WHAT I LEAVE YOU WILL IS USED UP"
"Just out of curiosity: How much do I get from you?"
"YOU WILL RECEIVE EVERYTHING STORED IN THIS CAVE"
"W- What? But... what about you then?"
"MY EXISTENCE IN THIS WORLD WILL END AFTER THE TRANSFER IS COMPLETE"
"You- So you're dying? No, I can't let that happen"
"AND I CANNOT ALLOW ANY OF THE MAGIC TO REMAIN IN THIS PLACE. WHAT IS IN THIS WORLD, OUTSIDE OF THIS CAVE, IS BEYOND REACH OF THOSE WHO CAN ABUSE IT. NOT FOR LONG, THOUGH"
"You're talking about Anne, Marcy and Sasha, aren't you?"
"THERE ARE FOUR GEM CARRIERS IN THIS WORLD"
"What? Who else? Me?"
"NO. IT IS AN INDIVIDUAL THAT YOU MUST SEEK OUT ONCE YOU RETURN TO THIS WORLD."
"You're sending me away?? No! I have to stay here and protect my friends from this tyrant"
"I'M GOING TO SEND YOU BACK TO THE DEMON REALM, WHERE YOU WILL HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO CONTROL YOUR NEW ABILITIES. YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO THAT HERE. ALSO: ONCE THE PROCESS BEGINS, YOUR BODY WILL BE FLOODED WITH MAGIC AND YOU WILL PASS OUT UNTIL IT HAS ADAPTED TO THE NEW SITUATION. UNTIL THEN, YOU ARE COMPLETELY UNPROTECTED"
"No, I won't-"
"ONCE YOU'RE SUFFICIENTLY COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR NEW ABILITIES, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO TRAVEL FREELY BETWEEN WORLDS. ONCE BACK HERE, SEEK OUT AN INDIVIDUAL NAMED VALERIANA. DESTROY THE BOX. DESTROY THE TEMPLES. IN THE DEMON REALM, STOP THE PARASITE AND SAVE MY ONLY REMAINING DESCENDANT. TRANSMISSION BEGINS... NOW!"
Luz sees many beams of bright energy shooting from crystals on the cave wall to the large crystal and from there into her body before everything around her phases out of existence and she passes out.
Notes:
What a journey, right?
From the beginning I wanted to write a story where Luz is able to communicate with the titan like Belos always claims he can. And this is now the result of this idea. Well, the first part of it.
Now I would like to know the following: What did you think of this first final? And like the first act in general? What were the strengths and what were the weaknesses? What stood out in particular and what should I maybe revise?
And what do you think, at which point in time, Luz actually arrives back on the Isles?
Before I continue working on Chapter 21, I would like to mention a few people who have caught my eye from time to time over the months that I have been writing and who are active in the comments and just say thank you.
- Crady
- Hivemindtime
- reisolate
Thank you very much for accompanying me in this journey
Chapter 21: Kinda Home
Chapter Text
"Students of Hexside! Got a palisman? Got a need for thrills, chills and theatrics? Well, this could be you..."
A large group of students gather outside the school gates as Willow Park touts and promotes her club outside the open doors. A boy from the Potion Tracks blasts out of the school on his staff and pulls off some impressive aerial stunts. The crowd cheers as Willow and her friend hand out flyers promoting their Flyer Derby Team.
"I want to join your club"
"Skara?" Willow asks in surprise, "Erm... That's a little unexpected, but... Welcome."
"Thanks", Skara chuckles.
"After school there will be a first friendly match. Would be cool if you were there"
"I'll be there"
"Oh, and if you find more people who are interested send them to me"
"I will. See you later Willow"
Even as Skara moves away from the still impressed group, she pulls out her scroll and opens Penstagram.
'Hmm... flyer_derby_pros? Nah, too many posers. Professional.Derby? Cute, but... not what I'm looking for. flying_analyst? More than seven thousand posts? Uff... Might need to save that for later. Derby.Analysis? Uh, that looks good. Luckily, I have enough time until the game star-'
Skara is snapped out of her thoughts as she appears to have walked into something big. When she saw what it was, she took a step back to be on the safe side.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I was so lost in my thoughts- Wait, Viney?"
"Oh, hey Skara. And don't worry, I don't think Puddles even noticed you..." And sure enough, the Griffin she ran into doesn't seem to notice her at all and undisturbedly brushes her tail. "A little while ago a boy like that stepped on her tail and was knocked out of the air by Willow's vines. Nothing can upset her that easily today."
"But I'm relieved. I can't use Griffin wounds before the game later", Skara joked.
"Hmm? I didn't even know there was a Grudgby game today. When exactly does it start? I'd have to get my first aid kit first..."
"No, no, no Grudgby today. You won't be needed as a medic today either"
"Don't tell me you're giving up on Grudgby?"
"No, don't worry. I want to try something new this semester. Tell me, have you heard of Flyer Derby before?"
"That's the club Willow started, isn't it?"
"I just signed up. Have you found something you want to do yet?"
"To be honest, I can't really make up my mind yet. I was considering enrolling in the swimming club, but after seeing that Emira had already enrolled there, I wasn't so sure", Viney admits.
"Emira... Blight, right?", Skara asks.
"Mmm"
"And... you don't like her?"
"What? No...", Viney looks offended at Skara, which quickly turns to embarrassment, "The thing is, every time I'm near her, my brain turns into a pulpy mass. If I were with her at the swim club and would see her there... wearing her bathing suit..."
Skara snaps a few times right in front of Viney's face.
"Oops, sorry. I've drifted off in my mind"
"And you started drooling... Anyway, what were you going to say?"
"Oh yeah. I'd probably forget how to swim and go down like a rock." Skara and Viney can't help but giggle at the idea. Viney though, a little more embarrassed.
"Listen", Skara begins, "Willow still needs people for her team. Join us instead"
"Hmm... That's not a bad idea. You know what, I'm signing up. Where's Willow?"
"Come on, I'll take you to her"
"Thank you. Come on Puddles."
Viney and Skara walk towards the school entrance with Puddles, who is looking with interest at all the stalls they pass. Viney has to lead her over every time so she doesn't get completely distracted.
However, not only is Puddles distracted by the other stands, but Skara also looks to the side from time to time to marvel at the decorations. The swimming club stand, where Skara met Viney, was disappointingly undecorated. Only a sign that reads 'Swimming' could be seen. The next booth was the Art Club. Various paintings and original statues were exhibited there. The Art Club was followed by the Drama Club, with photographs from previous competitions won. The next stand was all about 'Hexes Holdem'. Not only was there gambling at the booth, there was a one by two meter tall screen that was fully covered with various unique cards. The last stall was the Baking Club, arguably the best smelling stall on the entire site. There were several open recipe books on display, along with some free muffins, which Viney, Skara and Puddles had unceremoniously helped themselves to.
"Willow!" Skara exclaimed when she saw the plan track girl handing out the last few flyers, "I've found someone else who wants to join."
"Well, if that's the case, welcome aboard, Viney"
Skara sits down on the stairs while Viney is signing in to the team list and takes out her scroll again. Most of the crowd in front of the school entrance has dispersed. All that's left are Viney, a boy who introduced himself as Gus, Skara himself, and Willow, who summons the boy who shot out of the school building not too long ago and is still doing aerial acrobatics. Apparently, his name is Caleb. At the sight of Caleb, Puddles seems to freak out, with Viney trying as hard as she can to hold her back.
"Allow me to introduce you to... The best and the brightest of Hexside", Willow proudly introduces them to Caleb. Slightly intimidated, Caleb looks over at Viney and Puddles, who is still trying to hold her still, "Look Puddles, it's the friend you made before", Viney says, at which the Griffin screeches and she has to try even harder to hold her back, "No, no, no! Do not claw Mommy's face!"
Skara, now sitting upside down on the stairs, slides to the ground head first and Gus sits on his staff and somehow manages to fly backwards.
"Just a few months ago, I'd be considered the weakling on any team. And now I'm leading one...", Willow says proudly, "Okay, girl, don't let the power get to your head just yet. Hmm?"
Willow notes that Caleb has walked away from the group and appears to be walking behind the school building.
"Um guys, I'm just going to get Caleb back. Can you guys go to the field?", Willow doesn't wait for an answer before running after Caleb. But she wouldn't have gotten one anyway. Viney tries to stop Puddles, who has calmed down a bit now, from licking Gus' head and Skara is still just looking at her scroll.
"I- think we should - start walking towards- the field", Gus suggests, while still being licked by Puddles.
Not long after, the team minus Willow and Caleb find themselves on the field. Puddles, meanwhile, has grown tired and Viney helps put her to bed on the sidelines with Gus' help.
Suddenly the ground starts to tremble slightly and Caleb shoots out of the middle of the field, breathing heavily, together with his palisman. Skara decides to go to him.
"Sorry I was distracted earlier. Been playing Grudgby for so long, I needed to catch up on the latest Flyer Derby strats..." Skara says as she helps him off the floor and pulls out her scroll and shows him a few examples.
"Those look... complicated", Caleb comments.
"They are..."
"So, finally... Got Puddles down for her nap", Viney says, mildly injured, just before she creates a large glowing circle over her head that sinks all the way down from top to bottom, healing any wounds. "Now I'm only scarred emotionally"
Suddenly Gus appears behind Caleb, who races past behind him while standing on his staff. He flies over the stands and over the scoreboard, which Willow decorated in advance with vines, and lands directly in front of Caleb.
"I thought you couldn't fly", Caleb comments.
"So, I can't fly like everyone else. But my way is more fun."
"Oh... That's cool, I guess", Caleb whispers to himself.
"What was that?" Gus asks teasingly.
"I said it was cool", Caleb repeats, just louder.
Suddenly, the ground shakes again and Willow darts out next to Caleb, making him wince.
"Gus is a natural speed-demon, Skara is s strategic wizard and Viney is the best healer in school." Willow says while pulling out her own staff, "At one point or another we've all been misjudged... So? Still think we're pathetic?"
Caleb shakes his head in shame.
"Good. Now let's get our game faces on." Willow says, rubbing green face paint in green streaks across her face. How she doesn't paint her own glasses in the process is a mystery.
Caleb drew a green lightning bolt over his left eye, Skara a green star on the same side, Viney has her face paint all over the top of his face, and Gus also drew a lightning bolt, only it's across his face. Even the team outfits, although not completely uniform, are mostly kept green, with occasional color accents. Skara, for example, wears green shorts and a top with a green star on it, with some long-sleeved red underneath. Willow wears yellow knee pads, as well as a yellow glove with a brown one on the other hand. Gus wears blue shorts, Viney wears cyan elbow pads, and Caleb wears a sleeveless green shirt, regular yellow shirt, and tan pants.
While the team is strategizing for the match and the opposing team has also arrived, Caleb said he needed to call someone. And then it was about time and the two teams faced each other.
Leading the opposing team was Professor Hermonculus, along with a few of his students from the Abomination track and his daughter. Shortly thereafter, everyone is sitting on their staffs. Viney on her manticore palisman, Willow on her bee palisman, Gus on his chameleon palisman, Skara on her cricket palisman, and Caleb on his cardinal palisman.
On the opposing team, alongside Professor Hermonculus and his daughter, whose palisman are both abominations, are Eric, the student with the large spiked head and the sloth palisman, Miranda, the student with the shoulder-length blue hair and the horns on the side of her head with the flying goat palisman and Jerbo, a hitherto good friend of Viney's whom she called 'traitor' with the unidog palisman.
The teams line up.
"All we gotta do is fly high and snack some flags", Willow explains, causing everyone around her to nod.
"Let's see what you can do... Captain", Professor Hermonculus comments mockingly.
The referee, who is an abomination made by the professor, whistles, and the match begins. Professor Hermonculus is the first to attack and shoots a beam of abomination-goo at Willow, but Viney blocks it. She rushes towards him in a targeted manner and now the others also fly off and dodge the opposing team.
Seeing an opportunity, Caleb uses his short-range teleportation to take himself to the professor's daughter and claim the first flag. He rushes to Gus, hands him the flag and hurls him towards the team's own pole. Willow's team is now 1-0, and the professor's daughter is down and out of the game for the remainder of the match.
"Gus! That was amazing", Caleb calls across the field.
Gus and Skara are floating in front of their pole. Miranda, Eric and the professor in the middle, Viney, Caleb and Willow at the opposing pole above Jerbo.
Miranda shoots a cluster of abomination goo between Skara and Gus. Gus manages to dodge, but Skara is thrown to the ground and is out for the match as well. It is now tied at 1-1.
Viney now prepares to attack and charges at Jerbo at high speed, ready to tear the flag from his staff. Jerbo now flies towards Viney, also fast but with his eyes closed, following the same plan.
They collide head-on, causing both of their staffs to fall to the ground and they are out too. 2-2
Willow and Gus fly towards the opponent's pole, both dodging abomination shots from Miranda and Eric.
"She's right there. Can't you see?" the professor calls out as Caleb appears behind him and takes the flag from him. He's out now too.
Willow flops on her staff and creates two thick vines out of the ground next to her, which she shoots at Miranda and Eric at high speed. Believing that she will hit them, Miranda shields her face with her hands, ignoring that the vines are actually just ripping the flags off their staffs.
Suddenly, abomination-goo shoots off the ground, hitting Willow's staff and she falls to the ground. Fortunately, not without giving Caleb the flags first and creating a catching plant underneath.
"Oops... my hand slipped…", the professor says, whereupon everyone looks at him reproachfully.
"Tell me, does the air feel a bit charged right now?" Skara asks, but gets no answer as everyone is watching intently, how Caleb gets his hands on the flags from the air and is thrown towards his own pole by Gus and attaches the remaining three opponent's flags to his own pole. 5-2
Caleb lands carefully on the ground as Viney and Skara come up from behind and douse him with a bucket of appleblood. The whole team rejoices in their victory and they don't notice how Professor Hermonculus approaches the team.
"May I please have your team’s name?" he asks, clipboard in hand.
"Shoot, I haven't thought about a name…", Willow says thoughtfully.
"The Emerald Entrails!", Caleb suggests, which scares Willow a little, "You know, because we're green and there's more in us than you think..."
After a short break, the whole team cheers "Entrails! Entrails!" and the professor leaves the field without a word. Willow, on the other hand, pulls out her scroll
"Entrails team photo. We're number one"
Everyone takes turns looking at the picture they just took before Willow forwards it to everyone and makes her scroll disappear again.
"I can't believe I almost bailed on you guys...", Caleb says remorsefully, "Today was amazing... Thanks for giving me another shot"
"Always nice to make another friend. I had room for one", Viney said, shooting a disdainful look at Jerbo.
"Umm guys... seriously, don't you feel like the air is kind of electric?" Skara's voice sounds worried and the upbeat mood in Team quickly turns to confusion.
"I don't feel anything", Caleb notes.
"No, she's right. I can feel that too", Willow says. She kneels down and touches the ground, which seconds later begins to tremble again. Stronger than last time.
"Captain?", Caleb asks
"That's not me!"
Suddenly, sparks appear in the air around the team and they all back away slowly and carefully, trying not to lose their balance.
Suddenly a bright light forms in the center of the pitch that seems to be getting brighter and more blinding with every second. They all cover their eyes.
After about ten seconds of blinding light and shaking ground, everything seems to calm down and one by one they open their eyes again. Gus is the first to see that something has changed and gasps.
"Willow! Look!" he yells, causing her to gasp as well.
"Luz?"
"Wait what?", Caleb asks to himself when he sees how the others are already running towards the person who has appeared.
Luz, who seems to have appeared out of nowhere, lies motionless on the ground. Beside her, a palisman that also appears to be knocked out.
"Luz, oh titan... I'm so glad to see you again..." Willow leans over Luz and hugs her with tears in her eyes. Suddenly she realizes that something is wrong. Luz doesn't hug back.
"Luz? LUZ?" Willow's voice begins to fill with panic.
Gus, also teary-eyed, kneels next to Willow. Viney kneels down across from the two of them.
"Guys, some space please. I'll find out what's wrong"
Meanwhile, Skara stands next to Caleb, who are both watching the situation with interest.
"Hold on... Is that... the human?", Caleb asks.
"Yup", Skara answers.
"The same human as on all those wanted posters?"
"Yes, this is Luz, the human." Willow says as she and Gus stand up to give Viney some space to cast her diagnostic spells.
"That's like winning the lottery", Caleb exclaims, causing everyone to look as him is disgust. "What? There's a bounty on her head worth over seven billion snails..."
"How can you say that?" Gus asks accusingly.
"Please don't tell anyone she's back. Especially not any guards from Emperors Coven. They would-" Willow pleads with Caleb as a blast suddenly knocks her to the ground. "What was that?" she asks, turning straight to Luz and Viney. Viney himself is now several meters from Luz, KO'd to move.
All of them except Caleb now run to Viney. Caleb, on the other hand, is pretty calm.
"I think it's time I let you in on a secret..."
"Seriously? Now?" Willow calls back as Viney straightens with the help of Skara and Gus.
"Yes, now. My name isn't Caleb at all. My name is Hunter and I'm the right hand of Emperor Belos, the Golden Guard", he said and pulled out his golden mask and put it on.
"WHAT???" Gus yells.
Suddenly, several coven scouts appear from behind the stands, which the children surround without a word.
"Whoa there, scouts. I didn't give you orders to come here", Hunter says to one of the scouts.
"Darius sent us to collect the recruits... And apparently the human too. No idea how you found her"
"Oh, okay. Very good", Hunter says.
"Bound the human. She must not be able to move her hands. You others: give us your palismen", demands one of the scouts, who is probably the commander.
Nobody dares to fight back and hands over their palisman without resistance. Nobody but Skara. She swings back hard and hits one of the scouts on the head with her palisman so hard that a clearly visible dent can now be seen there.
"Restrain her too!", the scout demands, whereupon Skara starts bawling.
"Look at it from the bright side: There won't be any delay in branding you with coven sigils and taking you away from your friends and family forever. Hooray!", Hunter says, causing everyone to look at him angrily.
The scouts escort the students to Bonesborough Police Station. Viney had asked to take care of Luz, but was turned down directly by the commander. After that nobody spoke a word.
The Commander locks them all in one cell and Luz in an adjacent one. All of the palisman have been tied together by Hunter and he places them against a wall next to the cells.
"Okay, listen. I'm sorry about this whole cell-thing, but did you really had to punch Steve, Skara?", Hunter asks.
"I get it. Emotions are running high. Ice-pack for Steve", the scout says.
"I don't get it. You're joining the best coven there is. You can keep all your magic, you get free room and board, you can even play Flyer Derby on your day off. Well, this year’s has already passed, but the next one is only fifty-two weeks away", Hunter says encouragingly.
"We don't care, none of us want this", Skara yells.
"You will eventually. Trust me, I'm your friend now", Hunter says.
"Friends don't stab each other in the back", Gus accuses him.
"Sure they do. The coven-heads to it all the time back in the castle. Captain, you're on my side, right?", he asks, smiling expectantly.
"I... thought I... could be good at this.", Willow says, causing his smile to disappear, "But we're here because... I made a bad call. I'm just... Half a Witch Willow."
Suddenly, abomination goo appears around the group and when it disappears, the group is no longer in their cell, but on a flying ship. Luz appears immediately beside them and Willow pulls her best friend into her arms. The man who is with them on the ship is Darius, the head of the abomination coven.
They hear Hunter shouting something up at him from the ground, but can't make out everything. He seems to be annoyed with Hunter for some reason. The last thing they hear Darius say is "See you at the castle, Golden Guard" before all the Palisman, locked in a cage, arrive on the ship and it takes off.
After about half an hour, Darius seems to have no more air to fly himself and sits on the floor next to the cage, pulls out his scroll and lets one of his abominations fly the ship.
"Oh Luz... wherever you went, you shouldn't have come back..." Willow said quietly in a sad voice.
"What actually happened? I just noticed that at some point she stopped showing up for class", Viney asks equally quiet.
"I don't know. She just...disappeared.", Willow answers.
"Shh", Darius says, causing everyone to grumble.
They all know they need to get off this ship and to do that they must either take control or free their Palisman. The latter seems to have greater chances of success.
Skara is the first to try. She extends her hand to the cage, but Darius slaps her away with abomination-goo.
"Nope", he comments.
Willow next tries a plant spell, causing a hand of abomination-goo to pop out of the ground and slap Willow's head.
"Nuh-uh. You're gonna need to be a little cleverer than that.", he says.
Gradually, students are running out of options. It doesn't seem possible to reach the cage unnoticed. Gus can't really achieve anything as an illusionist and Viney knows healing magic and beast keeping, but it would take Puddles too long to find her. Seizing control of the ship still seems impossible with a coven head aboard.
However, Viney sees another option. And that's lying on the floor right in front of Willow. Viney nudges Willow with her foot and immediately gets her attention. She wordlessly directs Willow's attention first to Luz and then to Darius. Even though Willow isn't 100% sure she understands Viney's plan, she nods in agreement.
"Ugh, fine. Can I at least check on my friend here? She hasn't moved since she showed up and I just want to know if she's okay", Viney pleads.
"Okay. But just a simple diagnostic spell. And I'll make sure you don't mess around."
Viney takes a deep breath before starting her spell and casting it on Luz. Unexpectedly, Hunter suddenly appears in the ship, shouting "DARIUS!", when Luz suddenly emits an extremely strong shock wave, which throws both Hunter and Darius out of the ship at high speed. The group cheers briefly, but quickly realizes that the shockwave has hit something else. The mood changes very quickly when they see the ropes connecting the balloon and the boat tear apart. Only seconds later, all sides are severed and the boat falls unchecked towards the ground. Willow looks over the edge and sees they are over a forest.
"Hold on guys, we're going down over a forest", Willow yells. Everyone in the group screams and Willow clutches Luz tightly.
Less than ten seconds later, the ship's gripper arm touches the first treetop and the ship tips forward, throwing all of its occupants out. Luckily, Willow quickly manages to creates some soft plants for them all to land on.
As they all land safely on the ground with only minor injuries, they watch as the ship hits the ground not far from them and is completely destroyed.
"Whoa... Do you think... Hunter and Darius survived?", Skara asks.
"Well Hunter has his staff and Darius is a coven head. I'd like to think about that more once we're safe", Willows says urgently, holding Luz in her arms.
"And where do you want us to go?", Gus asks.
"I saw the Owl House from up there. We could be safe there for a while", Willow suggests.
"The what-house?", Skara asks.
"This is the house where the Owl Lady used to live", Willow says.
"So you're suggesting that we break into the home of the woman who was the most wanted criminal on the Boiling Isles?", Skara asks sarcastically.
"Yes.", Willow replies flatly, "Besides, right now, I’m holding the currently most wanted person on the Boiling Isles."
"All right. Owl House it is"
At the same time, not far away, Hunter lands on a path in the woods with Darius sitting behind him.
"Soo... Hunter...", he begins, "Thank you for saving my life"
"I'm sure you would have done the same for me", he said, still a little surprised at Darius' calm demeanor.
"What were you doing up there anyway?" Darius asked.
"I um... just wanted to talk to you?!",
"You are a terrible liar, little prince. You befriended them and you wanted to save them, right?"
Hunter widens his eyes in surprise and at the same time is confused as to why Darius isn't mad at him. In the end he just looks down ashamed.
"I've gotta admit, I had you all wrong"
"Huh?" Hunter looks at him, still confused.
"You're what? Sixteen? It's about time you made connections outside the castle. Here, for you", Darius says and creates a scroll on which the Penstagram sign-up page can be seen. "I was just gonna drop them off at Hexside. We have more than enough recruits, in my opinion."
"Are you... gonna tell Belos about this?", Hunter asks nervously, causing Darius to smile.
"Are you gonna tell him about your secret palisman?", Hunter gasps, "Magic or not, I think you make you predecessors proud."
"And what about the ship? And the human? I don't understand why you're so calm"
"It doesn't matter. We have plenty of ships and the human will show up eventually. It's just a matter of time. Come on, let's go back to the castle."
"And like I said, she was in the human realm looking for a way back to us." Gus theorizes.
"But why while she's wearing pajamas?", Viney asks.
"Maybe it was an emergency and she didn't have time to change...", Gus keeps theorizing.
The group has been walking through the wall for almost half an hour now, following a path that Willow believes leads to the Owl House. To make the time a little less bored, the group had started to theories about where Luz was all that time and why she disappeared in the first place. For obvious reasons, it was quite difficult to get concrete answers because the only person who could answer the questions is still passed out in Willow's arms.
Initially, Willow had offered Viney and Skara to take care of Luz alone with Gus. Meanwhile, the others are so invested in all the theories that they won't rest until they know the answers too.
As the group comes within sight of their destination, Willow turns to Viney and Skara with serious words.
"Guys, listen. You are about to experience something that will likely haunt you for the rest of your life. This is your last chance to turn back and save yourself from the trauma to come."
Skara and Viney exchange skeptical glances.
"It's just a house. How bad can it get?"
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you", Willow said before turning to a smirking Gus. He takes a deep breath before yelling "HOOTY!"
Something about the house seems to be responding to Gus' calls and moving towards them quickly. The closer it gets, the louder the shrill noise becomes.
"Hoooooooooooot... friends are coming to see me"
Gus chuckles as that brown worm-thing wraps itself around Gus. Skara seems to think the whole thing is pretty cute, while Viney's right eye starts twitching uncontrollably.
"Hello Hooty"
"Are those friends there too, or should I remove them?"
Gus struggles to wriggle out of Hooty's hug before he can see what Hooty means.
"Oh, right. Hooty, that's Skara and Viney. Friends of ours", Willow replies instead. Hooty eyes both girls critically. Skara waves at him with a smile while Viney is visibly uncomfortable.
Shortly thereafter, he turns to Willow and sees what, or rather who, she is carrying and he freezes completely starring at her.
"Yes, Luz is back"
Hooty looks back and forth between Luz and Willow a few times in disbelief.
"She seems a lot less energetic than before", he comments, to which Willow only lets out a single shallow laugh.
"Can we come in? We need to hide her", Gus asks.
"Want me to make you guys some snacks?" Hooty asks as he slowly retracts.
Gus leans towards Willow and they exchange a questioning look.
"I'm assuming that was a yes..." Gus says.
"Hopefully. Luz is getting a bit heavy by now", Willow responds before suddenly there's a distant thunder and the whole group turns to see where it's coming from. They see a thick wall of dark clouds approaching from the horizon. "Right, rain is forecast for tonight... Come on, let's go inside", Willow adds, signaling for Viney and Skara to follow her.
But Viney hesitates.
"I... I think I'd better go back. If it really rains later, I'll have to take Puddles to safety in her stables."
"That's fine. I'll text you via Pensta when Luz wakes up", Skara says after stopping and turning to her.
"I hope so", Viney says goodbye with a wink before she pulls out her staff and flies back towards Hexside. Skara waves after her for a few more seconds before following Gus and Willow inside.
"Hey guys", Skara begins as she enters the house and closes the door behind her, "Viney had to go back to Hexside to look after Puddles."
"I figured she wouldn't stay", Willow comments while carefully laying Luz on the sofa in the house's living room. "Phew, that was quite a workout"
Suddenly, Hooty appears from a hallway opposite the front door, apparently in a very good mood.
"The snacks are almost ready. We made muffins"
Willow, Gus and Skara's heads snap in his direction and they ask in unison "We?"
Moments later, a tinkle of metal penetrates the room and a baking sheet full of muffins falls to the floor as another person appears next to Hooty and stares stunned at the human lying unconscious on the sofa, on the verge of tears.
"Luz??"
Notes:
I promise, this is (probably) the last time, Luz will be knocked out for an entire chapter.
PSA: Soo... First chapter with Luz being back on the Boiling Isles and I'm already kinda facing a problem here, being, that I now have not just one, but two storylines. I'm trying my best to keep both storylines (in Amphibia & on the BI) running parallel to each other and chronologically aligned, but I cannot promise that this will not cause confusion in the future until they both join up again.
Chapter 22: Too Late
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"A- Amity? I wasn't expecting you here. I thought you were still grounded..." Willow says, genuinely surprised, but the witch addressed doesn't react and continues to stare at Luz in disbelief.
"But... she... how... when..." she stutters before Willow encourages her to take a deep breath. However, instead, she goes to Luz, kneels in front of the sofa and takes her hand in her own.
'She's really back...' Amity thought to herself with tears of relief in her eyes and hugged Luz's hand tightly. "How did you- What happened? Where was she?"
"You remember when I told you about my idea of starting a Flyer Derby team, right? Well, today we had our first match..."
"What does that have to do with Luz?" Amity interrupts impatiently.
"I'll get to that in a minute.", Willow snorts.
"Sorry. Please continue", Amity says, but turns her gaze back to Luz.
"When the game was over and we won, the ground started shaking. And when it settled down, she was lying there in the middle of the field", Willow continued.
"There was also this super bright light when the ground was shaking", Skara adds and Amity gives her a raised eyebrow.
"So, you're saying that after more than a month, she just appeared out of nowhere?", she asks skeptically. "Wearing pyjamas?", she adds.
"Ami, nobody knows what happened when she disappeared. Or exactly when. Or where... Although we do know where", Willow says.
"Huh?", Amity asks in surprise and Willow turns to Gus.
"Gus, remember when we were at the last petrification ceremony and we were looking for Luz?"
Skara raises an eyebrow as she eyed the two friends.
"You’re right, there was a quake too", he exclaims, "just without the blinding light"
"Yeah", Willow confirms, "But Luz was actually there. Well somewhere... She was trying to save Eda, but something must have gone wrong."
"And then what? She was sent a month into the future?", Willow and Gus just shrug.
"The most important thing is that she's here again. And when she's awake again, she can tell us everything...", Willow says.
"Speaking of which... I take it you didn't take her to a healer, did you?", Amity asks.
"Titan, no!", Willow says.
"Viney was with us and she tried to examine Luz...", says Skara but dithers.
"When Viney used a diagnostic spell on her, Luz kinda... exploded."
"I'm sorry WHAT??", Amity yells, wide-eyed, looking at Willow, Gus, and Skara one after the other, who all nod hesitantly. Finally, her gaze falls on Luz again, whose hand she is still holding tightly. "But how? She's human"
"You know, in fact, it happened another time later when we were kidnapped by the Emperor’s Coven.", Gus tells with a joking undertone.
"You're kidding... right?", Amity looks at Willow, who nods, "I think I need a few minutes to let that sink in"
After a few minutes of silence, Amity was ready to listen to the rest of the story and Willow, Gus and Skara tell her the rest of the day's events.
"You do realize you've practically declared war on the Emperor’s Coven, right?" Amity asks jokingly.
"Oh, pfft", Gus says dismissively, "what's going to happen anyway?"
Amity actually wanted to list the possibilities of what could all happen, but decided it was better to keep it to herself and instead grab the still-warm muffins that luckily didn't fall out of the baking sheet and serve them to everyone. In the meantime, Hooty also joined them.
"So… Amity…", Willow begins, drawing the witch's attention, "You hadn't answered my first question from earlier..."
"Oh... um... What did you ask me again?"
"Well, not really asking, but I did say I thought you were still grounded...", Willow says.
"I am. But I snuck out.", Amity explains.
"And why did you come here of all places?", Skara asks curiously.
"I visit Hooty at least once a week and since there were no classes today due to the Club Fair, I went straight here this morning"
"But what about your parents? Don't they realize you're not there at some point?" Willow asks.
"Ed and Em said they'd cover for me, but Em wanted me to help her get ready for a date tomorrow in return", Amity says, and a huge grin spreads across Willow's face, whereupon Amity, blushing, abruptly lets go of Luz's hand.
"Will you tell her?" Willow asks.
"Luz? No!", Amity replies determinedly, "It's way too early for that. There's enough she'll have to go through when she wakes up."
"But you could be there for her", Willow argues.
"I can do that as it is, too. End of discussion"
"Um, sorry, but what's this about?" Skara asks confused.
"Oh... You know that a little over a month ago the owl lady and her demon were petrified, right. They were like family to Luz. It's going to be quite a shock when she hears the news", Amity explains, but Skara shakes her head.
"No, that's not what I meant. I was actually more asking about the 'telling her something' part", Skara corrects.
"Wait, so you don't know that she has a crush on Luz like forever?"
"WILLOW!" Amity exclaimed angrily.
"What? I'm just telling the truth..." Willow said with a smug on her face.
"Not cool", Amity says while looking Willow straight in the eyes.
"I had no idea, to be honest", Skara admits, which seemed to defuse the situation between Amity and Willow.
"Don't worry, I didn't have a clue either until Willow pointed it out to me", Gus says. Amity grumbles at Willow, who just grins back.
The impromptu staring competition was interrupted when a meow was heard from under the coffee table and Amity bent down to check. Just like her friends gathered to take care of Luz, the palismen crouched under the table to be there for their friend. And it seems that he woke up, because suddenly he came out from under the table sitting on Ghost. The other palismen also peeked out from under the table, but withdrew immediately afterwards.
Ghost jumps onto the sofa Luz is lying on and bends down so her friend can get off her.
"Your name is Owlbert, right?" Amity asks, after which he lets out a soft affirmative hoot. "You were with Luz when she disappeared, right? What happened?"
Owlbert's gaze shifts from Amity to Luz and he waddles up towards her head. He jumps onto Luz's torso near her ribs.
He bends down and then looks back at Amity. However, she doesn't seem to understand what he wants from her.
"I think he wants you to take her pulse." Skara guesses.
Amity twists Luz's arm and places two fingers on the underside of her wrist.
"Her pulse is calm and steady", Amity says, but Owlbert rolls his eyes. He runs down Luz's arm and grabs one of Amity's fingers in his beak and pulls her hand up to Luz's chest and puts it over her heart.
"Yes, I feel the same here"
Owlbert nods, grabs a finger again and pulls her hand to the other side. Amity's eyes widen.
"I... feel the same here...", she looks incomprehensibly at Owlbert and immediately afterwards at Gus. "Gus, quick question for you as a human expert: How many hearts do humans have?"
"One, like us. Just without the bile-sac. Why do you ask?"
"Luz has two hearts", Amity reveals, "Is that what you wanted to show me, Owlbert?"
He nods.
"Um, maybe I'm wrong. I might have to go through my notes on human anatomy again", Gus hastily interjects.
"You think someone was experimenting on her?" Willow asks, her voice laced with concern.
But before anyone can even think about it, there's movement on the sofa.
"Luz!" Willow, Gus and Amity yell, who takes Luz's hand again.
Luz slowly opens her eyes and seems to be trying to sit up. Owlbert flies off her.
"Where- Where am I?" she murmurs.
"You're in the Owl House. You're safe.", Amity ensures.
Luz seems a bit disoriented as her eyes are darting all over the room.
"Luz? Are you alright? What happened? Where have you been?" Amity continues while squeezing her hand.
"Amity? Is that you?" Luz asks softly.
"Yes, it's m- Oh, no, wait. That's Skara.", says Amity, seeing where Luz is looking. Skara waves a little embarrassed, but Luz smiles and waves back. Willow leans toward Luz, trying to get her attention.
"Luz, do you know who I am?" Willow asks, still worried but in a different way. She manages to focus her gaze on Willow.
"You know, I had a craaazyy dream. I was in a castle… on a sleepover. There was another human... No wait... Two... And two frogs... And then I saw a wolf. He had huuuge glowing eyes. And he sent me away. But then I spoke to the Titan. Heh… But he was sad and- And I don't remember what he said anymore...", she sounds sad, "I didn't want to leave. They need my help after all... "
Willow and Gus share a worried look while Amity's gaze doesn't leave Luz. Luz, on the other hand, now looks at Amity. She widens her eyes and looks at her in awe, no more trace of sadness.
"You are pretty...", Luz says, whereupon Amity blushes and looks at the floor in embarrassment, "Your hair looks like cotton candy..."
Willow, Gus and Skara can't help but giggle, although Amity doesn't seem to notice.
'Luz thinks I'm pretty... She thinks I AM pretty...'
However, when Amity wakes up from her thoughts, she sees Willow kneeling next to her and holding Luz by her shoulders on the sofa.
"Oh, good, you're back. She tried to eat your hair"
Amity blushes again. Luz tries to fight back against Willow's strong grip, but quickly gives up and seems to have forgotten about it immediately.
"Tell me Luz, don't you feel really tired?", Willow says, pretending to yawn.
"You're right... I think I'm going to take a nap"
Luz had hardly finished this sentence when her eyes closed and she nodded away.
"What was that?" Skara asks after a moment of crushing silence and a plethora of new questions in the room.
"I have no idea... But that was weird.", Amity says.
"I wrote down what she said. When she clears her head, we can talk to her about it", Gus says optimistically.
"Good idea", Amity agrees, "Willow, can we take her upstairs? Then one of you can use the sofa as a place to sleep until the rain stops."
"And what about you?"
"I would stay with Luz and let you know when she wakes up again."
"Not a Chance, Blight"
"What? Why not?"
"How long have you been awake, huh? I won't let you stay up through the night"
"And what do you propose, Willow?"
"We'll take turns. You're welcome to start, but sometime later I'll take over and you go to sleep"
And so it was that Amity, together with Willow, carried Luz up the stairs to her own room, Ghost and Owlbert with them. Willow's palisman, Clover, actually wanted to go too, but Willow said she'd come right down afterwards. When they reached the top, the two girls stood with Luz in front of Luz's room.
"You know, I've been coming here for weeks now, but I didn't have the strength to enter her room. I remember I'd spent a whole night in front of that door hoping that she'd just come through... ", Amity recounts.
She opens the door and they step inside.
"I can understand that her disappearance has affected you the most. I mean, Gus and I missed her too... I think I can just imagine how you must be feeling right now."
"I don't think so. I'm totally freaked out right now, my thoughts are racing through my head... I mean, I'm so glad she's back, but worried at the same time. Something's happened to her, I'm sure"
They put Luz on the sleeping bag that's in the middle of the room.
"I'm sure everything will be fine when she wakes up properly", Willow says encouragingly, putting a hand on Amity's shoulder.
Amity turns and hugs Willow, who is a little overwhelmed by the gesture of affection.
"I hope so", Amity says, smiling slightly as the hug breaks again.
"Alright, see you later", Willow says goodbye and closes the door behind her as she exits the room.
But as soon as Willow leaves the room, Amity's smile almost simultaneously leaves her face and she collapses on the floor next to Luz.
'Why? Why did you leave me?'
Her eyes wet and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
'Everything was so gray after you were gone... And I looked for you. Everywhere. Willow and Gus had helped initially, but eventually they accepted- But I couldn't. I kept searching. nothing mattered anymore'
She wipes a few more tears from her face
'Please don't leave again. Please don't leave me alone… I don’t wanna lose you again'
Shortly thereafter, Ghost and Owlbert came to her and sat next to her. Ghost rubbed her head along her leg and purred. Amity picked Ghost up and hugged her tightly, still crying.
'I will tell her… but later. First, I must support her in what lies ahead. She's going to want to see Eda...'
After a while, Amity calmed down a bit and lay down next to Luz at a little distance. She tries not to make any noises so as not to wake her early. A few small sobs can still be heard though. Ghost lay down on Amity chest and fell asleep. If she wasn't forced to lie on her back right now, she would want to turn to the side and look at Luz. Maybe it's better this way.
In the meantime, Amity takes the opportunity to look around Luz's room. Well, at least as long as there's light and she can turn her head.
Two framed photos, dimly lit by the moon, stand on a barrel. One with Luz and probably her mom and the other is the Grom photo, which Amity also carries a copy of at all times.
She thinks she can see a 'The Good Witch Azura' poster on a sloping roof. It's not the same one that hangs in Amity's room at Blight-Manor, though.
Not far from her is a chest on the ground, but it's too dark to make out any details.
She tries to see more of the room, but unfortunately, it's too dark. Instead, she lies on the floor with just one arm behind her head, staring at the tapered ceiling.
Now it's absolutely quiet. Before that, a few noises could be heard from the living room earlier, but the others have probably gone to sleep by now. The silence is broken only by the boiling rain beating against the window through which the moonlight is shining.
Amity starts dozing and eventually falls asleep.
She wakes up to hearing a sudden loud bang. She shoots upright and throws Ghost off her body as she does so. The first rays of sun are shining through the window and Amity sees that Luz is no longer lying next to her. Her pulse starts racing and she jumps up and runs out of the room. She hears noises coming from the Owl Lady's room. She follows it carefully.
One of the two doors is open and Amity peeps in.
"No... no no no no no... Not again..."
It's Luz, kneeling on all fours on the floor, just in front of the big round window, which brightly illuminates the room and paints the room in all sorts of colors. She seems completely devastated and is crying.
"L-Luz?" Amity asks hesitantly.
Luz turns around abruptly, her eyes swollen with tears.
"Amity?" she asks with tears in her eyes before turning away from her again, "I shouldn't be here...I- I've let people down again"
It breaks Amity's heart to see Luz so devastated. She walks slowly towards Luz and hesitates when she wants to put a hand on her shoulder. Luz flinches and Amity pulls her hand right back. Instead, Amity just sits down next to her crying friend, her legs pulled up to her chest. After a few minutes and without warning, Luz throws herself at Amity and hugs her tightly, tears still streaming down her face. It takes Amity a moment to realize what's happening before returning the gesture.
The two girls stay in this position in silence for what feels like an eternity. The best eternity in a long time and over time Luz seems to be slowly calming down.
"Amity?" Luz suddenly whispers.
"Hmm?"
"I missed you"
Tears of joy form on Amity's face and she hugs Luz even tighter.
Eventually, the hug does indeed split and both girls look at each other.
"Whoa, your hair... it's different..." Luz comments, wide-eyed, causing Amity to chuckle.
"Yeah, mom always liked it green, but I don't care about what she wants anymore"
"Is it... abomination-colored?", Luz asks, to which Amity happily nods.
"I'm glad you noticed." Amity smiles and rubs her neck shyly before standing up. "Are you coming to say hello to the others?"
"Which others?"
Amity offers Luz her hand to help her up, which she happily takes and the two friends walk down to the living room together, where they find three witches who appear to be waking up.
"Good morning, sleepyheads", Amity says.
Skara is on the wide sofa, Gus is on the narrower one, and Willow is on the floor in between. Willow yawns deeply and 'Gus rubs his eyes. Skara, on the other hand, puts a pillow over her eyes and growls softly.
Gus is the first to look at Amity and see who is standing next to her.
"Luz!" he calls, leaping up, tripping over his own feet and off the sofa. Willow now looks over at her with wide eyes too.
She jumps up, runs over to Luz and hugs her tightly.
"LUUZ... Oh girl, I missed you sooo much", Willow greets her happily. Gus, who got up quickly, joins in the hug.
"Willow! Gus! I missed you guys too"
"You gave us quite a fright when you appeared", Skara remembers, who didn't get up from her place on the sofa, but just looks at the group. Luz chuckles.
"You should have been there when I arrived in Amphibia and first crashed a reunion party. Literally", says Luz jokingly. "Although, maybe not. Wasn't a nice sight."
"What?" Willow asks
"Well, I guess I was thrown out of the portal at such high speed that I crashed into a wall and probably almost died-" says Luz, but is interrupted by Amity.
"You'd better start from the beginning. What exactly happened when you disappeared?"
"Okay, but you should sit down. This will take a while..."
The group does as told, and Luz is now standing in the middle of the living room and with Owlbert on her shoulder she starts to tell what happened
"Basically, it all started when Eda was locked up in the Conformatorium by Lilith and I wanted to rescue her...
...but then Lilith had told me the truth about why she cursed her own sister...
...she led King and I to the basement, but it was a trap set by Belos, who was just waiting for me...
...we had been fighting when suddenly a bright light appeared behind me and something pulled me in...
...when I woke up, I was no longer in the Demon Realm or the Human Realm, but...
...and the crazy thing was, I wasn't the only human there...
...and her friends were also stuck in Amphibia and were separated upon arrival...
...I met Sasha. Sort of like Boscha, but worse...
...Maddie then led me to this huge crystal cave, which will be important again later...
...so I went with Maddie to Newtopia, the capital of...
...we broke into the king's palace and unfortunately were discovered...
...for almost a whole week, until we met Marcy...
...had to help her get rid of this plague of ants, but they weren't normal ones...
...and when Anne and the Plantars arrived...
...I knew immediately that I couldn't trust him...
...we spend almost all the time in the library, but we had to leave Owlbert at...
...they invited Maddie and me to a sleepover...
...but my memories of it are somewhat... incomplete. Anne had suggested going down to the forbidden basement for a scare-dare. There were a lot of mirrors and ghost things. Then I saw a wolf spirit, but it didn't look anything like the others. He reminded me a little bit of King. And after that... I just remember waking up next to Amity earlier... That's it..."
Everyone present, as well as a few of the palismen, look at Luz with wide eyes and partly open mouths.
"Any questions?" Luz looks around expectantly.
"You seriously fought Belos? Emperor Belos?", Gus asks incredulously.
„For the third time: Yes”
"So, Anne has these superpowers... and you think Marcy and Sasha have them too?" Skara asks, to which Luz nods. "Cool"
"You don't remember anything that happened until you woke up upstairs? Also, not that you woke up down here before?"
"Huh? Nope. Did I say something stupid?"
"I wrote it down. Here..." Gus hands Luz the list, which she reads carefully.
"Wow..." Luz comments, eyes wide.
"None of this sounds familiar to you?" Willow asks.
"Well, Amity's new hair color is vaguely reminiscent of cotton candy... And I think I'd remember if I'd talked to the Titan..."
"But there's definitely something different about you, Luz", Amity says.
"What exactly is different?", Luz asks.
"Let me answer that with a question. How many hearts do humans have?"
"Um... just one... why?" Luz asks confused, whereupon Amity grimaces.
"How should I say that... You have... two"
"WHAT?" Luz asks in horror and after a moment in shock she runs back and up the stairs, back to her room. The others follow her. When they get to their room, they see Luz rummaging around in a box and pulling out something metal and holding it to her chest. Gus bursts forward
"No Luz, you don't have to end your life. Two hearts aren't a bad thing!"
Luz looks at him with extreme confusion.
"It's a stethoscope. You hold it to your chest and you can hear your heartbeat..." Luz explains, whereupon Gus steps away in shame.
She puts one piece of the device in her ears and holds the other against the left side of her chest. She can hear her heartbeat.
Now she pushes the part over to the other side. Exactly same sound.
"I... really... have... two... hearts...", shocked, Luz falls to her knees and stares blankly ahead. For the others it looks exactly the same, but Luz is experiencing memories that she had probably suppressed until now.
"I- I remember..." Luz stutters.
"What do you remember?" asks Amity, now kneeling in front of her.
"I saw myself... doing magic... um, kind of like watching a cutscene from a third-person rpg..."
"Like a what?", Amity asks not understanding what Luz is talking about.
"Never mind. There was a voice too. It said something about other humans on the Boiling Isles and... progeny... and a parasite?!"
"Uh cryptic", Willow comments. "So... one of my best friends can talk to the titan now... That’s quite cool"
"I- I don't know. I mean, Belos says, he can talk to the titan, but I? I'm just Luz..."
"You're not just Luz", Amity says, "You're Luz Noceda, the greatest person I've ever had the privilege of knowing. And if anyone can talk to the Titan, it's you."
Luz blushes.
"Besides, what else could take you to yet another world AND just make you grow a second heart", Willow adds.
"Alright... Let's say I actually talked to the Titan and actually saw myself doing magic... I want to try something", Luz says, now more confident, and stands up. So is Amity, but she takes a few steps to the side.
Luz closes her eyes. She stretches out her hand and tries to draw a circle in the air with one hand.
She opens one eye in anticipation and... nothing.
"Try to think clearly about what you want to achieve. Um, try the light spell", Amity instructs. Luz nods and tries again.
She stretches out a finger and tries to draw another circle in the air with the image of a ball of light in her mind.
Again nothing. Luz is disappointed.
"It was worth a try", she admits.
"Don't give up. Maybe you just need some time to charge or something..." Gus tries to cheer Luz up and she actually smiles slightly.
"Perhaps you are right. And even if not, I still have my glyphs."
"That's the right attitude. Well, it's still raining and school is canceled today. What do you want to do?", Amity asks.
Luz's mood deteriorates slightly.
"I want to see Eda"
"Luz..." Amity begins, "Eda isn't-"
"I know she's petrified. I still want to see her... I wasn't there when it happened and I couldn't stop it. I need to see her."
"All right.", Amity says.
"What? Amity are you crazy? Going out in the rain is suicidal", Skara says.
"I have this", Amity says, creating a small shield over herself.
"Okay, but we're coming with you", Willow demands.
"No. My shield is just big enough for two. Besides, if we're walking around outside with a big group like that, it would be noticeable..."
"All right, fine. But be careful. Don't get caught", Willow relents.
Without wasting any time, Luz throws everyone out of her room so that she can change undisturbed. Walking around outside in her pajamas can be a bit uncomfortable. She quickly grabs one of her classic blue and white hoodies and gray shorts and goes straight downstairs to join the others, where Amity is already waiting for her.
"Shall we?", Amity asks.
"I'm ready", Luz replies.
"Guys, we'll be back in a few hours. Hooty, take good care of them", Amity says, at which Luz raises an eyebrow. "See you later"
Just a few steps from the house, Amity notices Luz' smirk.
"I know what you did", Luz teases her.
"What do you think I've done?"
"You made friends with Hooty..." she says excitedly.
"Got me", Amity confirms, smiling.
"But how? I can still remember that you couldn't stand him at all..."
"It was just after my cast was removed and I was allowed to go back to school. However... I couldn't. I was practically standing in front of the entrance, but I wasn't physically able to go in. Not with the thought that you were gone and everyone was acting like... well... you know"
"As if nobody noticed that I was gone?"
"Exactly. I... ran away and eventually found myself at the Owl House where Hooty almost knocked me over. After I broke the news to him, he invited me in and... well, we talked. When he's not so cranky, he's a lot more bearable. And well, since then I've been dropping by every now and then to keep him company..."
"Aww, Amity... That's really sweet of you"
"Thank you. I put it down to your horrible influence on me"
"Hehe… What else happened while I was gone?"
"Let me think for a second... I think Em's dating someone right now, but she's very good at hiding who. I think not even Ed knows..."
"I'm happy for her"
"Hmm, what else? Uh, you might like this: There was a palisman adoption day at Hexside a few weeks ago."
"I thought to myself that there were unusually many in the house"
"Principal Bump must have been in contact with the Batqueen"
"That's nice. Did you know that I met her once?"
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. I hurt cute Owlbert here when I was flying to Glandus with Willow and Gus to watch a game. He then flew over to her place and I had to pass a few of her tests to regain his trust."
"Luz, you could have died doing this. The Batqueen is-"
"Notorious for their impossible tests, I know. But they weren't that difficult. I was supposed to wash their children, remove a bee nest and milk something I forgot the name of."
"Oh, something else happened: Belos announced something a while ago. The Day of Unity. Along with an unnecessarily dramatic face-reveal."
"I'm surprised you know that term. But 'Day of Unity' doesn't sound particularly inviting."
"Got it from Gus. Oh, you're currently the most wanted person on the Isles"
"Cool... How much am I worth then?
"Several billion snails"
"Wow, I need one of the posters later"
"Yeah... Oh, by the way Luz, we should be right there."
"Really? Already?"
"Well, a few more minutes. She was placed in Bonesborough Market."
"But of course... There's no market today, is there?"
"In the rain? Definitely not"
"To be honest, I didn't miss the boiling rain here"
"What was it like in Amphibia? I mean, you told me what you had experienced, but not what the place was like"
"You're right. Basically, it was... quieter. Slower. A little more relaxed. Well, at least initially in Wartwood. The village only had a few hundred inhabitants, but it was still one of the largest towns in the area. On all sides one was constantly surrounded by farms and forests, a huge mountain range on the horizon. Basically, the place was beautiful. Newtopia, on the other hand, was quite similar to Bonesborough in terms of crowd and activity. Just maybe with more pesky academics and class-based racism."
"Oh..."
"It wasn't perfect. But what place is?"
"You're right. By the way, we'll be at the market soon."
"I know. It was quick"
"What can I say? Time goes by faster when you're having fun... Aaand I shouldn't have said that..."
Because as soon as Amity said this, they had already reached their destination. Amity looks at Luz, whose face has lost all color.
"Luz? If you don't want to be here, we can leave right now...", Amity suggests.
"No. All the time I've been in Amphibia, I've been trying to prepare myself for this very moment. But seeing her like this now... Let's get closer."
As prophesied by Amity, the market is completely deserted, with only the two girls there protected by a glowing pink shield over their heads. Amity keeps an eye on the surroundings, while Luz's gaze is fixed on just one thing.
They slowly approach the statue.
"She looks just like the last time I saw her in her owl beast form, but she's still herself in her head", Luz recalls.
Eda’s frozen facial expression is marked by fear and pain, but also by... contentment. She had accepted her fate. Below her is a large, massive pedestal.
Edalyn Clawthorne, the Owl Lady
A symbol of the fallibility and dangers of wild magic
May this be a warning to all those who are aware of the dangerous lives of those who live their lives against the Titan's will
"Hello Eda... I'm finally here... And I even found your gift... the cloak... even though, it's somewhere in another world right now... I was there, Eda. I wanted to save you, I even fought Belos dammit… I... I'm sorry... I'm so- so sorry...", Luz collapses in front of the pedestal. She squeezes her eyes shut trying not to cry. Although in vain.
Amity gets down on her knees as well and hugs Luz from behind with her free hand. She clutches her hand tightly as tears roll down her face.
"Eda, you... you were like a mom to me... and... I'll never be able to hear your voice again... Not your nagging, if I wake you up too early or we’re out of Apple Blood... Not how proud you are of me, like when I brought home my first Wanted poster... Or my current one... Believe it or not, my bounty is even bigger than yours was... I'll never hear you worry about me again when I'm about to do something stupid or dangerous... I'll never be able to hug you again... … I miss you so much"
The sobs get louder and the tears keep flowing and Luz turns to Amity who gives her a big hug
"This is so not fair", she sobs, "Eda doesn’t deserve that"
"I know"
The two girls remain in the pose for a while.
"Come on Luz, let's leave again", Amity says as she helps Luz get up.
"Not yet... I still have to do something"
Luz takes a thick black pen out of a trouser pocket and goes to the plaque.
Edalyn Clawthorne, the Owl Lady
A symbol of love, hope and the chance for a better world
A symbol of the fallibility and dangers of wild magic
May this be a warning to all those who are aware of the dangerous lives of those who live their lives against the Titan's will
"I love you, Eda. And even if I can't save you anymore, I will prevent that from ever happening to anyone else… Thank you for coming here with me Amity"
"Always"
Notes:
I wonder who might be the person Emira's dating...
And if you're wondering where King and Lilith are... Soon™.On another note: I hope this chapter is sad enough. Wasn't quite sure myself... ^^
Chapter 23: The Stories of Sandy Towers
Summary:
Meanwhile in Amphibia...
Notes:
Hey... I'm back...
Sorry, my wound from the 'Owl House' season finale is still quite fresh too, but I finally finished this chapter. But before I say anything about it, I have to share some very exciting news:
This fanfiction, 'A Lost Owl', now has its own TvTropes page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/ALostOwl
This fills me with extreme pride and thankfulness. Especially for the person who created the page. Many, many thanks. That means a lot to me <3
(If anyone of you finds something worthy to add, feel free to do so)
And now for this chapter: Three weeks. It took me more than three weeks to finish this chapter and I had a hard time with it at certain parts. but it's here and I hope you enjoy reading it more than I did writing it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"You're so quiet today... Well, I mean, quieter than usual. Normally you'd tell me everything about our destination that you've been able to find out through your research so far..."
"Oh... I didn't know you would listen"
"Of course. Your knowledge can be extremely useful in assessing situations. So, are you alright? Don't say you get travel sick. Travel sick people are usually the worst companions..."
"Don't worry, I'm not travel sick. I'm just... worried, you might say. Thoughtful maybe..."
"Okay Marcy, spill it. We've got quite a while to fly before we reach the southern Toad Tower and this silence is driving me insane..."
"Hmm... Have I ever mentioned my friends before? That is, Anne and Sasha?"
"Yup"
"Well, Sasha is in Toad Tower... She's Captain Grime's second-in-command"
"She's gotta have some skills if she can impress THE legendary Captain Grime. I'm assuming you're pretty excited."
"Excited...yes. But I'm also scared"
"I'm pretty sure this is all going to go pretty smoothly-"
"No, I'm not talking about the meeting or the mission in general. It's... Sasha. Anne had told me that when she saw her again, she did something absolutely horrible to someone Anne was close to."
"How horrible are we talking about?"
"..."
"Oh... I think I understand. If so, I'll make sure she doesn't get too close to you."
"No!"
"But I thought-"
"Yunan, you've got your own mission with Grime. I'll can deal with Sasha once the joint briefing is over. It’s no big deal"
"As you wish, Master Marcy."
"Thanks"
" Well, if you don't think you need my help, I hope you will at least accept a story from out of my past"
"A story? A backstory-like story?"
"Exactly."
"Uhhh, I love backstories"
"Well then..."
It was many years ago. I was a young Newt just joining the Newtopian army and the Sand Wars were about to break out. I should perhaps add that I had known long before this was going to happen. Almost my entire life, to be precise. Like someone or something told me my future to direct my life in a certain direction.
Knowing this, I had spent my entire childhood and adolescence training. I had no interest in friends or family, my only goal was to join the army as soon as possible. My father was very much against the idea of me in the army and would have preferred to send me to university as soon as I grew my legs. Luckily, I had a little brother who was more inclined towards my father's plans.
My mother, on the other hand, fully supported my plan, taught me strategies and tactics, as well as various martial arts. As a retired Colonel, she had seen a lot in her life and was very proud of me for following in her footsteps.
So, there I was. Private Yunan at the youngest possible age to be allowed to join the army. Well, not quite. My mother pulled some strings so I could get in two years earlier.
As I said, there I was. Quite proud to be able to wear a uniform for the first time. On the very first day, I and a few other new recruits were given a tour of the entire site, which ended in the dormitories. They were all dormitory rooms, but I was lucky enough to only get one roommate instead of, I don't know, four or five.
"Well well well... who do we have here?"
"Private Yunan uhh... Sir."
"No need to call me 'Sir'. I'm Ragnar, your new roommate"
Before you ask, yes, that's THE Ragnar.
"I'm not here to make friends."
"Of course not... Just here to serve the king blah blah blah"
"But... that..."
"See you later at the first training session, not-friend Yunan"
I don't think I need to mention how much I hated him. That smug smirk, his whole arrogant demeanor was soo... arrggghhh. That still pisses me off to this day...
Where was I? Oh yes, the first on-person-combat-training session... Luckily, I didn't have to see him during the first training session. Because I was so much younger, I had heard from many people how weak and frail I would be there. I'll never forget their faces after I've finished them off one after the other.
Later that evening, HE reappeared.
"I saw you beating them all up earlier... my respects"
"And where were you? I would have liked to hit you too"
"Oh... um... I was with... er with the Commander. Private lessons"
"Sure"
"Why are you so aggressive towards me anyway?"
"And why are you trying so hard to talk to me? I thought I made it clear that I'm not here looking for friends..."
"You're going to need some. In a squad, you have to trust each other"
"I don't need anyone"
If I remember correctly, I went straight to sleep afterwards. In the coming days and weeks, he tried again and again to establish contact with me and I have to admit that after a while I softened and we kind of became friends. Although we almost always insulted each other, we understood each other quite well. Only at the combat exercises he was never there. It wasn't until much later that I found out why.
Anyway, the months went by pretty quickly and due to my very good performance I was quickly promoted to commander of 12 soldiers, including Ragnar. I had made him my second in command, which didn't sit well with the rest, but who were they to question my orders.
We were doing survival training far north when we received a messenger with news that Newtopia was under attack and that we should return immediately.
And the closer we got to Newtopia, the stranger the whole atmosphere became. When we got a glimpse of the city itself, we saw part of the wall completely torn down. Also, the water outside of the city was completely gone. Everywhere was just... sand. You'd think that a sandstorm just hit the city from somewhere, but the atmosphere wasn't right for that.
We walked around the city together once, looking for a command post or something, but nothing.
"Ragnar, you take Jonas and Oliv to reconnaissance outside the city. See how far the sand has spread and report any enemy contact."
"Aye, Commander"
"The rest: Behind me and stay down. We're looking for a command post within the city."
So, we walked through the collapsed part of the wall and saw directly that the sand had almost half covered all the doors of the houses. Well, at least the ones that weren't destroyed by parts of the Wall. And there, too, it was dead quiet.
Our first clue was the barracks, but there was no one there. However, we saw that the armory was also empty, indicating an evacuation. Probably as well as the fact that on the way to the barracks the streets were deserted.
Our next stop was the palace. And the closer we got, the more signs of life we saw, until at some point we actually met the commanders.
And the closer we got the more activity we saw on the streets and we could also gradually hear some noise until we got to a fortified roadblock on the middle ring. However, instead of letting us through, the stationed soldiers did not move from their positions and blocked our path with drawn weapons.
"You there! Stop immediately!"
"Huh? I am Acting Troop Commander Yunan. We were on survival training in the north before General Mikoras ordered us back. Here are the orders."
"I said stop."
"But... That..."
"Get down on the ground! Check their necks"
So, we all got on our knees and a couple of the soldiers came up to us and they were looking for something on our necks. And after one of the soldiers said we were 'clean' we were let through and taken to General Mikoras. He was something like your predecessor.
"General. Acting Troop Commander Yunan reporting as ordered"
"Very good... Aren't there more soldiers in your squad?"
"Yes, General. I had assigned three of my soldiers to reconnaissance."
"I see... With any luck, they'll be dead already"
"WHAT?"
"..."
"I have to apologize, General. I meant: How are my men dead?"
"I guess you haven't seen the enemy yet"
"That is correct, General."
"Hmm... Thing is, we have no idea who our enemy is either. We suspect it's some parasitic body-possessing hive intelligence."
"..."
"Have you seen the collapsed part of the wall with the sand lying all over the place? Everyone who lived in the houses surrounded by the sand is now part of the swarm. Men, women, children."
"What is responsible for the collapse of the wall?"
"Infected Barbari-ants have entered the wall through the ground and have severely weakened the structure from within. Luckily they were killed when the wall came down."
"Any idea why all of a sudden there is no activity anymore?"
But before the general could reply, the conversation was interrupted by approaching cries for help. It was Ragnar who had come back alone. The general and I ran to him at the roadblock, where the soldiers were already pinning him to the ground and examining his neck, as they had done to us before.
"Ragnar? Where are the others??"
"[breathing heavily] We... were... attacked. Something grabbed... Jonas and... Oliv by the legs... and dragged them… into the sand..."
"And what about you?"
"I... ran away... before those things could grab me..."
"WHAT? You let down your comrades??"
"If there was anything I could have done, I would have done it."
"YOU JUST RAN AWAY!!"
"YEAH, OTHERWISE I WOULD BE DEAD NOW TOO"
Unfortunately, since we weren't alone, our... louder discussion was immediately interrupted. The general had sent Ragnar to the supply tent and pulled me aside.
"I understand that his action seems inappropriate for you, but in this situation, it could certainly be forgiven"
"Yes, General. How should we proceed then?"
"A few experts are studying the hive mind and how we can separate the drones from each other. And until they have a result, we must defend the upper ring at all costs."
"So, there isn't a counterattack strategy yet, General?"
"Negative."
Under other circumstances, General Mikoras would have sentenced me to the worst disciplinary service for my disrespectful tone and all my questions. But luckily for me, that was something he couldn't afford at the time. Most of his soldiers were either killed by the enemy or forcibly taken into the swarm. The surviving members of my team were deployed to defend the city, and the general had made me his advisor for my strategy suggestions. But while he appreciated my suggestions, he had invariably turned them down. All of them. Defense only. No counterattacks as long as the scientists have no way of freeing the individual drones from the swarm. After a few days I was increasingly frustrated with this inaction and I made one last attempt to convince the general. And if that didn't work, I would have taken somewhat more extreme measures.
"General Mikoras, I must ask you again to-"
"No."
"Could I at least-"
"No."
"..."
"Yunan, I'm getting fed up with your constant requests. Cut it out!"
"But I just want-"
"No. We have the best chance of survival if we hold this ring. The Toad Army will be here in a few days to support us."
"In a few days there won't be anyone here to support. Every day we're being pushed further back, and every day more soldiers and civilians are being forcibly drawn into this swarm... With each passing day we lose people while the opponent gains more and more. We can't wait for the scientists to find something..."
"Yes, but just running in and getting yourself killed is not an option"
"They can't kill me if they drop dead first"
"These are still residents of Newtopia you want to slaughter there, Yunan! Even if they have to work against us now"
"They WERE residents of Newtopia. And it's not just them either. There are sandworms, toads, barbari-ants, frogs and so on... Besides, I don't have to kill them all. Just enough until the swarm as a whole is no longer a threat."
"It's bad enough that you even think about attacking these people. But that you want to do it all alone borders on insane."
"I am willing to do what must be done, General."
"Even if I respect your attitude, I will never allow you to carry out a genocide. Single-handedly at that."
"But..."
"You’re dismissed. I don't want to see you anymore today"
I already knew before I went to the general that this would not work, so plan B came into effect. And this one had exactly three possible outcomes: Either I would die, I would win but be sued and convicted on a number of grounds, or win and not be imprisoned. It goes without saying what I was hoping for. And I'm not dead.
But what was my plan exactly? Just rushing in and killing everything that moves was pretty much impossible. Even for me. In general, there were several hurdles in the way of an attack that should not be underestimated. No one knew how many drones were part of the hive mind. The drones only move underground and come out of the sand only to attack. Well, or if there's no more sand to move around in. And the last problem: All living things need food to survive, right? So, there should be some kind of base. But nobody knew the location. Well, nobody but me.
And before you ask how I knew that... Do you remember that vision I had as a kid of this very war? That's how.
But before I could do anything, I had to prepare a little bit. Mainly weapons. So, I had snuck into the weapon tent as if I was entitled to it.
The sheer quantity of swords, spears, bows, shields, daggers and so on was absolutely overwhelming. In the barracks, all weapons are usually spread out over several large rooms, but oh well.
Choosing a weapon was quite difficult, but at the same time surprisingly easy. I could rule out bows, slingshots and crossbows as ranged weapons right from the start. I also didn't know what to do with shields. While spears are good for close-ranged combat when opponents are some distance away, that's it if they get too close. Swords are better in that regard, but they're also a lot heavier. In addition, the swords were made using a standard process and were not individually tailored to the user for better efficiency. I've always considered daggers to be pretty tasteless, so they were out immediately.
But then I finally found a weapon that piqued my interest: a beautiful pair of retractable wrist-mount blades. It was almost a piece of art rather than a weapon. However, the pair I have today is a different one, made to fit my needs directly.
The next step was to let Ragnar in on my plan. I didn't want him to come with me, but I couldn't bear to just disappear without anyone knowing where I was going. In hindsight, that wasn't my smartest idea, but I was younger then. I'll get to why later.
"Ragnar? Ragnar, are you around here?"
"Yunan? How did you know that I'm here?"
"I asked Commander Blairc. He said you're on duty at the western roadblock today."
"Right. Erm... obviously... What are you doing here? Want to see how bored I am here?"
"Not quite. I... I'm going to leave town for a while"
"An offensive? Finally. Glad to hear the general is finally listening."
"..."
"...He did approve of that, didn't he?"
"..."
"Yunan?"
"Okay fine, he didn't. I'll do it alone before the whole town gets overrun"
"That's a death sentence"
"Maybe. But I'd rather die fighting than sit here and do nothing."
"I can't allow that"
"You won't stop me. You can't stop me"
"Where are you going anyways?? Just get out of the hole in the city-wall and get yourself killed? Or worse yet assimilated?"
"Don't worry, I know exactly where to go"
"It's too dangerous. You shouldn't go"
"Joke's on you. I already know the location of their base"
"But... how?"
"Long story. But I have to go now, as long as I have the element of surprise on my side. Byee"
And before he could say anything else, I was already gone. I was pretty fast even back then.
My intermediate destination was first of all, the destroyed part of the wall. At that time the sand was already several meters high and almost completely covered several smaller houses. However, I couldn't rack my brains about it for too long, because before I even got close to the hole in the city wall, several hands had grabbed my legs, but thanks to my super-snazzy new retractable claws, they let go of me pretty quickly. They had tried several times to grab me in the sand, but I chopped their hands faster than they could grab them. Then several drones slowly crawled out of the sand and wanted to attack me head-on. I... think it's better if I don't go into detail about what I did with them, though. I'll just say this much: the sand has been given a new coat of paint over a fairly large area.
I can't remember how long it took me to- wait a minute, I didn't say exactly where I was going, did I? Doesn't matter. My destination was a quicksand pool. In my vision I saw several drones disappearing into it, which later reappeared in a hollow space, additionally to a few landmarks that I could use to pinpoint where I needed to go.
But the closer I got to my destination, the more drones got in my way. And the sand coloring went on and on and on. At least until I was standing at the edge of the quicksand pool. After that it got very quiet... There was no more movement in the sand around me, just a few bubbles of gas rising out of the quicksand that kept it moving. But everything else was quiet. No more drones were coming either, and I knew I was walking headfirst into a trap. However, I wouldn't be me if that stopped me from doing anything.
So, I jumped headfirst into the quicksand and the next thing I remember I found myself in a dimly lit place. Behind me was the quicksand that had curtained the entrance through which I presumably came through. And, no idea how that was possible, that was actually a source of light. What I could see of the room were several... pouches, you might say. Bundles maybe. Huge piles of supplies and resources, but nothing else. Well, almost nothing.
I actually expected hundreds or even thousands of drones to attack me to defend their base. I figured my vision had been a dead end and that this was just some sort of bait to lure me away from Newtopia. Sounds pretty arrogant, doesn't it? Yeah... Anyway...
I'd shouted a few threats into the void against my inner voice, not expecting a reply. But then suddenly I heard footsteps approaching, along with a red glow on the ground. A short time later there was this figure in front of me. With a huge faint red glowing mushroom on its head. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the figure the mushroom was sitting on. And then it started talking and the world stopped for a moment.
"I told you you shouldn't go!"
"... What?"
"I told you... you shouldn't go..."
"Ra- Ragnar?? But... what... huh?"
Now imagine how speechless I was. Ragnar- whom I had seen at a roadblock in Newtopia not so long ago now stood before me. Not only was he, somehow, faster than me, he also has a huge red mushroom on his head that wasn't there before.
„I am up here”
"I'm just so confused... Why is there a mushroom on your head?"
"I am the mushroom"
"What? How?"
"You must have absolutely no idea- HEY! I said up here. Don't look in the eyes!"
"Now can you enlighten me as to what's going on here? How did you know where I..."
And that's when I knew it.
"You're the hive..."
"Not quite. There is no hive. There never was. Just...me"
"You?"
"Well, me and my children. The ones you just slaughtered so many of"
"I'm sorry, but I still can't get over the fact that I've been friends with a mushroom all along... How did you manage to hide yourself so well?"
"Seriously? You want to know that? I just told you that I'm more or less responsible for this war and you just want to know how I can change my appearance?"
"Yup. The rest can wait. Oh, and for your information: Our past friendship is the only reason you're not dead yet"
"Understood. Well, regarding my appearance, I can withdraw fully into my host body if I feel like it."
"So all of these neck checks were-"
"-useless, yeah."
"... So, you have children..."
"Before you ask, I sent them all away. After realizing where you were going, I immediately went to get the rest to safety."
"Okay, I see. What is the purpose of this war? What is your goal? ... And what is all this sand for?"
"I'm glad you haven't figured that out yourself. Shows that I did at least something right."
"So?"
"I want the city. I mean, I've got a family now. Do you think I want them all to be homeless? My plan was that I'd sink the whole city, along with all the residents to be hosts for my children."
"That was your plan? And you're giving up? Without a fight?"
"I know when I've lost"
"You're a coward, you know that? 'Ragnar the Wretched', that's how you'll be remembered"
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that my children are safe."
"For now, at least"
"What?"
"Of course, I will try to track them down and wipe them out. Each of your children stole a life under duress. They will not escape their just punishment."
"Please. As your... friend, don't hurt them. Let them live their lives. They are the last of their kind."
There I was, in a dimly lit cave, with my former friend kneeling in supplication before me and I held my blades out to him, ready to end his life and struggling to either respect his last wish or not. I was torn between the vow I'd made and the friendship I'd come to appreciate, not counting the recent betrayal.
"Stand up!"
"What?"
"It's not my place to punish you. This war is over and if your kids don't cause problems, maybe I can forget they exist"
"Really?"
"I will arrest you now and take you back to Newtopia where you will be tried before the King for your crimes. For espionage, kidnapping, murder, collateral damage and so on."
"Thank you, my friend-"
"Don't thank me. I would rather see you dead"
It was by far the most unsatisfactory victory of my life. I could have killed him. Heck, I wanted to kill him. But despite knowing that he was responsible for so much suffering, taking so many lives, I couldn't. But the worst thing was actually this hypocrisy. I mean, even though it said he would do all this for his kids, he never did anything himself. He had sent his children forward for every attack… for every single attack, while he cowardly hid himself behind enemy borders.
"And how did the story end?" Marcy asked, looking at General Yunan with wide, attentive and curious eyes.
"Well, when we got back Ragnar was tried and sentenced to death. And I had been promoted to general and my new title was born. 'General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian Army!' While I'm still very proud of this title to this day, I'm not quite as proud when I think about how I got it and what I had to do to get it ..."
"I think I understand..." Marcy says thoughtfully, "Even though I know that Sasha has done horrible things, I shouldn't give her up."
Yunan looks puzzled at Marcy. "That's actually not what... You know, if that's the lesson you're taking from my story, I won't disagree."
"What would you have recommended me then?"
"For not letting your judgment be clouded by the fact that you and Sasha used to be friends"
"-not 'used to'. We still are", Marcy corrected.
"Of course... pack up your things. We'll be there in a moment"
"Yes ma'am", Marcy salutes with a honest smile on her face, packing up all of the books, maps, stats, and schedules she had prepared for the meeting. "Where was Andrias during the war, anyway? You didn't mention him at all..." Marcy asks, holding one of books in her hand.
"This story ain't about him", Yunan explains, to which Marcy just shrugs.
While Yunan's story wasn't exactly the cheery one, it was good enough that Marcy's worries were completely dispelled and she was able to fully focus on the task at hand, along with the larger goal. It fills Yunan with pride that she was able to pass on some of her knowledge to Marcy. Because she mostly travels alone, she hardly ever comes into contact with other people and therefore doesn't really have any friends. She's all the more grateful for the company of this curious, clumsy human girl, the great Marcy Wu.
"You back there: put up those banners! You, put your chestplate on right side up! You there, get the good drinks from the basement! Sasha, you... Sasha? SASHA!"
The whole of Toad Tower is in a frenzy as Grime rushes everyone to get everything polished for the guests from Newtopia who are expected to be there today. For Grime, this is of the utmost importance, especially in the current situation.
"You called?" Sasha asked playfully as they headed down the stairs from their chambers to the entrance hall with Percy and Braddock.
"Where have you been?" Grime asks on the verge of an outburst.
"Oh, we partied together all last night. We were all soo stressed, something like this was really necessary", Sasha explains deeply relaxed.
"Tell me, Lieutenant, what day is it?" Grime asks in a sarcastic tone.
"Um, I dunno. Friday?" Sasha replies. The two toads that were hiding behind her look at each other, visibly nervous.
"Today the representatives from Newtopia arrive. They will be able to tell us if we can count on additional resources for the fight against this frog rebellion. And for that, this hellhole better not look like a hellhole."
"Well, I like this hell hole", Sasha throws in and the bile gradually boils over Grime.
"The Newtopian Elite are very outwardly conscious, so it would be quite appropriate if you TURNED UP ON TIME!!!"
"We're not that late"
"FOUR HOURS, SASHA!"
"Geez, okay. You don't have to yell like that... What do you want me to do??"
"YOU will gather all the paperwork we have, as well as the latest intelligence reports, from our dead mailbox..."
"All right, see you later", the good-humored Sasha says goodbye and went back up the stairs to her room.
"And you two...", Grime began, "you have exactly one hour to scrub the command center clean from top to bottom. I want to be able to eat right off the floor, understand? Good. Step away!"
Percy and Braddock turn to obey the command. He turns back around abruptly and all the toads in the room act all busy and ignorant and he exits, still in a crappy mood, and heads up the tower to the command center, deciding to let Sasha take over the rest of the preparations once she returns.
Usually, the dead mailbox is only half an hour away from Toad Tower and Sasha in most cases is even faster than that. But today something is different. More than an hour has passed and she hasn't returned yet.
'This girl is absolutely throwing everything out of the window today, too. Showing up late for duty, then this rebelliousness.... Quite atypical for her...'
Grime's train of thought is suddenly cut short when there is a sudden knock at the door and Percy glimpses in.
"Captain Grime?" Percy asks, somewhat intimidated, still carried away by the captain’s earlier outburst.
"WHAT?", Grime asks, annoyed, "Please tell me Sasha's back..."
"Um... So... um... Sasha isn't, but the... the representatives are about to arrive", Percy babbled.
"What?"
"Th- There..."
Percy pointed to one of the windows, whereupon Grime runs to it in a slight panic and sees a sparrow flying towards the tower.
"Damn Newtopian overpunctuality", he mutters. "Percy, how are the preparations coming along?"
"Um, the- the food for the banquet isn't ready yet. But... But everything else is up to your specifications."
"Must do"
Grime hustles past Percy, through a long hallway, down a sweeping spiral staircase, and sees many of its soldiers positioned at the large gate to the front yard, peering out through a crack.
He sighs at the utterly pathetic scene, all those toads standing just in front of the closed main gate, almost brawling to catch a glimpse through the crack to the outside.
'We are so going to lose this war'
"HEY!", Grime yells with all of his power, "YOU ARE SUCH A PATHETIC PILE. YOU'RE ALL RELEASED FOR THE DAY, WHILE OUR GUESTS ARE HERE! I DON'T WANT TO GET TO SEE ANY OF YOU TODAY!"
The crowd of downed soldiers dispersed and as soon as everyone had left the lobby, Grime walked to the large central gate, took one deep breath and opened it to welcome the representatives.
Over the last hour, he had been trying to prepare himself for the worst possible scenario: Hours of discussions with so-called strategists, wimpy newts who had never even seen a real weapon in their life. But this is still better than the alternative, because then he would have to ask his sister for help, and he's far too damn proud to do that.
"Nice speech. Hiding the more problematic soldiers to distract from the lousy condition of your troops..."
Grime was even more surprised when there were no wimpy newts in professor outfits standing in front of him, but rather the personification of 'One wrong look and she'll single-handedly rip out my other good eye'. The Newt standing immediately in front of him is wearing an unfamiliar dark silver Newtopian armor, along with a dark gray cape. On her chest hang various insignia that directly identify her as a General. She is obviously a big deal.
"So-so, you're the great Captain Grime, the fiercest fighter in the colosseum..."
"Correct!", Grime boasts proudly, "and you are...?"
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian Army!"
"Impressive title. One question: to my knowledge, each division in the Newtopian military has its own designed armor and uniform, but I don't recognize yours. Which army do you lead?"
Instead of an answer, a broad grin spreads across General Yunan's face and her finely-sharpened, pointed teeth are revealed.
"I had an army once. They slowed me down."
"Ouuu-kay.... Weren't you originally scheduled to be traveling with someone else?"
"Oh, yes, that's right. Where is... ugh, not again."
Curiously, Grime peers after the General as she runs to the stables. He can hear talking, but can't make out exactly what it is about. He raises an eyebrow as he sees her coming back out with another human.
"We have a mission to fulfill, remember?"
"But these beetles are soo cool. The stall keeper said one of these bugs can pull a weight of up to seven hundred kilograms, can you believe that?"
This new human seems entirely different from Sasha and her friend Anne, although all he knows about her is what Sasha had told him.
'This human is definitely not a warrior'
"Marcy, let me introduce you to... Captain Grime, leader of the Toad Army of the Southern Tower. Captain Grime, this is Master Marcy Wu, Chief Ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard and the greatest strategist since King Andrias himself."
"Pleased to meet you. May I call you Grimsey?", the human asked expectantly with widened eyes and zero sense of personal space. Grime just growls in response and General Yunan pulls her away from him back to herself. "Oh, yeah, right. Personal space... Sorry"
Marcy rubs the back of her neck in embarrassment, but immediately forgot about her misstep when she peeks past Grime and catches a glimpse of the inside of the tower. She gasps heavily.
"Oh. My. Gosh... Toad architecture is soo cool. It's all so rustic and.... improvised. Spikes on the structural pillars, torches shaped like burning skulls and.... whoa... is that a chandelier made out of the arms of red mantises?"
The girl is running energetically all around the room, describing each and every little something with a seemingly unquenchable curiosity like nothing Grime has encountered before. He leans toward General Yunan, who is now beside him, also watching.
"Is she always like this?" he asks quietly.
"Yes."
"I see. Also, may I ask how you put up with her all the time, General?"
"No, you may not. Master Marcy is an outright mastermind, and her skills are remarkable...", Yunan tells him, while on the inside Marcy has just tripped over her own feet, affirming that she is alright. "But that comes at a cost that she herself may not necessarily be aware of. To everyone else around her, even more so."
"I understand, General.", Grime says and proceeds a bit louder "Now, if I may lead you both to the command center..."
Yunan lets out a single sharp whistle, catching Marcy's attention, before nodding her head in the direction of a door that Grime has headed for. Briefly disappointed, Marcy returns to Yunan and both of them are now heading to the command center and Marcy has to really pull herself together not to stop every few steps because she has found something new to admire and to study.
Once upstairs, the group enters the semi-circular room, in the center of which stands a massive oval-shaped table, surrounded in turn by a few unexpectedly elegant chairs. The walls to the right and left of the entrance are covered with charts and lists of names for collecting taxes and general maps of the region, as well as a few more detailed ones of various villages.
"Before we start... Captain Grime, I need all the records of tax collections from all the villages here in the valley for the last... let's say 30 years. Plus, every complaint you received about the Toad Army from the same time period. And, on top of that, I need all personal files you have on your army! For everyone."
Grime just stares wide-eyed at Marcy, rather surprised by the sudden change in her voice. It's as if he's now confronted by a completely different person, a person to be taken much more seriously.
"Captain Grime?!" Yunan asks after a few seconds, looking at him with her arms crossed.
"Oh, yeah, sure. Um... I don't have any of that", he replies to Marcy's request.
"WHAT?" she asks, alarmed.
"We're warriors. Soldiers... Not accountants."
Marcy sighs and props herself up on the table with both arms.
"I was afraid I was expecting too much... ", Marcy began, before her tone became drastically more positive again, "Fortunately, I've taken precautions. Here in my bag, I have... this."
She pulls out a rather large folder and drops it on the table.
"Since you can't show me how many coppers you take off the frogs so far in taxes, this way we can at least look at how much you pass on to Newtopia. Then we can at least get some rough estimates.... I had also foreseen that you had no written complaints, but we will take care of that later. And as for your troops, I've had a list put together by the Toad Council, which they are requesting every year."
Perplexed, Grime stares at the huge mountain of paper now on the planning table and then looks up at General Yunan, who grins in amusement.
"Wait, you contacted the council?" as Grime asks in shock.
"Yes", Marcy replies dryly.
"I hope you at least didn't say anything about the situation I'm in at the moment ..."
"No, I didn't", Marcy replies, and Grime exhales in relief. "I didn't have to say anything. They already knew, and they've already preemptively denied you any support."
"Typical Beatrix", Grime snorts, "And it sure is taking forever to work through all this. Can't we just call in the Newtopian Army for support and just overrun the valley?"
Marcy gives Grime a judgmental look.
"Captain Grime, I've been here less than fifteen minutes and I already recognize fundamental and serious problems.... Well, everywhere-"
Grime growls and states through clenched teeth "I didn't ask for someone to lecture me on how to do my job. Especially not, from a measly human who has no clue about life out here"
"Watch your tone, Grime. She works directly for the king, so she outranks you!", Yunan suddenly interjects and silence fills the room. Then, after a moment Grime says, tired of arguing
"I sincerely apologize for my disrespect... Master Marcy"
"Fantastic", Marcy started in a playful tone, "Also, if I might remind you, you asked for assistance in resolving this conflict.... And here we are. Now, then, let’s talk about the current situation in the valley."
"If you allow me, I would like to wait until the latest intelligence reports arrive"
"Alright", Marcy says in the very same tone of voice.
"Sasha should be back very soon..." says Grime slowly, watching Marcy's reactions to that with extreme precision. Too bad for Marcy, her poker face is as inscrutable as glass. Immediately, a slight panic rises in her and a smug grin emerges on Grime's face. At least until he remembers that General Yunan is also still in the room. In the meantime, she had moved to one of the windows and Grime hears from behind him a clicking, metallic sound that comes from her position. Sensing the impending danger, Grime attempts to somewhat de-escalate the situation that he had created.
"Listen, I know you're not just here because King Andrias ordered you here. You're here, obviously, pursuing your own interests as well. Am I right?"
Marcy, who has also calmed slightly by now, nods in response. He continues, "For the well-being of this meeting, I'm going to try to put aside my... prejudices... towards you and other Newtopian delegates in general. However, that can only be done if I know who I'm working with.... Marcy, you're here because of Sasha."
Marcy is hesitant to respond, but eventually does find the right words, "I... I'm here to accomplish my mission. And yes, Sasha is a part of that. And it's also true that I miss her. But that will not affect the outcome of this mission."
"So, are we done? Are you satisfied, Grime?", Yunan suddenly asks with a stern and unamused tone.
Grime, on the other hand, bursts out laughing and Marcy just confusedly asks, "Huh? What was that now?"
Yunan sighs and explains, "Toad humor. Incomprehensible to other species and apparently not related to anything" and Grime still can't stop laughing.
"I don't get it", Marcy comments.
"Nobody does", Yunan adds.
After more than a minute of Grime not calming down, Marcy joins Yunan at the window, but while Yunan continues to watch Grime wheezing on the floor, Marcy quietly looks out the window, contemplating.
It has always been difficult for Marcy to understand other people's intentions when they are not clearly communicated. But so far, things have been going pretty well in Amphibia, compared to back on Earth. Especially considering that she has been managing most of the time without the support of Anne and Sasha. However, here she was proven once again that not everything in Amphibia could be all that great. But why 'once again'? Well, pretty much the same thing has happened a few times on Earth while in school. Mainly in classes where Anne and Sasha were not present from the beginning or were skipping classes. It was a physics class with Mr. Moltrian and he had made the whole class do a group assignment and without her best friends by her side, she was forced to deal with classmates who were, let's say, not that nice. At first, everyone had done their own assignments until this one other girl had noticeable trouble with the tasks. Marcy being Marcy had offered to help her, but that resulted in her doing all of the group's tasks all by herself, while the other girl had been talking loudly with the two boys in the group. Generally, this was not a problem for her as she always had good grades. However, for whom this was a problem was Mr. Moltrian, because for some reason he disliked Marcy. He had then picked on her about why she was the only one who would not participate in the group discussion. He gave her a ten-minute lecture on the importance of group work and that she would never get anywhere if she always did everything on her own. No one from the group, or even the class, had said anything in her defense or set the situation right. When Mr. Moltrian finished and went back to his teacher's desk, tears started to well up in Marcy's eyes. And instead of someone supporting her, the others in her group would start laughing about how she, of all people, had gotten shit on for this, and make fun of her for crying about it now. At that point she ran from the classroom crying several kilometers to her home and locked herself in her bedroom bursting into tears.
As of right now, she feels almost the same as she did back then. She had once again offered her help for something and in the end, she is laughed at. But thankfully, she's no longer that fragile girl she was back then. Now instead, she has made a decision.
"General Yunan, we are leaving!"
Yunan looks at Marcy with a raised eyebrow, but simply says simply, "Yes, Master Marcy."
Grime, who has been laughing loudly and non-stop now for over fifteen minutes, has now abruptly gone completely silent. He swallows heavily.
"No, you can't leave. We haven't even discussed anything yet", he argues as he gradually gets up from the floor and finds Marcy standing next to him, packing her belongings back up.
"You’re right. And you don't seem to be able to look at this whole situation here with sufficient seriousness either. As a matter of fact, on the contrary, you've been laughing at me for the last ten-"
"Fifteen.", Yunan interjects.
"Thank you. Fifteen minutes straight of laughing at me, and I'm not interested in taking it without doing anything."
Grime stands dumbstruck as Marcy continues to pack as she proceeds, "I'm always in favor of a casual atmosphere but at some point, even I reach a limit. General Yunan, you may arrest him now!"
Grime is still trying to process what Marcy just told him, by then Yunan had his hands cuffed together behind his back even before he could think of attempting to struggle free.
"ARRESTED???" Grime now asks furiously, "FOR WHAT?"
Marcy takes a few steps toward him, leaning down.
"In the event that we are unable to complete our mission, we have orders to take you, Captain Grime, to Newtopia, where you will be held accountable by King Andrias himself."
At this point, there is no trace of Marcy's earlier good mood and harmlessness. The person now standing before Grime seems cold... but also broken.
Grime angrily growls while Marcy, with a seriously grave face, walks to the door and opens it. She turns to Yunan and orders her to carry Grime until suddenly she hears a dull thud from immediately in front of her.
Slowly, she turns back to her front and snaps her eyes open in shock as she sees who is standing in front of her.
"Mar-cy?" the blonde human girl asks in disbelief, raising a hand to Marcy's face. "Oh my... It's really you."
Feeling overjoyed, she throws herself into Marcy's arms, while Marcy herself takes a few more seconds to process her initial surprise before ultimately returning the hug. The coldness inside her vanishes as she holds her friend in her arms and buries her face deep into her shoulder.
Tears appear in both girls’ eyes and they remain in that position for a while.
"Oh my god Marcy... I'm so happy to finally see you again. I really missed you so much."
Marcy squeezes her a little tighter and says softly "I missed you too" before the two girls break apart again and Marcy gasps. "Sasha... your- your eye..."
"Oh, that's... nothing. But just look at you, you look amazing. That uniform, gurl..."
A small smile forms on Marcy's face, briefly before Grime speaks up, clearing his throat loudly, getting Marcy and Sasha's attention.
"Um..." Sasha begins, searching for appropriate words, "Grimsey, what's going on?"
Marcy was about to say something to Grime, when suddenly she turns back to Sasha and says, "Grimsey? Ha, I knew that would be a good nickname", before finally turning back to Grime with a more serious expression.
"Captain Grime, I'm going to make you an offer: We forget everything that happened here and start over from scratch. What do you think?"
"You say that as if I have a choice", Grime whines.
"Perfect. Yunan, you can untie him. For now…", Marcy orders, and General Yunan does just that. Sasha, on the other hand, watches the scene with great interest.
"I'd love to know what I just missed here".
"I'll tell you everything as soon as we're done here", Marcy whispers to Sasha.
"And what is all this? Oh, wait, you're from Newtopia- Marcy, you live in Newtopia???" Sasha asks dumbfounded in quick succession to which Marcy nods energetically.
"Yup. Work right for King Andrias", she says proudly.
"Wow and I thought I had a stellar career", Sasha says before giving her friend a gentle nudge with her shoulder.
"Can we get started now, please?" as Grime asks impatiently, "Lieutenant, you got the latest intel reports?"
"Oh, yeah..." Sasha says, picking up the wooden box she dropped by the door. "Here you go."
Grime opens the box and pulls out a few sheets of paper and runs over it loudly.
"'Small group of rebels captured...' 'Extensive interrogation failed to produce helpful information...' 'Awaiting further orders...' Perhaps a public execution would-"
"STOP!" shouted Marcy, "That's exactly the problem. You want to respond exclusively with force. That won't work and everyone will lose"
"Oh, they're just a few dozen rebels. What are they supposed to do" Grime says dismissively.
"No!", General Yunan interjects, "I was actually there not too long ago. There are hundreds of them. Grime, if you attack you will be overrun."
"Um, excuse me, but who are you again?" Sasha asks not really paying attention to what she just heard.
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian Army!"
"Ou-kay, got it. Thanks", Sasha says flatly.
"Look, I'm here to find a working solution that avoids bloodshed as much as possible. And that means we're going to have to start from scratch. According to Yunan's report, the frogs complain of financial exploitation, violence and oppression by the Toads. According to Captain Grimes' request for help, a meeting was scheduled between you and the rebel leaders? Is that true?" Marcy asks skeptically.
"Grime... 'Request for help'? Seriously? You said this was just a screening or something like that... We're going to talk about that later", Sasha says reproachfully in a forced sounding whisper, "But yes, it was my idea and we had met with envoys from the Rebellion.... It went... not great"
"With which results?", Yunan asks.
"We were given an ultimatum to get all the toads in the valley to treat the frogs better", Sasha explains.
"And when was that?", Marcy asks to which neither Sasha nor Grime answer. "I see... A start would be to release all captured rebels immediately and, unless there are serious reasons, not to take any more prisoners. Do you think that's feasible, Captain Grime?"
"Um... for sure. I just have to send the order..."
"Good, at the very least, that's a start. Another point: taxes. Since you don't keep records of how much money you take from the frogs, the most I can do is put in a word in Newtopia that maybe taxes will be reduced a bit. That way you'll have to take less-" Marcy suggests in her boundless naiveté.
"Yes. Or we could take a look at the regional governments and keep an eye out for corrupt officials in power", Yunan suggests instead.
"Oh, right. Corruption does still exist... Captain Grime, are you being corrupt?" Marcy asks, to which Yunan whispers to her "let me handle the corruption thing" and Marcy merely nods this off.
"Okay... what was the last point? ... ... Oh yeah, centuries of distrust and hatred between the two species. Spontaneously, I can't think of an approach for that. You?"
"Marce, I really like to see how ambitious you are, but you can't solve racism overnight. Well, or within twenty minutes."
"I know, but I have to at least try. I owe it to this place."
"Toad Tower?" Sasha asks skeptically.
"Amphibia. So much good has happened to me here, and as long as we are able to, I want to do as much good as I can. You should have seen Newtopia before I turned it all upside down. They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't in the game back then."
In response to Marcy's stories, Sasha starts to look a little sad.
"Oh Sasha, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking before I was speaking again. I know it was less fun for you."
"Oh nonsense, it's great here. I have Grime, my own subordinates..."
But before Sasha can continue, Grime speaks up, "General, I think that's all we're accomplishing today. We should probably give these two some space", and leaves the room.
"Marcy, I'll wait by the stable", Yunan says, and she and Grime leave the room, which is now just Marcy and Sasha.
"Marcy, I-"
"Sasha, what-"
Both girls wanted to start talking at the same time, but interrupted each other.
"You first", Marcy says.
"Okay. I lied, it really sucked at times. Plus, I ran into Anne. She... did this to me", Sasha says, pointing to the scar that stretches all the way across her eye, "After what Grime told me, I was almost dead. I was in a coma for what felt like forever."
"I... know."
Sasha was extremely surprised by this answer.
"You... know? How?" she asked with a slightly suspicious undertone and Marcy took one deep breath.
"Anne told me"
Immediately after that, total silence filled the room while Sasha tried to process that.
"Anne... told you?" Sasha asks in a cracked voice. She takes a few steps back from the window where she and Marcy are standing towards the table to support herself on it. Marcy realizes that mentioning Anne was probably a big mistake. Marcy walks over to Sasha after a moment and lays a hand on her shoulder
"Sasha... I'm-"
But Sasha interrupts her directly, knocking Marcy's hand away with a shoulder wave.
"I should have known..."
"Should have known what?"
"That you were supporting Anne and you didn't care about me at all".
"What?" Marcy asks heartbroken, "What makes you think that?"
"Obviously you met with the rebellion first and then now you're just pretending that you care about bringing peace. You just want to sabotage us"
"Sasha, that- that's not true. I have no contact with the rebellion- wait, why do you think Anne has anything to do with the rebellion?"
"Oh come on now, don't act so ignorant!", Sasha accuses her, "We both know Anne is leading the rebellion."
"N- No, that can't be"
"Oh, so now you're calling me a liar too?"
"No, of course not. I just mean Anne was in Newtopia for the last week. She just left a little while ago. There's no way she could lead a rebellion from there"
"Well great, it just keeps getting better and better. My two best friends spend a whole week together while I wasn't even invited."
"Sasha, I had no idea that you were here until Anne told me. Anne wasn't even sure you were alive after what she did to you", Marcy says in an attempt to comfort her friend.
"So, she told you what happened? Everything?" asks Sasha doubtfully.
"She told me everything. Both what you did and what she and Luz did. She also told me how much she was regretting what she had done"
"Good, she should."
"And... you?"
"What 'and me'?"
"Do you regret what you did?"
The way Marcy asks this question is clear of any kind of accusation or reluctance. Just concern. Concern for her friend's well-being. Unfortunately, Sasha is just too blinded to notice.
"Where did that Luz go anyway, huh? I'm sure she's with Anne, who has finally replaced me with her."
"Sasha, Anne didn't replace you. She misses you, just like I missed you. Even after what you did, she doesn't want to lose you. She cares a lot about you and-"
"Bullshit. She hates me. And so do you!"
Marcy can't believe what she's hearing. She doesn't know how to possibly respond.
"I... Sasha, I could never hate you.... You are my friend"
"Then you are just as stupid as she is"
Marcy gasps and tears form in her eyes. In a broken voice she says
"Okay... If you see it like that.... maybe I should leave"
"Yeah, maybe you should!"
"... But before I go, I want to say one more thing"
"WHAT?"
"We may have found a way to get home. It will take some time, but we might need your help later on"
Sasha doesn't respond to this and continues to just give Marcy the cold shoulder. Marcy continues
"I... will send you a message when it's time.... It would be nice...if you could be there. If you want to"
Again, Sasha says nothing and Marcy makes her way to the door.
"Alright. Goodbye, Sasha. It... it was nice to see you again"
On her way down the stairs, Marcy runs into Grime, who immediately notices her teary eyes. He was about to say something, but Marcy spoke up first.
"Captain, General Yunan will be back in a few days. I will try to establish a new dialogue with the rebellion and act as a negotiator. Have you already given the order to release the captured rebels?"
"I have just sent the messengers with proper instructions. Um, may I ask-"
"No, you may not. Goodbye, Captain."
Without another word, Marcy continued down the stairs to the main hall and on through the front gate to the stables, where Yunan was already waiting for her.
"I suppose things didn't go well, did they?"
Increasingly unable to fight back her tears, she just shakes her head and a first sob escapes. Somewhat overwhelmed by the situation, Yunan looks slightly exasperated at Joe, who in turn holds Marcy close to him with one wing.
"Thanks Joe. We...we should go."
Marcy climbs onto Joe's back with Yunan, puts down her backpack and pulls out her diary. Joe lifts off the ground and meanwhile Marcy turns her gaze to the tower and sees Sasha standing at a window, blankly staring at her.
Once Joe is out of range, Yunan asks Marcy what exactly happened. And while she tells in detail how the conversation between her and Sasha went, it became increasingly difficult for her to speak and also needed increasingly longer breaks in which her tears just fell. Yunan had not dared to speak up while Marcy was talking. However, once she had finished and the sobbing had also lessened, Yunan began to speak.
"I know I'm probably the least qualified to find solutions to these kinds of problems, but it seems like your friend definitely needs help that you can't offer her, no matter how much you want to.... But nonetheless, I'm very proud that you tried. You remember Ragnar? Nowadays, I wish I had acted differently back then and tried to help him rather than just turn him in."
"That... that's not really comparable at all..."
"Maybe not. But I nevertheless find that despite the circumstances, you were willing to offer your help to your friend."
Marcy is leaning on Yunan's shoulder.
"Thank you."
"... For what?"
"Just like that... Wait a minute, weren't we supposed to go to Wartwood?"
" I am flying to Wartwood. For you, I have something else in mind. A little surprise, if you will"
Marcy looks around in confusion as Yunan and Joe make their approach to land somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
"But what's supposed to be here? Here's just a dry-"
Marcy's eyes widen as Joe lands and a nearby vehicle shows up, previously covered by Joe's wing.
"ANNE!" Marcy screams with delight as she sees the Plantars' fwagon, which has stopped just in front of Joe. Anne jumps down from the wagon and runs to Joe, from whom Marcy is falling and is just barely caught by Anne.
"Oh Marcy, I missed you, but.... what are you even doing out here?"
Instead of answering herself, General Yunan jumps down with Marcy's backpack from Joe and explains "It's been a messy day, she needs this. Master Marcy, I'll see you in Wartwood. I have some corruption cases to uncover".
"Yes, General", Marcy replies, who is still in Anne's arms, salutes. Yunan jumps back on Joe's back, takes off and flies toward the horizon.
"Anne?"
"Hmm?"
"You can let me down now"
"Oh, yeah. Of course", Anne agrees, blushing.
Suddenly Sprig, Polly and Maddie also appear from the fwagon and run up to Marcy, who joyfully gives the three of them a big hug.
"MAAAARCYYY!" the frogs exclaim.
"Aww, I missed you guys too.... Where's Hop Pop?" asks Marcy.
Suddenly, the older frog gets out of the fwagon and asks in a sleepy tone, "Why did we stop? I told you we wouldn't stop for a break until sometime later"
"Hello Hop Pop" Marcy says with a smile on her face.
"Marcy? Oh wow... Okay, so I certainly was not expecting that", the old frog says, dumbfounded. Marcy and Anne giggle.
"I hope it would be okay if you let me ride with you the rest of the way..."
"Uh, but of course Marcy. It would be an honor to have you."
"Aww, thanks Hop Pop."
"Yeah HP, you're the best. Come on Mar-Mar, I'll show you around."
And so, the frogs and the two girls entered the fwagon, with Anne giving Marcy a rather detailed tour and Hop Pop taking the control for Bessie.
Notes:
If you want to guess which part was the most difficult for me: It was Yunan's backstory.
Never again.By the way, I also assume that there are quite a few continuity errors here. If anyone finds any, please let me know <3
Chapter 24: A Normal Day
Summary:
Luz just wants a normal day with absolutely nothing exciting happening
Notes:
And another chapter with almost 9k words... Are these chapters already too long?
Also, as of right now, this fanfiction is the second longest 'Owl House'/'Amphibia'-crossoverfanfiction on AO3, just behind "The Owl and the Frog". (Still recommend to read that one as well. It's amazing)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Today is the third day since Luz has been back in the Boiling Isles, and today is a day she is hoping will bring at least a bit of normalcy back into her life.
The intense thunderstorm has finally moved on, and the damage to the Owl House is fortunately not too severe and therefore easily repairable. A broken window in the kitchen as well as in the bathroom, fallen roof tiles over the entrance to the house to provide Hooty with some shelter from the weather, and a tree crashed into the tower adjacent to the house.
Luz had provisionally repaired the broken windows with ice, Amity had worked with Hooty to repair the tiles on his porch roof, and all three worked together to get the tree back up.
"Whew, that was all pretty exhausting... Hopefully that hole in the tower won't be too much of a problem...", Luz comments, casting a skeptical glance at the hole in which she could certainly stand upright in.
"I did suggest you could use a plant glyph to get the tree back up instead of trying to use your bare hands", Amity smiles as she had watched the battle between Luz and the tree with great amusement, "But yeah, hopefully the hole isn't a threat to structural integrity. Hooty, do you have any idea what's in there?"
Hooty comes rocketing out of the ground, startling Luz and Amity in the process, and shrieks in a shrill voice, "HOOOOOT!"
"Hooty!" yells Amity angrily, while Luz, holding onto Amity, catches a deep breath.
"Hooty, do you know if the hole is going to be a problem? Not that it might cause the tower to collapse...", Luz asks worriedly.
Hooty looks at Luz with an expressionless look before abruptly turning to the side "I hear a bug. Come here bug!" and disappears without further comment. Luz smiles.
"How I have missed him after all. Absolutely not helpful at all."
"Yeah. He has his moments"
"Amity, shall we go see if the others are awake yet? Then we could all explore the tower together" Luz suggests energetically.
"I'd hate to take the risk of waking the others while we'd be checking. After all, there are classes back again today."
As Amity spoke these words, she sees an increasingly large smile forming on Luz's face.
"Uhhh, I'm soo excited to visit Hexside and see everyone else again.... This might come across as totally weird, but I even missed Boscha a bit."
"No way...", Amity claims incredulously.
"Oh yeah, it is. Even though I think I'll regret that sentence when I actually meet her later."
Amity and Luz laugh briefly at this remark before Luz looks thoughtfully back up at the tower.
"Say, you up for a mini adventure?", Luz asks with a smirk on her face.
"Always", Amity replies.
"Great", Luz says happily before continuing thoughtfully "I.... have to admit, I have no idea where the entrance is"
"I'm shocked", Amity teases her, "Luz Noceda, are you seriously telling me that in all this time you've never been curious about what this mega eye-catching tower is all about?"
Luz just looks at Amity with wide eyes, not knowing how to answer, "Uhh, I don't know."
Amity snorts. "Well, maybe I can give you a little head start..."
"What do you mean?" Luz asks puzzled, to which Amity doesn't reply. She merely starts to walk off around the house. Luz stops in her tracks, confused, before realizing that Amity is no longer standing next to her. "Amity, wait."
The two girls find themselves at the back of the owl house and Amity is standing outside the kitchen of the house with her arms crossed, smiling slightly and an eyebrow raised in anticipation.
"HOW DID I NEVER NOTICE THIS BEFORE?", Luz asks in shock as she catches up to her friend who is standing in front of a stone staircase that leads into the ground.
"Discovered it two weeks ago or so. Seems to be the basement", Amity explains.
"You've been down there before?"
"Not for long. I guess Hooty thought it would be fun to kidnap Em. I had heard her screaming from down here and got her out"
"Why would he do something like that? "
"He went through a phase a while back where he really wanted to help people. I had... asked... him not to kidnap people anymore, even if he had good intentions."
"How was that going to help anyone?! How did Em do after that?"
"We don't talk about that day anymore. But other than that, she seems to have taken it surprisingly well.... I don't know if it would be the same for me"
"All right. Shall we?"
Amity merely replies with a quiet "Mhm" before Luz descends the stairs with her and opens the heavy wooden door.
'Oh boy, this looks like the basement at Marcy's sleepover.... Only with less corals... And alien ghosts... At least I hope so'
"Luz? Is everything okay?"
"Oh, yeah, absolutely. Just had to think of something.... Come on, let's keep going."
As soon as the two girls were in the basement, the door slammed shut behind them. The loud bang of it had given both girls a deep scare. Luz seems to panic a little more to that though
"Okay, so if we go by movie logic now, we're now trapped down here where some crazy guy, probably wearing a mask, is trying to kill us"
"I can debunk that right now", Amity says confidently, "the door has no lock."
"Perfect. Makes this place seem less creepy right off the bat"
They walk just a few more steps and the temperature drops by several degrees and it's getting darker as well. Luz activates a light glyph and the two girls enter a room.
"This looks like... a regular basement", Luz states, slightly disappointed.
"... Maybe... there's some kind of hidden door here somewhere...", Amity guesses.
"Like in the library? Good idea. You check the wall, I'll go through the shelves."
The basement of the Owl House is both full and empty at the same time. There are various filled boxes and baskets everywhere, boxes filled with other boxes, furniture that looks almost as good as new, but also filled garbage bags. And most noticeably, more of the floor is visible than is sometimes the case in the rest of the house.
Amity knocks on various spots on the basement walls while Luz approaches a rather large shelf, standing at one corner of the room, looking for something that might somehow resemble an opening mechanism. She lifts various suspicious-looking objects to test this theory, starting with a very old floor lamp next to said shelf, with some feathers hanging from it. Luz tries to turn on the lamp and when nothing happens, she lifts it up once. There could be a mechanical switch at the bottom. But there is no such thing. Her gaze continues to the shelf to a few older looking clothes. A pink hat with a long yellow feather sticking out of it, a sombrero, definitely from Earth, and a light brown dress with a flower pattern.
'I can't imagine Eda ever wearing this dress. Well, at least not by choice...'
Luz's gaze falls on the row below, where several books are laid on top of each other. They all seem to be books from Earth. One cookbook in particular catches her eye.
"Heh."
"Find anything?", Amity asks.
"More or less. Look."
"'Dominican Cuisine: Recipes from the Caribbean'?", Amity reads aloud.
"My mom has the exact same cookbook. Maybe...", Luz wanders off.
"Maybe?"
"Maybe I should try to recreate dishes from it. Dominican food is really delicious. My mom always made the best Locrio. I'd have to see how I could substitute some of the ingredients, but that shouldn't really be a problem"
"I would be honored to be your food taster", Amity says proudly, to which Luz responds with a smile. However, that smile quickly turns into a sad smile. "Luz, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, just... I miss my mom... I wonder how she's doing right now. Her only daughter in another world, who may never come home again"
Amity puts a hand on Luz's shoulder and looks deep into her eyes.
"Luz, I'm very sure your mom is fine. Surely, she misses you and her joy once you are back with her will be endless. Trust me, I speak from experience."
Luz frowns.
"You have kids?" she asks teasingly.
"Shut up", Amity says smiling and Luz smiles again too, turning back to the shelf.
"Oh. My. God... I don't believe it, this can't be", Luz says with huge eyes as she spots a golden box on the shelf.
"A box?", Amity asks.
"Not just any box. This is the same box that Anne, Marcy, and Sasha came to Amphibia with. Marcy had shown me a picture of it.... How can it be here?"
Amity doesn't know the answer to that, but doesn't know the context to that either.
"Let's go back upstairs", Luz suggests as she continues to look at the box, "I don't think we're going to find anything here. And this, right now, is a much bigger mystery."
"You won't hear any protest from me. I mean, if the tower hasn't collapsed yet, it will hold until later", Amity agrees.
"Yeah... Exactly... Until later...", Luz repeats distractedly. Amity notices this and snaps a few times in front of Luz's face, which seems to bring her back to reality. She blinks at Amity a few times repeatedly.
"Are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Come on, let's go back to the house", Luz says deflectingly.
"Alright..." says Amity, realizing Luz is avoiding her questions, "Let's walk through the kitchen. Ladies first", Luz bows and points toward the exit with an elegant hand gesture, not noticing the small blush on Amity's face.
They head back up the stairs and to the kitchen door before Luz stops in her tracks as she catches a glimpse through the kitchen window and peers all the way into the living room, where she seems to see something interesting. Amity, who has already walked a little ahead of her and is already holding the doorknob in her hand, notices this and leans to the side looking through the window as well.
She asks Luz in a whisper, "What are we looking at?"
"Huh? Oh, umm, Willow's doing pull-ups on that door frame..."
"I think she started exercising a few weeks ago. I think it's awesome."
"My fingers hurt from just watching her", Luz jokes, her face contorted with pain as she tries to imagine herself in the same position, to which Amity gives an amused chuckle.
She enters the house, Luz following her.
"Good morning, Willow", Amity greets Willow, who drops from the doorframe and turns to the kitchen.
"Oh, hey guys... I didn't know you were already awake...", Willow remarks, "Where have you been?"
"We had been repairing some of the storm damage", Amity recounts.
"And I found out that the Owl House has a basement", Luz confesses while holding the back of her neck with her free hand. Willow merely looks at Luz with a questioning look before something else catches her eye.
"And what's that?" she asks, pointing to the golden box Luz is carrying under her arm.
"A mystery that wants to be solved", Luz answers excitedly.
After a brief pause, Willow says, " You will have to explain that to me."
"I'd like to, but first I'd like to eat something", Luz says, putting the box on the kitchen table and going to the refrigerator in search of something edible for her. On Earth and in Amphibia, that was pretty simple: Don't eat anything with lactose in it, and you'll be fine. Even with all the bugs in Amphibia, she had no problems, but here, griffin eggs had always been the only thing she could eat so far.
"Hmm...no griffin eggs.... I think I should go to the market later", Luz mutters to herself.
"No way!" interjects Amity, overhearing Luz's soliloquy. Frowning, Luz turns to Amity, "You're the most wanted person in the Isles, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, you' re right", Luz says, genuinely forgot, "I think I need to get my Wanted poster enlarged someday so I can hang it on a wall."
"Luz!", Amity desperately exclaims, "You don't seem to understand the urgency of your situation..."
"Eda had also managed to remain undetected-", Luz argues, before being interrupted by Willow, who is just as concerned as Amity.
"Eda was also one of the most powerful witches in the Isles, while you're just a-"
"-a human... I get it", the now dejected Luz says.
"Luz... we're just concerned for your safety, remember?", Amity states.
"I know. But I don't want to just want to hide in here forever"
"I never said that", Amity says.
"Look, here's an idea", Willow begins, "How about we say right now that one of us is here with you all the time. Then you would not be alone, and on the other hand we could do some shopping for you."
"That's very sweet Willow, but that's exactly what I was talking about. I'd be basically locked in here", Luz says, "And while I love you guys, I don't want you to spend all your time here"
"Maybe we could put an illusion over your head if you want to go outside", Amity suggests.
"Could work", suddenly says a new voice entering the kitchen.
"Hello Gus.", Willow greets him, "I hope we didn't wake you up".
"No, don't worry. I was already up. So was Skara. I think she's taking a shower right now.... Anyway, it might work to put an illusion on Luz's head. But not without risk"
"What kind of risk?", Amity asks.
"Well, illusions disappear as soon as you try to touch one. Also, the longer an illusion exists, the more tiring it becomes for the witch in question to cast the illusion", Gus explains.
"Uh, Gus, that reminds me of something I've been dying to tell you", Luz suddenly interrupts him with a renewed better mood, "In Amphibia, I had once tried to create illusions with Glyphs and I never realized how complex that actually is. Generally speaking, the purposeful refracting light to create things without mass is absolutely mind-blowing."
A huge smile emerges on Gus' face, "Aw, thanks Luz. That means a lot to me"
"Actually, that might actually be the solution to this problem" Willow suddenly remarks.
"What do you mean?", Gus asks.
"Well, if Luz can manage to create illusions herself with glyphs, the exhaustion issue won't be a problem anymore. And, she could carry several glyphs with her to cast a new one if she eventually does get discovered", Willow explains.
"Oh titan, Willow, that's genius. Luz, you and I are going to try to come up with an illusion glyph for you later", Gus excitedly suggests.
"How about today in illusions class. And we could continue working after that, too", Luz says, equally excited.
"Okay, okay, so far the plan sounds nice and all, but for Hexside Luz should still have an illusion imposed on her already", Amity prompts.
"Oh, Hexside is no problem. I'm confident about that", Luz says confidently.
"Oh, and what makes you think that someone from Emperors Coven won't suddenly show up there after all?", Amity asks skeptically.
"Simple, when Eda enrolled me there, Principal Bump had promised that I would be safe from them there", Luz replies.
"Okay, fine. But I insist that Gus hide you under an illusion for the way there", Amity demands.
"Deal!", Gus and Luz say in unison and the group now starts to make breakfast. Willow, Amity and Gus make sandwiches, while Luz is still unsure what she wants to eat.
"Luz, would you like to try this? It's a Zwinkelcore sandwich", Willow offers Luz.
"Zwinkelcore?"
"Yeah, it's kind of like a nut, only instead of a hard shell and soft core, it has a hard core and soft shell. Tastes pretty sweet", she explains. Eager to experiment, Luz takes the piece of sandwich Willow offered her and bites into it without hesitation. Fortunately, no one had heard the grumbling of her stomach.
"Oh wow", she says with her mouth full, "this is really delicious. Griffin-eggs, you've got competition now", Luz jokes as Skara suddenly enters the kitchen.
"Good morning. Who's got competition?", she asks as she sits down next to Willow at the kitchen table.
"It's a zwinkelcore sandwich. Willow recommended it to me", Luz tells her.
"Nice. Willow, didn't I just recommend this to you yesterday?", Skara asks. Willow nods with her mouth full, "Glad you like it. So, next question: What's with the box?"
"This... Is a music box... With which you can... Travel between worlds...", Luz explains between bites. Except for Amity, to whom Luz has already roughly explained what it is, the jaws of everyone present are open and Luz continues to eat unbothered, "Woah, this sandwich is soo delicious."
Willow is the first to speak up again "Okay, rewind please.... A box that allows you to travel between worlds? How? And how do you know that?"
"Marcy had told me. She had also shown me a photo of where she found the box in the human realm", Luz says.
"You don't happen to have the photo with you?", Gus asks to which Luz gives him a puzzled look.
"Um... you had seen me arrive back here on the Isles, right? I had nothing but my pajamas and Owlbert. Even my phone is still in Amphibia-"
"What's a 'phone'?", Skara asks.
"It's like a human version of a mix between a scroll and a crow that works without magic", Gus explains, before turning to Luz. "Did I explain that correctly?" he asks, to which Luz gives him a thumbs-up, when suddenly a loud and shrill screech fills the room. It seems to come from Gus and the little demon sitting on his wrist.
"Don't worry, it's just my alarm for school", Gus explains, "We should get going soon if we want to be on time for class."
"Good idea", Skara agrees, "and as much as I like our flyer derby outfits, I would reeally want to change before class."
Amity is the first to get up from the table and go change into her school uniform while the rest finish their breakfast. She has always been a fast eater. One of the 'habits' her mother always instilled in her was not to waste valuable time with eating. When she finishes changing and comes back to the kitchen with her bag, Luz goes to her room upstairs to change out of her pajamas into her colorful school uniform as well. Shortly before, however, Amity had asked Luz about something that she found quite strange.
"Um Luz, what is actually with the box now? You said it was a mystery that needed to be solved..."
"That's right. But school is even more important", Luz said with a smile before leaving the kitchen with a rather quick pace.
When she comes back down the stairs, she sees the others with their palismen already standing in the living room by the front door. Before she joins them, she goes to Owlbert first, who is standing on the living room table.
"Well buddy, are you excited about class as well?" she asks. To a soft "hoot" that comes back from him, she replies, "It's okay. I'll see you later", and joins the other witches.
"Isn't Owlbert coming?", Willow asks.
"Nah, he thought it'd be better if someone other than Hooty guarded the box. Just for safety", Luz explains, which the others don't really question. Just Amity frowns slightly.
"Well, then you could fly with Amity. I'm sure she wouldn't mind", suggests Willow, who has to try very hard to suppress her smug smile when she sees how red Amity's face suddenly turns.
"Oukay", Amity squeaks in a high-pitched voice.
Willow now turns to Gus and nods at him once. He draws a circle in the air and white clouds appear around Luz, covering her completely for a moment, but dissipating just as quickly.
"She doesn't look any different", Skara notes.
"Not to us, that's right. To everyone else, Luz looks like a demon from the abomination track", Gus explains, "I didn't really see the need to hide her from us."
"Good thinking, Gus", Willow compliments him, whereupon he smiles happily.
Luz looks down at herself, trying to see what has changed.
"Um, Gus... What do I actually look like right now?"
"Oh, hold on a second…", Gus said, creating another illusion mirroring Luz immediately in front of her. A red demon now stands in front of her. Her legs are distantly reminiscent of goat legs. Her facial shape is largely unchanged, although a pair of small white horns have appeared on her head. As for her ears, only one can be seen, but it is pointed, characteristic of witches, but with a small dent in it. The fact that her other ear is covered is due to the shoulder-length dark brown hair that covers it, while the other side is shaved extremely short to just above the ear. A purple dyed strand as an accent rounds up the look even more.
"Wowser...", Luz is astonished, "I didn't think a side cut would look so good on me..."
The group leaves the Owl House and gets ready to fly to Hexside. Hooty is apparently still busy looking for bugs, as he has still stretched out into the forest adjacent to the house.
Everyone climbs onto their staffs and takes off, while Luz has yet to climb onto Amity's staff and then follow along the others.
'Why does this feel so strange? In the past, when I was flying with Eda, it wasn't so much differ-'
Luz's inner monologue is interrupted as Amity begins to speak, "Say Luz, this box, do you have any idea how it got here to the demon realm?"
"It... it's quite possible that the box never crossed the border between the realms."
"What do you mean?", Amity asks, confused.
"I'd have to elaborate a bit for that. Um, when I was in Amphibia, I broke into King Andrias' palace with Maddie because we had been looking in the royal library for ways for me to get back here."
"Yes, you had mentioned that already"
"I know. But what I hadn't told you before, is that I had discovered a certain book series there that we both know pretty well", Luz teases.
"There was also the 'The Good Witch Azura' series there? How?", she asks somewhat shocked.
"Maddie called that a... a... Oh dang, what was it called again? ... Oh yeah, an interdimensional constant. Kind of like an identical object or person existing simultaneously in multiple dimensions, completely unaware of the other’s very existence. That was the case with 'The Good Witch Azura' and I think it's the same here.", Luz explains.
"That makes a fair amount of sense. I mean, it's probably pretty impossible to prove such a theory when no one has been able to cross the border between realms yet. But, let's say the box was made by a witch here somewhere at some point, how did the motif come about. I mean, these things that are depicted on it do not exist here".
"I mean, I'm the first human ever to come to the Isles.... At least I think so", Luz said with a slight insecurity within her voice.
"As far as I know, you're the first human here. Do you have any doubts about that?"
"I'm not sure... I can't shake the feeling that it's not true. But I can't prove it.", Luz says thoughtfully.
"Maybe the Titan told you something and the memory is still somewhere in your head."
"It's possible", Luz says, still deep in thought.
"Listen, I have an idea: what do you say we do some research soon? Maybe we'll find out something about other humans here...", Amity suggests.
"You know, I've done almost nothing but research for the last month...", Luz begins.
"Oh...", Amity says with a slightly disappointed tone before Luz continues, "...but I'd love to spend some time with you", and the red color shoots back into Amity's face.
"Me too", Amity squeaks again in a high-pitched voice.
After just a few more minutes, Amity and Luz arrive at Hexside's front area. Willow and Gus are already waiting there.
"Hey guys... Where's Skara?", Luz asks as she dismounts of Amity's staff.
"She already ran to the locker room to see if all our clothes are still there and weren't stolen during the storm. Besides, her first class starts earlier than ours today", Willow says.
"Urgh, you're right...", Luz moans, "Bardology always starts earlier than the rest. I definitely didn't miss THAT, but luckily, I don't have that course until next week", Luz chuckles mischievously.
"Yes, the tough life of bards.... Anyway, Gus and I should get going now too. Skara had just texted me that our stuff is in the lost and found. I'll see you later."
Just as she spoke, Willow ran off with Gus, getting progressively quieter as she went. Shortly after, Luz and Amity also went together to the main entrance, before they were stopped by two quite unexpected witches blocking the way.
"Heeey Mittens…", It's Edric and Emira who appeared seemingly almost out of nowhere. Amity figured this would happen at some point today.
"Such a huge storm and our little baby sister completely forgot to check in with us to see how she was doing. We were soo worried about her...", Edric said in his typical playful, slightly sarcastic tone.
"And you promised to help me out for my date...", Emira complained in the same tone.
"I was... busy. And seriously? A date during that storm?"
"Busy?", Emira asked just before her gaze fell on the demon next to her little sister.
"And who's your new illusion friend?", Edric teased.
"How do you know?", Amity asked without thinking, "I mean, n-no one."
"No one? I see. Then I'm sure it won't be a problem if I do THAT."
Emira places her hand on the demon's shoulder and the illusion evaporates. In its place now stands a human girl, saying "Hey guys" somewhat awkwardly as the twins blink a few times in disbelief.
"Good job Luz, you broke them", Amity says with a satisfied look on her face while Luz chuckles. Not long after, Luz finds herself in a bone-crushing hug.
"It's so good to have you back, girl."
"Yeah, we probably missed you even more than little Mittens over there."
As the hug breaks again and Luz is able to breathe once again, she says "I missed you guys too"
"So... Where have you been? What happened? How come you never called? Did Amity already tell you-"
"HEY, don't press her like that!" she interrupts her brother, knowing exactly what he was about to ask her.
Luz chuckles, "It's okay, Amity. Guys, if you don't mind, I'd like to just have a normal day today. Like, totally without interviews, no interrogations, no stress.... I just want to experience some normality. I'll tell you about it another day, okay?"
"I'll get back to you on that, sister.", Emira says to Luz with a wink as she and Edric let the two girls through into the school.
But the two girls have barely passed the main entrance when Luz suddenly stops again. She takes one deep, slow breath
"I know I'm already repeating myself, but you have no idea how much I missed this. Those smells that burn your nose if you breathe them in too much, the lockers you have to scratch to open.... I just realized I still need my books. Professor Pruda doesn't like it when you don't have all the materials in every class."
And so, the two girls, chatting casually, walked on to their lockers, which fortunately were quite close to each other. However, the relaxed mood was quickly interrupted when Luz suddenly noticed someone standing behind her.
"Principal Bump", Amity greets the person behind Luz. She looks up and sees a scowling Bump, who returns her gaze.
"My office. Now!"
Luz swallows hard and waves goodbye to Amity, who waves back with a concerned look and silently mouthing 'Good luck'.
The walk to his office is spent in utter silence by the two of them, which allows Luz plenty of time to assess her current situation entirely objective and with a neutral perspective.
'Oh no no no. This can't be... After all, I've just got here.... Bump isn't going to hand me over to Belos, right? He promised me that nothing would happen to me in here, that I would be safe here. Right?'
Her heart beat is rising.
'I can see it right in front of me: Guards from the Emperor's Coven, are already waiting for me in his office, and they're going to grab me and throw me into the Conformatorium. And I am walking directly into that trap. Why am I doing this? Legs, stop moving! Or at least turn around and run away!'
However, it's already too late for that at this point, because they've arrived at his office. Principal Bump opens the door and Luz cannot see anyone wearing a uniform. In fact, she doesn't see anyone in there. It's empty.
'Okay, no guards... Wait, maybe they' re invisible.'
Luz and Principal Bump enter his office, and he shuts the door behind him, before gesturing Luz to sit down, before sitting down on the other side of the desk on his own fancier chair himself. He takes off his scowling expression replacing it with a concerned look.
He sighs, "Luz... Why are you back?"
"I... I'm afraid I don't understand…", Luz says in response to this rather unexpected statement.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad you're alright. We were assuming the worst at the time after you disappeared"
"You... are referring to the Wanted posters, aren't you?"
He nods slightly.
"Luz, your presence here puts me in a difficult position..."
"Please, Principal Bump, please don't turn me in. I haven't done anything wrong-" she panicked.
"Luz, please calm down. I'm not going to turn you in. If you remember, I promised you that Hexside would be a safe place for you and so Titan help me, I won't let anything happen to any of my students under my supervision"
"Um, about that... Do you know that a few days ago Amity, Willow, Gus, Skara, Viney and I were kidnapped by members of the Emperor’s Coven and later by the head of the Abomination Coven?"
"Yes. I was contacted by coven head Darius and he had assured me that the kidnapping was an act of individuals and would not have been related to the covens."
"... And what about the crashed ship? He was going to deliver us to Emperor Belos"
"Oh no, that was apparently a misunderstanding. He was going to take you back to Hexside when the engine failed, forcing the ship to make an emergency landing"
"Oukay, well I'll take that as it is. And if you're not going to hand me over, which I'm very happy about by the way, why am I here then?"
"I'm concerned about your safety. While I am convinced you have done nothing wrong, others may feel differently. I would like to discuss with you ways in which you can continue to maintain your status here as a student without compromising your safety."
Luz ponders for a while until a light dawns on her
"Amity had told me before we flew here that I was only allowed to go outside with an illusion. Maybe we could do that here between classes as well"
"That's... actually a good idea..."
"The problem is that the illusion dissolves as soon as someone touches me."
"Am I right in thinking that Augustus has taken care of the illusion?"
"Yup"
" That boy is truly talented.... But I think you'd need another option" Principal Bump says as he gets up from his seat, walks over to a cabinet by the window and rummages around in a drawer before pulling out a dull crystal. He walks back to Luz and shows it to her. "This is an unprocessed concealment stone. A rare relic that can cloak its user in a solid, undetectable illusion"
"Cool", Luz comments with wide eyes.
"But before I hand it to you, it has to be processed. Usually, it's incorporated into jewelry so it's less noticeable. So now this question: what do you want it to look like later?"
"Whew... I think a bracelet wouldn't be bad."
"So be it-" Bump replies, just before Luz interrupts him.
"But before you do anything, would it be possible to make a few additional adjustments?"
"Certainly. What do you have in mind?"
"It would be nice if my friends could see me- as the real me, even when I'm wearing the stone. Gus had also managed to build in exceptions for the illusion"
"That shouldn't be a problem, just will take a little more time."
"Yay, thank you thank you. You're the best, Principal Bump.", Luz jumps up from her chair and is practically dancing around the room already, which puts a smile on Bump's face.
"You're welcome. I'm going to assume that the stone will be ready after class. So, I suggest you stick with Augustus until then".
And so, Luz, happily dancing, left the office and runs to her first class for the day, because officially, class has already started.
The first class of the day is 'History of the Boiling Isles' along with Gus and Willow with Professor Pruda. Fortunately, he is not yet there when Luz enters the room and therefore goes unbothered to her seat. Meanwhile, while Luz was in Bump's office, Willow and Gus had found time to change into their school uniforms. Luz had briefly wondered why Skara wasn't sitting at the bench behind them, until she remembered that she only has this class with her every other week. Who is there anyway, though, is a truly lovely girl with pink hair and three eyes sitting right behind Luz.
"Well, well, well... look who's here again.... I was really hoping you were gone for good."
Luz rolls her eyes and Willow is about to turn around to confront her, before Luz stops her.
"Hello Boscha", Luz says coldly.
"Been hiding in your oh-so-awesome owl house for the past month when that owl lady got turned to stone, haven't you?"
By now Boscha has caught the attention of the rest of the class as Luz hears a collective gasp while she herself stares blankly into Boscha's eyes. After a long exchange of stares, Luz begins to talk.
"You know, Boscha... While I was away, I missed pretty much everyone here. Even you. So, thanks for reminding me why you're a bad person."
But before Boscha can respond to that, Luz adds on, "However, when I was trapped in that other world, I had actually met someone who was even worse than you. Her name is Sasha. She killed the adoptive grandfather of her childhood best friend and was almost killed by herself in return"
"Tsk... Is that supposed to impress me?"
"No. But maybe it will help you realize who you better not piss off in the future."
Both Willow and Gus look back and forth between Luz and Boscha with great interest, as Boscha actually seems to be speechless for once. When Professor Pruda enters the room shortly afterwards, all that can be heard from Boscha is "Whatever" and the rest of the class proceeds without any incidents.
This double period is now followed by 'Advanced Healing' with Mr. Hektaria. She took this course together with Viney, who is quite surprised to see the human girl. The two girls are bringing each other up to date on the latest developments. Viney had apologized for not being there when Luz woke up. She had wanted to prepare for a date, which ultimately fell through because of the storm. Although she wouldn't reveal who Viney was going out with, it dawned on Luz in the back of her mind after her earlier conversation with Amity, who it might be. However, she keeps it to herself so she doesn't want to pressure her friend. This was immediately followed by the topic that had been on Viney's mind the most for the past few days: what happened to Luz. Luz only tells her that when she was away, she got physically changed. She tells her about her second heart, but she does not reveal where these changes came from. Viney is not thrilled about this, but after what happened a few days ago, she can accept it.
And just like that, the class was over. The two girls were so absorbed in their conversation that they didn't notice anything about the class itself. The next class was by far Luz's favorite class. 'Abominations' with Professor Hermonculus. And with Amity.
Okay, granted, her performance, since she can't do magic without proper glyphs, isn't the best, but just having Amity there is enough to make it a highlight of her day.
Shortly after Luz entered the room, Amity came running towards her.
"Luz!" cried Amity in relief, "What happened? What did he want from you?"
"Calm down. Nothing happened. He just wanted to talk to me about my safety here. And we came up with a great solution", Luz said with a smile.
"What is it?", Amity asks curiously before Luz looks mysteriously left and right before whispering something in Amity's ear.
"I'm getting a concealment stone."
"Convenient" Amity comments after there's a little more distance between her and Luz again, "I think my mom has one too. Ed and Em do, too. They're pretty rare and apparently quite expensive"
"Had told me that too. I could pick it up after class. And as for the lunch break soon, Gus will take care of my.... Disguise"
And eventually this class came to an end as well. Luz had already used the time to try to remember her illusion glyph experiments from Amphibia, that is until Gus shows up at the abomination classroom together with Willow. He restores Luz' former illusion and the group heads to the cafeteria for their lunch break. For the entire time, Gus and Luz had an extremely energetic exchange about illusions and the various concepts behind them, while Willow and Amity just talked to each other at first, but were later joined by Skara, which caused a few angry looks from Boscha. When the break ended as well, the group split up. Willow and Skara went to their 'Advanced Runes' class together, Luz and Gus also headed to their 'Illusions' class, and Amity actually now officially had no more classes for the day. However, she still wanted to spend the lunch break together with her friends.
In the last class of the day, Luz and Gus had been sitting at the other end of the classroom from the beginning of the class, putting forward wild theories and actually just expanding on their theories from the lunch break. The fact that Luz was back in class at all was not particularly noted by the teacher or the other students.
"Luz. Augustus..."
The teacher, Professor Ilora, stood just in front of Luz and Gus's desks shortly after class began and looked down at them disapprovingly. The animated discussion died down instantly, and it was only then that they realized that the whole class was looking at them.
"Yes, P-Professor?", Gus stuttered, suddenly feeling ashamed.
"I think it's very nice that you two are having so much fun right now, but it would do you better to pay attention to the class."
"I am sorry, Professor", Luz began, similarly ashamed, "The thing is, while I was away, I found a possible way to create illusions with glyphs. Okay, so far it's just basic stuff, but Gus here wanted to help me develop that further."
Professor Ilora's stern look is replaced with surprise after Luz's explanation, "That's.... impressive. I'd be interested to know how much progress you've made"
"Well, Gus is taking me through the theoretical basics of light manipulation and scalability right now.", Luz explains, after which Professor Ilora gets a little lost in thought.
"You know, this definitely has the potential for an exciting and far-reaching collaborative project. If you two can actually pull this off, it's actually worth some bonus points to me", Luz and Gus can barely contain their excitement, "But.... I'd like to ask you to listen to my class anyway, even if you continue working on your project. And keep your voices down", and so, winking, she went back to the front to continue the class.
When this class eventually ended, Luz and Gus were completely unaware of it. Only when a familiar voice spoke, Luz snapped out of her thoughts.
"Luz, Gus? You're still here?"
"Amity? Wait a minute, where is everyone?", Luz asked, startled.
"Class ended twenty minutes ago", Amity explains, to which Gus nudges Luz with his elbow, "I told you illusions were... immersive", to which Luz groans.
"That was the worst pun I've ever heard. I'm so proud", Luz says before eventually turning back to Amity, "What are you still doing here anyway? Didn't class end for you an hour ago?"
"Um, yeah actually it did.... Buuut Professor Hermonculus wanted to talk to me about... stuff", Amity lied, which her two friends didn't seem to notice. In reality, Amity sat on the stairs in front of the school for more than the last hour, waiting for the last classes to end. When after a while the person she was waiting for didn't come, she made her way to the Illusion classroom.
Luz and Gus pack up their stuff and leave the room along with Amity.
"Pendejo!", Luz yelled out urgently, startling Gus and Amity in the process, "I totally forgot that Principal Bump is waiting for me."
"Oh yeah, that's right. The Concealment stone…", Amity recalls as the group makes their way to Bump's office together.
"Concealment stone? What do you need that fo-" Gus was about to ask before smacking his forehead, "Nevermind... Forget that I asked"
"Principal Bump had offered it to me, that I could move anywhere freely and without being recognized", Luz recounts.
"But I thought they would just cover little things. And not create a complete fully enveloping illusion", Gus notes, slightly confused. While Luz is not really in a position to make an adequate point, Amity speaks up.
"Yes and no. In my family, these stones are very widely in use. The function of a concealment stone depends on how it is made. The ones you can buy are usually pretreated. An untreated stone, can be specifically customized to a person and their needs."
"Huh, interesting... Do you have one too?", Gus asked further.
"A concealment stone? Yes. My mom commissioned one for me once, but I never used it. I don't even know where it is either", Amity shares.
It's rather convenient that, at this exact moment, they arrive at Principal Bump's office. Luz knocks on the door and almost without delay he opens it.
"Uh, Luz. Good timing... Please, come right in."
Principal Bump steps aside and invites Luz into his office with an inviting gesture of his hand. However, Luz turns to her friends before doing so.
"You guys want to join me?"
"Nah, sorry. I haven't seen my dad in days. I should head home", Gus says.
"That's okay, buddy", Luz tries to comfort him, "I'll see you next week then. And what about you Amity?"
"Sure, happy to join", Amity replies. Luz and Gus say a quick goodbye before Luz and Amity enter Bump's office.
"Luz, your bracelet just arrived", Bump says, standing with his back to the girls. He turns around and holds a golden bracelet in his hand. Oddly enough, he is now wearing a glove as well.
"Principal Bump, one question: what do you need the glove for? The bracelet isn't dangerous, is it?", Amity asks skeptically.
"Oh, no, not at all. This is a safety precaution to avoid damaging the bracelet's identification layer. If I were to touch it without a glove at this point, the layer that ensures the bracelet would only work exclusively for Luz, would be destroyed, or worse, the projected illusion could get out of control."
"You seem to know quite a lot about that", Luz observes.
"Jewelry fabrication is a craft that my family has practiced for generations. My mother was a jeweler, as was her father and his father. My mother also wanted me to go into the family business, but even though I learned the craft, I knew it wasn't for me", Bump recounts nostalgically.
"So, your mother is the last jeweler in your family?", Luz follows up.
"Hmm? Oh, no. I have a couple of siblings who carry on the business. But let's get back on topic. Luz, please put the bracelet on and we can see if everything is working so far", Bump says, handing Luz the bracelet. It is made entirely of gold, the rim is set with various magical gems, and in the center is the large Concealment Stone embedded in the metal.
Immediately after Luz puts on the bracelet, a few illusion clouds burst into existence, vanishing just as quickly as they appeared.
"Hmm? I don't see anything. Luz looks the same as before...", Amity observes.
"Remarkable. Everything is working fine, absolutely perfect", Bump says satisfied. At Amity's visibly confused look, Bump adds, "Luz here had requested for an exception to be made for her friends regarding the illusion."
She looks incredulously at Luz, who nods in agreement and she says with a soft voice, "Thank you", to Luz.
Luz smiles and then turns back to Principal Bump.
"How exactly do I actually look right now?", Luz asks curiously, "I mean, Gus had turned me into a red demon-"
"And that's exactly what's applying right now. Augustus was actually briefly involved in making the illusion", Bump recounts.
"Uhh, that sneaky little... Thank you so much, Principal Bump. I don't know how I can ever repay you...", Luz expresses filled with gratitude.
"It would be enough for me if you don't use the stone to commit any crimes and continue to remain a student here", Bump replies pleased.
"Thank you very much again. You will not regret this", Luz said before she and Amity leave his office again, as well as eventually Hexside itself.
"You know, I actually just wanted to have a completely normal day today. Completely without stress, bad thoughts and so on. But if I'm being honest, today was absolutely fantastic", Luz said as she happily spun in circles several times at the bottom of the stairs outside the main entrance, which in turn made Amity crack a smile.
"Luz, um...", Amity started to say quietly. Unfortunately, too quiet for Luz to hear.
"You know what we should do later? I'm in a great mood to cook right now. I'll make us some Locrio á la Luz later-"
"I'm not coming", Amity said much louder now, and then looked down sadly. "That sounds perfectly fantastic, but I have to go back home today. Ed and Em had been covering for me for the past few days, but officially I'm still grounded."
"Oh...", Luz speaks dejectedly, "I.... I see."
"Really?", Amity follows up.
"Yeah, yeah sure. If you came with me now, your parents would probably punish you even more", Luz tries to comfort Amity.
"That too... But the thing is actually, my house arrest only lasts until today, and I should be home at least for at least today. Because tomorrow I have something planned"
"And what's that?"
"Tomorrow is the so-called Bonesborough Brawl and I'm going to participate. It's kind of like an underground combat tournament. My dad used to participate in it and won the champion belt. I want to do that too", Amity tells, filled with confidence.
"That sounds fun...", Luz comments.
"And that's exactly why... um... I would be happy if- if you would... escort me.... um... accompany me", Amity stutters.
"But of course.", Luz says excitedly.
"Really?", Amity asks with even more excitement.
"Of course. I'll be your personal cheerleader.", Luz exclaims and Amity's happiness continues to rise steadily until....
"After all, that's what friends are for"
Amity's expression freezes completely for a few moments and her excitement is now replaced by disillusionment. Disillusionment she doesn't want Luz to notice.
"Yeah right. As friends... Um... I should get going then. I... pick you up tomorrow..."
Amity wanted to wave goodbye to Luz before finding herself in a hug. She took one deep breath and the hug dissolved again. Luz, whose enthusiasm and excitement are still unchanged, jumps up and down in joy.
"Oh my god, my first underground fighting tournament.... And the illusion still holds as well... This is going to be so awesome... I'm really excited for tomorrow."
"Yeah... See you tomorrow", Amity said and now both girls are walking separate ways.
'Uhh, this is going to be absolutely fantastic. I'd have to go through my clothes. Maybe I'll find a cheerleading uniform. Although, wait... Should I really go there as myself? Without the illusion, everyone will recognize me... Everyone except Amity, because she can't see the illusion... I can only wear the outfit for... for... for her...'
Luz stops dead in her tracks as she thinks a little harder about what she just thought. Startled, she tears her eyes open and yells, "LUZ! YOU FOOL!", turning on the spot and running as fast as she can in the opposite direction.
She runs for quite a while until a certain witch with cotton candy colored hair comes into view.
"Amity! Amity, wait!", Luz shouts, which attracts the attention of said witch.
"Luz? What's wrong?", Amity asks when Luz arrives and leans on her knees, breathing heavily.
"It's been... a really... really long time... since I've run... this much... at a stretch..."
And in fact, Luz was already almost a kilometer away from Hexside when she had just that sudden thought flash. Luz needs a few minutes to take a full breath to recover from the sprint. Amity had also offered her some water in the meantime.
"Amity... What I wanted to tell you...", Luz started sputtering.
"Yes?", Amity asked expectantly.
"I... I had changed my mind."
"You... Oh... You don't want to come with me?", Amity asked heartbroken.
"I do, but... Not as friends..."
Suddenly Amity listens up and her heartbeat increases, "A-as what, then, instead?"
"Um... I... It... Oh boy, I didn't think it would be this hard...", Luz stutters with nervousness, "I.... was hoping I... I could go with you.... as your... your date?"
Amity merely stares at Luz with open eyes and jar dropped, who in turn merely holds the back of her own neck nervously.
"S-So, what do you say?", Luz asks in anticipation.
"YES! YES! YES! A thousand times YES!", Amity excitement now knows no limits and Luz is filled with immense relief as well. And now Luz is the one who is surprised by a big warm hug. The two girls spin around each other laughing until they lose their balance and fall side by side on the soft floor.
After several minutes of pure joy, Amity asks, "Where has this sudden change of mind come from, anyway?"
"Well... on the way to Owl House I had been thinking a bit and... um... you... I couldn't get you out of my mind. But then I remembered Amphibia and how much Anne and Marcy adored each other and how oblivious they both were, and then I kept thinking about... well... us and just put one and one together".
Luz is a bit embarrassed as she recounts the earlier events, but Amity listens intently with a smile on her face to every word that comes out of her mouth.
"You know... When you were away... I was not well. And I swore that if you came back, that I would ask you out...", Amity tells, while Luz looks at her with big eyes, "And then you came back, back to me.... But you were so... broken. I couldn't... But then instead I wanted to be there for you as best I could."
Amity looks up at Luz again and recognizes a few tears in her eyes. But before she could say anything, she found herself once again in a bone-crushing hug.
"Thank you", Luz whispers.
The two girls stayed in this position for a while before Amity eventually said she had to go home. So, the two girls went their separate ways again, convinced that tomorrow they would have the best day of their lives.
Notes:
I have to admit, I originally planned to end the chapter at "After all, that's what friends are for" as another cliffhangar. But i think, the one i did end up with is a lot better
<3
Chapter 25: The First of Many?
Summary:
It's just Luz' and Amitys first date. What could go wrong?
Notes:
You have no idea how happy I am to finally have this 15.5k word XL chapter finished. Right now it's almost nine in the morning and I've been writing for the last 16 hours straight.
With that said: Have fun reading
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Only a few moments have passed after Amity and Luz have said their goodbyes for the day and both set off on their respective ways home, Amity stops again, turns around, and watches as the human girl who has turned her life completely upside down gradually disappearing into the horizon. Even though she eventually could no longer see Luz, she still stood rooted to the spot, wrinkles forming around her eyes, because she can't stop smiling so much.
At some point, however, she turns around anyway, since she is expected to arrive at Blight Manor in time. Nevertheless, the way to the manor is still long enough for Amity, in the midst of lush trees, bushes and grasses, to think about the somewhat surreal event that happened earlier. Although 'thinking' is probably a bit of an exaggeration at the moment. Amity's brain is free of clear thoughts, filled only with squeals of happiness and excitement.
In fact, Amity was so caught up in it that she didn't realize she had been walking for twenty minutes and was already at the front door of Blight Manor. She summons her scroll.
'Okay, good. I am not late yet. I think so, at least...'
The term 'on time' has never been officially declared by any of her parents. It's usually a game of being lucky or not to guess the correct time. Amity opens the door and enters the antechamber of the manor, a comparatively small room compared to the rest, which so far is actually only used as a wardrobe for guests whenever her mother has invited some people or is hosting yet another big gala, to which she has always forced Amity to attend.
The room itself is not particularly furnished in a major way. Besides the dozens of coat hooks, there is a rather large portrait of her parents hanging on the opposite wall, and on the floor lies a very large and very old carpet, without a particularly striking pattern.
'It's so peaceful in here... Perhaps nobody's home yet', Amity thought to herself as she walked through from the antechamber into the large living room. The living room is sort of divided into three parts: the living area itself covers most of it. Several fancy rugs on the floor, couches and sofas arranged in a semicircle around a brick fireplace, in front of which, a safe distance away, is a classy, low wooden table. And hanging right above the fireplace is one of the many family portraits distributed throughout the manor. On the rest of the walls are hanging several more, fairly expensive paintings, portraits and so on.
The next part of the room is actually just a passage separated from the rest only by the backs of two couches. The last part consists of a rounded elevated walkway leading to Amity's and the twins' rooms, separated from the rest of the living room only by a wooden railing.
And just from that exact direction Amity now hears voices, one of the doors opens and Edric and Emira come out of his room, having a lively discussion about.... something, when they noticed their younger sister on the way to her room at the end of the walkway.
"Heey Mittens", Edric teases as he always does, right before Emira gasps in shock and stares at her younger sister.
"What?", Amity asks, pretending to be annoyed. She doesn't want her siblings to notice how in a really good mood she actually is right now.
"E-Ed, are you seeing what I'm seeing?", Emira whispers loud enough to her brother that Amity can easily hear it too. Edric squints his eyes as he examines Amity as well.
"Oh, yeah, you're right. But I don't believe it...", he whispers back.
"Ugh, cut it out guys.", Amity said as she walked past her siblings while they themselves just smirked at each other.
"Okay, Mittens...", Edric said before Emira continues.
"...But I think you'll really appreciate our help when you go on your date with Luz..."
Instantly, Amity stops dead in her tracks and turning around, with her face gone pale.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? ... I mean... N-no"
"Oh, little sister... There's no point in denying it. Your ears have given you away. I recognize those fwip-fwips instantly", Emira teases, to which Amity immediately slaps her hands over her ears. Giggling briefly, Emira continues, "Oh, Amity, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I am seriously happy for you. But now: I want to know everything"
'Do I really want to involve my annoying siblings in my date with Luz?', Amity considers for a moment, but growls softly as she does so, 'I don't think they'll ever leave me alone otherwise.'
She sighs, "Okay. Come on in."
Grinning, the two twins give each other a fist bump as they follow Amity into her room. Her room is the last one in the corridor. Edric and Emira have the two previous rooms with Emira, being the oldest sibling has the first and Edric having the room in the middle. The twins used to share one big room until they started a month-long discussion with their mother about privacy and things like that, many years ago.
The three of them enter Amity's room and Amity sits down on her bed. Her two siblings join her to her right and left. Now that she is in a 'safer' environment, her smile gradually returns. The twitching of her ears, however, is still there.
"So... You've been away for the last three days, all of a sudden Luz shows up back at Hexside with you, and now the two of you are dating...", Emira summarizes.
"Hmm, yeah... Apparently, she appeared again at Hexside, right after the club fair", Amity tells them.
"Apparently?", Edric follows up.
"Well, I wasn't actually around. Later that evening, Willow, Augustus, Skara, and Viney showed up at the Owl House with Luz in their arms. She was unconscious and wearing only pyjamas", Amity continued.
"So that's what she meant when she texted me that something had happened...", Emira thought aloud and Amity immediately turned her gaze to her sister.
She gasps, "Oh my gosh.... You're dating Viney!", whereupon Emira is blushiest Amity has ever seen her.
"So so so... The beast taming healer.... I can see why you wanted to keep that to yourself", Edric teases.
"Ed, shut up! It's not about me right now", Emira tries to take the focus off herself again.
"Alright... Oh boi, I'm going to have soo much fun soon, I'm telling you." Edric was already starting to make plans, while Emira and Amity went back to the initial topic.
"Okay, so she was at the Owl House now.... and then?", Emira asks, still slightly blushing.
"It had taken a while for her to wake up. When the storm hit us, I went off with her as she wanted to see the Owl Lady. She was really miserable and as Luz is, she had tried to hide it. I also have to admit, I really didn't expect her to ask me out. I had thought she wasn't ready yet- Em, why are you grinning like that?"
"Ed, you- Ed? Ed!"
"Huh?", Edric asked, completely lost in thought.
"You owe me forty snails", Emira demands, full of pride, while Amity just blinked in confusion.
"Seriously? Oh man, I really thought.... Well, never mind. Here."
Edric handed Emira the demanded amount and Amity seemed to understand what it was all about.
"You were betting on us?", she asks presumptuously, "Why am I actually surprised...? How long has this been going on?"
"Um... Say Ed, when was the time we were in the library with Luz during the wailing star?", Emira asks her brother. Angrily, Amity gets up from her bed.
"Out!"
"But-"
"I said: GET OUT!", Amity firmly urged her siblings. Oh, and with a fireball in her hand, whereupon they both quickly left her room.
'Wanted to help me, my ass', Amity thought to herself as she dropped eye-rolling back onto her bed. Shortly after, Ghost comes to her and snuggles down next to her head, purring. Amity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she summons her scroll opening Penstagram.
HELLO_WILLOW
Willow, I need your help
What happened? More stress with your parents? ^^
Luz asked me out on a date
O.O
Although tbh, I was actually expecting that to happen at some point. Just a bit later...
Please don't tell me that you were part of the bet of my siblings as well
Okay
Willow!
What? You told me not to tell you ;)
*sigh*
Okay, okay. What do you want me to help you with?
I had asked Luz to accompany me to the Bonesborough Brawl and she had later asked me if we should make it a date. However, I am in fact fighting most of the time. That doesn't seem very date-y to me.
Yeah, I think I see the problem.
So, can you help me out?
Possibly... Not right now, though. My dads would like to spend some family time with me. But I would get back to you later....
Thanks Willow. You are a gem
I know ;)
Amity lets her legs dangle off her bed as she lays her scroll down next to her, just staring at the ceiling.
"Meow."
Amity frowns, "Skara? I don't know."
"Meow"
"Yeah right. But Grom is not comparable to this. Besides, Skara and Brad had only spent about an hour together until Luz had then engaged Grom"
"Meow", Ghost growled.
"Fine... You're lucky you're so cute", Amity finally conceded defeat, ruffling Ghost's belly before taking her scroll back in her hands. Ghost purrs contentedly.
E MERALD_BANSHEE
Heeey Skara...
What's up, Ams?
I could maybe use some dating tips
...
From me? o.o
Well, you are the only one of my friends who actually has dating experience
U sure?
Well, it's either Willow, Augustus or you. I already asked Willow, but she currently made other plans as for now, Augustus is still a child and probably doesn't even know what he might be interested in.
Then that just leaves you. And I know you were with Brad last Grom. So, you're the one with the most experience.
And you can't ask Luz because she's the one you're going out with.... I don't know. I barely know Luz
That in itself is not the problem
It isn't?
No. We're going to the Bonesborough Brawl together tomorrow, but since I'm actually actively participating, it doesn't really feel date-y to me.
Ahh, now I get it... I think I can help you. Wait, I'll call you on your crystal ball
This conversation with Skara lasts nearly two hours before Willow also checks in with Amity once more, and also the two ended up chatting for a little over an hour. In summary, they came up with some pretty good ideas for her date with Luz. However, Amity hadn't thought about two things yet: Her outfit and her pseudonym.
The thing about Brawl is that not many of the contestants compete using their real names, with one exception being last year's winner, in this case Warden Wrath. Even though she hasn't decided on a pseudonym yet, she has picked out several outfits to choose between, laying down on her bed.
The first outfit consists only of a pink dress. Light at the top, a little darker at the bottom and with white ruffles at the end. In addition, a thick, black bracelet.
The second outfit is already slightly more extensive, consisting of a dark purple jacket with a gold pin as an accessory, underneath a lavender shirt and a short dark blue skirt, under which she wears black leggings.
The third of the three outfits is both simple and fancy at the same time. In general, it consists as her favorite black dress, from which, however, she would remove parts of the sleeves, so that her shoulders are visible freely, as well as her arms starting from the ulna. In addition, a simple cyan leather belt around her waist, a bracelet and a crescent moon shaped amulet as a necklace. The outfit would be completed with gray leggings.
Amity looks thoughtfully back and forth between the three outfits and tends not to be one hundred percent satisfied with any of them. Another hurdle is that she has to have enough mobility in the outfit to be able to fight with it.
'I like the pink dress, but it's way too long and too heavy. And with the ruffles, I could get caught everywhere.... Although, while I'm at it, the dark blue skirt is definitely coming off too. Same problem. And it doesn't work with my hair.... I think the black dress would be really the best option... Although-'
A knock on her room door snaps her out of her thoughts.
"Amity? May I come in?"
"What do you want, Emira?", Amity asks with an annoyed tone before her older sister enters the room.
"I just want-"
"I didn't say you could come in...", Amity notes. Emira, on the other hand, just shrugs.
"Well, I'm already here now."
Amity sighs, "Fine. I hope you're here to apologize."
"Um, no. I stand by the bet."
Amity grumbles.
"Alright, you don't need your head to pop right off", Emira jokes as she gets a look from her sister that's not just annoyed anymore, but almost angry. "I have something for you", she adds, pulling out two stones from her pocket, piquing Amity's curiosity. However, when she realizes what exactly it is, her curiosity turns to confusion.
"Concealment stones? What for? And why two?"
"One is from me. I stole the other one from Ed...", Emira calmly tells her, "I had said I would help and I do. So please, take them. And hold them against another."
Amity does so and an illusion cloud appears around Amity. As soon as it disappears again, she is wearing a whole different outfit. Positively surprised, Amity looks down at herself.
"Ed and I figured out that trick a while ago. I kinda thought you'd have trouble finding a suitable outfit for your date tomorrow. I mean, I know your closet."
Amity finds herself in a generally dark knee-length dress. It's part dark gray, part velvet. The pattern of the dress is remotely reminiscent of an abomination, which can also be seen on the two very short puff sleeves that end at half-length to her elbows. In addition to the dress, she now wears dark gray pants and, matching the dress, her fingernails are alternately colored in dark gray. As an additional accessory she wears purple glasses, with slightly pink lenses. The concealment stones themselves have turned into golden earrings, each set with a diamond.
"Wow... Em, thank you…", Amity said gratefully
"You're welcome. After all, I want you to have a great day tomorrow. Aaand as a reminder, Viney and I have postponed our date until next weekend."
"Yeah yeah, alright. I will help you as best I can then"
"Perfect." said Emira, who was about to leave Amity's room again, "Your girlfriend is also welcome to help if she wants to."
"Luz is not-"
But before she could complete the sentence, the door was already closed, although not for very long.
Whilst Amity stands in front of a mirror to admire her new outfit in its entirety as her mother Odalia suddenly storms into her room.
"M-mother... You're home", Amity stuttered, startled.
"Your ability to describe the obvious is getting stale.... What are you wearing? I don't remember seeing this dress before", Odalia commented in a rather reproachful tone.
"Emira had shown me a trick involving concealment stones", Amity explains as she removed the earrings from her ears and her school uniform reappeared. Odalia strikes a pensive pose and Amity puts the stones back on.
"It looks... appropriate", Odalia remarks without any visible emotion.
'Of course, she's not able to give a proper compliment.... As always'
"Thank you, Mother", Amity says, hoping her mother didn't catch the eye roll.
"I have just stopped by to officially un-ground you. I hope you have learned your lesson...", Odalia expectantly stated.
"Yes, mother", Amity lied. Honestly, Amity doesn't even remember what exactly she got grounded for. It could be changing her hair color away from green, letting Hooty loose on the Manor, deciding not wanting to join the Emperor's Coven anymore...
"Very well. Now, come down to the living room in a moment. I have an important announcement to make", Odalia demanded before leaving Amity's room again without any further comment.
Knowing that her mother doesn't like to wait unnecessarily long, Amity changed from her school uniform into her everyday outfit and went down to the living room where the rest of the family was already waiting.
"Finally…", Odalia annoyedly comments, as Amity sat down next to her sister on one of the couches. On the other side next to Emira sits Edric and next to him their father Alador, who interestingly also has no idea what this is all about.
"I have gathered you here because I have a big announcement to make: Blight Industries will be expanding, very soon. For the large orders of Abomatons that have come in lately, I had applied for a building permit for a new factory at the knee, which was granted today. The construction should be completed in one month from now, at the very latest."
Silence fills the room completely as Odalia waits expectantly for a reaction. Edric, Emira and Amity just look at each other in confusion before Alador gets up from the sofa and speaks up with carefully chosen words.
"Are you serious?", he asks accusingly, "Another factory? First you fire ten of my workers just like that and even without my consent and now you want to open another new factory, are you insane? How is that going to work?"
"Oh darling, don't worry about that", Odalia says in an attempt to calm her spouse. Only further upset, Alador stomps around the room muttering something under his breath.
"Oh great, now it's just going to be even more overtime..."
"Excuse me Mother", Emira began, "but if this is apparently a Blight Industries matter, why did you call us in as well?"
"It is very simple, darling. Since you two have no chance of ever accomplishing anything in any of the covens at all, I expect you to work for this family in other capacities. You will take care of the new factory part-time until you graduate from Hexside."
"WHAT?" the teenagers yell aghast.
"Oh don't act so shocked, someone has to do this job. And this way you can repay all the benefits I have granted you over the course of your lives."
"'Repay the benefits you granted'- are you kidding me??? Under no circumstances are we going to-"
Quite quickly, Amity had decided for herself that she had no interest in participating in, or even listening to, the now inevitable fight between her siblings and her mother, so she tuned it out completely and virtually perceived only white noise. This is a skill that Amity had perfected over the last few months in order to be able to endure her mother's numerous lectures.
However, when her name suddenly came up, Amity perked up again as Emira yelled at her mother.
"AND WHAT ABOUT AMITY, HUH? ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE HER A SLAVE OF YOUR WILL TOO?"
"Unlike you, Amity has a bright future ahead of her as a coven head. She won't be such a disappointment as you two are!"
'You have no idea...' Amity thought to herself.
"Ohohoho, we- didn't meet your expectations? What a shame... MAYBE WE WOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A CONDESCENDING ABOMINATION OF A MOTHER FIGURE!"
Amity snaps her eyes open in surprise, 'That one hit hard'. It's only now, by the way, that Amity notices that Edric hasn't said a word yet, but just looks enraged while Emira and her mother are.... arguing.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!", Odalia yells at them, "GO TO YOUR ROOMS! NOW! I will think of something for your insolence later".
Odalia sighs in defeat after the twins, furiously stomp into their rooms. Amity, on the other hand, feels bad that she didn't stand up for her siblings, after all, some extremely nasty things have been said. She would check on them later.
"Amity, be a good child and get your father out of his study. I need to have a serious talk with him."
"Yes, Mother"
Blind obedience - The only way to keep Odalia somewhat pleased. Of course, she will never be completely satisfied, after all, there is something to complain about absolutely everything. 'What, only ninety-nine points, Amity?', 'The grass from our lawn is too short. The gardener will be fired immediately', 'What? My youngest daughter has made a decision on her own that doesn't affect my life in any way? That's four weeks of grounding', Amity mimicked her mother in her head.
Any day she doesn't have to interact with her is a good day. And speaking of 'a good day', Amity has now reached her father's study and that she is there now is for two reasons. Amity knocks on the open door.
Her father does not respond.
She knocks again, this time a little louder.
Again, no reaction.
"DAD!" she now shouts.
"Huh? Oh, Mittens... Didn't see you there"
"Clearly... Um, two things: mom wants to talk to you-"
"Ugh... but of course she does", he interrupts Amity visibly annoyed, getting up and leaving his study while just ignoring Amity. Feeling disappointed, she mutters to herself, "I wanted to tell you about the Brawl tomorrow..."
Feeling dejected, Amity walks back towards the living room, only to see that her parents are no longer there. She only hears muffled yelling from a distant part of the house before heading to her siblings' rooms. Just before she knocks, Amity, hears two voices coming from Emira's room.
She knocks on her room door and finally steps in when told to come in. Edric is sitting at her sister's desk, while Emira herself is lying on her bed with a book cover in her hand and the pages of it ripped and tattered all over the room.
"Whoa, you really gave that book one hell of a beating", Amity comments casually.
"Heh... That is- was one of mom's books. 'Business Strategies' or something like that. It had it coming", Edric comments from the window where Emira’s desk is.
"Listen guys... I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier. What mom said was really messed up."
Emira takes one deep breath before getting into an upright position and gesturing to Amity to sit with her. Once there, Emira takes her sister's hands in her own.
"You don't have to apologize. I can certainly understand why you don't want to risk anything right now", Emira says empathetically.
Edric adds, "Your date is more important. And mom has been unhappy with us like forever. One more time of her bitching at us, what difference does it make?"
"B-but what she accused you of is not okay. I should have said something", Amity says feeling guilty.
"No. You did what was best for you at the time. Besides, we are in fact a disappointment. Actually, we are the biggest disappointment of all time. Aren't we, Ed?"
"Absolutely. We're totally going to ruin the 'Blight' name", Edric adds with confidence, to which Amity chuckles.
"Besides, if mom wants us to run the new factory, that's exactly what we'll do", Edric says with outrageous determination.
"And when we're done, mom will never want to assign us to anything ever again", Emira adds, whereupon the twins give each other an energetic high five. The three of them spend the rest of the day together. One of the Abomination butlers brings something to eat in with the news that dinner would be cancelled for the day. As it grew darker, however, Amity went back to her own room and to bed early, knowing it would probably take her a while to fall asleep.
The next morning came very quickly, not only for certain residents of Blight Manor, but also for those of the Owl House. Although, that's not quite right. It's already almost noon when Luz wakes up, all limbs completely stretched out or twisted into each other, with her entire blanket lying next to her.
Slowly she opens her eyes, which she quickly snaps shut again when the sunlight from outside hits her directly in the eyes. She tries to protect herself from the blinding sun with one hand before she eventually gives it another try.
Carefully, she opens one eye to make sure she is not getting blinded, then the other. She recognizes that there is something directly in front of her, but her vision is still a little too blurry to make out any details. She squints her eyes as she suddenly notices something coming towards her, along with the sound of claws tapping on wood. It is Owlbert, who now whispers a soft 'Hoot'.
Luz smiles. "I wish you a wonderful good morning too, my little cutie", she says in a sleepy voice.
Owlbert spreads his wings, tips to Luz's pillow and cuddles up to her while she herself tries to get her limbs back in the right positions.
After a few more minutes of silently cuddling with Owlbert, Luz starts to sit upright when suddenly Hooty bursts into Luz's room from a window.
"Heellooo Hoot-house. I hope you all slept well. In fact, I did."
Luz turns to him, "Good morning to you too Hooty."
"Well, I hope you're ready for your date with Amity in two hours", Hooty says expectantly, to which Luz's face freezes. She blinks a few times in disbelief.
"Wait a minute... Did you just say 'in two hours'? How do you know that?"
"Yep. The Brawl starts in two hours. Just like it does every year.", Hooty replies with typical enthusiasm.
"Aand I slept until noon??", she asks, still in disbelieve.
"Yep", Hooty replies again, at which point Luz begins to panic.
"Just two hours... Just two hou- Hooty, you promised yesterday that you would wake me up if I overslept", she reminds him. Hooty, however, is absolutely unaware of any guilt.
"You tried so hard to fix my tower yesterday that you had every right to sleep in."
"HOOOTY!" she groans in frustration.
In fact, Luz had spent quite a few hours yesterday making makeshift repairs to the tower, if only to relieve her panic about actually having asked Amity out, and to distract herself from thinking too much about it. She had also taken the opportunity to look around the tower itself, but found nothing in the damaged part but large wooden crates and boxes. Practically an extension of the basement. She had filled the hole partially with some of the more undamaged bricks and the rest with compressed vines. This dragged on until late in the evening, until she was eventually done. Before she went to bed, she wanted to make a small snack and saw that the music box was still in the kitchen. Although it was not standing upright, but knocked over and with several pearl necklaces and other jewelry sticking out. However, she was then already too tired to still deal with it.
Before she finally went to bed, Luz had told Hooty to wake her up after sunrise, if she wasn't already awake by then, so that she would have enough time to think about her date, hopefully with a clearer mind.
But exactly this plan Luz can now throw into the garbage, as she now gets up from her sleeping bag panicking again and hastily running towards the bathroom to have at least taken a shower before Amity arrives. Whenever that will be.
'Dammit Hooty...' she curses him mentally before losing her grip on the floor and slipping in her socks. Fortunately, she gets up quickly and without any injuries before disappearing into the bathroom.
'This day is off to a really great start...' she grumbles sarcastically to herself, 'I better start making a plan. This bit of multitasking shouldn't be a problem... I hope'.
Just about twenty minutes later, Luz already leaves the bathroom again, refreshed and feeling thoroughly cleaner. Additionally: With having a plan.
Step one: The Outfit.
It was pretty much clear to Luz, that she didn't really want to go on the very first date of her life wearing the same clothes she already wears almost every day. And the fact that she promised Amity to be her personal cheerleader for today doesn't make things any easier, because it means that her pink otter onesie is out as well. But only because it doesn't offer sufficient mobility. No other reason.
Luz ponders for a while over her so-called closet, which is really just a heavy, wooden chest in which everything she owns that isn't somewhere else in her room, lies tucked away wildly and disorganized.
"I think I really should have gone buying clothes more often with Eda...", Luz mumbles ruefully to herself.
"How awoup whif when?", Hooty asks as he suddenly enters her room with a coat hook in his beak. Attached to it is a cheerleading uniform.
"Heh, King wore this once before. It was soo adorable... But I’m afraid it won't fit me. And I'm not sure I have a glyph to resize an outfit like Eda could", Luz confesses, before a flash of inspiration hits her, lifting her spirits again, "Eda's closet! Maybe I'll find something there!"
Luz bursts out of her room, Hooty right behind her. Owlbert not. He remains dozing on Luz's still warm pillow.
Luz and Hooty are now facing Eda's closet. By the way, a real closet, not just a wooden chest. It wasn't particularly surprising that Eda didn't have a lot of variety among her clothes: several identical sleeveless maroon dresses with black ends, the brown two-piece suit with pink shirt Eda had worn to Grom, and her pink-cyan pyjamas. Most likely, Eda possessed more clothes as well, though she wasn't keeping them in this closet.
"Nothing in here really works for me. Everything in here screams... Eda...", Luz whined before closing the closet doors again.
"Did you look in the hidden compartment too?", Hooty asks, which immediately catches Luz's attention.
"Hidden compartment?", Luz asks with great interest, to which Hooty nods, if you can call it that in his case, since he doesn't have a heck... Or nothing but a neck...
"Eda was more nostalgic than you might know. She never threw away anything that belonged to her just like that. She kept her favorite things hidden in the secret compartment right beneath her shoes."
"And you know that how exactly, if it was secret?", Luz asks, raising an eyebrow.
"That's also where she hid her diary.", Hooty explains shamelessly.
"That's not an answer to my question, but meh...", Luz says dismissively before opening the closet doors again, moving some shoes from the bottom of the closet and after some blindly fumbling around, discovering a rope anchored to the floor. "Reveal your treasures to mama..."
Cautiously Luz opens a small, but all the louder squeaking bottom hatch. She sticks her head into the hole in the closet and sees several objects lying around: a few books, a metal box and a jacket. Somewhat mystified, Luz pulls everything out and places it in front of the closet for a closer inspection.
The first object Luz turns to is the jacket.
"Hm... this one might actually fit", Luz remarks as she holds it to her torso. She puts it on and stands in front of the mirror in the corner of the room.
"That's Eda's old Grudgby jacket", Hooty explains, and Luz's gaze travels down it and she sees the red E with white outline carefully sewn into the jacket.
"Hooty, wait here for a minute, I'll be right back", Luz says in a hurry as she exits Eda's room to slip from her pyjama pants into her light grey shorts over her dark grey leggings before rejoining Hooty.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Luz says "Hm.... Sporty. I like. What do you think Hooty?"
Luz turns around and sees that he is no longer in the room. "Hooty?", she asks with no reaction. However, when she hears noises from outside, she walks over to the big window and sees Hooty outside chasing bugs.
Luz just shrugs before going back to the other items she found in the compartment.
Next up: the metal box.
'Uhh, I remember that thing. That's Eda's cheating box', she realizes. Luz opens the box. Nothing.
'Seems like Eda didn't restock it after I cleaned it... It really needed a good cleaning though', Luz puts the box aside and now turns her attention to the books.
The first one is quite plain. A light blue book, with alternating owl faces stamped into the material and brown leather spine. And it is only when Luz turns the book over that she realizes what exactly it is.
'That' s Eda's diary.... Nope, ain't gonna read that', she thought to herself and put the book back in the drawer within the closet.
The second book, upon closer inspection, turned out not to be a book, but rather a red cardboard box containing several unsent letters.
"From Eda to... Raine?", she reads on the first sealed letter.
'To Raine... For Rainestorm... Raine, Raine, Raine...' There are 23 letters in total, all addressed to someone named Raine and none of them were actually ever sent.
'This seems to be more than just some ex.... Another mystery that needs to be solved', Luz concludes triumphantly. 'And... maybe I'll be able to deliver the letters as well. I'd just have to find out-'
"HOOOT!", Hooty shrieks, suddenly appearing immediately behind Luz, causing her to jump out of her skin.
"HOOTY!", she yells, "don't scare me like that".
"Guess whose date just arrived", Hooty teases her.
"Amity? She's already here?", she asks in genuine surprise, "How long have I been up here?"
"I don't know. Maybe forty minutes."
"FOURTY MI- ugh.... Brain, why do you keep doing this to me???", Luz mutters to herself in frustration. "Hooty, tell Amity I'll be right with her".
"Yes, ma'am.", Hooty saluted(?) and retreated all the way to the living room, where Amity was probably already waiting. Luz hurriedly ran after him but back to her own room. Luz could hear Hooty talking from the living room.
"Hiiiii bestieee... Whoa, you look totally gorgeous. Luz can really consider herself lucky-", and Luz shuts her door blushing as she unwillingly imagines how Amity might look like.
Step Two: Everything else
Originally, Luz' plan consisted of five steps in total: pick out a suitable outfit, prepare a few extra sets of glyphs, eat a small breakfast, prepare a gift for Amity, and talk Hooty out of coming along.
Luz leans back against her closed bedroom door in frustration and slides down it. Owlbert notices her and flies to her side. He chirps questioningly.
"You know, today was supposed to be an absolutely perfect day: My first date ever with the most amazing girl on the Isles. Amity deserves nothing but the best, but so far the whole day has been nothing but one big disaster."
Without hesitation, Owlbert flies to Luz's backpack, which is lying lovelessly in a corner of the room, and pulls out a few glyphs from it. He spreads the glyphs out directly in front of Luz and hops between several plant glyphs, which he activates in the process. In total, about fifteen colorful flowers grew out of the glyphs. Owlbert clips them off with his beak and arranges them in a bouquet shape in front of Luz. He chirps cheerfully after hopping onto Luz's knee.
Luz looks at him and gazes at his creation. She begins to smile.
"You're right, hope is not lost yet. The day can still change for the better", Luz says with newfound motivation.
Luz grabs the unactivated glyphs in front of her, then walks to her backpack to pull out a few blank sheets of paper and a pen before she is ready to leave her room yet again. She picks up the bouquet and turns to Owlbert.
"Thank you. You are truly the best wingman anyone could ask for", Luz says with a wink before leaving the room and descending the stairs to the living room as quietly as possible, hiding the bouquet behind her back.
"No Hooty, you can't come with us!", Amity orders in a firm tone.
Hooty had almost completely retreated into the front door of the house, now looking disappointed to the ground as Amity had to explain to him, in detail, why he is not allowed to come with them on their date.
"Hooty, you know I like you, but this date is between me and Luz. Between me and her only. Do you understand that?"
A quiet, disappointed "Mhm" comes out of Hooty's beak. But, in typical Hooty fashion, his mood changes within a split second when he suddenly sees Luz appear behind Amity, hearing her gasp heavily at seeing Amity.
Amity turns around quickly, her eyes sparkling. "Luz", she exclaims overjoyed and rushes towards her date, but stops short. "Hi", Amity grins, trying not to create an awkward situation.
"You- you look really pretty", Luz marvels, blushing, to which Amity looks down at the ground, grinning a bit sheepishly. She's wearing a short, black, sleeveless, asymmetrical dress along with a cyan leather belt around her waist, gray leggings, and her crescent moon necklace.
"Gracias. Tú también eres bonita", Amity suddenly replies, whereupon Luz tears her eyes open speechlessly and her jaw almost drops to the floor.
It takes a few moments for Luz to regain her composure. "That... That was Spanish... Amity, you learned Spanish??? For- for me?", tears of joy form in Luz's eyes and a relieved and satisfied smile forms on Amity's face.
"I wanted to surprise you with this. Gus had lent me a human language book a while bac-"
Amity's explanation is unceremoniously interrupted as Luz throws herself at Amity with the tightest and most grateful hug she has ever received. Neither of them dares to ruin this moment. At least not until Amity hears a ruffling sound from behind her.
"Huh? What is that?", Amity asks, just before the hug breaks open and she sees the bouquet of flowers Luz is holding. With her free hand, Luz wipes the tears of joy from her face.
"Um... just some flowers for you. Even if it doesn't even begin to match the gift you gave me-"
"Luz, they're beautiful", Amity interrupts Luz. "However, I'm afraid we can't exactly carry those around today..."
"Uh, I have an idea", Luz says, placing all but one flower on the living room table.
"This one is a pink ranunculus. A flower from the human realm.... One of the most beautiful flowers I know.... Here", Luz explains as she stands in front of Amity again. She moves a little closer to her and weaves the flower into her hair so that it peeks out from behind Amity's ear.
"It's beautiful... Thank you."
The two girls look into each other's eyes, smiling a bit dreamily, before Amity breaks the silence after a few seconds. "We should get going... The brawl will start soon"
"Yeah, you're probably right", Luz agrees but still lost in Amity’s eyes.
'I really don't deserve her', Luz thinks to herself as she leaves the Owl House with Amity and they make their way towards the Bonesborough Brawl. And once they were out of Hooty's sight, Luz put on her illusion bracelet.
"Why are you putting the bracelet on just now?", Amity asks curiously as the two girls walk side by side.
"Well, when I arrived back here yesterday, Hooty was quite.... let's say, confused."
"Uh, let me guess: He thought you were an intruder and wanted to eat you", Amity guessed jokingly.
"Uh-huh", Luz nods in confirmation.
"Wait, seriously?", Amity asks incredulously.
"Oh yeah. You have no idea how quickly I ripped the bracelet off my arm before he could get to it.", Luz tells her half-jokingly.
"Yeah... I can imagine...", Amity replies thoughtlessly before both girls now walked side by side in silence, for minutes.
'Come on Luz, say something, this can't be that difficulty. Or do something or Amity's gonna get bored otherwise.... '
As they gradually approach the area where the Brawl is being held after a few more minutes, Luz slowly begins to close the distance between herself and Amity until their arms are almost touching.
'Come on Luz, it's now or never'
Luz grabs Amity's little finger with her own pinky. Amity notices this, looks down at their hands and blushes, but smiles.
'Very good. Now go for the whole thing'
Luz grabs the rest of Amity's hand and she sees a huge, excited smile form on her dates face. Luz even thinks she hears a squeak from her. Luz herself now begins to grin to herself but to relax as well, while her inner self is just squeaking like crazy. The two of them continue walking, both being blushy messes as their hands now intertwined with each other.
A few more minutes later, the area where the brawl is taking place gradually comes into view. With a name like 'Bonesborough Brawl', Luz was expecting something more stadium-like, but this looks rather provisionally organized. It could be described as a clearing, immediately in front of a cliff that leads straight into the boiling sea. On the sides, several small hills emerged from the ground, from which all kind of bones protrude, some of them quite high, and where many dozens of witches and demons have already gathered and are eagerly waiting. Right in the middle, there is a few meters high stage erected by construction witches, which will later serve as a fighting area.
"Hmm... Not quite what I expected...", Luz mumbles to herself as she and Amity walked past the first torches marking the way towards the Brawl.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... I was expecting something more arena or stadium-like thing...", Luz explains, which Amity unfortunately doesn't fully understand.
"Don't let the appearance here fool you. The Brawl has been held at this location for many centuries and it takes place once every year."
"Cool", Luz comments.
"My dad used to compete here regularly himself.... Well, at least until he joined the Abomination Coven at some point...", Amity tells.
"So, you are participating for him today, right?", Luz asks to which Amity nods.
"I'm hoping that if I win the Champion's Belt, like he did back then, that I can grow a little closer to him...", Amity tells hopefully, to which Luz quiets down a bit before responding.
"I thought... you didn't like your parents. I'm just thinking about that thing with Willow, that your mom grounded you just because you made a decision for yourself once-"
"That's mostly mom. She's the one who wants to control every aspect of my life. Dad, on the other hand... he just goes along with it... In fact, he's pretty much just been working for years now. I rarely get to see him, let alone spend any time with him..."
"Let's make sure then that you get that Champion's Belt", Luz exclaims with determination as the two finally arrive.
"Attention witches and demons.... The Brawl will begin in five minutes. Those who have not yet registered should do so quickly".
Luz and Amity had meanwhile chosen a comfortable spot on one of the hills and sat down there, when the host, who looks quite familiar to Luz, makes this announcement on stage.
"Ugh, this can't be that hard...", Amity whines.
"You'd think it would be. I mean, I wrote a whole book once and it wasn't nearly this hard.... Why don't you want to compete under your real name again?", Luz asks feeling slightly overwhelmed.
"Mom and Dad would know before the first fight even started. Mom gets everything regarding the Blight name...", Amity explains.
"Alright... Hmm... What do you think of 'The Pink Storm'? Or 'Oracle Smasher'? Or 'Mighty Mittens'? Or 'Abomina'? Or 'The Incredible Ghittens'? You know, a mix of Ghost and Mittens..."
Amity laughs, "For something that's supposedly to be so difficult, you're bursting with ideas...", causing Luz to blush again. "I'm wavering a bit between 'Mighty Mittens' and 'The Pink Storm'..."
Luz shifts into a strained pensive pose.
"From a purely sonic point of view, I think 'Might Mittens' sounds better..."
"Really?", Amity asks to which Luz nods softly smiling, "Okay. 'Mighty Mittens' it is... ... You know, I do have another surprise I'd like to show you."
Luz raises an eyebrow in anticipation as Amity stands up and pulls out two stones from her pockets and holds them together. Illusion clouds appear around her and when they disappear again Amity wears a brand-new outfit. Luz's jaw drops to the floor yet again.
"So, what do you think?", Amity asks expectantly.
"So... pretty...", Luz stammers almost whispering causing Amity to giggle happily.
"Will you wait here? I'm just going to register myself for the Brawl."
"Uh-huh", Luz replies, her brain not yet able to cope with Amity's new outfit; No thoughts, just admiration. Her dark purple dress with abomination pattern and same color glasses as an accessory.
'To think that she can actually get even more beautiful.... And she is going out with me. With me! And I'm just sitting here, wearing Eda's old jacket, while the most beautiful girl of all times is about to finish off the strongest witches and demons in the Isles.... Mm, it's nice that she wants to do all that for her dad- dad... Dad's death anniversary is coming up... Or was it already and I... missed it? ... No, stop! Bad Luz, no bad thoughts today! I have to be there for Amity'
And just as Luz had cut short her self-inflicting self-conversation, Amity returned.
"Good news", Amity announces, "I get the third fight. The original fighter backed out at the last second."
"Uhh, very nice", Luz responds, trying to sound cheerful. An attempt that backfires, as Amity's smile suddenly disappears and is replaced by a frown.
"Ohhh, I know that look", Amity says.
"What look?"
"The look that tells me something's bothering you.... Do you want to talk about it?"
Amity sits down next to Luz and looks her straight in the eyes.
"Nothing is bothering me, I'm fine", she says. But Amity continues to look Luz in the eyes.
"Really... I'm fine", Luz adds.
Amity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she finally says "Okay. I believe you."
"But…", Luz begins again, "I have been thinking of a way to actively help you. Well, in-between your fights, I mean."
"Really, how?", Amity asks curiously. Luz digs in her pocket and pulls out a stack of glyphs. Amity is a bit confused
"b-b-b... Where is it?" Luz sums quietly as she sorts through the glyphs in front of her until she finally finds the one, she was looking for.
"Aha!", Luz exclaims, "This, my dear Amity, is a regeneration glyph. Created by the great glyph expert and curse user Maddie Flour."
"Curse user?", Amity asks skeptically.
"No need to worry, it is more harmless than it sounds. Can't compare to curses from the Isles", Luz says reassuringly.
"Alright... What does it do?", Amity asks curiously.
"Basically, this glyph is able to heal destroyed tissue. And that of anything that is somehow alive or otherwise organic. It heals everything from minor scratches to deep and deadly wounds."
"It can bring dead people back to life?", Amity asks incredulously.
"No", Luz contradicts, "It can't heal diseases either, only physical injuries."
"Okay wow, that still sounds really cool. Let's hope we don't need it".
"Amity, I'm a hundred percent convinced that you're going to crush all of them with ease", Luz says with a motivational smile on her face.
"Thank you for believing in me like that. It means a lot to me."
Amity takes Luz's hand in her own as the actual brawl is about to begin and the host enters the stage. The number of spectators has multiplied again since Luz and Amity arrived on the site and those who couldn't find a place on the hills are standing close together around the stage.
"Witches and Demons, welcome to... THE BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!", the host shouts into his microphone. The audience erupts in cheers.
"You know the rules: The contestants will fight one on one. Not for honor. Not for glory. But for the ultimate bragging rights as the toughest dueler on the Isles.", The audience is cheering even louder.
"Last one standing will get the chance to snag the coveted Brawler's Belt from our reigning champion... WARDEN WRATH!"
Warden Wrath enters the stage and holds up the champion belt for everyone to see. A purple belt accented with emeralds and rubies and a solid gold belt buckle with the word 'CHAMP' engraved in large letters in the middle.
"Today we have sixteen contestants who will compete against each other. Sixteen contestants will fight for the title. ARE YOU READY?"
The crowd goes wild.
"That's what I was hoping for... For our first round, we have 'The Gardener'... versus 'Gogola'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
Gogola charges at the Gardener without hesitation, creates an abomination shield, knocks the Gardener down and throws her to the ground.
The Gardener quickly straightens up again, and Gogola prepares another attack.
The Gardener lets vines shoot out of the ground, pinning Gogola's legs to the ground. She's falling. Even more vines appearing to lock the hands and her torso.
"THE GARDENER WINS", the host announces, the audience cheers loudly.
"Whoa, that was intense...", Luz comments, "Does it always go this fast?"
"It depends. I'd call this fight something about average. From what I've heard, most fights end up far bloodier", Amity tells.
"Let's keep going. In the next fight... 'Junsouk Bolical' versus... 'Cravei, the Blacksmith'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
Junsouk and Cravei engage in a stare-off before either of them even makes a move.
Cravei's finger twitches, which is enough for Junsouk to throw a steam potion at him. The whole stage is shrouded in fog.
Glass can be heard breaking.
Boulders fly out of the fog into the audience.
A mighty rumble shakes the area and the steam evaporates.
"UNBELIEVABLE, Cravei just crushed Junsouk with a huge rock. What a shame… But anyway, CRAVEI THE BLACKSMITH WINS!"
"He never had a chance", Amity says dryly.
"Huh?", Luz asks.
"Well, Junsouk had already gambled it away when he threw the steam potion. You have to be able to see your target if you want to use potions in ranged combat"
"Makes sense"
"So, it's my turn now. Wish me luck"
"Good luck. I believe in you", Luz calls after Amity as she runs to the stage.
"So far, this is probably the fastest Brawl yet. Let's see if this trend continues.... For the next round we have 'Scab the All-Knowing' versus... 'The Mighty Mittens'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
Amity creates an abomination moments before Scab takes off and fires a beam at Amity from their orb.
Her abomination shields her, but she gets thrown back a few meters.
In a quick and fluid motion, Amity transforms her Abomination and resummons it right behind Scab.
The Abomination strikes from behind, nearly flinging Scab out of the arena.
With a skillful backflip, Scab gets back to their feet summoning two spirits that fly towards Amity from two sides.
Amity creates an abomination-gauntlet and destroys the ghosts in a spinning motion. Amity runs at Scab and hurls them out of the arena with just one strike.
"THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS", the host announces. The audience is cheering and Luz is waiting in front of the stage.
Amity slowly descends the stairs from the stage and practically falls into Luz's arms.
"This. Was. Amazing!", Luz rambles heavily gesturing, "You were like whoosh, they're all like umpf and then you again-"
"Luz...", Amity interrupts her.
"Huh?"
"Can we go back to our seat? I think I scraped my knee", Amity asks. Luz looks down at her and sees a few drops of blood rolling down her leg.
"Oh yeah, of course. Come on, I'll help you."
Luz supports Amity on the way back to her place on the hill, just before the next round begins.
"And now, 'Bianca, the Beekeeper' versus... 'Tinella Nosa'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
Luz eyes widen as she turns her head towards the stage, "She had a name this whole time???", she asks in surprise.
"Luz, my knee", Amity says, focusing Luz attention back to her.
"Oh yeah, right... Sorry."
The two girls slowly walk up the hill, paying no further attention to the fights. Hissing in pain, Amity sits down while Luz takes out her regeneration glyph and places it directly on Amity's angled knee. As Luz activates it, it lights up and disappears into Amity's knee moments before the injury heals itself tremendously quickly. After just a few seconds, the wound is gone as if it never existed in the first place.
"Whoa", Amity says in amazement, and Luz smiles at the result, "It seems I owe Maddie Flour a thank you if I ever meet her..."
"I'm sure you will. And I bet she'd love it here-"
"And BIANCA, THE BEEKEEPER WINS!" the host suddenly yells in between, however the two girls pay no attention to it currently.
"Do you miss Amphibia?", Amity asks. Luz snorts out.
"Of course I do... The number of places and people I miss could fill the whole island..." Amity chuckles softly before Luz continues, "But if I were there right now, or in the human realm, I'd miss everyone here tremendously as well.... Not sure there's a perfect solution for that."
"A truly unique problem", Amity concludes. She turns to Luz so she can look her face to face. "Luz, tell me: Where would you most like to be right now, at this very moment, if you could choose?"
Luz thinks about that for quite a while.
"Hmm... Right here", Luz finally answers.
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure... This is where I am right now. Just with you...", Luz starts to smile slightly again and the two girls look towards the stage again.
"It's funny…", Amity begins, "Just a few months ago I thought my life was perfect. I always had the best grades, powerful 'friends'.... If I ran into my old self today, she probably wouldn't believe me that I'm happier now than I was then..."
"You're happy?"
"Pretty much, yeah...", Amity answers, leaning back in a relaxed manner before resting her head on Luz' shoulder.
Sitting together, the two girls watch the other four fights until the first round of fighting is over and the second round is about to begin.
"What a first round this young evening.... and only one death, a new record!", the host yells into his microphone as the crowd erupts in cheers, but some boos as well-. "We clear the stage of the last leftovers of the last fight and then we're back with the second round of the.... BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!"
"The body parts can be purchased for three snails a piece", he quickly adds.
Luz gives Amity a disgusted look as she hears that last part.
"I don't understand the appeal of that either", Amity agrees.
Amity had insisted during the last battle that Luz stopped watching as it became apparent that the fight was going to be more brutal than any of the previous ones. 'Captain Bluejacq' is definitely one of the opponents Amity would have to be wary of if she were to face her. Fortunately, a lot can happen before that could be the case.
"Witches and Demons, this is the second round where the winners of the first round face off against each other. Everything is still open; everything is still possible. But now... a gigantic applause for the winners of the first round 'The Gardener' and 'Cravei, the Blacksmith'... LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
The Gardener immediately launches an attack using vines to pin Cravei's feet to the ground. Same strategy as earlier.
Cravei rips several boulders out of the ground and throws them one after the other at the Gardener.
A spin, a crouch, a jump to the side and suddenly a stone reinforced fist lands in her face. She was distracted and Cravei was able to free himself.
The counterattack; a huge magic circle has been drawn, the ground shakes slightly and Cravei loses his balance.
Several thick, sharpened tendrils shoot out of the ground, ready to pierce Cravei.
Suddenly, the Gardener skyrockets. Cravei has created a small, but all the faster stone pillar shooting out of the stage, launching the Gardener into the air.
She attempts to create several bushes to land in, but they are all getting instantly destroyed her opponent.
The Gardener hits the ground, the crowd flinches. She is severely injured.
"CRAVEI, THE BLACKSMITH WINS!"
"Whew... So, now it's my turn again...", Amity says while the Gardener is still being carried off the stage and tended to by healers.
"You can do it!", Luz calls after her for encouragement.
Amity smiles back at her as she enters the stage.
"What a fight... And you know what? Right here comes the next one! 'The Mighty Mittens' versus 'Bianca, the Beekeeper'... LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
Amity doesn't waste any time and launches the first attack of the round: A simple fireball at her opponent.
Bianca doesn't dodge it though, but picks it up and hurls it back at Amity, who in turn is forced to dodge it.
Bianca creates two growing flames in her hands. However, they are not flames; they are two swarms of fire bees that Bianca has summoned and is now launching towards Amity.
Amity, now in the defense, summons her abomination fluid and slides it right through the two swarms. All the fire bees drop paralyzed to the ground.
Her opponent now without her only weapon, Amity resumes the rest of her abomination fluid and hurls it all at Bianca, who is consequently thrown off the stage.
"THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS", the audience cheers and Luz once again waits at the bottom of the stairs.
"That was great.", Luz cheers before going for another hug but holding back, "Wait. Are you hurt? Do you want me to carry you?"
Amity giggles, "Don't worry, I'm fine. See? Completely uninjured.", Amity assures Luz after spinning once.
"YAAY", Luz cheers and gives Amity a warm hug before they both walk back to their spot and sit back down on the hill.
"I don't know if I could have done it that way- Okay well, I didn't even know there were burning bees here either...", Luz admits.
"Yeah, most of them are kept by Beast Keepers. Only a few swarms live in the wild.... Hey, by the way, do you want me to tell you a secret?", Amity whispers and leans towards Luz.
"A secret? Sure", Luz answers before Amity looks around, secretly, to her left and right.
"I learned that trick from Ed", she whispers.
"Your brother knows about beastkeeping?"
"Kinda. He picked it up as a hobby a few years ago. Emira hadn't been interested, so he'd shown me a few tricks now and then. One of them was how I could render fire bees harmless without killing them", Amity tells, "Basically, there are two ways: The most common way is by just freezing them. But the downside to that is that if you don't free the bees quickly enough, they die. What Ed had discovered was that abomination fluid can glue the wings of fire bees together, causing them to fall to the ground. The advantage here is that I can remove the fluid completely without harming the fire bees."
"Uff, wow... Call me impressed..."
"Yeah... When he's not busy playing stupid pranks on me, intelligent things come out of his mouth every now and then."
"Ooh, that's mean. He's your brother... You love him…", Luz states to which Amity sighs.
"He's annoying... Ed and Em both...", she says, "But I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world."
"Awww-"
"Don't you dare to tell them that!", Amity dares her.
"My lips are sealed", Luz promises with an appropriate gesture over her mouth.
"I am as secretive as.... as... um, an otter. An admittedly quite talkative otter."
Amity gives an amused but doubtful look.
"But don't worry. Since I'm an otter, no one understands me when I try to talk.... Unless someone invents an otter translation device..."
Amity giggles, but Luz smiles as well. Her giggling is quite contagious.
The two girls goof around for quite a while, resulting in them completely missing two of the following fights entirely. Not only that, Amity almost missed her own next fight. But fortunately, just almost.
This time Amity goes to the stage together with Luz and Luz gives her date another hug to wish her good luck.
"Witches and Demons... We have already seen many exciting fights today and there are only four participants left! FOUR PARTICIPANTS, THREE FIGHTS! And the winner gets to face our defending champion: WARDEN WRATH!", the crowd goes wild. Amity hears Luz's voice among all the shouting, cheering for her.
"The first fight in this semi-final... 'CRAVEI, THE BLACKSMITH'... versus.... 'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
In a split second, Cravei flings himself into the air, sweeping a huge rock along from underneath him and hurling it at Amity at high speed.
A quick reaction is called for. Duck? Too little time. Dodge? Same. Shield?
In a blink of an eye, Amity creates an Abomination Shield in front of her, just before the rock hits her and hurls her to the edge of the stage. She hears Luz calling after her.
Cravei prepares another attack, but abomination fluid coming from below the ground grabs him by the leg, lifts him into the air and hurls him out of the stage.
"UNBELIEVABLE, fellow Witches and Demons. That was probably the fastest fight I've ever seen.... THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS!"
But now there seems to be a problem. Whereas before Amity went straight down to Luz, she is still sitting in the same position on the stage. She is unable to get up.
Somewhat distressed and in pain, she looks to Luz, who immediately runs up the stairs and sprints to her.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?", Luz asks worriedly.
"Ugh, I- think I broke something when I landed", she hisses in pain.
"May I?", Luz asks as she holds her hand over Amity's knee. Amity nods and Luz carefully touches different place as Amity suddenly screams extremely loudly in pain.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry".
"We... need to get off the stage"
Without thinking Luz grabs Amity, lifts her up, carries her down the stage and slowly back to their spot on the hill, where luckily there is already a regeneration glyph ready to use.
Extremely carefully Luz sets Amity down and now has a better view of her legs. Especially her left shinbone looks anything but healthy. The fracture is clearly visible through the skin, even if no blood is visible from the outside.
"Amity, this is probably going to hurt pretty bad for a bit..."
Amity nods vigorously.
Carefully, Luz places the glyph on Amity's broken shinbone and takes Amity's hand. As she taps the glyph to activate it, Amity lets out a short but all the more intense pain-filled scream, and Luz sees the bone beneath her skin move back into place and heal.
It only took a few seconds, but felt like an eternity.
"Ahhhh, ffff..." she grunts in relief as the pain suddenly subsides.
"I hate to see you suffer like this.... Are you sure you want to keep going? That was already a pretty nasty injury", Luz asks worriedly.
"I'm very sure", Amity confirms. Luz turns her gaze to the ground.
"Hey hey, look at me", Amity pleads with Luz, "trust me. I can handle this"
"... Alright. I trust you", Luz says after thinking about it.
"Besides... That wasn't my first broken bone. I used to play Grudgby, remember?"
"Yeah, you're right.... Okay, if you want to keep fighting, I insist that I help you", Luz says.
"Well, how do you figure on doing that?"
"Well, first I'm going to assume that you'll win the finals and going to fight Warden Wrath as well", Luz begins.
"So?", Amity asks.
"I've already fought him twice and I can try to prepare you for his strengths and weaknesses", Luz suggests, however Amity looks a bit incredulous.
"You've got to be kidding me.... You fought him twice?!" she asks incredulously.
"I'm serious. The first time was actually the day I first came to the Isles and met Eda. In exchange for her helping me get back home, I was supposed to help break into the Conformatorium and steal back a crown for King- AAAH!", Luz suddenly recoils and falls backwards as she realizes how close Amity has unexpectedly gotten to her.
"Sorry, sorry. I like backstories. Especially yours", Amity confesses, helping Luz back into an upright position so she can continue telling.
"Aww, thanks. Where was I ... Oh yeah. I had given King the crown, and Wrath had found and surrounded us with a few of his guards. But then he asked Eda out on a date..."
"You're kidding..."
"No, seriously. He had even chopped her head off before that."
Amity doesn't even react to that anymore, but just sits there with her mouth open as Luz continues.
"But well, that's when I learned that nothing can knock her down that fast. Eda refused and I had hit him on the back of the head with Eda's staff and he went down. One of his weak points already. We just escaped from the Conformatorium, he had hit us with his... I don't know, transformable tentacle arm things and knocked us to the ground. He and Eda had then fought against each other, but Eda had wanted to send me away on Owlbert. Oh, speaking of which, Wrath can turn his arms into all kinds of weapons and breath fire, just for the record. We had then defeated him when I fired some rockets at him that exploded in his mouth."
"So largely Eda had fought him...", Amity points out.
"Hey! ... I helped", Luz admits.
"Heh, okay and the second time?", Amity asks.
"That was when Eda was captured by Lilith and King and I had tried to rescue her. The plan was simple: get to the Conformatorium as quickly as possible and rescue Eda-"
"Very detailed", Amity said sarcastically.
"Thank you. So, to be taken to the Conformatorium, we had to do something so deviant, something so evil, that the guards had had no choice but to take us right there."
"You didn't-"
"Oh yes we did. We actually stepped on grass even though there was a 'do not step on gras' sign nearby."
"That... Is not what I had thought, but okay.", Amity commented.
"When we arrived at the Conformatorium, Wrath was one of the first to cross our path, and I had frozen him with an ice glyph and forced him to tell us where Eda was."
"Wow... I'm impressed Luz. So... is ice one of his weaknesses?"
"Kinda. I have three guesses. Either ice, the inability to move, or knives."
"Knives?"
"The icicles were very pointy. Like a knife", Luz adds.
"Okay, I see... Strengths: Fire Breath, Transformable and Extendable Arms, and I'm guessing he's pretty strong too.... Weaknesses: weak spot on the back of his head, immobility or ice or pointy things."
"Exactly", Luz confirms proudly.
"Honestly? I think this is going to be a piece of cake", Amity opines.
And once again, another fight has come to an end, which the two girls missed out on entirely. This is bad in that Amity doesn't know who she's up against and what their abilities are. Nonetheless, she gets up and walks to the stage with Luz. Luz had made more regeneration glyphs very shortly before they got up, if only just in case.
"WITCHES AAAND DEMONS! We've seen a lot of brave brawlers today, trying to make a name for themselves", the crowd cheers. "And two fighters lost their lives.... BUT THAT IS NOT A REASON TO STOP THIS YEARS BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!", the crowd cheers even louder.
"That's what I wanted to hear... There are only two contestants left, fighting for the chance to face our returning champion. HERE IS 'CAPTAIN BLUEJACQ'... VERSUS... 'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'! LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"
"Seriously?", Amity asks, "I'm not going to fight an old woman like that".
Her opponent, an old goat demon just screams "That's what everyone says!", breaking her walking cane on her knee in half. She starts shrieking and forming a battle aura around her.
Amity realizes in a split second that she massively underestimated her opponent. She also seems to have forgotten that she had already killed at least one other person in the preliminary rounds.
Bluejacq scrapes her hooves on the ground before dashing forward with great power. Amity uses her abomination fluid as a jumping aid and is barely able to dodge Bluejacq's attack.
Amity lands and immediately creates an abomination to attack her opponent. Bluejacq simply runs through it head first, but also slams into Amity's torso, throwing her several meters backwards.
Amity lies on the ground with a hurting chest and Bluejacq prepares another sprint with Amity's head as the target. She hears Luz anxiously calling for her to get up.
The options are vague. She is too fast and with her head she just runs through everything that would block her way. Play for time and let her run out of energy? Go for a counterattack?
Bluejacq charges at Amity, but she doesn't budge. Luz keeps yelling for Amity to get up.
She's getting closer. And closer.
Just before Bluejacq hits her, Amity quickly rolls to the side, creates her abomination-gauntlet and hits Bluejacq with a skillful twist in the back, causing her to fly right off the stage using her own momentum.
The host enters the stage and Amity manages to stand up with difficulty, albeit in pain. He approaches her, takes her arm and holds it up victoriously. He pays no attention to her pain-filled face.
"There you have it, Witches and Demons.... 'The Mighty Mittens' is going to take on 'Warden Wrath'! After a short break."
He remains in that position with her for a few seconds until he releases her without further comment, leaving the stage again and leaving Amity just there. Luz runs on the stage to her.
"Where are you hurt? On your back or on your stomach?", Luz asks hastily, already holding the glyph in her hand.
"Heh... I hate that guy...", Amity mutters. "Luz? How long have you been here?"
"Amity, how many fingers am I holding up?", Luz asks anxiously to which Amity doesn't answer. Her eyes are unfocussed.
The fact that Luz and Amity haven't left the stage yet was reason enough for the healers to go on stage and check things out themselves.
"Is there a problem?", a taller, green demon in a white healer's uniform asks.
"She's hurt. Maybe a concussion."
Luz actually has no idea about witch physiology, or medicine in general. Another healer, a male witch performs a diagnostic spell while Luz stands by, deeply concerned.
"Various fractures in several organs, spine bruised, probably due to impact on the ground.... Laceration to the back of the head... Concussion present. Good guess, Kid"
Suddenly the host rejoins as well. "So, will she be able to fight?"
One of the healers turns to him.
"The concussion and the laceration can be easily treated. The internal injuries and the injured spine, on the other hand..."
"Will. She. Be. Able. To. Fight?" the host asks again with urgency. whereupon the healer puts on a doubtful expression. The host sighs in frustration until Luz suddenly speaks up.
"I can help"
"Sure. You can hold her hand", the healer says dismissively as both healers place her on a gurney.
"I mean it"
"Of course, kid", he says, still not taking Luz seriously.
The healers carry Amity from the stage to a more secluded tent. Luz does not leave her side the whole way and keeps holding Amity's hand.
The healers drop Amity from the gurney onto a table. Amity is hissing in pain. She lies on her stomach and her bleeding laceration is now clearly visible to Luz.
"What kind of healers are you?", Luz screams, "She's hurt and you just drop her like that?"
"HEY! If you don't like it, you should leave! We're only here to make sure no one dies outside the stage. We don't care about anything else!", one of the healers hisses back.
Luz leans down to Amity, as the so-called healers are distracted, to whisper something in her ear. "I'm sorry..."
She lifts up her dress so that a small part of her back is visible and places the glyph directly on Amity's spine. Amity cries out in pain yet again.
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?", one of the healers yells at Luz just before she activates the glyph. He grabs her and drags her away from Amity as her torso suddenly begins to glow.
After a few very long seconds, it disappears again and the healer lets go of Luz, who immediately thanks him with an enraged glare.
"What did you do?", he asks.
"See for yourself", she says. "You pseudo healer!", she added in a whisper as he performed a new diagnostic spell on Amity and now turned to Luz, completely dumbfounded.
"How?"
"Heal her head injuries and then I'll show you!", Luz demands. He immediately set to work and only minutes later Amity was completely healthy again. She sits upright and Luz immediately runs to her around the table to look her directly into the face.
"Amity..."
"Luz... What happened?", she asks, puzzled. Luz, on the other hand, is just relieved right now.
"You defeated Bluejacq, but got hurt. Brain injury, internal bleeding and injured spine", Luz explains.
"Not to mention the laceration on the back of your head", the healer added, which only earned him a nasty glare from Luz.
"Am I... Am I still in the competition?", Amity asks. Luz's expression changes from relief to dread in a flash.
"Please don't tell me you want to keep fighting…", she pleads.
"I want to... I've made it this far... It's just Wrath now."
Luz knows perfectly well that she's not going to be able to talk Amity out of it, so she doesn't even try. She just looks worriedly after Amity as she quickly leaves the tent and walks back to the stage. She hears the host calling again.
"It seems the title contender is doing well enough that she wants to take on our longtime champion"
Luz sighs in defeat and is now about to leave the tent as well when one of the healers whistles her back.
"Hey. You promised me something"
Luz rolls her eyes and pulls out a regeneration glyph and flings it onto the table where Amity was before.
"Put it on the wound and tap it! That's it... Only works for injuries, not for illnesses", Luz explains before briskly exiting the tent and going after Amity, who is already climbing up to the stage.
"Amity Blight?", Warden Wrath asks in disbelieve, "I wasn't expecting to face you today..."
"I'd better hope you don't spare me", Amity says with misplaced self-confidence. Wrath, on the other hand, just laughed.
"Definitely not... I just wanted to let you know that Braxas will miss you", he replies in a somber voice before walking to his side of the stage, laughing. Amity does the same just before the host enters the center.
Amity looks down into the crowd, hoping to hear Luz cheering her on.
Eventually, she finds her. But instead of cheers and shouts of encouragement, Amity only sees pain and worry written all over her date's face. However, at this point it was already too late to drop out.
"Now, we're getting close to the end, folks! Will the Warden lose the Champion's Belt?"
Warden Wrath takes off his mask and begins to spout fire, growling. He takes his head back and spouts again, only this time with an even bigger flame. Amity swallows nervously.
"'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'... VERSUS... 'WARDEN WRATH'! LET THE FINAL BRAWL BEGIN!"
Amity creates an Abomination, but it is immediately crushed by Warden Wrath with his fist, which he turns into a giant hammer.
He melts another one with his fire breath.
She generates several smaller ones to run wildly around him and to confuse him. He tries to crush each small Abomination, so he doesn't notice Amity running towards him with her abomination gauntlet.
She hits him in his stomach with all her might and... nothing.
He laughs. "How amusing... Is that about all you have to offer?"
Again, Amity gulps hard. She runs away, but something grabs her ankle. She goes down.
Wrath has his arm tied around her ankle and is now holding her upside down in front of his face. "I'm going to show you how to do this properly", he threatens her and throws her extremely high into the air with ease.
She summons the abomination fluid of the trampled abominations to her as she falls back down and uses it as a kind of surfboard to glide through the air in a more controlled manner.
She recreates her gauntlet out of some of the surfboard's mass, hurtles straight at Wrath at extremely high speed, and as he tries to breathe fire, she hits him squarely in the head.
She tries to slow down as quickly as possible, but falls to the ground and rolls uncontrollably across the entire surface.
The audience mutters, mesmerized about the fight so far.
Wrath falls forward to the ground. All the spectators gasp in shock.
Amity is visibly hurt by her landing, but she gets back up, breathing heavily. She looks around and sure enough, Warden Wrath is down. No visible movement. Amity looks at Luz, who is equally shocked and holds her hands over her mouth.
Amity was about to celebrate her victory when she hears a deep roar. It is Warden Wrath. He stands up again. And he is angry. "Okay Blight!", he spits, "I've been nice so far.... That's over now"
Intimidatingly he straightens up and transforms his arms into a huge hammer and an oversized axe. He slams them against each other several times and growls deafeningly loud.
He races toward Amity, his axe narrowly missing her. She dodges by running between his legs. A mistake, because suddenly the hammer hits her on her head.
Amity flies several meters from her feet. Blood slowly pours down past her ear. She tries to get up, but she can't. Her arm is dislocated. With the other arm she helps herself up and turns to Wrath. She tries to throw a fireball at him, but the hammer hits her again.
Countless scratches and wounds cover Amity's body. A strong throbbing in her head, her vision becoming partially blurry. She lies on the ground, trying to get up with her functioning arm.
"Stay down!", Wrath growls, standing immediately behind her, until suddenly Abomination fluid covers his entire face from behind.
Wrath towers backwards and Amity knocks him off his feet with a battle cry and her gauntlet. He's falling again.
Furiously he rips the abomination fluid off his face as he gets back up. He breathes fire so hard that Amity barely manages to leap away to the side, falling straight onto her dislocated arm. However, the fire hits a few of the audience members who are standing too close to the stage. But Amity's dress also gets a few fire marks on it.
Amity is about to get up again when the hammer suddenly hits one of her legs, breaking every single bone in an instant. Amity screams at the top of her lungs out of pain and the air feels increasingly charged.
Wrath raises his fist hammer again and completely distraught, Amity looks at her completely destroyed leg and then up at Wrath who is about to unite both fists into an even bigger hammer to ultimately end the very life of his competitor.
Completely panicking and helpless, she looks at Luz, who returns her gaze exactly the same way. She looks back up at Wrath, who is about to deliver the final blow. Amity holds her functioning arm protective over her face.
"AMITY, NOOOO!", Luz suddenly yells, and an extremely bright beam of energy hits Warden Wrath, hurling him not only off the stage but all the way across Bonesborough within a split second.
Silence falls. The charge of the air has vanished. Everyone, without exception, is suddenly looking at Luz, who is standing on the steps to the stage with her arm outstretched. A few small twinkles of lightning dance across her arm.
Completely stunned, Luz looks down her arms all the way to her hands. A final small spark of lightning forms between two of her fingers.
It's still completely silent. Only scattered whispers can be heard, as well as moans of pain. The bolts of lightning on Luz's arm are gone.
When she suddenly sees Amity collapse, she pushes all her current thoughts aside and immediately dashes to Amity's side.
Overhasty, she pulls out several regeneration glyphs from her pocket and spreads them all over Amity's body. In the meantime, there is no spot that doesn't glow.
"Please, Amity... don't do this to me... Come back", Luz cries, feeling completely desperate and helpless.
One wound after another closes. Even her shattered leg puts itself back together. Still, she does not move.
"Amity...", Luz bends over Amity's body and starts crying.
"Oh, well", the host suddenly announces, having entered the stage. "It looks like the Champion’s Belt is going to-"
"SHUT UP! NOT. A. SINGLE. FUCKING. WORD!", Luz yells at him, crying furiously.
He slowly exits the stage again, walking backwards, looking rather intimidated. And Luz turns back to the motionless Amity with teary eyes.
"You- you can't leave me. I just got you back...", Luz cries as she suddenly hears a soft painful moan. "Amity? Amity! Oh my gosh", Luz keeps crying.
"I... didn't know... that you... could... could curse like that...", Amity jokes softly between her pains. Luz laughs under her tears.
Infinitely relieved, she lays her head on Amity's.
"Ouch", she hisses.
"Sorry, sorry", Luz apologizes. "Can we finally get one of those amateurs of healers?", Luz shouts before turning back to Amity. "Don't worry, you'll feel better soon".
And indeed, so it was. The healers eventually came and carried Amity back to the medical tent. This time, far more carefully. The crowd had mostly cleared out and while Luz and the healers healed Amity's injuries together, the host of the event quickly visited to bring the Champion's Belt.
"Your friend really took a beating...", said the sympathetic old chief healer, who joined Luz outside the medical tent after they healed Amity together.
"Yes, unfortunately...", Luz replies.
Fortunately, the procedure did not take long. Only making new regeneration glyphs took its time. After all the injuries in Amity's body were healed, Luz had to leave the tent. Not because she was told to, but because she needed some distance. Because although not physically, Luz felt hurt. Deeply.
"Those things-"
"Glyphs.", Luz says.
"These glyphs are extremely handy. I've never seen anything like them before.... How did you discover them?", the chief healer asks.
"A friend had developed this particular glyph. There are others, all a gift from the island", Luz explains.
"I understand...", she says. "Although not really. But it's nice to see that they can do so much good. Your friend needs some rest before she should get up. Even though these glyphs don't consume any bile, they seem to take quite a bit out of the body."
"Seems so... One question: You are the first healer here who is halfway nice to me. Why?", Luz asks. The chief healer laughs.
"All these other jerks here are like.... Mercenaries. Just doing exactly what they're told to do. Not a damn thing more. And once they get their payment, they leave. I, on the other hand, am a full-fledged healer with my own clinic and all the rest."
"But you're not on duty here, are you?"
"Officially: no. But if it is necessary, I am always available. And if it so happens that a new kind of healing magic has been discovered in the meantime purely by chance, then all the better."
"Heh... I’d better show you exactly how this glyph works then"
"The glyph can wait. Look... here, take my card. If you don't have any plans tomorrow, stop by my clinic. Then you can show me how it works, and I'll see about passing the knowledge on to as many clinics as I can."
"That sounds like a good idea.", Luz admits.
"Speaking of good ideas, you might want to keep your friend company. Just some well-intentioned advice from me."
"Thanks. I'll take it to heart..."
Luz and the healer get up from the ground together and say their goodbyes as Luz heads back inside the tent while the chief healer leaves.
Amity is lying on the small treatment table that is in the middle of the tent. She is awake and lying on her side when Luz enters the otherwise empty tent again. She takes a stool and places it directly in front of the table.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"How are you feeling?", Luz asks softly.
"Exhausted...", Amity answers.
"Me too... though probably differently than you...". Amity raises an eyebrow.
"I think I know what you mean", Amity admits, ashamed. "I've gone too far."
"You almost died Amity, you almost got yourself killed...", Luz almost cries, "And all for a stupid belt..."
"I know", she admits.
"Was it worth it?", Luz asks.
Amity doesn't answer.
"I see... I mean, I get that you want to get closer to your dad, but if I.... I didn't..."
Actually, Luz doesn't even want to think about what would have happened if Luz hadn't intervened by pure luck. Would anyone have stopped Wrath? Would the audience have just watched if he had really gone through with it? Might they have even cheered and applauded?
No. No one would have done anything to help Amity. And if Luz hadn't been there...
"What exactly happened anyway? I just saw that Wrath was suddenly just gone...", Amity wonders. This time, though, Luz is the one who doesn't answer. "That was you, wasn't it?"
"I... I don't know. Maybe."
"Luz, look at me... you're half Titan now. And I think, that was a first impression on your own magic", Amity guesses.
"But for a price like that? I don't want magic at the cost of your life… I would never have forgiven myself"
"But those very skills saved my life.... YOU saved my life"
A small smile spreads across Luz' face. However, it also disappears again pretty much as quickly.
"Can you help me up?", Amity asks. Luz takes Amity's hands in her own and helps her to her feet. She is still a little wobbly but is able to catch herself quickly.
"I guess you want to go home?", Luz asks heavy heartedly.
"Actually, I had a little more planned for today, but I'm really exhausted."
"I can understand that-"
"But... There's one thing I'd like to show you. And don't worry, it's not a huge detour."
Slowly, hand in hand, Luz and Amity leave the event area. They are among the last ones. Only a few workers are still there to restore the area to its original state.
"Say, where's your... your... thingy?", Amity begins, but seems to have forgotten a word.
"The belt? It's right here over my shoulder", Luz states neutrally and Amity giggles.
"No, you dummy... I mean your illusion-thingy"
"Oh, my concealment bracelet? Um... it's on my arm?! Like it has been the entire time..."
"Good, good... Not to blow your cover...", Amity says in an unusual playful tone.
"Amity, is it possible that you're a little more than merely exhausted?", Luz asks.
"Hehe... Maybe... Uh, we have to go that way"
Amity leads Luz through one of the outer districts of Bonesborough to the immediate vicinity of the Conformatorium.
"What are we doing here?", Luz asks uneasily as the two girls sneak through various bushes and dodge patrols.
"Here.", Amity eventually says. Luz and Amity step through some dense bushes and enter a garden area of sorts. "My parents restored a city park once quite a few years ago. And my mom, being my mom, then bought the park, closed it to the public, and then forgot about it. Gardeners still come here now and then, but basically the park is unused."
"It's a nice story... But not really an answer to my question..."
"Let's walk a little further. Then you'll see."
Amity leads Luz, holding hands, along a small gravel path to some exceptionally large menhir stones that have been arranged in a semicircle around a small statue.
Tears well up on Luz' face as they get closer to the statue.
"King..." she whispers as she drops to her knees immediately in front of him.
"Look at the plaque"
"King... Clawthorne? But... But...", looking for answers she looks to Amity who smiles tiredly.
"As I said before, this park is unused. To preserve your memory, Willow, Gus and I had thought of making this a small memorial park when you were gone and we thought, you might not come back. We stole King's statue from its original place and brought it here. Actually, we wanted to do the same for the Owl - I mean, for Eda, but unfortunately, she is too heavily guarded", Amity explains and Luz only cries more, only now they are tears of joy.
"That's beautiful... And who had the idea to make him Eda's son?", Luz asks with tears in her eyes.
"I actually don't even remember. We just thought: pretty much all statues have first and last names. King doesn't have one, as far as we know. So, we thought, since he was always with Eda anyway, let's make him a Clawthorne."
"I... don't know what to say...", Luz admits as she wipes a tear away from her eye.
"You don't have to say anything-", Amity was about to start when Luz suddenly embraced her in a heartfelt hug, which she was only too happy to return.
They lingered there for a while, but then set off to take Amity back to Blight Manor. Amity is getting squishier in the head and should get some sleep urgently.
"Luz, wait!", Amity commanded as they both arrived at the large metal entrance gate to the Blight-property.
"What is it?"
"Luz Noceda... Do- Do you want to be.... my girlfriend?", Amity asked in her semi-drowsy state.
This question was rather unexpected for Luz, and admittedly she hadn't given this aspect much thought yet. But fortunately for her, she doesn't have to, because before Luz even has the chance to say anything, she is torn out of her thoughts by a snoring Amity who has fallen asleep on the ground.
'I'm not sure anymore...', Luz thinks to herself, 'Well, luckily the manor is not that far.' Luz picks Amity up from the ground and carries her the last little bit to the front door of Blight Manor. With an extremely complicated and unusually elegant move, Luz managed to ring the doorbell of the manor without having to set Amity down.
'Uh-Oh... I hope I didn't wake her parents.'
The large, wooden front door opens.
"Hey, Em...", Luz greets Amity's sister, who simply stares at her younger sister with wide eyes.
"Was wondering when you'd finally get home...", Emira says dryly.
"Yeah... A lot has happened.", Luz admits.
"I see."
"Can I come in? Amity's starting to get a little heavy", Luz asks whereupon Emira steps aside.
"Up the ramp, last door", she calls after Luz.
Luz carries Amity up to her room and gently lays her in her bed, with the Champion's Belt right next to her. As she is about to leave the room, Luz is slightly startled to see Emira standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.
Luz closes Amity's door behind her as she leaves the room.
"So, I guess your date was pretty successful?", Emira guesses.
"More or less.", Luz replies.
"Are you guys girlfriends now? How well did Mittens fight? Uhh, have you two kissed yet-"
"Em-", Luz interrupts her, "I’m extremely tired! I'd really like to go back to the Owl House and get some sleep right now. I'm sure Amity will be able to answer all your questions tomorrow...", Luz says tiredly and exhausted.
"Hmm... sounds rather unsatisfying. I mean, I'm waiting here all day for the latest gossip, and you just want to go to sleep?", Em asks sarcastically pretending to be offended.
"Yup."
"Fair enough. Want me to fly you there?", Emira offers.
"That would be really nice... I'd even be willing to answer one of your questions for you."
"DEAL!"
At the same day in another realm...
Two figures are standing in front of a stone, holding hands with each other. The taller of the two kneels directly in front of the stone and puts down a bouquet of flowers.
"Hola mi amado…", the taller woman begins in a rather sad tone, "I still can't believe that it's been another year already, time really flies by way too fast.... ... I won't lie, it has been a tough year for us. There's always way too much to do at the clinic, we're always understaffed and I'm rarely home.... you know how it is... But well, enough from me. I wish you could see your daughter right now. I, uh... I sent Luz to a summer camp over the summer and when she came back, she was like a whole new person. Luz's grades have improved massively, and guess what? She even had a sleepover at a friend's house the other night."
She wipes a tear of joy from her face as the smaller figure hugs the older woman's arm.
"Do you want to tell anything as well, mija?"
"We miss you, papi."
The two of them remain in that position for a few more minutes, hand in hand.
"Luz, be so kind and go ahead to the car. I'll be right there. And when we get home, we'll make pizza together. I even bought the right cheese this time, so that we don't make the same mistake as last time".
Giggling briefly, the younger girl walks off and the older woman puts her hand on the stone one last time.
"Te amo y te extraño mucho"
Notes:
What a ride, right?
So, what do you think? <3
Remember, I live from your commentsPS: Next chapter will be set back in Amphibia
Chapter 26: Things Change [Part 1]
Summary:
Anne, Marcy, Maddie and the Plantars arrive in Wartwood.
Immediately after, Anne, Marcy, Maddie and Sprig leave again in order to search Luz.
Notes:
Exactly six months ago, I published the very first chapter on this site. I had never written anything in this direction before and I thought at first that I would lose interest in writing again after maybe only a few chapters. And now look where we are today, six months later....
26 chapters. Over 125000 words. More than 9200 views and 218 kudos. This story has its own TV Tropes page, maintained by great people (special thanks to Wilmar10 for initially creating the page, and to Crosshot, who probably puts more of their own time into it than I ever could).And to celebrate this milestone, not only do you get a new (half) chapter today, I also completely rewrote chapter 1 entirely with more being in the process.
With that said: Have fun reading
TL;DR: 'A Lost Owl' is 6 months old today. Yay
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It was supposed to be five days before Anne, Maddie, and the Plantars would arrive back in Wartwood after picking up Marcy. At that point, Anne and Hop Pop had been taking turns driving every twelve hours while the other got to make a pause, hoping to get back to Wartwood as quickly as possible and with as few breaks as possible.
One night, however, when both of them climbed back into the Plantars' family fwagon, completely overtired and exhausted, Marcy offered to take over Bessie for a while.
Hop Pop had doubts about this idea, but was no longer awake enough to make them sound, and merely insisted that she read Bessie's manual. But Marcy being Marcy, had already read through the book when, while Anne was driving, she was bored and everyone else in the fwagon was already asleep. Maddie had also taken a look at the book one night, but she couldn't keep up with Marcy's reading speed and since she was so extremely absorbed in the book, it wasn't possible to ask her to slow down, so Maddie had given up on it at some point.
And so, Marcy had read the entire book and later that night took over the driver's seat for Bessie. With now three people able to ride Bessie, it was now no problem at all to travel the whole time at a stretch, with occasional rest breaks for Bessie. Driving the distance from Wartwood to Newtopia and back within just one month is anything but easy. Bessie is extremely tough, and she understands that the Plantars want to get home quickly, but she's not the kind of snail who can keep moving through the rough terrain continuously for days on end.
"Anne. Anne, wake up. We're almost there."
The first few rays of sunlight of a new day have appeared on the horizon, and Marcy has been guiding Bessie all night through extremely thick fog that has obscured her view of the ground.
"Mmm...", Anne grumbles as she has slept in the driver's seat snuggled up to Marcy throughout the night. She yawns profusely as Marcy stops the fwagon. "Mar-Mar... Why are we stopping?"
"Just look over there", Marcy says in excitement. Bessie and the fwagon stand on a rocky path that runs right along the mountain range that surrounds Frog valley. Anne blinks several times to clear the fatigue from her eyes as she suddenly comes face to face with a breathtaking image.
"We're... home", Anne states in a soft voice. "B-but we weren't supposed to arrive for at least another couple of days. How can we be here already?" she asks, confused.
"Well, I may or may not have taken what could be considered a shortcut", Marcy says as she rubs the back of her neck.
"Marce, you're the best", Anne says, hugging her best friend before turning around and pounding hard on the roof of the fwagon a few times to wake up the rest.
"Guys, we're home!", she calls excitedly before her mood tips. "Home...", she adds in a whisper, lost in thought.
At least until the fwagon's roof hatch pops open, Sprig comes out and says with wide, sparking eyes "Whoa.... I didn't know this road existed around here."
Marcy giggles and the other residents of the fwagon walk out of the regular entrance one by one to stretch their legs for once and see what the unscheduled wake up is all about.
Especially Hop Pop and Polly are grumbling.
Sprig doesn't mind being woken up that much, because his body is basically like a swarm of zapapedes.
And Maddie is particularly similar to Marcy in the fact that she barely sleeps. She had also stayed up all night working on her book, which she started writing after leaving Newtopia. What exactly it is about, however, she had not yet revealed to anyone. Not because it is supposed to be a secret, but rather because she was too absorbed in writing that she had blocked out everyone around her.
The frogs are standing on the cliff that leads into the abyss, overlooking the valley. Suddenly, Sprig notices something unusual and points in a certain direction.
"That's Wartwood back there, isn't it?" he asks.
"That's right, boy", Hop Pop replies after realizing exactly where his grandson is pointing.
"What's that white stuff over there?", Sprig continues to ask.
"Sorry, kid. My eyes aren't that good anymore, I'm afraid", Hop Pop replies. Sprig turns to Polly and Maddie, who just shrug their shoulders. He turns further to Anne and Marcy, who are still sitting on the fwagon.
"Hey, Marcy. Did you bring your binoculars?"
Marcy rummages in her pockets for a moment and pulls out a retractable pocket binocular and tosses it to Sprig.
"Always", she says, and Sprig turns back toward Wartwood, this time with the binoculars in front of his eyes.
"There are tents there", Sprig observes.
"Tents?", Hop Pop asks.
"Yeah. Right outside the village. Lots of 'em.", Sprig adds, which now gets the attention of Anne, who drops off the fwagon and asks Sprig for the binoculars.
"Whoa... Yeah, you didn't underplay it", Anne exclaims in amazement. "What is that? A tent city for a concert?", she jokes.
"I think it's the Frog Rebellion", Marcy says, who has now left her spot on the fwagon as well. Anne's face loses all its color when Marcy mentions the frog rebellion.
"Oh crud... I completely forgot about that", Anne says in shock.
"Such things happen-", Marcy says in a soothing tone.
"No Marce, you don't understand. Those frogs down there... They expect me to lead them..."
'… Sasha was actually right about that?', Marcy thought to herself while still trying to process. Anne meanwhile continues
"But, you know, I don't wanna do that. Like, at all. But they didn't accept a 'no' from me back then..."
Suddenly a thought occurs to Marcy.
"Maybe that's not such a bad idea.... Like, having you lead the frog rebellion", Marcy says.
"Oh no, not you too…", Anne groans.
"Look, before I came here, King Andrias had sent me and Yunan on a mission. I'm supposed to restore peace here in the valley. And to do it without bloodshed if possible...", Marcy tells. "Okay, I made up the 'without bloodshed' part. He hadn't said that, but I'm going to try anyway", she added proudly.
"And how exactly do you envision that?", Anne asks.
"Actually, it's pretty simple: find out what's bothering the two sides, identify the individual problems, solve those problems, and then get both sides to sit down and talk to each other", Marcy explains. Anne's thoughts, however, are already a step further.
"Before you joined us.... You were in Toad Tower... weren't you?", Anne asks quite worriedly, while Marcy's expression drains away. "Look, I know you didn't want to talk about this before, about what exactly happened..."
"You're right. About both, actually. I will tell you what happened. But not now. I... I'm not ready yet."
"Okay", Anne merely replies, but in a compassionate tone, while Marcy seems to be hurting from the memory. Anne puts an arm around Marcy before they both ultimately turn back around and head back to the fwagon. The same goes for the frogs, who have more or less involuntarily overheard the conversation and are now similarly affected by the dense atmosphere.
The group sets off again on the last leg of their journey home. Before they leave, however, Hop Pop had insisted that he drives Bessie the rest of the way and that the two human girls stay in the fwagon, especially considering that Marcy has been driving for the entire last night.
Anne now sits on the big bed together with Sprig and Polly, watching her do something on her phone. Marcy, on the other hand, is sitting at the table with Maddie
"Hey, Mads...", Marcy begins after she sits down. Maddie gives her a disconcerted look.
"That sounds weird... Not sure I like it", Maddie responds dryly.
"Noted. Um, I was just wondering what you were doing there?", Marcy asks curiously as Maddie pulls out her book in order to continue writing. Maddie is delighted that someone is interested in it.
"It's one of the reasons I came to Newtopia in the first place: I wanted to deepen and expand my knowledge of magic, and I figured where better to do that than in the world's largest library"
"Makes sense"
"Unfortunately, the library wasn't as helpful as I had hoped. Luz, on the other hand, was even more so. The kind of magic she had discovered in her world is so foreign and yet so simple once you decipher the Titan's language"
"The Titan's whaaaa...?"
"Did- Luz never explained how her glyphs worked? Or how she discovered them?", Marcy shakes her head. Maddie takes one deep breath before opening one of the first pages of her book, which has a detailed sketch inside.
"This is the Titan, the corpse of an ancient giant in the Demon Realm. Those remains form the Boiling Isles and from its flesh and stuff Witches and Demons evolved over time."
"Cool sketch", Marcy suddenly interrupts Maddie's fast-paced narration. "I didn't know you could draw that good."
"Actually, this is a sketch Luz provided me when she told me about that world"
"Still very cool", Marcy admires the sketch of the titan.
"Anyway... Most Witches and Demons were born with an internal ability that allows them to use magic. An organ that sits at their heart and produces bile.... So, now let's move on to Luz. Since she doesn't have such an organ, she had to find another method to be able to use magic. The Glyphs. They are, and I quote, 'A gift from the island'.", Maddie continues to narrate, flipping through her book until she comes to drawings of intentionally incomplete glyphs. Incomplete glyphs prevent unwanted activations that could eventually tear the book apart.
"The glyphs themselves Luz actually showed me before. I already know those", Marcy interjects.
"Very good. Generally speaking, Luz had discovered the basic glyphs most purely by accident. Light first from another Witch's spell, Ice from a snowflake, Organic Matter from a flower, and Fire again from another Witch's spell. When Luz had first told me about it, I had immediately realized that the glyphs were something like words. Or well, the Titan equivalent of them. And I was able to further explore them and make sentences out of them, these more complex glyphs", Maddie continues, also flipping through her book, where an invisibility glyph is also deliberately incomplete, along with descriptions of the individual components, or sub-glyphs, that make up the invisibility glyph.
"Did you ever figure out why Luz is the only one who can use the glyphs?", Marcy asks curiously.
"No-", Maddie replies sadly.
"Or do you at least have theories on why that is?"
"Several, actually. But since Luz is no longer here, I can't actually neither prove nor disprove any of them"
"I can help", Marcy says, suddenly excited.
"Really?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty interested in magic too. Aand, I have the knowledge of quite several dozen fandoms on my side, which could help us"
Maddie briefly considers what these fandoms might be but dismisses that thought again fairly quickly.
"All right. My first theory is actually more about biological differences between you, Anne, and Luz.", Marcy looks confused, but listens intently nonetheless. "Luz had told me that on your home world she comes from a different part of the planet than you and Anne. Do physiological differences exist within your species that might allow the use of magic?"
Marcy is a little irritated by this question, until she remembers that amphibians can develop vastly different physical characteristics depending on where they live and grow up.
"No", Marcy replies, "Basically, all humans on Earth are the same, regardless of where they were born. There may be differences in skin colors or slight internal adjustments to the local climate, but that's about it."
In the meantime, Maddie had pulled out a notepad and jotted down a few key words, as well as crossed something out on another page.
"Okay, I get it... Luz doesn't have a biological advantage over you guys in terms of magic use...", Maddie mumbles to herself as she writes.
"Who has an advantage?", Anne suddenly asks after getting up from the bed and joining the other two at the table along with Sprig and Polly.
"We're just going over some of Maddie's theories about why only Luz could use glyphs, while we couldn't.", Marcy explains.
"Ahhhh... I see", Anne says, who now is thinking rather hard. "Ain't got nothing."
Marcy chuckles. "Well, maybe it has something to do with nutrition. Maddie, you said that life in the Demon Realm evolved from the Titan's remains, and that is where the magic comes from.... Maybe Luz somehow absorbed some of that magic through food", Marcy surmises, while Anne's face contorts in disgust. "What is it, Anne?"
"Eating bugs is okay. But feeding on a decomposing creature...", Anne complains. "No, thank you."
Maddie ignored Anne's comment in its entirety. "Your theory is not bad at all and comes quite close to my third theory. However, it assumes that glyphs require that the person who wants to activate them has magic of some sort."
Suddenly Anne speaks up.
"I have magic in me", she states, "And I couldn't activate the glyphs either."
This gets Maddie and Marcy thinking. Neither of them speaks a word, and only the sound of the fwagon driving along the stony path prevents absolute silence.
"Okay, so it definitely has to be something to do with the Boiling Isles that Luz was able to bring to other worlds...", Maddie states the facts again. "Witches use bile, while you... ... Anne, do you happen to know what exactly the source of your magic is?"
"Exactly? No. But I suspect it's one of the three Gems on the music box we came here with", Anne guesses. Obviously, she had never asked herself that question before.
"I'd love to examine the Gem in person if it would be possible", Maddie says.
"Sure. As soon as Hop Pop gets the box back from his contacts you can take a look."
"Perfect. Um, where was I? Oh yeah, Boiling Isles", Maddie recalls briefly before Marcy suddenly gasps loudly. All eyes turn to her.
"New theory: you said the glyphs were a gift from the island, right? Maybe the magic there acts like some kind of background radiation", Marcy says excitedly, "You know, like.... Like the Force. From Star Wars... Although..."
No one at the table understands exactly what Marcy means. Radiation? The Force? Star Wars? None of the frogs had ever heard even one of those terms. Only Anne seems to know what Marcy means.
"Could fit", Anne mutters, before seeing all the questioning faces before her. "Umm, a fitting comparison for radiation would be.... Heat. Like when you hold your hands over a fire and feel the heat. You don't see it, but you know it's there."
"Ahhhh... I think I understand", Maddie says.
"So do I. Maybe.", Sprig says uncertainly.
"All I heard was 'fire'", Polly says.
"But Marce", Anne begins, "The Force is more like something people can actively access. I don't think Luz can do the same with her glyphs..."
Huge question marks form on the heads of the nearby frogs, who try to make sense of what the two humans are talking about.
A loud knock on the roof of the fwagon, however, drags them all back to reality.
"Hey kids", Hop Pop calls down from above, "Come on out here. We'll be back in Wartwood in a bit."
Anne, Sprig and Polly immediately sprint to the roof hatch and climb out of the fwagon. Marcy also wants to follow them, but first turns to Maddie, who doesn't make any semblance of wanting to come along.
"Don't worry about me…", Maddie says placatingly, "I have the view out the window if I want to."
Marcy feels a little torn about whether to stay with Maddie or go to Anne and the Plantars.
Although Marcy is absolutely no expert at reading other people’s emotions, she can tell that something is bothering Maddie. Something other than her book. She makes a mental note to ask Maddie about it sometime when the timing is better.
Marcy's gaze lingers on Maddie for a few more seconds before she eventually does join Anne and the Plantars on the roof.
"-It really looks like the whole valley is here...", Marcy hears Hop Pop say, having just climbed out of the roof hatch and taking a look at the area around the fwagon. "But I still missed the swamp air. The aroma of grass, a whisper of manure, and just a pinch of humidity."
Slowly they move along the dirt road, trying not to knock down the tents that are too close to the edge of the road, nor all the frogs and occasional toads and newts that wander carelessly along the trail.
"Whoa", Marcy comments in surprise. 'Okay, Yunan did say there were a lot of frogs here, but I didn't expect that'.
On either side of the path are tents as far as the eye can see. Smoke from campfires rises between some, many people are casually chatting and occasionally she sees Toads or Bullfrogs training a group of frogs in sword combat.
A short time later, the fwagon passes the stone archway that marks the entrance to Wartwood. And interestingly enough, behind that entrance there is not a single tent left, but plenty of people.
"Okay guys, we're going to head straight for the farm", Hop Pop decides as he has to slow down even more, trying to move the fwagon through the crowd in the center of the village. "I've never seen Wartwood so full of life. Not even at peak market times"
"I think there are almost as many frogs here as there are Newts in Newtopia", Anne surmises, equally amazed but actually a bit intimidated at the same time, taking into account that she thinks she's expected to lead all those thousands and thousands of frogs into rebellion against the Toads' oppression.
Fortunately, the Plantars' farm is located just outside Wartwood. Not a single soul is to be found here.
"Aaand we're home.", Hop Pop declares with relief. The others are audibly relieved as well, at least until Hop Pop announces inappropriately cheerfully a short time later, "Kids, you're helping unpack!"
Anne, Sprig and Polly groan in frustration. Marcy, on the other hand, just grins at the sight of the others' annoyance.
"Hey guys!", Maddie suddenly shouts who has left the fwagon in the meantime and is standing in front of it with her book and two bags under her arms, attracting the attention of everyone else on the roof. "Thank you so much for giving me a ride".
"Well, that goes without saying. There's no way we would have just left you in Newtopia", Hop Pop replies.
"Thanks anyway", Maddie says. "Oh, one more thing, I just want to put my stuff away and then go try to find Luz. You guys want to come along?"
While Marcy immediately agrees, Anne, Sprig, and Polly look expectantly and wide-eyed at Hop Pop. Torn between the thankless task of having to clear everything out of the fwagon back into the house and having to put up with his grandchildren's nagging the rest of the day if they're not allowed to go, he takes a deep breath and allows them to go, but only on the condition that they at least help clear part out the fwagon first.
"All right", Maddie says. "I probably need, like, twenty minutes. I'll be back as soon as I'm ready."
Maddie waves goodbye and Hop Pop climbs down from the fwagon and starts to untie the fwagon from Bessie. At the same time, he already hands out the tasks.
"Sprig, Polly: You two take Bessie to the barn in a moment. Marcy, if you like, you can help me undo Bessie's latches. If not, you can at least start thinking about where you want to sleep later."
"Of course I'll help", Marcy said happily before Hop Pop continues.
"Anne, why don't you go ahead to the house and have Chuck give you the front door key?"
"Sure thing, HP", Anne said and walked leisurely to the front door of the plantar farm. Briefly, her memory of completely destroying the farm in an attempt to help, just before she left, flashed back into her mind. That thought immediately fades again as Anne stands in front of the door, wanting to knock, when it suddenly opens from the inside and a small mint-green frog with a large hat covering its eyes is now facing her.
Anne, somewhat perplexed, thinks to herself 'How can this guy see anything?', before her thoughts snap back to reality.
"Heeey Chuck. Hop Pop wanted me to get the key- Yeah, that's the one. Thanks."
Before Anne can even fully state her request, Chuck holds the front door key in front of her. Anne is about to enter, when Chuck suddenly holds her lightly by the leg. Anne turns around and he holds out an envelope.
Somewhat irritated, she accepts it, opens it and reads the letter.
Anne, if you are reading this, please come visit me. We have a lot to talk about
- Ben Flawrik
Anne doesn't like this at all and expresses this feeling with a long stretched frustrated groan.
"Chuck, you know this Ben, right?"
He nods.
"Can you tell him that I'm definitely not going to talk to him today? It's been a very long trip and I'd like to get some rest..."
Chuck tilts his hat at Anne, saying "I grow Tulips", and disappears into nothingness right before her eyes. Anne rubs her eyes in disbelief before dismissing what she just saw as nothing special, before going to her basement and falling into her bed.
"Oouu, how I've missed you", Anne says, kissing her pillow over and over again until she finally just lies down, enjoying the peace and quiet.
The sun has not yet risen far above the horizon so its rays are shining directly through the basement window into the basement. As a result of the thick, dust-soaked air, Anne sees each ray as if it were a string floating in the air. She calmly lies on her bed for a while and relaxes, watching the dust-infused air move in the sunlight. At some point, however, lying on one side became too uncomfortable and she turned her head to the other side, only to look directly at the empty hammock next to the stairs.
She can't take her eyes off it and slight sadness fills her mind.
Anne closes her eyes and takes one deep breath before sitting upright on her mattress. She takes the envelope, which is now somewhat crumpled, into her hands.
The squeak of the basement hatch jolts Anne out of her thoughts. It's Sprig, holding a backpack in his hands.
"Oh, there you are, Anne. Didn't you hear me calling?", Sprig asks.
"I must have been too deep in my thoughts", Anne replies, still holding the envelope in her hands. Sprig claims down the stairs and sits down across Anne on her bed.
"What's that?" he asks curiously. Anne takes the letter out of the envelope and shows it to Sprig.
"This is about the rebellion, isn't it?", Anne nods in response to his question. "And you don't want to do that, right?"
Anne nods again.
"I don't want to fight. I don't want to hurt anyone.... ... Not if I can help it. The thing is just... Part of me knows that this is something bigger than me..."
Sprig says nothing. He just listens intently to his friend.
"And then there's Luz, who has to be somewhere since she just vanished like a week ago, probably still possessed by that wolf thing..."
"It feels like you have to carry the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, am I right?", Anne doesn't respond, instead fidgeting with the letter Sprig handed back to her. "You do know that no one here is going to force you to do anything, right?"
Anne looks at Sprig with a doubtful look.
"And even if they are", Sprig begins, "you don't have to go through this alone. You've got me, Hop Pop, Marcy... and Polly if she happens to feel like-"
Anne chuckles lightly.
"- and even though we're not all that close to Maddie, I'm sure she'd help you out immediately as well. You can always count on us to be there for you"
"Spranne against the world?", Anne asks after a few seconds with a smile on her face.
"Spranne against the world.", Sprig replies happily. Anne smiles and makes an effort to get up from her bed.
"What was that you had in your hand just now, by the way?", Anne asks.
"Oh, that's Luz's stuff.", Sprig said, picking up the backpack again, which he just put on the floor before and peeks inside. "Her cloak, her clothes, her phone, several glyphs.... I figured her things would be best kept with you"
"Oh, yeah. All right... Makes sense. Let's go find her now then!", Anne declares.
"YES!", Sprig confirmed and the two of them are sprinting up the stairs. Anne is momentarily quite surprised that she didn't trip in the process, as fast as she ran all the way up. Rushing out the front door, they knock over Hop Pop, who is carrying suitcases in both hands, causing him to fall backwards.
"Ugh, watch it!", Hop Pop shouts out as he falls on his bottom, fortunately unharmed, while Sprig and Anne, who are running past him, merely shouting a quick "sorry". Hop Pop simply rolls his eyes and Anne and Sprig stop at the fwagon to pick up Marcy and Polly.
"Marcy? Polly? Are you guys in here?", Sprig asks, just before Polly emerges.
"What do you want?" she asks, rather frustrated.
"Whoa... What's with the pissed off look?", Anne asks.
"Hop Pop wants me to bring all the dirty laundry into the house... ", Polly explains as she pulls out a smelly bag from behind her. Anne and Sprig immediately hold their noses.
"I'm almost impressed with how well the laundry basket has been able to keep the smells in it all this time", Anne says.
"Maybe we should have taken a break to wash the stuff in between", Sprig says. "Anyway. We want to go find Luz. You coming?"
Surprisingly, Polly hesitates. "Actually, I originally just wanted to come along so I wouldn't have to do these annoying tasks. But since Hop Pop has already forced me to start doing things, I want to go through with it."
Anne and Sprig's eyes widen in disbelief when they hear this.
"Who are you and what did you do to my sister?", Sprig accuses as he lifts her up and shakes her by the shoulders.
"Yeah... unusual that you don't feel like going on another adventure for once".
"I spent a week in this thing here with you guys. And I think it would do us all a favor to keep some distance from each other for a while...", Polly explained very calmly and composedly and both Anne and Sprig are suddenly overcome with the sudden urge to want to run as far away from Polly as possible, as quickly as possible.
"Alright dude, we'll leave you alone then", Anne waves goodbye hastily and pulls Sprig along. As they move away from fwagon, Sprig thought it would be a good idea to peak back into the fwagon to ask his sister if she had seen Marcy. This question very quickly became moot when Polly starts throwing dirty laundry at him.
Fortunately, the two friends don't have to look for Marcy, as she just comes out from behind the fwagon. Hastily, Anne grabs Marcy by the shoulders, turns her in the opposite direction and pushes her somewhat hurriedly away from the fwagon just before Marcy could say anything.
"Keep running if you value your life", Anne says ominously as she continues to push Marcy ahead of her with Sprig walking beside her, all the way to the far end of the property. "Okay, we should be safe here...", Anne pants as they come to a stop. Confused, Marcy looks back and forth between Anne and Sprig.
"What was that?" she asks.
"Danger. Polly. Laundry", Anne continues to pant.
Marcy was about to point out that she doesn't even begin to understand what they're currently so afraid of, when she sees an excited mob of village residents approaching them.
A few of the older residents walk right up to Anne and Sprig while completely ignoring Marcy.
"Hello Anne, glad to see you're back. Any luck finding a way back to your own world?"
"Glad to see you too, Mrs. Croaker", Anne smiles, "But unfortunately not really yet. But we're whittling away at it"
"That wood reference was for me", Loggle chuckles.
"And... we lost Luz", Anne adds with sad undertone.
"Oh no, she seemed like such a nice girl.... How did she die?", Mrs. Croaker asks sympathetically. Anne looks at her in confusion before realizing what she was talking about.
"Oh, no. She didn't die. I hope. She just disappeared. We're actually on our way to go look for her right now, thinking she might be somewhere in the valley", Anne resolves the misunderstanding.
"Ahh, I see", Mrs. Croaker said before gesturing without taking her eyes off Anne to the human next to her, who is currently trying very hard to force a friendly smile on her face, asking, "And who is that?"
"Oh, yeah. People of Wartwood: Meet Marcy Wu."
Smiling nervously, Marcy holds out an outstretched hand to her. Mrs. Croaker, however, continues to pay her no attention.
"Oh, great. Just what we need. Another outsider we have to feed. It's not as if Wartwood is already bursting at the seams.... I'll be glad when this rebellion is finally over someday", Mrs. Croaker complains just before her tone brightens again. "But well, good to have you back and good luck in your quest. We're off to pick up our gifts now."
The mob moves past Anne, Sprig and Marcy. Marcy and Sprig are both a bit downcast.
"She didn't even say hello to me...", Sprig complains.
"What am I supposed to say? She didn't even look at me...", Marcy adds.
"What did she mean by 'they're going to pick up their gifts?", Anne asks aloud to herself.
None of the comments and questions are answered as Maddie approaches them from the end of the passing mob.
"Hey guys. You guys ready?", Maddie asks excitedly.
"Um, sure... Maddie, do you have any idea what this mob was babbling about gifts?", Anne asks. Maddie is just as aware as Anne and merely shrugs her shoulders. "Well, Hop Pop and Polly are sorting it out. Luckily, it's not an angry mob..."
The group slowly makes their way through the mass of frogs filling the town center, out of Wartwood and into the densely-wooded forest that surrounds the village.
"So, where are we going?", Marcy asks, bubbling with curiosity as they keep walking. She has already forgotten the disappointment she felt only a moment ago. "You mentioned in Newtopia that you had a suspicion about where Luz might have flown off to..."
"Indeed. My guess is that she's in the place where Luz and I revived Hop Pop", Maddie explains. The others just look at her, speechless. Anne is the first to recover her words.
"Why didn't you mention this before, anyway? And what makes you think she's actually there?" she asks.
"It can have negative effects on the resuscitated person if you talk about the circumstances of the resuscitation in their presence and recall corresponding memories. Emphasis on 'can'."
"How?", Marcy interjects.
"The process of resuscitation is very traumatic, as the spirit or soul or whatever you want to call it is dragged out of the afterlife and packed back into the body. But the soul, let's call it that, doesn't want to leave and resists it with all its might. And the memories of it better never resurface. I have read in ancient textbooks of higher magic that intelligent life forms can succumb to irrecoverable insanity should they relive that memory. After resuscitation, the first thing the body does, is erase all recent memories, and in return the rest of the body is briefly put into a coma-like state that may last for weeks, depending on how much time elapses between the onset of death and resuscitation."
In the meantime, while Maddie was narrating, Marcy had pulled out a notepad and was trying to write down what Maddie was saying.
"Maddie?", Marcy asks.
"Yes?"
"Can I be your apprentice?", Marcy requests, filled with admiration for Maddie's knowledge of magic. "This is all soo endlessly cool and I'm literally dying to know more. And you're probably the greatest magic expert in all of Amphibia..."
Maddie blushes slightly at Marcy's praise.
"Marcy, I'm honored that you asked me. However, I should point out to you first that I'm not even a level two witch.... Although, with the discovery of magic on other worlds, I guess someone would have to develop a new scale sometime..."
Marcy gasps heavily. "There is a leveling system??? Anne, did you hear that? I could level my magic skills..."
Anne, walking with Sprig a few meters behind them, smiles at the sight of Marcy, whose excitement and joy currently knows no bounds as she bounces in excitement.
"Maddie, you have by far the greatest knowledge of not one, but two magic systems in all of Amphibia. I want to learn from you. Teach me everything you know. Please please please", Marcy begs with big puppy eyes.
Maddie doesn't have to think long about whether or not to accept Marcy's request.
"Marcy Wu, I would be truly honored to have you as my student and guide you through the many levels of amphibian magic", Maddie proudly announces to Marcy.
"WOOHOO", Marcy cheers.
"So happy for you, MarMar", Anne says.
"Yeah, you can do it Marcy", Sprig says. "I still think Maddie is creepy though", he adds quietly talking to himself.
"I heard that", Maddie notes and Sprig freezes for a second. "Also, thank you. That's a nice compliment", Maddie adds smirking as she notices Sprig's anxiety.
"So, Master Maddie, are we going to start the first lesson now or after we’ve found Luz?", Marcy asks impatiently excitedly and Sprig adds:
"And when are we going to be at this magical place, you're leading us to right now? Or are you just going to trap us and then feed us as bait to a savage and extremely dangerous beast because you need the blood of brutally slaughtered little frogs for one of your rituals?"
The three girls all turn to Sprig with somewhat disturbed looks.
"Dude...", Anne comments first.
"Sheesh, I thought we clarified sometime in the last few weeks that I would never hurt my friends.... That includes you, Sprig.", Maddie says reassuringly.
"Yeah, I know. I was just kidding...", Sprig chuckles nervously. In fact, he doesn't know himself right now why he's suddenly so intimidated by Maddie all over again, especially since he was locked in the fwagon with her the entire ride from Newtopia where everything was alright. Maybe the same thing is happening to him now as it did to Polly, and he's actually just as exhausted as his sister is, even though, he doesn’t actively feel physically exhausted.
"Anyway... Marcy, think of the search for Luz as your introduction to potions, as well as some places where I do my experiments, should they be on our way", Maddie explains to Marcy.
"YES! YES! YES! I'm readyy."
"Um, quick question", Anne interjects politely, "How do potions help us find Luz?"
Maddie stops for a moment to look for something in her bag hanging around her shoulder. She first pulls out a stack of glyphs, which she stares at in confusion, before putting them back. She had actually thought she had cleared them all out back at her place. Maddie pulls out a vial with red, sparkling liquid in it from her bag.
"This is a throwable level one trace potion", Maddie explains, and Marcy whoa's in excitement. "How it works is really simple: When you throw it, within a radius of several meters, every imprint on the ground is marked in color. This applies to all prints that are up to a month old."
"And what about higher level potions?", Anne asks with honest curiosity.
"Depending on how well the potion was brewed, it is possible to see not only the prints on the ground, but a complete image of the person who left it"
"Wow", Anne is impressed. An excited Marcy turns to her and shakes her by her shoulders.
"You see Anne? Isn't magic really the coolest thing in the world?"
The group has now been walking in the forest for an hour and a half. Maddie continues to lead the way, Marcy continues to chat with her about various potions and magic in general, all the while filling her notebook. Anne and Sprig, who don't have that much interest or knowledge on the subject, continue to walk a bit behind the other two girls.
"Say, do you also feel that Maddie has no idea where she's leading us?", Sprig asks.
"At first, I didn’t... But we've been walking forever. I'm not sure anymore", Anne replies.
Suddenly, Anne stops dead in her tracks and abruptly turns around to face the back. Not for the first time, as Sprig notes.
"I already told you-"
"Shh!"
The two friends remain standing still, motionless, as Anne eyes the woods behind her critically. A short time later, she sighs and they continue walking again.
"I told you we weren't followed", Sprig remarks.
"Yeah, I know, but...", Anne sighs in frustration, "I just can't shake this feeling that someone else is here. Dense forests like this gives me chills"
"Maybe there is a ghost following us, but it's only visible or audible when we're not looking", Sprig guesses jokingly.
"I completely forgot 'til now that ghosts really do exist here...", Anne states aghast. "Besides, I'm really sure I heard footsteps..."
"Or maybe you're just tired. Frog forbid, I am though", Sprig confesses, until they both suddenly hear Marcy calling from further ahead.
"GUYS, COME QUICK. WE'RE HERE."
Anne and Sprig make a small sprint until a larger clearing opens up in front of them and the group is standing in front of tall, stony ruins.
"Whoaaaa...", Anne, Sprig and Marcy exclaim almost simultaneously. Marcy immediately wandered off to examine all the ruins more closely in amazement.
"These are ancient Amphibian runes...", Marcy mumbles to herself. Anne and Sprig are still capturing the true extent of the ruins when suddenly Maddie came out from behind a ruin.
"We may have a problem", she announces. Anne and Sprig exchange a worried look before sprinting over to her. Marcy, on the other hand, continues to focus unimpeded on the writing on one of the former bigger pillars.
"Someone's been here", Maddie states when Anne and Sprig have arrived by her side and are standing in front of a light gray, abandoned-looking tent, in front of which what must have been a campfire, secured with brick-shaped stones.
"The fire's been out for a while...", Sprig remarks as he kneels directly in front of the fire pit, "There's some paper in there.... Someone burned something here"
Sprig pulls out a few individual charred scraps of paper from between the burnt wood and tries to discern what might have once been on it, ultimately to no avail.
"Sprig, you're a world-class tracker, but you won't be able to decipher anything from this", Anne points out. Meanwhile, Maddie takes a look inside the tent.
"The tent is empty... Whoever was here is long gone."
"See if you can find any traces here with your potion. Maybe whoever owned this tent has something to do with Luz disappearing", Sprig suggests.
"Good idea. I had that in mind, too. Take a few steps back please!", Maddie orders and the three of them all take several steps away from the tent before Maddie throws one of her trace potions.
As the glass shatters on the ground, the liquid splashes in all directions seemingly at complete random. Everything remains motionless for a moment until the liquid seeps into the ground. Then suddenly, footprints on the floor become visible.
"Okay, those are definitely not Luz's footprints", Anne observes.
"Those are boot prints... From a Newt...", Sprig says with certainty.
"What makes you think it was a Newt?", Anne asks as Maddie wordlessly walks away from both of them.
"Well, the tracks are way too small and not deep enough for toads. It can't be frogs either, because.... Well, do you know any frogs from around here that wear boots?", Sprig asks doubtfully.
"Right", Anne agrees without thinking twice. "But there are no newts living here. The only place I can think of would be... New-to-pi-a...", she says while her thought drift apart.
Anne suspects something terrible, and she doesn't like it at all.
Shortly after, Maddie returns, with Marcy in tow.
"Oh Anne, this place is so cool. These runes here tell of a time when a fourth species existed here in Amphibia-", Marcy boasts, before an alarmed Anne interrupts her by putting her hand over her mouth.
"Marcy!"
Marcy falls silent and nods before Anne continues.
"Do you know if anyone from Newtopia was here within the last month?", Anne sternly asks. Marcy's gaze moves from Anne to the tent and the fire pit, right behind her friend. She is slightly confused by the sight.
"That... is a tent from the Newtopian army.... Standard equipment for field operations. I don't know of any missions in this area off the top of my head. As far as I know, even now, Yunan and I are the only ones with an official mission here in the valley."
"MarMar, whoever owns this tent might have something to do with Luz's disappearance...", Anne clarifies.
"As I said, I don't know", Marcy repeats.
"Guys, come on. Let's go inside", Maddie now speaks up.
"Go inside?? Where?", Anne questioned in confusion.
Maddie led her friends to a tall, stone archway. She went through first and suddenly just disappeared. To say the others are surprised is a true understatement. Fortunately, that subsides quickly and with squinted eyes, they walked through the archway as well.
"Oh no..." they suddenly hear Maddie speak in a horrified tone, and one by one they open their eyes as they realize they've safely arrived at where Maddie is.
"Whoa", Sprig gasps in awe.
"I don't see anything", Anne says.
"Me neither", Marcy adds.
Sprig and Maddie exchange glances of incomprehension.
"Nothing?", Maddie investigates. A moment later, a sudden realization dawns on Marcy and she slaps her hand to her forehead.
"But of course... Anne, frogs can see in the dark. We can't."
"Ahhhh, I see... ... Sorry."
Embarrassed, Anne looks to the ground as no one has reacted to her truly, absolutely brilliant pun. The silence is interrupted by a rustling sound. Maddie is looking for something in her bag.
"I might have some vision enhancement potions in here somewhere for you two.... Hang on..."
Maddie rummages around in her bag for a good minute, which seems to be pretty stuffed. Anne and Marcy, meanwhile, stand around completely sightless. It's an amusing sight for Sprig right now.
A startled gasp is heard from Maddie and her pocket suddenly begins to glow, which Anne and Marcy can both see now as well. They all stare wide-eyed at Maddie's hand as she suddenly pulls her hand out of her bag, revealing a glowing orb that now hovers slightly above her hand. All four of them stare at the orb, speechless.
"I'm sorry, but... WHAT?", Anne immediately recognizes the orb. What she doesn't understand is how this is possible.
"You activated a glyph... Anne, Maddie activated a glyph.... But how?", Marcy asks in excitement and incomprehension. Maddie's own speechlessness has not yet subsided. As the orb dissipates again, Maddie pulls out another light glyph, places it on her hand, and taps it. The paper crumples into itself and another light orb forms and remains floating in the air. Still not understanding what's going on, Maddie pulls out three more light glyphs and presses one each into Anne, Marcy and Sprig's hands, which they also immediately try to activate.
Three more light orbs are forming and hovering in the air.
"Wait here!", Maddie orders, and she runs along a narrow stone path until she is out of sight of the others. A short time later, an absolutely gigantic ball of light rises several meters into the air, illuminating the entire cavity. Shortly after, Maddie rejoins the rest of the group.
"Can... you explain that?", Sprig asks. "How come we can suddenly activate glyphs all of a sudden? The only one who could do that before was Luz..."
All eyes are now on Maddie searching for some sort of explanation.
"I have no idea.", she admits in utter irritation, "And all my theories from earlier, I can now throw them all out the window.... I'm going to assume it has something to do with this place. But I can't tell you exactly..."
Now, for the first time, Anne and Marcy also get the chance to fully absorb the place they are now in.
A gigantic hollow space, without Maddie's gigantic light sphere completely without light sources or an ordinary entrance, with a diameter of at least one hundred meters. On the walls are countless colorless crystals. Occasionally, bare spots can be seen where crystals have detached themselves from the wall and must have fallen to the ground. The ground on which the group is currently standing is solid rock. In front of them is the path Maddie was walking along a moment ago.
"What is this place?", Anne wonders.
"This place used to be a place full of magic in its purest form. I spent time here experimenting with various higher rituals...", Maddie explains. Slowly, the group walks along the narrow stone path.
"It WAS full of magic? Not anymore?", Sprig questions curiously.
"Take a look around... Last time I was here, all the crystals in here were still glowing colorful, but now... they're all dead. It's like all the magic is gone...", Maddie says dejectedly.
The path leads around a large rock formation, opening up a view of a large, round, stony plateau that is connected to the path by a small bridge. Around the plateau runs a sunken depression.
"This used to be an island. Water was flowing down both sides of this path all the way down here", Maddie explains, before they can now get a full view of the plateau. They gasp heavily.
Maddie remembers that there was a stone altar in the middle of the plateau, or rather the former island. This altar no longer exists. In its place there are only the remains of a crystal. Exactly the crystal that helped Luz to revive Hop Pop the last time. The upper half of the crystal is still largely intact and still rises a few meters into the air, while the lower half is completely destroyed and scattered all over the plateau and beyond.
Suddenly a second gasp. It is Marcy, who has turned around, facing the large rock the group just walked past.
"Dried blood..." she observes. Concern spreads among the friends.
"What the frog happened here?", Anne asks. "Maddie! Your trace potion!"
The group takes a few steps back and Maddie tosses the potion, which once again soaks into the ground and rock before revealing the traces left behind.
"There, the same boot prints. And handprints", Sprig observes. "Wait a minute... Are those claw marks there?"
"Where?"
"Up ahead", Sprig points to an area on the plateau, close to the bridge, where deep scratches glowing slightly red can be seen cutting deep into the stone. The group cautiously walks there to examine these new marks more closely. Marcy has a very bad feeling about this right now.
As they gather around it, Sprig kneels down in front of it and gently moves his hand along the long claw mark.
"I don't know any creature that has claws that long and thin", he says. "Marcy, is something wrong? You look a little distraught"
Marcy has to swallow hard and is also shaking slightly. "That's not from a creature.... Those are from Yunan. She was here..."
"Oh MarMar...", Anne says sympathetically, taking her hands in her own, "I know this looks bad. But we don't know exactly what happened here yet.... Maybe she was trying to save Luz... Right guys?"
Sprig doesn't have the heart to say anything and Maddie had already turned around and thrown another trace potion on the plateau to make more traces visible.
In addition to the boot prints, other prints are now visible: On the one hand, her own, as well as Luz's shoe prints from when they were here with Hop Pop. But also, human barefoot prints.
"Guys, Luz was here!"
"Indeed. Your friend was certainly here", a new voice unexpectantly spoke.
"Who said that?"
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a mysterious figure appears at the shattered crystal in the middle of the plateau, looking directly at the group, who, however, did not immediately see them appear.
"HA! I knew someone was following us", Anne said triumphantly. The figure moves closer and the group can now catch a better glimpse of them. Despite her momentary burst of joy, Anne puts herself in a defensive position in front of Marcy, who herself readies her crossbow. Sprig draws his slingshot and Maddie has a few throwable curses ready.
Sprig takes a closer look at the figure and realizes something.
"Wait a minute... I know you... Anne and I met you at the Bizarre Bazaar", he remembers.
"That's right", Anne agrees, "You're Valeriana, right?"
The Newt nods slowly, still looking exactly as she did when she first met Anne and Sprig: Partly dark brown, partly yellow, wrinkled skin, and with tail sticking out from under her dull black dress, in the same colors. What particularly stands out about her are her light red eyes, one of which seems to be possibly a bit damaged, with bushy reddish-brown eyebrows above them, plus grayish-blond hair peeking out from under her hood. But probably the most striking feature about her is that she is missing her right arm. On her left hand she wears a glove and the right counterpart she has placed on her tail. In her left hand she holds a long, dark wooden staff, the upper end of which is shaped circular. The end of it is remotely reminiscent of an olm.
"So, you know who she is...", Maddie begins, still holding her throwable spells, "Is she a threat?"
Anne considers for a moment and concludes that she has no idea.
"Good question. What are you doing here and how did you get here without us noticing you?", Anne questions in all seriousness, not lowering her guard.
"I'm glad to hear that you still remember me with all the chaos that is currently going on in Amphibia."
Anne takes a step forward.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh... the usual. The biggest frog rebellion ever, led by a human girl who refuses to fight.... An aspiring witch who rediscovers a place that has been successfully hidden from negative powers for thousands of years.... A desperate soul actively trying to heal the broken bond of two former friends and additionally wants to prevent a war...", Valeriana’s gaze travels directly to Marcy, "Your meeting with Sasha didn't go well, did it?"
Abruptly, Anne turns to Marcy, who is on the verge of tears, before turning back to Newt.
"Okay, that's enough!", Anne says in utter determination. "What do you want here? What do you want from us?"
"You're here looking for your friend right now. She left this world", Valeriana states.
"How would you know that??? Did you have something to do with her disappearance?", Maddie's fingers claw at the throwable curse she still holds in her hand.
"Why are you telling us this? Why should we trust you?", Sprig asks afterwards, who has also not yet lowered his loaded slingshot. Valeriana's gaze shifts to Maddie.
"You, the smart one. You're carrying trace potions in your bag, right? Can I use one?" she asks.
Maddie hesitates, but eventually reaches into her bag, pulls out the potion she requested, and tosses it to her. Valeriana examines the vial.
"A very good concoction for a level one witch", Valeriana opens the bottle cap and pours the contents over the top of her staff. Eyes seem to have appeared at the top of the staff and they begin to glow. First, briefly blue, then red. Valeriana swirls the staff once around and slams it to the ground with full force. A red shockwave is formed and travels through the entire cavity.
Maddie was about to ask in amazement what just happened, when Valeriana interrupts her with a sign to be quiet.
Within the broken crystal, where a stone altar once stood, a red twinkling silhouette emerges.
"Luz!", Maddie calls out. "But... But how?"
"Shh!"
Valeriana orders the others to be quiet immediately, that's when Luz' red silhouette, standing at the altar with her back to the group, starts to speak. Not in her normal voice, though, but louder, deeper and distorted.
"I know you're watching me. Step forward."
Another red twinkling silhouette appears.
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, aaaaaand.... the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian army! You have no right to be here. Leave this place!"
Marcy, who is currently being held by Anne, whispers softly to herself "Oh no.... no no no no no"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken. YOU have no right to be here, General.", Luz silhouette spoke threateningly.
"Listen, I know you're a friend of Marcy's and I really shouldn't be telling you, but I've been given orders by King Andrias to ensure that no one knows of the existence of this place, by any means necessary. So, I beg you: Go, before you force me to use means that I would hate to use against a child."
Luz's silhouette moves into a fighting pose. Yunan extends her retractable metal claws and runs toward Luz. But just before she reaches her, Luz raises a hand towards her and Yunan suddenly flies uncontrollably almost all the way back to the small bridge, where she rams her claws into the ground, right where Sprig found the trace earlier. Luz raises her arms again, whereupon Yunan looks to her right and left, somewhat intimidated, before raising her arms to protect her head and being flung further behind again, slamming her head against the large rock formation where Marcy saw the dried blood.
Yunan goes down, her face filled with pain and Luz walks towards her looking down at her threateningly. Luz stands just in front of Yunan when she suddenly looks to her side as if someone else is standing there, before looking back down on Yunan. She coughs up blood and Luz kneels down in front of her.
"This one, who owns this body, doesn't want you to get hurt any further.... But I can't allow your king to know more about this place."
She puts a hand on Yunan's head just before she collapses unconscious.
No one in the group really understands what they just witnessed and they all just stand there, frozen, watching their friend walk back towards the altar. And even though Yunan is unconscious, Luz keeps talking.
"A sleeping spell. Besides, she will have no memory of this altercation and I have healed the worst injuries."
This is the last thing Luz' silhouette says, before she remains unmoving in front of the altar.
For the next few minutes, no one says anything, expecting some important thing to happen eventually. In the meantime, Marcy has sat down on the edge of the plateau with Anne, her head leaning on her shoulder, because she was too emotionally overwhelmed. Learning that a person she trusted was willing to take her friend's life because King Andrias ordered her to, and the painful memory of the meeting between her and Sasha, were just too much for her to bear. She promised Anne, she would tell her later about what exactly happened between her and Sasha.
Maddie, Sprig and Valeriana continued to remain at the destroyed crystal, inside of which the red glittering silhouette of Luz remained. Sprig and Maddie had lowered their weapons in the meantime, as there was no immediate danger from Valeriana.
"So... We now know that Luz was here.... How do you know she left Amphibia again? And how do you know so much about us?", Maddie asks.
"I've been proficient in many types of magic for a very long time. I've traveled a lot, seen a lot, and learned a lot. Let's just say... I've developed a sense of when things of significance happen and made it my mission to help achieve the greater goal", Valeriana explains.
"That's very vague", Sprig comments.
"That's all I can reveal at this point of time.", Valeriana says before turning briefly to Anne and Marcy. "There are important events on the horizon. Events bigger than your missing friend and even bigger than the frog rebellion.", Valeriana tells them mysteriously.
"So, if I understand correctly, you are here to expedite things", Maddie concludes.
"Correct. Searching for your friend will get you nowhere, you're wasting time that you... that they don't have.", Valeriana nods her head slightly in the direction of the two humans. Sprig and Maddie follow her gaze.
"Why? What's going to happen? Is Luz safe?", Sprig asks urgently.
"Your friend is-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
Luz's silhouette suddenly screams out in pain, her voice no longer distorted, drawing everyone's attention. Anne and Marcy both sprint towards the crystal.
"What's wrong with her?"
Suddenly Luz begins to hover above the ground for a moment, just before she flies backwards, as if caught in a blast wave, and simply disappears at a point mid-air.
"As I said before, your friend has left this world. If you continue to search for her here, you will only waste your time and coming events will not unfold as predicted", Valeriana asserts.
"Events? What events?", Marcy asks urgently as she wipes one of her tears from her face.
"I've already said enough."
"But..."
"I'm leaving you now. We will meet again", Valeriana says goodbye, twirling her staff around her before disappearing instantly.
Stunned, the friends stare at the spot where Valeriana was standing at just a moment ago.
"Okay, what just happened there?", Anne asks dumbfounded.
"She said she wanted to save us time...", Sprig relays.
"Do you think she's right? About Luz?", Maddie questions, her mind filled with doubt.
"Well, we saw that she was here.... That's all the clues we really have...", Anne surmises.
"I can go talk to Yunan", Marcy suggests with a heavy heart.
"No MarMar, you shouldn't keep torturing yourself with this", Anne suggests empathetically.
"What else am I supposed to do, Anne? She attacked Luz. She knew we were friends and yet she did attack her", Marcy argues with a mix of sadness, hurt, disappointment and frustration, "And even if she actually doesn't remember that.... She probably woke up here again before she went back to Newtopia. She must know something."
One would think that with her presumably broken friendship with Sasha, shattered dreams of being with her best friends forever, the immense guilt of possibly ruining her best friends' lives, and now the feeling of betrayal from Yunan, that Marcy's heart would eventually just give out, that she would break under the weight. Anne doesn't want to imagine the pain Marcy is suffering right now. It only makes her more determined to be there for her, forever, no matter what.
"We should go back to Wartwood", Anne suggests, supporting Marcy by her shoulder, "We still have a long way to go. We can figure out what to do next, sometime later"
Notes:
Originally I had planned to rewrite chapters 1 to 5 completely, but unfortunately that didn't work out in time. Chapters 2 to 5 will follow when I've finished part 2 ;)
Also, i removed the Emira/Viney tag from the taglist. They're still a thing, but they will not be a main-ship within the story. Sry
So, what do you think? <3
Chapter 27: Things Change [Part 2]
Summary:
Marcy's heart is in shambles and she is in danger of going down a dark path.
Notes:
Good news: The rewrites of chapters 1 to 5 are now finished. Took me longer than I'd hoped, but at least they're done now. Give it a read if you haven't yet.
Also, 'A Lost Owl' now has its own Discord server: https://discord.gg/79H6Mkve3K
Be it to talk/discuss about the story, chat with people or just to be informed about new chapters and other updates (Maybe interesting for those who don't have an AO3 account).
The server is also a partner of Polychroma_Izu, the author of 'Don't Look Back'. Highly recommended to check it out <3
Chapter Text
It has only been a few minutes since Valeriana has disappeared and the group has left the utterly devastated cave. Anne is still holding her arm around Marcy's shoulders as she suggests to Sprig and Maddie that they go ahead so she can take care of Marcy properly.
For several minutes after the two frogs had already left, Anne and Marcy remained at the archway.
"Should we start walking back to Wartwood, too?", Anne asks empathetically.
Marcy slowly shakes her head and walks with Anne over to a nearby knee-high pillar that can be conveniently used as a seat, where the two of them also immediately lie down. There are clear signs that this pillar used to be considerably taller.
Ever since she and Anne emerged from the archway, Marcy has not spoken a single word. Instead, she clings to her friend and is unwilling to leave her side.
Marcy is lying down with Anne merely sitting next to her, gazing at her with a heavy heart. Any joy on Marcy's face is gone. Her curiosity is gone, too. Just like the always hopeful glance in her eyes. Everything gone and replaced by pain, sadness and... anger. Never in her entire life has Anne ever seen Marcy like this, and she feels horrible and helpless. In fact, Anne would like to just hunt down all those who have hurt her friend so much and give her all the joy and love and beauty within this and every other world there is instead.
Suddenly, Marcy straightens up and pulls out her diary and flips through it for a while. Contrary to Anne's surprise, every single page in it is written all over and there are even several cute drawings in there.
Marcy flips back and forth a bit, as if looking for something, until she finally tears out several pages with a frustrated growl. She pulls out a thick pen and draws a glyph directly over her written diary entries. Anne unfortunately doesn't recognize exactly which glyph it is. Marcy then draws the same glyph on the other few pages.
Marcy indicates that she wants to get up and Anne, of course, is immediately ready to help. Marcy slowly leads Anne in the direction of Yunan's abandoned tent. Once there, she suddenly stops, and Marcy stares at the tent with nothing but pure anger in her eyes.
Marcy activates the first glyph and a fireball appears in her hand, startling Anne and causing her to step back. Marcy's gaze remains locked on the tent. Fortunately, the fireball, which lies directly in her hand, does not seem to hurt her.
Suddenly, she throws the fireball at the tent with all her might.
And another.
And one more.
And then the last one.
Marcy is panting heavily, but as the now riddled tent gradually burns down in its entirety, Marcy seems to be calming down slightly. Anne joins her again, just before Marcy leans her head on Anne's shoulder and they both watch jointly as the tent gradually turns to ashes.
Even when the tent is nothing but a smoking pile of ashes, Marcy just continues to look at it. Anne would really like to know what's going through Marcy's mind right now, until suddenly she picks her head back up.
"Let's go back..." she merely says.
For almost an hour now, the two girls have been walking side by side in utter silence, and so far, they've probably only just made it halfway until Wartwood.
Anne hates this silence. She wouldn't mind normal silence and even this slightly uncomfortable silence, when you don't really have anything to say to each other, is still somewhat bearable. But this... To have someone with you, whose gorgeous heart is completely in shambles and to not be able to find any words that could even begin to be helpful and not make everything worse.
Anne looks at Marcy, who walks beside her with her head down. Her feet barely leave the ground as she continues to walk through the dense forest. Anne's gaze continues to wander to her hands. Suddenly, Anne gets an idea how she can at least show Marcy that she wants to be there for her.
As the two girls continue to walk side by side, Anne reaches out to Marcy and takes her hand in her own, both their hands now interlocked. Somewhat taken aback, Marcy now looks at her hands first and then lets her gaze travel up to Anne's face.
A warm smile graces her face. It's the kind of smile that makes your heart jump. The kind that creates butterflies in your stomach. The kind that says, "I'm here for you. You are important to me. I don't want to be without you anymore".
And indeed, a tiny smile now appears on Marcy's face as well as she lowers her head again and blushes slightly. Anne's smile only grows stronger as a result.
Another half hour passed and the two of them gradually approached the edge of the forest and are hopefully near Wartwood.
"Say, Marce", Anne starts to break the renewed silence between the two girls, "Don't you think it's kind of strange that we haven't been attacked even once in this forest? I mean, I didn't hear a single mantis roaring, for example..."
Marcy, still holding Anne's hand, doesn't answer that.
"Maybe Valeriana has something to do with it. I mean, she did teleport into the cave just like that, right?", Anne adds.
"I... don't know.", Marcy says suddenly, looking up at Anne from the ground, "Do you trust her?"
"Valeriana?", Anne inquires. Marcy nods in affirmation. "Why do you ask?"
"What she showed us... I- I can't believe that's true. There's no way King Andrias would order Yunan to kill Luz just to keep some place a secret.... And I also can't believe that Yunan was willing to attack Luz. It just doesn't make sense...", Marcy says in frustration.
"You think what we saw was just made up?"
"Luz had talked about illusion magic once, right? Maybe none of what Valeriana showed us was true…", Marcy hopes while Anne doubts it.
"Marcy, even before Valeriana arrived, Maddie had already showed us Yunan's marks... And she was also friends with Luz", Anne argues. Marcy thoughtfully wraps herself in silence again as both of them finally leave the forest and find themselves on the edge of a far-running wheat field with Wartwood nowhere to be seen.
Marcy looks around thoroughly, turns left after a moment's consideration, and walks along the edge of the forest with Anne. Anne is already worried that she and Marcy are completely lost, until at some point, however, the first tents appear at some the distance.
Anne sighs in relief and notices that Marcy is now holding her hand a little less tightly, what she initially hasn't noticed in the first place. Anne looks down at their hands, which Marcy apparently notices and jerks her hand back tightly against her own body.
"I'm sorry", Marcy mumbles softly to herself.
"For what?", Anne asks sympathetically trying not to read too much into her actions.
"I... I almost squished your hand until just now...", Marcy says guiltily, her head continuing to hang down towards the ground. Contrary to her own expectations, Anne starts laughing.
"Oh MarMar, I l- um, I think it's cute that you think I would mind. Besides, you'd really have to train your hand muscles a lot to be able to do that in the first place."
Marcy now looks up at Anne as if she's just messing with her.
"Heey, that was mean…", Marcy complains jokingly. She tries to look at Anne in offense, but fails miserably, as Anne's laugh overshadows everything, and Marcy's smile returns again, along with a slight, partially embarrassed blush.
Anne is proud of herself that she has once again managed to distract Marcy a little from her negative thoughts.
As the two girls gradually walked toward the tent city just outside Wartwood, Anne begins to feel like she is being watched. And indeed, many of the frogs were looking wide-eyed and expectantly at the two humans.
"Why do you think they're looking at us like that?", Anne whispers to Marcy as unobtrusively as possible. Marcy, on the other hand, doesn't bother to keep her voice particularly low.
"We're humans.", Marcy flatly points out, "I wouldn't be surprised if most people who aren't from the immediate area have never seen anything like us before..."
"Oh, you're right... I forgot", Anne replies, waving at a couple of the frogs who are glaring at the two of them, while Marcy doesn't respond further to the stares. "Wait, why only now and not when we were sitting on the fwagon earlier?"
"I dunno... Maybe it was too early in the morning", Marcy shrugs her shoulders and Anne looks ever so slightly nervous as both walk on more briskly now.
Along the way there were a few frogs and newts who wanted to approach Anne about something, however she had rejected them each time as kindly as she could and kept walking.
"I think, I know exactly what they all want from me", Anne whispers to Marcy, "And they're definitely not surprised at our appearance.... There are not enough pitchforks and torches for that.", Marcy chuckles at this, but only until she realizes Anne was serious.
"Wait, you're not kidding?"
"Have I ever told you about my first encounter with Sprig before?", Anne asks Marcy, to which she shakes her head after a moment's thought.
And so, Anne tells Marcy the brief story of her first run-in with the Plantars and how Sprig managed to soothe the angry mob of townspeople to not kill Anne.
"How nice of them...", Marcy comments jokingly. Anne rolls her eyes, to which Marcy chuckles.
"Can you actually still activate glyphs?", Anne suddenly asks. Marcy pulls out her journal and draws a Small Glyph on a page, which she then taps. Nothing happens.
"Nope. I guess the magic I picked up in the cave has already dissipated".
"Too bad"
As they both gradually approach the Plantars' property, a mob once again approaches them. More precisely, the very same mob they encountered several hours ago. Instead of joyfully excited, however, they are all now rather disappointed. Anne approaches them about it.
"Hey... Why so sad?"
Many of the frogs pay no attention to Anne and simply walk past her, some angry, sad or disappointed. Ivy is the first not to do so.
"Oh, hey Anne. Um... We've wasted hours now waiting for gifts that don't exist...", Ivy explains sounding rather sad. Anne now, just like before, doesn't understand what exactly they're all talking about. She kneels down to Ivy.
"Okay, enlighten me: What kind of gifts are you talking about? Mrs. Croaker mentioned something like that earlier...", Anne says.
"I'm not surprised you don't know about that. Apparently, you all forgot", Ivy says snarkily, "Well, a while before you all left for Newtopia, a few of us had overheard that and asked if it would be possible to bring back something for them from there. I wanted a red sunshell to match Sprigs blue moonshell-"
"Oh my gosh, that's soo romantic", Anne suddenly interrupts her, squeaking.
"Anyway", Ivy continues, deliberately avoiding Anne's comment, "Hop Pop first meant he was going to grab the presents for everyone, disappeared for a few hours, but came back with Polly and had confessed through fake tears that he completely forgot about the presents"
"Yeah, um... I had learned on the way to Newtopia that Hop Pop had acting skills. Was quite surprised", Anne admits, "But I should go check on him. Thanks for telling me, Ivy."
"You're welcome", Ivy says goodbye and Anne and Marcy continue toward the farm. They don't get far as suddenly another resident runs up to the two girls. However, he seems rather panicking compared to the rest of the mob.
"Anne... Other human, it's soo good to see you two...", it's Mayor Toadstool, who seems to be quite out of breath, "Do me a favor: Hide me. There's a monster chasing me."
Without waiting for an answer, he cowardly tries to hide right behind Annes back. Obviously not a good hiding place, considering that Toadstool is many times wider than Anne.
She and Marcy exchange glances until Anne sees behind Marcy exactly what the mayor is running away from.
"Uh oh...", Anne lets out. Marcy wanted to turn around to see it for herself as well, but Anne holds Marcy's head and warns her forcefully. "You better not look behind you right now"
Marcy just looks at Anne puzzled and confused. She is about to ask what exactly is behind her when a familiar voice approaches. Marcy twitches as she hears it.
"Where could the good, honest, and definitely not corrupt Mayor Toadstool possibly be hiding??? Oh... Good afternoon, Anne. Master Marcy."
It is General Yunan who has deftly weaved her way between the mob of village residents and now stands, blades extended, directly behind Marcy. Marcy tries to keep her composure, while Anne already realizes that this is already doomed to failure. Anne currently has an 'Oh fuck' look on her face as Marcy's continues to slip away from her while Yunan continues to ramble on, not noticing Anne's warning look. "I've got some good news: I've already been able to take out two corrupt people in power. Toadstool is now number three, for multiple attempted-"
"Shut up!" mutters Marcy with gritted teeth.
"Huh, pardon me?", Yunan inquires, having merely heard Marcy say something, but not what exactly. Foreshadowing what's about to happen, Anne scrunches up her face and prepares for the worst.
"I said... SHUT. UP!", Marcy yells at Yunan, who now merely stares at her with her mouth open in shock. Never before had Marcy raised her voice like that against her. "That you even have the guts to just walk around here after what you did- Although, you probably have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about..."
Yunan merely looks at Marcy, perplexed. Marcy continues
"I sort of just found out that you attacked Luz. Luz... Who was my friend... You were willing to kill her just like that..."
Marcy has stopped screaming by now, but there is still an enormous amount of power and rage behind her words. Yunan, on the other hand, absolutely doesn't understand anything.
"What are you talking about?", she calmly asks, whereupon Marcy growls in frustration and walks away enraged. Anne, being somewhat more rational just now, takes over trying to explain.
"We were just in a cave with a bunch of gray crystals everywhere, and with the help of some crazy magic stuff, we found out that you were there a while ago too-"
"You know about the Source?", Yunan asks, aghast.
"Didn't know the place had a name until now, but yeah", Anne explains, and for some reason, Yunan seems more concerned with this realization than Marcy's current tantrum. By the way, while Anne is explaining the situation, Marcy is about to capture the mayor with a net-trick arrow and bring him back to Yunan, who has taken advantage of the conversation between the humans and the general to flee again. "Anyway, the point is, you attacked our friend, but you actually lost and your memory of it was wiped", Anne clarifies, seeming unusually calm compared to Marcy. While she is also angry at Yunan, knowing that Luz is safe, helps her tremendously in keeping her composure. Marcy walks back into earshot gradually with Toadstool in front of her.
"Normally, I wouldn't put up with such an insinuation", Yunan began, sounding somewhat offended, "However, that does explain why I don't remember anything when I woke up there.... Somehow, anyway..."
"AHA! So, you’re confessing you were there", Marcy, arriving next to Anne again, accuses her. Yunan merely takes a deep breath in response, while Marcy continues to pant furiously.
"King Andrias had actually forbidden me to tell you or anyone else about it, but you already know about it now anyway, so it doesn't matter anymore. I was supposed to find a place called The Source, whose whole existence was something of a myth until recently, I guess. Once I located it, I should do my best to prevent the knowledge of this place from spreading, and I should do so at all costs. I was just following orders..."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME???", Marcy yells angrily, "That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard!"
"You do realize that giving and carrying out orders is sort of the whole point of my job, don’t you?"
Marcy is well aware of the fact that Yunan is right, but that doesn't help her relieve the pain within her heart. Yunan on the other hand currently shows no signs of emotion as she talks. She is nothing but a cold, unrepentant soldier with a gap in her memory right now, which is why Marcy finds it difficult to blame her further for not telling her about it.
Marcy is angry. At Yunan for attacking her friend and it would be pointless to yell at her about it because Luz erased her memory of it. She's mad at King Andrias for ordering Yunan to do it and she can't yell at him either because he's all the way in Newtopia. She's even mad at Anne for some reason, even though she hasn't done anything to her yet. Perhaps it is only a matter of time, as it has been with everyone else. At some point, everyone would hurt her.
Tears form again in Marcy's eyes as she frantically stutters, searching for words to express her anger.
"This... You... You... You big... Salamander!", having yelled this in Yunan’s face, Marcy now runs away again, crying. Anne still tries to reach after her, but Marcy was too fast for that. Contrary to Anne's understanding, General Yunan now seems to be seeing red.
"Ouch. That must have hurt", Mayor Toadstool says flatly, to which Anne throws a disparaging look at him.
'Damn,' Anne thought to herself at that moment, 'Marcy's running off, a probably angry General Yunan wants to arrest Mayor Toadstool or something, and Hop Pop could probably use my help right now too...'
She weighs the options against each other, even though she already made her decision.
'I have to find Marcy'
Before Anne chases after Marcy, she catches the General approaching Mayor Toadstool, who is tied up, telling him that he is being arrested and charged for corruption. He looks rather frightened and glances at Anne. Part of her wants to intervene, but her priorities are elsewhere right now. She turns her back on the mayor and runs after Marcy, who has run back somewhere toward the nearby forest the two girls came out of shortly earlier.
Anne struggles to make her way through the crowded village center and heads toward the forest.
"MARCY!", Anne calls into it before entering it. As expected, there is no answer, and she enters the forest with virtually no idea where to start looking for her.
She has only walked a few meters and by the time she turns around, Wartwood is no longer visible among all the bushes and leaves. Only wild chatter can still be heard from there. As she continues to walk on for what has been twenty minutes so far, she calls out Marcy's name loudly every few minutes. Each time with the fervent hope that she will respond. Even the slightest noise from her could help Anne find her.
'Come on Marbles… Where are you?'
Anne continues walking for several more minutes.
"MAAARCYY!", she calls again.
Again, no answer. She keeps walking.
As time goes by, however, Anne begins to think that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to leave without any help, navigation points, or clues into a forest whose canopy is so dense that Anne could only guess that the sun is still up in the sky merely by just looking up. Shouting loudly to make her position known to any creatures that might ambush her is also a potential problem. Should something attack her, and she currently has no weapons with her to defend herself. If she should die just now, no one would ever know...
Suddenly Anne startles thinking that she has seen something crawling around on the floor. In fact, however, she was merely absorbed in her thoughts and imagined it.
She looks around wildly in all directions and immediately realizes that she has not paid attention to where exactly she has come from. She also doesn't know how long she hasn't paid attention anymore.
"Oh no... I'm lost", Anne mutters to herself.
Anne's pulse begins to accelerate and her breathing speeds up as well. Beads of sweat form on her forehead, her heartbeat pulsating audibly in her ears... She starts feeling anxious. Anne knows full well that she can't make any smart decisions in this state, and tries to remember a calming technique Marcy showed her a few years ago to deal with her own anxiety issues, which were unfortunately not uncommon at her home.
'Okay okay okay okay okay... How did that trick go?', Anne asks herself, it's hard for her to think clearly.
She sits down on the forest floor with her back leaning against a wide tree and performs a breathing exercise for several minutes in a row.
'Inhale...'
'One... Two... Three... Four...'
'Exhale... And again'
She repeats this several times which eventually helps her to calm down. Her breathing steadies and she feels a little clearer in the head again. Only the audible heartbeat is still present. Anne is somewhat irritated at that. She takes one of her arms in her hand and feels her pulse. But what she hears and what she feels do not correspond with each other.
She slaps her hands over her ears to see if this changes anything. Maybe the sound is coming from somewhere in the forest... In that case, Anne would run away as fast as she could, no matter where she would appear later.
Anyway, her test was successful... Well, partially. Covering her ears doesn't change anything, unfortunately. But when Anne happens to turn her head, she notices that the volume of the heartbeat changes.
She turns her head to the left, it gets louder. To the right, it gets quieter.
'Oh no... I hit my head somewhere along the way and somehow ended up in DBD...', Anne thinks to herself although she knows exactly that this is not the case. But nevertheless, she has to make a decision now.
All her instincts as well as all her logical understanding advise her to run away in the direction where the heartbeat is the quietest. The alternative, to go in the opposite direction, directly towards the point of origin, does not actually feel so wrong down deep in her heart. Even though it might still be a bad idea.
Anne gets up from the ground, ready to go in the direction where the heartbeat is loudest in her ears. Before she leaves, however, she looks around the ground for a possible weapon to defend herself, in case she does walk into a big trap.
She finds a solid branch that must have fallen from one of the trees, which she can use as a club just in case.
'That'll have to do,' she thinks to herself before carefully walking off.
Unlike before, where Anne walked off on blind faith, Anne now consciously pays attention to every step she takes. She looks behind every tree, in every bush. Her own pulse rises again, due to the tension, while the heartbeat she hears fluctuates as well. At times it was slower, then again, a little faster, and all this while the volume of sound remained constant.
As she pierces suspicious bushes with her branch and continues forward, she lets her thoughts circle once again, mainly about what this heartbeat means.
'So far, it's only been constant heading in the exact same direction. Is this a compass guiding me somewhere? Or, in addition to my other "superpowers“, do I now have super hearing and I can hear the heartbeat of one single living creature? ... Hold on, wait a second...'
Anne arrives at a part of the forest whose canopy is not quite so dense, and that's when she notices that her vision has a slight blue tint.
'But of course...', Anne thinks to herself disappointedly, yet she continues walking.
After what feels like an eternity of walking, Anne realizes she is approaching a familiar place and the sound of a heartbeat quickly fades within her ears.
Anne pushes aside a few bushes blocking her view, revealing a small clearing in the middle of which lies a hollow fallen tree trunk covered with mushrooms and moss embedded in the mud. From within it, Anne hears muffled sobs.
Carefully, Anne tiptoes around the fallen trunk and takes a peek inside.
'Still exactly as I remember it...'
The dark, rotten wood with holes all over it, where rays of light are clearly visible due to the dense air. Moss and grass all around. Scattered glowing mushrooms further illuminate the bark. And in the middle of it all lies Marcy, curled up in a ball.
"Marcy?", Anne whispers sympathetically. Marcy's head snaps up, directly at Anne. With teary eyes, she throws herself into Anne's arms.
"Oh Anne, I'm soo sorry...", Marcy mumbles as she continues to cry.
Anne, for whom this hug was quite unexpected, is stiff for a moment, but ultimately gets on board and comfortingly runs her hand through her hair.
"Shhh... It's all right...", Anne whispers in a soft voice.
"I... I was going to go back, but.... I lost my focus, and I didn't know... where I came from...", Marcy sobs.
"Don't worry, I'm here now and we'll find our way back. Together."
Marcy backs off from the hug and looks Anne in the eyes. She is a rather puzzled
"Anne... Your eyes..."
Anne looks away from Marcy, reddened in embarrassment.
"It is possible that my powers helped me find you, because I was equally lost..." she admits.
"You... followed me into the forest...", Marcy wipes a hand over her teary eyes.
"But of course I followed you. I never want to leave you alone again...", Anne says determinedly. Marcy's reaction to this is not what Anne had hoped for but feared.
"Why?"
"... Why?!", Anne asks incredulously. A very simple word as a matter of fact, which right now fills Anne with complete incomprehension. She grabs Marcy's face with both hands and holds it close in front of her own. "Marcy... We have known each other for our entire lives. There were hardly any days when we didn't see each other and not a single one when I didn't want to spend time with you. You are just amazing, Marcy. And I'm ashamed to say that I haven't always been as good a friend as you deserve- Please, hear me out, okay? For far too long I've taken you for granted and neglected your needs and interests. I'd like to slap myself for not realizing sooner how great you are and appreciate you the way you deserve it..."
Marcy tilts her head and smiles slightly. Anne continues.
"And now that I have you back in my life and see how much you've developed and grown here, I'm only more convinced that I never want to lose you again. You are incredibly smart, compassionate, you care so much about the lives of people close to you and want to make their lives better.... I truly admire you, Marcy.... You deserve all the joy, love and beauty of this world and every other"
Anne had closed her eyes in the meantime while pouring out her heart, but now opens them again and sees a now shyly smiling Marcy kneeling in front of her, her head still being held by Anne.
"I love you too", Marcy whispers softly. Anne's hands snap back in sudden surprise, just before Marcy pulls them back into her own hands.
"But... I didn't even...", Anne stutters sheepishly, blushing beyond measure.
" You didn't need to", Marcy replies to her, still smiling.
"... You knew?"
"No"
"But how-"
"I don't remember when exactly I realized it. Maybe it was back in Newtopia, maybe it was back on Earth that I realized I had deeper feelings for you... I have to admit, the same was true for Sasha for a very short time back on earth, but since I met her here, I don't recognize any of the things I liked in her anymore", Marcy's smile turns to a sad one as she speaks.
"Marcy...", Anne starts sympathetically, but she gets cut off.
"Before Yunan dropped me off at your fwagon, I was with her at Toad Tower, here in the valley. At first, I was pretty optimistic that I could work something out with her and Captain Grime, regarding the rebellion, but he didn't seem interested in that. Sasha joined us later and after the official meetings we had taken the opportunity to talk, just her and me. It got completely out of hand. I was genuinely scared, Anne..."
"What happened?"
"I had just told her that you and I had found each other in Newtopia, and she started yelling at me. She said... I was cutting her out of everything and.... I never intended to help her. She said we hated her and that I was stupid when I said I didn't..."
"Oh Marcy...", Anne started with the purpose of saying something encouraging, but Marcy apparently isn't done yet.
"When Yunan dropped me off with you guys later, I was soo overjoyed. I was back with you and I never wanted to leave", Marcy's smile returns and she looks straight into Anne's eyes, whose brain is probably still processing what she just confessed to her, "And... I'm sorry for freaking out like that earlier."
Marcy lowers her head in guilt just before Anne suddenly leans forward and gives Marcy an unexpected kiss on her cheek.
"You don't have to apologize for that. I know you needed and deserved that"
"But I still feel bad for yelling and insulting Yunan like that...", Marcy says under guilt.
"Insulted?"
"I called her a salamander. In Newtopia, that's considered a serious insult", Marcy explains.
"Oh... I think she'll understand too", Anne assures her with confidence in her voice.
"You sure?"
"Marcy, nothing bad will ever happen as long as you and I are together", Anne promises. Marcy blushes.
"To- together? You mean, as... as-"
"Girlfriends? Yes.", Anne confirms excitedly before slowing herself down, "Well, only if you want to-"
"YES!", Marcy flings herself forward onto Anne, throwing her onto her back and completely littering her face with little kisses, causing Anne to giggle.
After a good minute of incessant affection from Marcy, Anne throws a question into the air.
"I guess you've been accumulating those for a while, haven't you?"
"Yeah", Marcy grins sheepishly. After a moment, she looks back up at Anne, who appears to be just as happy right now. Yet she changes the subject.
"You know, as much as I'm enjoying this moment, I think we should make our way back to Wartwood.... I'd hate to be sleeping here again already."
"Again?", Marcy tilts her head in confusion. Anne chuckles.
"I told you how I met Sprig..."
"Uh-huh", Marcy nods affirmatively.
"Turn around", Anne teases her, pointing to a section of tree bark. Marcy turns around and recognizes a carving.
"Anne was here...", Marcy's eyes light up and she turns back to Anne. "You slept here?"
"Yeah... For the first month I slept partly here, partly in a small nearby cave. there were so many critters...", Anne shivers at this memory, "But somehow I had to pass the time, so I left some graffiti, like what I carved into the bark."
Marcy gets an idea. She pulls out a bolt that she would normally load her crossbow with if she runs out of arrows. She turns to the carving and covers it just enough with her back so Anne can't see what she's doing.
"Ta da", Marcy proudly says as she finishes after a short time, revealing the view to Anne again.
"Marcy was here too", Anne reads the new carving aloud. Anne's and Marcy's names are framed with a heart. "Aww, MarMar…"
Marcy grins wholeheartedly.
"But yes, we should go back", she says, crawling past Anne, who in turn takes one last look at the cravings before following Marcy. She's already standing outside the fallen trunk, holding out a hand to Anne for support. Anne accepts it, stands up and doesn't let go.
"Sooo... since you said you used to come here, you must know how to get back from here, right?"
"I sure doooo... n't.", Anne looks embarrassed. Marcy is confused.
"What?"
"Nothing. Um... I have no idea", Anne admits. Marcy begins to think about their options, purposefully letting her gaze slide over the canopy of leaves above them, through which sunlight barely peeks through.
"Idea", Marcy suddenly began, "Your powers. Through them you found me, maybe you can lead us out of the forest..."
"Um, I don't know how to trigger them on command. Sorry", Anne confesses.
"Then I'll help you with that later. And who knows, maybe we'll find out about my powers in the process", Marcy says optimistically before gasping, "Maybe we can fly."
Anne giggles and Marcy continues.
"Okay, okay... We don't have any land points to use for orientation and the dense canopy prevents us from locating the sun- Anne, do you have your phone with you?"
Anne checks her pockets and shakes her head.
"I think it's still in the fwagon."
"Dang it... Mine too..."
Marcy's gaze travels toward the canopy again, and her mind suddenly fills with many different very fast pacing thoughts.
'Okay, sun position not discernible, making it impossible to figure out where which cardinal direction is. There are no sun rays piercing the canopy, but the forest is not completely dark. Illuminating mushrooms grow on the ground and on trees. Do they illuminate the forest? ... Irrelevant, has nothing to do with the problem. According to the map I saw a while back, the forest extends from the edge of the valley to the unnamed ocean in the south that surrounds Amphibia. Don't know the scale of the map, so can't say exactly how big the forest is. The north is the valley, the east goes towards Toad Tower, the south and west eventually lead to the ocean. Odds if we just head off somewhere and not arrive at Wartwood are seventy-five percent.
Climbing trees and looking for signs of civilization is not possible. Bark too slippery, branches not available below several meters in height. Arrow as a climbing aid? Too unstable. Emergency bolt? Possible. Chance of breaking off if used is unknown. Further study needed. Searching for own tracks on ground? Promising to start with. Chance of success decreases, as distance increases.'
Marcy suddenly looks at the ground and it seems to her as if she recognizes colored glowing boot tracks in the mud, just before she gradually comes back to reality and notices Anne standing wide-eyed in front of her. Marcy blinks several times and looks around at her surroundings to get her bearings. She hasn't moved.
"Is... everything okay, Anne?"
"Your eyes... they were glowing green when you were in the zone", Anne recounts what she saw. Marcy is surprised.
"Wait, seriously?", Marcy asks, to which Anne nods. "Cooool... Then my powers are probably based on zoning out combined with... improved senses perhaps? I'll definitely have to explore that further later-"
"Well, that's nice MarMar, but it won't help us find our way back...", Anne notes.
"Don't worry, I know where we need to go", Marcy says confidently.
"You do?", Anne asks in surprise.
"There are my boot prints over there. We have to go that way", Marcy explains, pointing to the ground where she just saw her prints, which have now disappeared. She looks there initially before dismissing them, grabbing Anne by the arm and running with her off back into the forest.
Just fifteen minutes and two breaks later, the two girlfriends reach Wartwood once again. Relief spreads across their faces as they leave the last few trees behind them.
"Ugh, finally... I've had enough forests for ages today", Anne bemoans jokingly as she takes a moment to breathe after all the running. Marcy, who is actually a bit less athletic than Anne, doesn't feel any better. While Marcy had been dragging Anne behind her at the beginning, by now it was Anne dragging Marcy behind her. Marcy is completely at the end with her power and heavily panting.
"I... may have... some bad news... when we're going... to the first temple...", Marcy wheezes.
"Marce, are you okay?", Anne asks slightly amused. Marcy, on the other hand, just gives a thumbs up.
"I think... I'm just dying right now... Nothing... to worry about", Marcy chuckles while Anne bursts out laughing. They're both having a short, sweet time right now.
"I completely forgot about the temples...", Anne confesses after a while, "Is that seriously in another forest?"
"Yup. But don't worry, I prepared a map for it", Marcy notes proudly. The two girls gradually approach Wartwood's village center. Again.
"You're the best, Mar-Mar"
"But of course. I'm your girlfriend, after all", Marcy says, whereupon Anne loses herself in thought for a moment.
"Girlfriend...", Anne mumbles to herself thoughtfully, "It still seems so surreal..."
"Maybe it'll seem less surreal if I do this", Marcy takes Anne's hand, "And this."
Marcy gives Anne a little kiss on her cheek, whereupon an embarrassed smile comes out on Anne's face. Marcy loves that view.
"You're right...", Anne admits, but gasps a moment later, "Should we actually tell the others yet?"
"Why? Do you think they wouldn't be okay with it?", Marcy asks.
"Nah. They love me. They love you. And we love each other, it's fine. I actually meant, if we should just go on like this for fun, like we have no idea and are completely oblivious..."
"Uhh, that sounds very tempting.... How long should we keep up the illusion though?", Marcy inquires.
"Whew, I don't know. Until someone calls us on it maybe...", Anne suggests.
"That could be fun... Count me in!", Marcy confirms with a smile as the two girls enter the Plantars' property. This time, however, there is no sign of a mob.
"Say Marce, do you have any idea how long we've been in the woods?"
"Well, now that I can see the sun...", Marcy does some calculations in her head, "It's been about nine to eleven hours since we left with Sprig and Maddie to look for Luz."
"Seriously??", Anne asks in surprise, "It feels like we spent more than a month in there..."
Marcy gives Anne a skeptical look.
"Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean".
"Yeah, I know"
Arriving just outside the house, the girls notice that something seems to be missing.
"Anne?"
"Marcy?"
"The fwagon is no longer here"
"I can see that"
Suddenly the front door bursts open and Hop Pop comes out.
"That's because Polly and I have already unloaded everything alone and moved the fwagon into the barn", he explains with a serious pose and arms crossed standing in the doorway. Anne gives him an amused and at the same time questioning look.
'So much for being concerned about the mob', Anne thought to herself.
"Tell me, HP, have you been standing in front of the door all this time?", Anne asks, to which he nervously tugs at his collar.
"Uh n-no, of course not.... That would be ridiculous", he stutters sheepishly. At the same time, Sprig comes up behind him to the front door, holding a cricket-and-berries-sandwich he started eating.
"He's been standing outside the locked door for at least two hours waiting for you guys. By the way, glad you're back", he says cheerfully, but with his mouth full.
"I completely agree with that, dude…", Anne exclaims, while Marcy now just seems a little disappointed.
"I was actually thinking I could sleep in the fwagon-"
"Oh nonsense. You're sleeping with me down in the basement", Anne clarifies.
"A good idea", Hop Pop confirms, "and in the wise foresight on my part, we've already brought your stuff downstairs."
Suddenly Sprig clears his throat, and everyone looks at him.
"Ugh, fine... It was Sprig's idea", Hop Pop admits in frustration, "Betrayed by my own grandson..."
As Hop Pop feels sorry for himself, Anne and Marcy walk past him into the house and Marcy is in a state of excitement as she actively notices the interior for the first time.
"Oh my god... This is where you've been living all this time?", Marcy asks in a completely upbeat manner, which Anne mistakenly perceives as something pejorative for some reason. Perhaps because she was a little distracted by a certain someone.
"Yeah... It's nothing-"
"Oh Anne, I'm soo jealous", Marcy exclaims, to which Anne's eyes widen questioningly.
"You what now?"
"This house is soo full of history.... I mean, from the outside it already looks like a sawed-off tree stump that's been hollowed out, which must have been a gigantic amount of work..."
Hop Pop suddenly brightens as Marcy rambles on.
"Well Marcy", he begins, "it may interest you to know that this house is one of the oldest in the entire village."
Marcy's eyes begin to sparkle, and she turns to the old frog.
"Tell me more"
These words are like music to his ears. Immediately, Hop Pop offers Marcy a comprehensive tour of the entire house and takes her directly to his study, which, next to the entrance hall, is the most recent room, with an estimated age of a few hundred years.
Before both of them left, Anne had forbidden him to show Marcy the basement, because she would like to prepare the place a bit for Marcy beforehand. No objections come from either of them and Anne quickly disappears into the basement. Sprig, who wasn't really part of the conversation and is still standing at the front door, closes it, takes another bite of his sandwich and walks leisurely back to the living room.
Arriving in her basement, Anne immediately notices the huge chaos that reigns down there. She sighs.
"That's the mess you'll inherit if you don't help clean out the fwagon, Boonchuy..."
She stares discouraged at the tons of clothes on her bed, quite a few crates of stuff, some of which consists of stuff she took from Newtopia, such as at Hop Pop's order some of the towels provided at the hotel and soaps, but also the butterfly, which is meant as a gift for her mom. The other half consists of stuff belonging to Marcy, which she had taken with her when General Yunan dropped her off at the fwagon. Anne takes a look inside the boxes, two of which are completely filled with various books and a third that contains nothing but folded maps.
Anne puts the rather heavy boxes aside for now so that Marcy can deal with them later. Next, she looks at the clothes on her bed. Since Anne has only three outfits in Amphibia, two of which are for special occasions, she used the royal credit card in Newtopia to buy new fashionable outfits. Among them are two pairs of shoes, which are in fact brown Newt boots, a pair of gray leggings that are just slightly too short, a new plain T-shirt that says 'Happy Birthday, King Andrias' in sewn in big letters, which she got for free, and two light gray hoodies. She would have liked to buy more, but not only was Hop Pop against it, the selection for human body shapes was pretty limited for obvious reasons. Everything else in the pile of clothes are custom made clothes for Marcy.
'The palace life does have its advantages', Anne thinks to herself, looking through the clothes one after the other with a bit of jealousy. 'Hmm... I'm sure Marcy wouldn't mind if I tried them on sometime.... It's not like we didn't used to borrow each other's clothes all the time...'
Anne rummages through all the clothes on her bed until she suddenly notices that it's quite a bit higher than she remembers. She lovelessly pushes the clothes off her bed and notices that there is a second mattress on top of her previous one.
"That was my idea", Anne suddenly hears Sprig say. She turns around and sees him standing at the open basement hatch, descending the stairs. "I figured you and Marcy would rather not be separated currently, so Hop Pop and I brought a second mattress down to you from the fwagon here."
Many different emotions are moving through Anne's face right now, uncertain exactly how she can express everything at once. She rushes up to him and hugs him warmly.
"Thank you Sprig. You're the best friend I could ask for", Anne's voice is full of gratitude.
"There's nothing I wouldn't do. You know: Spranne against the world", he says smiling as the hug dissolves again.
"Spranne against the world", Anne repeats, just before Sprig sits down on the lowest step.
"Sooo... What else did you and Marcy do after Maddie and I left?", he asks in his innocent voice with a hint of teasing. Anne blushes briefly before she starts stuttering and telling him everything that happened and basicly recaps the whole day for him. Well, almost the whole day, because as agreed with Marcy, she keeps her new relationship a secret for the time being.
While Anne tells Sprig about the day, she is partially disassembling her bed. Well, not so much her whole bed, but more just one side of the frame so she can put the second mattress right next to it. The bed frame, whose corner posts consist only of tree trunks cut into cubes and joined together with much thinner and longer logs, lengthwise, which are now too short on two sides, Anne can simply replace with logs that are stored in the cellar anyway.
A while after Anne has largely cleaned up the basement, the basement hatch opens, and a rather excited Marcy appears
"AHHH, ANNE", she exclaims excitedly, "This is soo cool. The Plantars' family history goes back soo many hundreds of years. This is so exciting..."
Anne can't help but smile at the sight of her happy girlfriend.
"What if I told you there was an equally ancient tunnel system under the house, with even more history to study?", Anne teases her. Marcy eyes begin to sparkle.
“If you like, I could show you tomorrow and give you a tour.”
“Huh? Why not today?”, Marcy whines a bit.
“Because I'm feeling a bit tired. And because I actually have a plan for tomorrow for the two of us.”, Anne teases her, gaining her a small pout from Marcy in return.
From Anne's perspective, however, the day ended way later than she would have preferred. As the penalty for Anne not wanting to go down to the secret basement with Marcy today, she had to tell her what to expect when they'd go down there the next day. And that took a while. Afterwards, Hop Pop approached them and offered to heat up some of the leftover travel provisions and serve them for dinner.
The dinner itself was pretty uneventful. Marcy had taken two books from the fireplace basement to read while she ate, and Anne really just wanted to go to sleep. Before getting up from the dinner table with Marcy, she had asked the old frog when his contacts would be back with the music box. After he said it would only be a matter of days, Anne wished everyone a good night and went down into the basement together with Marcy.
Marcy descended the stairs in front of Anne and carefully placed the two books on the bottom step. And that's before she stands in front of the bed, spreads her arms and drops face-first onto it.
"What luck that I gave you the softer mattress", Anne comments after she also descends the steps. Marcy rolls onto her back with some difficulty.
"Muscles... So tired... Head... So full...", Marcy moans, "Me sleepy".
"Naaw...", Anne unintentionally speaks out loud. Marcy looks up at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry", Anne whispers awkwardly.
"Don't be embarrassed. I know I'm cute."
Anne is completely speechless, which in the long run only causes a stronger gleeful grin on Marcy's face.
"Say, where am I supposed to sleep?", Marcy asks to change the subject for Anne.
"Um... In the bed...", Anne replies slightly confused, but even more grateful that Marcy changed the subject.
"But this is your bed"
"MarMar...", Anne starts and lies down on the bed alongside Marcy, "This is your bed, just like it's my bed. What do you think the second mattress is for? Just for me? I don't think so"
"Oh, yeah... Makes sense... I've just never had a girlfriend before and it all feels so new and different, and yet-"
"And yet, nothing has really changed..."
"Exactly."
For a moment, both girls look at each other in silence.
"You know", Anne begins softly, "maybe more has changed than we think. We know how we feel about each other now, and nothing will ever be able to change that. The bond we both share now goes deeper than we ever thought was possible before.... I actually don't know what the future holds for us, but as long as we are together, we will get through anything."
"Starting with our super strength training tomorrow", Marcy now interjects excitedly, destroying the romantic atmosphere Anne has been building. Fortunately, she doesn't really hold it against her. Still, she grunts in joking annoyance.
"I have to meet that Ben guy tomorrow too...", Anne reminds herself. Marcy sways closer to Anne and snuggles up to her arm.
"We'll be fine."
Anne gives Marcy a kiss on the forehead. She smiles.
"Sleep sweet Marcy..."
"I love you too"
Chapter 28: Catching Up
Summary:
It's the day immediately after the Bonesborough Brawl and to avoid having to talk to anyone about it, Luz takes a trip into town.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Squeaking door hinges fill the silence that has so far filled Luz's room at the owl house. It's Hooty, sidling into her room as quietly as he can with the goal of waking her up. He sidles up to her until he stops just above her head and peers down at her.
"Hoot morning Luz", he screams shrilly. Luz immediately startles and accidentally slams her head against Hooty's face.
"Ouch!" they both complain, "Dammit Hooty.... Morning..."
Quickly, Hooty retreats back out of her room.
"I made breakfast. And we're out of griffin eggs."
Wearily, Luz falls back onto her pillow.
It is the day immediately after the Bonesborough Brawl and nearly ten hours after Emira flew Luz to the owl house, where she immediately fell asleep in her room. She didn't even have a chance to change into her sleeping clothes.
Luz doesn't remember the flight itself. She only remembers that she had promised Emira at Blight Manor that she would answer a question about her date with Amity. How much and what exactly she had told her in the end has slipped her mind.
'Amity...', Luz sighs inwardly as a few painful images of their previous evening flash back into her mind. Especially Amity's completely anguished expression towards Luz, during her last fight, has been burned crystal clear into Luz's memory.
At the moment, Luz is extremely conflicted. On the one hand she wants to continue spending time with Amity, because she means a lot to her. On the other hand, she was so obsessed with this stupid belt, that she was unreachable for any reasonable arguments. And then there is Luz' past... In less than two months she has already lost a lot of people she cared about. Eda and King petrified, Hop Pop briefly murdered, and she has now involuntarily abandoned all her new friends in Amphibia as well. Luz isn't sure she could bear to lose Amity as well...
Luz snaps out of her thoughts as she realizes she has been in a downward spiral.
'Nope, I'm not going there now. Amity is fine. She's alive. I saved her...'
With a shaky breath, she straightens up. Her eyes fall on Owlbert, who casts her a worried glance at the end of her bed. He is chirping.
"N-no, thank you. At least not yet", she tells him, "Suffice it to say, it didn't go well."
Luz runs a hand over her eyes and Owlbert jumps to her feet. He chirps again, a little higher this time. Luz smiles.
"Yeah, I could really use a bite." she says, getting up and heading down the stairs with Owlbert and into the kitchen, where they immediately spot Hooty hovering by the stove, wearing a chef's hat.
"Good morning again Hooty", Luz says with fake cheerfulness. Hooty has a wooden cooking spoon in his beak and is scraping with it through a pan full of scrambled eggs. "You really weren't lying when you said you made breakfast. Thank you. That's really thoughtful of you."
Hooty slowly puts down the spoon while Luz joins in and takes a clean plate. Luz helps herself to the scrambled eggs and sits down at the table in the middle of the room until she suddenly notices how quiet Hooty is.
She looks up from her plate after eating a few bites.
"You... were talking in your sleep...", Hooty suddenly says. He sounds just as worried as Owlbert earlier.
"You were both eavesdropping on me?", Luz asks Hooty and Owlbert, who are on the opposite side of the dining table. They exchange worried glances for a moment.
"You were screaming. It was impossible not to hear you", Hooty tells, "We had tried to wake you up, but it didn't work... You had a bad nightmare, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes. Totally. A nightmare, you're right", Luz suddenly stutters.
'I can't tell them... I can't tell anyone what happened yesterday... They're worried enough about me already. I don't want to make it worse'
But at this point, Hooty already suspects that it must have something to do with yesterday. Never before has Luz spoken in her sleep. And certainly never screamed.
"Something happened yesterday, didn't it?", Hooty asks with a sympathetically concerned tone. Luz wastes no time in hastily changing the subject.
"Oh titan, is it that late already? Come Owlbert, I have an appointment with a healer. See you later Hooty", and Luz rushes out on the kitchen door and quite a distance away from the Owl house.
Luz runs with Owlbert in his staff form in hand for a few minutes until she comes to a stop by a thick tree, against which she leans with one hand. Her breathing is still quite shaky.
Luz leans the staff against the tree and lets her back slide down to the ground, also leaning against the tree. She feels like yelling. And like crying. And that at the same time. Her eyes are completely dry and she can't make a sound.
Owlbert moves away from the staff again, jumps down to Luz and lands on her knee. Luz notices that he is looking at her, but she can't look him in the eyes right now.
"I know what you're going to say", she speaks softly to him, "And yes, you're right, I'm not doing well. Not at all."
Owlbert doesn't make a sound. His gaze remains fixed on her eyes and the pain beneath them.
"I... I can't talk about it. Not with you, not with Hooty. I'm sorry, but I just can't."
Part of her expects objections or an argument about how it would be better after all if she opened up and trusted the people, she was close to and Owlbert would indeed be able to tell Luz all this, but instead he continues to remain quiet. He tips down her leg, spreads his wings and hugs Luz.
Luz, after a moment's hesitation, places her hand on Owlbert's and returns the gesture.
"Thank you", Luz whispers, to which Owlbert chirps.
They both sit between the trees for a while longer, saying nothing. It is a rather comfortable silence. The wind rustles among the leaves, the ocean lashes against rocks not far away.... This atmosphere has an extremely calming effect on Luz. Something that she can use very well right now and seems to actually help.
Owlbert startles after a while when he hears what sounds like a distant roar. Luz giggles at this, whereupon he gives her a confused look.
"That was my stomach", she explains. She had eaten some of the scrambled eggs, but it was obviously anything but enough. Yet it was surprisingly tasty. "I feel a little guilty for just taking off like that..."
Owlbert chirps.
"True, however, I do in fact have an appointment with a healer in Bonesborough. I had promised her to teach a certain glyph. Long story", Luz explains, whereupon Owlbert nods once and changes back into his staff form. She can't help but be emotionally touched at Owlbert's acceptance, patience, and caring. Actually, the very fact that she can understand him at all is remarkable, considering that he belonged to Eda and came to Amphibia only by coincidence, together with Luz. Did Owlbert make a conscious decision to actively communicate with Luz? Does the possession status after Eda's petrification pass to Luz for some reason, which is why she can now understand him? Or is the bond Luz shared with Eda the deciding factor?
The thought of asking Owlbert this herself does not occur to Luz. Instead, she gets back up, wipes the dirt from her clothes, puts on her concealment bracelet, and takes the staff Owlbert has placed himself on again, and as she makes her way toward Bonesborough, she philosophizes about how palismen decide who can and cannot understand them, if they can influence it at all.
Not too long later, Luz arrives at the outer border of Bonesborough and the first few structures appear along the way.
She runs her hands through her jacket pockets, hoping that she hasn't lost the healer's business card.
Diane Liwin, Chief Healer
Rosewolf Avenue 42
Luz looks at the business card carefully as she tries to pull up a map of the city in her mind, because off the top of her head she has absolutely no idea where Rosewolf Avenue is supposed to be. At moments like this, she regrets never paying attention to street names. Funnily enough, this problem is not new. Even back in her hometown on Earth, Gravesfield, Luz only knew one street name, and that was the name of the street where she has lived all her life.
"You wouldn't happen to know where that is, would you?", Luz asks Owlbert. He just chirps indifferently, whereupon Luz chuckles. "Yes, I remember how much Eda avoided healers.... She always brewed potions herself when she could, and her own healing spells were always the best too."
Owlbert chirps sadly.
"I miss her too... Come, let's move on. Best we go to the marketplace and ask someone there for directions", Luz suggests and Owlbert chirps warningly. "I know, but the marketplace is unfortunately on the way to all the places I know where we could ask someone."
Luz had told Owlbert earlier that Eda's statue is in the middle of the marketplace, but he himself hasn't had a chance to see it and mourn it since he and Luz got back. And as much as he personally would like to get there, he knows that the human he is accompanying is anything but stable and thinks it would be a better idea to avoid the marketplace. But Luz is determined.
Both of them make their way through the narrow, empty streets until, after a short time, they arrive at the crowded and lively place. Many witches and demons walk around between many different stalls, selling and buying all kinds of possible and impossible stuff. And in the middle between all the people, living their daily life, stands out a meter high statue. The petrified Eda, the Owl Lady, in her cursed form.
Luz has to hold on to the wall of a house as she catches sight of her again. Owlbert looks back and forth between Eda and Luz and notices that it seems increasingly difficult for her to keep her composure. Repeatedly, Luz looks from Eda down to the ground. It hurts both of their hearts to see her like this.
Owlbert flutters to Luz's sleeve, grabbing it in his beak, forcing Luz to move on. They both scurry past the statue, but Luz manages to glimpse at the plaque on the statue that she changed the first time she was here, and looks to see if anyone has erased it again.
She suddenly stops as if stuck to the ground and stares at the plaque
Edalyn Clawthorne, the Owl Lady
A Symbol of Love, Hope and the Chance for a Better World
A symbol of the fallibility and dangers of wild magic
May this be a warning to all those who are aware of the dangerous lives of those who live their lives against the Titan's will
Your sacrifice will not be forgotten
We miss you deeply, little witchlet
A true inspiration for us all
I wish we had more time together. Miss you
Tears of joy spring from Luz' eyes. Many people had written more loving dedications to Eda under Luz' text, and even though someone apparently tried to remove Luz' text, the attempt was probably abandoned. Instead, only more people came.
She squeezes Owlbert close to her.
"She was not forgotten... There are still people who miss her...", Luz says through happy tears. Owlbert also seems to be emotionally moved.
Luz looks up at Eda, right into her face. And smiles.
She puts her hand on one of Eda's. Then the second. And on top of it she lays her head. Next to her, she notices Owlbert hugging Eda's other arm with his little wings. It is just as if the rest of the world does not exist right now and fades away past her.
She and Owlbert remain in this pose for a while, until they eventually decide to move on. Owlbert hops on Luz's shoulder while she carries the rest of the staff. The two make their original way through the crowded marketplace. In the middle of it, however, Luz turns back and waves a sad farewell to Eda with a smile before disappearing with Owlbert behind a building into a side street.
"I guess it wasn't a bad idea to walk through the marketplace after all, was it?", Luz asks Owlbert, who seems to agree. Still, he gives an additional questioning chirp.
"We'll be right there"
Luz had not yet revealed to him exactly where they were going. After all, to ask anyone for directions, there would have been more than enough opportunities in the marketplace. She seems to be looking for someone special.
A familiar sign on a nondescript house facade appears, reading 'Mr. Elixir'. Luz walks faster and faster towards the open sales window, where a witch with shoulder-length brown hair, gray funnel and a mint-green top is standing with his back bent down opposite of her.
"Morton!", Luz calls out, at which the witch jumps up.
"Luz?!", he asks happily in disbelief before turning around and giving her a confused look. "Oh, sorry... I just thought you were someone I knew."
After a moment's thought, as well as a careful look around, she takes off her concealment bracelet, and the illusion, still showing a red demon with goat legs and small horns on her head, suddenly dissolves and the real Luz appears. Morton is very happy to see her.
"Oh Titan, it's really you", he exclaims joyfully. Luz puts the bracelet back on.
"Yeah... I've been... somewhere else in the meantime", Luz explains roughly.
"I think it's really great that you're alright. I was afraid you were... you know..."
"I'm alright. Say, could you help me with something?"
"Sure. What do you need?", Morton asks, at which point Luz pulls out the healer's card.
"Do you know where this is? My location skills aren't very well developed", Luz says, slightly embarrassed. Morton considers for a moment.
"Yes, of course. That's Chief Healer Liwin's clinic. I always supply her with various potions and poisons after closing time", he tells.
"Poisons?"
"Sure. Believe it or not, some diseases can really only be fought by poisoning the body. Bleeding weasels, for example."
"Don't you mean more like 'measles'?"
"No."
There is a moment of startled silence between the two.
"Anyway... Can you tell me where her clinic is?"
Morton leans out the window and points to the left with an outstretched arm.
"See that big building back there?", Luz's gaze follows his arm.
"The library?"
"Yeah right", he confirms, "If you're standing right in front of the main entrance, turn further left and follow the street until you come to a blue brick wall. At one point you can just walk through it and the clinic is right behind it."
"Thank you so much, Morton", Luz says gratefully.
"It was my pleasure. And it was very nice to see you again. I hope you'll come by again sometime."
"I'm sure I will. Thanks again"
Luz says goodbye and storms off towards the library. Luz feels unusually energetic right now, as if the whole world belongs to her and she can accomplish absolutely anything. Smiling, she runs through the streets, feeling faster than ever before. She feels great.
She runs past all kinds of witches and demons, guards and students, buildings blur beside her and people look after her in wonder. Not even a minute later, Luz arrives at the blue brick wall Morton described.
"Superspeed, nice...", Luz comments casually. Owlbert chirps. "Really? Oh wow, I would have really liked to see that from the outside..."
Luz slowly feels her way along the wall and sure enough, in one spot, a small opening hidden by an illusion, just rough enough for Luz to stick her hand in. Without hesitation, she does just that and part of the wall next to her seems to blur. She goes straight over to it.
Normally, people would approach such a wall rather cautiously, perhaps reaching a hand in first. Luz, however, sticks her head right in before the rest of her body follows.
Luz had expected this to be followed by a path leading to the clinic after Morton's description, but nope. Luz now stands directly in a well-lit, white, sterile-smelling room. Luz must think directly of the anteroom of her dentist on earth. White walls, scattered wooden elements on the walls, strange paintings on the walls and the smell of disinfectant in the air.
'Disinfectant? Here?', Confused, Luz turns around and the passageway she just passed through now appears to be a simple doorway. Luz leans back so that only her head is sticking out again outside and she sees the blue wall.
"An illusion. For our protection and that of our patients", speaks a voice from in front of her. Luz brings her head back in and suddenly notices a witch with short, red wine-colored hair and a white uniform peering at her with a curious raised eyebrow.
"Why protection?", Luz asks, making the witch seem a little taken aback, "And why does it smell so... much cleaner in here?"
"As it seems to me, you don't know where you are right now...", the witch remarks.
"Um... Chief Healer Liwin's clinic? She had given me this card and told me to stop by today...", Luz explains and pulls out the card. The witch takes it and relief fills her face.
"Good for you for showing me the card. Otherwise... Well, better you don't know. Welcome to the clinic of Chief Healer Diane Liwin. This clinic is for all those who have been rejected by the system. I am her assistant. Call me Alsa."
"An underground clinic? Cool...", Luz exclaims excitedly.
"Precisely. Officially, this place doesn't exist and where better to hide than right in front of everyone...", Alsa explains.
"Makes sense, I guess"
Owlbert chirps uncertainly in confirmation.
"Chief Healer Liwin has another patient right now, but she'll see you in a minute" Alsa explains.
"Um, thanks... I can't really wrap my head around the underground part yet.... Are you guys like rebels? And if so, against what exactly? Against Emperor Belos, the coven system, or the system in general?", Luz asks. Assistant Alsa has meanwhile sat down behind a table right next to the entrance.
"Is there a difference?" she asks sarcastically.
"Not really."
"Exactly. This clinic is actually relatively new. It's only a few weeks old, so we hardly have any patients yet. Building an underground resistance like this takes time", Alsa tells her.
"Why are you actually telling me all this so directly? Aren't you afraid I might be a spy or something?", Luz asks, to which Alsa chuckles in amusement.
"Heh, no. The hole where you stuck your hand in earlier that unlocks the entrance only works for people who don't have the Emperor’s Coven seal. It's a very powerful spell, built in by the founder of this resistance. A bard. Never met them. All I know is that they got caught not too long ago."
"Alsa, are you talking our patients ear off again? This one seems to only have two of them anyway...", Chief Healer Liwin jokingly remarks as she walks into the antechamber where Luz and Alsa are talking, accompanied by what appears to be a male witch.
"Oh no. Just a little talk", Alsa replies.
Liwin walks with the witch past both of them to the door and tells him to be more careful in the future who he pisses off. He thanks her and leaves before Liwin turns to Luz.
"I'm so glad you were able to make it here", she remarks.
"I happened to be in the area...", Luz tells her.
"Of course. If you would follow me..."
Healer Liwin leads Luz to a room, which is far in the back of the clinic. She opens a door for Luz, who is astonished when she enters. In contrast to the anteroom, where everything was sterile white, this room can almost be called an indoor garden. Many potted plants hang down from the rather high room and the walls are also partially covered with various plants. Occasionally, cabinets still hang on the walls, but the only part where you can see that is the tiled floor.
"Not bad, right? This is where I grow my plants for medicine", Healer Liwin tells her. She creates a green circle and vines on one wall form into an oblong table and a chair.
"Healing and plant magic?", Luz asks in amazement. Healer Liwin smirks.
"Not only that. I also built this entire building here", she tells Luz.
"Wow... Call me impressed."
"Thank you."
"I suppose you want me to explain to you now, how the healing glyph works", Luz guesses. But to her surprise, she declines.
"No. If you don't mind, I'd like to examine you first".
Luz is a little surprised by this.
"W-why? There's nothing wrong with me...", Luz answers.
"The sudden drops of sweat on your forehead say otherwise. Also, I see your concealment bracelet.", Luz slaps her hand on her bracelet immediately after.
"H-How?"
"Even before I opened this clinic, I practiced healing for a large part of my life and saw a fair amount of stuff. It's not uncommon for people to hide their injuries with simple concealment stones. Often, it's violence in relationships, not letting their employer see their injuries, or something like that.... But when I look at yours right now, it doesn't seem to be an ordinary stone. It looks like a very high-quality customized stone..."
Luz's mouth drops open in amazement.
"... ... Well, the last one is correct...", Luz confirms. "But also, only that. I have no injuries"
"But?", Healer Liwin inquires. Luz hesitates. "Kid, I didn't become a healer to judge people. And I won't tell your parents or teachers either, if that's your concern..."
"Not even to the Emperor’s Coven?"
"This clinic stands against Belos, which is what Alsa told you earlier, if I heard that correctly", Liwin says.
"Okay, okay...", Luz now says, admitting defeat. Her gut tells her that she can trust Healer Liwin. She takes her hand off the bracelet and slips it off her hand, whereupon the illusion fizzles out and instead of the red demon, a brown-haired human girl now sits there.
"Ou-kay... I didn't expect that...", Chief Healer Liwin admits in surprise, "You are Luz... the human..."
Luz nods in confirmation.
"Wow... Well, I'll hold on to that secret of yours."
"Thank you."
"But I still insist on being permitted to examine you".
"I don't think that's a good idea", Luz indicates.
"You don't think I'm competent enough to diagnose a human?"
"No, no... After all, I saw what you did for my friend yesterday.... The thing is... The last time someone did a diagnostic spell on me, it crashed an airship..."
"That sounds like just another reason to perform a diagnostic spell...", Liwin says confidently.
"But I don't want you to get hurt."
"I'll be fine... Come, lie down on the table please"
Luz realizes that it's no use trying to talk her out of it. She might as well go along with it and maybe learn something about herself.
Luz lies down on the table that Chief Healer Liwin has previously created from plants. Before casting the diagnosis spell, however, she casts another plant spell to tie her legs to the ground and create a support for herself so that she doesn't fall over or fly away in case of doubt.
Chief Healer Liwin begins to cast the diagnostic spell and Luz squints her eyes. As Luz expected, a massive blast wave forms on her, devastating the entire room and knocking Liwin to the floor with enormous force, despite her plant-based safety precautions. Afterwards Luz jumps up from the table and wants to help Liwin get up, when suddenly her Assistant Alsa comes rushing into the room.
"Liwin! Is everything all right?", she has just finished asking, when she notices the chaos in the room. Many of the plants on the walls are ripped off, the cupboards are lying broken on the floor and many of the floor tiles are cracked. "Oh my... What happened?", Alsa asks in shock.
"Urgh... Good question... Our friend here... seems to have a repulsion mutation, as is common in blood sheep.", Chief Healer Liwin says tensely as Luz helps her up. Alsa looks at Luz in confusion.
"You are human... Interesting. My daughter had once told of a human at Hexside.... Wait, blood sheep? The ones you get witch's wool from?"
"Exactly", Liwin exclaims.
"Wait, you've seen something like that before?", Luz asks in amazement.
"No. But you have similar properties with a magic repelling cloak made out of witch’s’ wool", Liwin explains.
"And what does that mean?", Luz asks.
"It means that even without a cloak, you should be immune to external spells... I'm surprised you've never figured that out yourself..."
"I'm still a little confused right now...", Luz states, to which Chief Healer Liwin rolls her eyes. She creates a fireball and throws it at Luz, which dissipates just before it hits her, before smacking her lightly in the face.
"You. No damage from magic. You no need cloak. But still damage from non-magic."
"Thanks, I guess... I think I understand now", Luz says while rubbing her cheek.
"But I wonder one thing: what if I were hanging down from somewhere tied by my arms with vines? Would they dissolve then? And what if I pull on a vine that I created myself? Or what if I create a pillar of ice-"
"Okay kid, I'm going to have to stop you right there," Chief Healer Liwin interrupts Luz, "These all sound like things you'll be happy to try yourself later.... But I'd like to continue now. Oh, by the way, Alsa, you can leave now."
"All right," Alsa says and leaves the room. And Luz sits back down on the table, her legs crossed.
"More tests?", Luz asks.
"No. Normally I would have wanted to examine your bile-sac now, but as a human you don't have one. Which brings me to the question, though, how is it possible that you're the most wanted person in the Isles? You don't come across as a criminal to me."
"Are you just asking me that in your role as a healer or for the resistance?", Luz inquires skeptically.
"Both.", Liwin answers glibly, which makes Luz crack a smile.
"Honestly? No idea. Maybe he's just resentful because I challenged him to a fight and broke a piece off his mask-"
"You fought that old witch?", Liwin asks incredulously.
"Uh-huh", Luz confirms, at which point Liwin begins to ponder.
"You definitely have some serious balls, and you were lucky enough to survive..."
"Hey!", Luz interrupts with an offended tone.
"-It's hard to imagine him seeing you as a threat to his power.... Do you think you might have something he wants?"
"He's welcome to have my mental strength. There's not much of that left anyway", Luz jokes. Liwin, on the other hand, is not amused.
"Be serious, kid."
"Okay. Sorry... ... The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that he knows about is, on the one hand, my skills with glyphs, which no one else in the Isles has the ability to do, and that I know how to get into the human realm. Even though I don't know where exactly the portal door is right now."
"You're stuck here? Sorry to hear... But now that I think about it, both seem like pretty good reasons why he wants you so badly, and even alive for that matter. We could use that."
A cold shiver runs down Luz's spine as Liwin finishes her last sentence.
"I don't know if I like what you're alluding to right now...", Luz says, "I tend not to be a fan of being used".
"Yes, I admit my choice of words was misleading. I apologize. ... However, there is something I would like to ask of you"
"And what is that?", Luz asks skeptically.
"Help us. Help us depose Belos and free the Isles," Liwin pleads while Luz seriously considers, "I know you're practically still a child and I wouldn't let you fight on the front lines and risk losing your life.... But we currently have hardly any members and it feels like every day more and more of us are discovered and locked up in the Conformatorium-"
As Chief Healer Liwin goes on and on listing arguments, a memory of her encounter with the Titan suddenly shoots into Luz's mind.
"HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO, TWO HUMANS FOUND A RIFT BETWEEN THE REALMS AND STRANDED THEMSELVES IN THE DEMON REALM"
"There were more humans in the Demon Realm before me?"
"INDEED. TWO HUMANS OF THE SAME BLOOD. ONE PEACEFUL AND KIND, THE OTHER FULL OF HATE AND CONTEMPT. THE DESPISING ONE LEARNED MY LANGUAGE AND CONTACTED ME. HE WANTED TO LEARN MAGIC SO I GRANTED HIM THIS WISH. MY GIFT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR HIM AND HE WANTED MORE. LIKE A PARASITE, IT ATTACHED TO ME AND ULTIMATELY ABSORBED ME"
'Two humans...', Luz thinks to herself before falling into disbelief, 'Never! No way is it possible that Belos is a human! That's hundreds of years, no human can live that long.... ... I've seen Belos doing magic. Humans can't... Maybe he is a descendant? Only partially human, like me.... ... I don't like that idea any more than the alternative.'
"I'm in," Luz suddenly says with determination, but also a touch of horror at what she has just realized. She's desperate to talk about it with someone. Someone she trusts and knows better than Liwin.
"Really?", Liwin asks, to which Luz nods, "Great. Um... There's a meeting in a few days. Alsa will tell you where it is."
"Okay. Can we just gradually get to what I came here for in the first place? I actually have a date with someone else in a few minutes...", Luz lies.
"But of course."
Luz takes out the regeneration glyph and, with the help of a short demonstration on herself, explains to her exactly how it works. Liwin understands the subject quite quickly. An advantage for Luz, who just wants to leave.
Since there are no further questions on the part of Liwin, Luz picks up her staff and puts her concealment bracelet back on before she is accompanied by her to the entrance of the clinic.
"Thank you again Luz. I'll pass this on to as many clinics as I can", Chief Healer Liwin says while keeping a hand on Luz's shoulder.
"Glad I could help", Luz says, after which Liwin turns to Alsa.
"One card for her", Liwin orders Alsa, who gives Luz a new business card. Luz flips the card around and looks at Alsa in confusion.
"There's nothing on it", Luz observes.
"The address will appear in a few days. A necessary precaution", Alsa explains as a new person suddenly enters the clinic. A witch, similar age to Liwin, with neck-length gray hair sticking out, a dark purple dress and her palisman is a hawk.
"Good day, Diane", she greets Liwin.
"Gwendolyn, good to see you. I'll be right with you", Liwin replies before turning back to Luz. Luz, on the other hand, is just completely taken in by the sheer mass of the new witch's palisman. Liwin taps Luz on the shoulder again to bring her back to the present.
"Are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah... Um, come on Owlbert. Let's leave", Luz says to him. Unbeknownst to Luz though, the newly arrived witch turns to her with a skeptical questioning look as she has just left the clinic and heads after her.
Luz is only a few seconds in the air on Owlbert when she hears a scream of rage.
"HEY!", Luz hears echoing through the air from behind her. She turns around and sees the witch, who had just entered the clinic, flying towards Luz on her hawk with a determined expression and at high speed.
"eek", Luz shrieks, realizing she's after her for some reason. She tips her staff forward and plunges almost vertically downward into a dive.
'Shiii... Does she know who I am? Did I give myself away?'
The wind whizzes loudly past her ears as she navigates the narrow streets of Bonesborough at high speed with no destination, in an attempt to shake off her pursuer. She doesn't catch the fact that Owlbert is trying to tell her something.
Witches and demons duck as Luz races over their heads, her hair tangled and her field of vision narrowing.
"Freeze, you thief!", the witch shouts in rage, which Luz has so far been unable to seem to shake off.
'Thief?', Luz thinks to herself as she takes a tight turn into an even narrower alley, barely dodging protruding balconies at breakneck speed. Fear and a rising pulse shoot into Luz's head as she sees what was already a narrow alley narrowing even further.
Flying almost completely through the alley, Luz risks slowing slightly and turning around to face the back. Her pursuer is nowhere to be seen.
Luz exhales in relief and regrets it only seconds later as the witch slowly floats down from above at the end of the alley. Luz gulps.
The witch rushes towards Luz, but unfortunately the alley is too narrow to turn around on the spot. Consequently, Luz pulls her staff up and shoots out from between protruding roof tiles, the enraged witch immediately behind her.
'Why is she calling me a thief? I've never met her before...', Luz wonders. Owlbert tries again to tell Luz something, but once again she can't hear him due to the wind flying around her ears.
When Luz realizes after another while that she can't escape her, she thinks of a new strategy. Luz rummages around in her jacket pocket looking for an invisibility glyph. Unfortunately, she loses a few other glyphs, which drop out of her pocket without her noticing. She finds a copy of the modified invisibility glyph that only works when she keeps her eyes closed. She has to land for it, but at least she is not limited in time compared to the alternative. Luz flies down towards the ground, flying a few tight turns around buildings until she finally jumps off the staff, closes her eyes, applies the glyph to herself, and just hears something fly past her. Her heartbeat is still pounding in her ears, but she really wants to make sure she's really gone before she opens her eyes again.
Luz can hear footsteps approaching.
"Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I don't know you're hiding here somewhere?"
The witch stands almost directly in front of Luz, shouting into an empty intersection of two alleys between buildings. Luz puts her hand over her nose and mouth.
'Don't make any noise', Luz warns herself as the witch continues.
"You know, ages ago I joined the Beast keeper coven. I will, if I have to, turn every beast in the Isles on you! You won't be safe anywhere! You'll have nowhere to hide...", she threatens. Luz hears a magic circle being drawn. "Gotcha!"
Luz eyes snap open, the invisibility spell dissipates and Luz sees a purple aura around her, leading into the allay Luz just came flying out of. And the angry witch is looking right at her.
Hastily, Luz throws an ice glyph between her and herself. A wall of ice forms, Luz jumps on her staff and flies up and away as fast as she can.
'Urgh, I could run really fast before, why can't I fly any faster now?', Luz asks herself in frustration. 'Hooty! He can help'
Luz darts off back towards the Owl House. She takes another look at the ground, making direct eye contact with the witch who has been chasing her so far.
"Hooty Hooty Hooty Hooty Hooty," Luz keeps repeating rather rapidly as she approaches the Owl House at high speed. Hooty himself is whirring around near the front door, trying to have a conversation with a bug, when he sees and hears Luz arriving. He bolts toward her, but Luz flies past him, opens the front door, and slams it shut again behind him.
"Someone's after me", Luz exclaims after Hooty pokes his head through the small window located right next to the door. Luz, terrified, has pressed herself backward against the door with all her body weight. Hooty squeezes out the window again and sees that someone has apparently followed Luz and is approaching the house. He pokes his head into the house again for a moment.
"I'll take care of it", Hooty says with an oddly serious tone.
"Thank you, Hooty", Luz says before taking a relieved breath and taking off her bracelet and putting it in one of her jacket pockets.
She remains in this position for a short while as Owlbert shifts from his staff posture back into his palisman form. He chirps, causing Luz to widen her eyes in shock.
"THAT'S EDA'S MOM???"
Luz turns around and yanks open the door before screaming "HOOTY! STOP!"
Luz sees the witch just landed not far from the house and Hooty, who came shooting out of the ground right behind her and was about to envelop her completely. The older witch looks up at Hooty with a raised eyebrow.
"All right, you're the boss. HOOT!", he says clearly audible before retreating into the ground all the way to the front door where Luz is standing, feeling incredibly nervous and with Owlbert sitting on her shoulder.
The witch approaches Luz straight on, though currently more confused than angry, in comparison to before. Her gaze remains serious though, and as she crosses her arms, Luz' gaze falls on her muscular, scarred arms. Currently, she looks rather intimidating.
"Y-You're Eda's mom...", Luz remarks in a shaky voice.
"At least you know the name of the woman you stole the palisman from, and apparently the house as well..."
"I didn't-", Luz tries to explain herself, but she doesn't get a chance.
"Seems like you don't have any respect for those who have passed away. I would be surprised if you would... You are a criminal, after all. And a human on top of that-"
"I LOVED EDA", Luz shouts at her accusations through angry tears, "AND THERE IS NO DAMN DAY THAT IT DOESN'T BREAK MY HEART THAT SHE IS NO LONGER HERE!"
The witch is surprised at this sudden emotional outburst. And only now she also notices that Owlbert is sitting on Luz' shoulder, trying to comfort the girl. Guilt spreads through the witch's mind.
"I... I'm sorry. That... I shouldn't have said that, it's not right.", the witch says in a low voice, "I'm a mother and I'm yelling at a child.... I'm so, so sorry. ... May- may I come in? To talk?"
Luz is seriously considering refusing the request right now.
'She's been chasing me, accusing me of being a thief and accusing me of bad things like that and now she just wants to have a nice chat???? My ass...', Luz thinks to herself dismissively, 'But at the same time, she's Eda's mom... Probably the closest and only other person who was still close to Eda...'
Luz sighs and invites the witch into the house. The two sit down in the living room and the witch looks around the house with a nostalgic look.
"Still exactly as I remember it.... The living room I mean", the witch begins to say, immediately after sitting down. Luz sits down as far away from her as possible. "I need to apologize again for the horrible, horrible things I've said. Since the loss of my daughters.... I'm not really myself anymore.... My name is Gwendolyn, by the way. But you're welcome to call me Gwen if you like."
"I'm Luz... But you probably already know that. After all, the posters are everywhere"
"By the way, where is a red friend anyway?", Gwen asks. Luz chuckles and takes out her bracelet and puts it on.
"That was me", Luz reveals.
"Oh, how fascinating...", Gwen admits.
"You're not here just for small talk, are you?", Luz inquires skeptically. Gwen sighs.
"No. It... I didn't think it would be this hard to be here. Ever since I found out about the petrification ceremony, I've been meaning to come here and take care of Edalyn's things... But I couldn't. The pain was still too great, the wound too fresh."
"I know what you mean"
"May I ask what relationship you had towards my little witchlet?", Gwen asks.
"I am- was Eda's apprentice. She had taken me in a few months ago when I accidentally ended up in the demon realm. At first, she promised me I could learn magic from her in exchange for some work. And later we became closer. She, King and I were like our own little family".
"King? You mean the puppy?", Gwen asks. Luz gives her a look that is both amused and confused.
"No. King is a demon. In fact, even the king of demons... That's what he's always called himself", a sad smile graces Luz's face. Owlbert smears his face against Luz's before chirping. "Alright buddy. I'll be here when you're back", Luz replies before he spreads his wings and flies out the window.
"Your relationship with Edalyn must have been really important to you. It's extremely rare for someone to have the ability to talk to a palisman that isn't their own", Gwen notes. Luz chuckles briefly.
"Yes, Owlbert and I have spent virtually every second together since... you know."
"I see. ... May I ask, were you with Edalyn when she...", Gwen starts to ask, but can't bring the words past her lips. Sadness fills Luz's face. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to".
"No, no, it's fine. ... I was probably the last one to talk to Eda. She wanted me to go back to the human realm and destroy the portal. I told her I loved her just before she went up somewhere in that magic cage. ... I couldn't help her"
"I'm sure you did everything in your power", Gwen tries to comfort her.
"That's what everyone said. But I know I could have helped her. I know I could. If only that stupid-", Luz takes one quick breath, "Nevermind."
"No, please, go on. I'm listening", Gwen assures her with a genuine smile, but Luz hesitates.
"That damn Titan, dragged me away out of my fight with Belos and threw me into yet another world. 'For my own safety', he said. Bullshit. He's the only reason I couldn't save Eda, or King, or even Lilith.", Gwen's face straight up froze at what Luz is telling her rather rapidly, "And what's on top of that now, I, that I got these soo incredibly awesome powers from the Titan and I'm supposed to stop Belos, who I assume is the descendant of someone from my world from hundreds of years ago, but I don't have the slightest idea how these powers work and I just feel soo incredibly useless and out of place that I just wanna hide in my room all day and rot in a corner..."
Gwen is completely speechless and it's hard for her to understand and even believe everything Luz is telling her. What she does understand, however, is that there is a girl sitting in front of her, a child who is completely overwhelmed with the whole world right now.
She carefully slides closer to Luz on the couch, who shows no signs that she dislikes it. However, as she wants to put a hand on her shoulder, Luz nudges her hand away using her shoulder and shoots up from her seat.
"I'm sorry. I can't do this", Luz turns and runs up the stairs to her room. Gwen's hand reached out to her, but then decided not to stop her.
Gwen sighs in defeat and Hooty pokes his head through the small window into the living room.
"She's not well. And hasn't been the whole time she's been back", he explains with concern filling his voice.
"Hooty, you probably know her better than I do… Did she tell the truth? About her relationship with Edalyn, the Titan and-"
"Yes.", Hooty interrupts her, "Luz is most likely the kindest, most honest and caring soul in all of the Isles."
"Hmm... She definitely needs help though. That's obvious"
Suddenly, there's a loud knock at the door. Hooty and Gwen both look towards it in surprise. Gwen gets up to open it and standing in front of her is a girl probably the same age with pink hair and Owlbert fluttering in place next to her head.
"Where is my Luz?"
A little earlier at Blight Manor...
"Mittens!", Emira yells as she flings open Amity's bedroom door and storms into her room, "You fucked up".
Not surprisingly, Amity wakes up immediately. Instead of getting up, however, she turns onto her side with great effort and tucks her head under her large pillow, growling in annoyance.
"Go away!", Amity mutters. Too bad for her that Emira is determined to talk to her, so she sits down on Amity's bed.
Blindly, Amity reaches behind her in an attempt to push Emira off her bed, however, her hand falls on a large metal object lying right next to her. Now she is curious.
Amity pulls her head out from under the pillow, her hair a complete mess, and she sees the champion belt lying next to her, which, fully stretched out, is almost as long as Amity is tall.
"Luz... Where is-", Amity looks rapidly all over the floor and tries to stand up, however, her legs immediately give out. Emira is fortunately quick enough to catch her.
"Hey, don't strain yourself.", Emira holds Amity's hands and sets her back on her bed.
"Ooohh, my head... I feel all sore everywhere...", Amity's gaze wanders around her room and lands on the belt again and then back to her sister, "What did you mean by 'I fucked up'?", she asks in confusion before continuing, "I competed in Brawl, won every fight, impressed Luz, and have the belt lying here...", concern spreads across her sister's face. "What? Why are you looking like that? And where is Luz?"
"I flew her home last night. She was a mess after she carried you home", Emira tells her, to which Amity blushes, but not in the cute way, "Apparently you collapsed yesterday and she carried you the rest of the way"
"Oh no."
"And the belt... Doesn't technically belong to you"
"But... but then why do I have it?", Emira hesitates just long enough for Amity to come up with the answer herself, "Oh no.... I remember... Warden Wrath...", Amity's face pales and she looks her sister right back in her eyes.
"When I brought Luz home, she told me a little bit about yesterday. Not everything, but enough", Emira says partially reproachfully, partially pityingly, when suddenly their brother appears at the door.
"Noooooo... Em, you said you'd wait for me until we gave Mittens the lecture," he complains.
"Stop complaining! Come over here and sit down", Emira instructs him. She immediately turns back to Amity and wants to talk again, but Edric beats her to it.
"Have you asked her yet why she was willing to almost get herself killed in front of her date?"
"EDRIC!", Emira yells, to which Amity's face only turns paler and concern and guilt fills her mind.
"What?" he asks in his defense, "That's what happened."
"Yeah, but you don't have to be so upfront about it!"
"It's fine", Amity suddenly interjects as she presses one of her pillows to her face and slumps backwards, "You're right.... How could I have completely forgotten how crappy I'd been to Luz..."
Ghost jumps on the bed and lies down on the pillow covering Amity's face. "Thanks Ghost."
"Meow.", Ghost makes herself comfortable and purrs contentedly. Amity, on the other hand, sighs in defeat. Edric turns his attention to the belt.
"The Champions belt is fancy though...", he comments trying to pick it up, whereupon Emira slaps him gently on the fingers.
"Keep off", she says, "it's not yours".
"Do you think I should give this to Luz? As an apology?", Amity asks muffled through the pillow.
"That's a question only you can answer, Sis. You know Luz better than we do", Edric says.
"Apparently not", Amity grunts.
"On the flight Luz had called the belt 'stupid' and 'I hate it'. Maybe this wouldn't be the best idea", Emira thinks. Amity takes the pillow off her face and carefully places it next to her so as not to disturb Ghost.
"You guys are not helpful", Amity complains.
"But we are truly the best at this," Edric and Emira announce simultaneously with a cheerful high-five. Amity rolls her eyes.
"But if you really want a useful tip", Emira begins, "talk to her as soon as you can. Maybe not right now, you should gather your strength first."
"Mhm", Amity merely hums in response, though with a heavy heart. The twins stand up and are about to leave their sister's room again when Amity pulls out her scroll and sees the time.
"Wait... I've been asleep all day? Are mom and dad on another trip? Mom would never allow me to sleep longer than sunrise otherwise..."
"Oh, right, um.... Dad's working on something in his lab... aaand Mom went to the knee to supervise the construction of the new factory", Edric explains, and he and Emira leave their room, closing the door behind them.
Amity's gaze remains at the door for a while before she slumps back on her bed, grunting in frustration. Ghost gets up from her spot and smacks her face against Amity's, purring. She looks thoughtfully at her palisman.
"I can't tell right now if you're making fun of me or if you really want to help..."
"Meow."
"Of course," Amity sighs in defeat and turns to her scroll, hovering not far above her face.
'Oh, wait... No, Luz doesn't have a scroll of her own. Totally forgot... The owl lady must have had a crystal ball- ... but I don't know the number', Amity thinks to herself and growls. "What do you think I should do now? I'm at a complete loss as to what to do now and it's killing me...", Amity asks Ghost.
"Meeeow", Ghost replies with a tone like it's the most obvious thing in the whole world.
"You saw how wobbly my legs were. How could I possibly walk to Luz in that state?"
"Mrrrrr", Ghost growls reproachfully.
"That's rude. Don't tell me I'm just making excuses..."
Instead of responding to that, though, Ghost repeatedly places a paw on Amity's forehead before jumping off the bed.
It takes Amity a few seconds to understand what her palisman was trying to tell her. Joltingly, she sits up straight and almost jumps up from the bed, stomping towards Ghost.
"You seriously think I'm too stupid to-", Amity began to accuse Ghost, who is sitting outside her bedroom door, sounding pissed off, as she suddenly freezes on the spot and looks directly down at herself, especially at her legs. Ghost grins smugly at her.
"I'm... standing... What the...?"
"Meow", Ghost explains. She knows Amity isn't stupid. Quite the opposite, in fact. However, her own mind sometimes prevents her from doing what is necessary.
"You... clever, sneaky cat.", Amity says through gritted teeth, leaning down to Ghost and petting her as she purrs contentedly with herself. "But I should get out of these clothes and take a shower for now".
A while later, as Amity is just getting out of the shower, she hears Ghost scratching excitedly at the door from outside. She does this every time Amity is in the bathroom for more than ten minutes. But just only there.
Accordingly, she doesn't hurry much and takes her time getting dressed. She puts on a cozy black hoodie and comfortable pants that remind light blue jeans. All this while Ghost continues to scratch at the door.
Barefoot and holding her dirty old clothes, some covered with her own bloodstains, she opens the door.
She stares at the floor, startled, when she sees not only Ghost sitting in front of her with a frightened look, but Owlbert crouching on her head with the same help-seeking expression.
A bad sign.
The worst sign.
Amity runs to her room, tossing her dirty clothes in uncharitably before flying, still barefoot, on Ghost with Owlbert at top speed from Blight Manor, over dense woods and over Bonesborough directly to the Owl House.
She knocks frantically on the door, as Hooty seems to be in the house via a small window next to the front door. To Amity's surprise, an elderly but well-built woman opens the door. However, there is only one question on her mind right now.
"Where is my Luz?" she asks, thoroughly worried.
Fortunately, Amity doesn't have to explain much and the woman knows exactly as to what she is talking about and why she is there. Without much communication between her, Amity and even Hooty, she leads her to the stairs and points to Luz's room.
Amity thanks her and goes up the stairs alone, without Ghost or Owlbert.
She knocks on Luz's door.
No answer.
"Luz? ... It's me. Amity..."
No answer.
She holds her ear against the door. She hears distant, muffled sobs.
"Can I come in?"
The sobs pause briefly, but still there is no answer.
After waiting for roughly a minute, Amity sits down on the floor in front of the door.
Amity searches desperately for words, for anything. She doesn't know what exactly happened. She doesn't know if anything has happened to her or if anything is wrong with her. Neither physically nor psychologically. But probably the latter is the case.
"... ... I... um... Owlbert came to me. He... was worried about you..."
Silence.
Suddenly, the door slowly opens.
Amity gets back up and pokes her head through the door, which opens ever so slightly into the room. She discovers a thorny vine leading from the door handle into the darkness that has swallowed Luz's room.
'I didn't think this room could be this dark', she thought to herself as she closed the door behind her.
Amity squints her eyes trying to spot Luz somewhere within the dark room. She remembers that the vine originates on the right side of the room. From there, Amity focuses on that only.
After a short time, Amity sees a very faint glow from the plant glyph that Luz used to create the vine to open the door. Unfortunately, this minimal glow disappears rather quickly.
Amity sighs and creates a small purple flame in her hand to be able to see her immediate surroundings.
Amity has made it halfway across the room when the flame suddenly goes out unexpectedly. Amity tries again and although she knows the flame is there, she cannot see the surrounding area. Fortunately, Amity was able to see where Luz was, just before the flame went out.
Amity managed to blindly find her way to Luz without stubbing her toes or stepping on anything either.
"May... I sit with you?", Amity asks thinking she's standing right next to Luz.
She hears a soft "Mhm" in response and sits down on the floor with her back to the wall and the presumption that Luz is sitting somewhere next to her.
"You... aren't wearing shoes?", Luz suddenly asks in a low voice just after Amity sits down.
"N-No. When Owlbert came to me, I was barefoot. I left on the spot", Amity answers softly.
"Why?", Luz asks after another pause filled with silence.
"I care about you", Amity replies without even a second thought.
"I'm not sure I believe you anymore".
Hearing this from Luz breaks Amity's heart.
"What?", Amity asks in an incredibly soft, broken voice and being on the verge of tears herself. It takes a while for Luz to respond.
"Last night, right before you passed out, you had asked me to be your girlfriend", Luz recounts as Amity swallows, "And, after the date yesterday, I seriously thought you were bullshitting me! ... I saw you getting hurt. Over and over again. And each time it got worse. I saw Wrath completely shatter your leg and how terrified you looked at me... I asked you to stop, begged you even... But the belt was more important to you..."
"...", Amity doesn't know what to say to that since it's all true.
"Wrath almost killed you, Amity. If I hadn't been there, you would be dead, do you realize that?"
"...", Amity continues to be at a loss for words. But yes, she understands. Even if she can't communicate this to Luz right now.
"When I was back in Amphibia, I saw Hop Pop die after getting stabbed by Sasha in his back. I lost Eda and King. I... I don't know what I would do, if... if I lost y- ... if I lost you t- too...", Luz leans to the right and buries her face in Amity's hoodie and hugs her. Tears are flowing.
While being hugged tightly by Luz, Amity merely stares distraught into the darkness, still close to tears herself. Again, silence fills the room for minutes, only interrupted by occasional sobs from Luz.
"I failed you. I am sorry. I really care about you and I didn't realize what I was doing to you. I really thought I could handle it, but your judgment was better. I should have stopped when you advised me to.... I will listen to you more in the future.... So, if you still want to spend time with me..."
Amity notices Luz taking her head off her shoulder and she feels Luz's alarmed gaze.
"How can you say that??? Of course I want to spend more time with you...", Luz says stunned and through tears. "I just don't want to lose you!", Luz almost screams.
"I don't want to lose you either.... ", Amity replies to her.
Suddenly Amity hears paper being crumpled up and the darkness that used to completely fill the room disappears and the familiar warm sunshine from outside fills Luz's room. Amity looks at Luz's hands, which are holding disintegrating paper, when Luz suddenly throws herself into her arms. The two girls share an emotional embrace.
"How did you do that? With the light?", Amity asks as the hug dissolves again after a while.
"I accidentally drew a light glyph wrong. Instead of emitting light, it's absorbing it.", Luz explains as she wipes the tears from her face, "I don't know if I should call it the light absorption glyph or the darkness glyph yet though..."
"Heh... Only you can accidentally create a new spell," Amity jokes as her eyes are still watery as well. She and Luz are now sitting across from each other on the floor, holding hands.
"Hmm, I guess you're right...", Luz confirms. "Amity?"
"Yes?"
"Can you promise me something?"
"Anything."
"Please don't put your own life in danger anymore."
"Only if you do the same.", Amity smiles at Luz, while Luz herself grins rather sheepishly. Amity's smile disappears. "What did you do?"
"What would you do if I told you I joined a resistance against Belos?", Luz asks slightly sheepishly. Amity doesn't have to think about this question for significantly long.
"I'll join with you, of course", Amity replies with an almost eerie calm in her voice. For Luz, however, Amity answers a little too quickly, as she now sits facing her with widened eyes. "This way, we can both make sure that we don't go too far or take too many risks. Besides, my mother would freak out if she finds out, since she works for Belos. Would be funny."
"...", Luz just continues to stare at her.
"You look all funny. Don't you think I'm serious?"
"I have no doubts that you're serious. It's just a little... unexpected, considering you're not really known as a rule breaker"
"Things have changed. I hope you're okay with that..."
"Well, I have to admit, I like your more chaotic side", Luz tells her with a smugly grin, but red puffy eyes, which has the opposite effect.
"How long have you actually been up here alone now?", Amity asks and the mood shifts once again.
"I'm not sure... I had been talking to Gwen and Hooty about Eda.... I don't know when that was..."
"Gwen? The older woman who let me into the house?", Amity asks.
"Mhm," Luz nods, "That's Eda's mom. She chased me around Bonesborough because she thought I stole Owlbert."
"What? Oh... Oh"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing.", Amity blushes briefly before changing the subject with extreme subtlety, "What were you saying?"
"It's okay for you to admit that she's good looking. I mean, that biceps game... Ridiculous", Luz says without blushing, but utmost respect. Amity doesn't comment on this. "But I had told her about the titan and that I basically have absolutely no idea what to do with these powers or how to control them..."
Amity ponders for a moment.
"Maybe I can help," Amity says. If Luz' full attention wasn't already on Amity, this would be a sentence that would make Luz sit up and pay close attention.
"How so?"
"I don't know," Amity tells her, "But we can figure it out together."
"Uhh, I like that idea. A titan powers boot camp.", Luz suggests.
"Exactly," Amity agrees energetically.
"Tomorrow morning, we will meet back here and start training," Luz exclaims.
"Tomorrow is school".
"Tomorrow afternoon, we will meet back here and start training," Luz corrects herself, which makes Amity giggle.
"I could stay over if you want and we'll go to school together tomorrow", Amity suggests.
"I like that idea. But you don't have your uniform here. And no shoes."
"There's a spare uniform downstairs in the living room. Left it here when I visited Hooty and I didn't want to fly all the way back hom- I mean, to the Manor after a weekend once."
"But you still don't have any shoes here", Luz notes.
"That's true, unfortunately," Amity agrees, "But don't worry. I'm not leaving yet. I'll stay as long as you need me", she grips Luz's hands tighter. She squeezes them exactly three times which Luz doesn't seem to notice.
"Awesome. ... Are you hungry? I could use something to eat"
Amity stands up and gives Luz her hand to help her up as well. When they opened Luz' room door, they were surprised to find Ghost and Owlbert waiting impatiently for the two girls and now happily pouncing on them.
Shortly after the joyful reunion, the four of them go down the stairs to the living room.
"Huh? Where's Gwen?", Luz asks, "Did she already leave again?"
Owlbert chirps in reply.
"Well?", Amity asks curiously.
"She's in Eda's room taking care of her belongings", Luz explains. "Would it be okay with you if you waited in the kitchen and I went to have a little talk with Gwen? It won't take long..."
"That's perfectly fine. I'll wait", Amity replies, whereupon Luz heads back up the stairs with Owlbert. She walks past her room and down a longer hallway where there are pictures, portraits, and a single mirror hanging on the wall, and continues to walk to Eda's room.
Luz listens at the door to reassure herself that Gwen is indeed inside. Luz knocks.
"Gwen? May I come in?", Luz asks. Only seconds later, Gwen opens the door.
"It gladdens my heart to see you feeling better, sweetheart. What can I do for you?", she asks.
"Heh... Actually, I was going to ask you the exact same thing...", Luz looks past Gwen and sees that there are a few boxes on the floor in the middle of the room.
"I'm just going to start packing up some of Edalyn's personal items.", Gwen explains, "But don't worry, I won't completely clean out the room," Gwen explains in a sad voice.
"You're not?"
"When she got cursed, I had sworn to cure her of it. I failed. Now I merely want to have something to bury"
"That's a nice thought"
"Thank you. For my Lilith, Dell and I have already held a small ceremony after getting permission to receive her petrified form and place it at the family mansion. For Edalyn, however...", Gwen sighs in exhaustion.
"She has been placed in the marketplace in Bonesborough..."
"I know. Along with that stupid plaque that says something about dangers and submission and crap. I'm glad someone sabotaged that."
"That was me", Luz tells her, to which Gwen smiles.
"From what I've learned about you today, I had a feeling it might have been you.... I should be thanking you. Without that beautiful tribute, I might never have had the determination I needed to join the resistance against Belos."
"I suppose one of the other messages on the plaque was from you, wasn't it?"
"Yes, that's right..."
"Um... This is perhaps extremely inappropriate now, but.... Did you know that it was Lilith who cursed Eda?", Luz asks, expecting the worst reaction.
"What?", Gwen asks, feeling disheartened.
"She had told me to convince me that Belos betrayed her and wanted her to help rescue Eda", Luz recounts. Gwen, meanwhile, is surprisingly calm.
"Oh, sweet flea...", Gwen sighs, "It doesn't matter anymore. They're gone... Thank you Luz for telling me about that. But if you don't mind, I'd like to keep packing..."
"All right. I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything", Luz says goodbye and is almost ready to close the doors behind her when Gwen stops herself again for a moment.
"Luz, hold on a second please.", she asks her.
"Yes, Gwen?"
"Thank you for looking after Owlbert and the house. It means a lot to me"
Luz doesn't know how to answer that and instead lets a friendly smile do the talking for her. She waves goodbye to her, closes the door behind her and joins Amity in the kitchen.
At the same time in a castle in the middle of the Isles...
"Thank you very much, coven head Osran. Your service will be appreciated by the titan", Emperor Belos says. He sits on his throne, above which beats the mechanical heart. It is calm and steady.
Besides himself, there is only one other person in the room. A small purple demon with four arms. His hair consists of a white claw and he wears a white moustache that winds once around his head. He wears a dark-indigo hood over a gray robe. Until now he has knelt before Belos, but now he stands up, nods affirmatively, and silently leaves the room.
A short time later, a new person enters the room.
"You summoned me, Uncle?"
It's Hunter. He is wearing his Golden Guard uniform, complete with golden mask and white cape. He kneels where the coven head knelt before.
"Say, Hunter, how are your studies coming along?"
"I'm making good progress. For example, I found out that-"
"Enough. As you know, I granted your wish to study wild magic only because you did an excellent job of replenishing the Palisman reserves. That day, I was proud of you."
"Yes, uncle. Thank you, uncle."
"I have a new assignment for you. You will be sent to find Galdorstones for me."
"I heard about them... I won't let you down, uncle."
"Very well. One more thing... I have recently been informed that we will soon be receiving a very important visitor. I expect you to assist Kikimora with the preparations. Coven head Osran will brief you on the details."
"May I ask who it is?"
"You may not. And I expect that any information you receive from Osran will be kept secret. No one outside the palace may know about it"
"Yes, uncle. Is there anything else?"
"Yes. Should you fail me, not only will you cease your studies, your... study object will also be destroyed immediately. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Uncle.", Hunter confirms, standing up and leaving the room.
Notes:
Soo...
That was a lot, wasn't it? What do you think?
Btw: Chief-Healer Liwin's secretary, Alsa, is one of Boscha's moms.
Chapter 29: Short Stories - The Titan, the Couple and the Toad
Summary:
Luz, Anne, Marcy and Sasha explore their new powers for the first time.
Notes:
So...
I'm back. Only took seven weeks... I hope this 21k-XXL chapter makes up for it.
(Btw, I'm well awake of the fact, that this is my longest chapter yet and it's called 'Short Stories')
If you remember, I had at the end of the last chapter that I would be working on a new chapter for another project. And now I can finally announce what it is here as well: I had teamed up with Polychroma_Izu for a little collaboration we called Fic-Swap. This means that I got to write Chapter 29 of Don't Look Back,
and Izu will write a chapter for this story at a later date. It's still going to take a while, but at least you already know what you can look forward to in the future<3But for now: Have fun reading
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
[The Titan]
"And keep taking good care of Owlbert. Would you do that for me?"
"But of course, Gwen."
"Thank you, dear. Take good care of yourself and your friend. I'll see you in a few days for the meeting"
"You bet. And I'm looking forward to it"
Luz and Gwen say goodbye at the front door of the Owl House for the evening. Gwen has several of Eda's smaller belongings in a brown shoulder bag hanging off the end of her Staff, which is already hovering behind her, ready to take off. Gwen climbs onto her staff and flies away before Luz closes the door again. She turns around, just as Amity comes out of the kitchen with some snacks for their sleepover.
"Gwen already left?", she asks.
"Mhm", Luz nods in confirmation, "Just took off. Why? Did you want to say goodbye too?"
"Huh? Oh... No.", Amity replies softly as she sets the prepared snacks down on the living room table, "Just been curious."
Luz claps with her hands once, which immediately catches Amity's attention.
"So, you have to make a choice now: We could tell each other stories. Or write stories. I have lots of experience in writing Azura-fanfictions", Luz suggests enthusiastically. Amity, on the other hand, ponders for a moment.
"Or, how about we connect the two things with each other."
"What do you mean?"
"We'll think of a setting from 'The Good Witch Azura' and improvise our own story to play out.", Luz's eyes light up more and more with every word that Amity speaks.
"W-wait here!", Luz said before running out of the living room, up the stairs and probably into her own room.
About a minute later, she comes back down.
"Wow…", Amity is astonished to see Luz standing proudly before her, in what appears to be an elaborate, homemade Azura cosplay.
"Cool, right?", Luz asked. However, 'Cool' wasn't necessarily the first word that popped into Amity's mind when she caught sight of her, "I've been working on this forever. I luckily finished just before I went to Amphibia. The only difference from the original is that I turned the dress into pants."
Amity stands there with her mouth open in amazement.
"How long did you work on this? The material... The stitching... That quality... It’s amazing", Amity admires Luz's work up close.
"Well, I had started when you agreed to us found an 'Azura Book Club' at the knee back then. I was originally going to surprise you with a Hectate outfit too, but we both know why that didn't work out in time…"
"Oh Luz... That's so sweet of you", Luz blushes slightly at the compliment, "But I don't need a costume necessarily. But what do you say we add another character to our story?"
"Who?", Luz asks honestly curious.
"Hooty.", Amity replies.
"Hooty?"
"HOOTY!", Hooty yells as the front door swings open inward.
"You know what? You're right. The more the merrier", Luz agrees with Amity's idea, "Hooty, would you like to join our story? You could... hmm... be the Gildersnake from the first book. Like the good version of it."
Hooty sniffs. "You... really want me included?"
"Yes of course.", Amity assures him, whereupon he expands from the door, nearly smothering both girls in an extremely grateful and tight hug.
"No... problem... ... But please let us go. We can't... breathe...", Luz tries to catch some air, as she and Amity are nearly strangled and squished by him.
"CAN DO. HOOOOT!"
With this little incident with Hooty quickly forgotten, the three of them only began to tell Hooty who and what the Gildersnake is. This proved to be useless rather quick, when they remembered that Hooty's attention span is only a few seconds at max. Instead, they saved the explanations and simply started acting out a new story, based on Amity's favorite scene from the third book.
And all three of them had a blast doing it. For hours and hours, until well after sunset, the Owl House was filled with tension, laughter, but also tears and disappointment. The latter occurred when Amity reminded them that she and Luz must return to Hexside in the morning.
"Nooo... I don't want to stop yet...", Hooty whines.
"I know", Amity begins to comfort him, "I don't want to stop yet either. But Luz and I have to go to school."
Sadly, Hooty looks at the ground.
"Sorry, Hooty", Luz adds. Despite his disappointment, Hooty accepts this decision.
The living room is quite a mess, filled with quite a few homemade props, and no one present at the time wanted to bother cleaning any of it up. The three of them had agreed to take care of it the next day, once Luz and Amity would be back there together, before they would start Luz' training.
Now, however, a new problem gets in the way: the question of who sleeps where.
"I could sleep down here on the couch-", Amity begins to suggest, before she gets quickly interrupted by Luz.
"Not a chance. You're sleeping with me in my room", Luz almost orders.
"Okay", Amity instantly gives in, with absolutely no resistance, but slightly blushing, to which Luz grins triumphantly.
Amity was worried she'd push Luz too hard if she suggested it herself. Besides, this is a plus because she would be anything but keen to sleep in the completely trashed living room.
It was fairly quickly that the two girls got ready to go to bed. Luz took a quick shower before going to bed and fetched a second sleeping bag for Amity from one of the many storage rooms in the house.
While Luz was showering, Amity merely sat in Luz's room, along with Owlbert and Ghost, fidgeting with her hands. She was so incredibly nervous for sleeping in the same room as Luz. And she knew she had to calm down. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to sleep for the whole night.
Eventually, for a while, that's exactly what occurred. It was around midnight where Amity finally got tired enough to fall asleep. Before that, she was merely lying in her sleeping bag, just a hand's length away from Luz's face. Time flew by while Amity merely observed Luz. Her peaceful, calm and relaxed sleep. She wondered if she had any dreams. Amity smiles dreamily.
The next morning arrived fast. Too fast. Both girls woke up abruptly when Hooty suddenly came screaming in, right through Luz's bedroom window.
"GOOD MORNING, HOOT-HOUSE!", he yelled.
"HOOTY!", Luz yells back, tired and annoyed, "Don't yell soo loud".
"Sorry", Hooty retorts without a single regret, "But I guess you didn't hear your alarm and you wouldn't want to be late for school"
Suddenly Amity shoots upright, her eyes wide as she summons her scroll.
"He's right. We overslept", Amity mutters, "We OVERSLEPT!"
Luz merely groans in response as she gets out of her bed, still in her pajamas.
"Well, there's no time to shower or eat breakfast. We'll just have to go like this", Luz says as she starts to leave the room.
"Wait", Amity says as she stops Luz, "I-I can't go to school like this. I don't have any shoes here."
"Don't worry about it", Luz responds, "Just wear a pair of mine. I'm sure it'll be fine... Though you might need a few pairs of socks since I have slightly bigger feet than you."
Amity runs down from Luz's room into the mess they left the living room in, looking for her spare uniform. Luz, on the other hand, takes all the time in the world to put on her colorful school uniform as well, until Amity comes storming back into Luz's room, now in her purple uniform. Luz hands her a pair of her shoes, along with three pairs of thick socks, and shortly thereafter the two girls jerkily leave the house.
"Okay, there's not enough time to run. We have to fly if we want to be on time", Amity states.
"Wanna make it a race, Blight?", Luz challenges Amity.
"You're on", Amity replies with a smirk.
The two girls take off flying towards the woods. Luz is in the lead, but Amity is quickly catching up. They fly through the woods, dodging trees and branches. They emerge from the woods and can see the school in the distance. Luz starts to pull ahead, but Amity gives it one final push and is the first one to land directly in front of the stairs.
"I won!", Amity exclaims triumphantly.
"Pure luck", Luz huffs, but is secretly proud of her, as she lands next to Amity, "I'll get you next time."
The girls walk up the stairs and into the school, directly into their first class for the day: 'Abomination 101'. The first class goes over the first two periods, which gives both girls plenty of time to roughly create their training schedule for after school.
They start off by writing down what she has already been able to learn about herself.
"Well, we know you have two hearts...", Amity recalls.
"Right. And presumably my blood has been altered as well", Luz adds in a whisper, "Do you think the same blood runs through your veins and mine? Or do I have the same blood as the Titan? Or do you have the same as the Titan?"
"I don't know. Don't wanna hurt you to find out", Amity confesses.
"Fair point."
"Okay, what else?", Amity asks, at which point Luz falls into a thoughtful pose.
"Yesterday, I was able to run like super-fast. Maybe that's something?", Luz asks with clear uncertainty.
"I’ll write it down... Were you able to perform any spells before, unintentional or not?"
"The Brawl...", Luz answers hesitantly.
"... ... Oh... yeah... right. I totally forgot... Thanks again-"
"D-Don't..."
"Okay..."
"When I went to the healer yesterday, she said I had natural spell immunity now. Or something along those lines.", Luz tells evasively. Amity, fortunately, doesn't mind.
"What do you mean?", Amity asks, confused.
"I don't seem to take damage anymore when someone attacks me with spells or otherwise tries to analyze me in some way. Liwin said that was a common trait with blood sheep..."
"Hm... Makes sense," Amity says.
"Really, how?"
"Well, all life in the Isles comes from Titan, blood sheep included. Since you are now part Titan as well, it makes perfect sense that you took such traits from him."
"I see... That makes a lot of sense, actually."
"So, what else?"
"I don't know. That's all I got for now", Luz says with a shrug.
And that was already the moment when the class ended. The two girls had not listened for a single second to Professor Hermonculus' lecture, but only made plans for later. It was nice though.
After 'Abominations 101' with Amity, Luz' 'Oracle'-class follows, unfortunately without any of her friends. In class, she sits quite far back, right by the window, next to a girl named Celine. Her appearance is quite eye-catching, as her head is shaped like a pale, crescent moon with only one eye. For some reason, her uniform is oversized, as it permanently hides her hands. She is quite friendly and helpful towards Luz. Especially today Luz will need her help, because the assignment for today's class, is to conduct an interview with someone from the ghost world. All the students have crystal balls in front of them, which are supposed to allow them to make contact.
"Ghost world?", Luz asks Celine, who looks at Luz a little confused.
"You've never heard of that before? You usually learn about that in... I don't know, preschool", Celine states, to which Luz shakes her head.
"In the human realm, people don't believe in the existence of ghosts. If one does, they're quickly labeled as crazy... Admittedly, until recently I had doubts myself", Luz tries to explain herself.
"Okay, then I'll give you the short version: The Ghost World is another dimension, like the human realm, only with the difference that only the ghosts and-or spirits of deceased beings have access to it and can survive there. 'Survive' in quotation marks. We would not be able to exist there."
"Why not?"
"That dimension doesn't follow any of the laws of nature that we know. Time and space as we know them simply don't exist there. Someone who dies now, would be there at the same time as someone who died thousands of years ago", Celine continues her explanation.
Luz is not really any smarter after that. Though she is grateful to her seatmate for trying to explain. Celine had also taken the liberty of aligning Luz's crystal ball with the ghost world, since Luz had always had problems using it in earlier lessons.
And now the question of all questions: Who does Luz want to interview?
Unfortunately, Luz knows more than enough people who have already passed away, and she probably wouldn't be willing to talk to even one of them. Eda... King... Her father...
'Lilith,' Luz suddenly thinks to herself, 'I could tell her that I met her mom.'
"Uhm... Hello? Lilith Clawthorne, please...", Luz starts, a little insecure.
"Is anyone there?", she asks after a few seconds, but there is no answer.
"Maybe I didn't do this right?", Luz wonders, but Celine is quick to correct her.
"No, you're doing it right. It just takes a little while for the ghosts to show up. Just be patient", Celine reassures Luz in a soft voice.
And so, Luz waits. And waits. And waits. But nothing happens. Lilith Clawthorne does not show up.
"Maybe... Maybe she's not in the Ghost World yet?", Luz suggests, but Celine quickly shakes her head.
"No, that's not possible. All ghosts go to the Ghost World right after they die. After that, some are able to travel to other dimensions for a variety of reasons.", Celine tries to explain.
"So... where is she, then?", Luz asks, now more confused than ever.
"I don't know. Maybe she's just not interested in talking to you", Celine suggests, but Luz quickly shakes her head.
"No, that's not it. I know she would want to talk to me. I'm sure of it", Luz says with confidence.
She keeps waiting and trying and while the others from her class had already completed their respective interviews, Luz had not even been able to make contact.
"I'm sorry, Luz, but I think it's time to give up. Maybe you can try again next time?", Celine suggests, but before Luz is able to reply, the bell signals for the end of the class.
The next class is 'Plants', along with Willow in Hexside's greenhouse. So far, plant class has always been a kind of free period for Luz. Though there was a teacher present, the students mostly just took care of their own projects and plants. The teacher usually just serves as a supervisor that the students don't screw up.
Willow's first question right after she spots Luz is, "How was your weekend?", to which Luz sighs.
"Do you mind if we don't talk about me?"
"That bad, then? Okay."
"So, what are we doing today?", Luz asks, trying to change the subject.
"Well, we were supposed to start propagating some plants today, but I think we can do that tomorrow. I don't think you're in the mood for that today. How about we take a look at your project?", Willow suggests.
Luz had almost forgotten about her project. She had been so busy with other things lately that she hadn't even worked on it for a while.
"Oh, right. My project...", Luz says, a little lost in thought.
"Is everything okay?", Willow asks, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm just a little distracted, that's all", Luz quickly reassures Willow, who nods in understanding.
"Okay, then let's take a look at your project", Willow says as she leads Luz over to her workstation.
At the beginning of the school year, all students were assigned a project to complete within the semester. Since Luz was gone for more than a month, one might think that her project was behind schedule, but Willow had kindly taken care of it, and made sure that Luz' plants don't die and wither. She had been working on a kind of natural remedy for nightmares, which has been Willow's idea. She had been collecting different kinds of plants that were known to have calming properties and was in the process of mixing them together to create a tea.
"How's it coming along?", Willow asks as she looks at the different plants Luz has collected so far.
"It's going... I guess. I'm still not sure if it's actually going to work, though", Luz admits.
"Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's finish it up and then we can test it out", Willow suggests.
Willow had taken good care of Luz's plants and they are now fully grown. A total of seven different plants standing in front of Luz in small pots.
"So, what now?", Luz asks, not really sure what to do next.
"Now we have to dry them", Willow says as she takes the plants and starts to hang them upside down from the ceiling.
"After that, we can grind them into smaller pieces and mix them together. Then we'll be done", Willow explains.
"Sounds easy enough", Luz says, but she knows that it won't be that easy. She has never been good at following recipes.
But surprisingly, everything goes according to plan. Willow does most of the work, but Luz manages to not screw up too much. In the end, they have a small bag of powder, which Willow carefully stores away.
"So, when can we test it out?", Luz asks, eager to see if her remedy actually works.
"As soon as you can find someone who's having nightmares", Willow replies, "But I think that won't be too hard. I'm sure there's someone in this school who could use a good night's sleep."
"I could give it to Amity as a gift. I know she had trouble sleeping for a while"
"That sounds like a good idea", Willow says with a smile, "I'm sure she'll appreciate it."
And with that, this class was already over too. Luz had put the mixture in a small leather bag, which is usually used to store seeds or other plant material.
As every day, the lunch break takes place between the fourth and fifth period. Amity had told Luz that she wouldn't be heading straight to the Owl House after school because she wanted to get something from Blight Manor first.
"You guys have plans?", Gus asks curiously.
"Oh, yeah. Amity and I are trying to figure out how to control my powers later," Luz explains. Gus merely blinks a few times at that before replying.
"I'm sorry what now?", Gus asks, now looking very confused.
"Yeah, as it turns out, I have the ability to do magic now.", Luz explains, glancing sadly at Amity for a second, "For kinda obvious reasons that's not something I'm exactly comfortable with and Amity offered to help me with that. Wanna come too, Gus?"
"That's really cool!", Gus exclaims, his eyes lighting up with excitement, "But I can't. My dad offered me to help him at work later. Apparently, his assistant has the fire flu"
"That's sounds bad.", Luz replies, trying to hide her disappointment.
"Sorry Luz"
"Maybe Willow wants to come along later", Luz suggests, "I'll have to ask her at the next class"
But like every Monday, Willow didn't show up for lunch. She had used the extra time of the lunch break to clean up the school greenhouse, since she had volunteered a while ago to take on more responsibilities there.
The next class of the day is 'Isle History', together with Willow and Gus. However, Celine is also there, at the table next to them, as well as Skara, who normally sits with Bo and Boscha in the row right behind them. As the class begins, Luz turns to Skara, looking slightly confused.
"Is Boscha not here today?", Luz asks Skara, who in turn just shrugs her shoulders indifferently.
"Don't really care anymore. She was acting pretty out of line over the weekend and I got tired of letting her get away with everything", Skara explains. Willow and Gus are now listening up as well.
"You dropped Boscha? Wow... Call me impressed", Willow admits.
And as much as Skara especially appreciates Willow's compliment, she can't help but feel a little bad.
"May I... ask what she did?", Luz asks trying hard not to cross any lines.
"She made me choose. Either her or... Well, someone else I care about... She had done that before and I had regretted it like forever. This time, however, I stood up for myself and she didn't like that at all. When I left, she threw a full-on toddler tantrum. It was pathetic."
"I'm sorry to hear that…", Willow says, genuinely meaning it.
"… Why?", Skara asks, eyeing her with a raised eyebrow, "I thought you of all people would be happy about this, the way she has treated you all these years... Just as I have treated you all these years..."
Skara's voice is filled with more than just regret for not standing up earlier to Boscha for her own beliefs. It is also filled with the pain of all the years of bullying that she herself has inflicted on Willow.
"I guess I just... I don't know. I guess I see a little of myself in you, Skara. I know what it's like to be afraid, to feel like you can't stand up for yourself. But I also know what it's like to finally find the strength to do it. And for that, I'm proud of you."
Skara is surprised by Willow's words, but she can see the sincerity in her eyes. For the first time, she feels like she has somebody who understands her.
"Thank you, Willow", she says quietly.
Willow nods, and the two girls share a smile. It is a small moment of understanding and solidarity, before both of them turn back to pay attention to the class. But unlike all the previous classes, where time flew by like a storm, this one drags like old chewing gum.
But even this eventually ended and Luz said goodbye to her friends for the day, as they would not meet again until tomorrow.
Luz last class for the day is 'Beast Keeping' in the school's stables. It is a fairly small class and since there is usually no teacher present, most students take the opportunity to skip the class.
Viney had once told Luz that the teacher was supposedly ill, but in all the time she has been attending Hexside, she has never caught sight of her. And despite that, perfectly fair grades are given to everyone at the end of the semester. A real mystery.
When classes ended for the day and most students had already left the school grounds, Luz was still standing outside the school gates by now. She doesn't know why she is doing this. Though she is a bit lost in the emptiness of her own head, just until she hears a chirping sound coming from her backpack, which reminds her that she is supposed to go home.
She brings her backpack to her front and pulls out Owlbert, who spent Luz' school day in there in his wooden form. He expands into his full staff form, Luz climbs on and they take off back towards the Owl House. She flies slower than she did in the morning, but the closer she gets to her destination, the more excited she gets and speeds up.
When she arrives, she can barely sit still on the staff.
She lands not far from the house and sprints toward Hooty to share her anticipation with him, but sees that he appears to be sound asleep. She smiles slightly and sneaks around the house to enter it through the kitchen, so as not to wake Hooty, even if it would be unavoidable in the long run.
Luz has barely opened the kitchen door, when Owlbert flies in and up the stairs to the upper floor.
'Ou-kay... Looks like someone has plans of his own...', Luz thinks to herself. She puts her backpack down next to the door before continuing towards the living room. As she arrives there, she leans against the doorframe, sighing.
'I really should at least tidy up a little bit before Amity arrives'.
And immediately Luz starts tidying up her props from yesterday's sleepover, while fond flashes of memories keep popping into her mind: Hooty choking on Amity's sandwiches once, which was soo comical to Amity that she couldn't contain herself from laughing, while Luz performed the Heimlich on him. Luz isn't sure she's ever seen Amity laugh so heartily.
'I always like it when she laughs. Even if the reason wasn't particularly funny... Heh, she said Hooty had a habit of stealing her food when she was here alone, keeping him company.'
Several household items had to serve as props, some of which Luz spontaneously no longer knows, what comes from where and what belongs where.
In the end, there are still a dozen and a half objects on the living room table, of which Luz does not know what goes where. Right next to it, though, are three things that belong in Luz's room: Her Azura hat, the golden, crescent moon-shaped tiara Luz had made for Amity, that originally belongs to Hectate, and, of course, one of her Azura books.
Luz ascends the stairs, keeping an eye out for Owlbert, since he didn't come back down during the time Luz was busy cleaning up. Not seeing him in the hallway outside her room, Luz cautiously opens the door, expecting to find him asleep in her room, only to find that he is not there either. However, the two sleeping bags lying close together in the middle of the room jump into her eyes, accurately reflecting how quickly she and Amity woke up in a hurry and left for Hexside earlier. This, however, is not the memory that jumps into Luz's mind.
In the middle of the night, a few hours after the two girls went to sleep, Luz woke up and lay awake for a while in her sleeping bag, staring at her ceiling. After a while, Luz turned to the side and her gaze fell on the sleeping Amity.
'She looked so peaceful... so without any worries... and even more beautiful than... I don't even know'
Luz's heart jumped when Amity, asleep, grabbed Luz's arm and hugged it tightly. Luz couldn't help but smile, while Amity visibly relaxed, having held her arm tightly. And exactly the same feeling fills Luz’ mind right now, at this very moment, as she looks at the two sleeping bags, as if Amity's still here, holding her tightly.
Luz is snapped out of her reverie by a voice from downstairs.
"Luz! Are you here?"
Luz rushes downstairs to find Amity standing in the living room, looking around.
"Heey… I thought, we would clean up together...", Amity sounds slightly disappointed.
"Yeah, umm...", Luz is searching for a suitable explanation, "I had to pass the time somehow, and... Well, I was just kind of pretty efficient."
"Apparently…"
"I just haven't been able to put those few things away yet", Luz says, pointing to the items on the living room table.
"Don't worry, I'll help you with that. But first I have something for you.", Amity says teasingly, as she pulls out a small purple cloth bag that hangs loosely from her shoulder.
"Uhh, a present? For me?", Amity giggles at Luz's reaction.
"Not quite. I did bring your shoes you lent me, though.", Amity pulls out the shoes and the three pairs of socks from the bag. Luz briefly looks down at Amity when she's not looking, and notices that Amity is wearing her own shoes again.
In addition to Luz's clothes, Amity pulls out her school uniform and hides it under one of the cleaner seat cushions on the couch. Luz looks at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What? I'd still like to have a spare uniform here. This time even including shoes... Any objections?"
"N-no. No objections", Luz responds quickly, "Oh by the way, I really like your outfit".
"Oh, it's nothing special. Besides, I wore exactly the same thing yesterday...", Amity accepts Luz' compliment only hesitantly.
"That's just it. It makes you look a little... I don't know, more chaotic maybe? No, umm… it highlights your rebellious tendencies."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?", Amity asks in curiosity.
"Oh, it's definitely a good thing. You know how much I like chaos.", Luz replied with a wink, causing Amity to blush slightly.
"Okay, do you want me to clean up the rest of this place before we get started? You could go change in the meantime."
"Go change? Why that?", Luz inquires.
"Well, I mean you're welcome to go practicing in your uniform...", Amity explains, causing Luz to look down at herself, only now noticing that she's still wearing her colorful school uniform.
"Oops, didn't notice.... We'll go with your plan then.", Luz decides and heads to her room upstairs to change into her favorite outfit: Her white and blue hoddie with the cat ears below Eda’s Grudgby jacket, and the gray shorts over the slightly darker leggings.
After Luz changes, she comes back downstairs to find that Amity has already finished cleaning up.
"Wow, you're fast.", Luz remarks.
"Well, I am working pretty efficient as well", Amity replies with a grin, "So, should we get started?"
"Not yet", Luz says sheepishly, seemingly hiding something behind her back.
"Why not?", Amity asks mildly confused, "And why are you holding your hand behind your back?"
Luz begins to grin slightly in anticipation as Amity is still talking. Shortly after, Luz pulls a small leather pouch from behind her back, knotted shut at the top with a string and a nice bow hanging from it.
"A little something for you... A gift.", Luz explains. Amity takes the bag and opens it curiously but carefully, "These are tea herbs to help you get better sleep. Made them in plant class. Willow helped. A lot."
"Wow... That's really thoughtful of you. Thank you", Amity says before closing the pouch again. Luz just grins to herself with pride. "But you didn't just do that since you got back, did you?"
"Mmm... no.", Luz admits firmly, "When the semester started, everyone in plant class had to come up with a project that would run throughout the semester. I just made something to help with sleep."
"Aha okay... You know, it just so happens that I have something for you too", she teases.
Curious, Luz now looks at Amity, who in turn rummages in the bag in which she previously carried her spare uniform, as well as Luz's clothes.
"Here, this is for you. Had just bought before I came here", Amity explains calmly. Luz, on the other hand, drops her jaw to the floor.
"You- you... bought me a scroll?? Really?? Just like that??", Luz stutters to herself with sudden tears of joy. Amity sheepishly rubs her back.
"Well... Your phune...- phone, sorry, is still in Amphibia, after all, right? And this would give us a way to keep in touch more often, even when we don't see each other", Amity explains, holding out the scroll to Luz, who immediately accepts and hugs it tightly to her chest.
"I don't know what to say.... "
"You don't have to say anything. But instead, what do you think about the idea that we start your training now? And after that, we'll set up your scroll together over a nice cup of that tea, what do you say?"
"YES!", Luz exclaims with all the anticipation and excitement that has accumulated over the day and the two girls leave the house towards the front yard, after they have safely stowed their respective gifts. Using magic inside seemed a bit dangerous, considering how much potential power Luz has, and how much destruction she could cause unintentionally. At least that was Amity's reasoning for it, which Luz totally agreed to, not bothering to argue that at all.
"So, how do we want to start?", Luz asks energetically. Instead of answering, however, Amity sits down on the dry and dusty ground.
"Please, sit next to me.", Amity says softly, patting the ground to her left. Luz sits down cross-legged, right next to Amity.
"I know we made a rough plan this morning on how we were going to approach this, but I'm not so sure it's going to work out that way anymore", Amity states.
"Ou-kay...", Luz says hesitantly, "So no training staff? No help from magical relics? No highly-experimental and possibly dangerous potions?"
"I don't remember us mentioning anything about potions...", Amity states in confusion.
"I know. I just made that up", Luz admits regretlessly at which Amity merely sighs.
"But no, we won't need any of that. Well, probably at least. If what I came up with doesn't work out, I'd still have the stuff with me."
"Don't keep waiting then. What have you thought of?", Luz asks impatiently.
"I'll start with a question for you: Has anyone ever told you, when and how witches discover their magical abilities?"
Luz shakes her head, "Well, although... Willow had mentioned once that she was a late bloomer, but that was it. Hadn't inquired further."
"Okay, so I'll tell you how it was with me-", Amity was about to start sharing her own story, but was interrupted by a joyful gasp from Luz.
"A backstory???"
"Just for you.", Amity replied playfully.
Luz wiggles her clenched hands in front of her to express her joy. Amity can't help but grin at the sight. Moments later Luz catches herself and makes herself comfortable, giving Amity her full attention and gazing at her with bright eyes.
"If I remember correctly, I was about four or five years old, several years before my friendship with Willow fell apart. I was alone at home with Emira at that time. My parents had taken Edric... somewhere, no idea where exactly. Anyway, Emira was supposed to babysit me and Dad had left a bucket full of abomination fluid for me to poke around in with a toy shovel. Might not sound too exciting, but-"
"No no, it sounds nice. I actually imagine it quite adorable", Luz comments.
"Anyway... I can still remember very well, how such an electrifying and tickling feeling had flooded through my whole body. On my hands, this feeling lasted especially long. I wanted to tell Em about it, but she was... otherwise occupied. So, then I held my hand over the bucket and the liquid began to move and bubble like the water in the Boiling Sea. A little later, I drew my first magic circle in the air and began to shape the liquid. Didn't really even thought about it. It just happened. I quickly got bored of simple shapes, so I 'built' a mini version of Blight Manor. I wanted to show it to Em, but she was still... busy."
"Busy? Or disinterested?", Luz asks critically.
"Probably both. Can't judge anymore nowadays. However, the story doesn't end here... Over time, I got bored with the bucket altogether and wanted to experiment in other ways. Instead of shapes and objects, I now wanted to try to recreate people. Emira, to be more precise. Not only because she was the only other person nearby, I truly admired her. Somehow, I had managed to create and form abomination liquid other than from the bucket. Directly onto the living room floor."
"Let me guess: That was the moment Emira paid attention to you..."
"Yes. I remember very clearly how proud I was of myself. I made quite a few little busts of Em, each one with more details than the last one…"
"I can already see where this is going."
"Mhm. When she realized what I did, she got angry. She yelled at me, was as furious as I had ever seen her before... I just ran to my room crying..."
"Did she run after you? Had she apologized? I mean, you didn't have bad intentions..."
"I actually don't remember. My memory ends where I ran away. I don't know what happened after that..."
Luz is silent for a few moments, lost in thought. "That's... actually a really sad backstory", she finally says. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
"It's fine. I'm over it now, I think. But yeah, that's the story about how I discovered my magic... My point with this story is, however, that you don't need any artifacts, potions or training wands. I mean, you discovered your magic just two days ago-"
"Please don't remind me.", Luz pleads.
"But we can build on top of that. It... might be necessary if you want to discover your abilities. Your magic…"
"I don't wanna think about you dying every time I’m trying do a spell or something like that."
"You won't.", Amity tries to assure her, "We just need to figure out what triggers your abilities. Is it tied to your emotions? Physical contact? Something else?"
"I don't know... I don't wanna think about it."
"Luz, we need to. If we don't, we'll never be able to help you control your magic.", Amity pleads.
"Fine", Luz sighs in defeat. She simply can't deny her anything for too long.
"And remember, that I'll be by your side. I'm here and I'm not in danger...", Amity tries to comfort her. Luz nods, though she still looks unconvinced.
"Okay", she finally says. "Let's try this then." Amity nods and they begin their experiment.
Luz closes her eyes and tries to remember their evening at the Bonesborough Brawl at the time where Amity was in the finale and about to face Warden Wrath.
Amity looks directly at Luz' face. She immediately notices that she's growing more and more uncomfortable as time passes.
"I- I can't to this... It's too painful to remember... I'm sorry, I can't...", Luz says, on the verge of tears.
"It's okay, you don't have to force yourself. We can try something else… … Do you think it might help, if I'll talk you through it? Like, describe the events as they happened?", Amity suggests, hoping it might help Luz. But already while Amity was expressing this suggestion, the thought occurred to her that since that time, she herself has not yet dealt with the evening at all. Well, apart from the lecture she received by her siblings.
"I… Maybe… I think it's worth a try", Luz agrees, though being somewhat hesitantly. She wipes a few single tears from her cheeks.
"Okay. Close your eyes then", Amity says and Luz does as she's told. This time, however, Amity takes Luz' hand into her own.
"Thank you.", Luz says thankfully and softly presses Amity’s hand a few times.
"Remember, our goal now is not for you to do any particular spell. We just want some kind of reaction, from which, we expand on.", Amity clarifies, to which Luz nods slightly.
"I'm ready", Luz says after taking a few deep breaths.
"Okay, here we go...", Amity begins to recount the events from a few days ago, "We're both at the Brawl. The final fight is coming up. I just left the healer's tent, walking towards the stage. You followed shortly after."
"I was so scared for you... I tried to talk you out of it…"
"I know. And I'm infinitely sorry...", Amity says, to which Luz doesn't respond, "I'm facing Wrath. We talk briefly, and before the announcer starts the round, I turn to look at you. I had seen how worried and scared you were... ...", Amity watches as Luz' face contorts in discomfort.
"Wrath attacks you immediately", Luz recalls.
"Yes. And I was able to dodge and hit him hard in his stomach."
"Yeah, but without any effect on him. Then, he had thrown you into the air without any effort..."
Amity notices a slight tingling sensation in the hand interlocked with Luz's.
"Yes, he did. I was able to control the fall, though. I was, quite literally, surfing through the air...", Amity recalls with amusement. Luz also smiles.
"Yeah, that was pretty cool. But only until your... your landing.", And Luz' smile disappears again.
"I hit Wrath on the head and he went down", Amity continues, "At least for a little while. Shortly after, he got back up and-"
"Hit you on your head. Hard. He told you to stay down, but you got back up anyway. I was hoping so much that you would have listened to him..."
"... ... I had blasted my Abomination fluid onto his face..."
"And with his fire breath, he had burned everything away almost instantly... And then, the hammer hit your leg..."
Amity gradually realizes, that she herself is also finding it increasingly difficult to recapture these events, since this is the first time that she thinks about it explicitly.
However, it seems to have at least one positive effect, because the tingling of Luz' hand becomes stronger. They are almost there. Luz softly squeezes Amity's hand. Amity squeezes back.
"My gaze wandered down to my... completely shattered leg... I could see bone fragments poking out of my skin... my blood, everywhere... the pain… I looked up at Wrath. He lifted his hammer again... He was ready to kill me"
Amity abruptly lets go of Luz' hand as she notices small bolts of lightning moving through, across and above her arms, like snakes. The air around the two girls is completely electrified.
"Oh, my, titan...", Amity stammers, whereupon Luz snaps her eyes open.
"What's happening?", Luz asks in a daze, to which Amity can only reply with an excitedly shaken voice, "I don't know. But I think... I think we did it. H- Hold on to that feeling. Memorize it."
As if in a trance, the two girls look at the lightning bolts on Luz's arms. After a while, however, they fade away once again.
"Ugh… That. Was. Horrible.", Luz finally speaks up.
"Yes.", Amity agrees with watery eyes, "But we did it. And I promise you'll never have to go through that ever again. Neither of us will."
"What now?", Luz asks after a short pause.
"You- you still want to continue? Are you sure?"
"I think that I have the worst behind me. So yes, let's move on while that feeling is still fresh in my mind...", Luz says with pain-filled determination.
"Okay. Good point," Amity agrees.
"Thanks"
"Okay, so, now you've isolated the essence that allows you to access the magic that exists within your body. Now you have to try to harness it and control it-"
"Magic circles?", Luz interrupts Amity with wide eyes. The fear and grief she just had to relive is as if it never existed. Amity rolls her eyes, giggling.
"Yes. But you're better standing up for that. Depending on what exactly you're doing, we may have to dodge quickly."
"Don't you trust me?!", Luz asks with a feigned hurt tone.
"Of course I trust you. I trust you completely and without any doubts whatsoever. I just don't want any of us to get hurt in case something does go wrong, that’s beyond your control...", Amity replies and the two girls get up from the dusty ground. Luz is still slightly agitated, but tries to keep it together. Amity, on the other hand, is just happy to be able to spend time with Luz and help her as best she can.
Luz gets into a steady position and shakes her hands a few more times to relax. Amity stands next to her, her gaze fixed steadily on Luz's face.
"Are you ready?", Amity asks. Luz nods. "Okay. Close your eyes and raise your hand. You need to concentrate"
Luz does as she is instructed.
"Good. Now bring back the feeling from earlier...", Amity watches as Luz's face starts to contort her face.
For just under a minute, nothing but silence envelops the two girls, Luz still contorts her face but nothing happens at her arm and hand.
Suddenly Luz's features relax again and the first few lightning bolts flash across Luz's outstretched arm.
"Very good. You’re doing great", Amity compliments her and the lightning bolts increase in size, length and intensity.
"What now?", Luz asks in uncertainty. Amity ponders for a second.
"Your first glyph, the light glyph. Try summoning a light orb", Amity suggests, "Imagine drawing the circle and having a light orb appear in the center of it..."
Luz opens her eyes and looks at her outstretched index finger, the image of the light orb crystal clear in her mind. Slowly, she moves her finger in front of her in a circle....
But nothing happens.
She tries again. The lightning bolts, moving along Luz's arm, have not diminished or changed in any other way.
Again, nothing. No magic circle. No light orb.
"Why isn't this working?", Luz asks in frustration as she continues to try to draw circles in the air. And another one. And one more. And then another. Amity sees the frustration continue to rise in Luz.
"Hey, hey...", Amity calmly puts a hand on Luz' shoulder, "I have another idea."
"Huh?", Luz puts her arm down and listens up.
Amity moves to stand directly behind Luz, so close that she is entirely taken in by Luz's lovely scent. She puts her right arm on Luz's and lifts it up.
"We'll do it together.", Luz smiles at her while Amity's small hand now rests on Luz's slightly bigger one.
"Admittedly, I was slightly worried that the lightning bolts would somehow spread to or hurt me...", Amity admits.
"Yeah, it's interesting, though. It's like they're deliberately avoiding your skin", Luz observes.
"Yeah, and that's good. Now: Focus!", Amity orders.
Luz and Amity break eye contact and Luz now focuses on the spell again. The image of the light orb is clearly visible in front of her inner eye.
Luz moves her and Amity's index finger in a circle, but once again, nothing happens.
Slightly disappointed, Luz lowers her arm again and the lightning bolts phase out of existence. Amity looks at Luz sympathetically and wants to say something encouraging, but Luz speaks up first.
"You know, I think we're going about this all wrong...", Luz speculates.
"What do you mean?", Amity asks, now standing right in front of Luz, her hand comfortingly resting in her own.
"Well, so far, we've been working out the way you've learned to control your magic. However, I am not... not a witch.", Amity says nothing and just keeps listening intently, "My point is that I learned magic using glyphs. Glyphs that the Titan had called his 'language'..."
"I think I know what you're getting at."
"So? What do you think?", Luz asks.
"It's worth a try," Amity says with conviction in her voice. She moves a step back to standing next to Luz, who lifts her arm once again.
This time it doesn't take quite as long for Luz to manage to summon the lightning again.
"Uh, one more thing", Amity says shortly after Luz closes her eyes. Amity leans forward a bit and gives Luz a kiss on her cheek. Unsurprisingly, Luz opens her eyes and snaps her head towards her to look at her with wide eyes, "I believe in you".
While the two girls stare deeply into each other's eyes for several seconds, something else must have reacted to the kiss as well.
"Whoa", Amity comments in amazement as her gaze once again moves to Luz's arm. Luz's gaze follows hers.
"Golden lightning bolts...", Luz says to herself before looking back to Amity afterwards, filled with conviction and determination, "If that's not a sign, I don't know what is."
This time Luz doesn't close her eyes. Her gaze travels along her arm, on which dozens of now golden lightning bolts dance, all the way down to her fingertips.
Instead of thinking of the light orb, she envisions the light glyph.
"Something's happening", Amity quietly comments.
Luz watches the lightning bolts begin to much move in one and the same direction, straight towards her fingertips.
Her fingers are spread wide apart at first, before Luz forms her hand into a hollow fist.
The lightning bolts disappear into her hand.
Uncertain, Luz looks at Amity, who responds in exactly the same way.
"Here we go", Luz cautiously says to herself.
Slowly, Luz opens her hand. Amity watches her tensely.
A small light orb hovers over Luz' now open hand.
Speechless, Luz and Amity look at each other and at the orb in quick succession.
"Oh... my... titan... ...", Amity says cautiously, as she really realizes that what she’s seeing is actually real, "You did it. Luz, YOU DID IT!"
"I, did it? ... I did it. Amity, I did it, I did magic."
The two girls are now completely freaking out. Luz grabs Amity and the two press tightly together while Luz spins Amity through the air, almost bursting with joy.
"We did it! We did it! Oh my god, we actually did it!", Luz exclaims over and over again.
"I'm soo proud of you. You're amazing", Amity says in between Luz' enthusiastic exclamations.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I couldn't have done it without you", Luz says as she finally puts Amity back on the ground.
"So, what now?", Amity asks as her feet are back on the ground again.
"What a question? I wanna try everything! I wanna try every glyph and glyph-combo I know", Luz exclaims full of ambition.
"That's the spirit! But I think, you should stay with the more simpler glyphs for today", Amity suggests.
"Yeah, you're probably right", Luz agrees, "But I'm telling you, we are gonna have so much fun with this."
At first, Luz had tried to create more light orbs. Fortunately, she got the hang of it pretty quickly.
Not long after, she and Amity tried more spells together, based on the other three base glyphs. The ice glyph was one of the strangest, as an ice bolt simply shot out of Luz's palm. Most fascinating to Luz was her first encounter with the fire spell. Her entire hand was enveloped in a single flame that, from Luz's point of view, was not hot. Nevertheless, it was a real flame, as Amity later confirmed. When Luz first tried the plant spell, she created a single purple rose in her hand, which she presented to Amity with a slight bow. To say that Amity merely blushed would be a massive understatement.
Later, Luz had come up with a little game where the two girls threw light orbs at each other, which Hooty had to 'eat' out of the air. Luz wanted to do this with fireballs at first, but Amity was fortunately able to talk her out of it.
After many hours of exercising and having fun, the two girls are now sitting next to each other on the couch in the living room, both thoroughly exhausted, petting their respective palisman in their laps, neither having any strength to even lift their heads from the headrest.
"I'll be completely honest...", Luz begins, after they've both just been quietly enjoying each other's company so far, "Today was totally awesome."
"I thought so too...", Amity agrees and the two girls lapse into a moment of silence again.
"You know, I've been thinking... A lot, actually... Um... And I think I finally have an answer for you.", Luz says, rolling her head to look at Amity.
"An answer? To what?", Amity asks, honestly unknowing what Luz is alluding to. She slowly turns her head to look Luz in the eyes.
"On the weekend, Saturday night, after the Brawl, you had asked me a question... about our future...", and that was the point where Amity remembers. She rips her eyes open, but still has no strength to lift her head from the back of the couch, "And my answer is yes. I would love to be your girlfriend."
A huge grin spreads across both Luz' and Amity's face.
"That makes me really happy… but your timing is terrible", Amity says in an exhausted voice.
"Why that?", Luz chuckles while Amity is really slightly upset right now.
"You're telling me this now, just like that, completely knowing that we're both out of energy? I really wanna throw myself in your arms right now and twirl you through the air... Tze, unbelievable."
"Wait, maybe this will do...", Luz says and wiggles her head towards Amity, straining bit by bit, until it's resting comfortably on her shoulder. Amity leans her head on Luz', "This is nice".
The two girls spend the next while in silence again, so much so that Amity thinks Luz has fallen asleep on her shoulder.
"We're girlfriends now...", Amity whispers quietly to herself in disbelief.
Luz smiles, experiencing true happiness for the first time in a very long while.
[The Couple]
Entry 74
It's almost exactly like it used to be, like when Sasha and I had sleepovers at Anne's house. Except we are still in Amphibia instead of on Earth, and Sasha is not here. Not sure if that's a good thing or not... I kinda miss her, and that's despite her actions. Somehow less than Luz though, who I only knew for like a month, while I've known Sasha for most of my life...
Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
I'm lying with Anne right now. In her bed. In the basement of her adoptive frog family, the Plantars. Anne is lying right next to me. She's sleeping on her hair, which she's piled like a pillow under her head. And she's been drooling a little since she fell asleep.
She looks sooo cute that I can't stop looking at her face.
Oh btw, did I ever mention that Anne and I are together now? Like, officially??? /s
I know. It's hard to imagine, but the last 5 pages where I completely ranted about how happy I am, that... Um...
I forgot what I was trying to get at. Sorry. ☹
Anne seems to be waking up, I'll continue writing later.
"MarMar?", Anne asks, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"I'm here, Anne.", Marcy whispers, putting down her journal. She lies down on her back, but turns so she can look directly at Anne, "Did I wake you up?"
"Why aren't you sleeping?", Anne asks instead of answering. She is still having trouble keeping her eyes open.
"You know I don't need much sleep in general", Marcy replies. Anne, however, has doubts about whether this statement is truthful or not.
"I know you have a habit of pulling an all-nighter once you get your teeth into a new interest of yours.", Marcy lowers her gaze from Anne's face, "But you're laying here. With me. And you're not working on a project right now... What's wrong?"
'It's so sweet how she cares about me. I missed that feeling'
Marcy wraps herself in silence and turns onto her back. Anne does the same after a while.
"Maybe it's the excitement of exploring our powers later... Maybe I'm afraid of what will happen if something goes wrong... Maybe the heart racing because I'm lying next to the most amazing girl I know."
Anne's head immediately snaps to the side and catches sight of Marcy, who looks at her with wide eyes and a big smile.
Anne moves her head forward a bit and gives her girlfriend a little kiss on the nose. Marcy giggles happily.
"I'm afraid I don't know what to do about your first two worries... But I can shower you with all the love you deserve. However, it would still be nice if you tried to get at least a little sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a potentially tiring day and as of now, it's still dark outside..."
"Ugh, Anne... You're a real mood killer", Marcy groans, while Anne merely grins devilishly at her.
"Well, you do know my nicknames: Anne the Breakup Queen, Angel of Death and Mood Killer", Anne proudly announces.
"You made that last one up just now", Marcy states.
"Maybe. But you know it's true", Marcy just grumbles slightly in response, "Come on Marbles, at least try to get some sleep. Please... For me."
"Okay," Marcy relents. She doesn't, however, before snuggling close to Anne and resting her head against her shoulder, "You're going to have to deal with this in return now"
"I think I can handle this", Anne declares calmly with a smile on her face and the two of them try to fall back to sleep.
"AANNNEEE!!! ARE YOU AWAKE??"
In an instant, Anne shifts from fast asleep to wide awake, shoots upright and instinctively throws the pillow behind her at the source of the voice. That voice quickly turns out to be Hop Pop’s, who pokes his head straight through the slightly open basement hatch.
"What do you want?", Anne yells back. The pillow she threw misses him only slightly by a few centimeters.
"First of all, rude. Second, there's someone at the front door who wants to talk to you", he explains, whereupon Anne grunts, annoyed at first, which transitions smoothly into a long, drawn-out yawn. "I can see you need another moment. I'll let him know."
Hop Pop closes the basement hatch and Anne drops backwards onto her mattress. She puts her arm to the side to hug Marcy, however, the spot beside her is empty.
"Marcy?", Anne asks to herself as she looks around her room at all corners in increasing panic. "MARCY??", she screams louder now.
"Yo, I'm in the kitchen.", she hears Marcy yell back through the thin basement ceiling. Anne exhales in relief. That relief doesn't last long, and is replaced by concern that Marcy hasn't slept at all, and that despite what was quite an exhausting multi-hour workout in the southern woods of Frog Valley yesterday.
Extremely slowly and with agonizing sounds, Anne straightens up from her bed.
Now standing upright, she smooths out her plain light gray T-shirt, which she brought along with her loose brown shorts back from Newtopia.
Tired, she struggles up the steps out of the basement and closes the hatch behind her again. Her first glance leads to the kitchen, where Sprig, Polly and Marcy are busily eating breakfast.
"Good morning, Anne.", Sprig greets her, joyful and full of energy as always.
"Gwd mowing Anna-Bawawa," Marcy greets her with mouth full of food. Polly, on the other hand, just looks at Anne and nods briefly in her direction.
"Yo.", she says before returning her attention to her breakfast. After a quick glance at Polly, it bounces back to Marcy and remains there for a suspiciously long time. 'Suspicious' because it isn't until several throat clearings made by Hop Pop, who is standing behind her, that she is brought back from her trance, and only then does she realize that several pairs of eyes are looking at her.
"Is something wrong?", Anne asks no one in particular. One by one she looks at her friends, who shortly after just continue eating again. Only Hop Pop is still standing next to her and they look at each other.
"The door.", he merely says.
"I see. Already on it.", Anne acknowledges. Hop Pop nods in satisfaction and Anne walks to the front door. She opens it and Chuck is standing right in front of it. Again. Just like yesterday.
Anne sighs and leans against the door frame in frustration.
"You're here because of the rebellion again, aren't you?", she asks.
Chuck pulls his straw hat out in confirmation and once again, pulls out an envelope, which he hands to Anne.
As she accepts it, Chuck pulls his hat again, turns around, and leaves.
Anne closes the front door before joining the others in the kitchen for breakfast. She stands in front of the kitchen table and slaps the envelope on the table.
"Probably just another request to talk to that Frellik or whatever his name is...", Anne whines, "I don't wanna talk to him"
"Oh Anne...", Marcy starts, "I thought we agreed that you would talk to him".
"I know. And I'm going to do it. I just wanted to reiterate that I don't want to do that.", Anne affirms. She sits down right next to Marcy at the table.
"You made that perfectly clear.", Sprig notes between bites.
"Anne?", Marcy suddenly asks. She reaches for Anne's hand under the table.
"Huh?"
"You should go meet him. Our training can wait.", Marcy says quietly.
"Training?", Polly suddenly listens up.
"Anne and I were going to explore our powers today."
"YOU HAVE POWERS TOO???", Polly demands to know.
"Probably.", Marcy replies, "But they haven't shown up yet like Anne's. And I think we should talk to Flawrik first, Anne."
"We?", Anne asks.
"I think it's only logical that I go with you. After all, it's my official job to restore peace... Or something like that…", Marcy explains before leaning over to Anne and whispering something teasingly in her ear, "And that way we can spend more time together."
"I heard that.", Polly announces, causing both Anne and Marcy's faces to turn red. And while Polly continues to eat totally unfazed by it, the two human girls stare at her and questioning expressions are forming on the faces of Sprig and Hop Pop.
After a good minute of awkward silence, Anne clears her throat in a distinctly audible manner.
"So... Do you want us to head right out then?", she asks.
"Don't you want breakfast, Anne?", Hop Pop asks before Marcy can answer her. A stomach rumble obviates Anne's need to answer, and she now joins in on breakfast as well. The options are all the provisions left over from the trip home from Newtopia.
During the meal, Anne decides to open the envelope that Chuck gave her.
Anne, I hope you have recovered from the long trip back. It is urgent that we talk as soon as possible.
- Ben Flawrik
Without reacting to it in any way, Anne merely continues eating her breakfast. A little later, Marcy gets up to go wash and dress up, and Hop Pop relegates Sprig and Polly to light farm work for the day. The discussion about this between Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop is inevitable, but it ends as quickly as Marcy re-enters the kitchen fully dressed. Shortly after, Anne also goes to get dressed before she and Marcy leave the house together.
"Hey Anne", Marcy starts shortly after Anne closes the front door behind her, "Did the letter mention where we can find Flawrik by any chance?"
"Nope. But don't worry, I'll ask some people. Someone will know where he is", Anne confidently replies.
The two girlfriends leisurely walk towards the village center, which is already filled with busy people. Despite their advantage in size, neither Anne nor Marcy can recognize familiar faces in the crowd of frogs, newts, and the occasional toad. Countless voices and conversations drown out every other possible sound source in the area. Even when Anne leans toward Marcy trying to tell her something, she can't understand a single word of it. Anne repeats herself several times, whereupon Marcy just shrugs her shoulders incomprehensibly each time.
After a couple tries, Anne gives up, takes Marcy's hand, and leads her through the crowd to a nearby store.
"Leopold Loggle's.", Marcy reads the sign of the store, which is located on the edge of the village center, "Chairs, tables and... limbs?"
"Yeah, Loggle is cool.", Anne states, already standing at the door.
"His store looks like an axolotl head.", Marcy observes, standing a few meters behind Anne. Anne takes several steps back at that.
"You're right... Huh, I never noticed that before. The two round windows above the door are eyes, one of them with an optional eye patch, the sides have these... Things-"
"Gills."
"Gills, thank you. And the canopy looks like a moustache-"
"With a couple of buck teeth underneath."
"Heh... You're right... Come on, let's go inside"
Anne opens the door and a little bell goes off. She holds the door open for Marcy.
"Well, hello hello hello... Anne, good to see you.", Loggle greets her, "And who is this?"
"Loggle, this is Marcy. Marcy, Loggle.", Anne introduces them to each other, "Found her in Newtopia. Works directly for the king."
"Mighty impressive. So, what can old Loggle do for you two?", he asks.
"We're looking for someone. Ben Flawrik. Do you know where we can find him?", Anne asks.
"I sure can...", Loggle replies. Anne looks at him expectantly, as if expecting something, "This doesn't feel right."
"True. So, where can we find him?"
"He's at the City Hollow. Just delivered him a new table yesterday.", he explained, "My arms still hurt."
"Maybe you should start to work out when you have time… Anyway, thanks Loggle.", Anne thanks him. Marcy does the same before both girls leave his store again and head towards the City Hollow.
The building is clearly visible from a distance, for not only is it the largest building in Wartwood, an iron security fence, adorned with Amphibia's emblem, surrounds it completely. The building itself is six to eight meters high, evenly divided over three floors. The exterior walls of the first two floors are made of a surprisingly sturdy mixture of clay and mud. At each of the four corners is a coral-like tree trunk as additional support for the roof, which protrudes significantly on every side.
The entrance door into the building at the front appears to be made of pure gold. Amphibia's emblem is also depicted on it. Immediately in front of the door are two stone statues of frogs holding a piece of parchment, and directly above the door hangs a sign with the words 'City Hollow' written in large letters. Even further above, a small balcony hangs on the edge of the roof and directly above that hangs a stone image of an old frog.
Anne and Marcy walk together through the massive iron gate at the entrance to the property. Before Anne and the Plantars left for Newtopia, this gate was closed to the public for most of the time. Now the entire front yard is packed with tents and frogs. In front of the entrances to both the gate and City Hollow, stand frogs and newts armed with swords and shields.
Brisk foot traffic passes through the doorway into and out of the building, with Anne and Marcy in the middle of it all. As they cross the doorway, however, the inside of the building is surprisingly quiet.
"Wow... Well, I'm used to the opulence in Newtopia, but I didn't think I'd find so much gold and marble here..."
"I can add to it: I used to live here."
"Shut up", Marcy says incredulously.
"No seriously. Okay well, it was only for a few days... I had acne and absolutely everyone here in Wartwood treated me like a celebrity- like a local. That was nice... Mayor Toadstool then wanted to win me over against his declining approval ratings and wanted me to live here.", Anne recounts.
"And you went along with that?"
"I... was a different person then.", Anne says, to which Marcy just glances at her, but doesn't elaborate.
The two girls continue down a brightly lit corridor, past top-quality paintings and busts of Toadstool, standing in front of an ugly yellow tapestry. In the middle of the corridor, two large double doors to their right and left lead into empty rooms.
At the end of the corridor, a splitting staircase leads to the upper floor.
On the second floor, the two girls take a look at the first room, which Anne recognizes as her former sleeping place. The difference is that it is filled with books wherever the eye can see. Amidst all the books, a slightly older, blue-skinned Newt sits at a desk, wearing unusually fancy and elegant clothes and is absorbed in an extremely heavy-looking book.
"Um, excuse me?", Anne asks in an attempt to get his attention. Unsuccessfully.
"Hello?", Marcy now asks. He quickly turns to the two girls.
"Oh... I beg your pardon. I hadn't noticed you...", he apologizes and invites the girls inside, "My name is Andrew Odal, I'm a professor of history and archaeology at the university in Newtopia"
"Odal? As in Iva Odal?", Anne asks in curiosity.
Marcy darts past Anne and shakes his hand energetically.
"I am Marcy Wu, Chief Ranger in the Newtopian Knight Guard and friend of Iva".
"It is an honor to meet you Master Marcy Wu... And you are?", Andrew turns to Anne.
"Oh, I'm Anne. Without fancy title."
"Pleasure to meet you too. My daughter told me about a human she housed for a while... I think, Luz was her name... Well, anyway, it's about time this rebellion finally received its face.", Andrew notes, to which Anne raises an eyebrow inquiringly.
"I'm sorry, what?", she prods.
"Oh, you haven't visited Ben yet?", he asks, to which Anne shakes her head.
"What do you mean 'finally received its face'?", Anne asks.
"That's something, Ben should explain to you.", Andrew answers evasively.
"Alright... Can you at least tell us something about what you're doing here?", Marcy asks as Anne scowls at him a bit, "I didn't expect to see anyone else from Newtopia here. Well, except for Yunan."
"Oh yeah, I ran into the General when she arrested the mayor. Nice woman. Very dutiful... I'm here because I had learned in Newtopia of the rising rebellion here, as well as that the library and archives of Mycroft Newtback, located on the edge of the valley, had been vandalized and the security mechanism therein destroyed.", Anne suddenly blushes, "And I was invited here to rescue the books, categorize them, and eventually take them back to Newtopia. Well, that was before the mayor was arrested. But I'm still holding on to it, and at the same time, helping the rebellion with their goals."
"How?", Marcy asks with interest. Andrew turns briefly and lifts up the thick book he was reading a moment ago.
"This here is a rough listing of every frog rebellion from the last couple of centuries, and the sequence of events is almost identical each time. I'm providing Ben and the council with my knowledge and expertise, in hopes of changing something for the better.", he explains.
"A rough listing?", Anne asks doubtfully with a sarcastic undertone.
"Indeed", he replies with a certain sparkle in his eyes, gesturing wildly around himself, "In all these books is the history of the entire valley. It was a life's work for Newtback and his ancestors to write all this down... See that pile of books back there by the window? I've been studying all the books about the rebellions and their consequences since I arrived here less than a week ago. This book I'm holding in my hands right now is sort of a summary of all that..."
Since Marcy has experience with infodumping herself, she is really enjoying listening to him right now, while Anne's attention seems to be dwindling more and more.
"Then I hope for the best... But tell me, can you tell us where we can find Ben?", Marcy asks as politely as possible, trying not to offend Andrew.
"You can find Ben upstairs, in the former mayor's office.", he explains without a trace of negativity in his voice, "Do you need anything else?"
"No, thanks. You've been a great help," Marcy says, leading Anne out of the room, holding her hand. Andrew sits back down at the desk and continues reading unbothered.
Shortly after leaving the room, Anne's brain seems to reboot and she blinks rapidly and repeatedly.
"You good?", Marcy asks her girlfriend, smiling.
"Oh... yeah... He just has such a voice that my brain is starting to turn to mush... Let's keep moving. I want to get this over with."
The two girls walk up the last flight of stairs to the third floor until they arrive in front of an open set of double doors, with two life-size statues of Toadstool standing in front of them. Anne and Marcy exchange dismissive glances.
"He must have been very into himself...", Marcy observes.
"Yeah...", Anne confirms before knocking on one of the open doors and getting the attention of everyone in the room.
In the middle of the office is the large wooden desk Loggle told them about earlier. Around the table stand four frogs, judging by their clothing, of different villages, two newts and a bullfrog, and all of them turn silently toward the two human girls. The latter speaks up.
"Anne Boonchuy... Howdy.", he says loudly.
"You wrote me that we really needed to talk about something..."
"And you're absolutely right.", he confirms before turning to the others in the room, "Folks, we're going to take a break."
The frogs and newts leave the room one by one, leaving only Anne, Marcy and the bullfrog. He looks at Marcy.
"Who is this?", he asks Anne.
"My name is Marcy Wu. I am a Chief Ranger in the Newtopian Knight Guard and I am here by order of King Andrias to help restore peace."
"King Andrias, ey?!", he repeats, not sure what to think of that, "Okay, why not...? Name's Ben Flawrik. You may call me Ben. I'm like the thread master for this rebellion. I've been doing this for several weeks now, originally at the invitation of former Mayor Toadstool."
"Great. So...", Anne takes a deep breath, "Since we now know who is who: Why am I here?"
"This rebellion needs you as a leader-"
"That's no surprise", Anne interrupts him. He raises a hand to stop her.
"Please let me explain. Since the beginning of this rebellion, according to tradition, it has carried your name at its head. Since you are obviously not from this world, a few adjustments have been made. One, a council of sorts, consisting of several representatives from throughout the valley, who make decisions and put together demands for the Toads."
"That sounds reasonable.", Marcy comments, "I was with the Toads not too long ago in an attempt to make an initial assessment. I had arranged for prisoners to be released and the removal of corrupt rulers."
"That was you?", Ben asks honestly surprised.
"Yup.", Marcy proudly replies.
"What a shame...", he retorts, to which Marcy's facial expression drops dead.
"Why that?", Marcy asks appalled.
"Oh oh oh, don't get me wrong. It's good what you've done. Very good, in fact... We were just hoping that the Toads would have decided this on their own, showing that they were willing to change. The fact that it was only done on orders from Newtopia, is a shame..."
"I see…", Anne speaks up again, "But can we get back to the part about what I'm supposed to do here?"
"Sure. So where was I?... Oh, right. So far, I've been handling representative duties for as long as you've been in Newtopia. I'd like to ask you to take over my position now and lead the rebellion in an official capacity."
"Do I understand this correctly? You want me to put my face out there for this rebellion, smiling nicely and waving, while you and this council make all the decisions behind my back?", Anne asks with a critical eye.
"It sounds like you're accusing us of selfishness... No, as leader you definitely have the authority to make decisions, along with the council. You decide with us where to go and you're right up front with us. Always.", Ben explains to Anne, who ponders about it for a long time. A very long time.
"I think you should accept, Anna-Banana. This way, we might be able to prevent an escalation together... Please...", Marcy tries to reason with Anne, "Maybe that way we can resolve all of this peacefully, and also make peace with Sasha-"
"I'm in!", Anne quickly interrupts Marcy.
"Huh...", Marcy is sounding astonished, "That was easy".
"All right. I'm glad you accept", Ben says, "Okay, listen: There is a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with representatives of the Toad Army. I want you two to be there."
"Of course.", Marcy states.
"Wonderful", Ben retorts before Anne gets a chance to say anything, "And don't worry. You'll get a full briefing on the situation beforehand. Any questions? No? Great. See you tomorrow."
And with that, Ben shoos the two girls out of the room, just as the people he sent away not too long ago are returning. The people scurry past them and slam the double door behind the two girls.
"Rude.", Marcy comments jokingly.
"For real...", Anne agrees with her, whereupon the two girls jointly chuckle at that.
"But seriously now", Marcy speaks up again after a good half minute of incessant snickering, "Was it like you anticipated?"
Sighing with relief, Anne leans back against the corridor wall. A few moments later, Marcy leans next to her and slowly reaches for her hand. She's stroking the back of Anne's hand with her thumb.
"I'm really glad we went to see Iva's dad first. Really helped me with my anxiety", Anne confesses looking more relieved, "And as for Ben... Let's just say, I'm really glad you were there, MarMar."
"Guess you haven't processed that you're a leader now, right?", Marcy asks, to which Anne just shakes her head slightly. "Well lucky for you we had something else planned for today", Marcy reminds Anne teasingly. A smile appears on Anne's face. One that unfortunately disappears as quickly as it appeared.
"Is something wrong?", Marcy wonders, somewhat worried.
"No.", Anne merely replies, "Come on. Let's head back."
And with that, the two girlfriends leave the City Hollow and leisurely make their way back to the Plantars' farm. Right before they reach the house, they notice Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly weeding while kneeling between various plants growing out of the dirt.
"Hey guys", Anne greets them. Sprig pauses briefly, but continues to kneel on the ground immediately in front of a pair of uprooted weeds.
"How'd it go?", he wonders.
"It looks like I'm leading a rebellion now...", Anne tells them with a non-smile on her face.
"Congratulations, Anne.", Hop Pop says. Sprig notices in Anne's expression, though, that she's not entirely thrilled with that.
"You don't think you're right for that task, am I right?", Sprig cautiously suspects.
"Of course I'm not right for it", Anne almost shouts, "I mean, look at me. I'm thirteen years old. On Earth, people still see me as a child... I have no idea how to lead all these thousands of people. I have no idea about strategies and tactics-"
"STOP!", Hop Pop audibly interrupts Anne. He stands up, takes a few steps towards Anne and takes her hands in his, all that while she merely looks at him with a startled expression, "Anne, please don't put yourself down like that. Personally, I think no one would be better qualified to lead this rebellion than you. You're kind, you're caring, you're willing to accept the consequences of your actions, you stand by your principles, and most importantly, you give people hope. You don't need to have experience with strategies or develop tactics... There are other people who will do that. Also, you will never be on your own... We will stand behind your back. Always... Say, do you remember when you were elected Frog of the Year?", Anne nods, "Were you elected because you are a frog? No. Were you elected because you did nothing but good deeds? No. You were elected because you are you. Because you are Anne Boonchuy. And that's what the rebellion needs: You."
A smile slowly emerges on Anne's face and a tear rolls down her cheek. Marcy speaks up.
"Besides, you promised me you'd get us home. And I think interdimensional travel sounds slightly more complicated than leading a rebellion like this", Marcy encourages Anne. She chuckles at that.
"Yeah, you're right. You both- you all are.", Anne corrects herself. She notices Polly hopping towards her.
"You promised me I could blow up Toad Tower. If someone other than you is in charge, it might not work out.", Polly says.
"I just remembered something else... HP, where is the music box, by the way? It should have been back here by now. What's taking so long?", Anne asks insistently.
"Right...", Marcy chimes in on Anne's doubt, "You said it was with your contacts, right? If you tell me where they are, I could tell Yunan to pick them up for us."
Hop Pop suddenly experiences an engulfing wave of nervousness. He gulps hard.
"N-No worries...", Hop Pop stutters, "I know with absolute certainty that the box is on a direct route back to Wartwood. As to where exactly my contact is currently, I have no idea. However, I am sure that the box will arrive here when we are ready to leave for the first temple..."
"Okay, I'll take your word for it," Anne replies contently, "Marcy and I will be right out in the back practicing."
Hop Pop nods this off and goes back to work along with Sprig and Polly. Marcy walks ahead to the front door while Anne ponders Hop Pop's words a tiny bit longer.
She shakes her head in disapproval and follows Marcy into the house.
"You know", Anne begins as she follows Marcy through the house to the back door, "I really had doubts for a second about what Hop Pop said about the music box..."
"You mean he doesn't think his contact will be back with the box soon?", Marcy questions.
"I don't know... I kind of had a feeling that something wasn't true...", Anne tries to explain her feeling, "But anyway... It was a stupid thought. I trust him."
"No doubt... So, where should we go?"
Anne and Marcy are now standing behind the house, looking for a neat, quiet place to go experiment with their powers.
"Uh, uh, uh, I know a spot.", Anne announces in anticipation almost instantly, grabbing Marcy's hand and running with her behind her into the cornfields that grow up to two meters high just behind the house.
Anne's path through all the plants seems rather haphazard to Marcy, at first. This quickly changes, when Marcy notices that she and Anne are running up a hill, and the spread of the corn plants diminishes.
The two girls arrive at a grassy hill, where they can overlook the Plantars' entire farm. On this hill is nothing but the stone remains of a wall, that may have served as a property boundary at some point in the distant past. And it is at these very remains of the wall that Marcy now collapses, panting heavily and gasping for air.
"You good?", Anne asks with a tone partly concerned, partly amused. But this is only until she remembers that Marcy is far less physically enduring than Anne is.
"Just... gimme a minute...", Marcy wheezes.
Anne remembers that Marcy has never been particularly athletic. She herself already had a connection to physical exercise through her interest in tennis, and since coming to Amphibia, her strength, endurance, and general athleticism has only improved. She had not considered that the same was not necessarily true for Marcy. While she was never averse to physical activities, she was never on par with Anne or Sasha.
Meanwhile, Marcy sits with her back up against the wall, Anne next to her. Marcy has mostly recovered. She took out her journal and is now working on a sketch of the entire Plantars farm. Anne watches her as she does so.
"You feeling better?", Anne asks, whereupon Marcy closes her journal and sets the pen aside.
"Yeah, thanks. My heart rate is still pretty high, but I'm feeling better. Wouldn't be surprised if I'll wake up with sore muscles tomorrow...", Marcy jokes.
"Tze... From that little bit of running? I don't think so..."
"Say, how did you find this place anyway?", Marcy asks with curiosity, "It's really nice here."
"Sprig showed it to me shortly after the Plantars took me in. Sometimes we would lay out here in the evenings and spend some quiet time together...", Anne recalls.
"That sounds nice... And I'm not taking that away from you two because I'm here now, am I?", Marcy asks, sounding genuinely concerned. Anne doesn't take much time to respond. She changes her posture so that she is now kneeling right in front of her.
"MarMar... You are my girlfriend, and there is nothing I wouldn't want to share with you.", Anne tells her and gives her a kiss on her forehead.
Marcy jumps up and throws herself into Anne's arms, grinning broadly. She turns into a giggling mess and hides her face in Anne's hair.
"You good?", Anne asks under the influence of Marcy's giggling.
Marcy breaks the hug again, but is still grinning to herself.
"Yes", she replies, "And I love you too."
Anne blushes to well past tomato blush and Marcy absolutely loves how flustered she gets every time, Marcy tells her she loves her. However, the fact that Anne has not yet returned these words does not bother Marcy at all. Her actions show what she feels.
"You know, I've been thinking...", Anne starts after a while of silence between both of them, "This thing about us keeping our relationship a secret is far less funny than I had hoped..."
"You want to tell them?", Marcy inquires.
"If you don't mind..."
"No objections. But... let's not do this until later, okay?"
"Yes!", Anne agrees, " First though: Power time".
"YesYesYesYes!", Marcy hypes herself up, just before dropping back down to the floor and sitting cross-legged, pulling out a notebook. From where exactly she pulls it out is not apparent to Anne, as Marcy's stuff is still in the house.
"So... Ever since you first told me about your powers in Newtopia, I had been making notes and theorizing about them."
"Theories? What kind of theories?", Anne asks.
"Well, about origins, causes, triggers, potentials and so on...", Marcy explains.
"And what exactly do we know so far?"
"Well...", Marcy opens her notebook and finds the page she is looking for right away. The page is a spreadsheet, consisting of just three columns. At the top of the first column, it reads 'AnnaBanana', at the top of the second it reads 'Sashy' and the last one Marcy named after herself. "The first time your powers came out was when Sasha killed Hop Pop, right?"
"Yes, and it would be nice if you didn't remind me of that...", Anne notes fiercely.
"But it may be important to figure out controlling your powers...", Marcy explains, which doesn't necessarily make her girlfriend feel any better. Anne growls softly.
"Okay, okay...", Marcy backs off, "I'll try to approach this differently, without addressing the events specifically... From everything you've told me, your powers seem to come out when you feel intense emotions. Sadness, anger, remorse..."
Anne nods in affirmation.
"When your powers appear, there is a light blue theme that runs all the way through you. Your eyes turn bright blue, as well as your hair. You experience vastly improved strength, stamina, but also resistance to injuries."
"Resistance to injuries?", Anne investigates, "What exactly are you referring to?"
"You broke Sasha's sword with just one hand. And from what you've told me, without any wounds on your hand.", Marcy reminds Anne, just before turning her palm upwards for both girls to see.
"Oh yeah... You're right", she recalls, "Anything else?"
"Well, generally speaking, we know that the gems are the source of our powers that were transferred to us when we crossed the interdimensional threshold and according to Maddie, the gems resemble the crystals we saw in that strange cave... But that's all I can think of for you specifically."
"Okay... So, my powers are triggered when I experience intense emotions, I see... But what about you? Nothing happened to you when you felt intense emotions...", Anne just remembers Marcy yesterday's mood in the woods.
"I got a little something about that too... Just before you arrived in Newtopia with the Plantars, Luz and Maddie had helped me run Barbari-Ants out of the city-"
"Say what now?", Anne inquires.
"Barbari-Ants. Like... Bessie-sized...", Marcy explains, "Didn't I tell you about that?"
"Nonono, wait. I remember... Luz had told me about it... Maddie was eaten by their queen and you saved her.", Anne recalls, "Oh, and she said she saw your eyes light up green"
"Exactly. That was the first time anyone noticed that. Well, or at least that someone told me. Perhaps other people thought, that was just a human thing not worth mentioning…", Marcy recounts.
"Okay, so we have that... Then there was yesterday, before you led us out of the forest."
"Enhanced sensory perceptions...", Marcy talks to herself.
"Huh?", Anne utters.
"I remember being able to perceive things much more clearly than usual. My vision became sharper and I could see more details... Like in everything... My hearing improved so I could hear the ocean in the distance and make out the direction it was in... And in general, I felt like I had turned into some kind of supercomputer that could analyze and evaluate tons of scenarios, all at the same time."
"Hmm... Makes sense", Anne remarks.
"Really?"
"You've always been the smartest of us. So, it would be a perfect fit for you.", Anne says with a smile on her face.
"And you've always had an easy time making new connections and meeting people. Makes sense that your powers are based on feelings and empathy.", Marcy returns the compliment.
"But what does that mean in practice now? I don't know how that explains how we can access our powers...", Anne comments.
"Hmm...", Marcy ponders for a while, "Do you think meditating would work?"
"Not sure... Meditating can help with relaxing, but I don't think it will get us anywhere.", Anne muses. They both continue to brainstorm.
"I've got something", Marcy declares, "Tell me a story."
"A story?", Anne asks in perplexity.
"Yes. Something you remember that still triggers strong feelings in you to this day. It doesn't matter if it's positive or negative", Marcy explains to her.
Anne begins to ponder.
And continues.
And on and on, until she eventually gives up and shrugs her shoulders.
"Sorry Marce, but I can't think of anything. Well, except for the Hop Pop and Sasha thing, but I'm not going there…"
"That's understandable... You know, I would have another idea, but it involves a certain risk...", Marcy's voice is suddenly filled with nervousness.
"Okay, I'm in.", Anne says with determination. Marcy, on the other hand, has doubts.
"You... don't want to know what the plan is? You sure?"
"I'm sure. I trust you, Marbles."
And with that, Marcy gets up from the wall. She extends a hand to Anne and helps her up as well. They are now facing each other.
"We're going to start with a breathing exercise. Close your eyes…", Marcy directs Anne. Anne follows her instructions.
"Breathe in..."
They both take a deep breath together. Marcy watches Anne's movements closely. Her own heartbeat increases, her hands get sweaty.
"And breathe out."
They both exhale slowly. Marcy quickly leans forward and before she knows it, her lips are pressed to Anne's.
Their first kiss. Warmth fills both girls equally, butterflies fly in their stomachs.
The kiss doesn't last long, as Anne suddenly tears open her eyes in shock, her vision completely blue. A grinning Marcy glares at her.
"It worked", Marcy can barely contain her joy and excitement like the adorable dork that she is, and frantically jumps around Anne, who hasn't quite figured out what just happened, "We just summoned your powers".
Anne just stands there looking completely dumbstruck.
"You kissed me", she merely says.
"Yessss", Marcy confirms, not quite noticing that Anne is in a bit of a shock, "You know, there are a lot of emotions. You wanted to, understandably, avoid negative ones. And when you couldn't think of any memories where you felt strong emotions, I thought of just creating a new one."
"You... kissed me…", Anne repeated herself. Marcy has since gotten herself back together and is now standing directly in front of Anne again, both looking deeply into each other's eyes. Marcy only now notices Anne's reaction.
"Did I... Did I go too far?", Marcy's mood abruptly shifts from beaming with joy to stiffly worried, "Did I cross a line?"
Anne doesn't answer, but just continues to stare at Marcy.
"I'm sorry if I-", Marcy is abruptly interrupted by Anne putting her hands to Marcy’s face, pulling her to her, and melting her lips with her own once again. An overwhelmingly pleasant warmth spreads through their bodies. Marcy puts one hand on the back of Anne's head and the other on her back and presses her against her. Their hearts pound so hard in their chests that their heartbeats almost melt together in synchronicity. While Anne can't concentrate on anything but the softness and gentleness of Marcy's lips, Marcy's knees begin to feel weak.
It is a moment that feels like it lasts an eternity. It is their moment. And only theirs.
As their kiss breaks up, the two girlfriends simply glance at each other, lost for words, but happy as they possibly could be.
"Wow...", Marcy says after a while, having found her voice again. They are still holding each other and Marcy watches Anne's hair and eye color change back from bright blue to its natural brown.
About a minute passes, during which they just silently look into each other's eyes, until they suddenly hear Polly's voice.
"HEY!", they hear her shout at the top of her voice. They both turn towards the house and see Polly looking directly in their direction, "I SAW THAT!"
And with that said, Polly hops away, around the Plantars' house, and the two girls start laughing heartily under their breath.
"So much for us telling the others about us", Anne says between laughs, "In half an hour all of Wartwood knows".
They continue to laugh. Wrinkles of laughter are forming and tears escaping their eyes.
"Yeah...", Marcy begins after she has regained her composure, "You know, I think today is the happiest day of my life".
Once Anne has regained her composure too, she reaches for Marcy's hand.
"We can keep going... if you want to, that means...", Anne says teasingly, however Marcy is not exactly sure what Anne is referring to.
"... Exploring our powers, or kissing?", she asks cautiously. Anne smirks, leans forward, gives Marcy a little kiss on the cheek and, walking briskly, pulls her down the hill and walks with her back towards the house.
"Follow me. I have an idea", she merely says.
Anne has led Marcy into the middle of the living room and the two girls are now standing between the fireplace, which has never had anything burning in it, above which hangs a very old painting that looks a lot like a frog version of 'American Gothic', and the low-slung coffee table that sits on an oversized lily pad that serves as a rug. Anne stands with her arms crossed beside the fireplace, while Marcy looks frantically around the room, trying to figure out what Anne is up to.
"Okay, so... What’s your plan?", Marcy finally asks after realizing she can't come up with the answer on her own.
"Uhh, you're gonna like this", Anne voices excitedly. She turns to the painting above the fireplace and presses on the face of the two frogs depicted in its center.
"A hidden button???", Marcy observes in amazement.
The painting begins to turn ninety degrees to the right. The floor begins to shake. The stones representing the back of the fireplace begin to expose a passage and even the firewood splits in two.
Marcy gasps heavily.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh," Marcy bursts out, "It's a secret basement..."
Anne smirks at her girlfriend as she observes the door mechanism in awe. She turns her head at Anne.
"You've been down there before, right?!", Marcy asks to which Anne nods. Grinning, she holds out a hand to Marcy, which she immediately accepts. In the other hand, she is holding her phone, on which she has activated the flashlight.
Marcy giggles nonstop as Anne leads her down the dark tunnel deep beneath the Plantars' farm. The entire passage is filled with spider webs, small roots that hang along the walls of the tunnel or directly from the ceiling. The steps the two girls descend, are made of unusually large stone slabs.
"So... how come you know this place?", Marcy asks as they continue to head downwards.
"Well, Sprig accidentally found the button in the painting upstairs, so of course we had to go explore the place. This is where I went down here with him and Polly and we found a couple of rooms. However, we hadn't really explored everything because we ended up just wanting to get out of here because the fireplace gate was closing behind us."
"... Does it do that now as well?", Marcy asks, just before a stony crash shakes both girls to their very core.
"Yup," Anne confirms in a not very surprised tone, "We're trapped now."
"You... you do know how to get out of here though, right?", Marcy asks cautiously.
"Of course... There are two possible ways. We can either go through the whole tunnel system or we can simply go back. There's a button on the inside of the fireplace door.", Anne tells her in a calm manner.
"Good to know"
"Yeah... Just found that by accident when Hop Pop ran blindly down here once we got back upstairs, and we had to rescue him", Anne recalls, to which Marcy chuckles.
More than ten minutes pass before they arrive at the place Anne has identified for herself as their destination. Before that, Anne took Marcy through three different rooms. Well, actually only through two, but a third one was just too interesting for Marcy to just walk by.
On the way to the first room, the two girls came to a fork in the tunnel. As Anne was about to go down the right tunnel, Marcy asked what was on the left. Anne didn't know and Marcy ran into the tunnel, eager to explore. Anne ran after her and they were utterly stunned to find themselves in a cave that was partly rock, partly wood and other soils. Marcy merely commented that she had forgotten that the Plantars' house was merely a stump of a tree that must have been possibly hundreds of meters tall, and that they were now in its root system. In general, it was quite dim, but not totally dark. Only a few very faintly luminescent mushrooms on the roots made the scale of the cave somewhat imaginable. Well, those and small glowing dots on the cave ceiling, they made it seem as if the two girls were standing under a clear night sky with twinkling stars. Anne enjoyed this quiet, night-like atmosphere very much. In Marcy, however, this gloominess triggered a slight anxiety, which she found difficult to explain. She asked Anne to continue back with her, and after some hesitation, she agreed and they returned to the fork in the tunnels, this time taking the right tunnel to the first room known to Anne.
The first room was the research laboratory of the Plantar ancestor Skip Plantar. It was filled with several preservation jars on large shelves, cells sealed with rusted iron bars connecting to the lab, and in one of the cells was still the oversized, four-legged pumpkin monster that Sprig had trapped there when he was first there with Anne and Polly. While Anne was still surprised to find that it was still alive, Marcy began examining all the shelves. She quickly came to the conclusion that this was a gene lab where Ancestor Plantar was trying to create intelligent plants. The mention of intelligent plants brought back a bad memory for Anne of the day she and the Plantars left for Newtopia, where she was responsible for several intelligent plants destroying the Plantars' home. The house was quickly rebuilt later and the Plantars forgave her, but nevertheless the feelings of guilt came up again briefly. Briefly, though, only because Anne was brought back by the fact that Marcy was about to pull on the same lever that Sprig once pulled which released the pumpkin monster. Anne sprinted to Marcy and fortunately was able to stop her from making the same mistake. Shortly after, Anne suggested that they move on. Marcy agreed, but only on the condition that she would return at a later time to document everything.
The two girls gathered at the hole in the floor at the end of the lab, which led into the next room. Although the lab also had another exit, right next to the hole, the two girls wanted to stick with Anne's plan. They carefully climbed down into the room below. Anne first, Marcy after, so Anne could support her. The two girls found themselves in PolliAnna Plantar's armory and training simulator. While Anne summarized her story, Marcy looked around the room in amazement, marveling at all the weapons hanging on the walls. From swords, to daggers, to axes and spears and morning stars, every conceivable type of weapon was there. Anne tells that PolliAnna was a turnip farmer and lived out her warrior life down here, protecting the village and participating in countless battles all over Amphibia. With nothing more for the two girls to do in the room, they scurried through the training simulator and arrived where they are standing right now.
In front of a brown-gray wall. With a toggle switch next to it.
Anne flips the switch and the wall in front of them, moves upwards. In the middle of the room is a rather massive looking rock that also moves upwards, exposing a closed door.
"Welcome to the Emma the Newt-Plantar puzzle and game room", Anne announces and Marcy's eyes widen with excitement.
Marcy runs down the narrow path and stands in the middle of the room to capture everything.
"Oversized chess pieces, a frog version of Tic-Tac-Toe, puzzle boxes and...", she gasps as she spots a self-drawn map on the floor with a thick book next to it, which she picks up and opens, "An ancient Amphibia version of Dungeons and Dragons..."
She hugs the book tightly as Marcy's joy and excitement fills the room. Anne now walks down the narrow path as well.
"Anne, this place is amazing... Now I know why you thought I would like this place. I could probably spend an eternity here."
"Well maybe, but that's not why we're here.", Anne states.
"Huh?", Marcy asks both disappointed and sad at the same time. Like a sad puppy.
"See the door?", Anne asks to which Marcy nods, "It's a puzzle door. The puzzle has to be solved for it to open."
"Okay... And how does that help with my powers?", Marcy asks curiously.
"That's the tricky part: once you start, a large part of the ceiling starts to descend on you, threatening to crush you if you're not fast enough", Anne explains suspiciously calmly.
"So, I would be under time pressure, I see... Isn't that a little too dangerous?", Marcy asks, being somewhat concerned about Anne being so calm about all that.
"It's doable. I did it too, after all. I have full confidence that you, as the puzzle master that you are, will solve this puzzle in time and-or activate your powers.", Anne tries to put her girlfriend at ease, "It's basically like the game 'Slacker Stackers'. Or 'Tetris'…"
"Anne!", Marcy exclaims, "If you remember, this is the only puzzle I've never been able to solve."
"And that's where your powers come in. And don't worry, if it doesn't work out, I'll stand next to you and get us out if things get cramped", Anne states confidently.
"Are you sure you're able to consciously summon your powers?", Marcy asks nervously.
Anne closes her eyes. Seconds later, a blue aura begins to form around Anne, her hair turns bright blue, the leaves and twigs inside spread out, and when Anne opens her eyes again, her glowing blue eyes are back as well. She maintains this state for a while before quickly changing back to her normal form.
"See? I have everything under control", Anne radiates with confidence. Marcy chuckles briefly.
"I guess the training worked well for you".
"Well, I simply know exactly which memory I need to bring up... You can do this, MarMar. I believe in you", Anne tells her. She smiles briefly in response; however, insecurity still floods her brain as she stands in front of the door.
Marcy takes a deep breath and looks at the puzzle on the door.
'Different stones of different sizes... Some with symbols... Two circles, an inverted triangle, a cardinal rose, and two lozenges...', Marcy internally takes stock of what's in front of her.
She looks nervously at Anne, who, standing next to her, smiles confidently. She takes another deep breath.
Marcy touches the first stone and slowly pulls it all the way down, to the bottom row, where there is a suitable gap. After releasing it, her gaze slowly wanders upwards to check if the ceiling is already moving towards her. Luckily, it does not.
She glances at Anne.
"Keep going", she says in a motivating tone.
Feeling marginally relieved, Marcy continues.
'The bottom row is already filled... So far so good'
Marcy moves them next stones to the two rows above. And just as she has moved the last correct stone into the third row, almost proud of herself for thinking she somehow outsmarted the ceiling trap, the floor begins to shake briefly.
Marcy looks up. The ceiling begins to move downwards.
"This is the sudden death round", Anne remarks. Marcy turns to face her.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM???", she shouts in a slight panic before turning back to the door and noticing various shaped stone groupings moving down from above.
'L-shape, three-straight, two-straight, another L-shape...'
Small rock fragments begin to fall down around Marcy as the ceiling continues to move towards her. She is finding it hard to concentrate.
'Another- no... There's a gap. WHY IS THERE A GAP???'
There is a single one-by-one gap in the second highest row. She has to undo her previous actions while more and more puzzle pieces appear.
The ceiling is now barely one meter above her fingers and steadily getting closer. Time is running out and Marcy becomes increasingly panicky, making more and more mistakes.
"Come on MarMar, you caannnn ddddddoooooo thhhaaaaaaa-"
Confused, Marcy turns to Anne. She is suddenly moving incredibly slow. She looks up at the ceiling and a small rock falls by next to her head as if in slow motion.
'Did... Did I just slow down TIME???'
Marcy pulls out her phone and looks at the reflection of the mirror. Her eyes glow green and her hairline very slowly turns the same color.
'Whoa', she exclaims mentally.
She closes her eyes briefly and takes a deep breath. When she opens them again, it's as if the solution to the door has been projected onto her eyes. She visualizes which of the bits that are visible must go where. She sorts the puzzle pieces one by one into their correct places.
All this while Anne is still in the process of cheering for Marcy and the ceiling has moved barely a few centimeters.
Time resumes at its regular pace and Marcy turns to Anne with pride. From her perspective, Marcy has solved the entire door puzzle in one single smooth motion.
"Wow", Anne exclaims as she sees Marcy standing in front of her. Her eyes glow the most beautiful bright green she has ever. Her hair also grew longer, now equally dyed green swirling through the air as if caught in the wind and with no regard for gravity. Compared to Anne's hair, in which leaves and branches spread when she activates her powers, little shells and corals formed in Marcy's hair.
"I did it Anne. I did it", she throws herself into Annes arms.
"Oh my frog... That was like- Wait. Hold on a second... Why isn't the door opening?", Anne is now anxious as well. Marcy looks up and the ceiling continues to move towards the two girls.
Anne sprints forward to the door and checks Marcy's solution.
"It's all correct. It should open", she says. She begins to push against the door with all her might. Marcy follows and helps her, with her powers still on.
Together they push against the door as hard as they can. It does not move.
"Shoot. I guess my powers don't come with super strength...", Marcy states. A sudden light goes on in Anne's head.
"Strength, that's what it is. You're a genius, Marbles", she says brightly, summoning her powers once again.
Anne pushes against the door with all her strength and it actually seems to move.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
And the ceiling comes closer and closer. It is only half a meter away above their heads now.
As Anne continues to push and the door opens piece by piece, Marcy turns and catches sight of the ceiling in increasing panic, just about to crush them.
'Come on, slow down time again. Come on. For Anne'
Anne pushes and pushes and the gap is wide enough for a single arm to fit through. Marcy closes her eyes and holds one hand forward with her palm down. It's a move she's picked up from endless superhero movies and series.
'Come on... Come on!'
Marcy feels as if she has grabbed something and instinctively pulls it up. The floor cracks open. Some kind of triangular green force field shoots out of the ground and surrounds the two girls protectively.
With a loud bang, the ceiling hits the floor.
Both girls freeze in their position in the expectation of not supposed to be alive anymore.
Several seconds of silence pass before Marcy dares to open her eyes again.
"Wha-", Marcy begins, completely stunned and speechless. Anne opens her eyes as well and slowly turns around.
They both catch sight of green, translucent force fields that have formed in a triangular shape around the two girls all the way up to the door. They look through it and see the rock behind and above them, which nearly crushed them.
"Was- was that you?", Anne asks Marcy with wide eyes.
"I... I think so, yeah.", Marcy says, still somewhat stunned. She turns to Anne.
"You saved us...", Anne leans forward, wrapping Marcy tightly in her arms and pressing her lips to hers again, "I'm soo grateful to have you in my life, you know that?"
Marcy smiles and her powers gradually begin to fade again. The same goes for the force field. Fortunately, the triangular form, molten into the stone, remains in place.
"I think we'd better get out of here now", Marcy notes. Anne agrees, with a giggle. She turns back to the door, finally opening it wide enough for both girls to squeeze through. Once they are through, Anne also lets her powers disappear again.
"Yeah... You know, I think that was my worst best idea ever. I'm sorry that I put you in danger."
[The Toad]
Four days ago...
Captain Grime had just accompanied General Yunan to the stables outside the tower and is now back inside and on his way back to the command room. About on the bottom third, the human approaches him. He notices immediately that something has gone wrong. Her eyes are all wet and she looks like she's going to start crying at any moment.
"Captain, General Yunan will be back in a few days. I will try to establish a new dialogue with the rebellion and act as a negotiator. Have you already given the order to release the captured rebels?", she asks him in a broken voice. She avoids his gaze.
"I have just sent the messengers with proper instructions.", he counters, "Um, may I ask-"
"No, you may not. Goodbye, Captain.", she says goodbye and briskly disappears down the stairs.
A little later, he follows her at arm's length. He follows her out the main gate and merely sees her and the General flying away on their Sparrow.
He growls distrustfully, and makes his way back upstairs, where he had left his lieutenant alone with her friend earlier.
He arrives at the top of the stairs in front of the iron door to the command room, and before he even opens it, he can already hear Sasha talking to herself in an angered tone.
"-of course she's going to embarrass me like that; She's always been like that. What's next? That her clumsiness was always just an act- ... Ugh, of course it was always just an act. No one is could be that clumsy- It all makes sense now-"
"LIEUTENANT!", Grime enters the room. But Sasha ignores him, continuing to pace up and down with her blood boiling within her veins.
"Little, clumsy, helpless Marcy- tze... Sure..."
"SASHA!", Grime roars.
"WHAT??", Sasha yells back, with all the power in her voice, "DON'T YOU SEE THAT I'M FUCKING BUSY???"
"What's your frog-damn problem?", Grime demands bewildered, "What did you do?"
"What did I do? I?", Sasha rage only worsens and is now directed at Grime as well, "That bitch Marcy betrayed me and teamed up with Anne! ... Do you wanna join them too now?"
Sasha stomps towards him with her rage out of control. In fact, he thinks he can see her hair has started to catch fire.
"You should think carefully about what you're going to say next...", Grime tries to threaten her. Sasha clenches her fists.
"AND THEN WHAT, GRIME?? WHAT?? TELL ME!", Sasha thinks he's bluffing. He growls, running head first into Sasha, hitting her in the stomach and throwing her to the ground. With all his body weight, he now holds her arms to the ground.
"Snap out of it, Lieutenant!", and that was the last thing Sasha wanted to hear at that moment. She rips her arms free from him, grabs him and smashes him against the door. Painfully, he straightens up again, his eyes widening in shock as he catches sight of Sasha stomping straight at him: Her previously blonde hair is burning like crimson-pink fire. No, her hair is the fire. Sasha's eyes have changed color, too: They are bright pink. Her presence is as intimidating as ever before. Even for Grime.
Sasha lunges for the punch. Grime stands with his back to the door. He ducks quickly and Sasha hits the door, causing it to break out of its hinges and come crashing down the stairs.
"What the fuck...?", Sasha mumbles uncomprehendingly as she backs up a few steps from the door. Slowly and slightly distraught, she unclenches her fists and looks at her now slightly shaking hands.
As Grime slowly stands back up, Sasha pulls a shiny polished dagger from one of her boots and reluctantly looks at her reflection, then looks at Grime.
"I could have killed you...", she mutters, her voice deeply filled with regret. She stumbles backwards against the large table that stands in the center of the room, but instead of sitting down on it, she falls to the floor next to it. "What have I done?"
Grime takes a few steps up to Sasha, who is now burying her face in her knees, which she has pulled up to her chest. He kneels down next to her.
"Lieutenant- umm, Sasha...", he begins in an unusually caring tone for him, "I don't know... if I'm the most competent person here when it comes to friendships... I never had what you had. I was raised as a fighter, a warrior. All those who were not under my command were competitors or rivals for seats of power... I know you feel betrayed and hurt right now because your friends didn't act the way you wanted them to. But they are not your subjects-"
"But we had always done everything together...", she interrupts him, " We never had any disagreements. They had always gone along with what... what..."
"-what you wanted... Right?", Sasha doesn't reply to Grime's question, "You lost them. But not in the sense that they don't want you in your life anymore, or be your friend anymore, you just no longer have complete control over them."
Grime puts a hand on Sasha's shoulder.
"It's perfectly okay to be hurt and angry about the whole thing. Once. And then you move on."
Sasha snorts briefly in agreement placing her own hand on top of Grime's.
"I think that was some of the best advice I've ever gotten."
"Command skills alone won't get you anywhere in life. Sometimes it just takes a little wisdom and life experience. You'll get there", Grime continues, to which Sasha chuckles slightly.
"Okay, I think that's enough wisdom for now... Captain."
Grime stands back up straight again.
"Very good, Lieutenant. Then maybe now you can tell me what the deal is with all that stuff...", he requests, pointing at Sasha's still crimson-pink, fire-like hair.
Today...
Sasha is at the training facility at Toad Tower, along with a few other Toads. For today there are no general plans, so Grime had ordered physical exercise for the day for everyone. A large part of the Toads is busy with endurance training, while Sasha and a few others try their hand at combat training.
The Toads fight each other, wearing full armor and using wooden swords, while Sasha trains her powers, which she discovered a few days ago. At first, she had spent ages staring at herself in front of the mirror in her own room, trying to figure out if she could actually light anything on fire with her crimson-pink fire-like hair. (Un)fortunately, this is not possible. While her hair is warmer than normal, it's not hot enough to burn or even scorch anything.
Training for her powers over the last few days has produced another necessity that she needs to get under control and practice: Self-control and emotional self-regulation. She can only invoke her powers when she is excessively angry and only turn them off when she has calmed down again. Although this is a difficult and, as Sasha herself has recognized, tedious task, she is optimistic about it.
Currently, Sasha is testing her limits in terms of her newfound physical strength, juggling tower stones that normally have to be carried by two strong toads, under great effort.
Suddenly there is a knock at the door to the training facility.
"Um, Sasha?", it's Percy, perking through the door.
"WHAT?", she shouts at him in a rage. He flinches, completely terrified. Sasha, fortunately, quickly realizes her mistake, puts down the stones, and contemplates for the moment until her powers disappear, and she has her normal form and mental state restored. "I'm sorry. What's up Percy?"
He is still trembling slightly.
"Um, there's someone at the main gate who wants to see Grime. And he said he didn't want to be disturbed, so..."
"Good thinking, Percy. I'll be right there", Sasha says.
Sasha's training outfit for the day consists mostly of her regular uniform, minus just a few items. She is wearing her regular rust-brown metallic boots and the light gray leggings underneath the gray skirt. Plus, the studded belt underneath her gray t-shirt. She doesn't wear the cape, the gloves, the brown pauldron and the brown breastplate today, because all that would be too disturbing and would possibly bring restrictions due to the extra weight.
Sasha now makes her way to the main gate of the tower with no time to change. She opens the gate and in front of her stands a single female Toad, looking at her in confusion.
"What type of creature are you?", she asks Sasha. Sasha just rolls her eyes.
"I'm Lieutenant Sasha Waybright, second-in-command under Captain Grime. That's all you need to know.", Sasha explains with an unimpressed, neutral expression, "Who are you and what do you want?"
"Yes, it seems appropriate that I introduce myself as well, creature. I am Captain Beatrix, Lord of the West Tower and one of the three Lords commanding the collected forces of the Toad Army, and I request an audience with Captain Grime immediately. It has come to my attention that he is in need of... help."
With a critical eye, Sasha eyes the toad standing before her.
Like Grime, Beatrix is middle-aged with swamp green skin and a light green underbelly with dark green spots. Her knee-length gray-green hair is braided into a braid at her shoulders, which she lets hang down in front of her shoulder. She has one eye with a green pupil, no iris and green sclera, and one eye with lavender sclera, a light pink iris and no pupil, over which runs a healed but visible scar. Her outfit looks quite official.
A purple uniform with orce buttons on it and a medal on her right side. She has flat shoulder pads decorated with spikes and bristles and a belt whose golden belt buckle is shaped like the deaths’-head moth. Her uniform is rounded off with ochre gloves and brown boots.
"Alright, I'll escort you to his office", Sasha relents and lets Captain Beatrix in. Although still slightly doubtful of the authenticity of her story.
"No need, I know where he is", Beatrix pushes Sasha aside and walks past her towards the stairs upstairs.
"That was not a suggestion", Sasha says with gritted teeth.
"Fine, fine..."
Sasha leads her up the tower, up to the command room. The iron door has not yet been replaced, nor repaired, so a wooden door now stands in its place. Sasha knocks.
"Captain Grime... There's someone here to see you-"
"Out of the way, creature!", Beatrix again pushes Sasha aside once again and kicks in the door. Sasha has to pull herself together pretty hard right now.
Grime is sitting at the table in the middle of the room, his face turned toward the door. Beatrix laughs as she enters the room.
"Grimothy!!!", she yells and runs toward Grime.
"Beatrix??", he asks, just before she puts him in a headlock.
"You two know each other?", Sasha wonders. Grime was about to answer her first, but Beatrix beats him to it.
"But of course we know each other. He's my younger brother. Ain't that right, lil bro?", Grime merely growls in response.
"What the hell are you doing here, Beatrix?", Grime demands to know after he breaks free from her headlock.
"I heard that you asked the council for help in dealing with a tiny frog rebellion...", she says dismissively.
"And you're offering to help him?", Sasha asks her, to which she starts laughing out loud.
"Oh no, not at all. His begging for help demonstrates his weakness, and such a thing has no business in his position. I am here to witness his downfall".
"Good!", Grime stands up straight and faces Beatrix, "Then you are welcome to join us tomorrow for the negotiations..."
"Negotiations???", Beatrix is honestly shocked as these words left Grime's mouth, "You don't negotiate with frogs, do you? You put them down... Negotiations, tze... Grimothy, you bring shame upon yourself. ... I'm taking a room. I want to see your downfall with my own eyes."
And with that Beatrix leaves the command room again. She looks disappointed before closing the door behind her.
"So, you have a sister?", Sasha asks after a moment of silence. With an annoyed look, he looks at Sasha and growls in confirmation.
"She's my older sister. Remember when I was talking about rivals and competitors? She was the most dominant of them all. She's probably the toughest toad warrior in all of Amphibia. The art of war is natural to her..."
"Sounds like you despise and admire her at the same time...", Sasha observes.
"I would love to kick her out, but as a member of the Council, she outranks me. She gets to take what she wants and do what she wants.", Grime explains.
"And she chose to make fun of you?"
"You don't seem to have any siblings... Making fun of me is the whole point of her life.", he explains, at which point an idea strikes Sasha.
"What would you say if we try to make this as hard as possible for her?", Sasha suggests. Grime is curious.
"I'm listening..."
"Tomorrow is the meeting with the representatives of the rebellion. And the way I estimate these frogs, they will be upset with everything, no matter what we do. So, it will lead to a war"
"A war that we will lose."
"A week ago, I would have agreed with you. But we do have a secret weapon now. Me.", This gets Grime thinking, "You defeat the frogs with my help and by doing so you take away any possibility of her making fun of you ever again. ... And perhaps she'll even stop calling me merely by 'creature'."
Grime snorts in amusement.
"I like this plan.", a slight grin spreads across Grime's face, "So be it. Beatrix will regret coming here"
Notes:
So, what did you think?
Btw, if you'd like to have some kind of visualisation on how Marcy's and Sasha's calamity-form looks like, you might wanna check out this art by GogolaStar: Link to Reddit, and for Luz' powers, this comic by MoringMark: Link to Reddit
Chapter 30: Beyond her Control
Summary:
There is only a small history lesson and a meeting.
Nothing special... ;)
Notes:
Hi.
For this chapter, and for all future chapters, I have decided not to use double spacing anymore. Please let me know if you like this formatting better than the previous one, or not.With that out of the way: Have "fun" reading <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Andrias! ANDRIAS!", the mechanically contorted voice of his father rings in his mind as he sits alone in his throne room, bored to the bone, waiting for something of interest to happen. He was already about to get up from his throne and walk to the usual location, but before he can get up, a sudden violent force pushes him back onto the throne, and while he grips the armrests as in a state of shock, his consciousness gets dragged to another place.
So far, this has happened only once. After Andrias first encountered Marcy, his master reacted in the same way as now, demanding that he kill Marcy immediately. They felt threatened, terrified, if that is a trait that actually still exists within them.
Andrias finds himself in a completely dark place, with an indiscernible light source somewhere above him illuminating a small area around him, and an icy chill in the air surrounding him. As far as he can tell by now, this place is no different than it has been in previous encounters.
Something must have happened that they immediately demand to speak with Andrias, and are willing to put up with Andrias' body being discovered by someone back in the throne room.
A figure materializes immediately in front of him. Andrias kneels down.
Like Andrias, the figure before him is also a very tall newt. Like Andrias, it also has pale blue skin, but a long, white beard. The figure wears a multi-colored tonic. It is black in the front and light brown, dark brown and green on both sleeves, and the figure has the same crown on its head as Andrias. However, two differences are clearly recognizable to him: The figure is clearly larger than Andrias, at least around three times the size of his head, and it has eleven, orange-colored eyes, with the largest in the center and in each case three smaller on the right and on the left of it. To either side of it are two more.
"Our plan is starting to fail. Heart, Wit and Strength have now managed to access their gemstones. All of them. You must eliminate them.", the figure demands, "IMMEDIATELY!"
Hesitantly, Andrias looks up.
"M-My lord... I am not sure if this idea is really wise..."
In a fluid, almost floating motion, the figure steps closer to Andrias. He lowers his head again and the figure places a hand, colder than ice, on top of his head. He grimaces through the pain of the cold, and the figure sighs in disappointment.
"Your ability to see obvious solutions to simple problems is getting on our nerves, son. Get up!", Andrias stands up.
"We've been working on our plan for a millennium. It is foolproof.", Andrias assures, sounding confident.
"You are the fool if you don't realize how these... humans... are plotting our demise and wiping us out and everything we've worked for. They NEED to be dealt with!"
"I can assure you that the grand plan is not in danger, and all those who stand in our way will be or have already been eliminated. Trust me.", Andrias argues. The figure leans down to Andrias, right next to his head.
"Your trustfulness will be your downfall.", it states, "Very well. We will continue to monitor the situation"
"Good morning, everyone…", Anne greets everyone cheerfully, as she leaves the basement, feeling surprisingly happy and with such massive confidence with which she could break through walls, and already fully dressed, to join the rest of the Plantars in the kitchen for breakfast.
"There she is, our sleepyhead...", Hop Pop jokingly comments after seeing her walking through the kitchen door. Anne merely comments with rolling eyes before leaning down to Marcy and giving her a kiss on the lips.
"Good morning, Marshmallow…", Anne speaks softly to Marcy. Both girls grin broadly at each other before Anne decides to take a seat right next to Marcy.
"Eww, could you please not do that right in front of my face??", a disgusted Polly comments with a mouthful of fresh pancakes.
"Polly! Rude.", Hop Pop warns her, "Besides, they're in love. Let them have that. You'll probably fall in love too someday when you're older and you might kiss them-"
"YesYesYes, stop lecturing me. I only love one thing: chaos and destruction!", Polly retorts with a diabolical grin that could make the hearts of her enemies explode... Well, if there would be any around, that means.
"But that's two things...", Sprig corrects her with a smug grin. However, when Polly turns her death stare on her brother, his grin instantly disappears and he feels the sudden urge to hide right behind Hop Pop.
"I don't understand why you of all people are so disgusted by this, Polly. I mean, you saw us kissing yesterday too...", Anne remarks after putting a pancake on a plate for herself as well.
"Yeah, well, you were kissing at the end of the farm and not right in front of me...", Polly tries to argue, which only gets her another eye roll from Anne.
"So, kids... What do you guys have planned for today?", Hop Pop asks after a moment of silence. Sprig looks at him in surprise.
"No farm work today???", he asks. Hop Pop shakes his head. "Well, in that case, I'm meeting with Ivy. I want to tell her about all the stuff we went through while we were away"
"I don't know what I'm in the mood for yet...", Polly speaks up.
"And you two?", Hop Pop now asks Anne and Marcy.
"Meeting with the Toads.", Anne tells between hearty bites, "Briefing with Ben plus the Council beforehand".
"And what about you Hop Pop?", Marcy now asks him.
"Um...", he seems to hesitate a bit, "I.... Um... Today my contact is coming back with your music box and I'm staying here to pick it up for you."
With wide eyes, both Anne and Marcy look at Hop Pop, seemingly a little speechless at first. Anne jumps up from the table, runs around the table and hugs him tightly.
"Ahh, that's really great news... But are you really sure he's coming today?", Marcy inquires as Anne lets go of him again and sits back down with her girlfriend. Hop Pop swallows hard.
"Y-Yes, of course. A letter arrived last night that he would definitely be arriving today. Definitely...", he chuckles in awkwardness.
Anne and Marcy both continue to eat, unfazed, while Polly begins to notice something strange. Something that's not quite true. She glances over at her grandfather and watches as he nervously tugs at his collar.
"Oh, what do you know, I can already hear his snail.", he suddenly bursts out, standing up from the table.
"I don't hear anything...", Sprig notes. Polly and Marcy don't hear anything either.
"Uh, uh, uh... Can I come with you, HP? I'm dying to know what he found out and thank him for the effort." Anne seems completely oblivious that anything is wrong. Hop Pop startles and he begins to talk faster and more slurred as he slowly walks backwards towards the front door.
"Uh, no... Um... You finish your breakfast first... And don't worry, I'll tell you everything he tells me. Okay, bye.", he says, grabbing the shovel that's next to the front door, walking through and slamming it behind him.
With a slightly disappointed look, Anne sits back down, seemingly accepting his order. Sprig, Polly and Marcy, on the other hand, exchange doubtful glances. Silently, with the only sound in the room coming from Anne continuing to eat, the three of them vote on who will tell Anne.
Polly lost.
"Um, Anne...", Polly begins, catching her attention, "I think you should go after him."
"Why?", she merely asks.
"Because Hop Pop is lying about something about the box.", Polly explains, speaking with certainty. Anne isn't buying it, though.
"What reason would he have to lie about that? And why would he lie to us about that? We're his family- sorry Marbles- and I, for one, trust him.", Anne speaks with outright confidence.
"Anne?", Marcy now tries her luck, "Remember how you told me yesterday that you had a creeping feeling that he was hiding something from you?". Anne nods. "Now it's the other way around. Now we think he's hiding something."
Anne grows increasingly stubborn.
"Do any of you have any proof of that? ... Anything?", Anne asks the others. No one answers directly. Except Polly.
"The only evidence is just outside the front door.", she states and Marcy joins in, "Maybe you're right and all our worries are unjustified. But look at it this way: You promised to find a way back to Earth. And the only way to do that is through the music box. The box that we don't have right now at this moment."
Marcy actually seems to be getting through to Anne. Sprig is now trying as well.
"Anne, you should at least go out and look...", he argues. Anne considers for a while longer, until she decides for herself that she doesn't want to continue this conversation, and is in far too good a mood to let herself get dragged down like this right now.
"Fine...", Anne gives up, "But I'm only leaving so you'll stop trying to convince me that he's lying. He is not. And I will prove it!"
Confidently, Anne gets up from the kitchen table and marches over to the front door, through which Hop Pop has also walked out.
Shortly after Anne leaves the house, leaving Marcy, Sprig, and Polly now sitting alone at the kitchen table, Sprig speaks up.
"I really, really hope we're wrong...", he says ruefully, "Because if not..."
Sprig doesn't have to finish the sentence for the other two girls to understand what he's getting at.
Anne had a difficult time after Sasha's betrayal. Her heart was broken, the number of tears she had shed could have filled lakes. The number of nightmares she had could have filled movie theaters. Would she be able to bear another breach of trust? And then from someone she trusted unconditionally?
"We shouldn't have told her...", Marcy whispers to herself.
With a fake, incredulous laugh, Anne steps out the Plantars' front door.
"Hah! I'll prove to them that Hop Pop would... never lie... to…", Anne's voice trails off as she sees no snail in front of the house, as Hop Pop claimed. In fact, there is no one to be seen there. "What?", she asks herself in confusion, thinking she can't believe her eyes. Seeing no one, she picks up her ears and sure enough, she hears something. Someone is digging. Hop Pop is digging.
While carefully tiptoeing around the house, Anne spots Hop Pop digging a hole by the dead tree near the green pond. He talks to himself in a mix of panic and confusion, and Anne stops behind him as she comes within earshot.
He gasps in terror.
"I- It can't be. The music box... It's gone!"
"What?", the only word that manages to escape from her mouth. Extremely slowly and with a racing heart, he turns around and jumps when he notices Anne behind him.
"A-Anne... What are you doing out here?", he stutters, trying to play down the situation.
For several seconds, there is absolute silence. Hop Pop merely glares at Anne, knowing full well that he's been caught. He looks Anne in the eye and watches as her heart has just been ripped and plucked into a thousand pieces. Her facial expression goes through all sorts of phases one after another, not knowing how to feel right now. From annoyance to grief, from disappointment to anger, but most of all... betrayal and incomprehension.
"Did you just say... the music box is gone?", she finally manages to say in a hurt voice, barely audible.
"I... I can't lie anymore! I buried the box here. And now it's missing!", he reveals.
"But... but... Your contacts?", Anne stammers. Her facial expression shifts.
"There were never any contacts, Anne! I read that the box was dangerous- I didn't know what to do. I panicked!", Hop Pop tearfully tries to justify his actions, "You HAVE to understand. I was just trying to protect Sprig and Polly..."
Anne's expression shifts again.
"So, you lied to me?", Anne says, not much louder than a whisper, but still agonizingly heard in Hop Pop's ears, "All this time you've been lying to me?"
Anne grows increasingly louder. Tears of betrayal form in her eyes and a heavily flickering blue aura is forming around her.
"NO! Yes... Look, it's complicated-"
Anne is tired of it. She interrupts him immediately.
"No, it isn't. I need the music box to return home, where my parents may be worried sick about me. For all they know, Marcy, Sasha and I may be dead... And you bury it UNDER A FUCKING TREE???", the flickering of blue around Anne, in her eyes and hair, intensifies. The leaves and sticks stuck in her hair phase in and out of existence. It seems like a glitch in the fabric of reality, "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, TO KEEP ME HERE FOREVER???"
"No, no! I... It's not like that. I- it's just... I've lost so much already and I thought-", he is unable to finish that thought, as Anne interrupts him once again. In the meantime, three listeners have gathered at the Plantars' front door, alerted to the argument by all the yelling. Highly concerned, they eavesdrop on both of them.
"STOP!", Anne yells at the top of her lungs. He goes quiet immediately and merely watches as tears flow from Anne's eyes and she sighs. "I thought you were different. I thought you were the one person I could trust in this place. But you're just like everyone else. You lied for your own, sick beliefs of- of... ... Ugh, I... I can't be here right now"
Anne turns around and starts to walk away, but not before turning back for a final remark.
"Oh, and by the way", she starts, her voice trembling with anger, "Don't follow me!"
Anne continues walking, eyeing the three listeners as she passes, who are still standing in the front doorway with worried looks on their faces. She says nothing, but simply continues walking. The flickering blue accompanies her as she walks away from the house.
After Anne is out of earshot, Marcy, Sprig and Polly walk out of the house to Hop Pop, who is kneeling on the floor, looking thoroughly devastated. With remorseful tears in his eyes, he looks to Marcy.
"I'm so, so-"
"Don't.", Marcy cuts him off.
"So, you heard it all?", he asks.
"More than enough.", Sprig speaks to his grandfather, trying not to let his disgust for his behavior escape his mouth.
"Why?", Marcy speaks up before changing her mind, "You know what? Not important. We need to fix this now..."
"Yes, we need to find Anne!", Hop Pop declares, but Marcy seems to have other plans.
"No!", she exclaims, serious and determined. "YOU will go search and find the music box. I'll take care of Anne"
"But-"
"She said you shouldn't follow her. Not respecting her wishes is the last thing you should do now.", Polly notes. And she's right.
"Okay.", Hop Pop relents, "Kids, will you help me?"
Sprig and Polly think for a moment, but ultimately agree to help him. Sprig, however, has conditions.
"I'll only help you if you explain in detail why you did what you did once we get the box back."
"I promise.", Sprig and Polly nod this off. Just Marcy speaks up.
"I really hope we can deal with this. With the meeting with the toads today, the stakes are extremely high and Anne is beyond unstable. And not just emotionally... Okay, let's go"
And with that said, the four of them split up. The Plantars investigate the disappearance of the music box, while Marcy runs after Anne, worried beyond belief. More even than the Plantars realize, as she is concerned not only about her state of mind, but about the instability of her powers. No one can guess what the consequences may be. From 'none' to 'destruction of the world', it can be absolutely anything in-between.
She is beyond scared as she follows Anne, which fortunately is not very difficult. Marcy spots her in the center of the village, where she simply pushes staring villagers and outsiders out of her way.
'Okay, they see it too. So at least I'm not hallucinating', she makes a mental note, 'It'd probably be better if I were'.
Marcy scurries between all the frogs and hurriedly tries to get to Anne. Anne just keeps walking, and even though she clearly heard Marcy is somewhere behind her. Even when Marcy has caught up to her, she doesn't turn around. She walks steadily on, her gaze not straying from her path.
The ongoing blue flickering makes Marcy visibly nervous, and she tries to distract herself.
"He's going to get the box back... You'll see"
"Doesn't matter anymore.", Anne comments after at least half a minute of uninterrupted silence. Even the other frogs, newts and toads they pass, merely stare at Anne, some with their mouths wide open, "Nothing matters anymore."
"Not even me?", Anne freezes in place for a moment. Yet she continues not to look at Marcy.
"I don't want to repeat myself...", Anne merely replies and continues walking. Marcy on the other hand, can't bring herself to move. She just stays there, feeling as if her heart has been ripped out and speared with a flaming sword. Tears start streaming down her face, as she watches Anne's back moving further and further away from her.
Marcy tries to take a breath; however, her breathing is short and choppy. Within her mind, she still hears the sound of Anne's voice, "Doesn't matter anymore... Nothing matters anymore." She tries to snap out of it.
'This is not the time to feel sorry for yourself.', Marcy tries to give herself a mental pep talk, 'You need to focus on finding a way to help Anne.'
And with that, Marcy begins to follow Anne once again.
When Marcy eventually caught back up to Anne, Anne was about to enter the 'City Hollow' as previously planned. The intensity of the flickering around Anne fortunately decreased on the way there, but it still appears threatening. Marcy hastily grabs Anne's arm to stop her from entering the building.
"Anne! Wait...", Marcy pleads.
"WHAT?", Anne shouts, finally looking back at Marcy with a piercing glare, "What do you want from me?"
"You- you shouldn't go in there like this...", Marcy gestures towards Anne's hair.
"Like what? What the frog are you talking about?", Anne replies and Marcy lets go of Anne's arm.
"You... Your powers, they're unstable...", Marcy worriedly tells her.
"I know. And I don't care.", Anne replies, "I'm going in there. With or without you."
"You're suppressing them???", Marcy asks in disbelief, "How are you even doing that?"
"I don't know. I just am.", Anne replies, "Now are you coming or not?"
Though unsatisfied with this answer, Marcy follows her girlfriend straight to Ben's office (since, let's be honest, Toadstool will never need it again), and on the way up Anne somehow manages to completely turn down the flickering without her mood changing in any way noticeable.
'Does she really have that much self-control over her powers already?', Marcy wonders, but quickly pushes the thought away to focus on the task at hand.
When the two girls open the doors, they are both surprised to find only Ben and Andrew there.
"Didn't you mention something about a council?", Anne asks Ben, trying to hide her current mood. Ben on the other hand just stares at the two girls for a good few seconds.
"Good morning to you, too, Anne. Master Marcy. Please sit down and I'll explain myself...", Ben offers them a chair next to the bullfrog and the newt. Anne practically drops into the chair with an 'I don't care' attitude. Marcy sits down next to her.
"First of all, thank you two for coming. Today is going to be an important day and it's vital to bring you up to speed.", Andrew begins before Ben takes over.
"But first, there's a decision to be made.", Ben glances at Anne, "More specifically, you have a decision to make. It's just a formality, nothing important."
"Okay, bring it on."
"The council had voted to allow me to represent it to you, and to convey its decisions and ideas to you, in which you have the final say as supreme authority. Do you accept that choice? If not, you could pick another council member who-"
"Yeah, sure, whatever. You'll do.", Anne replies, now also noticeably fed up for the others in the room. Andrew is the first to ask.
"Is... everything okay, Anne?", he asks sounding honestly concerned. Marcy spontaneously decides she'll answer for Anne.
"No, it isn't. There are problems that... that are taking a lot out of Anne. But don't worry, it's not going to affect today." Marcy says, glancing at Anne every few moments, looking for a sign of agreement. Anne however, doesn't even look back at her. "I hope…", Marcy adds in a whisper.
"Alright then... After Master Marcy informed us yesterday that the Toad Army had not met our set demands of its own accord, we, that is, the Council, had reconsidered our general position."
"But surely the results speak for themselves. They did what you wanted", Marcy interjects.
"Yes, that's correct. However, it missed the greater point: we wanted the Toads to change; That they treat us better in the long run than they do now."
"Oh...", Marcy understands that reasoning now, "So what do you guys have planned now?"
"With Andrew as our expert historian, we've put together several scenarios of how this whole thing may ultimately play out. Andrew.", Ben sits down before Andrew stands up and speaks up somewhat shyly.
"Um, yeah... As I told you yesterday, I've spent the last couple of days or so, categorizing and analyzing some of the recent rebellions here in the valley. There hasn't been enough time to do a detailed analysis of really every rebellion so far... All the books go back about a thousand years, to the time when the then Prince Andrias was proclaimed king. The oldest books consist for the most part, of collections of oral traditions, passed down within older families, and are therefore not particularly insightful and-or accurate. One thing, however, is quite interesting: During the very first rebellion, frogs all over the valley refused to supply Newtopia with food and goods until the crown assured them protection from environmental hazards, such as nalwhal worms, which were also indigenous here, and occasionally wiped entire villages off the map. And here's the kicker: Toad Tower was built in direct response to that."
"No way!", Marcy comments incredulously, "Toads were originally supposed to protect the people here??? When did that stop?"
"Hard to say. Several sources cite a certain 'Barrel, the Brave' as the commander of the tower for several decades, who is said to have abandoned his post at some point. He was reportedly quite popular up to that point. In the few sources that mention his name, he is referred to as the 'Protector of the Small Folk' by the inhabitants of the valley. No one knows exactly what happened to him, but from what I know about Toads, I suspect he was the victim of an assassination... Umm, Ben, are you okay?"
Andrew glances at Ben, who seems lost in thought.
"Barrel's Warhammer...", he mumbles to himself.
"What did you say?", Marcy asks. Ben snaps out of his thoughts again.
"Umm, in my childhood, I had lived near the tower. Every now and then I played with toad kids, and they told me about the legend of Barrel's Warhammer. The one who leads Barrel's Warhammer is worthy to lead the Toad army.", Ben recounts.
"Does that help us in any way?", Andrew asks.
"Only if we would want to try to take over the Toad Army. But even if we were to find this legendary weapon, probably no Toad would do what any of us would say...", Marcy replies, "Let's keep that in mind. As a last resort."
"Master Marcy... The last resort is the declaration of war. For a change...", Ben explains.
"What- what does that mean?", she asks. Andrew resumes talking.
"I'll get to that in a minute. So, not long after Barrel's unexplained disappearance, a new commander arrived whose name has not been passed down. The new commander was apparently less popular, because only a few years later, there was the first frog rebellion against the toads, especially directed against the commander... It ended up being a massacre. One from which the frog population has not fully recovered to this day. It took an estimated two to three generations before the frogs dared to rebel again. The toads began to get more and more brazen, even as far as robbing the frogs of their goods. It got bloody again, but this time on both sides. The frogs had sent their best fighters ahead this time, and they and the toads met at a point that is known today as 'Point Weatrôj'."
"Did the frog fighters happen to include a frog named PolliAnna Plantar?", Marcy throws in.
"I'm sorry", Andrew apologizes, which fortunately doesn't seem to bother Marcy too much, "I'm afraid I don't know the name. Anyway... Oh yes, 'Point Weatrôj'... That place has always been considered neutral ground by both sides... a neutral graveyard."
Marcy now looks back and forth between Ben and Andrew with an astonished, curious look. Ben takes over.
"'Point Weatrôj' is sort of the point where wars and conflicts are fought and ended. The soil is completely dead, soaked by the blood of generations. All life there is dead, not even plants grow there anymore. Not everyone who went to this place came home...", Ben explains, to which Marcy swallows nervously. Everyone else doesn't seem to mind at all. Okay, Andrew seems a little nervous, but he's been that way the whole time. Ben is calm himself, and Anne... She just sits there. It's not really apparent whether she's actually listening or mentally in a completely different place. And then there's the fact that she's currently suppressing her powers, which most likely means they'll eventually burst out of her. Marcy strains not to picture it, when suddenly a loud thunder can be heard. Ben and Andrew look outside with little interest, while Marcy's head instantly snaps to Anne, who continues to sit there looking totally disinterested and is, most likely, not listening either.
"Huh, a thunderstorm is approaching...", Ben comments, "Haven't had one in a while. Should do the soil some good..."
"Bad conditions to fight in", Anne suddenly speaks up with a grim tone. Her gaze remains on the same position where he has been sitting since. The other three look at each other with concern.
"Yes, that is true…", Ben begins, "But that's more of a problem for toads than frogs. Frogs are generally lighter and so don't sink or get stuck in the soggy ground as quickly." Anne does not comment further on this. Andrew continues.
"Aaanyway... The first frog rebellion against the toads was obviously unsuccessful, as were all the subsequent ones so far. On average, a new rebellion occurred about every three to four generations, just about the time the last survivors of the previous one died."
"What made them fail?", Marcy asks. Andrew begins to appreciate her.
"Aha! That, Master Marcy, is what I was trying to determine. You see, the situation we have today is largely identical to the last twelve rebellions that I've been able to analyze in more detail, at least in terms of their wider causes. Toads place their ilk in positions of power throughout the valley, and deprive the frogs of any opportunity to make their voices heard. Corruption, greed for power, oppression of frogs, and self-enrichment have always been present among Toads. However, the triggers for the rebellions have always been different: In the 1701 rebellion, the Toad army burned a village called Doxum to the ground, just to celebrate the appointment of a new commander for the Tower. Only five inhabitants survived. In 1404, a small force of renegade Toads kidnapped two families in open daylight and forced them to cannibalize each other for their own amusement. The last remaining one was hanged in the end. In 1521, several Toads burned down a number of wheat fields throughout the valley, causing food shortages throughout Amphibia. The riots became so bad that the Newtopian military had to intervene. In 1440, the Toads kidnapped two children from each village in the valley and forced them to fight each other to the death. In 1800, a Toad commander decided-"
"Please Stop!", Marcy begs. She is already feeling quite sick and contorts her face in disgust. Ben joins her.
"She's right, Andrew. Enough of the examples... Please continue..."
"Yea... The term, according to which the toads are described as brutal, is quite appropriate. Over time, a wide variety of methods have been used on the part of the frogs to force the toads out of the valley. Of the last twelve rebellions, seven resulted in open conflict, which resulted in catastrophic defeats for the frogs. In one case, negotiations actually occurred, but ended abruptly when the frogs' negotiator disappeared and was presumably executed. And in three cases, Toad Tower was attacked directly, and statistically, this approach had produced the best results, if only for a short time. In the first case, an attempt was made to poison the Toads' supplies, whereupon sixty percent of all Toad soldiers died. In the second case, an attempt was made to blow up the tower using boomshrooms. There, however, the frogs in charge had miscalculated the quantity, as well as the structural stability of the tower. Instead of the whole tower, only the forecourt and the stables were destroyed. In the third case, several curse-users had joined forces and developed a gas that causes extreme hallucinations in toads, and forced them to face their own greatest fears. When the toads initially fled the tower, the frogs celebrated this as a victory, but did not consider that the effect would eventually wear off, and the toads would return. To make an example, all knowledge of magic here in the valley was destroyed, and the vast majority of curse users were executed."
"That certainly explains why magic is a nearly extinct art in Amphibia- Wait a minute... That was only eleven things... What about number twelve?", Marcy asks.
"Um... Are you familiar with the volcanic eruption of 1702?", Andrew asks, to which Marcy shakes her head, though she already guesses what he's alluding to.
"Don't tell me, someone managed to manually make a volcano erupt..."
"Oh yes, they did. Who exactly and how someone did this has unfortunately been lost over time. However, it was suspected that a frog who had a doctorate in geology and mathematics from the University of Newtopia was responsible. The mentioned volcano was located on the eastern edge of the valley, on the border with the sea.", Andrew reproduces.
"Sorry, but... It WAS located there? Not anymore?", Marcy interjects.
"No. The explosion that was supposed to cause the dormant volcano to erupt, was so massively powerful, that it leveled one-fifth of the surrounding area. Ash poured through the sky and rained back down across the continent for decades. The explosion cut cracks and furrows through the land. Rivers of lava swept through the valley, there were gigantic numbers of refugees, everywhere, who had simply sought shelter, fearing for their lives. It was frogs like newts, like toads... Toad Tower was completely annihilated in the original explosion within the blink of an eye... This was the greatest natural disaster ever recorded. There were no winners. Everyone had lost... Thousands lost their lives. There was not one single family who hadn't suffered the loss of at least one loved one."
Out of shock, Marcy slumps backwards against the back of her chair. For a while, absolute silence reigns in the room. The only audible sounds come from the gathering rain and the occasional thunder. Ben is not doing much better than Marcy, however, he seems to find the words that Marcy seems to be missing right now.
"I... I did know that the valley had a rough past, and that there was a lot of blood, but this... I didn't see that coming.", Ben now turns to the two human girls. Marcy is still processing all of this, while Anne sits there in complete dissociation. He stands up, clears his throat, and takes the word.
"We, um, of course want to prevent... such a devastating catastrophe from happening again at all costs...", he tries to sound confident. It takes a while for Marcy to digest most of what has been told.
"Um, yeah, definitely. Whew, and I was starting to think human history was brutal... Okay, it is brutal, but still...", Ben and Andrew both eye Marcy, but she quickly changes the subject, "Okay, Andrew. Let's consider all that history out of the way for now. How does the situation today compare to what you just told us?"
"The biggest difference? The two of you. Well, actually the four of you...", he starts, whereupon now Anne also listens up again, "I don't want to go too far out on a limb, but I believe that you will be one of the decisive factors that will decide whether the rebellion will win or not. It's just too bad that one of you is part of the Toads from what I've heard, and the fourth... Where is she?"
"We... think Luz has left Amphibia...", Marcy tries to sound certain of herself.
"Really? How?", Ben now asks. Marcy just shrugs at that. Andrew continues.
"Alright. Aside from you guys, we have other advantages over previous attempts: We have options; We can choose. In the past, it was always the case that there was only one person who led a rebellion and made decisions. Today, the council exists to weigh different options against each other. Likewise, the sheer number of volunteers who have joined the rebellion on site, is greater than ever before. Sure, numerical superiority has always been there, but for the most part they were, in quotes, 'just farmers'. Now, among the volunteers, we have combat trainers who help get people in shape, weapon- and armor smiths who help supply people with equipment, and quite a few other people whose skills can be extremely valuable if we use them properly."
"How many?", Anne speaks up, looking Andrew in the eye with an intense look. Ben replies.
"It's estimated that just about seven to eight thousand people have joined us to this day.", he reports. Anne falls into a thoughtful pose for a moment.
"So, preparations are being made for going to war?", she asks coldly.
"Yes. While we hope that this situation can still be resolved peacefully, we are preparing for the worst.", Ben tells her.
"And today we are about to renegotiate, or rather continue negotiations, right?", Ben nods, "With which demands precisely?"
"Together with the council, we have decided that it is not enough to force the toads out of the valley. We need to think more long-term. Therefore, we want the Toads to openly support us in declaring independence for Frog Valley. We want to become an independent state."
A lot of emotion lines Marcy's face as Ben tells Anne about their plan. Sympathy for the Frogs, because an independent state would mean that the Toads, as well as Newtopia, would no longer be in charge here. Concern for the rest of the Amphibians because sixty to seventy percent of all food comes from Frog Valley. Relief because independence could create trade agreements that could massively strengthen local and regional economies. Fear that Andrias, although he appears to be nice and reasonable, would not recognize the independence of the valley, and the Frogs would be forced to continue their lives as the lowest class of society. And that's just in case their plan works out.
"What about the toads? What reason would they have to agree to your terms?", Marcy asks anxiously. Anne replies before Ben gets a chance to do the same.
"Leave it to me. I already have a plan...", Anne unfortunately doesn't reveal any details, which Marcy doesn't like at all.
"We... would be willing to allow all Toads who are not members of the Toad Army free access into our borders, as well as the opportunity to contribute something to our society.", Ben continues.
"For example?"
"Protection.", Ben explains, "Only this time under our authority."
"Okay...", Marcy speaks thoughtfully, "This could work... I really hope you can convince the Toads. However, to declare your independence, you would also have to convince King Andrias... and I'm not sure which part of your plan seems more difficult to me. But... I will support you as best I can."
"Thank you, Master Marcy.", Ben nods gratefully. Andrew speaks up.
"This kind of plan has never been attempted in history, and there are quite a few variables that make a win- a permanent win for us likely."
"Likely?", Marcy asks with a critical eye.
"That's all we can do at the moment.", Andrew replies, "And you guys should start making your way to the meeting with the Toads."
"You're not coming?", Marcy asks.
"No. I have enough to do here... Um... Will General Yunan be accompanying you?", Andrew asks, throwing Marcy slightly off track.
"Not sure if that's a good idea. Last time I saw her, I said some really nasty things to her face...", Marcy replies ruefully, "Besides, I don't know where she is right now either."
"Nothing too bad...", Ben speaks up, "But we should really get going. We can-"
Ben is interrupted as someone knocks on the shut door. Marcy, who is closest to the door, stands up. She opens the door, looks down and sees Chuck standing right in front of it, though he hasn't been introduced to her by name yet. He hands her a larger envelope.
"Tulips.", he tips his hat and leaves.
'How can this guy see anything?', Marcy wonders and closes the door again. She holds up the envelope, which Ben immediately recognizes.
"Uh, great. The latest intelligence report", Ben explains.
"Who was that?", Marcy asks.
"That's Chuck. He's sort of our intel guy, and occasionally handles important mail.", Ben explains, taking the envelope. He reads the report and his face contorts with increasing concern. "Um... interesting news. Apparently, a representative of the Toad Council arrived at the Tower last night... Well, we better figure out what to do with this information on the way. We'll take my Beetle. It's behind the building."
The four of them start to get up and leave the room, however Marcy stops Ben before he can cross the door. She turns to Anne.
"Anne, can you go ahead? I need to check something with Ben about Yunan.", Anne merely shrugs indifferently and walks leisurely down the stairs. Andrew is also back in his own 'office'. And Marcy closes the door again and turns to the bullfrog with a serious expression.
"Ben. When we get to the meeting spot soon, I would like to strongly urge you not to let Anne do the talking. You should do it!", Marcy demands.
"Does this have something to do with Anne's taciturnity?", he inquires, "You mentioned earlier that Anne was having problems...". Marcy sighs.
"Anne... Something happened today that caused her to lose self-control. If you let her do the talking at the meeting, the chances are extremely high that it will end in disaster," Ben doesn't say anything for now, "The thing is that what went on is eating her up from the inside. And until I have been able to help her, as much as I hate to say it, Anne is a threat. Especially if Sasha will be there, which is pretty much guaranteed since she's Grime's second-in-command."
"... But you don't know for sure, do you? Meaning that this whole thing is going to end in disaster...", Ben inquires. He doesn't seem convinced.
"Let's call it a gut feeling... Please Ben, you should really do the talking.", Marcy pleads, where which Ben ponders for a while.
"We should leave now, Master Marcy.", Ben steps past Marcy and crosses the doorstep. Frustrated, she follows him.
Ben and Marcy leave the City Hollow and walk around the building to its back. Marcy thinks she saw a blue flicker as both of them approach their ride, which Ben had addressed earlier. The flicker instantly disappeared the moment Anne noticed them.
"Is that a Rhino Beetle???", Marcy asks, startled, "You seriously didn't manage to tame a Rhino Beetle..."
Ben helps Marcy up onto its seat, where Anne had already taken a seat.
"This is Dwayne. Adopted him when he was young.", Dwayne snorts heavily in confirmation, "Raised him well.". A Rhino Beetle looks almost exactly like it sounds: Most of it is Beetle-shaped. The Rhino's signature horn sits on the head between the two fist-sized, ruby-red eyes, and the overall size is also the same as its Earth counterpart. A ladder hangs down on either side of Dwayne's brown, spiky carapace. Attached to the larger spikes is a small wooden platform on which are the seats on which Ben, Anne and Marcy sit.
Just beyond the Wartwood border, things fall silent atop Ben's Beetle. Ben himself sits in front, the reins firmly in his hands, while Dwayne speeds over the landscape cross-country. Trees, fields, various creatures and villages pass them by in the blink of an eye. All this while warm rain rains down on them. Above them, a dark gray blanket of clouds stretches out on all sides to beyond the horizon. Scattered thinner patches within the dark carpet of clouds illuminate the area around them. A truly surreal-looking scenery. Dark clouds, but it is not dark. It's raining, but it's not unpleasant.
Anne and Marcy sit side by side directly behind Ben. Right now, Marcy would love to talk throughout about how much she loves this weather, and how spooky-mystical everything around her seems, and she feels like she's in a Studio Ghibli movie. But while the rain and the wind are messing up her hair, her gaze lingers on her girlfriend. Her still angry looking girlfriend. Marcy's gaze wanders to Anne's hand.
Cautiously she wants to take it, but already at the first touch, Anne pulls her hand away from Marcy's. Marcy looks back up at Anne's eyes, which have not left the way in front of her.
'What's happening with you? Why aren't you talking to me anymore?', Marcy wonders, worried beyond both ears, 'It must be more than just Hop Pop losing the box... right? … Right?'
Less than ten minutes later, Ben gradually begins to slow Dwayne down, as they approach a myriad of menhirs up to half a meter tall, marking an enormous area, with a distance of five meters between each other. It is not possible to make out the menhirs on the opposite side of the expanse.
Just as the three of them cross this perimeter, a shiver runs down the spines of all of them. Where before the ground and the landscape were all green and full of life, here everything is considerably darker. The grass beneath them is colorless. As far as the eye can see, no life forms are discernible. No houses, no villages, no signs of life. Even the weather is different here, because suddenly the rain is no longer warm and pleasant, it is cold and even if it has decreased in strength, every drop on the skin feels like a sliver of wood is stuck in the skin.
Only a few meters past the perimeter, Ben slows Dwayne down and comes to a complete stop.
"This is 'Point Weatrôj.' We are just at the most northeastern point within the valley, not far from the passage out of the valley.", Ben explains, "Now drop down. We're walking the rest of the way. It's not far anymore."
Ben, Anne and Marcy climb down from Ben's Rhino Beetle, already rather soaked. Marcy is fortunate that her uniform is mostly waterproof, which is why she had decided earlier to give Anne her cape so she wouldn't get too wet. Anne had accepted the gift without a single word.
Ben, with Dwayne's reins in hand walks ahead. Seemingly completely unaffected by the weather and the rather sinister atmosphere. Anne and Marcy walk next to them. While Marcy struggles throughout to keep her wet hair out of her view, she simultaneously envies Anne's hair, which almost acts as an integrated umbrella for her face.
The three of them (four if you count Dwayne) make their way to the meetup spot. For this they follow a footpath, which leads past several puddles varying in size. The water in these puddles is partially deep red in color and smells horribly like rotting. Scattered on the ground around them are old, rusted weapons, but also bones and other organic remains, all of which Marcy ignores expertly.
Gradually, a single, dead tree comes into sight, standing next to two layered, circular stone slabs, that form a kind of round table. The exact dimensions are not discernible yet, but one can already see that a larger one is lying on a smaller slab.
Ben suddenly stops and turns to the two girls.
"Anne?", he asks for her attention, which she confirms with a quiet 'huh?", "I'd like to ask you to let me do the talking here."
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure. Whatever.", Anne replies indifferently. Ben is seemingly content with that answer. Marcy, on the other hand... not so much. Frowning, she eyes Anne for a few seconds, who just keeps walking. Marcy sighs anxiously.
The three of them are approaching their destination.
"Okay good, we're the first ones here.", Ben comments before he begins to roughly explain the rundown, "Anne, you're standing here next to me. I need to tie Dwayne up in a minute so he doesn't go for the toads."
"Is there really that much of a risk?", Marcy asks.
"Absolutely. Dwayne hates toads. Well, actually, it's more of a hate-fear relationship: He hates toads; Toads fear him. Figured he could help strengthen our negotiating position.", Ben explains casually. Marcy isn't sure how to comment on that. True, she used to negotiate between opposing parties before she found Anne again in Newtopia, but they were always, at least on Marcy's part, based on logic, understanding, and problem solving. Not hate and fear. Ben continues.
"Master Marcy, I would like you to stand to the right of us at the table. You know, to present your unbiasedness and neutrality."
"That makes sense. Okay.", Marcy confirms and moves to her position, while Ben is in the process of tying Dwayne to the dead tree immediately behind Marcy and putting a blindfold on him.
'This stone slab... this is solid granite... There are no granite deposits nearby. And that thing must weigh twenty tons. And the one underneath must weigh half as much, where did they get those from?'
Marcy is thrown out of her thoughts when suddenly deafening thunder roars in her ears. Marcy's head immediately snaps to Anne, but Anne's gaze is directed to the sky, where several lightning bolts are slicing through the dark clouds.
'Cool', Marcy thinks, 'But wrong order'.
"They're here.", Ben announces sternly. Marcy looks first at Ben, then abruptly to his opposing side, where three figures are walking toward them. She recognizes Sasha immediately and her head snaps back at Anne. Her previously neutral and rather indifferent facial expression is replaced by one of rage and fury. She notices a brief blue flicker around her, as well as a slight tremor in the ground.
She turns again and the three of them gradually come into view. Off to the right walks Captain Grime, with a grim look on his face, as always. In the middle, Sasha, wearing a black hood to go with her regular uniform. Sasha and rain have never gotten along very well, but also for some odd reason she's grinning, kind of along the lines of 'told you so'. Marcy doesn't recognize the toad on the far left. She looks similar to Grime, but her uniform is not the same as the one Marcy saw when she visited Toad Tower.
'Is that the Toad Council representative?', Marcy wonders as they approach the table, directly across from Ben and Anne. The unknown toad starts laughing loudly.
"HA! THIS is this rebellion you're so afraid of Grimothy???", she laughs, "These creatures aren't even armed!"
"You must be the representative of the Toad Council, am I right?", Ben asks with a serious tone as she calms down a bit.
"I am Captain Beatrix, Commander of the West Tower and one of the three Lords of the Toad Council," she introduces herself proudly.
"Lord?", Marcy asks confused, to which Beatrix rolls her eyes.
"Yesyesyes... Actually, it's Lady, but that sounds so... weak.", Beatrix sputters out the last word as if it were venom on her tongue, "Like you."
Ben takes over again.
"So, are you here in support of Captain Grime?", Ben asks, to which she starts laughing out loud again.
"No, not at all. I'm here to witness his downfall-", she suddenly catches her breath, as she hears a loud snort and spots Ben's Rhino Beetle behind Marcy. Her blood freezes in her veins. "HOW??? YOU BROUGHT A RHINO BEETLE HERE???? ARE YOU INSANE???", A satisfied grin spreads across Ben's face.
"Can we get started then?", he asks calmly.
Marcy watched this verbal repartee with great interest until she noticed that Anne and Sasha hadn't said a word yet. She looks at them both, who just stare at each other in silent anger. Marcy clears her throat to get Sasha's attention.
"Hey Sash.", Marcy greets her with a kind smile on her face. In response, however, she only receives a short, scowling snort in return. To avoid further discomfort for Marcy, Ben steps up to speak.
"Very well then... Several things have occurred since our last meeting that I would like to address first. Captain Beatrix, since you are the only one so far who does not know me- My name is Ben Flawrik. Until yesterday, I was the sole representative of the Frog Rebellion.", Beatrix snorts disinterestedly as she moves to stand at the table across from Marcy, "This is Anne Boonchuy. According to tradition, the is the leader of the-"
"I KNEW IT!", Sasha suddenly bursts out, interrupting Ben, "I knew you were the brains behind all this. How else does everyone seem to be working to try and find a peaceful-"
"LIEUTENANT!", Grime growls. Sasha falls silent, while it is already apparent that Anne's blood seems to be boiling right now, as her gaze is frozen on Sasha. Ben continues.
"This on my right is Master Marcy Wu. She was sent by King Andrias to act as a conduit between us and settle this conflict with as minimal losses as possible."
"This creature?!", Beatrix doesn't quite believe that, "Works for the king? The big blue one? Seriously?"
"I'm Chief Ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard.", Marcy states proudly.
"Respectable title... I'll call you 'Newty.' You strike me as one of those...", Beatrix doesn't finish that sentence. Ben resumes speaking, disregarding the previous exchange.
"Good, now that we've got that out of the way, let's get down to business."
"Let's get down to business...", Grime echoes.
"... You have fulfilled our previous conditions-"
"Pathetic.", Beatrix mutters, but Ben continues.
"-what we had previously considered a positive development."
"Previously?", Sasha wonders. Ben explains.
"As we learned yesterday, this was merely on the recommendation of Master Marcy, and not of your own initiative. This is not acceptable."
"What do you people want?", Beatrix interjects. Before Ben can answer, though, Anne speaks up.
"Frog Valley is declaring itself independent. The Toad Army will leave this place in peace! In addition, you will openly support Frog Valley's independence!", Anne demands using a very powerful tone. Sasha expresses herself slightly impressed. And Beatrix, as before, starts laughing loudly again. Only this time, Grime joins in.
"Independence??", Grime laughs heartily. Sasha pounds her hands on the table.
"You can forget about that right now! We will NEVER support you. Those frogs will stay where they belong and do what they've always done: Stay out of our way!", Sasha clarifies and it becomes clear that Anne is getting more and more furious with every word that comes out of her mouth, "This is what's going to happen now: You three are going back to your little shithole and this rebellion thing is over."
Anxiously, Marcy looks back and forth between Anne and Sasha. She sees Anne's eyes begin to change color. But it's different. They're turning blue, but it's way much darker. It looks many times more menacing.
"Sasha, stop it.", Marcy pleads. Sasha snaps her head at her.
"What was that???", Sasha asks her, not recognizing the pure fear in her eyes.
"Please stop...", Marcy pleads again.
But it is too late.
Slowly and reluctantly, Marcy turns her head toward Anne. Sasha follows her gaze and freezes in her tracks as she catches sight of Anne.
Her burning stare is entirely concentrated at Sasha, intense dark blue flames sprouting from her eyes. Her hair grows longer and turns similarly shades of dark blue, while the leaves and branches in her hair do not grow longer, they become a constant state of withering away, consumed by the dark blue aura around Anne. The previously light blue aura around Anne, when she activates her powers, has been replaced by something much darker, something more imminently threatening and dangerous.
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!", Anne mutters under her breath. Sasha's breath falters, as her eyes and those of her former best friend cross. From a standing position, Anne jumps onto the stone slabs, hovers across it towards Sasha, and now looks down on her in an intimidating manner. And although Sasha would never openly admit it, it is working.
"You still only want to push your own will, and you are shitting on everyone who is suffering because of it? ... I am sick of you, Sasha!", Anne spits at her like venom, "I am sick of you, I am sick of you fucking controlling other people, I am sick of your fucking selfishness. You murdered Hop Pop back then in cold blood by stabbing him in the back in his own bed, just because it served your own fucking agenda... I'm so sick of you...", Everyone around the table watches Anne with intimidation. No one dares to say anything. Even Beatrix is dumbfounded. "It is time for you to pay the price for your what you have done!"
Anne jumps backwards off the table, bends down and grabs the top slab off the table. Everyone around her looks at her with wide eyes as she lifts it up like it's nothing.
"ANNE, NO!", Marcy yells as Anne twirls it around her in a circle several times before letting it go and throwing the multi-ton granite-slab only just above Sasha's head and towards Toad Tower, which can faintly be seen looming on the horizon. Alarmed and terrified, everyone turns around and tracks the plate with their gazes, as it impacts the tower. No, not just impacts, the plate crashes into the outer walls with incredible force and undeniable noise, destroying everything in its path and emerging again on the other side. The observers catch their breath as the sound of the impact reaches their ears distinctly.
"Now for you!", Anne bends down again and lifts the smaller slab, the desire to end this all, once and for all, burning in her eyes.
While Anne swings the slab, Sasha tries to summon her own power, but she finds herself paralyzed by fear. Fear of Anne. Sasha cowers, Grime instinctively bends over her. Her life comes to an end. Here. Today. Now.
"ANNE! STOP!", Marcy dashes forward to stand in front of Sasha and Grime, spreading her arms wide. Anne is only able to minimally deflect the slab that was already coming at her. It hits the ground mere centimeters from Beatrix. Marcy doesn't even flinch as it hits the ground next to her.
"Get out of my way, Marcy!", Anne threatens her. Sasha and Grime slowly and hesitantly rise back to their feet, surprised by Marcy standing protectively in front of them.
"Marcy, what are you doing?", Sasha whispers.
"I'm protecting my friends.", Marcy replies with determination in her voice.
"She's a murderer.", Anne accuses her, "She betrayed me- she betrayed us! She hurt you too!"
"Yes, that's right. She betrayed you, and hurt both of us very deeply. But she definitely doesn't deserve dying.", Marcy argues, "I know you're hurting. Sasha took away someone you love. Hop Pop just lost the music box-"
"What?", Sasha cuts in.
"... I... Even I had betrayed you. Both of you...", Marcy tells Anne and Sasha, "If it wasn't for my stupid selfishness, neither of us would even be here. Neither in this very situation, nor in Amphibia at all."
"WHAT?", Sasha cuts in again, except more angrily this time.
"So, if you want to hurt her, you have to get past me first. I will always protect those I care about. That sometimes means protecting someone from themselves... So, Anne, do whatever you have to do."
Marcy closes her eyes, and continues to hold her arms protectively in front of Sasha and Grime. And Anne stomps forward to reach for the stone slab again.
But she can't. She's within reach of it, but she can't quite touch it. Anne's aura flickers again, only this time not between existing and non-existing, but between the bright and the dark part of herself.
The flickering intensifies. Hesitantly, Anne steps back from the stone slab. Marcy cautiously opens her eyes and sees only the shock in Anne's eyes moments before she ascends into the air and disappears into the horizon.
"AAAANNNNEEEEE!", Marcy shouts after her, just before sighing in disappointment, "She's gone".
This is now the first moment that everyone present can take a deep breath. Beatrix just stares ahead with a blank expression. Grime's gaze is focused on the tower behind him with worry about whether there are any casualties there. Sasha's gaze is filled with tears and she looks towards Marcy, who in turn only looks after Anne, who is already out of sight. Ben is the first who dares to open his mouth again.
"Um... That...", he stutters ahead, not knowing what to say. Grime turns around and speaks with an angry tone in his voice to everyone present, particularly Ben and Marcy.
"That was a declaration of war. You can say goodbye to your puny and worthless lives now. Beatrix, Sasha: We're leaving!"
Grime turns around and Beatrix promptly follows him. Only Sasha remains still on the spot. She and Marcy look at each other wordlessly, with only tears in their eyes, each telling their own story. Sasha raises a hand towards Marcy.
"LIEUTENANT!", she hears Grime yell.
"I'm sorry", Sasha mouths before turning around to join both of the toads.
Ben and Marcy now find themselves alone. There, where not so long ago the hope for a peaceful agreement rested. A hope that is now a matter of the past.
"You were right, Marcy."
"Wha-"
"Anne was unstable. You weren't understating things. She should never have come here."
"... No, it was my fault. I had persuaded Anne to lead the rebellion, even though she had clearly said she didn't want to. I shouldn't have told her this morning that Hop Pop had lied to her... It's all my fault. I was supposed to help make peace here, instead I just made things worse..."
Leisurely but crestfallen, Ben makes his way to Dwayne to get him ready for the ride back to Wartwood.
"You coming?", he asks, his voice free of any blame. Marcy looks at him with wet eyes.
"I have to find Anne."
"Got any idea where she is?"
"She flew off to the west. I don't think she had any particular destination in mind..."
"Climb on. I'll give you a boost. After that, I have to get back to Wartwood, get people ready for battle."
"I'm so sorry..."
"Mhm."
Marcy and Ben spend just less than five minutes in silence, riding on Dwayne's back, searching for Anne.
"This is where we part ways, I'm afraid...", Ben announces, "I have to get back to Wartwood."
"Yeah... I understand.", Marcy says, climbing down from Ben's Rhino Beetle. "I'll see you back in Wartwood later."
With that brief goodbye, Ben turns around slightly, and accelerates at high speed, heading south. Marcy takes one deep breath, and before Ben has even disappeared into the horizon, she continues to follow Anne's trail. Okay, calling it a trail isn't quite accurate. Marcy is merely going in the same direction Anne flew before.
'Kind of cool that Anne can fly now... I wish I could get my powers out right now, so I could try that out too. That would speed up my search tremendously. But nooo, my powers only show up when a solvable or unsolvable problem presents itself... And a search for my thoroughly devastated girlfriend apparently doesn't count as such a problem...'
Marcy trudges across fields, meadows, and through small forests, with no sign of where Anne might have flown to. There were no signs of civilization so far either. Only the mountain range that surrounds the valley is noticeable on the horizon...
Suddenly, Marcy spots a building not far ahead. A barn.
She now picks up her legs and runs towards it as fast as she can.
"ANNE!", she calls out as she gets closer. No response.
"ANNE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
Full of hope, Marcy approaches the barn door. The barn itself already looks a little run down, as if the owner hasn't been there in a very long time. One of the gate hinges is loose, the other, rusted.
Marcy pokes her head through the gates, and spots a yelping hole in the roof, through which rain is pouring in. But besides the sound of rain splashing on the wet ground, Marcy hears something else. Someone is trying to suppress their sobs. However, Marcy doesn't see anyone right away.
"Anne? Are you in here?", Marcy asks before she starts peering into each compartment in turn. She's almost ready to give up before noticing that there's a second floor to the barn, and a ladder leading up, next to the entrance.
She climbs the ladder and finds a bunch of hay piles, that must have been stored there. And at the very back, at the other end of the barn, Marcy catches sight of the familiar blue aura. Filled with relief, she takes a breath, and carefully walks between the bales of hay, heading straight for the blue aura. Fortunately, it seems to have stabilized by now, because the flickering is gone, as is the dark tint.
Marcy walks around a large wooden crate and discovers Anne directly behind it, completely hunched over with her legs resting against her chest, and with her back against the crate, still wearing Marcy's cloak around her shoulders.
"Anne?", Marcy asks gently.
"Go away.", Anne counters in-between sobs.
Marcy frowns at that, and lets herself fall onto the floor, on her butt right then and there. She now sits two meters away from Anne, with her legs crossed, ready to stay just there until her girlfriend feels better.
Anne glances up briefly and just looks at her. Her hair and clothes are completely soaked from the rain. She's probably freezing, but she probably wouldn't admit that to herself. With nothing but love and stubbornness in her eyes, and a sympathetic smile on her face, Marcy looks back at her.
That stubbornness... Probably both the best and worst quality about Marcy. Once she set her mind to something, there was never anything that could stop her. Not her parents, not Anne, not even her own body, which at one point just begged her to go to sleep... And now she sits here. And waits. Anne buries her head back into her arms, and silence returns. Only the splashing of rain, the soft breeze of the wind, and the quiet breathing of Marcy are audible. It is relaxing. Calm. And for a while, nothing changes at all.
"I'm a monster...", Anne whispers softly. She lifts her head a little, just enough to look at Marcy, to watch her reaction. Marcy tilts her head slightly, "I only made things worse."
Marcy briefly thought about saying something, or throwing something back at that, that that wasn't true, but she knows full well that Anne doesn't want to hear that. She closes her mouth again and just continues to listen.
"I messed up. Because of me, the rebellion is now in danger because I declared war on the toads... All because I couldn't control myself...", Anne's voice grows louder and louder, "And... I almost killed Sasha again... AGAIN! TWICE NOW!"
With an uncomprehending, disturbed expression, she looks at Marcy, who in turn just looks back with a sad, yet still sympathetic expression.
"You shouldn't be here. I am dangerous and I can't control myself. I don't want to hurt you.", Anne's voice is almost begging now for Marcy to leave her alone. Yet Marcy shakes her head and slowly crawls closer towards Anne until she's just a few centimeters away. She reaches out and takes Anne's hands in her own.
"People hurt you: Hop Pop... Sasha... Even I did... But you never ever hurt me, Anne. You're not a monster. You're a human being, with flaws and mistakes, but you're never a monster to me."
Anne stares into Marcy's eyes, her expression still filled with confusion and sadness, until finally, she bursts out in tears and throws her arms around Marcy's neck. Marcy wraps her arms around Anne and holds the girl tight, letting her cry it all out.
"I don't know what to do anymore, Marcy...", Anne admits, her voice muffled by Marcy's shoulder.
"It's okay. Take your time. We'll find a way, together.", Marcy whispers back, her voice confident and reassuring. She softly strokes Anne's hair while they stay like that, until Anne's tears slowly start to subside, and the blue aura finally fades out completely. After some time, Anne finally lifts her head and looks into Marcy's eyes again, with her own still being red and puffy from crying.
"Thank you...", Anne whispers, her voice barely audible.
Marcy smiles softly and leans in to give her a light kiss on the forehead.
"Let's go back. I'm sure the Plantars are quite worried about us by now.", she suggests. Anne nods slightly in agreement.
Together, the two girls climb down the ladder and leave the old abandoned barn, slowly making their way back to Wartwood. In the meantime, the rain has fortunately eased off, and the sun even starts to peek through the clouds.
Marcy and Anne walk side by side, knowing it will take a while, before they reach their destination.
"I don't deserve you, Marcy.", Anne says, her voice still filled with sadness and regret, just as they're about to cross the border to Wartwood. Earlier, as they walked among all the tents outside the village, the two girls noticed frantic commotion around them. There was a lot of shouting, instructions were made, orders given, and preparations made for an upcoming battle.
Marcy turns to look at her, her expression gentle and loving. She takes Anne's hands in her own and gives them a gentle squeeze.
"That's not true. You deserve to be loved and supported, just like anybody else. You can't blame yourself for everything. We all make mistakes, and that's okay.", she says reassuringly.
"Even if those mistakes mean having started a war, and all those frogs, toads, and newts could soon lose their lives?", Anne whispers, her voice trembling slightly.
"That's not your responsibility. This conflict has been going on for ages, and would probably have broken out at some point, even without your involvement.", Marcy tries to reassure her. Anne looks away, her eyes still filled with sadness and guilt. Marcy gently brushes her finger against Anne's chin and turns her head back in her direction.
"You can make up for it, Anne. Just don't lose faith in yourself. We'll find a way to help them.", she whispers as she leans in and presses her lips against Anne's.
In that moment, Anne's worries seem to drift away and a sense of peace washes over her. Marcy's kiss is gentle, reassuring and filled with love, and for a moment, the two of them just stand there, in the middle of all the commotion and chaos, lost in each other's embrace.
"Now I really don't deserve you...", Anne whispers against Marcy's lips, to which the other girl just laughs softly.
"Yes, you do.", Marcy answers and smiles as she takes Anne's hand in her own and leads her through the crowd back towards the Plantar's farm.
As they both arrive at the front door, Anne takes a deep breath in preparation for what might await them inside. At best, Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly have found the music box. In the worst case... Anne doesn't really want to think about that. Not now.
Anne anxiously opens the door and steps inside.
"Huh? Not back yet?", Anne wonders. But then, from the corner of her eye, she spots them, sitting around the kitchen table.
Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly are sitting around the table, and between them lies a familiar wooden box, its gold-plated sides reflecting the sunlight.
"Anne. Marcy! You're back.", Sprig happily runs towards them, but stops short of them, "And wet..."
Hop Pop picks up the box and carries it straight to Anne.
"I'm so sorry that-", he begins, before Anne rips the box out of his hands, and disappears with it straight into the basement, letting its hatch slam shut behind her. He sighs, and turns back to Marcy, who just looks at him with a knowing and somewhat understanding smile.
"She'll be okay. Don't worry.", Marcy reassures him, "She just needs some time..."
Notes:
So? What do you think? <3
(Also, Act 2 will probably go beyond chapter 35 and end more likely around chapter 40. I can't really pin that down yet, though. I'll keep you updated)
Chapter 31: Beyond all Options
Summary:
Days pass since Anne officially declared war on the toads, and everyone involved handles the situation differently.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
First day after war declaration:
Hi you stupid diary
I don't think there are enough words to describe how utterly crappy today was... Although, actually, yesterday ended up sucking too.
Grime has a sister
and she sucks.
She decided to drop by last night just wanting to see him suffer. Then she decided to spend the night in the tower and take a room...
SHE TOOK MY ROOM!!!
That bitch just took MY room, and I had to crash in the command room- Do you know how FUCKING cold it is up there???? What? You don't? Of course… YOU'RE A FUCKING DIARY!!
I can't talk to anyone right now. Grime has assembled strike teams, and is forcing them to train around the clock right now after Anne-
Okay right, I should elaborate... Anne Boonchuy, my best friend
former best
former friend?
Anne has declared war on us.
ANNE. FUCKING. BOONCHUY! This is the same girl that I always dropped everything for, for her birthdays and wanted to give her a special day. This is the same girl who flew to Germany with me and my parents last summer, to support me at my grandpa's funeral. This is the same girl who had to cry for hours just because her favorite TikTok couple broke up...
And since we've been stranded here, she's tried to kill me TWICE now... fucking TWICE!
I won't lie, Anne absolutely terrified the crap out of me. So much so, in fact, that I couldn't summon my own powers.
I mean, who can get mad when they're scared right now- I'm not the Hulk after all.
Well, anyway, Anne had a stone slab thrown into-
thrown through the tower, making the upper half uninhabitable for the time being, while repairs are ongoing. I don't know how long that will take.
The way up is completely destroyed. The slab had just missed the kitchen, because otherwise we would have a much bigger problem.
I'm sleeping in the training facility now, by the way. Grime had suggested that I temporarily sleep over at the soldiers' quarters, but that's out of the question. Sure, I like most of them, but it's not going to happen that we sleep in the same room. At least Beatrix can't crash in my room now either. That's something good at least...
Hmm, what else?
Oh yeah... Did I mention that we are at war with the frogs?
After we got back from the meeting yesterday, Grime had immediately sent a squad of soldiers to burn down one of the currently abandoned villages, and all that just 'to send a signal', and to 'prove his determination'....
But let's be honest, he just wanted to vent his rage.
Beatrix, by the way, was surprisingly quiet after yesterday... Didn't say anything the whole way back. I think yesterday, she was scared too, if not more than that.
But today she still called me 'creature'. She gave Marcy a nickname and never mentions Anne with a single word, why does she hate me so much? And why does it bother me so much?
Oh, wait... Marcy...
I have to admit, I made a mistake. Not specifically yesterday, but in general. Marcy saved my life yesterday. Because while Anne was about to rip my head off (at least that's how it seemed in her eyes), Marcy jumped forward and stepped in her way, right between Anne and me.
Just like that. Without any armor. Without a weapon. And probably she has no powers either...
And this after I had treated her so shitty the last time, I had seen her.
I felt so shitty when we left again. And I hope she heard my apology. Marcy is a good…
friend?
I hope I can still salvage my friendship with her... But I think it might be too late for that...
Okay, fuck this sadness!
distraction, distraction...
Oh, right. Grime wants to wait until the weather gets better to make his first "official" attack. Are you serious? All this- All this bullshit, just because I wanted Grime to help me find a way home
Well, see you in another 6 months
Second day after war declaration:
Since Anne holed up in the basement last evening, she has only come out a total of three times so far: Once that same day, and also once this morning to use the bathroom, and the third time in order to leave the house on her own, because Ben requested her presence. Needless to say, Marcy is now alone in the Plantars' basement.
It was still quite early, even surprisingly early from Anne's perspective, when she got up and left the house. Marcy insisted on five more minutes of cuddling, which she, of course, could not deny her. Especially not when Anne could witness Marcy being happy about something. In this case: Cuddles. Marcy got quite grumpy when Anne eventually did got up, but then went to sleep for at least another hour, with Anne's pillow as a cuddle substitute for her girlfriend.
Until late morning, Marcy continues to lie in her admittedly very cozy bed, before she makes the effort to get up at some point, and leave the basement. Marcy is currently wearing only a light gray t-shirt, washed out yellow loose shorts, and white socks. Ever since she started living with Anne in the Plantars' basement, she's established this casual style for herself when she's not wearing her uniform, and no one in the house since seems to mind.
"Morni- wait...", Marcy stops in mid-sentence, just after letting the basement hatch slam shut behind her. She watches around to find utter silence around her. Something is off... "Hello, anyone at home?"
"Study.", chimes in from the room right next to the front door. Leisurely and in a cheerful mood, Marcy walks toward the room, only to find Hop Pop inside, poring over a thick book.
"Morning, HP.", Marcy greets joyfully, "Did I miss breakfast?"
"Huh? ... Oh, no. We, um, didn't have breakfast together today.", he explains with a sad undertone, "Anne left right away, and Sprig and Polly sort of left just now to go visit Wally."
"For what reason?"
"Wally... he grows boomshrooms... The kids haven't told me exactly why they want to go see him, but it is suggestive that Polly has Sprig wrapped around her finger to get them to go see him.", he explains, but in a tone as if he is not fully present mentally right now.
"Yeah, Polly seems like a very destructive tadpole..."
"She is...", he is apparently reminiscing a bit.
"I... I take it Anne's still not talking to you, right?"
Hop Pop sighs, closing the book he has in front of him. He turns on his desk chair to face Marcy.
"What do you suggest I do, Marcy? You're her girlfriend... There's probably no one who knows her better. Can you give me some advice?"
"I'm honored you'd ask, but... What do you think I could tell you about Anne that you don't already know yourself?"
"Anne had forgiven you for being stranded here in Amphibia in the first place-", Hop Pop recounts.
"Yes, however, I had also confessed that to her on my own, rather than waiting until I was caught."
"Ouch.", Hop Pop comments, "But I see your point. I should have told far sooner what- and why I did what I did."
"Is that the caught man's remorse, or..."
"It's the remorse of an old man who's seen his family crumble", Hop Pop replies melancholically. Marcy sits down on the couch in his study.
"Say, why did you bury the box in the first place? What was your reason?", Marcy asks, without any trace of annoyance or reproach in her voice. Just curiosity. Hop Pop grabs the book lying on his desk, bringing it to Marcy.
"Page four hundred nineteen.", he merely says, whereupon Marcy opens the big, heavy book that lies on her lap.
Marcy is familiar with many types of book covers, but she has never encountered one like this before. Instead of thick compromised paper or leather, this cover is made of dried and compressed tree bark. On the top is an emblem that appears to be the Plantar family crest. In its center is a large golden 'P' on a leather background, and all around it's decorated with golden ornaments. The two corners of the cover are protected with corner protectors, also golden. However, this is only the case on the upper side, the back of the book consists only of the pressed tree bark, without any ornamentation. Marcy slides her finger curiously over the small grooves on the book's cover, before opening it to the page Hop Pop told her to.
Marcy flips through the pages a bit until she finally gets stuck on a double page, and frowns. 'Calamity Box' it says in big letters at the very top left. Immediately below is a drawing of the three Gems with the warning 'Danger' next to it. On the right side is an extremely detailed, seemingly hand drawn sketch of the box. Okay, 'hand-drawn' is not necessarily particularly noteworthy, as the entire book appears to be hand-lettered and hand-made. The only remaining things on the double page that are present, is another warning 'Beware', along with what appears to have been stamped into the book after it was finished. 'DESTROYED', in large red letters, has been stamped on the drawing of a toad skull. With a questioning look, Marcy looks up from the book to Hop Pop before a thought occurs to her.
"I... be right back...", Marcy excuses herself, gets up from the couch, and sprints towards the basement.
Less than a minute later, Marcy comes back out, this time with her phone in her hand. Hop Pop peers curiously out of his study and watches as Marcy seems to be looking for something on it. She re-enters the room and sits down on the couch again.
"Aha! Here it is!", she places her phone onto the book, and Hop Pop peers curiously at Marcy's discovery, "Look. I found this book on Earth, before Anne, Sasha, and I... umm... found the box. … Okay no, I lied. We haven't found it. We stole it... Nonono, that's a lie too. Sasha and I made Anne steal it..."
"I don't think I'm in the position currently to judge you for that...", Hop Pop answers hesitantly. Marcy continues, not addressing his comment.
"Look, the drawing in the book is completely identical to the one you have.... Wait, how old is your book, by the way?", Marcy wonders, to which Hop Pop shrugs. "Oh come up, Hop Pop..."
"I don't know how to answer that. This book is potentially as old as the Plantar family itself- I really have no idea..."
Marcy frowns, falling into deeper thoughts.
"Mmm... You know, I think it's interesting if you compare the two books directly. Your book describes the box itself as dangerous, although I'd like to know why it was titled that way. The book on Earth, on the other hand, seems like a kind of an ad... You know, somehow the whole thing doesn't make sense..."
"How so?"
"Well, the book from Earth, like yours, was written by hand. That means it probably must have been written before the invention of printing, so during or before the fifteenth century. That also means that someone during the time of the middle ages in Europe, was researching the box, and he must have successfully managed to visit other worlds. I mean, how else would the author know about it to write about it in the book? And then there is also the fact that scientific research at that time was strongly suppressed by the church, so how could the author do his research? ... Unless the author was not a European, but came from another part of the planet, where there was no scientific suppression... Somewhere in the Asian continent, perhaps? That would then perhaps explain how the box could find its way to America- Although, no. Well, at least not by the original author. The colonization of the continent and extinction of the indigenous people was by the British and Spanish. Although, no... There were no colonization efforts of America from the Asian region... No No No, I'm overlooking something..."
"Um, Marcy-", Hop Pop is about to interject, but is interrupted by a surprised gasp from Marcy.
"Vikings! They were some of the first people to explore the American continent... But why would they bring the box there? The Vikings were a people known for plundering... Unless the box was one of the remains of a failed Viking settlement- But then the box would be over a thousand years old..."
"Marcy?"
"Huh?"
"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about right now. And I think we've gotten off topic...", Marcy cringes a bit at that remark.
"Right...", Marcy confirms with an embarrassed grin, "What were we talking about before?"
"I was telling you why I felt the need to bury the box..."
"Yeah... Okay, so you had read that warning and decided to bury the box... Did it scare you? Or...", Marcy asks innocently.
"I saw the box as a threat- a threat to the safety of my family. I didn't need to know what exactly made it dangerous for that... And I've already lost family, simply because I couldn't protect them..."
"What do you mean?", Marcy asks in a small voice. Hop Pop takes one deep breath and sits down next to Marcy on the couch.
"Sprig and Polly's parents...", he starts and Marcy immediately suspects what's coming now, "I was on a journey, when herons attacked Wartwood. Sprig and Polly had survived, though... their parents were not so lucky. Do you understand, Marcy? If only I had been there..."
"Then maybe you'd be dead, too, and Sprig and Polly would be orphans," Marcy continues his sentence, whereupon Hop Pop glares at her, "I don't think there's anything you could have done to prevent that terrible event."
He sighs in defeat, "After that, I swore to myself that I would never let my family down again- That I would do anything to protect them... I thought that by hiding the box I would be protecting my family, but that was wrong and incredibly short-sighted... Anne is family too, and I let her down..."
Silence fills the room momentarily as Marcy falls into thought, and Hop Pop waits for any kind of reaction from Marcy.
"I... understand.", Marcy replies. Hop Pop feels somewhat speechless and offended.
"You understand?", he asks.
"Yes. I mean, your reasons are understandable... Fearing to lose your family, you made a mistake. Fearing to lose my friends, I also made a mistake. To this day, I feel like I still have to apologize for it, and that's even though Anne clearly showed me that she wasn't mad at me, after I explained to her why I did what I did. I'm sure that if you try to explain to Anne why you buried the box, that she will also forgive you over time.", Hop Pop smiles at that.
"Thank you very much Marcy. I just hope that Anne will listen to me at all."
"When Anne and I came back after the meeting with the toads, she told me that actually had not planned to come back. So, her staying here at all, is a good step. She may refuse to talk to you currently, but I think she'll listen to you.", Marcy closes the book and returns it to Hop Pop. "Maybe I can even help you improve your chances of success..."
"How?"
"I'll have to send a message to General Yunan later on to talk to her. In addition, I would like to ask her to bring in someone from Newtopia. Someone who might be able to help improve Anne's mood."
"Okay...", Hop Pop replies hesitantly and gets back up from his couch, "Then I wish you good luck with that."
Shortly after Marcy left his study and wrote up the message for General Yunan, before sending it via messenger bird. Of course, Marcy could go look for her herself, but not only are there no creatures better at tracking people than messenger birds, Marcy also doesn't really feel like leaving the house today, and instead spending the day in bed until Anne would come home again.
This plan worked until late afternoon, when vibrations in the floor made her get up and go investigate. So, Marcy creeps up the stairs to the main floor, and also notices Hop Pop peering out of his study at her, with a questioning look. Marcy merely shrugs her shoulders, and the two of them walk over to the front door and open it, as the vibrations in the ground seem to get stronger.
"Holy shit...", Marcy mutters under her breath.
"GUYS! WE FOUND A COOL ROBOT IN THE FOREST!", Polly yells out to them overly enthusiastically, with Sprig walking beside her. Marcy's eyes begin to sparkle with excitement as she sees the three of them approaching the farm.
The robot on whose shoulder Polly is sitting on, is about as tall as Marcy, and its all-metal body is basically made up of four body parts. Its upper body is made of overlapping metal sheets, with a frog foot sign on its front center, made up of pale gold. Placed directly on top sits his head, featuring two glowing yellow optics that appear to represent eyes, and a mouth that may be functioning as a speaker. It appears inflexible though. To the right and left, on both sides of his torso, are sitting massive, brown, darkly shaded metal pauldrons, which already look quite dented, and from the shape remind Marcy of turtle shells. Two elongated, gray metal arms emerge from under those shoulders, hanging only slightly above the ground, and at their ends are hands, with four fingers on each one. The last part of the robot consists of a hip, on the sides of which are two small and unstable-looking legs.
'The robot from 'Castle in the Sky' perhaps? ... No. 'The Iron Giant', maybe? Or is it the iron golem from 'Minecraft'?', Marcy ponders where she thinks she recognizes the robot's design from. Meanwhile, the robot came to a stop right in front of Hop Pop and Marcy, and the old frog seems more than horrified. He tries to choose his next words carefully, while struggling not to freak out.
"Sprig... Polly...", he starts warily, "Where- no… why is there a giant robot standing in front of me?"
"His name is Frobo.", Polly replies grinning broadly, but not really answering the question.
"You know, we were just finishing up at Wally's-", Sprig starts.
"Because of the boomshrooms.", Hop Pop cuts him off, to which both of his grandkids gasp heavily.
"How do you know that?", Polly asks in shock.
"It just so happens that I know my grandchildren quite well. So, back to the robot.", Hop Pop states, and Sprig continues.
"Well, we were just at Wally's secret boomshroom farm, and were about to go home when Frobo just stood there in front of us. Then we got out of his way first, but he followed us. We ran, but he ran after us. We tried to shake him off through all the trees, but he just knocked them down. Polly was then out of breath at some point, but so was the robot, which is strange since he is a robot. Then we had noticed that he was imitating Polly's movements. When we then noticed that the robot was harmless, we had introduced ourselves and Polly had named him 'Frobo'... Can we keep him, Hop Pop?"
"I don't know... He looks dangerous...", Marcy, Sprig and Polly look at him with big puppy eyes, "Can he do anything useful?"
"Show him, Frobo!", Immediately after Polly gives him this command, his eight fingers expand all over the farm and small, precise flames shoot out from his fingertips toward the ground, before he stretches them toward the sky and waters all the plants. Hop Pops jaw drops to the ground. "Tada... He has removed all the weeds and watered the plants. And all that-"
"WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!", Hop Pop gives Frobo a warm welcome. Not long after everyone has calmed down a bit, and Hop Pop has instructed Polly where to shelter Frobo, an excited Marcy turns to Polly.
"Polly, Polly, Polly!"
"Yeah?"
"Please allow me to study Frobo.... Please please please please...", Marcy pleads to her.
"Yeah, sure. But don't tear him apart."
Third day after war declaration:
"A surprise? Sorry, Marshmallow, but I don't know if I'm in the mood for that right now...", Anne admits with her head down.
"I know you're not feeling great about the whole thing, that's why I had someone very special brought in, who I'm sure can lift your spirits..."
"Who?", Anne inquires skeptically.
"I can't tell you until we get to City Hollow. I'm hoping he's there already by then... Oh, and Yunan is joining us as well"
"General Yunan?", Anne asks in genuine surprise, "I thought you hated her because she betrayed your trust..."
"I did actually hate her... for a while... But I think enough time has passed, and I should have a talk with her. Besides, we're going to need her, I think."
"Well, shouldn't you rather keep a more neutral position?"
"Mmm... You're right, but I think-", Marcy interrupts herself with a stretched-out gasp. "JOOOOOE!", she runs off, with her arms stretched wide and tears of joy in her eyes, towards the Sparrow whom Marcy spotted near the entrance to City Hollow. Anne smiles, infected by Marcy's happiness.
'Marcy seems to have missed him a lot... aaand that also means that the General is already walking around here somewhere- Wait... Is Joe supposed to be the surprise to cheer me up?'
Patiently, with a small smile on her face, Anne watches the two, who seem very happy to see each other again after all this time.
'It feels like it's been weeks since Yunan dropped Marcy off at the fwagon on the way from Newtopia... And it's only been a few days since she became my girlfriend-'
"ANNE!", Marcy snaps her out of her thoughts after several minutes, "So, it looks like Yunan is already inside, hopefully with Bernando too..."
"Bernando?", Anne asks skeptically while Marcy seems to almost burst with anticipation.
"AAHH! I can't keep it from you any longer... Anne. Today, you're getting a... Drum roll please... MAKE-OVER!", Marcy announces excitedly. Anne, on the other hand, swallows hard. All kinds of emotions are reflected on her face. Joy or excitement, however, are not among them. Rather worry and horror. She thinks of all the times Sasha and or Marcy had talked Anne into trying a 'new look'. There was the 'twelve scrunchies and eight pink bow ties'-style, the 'sidecut but inside a wind tunnel'-style, the 'hair woven in a halo shape with a living snake as an inner support'-style, and the bald head. Not sure if the bald head was worse, or the snake was. Regardless, Anne had sworn to never let both Sasha and Marcy style her hair ever again. The only people allowed to do that are professional hairdressers, and her mom.
"Yeah dude, that's not happening."
"Aaaannnneeee...", Marcy groans.
"You know I told you you weren't allowed to style my hair...", Anne sternly remembers her, as they approach a closed door on the first floor. Marcy takes hold of the handle.
"Yeah yeah, I remember. And I'm gonna keep at it.", Marcy assures her, but Anne doubts it, "And that's why I brought you someone very special in... I present to you... Bernando."
Marcy opens the door to reveal a large room, currently filled with countless coat racks, hat racks, and at least four more locked wooden chests. One of the chests is currently being carried by General Yunan, who rapidly drops it to the floor, as she salutes upon seeing Marcy entering the room.
Next to her, and almost crushed by the chest, are two smaller newts.
The first one, quite small, about as tall as Anne's legs are long. Light blue skin, with a white wig on his head that reminds her of antiquated British snobs. Plus wearing an oversized, equally outdated, white collar around his neck. Underneath, a pink shirt over dark gray trousers.
The second newt is quite a bit taller. About the height of Anne's shoulders, if one includes the dark gray hair curled vertically upward. He is a pink newt, with scattered purple dots, and already some age wrinkles on his neck. He wears a white coat with golden oversized shoulder pads, and round double cuffs at the end of the sleeves. Under the coat he wears a dark gray undershirt, the end of which protrudes at the ends of the sleeves. He wears a lime scarf and light gray pants. On his face he wears gray sunglasses with white frames. If it could speak, his outfit would be shouting, 'Don't just look at me. Adore me! I bathe every day in a bathtub filled with your attention and admiration. Every look that is not directed at me is a dagger in my back.'
"Who dares to interrupt me while I'm settling in here?", the taller of the two unknown Newts snootily demands to know, "Oh... Master Marcy. I am honored to be of service to you today... To whom may I offer my particular services today? Oh, never mind... There stands the fashion catastrophe already...", he remarks as he approaches Anne, who in turn looks at Marcy in search of help.
"Anne. This is Bernardo. He's the most sought-after and talented armorer in all of Newtopia.", Anne seems less than impressed, "He also made my Ranger uniform..."
"Well then, I hope this doesn't take too long. The council is waiting for me...", Anne remarks, whereupon Bernando intervenes indignantly.
"True art has no time limits. It will take as long as it takes! Don't argue with me! Besides, you're more than in need of my services...", he says to which Anne turns to Marcy.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Worse. I mean, your shoe is almost worn through, holes are forming in your sock, and your t-shirt can't be patched forever either..."
"But these old duds have been good to me, you know?", Anne argues.
"Aaanne... This is the perfect opportunity for you to find out who you really want to be. After all, you're not just some middle schooler anymore... You're stranded on another world, and you've not only survived here, you've built yourself a life here, and found a second family. You've become something of a small-town hero to the people living here in Wartwood... And I would like for you to find something, where you can see yourself the same way I do, the same way everyone else sees you...", Marcy gives Anne a little kiss on the cheek. Anne touches her hand on the same spot, smiling.
"Okay.", Anne gives in.
"Alright, Yunan and I will wait outside. Good luck", Marcy waves goodbye and leaves the room with the General. Just before the door slams shut, Anne can hear one last sentence from Yunan.
"So so... you and Anne then?", she hears Yunan teasing Marcy.
"Shut uuup.", Marcy answers audibly embarrassed before the door is completely closed. Anne grins sheepishly to herself.
Marcy walks slowly towards the stairs to the next floor with General Yunan following her, and sits down on the fifth step so that she is eye level with Yunan, and for a moment she just looks at Marcy expectantly.
"This... shouldn't take too long. I'm sure in less than twelve minutes Anne will have a new, stunning, and breathtaking outfit...", Yunan averts her gaze from Marcy and just hums in affirmation, "And thank you for bringing Bernando here for me. It means a lot to me..."
"No problem. I was in Newtopia anyway to lock up the corrupt politicians I arrested, when I got your message. So it was... no problem."
"I... was also hoping that I could talk to you a little... I'm sorry I had insulted you like that. I was mad- angry almost, and I'm sorry. It wasn't right to accuse you of something you didn't even know what it was about...", Yunan sighs at that and lifts her gaze back at Marcy.
"You don't have to apologize for that. Of course, it hurt to hear you say that, but... ..."
"But?", Marcy queries, with Yunan taking one deep breath, before leaning against the stair railing.
"I've had a few days to think about it now. And I think that you needed that... Well, to let out all that accumulated fury, I mean. Ever since I've known you, I've never seen you angry or pissed off in any way, especially at times when you definitely deserved to be pissed off. And even though it wasn't a nice experience, I was pretty happy that you took it out on me and not your other friends. After all, I can handle outbursts like that...", Marcy looks at Yunan wordlessly, "So again, you don't have to apologize. And now I'm just glad we can continue working on this mess of a situation again. Together."
"Yeah... Say, how much do you know?", Marcy wonders after several seconds of silence.
"Well, during my politician hunt, I didn't catch too much of the general situation. But when I approached Wartwood with Joe earlier, all the defenses and all the hustle and bustle on the ground was impossible to miss.", Yunan states.
"Oh boi... Um, the Rebellion declared war on the toads a few days ago...", Marcy recalls this unpleasant memory.
"Oh? Oh... Well, at least that' s something new for a change. How exactly did it happen?", she asks, the general in her coming to the surface.
"Anne attacked Toad Tower.", Marcy simply replies. Yunan doesn't find that very believable.
"Seriously? Anne? Your girlfriend in the dressing room? Did she send out a unit to provoke the toads or-"
"No. She alone attacked the tower. She threw a multi-ton stone slab from 'Point Weatrôj' right at the tower, in which, last I checked, there was a huge, exposed hole.", Marcy recounts.
"You do realize that sounds crazy, right?"
"I was there, Yunan! Ben was there. Sasha and the toads were there. All of us were witnessing it, and it was.... terrifying, to say at least."
"Ou-kay... At least that explains why everyone is so tense out there...", Yunan merely replies to that. Before Marcy can somehow respond, however, a loud, wooden crash occurs, startling both of them. It is Anne, who appears to be wearing extremely heavy golden armor, falling face-first out of the room.
"AAAAAAHH!", she screams as she is falling. "Ouch!"
"Anne!", Marcy jumps up from the steps to rush to her girlfriend's aid.
"That was TWELVE different outfits now, one worse than the other...", Anne curses as Marcy helps her roll onto her back.
She is wearing an extremely heavy looking, golden armor. It is not apparent whether it is solid gold or merely gilded. On the helmet, at about the level of her mouth, there is a pattern of three golden scales next to each other, repeated downward to the opening for her head. There are a total of eight small vertical viewing slits in the hinged visor. Marcy doesn't think Anne can see anything through them. Immediately above the visor are decorations made of a translucent, blue, crystal-like material. And on top is a golden replica of the tail fin of a larger fish.
On her shoulders are sitting two massive golden shoulder pads, also decorated with the same blue material. Each of them has almost the same volume as the helmet, not to mention their respective weights. Over a gold fiber woven undershirt, she wears a gold chest armor with blue trim and a frog emblem on it. Just below the chest armor is a gold-plated leather belt with a blue gemstone in the buckle, holding a multi-part skirt with blue borders in place. Below the 'skirt', Anne wears a pair of tights woven from gold fibers, as is already the case with the undershirt.
From her knees downwards, she wears golden armor again. Golden knee pads, which are connected to the skin tight, inner shinbone armor, and almost seamlessly merge into the golden metal boots. In terms of shape and comfort, these boots are very similar to her single, previous shoe. Even the sound absorbing sole is similar. Directly above the inner shinbone armor is another, outer layer of armor. This time also again with blue decoration.
The last piece present are the golden gauntlets. Just as her boots extend to her knees, the gloves extend to her elbows. While the boots are one continuous metal piece, the armor is connected to the actual glove part via a flexible rubber connection between the two parts, allowing for complete freedom of movement with her hands. The metal part of the gloves extends only to the middle of her palms, before the black velvet fabric of the glove is visible. Of course, the gloves also have ornaments, consisting of the same translucent blue crystal-like material.
Marcy drops to the ground right next to Anne and helps her get rid of most of the heavy and restrictive armor pieces. Eventually she manages to sit upright, wearing only the chest armor, the gauntlets, and the boots with the splint leg armor, above her regular outfit.
"Anne? How are you? Are you hurt? Did you hit your head?", Marcy asks hastily while Marcy holds her by her cheeks, before Anne slowly grabs her head and stands up. She looks down at her hands and then at her legs before answering Marcy, seemingly lost in thought.
"Yeah... I'm... I'm good..."
Slowly, she re-enters the room. She passes Bernando and his assistant, the former of whom has a critical judgmental look directed at her. She walks towards the large mirror set up in the middle of the room, her gaze completely fixed on her reflection. Marcy follows her at some distance, and General Yunan peeks into the room as well.
"This feels... right. It feels perfect...", Anne murmurs to herself with a happy smile. Marcy stands behind her, mirroring her expression. "I like who I see in the mirror right now... I see myself smiling- genuinely smiling... It's perfect. What do you guys think?"
"Mmm, mmm... Minimalist. Bernando like...", he comments.
"And you, Marshmallow?", Marcy blushes slightly at this nickname.
"You're right.", Marcy replies softly, reaching for Anne's hand, "It's perfect. You're perfect."
In one swift motion, Anne turns to Marcy, seeing the smug grin on her face. Their eyes are fixed on each other. Silently, they look into each other's eyes. For a long time.
An awkwardly long time from the point of view of the other people in the room. A quick throat clearing by General Yunan brings the two girls back to reality. They both turn towards her.
"Now that all this is finished, we should head to the briefing...", she suggests. Anne and Marcy both can't agree fast enough.
Anne and Yunan go ahead towards the stairs going up, while Marcy turns once again to Bernando.
"Thank you so much for what you did."
"No problem. I'll have the bill sent to your office. Au revoir."
Bernando shoos Marcy out of the room before instructing his assistant to prepare his things for departure. Marcy, on the other hand, simply follows Anne and Yunan to the top floor to Ben's office and the council meeting room.
The darkened room gradually comes into Marcy's field of vision. Anne and Yunan have already taken their places at the table. Well, Anne is standing rather, her arms crossed, her back turned towards Marcy.
'Okay, the whole council seems to be present today. I'm hoping the situation- ...', Marcy freezes just outside the open doors as her gaze falls on Anne. 'Wow... Did she always look like that... like... Wow.'
Anne has a feeling that Marcy is behind is. She turns around to confirm her gut feeling before she starts talking.
"Okay guys... Latest status, let's hear it!"
"The thunderstorm the other day severely soaked the soil. This has given us several days to prepare for a possible attack, which could happen at any time. The ground is now drier again."
"Thank you. Okay... Gary, what's the status of the defenses?"
"Loggle is working as fast as he can. So far, forty-two volunteers have come forward to assist him in putting up the rampart. They are working day and night. Also, so far, two of the five observation towers along the perimeter have been completed. The entire northern wall will probably take us a few more days."
"That's not particularly-," Anne was about to comment, however Gary wasn't finished yet.
"-Also, it seems like we'll have to extend the rampart eastward by the amount of trees that will have to be cut down to build the rampart."
"Okay, tell Loggle to take the trees on the south boundary. Leslie, how does our combat capability look?", Anne asks.
"We're making good progress, taking into account that no one had any practical combat experience before. The few toads who have joined our cause have been able to provide useful information on combat tactics, strategies, and weak points of the toad army. Unfortunately, we have not been able to equip all the fighters with actual weaponry yet."
"No problem. There is a secret weapons depot in the basement of the Plantars. I'll make sure they're distributed among the people.", Anne clarifies. "Ben, what's the current situation at the toads?"
"According to Chuck's intelligence report, they're gearing up for a head-on assault on us. There's talk of some kind of secret weapon, though Chuck hasn't been able to find out more about it.", Anne turns to Marcy.
"Could Sasha be the secret weapon?", Marcy shrugs. Anne turns back to Ben. "Is that it?"
"No, um... As expected, the toads have not received any reinforcements from the Toad Council, and probably are not going to. That leaves Grime with just under one-hundred-and-fifty to two-hundred soldiers at his command. We outnumber him at least forty-five to one."
"Good. Good... Wally, Sprig and Polly were with you yesterday. What were you doing and what do boomshrooms have to do with it?", Anne asks Wally in a more serious tone than with the others.
"We were trying to figure out how many boomshrooms it would take to blow up the tower, and what the best strategic attack points would be..."
"And?", Anne asks expectantly. Ben speaks up.
"Chuck's reports suggest that there are several sewer tunnels underneath the tower.", he notes. Wally continues.
"That... is an excellent idea... We had actually originally thought of a giant slingshot, or a catapult, or a trebuchet... But the tunnels, this idea is better."
"Okay, we'll save the blowing up of the tower for the end. Be it as a last resort, or to celebrate if we win- Um, when we win, I mean."
"Pete, how is our own anti-espionage efforts doing?"
"We have identified the enemy spies and continue to feed them false information.", Pete reports.
"Great... Okay, as far as I can get a good overview of the whole situation, we're pretty well set up... So, now we can wait for Grime, Sasha, and the toads to attack us, or we could launch a preemptive strike and try to overrun the tower... Marcy, General Yunan, what is your view of the situation? What would you recommend?"
Panic rushes to Marcy's mind as almost all eyes in the room are now on both her and Yunan.
"Um... Please excuse me- um... us for a moment.", Marcy waves Yunan over, and both of them briefly leave the room to discuss the situation while standing on the stairs leading down.
"Okay, Yunan... I'm running out of ideas...", Marcy confesses with discernible distress on her face.
"I have to admit that the odds of victory for this rebellion look pretty good... A preemptive assault might actually be beneficial.", Yunan argues, to which Marcy just shakes her head.
"Do you remember why we're here? We're here to stop the frogs and the toads from slaughtering each other. We're not supposed to cheer them on...", Marcy exclaims sharply. Yunan rolls her eyes. "We're running out of time..."
"If you just need time, we could suggest that I try one last time to get Grime and Sasha to give in. It's been a while since I've been able to use my infamous persuasion skills..."
"I'm not sure that can really work... And I mean, even if we can get another day out of it-", Yunan cuts Marcy off.
"-is one more day where there's no blood flowing.", Yunan states. Marcy sighs. She knows for a fact that she has absolutely nothing.
'All previous efforts have failed. Separate talks led to nothing. Nor have joint negotiations between the frogs and toads. The frogs are too desperate and too determined to stop now. The toads are too short-sighted or too ignorant to see the obvious. And then there are Anne and Sasha... That may be the only approach I have left... Ugh, this is going to be ugly'
"Let's go back...", Marcy instructs, before returning to the table, next to Anne, with expectant looks directed at her. Marcy begins.
"My recommendation is this: Wait thirty-six hours before anyone here starts an offensive. I want to send Yunan to Toad Tower for one last attempt at a dialogue."
Wild muttering breaks out among the council members. It is not clearly audible who is saying what.
After a good two minutes, silence returns, and Ben stands up.
"We agree.", Marcy cheers inwardly, while keeping a neutral expression on the outside, "It will take thirty-six hours to prepare the offensive and equip everyone accordingly. This is your ultimatum to accomplish a miracle. Good luck. This meeting is hereby concluded."
Anne, Marcy, and General Yunan are now standing outside the City Hollow. Anne stands some distance away, while Marcy and Yunan stand by Joe Sparrow, loading the last of Bernando's chests onto his back. Yunan turns to Marcy.
"Okay, I'll fly Bernando back to Newtopia quickly and then head to Toad Tower right away. I'll be all charming too...", Yunan announces proudly, while flashing her sharpened teeth. She had hoped to make Marcy giggle a little with that, however, her face is merely full of worry.
"Good luck.", is all Marcy says.
"Don't worry. We'll get through this... If necessary, we may just have to use more drastic methods.", Yunan says as she climbs onto Joe's back, where Bernando and his assistant have already taken their seats.
Anne slowly walks towards Marcy, who waves goodbye to Yunan and Joe, as they're flying off.
"How are you feeling?", Anne asks sympathetically, holding Marcy by her shoulder. Marcy leans her head on Anne's shoulder.
"Anne... Can I ask you a favor?", Anne lets go of Marcy to look her in her eyes.
"Sure. Anything you want."
"Please talk to Hop Pop.", Anne's facial expression changes rapidly from sympathy to disdain.
"No."
"Anne, please-"
"No, Marcy. He has deeply betrayed my trust and I don't want to hear any of his excuses and lies, or how sorry he is..."
"Okay, you don't have to talk to him. But please, please, please give him a chance to explain why he buried the box.", Marcy pleads.
"I take it he told you?", Marcy nods, "Then why don't you tell me, and I'll decide after that if I'm going to talk to him again or not."
"I think it would be better if he-"
"MARCY!", Marcy falls silent for a moment.
"It's about Sprig and Polly's parents-", Now it's Anne who falls silent. She looks at Marcy with wide eyes, "Please Anne, listen to him."
"Okay."
Notes:
Like last time, I based one of my designs on fanart. Anne's armor is a mix of Anne's final choice from the season 2 episode "Bessie & Microangelo", and this georgous art by ur_dad.funky (Instagram)
Chapter 32: Their Last Fight
Summary:
The war is about to end, one way or another.
Notes:
Hey, I'm back. (Yay)
A few little things I'd like to address in advance:
1. Happy New Year 2023
2. I changed my name from 'denNes' to 'Marzek'. Why? My old name is well over ten years old now, and it was starting to get annoying.
3. This fic is now rated 'Mature', instead of 'Teen'. You'll see why.And with that done: Have fun reading <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Fourth day after war declaration:
KNOCK KNOCK.
"Yes, Yes, Yes… I'm almost done.", she calls out through the closed door with an annoyed tone. For days now, the entire Toad Tower has been filled with constant activity and constant noise. Both during the day and at night, sounds can be heard from the toads who have been assigned by Grime to repair the stairs to the upper floors of the tower. Then there is Grime himself, who spends most of the day trying to get his troops in shape. He trains with them all kinds of attack strategies, non-stop, without pauses, and that every day. Sasha sometimes takes over, which, for the toads, is like a luxury vacation in comparison. And then there's Captain Beatrix...
KNOCK. KNOCK.
"Oh for frog’s sake, Braddock, what do you-", Beatrix opens the door expecting to find her guard, who was personally appointed by Grime. Instead, Grime himself stands before her, "Oh... Grimothy... To what do I owe the honor of your time? Are you about to dismiss my personal guard again?"
"Braddock is staying right where she is. Your presence here is a disruptor to my operations-"
"Uhhh... your operations...", Beatrix tries to tease him. But he remains cold.
"You've seen what we're up against, and you don't have any better ideas than to mess up my soldiers with your- your... Urgh. I have a war to win here. You can't use my soldiers to do shopping for you!", Grime accuses her loudly, but not screaming. Beatrix sighs.
"Oh, my dear little boring brother... You're at war. Have a little fun for once. Enjoy it...", he doesn't answer that, but growls deprecatingly, "Okay, buzzkill. Why did you have to get me out of the locker room so fast? There are some of your uniforms I haven't tried on yet..."
"The stairs are fixed. Come on!", he motions to her, "And you too, Braddock."
"Yes, Captain.", Braddock salutes before the three of them, with Grime and Beatrix ahead, make their way through the tower and up the stairs toward the command room.
When they reach about halfway up the stairs, they stop and eye the twelve steps ahead of them, which are made of wood instead of stone. To the right and to the left, they see two gaping holes in the walls that extend completely through the tower on both sides. The hole is almost one and a half meters high and four meters in diameter. To their right, they can see directly into Sasha's room, where toads are making makeshift repairs to the hole in the outer wall.
Grime puts his foot on the lowest wooden step, and it looks seriously unstable. When he puts his full weight on it, it creaks dangerously loud, but the step actually seems to hold.
"One of us at a time.", he turns around to order them. Both Beatrix and Braddock silently nod at him.
One by one, they step onto the wooden steps, which begin to creak perilously with every step. Concerns briefly arise with each step, that the structure is in danger of falling apart.
They all exhale in relief as they stand on stone again. They continue up the last few dozen steps until they actually reach the top.
Grime opens the door to let Beatrix into the command room before turning quickly around to Braddock.
"Braddock. Go back down and get Sasha. She's probably out by the stables.", he orders. She salutes and leaves the room, before Grime closes the door.
"So Grimothy... What is it that you and I need to discuss in such private?", Beatrix asks honestly curious, leaning against the large table in the center on the opposite side of the door.
"I need your... Expertise.", Grime speaks the last part only after tremendous hesitation. Beatrix raises an eyebrow.
"I told you I wasn't here to help you.", she reminds him. Grime, however, seems to take no note of this.
"The thing is... My troops are completely unmotivated. I see in training that none of them really give a hundred percent performance. You've led several armies and fought wars before... How have you kept your soldiers motivated?", he asks, his voice sounding slightly desperate.
Beatrix was actually about to answer his question when she was interrupted by the opening of the door. Grime expects Sasha to enter the room behind him, but when Beatrix's face reflects fear, he slowly turns around and catches sight of a person who is several times taller than him.
"Hello Captain Grime.", it is General Yunan. But not only her, she is holding Braddock up tightly by her neck, almost half a meter above the ground. Actively she gasps for air, looking at Grime with a helpless expression in her eyes, while Yunan herself just stands in front of him, grinning and baring her teeth.
"Yunan! How did you get in here? Who let you in?", Grime asks her, sounding as not shocked as possible. He tries to put on a poker face, avoiding Braddock's gaze. Yunan's grin only widens. She raises her other hand, its retractable metal claws fully extended, dripping no small amount of blood. Grime contorts his face in anger at the sight. Beatrix speaks up.
"Y-Y-You already met her??", she inquires, still looking horrified.
"Sure.", he answers with a tone like it's nothing special. As if she's 'just' a General, "This is General Yunan, who just broke in here and took a hostage."
"I see, I should introduce myself. My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the-"
"The genocide of the sandy towers...", Beatrix mutters. Yunan raises an eyebrow curiously.
"Didn't think anyone would remember that title... Or what it stands for...", Yunan teases while softening her grip on Braddock whose face shows pure relief. Yunan, on the other hand, now turns to Beatrix, who takes a few steps back from her.
"You single-handedly wiped out tens of thousands of sentient Barbari-Ants and nearly wiped out the entire species.", Beatrix recounts in a shaky voice, "Hardly anyone remembers the bloodbath or has repressed it. Even in the Toad history books, it is considered a dark reminder."
General Yunan grins with satisfaction. "Really, very good...", Yunan says when she has almost pushed Beatrix into a corner. She turns around to face Grime again, and again, squeezes harder on Braddock's neck. Again, she begins to choke. "So, Captain Grime, now to the reason for my visit... Blow off the attack on the frogs."
Grime doesn't have to think long on that one.
"No.", he replies, whereupon Beatrix looks at him in disbelieve and with wide eyes.
"Well, let's do it another way.", Yunan raises her claws and presses them tightly against Braddock's throat. "You have exactly ten seconds to agree to my demand. If you don't, I'll slash this one's throat."
Any trace of previous joy and nonchalance in Yunan's face has disappeared, and been replaced by an ice-cold stare, and gravity and determination on her face.
"WHAT?", the three toads shout in unison.
"Nine."
"S-She's bluffing.", Grime states.
"Eight. I am not."
"Master Marcy would never allow you to do such a thing!"
"Seven. Marcy's not here.", by now, the silence between seconds is filled with panting and sobbing coming from Braddock.
"Let go of Braddock! Now!", Grime demands, causing Yunan to press her claws a little harder against Braddock's throat. The first bit of blood appears.
"Six."
Grime is running out of ideas. In a slight panic, he looks to Beatrix, who just shakes her head with the same expression.
"Five."
He looks directly into Yunan's eyes now, recognizing the ice-cold and unrepentant killer he hadn't recognized before in her otherwise more joyful demeanor.
"Four."
"Uh, uh, uh... We- I'll tell Master Marcy about what you did here today.", Grime stutters in a desperate attempt.
"Three. She knows perfectly well that I'm here right now."
He's at a loss for words. Is he really willing to let a trusted soldier die for no reason for something like this?
"Two."
"FINE!", Grime yells. Tears of relief fall from Braddock's face, "You won... I will not attack the frogs."
The general grins triumphantly. Still, she still doesn't let go of Braddock's neck. With a single jerking motion, she pulls her hand back and after a short but all the more bone shivering scream, two frantically bleeding cuts appear on Braddock's throat. The general lets go of her, whereupon she immediately collapses to the ground. Within seconds, as Grime and Beatrix watch the scene, stunned and speechless, a huge pool of blood forms as Braddock herself chokes on her own blood.
Without a second thought, Yunan climbs over Braddock's bleeding out body, through the pool of blood, and heads toward the window where Beatrix is standing.
"Consider this a lesson in obedience!", she sternly warns him, before turning back around and jumping head first out the window. Neither Grime nor Beatrix pay attention to General Yunan's departure, but merely stare off, rather stunned and distraught.
After several seconds that felt like half an eternity, Grime's eyes fall on Braddock again, and he dashes forward to kneel directly in front of her, right in the pool of her blood. She coughs and struggles, and Grime hastily tries to press his hands to the cuts on her throat.
"You. Are. Not. Dying. Here. Today!", he struggles to say with a shaking voice. He presses harder and harder in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but the blood continues to spill out of her body more and more to the ground. He watches as she writhes in pain with only minimal movement in her face. But only briefly, because after a good twenty seconds all her muscles have relaxed and the coughing has also stopped completely.
She just lies there, motionless. Grime takes his hands from her throat. The blood now flows slowly out of her body and no longer spurts out. All color has left her body.
Grime drops backwards to his feet when suddenly the door opens. It's Sasha.
"Hey, I saw the stairs were done. Why didn't anyone-", she cuts herself off as her gaze drops to the floor, "What?", she asks in a low voice. Her eyes hit the floor and the blood pooling around her boots. She lifts her gaze, which falls on Grime, who is kneeling on the ground just in front of Braddock, one of her best friends among the Toads. Sasha looks at him, tears forming in her eyes, but he avoids her gaze. His gaze lingers on Braddock's lifeless body and he struggles in vain to maintain his composure.
"B-Braddock? ... No... Wh-What happened?", she asks with a broken voice. She lifts her gaze further and it falls on Captain Beatrix. In an instant, her mind is flooded with rage towards her. "YOU!"
Beatrix straightens her head, only to see Sasha's hair seemingly set on fire with a flaming reddish-pink hue as she stomps toward her. She grabs her by the metal breastplate she's wearing and crumples it up like it's a cloth shirt, pushing her through the outside wall outside the tower, ready to drop her without hesitation. Beatrix tries with all her might to shake free of her grip and get back to safety, but she has no chance.
"G-G-Grimothy!!!", she screams, "Grimothy, I could use some HELP here!!!", but he ignores her. In fact, he seems disregarding the entire situation.
"I should let you fall to your death right now... Or better yet, I'll jump down with you and make sure there's absolutely nothing left when I'm done with you!", Sasha threatens her. Pink flames shoot out of her eyes. Beatrix is terrified.
"GRIIIIMMMEEE!", Beatrix screams in desperation. She hears Grime sigh softly.
"It wasn't her.", is all he says.
"What?"
"Y-You heard him. It wasn't me.", she tries to make her understand, however Sasha isn't convinced yet.
"You sure?"
"Beatrix did not kill Braddock!", he yells. Sasha growls as she pulls Beatrix back into the room, but in the process throws her against the table in the middle, before trying to cool herself off.
Beatrix grunts with back pain, combined with a few laughs. And while Sasha tries to slowly but steadily cool down, Grime gets up from the floor, removes his cape, and puts it over Braddock's body.
"Okay...", Sasha begins, still wet-eyed, "If it wasn't your fucking sister, then who had a reason to kill Braddock? I mean, she was so... so..."
"Yunan.", Grime replies angrily.
"What?", Sasha asks quietly.
"She gained access to the tower sometime, somehow, earlier.", he explains, "I had sent Braddock to come get you. Yunan had intercepted her somewhere and effectively held her hostage to get what she wanted."
"That we don't attack the frogs, I take it...", Grime nods, "And you didn't agree to that?"
"Yes, I did.", Grime replies, to which Sasha falls into disbelief.
"WHAT?", she yells before her gaze rapidly switches between Grime and Braddock's covered body. "You- you agreed, and- and she still-"
With a sad, empty look she peers at Grime, who himself just seems to be angry inside. Sasha finds it strange that he can maintain such composure on the outside, while she herself just wants to scream.
"FUCK!", she yells instead, with all her might.
For minutes that followed, silence reigned in the room. Only interrupted by Beatrix' forceful efforts to climb off the table. Eventually she spoke up.
"I see you two aren't in a very good mood right now-", both Sasha and Grime growl at her, "But the way I see it, the General has done you a favor."
"Grime, can I now throw her out the window?", Beatrix winces at that, but immediately continues before Grime can respond.
"I'm just saying, you guys, or rather your soldiers, have a motivation problem, right? Your solution lies right there.", she says in an inappropriately gleeful voice, pointing at Braddock's covered body. Sasha now looks at her angrily, while Grime seems rather confused.
"Okay, you guys don't seem to get it. You're both angry right now because someone you liked was taken from you, right? And you want revenge, right?", they both nod, "Show your soldiers what happened. If they care, and they will, they too will thirst for revenge and fight like they've never fought before..."
Both Sasha and Grime lose their anger and they fall into thought. Grime speaks up.
"This... might actually work...", he mutters. Sasha, on the other hand, just looks at him bewildered, and Beatrix claps her hands, in satisfaction with herself.
"Perfect. I'd suggest you guys hold a funeral or whatever it is you always do here in the south, later today, preferably with a very emotional speech, and that's it. Everybody wins...", Sasha looks at Beatrix fiercely, "Well, except for her."
"I...", Sasha begins hesitantly, "I should talk to Percy. She was his girlfriend."
"And I'll break the news to the troops and prepare a memorial service. Beatrix, you come with me.", Grime orders and she seems excited.
"Uhh, I get to be there when they hear the news? That's always such a fun moment-"
"No.", Grime counters. "I just don't want you to stay up here by yourself, and until you have a new guard, I'm not going to allow you to roam free here by yourself."
Grime stoops to lift Braddock's lifeless body, ready to carry it down the stairs, all the while Beatrix crosses her arms, grunting in disappointment.
A few hours later...
"Braddock... was not a fighter. She was not a good soldier. She was compassionate, kind, always trying to use as little violence as possible. And all that always at the most impossible times.", Grime speaks loudly in front of all the toads under his command, with Sasha next to him, who all look sincerely sad, "If I'm being honest, she never fit in here, she wasn't a soldier. But... she was one of the good ones. One you could trust. She had once said that she would rather have been a gardener than serve here. And yes, it would have suited her."
Grime surveys the masses before him and all the wet eyes. Foremost among them, Percy.
"I know that when I notified you all earlier, that I hadn't said why or how she died.", the toads begin to murmur, and Grime's voice changes abruptly, increasing in power, "An... assassin from Newtopia had snuck into the tower earlier with the goal of taking me out and forcing me to end the war against the frogs. Braddock was able to stop the assassin but unfortunately gave her life in the process... As I said, she was not a fighter. But she died a hero."
The toads in front of him erupt in tearful cheers and praise. All this while Sasha eyed him doubtfully, which he dismissed with a slight shake of his head.
"They took one of us because they are scared of us. Of our determination. Of our strength.", the toads cheered in agreement, "We will make them pay for this- and get our revenge on those who attacked us! What do you say?"
"FOR BRADDOCK!", one shouts.
"YEAH!!! FOR BRADDOCK!", yells a second.
"BRAD-DOCK! BRAD-DOCK! BRAD-DOCK!", the Toads chant, to which Grime grins triumphantly.
"THAT'S HOW I LIKE IT! TOMORROW MORNING WE WILL OVERRUN THESE TINY FROGS, AND GET OUR REVENGE!!!", he roars at the top of his voice. Sasha now joins in.
"FOR BRADDOCK!", she roars with her sword raised to the air.
"FOR BRADDOCK!", the rest of the toads roar in unison.
While all the toads in the room cheer, Sasha lowers her sword again when she notices that one particular toad is missing. She bends down to Grime.
"Say, where's Beatrix anyway?", she whispers just loud enough for him to hear her acoustically. Grime chuckles slightly at that.
"Kicked her out.", he replies at the same volume. Sasha is pleasantly surprised.
"Seriously? I love it. She was really annoying. But doesn't that get you in trouble?", she wonders.
"Probably. But let's take care of this first."
Meanwhile in Wartwood’s City Hollow…
Several hours after General Yunan left the Toad Tower area with Joe Sparrow, she now stands before the Frog Rebellion Council, that includes Anne and Marcy, before whom she has just spoken and delivered her report on her mission. Everyone present looks at her in disbelief.
"You're kidding...", Ben states. With a wide grin on her face, Yunan shakes her head. Incredulous, partly with widened eyes and dropped jaws.
"You managed to get Grime to agree to a non-aggression pact...", Anne repeats hesitantly, "How???"
"I told you that I could be very... Persuasive.", Yunan says with conviction and a wide grin. Granted, there are a few unimportant little things she left out of her verbal report. Nothing... particularly important or worth mentioning. "I just brought up some very good arguments, set a small deadline, and he eventually agreed. Easy."
"You do realize that sounds very implausible, don't you?", Ben asks.
"Are you questioning my credibility?", Yunan asks, the grin gone. Everyone in the room looks at each other blankly, seemingly wordlessly agreeing that they don't fully believe her, but ready to give her the benefit of the doubt for now, and to stop openly addressing it. Anne, with Marcy beside her, speaks up.
"Okay, thank you General.", she says and Yunan nods in affirmation, "So, Grime has agreed not to attack... didn't think that was possible... However, I'm going to assume that he won't comply. Therefore, we remain on high alert. Any questions?"
One of the frogs from one of the more distant villages speaks up.
"What about the planned destruction of Toad Tower?", he asks.
"Operation 'Blue Mushroom' will be executed as planned. Polly and Wally have put too much time into planning for us to just let this opportunity pass now, and thanks to the modifications to the boomshrooms and the sacrifice of Marcy's phone for the cause, we can now detonate them remotely if necessary. Any other questions?", no one else speaks up, "Okay. The meeting is over."
It takes a few minutes for the majority of the council to leave and ultimately it's just Anne and Marcy remaining in the room. Anne leans against the large, round table that stands in the center of the room, around which all the empty chairs are now spread out. Marcy walks over to her, and with a slight smile, places both of her hands on Anne's shoulder and her chin on top of it, so that it is just centimeters away from her face.
"You know, I think you fit in this leader role pretty well. I also kind of feel like you're more comfortable in it yourself...", Marcy comments in a soft voice, "Is it the armor?"
Anne calmly huffs out her nose in amusement.
"I think you can blame Hop Pop for that. I was so consumed with hatred for him before, that I couldn't concentrate on what was really important.", Marcy doesn't comment on this, just listens to her intently with wide eyes, "I love everyone here, and I would do anything to protect them... I have declared war on the toads, and I will be at the front of the line if it comes to a fight."
Marcy lifts her head and hugs Anne tightly from the side, burying her head against her shoulder.
"I'm soo proud of you.", Anne smiles at that, "But I won't lie: I'm scared for you too... I don't want to lose you in case something goes wrong..."
Abruptly Anne turns around, grabs Marcy by her shoulders, and looks deep into her eyes.
"Nothing's going to go wrong. And you don't have to blame yourself for anything either. You've done everything in your power without directly choosing a side."
"You know very well that I will always be on your side..."
"But of course I know that. I mean that more on an official level though...", Anne says while smiling slightly. Marcy smiles back. Anne leads Marcy to a window that allows them to overlook almost the entire tent city in front of Wartwood, all the way to the wooden rampart. Anne gets behind Marcy and hugs her from behind. She continues.
"Besides, look at all we've accomplished here. Thousands of frogs fighting for their very existence. There are professionals down there training them in a wide variety of fighting styles. Blacksmiths making the best weapons and armor. Chefs from all over the valley bringing together a whole range of new culinary dishes in one place - Wartwood is like THE capital of the valley right now, comparable to Newtopia. I should know, I've been there.", Marcy chuckles at that, "We have no reason to worry about anything. We're going to get through this. Together."
"Together...", Marcy echoes, turning around to look Anne in the eye again.
"And if in doubt, I still have these.", Anne says before briefly letting her eyes light up bright blue, "Aaand we have a cool robot as a secret weapon. Seriously, there's nothing that can stop us."
"Not even Sasha?", Marcy asks. Anne hesitates for a moment.
"Not even Sasha. Even if she also has powers like us, I can handle her. Don't worry."
Marcy was about to open her mouth and throw in something else, however Anne lunges forward and presses her lips hard against Marcy's, causing everything in her head to instantly turn to mush.
A knock on the door along with an undisclosed cough coming from the door breaks the kiss apart. Both girls turn to see Ben standing in the doorway.
"Anne, a toad tried to sneak into camp and was arrested at the gate. They... demand to speak to you.", he reports. Anne turns around towards the window facing the camp entrance. She looks out and notices several frogs, armed with spears, circling a single toad. Marcy speaks up.
"Who?", she asks Ben, to which, however, not Ben but Anne answers.
"That's Captain Beatrix...", Anne turns to Ben, "Did she say anything else? Is she alone?"
"Yes, she is alone and she just said she was only talking to you.", Ben reports.
"Unarmed?", Marcy now asks.
"Unknown.", Ben replies.
"Bring her over. We'll talk to her here.", Anne orders. Ben nods in confirmation and leaves the room before Anne turns to Marcy, who looks at her with an uncertain look in her eyes. "What do you think?"
"I don't know... What reason would she have to come here all by herself? Here out of all places?"
"Do you think she's a spy for Grime? His vanguard? Maybe she's here to sabotage us...", Anne starts making wild guesses, which Marcy immediately cuts off.
"I don't think so. Not sure how much you remember from our last meeting with the toads, but she hadn't given me the impression that she was standing behind Grime. She said something about wanting to witness his downfall, or something like that."
Anne falls into thought for a moment, trying to confirm what Marcy is telling her. She remembers THAT the meeting took place. Many of the more specific details, on the other hand, are rather fuzzy by comparison.
"Um... Yeah, that sounds familiar...", Anne mutters, "But if she's not here because Grime told her, what other reason could she have?"
The loud flinging open of the doors announces the arrival of Captain Beatrix, eliminating the need for further guessing for answers. With an expectant look, she stands in the open double doors, leading into the room, with Ben behind her. Beatrix's gaze meets Anne's and she grins mischievously. Anne is the first one to speak up.
"What do you want?", she questions, crossing her arms. Beatrix's grin fades at that, but still, she is in an oddly good mood.
"Is that how you greet guests among the frogs?", she asks teasingly, "What a disappointment..."
"Captain Beatrix.", Marcy speaks up sternly, "Your presence here is only tolerated because you are a representative of the Toad Council. Explain yourself!"
"Take it easy, Newty. I'm not here to cause you any problems. Quite the opposite.", Beatrix states to which Anne and Marcy exchange confused looks, "Look, the council sent me out here to the valley to assess the whole situation here, and issue an official recommendation for action. And from what I've seen out there, but also over the last couple of days, has led me to conclude that this... rebellion... does have tremendous military and socioeconomic potential."
"Admittedly, I wouldn't have thought that terms like 'socioeconomics' were part of a toad's vocabulary. No offense.", Anne admits.
"Glad I could surprise you, Bluey. So, Captain Grime kicked me out of the tower a few hours ago, thereby signing his death sentence. I'm now here to make you a proposition."
"I'm all ears.", Anne says sounding genuinely interested, while Marcy listens curiously but quietly next to her.
"So, Grime plans to attack you guys sometime tomorrow. Picked that up before I actually left. I want you to turn him over to me if he happens to survive the attack on you tomorrow. Oh, and I want your blonde friend too.", Beatrix demands, and both girls have different questions going through their heads right now.
"What for?", Marcy asks.
"What do we get in exchange?", Anne asks, to which Marcy eyes her quickly with a weird look in her eyes.
"According to toad law, the commander, as well as his second-in-command, will be charged and convicted by the toad council of gross misconduct. In return, I will recommend in my report that the independence of Frog Valley be officially supported."
"Deal!", Anne agrees.
"ANNE!!!", Marcy shrieks.
"Great. I'll stay here in the valley for the next three days and we'll meet at the outer border for the transfer. Or for notifying me of his death. Or whatever... See you then.", Beatrix says goodbye and Ben escorts her back out of the building. With her mouth hanging open in shock, Marcy turns to Anne.
"What the heck, Anne?"
"What?", Anne wonders.
"You're turning Sasha over to the toad council??? Do you even know what that means? Do you have the slightest idea how the toad court system works???", Marcy accuses Anne harshly over her voice. Anne just shrugs indifferently, "Are you really serious right now? At best, they are banished after having a body part chopped off as an additional punishment. At worst, there's the death penalty through hunting by the entire Toad army."
"It would suck if I were them...", Marcy can't believe what Anne is saying right now. She becomes increasingly frustrated.
"What happened to 'Your hatred made you unable to properly concentrate on what's important', huh? Please don't tell me you really think that way...", Marcy pleads with a hunch of desperation in her voice.
"I... I don't want Sasha dead, let's not get that wrong...", the lack of emotion in Anne's voice freaks Marcy out.
"But?"
"No buts. She has to take responsibility for what she did. And if it's done through the toads, then so be it..."
"... That... That's not justice what you're claiming. It's revenge...", Marcy states hesitantly.
"Maybe."
"No, not maybe. It is. ... Please don't let it come to that...", Marcy pleads after cutting Anne off. Anne, however, evades her.
"So you don't think Sasha should have to be held liable for what she did?"
"If you're going to hand Sasha over to Beatrix, you might as well point your sword at her yourself... You wouldn't be any better than her, and you know very well that you don't want to be that. Just think how much it consumed and weighed you down the last time after you... after you declared war on the toads.", Marcy reminds her, "Please... Please don't. Let a fairer court judge her, but please don't hand her over to Beatrix."
Anne now looks deep into Marcy's eyes. The rational part of her mind knows that Marcy is undoubtedly right. That it would be brutal and cruel to leave her former best friend to the jurisdiction of the Toads. On the other hand, Anne has made a pact with Beatrix that has the potential to make life extremely better for all the frogs in the valley. Is it really right to weigh and trade the lives of Sasha and Grime against that? True independence and driving out the oppressors are things that the frogs in the valley have only been able to dream about for hundreds of years. And it's up to Anne to make that decision. And Marcy is standing in front of her, her arms wide open, with a hopeful expression on her face, ready to put this dreadful conversation behind them.
"What do you say?"
"I... Um... I'm sorry Marbles.", Anne pushes past Marcy's arms and walks right out of the room, and the City Hollow, leaving Marcy behind, deeply disappointed and hurt.
With a shaky breath, Marcy clenches her fists slightly, but remains standing on the spot, just staring after Anne in disbelief. A moment later, she turns and slowly walks to the window. She observes her girlfriend walking briskly, and without turning around, from the City Hollow further into the village. Marcy exhales in relief, as she was afraid Anne would run away, as Marcy herself did just a week ago.
Marcy tracks Anne with her gaze until she had gone out of sight, before turning back to the now empty room. She's never been in here alone before, and the room suddenly feels so much bigger and dimmer. The only source of light, besides the window, is the golden chandelier over the rancid brown wooden table in the center of the room, on which lies a large map of the entire valley, as well as a few scattered figurines. On the walls there are several noble-looking pieces of furniture, statues, paintings, and other personal belongings of the former mayor. Unfortunately, there is nothing that Marcy is particularly enthusiastic about.
She sighs and makes her way out of the room. She passes Andrew's "office," but doesn't want to disturb him, as he seems extremely engrossed in two books at once. She chuckles briefly to herself before finally moving on and walking out of the City Hollow.
Marcy catches herself standing for minutes with the doors open behind her, staring silently into the distance. But this is only until a familiar voice brings her back.
"Marcy?", no response, "Master Marcy!"
"Huh?", Marcy blinks several times in a row before realizing that General Yunan is standing in front of her.
"Did you hear me?", Yunan asks.
"What, oh, sorry, no. Um, what did you ask me?"
"Are you okay? You look pale...", Yunan notes, "Well, paler than usual", she clarifies before Marcy sighs.
"Anne and I got into a bit of a fight, nothing too bad.", Marcy explains, "Captain Beatrix had snuck into camp because she wanted to talk to Anne."
"T-talk to her? Ab-about what?", Yunan just asks visibly nervous. Marcy doesn't notice this and just looks down towards the ground.
"She made Anne an offer. Captain Beatrix wants her to turn Grime and Sasha over to her, in exchange for support for independence."
"Whoa...", Yunan exclaims, sounding amazed but not relieved, "Anything else?"
"No. She just wants them both to be charged and convicted by the Toad Council..."
"Ouch. So where is she now?"
"I don't know. She said she'd be waiting at the valley's edge for the transfer.", Marcy repeats, at which point a small weight is lifted from Yunan's shoulders. Marcy now looks up at her.
"What do you want to do about it now?", Yunan asks.
"I don't know if there's anything else we can do...", Marcy starts. Yunan was ready to say something encouraging before Marcy continues, "But there is something I can do."
Yunan feels a little offended by the fact that Marcy appears to have a plan that seems to actively exclude her.
"You don't want me involved?", Yunan asks slightly hurt.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing you'll be able to do. I know you want to fight, but we need a solution that limits bloodshed, not encourages it. You did everything you could and helped me as much as you possibly could... This is something I want to finish on my own."
"You have a plan?", Yunan asks, "Will you tell me?"
"I will let them fight, but on my terms.", Marcy states firmly. Yunan doesn't look convinced.
"That's it?"
"It will work. I'm still working out the details, but it will work... Trust me."
"... Okay.", Yunan says after a moment's hesitation, "Then I should return to Newtopia and report back to King Andrias."
Only moments later, Yunan finds himself in a warm embrace, hugged tightly by Marcy.
"I'm going to miss you," Yunan can't see Marcy's face, but thinks she hears a small sob. She returns the hug.
"Oh... We'll see each other again when you're back in Newtopia, won't we?"
"That's not what I meant...", Marcy breaks apart the hug and wipes tears from her face, "When all this is over, we'll try to recharge the music box and... and return to Earth... And I'm going to miss you... You and Lady Olivia, you took such good care of me, you're like second moms to me.", Yunan is now having a hard time holding back tears herself.
"This is not the end."
"But-"
"This is NOT the end, you hear me? Okay, I have no idea how the box-thing works, but I'm sure we can keep in touch. I'm very sure Andrias would be only too willing to let you visit any time you want..."- a sad smile fills Marcy's face, "But... I will not allow you to return home until you have said a proper goodbye. I even have a... ... Um, I knew you'd have to leave us eventually, so I prepared a farewell gift some time ago."
"What?", Marcy asks incredulously with wet eyes.
"That's all I'm going to tell you for now.", Yunan now says teasingly.
"That's not fair...", Marcy groans, to which Yunan grins in satisfaction.
"So, I think you should be on your way to catch up with your girlfriend. She went inwards of the village"
"I know. And thanks. For everything.", Marcy hugs Yunan again before walking off towards Wartwood's marketplace, continuing waving to Yunan on her way as long as possible.
Marcy speeds up as soon as Yunan is out of sight, heading for the village center. The last few days have seen a massive drop in activity within Wartwood, as everyone prepares for a possible attack. Nevertheless, the place is anything but empty. It is just... less cluttered. She looks around in all directions, even climbs onto the pedestal of the statue, but there's no sign of her favorite brown fuzzy mess of hair.
Her spirits rapidly dropping, she descends from the statue, only to sit down on the pedestal with a sigh, when suddenly an idea comes to her.
'Wait a minute... How had Anne found me in the forest the other day again? She heard me somehow, didn't she?', she wonders to herself, 'Maybe I can too?'
Marcy rests both her hands on the stone pedestal beside her, and closes her eyes. She squints her eyes, trying to focus on the image of Anne.
"Come on... Anne, where are you?", Marcy mumbles to herself. But for what feels like an eternity, nothing happens. Her concentration is already beginning to wane when suddenly the general noise level begins to decrease drastically, changing only to muffled, unintelligible mumbling. Two voices, however, now come to the fore.
"That's no problem at all, Anne. I don't have anything planned for tomorrow morning so far."
"Are you sure? I don't know when exactly they'll get here and it would be good to have that prepared."
"Don't worry about old Wally for a minute. I hid boomshrooms in boxes near the tower months ago. Just need to dig them up and distribute them"
"Wait... Months?"
'Okay stop!', Marcy tears her eyes open, at which a green glow is rapidly fading, 'I shouldn't be listening. But at least Anne didn't run away, she's safe with that Wally somewhere. That's... good. Good...'
Marcy stands up from the podium and wipes non-existent dust from her uniform.
'I should go somewhere, and... do something...'
After some thought, however, Marcy realizes that she can't really help out anywhere, since she's not privy to the processes. Instead, she decides to just walk back to the Plantars' farm.
"Hey Marcy, where's-", Hop Pop greets her as he's working outside his house and Sprig is next to him doing target practice with one of his slingshots and some old cans. Marcy, however, walks straight past them, right into the house, with the door slamming shut behind her. "Marcy?"
Hop Pop and Sprig exchange worried glances. Hop Pop puts down his tools, and stands as upright as possible, though several of his older joints crack all over his body.
"Urgh...", he grunts heavily, sounding pained, "I'm getting old."
"You're getting old?", Sprig frowns, to which Hop Pop gives his grandson a warning look.
"Don't push it," he warns, "Let's head inside. We should probably talk to Marcy. She seemed upset..."
Sprig just nods in agreement before following Hop Pop back into the house. The two frogs can't find Marcy in the living room or kitchen, but she can't be heard from upstairs either. Also, Marcy is also not behind the house with Polly and Frobo. Finally, Sprig and Hop Pop open the basement hatch and find Marcy sitting on her bed with her back turned to them.
"Umm, Marcy? Are you okay?", Sprig asks cautiously while walking down the steps along with Hop Pop. They see that Marcy is sitting in front of a book, probably her journal, and sighs.
"Anne and I... We had a little fight...", Marcy admits quietly.
"Where is she?", Sprig demands to know.
"She was talking to someone named Wally earlier.", judging by Sprig's body language he is relieved, "I think she and I need some time right now... not being in the same place..."
"Every good relationship has its ups and downs.", Hop speaks up, "I'm very sure you guys will work things out. Don't worry about that."
"What were you guys fighting about?", Sprig asks out of curiosity.
"Sprig!", Hop Pop admonishes him, but Marcy de-escalates.
"It's all right, HP. Um... Anne made a deal with Captain Beatrix of the Toad Council.", Marcy reports.
"WHAT?", both frogs ask in disbelief before Hop Pop continues, "Can- can you repeat that again, please?"
"Anne made a deal with Captain Beatrix. In exchange for Sasha and Grime, Beatrix guarantees her support for Frog Valley's independence."
"And you're... against that?", Hop Pop inquires.
"Well, I don't think it's a bad deal. Let them get what they deserve.", Sprig says. Marcy frowns at that and Hop Pop speaks up.
"I don't think you'd react the same way if it were your friends, Sprig. I can already see why Marcy is bothered by Anne's reaction...", Sprig looks at him uncomprehendingly, "It's perfectly okay to miss someone who hurt you."
"Thanks, HP. I'm glad you understand.", Marcy says, "Can you maybe talk to Anne? Well, later, I mean..."
"I don't think there's anything much I can do about that right now... But I'll try.", he says with an uncertain tone in his voice.
"Thanks... I hope tomorrow this will all be over."
"What's tomorrow?", Sprig wonders.
"According to Captain Beatrix, Grime is planning to attack tomorrow-"
"Oh."
"-And I'm putting together a plan to maybe make sure this whole thing ends tomorrow.", Marcy says without giving away too much.
"Are you going to tell us about your plan?", Hop Pop asks with honest curiosity. Marcy hesitates.
"No, sorry. I can't.", Marcy admits, "Not because I don't trust you, but Anne cannot know anything about this under any circumstances. If there were any more secrets between you now, that would be very bad."
"It's okay, Marcy.", Hop Pop says, to which Sprig agrees, "I hope your plan will work..."
And with that, the two frogs get up from the steps and both gradually leave the basement again, leaving Marcy to continue her planning for tomorrow. To say she is nervous or scared, is a huge understatement.
"I hope so too..."
Fifth day after war declaration:
With some effort, Marcy struggles to push open the Plantars' front door. It seems considerably heavier than usual.
'Urgh... I really should exercise more', Marcy thinks to herself briefly, 'Naaah...'
Admittedly, something feels odd to her. For example, she doesn't remember standing up, or having her crossbow strapped around her wrist. The house is also unusually quiet, with no sign of life from Anne or the Plantars. The windows inside are all fogged up, externally.
When she finally gets the front door open enough to slip outside, she notices two things. First, there is a knee-high layer of extremely dense fog on the ground. So dense that she can no longer see her own feet, or the ground she's standing on. The second thing she notices is an extremely uncomfortable silence. The kind of silence that makes her whole body shudder.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spots something peculiar on the outside of the door.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!", she cries out in panic. A sword is stuck in the door. However, that fact alone is not the reason Marcy screams. It's Hop Pop, stabbed through the back with said sword. Marcy threw her hands in front of her mouth and stumbles backwards, "No.... Nonononono..."
At that, Marcy falls backwards and lands with one of her hands on something.... soft. Through the thick fog, she can glimpse something slightly pink before she forcefully averts her gaze, struggling to stand up despite shaking legs.
"What happened here?", she asks, hoping that someone will answer her. But there is nothing but silence. Cruel, oppressive, silence.
Rapidly, Marcy turns, her pulse at its highest, and instead of the typical backdrop that is Wartwood, there in front of her is an open, yet dark field with a fog-free path running through its center.
"What the...", Marcy mutters under her breath, and that's only moments before the fog disappears completely and almost instantaneously, revealing to her a scene of utter horror.
Immediately in front of her, Marcy discovers the remains of a veritable bloodbath. Dead and mutilated frogs, toads, and newts in every direction. The ground is soaked red with blood and there are isolated, scattered puddles of blood that Marcy walks past. And along with the foul smell of blood, guts, and decay in the air, her stomach turns. All this, and she can't turn around or pause. It's as if her body is forcing her to go on and on, past all the bodies, few of which still have all of their limbs. There lie women as well as men, and even occasional children who have had their lives taken from them. She recognizes some of the inhabitants of the village that Marcy had the pleasure of meeting during her time at Wartwood, even if she could not remember all of their names. One of the dead children, however, is well known to her. It is Maddie, lying face-first in a puddle of blood with an Axe stuck in the middle of her head. Next to her is another child, with broad, orange hair. By this time tears are already leaving her eyes and streaming down her cheeks.
"This... this is all my fault.", she accuses herself, her breath beginning to hitch, "I failed them... All of them!"
But she still can't stop, and continues walking. Although she gradually begins to stumble forward rather than actually walk. But that is only until she sees something glowing in some distance in front of her. A single, blindingly bright color. Blue. Light blue. Anne's blue.
"No...", Marcy whispers, barely audible. She begins to run, faster than ever before. The light gets closer as everything else around her becomes darker and bleaker in color. The dead bodies she runs past are just a blur in the corner of her eyes. A figure begins to form in front of her. No, two figures...
Marcy slows down and takes a closer look at her immediate surroundings. There are still bodies of all these frogs, newts, and toads scattered everywhere, though none of them are recognizable anymore, and many of them look burned, charred, and covered in ash.
The blinding light on the figures diminishes, revealing themselves. And that's exactly the moment when Marcy collapses fully onto her knees.
"Anne... Sasha...", she cries filled with great pain in her heart, "No..."
Anne hovers just inches above the ground, impaled by three long swords that all ripped through her torso. Her armor is also partially destroyed. Her body is littered with wounds of all kinds, merging into one another, and her left arm lies dismembered on the ground, holding a sword in her hand. Her eyes stare lifelessly yet wide open toward the dim sky, her skin completely white and cold. Only her hair still glows vibrant blue.
Marcy crawls over the moist floor a bit and raises her hand, intending to reach out and take Anne's remaining hand. She stops herself short, however, when her gaze spots Sasha lying on the floor immediately in front of Anne. Her uniform and armor are also quite destroyed, but that's not what her focus is on. It's Sasha's blonde head. Or rather, the fact that it's not on her shoulders, but lying next to her chest.
Marcy feels sick. She averts her gaze, crouching on all fours on the floor, crying and gagging and pleading that none of this is real.
"Whhhyyy?", Marcy cries out.
"Oh, you know exactly why.", she hears another voice speak. Rapidly her head snaps around to the back, only to find that there is absolutely nothing there. Everything is gone, and only dark emptiness fills the room. She turns her head further, only to find that everything around her is gone. Only she, and Anne's and Sasha's bodies are still there, surrounded by nothing but darkness. Suddenly, she notices a hand on her shoulder. Marcy looks up and sees Luz standing there, "You failed. You weren't there when they needed you."
"I know.", Marcy admits as she lowers her head again and now sits down on the ground. Another voice speaks up.
"I had such high hopes for you, MarMar.", it's Andrias and Luz is now gone, "I was really hoping you and Yunan could have prevented all of this... But you killed your friends- you killed them all."
"I...", Marcy can't find any words. Instead, another voice speaks up again.
"You disappointed me! I thought I could trust you," it's General Yunan. At this point, Marcy is just heavily sobbing. She lifts her head slightly and sees the three of them judgingly staring at her.
"You are a terrible friend!", Luz accuses her.
"I should never have taken you in!", Andrias says.
"All the time I spent with you was a waste!", Yunan exclaims.
"Loser!"
"Unreliable!"
"Pathetic!"
"Murderer!"
"Hypocrite!"
At this point, Marcy snaps.
"ENOUGH!!!", she screams, sending out a green shockwave that obliterates everything else around her. She now sits in complete silence and darkness. She continues sobbing into her own arms when suddenly two hands gently touch her shoulders.
"They are wrong.", that's Anne's voice. Marcy snaps her head around only to be stunned to find Anne and Sasha both standing there, alive and well, in front of her. And both of them are smiling at her.
Marcy dashes forward and hugs both girls as tight as she can, crying into their shoulders. Sasha speaks up.
"It's not too late Marbles.", she says encouragingly, "You can still save us. Us, and all of them."
"But..."
"No but.", Anne firmly disagrees, "We believe in you, even if you don't right now."
"I saw you dead... You killed each other...", Marcy cries softly.
"That is not carved in stone.", Sasha argues, "All of this... This is what would happen if you weren't here. Without you being here, yes, Anne and I would probably kill each other. It's you who can prevent that from happening."
Marcy breaks apart the hug and looks both girls in the eye as she wipes her tears from her face. She notices a green glow developing in her field of vision. Marcy takes a step backward and looks at her hands in disbelief.
"What do I have to do?", she asks. Anne and Sasha look at her encouragingly.
"You need to wake up."
With a single powerful jolt, Marcy throws herself upright. She throws a blanket off of her in the process.
"ANNE!", she screams in panic. Her eyes jump rapidly around the room, which she quickly identifies as the Plantars' basement, fully drenched in sweat and shaking all over her body. With her hand, she paws around on Anne's side of the bed, only to find it empty.
Suddenly, the basement hatch opens in front of her and a concerned Sprig peers down at her.
"What's wrong? I heard you screaming..."
"Where's Anne? Is she safe?", she asks him fearfully.
"Anne... is fine. She was here earlier to give Polly her phone before she left again. Why?", he asks, to which Marcy exhales in relief. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"Worse. It was more of a night terror...", Marcy tells, feeling slightly calmer now, but still with unsteady breathing and a high heartbeat. Sprig is unsure what to say now.
"Do you want to talk about it?", he asks after a short silence.
"Everyone died... They slaughtered each other...", Marcy tells with a shaky voice, whereupon Sprig's eyes widen in concern.
"You mean Anne and Sasha?", he cautiously inquires.
"I mean all of them. Not a single frog, toad, newt, or... human was still alive. No one but me."
Before Sprig can answer in any way, however, an alarm siren of sorts interrupts both of their thoughts. Deeply concerned, Marcy looks at Sprig.
"I certainly hope that's not an attack siren...", Marcy states, to which Sprig contorts his face in unease.
"That's the alarm that sounds when herons are spotted nearby. That's the one that sounded when-", Sprig states before cutting himself off, "It's going to be Grime. Very sure."
"Shit.", Marcy jumps up from the bed. She's still wearing her uniform, thankfully. It saves her time, since all she has to do is put on her boots. Her eyes fall on her crossbow, but as she tries to reach for it, she visibly hesitates and shakes slightly. In the end, she doesn't put it on, but turns to Sprig, who continues to look at her with a worried expression, as she's holding her own hand.
"Are you alright?", he asks. Marcy shakes her head.
"Sprig, listen to me. Get Hop Pop and Polly, and hide. Just in case I... that I..."
"I get it.", Sprig says understandingly, "I'm sure you can do whatever it is you have planned."
Marcy smiles slightly at that and darts past Sprig, when suddenly one more thing occurs to her.
"By the way, please make sure Polly doesn't blow up the tower".
"Yes, ma'am.", Sprig salutes. Marcy's gaze lingers on him for a moment before she turns and runs out of the house as fast as she can.
When Marcy arrives in the heart of the village, it appears to be abandoned. She only sees two single frogs equipped with dark gray, metal breast plates running past her in the direction of the village entrance. Marcy doesn't waste a second thinking, and immediately runs after them. The alarm sounds from the same direction, and it appears to be some sort of large blowing horn, which stands atop one of the four wooden watchtowers built along the equally wooden rampart.
Marcy continues to run through the tent city immediately outside Wartwood, only to find that largely abandoned as well. Sporadically, she still spots individuals between the tents heading in the same direction as she is. When Marcy reaches the wall, she already gets a first impression of what lies ahead of her. All the thousands of mostly frogs surprisingly organized in several sections of fifty by twenty frogs plus isolated toads, and with newts spread out on the four watchtowers for ranged combat if needed.
It takes more than a minute for Marcy to actually arrive at the front, and she is completely surprised to have run through the entire time, not feeling the least bit exhausted or out of strength. Marcy stops short when she notices the toad soldiers standing directly across from the frogs, maybe fifty yards apart. Marcy looks at them briefly. They look extremely motivated and ready to fight, as if they've all been waiting for this day their whole lives. Some are baring their teeth, swinging their swords, axes, morning stars, or banging on their shields, while roaring or chanting.
'But that's only a few hundred toads... two hundred tops...', Marcy estimates in her head, 'They don't stand a chance'.
Directly in between the two armies, she sees Anne and Sasha walking towards each other. Marcy's heart stops short when she sees Anne has already turned blue, and she's surprised at the sight of Sasha glowing pink. Both more than ready to obliterate the other.
"HEY!", Marcy roars, approaching them directly between the two armies, attracting everyone's attention. Anne and Sasha turn their heads toward her as well.
"Marcy?", Sasha asks loudly.
"What the fuck are you doing?", Marcy asks in a powerful voice.
"Get back in the house. You shouldn't be here.", Anne chides her.
"Neither should you. Neither of you!", Marcy counters.
"Marcy, I'm serious. Back off!", Anne tries to chide Marcy. However, she remains stubborn. Sasha speaks up.
"Stop bossing Marcy around!", she accuses Anne, who is having none of it.
"As if you care about her... She told me what you told her last time!"
"I care about my people-", Sasha begins but gets cut off by Anne.
"Your people?"
"Yes!", Sasha replies firmly, "Like, for example, my friend who was killed by your assassin!"
"Assassin?", Anne asks sounding genuinely surprised, "I never sent an assassin... But I will definitely do something similar if you and the toads don't surrender right now."
"Oh yeah, like what? The two of us are now equally powerful...", Sasha notes, to which Anne grins diabolically, "What did you do?"
"Toad Tower is completely mined. Hundreds of boomshrooms. All spread out in the sewage system below the tower.", Sasha contorts her face first in shock, then in anger. Both girls seem to have completely forgotten about Marcy.
"You didn't...", Sasha now also bares her teeth, and clenches her fists.
"They're just waiting for my command.", At that very point, Sasha makes her first strike, throwing Anne back to the middle of one of her battalions.
"Sasha no!", Marcy shouts. She turns to face Marcy.
"Anne might be right. You should leave. I wouldn't want you to get hurt.", Sasha says with a, for Marcy surprisingly caring tone. Unfortunately, she has absolutely no time to respond because there are now roaring soldiers running at each other from both sides. The frogs are all yelling "FOR THE VALLEY!" while the toads are yelling "FOR BRADDOCK!" before they start running and shouting.
She spots Anne rising into the air between all the frogs, wearing her dazzling golden armor, and flies toward Sasha with her sword drawn. So far everything is going as planned, and dreaded.
'I seriously hope this works', Marcy thinks to herself before closing her eyes, trying to block out everything around her. She hears the roaring coming closer, but then quickly fading away.
The ground around begins to shake slightly, which seems to confuse the soldiers, causing them to slow down or even stop. Suddenly, the ground bursts open in a circle around both armies and a thick, green, transparent force field shoots out of the ground, fully enclosing both armies in a big dome each. The same thing happens again separately to Anne and Sasha, who look at each other in confusion until their eyes fall on Marcy, and her bright green glowing hair.
"What the...", Sasha initially starts, "Marcy?"
Marcy opens her eyes, which are now just as green as her hair. And she's pissed. Marcy approaches Sasha's dome as she steers Anne's toward her in the direction of the ground. Many soldiers from both armies start yelling and screaming, whereupon Marcy uses a rotating hand motion to make sure that no more sound gets out from either large dome.
"What the heck, Marcy?", Anne asks annoyed. Sasha's mind is slightly elsewhere right now, though.
"You... you have powers too?", she asks. Marcy, on the other hand, doesn't answer either question, but just looks at both girls judgmentally.
"I told you guys that I wouldn't let you all kill each other...", Marcy says disturbingly calm, "But you wouldn't listen to me..."
"What are you doing?"
"This war is going to end. Today. And no innocent blood will be spilled...", Anne and Sasha exchange nervous glances, "You two want to pursue revenge, or some other bullshit??? Fine. I'll let you fight. But on my terms!"
And with a quick movement and two short screams, both girls disappear into the ground, along with the domes that surrounded them. Marcy looks around at both of the larger domes, which have visibly fallen silent. Marcy lets the sound permeability return to normal, before her eyes meet Captain Grime and Ben.
"You two are coming as well!", she announces, enclosing both of them, plus herself, into a smaller dome as well, and all three of them quickly sink into the ground too, leaving to trace behind them.
The journey to wherever was not particularly long before the five glowing green spheres crashed through the rocky ceiling of a cave and onto the stone floor.
"What the...", Ben begins, taking a while to get his bearings.
"Where are we?", Grime asks, before Marcy removes the domes around herself, Ben, and Grime. She turns to Anne, who is still locked in.
"You know where we are, don't you, Anne?"
"This is the Plantars' basement.", she observes, and all five of them look around the immediate area. The entire cavity is lit by the green glow of Marcy herself, as well as the two remaining domes, with slight blue and pink accents. Grime speaks up.
"Okay good, you have our attention. What do you want?", he asks.
"I want the toads to officially surrender.", Marcy demands.
"WHAT?", Sasha calls out to her, which Grime can only support.
"What do you think could be a reason for us to just agree to this?", he asks, offended.
"Simple, Anne is going to void the deal she made with Captain Beatrix.", Marcy explains, to which Grime turns pale. Sasha, on the other hand, gets angry.
"Deal?", she asks, "What kind of deal, Anne?"
"She wants me to turn you over to her, so you can be charged and convicted by the Toad Council.", she explains.
"Shit.", Grime mutters under his own breath, barely audible, except for Marcy.
"So, here's how this is going to go-", Marcy begins, before merging Anne and Sasha's two domes together into one much larger dome, "You two will now fight each other for as long until one of you dies, gives up, or until Grime or Ben intervenes." Anne doesn't believe what she hears her girlfriend say.
"Why would you want to do something like that?", she asks Marcy in shock.
"I don't want to, and that's the point. I've already seen both of you dead, and I'm not ready to live... in a world, in which both of you are not part of my life. Therefore... Ding ding."
"What do you mean by- Ugh…", Anne was about to ask before Sasha landed the first strike, sending Anne crashing into the dome wall with all her strength. The fact that Marcy could feel that impact within her body is something she keeps to herself for now.
Anne falls from the wall a solid half meter to the ground, but catches herself in time. She grabs her sword, gripping it tightly with both hands, lunges and jumps at Sasha, who just manages to dodge the attack. Marcy twitches slightly at that.
After Sasha rolls to the side, she pulls a heavy stalagmite out of the ground and throws it at Anne like a spear. She hits one of her calves as Anne tried to dodge, and she falls uncontrollably to the ground. Enough time for Sasha to pull out three daggers. She slides her fingers over the metal, which ignites them with pink flames.
Wide-eyed, Anne watches as Sasha throws one dagger after another at her at high speed. The first one misses, hits the dome wall, and gets stuck in it. So does number two. But as Anne manages to catch number three out of the air, Sasha stands in surprise.
Anne spins, swings, and throws the dagger back at Sasha in an instant, narrowly missing her ear. Sasha turns backwards as Anne attacks with her sword. She ducks and pulls a piece of rock out of the ground, which she throws at Anne.
With her sword, Anne cuts through the rock like warm butter. New attack from Anne, this time with her fist. She hits Sasha in the ribs and throws her backwards for several meters. On one knee she slides across the stone floor. She looks up and Anne strikes again with her sword. Sasha doesn't have anything to block. With her arm, she tries to block the sword, when Sasha suddenly screams at the top of her voice.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!", she screams in agony, as her severed lower arm falls to the ground, and Sasha herself falls to her knees. Anne lunges again with her sword.
"ENOUGH!", Grime roars, whereupon Anne stops in her motion. Grime's gaze lingers on Sasha, who now drops to the ground in tears, writhing in pain. "You won. I cannot just stand by and watch Sasha getting hurt like that... You'll get whatever you want."
Sasha whimpers in pain and squeezes her arm tightly, just before the burning pink in her hair fades away and her normal blonde hair reappears.
"Grime... No...", Sasha fixes her gaze painfully on Grime.
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. But this is not a decision you get to make.", Grime turns to Marcy, "Please lower the barrier."
Marcy nods in agreement and the dome enclosing Anne and Sasha dissolves into nothingness. Grime runs off towards Sasha as Anne is already kneeling next to her and rips off a piece of her skirt and wraps it around Sasha's wound to stop the bleeding. All this while Sasha just stares at Anne in disbelief.
"Sasha, are you okay? We can take you to... Umm, are there any medical people around here?", Grime now asks Anne. Without much questioning, Anne reaches for Sasha and scoops her up into her arms, along with her severed forearm.
"I'm taking her to Maddie."
"Who's that?", he asks.
"She revived Hop Pop after-", Anne cuts herself off, "Whatever."
Apparently, that was enough to silence everyone present for the time being. And also at that exact moment, Sasha loses consciousness and goes limb.
"We should hurry.", Marcy remarks, and Anne walks ahead into the tunnels, towards the exit. The others trot after her.
The group is extremely surprised to find the Plantars in the tunnels as well. But this is only until Marcy clarifies that she has instructed Sprig to hide everyone. The mood among them is thick. No one is talking, everyone is on edge, and most eyes lie on Anne, who is carrying Sasha in her arms. Marcy is puzzled by Anne's sudden compassion for her. Grime is simply concerned for Sasha. He's not worried about his own duty at the moment. Ben feels nothing but pride in his victory right now. The Plantars feel much the same way as Marcy. And Anne herself... She just wants to find Maddie.
A short time later, the group comes out in the Plantars' living room, and Anne, Marcy, Ben, and Grime immediately head for the exit. Once outside, Anne jumps into the air without a word and flies away.
"Wait!", Grime yells after her. But in vain, because within moments she is already out of earshot. Suddenly Marcy speaks up.
"Oh oh...", Grime and Ben turn to her and notice that the green in her hair and eyes is quickly starting to fade. Seconds later it's gone, and Marcy's legs give out, causing her to fall to her knees, "I guess that was more draining than I thought... Oh shit, the domes."
Immediately all of them turn towards the village border, where the domes are, or rather, should be. Because where moments before the green shimmering domes could be seen in the distance, there is nothing there anymore. Worried, Ben and Grime look at each other. Ben supports Marcy on her legs and the three of them head there as quickly as they can. All in anticipation of something terrible happening.
Anne lands not far from the center of Wartwood village, right in front of the bakery of Maddie's dad, which also happens to be her home. Her mind is filled with anxiousness. She kicks in the door and only a second later notices something hitting her on the head.
"Oh my frog, Anne...", it's Mr. Flour, "I'm so sorry. I thought you were a toad."
Anne looks down at him for a moment and sees a rake, broken in half.
"No big deal. Where's Maddie? It's important!", Anne demands, sounding desperate. He only now notices the other girl lying unconscious in Anne's arms, with one arm lying loosely behind her neck.
"Oh, I see... Um, she said something about a crystal cave, or something.", he replies, whereupon Anne immediately leaves his store again.
"Why aren't you at the front as well?"
"I have four daughters and I'm a single father. I can't leave them alone."
"Oh, right, I see."
"Good luck.", he says goodbye before Anne takes off again, speeding across the high leaf forest with only a single goal in mind. That is, until she notices movement in her arms.
"Anne?", she hears Sasha ask weakly.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna help you.", she replies. Moments later, she just hears her whimper softly and sees her pressing her head against Anne's body.
Anne notices the large, familiar ruins quickly approaching, and aligns herself so that she's heading straight for the archway, but doesn't slow down in the process. Sasha passes out again, and Anne feels a certain desperation rise up.
"Don't worry, Sash. I won't give you up."
Anne speeds through the archway and instantly finds herself back within the crystal cave.
"MADDIE!", Anne roars, her voice echoing through the cave, slowing down, and watching for any sign of activity. A few seconds of silence pass. One second. Two seconds. Too many.
"Anne?"
The voice comes from the center of the cave, which she now immediately flies toward. Maddie is quite surprised when she sees Anne flying towards her in a wide angle. And that with Sasha in her arms. The girl she thought Anne hated.
Maddie was previously performing various experiments on the large, colorless crystal in the center of the cavern, illuminated by several light orbs that float in the air around the stone plateau. At the crystal itself are several books and equipment for various magical analyses.
Anne rather crashes uncontrollably to the ground than landing there. And that only a few meters in front of Maddie, before her powers are also fading out, leaving only the light orbs as light sources.
"You have to help her!", Anne literally screams, almost with tears in her eyes, "These... these regeneration glyphs from Luz..."
"What happened?", she asks in concern.
"I did that.", Anne admits, revealing Sasha's separated limb, "Can you help her?"
"Lay her down, here.", Maddie instructs her after a brief consideration, "Put her forearm right up against the rest of her arm. There can't be any space in between."
Anne nods, and gently and carefully sets Sasha down on the cold stone floor while Maddie tears two pages out of one of her books, rips them into four pieces each, and quickly draws glyphs on them before returning to Anne with now eight identical glyphs.
"Okay, here's the situation: the magical field in here has decayed over time, which means we need more glyphs to get the same effect.", Anne nods affirmatively, though she doesn't have the head to really listen to her. In rapid succession, Maddie applies the glyphs directly to the area between the limbs, and after each glyph activated, Sasha's arm begins to glow more. After the eighth glyph, Maddie continues. "I don't know if that was enough glyphs, or when she will wake up it were enough. We have to wait now..."
"Okay...", Anne merely says, not taking her eyes off Sasha.
"So, what happened?", Maddie asks again.
"I already told you that."
"No. That you guys fought each other is obvious. I want to know what happened. I'm assuming they attacked Wartwood. Or did you attack first?", Maddie asks, though without a hint of condemnation in her voice.
"Grime showed up with his army in front of Wartwood earlier. We outnumbered them and I was expecting him, but I was still nervous. Sasha and I were throwing ugly things at each other, when Marcy showed up.", Anne summarizes.
"What did she do?"
"Marcy locked both armies in domes..."
"Wow... So, she has powers too? ... About time.", Maddie comments.
"Then she locked Sasha and me up too, and sent us to some kind of cave under the Plantars' property, where we were supposed to fight each other until either one of us was dead, or Ben or Grime surrendered."
"Clever.", Maddie notes.
"What?", Anne asks, uncomprehending.
"Well, your hatred for Sasha, and perhaps hers for you, was one of the driving forces in this conflict. And Grime and Ben are the ones closest to you two in your respective command structures. Marcy has merely narrowed the playing field and reduced the potential for damage," Maddie explains, which seems to be causing Anne's brain to blow up.
"I... guess so...?", Anne talks to herself mindlessly, "Sorry, my mind is not on it right now."
"Understandable. But there's one thing you have to tell me..."
"Huh?"
"Why did you bring her here?", Maddie asks, which throws Anne slightly off track. She has to think about it for a while.
"I think it was something Grime said. That he couldn't stand it if anything happened to her. And that opened my eyes... She had hurt me so much when she killed Hop Pop, so I had hurt her in return. She was a monster... But now I see that I am the monster now, and I don't want to be that anymore.", she confesses.
"So, you forgive her?"
"No. ... Well, not yet.", she replies, "But I don't want to hate her anymore. Hate has made me into something I don't wanna be."
Suddenly, Sasha shoots upright between the two girls into a sitting position. The glow in her body has nearly disappeared. She gasps in shock.
"Sasha!", Anne shouts joyfully, surrounding her from behind in a tight hug.
Sasha herself, however, does not realize this at all at first. Her first glance falls on her arms, first in panic, then in confusion.
"What the...", she begins, before her gaze races around the, to her, unfamiliar cave. Only now does she realize she is being hugged, "Anne?"
"I'm here. I'm here...", Anne says as she crawls around Sasha to look at her from the front, "You're safe."
"What... Where... Wait.", Sasha blinks her eyes in turn, "My-my eye.... I can see again... How???"
"You can thank Maddie there.", Anne says smiling before Sasha turns to her.
"Yo.", Maddie greets her neutrally before turning around and going back to her books. Sasha turns back to Anne, who smiles slightly at her.
"But... Why?"
"I'll tell you on the way back. It's a long enough walk, and I don't think I'll be able to fly for a while.", Anne surmises with an amused tone. Sasha, on the other hand, doesn't find anything amusing about it.
"Thank you. Even if I don't deserve it."
"Bullshit.", Anne counters.
It takes a surprisingly long time for both girls to actually regain enough of their strength to begin the actual long walk back to Wartwood. Before they left, Anne asked Maddie how she could thank her for her help. In the end, Maddie only asked to be present when she would recharge one of the gems. The fact that Anne immediately agreed was a no-brainer.
It was a long way back. Very long. And both girls were ultimately so exhausted, that they had to support each other on the last stretch through the woods. All the way, it was almost as if these last few weeks had never existed, for both of them. They told each other stories and laughed together. They both even cleared up the misunderstanding regarding General Yunan's, along with the fact that Anne sent her to them just to talk, and not to kill anyone. And Sasha even seems to believe her. However, this was all superficial. They were both quite aware of the fact that they had a lot to work through, before things could get back to 'normal'.
When both of them finally reached Wartwood, they were met by the Plantars, Marcy and some members of the Frog Rebellion Council as guards for Grime. The latter in handcuffs.
"They seriously all bailed?", Sasha asks incredulously.
"Well, when the domes disintegrated, the frogs launched an attack, and your troops, with few exceptions, just ran away.", Marcy recounts.
"Cowards.", Grime interjects.
"How many are left, and where are they?", Sasha asks.
"Seven. Percy among them.", Grime replies.
"They're getting medical attention, and then they get to decide what they want to do.", Marcy explains.
"What do you mean?", Sasha asks.
"All the soldiers who want to stay here will be granted amnesty, and will be allowed to stay here in the valley.", Marcy explains.
"Oh... And what about us?", Sasha asks Anne curiously, "Are you really going to turn us in?"
"Well, what would you guys prefer?", Anne asks Sasha and Grime alike, "I could tell Beatrix you're dead, but I'm not sure she'd believe it. And you would officially be on the run."
Everyone present now looks at Grime.
"I think you should turn us in. I'm tired, and could use a few days off.", he replies.
"But what about the Toad Council?", Anne asks.
"Easy. We'll bail before we get there.", Grime replies casually before turning to Sasha, "Any objections, Lieutenant?"
Sasha shakes her head. At that, Marcy rushes forward and encloses her in a tight and warm hug. "Oh, how I missed this."
Notes:
Well... The fic's deathcount is no longer 0. Poor Braddock...
So, what do you guys think? I for one am very glad that the Frog-Rebellion storyline is over now (Even if I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending).
The next chapter is set in the Isles again ^^
Chapter 33: Mittensday [Part 1]
Notes:
Good morning everyone. Today-ish, exactly one year ago I published the very first chapter of 'A Lost Owl'. I didn't have anything special planned for this occasion, but at least you'll get a new chapter today. Yay
Also, on a sidenote, since the last few chapters were quite heavy, this one's gonna be a little lighter.
Enjoy <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
LUZURA_THE_HUMAN_WITCH
Guess what? Guess what? Guess what?
Good morning to you too, Luz.
Yeah, hi. Guess what?
You were finally able to un-summon your scroll?
No. Still need to carry it around in my pocket. But...
Remember that empty business card Liwin gave me?
Yeah, you told me about it.
Did something happen with it?
YES!
Today is the first meeting! At noon.
Awesome 😊
Wait… That’s during school, isn’t it?
I hope you don’t mind ditching classes later 😇
Yk, just a few months ago I would have rather died than breaking any rules. Let alone skipping school...
But I had already told you that I'm in 😉
Amity grins like a fool, still lying in her bed, her scroll in her hands, having just been woken up by Luz. Since she gifted Luz her own scroll, every day of this week always began exactly like this, and from Amity's point of view, her days couldn't start any more perfectly. Every day of this week always started with a lovely "Good Morning" message from Luz, which inevitably led to Amity hugging her scroll tightly to her heart, each and every time.
Without fail, every day so far, when Luz and Amity were not physically in the same place, they spent chatting with each other. Admittedly, it had something obsessive in itself, but there is simply nothing that can separate Amity from her Luz. While she would love to stay at Owl House every day, she knows it would be nearly impossible for her to do anything productive, like homework, for example. And although she no longer wants to join a coven, she still cares about getting good grades. But... well, priorities.
LUZURA_THE_HUMAN_WITCH
I couldn't have asked for any better answer ;)
I'll pick you up later
You pick me up later?
You're not coming to school today?
Sorry, Ams. I discovered something new yesterday and I want to surprise you with it.
Don't worry about it. You'll be impressed. I can guarantee that
😢
I'll take notes for you in class
❤ ️
A sad smile graces Amity's face as she puts her scroll aside. Disappointment fills her thoughts, followed by suspense, curiosity, and excitement. This state doesn't last long, however, because an unexpected sound makes her slip out of her thoughts.
Knock knock.
'Knocking? Since when do Ed and Em knock?', she wonders.
"Um, come in?"
Her bedroom door opens, and her dad enters her room.
"Oh, um... Good morning, Mittens. Did I wake you up?", he asks with insecurity in his voice. Amity merely shakes her head slightly. "Good, good... Wait a minute, is that the Champion's Belt??? Where did you get that?", he asks thoroughly stunned as he looks towards Amity’s desk where the belt lies on top of.
"Won it. At the brawl. Almost one week ago."
"Oh.", is all he says at first. "You participated... and won?"
"I won all the preliminary rounds, and made it to the finals against Warden Wrath. But... I didn't win, though. Luz did, actually. She was the one who gave me the belt... After she saved my life."
"Luz?", he asks.
"The human... And my girlfriend..."
"Oh...", he contorts his face in regret and shame, "Umm... and since when-"
"Dad, why are you here?", Amity cuts him off.
"Right. Um, I'm here to tell you that I'm going to take you to school today."
"What? Why?"
"Your mother had called me a little while ago and demanded that I bring the twins to her to the new factory. And I figured I could drop you off at the school on the way.", he explains.
"Pass.", Amity replies as she moves her blanket aside and moves to sit on the edge of the bed.
"Excuse me?"
"You know, I would absolutely want to spend time with you-", Alador swallows hard, his gaze not averting from his daughter, "But not like this."
"I was actually thinking that you could use this as an opportunity to say goodbye for the duration that they won't be here... But, still good to know what you're thinking about that.", he says disheartened, turning around, and leaving her room again.
"Dad...", Amity gets up from her bed in order to run after him, when Edric and Emira suddenly rush into her room, screaming.
"MITTENS!", they scream indignantly. Emira stops short of her sister. Edric, on the other hand, does not, and throws Amity, along with himself, onto her bed.
"Ugh...", Amity grunts, "Get off of me!"
"Em...", Edric starts after rolling to the side, "I thought we were going to do this together..."
"You shouldn't believe everything I say, Ed.", Emira answers him dryly. Amity has sat up by now, with her brother beside her, and Emira now sits down on her other side. Amity speaks up.
"So, Mom wants you guys at the new factory...", she says to no one in particular.
"Yup. But only for a couple of weeks...", Edric says.
"But why? And why today of all days? Weekend isn't until tomorrow...", Amity states. Emira speaks up first.
"According to Dad, all the factory workers simply left, and Mom wants, until she has hired new people, that Ed and I-", Emira raises her hands to make air quotes, "can familiarize ourselves with the internal company structure..."
"Mom will definitely regret forcing us to work at the factory.", Edric adds cheerfully.
"Good... Good...", Amity mumbles, sounding somewhat neutral, as Emira suddenly hugs her tightly.
"Don't worry, within two weeks at most, we'll either have destroyed the factory or driven Mom sufficiently insane that she'll send us back. So, you won't be rid of us for too long...", Emira speaks encouragingly. Edric joins in the hug, and Amity actually seems to enjoy this embrace for once.
"Hope you don't have too much fun without us. You know, all alone... Just with dad here in the house... Who probably wouldn't notice if you wouldn't be here for several nights...", Edric teases her, whereupon he gets a light slap from Emira.
"Hey, don't give her any ideas, Ed.", Emira says, to which Amity giggles, and the hug breaks up again. The twins get up from Amity's bed and make their way to her room door.
"I'll see you in a few weeks.", Emira says, and Amity waves goodbye as Edric suddenly yanks himself away and throws himself at Amity again, crying with all his might.
"Oh Mittens... I'm going to miss you soo much.", he cries. Amity is having none of it though and practically throws him off of her.
"Fuck off, Ed!", she says angrily. Emira giggles at the door, grabs her brother, and they both leave her room together, closing the door behind them.
'Two whole weeks without the twins... Uhh, wait a second...', Amity quickly picks up her scroll and opens Luz' contact.
LUZURA_THE_HUMAN_WITCH
I might have a surprise for you too
Later
I am already excited about it
It's just after seven o'clock on a Friday morning, and there are still a good thirty minutes before classes start. More than enough time to take a relaxing shower, dress without being rushed, and make herself a quick breakfast.
In the end, with about ten minutes to spare, Amity now stands outside her room, wearing her purple school uniform, her bag of books hanging off her shoulder, and holding Ghost in her staff form in her hand. She places her hand on the railing and glances briefly down into the empty living room. The fireplace is not lit. No sounds come from her father's workshop.
Sliding her hand over the railing, she slowly walks past her siblings' rooms, their doors wide open. She takes a quick look into both rooms, a slight feeling of sadness filling her.
Shortly after, she leaves the house, closing the large front door behind her, and heads off on the several-minute flight to school. She is actually quite grateful to have Ghost on a day like this. In all the years prior, she either had to walk along with the twins, or she was taken in the company wagon, which is as big, ugly, and uncomfortable to sit in as it can possibly be. This is the same wagon that her father now uses to bring the twins to the new factory, and every second she doesn't have to ride in it is a good one. Not only are her parents both lousy drivers, the stench of the tamed snake horses who are pulling the wagon, is absolutely unbearable in the long run. They may look totally stunning, but at the same time, smell sickening. Wild snake horses, on the other hand, are quite different. They not only look beautiful; they have a wonderful scent. It is a common theory that snake horses, after being captured and tamed, will neglect their own hygiene, and subconsciously emit a disgusting stench to force their captors to release them.
Amity finally arrives at Hexside and waves to Gus, who happens to enter the premises at the same time. Her first two periods for the day are in 'Applied Defenses' with Professor Hermonculus. This is something like a bi-weekly, cross-track class, with the goal of practical magical skills training. Basically, it's like a gym class where talented students beat the crap out of each other. Of course, one can't call it that, right?
Before Amity heads to the gym, however, she quickly scurries to her locker to put away her books and other materials for the day, none of which she will need for this first class.
As is common with all upper grades, Amity's locker is on the top floor of the building, not counting the school's towers. Also, her locker is directly across from Luz'. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Advantage because she can see Luz every day. And disadvantage because Luz, but also all other passing students, can look into her locker. And that makes her a little uncomfortable, considering that in her locker door hang several photos, some of them drawings, most of which, in one form or another, depict her together with Luz. And while she no longer cares about her social status, the fact that others could potentially make fun of her because of that, is something she would like to avoid.
Amity has just put the last of her books together with her bag into her locker, when suddenly someone taps her on the shoulder from behind. Startled, she slams her locker door shut and turns around. It is Skara, who is slightly startled.
"Sorry Amity. I didn't mean to scare you...", she apologizes sincerely.
"Oh, Skara, hi. Um, no problem.", Amity replies, trying to sound normal, "What's up?"
"I actually just wanted to give you a heads up about Boscha...", Skara begins.
"Give me a heads up? Why?", Amity inquires, to which Skara grits her teeth in embarrassment.
"Well, after Boscha bullied Willow again yesterday and you intervened, Amelia had also decided to cut contact with Boscha..."
"And Boscha now blames me for that?", Amity asks, sounding not very surprised.
"Mhm.", Skara hums in confirmation, to which Amity sighs in annoyance.
"Okay, thank you Skara.", Amity says with a slight smile just before the class bell rings, "Damn, I gotta go."
Amity and Skara say a quick goodbye before Amity picks up her feet and runs to the gym, only to find the doors locked, with a note pinned to it from Professor Hermonculus, stating that all students are to assemble outside on the sports field.
Growling in annoyance, Amity runs off again, down the hall once across the school, past several students to the grounds outside, where the rest of the class has already almost fully assembled. 'Applied Defenses' is actually one of the smaller cross-track classes with only twelve students. There is a second group of twelve students that has this class every other week. Why the class was split so oddly, or who decided that, was never explained to them. From Amity's group, she herself does not know all the students by name, mainly because she herself happens to be the only one from the Abomination track. It is generally the case that not all tracks are represented there with two or more students each. There are just two students that she does know: the first one is Viney, who is doing the healings for this class that might be needed, and the other person is Boscha. Who is actually not part of this class...
Amity sneaks up right behind her, who doesn't seem to notice her.
"What are you doing here?", Amity whispers near Boscha's ear, expecting to startle her. Instead, she doesn't even turn around.
"You know exactly what you've done. And you're going to pay for it!", Boscha answers her in the same volume, but in a more powerful voice.
"But you're not even in this class...", Amity remarks.
"I'm the captain of the Banshees. I can do whatever I want!", Boscha retorts, which the professor now catches on too.
"Miss Blight. Miss Van Nejd. Please stop your conversations or share what you have discussed with each other with the rest of the class!", Professor Hermonculus addresses the two girls directly. Boscha speaks up.
"I apologize, Professor.", Boscha says in a disgustingly sweet voice. Professor Hermonculus, however, is having none of it, as he begins to speak in a serious tone.
"Miss Van Nejd... Don't play the model student with me. Your reputation is well known to me, and I'm not just talking about your accomplishments as captain of the Grudgby team. You're only in my class because Principal Bump approved it. Step out of line and I will remove you immediately. Do you understand?"
Boscha merely nods slightly, and as he turns, she turns to Amity, who throws her a spiteful smirk, believing that her revenge plan, whatever it may have been, has now fallen flat.
Wrong.
"Okay, everyone. Pay attention!", Professor Hermonculus stands prominently in front of the class, "Today you're going to duel each other. As mentioned last time, your grade will not depend on whether or not you win the duel, but on how effectively you can defend yourselves against your opponents. I repeat: the result doesn't matter... And no close-combat! So, who would like to start? Any volunteers?"
Instinctively, Amity's hand shoots up. A mistake, as she immediately realizes.
"Miss Blight, very good. And who would like to-", he interrupts himself as he notices Boscha's hand raised, "Miss Van Nejd, all right. As a student of Potion-track, I hope they already have ready-made potions with them. There is no time-"
"I assure you, Professor. I am always prepared for such an occasion.", Boscha assures him, taking out a belt on a cloth pouch, in which several different colored potions are fastened.
A short time later, all the students except Amity and Boscha have cleared the area. The professor is standing between the two girls.
"Get ready!", he shouts. Amity creates an Abomination almost thrice her size, and Boscha takes two throwing potions from her belt in her hands. One is green, the other shimmering silver-colored. He continues.
"Get set. Begin!", he takes several steps back before Amity's Abomination immediately launches into an attack.
It runs at Boscha, who immediately throws the silver potion at it. The bottle shatters on impact and within seconds the entire Abomination is fully frozen.
"An Abomination freezing spell... How delightful.", Professor Hermonculus comments as Amity tries to return the Abomination liquid to its original state. Boscha throws her a mischievous grin as she struggles to do so.
"Oops, I must have made the frost spell too strong... My bad...", Boscha says to which Amity angrily frowns at her, "But for now, say goodnight, Blight!".
Quickly realizing that Boscha has swapped the green potion for a light blue one. Quickly Amity tries again to retrieve the frozen abomination liquid to her, but by then it was already too late.
The potion bottle bursts right in front of Amity, and light blue steam completely envelops her. In an instant, her eyes become enormously heavy, and her legs begin to sag.
'A sleeping spell...', Amity realizes as she tumbles to the ground. Right before her eyes finally close, she catches a glimpse of the dense steam gradually dissolving, and Boscha approaching her, kneeling down next to her.
"You take my friends, I'll take your grades.", is the last thing Amity hears before she drifts off to a deep sleep.
Sometime later...
Amity slowly begins to regain consciousness. It was a dreamless sleep, but Amity is nothing but annoyed right now. Though, this annoyance quickly turns to worry, however, when she realizes that someone is softly rubbing the back of her head.
Amity snaps her eyes open, shoots her torso upward, and sees that she is in the healer's office.
"What?", she mutters to herself.
"Good morning sleeping princess...", a soft voice speaks from behind her.
"Luz.", Amity says delightedly, jumping down from the hospital bed, tripping over her own legs in the process, causing Luz to catch her. With relief written all over her face, Luz holds Amity for several seconds before Amity truly realizes what is happening around her at this very moment. She eyes Luz, on whose shoulder Owlbert is sitting. She's not wearing her school uniform, which isn't too surprising. She is wearing the owl lady's Grudgby jacket, and carries a fanny pack across her chest, slightly open, and wherein Amity seems to recognize Luz's concealment bracelet.
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down... You just woke up.", Luz supports her.
"What... How long was I out?", Amity asks still weakly, as she sits back down on a nearby chair with Luz's help.
"Not sure, but it's almost lunch.", Luz replies, "Do you remember what happened?"
"Ugh, I'm going to kill her.", Amity groans.
"No, you won't.", Luz flatly objects to her, not even asking who Amity is referring to, "So, you do remember what happened?"
"Boscha snuck into my 'Applied Defenses' class and tried to sabotage me with an extra strong sleeping potion".
"Why?", Luz asks, "I mean, sure, it's Boscha... But still..."
"She blames me for her friends distancing themselves from her.", Amity explains.
"Yeah, kinda makes sense.", Luz comments just before the school bell rings for lunch, "Are you hungry?"
"What about the meeting? I thought you said it was around noon..."
"Yeah, and we still have twenty minutes left.", Luz replies, then immediately continues when she realizes Amity has more questions, "And, I found a cool shortcut that will save us lots of travel time. So... Hungry?"
"... Yes.", Amity ultimately admits. Luz gives a brief, triumphant grin before standing up and offering Amity her hand as a support to help her get up.
Amity stares at Luz's hand for a few moments with an inexpressive look on her face, before a slight smile spreads across her face and she proudly takes her hand in her own, before getting up. Fortunately, by now she's a bit more awake and stable enough on her own two feet. This is no reason to let go of Luz's hand again, however.
"Tell me, Luz-", Amity begins as they both make their way out of the healer's office, "How long did you wait here for me to wake up, anyway?"
"Not long... Ten minutes, maybe.", Luz replies, slightly sheepish. Suddenly, the school’s healer announces herself from the corner of her office.
"She was here for more than an hour playing with your hair, Missy.", she shouts after the two girls. Amity sees Luz blush slightly.
"Maybe a little longer than that...", she admits while blushing. Both girls start giggling wildly and make their way through the school towards the cafeteria.
They walk there leisurely, with quite a few other students passing them by. In fact, this is the first time Luz and Amity appear publicly as girlfriends holding hands.
Until now, Amity was actually a little afraid of others finding out about their relationship. But now the truth is, that she has completely different things going through her mind.
'Oh, my titan, I'm holding Luz's hand... I'm holding my girlfriend's hand... My girlfriend, who is Luz... Luz is my girlfriend', Amity blushes to herself. Luz looks at her from time to time as they walk, and can't help but smile broadly at the sight. This continues for several minutes, until they're almost there, and are intercepted by Celine, the crescent-headed girl from the oracle track, who looks rather unnerved.
"Amity, thank Titan, you're finally awake again.", she says sounding relieved, "That was a really bad stunt what Boscha did. Not cool."
"Um, thanks...", Amity and Luz look at each other uncertainly, "Were you waiting for me or something like that?"
"Yes. Okay, listen, I have to explain myself real quick: Every Friday before school starts, I make contact with the ghost world. Sometimes a ghost comes to me just to chat, and sometimes one comes to me with a prediction or prophecy about the future."
"I think I can see where this is going...", Luz comments vaguely.
"Yeah... What exactly does that have to do with me?", Amity asks.
"Well... the ghost refuses to talk to me. It says nothing but your name all day so far. Do you have a minute to come to the Oracle lab?", Celine asks with a hint of desperation in her voice. Amity looks questioningly at her girlfriend, who nods affirmatively.
"Um, sure. We'll come with you."
"Both of you?", Celine wonders, just before her gaze falls on Luz' and Amity's interlocked hands, "Oh, okay. Yeah, of course."
Walking briskly, Celine leads the two girls to the oracle lab. Fortunately, the lab is only two doors away from the cafeteria.
As the three of them enter the room, a slight feeling of disappointment overcomes Amity. As a student in the abomination track, she usually only sees her own classrooms, and not those of other tracks. Willow has told her that the plant-track has a special lab, next to the greenhouse, with some special plants. Mostly the ones considered too dangerous. The twins have told her that the illusion lab is equipped with many mirrors, prisms, or modeling aids.
The oracle lab, on the other hand, has no special equipment, with the exception of two transparent crystal balls per table. It is basically nothing more than a regular classroom. Amity had at least imagined the lab to have some oracle- or ghost-specific decorations. Or curtains or dark carpets hanging on the walls. Instead, just, bare, white walls. Disappointing.
Celine leads the two girls to her seat, where there is a gray swirling mist in her crystal ball. Celine stands on one side of the table, Luz and Amity on the other side, still holding hands. Luz looks at it in curiosity, Amity in concern. Celine puts her hands on either side of the crystal ball and makes it light up.
"Amity Blight is here.", she speaks clearly, and mere seconds later, a translucent ghost appears, though its end remains inside the ball. Luz leans toward Amity.
"Someone you know?", Luz wonders. Amity eyes the ghost briefly before shaking her head. The pointed ears immediately reveal that it is indeed a deceased witch. She wears a white frilly dress, and has white hair, indicating that she died of old age.
"Amity Blight?", the ghost repeats. Amity nods, and the ghost smiles kindly. "My name is Bludoria Blight. I am the grandmother of your father, Alador."
"Very pleased to meet you.", Amity replies with a slight curtsy.
"Uh, a fine-mannered lady, I see... Okay, listen up, I'm short on time. There are two things I need to tell you. Number one, do you know about the cottage, near Las Pelvis, that your family owns?", Amity nods, "In my day, that house had a basement that I sealed up near the end of my life. Be a dear and stop by there sometime. The entrance is located in the staircase."
"Basement entrance in the staircase, got it.", Amity repeats.
"Very good.", the ghost of Amity's great-grandmother speaks with a joyful tone before it abruptly changes, taking on a very serious tone, bordering on sorrowful. The three girls begin to shiver slightly, "And now a word of warning: a grave tragedy is upon you, Amity Blight. Very soon, you will lose two individuals close to you. One that your heart longs for, and one that it repels with all its might. You will not be able to save either of them. And now, farewell..."
"NO! WHAT? STAY HERE!", Amity shrieks in panic as the ghost quickly retreats back into the crystal ball, and the fog within dissipates. Amity jumps onto the table, snatches the crystal ball from Celine's hands and begins to shake it frantically, "WHO DO I LOSE???? WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN??? ANSWER ME!"
Celine and Luz both struggle to calm Amity down. Unsuccessfully so far. Only when she shakes and squeezes the ball with her hands so forcefully that it cracks, just then as Amity realizes what she has done, she climbs back down from the table.
"I'm sorry about your crystal ball.", Amity remorsefully says as she places the cracked ball back into its holder. And while Amity merely looks thoroughly guilty, Luz and Celine's mouths are wide open, and no one is talking.
"What?", Amity eventually does speak up.
"You broke my crystal ball-", Celine states.
"I already told you that I'm-", Amity was about to apologize again, but Celine cuts her off.
"And that with your bare hands...", she adds.
"Yeah, so?", Amity answers like it's nothing unusual. Now Luz speaks up.
"I don't think I've ever met anyone that strong...", she says admiringly. Amity doesn't elaborate on that, though.
"Can we please go back to the fact that people are going to die??? And that Luz is possibly one of them???", Amity speaks up and grabs Luz hand, now more determined than ever to never let her go, "Can you bring that ghost back? Please? I NEED to know more!"
"... I'm sorry, but I assume the ghost is gone. Like, for good.", Celine answers after some hesitation.
"What do you mean by 'for good'?", Amity asks anxiously.
"Yeah, I'm actually curious about that too.", Luz adds to that. Celine sighs.
"Luz, remember when I told you, that time and space as we know them do not exist in the ghost world?", Celine asks, to which Luz nods, "The reason builds on top of that... Ghosts can theoretically exist indefinitely, and also travel indefinitely between the ghost world and, for example, this one, and that in theory also at any time in history or the future. However, most ghosts move exclusively forward in the time line, because there is one major problem: If a ghost has once been in the future, and returns to the past and changes anything there, no matter how small it might be, the ghost changes its own past at the same time, which leads to the fact that it will never have been in the future to learn what information it brought back. By doing that, it erases itself."
"Uh, so like some kind of paradox?", Luz asks, causing Amity to frow at her.
"Don't tell me you understood that?", Amity asks Luz. She herself currently feels like hot steam is pouring out of her ears right now.
"Well, I have some basic knowledge about time travel and paradoxes. You just shouldn't think about it for too long or it gets too complicated.", Luz tries to explain to her girlfriend. Amity just shakes her head in dismissal.
"How- How likely is it that such a prediction will actually come true?", Amity asks Celine extremely worried by now, "I mean, you meant the ghost already changed the future when she told us about it. But she herself said that they cannot be saved... What is it now?"
"It's actually hard to say. It happens extremely rarely that a ghost is willing to sacrifice itself, just to send a future prophesy back into the past. And often an event can be prevented just by getting the message that something is going to happen to someone in the past, be it an accident, or something like that. Bigger things, like natural disasters, are more rarely preventable, and you can only try to save as many people as possible. It doesn't always succeed, though, and the ghosts know that."
"Okay, so we know there's going to be a natural disaster?!", Amity asks, increasingly panicked and frustrated. Celine shakes her head.
"Not for sure, no.", she replies, to which Amity's panic only continues to rise. She begins to tear up, which Luz notices immediately.
"Celine, do you think you could leave us alone for a moment?", Luz asks her nicely.
"Of course. I'll be in the cafeteria if you need anything.", she replies. Luz nods gratefully, and Celine leaves the room. And even before the room door slams shut, Amity can no longer hold back, burying her head deep into Luz' shoulder as she cries her eyes out. Luz hesitates briefly, not knowing exactly how to act in this situation. On the other hand, she doesn't have to think long about what she can do to offer comfort to her crying girlfriend.
Luz hugs her close, and both girls embrace the undisturbedness around them.
"I don't want to lose you again.", Amity whispers in a muffled voice into Luz's shoulder after a while, and after her sobs have subsided a bit, "I already lost you once, and I don't think I could bear it, to... to-"
"You're not going to lose me.", Luz replies with as much confidence as she can muster right now. Amity breaks the embrace, wiping some tears from her cheeks.
"But the prophecy says-"
"Then it's wrong!", Luz states firmly, holding Amity by her shoulders, who doesn't dare contradict her right now, "It was just some ghost saying something that we have no way of knowing if it's actually true or not."
"But normally-"
"Amity, please listen to me carefully.", Luz cuts her off firmly, before she brushes her thumb alone one of her cheeks, wiping some tears away, "We can't tell what's going to happen tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the day after that... It’s not like it’s written somewhere. The future itself is not set in stone, no matter what any ghosts say... Right here, right now, I am here. With you. And there's no point in driving ourselves crazy over something like those what-if questions. What we can do, though, is be there for each other."
'How does this girl do it?', Amity asks herself, 'How does she manage to make me feel better now than I did before?'
Amity smiles slightly, leans forward and gives Luz a soft kiss on her cheek, who immediately blushes.
"Thank you.", Amity says softly, and Luz merely stares at her with an uncomprehending look, seemingly desperately searching for words.
The two girls stare at each other's eyes in silence, until after a while Amity is able to shift her gaze from Luz, to the wall clock immediately behind her.
"We... we have ten minutes left until the meeting starts...", Amity interrupts the silence, her head feeling incredibly warm. For Luz herself, it takes a while for Amity's words to reach her mind. She blinks several times in quick succession.
"Oh, y-yes... Right. There's no time for lunch anymore now.", Luz chuckles sheepishly.
"Yeah.", Amity confirms equally awkwardly, "We should go."
Together, Luz and Amity leave the oracle lab, and head towards the cafeteria, since that's where the closest exit is. In the middle of the room, however, Luz stops.
"Do you mind waiting here for a minute? I need to talk to Celine real quick.", Luz asks.
"Oh, okay. Sure.", Amity replies, whereupon Luz makes her way to a table in one of the corners of the room. Meanwhile, Amity sits down at one of the empty tables and waits. But and as soon as Luz is away from her, fear begins to creep back into her mind. Fortunately, the arrival of Willow and Gus prevents another anxiety attack.
"Hey Amity.", Willow greets her. Amity lifts her head and greets back in a friendly manner.
"Hey...", she says.
"I'm sorry about what happened to Boscha... Thankfully, she's been suspended for the rest of the day.", Gus says gleefully. This info is new to Amity though.
"That's a good thing... Although I don't think she'll learn anything from that...", Amity replies disparagingly.
"Yeah, probably.", Willow agrees, "But still, this feels like a little bit of justice."
At that point Luz returns.
"Hey guys.", Luz greets Willow and Gus. As Amity gets up from her seat, Willow speaks up.
"Hey Luz, did you happen to see Skara around?", she asks her. Amity answers first, though.
"Um, Skara is usually already home by this time, if the last class is cancelled.", she replies.
"Oh.", Willow merely says, sounding a bit dejected. Luz speaks up.
"You know Skara's schedule?"
"I know all my friends' schedules... even Boscha's.", Amity replies, "And today, like every other week, Skara has no fourth period. And since Miss Fier is sick this week..."
"Right...", Willow confirms. Luz now speaks up.
"Okay, if you know all our schedules, what's my last class on Wednesday?"
"A double period 'Construction'."
"Thursday last period?"
"Potions."
"Tuesday first period?"
"Bard-o-lo-gy.", a triumphant smile graces Amity's face, while she intentionally emphasizes every single syllable. Luz' face, on the other hand, is adorned with nothing but admiration.
"Wow...", Luz whispers to herself as Amity turns back to Willow.
"What do you need from Skara, anyway? Maybe I can pass something on...", Amity offers, but Willow declines as she shakes her head, to which Gus speaks up.
"She was going to walk home with her and ask her out later".
"AUGUSTUS!", Willow shrieks, before slamming her hands over her mouth, while blushing heavily. Luz' and Amity's jaws both drop to the depths of the planet. If Luz had water in her mouth right now, it would be spurting out with the speed of a pressure washer.
"I hope no one else heard that...", Willow whispers as she looks around cautiously.
Once she's calmed down and seen that no one but her friends probably overheard what she said, she turns back to her friends. She is briefly startled, however, when she sees a diabolical grin on Amity's face. And she immediately knows what it means.
"No.", Willow mutters.
"Oh yes.", Amity counters.
"Noo...", Willow repeats, aghast.
"You deserve this."
"Don't do it, I beg you...", Willow begs desperately. Suddenly Luz also speaks up, not quite understanding what is going on between them right now.
"Don't do what?", Luz asks, to which Amity pretends to sigh in exhaustion.
"Luz, I think it's about time I tell you about the time our dear friend Willow told Skara about my crush on you... just like that, and without my consent. And well, that's already about it.", Amity recounts with a smirk, while keeping eye contact with Willow, "And now I've been presented with a great opportunity to return the favor..."
"Please don't-", Willow starts, but Amity cuts her off.
"Oh, and then there was the twins' bet you got in on...", Amity continues, but without a single trace of malice in her voice. It's nothing but mischievous joy. Willow now turns to Luz.
"Please Luz... Please don't let her tell Skara any of this...", Willow pleads holding one of Luz' hands. Luz, on the other hand, is still not sure whose side to take.
"I don't know...", Luz answers, "Actually, I really do wanna know more, but also, Amity and I are in quite a hurry right now too..."
"Uh, where are you guys going?", Gus asks.
"It's a secret.", Luz replies mysteriously, "But... I can show you something cool if you're up for it. You'll have to come with me for a minute though..."
"Sure.", Gus replies gleefully, "Willow?"
Willow's gaze remains anxiously on Luz, who just smiles briefly and winks at her reassuringly. Willow exhales in relief, right before the four of them leave the cafeteria, walking towards the back of the school to an emptier part of the premises.
Luz retrieves Owlbert and begins to explain.
"Okay, as you know, I've been experimenting with new spells all week-", she begins.
"Yeah, I think you had mentioned something along those lines once or twice...", Willow says sarcastically, while Amity and Gus grin in amusement at that. In fact, Luz had, every time she found or learned something new this week, she wrote to her friends or called them completely beside herself with joy and excitement, telling them all about it. Except for yesterday. Yesterday there was complete communication silence. Luz continues.
"Well, yesterday, with Owlbert's help, I discovered... this.", Luz swings Owlbert around, and after a brief flash of yellow light, Luz suddenly finds herself several meters from her previous position. Her friends' eyes light up.
"Oh my titan... You can teleport? How?", Willow asks. Gus looks equally curious, while Amity, on the other hand, just gazes in awe, her stomach filled with butterflies. Or fairies.
"Well, it's not really a teleport. It's more of a dashing kind of thing... I had first seen it when Eda fought Lilith. The glyph itself is quite... complicated, but tweakable and modifiable. And here comes the cool part-"
"That wasn't the cool part yet???", Gus asks incredulously. Luz chuckles at that.
"Sorry Gus. So, as I said, I saw a pretty complete glyph combo when I was dashing. It's not really necessary when Owlbert is around, but it's good to have it... Experimenting yesterday, I figured out how to extend the distance from just a few meters to a theoretically unlimited range."
"No way!", Amity speaks up. A big grin spreads across Luz's face and she nods in affirmation.
"Unlimited as in anywhere in the Isles, or even to other worlds?", Gus asks. Luz' grin disappears again before she answers.
"I don't know about that... I don't think I can teleport to Amphibia or back to Earth with that- well, not yet at least. Um, that's a whole other problem, and I don't know if I'm ready to leave again..."
"Sorry.", Gus apologizes regretfully. In the first few days after Luz returned from Amphibia, she wanted nothing more than to get back there. The feeling of having abandoned her friends there caused her bad dreams, and intense feelings of remorse, for a long time. It took her a while to figure out her priorities, and it wasn't easy. She still misses her friends from Amphibia tremendously, but equally she misses her mom on Earth. And then there are her friends here, as well as her girlfriend... Three worlds, but only one Luz. She speaks up again.
"Um, the teleporting isn't flawless, though. For example, I need to know exactly where the destination is. Ideally, it's places I've already been. And... the greater the distance, the greater the inaccuracy."
"What do you mean by that?", Gus asks.
"Well, I teleported to school for the first time today, and I wanted to land in the bushes. You know, the ones next to Bump's office.", Luz recounts, and Gus nods, "Well, instead I ended up in Bump's office. Luckily, he wasn't there at the time."
"Still cool.", Willow comments.
"Yeah... Oh, Amity, almost forgot-", Luz suddenly spurts, pulling a business card out of her pocket and handing it to her girlfriend, "Do you know where this is? Or some place nearby?"
"42 Slug Street?", Amity reads aloud, "Hmm... Do you know that bakery that makes those amazing fairy pies?"
"No."
"Hmm... There's also a playground nearby... The only one in lower Bonesborough, as far as I know...", Amity tells us. Luz ponders shortly about that.
"Yeah, I think I know where that is. I used to go there with… Nevermind.", Luz confirms. Amity then turns back to Willow.
"Also, Skara lives not too far from here...", Amity teases Willow, who now doesn't react anxiously anymore, just with an eye roll. Luz chuckles at that.
"You know, you're growing more and more like your siblings...", Luz comments, at which Amity's face drops, "Like, you seem to have an increasing interest in pulling pranks..."
Willow joins in.
"Yeah, Luz does have a point. You really are becoming more like your siblings...", Willow teases her. Amity frowns angrily.
"Yeah, okay, I deserved that.", Amity admits, to which Luz, Gus, and Willow laugh briefly at her expense, "Let's just leave, okay?"
"Alright. Willow, Gus, you should take a few steps back.", Luz instructs them, and they do as they’re told. This is actually the first time Willow and Gus see Luz doing magic with their own eyes, and without any glyphs. Well, outside of recorded videos at least.
Luz stands directly across from Amity.
"Hold my arms.", Luz instructs her. Gently, Amity places her hands on Luz's forearms, leaving her hands free, "This will be a first."
Amity nods confidently, but is quite nervous at the same time. She swallows strongly, after Luz closes her eyes.
The air begins to feel electrostatically charged, the hairs on Amity's arms and legs begin to stand up. Some of the lighter hairs on her head too, which fortunately are not many.
She observes the golden lightning bolts forming on Luz's arms, and immediately snaking towards her clenched fists. Luz unclenches her fists after several seconds and all the lightning bolts burst out, forming a giant combo glyph in the air encircling both girls. At at least two meters high, several glyphs interconnected by lines, or circling around one another- To Amity, it looks like a work of art. Luz opens her eyes, watching her girlfriend being in awe.
"Ready?", Luz asks, pausing the glyph column.
"No.", Amity replies, before moments later the construct collapses into itself, with a golden, blindingly bright light, and both girls, at least to outside observers, have vanished into thin air.
Almost convulsively, Amity squinted her eyes as the light enveloped her and Luz, and Luz herself did the same. What happened next, however, was rather strange... because nothing happened. Well, or at least Amity didn't notice anything. What she actually expected was rather... anything else. Be it sounds, like a 'whoosh', or the feeling of a gust of wind on her skin. This lack of anything is fairly underwhelming.
Amity clings to Luz, her eyes still tightly shut, waiting for Luz to say or do something. Instead, two things happen in quick succession, that she definitely wasn't expecting. One is the sound of porcelain dishes crashing onto the floor and breaking, and a sudden collapse of Luz.
Amity tears open her eyes and her gaze immediately falls on Luz, who is slumped powerlessly on her knees immediately in front of her, completely ignoring everything else around her. She gets on her knees as well, placing her hands gently on Luz's head.
"LUZ! Oh my titan, are you alright? Luz?", Amity panics. She exhales in absolute relief as Luz lifts her head, looking at her.
"Yeah.", she answers weakly, "I knew it would be more exhausting with more people than just myself, but still... Don't worry, I... I just need a moment"
"Okay.", Amity replies gently, but immensely worried. She takes a very deep breath.
As Luz gathers her strength again, Amity now has a chance to look around the place where she and Luz ended up at. It’s a room, brightly lit, and she and Luz are kneeling on a round, red carpet. Against the wall to her right is a floor-to-ceiling tall, but only two-meter-wide shelf, full of folders of music sheets, music books, and a few smaller instruments. Amity freezes in her movement for a moment.
'Wait...', she thinks to herself, 'I only know one person who knows that many instruments...'
Amity turns around, and there, in the doorway of the room, is a third person, staring at the two girls with wide open eyes, and a broken plate in front of her feet.
"Hey, Skara...", Amity speaks with some caution. The two girls have somehow ended up in Skara's place. Luz also slowly raises her head now and notices Skara. Instead of looking embarrassed, however, as Amity does, her facial expression is rather one of confusion. Both girls watch as Skara struggles in vain to form words in her mouth. Amity decides to try to give her a head's up. "Yeah, um... Luz has discovered a new spell, and... we missed our destination slightly..."
"Y-Yeah...", Skara stammers, "I almost thought my room was going to explode before you guys showed up..."
Amity helps Luz to her still unsteady feet before Skara continues.
"You guys probably wanted to go to that secret meeting next door, right?", she asks, now having regained her posture, causing Luz to widen her eyes.
"H-how did you know about that?", she nearly yells.
"I didn't. But thanks for confirming it.", she replies smiling with satisfaction, "But for real, I saw multiple people walk into what seems to be a wall, when they thought no one was looking."
"Well done, Luz.", Amity whispers.
"Sorry.", Luz whispers back before turning her attention back to Skara, "So, what now?"
"I have two questions.", Skara starts excitedly, "What's that thing about? Have you joined a cult? Well, that's three questions actually..."
"It's a resistance movement against Belos.", Luz answers, at which Skara's eyes light up.
"Cool... And last question: Can I join, too?"
This question is extremely unexpected for both of them. The two girlfriends look at each other in surprise and confusion.
"Why?", Luz wonders.
"Do I really need a reason?"
"Yes, you do.", Amity replies.
"Fine. The truth is... I'm bored.", Skara merely replies.
"Seriously?", Amity asks.
"Take a look around, Amity. What do you see here?", Skara prompts her, and she does just that. Classy furniture, a four-poster bed with three mattresses stacked on top of each other, rare books in new condition... In general, everything looks very high quality and clean. Luz, who now regained some of her strength, speaks up.
"Is there anything in particular we should notice?", she wonders.
"All my life I've had it good. My parents made sure that I never lacked for anything, for that they themselves were rarely at home. Look around: Everything here is so valuable, luxurious, and expensive... Why should I have all this stuff, when there are so many other witches and demons out there, who can't afford it, and most likely never will be able to. All this stuff... I mean, my parents would kill me if I gave any of it away or sold any of it, but... I just want to do something. I mean, Amity, aren't you tired of all the unnecessary luxury and ostentation? All this... This life is selfishness and boredom in its essence... Do you know what I mean?"
"I... I think so...", Amity answers vaguely. She looks at Luz, who merely nods, "Okay, you can come."
"Yes!", Skara celebrates, "You won't regret it."
"Yeah... Wait.", Amity says, "Before we go... Skara, do you mind if I change here at your place for a minute? I hadn't thought to put on my regular clothes at school, and it wouldn't be the best idea to show up at the meeting in my school uniform..."
"Sure. Luz and I can wait outside the door.", Skara replies. Amity nods in agreement before Skara enters the room, takes Luz from Amity, and leaves the room with her, propping her up on her shoulders, and closing the door behind her.
Immediately, Amity retrieves her own bag, from which she pulls out her black short sleeved dress, as well as her orchid gemstone amulet. The purple leggings of her uniform, as well as the dark gray boots, she doesn't intend to change.
While Amity is changing, she can't help but notice that Skara's room door isn't particularly soundproof, and she can overhear Luz and Skara talking.
"So, Luz... Will Willow be there too?", Skara asks shyly and trying to sound innocent, and a huge knowing smirk appears on Amity's face.
"Sorry Skara, but you're the only one in the loop.", Luz replies to her.
Amity decides to stop eavesdropping and quickly finish changing, not knowing how much time they have left before the meeting starts.
Shortly after, she has finished changing, and while she is still packing the tops of her school uniform back into her bag, she is already in the process of leaving the room. She opens the door and sees Luz and Skara waiting to leave, with scrolls in their hands. Luz speaks up.
"We have two minutes left.", she notes.
"Easy.", Skara comments, "Let's go."
Way less than half a minute later, the three girls have now left Skara's place, and walk a few meters to the wall Skara described earlier. Amity and Skara press their hands against the stone wall, scanning it.
"This can't be...", Skara says indignantly, "I saw people going through here earlier... I swear."
"I think I have an idea... Healer Liwin's practice is hidden behind a barrier where you first have to prove you're not part of the Emperor's Covens beforehand.", Luz is now gliding her fingers over the large stones as well, with Amity and Skara listening to her with interest. Suddenly, however, something catches Luz's eye. One of the stones has a slight bluish glow. "Aha, an illusion."
Luz puts her hand through the illusion, but nothing happens at first.
"You guys have to do this too.", Luz says, and both Amity and Skara put their hand through the illusion after one another. And immediately after Skara removes her hand last, a larger portion of the wall begins to glow bluish as well. "Aha!", Luz exclaims proudly, "We can enter now."
The three girls step through the illusion wall with Luz, who went through first, head on, which immediately becomes massive again behind them once they're all through. No one had actually expected any kind of noise, but when a dull sound was heard when the wall got massive again, the three of them were slightly startled. The sound is about the same as when a heavy bag of flour falls on stone. It is not loud, but still unexpected.
In front of them now is a staircase that leads further into the ground. The walls are covered with the same bluish stones as the outer wall, where each stone is about twenty centimeters in diameter, assuming they were perfectly round. Somehow, however, it was managed to fit all these angular, and completely asymmetrical stones together, almost without any gaps in between. The steps they are descending are not made of the same stone, however, but of pressed gravel, and torches hang on the walls several meters from each other.
Immediately at the bottom of the stairs, the three of them enter a single, surprisingly large room where several people are already present. Five of them to be exact. And one of them noticed the girls entering and approaches them.
"Wow...", Skara mutters, "I've lived next door all my life, and I never knew there was such a big basement hidden down here..."
"That's because it didn't exist until yesterday.", the witch who came up to them now standing in front of them. An older woman with white hair, put together in a bun, and almost two heads taller than Amity. She now turns to Luz, "I'm glad you made it, Luz."
"Like I'm missing out on this...", Luz replies with a smile.
"Alright, so who's this?", she asks pointing to Amity and Skara.
"Oh, yeah. This here is my friend Skara-", Skara cuts Luz off.
"Bard witch, professional Grudgby strategist, and Flyer Derby player. Nice to meet you.", Skara introduces herself farther. Amity speaks up next.
"I'm Luz's girlfriend. My name is Amity Blight-"
"Blight?", the tall witch asks in genuine surprise, "As in Blight Industries?"
"Mhm.", Amity confirms with a neutral expression.
"I'm sorry, but you can't stay here. You're too much of a security risk.", the tall witch orders. Luz immediately jumps into action.
"Amity has nothing to do with her parents' company. I swear!", Luz speaks up.
"Everyone here knows that Blight Industries works closely with the Emperor’s Coven, and Emperor Belos personally commissioned an army of Abomination soldiers. Rumor has it, that the order is so enormous, that a second factory is to be built, though we don't know where-"
"Not supposed to be built, it's already finished, but it's not operational yet. It's sited at the knee.", Amity counters her with the same energy. The witch, however, ignores it.
"Odalia Blight is one of the strongest oracle witches on the Isles, almost only topped by Osran. Just by being here, you could jeopardize our entire operation if she searches for you!", she accuses Amity.
"My mother doesn't give a crap about me! The only thing she cares about is the family name and having power. And I personally don't give a shit about either of those things!", Amity almost shouts at her, when suddenly another witch approaches.
"Let it go Diane. I'll personally vouch for her.", the new witch speaks up.
"ALSA???", both Skara and Amity scream in disbelief. Luz frowns at them.
"You know each other?", Luz asks curiously.
"She's one of Boscha's moms.", Amity enlightens her. Luz widens her eyes in disbelief.
"No way...", she mutters to herself, which makes Alsa smile in amusement before turning towards Amity and Skara.
"I'm glad to see both you again. It's been a while... My daughter told me that you're not friends with her anymore. It hurts me as her mother to hear that, but she has to live with the consequences of her actions too...", Alsa explains with a kind voice, "Anyway, Diane, you have nothing to fear from them. Amity can certainly help us get information about Belos' army. Storage locations, blueprints of Abomination soldiers..."
"Yeah okay, okay... you guys have sold me...", she admits in defeat, "Welcome. I am Chief Healer Diane Liwin. 'Liwin' for short, for the three of you."
Shortly after, Liwin turns around, and walks back to the others in room, leaving Luz, Amity, Skara, and Alsa behind. The latter speaks up.
"I have to apologize for Diane's behavior. Usually, she is not so... abrasive. She's under a lot of pressure because not only was another one of our members arrested yesterday, our original meeting place blew up as well...", Alsa tells them.
"I don't blame her.", Amity begins, "The name Blight has its baggage. I can certainly understand her not trusting me because of my parents' reputation. But I also have to point out: I'm not them."
"True enough... You've changed since the last time I saw you, you know that? You've grown, and I don't mean physically...", Alsa compliments her. Amity smiles sheepishly at that and takes Luz' hand.
"Thanks... I had good reasons for that...", Amity says softly while glancing at Luz. Alsa's gaze follows her.
"Yeah, I know that look just too well... Say, Luz, how have you been doing by the way?", Alsa asks curiously. But Luz just stares at her. "Luz?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Um, I just can't get over you being Boscha's mom...", Luz states, "I mean, you're so nice, and kind, and helpful... And Boscha is so... not."
This level of sheer confusion on Luz's face causes Alsa to crack up a little, same but less on Amity and Skara.
"Heh... Yeah, she's my sweetheart, but I'll be the first to admit that she probably inherited her attitudes... from me and her mother Sarah... In our school days, we were bullies just like her...", Alsa recalls.
"And you guys didn't do anything to oppose that with Boscha?", Luz asks before Alsa sighs.
"Oh, and how we tried that... But that's something for another time. The meeting is starting."
"OKAY EVERYBODY! LISTEN UP!", Liwin speaks very loudly from the middle of the room, gathering everyone around her. Two of the three witches who have not introduced themselves are complete strangers to Amity. The third witch however, Amity recognizes as Mrs. Clawthorne, who also subtly waves to her and Luz. "As you may be able to hear from my voice, I'm extremely pissed right now! Last night we lost our hiding place under the abandoned factory near Latissa. The place was overrun by coven scouts, and one of us was arrested after they destroyed any traces leading to us. With our current security arrangements for our meetings, we no longer have to rely on fixed locations and are more flexible, so the loss of that hideout isn't that big of a deal, but we are now even less people."
At that moment, Alsa clears her throat for all to hear clearly, drawing Liwin's attention.
"Oh, right. As of today, we have three new members. One in particular should be familiar to all of you: Luz, the human. Wanted throughout the Isles by Belos himself. Alive. Reward: Seven billion snails.", Luz waves sheepishly to the others in the room, the two unknown witches giving her skeptical looks, "Next, Skara. Athlete with strategic skills, and proficient in bard magic. And our final new addition is Amity Blight."
Amity growls at Liwin, barely audible, after a short pause in her speech. Luz squeezes her hand softly a few times in succession, which is certainly sufficient as a necessary distraction. Liwin continues.
"Today we have two far too big problems to take care of. First, we have been tipped off by a contact within the Emperor’s castle, that Belos appears to have a large contingent sent out to search for Galdorstones."
"Galdorstones?", Mrs. Clawthorne asks.
"Ancient relics capable of boosting magic power. According to folklore, the stones were hidden by Illusionists hundreds of years ago and have been protected by an unspecified Guardian ever since.", Liwin replies, "The good news is, that our contact in the castle was able to get us a map. The bad news is that the Emperor’s Coven has one as well."
One of the unknown witches speaks up.
"So, we have to get there before them and steal the stones before Belos can get them?", he asks.
"Either steal them, or destroy them completely. While we're doing that, we'll start a second operation at the same time. Since a lot of coven scouts will be involved in the search for the Galdorstones, we will take the opportunity to get as many of our people out of the Conformatorium as possible.", Liwin states, "Questions?"
Skara raises her hand.
"Is there any info on how many scouts will be involved in the search? Or if any special forces, or anything else worth mentioning?", she asks.
"Smart question, kid. The search will be led by the Golden Guard. Belos' right-hand man. As for everything else, we have no idea. Also, it is not excluded that he is also accompanied by coven heads. Our contact wasn't able to provide more information."
"Do we have a time, or a place?", Skara asks further.
"We can assume that they have already started the search by now. Depending on the exact size of the unit, they are either on foot, or in airships. The stones are suspected to be somewhere in the forearm forest. I have given Gwendolyn a copy of the map. We can't say for sure where they are hidden until we ourselves get there. Any other questions?"
"How many of your people are incarcerated in the Conformatorium?", Amity asks.
"Probably five. Seven, at most.", Liwin replies dryly.
"You're not sure?", Amity wonders.
"Listen Blight, I know for a fact that far too many people have been unfairly imprisoned. And not just there. I know for a fact, that the four initial members were caught early, including the bard whose idea all this was, and that they've been held in the Conformatorium ever since. I know that one of my own people has been petrified two weeks ago, for crimes he did not commit. The intel in and out of the Conformatorium is extremely sparse. Therefore, I can do nothing but hope that two of my people are still alive. There might be three, if the one who was arrested yesterday has already been transferred there. So yes, Blight, I am not sure... Titan...", Liwin sighs in annoyance, and Amity leans towards Luz.
"It's quite hard for me right now not to see this as an insult... I just asked a simple question...", she whispers. Liwin continues before Luz can answer her in any way.
"So, now to who's doing what? Gwendolyn, I'd like you to lead the Galdorstone team. Skara, you help her. You'll get to show off your flyer derby skills. Alsa, you take Luz and the Blight girl to the Conformatorium, and take care of possible wounded. We don't know how our people have been treated, and if anyone needs help. Kate and Doug, you split up however you want, and handle aerial recon at both locations. I myself will construct another rendezvous point, before joining the Galdorstone team later. Make sure you don't lose your business cards... I'm looking at you, Doug. Good luck."
And with that, Liwin draws a large green magic circle in the air, and below everyone in the room, thick longish leaves shoot out of the ground, encasing everyone individually until they all are surrounded in complete darkness.
Notes:
Originally, I had not planned to split this chapter into two parts. But the truth is that I didn't get in time to finish this chapter for the 1st birthday, and it was important to me to have something ready today.
So, that being said, what do you think?
Chapter 34: Mittensday [Part 2]
Summary:
While Luz, Amity, and Alsa start their rescue operation to the Conformatorium, Gwendolyn and Skara start their search for the Galdorstones, hoping to find them before the Golden Guard does.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It felt like an eternity. Trapped in these... plants. It's like a kind of cocoon that you've been involuntarily imprisoned in. There is no light coming in from the outside, not that there was much of it in the basement in the first place. In addition to the lack of light, there is also no sound. One hears virtually nothing but the own heartbeat and one's own breathing in each ear. It's also very difficult to move, let alone do magic.
This perceived eternity quickly turns out to be no more than a few seconds. But any kind of torture does cause time to slow down.
The leaves around Amity begin to crumble, and at the very first flash of light, she forces her way out of her prison with all her might, resulting in her landing on all fours on an uneven gravel floor.
"WHAT. WAS. THAT?", she yells while panting heavily. She snaps her head horizontally, and sees two more... leaf cocoons in front of her, sticking out of the ground, both beginning to crumble as well. From the first cocoon in front of her, she sees Luz running out before bringing herself to a stop immediately in front of Amity. She looks similarly distraught. Nonetheless, Amity is relieved that she seems otherwise fine. And only now does Amity notice that they are no longer in the basement, but in a narrow, empty alley between two houses.
"Luz, are you alright? Are you okay?", Amity asks her, still breathing heavily. Luz blinks at her several times, at first without saying anything.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I think so... Where are we?", she asks, probably still getting used to the sudden light.
"I think we got teleported out...", Amity assumes.
"You're probably right... But admittedly, I like my version better.", Luz jokes.
"Yeah, me too.", Amity agrees.
At that point, the two girls notice that the third cocoon has largely disintegrated, and Alsa calmly steps out. Her gaze immediately falls on the girls kneeling on the ground, who are now looking at her in annoyance.
"Oh...", Alsa mutters.
"Oh?", Amity repeats sarcastically, "Forgot something?"
"I probably should have given you guys a heads up...", Alsa says awkwardly, to which both girls nod very intensely.
"I didn't even know plant teleportation was possible... So yeah, a heads up would have been really really really nice. Why was that even necessary?", Luz asks after seemingly calming down a bit. Amity not.
"Um, yeah. It's another security measure to avoid being discovered. After every time someone of us had been caught, the security measures were strengthened. It started with splitting up the group when it comes to operations, so that each group never knows the exact plan of another. Then later, the permanent hiding places were abandoned. Evacuation via root teleport is the latest measure."
"Sounds a little paranoid.", Amity comments.
"Perhaps.", Alsa confirms.
"Is there anything else we might need to know?", Luz asks. Alsa ponders for a moment.
"Well, the plan to get our people out of the Conformatorium, of course.", Alsa replies. Though Luz and Amity both have their doubts.
"Already?", Amity asks.
"Well, Liwin and I were already talking about today a few days ago and I had some thoughts.", Alsa speaks with confidence and squats down in front of the two girls, takes a stick and starts drawing in the gravel, "First of all, I must confess up front that you in particular, Luz, probably won't like it."
Luz says nothing and just shrugs her shoulders in indifference. Amity, on the other hand, raises an eyebrow suspiciously.
"Well, my plan consists of two parts: Getting in and getting out. The latter part is the harder part, mainly because we don't have any information about what it looks like inside, or what exactly we should expect inside. We would be completely blind-"
"Um, not exactly-", Luz interrupts Alsa, "I know what it looks like inside. Even though it's been a while..."
"How?", Alsa asks.
"I've broken in before. Like, twice.", Luz tells wearing a smugly grin on her face, "The first time even on the same day I first landed on the Isles."
"Uhhh...", Alsa doesn't quite know what to say to that.
"Wow... Well, even I didn't know that.", Amity remarks.
"Uh-huh. I was supposed to steal a crown for Eda and King, who was in a room full of confiscated contraband. And the second time, I wanted to just... well, you know...", Luz's mood sinks.
"I know.", Amity says, "Alsa, please go on."
"Your knowledge will help us tremendously. In general, this should be pretty easy.", Alsa says.
"So, how do we get in?", Luz asks.
"Well, this is the part you might not like very much... The easiest way is for you to get captured, then let us in from the inside-"
"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right here.", Amity speaks clearly before clearing her throat, "I'm not letting Luz have to face this alone. You can forget about that right there!"
Amity kneels just immediately in front of Luz, her arms crossed as she gives Alsa a resolute look. Luz immediately knows, without Amity having to mention the word 'prophecy', why she doesn't want Luz to go alone. Luz actually agrees, though for a different reason.
"I'm not sure this idea is soo good either. Granted, that's exactly how I got in last time. I'm sure they are prepared for that..."
"And how do we get in instead?", Alsa wonders. A slight grin now graces Luz's face.
"We do it the way I got in the very first time: We'll climb through a window.", Luz announces. Alsa is confused.
"Huh. And how is that different from my plan? Besides, can't the guards see us coming from quite a distance...", she remarks.
"Not with these babies.", Luz proudly pulls out some invisibility glyphs, which she proudly shows to Alsa. She's visibly confused, but that's to be expected, "These are invisibility glyphs. Only drawback, you have to hold your breath after using them on yourself. There's another design where you have to close your eyes, but I didn't think those were all that... wise."
"Do you still carry those around?", Amity asks.
"Sure. You never know what's going to happen...", Luz replies.
"Okay... So what's going to happen once we get inside?", Alsa asks.
"We'll figure that out on the way there.", Luz replies, "Say, would you mind if we split up and meet outside the park near the Conformatorium, like, twenty, thirty minutes from now? By then we can come up with a more detailed plan..."
"Yeah, good idea.", Alsa agrees, sensing that the reason for Luz's suggestion isn't necessarily 'safety', "In the meantime, I'll see if Kate and Doug have agreed on who's going to do aerial recon for us by now. See you in a bit."
Alsa stands back up, and Luz and Amity watch her until she has left the alley and is out of sight. Immediately, Amity turns to Luz, dropping her annoyed expression.
"Luz, are you okay?", she asks, concerned.
"I could ask you the same question...", Luz counters, not answering her question, "You're still thinking about the prophecy, aren't you?"
Amity sighs.
"Yes.", she replies, "And I know you meant that I don't have to worry, but we're going to break into a prison... That's not without risks... I mean, what if a guard catches you, or if Warden Wrath is there-"
"-Then I trust that my awesome girlfriend will be there to stand by me. Besides, I think he remembers exactly what happened to him the last time we met."
Amity tries to think back. Although she still knows that Luz saved her, what exactly happened though, is gone.
"Yeah...", Amity says thoughtlessly. She knows full well that it's no use going over the whole thing again, and that Luz will probably tell her exactly the same things as she did earlier, "Okay.", she adds. But the anxiety remains.
Luz now gets up from the ground, and offers her hand to Amity. Luz reaches for her fanny pack to pull out her concealment bracelet and put it on, before both girls now leave the alley together as well, heading for the park Luz mentioned earlier. It does not only have a strategic value, measured by its proximity to their ultimate destination, for Luz it also has an emotional value since Amity took her there last week after the Brawl, where she showed her her petrified friend.
The two girlfriends have just left the alley and are now on their way west towards the Conformatorium.
Now, for the first time, they have the opportunity to see where exactly they were teleported to by Liwin. And it is actually Luz who recognizes where they are, since she has walked the path they are now walking along, in the past, when she wanted to go to the library, or walked with Eda and or King to Morton. Liwin sent them off several hundred meters from the previous meeting point.
"Why would you want to go there, of all places?", Amity asks, "It's just kind of unexpected."
"When Liwin said we were freeing people from the Conformatorium, I couldn't help but recall my first adventure, here on the Isles...", Luz's voice trails off, and a hint of nostalgia and sadness creeps into her tone, "I had just met Eda and King, and in order for Eda to let me back through her portal door, she wanted me to help her steal back King's crown, which Warden Wrath had locked away."
"King had a crown?", Amity wonders. A tiny sad smile emerges on Luz's face.
"He was the King of Demons, after all...", Luz tells, and Amity almost feels Luz's heart burst into a thousand pieces at that moment, "I just miss them, and I want to at least see King before we do that."
"Okay.", Amity replies softly.
Amity feels bad. For once, though, not because of Luz, but because of King. In fact, she can only remember two occasions when they crossed paths: During the Covention, and, after she and Luz fought a Grudgby match together with Willow, later at the Owl House. Their first encounter, at the Covention, is very clearly in her mind right now, and what a monster she was to him then. Granted, she was not any better or nicer to Luz, but at least she did apologize to her at some point. But not so to King...
The thought 'It was just a cupcake' was one that kept her from having to feel guilty for what she had done, or having to justify it, or even apologize for it, for a long time. But now... now it's too late. No apology in the world could bring Luz's friend back, wherever he might be now. And when Willow eventually came up with the idea of putting him up in that city park, she was immediately on board. For ages they, together with Gus, worked in the park, trying to make it look neat. Granted, the real occasion was actually to prepare the park as a kind of memorial to Luz, when everyone suspected that Belos had killed her, and for Amity it was a way to be able to apologize for her past behavior. But it wasn't enough.
The two girls walk through the busy streets in silence, and Amity catches herself as her eyes keep wandering to Luz, who seems to be in a completely different place mentally right now. Luz now notices Amity looking at her, and offers a tiny smile back.
"A snail for your thoughts?", Amity offers. Luz sighs.
"I'm trying to distract myself. I realized I was in a downward spiral, and I wanted to get out of it.", Luz replies, "I started thinking about how we should proceed in the Conformatorium."
'Distraction... Good idea.'
"What do you have so far?", Amity asks.
"Well, we already know how to get in at this point... The next step might be to find out where the people we are trying to rescue are being held... Do you think anyone is keeping a list?"
"We could also free everyone locked up there.", Amity suggests, "That way we could create a diversion, which could distract the guards from our escape."
"But by doing that, we would endanger the other prisoners... Let's see-"
Somewhere else…
"Whoa!", Skara exclaims as her leaf cocoon cracks open, and she falls backwards onto her butt, with a horrified expression on her face, "What was that?", she asks no one in particular.
"Our exit.", Liwin speaks up, "A safety measure. We are on the northern outskirts of Bonesborough."
Briskly, Skara looks around and notices that only Liwin and the other older witch, with the hawk palisman, are with her.
"Wait... Where are Luz and Amity?", Skara continues to ask. Liwin replies.
"Luz and the Blight kid have their own mission. It's better for us not to know the details of their plan. The same is the case for them.", she explains.
"Okay, I see... And what is our plan?"
"Step one: follow the map. Step two: make sure we're faster than the Emperor's Coven. Step three: make sure no stones are left behind."
"That's... pretty loosely worked out.", Skara remarks.
"Then make it better yourself!", Liwin almost shouts at her. Skara looks at her aghast, and Liwin immediately realizes her mistake, and changes her tone, "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to lose my temper like that. This week has been nothing but a disaster... As a healer, I should act more thoughtfully."
"Is that also why you're so hostile towards Amity?", Skara asks critically.
"She's a Blight, and Blights mean trouble. And on days like today, we can't have any more of that.", Liwin replies with venom in her voice.
"Everyone has bad days. Well, or weeks... But it will pass. I mean, we're here now, and we'll make sure that Belos won't get a single one of the stones.", the witch, unknown to Skara so far, speaks up.
"Yes, you're right Gwen. Look, here, a map of Forearm Forest for you, and a business card for you, Skara. Take good care of it. I'm off to build a new meeting place for later, and we'll meet up later once you succeeded.", Liwin announces, "Good luck."
And with that, Liwin says goodbye, creates a plant cocoon around herself, and disappears into the ground. The older witch now turns her attention to Skara.
"So, before we get going, perhaps I should introduce myself: I am Gwendolyn. You can call me Gwen if you'd like.", she offers her a hand, who accepts with a smile.
"Skara. Nice to meet you."
"So, shall we take a look at the map then?", Gwen asks, holding the map out to Skara. She nods and takes a look. Gwen pulls out the other map, which should lead to the Galdorstones as well, and they match the maps.
"Huh, her idea about the Forearm Forest was definitely right. I recognize some of the places...", Gwen notes. The map itself provides hardly any useful clues for inexperienced map readers. There are no settlements marked anywhere, no bodies of water except for the Boiling Sea that surrounds the arm to the north and south, and there are no distances indicated on the map either, "I recognize two obstacles there that we have to overcome-"
"You recognize them?", Skara wonders.
"Oh yes, I've been there before, albeit for a different purpose, which I had pursued several years ago. There is a thorn barrier running right through the center of the Forearm Forest. It cuts across the width of the arm. Also, I'm pretty sure this barrier isn't a naturally formed obstacle."
"You mean a witch created it! No way... Not even Belos is powerful enough to cast a spell that big."
"'Galdorstones can amplify powers, remember?", Gwen reminds her.
"But... That... ugh, okay. I'm not questioning this any further. Um, say, can't we just fly with our staffs on top of it and look for the stones from the air?", Skara asks.
"No. We don't know our exact target, and the forest can have an extremely dense canopy in places. But we will be able to approach the edge of the forest by flying. It might save us a bit of time.", Gwen offers.
"Okay good. Wait, I thought you said there were two obstacles you recognized?"
"Yes indeed. There is a giant creature that dwells in these woods. The citrane has its nest here, and it's exactly on the path suggested here.", Skara is a little speechless right now, "But don't worry: I have an idea."
"What kind?"
"Well, as you can see, this dotted line here meanders around past the thorn barrier. That means there must be an opening somewhere. We can bypass the citrane, and save more time, if we go through the thorn wall instead of around it."
"How?"
"I'll say, as Beast Keeper, I have a couple of aces up my sleeve."
"Okay...", Skara acknowledges it insecurely.
"Shall we?", Gwen prepares her staff for takeoff, and Skara follows suit. They take off and at high speed they make their way to the outer edge of Forearm Forest.
"There you are you guys...", Alsa realizes as Luz and Amity come into her line of sight. She had been sitting on a bench immediately adjacent to the closed-off park entrance with her crow by her ear until just a moment ago, and Luz and Amity are just approaching her.
"Who was that?", Amity asks facing the bird flying away.
"That was Doug, our scout. He was just reporting how much resistance we might be up against. But we shouldn't be discussing that here.", Alsa notes with a look at the anything but empty street that stretches past them.
"We can go in when you're ready.", Amity tells her casually.
"Go in? Whe-," Alsa cuts herself off as Amity points to the locked gate, removing the magical seal, "Oh. Of course..."
Luz and Amity slowly lead the way, their hands intertwined with each other, and with Alsa behind them. Several meters in, Amity turns to face Alsa, while Luz's head is stuck focused on something in front of her.
"Would you mind waiting a few more moments?", Amity gestures with her head in front of her towards a statue, "Luz wants to talk to someone first."
Alsa looks past them, and her eyes widen in understanding. She merely nods before Luz and Amity slowly continue walking.
Luz lets go of Amity's hand as they stand just before the pedestal.
"Hi King...", Luz begins. She breathes rather heavily and unsteadily as she looks at his petrified form. He is standing huddled to one side, with his arm covering his vision upwards, and his head fearfully turned away from there. He was scared to death. Understandably so.
And Luz begins to tear up, wiping her eyes with her hand. "Sorry. It's just... just..."
"Maybe you'd prefer me to start?", Amity offers her to which Luz nods slightly. "Hey, King. I want to apologize to you... I don't know if you remember that, or if it even matters now... Back at the Covention, I had destroyed your cupcake, and I am sorry. I was nothing but a bully at the time, let's just say it like it is. Since then, largely in fact because of Luz, I've grown, tried to become a better witch than I was. ... And... I know it's too late for this, but I just really wanted to say that I'm sorry."
Amity's gaze leads to her side, and from the corner of her eye, she sees Luz wearing a small, proud smile on her face. It's contagious, and Luz now has the strength to carry on herself.
"Um... King, do you remember our very first adventure?", Luz begins, "We're about to break in again to free innocent people who will help us make the Isles a better place... And we're going to make Belos pay! ... I wish you were here, with us."
At that, Luz lunges forward and hugs King's petrified form as tightly as she can.
"I miss you."
As Luz continues to show no signs of being able to break away from King for a while, Amity gently places a hand on Luz's shoulder.
"Do you want me to go back to Alsa already, and give you a few more moments for yourself?", Amity asks sympathetically. Luz nods. "Okay..."
Amity hesitates for a few more seconds before removing herself and heading back to Alsa, who has retreated to a respectful distance.
"Luz... needs another moment."
"I understand.", Alsa replies after glancing behind Amity, "Who was he?"
"Luz's best friend, after what she'd told me. It hasn't been two months since he was petrified...", Amity recounts.
"She's still grieving...", Alsa observes.
"She has lost a lot since then. Sometimes I wonder how she even manages to get out of bed in the morning...", Amity talks along, her gaze fixed on Luz, "Alsa, I need your opinion about something: how do you feel about prophecies?"
"I'm going to assume this has something to do with Luz... Well, in my experience, prophecies are rather context dependent. For example: In my youth, I was dating a guy named Kim while Sarah was 'just' my best friend at the time. Anyway, I had a prophecy given to me with Kim regarding my future. The ghost said that I would have children with my closest companion. But only months later, Kim left me. And it wasn't until I was with Sarah years later, that I really understood who exactly the ghost meant."
"So, you would go ahead and say that prophecies are usually accurate, right?", Amity asks nervously.
"Absolutely, yes.", Alsa confirms. Again, immense concern for her girlfriend spreads through Amity's mind. Fortunately, at that exact moment, Luz rejoins the other two, wiping her cheeks dry with her sleeve.
"Okay.", Luz begins, "I'm all set."
"So, what's the plan then?", Alsa asks.
"Well, as mentioned earlier, we're going to sneak in through a window near the top. From there, we need to find out exactly where our prisoners are. Ideally, the warden will keep a list that we need to grab.", Luz explains, but Alsa has questions.
"Ideally?", she asks to which Amity replies.
"Well, basically, we see two options: We either go quietly and unnoticed, which requires that we know where exactly our captured are... Or we free everyone, and try to use the chaos to our advantage."
"I myself am generally a fan of chaotic route...", Luz admits.
"And I think the quieter route is better.", Amity adds, "What do you think?"
Alsa herself fortunately doesn't have to think long about which way she prefers herself, which means that the last few preparations can proceed. All three of them retrieve their staffs. Luz has Owlbert, Amity has Ghost, and Alsa's palisman is a panda named Peter. Lastly, Luz takes Amity and Alsa through the application of glyphs once again, and with that everything is all set.
The three of them climb onto their staffs and lift off, but remain low to the ground for the time being, until they approach the outer limits of the Conformatorium.
The Conformatorium itself lies in a valley northwest of Bonesborough, which is surrounded by dark curved bones resembling ribs, that rise far into the air. In general, the clouds in the surrounding area also seem far more somber than in the rest of the town. Several airships patrol around the building, and a few coven guards stand guard outside. In general, there is very little observable activity around the area.
"Okay, see those round windows up there, just below the burning ring?", Luz asks, everyone nods, "There nearby are the holding cells, and the room where the contrabands are stored. I'm guessing the warden's office is also nearby."
"And we need to fly fast.", Amity adds, "We only have as much time as we can hold our breath. Once we're visible before we're inside, the plan has failed... See you inside."
And together with Luz and Alsa, Amity takes one deep breath, and applies the invisibility glyph to herself, before she and her staff turn invisible and she flies at top speed towards the window Luz described.
She clutches her staff with both hands as an oddly icy wind hits her skin. Her gaze briefly wanders downward and she sees several witches and demons looking very small.
The building gets closer and closer, and gradually Amity finds it hard to continue holding her breath.
The window is in view, and it becomes more and more obvious that the window is insanely small. Like, there's really no margin for error. It's either one has to slow down beforehand, or squeeze through the narrow, round window, way too fast, and with only a few centimeters of room to spare. Generally speaking, slowing down wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Amity doesn't know whether Luz and Alsa are just ahead of- or behind her.
'Risk it is, then...'
The wall grows closer. The window is only a little bigger than Amity.
She fixes the center of the window in her gaze, and only seconds later, she is through.
'YES!', Amity exhales in relief, which simultaneously breaks her invisibility. A second later, Luz also reappears right next to her, seemingly not having to hold her breath much. 'Reminder to myself: Ask Luz later why she won't show her magic when the others already know who she is.'
Two seconds later, Alsa reappears right at the window. She must have decided to slow down when she saw Luz and Amity already inside.
"Are you guys okay?", Luz asks in a whisper.
"That was weird... But yeah.", Alsa replies. Luz turns to Amity, who nods at her as well. Amity takes a few steps forward and is stunned.
"Whoa..."
The three of them are on the top part of a spiraling, guardrail-less stonewalk, which winds on down quite some distance. Along this stonewalk are isolation cells, blocked off with massive iron bars, all the way down, the cells no more than two meters apart from each other. And almost every single one is already occupied. To the left of each cell is a heavy-looking lever, presumably there to control the iron bars.
"Oh, my, Titan...", Alsa mutters as she steps out to the edge and is able to perceive the entire Conformatorium at once, "I knew there were a lot of people locked up in here, but this... This is beyond even my imagination..."
Amity is similarly speechless.
"Unbelievable...", she whispers, peering down over the edge as well, until something catches her eye. "No guards, though"
"It was the same the first time I was here. Eda had once said that the majority of the guards were positioned at the bottom, near the entrance, because, and I quote, 'no one would be stupid enough to jump out of a window from that high up'.", Luz tells her before turning to the first cell, where a trapped demon appears to be sleeping, "Although, that one's new."
"What do you mean?", Amity asks. Luz points to a symbol burned into the skin on one of their arms. Amity and Alsa stand by it, and immediately notice that Luz seems increasingly aggravated.
"That's a glyph.", Luz observes in a bleak voice. Another, female voice speaks up.
"The glyph prevents us from accessing our magic.", the voice speaks from the neighboring cell, and the three of them, headed by Luz, move there.
Luz voice abruptly shifts from aggravation to unexpected surprise.
"Wait a minute... I know you... You're the girl I helped escape the first time...", Luz observes, while the girl herself can't necessarily confirm it. She’s sitting on the ground, looking quite pale, wearing a black vest with golden buttons and a maroon collar, underneath a beige long-sleeved shirt rolled up to her elbows, red pants, and black long boots. Completing her outfit are two black fingertip-less gloves. She herself has black hair, tied into a high ponytail with a red hair band. Her eyes are hazel, and she has two strongly protruding fangs, while they tend to be more subtle on other witches.
"We've met before?", she asks skeptically, as a thought briefly occurs to Luz, who removes her concealment bracelet, to which the girl responds happily. "Cat lady? Of course...". Suddenly Alsa interrupts the two.
"Your name is Katya, isn't it? One of the original members of the resistance against Belos...", Alsa notes excitedly. Katya nods in surprise, though hesitantly.
"Yes, that's me... Don't tell me you're here because of me...", Katya states.
"We're here to break you out, and the other members as well.", Amity explains, "Do you happen to know where they are?"
"We got separated when we got arrested. But I know they are here somewhere...", Katya explains. Luz now speaks up.
"Can we get back to the part about preventing you from accessing magic?", Luz asks, "How is that even possible? I didn't think there was anyone who knew glyph magic besides me..."
Katya brushes off one of her gloves, which also reveals the same branded symbol on her hand as it did on the demon in the first cell.
"It was around one week ago. Warden Wrath had taken all the prisoners here out of their cells one by one, because he wanted to do 'experiments' on us. The first twenty or so never came back. Not long after that, it was my turn. They took me out of my cell, locked me in a room with a big furnace, and gave me this brand. And I haven't been able to do magic since. It’s like a consistent drain…", Katya explains.
"And they did that to everyone here???", Alsa asks, horrified.
"As far as I know...", Katya replies. Luz turns to Alsa and Amity.
"Okay, new plan: I'm going to have to have a talk with Warden Wrath."
"Bad plan.", Amity objects to her in the very same moment.
"We have no choice, Amity. If Warden Wrath has somehow managed to create a glyph that can rob people of their magic, we need to know, because that would be horrible news for everyone in the Isles...", Luz argues, desperation lingering in her voice, "I just need to know where this glyph came from. I just have to..."
"You wanna make sure it's not your fault, don't you?", Amity asks sympathetically. Luz nods slightly. "Okay. But not by yourself."
"Any ideas?", Alsa asks.
"We have to go to his office anyway. And if he's there...", Luz doesn't finish her sentence, but the others know exactly what she's getting at. At that point however, Katya speaks up again.
"Take me with you, I want to help.", she offers, "The lever here opens the gate."
Alsa walks towards the lever, but hesitates when she puts her hand on it.
"Wait... Will this set off an alarm?", Alsa asks.
"No.", Katya replies.
"Are you sure?", Alsa asks doubtfully, "We want to keep this whole thing mostly stealthy..."
"Quite sure. In all my time here, I've never heard an alarm going off.", Katya replies, and Alsa pulls the lever that causes the gate to rise. Alsa enters the cell.
"Can you stand up?", she asks, to which Katya shakes her head. Alsa gathers her strength and helps Katya to get up. "Luz, do you have some more invisibility glyphs? I want to get her out of here as soon as possible."
"What? No!", Katya protests, "I want to help."
"Please lower your voice...", Luz urges her firmly, "I'm sorry, but you're in no condition to help. You need help yourself right now, and Alsa is a healer. She could help remove the burn mark."
Alsa nods affirmatively, and Luz's arguments actually seem to resonate with Katya.
"All right. But if you're looking for the others, you need their names: Amber Wahlgren, Derwin Pruban, and Raine Whispers. They wear the same uniform as me. That's how you'll recognize them.", Katya insists.
"And these are the names of our people...", Alsa adds, handing Luz a folded piece of paper, "Be careful with it."
Luz hands Alsa two invisibility glyphs before the two pairs split up. Alsa and Katya exit the building the same way the group came in earlier, and Luz and Amity continue making their way up towards Warden Wrath's office.
Luz and Amity hastily proceed up the looped path, all the way towards the top, assuming that they will find the office there. Whether it's really there is nothing more than a guess. It's not like there are any building plans hanging around, or emergency exits labeled in the Conformatorium.
"Okay, behind this door here is the room where the contraband stuff is locked away.", Luz says in a whisper as they pass in front of a closed wooden door.
"Could there be anything of interest in there for us?", Amity whispers back.
"Probably not.", Luz replies, "But I might not be able to get in there anyway. The place is protected with a force field where only humans can get through. And it's not like I'm still... you know."
"Yes, you are.", Amity counters her quietly but firmly, which hits Luz most unexpectedly, "It doesn't matter that you have changed blood now, have two hearts, and can natively cast spells. You're still human, in all the ways that matter."
"You've only ever known one...", Luz notes, stepping right into Amity's trap.
"Exactly. I have exactly one reference as far as humans are concerned. And you, Luz Noceda, fit that one hundred percent. You are literally the best human I know compared to all the others.", Luz genuinely begins to giggle in response.
'Ha! Success.'
"Well, if you look at it that way, I'm the most human human you've ever met.", Luz laughs softly, "On Earth itself, I now might possibly pass for a timelord."
"A what?"
"Later. We're there."
Amity's attention now shifted to the door in front of them. Like all the others the two girls have passed so far, this one is made of wood, but it is much larger and wider. In addition, a rather large metal sign hangs in the upper center, on which the word 'Warden' has been engraved in large letters.
Luz leans her ear against the door.
"Can you hear anything?", Amity asks after a few moments. Luz continues to listen intently for a while, before shaking her head.
"He's either alone, or not there at all."
"So, what now?", Amity asks before Luz pulls out several ice glyphs.
"Well, what do you think? We're breaking in. If he's inside, we surprise and subdue him. If not, we don't. But either way, we search the office for anything useful.", Luz whispers the plan to her.
"Meaning a prisoner list, and any possible info for that glyph...", Amity clarifies. Luz nods in confirmation.
Amity positions herself right at the door, ready to push it open with all her body weight. Luz stands next to her, already ready to slip through at the first possible opportunity, and attack whoever is inside. They nod to each other in silent confirmation before Amity begins to push.
Just as the crack of the door is wide enough for Luz, she squeezes through and runs into the room beyond.
"No one's in here.", Luz says only moments later, and sounding rather disappointed. Amity has opened it door wide enough for herself now, too, before following Luz, and closing the door again from the inside.
"That's a good thing, isn't it? This way we can search undisturbed.", Amity tries to look at the matter more positively.
"I guess...", Luz replies, still sounding disappointed, before returning to Amity at the door, and applying an ice glyph to the lock.
"Say, I meant to ask you earlier, why are you still using the glyphs instead of your own magic anyway?", Amity wonders, "You didn't hold yourself back all that much with those glyphs, did you?"
"I did at first... It was something new, something unfamiliar... I spent a lot of time practicing, and memorizing the shape properly. At the Covention, after our duel, besides Eda and King, you were the first person to ever see me do magic...", Amity's eyes start to water slightly, "And then, on Monday you were there too... You know, it's not necessary for everyone to know what I can do, or what I'm capable of. I'm in high-demand enough as it is."
That last part confuses Amity slightly, so she raises her eyebrow questioningly. Luz, grinning triumphantly, tilts Amity's attention to the wall behind her. She turns and spots Luz's Wanted poster, alongside a few others. It's a good deal larger than the ones scattered in and around Bonesborough.
"You want to take that with you, don't you?", Amity asks. Luz nods in affirmation. "Go ahead. I'll take a look around the rest of the office."
The office itself looks pretty nondescript. There's a stone desk on the back wall, two other walls full of shelves crammed with a wide variety of folders, the wall with the front door is just wanted posters with enormously high finder's fees amounting to several million snails each, and the last wall is just an iron door with a large, massive padlock on it. But, in keeping with the mission, Amity turns to the folders first, while Luz, with Owlbert's help, is still busy taking down her own wanted poster from the wall and packing it up.
"I didn't think Warden Wrath had such a high regard for organization.", Amity talks to herself, "A whole shelf of nothing but folders with prisoner lists. All of them sorted by year and month... And that's over nearly two decades..."
Luz has since taken down her poster and rolled it up, and is now standing next to her with Owlbert on her shoulder.
"Where's the current month?", Luz asks.
"I don't see it.", Amity replies, before suddenly a soft meow comes from the desk. The two girls turn to see Ghost sitting in front of an open folder, licking one of her paws. "Aww, good job... Who’s a good palisman?"
The two girls approach the desk, and Amity gratefully begins to scratch Ghost's head, with Ghost purring softly. Luz now speaks up.
"Amity, can you see if you can find anything about this magic-suppressing-glyph? In the meantime, I'll look for where our prisoners are."
"Sure.", Amity replies. Luz pulls out the paper Alsa has given her, opens the folder, and starts searching, while Amity looks around at the rest of the desk.
On the surface itself, there is nothing but the folder, so Amity turns to the two drawers on the right side of the desk. In the top drawer, which she opens, there is only one item: a photo of Warden Wrath and his son, Braxas. Amity smiles slightly at the sight. Tomorrow she'll be back at the library for her reading hour for the children, and Braxas has always been one of the regulars there, but also one of her favorites. He's always been pretty sweet to her, and he's pretty well behaved. After the reading sessions, he was always one of the first to offer to help clean up the children's corner.
'A good kid.', Amity thinks to herself as she puts the photo back and closes the drawer, turning her attention to the one below. As she does so, she hears Luz mutter.
"Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Organization is all well and good, but alphabetical sorting would be more useful right now..."
Amity opens the second drawer and finds a smaller binder inside. She opens it and finds that it is a stack of written, unsent orders to Wrath's subordinates.
'Hmm, let's see... New break time regulations... Disciplinary warnings to a guard for bringing food to a prisoner at an unscheduled time... A promotion party... Uhh, patrol schedules...', Amity pulls out her scroll and takes a picture of the document, 'Okay, what else? ... Just one meal a day for prisoners? And... oh...'
"Luz, you should read this.", Amity hands her the document she just found and puts it on the folder Luz has in front of her. She takes it in her hand and begins to read.
"After the now successful test phase to reduce the danger of the prisoners, the following new regulations will come into effect immediately: All new incoming prisoners, regardless of age, will have to undergo the new procedure, necessary for our protection. The ban on talking to the prisoners remains in place. I would like to remind you urgently, that the new procedure means that the prisoners affected will suffer hallucinations, and nothing they say may be taken seriously. In addition to this, we will also forward this procedure to all other prisons, police stations, and similar security institutions, in order to protect our own people.", Luz finishes reading, and already from the way Luz almost tears the paper apart, Amity immediately sees how angry she is right now. Golden flashes appear on Luz's arms and only moments later the document bursts into flames, leaving nothing behind.
"This... this is insane.", Luz comments, aghast, "They are robbing witches and demons of their powers, and then portraying them as insane, so they won't be taken seriously??? That's so... so..."
"Immoral?", Amity asks similarly horrified.
"I was going to say something more like 'disgusting,' but yeah, that fits too.", Luz replies, and closes the folder. "We have to free everyone."
"I know."
"You take a look and see if you can find anything else about the glyph and where it came from. In the meantime, I'll take a look and see what Wrath is hiding behind that locked door.", Amity nods in confirmation before pulling another stapler out of the drawer.
Meanwhile, Luz has made her way to the door, froze the massive padlock, and destroyed it with a single blow before entering the room.
Amity has placed the second stapler on the desk, and immediately notices the Emperor's Coven seal on it. She opens it and finds only a single paper on it, addressed to Warden Wrath, and dated from a little over two weeks ago.
'Warden Wrath... blah blah blah... Threat to society... blah blah blah... An experimental procedure to suppress harmful drives? Expected side effects include physical debility and hallucinations... Attached is a template that must be burned onto the prisoners' skin. The template must be destroyed after the burning iron has been created. What the-', Amity can't even finish her thought before Luz already returns, holding an object in her hand.
"I found this. Laying in a cold oven. Probably the one Katya mentioned...", Luz reports, "Did you find anything else?"
"I have reason to believe that none of the guards here know exactly what they're really doing.", Amity tells.
"What do you mean?"
"This is an instruction to Wrath for the branding iron you're holding right now, and it says it's meant to suppress harmful drives, and that weakened sensations are merely side effects...", Amity relays what she's read.
"But that doesn't necessarily make it any better... Who gave the order?", Luz asks.
"I don't know. It's not signed. It just has the Emperor's Covens seal on it.", Amity replies, taking out her scroll and photographing this document as well.
"Doesn't matter. We have what we need. We need to free these people now.", Luz announces.
"And after that?"
"After that, we'll find Alsa and explain to her what we found. The prisoners can- wait no, they can't fight. They're not in any shape to...", Luz babbles to herself before her head snaps rapidly to Amity, "I have an idea how we can not only free all the prisoners undetected, but also how we can break that... I don't know, magic-suppression spell."
"How?"
"Come on. First, I have to test something out.", Luz announces, and both girls head toward the exit. "Oh, one more thing: How do you feel about some arson?"
"I mean, we've already broken in here, looted, and are possibly going to make a huge mess here... So, why not?", Amity replies, causing Luz to smirk happily, "Buut... Let's free the people first, okay?"
Amity is heading for the exit, and creates a small flame to melt the ice Luz sealed the door with earlier, when she suddenly hears a soft poof. She turns around to see Luz taking off her concealment bracelet and packing it away.
"What are you doing?", Amity asks anxiously.
"Well, the concealment doesn't do much good when it too is being searched for via wanted poster...", Luz replies.
"That makes a surprising amount of sense...", Amity counters, "Sorry, my head is kind of somewhere else today..."
"I already noticed that.", Luz smiles, "Don't worry, if necessary, I'll do the thinking today".
Never in her life has Luz seen such a horrified expression on another person's face, let alone her girlfriend's. Luz then begins to laugh out loud, and Amity's face runs redder than ever before. Luz even has to hold onto one of the shelves in the meantime, while Amity starts muttering apologies.
"I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to insult your intelligence... Please forgive me.", Amity pleads as Luz has calmed down a bit. She squeezes her eyes shut and grabs the bottom of her black dress with her hands.
'Please don't be mad. Please don't be mad.'
"Don't worry about that," Luz says with a cheerful tone wo which Amity looks back up again, confused.
"You... aren't mad?"
"Why would I be? I was making a joke. I know where I'm at.", Luz holds Amity by the shoulders, "Really. It's all right."
"Okay.", Amity releases her grip and turns around, before pulling on the door together with Luz, and they cautiously step out.
Both girlfriends poke their heads through the slightly open door, keeping an eye out for any guards. When, as expected, no one is to be seen, they open the door fully, and step out. Luz approaches the edge to get a look down, to see if the coast is clear there as well. Turning back to Amity, she raises a thumbs up, signaling that they can begin whatever Luz may have planned.
Luz leads the way, peeking into each cell they pass. And as Katya indicated earlier, the top ones are all empty.
In the twelfth cell, the two girls find a rather large witch with cyan skin and rather broad shoulders, lying on the floor of their cell with their back facing them, cramped.
"Hey. You. Are you awake?", Luz asks in a loud whisper into their cell. Amity's head immediately rings all the alarm bells, and she jerks Luz by the shoulders.
"What are you doing?", she whispers in a serious tone.
"We need help if we're going to get everyone out at the same time. We probably can't do it alone, and I need to try something first and see if it works.", Luz tries to explain.
"I can hear you, you know?", the witch inside the cell speaks in a deep voice, before they slowly and laboriously turn to the two girls, revealing the still fresh looking burn mark on one of their hands, and then look at them in surprise. "You are not guards..."
"No, we're not. We're here to get all the unjustly imprisoned out of here.", Luz announces.
"Did Liwin seriously send some kids to get me out of here?", the witch asks with a derogatory tone.
"Wait, are you the one who got caught near Latissa?", Amity wonders.
"I am. The name is Ruby.", she introduces herself before her gaze moves to Luz. "I know you. You're the human..."
"I'm Luz.", Luz introduces herself kindly. Ruby just snorts dismissively.
"Not only does Liwin send two children to free me. One of them is a human..."
"Do you want to get out of here or not?", Amity asks annoyed.
"I'm afraid with this thing here-", Ruby raises her hand slightly, revealing the burn mark, "-I'm not going anywhere."
Without giving it much thought, Luz pulls the lever next to the iron bars, which causes them to raise, allowing Luz access. She enters Ruby's cell and kneels next to her hand, the inside surface of which is at least as large as Luz's head.
Ruby herself is a true giant, even when lying down. The width of her shoulders is almost equal to Luz's vertical height, and her arms and legs are similarly massively muscled. It is currently difficult to estimate how tall Ruby is, but Amity suspects that she is at least two meters tall. Probably taller.
Luz pulls out a glyph that Amity recognizes as a regeneration glyph.
"This is a regeneration glyph. If I apply it to your hand, I hope the scar will heal and your strength will return.", Luz explains.
"You hope?", Amity asks skeptically.
"There's a chance that there won't work, and I'll have to try something else.", Luz continues to explain.
"Do what you can't help doing, human. It can't get any worse.", Ruby says, taking her gaze from Luz and leaning her head powerlessly against the gray, stone cell wall. Luz takes a quick breath before placing the glyph on the back of Ruby's hand and activating it.
Her hand glows green as the paper dissolves, and Luz and Amity are confident. This quickly subsides as Ruby's burn mark turns red and begins to smoke.
"AAAAAAAHHHH-," Ruby screams out in pain until Luz quickly claps her hand over her mouth to muffle her scream. Amity quickly rushes outside to watch for any sign of movement.
Half a minute later, Ruby's pain-filled screaming seems to subside, and Luz removes her hand from her mouth.
"I was wrong. It could get worse.", Ruby exclaims through gritted teeth. Luz turns to Amity.
"Has anyone heard that?", Luz asks. Amity turns and shakes her head.
Luz exhales in relief before Amity returns to the cell.
"I was afraid that wouldn't work. I was hoping so badly-", Luz cuts herself off.
"What?", Amity asks.
"There's only one person whose spell I couldn't affect with my glyphs...", Luz begins, "Belos. He created this glyph."
"Are you sure? How?", Amity asks.
"I don't know how... But when I tried to free Eda, she was in chains attached to the ground. I tried to freeze the lock, and blast it, but it didn't work. My glyphs were ineffective... And that was Belos' magic.", Luz explained when Ruby spoke up.
"Can we please get back to my problem here???", Ruby demands.
"Yeah, yeah, right. I have a second idea. But it's harder to explain...", Luz tells her. Ruby just growls at her in return, but doesn't refuse.
Luz holds her hands slightly above Ruby's burn mark, and moments later summons the golden lightning bolts on her arms. Ruby turns her head to Luz as she notices the static electricity in the air. The lightning bolts dance down Luz's arm to her palms, immediately below which they form the same regeneration glyph, and start sinking into Ruby's hand. Once again, her hand begins to glow green. At first, nothing happens, which is good compared to the previous attempt. Curious and confused, Ruby looks first at Luz, and then at her own hand, where she can watch her burn mark begin to heal.
"How-", Ruby asks.
"Are you feeling better?", Luz asks. In response, Ruby tries to stand up, which she succeeds at the first attempt. Only now her true dimensions become apparent. She is at least half a meter taller than Luz or Amity. Even Warden Wrath would look small next to her. She gazes at the two girls in surprise.
Ruby clenches one of her massive fists, and within a second, her fist is completely on fire. And another few seconds later she extinguishes it again.
"Ruby is back, bitches.", she grins diabolically. She glares at Luz. "What's your plan?"
Amity is curious as well.
"I will use plant magic to link all the prisoners together a using the same healing magic on all of them through the plants. After that, I will open all the cells and Ruby, I want to ask you to help everyone out of here."
"And what about you girls?", Ruby asks. Luz turns to Amity.
"Amity, I don't know how much effort it will take for me. If necessary, you'll have to get us out of here.", Luz asks her.
"But of course.", Amity answers in the same second. Luz smiles, and pulls out an invisibility glyph and hands it to her girlfriend.
"Ruby, any questions?", Luz asks the giantess.
"What about a meeting place?" she asks.
"Do you know Alsa?", Amity asks, Ruby nods, "Seek her out. She's somewhere outside treating another prisoner there. Anything else?"
Ruby shakes her head. Luz takes a deep breath.
"Let's go then."
The three of them leave Ruby's cell and step up onto the curbstone. Luz kneels down and places both her hands flat on the front stone.
As before, Luz summons the golden lightning over her arms, only this time there are many times more, which slide into her hand and appear to transfer further into the stone.
Amity watches Luz' strained face as she summons only more and more lightning bolts that sink into her hands.
Amity turns and glances at Ruby's neighboring cell, where another prisoner appears to be sleeping. She watches for any sign of movement, but... nothing so far. She walks to the next cell, and there, she doesn't notice any movement either.
She turns back to Luz, who is still straining to produce golden lightning bolts.
'How big is this spell supposed to get, please?', she wonders.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Amity's feet begins to vibrate slightly. Cautiously, she approaches the edge of the drop and looks down. Ruby does the same.
The bottom itself can only be glimpsed, but Amity actually detects some kind of movement at the bottom, but without being able to make out any details.
The vibrations continue, but Luz is also unchanged. Amity looks down again and spots a massive green structure approaching quickly. Sure enough, in the empty middle of the Conformatorium grows an incredibly quickly growing plant, from which a small branch breaks off and shoots into every single cell. Probably to bind itself to the prisoners, as Luz said.
The top of it is quickly getting closer, and closer. Only moments later, the plant arrives at the top by the three of them. The tip begins to connect with Luz's hands, and the golden flashes now instead of going into Luz's palm, go into the absolutely gigantic plant, which now begins to glow green. The glow quickly moves downward, and into each individual cell.
For two minutes, nothing happens. No one speaks, and Luz' state remains unchanged. That is, until all the branches leaning away from the plant simultaneously retract and move to the levers next to each cell, and all the levers in the entire Conformatorium simultaneously pull down, opening all the iron bars in the building at once.
By now slightly concerned, Amity now looks to Luz, and sees the plant release her hands, and the golden flashes on her arms subside. Weakly, Luz topples to her side, and Amity immediately sprints to her. When she gets there, Ruby is also standing next to her. Slowly Luz raises her head to Ruby, and tries to speak.
"It's your turn now.", is all she can manage. Ruby looks at Amity, who nods at her affirmatively. Ruby grins diabolically before standing up, cracking her neck, lunging, and leaping onto the giant plant, smoothly slithering her way downwards.
"LISTEN UP, YOU ASSHOLES!", she roars with all her might into the void of the Conformatorium. This is so loud, in fact, that Amity covers her own ears, and protectively rests her body weight on Luz's ears, "WE WILL NOW LEAVE THIS FUCKING HELLHOLE! ... COME ON, Y'ALL AIN'T NEVER SEEN A PRISON BREAK BEFORE? COME ON YOU BASTARDS!"
'We need to get out of here.', Amity thinks to herself with aching ears. Fortunately, Ruby gets progressively quieter the further down she slides.
Amity bends down to Luz, grabs her under her knees and shoulders, and lifts her up.
'Urgh... I think I need to do some more weight lifting.'
One step at a time, she carries her girlfriend to the nearest window, and prepares Ghost, as well as her invisibility glyph.
"Luz, if you can hear me... Hold your breath."
It has been a while since Skara and Gwendolyn landed together in front of the Forearm Forest and entered it. But admittedly, Thorn Forest would possibly fit better as a name.
Every single tree in this forest is at least a full meter in diameter, and the brown-gray bark is covered with a number of sharp thorns that extend up to the almost opaque canopy. From the top, cyan root-like loops, also studded with thorns, snake down towards the brown soil. A few vines hang down from some lower hanging branches, blocking the way for the two witches. Fortunately, Gwendolyn has a rather large machete with her, which she uses to cut through the vines. Skara, on the other hand, uses the end of her staff to move things out of the way.
"Gwen?"
"What is it, dear?"
"I was wondering... I thought you said you'd been here before, but you didn't say why. May I ask what you were here for?", Skara asks, to which Gwendolyn sighs slightly.
"Because of my daughter.", she answers first before pausing briefly and lowering her machete, "In her youth, a terrible tragedy caused her to becoming cursed. After a very long search, I found a healer who promised me a cure in exchange for ancient artifacts... I looked everywhere, and further east of here, near the coast, I found something in an abandoned village that must have burned down completely at some point."
"A coastal town that burned down?! Weird...", Skara notes as they both continue to make their way through the forest, "Have you been able to heal your daughter?"
"Fate beat me to it, unfortunately.", Gwendolyn replies sorrowfully.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you any hurt...", Skara apologizes.
"It's all right, dear. You couldn't have known.", Gwendolyn raises her machete again and starts cutting vines again, "But now I want to ask you something too."
"Go ahead."
"You seem to know Luz and Amity well. How do you know each other?"
"Well, I've known Amity for almost... um... nine years, maybe. Maybe only eight, not quite sure.", Gwendolyn nods casually, "Luz on the other hand... I didn't really get to know her until she came back from Amphibia-"
"From where?", Gwendolyn asks, causing Skara to fall silent for a moment.
"Ohh, um... Forget I mentioned that. It's not up to me to tell.", Skara glares at her in anticipation of some reaction.
"Don't worry about it. She had told me that she was trapped in another world. I just didn't know the name of the place.", Gwendolyn explains, causing Skara to feel a sense of relief.
"Good... Good... Okay, where was I? Oh yeah... Before she disappeared, I hadn't really paid attention to her, and admittedly wasn't very nice to her. When she came back, I had just won my very first flyer derby match, and the Golden Guard was about to arrest her, all the while she wasn't even conscious.", at which point Gwendolyn's attention peaks.
"You encountered the Golden Guard?", she asks.
"He had sneaked into Hexside disguised as a student. No idea why though. He couldn't possibly have known that Luz would return that day...", Skara now answers with venom in her voice.
"I myself, until I joined the resistance against Belos, had never really had anything to do with the Emperor's Coven... I was wondering if you, as a strategist, could give me some insight into the Golden Guard's abilities and powers. What kind of witch is he?", Gwendolyn asks to casually change the subject. Skara has to think for a moment.
"I... actually never saw him cast magic... Although, I have seen him dashing, but that's about it."
"I thought members of the Emperor's Covens were skilled in any kind of magic... Why would he hold back?", Gwendolyn thinks aloud.
"Well, he was pretending to be a student in the Potions track...", Skara remarks.
"Good point.", Gwendolyn admits, "Otherwise, I almost suspected he couldn't do magic at all."
"A magic-less witch as Emperor Belos' right-hand man?", Skara repeats extremely skeptically, "Really?"
"Yeah, I know. We'll probably see soon... Say, you're a Bard witch, right?"
"Correct."
"Do you have any instruments with you?"
"I do have three instruments ready if necessary. A marble flute, a lute made of olive heartwood, and a gold-covered harp with strings made of palistrom fibers.", Skara tells her, which leaves Gwendolyn momentarily speechless.
"Good Titan... You've mastered three instruments at once?"
"No.", Skara answers calmly, "More like nine. I try to learn at least one new instrument every year. The marble flute is my most recent instrument, though I'm still a little inexperienced with it."
"Well, everybody starts out small. How long have you been practicing if I may ask?"
"I don't know, two months maybe. I haven't had too much time to practice besides school, Grudgby, and Flyer Derby."
"You probably never experienced boredom...", Gwendolyn surmises.
"Not really, no.", Skara confirms as she suddenly stops in her tracks, "Whoa.... You weren't exaggerating about the size of that thing..."
Immediately in front of both of them, the thorn barrier Gwendolyn told Skara about, before they left Bonesborough, unveils itself. Stretching over a height of up to thirty meters, and to the sides as far as the eye can see, thick tendrils of thorns, tightly tangled and interconnected, block the path of the two witches.
"Hey, check this out.", Skara points to one of the nearer thorny tendrils, in front of which lies some sort of stone object, as well as the end of a thinner tendril. She walks over to it and lifts up the object, which appears to be some sort of stone knife, or sword. "Someone tried to cut through the thorn barrier..."
"I'm not surprised. The Galdorstones promise power, and even if most people think they're just a myth, it doesn't stop others from looking for them.", Gwendolyn notes, "But whoever tried to cut through the barrier must have been really desperate."
"And how do we get across? Flying?", Skara wonders.
"Tell me Skara, do you know the echo spell?", Gwendolyn asks.
"Of course. Why?"
"Please be so kind and tell me if there are Fire Bees or Briar Grubs anywhere nearby by chance?"
"Okay...", Skara replies cautiously, summoning forth her familiar harp. She plucks one of the strings, and a slight shockwave quickly moves away from them, spreading in all directions. "There are no Fire Bees around here, but I've found a swarm of Briar Grubs. What do you need them for?"
"I'll show you.", Gwendolyn draws a large yellow magic circle in the air, shortly before the trees and leaves around the two witches begin to move and rustle. Skara takes a step closer to the older witch.
Moments later, the canopy of leaves above them seems to darken, and Gwendolyn's eyes begin to glow bright yellow.
"Come to me my precious friends, and create a path for us to pass through."
Whatever has darkened the forest further is now coming at both of them at high speed, gliding past them, straight for the thorn barrier. Thousands of small, light gray grubs, each as big as a little toe, with six little wings, race toward the thorn barrier, and all Skara can hear afterwards are chewing sounds. And less than a minute later, where the thorns were just a moment ago, there is now a tunnel through which they can continue on their way.
"That's what that was.", Gwendolyn exclaims, "Briar Grubs live in these woods, and are herbivores. Their absolute favorite food is the poison secreted by all those thorns, but every now and then they'll eat the rest of the plant as well."
"That was the... most impressive and gross thing I've ever seen...", Skara comments, before both of them continue on their way.
"Not a fan of grubs?", Gwendolyn asks jokingly.
"Nu-uh.", Skara replies, a chill just running down her spine, "Grubs, ladybugs, and larvae are the three things that are welcome to go extinct for all I care, thank you very much."
"Larvae?"
"Any kind. Full extinction.", Skara adds.
"Okay... good to know."
"Amity! Luz! What happened?" Alsa asks, startled upon seeing the two girls appear out of nowhere in front of her, both on Amity's staff. Amity clings tightly to her staff with only one hand, while supporting Luz with the other. Amity descends first, and Alsa joins them to help Luz down as well and sitting her down in front of one of the large bones that serves as a temporary hideout.
"Things didn't go quite as planned...", Amity reports vaguely.
"I can see that.", Alsa counters, at which point Katya joins them.
"Where are the others?", Katya asks, "What happened in there?"
As Amity and Alsa set Luz on the ground, who appears to still be weakening but luckily still responsive, Amity's gaze falls on Katya's hand, where the burn mark can still be seen.
"Your hand...", Amity mutters, "Yeah, um... We went to Warden Wrath's office and found some disturbing info. I took pictures that I'll show you guys later. Basically, after that, Luz and I decided that we couldn't just leave the prisoners there, and Luz then healed and freed all of them. It shouldn't be long now, and we'll be able to see them."
Alsa's jaw drops straight to the floor as Amity finished, and Amity herself now turns to Luz, offering her a tiny smile.
"She managed to heal everyone??? In such a short time??? I haven't even managed to do it on just Katya yet...", Alsa speaks loudly. Luz tilts her head slightly and looks over to Katya.
"Come here.", Luz says softly and holds up her hand. Katya kneels on the floor next to Luz, and places her hand in Luz'. Luz holds her other hand directly over Katya's burn mark before the golden flashes appear on Luz' arm, travel to her hand, and disappear into Katya's hand. Shortly after, as the four of them witness the burn mark on her hand beginning to heal, Katya herself becomes more energized. Alsa stares at the healing scar in disbelief before turning to Luz, who has leaned her head back against Amity's shoulder, who has sat down next to her.
"How did you do that? Humans don't have magic.", Alsa says this more aggressively than she actually had intended.
"Luz isn't a-", Amity yells back before slapping her hands over her mouth in shock, looking at Luz with wide eyes. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to-"
Dejectedly, Luz's gaze drops to the floor, whereupon she sighs, sounding disappointed.
"It's alright, Ami. It would have come out eventually anyway...", Luz replies to her before turning to Alsa. "Something happened, a while ago... Something I won't go into detail about, but it caused me to become only half human. The other half recently allowed me to use magic without glyphs."
"So, you're more or less half a witch? Or half demon?", Alsa asks curiously.
"It doesn't matter what the other half is.", Luz replies, not lifting her gaze from the ground. No one answers anything in response, at least until Luz pulls out something she packed earlier in Warden Wrath's office. "Oh, by the way, Alsa, you should have this."
It doesn't take Alsa particularly long to identify the object as a burning iron. Still, with a questioning look, she peers at Luz. Amity steps in for her.
"According to documents we found, there was probably only one of these in the Conformatorium. The template for making it was probably destroyed on orders from the Emperor's Covens.", Amity explains.
"I'm not surprised that the Emperor's Coven is involved. Have you found a name? A person responsible?", Alsa asks.
"We suspect that Belos himself is involved, and that the prisoners in the Conformatorium were used as test subjects.", Amity replies.
"That's just downright terrible... What happened to-", Alsa began to keep inquiring as a distant, loud scream that seems to be emanating from the Conformatorium caught her attention. Alsa takes a few steps out of their temporary hiding place, and spots the large entrance gates of the Conformatorium flying open with great force, flying out of their moorings, and falling to the ground with a loud bang. Countless prisoners seem to run out of the building, while some of them stay behind and seem to be fighting back guards. In the midst of them is the witch, who Alsa thinks is Ruby, who only moments before had also let out her battle cry.
"I have to help them!", Alsa says to no one in particular before turning to the others, "You guys wait here!"
Katya quickly raises her arm to stop Alsa before she has summoned her staff, but she is already flying off. She sighs audibly loudly, causing both Luz and Amity to giggle softly. As Katya turns to both of them rapidly, both of them fall abruptly silent. Amity speaks up.
"I'm sure she knows you want to help too.", Amity tries to cheer her up a bit.
"Of course I want to help... That's the only reason I originally joined the BATs in the first place...", Katya tells at which point Luz raises her head in interest off of Amity's shoulder.
"The BATs?", she asks.
"Yes. It stands for 'Bards Against the Throne.' The tambourine is my specialty.", Katya replies.
"Cool...", Luz says, "Great idea by the way. I think every good resistance needs a catchy name."
"How did you guys actually get caught?", Amity now asks curiously.
"We actually got caught pretty early, before we thought we had accomplished much. We raided a couple of prisoner transports in Bonesborough and tried to recruit more people that way. It worked twice, before the third time, we were ambushed just outside of town, caught, and locked directly into the Conformatorium via Abomination teleportation. At first it was just Amber, Derwin, and me, but later I had heard from guards that Raine had been captured as well."
"Raine... Raine... Raine...", Luz mumbles to herself, "Where have I heard that name before?"
"Well, Raine was head of the Bard coven. Raine Whispers. Anything?", Amity asks, but Luz just shakes her head.
"I think I remember that Eda used to know someone named Raine. I had found some unsent letters once... Not sure if that's the same person though.", Luz replies. Katya doesn't respond to this further, but changes the subject.
"Say, Cat Lady, how are you feeling? After all, you were totally exhausted when you got here...", she asks.
"I feel better... Even though I don't think I can walk anywhere just yet.", Luz jokes.
"Why, you still wanna go somewhere?", Amity jokes along. However, Luz doesn't respond and acts suspiciously silent. Enough that she suspects shenanigans. "Luz... Please tell me you don't have any more plans..."
An exposing grin spreads across Luz's face.
"I swear to Titan…", Amity begins, but stops herself before saying anything that might be regretted, "What is it?"
"I want to help Gwen and Skara...", Luz admits without hesitation.
"I shouldn't be surprised...", Amity talks to herself before getting lost in thought for a while.
'Damned be her adorable urge to always jump head first into a dangerous situation to help people...'
"Okay, but only on one condition.", Amity begins, to which Luz looks at her expectantly, "We're not leaving until you're fully recovered. And no discussion."
'With any luck, Gwen and Skara will be already done by then.'
"All right, okay.", Luz agrees.
"Where do you wanna go?", Katya asks, who wasn't really listening.
"Forearm Forest.", Luz answers, "But not right away."
At that point, the three of them hear an explosion coming from the Conformatorium. Amity and Katya peek out from their hiding place to see what's going on, and notice a fire rapidly spreading upwards within the building. Amity turns to Luz, who is also trying to get the few meters to them in order to watch as well, but is barely able to move from her spot.
"It looks like your arson plan is working after all.", Amity reports, to which Luz pouts slightly that she can't watch herself as well.
At that point, another loud explosion erupts, catching all three of them by surprise and startling them. Amity quickly turns around and notices black smoke rising from the center of the tower, as well as a large hole in the wall that covers at least the area of eighteen cells spread over three floors. It is so large that the burning plant in the center of the Conformatorium is clearly visible, provided one has binoculars, or very good eyes.
"What the titan was that plant earlier, Luz?", Amity asks, sounding both impressed and frightened at the same time. Just a few minutes later, the three of them hear some people let out panicked screams. Meanwhile, Luz has made it to the other two, and can now also watch as the top fifty or so meters of the Conformatorium, that is everything above the gaping hole in the outer wall, begins to lean increasingly to one side. The fighting at, and in front of the Conformatorium gates has stopped, and everyone down there starts to run away from there as fast as possible, or to get to safety in some other way.
The top falls, landing not far from the main entrance. Fortunately, there is nothing immediately inside the crater in which the Conformatorium is located, except the building itself.
An enormous cloud of dust fills the crater, and only the fire blazing in the remains of the building itself can still be seen. Everything else is obscured by the dust.
"If we were to publicly reveal that we were responsible for the destruction of the Conformatorium, is that more of a good, or more of a bad signal to the public?", Luz asks the other two witches after several minutes of silence. However, neither of them answers, as Alsa suddenly comes flying back into view towards them.
When she lands, Luz is the first to speak up.
"Please tell me everyone made it out.", Luz fervently hopes.
"I talked to Ruby, as well as your people, Katya, who said that all the cells were cleared, and no one was hit from the top of the building either. That's the good news...", Alsa reports, whereupon Luz exhales in relief.
"There is bad news?", Katya asks.
"I only encountered two of your people: Derwin and Amber. I guess the last one from your group wasn't here.", Alsa continues to report. At that, Luz speaks up.
"The Conformatorium does have a basement. The last time I was here, though, there were only giant statues there, as well as a single, huge, high-security cell.", Luz recounts.
"I'll go back in and check there in a minute, but so far there seems to be only wounded and no casualties on either side. And by the way...", Alsa now looks at Luz and Amity as she pauses, "Well done."
"Huh?", the two girlfriends look at her in confusion.
"That's probably the most damage we've ever done to the Emperor's Coven. We did a massive amount of damage to them today, and it's all thanks to you two. This was supposed to be just a small rescue operation, but this is soo much better for us. Really well done."
"Thank you.", Amity is the first to respond.
"Yeah, thanks. Um, but I have a question... Well, more like two questions.", Luz begins, to which Alsa raises an eyebrow in anticipation, "Do you know what exactly started the fire? Or the explosion?"
"Ruby started the fire. As for the explosion... No idea.", Alsa replies.
"So, what happens now?", Amity wonders.
"Now... we should leave. Also, Katya, this is for you.", Alsa hands her a business card, "On it, it always shows our next meeting place when it's arranged. Get your people and we'll all meet there as soon as we can.", Katya nods in agreement before Alsa turns to Luz and Amity, "You guys should get out of here as soon as you can too. Not long now, and this place will be overrun with coven scouts."
"I'm not fully recovered yet, but we won't stay much longer.", Luz tells her. Alsa nods in confirmation before turning her attention to Katya again.
"Should I give you a lift?", she asks her. Katya nods and climbs onto her staff with Alsa. "I'll see you guys later.", they say goodbye to Luz and Amity, leaving the two of them in their hiding spot.
Amity and Luz both lean back against each other, relaxed.
"How are you feeling?", Amity asks.
"Actually, I'm feeling quite a bit better.", Luz replies.
"And you still want to go to Forearm Forest?", she continues to ask.
"Well, of course. But I think I still need a little while.", Luz replies.
"Well-", Amity begins, but is directly interrupted again by Luz.
"-And I even already have an idea how we can get there quickly and without danger..."
"... How?"
"Are you really sure we'll be there soon?", Skara asks, "What makes you think that?"
"Let's call it just a hunch of mine. You can use your echo spell if you want to check.", Gwendolyn suggests.
All the way since the thorn barrier, Skara holds her golden harp in her hand instead of her staff, which she now plucks briefly. Just like the first time, a shockwave spreads through the leaves and bushes, and around between the trees. Basically, Skara expects to find nothing but nature, in which the two witches have been traveling for quite a while now. It's all the more unexpected when her echo spell sends back an answer, which leaves her quite worried, which probably shows as she just stops dead in her tracks.
"You found... something?", Gwendolyn now mirrors Skara's concern. Skara nods in response.
"People. Lots of them."
"Where?"
"I don't know the exact range of my echo spell, unfortunately, but right on the edge. And they're moving.", Skara replies.
"Good, that means they haven't found the stones yet, at least."
"That's one way to look at it...", Skara comments, before both of them now continue walking at an increased pace. Still with machete in hand, Gwendolyn now walks more briskly ahead, with Skara immediately behind her. Fortunately, and only a few minutes later, the two arrive at a clearing. More precisely, in front of a high, stone fence, which between individual stone pillars is a pointed iron fence in between two pillars each.
Skara turns her head and discovers something that could be an entrance.
"Over there.", she directs Gwendolyn's attention to the structure, and they head there.
The two witches are just standing in front of a massive stone doorway, both sides of which are decorated with some sort of masks, one of them shocked, the other amused, carved into the gray stone of the door. Immediately above the masks are two interlocking hands, and topping off the entrance gate is an incomplete stone half-arch, on which are carved the words 'Looking Glass -'. It suggests that another word belongs to it, but which seems to be missing. Gwendolyn attaches her machete to her stylish brown belt and takes out the map again.
"You're right... This is the place. The stones must be here...", she says with an optimistic tone.
"And now that we also know that this isn't completely covered by trees, that means we can fly back, and don't have to walk."
"Yes, that's true too.", Gwendolyn agrees.
The two witches brace themselves against one of the two doors and laboriously push it open, entering the place.
Immediately, they notice several things. The whole place is arranged in a circle, except for the bounding fence, which seems to be rectangular. Both of them now enter a structure, which seems to be the ruins of an old dome. They pass through stone archways that go once in a circle around the center of the place. Most of them on the lowest level are actually still intact. On the level above, only a few archways and columns are still visible. And on the level above that, only the idea that a stone dome protected the place from rain and storms still exists.
In the center of the area surrounded by the stone archways, standing in a semicircle opposite the entrance gate to the area, are nine three meter tall stone statues, all standing on small pedestals.
"What do you think this used to be?", Skara asks as they cautiously approach the center of the place. Carefully, Gwendolyn looks around.
"Hard to say... It doesn't seem to me to be a place that was visited particularly often. Maybe some kind of temple complex?", she guesses.
At that point, Skara stops abruptly in the middle of the inside square as she notices that the fog has thickened quite a bit around them.
"Gwen?", Skara begins, whereupon she turns to the young witch.
"Yes?"
"Didn't Liwin say something about a guardian?", Skara directs her gaze to the ground. The fog that surrounds both of them begins to move on its own to Skara's right, and it does so increasingly faster.
Not far from her, the fog begins to lift from the ground and thicken to the point where a creature can gradually make itself recognizable.
Skara hastily grabs Gwendolyn's arm sleeve and drags her towards the back of two statues.
"Move move move!", Skara repeats in a whisper, and just after they have found shelter behind two statues, a deafening deep roar rings out the entire site and everything around it. Unfortunately, Skara has put her hands on her ears too late, so now a loud whistle rings in her ears.
After a few moments, she cautiously peeks out from behind the statue and discovers a huge, hovering, terrifying creature. It is entirely in a midnight blue tone, but partly protected by blue armor plates on its back. Its entire underbelly is vertically striped in two light gray hues, which do have a metallic look. Also, the creature doesn't have a head. Only an opening at the top end, from which a long, blue tongue emerges, and in which two bright white eyes can be seen. The last distinctive features are the two massive claws on the side of its body, as well as the six white burning, purple wings on the creature's back plates.
Skara peers out of the corner of her eye at Gwendolyn, who is not even remotely as frightened as she is. Instead, she seems a little... confused.
"What's wrong?", Skara whispers loudly to her, after watching Gwendolyn attempting to cast several failed spells.
"I can't get a hold of that thing.", Gwendolyn remarks, "I can usually grasp any beast, but that one is beyond my control."
Skara turns her gaze again to the Beast, which once again lets out an impossibly loud roar, circulating the inner perimeter in search of the two witches.
"Let me try something.", Skara steps out from behind the statue, along with her harp in her hand.
"No, wait!", Gwendolyn wants to stop Skara, but she has already plucked a string to cast an echo spell. The resulting blast wave passes smoothly through the creature.
Now, the creature has spotted Skara, and Gwendolyn also appears from behind the statue and positions herself in front of Skara, her machete drawn, before the creature roars loudly and begins to race toward them. With a knowing look, Skara bends down and picks up a small stone from the ground, which she throws at the creature, passing right through it and falling to the ground. Gwendolyn is confused.
"It's an illusion!", Skara calls out, and the creature comes to an abrupt stop right in front of them. Impressed, Gwendolyn looks back and forth between it and Skara before the creature simply puffs out into gray smoke moments later, revealing an old man.
"You have seen straight through my illusion...", he admits, embarrassed. "Most of the others, the sight alone was enough to make them flee screaming like little babies..."
"You are the guardian of this place?", Gwendolyn asks skeptically.
"Why, yes.", he counters, "I am the keeper of the Looking Glass Graveyard."
Skara and Gwendolyn exchange incredulous glances at each other before he continues.
"Well, at least so far. But you have now proven to me that my protection is fallible- Wait a minute...", he eyes the two witches thoroughly, "You don't seem like thieves to me. What do you want?"
The Keeper tries his best to appear intimidating, but fails immediately. At that, Skara speaks up.
"A small army of Emperor's Coven scouts is on its way here to procure the Galdorstones for Belos. We want to prevent them from getting their hands on them."
"We were sent here to procure the stones for the resistance against Belos, or ultimately destroy them.", Gwendolyn adds.
"Oh no no no.", the Keeper counters. "We can't destroy the Galdorstones. No one can. No one should."
"Why not?"
"Galdorstones amplify magical potential. There's a reason why Illusionists were tasked with protecting the stones.", he explains, though that doesn't really address the question.
"So, we get to take the stones?", Skara asks.
"No."
"You do realize that we could just take the Galdorstones, right? And that you couldn't do anything about it?", Skara threatens him. Instantly however, Gwendolyn speaks up cutting her off.
"What she was trying to say is... How can we help make sure that the stones don't fall into Belos' hands? I mean, the Illusionists have been protecting this place for what? Centuries? Surely there must have been plans for such a situation..."
"Plans?", he asks, as if the word 'plan' had just struck him for the first time in his life now.
"Oh titan...", Gwendolyn groans before turning to Skara, "Would you mind standing guard outside the gate and letting us know when you see the coven guards?"
"Sure.", Skara replies, turning around, and leaving the area, but not stopping outside the gates to stand guard as asked.
The thing is, in another situation, the strategist would be quite offended to be deputized for such a mundane task as standing guard, rather than participating in the actual plan-making. The circumstances are different now since Skara actually has the beginnings of a plan. And that involves buying Gwendolyn and the Keeper time to come up with a plan, that will most likely consist of allowing Gwendolyn and her to take the Galdorstones, if it really isn't possible to destroy them completely.
Skara walks quite a distance away from the line of sight of the graveyard, but not too far that she can't easily find her way back.
She now stands in the middle of an unmarked path, identifiable only by the lack of trees in front and behind her, and the fact that sunlight can actually hit the ground in this area. Equipped with her harp in hand, she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and listens for noises.
The rustling of leaves in the wind. Critters walking among bushes. Reinforced boots marching in her direction. One of Skara's ears twitches slightly as she identifies the source.
She points her harp at it, grabs one of the strings, and stretches it as far as the material allows before releasing it, letting loose a charged, focused echo spell in the direction of the stomping.
After a moment of complete silence, the stomping increases, and they get faster. Bushes are pushed aside, branches are broken, and a short time later Skara finds herself surrounded by countless coven scouts, pointing their spears directly at her.
"DROP THE HARP!", one of the scouts orders. But Skara doesn't move, instead letting her gaze slide once from one side of her vision to the other. The rational part of her mind thinks that Skara should be peeing her pants in fear right now, however, she is completely cool and calm. "DROP THE HARP!"
"Where is he, huh?", Skara speaks slowly and clearly, "Where is the Golden Guard? Where is... Hunter?"
No one answers, and all the scouts remain in their positions, continuing to surround Skara with their spears, as some of the scouts form an opening directly in front of her. And there he is, the Golden Guard. Skara smirks as she spots him. Granted, with the golden mask, ivory cape, and mechanical staff in his hand, he does look a bit more intimidating than he did when he was still just in his Potions track Hexside uniform, but Skara knows what's under the mask.
"CITIZEN!", he calls out to her as he continues to approach her. As a sign of good will, Skara unsummons her harp. One of the taller scouts approaches her from behind, abruptly grabbing her by the shoulder, and forcing her to her knees. "How dare you attack members of the Emperor's Coven?"
Hunter now stands directly in front of her.
"How dare I?", Skara asks sarcastically. "Is that how you greet an old friend, Hunter? Or do you prefer Caleb?"
Hunter stamps the ground once with the bottom of his staff, signaling to the scouts surrounding them to raise their spears again. He leans down to Skara.
"What are you doing here, Skara?", he whispers.
"Oh, I was hoping to enlist you for an impromptu round of Flyer Derby.", Hunter snorts at that before straightening up again.
"Nonsense.", he counters, "How do you even know we're here, huh? This is a top-secret operation."
"I think it was that one.", Skara points to some scout immediately behind Hunter, "They told me."
"N-n-no.", the scout stutters as Hunter turns around, "I didn't tell anyone anything."
"Of course not.", Hunter says before leaning back down to Skara. "Tell me why you're here!"
"We're here for the same reason you are.", Skara teases him. And he falls for it.
"We? Is... is the captain here too?", he asks, his voice a lot softer now. Skara can practically hear him blushing.
"Willow doesn't know about this. Besides, I don't think she has any interest in interacting with you other than kicking your ass as payback for locking up her friend and handing her over to Belos.", and now, Hunter is pissed.
"You were stalling...", he now realizes, "Commander! Arrest her. She's going straight to the Conformatorium!", Skara's face drops, and Hunter bends over to her again, "Well, I guess you're not so talkative now, are you?"
The scout behind Skara forces her to her feet as she suddenly notices a familiar, electrostatic charge in the air around her. She's not the only one who notices it, though.
"Speaking of a friend...", Skara smirks at Hunter. Carefully, he takes a few steps back and Skara, still smiling widely, closes her eyes.
Exactly half a minute later, a bright ball of light, as bright as the sun itself appears twelve meters above them, barely above the canopy. Many of the coven scouts have looked up, of course, and those who have looked up are now writhing and screaming in pain.
Skara squints briefly, and when the blinding light seems to have disappeared, she quickly looks around in all directions for the source. Eventually she looks up and spots Luz and Amity flying on Amity's staff.
"YO, GUYS!", Skara yells up as loud as she can, "I COULD USE SOME HELP!"
Luz and Amity seem to have actually heard this and are now heading into a dive directly in her direction. Amity seems incapacitated with the control of her staff, so it is Luz who now hurls quite a few fireballs at the mostly paralyzed coven scouts, causing complete chaos.
All around Skara the fireballs explode causing scouts to fly all over the place. Skara catches sight of Hunter, who seems to be panicking, trying to get an overview of the situation, and frantically trying to give orders, which are completely drowned out by the screams of pain.
'My chance...', Skara thinks to herself, ducking away from the coven commander, summoning her staff, and flying as fast as she can back towards the graveyard, with Luz and Amity right behind her.
Less than a minute of high-speed flight and quick dodging of trees later, the three of them land back on the graveyard grounds, and Skara immediately turns to her two friends. Well, rather, she gratefully wraps her arms around them shortly after Luz and Amity too regain solid ground.
"Thank you. You guys really saved my back. If it wasn't for you guys, I'd probably be on my way to the Conformatorium right now.", Skara states. Both Luz and Amity chuckle at that.
"Yeah, about that-"
"Luz? Amity?", Gwendolyn has now noticed the two new arrivals, "What are you guys doing here? You guys were assigned to the rescue mission..."
"And we successfully completed the mission.", Luz reports.
"And in the meantime also destroyed the Conformatorium...", Amity adds. Gwendolyn is completely speechless right now. Only Skara finds suitable words.
"You're kidding, right?", she asks, "You definitely have to tell me everything later."
"Gladly.", Amity replies before Skara turns to Luz.
"How are you feeling? That time earlier you were completely exhausted...", Skara tries not to say too much, but Luz of course knows what Skara is alluding to.
"It's fine.", Luz replies, sounding quite tired though. Now Gwendolyn speaks up.
"How did you find us, anyway? Did you have a map?", she asks.
"It's hard to explain...", Luz starts, "And I don't know how much time we have right now either. Suffice it to say, I focused on Skara."
"Oh, right, thanks for the reminder.", Skara speaks up and turns to Gwendolyn, "In a few minutes tops, this place will be crawling with coven scouts. I stalled them as long as I could. Please tell me you guys reached an agreement...", Skara pleads. Gwendolyn briefly considered reproaching Skara for not standing guard at the gate as ordered, but then quickly decided that it was completely irrelevant right now.
"We can't destroy the stones. They would have to be melted down, but that only works at temperatures of molten rock. The keeper and I agreed that we would collect the stones and throw them into the Boiling Sea.", Gwendolyn reports, which Skara doesn't like at all.
"Seriously? And we're still not allowed to keep them for ourselves???"
"They could be stolen from us, and then we would have the same problem as right now. No, destruction is the best option.", Gwendolyn counters, "And unfortunately, we don't have a volcano nearby where we can dispose of the stones. Hence, the Boiling Sea"
At that point, Amity looks questioningly at Luz. Luz herself replies with an uncertain shake of her head.
"Um... We could try to melt the rock and then throw the stones into it...", Amity suggests.
"We don't have the time for that as well as the necessary power. None of us is strong enough to melt rock.", Gwendolyn argues.
"With the stones, we are.", Amity counters. Meanwhile, the Keeper has also joined the conversation.
"I think the idea sounds quite feasible.", he notes.
"Fine!", Gwendolyn interjects, "Luz, Amity, Skara, you take care of it. The Keeper and I will try to protect the place for as long as we can.
The five of them immediately split up. Gwendolyn and the Keeper run toward the graveyard entrance, while Luz, Amity, and Skara run toward the center of the place. All of the Galdorstones were already grouped together in the middle.
"Okay... We need to melt the floor...", Skara repeats their assignment though sounding rather insecure, "Nothing easier than that..."
Luz approaches the stones and picks up three of them. One of them she tosses to Amity, one to Skara, and the third she keeps for herself.
"Whoa-", Amity exclaims in surprise, "I can already feel myself getting stronger..."
"Me too.", Skara says.
"Sit on your staffs. I'm not sure how good the idea is to stand on stone that is about to be melted...", Luz exclaims.
"Good idea."
All three of them take out their staffs, and sit on them so that they are hovering slightly above the ground. Amity is the first to summon a fire spell, surprising herself with its intensity before she turns her hands towards the ground. Skara follows suit. Her flame is slightly smaller than Amity's, however. Both witches' flames are bright orange, aimed directly at the solid ground around the Galdorstones as they circle around them on their staffs at a safe distance.
Luz is the last to summon her own powers. She has put her Galdorstone in her pocket and is now summoning the golden lightning. She instantly notices that something is different.
There are more of them. And they are stronger. The first small flames form on her palms, and not only do they quickly grow larger, but they also change color. Luz directs her flame towards the ground. At first, her flame is yellow. Then it changes to a bright orange, like Amity and Skara's. Then red. Then purple. Then blue. And the air around them gets hotter and hotter. And drier and drier.
Time passes and the ground beneath them gradually begins to glow slightly, as do the Galdorstones themselves. They can hear a cracking sound, but don't know exactly where the sound is coming from.
More time passes. The air continues to get warmer, and Skara's flame progressively smaller. In addition, the three of them now hear someone shouting something unintelligible from the direction of the entrance gate.
"Guys, I can't keep this up any longer...", Skara calls out, talking against the not-quiet flames.
"It's okay!", Amity shouts back, not taking her eyes off her own flame.
"Yeah... Listen-", Luz calls out, "Give me your stone and go help Gwendolyn!"
Skara flies closer to Luz and places her Galdorstone in her other pocket before flying back to the entrance gate. Immediately upon contact with the stone, Luz's flame grows brighter, and even hotter. If she wasn't already sweating before, she definitely is now.
More time passes. Their orbits above the ground is now much larger, and the ground begins to change color, and begin to move, and gradually liquefy. Gradually, however, Amity's flame begins to dim as well.
"Luz... I can't last much longer either...", she shouts to her girlfriend.
"It's okay. Give me your stone, I'll do the rest."
By this time, both Luz and Amity are drenched in sweat, and the air is so hot that even the rain on the Boiling Isles would evaporate before it reached the ground.
Amity places her Galdorstone in Luz's hood, gives her a dry kiss on the cheek, and heads with Ghost to the entrance of the graveyard as well.
More time passes. Luz is the only one still circling the ground, and her flame is so bright, and so hot, that if it weren't for her mutations, she would immediately start burning. The once solid ground beneath her feet now bubbles and seethes, just like boiling water. The statues, who were placed in a semicircle, also no longer stand on completely solid ground, and are also gradually beginning to sway. One has already collapsed into the liquid rock, and several more are threatening to do the same. Meanwhile, there is no sign of the Galdorstones left in the center, but Luz does not yet feel that the temperature is high enough. That is, until she hears a tortured-sounding hoot from Owlbert. Luz had completely forgotten about him.
'Oh shit', she mutters, immediately breaking her fire spell, and only now can she see the extent of the destruction.
Most of the statues have fallen into the now molten rock. There is no trace left of the Galdorstones themselves. Only the last three are still there.
Luz flies a little bit higher to give Owlbert some relief before she takes the first stone out of her pocket... and drops it into the molten rock below her. She does the same with the second.
But when she retrieves the last stone out of her hood, she hesitates, but ultimately throws it in as well.
Luz grabs her staff and yanks it around before quickly flying back to the graveyard entrance, where all the others are busy fending off hordes of coven scouts who are attacking them with everything they've got. She spots several illusion copies of her friends running back and forth on the ground between trees and bushes.
It's hard to tell who's real and who's not.
"Hey guys!", Luz yells to the ground and everyone who looks like her friends looks up at her, "I'm done. Let's get out of here!"
Shortly after, all the copies, as well as the originals get on staffs and rise into the air. Luz remains in place until all of them have lifted off, leaving on the ground only the very widely scattered scouts of the Emperor's Coven. One person in particular catches Luz's eye. The Golden Guard just stands there in the midst of the chaos, looking up at her. And though Luz is completely exhausted and drenched in sweat, she can't help but think of shenanigans.
'That guy looks important...'
With a golden flash, Luz performs an extended dash, teleporting herself right behind the Golden Guard.
"Boo.", Luz whispers next to his ears. He immediately startles and lunges backwards with his mechanical staff for a punch, but just one more dash manages to put Luz out of harm's way.
"How do you do that?", he demands to know. Luz smirks at him. "You're a human. Humans can't do magic!"
"Seems like your knowledge is outdated...", Luz retorts. He lunges again for a furious punch, but Luz dashes aside again.
"What do you want, Human? Are you here just to mock me?", he demands to know. Luz steps closer to him.
"I heard you were going to lock a friend of mine in the Conformatorium...", Luz begins, dropping the smirk, "It should interest you that I destroyed it."
"Impossible!", he counters in a convinced tone.
"Well, you can see for yourself when you return wherever and report your failure.", he again angrily lunges for a blow with your staff, only this time Luz dashes into his path and knocks him backwards to the ground. His staff, now lying next to him, is kicked away by Luz. She creates a blue flame in her hand and bends down to him. A grave expression that could freeze the blood in one's veins, adorns her face. "I'm only going to say this once: I don't care who you are or who you report to later. No one threatens my friends and gets away unpunished. Remember that!"
The Golden Guard does not respond to this. Luz stands back up, applies another extended dash, and teleports onto her staff, directly above the dense canopies of trees, and begins to catch up to her friends.
Fortunately, they're not too far away yet. She spots Amity riding Ghost, Skara on her staff, and the Keeper along with Gwendolyn on her staff.
"There you are...", Amity is the first to notice that Luz has finally caught up to them, "What kept you?"
"Well, I was still talking to that one guy who looked important. Told him not to threaten my friends.", Luz casually reports. Amity raises an eyebrow and eyes Luz for a moment.
"You, Luz Noceda, threatened someone? Who are you and what did you do to my girlfriend?", Amity jokes. Luz chuckles briefly in response, before Amity continues, sounding a little less gleeful, "I'm glad that's over now, though. I was really scared for you at times. The prophecy-"
"-didn't happen.", Luz finishes her sentence. "Don't worry, I won't leave you."
"Hmm, yeah...", Amity says thoughtlessly to herself. "You know, I was thinking... My parents and the twins are currently not around, and actually I was going to ask you if you wanted to have a sleepover..."
"A sleepover??", Luz asks excitedly. Amity nods slightly.
"But...", Amity begins, which seems to stifle Luz's joy to the core, "...on the subject of the trouble you've caused me today, I'm not going to give you a choice."
"You... force me to have a sleepover party at your place?!", Luz repeats.
"Exactly. Just you and me, along with tasty food, the Good Witch Azura, comfy pajamas, and no big dangerous adventure of any kind.", Amity's voice is completely indifferent the entire time. Only at the end a faint smile creeps onto her face.
"Phew...", Luz tries to sound sarcastic, "Seems like I don't have a choice... Poor me..."
"Hey guys!", Gwendolyn calls from the top backwards, "When we’re back in Bonesborough, we have a joint debriefing. Liwin just sent us the location."
"NOOOOOO...", Luz groans loudly, whereupon Amity and Skara quietly begin to giggle.
Much later in the Emperor’s castle:
"What I hear is that you have failed your mission!", Belos shouts out to Hunter. "You were supposed to retrieve just one single Galdorstone!"
It is the middle of the night when Hunter has returned fruitlessly, with his troops. He himself and Belos are the only ones in the castle still awake, and therefore the only ones in the throne room, which is why neither of them are wearing masks.
Hunter's regret at his failure is written all over his face. Belos, on the other hand, is seething with rage as he sits on his throne.
"Uncle, it was that human girl. She... she destroyed the stones. And she is also responsible for the destruction of the Conformatorium.", Hunter tries to explain himself, "I don't know how, but our information that humans don't have magical abilities is wrong. She has some, and she's using them directly against us!"
"You're getting caught up in excuses."
"These are not excuses-", Hunter started as a slimy black spike, sharp as a sword almost cut off his ear.
"WATCH YOUR TONE!", Belos yells back at him.
"I sincerely apologize, Emperor Belos."
"However, I agree. This human is increasingly turning into a problem... And perhaps it's already even too late to stop her..."
Slightly confused, Hunter looks up, and when he sees Belos standing up, he quickly lowers his head back to the ground. Belos slowly approaches Hunter.
"Look at me.", Belos orders, and Hunter does so. Belos then places a hand on Hunter's chest. "You have your heart in the right place, and I- the Titan still has big plans for you. Don't worry about today... Go, get some rest. I'll figure out how we're going to proceed."
"Yes, Emperor Belos."
And with that, Hunter salutes and briskly walks out of the throne room. But no sooner is the door closed behind him again, a new voice speaks up. One that Belos himself has not heard for a very long time. It's a childish voice, laughing.
"What can I do for you, Collector?"
"I'm bored.", a two-dimensional being moves across the floor of the throne room. "Is the draining- Whoa... What happened to your face?"
"Is there something wrong with my face?", Belos wonders.
"Well, last time you still had that huge scar... Where did that go?"
"Collector... Even though it's certainly been many months since we've last spoken, I can assure you that the scar you're talking about is not known to me."
"Whatever... I'm still bored. I wanna play some games.", the Collector whines.
"You'll have your fun at Day of Unity... However, well..."
"However?"
"Today it turns out there's a problem that might prevent us from playing all the games I promised you after the Day of Unity."
"The other human?", the Collector asks.
"So, you were listening?", Belos asks.
"I've been watching her since she's back on this world. She's interesting. Merged with the remains of the Titan, just like you. Though she's stronger than you."
"Are you going to help me stop her?", Belos asks.
"Why?"
"You said it yourself: She's stronger than me. If she finds out about you, she might not be as merciful as I am, and wants to prevent me from freeing you from your prison after the Day of Unity."
"If you free me right now, I could take care of her. And then we could start playing right away, too.", the Collector suggests happily.
"No. That would violate our agreement.", Belos declines, causing the Collector to frown, "Teach me how to stop her... For good"
Notes:
Soo... what do you think?
Btw, two things:
- I'm thinking about maybe posting updates on new chapters or stuff like that on another place besides my Discord server. I'm debating between DeviantArt and Tumblr. What do you guys think?
- Also, a little poll regarding the next chapter. What would you like to read first: 'Lumity-Sleepover', or 'Anne & Co in the 2nd Temple'? (I'm not covering the first temple)
Chapter 35: A Day Off
Summary:
Luz and Amity truly deserve a break.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"So, any final questions?", Liwin asks everyone present.
"Where's Raine?", Derwin asks, to which Katya and Amber join in.
"They were not in the Conformatorium.", Alsa reports, "Nor in its basement. I checked it myself."
"Look, before our next meeting, I'm trying to find out where Raine is being held. Until then, I'm glad you agreed to stay though.", Liwin says contentedly. As Katya is about to speak up, however, she continues, "And yes, we will hold the vote on our new name at our next meeting."
Katya nods in satisfaction as Liwin rolls her eyes. At that, Amity raises her hand.
"Yes, Amity?"
"If you're about to teleport us all out again with those plant coffins, could you drop Luz and I off together somewhere near Blight Manor?", Amity asks, both standing in a far corner of the room, holding each other’s hands. Without wasting much time, Liwin summons a green magic circle, and moments later huge green leaves shoot out of the ground once again, completely enveloping the two girls until they're in total darkness.
"Eeek-", squeezed tightly against Luz, her scream dies away quite quickly.
Only moments later, the leaves surrounding them crumble apart. Just as she did earlier, Amity again rushes out on the cocoon and falls, yet again, to the ground. This time, however, not because of the oppressive narrowness or the lack of light or noise, but because of the close contact with Luz.
Sure, she loves likes that Luz is so physically affectionate. Be it her hugs, accidental contact, or when she has the opportunity to hold her girlfriend's hand. But being squeezed so tight still makes Amity blush the reddest she's ever been.
Kneeling on all fours on the floor and trying to calm herself down, she looks around her surroundings for the first time. Liwin has dropped her and Luz off somewhere among the trees in a forest.
After this realization, she turns back to the cocoon, her blush subsiding, and observing Luz climbing out and groaning in annoyance.
"That debriefing took foreveeer...", Luz groans. She then takes a few steps towards Amity and offers her a hand to help her stand up.
"But you have to admit, it wasn't all bad.", Amity insists, "You got a lot of credit for freeing all the prisoners from the Conformatorium, and clearing all the prisoners from the Draining Glyph... And for destroying the Galdorstones..."
"And Liwin doesn't refer to you just as 'Blight' anymore...", Luz adds.
"Yeah, that's a good thing too.", Amity agrees with a smile.
"So, which way do we have to go?", Luz eventually asks. Amity briefly looks around in all directions to determine her exact location. In the end, though, she just shrugs her shoulders unknowingly. At that, Amity summons her staff.
"We can check it out...", Amity holds out her hand as an invitation to fly with her. At that, Luz is having a thought, and she pulls out Owlbert.
"Owlbert?", Luz asks kindly, which earns her a gentle hoot, "Do you want to spend the weekend with Amity and I, or would you rather spend some time for yourself at the Owl House...", he looks at her questioningly, "You've done just as incredible today, and I wouldn't blame you if you wanted some time to yourself... You'd more than earn it."
Owlbert, standing on Luz's open palms, turns once between Luz and Amity before letting out a delighted hoot. Somewhat surprised, she then looks at him.
"Oh...", Luz says with a surprised tone, "Okay. I will comply with those terms as soon as possible."
"What's he saying?", Amity asks.
"He wants me to take a shower. Apparently, I smell terrible.", Luz says and Amity chuckles at that strongly, "Do I really smell that bad?"
"Meow.", Ghost speaks up, which silences Amity. Now Amity looks at Luz, who in turn only looks at her with a questioning look.
"Ami?", Luz asks insistently, but Amity hesitates.
"Ghost agrees with him...", Amity admits shamefully, "But I- I'm sure I smell just as bad."
Luz accepts Amity's hand and settles behind her on her staff. On her shoulder Owlbert remains seated while Amity continues.
"But don't worry, when we get there, you can go take a shower."
With that now out of the way, Luz now tightly hugs Amity's waist to secure herself. As she does so, she rests her head on her girlfriend's back in a relaxed position, just before they take off together and break through the sparse tree canopy to catch a glimpse of where they are. And indeed, Liwin has sent them close to Blight Manor. So close, in fact, that had the two girls gone just twenty meters further straight ahead, they would have landed on a gravel path, from which they could have had direct visual contact to the Manor.
Instead, the two of them now fly the really very short distance directly to the front of the huge doors of Blight Manor, where they descend from Amity's staff, and her staff changes back into her palisman form.
"I just realized that I've never actually been here before... But you've been at the Owl House so many times already...", Luz states in amazement, "Although, once I have seen the house, but from a distance..."
"Really?", Amity casually asks as she opens one of the doors.
"Oh yeah. That was on the... Wait, what was it called? ... ... Oh yeah right, the Moonlight Conjuring... We had somehow brought the Owl House to life...", at that, Amity stops dead in her tracks and merely turns around to face her.
"I was here that day... With Skara, Boscha, Cat, and Bo... We had been trying to conjure up a little rag doll like forever, but hadn't been able to do it collectively... Then later we had seen on Penstagram you, Gus, and Willow trudging through Bonesborough with the Owl House...", Amity recalls.
"Well, what can I say? Willow and Gus are some of the strongest witches I know...", Luz brags.
"Yeah...", Amity speaks thoughtlessly to herself as she opens the door, and both of them enter the antechamber together with their palismen.
"You know, you've gotten stronger too. I just remember your Abominations at the Covention, and then what you accomplished today... For next year, you're definitely invited to join Willow, Gus, and me... Skara too, perhaps. We'll see.", Amity chuckles briefly at that before closing the front door behind them again.
"Well, as for now, welcome to Blight Manor.", Amity changes the subject. Luz is only now able to move her attention to the room in front of her. A large room, a little more than half the size of the living room of the Owl House, though just as tall. Immediately to the left of the front door hangs a large portrait of two adult witches, probably Amity's parents. On the floor lies a huge rug which covers most of the hardwood floor, and to the right are some coat- and shoe racks.
"No windows, no furniture... So this is how rich people live...", Luz remarks.
"Yup."
"I kind of imagined the living room to be bigger.", Luz comments, at which begins to chuckle in amusement. "What?"
"This isn't the living room. It's just the antechamber.", she corrects Luz with an amused look. Luz herself just looks genuinely dumbfounded.
"Seriously? I mean, I can fit my whole room in here. Like twice...", she remarks.
"Like you said, this is how rich people live...", Amity points out, "You can take your shoes off here and I'll show you the rest."
Both girls take off their shoes as Amity continues.
"Usually, mother always insists on walking around here in the house with shoes on. She thinks 'higher society people shouldn't touch the same ground as the common folk'... But since she's not here right now..."
"You're really letting your inner rebel out right now, aren't you?", Luz asks in amusement.
"Totally.", Amity counters. At that, Luz turns around.
"I'm assuming that's your mom?", Luz asks, pointing to the large painting. Amity doesn't turn around, but simply nods.
"That painting was done about a year before Ed and Em were born. Mother always said that a first impression is always the most important when it comes to new acquaintances, like when my parents hosted any galas or fancy parties...", Amity explains.
"I notice you don't call her mom. I guess you aren't close...", Luz guesses. Amity merely huffs through her nose.
"She's about as much my mom as Boscha is my best friend. Until I met you, she dictated every aspect of my life, as well as my future."
"I'm sorry for asking.", Luz apologizes.
"I'm just glad right now, that you don't have to meet her. But anyway, come on. I'll give you a quick tour.", Amity walks to the double doors opposite the front doors, opening them both for dramatic effect. "I present to you: The living room."
"Would you mind skipping forward to the shower? I'm pretty exhausted right now, and really just want to shower, and then just sleep for the rest of the month..."
"Humans can sleep that long?", Amity asks, genuinely surprised.
"Heh… no. I was just trying to express that I'm extremely exhausted.", Luz clarifies.
"Oh... Okay, I see.", Amity replies with a sense of slight disappointment, but equally understanding. After today, she herself isn't particularly energetic anymore either. "In that case, up the walkway to the right and all the way down to the end."
Amity leads Luz along the railing to the split-level, from which it is possible to overlook the entire living room.
"Here in front are Ed and Em's rooms, and mine is right behind them. Behind the last door is mine and the twins' bathroom. You can take a shower there.", Amity explains.
"You three have your own bathroom?", Luz wonders, "Nevermind. Rich people, I forgot."
Amity chuckles at that as she leads Luz past the first three doors, to the fourth that ends the walkway, and opens the door.
"Wow...", Luz comments on the sight.
To visually describe the bathroom in just one word: Marble. The floor consists of quite a few two by two-meter white marble tiles, but the walls are also tiled with marble. Two walls covered in one-by-three-meter blue marble tiles, and the other two are more of a light gray. Right next to the door, fittingly on one of the two by two meter floor tiles is a shower, visibly separated from the rest of the room by opaque glass. In addition, the floor plate inside the shower is not marble, but coarse stone, which allows for a firm grip on the floor. In addition, the room is equipped with a golden bathtub on the opposite side of the room, on the other side of the door are cabinets and dressers kept in marble style, as well as a built-in golden sink. And in the last free corner, opposite the golden bathtub, there is a, who would have thought, golden toilet. A raised, opaque window in the wall opposite the door provides bright natural lighting.
"You... do know how the showers work here in the Isles, don't you?", Amity asks, but regrets the question immediately afterwards, as Luz looks at her with a look of disbelief, as if doubtfully asking 'Really?'. "Sorry.", Amity apologizes. "I'll leave you to it then."
Amity turns around, and is almost out the door, when she suddenly remembers something else.
"Oh, by the way, I'm going to look through my things right now to see if I can find you something suitable to wear. You can leave your clothes in here, and Abdel will take them and wash them later. There are fresh towels down here in the cupboard.", Amity explains.
"Abdel?"
"Our Abomination butler. He takes care of almost everything here.", Amity explains. "Oh, and one more thing, do you know where you want to sleep yet?"
Luz isn't sure how to answer that. "Um... In your room...?"
"... I didn't- You know what? You go and enjoy your shower, and I'll figure something out. Have fun.", Amity says hurriedly and closes the bathroom door behind her, before heading to her own room and slamming her bedroom door behind her as well, experiencing a slight panic.
"Stupid question. Stupid question. Stupid question!", Amity mumbles to herself over and over again, banging her head backwards against her door.
'Hmm, maybe I'm just too tired as well...', Amity's gaze slides across her room towards her bed. More precisely to the two mattresses that are stacked on top of each other underneath her purple blanket on her bed. 'This might work...'
Hastily, Amity walks over to her bed and rips down her blanket, as well as her pillows. She summons three Abominations. The first two lift the two mattresses off her bed. The last carefully takes apart her bed frame, which is merely jammed together, and stows it in the dresser immediately to the right of her door. The other two place the two mattresses right next to each other where Amity's bed used to be. From the same dresser, Amity pulls out a second pillow and blanket, both of which she now places on the two mattresses and makes the Abominations disappear again.
"There, perfect.", Amity says, proud of herself, "Sleep problem solved. And now...?"
On the opposite side of her bed, right next to the door onto her balcony, Amity walks over to the dresser on top of which she stores her makeup, and opens the two cabinet doors. She rummages around there a bit and eventually finds a pair of lime-green pyjama pants, along with a light blue t-shirt with a dark blue cat printed on it, for Luz to wear.
'Perfect.', Amity thinks to herself with satisfaction. She leaves her room again and neatly places the clothes in front of the bathroom door. She can hear the water of the shower running from inside, and she decides to loudly knock on the door.
"I've put your clothes here in front of the door.", she announces loudly, trying to speak against the splashing of the water.
"Thank you.", she hears her call back.
At that, Amity returns to her room. She makes her way to the two mattresses and neatly arranges the pillows and blankets, having just thrown them on in a panic earlier.
And with that now done, Amity has to kill some time until Luz has finished showering, and she can go shower as well. She sits down on one of the mattresses and watches Ghost and Owlbert, who have made themselves comfortable together on Amity's desk to the left of the door, and already seem to be asleep. It's absolutely cute to see the two palisman cuddling with each other. Cute enough for Amity to get out her scroll and take several pictures of the two of them, opening Penstagram afterwards.
BESTBLIGHT, EM_IRA
< cuties >
[EM_IRA]: I knew it! I knew you would exploit this situation shamelessly!
I didn't say anything
[EM_IRA]: You didn't need to. We knew you would be with Luz
Oh… Hi Ed
[EM_IRA]: He's asleep.
You're there already?
[EM_IRA]: Don't change the subject!
[EM_IRA]: But no. We still have a few hours ahead of us
[EM_IRA]: And dad is like the worst driver
I don't envy you
And yes, Luz is spending the night here at the Manor today
Our day was quite exhausting
[EM_IRA]: Exhausting? How interesting... 😏
Talking to you was a mistake
Enjoy your suffering ❤ ️
Just as Amity puts her scroll aside with a victorious feeling, a freshly showered Luz, dressed in the lime green pyjama pants and light blue shirt, enters Amity's room.
"Hey.", Amity greets her gently, "Feeling better?"
With a tired smile and heavy eyes, Luz nods at her.
"Then I'm going to take a shower too. You go ahead and pick a side.", Amity says.
"Will do.", Luz replies. At that, Amity picks out her own pyjamas, leaves her room, and enters the bathroom. Her eyes fall on Luz' clothes, neatly folded on the counter to the right of the door.
Amity herself spends only about ten minutes in there before returning to her own room, wearing her own pyjamas.
"So, Luz, would you like to-", Amity cuts herself off as she finds Luz already fast asleep. A soft smile appears on her face.
'Looks like she was even more exhausted than she looked like, if she could fall asleep like that with the full evening sun on her face... Good for her.'
She tiptoes as quietly as possible to her balcony doors and closes the curtains. She looks back at Luz, whose face now looks much more relaxed. Amity walks to- and sits down on the mattress that is still empty, the one closer to the balcony, and lies down.
She turns to Luz, and for a long moment, she pays attention only to her shallow breathing. The slight rise and fall of the blanket over Luz's chest. The worry-free look on her face.
She lies with her head slightly sunken on her pillow, watching Luz sleep until she succumbs to her own fatigue. As a last awake act, she reaches for her girlfriend's hand, lying only a few centimeters away from her own, and that's when her eyes fall shut. And moments later, her mind drifts away into a deep sleep.
'Cold. So cold... Why is it so cold in here all of a sudden?'
Amity looks around and finds herself in a blue-painted toilet stall like the ones that exist in Hexside. Next to her, she spots her bag that she always takes to school. She picks it up and exits the stall.
She rubs her hands up and down her arms, trying to get a little warmer. The air she exhales is clearly visible in front of her eyes. The bathroom has a small window, to which she’s heading to, slightly confused. She’s trying to look out and see if there is any snow outside which could explain the freezing air. The window seems to be fogged up. She tries to wipe the glass with her purple sleeve, but the window remains fogged up. At that, the classroom bell begins to scream.
She jumps out of her skin for a second, but quickly regains her composure. Her pulse races, however, as she rushes to the bathroom door. She pulls at the handle, but it is stuck.
'Come on. I can't be late for the Flyer Derby match. Willow will kill me.', Amity panics as she continues to pull on the door with all her might. In her panic, she creates a massive abomination spiked glove, and lunges at the door in a desperate strike.
Amity hasn't even touched the door when suddenly the hinges break loose and the door falls to the floor just like that, right into one of the school's hallways with a row of lockers right across the girls' bathroom.
'Wait, isn't that where the boys' bathroom is supposed to be?', Amity looks around in confusion, before ultimately shrugging it off, and as she makes a first step forward, she notices that the door no longer lies on the ground. Curiously, she turns around and behind her, she no longer finds the bathroom she just exited, but another hallway.
Amity’s gaze wanders from left to right, noticing that the corridors are unusually somber and barely lit, stretching to infinity without any visible forks or adjoining classrooms. Only the new corridor that has opened up behind her has not only a discernible end, but also a single, albeit flickering, light source at its end.
Cautiously, she enters the gloomy hallway, surrounded on both sides by lockers. The smell of blood hits her nose, but there is no sign of its source. No sounds, no students, no teachers.... Hexside seems abandoned, forsaken.
"AH!", Amity jumps up, startled, as she spots a couple of guards from the Emperor's Coven coming towards her from the end of the corridor, or more precisely, from a turning hallway, with their spears drawn. Amity summons her Abomination fluid when...
'Huh?', Amity wonders with her heart still pounding heavily. The guards aren't moving. Though with no visible ice, they seem frozen. Carefully she approaches the guards, ready to jump at them at any sign of movement. She approaches them further than she usually would feel comfortable to, even so far that she can peer into the peepholes in their masks to see if they blink.
Nothing.
For more than a full minute, Amity stared at the guard, and they didn't show any reaction. She growls slightly in annoyance. Her gaze drops to the ground and she takes a step back, shortly before she notices another shadow appearing behind the two guards. Quickly she turns around, and another hallway opened up behind her. It is brightly lit and full of people fighting each other. However, like the guards, they are completely frozen in time. Students and teachers alike are fighting the guards.
Hesitantly at first, she enters the hallway, trying not to touch anyone or anything. She ducks past guards, some of whom are in the process of falling to the ground as they are hit by fireballs or exploding potions, some of their leftover shards of glass scattered around in the air.
Quite a bit further down, after passing other students as well as some teachers, Amity comes across the first other room in the building besides the bathroom. A classroom, packed with coven guards, and two students in the middle, standing back-to-back. They have desperate looks on their faces, are wounded and with their damaged uniforms, they are trying to fend off these hordes of guards. It’s Willow and Boscha. Boscha shoots potion arrows with a crossbow, while Willow strangles several guards with vines. Amity discovers several guards already thrown lifelessly into some corner of the room.
Both Willow and Boscha look absolutely exhausted, as if they were about to give up or collapse. And as Amity just turns around again to leave the room back to the hallway, she notices that the direction she came from, is now blocked off by a wall.
Amity looks curiously in the other direction and, passing all the frozen students and guards, she recognizes the open double doors leading into the gymnasium. She bends, ducks, and squeezes past those frozen in time in the hallway until, after a while, she reaches the school gym. She peeks around the corner and notices her siblings, who seem to be distracting some of the guards with illusions of other witches and demons wearing Hexside uniforms. It's hard to tell who and what is real in there and who or what isn't.
She spots Skara and Willow fighting a few guards, Gus running to Boscha who is lying on the ground, and Bo and Cat being captured by some of the guards. So are also some other students and teachers. Even Principal Bump is among the captured.
Suddenly, Amity is blinded by an extremely bright light. Protecting her eyes, she raises her arms. When she lowers them again, however, the scene in front of her has abruptly changed again. The gymnasium is gloomy, the roof completely punctured, and only the bright moonlight reveals what is happening inside. A tense feeling of unease fills her mind. She hears a rumble of thunder and notices boiling rain falling through the holes, burning everything it lands on. But other than the rain itself, everything else is still frozen in time. All this while it gradually burns away the uniforms of the guards seemingly running toward something in the middle.
She makes her way between all the guards, to where the most moonlight is hitting the ground.
Her breath catches in her throat. "Luz."
She stands with her back to her as the guards charge at Luz from behind her, their spears drawn. The ones in front just centimeters away from her. All of them unmoving, of course. With one knee on the ground and golden lightning bolts all over her body, Luz is shooting out a massive golden beam of energy. Hastily, Amity takes a few steps past Luz. She is fighting Belos, who meets hers with an equally powerful but red energy beam from his mechanical staff.
Amity walks around her. Luz's strained gaze is completely focused on Belos. She ducks under Luz's energy beams to her other side, and she looks completely at loss for strength. She is wearing her blue and white hoodie with the cat ears, which shows some rips. The hood itself is missing as well. There are quite a few scratches and bruises on Luz' face and arms, and her hair is completely messed up.
With her heart aching, she looks at Luz, resisting the will to touch her. She lifts her hand, wanting to put it against Luz's cheek to support and comfort her somehow. But just before her hand touches Luz's skin, Luz suddenly stares directly at her. Amity is startled and jumps backwards, falling to the ground. Luz doesn't say anything, but it doesn't take words for Amity to understand either: 'Don't.'
Time resumes. Luz's eye contact with Amity has distracted her.
Luz is caught full force by Belos' energy beam, and flung backwards through the entire gym, taking a lot of guards with her to the ground or to the side. Luz crashes into the wall just outside the gym, and nothing but rage begins to boil inside Amity. But as she lunges for a first attack at whoever is in front of her, everyone around her fizzles into thin air.
'What?', she states uncomprehendingly before she remember something, 'Oh, Luz! LUZ!'
Amity runs out of the gym after Luz, who, however, didn't crash into the wall, but through it.
She sticks her head through the wall, the space behind completely filled with dust, when she notices something dripping onto the back of her head. She slowly runs her hand through her hair and feels something wet.
'Blood?', her breath catches in her lungs and her own blood freezes in her veins. "No..."
Amity hastily climbs through the yelping hole in the wall.
"Luz!", she screams into the thick dust while fighting her tears in worry, "LUZ!"
She has barely climbed through the hole in the wall to now find herself surrounded on all sides by thick dust, allowing her to just barely see her own hands in front of her face.
"LUZ!", she desperately cries out, "Where are you?"
She stumbles forward over something. She crouches down blindly, finding and lifting up one of Luz's white sneakers. As she tries to get up again, the dust instantly evaporates from the air, and right next to her, she finds Luz lying on the floor. The impact against the wall has created a big dent, right behind her head. From her head on down, she is covered in blood, wounds, scratches, and even some burns on her legs.
"Luz! Luz! Oh my Titan-", Amity falls to her knees with tears in her eyes, taking Luz's hand in her own. Luz jerks painfully and pulls her hand away before glaring upset at Amity.
"What-", Amity mutters in incomprehension.
"I... told you... not to... to...", Luz struggles to speak before her body loses all tension. Amity lunges forward onto Luz's body and holds her by her bloody arms.
"No, Luz... Stay with me...", she hugs her tightly as her tears mix with Luz' blood, "I'm so sorry. I should have- I should-"
"Amity?", a soft, gentle voice rumbles in her head. One she can't hear through her sobs and tears.
"Don't leave me. Please...", Amity begs in a whisper.
"Amity!", the voice speaks again. "AMITY!"
Slowly Luz opens her sleepy eyes and takes a deep breath as she stretches her arms and legs under her warm, comfortable blanket. Her eyes wander to the small window to her right, not far from the balcony door, noticing that not a single ray of sunlight is yet to be seen. On the contrary, it is still completely dark outside.
Out of the corner of her eye, just to her right, Luz notices some movement that catches her attention. She notices her girlfriend with a strained face tossing and turning from side to side.
'A bad dream?', Luz frowns in concern, 'Should I wake her up?'
She debates with herself for quite a while until Amity lets out a soft whimper.
"No, Luz...", she mutters barely audibly, "Stay with me... I'm so sorry-"
At that, Luz can't take it any longer. She straightens up and gently grabs Amity's shoulder.
"Amity?", she asks softly, hoping that will be enough.
"Don't leave me. Please...", Amity continues to whisper, and Luz's heart breaks with each additional word.
"Amity!", Luz speaks a little louder now, and begins to shake her a little more by her shoulders. "AMITY!"
Amity's eyes snap open. Her breathing is rapid and unsteady, she seems disoriented as her gaze frantically jumps in all directions before ultimately landing on Luz's face. She closes her eyes and immense relief fills her mind. Luz leans forward and wraps her arms around her, holding her close.
"It's all right. You probably just had a nightmare.", Luz tries to comfort her, "You're safe."
Amity relaxes more and more in the embrace and her breathing stabilizes. She buries her head in Luz's shoulder.
"No.", Amity finally replies in a still shaky voice, "But you are."
Luz' heart races as she hears these words, and Amity clutches tightly to her shirt.
"What do you mean?", Luz asks with a caring tone, "Do you wanna talk about it?"
Amity hesitates. She takes a slow, deep breath before lifting her head up to look directly at her girlfriend. Luz spots fear and worry in her eyes.
"I had a dream... a nightmare...", Amity begins while Luz attentively listens, "I was at school, but I was alone. At least that's what I thought... ... I was wandering around and found two guards from the Emperor's Coven. They were frozen. B-but not in ice, rather just in their movements.", Amity breaks her eye contact with Luz, and leads to her gaze to Luz' hands, which she has clamped between her knees. "I kept walking through the corridors and came across quite a few other guards fighting students as well as teachers... All frozen in time, of course..."
"I suppose so did I?", Luz asks softly, placing her hands on Amity's. "Fought, I mean..."
After a few moments of hesitation, Amity nods.
"I found you later in the gymnasium. There were guards surrounding you on all sides... And you were fighting Belos... all by yourself...", Amity's voice trails off, pain on her face. "I tried to touch you and you looked at me. You were distracted and time resumed... Belos beat you... He- In the end, you- you-", Amity can't finish this sentence for the life of her as tears begin to run down her cheek. It truly pains Luz to see her strong and brave girlfriend so small and scared. Luz pulls Amity closer to her and gently strokes her hair, trying to comfort her.
"I know it was just a dream, but..."
"It felt real...", Luz finishes her sentence.
Amity hums in confirmation, wiping away her tears. "I know it's silly... We both saw that the prophecy didn't come true...", Amity's voice trails off again.
Luz pulls away slightly to look at Amity's face, brushing away the remaining tears with her thumbs.
"Hey, it's not silly. Dreams can be scary sometimes, and it's okay to be scared.", Luz tries to reassure her. "But we're both here now, in the present, together, and we're both safe. And we will always protect each other, no matter what."
Amity nods slightly into Luz's shoulder and the two girls remain in that position for a while before the embrace eventually dissolves again. Amity sniffles once before looking Luz in the eye and a slight, relieved smile forms on her face.
"Thank you.", Amity mutters. With her hand, Luz brushes some hair off Amity's face and gives her a gentle kiss on her forehead. This catches her by surprise, and Luz can clearly see how Amity's brain has stopped working at that moment. A happy grin spreads across her face as she watches her girlfriend's reaction. Amity's whole face has turned tomato red and her ears are twitching uncontrollably.
Luz chuckles softly and pulls her a little closer to her so they are sitting forehead to forehead across each other.
"You're cute when you're flustered.", Luz teases her, which only makes things worse for Amity.
"Too much?", Luz asked when after a few more seconds there was no response from her.
"Eep.", Amity squeaks out, burying her face in Luz's shoulder once again, her cheeks still burning.
"Do you think you can go back to sleep? Or did I ruin that now?", Luz asks, amused. Slightly, Amity shakes her head in response.
It takes a while for Amity to be able to collect herself again. This close proximity to Luz doesn't make it any easier, but fortunately she is a master of distraction, allowing Amity to no longer be thinking about her nightmare.
Eventually both of them get up as Luz has insisted that Amity should give her the tour of Blight Manor that she offered her yesterday, since they are both awake.
On their way out, they spot Ghost and Owlbert who are still sound asleep, tightly snuggled together on Amity's desk. They sneak past them and close the room door quietly behind them to avoid waking them.
"Well, you've already seen my room and bathroom...", Amity recounts, to which Luz nods affirmatively. They go to the first room immediately to the left of Amity's room, where the door is standing wide open. "This is Edric's room.", Amity tells her. Hesitantly, Luz pokes her head in.
"Are you sure it's okay for you to show me?", Luz asks skeptically.
"I don't think he'll mind. After all, he and Em always come into my room without asking to bug me when they're bored, no matter what I'm doing at that moment... Come on.", she leads her inside.
Unlike Amity's room, Edric's doesn't seem to have its own balcony. Opposite the room's door is merely a large, three-paned window, in front of which is a dark, wooden desk. On it are only a few very used-looking books, various loose papers, and a makeup mirror. On the left side, there is an open drawer with a nest peeking out. Luz looks at her girlfriend with a questioning look.
"A while ago, Edric found a wild bat at the Knee and wanted to keep it. He's secretly trying to teach it some tricks, and, to hide it from Mom, it's living in the drawer.", Amity explains.
"Your brother has an interest in Beast-Keeping?", Luz wonders. "Didn't know that..."
"He calls it Batric. I think that's enough of an answer, don't you?"
"Well, I think it's cool. Even though I don't think the drawer looks particularly pet friendly...", Luz notes before her gaze jumps elsewhere. "Heeey, I have the same bunk bed in my room in the Human Realm..."
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Um, Ed and Em used to share this room here before Em wanted her own and moved into the room next door.", Amity explains. Other than that, Edric's room has nothing else interesting to offer. There are still a few closets and wardrobes, but peeking in there would be a bit too much snooping.
"I kind of thought your brother would have more, I don't know, pranking gadgets...", Luz sounds disappointed.
"They're probably hidden around here somewhere with a permanent illusion spell."
"Sounds reasonable... Okay, let's move on.", Luz decides and the two girls leave Edric's room and move on to Emira's.
"Edric's room and Emira's room are set up pretty identically. Em's is just a little tidier.", Amity explains. She and Luz poke their heads into Emira's room and it seems surprisingly and unexpectedly unspectacular.
"Hmm... Ok. Let's move on."
They walk along the railing and directly take a look down into the living room, which is less than two meters lower than the edge of the walkway.
In the middle of it are standing two fancy tall stone columns that rise directly up to the ceiling of the room. Right between them, facing the fireplace, which is not burning, is a wide sofa. Directly in front of it is a low coffee table, which is additionally surrounded on the right and left by two more, although somewhat smaller, sofas. Directly above the fireplace sideboard hangs a portrait, from which Luz cannot take her eyes off until she and Amity are standing directly in front of it.
The portrait is a huge oil painting with all the members of the Blight family, looking nicely dressed up as always, wearing their best clothes. The parents are standing behind a small, abomination-colored couch on which Amity, Edric, and Emira are sitting. Their mother is standing directly behind Edric with one hand resting on his shoulder. A sly smile graces her face. Next to her, at some distance and with an unhealthy-looking posture, is Mr. Blight. Contrary to the typical spruceness Luz knows from the members of the Blights, he is rather scruffy. He has brown, unkempt hair in which golden goggles with purple lenses hide, and stained clothes. Contrary to his wife, he does not smile. On the contrary, his face is completely expressionless.
Right in front of him sits Emira, who wears a purple frilly dress. Her green hair is carefully tied into a long braided ponytail. A slight smile adorns her face, as well as that of her brother. He is wearing a purple suit with a matching dark purple tie. And in the middle, sitting between the twins is Amity, with her hair still dyed bright green at that time. She is wearing the same purple dress that she wore to the last Grom.
"You look so... sad.", Luz observes. Amity looks up at the portrait, her gaze lingering on her younger self.
"I don't remember exactly when this painting was made. But I remember very clearly how I felt... I was miserable. I felt like I was suffocating, from all the expectations that weighed on me, the demands I could never meet, the affection I never experienced... Mother only ever reached out to me when she wanted to impose something she wanted, or in public when she put on a show about being a good and loving mother. Dad has hardly been around for years, always working... "
"And what about Ed and Em? I'm very sure they love and care about you very much.", Luz argues.
"They're annoying.", Amity says firmly, "And they mean the world to me. I don't know where I would be if they weren't part of my life... But even something like now, when I don't have them around for a while, that's nice too."
"They're your family.", Luz comments, but Amity just huffs in response.
"Family is a strong word, Luz.", she says, "I mean, sure, they're my siblings and they mean a lot to me, but... Well, family is supposed to be a support system, right? Someone you can rely on unconditionally, right?", Luz nods affirmatively. "I can't say that those are things that are familiar to me... If this is really anything like a real, actual family, I can say with certainty, that I don't feel like a part of it."
Luz was about to open her mouth to say something uplifting, but Amity beat her to it. "Come on, let's keep going."
She leads Luz past one of the two huge curtained windows, past a tall, almost wall-width bookshelf, toward the hallway that runs directly under the bathroom of Amity, Edric, and Emira, leading further into the building. She shows her to her father's workshop at the bottom of a branching staircase downstairs, in the basement of the building, where he works on all sorts of things for Blight Industries. As they go back upstairs, they continue into the Blight family's private library, where there are so many books and manuscripts lying around, collecting dust, that Amity argues they would be better off in a library or museum. The last room is next to the exit to the large outdoor area, where the main factory and one of the larger warehouses of Blight Industries are located, which often serves as a venue for company product presentations or festive balls.
Directly to the left of the door to the outside, there is a staircase that leads further up. Amity, on the other hand, leads Luz into a room to the right of the door, into the kitchen.
"Whoa...", Luz exclaims, sounding somewhat impressed, "This is differently fancy..."
As in the rest of the house, the kitchen's floor is made of classy-looking hardwood flooring that seems to have a water- and stain-resistant layer of something on it. The outer corner of the kitchen of the exterior wall, is extensively windowed, and directly in front of it is a countertop, made of white marble. In the center of the room is a kitchen island, in the center of which are two side-by-side ovens with stove tops on them. Immediately next to the door is a two-sided, steel refrigerator, and the rest of the kitchen consists almost entirely of cabinets, shelves, and more counter space. The cabinets on the floor are made of high-quality brown wood, with bronze drawer- or cabinet handles attached, mostly containing cooking utensils and ingredients. The countertop immediately above is consistent white marble, and Luz discovers a small sink in another corner of the room. Below the ceiling, on two of the four walls, are several more cabinets, though they are white in color, but also have bronze handles. In them are all sorts of eating utensils, glasses, cups, and other ingredients used for the preparation of drinks and food.
"It's mostly the cooks who work for my parents who work in here. But Abdel is also able to prepare smaller, simpler meals.", Amity explains, " On weekends, however, they're rarely here."
"Your parents don't cook?", Luz asks, which earns her a raised eyebrow from her girlfriend. "Yeah, right, never mind."
"Actually, though, I do try baking from time to time.", Amity states proudly, "I've been watching the chefs every now and then, and then at some point I've experimented on my own. There are some things I know how to cook, but nothing beats my Fairy Pies."
"Fairy Pies?", Luz asks with a hint of worry of the explanation in her voice, "Pies for fairies, I hope..."
"Fairies are part of the ingredients. They're delicious, very sweet tasting.", Amity explains, oblivious to Luz' concern, "I'll make you one to try sometime later. You'll like it, I'm sure."
Luz is not entirely comfortable with the idea of fairies being used as ingredients, but she doesn't want to upset Amity, so she just nods and gives a slightly forced smile.
"Suuureee...", Luz exclaims, looking for a way to change the subject, when her gaze suddenly falls out the kitchen window, "Uhh, look, the sun's starting to rise. Shall we watch the sunrise together?"
"I'd love to. But first, I'm thirsty. Fancy some tea?"
Amity gets two cups from one of the upper cupboards and brews a good smelling herbal tea for her and Luz. When the teas are ready, she hands one of the steaming cups to her girlfriend, and together they leave the kitchen, walk up the opposing staircase, past Amity's parents' bedroom, and on to the roof terrace, from where they have a perfect view of the sunrise.
Once on the roof terrace, Luz sits down on one of several comfortably cushioned, next-to-each other chairs. Amity, however, first heads to a small dresser standing next to the patio doors and pulls out two fluffy blankets, one of which she hands to Luz.
"Here, so you won't be cold."
Luz sets her tea down on the glass table in front of her, wraps the blanket around herself, and sits back down. Amity pushes one of the chairs closer to Luz, wraps herself in a blanket as well, and sits down next to her, holding her tea with both hands.
The sky takes on a deep shade of orange as the sun begins to rise, filling the world around them with warm rays of sunshine. Luz sips her tea and enjoys the warmth that fills her body, fully taking in the view.
"It's beautiful.", she whispers. Amity rests her head on her shoulder.
"You know, it's been a long time since I've been up here to watch the sunrise, and in fact, this is one of my favorite places in the house.", Amity whispers softly.
"I can see why.", Luz replies, "It's so peaceful up here. The world is still asleep, there's no stress... Everything seems lighter, easier..."
She takes another sip of her tea as the two girlfriends quietly watch the sun continuing to rise higher in the sky. Amity takes one of her hands and places it in Luz's free hand, their fingers intertwining.
"Thank you for bringing me here.", Luz says, barely louder than a whisper, but with a smile on her face.
"Thank you for being part of my life."
Enjoying each other's company they simply sit there, sipping their tea, until suddenly at some point Luz just starts sniffing her nose, and Amity tilts her head slightly towards her.
"Seems like I am starting to get a little chilly around the nose...", Luz states.
"Yeah. Now that the wind is stronger, it really is a bit chilly. Come on, let's go back inside."
Luz finishes the last sip of her tea before both of them stand up and, with their blankets around their shoulders, they go back inside with small steps. As they walk down the stairs back down to the first floor, Luz speaks up.
"What are we doing today, by the way?"
"I was planning on taking you to the library today. I'm reading to the kids today. Haven't been in a while.", Amity replies, "And I vaguely remember you offering to read to the kids with me some time."
"Aww, you remembered that.", Luz smiles, "I'm definitely coming. But aren't you worried about being recognized? You know, about yesterday..."
"No."
"Okay, then we've got that covered too. When exactly do we have to be there?"
At that, Amity summons her scroll. "Um... We don't have to hurry. We can eat breakfast, and then head out later."
"Should we fly there or teleport?", Luz asks.
"Well, it depends. Say, Luz, are you good at inline skating?", Amity asks, causing a huge grin to appear on Luz' face.
"I love inline skating. I used to do that with my mom. She actually taught me to skate when I was younger. It's been a while, but I'm sure I still remember how to do it."
By now, the two girls have reached Amity's room once again, where they are greeted by their now-awake palismans. Ghost jumps into Amity's arms purring, and Owlbert lands on Luz's shoulder and nuzzles his head along her cheek.
"Naaw, good morning you cuties. Have you been sleeping well?", Ghost responds with a soft meow. Amity is about to close her room door behind her when she notices Abdel walking right up to her, carrying a small laundry basket with her and Luz' now clean clothes from yesterday.
He's standing in front of the two girls, who are taking out their respective clothes. At the top, neatly folded, lies Luz', or rather Eda's, Grudgby jacket. It still doesn't feel right for Luz to call this jacket her own. However, this fact does not stop her from burying her face in the jacket and taking an exceedingly intense sniff of it.
"Whoa... I don't think this jacket has ever smelled better...", Luz comments. Amity just smirks at that as she takes in her black dress and school uniform, and stores both in one of her dressers. Luz looks at her.
"You don't want to wear the dress?", she asks.
"Nope. I would if we were flying, but I feel more like something sportier for today.", Amity rummages around in her dresser for a moment and pulls out a black item of clothing. "One second, I'll be right back."
Hastily, Amity leaves her room, leaving Luz with a questioning look on her face. A few moments later she returns, now wearing a pair of loose, bright pink pants with slightly darker accents, held up with a narrow black belt. On top of them, she wears a black shirt with a blue glowing butterfly in the middle.
"What do you think?", Amity asks, turning full circle for Luz. At a loss for words, she stares at her with her mouth open for a moment. Amity giggles.
"So pretty...", Luz mouths, her face suddenly feeling very warm.
"Those are Emira's pants. Got them as a gift for her last birthday from some business partners of my parents. I don't think she ever wore them.", Amity explains, "I think Ed got the same ones."
"They look fantastic on you. Very athletic.", Luz compliments her before her mind drifts to her own outfit. "I don't think I can wear this jacket if we're going to skate later. Way too warm..."
"See if you can find a matching top in my dresser. Top drawer."
Luz opens said drawer and looks through a couple of Amity's tops. Ultimately, she settles on a black top, with very thin, blue transparent, elbow-length sleeves.
"Want me to leave so you can change?", Amity asks.
"Nah, nah. You don't need to. I'm going to the bathroom.", Luz replies. She grabs the top, as well as her own light gray shorts and disappears into the bathroom for a few minutes. When she returns, however, she looks a little unsettled.
"I feel like something is missing..."
"You look great.", Amity says, before turning to Ghost and Owlbert. "Right? Don't you guys think so?"
Ghost meows cheerfully, and Owlbert lets out an uplifting hoot.
"Thanks guys.", Luz says slightly flushed by all the compliments. She couldn't understand Ghost, but the general trend was clear.
"Soo... Breakfast?"
Although Luz and Amity had decided not to hurry with breakfast, Luz in particular couldn't wait to go skating with her girlfriend. Not long after, the two girls put on their shoes and together with Ghost and Owlbert they leave Blight Manor. the two girls had offered to take the palismans in their wooden form, but they insisted on coming with them in their palisman form. Owlbert wants to fly next to Luz, and Ghost wants to run next to Amity.
Before they all left the manor, however, Luz noticed that Amity took a small bottle of Abomination liquid with her, but no inline skates.
"So...", Luz begins, "no equipment?"
"Lift your foot.", Amity instructs her, before drawing a pink circle, and from her abomination fluid, four wheels arranged in a row, along with the stopper behind them, form under her sole. She repeats the same for her other shoe.
"Fancy.", Luz commends, before Amity adds abomination elbows and knee pads to her, as well as herself. Amity doesn't give herself inliners, though, but she does give herself an Abomination skateboard. "Coool... I honestly didn't know you could do stuff with it other than Abominations... ... Well, that's not entirely true, but I'm still surprised."
"Why don't you try these out, get a feel for them?", Amity suggests to her, just before Luz rolls a few meters along the gravel path around Amity with the Abomination rolls under her shoes.
"I'm surprised... On earth, I was always afraid of slipping on gravel, of the stones blocking the wheels, or of losing my grip. But here... none of that. It feels like I'm rolling over solid stone...", Luz notes.
"And you still seem to be able to stand pretty steady on your wheels.", Amity adds. At that, Luz gets an idea.
"I've got an idea: Let's race to the library!", she exclaims excitedly. Amity raises an eyebrow at her, before a big grin spreads across her face.
"Oh, you're on! Ghost, you give us the go signal, okay?", Ghost meows in confirmation, "Are you ready, Luz?"
"Wait.", Luz puts on her concealment bracelet, "There. Now I'm ready.", Luz replies, getting into position to race down the hill as fast as she can. Amity moves into position next to her, her skateboard already in hand. With motivation and conviction in their eyes, the two girlfriends look at each other, nodding encouragingly.
"On three.", Amity says. Ghost nods in affirmation.
"Meow."
"One.", Amity translates.
"Meow."
"Two."
"Meow."
And immediately, Amity jumps on her skateboard and is already speeding down the entryway of Blight Manor.
"HEY!", Luz yells before she too speeds off.
The wind darts past Luz' face as she picks up speed and races down the hill of the entryway, feeling the thrill building inside her. Amity has already built a solid lead, but Luz isn't discouraged. She leans forward, pushing herself forward, faster and faster with her legs, and also swinging her arms along for the extra momentum.
Owlbert catches up to Luz, who flies next to her and cheers her on with his cute hoots.
By the time Luz manages to catch up to Amity and Ghost, the girls are already halfway through the forest, and also halfway to Bonesborough. Luz notices that Amity is still ahead of her, though not by much. And she's determined to catch up. She pushes herself yet even harder, and gets both her hearts to pump thoroughly. She pushes herself harder off the ground, trying to make herself as streamlined as possible. The sound of the wind whizzing past her ears is exhilarating, and makes her feel like she's flying.
As they're about to leave the forest, noticing the first signs of civilization, the two girls are neck to neck, both equally determined to win.
The ground beneath them gradually begins to change from gravel to stone, giving Amity a slight advantage on her skateboard.
Fortunately, the streets of Bonesborough are not yet particularly crowded, and the library is gradually coming into view. Both girls go into one last final sprint, and Amity is actually slightly in the lead. The finish line, consisting of the two ramps built into the stairs up to the main entrance of the library, is getting closer and closer.
Both girls have to dodge a few people, costing Luz in particular valuable seconds. Luz tries to gather her last strength, but realizes it's too late as Amity is already triumphantly rolling up the ramp with Luz immediately behind her.
She jumps down from her skateboard, celebrating her victory with her arms in the air.
"Wow... You were... really fast...", Luz congratulates her completely out of breath. Amity is also panting heavily.
"You were great too, Luz... That was a great race...", she returns the compliment before letting the abomination fluid flow from herself and Luz back into her little vial. "Should we go in already, or do you need a moment?"
"I'm alright. Let's go in."
Right after they step through the doors, a voice directly addresses them. Or rather, one of them.
"Amity, it's so good to see you."
"Malphas... Good to see you too.", Amity greets back before leaning towards Luz, "Malphas is the Master Librarian here. He is the one who gave me my job and my own study room."
Luz waves at Malphas in greeting. He himself is a huge, bird-like humanoid demon, at least twice the size of Luz or Amity. He has blue-greyish skin, a downturned beak, and yellow glowing eyes. He is dressed in a black cloak that has a purple top, and two large, folded wings protrude from his back. His legs are not visible, since he is hovering on a huge book, on which spine 'Staff' is written in large letters.
"It's unusual to see you outside the Forbidden Stacks.", Amity remarks as he approaches them.
"Gary is sick. Got a bad case of the Mold. I'm covering his shift today.", he explains.
"I hope he recovers quickly, then."
"Well, anyway... Say, who's your friend here?", he asks.
"Uh, yeah right. Malphas, this is my girlfriend, Luz. Luz, Malphas."
"Hi.", Luz greets him before Amity continues.
"She was going to come help me reading to the kids today, if that's okay with you."
"But of course.", he replies joyfully, "A few kids are actually here already. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to supervise them myself yet, but now that you're here, you're welcome to handle them."
"Thank you Malphas.", Amity replies before Luz thanks him as well, and the two girls head straight for the kids' corner. Fortunately, they are met by very little chaos, which is briskly cleaned up.
It takes about half an hour for the rest of the children to arrive, and without exception, all of them have been thrilled to see Amity again. In the meantime, Luz and Amity have already agreed on which book they would read today. A classic. Perfectly suited for children, and equally suited to be read aloud by two people. It's a book that the two girlfriends already know inside and out.
"So, children-", Amity begins, "Before we start today, I want to introduce you to someone: This is my girlfriend, Luz."
"And together we're going to read you 'The Good Witch Azura'.", the kids cheer as Luz announces this.
"Chapter One: I Failed."
Notes:
Remember at the end of the last chapter when I said I was thinking about posting ALO stuff on Tumblr or DeviantArt in addition to my Discord? Well, for a while I'm going to do both, and see what works better. (Both is quite empty yet)
My DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/dennes0
My Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/marzekAlso, what do you guys think?
Chapter 36: The First Temple
Summary:
Anne, Marcy, and the Plantars take care of their personal baggage after winning the war, before they all set out together to find the first temple.
Notes:
Soo... I don't even know where to start...
Oh wait, I know: Writer's block sucks.
So, with the explanation out of the way as to why the new chapter took seven weeks, here are things I'd rather talk about: 'Watching and Dreaming'.
First of all, how awesome was that finale?!
I don't want to exaggerate, but this finale is by far the best series finale I've ever seen. (Amphibia is on the second place)
And Titan-Luz... I don't want to say I'm taking credit for the idea, but I was really blown away when I saw it. Seriously, I love her design more than anything.And here are a few questions you may or may not have asked yourselves:
- Does the finale have any effect on the rest of the story of 'A Lost Owl'?
So far, no. The design for my Titan-Luz remains unchanged for now, she's still just Luz.
- How many things from 'A Lost Owl' are now canon?
Four. 'The Petrification Glyph', 'The Titan still being around', 'Glyphs only working when near (the remains of) the Titan', and 'Luz having magic of her own'.
If more questions come up I'll either update this, or answer them before the next chapter, or on Tumblr or DeviantArt.
Last but not least, a disclaimer: This is my first chapter featuring music. If you're reading this on a PC or laptop, you can click [🎵] later, which will open a YouTube link. For everyone else, the link will be located right next to it. I give credit for it at the end of the chapter.
Have fun <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Entry 77
Anne is mad at me. Or so I hoped. It's only been a few hours since I'd forced her and Sasha to fight each other.
I had no choice.
All of the negotiating had gotten me nowhere at all. All the concessions... It was inevitable that the conflict was going to escalate, and I had to keep the casualties to a minimum.
In every scenario that crossed my mind, Anne and Sasha were always at the center. They were the ones who triggered it, and it had to be them who would end it.
And after Anne and Sasha came back at the end, I tried and tried to explain it to them and apologize to them, and what does Anne say?
"I understand."
And then she would just change the subject. Or didn't say anything at all.
I tried again after we dropped Grime and Sasha off at Captain Beatrix's. But she wouldn't talk about it.
I'm writing this just after we got back to the Plantars. Anne went straight to the basement and fell asleep. She didn't even bother to take off her armor.
She gave me a good night kiss on the cheek as well, but it felt different. Yk, kinda-
"Watchu writing?"
"Huh?", Marcy looks up from her diary to see Sprig sitting in front of her on the couch in the living room where she'd made herself comfortable. Sprig is glaring at her with a curious expression on his face. "Oh, um, I'm trying to recap the day. Writing usually helps... but right now I'm just worried."
"Because of what? Didn't you guys win?", he asks. Marcy closes her journal and puts it aside before answering.
"I made them fight each other to the death. And if Grime hadn't surrendered- I'm not sure Ben would have done the same... and I would have been responsible for the death of my own girlfriend."
"Do you really think they would have killed each other?", he asks. Marcy nods in response, albeit hesitantly.
"I mean, I saw the hatred in their eyes. It wasn't just about this war for either of them, it was about revenge.", she answers with certainty in her voice.
"What would Sasha want revenge for?", Sprig asks skeptically.
"Well, Anne took away a good part of her vision. And she attacked Toad Tower."
"Good points...", he admits before pausing briefly to think. "So, you're worried you've screwed things up with Anne now, right?"
"I... ...", Marcy stares at him, wordlessly blinking at him for a few seconds, "Yeah."
"Okay. So, here's how I see it: Before Anne just left down to the basement, she gave you a kiss on the cheek. Is that right?", Marcy nods slightly, "I didn't get one. Polly didn't either. Nor did Hop Pop. And we're her family... Do you really think Anne would have done that if she no longer liked you?"
Marcy thinks about his words, and a small, embarrassed smile spreads across her face.
"I don't know... maybe?"
"Well, I do know. And I'm pretty sure you know, too. Even if your guilt is biting you right now.", he speaks confidently, "You're Anne's girlfriend, and she loves you just like you love her. I'm sure that if you sleep on it tonight, that the world will look a lot better tomorrow."
"Thank you, Sprig. You're pretty good at cheering people up, you know that?"
"Of course. After all, that's what friends do.", he replies, "But seriously, you look completely exhausted. Almost more so than Anne."
Just then, a huge yawn escapes Marcy. With a knowing look, Sprig peers at her.
"You're right. I'll finish my journal entry first, though.", Marcy insists and Sprig jumps off the couch.
"Fine. But don't take too long. You don't want to miss the party tomorrow.", at that, Marcy snaps her head at him.
"Party?", she wonders in genuine confusion.
"Oh, right, you and Anne were dropping off Grime and Sasha...", he recalls, "Um, Chuck was here earlier and dropped off official invitations for all of us. And you and Anne are the special guests."
Marcy snorts out of her nose, "That's very short notice... Also, not very professional that the special guests are the last ones to know..."
"Well, it's not supposed to officially start until tomorrow night, so... you know... there is more than enough time to prepare.", he explains, and Marcy lifts up her diary again.
"Thank you for letting me know."
"You're welcome."
However, before she was able to write a single, further word, her own fatigue and exhaustion were overwhelming her, and her mind drifted into a quick sleep.
Yet it was a fairly short night. For Marcy, it feels like only a few minutes have passed as she regains consciousness and slowly wakes up. But even before she opens her eyes, she notices that something is different. She gradually opens her eyes.
'Naaw', Marcy thinks to herself as she notices a blanket lying on top of her. She turns slightly and spots her favorite brown tuft of hair sitting right in front of her, right in front of the couch.
Marcy turns around a bit, catching Anne's attention, who turns to her in response.
"Good morning sleepyhead.", Anne greets her with a peck on her nose.
"What- How long have you been awake?", Marcy asks barely comprehensible and slightly confused by the smile Anne wears on her face.
"Two hours, maybe. I came upstairs when I saw you weren't sleeping next to me, and then I brought my blanket up and tossed it on you.", she replies, "And I've been watching Suspicion Island on my phone ever since... Oh, by the way, I almost forgot: Wally came by and dropped this off for you."
She hands Marcy her phone. Marcy, on the other hand, is so dumbfounded right now, she's completely at a loss for words and stares blankly at Anne.
"Now that it's no longer necessary to blow up Toad Tower remotely, Wally retrieved our receiving-mushroom-thingy and your phone. You'll have to turn it on later and see if it's still working...", Anne goes on. But when Marcy doesn't answer, she starts to get a little bit worried. "Amphibia to Marcy. Are you all right in there?"
"You- you're not mad at me."
Just a simple statement. No question, no accusation... Just that.
"What... what do you mean?", Anne asks, confused putting her phone aside.
"Yesterday. I made you and Sasha fight each other. And- and when I tried to talk to you about it later, you blew me off..."
Dejectedly, Marcy averts her gaze from her, just before Anne puts her own hands around her face, holding her, and looks her straight in the eye.
"I'm sorry. But after Sasha and I came back, I was at the end of my rope, strength-wise. I was just a shell, so to speak. I didn't really notice anything from the outside world anymore... But I can assure you: I'm not mad at you. Not even close."
"Really?", Marcy asks incredulously.
"Really. On the contrary, in fact, I'm glad you did."
"Really?!", she now asks doubtfully.
"I'm just glad it's over. And you did the right thing, Marbles.", Anne tries to cheer her up, "Even if your guilt is totally written all over your face.", she says, smiling.
"You make it sound so easy..."
"Marcy- Marcy, please look at me.", Anne begs her, "I should be the one feeling this way. Not you. With my powers, I've done nothing but horrible things, most of them to Sasha. I beat her half blind, I attacked her home... I chopped her arm off for frogs’ sake..."
"Yeah, because of me."
"No!", Anne groans, "You stopped it from getting worse. Thanks to you, I realized what a monster I was... Now come on, get up. I know something that will distract us both."
"What?"
"Well, Wally said they're clearing out Toad Tower today before they plan to blow it up later. Everybody can take what they want.", she recounts. "Do you want to come?"
Eventually, Marcy agrees. They get ready, and together with the Plantars, riding on Bessie, they head to Toad Tower together. On the way out of Wartwood, they spot quite a few residents as well as those who have traveled there, preparing for the party. Lights are hung, tables are being built, food is getting cooked, and generally there is much laughter among all the frogs, toads, and newts.
"Look at that, kids.", Hop Pop begins, "I've never seen this community so happy and serene in all my years. And all thanks to-"
"Don't.", Anne cuts him off. Internally, Marcy agrees with her girlfriend, but didn't necessarily have the courage to interrupt him herself. "We did what was necessary. And I, personally, definitely don't feel like a hero."
"Me neither.", Marcy interjects quietly. In response, the Plantars look at the two girls with concern.
"Well, um... I'm sure there are thousands of people here who feel differently. Anne, you brought Captain Grime to his knees. And you Marcy, prevented even a single frog from being harmed. Thanks to both of you, no one here has to fear the tyranny of toads anymore. This is the beginning of a free Valley, free from the oppression and exploitation.", Hop Pop argues, which actually seems to resonate with Anne. Marcy, on the other hand, is less optimistic.
"Well, assuming the King agrees to Frog Valley's independence. The Toads were, and still are, following his orders.", Marcy enlightens them.
"Marcy, you know him best of all of us...", Sprig speaks up, "Do you think he will agree?"
Except for Hop Pop, who is focused on the path ahead of them, all eyes are directly on her.
"I... I don't know. He's extremely kind, intelligent, wise, and sympathetic... But, if he wanted to change something for the frogs, he could have done it a long time ago."
That's not necessarily the answer Sprig wanted to hear. Slightly dejected, his gaze wanders to the floor, and Marcy herself is also now feeling worse.
At that, Polly speaks up.
"If that old king says no, we'll just make him agree. There's absolutely nothing that's going to stop us! MUHAHAHAHA!", she laughs viciously, which actually improved the mood of the others by a little bit.
In fact, not just a little, but enough that they spend the rest of the way to the tower in increasingly better spirits, and distracted from their own thoughts.
However, as they cross the large, open gates of Toad Tower toward the front yard, and step down from Bessie, a feeling of unease comes over them.
"I definitely liked it better here when there were toads around...", Marcy comments. "Don't get me wrong, I like it quiet, but not like this..."
Hop Pop has just led Bessie into what Marcy described to him as a stable, mainly because he wouldn't have been able to deduce that from the sight itself. The stable has no doors, walls, or hay (left) lying around, suggesting that someone has already taken all of that for themselves. And although no one is directly in sight, Hop Pop opted to wait with Bessie while the others looked around the tower, just to be on the safe side.
"I know what you mean.", Anne agrees as she and Marcy enter the large main hall, and thus the tower. Sprig and Polly immediately ran to find the armory. Well, actually, Polly had forced her brother to carry her. "Last time I was here, everything was brightly lit, people were having fun-"
"That was when Luz arrived here, wasn't it?"
"A little later, but yes.", Anne replies.
"Hmm.", Marcy hums in acknowledgement, "And now the place is all empty. Even the lamps on the walls are gone..."
"Are you joining me upstairs? I want to see what of Sasha's things are still here."
Marcy is a little surprised by Anne's suggestion, but doesn't dwell on it, and merely nods.
Together, they walk through the first door on their left and up the sweeping spiral staircase. Anne uses her phone's flashlight as a light source, since all other lights have already been removed and/or simply stolen by someone.
They arrive at a set of open double doors, where Marcy peeks right in.
"Hey, this looks like Sasha's room. What do you think, Anne?", she asks before noticing that Anne has walked a few steps further past the doors. A guilty look graces her face as she steps in front of a wide gap in the walls and floor, that runs once straight through the entire tower. "Anne?"
She doesn't respond, but just stands there, staring at the gaping hole. Marcy takes a few steps toward her to stand next to her.
"You know that wasn't you, right?", Marcy asks. "You weren't yourself..."
Anne, however, ignores what she said. "I've never seen the damage I caused so up close before..."
"Would you rather leave again?"
"No.", Anne replies firmly, "I want to find something for Sasha here... I want to try to make up for what I did to her."
"You already healed her arm, didn't you? And her eye-"
"But that was still just the bare minimum Marcy...", Anne sighs, "Let's go see if there's any of her stuff left."
The two girls step back from the gap and into Sasha's room, where the rift also still extends through, but it is clear that efforts have been made to close the yapping hole again.
Unsurprisingly, Sasha's room is one of the places where most of the contents have already been taken out or looted. Only a few books remain on the shelves, as well as the larger furniture and statues.
"Cool...", Marcy marvels at one of them, "Sasha has really cool statues of herself."
"Marcy, you have several gigantic golden statues of yourself sitting around all over Newtopia...", Anne reminds her.
"Only four of them. And I wasn't allowed to come up with my own poses for them.", Marcy corrects her, "And look at this.", Marcy enthusiastically runs to one of the statues, "Sasha on her skateboard! Or there, her bust next to the door!"
Marcy marvels at the stone bust of Sasha with her wide, playful smile winking into the room.
"If you want to take it, you'll have to carry it yourself.", Anne says with an amused but stern tone. Abruptly, Marcy immediately takes her hands off the bust.
"I'm good.", she chuckles.
"Come on, let's see if there's anything left... I remember she had quite a few stuffed animals lying around.", Anne suggests, to which Marcy nods in agreement.
They split up, even though there isn't particularly much else where they could try to find anything at all. Most of the smaller pieces of furniture are gone, as well as the large, round rug that was in front of the couch before, but also the curtains. The couch itself is gone, too.
After less than ten minutes, a sense of pointlessness overcomes them, and they end their search, convinced that they would not find anything there.
"You know, maybe we could go up to the command room and take a look there. I'm sure there aren't many who dare go over the gap. Maybe there's something left...", Anne merely shakes her head in response. "We could also see if Sprig and Polly found anything in the armory. Maybe Sasha had a favorite weapon or something that could still be there-"
Anne raises her hand, cutting Marcy off.
"Say again!"
"The armory?"
"No, after that."
"Um... Maybe Sasha had a favorite weapon?"
"That's it!", Anne announces cheerfully before contorting her face in regret, "Although, never mind."
"What is it?", Marcy asks. Anne hesitates, but accepts her surrender, not wanting to hide anything from Marcy.
"I have one of Sasha's weapons. But... I'm not sure she wants it back. Or if I want to return it to her."
Marcy was about to dig in further, when suddenly Sprig and Polly come running up the stairs, entering the room.
"Armory was a bust.", Polly groans, "No cool weapons. Or armor. Or battle machinery... Everything already looted."
"Not everything...", Sprig teases with a huge, excited grin on his face and one hand hidden behind his back. He also slightly tips back and forth on his feet. His excitement is quite contagious, especially to Anne.
"You found something?!", she asks, now also smiling. Abruptly, Sprig pulls his hand forward and Marcy sprints past Anne, gasping excitedly.
"Is that a slingshot made of dark toad steel???", Marcy asks enthusiastically. Sprig's eyes light up with delight as he realizes he's facing another slingshot expert.
"You... you know about slingshots?"
"I've studied some minerals and metals here in Amphibia.", Marcy explains, "I know the Toads forge powerful swords from dark toad steel, but it's soo rare in nature that I'm honestly surprised anyone could scrape together enough to craft a slingshot. And then, those ornaments..."
"Possibly engraved into the metal by hand.", Sprig speculates as Marcy examines it more closely.
"Do you see this?", Marcy points to one of the engraved ornaments and Sprig nods in agreement, "That's the crest of the West Tower, if I'm not mistaken."
At that point, Anne speaks up again.
"Where did you find it?", she wonders. Polly replies first.
"We wandered through a few other rooms after we left the armory.", she recounts.
"Where then? In a treasure room? In a secret room? In a secret treasure room?", Marcy hastily asks without thinking and gasps, "Were you guys in a secret basement, hidden by a door, hidden behind an empty shelf that opened after you pushed a secret button???"
Wordless and somewhat stunned, Polly stares at Marcy.
"There were bunk beds...", choosing her words carefully, she replies after a while.
"Oh...", is all Marcy can muster before gesturing wildly to the slingshot Sprig still proudly holds in his hand, "Someone left such a valuable slingshot- such a unique tool, just like that, in one of the soldiers' quarters..."
"Well, it's mine now.", Sprig declares, "And whoever owned it previously is now out of luck. And I just feel a very little bit bad about it. "
"And like I said, for me, it was all a bust.", Polly changes the subject, "Did you guys at least find anything? I'm guessing not, as empty as this place is..."
"Nope.", Marcy replies.
"So, we're leaving again?", Polly asks. Sprig and Marcy turn to Anne with questioning looks.
"Yeah, sure.", Anne decides, "Let's go back. I'm sure Hop Pop is feeling pretty bored already..."
Feeling somewhat relaxed, the four of them leave Sasha's room and head for the stairs down. And as they pass through the doors and Sprig again proudly talks about his new slingshot that he's going to add to his collection, Marcy notices Anne looking a bit lost in thought at the gap before rejoining the conversation and going down the stairs. Marcy looks after her for a few moments before rejoining the others as well.
'Maybe it's for the best that the tower will be demolished later.', Marcy thinks to herself, looking at Anne, who is currently laughing with Sprig and Polly, 'I just hope she can get some closure with this at some point... She's deserves it.'
The group exits the tower and approaches the stables when they spot Hop Pop sitting on the floor leaning against Bessie, reading Bessie's manual. Bessie herself is looking over his shoulder. They both seem very much engrossed in the book.
"Yo! HP!", Anne calls out as they approach him. Surprised, he looks up at them from the book.
"You're back already?", he questions, "Didn't you just go inside?"
"It's all looted already.", Marcy reports.
"You didn't find anything for yourselves?", Hop Pop asks sympathetically.
"I did.", Sprig proudly speaks up, "I got a cool new slingshot for my collection."
"Well at least you were able to find something. Shall we head back home then? We'll be back later for the demolition then.", Hop Pop asks no one in particular.
The five of them climb Bessie's back and gradually they leave the courtyard of the tower.
"When is the detonation, anyway?", Sprig asks.
"Tonight, I guess.", Hop Pop surmises, "But whether it will be blown up before or after the party, I can't say. I'm not involved in the planning."
"Urgh.", Anne grunts slightly at the mention of the word 'party'. Softly, but quite audibly. Hop pop speaks up.
"Yes Anne, I know you don't want to go to the party...", he states.
"You know that?", Anne asks surprised.
"You muttered it to yourself a lot on the way to the tower.", he replies. Anne blushes feeling slightly embarrassed, which luckily subsides pretty quick.
"I just... don't want to go there. There's nothing for me to celebrate.", Anne argues.
"Oh, come on Anne, you don't mean that. You saved us all, after all.", he states, his gaze focused on the path in front of them.
"I don't mean that-? Excuse me?", she feels attacked right now, "Surely, I'll know best what I want or don't want!", Anne speaks quite a bit louder now.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. The thing is, it's not a rare occurrence that you didn't want to do something at first, but liked it afterwards."
"Give me exactly two examples!"
"You used to hate eating bugs.", he says without giving it a thought.
"It's not like I had a choice...", Anne defends herself, "But yeah, they're delicious."
"Then there was the fact that you didn't want to read Bessie's manual."
"Don't even get me started on that...", Anne says with her hands shaking in front of her eyes, "I start crying just thinking about it."
"So you see my point?", he asks. Anne just grumbles indifferently at him, at which point Hop Pop actually turns around to her. "Anne. I know you feel bad about what you had to do-"
"Terrible is more like it.", Anne cuts him off. He continues.
"Alright... You feel terrible and you don't think it's worthy of celebration. Then maybe don't think of the whole thing as a celebration for you and where you're the center of attention, think of it as a way to clear your head. See it as... the end of a chapter of your life. You've ended so much suffering, and even though you hurt her, you've buried the hatchet with Sasha. You get to relax and distract yourself for once.", Hop Pop turns back to the front feeling like he actually managed to reach Anne.
"I don't-"
"You'd also have the opportunity to go dancing with your girlfriend.", a knowing smile appears on his face as Anne turns her head abruptly to Marcy, who in turn is currently blushing heavily and looking down at the floor with a sheepish expression, away from everyone else.
"Okay…", Anne's voice cracks and her face begins to feel increasingly warm as well. After a few moments, Anne slides closer to Marcy and leans right up to her ear.
"Do you want to... go dancing with me later?", she asks in a whisper.
"Yes!", Marcy replies with a big grin.
"Okay.", Anne says happily louder than she had actually intended to. Slightly embarrassed, she slaps her hands in front of her mouth until she notices that neither Hop Pop, nor Sprig, nor Polly are particularly reacting to it, or commenting on it in any way. Marcy looks at her and removes Anne's hands from her mouth. She puts her own hands around her face, and pulls her close for a short, but all the more meaningful kiss.
And even though this is not their first kiss, the excitement between them is still the same. It is always something special. Something that only they have.
As they pull away again, Marcy speaks up, still holding Anne's face in her small hands.
"I can't wait to dance with you later.", Marcy's eyes are sparkling, "Even though I'll probably trip over my own feet..."
"That's not true.", Anne counters her, placing Marcy's hands in her own, "I don't remember you acting clumsy in any way since we got together."
"Um, I fell off Joe once.", Marcy recounts, "You had caught me."
"Okay, I should have explained it better. I meant together-together. Not reunited-together.", Anne giggles.
"Oooohhhhhhhh...", Marcy realizes after a while of thinking, "Yeah, I think you're right. Let's see how long I can hold this streak-"
"Imma stop you right here.", Anne cuts her off, "Let's not jinx it, okay?"
"Watch out kids, we're almost back in Wartwood.", Hop Pop announces.
And sure enough, not long after, the Plantars (and Marcy) are finding themselves back at the farm. However, before Hop Pop can bring Bessie to a halt, Sprig suddenly just jumps off and runs for the front door.
"What the-", Hop Pop calls after him worriedly, "Sprig, what are you doing?"
"Sorry Hop Pop, but I need to bring my new-", Sprig is out of earshot too quickly for his reply to be intelligible.
Hop Pop sighs in a mix of frustration and annoyance. Anne lightly pats his back for comfort. Hop Pop however, raises his hand to indicate that she doesn't have to continue.
"It's okay.", he says, "Why don't you guys go on in the house and I'll take care of Bessie?"
"Okay.", Anne says quietly, and she, Marcy, and Polly get off Bessie. Well, Polly rather lets Anne catch her, and then carry her into the house. As soon as Anne, Polly, and Marcy are through the front door, Polly hops out of Anne's arms and ahead to the stairs leading upstairs.
"Thanks for the ride, but I have to get ready for the party now.", she announces while the two humans merely stare after her wordlessly.
Marcy is the first to break the silence between them.
"Do you think Sprig is in his room?", Marcy asks, shortly before cringing inwardly at that question.
'Stupid Stupid Stupid...', she curses herself before daring a glance at her girlfriend, hoping she didn't embarrass herself too much. Fortunately for her, Anne does appear to be mentally absent. Her gaze is fixed on her basement hatch, but it's unfocused. "Anne?"
Anne closes her eyes and takes one deep breath before speaking in a haunted voice.
"Marcy, there is something I need to show you."
With her mind seemingly very far away, Anne descends into the basement with Marcy right behind her. They climb down the stairs in silence.
"Please, sit down.", Anne gestures to the bed, and Marcy does as she is told.
Anne, on the other hand, walks over to the large barrel that is propped up in an alcove under the stairs. She removes the wooden panel in front of her and pulls out a rolled-up piece of paper. Before returning to Marcy, who looks at her with wide, curious, expectant eyes, she places the wooden board back on the barrel and sits down beside her. Anne holds the piece of paper tightly to her chest before handing it to Marcy.
'There's something in here.', she notices, judging by its weight. A little uncertain, she glances briefly at Anne before beginning to roll up the paper.
As she unfolds it, an orange and blue image of Hop Pop in a heroic pose titled "Freedom Frog" jumps out at her, and a dagger covered in dried blood falls into her lap. Immediately, Marcy looks down first at the dagger in her lap, and then immediately at Anne, who is struggling to keep her eyes from looking at the dagger. She is not even able to look at Marcy, instead Anne is staring rigidly straight ahead.
After a few seconds, Marcy looks down again and curiously picks up the dagger.
"Remember when I said I had one of Sasha's weapons?", Anne asks, and that's when it dawns on her, her eyes widen at that.
"Did she- This... that's his blood, isn't it?"
Anne nods, still unable to look at it.
"And you kept it all this time?", Marcy asks, "Why?"
"Why...", Anne echoes. For the first time since they entered the basement, Anne now looks at her girlfriend. Well, or at least past her at the poster. "I don't know. I think... I didn't want to forget. It's a reminder of what Sasha did... Of who she really is."
"But you have forgot about it.", Marcy speaks slowly, "I mean, you hid it in a barrel. I'm sure that before we reached the tower, that you had no idea that you still had it."
Anne doesn't reply, but now looks directly at her. She continues.
"You know, I believe this dagger is completely meaningless to you."
Anne's expression hardens. "It's not meaningless. It's a reminder of what Sasha did, of the people she hurt-"
"Anne, you're repeating yourself.", Marcy cuts her off before changing her tone to a more empathic one, "Listen, how about this idea: Instead of you continuing to torture yourself with your memories, return the dagger to Sasha, as it is right now, the next time you see her. Get some closure with it. Don't carry this memory around with you any longer. And who knows, maybe, later it will be just as much a reminder for Sasha."
"What do you mean?"
"Instead of continuing to remind yourself of what she did, let her remind herself of what she did. Maybe it will help her realize her mistakes, and change for the better over time. And who knows, maybe you two will become friends again...".
A short, incredulous laugh from Anne fills the basement.
"Making friends using a dagger with which I am basically saying 'Hey Sasha, you killed my grandfather. Here's the weapon you did it with. And by the way, do you want to be friends again?' doesn't seem to be the wisest thing to do.", Anne remarks sarcastically. Marcy lets herself get carried away by her girlfriend and chuckles lightly at that too.
"Okay, maybe that's not the best way to put it, but you get my point. Just... don't hold on to it any longer."
"Yeah, I get it.", Anne's gaze now falls on the dagger for the first time and she contorts her face in confusion. "It's weird... I was afraid that seeing the dagger would make me relive the pain-", Anne reaches for the dagger on Marcy's lap and looks at it for a moment before turning back to her, "I think I can do it. I think I can let go."
"It's worth trying, don't you think?"
With an initially slightly shaky hand, Anne reaches for the dagger and picks it up into her hands.
"Y-yeah...", she agrees. Anne reaches for Hop Pop's poster and re-wraps the dagger in it. After a deep breath, Anne continues. "But for now, I'm throwing you out of here, Marbles."
"What, why?"
"I want to get ready for the party. I don't really want to walk around there in these clothes here.", Anne says, gesturing down at herself. "Oh wait... I totally forgot: you don't have any clothes here. Do you want to borrow something from me?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about me, Anna-Banana.", curiously, Anne raises an eyebrow, "I took some of my stuff from Newtopia. It's still in the fwagon, I think."
In total, Marcy spends the next thirty minutes in the fwagon. A significant part, however, she spends not with changing, but with preparing an order to Newtopia for Joe Sparrow to be brought to her immediately, after General Yunan originally flew back to Newtopia with him. Marcy only spent the last ten minutes picking out her outfit for the evening.
Now she is standing in front of a large standing mirror and is looking at her outfit in all its glory. She is wearing a fancy cyan buttonless jacket. Immediately underneath, she wears a shirt, but in a lighter shade of light blue. The shirt has three golden, shell-shaped buttons. She wears ankle-length dark blue pants. Her outfit is completed with a glittering white bow tie.
Marcy eyes herself and nods at her reflection in satisfaction.
"Yup. Looks acceptable."
A moment later, she hears a knock on the door of the fwagon.
"Marcy?", it's Anne, "Are you ready? Hop Pop says that some people from the town are already leaving for the demolition of Toad Tower. We'd better hurry if we want to be there on time."
Marcy hasn't put on her shoes yet, but heads for the door to invite Anne in. She opens the door outwards.
"Come on in, I'm almost-", Marcy catches sight of Anne's outfit and almost forgets how to speak, "- ready..."
Anne immediately notices Marcy's face turning increasingly red.
"Do you like it?", she asks. Marcy strains to squeeze out a few words, but nothing happens. Instead, she just nods wildly, which puts a genuine smile on Anne’s face. Marcy reaches out a hand to her, and they enter the fwagon together. In the meantime, Marcy also finds her voice again.
"I... I didn't know it was possible to make a sbai from the materials available here in Amphibia.", she notes, still blushing though. This is actually not the first time Marcy has seen Anne in this traditional Thai clothing.
Last summer, Anne had asked her and Sasha if they would be interested in spending a day together at the Thai Temple. Sasha had declined that day, but Marcy took the wonderful opportunity to immerse herself in Thai culture and experience it first-hand. What Anne had not mentioned in her original invitation was that every year in July, the Candle Festival is held within the regional Thai community. And as one of the largest temples in California, it is particularly well attended at that time. Several artistically talented members have created traditional, but also modern wax sculptures for this occasion, which were exhibited on the temple grounds for everyone to admire. Contributing to the atmosphere were diverse, fanciful-smelling foods, dancers and folk music, and all community members wore traditional Thai clothing. Anne, for example, wore a green sbai, which she has also now put on for the upcoming party. It consists of a green wrapped skirt, embroidered with a geometric, brown, diamond pattern. Covering just one of her shoulders and a large part of her torso is a cream breast cloth, which hangs down to the back of her knee on one side. Just underneath, covering the rest of her chest down to her skirt, is a fitted, white undershirt. On her wrist she wore, back then as she does now, a flower bracelet and green loafers to go with it. Marcy remembers that Anne hated having to spend the day at the temple, or even that her parents had talked her into wearing a sbai. All Anne wanted that day was to have her best friends around to distract her. Ultimately, Marcy's insatiable curiosity and fascination about the festival had led her to shower her with countless questions, some of which she didn't know the answers to herself. That day, the two of them had learned more about Thai culture than possibly ever before. In the end, it was a good day for both of them. And after that experience, Marcy is even more surprised to find that her girlfriend is now wearing the exact same outfit that she wore back then, only this time without the reluctance and unwillingness, but instead full of pride.
"I had actually worn it before. Do you know Stumpy's Diner? I had turned it into a Thai food restaurant once."
"R-really?", Marcy asks, "Although, that sounds like something you would do... How'd it go?"
"Um... A still-living kraken trashed the restaurant."
"Whoa...", Marcy chimes in in amazement, "I mean, I know food is supposed to be fresh, but that fresh?"
"I think someone said pretty much the same thing back then.", Anne jokes, "But whatever. You look amazing. Didn't think suits looked that good on you."
"Thank you.", Marcy says in an abashed voice before Anne continues though.
"I have to tell you though; blue is not necessarily your color. I think red would suit you better.", she comments.
"Believe it or not, I know it's not my color.", Marcy admits with a smirk on her face, "It's yours."
"I-I-I swear that wasn't intentional.", Anne stutters as her girlfriend smiles ever so slightly.
"I believe you.", Marcy replies, which actually seems to reassure her, "But you have to admit, it's a nice coincidence that we're wearing each other's colors... ... Well, okay, not quite… I actually chose to wear blue on purpose. But the fact that you're actually wearing green..."
With a sense of relief, Anne leans her upper body against Marcy, holding onto her shoulders, and begins to laugh. She just laughs from the bottom of her heart, and although Marcy doesn't understand why her girlfriend is laughing, she can't help but to grin.
"Anne?", Marcy asks, slightly confused, while Anne just continues to laugh. Her laughter, however, increasingly turns to amused puffs through her nose.
After a while, Anne suddenly straightens up, puts her hands around her girlfriend's face, pressing her lips directly onto Marcy's. Initially quite surprised, it doesn't take long for Marcy to melt into the kiss. She wraps her arms around Anne before a faint blue and green shockwave emanates from the two girls, causing the entire fwagon to shudder. Neither girl is bothered by it though.
After a few more moments, the kiss breaks apart again and the two girlfriends simply look into each other's eyes, smiling.
"Have I ever told you that I love you?", Anne teases her, her hands behind Marcy's neck, just holding her.
"Maybe...", she grins, "But you're welcome to say it again."
Anne leans forward and gives her a peck on her nose.
"I love you."
"I love you too.", a warm feeling spreads through her chest, "And I'm so glad you're with me, that we're here together."
"Me too.", Marcy slightly raises onto her tiptoes and places another small kiss on Anne's lips, "Shall we- Shall we head out?"
Anne nods, Marcy puts on her shoes, and hand in hand they leave the fwagon together and join Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly on Bessie, who have already been waiting for them.
The ride to the tower was shorter than it had been earlier, with Hop Pop worried that they would be late for the demolition, even if there are no hints to suggest that.
Hop Pop stops Bessie several hundred meters from Toad Tower, where it already appears that several hundred Frog Valley residents have gathered there in a meadow. Standing on a makeshift-looking stage are Ben Flawrik and Andrew Odal, along with several members of the Frog Council, who all seem to be waiting for something together.
"Oh no...", Anne mutters. Marcy turns to her, wanting to ask what's going on, when she too eventually notices them waving at her.
"Oh no.", Marcy echoes.
Just moments after everyone descends from Bessie together, a couple of frog soldiers invite Anne and Marcy to the stage.
"Anne... Master Marcy... I'm glad you could come.", Ben greets them.
"You weren't just waiting for us, were you?", Anne asks, hoping she wouldn't be pushed too much into the spotlight.
"By no means, no.", Andrew Odal replies to which Anne and Marcy both exhale collectively in relief, "I'm just glad you could come to witness this memorable event."
"I agree.", Ben adds, "And I see you guys dressed up. You look good. ... I think..."
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that last part.", Anne replies.
"When is the detonation actually scheduled for?", Marcy suddenly asks.
"It shouldn't be too much longer.", Ben replies, glad for the change of subject, "We've set the time detonators for just after sunset. It should be almost time."
"In that case, Marcy and I should get back to the Planta-"
"Please wait a moment, Anne.", Ben stops them before they can leave the stage, and turns to the relatively large crowd immediately in front of them who are chatting excitedly. "WELCOME EVERYONE..."
The crowd gradually gets quieter and quieter until Ben no longer has to be roaringly loud to be heard by everyone.
"Today, many weeks ago, someone had an idea. An idea that, in fact, many have had in the past. And that someone was Anne-", Ben gestures to Anne, who looks down indifferently. He continues, "-a human, from a world far from ours. Under her leadership, we have come together. We left our villages and united. We confronted the Toads as one, with a scale that even Newtopia’s army could not match. And after centuries of oppression by the Toads, we have finally won our freedom from their tyranny.", the crowd erupts in jubilation, "And today, we celebrate. We celebrate not only our independence, but also all those who were not able to achieve this dream before, and lost their lives fighting for it. Today, in their name, we will tear down the last symbol of injustice and build a brighter future for Frog Valley!"
The crowd erupts in cheers again, which quickly turns into countless excited conversations within the crowd, and Anne leans down to Ben.
"Wasn't that a bit exaggerated?", Anne loudly whispers to him, earning a questioning look in return. "I mean in terms of the depth of my involvement.", she clarifies. He snorts in understanding, but also in amusement.
"No. And do you know why?", she shakes her head, "Such details don't matter. It doesn't matter how much you did or didn't do. To all these people here, you're a hero. You are the embodiment of courage, hope, and determination. In theory, I didn't have to say anything about you, or say anything at all, but it helps to lift the spirits, and remind people what we did all this for, and recall how we got here."
"I... Wha...", Anne stammers, unsure how to handle the unexpected praise. For her to be told that she is a hero still feels wrong. Yet Ben has said something that makes her rethink her part-, or rather the purpose of it. Courage, Hope, and Determination... It is not easy for Anne to say that these are not values she would like to share with others. It's nice to be able to inspire others, or give them confidence in themselves.
"I'm not a hero... But- Thank you.", she speaks thoughtfully. Without comment, Ben nods at her, and Anne and Marcy leave the stage again, heading back to the Plantars.
After a not particularly long search, the two girls locate the Plantars again, who are now waiting next to the Sundews, all three of whom must have arrived together most recently. The two families sit on a large picnic blanket. Hop Pop is talking to Sylvia, Felicia is preparing tea, Sprig is fooling around with his maybe-or-maybe-not girlfriend Ivy, and Polly is sitting in her bucket, seemingly extremely bored. However, she is also the first to notice that Anne and Marcy are back.
"Anne!", she calls out to her, which also, with the exception of Sprig and Ivy's, draws the attention of the others to her. "Anne, please tell me they told you when I finally get to push the big red button. I can't wait any longer."
"I'm sorry Polly.", Anne begins, "I'm afraid there is no button for you to press."
"What?", she retorts, a little pissed off. Marcy explains.
"The detonation is timed. But don't worry, it shouldn't-"
Boom
A small, but clearly audible and noticeable explosion. Instantly all conversation falls silent and the entire crowd turns toward Toad Tower. But nothing happened over there. No movement at all. At that, Ben speaks up.
"Don't worry guys, everything is going according to plan. It's less than a minute before the tower falls!", he shouts into the crowd.
Ben, Andrew, and the rest of the council members turn expectantly toward the tower, while Anne and Marcy join the Plantars and the Sundews on the picnic blanket. With Marcy leaning against Anne's shoulder and in silence, they peer toward Toad Tower, which is brightly lit by the very low evening sun. Fortunately, the sun is behind them, so none of them are being blinded by it.
"Any last words?", Anne asks, which earns her some confused looks. Polly is among those who had understood her right away.
"Bye tower. Wished very much I could have blown you up myself.", she says, which brings her light snickering from a few people present.
"This thing is an embarrassment. I'm glad when it's gone.", Felicia Sundew announces.
"I wish there had been a more peaceful, diplomatic solution for all of this...", Marcy speaks remorsefully, "But at least it's over now."
"Hear hear.", Sylvia remarks.
"I've only been there once in my life... and the crab legs were delicious I'll tell y'all.", Hop Pop drools slightly at the memory, which earns him a few honest laughs.
And then it all started. The first boomshrooms installed in the sewers of Toad Tower began to explode, and the ground started shaking. Due to the distance, all the spectators didn't notice more than a slight shaking from the strongly trembling ground the tower.
Blue smoke rises around the tower high into the sky, and the first loose bits of debris begin to crumble to the ground.
Then, a big bang, and the tower, above the pre-existing wide gap that extended right through the middle of the tower, begins to slip away from the rest of the tower, collapsing to the ground. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the tower collapses, enveloped in smoke and dust, and the crowd wildly erupts in cheers at the sight. A few tears of joy also flow sporadically.
Only when the sun has completely disappeared behind the horizon does the dust settle, and the first inhabitants make their way back to Wartwood, or to their own villages.
The Plantars are neither the first nor the last to leave. However, when at some point the first stars are visible in the sky, Hop Pop decides that it is already late, and they should gradually make their way back.
"Do you guys hear that?", Anne asks, all of them still a little while away from Wartwood.
As they approach the village, they discover how festive and brightly lit everything is, to a degree that Anne and Marcy only know from Los Angeles, even if this comparison may be a bit exaggerated. Truly everywhere there are strings of lights, dozens of fragrant smells flowing in all directions, and a small band is playing music audible somewhere in Wartwood. And Anne is currently trying to figure out exactly where the music is coming from, just as an idea hits her a few moments before entering Wartwood. She snaps her fingers excitedly several times as she turns to Hop Pop.
"Hop Pop, do you remember where the dance festival was held a few months ago?", she asks him in an excited voice.
"I certainly do. It was at Mrs. Croaker's barn."
In an instant Anne turns to Marcy, grinning broadly, grasping her hands.
"Shall we?", she asks, nodding her head toward the outskirts of town. Marcy doesn't quite understand yet, but fortunately Anne continues. "I mean, I did promise you a dance, after all, didn't I?"
An excited grin appears on Marcy's face, followed by excessive nodding. Almost instantaneously after that, to the surprise of everyone else riding along atop Bessie, Anne jumps down off of her. She holds up a hand for Marcy as Hop Pop speaks up.
"HAS EVERYONE HERE GONE CRAZY NOW?", he shouts out, just before Marcy looks him straight in the eye and leaps down as well, but gets caught, snickering, by Anne. Together, hand in hand, they start running. Laughing, they now run off from Bessie, on which Hop Pop is now only nagging at his grandchildren. They run through the now fewer tents that stand outside Wartwood's gates. They run towards the source of music, which is getting ever so louder.
The two girlfriends arrive at Mrs. Croaker's barn, its courtyard already bursting with activity, and they're feeling somewhat exhausted, but no less exhilarated.
The dance floor, which is made of planked wood, illuminated on all sides with colored light, is filled with several dancing couples, but also solo dancers, some finely dressed, some not.
Anne and Marcy stumble onto the dance floor just as the last song ended.
"Hey Marshmallow. Were we too fast?", Anne asks in a soft voice.
"N-no... Even though my heart is racing right now.... But I think it's more because of the situation.", she assures her. And at that very moment, the band resumed playing.
[ 🎵 ] https://youtu.be/aIv2Sp_RXSQ
Marcy realizes that this is a slow song as the band plays the first few notes. Not techno music, not dubstep, not K-pop, not anything that she had ever danced to with both Anne and Sasha.
'Oh Geeez...', she thinks to herself, as nervousness begins filling her mind.
The couples around her begin to move, and Anne stands in front of her, in the middle of the dance floor. She is holding out her hand to her.
"May I have this dance?", Anne asks in her green sbai, bending slightly toward her. Marcy is blushing bright red as she reaches for her hand as Anne pulls her toward her.
They hold each other close, Anne's arms wrapped around Marcy's shoulders and Marcy holding Anne's waist, and they slowly move to the slow plucking of the guitar strings. Marcy leans her head against Anne's shoulder, and the other dancers around them begin to fade into the background. They both close their eyes.
All that they hear are the sweet sounds of the music. All they feel is a sense of warmth, a feeling of safety and peace. All they notice are their slow but strong heartbeats, which begin to beat more and more in sync with each other.
Marcy's nervousness begins to fade, replaced by joy and happiness.
They are lost in the moment, nothing else in the world exists, nothing else in the world is important right now, as they slowly begin to swing to the rhythm of the music.
The two of them open their eyes and look at each other. Marcy's gaze does not meet Anne's beautiful auburn eyes. Instead, it is met by bright, shining, crystal blue eyes.
"Your eyes...", Marcy whispers, still moving to the music together with her girlfriend.
"Your eyes.", Anne repeats with a small smile on her face. For when Anne looks into Marcy's eyes, she does not find her olive-brown eyes, but rather bright emerald green eyes that shine deep into the depths of her soul.
The other dancers begin to fade from their perception. Nothing exists but them and the music.
Adjusting their rhythm to the music, the two girls take up the center of the floor, never breaking eye contact with each other until Marcy leans her head against Anne's shoulder.
Anne brings her hands up to Marcy's neck and nuzzles her lightly, pressing her gently against her. She can feel her heartbeat and is completely enveloped in her warmth.
Feeling as if they are floating, the two girls feel the lightness of the crowd, the warm colors, and the harmony of the world flowing through their hearts. No weight of the world holding them down, no worries to worry about. They only have and need each other.
"I wish this never ends...", Anne murmurs into Marcy's hair.
"Then let's not stop.", Marcy replies quietly, holding her close to her, as she suddenly feels a tear fall down onto her cheek.
She looks up at her girlfriend, who looks back at her with teary eyes and a genuinely happy smile.
"Never.", she replies and they continue to swing to the music, which is slowly coming to an end.
But that doesn't bother them. They have all the time in the world, and they have each other. They are... home. Even if they are never going to admit it to themselves.
"Anne?", Marcy asks.
"Yeah?"
Marcy puts her hand to Anne's face and presses her lips to Anne's as green and blue lights burst from both of them. The lights are so bright and intense that they can be seen even from Newtopia. As the aura around them spreads to every corner of the valley, all of Frog Valley is bathed in feelings of happiness and love.
As they pour all of their love and affection into the kiss, it lasts for what seems like an eternity. At the end of the kiss, when they break apart again, they are aware that they are actually floating. As the band plays the last few notes and the music fades out, they descend, out of breath but happy.
Marcy admires Anne's power form, but just before her eyes and hair return to their regular colors, she notices a hint of cyan running through her blue hair. Marcy quickly tries to catch a glimpse of her own hair, but unfortunately, it's a little too short for that.
They both land back on solid ground just before both of their power forms vanish again, and they are greeted by a cheering crowd, Sprig and Ivy among them.
"Anne, Marcy, that was amazing. I've literally never seen anything so cool.", he compliments her. With a single hand gesture, however, Anne dismisses him.
"Oh, it wasn't that special.", she says.
"Sorry Anne-", Ivy interjects, "But I guess you didn't see what we saw. It was almost like you guys blended together. Well, or at least your powers did. Anyone who wasn't able to see that with their own eyes was definitely missing out."
"Wut?"
"You know what?", Marcy starts, "Let's think about this tomorrow. Anne: Less talki, more danci."
Almost as if on cue, the band begins to play the next song, and although much of the general attention is still on the two humans, they don't let it interrupt their twosomeness. Sprig and Ivy stayed close to them for a little longer, but after a while they left for their own plans.
In the end, Anne and Marcy spent hours at the big festivities until they finally returned to the farm, completely exhausted, quickly changed their clothes, and just fell into their beds.
The next morning Anne is the first of the two to wake up, although unfortunately she didn't actually wake up by herself, or because one of the Plantars woke her up. No, she was ripped out of her sleep by a pounding against the basement doors that lead outside.
With a tired and annoyed scowl on her face, she sits up straight, ready to investigate that noise. Before doing so, she turns around to face her girlfriend, only to be surprised to find that she is still fast asleep.
'I'd like to have that sleep too...', Anne envies her.
She gets up, slowly toddles past the stairs towards the ladder that leads to the outside.
Ready to open the hatches, Anne casts one last glance at Marcy as the throbbing continues to ring her ears. She opens one of the hatches, and the thumping stops immediately as an oversized bird now looks her way, its head far too close, staring directly into her eyes. She freezes on the spot.
The bird tilts its head and chirps briefly.
'Is that-', Anne doesn't even finish asking herself that question before she cautiously turns around.
"Mar-", is all she can get out as she notices Marcy already standing next to her, a gleeful and excited sparkle in her eyes. Grinning over both ears, Marcy practically jumps out of the basement, almost falling on her face.
"JOOOEEEE!", she screams and throws herself around his neck, hugging him tightly. "Oh Joe, how I've missed you."
For a few seconds Anne watches this beautiful scene with warm feeling in her heart, and now painless ears. Suddenly Marcy turns back to her as it occurs to her that maybe she should explain herself.
"Right... Um, Anne, yesterday I sent a letter to Newtopia, via messenger bird, to have them send Joe over if we want to go to the first temple later.", she explains. Anne merely blinks in response, creating a slightly uncomfortably long silence.
Eventually, however, Anne speaks up again. "I'm going back to sleep."
Anne closes the hatches again, walks back to her bed, and slumps backwards onto her mattress. However, just before she can travel back to the land of dreams, a familiar voice snaps her back into reality, but this time not from outside, but from the basement hatch that leads up to the living room.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT NOISE???", it's Hop Pop sticking his head into the basement, seemingly just as upset as Anne was.
"YOU'RE ABOUT TWO MINUTES TOO LATE, OLD MAN!", Anne shouts back at him with equal volume before taking one deep breath. "Sorry, HP. Marcy's Sparrow got here earlier. He made the noise. Woke me up, too."
Hop Pop grumbles at that.
"Well, I'm going to have to have some serious and well thought through words with this bird.", he announces, before letting the basement hatch slam shut again at full volume. She simply rolls her eyes at that.
And once again, Anne's mind drifts off into the land of dreams as she notices something moving within her hair. Strained, she turns from side to side until she suddenly hears a slightly painful sound as something falls out of her hair.
"POLLY?! What the heck are you doing in my hair, dude?", Anne tries hard not to yell at her. Fortunately, her explanation doesn't take long to come.
"Your hair is noise absorbing. Didn't you know that?", Polly asks as if it's common sense.
"Okay. That's enough.", Anne admits defeat, "Obviously, some higher powers don't want me to go back to sleep. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Who are you talking to?", Polly asks her flatly.
Not long afterwards, she kicks Polly out of the basement so she can change for the day in peace. Out of her pyjamas and into her everyday SJMS uniform.
As soon as she gets it on, though, her shiny golden armor pieces jump into her eyes.
'Okay, if we're really going to the first temple today, do I really want to drag around all that armor weight while we're there?', Anne thinks to herself as her gaze lingers on it. 'Naaah', she dismisses the thought and slowly strolls up the stairs out of the basement.
After a long drawn out and jaw dropping yawn, Anne suddenly finds Marcy standing right in front of her.
"Oh, hey Marbles. Didn't hear you come back in."
"Yeah... Hop Pop said he wanted to have a serious word with Joe. Alone.", Marcy recounts with a hint of confusion in her voice, "Admittedly, I don't know what he expects to get out of it."
Another not-so-big yawn escapes Anne.
"Whoa, are you okay?", Marcy asks.
"Tired. Wanna sleep, but can't.", is all that escapes Anne right now. Marcy smiles slightly as Anne tries to keep her eyes open.
"Well, we actually have an important day ahead of us today... It wouldn't be unimportant to be well rested...", Marcy states, watching Anne getting more tired by the second, and already having difficulties to stay upright, "Hmm... Maybe I have something that can give you a little energy boost."
Marcy leans forward and gives Anne a kiss on her cheek. When Anne doesn't respond, however, she frowns. Only after several seconds does Anne speak up.
"More please.", she requests.
Marcy showers her girlfriend with kisses, which, except for a few happy smiles on Anne's part, doesn't have much of an impact.
"You know, I might know a drink that will help you stay awake.", Marcy teases.
"Huh?", Anne hums questioningly.
"Have you ever had a bug-accino? It's like a mix of coffee, energy drink, and lemon grubs. Drink five of those and you'll be able to handle a thirty hour day like it's nothing.", Anne merely blinks at her. "Okay, come into the kitchen with me. I'll make you one."
Marcy leads Anne into the Plantars' kitchen, sits her down on one of the seats, and opens some cabinets and drawers in search of the ingredients she needs.
She's boiling water when Hop Pop re-enters the house, muttering something to himself, and joins Anne and Marcy in the kitchen. With an amused tone Marcy speaks up.
"Have you and Joe been able to work out your problems?", she asks with a grin.
"Go on and mock me. I'm talking like forever until I realize I'm talking to a bird...", he sighs.
"I guess you're still pretty tired, too. Shall I make you a bug-accino too?", Marcy asks him, a second cup already in her hand, while he himself is still processing the question.
"Yes, please.", he ultimately replies as Marcy has already prepared the ingredients for his cup as well.
Boiling the water is one of the most time-consuming of the processes to make a bug-accino. The rest is done fairly quickly, and just a few minutes later, Marcy places the two drinks on the table in front of Anne and Hop Pop, hoping they will enjoy them.
They both take a sip from the steaming, foam-covered drink, and within seconds, Marcy observes both Hop Pop and Anne waking up.
"Whoa...", Hop Pop chimes in with amazement, "This is so much stronger than my Gourd Tea..."
"I don't think I've ever been this awake before...", Anne comments. "I see now why the adults all drink coffee..."
"Yep, I regularly drink those at the palace until I pass out from exhaustion. Granted, the ingredients there are a bit different than the ones I found here, so I had to experiment a bit.", Marcy states to which neither Anne nor Hop Pop listen, "I don't know how long the effects will last with this new recipe though. If you guys get tired again, let me know."
"Mhm.", Anne and Hop Pop hum in unison, both draining their drinks and still not listening.
It isn't long before the other two Plantars join them in the kitchen, and they all share a lovely breakfast. As Sprig entered the kitchen, and grabbed some food, a question from last night that Ivy had asked, for which he too has yet to get an answer, popped back into his head.
"So... Anne, Marcy...", he speaks between bites, "What was that thing last night? ... During your dance."
Anne's mind isn't really present yet, but Marcy, who has just sat down, already has some theories right away.
"I did give some thought to that last night, even though I hadn't intended to. My best theory is that Anne's powers and mine have linked up somehow."
"Like cereal mixed with milk?", Sprig asks. Marcy considers that for a moment.
"Not quite... Anne's powers are based on her emotions, from what I understand. If they're particularly strong, it causes her powers to appear and she turns blue. My powers, on the other hand, are more psychokinetic in nature. I can block out my own senses, or amplify them. And I suspect that our powers have combined in that I have somehow spread Anne's, as well as my emotions, all over Frog Valley... But that's also just a theory, not sure how far it actually applies."
"Well, it sounds plausible to me.", satisfied with this answer, Sprig turns back to his breakfast, but Marcy turns to Anne.
"Anne? What do you think?", Marcy's approach attempt is returned by a slightly startled 'huh'.
"Oh, sorry Marbles. While I do feel more awake, my concentration isn't quite there yet.", Anne apologizes.
"Don't worry about it. And while you keep waking up, maybe I should start preparing for the trip to the first temple.", Marcy announces, "We need a map, the box-"
"Supplies! Food!", Polly interjects, screaming.
"Of course. And I need my notepads from my studies of the box... and whatever else I can think of.", Marcy continues. "Anything else you guys can think of?", she asks to which no one responds though.
"Sorry Marcy-", Polly speaks up, "It's too early to think. Better ask again in an hour."
"Alright!", Marcy bumps into the table as she stands up, "Ouch. I'll get started then while you guys wake up, okay?"
And with that, Marcy disappears back into the basement to follow up on her plan, but also to get dressed. After all, this is not an adventure that should be undertaken in pyjamas. In general, there are very few of them where that would be appropriate.
A little more than two hours later, all the Plantars plus Marcy are standing in the living room ready to leave. Anne is carrying her loyal pink and brown backpack slung loosely over one shoulder, filled with odds and ends needed for the temple, among other things. Next to Marcy on the floor are a few books that General Yunan sent with her from Newtopia on Joe, and in her hand, she's holding a notepad on which she's reading something.
"Ou-kay. Seems like we have everything. I just need to see the music box and we're ready to go.", Marcy announces. Anne brings her backpack forward and pulls out the box.
"Here. I hid the box where I hid you-know-what... which I also have with me, by the way.", Anne hands the box to Marcy. Marcy takes the box, but doesn't break eye contact with her.
"Are you sure about that? I mean, I don't think-"
"I'm sure.", Anne cuts Marcy off firmly. "It's just in case."
At that, Polly whispers to Sprig and Hop Pop.
"Do you understand what that's about?", she wonders. Sprig and Hop Pop, however, are equally clueless. Marcy continues.
"Okay... according to my notes, now I just need to...", Marcy's voice fades out, and she begins to examine the box. She pushes in one of the gold plates on the left, then on the right, and lastly the gold frog figurine in the front center. The key of the box turns and plays a little tune just, just before the three gray gems extend from their attachments. Marcy removes one of the three gems from its mount, whereupon the other two instantly snap back into place.
"Here you go, Anne.", Marcy hands the box back to her, but keeps the gem to herself, which she packs briskly into her gray fanny pack.
The five of them are just stepping through the door when Anne is struck by something important.
"OH SHOOT!", she exclaims. Marcy turns around.
"What?"
"I almost forgot: We have to take Maddie with us.", Anne explains. Several questioning faces look at her.
"Why? And why Maddie?", Sprig asks. Anne continues.
"She helped me heal Sasha. In return, I promised her that we would take her to one of the temples."
"Do we really have to?", Sprig groans.
"Yes, we do.", Anne replies firmly, "You guys go get ready, and I'll go see if she's home."
Immediately Anne sprints off in the direction of Flour Bakery while the others get ready for departure.
Anne knocks on the door to the bakery and enters the building. Mr. Flour greets her.
"Good morning, Anne. Good to see you."
"Same-"
"You do know you don't have to knock, don't you?"
"Yeah, sure, sure, didn't get much sleep. Question: Is Maddie around?"
"My oldest seems to be pretty popular these days... Yeah, she's here, hold on.", Mr. Flour turns to the door, located behind the display counter, and opens it. "MADDIE. YOU HAVE A VISITOR!", he shouts, slightly startling Anne.
It doesn't take long for Maddie to come out to that very door, and looking a little surprised to see the human.
"Oh, hello Anne. Is there something I can do for you?", she wonders.
"Back at the Source, you said you wanted to be there when we would be going to recharge the gems...", Anne recounts, "We would be flying out to the first temple, about right now."
"Oh...", Maddie exclaims.
"You already have other plans...", Anne remarks, to which Maddie nods, "I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier."
"The music box has three gems, right?", Maddie questions, to which Anne nods in affirmation, "Then I'll just come along for the second gem."
"All right, perfect.", Anne looks pleased.
"It would be good though if you can give me some notice in advance. Ideally at least a day earlier."
"Sure thing.", Anne assures her before turning around and leaving the bakery again, sprinting back to the Plantars' farm where the others have already taken their seats on Joe Sparrow's back.
"Where's Maddie?", Marcy asks Anne, who is on the ground right next to Joe's wing.
"It was a little too short notice for her. She'll come next time.", Anne explains, to which Sprig exhales in relief.
"Alright. Come on up then.", Marcy invites her, "There should be plenty of room."
Anne climbs up Joe's wing until she discovers a small problem.
"Yo, where is this enough room, please?"
The couch mounted on Joe's back is quite small, and Marcy, Hop Pop, Sprig, Polly, and some thick books are already taking up quite a bit of space.
"Right...", Marcy realizes, just seconds before all of them look at Hop Pop.
"You- you're not going to leave me here, are you?", he stammers. "T- the books. You can put those in Anne's backpack, can't you? O-or under the couch."
"Good idea, HP.", Anne compliments him. She opens her backpack, and Marcy actually manages to squeeze all the books in there, in addition to the food and the music box, making enough room for Anne to squeeze in next to Marcy on the couch.
From her fanny pack, which she had brought forward before Anne sat down next to her, Marcy pulls out a rolled-up piece of paper. She unrolls it, revealing a map of the southern half of Amphibia.
"Okay, so we're ... are here.", Marcy points her index finger to the center of the map, to Wartwood in the southwest of Frog Valley, surrounded by a mountain range with the only opening to the north. Marcy slides her finger west as she continues.
"And we have to fly here. We're flying over the Mold Rot Forest and toward the Amygdala Woods. Fortunately, Joe is one of the fastest Sparrows in Newtopia.", Joe chirps in agreement, "So we shouldn't have to travel too long. Let's go, Joe!"
With an incredibly powerful and dust-raising flap of his wings, he pushes himself off the ground and gains altitude at breakneck speed. His passengers cling to each other and the couch with all their might, trying to counteract the G-forces as they watch him pass over the first mountain peaks and gradually transition into a glide.
Anne speaks up after all of them have been able to take a deep breath.
"A heads up would have been nice Marbles!", she says with her pulse still racing.
"Sorry.", Marcy apologizes to Anne before looking past her to the Plantars, who are looking quite green in their faces as well. "And are you guys okay?"
"Yeah... No... I don't know.", Hop Pop talks to himself. Marcy puts the map back down and pulls out her notebook.
"Note to self: No more booster takeoffs.", she mumbles.
"Tell me Marbles...", Anne begins, "Do you happen to have any idea what we can expect at the temple once we get there? Any info we should probably know ahead of time?"
"Well, I definitely don't feel like any surprises...", Hop Pop comments.
"As a matter of fact, I do.", Marcy replies excitedly, "I had spent some time in Newtopia doing research. And even though the books I had read on it only told the location of only the first temple, it said that all three temples are filled with difficult challenges to keep out the unworthy. We just have to pass all the challenges and then we can charge the Gem."
"Hold on!", Polly speaks up, "Can't we charge all three Gems in just one temple? We'll just prove we're worthy at the first temple and charge all three right away."
"I... don't think that would work.", Marcy falls into a thoughtful pose for a moment, "But, we can definitely try."
"So, what kind of challenges are we talking about here?", Anne wonders.
"The first temple specifically aims to challenge your intelligence. So, I'm sure it's full of puzzles. And never before has a frog, toad, or Newt managed to survive it.", Marcy excitedly shakes her arms, "Ooohh, this is going to be so cool."
"Do you think we'll have to use our powers?", Anne asks with slight worry.
"Unlikely.", Marcy replies, which fills Anne with relief, "These challenges were designed for beings that are native to Amphibia. You and I were never on the agenda."
"It'll be a piece of cake.", Sprig comments.
"I myself rather hope you don't completely forget about us when you're in the zone later, MarMar.", Anne states.
"Oh, please. As if I could forget you guys...", Marcy tries to assure her. With explicit emphasis on 'trying'.
The group arrives at the Amygdala Woods a little earlier than originally expected, which is odd because no one was paying attention to the time.
Joe lands swiftly but carefully in a clearing. He leans slightly to the side so that everyone can slide down over his wing, with Marcy going first.
"Welcome to the Amygdala Woods together, home of the first temple."
"Whoa...", the others stand in awe at the sight of the trees and bushes, which are quite unusual in shape and color. Studying another map, Marcy walks ahead, the rest following behind her.
"What are those things?", Sprig wonders as he points to one of the shorter trees.
"Gyromitra esculenta. Also known as brain mushrooms. And funfact: the name of the forest is curiously related to Amygdalae, which describes a part of the brain that deals with emotions.", Marcy explains without particularly straining her own brain.
"Emotions, right up my alley.", Anne comments snarkily.
"It's just a name, Anne...", Marcy corrects her smiling, well knowing she was only joking. At that Hop Pop speaks up.
"So this is a forest full of brains as a location for the intelligence temple?", he asks. "Isn't that a little, I don't know, suspiciously convenient?"
"Speaking of temples-", Polly has stopped as she noticed something, "I think you way over-hyped this place."
The five of them arrive in front of a dilapidated outhouse consisting of rotten wood and overgrown with moss. On its door at the front is the emblem of Amphibia.
"Oh no no no...", Marcy corrects them, turning everyone's attention one hundred and eighty degrees, "This is the temple."
With their jaws dropped in amazement, the group finds itself in front of a gray, stone temple whose height can easily compete with the royal palace back in Newtopia.
Stacked like a layer cake, the temple consists of nine square storeys from the outside, each of them smaller than the previous, all the way towards the top. But not only the floors themselves vary from each other, the decorations on each of them are different as well. While on the ground level there is a small channel that is fed from the upper level, after that mainly frog and brain motifs increase. Be it statues, wall decorations, or gargoyles. At the very top there is a meter-high statue of one of the three gems.
"Whoa...", everyone, except Marcy, stifles in amazement.
"Come on, guys. Let's go!", Marcy exclaims excitedly, leading the others up the grand staircase that leads to the entrance into the temple.
At the top, the five of them stand in front of a hemispherical frog head, whose mouth represents the yet closed doorway. Large parts of the head are overgrown with moss and grass.
"Alright guys, let's do this!", Marcy chimes in with motivation before Polly clears her throat.
"Don't we have to somehow get this door open first for that?", she remarks.
"Well noticed Polly.", Marcy compliments her and takes a few steps closer to the door. "What do you think will happen if I...?"
Marcy raises her hand and touches the door ever so slightly, before a sound of something dragging over stone is heard, and the massive, stone doors slide apart, releasing a gust of powerful, stale wind towards them all. Immediately, all of them plug their noses, a feeling of nausea overtaking them.
"Urgh...", Sprig speaks up in disgust, "Do we really want to go in there?"
"It smells like no one's been in there in thousands of years, the way the air stinks.", Hop Pop adds. Marcy replies.
"More like a few centuries. Everything here is still way too intact to have been around for millennia...", she corrects him, "Come on!", she runs in excitedly, "The sooner we finish, the sooner we'll be finished."
As Marcy briskly walks ahead, the others are taking a little more time. At first just to get used to the musty air, but then also to marvel at the room itself.
The room itself is quite gloomy, lit only by a few wildly growing, glowing brain mushrooms. They all take a few steps into the room, when Anne notices something on the left wall. More precisely, a mural.
"Um, Marcy?", Anne says, causing Marcy to turn to her, "Didn't you say that you and I were never on the agenda?"
"Yeah...", she replies.
"Then why are there humans pictured here?", Anne continues to ask, which now completely hogs Marcy's attention.
"WHAT?", she exclaims in disbelief. The mural, which is mostly overgrown with ivy, shows two human-like figures. One of them with a sword, facing a huge monster. "This can't be... Wait a minute, that one looks like Sasha...", Marcy continues to observe.
"There's another human up there.", Sprig notices, " I can only see its legs, though. The rest is too overgrown."
"Why didn't we bring Frobo with us, anyway? He could burn the plants down with his flamethrower.", Polly notes, whereupon everyone present looks at her in silent agreement.
"You're right.", Marcy, still confused, agrees, "But boy, this is really messing with my head right now... I mean- HOW??"
"Maybe it's all just a coincidence.", Hop Pop interjects, "Maybe it shows a creature that once lived here in Amphibia, but is now extinct."
"Whatever it is-", Anne pulls out her phone and steps back a few meters to take a few pictures of it, "We shouldn't let it get in the way of the mission. We can think about it later, all right?"
After some further pondering, the five of them walk deeper into the temple until Polly inadvertently steps on a pressure plate.
"Uh-oh."
All around them, mushroom lights begin to illuminate, having previously blended perfectly with the stone walls, revealing yet another even larger door.
In the exact center of the door is another depiction of the gem. Above it, but also on both sides to the right and left of it, there are a total of three circles, each containing a small image. The circle on the left contains, seemingly a Rubik's cube. The circle on the right contains three colored squares. The circle above shows two figures plus the board of the game Flipwart. On the lower third of the door, a text consisting entirely of amphibian runes begins to light up.
"Did I learn an entire dead language just for today? You better believe I did!", Marcy announces. She pulls out her notebook, and steps closer to the door. She begins to translate. "'Keeper of the box, one strong of mind, three trials await, that will return the stones' shine.' Those are the three puzzles, guys."
The floor begins to shake slightly, and the two massive doors open, revealing- a small room. "Huh?"
"A dead end?", Sprig observes, "Well, we tried. Let's go home."
"Hey, come on.", Marcy stops Sprig from leaving, her optimism unfortunately having no effect on the others. "The puzzle has to be here somewhere. Everyone, look for clues!"
The five of them split up. Marcy is the first to enthusiastically run off, and devotes herself to more runes that she has discovered on a wall. Hop Pop stares intently into nothing. Polly examines the floor closely, looking for more pressure plates. Sprig merely looks at a wall, and Anne walks around bored, aimlessly, until she almost kicks a metal cube.
She picks it up.
"Hehe, guess who found the puzzle?", she exclaims as a spherical green force field materializes around her and lifts her into the center of the room. "WHOA!" she screams in slight terror. Hop Pop gasps in shock.
"Frog, help us. A cursed cube possessed by evil magic.", he shouts as Marcy seems to rejoice.
"That looks just like my own force field.", she exclaims happily, "This is definitely my temple!".
"Well, whatever it is, all yours, Marbles.", Anne, floating in the air in the force field, tosses the cube to her, causing the bubble to burst, and Anne to fall to the ground onto the Plantars. They all groan at her impact. Marcy has caught the cube perfectly, and the force field now forms around her, lifting her high into the air as well as she studies the cube.
"Whoa, this thing's got, like, a zillion permutations. If this temple thinks it can beat me, it's got another thing coming.", Marcy chimes in victoriously, all her attention focused on the cube. She rotates the first side of the cube and the ground beneath Anne and the Plantars begins to shake.
"Uh, guys-", Polly was about to start when the center of the room spins completely ninety degrees. The floor they were first standing on is now the wall.
Panicked, Sprig and Hop Pop hold onto the wall, and Anne with Polly on her head holds onto them. A nauseous Sprig speaks up.
"Are any of you also just having your breakfast come back up?"
"Hold it in, dude!", Anne calls to him before turning to Marcy in a panic, "Marcy! Can you at least let us know what you're gonna move before you move it?"
Sprig and Hop Pops hold on the wall wears off and with a painful sounding groan, they fall, crashing to the floor.
Marcy unfortunately missed that last part and is completely lost in the zone. She turns another row of the cube one hundred eighty degrees, and flings Anne and the Plantars across the room. They hit the ground with a crash after flying high through the room, the only difference being that this time, the Plantars land on Anne.
"Ouch...", Anne groans, 'That's gonna bruise'.
Marcy spins another row, and flings them back across. Instead of hitting the floor, however, Anne manages to activate her powers and catch all the Plantars before they hit the solid stone floor and hurt themselves even further. Carrying all three of them, Sprig on one arm, Hop Pop on the other, and Polly on her head, she hovers just above the ground in a way that prevents them from being thrown around. They all exhale in relief, breathing with a sense of security.
This feeling doesn't last long, however, as a boulder suddenly shoots up from underneath Anne, sending her crashing into the ceiling.
"Fortunately, these forces come with pain resistance.", Anne says, just before a column shoots out from the wall directly under her feet and slams full force into the wall on the other side. "Okay, that's enough."
At that, Anne hovers closer to Marcy, sure that they most likely won't get hit by anything there.
Anxiously, the four of them watch Marcy shift the individual sides of the cube with her eyes fixed and unblinking, seemingly without any sense or pattern. And all this while all around them they spin walls, or shoot out pillars that dart across the room, some just millimeters away from crushing them.
"Ha! Got it!", Marcy suddenly speaks up, having just pushed the last two pieces into their correct positions. Shortly after, two huge doors begin to open, revealing a staircase leading upward.
Marcy's force field descends to the ground and disintegrates. Anne, still carrying the Plantars, follows her down.
"We did it! One down, two to go...", Marcy speaks excitedly at first, tossing the dissolved cube to the floor, which shatters in response, but now glances at Anne, "Did I miss anything?"
Anne's powers fade out.
"Oh, not really-", Polly speaks up sarcastically, "You merely threw a whole room at us."
"Oh, okay, if it's nothing else...", Marcy replies with a happy tone, "On to the next puzzle guys. WOOHOO!"
Marcy runs off up the stairs cheering, as the others look after her in disbelief. Well, except Anne. She's not surprised.
"She really didn't get it, did she?", Polly wonders.
"Nope.", Anne replies flatly. "Come on, let's keep moving."
Due to Marcy's, let's say, unathleticism, it was quite easy for Anne and the Plantars to catch up to her, though only after they arrive at the next puzzle chamber. They find Marcy standing thoughtfully in front of a small drop.
"Oh, hey, a dance floor!", Anne observes.
About two meters below them is a colorful area consisting of square, luminous tiles, each in one of three colors: Green, pink, and red.
On the opposite side is the presumed exit. The door is a lot smaller than the last ones, but also shows another mural. On it is depicted a frog wearing a noble robe. Above his head are three prominent symbols: A flame, a brain, and an open book.
"Uhh... not quite.", Marcy kneels on the edge and lifts a stone, "Watch."
she tosses the stone over the edge, and it eventually lands on a red tile. The weight of the stone causes the tile to drop down a little, and a ceiling-high jet of fire shoots out of it. Not even ten seconds later, the tile seals itself again, and the jet of fire dissipates.
"Woah.", Sprig exclaims, "Really not getting good vibes from this room."
"Welp. Time to turn back. Thanks for playing, everyone!", Polly is totally already giving up, when suddenly something happens within the chamber. Hop Pop speaks up.
"Hold on, gang. Look!"
Once around the room, large Amphibian runes appear on the walls. Immediately, Marcy pulls out her notebook and begins to translate.
"'A dangerous room. What to do? Don't be jealous of my hue.'"
"Huh?", everyone hums in confusion. Marcy kneels down again, and picks up another stone.
"Hmm... I wonder...", she doesn't complete this sentence, and throws the stone over the edge as well. The stone lands on one of the pink tiles this time. As with the red tile, the very weight of the stone causes it to sink in a bit, and moments later a rock studded with iron spikes falls from the ceiling, instantly crushing the stone to grit.
"Ouu...", Hop Pop flinches.
"Okay, so pink is death by flame, blue is death by crushing.", Anne summarizes, "I still don't quite understand what the riddle is supposed to be here- MARCY!"
Without warning, Marcy runs forward and jumps down from the ledge as fast as she can. Using her crossbow, she launches a grappling arrow, swings forward with it, and lands on one of the two green, albeit rather wobbly, tiles, which, like the others before them, locks into place. A tremendous sense of relief fills Anne in particular when she sees that nothing is happening.
"Marcy, you know I love you and all your quirks-", she starts calmly, "But NEVER do that again!!!"
"Don't worry Anne, green is the safe color.", Marcy calls out to her.
"I'm starting to see a pattern...", Sprig mumbles to himself. Marcy, who couldn't hear him continues.
"The solution was in the text. 'Don't be jealous of my hue.' It's a reference to green, the color of envy.", she explains, "And it was the only color left."
"Ah, yes, naturally.", Sprig says mindlessly to himself.
"I have a lot of green friends who would find that offensive.", Hop Pop comments before Polly makes a not insignificant discovery.
"If green is the solution, then why isn't the door open yet?", she asks, causing all of them look over to the door. Marcy ponders, glancing first at the door, then at the rest of the field.
"Hmm. Looks like this is a two-person job. Someone go stand on the other green square...", Marcy suggests, "Anne?"
"No Anne!", Sprig is worried, "What if it's a trap door?"
"Yeah, with spikes on the bottom...", Polly adds.
"Not helping, Polly.", Hop Pop scolds her. Anne looks at Marcy and considers for a moment.
"I'll do it.", she says firmly before turning to the Plantars, "And before you say anything: I have superpowers, you don't. Even if it's a trap, I'll be fine."
"We know.", Sprig replies for all of them.
With a smile, Anne summons her powers again and lifts slightly off the ground, slowly gliding to the second green tile, which immediately locks into place.
Shortly after, the door begins to raise, and all the other tiles in the room turn green. Marcy carefully steps down from her tile, just to be on the safe side.
"Okay, it's safe, guys. You can come down now, too.", Marcy calls out to the others. And while the Plantars jump down to them and Anne makes her powers disappear again, Marcy is already running excitedly towards the now open door.
"Whoo! What did I tell ya? This temple is toast! Consider the stone charged, baby!", she cheers and disappears again behind the next corner. The others run after her, just until she sticks her head back into the room, holding her hand out for Anne.
"I just nearly forgot about you guys.", Marcy defends herself, despite the fact that no one has said anything, and the others are just looking at her in mild surprise. "Only nearly. Really, that's important."
"Umm... sure.", Sprig says weirdly.
"Really, I need you to believe me.", Marcy insists with her hint of desperation in her voice.
"Yeah, sure. We believe you.", Anne says.
"Yeah, speak for yourself.", Polly mutters barely audibly.
"OU-KAY!", Anne rushes in, in case Marcy was actually able to hear her, "Let's just move on, shall we?"
At that Marcy now grabs Anne's arm and yoinks her toward the next room.
"Come on, let's go then.", she tugs her behind her with a smile. "Off to the last challenge!", she shouts excitedly.
The five of them first walk briskly and motivated along a long, stone spiral staircase, before they wander along a seemingly endless corridor. It goes around corners, up stairs, and back down again - it's like a labyrinth, not with the aim of creating confusion, but of fueling demotivation.
Only after more than an hour of running around through the always identically arranged corridors and hallways, which were only distinguishable from each other by the degree of decay, does the group reach something that points to the next and last puzzle.
"Man is this a long hallway...", Sprig comments just before Marcy excitedly gasps. Immediately in front of them the corridor gets a little smaller and narrower, and directly above them another text lights up in Amphibian runes.
"Ha! Here we are. The final puzzle.", she exclaims and takes out her notebook again, "Okay, what do we have here? 'Few have the brains to make it to this door, but are you wise enough to solve what's in store?'"
"Of course.", Hop Pop answers that, though not without a hint of insecurity in his voice, "Right?"
"Right.", Marcy chimes in, "Let's go!".
Heads first, literally, Marcy runs off into the room ahead of them. The others behind her hear her gasping loudly in excitement as they catch up to her.
"I don't believe it!", Marcy exclaims, "It's flipwart!"
"What's flipwart?", Anne wonders after the others catch up to her.
"It's a strategy game I learned to play in Newtopia. It's like chess, but to the max. I got so good at it, I even beat King Andrias.", she explains.
"Impressive.", Hop Pop compliments her, "They say King Andrias is one of the best flipwart players around."
Marcy sprints forward to the small table where the flipwart board is set up, along with all the black pieces already in place. Marcy opens a small drawer on the side of the table, where it appears all the white pieces are stored, and takes out one of the pieces and shows it to the others.
"So, both sides have a wart, right? It's kind of like the king in chess. And the goal is to flip the wart! Each piece has a different set of abilities. These archers, for example, can only attack in a straight line. Oh, I love this game!"
As Marcy explains, Hop Pop moves away from the group, having spotted another glowing panel containing Amphibian runes.
"Hmm...", he hums, "Hey Marcy, what does this say?"
"'Any commander whose war falls, may never set foot inside these temple walls.'", she immediately begins to translate, "Looks like I only get one shot at this. One shot is all I need.", Marcy cracks her knuckles, "But first, to set up the board..."
Marcy begins to pull out the white pieces from the drawer as Sprig speaks up.
"Well, I guess we'll just sit back quietly and watch.", he comments. Polly is chilling right next to him.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to sit this one out ‘cause these flippas be tired after all that- AAH!", a shaft pops open below Polly, which closes just as quickly as it opened after she disappeared into it.
"POLLY!", they scream and a part of the room lights up in front of Marcy, that was previously hidden in complete darkness.
"A giant flipwart board?", Marcy wonders. At that very moment Polly appears on that board, built into one of two white towers.
"Polly, are you alright?", Sprig calls down to her.
"Okay?", she echoes somewhat offended, "I've got a sword, baby! I'm doing better than all of you."
Anxiously, Anne reaches for Marcy's shoulder.
"Marbles, do you think we should stop? This could get dangerous."
"We don't have a choice, Anne.", she replies, and Anne knows she isn't wrong, "We wanna get back to earth, right? Then we've gotta play or we'll never recharge the stone."
"She has a point.", Hop Pop agrees. Marcy turns and grabs Anne's hands.
"Trust me, okay?", Marcy looks deep into her eyes, "I know what I'm doing."
Anne pulls Marcy to her for a strengthening kiss before speaking up.
"Okay, I trust you."
Marcy places more white pieces onto the board, and both Hop Pop and Sprig disappear into the ground before reappearing on the board. Hop Pop reappears right next to Polly, also now dressed as a game piece.
"Ooh, I get a scepter!", he says in amazement, just before Sprig appears diagonally in front of him. Polly speaks up.
"Haha. You're a pawn.", she mocks her brother.
Marcy has set most of her pieces by this point, and Anne is getting increasingly nervous.
"Get ready Anne. There's a good chance you'll be next...", Marcy states, which doesn't help at all. On the contrary, the sweat of fear is already clearly visible on Anne's forehead.
In a single movement, Marcy spreads out the rest of her pieces, while Anne squints her eyes in anticipation. She signs in relief and surprise as nothing seems to have happened.
"Oh, looks like I'm not in the game. Well, you guys have fun, I guess-", though even as she speaks the floor beneath her lights up and she falls in. When she reappears on the big board, however, she finds herself not on Marcy's side, but as the opponent's figure.
"Wait, what?", Hop Pop exclaims.
"Anne, no!", Sprig calls out.
"Traitor!", Polly accuses her.
"No, that's good.", Anne says sounding optimistic, "I'll just play badly and sabotage the other team. Didn't think of that, did ya, temple? Ha! Let's sabotage this thing!", before Anne can do any damage, small force fields appear on her wrists, controlling her movement from now on. She groans at that. "Okay, I can't move."
The same thing now happens to the Plantars. Their movements are now controlled by the game board as well.
"Anne?", Sprig speaks up, "What's going on?"
"Our hands are tied, literally.", Hop Pop explains before all four of them try to fight it. Marcy speaks up.
"Don't worry, guys. I'll just play well enough so that none of you gets hurt. It'll be like hard mode!", she chuckles, clapping her hands, before she continues, "Fun."
Marcy leans over the board, planning her first move.
"Okay, white goes first, so it's our turn. Let's flip this wart!"
The match actually starts quite well for Marcy. Right at the beginning she has the opportunity to destroy some essential figures of the opponent, and that without exposing her friends to even a hint of danger. As time goes on, however, this becomes more and more difficult, as Marcy also loses more and more of her own pieces, partly as a sacrifice to protect her friends.
It doesn't take long before the playing field is filled with debris from destroyed game pieces on both sides, but her friends are also increasingly battered and distraught by all the violence. They are gradually running out of energy.
The game drags on for quite a while, though so far Marcy has actually managed to destroy all of the opponent's pieces, with the exception of Anne, a tower, and the wart.
"Gotta admit, this temple's good, but not good enough. Gotcha!", Marcy places her piece right in front of the opponent's wart, "We win!"
Marcy's figure sets to attack, but the opposing wart dodges it. But not only that, he begins to openly and directly taunt her. Cheeky grin, nasty laugh.... It knows exactly that it has cheated and celebrates itself. And Marcy needs a moment to come to terms with reality.
"Huh? WHAT? NO! Guys, this thing cheated!", she yells aghast.
And while Marcy is still thinking about it and what to do now, the temple makes Anne attack Hop Pop.
"HOP POP! WATCH OUT!", she yells as she lashes out with her massive lance. She fights it with all her might, but first ends up shattering his scepter before hitting him full force in the face. "AAH, I'M SOO SORRY", she screams and hits him again. And again.
"AH!", Sprig yells out watching all this, "MARCY! DO SOMETHING!"
Straining to think, Marcy leans on the smaller version of the board before sighing seemingly in defeat. But no. Rather, she made a decision.
"Don't worry guys. There's no reason to give up, because we still have our secret weapon.", she grins diabolically, all the while her eyes and hair slowly turn green, albeit a darker shade than normal. "Let's do this, temple! We can both play this game!"
The opposing Wart first looks up at her in fear before they stare at each other in determination. "It's on!"
What follows is a forty-five minute game of cat and mouse, with Marcy repeatedly trying to keep her friends away from Anne as well the other black pieces, and looking for as many opportunities as possible to attack the opposing Wart, who continues to evade their attacks each time. And while Marcy desperately tries to find a way out, the others notice how the green aura around Marcy is getting darker and darker.
"Marcy! You have to stop!", Anne finally calls out to her.
"Don't worry Anne, I can do this.", Marcy replies with confidence in her voice, even as she increasingly notices her physical strength dwindling.
"MARCY, WAIT! Look at me!", Anne yells up to her, and actually manages to get her attention, "Look around. Look at us, we're all messed up. And so are you, and you're desperately trying to delay something you cannot escape. And I know this because you saved me from the exact same fate when I lost control of my abilities after learning what Hop Pop had done.", Hop Pop gulps with guilt. Anne continues. "I beg you, please stop. We might not make it home then, so what?"
"But... But your parents...", Marcy stutters. With a heavy heart, Anne lowers her gaze to the floor.
"I miss them. A lot...", she admits, "But it's not worth it if the family I found here gets hurt because of it."
Open-mouthed, Marcy stares at Anne as she considers her words.
"Please-", Anne continues, "stop."
Marcy takes one deep breath, her powers leaving her body to disappear. Her legs give way under her body weight, and she holds onto the table with her arms with all her might.
"Screw this...", she mutters before raising her voice and waving her wart over, "I FORFEIT!"
Instead of making it all stop, however, Anne now lunges for another, and possibly final, blow against Hop Pop.
"No, no, no, no, no!", Anne yells in a panic, as Hop Pop begins to scream.
"It didn't work.", Marcy watches, "I might have to knock the big wart over as well."
Marcy jumps down onto the big board. The white wart turns to face her, and a loud alarm goes off. Two figures position themselves by the wart and target Marcy with their weapons. They fire lasers at her, and fortunately she is able to dodge quickly. She ducks behind Sprig, who blocks the laser beams fired at her with his shield.
"What the heck's going on?", he asks tensely.
"I'm trying to throw this game, but it won't let me!", Marcy declares, her hands protectively above her head as an idea strikes her, "I need your help."
"Help you? How?", he asks, just before Marcy lifts him up and throws him at the wart with his shield ahead, hurling him off his pedestal. The wart falls to the ground and shatters, and Marcy's legs have now finally run out of any strength. With a sense of shame, she sinks to the ground, all while all the other game pieces dissolve into sand, releasing Anne, Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop.
They all fall to the ground. Anne, who should probably be complaining about pain based on how far she has fallen, instead immediately runs to Marcy, who is sitting on the floor with her hands in front of her face, slightly crying.
"Marcy?", Anne kneels down next to her before the rest of the Plantars join her. "Marcy, I don't understand."
"Yeah-", Hop Pop agrees, "Why'd you throw the game?"
Marcy sniffles. "Because you were right, Anne. I was so obsessed with winning that I forgot everything else. I was so blinded, that I couldn't see what I almost lost... I care about your guys."
"Well, in your defense, the game definitely cheated.", Sprig says, giving Marcy a small smile.
"Yeah, I still think you're pretty smart. A little obsessive, though.", Polly also tries to cheer her up a little.
"And don't worry, Marcy. We care about you too.", Hop Pop states.
"Thank you, guys. Really, I mean it.", Marcy says again smiling a little more, but still with the feeling of defeat present.
The ground in front of them suddenly starts to glow green, and green arrows leading out of the chamber. Also, three huge green arrows appear on the wall, at the very entrance through which the group entered earlier.
"I got it, temple. I wasn't smart enough to win, but I can find the exit, okay?", Marcy is frustrated and tries to get up, but fails. "Um, Anne, could you help me? I think I've overexerted my powers a little too much."
"And... scoop."
With a smile on her face, Anne reaches for Marcy and now carries her in her arms.
The arrows lead back into the passage that seemed endless before, but this time less than a few minutes pass before the five of them find themselves outside again. They also somehow bypassed the two previous chambers.
"Huh?", Sprig hums, "That was a lot faster than before..."
"Be glad of it, boy. I'm way too exhausted to go all the way plus through the first two rooms. This shortcut works out just fine for me.", Hop Pop comments as the group descends the stairs outside.
On the bottom step, Anne sets Marcy down, and they all take a well-deserved break.
"Guess we won't be charging the stone today, huh?", Anne asks, feeling bad. But not for her, but rather for her girlfriend.
"No.", Marcy confirms disheartened, "And since I lost, I'm not allowed back in the temple. You guys will have to try it all again- without me."
"We'll manage, dude. Somehow.", Anne tries to cheer her up when Polly suddenly speaks up.
"Hey, guys.", she catches their attention a few meters in front of them, "The failure arrow wants us to keep going this way." Polly points to the green glowing arrows leading further away from the temple. Marcy, sighing, tries to get up, but struggles. Anne immediately jumps up to support her.
"Well, if we're gonna lose, might as well lose all the way.", Marcy says, and the group slowly starts moving again.
It becomes clear very quickly where the arrows lead, because the last of them points to an object that the five of them have already passed before.
"What? The outhouse?", Sprig questions, now totally confused.
"Anne, please help me open the door.", Marcy asks her. Anne nods and helping each other, they walk to the door, open it, and stand there in awe.
The inside of the outhouse is full of flashing green drawings, graphics, and text that make all of them gasp.
"No, it can't be...", Marcy mutters thoughtfully at first, before continuing more than excitedly, "Guys, this is where we load the stone."
"Huh?", everyone else asks in confusion.
"But we lost...", Hop Pop adds. Marcy carelessly tears herself away from Anne and is now kneeling in front of the hole in the ground, apparently ready to stick her hand in.
"I wouldn't recommend touching that.", Hop Pop contorts his face in disgust. Marcy touches the edge of the seat, seemingly setting off a mechanism. A pedestal rises out of the hole, and on the top is an opening perfectly sized for the gem. When the pedestal is fully extended, another text lights up on the wall behind it.
"Only the worthy will have the wisdom to choose whether it's more important to win, or have the humility to lose. A choice was made to save thy friends and, honestly, doesn't that make you a winner in the end?'", Marcy translates.
"That last bit was oddly casual.", Anne comments before Marcy continues.
"Of course! Why didn't I think of it sooner? The temple wasn't just testing for intelligence. It was also testing for humility!", she realizes. Polly, sitting on Sprig's cap speaks up.
"Well don't give the temple a chance to change it's mind. Charge that bad boy!", she ordersher . Marcy pulls out the gray gem from her fanny pack, and carefully places it in the opening on the top of the pedestal.
The gem glows a blinding green, and just a few seconds later, the gem is fully charged, and all text and graphics inside the outhouse have disappeared.
"We did it?", Anne asks Marcy.
"WE DID IT!", Marcy celebrates, and the others join in. This cheering doesn't last too long, as a slight shockwave escapes from the Gem, and an intense beam of green light leads out of the outhouse. Marcy immediately suspects why, as she picks up the gem again and briefly observes it.
"Guys, I think it's leading us to the next temple."
"Uh, that's good.", Anne comments. Marcy's knees buckle again, and Anne catches her once more. "Be careful, don't overexert yourself."
"Don't worry. I'm definitely going to need a break after today.", Marcy admits, "But I should also probably take it easy on my powers for a while. That really drained me earlier."
"Good idea.", Anne agrees, "What do you guys think? Should we go back home?"
"Yes, please.", all of them agree unanimously before they head back together to Joe Sparrow and fly back to Wartwood.
Later, somewhere back in Newtopia
"The prophecy is being undone as we speak, my Lord. The first gem is already fully charged.", Andrias speaks humbly as he kneels on the ground, his crown before him in his hands. "I had assured you that it won't be necessary to eliminate-"
"The humans still pose a threat to our plans. We expect you to eliminate this threat!... Your sympathies for these lower beings make you weak."
"They- they- they are useful. And as long as they don't know our plan-", Andrias gets interrupted.
"You've already stated your position more than once. We will not repeat our orders!", they sound displeased.
"I... I will personally see to it that they will not stand in our way. No one will suspect anything until it's too late.", Andrias speaks with determination and rises.
Notes:
Soo... Credits for the music go to 'Oh Geeez', for the instrumental version of their song 'Aftermath'.
So, what do you think? I always love to read your comments <3
Last but now least, I would like to draw your attention to a fanwork that has been written since the publishment of my last chapter:
'Krypton Joy Writes' has retold the story of 'A Lost Owl' in the form of a prophecy, and I think it's done pretty well. Feel free to give it a read: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14226467/1/A-Lost-Owl-The-Prophecy
Chapter 37: Next
Summary:
Anne, Marcy, Maddie, and the Plantars make their way to find the Second Temple
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Entry 80
People really need to stop saying that triangulation is soo difficult.
Pfft.
Seriously, all you need is two lines and a map. And maybe Joe. Joe has been a great help with just about everything.
(Did I ever mention how much I missed him?).
Well, yesterday while the others were recovering after the first temple, I grabbed Joe to find out where exactly the second temple was. During my research in Newtopia, only the location of the first temple came up, and until two days ago, when we loaded the gem, I was still afraid we'd have to search for the second temple completely blind.
But NO. The gem emitted a green beam of light that pointed directly to the next temple. HOW COOL IS THAT???
So I used a map of all of Amphibia to place the gem where Wartwood was, traced the line with a pencil, grabbed Joe, flew him a good twenty minutes away, landed, and repeated the whole thing. And now we're all on our way to Mount Mutu - a place far too cold for Amphibians to live on. Or even want to live on.
A completely barren landscape, entirely covered with snow. Let's hope the temple isn't buried beneath all that snow, considering the (presumably) thousands of years that have passed since the temples were built.
Well, never mind for now. Right now, we're all flying on Joe, and it should be an estimated twenty minutes before we're landing. Oh, by 'us' this time I don't just mean me, Anne, and the Plantars. This time we also have Maddie with us, and Polly's robot Frobo, which Joe is carrying in his claws.
You're doing great, Joe ❤️
The couch here is currently pretty cramped with all of us on it. Before we left, however, there was a little argument between Anne and Hop Pop because originally, she didn't want to come at all. She had argued with the lack of space on here, but Hop Pop merely insisted that she come along, and she immediately caved in.
And while I am very happy to spend time with her, I can't help but see the worry and even fear in her eyes.
She changed after the war broke out, and I am very worried about her. She is acting more and more withdrawn, and above all, increasingly fearful. Even more so since the first temple. She is more and more scared of making mistakes and hurting those she loves. She is afraid of her powers, and what they might do to her, or what they might make her do.
The night after the temple, I heard Anne talking in her sleep. She mumbled nothing but apologies and she cried. The day after, she also avoided the Plantars as much as possible. Literally. She was so afraid of hurting her family-
And I'm not even just talking about physical pain.
I know, for example, that Anne talked to Hop Pop only once about the incident with the music box, but kept quiet about it after that. She acted like everything was fine, while telling me that she was still upset with him. And now she's even too scared to even start a discussion about literally anything... Seeing her like this hurts my heart. I hope, this temple might end up better than the last one.
I'll continue later. We're about to land.
Marcy closes her journal, and stows it inside her winter coat, which she specially brought for this trip. It comes with some very large pockets inside. She left her trusty bag, which she would normally have brought with her, at home this time.
The others are similarly warmly wrapped: Sprig wears an olive-colored down jacket along with a long scarf, the end of which drags on the ground behind him whenever he walks. Polly sports an untucked, light blue hood from Marcy's coat, sewn shut so that she is warm all around. Anne is wearing her SJMS jacket and has a pink pom-pom hat on her head to go with it. Maddie, like Marcy, opted for a winter coat, but dark gray rather than beige. While still in Newtopia, Marcy handcrafted an oversized pom-pom hat and extra chest warmer for Joe. On the front, she sewed a pocket from an unused potato sack for Hop Pop, who can look down comfortably and safely on the snowy mountain landscape.
"Alright Joe, take us down, but slowly.", Marcy speaks to him, who chirps in affirmation. "And eyes up guys: 10 coppers for the first one to spot the temple.", she announces with clearly exaggerated excitement.
"Uhuhu-", Polly rubs her hands together in anticipation with a determined grin on her face, "That money is as good as mine."
Sprig jumps in on Marcy's bet as well, as Hop Pop suddenly screams from his Hop Pocket backwards against the airstream. "DID SOMEONE JUST SAY MONEY?". The others aren't able to hear him though.
"I prefer to keep reading, thank you very much.", Maddie calmly replies with her book on level three freezing curses in her hands.
"Sure.", Marcy replies vocally unchanged, at least until she turns and looks at her girlfriend, "And what about you- Anne?"
"Huh?", her head snaps up in surprise, "Oh, sorry. I was... lost in thought. What was your question?"
For longer than is probably appropriate, Marcy merely glances at her, trying as best she can to read from her face what's going on in her head right now. Unfortunately, mind reading isn't exactly one of her skills, so she ultimately just sighs and rests her head on Anne's shoulder.
"Doesn't matter.", she replies. Anne doesn't dig any further.
Leaning against each other, the two girls, or at least Marcy, are listening to Sprig and Polly try to be the first to discover the second temple as they all fly by things.
The group has been traveling for several hours now, and it hasn't been long since they crossed the border into the mountains of Amphibia's northeast. Currently they are gliding gently through light fog, past nearly untouched pine forests, snow-capped mountain peaks, and steep cliffs where goat-like creatures scramble up the rocky slopes.
"Is that the temple?", Sprig asks, wildly pointing at something.
"That is a tree.", Maddie, not looking up from her book, corrects him.
"Is that the temple?", Polly asks, pointing at something else.
"Those are Wooly Mantises.", Maddie answers again without looking up from her book after hearing a deep roar.
"Is that the temple?"
"That's a glacier."
"Is that-", Polly's question is interrupted as Marcy speaks up.
"Alright everyone. Prepare to land."
Joe gently glides between the many pines around him, until he stops with a few strong beats of his wings, releases Frobo from a low height from his claws, and starts to land between some snow-covered pines on a clearing.
What no one has seen previously, however, is the vast patch of ice that Joe has cleared of snow as he lands. When his first claw touches down on the ground, it's not surprising that he slips, loses his balance, and crashes into a huge pile of snow with all the occupants on top of him.
Marcy is the first to pop out of the snow pile, cheering with excitement.
"Welcome to the Amphibian Arctic, everyone!", she shouts as everyone else crawls out of the snow pile, one by one. Frobo comes tramping out around the frozen pond and lifts Joe, who is lying on his back in the snow, out and puts him right side up. He chirps in gratitude.
"You guys okay?", Anne asks anxiously as soon as she pokes her head out of the snow. "Is anyone hurt?"
"No."
"No."
"Nope"
"I'm alright."
"Nope, I'm- wait-", Polly replies as something hits her mind, and she becomes increasingly panicked. Anne's head immediately snaps to her, mirroring her panic. "My legs! I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!"
Anne impulsively wants to sprint off to her when a thought comes to her mind.
'Wait...', she stops and looks at her with a raised eyebrow, "Polly, you don't have legs."
At that very second, Polly bursts out laughing. Her whole body begins to quiver and even a few tears of laughter escape her eyes while her face takes on increasingly red features.
All this happens while the others, who have all overheard it, are growing more and more annoyed. Anne, on the other hand, is actually less annoyed, but rather feels like a total fool and even a bit ashamed for falling for it.
Everyone looks at Polly, some in annoyance, others in frustration. Hop Pop, who belongs more to the latter, turns to his granddaughter after a sigh filled with disappointment.
"That's really not nice, Polly.", he admonishes her. Her loud laugh flattens a bit as her brother speaks up as well.
"Yeah... Rude.", Sprig adds reproachfully. Polly, however, just shrugs it off.
"Tze, you just don't have any humor. Am I right, Anne?", she asks. Anne, however, immediately changes the subject.
"Aaanyway-", she begins, still with the sense of shame present, "We should go look for the temple. Um, Marcy, where do we need to go?"
"Sure, right... Give me a second.", Marcy replies, heading for Anne's backpack, in which she is rummaging for something. Meanwhile, Maddie turns to Anne.
"Um, Anne? I'm sorry if I'm butting into things here that are none of my business, but you never struck me as the kind of person who would just let something like that slide...", she says in a non-judgmental tone, which nevertheless makes Anne increasingly nervous.
"M-Marcy? Have you got it anytime soon?", she asks urgently.
Sure enough, just moments later, Marcy pulls out a purple little case decorated with burger and hot dog stickers from the backpack. She opens it and the fully charged green Gem shoots its green beam of light deep into an area shrouded by thick fog, not far ahead of them.
Sprig takes a big leap forward and points into the same direction with excitement.
"The temple is probably right beyond that.", he speaks excitedly, and all of them head off, following the beam of light. Well, all of them except Joe, who decided to have a bath in the snow, and Polly, who lets Frobo carry her, still proud of her prank.
With Marcy and Sprig excitedly in front, they lead the group through a section of forest with several pine trees standing very close to each other. Marcy, who quickly finds her way through the pines, has to move occasional pine branches, at head height, out of the way, which without exception bounce back each time right into Anne's face, who is walking directly behind her and Sprig.
"Ow.", Anne says softly to herself each time a branch hits her. Twelve times in total before the group has made it through the patch of woods, and emerges from the dense fog.
They find themselves again in front of a wide-open space, with a few isolated snow-covered pine trees, and a stone archway directly in front of them, on the top of which the green beam of light is fixed.
The beam of light cuts off as they approach, and blue glowing text appears. Marcy translates.
"'Just beyond these snowy gates, a grueling perilous temple awaits.'", she reads aloud.
"Ummmm... No it doesn't.", Polly comments as all of them look through the archway at a vast and empty snowy landscape.
"Uhh, there's no temple?! Too bad...", Anne speaks with relief, "Well then, let's head back to Wartwood!"
Anne turns around, but Hop Pop stands in her way, his face showing concern.
"Anne, you need all three gems so you can travel back to your world... Don't you miss your parents?", he asks.
"But-", Anne begins but is interrupted by Maddie.
"I'm very sure the temple is nearby. And even if it's invisible, I can make it visible with these babies here.", Maddie pulls out a couple of small gray pouches, which she casually tosses in the air one-handed before catching them again.
"That's the spirit!", Marcy cheers them on, "Come on guys, let's find that thing!"
Marcy runs ahead, into the white emptiness, and the others follow her. Everyone except Anne. She remains rooted to the spot, her eyes fixed on her friends.
'But... I don't want you to get hurt again.'
Anne doesn't have a very long time to agonize over this any further, because a chubby light-purple bird with short pink wings, not unfamiliar to her, flies very close past her face.
'Wait- That's-', Anne's stream of thought breaks off as the bird flies through the archway in the same direction her friends took off running. Without hesitation, she runs after it and quickly begins to make up distance between herself and her friends.
"Guys! GUYS!", Anne calls out to them from behind, and shortly after the bird flies past them as well, they notice and turn around to look at her. "Follow that bird!"
Marcy smiles slightly as she watches Anne run to-, and then past her. She quickly catches up to her again.
"You changed your mind?", she asks excitedly.
"My curiosity took over.", Anne explains, "I know that bird. It belongs to Valeriana."
"Valeriana?", Marcy asks as the group runs up a hill.
"Is that... someone... I should know?", Hop Pop asks between breaths. Maddie speaks up.
"That's one-armed Newt with the glove on her tail.", she explains, answering Marcy's question rather than Hop Pop's, "She was the one who explained to us what had happened to Luz."
"Oh... right.", Marcy recalls. "Guess I tried to forget that day...", she adds in a whisper.
They arrive at the top after the bird has already disappeared to the other side of the hill.
'Smoke?', Anne thinks to herself as she and the rest of the group, slightly exhausted, eventually reach the top of the hill and can see what's beyond.
A tent. Or a hut... A hent, perhaps? A tut?
It is an octagon-shaped structure supported by thick wooden planks driven into the ground at each corner, while the non-supporting outer walls look like tapestries. The structure is sporadically attached to the ground with thick ropes to the ground outside. The roof also appears to be made of an oversized, round, brown tarp, from which an olm-shaped chimney protrudes, where the smoke Anne had just noticed comes out.
The group is able to spot the bird flying inside the structure over an open counter.
"An antiques stand? Here?", Maddie remarks questioningly.
"Well, she did say last time that we'd see her again...", Sprig recounts.
"Can someone please tell me who you're all talking about???", Hop Pop demands to know. He is increasingly frustrated that everyone but him seems to know who the rest are talking about. Polly doesn't know either, but finding out isn't particularly important to her right now.
"The first time we met her was when Anne and I went to the Bizarre Bazaar to get some info about the music box. And then again when she followed us to the Source and told us what happened to Luz.", Sprig summarizes.
"That lady was creepy as heck-", Anne adds, "And I'm not sure if we should trust her..."
"I liked her.", Maddie comments cheerfully and somewhat excited, "She's possibly the most competent magic user in all of Amphibia."
"Yeah, you're right about that. She knows a lot...", Anne repeats dimly, "Even before she found us, she already knew we were there because of Luz. I need to know how she knew that and what else she knows!"
And with that, Anne lunges forward down the slightly steeper back side of the hill, smoothly sliding her way down on the snow.
After a moment's hesitation, the others follow suit. Sprig jumps after her first. Then Hop Pop, though a bit more cautiously. Maddie next, then Marcy, who, once at the bottom, is very thrilled that she was able to keep her balance. Polly, still being carried by Frobo, lets him jump down from the top of the hill, who flings not a small amount of snow at the others when he lands.
"POLLY!", Hop Pop, who has gotten quite a bit of snow, shouts angrily. "Don't you ever do that again!"
"Sorry Hop Pop-", Polly begins unapologetically, "but you lost all authority when Anne put you in the pocket of Marcy's bird back at home. Anne is the boss now."
Anne, who has been watching the whole thing, frowns at that, but lacks the courage to intervene.
"Guys!", Marcy calls out, catching their attention after she too has knocked some snow off her coat, "Can we please focus on this?"
Marcy didn't speak loudly or filled with annoyance like Hop Pop. Her voice is calm but firm, which is probably enough to trigger remorse in Polly.
"Sorry.", she repeats, though apparently not feigned this time. At that, Anne turns to Marcy to whisper something in her ear.
"Thank you.", she says, holding her.
"No problem. I mean, I know this isn't easy for you right now."
Suddenly they hear an expectant throat clearing.
"Guys-", it's Maddie, who hasn't bothered with the last Plantar skirmish, but instead has already moved on to the tent structure in front of them. She's standing next to a sign that reads 'Valeriana's Mysterious Goods' in gold lettering on a dark purple background, and is standing in front of an open, wooden display case containing some unique relics from all over Amphibia. With a nod of her head, Maddie draws the others' attention to the sign hanging above her.
"Out to lunch?", Anne reads, "Why is she always out to lunch?"
"Because it's the most important meal of the day!", a not unfamiliar voice calls out, though with no visible source. Moments later, Valeriana emerges from behind a wide tree with a skewered and still steaming beetle in her hand. "It's been a while... Do you by chance-", she tosses the stick where the beetle was before into the air, which in a single twist turns into the large wooden staff she had with her the last time they met, "-seek a temple to charge an ancient stone?"
She points her staff at Anne in a slightly threatening manner. Everyone else flinches slightly, while Anne herself stands quite disinterested. She rolls her eyes.
"But of course you knew the reason we were here, what a surprise..."
"HEY!", Valeriana counters, "No sarcasm!", and she hits Anne on the head with the top of her staff. "So... do you really think you're worthy?"
"But of course we're worthy!", Sprig announces bursting with confidence.
"Y-yes, of course we're are. Right, Anne?", Marcy nudges her with her elbow, "Anne?"
She nudges her again, however Anne does not respond. Her gaze, increasingly filled with shame, slowly sliding to the ground in front of her, and that while Valeriana, in turn, has not averted her gaze from Anne this whole time.
Suddenly, Hop Pop begins to clear his throat, which throws off Valeriana a bit.
"I don't think we've been formally introduced. My name is Hop Pop. Short for Hopediah.", he offers her a hand. She, on the other hand, seems rather disinterested as she offers him not her own hand, but her tail-glove.
"Uh, hi.", Valeriana says as Hop Pop shakes her tail.
"AND I AM POLLY!", she shouts at her at full volume for seemingly no reason. Valeriana visibly cringes, which she has obviously been trying to suppress, although after turning her gaze to Polly, noticing the massive robot carrying her. She needs a moment to collect herself.
"I-If you want my help to locate the Temple, please all enter my store.", the group makes their way to the entrance of the structure, before Valeriana adds, something. "Everyone except THAT one.", she points to Frobo.
"What?", Polly exclaims aghast.
"I don't know how you managed to get that thing on your side, but it will not enter my store under any circumstances!", Valeriana declares stone-faced. And while Polly, as well as Frobo, seem to be somewhat saddened by this, Anne has noticed something.
'She doesn't know?', Anne briefly glances over at her girlfriend hoping she's having similar thoughts right now, 'She knew about Luz, she knows for what reason we're looking for the temple, but she didn't know about Frobo?'
And after Polly has halfway accepted Valeriana's order after a while and has tearfully said goodbye to Frobo, Valeriana scurries all of them into her store, which is full of all kinds of stuff. On the floor there are several colorful carpets scattered overlapping each other, along the walls there are tables, shelves, and chests of drawers full of stuff, all of which look as if they would fall apart at the slightest movement, and all of this is illuminated by bright red colored spheres attached by ropes hanging from the ceiling.
Valeriana leads the six of them to a low table on a large round rug in front of an open fireplace, and they all sit down around it. She takes out a large scroll of paper and places it on the table in front of them, but not opening it yet.
"Before we begin, I think it appropriate to give you some information about what you intend to look for: I am the last remaining member of an ancient order dedicated to the study and protection of the sacred stones and temples.", Valeriana unrolls the paper scroll in front of them, and most of them gasp in anticipation.
"Anne, that's the box.", Hop Pop observes and nudges her.
The paper shows the open music box on the left side, as well as the three associated gems in a sketch above it. To the right of the box are three figures covered with long capes viewed from the side. And to the right are symbols and runes of a language so old, that even Marcy herself would not be able to translate them. At that, Maddie speaks up.
"Do you happen to have a copy of this I could have? I'm writing a book about the magic of the titan and how his magic created that of our world. The research I've done on the Source has uncovered some useful information, but if your Order has indeed been studying the gems and their magic for ages, it could answer so many unanswered questions-"
"Whoa whoa whoa...", Valeriana cuts her off, "I greatly appreciate your thirst for knowledge and willingness to learn, aspiring witch, but that's more of a conversation we should have at a later time."
"That, and studying one of the temples is the only reason I came along.", Maddie adds now slightly dejected.
"Speaking of the temple, do you know where it is?", Marcy asks.
"Indeed. And can I assume that you are currently in possession of the music box?", Valeriana asks back.
"Oh, umm...", Anne brings her backpack forward and pulls out the music box, "We surely do."
Marcy also takes the opportunity to put the green Gem, which she had previously stuffed into her coat pocket, back into its position on the box.
"After all these years, it has finally returned...", Valeriana looks at the box fondly, "I would very much like to hold it."
"Uhh...", Anne looks uncertain, "I'd rather hold on to it.", and puts the box back into her backpack and closes it again, hugging it close.
"Fine.", Valeriana stands up, heads to one of the countless closets and pulls out six dark brown coats, "To get to the temple we have to climb the frozen cliffs of Mount Mutu. Leave your flimsy jackets here and wear these caterpillar-wool coats instead.", Valeriana throws one of the coats to each of them. And while Sprig, Polly, Marcy, and Hop Pop all admire the fluffiness of the coats, Anne raises her hand.
"Is it really necessary for all of us to come?", immediately six pairs of questioning eyes look at her, "Wouldn't it be better if just you and I climbed up the mountain?"
This is immediately followed by a series of startled shouts from all her friends.
"What?", some ask in utter bewilderment.
"ANNE!", others shout in shock. Valeriana says nothing so far and watches for now, while Anne feels obliged to justify herself.
"Guys, I'm just trying to protect you.", she argues, "Climbing mountains is dangerous, and I don't want anything to happen to you like at the last temple."
"Anne-", Hop Pop speaks up, "I can only repeat what I have said dozens of times: We are here to support you. And we're all aware of the risks."
Anne looks around at the faces, all of which nod at her in agreement. At that, Valeriana speaks up.
"Then, when you're finished: I won't allow any of you to stay here. I don't want any of you going through my things.", she states, "And before we go, listen: The temple is my responsibility. Therefore, I expect all of you to do exactly what I say when I say it. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to ever finding the temple. Are we clear?"
"Clear!", everyone except Anne enthusiastically affirms.
"Yeah, sure.", Anne replies after a moment's hesitation, 'Damn.... Why do they have to feel so obligated to want to help me?'
"Okay everyone.", Valeriana announces, "Everyone get out of here. Follow me."
"Anne?", Sprig takes one of her hands in his and holds Anne back, while the others are already leaving the store.
"What's up buddy?", she asks.
"I know you're scared. But you're my family. And in this family, we take care of-, and protect each other. We want to protect you as much as you want to protect us. And with your crazy powers, I'm sure you'd do a better job than us if it ever comes to that. And if it helps, I can hold your hand the whole way.", he offers, which actually puts an honest smile on her face.
"Thanks Sprig. That would be great.", she says before they both follow the others out together.
Before the two of them have even stepped through the curtains back outside, however, they can already hear Polly once again arguing with Valeriana.
"If he can't come with us, I'm staying here, too!", Polly crosses her arms in a huff. Anne heads to her side, suspecting that she wants to take Frobo with her, which Valeriana has forbidden for whatever reason.
"Polly, I don't think Frobo is particularly suited to climbing a mountain. It would be much better if he went back to Joe and kept him company until we got back. Don't you think so?"
"But... But...", Polly looks back and forth between Anne, who looks sympathetic at her, Valeriana, who looks at her sternly, and Frobo, "Ugh, didn't think I would regret making you the leader.", Polly mutters before ordering Frobo to wait with Joe Sparrow, and all of them can finally get going.
Just a few minutes have passed in which the group has wandered past a few trees and over a few shallow hills, and they are already facing a steep, stony cliff that forms the foot of Mount Mutu. Dumbfounded, all of them look up.
"You want all of us to climb up there?", Anne asks, feeling slightly overwhelmed at the sight.
"That's easily a hundred- to two hundred meters...", Maddie estimates.
"Correct. And if you want to get to the temple, you climb!", Valeriana states in a demanding voice. At that, Sprig speaks up.
"Come on guys, the sooner we start, the sooner we'll get there.", he jumps against the wall and starts climbing. Polly jumps on the hood of his coat.
"Yeah.", she agrees with a triumphant tone.
"Hey, I didn't say 'Polly, jump on me, I'll carry you'..."
"I don't have legs yet. Someone has to carry me!", she argues, and that won the discussion for her.
Immediately following Sprig, Valeriana jumps onto the wall of rock herself, and her climbing technique very quickly proves to be extremely efficient, given even the fact that she only has one arm: Valeriana uses her staff, along with her extremely muscular tail to move up the rock face at breakneck speed.
The others on the ground stare after her in awe before venturing up the wall of rock as well.
"She's really strong for her age, don't you think?", Marcy asks Anne after about ten meters.
"How old do you think she is?"
"Not sure.", Marcy replies after a few seconds of thought, "Definitely older than Hop Pop. Maybe ten, twenty years older than him."
"Well, Hop Pop is almost seventy...", Anne recalls, "That would make her about ninety tops. Doesn't sound about right though..."
The climbing conversations die out rather quickly as it becomes apparent that it takes far more strength and concentration to climb a mountain than originally thought.
All of them climb for quite a while before they catch sight of Valeriana again, who is already waiting for them at the top of a ridge. Maddie has some lead, and Anne does not do badly either. For Valeriana, however, that doesn't seem to be good enough.
"Quickly, you three!", she calls down to them as Anne and Maddie have just arrived at the ridge immediately below her, trying to help Sprig, Marcy, and Hop Pop up over the edge. Maddie reaches for Sprig and Anne pulls Marcy up. "I'd like to reach the temple in this century. How could adventurers so lazy ever expect to conquer the temple?"
Anne growls at that and gives her a nasty look.
"Don't listen to her guys. We're almost there."
Suddenly, a shrill screech rings in everyone's ears, causing them all to flinch and scream in fear. Everyone but Marcy, who is surprisingly calm. Not far above them, a huge, red-feathered passerine bird with four eyes has appeared, holding its position right above the group with powerful strokes of its wings.
"Oh, relax everyone. It's just a cardinal. They don't eat frogs. She's just saying hello.", Marcy explains, which actually seems to calm the others down a bit. However, as she walks toward the bird, a nervous Maddie speaks up.
"Umm, Marcy, you probably shouldn't-"
Maddie can't finish her warning before the bird rams its open beak into the ground, taking Marcy high into the air in it. Panicked, Anne immediately jumps up.
"MARCY!", she gasps. She jumps up to her and yanks her out of the cardinal's beak, pulling her right back down to the ground. Unfortunately, the bird now turns its attention to Maddie and the Plantars.
"You said it doesn't eat frogs!", Anne shouts in panic.
"It's our coats!", Maddie shouts, Anne snaps her head toward her, "Cardinals eat caterpillars!"
"Got it!", Anne jumps up, about to rip her coat off her body, ready to throw it down the mountain.
"No Anne! We need the coats to stay warm!", Sprig shouts in panic as well.
"You need coats. I don't!", Anne shouts, "Now eat this you stupid bird!", and throws her coat down the mountain, which the bird immediately follows. "Let's get out of here!"
Anne frantically climbs further up to a safer level. The others swiftly follow her.
"You saved us, Anne.", Hop Pop declares filled with relief, somewhat exhausted, but nonetheless grateful. He is about to open his coat, "Here, take my coat."
"NO!", Anne stops him, already visibly freezing, "You frogs freeze to ice without protection. I'll be fine as long as we reach the temple soon."
"Oh, but it won't be soon!", Valeriana crushes her hopes, "It was more than stupid to abandon your coat just like that!"
"Well, I had to do something!", Anne tries to defend herself, which only earns her a punch to her stomach from Valeriana's staff.
"Impulsive and defensive. Very unworthy qualities I must say.", she shames her as she walks away. Anne groans at her as Marcy speaks up.
"Don't worry Anne-", she opens her coat and takes out one of her arms of the sleeves, "We can share mine."
"Thank you, Marbles.", Anne more than gratefully accepts her offer. The two girls now share a coat with one arm in each sleeve and the other around the other girl. "This is nice."
This 'nice' doesn't last long, though, because only moments later Valeriana turns to face the group again.
"Hey! No break! Get going!", she shouts impatiently, an annoyed grumble from the others follows. Except from Maddie. She doesn't mind, even if she doesn't say that out loud.
"We just climbed up a mountain, with no training or equipment at all, got attacked by a bird, and you want us to just keep going without rest?", Anne is clearly aggravated.
"You didn't climb a mountain, that was nothing but a small hill...", Valeriana reproaches them, "THAT's the mountain.", she points behind her to a mountain peak covered in clouds that still rises majestically high into the sky a few more kilometers away. "Come on, you lazy bunch!"
What follows is a twenty-minute march through snow and icy wind, which does not necessarily make their way any easier. Anne, Marcy, and the Plantars freeze their butts off while Maddie, full of excitement, interviews Valeriana, both of whom walk a small distance ahead of them, talking about her order and magic in general. Anne watches them.
"You know guys, I think I'm jealous of Maddie...", she announces.
"I thought you didn't trust Valeriana...", Sprig remarks.
"I don't. I know she has some higher goal, some hidden agenda. I wanna know what her deal is...", she tries to explain, "But that's not what I mean right now. I mean, look at the way those two are talking, and how she keeps picking on me instead..."
While Anne keeps ranting to her friends, she doesn't notice the old Newt and Maddie slowing down a bit, as Maddie is in the process of writing down notes. And before they know it, the group has made up for their distance to the two of them.
"It's really fortunate that the music box fell into such average hands.", Valeriana speaks up, and even though she's not looking at anyone in particular, everyone knows exactly who she's talking to, "How exactly did it come into your possession?"
Anne and Marcy exchange anxious glances until Marcy feels compelled to be the first to answer Valeriana's question.
"Uhh... Back on our world, I had read about the box in an old book, and later saw it in the window of a thrift store. I wanted to get it for her birthday...", Marcy explains.
"Such an object must have been really expensive, mustn't it?", Valeriana inquires, just before everyone hears a loud rumble from somewhere in front of them.
"What was that?", Polly who is carried by her brother asks, startled.
"Not much.", Valeriana answers calmly, "Just an avalanche."
"What?", everyone shouts out in concern as they feel the ground beneath their feet begin to vibrate slightly. Sprig breaks out in a panic.
"Everybody RUN!", he screams. Valeriana stops him, though.
"Shush, you little frog kid.", At that point they notice a snow avalanche has broken free from a steep hillside, and is heading in roughly their direction. "Looks like it's moving away from us."
"Guys, hold on a second. There!", Anne noticed something ahead of them, "What about that little igloo? It looks like there's someone in there. We have to save them!"
"How? By running towards an avalanche?", Valeriana asks sarcastically, "They're lost, kid. I say we press on."
Anne grumbles at that before turning to Marcy.
"Marbles, raise your force field in case the avalanche does get too close to you guys!"
"Anne, what are you going to- ANNE!", Marcy shouts as Anne is already running down the hill, towards the igloo with the smoking chimney.
She runs, her heart racing, and to her left she tries to ignore the masses of snow knocking down trees as if they were straws. She reaches the cabin and kicks in the door.
"HEY! You guys gotta get outta- Huh?", with a confused look she cuts herself off. Inside the igloo there are only two items: a burning fireplace, and a table made of solid ice with a wooden sign on top. The sign reads 'OUT TO LUNCH'. "How can it be that everyone is out to lunch right now???"
Rapidly Anne turns around, still hoping to escape the masses of snow, when all she hears is her friends shouting her name in panic, mere moments before the entryway and all the rest of the building is instantly covered in snow. Frozen in place, Anne stands in that room, terrified, watching the masses of snow rush past the entrance.
It feels like an eternity until the snow finally loses speed, and Anne realizes that she is buried under what could be meters of snow. To try not to panic, she takes a deep breath, attempting to look at her situation as rationally as possible.
'Okay Anne, it's all right... The igloo is still standing, I have enough air to breathe, and the fireplace is still working too, so I won't freeze to death...', just in that second, she hears a metallic creaking and snow enters the fireplace from above, immediately suffocating the fire. 'Great. I'm going to die in here... … Unless...'
At the same time, the others have been completely unable to help, witnessing Anne being submerged by the masses of snow. All of them are holding their breath, frozen in place, as they watch the igloo completely drowning in all that snow.
Marcy is close to a complete breakdown, but all the Plantars are also close to tears. And no one dares say anything until the masses of snow have almost come to a halt.
"Anne... no...", Marcy whispers before crumbling to the ground, devastated.
"We- we have to save her. Guys, start digging!", Sprig cries desperately with tears in his eyes. Valeriana, however, holds him back again, which he fights back against this time though.
"No!", Valeriana declares with unwavering determination, "As long as the snow hasn't come to a complete stop and consolidated a bit, it would merely drag all of you along. If she's fortunate, the igloo is stable and she’s alive. If not, which is more likely, you should bid her farewell now."
"Maddie-", Sprig speaks up, ignoring what the newt just said, "Is there anything you can do? Anything?"
He reaches for her hands and she catches the look of pure desperation in his eyes. Maddie already knows for a fact that her options are extremely limited.
"Um, mmm...", she sighs, "If I had my equipment here, and we were near Boiling Basin, I could brew an evaporation potion that would rapidly thaw the snow... I'm sorry, Sprig."
At that, Valeriana speaks up. "All we can do now, is to-", the ground starts vibrating again, even stronger than last time, "Huh?", she says, sounding more surprised than at the first time earlier.
"Another avalanche?", Maddie calls out.
"Guys! Look!", Polly shouts, pointing ahead.
Cracks begin to form in the snow, and a bright blue glow shines out of them. The group watches the cracks grow wider with anticipation, until suddenly a large blast throws volumes of snow into the air, and a glowing blue Anne climbs out of the following crater.
"ANNE!", Marcy and the Plantars rush forward with joy and relief, the tears of grief now being tears of joy, and they all throw themselves full force against Anne, causing all of them to fall to the ground.
"Anne, oh my frog, you're okay...", Marcy hugs her tightly, planting kisses all over her face. The Plantars follow suit.
"We thought the avalanche caught you.", Hop Pop admits.
"I- I'm fine, guys.", Anne tries to reassure them as she winds her powers back down, "But admittedly, without my powers, I don't think I would have gotten out of there so fast... Hm-", she chuckles briefly, "Kind of ironic that the powers I hate so much ended up saving my life..."
"Enough!", now Valeriana approaches them as well, visibly upset for some reason, "That had been a really stupid decision. And then you didn't even save anyone but yourself."
"Well, there wasn't anyone. There was no one to save in there...", Anne defends herself before taking a deep breath, "I just would want to hurry up right now and finally reach the temple."
"Oh, that won't be happening.", Valeriana declares, "I've learned everything I need to know about you lot: Disobedient, foolish, impulsive. None of these qualities are worthy of sacred stones. You don't deserve my help. Good luck finding the temple... on your own."
And with that said, she turns around and just walks away. And Anne is having none of it.
"You're so full of frog shit!", Anne shouts pissed off after her, causing not only Valeriana to stop in her tracks, Marcy, Maddie, and the Plantars are all gasping in shock. Hop Pop is even covering Polly's ears. "Oh come on, you barely gave us a chance! And not only that, you're just going to leave us stranded here?", Valeriana looks at her, with a look filled with contempt, as Anne continues, "Well, we may be unworthy, but you and your order are even worse! You are nothing but a cruel, judgmental SNOB!"
The last word echoes around in the emptiness of the landscape, and after a moment of tension, Valeriana rushed forward, threatening Anne with her staff.
"You dare insult the order I've dedicated my entire life to?"
"Yeah.", Anne slaps her staff away, "What are you going to do about it?"
In an instant, Valeriana grabs Anne's arm with her tail and twirls her staff once in a circle around the two of them, just before they both vanish into thin air.
Only moments later, Anne finds herself on a round, stone platform, a star-filled night sky above her, with colorful auroras stretching across it as far as her eye can see.
"Whoa...", Anne briefly marvels at the view until she turns and faces Valeriana who’s standing on the other side of the platform, "Where are we? What have you done? Just finally show me and my friends where the temple is."
"No way. You are not worthy. In fact, nobody is!", once again she points her staff at Anne, which she immediately slaps away from her, "And now that I have you alone, I can finally return the box to its rightful owner. Me!"
"Huh?", Anne wonders before noticing the zipper of her backpack unzipping, and Valeriana's bird, with the box in its claws, taking it to Valeriana. "What, NO! I need it to get a way back to Earth!"
"Aha! See? Still only thinking about yourself!"
Valeriana has the box in the crook end of her staff, and casually tosses it into the air. Before she can catch it again, however, a glowing, blue-haired Anne beats her to it.
"You're wrong. I'm not selfish!", she declares with conviction in her words.
"You're not? Didn't you lie to the Plantars to get out of a day's work?", Valeriana tries to snatch the box with her staff back from Anne. She dodges, but Valeriana continues her attacks. "Didn't you ride the family snail even though you were told not to?", Anne doesn't respond to that, but just continues to dodge every attack of hers. "Wasn't it you who started a war just because you lost control?"
At that, Anne leaps into the air and hovers a few meters above the platform, just out of Valeriana's reach.
"Say, what else do you know?", she challenges her.
"You almost killed your friend Sasha, and you stole the music box! Did you not?"
"I- I-", Anne's features soften, the anger leaving her face, and she slowly descends down towards the floor. "Yeah, you're right. About all of it.", she lets her powers fade away.
"So it is. You're a liar, a thief, a danger to everyone.", she accuses her as Anne is overcome with guilt, "And now the box will be mine!"
Valeriana runs toward Anne. Anne however steps aside, causing Valeriana to slip over the edge of the platform, holding herself up with her only arm. And she's laughing as Anne, who has picked up her staff and approaches her.
"Why are you laughing?", she asks with a serious yet confused expression on her face.
"You can't go back to the mountain without me. You have to save me.", Valeriana exclaims.
"I can literally fly.", Valeriana's features darken just before the ledge she was holding onto breaks off, causing her to fall down. Anne jumps after her, holding onto the ledge with nothing but her bare feet, and somehow manages to grab onto her hood with Valeriana's staff.
Anne struggles, but ultimately manages to pull herself, and Valeriana back up to safety. Anne breathes heavily and lays on the ground for a moment as they are both safe again.
"You risked your life to save me. Why?", Valeriana asks. Anne straightens up, but hesitates for a moment.
"You were right. I don't know how you knew all those things about me, but you were right...", Anne admits, "I lied, I stole, I put people in danger, I hurt my friends-", she hesitates for a moment, "I almost killed Sasha... I'm a terrible person. And you're right about me not being worthy. I made every single one of those decisions, and I'll own them. I always wanted to do the right thing, and I failed, as much as I tried, to be better than I was, to be there for the people close to me, and to face the consequences of my actions."
A brief moment of silence fills the void around them, and Valeriana stands up.
"We've been waiting for someone like you for a very long time."
Confused at the sudden change of tone, Anne turns around, and Valeriana makes a few slight hand motions, causing her staff and the box to magically fly to her. An extremely dense fog surrounds her, and only moments later she is no longer wearing her black robe with the beige armbands, but a completely white cloak with yellow markings. Likewise, the original red hourglass symbol on her black pendant is now bright blue. And Anne is left at a loss for words as she merely stares at her in disbelief for a few moments.
"Whoa... You cleaned up nice...", is the first thing that comes out of her mouth. Valeriana approaches her, but this time not in a threatening way.
"You sacrificed your warmth for your friends, your safety for a stranger in need, risked your life for an enemy, fought a war that wasn't yours; You always put others above yourself. But empathy alone is not enough, for what is heart without responsibility?"
She steps into the middle of the platform, and rams her staff into an opening in the floor.
"In the name of the Temple of Heart, I declare you... Worthy!"
Several lights begin to glow on the floor, representing various runes and drawings. In a greatly improved mood, Anne now runs toward Valeriana.
"Wait! No Way!", she exclaims, "The cardinal, the avalanche- all that was just-"
"A trial.", Valeriana finishes her sentence. "You see, we've been making our way through the 'temple' this whole time. And I've been testing you."
"But, you already knew so much about me the last time we met. For example, that we had been looking for Luz. How?"
"You and your friends have a destiny. The presence of the girl in this world has diverted the order of things from their intended paths - I had to intervene. She too has a destiny, but not in this world."
"How do you know that? What is my destiny?", Anne asks.
"Are answers the only thing you want?"
"Oh, right.", Anne recalls, "I'd like to recharge the get and return to the others."
"So be it."
Valeriana removes one of the two gray gems from the box, and places it in the middle of her staff's crook. It lights up brightly, just like the rest of her staff, and the gem gradually begins to charge. Slowly. Very slowly.
"Uhh, that's a lot slower than the first temple.", Anne observes.
"Sorry, this thing is already very old.", Valeriana explains.
"Ah... I get it. No problem.", she says, as she notices something around the middle of her staff. "Wait, is that... A gem embedded in your staff?? Is that why you have such cool magic powers?", Valeriana chuckles briefly before answering.
"Yes, it's a gem, but it's not mine.", Anne is confused, "And it's also not the source of my magical abilities. At the time the box was made, there were four gems. The music box was designed for three, for eventually there would be someone worthy of it. The fourth one was intended for someone else: A child."
"A child?", Anne inquires.
"Indeed. But to this day, it has not appeared."
"Do you know who it is? Or when it will show up here?"
"No.", Valeriana replies, "It has only been passed down that it is a 'Child of Three', and the gem itself would show when it arrives."
"And you're sure it's not me or one of my friends? Maybe one of us has two gems...", Anne surmises, causing Valeriana to briefly laugh out loud.
"No.", her laughter dies away as quickly as it had appeared, "So, your gem is fully charged. Here you go.", she puts the gem back into its socket in the box, and hands it to Anne.
"Thanks, dude.", Valeriana nods affirmatively, "Uhh, can you send me back?"
She retrieves her staff out of its holder and twirls it once around Anne, causing her to be sent back to the others. Where Anne had been standing before, though, now stands a slightly confused Maddie.
"Huh?", she mutters as she slowly looks around, and as she is taking in her new surroundings, her eyes eventually meet Valeriana's. "Where's Anne?"
"I just sent her back. She just charged the gem.", Valeriana tells her.
"So this is the temple?", Maddie asks.
"More or less."
"Let me guess, everything previously was for the sole purpose of testing Anne, wasn't it?", Valeriana nods, "I thought so. And why am I here now?"
"I should first introduce myself properly, aspiring young witch: I am Valeriana, the last surviving member of the Order of the Last Titan. Our task has been, since its founding many thousands of years ago, the study of magic on this world, and on many others. We have learned and revived the past and recovered lost knowledge. In my lifetime, I have traveled to many meaningful places, and continued this mission.", Maddie looks at her with anticipation and curiosity, "Even before our first meeting, I already knew about you. You too have traveled to significant and forgotten places and recovered lost knowledge-"
"The Source...", Maddie whispers, to which Valeriana nods in agreement.
"And I would like to offer myself to you as a mentor. Together-"
"YES.", Maddie cuts her off with excitement. Valeriana raises a hand.
"Please let me finish. Together we would study ancient and powerful magic, and travel the entire continent. What do you say?"
"Yes! I mean, I should ask my dad first-"
"Understandable."
"-but I would be honored to learn from you.", Maddie is visibly excited, but at the same time trying to hold back a bit.
"Then it is decided. Let's get back to the others so you can say goodbye."
When the two return to the others, they find Marcy already squatting on the ground with a map, a compass, and the blue gem, trying to determine the location of the last temple. The others stand around her, more or less watching her do it.
"Hey guys.", Maddie greets the others cheerfully, emerging from between some trees, Valeriana behind her.
"There you are.", Anne turns to her, "What happened?"
"Valeriana and I had been talking-", Valeriana nods in confirmation, "-and from now on, I'm her apprentice."
With a slight sense of embarrassment, she tries to suppress her joy, however, absolutely everyone can see how much she is beaming right now. And at that, Marcy listens up.
"Oh my frog Maddie, I'm soo happy for you.", Marcy crawls on her knees over to her and gives her a quick hug, "Admittedly, I'm a little jealous too."
At that, Maddie can't hide her grin anymore, and she bounces lightly on her toes.
"I'm soo excited, you have no idea.", Maddie tells her, "She's the most powerful magic user in all of Amphibia, and to be chosen by her as an apprentice is the greatest of honors."
"Maddie.", Marcy grabs her by her shoulders, "You're a witch apprentice!", she exclaims in joy for her friend, "That's soo cool. Listen, whenever we meet again, you really need to teach me some of what you've learned."
"Maybe then you can bring Luz too, once you get back from your world, then the three of us can study together.", her voice has taken on a slightly sentimental tone, "If she's there, I mean. I miss her."
"Me too.", Marcy admits before hugging Maddie again, "And I will miss you too. You are by far one of the most amazing people I've ever had the chance to meet."
"You too.", Maddie returns the compliment, and after the hug breaks up again and Marcy turns back to her map, Maddie turns to Anne and the Plantars. "I want to thank you guys. Thank you for your hospitality, and for the more than just a few rides."
"It was our pleasure.", Hop Pop replies warmly.
"Wait, so you're not coming back to Wartwood with us?", Sprig wonders, "What about your dad? And your sisters?"
Valeriana answers for her. "Her apprenticeship begins immediately. We have many places to go, and Wartwood will be one of them.", she explains.
"So this isn't a goodbye-goodbye, is it?", Anne asks, feeling genuinely sad, "We will see each other again, right?"
"Of course.", Maddie answers optimistically, "I just don't know when. It could be weeks, months, maybe years..."
And with that, Anne kneels down in front of her and takes her in her arms as well. The Plantars promptly join her in a warm group hug. And contrary to Maddie's expectations, it is less unpleasant than she thought.
"Take good care of yourself.", Anne says, breaking the embrace.
"You too. All of you."
And with that, they part ways for now. Before Maddie and Valeriana left together, however, Valeriana briskly whipped up the others' warm clothes that they left back at her store. Marcy finished the first part of the positioning of the last temple, and called Joe to her by birdcall, who already held Frobo in his claws.
And right now, the five of them are sitting comfortably on the couch on Joe's back. Well, actually they are only four sitting there, because Hop Pop insisted on being in his Hop Pocket. Marcy has an open map of Amphibia on her lap, and it almost triangulated the location of the last temple.
"So... The third temple is located in...", Marcy tries to build suspense, but stops all of a sudden, "That can't be."
"What is it, Marbles?", Anne, sitting next to her, asks.
"The gem is pointing right at the center of Death's Eye Mountain.", she explains, "That's an active volcano between Newtopia and the Blood Swamp."
The two girlfriends look at each other, slightly concerned, before Polly speaks up.
"Oh, it's just a volcano...", she speaks calmly, "What's the big deal?"
"You do know what a volcano is, right?"
"Not a clue.", Polly replies, which earns her amused snorts.
"But other than that, we do have another problem.", Marcy begins, earning her a questioning look from Anne, "The last temple is the Temple of Strength. Sasha's temple." Anne turns her gaze away from Marcy, and looks to the ground. She continues. "We need her, and you know it."
"I know, I know...", Anne assures her, "But we have no idea where she is right now. Captain Beatrix could have taken her and Grime literally everywhere..."
"Don't worry. As soon as we get back to Wartwood, I'll send her a messenger bird with the location of the temple and a meet-up point.", Marcy explains, "And until that happens, we do have some time."
"For what?"
"For whatever we want."
Later that evening, somewhere else:
"Previously, on Suspicion Island...
'Randy? Is that you?'
'Don't come near me, Annika!'
'But... But... our baby...'
'I'm sorry, but... I'm not the father. You are!'
'Noooooo!!!'"
"I still hate this show.", Sasha sits with her arms crossed leaning her back against the hard, wooden wall of her confinement carrier, while Grime looks entertained at her phone. "I should have never shown you this show."
The two of them have been squatting in a mobile cell for several days now, which was definitely not designed for beings larger than Newts, let alone humans. She and Grime sit crammed into less than four square meters, the only window to the outside is one with iron bars, with a total size barely bigger than Grime's hand, and in the floor, in one of the corners, there is a hole that serves as a toilet. In short, it's pure torture, and Sasha in particular is so put off by the very idea of using it, that it makes her sick to her stomach. Fortunately, in this case, Beatrix does not give them anything to eat either, so there is no reason to have to use the hole.
The first day after they were handed over to Captain Beatrix, Sasha and Grime spent it making fun of Beatrix and pissing her off. That, by the way, was also the reason she wouldn't give them any food, and if they hadn't stopped, she wouldn't have given them any water either. And while Toads can certainly go without food and water for up to more than a week, if they are well trained, both Grime and Sasha are aware of the fact that Sasha would not survive the long journey to the northern tower without water.
Since then, the two have been trying to distract themselves in some other way, which at some point gave Sasha the idea to check what she had on her phone. However, she was not originally aware that she had downloaded the first thirty-three seasons of 'Suspicion Island', but it turned out to be a good way to pass the time. And that's despite Sasha's nagging at the show's quality, or rather the lack of the same.
"Sasha, what is that?", Grime points to the center of her phone screen, where a alert notification has popped up. Sasha takes the phone from him. "Hey!"
"That means the battery is about to run out. Without a power supply, we'll have to start saving power.", Sasha decides and turns off the device.
"Fine.", Grime accepts the situation for now.
Both of them don't really have anything to say to each other right now. In general, they've barely talked to each other so far, and they both vehemently avoid the war in particular. The only noises right now are the rolling of wooden wheels over stony gravel roads, and the occasional hissing of Beatrix's Beetle that's pulling their cart.
"Say, why don't you get up and see where we are so far, huh?", Sasha suggests to him. He eyes her briefly before standing up and taking one good stretch. Something Sasha would like to be able do as well.
He stands in front of the window leading off to the back.
"Hmm... I think I can make out Quarrelers Pass to the south of us. I'd say we're approaching Saint's Lake. That's near Ribbitvale."
"Isn't that that town where only rich frogs live?", Sasha asks.
"Mostly frogs and newts.", he turns and sits back down against the wall, facing Sasha. "A disgusting place."
Sasha merely nods in affirmation, given that she has absolutely no idea about the place.
"Soo, umm... do you think Anne will stand by her word?", Sasha asks all of a sudden.
"What are you asking me? I have no idea. I barely know her...", Grime looks at her with a confused look, and Sasha leans her head thoughtfully against the wall behind her.
"That's just the thing, I don't know if I know her anymore either... I mean, she's done things she never would have done back home on Earth."
"Well, so have you.", Grime counters. At that, she straightens her head and looks at Grime reproachfully.
"But only because you forced me to!", she accuses him.
"My point is-", Grime dodges her accusation, "You both changed. Hell, even I changed. I mean, look at us: We're voluntarily squatting here in my sister's prisoner carriage, just waiting for your friends to tell us what to do. I mean, when did that happen, please?"
"Hmm.", Sasha snorts out her nose in amusement and begins to laugh loudly, "Good point."
"HEY!", Beatrix angrily pounds her fist on the top of the roof from the outside, "Shut the fuck up!"
Grime rolls his eyes in an annoyed manner, causing Sasha to chuckle up.
"Do you mind if I kill her when we leave?", Sasha asks him.
"You never had any siblings, have you?"
"Nope. Only child of parents who couldn't stand each other after they split up, and stopped caring about me as well after that."
"Ouch.", Grime comments, "So, no siblings, no parents... Speaking of complicated families..."
"You still haven't answered my question.", Sasha remarks. It doesn't take an empath to realize that she doesn't want to talk about her parents.
"Oh, you're serious?", Grime is a little caught off guard, "No. She may be an annoying slob, but I'd rather have her as a sister than none at all. ... But you're more than welcome to beat the crap out of her if you want."
"Deal.", she holds a hand out to him, which he accepts, before the both of them fall back into silence.
That silence doesn't last very long when suddenly they hear another knock from outside. However, it doesn't come from the front, where Beatrix steers the carriage, but from underneath the window. The two prisoners exchange confused glances. Grime turns around and looks out.
"There's nothing th- wait.", he tries to stick his arm through the bars, but fails. He turns back to her. "There's something hanging on the outside, but I can't reach it."
Sasha crawls forward and puts her arm, which fits easily between the iron bars, through and reaches for what feels like rolled up paper. She gets it in and sits back down across from Grime before rolling it up and starting to read.
Hey Sashy
Sasha gasps as she reads the first two words. A smile graces her face.
"It's from Marcy.", she explains.
I hope you are doing well. Or at least not bad. (I can't imagine Beatrix treating you well after what Anne told me about her).
Anyway, I'll get straight to the point:
We found the last temple, which happens to be yours. Most likely. The temple is located inside Death's Eye Mountain. It's about halfway between Newtopia and the Northern Tower, which is where the three of you are headed anyway.
Anne had suggested that we meet in 'Epi Tome' at noon two days from now. It's a tiny village at the foot of the mountain.
(Btw: The name is really pronounced Epi-tome, not Epitom-e. Weird, right?)
I'm really looking forward to seeing you again.
I miss you.
- Marcy
Sasha continues to smile to herself, before rolling up the paper again.
"So, what does she say?", Grime asks.
"Umm, say, is Death's Eye Mountain a thing to you?", she wonders, at which his face turns pale.
"Death's Eye Mountain is a volcano, hundreds of meters tall. And it's active.", he explains, "Only crazy people even venture near it."
"Good, because that's where we need to go. We have two days."
Grime merely stares at her for a few seconds before responding.
"You're crazy."
"So are you.", Sasha tells him. "So... Do you wanna get going?"
"I mean, yea, I could definitely go stretch my legs again...", he replies calmly. And with that now decided, Sasha leans back, and closes her eyes. She begins to breathe through her nose in a controlled manner. And as she channels the anger and resentment and hatred inside her, her breathing gets stronger, and louder.
"Oh Beatriix...", Grime dreamily calls out to her. She immediately smells trouble.
"What?", she replies, annoyed.
"Oh, you know, this ride so far is pretty tiresome. Would you mind opening the door for us and letting us out?", Grime asks in the same smarmy tone. And Beatrix starts laughing out loud.
"HA!", she cackles loudly, "Glad to hear you still have your sense of humor, little brother.", she continues laughing before her tone drops and she continues to speak in a rather dark and cold tone, " I very much hope that you are aware of the dire fate that is awaiting you. It has been quite a few years since the Council imposed a hunt as a punishment, but I will personally guarantee that the entire Toad Army will be out for your heads."
"Oh, that's a shame...", Grime responds with fake sorrow, ".... for you."
"Huh?", her confusion doesn't last long as she turns backwards, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of a sinister pink glow. Within a fraction of a second, the carriage breaks apart with such high force that she is hurled forward several meters from her seat, hitting the gravel floor face-first. Her Beetle flees equally shocked and frightened into the closest forest.
Slowly she straightens back up, her body aching, and in pain, she turns around. Wide-eyed in shock, she spots Sasha and Grime just standing there, completely calm, just where her carriage was just a few moments ago. Not only that, but Sasha's hair appears to be burning bright pink, and Grime has the most disgusting grin on his face that she's ever seen on him.
With heavy steps Sasha walks towards her, and with just a single movement she lifts her off the ground, forces her on her knees in front of her, and restrains her arms so tightly behind her back, feeling as if the slightest movement would break all her bones at once. She's paralyzed in fear.
"Well, well, Beatrix...", Grime walks up to her, and is now face to face with her. "What was that about there being a hunt on us?"
Captain Beatrix begins to stutter in an attempt to think of something to save herself. "I- I- I was just joking..."
"Yeah, sure.", Sasha tightens her grip on Beatrix's arms, "You know, from the moment you showed up at our tower, you played the big guy- and I hated you from the first time you opened your mouth. And honestly, I've been looking forward to this very moment ever since.", her voice is filled with cold determination and Beatrix feels the anxiety sweat forming on her forehead. Grime scowls, his grin widening.
"You know, Sasha and I have had more than enough time to figure out what to do with you. Sasha here, for example, would really love to kill you herself-", Beatrix swallows hard at that, just before Sasha presses one of her hands against Beatrix's neck. The immense pressure and heat coming off of her only increasing her fear for her own life. Sasha leans down, her head right next to her ear.
"Please, please give me a reason to rip your head off your body..."
"You- you can't do this. I'm a captain of the Toad Army, a member of the Toad Council-", she tries to argue, but an ever so slightly pressure against her neck from Sasha shuts her up.
"You're a nobody, dear sister.", he sneers, "But as I said, Sasha would love to see you dead, but I'm in a good mood right now. Therefore, I'm going to give you a choice: You can either endure Sasha ripping out every single one of your limbs, piece by piece, and let you slowly bleed to death, or you can try your luck as our prey. If you can elude us for a month, you get to keep your life... What do you say?"
With a lump in her throat, Captain Beatrix begins to nod frantically. Sasha releases her grip from her neck.
"I'll try my luck...", she gasps heavily. Sasha now lets go of her arm as well, and she falls forward onto all fours. But before she can recover, Sasha speaks up.
"Do you think we should give her a head start?", she asks Grime.
"That's a really great idea, Lieutenant.", he agrees, now kneeling in front of his sister. "We'll meet again."
"Wait, wha- whoa!", Beatrix exclaims as Sasha grabs her, holding her high over her head. And with a gut-wrenching scream, Sasha throws her in a high arc as far toward the horizon as she possibly can.
Now much more relaxed, Sasha lets her powers fade away again, and together, she and Grime observe Beatrix getting smaller and smaller, until at some point she disappears completely from their field of vision.
"That was fun.", Sasha admits. "And I may have unintentionally broken her arm."
"Meh.", Grime merely shrugs his shoulders, "She'll be fine."
"You really made her think we were going to hunt her. Truly convincing.", She compliments him.
"You should have seen the fear in her eyes, it was glorious."
"I bet.", she says, "Say, should we go try find shelter? I'd love to get some food and sleep."
"Sure. I might even have an idea already on where we can go..."
Notes:
Soo... What do you guys think about this chapter?
Chapter 38: Saying Goodbye is Never Easy
Notes:
It's just been 3 weeks, and I'm very proud of that.
I hope you enjoy the new chapter <3TW: Verbal Abuse
If you wanna skip those parts, just read until \&&&/ and continue from /&&&\
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"You know, this is definitely not what I had in mind when you told me that we were going to visit the place where you grew up at..."
"Disgusting, isn't it?"
"No, it's actually beautiful. And way nicer than the cave we hid in yesterday."
"Same thing."
Immediately after Sasha and Grime got rid of his sister, both of them had set out to find shelter for the night, and maybe even something good to eat.
They had made it to Stonygulch Lake after several hours of walking. Together they caught a few fish using spears they had quickly sharpened from tree branches, roasting them over a campfire they had set up in front of a small, dry, but moss-covered cave.
After a night's restful sleep, they packed up camp, covered their tracks, and set off toward Epi-Tome. They made it about three-quarters of the way until Grime suggested they take a slight detour.
This 'slight' detour ultimately consisted of marching through a lot of sand, past what looked like an abandoned Barbari-Ant colony, and a few small hills before they ultimately found themselves at a huge grain farm.
"Touch any of these plants and you die.", Grime warns Sasha as they enter a path in between all the plants.
"WHAT?", she exclaims terrified as Grime shuts her up.
"Keep. Your voice. Down!", he orders her quietly, to which she nods. "Every single one of these plants contains a poison that causes symptoms of poisoning even at the slightest touch, and very quickly leads to an agonizing death..."
"Why would anyone do such a thing?", Sasha asks disgustedly.
"Because she wants to be left alone at all costs."
"She? Who?"
"You will see soon..."
"Okay, let me recap: You and I are walking onto a farm owned by a woman who wants to be left alone so badly, that she grows plants that will kill you on contact?"
"Well, look at it this way: frogs and newts usually know that these plants contain deadly poison. Frogs from being farmers, and Newts because they're all nerds. For Toads, this area is too ugly to ever have a reason to enter. And the rest, like hostile creatures, or people who are just too stupid, just die."
Sasha doesn't know how to react appropriately to this information, and merely walks alongside Grime, though now particularly keen on not getting too close to the plants under any circumstances.
The path goes straight for about a hundred meters before a slight bend reveals a very cozy-looking cottage. A foundation of smooth white sandstone, softly transitioning into large, almost rectangular stones that form the outer walls, and a roof of compacted thatch with protruding wooden planks.
Next to the door, which is incongruous with the rest of the house and consists only of wooden boards held together with iron clips, is a window under which some wild flowers have been planted.
As they approach the door, Grime speaks up.
"Take a step to the side, don't stand right in front of the door!", he whispers. Sasha does as she's told when suddenly an axe bursts through the wooden door and hits the ground about eight meters away, stuck upright.
"WHO IS THERE?", a very rough, female voice comes from inside the house.
"It's me!", Grime yells back. Sasha gives him a confused look. For a moment, there is silence.
"Beatrix?", the voice asks.
"It's Grime."
"Who?", the voice asks, at which Grime sighs in annoyance.
"Grimothy.", he admits embarrassedly after some hesitation. The door suddenly flies out of its holders, landing a similar distance as the axe. Both Grime and Sasha look after it in surprise, when suddenly an old toad steps out of the house. An old toad with swamp green, leathery, and wart-covered skin. She has an eye patch covering one eye that is screwed directly onto her skull, while her other dull yellow eye appears to be intact. Her gray, knee-length hair is held together with a tied braid, as she's wearing a faded, reddish-brown leather jacket, what appears to be an old version of the Toad Army crest embroidered on it. She emerges from the house, with another oversized axe casually leaning over her shoulder, immediately turning to Grime, really not happy to see him.
"WHAT are you doing here?", she pulls her axe around, holding its head threateningly against his throat, almost hitting Sasha in the progress.
"Hey, watch it!", Sasha shouts. The old toad merely catches glimpses of her as she looks over her shoulder, before turning back to Grime.
"And what is THAT thing? Looks like a pale, deformed newt...", she's still threatening him with her axe. And Sasha tries her best not to be offended.
"This is Sasha, my second-in-command.", Grime explains, "She's from another world."
"Still looks like a damn newt to me... So, what are you doing here? Why did you leave your post?", she questions him in a very dismissive tone.
"The Toad Council has ordered us to check on you, since Beatrix is currently rather... occupied. They are concerned that you have not accepted the invitation to the anniversary celebration of King Andrias' reign.", she just scoffs at that.
"Just because I've done my service for almost seventy years doesn't mean I have to attend every frog-damned social event. I'm eighty-nine, and I left the Army for a reason. Why do you think I'm stuck in this disgusting shithole?", Sasha eyed this conversation with interest, "Feel free to tell the council that I'm fine, and they can take their invitations and shove them in their corrupt throats. ... You can leave now."
"You know, the council is really interested in wanting us to making sure you're okay. Why don't you let us stay the night, and you'll get rid of us first thing in the morning. What do you say, Mother?"
"MOTHER??", Sasha suddenly exclaims in total shock. The toad turns around with a smirk on her face.
"You don't have any idea who I am, do you, Newt?", she asks her, to which Sasha just shakes her head. "I am Zadarinth, winner over the Frog Rebellion of '48, Slayer of the Arena of Caecilian, former leader of the Frog Council-, and Captain of the North Tower. I was the first toad to ever circumnavigate Amphibia in a boat. I was the first toad to ever climb Amphibia's highest mountain, Mount Mutu, and also return to talk about it. And I was the first toad to defeat King Andrias in Flipwart. You can call me Zada."
Grime remains uncharacteristically silent, while Sasha is visibly impressed.
"Well, I'm honored...", Sasha bows slightly.
"So, mother, what do you say? May we spend the night here before returning back to the council to report?", Grime asks. His mother is silent for a moment while her gaze lingers on Sasha.
"I guess I would have a room available that I'm not currently using. Come on in."
Zadarinth walks past the two to retrieve her axe and the door, when Grime suddenly pulls Sasha down to him.
"Do not believe anything she tells you."
At that, Zada also comes back with her two axes in one arm, and the door under the other.
"What are you waiting for? Get in there!", she commands, "I had made soup before you showed up. Sit down, and I can tell you a few more stories about me."
\&&&/
Immediately behind the front door is a small joint cooking and dining area, which already looks hugely different from the exterior of the building. While everything is bright and surprisingly colorful outside, the walls inside are covered in the same way Sasha remembers from Toad Tower: Dark stone walls, dark wooden doors, and weapons lying around everywhere.
Zada sits down at a small table made of solid black oak, with two chairs standing by it, made of sawed-off tree trunks. On the table is a single bowl of soup. She invites Sasha to sit across from her, and orders Grime to do the dishes while Zada sits down, continuing to eat her soup, and beginning to tell Sasha stories about her life.
"Tell me, Newt, how old are you? Thirty? Forty?", Zada asks her.
"Wut?", she quietly asks herself, "I'm thirteen... And still not a newt."
"Whatever, Newt.", Sasha gives her death glares, but says nothing. After all, she is sitting across Grime's mother. "Thirteen it is, hmm... Well then, let me tell you the story of the Frog Rebellion of '48.", she eats a bit of her soup before continuing, "It was in the dead of winter. My whole unit was on a training exercise, when we heard that there was an uprising in Frog Valley. The unit consisted of five hundred Toads, and I was their leader. We had struggled all the way down into this cursed valley, where there is only one way in- and out.", Sasha suspiciously eyes Grime, who is still washing up. He seems as if he is deliberately ignoring her, but she herself continues to listen, "The frogs had somehow managed to overrun and loot the tower in the valley. We were outnumbered a hundred to one. We knew it was a good day to die, so we fought like there was no tomorrow... It was truly glorious."
"And how did end?", Sasha asks.
"Out of my five hundred soldiers, I was the only one who survived. I beheaded the last armed frog myself before the rest of them whimpered and surrendered to me." Suddenly, a glassy shattering sound is heard. Both Sasha and Zada turn their heads before Zada begins to scream.
"GRIMOTHY, YOU USELESS WASTE OF A BRAIN!", she yells at the top of her lungs, making even Sasha flinch. She throws her chair backwards and stomps towards Grime with heavy steps, "I LET YOU IN MY HOUSE, AND THIS IS HOW YOU THANK ME? BY DESTROYING MY STUFF?", Grime merely looks at her in silence, along with an almost bored look on his face. Sasha, on the other hand, holds her breath in shock, as the toad she looks up to is being put down like this, and she herself doesn't know what to do, but still is getting angrier at every single word out of the old toad’s mouth. "LOOK WHAT YOU DID HERE! BEA WOULD NEVER HAVE DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS, AND IT'S ONLY BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN SHEER STUPIDITY THAT I HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT NOW! ... BUT FIRST I WILL DEAL WITH YOU!", Zada cracks her fists and lunges to strike at her son, who continues to just stand there. Her fist almost hits him in the face when suddenly something grabs her, throwing her at once, straight across the room. She clutches at the floor and rips meter-long furrows in it before looking back up, noticing a reddish-pink burning Sasha.
"ENOUGH!", Sasha yells towards her, who has moved to stand in front of Grime, "I don't give a shit who you are, or what kind of tales you've made up about your past... No one, and I mean no one, attacks my commander!"
Zada grins at her as she picks up a sword from the ground.
"Oh, you'll regret this, Newt!"
"I. AM. NOT. A. NEWT!", she yells before Zada jumps up from the ground full force, aiming her sword directly at Sasha's head.
Mid-swing, Sasha grabs the blade with her bare hand. Stunned, Zada looks at her, trying to free herself from her grip.
"Impossible...", Zada is stunned.
"You know, it wasn't too long ago that another toad had similarly challenged me. You may know her. Her name is Beatrix-"
"Bea… WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DAUGHTER???", Zada screams, but this time not in anger, but in worry.
"She got what she deserved.", Sasha explains coldly, still holding the steel blade, "And you deserve this!"
Sasha tightens her fist, her fingers forming cracks in the steel of the sword, until it suddenly shatters into a thousand shards. Completely stunned, Zada, as well as Grime, though less so, watches as the individual splinters fall to the ground.
"Grime, we're leaving!", Sasha grabs Grime and drags him out of the house, where his mother is still crying after the sword. And Grime, now more talkative again, walks alongside the still furious Sasha.
/&&&\
"Huh, that went better than expected. If you keep this up, you're going to make my whole family your enemy-"
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?", Sasha yells. She realizes her mistake immediately and lets her powers fade away again, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell."
"Already forgiven."
"So, what was that? Why were you acting so weird? Why is your mother so... urgh.", Grime actually laughs at that.
"She's always been like that. I had learned at some point that she was beyond help.", he explains, "And in case you're wondering if any of what she told you was true: No. Well, almost."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she was part of a unit of five hundred, but she wasn't the leader of anything. It's also true that her unit was part of the Toads who lost their lives during the Rebellion of '48. She was also the only survivor because she ran away. She told the council that she defeated the rebellion, which is why they gave her command of the North Tower. About twenty years ago, another survivor came up and told the council the truth. For her cowardice, the Council sent the Toad Army after her, but she went into hiding, right here. If she would ever set foot in Toad territory again, she would be executed immediately."
"But you know her hideout?!"
"As I said earlier, I grew up here. Mother never had any friends, never left this place- it makes sense that she hid here."
"And you never told anyone?"
"I never bothered to care about her...", he tells her, "I've known from Beatrix for a few years that she was hiding here, but I myself haven't seen her since I joined the Toad Army in my youth."
"Wait a second...", Sasha stops both herself and Grime, "So you only took this 'detour' so that I could meet your mother, so that I feel obliged tell you about my parents afterwards, didn't you? It was never about us being able to get rest there, was it?"
Grime hesitates briefly, "Umm... Yes, fine, alright. You got me."
"If I do tell you about my parents, will you stop bugging me then?"
"But of course."
"Ughh... Fine.", Sasha grunts before taking one deep breath, "About ten years before I was born, my parents founded a company: 'Waybright and Waldschmidt', or WWS for short. It was a finance company. My father had taken care of business transactions and generally more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, while my mother was the face of the company. At the time of my birth, WWS had twenty-seven locations in seventeen countries worldwide. Back then, it was one of the fifty richest companies in the world, and even managed to hold that for a long time. In short: I had a good start in life. My parents were always working, but still had time to take me everywhere when they traveled somewhere. Until I was about four or five, everything was great, generally speaking.", but at that, Sasha sighs, "Around that time, however, my parents found out that they were both cheating on each other. What followed were months of fighting and yelling at home. While they were getting divorced, and getting legal advice from their divorce lawyers, there was some sort of marital war going on between them, and they were trying to take each other out as hard as they could, with no regard for anything. Including me. They had fought about how to divide their assets, they had tried to manipulate each other out of their company, and as an result, they completely forgot about me."
"You can remember back that far?", Grime wonders.
"It's part of my earliest memories. Of course, I didn't know the details of what it was about at the time. I only found out several years later."
"What happened next?"
"Well, it was a nasty and hateful divorce. The company was forced to split up, and both of them lost a lot of money. And from that point on, they had their minds set on getting their money back, while I myself was only ever number two or even three on their priority-list. My father remarried a few years ago, and I have lived with him continuously since the divorce. And while he had never told me himself, I do know I was never an issue in the divorce talks... I know that my mother is currently dating a guy who has children of his own. I only met them once though on the funeral of my grandpa, my mom's father."
"And how is your relationship with them today?", Grime asks, "Your parents I mean. Do you think they miss you?"
"Doubt it.", she replies coldly, "Admittedly, I don't even think they noticed I'm gone. As I said, they stopped caring about me after their divorce. They did the bare minimum: They provided food, housing, they enrolled me in schools... If I wanted to go somewhere, their chauffeurs drove me. If I wanted to go on vacation, they paid for it, but never came with me because they were always working..."
"To be honest, it does sound to me like you had it pretty good.", Grime comments, "While they may not have been there for you emotionally or physically, you didn't lack for anything else, did you?"
"You sound just like my child therapist from back then right now.", Sasha comments, "But yeah, guess you're not necessarily wrong about that. And especially when- … when Marcy and- … and Anne came into my life... Well, I was doing okay...", she sniffs, "Is that all you wanted to know?"
"You don't have to continue. It's getting late. Let's find a place to sleep."
It was already dark, the red moon already far up in the sky, and eventually they were both too tired to search any longer, so they hid somewhere away in a small forest to sleep for a few hours.
When they woke up later, reasonably rested, they went straight back on their way towards Epi-Tome.
The way there not only was extremely uneventful, but also quite boring. The only somewhat interesting thing was the backdrop, which consisted of Newtopia to their left near the horizon, and Death's Eye Mountain to their immediate right, billowing smoke from its maw.
It is around noon when both of them gradually approach the outer limits of Epi-Tome. The town, or rather village, consists only of a few dilapidated-looking huts, surrounded in all directions by nothing but red sand. The two of them approach a sign.
EPI-TOME
Population:
360
- It's not pronounced the way you think it is -
"A ghost town... Great.", Sasha comments, observing the sign, Grime standing next to her.
"We should be cautious in case whatever ruined this village like this is still around.", Grime tries to warn her, though Sasha shrugs it off.
"Well, since someone was probably here before to work on this sign, it probably doesn't seem too bad.", Sasha notes, "Also, I think the people here just left because there's just sand here. And nothing else."
"Just... keep your eyes open.", Grime proposes.
At that, both of them leave the sign behind, and enter the ruined village. Sasha is rather calm about it, while Grime permanently peers around over his shoulder, somewhat tense the whole time.
"Stop that!", Sasha calls out to him in a whisper, "You're going to drive me crazy with that..."
Sasha, however, quickly feels compelled to retract her last statement as they both suddenly hear various unidentifiable voices voicing from an indiscernible source. Both of them have a very strong suspicion about who it could be, but since they are both unarmed, they can't afford to be uncertain at the moment.
They brace themselves against the nearest wall of the house, sneaking along to the next corner. When Sasha looks around the corner and still cannot see anyone, they both sprint forward to the next house, and continue to approach the voices, which are still unintelligible. However, she has been able to make out a total of five different voices so far.
They continue to inch their way along the wall until they come to a half-shattered door. Sasha looks through it and finds that a large part of the opposite wall has also been destroyed, allowing a view of a plaza beyond. She enters the house, indicating to Grime to follow her.
Grime follows her crouching and crawling into the building, and they both squat crouched in front of a gap over the half wall. Sasha listens to two voices talking.
"Oh, come ooonn... We've only been here twenty minutes-"
"Right. Twenty minutes with no sign of them."
"Give them a little more time... I had written that they should meet us here at noon. And- and we don't even know how far they have to travel... I mean, we have Joe, and they... don't."
"Marcy, I'm not going to wait all day for Sasha to show up."
At that, Sasha stands up, immediately catching the attention of both Anne and Marcy.
"Hi Anne.", Sasha waves at Anne in an almost shy gesture, who is wearing part of the armor she saw her last time in, who in turn just stares at her. Marcy, on the other hand, is beaming with such joy that it's almost blinding as she runs towards Sasha with her arms wide open.
"SSAAAAASSSSHHHAAAAA!", she shouts running, just before she manages to hit her boot on a stone sticking out of the ground, falling right down. Fortunately, she gets back up immediately. "I'm okay."
Sasha climbs over half the wall of the house, at which point Grime also reveals himself, and runs to Marcy, but stops short of her. Without hesitation, Marcy pulls Sasha up into a tight hug.
"I missed you soo, so, so much... I'm soo sorry Beatrix had to take you away- I should have never allowed it-"
"Marc- Ma- Marcy.", Sasha breaks the hug, trying to get her to stop apologizing and instead listen to her, as she's holding her by her shoulders. "Marcy, you really don't need to apologize, it's alright."
"But-"
"And I'm really glad to see you too.", Sasha hugs Marcy again before turning to Anne, who is keeping a rather low profile. The two girls face each other wordlessly.
"How much did you overhear?", Anne asks at one point as Marcy weirdly observes her two friends.
"Twenty minutes.", Sasha repeats what she had heard. The expression on Anne's face remains unchanged.
"Alright.", Anne says before taking a deep breath, "This is how it's going to go now: On the way to- and also inside the temple, you will not approach the Plantars under any circumstances. Do you understand? Two meters distance minimum!"
"Got it.", Grime replies.
"Sure.", Sasha so agrees.
"Second: We'll just do this temple, and then we'll fly back to Wartwood. Nothing more.", Anne adds, at which Sasha, Marcy, and Grime look at each other questioningly.
"With... us, right?", Sasha asks hesitantly. Anne doesn't answer that directly.
"Let's get going.", she says, turning around, and walking away. After that, Sasha turns to Marcy.
"She must really hate me..."
"No, she doesn't hate you. She just... umm...", Marcy trails off, unable to find the right words.
"... hates me?", Sasha continues Marcy's sentence, at which she just shakes her head in response.
"Anne hasn't really been well since... well, I'd almost say since Luz disappeared-"
"Luz?", Sasha ponders for a moment, "Oh, yeah, right... the other girl. I barely met her. What happened?"
"Umm... I think she got possessed by some kind of ghost-wolf while we were in Newtopia, and it kinda sent her into another world.", Marcy explains, whereupon Sasha contorts her face at the idea of being possessed by something.
"Well, anyway-", she continues, "I'm quite sure she started blaming herself for that. Or more accurately, not just because of that, but also because of what she did to you after that dinner back then. I mean, she-"
"You don't need to remind me.", Sasha cuts her off, at which Marcy nods at her, acknowledging.
"My point is, she's been blaming herself for everything she's done ever since. Your injuries, the war... She's afraid of hurting the people she loves, even when she doesn't mean to. She's been a little better since the last temple, but she's still scared."
"That still doesn't explain why she's so hostile towards you, Sasha.", Grime interjects.
"I think, I can already imagine...", Sasha counters in a soft voice, "I mean, as much as she's hurt me, I've hurt her, and the people she cares about. She has every reason not to trust me."
"I really hope that you two can get along again someday, and the three of us can be friends again...", Marcy says wishfully, "She needs you, even if she won't admit it. She needs all the support she can get. And I think you do too."
"Wha-"
"SASHA!", Sasha's question is interrupted by a loud scream from Anne, which actually caused her to flinch, "Hurry up!"
The three of them immediately take their legs in their hands and hurry to the open plaza, where Anne, the Plantars, Marcy's bird, and a big robot are already waiting for them.
"Whoa...", Sasha comments in surprise when she sees the robot with the youngest frog perched on its shoulder. She notices this, turning herself and the robot around, facing her and Grime.
"That's right. I have my own robot. If you make even one single wrong move, Frobo will tear you apart!"
And if that threat itself isn't reason enough to be cautious, the robot lifts a large rock from the ground, and squeezes it between his massive, metal hands, leaving only dust falling back down. The other young frog stands next to Anne, who like herself, has his arms crossed, and the oldest one hides ever so slightly behind Anne's legs.
"Alright.", Grime speaks up, clapping his hands, getting everybody’s attention, "Where exactly do we actually have to go for this... temple?"
"Oh, yeah, right.", Marcy heads to Anne's backpack, pulling out the music box. She pushes a few buttons, and the blue, charged gem, emerges. Marcy removes it from its holder, and an equally blue focused beam of light points toward the base of the volcano. "That way."
"Death's Eye Mountain, you're as good as ours!", the youngest frog celebrates herself, already running ahead on Frobo. The other two frogs, Marcy, and her bird as well. After another warning look, Anne follows them, and Sasha and Grime trail behind by a bit.
"Say, why are we helping them again?", Grime asks Sasha in a whisper.
A twenty-minute walk takes them out of the ruins of Epi-Tome, through another sandy area that gradually gives way to rocky ground, toward the base of the volcano, where the beam of light has led them.
On what appears to be a gate-shaped cliff face, pink drawings of pillars have appeared, along with text in Amphibian Runes. Sasha and Grime are among the last to catch up.
"Okay... What does it say?", Grime wonders, breathing heavily.
"Whoa man...", Anne speaks up, "You good? I thought you army guys were all in top shape..."
"In my defense: It's been a while since I've been exercising.", he says.
"Or had some real food.", Sasha adds.
"Oh oh oh.", Marcy speaks up and returns to Anne's backpack. "I figured you guys would be a quite under-supplied... so I brought you a little something. Tadaa!", After a short rummage, she pulls out a small can containing two sandwiches, which she hands to the two of them.
"Oh Marcy, you are a lifesaver.", Sasha takes a hearty bite out of the apparently more than delicious sandwich, and Marcy is only too happy to accept the praise.
"When did you make those?", Anne questions her. Not so much as an accusation, though, but more out of honest curiosity mixed with mild disapproval.
"Last night.", Marcy explains, "I was too excited and couldn't sleep... I made something for everyone, and I also packed water for everyone."
"Oh, so that's why my backpack is heavier than usual..."
"Well... back to topic...", Grime speaks between bites, "What does the runes say?"
Marcy takes out her notebook, and looks back and forth between the runes on the rock wall and the notes in her notebook with a questioning expression.
"Well, this can't be right... 'Lift to enter, brah?'", she translates.
The whole group exchanges questioning glances, and as Sasha was about to volunteer, the robot steps forward, lifting the massive rock like it's nothing.
"Wow."
"Way to go, Frobo.", the oldest frog praises him. At that, Anne steps forward.
"Alright guys, let's crush this temple!", she shouts enthusiastically, and everyone runs into the temple. Well, almost everyone. Marcy's bird has lain down and is taking a nap, and Sasha and Grime are still looking in amazement at the robot, who has been ordered to watch the bird.
"Seriously now: Why are we helping them?", Grime asks again before he and Sasha make their way into the mountain entrance as well.
As soon as they step into the rather dark corridor, a wall of heat blows past them, the air around them instantly rising by at least fifteen degrees.
"Yup.", Grime begins, immediately beginning to dry up, "We're definitely entering a volcano."
Sasha merely rolls her eyes at his remark, as she also already notices herself beginning to sweat.
Both of them are in no particular hurry to catch up to the others who are somewhere ahead of them. Eventually, however, they arrive at a large chamber with nothing but molten, bubbling lava covering the floor, and a narrow rock trail running through the middle of the chamber. On all sides, lava falls are pouring even more of that molten rock into the chamber.
Speaking of rocks, both on the ceiling and occasionally peeking out from the lava, are knife-edged rocks, while the walls look as if they have already completely melted once, before hardening again sometime since.
Opposite the exit from which Sasha and Grime emerge is an eighteen-meter-tall statue depicting an overweight, squatting Toad, between whose legs is another door, already opened. Immediately in front of the Toad statue, are two extremely muscular Newt statues, about half the size of the Toad, made of glowing crimson stone, both of which have assumed very athletic poses. And a little further to the right and left of them, stands another statue each, this time of muscular toads, towering high up to the cave ceiling, seeming to hold it aloft.
"Wow...", Sasha marvels at the statues in awe, "Didn't know toads and newts could get so muscular."
"They can't.", Grime counters, at which Sasha turns to him and, only to find him completely dehydrated. His skin is no longer swamp green, but paler by several shades, his neck has lost nearly a third of its girth, and his arms are no longer as thick as tree limbs, but only as thick as twigs.
"Holy shit.", she comments on his appearance. He himself, however, doesn't want to know about it.
"Let's just keep going, okay?"
The two of them make their way down the narrow rocky path, with waves of heat coming at them from the lava on either side. As they approach the door, already looking forward to the minimal cooling inside, they hear a deep, bloodcurdling roar, followed by screams that can only come from Anne, Marcy, and the frogs.
Without hesitation, Sasha starts running as worry and panic are flooding into her mind. With giant leaps, she runs as fast as she can while internally going over her options.
'Okay... Weapons? None. Situation? Don't know... Ugh, fuck it'
Sasha activates her powers at the exact second she enters the chamber, where Anne, Marcy, and the Plantars are on the rocky path and surrounded by lava on both sides, encircled by two lava worms, ready to tear them to pieces.
Acting completely without a plan and totally on instinct, Sasha runs out of the tunnel, missing the ledge that leads down to the bubbling lava and falling barely a meter downwards.
"SASHA!", Anne screams in panic, "Huh?"
Sasha lands on the lava, and just keeps running, not realizing that her metal boots are blazing, and her pants have already fallen to the flames up to her knees. With a powerful leap, she pushes herself off the lava, and with the most powerful shoulder thrust since Hercules, she hits the first worm, which instantly darts once across the whole chamber, crushing its skull on impact.
The others stand with mouths wide open as Sasha lands back on the lava, now focusing on the second worm.
She forcefully pushes herself off the lava again, jumping off the middle path, grabbing the worm with both arms, and in one fluid motion, she yanks the worm completely over her head and out of the lava, slamming it into one of the pointy rocks peeking out of the lava, before jumping off the now impaled worm, and with a backflip, landing back on the middle path.
"GO GO GO!", Sasha rushes the others as she herself runs again into the tunnel where she just came from, grabbing Grime, and only now with him on her shoulders follows the others into the next tunnel. She’s just now finally able to take a breath.
"Um, Sasha...", the younger frog-boy begins, "your pants are on fire."
Hastily, Sasha bends down and knocks out the fires, but not before practically ripping her metal boots off her feet, as they too are not only glowing, but almost melting around her feet.
"EEK!", she shrieks through gritted teeth as she slaps the melted remains of her boots against the wall, and they slowly slide towards the floor. Only now does she let her powers fade away again, and Marcy begins to scream.
"SASHA! That was soo cool!", she yells in amazement and excitement, "I had no idea you were lava-proof..."
"Yeah, me neither..."
And that's where the frogs all began to thank Sasha profusely. Even the oldest one surprisingly reached out to her after some hesitation, staying more than a sufficient distance away.
And then there was Anne. One can see that Anne has quite conflicting feelings for Sasha right now. On the one hand, there is most likely her dislike of Sasha, and on the other the proof that she is actually capable of helping people. Even those she previously considered enemies. Quite visibly, her mind tries to fit these two facts in.
"Sasha...", Anne speaks up, but doesn't look at her as she speaks, after Sasha looks at her expectantly for a while, "T-Thank you. F-For saving them... For saving us, I mean.", A soft smile spreads on Sasha's face. "I... don't have any spare shoes with me, otherwise I would give them to you..."
Sasha's gaze wanders past Anne to the one shoe she's wearing, before looking at her again with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, don't mention it.", Anne merely says, "Come on. Let's keep moving."
This time, though, it's not Anne and the frogs leading the way, but Sasha, Grime, and Marcy, with the others behind them. Sasha keeps hearing the others whispering about something, but she chooses to ignore it.
A stone door automatically slides open to reveal the next chamber as they approach it, which is surprisingly a lot smaller than the previous one, but also completely free of any lava. In the chamber itself, there are only three other things besides the entrance: the exit, on which an image of one of the Gems has been engraved in, surrounded by eight amphibian runes. A pedestal over which a long barbell has been placed. And something that looks like an empty, stone, picture frame.
"'Strength'...", Marcy reads the runes on the door. Immediately after, more runes begin to light up on the stony frame. Marcy continues to read aloud. "'Sup, bro'seph. Do you even lift?'"
"It's not even trying anymore...", Anne comments dismissively.
"The whole thing looks pretty obvious to me. Don't worry, I'll take care of it-", Sasha explains, but before she can move to the barbell, Anne stops her.
"Wait. Marcy and I have done these temples before, and there's always some catch. Let's search the room first before we try anything.", Anne suggests, at which Sasha eyes her for a few moments.
"It all seems pretty upfront to me so far... But sure, if you want to search the room first, I won't stop you."
"Thanks.", Anne replies, "Come on guys..."
Sasha and Grime relax and lean their backs against one of the walls, while the others are all completely meticulous about turning over every single stone, trying to figure out if the text in the frame is some kind of riddle, and the frog boy licks the barbell weights. The two of them wait for about five minutes, until Sasha decides for herself that they have waited long enough. While the others are not paying attention, she lies down on the pedestal, and with ease she pushes the barbell off the handle, and the door opens. The others notice this immediately.
"Sasha?", Anne is about to scold her for not waiting, when Sasha beat her to it.
"Oh, come on Anne, you know as well as I do that you wouldn't have found anything.", she says, "Now, come on, nerds.", and sprints out of the chamber.
"By 'nerds', she means you guys.", Grime clarifies without being asked. Ignoring him, the oldest frog speaks up.
"You've got to admit Anne, she's not wrong."
"Urgh, now you're too stabbing me in the ba- … Never mind. Let's just follow her."
As the group steps through the massive double doors of the third and final chamber, with Grime as the last to enter, the massive doors are slammed shut just behind him.
Startled, everyone turns toward the door as pink glowing runes suddenly appear on it. Marcy translates again.
"'You've definitely got skill, no doubt. But it's time you learn what strength is all about.'"
As soon as Marcy finishes reading aloud, the floor beneath their feet begins to shake, and from a notch in the chamber ceiling, a seventeen-meter-tall golem, wearing nothing but a stretchy black bodysuit, drops down and is flexing its muscles very hard right now, before challenging the group to a fight.
"Stay back everyone!", Sasha bursts with confidence, "I got this!", but Anne holds her back.
"You're going to fight this thing completely unarmed??? Are you insane??"
"Oh what's the big deal? I'll just power up and...", Sasha tries to focus as the ground starts to glow pink. After a few moments, Sasha is visibly struggling while the golem laughs loudly. "What the-? I can't activate my powers..."
Now also increasingly worried, Anne and Marcy try as well.
"Neither can I.", Anne cries out. "Marcy?"
"No chance. This pink glow seems to suppress our powers…"
Shortly after, the glow of the ground grows stronger, and all of them notice their legs begin to slack. The frogs immediately fall to the ground, and Grime can't hold on either.
"Great grasshopper guts! It's like an elephant tick is standing on my back!", he gives in. Anne and Marcy look at each other with concern before nodding to each other.
"Sasha-", Anne begins, bringing her backpack forward. She opens it and pulling from wrapped paper, she pulls out a bloodstained dagger. Sasha recognizes it immediately. "Here. Take it."
"Is that-"
"Yes. Take it. And do something good with it.", Anne hands her the dagger. She reaches into her backpack again and pulls out her tennis racket and Marcy's crossbow.
'She's kept it all this time...', Sasha holds the dagger, before Anne nods at her confidently. "Let's take this sucker down!"
"You go girls!", the youngest frog calls from behind as the three girls stand up, slowly making their way to the golem.
The golem laughs imperiously as it rips two massive chunks of stone out of the ground, hurling them at Anne and Marcy. Anne dodges the first chunk in time with a diving leap, while Marcy remains frozen in place.
'MARCY!', Sasha immediately sprints towards her, pushing both her and herself to the ground to safety.
"Thanks Sasha."
"No problem."
"I-", Marcy has trouble withstanding the increased gravitational force that’s pulling her down, "The gravity is too high. I can't move."
"Don't worry, Marbles.", Sasha tells her, "Anne and I will handle it."
Anne and Sasha stand up, and with small, strenuous steps, they continue walking towards the golem.
"You know-", Sasha begins, "I didn't think we'd ever be working together again. You know, after everything that happened."
"Neither did I.", Anne replies, heavily struggling, "And... I'm very glad you showed me I was wrong."
"Huh? Wrong about what?"
The golem jumps high into the air, shaking the entire chamber as it lands, and causing boulders to detach from the ceiling, now falling down on the two girls, as well as everywhere around them. One boulder falls straight at them, causing both girls to dodge to the side and roll off.
"I was worried that you hadn't changed. That you were still the exact same, selfish, manipulative person you were back on Earth."
"What do you mean selfish and manipulative??? Back there I was your best friend. I- I did everything with you."
"No.", Anne shakes her head, dodging more falling rocks, "Everything always had to go exactly the way you wanted it every time. What I wanted, or even Marcy, never mattered to you.", Sasha is surprisingly quiet at that, "But you changed. For the better."
"You've changed too.", Sasha replies, though much more somberly, "But not for the better." Anne's face goes blank. Sasha continues, "There are more moments than I want to remember, where I was deathly scared of you. I remember moments, where I've felt nothing but hate for you, for what you've done to me."
Before anyone can say anything else, however, the golem lets out a bloodcurdling roar, at which the pink glowing platform glows even brighter, causing Anne and Sasha to instantly drop to the ground, barely able to move.
"It... feels like my lungs are about to explode...", Anne struggles to speak. Sasha tries to get up.
"It's over. We're not going to make it here. We can't do this."
The golem approaches them, unaffected by the increased gravity, and rips off a rock protruding from the wall, swinging it over their heads like a club.
"You're right. We can't do this.", Anne agrees with her, "But you can."
"What?"
"I believe in you. You're fierce, brave, relentless, and you never give up. If there's anyone who can get us all out of this, it's you."
Sasha looks at her former enemy with wet eyes for a few moments, as newfound determination and strength fills her body.
"You're right.", With great effort she gets up on all fours, "I never give up!", she stands up straight, the dagger in her hand, "Not today! Not ever!"
Sasha rips her cape off her shoulder and casually tosses it backwards. As it hits the ground, however, it forms a sizable crater. The others gasp in shock and surprise, and even the golem looks surprised, holding the club over its shoulder.
The golem lunges to attack, and Sasha runs off towards him. The club hits the ground, causing chunks of rock to fly in all directions. With a powerful leap, Sasha launches herself at the golem's club. He swings it upward, and as Sasha drops on top of him, she launches an attack. With both hands she grips the dagger handle as tight as a rock, thrusting the blade into his head, sliding all the way to the ground, cutting through the rock like its butter. Before she hits the ground, she pushes herself off of his knees, and with a skillful backflip, she lands several meters in front of him, observing the glowing cracks forming along her cut. The golem gives her a thumbs up before exploding with a bright bang, the increased gravity field immediately disappearing with him.
A light shockwave caused by the explosion sweeps across the room, and a round pedestal rises from the floor in the center of the chamber, though Sasha is only mildly bothered by both. Her gaze remains on the dagger in her hand.
Suddenly, she notices someone running at her from behind.
"Sasha! You did it!", Anne cheers, hugging her from behind, though immediately pulling back. "Sorry."
"I don't mind.", she turns around, "But... the dagger didn't make it."
The two girls look down at the dagger, watching as the blade breaks apart and crumbles to the ground, piece by piece, until all that's left is the handle in her hand.
"Are you sad about it?", Anne wonders.
"I don't know...", Sasha replies as a completely unhinged Marcy runs up to the two girls and hugs them both tightly.
"Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh... Sasha, that was...", she pauses for dramatic effect, "...a-ma-zing."
"Thank you, Marbles. Um... what now?", Sasha wonders at which Anne pulls her backpack forward, pulling the music box out. She pushes a few buttons on the box, causing the only still colorless gem to emerge, and holds it out to Sasha.
"Now you load up the gem. You've earned it."
Sasha accepts the gem, and places it in the socket on the pedestal.
Immediately after she places the gem in the slot, the entire platform they are standing on begins to glow pink, exposing ancient amphibian runes and markings. From the pedestal, a beam of light shoots upward, revealing amphibian text on the ceiling.
"Guys, look.", Marcy directs the others' attention toward the chamber ceiling. "'Congrats, brah. You finally know what it takes to go the distance. For what is true strength without persistence.'"
"Yeah, guess that makes sense.", Sasha says. She takes the now fully loaded gem back out from the pedestal and puts it back in its holder on the box.
"I guess that's that.", Anne speaks up, "Should we open it?"
Marcy immediately jumps to her feet. "Nononono!", she says, "If we open this thing right now, we have no way of knowing where we're going to end up."
"Makes sense."
"Let's stick with the plan that we'll fly to Newtopia tomorrow or so, and give the box to King Andrias.", Marcy continues, "He's the most likely to know how to operate it properly."
"Marcy, do you really think it's a good idea to trust him?", Anne holds her by her shoulders, "I mean, we know he's got a Mossman trapped in the basement of the palace for who knows how long. We know that he lied to us about the origin of the music box, and that he ordered Yunan to kill Luz, just to keep the Source a secret."
"Say what now?", Sasha interjects, standing next to them.
"I'm just saying, do you really think it's a good idea to let him have the box?", Anne asks.
"What would be the alternative then? We barely know anything about the box. We could maybe ask Valeriana, but we have no idea where she is...", Marcy replies, "So yeah, I think he's our only option."
Anne thinks about it for a few seconds before sighing in defeat.
"Okay.", Anne gives up, "Let's go back. The air in here is getting too dry, even for me."
With that, Anne carefully puts the music box back into her backpack. And while the others are already leaving the chamber, she suddenly notices someone pulling at the sleeve of her shirt. She is slightly alarmed when she turns around, noticing Grime.
"Whoa, dude.", she recoils, "Don't ever do that again!"
"Anne Boonchuy, we should talk."
"There's nothing I have to talk to you about.", Anne turns her back on him and walks away.
"It's about Sasha.", Anne immediately stops dead in her tracks, her back still turned to him. "I'm afraid I have a favor to ask of you."
"... Why me? Why not Marcy?"
"Your other friend is less assertive than you, in my opinion.", he argues, "So, would you please listen to my request?"
Sasha, Marcy, and the frogs, who are already looking way healthier, are waiting outside by Marcy's bird. Marcy gives it some food, two of the frogs are already sitting on the bird's back with the youngest one playing with her robot, and Sasha waits impatiently next to Marcy.
"Come on Sashy, the two of them will catch up.", Marcy tries to reassure her. But not even the use of her nickname keeps her from bouncing her foot tensely.
At that exact second, Anne and Grime step out of the tunnel. And while Grime heads over to Sasha, Anne loudly asks for everyone's attention.
"Okay, everyone. I've had an exchange with Grime, and we're going to take these two with us back to Frog Valley.", Anne declares.
"WHAT?", the frog boy exclaims alarmed.
"But why?", the old frog calls out.
Marcy starts to get hugely excited, while things don't seem quite right for Sasha.
"We can't go to Frog Valley. We'd be executed immediately.", she argues.
"Yeah, Grime had pointed that out too. We'll hide you in a remote, abandoned barn until all of us leave for Newtopia later.", Anne explains, "Do you agree? Otherwise, we'll leave you here and you can figure out where to stay by yourselves."
"Alright, alright.", Sasha backs off, "We'll come with you."
The flight back to Frog Valley was anything but comfortable. It was crowded, took forever, and was just uncomfortable for everyone involved, without exception. Anne, Marcy, and two of the three frogs sat squeezed onto the small couch, while Sasha and Grime had to stand for hours right behind the couch. The old frog had made himself comfortable in a small pocket at the bird's chestplate, and the robot was carried in the bird's claws. The bird itself, Joe Sparrow, as Marcy told Sasha, definitely had it the worst. For just as they crossed the mountain range into Frog Valley, Joe basically fell right out of the sky, right into the middle of a huge field of grass. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the crash landing, and after a break, all of them continued walking, in order to unburden Joe. Additionally, Marcy had made him a promise that the robot would not come with them on their next trip to Newtopia.
On their way through Frog Valley towards Wartwood, the group came across 'Point Weatrôj', which evoked unpleasant memories in all those who had already been to that place before. As soon as they left again, however, they left the paths and went west. As they trudged across fields, meadows, and through smalls forests, they noticed how the sun gradually began to disappear on the horizon, and the weather began to change. The cloud cover above them thickened, and as they approached an old barn, it slowly started raining. Anne had quickly left Sasha and Grime with the supplies from her backpack that were left, before she, Marcy, and the frogs hastily left for Wartwood on Joe Sparrow, leaving Sasha and Grime behind in the visibly dilapidated barn. And both of them directly picked out a few places to get some rest. Sasha had made a bed on the upper deck with some hay and an old blanket, while Grime laid down right under the open hole in the roof. Both were equally exhausted and just glad to get some sleep.
And sleeping they did. When Sasha woke up at some point, noon had been over for a while. Grime, who was already awake by then, was looking much healthier and way more hydrated. He informed her that Marcy had come by with extra supplies when she was still asleep, and had told them that they would pick her up the next day in the morning. After a delicious meal, Sasha and Grime had spent the rest of the day talking about everything possible, working out to stay in shape, and making plans for the future once Sasha returned from Earth. The plans were anything but fully developed, and really only consisted of somehow rehabilitating Grime in front of the Toad Council. Later that evening, the two of them went to sleep early to be sufficiently rested for the next day, the big day.
When Sasha wakes up again, surrounded by rotten wooden planks, hay, and straw, the feeling of a lack of motivation overcomes her before she even opens her eyes.
"Uuuurrrggghhh...", groaning loudly, Sasha opens her eyes.
"Was your sleep that boring?", she hears Grime ask from somewhere below.
Sasha curls and rolls out on her homemade bed, all the way to the edge of the wooden planks, where she hangs over them with her upper part of her torso looking down. She dangles her arms as she spots Grime at the barn door, staring off into the distance.
"Is there anything there?", she asks with heavy eyes. He turns to her with a look she can't interpret.
"No. It's just strange not to see the tower on the horizon. It looks so… empty."
Sasha is a little torn between the idea of making fun of his sudden nostalgia, or sharing it. Though actually, she does find the decision quite easy.
"I never asked: how long were you actually in command of the tower?"
"Fifteen, maybe twenty years.", he replies with a hint of sadness in his voice, "And nothing is left but the uniforms we wear."
"Not quite...", Sasha pulls out two items from her belt, "I still have the remains of the dagger, and this strange key that Beatrix hadn't found when she searched us."
She pulls out both the brown double-bitted key with the yellow, eye-shaped button on its bow, and the remains of her dagger, consisting only of the handle, which is woven with leather for better grip, and small, pointed remains of the actual blade. He turns to her.
"The relic of a failed mission and a key for- ... something. Did you ever figure out what it was for?"
"Nope. But I'm keeping it."
"Fair enough.", he turns back around and gazes back at the horizon, lost in thought. Sasha rolls over onto her back and lets her head hang over the wooden planks.
"Do you wanna know what I miss most about Toad Tower?"
"What?"
"The showers. Because I think I'm starting to smell quite a lot...", she replies, to which Grime starts laughing at the top of his lungs. "What's so funny about that?"
"Starting to smell??? Every time you've been in the shower, you've been stinking up every room you've entered afterwards with your… 'scents'-", Grime makes air quotes as he's still laughing, slightly pissing off Sasha, "And that every time you smelled halfway acceptable after like a workout or like now, for example."
"Didn't know toads had such a highly sensible nose...", Sasha teases him back, not needing to look at him to know she got him. "You know, I've been thinking-"
"Must have hurt."
Sasha falls silent for a few moments while Grime laughs his ass off. However, Sasha can't suppress her laughter either.
"I hate you so much, you know that?"
"Hehe, always.", he replies, still laughing.
"But seriously now... I've been thinking about Anne and Marcy, and how we're not the same people anymore as we were back on Earth. What do you think?", she asks, her gaze focused on the ceiling.
"Do I look like your therapist?", he asks sarcastically, at which Sasha rolls over again, looking at him thoughtfully for a moment.
"Nah, you're more like my emotional support warlord..."
"Tze.", he chuckles briefly, "I think I can accept that." Grime ponders for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say you've changed. I mean, just a month ago you were commanding an army with me, and now the two of us are hiding out here in a barn. Oh, and you've lost your boots."
"Yea, that's not what I meant.", Grime looks at her questioningly, waiting for her to elaborate, "I meant more like, if I'm still the same person..."
"No, you're not.", he replies without even a hint of hesitation, "You're far less aggressive than you used to be, and in general, you're far more focused on being in control of yourself than of others. You used to be very power hungry, whereas now your priorities are more about reconnecting with your friends.", Sasha blinks at him wordlessly several times, "Not bad for an emotional support warlord, don't you think?"
"Do you think that I have gone soft?"
"I'd rather say you've got your priorities straight."
Sasha lapses into thought for a moment. She was almost ready to respond when approaching wingbeats catch her attention.
"Do you hear that?"
Grime turns his head back outside, and from the right he actually spots something.
"Is it them?", Sasha asks. Grime's gaze lingers in that direction for a while.
"Yup, it's them.", he confirms, at which Sasha is feeling quite excited. She grabs onto the wooden planks next to her head with both hands, pushes her body off the ground in an upright position, and drops backwards over the edge before letting go, casually landing on hay bales directly below her.
Just as she also reaches the barn doors, Joe Sparrow lands directly in front of them, loaded with Anne, Marcy, and the frog family on his back. As both Anne and Marcy drop from Joe's back, Sasha notices that Anne's outfit looks different than it did back at the temple.
Marcy runs straight at Sasha, embracing her in a short, but warm hug, while Anne continues to keep some distance from her, even though her facial expression is far less hostile. Quite the opposite, she actually looks rather glad to see her. As soon as the hug breaks up again, Sasha speaks up.
"Say, Boonchuy, you look different. Is that... glitter on your cheeks?"
Anne grabs her cheeks, only to find some glitter on her hands afterwards.
"Yeah, um... as a farewell, the people at Wartwood wanted to do something special, and they were holding a battle of the bands. Marcy and I had entered, with a song I had written about our time in Amphibia.", Anne explains, at which Sasha feels a slight pain right in her chest.
"Oh...", Sasha says, disheartened as it reminds her of the time when the three of them were known as 'Sasha and the Sharps'. "I... I wish I could have heard it."
"Aaactually...", Marcy speaks up, "I recorded the whole thing. It's audio only, and the quality isn't the best, but you're welcome to listen to it when we get back to Earth and I've been able to charge my phone a little."
"I'd like that.", Sasha says, as her attention falls back onto Anne's outfit. "By the way, Anne, what do you need all that armor for? Are you trying to overthrow the king?", she jokes.
"Yeah, maybe I'm a little overdressed-", she looks down at herself, as she's now not only wearing the golden chestplate, but also the golden knee-length boots, and the elbow-length gauntlets. "-but I hope it helps explain to my parents where I've been all this time."
"And I don't even know if my parents even still live in LA, or if they've already moved away...", Marcy's voice is full of worry.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa.", Sasha cuts her off, more than just a little confused, "What do you mean 'if they haven't already moved away'?"
Anne and Marcy exchange looks of sadness, and as Marcy lowers her head, Anne speaks up.
"On my birthday, just before we found the music box, her father had told her that he had taken a job out of state, and they were moving away...", a tear rolls down Marcy's cheek, as Anne explains.
"I'm sorry Sasha. Everything that happened is my fault."
Anne holds Marcy close as Sasha's heart breaks at the sight.
"You- Is that why you said that without you, that none of us would be here?", she asks Marcy directly, who nods slightly.
"I just didn't want to be alone. I didn't want to lose you guys."
"You wouldn't have been alone. No matter how great the distance between us would have been, nothing would have separated us.", Anne is bursting with conviction before her gaze slides to Sasha and she holds out her hands to her while still hugging Marcy tightly from behind with her other arm, "Right, Sash?"
Immediately she accepts the offer as Anne pulls her into the hug, and for the first time in a very long time it feels like their friendship is whole again. As the three of them hug, Sasha can literally feel the sadness in Marcy being replaced with pure joy. Marcy only hugs the two girls tighter.
"There's nothing that could have possibly taken you away from us.", Sasha agrees with her as the hug breaks again, her gaze now shifting to Anne. "Though... it will probably take a while for the two of us to work things out...", Anne looks guiltily to the floor, "But I'm optimistic."
"Listen-", Anne starts, as she turns Marcy around, holding her by her shoulders, facing her, "Remember what I said to you? Nothing bad will ever happen as long as we're together."
At that, Grime clears his throat, catching the attention of the three girls. "It's nice to watch you repair your friendship, but then, whenever you're ready, I'd like to gradually start leaving."
"Sure.", Anne replies. But before they can climb back on Joe's back, Marcy speaks up.
"Uh, Sasha, before I forget: I have a surprise for you.", she teases before reaching into Anne's backpack and pulling out a pair of padded boots, proudly presenting them to her. "Here. These are for you."
Sasha looks down at Marcy to check that she's not standing in front of her in just socks right now, or even barefoot. But no, she's wearing her full ranger uniform, minus the cloak.
"You brought more than one pair of shoes?", Sasha asks skeptically, not yet accepting the boots.
"I brought several things of everything. Well, in case I lose something, I catch on fire, or it gets eaten by some creatures I might get too close to.", Marcy smiles at her, while Sasha doesn't quite know how to handle it.
"Has that ever happened before?"
"More often than you think, yes.", she replies just before Grime speaks up again via clearing his throat.
"Thank you.", Sasha accepts the boots and puts them on before all of them climb high on Joe's back, finally taking off.
Sasha and Grime are back behind the couch on which Anne, Marcy, and the two frog children are sitting, with the old frog in front in his personal pocket. Sasha leans forward as they glide over the mountains encircling Frog Valley.
"Say Anne, how big is your backpack that it can fit that much stuff?"
"Oh, there's not that much in there... Lemme check real quick...", she opens her backpack, "The boots were in there, the music box, snacks and drinks for the flight, the gift for my mom-"
"Gift for your mom?", Sasha asks.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's a small butterfly trinket that I got gifted in Newtopia."
"Yeah, I remember how much she loves butterflies.", Sasha recounts nostalgically, "Didn't you guys used to have a terrarium at home?"
"Dude, it wasn't just a terrarium. My mom had a whole room built and equipped just for the butterflies.", Anne smiles slightly, "She was heartbroken when they all got sick."
"You had adopted Domino after that, right?", Marcy chimes in, to which Anne nods.
"Yup. After that, nothing was allowed in the house that was smaller than a cat."
After that, Sasha speaks up again.
"Soo, umm... Do you have anything else with you?", she quickly changes the subject. Anne seems grateful for it as well.
"Let's see... Well, actually just Luz's stuff."
"Luz's stuff?"
"Well, her clothes and her phone. I'll check back home to see if she made it back to Earth, and if possible, send her her stuff."
"Why do you have that?", Sasha asks, uncomprehendingly. Anne and Marcy give each other questioning looks before Anne answers.
"Didn't we ever tell you how she disappeared?", Sasha shakes her head.
"All I know is that she disappeared. And something about be possessed by a wolf…?"
"Okay...", Anne says, thinking for a moment, "The story isn't very long, but there are some things I might have to explain afterwards."
"Well, I'm not planning on going anywhere right now...", Sasha jokes. And Anne and Marcy begin to narrate, just as they leave the mountain range behind them towards Newtopia.
The time it took for them to eventually reach the outskirts of Newtopia just flew by. Literally. The three girls talked the whole time about anything and everything, and also the two frog children joined in at some point, who at the beginning were both still very quiet in Sasha's presence, and only gave her distrustful looks. Unfortunately, these not so bad conversations did not result in Sasha actually remembering their names.
Joe is already gliding over the salt lakes that stretch for many kilometers around Newtopia, when Sasha notices that one very important thing has not yet been mentioned with a single word.
"Um, guys... What's the plan actually for when we get down there?", she inquires, "Do we just march up to the palace like that?"
"Something like that, yeah.", Marcy replies. "And since you and Grime are technically still on the run, I packed some inconspicuous cloaks in my bag for you guys to throw on.", she pulls out a piece of black fabric from her bag for Sasha to look at before shoving it back in.
"Walking around a city this big in broad daylight with a black cloak on wouldn't exactly qualify as inconspicuous, Marcy."
"Well, we'll definitely stand out, per se. It's just important that people don't immediately recognize who you are."
"Okay, let's assume this works and we get through to the palace. Then what?", Sasha continues to ask. At that, Anne speaks up.
"Well, Marcy's authority as Chief Ranger allows us unhindered access to the palace, and we head straight to Andrias, who hopefully can show us how to get home."
"Hopefully???", Sasha asks aghast, "Didn't you mean a few days ago that he was a liar and shouldn't be trusted?"
"Yes, but we also established that he's our only option."
"Okay...", Sasha continues, "Let's say he's evil, we give him the box, and he doesn't help us get home. Then what?"
There is silence for quite a while, which Sasha takes as a sufficient answer. Before she can say anything, though, Marcy then speaks up unexpectedly.
"Well, I trust him. He took me in, he helped me grow beyond myself, and unleash my true potential."
"And you have no doubt about him? None? Really?", Sasha inquires, at which Marcy goes quiet again. "That's what I thought... Okay, let's say that everything is going absolutely flawlessly. Then what?"
"We ask Andrias to keep the portal open, if that's possible. If not, Marcy and I have considered that otherwise we suggest he open it again after a week so we can come back. That will give us enough time to talk to our parents, tell them where we've been, and work out a plan together for how to proceed in the future."
Sasha cannot believe what she is hearing. The sheer naivete... They didn't give a single thought that anything could go wrong. Or rather, will.
"Your plan is horrible.", Sasha announces, "I wouldn't even know where to start listing all the flaws..."
"You have a better plan?", Anne asks her with a snarky tone.
"Maybe just not giving the likely bad guy the music box? We could just open it ourselves... Or better yet, we could just stay here."
"WHAT?", Anne and Marcy exclaim, aghast.
"No!", Grime chimes in, which not only shocks Anne and Marcy even more, but also unexpectedly strikes Sasha.
"No? What do you mean 'no'?", she asks reproachfully, but rather out of confusion instead of anger. Grime immediately realizes that he spoke too hastily.
"What I mean is: Where exactly do you want to stay? What do you imagine happening?", he asks in a serious voice, not allowing Sasha to interrupt him, "Do you want to hide for the rest of your life and run away? Because if you don't, the Toad Council would eventually find you, charge you, convict you, and at the end, execute you. Is that what you want? ... Do you want that?", he reiterates. Everyone in front of them has their eyes on Sasha, anticipating her reaction.
"And what about you, huh? If I leave for good, you won't have anyone left... Are you going to hole up somewhere in the middle of nowhere just like your mother, and die all alone??? Admit it! You need me."
"You don't have to worry about me.", Grime tries to reassure her, as he speaks with utter confidence in his voice, "I know someone in Newtopia who owes me a few favors. Well, actually, I owe him a favor, but I'll just do him two favors."
"Sure, whatever.", Sasha sighs, hurting from his apparent lack of care. After that, the frog boy speaks up.
"Man, I didn't think you guys cared that much about each other...", he observes. No one responds directly. However, Marcy speaks up with an idea that came to her mind.
"Guys, what would you think if, when we get to the palace, I put in a good word with Andrias for you, that he clears you of any charges. I mean, the Toad Army is under his command, after all.", she suggests, "And I need to talk to him about Frog Valley independence, too..."
"Sure, you do you.", Sasha replies, "I don't think it will do any good, but I won't stop you if you wanna try."
"Good enough for me.", Marcy says, as Joe Sparrow slowly descends towards the ground, and right in front of the enormous gates in the even higher walls surrounding Amphibia's capital, they touch down on the ground.
All of them jump down from Joe's back into the shallow water that surrounds them. And Marcy is thrilled with excitement.
"Woo, finally back in Newtopia. Boi did I miss this place."
"Um, Marcy-", Sasha catches her attention, snipping her fingers, "Cloaks?"
"Right.", Marcy opens her bag and pulls out the two black cloaks she packed for Sasha and Grime and casually tosses them to them.
Now sufficiently disguised, they all approach the closed gates, only now noticing that several meters above the ground there are two windows built into them, at one of which a Newt soldier is stationed. Marcy addresses him directly.
"Chief Ranger Marcy Wu and crew, reporting to King Andrias.", she announces. The Newt soldier briefly disappears from view, just before a loud horn plays, and the gates before them open, revealing the view on Newtopia.
As they enter the city, they wander through the town's market district, which consists of several wide alleys with multi-story buildings, the lowest floors of which are filled with all sorts of stores and stalls. The streets are filled with life, commerce, and activity.
And while Sasha is only moderately interested in the things people are selling here, Anne and Marcy are quite taken with it, walking a few meters in front of Sasha and Grime, holding hands.
'Wait... are they-', Sasha's train of thought is interrupted as the youngest of the frogs speaks up, moaning.
"Uh, Polly, what's wrong?", her brother asks as she jumps off of his head, violently scratching her back.
"My butt is sooo itchy!", she yells. He contorts his face in disgust before the old frog pulls out an old cream.
"I've got some ointment with me, that will fix that right up."
"Hop Pop, no!", she screams in panic, jumping away as the old frog follows her, "IT STINKS!"
Sasha, Anne, and Marcy can't help but snicker at that.
"You know Anne, this could be a sign that she's about to grow legs.", Marcy tells her in reference to the young pollywog. And Anne can't believe it.
"Wait, really? Oh, my frog...", Anne turns around to the youngest frog who got caught by the old one, "Yo Polly! Marcy says it's a sign that your legs are coming out soon."
"WHAT?", she calls back in amazement and surprise, just as the old frog finished anointing her behind. "Well, I mean, it's about time."
"I really hope you can wait a week for that.", Anne turns to her, "I want to be there when my little sister finally gets her legs."
"I'm not promising anything.", she retorts, clearly trying to mask her true excitement.
'They really are her family...', Sasha remarks, having witnessed the whole thing.
As they leave the market district and are about to climb the first of countless stairs, Grime speaks up.
"Okay everyone, my contact lives around here. You guys can go ahead, but I need to talk to him and work out an arrangement for me."
"What?", Sasha asks, "I'm coming with you!"
"No, you don't. My contact doesn't know I'm in town, and things would get a lot more complicated if I showed up there other than alone.", he calmly but firmly explains, "Don't worry. It shouldn't take long, and I'll be at the palace in time."
'Something smells fishy...', Sasha thinks to herself, but decides to trust the judgment of her commanding officer. "Fine.", she frowns, "But if you're not on time, the Toad Council will be the least of your worries."
Grime nods a farewell before disappearing into the shadows in an alley perpendicular from her. She didn't notice that the nod wasn't directly at her.
"Everything will be fine, Sash. You'll see.", Marcy put her hand on Sasha's shoulder, who's still looking after him.
"I don't know... Something doesn't fit here."
It took an eternity and three breaks for the six of them to finally reach the top of all those stairs. Sure, they could have alternatively taken the easier paths that run all the way up through the city, up all the way to the palace, but that would have taken a lot more time, according to Marcy.
They arrive at the large gates that lead into the palace, and Marcy approaches one of the soldiers, who's armed with spears, guarding the entrance.
"Hey there.", Marcy greets him in a friendly manner, whereupon the soldier solutes.
"Good day, Master Marcy.", he says, opening one of the two heavy doors, revealing a long corridor with several branches on either side. Marcy is the first to look inside, though something stops her from entering. She leans back toward the soldier again.
"Where is Lady Olivia? She usually welcomes me here when I announce ahead of time that I would be back.", she asks, slightly concerned.
"I am not informed of Lady Olivia's whereabouts. If you wish, I can find out for you, Master Marcy.", he offers. Marcy frowns at that, before turning around to the others.
"I had sent a messenger bird here when we returned from the last temple, announcing that we would be coming to Newtopia with the box. I wanted everyone to be here so I could say goodbye to them properly.", Marcy explains dejectedly. Anne immediately jumps to her side.
"Oh, don't worry MarMar. I'm sure Lady Olivia won't let you leave without saying goodbye... Maybe we were just faster than the messenger bird, or the letter was intercepted...", she tries to reassure her.
"Yeah, maybe.", Marcy agrees, "Anyway, come on. On to the throne room."
Before they all leave, Sasha also addresses the guard.
"Yeah, hi, um... Our group includes someone else, a toad, who's wearing the same cloak as I do. Could you let him join us later?", she asks. The soldier turns to Marcy, who gives him a thumbs-up.
"Yes, of course, ma'am."
And with that, the group makes its way toward the throne room, which is fortunately quite short.
"He called me ma'am...", Sasha speaks to herself, "Am I that old already?"
"Nah...", Marcy, who's walking in between her and Anne, speaks up, "That was a young recruit. Probably his first run-in with humans."
"But he called you by name.", Sasha recounts.
"That's what everybody does here. I mean, there are huge statues of me here all over Newtopia. People here know my face.", she speaks as they stand outside the doors to the throne room. Marcy goes ahead and pushes open the colorfully designed double doors. Immediately, they catch sight of King Andrias sitting on his throne.
'Well, that's a big guy...', is the first thing that comes to Sasha's mind at the sight of him. The group enters the throne room before two soldiers who were positioned inside step outside, closing the doors behind them, leaving them all alone.
"My friends, wonderful to see you.", King Andrias gets up from his throne and walks down the steps to them. "I trust you were successful."
Anne takes her backpack to her front and pulls out the music box.
"Boom, baby!", she presents it to him. His eyes begin to sparkle.
"The charged music box... Well done. Well done!", he exclaims with even more excitement. "Now, let's finally send you girls home."
Andrias holds out his enormous hand to her, and to Sasha's surprise, she hands him the box without even a hint of hesitation. He steps onto a pressure plate a few paces away from his throne, and a very old-looking pedestal rises from the floor.
"Finally... finally the box is back where it belongs!", he exclaims as he places the box directly on the pedestal. The pedestal lights up colorfully, one part green, one part blue, one part red. The gems in the box glow brightly, and a certain electrostatic charge fills the air around them. Even the ground beneath their feet begins to tremble and shake.
It takes a few seconds for everything to settle down again.
"What the frog was that???", Anne asks, aghast.
"Well, the systems weren't active for a very long time. I'm not surprised it reacted that way.", Andrias explains in a calm voice. "So, who wants to go back to Earth?"
Marcy speaks up. "Where are Lady Olivia and General Yunan? I had thought they were here to say goodbye to me..."
"General Yunan just got back from a long mission. It shouldn't be long before she gets here. And I've already sent for Lady Olivia.", he explains.
"Good, good.", Marcy turns to Anne, Sasha, and the frogs, "Okay, I think we're ready."
Andrias turns toward the music box and pushes some buttons as Anne and Marcy turn and say goodbye to the frogs. And Sasha, she stands a good bit off to the side, she's not taking her eyes off Andrias, critically observing every move he makes.
About one, maybe two minutes later, with a soft hiss, a shimmering blue portal vortex appears near a wall. Unfortunately, it's impossible to see what's on the other side.
"And there it is: Your portal back home.", Andrias announces. Anne and Marcy have already said their sufficient goodbyes to the frogs, and they now stand next to Sasha, who eyes the portal rather critically.
"How are we supposed to know that the portal actually leads to Earth? And not to, I don't know, a volcano?", Andrias is taken aback at her accusation. Anne and Marcy, however, do not jump to his defense.
"You're just going to have to trust me.", Andrias says.
"Trust you? Why should I?"
Andrias considers for a moment.
"Your name is Sasha, isn't it? Second-in-command to Captain Grime?", he queries.
"Oh yes, that's me.", she pronounces proudly.
"I had heard what happened... In Frog Valley.", Sasha remains silent, "I also know that the Toad Council is hunting you two down, planning to have you executed. I would have the ability to change that. He wouldn't have to run anymore. I even could give him a new command."
"How do you know that?", Sasha asks him, though she actually already knows the answer to that. Andrias' gaze moves over to Marcy. "Right...", Sasha adds. At that, Marcy speaks up.
"Speaking of Frog Valley... I wanted to talk to you about possibly granting independence to the region. I know you're the king, and regions seceding from the commonwealth has never been particularly-"
"Sure."
"… Wait, what?", Marcy, incredulous, inquires.
"You know, I've been king for over a thousand years. And every single day has always been the same. Such a... 'split-off', as you might call it, might add a little pep to my life."
"REALLY???", Anne and Marcy ask excitedly in unison. The frogs are equally thrilled.
"Really.", Andrias assures them, "You can trust me. But I would suggest that we don't talk about this until you get back. What do you think?"
"Heh... It seems I was wrong again about someone...", Anne mutters, "Luz too."
Sasha, on the other hand, is still skeptical.
"So, you're going to leave the portal open for us?", she asks Andrias.
"I don't think that should be a problem. I'm not planning on going anywhere.", he tries to reassure her, "So, the way home is open to you. You just have to want to go through."
"Not until I've had a proper goodbye from Grime!", she declares, at which point Anne approaches her. She puts her hand on her shoulder.
"Grime... won't be coming."
In an instant, Sasha's face drops. With an ice-cold stare, her eyes move to Anne.
"For your own good, I really hope that you didn't just say what I think you just said!"
Slowly, Anne pulls her hand back. Sasha can tell she's struggling right now, thinking about what she's about to say.
"He's... he's turning himself in right now. It's too late to do anything. I'm sorry."
'No... nonononono...', everything inside of her goes numb, replaced with anger and rage, "FUCK!", she yells, turning away from Anne. With her blood boiling under her skin, she turns to a wall, and starts pounding on it, with visible results, both on the wall, and her now bloody knuckles.
"Sasha-", Anne approaches her, but Sasha immediately throws her away to the floor.
"ANNE!", Marcy and the frogs run to her side, but Anne holds them back as she gets back up.
"He wanted it that way."
"BULLSHIT!", Sasha slams her to the ground again before staring at her own fists. "WHY AREN'T YOU FUCKING WORKING?"
Anne gets back up, and Sasha continues to stomp towards her. Marcy runs at her from behind, trying to hold Sasha back. But Sasha doesn't hold back just then, and pushes Marcy away from her, causing her to stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Sasha doesn't turn to face her.
"WHY DO YOU GET TO DECIDE WHO GETS TO SAY GOODBYE, AND WHO DOESN'T? WHY CAN YOU SAY GOODBYE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU, AND I CAN'T?", a tear rolls down her cheek, her voice is paining.
"It wasn't my decision.", Anne replies to her, "He knew you wouldn't let him turn himself in. He knew that if you didn't go home, that neither of you would have lasted much longer. He didn't want you to just throw your life away for him."
Sasha stopped, but her fists are still clenched.
"When… Wait. The last temple...", Sasha mutters to herself, at which point Anne stands up again.
"He had told me that he was planning to turn himself in to protect you. He knew that if he had told you himself, that you would have done anything to talk him out of it... He cares about you."
"And yet he left me.", she says, pain aching in her heart. As her rage returns, she now turns around facing Marcy, who by now is standing again and rubbing the back of her head. "YOU!", Sasha yells at-, and stomps towards Marcy, "DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT??? DID YOU KNOW?"
"SHE DIDN'T KNOW!", Anne shouts at her from behind, only moments before Sasha would have reached Marcy, who is full of fear in her eyes. Sasha stops, turning back to Anne. "He had asked me to keep it to myself. I didn't tell anybody."
Sasha is trembling with anger. "Fuck you, Anne.", she quietly utters to herself.
"What?", Anne, not hearing her, asks.
"I said FUCK YOU, ANNE BOONCHUY!", the walls shake at these words, tears flowing down her cheeks, "YOU ARE THE FUCKING WORST!", her gaze wanders to the frogs who are equally shaking in fear, "I WISH I HADN'T STOPPED AFTER JUST THAT ONE!"
Taking forceful steps, she turns away from everyone, and quickly walks towards the portal before simply disappearing into it.
As soon as Sasha disappears into the portal, Anne sprints up to Marcy, hugging her as if her life depended on it. So do the Plantars.
"Marcy, are you hurt? Did she do something to you?", Anne gently holds her by her shoulders as she scans her girlfriend for superficial scars or wounds.
"I'm- I'm okay.", Marcy replies, but still shaken up from what happened.
"Anne, are you okay?", Hop Pop asks her.
"She got to you pretty bad.", Sprig adds.
"I think she hit my ribs. Nothing to worry about.", Anne tries to ease Marcy's worries. Nonetheless, her own gaze constantly shifts between Marcy and the portal.
"You want to go after her, don't you?", Marcy asks.
"Is it that obvious?"
"You care about her.", Marcy takes Anne's hands in hers. "Go after her. As soon as I say goodbye to Yunan and Lady Olivia, I'll follow you. Promise."
Anne's gaze slides over to Andrias, who has been standing off to the side, interestedly observing the entire time.
"The portal stays open all the time, right? Until we get back?", Andrias puts his hand on his chest.
"By the honor of my forefathers.", he swears, and Anne turns back to Marcy.
"I'll wait for you on the other side.", she pulls Marcy in for a kiss. She smiles at her. "Nothing bad will happen as long as we're together."
"I know.", Marcy smiles. Anne kneels down to the Plantars.
"I'll see you guys in a week.", she gives them all a brief but heartfelt hug before standing up, chasing after Sasha through the portal.
"Soo... what now?", Polly asks.
"You don't really have to wait for me here, guys. You can return to Wartwood with Joe.", Marcy offers them.
"Are you sure you're okay, Marcy?", Sprig asks worriedly after what just happened.
"It's going to be okay. That's all that matters.", she replies with a forced smile, but hope in her voice. She kneels down, and also takes the Plantars in her arms. First Sprig, then Hop Pop, and Polly last. The latter she lifts up briefly.
"You know, if I had to bet, I'd say it's less than two days until your legs come out.", she whispers to her. Her eyes light up.
"Bet? How much do you wanna bet?", she inquires, causing the others to chuckle up lightly.
"Listen, if I'm right, I'll give you ten coppers."
"And if you're not?", Polly asks skeptically.
"Then you get to tease me forever that I was wrong."
"Deal!", she chimes in.
Marcy waves after the Plantars with a slightly sad look as they leave the throne room.
"Goodbyes are never easy.", Andrias approaches her, "Speaking of which: Where are Olivia and Yunan?", he asks impatiently.
"Should we go look for them?"
"You know, I have a better idea. A few weeks ago, while you were still out in Frog Valley, I had found something here in the palace. Something I was planning to show you after you got back from Earth: A secret room, as I suspect.", he teases her, whereupon her eyes light up with excitement and surprise. She even gasps in anticipation.
"Really? Where is it? What's in it?"
"Whoa whoa whoa... Calm down...", Andrias holds a hand in front of her face, "I have no idea what's in there. All I had seen was a dark spiral staircase. I didn't want to go on that adventure without you."
"May I see it? Please please please...", Marcy pleads with big, round eyes. Andrias chuckles.
"But only for a minute. We don't know when Olivia and Yunan will finally show up."
Full of excitement, Andrias and Marcy leave his throne room, and enter a secluded part of the palace: the Hall of Ancestors, where every ancestor of the Leviathan family has been immortalized by a giant stone statue. They approach the statue of Andrias' father, King Aldrich Leviathan. Andrias grabs the arm of one of the smaller statues hanging from the supporting columns of the hall and flips it like a switch, revealing a hidden door in the pedestal in front of them.
Andrias takes one of the glowing corals, and together, he and Marcy descend the dark spiral staircase. For several minutes there is complete silence, until a bone-chilling, agony-filled scream of pain echoes back out.
It's Marcy.
Notes:
You all may hate me now <3
But besides that: What do you guys think of that bang of a chapter. I myself am quite glad, that the Amphibia-storyline is mostly complete now.
And now for a couple question you might have:
- This is not the act 2 finale? -/- No. The second act will (most likely) end at chapter 42.
- Where is Luz? -/- Luz will (most likely) appear in chapter 41.
What are your thoughts? Please tell me in the comments <3
Chapter 39: Gray
Summary:
Anne is back on Earth. Alone.
Notes:
Hey guys...
Remember when I said at the end of the last chapter, that I wouldn't be the person who'd be writing this chapter?
Well, turned out that there were some... organizatorical problems on the way. This basicly means what the collab will be postponed and I wrote this chapter myself.I hope you didn't mind having to wait a little longer for this chapter.
Also: I have a Beta-Reader now. A huuuge round of applause please for Ace/Kaye aka. Sorry_I_Panicked who's already doing fantastic work <3<3<3
Also (2): Today is the 7th birthday of my Reddit account :P
With that being said: Get some tissues and have fun reading <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Anne steps out of the portal horizon, definitely finding herself in a different place. It looks like it's about to rain.
In front of her, and to her sides are red brick walls. She turns around, walks around the portal, and finds an asphalt road. However, she can't tell exactly where she is yet.
Anne takes out her phone, watching in anticipation to see if she has network reception wherever she is.
"Come on, come on, come on...", a small ping lights up, relief overcomes her, "Yes! I'm... home."
She turns on her location search and opens maps on her phone.
'United States... Good. Okay...', her location narrows down further, 'California, great...', it narrows down even further, 'Aand I'm in LA. Perfect.'
"Sasha!", she shouts out, knowing full well that she won't answer, as angry as she ran away. "Sasha!"
She sighs.
'I could go look for her... But from the way she stormed off, I don't think that would do any good. She needs to vent her anger somehow before I try to find her...', Anne turns around and lets her gaze wander into the alley, at the end of which the portal emits an electric hum. She spots an old, wrinkled, dirty looking couch standing on the side, among some other trash, lovelessly discarded in here. 'Hm, if I'm going to wait for Marcy, I might as well do it sitting down.'
She takes a few steps to the couch and presses her hand on one of the seat cushions, which make a sap-like sound when she touches it.
'Ew.', she thinks to herself. She also checks the other seat cushion, which produces the same disgusting sound. She repeats it on one of the couch armrests, which is fortunately dry, sits down on it, and she starts waiting for her girlfriend.
First just one minute.
Then two.
Then five.
Anne watches the cars that occasionally pass her on the street. 'Should I call mom and dad and tell them I'm back?'
Another five minutes pass and Anne starts drumming mindlessly on her knees. Eventually she begins to get actively bored and brings her backpack forward. She packs away the golden gauntlets of her armor, and rummages through the other things that are in there.
That is until she hears the electric hum of the portal start flickering. In an instant her head snaps to it.
"Oh no-", it takes a few moments before she realizes the portal is beginning to dissipate. In her rush, she drops her backpack to the ground and sprints off toward the portal. 'No MarMar, you're not staying behind!'
She leaps forward off the ground, but just before she can reach the event horizon, it has already completely dissolved, and Anne falls face first to the ground.
She props herself off the ground with her arms and wipes the dirt from the floor off her face before slowly turning around.
"It's gone.", she mutters, tears forming at her eyes, "Marcy... no...", More and more tears begin to flow from her eyes. Her chest gets heavier and it's getting harder to breathe, but she still tries to pull herself together and not be the girl who cries in public.
However, when it becomes clear to her that Marcy did not follow her through the portal, it's obvious how much her heart is breaking right now.
'Nothing bad will happen as long as we're together.', Anne recalls. And that's the point where all her dams break, and she completely collapses onto the floor.
Sobs escape her body, along with heart wrenching cries. It no longer matters what others may or may not think of her if they saw her like this now: Overwhelmed by feelings of loneliness, loss, but also betrayal, which she can no longer hold in.
Oum and Bee Boonchuy are both alone at home with just the radio running.
They had just eaten the leftovers for lunch from previous days, and together they are cleaning up. Bee, Anne's father, is washing dishes, while Oum, Anne's mother, is putting dried dishes away.
The last few months have been the hardest of their lives.
It has been more than three months since Anne and her friends disappeared.
More than fourteen weeks since Anne's birthday.
Exactly ninety-nine days since they last saw their daughter. But who's counting the days?
Anne's birthday is still as strong in their memory as if it had happened yesterday:
The day itself began quite nicely. They both had taken the whole day off to plan her birthday party.
Oum got up extra early to make Anne 'knao niew bing', a Thai snack consisting of rice and coconut milk. When Bee drove Anne to school later, he went straight on to buy party-supplies afterwards, as well as some missing ingredients for her birthday cake. Originally, they had planned to go to the temple for her birthday and spend her birthday in traditional Thai fashion, thinking that Anne was old enough by now to be more deeply aware of her Thai identity and heritage. Anne herself objected in advance, but her parents were able to persuade her to go to the temple on the weekend, in exchange for a proper party on her birthday itself, as she had received one every year so far, together with her friends, cakes, and presents.
Not long after Bee and Anne left, the work really started for Oum: Putting up decorations which were already on hand, including a 'Happy Birthday, Anne'-banner, and starting to bake the cake. And while Anne did note that she didn't want to have a Thai-themed birthday party, Oum had decided to incorporate a little Thai culture into her work. And that came in the form of green cake decorations, the lucky color of Anne's birth weekday.
They had agreed that Anne and her friends would be home between five and half past five in the evening, and the party would start at six. At a quarter to six, Oum had texted Anne where she was staying, along with a reminder of when the party was supposed to start. Anne had actually read the message, though she hadn't replied directly.
At six, her parents were confused.
At six-thirty they became angry about Anne's unreliability.
At seven, they began to worry.
By eight, they had already left twenty voicemails and sent Anne dozens of texts, before eventually calling 911. In the meantime, they had also called Marcy's parents, who were equally unaware of their daughter's whereabouts, and they tried to call Sasha's parents, who they knew were currently both on vacation.
While Oum was anxiously on the phone with emergency services, Bee had gotten in the car and driven all night across LA to all the places Anne usually went with her friends. And even when it started raining hard around midnight, he didn't stop looking.
He returned home the next morning, just as the sun was rising over the still overcast Los Angeles, after the unsuccessful search. When he pulled up in front of the garage, the dejection readable on his face, Oum was already waiting for him at the front door. She stood there all night, simply hoping that her daughter would come home.
She looked at him through the still-closed car door. He returned her gaze and merely shook his head slightly. Then, with tears in her eyes, she went back into the house. Both of them were devastated, and they had to face a grim reality for any caring parent: Their own daughter has disappeared without a trace and was officially reported missing.
The very next day, at very early hour, the Boonchuys had received a visit from three police officers who wanted to have a bit of a chat with them. Two of them asked to look around Anne's room, while the third remained downstairs.
"Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy, I need to ask you some questions about your daughter's disappearance. First of all, when exactly did you last see her?"
"Yesterday morning. I had driven her to school."
"And you, Mrs. Boonchuy?", he turned to Oum.
"Before they both left. I stayed home to prepare some things for the birthday party."
"Birthday party?", he inquired.
"Anne turned thirteen yesterday."
"I see. And after you, Mr. Boonchuy, dropped your daughter off at school, you didn't have any further contact with her?", he continued, but Oum spoke up first.
"We had sent her several messages in the evening to remind her when the party would start. Anne had- has a tendency to not be totally reliable... And she had read those first messages, too."
"When was that?"
"Quarter to six."
The other two officers then came down the stairs, one of whom went outside, while the other two remained inside with the Boonchuys.
"Your daughter, did she have any friends?"
"Oh, yes. Sasha Waybright and Marcy Wu. The three of them are pretty much inseparable.", Oum replied with a nostalgic smile that disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
"Do you think it's possible that your daughter is just with her friends? That she didn't just sneak off to celebrate her birthday alone?", he asked, to which he gave the Boonchuys a strange look.
"What are you getting at?", Oum asked, her mood drastically changed.
"We get calls every day from crying, worried parents, especially from this area, where in the end it just turns out that their kids haven't disappeared, but ran away. After all, you yourself had said your daughter was unreliable."
At that moment, something snapped in Oum. She stood up, slamming her fists on the table. The officers instinctively reached for the holsters on their belts.
"HOW DARE YOU?", Oum asked angrily, "HOW DARE YOU DISMISS OUR DAUGHTER'S DISAPPEARANCE AS IF IT'S NOTHING???"
"Mrs. Boonchuy, if you don't calm down right now, you are going to be arrested for assaulting a police officer!", one of the officers threatened, his hand still on his holster. At that, Bee stepped in.
"C-come on. It- it's all right. Let's not make it worse.", Bee gently held her by her shoulders, which caused her to seemingly calm down slightly. "Why don't you lie down for a bit, huh? I'll take care of the rest."
Without further words, but with a livid glare, Oum left the room, locking herself in her bedroom.
"I can assure you, officers, that Anne did not run away. Especially not on her birthday.", he continued, forcing himself to remain calm. The officers didn't really seem to believe him but accepted this answer for now. "And her friends disappeared, too, after all. Or are at least unreachable."
"Well, when only one child is missing, usually family problems are involved.", one of the officers continued, not even a hint of remorse or apology in his voice for the previous accusations, "But when several children disappear at once, especially if they know each other, it changes the situation. It is not at all uncommon for children to be taken and abducted on the open road. Even in broad daylight. On the contrary, 2,300 children disappear every day throughout the country, eighty-one percent of them older than twelve. In the vast majority of cases, the kidnappers are family or acquaintances who plan to sell them, murder them, use them for forced labor, forced marriages, or sexual slavery."
Bee found it harder and harder to keep his composure as fear grew within him of what exactly could be done to his daughter at that very moment. And yet they didn't stop talking.
"Even if it is not impossible that we should find your daughter and her friends, I still think it is realistic that she would not be the same after that."
At that, Bee spoke up.
"I- I would like to ask you to leave. Un-Unless you have any further questions?", he asked in an enormously shaky voice.
As they left but before Bee could close the front door behind them, one of the officers spoke up.
"Mr. Boonchuy?", Bee just listened, not having the strength anymore to speak, "It might be in your best interest to accept that your daughter might not return, and you'd be better off planning her funeral already."
Once he finally closed the door, all the walls inside him broke, and he slid to the floor, crying heavily. A little later, Oum came back down and sat with him in silence, where they would remain for the next few hours.
In the weeks that followed, not much had changed. Thai Go, the Boonchuys' store and only source of income, had been closed for quite some time now, and the two were not seen at the temple for the same amount of time. At some point, however, someone knocked on the Boonchuys' door: It was their family and friends from the Thai-temple, who had somehow learned that their daughter had disappeared and was missing. Many came with containers full of home-cooked food or cleaning supplies, and they had taken it upon themselves to support the grieving parents. A few volunteers had even agreed to take Thai Go for them until they had the strength to stand on their own two feet again.
This was the time when their lives would start to adjust to this new reality. The reality that their daughter might never come back, and they would have to move on with their own lives.
Over the following weeks, updates from the police became increasingly infrequent, with fewer and fewer new leads and information each time, until at some point they stopped contacting them altogether. Oum and Bee assumed that the search had been officially stopped.
It took a while, but after a few weeks, they were actually ready to move on with their lives instead of just mourning. They found themselves working in the store again, and both of them found their own ways to express their grief over their lost daughter. Bee lost himself in distractions through new, as well as old, hobbies. For example, he rediscovered his love of video games, which had become somewhat stale after Anne's birth. Oum, on the other hand, had spent days locked in the hobby room of the house all day, unwilling to show or tell anyone what she was doing in it. And luckily, no one pried about it.
Just after Oum and Bee finished washing up, Oum puts on two cups of hot cocoa. Admittedly, it's still a long way from Christmas, but they have decided to enjoy a movie marathon to pass the miserable, gray weather, with hot cocoa as a feel-good drink.
She has already brought Bee's cup into the living room, printed with the Starzgate logo. She picks up her own favorite blue mug, ready to join her husband in the living room, when suddenly the house phone rings, which is hanging on the wall between the kitchen and the open living room. Oum picks it up.
"Boonchuy residence.", she answers.
"... Mom?"
Within moments, her cup falls from her hand, shattering on the floor as her body begins shaking. Bee turns to face her and catches sight of her shocked expression and watery eyes. Their eyes meet before she continues.
"A-Anne?", she asks back in a shaky voice, Bee's eyes widening. "Is- is that really you?"
"Y-yes, it's really me.", she sniffles. A mix of a relieved laugh and more tears escapes Oum. Bee gets up with the intention of holding his wife.
"Where- where are you?", Oum inquires. Anne doesn't answer right away, though, which makes Oum have a sense of unease.
"I don't know.", Anne answers silently, her voice sounding broken. "Somewhere in LA... I think."
"Are you safe? Are you hurt?"
"... ... I'm- I'm safe.", Anne sounds like she's crying.
"Okay, stay where you are.", Oum speaks with newfound determination, "We're coming to get you!"
"Please.", Anne says before the call ends.
"Get your laptop! I'll start the car!", Oum, who is just wearing pyjamas, orders Bee. She puts on her slippers, grabs the car keys, and practically runs to the car, starting the engine. Bee follows a mere thirty seconds later clutching his laptop under his arm.
He doesn't even have time to grab his seatbelt before Oum backs out of the driveway and then speeds off. He boots up his laptop on his lap.
"I hope she has her GPS turned on.", Bee says anxiously as he loads the tracking program he and Oum had set up when Anne got her first phone of her own years ago. When Anne disappeared, they had used it actively for the first time in an attempt to find her, but they were unable to locate her.
"And if I drive down every single street in the city, we'll find her!", Oum clutches the steering wheel.
The program shows a map of the western United States with a moving dot in the northern part of Los Angeles on it.
"Okay, we are here.", Bee points to the dot. Oum obviously doesn't look, since she must concentrate on driving and not running into any pedestrians. "Come on, come on, come on...", he mutters, until after a few seconds a second dot appears. "YES! She's in North Hills!", he cheers, "Drive to the cemetery, then onto the 4-0-5."
"San Fernando Cemetery?", Oum asks as she speeds around a street corner.
"Is there another one?", he replies.
"Don't worry my baby. We're coming! We'll bring you home!"
"Okay, stay where you are. We're coming to get you!"
"Please."
Anne ends the call and activates her phone's GPS before turning it off and putting it in her bag.
She had spent the last twenty minutes sobbing and crying her eyes out, which are now all red and swollen. It took her a while to find the strength necessary to get up from the exact spot where the portal disappeared. She is currently sitting on the floor, leaning back against the arm of the couch, her backpack pressed tightly against her chest.
The gray overcast weather over Los Angeles only grows gloomier, and though it's just about noon it seems like dark early evening.
She watches the handful of cars as they pass on the road in front of her. She watches the low-hanging clouds pass over her head. She feels the first drops of rain land on her skin. She notices a spider weaving a spider web high up on the huge wall next to her.
She tries to turn her thoughts away from her current situation as best as possible. From the fact that she lost her girlfriend. From the fact that Andrias has betrayed her after all. About the fact that Sasha has abandoned her. About the fact that she probably won't be able to see the Plantars again. About the fact that she can't go back to Amphibia. About... how alone she is, and how helpless and tiny she feels right now.
Tears burst through her eyes again and she buries her face deep on her backpack, sobbing heavily as it begins to rain harder.
Only when she hears a car come to a halt in front of her ten minutes later, tires screeching, does she straighten her head again. They are here, and Anne tries to get up. Her knees buckle, however, and she falls to her knees. Her parents sprint out on the car, also with tears in their eyes, and drop to their knees beside her, hugging her as tightly as if their lives depended on it.
"Mom... Dad...", Anne cries, completely melting in the embrace, "I... I- I...", she tries to find words, anything she should or could say to them, but nothing but sobs come out of her mouth.
"It's okay my little gem.", Oum holds her close, "You are home."
"Let it out.", Bee also tries to comfort her, "It's over."
At that, however, Anne just starts crying louder. She only grips her parents tighter while her father's words wander around in her head as an eternal echo.
'It's over - It's over - It's over - It's over-...'
More than twenty minutes the three of them do not move, until Anne's sobs and tears gradually subside.
With teary eyes herself, Oum leans back a bit, silently holding Anne's face with her hands, wiping one cheek dry with a thumb.
"Shall we go home?", Oum asks her quietly, to which Anne nods, barely perceptible.
Oum and Bee stand up, each holding out a hand to Anne. Together, supporting their daughter, they all walk slowly back to the car.
Oum opens the rear sliding door, helping Anne getting in.
"You stay with her. I'll drive.", Bee states softly. Oum nods to him and gets in the back with Anne. He gets into the driver's seat, but before he drives off, he turns around to the back, looking at Anne leaning her head against Oum's shoulder, holding her hand, thoroughly exhausted.
Rain gently pelts the roof of the car and it is not long before a light snore escapes from Anne. Coming to a stop at a traffic light, Bee turns around again, finding his wife smiling at him, still holding Anne's hand.
"She's totally out.", Oum whispers. Bee turns back to the front and drives the rest of the way back home, overjoyed that her daughter is back, but at the same time confused on what he will discuss with Oum later.
Fifteen minutes later, they find themselves parked outside the Boonchuys' garage. The rain has eased a bit, but it's still gray overcast.
Bee gets out first while Oum unbuckles Anne's seatbelt. She is fast asleep. The relieved parents can't help but smile at the sight.
Oum is about to wake Anne up, but Bee stops her.
"Let her sleep.", he whispers, "I'll carry her to her room. You take her things."
Oum nods affirmatively and Bee easily lifts her out of the van and carries her into the house, up to her room, which they had not dared to enter for ages. He gently lays his daughter down on her bed before observing her peacefully sleeping pose. Oum stands behind him, leaning against the doorframe.
"What do you think happened to her?", she asks him in a whisper. "And why is she wearing... armor?"
Bee merely shakes his head in response to those questions. Silently, he looks at Anne's golden chestplate with its crystalline embellishments, as well as her golden shinbone armor that blends into equally golden boots.
Bee leans forward, giving Anne a kiss on her forehead and removes some of the leaves and sticks that have gotten caught in her hair.
"Sleep tight, sweetheart. I'm so glad you're back!", he whispers before leaving the room with Oum, closing the door behind him. The two of them quietly descend the steps again.
They sit down at the kitchen table where Oum has put Anne's backpack earlier.
For a few moments, they look at the backpack intently.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?", Oum asks.
"I want to know what happened as much as you do, but I don't think we should be digging through her stuff just like that.", Bee argues, "I'm sure that when she wakes up that she'll tell us everything eventually."
Oum thinks about his words for a moment before completely dismissing all of it.
"I can't wait that long.", she states, opening Anne's backpack and dumping everything out on the kitchen table.
Out fall a few clothes, two golden gauntlets that match Anne's armor, as well as two phones.
Although Bee was at first against going through her things, he very quickly found an interest in one of the gauntlets. He lets his fingers glide over the smooth surface, the transparent blue crystal-like ornaments, and the black velvet fabric the gloves are made of.
"This is real.", he marvels.
"Huh?", Oum asks.
"This is real gold. The gold, the velvet... This thing alone must have cost a fortune...", he looks at his wife in confusion and amazement before turning his gaze up towards the stairs, "Anne, where have you been?"
"And this.", Oum holds up a blue and white hoodie, as well as jeans shorts, "These are not Anne's clothes."
"How do you know?"
"You know how Anne dresses. And there's no way she'd wear a hoodie with cat ears sewn on it."
"Okay, good point. But let's say you're right, and these aren't Anne's clothes. Whose are they then? Sasha's? Marcy's?", he asks, "And if they are theirs, why didn't they show up with Anne? Why was she all alone?"
"I think they belong to Marcy rather than Sasha. She always struck me as a cat ears type, even if those aren't really her colors.", Oum comments, "Do you think... that maybe... they might not all have made it?"
A horrifying thought manifests at that in their minds and a meaningful silence fills the room.
"I think you were right.", Oum admits, "Maybe we shouldn't have done this.", she starts stuffing the clothes as well as the gauntlets back into the backpack when suddenly, unconsciously, she drops the two phones down to the floor.
Bee bends down to pick them up again. He recognizes Anne's phone with the orange cat-shaped case. The second one is purple with the face of a bat on the back. Both phones in hand, he accidentally activates Anne's and her lock screen lights up. He smiles slightly as he looks at the picture: It's a selfie of Anne and Marcy, with Marcy giving her a kiss on her cheek. She looks happy.
"Take a look at this.", he turns Anne's phone so Oum can see it too. She smiles at first, too, before a confused frown appears on her face. "Is something wrong?"
He turns it back around to look at it again himself.
"Look at the background. Notice anything?", she inquires, "Where are they?"
"I see a lot of green... A tree trunk in the background...", he describes.
"There are windows in there."
"A tree-trunk-house?", he asks, confused. Oum shrugs her shoulders. Bee puts Anne's phone away and picks up the other one and activates it. A mixed expression of surprise but also slight disgust graces his face as he looks at the lock screen. He turns the phone to his wife, who also looks quite surprised.
The image shows a girl with a dark brown pixie cut, wearing the hoodie that Oum had just been holding. Next to the girl is a kind of oversized, humanoid light-blue frog with pink hair and one visible yellow eye. It's wearing a black cloth for clothing and they're both smiling at the camera.
"That's definitely not one of my daughter's friends that I know.", Oum comments before pointing to the frog, "And that... That's definitely a doll, right?"
"I think... I don't really want to know.", he replies before turning off the phones and carefully putting them back with the other things into Anne's backpack. Oum shuts the zipper again before the two of them lean into the backs of the kitchen chairs, looking at each other wordlessly.
"So, what do we do now? Should we just wait until she wakes up again?", Bee asks after a long moment of silence. "Should we inform the police? Or anyone else?"
"No.", Oum answers firmly, "At least... not yet. We should see how she's doing later first and talk to her. We'll do the rest when she's ready.", Bee nods in agreement, Oum's head turns towards the living room, "I should probably clean up the cocoa stain on the floor and all the broken pieces though."
"Wait, I'll help you."
"Mmm- hnm- nnnmmm-", Anne tosses and turns on her bed, caught in a nightmare, "Mar- Mmm-"
She's breathing hard, sweat beading on her forehead.
"MARCY!", she suddenly shoots up from her pillows, panting heavily. Her hand instinctively shoots to her mattress right next to her, trying to reach for her girlfriend.
But she's not there.
Anne's gaze lingers on her hand. Only after a few moments does she begin to realize that she is not in their shared bed in the Plantars' basement, or in Marcy's room in the Palace in Newtopia, but in her own bed... In her own room... On Earth.
With her mouth open, she lets her gaze slowly glide through her room.
She looks at the posters hanging on the slope of the roof, right next to her bed. One is the poster of her favorite tennis player Naomi Ōsaka from Japan, and underneath is a smaller motivational poster, printed with the text 'Swing It!'
Her gaze continues to slide down the slope of the roof over her school's banner, which hangs above the poster of her favorite K-pop band, and next to a painting of a lonely house suspended on a small island in outer space. On the corner opposite her bed is a beanbag chair, with her desk right next to it, decorated with a string of multi-colored lights. Her gaze continues to her completely cluttered shelf, to her closet, and further on to her dresser.
Anne sits down on the edge of her bed and glances at the clock on the nightstand right next to her bed.
'It's just after five...', her gaze wanders out of her bedroom window. It is raining.
She stands up, but almost loses her balance when she realizes that she is still wearing her armor.
'I'm home... Right?', she pinches her hip, 'Nope, this is real.'
All of a sudden, she notices a noise. Something is scratching against her door, followed by a soft meowing.
Anne's eyes widen and she opens the door, slamming it against her bed.
"Domino!", Anne squeals at the black cat sitting patiently in front of her, lifting her up and cuddling and hugging her until Domino herself regrets her decision to come here. "Oh Domino, I missed you soooo much."
Anne squeezes her with all her love before ultimately holding her way directly in front of her face.
"And you're just the cat I need to solve a very important mystery.", Domino tilts her head slightly and has her tongue hanging out the side. She holds her even closer. "How exactly did I get into my room? I just remember getting in the car..."
Anne stares deeply into Domino's eyes for several meaningful seconds, full of expectation. However, she merely licks the tip of Anne's nose in response, genuinely bringing a smile to Anne's face.
"Oh, I love you so much.", she gives her a few more kisses before setting her down on her bed and turning to her closet.
She opens the doors, her eyes beginning to sparkle. She admires her comparatively huge selection of clothes, which she has missed since she arrived in Amphibia. Dozens of jackets, hoodies, t-shirts, leggings, shorts, and shoes, just to name a few things. While she's not in the mood to rummage through her clothes like crazy, thanks to Domino she feels good enough to get out of her armor, and especially the school uniform she's been wearing almost continuously for more than three months now. She grabs the first available T-shirt and casual jean shorts. The t-shirt is white with pink sleeves, with the symbol of an orange flame printed in the center of her chest. She throws her school uniform into the empty laundry basket next to her door while she carefully puts her golden armor on her bed. Thoughtfully, her gaze remains for a while on her breastplate, on which she can clearly see her own reflection. With a determined look, she looks into her own eyes.
'I'm coming back for you Marcy. Somehow...', she thinks to herself, brimming with determination.
Anne turns to her door and takes Domino up into her arms, who has so far just been rubbing herself along her legs. Now held by Anne, she begins to purr relaxingly.
Anne leaves her room and descends the stairs as quietly as possible, listening out to see if she can locate her parents. Arriving at the bottom step, she hears the television running in the living room.
She gets nervous all of a sudden and unconsciously starts to scratch Domino. 'I can do it. I can- do that.'
With tight steps she enters the living room, immediately catching her parents' attention.
Anne releases Domino back down to the floor while Bee and Oum get up from the sofa and take her in one big, tight hug. This time, however, without tears, but, at least in Anne's case, actually with a smile on her face.
"How did you sleep, Anne?", Bee asks after the embrace broke up again.
"You have no idea how much I missed sleeping on a real bed- on a real mattress.", Anne smiles. Bee and Oum, in turn, look at each other rather apprehensively. Anne notices that, her own mood thus dimming down as well before she continues. "I... I should probably tell you what exactly happened, and where I was."
"Not if you're not ready for it.", Oum reasons, "I don't even want to imagine the horrors you must have gone through-", Anne raises her hand, interrupting her mother.
"Please let me tell you. You deserve to know.", Anne gestures her parents to sit back down, "I missed you guys tremendously, but I can also imagine that it was so much worse for you."
"Okay.", Oum complies. Anne sits down right between her parents, right before she remembers something.
"Wait, where's my backpack?", she asks.
"In the kitchen. Why?"
"I took pictures.", she gets up and heads to the kitchen. She comes back with her backpack in her hand and sits down again. "It might help prove some of the things I've experienced."
"Prove things?", Bee asks confused. "Why? Were you abducted by aliens?", he jokes. Oum also grins in amusement, but Anne's expression is rather serious.
"Something like that.", Anne answers dryly. Her parents open their mouths to say something, but she cuts them both off immediately. "Please let me explain. Okay? And please, keep an open mind."
Bee and Oum look at each other in confusion, but then nod to their daughter, gesturing for her to begin.
"Before I start going into any details, I need to preface some things. First, I didn't go willingly, but I wasn't kidnapped either. That will make more sense later... Second, get rid of the idea that Earth is the only planet where there is intelligent life.", Anne tells them, looking at her parents, searching for any signs of whether or not they believe her. So far, she is optimistic. "Alright so far?"
Bee and Oum nod, and Anne takes a deep breath.
"Okay... The story starts on my birthday, at school. Sasha and I were in biology class and we were supposed to dissect... things. Sasha then had the idea that she and I should skip class-"
"You skipped class??", Oum inquires angrily.
"Yes, and that's by far the most harmless thing I've done in the past few months.", Oum is puzzled by Anne's calm reaction, and that she's not arguing back, "May I continue? This story is long enough already."
Oum nods once again.
"So, Sasha had dragged me all over town: To the mall, to the arcade, and so on. I remember you, Mom, had texted me for the party, but Sasha had been very insistent that I not go home-, and rather spend my birthday with her and Marcy. At the time, I had no idea how much she had manipulated me into doing whatever she wanted-", there was a hint of aggression in that last sentence, something Bee and Oum both picked up on. They don't mention it yet, and Anne continues.
"It was around six when Marcy, Sasha, and I had met up at that nearby playground... You know, the one where Marcy and I first met Sasha when we were little."
"Yeah, I remember.", Bee recalls nostalgically, "That was the beginning of very, very- upf.", Oum elbows him behind Anne's back.
"Don't.", she admonishes him. Anne looks at the two of them, utterly confused.
"You okay?"
"Everything's fine. Please go on.", Oum says in an exaggeratedly friendly voice. Anne doesn't have the slightest clue what exactly that just was, and just continues.
"Okay, now comes the first part, which will seem a bit unbelievable. But don't worry, I have proof of everything.", Anne assures her parents, who are just waiting to hear what she has to say, "Marcy had read in some library book about an antique music box, that she later saw in a thrift store, which she then wanted to give me for my birthday as a present. So, we were at the playground later and we were going to open it. I was the one who did it, and all of a sudden I was no longer in LA, or even on Earth, but in another world called Amphibia."
Anne looks at her parents again, searching for reactions. And there were plenty of them.
"Wait. Wait...", Bee begins, sounding confused, "You mean to tell us you've spent the last few months on another planet???"
"Yes."
"...", speechless, the two parents look at Anne. They need quite some time to process this. "Okay. You said to keep an open mind, so I'll save my questions until later. Please carry on."
"The first three to four weeks were the worst. I ended up in a dense forest, alone. Sasha, Marcy, and I got split up in the transport....
... and I had to sleep in a cave alongside the grossest bugs you could imagine. ...
... turned out there was intelligent life there ...
... a frog boy named Sprig. Wait, I have a picture here of us when we went to ...
... and he took me in. Here, this is Hop Pop, this is Polly ...
... I even tried making pizza, but the tomatoes there were no fun. Like, imagine ...
... Domino 2, but it turned out that she was not a cat-a-pillar, but a ...
... totally loved Suspicion Island. So much so, that he literally drained my phone battery in just ...
... and it was my job to get them together. Admittedly, it didn't work first time, but Sprivy needed ...
... where all of them turned into ice. I mean, I knew that frogs were cold-blooded, but ...
... where I met a newt named Valeriana for the first time. She will come up later again. ...
... they voted me 'Frog of the Year'. Me, Anne. A human. And it then was my job to throw ...
... until Sasha showed up. Turned out that she joined the Toad Army, whose sole purpose it was to ...
... named Luz. She probably saved Hop Pop's life, even if not for long. ...
... able to do magic with these things called glyphs. ...
… from Earth, but back then from yet another place called 'Boiling Isles'. …
... I probably made my biggest mistake. I let Sasha into the house ...
... SHE STABBED HIM! SHE KILLED MY- MY- ...
... at the end she just lost an eye. But if my powers didn't run out, I'm sure I would have ...
... and I was soo happy when he woke up again… If it weren't for Maddie and Luz, he ...
... she and Maddie left for Newtopia. Me and the Plantars left a few days later. ...
... weird dude in a shack wanted to seal me in wax. If I weren't so ...
... those huuge walls. You remember Avatar, dad? THAT huge ...
... reserved the penthouse suite just for us. But it wasn't until hours later, that ...
... she confessed that she trapped us there on purpose. And that just because ...
... WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY MOVED ALREADY???", Anne yells in disgust. Oum lowers her head.
"Since August 1st. We had been talking with the Wu's, trying to persuade them to postpone their move as long as possible.", Oum recounts, "But Zumo's hands were tied. His reassignment came with a huge pay raise, and you know how much they can use the money currently."
At that moment, Anne's face suddenly drops.
"I totally forgot...", she mutters, to which her parents just nod casually, "Is she...?"
"She's fine.", Oum explains, "Chemotherapy is incredibly expensive, but she'll get through it. Even before you disappeared, the doctors said she would make it. And that hasn't changed."
Anne breathes a sigh of relief.
"Okay good. I don't know how Marcy would have taken it if she came back and the first thing she learned was that her mother died."
"So you understand?", Bee asks, to which Anne nods coyly.
"Okay, back to topic... Umm, after her confession, I later went to her place in the palace where ...
... a sleep-over. And it was awesome, but only until Luz got possessed by some kind of wolf-ghost ...
... yeah, and he lived for a thousand years already. I'll come back to him later ...
... picked Marcy up after she met up with Sasha, what didn't go all that well ...
... tents everywhere. Like, as far as the eye could see ...
... Ben Flawrik. And I later took command over thousands of frogs as the leader of ...
... Me and Marcy figured out how to trigger our powers on command. A-and nothing else really happened that day ...
... Marcy made us fight against each other. She wanted to spare …
… Grime surrendered, but I already cut off Sasha's whole ...
… I panicked and flew her to Maddie, who managed to save …
... It was a first step. I hated Sasha soo much for what she did to ...
... Yes, I know. And I'm aware that it will take a long time until things get better again ...
… not sure if we can actually become friends again. I mean, I hurt her a lot too. …
... First Temple. The Temple of Wit, aka. Marcy's specialty ...
... easy, but me and the Plantars really went through something. You see, a few of the pieces ...
... Mount Mutu, where my temple was. That was where we met Valeriana again ...
... active volcano. And I think, that without Sasha's help, we wouldn't have been able to ...
... and we gave Andrias the box …
... but Grime has turned himself in. And Sasha blamed me …
... and- and-", Anne suddenly begins tearing up, "She promised me that she would follow me through, and… and I saw the portal closing."
Both Oum and Bee hold Anne's hands as she's struggling to speak.
"And she's still there?", Bee completes her sentence, whereupon Anne nods while rubbing her cheeks dry with her hand. Bee and Oum look at each other, seemingly communicating telepathically.
"Anne-", Bee begins, "We might have a plan."
She looks at her father with a puzzled and questioning look.
"You and I will go to a doctor tomorrow to get you a complete checkup. Three months on another planet... I can't imagine that didn't leave any physical traces on you.", Oum continues. Bee takes over again.
"And once that's all sorted out, we'll help you find a way back.", he says. Anne's jaw drops to the floor, incredulous at what she just hears.
"You... you believe me?", she asks.
"You are our daughter. Of course we believe you.", Bee replies with a smile on his face, "Even though all those videos probably did about ninety percent to convince us that the frogs in the pictures weren't just dolls.", Anne giggles at that, "From what you told, you did pretty well there, and had a lot of support. Admittedly, I would have loved to meet those Plantars to thank them for protecting my dearest gem.", he gives her a kiss on her cheek.
"However, in the long run, I insist that we be allowed to take you to get counseling. Some of what you've been through sounds extremely traumatic. Especially when you talk about it as if you were just talking about your day at school.", Oum insists. "Okay?"
Anne thinks about it for a longer moment.
"Okay.", she replies smiling before hugging them both tightly again. "You guys are the best, you know that?"
By the time Anne finished sharing with them what had happened over the past few months, it was no longer seven-, but almost ten o'clock.
Oum asked Anne if she would like something to eat, assuming that she must have missed Earth's food at least as much as anything else. It was all the more surprising when Anne declined, explaining that she had eaten a rather generous breakfast in Wartwood before leaving for Newtopia.
Instead, she said that she would prefer to take a really long and boiling hot shower before properly going to sleep. She had wished Oum and Bee a good night before disappearing into the bathroom. The two parents, however, continue to sit in the living room, still processing what they have been told.
"What's on your mind right now?" Bee asks his wife quietly, who is glancing far into the distance. She just shakes her head in response.
"I must admit that I don't know what to think... Another world? Intelligent amphibians? Anne started a war? Our little girl?"
"Don't forget the superpowers...", Bee adds. Oum sighs at that.
"It's just... I believe her, that what she told us actually happened. I just can't imagine it... I mean, if she didn't have all those pictures and videos, I would have assumed that it was probably a defensive reaction of hers that she came up with during a horrible time. Something she did to survive...", she theorizes. Bee looks at her attentively. "Admittedly, I don't know what had been worse: What Anne had actually experienced, or what we feared she might have gone through..."
Anne is feeling great right now.
It's shortly after sunrise and the first rays of sunlight peek into her room. She has been sleeping really well and is still lying in her bed with her eyes closed, wrapped up tightly under her comfortably warm weighted blanket.
With a genuine smile she rolls over on her pillow, wanting to give her girlfriend a good morning kiss. As she opens her eyes, her smile immediately disappears as she finds the space next to her empty.
'Oh... Right.'
A couple of tears well up in her eyes. Anne tries to wipe them dry again, before lifting the blanket off her and sitting down on the edge of her bed. Her hands resting on her knees, she takes a deep breath... and out again. And another breath in... and out.
Her breathing is still quite shaky, but nonetheless she feels a little less shaken up.
She reaches for her phone, which is lying on her nightstand, still with several hundred percent battery charge. Turning it on, her eyes linger on her lock screen, showing the picture of her and Marcy. The two of them had taken this picture on the day when they had not only managed to consciously activate their powers for the first time, but also shared their first kiss together. The latter was obviously the bigger highlight.
Gently, she slid her finger over Marcy's face.
'What happened, Marcy? Why didn't you follow me?'
Again, tears start to gather in her eyes, but she shakes her head strongly, trying to get those thoughts out of her mind.
Anne gets up and puts on her clothes, the same ones she wore yesterday, and leaves her room, heading down the stairs and to the kitchen for breakfast.
Two surprised pairs of eyes look at her as she enters the kitchen.
"Good morning.", Anne greets her parents lightheartedly, who themselves, however, are standing in the kitchen making coffee in their sleeping clothes and looking utterly sleepy still. Anne holds her arms open for a hug.
"Morning...", Oum says as she hugs her daughter. "You-you're awake already? It's just about seven o'clock..."
Anne continues further to hug her father.
"Yeah, where's the Anne who preferred to sleep until noon, or even longer, every day?", Bee jokes, though with a confused undertone. Anne, on the other hand, has grabbed a bowl and a started carton of milk and is currently looking for cornflakes.
"Well, with the Plantars, I usually got up at this time. Not always voluntarily, but still.", Anne opens the bag of cornflakes, looking at it, "Ohhh... I completely forgot that not everything edible here is full of bugs and insects...", she casually tells them. Bee speaks up.
"Do you want... to eat bugs and insects?"
Anne thinks about it for a longer moment while pouring milk over her cornflakes.
"Admittedly, I was very much against eating bugs when the Plantars took me in... But at some point, I didn't even pay attention to it anymore. Now it's just weird to see food that doesn't have bugs in it... You don't have to go out of your way for me, Dad."
"Speaking of that-", Oum speaks up, "Before you came down I called a doctor who is willing to give you a complete check up on short notice."
"When?", Anne asks with her mouth full.
"Oh, don't worry.", Oum dismisses, "We have more than enough time. We don't need to rush."
"When?", Anne repeats her question.
"Um, a little before ten.", she replies before Anne walks to the table, sits down, and begins updating about twenty apps on her phone as she continues to eat.
Although she hasn't yet developed or even discussed a plan with her parents yet on how to get back to Amphibia, she may already have a person in mind who could help her, even if only under certain conditions.
A couple of minutes later, Oum and Bee also sit down at the table with Anne, who also made themselves breakfast. Bee notices that Anne has Instagram open.
"Heh, at least something hasn't changed.", he jokes.
"Huh?", Anne looks up from her phone. "Oh, um, I'm searching for Luz. I need to know if she made it home. The only problem right now is that I don't know if she has any social media presence."
"Do you have her phone number?", he asks.
"Yes."
"Why don't you give her a call?", he further suggests.
"Because I have her phone too.", Anne replies, to which Bee feels mildly dumb, "So now I'm searching all sorts of social media sites, seeing if I can find her that way. All I have is her name, her interest in 'The Good Witch Azura', and I know she's from a town called Gravesfield. So, it's just a matter of time before I can find her."
The three of them continue eating until Oum suddenly speaks up.
"You know, maybe calling her might work anyway.", Oum suggests, a questioning look on Anne's part in response, "If she made it back, it's possible she got a new SIM card and her number is active."
"That might actually work...", Anne mumbles, "But I wouldn't want to try that until later. I don't want to wake her up in case she's still asleep."
"Alternatively, you could see if you can find her in the phone book somewhere.", Bee suggests, "I mean, you know her full name and the city she lives in..."
"Yeah... Yeah, I'll try that."
A few hours later, Anne and Oum find themselves in the car, on the way to the doctor whose clinic is right across the city. On a good day and with ideal traffic conditions, the trip would only take thirty minutes.
However, this is Los Angeles. There is no such thing as an ideal traffic situation here.
Oum is driving, Anne is sitting in the back. The two of them are stuck in traffic. Fortunately, they left early enough, since Oum had already expected it in advance.
"How is your search for this girl going?", Oum asks at one point to break the silence in the car.
"I've actually found surprisingly a lot: Twelve possible profiles on Instagram, eight of them private, nine accounts on TikTok, one of them private, fifty-two accounts on Tumblr, twenty on Twitter, and so on and so on.", Anne sighs at that.
"Don't worry about it. I am very sure that sooner or later you will be reunited with her.", Oum tries to lighten the mood.
"Well, she is so far my only clue for a way back to Amphibia."
"And what about Sasha?", Oum wonders.
Anne doesn't answer that directly. Instead, she opens her contacts, scrolling down to the one named 'Sashy'. She looks at her profile picture, which is taken from before Amphibia. It's a selfie of herself in her cheerleading outfit on the school's tennis court.
'Sashy...', Anne reads in her mind, 'Sorry, but that doesn't fit anymore.', she decides, changing the contact's name.
"I don't think she's ever going to talk to me ever again.", Anne responds to her mother's question, "Not that I blame her..."
"Probably, but based on her reaction to her friend turning himself in, I'm guessing her interest in finding a way back is at least as strong as yours.", Oum argues.
"I... think she'd rather kill me, but if you think it can work..."
Sasha Waybright
[9:17 - Me]: Hey
[9:17 - Me]: Marcy never came though the portal
[9:17 - Me]: I wanna find a way back. R u in?
Anne turns her phone off before it starts vibrating less than a minute later.
Sasha Waybright
[9:17 - Me]: Hey
[9:17 - Me]: Marcy never came though the portal
[9:17 - Me]: I wanna find a way back. R u in?
[9:18 - Sasha Waybright]: FUCK OFF BOONCHUY
"Nope, still hating me."
"Umm, I'm sorry, but I have to change the subject for a minute: I have a few things to tell you before we get to Dr. Merwood's clinic.", Oum abruptly changes the subject as the traffic in front of her gradually starts moving again.
"Okay...", Anne says in an uncertain voice, turning off her phone. "Like?"
"I told them that you just returned from being kidnapped, and that you're still quite traumatized."
"Okay?"
"Yeah, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get an appointment so quickly..."
"So, you want me to fake… trauma?", Anne asks skeptically.
"Yes?", Oum replies equally uncertain as Anne earlier.
Anne is anything but enthusiastic about the idea, but is willing to do absolutely anything for a way back to Amphibia.
The two of them arrived at the small clinic with about ten minutes to spare before their appointment. They were ushered into a surprisingly empty waiting area for about twenty minutes, before an assistant called Anne out and escorted her and Oum to the back of one of the examination rooms.
"Please remove all but your underwear. Doctor Merwood will be with you in a moment.", she says, closing the door behind her, leaving Anne and her mother alone.
"Would you like me to wait outside?", Oum asks quietly. Anne shakes her head.
"Thanks, but you don't have to."
Anne takes off her yellow shoes and her jean shorts. However, as she takes off her t-shirt, her back turned to her mother, Anne hears a startled gasp. She turns to her mother, her eyes wide.
"Your back...", Oum mutters, "Where did you get all those scars?"
Before Anne can respond, however, Dr. Merwood enters the room.
A younger doctor, no older than thirty-five, her hair tied in a neat braid, and she's wearing a white doctor's coat. She immediately approaches Oum with a friendly handshake.
"Mrs. Boonchuy? I'm Dr. Merwood."
"I'm glad you were able to slip us in on such short notice.", Oum accepts the handshake.
"Yes, you were quite lucky. A client canceled on short notice.", Dr. Merwood explains before turning her attention to Anne, who is sitting on the exam table, her gaze absently fixed on the floor. "And you are Anne? It's nice to meet you..."
It is not until a few moments later that Anne looks at Dr. Merwood, but does not speak up.
"So you can understand me?", she continues to ask. Anne nods slightly. Dr. Merwood turns her attention back to Oum.
"On the phone, you said that her daughter was kidnapped and just came back yesterday. Is that correct?"
"That's right.", Oum replies, to which Dr. Merwood frowns.
"I'm very sorry that you had to go through something like that. Both of you."
"Thank you, I'm also immensely glad to have my gem back. If only physically so far...", Oum notes. "Right now I just want to know if she's missing anything physically; if she's healthy."
"What I can say right now, just by looking at her, she doesn't seem to be malnourished, which is already very good.... I'd still like to take some blood and have the lab check it.", Dr. Merwood picks up one of the syringes prepared earlier, as well as two empty vials, and turns back to Anne, seeking eye contact.
"Anne, can you give me your arm? I'd like to draw some blood."
Hesitantly, Anne nods, holding out her left arm. Dr. Merwood watches Anne closely as she slowly takes her arm in her hand, trying not to frighten her. Anne's arm jerks back at the first contact, but she fortunately relaxes quite quickly.
On the second try, Anne does not flinch, and Dr. Merwood has the opportunity to examine her arm and hand more closely.
Immediately upon examining Anne's hand, she notices the above-average amount of calluses. On the rest of her arm, she finds several smaller scars that have already healed.
The blood draw in general is proceeding without any problems, with only minimal reactions on Anne's part.
"Okay, I'll have the lab run the blood samples as soon as possible.", Dr. Merwood tells Oum, "What I can say so far, though, is that in the time she's been gone, she has done quite a lot of physical work. She has excessive calluses on her hands and scars on her arms. Her legs look quite healthy so far. I don't know what it was like before, but she seems to have above average leg muscles for a thirteen-year-old."
"Well, before she disappeared, she used to play tennis several times a week.", Oum explains.
"Ah, I see. In that case, it just reinforces my theory that she did a lot of physical work. Otherwise, she might have lost some muscle mass over the last couple of months."
"I see. Um, one more request: Would you mind taking a look at her back?", Oum asks.
"Of course.", Dr. Merwood turns to Anne again. "Anne, could you turn to the window over there, please?"
Without words, Anne turns away from Oum and Dr. Merwood, exposing her back.
Her back is anything but healthy looking. It is full of healed scars of various sizes. What worries the two adults most, however, are the cuts, some of which run across her back. They are not deep, but still clearly visible. Dr. Merwood leans closer to her back, but makes the momentous mistake of touching one of the cuts.
In one quick turn, Anne jerks away from the doctor and turns around. Tears well up in her eyes.
"No-", Anne mutters, her whole body beginning to shake. Anne takes a few steps backwards until she has pushed herself all the way into the corner of the room, slowly sliding to the floor.
"He- he was dead.", Oum and Dr. Merwood exchange worried glances, Anne's tears intensifying, "She killed him... He was dead."
Oum's heart begins to ache to see her daughter hurt like this again. She quickly gets to-, and kneels on the floor next to Anne, her mind full of worry.
"Anne, sweetheart, it's alright."
Anne has her knees pressed very close to her chest.
"He- he was dead, and I was too late-", she mutters as tears stream down her cheeks.
Oum turns to Dr. Merwood.
"Could you give us a moment, please?", Oum asks. Dr. Merwood nods, reaches for the blood samples, and leaves the room. Oum turns back to her crying daughter, and with each passing second, she becomes more and more convinced that she is not acting.
"Anne..."
"She killed him!", she cries, "He- he died in my arms." Anne holds up her trembling hands, "There was blood everywhere..."
"And he's alive. You had told me yourself.", Oum tries to comfort Anne, though she is unresponsive right now. Oum puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder, however she jerks it away. Her body shakes uncontrollably as the traumatic memories flood back into her mind. Her hands continue trembling as she's clutching at her own arms tightly.
Cautiously, Oum inches closer to her daughter, her heart aching, until she is sitting on the floor right next to Anne. Very carefully, Oum puts her hand on Anne's shoulder, giving her the option to pull away if she wants. And while she flinches at first, she accepts it on the second try.
"He was gone, Mom.", Anne now addresses her directly for the first time, "Sasha killed him, and I was too late."
"I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, but he is safe. You are safe. You here with me, and he in Amphibia.", Anne turns her head, burying it in Oum's shoulder. "You really experienced- no, survived something truly terrible."
Anne's sobs echo in the small examination room. Oum hugs her close, the room feeling heavy filled with the heavy emotions that Anne has let bubble and boil inside her all this time.
It takes a while for her tears and sobs to subside. In the meantime, Oum has given her her T-shirt back from the examination table, so that she doesn't feel quite as exposed.
Dr. Merwood came into the room again briefly in the meantime, though Oum had quickly let her know that they would still need a while.
"Mom?"
"Yes, my little gem?", Oum replies, gently stroking Anne's hair.
"I want to go back.", she whispers, no longer crying, but still with tears in her eyes, "I wanna go home."
"Okay.", Oum agrees. She stands up again, handing Anne her shorts, which she immediately puts back on while Oum leaves the room and exchanges a few words with Dr. Merwood.
"I'm going to take Anne back home.", she explains.
"Yes, I already thought so.", Dr. Merwood replies sympathetically, "Basically, though, I can already tell you that Anne is physically in surprisingly good shape. We're still going to wait for her blood results, but for that I will call you in the next few days."
"Thank you.", Oum expresses her gratitude. Dr. Merwood, however, is not finished yet.
"This is just my assessment of her physical condition. However, she has suffered a great amount of psychological damage that should be looked at and examined by a psychiatrist as soon as possible. If you'd wait a moment, I would be able to write down a few psychiatrists for you, especially ones with a focus on trauma."
"Oh, that would be wonderful.", Oum thanks her profusely. Dr. Merwood turns around and leaves Oum's field of vision. Just moments later, Anne emerges from the examination room, quietly reaching for Oum's hand.
"Let's go home.", she says in a voice as small as that of a small child.
"Just a moment. Dr. Merwood is preparing something else for you right now for later."
Mere minutes later, Dr. Merwood returns, an envelope in her hand, which she hands to Oum before turning to Anne one last time.
"I would really like for you to get better as soon as possible. You strike me as a really strong and brave girl.", she says, causing a small smile to appear on Anne's face.
"Thank you very much for your time.", Oum says goodbye and she and Anne leave her clinic again.
The two of them spent the ride back home mostly in silence. Anne merely gazed silently out the window the entire ride, while Oum had to concentrate on driving, occasionally glancing at Anne in the rearview mirror. The atmosphere in the car, however, was anything but tense. It was a surprisingly enjoyable silence.
It took a while for them to arrive back home. However, just as they pull back into the driveway and come to a halt, Oum speaks up.
"Anne, I'm sorry. I should have known you weren't ready..."
"It was okay, Mom. There was nothing you could have done.", Anne quietly huffs out, "I mean, how could you have known something like that was going to happen? After all, I had no idea either."
"Do you want to... talk about it?", Oum asks. Anne thinks about it for a while.
"No.", Anne replies, unbuckling her seatbelt, "I think I've had enough breakdowns for a while."
"I can understand that.", Oum says.
"I'll go try to find a way to contact Luz.", Anne says, opening the van's sliding door, and walking into the house with Oum behind her.
After greeting her father and asking if she can use his laptop, she retreats to her room with it and tosses herself on her bed with it.
Before booting it up, however, she pulls out her own phone, but also Luz's, which she grabbed from her desk.
Anne unlocks her own phone and stares at her homescreen for a while, unable to decide what to try first: Calling her first or contacting her via social media. When she directly weighs up whether she should rather make one call or write to several dozens of social media accounts, the answer is still quite obvious.
She opens Luz' contact. Her profile picture is a photo Anne took in Amphibia of Luz with her cute little owl sitting on her shoulder.
As she holds her finger over her call button, she notices doubting thoughts flooding her mind.
'What if she doesn't want to talk to me anymore? What if she thinks we left her behind, and abandoned her after the sleepover? What if she hates me too?', she thinks to herself, referring to her last interaction with Sasha.
Anne withdraws her finger, but her gaze remains fixed on the call button. She feels dread rising in her mind.
'Okay, best-case scenario: She knows exactly how to travel between worlds. Worst case scenario... She hates me. Not that I could blame her... ... Fuck it!'
She presses the call button, closely watching if the screen of Luz' phone lights up while she lets it ring. The screen stays off, however...
"Good morning. You've reached Luz Noceda. I can't answer my phone right now. If you want me to call you back, leave me a lovely message after the beep. Byeeeee"
Anne quickly hangs up before the beep, taking a breath.
'Okay, option one didn't work.', she thinks to herself. At that, Anne boots up her father's laptop, opening his browser, looking for phone books online. The first search result: The white pages.
'Okay... Search for people, reverse phone number search, or reverse address search...', she reads what she sees in front of her, 'People search... Last name 'Noceda', city 'Gravesfield'... Hmm, six results. I can work with that.'
'Okay, only three of them are actually named 'Noceda', and only one of them actually lives in Gravesfield. The rest, however, tend to live in the surrounding area...'
Anne enters the displayed phone number into her phone, and after some hesitation, she actually gets up the nerve to press the call button. And it rings.
"You have reached the Nocedas. Camila here, hello."
"Uh, hello. Um, my name is Anne- Anne Boonchuy.", she introduces herself, stuttering slightly with nervousness, "is Luz home?"
"Are you one of her friends?", Camila asks curiously.
"Um, yeah. I had met her a few months ago," Anne tells.
"Ah yes. I'm glad to meet more of Luz's camp friends. She never told me about a girl named Anne, though."
'Camp?', Anne wonders inwardly. "Um, yeah. Can I talk to her?"
"But of course. One second.", at that, Anne hears Camila call out to Luz in a muffled tone. "Mija, tengo una llamada para ti. Es una chica del campamento de verano."
A few moments later, her ears are filled with a familiar voice.
"Hi, this is Luz."
"Oh my frog, I'm so glad to hear your voice again.", Anne states full of joy.
"... Um, excuse me, but... who is this?", she hears Luz ask seemingly genuinely confused.
"Anne? Anne Boonchuy?", she replies without an immediate reaction from the other side. "We met a few months ago in Amphibia. ... We slept in the same basement."
"... I'm sorry, but you must be mistaking me for someone else.", Luz says, causing Anne's heart to ache.
'Did she forget who I am?', Anne thinks to herself, "You're Luz Noceda. You ended up in Amphibia after fighting some guy named Belos-"
"Wait!", Luz says, her voice no longer confused but... terrified. "Repeat that name!"
"Which one? Belos?", Anne replies. From the other side of the call, she suddenly hears another voice speaking to Luz in the background.
"Hey, birthday girl. Are you coming back? The bottle doesn't spin by itself.", the unknown background voice says. "I- I- I'll be right back, Masha.", Luz answers her. Anne continues.
"You know who I'm talking about, right? You know who this Belos is?", Anne asks, however Luz doesn't answer. "Do you remember me too?"
"I- I don't know you. I don't know what you're talking about.", Luz speaks in a panic filled voice, "I've never been to the Demon Realm. Don't ever call here again!"
The call ends.
'What?', Anne asks, her voice tiny.
She is frozen in place, the beeping of the ended call continuing to beep.
Her phone falls out of her hand on the floor, not noticing the sound of her screen cracking.
'She... She... d-doesn't...', her breathing becomes difficult, her chest feeling increasingly heavy. A sense of abandonment fills her hearts and tears fill her eyes, blurring her vision.
She now has lost everyone.
Marcy, her girlfriend, who stayed behind in Amphibia.
She will never be able to see her second family, the Plantars, ever again.
Sasha hates her and never wants to talk to her again.
And Luz... She's pretending she doesn't know who she is anymore.
Everyone has left her.
Tears are streaming down Anne's cheeks. This time, however, they are not borne by sadness. They are borne by an inner emptiness and numbness that's spreading through her body.
Anne sits motionless on the edge of her bed, Luz' words still echoing in her ears. She, as well as her entire world, have now completely collapsed, lying in ruins in front of her and having lost all color.
The desire of giving up is beginning to grow in her mind. In her heart a pain she has never experienced in her life.
She lets herself fall backwards onto her bed, tears flowing in floods like never before. Tears of loneliness, of loss... of resignation. All of which is beginning to consume her.
Hours upon hours pass unnoticed, which Anne has spent locked up crying in her room. Her pillow is soaked with her tears, her eyes are red and swollen. Of the several packs of tissues she has used, only a fraction has actually made it into a trash can.
By now, Anne had cried all the tears, and as much as she wants to keep crying, nothing happens anymore. Her heart aches, gradually realizing that her tears no longer able to release her of her pain. Instead, a gaping, crushing emptiness has begun to form deep within her heart as she realized that her entire world has collapsed.
Her mind is empty, her heart in shambles, and her vision feels gray and empty.
After an eternity of lying motionless on her bed and staring at her ceiling, Anne sits up on the edge of her bed. Standing up with a struggle, she makes her way out of her room and into the bathroom, where she locks the door behind her.
She purposefully opens one of the drawers under the sink, looking for something specific.
'Where are they?', she thinks to herself, rummaging through the drawer, 'There!'
Anne pulls out a small pack of spare razor blades, takes one out, and sits down with it on the edge of her bathtub, staring at the razor blade for a while. Her mind is still blank, but a feeling of safety and warmth spreads through her, just from having the razor blade lying in her open palm. She takes a deep breath, as she's beginning to tremble slightly.
Anne closes her fist tightly.
Notes:
So... I'd love to read what you think after reading this chapter.
Before you leave, I have two more things to say:
- Since the last chapter, I started writing a mini-fic, called 'Poisoned Mind'. It's a Canon-Divergent fic answering the question what would have happened if Luz being sick during TOH's 'Eclipse Lake' had a way worse effect on her body due to her being human. If you're reading this on the day this chapter came out, you can also read chapter 2 of 'Poisoned Mind' already too. I hope you give it a read.
- A quick reminder that next to my Discord-server, I also post production-updates on my DeviantArt page. That also includes previews-, as well as release-dates for upcoming chapters. You can find my DeviantArt profile here.
Chapter 40: Short Stories - Home
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
[Sasha]
14. September - 11:50
"He wanted it that way!", Anne shouts back at Sasha, having just told her that Grime has surrendered to the Newtopian Authorities.
"BULLSHIT!", Sasha yells back at her with all her might, smacking her fists against the floor as she has fallen to her knees, furious tears streaming down her cheeks.
'I've got to get him out of there!', she thinks to herself resolutely, trying to summon her powers. Confused and angry, she looks down at her hands after nothing happens. "WHY AREN'T YOU FUCKING WORKING?"
Her head snaps up, focused on Anne. She stands up, stomping towards her as she is suddenly grabbed from behind. In one fluid motion, Sasha turns and shoves Marcy away from her, pushing her so violently that she stumbles and falls backwards to the ground. Sasha doesn't pay any further attention to her.
"WHY DO YOU GET TO DECIDE WHO GETS TO SAY GOODBYE, AND WHO DOESN'T?", she yells at Anne, her voice beginning to ache, "WHY CAN YOU SAY GOODBYE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU, AND I CAN'T?"
"It wasn't my decision.", Sasha hates to hear Anne's voice right now, "He knew you wouldn't let him turn himself in. He knew that if you didn't go home, that neither of you would have lasted much longer. He didn't want you to just throw your life away for him."
"When? ... Wait. The last temple...", Sasha's clenched fists relax. Anne continues.
"He had told me that he was planning to turn himself in to protect you. He knew that if he had told you himself, that you would have done anything to talk him out of it... He cares about you."
"And yet he left me.", Sasha says, pain aching in her heart, her rage returning which is now focused on Marcy, who just managed to stand back up. "YOU!", she now yells at Marcy, stomping toward her, "DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT???? DID YOU KNOW?"
"NO, SHE DIDN'T!", Anne shouts. Sasha stops moments in front of Marcy, whose eyes are full of fear. She turns back to Anne. "He had asked me to keep it to myself. I didn't tell anybody."
'He... No, he wouldn't... Not me...', Sasha is beginning to tremble with anger.
"Fuck you, Anne.", she quietly mutters to herself.
"What?"
"I said FUCK YOU, ANNE BOONCHUY!", it feels like the walls start to shake at these words, a river of angry and heartbroken tears flowing down her face, "YOU ARE THE FUCKING WORST!"
Sasha's gaze wanders to the frogs who, like Marcy, are similarly trembling in fear and hiding behind Anne's legs, "I WISH I HADN'T STOPPED AFTER JUST THAT ONE!"
Her gaze wanders to the windows of the throne room one last time before she turns, briskly making her way to the portal.
'Fuck you too Grimsey! I will never forgive you for this.'
Mere moments after having stepped into the event horizon of the portal, Sasha immediately emerges from it again. Back on Earth. Surrounded by brick walls.
She looks up. The left wall belongs to a three-story house, the right one is even higher. The one directly in front of her measures only about three meters.
With a quick run-up, Sasha jumps off in front of the wall and manages to climb up, holding onto the top edge, pulling herself up, and dropping onto the asphalt on the other side.
She now finds herself in a narrow alley, filled with garbage, old stuff, and other heartlessly thrown away objects. Still feeling the blood boiling in her veins in rage, she kicks and punches at everything she finds. An old television set? One punch and the screen is destroyed. A crate full of old glass bottles? She jumps on it, shattering all of them.
At one point, Sasha finds a metal baseball bat, and with raging tears, she hits everything in her path. Bottles, furniture, electronics...
"FUUUCCCKKKK YOOOOU GRRIIIMMEEEE!!!", she yells so loud that the floor beneath her feet seems to shake. But no, it's merely Sasha's legs giving out. She collapses, falling to her knees on some broken glass, sobbing uncontrollably as her emotions overflow.
"Fuck all of you...", she mutters, before all of a sudden, she hears another voice.
"Sasha!", it's Anne. It is no surprise that she followed her through the portal. "Sashaaa!!!"
Sasha's head snaps down the narrow alley to the brick wall she climbed over earlier, tensely waiting to see if Anne also climbs over it.
Her eyes are fixed fixedly on the wall, and she neither hears nor sees any more from Anne.
'I can't stay here.', she decides, grabbing her new bat, getting back up again, and leaving the alley, trying to get as much space between herself and the other girl as possible.
After about a hundred meters of the obstacle course in the form of the alley, Sasha actually arrives at a moderately busy street. She looks to her left, looking at the road that stretches as far as Sasha can see through the incipient rain. And to her right, she notices a directional sign displayed for the San Diego Freeway, the 405, which runs once completely through Los Angeles, allowing her to at least narrow down her location a little bit.
Without knowing exactly where in LA she is, she just starts walking, looking for anything that will tell her more precisely where she is. Be it signs, stores, or other places she might know and recognize.
After about fifteen minutes, Sasha arrives at a major intersection with a bus stop on the opposite side.
'Finally.', she thinks to herself in a sense of relief.
Ignoring the traffic lights, she crosses the five-lane street first, then the adjacent six-lane street, before arriving at the bus stop and reading the sign attached to it.
'That's the 234 heading to LA Mission College... It heads straight up to Slymar.'
Sure enough, just eight minutes later, the bus arrives. Granted, it was eight minutes of Sasha waiting in the steadily increasing rain without shelter, which did not help her already crappy mood.
The bus driver opens the door right in front of her, an unreadable expression on his face as he watches the thirteen-year-old girl get on, a furious aura around her but with teary eyes, and her wearing a strange red suit of armor. In fact, the bus tilts slightly to one side as she gets on. She makes her way to the very back, past some other people who are also giving her strange looks, and sits down in the very back.
The fact that she neither has any money, nor a ticket really concerns to her right now, and she seems to give this impression to the other passengers as well as to the bus driver. He drives off.
In total, she's traveling for about forty minutes. Every now and then people get off, but also new ones get on, who immediately avoid Sasha's immediate surroundings as soon as they spot her. It is as if she would carry a warning sign with the inscription 'Step closer and die!'
The fact that all the people are avoiding her is actually quite good for her, and more or less even helps her to start thinking a bit about herself and the recent events, and to sort out her emotions. Though without any direct results, she at least doesn't feel so horrible anymore and is in a somewhat stable mood.
As the bus passes the Waybright Estate, Sasha signals the bus driver to stop, and gets off at the next bus stop and back out into the rain.
She waits until the bus has departed before setting off and walking back the nearly two hundred meters.
14. September - 13:16
Being soaking wet and it now being a couple minutes later, Sasha finds herself in front of the closed-off fence gate of the Waybright Estate. She looks through the spiky meter-high steel bars at the gravel-covered driveway and the perfectly manured lawn alongside, on which the lawn sprinkler system is currently active.
'But of course the sprinklers are running... What a surprise.', Sasha thinks to herself in a sarcastic tone. She pushes against the gate to open it, but it doesn't budge open. 'What the...?'
She looks around briefly and spots a number pad on the wall next to the gate, in all likelihood connected to it.
"Huh, that's new..."
For a few moments, she seriously considers just bashing the pad with her baseball bat until the gate opens. After another few moments though, she defers that idea into her plan B.
'Okay, let's see... Dad's birthday? No. His company's founding day? No. Is it maybe... Nope, it's not my birthday either.', she sighs in awaited disappointment, 'The date of his divorce with mom perhaps?', a green light glows up.
"Seriously???"
Stunned, she stares at the keypad as the gate slowly opens in front of her. She grips her bat with both hands, takes a swing, and with just a single forceful blow, knocks the number pad right off the wall.
'Oops. My bat slipped.', she snorts in amusement before making her way down the driveway.
The Waybright Estate is located in the northern part of the district, with the San Gabriel Mountain range towering directly behind it. The estate itself, however, could not look more boring and uninteresting: At the end of the fifty-meter driveway is a garage with room for five cars, in which, the last time Sasha was there, there were six in it. The main building directly adjacent to it is merely a structure of cubes of white concrete with partly oversized windows in it. Her father had it built after the divorce when her mom got the villa near the coast.
Sasha reaches the front door, made of stainless steel with a dark brown wooden engraving. Right next to it, an intelligent doorbell with a built-in camera that activates when an unauthorized person approaches and automatically unlocks the door for anyone else. This security feature was notably already there before Sasha disappeared to Amphibia, which is why the system recognizes her and unlocks the door.
At the very moment she enters the house, she is met by that hyper-sterile air that Sasha definitely has not missed over the last few months.
Immediately behind the front door is a doorless hallway stretching two floors, its roof made of glass on which she can hear the rain falling onto it. In the hallway itself, there are a couple of very expensive paintings hanging on the walls that her father purchased a few years ago for the sole reason that he could brag about them.
Sasha investigates the first open room to her right, her father's office. An absolutely huge room, measuring two-thirds of the area equivalent to the entrance hall of Toad Tower. In addition, all walls are completely white, the floor consisting of gray concrete. In the center of the room, in line with a window that spans the entire height of the room, stands a conference table, which, as far as Sasha is concerned, has never been used as such. At the other end of the room, by another huge window looking out, is a glass desk three meters wide, where Sasha's father sits with his back turned towards her, completely engrossed in his laptop.
"Hey Dad.", Sasha greets him in a neutral tone, "I'm home."
He doesn't turn around, his eyes stuck at the screen. He is working on something, typing away, but still speaks up.
"Hey sweetie. How was school?", he asks. At that exact moment, a fuse blows in Sasha's brain.
"School?", Sasha repeats, "SCHOOL??? I was gone for three months!"
"Oh, right...", he backtracks, but still not giving her his attention, "It's summer break, I forgot. How was camp with your friends?"
With every single second that goes by, the fury within Sasha increases more and more as she's clutching her bat so tightly that one might think she's going to break it in two with just one hand.
She quietly speaks up.
"Hey Sasha, good to see you again. Really missed you a lot. Sorry for being such a giant self-centered asshole.", she mimics her father.
"Did you say something?", he wonders.
"Whatever.", she replies, leaving his office, and climbing the stairs up to the second floor to her room. Being just one of three rooms in the building with a door, Sasha enters her own room and slams the door so hard, it causes the walls to shake.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!", she yells from the top of her lungs. She grabs her bat with both hands and slams it full force into the dresser that's right next to the door, smashing it to smithereens. She hits the walls multiple times and destroys her closet while angry tears drop to the floor. She shatters the makeup mirror on her desk into several shards as she pounds on it with her fist, and finishes the desk itself off with her bat.
The tears in her eyes begin to blur her vision, causing her to stumble and fall backwards against her bed.
With her back hurting from the impact and still with tears in her eyes, Sasha sits up against her bed.
"Urgh...", she groans in tears, "Fuck... everything. Fuck Grime for deciding to just leave me like that without saying anything. Fuck Anne for knowing about it. Fuck her stupid frog family, because- well, they haven't left her. Fuck Marcy, because... ... ugh, whatever. And fuck Dad for not even having missed me while I was gone."
Sasha lets her head fall backwards onto her mattress. She rubs the tears from her eyes and surveys the wreckage and debris lying all around her, not a hint of remorse to be found in her mind.
That is, until something suddenly strikes her: Her bed is actually made. It's clean and neat.
"Maja...", Sasha remembers. Maja has been her father's housekeeper and Sasha's unofficial nanny for many many years. Possibly the only adult person who ever really took care of her. "I wonder if..."
Sasha stands up, walks out of her room, and leans on the glass handrail.
"YO, DAD! WHEN IS MAJA COMING?", she yells downstairs, hoping that she actually still works here.
"What?", comes back on the study.
"MAJA! WHEN IS SHE WORKING AGAIN?"
"Tomorrow.", he replies.
'Tomorrow... Good.', Sasha thinks to herself, sighing in relief, 'She probably won't be able to help me, but she's always been a great listener.'
Sasha was about to turn around and go back to her room, when one more thing occurs to her, and she goes back to the railing.
"OH, BY THE WAY, I NEED NEW FURNITURE!"
"Sure thing, sweety.", sounds up to her from downstairs.
'As absent minded as he is, spending money without asking questions is something he is actually quite good at.'
With that clarified, Sasha turns back around and enters her room, looking at the sheer chaos. And now that she's been able to calm down a bit, seeing the mess of a room in front of her actually weighs on her conscience.
"I think I'd better clean this up before Maja comes in tomorrow and gets a heart attack.", Sasha freezes for a moment in surprise as she pauses over what she just said, 'Wow.... Amphibia really did change me...'
[The Core]
14. September - 11:54
Andrias stands leaning against a pillar, quietly watching Marcy wave goodbye to the Plantars as they leave the throne room. He sighs inwardly.
'Showtime...', he thinks to himself with sadness hidden deep inside his heart. He approaches her.
"Goodbyes are never easy.", he tells her, "Speaking of which: Where are Olivia and Yunan?", he continues. Marcy turns to him, looking him directly into his eyes as an idea comes to her.
"Should we go look for them?", she asks. Andrias pretends to think about it.
"You know, I have a better idea.", he replies, "A few weeks ago, while you were still out in Frog Valley, I had found something here in the palace. Something I was planning to show you after you got back from Earth: A secret room, I suspect."
Her eyes begin to shine and she shakes her hands in anticipation and excitement. "Really? Where is it? What's in it?"
"Whoa whoa whoa... Calm down...", Andrias holds one of his huge hands in front of her face, himself genuinely infected by her excitement. "I have no idea what's in there. All I had seen was a dark spiral staircase. I didn't want to go on that adventure without you."
"May I see it? Please please please...", she begs him with big round eyes. Andrias chuckles lightly. He couldn't tell her no, as much as he would want to.
"But only for a minute. We don't know when Olivia and Yunan will finally show up."
"Yesyesyesyes, let's gooo!", cheering, Marcy runs off to the large doors leading out of the throne room. She runs out just before poking her head back in a few seconds later, slightly embarrassed. "Umm... Where exactly do we need to go?"
Andrias chuckles at that, following Marcy out of the throne room. He closes the doors behind him.
"No one is to enter the throne room until I return!", he speaks in a serious tone. He does not look directly at the guards. "Understood?"
Andrias watches Marcy, who has already walked quite a distance, as one of the nervous-looking guards speaks up.
"Understood, King Andrias."
Andrias quickly caught up to Marcy, leading her into a branching corridor and down a short but wide stone staircase. Unlike the rest of the palace, this part does not seem warmly designed and colorful, but rather cold and gray. The walls are not lit by bright yellow flames, but by luminous blue corals. Marcy visibly shivers.
"Is it just me, or has the temperature dropped like ten degrees?", she asks.
"Say, Marcy, have you ever been in this part of the palace?", Andrias doesn't respond to her comment. Marcy does not seem to be bothered by this.
"I... don't think so.", she replies with a slight confusion in her voice, "Which is odd, since I'm sure I fully explored everything when I arrived here in Amphibia.", she adds, "What is down here?"
The two of them arrive at a dark brown wooden and nine meter high locked double doors. Andrias opens them, revealing an oblong hall, at least as tall as Andras' throne room, but twice as long. On either side, to the right and left, stand huge stone statues.
"This is the Hall of Ancestors.", he explains as he and Marcy step forward, "Every member of my family has been immortalized here by a statue after their passing. On the right are all the women, on the left all the men. And all the way at the end...", he pauses for dramatic effect, "-there always stands the last ruler of Amphibia. In this case, my father: King Aldrich Leviathan."
The two of them approach the gigantic statue with Marcy totally in awe at the sheer size and the extensive details. After a few moments, however, her mood darkens.
"Your parents... What were they like?", she wonders. Andrias turns to the statue of his mother.
"My mother died when I was born, so I only ever saw her whenever I'm in these halls.", he explains, "My father, however, was a good king. He led Amphibia through a truly glorious time of wealth and prosperity... I revered him, and I always wanted to prove myself worthy in his eyes. But until this day... I had never succeeded."
In an effort to show sympathy, Marcy pats his huge hand.
"I'm sure he'd be proud of you if he could see you today.", Marcy says with an honest smile on her face.
'Why are you making this so hard for me?', he asks himself as his heart continues to hurt.
"A-Anyway...", he continues, "This is what I wanted to show you."
Andrias reaches for the arm of one of the smaller statues hanging from the pillars, whereupon a mechanical click can be heard, and a huge door opens in the pedestal of King Aldrich's statue, revealing an eight-meter tall and four-meter wide, completely dark staircase.
"Whoa...", Marcy marvels with wide eyes looking into the darkness ahead of her. She pulls out her phone and turns on the flashlight, slightly illuminating the stairway.
The walls are all covered in dust, but the air is also saturated with dust. She notices some spider webs on the walls, as well as luminous corals, though they appear to be burned out and not functioning. They are charcoal gray.
Subconsciously, Marcy takes a few steps forward, nearly falling down the first step. Fortunately, Andrias grabs her in time, saving her.
"Watch out, the steps are quite deep.", he warns her. Marcy stands at the edge of the top step and looks down the meter tall step.
"Yeah, that could have gone badly for me. Thank you."
Apart from the forced smile on his face, Andrias does not act on it. Instead, he leans forward and holds his open hand next to Marcy.
"Climb aboard. It's faster that way."
Marcy sits down on his hand, illuminating the path in front of them using her phone as he slowly descends the steps with her.
It's not until a few steps down that an icy chill runs down Marcy's spine.
"Whoa, you feel that too?", she asks him, "I feel like there are a thousand eyes on me... THERE!", Marcy excitedly points her phone at one of the stones that make up the wall.
"That's a tile.", Andrias notes dryly.
"No, I had seen one of those ghost things. It disappeared into the wall.", Marcy sounds thoroughly convinced of this. Andrias turns around, glancing behind him once, but not seeing anything. "Now please don't tell me you don't believe me. Anne and Luz could confirm that there are ghosts here in the basement."
Andrias now looks at her with an amused raised eyebrow before speaking up with a serious tone.
"So, you were in the catacombs?", he asks somberly, at which Marcy swallows in guilt. Andrias' gaze lingers on Marcy for a while before his poker face breaks and he begins to chuckle. "Oh, don't worry about it, little Marmar. But let's keep going. Maybe we'll find the ghosts' nest at the bottom."
"NEST???"
Andrias smirks at her as he continues further down the dark staircase.
As the two of them approach the bottom of the stairs, the light from Marcy's phone suddenly begins to flicker before eventually dying completely.
"Oh no, the light!", Marcy fiddles around with her phone for a bit, but it stopped reacting to anything she does. She sighs in defeat and puts it away again.
"Look, over there.", Andrias points in front of him, which of course Marcy can't see, since only amphibians have the ability to see in total darkness. "I can make out a faint source of light there."
"I can't see anything. Urgh, what I would give for amphibian night vision...", she squints her eyes.
Andrias chuckles at that, lowering his hand down to the area where he saw the light. Immediately as Marcy touches the floor, lights visible to her as well appear, brightly illuminating the entire room.
With a curious, but also startled expression on her face, Marcy takes a look around. An oval-shaped room, all walls covered by completely asymmetrical dark brown metal plates. Countless copper and steel pipes come out of the walls, only to disappear into the wall again at another point. An innumerable number of cables hang from the ceiling, and all of this is illuminated by a round, yellow glowing floor plate, on which Andrias and Marcy are currently standing. In direct comparison to the stairs, she and Andrias just descended, whose air was full of dust, the air in here is almost... fresh.
Another icy chill runs down Marcy's spine, and again she has the feeling that she is being stared at-, and watched by thousands of eyes. A sense of dread overcomes her, and she unconsciously grabs hold of Andrias' robe.
"A-Andrias, I don't like this. At all.", she speaks in a shaky voice, "I think we should head bac- ... Andrias?"
Confusion spreads through her voice as Andrias does not move. It’s quite the opposite. He kneels down.
"My Lord, we have arrived.", he speaks slowly and clearly.
Marcy has absolutely no time to react, as from between all the cables on the ceiling, a gigantic black metal robot falls down, crashing to the floor on six tentacle-shaped arms. It releases a sharp- and, at least for Marcy, ear-shattering scream. She falls to her knees, covering her ears. When she removes her hands again, she notices blood on them.
Suddenly, one of the tentacle-shaped arms lunges forward, grabbing Marcy by her head, pulling her towards a chair that emerges out of the floor in the middle of the chamber. She gets placed on it, and has her arms and legs restrained to it. Andrias stands up again.
"I should apologize, Marcy. For what is about to happen.", he speaks calmly while Marcy struggles to free herself, "You see, this is the Core. A collection of the greatest minds among all of Amphibia, preserved for all eternity. However, existing without a body for all these millennia is not very fit for existence, which is why I have been tasked with finding a host. The best, the smartest, the only one who could defeat me in Flipwart."
"LET ME GO!", Marcy screams back at him.
"I wish I could. Honestly, Marcy, I like you. Always have. I even begged the Core to consider an alternative, albeit to no avail. But look at it this way: if the Core hadn't caught on to your potential, you and your friends would have been dead a long time ago."
Marcy gasps in horror. "The portal...", she mutters.
"Oh no, don't worry. I really did send them home. I'm not a liar… Besides, I can't let anyone know about the upcoming invasion...", he smirks at her.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?", she screams desperately, still trying to force herself out of her restraints.
"You'll find out soon enough."
Mechanical wires extend from the chair's pedestal.
"What? Nonononono...", she twitches and jerks with all her limbs before the first wire pierces her boot and continues further into her lower leg. She screams in agony as seven more wires penetrate her skin on her other leg, on her arms, into her abdomen, and into her neck, and with each new wire she cries out in pain. Tears are streaming from her eyes, her screams of pain having faded. She shakes all over her body, the pain paralyzing every muscle, as well as her voice.
With her remaining strength, she raises her eyes to Andrias, who, in turn, faces away from her.
A helmet descends from the ceiling, but Marcy has no strength left to fight it any longer. The helmet settles on her head at which Marcy begins to scream one last time at the top of her lungs, filled with fear and pain. The wires light up orange as they transfer trillions of miniscule nanites into her body, attacking, destroying, and then replacing every single one of her blood cells. They attach themselves to her muscles, to her bones, and completely flood her brain.
The transfer is complete. The lights in the giant robot behind Marcy's body go out and it drops dead to the floor. Marcy's upper body also falls forward, numb.
With cracking sounds, her upper body straightens back up again, the wires disconnecting and the arm and leg restraints removing themselves as well. On the helmet, which is the only one still connected by a wire, ten vertical orange glowing eyes of different sizes light up.
Andrias kneels down again.
"My Lord... It is done."
Marcy's possessed body stands up and takes one deep breath. In and out.
"Oh, how we've missed this...", it does speak in Marcy's voice, though rather robotically distorted. It surveys its fingers, knuckles, and joints.
"My lord?", Andrias questioningly looks up.
"Flesh, Andrias. An organic body. Tens of thousands of years we were locked in the disembodied void of divided consciousness.", it sounds delighted, "This is adequate to our needs. Now, close the portal and power up our factories. Prepare everything for the coming invasion. We first need to bring order to our host's memories."
"My Lord, before I leave-", he begins, "Is- Is Marcy still in there?"
"We've locked her away in a small area right in here.", it says, tapping its helmet a few times, causing Andrias to relax a little bit, "At least for as long as we deem necessary."
"I understand. I will make all the necessary preparations immediately.", he nods in confirmation before turning around, making his way up the stairs to his throne room.
At first briskly, but increasingly slowly, Andrias climbs the steps. As he steps out of the dark stairway back into the Hall of the Ancestors, he suddenly stops, turning to the statue of his father, his heart feeling heavy.
'I did the right thing, didn't I?', doubts are spreading through his mind, 'No, I definitely did the right thing. After all, it's for the good of the Empire... I cannot let my feelings interfere with the mission.'
Andrias' thoughts interrupt as he unexpectedly spots a few curious heads peering through the massive doors at the entrance to the Hall of Ancestors. 'What the- ... Oh right, the deception field was deactivated during the transfer. Well, it is not really needed anymore.'
He takes one deep breath to clearing his head before making his way back to the entrance with firm steps. The Newts, who appear to be just some guards, recoil as they realize Andrias has spotted them.
He throws open the doors leading inside and the two soldiers salute, sweating nervously, not daring to return his utterly serious gaze. An expectant silence falls onto them.
When Andrias realizes that neither of them dares to say anything, he speaks up.
"You are not on your posts.", he speaks clearly as he looks back and forth between them.
"Please excuse us, my king.", the first one speaks up, "We just saw this staircase appear out of nowhere."
"Y-Yes, my king.", the second agrees, "W-We were just curious."
Andrias snorts in disapproval.
"The two will now do the following: You will immediately find Lady Olivia and General Yunan and bring them to the throne room!", he orders. The soldiers salute in affirmation. Before they can ascend the steps, however, Andrias stops them. "And one more thing.", they turn hesitantly, "Once you have done so, you will leave the palace, never to return!"
The two comparatively tiny Newts swallow hard, looking like they are about to wet themselves. They run up the stairs in a panic to carry out his orders, while Andrias himself just chuckles to himself in amusement.
Shortly after, Andrias also makes his way up the stairs at a brisk pace, and towards his throne room. He throws open the huge doors and approaches the music box to immediately close the portal.
After a short wait, Lady Olivia and General Yunan are being escorted into the throne room by the two guards. As the guards immediately retreat, the two Newts approach Andrias from behind, who's silently standing in front of the podium with the music box on it.
"My king, you sent for us?", Lady Olivia bows with a slight curtsy. "Is this about the impending departure of Master Marcy and her friends?"
"Not... quite...", Andrias steps aside, revealing the box with the glowing gems already being in his possession. He turns to look at them. Surprise and confusion grace their faces.
"What?", Yunan asks quietly.
"I...", Lady Olivia is searching for words to vocalize what she is thinking, "... I don't understand."
Andrias moves to stand behind the podium, folding his hands behind his back.
"You two are my closest confidants. And because of that, you have the honor of witnessing the dawn of a new age for Amphibia. An age of prosperity, of progress... of rebirth if you so will.", the two Newts look at each other doubtfully, "For you see, some eons ago, Amphibia was the center of a glorious empire, spanning countless planets, with this instrument as its source of power. But it was stolen... And now that it has returned to our hands, it is time to restore Amphibia to its former glory."
Andrias steps forward and presses various buttons on the box.
"Sire?", Yunan asks, slightly disturbed, "Where are the humans?"
Suddenly the whole room starts shaking, most of the windows break into thousands of pieces, and soft screams sound from outside. Panicking slightly, Olivia runs to the balcony. Her breath catches as she watches entire buildings below her collapse and crumble before her eyes, and cracks form and grow in the palace's lower walls.
Yunan follows Olivia onto the balcony, equally as shocked at the damage being done to the city. Andrias follows behind, a grim expression on his face.
More and more buildings collapse, burying its inhabitants underneath, more and more terrified screams are heard by all of them, and they watch as boulders from the palace fall on crowds of people, while the palace rises further and further into the air, casting a gigantic imposing shadow on the city below.
Filled with fear, Olivia and Yunan turn to their king, who in turn seems completely unconcerned by all the damage he is creating. A sudden faint mechanical buzzing seems to catch Andrias' attention.
"There they are!", suddenly joyful, he turns around, walking back into the throne room, with the two Newts following him. Olivia is about to ask who he is referring to, but by then she can already spot quite a few objects flying directly towards the throne room out the window on the other side.
Seconds later, two dozen dark gray robots with glowing red eyes land directly in front of Andrias, who now wears a sinister grin on his face.
"Let me introduce them to you: These are the new soldiers, guards, and law enforcers for all of Amphibia!", Andrias explains with a pride-swelling chest, "They are perfect and superior in any way possible. They never disobey, they never ask questions, and they carry out my every order with perfect efficiency."
"A-and what is the exact goal that you- ... I mean, we, are trying to achieve?", Olivia asks, her knees trembling.
"Once our new army is strong enough, we will reclaim Amphibia's lost realms and become greater than ever before!", Olivia and Yunan swallow hard in both fear and nervousness. Andrias notices this. "Oh, don't worry. Of course, you two will be sufficiently involved in this new age."
[The Plantars]
14. September - 12:02
"Do you think she'll be okay? Should we have gone with her?", Sprig asks as the three frogs are escorted out of the palace, anxiously twisting his hat in his hands, "I already miss her..."
"I'm completely sure she'll be fine, and that we'll see her again in a week. But yes, I miss Anne too.", Hop Pop walks beside him, carrying Polly, who continues to scratch her butt frantically. "Polly, stop scratching! It'll get infected."
"I DON'T CAAREE!", Polly yells, now only scratching herself more.
The Plantars step outside from between the palace's huge gates, and the guards who were escorting them a moment ago close said gates behind them. All three of them flinch briefly as they let the gates fall shut behind them with a loud bang.
"How rude.", Hop Pop remarks, before turning his head to his granddaughter, "Anyway, Polly, when we get back to Wartwood, I'll take a closer look at you. And Sprig, I can guarantee you by my life that the time until you see each other again, will just fly by."
Sprig, walking alongside Hop Pop and Polly with his gaze on the path ahead of them, tilts his head in slight confusion.
"Speaking of 'flying by'...", he begins, "Didn't we leave Joe Sparrow outside the city gates?"
"Huh? Oh...", Hop Pop replies to him in a confused tone. The three of them stop in their tracks and watch as Joe Sparrow stands in the middle of the wide-open road leading away from the palace back down into the city, pecking at small worms in the ground in a small meadow.
"Maybe that's not our bird?", Sprig wonders as he observes the sparrow with the dark orange wings and the golden engraved armor wearing along with a couch attached to his back and a small pocket attached to his chest. "Joe?", he calls out, the bird turning its gaze to the Plantars.
"Yes, this is our ride home.", Hop Pop announces as the three of them approach the super-sized bird. "Alright, jump up kids. We're flying back to Wartwood."
"Wouldn't you rather sit in your special seat?", Polly asks, mocking him as he tries to prevent her from scratching herself.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous.", he replies, "There's no one here to carry me up there.", before climbing up Joe's tilted wing, while Sprig casually jumps up carrying Polly, sitting down in the middle of the couch.
"Move over, boy!", Hop Pop orders Sprig after finally reaching the top. "I'm flying!"
Sprig raises a skeptical eyebrow as he slides slightly to the edge of the couch.
"Do you even know how to fly a Sparrow?", Polly reproaches him.
"I've listened to Marcy doing it plenty of times.", he explains, "How hard can it be?"
Sprig and Polly put on expectant looks as they watch their grandfather try very hard to remember what command Marcy used to take off mere hours before.
"So, Joe Sparrow... Let's head back to Wartwood. And go!"
Joe, however, does not make the slightest move. Hop Pop tries again.
"Um... My honored bird. Could you please start flying?"
Still nothing. New approach.
"Joe Sparrow.", he begins in a serious tone, "I'm going to count to three and then you'd best be in the air already. ... One. ... Two. ... Two-and-a-half. ... Two-three-quarters. ..."
"Give it up already, Hop Pop.", Sprig encourages him.
"Yeah, old man. Joe lost every bit of respect for you for using your Hop Pocket, which is why he doesn't listen to you anymore.", Polly agrees, "Even I'm only talking to you now out of mere politeness."
"That's just total nonsense. I'm an extremely respectable person.", he defends himself, to which both his grandchildren roll their eyes.
"Yeah, sure... Watch.", Sprig speaks up, "Joe, fly us to Wartwood!"
A chirp escapes Joe's beak, he spreads his wings and with a powerful flap of his wings, pushes himself off the ground. And while Sprig and Polly glare at the old frog with smug grins on their faces, Hop Pop begins to pout.
"I'm not going to comment on that.", he huffs with his arms crossed in front of his chest. The two siblings, on the other hand, can't help but crack a laugh at that though. "Yeah yeah, ha ha ha. Very funny.", he continues sarcastically, "When we get back home the pocket will be gone. As amazing and comfortable as it is, it's not worth the price of no one respecting me and taking me seriously anymore."
"Well I'll still take you seriously if it makes you feel better.", Sprig says. Hop Pop eases up a bit before Sprig continues. "Mostly... Well, more like frequently... I think."
Right now, though, Hop Pop can't help but smile slightly while his grandchildren seem to be having a good time, albeit at his expense. Polly isn't scratching herself right now, and Sprig's sadness about Anne having left is also gone for the moment.
And to his surprise, it lasts for a remarkably long time. For about fifteen minutes, the family calmly glides through the air sitting on the couch on Joe's back further and further away from the city. They have already left the salt lakes that surround Newtopia behind them for a few minutes, and the mountain range that surrounds Frog Valley can already be glimpsed on the horizon in the far distance. Sprig has propped himself backwards over the back of the couch and is shooting his slingshot with pebbles, that he carries with him at all times as ammunition, at smaller birds that are just flying by. Polly is exceedingly bored, while Hop Pop just tries to fill the silence by talking about what he is going to do when the three of them arrive back at the farm.
"- really tidy things up a bit. I know that the house was basically already quite tidy when we left, and until Anne is back, I thought that if we all pitched in together, we could give the house a thorough cleaning from top to bottom.", Hop Pop just talks away endlessly. That no one listens does not bother him. "I also think that we should clean out the attic. Admittedly, the last time I was up there was almost thirty years ago. Come to think of it, the last time I was up there was when I was in my cheese phase."
Sprig, still casually leaning over the couch facing backwards, raises an eyebrow as he spots something... odd. He taps his grandfather on the shoulder.
"Hop Pop.", he tries to interrupt him and get his attention.
"If I remember correctly, I had used the attic to store milk... Or was that the basement?"
"HOP POP!", Sprig tries again but louder. Hop Pop turns his head to his grandson with a puzzled look. With an outstretched arm, Sprig points to something behind them. Hop Pop widens his eyes in disbelief.
The two frogs watch in complete speechlessness as the Newtopian Royal Palace rises into the air behind them, beginning to cast a huge shadow across the landscape until it obscures even the sun itself.
"Holy moly...", Hop Pop exclaims eventually, at which point Joe got curious too. He drastically reduces his glide speed and turns around, flapping his huge wings to hover on the spot.
"GUYS WATCH OUT!", Polly suddenly screams. Sprig and Hop Pop duck and Joe flies an evasive maneuver as several gray blurs fly past them way too close. "Those are Frobos!" she notes, "And they're heading straight for the palace."
"I have a very bad feeling about this...", Hop Pop notes with concern in his voice.
"Joe, we've got to get back to Wartwood. Quickly!", Sprig orders Joe, who wastes no time and speeds away from Newtopia as fast as he’s capable of. Sprig turns back to Hop Pop and Polly. "I knew he was evil. Luz was right after all!"
Hop Pop raises his finger, ready to disagree, before turning around once more, looking back at the ominously rising palace.
"It... is hard to accept that he really does have evil intentions...", he begins, "I mean, what has he done that can actually be classified as being evil?"
Sprig immediately speaks up. "Well, for one thing, he... Um...", he struggles to come up with a concrete answer, which is why he's looking back and forth between his grandfather and the palace. Hop Pop quickly picks up on that.
"Listen, I believe you that the whole situation is scary, but we also have to be realistic. And realistic is that we don't know what exactly is going on.", he puts a hand on Sprig's shoulder, who looks at him with a very disbelieving expression.
"All right. Don't believe me then.", Sprig huffs, "Polly, will you help me inform people when we get home? We need to get ready."
"Is it going to be dangerous?", she asks, at which point he picks her up and holds her very close to his face, starting to whisper ominously.
"Highly... improbable."
"Fine."
"Kid, do you really think this is the right thing to do?", Hop Pop asks.
"Yes, Hop Pop, I think so.", he replies firmly, "Call it a gut feeling for all I care, but every cell in my body is telling me that we should prepare for King Andrias to do something evil."
"I... need to think about it...", Hop Pop merely replies to him before his gaze wanders backward one last time, a feeling of unease lingering in the pit of his stomach.
14. September - 20:51
Many, many hours have already passed since the inhabitants of Wartwood spotted the palace in the sky, worried about what has happened, and is yet to happen. And even though there has been absolutely no other visible activity, the residents have agreed that at least one person will be in the center of the village at all times on lookout. And with close to a thousand volunteers still living in tents outside Wartwood, it wasn't hard to find people for that job. For some time already, they've been noticing something flying in their direction.
"I'm telling you, it's a bird.", Felicia Sundew sits in front of her store with a cup of tea in her hand.
"No, it's way too small to be a bird.", Leopold Loggle, who is sitting next to her, also with a cup of tea resting in his hands, replies, "It's definitely manufactured. Some kind of... fly-thing."
Felicia rolls her eyes.
"I think you should get your glasses changed. Your eyes seem impaired.", she argues.
"My eyes are fine, thank you very much.", he replies before taking another sip of tea. That is when they notice Ivy running in their direction.
"It's the Plantars!", she yells to them in excitement.
"The Plantars? And how do you know that for sure? They just left this morning, didn't they?", her mother inquires, at which Ivy pulls out a small binocular.
"Well, I saw them on the giant bird.", Ivy says. Felicia turns to Loggle with a look of superiority on her face.
"I told you it's a bird."
"Alright, alright. I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong, after all.", he replies before the three of them begin making their way to the towns entrance, joined by others.
The Plantars actually come into view fairly quickly, and it takes mere minutes for Joe Sparrow to land at the village entrance surrounded by people from both within and beyond the village.
Joe leans his wing, allowing the Plantars to simply slide down. Sprig jumps down first, with Hop Pop and Polly following. Before anyone could say anything however, Sprig is just realizing how he's being thrown to the ground.
"AMBUSH!", Ivy screams as she jumps towards him, throwing him onto his back, now squatting just centimeters above his face. "Hey, Sprig." she says sounding very happy.
Sprig blushes slightly.
"Hey Ivy."
A moment of silence surrounds the two.
"Missed you.", she says eventually.
Only now do they realize there are quite a few dozen pairs of eyes on them. Slightly embarrassed, they stand up and wipe dust off their clothes. Sprig leans his head near Ivy's ear.
"I mean, I've been gone less than a day, but... I missed you too."
With the two of them now standing upright again, the crowd's attention turns away from them towards Hop Pop. Mrs. Croaker, standing quite far forward within the crowd, speaks up first.
"What in the frog is going on?", she demands to know.
"Have the girls left?", Felicia asks.
"Why is the palace flying?", Loggle asks. Many more people speak up, though there are too many to catch each and every question. Hop Pop climbs the wall at the edge of the village to be seen and heard better by everyone. The people in front of him whisper wildly. Some are scared, others are confused, and others just want to know what's going on.
"My friends-", the older frog starts to speak at which the small crowd in front of him falls silent and directs their eyes directly at him, "I'm going to start with the good news. Yes, Anne and her two friends have left Amphibia. They were originally scheduled to return in exactly one week, but...", Hop Pop's gaze turns skyward to the floating castle, the crowd turns as well.
"What happened? Spill the beans already!", a toad, one of Grime's former soldiers speaks up.
"Here's the thing... We don't know what exactly happened-", Hop Pop started to explain when Sprig suddenly jumps over the crowd's heads, interrupting him.
"King Andrias is evil!", he exclaims.
"SPRIG!", Hop Pop shouts, but he doesn't let it interrupt him.
"He wanted to get rid of them before he carried out his evil plan. We even saw battle robots on their way back to the palace.", he continues.
A wild whispering breaks out among the crowd in front of them.
"My friends-", Hop Pop tries to calm the crowd down again. Sprig already knows exactly what he's going to say. "Please listen to me. We don't know for sure what King Andrias is up to. All we have are assumptions. That's all."
Once again, murmurs break out in the crowd. It's pretty clear, though, that people are divided, and an all out discussion breaks out. Hop Pop tries his best to keep the tension contained, but it only works to a limited extent.
After a long, aimless discourse, Mrs. Croaker speaks up.
"Okay everyone, listen. While we agree that this floating palace is looking rather ominous, we basically have no clue what's really going on. So here's my suggestion: I know a few people in Newtopia from my time as a... um... not important. The point is that I know people who can get us some insights."
"What about Chuck?", Loggle suggests, "He spied on the Toads during the war."
The Plantars, by now no longer the focus of the crowd's attention, watch this discussion with great interest. Hop Pop in particular is overcome with a sense of community that extends beyond Wartwood's borders. With the Frogs, Newts, and Toads before him, there comes a sense in him that he is looking at Frog Valley as a single unit, working together as one. He almost regrets not having played a part in the war, though he had his reasons for that.
"Okay. We will send Chuck to Newtopia, I'll contact my acquaintances, and together we will prepare for the eventuality that Sprig's theory is indeed correct.", Mrs. Croaker summarizes the results of the discussion. "If there is nothing further, I would suggest that we continue to assess things tomorrow. Any objections?", no one comes forward, "Alright, good night everyone."
And with that, this unofficial meeting begins to dissolve. The Plantars also make their way back to their farm with Joe accompanying them.
Once there, Hop Pop turns his attention to Sprig. "You and Polly go on into the house. I'll take care of Joe."
"Okay Hop Pop.", Sprig replies. Polly hops from Hop Pop's arms onto his cap, and the two kids walk together towards the front door, closing it behind them. Hop Pop sighs, a feeling of mental exhaustion overcoming him.
"You know, I'm worried.", he says as he leads the giant bird towards the barn, "As much as I don't want to admit it... I think the boy is right. Something very dark is coming, and... ... and now that Anne's gone... I-I- I don't know what to do, Joe.", the giant bird tilts its head as Hop Pop continues, "I mean, Anne was pretty good at protecting us, but as much as I hope, I don't think she's actually being able to come back, and we are on our own."
At that, Joe suddenly stops. Hop Pop looks at him questioningly, while the bird looks back at him with a serious look.
He chirps audibly and directs his gaze toward downtown Wartwood. Hop Pop's follows his. He chirps again.
Hop Pop chuckles briefly at that.
"Yeah, I think I know where you're going with this. The village has really grown, and they've become good at defending themselves, especially with those bigger numbers. But against King Andrias??? Who then also has a potential robot army??? That's insane!"
Joe chirps again in indifference.
"I know, but... See, I just want to see my kids safe. They shouldn't be involved in all this mess.", Hop Pop argues, "I managed to keep them out of the war against Grime and Sasha, as much as they wanted to help... And without Anne, I don't know how I can continue to protect them..."
Joe lowers his head and rubs it comfortingly along Hop Pop's face.
"Thanks.", he sniffles briefly, "Come on, I'll take you to the stable. You'll have to share it with Bessie and MicroAngelo. I hope you don't mind..."
And Joe did not mind. He didn't mind a single bit.
[The Core – Pt.2]
15. September – 10:07
The last 22 hours have been extremely informative and productive for the Core in its new form, even if, admittedly, only after a certain period of acclimatization. For despite having total control over every single muscle, every cell, and every little bit of fluid in its new body, the actual experience of changing from a purely digital, disembodied form to a fully organic one is not without its difficulties.
To name just a few of those incidents:
Despite the already deeply imprinted ability to move body parts such as arms and legs, the Core fell forward onto the floor the first time they attempted to get up from their chair.
In a later physical self-diagnosis of their new body, the Core had test-shut down various organs to determine their function. When they switched off the heart, they were very surprised that the body completely collapsed and only worked again when the heart had been switched back on.
When they examined the stomach and turned it off as a test, it was also quite surprised when acid spread and began to etch through other organs, muscles, and ultimately even the skin. Because of the fragility found in this organic body, the Core decided to spend the subsequent tests all in a regeneration unit to support the nanites' regeneration capabilities. Because even though it is not possible for the Core to feel pain, they did not think it was optimal to walk around with a gaping hole in its middle and organs falling out.
Despite the regeneration chamber, it took several hours to repair the damage caused and complete the physical self-diagnosis. When they lifted themselves out of the chamber, a new problem appeared: Low energy levels.
To try to counteract this problem, they increased the amount of energy fed through the helmet to the nanites within the body. However, nothing happened. The Core increased the energy supply several times, even to the point of nearly overloading the nanites and possibly burning them out, when they remembered an extremely important lesson from previous lives with an organic body: Organic bodies must regularly go into a state of rest, and also require a regular organic energy supply in the form of food. And after a brief instruction to Andrias to provide food, the Core decided to enter the resting state and begin the second part of the self-diagnosis: Analyzing and screening Marcy's memories for any kind of useful information.
By now, the sun is quite high in Amphibia's sky. Not that the Core could know being in the depths of the palace.
Andrias enters the lab, finding them seemingly asleep on a couch leaning against a fluffy looking red cushion, the orange eyes on the helmet currently not glowing, two smaller screens immediately next to them. The upper screen seems to be for monitoring the vital signs of their body, on the lower one is a one-third filled loading bar, titled 'Memory Wipe in Process', written in amphibian runes.
"Memory Wipe?", Andrias asks aloud, immediately slapping his hands over his mouth as the orange eyes on the Core's head begin to light up, one by one. Andrias gets down on one knee.
"My Lord, I'm sorry to have awakened you.", he apologizes.
It actually takes a short while until they are completely awake. They flip a small lever next to the lower screen before facing Andrias.
"Your presence is not related to us waking up.", they say, to which Andrias stands back up.
"Good. I have come to inform you that the necessary preparations have started successfully. All factories have resumed production, and the first bots have replaced the guards here in the palace. Also, we have reached our target altitude of one kilometer above ground and are holding our position above Newtopia.", he reports.
"We are pleased with the progress so far.", the Core replies. Hesitantly, Andrias speaks up again.
"I was wondering... Are you really erasing Marcy's memories?"
"But of course. We have no use for all of them. We will only keep those that are of strategic value to us.", Andrias' heart aches at the explanation.
Andrias inwardly sighs in sorrow. "I understand, my Lord."
"So far, we have only analyzed about the first seven years of her life. The earliest memories have already mostly faded away, which greatly speeds up our process."
"I see...", Andrias acknowledges with a false neutral tone in an attempt to hide his dejected mood, "Also, I was wondering, now that you have a new body, if you would like to choose a new name as well."
This question seems to surprise the Core and put them in thought.
"We haven't thought about that yet. We will consider it as we continue our studies.", the Core stands up from the couch and steps over to an examination table where several of Marcy's possessions are already laid out. Among them are her phone, her diary, and various notebooks. "We are only too curious to find out how far humanity has progressed since our last glimpse of their home world. If necessary, we will be adding their knowledge to ours and adapt our strategies."
"Would you like me to send out a scouting unit to Earth?"
"Yes. Also deploy a unit to observe Anne Boonchuy and Sasha Waybright. Make sure they don't pose a threat after you failed to kill them previously as we demanded!", the Core orders, "And bring us the food we commanded already!"
"Yes, my Lord."
And while Andrias leaves the laboratory once again, the Core turns around, turning to the objects in front of them. First, Marcy's phone.
Opening the case was pretty easy, once the glass side of the device was destroyed and could be removed. Apparently, the glass was part of a display, which is now destroyed. The Core just shrugs indifferently while they remove the destroyed remains and expose the first visible components. Many moving gripper arms, emerging from the walls, assist in the analysis, and spread out separable components from the case in front of the Core.
"Hmm... A graphite-lithium construction for electron storage? That is so inefficient...", they snort in amusement.
They turn to the circuit board, looking in close detail at each component. But while the fact that in less than a thousand years humans have managed to get rocks from the crust of their planet to think, the vast majority of components are completely useless compared to the computing power of the technologies used in Amphibia itself.
"So much silicon... They must have it in abundance. In the long run, the human world could become our future test facility for new technologies.", they begin to plan, the information on their minds that silicon is one of the rarest findable materials in Amphibia. They return to analyzing components, "And yet they've wasted all that on such pathetic technology."
Two of the robotic arms pick component after component off the board as the Core suddenly stops everything and closely eyes a single one of them. It has the term 'Wi-Fi' imprinted on it.
"Wireless communications...", they mutter as they observe it in skepticism, "Potentially, this is something we can take advantage of."
The Core spends the next thirty minutes harvesting and analyzing the remaining components of Marcy's phone. However, most of the other components are of no use. The phone's data store contained a few usable image files, as well as a basic concept of how communication works between phones like this one, which would later prove very useful for intelligence gathering.
Having dealt with the phone sufficiently, they turned to Marcy's diary and flipped to the first page. With a reading speed of about five pages per second, the digital eyes on her black helmet darting back and forth at rapid speed, it takes only a few seconds before they stumble upon something that makes them stop and wonder.
'This other human... Luz Noceda... didn't come from Earth like the others?', they observe as they continue reading.
-the way they work is probably based on proximity to the remains of a being she called the 'Titan'. A magical being several kilometers in size, which formed the Boiling Isles after its death.
I mean, Andrias is already an absolute giant for me with his nine meters... It's hard to imagine a living (or in this case no longer living) being standing in front of me, towering over the clouds and mountains themselves.
Luz said she would like to bring me there and show me around if she could ever find a way to get back to the Demon Realm that means-
They flip the page over.
-growing plants in seconds, making something ignite with just the touch of a finger, making a room light up completely... And all you need is paper.
Not even that. You can draw glyphs in the ground just like that, and it works. And Witches can create all that magic natively with a single flick of the finger... Or so...
I am soo jealous-
"Most interesting..."
After this point, they began to not just skim over things, but honestly continued to read attentively, absorbing every bit of information that could be found within Marcy's entries.
In her notebook, a few of the previously mentioned glyphs were outlined, along with instructions on how they worked. Curiosity got the better of the Core and they tried to activate one of the drawn glyphs.
But nothing happened.
Anger, but also for the first time in a thousand years, a feeling of unknowingness filled their mind, along with the beginnings of a plan that would take more and more shape in the time to come.
A little more than an hour has passed as Andrias once again descends the steps to the Core's laboratory, this time carrying a golden tray covered with a matching golden lid.
He enters the cold, metallic-smelling air of the lab and is immediately greeted by the Core, who seems to be working on something at a workbench.
"Report!", they order.
"Umm... I brought the food you asked for, my Lord.", Andrias kneels down and lifts the golden lid, revealing blue cupcakes. The Core puts down their tools and turns around with a delighted expression, taking one of the cupcakes without hesitation and biting into it.
"Wed welwet wiss ube fwosting.", with their mouth full, they exclaim in delight, having already grabbed another one.
"Marcy liked those. So I thought, you might-", he is interrupted.
"Looks like you're good for something after all.", they say deprecatingly, before biting heartily into a cupcake again.
"May I ask, have you decided on a new name?", he asks while the Core is in the process of swallowing.
"As a matter of fact, we've dedicated some of our computing power to just that. We want you to call us... Darcy.", they proclaim proudly.
"Dar-cy?", Andrias repeats questioningly.
"Yeah. It's a reference to Marcy's favorite video game, 'Dark'. Therefore 'Dark Marcy', 'Darcy'. That game came up a lot in her early memories, and the name appeals to us."
"Alright, Darcy, I also have news from Earth.", Darcy listens up while eating another cupcake, "I have sent two Cloakbots to Earth to collect intel as you requested. All the info will be transmitted to you as soon as the bots are back, but I thought you might be interested in a few things now already. Anne Boonchuy and Sasha Waybright are separated from each other with no sign of a meetup in sight that would get in the way of our plans. The bot has also reported that Anne Boonchuy seems inclined to want to end her life."
"Oh really?", Darcy asks in surprise, which quickly turns to pleasure. "We may still be able to speed up this process..."
"There is one more thing you should know: The other human is also on Earth, albeit in a completely different part of the planet. It took our bot quite a long time to find her because of all the little data we have on her.", Andrias seems to be stalling a bit.
"So?", Darcy asks impatiently.
"She doesn't seem to be human anymore.", Darcy looks at him in honest amazement, "During a long-range analysis, we were able to determine that there are foreign radiation levels emanating from her body. She could potentially be dangerous to us when we invade Earth."
Darcy's surprise instantly disappears and is replaced by a diabolical grin.
"Oh, is that so? Well in that case it's a good thing our plans have changed.", Andrias looks questioningly at them with a raised eyebrow, "Before we start gathering Earth's resources and enslaving humanity, there's another place we'd like to turn our attention to first..."
"Where?"
"Oh, you'll see. We don't think we'll need the entire fleet strength for that. As soon as we reach a third of the total strength, we'll depart. And as for the three humans... Keep a close eye on them. If they act strange in any way: Kill them. And to make sure you don't mess up this time, your own head is on stake this time, too. Is that understood?"
Gulping fearfully, he nods.
[Vee]
15. September – 11:40
"You know who I'm talking about, right? You know who this Belos is?", this girl asks, Vee swallows heavily, her whole body is shaking right now. "Do you remember me too?"
"I- I don't know you. I don't know what you're talking about.", Vee speaks in a panic filled voice, "I've never been to the Demon Realm. Don't ever call here again!"
Instantly, she hammers the house phone back into the base before holding onto her arms.
"Nonononono... This can't be happening...", she babbles to herself, not realizing that someone else has just re-entered the kitchen as well.
"Luz? I heard you screaming, is everything... whoa...", it's Masha, who just caught Vee with tears in her eyes and her whole body trembling. The panic in Vee's head only gets stronger and stronger. "What happened?", ask in a sympathetic tone.
Vee opens her mouth, however, the words get stuck in her throat. Masha takes a step closer, but Vee steps back.
"I... I-", she stutters before turning away. "I'm sorry.", she says, running past Masha into the bathroom where she locks the door behind her.
Vee sits down on the closed toilet lid, her knees clutched tightly to her chest.
"Why now? I don't want to run away again...", she cries, "Why does she have to be back now of all times?"
Vee's solitude, unfortunately, does not remain undisturbed for long, because only a few minutes later, there is a knock at the door.
"Luz, what's wrong? Please talk to me...", Masha pleads. Vee's watery gaze wanders to the door.
'I don't want to leave them... They're my friends.', a sad smile graces her face. 'Heh, my- friends… But I guess that's over now. I'm sure she's already on her way here...'
Another knock.
"Luz... Don't you think you sh-", Masha cuts herself off. Vee overhears a second voice through the door, though too muffled to tell who it is and what is being said. She is merely able to hear Masha talking, and listens.
"No, I'm afraid not. ... I mean, if you think that's for the best. ... Oh, well if that's the case, okay, I think.", it is unfortunately impossible for Vee to tell what is being discussed. "Luz, I'll be right back.", they announce before Vee can hear footsteps walking away.
Vee presses her ear against the door, but there’s nothing but silence. Even the music coming from her room has stopped.
'What's going on?', she wonders, wiping tears from her face, but still shaking.
Slowly she reaches for the door handle and unlocks the door again. She opens it and sticks her head out looking into the kitchen, listening.
It is completely silent within the house.
"Mom? Masha? Kaya? Evan? Anyone?"
No answer.
Vee steps out the door and climbs the stairs toward her room. When she reaches the picture wall between her room and Camila's, she stops.
'It's been nice living your life, Luz. I resent you for running away, but at the same time I'm glad you did. Even without knowing it, you gave me the chance to start over... But it's your life, even if you apparently didn't appreciate it.'
Vee continues walking to her room. Like the rest of the house, it's empty. The decorations are still hanging everywhere, and the empty bottle is still on the floor, right where just a few minutes ago the four of them were sitting, eating, laughing, and celebrating together a birthday that is not hers. She enters the room.
"Maybe this is the best opportunity for me to slip away unnoticed... And when she's back-", Vee startles as the door suddenly slams loudly behind her, revealing Masha. Vee jumps up, almost losing control of her shape as she lands on the floor.
"Oh, sorry, sorry.", Masha is overly apologetic. She steps closer to Vee, offering her a hand. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Vee hesitates as she's trying her best not to hyperventilate, and to keep her form. It takes a few seconds before she is ready and accepts Masha's help.
"Thank you.", Vee thanks her, although is unable to look into her face.
"Do you want to talk about it?", she asks. Vee shakes her head.
"W-where are the others?", she asks instead.
"Your mom heard you being upset and told me to stay with you while she went shopping somewhere with the others. I think she's planning a surprise for you to cheer you up."
"Huh, ok...", Vee replies vaguely, unsure if she should actually believe her. Masha looks Vee in the eyes for a moment too long before she takes her hand and lead her to her bed, where she sits down, indicating that Vee should sit next to her. And she doesn't know why, but Vee actually sits down, even though every cell in her body is screaming at her to run away.
"So... You don't want to tell me what happened, which is perfectly fine. But as a friend who cares a lot about you, it's important to me to know that you're okay. That's why I'm going to try to figure it out myself. You are welcome to agree or disagree with me, but you don't have to feel forced to do anything.", they start, to which Vee nods. "So... I'm absolutely sure it has something to do with that phone call, because you seemed to be doing pretty well earlier... I'm guessing it was a person from your past, a person you didn't expect to see- or hear again, respectively."
'Well, not really...', Vee thinks to herself, her heart rate calming down a bit.
"It wasn't anyone from camp, since the four of us were always together... Have you lived in Gravesfield your whole life?", she asks at which Vee shakes her head slightly, "Not, ok. Hmm... Was it an ex-boyfriend? ... An ex-girlfriend?"
Vee chuckles slightly at that, before shaking her head again.
"Okay, in that case, there is only one more option left...", her voice is suddenly a lot more somber. Vee swallows hard, "Someone else knows you're not human."
Vee tears her eyes open in shock.
"Wha- What d-do you m-mean? O-Of course I- I'm human.", Vee stutters, her pulse rising to previously unknown heights, and again, all she wants to do right now is run away. But her legs refuse to do so. If she stood up right now, she would just fall over.
"Oh, please... When we first met at camp, I already knew you were differently different. I mean, when we had burgers the first night, you ate each ingredient separately. At movie night, you wanted to eat popcorn with a knife and fork. And on the fishing trip, you just bit the head off a fish just like that."
Vee's face turns red, and she feels like she's going to start catching on fire at any moment.
"I- I-", she is still at a loss for words.
"Listen to me. I don't know what you are or what species you belong to, but one thing is undeniable to me: you are my friend. And no matter if you are a human, an alien, or a demon from Mars, you are important to me. And the fact that you're still sitting here and not running away tells me that I'm important to you too.", at that very moment tears start to flow down her cheeks again. This time, however, not tears of fear and sadness, but tears of joy. Masha takes her in her arms, and they stay like that for a few minutes.
Sniffling, Vee eventually speaks up.
"I-I have to admit, I did want to run. B- but my legs are as soft as Jell-O right now.", she jokes, to which Masha giggles as well. "Wait... The others. Do they-?"
"To be honest, I don't know. But I'd be surprised if they reacted any differently than I am right now."
"Oh, I see...", Vee mutters.
"You know, your reaction just now is actually confirmation enough, but I have to ask it again directly: Am I correct? About you not being human?"
Vee doesn't answer. She merely averts her gaze from her friend down to the empty space in between them.
"It's okay if you don't want to answer that. I mean, you're not obligated to say anything. And... and I'm sorry I just exposed you like that. That was not okay of me. To make it up to you, I also wanna tell you a secret of mine.", Masha begins. Vee raises her head and listens carefully, "I... think I'm not female. I've felt for quite a long time that I've never been like other girls, and then at the beginning of the year I came to the realization that I've never been a girl to begin with. I had experimented a lot with my sense of self and my outward appearance in the months that followed. Heh, I even stole some clothes from my older brother, just to try something different. But in the end, I came to the conclusion that neither male nor female really describes what I am- who I am. Not long before camp, I came out to my parents as non-binary, and their reaction was, shall we say, unpleasant."
"Was that the reason you had to go to camp?", Vee wonders. Masha nods.
"The story that I was sent there for kidnapping and releasing caged animals from zoos wasn't true. I mean, yes, I kidnapped those animals, but I had never told anyone about that. And while my parents had sent me to camp to be 'taught traditional gender roles', my time there had only helped me feel all the more comfortable in my skin."
"Who else knows all about it?", Vee asks.
"Well, my parents, my brother... And now you."
"And what about Kaya and Evan?", she asks to which Masha shakes her head.
"I see..."
"I would also appreciate it if you would not refer to me as 'she' in the future.", Masha adds, "Rather as 'they'."
"Yeah, sure, no problem."
Again, the two of them fall into silence. Neither of them really know what to do next right now. That is, until Vee sighs heavily.
"You- you were right.", Masha raises a questioning eyebrow, "I'm not human. I'm not from this world. And my name is not Luz... I'm a basilisk, from the Demon Realm. My name is Number Fi- I mean, Vee. I came here a few months ago. I took Luz's place when it seemed like she was staying in the Demon Realm."
"You ran... away from there?", Masha wonders, not even with a hint of reproach or hostility in her voice.
"I fled. I had no choice.", Vee replies with a small voice, clutching her knees to her chest.
"And... the person who called... Was that the real Luz?", Masha asks, but Vee shakes her head.
"No, she meant she was a friend of hers from some other place called 'Amphibia'. But she knows now that I'm not Luz."
"And Camila? What about her?", Masha continues to ask. Again, Vee shakes her head.
"She thinks that I am her daughter. It would break her heart if she found out the truth."
At that, Masha holds out a hand to Vee.
"Then I'll help you.", they say. Vee widens her eyes.
"What?"
"I will help you keep your secret. No one will know what you are unless you want them to know. And if the 'real' Luz should come back, I will stand by your side."
It takes a few seconds for Vee to fully comprehend what they just told her, still offering their hand. Instead of accepting it, however, Vee lunges forward and hugs them as tightly as she's never hugged anyone before while her tears of joy wet Masha's black dress.
Notes:
Soo, what do you folks think? I'd love to read your thoughts about the chapter <3
As for the next chapter, it will most likely be finished/released early February 2024. The reason being that I will be writing chapter 3 of 3 of 'Poisoned Mind'. And also Cities Skylines 2 being released on the 24.10 😇
Chapter 41: Revealing Secrets
Summary:
Skara tries to be brave enough to ask someone a very difficult question.
Surely nothing else happens... ;)
Notes:
"'ello, 'ello, 'ello... It's been a while."
'How long exactly'
*checks time*
*checks calender*
*checks time again*
"Uff... 132 days since my last update. Yeah, soory about dat."
But seriously, I am sorry for the unannounced and unplanned 4-month hiatus. I will try to better myself.
But I also have a few announcements:
* Today, on the 02. Februrary 2024, 'A Lost Owl' has it's 2nd anniversary. YAAAY
* I will no longer start any side-projects next to ALO. I originally intended to start and finish all 3 chapters of 'Poisoned Mind' in just 1-, maybe 2 months. And it ended up being 5. I'm not doing that again.
For this chapter, I have to give a special thanks not only to my Beta-Reader Ace/Kaye aka. Sorry_I_Panicked who is still working with me for some reason (I appreciate it), but also to ChampionElCid, who helped me immensely with one particular, very difficulty scene. If you can guess which one it is, you'll get a cookie.
Also, if your last read has been a little too long ago, I would recommend to re-read the chapters 24, 28, 33, and 34.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It is a surprisingly chilly morning when Skara leaves the coziness of her home. And it is early.
Very early. Earlier than she usually leaves for Hexside on any other day.
All this because today she is embarking on an important, self-imposed mission that she has been planning down to the smallest detail for the last couple of days, if not weeks.
With an exceptionally good mood, a smile on her face, and a melodic hum, Skara strolls through the streets and alleys of Bonesborough.
'Today is the day.', she thinks to herself, her heart pumping happily in her chest, her visible excitement contagious to all who watch her walk past them.
About ten minutes later, a narrow house comes into her view. It is the last of a long row of row houses near the coast of the city. She had spent some time finding the right house a while back to not accidentally knock on the wrong door.
Where she had glided light-footedly through the alleyways before, Skara now notices how her legs become heavier with every step she takes, and anxiety begins to creep into her mind.
She approaches a wall about waist height with a wooden gate in it. Directly behind it, connected by a short stone path, lies her destination: a green door. The door frame is adorned with vines and many colorful flowers that stretch from the ground all the way up to the windows on the second floor.
'Wow...', Skara marvels at this magic, just as she did when she explored the area a few days ago. Her heart is now caught in her throat and fear begins to take over as she reaches for the front gate. Her whole body is shivering, and it's certainly not because of the temperature.
'Come on, I can do it.', she tries to encourage herself. Her body, however, doesn't seem to be playing along. 'I can do this. I can do this. I can do this... I can't do this.'
Immediately she turns around and resumes her regular journey to school with feelings of both relief and guilt equally filling her mind.
Her plan has failed before she could even take the first step.
Skara does not like to fail.
She's an incredibly intelligent and talented witch, and she knows it. She's the best witch in the whole Bard track. She has the best grades and writes the best melodies. No one plays as many instruments as she does. No one can match her in Grudgby and Flyer Derby, and she knows it. No one finds it easier to make new friends out of complete strangers and to master social situations of all kinds than she does. And she knows it.
Skara doesn't lose. She doesn't fail. And yet...
"There's no way I'm letting all this preparation go to waste. This time it's going to work.", she gives herself a pep talk before throwing on the red scarf that her grandmother knitted her for her last birthday, and then leaves the house again.
Her nerves are tense as she takes exactly the same route as yesterday. Not far from her house, she starts humming to try to ease her inner tensions and her anxiety.
Just like yesterday, it takes her a good ten minutes to reach the row of rowhouses near the coast. This time, however, instead of walking directly towards her destination, she stops a little way from it and leans on the stone railing. She dares to look down over the whole of south-west Bonesborough, fifty meters below her, and directly on the shore.
With both hands on the railing, she takes a deep breath and exhales. She watches her warm breath escape her lungs into the cold air. The sun rising in the west makes this look particularly beautiful.
"Okay... okay... okay...", she mutters to herself, ready to give herself another pep talk, "You're a Musiker... Papa always says: 'A Musiker doesn't give up until she's tried, done, and achieved everything'… I can do that. After all, it's just a question. It's not like I'm asking her out...", Skara shakes her hands, pushing the tension out of her body as her gaze slowly wanders to the house with the green door. She takes another deep breath. "Here we go."
Her legs carry her towards the house more reliably than yesterday. By the time she reaches the gate in the low wall, however, her knees are, once again, as soft as butter.
'No! Don’t give out! I can do this!'
Skara grabs the gate and opens it, revealing the last section of her path. Her heart skips a beat, her breathing begins shaking. It's only four steps until she reaches her destination.
'Only four steps. Four steps, and then just knock. That's easy.', she thinks to herself, 'Right?'
The gate in front of her stands wide open. There is nothing in her way, and yet she stands there, rooted to the spot.
Suddenly there are noises from the other side of the door, causing Skara to jump.
"EEK!", she screeches. 'How long have I been standing here?', she asks herself, increasingly panicked, 'Oh no. I've taken too long. I have to get out of here!'
She pulls her legs up and runs away, heading towards Hexside.
'Not again!', she blames herself angrily, 'Why is this so hard? I was able to play three instruments at the same time in front of hundreds of people on my birthday and then give an acceptance speech afterwards... But I- I fail- at a door?? That doesn't make any sense!'
Her shame for her cowardice begins to turn into anger directed at herself as well as determination, the further away she gets.
'I'll try again tomorrow.'
"Yeah, thanks Papa. Maybe- um, I'm sure, it will work out today.", Skara says goodbye to her father and leaves the house earlier than usual, as she has done for the previous two days. Two things are different today, though.
Firstly, it's not as cold as it was yesterday.
Secondly, Skara has had less sleep than usual. Her father came back yesterday from a trade conference lasting several days, about how it would make sense to reduce the purchasing price of various product imports by 0.035%, just by switching from snake horses to ratworms for transporting goods. And he insisted on teaching her everything he had learned to the point that she couldn't go to bed until after midnight.
As a result, she doesn't necessarily feel particularly energetic or in a good mood right now. But nevertheless, she has a goal that she wants to achieve. And who knows, maybe her tiredness will help to contain her anxiety and her worries. After all, this tactic had worked before, namely on her very first day at Hexside all those years ago.
It takes her longer than on the previous two days to reach the house with the green door, due to her tiredness. Her plan to use her tiredness as a tool to combat her anxiety doesn't seem to work either, because as she approaches the green door, she realizes that her heart is beating with the force of an orchestra in her chest, and her knees are already so wobbly that they could give way at any second now.
In her mind, she is already prepared for yet another failure. The urge to run away again grows stronger and stronger as she approaches the door. She slowly raises her hand to knock when the door suddenly opens from the inside, and a man stands now in front of her.
"eek", Skara shrieks quietly, unable to move anywhere. Her whole body frozen to the ground. Only now does he notice her.
Both of them just stand there, frozen. Skara, her hand half-raised and her eyes wide open, just stares at the man holding a full dark green bag in one hand.
He has darker skin, a bulkier statue, not much hair on his head, but a full beard that many men would envy. He looks at Skara, his features are kind and his aura warming, all of which helps to calm the storm inside her.
"Can I help you?", he eventually asks in a friendly voice.
Skara opens her mouth, but there are no words or even sounds coming out. Embarrassment spreads across her face, along with a slight reddish blush. The man glances briefly at something beside her face and back again. He begins to smile slightly.
"You're wearing a Hexside uniform. Are you a friend of Willow's?", he asks, to which Skara nods excessively.
"I, um... I was...", Skara stutters, her voice barely more than a whisper, her face burning hot, and her red scarf suddenly feeling far too tightly wrapped around her neck, "Is she, um...? Is Willow home?"
The man smiles warmly, his gaze full of understanding.
"Of course she is. Just one second.", he turns inward, "WILLOW! YOU HAVE A VISITOR!"
Turning back to Skara, he continues, "Come in. You can wait inside if you want. I just have to take the garbage out."
He steps out of the door and walks past Skara, who in turn enters the house. Inside, she finds herself in a short hallway. The walls are decorated with alternating green and light brown wallpaper, cozy lights, pictures, and shelves with various books on them are hanging on the walls, and right next to the front door is a large dresser with several framed pictures on it. In an effort to further calm her nerves, she approaches them.
The first picture, framed in white with golden and crystal embellishments, is a wedding photo. 'Aww, how sweet.', she thinks to herself as she sees the two men on the happiest day of their lives. 'Wait, is that-?'
At the bottom of the picture is a small child, no more than three years old, in a green dress, smiling happily at her parents as they kiss.
'Awww, baby Willow...', she thinks to herself with a smile on her face, before moving on to the next picture.
The second image also appears to be a couple of years old and probably shows the small family on a hiking trip somewhere in the mountains near Lake Zehensee.
The third and last picture fills Skara with a slight feeling of remorse. It shows a young Willow together with a just as young Amity. It appears to be a birthday party, with Amity hugging Willow tightly with a wide smile. They both look happy, which causes a slight stabbing pain in Skara's chest.
'Amity looks so happy. This must be about the time... the time Boscha and I met-', her thoughts are interrupted as a familiar voice moves in her direction.
"Gus, I thought you were going to walk Mattholomule to school today for his- oh.", Willow is just walking around a corner when she catches sight of Skara waving at her with a weird smile. She also sees that Skara's ears are twitching slightly, which she doesn't seem to be aware of herself. "Skara, hey... Um, I wasn't expecting you. Here. At my place."
'That's it. This is my opportunity. Seize it!'
"I- I- I, um... I wanted to ask you if, um...", Skara can't manage to get a single coherent phrase out due to her sheer nervousness, but Willow just stands in front of her, patiently, with a smile on her face. One that the bard unfortunately can't concentrate on at the moment, "I wanted to ask you if... um, if we should go to- to school together."
"Sure. I'd love to.", Willow's answer follows immediately. "I'm almost ready too. I'll be right back.", she replies before disappearing around the corner again.
With her heart pounding against her ribs, Skara's gaze remains fixed on the spot where Willow was standing just a moment ago. The realization of her quick and, more importantly, positive reaction hasn't really hit her yet, but still she slowly begins to feel all the nervous energy and tension she had built up inside her beginning to dissipate. Admittedly, she had planned every single detail in advance, but she hadn't expected it to be that easy - that Willow would say yes that quickly.
Slowly but steadily, all the weight lifts off her chest that she didn't know was there. Instead, a feeling of lightness spreads through her whole body, and a bright smile appears on her face.
Her head fills with a whirlwind of positive emotions. There is no longer even a trace of all the fear, the worry, and the nervousness left. Instead, she feels as if she just wants to dance through the streets of Bonesborough with the brightest aura for everybody to see.
'Maybe later.', she thinks to herself, nearly bubbling over with positive energy.
"Whoa... You look happy.", Willow's father chimes in from the front door as he re-enters the house.
"eeek!", she just squeaks excitedly in response, nodding vigorously. Her joy is quite infectious and a smile spreads across his face as well as he closes the door behind him.
"Seems like someone's day is off to a great start.", he continues in an amused tone.
"Not really up to now, actually.", she speaks up, trying to calm herself down a little, but with only minimal success, "And this today is actually my third attempt. But please don't tell Willow.", she begs him.
"I didn't hear anything.", he smiles at her, "On another note... You're in the Bard track, am I right?"
"Yes, that's right.", she replies.
"Heh... When I was at school, I originally wanted to enroll in the Bard track too. However, at the time I was far too concerned about my image than what I really wanted to do and be in life, which is why I enrolled in the Abomination track.", he says with a hint of nostalgia, but also regret in his voice, "And admittedly: I never managed to learn to play an instrument.", he chuckles.
"Yes, the first one is always the hardest."
"Can you play any?"
"Um, yeah, a few.", she replies, "But I don't wanna brag."
"Oh come on, no need to humble yourself. How many are we talking about? Two? Three?", he insists, at which Skara feels a little exposed.
"... Nine.", she answers quietly.
"Nine instruments? Oh my Titan... That's pretty impressive. You don't have a lot of free time, do you?"
"It's fine, actually. I've had to cut Grudgby back a bit so Flyer Derby doesn't have to suffer.", she tells him. He raises an eyebrow.
"Flyer Derby? Wait a minute.", He falls into a thoughtful pose, "Is your name Skara? Skara Musiker?"
Skara nods affirmatively.
"Oh...", he says, "Willow had told us quite a bit about you."
"Only good things, I hope.", she says as memories flood into her mind of when she was anything but nice to Willow- when she was still doing Boscha's bidding.
"You know, I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but she-", he quickly interrupts himself as Willow suddenly pops back around the corner into the hallway.
"But she what?", she asks curiously.
"Oh, nothing. We were just talking about how you seem to tell your parents about me.", Skara explains, "He was just about to tell me what exactly."
"Oh no, you're not!", Willow addresses her father while her face takes on a red tint.
With a bag slung over her shoulder, she hurriedly walks past her father, grabs Skara by her sleeve, and briskly leaves the house.
"Bye Papa, we're off to school. Give Dad a kiss for me when he wakes up. See you later. Love you." she says goodbye, and within seconds the two witches are gone out of the door and into the fresh morning air.
Just as the two of them are out of sight and out of hearing range, Willow lets go of Skara's sleeve and stops for a moment for them both to catch their breath.
"Are you okay?", Willow asks, "Sorry about that just now. It's just... Once he starts talking about something, he's literally talking for hours. We never would get to school on time."
"Oh, yeah, I get it.", Skara replies. Admittedly, even if she does believe that her father can talk and talk like a waterfall, she's not quite so sure that Willow's rush to leave is actually related to that. However, Skara decides to leave this matter alone and not to follow up any further.
After a short breather, the two girls set off towards Hexside at a more leisurely pace. Of course, they could always get their staffs ready and fly there, but it's better to talk on foot.
"Soooo...", Skara begins, followed by a long moment of awkward silence, "What was that about Gus and Mattholomule?"
"Well, Principal Bump had announced yesterday that, as of today, he would officially allow multi-tracks, and Mattholomule is one of the ones getting their new uniforms today. Gus wanted to accompany him for that."
"Oh, that's nice of him.", Skara comments. "Wait... Wasn't that allowed already? I mean, Luz and Viney have been enrolled in more than one track for quite a while, or am I wrong?"
"Oh, no, you're right. I guess Bump wanted to see if there were any problems with the Emperor’s Coven for the multitrack students or not."
"I always thought all that 'one track only'-stuff was kind of stupid.", Skara comments.
"What would you want to take?", Willow wonders.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... Let's say you'd had the choice of enrolling in more than one track from the very beginning. What would you have chosen?", she explains, at which Skara needs to give it some serious thought.
"Admittedly, I find it hard to imagine a life where I don't make music."
"You don't have to choose anything else if you don't want to."
"No, that's not what I mean.", Skara remarks, "I mean, I love music. I could never in my life imagine ever giving it up... A lot of people just see music for what it is. But I see more. ... I see the magic in every single note. I see the emotions that someone feels when they play an instrument. I feel the pain of someone who has just been abandoned or lost someone. I feel the joy of someone who has found the love of their life. And music is never the same when different people create it. Two people playing the same song create something completely new through their own personalities, and that's what I love about it."
Willow looks wide-eyed at Skara, who speaks with all this passion. However, she herself is filled with a bit of sadness when she thinks of the reasons why she chose the plant track. Or rather didn't chose it when she first enrolled at Hexside.
"I'm sure you remember that I was in the Abomination track until a few months ago, right?", Skara thinks for a moment and nods, "I didn't originally choose the track because I was good at it, or because my dads wanted me to, or because I was interested in it... This may sound completely ridiculous now, but-"
"You were there because of Amity.", Skara suspects, at which the plant witch nods.
"I had mourned my friendship with her for a very long time, and in the end, I simply couldn't let it go. It didn't help that I was lonely.", Willow recalls, "But sometime later, I met Augustus and we immediately bonded. In fact, he was the one who inspired me to try out other types of magic. Away from school, that is. He knew as well as I did that I had absolutely no business being in the Abomination track. We had tried a lot of things. From illusions, to construction magic, to potions and Beast Keeping."
"And you stuck with plant magic.", Skara continues her sentence. Willow nods. "Sounds like you owe him a lot."
"I don't know where I'd be today if I hadn't met him back then. He is my best friend."
"That sounds very nice.", Skara comments with quite a shift in her tone, "Um, I'm sorry for the part I played in that all that time ago. If I'd known back then what was going on between you and Amity-"
"Stop.", Willow nudges her arm, "Don't apologize. Despite all the negative things that happened to me and all the pain, I'm very happy and proud of where I am today. I'm on the track of my dreams, I have the best friends, I run the best flyer derby club on the Isles... and right now I'm walking to school with you. So, I don't think I could be doing much better right now."
Willow smiles at her. And it's a genuine smile.
"You're right.", Skara smiles back at her, though it's a slightly sadder one, "Let's leave the past in the past."
The rest of their way to school passed faster than either of them would like. They spend the whole time talking about everything and nothing, simply enjoying each other's company. There wasn't a single second when the two of them weren't deeply absorbed in lively conversation. But as Hexside gradually comes into view, the two witches can't help but wish their walk had taken longer.
Nevertheless, they are happy to see their friends standing outside in front of the stairs leading into the school.
Luz is the first to notice the two witches approaching and waves to them from a distance, gesturing for them to come to her and the others. 'The others' in this case being Amity, Gus, and Mattholomule.
"Hey everyone.", Skara greets the group with a joyful tone in her voice once she and Willow get there. Her gaze wanders to Mattholomule. "Nice new uniform."
"... Thanks.", he replies, feeling slightly flattered. It feels strange to receive compliments that are actually sincere. "It still feels so surreal."
"So you have both construction- and illusions classes now?", Willow speaks up, at which Mattholomule nods.
"Were you the only one enrolled in multiple tracks now?", Skara wonders. But before he can answer, Amity speaks up.
"Well, I know Ed and Em want to pick additional tracks as soon as they get back from the knee."
"Who?", Mattholomule asks. Amity chooses to ignore his question and continues.
"I know Ed's been pretty into Beast Keeping for a while, and Em's quite into... Healing."
"Cool.", Skara nods.
"Say, Ammy-", Luz begins. Amity blushes slightly at the mention of that nickname, "Didn't you say they'd only be gone for like two weeks?"
"Admittedly, it's been a couple days since I last spoke to them. They haven't blown up the factory yet, though, I would have heard about that..."
"Oh my Titan, Matty!", Gus speaks up excitedly, changing the topic, "I wanted to show you the illusion rooms before class starts. I totally forgot that."
"Uhh, okay.", Matt replies, before Gus grabs his hand and pulls him up the stairs.
"See you guys later.", Gus says goodbye to the others and a second later, the two boys have already disappeared.
"Is it just me, or did he just call him Matty?", Willow wonders. A devilish smirk appears on Luz's face.
"Well, I ship them.", she says.
"LUZ!", Amity interjects.
"What?", she asks in a very innocent tone.
"What did we say about shipping real people in public?", Amity demands to know. Her girlfriend pouts at that. "I'm listening."
"Not to do it when they're still in earshot."
"And?"
"And that we should keep it to ourselves.", she replies in a disappointed tone. Amity sighs. Meanwhile, Skara finds herself grinning at this banter.
"Listen, I admire that it's so important to you that your friends are happy, but they have to discover that form of happiness for themselves.", Amity explains, at the same time briefly looking over and directly at Willow. A grateful smile appears on her face. Amity continues. "Do you understand what I mean?"
"Yes, I understand.", Luz replies, still slightly depressed. Fortunately, she quickly recovers and turns to Willow and Skara with her usual cheerful tone, "So, what have you two got planned for today?"
Willow and Skara look at each other briefly.
"Well, just the usual classes, really. We probably won't see each other again until lunchtime.", Willow replies.
"Yeah, probably.", Skara agrees. Shortly afterwards, the school bell rings.
The entire student body currently still outside, gradually moves inside the building. Luz leads the way with Skara, as the two of them have their first class together, as always on Fridays, and Amity trots along behind.
"Amity?", Willow speaks up before she starts walking as well, "Do you have a moment?"
Luz and Skara are already walking in while Amity goes back to Willow.
"What's up?", she asks.
"I just wanted to thank you.", the plant witch explains, "You know, for not telling Skara."
"No problem.", Amity merely replies before they both also make their way inside, "So you two walked here together, huh?"
"Yeah... She came to my place and asked me if I wanted to go to school with her.", Willow said, her face heating up. "I had to escape to my room afterwards just to not freak out. I mean, she asked me. And on the way here, she stayed so cool the whole time, while I was just a nervous wreck."
"Really? You don't seem nervous to me at all...", Amity remarks, before Willow lifts her hands, which are shaking like she's never seen them shake before, "Whoa."
"Uh-huh."
"I take it back.", Amity says, " Do you want Luz and I to help you? I'm sure she'd be right on board."
"No, I want to do this myself. Well, after I get my nervousness under control. I don't know when I've ever been so nervous about anything."
"Oh, I know.", Willow looks at Amity with a raised eyebrow, "Remember our very first swimming lesson? You were so scared of the water that you never dared to go in first.", Amity remembers with amusement. Willow can't help smiling at this memory either.
"Yes, I was terrified of being eaten by water fleas."
"Yeah, but only until I was able to convince you that water fleas can only exist under frozen lakes.", Amity giggles at that, along with Willow.
"Yeah, that was a good time.", Willow's voice sounds more sentimental, "You know, I'm glad we're friends again."
Amity smiles slightly. "Yeah, me too."
Luz and Skara are standing at Luz's locker, not far from their first classroom of the day.
"Luz?"
"Yeah?"
"You know, I've been thinking... about the- the CATs- and even though we only voted on the name at the meeting two days ago, I was thinking maybe we could try to recruit more people."
"While the decision is not mine to make, why not? Do you have anyone in mind?"
"Well...", Skara begins a little sheepishly, "Willow's a pretty powerful witch... A-a-and Gus is also a talented illusionist."
A huge, knowing smirk begins to spread inside Luz's mind. Perhaps she might have the opportunity to match her friends with each other after all, albeit without direct intervention on her part. It is perfect.
"Luz, are you alright?", Skara asks with slight concern in her voice. Her inner smirk doesn't seem to have stayed inside her mind. She shakes her head, trying to clear her head.
"Uh, yeah, no, I'm fine. Umm, I think it's a great idea. I have no idea when the next meeting is, but you should definitely invite Willow."
"M-m-me?", Skara's face pales.
"Of course. Why not?", Luz asks, at which Skara merely sighs before drawing close to her ear and beginning to whisper.
"Please keep it to yourself, but today was actually the first time this week that I managed to talk to Willow. I don't know why, but lately I've just been... I don't know, scared? I mean, me. Scared. That doesn't even sound like me...", Skara complains to her. Luz closes her locker and puts a hand sympathetically on her shoulder.
"Listen, if you want, I can help you with that."
"Really?"
"Of course.", Luz smiles, "I don't have any specific ideas yet, but I'll think of something."
"Thank you very much, Luz.", Skara smiles back with relief. The two girls now make their way to their classroom.
"But there's one thing you have to explain to me first.", Luz says, at which Skara raises an expectant eyebrow, "Why are you asking me of all people for help?"
"Well, you're one of Willow's closest friends. And you're the only one with actual dating experience.", she replies, "I mean, a few months ago I would just have gone to Boscha or something for advice, but well, you know what happened."
"Speaking of Boscha...", Luz stops in front of the open door to her classroom. So does Skara, who first looks at Luz in confusion and then into the room. At the very back, in the middle of the back row, sits Boscha, who looks at Skara with a furious expression as she spots her. The bard witch swallows hard. "You can sit with us if you like."
"Thanks Luz, but...", Skara sighs, "I've been avoiding her all this time since - you know. I always knew I couldn't avoid her forever. I'll be fine."
Both girls enter the classroom. Luz immediately sits down next to Gus in the third row. Skara follows right behind her, her eyes locked with Boscha's as she angrily glares daggers at the bard and her former friend.
Anxiously, she makes her way to the back of the room, walks past Boscha, and sits down at the right-hand edge of the table. Just as she sits down, she breathes out a sigh of relief.
'Okay, she hasn't killed me yet. T-that's good.'
Just seconds later, Willow is one of the last to enter the classroom, and only just before the teacher arrived.
"Morning students.", The snake-headed teacher enters the classroom grumpily and throws his rucksack onto the teacher's desk, looking pretty upset.
"Good morning, Professor Pruda.", The whole class greets him in unison. He drops limply into his chair with all his weight. He remains there for a good couple of seconds without saying another word. His face contorts in slight pain.
"Okay, listen up! I had a... let's say, I had quite a rough night. Overdid some things. All you lot need to know is that I don't want to hear a peep out of you. In return, you can do whatever you want. Deal? Deal."
Professor Pruda takes a pair of big, black sunglasses out of his bag, puts them on, and slumps into a relaxed position with his arms crossed.
The class in front of him exchanges confused glances among themselves. There is complete silence in the classroom for several minutes until the teacher can be heard snoring softly.
The attention of everyone suddenly shifts to the end of the room as a rumble is heard. All eyes turn to Boscha, who is collecting her things, no sign that she is even trying to be quiet. She throws her books and writing utensils into a sports bag.
"I don't have time for this crap. I've got better things to do.", Boscha mutters angrily to herself. Skara turns to her.
"What are you doing?"
"SHUT YOUR FUCKING- BETRAYING MOUTH!", Boscha almost yells through her gritted teeth and with angry tears in her eyes. Shocked gasps around her as Boscha stomps towards Skara and towers in front of her.
Her friends in the row directly in front of her turn to Skara, her gaze fixed terrified on Boscha.
The three eyed witch turns her head to the rest of the class, who, apart from the sleeping teacher, look at her partly in curiosity and partly in bewilderment, before turning back to Skara.
"Don't think I'm done with you just because you managed to avoid me for the last few weeks. Not by a long shot!"
Boscha grabs her sports bag and casts a disdainful glance at Luz, Willow, and Gus before walking straight to the door, slamming it loudly behind her.
"Quiet!", the teacher yells, but doesn't move, "I'll send the next person who talks directly to detention."
It doesn't take long before another light snore can be heard coming from the teacher. It's not entirely clear whether he has even noticed anything about Boscha leaving except for the bang of the door.
From that point onwards, it doesn't take long for most of the students in the class to find something to do. Most have their scrolls out, some are reading, and then there's Skara. Alone in her row, she just sits there, still processing the menacing threat of her former best friend. Her gaze remains fixed dead into nothingness. That is, until she suddenly feels something tapping on her shoulder.
Startled, Skara looks first to her left, then to her right... but finds no one. Confused, she looks down at her table and notices a vine placing a folded sheet of paper in front of her.
Skara leans slightly towards the edge of the table, her gaze following the vine to its source. It quickly becomes clear that Willow, who has her history book open in front of her, is most likely the... the root of the mystery.
Skara unfolds the note.
r u ok?
A slight smile appears on her face before she digs a red pen out of her case.
I'm fi
'Hmm... No, I shouldn't lie to her.', she shakes her head.
I'm
fiSad, maybe. I'm not sure.
Skara folds the paper again and puts it back into the opening in the vine, which quickly retracts back towards its source. A few seconds later, the vine reappears, and opens up in front of her on the table, revealing the same piece of paper.
Sad because of Boscha? Wasn't she threatening you just a moment ago?
Skara picks up her pen again, and starts writing underneath Willow's message.
She can't cope with change. Not only in others, but also in herself. And I also do not believe that she will act on her threat.
Skara folds the note again and puts it back in the vine. Moments later, it reappears with Willow's reply.
Are you sure? Don't you remember that day of the Grudgby match a few months ago, that Luz instigated? I don't remember her ever making an empty threat
'Hmm... That's right. Boscha had Luz beat up pretty good. Ugh, why didn't I intervene back then...', she thinks to herself, her mind filled with regret and shame.
I'm not too worried, Willow.
She returns the note again and quickly receives a reply.
I'd still feel better if you weren't alone from now on. What do you say you come with me to the greenhouse later? I've grown some lovely ferns.
Skara's face suddenly gets all warm and red. Luckily, she's sitting alone at the back of the room so no one notices.
I'd love to.
The note is just on its way back towards Willow when Skara takes a look at the clock on the wall. Apparently, class is almost over.
'WHAT??? Already???', she wonders incredulously, 'Didn't I just sit down???'
However, before she can continue to worry about the fact that she seems to have absolutely no sense of the passage of time, the intercom suddenly turns on unexpectedly, instead of the classroom bell screaming.
"Attention please.", it is Principal Bump speaking, "All students are required to assemble in the auditorium immediately for an important announcement."
The class begins to pack their bags when Professor Pruda suddenly speaks up again. He sounds rather sleepy and still in a bad mood.
"You heard him. Everyone out of here!", he orders them, "You can leave your things here."
The students immediately make their way out of the room and head towards the auditorium.
Skara and Luz are among the last to leave the room. Just as they arrive in the corridor, a bang makes them shudder, followed by a mechanical click. Their eyes turn to the room door, which is now closed. She frowns at that.
"Did he just lock himself in there?", she wonders, looking at Luz. Instead of answering, she just shrugs her shoulders.
It doesn't take long before the auditorium gradually begins to fill up with students. After about ten minutes, there are around one hundred students from several grades in the auditorium, standing near the stage. Standing at the front of the crowd are Luz, Willow, Skara, and Gus, looking directly at Principal Bump, Professor Ilora, and an unknown man standing directly between them, wearing a brown jacket hood covering parts of his face.
Amity is among the last to arrive, as her class is the furthest from the auditorium. She pushes her way through the crowd to Luz and the others.
"Hey.", Amity greets her friends, "What's going on? Who's that guy?"
"I don't know.", Luz replies.
"Uh, uh, maybe he's from the Flyer Derby Isle-Championship committee and wants us to compete there.", Skara guesses, speaking directly to Willow and Gus.
Among the hundred or so students and teachers in attendance, many of them have similar conversations and suspicions, including Viney and Jerbo.
"My cousin told me they closed St. Epiderm. Maybe Hexside is next.", she speculates.
"St. Epiderm is closed? For real? Since when?", Jerbo responds.
However, he receives no answer to his question, because Principal Bump now takes the stage and calls everyone's attention.
"Uh, students, teachers, let me introduce the esteemed-", Bump begins with a rather nervous and uncomfortable undertone, when the unknown man next to him interrupts him.
"Please, Principal Bump, I deserve no accolades.", he says and takes off his hood, revealing his partially unkempt teal-colored hair and stubbly beard. He looks as if he has just come out of hiding, where he's been for days. He continues. "Hello everyone. My name is Adrian Graye, Head Witch of the Illusionist Coven."
Several shocked gasps erupt from the student body, while her friends look worriedly at Luz, who herself checks to see if she is wearing her concealment bracelet around her wrist.
Luckily, she does, which unfortunately doesn't help her acute worries nearly as much as she'd hoped. Amity, sensing her girlfriend's worries, grabs her hand, giving it a supportive squeeze.
'I hope for his own good he's not here because of Luz...', Amity thinks to herself, but so do the others immediately beside her, willing to do anything to protect her.
"Unfortunately, I'm not here with good news.", Graye continues, "The Emperor's Coven has plans to stop multi-track studies, by inducing every Hexside student into a coven, before the Day of Unity."
Shocked gasps erupt in the crowd. Wild whispering everywhere.
"Don't worry, everyone. No one's magic is going to be sealed away.", Bump speaks up in an attempt to calm the crowd right in front of him, "Head Witch Graye supports us, and has come to help."
Luz and Amity exchange skeptical glances. Both of them have had more than enough experience with the coven leaders to rightfully doubt Graye's intentions. Luz notices one of the professors looking around at the students, apparently to choose someone for something. She comes up with a plan.
Luz looks directly at the professor, who walks right up to her, and gently pulls her out of the crowd. Amity steps in, holding Luz by her arm, glaring at the professor.
"Hey.", Luz addresses her girlfriend in a soft voice, "It's okay. Nothing's going to happen."
Luz winks at her mischievously. Amity seems to understand and lets her go. Amity rejoins the others while the professor leads Luz up the stage.
'I really hope you know what you're doing.', Amity thinks to herself with worry before Head Witch Graye speaks up again, explaining his plan.
"Before any Coven Scouts come by, I'm going to make Illusions of sigils on your wrists.", he explains, pointing to his wrist where his own sigil is located, "They'll be temporary, and harmless. Once a scout sees the fake sigil, they'll move on, and you can continue your studies in peace."
Graye begins to draw a magic circle in the air, while Gus notices a strange shimmer on his hand.
"An illusion.", he mutters to himself. Both Amity and Skara have heard this and turn to him. "He's hiding behind an illusion. It's a trap."
Both girls turn back to Luz, who looks confident and cocky. Gus continues.
"I could dispel the illusion, but not without damaging Luz's as well."
"I think, she already knows about the trap.", Amity doesn't look away from her girlfriend for a single second, not recognizing a trace of uncertainty or fear, "I think she might have a plan..."
Luz's own gaze wanders to her wrist, on which Graye places a finger. A few seconds later, he raises his hand again.
Several puzzled looks fall on the spot where the coven sigil should be... But there is nothing there. And Luz tries with all her willpower to hide her inner smirk and not reveal that she knows exactly why it didn't work, while at the same time sheer confusion spreads across Graye's face. Dumbfounded, he searches Luz's face for answers, but her poker face is impenetrable.
"What the-", he mutters, before trying again. He draws another magic circle, while quiet voices of confusion and amusement emerge from the front rows of students, all directed at the Coven Head.
Once again, Graye finishes his spell, raises his hand... and Luz's wrist is still empty.
"CUT!", a loud voice suddenly shouts, with no visible source, "Just cut."
Graye sags in disappointment before clouds of illusion obscure him, revealing a Coven Scout moments later, twice Luz's height. Luz backs up immediately. Bump and Professor Ilora place themselves protectively in front of her.
Behind Luz, three more scouts appear, one of them holding a large microphone. On the other side of the stage, three scouts appear as well, one of them holding a stage light on a raised platform. Right in the center of the stage, the real Head Witch Graye appears, sitting on a director's chair with a coffee in his hand.
Scouts also appear at the top of the stands on both sides, as well as directly at the entrance to the auditorium. They are surrounded and a sense of disturbance begins to spread.
"What in Titan's name is going on here?", Bump asks, but is interrupted by the real Graye.
"Bup-bup-bup... Shush.", he holds out his hand, silencing him, before turning to one of the scouts on the sidelines. "All right, couple of notes, Tom: That Adrian-illusion was lacking a certain... hm. You get me?", Coven Head Graye just waves a hand around, at which Tom just shrugs in confusion. A confusion that is shared by most, if not everyone currently present in the auditorium. Graye turns to a scout who is involved in the lighting. "Severine! That was really... poor work. You're on thin ice."
She whimpers at that, before the Coven head turns to the captain, who had previously pretended to be Adrian.
"And youuu... ugh...", a terribly frustrated grunt escapes his mouth, "You had a job to do. ONE. All you had to do was give those- traitors, a sigil. AND YOU MANAGED TO MESS IT UP!"
"HA! I KNEW IT!", Luz shouts at him, excited about her assumptions about him being correct. She quickly realizes that she shouldn't have done that. He immediately glares at her and tries to approach her, but Bump and Professor Ilora stand right in his way. Graye draws a magic circle in the air, vanishes, and reappears moments later right behind Luz, visually examining her, looking for any anomalies.
"Who are you?", he asks as he circles around her in a thoughtful pose.
"Uh, Luz. Luz... Batista.", she lies, swallowing nervously and hoping fervently that he can't see behind the illusion of her concealment stone. With a help-seeking look, her eyes turn to Bump, who seems to be just as nervous as she is.
His gaze wanders to Luz's wrist, under which she is trying to hide her concealment bracelet. He grabs her hand.
"Hey!", Luz yells, trying to free herself, but in vain. Graye takes a closer look at the stone.
"Interesting... A completely flawless shape. No microfractures, no cracks in the outer visualization membrane... a true masterpiece.", he mutters, " This must have been quite expensive... What exactly are you hiding?"
Luz swallows hard before gesturing with her index finger for him to come closer. Curious, he leans down towards her.
"I... I haven't showered for two weeks.", Luz whispers in his ear, whereupon he abruptly lets go of her.
"Ew, ew, ew, no- nope.", he turns around and walks briskly back to the center of the stage, frantically cleaning his hands on a towel carried by one of the scouts.
Just after, he rips the branding glove from the captain’s hand, putting it onto his own.
"Let's try this again, won't we?", he speaks in a menacing voice, "And this time: properly."
"Why are you doing this?", Luz shouts.
"I work for the Emperor, duh. It's my job.", he replies as an idea comes to his mind. He turns to the crowd of students, glancing over them. His gaze ultimately settles on Gus.
The Head Witch elegantly leaps down from the stage and heads straight for the young illusion student, who, increasingly terrified, takes a few steps backwards.
Before Graye reaches him, however, a loud crash rings through the auditorium. All the students, teachers, and even some of the coven scouts are startled and turn towards the doors. Coven Head Graye sighs in frustration as he sees who has just disturbed him.
"Ughh... What are you doing here? You were supposed to be doing this... this other thing...", he addresses the figure standing in the entrance, who is taking of their golden mask.
Luz, who has a better view due to the fact that she is still standing on the stage, immediately recognizes this figure from their last encounter.
'The Golden Guard...', Luz thinks to herself, followed by a shocked mental gasp. 'Honestly, I don't know whether to be excited or terrified...'
With his artificial staff in hand, he makes his way directly to the Coven Head. As he walks, the crowd in front of him forms a straight, open path along which he walks with purposeful steps. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Luz can't help but observe him with interest.
'He looks so puny... Huh, one could almost believe he was a student here...'
The Golden Guard's gaze remains fixed on Graye, his expression unreadable to anyone.
He stops only a few steps away from him.
"Hello, Hunter."
Both the Golden Guard and the Coven Head look at Gus in surprise. Graye speaks up, sensing a chance to get rid of the Golden Guard.
"I don't think it was a good idea to take off your mask, Golden Guard. Your identity has been compromised. You should probably go back to the palace-"
The Golden Guard raises his hand, interrupting Graye. Successfully. His gaze slowly moves to his right, where he briefly looks Gus directly in his eyes, an uncomfortable feeling spreading through his mind. Right next to Gus, he spots Willow and looks directly into her eyes as well, in which he recognizes nothing but contempt. The feeling is the same as Gus's, but not only in his head, but also deep in his chest. So deep that it hurts. Not that he lets any of it show.
He turns his gaze away and looks to his left. His gaze meets Skara, who becomes visibly nervous at his look. His feelings for her are rather mixed. He remembers her kindness as part of the Emerald Entrails, but he also remembers her act of betrayal at the Looking Glass Graveyard.
Immediately behind Skara, he recognizes someone he would definitely call one of two personal enemies.
"Amity Blight!", he shouts. The students around her immediately move away from her. All except Skara, who remains standing in front of her. The Golden Guard steps closer to her. "Yes, I know your name... Parents Alador and Odalia Blight, siblings Edric and Emira Blight, Abomination student at Hexside, former apprentice to the traitor Lilith, and a traitor yourself...", he lists in an ominous voice, audible for everyone, "But luckily for you, I'm not here for you specifically. You see, Emperor Belos gave me the mission to find the greatest threat to the Boiling Isles that has ever existed. And I think you in particular can help me with that... So, tell me, where is the human?"
Amity doesn't have to think long about how to answer. Because instead of answering, she simply crosses her arms. The Golden Guard grins smugly.
"Bad choice.", he replies, glancing at Graye, who immediately understands. He grabs Amity's forearm and brings the branding glove into position.
"You'd better answer quickly, or else...", the Golden Guard threatens her, but she remains completely unperturbed.
"Wasn't sealing everyone's magic away the plan anyway?", she accuses the Coven Head.
"That's right, but-", Graye closes the glove, and instead of a seal for the Abomination Coven, the seal for the Illusion Coven appears. Suddenly, panic begins to flash through her body, and she tries to free herself from Graye's grip. "- no one said the sigil had to match your track..."
"No, don't-", Amity now struggles to free herself, her gaze momentarily jumping to Luz, who now looks back at her, frozen in fear. Hunter leans a little closer to Amity.
"So, last chance: Where. Is. The. Human? Tell me, and maybe I'll reconsider locking you up, charging you with treason, and petrifying you. It's your decision. Choose wisely."
"I am here."
The voice comes from the middle of one of the clusters of students. The crowd disperses, revealing Luz Noceda, who is holding her staff firmly in one hand.
"And here."
This voice comes from another source from behind one of the stage curtains, from which another Luz Noceda emerges.
"And here."
"Here too."
"And here."
A total of fifteen versions of Luz Noceda appear scattered all throughout the auditorium, while the real Luz is still hidden by her concealment bracelet. She looks around in amazement at all the other versions of herself, until she begins to ponder who is behind it all.
Unfortunately, her gaze immediately falls on Gus, who has both hands hidden behind his back and is straining to keep his concentration.
"Oh no...", the real Luz whispers. Gus seems to have noticed her and gives her a knowing wink, at which she merely shakes her head at him.
'What are you doing?', she thinks to herself, mouthing the words.
"The Human is here!", the Golden Guard calls out, heading for one of the Luzs. Before he reaches her, however, she sits on her staff and all fifteen of them take off into the air, circling and flying in all directions. "SCOUTS! GET HER!"
"Okay, what's going on here? Who's responsible for this?", Coven Head Graye takes off his loupe-shaped earring and looks through it at one of the Luzes. "An Illusion..."
Frustrated, Graye watches as all the guards try to capture all these illusions while all the students duck for cover. Sighing, he drops his head into his hands.
'Just for once, I would like to work with professionals...'
"ENOUGH!", Graye exclaims loudly and angrily, startling nearly everyone. He takes his magnifying earring and draws a large magic circle right in front of him. Moments later, all the illusions of Luz flying in the air begin to freeze, and from each illusion, a slightly glowing beam begins to appear towards its source.
As the beams form, a few of the students and teachers begin to glow as well. All the ones who use concealment stones. Graye's interest, however, is focused exclusively on the illusions in the air, whose origins seem to be...
"YOU!", the Coven Head grabs Gus, causing him to interrupt his spell in terror, making all the remaining Luz Nocedas vanish into thin air. "I've had enough of this. This mission was supposed to be smooth and easy, and so far, nothing's happened except that my plan's been screwed up by incompetent fools. No more niceties now! No more distractions!"
Gus tries to get out of his grip while Graye activates the branding glove. The Head Witch leans forward towards Gus.
"For that little stunt you pulled, you get something veeery special...", Graye changes the setting on the glove from illusions to abominations, Gus' eyes widen as fear begins to course through his body, "Let's make sure you can never use your little illusion tricks again. Shall we?"
"No, no! Stay back!", Gus exclaims as the branding glove comes closer and closer to his wrist. Sheer panic floods his body, his gaze wanders to Luz on stage. Luz knows she has to do something. She summons the first few golden sparks for a spell when something unexpected happens. "I said... stay BACK!"
Gus' eyes suddenly begin to glow a bright blue and a shockwave of light and shadow, images and memories spread out from Gus in all directions. Illusions begin to appear all around the room from across the Boiling Isles. Loud panic breaks out in the auditorium, students run in all directions and from one illusion into another.
"How are you doing this?!", Graye looks at Gus, astonished, still holding him tightly.
Amity stands directly opposite him and spots an opportunity. She sprints off, shoves the coven head out of the way, grabs Gus' hand, and runs with him out of the illusion, out of Graye's reach.
"Today really can't get any worse...", Graye sighs, before his gaze shifts to Hunter.
The panic within the auditorium has vanished, but so have the students and teachers. All that's left are the coven scouts, Graye, and Hunter. Graye continues.
"This kid... He knew your name. Who is he?", Graye demands to know.
"About a month ago, I was here undercover on a secret mission to find new recruits for the Emperor's Coven. He was one of the prospective candidates.", Hunter reports, "I didn't choose him at the time because his magic didn't seem powerful enough.", he lies.
"That was clearly a misjudgment.", Graye motions to the illusion of a dense, dark forest surrounding them. "What's his name?"
"I... I don't remember. Gustopher, maybe...", Hunter lies again.
"Okay... Scouts!", Graye calls out, calling all Coven Scouts to him, "Search the school and find the boy, the one who did... this."
The scout captain speaks up at this.
"This is a complicated spell, Sir. I-if we could have some direction...", he requests.
"Am I the only one who knows how to do their job? Just... figure it out!", he groans in annoyance before turning to Hunter, "Golden Guard, you should join them. The boy will be able to help you track down your own target."
Hunter nods at him in affirmation before Graye continues, "I will remain here and examine this... incredible work."
Amity and Gus continue to run from one shifting illusion to the next and the next, practically blind to what might lie just beyond.
Fortunately, since they are both quite intelligent, they don't run head first into things, but with their outstretched hands ahead, it saves them both from injury when they suddenly find a wall in the middle of an illusion.
Amity braces her arm against the illusion, which begins to form small ripples acting just like a body of water, and for a brief moment reality shines through in the form of the red lockers. It quickly subsides and a now permanent illusion of the streets of Bonesborough has overlaid the corridor the two witches are now in.
"I think we're out of danger for now...", Amity says as she takes the opportunity to catch her breath.
"Thanks for getting me out of there.", Gus also takes a deep breath and tries to calm himself down a bit.
"Yeah, that was pretty scary- Whoa...", Amity interrupts herself as she looks at Gus. "Your eye... Are you okay?"
Gus blinks at them in confusion, one of them still glowing bright blue. He rubs his eyes, but without any effect.
"My spell, it's still active. I can partially see past the illusion."
"Can you cancel it?", Amity wonders.
"No, I - I don't know how. I've never made one this big.", Gus speaks in a slight panic.
"Okay, okay. We'll figure it out.", Amity tries to calm him down, "I'm guessing all of Hexside is covered in illusions. Perhaps a teacher could help. Professor Ilora, for example."
The two of them start walking together. At the bottom of a few steps, a couple of strange voices appear. Amity positions herself protectively in front of Gus before two coven scouts appear around a corner.
"Hey! That's the kid!", one of the scouts calls out. Both scouts raise their spears. Amity, however, remains calm, draws a magic circle in the air, and with a good amount of Abomination-goo, she slaps the Scouts flat against the wall before they have a chance to react, rendering them immobile.
"Ouch.", one of the Scouts whines quietly as Amity and Gus walk past them silently, "Hey! Surely you don't just mean to leave us hanging here..."
"This is so humiliating...", the other one whines. Amity and Gus stop and turn around. The scouts see an opportunity for themselves. "Please let us back down. We won't even arrest you.", one of them offers.
"Hmm...", Amity hums thoughtfully, "You know, I think I am in a pretty good mood right now, despite all of what's happening."
"You are putting us back down?", one of the scouts asks, getting his hopes up.
"No.", Amity replies calmly, taking out her scroll, and starting to take some pictures of the scouts, "I'll post these on Penstagram, titled 'Wrong Career Choices'."
Amused, Amity and Gus set off again. Both of them looking at the rather strangely shameful pictures on Amity's scroll and not paying attention to their immediate surroundings, they turn around a corner, unaware that someone in front of them has spotted them.
A notification suddenly appears on Amity's scroll.
"Uhh, a message from Luz. She seems to be hiding with Willow and Skara in the-", Amity, who hadn't been paying attention to what was in front of her, bumps into another person. "Whew, sorry. My bad.", she says before standing up and only now realizing who exactly she bumped into, "Yoouuuu..."
The Golden Guard.
"Go on. What did she say? Where's she hiding?", he asks in a disgustingly friendly tone. Amity unsummons her scroll instantly while glaring daggers at him.
"How did you even get here?", Gus asks, far less hostile to him than Amity.
"Oh, yeah, you guys ran in a circle.", he replies, "So once again, Blight. Where is she?"
"Why do you even want her so bad, dude?", Gus speaks up, "And how is she a threat? She's human. And humans don't have magic."
"Oh you poor, naive Augustus...", Hunter speaks sarcastically, spinning his mechanical staff around, "Your friend has far more-, and also more powerful magic than you think... "
His gaze wanders from Gus to Amity, who has now taken out her staff and is holding it out to him threateningly. "You don't seem to know it, Gus, but this young Blight here is a wanted criminal."
Amity scoffs at him and Gus also looks incredulous. He continues. "She and the human have joined a small rebel group who have convinced themselves that they must stop the Day of Unity and overthrow the Emperor."
"Oh, we didn't just try to...", Amity now speaks up, closing the distance between them, "We did manage to prevent your mission from succeeding at the Looking Glass Graveyard. Must have been painful to watch the Galdorstones disappear into the molten rock. Uhh, I can just imagine how angry Belos must have been with you..."
"That's enough!", the Golden Guard shouts, taking off his mask to look Amity straight in the eyes. "You will tell me immediately where the human is hiding, or I will personally ensure that you are never accepted into a coven. Your dream of joining the Emperor's Coven will be history."
Hunter firmly believes that this threat will work. Amity, however, only reacts with a tired laugh.
"Ha, please...", Amity begins in a sarcastic tone, "You can make me promises and threats all you want, but nothing will make me hand over the person I love. And you don't know anything about my dreams. Yes, it was once my dream to join the Emperor's coven, but that dream is dead. And if you don't wish to meet the same fate, then I suggest you step aside and leave us alone."
Gus watches this intense verbal exchange with tense interest. He observes the anger and hatred for him in Amity's eyes, and the pulsing veins on Hunter's forehead.
"Okay.", Hunter backs off and steps aside. Both Amity and Gus are genuinely surprised.
"What?"
"Come on, what are you waiting for? You may leave. I won't stand in your way any longer.", Hunter explains.
"That smells fishy...", Amity says, "But maybe it's just you. Come on Gus."
The two witches immediately run off again. As they turn at another corner, entering a narrow alley, they notice out of the corner of their eyes that Hunter's gaze is still following them.
"He's going to follow us, isn't he?", Gus asks her quietly.
"Yup.", she replies.
"I might know where we can hide.", Gus tells her, hurrying ahead, "Come on."
WITCHCHICK128
Willow, Skara, and I hide in the greenhouse
Are you and Gus safe?
Ami?
Ami???
I'm sorry. The Golden Guard followed us. We had to find a place to hide.
Oh Titan, I've never been happier to read your texts…
I have no idea where we are, but Gus thinks we're safe here for now.
The Golden Guard really wants to get you
Yeah, and he's threatening my friends to do it. Not cool :(
We need a plan to get rid of him, that Graye guy, and the scouts
Gus and I are trying to find Bump or Ilora for help
We should also let the CATS know what's going on. They could help too
Speaking of which, I told Gus about them. You might want to fill Willow in too, if the time's right
But yeah, that's a good idea
We have to keep moving. Please be careful <3
You too <3
Luz smiles at her scroll before rolling it up and tucking it away. She, Willow, and Skara have been here for almost fifteen minutes now. When panic broke out in the auditorium and Luz saw Amity running off with Gus, she immediately jumped off the stage, ran to her friends and, hidden inside one of Gus's smaller illusions, effectively teleported the three of them to the other end of the school. She did that fully expecting both Willow and Skara to reproach her for risking her cover. Nevertheless, Luz would do it again to protect her friends.
When the three of them teleported, they realized three things. One, that they did end up near the greenhouse. Secondly, that they are not surrounded by Gus' illusions, and thirdly, that they are all in big trouble. Luz's thoughts however initially revolved around just two questions: Where are Amity and Gus? And: Are they safe? If Willow and Skara hadn't stopped Luz, she would have teleported back immediately to look for Amity and Gus.
And now that Luz knows they're safe, a massive weight is lifted from her shoulders.
"They're alright.", Luz reports, "The Golden Guy is following them because he thinks they'll lead him to me, but they're okay, and they seem to have something of a plan."
"Really?", Willow wonders, "What sort of plan?"
Luz's gaze shifts to Skara and remains there for a moment before she interrupts the anticipatory silence.
"There are some people we met, 'we' meaning Amity, Skara, and I, a while back...", Luz tells Willow, and Skara's eyes light up as she just now grasps what Luz means, "Long story short: They are rebelling against the Emperor, and we directly helped them destroy the Conformatorium-"
"-which was unintentional.", Skara chimes in. Luz nods in agreement.
"Yes, and we stopped the Golden Guy from recovering some powerful artifacts."
"Okay...", Willow speaks slowly as she is still processing what her friends have just told her. "I have two questions. First, why have you kept this from me until now? And secondly: Can I join you?"
"If you don't mind waiting until we've saved the school before answering your first question, yes.", Luz replies in a cheerful tone.
"Of course.", Willow replies, mirroring her tone.
"Okay. Then I'll make a quick call and you two think about what we can do in the meantime.", Luz suggests, to which the two witches immediately agree.
Willow and Skara stand a little apart from Luz to give her some privacy while they brainstorm. Or at least, are intending to.
"Willow...", Skara begins, keeping her voice small, "Are you mad? Because we kept something so big from you?"
Willow sighs, "I'm sure you had your reasons."
She sits down on the floor, leaning her back against one of the cultivation containers, looking a little disappointed. Skara sits down right next to her and they both share a moment of silence. The only noise they hear is Luz talking on her scroll.
"You're around often, aren't you?", Skara eventually speaks up. Willow giggles at that.
"Is that supposed to be a pick-up line?", she asks, her eyes wide with amusement, while Skara blushes.
"N-N-No...", she stutters her answer, "I-I actually meant the question seriously."
"It's all right, I'm just teasing you.", Willow defuses the situation a little, "But yes, I'm here a lot, and I love it. I've actually cultivated most of the plants here. So I tend to them a lot, but I also like caring for them."
Skara looks around. There are many different types of plants in the surrounding flowerbeds. Many of them merely look pretty, while others are locked up behind a kind of wire barrier. One plant in particular looks as if it would drool all over her if it had a face. Skara flinches as the plant bites the air in her direction, baring its fang-like edge bristles at her. Willow notices this.
"Heh, don't worry. Robert won't hurt you.", Willow says chuckling, "Besides, he already ate today."
"Robert?", Skara asks incredulously, her heart pounding, "Do all the plants here have names?"
"Of course.", Willow answers as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Skara smiles at her before remembering that she also named her instruments when she was learning to play them, "The red, green, and blue primroses in the corner over there are called Sarah, Marie, and Anna. You already know the big guy Robert over there, and the bracken fern behind us is called Kupala."
"Kupala?"
"Uh-huh. And don't tell the other plants, but she's my favorite.", Willow whispers, at which Skara smiles, not taking her eyes off the witch, "She can be slightly poisonous under certain circumstances, but she's always brought me luck when I've carried her."
"You carry a poisonous plant around with you?", Skara wonders skeptically. Willow lifts up the inside of her gray tunic and a small transparent pouch falls to the ground from a pocket she apparently has sewn on herself. Inside is a piece of the fern.
"It was always my lucky charm."
"Who's whose lucky charm?", Luz's voice rings out, who sits down unnoticed right in front of her two friends, startling them both as she speaks up.
"Oh my Titan, Luz!", Willow admonishes her sternly as her heart is still pounding strongly in her chest. Luckily, she is recovering fast.
"Hehe, sorry. Sorry.", Luz grins mischievously, "So, do you have a plan?"
Willow and Skara exchange nervous glances.
"Um, no...", Skara replies, "Have you been able to get hold of anyone from the CATS?"
"Actually, yes. I've managed to reach Liwin and Katja. They're on their way.", Luz replies, a grin developing, "And until they arrive, I have an idea of what we could do."
"Really?" Willow asks, growing curious.
"Yes. Well, it went like this: When I spoke to Liwin, she said at the end that I shouldn't do anything stupid. So then I thought-"
"No.", Willow answers sternly.
"But I haven't told you anything yet.", Luz speaks dejectedly. She starts to sulk slightly.
"Luz, listen to me. If it were up to me, you wouldn't even be here in school right now.", Willow puts her hands on her shoulders, "The whole school is full of scouts, and you're just one person. No matter how powerful your magic can be, you're not invulnerable."
At that, Skara speaks up.
"Willow, I've seen her magic. And I can't say I've ever seen stronger magic.", Skara chimes in, at which Willow gives her a dismissive look. Luz, on the other hand, smiles at her gratefully.
"So you want proof that I'm not in danger, do you?", Luz challenges Willow, raising her forearm and holding it in front of her head, "Grab my arm with one of your vines."
Willow sighs in defeat, summoning a thorny vine that loosely grabs Luz's arm.
"Tighter! Let the thorns pierce my skin.", Luz orders determinedly. Willow looks to Skara for help, but she just shrugs at her. The plant witch then looks into Luz's eyes and finds nothing but confidence. Luz continues. "Don't worry, you aren't going to hurt me. Trust me."
Willow merely huffs out a breath before strengthening her spell circle and wrapping the vine tighter around Luz's arm. Judging by her friends, the thorns must have already cut deep into Luz's flesh. Luz herself, however, shows no reaction so far.
Seconds later, an increasingly strong glow appears around the entwined area. The vine wrapped around her arm begins to wither away. Within a few seconds, her arm is released completely.
"You see? Nothing happened.", Luz shows her forearm around and even rolls up her sleeve. There are no injuries on her arm. However, she finds a few holes in her sleeve, one of which she sticks a finger through. "Well, nothing to me at least... Do you believe me now that nothing will happen to me? That I'm not in danger? Magic cannot harm me. I'm part Titan in case you don't remember..."
"You really want that, don't you?", Willow asks.
"My friends are in danger. And there's no world in which I'm willing to just stand by and watch.", Luz speaks with unbroken determination.
"Uggghhhh... Okay.", Willow decides, Luz's mood instantly improving a hundredfold, "If I can't hold you back, at least I'll support you. You too Skara?", she asks.
"Of course I'll be there. I don't want to miss this."
"Great. So, first of all, we have to find the others..."
"Knock knock."
Adrian Graye, who is still in the auditorium, hears from the side of the entrance. He turns his head towards it and watches as a student, accompanied by two scouts, steps into his illusion bubble. A student from the Potion Track. Three-eyed, and with pink hair.
"Head Witch, we saw this one snooping around in one of the corridors.", one of the scouts reports proudly. But the girl interrupts him.
"WRONG! I deliberately sought them out because I knew they would bring me straight to you.", she corrects the Scout while giving him an angry look.
"Matt, your lies really are more transparent than the air around us.", he scolds the Scout, who lowers his head, visibly disappointed. He turns back to the girl, "And you're either very brave or very stupid to come here alone. Who are you and what do you want?"
"I'm Boscha van Nejd, and I'm here to make you an offer.", she explains. Adrian merely rolls his eyes.
"Ridiculous. What would someone like you have to offer me?"
"I know where all the other students and teachers are hiding.", Adrian raises an eyebrow in interest, "And I'm willing to tell you."
"Tempting. Quite tempting I must admit. But I might as well dig into your memories, take whatever I'm looking for, and leave you here branded with a coven sigil, drooling and leeching on the floor. What reason would I have to accept your offer?"
"Think about it. That asshole with the golden mask ruined your performance earlier. It would be a great opportunity to get revenge on him by not only completing your mission, but also handing the human over to the Emperor. I know exactly where she's hiding as well.", Boscha argues, but Adrian doesn't seem entirely convinced yet.
"And what do you expect to achieve by betraying your friends?"
"They are not my friends anymore. They betrayed me, made my friends turn their backs on me, robbed me of the prestige I deserve... I just want to return the favor.", Adrian thinks about her words, a slight smile forming on his face, "And if you still don't trust me: Here.", Boscha rolls up her sleeve and holds out her arm to him, "Give me one of those sigils. As long as I can keep playing Grudgby, I don't mind."
Adrian is genuinely surprised by the gesture. "Deal.", he accepts it. He changes the setting of the branding glove to Potions and holds it over Boscha's wrist. It lights up briefly and when Boscha pulls her hand back just seconds later, she recognizes the Potions sigil on it. To test if her magic still works, she creates a small flame in her hand, and is pleased with the result.
"So, where are they hiding?", he demands to know.
"Many have left the school. But most of the rest are in the Healing Homeroom.", Boscha reports with a diabolical grin, which she has a hard time suppressing.
"Good, take me there. We'll pick up more scouts on the way."
"Do you think we're rid of them?", Gus calls out to Amity as they run through an illusion of the Bonesborough Library together. "This way!"
Gus drags Amity through an illusory bookshelf.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!", they hear Hunter yell as they run through yet another bookshelf.
'Thank Titan that Gus can see past his illusion...', Amity thinks to herself as it looks like they've left the immediate radius of Gus' illusions and are now finding themselves in what appears to be a classroom. "Are they still following us?", Amity wonders.
Gus turns around briefly peeks back into the illusion. "No, I think we've lost them."
The two of them take a deep breath after running for what feels like an eternity.
"This can't go on like this.", Amity complains, catching her breath, "And there are still no signs of the others… How's your eye? Better?", she asks as she notices him rubbing it. He squints back at Amity.
"No, not really."
"GUS? Is that you?", a voice rings out from somewhere, though it's not Hunter's or one of the scouts they were running away from. Gus ponders for a moment as Amity turns towards the door, ready to attack anyone who might step through. After a moment's thought, Gus speaks up.
"Viney? Is that you?", he asks cautiously.
"Yes, it's me.", she calls out to him. Neither Gus nor Amity can determine the source of her voice, "I'm hiding here with Jerbo, Bo, and Cat."
Gus and Amity both still seem unconvinced that this isn't a trap. "And where exactly is 'here'?", Amity asks, keeping a firm grip on her staff.
The two of them expect someone to step through the illusion that's covering the door into the classroom, but it doesn't happen. Instead, a square area on the left side of the chalkboard begins to light up.
"But of course...", Gus slaps his forehead and Amity screws up her face in confusion, only for the glowing square to turn into a door opening outwards, behind which Viney appears.
"Climb in, quick!", Viney urges them. Amity glances uncertainly at Gus, who has already climbed halfway into the corridor immediately beyond. Inside, he holds a hand out to Amity, which she only accepts after a trusting look from Gus. She climbs in, and closes the door again from the inside.
"Amity, welcome to the 'Secret Room of Shortcuts'. Gus, I think you remember this place...", Viney leads the two of them into the tall main room with the stone ramp that winds its way to the top. On the way up, there are countless doors and windows of different shapes, sizes, and orientations, many of them marked with a white X. Jerbo and Bo sit at the bottom of the ramp.
"Where is Cat?", Viney asks. Jerbo and Bo both point up at the same time. Viney, Amity, and Gus look up and see Cat listening at a door.
"She thinks she heard Boscha somewhere and is trying to find out where she is.", Bo explains.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking: What are you doing here?", Amity wonders, "This looks like more than just a hiding place to me."
"You are right.", Jerbo replies. Viney proceeds.
"The thing is, nobody from the main covens knows about this place. So we use it to get people to safety if possible, or out of the building altogether. While this isn't really a 'secret room' anymore, it's worth it."
"Admittedly, I'm still not entirely sure this isn't a trick...", Amity says, "We already fell for a fake Willow earlier. I didn't realize it until she started acting scared. And that's not her at all."
"You can punch me to convince yourself I'm real.", Viney offers, which Amity gratefully declines, "But yes, the illusions can be quite convincing."
"Just out of curiosity-", Gus starts, "How do you know we're not illusions?"
"Because I watched you run away from the Golden Poop.", Viney replies, "I'm afraid I couldn't help you without giving ourselves away. I hope you're not mad."
Amity and Gus look at each other before shaking their heads dismissively.
"Nah, you're good.", Gus replies.
"Yeah, but maybe you can help us.", Amity begins pointing as Gus' glowing eye, "We're looking for Professor Ilora. Have you seen her?"
"Actually, yes.", Viney replies, "She's in the Healing Homeroom with Principal Bump and some others. However, you might also be interested to know that Luz, Willow, and Skara passed through here shortly before you guys arrived. Luz also mentioned something about a plan..."
"Oh no...", Amity whispers to herself, a look of horror drawing across her face, "Which door leads there?"
"Jerbo, take Gus there. Amity, I need you for a minute for something else though. In private."
Amity nods toward Gus, and he and Jerbo make their way up the ramp. Viney takes Amity a few steps back into the hallway they just came from.
"So, what's going on?"
"I-I'm... I'm worried...", Viney states, suddenly looking a whole lot smaller than she did a moment ago.
"That's understandable. I mean, the school is under attack-"
"No, not about the school. I'm worried about... Emira.", Viney interrupts her. Amity looks taken by surprise.
"About Em? Why?", she asks, "I mean, it's been a while since I've spoken to her or Ed, but I didn't get the impression that they had any problems."
"Well, since your sister and I have been... you know, dating for a while... Um, and we're chatting almost all the time.", Viney looks at Amity, looking for some kind of reaction on her face. Instead, though, she just listens intently, "From what I understand, she's at the Knee right now at your mom's new factory, right?", Amity nods at that, Viney continues, "And from things I've heard, there's some very strange things going on at the Knee right now, that makes me think she won't be safe there for much longer."
Amity's ears perk up as she says this.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I have a cousin on St. Epiderm, and she told me that the entire region has been completely evacuated by the order of Emperor Belos. St. Epiderm is closed, and all the inhabitants living around the knee have already been moved away. I had also asked Emira about the evacuation since the factory is still within the evacuation zone, but I didn't get the feeling that she really took my concerns seriously. She's still there and I have the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Call it a hunch if you like."
"Do you think it might have something to do with this Day of Unity?", Amity wonders.
"I don't know. All I want is to know she's safe.", Viney says in a trembling voice. Amity has never seen the healing witch so anxious, "Do you think you can talk to her? Maybe she'll take you more seriously..."
Amity places a hand on her shoulder sympathetically.
"I'll talk to her. She and Ed originally didn't want to stay much longer than absolutely necessary anyway. She'll be back soon.", She smiles slightly.
"Thank you.", Viney gratefully places her own hand on Amity's. "Now come on, I'll take you to the others."
"LUZ!"
"AMI!"
No sooner has the hidden door to the Healing Homeroom swung open, Amity rushes towards Luz, shrieking loudly. She grabs her tightly in her arms, whirling her up into the air, feeling as happy as if the two girlfriends hadn't seen each other for ages.
And while some people just roll their eyes at this, most of them find the sight quite adorable and heart-warming.
After this happy reunion, the tight embrace breaks up again, and Amity's facial features gradually change from joy and euphoria to concern.
"Please tell me you're not planning to do anything to fight the scouts...", Amity pleads at which Luz grimaces, from which she can directly deduce the answer to her question: Shenanigans. "Okay, what's your plan then?"
"I'll tell you as soon as Gus is feeling better.", Luz replies, pointing to Gus, whose glowing eye is currently being examined by Professor Ilora. Willow and Skara stand with him. Amity waves to them before she and Luz also join them, holding hands, and listen to the professor try to explain his situation.
"-actually not as rare as you might think. In most cases, the cause of glowing eyes as a symptom lies, as in your case, in an extreme overexertion of your bile-sack when you cast a particularly powerful spell. It is usually not possible to sustain such a strain for an extended period of time without suffering long-term damage. There are witches and demons who are able to train this state to sustain their powerful spells for an extended period of time, and there are others who have a natural predisposition to do so. You, for example, Augustus, fall into the latter category, but you still lack the control to actively influence this state."
"What can I do?", Gus asks.
"Well, your current state doesn't seem to have been brought about on purpose, but was a reaction to immense stress.", Professor Ilora explains, "I would say that the spell should dissipate if you manage to relax. Have you ever practiced meditation?"
"Uh, uh, uh-", Willow speaks up excitedly, catching the attention of those around her, "Gus, remember those breathing exercises I showed you?"
Gus nods and holds out a hand to her. "Will you help me?"
"Of course."
Willow and Gus sit down a little away from the rest, where the two friends begin their breathing exercises together. To give them some space, Luz gathers the others in the opposite corner of the room. 'The others' in this case consist of the two teachers, Amity, Skara, Viney, Jerbo, Bo, Cat, Celine, and Mattholomule. The last two, while all the attention was centered on Gus and Ilora, were found by Cat in her search for Boscha and swiftly brought to join the others in the Homeroom.
"Okay, so... Willow, Skara, and I had been working on the beginning of a plan to rid the Hexside of the invaders.", Luz starts, "Umm, quick question though: There isn't everyone here, are there? Aren't we missing a few hundred more people?"
"Yes, but most of them managed to escape the school.", Viney replies, "There are still a few smaller groups hiding, but I don't know exactly where."
"Okay, good enough... Um, our plan consists of several steps. The first of which is that I need to show you all something."
Luz rolls up her sleeve and removes her concealment bracelet, revealing her human form to all those who have previously seen only a red demon with goat-like legs standing in her place. No one really reacts to this revelation.
"Somehow I was expecting more of a reaction...", Luz says, sounding almost disappointed.
"Luz...", Mattholomule speaks calmly, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we all knew it was you."
Luz smiles slightly at that, but before she can add anything herself, Cat surprisingly speaks up.
"Well, I didn't know.", the brunette healer witch with the square glasses remarks. Luz doesn't really know what to say to that.
"Well, now you know.", she comments eventually, "But that's not everything. There's a reason why Belos wants to get me so desperately. The thing is, when I disappeared, that... that there were some things that happened to me. Long story short: I'm not fully human anymore."
Quiet, questioning whispers break out among the people in front of her, among those who don't know Luz's story yet.
"What do you mean by 'no longer fully human'?", Principal Bump asks inquisitively.
"Well, I don't want to go into details. But what I can say is that I'm half human... and half something else. This something else lets me do things like this, for example." Luz clenches her fist at eye level with everyone in front of her. Golden lightning bolts emerge and swiftly slide down her arm and into her fist. She opens it and a small light orb rises up into the air, hovering above her open palm.
"Remarkable...", Bump marvels. Luz chuckles awkwardly at the compliment. The group reacts with a mixture of surprise, amazement, and curiosity before Luz continues.
"Yes, and the Golden Jerk being so obsessed with my capture is not only because of the high reward on me, but also because I've, admittedly, foiled more than one of his missions.", she recounts, "Granted, he had it coming. And the fact that he's still going at it does show a certain degree of persistence..."
"Guys, Guys!", they all suddenly hear Gus exclaim, "It worked. My spell dissolved."
Luz is delighted that her friends have managed to remove one of the obstacles to her plan. At that, both Willow and Gus also join the group.
"Great. So, here's part two of my plan. All of us will split into exactly three groups, led by Skara, Willow, and me. Now that the illusions that covered the school are gone, it will be much easier-", Luz starts to reveal her plan when there is a sudden, not-so-quiet knock at the door.
In an instant, everyone falls silent. All eyes wander there.
"Not- a- peep!", Bump whispers urgently, waiting for whoever is outside to identify themselve.
"It's me, Boscha. Let me in!"
Cat, overcome with joy and relief to hear from her friend, sprints to the door, but gets stopped by Principal Bump. She looks at him questioningly.
"Boscha, where have you been? And were you followed here?", he asks insistently.
"I was hiding in the cafeteria. And no, nobody followed me. I'm alone.", Boscha speaks in an annoyed tone from the other side of the door.
'Wait. Boscha… hiding?', Amity thinks to herself with doubts about her explanation. At the same time, Bump lets go of Cat again, and she is about to open the door. "NO, STOP!", Amity shouts at the top of her voice, but it is already too late.
As soon as Cat has unlocked the door, it is kicked violently to the inside of the room, throwing Cat violently away and against the thick wall. The noise she made on impact sounded anything but healthy.
Within seconds, numerous scouts storm the room with their spears drawn, surrounding the group.
"ON YOUR KNEES!", one of them yells.
"SURRENDER YOURSELVES!", another shouts.
At first, no one really wants to give in. But as Bump spots Cat in all the chaos, looking badly injured and not moving, he is the first to give in to the demands. And one by one, they do the same until all of them are kneeling on the floor.
"What did you do to Boscha???", Bump demands between angrily clenched teeth.
"Oh, they did nothing.", Boscha's voice rings out from the direction of the door. Between the scouts who have surrounded all of them, the direct view of the door is blocked for many, but some can catch a glimpse of Boscha entering the room, side by side with Coven Head Graye, holding up her wrist with a clearly visible sigil on it, "We made a deal."
"Oh Boscha...", Amity takes pity on her.
"WHAT?", Boscha snaps at her, but Graye holds her back. Needless to say, she doesn't like it, but the deal stands above that.
"I finally managed to track you down. Every single one of you here is guilty of committing treason today.", Graye accuses them with a subtle smirk on his face. He's really enjoying this right now. "I will personally ensure that none of you will be able to use magic ever again. Not only will you not be able to join any coven as a direct consequence, you won't even be recognized among these Wild Witch criminals. You will be ostracized and cast out if you are unfortunate enough to not to be petrified immediately. However, that is up to Belos alone to decide. But if it were up to me-"
It didn't take long for the Coven Head's speech to dissolve into nothing more than background noise. Apart from himself, absolutely no one is interested in the irrelevant threats he's making, and how much he hates and despises all of them. In fact, everything he says rather sounds like a wounded ego.
Even the scouts are starting to get bored, evident in the way they're lowering their spears one by one.
No one is quite sure exactly how long his speech was. Only when he clears his throat loudly do some people snap back to reality.
"Did any of you listen to me??", he asks loudly, veins of rage visible on his face.
"No."
"WHO SAID THAT?", he nearly snaps. With a look of rage, he looks between all the students, but also his scouts. Everyone is suspicious in his eyes. "Doesn't matter. I need a moment..."
Similarly furious as Graye is Skara, who decides to get up from her knees. The guards' spears immediately turn on her. Willow, who has been kneeling beside her, speaks up quietly.
"What are you doing?", she whispers. Skara doesn't answer, but instead seeks direct eye contact with her former best friend.
"Are you proud of yourself?", she asks her in a reproachful tone.
"Oh honey... this is nothing personal.", Boscha replies, her tone beginning to shift, "Oh what am I talking about? Of course it's personal. This is my revenge on all those who betrayed me!"
"Your revenge?", Skara follows up, "You are the one betraying everyone you've ever known, just because I no longer wanted to be friends with you?"
"Oh, don't think it's just about you! Amity, you, Amelia... You've all stabbed me in the back. And this-", she points to her Potions sigil, "-this is inevitable for all of you. Face it, it's over. I merely played a part in speeding all this up.", a grim grin appears on her face.
"Oh please, as if you care about that guy's plans!", Amity, now also standing, objects, "You've been hurt, and now you're taking your hurt out on everyone else, regardless of what happens to yourself or others."
Boscha merely rolls her eyes at her. "What do you even know?"
"I know that you attacked the only friend you had left.", Amity tells her. And for a brief moment, there was actually something like fear in her eyes.
"No, I didn't.", she replies defensively.
"Then go and take a look next to the door.", Amity points to the opposite side of the room. Boscha actually turns around and gasps in shock as she finds Cat lying motionless on the ground. All the color drains from her face as she stumbles back a few steps.
"No...", her voice tiny, "This- this is a trick. An illusion. Isn't it?", She looks directly at Graye for help, whose cold gaze does nothing to alleviate her fears. Amity speaks up.
"She was the one who let you in. She was the one who has been looking for you all this time. She was the one who was more excited about your arriving than anyone else."
As Amity speaks, and Boscha approaches Cat's body, she notices tears gathering in all three of her eyes. She steps closer to her, and with each step her knees begin to soften and her guilt grows heavier and heavier.
Her knees finally give way as she gets right next to her. Cat's glasses lie broken and in pieces right next to her face, which itself is smudged with blood. She notices her arm twisted at a very unhealthy angle lying on her stomach.
"C-C-cat?", the tears begin to stream down her face, her voice quivering, "Please... talk to me. Please..."
"Yes yes yes yes, it's all very sad, we're all emotionally distressed.", Graye speaks up in a mocking tone, "Can we all please focus on me again?"
The annoyed tension in the room is clearly noticeable to everyone, except him. But no one anticipated that Luz would be the first to stand up and confront him.
"No!", she says in a serious tone as she steps out from between Amity and Skara, who have been trying in vain to stop her from doing so.
"Heh, if it isn't the infamous human girl...", Graye ridicules her, "It will be my pleasure to personally present you to Emperor Belos and put this Brat of a Golden Guard back in his place. SCOUTS! GET HER!"
Within a fraction of a second, Skara summons her violin, creating a shockwave in one fluid motion that instantly knocks all the scouts to their feet. Sheer outrage graces Graye's face.
"You dare oppose a Coven Head?"
"Oh, we're going to do a lot more than that.", Luz replies ominously. While the scouts slowly get back on their feet, Luz's friends do exactly the same and get into fighting positions. Bo and Jerbo, who have little no fighting experiences start behind with Professor Ilora covering them. Skara with her violin at the ready, Amity wielding Abomination-fluid, Celine summoning a few spirits, Willow growing vines from the ground, and Luz creating golden lightning bolts dancing across her arms.
"I'm giving you exactly one warning! Get out of this school and nothing will happen to you or your scouts. Don't challenge me!", Luz threatens him with a grim expression on her face. Graye himself can't help but laugh derisively at this.
"That's very cute... Scouts, grab them!", Graye orders, and with their spears pointing ahead, they run towards the students.
Nine students and Principal Bump facing fifteen scouts.
Principal Bump delivers the first blow by summoning an Abomination Carpet, with which he manages to bring down two of the guards. They quickly recover and once again charge directly at the principal, but he draws another magic circle and creates a wall in front of him, causing them to run straight into it.
Willow charges forward and grows two very thick vines from the ground, which she uses to ride forwards and hurl herself at several guards, knocking several of them straight to the ground. One guard, however, managed to throw a spear at her beforehand and manages to hit her in the leg, causing her to fall and abandon her attack. The scout approaches to attack her again, but Viney positions herself protectively in front of her as she summons a shield. The scout boosts his spear with fire and hits the shield multiple times, causing it to shatter, leaving Willow and Viney unprotected. Before he could deliver the final blow using his spear, his arms suddenly stopped working. The two girls noticed Skara, who had started to play her violin. With a powerful bard spell, she renders the scout unable to move himself, and instead forcing him to move from his position and run straight into the abomination carpet that Bump had created earlier.
As the attack began, Gus summoned several illusions of himself and spread them out to hide beneath them. They rushed forward and attacked two scouts while he himself hid in the crowd. He managed to hit them a few times before his illusions dissipated, exposing his position. Gus draws another magic circle and vanishes into thin air before he could hit the guard again while he was invisible.
Matt summons rocks to his fists and attacks the scouts with his enhanced fists, while Celine directs her ghost spirit to charge at another group of scouts.
The fight goes well. Nonetheless, Luz knows she has to end it. She summons her golden lightning and from her fingertips, she directs it to every light source in the room. She activates a darkness spell that absorbs all light, plunging the entire room into total darkness.
Amity, with whom Luz had briefly discussed her plan earlier, has her Abomination liquid flowing into the cracks and grooves between the floor tiles, and is now exploiting the darkness to spot any remaining and currently confused scouts. The Abomination fluid rises up from the floor to the Scouts, allowing her to overpower them without further ado, placing massive arm cuffs on them, pinning their arms behind their backs.
Luz dissolves her darkness spell, and all the scouts find themselves lying on the ground, struggling and writhing, trying to break their restraints.
It was a short fight, and an unfair one. And it has not yet been won.
Graye is the only one standing, but even as Head Witch of the Illusion Coven, his options are limited when he has no subordinates left to do his bidding.
Stunned, Graye looks at the chaos around him. His scouts are all incapacitated, but some of his opponents, most of whom are merely teenagers, are also injured. The sight fills him with both a slight sense of triumph and fear. But fear of what?
While most of her friends are tending to the wounded, Luz isn't finished yet. She crouches behind the back of one of the scouts, her gaze locked on Graye.
"I warned you.", she speaks in a somber voice, "I told you that if you just left, nothing would happen to you or your scouts. But your fragile ego got in the way..."
"And what are you going to do now? Well, okay, you do have magic, but-"
"Shh, no buts. Watch what I do now.", Luz puts her hand on the Abomination shackles, lets the golden flashes slide into her hand, causing the shackles to petrify completely. Graye watches in great bafflement as this simple human manages to turn objects into stone. And if she can already do it with objects, then...
"O-O-Okay.", he stutters, "N-no need to get overconfident. You- you've won. Yay."
Luz stands up, walks to the next scout, and repeats her spell, not turning her fierce gaze away from him.
"Remember, there's no cure for petrification.", Luz reminds him, and beads of sweat appear on his forehead. He would really like to run away at this moment, but deep down he knows that it would only make things worse. "All these people won't be casting any more spells anytime soon. "
"O- Okay, I get it."
Graye now knows what he's afraid of. An angry human girl who shouldn't even know such powerful spells. Spells that not even the Coven Heads are capable of.
Luz repeats her spell on four more scouts before confronting Graye directly. Some of the other students are watching this exchange intently.
"Here's what you're going to do now: You will order a retreat, and we will escort you out of the school! You will leave, and never return. Understood?", Luz orders him, deliberately emphasizing every detail, "Otherwise you won't be able to cast any more spells either. Is that clear?"
"Y-Yes.", he stutters, "Ouch."
"And I'll take this too.", Luz has just taken his magnifying glass shaped earring from his ear, "As a reminder that you remember what happened here."
"This way! I think the noises came from over here!"
Hunter and the Guard Captain run through the maze of a school to get to the source of the fighting noises the two of them recently overheard. "Where did all the other scouts go?"
They run through the corridors, their gazes darting into empty classrooms and branching hallways. All of them empty. That is until the two of them turn down another corridor, their legs being grabbed by vines, sending both of them to the ground.
Hunter drops to all fours, looks up, tosses his blond curl out of his face in a casual motion, and locks his gaze with Luz's.
"YOU!", he states angrily. Luz, on the other hand, looks down at him rather indifferently. Hunter tries to reach for his mechanical staff, but thick vines hold it firmly pressed against the ground.
"It's over.", is all she says to him. Yet he still resists with all his might.
"Caleb?", Willow speaks up, at which point Hunter ceases all resistance. He looks past Luz and spots the plant witch leading Graye and all the other scouts through the corridors with Vines attached on all of them as if they were on a leash.
"Captain?"
"Yes?", both Willow and the Guard Captain reply. The two look at each other questioningly for a moment. Willow continues.
"It's really over.", she tells him with far more coldness in her voice than he had, "You've lost. You should leave and never come back."
"No, I-", the sound of breaking wood interrupts him. One of Willow's vines has snapped his staff in two. She looks at him with a shocked expression.
But before either of them can say anything, Graye speaks up.
"Oh please... Can you please save your couple bickering for another time?", he whines. At that Willow turns to him, draws a magic circle, and a tendril snakes up along his body and wraps itself tightly around his mouth.
"Luz, could you take the others outside already? I need to have some words with our friend here.", she asks in an extremely friendly tone.
"Of course.", Luz replies, before Willow releases the plants that are wrapped around the Scout Captain and handcuffs him into the line of prisoners. "Onward, people."
Luz leads the prisoners on and out of earshot of Willow and Hunter before Willow crouches down in front of his broken staff.
"You know, when we first met, I actually thought you were a decent guy. You were engaged, committed to the team, and admittedly, you were pretty cute too...", Hunter blushes slightly before Willow's voice darkens, "But then you showed your true colors. Not only did you want to force our team to become coven scouts, you also planned to kidnap my best friend. And then today again, I mean, what in the titan's name is your problem?"
Hunter opens his mouth, but Willow doesn't let him get a word in.
"Don't... I don't want to know... But, you know, deep in my heart I believe that every person deserves a second chance, even someone like you. But after all the suffering you've helped to cause today, I can only conclude that you are a bad person. You are officially no longer a member of the Emerald Entrails, and we will not see each other again. Goodbye..."
Willow draws a magic circle in the air, and the plants holding Hunter by the arms and legs drag him into the ground in a matter of seconds. He doesn't even have enough time to scream before he finds himself back outside Hexside, where Luz is in the process of loading the scouts onto their airship.
"What- where's my staff?", Hunter scans the ground around him in panic now that he's free again, drawing Luz's attention to him.
"You won't be needing it anymore.", she comments, "Now get on board. I don't want to see you here ever again."
With an aggressive huff, he pushes himself off the ground, and reluctantly boards the airship, where he only now realizes that most of the scouts' arms are locked up in petrified abomination goo behind their backs.
As the airship takes off, Luz catches herself waving after them.
"Bye, and don't come back!", she calls after them in an overly friendly tone. She actually waits outside the school building for a quite while to make sure they really are not coming back.
Instead, three witches she recognizes come flying in her direction on their staffs.
"Liwin! Katya! Alsa! It's soo nice to see you.", She greets them just as they have landed.
"We just saw the airship.", the older healer says, "I assume they didn't leave voluntarily?"
"No, we managed to chase them off.", Luz reports proudly, "But not without problems."
"Well, that's still something. Even more so, it's quite an achievement, kid.", Liwin praises her, "By the way, I'm sorry it took us so long. We would have been here sooner, but we had to take care of another problem first. I don't want to give too much away yet, but we were able to locate an important person who we didn't know was still alive or not. But we'll deal with that later."
"Good idea. Um, do you have time to come in? There are a few people I'd like you to meet, and some others who could still use some help.", Luz says before looking directly at Alsa, "And there was an incident with Boscha."
The four of them make their way into the school, where Luz gives them a rough rundown of the previous events.
"... You seriously petrified them??", Katya asks, looking wide-eyed in shock.
"Oh no... Just their shackles. They'll get them off with a hammer and chisel. I just had to make it look like I was doing more than just that."
"Yes, but still... Petrification? I mean, where did you learn that spell anyway?", Liwin asks.
"I learned the glyph a while ago when I was experimenting.", she explains, "I actually swore I'd never use that spell... Granted, today was the first time I had ever used it. And I was genuinely worried that it wouldn't just petrify the shackles."
"I can understand that..."
"Anyway, we'll be right there. Alsa, I want to take you to Boscha first.", Luz says, to which Alsa herself just nods.
When Luz had just told them about what had happened today, she had deliberately left out the details about Boscha. She likes Alsa and doesn't want to upset her any sooner than necessary because of the mess her daughter has pulled.
"M-Mom?", Boscha mutters as soon as she sees her mother come through the doors into the homeroom, "W-What are you doing here?"
Alsa splits off from the group and heads straight to Boscha, who is being attended to by Principal Bump.
"I'm here to help.", she replies to her with a tone that is partly stern, but also empathetic. She looks at Bump and holds out a hand, "Principal Bump, I am Alsa van Nejd, Boscha's mother."
"I am very pleased to meet you, although I would have wished for better circumstances.", he shakes her hand.
"My wife usually takes care of everything to do with the school, but I think it's better that I'm here now.", Alsa says, before turning back to Boscha. Only now does she notice the red eyes and the slight swelling on her face. "Oh my baby, what happened? Have you been crying?"
"Mrs. van Nejd, I'm afraid that and more is her own fault."
"More?", Alsa asked, shocked. The two adults look down at Boscha expectantly, who hesitantly reveals the sigil on her wrist, which she had previously hidden behind her back. Boscha actively avoids her mother's gaze. "How did that happen?"
"Do you want me to tell her about it, or do you want to do that yourself?", Bump asks, addressing Boscha directly. She remains silent with her gaze firmly fixed on the floor. "As you wish. Mrs. van Nejd, your daughter actively exposed her classmates to great danger today, and out of something as ludicrous as revenge, she conspired with a hostile faction and revealed the hiding place of her classmates. As a result, her friend was seriously injured.", Bump points to a table at the end of the room where Liwin is casting various healing spells together with Viney.
"Sweety, is that true?", Alsa asks her daughter, the feeling of bitter disappointment hanging in the air. Boscha sheds a few more tears before nodding slightly.
Alsa sighs in disappointment. "What am I going to do with you?"
"I'm afraid that whatever you're going to do, Mrs. van Nejd, that it's not going to happen here.", Bump states before standing up. He looks sad, "Boscha van Nejd, you are hereby expelled from Hexside, permanently. You have until the end of the day to empty your locker and leave the premises. I'm sorry it had to come to this."
And with that, Bump walks away from her. Boscha begins to cry again and clings tightly to her mother, who returns the gesture without hesitation.
"Shhh... It's all right. You know we'll find a solution.", she tries to comfort her.
It took a while, but Liwin and Viney managed to heal the worst of Cat's injuries. There were some external lacerations, but it was the internal ones that created the biggest problems. Not only had the force of the initial attack broken several of her bones, there were also several internal bleedings that she might not have survived if Liwin hadn't been there.
At the same time, Katja used her scouting skills to search Hexside for any remaining scouts, as well as for any still hiding students and teachers, accompanied by Professor Ilora and Jerbo.
"And this is Willow and Gus. Willow is one of the best plant witches on Hexside, and Gus is by far the most talented illusionist I've ever met. Coven Heads included."
After most of those present had been largely taken care of and the school looked halfway tidy again, many of the students had already made their way home or been picked up by their parents. Luz, however, wanted to take this opportunity to introduce Liwin to her friends and persuade them to let her join the CATS.
"So, what do you think?", Luz asks Liwin expectantly.
"You know, until you came to me, I was totally against the idea of children among us. And that's just because things can get very dangerous very fast. But I have to say that since you and your friends have been with us, our success rate has shot up to nearly one hundred percent. So welcome to the CATS. Luz will fill you in on the details at a later stage."
Luz hugs her two friends solemnly from behind, almost knocking Gus over in the process.
"Sorry, sorry.", she apologizes to him, but definitely feeling overjoyed for her friends.
"Yes, but I think I should start heading home.", Gus says, a big yawn escaping him, "I'm sure my dad is already waiting."
"Yeah, I think mine are too...", Willow adds, before turning to Skara and Amity, who'd moved a little further away, "Skara!", she shouts, "Do you want to go home with me and Gus?"
Skara jumps up, visibly excited, and calls back. "I'd love to!"
"Speaking of going home-", Luz speaks up, "Alsa's already gone, I presume?"
Liwin nods, "And I don't think she'll necessarily be at our next meeting either."
Suddenly Luz notices how Amity wraps her arms around her shoulders from behind and hugs her tightly. Luz smiles.
"Shall we?", she asks. Luz just nods.
Amity steps next to her and takes her hand.
"We're leaving now too.", Luz says goodbye, "See you around."
A little later, in the Emperor's throne room...
"-we simply got overrun. There were just too many of them. If you would allow me, Emperor Belos, I would return shortly with a larger contingent to complete my mission."
Head Witch Graye and Hunter both kneel before Emperor Belos while Graye has just given his, very embellished, report.
"This... won't be necessary.", Belos replies calmly, "You had a mission and you failed. You will not get a second chance."
"But-", Graye speaks up, but restrains himself, "Yes, Emperor Belos."
"You may leave."
Graye nods affirmatively, stands up, and leaves the throne room quickly. Now only Belos and Hunter are left there. The Emperor removes his mask.
"I understand you accompanied him on his mission today, Hunter. For what purpose?"
"I had it on good authority that she was still attending school there since her return. I was convinced that I could capture her for you, unc- um, I mean, Emperor Belos."
"The human is of no importance at this point.", Belos states, standing up from his throne, "How is the evacuation from the Knee getting along?"
"All permanent residents within the evacuation zone have been removed. However...", Belos raises an eyebrow, "There are isolated individuals who refuse to comply with an unjustified evacuation."
"Well...", Belos begins, "I'm afraid that's their problem then."
"If you don't mind me asking... Why are these measures necessary at all?", Hunter wonders.
"As I'm sure you've noticed, the Day of Unity is only a week away. And for this very special and joyous occasion, we are expecting some very important guests."
"Guests? Who?"
"That's irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that they will be joining us for the celebrations. And as for the human... I'm already working on ways to eliminate the threat to our all safety.", Belos hints gloomily.
"When are these guests supposed to arrive?"
"In a few days. All the preparations for their arrival have already been completed following the evacuation of the knee."
"So, do you have no further tasks for me, Emperor Belos?"
Belos chuckles slightly. "Heh, always so loyal and dutiful... The titan is very pleased about that, do you know that? But no, not for the time being. You may now leave as well."
Hunter nods in confirmation and leaves the throne room through the imposing entrance gate. A feeling of uncertainty begins to spread through his chest.
Notes:
The next chapter will be the Arc 2 finale.
But, I'd also love to read your thoughts about this one. So please let me know <3
Chapter 42: Going Dark - Part 1
Notes:
This is it, folks. It's been 651 days since I posted the ending of Arc 1. The events of this chapter have been nearly 2 years in the making.
And I'm soo excited that the time has finally come.As always, many thanks to my Beta-Reader Ace/Kaye aka. Sorry_I_Panicked. It's always been a pleasure to work with you.
And without further ado: I very much hope you'll enjoy the chapter, and I'm very much looking forward to read your thoughts about it in the comments <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"MITTENS!", Emira screams excitedly into her scroll, only moments after her sister's face appears, "I'm soo happy to see you. How are you? How's Luz?"
Amity blinks at her scroll several times in rapid succession as she tries to get the shrill ringing out of her ears. She shakes her head slightly before answering.
"For being so happy to see me, you've been taking ages to actually pick up my calls...", Amity complains in quite an annoyed tone.
"Yeah, I know. But you know, Edric and I have been really busy-"
"It's been THREE DAYS, EM!", a sudden silence emanates from the other side, "And you cannot tell me that you, of all people, were working..."
"Yeah, you got me.", Emira eventually admits, "So, what's up?"
"Oh, nothing special...", Amity starts off totally nonchalant, "Well, Hexside was attacked a few days ago, your girlfriend is terribly worried about you... you know, the usual. And what's going on with you guys?"
"Seriously? Hexside got attacked?", Edric, who had been staying in the background of the video call so far, suddenly speaks up with great interest, "What happened?"
"Well, the Head Witch of the Illusion Coven showed up at school a few days ago and tried to secretly cast coven sigils on all the students, disguised as illusions of sigils.", Amity recounts, "But we managed to chase them away successfully."
"And are you okay?", Emira asks, disturbed.
"How many got a sigil?", Edric asks, more excited than anything else.
"Yeah, I'm fine, and there's only one person who got a sigil: Boscha.", both of the twin's jaws drop to the floor as she mentions that name, "Yeah...", Amity continues at their reaction, "She actually made a deal with the Head Witch and got a sigil, only to betray the rest of the school by letting him know where we were hiding."
"Well, I knew she could be a bit of a bitch, but that was definitely beyond everything, really.", Emira comments, "And how do you feel about that? After all, you used to be friends..."
"Of course, I was still pretty angry and furious with her at first, but now... now I actually just feel pity towards her. She almost lost everything that day, and all because she wanted revenge. Bump expelled her from Hexside, she was responsible for the near-death of her only remaining friend, and she might forever have the sigil on her wrist that will always remind her of what she did."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait... Who almost died?", Edric asks.
"Cat. She's still in a healer's clinic. Luz and I visited her yesterday, since Hexside is closed for now."
"Understandable.", Emira says.
"I kind of wish we had been there, which is a strange thing to say.", Edric speaks up, "But at least we'll be home soon."
"Really?", Amity listens up. The twins nod.
"It took a while, but after all this time we finally got Mom to kick us out and send us back home.", Edric reports proudly.
"What exactly did you do?"
"You should rather ask what we didn't do...", Edric starts before Emira continues, "So in the first week we had all kinds of fixings undone, that is, screws and fire seams and things like that. We almost felt sorry for the workers who had to put everything back together. It took a while, but when production was due to start sometime later, all the parts from the warehouse were suddenly scattered all over the factory premises. And guess who it was.", Amity smiles at them, "At some point, all the factory workers stopped showing up, and guess who Mom assigned to work. That's right, us. Somehow, though, we hadn't managed to actually build a single one of those Abomatrons to this day."
"Wait, so you don't know anything about the evacuation?", Amity asks, at which point the twins look at each other questioningly.
"Viney had said something about an evacuation, but I thought she was just teasing...", Emira recalls, "Is it real? Do you know what exactly it's about?"
"I'm sorry, I don't.", Amity replies, "I just know that the whole knee was evacuated and that Viney is quite worried about you because you didn't take her seriously."
Emira pulls a guilty expression while Edric clicks his tongue dismissively.
"Great girlfriend you are..."
"Shut up, Ed.", Amity and Emira shout at him at the same time.
"Okay, geez.", he backs off, "If you need me, I'm going to take a shower."
"Don't take too long!", Emira calls after him, whereupon he gives her the middle finger before disappearing behind a door. Amity would never say it out loud to them, but after all this time, she has really come to miss them.
Before either of the sisters could continue talking, however, Amity hears a loud noise in the background that makes them both flinch.
"What was that?", Emira asks in slight concern and shock.
"Luz... probably. She and I have been at the Owl House for two days now. She's working on a new experimental spell."
"Oh, okay...", Emira replies, still not feeling much more comfortable.
"Um, anyway... When exactly are you planning to come back home? I'm thinking about maybe preparing something for you..."
"Awww, Mittens. Have you been missing us?", Amity blushes slightly at this question.
"What? No...", Amity lies and tries to talk her way out of it, "I just thought you and Mom might be happy about a halfway tidy house. You know Dad doesn't do much."
"Yeah, well, I don't think Mom's coming with us.", Emira states somewhat surprising Amity with that, "She's obsessed with that factory."
"Hmm... Can you at least tell her about the evacuation, in case she doesn't know about it yet?"
"Sure, I can do that.", Emira says, "Um, Ed and I are planning to leave in about an hour or two. We don't want to rush ourselves for no reason."
"Heh, I believe that. I'll see you guys... tomorrow?"
"Probably.", Emira replies, before another loud noise is heard from Amity's side, startling her again.
"Okay, sounds great. I'll see you then. Gotta go. Bye!", Amity says goodbye, ends the call, and runs straight out of the Owl House, where Luz, accompanied by Hooty, has drawn a huge glyph on the sandy floor, surrounded by many many open books.
"Luz! What happened? Are you hurt?", Amity calls out worriedly when she hasn't even passed the front door completely. Luz grins guiltily.
"Yeah, I figured you might have heard that."
"What exactly happened?", Amity repeats her first question.
"Well... I had overheard that you were finally able to reach your siblings, and I had wanted to get a book from upstairs to read to pass the time without disturbing you. So I thought, 'Hey, I might as well work on my teleportation accuracy'."
"Ou-kay...", Amity says, still not quite sure which way her story is going.
"So, I was trying to teleport to my room, but I ended up in a closet. And it wasn't one of the ones I recognized. I mean, it was full of pans..."
"Pans?", Amity asks, puzzled, to which Luz nods. At that, Hooty speaks up.
"Oh yes, I remember that well. Boi, that was a long night..."
"Yeah, sure.", Amity instantly dismisses Hooty's comment, "But back to topic: I heard noise twice..."
"Yea, the first time was when I landed in there. Then, when I was trying to find the exit, I knocked over a shelf full of pans. I instantly teleported back here."
"Okay...", Amity says, a little calmer by now, "And you're not injured?"
Luz is about to say no with a completely convinced tone, but stops herself and begins to check first her legs down her light gray jeans, then her arms up over the rolled-up sleeves of Eda's Grudgby jacket, and finally her torso and head in search of possible injuries.
"Nope, nothing.", she replies, causing her girlfriend to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Luz, I know this is all extremely important to you-", Amity says, gesturing at the large glyph around the two girls, "-but don't you think you should master regular teleportation first?"
"Yes, I'm sure I should. But it's just been way too long, and I just need to know how she's doing.", Luz replies in a sad voice, "But on a different note: How are Ed and Em? What did they say?"
"They... are on their way back home. Em said they'll be back sometime tomorrow."
"Aww, I'm glad to hear that.", Luz steps a little closer to Amity, holding her hands. The two girlfriends smile at each other.
"I'm glad too.", Hooty winds his way up between the two girls.
"Hooty!", Amity yells, backing off, "You know I like you, but you really need to work on not getting into people's personal comfort zones like that."
Luz giggles at that. "Amy, you know Hooty will never learn that."
"I'm perfect the way I am. HOOT!", he shouts before retreating back to the tripod on which Amity has mounted her scroll to record Luz’s experiments. "Hooty is ready to continue the experiment at any time."
"Try again?", Amity asks.
"Yes, let’s try it again.", Luz replies with a smile.
Amity leaves the glyph combo drawn on the ground, carefully trying not to step on any lines, and joins Hooty, ready to start the recording.
"You know-", Luz starts who's standing right in the middle of the huge glyph combo, "All of this would be so much easier if I could finally get a handle on illusions. Then I could just project my previous attempts onto the floor.", Luz exclaims, as she has many times today, "Okay. Start the recording!"
"Running."
"Okay. This is attempt number fourteen for cross-dimensional teleportation.", Luz speaks directly towards the scroll, "The last few attempts didn't exactly go... ideal. As you can see on the outside of the eleventh outer circle here, I had to mirror the arrangement of some glyphs to prevent things from teleporting here again as opposed to me teleporting away. I've also learned from my second to last attempt, and will no longer try to target specific coordinates, but focus solely on arriving in another world. As with previous attempts, the plan is not to stay on site for long, but to return immediately once I found out if the spell was successful. Maybe this time it will finally work out..."
Luz crouches down on the floor and holds her hands over the complex four-meter-wide super-glyph. "Here goes nothing."
With both hands pressed firmly to the ground, the lines and glyphs Luz has drawn begin to glow, and progressively faster and brighter.
At one point, Amity is forced to turn away from the recording and cover her eyes as well as Hooty's. It takes a good 10 seconds for this super-glyph to fully charge.
The painfully bright light disappears, and by the time Amity looks up again, Luz has vanished.
Luz herself has also squeezed her eyes shut tightly as her super-glyph began to glow brightly. All the while, she just crouched there fully expecting a sign from Amity that this attempt hadn't worked out either.
She is now all the more surprised to suddenly hears waves washing up on a shoreline. She opens her eyes in surprise.
"What?", she whispers, "It worked?"
Luz finds herself on a white sandy beach. Directly in front of her, gentle waves wash over the sand as a sun begins to rise. To her right and left, she finds nothing but calm water as far as her eyes can see. But once she looks around, she sees nothing but an incredibly lush forest. As she looks a little closer at the trees, however, she notices something.
"Wait a second... Are those leaves red?", she wonders, before groaning in annoyance, "It didn't work..."
Disappointed, she pulls out her scroll and pulls up Amity's contact.
WITCHCHICK128
I'm still in the Demon Realm
Don't know exactly where I am yet. I'll have a quick look around...
Aw, that sucks.
But I'm surprised I can still write to you despite the distance... That wouldn't be possible in the human world.
Do you have a rough idea where you are?
All I know is that the sun has only just risen here. And I'm sure I haven't traveled through time...
Okay. Please be careful anyway
I will. After all, I've got Owlbert with me as well
We'll wait for you here <3
Luz rolls up her scroll again and retrieves Owlbert, who has been sleeping in his wooden form in a pocket of her jacket.
"Hey little buddy...", Luz whispers softly to him as she nuzzles his head, "Wake up. We're going on a little expedition."
"Hoot", he calls softly as he changes back to his owl-form.
"Yes, I'm afraid I don't know exactly where we are."
"Hoot?", he sounds concerned.
"Heh, no, don't worry. This time we're here voluntarily, and we can always go back.", Luz reassures him, "We'll just have a quick look around, and then we'll head straight back home."
"Hoot.", he sounds more calmly now before turning into his staff-form.
Luz sits down on her staff and pushes herself off the ground before heading about a hundred meters away from the beach towards the open sea.
"Huh, this seems to be an island...", she observes before also climbing in height. In the center of the island, she spots a cloud-high, damaged tower rising from the incredibly thick canopy of trees.
"Whoa...", she exclaims in amazement and surprise. She looks down the tower to the tree line, "Looks like we can't just fly there... "
"Hoot"
"What do you mean 'this looks familiar'?", Luz asks, confused.
"Hoot", Owlbert calls in an uncertain tone.
"But you do feel like you've been right here before, right?"
"Hoot.", he howls in a vaguely affirmative tone.
"All right. Maybe we'll find something in there...", Luz says before slowly flying back to the beach and landing at the forest entrance in front of a kind of path that leads into the eerily silent and dark forest.
Owlbert transforms back into his original form and lands on Luz's shoulder. Luz swallows hard.
"We are alone on this island. Nothing will happen to us.", Luz tries to encourage herself, "And if something does happen, we'll be gone faster than anyone can shout 'who's there'..."
And with that, the two of them take their first step down the path.
Luz steps through bushes, past dark trees, and over thick roots, straight ahead in the direction where she suspects the tower entrance is.
The further she ventures, however, the more the background noise gets on her nerves. Or rather, the lack of it. Her heart beats hard in her chest.
"I didn't think I would actually desire to hear some noise...", Luz whispers. Owlbert grips her shoulder a little tighter, but not so tightly that it would hurt her.
"Hoot.", he replies.
"But it's also strange. I mean, we're surrounded by a huge ocean and there's no wind? No rustling leaves?", Luz wonders as she steps further through some bushes.
"Hoot", Owlbert sounds anxious. Luz's gaze wanders downwards, where she steps over a thick dark root again, and suddenly realizes that she is no longer walking on forest floor, but on stone slabs.
"Whoa...", Luz exclaims in amazement as she lifts her head. Only dimly lit, but still quite recognizable, she discovers an eighteen-meter-tall keyhole in front of her, looking like the entrance to the tower. The only problem: the entrance seems to be completely blocked.
She climbs the stone steps up to the large boulders blocking the entrance. Her gaze wanders to the signs engraved in gold right next to it. In an attempt to improve her vision, she creates a few light orbs.
"That looks old...", she comments on the engravings. She pulls out her scroll and takes a few pictures for possible later documentation, "I'm sure Amity will want to see this later... But now the all-important question: Is there any way we can get into the tower, or has everything in there collapsed?"
Owlbert jumps off Luz's shoulder and into her hand. "Hoot?", he suggests.
"Oh, good idea. And when you're inside, I can just teleport to you if everything's clear.", Luz agrees to his suggestion with an excited smile before guiding her hand to one of the larger openings among the boulders so Owlbert can crawl in.
Luz has to wait about twenty seconds before Owlbert calls back with a howl.
"All right.", Luz replies. She summons her golden lightning and shortly afterwards finds herself inside the temple, right next to Owlbert.
"Whoa...", Luz marvels again. A fairly large but barely lit chamber presents itself directly in front of her. Luz once again creates a large number of light orbs and spreads them far and wide in the air directly in front of her with a single throwing motion.
"I'm getting really good at this.", Luz mutters proudly. Owlbert howls in confirmation before the two of them turn their attention back to the structure in front of them.
Ahead of them they find a very tall and long hall. Arranged in two parallel rows, there are dozens of ornate columns almost twenty-one meters tall, as well as golden ornaments on all the surrounding walls. Luz's attention, however, is focused a little further down, in the form of small stone statues on the floor.
"Aww... How cute... Someone has made themselves some little friends...", Luz grins as she observes one of the small sculptures, each consisting of three or four small stones stacked on top of each other. She also takes a few pictures of it with her scroll for Amity, before an extremely unpleasant thought very slowly enters her head. "Wait a minute... ... ... Could whoever built all these figures still be here?", she asks Owlbert, who is now bearing the same slightly anxious expression as Luz.
"Hoot?", he suggests bravely.
"Sure?", Luz asks, to which the little palisman nods, "Alright. But if there's anyone else here, we're gone."
The two of them get up again and head deeper down the hall. On the way, they encounter countless more of these small sculptures all along the floor, around every pillar, in every branching corridor... As time goes by, all these statues no longer appear cute, but gradually become more and more creepy.
As they approach the end of the hall, Luz widens her eyes. There is a drawing on the wall in front of her. A very large drawing.
"Do you see who I see?", Luz asks the little palisman on her shoulder.
"Hoot.", Owlbert calls out in disbelief.
"Yup. That's definitely King... With a beard, armor, and many times taller than he was during his... his-", Luz violently shakes her head in an attempt to block out thoughts of the state he's currently in, back in Bonesborough. It takes her a moment to regain her composure before she continues in a sad voice, "He had always called himself the 'King of Demons'. And by the looks of it, he might really have been correct. I mean, I don't think he really was the 'King of Demons', but I do think this place must be connected to him somehow. Maybe his ancestors came from- or lived here... But how did he end up at the Owl House? And why have I, or anyone else, never met another demon like him?"
"Hoot."
"You remember? Remember what exactly?"
"Hoot..."
"Eda was here as well? But wh-", she quickly interrupts herself as an epiphany hits her, "Ohhh... She was here and she kidnapped him, wasn't she?"
"Hoot.", Owlbert confirms. Despite her sadness, Luz lets out a slight chuckle.
"Of course she did... Wonder why Eda never said anything. Or King...", she sounds dejected. A feeling of having missed something very important fills her mind.
"Hoot.", he encourages her as he sits on her shoulder, snuggling against her face. Luz smiles at him and strokes his head.
"I know. But we'll probably never know what really happened...", Luz agrees, "Look, I'll take a few more pictures and then we'll head back home. Would you like to look around and see if you can find anything else of interest?"
Owlbert howls in confirmation, spreads his little wings, and flies off into the darkness. At the same time, Luz picks up her scroll and starts taking some pictures.
It doesn't take long before Owlbert calls Luz to him with a 'hoot' echoing through the hall. Instead of teleporting again, she saves her strength and runs quickly in the direction in which he has just flown.
After a short jog, she finds Owlbert sitting on a pile of debris that is about as high as Luz is tall. Her gaze wanders to the mural immediately behind him, where another King-like demon can be seen attacking a huge creature wielding a large spear. Luz immediately holds up her scroll to take a picture before turning her attention to Owlbert. He is trembling.
"Buddy, what's going on?", she asks concerned.
"Hoot.", he answers in a frightened voice.
"Watched? By whom?" Luz's gaze slowly wanders upwards where she notices two glowing blue dots in the darkness.
"Who's there?", she challenges whoever is there, "Show yourself!"
Whatever has been watching the two of them from the ceiling has just detached itself, falling rapidly towards her.
But instead of hitting the ground with a thud as expected, it lands gently on the floor as if the gravity didn't apply to it.
Luz immediately grabs Owlbert and takes a couple steps back as the menacing-looking creature gradually stands up. Its entire body is made up of individual large stones held together by a kind of petrified root mass. The head is vaguely reminiscent of a stone boomerang with two glowing eyes. The creature rises on two legs to almost twice the size of Luz.
Luz takes another step back, intimidated, her blood freezing in her veins as the creature slashes out three blade-shaped claws from each of its stony arms. It tilts its head before taking a step forward.
"OKAY, WE'RE OUT OF HERE!", Luz yells, quickly creating her teleport spell. Moments later, Luz and Owlbert find themselves back outside on the sandy beach. "THAT... was scary.", she says, catching her breath.
"Hoot...", Owlbert agrees.
"Then let's head back home.", Luz says. A moment later, she notices that her scroll is vibrating in the pocket of her jacket. She takes it out and frowns at it.
"Amity is calling me.", she states with slight confusion. After all, the two girlfriends were chatting not even fifteen minutes ago. Luz answers the call and the beautiful face of her girlfriend appears on her scroll. "Hey. Did something happen?", Luz wonders.
"Kinda, actually.", Amity replies, "You have to come back. We got an invitation for a meeting with the CATS."
"Oh, yeah, Liwin said it could happen soon.", Luz comments, "When is it supposed to happen?"
"Now.", Amity replies, holding up the business card that Liwin had given her and Luz. As always, an address is written on it, as well as the time. And indeed, it simply says 'Now'. Luz looks at her in confusion.
"Okay, that's weird.", she states, "Um, Owlbert and I were on our way back anyway. We got a bit spooked, but nothing really happened. We'll be back at the Owl House in a few minutes."
"In a few minutes?", Amity asks, confused.
"It would take too long to draw the super glyph, so I'm using my regular teleport spell. And depending on where exactly I end up, I'll need two or three more jumps.", Luz says.
"That's right, I remember. Higher deviation with greater distance...", she recounts at which Luz nods, "Okay, umm, do you happen to know where the Book Nook is?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"It's in the same plaza as the Covention Center. Maybe I should have said that, but whatever. Let's meet there. The meeting place is close by.", Amity explains.
"All right, see you there.", Luz says goodbye and ends the call.
"Aww, do you really have to leave again?", Amity hears Hooty talking sorrowfully from behind her back as she makes her scrolls disappear. She turns to him, only to find him with tears in his eyes.
"Oh Hooty, don't worry, but I'll be back. With Luz.", she tries to comfort him.
"But something bad is going to happen when you leave...", he cries.
"You say that every time I leave."
"But I can feel it in my toes."
"Hooty, you don't have any toes,", Amity argues, "Come on, when I'm back I'll bring you a snack."
Hooty's eyes start to light up, "With the berries?"
"Just for you."
"Okay, okay. You can go.", Hooty says brightly as he retreats into the door of the Owl House. Amity takes out her staff and immediately sets off towards Bonesborough.
She is not far from the Owl House when she pulls out the business card with the address on it again.
Address: Centra-Plaza 195 - yellow
Time: NOW!
'What does she mean by yellow?', she wonders. The first houses on the outskirts of Bonesborough gradually come into view, and Amity flies swiftly past them. 'Well, I'll see when I get there.', she puts the business card away again so that she can fully focus on flying.
With the wind swirling through her hair, she flies over all the people going about their daily lives below her. She can see people going for a walk, shopping, or simply relaxing outside. It's days like today when Bonesborough seems particularly full of life.
It's not long before she catches sight of the Covention Center and gradually descends to land. Her gaze wanders to the Book Nook, where she already recognizes a few of the people standing right in front of it. Amity decides to approach as silently as possible from behind.
"But I'm telling you Willow, there is no such thing as an 'Impractical Illusions Coven'."
"And I'm telling you, Augustus, that there's an exhibition of that very coven announced for tomorrow on that big display board right there. Or are you telling me that sign is lying?"
"I can read.", Gus pouts, "But the very idea of it is ridiculous. I mean, when exactly is an illusion considered so impractical that a separate coven has to be founded for it?"
"How about mirrored snails? Or a mirrored mirror? Or the illusion of a scroll when you already have a real one?", Willow lists every stupid or impractical use she can think of. Right behind the two friends, Amity hovers in place with her staff, smirking diabolically.
"Or an illusion of your pet that has suddenly learned to talk.", Amity interjects.
"WHOA!", Gus cries out, startled, and almost tripping over his own feet. Amity starts laughing out loud, and Willow can't help but giggle too.
"Hahaha...", Amity doubles over with laughter and gasps for air. Meanwhile, Willow helps Gus up, who also feels infected by her laughter. Amity begins to cough and Willow pats her back reassuringly.
"Heh, are you okay, girl?", she asks Amity, who is gradually beginning to catch her breath.
"I'm good.", she replies in an unusually high voice before trying to take a breath. "I'm sorry, Gus. I... actually wanted to scare you both...", she explains between giggles and gasps. But Gus' own heartbeat is still off the scale.
"I'd say it wasn't funny, but that would be such a lie...", he comments.
"Luz is a really bad influence on you.", Willow, who was the first to calm down, speaks up.
"Hehe, I know.", Amity agrees, "And I love her for it.... But don't tell her!"
"Speaking of Luz-", Gus starts, "Where is she anyway?"
"She said she'd only be a few minutes...", Amity recounts, just before she feels a slight static electricity in the air around her, "I think she's just arriving right now."
And as if on cue, a bright flash of light appears right next to the three of them, with a visibly shaken Luz appearing in its position. Her hair is all messed up and wet, while her pants look quite soaked.
"Oh my Titan... Luz! What happened?", Amity rushed towards her. Her gaze scans her girlfriend from top to bottom.
"Well... As it turns out, I must have been hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away, since the deviation of my teleport was enormous. Like, I wanted to teleport to the center of the city and ended up in a swamp instead. I didn't even know there was such a thing here on the Boiling Isles."
"Sounds like you were between the toes...", Amity guesses as she attempts to fix Luz's hair as she continues talking.
"Probably. Anyway, I landed head first in mud.", Luz reports, "Then, with my second jump, I landed directly in Bonesborough, but in some kind of fancy fountain. Luckily there wasn't too much water in it..."
"Oh, Luz...", Willow feels sorry for her, but Luz is still not finished talking yet.
"Luckily there was no one there to chase me away, so I washed my face and well.... Here I am now.", Luz finishes her story before taking her staff and putting Owlbert in his wooden form back in her jacket pocket. Willow and Gus look slightly amused. "So, where's the meeting place?"
"Don't you want to dry off properly first?", Amity asks, slightly perturbed.
"Nah.", Luz replies without a second thought, "I can dry off during the meeting. So where is it?"
Amity doesn't seem satisfied with Luz's answer, but doesn't comment further. But at that, Gus holds out his own business card and speaks up.
"So the address is right there.", He points to the building several meters down from the Book Nook. "But what exactly they mean by 'yellow'... I have no idea."
"Let's go in then.", Luz suggests, starting off before a sudden thought occurs to her, forcing her to stop. "By the way, have you heard anything about Skara?"
All eyes turn to Willow.
"Uhhh... Good question. I last heard from her half an hour ago. She said she was on her way somewhere.", she reports.
"Oh, okay.", Luz says, "I guess we can tell her about it later then."
And with that, the small group sets off to the specified address, which is apparently just a vacant store that is not directly connected to any other building. The four of them are standing right in front of a rounded display window that points sharply at the top in the middle. On the front of the roof, the outline of the word 'café' can still be seen.
"I think there used to be a pet shop or something in here.", Gus remarks, before Willow taps him on the shoulder and points to the lettering above them, "Or a pet cafe or something like that."
Through the shop window, the four of them catch sight of a completely run-down dump. There are still a few scraps of bright pink wallpaper on the walls and a few pieces of completely destroyed furniture that only give a rudimentary idea of what the previous owners used them for. Amity is the first to go towards the front door, first pulling, then pushing, which then opens it inwards. She gestures to the others to follow her.
They enter the abandoned store and find that the inside is full of colorful graffiti that they initially couldn't see from the outside.
"Wait, what?", Amity speaks up, "They weren't here a moment ago..."
"Must be Liwin's security measures.", Luz remarks, before Gus steps past her, removes his latest loupe-shaped accessory from his ear, and draws a large magic circle. The graffities flicker briefly.
"Yup. Illusions.", Gus concludes, "Pretty powerful ones at that."
"Okay guys, look for anything yellow.", Luz calls out to them, whereupon the four of them swarm out, examining all the different graffities.
Willow is the first to find something. She traced her fingers along a piece of yellow lettering until she noticed a small opening just beyond it and reached in until a mechanical whirring sound could be heard, and part of the wall next to her began to shimmer.
"Guys, I've found something.", she calls out. The others turn their gaze to her and see Willow's hand halfway within the wall.
"Great, you found the entrance.", Luz praises her, "Just go through."
As she is told, Willow steps through the illusion with the others following directly behind her. A narrow staircase descends in front of her. She turns back to the illusion, realizing that these stairs, or this hole in general, were definitely not part of the store. Whoever created it first destroyed the wall and then dug the steps down.
The group climbs down the stairs, in which it is impossible for two or more people to go down side by side. This hiding place was definitely dug in a hurry.
At the bottom of the stairs there is a short but much taller and wider corridor with two adjoining rooms, one of which is closed off by a door. With Luz leading the way, the group enters the open room, where a few people are already waiting.
"HUMAN!", a deep, female voice exclaims unexpectedly and cheerfully. Moments later the four of them notice a witch about two and a half meters tall walking towards Luz, her shoulders broader than many doors.
"Ruby!", Luz greets the half-giantess before she pulls Luz, but also Amity, into the air and briefly hugs her tightly. She quickly drops them both again when one of them makes a not too healthy cracking sound.
"Sorry, sorry.", Ruby apologizes. Luz and Amity don't look hurt, "Anyway, good to see you."
Once the two girlfriends have solid ground beneath their feet again, Amity speaks up. "You seem a lot friendlier today than last time...", she remarks.
"Of course. After all, I was locked up and violently robbed of my magic. Can you blame me if 'being friendly' isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind?", Ruby asks with a sarcastic tone. Amity just shakes her head.
During this interaction, they are joined by the other two witches present in the room, Katya and Derwin. Luz speaks up.
"Okay guys, I want you to meet someone. This is Willow and Gus. Willow is a powerful plant witch, and Gus is the best of all illusionists.", she introduces her friends, followed by warm greetings from everyone.
"We're glad you could join us.", Derwin explains after the first set of handshakes have finished. Luz looks proudly at her friends until she notices that Willow doesn't seem quite herself. Her gaze seems to be completely focused on Ruby's upper arms. She also has a certain admiring twinkle in her eye. Ruby herself notices this and addresses Willow directly.
"Are you all right, kid?", she asks. Willow opens her mouth, but can't get a sound out at first.
"I- You- I-I- Th-", she stammers, unable to look Ruby in the face for more than a few moments before her gaze wanders back to her biceps. Ruby smirks knowingly and begins to tense her muscles for effect.
"H-H-How?", Willow stutters after a while. Ruby takes the plant witch a little to the side.
"A lot of this actually comes from my parents.", Ruby explains, gesturing with her hand around her body in general, "But if you're interested, I'd be willing to take you for a few training sessions."
"YES!", Willow exclaims excitedly.
Luz, Amity, and Gus stand with the others, watching the conversation between Willow and Ruby with amusement.
"I think someone's found a training partner.", Gus remarks.
"I didn't know she was looking for one.", Amity admits.
"Well, admittedly, none of us are particularly athletic, or know much about sports...", Gus states.
"Fair point.", Luz agrees, "Although I have to admit that exercising more would do me some good in terms of building up my muscles... On the other hand, the brain is a muscle too, and I exercise that quite often... Well, another thing: Is there no one else here apart from us? Where are Liwin and Alsa?"
"Liwin and the other one are in the other room, still working on something.", Ruby explains after she and a beaming Willow join the others, "Alsa seems to be busy with some family problems."
Luz, Amity, Gus and Willow exchange glances before Luz speaks up. "Yeah, I figured she'd have more pressing matters to deal with after the attack on Hexside."
Before any of those present could respond to what was still news to some of them, at least Ruby and Derwin, and ask for explanations, Liwin appears at the entrance to the room, accompanied by Skara.
"Skara?", Willow asks in surprise, "Didn't you say you were on your way somewhere?"
"Yes, I was. To here. Well, not quite. To her.", the bard witch explains, pointing to the Chief Healer.
"Okay, everyone.", the older healer witch speaks up, catching everyone's attention, "First of all, thank you Ruby for being able to construct our meeting rooms so quickly and filling in for Alsa. Any word on Amber, Gwen, Kate, and Doug?"
Some head shaking from the others in response.
"Well, okay. If they're not here now, we'll have to start today without them because we actually don't have much time.", Liwin states, "To make a long story short: We found out where Raine Whispers is being held. And we're going to get them out of there."
"And why do you think we don't have much time? Does that depend on anything?", Derwin wonders. Skara chimes in.
"I met up with Diane yesterday already because I really wanted to be there when we were making plans. Mx. Whispers has been held at the Emperor's Castle since their capture. And we can assume that they're quite heavily guarded.", she reports, "My father, who has contacts in the city administration, said that Emperor Belos will be making a public announcement in... about thirty minutes which will be seen throughout every city center and on every crystal ball."
"That announcement is news to me.", Katya states, "Any idea what it's going to be about?"
"Unfortunately, no.", Liwin states firmly, "But it is likely to be connected to the upcoming Day of Unity. After all, it's only a couple of days away."
Luz raises her hand. "What exactly is this Day of Unity?"
"Unfortunately, our information on it is minimal, though hopefully we'll find out more about it today.", Liwin replies, "So, here's the plan we've worked out for today. As there are seven- eight- nine of us, we'll split into three teams. Ruby and Derwin, you two get us a recording of Belos' speech so we can review it later. Katya, Willow, Skara, Gus, and I are going to rescue Raine Whispers. Luz and Amity, you two sneak into Emperor Belos' private chambers and try to find out as much as you can about the Day of Unity."
"WHAT?", Luz and Amity shout out.
"You can't be serious!", Katya accuses them incredulously.
"This is suicide!", Ruby notes sternly, "No one has ever even dared to break in there. Sorry Diane, but that's going too far."
"Your comments are noted, but listen to me.", Liwin begins, "I've seen for myself that Luz is completely immune to any form of external magic. Had my treatment room torn to shreds in my clinic. If anyone can do the job, it's her."
"And what about me?", Amity asks as Luz wants to sink into the floor in shame.
"As if you would let Luz do this all by herself.", Skara remarks.
"Fair point. I'm with you. Luz?", Amity agrees and now looks at Luz, who is definitely not so convinced by the plan.
"I don't know... I mean, I've already fought Belos once-", Luz says, which earns her a few impressed looks. Amity interrupts her, however.
"We don't have to fight anyone. And besides, Skara's right: I wouldn't let you fight Belos alone again. I'll stay right by your side."
"Okay, fine.", Luz finally gives in, "We'll break into Belos' private chambers."
"Good.", Liwin agrees, "For the extraction team, I'll share the exact plan later. But what's important for everyone to know is that this is a stealth operation. If anyone encounters guards and you can't hide and avoid them, take them out quietly. Gus, as an illusionist, it would be great if you can give us disguises or make us invisible. For this mission, we have two advantages that we absolutely have to exploit: During Belos' speech, many if not all of the guards will be distracted, and also, no one will be expecting someone to break into the castle.", she explains, "Any questions?"
"How do we get in without anyone noticing us?", Katya asks, "Doesn't the castle have one of those retractable bridges?"
"I've instructed our contact inside the castle to send the guards at the entrance away and extend the bridge for us.", Liwin explains. Luz raises her hand.
"What about the Golden Guard, or Kikimora, or the Coven Heads?", she wonders.
"We'll just have to be lucky and hope that we're fast, quiet and agile enough that they won't be a problem.", Liwin answers again, "Any more questions?"
"Where are the Emperor's private chambers?", Amity asks.
"No one knows exactly. However, it is assumed that his rooms are adjacent to his throne room.", Katya replies this time. At that, Luz speaks up.
"Oh, I know where that is.", Luz exclaims, "But while we're in the palace, wouldn't that be a possible opportunity to get to Belos himself and take him out?"
"I don't know.", Liwin replies, "Do you think you would be able to do that?"
Luz falls silent.
"Look, as much as I appreciate your commitment, firstly, I don't think you're capable of killing anyone or anything, and secondly, we don't know whether Belos has any contingency plans that could put everyone and everything in danger. We need to know what he's up to before we can stop him.", Katya explains to Luz, who merely nods. Liwin takes the floor again.
"Okay, if there are no other questions, I'll transport us all as close to the Emperor's Castle as possible. As soon as the bridge is extended, we'll sneak in and split up. We should arrive just before Belos' announcement begins. This is going to be a very difficult and quite dangerous mission. Watch your backs, and most importantly, watch out for each other. We only have this one chance... Let's go!"
Just as she does after every meeting, Liwin creates a large green magic circle, enveloping everyone present in tight leaf cocoons, and drags them down into the ground.
For more than five minutes, all of them find themselves confined in a completely opaque leaf cocoon. No room for any movement whatsoever. No perceptible noises. For those who are practically trapped, they can merely sense where up and down are. They are all the more pleased once they realize that they are back in an upright position and the cocoon begins to decay.
"Thank Titan... Oh how I hate that...", Skara exclaims shortly after stepping out of her cocoon.
"You'll get used to it.", Willow, who stepped out of her own cocoon right next to her at the same time, chuckles.
"You can control it yourself, you know. I can't!", Skara shoots back playfully.
Surrounding the two witches, everyone else gradually emerges from the ground and out of their cocoons into the fresh air. It's not long before Katya, Gus, Luz and Amity join them in the open. Liwin was the first to arrive at their destination and is currently lightly ahead of them, scouting the situation.
The group finds itself in a tree-covered part of the perimeter in which the castle is located, secured by extremely high walls. As some of them look up, they notice the gray sky, obscured by very high gray clouds, and the curved, pointed bones that protect the entire area like a partial protective barrier. The group feels increasingly nervous. Liwin returns to them.
"Okay, our contact is in position and ready to deploy the bridge for us as we approach.", she explains, "Extraction team: Once we're inside, we need to hurry down to the dungeons two floors beneith the entrance. Everyone ready?"
In fact, the honest answer to this question for many is rather 'no', due to the plan having so many flaws that it would be a true miracle if it really all worked flawlessly. Only Luz, Willow, and Gus have first-hand experience not only of what it looks like inside the castle, but also of stealing from Belos. For Amity, Katya, and Skara, on the other hand, the prospect of breaking into the most heavily guarded place in the Boiling Isles with a half-baked plan seems suicidal. But despite their doubts, they eventually agree to go ahead, given their important objective.
"I'm ready.", Skara is the last to respond, before Liwin instructs Gus to make everyone in the group appear like scouts. Within moments, each of the resistance members is dressed in the standard white robe over the dark gray long-sleeved jerkins and black harem pants usually worn by the scouts, along with the silver beak-shaped mask covering their faces.
And with Liwin leading the way, the group sets off. Carefully, they step out of the forest and as inconspicuously as possible onto the cobbled square that leads directly to the entrance to the castle. They reach a point between two tall square pillars, on which seething flames emit black smoke into the air. They step towards the edge, which leads into the pit filled with countless spikes and the expectation of certain death.
"You know-", Luz begins, "last time I was here, I was right down there when Lilith tried to kill me...", she tells, as if this is nothing but a funny anecdote. A single glance at Amity is enough to know that she definitely does not find it funny and is probably starting to boil with rage under her mask.
"Bad timing, Luz.", Willow whispers to her.
On the opposite side of the pit, right in front of the absolutely gigantic gate that leads into the castle, stands a single guard. Liwin waves to the figure, gesticulating grandly. Moments later, the large bridge begins to extend.
The seven of them stand on it as it arrives and the bridge retracts, bringing them directly to the entrance.
Arriving at the entrance, the guard comes straight towards them.
"Diane?", the guard asks looking back and forth between everyone in disguise, whereupon the Chief Healer nods, "It looks good so far. Belos' announcement is about to begin, and the vast majority of the guards are in the break rooms to watch the broadcast. So you shouldn't have too much trouble getting into the dungeons. Inside, however..."
"Yes?", Liwin asks impatiently.
"The last time I was down there, Head Witch Cutburn was with them. She could still be there."
"Thank you, Steve. As always, your support here is invaluable.", Liwin thanks him, but is interrupted by Steve.
"Diane, I can't stay here any longer. When you're finished here, I'll come with you.", Steve states. Liwin opens her mouth to insist that his services at the castle have always been extremely helpful and that he is in the best hands there, but she holds back.
"If you stayed here, the breakout would be traced back to you...", Liwin states. Steve nods. "Okay. Head to my clinic in Bonesborough. I'll join you as soon as we're done here."
"Thank you very much."
And with that, Steve opens the gates into the inside of the castle, whereupon all of them enter. All except Steve, who extends the bridge for himself and sets off.
Once inside, the seven of them are greeted by fairly empty and spacious halls facing every direction. All the walls are decorated with golden ornaments, there are banners with the sigil of the Emperor's Covens on many walls, there are statues or busts on pedestals depicting Belos, as well as paintings on the walls showing the people's worship of him and the history of his rise to power.
"Okay-", Liwin takes the floor in a whisper after checking the time, "Okay, Belos' announcement is scheduled for two minutes from now. Luz, Amity, you know your mission. The rest will follow Skara! Act like you belong here. That way we won't attract any unwanted attention to ourselves."
A collective nod runs through the group. Luz and Amity split off from the group, and the rest make their way towards the second sub-level with the young bard witch leading the way. Earlier in the hideout, Liwin had had Skara study maps of the castle that she had received from Steve some time ago.
The five of them are bristling throughout the corridors of the castle with determination and all of them are trying not to let their nervousness and rising anxiety show. Fortunately, the corridors are largely empty, but they don't necessarily see it as luck, but rather as strange and unsettling.
"Does anyone else get the feeling that this is a trap?", Gus whispers as they arrive at the first wide staircase leading down to the first sub-level. However, as they step onto the first steps and hurry down, they notice a small squad of real Guards heading towards them on their way up.
'Shit!', Liwin thinks, "Act natural!", she whispers to the others without moving her head.
As the two groups approach each other, some of the Resistance members begin to sweat nervously.
The two groups close in about halfway up the stairs. Suddenly the real guards stop, their eyes fixed on the other group of five. One of the real scouts speaks up.
"Hey! Aren't you guys going to watch the big announcement? The break room is up there.", The scout indicates towards the top of the stairs. Liwin is the first and only one who dares to speak up when everyone else freezes.
"Oh, yes, we'll catch up. Kikimora has ordered us to take the prisoner Whispers to Belos immediately, before his speech begins.", Liwin lies.
"So what are you standing here for? Go go go!", the scout shouts, shaking his head as he and his companions walk on.
A feeling of instant relief washes over them before they continue down the stairs. Once at the bottom, there is an incredibly tense atmosphere within the group due to the constant fear of being discovered, despite the fact that the whole mission is only designed to last a few minutes.
At the bottom of the staircase, the group can already see the second one, which saves them a lot of walking.
As they're moving, they notice that this floor is considerably less decorated with golden ornaments, and that the gold already looks rather faded. There are also far fewer banners, paintings, or statues on the walls.
As they climb down the second flight of stairs, the tension increases with every step. On top of that, the fact that the walls are increasingly less golden and more of a stony brown, and the air becoming cooler and heavier, doesn't really help.
Once at the bottom, the corridors are no longer lit by chandeliers hanging from tall ceilings, but merely by torches attached to the walls. The walls themselves are no longer as high, and despite the torches, the entire floor feels utterly cold.
Right next to the steps they have just descended, there is another staircase that leads even further down into the castle. It only takes a single glance to realize that there is definitely no light at the end of this tunnel.
The five of them, with a more than tense Skara leading the way, enter what looks like an ancient dungeon, full of copper pipes and exposed tiles sticking out of the walls.
They walk along one of the corridors, iron doors with thick bars on either side as the only way to see into the individual cells. With just a single glance inside, most of the cells they pass appear empty, though each one seems more like a place where people are sent to die and forget, judging by the smells of death and rot in the air.
"0-18-15... 0-18-17... 0-18-19... There it is. 0-18-23.", Skara quietly reads out the cell numbers on a plate attached to each cell door. They are heading straight towards their destination, the only cell so far in front of which stands a guard.
Having already noticed the group, the guard looks at them.
"Stop!", the guard calls out to them, "State your business!"
Liwin steps forward. "We have orders to escort the prisoner to Emperor Belos immediately, in time for the announcement."
There is a moment of skeptical silence between them before he turns to the door and pulls out a thick bunch of keys, unlocking the hefty door.
The group enters a rather smelly, stuffy cell, measuring less than three by four meters. A few moss-covered bones lie in one corner, along with some dried blood on the walls. The cell has no window. It has no light sources of its own apart from the torch that shines in the corridor. In another corner of the cell, there is a hole in the floor about the width of a head, and right next to the cell door there is a kind of stretcher on which a slightly malnourished-looking Raine Whispers is sitting. They look up with a curious yet questioning gaze as the group enters their cell.
Before anyone can say anything, however, they hear the lock fall back into the door behind them. With a questioning look, Gus steps back to the door, trying to open it, but...
"Locked.", he simply says to the others before turning back to the door, "What the heck, dude?"
Instead of answering, however, the guard turns to the side.
"It worked, Head Witch."
Stunned, no one dares to speak up, only the sound of a squeaky door opening, and footsteps approaching them. Seconds later, the two-meter-tall Head Witch of the Healing Coven, Hettie Cutburn, appears directly in front of the door.
"Heh... I didn't think this would be soo easy.", she chuckles, "When the Emperor told me that your ridiculous movement would attempt a prison break, here and now... I thought you'd at least have some sort of halfway intelligent plan, given your leader. Right, Diane?"
A surprised gasp escapes some. And given their situation, Gus decides to drop his illusions at the same time. Liwin approaches the door with a serious look, while the others look at the Chief Healer in surprise. But Liwin says nothing.
"Oh, how the great ones have fallen.", the Head Witch continues, "I looked up to you once, Diane. You used to be my idol... And now look where your choices have gotten you...", Liwin remains silent, which the Head Witch doesn't seem to like. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Instead of answering, Liwin merely turns his back to her, leaving the others confused, and the Coven Head annoyed.
"Fine!", the Coven Head exclaims angrily, "Then you can rot here until all eternity! You will get something to eat... when I feel like it."
With angry steps, she and the guard leave. Only moments later there is complete silence in the room again, and only now does anyone dare to speak.
"Um, hi everyone.", Raine speaks up before they notice something, "Wait... Katya??? Is that you?"
With a relieved smile on her face, she walks over to Raine and sits down next to them, hugging them from the side. "Oh, it's so good to see you alive. "
"Heh, same.", they answer, returning the hug. A few moments pass before Raine's gaze eventually lands on Liwin. "So... you wanted to rescue me? Who are you?"
Instead of Liwin, Katya takes over answering as she stands up again.
"We are... the CATS.", she announces happily, before Liwin continues., though not as cheerfully.
"To make a long story short: It was many, many months ago when I had first heard of the BATS, and what you had done. Or at least what you wanted to do. After learning that you had all been captured, I felt compelled to continue your important mission. I began to be able to recruit some valuable people to the cause, and after we were able to rescue other members of the BATS from the Conformatorium, we immediately set out to find you."
"The Conformatorium is completely destroyed, by the way.", Katya adds, beaming.
"... wow.", Raine replies, genuinely impressed. They try to stand up, but their legs are slightly shaky. Willow and Katya rush over to support them. "Thank you. My name is Raine, by the way."
"You can call me Diane. I'm a healer. And this is Willow, plant witch, Gus, illusionist, and Skara, also a Bard.", she introduces everyone.
"Just out of curiosity, how old are you three?", Raine asks. Before anyone can answer, Liwin interjects.
"Can we talk about this later? I'd like to get out of here first...", Liwin remarks.
"Well, that will take time.", Raine notes, "The walls are magically blocked off. As long as this door is closed, it's not possible to work magic in here. I know that, I've tried."
A depressing mood spreads among the six of them. But at the same time, none of them is really ready to accept this quite likely truth.
"Cheer up, guys!", Skara remarks, trying to lighten the mood, "Luz and Amity are still out there. When they realize we didn't show up at the meeting point, they'll definitely come looking for us."
But before anyone is able to respond, a violent jolt whirls through them all. The walls and floors are shaking, all of them fall to the floor, and some heavy stones come loose from the walls, tearing down the cell door.
They all look up with wide eyes, and as the dust settles, they notice their escape route.
"What did you just say?", Liwin speaks amusedly to Raine, who merely smiles at her. "Gus, disguises!"
With the magic lock broken, Gus easily manages to make everyone look like simple coven scouts again. Katya and Willow continue to support Raine, and as quickly as they can, they disappear from their cell and back into the hallway.
About halfway to the stairs, Skara speaks up.
"What do you think caused this quake?", she asks.
"We might be able see that when we get outside.", Liwin replies. Skara is not particularly satisfied with this answer, but understands that she definitely cannot know the answer yet. At the same time, she makes a mental note to ask again later about what was going on earlier with Liwin and the Head Witch.
Earlier…
"- Luz, Amity, you know your mission. The rest will follow Skara! Act like you belong here. That way we won't draw any unwanted attention to ourselves.", Liwin explains the plan, at which everyone nods slightly before everyone sets themselves in motion.
The group of five turns left at the first corner, while Luz and Amity go straight ahead as Luz quietly recalls the general route towards the throne room. Without saying anything, they find themselves wandering through the corridors, hearing soft voices from time to time.
Amity glances over at Luz from time to time, who is behaving uncharacteristically odd. When the two of them broke into the Conformatorium a while ago, the situation was no less dangerous or threatening, but Luz seemed a lot braver than she is at the moment. Amity speaks up as they reach a staircase to the second floor.
"What's bothering you?", Amity whispers questioningly.
"What do you mean?"
"Heh, I think I know you well enough by now to know when something's troubling you.", Amity explains, "Even if I can't see your pretty face."
It's more than obvious that Luz is blushing beneath her illusion.
"How can you be so calm?", Luz replies eventually.
"I'm less calm than you think. But what's the point of letting this fear get to me?", Amity replies quietly. Luz doesn't answer that. "So, what's bothering you?"
Luz sighs. "The last time I faced him, I was ripped from this world... I know it doesn't make sense, but what if it happens again when I face him?"
"Then I'll stand by you.", her girlfriend replies firmly, "Even if it means we're both teleported to another world. Together we'll always find a way back."
The two stopped in the middle of the corridor, Luz's hands in her own, completely forgetting about the mission.
"HEY!", the two of them suddenly hear someone yelling in their direction, startling both of them. Within a second, their heads snap to the right, where they recognize Belos' assistant and administrator of the castle, Kikimora. And she's pretty upset.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING???", she yells directly at them. The two girlfriends just stare back in silence. Fortunately, Kikimora doesn't bother waiting for an answer. "IF I SEE YOU HOLDING HANDS EVER AGAIN, YOU'LL BE CLEANING CANTEENS FOR A WHOLE MONTH! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?", Luz and Amity nod frantically. "Good!", Kikimora exclaims, still angry but not as loud, "Now get out of my sight!"
Luz and Amity immediately pick up their legs and head away from Kikimora just fast enough that it doesn't look like they're going to run away from her just yet. After more than half a minute of almost-running through empty corridors, they arrive at a dead end with a barred window to the outside. As they stop, they find their illusion disguises vanishing into thin air.
The two girls share a brief look of surprise before they both burst into suppressed sniggering and giggling, violently trying not to make any loud noises.
"She was soo mad...", Luz whispers straining to suppress her laughter while holding her belly. Amity just nods frantically.
"I was so scared that she would see us...", Amity giggles wildly, holding her hands in front of her mouth.
"Me too...", Luz replies as she gradually begins to calm down. So does Amity.
"Do you feel a little better after this?", Amity wonders a couple moments later, still giggling slightly. Luz takes a deep breath before nodding.
"Shall we continue? Belos' speech has probably started already.", Luz asks.
"Without Gus' disguises?"
"I think we might be outside of his range.", Luz surmises, "We're actually close, though... Take my hand. If we see anyone, I'll turn invisible quickly."
As asked, Amity grabs Luz's hand and together they sneak back to one of the main corridors.
Cautiously, they peek around a corner into an adjacent hallway and Luz quickly spots their destination. The huge dark gray steel door that leads into the throne room. And the corridor directly in front of it is fortunately empty.
With their hearts pounding heavily against their chests, they tiptoe towards the large door. As they approach the closed entrance, Luz crouches down and peers through the keyhole into the throne room. Luz's gaze immediately falls on the beating heart above the throne, which itself sits empty. She looks around to the right and left as far as the keyhole allows, and is not able to make out any guards. What she does see inside, however, is an illusion of the entire Boiling Isles projected onto the floor, as well as a yellow light shining into the throne room from the back right side.
"Empty.", Luz reports in a whisper.
"Belos?", Amity asks, just as quietly.
"Not there.", Luz answers, at which Amity shakes her head.
"I mean, if he's not here, where is he broadcasting his speech from?", Amity asks in a critical tone.
"But he's not here right now.", Luz argues, "We'll sneak in, I'll make us invisible. We'll simply sneak along the wall to his private chambers."
"Hmm...", Amity thinks about it for a moment, "Alright."
"Good. To remain invisible, you must either close your eyes or hold your breath. But for now, we hold our breath. When we reach the outer wall, we'll continue walking blind.", Luz explains, at which Amity nods firmly.
Luz prepares her spell and Amity takes her hand. She feels a slight tingling sensation on her skin as the golden lightning passes from Luz's to her own arms. They both take a very deep breath before Luz opens one of the two thick doors.
A not-so-silent shrill creaking noise from the door hinges reveals their presence.
'Shut up, shut up, shut up!', Luz thinks to herself, squeezing through the narrow opening with Amity before quickly closing it again behind her, again with a shrill creaking sound. The two of them quickly sneak to the outer wall to the right of the entrance, which is partially covered by a couple of thick copper pipes.
The two of them feel the urge to exhale as they suddenly hear footsteps. Their heads snap towards the side door, from which a maskless Emperor Belos steps out. The two girls keep their eyes fixed on him as he lets his gaze glide critically around the room.
'That is...? Huh...', Luz thinks to herself. This is actually the first time she has seen him without his mask. After her first encounter with him, she had rather expected some kind of disfigured monster under his mask, and not an old man with long ash-blonde hair.
With his powerful mechanical staff in his hand and his long white cape trailing behind his feet on the ground, he steps closer to the projection of the Boiling Isles. Luz and Amity, meanwhile, have closed their eyes and are now creeping quietly step by step along the far wall to their destination as they listen to his speech.
They hear him tap the floor with his staff. What they don't see is Belos getting into position, and on the projection in front of him many small, but also a few large purple dots light up, representing each city on the Isles, in which a hologram of him lights up so large that it can be seen and heard by everyone everywhere.
A warm smile graces his face as he begins to speak.
"Hello, Boiling Isles. There are only a few days left until the tide will be at its lowest, and the moon obscures the sun, and together we create a utopia free of wild magic and oppression. For this joyous occasion, we will receive a distinguished visitor to celebrate the Day of Unity with us. Someone whose own world has been divided for a very long time, with foreign powers preventing his people from living in peace and tranquility."
At that, Luz opens her eyes, breaking her invisibility spell. As Luz releases Amity's hand, her eyes snap open too, and she watches in horror as her girlfriend approaches the side of one of the pipes to get a better look at Belos. Fortunately, they are standing there behind his back, which means he can't see them. It is also at this time that Luz senses a slight static electricity in the air. She looks at Amity with worry in her eyes. Belos continues.
"I urge everyone to welcome our friends from another world the moment they arrive... Welcome, King Andrias Leviathan, first of his name."
"WHAT?", Luz yells loudly, before Amity immediately covers Luz's mouth with her hand as they're hiding behind one of the thicker pipes. They now have revealed their position to him. The girlfriends hold each other close in fear, knowing that the greatest punishment of all now awaits them.
However, nothing happens. The static electricity disappears and Belos continues to talk as if nothing had happened.
"Welcome to the Boiling Isles. I am very much looking forward to our meeting."
The broadcast ends. The purple dots on the projection of the Boiling Isles disappear, leaving only a single red dot floating in the unpopulated space between Bonesborough and the Emperor's Castle, a couple of hundred meters above the ground.
"You don't need to hide any longer. I've known you were here for a long time.", Belos speaks, but with a sternness rather than friendliness in his voice. Luz looks to Amity for help, who nods hesitantly. Luz steps out from behind the pipe, Amity right behind her.
"So, so... we meet again, human. But I think you've gotten lost. My private chambers are not in this place.", a malicious, knowing smile forms.
"You knew we were coming. How?", Luz demands to know.
"I see everything, I know everything."
"Bullshit!", Luz exclaims.
"I know that your friends just fell into a trap while trying to free Raine Whispers.", Belos reports.
"I don't believe a single word out of your mouth!"
"Fine by me...", Belos rolls his eyes. "I know you two are here to gather information for your so-called resistance. Therefore, I'll allow you to ask me two questions."
Luz and Amity exchange skeptical glances. However, assuming that for some reason Belos has not yet made any moves against the two girls, Luz is ready to take this chance.
"If you knew we were coming, why didn't you stop us?", Luz demands to know. Belos sighs.
"And I was hoping you'd ask something intelligent... It is the will of the Titan that you should witness what is about to happen. You would never have managed to even get near me if I had not allowed it. Besides, your time in life is sorely limited, Luz."
"What is the Day of Unity?", Luz asks her second question, dismissing his last sentence as an empty threat. Belos smiles at that.
"The Day of Unity was a plan I had been working on for quite some time. But that's no longer relevant. After today, nothing is relevant anymore."
"But-"
"You had your questions.", he interrupts her before pulling out his mask and placing it on his face. "And now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to show up to. I suggest you attend it as well."
Belos raises his staff, the tip of which flares red, and he disappears into the ground.
"What- just happened?", Amity asks, her whole body trembling. Her gaze lingers on Luz, who stares wide-eyed into the emptiness before her.
"This is bad. This is bad. This is very bad...", she babbles to herself. Amity stands worriedly right in front of her.
"Luz. Please talk to me. What is bad?"
Luz shakes her head violently before grabbing Amity's arm. Luz activates a teleport spell and within the blink of an eye, the two girlfriends find themselves near the top of the castle, on a balcony that leads all the way around.
Not far from their position, the two girls spot a flying castle, which is suspended high in the air by four powerful engines. It is surrounded by at least a dozen smaller, likewise flying structures.
"If Andrias is here, that means he has the Music Box...", Luz speaks with a very serious tone, "And that also means Anne doesn't have it anymore... We have to get up there!", Luz speaks filled with fear and dread.
Earlier, somewhere in Amphibia…
Andrias and Darcy find themselves on the balcony of the palace, which hovers hundreds of meters above the ground. With a pleased expression, they look down at the results of all their recent achievements.
Factories are being built all over the continent, natural resources are being mined, and every resource they can get their hands on is being exploited. They observe the fourteen troop carriers hovering in a circular formation around the palace, a fifteenth just arriving.
"Andrias, status report!"
"Troop carrier fifteen is fully loaded and lining up into the formation. We currently have an estimated fifteen thousand-two hundred combat-ready Frobots spread across all transports, as well as within the palace. We will reach full combat effectiveness in about a week."
"What about the production facilities?", Darcy demanded to know.
"All mines, extraction sites, factories, and processing plants are operating at almost one hundred percent efficiency.", Andrias reports proudly. Darcy raises a hand, interrupting him.
"'Almost' is unacceptable!", they speak with dissatisfaction in their voices. Andrias swallows hard. He continues.
"The rebellion from Frog Valley that we thought we had eliminated seems to have survived somewhere somehow. And the survivors keep attacking our facilities.", he reports, "Burning down Frog Valley doesn't seem to have been nearly enough, my lord."
In annoyance, Darcy closes their eyes, sighing in frustration at Andrias' incompetence.
"Negligible.", they eventually decide, "Proceed."
"General Yunan has been located. She had tried to communicate with the captured Grime, and has also been confined.", he reports, "Lady Olivia has not yet been located."
"She poses no threat to our plans. Nevertheless, have the guards continue to search every room, the entire palace.", they order, at which Andrias nods in confirmation, "Are our laboratories prepared?"
"Yes, my lord. A number of fully equipped dissection tables are ready for you to use. Also, up to twenty additional individual cells and five group cells are ready and waiting for your test subjects."
"Excellent.", Darcy says, turning, and strutting towards the throne, "In that case, we have decided to reschedule our departure."
"Oh, of course, my lord.", Andrias agrees, excitement in his voice at finally being able to continue the work of his ancestors and fulfill his destiny, "And how far forward would you like to move the date?"
The two of them walk past all the Frobots posted at every single pillar, as well as every window. Darcy climbs the newly constructed steps at the side to their throne, Andrias waiting just in front of it. With a grin on their face, Darcy speaks up.
"To now."
"Now?", Andrias asks in surprise, Darcy's expressions darkening immediately as he continues, "But we've only reached seventy-five percent of our teleport capacity. If we wait just a little longer, we could certainly be able to take the remaining five troop transporters with us."
"Andrias, your nagging and questioning of our instructions is getting on our nerves!", they state dimly, "Besides, we have the element of surprise on our side. No one will know we're coming... Speaking of which: What's the current status on Earth?"
Andrias clears his throat. "Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright, and Luz Noceda are still under surveillance. Our cloak bots have not been detected, and there seems to be no sign of them attempting to return to Amphibia."
"Very good... Initiate teleport sequence!", Darcy orders. Andrias turns to the music box, deactivating the shield surrounding it. Andrias enters the coordinates by pressing several buttons, each of which producing a musical tone.
The music box lights up and, not far from the flying palace, a shimmering white portal almost a hundred meters across is created. After pressing another button, the entire fleet begins to move. Andrias looks at Darcy, whose body goes completely limp as they reach the event horizon.
As soon as they pass through, however, Darcy's systems power up again, and within seconds they are back. They speak up.
"As useful as wireless technology may be in terms of freedom of movement, it is far from perfection.", they complain. Andrias nods to them before a loud noise from outside not only catches his attention, but also Darcy's.
"-the moment they arrive...", they hear a loud voice echoing through the air. They look out of one of the windows and catch sight of a truly gigantic projection of an old man looking directly in their direction. "Welcome, King Andrias Leviathan, first of his name... Welcome to the Boiling Isles. I am very much looking forward to our meeting."
A moment of surprised silence envelops both Andrias and Darcy as the projection disappears.
"Impossible!", Andrias yells.
"Shields up! Now!", Darcy yells at him. Andrias immediately jumps into action, pressing a button on the side of the music box pedestal, and within seconds a light-distorting shield forms around the entire fleet. Andrias, as he would never openly admit, feels completely clueless for once. Darcy, on the other hand, is completely out of their mind.
"HOW CAN THESE PRIMITIVES KNOW ABOUT US? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?", they yell with all their might. They snap with their fingers, causing all the Frobots to point their laser guns at him, "HOW COULD YOU RUIN OUR PLAN BEFORE WE EVEN STARTED???"
Andrias, at nine meters tall, is currently feeling about as small as an ordinary Newt.
"I-I-I swear my lord, it is impossible that anyone could have known of our arrival beforehand. We- we had taken every precaution to exclude and monitor anyone who might have known.", he argues nervously.
"ARGH!", Darcy yells in frustration, before snapping again, causing the Frobots to lower their weapons again. Relief flows over Andrias, though they are still glaring daggers at him. Andrias steps closer to the throne.
"Shall we proceed as planned, my lord?"
Suddenly a third voice speaks up.
"There is something I would like to discuss with you first...", the voice speaks up from behind Andrias' back. He turns around quickly and discovers a mysterious figure standing halfway between Andrias and the still closed entrance door to the throne room, wearing a white robe that covers his entire body and a golden mask from which two horns emerge.
"An intruder! Frobots, ATTACK!", Andrias bellows. The armed robots aim their laser weapons and missiles at the intruder, who makes no pretense of wanting to defend himself or fight back.
As the deadly weapons reach the intruder, however, they do not hit him, but fly through him as if he were nothing but air. Some of the weapons hit other attacking Frobots, resulting in a number of them damaged and exploding.
Andrias reaches for his flaming sword as the intruder pulls out a staff of some kind, the tip of which begins to glow a menacing red. Before he can even react, a similar red aura engulfs all the Frobots. Confused, Andrias looks back and forth, noticing that all the Frobots have stopped firing. In bewilderment, he looks at the intruder, readying his fiery sword as mechanical creaks and cracks echo through the halls. Moments later, the lights go out in the first Frobots, and parts of its metallic hull begin to bend and deform.
One by one, they drop dead and brokem to the ground. Andrias runs towards the intruder with his flaming sword before he raises his staff again. Something grabs Andrias' legs, causing him to plummet to the ground, dropping his sword.
Grunting at him, Andrias tries to break free, but more and more things grab his legs, as well as his arms, rendering him completely immobilized.
"What is this-", Andrias exclaims as he struggles to free himself.
"This is no behavior for a king...", the intruder stands directly in front of his head, raising his staff yet again, which turns the flaming sword's fire to water, "I suggest starting from the beginning. Do you agree?"
"We found this demonstration highly amusing.", Darcy calls into the room, "Let him speak. We want to know what he has to say."
The intruder removes the shackles pinning Andrias to the floor. The nine-meter-tall king grimly grabs the remains of his sword and walks back to the throne, where he positions himself directly in front of it. With an annoyed and ashamed look, his gaze glides over all the damage, all the destroyed Frobots.
"So, who are you and what do you want from me?"
"I am Emperor Belos, ruler of the people and lands beneath us, and a humble messenger of the Titan's will.", he introduces himself, "And about what I want... Well, I'll explain that as soon as one more person has joined us."
"Someone else?", Andrias wonders, a hint of worry in his voice.
The two tyrants are silent for a moment, when suddenly the electric energy in the air builds up and discharges in such a bright flash of light that Andrias, as well as Belos, shield their eyes with their arms. As soon as Andrias lowers his arm again to risk a glance, he can't believe his eyes when his gaze falls on one of the two new unexpected figures standing in his throne room.
"YOU? THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!", Andrias yells in shock as his eyes meet Luz's, "You can't be here. It's not possible!"
"I always knew that your peaceful explorer bullshit was a lie from the beginning!", Luz yells at the giant king in a rage. However, he himself detects something else in her voice. Fear. Luz's gaze falls on the music box. "How did you get the box?", she demands to know.
"Of course, a certain degree of deception was necessary in order to accomplish my goals and lead my people back to true glory... And I assure you that any sacrifice has been necessary for the greater good.", Andrias' gaze wanders over Luz's shoulder to Amity, who is standing directly behind her, a silent observer of the unfolding chaos. He smirks with diabolical intent, "And it seems you've brought me another one... How thoughtful of you."
His words fuel Luz's rage as golden flashes appear on her arms, quickly traveling to her hands. A huge fireball appears, headed directly towards Andrias' head. He barely manages to duck to the side before the fireball would have hit him. Instead, it sets fire to some of his hair before crashing past him into the back wall of the throne room, leaving a huge hole.
"IF YOU EVEN BEND EVEN A SINGLE HAIR ON HER HEAD, I WILL PERSONALLY BLOW YOUR FLEET OUT OF THE SKY!", Luz roars with all her might, surprising even the giant king. He takes a moment to collect himself, but Luz is the first to speak. "So, one more time: How did you get the box?"
"It's mine.", Andrias replies, a chilling grin on his face, "Always has been."
"LIAR!", Luz yells again, which this time even slightly scares Amity, who still hides behind her, "The music box is Anne's! Where is she? What have you done to her?"
"Anne? Which Anne?", Andrias feigns ignorance, which only spurs Luz to throw yet another fireball at him, "Oh right, your friend... She put up quite a fight, I must admit. All of them fought quite well... But in the end, though, it was all in vain when I took the music box from her dead hands.", he explains proudly.
Andrias's admission hangs heavy in the air, shattering Luz's entire world. Tears form heavily in her eyes. "You-you killed her?"
"They are all gone.", Andrias grins diabolically, "As I said, every sacrifice serves a higher purpose."
"You- you're lying!", Luz accuses him through angry tears.
"Oh, am I?", he asks, before taking a step to the side, revealing a grinning Darcy on the tall throne. Luz's face turns pale.
"M-Marcy?", she stutters in shock. Darcy grins, savoring her sorrow.
"Marcy is dead.", they announce in their slightly distorted voice, "Her body now serves as our host."
"No- no, that can't be true...", Luz's legs give way and she falls to the floor, crying. Amity kneels down behind her, trying to comfort her.
"Now that we're all here, we can get started.", Belos speaks up again, his voice cutting through the tension like a blade. With a piercing gaze, Andrias shoots a look of superiority as the tiny human weeps pathetically on the floor. Belos continues, "I know about your plans. And I am willing to help you."
Andrias raises a skeptical yet curious eyebrow. Darcy, right next to him, looks at him with intrigue.
"You have come to this world to exploit its natural resources and minerals. You want to abduct the creatures of this world, take them apart, and study them to discover the secrets of magic so that you can use them for yourself."
"You want to betray your own people?", Andrias asks incredulously.
"It is the Titan's will.", Belos replies coldly, " And you have said yourself that sacrifices are necessary to achieve a higher goal."
"Whatever you want to offer us: No. We don't need your help.", Andrias decides. Belos doesn't like that.
"I don't think you have a say in this matter.", he snaps back, "After all, you're nothing but a... puppet."
Andrias feels a strong urge to attack him again, but before he can act on it, Darcy's mocking laughter fills the echoing halls. Luz's watery eyes watch as they descend the steps from their throne.
"We are impressed. We had initially assumed that our early discovery was the result of... incompetence, but we know now that wasn't the case. Tell us about your offer and your price."
Humiliated, Andrias steps aside and leaves the negotiations to Darcy.
"I have known of your arrival for a long time and preparations have been made.", Belos explains, "At this very moment, the inhabitants of this world are convinced that you're coming here in peace. There will be no resistance. You can take whatever and whomever you want. And all that without me interfering."
Darcy seems quite unimpressed. "And what do you expect from us in return?"
Instead of answering directly, Belos pulls out his staff and points directly at the music box. "One of the three gems.", he explains, "As a loan, for research."
"NO!", Luz suddenly yells, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
Her cries and pleas fall on deaf ears, however, as Darcy actually considers his offer for a fraction of a moment.
"Your offer is completely of no value to us, and your person poses no threat to our plans.", they reject his offer, "You are in no position to stop us."
"What a shame... And I had assumed that you were intelligent enough not to refuse such a gift.", Belos shakes his head, his voice darkening, "And it seems to me that you still don't know who you're dealing with."
He raises his staff high into the air before ramming it against the ground so hard that the floors and walls all begin to shake.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?", Andrias yells.
"Taking control.", Belos states in a low voice, "Take a look out the window."
They all take a look out of the partially destroyed window to the south, where the lower half of the gigantic corpse stretches far and wide. They notice energy being drawn from the music box and channeled up to the giant weapon on the roof of the palace. A clearly visible, narrow beam of blue light focuses on the knee, which rises high into the clouds.
The weapon at the top of the palace triggers and seconds later, an unprecedentedly large blue explosion adorns the sky where the knee just has been, followed by a tremor the likes of which the world has never seen before. The blue smoke disappears, and so has the knee. They can only watch as the shin and thigh both slam into the ocean.
"You... You killed your own people!", Andrias exclaims in genuine horror.
"Oh no-", Luz hears Amity whimper behind her and turns to her, "Ed and Em."
Luz's eyes snap open, and without saying a word, she grabs their arms, immediately teleporting the two girls away. The others don't seem to care, or haven't noticed.
"There are two being in this world that can stop you, one of whom is me. I took over your palace without lifting a finger. Do you really think you can stand up to me?"
"Give him the gem!", Darcy exclaims after a while.
"But my lord-"
"DO IT!", they yell again.
Andrias hesitantly approaches the music box to remove the green gem from it, which he immediately hands over to Belos.
"A wise choice.", Belos clasps the gem in his hand and disappears into the ground within moments.
"Prepare the troops. We will not let this betrayal go unpunished!", Darcy orders with a scowl.
"Yes, my lord."
It's been less than a second since Luz and Amity were on board of Andrias' palace, and are now in surrounded by snow and absolute chaos and destruction. Luz has teleported the two of them to the western hip, from where people have always climbed their way up to the knee.
All that's left of it are a few remnants of the blue explosion cloud in the air.
"It's really gone...", Luz mutters as she realizes that what she remembers as a steep climb is now a flat landscape in front of her. She remembers the densely overgrown forests, not a single tree of which is still standing. There is no trace of the paths as they now lie buried under destroyed rocks and broken trees.
"EDRIC! EMIRA!", Amity shouts forward with all her might. Her whole body shakes with fear, even with Luz holding her. Tears are streaming down not only her face, but Luz's as well.
When nothing but an uncomfortable silence echoes back from the sight of the thigh, Amity pulls out her staff. Luz sits with her and the two of them fly off, only now able to get a clearer picture of the actual destruction. The knee, and everything that was directly on it, is gone. The shin has fallen onto the thigh, the upper end of which has sunk into the ocean.
"EDRIC! EMIRA!", Amity exclaims again as she and Luz fly over the devastation, desperately hoping that the twins were not in the blast radius. "Th-they- they made it out, didn't they?"
"They have to.", Luz tries to cheer her up, but she also finds herself with a lump in her throat.
For a solid ten minutes, the two girlfriends fly south in search of any movement or sound. So far they have discovered the dead bodies of some bigger wild beasts, but still no signs of life from the twins.
"Wait! I hear something!", Luz notices after a while. "Screaming. from that direction." Luz points to the east, and Amity almost breaks the sound barrier after she turns her staff.
The closer they get to the source, the clearer it becomes. "It's Emira!"
They continue to approach and land not far from her. The glimmer of hope that her siblings were merely calling for help vanishes quickly. It rapidly becomes clear that she is not calling for help, or calling for anything in general... they are screams of grief.
They land hard on snow-covered ground, and from there immediately run between broken and fallen trees towards Emira.
"EMIRA!", Amity tries to counter her sister's cries, but to no avail. The two of them enter a clearing as they are met with a blood-freezing sight. Emira, badly injured and bleeding, crouching on all fours with her head buried in the snow and screaming tears, right in front of a broken tree trunk on which her brother's body has been impaled in several different points by the tree.
"No-"
Huge tears well up in the eyes of both girls at the sight, their breathing stops.
The two girls take their legs in their hands and run as fast as their legs allow towards Emira.
"EM!", Amity shouts through her tears before dropping to the ground next to her sister. She grabs her face, the older Blight completely beside herself.
"NO!", Emira yells between tears, "WH-H-HY?"
Luz and Amity hug Emira tightly despite her obvious injuries, sharing her tears.
Luz is the first to dare to break out of the embrace and take a look at him and his body, which dangles about a meter in the air. Motionless. The tree is stained red from his blood.
"Amity.", Luz grabs her girlfriend by the shoulder, "We have to get him down. Maybe I can get him back...", she speaks in a shaky, yet cautiously optimistic voice.
"What?", Emira speaks up. Amity knows what Luz is planning. She immediately jumps up and creates an abomination, carefully pulling the lifeless body of the Blight brother out of the tree, and placing it directly in front of Luz.
What opens up before her is not a pretty sight. Five fist-sized holes in his chest, three smaller ones on his upper arm, and a medium-sized hole from his neck up through his teeth and out his cheek. His eyes are wide open, facing the sky.
The blood is still pouring out of his body.
Luz kneels down next to his upper body in the blood-soaked snow. She places one hand on his head and the other over one of the holes where his navel must have been. She begins to gather her focus.
"What's she doing there? What is she doing to him?", Emira asks frantically.
"She can heal him...", Amity replies with hope in her voice, "She's done it before."
"But-"
Emira cuts herself off as she notices that golden lightning bolts appear all over Luz's body, dancing across her skin and clothes, getting faster, bigger, and longer by every passing second. Luz takes deep, long breaths before the lightning bolts all slide into Luz's hands and into Edric's body.
Where Luz touches him, his body begins to glow gold. The two sisters watch as the tissue of his skin begins to regenerate where the golden glow has already reached it. They can watch as the holes that previously pierced and killed him begin to shrink and, after a few minutes, disappear completely.
A few more minutes later, Luz falls over backwards from exhaustion.
"LUZ!", Amity exclaims, rushing to her side.
"That- was a lot...", Luz explains out of breath, "I gave it everything I had..."
Emira, meanwhile, crawled in pain to Edric's side, taking his bloodied hand in hers.
"Ed, can you hear me?", she speaks to him in a soft tone, "It's me. E-Emira..."
No response. She holds his hand closer to her body.
"E-Ed?", Her voice begins to tremble again as her brother continues to lie there, motionless. Her gaze snaps to Amity, who until a few seconds ago had also been quite optimistic. "ED! Wake up!", Emira starts to get frantic again.
At this point, Luz and Amity are also getting a little teary-eyed again. Filled with incomprehension, Amity looks first at Luz and then at her brother.
"He's not breathing.", Amity remarks. She takes his other arm and checks for a pulse, "No heartbeat!"
Panic slowly takes hold of Amity again, while Luz receives an ugly realization.
Amity bends over his chest, her hands flat directly over his heart. She presses with all her body strength.
And again.
And again.
And again.
She feels for a pulse again. Nothing.
She thrusts again.
And again.
And again.
And again, and all this while the tears gradually drip from her face onto his clothes.
"You cannot go!"
Push
"I won't allow it!"
Push
"We need you."
Push
"I need you."
Push
Push
Push
"Amity...", Luz holds out a hand to her.
"YOU SAID YOU COULD BRING HIM BACK!", Amity snaps at Luz, the grief completely overwhelming her, "You said you could bring my brother back..."
Notes:
[End of Arc 2]
Chapter 43: Going Dark - Part 2
Summary:
Things are taking a very, very dark turn for the people of the Boiling Isles
Notes:
Content Warning: Graphic Descriptions of Torture
This chapter is probably the best reason why 'A Lost Owl' is rated M. Things are going down.
(If you wanna skip the Torture-part, feel free to skip from \&&&/ to /&&&\.)
And as always, many thanks to my Beta-Reader Ace/Kaye aka. Sorry_I_Panicked
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"We are in position."
Darcy stands on the balcony of the throne room, their gaze fixed on the island's presumed place of power, partially shielded by huge bones. Amused, they watch as frightened guards the size of insects retreat into the castle in the center of a deep perimeter.
"Your turn.", they say with a chilly voice before taking a few steps to the side, allowing the nine-meter king to take his position. "This is your first and only opportunity to demonstrate our superiority to these primitives. We expect you to slaughter any resistance in there!"
With a serious expression on his face, he turns to Darcy, gripping the hilt of his backup flaming sword tightly in his fist. "No one will be able to stand in my way, my lord."
"But many will try. Make them regret their foolishness!", they order, "And report back when you have found their collections of knowledge. We will then dispatch the Frobots to collect everything."
The two of them hear a mechanical clang from far below them. The drawbridge is being pulled in.
"Go.", Darcy says calmly. A smirk of supremacy spreads across Andrias' face before he casually plunges over the railing, falling almost two hundred meters in a free fall towards the ground.
He hits the square in front of the castle with full force, causing a massive crater of destruction. He stands up slowly and directs his gaze between the two braziers sitting on tall pillars, in the middle of which he sees the bridge still being retracted, and terrified creatures hurriedly locking the gates to the castle's inner sanctum.
"Heh...", Andrias chuckles somberly, the flames of his sword warming the air around him, "This is going to be fun."
He sprints from his impact point and pushes himself off the edge with all the strength available to him, leaping with ease over the rocky spike-strewn moat. He lands at the end of the bridge, which is still retracting, and runs towards the large gates, panting heavily.
With all his strength he throws himself shoulder first against the gates, whose supports have no chance and give way immediately. One door hangs on just one hinge, badly damaged and bent inwards, damaging the wall inside, while the other has been completely torn from its joints, bouncing off two walls like a projectile before coming to rest in two pieces on the floor.
Directly in front of Andrias there is now an entire corridor full of soldiers and guards dressed in white, all armed with nothing but metal spears. Well, minus the ones who have already been caught and killed instantly by him breaking down the doors. Andrias's stature fills almost the entire width of the doorframe as he takes up a fighting stance. The creatures before him clearly terrified.
"Surrender at once, and I shall grant mercy!", Andrias exclaims with an evil smirk on his face.
"Get back to your own world now or YOU will not leave this place alive!"
It's not entirely clear who is speaking at first, until Andrias recognizes three figures further down the corridor who are definitely dressed differently. Surrounded by five what look like purple robots adorned with golden armor stands a slender figure with a tall black hat and black robe, as well as a yellow mask covering his nose and mouth. Right next to him is an old woman whose hair looks like crumbling leaves, and next to her a bald man with a chest-length gray beard.
Andrias quickly realizes, however, that the voice belongs to none of the three. Instead, he notices a tiny creature on top of one of the purple robots with only one visible eye and hair that looks like fingers, which he missed on first glance.
A wide grin spreads across his face. "Don't tell me I didn't give you the chance to escape."
"GUARDS.", the tiny creature yells out, "ATTACK!"
Before even one of the guards can reach the giant king, he swings his sword and decapitates eight of them with a single swing, their heads falling to the floor before their bodies drop as well. Taking the momentum with him, he uses his tail to hurl five more against the gold-covered walls.
Andrias spots several thick vines growing from the walls, creating a barrier in front of him, which he sets alight with a single swing of his fire sword, splitting a guard directly behind it in two.
Boom
One of the purple robots fires a purple projectile, which Andrias easily intercepts out of the air with his free hand and lets explode in his closed fist. Seemingly without a single care.
"STOP HIM AT ALL COSTS!", the little creature screams, now with a hint of panic in her voice.
All five robots now fire their projectiles, all of which he sends back towards the attackers with his tail, creating explosions everywhere.
Step by step, Andrias makes his way forward, using his sword to massacre each wave of guards that dare to come up to him.
The bald man with the gray beard steps forward and places some kind of paper on his skin. His aura looks as if he is on fire.
He storms past the guards, straight towards Andrias. Andrias tries to hit the silent man with his flaming sword, but when he looks up, he sees that he is holding the blade of the sword tensely with his bare hands.
"Impossible...", he whispers under his breath. He shifts his weight onto the blade as plants erupt from the ground and walls once more, grabbing him by the arms and legs, attempting to hold him in place.
The third figure wearing the black robe and tall hat steps directly in front of him and lowers his mask, breathing yellow mist at him. The king begins to cough wildly and his legs give way. His eyes water as he finds himself surrounded by the remaining guards. The tiny creature on one of the robots approaches him.
"Give up!", she states firmly, "You've lost."
"Oh no, far from it.", Andrias says with an angry expression on his face. He stretches his head slightly forward, opens his mouth and forcefully bites the figure in black in two. The legs fall lifelessly to the ground before Andrias spits the top half at the tiny creature's feet.
He rips his plant fixations and raises his flaming sword, with the bald man still hanging at its end, high into the air.
"ENOUGH!", Andrias exclaims furiously before ramming his sword into the ground with full force, not only killing the man instantly, but creating a shockwave that throws everyone else against the walls or simply to the ground with the sound of breaking bones and skulls and blood pouring onto the ground.
Panting heavily through his nose, Andrias straightens up. He doesn't spot any movement from the guards. Instead, his gaze falls on one of the five now destroyed robots, apparently made of purple slime, where he catches sight of the tiny creature, her whole body quivering with fear as she sees the king towering over her.
"Please, have mercy...", she pleads with tears in her eyes and deathly fear in her voice. He looks down at her, apparently thinking for a moment.
"No.", he says, raising a foot that only moments later stomps down on the creature, instantly squashing her body completely.
Andrias lifts his head in search of the old woman with the plant hair, but doesn't find any trace of her. He turns around, his gaze directed towards his path of destruction. Almost a hundred motionless bodies in the corridor behind him. A feeling of pride fills his mind.
"Entrance secured.", he speaks.
"Excellent.", Darcy's voice replies from inside his head, "I'll send the first Frobots to fortify the entrance. Make sure no one leaves this place alive."
"Yes, my lord.", Andrias replies, setting off to explore the corridors and take out anyone who gets in his way. What he didn't realize, however, was how a single boy was hiding during all of this, his body frozen in shock as he watched it all...
"This is Perry Porter, live from the marketplace in Bonesborough."
The reporter's image appears on every crystal ball that has not been destroyed in one way or another in the time since the attack on the city. He looks clearly frightened and seems to be hiding under some kind of counter, with the camera partly showing him and partly sticking out over the counter.
"The city is under complete assault. Three of these- I don't know what to call them- um, flying transporters are hovering above the city, metal monsters roaming the streets, abducting people in broad daylight. Witches and demons alike, elderly people as well as young children-"
The camera glances slightly over the counter, where a group of six metallic creatures are striking the marketplace not far from his position. He immediately ducks back under the counter.
"I had originally counted a total group of fifteen such flying transports.", Perry now whispers into his hand microphone, "In addition to the three above Bonesborough, eight more have broken away from the formation and scattered in all directions, possibly to attack other cities. The rest had made their way towards the Emperor's Castle. Rumor has it that a fatal attack took place there, leaving no survivors. Several Coven Heads are said to be among the fallen. Similarly, there has been no sign of life from Emperor Belos since his big announcement earlier today. It is suspected that the invaders have killed him as well. I strongly advise all those watching to immediately-"
"LIFE FORM DISCOVERED!", a metallic, distorted voice silences the reporter in shock, terror recognizable in his eyes.
The counter under which Perry was hiding is torn from the floor by one of the metallic creatures, and a metal arm grabs him. Perry is lifted into the air, where a red light sweeps across his face. He is paralyzed with fear.
"MALE. FORTY-FIVE YEARS OLD. BIOLOGICAL USE IDENTIFIED. SUITABLE FOR EXAMINATION."
The last thing the camera captures is the creature launching off the ground and abducting a panic-stricken and screaming Perry Porter.
Luz, Amity, and Emira have been sitting in the snow for half an eternity, not speaking a word for quite some time now. Emira, who was the one who cried the loudest for her brother at the beginning, is now totally silent. She is still sitting next to him, but she is no longer looking directly at him. Her gaze seems to have drifted off into nowhere, her face devoid of any emotion.
Amity has grown a little cold over time and has moved closer to Luz, nestling her head against her shoulder. The young witch's eyes are thoroughly red and swollen, and unlike Emira, she can't take her eyes off her brother. The only sounds that interrupt the silence, apart from the occasional gust of wind, are light sniffles from Amity. She still feels like crying, but her tears have dried up a while ago.
In contrast to the other two girls, Luz's attention is divided. On the one hand, she is also mourning Edric, her deceased friend, but at the same time she wants to be strong for her girlfriend and ease her suffering. On the one hand, her gaze wanders towards Bonesborough from time to time, worrying whether her friends have made it out of the Emperor's Castle, and on the other, she sees parts of Andrias' invasion force moving in all directions in the sky above the Isles. On the one hand, she wants to do everything she can to make Amity and Emira feel better, but on the other, she feels incredibly weak and exhausted, and isn't sure how much longer she can stay awake.
"How do we tell Dad?"
Amity's voice cuts through the silence like a sharp knife, catching the attention of the other two girls in an instant.
"Huh?", Emira asks, only just regaining her focus.
"We have to tell Dad what happened here. A-About mom and...", her voice trails off, her gaze falling silently on her brother. Luz notices this and an idea strikes her.
"I could bring him here.", she suggests. Two pairs of eyes stare straight at her.
"What?", Emiry asks confused, still not having gotten an explanation as to what exactly Luz did with Edric earlier, or how she and Amity found her so quickly.
"You two have already done more than enough. Let me help.", she speaks with a slight smile on her lips, "I'll find him and explain everything to him. And don't worry, I'll be back before you know it."
While the older Blight is still trying to understand what exactly Luz is suggesting, Amity thinks about her suggestion for a moment.
"Okay.", she replies quietly after a while, "He's probably at home in his workshop or something."
"Workshop. Got it.", Luz repeats before standing up and taking a few steps back. Amity immediately misses the warmth and security that the girl radiated. "See you in a bit."
Like every time Luz prepares a spell, the golden lightning sprouts across her arms. And usually it's a matter of a few seconds at most, with many flashes moving quickly across her body. This time, however, everything is a whole lot slower. For a whole ten exhausting seconds, the human tries to gather enough strength for a teleport.
And very briefly before she teleports away from the two sisters, Luz could swear that Amity was staring at her with a very concerned look in her eyes.
A short time later, Luz finds herself at the edge of a forest, in the middle of a gravel path where her body can no longer fight her exhaustion. She falls to her knees and hands, dizziness, a throbbing head, and tired muscles plaguing her. The attempted healing spell earlier has drained her of far more strength than any spell before. Granted, it was also the most powerful spell she had ever cast, so her exhaustion didn't come as too much of a surprise.
For several moments, Luz remains on all fours, breathing heavily, her gaze fixed on the ground. It takes nearly two minutes before she's able to lift her head to take note of her position. She looks ahead and recognizes Blight Manor not far in front of her. She has landed directly on the path to the main entrance.
Her gaze scans the length of the path to the entrance.
'Okay... That's fifty meters. Seventy at most...', she estimates between heavy breaths, 'I can do that.'
She makes an effort to stand up, but quickly realizes that she can't do it without support. 'Come on you legs, I need you. I can't let Amity down..."
Her gaze wanders hastily between the trees beside her. Her gaze falls on a branch that she believes could support her weight.
"Perfect."
On all fours, and with increasingly aching hands and knees, Luz crawls across the gravel path. She is all the more relieved when the ground eventually changes from gravel to dirt.
Unfortunately for her, the branch she has spotted is still hanging from a tree, albeit only by a few fibers. She claws at the tree bark and pulls herself up. It takes quite a bit of effort before she manages to reach the branch, ripping it from its mount with no more than a simple tug. She rams one end into the ground with both hands, clings to the branch, and pulls herself up. She puts all her weight on it to check that it doesn't break, which fortunately it doesn't.
"So, step one, done. And now I have to find Amity's dad..."
On shaky legs and with one step at a time, Luz approaches the main entrance of Blight Manor. With every step, she feels her muscles ache, but she pushes on nonetheless.
"For Amity... For Emira... For Edric...", she mutters through her teeth after every single step forward, "For Amity... For Emira... For Edric... For Amity-"
About three meters from the entrance, she freezes in place. A thought struck her.
'I- I said I'd bring her dad back with me... I don't even have enough strength to walk. Urgh, stupid Luz. Stupid, stupid...', Luz takes a shaky deep breath, 'Wait... I don't need to use my own magic...'
Luz breaks off a slightly longer twig from her walking stick and begins to draw circles on the gravel floor. Circle by circle, it becomes clearer that she is drawing a glyph. Her teleport glyph, to be precise.
It took a while. A long while. Drawing each circle perfectly, redrawing things that Luz had accidentally smudged as she dragged her tired feet across the floor.
"Finally...", she thinks to herself as she stands right in front of the door, examining her glyph, "This should take me straight back to Amity and Emira."
She turns to knock on the door when it suddenly opens unexpectedly from the inside. Standing before her is Abdel, the Blights' Abomination butler.
"You heard me talking, didn't you?", she asks, but of course gets no answer, "Yes, all right. I need to see Mr. Blight right now."
Abdel steps aside to let Luz hobble slowly into the house. When a hand suddenly stops her from going any further, she looks up at him in confusion, and then down at her walking stick.
"Oh, yes, I'm just a little tired-", she explains with an exhausted smile. But before she can walk on or say anything, her feet are pulled out from under her and she finds herself in the arms of the Abomination Butler. "Oh, okay..."
Abdel proceeds to carry Luz through the living room and down the stairs to Alador Blight's laboratory and workshop. Abdel stops right in front of a closed brown door. On it is a sign reading 'Do not disturb. Genius at work'. Luz snorts, slightly amused, before she manages to raise her arms and knock.
"Mr. Blight, this is Luz.", she announces. Instead of waiting for an answer, however, she pushes the door open from her semi-recumbent position and Abdel carefully sets her back down on the floor, where she supports herself with her branch cane, steadying herself upright with her legs that are no longer quite so wobbly. "Mr. Blight?"
In his lab, Luz finds him at the other end of the room, his back turned to her. He's wearing thick goggles and appears to be welding on an Abomination soldier. After a few moments, he turns off the device and turns to Luz.
"Is it not customary in the human realm to respect 'Do Not Disturb' signs?", he asks, clearly annoyed, "We have allowed you to stay in our house, and if you can't abide by such simple rules, we may have to reconsider.
"Mr. Blight, the knee is gone.", Luz replies to his lecture. He simply responds with a frustrated snort before turning his attention back to his project.
"I really don't have time for your human jokes-"
"Edric is dead!", she practically shouts at him with angry and exhausted tears in her eyes. Slowly, he turns back to her, removing his goggles.
"What?", he asks in a low voice.
"The Isles are under attack... The knee no longer exists. Edric is dead. Your wife is dead. "
"No- no, it can't be...", he props himself up on a table with both arms, "How sure are you?"
"If you don't believe me, look outside a window and see for yourself!", she challenges him.
He immediately runs off, straight past Luz and Abdel, out of his workshop. As soon as he is out of sight, Luz takes a deep breath.
"Abdel, can you carry me back to the door?", she kindly asks the Abomination Butler. He bows before taking Luz in his arms again and carrying her back to the main entrance.
She arrives at the main entrance, where Abdel sets her down again very carefully. He re-enters the house as she notices Alador practically running down the stairs from the top floor and heading straight in her direction. All the way down, he shakes his head in utter panic, muttering that this can't be true.
"YOU, HUMAN!"
"Luz.", she corrects him calmly.
"It doesn't matter. How do you know that- that they didn't survive? What about Emira? Is she okay? Where is she?", he asks in a panic.
"Mr. Blight, please stand in the circle.", Luz speaks calmly and points to the teleport glyph she drew earlier, "Her and Amity asked me to come get you."
"Mitten was there too? When did she leave for the Knee, please? And why don't I know anything about it?"
Increasingly frustrated with the engineer, Luz raises her voice, "GET IN THE FUCKING CIRCLE!"
Alador does as he's told, and with slow, straining steps Luz walks towards her drawing before dropping onto her knees. She focuses on Luz and Emira and drops forward, activating her spell.
And thankfully, the two of them appear right next to the Blight siblings.
"Dad?"
"Luz!"
The two sisters exclaim as they arrive. Luz herself doesn't notice too much of this, because immediately after their arrival, when Alador runs to the girls in genuine tears, Luz only notices how her body has reached its limit and falls face first into the snow, fainting.
"LUZ!", a terrified Amity jumps up from her seat just as Alador has fallen to his knees in front of Edric suffering from a broken heart. Emira looks questioningly in Amity's direction, who has also dropped to her knees again.
She grabs the passed out girl and rolls her onto her back as fast as she can. She gasps in worry as she discovers blood on Luz's face, just beneath her nose. She scans the girl's body from top to bottom, looking for further injuries, but finds none. Her gaze snaps to Emira, who is already on her way to her, desperate for help.
"Luz, don't do this to me-", Amity pleads, again with tears in her eyes and overcome with worry, "Please don't leave me too. I- I- I could not survive this. Please..."
Emira sits down wordlessly next to her completely terrified little sister and feels Luz's wrist for a pulse.
"She's alive.", she speaks without any emotion in her voice, "Viney had taught me some simple diagnostic spells once. I can find out what's wrong with her."
She doesn't wait for any reaction from her sister and immediately draws her magic circle before Amity can say anything. She holds her hands directly over Luz's body before a light shockwave emerges from her body which, with the force of a mild breeze, stirs up some snow. Nevertheless, enough reason for Emira to break off her spell.
"What the-", she asks, "Is that a human thing?"
Amity merely shakes her head. Emira tries again and once more a shockwave escapes her body, but Emira manages to maintain her spell and finishes examining the girl.
"Exhaustion.", Emira replies after a few seconds, "Poor thing is completely out of it. I'm sure she's fast asleep."
"But- the blood-"
"She overexerted herself.", Emira explains, "She'll be fine."
Amity feels a little better, but at the same time her mind is full of new questions. What happened at Blight Manor? Has Luz not slept in too long? When was the last time she ate? When was the last time she had water? Have all the teleport spells drained her Luz so much? Is that why she couldn't help Edric? All these questions to which she has no answer. Her mind is also so preoccupied that she doesn't even notice how Emira has got up again and returned to her father, who is holding the lifeless body of his son tightly in his arms with silent tears streaming down his face, mumbling things in his ear.
Some time passes, during which nobody talks. There's no need for anyone to say anything. Amity, still full of worry, grief, and guilt, has one of Luz's arms pressed so tightly against her as if she's afraid she'll just roll away. She flinches as she suddenly feels a hand touch her shoulder.
It is Emira. With a simple movement of her head, the older sister gestures to her father, who is carrying Edric tightly in his arms. No words are needed to convey that it is time to leave. The youngest Blight merely nods.
Amity lets go of Luz's arm, stands up, and creates an abomination that carefully picks up the unconscious girl in its arms.
"-mmmity?", she hears her murmur shortly after the group has begun their walk back.
"Go back to sleep.", Amity gently whispers to her. Hearing Luz talk sends a massive weight off her shoulders, but she also knows that Luz needs to recover her energy. Their world is in danger, and without Luz, she doesn't think they have a chance of getting through this alive.
Panicked and completely overcome with fear, dozens upon dozens of guards come running towards them across the bridge, not giving a single thought to the small group moving away from the castle instead of towards it. It probably wouldn't have made any difference if Gus hadn't put illusion disguises on the six of them, because no one seems to pay any attention to them.
Even as they were carrying the exhausted Raine Whispers in their arms out of the main entrance, they could already see the slowly approaching reason, hovering far over the ground, gradually approaching the castle.
"Go faster!", Skara urges the other five of them, "I don't want to be here when that thing arrives."
"Get between the trees. I can't do anything here!", Liwin urges them urgently as soon as they have reached the end of the bridge. As quickly as possible, given the limitations of Raine's condition, they run across the square and hurry back up the wooded hill just as quickly. Skara, who has some of the best hearing of the group, is startled when she hears a bang in the distance. The others don't seem to have noticed as they just keep walking. Skara, on the other hand, turns around at some distance and notices dust in the air from between the trees in the exact spot she was just in. She gasps softly and presses herself against a nearby tree, and from there continues to watch covertly. The dust settles quickly, revealing a huge-looking blue creature with a sword made of fire in its hand.
In shock, she watches as the creature stands up, takes off running, and leaps over the partially retracted bridge, tearing down the castle doors with full force. When Skara suddenly notices a touch on her shoulder, she almost jumps out of her skin. Fortunately, it's only Willow, who hurriedly gestures to her to catch up with the others. The bard witch nods, casting one last fleeting glance in the direction of Castle before following her to the others.
Quickly, and without realizing it, hand in hand, they quickly rejoin the others. As soon as Liwin realizes that they are all present, she draws her magic circle and all six of them find themselves completely enveloped by plant leaves only moments later.
When they reappear a few minutes later and break out of their decaying plant cocoons, they are surprised to discover that Liwin has not sent them back to their previous hiding place as originally planned. Instead, they find themselves in a kind of reception room, where the leaf capsules have completely destroyed some of the white floor tiles on their arrival.
"Wait, where are we?", Katya speaks up.
"My clinic. I need to treat Mx. Whispers.", Liwin replies firmly.
"I already told you... Ugh, you can call me Raine...", they say with great effort in their voice.
"And what about Ruby? And Derwin?", Katya asks anxiously.
"And what about Luz and Amity?", Skara also speaks up, "I saw one of those attackers storm the Emperor's Castle. What if they were still inside?"
"Luz is definitely not going to let anything happen to little Blight. And I think you know how strong that girl is.", Liwin explains as she helps Raine stand. "They might even be at the hideout already."
Willow, Skara and Gus exchange doubtful glances while Liwin and Katya help Raine into another room.
"Do you believe that?", Gus speaks up with a look of concern and worry on his face, similar to that of his friends.
"She's right about Luz's strength.", Skara tells, "It wasn't long ago when she, Amity, and I had to make sure that Galdorstones didn't fall into the hands of the Emperor's Coven. She almost single-handedly melted the ground and destroyed the stones."
"What-stones?"
"Magic-amplifiers.", she explained quickly, "My point is that they definitely made it out. They just have to..."
Willow, who hasn't said anything yet, grabs Skara's hand, and walks with her a few steps to a couple of chairs against a wall and sits down with her. Gus follows, but remains standing.
"You're really scared for them, aren't you?", Willow asks gently. Skara's head snaps up and she looks the plant witch in the eye.
"I didn't say-"
"I know.", Willow replies. A moment of silence envelops the three of them.
"Willow and I have known Luz for quite a while now. And every time she's done something crazy or not thought things through, she's always managed to keep her friends safe in the end. I should know, I'm one of them."
Skara chuckles at that. "Is that why you're so calm right now?"
The conversation ends quickly as Liwin and Katya rejoin the others.
"Okay everyone.", Liwin gets everyone's attention, "I have to take care of Mx. Whisp- umm, Raine. In the meantime, I need you guys. Katya and Gus, I want you to go to the hideout and bring Ruby and Derwin here. Luz and Amity too, if they're already there. We need the recording of Belos' speech. Willow, Skara, I need you to be my eyes and ears on what's happening out in the city right now."
The four of them make their way to the exit before Liwin speaks up again. "Wait.", they look at her, "Be careful. "
The four of them immediately step through the blue illusion wall covering the entrance to Liwin's clinic. Their eyes are immediately drawn upwards to a large gray structure hovering uncomfortably close to some roofs above the ground, propelled by hot blue flames shooting out of four pylons with unimaginable power. The soundscape is a mix of pained and panicked screams coming from all directions, explosions, and ear-piercing mechanical roars, all of it loud enough that it is impossible to understand spoken words.
After a confident nod, they split up. Katya and Gus walk, as their destination is not too far away, while Willow and Skara take out their staffs and immediately ascend high into the air to get a good look at the city. The higher they climb, the more the screams and booming fade and the more they are confronted with a picture of horror.
The two girls spot a total of three such gray structures hovering over Bonesborough, from which swarms of metallic, dark gray creatures fly in and out. They notice how individual massive fires rage in the town and light projectiles explode through the streets below them. Everywhere they look, these metal demons are attacking their hometown. Outside the borders of Bonesborough, things are no better. At their height, they can see as far as Latissa, which also has one of these structures hovering over it.
Skara feels paralyzed with shock until she notices a shaky hand on her shoulder. She looks at Willow, whose gaze is fixed on something far away, pure horror in her eyes. Skara tries to follow her gaze and gasps when she notices it.
"I-It's gone...", she mutters, "How is that even possible?"
Before either girl can react in any way, they hear a massive explosion and see a fireball coming in their direction. They immediately grab their staffs and fly away from it as fast as they are physically able.
Willow is the first to look down and recognize the source of the explosion.
"That was the Police Precinct.", she realizes.
"Please tell me this is all just a nightmare!", Skara demands with tears in her eyes. Unfortunately, Willow has no answer. All she feels is the urge to hug the bard witch tightly.
"SKARA! WATCH OUT!", Willow suddenly yells and pushes her own and Skara's staff down vertically, just before something explodes right behind them. Terrified, Skara's head snaps in all directions before she discovers a small group of metal demons flying towards them with their weapons drawn.
The two girls fly straight down to the ground, with their pursuers right behind them. They get faster and faster, but they easily keep up, shooting at them with what looks like light weapons.
"WE WON'T LOSE THEM!", Skara yells against the flying wind.
"FIGHT THEM!", Willow yells back, "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT THIS HEIGHT!"
Panicked, Skara seeks options as the ground gets closer and closer. Summon an instrument? Far too dangerous in flight. Outmaneuver them? Not possible either.
"DO SOMETHING!", Willow yells in increasing panic.
"Uh, uh...", Skara mutters, just before she grabs her staff and performs a hundred and eighty degree turn almost on the spot, now directly facing the attackers. She brings a hand to her mouth and whistles with as much strength and breath as she has, creating a shockwave that sends two of the pursuers crashing together, ending in an explosion in the sky. The bard witch turns her staff again and joins Willow once more. "TWO OUT! THREE REMAINING!"
"CAN YOU DO THAT AGAIN?"
"NOT RIGHT NOW!"
The two witches get closer to the ground near the city limits, their pursuers still shooting at them. They race into the forest at high speed, hoping to outmaneuver their pursuers. Willow turns around after a short time, only to realize in horror that they are metal demons simply bursting through the trees.
"Fuck...", Willow mutters. "SKARA, DO YOU TRUST ME?"
"YES.", she calls back faster than she expected. Willow offers her a hand, which she immediately accepts. She pulls the bard witch closer to her before casting a spell on her staff, which jumps over to Skara's as well. "DOWN!"
Both of them push their staffs down almost vertically and Skara squints her eyes while Willow prays that her spell works. The ground is approaching extremely fast, but instead of hitting it and crash and possible die, they plunge into the earth as if it were water surrounded by a protective screen of leaves and roots.
The two witches now fly straight through the ground at the same high speed. Skara hesitantly opens her eyes, with only the green glow of her staffs as a source of light. As they're slowing down slightly, Skara speaks up.
"Wow..."
Willow just chuckles at that. The bard witch continues.
"How is that even possible?", she marvels.
"Don't ask.", Willow replies. Skara spots a few beads of sweat on the plant witch’s forehead. "Here left. We'll fly straight back to the others."
A moment of silence envelops the two witches, the only sounds the steady rustling of the leaves and roots of their cocoon.
"I'm scared.", Skara admits.
"Me too."
"... Welcome to the Boiling Isles. I'm looking forward to our meeting."
Silence enveloped the group gathered around Raine, listening to Ruby's recording of Belos' speech. Katya, Gus, Ruby, and Derwin had just returned from their retrieval mission, and Liwin was more than eager to hear what the Emperor had to say. At the entrance to the clinic there was almost a fight with a coven guard, who fortunately quickly revealed himself to be Steve.
"This is bad...", the Chief Healer remarks thoughtfully.
"Is it just me or did I just hear Luz shout 'what'?", Gus asks, but his question is completely ignored. Katya speaks up.
"This is an open attack on the whole Isles. On the way to the hideout, we saw these metal demons attacking and kidnapping people."
"This King Andrias must have some kind of agenda. It doesn't make sense that he just shoots randomly at anything that moves.", Raine notes, "Maybe he's kidnapping all these people to study magic. Although that's definitely not something I want to picture. We do need more information."
"Luz once mentioned a King Andrias.", Gus speaks up, whereupon several pairs of eyes look at him in surprise, "Some time ago, she disappeared into another world without a trace. When she came back, she mentioned the king, who she thought felt very much like Belos himself."
"Could they have made a deal?", Derwin speaks up, "Emperor Belos and this Andrias guy?"
"What would Belos have to gain by simply handing over his own people to an enemy power like that?", Steve asks skeptically, "I'm sorry, but I don't see the point of this."
"What else could it be?", Raine asks, "I worked for Belos for a while until I got caught. It wouldn't be like him to just give everything up and throw in the towel."
"In his speech, Belos talked about a meeting. Maybe it was this meeting that got him killed. After all, it was only a few minutes after his speech that the knee was destroyed...", Ruby reports.
"WHAT?", several of them ask in shocked unison. Ruby looks at them in confusion.
"Don't tell me you guys didn't notice..."
Gus decides to split off from the group after a while, believing that all this pure speculation is not going anywhere.
He walks back to the chairs in the reception area, where he sits down and pulls out his scroll.
WITCHCHICK128, LUZURA_THE_HUMAN_WITCH
Guys, where are you?
Please tell me you made it out of the castle in one piece.
The young illusionist looks at his scroll for minutes, inwardly hoping for an answer. And admittedly, he is terrified. Merely two hours ago, he could never have imagined that he would be in this situation now, that the Boiling Isles would be attacked by a foreign army and that he would have no contact to his friends, or his-
'Dad...', he thinks to himself, just before something abruptly moves in the holes in the ground. Seconds later, two cocoons sprout up, quickly releasing Skara and Willow. The two of them look to him like they've just been through hell.
"Are you... okay?", he asks anxiously. They take a couple second just to breathe.
"I think if Skara hadn't been with me, I wouldn't be standing here now.", Willow reports with a slight exhausted smile on her face, "She was really my lucky charm today."
"You're one to talk.", Skara replies, "This witch here cast a continuous spell that allowed us to fly with our staffs through the ground as if it were air."
Gus notices a slight blush on Willow's face. Skara continues.
"Okay, I'm going to tell the others what we saw. You get some rest!", Skara orders the plant witch.
"Whatever you say, lucky charm.", Willow replies smugly, which brings a slight blush to Skara's face. The bard witch immediately moves away, while Willow drops onto a chair next to Gus, exhausted.
"What did I miss?", she asks casually.
"Still no sign of Luz and Amity.", Gus reports, "I've texted them, but no answer yet. Right now, I'm scouring the news for any sign of them..."
"Didn't Amity mention that her mother and siblings are- were on the knee?", Willow throws into the room, whilst Gus is completely fixated on his scroll.
"Gus?", She touches him on the shoulder, but he doesn't react. He seems frozen. "Gus?", she tries again with a tiny bit more urgency in her voice, but this time she notices a tear flowing down his cheek.
"They- they took my dad..."
"Oh really? You really expect us to believe that you, the great General Yunan, didn't let yourself be captured on purpose?"
"But it's true! ... The situation was completely hopeless. Thirty-five frobots stood between me and my target: one of the armories on the fourth floor. All I had were my battle-hardened hands... and my trusty blades. They spotted me immediately and I charged forward. One by one, I mowed down the robots while being shot at with everything they had. Lasers, missiles, and they were always trying to disarm me. But I was too quick. Then, the missiles hit me and I went down, the rest of them locked me in place. I lost at least three limbs in the fight, but I kept my fighting spirit despite all of that!"
"So it wasn't you who, when she was locked in that cell with us, made absolutely no sign of trying to free herself from her chains?"
"And it just so happens that you are currently completely unharmed? Not even your armor has any scratches. Also, do I see some dust on your shoulder pads?"
"... Shut up Toadstool! I locked you in this cell myself. So you have no business here! And you Grime... what was that with you again? You gave yourself up to save your self-appointed foster daughter from the vindictiveness of the Toad Council. Wasn't that the case?"
"Well look at that. The great Toad Captain-, the tyrannical ruler of Frog Valley has a heart... How touching…"
"Shut up Toadstool!"
The three of them have been sharing a surprisingly large cell for quite some time at this point, one that was probably meant for either larger beings or far more people. There are hundreds of other such cells on this and on two other floors, most of them empty. Usually, only traitors and particularly dangerous criminals were imprisoned in these cells, while minor crimes were dealt with outside the palace.
The cell walls are made of solid brown stone, as are the ceiling and floors. In one wall there is a massive steel door, too heavy to be moved by just one person. Not that this is even theoretically possible with the three prisoners in this cell.
General Yunan, the relative newcomer, is chained to the wall with both arms high up, making it impossible for her to even sit down. Only at mealtimes is one of her arms released.
Fredrick Toadstool has been here the longest after his capture by Yunan before the war between Frogs and the local Toad Army. Since then, he has visibly lost body mass. And since he poses no danger whatsoever, he is also the only one who is not directly chained to anything. He only wears handcuffs.
The former Captain Grime seems to be the only one who has made peace with his current condition, while Yunan is still full of energy and Toadstool would have no chance of pulling anything off anyway. Nevertheless, Grime is also wearing reinforced handcuffs and a barred muzzle, which distorts his voice slightly and prevents him from trying anything with his powerful tongue.
"Anyway...", Toadstool begins, "What's it like outside now? Been a while since anyone's told me anything. "
"The girls are gone, right?", Grime inquires as well.
"Things don't look good. Andrias has turned the continent into a wasteland.", Yunan reports somberly, "And Frog Valley no longer exists."
"What?", Toadstool asks, not believing his ears. Yunan continues.
"It wasn't long after the girls disappeared- I don't know where they are, by the way- that Andrias ordered a major attack on the valley. He burned everything down. Every village, every house, every tree... Everything."
"Oh... Toadie...", Toadstool mutters, a tear rolling down his cheek. Yunan and Grime look at him questioningly before he continues, "When I was still mayor, he was my right hand. And my left. And my legs... He was my closest confidant. He- he didn't deserve such an end."
"And what about Sasha? And Anne? And the other one?", Grime asks bluntly, completely ignoring Toadstool's emotional state, "They can't possibly have disappeared. I should know, after all I arrived in Newtopia with them.", he practically shouts at the top of his voice. Yunan takes a deep breath.
"Anne and Sasha... If they were lucky, they're dead.", Grime's breath catches in his throat as Yunan continues, "As for Master Marcy... For her, I wished she was dead instead of what she is now."
"What do you mean 'instead of what she is now'?"
The three of them suddenly hear the sound of metal pounding in the corridor outside their cell. Yunan tries to make out what is happening outside.
'Change of guard? More prisoners?', she gasps inwardly, 'They can't possibly have found Livvy yet...'
The footsteps get closer and closer.
"Four Frobots... And something smaller...", Yunan whispers. The footsteps stop right in front of her cell, three pairs of eyes fixed on the door.
The door snaps open as if it weren't made of half a ton of solid steel. In front of it, two dark gray Frobots peer into the cell with glowing red eyes and evil glares. They step in and to the side, revealing the small figure Yunan had just heard.
"We heard you talking about us...", Darcy speaks up, wearing a diabolical grin on her face. All the orange eyes on her helmet glow up in glee.
"Bu- wha-", Grime tries to find the right words for what's going through his head. Instead, he just keeps glancing back and forth between them and Yunan, who in turn stares at them with absolute hatred in her eyes. "What is that?"
Darcy turns his gaze away from Yunan and looks at Grime instead. A shiver runs down his spine. "We are the Core, the ruler of the Amphibian Empire... and your nightmare."
"Amphibian... Empire?"
"They took control over Marcy's body.", Yunan adds, emphasizing her disgust with every word, "What do you want?"
"We want you to tell us where Lady Olivia is hiding!"
"I'd rather die!", Yunan exclaims, at which the grin on Darcy's face only widens.
"We were hoping you would say that.", they speak euphorically before turning their attention to the Frobots. "Take her! The other two as well. After all, such an important day deserves an audience."
The two Frobots release Yunan from the wall and force Toadstool and Grime to their feet, practically pushing them past Darcy and out of their cell. Because Toadstool hasn't stood for a very long time, he can't hold on after the push and hits the opposite wall head first.
Darcy chuckles at that while Yunan and Grime look down at him worriedly.
"Pick him up!", Darcy orders sternly. But as one of the Frobots makes his way to the former mayor, Darcy stops him. "No. You two will carry him!", they point to the Toad and Newt. They hesitate for a moment before deciding that it might be better to comply after all. With difficulty, they each grab one of Toadstool's arms.
"Ow, my skull...", he grumbles. Yunan discovers blood on his forehead.
"He's hurt."
"Don't care. Pick him up and then that way!"
Grumbling, they do as they're told. They lift Toadstool onto his weak legs and walk slowly past all the empty cells, escorted and guarded by four Frobots and Darcy.
"What is- ngh- today such a- ngh- important day for?", Yunan asks, straining with every step. Darcy, who walks directly in front of them, snaps her head back a hundred and eighty degrees, while the rest of her body continues unchanged. The cracking sound that resulted brings up the bile in all three captives.
"Today is the first day on which we celebrate the conquest of a new world and incorporate it into the great Amphibian Empire."
"A new world? -ngh- How is that even- ngh- possible?"
"You are about to see everything we allow you to know. Just be patient.", Darcy replies. They appear excited.
An extremely tiring ten minutes later, the group finds themselves no longer on a stone or marble floor, but on a metallic one. The room itself they are in is quite dark, and the sound of crying and whimpering is ringing in their ears. Suddenly the light comes on.
"Welcome to our laboratories!", Darcy exclaims euphorically.
The light in this room is blindingly bright, which is why Yunan, Grime, and Toadstool all squint their eyes at first. They need a moment to get used to the light.
As soon as they open their eyes again, they perceive the laboratory for the first time. The walls are covered in dark metal panels with copper pipes running along them. There are monitors of various sizes hanging on the walls, three gleaming white metal tables right next to each other in front of them, and to their left is a large cage containing an estimated fifty large creatures that look very much like the three humans they have already met.
"Are they... humans?", Yunan asks with terror in her voice.
"No. According to Marcy's records, they are witches.", Darcy explains, "-able to perform magic."
Completely speechless, the three prisoners look at the witches, who have been crammed into a room so small that they can't even sit, and have been standing there for who knows how long. Among the prisoners they discover beings of all ages, from those who have already lived a lifetime to children who remind them very much of Anne and her friends.
"They're not fighting back.", Yunan remarks quietly, "Why aren't they fighting back?"
"Because they saw what happened to the first group that fought back.", Darcy replies as the large main monitor turns on. It shows the same cage, but filled with other people. A video starts showing one of the witches casting a spell and trying to break out. Without warning, the Frobots guarding them opened fire on all the prisoners, killing every single person inside.
"YOU MONSTER!", Yunan yells with all her might, "LET THEM OUT NOW!"
"Or else what?", Darcy glares at the Newt. Yunan doesn't answer, "The only way you can help them is by telling us where Lady Olivia is."
Yunan's eyes widen. Her gaze wanders to the imprisoned, who stare at her with pleading looks.
"Your decision.", Darcy explains. After a few moments, Yunan squints her eyes and shakes her head. "Alright, let's start the first dissection then."
\&&&/
From the ceiling, a powerful grappling arm descends into the tall roofless cage and grabs one of the witches by the neck. A woman no older than Yunan herself, screaming in pain.
"STOP IT!", Grime yells with all his might as the woman is taken to one of the tables and dropped like nothing more than a piece of worthless meat. More grappling arms extend from the table itself, grabbing her arms and legs and holding them firmly in place. She is still screaming, though no longer in pain, but in fear. Darcy approaches her.
"So, what do we have here? Witch, female... twenty-eight years old, judging by the first scan. We very much like your white hair...", Darcy speaks with a morbidly gentle tone, which seems to have minimal effect as the woman has stopped screaming. "What is your name?", they ask.
"E-Elaine.", the woman replies in fear, "Please let me go. I haven't done anything to you."
"Elaine... Please explain how your magic works.", Darcy asks in a fake friendly tone.
"I-I'm an obstetrician. I specialize in healing magic. I can't do anything more than that."
"Explain."
"My- my wrist.", Elaine states. The claw holding her arm turns it slightly upwards so that a slightly glowing image of a purple cross can be seen, "This sigil limits my abilities to healing magic only."
Darcy's gaze wanders to the other captives, where she spots similar sigils on several of them. She gets an idea.
"Then let's see what happens if we remove this seal.", Darcy's voice takes on a sinister tone again. Elaine's face tenses in fear when she suddenly sees Darcy holding a scalpel. She pulls as hard as she can at her restraints and screams at the top of her voice as Darcy stabs her skin with the scalpel without anesthetic, cutting around the seal and tearing the skin from her flesh.
After this first of these "experiments", things were no less brutal and painful. Darcy collected a blood sample by cutting open Elaine's forearm with a blunt knife. They removed the skin around her lower leg to take a sample of muscle tissue. When her screaming eventually became too much for Darcy, another grappling arm came out of the table and simply ripped the tongue out of her mouth. They removed her forearm with a saw and put it in a jar of some kind of liquid. They did the same with her other forearm, but instead of using it for anything, Darcy just threw it away.
And through all of this, the woman was fully conscious. It wasn't long before she succumbed to her injuries. But right after Darcy realized her victim had passed away, the grappling arms released and a Frobot joined the table. It grabbed her body and simply threw her across the room, clearing the table for another victim. The next one was a little boy, no more than ten years old.
The boy, named Alexius, had been crying since the moment Elaine was taken out of the cage. Perhaps they knew each other.
The grappling arms also bound his joints to the table, but before they started to do anything, Darcy returned her attention to Yunan.
"Where is Lady Olivia?", she asked again. And as hard as it was for her not to say anything and as much as the boy pleaded with her with his eyes, in the end she just shook her head.
Fortunately for the boy, his suffering was only brief. Darcy laughed diabolically as they tore the hair and scalp from his skull, crushed his head open, and removed his brain from his head.
The next victim was a man, estimated to be sixty years old, and the whole procedure was repeated. Darcy asks, Yunan doesn't answer, and Darcy begins to torture the man in the worst agony while Yunan, Grime, and Toadstool were forced to watch helplessly.
Not long afterwards, Darcy took them back to their cell. None of the three are able to say a word after what they have just witnessed. They all had to watch living, feeling beings being held like cattle in a cage before five of them were tortured to death in agony right in front of their eyes.
/&&&\
"My... my mother's name is Elaine...", Toadstool eventually speaks up. "I haven't seen her for twenty years..."
"Why not?", Grime asks uncharacteristically quiet.
"I don't know...."
Silence falls once again in the cell, but it is short-lived.
"Why- why didn't you say anything?", Toadstool asks silently, "Why didn't you just say where she was hiding?"
"I... I wanted to.", the general speaks up, tears flowing from her eyes, "I really wanted to."
"But?", Grime asks.
"There's too much at stake.", she replies in a broken whisper, "I hope she'll be able to forgive me."
Luz’s eyelids hang heavily over her eyes, while her mind slowly but steadily begins to wake up. For a moment, she feels completely disoriented and remembers nothing of what happened previously.
She realizes that she is lying on something.
'A bed? No, a bed would be softer... It can't be the floor either, it wouldn't be as comfortable. Could be a couch...'
Luz's train of thought is interrupted when she suddenly hears the rustling of paper.
'I'm not alone.', she thinks to herself, surprised. A few more moments pass as Luz tries to gather enough strength to open her eyes.
"Luz?"
'Amity?', she thinks, the memories come flooding back into her mind. 'The knee... Edric...'
"-mmity?", Luz slurs as she manages to open her eyes, her voice definitely not yet recovered. The very first thing she notices is a ceiling made of wooden planks with a single lamp in the middle, emitting a dimmed, soft, and warm light. Her gaze wanders a little further down. The walls are made of whole logs, which gives the whole room a very cozy log cabin atmosphere.
Her gaze wanders further and yup, Luz is lying on an old but high-quality-looking brown leather couch. She realizes that her legs are resting on Amity's lap.
"You're awake... How are you?", Amity asks, closing a book she must have been reading earlier. Luz looks at her for a moment while a feeling of sadness fills her heart. Her girlfriend's ears hang lower than she has ever seen them before. They usually flutter slightly when she and Luz are together.
"What happened?", Luz stammers, trying to avoid the question. Amity breaks their eye contact, resting her head back against the back of the couch, and falls silent for a moment.
"I wish you could tell me.", she replies in a broken whisper, "You and Dad showed up together and you just collapsed... I was so scared"
"I'm sorr-"
"Don't!", Amity interrupts her, not even looking at her. Luz looks over to her though where she spots tears streaming down Amity's cheeks. "Luz, I lost my brother today. My mother is dead... And when I thought you were-", a lump catches in her throat. She looks at Luz again, "What were you thinking? Luz, you're not immortal!", Amity accuses her through angry tears, while the half-human averts her eyes in guilt. She takes a shaky breath.
"I- I tried to bring him back. Really, I tried. I used absolutely every bit of magic I had...", Luz tries to explain, "And- and if it had worked..."
"That's what I mean!", Amity snaps back, "You risked your own health! And for a cause that- that- that... wasn't worth it."
"Hm, that sounds familiar.", Luz replies, which throws Amity completely off track, "The Brawl.", she explains. Amity's eyes widen.
"That's- You can't-", she stutters sheepishly before falling silent. Luz fills her silence.
"Back then, you risked everything to win the Champion's Belt. You didn't listen to any reasoning back then either. You were completely focused on your goal and ignored everything else. I still have the image of you in the healer's tent in my head, and how badly injured you were."
"I... completely forgot.", Amity admits after a long moment of silence, "I'm sorry I overreacted like that."
"Are you apologizing for now or for then?", Luz asks quietly. But before Amity can answer, Luz speaks up again. "You know what, forget it. It doesn't matter."
Straining, she takes her legs off Amity's lap and sits up, right next to her with her head on Amity's shoulder.
"But-"
"No buts. There's nothing to be forgiven for.", Luz speaks softly, "You have every right to feel that way. After all, I was once in pretty much the exact same place."
"Luz...", Amity takes Luz's head from her shoulder to look her straight in the eye. But she avoids her. "I- I've never told anyone- not even Willow or Gus or- or E-Eda knew about it..."
'Eda...', Amity remembers, guilt spreading through her mind, 'She had lost her whole family... How could I forget that?'
"It was six years ago when- when my dad passed away.", Luz says, Amity's eyes widening, "He was a firefighter and when I was little, I always looked up to him. My dad, rescuing people from burning buildings and pulling cats down from trees... heh, at least that's what I thought his job was back then. He was my big hero, and I always wanted to be like him and help people.", a sad smile graces her face, "We- we always knew his job was dangerous, but Dad always said that helping people always came with a certain risk. And yet he came home in time for dinner every night.", her smile drops, "At least until he didn't. Mom had gotten a call from the hospital that there had been an accident. I found out later that he'd been called to a big fire in a residential area. He ran back into a burning house several times to save three children. He probably went back in afterwards, but never came out. The doctors had told me and mom that eighty percent of his body was burned. And when we visited him in the hospital, I thought my life was over."
"Oh, Luz...", Amity interjects, but Luz doesn't allow herself to be interrupted in her flow of words.
"The doctors had put him into an induced coma and had to fly him to a larger hospital because they didn't have a burns unit there. We immediately moved in with everything we had, rented a new house in Gravesfield so we could always visit him. Not that he was aware of much of it... But mom and I always had a lot to talk about... ... No, that's not true. Every time we saw him, we just cried."
By now, Amity has noticed that tears are also streaming down Luz's face, and she probably doesn't even realize it.
"I don't remember exactly how long he was in the hospital, and how long the doctors worked to heal his skin. They put antibacterial cream on the burnt areas several times a day so it wouldn't get infected... During the whole time in hospital, he only woke up twice. The first time he insisted on only talking to mom and I was soo mad at her. The second time he only wanted to talk to me, and I think he knew at that point that he wasn't going to make it. He said how much he loved me and how proud he was of me. He said that he knew I would achieve great things one day and that I would always have a permanent place in his heart. He said-", her voice breaks, "He told me to take care of mom... And before I left, he gave me a present. A book. The Good Witch Azura... He died two days later. August 22nd. The next few weeks were the worst weeks of my life. It took me forever to actually read the book. I just kept staring at it and just started crying every time I saw it... "
Luz stops talking and Amity can't help but pull Luz into a tight hug, burying their faces in each other's shoulders and letting her tears run free. Loud sobs and cries fill the room, their bodies shaking to their cores, they're clutching at each other as if they were afraid the other would disappear if they let go.
"Luz, I'm so-", Amity stops herself a while after the two girls' tears have dried up, "Thank you for sharing that with me."
"I didn't realize I had all this pent up inside me...", Luz replies quietly. The two girlfriends sit shoulder to shoulder again, holding each other's hand.
"You- you've already experienced so much loss in your life, and... and you still manage to carry on.", Amity observes, "I think it was only a matter of time before all this came out. And I'm very grateful that I was the one you shared that moment with."
Luz shifts a little so that she's looking directly at Amity. She continues.
"Despite all the bad things that are happening right now, I'm so glad that you're in my life and by my side. You've lost so much already, but you still manage to be there for the ones you love, no matter how much it hurts you, no matter what the cost."
"Amity, I-"
"You protected me when I went up against Warden Wrath, so soon after you returned from another world. You saved me from a life of unhappiness and- and you made me a better witch, even though we barely knew each other. You took my place in the Grom because I couldn't face my fears. You inspired me to be brave. Because of you, I stood up to Boscha and my mother... Luz, I admire you. And it doesn't matter if you're a witch, a demon, a human, or a titan, I... I love you. I love every aspect of who you are, every wound that has been inflicted on you, and every single second I get to spend with you."
She stops talking and the next thing she realizes Luz lunges forward, taking Amity's face in her hands, pressing her soft lips to her own. The girl immediately melts at her touch and gives herself to her completely, time seems to slow down. This moment is magical, in its own special way, and it belongs only to them.
A wonderful ten seconds later, Luz pulls back again. Slightly out of breath and with a twinkle in her eye, she looks at Amity with a smile. Oh, how she has missed her smile. Her mind is completely free of all thoughts and the two girlfriends sit in silence in front of each other, just enjoying each other's presence.
"I love you too.", Luz whispers happily, Amity's heart flutters, her ears twitching.
Amity takes Luz's face in her smaller hands and brings her to her, pressing her own lips to hers. Pure joy surges through her whole body along with a warmth she has never felt before in her life. And she doesn't want it to stop. Ever...
Many minutes pass and the two girls have assumed other positions again. Luz lies with her head on Amity's lap, who gently strokes her head.
"So basically, I have your dad to thank for my first kiss?", Amity asks, at which Luz actually chuckles slightly.
"You could say that, yes.", she replies, her eyes closed, before the two of them lapse back into a moment of comfortable silence.
"By the way, where are we?", Luz breaks the silence just a few moments later, her eyes open again, "I mean, this doesn't look like Blight Manor."
"Right. According to Dad, this is probably a Blight vacation home at the bottom of the thigh.", Amity explains as she continues to stroke her head, "It's supposedly been in the family for generations, but I can't say I've ever been here."
"Oh, okay...", Luz replies thoughtfully, "And where are the others? Em and your Dad?"
"Emira went straight to sleep. She was completely exhausted. Dad's been calling people for ages now. Getting things ready for the... you know.", Amity replies, her voice dropping slightly.
"Oh, right.", Luz let out a small yawn, "I don't think I'm back anywhere near my full strength yet either. I should probably get some sleep."
"Yes, I'm getting tired too.", Amity admits, "After all, we still have a long way to go back to Bonesborough."
"... Do you think our friends are okay?"
"I know they all made it out. Gus texted me and gave me a rough outline."
"So how are we doing?"
"Bad.", Amity replies, "Very bad. We need to get back to town as soon as possible tomorrow and help the others. And no, I won't let you use your magic until you're fully rested again."
"That's not what I was going to suggest.", Luz defends herself, "But I still know a shortcut. I'll draw you the teleport glyph that I always use, and then-"
"Luz, what did I just say?"
"No, no, just listen to me for a second.", Luz asks her, "There are two types of magic: The Titan's magic, and mine. When I draw a glyph-"
"- then it draws magic from the Titan, and not from you?"
"Exactly.", Luz confirms. Amity thinks about it for a moment before leaning over the armrest and grabbing the book she had open earlier. She opens the book, tears out a blank page, and hands it to Luz, along with a pen.
"Can I use the book as a pad?", she asks, whereupon Amity hands it to her. "'Diary'? You have your diary with you?"
"Heh, no. The book was empty when I found it. I needed something to sort out my thoughts, though."
"Yeah, that makes sense.", Luz comments, before starting to draw.
It takes about a minute before a not uncomplicated looking glyph adorns most of the paper.
"I've left out a few small parts so you don't accidentally teleport to who knows where.", Luz explains, "You need to draw the glyph on the ground and think of the place you want to travel to when you activate it."
"I see.", Amity says, "And if necessary, we still have an ultimate glyph expert with us. "
She says, leaning down, kissing Luz's forehead. The half-human smiles.
"I think I really should get some sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open.", she says.
"Me neither.", Amity agrees in a sleepy voice.
"Amity?"
"Hm?"
"I love you."
Notes:
This was it for the first chapter of Arc 3. See you folks again in April for 'Going Dark - Part 3' <3
Chapter 44: Going Dark - Part 3
Notes:
Welcome to part 3 of this 3-parter. Things are still bad, but not as bad that it required another seperate Content-Warning. Yay(?)
And as always, many thanks to my Beta-Reader Ace/Kaye aka. Sorry_I_Panicked
And with that being said: Hope you enjoy it <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Guys? I think we need to leave.", Willow leans back into the room, where the other members of CATS are still busy discussing. As she talks, all eyes turn to her, followed by a moment of silence.
"I think she's right.", Raine speaks up, "We should get out of town. We need a base outside. I suggest we-"
"No.", Willow exclaims, correcting herself, "I'm talking about Gus and me. They managed to get his dad, and I really need to get my parents to safety, wherever that may be."
"That-", Liwin speaks up before shaking her head, "You kids are done for the day. You've done great work today. Skara?"
"My parents are on a business trip. They're safe...", she says before her eyes meet Willow's. On the one hand, the bard witch would like to stay, on the other... "I'll come with you.", she decides. Her gaze searches Liwin's for confirmation, whereupon she nods briefly. Skara gets up and walks over to Willow.
"Take care of each other.", Liwin tells them, "We'll think about what we can do and let you know."
Willow and Skara give her a firm nod before returning to Gus, who is sitting quietly weeping on one of the chairs. Skara's heart breaks when she watches Willow approach him and he immediately reaches out to her, hugging her with all his might.
"You can stay with me.", Willow tries to comfort her friend before slowly turning her gaze to Skara, "That goes for both of you."
Skara only manages to nod slightly.
"Do you know which way we have to go?", Skara wonders.
"I'll see when we get down. I'll use the roots to get my bearings."
"What are you talking about?", Gus suddenly speaks up, slowly detaching himself from Willow and drying his cheeks with his sleeve.
"You'll see in a minute.", Willow replies before getting her staff ready and sitting on it. "Get on. You're flying with me."
Gus looks at her in utter confusion. Mainly because they are still inside Liwin's clinic, and he suspects they have no intention of leaving through the main entrance. Intrigued, he climbs onto Willow's staff. Skara has also mounted her own staff.
The three of them hover a little higher off the ground, getting closer to the ceiling. The two staffs float closer together and Willow hooks onto Skara's arm.
"Gus, hold on tight.", she orders him before applying a spell to her and Skara's staff. Both staffs start to glow green. Both tilt forward quite steeply, aimed directly at the holes in the ground.
"I don't like where this is going..."
"Skara, on three. One. Two. Three!", Willow counts down before Gus squeezes his eyes shut and they pick up speed rapidly, plunging into the ground.
"Gus, you can open your eyes again.", Skara whispers to him after a couple seconds, a slight chuckle in her voice.
There was no impact, he knows that much. And he doesn't feel dead either. He hears the rustling of leaves and the movement of roots, and he is still clinging tightly to his best friend. He risks a glance.
"Whoa...", he marvels, "Where are we?"
"Welcome to the underground. Literally.", Willow explains, "I just discovered this spell by accident too. Didn't think it would have worked originally."
"Well, I never doubted you.", Skara remarks.
"Sure.", Willow rolls her eyes, a smile on her face. "We're almost there. Skara, do you want to get some things from your house?"
"No, thanks. I don't need anything.", she lies. In truth, she just doesn't want to leave her friends alone.
"Okay. Then we'll have to slow down a bit and go up quite steeply. We'll come out in my front garden.", Willow explains. Skara nods and does as she is told.
They pull their staffs up steeply and only seconds later they find themselves no longer surrounded by leaves and roots as they break through a layer of grass and flowers that Willow's dad has planted in their front garden. The three of them shoot out of the ground at a still high speed and are forced to make a high turn to slow down. As they come around and see what's happening below them, Willow's stomach drops.
"DADS!", she yells in shock. Because instead of being safe inside the house, she finds them outside, surrounded by metal demons on both sides of the street, fighting. Gilbert has hewn walls out of the ground on either side of her house, while Harvey tries to control several Abominations at once. And it's not looking good.
Willow, Gus, and Skara quickly rush to them. While still in flight, Willow creates a magic circle with which she causes powerful thorny plants to shoot out of the ground, which then strike each robot on one of the sides, knocking them out. Skara lands on the other side, summoning her gold-covered harp, with which she begins to play a melodic tune. A red aura surrounds the remaining demons and they freeze in place.
"Willow?", Gilbert asks happily yet in amazement as his daughter lands right in front of him.
"GO INSIDE!", Willow yells. "NOW!"
They do as she says and hurry into the house. Skara follows them slowly walking in reverse as she continues to play her tune throughout. Gus is the last to sprint past her, at which point she also turns and runs into the house as well. As soon as she arrives inside, Willow slams the door shut and grows massive creepers both in front and behind it as an extra barrier between them and the metal demons.
"Willow, where the Titan's name have you been?", Harvey demands to know.
"And what's going on out there? What are those things?", Gilbert wants to know.
"We tried to go looking for you, but-", Harvey wants to continue, but is interrupted by his daughter.
"The Isles are under attack and you have to get out of town, now!", she insists. The two fathers look at her in surprise.
"What do you mean, under attack?"
"Mr. Park-", Skara begins, "You can ask all the questions you want, but you really need to get out of town as soon as possible. Those things you saw out there have overrun the city. They're attacking everything and even kidnapping people."
"They got my dad.", Gus adds silently.
"Please...", Willow pleads to them, "Please grab everything you can. You have to go now!"
"No.", Harvey puts his foot down, "We have to go. Under no circumstances are we leaving you here."
"Dad-"
"Don't argue!", he says, matching her energy, "Your Aunt Liz lives in Latissa."
"That's not an option.", Skara interjects, "Every major city is under siege. You have to go off the grid."
"We can figure something out in a minute. First you have to pack. And then we'll figure it out.", Willow interjects, which their fathers seem content with for now.
"All right.", Harvey says with dissatisfaction in his voice, "We'll go pack right away."
He and Gilbert leave the three friends to pack their bags. The three remaining friends sigh with relief.
"Are your dads always like this?", Skara wonders.
"Not necessarily.", Willow replies, "They're usually more cooperative.", she chuckles.
The three of them suddenly feel a slight vibration. They look at each other in confusion. Skara is the only one who recognizes what the source of it is, because after a moment of rummaging she pulls out a business card.
"It's from Liwin. they found safe place.", she explains.
"Who is Liwin?", Gilbert asks as he rejoins the others with a pack on his back. The three of them almost jump out of their skins.
"PAPA! You can't sneak up on me like that!", Willow shouts, yet a smile graces her face. He laughs at that. "Whatever... Liwin is... a friend of Luz's. We can trust her."
"Okay, if you say so sweetie.", he replies before taking a step forward and pulling Willow into a tight hug. "I'm glad you're okay. All of you."
"Thanks Gilbert."
"Thank you, Mr. Park."
A short moment later, Harvey rejoins the others, carrying a small suitcase. At the exact same second, the five of theirs notice something trying to break down the front door.
"That's our sign. We have to leave!", Willow says.
"But how? There are these things in front of the door...", Gilbert argues.
"Into the living room.", Willow orders them, "Move the table and the carpet."
"Why?", Harvey asks as he and his husband clear the coffee table from the center of the room, as well as the rug underneath. The banging on the front door gets louder, it doesn't seem to be holding much longer.
"If we get through this, we'll need a new floor.", Willow explains in an apologetic tone. Before either of her parents can comment on this, Willow creates a glowing green magic circle, and a total of five giant leaves shoot out of the parquet floor, encircling each of them individually, and pulling them into the ground with all their might.
"They're gone.", Steve announces, just as Willow, Skara, and Gus have disappeared into the floor, "In an impressive way I might add."
"Good.", Liwin breathes a sigh of relief, "As much as I appreciate these kids, they really shouldn't be here."
"With all due respect Diane, but I owe these kids my freedom.", Ruby speaks up, "Not necessarily the plant girl and the small one, but you know what I mean."
"Not only that-", Katya speaks up, "But we still don't know if Luz and Amity made it out."
"Regardless, we're facing gigantic problems.", Raine speaks up.
"Heh, just escaped from prison and already completely involved again.", Katya jokes, at which Raine blushes slightly. They just shake their head slightly.
"Please focus, Katya.", they say sternly, "I mean what I said earlier. We have to get out of the city. Somewhere where we can hide and plan our next steps in peace. Does anyone have any ideas?"
The group lapses into silence for a moment.
"What about our old hideout near Latissa?", Ruby suggests, "When the Emperor's Coven caught me there, everything was cleared out and taken, but it should be out of the danger zone."
"Old warehouse, it's noted. What else?", Liwin asks, "Did the BATS happen to have any hiding places?", she asks Raine, Katya, and Derwin alike.
"None that were this far outside the cities.", Derwin speaks up for the first time since entering the clinic.
"We had a hideout in Latissa, near the police precinct, and one here in Bonesborough in the lower part of town, near the coast.", Katya explains, "The latter was Amber's apartment. Titan, I hope that girl is safe."
"Okay, so it's just the warehouse so far.", Liwin summarizes until a sudden thought occurs to her. "I have another idea, but I'd have to contact someone first. It's a villa, quite a way out of town, not far from the Batqueen forest."
"The Batqueen?"
"It's not hers, if that's what you think.", Liwin clarifies. She looks around once in search of reactions. The others either nod hesitantly or shrug their shoulders indifferently.
Liwin leaves the room to make her call. It takes about five minutes, during which she paces up and down in an adjoining room, trying to convince the person at the other end of her plan. After these five minutes, she returns to the others, who have already been eagerly waiting for her.
"We have to go.", Liwin proclaims, "We're leaving immediately. Everything is already prepared for us there. We'll let the others know as soon as we get there."
A collective nod goes round and they leave the room. Katya and Raine stay a moment longer as she supports them in getting up and walking.
"Feels good not to have to make all the decisions anymore, doesn't it?", Katya asks teasingly. Raine smiles at that.
"From what I've seen so far, she seems like a good leader.", Raine replies, as the two of them slowly make their way to the others, "Definitely better than I was."
"Don't put yourself down. You were great.", Katya nudges them, "It wasn't your fault we got caught. Don't beat yourself up about it."
"Yeah... I'll try."
"Okay, are you all ready?", Liwin asks the group.
"Ready for what?", Steve speaks up, wondering why they're standing on broken tiles surrounded by dirt. Several eyes eyeing him.
"Oh, you're going to hate this.", Ruby chuckles at him, "We're ready!"
All of them can hear a cut off scream from Steve's direction as all of them are completely swallowed up by plants.
The whole process took just under ten minutes in total before they experience fresh air again, as well as the sun's rays through the disintegrating cocoons. Most of them are already used to this type of transportation and therefore emerge from their cocoons quite comfortably. Steve, however, pushed himself against his prison with all his strength and landed face first on the ground outside.
"HA!", Ruby laughs at him mockingly, "Told you you'd hate it."
Suddenly, a new person approaches the group.
"Diane, you're finally here. I'm so glad you guys-", she holds her breath, audibly gasping, "Raine Whispers, is that you?"
Raine has to blink a few times to adjust to the sudden sunlight before they realize who has just spoken and is now approaching them.
"Mrs. Clawthorne?", they ask in surprise before they find themselves in a hug.
"Oh my dear child...", Gwendolyn refuses to let go, as Raine returns the unexpected hug, "I'm so glad to see you. It's been soo long... Time seems to have been good to you."
"Heh, I can only return that."
Liwin suddenly speaks up as the reunion hug breaks up again. "You know each other?"
"Edalyn, my daughter...", Gwen explains, downing the mood on all three of them in an instant.
"I'm soo sorry about what happened.", Raine speaks gently, holding her hand, "I don't even want to imagine how big the loss must have been for you."
"Dell and I, we're... we're coping.", Gwen speaks, trying not to let on that her heart is hurting, "There's one person, though, who I know has been hit harder than anyone."
"I mean, sure, I miss Eda, but-"
"I'm not talking about you, sweetheart.", Gwen interrupts them, causing a confused expression on their face, "Tell me, did you know she had a kid?"
A clearing of the throat interrupts them both. They look up to see five pairs of eyes on them. "Oh, of course.", Gwen says, leaving the confused Raine behind, "Welcome everyone to the Clawthorne Estate. I'll help you in right away and show you where you can sleep. We have enough room for everyone.", she announces, before turning to Raine again, "And when I'm done, I'd like to show you something."
Katya comes to their side again and helps them to walk. Gwendolyn is already a few steps ahead, leading the others into their new accommodation.
The Clawthorne Estate is definitely reminiscent of the Owl House in terms of its design, but it is much larger, quirkier, and older. From the front, several things immediately catch the eye: Firstly, on either side of the main entrance, two four-meter tall owl statues, carved from solid wood, holding up a canopy. Secondly, several meters next to the main entrance is a round window in the wall, more than twice as wide as the front doors are high. Composed of colored glass, the window forms the shape of an eye gazing out over a small pond in front of it. Directly above the main entrance is a second such window, albeit in a slightly smaller form. The third thing that stands out is the absurd number and positioning of windows, roofs, and balconies. The estate has several roofs, either slanted or twisted in on themselves, it has windows that suggest the house has at least seven floors, and on almost every rooftop sits a small wooden figure resembling some kind of bird.
The twenty-five meter tall building is surrounded by trees that tower over the house in almost every direction. Only to the front and back is there a path through the forest that leads to and from the house and connects it to the rest of the world. It is a perfect hiding place. No one dares to go this deep into the forest inhabited by the Batqueen, and as long as no one looks directly into it from above, the area merely looks like a small, inconspicuous clearing, far enough removed from any civilization.
While Katya and Raine follow the others very slowly towards the main entrance, she looks over at them. They seem... lost in thought.
"A snail for your thoughts?", she offers. Raine blinks a few times in her direction.
"What?"
"Heh... You seem distracted."
"Not really. It's just... I haven't been here for a very long time.", they reply with a hint of nostalgia and sadness in their voice.
They remember a time about thirty years ago. Raine and Eda had just turned eighteen, and since their birthdays were quite close together, Eda had the weird idea of sneaking out of her parents' house in the evening and spending the night in the woods. She thought it would be a romantic date, but they were just scared and nothing else. As soon as the sun had gone, darkness took over the forest. Occasional moonlight shone through the leaves high above them, but the eeriest thing was definitely the noises and the constant feeling of being watched. The two fresh adults yet still teenagers eventually ran straight back into the brightly lit house where Eda's parents were already waiting for them. There was no scolding, mainly because shortly after the two, Hawksley, Gwendolyn's palisman came flying through the door. Eda was pissed that her mother was watching the two of them, but Raine was comparatively relieved. She tried to make up for it afterwards, but by then the night was already ruined. And despite everything that happened before or after that day, this is one of the memories they'll never forget.
"Wanna talk about it?", Katya asks, to which Raine only responds with a smile and a shake of their head.
The two of them are the last to step through the front door into a surprisingly cozy room, which perhaps serves as a dining room, based on the relatively large dining table parallel to a decorated rectangular window where eight comfortable-looking, upholstered chairs are placed. Raine gestures with their head to one of them, where Katya takes them straight there, helping them to sit down on it. The other members of the CATS stand in front of the table, their eyes fixed on Gwen and Liwin, who are standing at the top of the first half of a turning staircase that leads to the upper floor.
"Okay friends-", Gwen starts to speak, "Unfortunately we don't have enough beds in the house, however space itself is not a problem. I'll show you all where you can sleep in a moment and then I'll bring you pillows and blankets."
"And I'll go back to town and try to get the rest of us here, plus their families.", Liwin states. "When I get back, we need to sit down together and figure out exactly what to do next."
Liwin's voice, as always when she presents plans or gives a motivational speech, is serious, confident, and commanding, but not too harsh. This time, however, several cracks have appeared in her façade, and correspondingly in her voice. Cracks in her confidence. She is terrified and doesn't know what exactly to do, while at the same time trying to convey optimism.
Raine looks up at Liwin with a raised eyebrow as she descends the stairs and walks past them out the front door, while the others are invited up the stairs by Gwen.
"Come on, I'll give you the grand tour, and then you can make yourselves comfortable until the others are back.", Gwen offers, which almost everyone else accepts. Katya looks at Raine.
"You just go with them.", they speak with a friendly smile. Katya smiles back before joining the others for the tour, leaving Raine behind, relaxing alone in the room.
'Heh, as big as this house is, they won't be back for another thirty minutes. If not later...', they think amusedly, having been on the very same tour all those decades ago, in which Gwen explained every bit of history of this estate to them with an extremely annoyed Eda in tow. Everything from their ancestors from hundreds of years ago who carved the first palisman, to every single extension to the building, and almost all of their known family history. They breathe out, relaxed, and close their eyes for a moment, contemplating whether they want to take a nap, when suddenly the opening of a door sounds nearby.
"By the Titan... well, if my old, tired eyes don't deceive me. If it isn't Raine Whispers..."
Raine recognizes the voice immediately, even after all this time. They open their eyes and a smile graces their face.
"Hello Dell, it's good to see you.", they greet the newcomer. The old man comes out of an adjoining room with a walking stick and approaches Raine with a plate and spoon in his other hand. He places the plate directly in front of Raine and sits down on the chair opposite him with a thump.
"Eat. Gwen had told me that you probably hadn't eaten anything good in a while, so I made you some nice soup. It'll do you good, as bad as you look right now."
Raine laughs at his remark.
"It's just what I get for betraying the Emperor.", Raine replies jokingly, before returning his kind look with gratitude, "Thank you."
Raine picks up the spoon and tastes the soup, which tastes like the most delicious thing they've ever eaten. "Oh my Titan, this is delicious."
Dell smiles slightly at their compliment. "Oh, it's just a simple soup... It's been a while since you've had anything decent to eat, hasn't it?"
"I was lucky if I got something once a day.", they remember, "Twice, if the guards were having a particularly good day."
"I can see that...", with a shaky hand Dell reaches out to Raine's, "Don't worry. You'll recover quickly with us."
"Thank you for your hospitality, for taking us in like this. ... And... I'm sorry about Eda and Lilith."
Dell closes his eyes, a shaking breath escaping him. "Yeah... Me too."
For the next while, the two of them sit quietly together at the dining table. The only sounds are the occasional clink of the spoon against the plate and the soft tapping of the tour group walking through the corridors and rooms of the house. Some time passes before the knock on the front door interrupts the not particularly unpleasant silence. Dell gets up from his chair and walks slowly with his walking stick to the front door, where he can already make out a few voices.
"And you're really sure we're in the right place?", he hears through the door.
"For the sixth time, Dad, yes.", a female voice replies, apparently annoyed.
"But this house is soo... whoa..."
With a smile, he opens the door for the three teenagers and two grown men who are now standing directly opposite him.
"Welcome. We've been expecting you. Please, come in." The group does as asked and Dell closes the door behind them again, "Have a seat. Can I offer you something to eat? I've made some soup."
"Only if it's no trouble-", one of the men speaks up. Dell smiles and disappears back into the adjoining room while the others join Raine at the table.
"I'm glad to see you were able to get your fathers to safety in time.", Raine speaks to Willow, who doesn't look as relieved as they had expected.
"It was... close.", is all she says before the girl, who they remember as Skara, speaks up.
"Have Luz and Amity shown up here yet?", she asks.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm sorry.", Raine replies, at which they notice her and both their friends lower their heads in worry.
"Excuse me-", the man with the bald head and dark beard speaks up, "but you wouldn't happen to be Raine Whispers, the Head Witch of the Bard Coven, would you?"
"Former Head Witch, but yes, that's me.", Raine replies, at which the two men widen their eyes. They could swear that in just a second, the two men became far more nervous than they had been a second ago. "And what are your names if I may ask?"
"Oh, yes. I'm Harvey Park. This is my husband Gilbert. And this here is our daughter Willow, and this-"
"I know. I've already had the pleasure of meeting the.", Raine interrupts him, smiling slightly in an attempt to lighten his nervousness, "I owe them a lot."
"You... them?", Gilbert speaks up, confused.
But before he can ask any more questions, Dell re-enters the room with several plates of soup on a small trolley.
"Food is ready. Please, help yourself.", Dell speaks in a friendly tone before the others each take a plate and start eating.
"So, are you two also members of CATS?", Dell speaks up, pointing at Gilbert and Harvey, "I'm sorry, but I'm not quite in the loop."
"The what?", Harvey asks, confused.
"No, they're not. They're just my dads.", Willow replies, "It's just the three of us."
"I see...", Dell replies after a moment's pause.
"What are the CATS?", Gilbert speaks up. Willow sighs.
"Willow, please tell me it's just a book club or something!", Harvey demands.
"It's a good thing you're already seated, otherwise I would have asked you to sit down.", Raine starts talking, to which Willow gives them a grateful smile, "This all started when-"
"Andrias. Good, you're back."
Darcy stands before one of their lab tables in front of an organic mass that one can only guess what it used to be, their back facing the stairs that Andrias is descending surprisingly quietly.
"Did you enjoy your first strike?", they ask, their body still turned away from him.
"It couldn't have gone better. Not only was I able to find the documents you requested, but-", Andrias stops himself as he steps into a thick, sticky liquid. His gaze slides down, and he is overcome with feelings of disgust and nausea as he stares at all the blood and bile oozing from the pile of slaughtered and mutilated corpses piled up right next to him by the entrance. At Andrias' sudden silence, Darcy turns around, a sickening grin gracing their face.
"As you can see, we've already begun our experiments. And while it has been enlightening, it has not led to our desired goals."
Andrias does his best to ignore the pile of corpses and steps closer to Darcy. In the meantime, his gaze wanders to the empty cage at the side of the lab, which he tries not to pay any further attention to. Instead, he speaks up.
"To understand how the native species use magic?", he guesses.
"No, to break Yunan and tell us where Lady Olivia is hiding.", Darcy replies angrily. They take a deep breath, "The study of these creatures is proceeding as expected."
"If you don't mind me asking... Why is Lady Olivia so important to you? She hasn't proven to be a threat so far."
"The fact that she hasn't been caught yet is a huge vulnerability. If she manages to escape the castle with this knowledge..."
"I understand.", Andrias replies flatly, "In any case, the documents you requested are being transported to the throne room by the Frobots right now and transferred to your systems. All knowledge will be available to you at your next synchronization."
"Excellent."
"Is there anything else I can do for you, my lord?"
"Prepare the terraformers and drills. As soon as we know where the resources of this world are located, we will begin immediately.", Darcy orders. Andrias nods affirmatively and is ready to leave the lab again when Darcy stops him. "And prepare a new group of subjects. We only want the weakest."
"The weakest?", Andrias asks critically, visibly confused.
"You heard us. It's time to subject Yunan to another interrogation."
"Mister? Mister, please wake up. I'm scared."
"Uuuurrrggghhh...", with a heavy groan and a severe headache, Perry gradually regains consciousness. With a booming head, he slowly sits up.
"Careful, mister."
Perry opens his eyes after who knows how long and for the first time he takes in his surroundings. He is sitting on the floor of a cage, too small for him to stand upright. He glances around further, and quickly realizes that it is not night, but that he is in a rather large and rather dark hall, filled with metallic beings guarding many, many other cages besides his, most filled with other witches and demons, but also a few beasts held captive in larger cages.
Three cages next to him, Perry recognizes a full-grown Slitherbeast, which he has never seen in real life before. In horror, he watches as several metallic creatures gather around its cage and start shooting lightning bolts at it until it falls to the ground, completely exhausted. One of the creatures opens the cage door and puts several things on the Slitherbeast that look like purple collars. One around the torso, and one on each leg. Each collar begins to glow purple and from one moment to the next, the Beast seems to have lost all traces of its wildness. The Slitherbeast straightens up silently and calmly remains in its position. The metallic creatures close the cage door again and leave the area.
'What just happened?', Perry thinks to himself.
"Where am I? What happened?", he asks in a whisper.
"You don't know?"
Only now does Perry realize that the voice speaking to him is not only real, but belongs to a frightened little girl. She has arm-length black hair and is wearing a colorful floral dress, but no shoes.
"What's your name?", Perry asks. The girl hesitates for a moment.
"Natalie."
"Hello Natalie. My name is Perry.", he replies in a friendly voice, while the little girl merely fidgets nervously with her dress. "Are your parents here too?"
Natalie shakes her head slightly.
"I- I was playing in the garden with Kim. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen. It's family night tonight.", Natalie recounts in a low voice, "And then- and then these things came from the sky. They sprayed fire and took me away..."
'Oh that poor girl... I can't imagine her parents having survived that.'
"What do you think will happen to us?", Natalie suddenly snaps him out of his thoughts. She has crawled up next to him and is clinging tightly to his arm. He instinctively reaches out in an attempt to calm her down.
"You know, I have a son. He's about twice your age, and I sincerely hope he's not trapped in a cage like this somewhere as well.", Perry starts talking, "I'm fully convinced that he's out there somewhere, safe. Just like your parents. And I have no doubt that we'll see them again.", he watches Natalie's eyes slowly light up, a spark of hope appearing in her eyes, "We'll get out of here, you'll see."
Perry holds his arms open and Natalie immediately jumps in, accepting the comforting embrace.
'I hope you're safe, out there somewhere. By the Titan's name, I swear we'll see each other again. No matter what it takes.'
A surge in activity in the hall makes him sit up.
"NO! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM! YOU-"
Someone some distance away cried out, followed by an abrupt end and a loud bang. He presses Natalie closer to him.
The screams pile up, coming from all directions. Two cells to his right, Perry spots the metallic creatures opening a cage.
"NOT HER!", she hears an older man scream, "TAKE ME IF YOU WILL BUT SAVE HER!"
The creature grabs a child before the entire cage bursts into flames, burning everything and everyone inside alive. Suddenly a click sounds way to close for comfort.
'No'
The gate of his cage opens, and before Perry can react, a metallic claw shoots forward, grabbing little Natalie, and dragging her out of the cage. She screams like a maniac.
"NATALIE!", Perry yells with all his might, trying to reach for her. He only gets as far as the bars, which make his whole body tense up as he touches them. Only moments pass when Perry loses consciousness and falls flat on the floor. Natalie's panicked screams are the last thing he is able to hear.
"ALSA!", Liwin yells as she pounds her fist against the front door leading into the van Nejd's three-story home in the south of Bonesborough.
Liwin actually didn't come shooting out of the ground right in front of the house, but in a narrow side alley right next door to avoid enemy patrols. Earlier, she successfully tracked down Amber and got her to safety with the others before making her way to Kate and Doug's apartment, which was unfortunately fully burned down by the time she arrived.
"ALSA!", Liwin continues to pound until the door suddenly opens and a hand quickly pulls her inside before the door closes behind her.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Diane?", the slightly younger woman with short, wild, wine-colored hair yells at her angrily, "We're trying to hide from these- these things, and then you come in here and yell like a maniac!!!"
Alsa's fist is clenched tightly around Liwin's collar, and while the woman tries to compose herself a little, Liwin manages to catch a glimpse past her where she spots Alsa's wife Sarah, as well as her daughter standing at the bottom of a staircase, both of them wearing comfortable looking pyjamas, the latter looking a lot smaller than when they last met. Alsa leans her head slightly to one side.
"How bad is it?", she asks quietly.
"Only Kate and Doug are confirmed. Luz and Amity are probably safe, but currently out of range. The rest are safe with Gwen.", Liwin reports.
"I'm not just talking about our people.", Alsa says, not quite so quietly anymore. Before Liwin can answer, another voice speaks up.
"Alsa, honey. Who is that?", Sarah asks, at which Alsa sighs before turning to her family.
"Sarah, Boscha, this is Diane Liwin. My boss slash good friend."
"And here to get you out of town to safety.", Liwin adds.
"Oh please...", Boscha suddenly snaps, "Surely it's just some rebel group trying to seize power. Why should we leave the city for that?"
At that, Liwin suddenly feels anger rising in her.
"Oh, so you want to stay here?", she asks sarcastically, "Well, then stay here and watch the entire city's infrastructure collapse. Stay here and watch everyone you've ever known get kidnapped or killed on the streets."
"Diane."
"Stay here and watch those metal demons out there roam the streets day and night, just waiting to get you in their clutches."
"ENOUGH!", Alsa yells at her, and the whole house falls into silence. After a few moments, she turns to her family. "Sarah, Boscha, please pack a few things. We're leaving."
Alsa steps away from Liwin and hurries Sarah and Boscha up the stairs, while Liwin stays downstairs and observes the situation outside. Because admittedly, she has made quite a racket earlier, and would hate to be responsible for putting Alsa's family in danger.
A few minutes pass during which Liwin becomes increasingly nervous.
'Where are they?', she taps her shoes impatiently on the floor, while her gaze wanders out of the window every few seconds. Fortunately, the van Nejds come down the stairs at that very moment, each of them carrying a bag of different sizes, as well as wearing more appropriate clothing in the form of jeans and sweaters.
"Okay, we're ready. And how-"
"Shhhh.", Liwin shushes them before gesturing them to quietly walk up to her.
The others join her at the window, where they find several metal demons with weapons drawn, surveying the area just outside her front door. Liwin gives Alsa an apologetic smile, at which she only rolls her eyes. Instead, she gestures to the center of the room, to which Liwin nods in acknowledgement.
Alsa quietly positions herself and her family in the center of the room, and with a loud thump against the door, Liwin draws a magic circle. Mere milliseconds before her plant cocoons close completely, Liwin can catch the image of metal demons breaking down the front door and opening fire. Fortunately, all of them disappear into the ground quickly enough, hopefully before anyone has been hit by them.
The four of them arrive back at the Clawthorne Estate not long after.
"Fuck...", Liwin mutters, noticing a sharp pain in her side. She falls out of her cocoon onto her knees.
"DIANE!", she hears Alsa scream and rush to her side, "You're hurt."
"And it burns like shit!", she mutters through gritted teeth.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
Alsa glances at Liwin's hip, where a glowing hole has pierced smoothly through her body. And somehow her wound seems to be spreading and attacking her skin as well.
'What kind of weapon does that?', Alsa thinks to herself in disgust, before applying a powerful healing spell as well as an anesthetic spell to the wound. 'What the? Normally that's enough...'
The wound may be smaller, but whatever caused it to get bigger before is still there. Alsa draws a larger spell circle, and focuses it directly on the wound. It's definitely more tiring than usual.
Her spell breaks off when she hears Liwin exhale in relief. Alsa needs a moment to collect herself. Liwin puts her hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you.", Liwin says with a smile.
"What happened?", Sarah suddenly speaks up as Liwin struggles to stand up again. Deep down, she was expecting pain, but there was none.
"Metal demons broke down your door just before we escaped. I was closest to them, and I caught their weapon."
"You really weren't kidding...", Boscha mutters, her eyes wide. Liwin merely glares at her.
"Come on.", she begins as she helps Alsa up, "We should get you inside."
The four of them get up and make their way to the main entrance of the Clawthorne Estate. On the way there, Liwin could hear more than one astonished 'whoa' and 'wow'. Before she even reaches the door, however, she overhears angry shouts from inside.
"FOR THE LAST TIME WILLOW, I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!"
"WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST YOU AND ME?"
"IT'S DANGEROUS-"
"EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS RIGHT NOW!"
Liwin has heard enough of this argument as she grabs the doorknob and throws the door open with a bang, immediately bringing all the attention in the room to her and the new arrivals. In front of her, she finds a completely exasperated Willow arguing with one of her fathers. Sitting around her are Skara, Gus, another man, probably Willow's other father, as well as Katya and Amber, who she recently dropped off herself.
In this moment of tense silence, Liwin's gaze falls on Willow, who is staring angrily at something beside her. She follows her gaze, which falls on Boscha. Willow's father breaks the silence as he approaches Liwin, still furious.
"So you're this Liwin I've learned so much about?"
He speaks a little more quietly than before, but the anger in him towards her still boils up with full force.
"That's me.", she replies flatly, eyeing the man who appears to be slightly shorter than her. He glares daggers at her.
"I don't know who you think you are, that it's okay to abuse literal children for your terrorist organization. MY FUCKING OWN DAUGHTER!"
"Sir, this is not a terrorist organization, nor has anyone been abused. Willow, Gus, and Skara joined us voluntarily, with full knowledge of what they were getting into. And they are the most talented witches I have ever met."
"So it wasn't you guys who blew up the Conformatorium?", he demands to know, "Sounds like a fucking terrorist organization to me." Liwin sighs in annoyance.
"I don't have time for this right now...", Liwin mutters before drawing a magic circle in his direction. Mr. Park's eyes suddenly begin to feel heavy as well as his knees giving in as he is slumping to the ground. Liwin grabs him just in time before he bumps his head into something.
"Ms. Liwin?", the other man, presumably Willow's other father speaks up, "I want to apologize profusely for my husband."
"I understand.", Liwin replies with a tired smile, "I'll leave him in your care then."
He nods and sits down on the floor, where he places his husband's head in his lap, stroking it lovingly.
"Where is Gwen? I need to talk to her about where our new arrivals can stay.", Liwin asks the group.
"She's with Mx. Whispers behind the house.", Skara reports, "But she also said that we can sleep wherever there's room and that she'll just bring us pillows and blankets later."
"Very good, thank you.", Liwin replies, before disappearing behind a door and leaving the three van Nejd’s to their own devices.
"Everyone-", Alsa speaks up, "This here is my wife Sarah, and this is our daughter Boscha."
While most of those present greet the three sympathetically, Boscha turns her gaze towards Willow, Skara and Gus, who all stare at her with reproachful looks. Definitely reason enough to avoid them.
"So, what did you want to show me?", Raine asks after the two of them have been wandering through seemingly every corridor of the estate for a while. Dell had given them a walking stick for the moment to help them walk until they got their strength back.
"We'll be right there, don't you worry.", Gwen replies. Raine sighs, but doesn't stop.
The two of them stop in front of a door, which Raine remembers used to have a roofed pool behind it.
"What, do you want to go swimming?", they joke. Gwen smiles slightly at that before shaking her head.
"Things have changed a lot since you were last here."
Gwen opens the door, revealing a glass-roofed garden. Everywhere Raine looks, all kinds of plants are rising from the ground and the most beautiful, colorful flowers are growing on bushes. They notice a gravel path running through the garden, with a small stream of water on either side of the path. Raine is utterly awe-struck.
"You were right, this used to be our pool. But after Dell's... accident, and after he couldn't carve new palismen anymore, I wanted to give him something new."
"So you gifted him a garden?", Raine asks softly. Gwen reaches for their hand and together they walk slowly along the path.
"He grew and raised every single one of these plants himself. Most of them are local, but I brought many of them back from my many travels."
"Knowing you, you certainly didn't travel just to go on vacation, did you?", Raine wonders. Gwen nods slightly.
"I was trying to find a cure for Edalyn's curse.", Gwen admits quietly. Raine gives her a gentle look before continuing, "I've traveled all over the Isles and beyond for decades, all in search of anyone and anything who can help. Be it healer or shaman, be it a healing plant or a counter-curse, I've grasped at every thread that has revealed itself to me."
"And everything you found, you took with you."
"Every plant you see here is an attempt to help my daughter. And as beautiful as they are, each one represents my failure.", Gwen speaks grimly. Raine reaches for Gwen's hand, forcing her to stop.
"Please don't blame yourself.", Raine pleads to her, "You did everything you could have. I mean, if you had known who cursed her, maybe you could have gotten information from them."
They notice a tear rolling down her cheek. She motions for them to keep going.
"I do know who did it.", she mutters, "And that knowledge hurts my heart."
Raine's eyes widen in surprise before the two of them walk through an arch of flowery bushes to a small grassy area. At one end a bench, at the other-
"Lilith...", Raine mutters. Gwen closes her eyes and nods slightly. "But... How? When? Why- I mean, Eda was her own sister..."
"I wish I could answer your questions, my dear-", Gwen and Raine are now standing directly in front of Lilith's petrified form, which stands on a pedestal with an inscription:
Lilith - Our beloved daughter who left us far too soon. We deeply regret all the precious moments we missed together. May you find the love in your afterlife that we were unable to give you
Right next to her is another, yet empty pedestal. Also with an inscription:
Edalyn - In loving memory of our daughter and all the moments the curse robbed from our family. May you feel the joy of life in the afterlife that you were not granted in life.
"Come on, I want to sit down.", Gwen gently pulls them with her towards the bench and sits down.
"I... don't know what to say.", Raine takes a while to find any words at all.
"I wanted to see our family together one last time... We - I also tried to bring Edalyn here, but I was always denied...", Gwen says in a sad tone, "You say I shouldn't blame myself, but who else if not me?"
Raine reaches out for a warm hug, which Gwen is only too happy to accept.
"I miss her."
"Me too."
Some time passes, during which the two of them simply sit together in silence and enjoy each other's presence.
"Gwen, I need to ask you something.", Raine speaks up. She looks up at them curiously. "You said earlier that Eda had a child..."
At that, Gwen unexpectedly starts laughing briefly, confusing Raine in the process.
"Yes, that's what I said, but it's not what you think it is.", Gwen replies, leaving Raine still confused, "Her name is Luz. You've probably heard that name before."
"Yes, several times actually.", Raine replies, at which Gwen just nods.
"I had a chance to talk to her for a while, and she was probably closer to Edalyn than the two of us together. When- it- happened, she was there, trying to do everything in her power to save her. She even went so far as to attack Belos personally."
"She would never have stood a chance..."
"Don't be so sure, dear.", Gwen speaks with a knowing tone, "Sooner or later you'll meet her. But for now, let's go back to the others, all right?"
"Okay."
A good few hours have passed since Boscha and her moms entered the Clawthorne's house, and at first she was absolutely overwhelmed by the sheer size, considering that only two people live here, even though thirty people could easily live here. And currently do.
At the moment, Boscha is lying on a lounger on the balcony on the third floor, having just watched the sun set behind all the trees while the first stars gradually appear in the sky.
The air around her is also starting to get cooler, and she's thinking about going back inside, if she wasn't out here trying to avoid everyone and basically hide from the world. After all, that's what she deserves after all she's done, right?
A knock on the glass door to the balcony terrace brings her out of her thoughts and back to reality. Her mother Sarah is standing at the door.
"What do you want, mother?", Boscha asks with barely any venom in her voice.
"Aren't you cold out here, sweetheart?"
"I'm fine.", she replies unconvincingly. Fortunately, her mother knows her well enough to know when to just leave her alone.
"Alright.", her mother replies after a silent sigh, "I just wanted to let you know that your mom and the others are having some kind of meeting and I'm going to go to sleep in our room."
"You do that. Sleep tight."
"Love you, honey."
"Love you too.", Boscha calls after her before the latching of the door lets her fall back into her lonely hell. She leans back in her lounger and stares up into the rising night sky. She thought about scrolling soullessly on Penstagram in the meantime, but when she received dozens upon dozens of hate messages after her stunt, that died as an option for now.
"UUURRRRRRGGGHHHH!", Boscha groans, but less out of annoyance and more out of boredom. With a swing, she sits up straight.
'If I don't have anything to do anyway, I might as well eavesdrop on the morons at their stupid meeting.'
She stands up and walks lamely to the glass door, but not before the feeling of being watched creeps over her. A shiver runs through her whole body as she turns in shock towards the forest that surrounds the house. And for a fraction of a second, she could swear she saw several pairs of bright glowing eyes.
That she hurried back into the house in an instant comes as little surprise.
Boscha walks down the steps to the second floor before sitting down on the top steps of the staircase leading to the first floor, where the eleven present members of the CATS can be heard quietly but clearly.
"Okay, so everyone should be on the same page now.", Liwin explains.
"Too bad Kate and Doug didn't make it...", Boscha hears her mom's voice talking, sounding dejected.
"That, and we still have no sign of Luz and Amity.", she hears Skara explain, "Amity said they're safe, but we don't know where they are."
Boscha huffs at that annoyed. 'Of course Amity and her human are part of this too. What a surprise...'
"I texted with Amity again earlier, and she said that Luz seems to be pretty fragile at the moment, but will probably still try to come here tomorrow. Amity herself won't, though.", Gus reports, at which Boscha raises a curious eyebrow.
"Understandable.", her mother says, "Poor girl. I couldn't imagine what would happen if-"
'Something happened to Amity?', Boscha wonders in confusion before shaking her head, huffing in indifference, 'As if I care...'
"Well, without the intel those two got-", Liwin starts, but is interrupted by Willow.
"Plus what Luz can tell us about this Andrias guy.", she interjects.
"Yeah, that too. Without that, I'm afraid there's not much we can do right now. So I suggest we postpone this meeting until tomorrow and we all get a good night's sleep, because by Titan, all of us deserve that after this day."
After hearing everyone agree and starting to come up the stairs in her direction, Boscha gets up in a slight panic and hurries to her room, where her mother is already fast asleep. Boscha takes a deep breath before lying down in her sleeping bag, giving her plushie, which she has rescued from home, a kiss and hugging it close to her chest.
She closes her eyes and tries to drift off to sleep when she suddenly overhears familiar voices from the other side of the wall.
"Was it just me, or what was that Boscha at the top of the stairs?", she hears Gus's voice through the wall.
"No, I saw her too.", Skara confirms.
"What's she doing here anyway?", Willow asks with uncharacteristic amounts of venom in her voice.
'Of course the three of them are back together... ugh'
"You know exactly why she's here. Alsa is her mother, and she wants her family to be safe.", Skara replies with probably more understanding than Boscha deserves.
'You go, girl.', Boscha cheers at her inwardly, though somewhat surprised at her response.
"But I just don't get it.", Willow speaks up again, sounding infuriated, "How can a woman as nice and kind as Alsa be a mother to a piece of shit like Boscha?"
Boscha doesn't respond, but continues trying to listen. She hears Skara's voice again.
"I-I don't know.", the bard witch replies, leaving Boscha dejected, "Until last week, I would have said she was just a complicated person."
"And today?", Gus asks. Skara ponders for a moment.
"We all know what she did. I don't regret for a second cutting her out of my life. I mean, imagine what would have happened if I'd been as loyal to her as Cat, then maybe I'd be in a coma right now and not her..."
Boscha suddenly notices a knot forming in her throat, alongside regret filling her mind once again. Just as it has been for her since that day.
"Do you think she feels guilty about what she did?", Gus wonders, "Or even remorseful?"
Her inner voice remains silent at this accusation, while her gaze wanders down to her wrist. She raises her sleeve a little, where she stares at her glowing sigil.
"Didn't you see her walk in here with her moms earlier?", Willow replies, "Never in her life has that girl ever felt guilt or remorse for her actions."
Boscha suddenly notices how her vision begins to blur slightly as tears begin to form in her eyes. But Willow continues.
"I'm just glad she hasn't dared to open her mouth and come at me with some stupid shit since she's been here. I swear I wouldn't have held back."
"Yeah...", Skara adds, seemingly agreeing to Willow's statement, as it seems like the conversation has ended.
"I miss my dad.", is the last thing Boscha hears before she decides to move her sleeping bag away from the wall, incomprehensible tears falling from her face to the floor. It takes a long time before she is exhausted enough for her body to finally allow her to fall asleep.
"When do you think Yunan will be back?"
"Shut up!"
"I'm just saying that she's been gone for a while now. Probably several hours now."
"I said shut your fucking mouth, for frog's sake!", Grime yells at Toadstool, at which the toad appears to be taken aback.
"Why so mad, Grime?", Toadstool asks, wondering how much he can continue to tease the former captain until he snaps at him. Grime sighs at that.
"Five hours.", he says quietly.
"Huh?"
"They took her five hours ago.", Grime clarifies. Toadstool is confused.
"How do you know that?"
"Been counting.", Grime replies as if that explains everything.
"I'm worried, you know?"
"Really??", the former captain asks skeptically.
"Don't screw with me, I'm serious.", Toadstool replies, annoyed, "That thing literally tortured people to death last time-"
"Don't remind me!"
"My point is that I don't think even someone like Yunan could go through something like that again."
"You know her reputation, Toadstool. Absolutely nothing can hurt her."
"Not physically, that's probably true. That's probably why the thing isn't torturing Yunan directly for information. It wants to break her psychologically. I'm sure you wouldn't do anything differently in the same situation- ufff"
Grime stands directly in front of Toadstool, who has just rammed his fist into his stomach with full force.
"Never compare me to that monstrosity ever again!", he threatens him.
The argument between the two toads comes to a swift end as they hear noises from outside their cell.
"Changing of the guards?", Toadstool asks, at which Grime shakes his head after pressing an ear against the cell door, listening.
"Two Frobots, and something smaller. That thing, probably.", Grime guesses, "They're dragging something behind them."
They stop right in front of the cell, at which Grime instantly retreats. The cell door snaps open, and the two Frobots throw Yunan's body into the cell, leaving a very pleased-looking Darcy standing in the doorway.
"Thank you, General.", they grin wickedly, blood covering almost their entire body, their orange glowing eyes looking directly at Grime and Toadstool, "The information she has given us will prove most valuable."
And with that, the cell door closes with a loud bang and Grime and Toadstool immediately rush to Yunan, whose whole body seems to be trembling.
"Yunan, what happened?", Grime tries to reach out, but when his arm touches her shoulder, she jerks violently away from him, her gaze trembling. He cautiously removes his hand. He wants to say a few comforting words to her, but before he can even think of what to say, Yunan rushes to her feet and sprints to the hole in the corner of the cell that serves as a toilet, loudly emptying the contents of her stomach before she begins screaming and collapses, violently sobbing. Grime and Toadstool exchange pitying looks before wordlessly deciding to let Yunan come down and let it all out before asking what happened. Though if they were honest, they already know the truth. This thing broke her.
Some time passes, filled with nothing but violent sobs, cries, and screaming. At first just minutes passed, then hours, until Yunan eventually managed to calm down and become a little quieter. Over time, her cries and sobs were replaced by a kind of mumbling that neither Grime nor Toadstool could understand at first.
"... Finley. Charlotte. Nate. Sven. Sal. Diego. Natalie. Rogue. David. Edmond. Svenja. Suri. Lyla. Brooke. Nori. Laura. Daniel. Lily. Annika. Liam.", she mutters over and over again. Grime and Toadstool look at her worriedly as she lifts her head for the first time and looks at them with a trembling, tear-filled gaze. "They're all dead.", she whispers.
"Who are-"
"THEY WERE JUST CHILDREN!", Yunan yells with all her might at which the two toads widen their eyes before the newt bursts into tears again.
It doesn't take much imagination to put one and one together to imagine what the general has had to endure over the last couple of hours.
"No wonder she's so wrecked.", Toadstool mutters barely audibly, his gaze locked onto Grime's. He turns to her.
"So you told them everything?", he asks, at which she merely nods.
"I- I-", Yunan stutters between sniffles, "I was hoping to save the children... I told everything. Everything I knew."
"And it didn't make a difference?"
Yunan shakes her head slightly.
"And Lady Olivia?", Grime asks.
"Doesn't matter anymore.", Yunan replies, her voice devoid of any energy, "If she's smart, which she is, she's already gone."
"And the plan? If you told that thing everything-", Toadstool asks, at which Yunan shakes her head.
"I never knew the plan.", Yunan admits. A moment of silence fills the cell.
"What exactly do you mean with 'she’s gone'?"
"Mittens... Mittens, wake up.", Alador gently shakes Amity's shoulder, who is lying on the couch wrapped tightly around her girlfriend, fast asleep.
"mmm...", Amity's face contorts as she's slowly waking up, "Dad?", she asks in a sleepy voice, "What's wrong? Why are you waking me up?"
"The sun will be up soon.", he explains in a whisper, "And we still have a long way to walk before we get home."
"No, we don't.", Amity replies as she slowly untangles herself, trying not to wake up Luz. Alador looks at her in confusion. Amity sits up straight, and after making sure Luz is still asleep, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of paper, which she shows to her father. He is still confused, but curious. "This is a shortcut that will take us straight to Blight Manor."
"A piece of paper?", Amity rolls her eyes at that.
"Let me show you."
Quietly, the youngest Blight gets up and leads Alador to the main entrance, which exits outside into the lightly snow-covered ground. A single lantern hangs on the outside of the cabin, illuminating a small area just outside the door.
The air outside is quite cold, which is hardly surprising given the time of day. Amity holds the drawing before drawing a purple circle of magic, and using Abomination fluid she draws the same glyph one-to-one in the snow. Bit by bit, a complex glyph with a diameter of almost three meters is drawn into the snow. Alador watches her curiously.
"And what exactly is that?", Alador asks after Amity has finished her spell, observing the glyph in its entirety.
"It's Luz's teleport glyph.", Amity explains, "Don't ask me how exactly it works, but it'll get us straight home. And if you want, we could leave right now."
"And you're sure you know exactly how to use it?", he asks with a slight doubt in his voice.
"Yes, Dad. Luz explained it to me."
Alador looks thoughtfully back and forth between Amity and the glyph in the snow for a few moments. He sighs in acceptance.
"Okay, I'll go check on Emira. She insisted on not leaving your brother's side."
Amity contorts her face in disgust at that. "Won't he start to smell at some point?"
"I thought so too."
Alador turns away to re-enter the hut, leaving Amity standing outside for a few minutes, until she begins to shiver due to the cold, and also re-enters the hut, closing the door behind her.
Amity passes the stairs to the upper floor, from where she can hear quite a bit of commotion.
"NO!", she hears Emira yell, followed by a loudly slamming door, and muffled, violent sobs.
"Emira! Open the door!"
"YOU'RE NOT TAKING HIM!"
"Emira."
'Yeah, better not interfere.', Amity thinks to herself and continues into the lounge, where Luz is still fast asleep on the couch. Amity exhales in relief at the sight before sitting down beside her. As if by instinct, Luz's arm reaches out and grabs Amity's waist, hugging her. Despite her slight surprise, a smile appears on her face and she strokes Luz's hair tenderly. Her smile fades seconds later and she looks sadly at her sleeping girlfriend.
The two of them remain in this position for a while until the background noise from above gradually subsides. She takes her hand off Luz's head.
"Don't stop...", Amity hears Luz whine softly, her eyes still closed. Amity smiles at that sight.
"Hey, you're awake...", Amity speaks softly.
"No talky, more head-scratchy."
Amity does as she's asked, at which Luz just humms happily. A sound that melts her heart instantly. She continues for a few minutes.
"How are you feeling?", Luz asks her, eventually. Luz sits up straight, before hugging Amity from behind.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? After all, you've knocked yourself out pretty badly.", Amity asks, at which Luz shakes her head.
"I asked you first."
"Okay.", she relents, "Honestly, I don't know. I mean, I'm glad that you are safe, but apart from that..."
"You feel numb?"
"Kinda. I don't know..."
"Yeah, it often takes a while for the realization to sink in.", Luz explains.
"So, how are you doing? How do you feel?", Amity now asks, changing the unpleasant subject.
"Better. More awake.", Luz replies, before Amity stands up and turns to her.
"Can you stand up for me?", she holds her hands out to her. Luz accepts them without hesitation and rises from the couch, only to fall into Amity's arms moments later.
"Careful."
"Sorry, sorry.", Luz apologizes. A few seconds later, Luz stands upright in front of her, still holding her hands. For Amity, however, that's good enough.
"Great.", she exclaims, "Otherwise my abomination would have had to carry again."
As if on cue, Luz's legs give way and she drops to the floor. Amity laughs lightly at that, which also makes Luz smile in return.
"Oh no, my legs. They were still working a moment ago... Now I'll have to be carried..."
"Heh, I think I would have carried you anyway.", Amity admits, before summoning an Abomination to gently pick Luz up off the ground.
"Yay.", she says, kicking her feet slightly, before her mood abruptly dims down, "Oh by the way, how are Emira and your dad coping?"
As if the universe wants to answer this question for her, the two of them watch Alador descend the stairs with Edric's lifeless body in his arms, followed by Emira, who looks like she's been crying the whole time. When she spots them, she gives Luz an angry and reproachful stare before following her father.
"What was that?", Luz asks, at which Amity merely shrugs her shoulders.
Amity leads the abomination carrying Luz outside, where Emira and Alador are already waiting for them.
"You must stand on the glyph. But try not to step on the lines.", Amity explains. Luz smiles at her, happy that she remembers. They do as told, before Amity kneels down in the snow, right at the edge of the teleport glyph. She takes a deep breath, trying to clear her head and focus on her destination. The image of Blight Manor pops into her mind. She leans forward and hammers both her hands into the snow, activating the glyph. The drawn lines quickly begin to glow, and before she knows it, a bright, blinding light surrounds all of them.
When the light fades again, they no longer find themselves in a dark forest surrounded by snow, but directly in front of Blight Manor. But also in the dark.
"It worked.", Amity celebrates. Luz chimes in as Emira suddenly storms into the house and slams the door loudly behind her, startling the others. The two girlfriends hear Alador sigh exhaustedly before speaking up.
"Thank you two.", he turns to them, "I have to take care of... things now."
"Dad?", Amity asks concerned, at which he faces her. "Are you okay?"
He looks down at the boy in his arms, at which Amity immediately realizes how stupid her question actually is.
"As long as you and Emira are okay, I'm okay.", he says, before slowly entering the house as well. Luz and Amity look at each other in confusion, given the state Emira was in earlier. Luz shifts herself to sit upright, prompting Amity to let her down onto the ground on her own feet. She takes her by the hand and they follow the others in, closing the door behind them.
Standing in the doorway to the living room, they see neither Emira nor Alador around. What they do hear immediately is the sound of breaking glass, furniture being destroyed, and the eerily loud cries of desperation coming from the direction of Emira's room. Again, they exchange worried glances before making their way there. Luz knocks on their door.
"Emira, are you okay?", she asks. The noise stops abruptly. The door opens and a furious Emira steps out, grabbing Luz by her throat, pushing her against the railing.
"HOW DARE YOU ASK ME HOW I'M DOING? IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT MY BROTHER IS DEAD!", she screams at her, before finding herself grabbed by an Abomination and thrown back into her room. It slams the door shut and freezes in front of it for safety. Staring straight ahead, Luz lets herself slide along the railing to the floor.
"Luz? Luz!", Amity's voice is filled with panic, "Did she hurt you? I swear to titan, if she-"
"I'm okay.", Luz replies quietly. Nevertheless, Amity notices a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She kneels down beside her, facing her, and wipes a tear from her face.
"Come on, let's go to my room."
Amity helps Luz to stand up, casting a passing glance at her throat in search of traces of the attack. Relief washes over her when she finds none. Amity supports Luz up to her room, where she sets her down on her bed.
As soon as Luz is seated, however, she takes out her scroll and opens her contacts.
"You wanna call someone?"
"Viney.", Luz answers before starting the call.
"Do you even know how early it is?", she recognizes the tired, annoyed face of the healer witch on her scroll, "We may be hiding, but sleep is still important."
"It's about Emira.", Luz gets straight to the point, "She needs you. Now."
"Luz, it's nice that you care about my relationship, but-"
"Edric is dead."
The line remains silent for several seconds.
"What?"
"There was nothing more I could do for him. Please Viney, I know it's early, and you and your family are-"
"I'll be right there."
The call ends abruptly. Luz stares at her scroll for a few seconds before rolling it up and tucking it away. She leans her head on Amity's shoulder, sighing.
"Are you sure you're okay?", Amity asks, "I can tell something's bothering you."
"She's not wrong.", Luz replies, her gaze fixed on the floor.
"Emira... or Viney?", Amity asks, secretly already knowing the answer.
"Emira. She's right. It's my fault..."
"No, it's not.", Amity states clearly, "You did everything in your power to save him. And I mean everything."
Luz shakes her head at that. "That's not what I mean."
Amity raises a confused eyebrow at her. She continues.
"Andrias.", Luz says, "He only knows about the Boiling Isles because of me."
"How?"
"Through Marcy. We- we saw her... I think.", Luz thinks for a moment, "When I was in Amphibia, I told her everything about this world, everything I knew and loved, and she just-", she cuts herself off.
"You know very well that what we saw wasn't Marcy.", Amity recalls, "You told me she was an incredibly friendly, helpful, and definitely nerdy girl. I actually imagine her being somewhat like you, from everything you've told me."
"So she really is about to destroy the world I love, or what? That she's really dead? Her body possessed by some... thing?", Luz asks, her mind somewhat panicking.
"We don't know.", Amity answers firmly, "But you definitely can't blame yourself for all this. You could never have guessed that this could happen."
Luz frowns at that. "I guess..."
"Do you want to try sleeping again for a few hours?", Amity asks, trying to distract her from her thoughts.
"No, I'm too awake for that.", she replies, a smile creeping onto her face, "But I wouldn't mind watching the sunrise with you."
"Okay."
The two girls each grab a cozy blanket and leave the room again. They pass Emira's room, from where they can hear Viney's voice.
'Wow, that was really quick...'
They walk through the living room, past the stairs to Alador's lab and the kitchen, and then up the stairs to the roof terrace, where they sit warmly snuggled up on two comfortable seats, looking out into the horizon.
For about thirty minutes, until the first shades of light appear on the horizon, the two girls remain in an extremely comfortable silence, simply enjoying each other's presence and warmth.
Suddenly, Amity has a thought, throwing both of them back to reality.
"I almost forgotten: I was texting with Gus, roughly telling him what happened. The CATs are apparently all safe, and trying to come up with some sort of plan against Andrias."
"Oh? That's good.", Luz comments, sounding absent-minded.
"Do you want to go to them later and tell them what we saw?", Amity asks.
"You don't want to go?"
"I should stay here. Em and Dad are definitely not well. And I want to be there for them.", Amity replies, to which Luz nods respectfully.
"And are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?"
"Yes. The CATs need your knowledge of Andrias, and I... need some time to think.", Amity says quietly.
"Okay.", Luz agrees, her voice soft, "But that can wait a few more hours. They're probably not awake yet anyway..."
A few hours pass, during which Luz and Amity simply watch the sunrise. They talked a bit more about their friends, about them having made it to safety, until at some point they did get up and Amity accompanied Luz to the main entrance.
"Have you got your teleport glyph?", Amity asked.
"Yes, Ammy.", Luz replies, showing her the glyph for the third time since she drew it.
"Okay, I just want to make sure that you-"
"- that I don't use my magic until I'm fully recovered. I know.", Luz finishes her sentence before pulling her close for a brief kiss.
"Sorry, I'm just worried.", Amity replies as the kiss breaks up again.
"I know. I love knowing that you care.", Luz says with a soft smile on her face. Amity has the urge to kiss her again when suddenly there is a series of explosions in the direction of the nearby forest. The two girls' eyes immediately turn to the sky, where they see a swarm of flying Frobots flying over the forest.
Luz narrows her eyes.
"They're shooting at each other?", she asks, confused. Amity turns to face her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yes, but please don't do too much."
Amity draws a purple magic circle while golden lightning flashes dance across Luz's arms. Abomination vines burst from the ground in front of them, shooting rapidly towards the fleeing Frobot. At the same time, some of the trees begin to glow slightly, their branches shooting skywards and destroying one Frobot after another.
Amity's Abomination vines encircle the fleeing Frobot, pulling it quickly to the ground, directly towards them until it slams into the ground with a loud bang.
"Stop.", it speaks, "I surrender."
Luz and Amity stop in their tracks in utter confusion.
"What?", Luz whispers. Amity directs her Abomination slime to the Frobot's head, which she rips off with ease. There is a person inside the Frobot. "Lady Olivia???"
Amity creates a sharp abomination blade and presses it tightly against the Newt's throat.
"You know her, Luz?", the witch asks, her furious gaze never wavering from her target.
"We've met."
"Please, I'm not here to cause trouble. I want to help.", Lady Olivia pleads, not daring to move more muscles than necessary.
"You serve the king.", Luz states coldly, "Why should we believe you?"
"Not anymore. I managed to escape the palace.", Olivia explains, feeling the blade right against her skin, "After what he did to Amphibia, General Yunan and I broke away and worked on a plan to stop him and Darcy."
"You have a plan to stop him?", Luz asks incredulously. Olivia hesitates.
"... No.", she admits shamefully, "B-but I have knowledge of Andrias' plans. I know what they're planning, how they're set up, and I'm willing to share it all. That's why the other Frobots were after me. Andrias and Darcy must have found out about my escape plan..."
"Could be a trap.", Amity is definitely not convinced.
"Please, I'll do anything to stop them. Too many people have died already. Take me prisoner if you must, just please, let me help."
"As if you have a choice in the matter.", Amity threatens her. Luz places a hand on Amity's blade, pushing it carefully away from Lady Olivia. She turns to Luz. "You don't believe her, do you? She could be a spy."
"Even if she is, she has information I need.", Luz answers her before turning back to Olivia, "If you want us to trust you, we need proof. We saw Marcy, or whatever that was-"
"That's Darcy. An ancient being that has taken your friend's body as a host.", Olivia explains. Luz swallows at that information, now even more nervous about her next question.
"What about Anne? She originally had the Music Box. What about the Plantars? Are they okay?"
Olivia lowers her gaze, causing Luz's heart to ache.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know the details. I wasn't there when Andrias got the Music Box. And I'm afraid the bad news doesn't end there.", Olivia pauses briefly, "Not long after he got to the box, he launched a widespread attack on Frog Valley. He burned it all to the ground."
"What?", Luz asks in a low voice.
"Any survivors?", Amity demands to know.
"Possibly. Andrias built factories there that were repeatedly sabotaged. I assume there are still some survivors hiding somewhere."
"But you don't know who and where?", Luz asks heartbroken, at which Olivia merely shakes her head. "Andrias told us Anne was dead, but I refuse to believe that."
"You shouldn't believe anything that comes out of his mouth.", Olivia states firmly. Luz turns to Amity, who already knows what she wants to say.
"I know. And it might even help us.", she tells her with a knowing smile.
"What could help?", Olivia asks, at which Amity shoots her another hostile look.
"None of your business!", she snaps at her, before turning back to Luz.
"I might even have two ideas about what I could do differently next time.", Luz tells her, "But first we should get her out of this thing."
Amity nods at her. She draws two purple magic circles that lift the Frobot case out of the ground and split it in two at the seams, freeing Lady Olivia. Moments later, a pair of Abomination shackles form around each of her hands and legs, which causes her to drop to her knees.
"I'll take the pieces to Dad. Let's see what he can do with them.", Amity suggests, "And where are we taking her?"
"We're not leaving her here.", Luz says in a tone that Olivia doesn't like, "She wouldn't last long here."
"What's that supposed to mean?", Olivia asks.
"She lost her brother and mother at the beginning of the invasion.", Luz says, after which Olivia's eyes widen.
"I'm- I'm sorry for your loss.", she says, at which Amity just huffs.
"Save your breath."
"Ammy, I'll take her to the Owl House. Hooty can keep an eye on her there."
"Okay, good. The sooner she's out of my sight, the better.", Amity says with a heavy sigh, "And Luz? Be careful."
"I will. I'll see you later.", Luz says as Amity heads back towards Blight Manor. "Love you."
"I love you too.", Amity calls back, closing the door behind her.
Luz's gaze lingers on the door for a few more seconds before she turns back to Lady Olivia.
"I don't suppose you have any kind of flying device? Or are we walking to this... Owl House?", Olivia asks. Instead of answering, however, Luz grabs a stick and begins to draw a teleport glyph on the ground.
Once she's finished, she helps Olivia up and leads her straight onto it. Luz kneels down and activates the glyph, which surrounds them both with a bright light. With no sense of time having passed, the two of them find themselves in front of the Owl House.
"Whoa... How-"
"Magic.", Luz replies as she too sees a certain house demon.
"LUUUUZ!", Hooty exclaims, quickly slithering in her direction, and she wraps him in a warm and tight hug. "Luz, you're not going to believe this. While you were gone, I found a bug family on their way to vacation. But then a bird threatened them and, brave as I am, I let them seek shelter in my mouth. Being helpful was very delicious."
Lady Olivia looks back and forth between Luz and the demon with a disturbed expression on her face, not understanding how she doesn't go crazy over something like this. She leans a little closer to Luz.
"Umm... what exactly is that?", she asks, nudging her head towards Hooty.
"OH MY HOOT! A guest?", Hooty screams shrilly, at which Luz just chuckles.
"Hooty, this is Lady Olivia. Lady Olivia, this is Hooty, the loyal resident house demon.", Luz introduces them, her voice now far less hostile than it was a few seconds ago, "Hooty, please remove her shackles."
"Yes, ma'am!", he salutes(?), before biting through the abomination shackles.
"I am... confused. And disturbed, but mostly confused.", Lady Olivia confesses.
"Understandable. But come in first."
Luz leads her, accompanied by Hooty, into the Owl House. Once inside, Luz reaches into her jacket pocket, from where she pulls out a sleepy Owlbert.
"Hey, little buddy.", she caresses him as he slowly wakes up. His eyes widen as he spots Lady Olivia standing in the room, who is eyeing the furnishings and decorations with interest.
"Lady Olivia?", Luz calls out, catching her attention, "I have to leave for an important meeting. I don't know how long it will take or when I'll be back, but you'll stay here for the time being. There's a bathroom up the stairs, and down the hall there's a kitchen where you can help yourself. Owlbert here will let you know if you get too close to an area that's off limits to you."
"I see."
"I'm not done yet.", Luz interrupts her, "Don't try to contact anyone or leave the house. If you do, Hooty will eat you. Do we understand each other?"
Lady Olivia looks hesitantly at Hooty, who is chasing after a bird outside and makes it disappear in his beak with just one bite. She swallows hard before nodding, slightly intimidated.
"Very well. When I get back, we'll have a long talk."
Luz doesn't wait for an answer on her part, merely pulling a piece of paper from her pocket and closing her eyes before pressing it to her chest and vanishing into thin air in a glare.
'Absolutely remarkable...', she comments inwardly before her mind wanders off, 'Yunan, I hope you're okay. We will meet again. I know we will.'
Notes:
Btw: That image I used for the Clawthorne-Estate was originally just concept-art for the design of the Owl House. You can find it on the TOH-wiki: TOH Wiki / Owl House / Gallery / Designs
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Chapter 45: You might have left us, but you will never be truly gone
Summary:
The Blights are mourning. But luckily, they are not alone.
Notes:
Welcome everyone to what is the shortest chapter in over a year.
Also, I somehow managed to finish this chapter one week earlier than expected, so I thought: Fuck it. Why wait?
Hope you'll like it and I'll be back in 4 weeks for chapter 46
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Nothing but darkness fills her eyes as she opens them, still feeling really tired and overall just exhausted despite having slept for... no idea how long. Sleep did not come easily to her yesterday, probably because she has done little else in the last two days but sleep in order to regain the energy she wasted on her stunt yesterday in her desperate attempt to revi-
'No!', Luz shakes her head, 'It was not a waste. I'd do it all over again if I had to.', she thinks to herself in a firm tone. Admittedly, this prolonged feeling of complete exhaustion and powerlessness was anything but a pleasant feeling, as was the constraint of having to make do without her powers for the time being. Going back to using glyphs felt… weird. Luz wasn't happy about it, but in the end, Amity was probably right that it would have taken longer for her to finally regain her full strength otherwise. Not as if anyone other than Luz herself could say whether that was really the case again.
By now, Luz's eyes have become a little accustomed to the darkness and she lets her gaze wander through Amity's room, which is only lit by the faint moonlight shining through the windows. Right next to her, her gaze lands on the sleeping silhouette of her girlfriend. She watches her chest rising slightly and evenly with each breath. A smile creeps onto Luz's face.
Luz is incredibly happy that Amity fell asleep at all after Luz returned from the long meeting with the other CATs yesterday. In the meeting itself, Luz had gone into as much detail as possible about what she knows about Andrias and Darcy, as well as about her time in Amphibia, recounting what really happened at the meeting between Andrias and Belos, and learning about the state that Bonesborough and the Isles as a whole are in. For the time being, she had also kept Lady Olivia's appearance on the Isles a secret, at least until she managed to talk to her on her own. The meeting ended late and unfortunately without a grand plan to drive Andrias and Darcy out of the Demon Realm. The only plan everyone could agree on was to take out as many of the enemy forces as possible in small groups and try to prevent any more people from being kidnapped. Before Luz had set off on her trip back, she had simply announced that she and Amity would not be taking part in any missions for the foreseeable future, followed by an open invitation to the others. She also had a brief conversation with Gwen, who had told her that Raine Whispers would love to have a chat with her. But since they had apparently spent the day in a greenhouse, it wasn't going to happen that day.
Luz did not return to the Owl House that evening, but teleported straight back to Blight Manor. She was greeted by blood-freezing cries and sobs coming from both Amity and Emira, who had both locked themselves in Edric's room. With her heart breaking into a thousand pieces at those cries, her eyes fell on Viney sitting outside that room, at which she merely shook her head slightly at the younger girl. No words needed to be exchanged. Instead, Luz simply walked past her to Amity's room, only to find it trashed. She took some time cleaning it up as much as possible before deciding to get ready for bed.
Luz isn't sure exactly when she fell asleep, and only knows that Amity must have joined her in bed some time afterward.
As quietly as possible, Luz wriggles out of her blanket cocoon. While the two girls do share the same pillow on Amity's bed, they do have different blankets, simply due to different warmth requirements for them to actually fall asleep. Plus, Luz's blanket is several times heavier than Amity's.
Luz turns to reach for her scroll lying on a small bedside table next to her. She immediately regrets turning it on when a far-too-bright screen lights up, which Luz promptly turns down before returning to lie back down on her back.
4:29
'Ughh...', she groans inwardly. 'Just about five hours left.'
Luz opens Penstagram, only to find not a single new message or anything else of particular interest. She almost turns off her scroll when she recognizes something bothersome out of the corner of her eye. She tilts her scroll ever so slightly so that Amity's face is faintly illuminated. Luz's heart breaks at what she sees.
'She's crying even in her sleep...', she observes from the wet spot below her girlfriend's head. 'I wish I could take your pain away. I wish- … Wait... Didn't Lilith...? No...'
Luz squeezes her eyes shut, trying to remember what Lilith had once told her all that time ago. Which spell, to be precise.
'Something about... pain being shared?', she ponders, 'But not just physical pain, right?'
Luz shuts off her scroll and puts it aside again before turning to her thoughts, pondering how she can relieve her grieving girlfriend of her pain.
She remains so deep in her thoughts that she doesn't even notice the sun rise and brighten Amity's room over time. Only when she hears a loud, shrill screech does Luz snap out of her thoughts.
7:45. Amity's alarm clock.
Luz turns her head to the side, where she can see Amity slowly waking from her sleep in real time. She contorts her face, which causes Luz to smile slightly. She sits up and half crawls over her girlfriend to reach her alarm clock to press the snooze button before pulling herself back to lie next to her, but not before giving her a good morning kiss on her nose.
"Good morning, hermosa.", Luz says, trying to force a smile on her face, not wanting to look at the pillow underneath her.
When Amity opens her eyes and sees Luz right in front of her, a sad smile graces her face.
"I bought you another fifteen minutes.", Luz explains, "How did you sleep?"
Amity's smile disappears completely at that, her gaze moving away from Luz's.
"Oh no, Ammy, I'm so sorry.", Luz apologizes before reaching out and pulling her close. Amity buries her head in her chest as her tears burst loose again, muffled sobs escaping her. Her arms are wrapped tightly around the half-human, her fingers clawing at the shirt Luz is wearing, her fingernails piercing through the fabric and into Luz's skin. Luz's face contorts in pain, but she doesn't say or do anything about it. The only thing worse than that is the fact that Luz can do or say absolutely nothing to help her girlfriend. Well, at least not without talking to her about it first.
She hates seeing her otherwise so strong and confident girlfriend so... so small right now.
It takes quite a while for Amity's tears to dry up until the two girls are just lying there, cuddled up close to each other.
"I'm sorry...", Amity mutters in a broken whisper.
"Hey...", Luz replies softly. She carefully lifts Amity's head until the two girls are looking at each other, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. "There's nothing to be sorry about. I was in exactly the same situation. Believe me, I get it."
"Still, I-"
"Really. It's okay.", Luz repeats herself. "I mean, I don't know what time it is and how much time we have left, but if you don't want to, surely we can just stay here.", she suggests. Amity releases a small chuckle at that.
"You know we can't do that."
"But would you feel better if we just stayed here?", Luz asks, at which Amity falls silent for a few moments.
"I just want it over with.", Amity frees herself from Luz's grip, straightens up and sits on the edge of her bed. "I... um, you can wear something of my clothes. Or do you have something appropriate yourself?"
"I don't think so.", Luz replies, "If you don't mind me asking... How exactly do these things work here? I remember what it was like on Earth, but-"
"I- don't think I have the energy to explain everything right now. I'll tell you what to do when the time comes. Okay?", Amity glances at Luz, and the half-human can't help but notice how drained and exhausted Amity looks. Luz merely nods slightly.
It takes about twenty minutes for the two girls to get ready.
Amity has given Luz one of her black pants, as well as a black fleece jacket, which she wears over her t-shirt. Amity, on the other hand, is wearing a floor-length black dress and black gloves, leaving no visible skin exposed. Tucked under her arm she carries a black hat, around which a slightly transparent veil is completely wrapped around.
Once they are completely finished, they leave the room and approach the railing from which they can overlook the entire living room. The immensely high windows on either side of the fireplace are completely darkened, and only brightly lit candles by the walls and in the middle illuminate the room. The furniture that was still in the room was replaced sometime after Luz's arrival yesterday by a large number of chairs facing two coffins placed directly in front of the windows. Luz swallows hard at the sight. It will be a while before the funeral ceremony officially begins, which is why the guests have not been allowed inside yet, if there will be any coming at all. With the room being empty as it is, Luz notices several objects placed on top of the coffins.
With mild curiosity, she walks down the walkway, hand in hand with Amity, heading directly to the coffins, where she notices three picture frames on both sides, each with two Polaroid pictures in them. Before Luz can ask what they are all about, Amity speaks up.
"They're not photos. They are memories. One good one and one bad one. From Dad, from Em, and from me."
Luz takes a closer look at the memories on display.
The first memory on the left coffin shows Edric and Emira in outfits Luz remembers from the last Grom. They are nicely dressed and slow dancing together. "Heh, I remember that.", Luz exclaims softly with a smile, "I had seen them dancing together before I faced Grom." Amity doesn't reply to that, before Luz looks at the next memory.
The image next to it shows a younger version of the twins, about ten years old. Emira seems to be crying and running away from Edric, who is shouting something angrily after her. Luz looks questioningly at Amity, who just shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know what that was about. All I know is that they haven't spoken to each other for several weeks.", Amity comments. Luz nods at that and moves on to the next picture frame.
The next memory shows a newly born Edric being held in Alador's arms. Alador with an overjoyed smile on his face and tears of joy in his eyes. "I don't understand why Dad chose this memory of all things...", Amity comments, which Luz doesn't question further.
In the next memory, Luz can't help but smile as she spots a young Edric, who has apparently climbed into a barrel of abomination slime in Alador's lab and tipped it over. "Dad was soo furious that day.", Amity comments again with an audible smile.
Luz moves on to the next picture frame, which no doubt contains Amity's memories. The first memory shows Amity, still with brown hair, on a swing with Edric behind her, pushing her. 'Cute...', Luz thinks to herself.
But this positive feeling doesn't last long. Her heart drops at the sight of a memory she unfortunately remembers all too well herself: Edric in the snow with Luz herself bent over him, putting all her power into the futile attempt to heal him. With a frown, Luz turns to Amity, whose own gaze is directed towards the ground. She takes a short breath before walking to the right coffin.
The first memory shows a slightly younger Emira being presented with her palisman by Odalia. She is beaming all over her face.
The memory directly next to it shows Emira on a stage where Odalia is pointing an Abomination weapon at her. "What the-?", Luz mutters in utter disgust. "It's one of Blight Industries' product demonstrations.", Amity explains quietly, "I've had to help out several times myself." Luz merely growls at that, before moving on to the second frame.
"Aww...", Luz says as she recognizes the picture directly as a wedding photo. "Again, I have no idea why Dad chose this memory of all things.", Amity frowns at that. "It seems like a very happy memory.", Luz says. "That's exactly why." Luz doesn't talk about it any further and instead turns to look at the last picture frame.
The first memory shows a very young Amity, no older than five or six, being cuddled up in bed by Odalia and giving her a goodnight kiss. "Your mom wasn't always this-" "Terrible? No.", Amity says, "But I've had to search a long time for that memory."
Luz nods at her before looking at the last memory. It shows Odalia dyeing Amity's hair green for the first time. "For the negative memories, I had plenty to choose from.", she comments flatly.
"Would it be okay if I added a few of my memories as well?", Amity's eyes widen in terror as Luz speaks, "I mean, I never met your mom, but-"
"Luz, no!", Amity shuts her down firmly, "You're not doing that." Luz looks taken aback for a second before Amity continues. "I mean, how many memories do you have of Edric anyway? Three? Four?", Amity asks, at which Luz thinks for a moment, "Sorry Luz, but I don't think that's a good idea."
"Okay.", she replies softly. Amity gives her a sad, yet grateful smile.
"Thank you."
"Should we wait here until the others arrive, or-"
Luz's question answers itself as the sound of a door opening can be heard from the direction of the other side of the living room. She and Amity watch Emira and Viney come out of their room. The older Blight is wearing almost the same dress as Amity, along with carrying the identical black hat with the concealing veil under her arm.
Amity puts on her hat and gestures to Luz to one of the six chairs in the front row.
"Sit down.", she asks her quietly. Luz nods and does as she is told. Luz sits at the far end with Amity right next to her. When Emira and Viney join them, Emira shoots Luz a hateful look before putting on her hat, while Viney smiles apologetically at her.
There is an eerie, oppressive silence for several minutes in the room. Fortunately, this is interrupted when they hear footsteps approaching from outside the living room. The eyes of all four girls snap in the same direction, which reveals Alador walking in and towards them. He is wearing an all-black suit and the same black hat with an all-round veil. Right behind him walks another man Luz has never seen before. He is also wearing a black suit, but what she immediately notices is his Abomination hair, tied up in an amorphous bun, as well as his Abomination goatee. He and Luz make fleeting eye contact before Alador speaks up.
"Okay... Are you ready?", he speaks a little slower than usual.
"No.", Amity speaks up.
"Heh, me neither.", Alador huffs, "Emira?"
The eldest Blight nods hesitantly.
"Okay. Darius, you can go ahead and sit down. I'll let the others in."
The man, Darius, puts a hand on his shoulder before nodding at him. Luz thinks she can spot a slight smile through the veil, but it is so opaque that it could just as well be something totally different. Alador nods back to him before Darius sits down on the chair at the far end, and Alador heads for the main entrance.
Somewhat patiently and in complete silence, the five of them wait while the guests quietly enter the room one by one, dispersing onto the chairs. Among the first are Alsa and her wife Sarah, with Boscha in tow, who definitely looks like she doesn't want to be here. They are followed by Liwin and Ruby, the former probably responsible for taking them all here. Luz doesn't know what Ruby's connection is, though. Is she here for Amity?
Following the two of them, there are four people in very expensive-looking suits who Luz definitely can't place. Probably business partners of Amity's parents. Right behind them, Willow, Skara, and Gus come into view, which brings a grateful smile to Luz's face. They smile back at her before sitting down in the third row of chairs. The last person to enter the house who walks next to Alador is, to Luz's surprise, Principal Bump. Their eyes meet at which his face shows genuine relief. She gives him a brief smile before turning back to the front. The guests who have arrived take up less than half of the seats provided. Luz herself, however, is more than happy that anyone has come at all, given the circumstances.
"Dear friends... Dear acquaintances and strangers...", Alador has placed himself directly in front of the two coffins and looks into the silent crowd. "It fills my heart with warmth that you have found the time, during these special circumstances to support our family. Emira will make the start."
At that, Alador takes his seat between Darius and Viney. Luz hears Emira take a deep breath before she stands up and takes the exact same place her father had previously occupied.
"I... A few days ago, I wouldn't have expected... that I'd be standing here today, mourning my own-", Emira cuts herself off, an audible lump in her throat, "-my own little brother."
Luz suddenly feels a shiver race down her spine as she suspects Emira is staring right back at her.
"I know all this nonsense here requires me to be completely honest and stuff, so I'm not going to say I'm going to miss mom. Not that she ever was ever really a mother... As for Edric-", Emira falls into a moment of silence, "Ed and I had always joked that I would get rid of him in a heartbeat if I could, while he was terrified of being apart from me. That fucking irony..."
"I remember one weekend, it was a few years ago, Dad might remember, when Ed and I snuck out of the house to go camping. We had nothing but two fucking tiny backpacks and not a fucking clue where we were going. We were originally going to stay near the house, but I was determined to keep going. Of course, we immediately got lost and Ed immediately started crying, but the fuck-ass kid that I was, I was having none of it. Fuck, I really was just the worst... And despite all the shit, all the dirt I put him through, he stayed by my side. He always felt lost without me. I was his older sister and I-", Emira's voice breaks slightly and she snaps towards the left coffin, "Fuck Ed, what the titan am I supposed to do without you? You were my brother-, you were a part of me... I always said I wanted to get rid of you, but- but- now you're gone, and- and... ... and now it's me who feels lost... Ed, I love you."
Emira sits down again, only to be immediately embraced by Viney and Amity. Alador takes this as a sign to speak up next. He stands up, facing the silent crowd.
"I remember very well how Odalia and I met. Or rather, were being introduced to each other.", he glances at Darius, "Odalia Nightwater, as she was called back then. She had just moved to Bonesborough with her parents, and since both their parents had business dealings with each other, Darius had introduced us to each other. Not sure if I should love him or hate him for it, but neither does it matter anymore. I fell in love with her straight away. She was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and back then I was always easily impressed. Long story short, she had me wrapped around her finger very quickly, while I was just hopelessly smitten... She always had a lot of business ideas and after she realized that she could make money with me, she asked me to be her boyfriend. Well, we started and sold some successful businesses together, and a few years later we got married. So far, my story makes it sound like I have a lot of regrets, but that's not the case. She was my first and only big love, and even though it was often not always reciprocated, she gave me three wonderful presents that mean absolutely everything to me.", he pauses briefly and takes a deep breath, "When Edric and Emira were born, it was by far the happiest day of my life. I remember it like it was yesterday when I held the two tiny creatures in my arms for the first time. At that moment, I vowed to be the best possible father to my children that I could be. And I was happy... A few years later, Amity was born and my happiness only grew, along with the three treasures I got to call my own. Unfortunately, that happiness didn't last. As much as my family was close to my heart and always my top priority, Odalia had started to distance herself from those values, pulling me along with her. Instead of family, money and status suddenly took priority, with family only a means to an end. I had to work more and more and had less and less time for what was really important to me... And then, when I found out what happened...", he gestures to the coffins, "-I realized I didn't live up to my vow... And despite what Odalia made me do, I can't say I regret any actions on my part. On the contrary, I regret all the things I did not do, the moments I could not experience. I regret all the time I wasted on pointless inventions in the lab instead of watching my children grow up... And now, one of them will no longer have the chance to grow up. I… I will grow older... get gray hair... but my son will stay sixteen for the rest of my life."
Alador turns around, placing one hand on each of the coffins. "Edric, my son, Odalia, my wife... Your passing will leave a huge void in this house, and in my heart. May your souls rest in peace."
Even before Alador has taken his seat again, Amity is already standing up and taking her place who seems to be shaking a little.
"I hated her.", Amity immediately spats with venom in her voice, not wasting a single second, "No, fuck, I despised her. I still do. For about ten years she took control of my life away from me and tried to make me a fucking younger version of herself, stripping me of everything that made me me. From the friends I was no longer allowed to see without her destroying their lives, to my future plans being thrown out the window at a moment's notice replaced by her own fucking fantasies, to my own fucking hair color! She had robbed me of everything I was, and if someone very special hadn't stepped into my life and freed me from her clutches... I think my life would be a whole lot worse than it is today.", Amity takes a shaky breath before continuing.
"Edric has always been a thorn in my foot, a sneeze that won't come, a wet sock in my shoe... you get the picture. He and Em have always played these annoying pranks on me and made my life unnecessarily more difficult. But at the same time, I've always known that when it really comes down to it, I can rely on them without any of their bullshit. ... I remember a couple months ago after- after Luz disappeared, and I... I thought that... ... I had assumed the worst. I spent days, if not weeks just... well, doesn't matter. My point is that both of them were there for me during that time and never left my side. It wouldn't be fair of me to say that one of them was there for me more than the other, because they've always been two parts of the same person rather than two different people. Without Edric, things will definitely feel incomplete around here, and... unlike Odalia, I will definitely miss him. His stupid pranks, his stupid comments, his stupid habits, his stupid face...", a lump forms in her throat and tears gather in the corners of her eyes, "I'll miss you, big brother. Things won't be the same without you..."
Without saying anything else, Amity hurries back to her seat and is hugged tightly by Luz, at which point she lets her tears run free. With shaky breaths, she clings to her with all her strength.
She doesn't notice that Alador has gotten up again and kneels on the floor in front of her, touching her gently on the shoulder. She turns to him with a sniff and after him doing nothing more than a gesture his head towards the coffins, she releases her grip on Luz. She lets go of her and stands up, which Luz definitely knows she didn't let go of her own choice.
Amity and Alador stand before the coffins of her brother and the empty one of his wife respectively, before both of them create four Abominations each, lifting the coffins slowly and carefully from their tables. The guests all rise from their seats and make way for the Abominations before they begin to follow them. They make a turn towards the back exit of the Manor. Amity and Luz, Alador and Darius, and Emiry and Viney walk at the front behind the Abominations. The other guests follow them.
The doors to the outside are already wide open, revealing a wooden platform with some freshly felled tree trunks underneath. As soon as they leave the house, the guests start humming a slow tune. The Abominations place the two coffins on the wooden platform and everyone present stands in a semi-circle around them at a safe distance, the humming only getting louder rather than dying down. Amity, Emira, and Alador are now standing right next to each other inside the semicircle with Luz, Viney, and Darius behind them. The three Blights each create a flame, which they carefully hold with both their hands. They take a few steps closer to the platform before speaking up in near-perfect unison.
"Edric Blight. Odalia Blight. Your time on this world ended too soon and abruptly, yet, in the name of the Titan, may your souls ascend to the world beyond until we meet again in the next life."
With a powerful push, they shoot the flames onto the platform, which immediately begins to burn, the fire quickly spreading to the entire structure. Everyone present watches the flames in respectful silence until Emira's knees give out and she lets out a blood-curdling scream, dropping to all fours. Viney breaks out of the formation and drops to her knees beside her as well, hugging her close to her chest.
After a few minutes, Amity and Alador step back again. Amity is held by Luz as they all watch the flames and smoke rise high into the sky, with no sound other than the crackling of burning wood and Emira's aggressive tears.
The humming of the guests has stopped after a while as Viney lifts Emira from the ground and carries the poor witch firmly back into the house, giving Luz a nod as she passes her.
"I... I think I'll go back inside as well.", Amity whispers to Luz. She makes a motion to go with her, but Amity stops her. "Um... If it's okay with you, I'd like to be alone for a bit."
"Y-Yeah, of course. I understand... Do you want me to stop by later?", Luz asks. Amity just nods at that. "Okay, then I'll see you later."
Amity throws her a soft smile through her veil before turning and following Emira and Viney back into the Manor. Luz remains standing outside, her gaze lingering on Amity for as long as possible until she disappears from view around a corner. She stares after it for a few more seconds, lost in thought, but is torn from her thoughts when she realizes that Alador is speaking.
"-Thank you for coming despite the current hazardous circumstances. However, I must sadly inform you that the rest of the ceremony will be postponed until further notice, and the rest will be rescheduled as soon as it is safe to do so. When the time comes, you are all welcome to attend, of course. And for now, please... stay as long as you like. There are some refreshments in the kitchen."
As soon as Alador had finished speaking, Luz wanted to greet her friends, but is interrupted when a voice she doesn't recognize speaks up.
"Luz Noceda?", asks a male voice. Luz turns around and finds Darius in front of her.
"Oh, yeah, that's me.", she replies with a slight smile, "And you're Alador's friend, right?"
"'Friend' is a very... ambiguous term. But yes, you could say that I'm here today as his... friend."
"That's great. Because, admittedly, I didn't think he had any friends at all...", Luz admits, "Not that I've ever gotten to know him well enough to know that or not."
"Well... enough about Alador. I was hoping to have a chat with you."
"But aren't we alr-"
"In private.", he adds.
"Oh... okay, sure.", she agrees, "Lead the way."
He nods to her and enters the Manor again, heading straight up the stairs, leading her to the roof terrace. Once there, Luz speaks up again.
"Out of curiosity, is that real hair or is that some kind of Abomination toupee on your head?", she asks in a cheerful tone. Darius freezes on the spot, staring at her as if she had just insulted his parents.
"Rude.", he huffs before rolling his eyes, "Anyway, I think I should introduce myself properly. My name is Darius Daemonne, Head Witch of the Abomination Coven."
Luz's previously cheerful mood immediately sours, her smile replaced by a skeptical frown. She crosses her arms in front of him. He notices her change of mood immediately.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to arrest you or anything.", he tries to de-escalate.
"Not as if you could, anyway.", she snaps back. Again, he rolls his eyes at her.
"Please... You're just a human-", he stops himself as he notices golden lightning bolts flashing along her arm.
"Don't underestimate me.", she threatens him with a serious tone, "What do you want from me?"
"I was hoping you could grant me an audience with your little rebel alliance."
"What makes you think I know any of them?", she manages to keep up her poker face. Darius sighs before reaching into his coat, pulling out an envelope which he hands over to her. She turns it over once, only to find it unlabeled. She opens it and pulls out several photos. The first shows an uncoordinated looking group of scouts on the bridge heading towards the Emperor's Castle. The second one shows two of the scouts splitting off, and the third shows Luz and Amity after their costumes have disappeared. She raises an eyebrow at him. He explains.
"These pictures were taken just before the invasion began, inside the Emperor's Castle. Not long after, the other group came back with one additional member, who I know to be Raine Whispers. I was hoping you could help me further. I would hate to have to turn to Ms. Blight for my request... and these pictures clearly show that you are both associated with the group."
"Fine. It's true.", Luz admits, "What do you want?"
"The Isles are under siege. The Emperor's Coven is shattered. At least four coven heads have been confirmed dead. No one knows where Emperor Belos is. The infrastructure has collapsed, people are being abducted, and no one knows what's going on or manages to successfully fight back... But I think you already know all this, don't you?", he eyes Luz for a long moment, looking for any reaction, "I'm offering my help and information."
"What kind?"
"I've been gathering information about the enemy and their soldiers over the last few days, and I believe that-"
"His name is King Andrias, and he comes from a world called Amphibia. He is working with a creature that has taken the body of an old friend as a host. Their army consists entirely of robots produced entirely in Amphibia."
"O-okay...", for the first time in his life Darius is actually a little speechless. He clears his throat. "I have additional information about Andrias' attack on the knee. I'm sure this information is highly valuable-"
"Belos fired the gun, not Andrias. He was trying to blackmail him."
"Where-"
"Because I was there!", she explains with an annoyed tone, "Because I was there and witnessed one of my friends, my girlfriend's brother, being killed."
"Oh..."
"Besides, I don't trust you.", Luz states, "Not only was I made the most wanted person in the Isles while I wasn't even here, but the Covens are also responsible for me losing both Eda and King."
"I see. Trust has to be earned.", Darius agrees, "But keep in mind that more lives are at risk every second."
"Oh, I'm perfectly aware... Luckily for you, I already have an idea how you can prove your intentions."
"Oh yeah?", he asks, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"The Blights are mourning two deaths today.", Luz states, "Help me help them, and you'll get your audience."
"Those terms sound... acceptable.", Darius agrees.
"Great.", Luz says, her mood already a whole lot better again, "I'll get Viney and then we can start cooking right away."
"COOKING?"
"So, what's your plan, human?", Darius asks, standing in the kitchen of Blight Manor with the two teenagers, him wearing a surprisingly stylish looking cooking apron.
Some time has passed since the last guests left. After her conversation with Darius, Luz had chatted with her friends for a while until Liwin had decided to return to the Clawthorne Estate with most of the others. As soon as they had left, Luz had grabbed Viney and dragged her and Darius into the kitchen before locking themselves in.
"My name is Luz, and you know that. You called me that earlier.", she replied smugly.
"Luz-", Viney now speaks up, "What exactly is the plan?"
"Well, you've both seen how bad all three of them are doing at the moment, right?", Luz explains, not actually waiting for an answer, "So I thought we'd cook them their favorite meals to cheer them up a little, and show them that we're here for them. So, Viney, what's Emira's favorite meal?"
"Uh... Fried collard greens."
"I don't know what that is, but we can do that. Darius, what-"
"No clue."
"What?"
"Now if you want to ask me what Alador's favorite food is: I haven't the faintest idea.", Darius explains, at which Luz just stares at him in shock. She needs a few seconds to gather her thoughts.
"What do you mean 'you have no idea'?"
"I don't understand your problem with that. It's a pretty simple statement."
"How can you not know what your best friend likes to eat?", Luz asks, utterly aghast, "That's like not knowing his last name."
Viney stands slightly apart from the two, watching their interaction in amusement with her arms crossed.
"We're not the kind of people to talk about that.", Darius argues, "So drop it. I'm willing to help with whatever you have in mind, though."
"You seem to have forgotten our agreement.", Luz reminds him, "You're cooking for him. Otherwise you won't get your audience."
Darius lets out an incredibly annoyed grunt, followed by a deep sigh.
"Fine.", he replies eventually, "Back when that Hack and I went to school together, he had a pretty intense obsession with 'Not Dogs'. Let's just go with that and get it over with."
With that out of the way, Viney rejoins the conversation.
"Luz, what are you planning to make for Amity?", she asks.
"Huh? Oh, I'm going to make her something out of my world. It's called 'wraps.' The main ingredient is a soft flatbread rolled around a filling. I can also make more so that everyone can try."
"Fine by me.", Viney comments.
"Are you sure we can't let the butler do it?", Darius groans again, "I really don't want to get my hands dirty on a day like this."
"I've already told Abdel to clean up the house and prepare the dining room so that we can concentrate fully on cooking.", Luz explains while watching with amusement as the coven head crumbles further and further with every word she says. He does not reply. "Okay, let's see what we can work with in here."
Barely ninety minutes later, the three of them find themselves in the dining room, the table in front of them fully laid and with steaming hot and delicious smelling food on it. In front of them stand three large plates with various vegetable wraps, not-dogs, and whatever that thing is that Emira likes on each of them.
The cooking went smoothly for the most part, and despite Darius' initial grumbling and complaining, he quickly displayed an immense skill in the kitchen, as well as an incredibly detailed knowledge about herbs and ingredients. Even Luz was able to pick up a tip or two from him, and she was very surprised at how quickly he felt at ease in the kitchen. He was also able to prevent Luz from chopping off her own fingers on more than one occasion, whereupon he had banned her from using knives altogether.
"Okay, this looks amazing.", Luz compliments the two, "I'm going to go freshen up and then bring Emira and Amity here. And you go and get Alador."
"You got it, Luz.", Viney confirms, at which Darius just nods silently. His previous personality seems to have been restored after leaving the kitchen. What a shame.
Luz leaves the dining room beside the kitchen and walks through the living room, which has already been restored to its previous state by Abdel. The chairs have been cleared away, the sofas put back and the windows opened, flooding the living room with natural light. She walks up the ramp, past the three bedrooms and into the bathroom, where she simply washes her hands and splashes some water on her face before feeling ready to finally put her plan into action. Her first destination: Amity's room.
She hurries straight there before knocking not too loudly on her door a couple of times.
"Amity?"
No answer.
"May I come in?"
She still gets no answer.
'Maybe she's asleep...', she suspects, just before she can hear the click of the unlocking door lock and see the door opening from the inside. The room is completely dark, apart from a few rays of light shining into the room from the sides of the curtains, revealing an Amity curled up on her bed. Apparently she has used Abomination-goo to open the door for Luz.
"Hey...", Luz greets her in a soft voice. She approaches her slowly before sitting down next to her on the bed, eyeing her girlfriend closely. Not that she can see much as dark as it is. Luz flowns briefly before an idea occurs to her.
She places a hand on Amity's blanket and lets her golden lightning appear on her arm. The lightning bolts glide down her arms, over her fingertips and into the blanket. A faint, warm golden glow begins to illuminate the surrounding area as golden spurts of light dance over and through the blanket. Amity turns her head slightly, peering at Luz. The half-human immediately realizes that her girlfriend was crying, as red and puffy as her eyes look.
"How are you feeling?", Luz asks her gently, guiding Amity's hair out of her face.
"How are you doing that?", she merely asks, avoiding the question. Luz smiles slightly.
"It's a neat trick, isn't it?", Luz asks before abruptly lifting her hand from the blanket causing the room to fall back into almost complete darkness. "So, how are you feeling?"
"Not... terrible."
"That's a start.", Luz smiles, "Um, if you want, I have a little something for you. A surprise. A tasty one."
"I don't know if-", Amity starts, but Luz cuts her off.
"Please, I insist.", she speaks calmly, "You won't regret it."
Amity remains completely silent for just under a minute while Luz sits patiently beside her, holding her gaze.
"Okay.", she finally agrees, her voice no louder than a whisper.
"Great.", Luz says happily. "Just come down to the dining room when you're ready."
And with that, Luz gets up and leaves Amity's room again, deliberately leaving the door wide open. She heads to the door right next to it and knocks again.
"Emira? It's me, Luz. May I come in?"
"No!", she immediately shoots back through the closed door. Luz is hardly surprised.
"Okay. I just wanted to let you know that we- meaning Viney, Darius and I- have prepared something for the three of you. A little surprise, if you like.", Luz explains, but gets no reply. "I know you blame me for Edric's death, and... and I'm not saying you're completely wrong about that. You're not the only person blaming me for it either. I know you hate me, and it's probably deserved. I know you're hurting a lot, just like Amity and your father, and we just wanted to do something to cheer you up and show you that you're not alone.", Luz waits a moment for a reaction, which she doesn't get. "If you want to join us, we'll wait in the dining room for you."
Luz waits for another moment in front of the closed door. Silence.
She takes a deep breath before making her way back to the dining room, where she finds that Alador is already there, having taken a seat at the table next to Darius.
"Amity will be here soon. I'm not sure about Emira though...", she reports.
"Should I maybe try again?", Viney asks, "I mean, I'm sorry, but you're not exactly her favorite person."
"What do you mean?", Alador speaks up unexpectedly. Viney explains.
"She blames Luz for Edric's death."
"Oh...", is all Alador says before the table falls into an awkward silence.
Fortunately, this silence doesn't last long, because only a few minutes later, Amita and Emira are standing in the doorway, taking in the sight and smells before them.
"That smells absolutely amazing...", Emira comments, which brings a huge smile to Viney's face in particular. The illusion witch walks over to her and sits down right next to her at the rectangular table. Amity doesn't say anything and sits quietly next to Luz. The latter speaks up.
"So, now that we are all set, we can begin. We've prepared Not Dogs, fried collard greens, and various vegetable wraps.", she explains, "Enjoy."
All of them immediately reach for the steaming food in front of her. Luz's focus, however, is entirely on Amity instead of the food, who hesitantly picks up a wrap and places it on her plate. She looks at the meal in front of her for a while with a puzzled expression.
"Um, Luz... How-"
"There are different ways. But usually people eat it like this.", Luz grabs a wrap and takes a big, hearty bite out of it. "Wu fee?", she speaks with her mouth full. Amity snickers slightly at that before mimicking Luz's gesture and taking a big bite as well. Her eyes widen.
"Oh my Titan...", she speaks as soon as her mouth is empty again. Without hesitation, she takes another bite. Luz's heart leaps with joy.
She lets her gaze wander over the table where she finds everyone enjoying the hearty meal immensely. Alador and Darius are talking about something abomination-related. Admittedly, Luz wasn't really listening. Her gaze moves on to Viney and Emira, the latter slurping her food while Viney rests her head on the taller girl's shoulder, a Not Dog in her hand.
Luz herself isn't sure exactly how much time has passed between when the six of them all got together, and now with a table full of empty plates in front of them. A comfortable silence has taken over the room, all of them just sitting there content. Luz decides to break any silence.
"That was a nice ceremony today.", she says, "I'm glad I got to be there, even if I had no idea what to expect."
No one answers directly. Most of the others suddenly have an unreadable expression on their faces.
"Was this your first funeral ceremony, human?", Darius eventually speaks up.
"You know my name. Use it!", she snaps at him, "But no, it wasn't my first funeral. My... my father passed away six years ago. I was 8. It... was less than a month before my birthday."
No one speaks up. Or rather, no one dares to interrupt her as she continues.
"The funeral was very small. Only my mom and I were there. Well, and the priest. He gave some speech and babbled some holy mop while my dad's coffin was lowered into the ground. It was soo surreal..."
"Luz, you don't have to-", Amity tries to interrupt her, but to no avail. She sees the tears forming in her girlfriend's eyes as Luz continues to talk herself into her own downward spiral.
"I mean, I'd only spoken to him days before. And then suddenly... he wasn't there anymore... I think my mom took it even harder than me at the time, even if she tried to hide it from me. I had heard her crying at night when she thought I was asleep... I-"
Luz interrupts herself for a moment before she realizes the others are staring at her, pity in their eyes. "I... I'm sorry.", she mutters before jumping up from the table and running out of the room.
"LUZ!", Amity immediately calls after her. Unfortunately to no avail.
In a near panic, Luz runs down the hallway into the living room and further up the walkway to Amity's room, closing the door behind her and continuing onto her balcony, where she leans her whole body against the railing. Her breathing is completely irregular and she tries compulsively not to allow the tears to escape her eyes.
'In...', she takes a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds, 'And out...', she releases her breath.
'In...', she takes another breath, 'And out...'
'In... ... and out...'
"Luz?", Amity's voice sounds from behind her, from the direction of the door. Luz clenches her eyes, not turning around. She hears footsteps coming in her direction. "Oh, there you are."
"Hey.", she tries to force a smile onto her face. "I'm sorry."
"What for?", Amity asks, not a hint of blame in her voice. She moves to stand beside her.
"For ruining the mood."
"HA!", Amity laughs out loud. Luz looks at her utterly confused.
"Luz, today is supposed to be a shitty day.", she states, "What you did for us, that you managed to distract us from all the crap today, that was the exception. And I am grateful. So don't worry."
"Speaking of which... A thought occurred to me. A spell, actually.", Luz states at which Amity raises an eyebrow, "It's about sharing pain. Like, pain shared is pain halved, or something like that. And I thought to myself that..."
Luz's thoughts are abruptly interrupted as Amity leans in and gives her a quick kiss on the corner of her mouth.
"Thank you Luz, but I don't think either of us would benefit from that.", she speaks softly as she grabs her girlfriend's hand, "You're in pain too. I can see it in your eyes. If we shared that, neither of us would be left with less. Do you know what I mean?"
Luz takes a now more stable breath before answering.
"Yeah..."
"But if you want, we can talk about it.", Amity suggests, "Things will still suck for a while, but maybe not quite as much when we're together."
"Yeah, I like that idea."
Silence envelops the two girls as they just stand there, on the balcony with Luz looking out into the distance, while Amity's gaze is on Luz.
"You know what I've just noticed?", Amity asks. Luz turns her head towards her. She doesn't answer directly, but merely tilts her head slightly. "Your hair. It's getting longer..."
"Heh...", Luz huffs out, "I guess it's been a while since I had it cut."
"If you want, I could cut it for you...", Amity offers, "Emira cuts mine every now and then when it gets too long and I cut hers. I could do that for you too."
Luz thinks about her offer for a moment before shaking her head slightly.
"I think I'll let it grow. Who knows, maybe it's already long enough that I can make it into a tiny ponytail already."
Before anyone else can say anything else, a loud clearing of the throat catches the attention of the two girls. It's Darius standing in the doorway.
"Human.", he states. Luz merely growls in his direction. "You promised me something. I'd like to have that right now."
Luz sighs in an annoyed tone before letting go of Amity's hand and moving to her side of Amity's bed to grab her scroll. She opens Penstagram and types a quick message, all the while Amity looks confusedly back and forth between her girlfriend and the Coven Head. Around two minutes pass before Luz speaks up again.
"She's on her way.", she says, "You can wait for her outside the front door."
"Thank you.", he bows slightly before he walks away again, leaving Luz and Amity behind.
"What was that about?", Amity asks as Luz smiles slightly amused.
"He had asked me if he could get an audience with the CATs.", Luz explains, "And he just knew that the two of us had a connection to the others."
"Wait... So you just-"
"Yup. I asked Liwin if she could come back to talk to him.", Luz explains, "I'm looking forward to his reaction once he realizes it. It'll be fun."
As if on command, the two girlfriends hear a commotion from downstairs.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me...", they hear Darius whine again, which throws the two girls into a fit of chuckles.
"That's what he gets for not calling me by my name.", Luz says with a smug grin on her face.
"Don't tell me you planned all this..."
"Heh, no. But it all came together in the end."
At the same time, near an undisclosed location…
'Oh Titan... Coming here was definitely not the best idea. Not that I had a choice...', Hunter thinks to himself as he arrives at the exact location noted on the letter he received shortly after the invasion began.
"Uncle?", he calls out, poking his head through a huge set of doors, "Uncle, are you here? I received your letter."
He is greatly startled when the door slams shut behind him with a loud bang. He can feel his pulse under his skin.
"Hunter. It's good to see you safe and sound.", Belos' voice sounds from behind him. He flinches as a hand touches his shoulder.
"Shhh... It's all good. You're safe here, Hunter.", Belos tries to reassure him, which actually calms him down a little. "Come with me here. I want to show you something."
Belos leads Hunter through another smaller set of doors, behind which lies a kind of laboratory with various experiments spread out on many many tables. Belos leads them both past most of the experiments until they come to a stop in front of a table with a glowing green Gem on it.
"Do you know what that is, Hunter?", Belos asks him, at which Hunter shakes his head.
"That, dear nephew, is crystallized Titan-Blood.", Belos explains, "Probably the most powerful substance that has ever existed."
"Titan-Blood... I've heard of that before. Isn't it supposed to be incredibly rare?"
"Indeed.", Belos agrees, "With one of the last suspected locations was actually at the knee... which is now destroyed."
"Is that-", Hunter points to the Gem, "how you are planning to stop this invasion?"
"Oh I'm not going to stop it.", Belos states calmly, "Well, not yet."
"What- what do you mean?", Hunter asks, at which Belos lets out a long drawn out sigh.
"Hunter, explain something to me: What is the best way to deal with a completely unknown, and superior opponent?", he asks, which the currently unmasked Golden Guard ponders for a moment.
"Well, brute force is out of the question... I'd say it's important to get to know the enemy first. To find out their weak points."
"Exactly."
"So that's what we're doing here? Watch and wait while all those people out there get slaughtered?"
"I know you don't like it, but the Titan has already let me in on his plans. and the people's suffering won't last. And you can help."
"I can?"
"Of course. I have prepared a list of items that you will get for me.", Belos explains, handing him a piece of parchment. He skims over the list briefly until he reaches a point that makes him falter.
"A Galdorstone?", Hunter asks nervously, "B-but they've all been destroyed. I was there. There aren't any left."
Belos puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry about that one. Get me the other items listed and then we'll see."
"Yes, uncle. Um, one more thing.", Belos raises an eyebrow at him, "The- the coven heads. There are four confirmed deaths. Should- should I arrange for the others to be taken to safety?"
"No.", Belos replies after a moment of consideration, "All I need for my plan to work is you. Don't worry about that. As soon as my preparations are complete, our enemies will no longer pose a threat to anyone."
"Yes, uncle. I'll be on my way immediately.", Hunter bows before hurrying back the way he came. Knowing full well that many of the items listed will be incredibly difficult to obtain, especially in the current chaos that reigns in the Isles. "I won't let you down."
"I know you won't."
Notes:
Since we're only 5 more chapters away from the big 50, I did a bit of thinking.
I don't really have a concrete plan on how the rest of arc 3 will look like. Or rather I don't have an idea on how I wanna order the things I do have planned out. But that's beside the point. What I'm going for is that arc 3 will probably end somewhere around chapter 55. No guarantees, though.
I was also thinking about doing something special to celebrate Chapter 50 once we get there, and I thought about writing ALO-oneshots. I do already have a couple ideas, but if there is anything you'd like to see, feel free to put your suggestions in the comments, and I will consider them.
Chapter 46: Short Stories - Plans over Plans
Notes:
With this chapter 'A LOST OWL' just hit 400.000 words 🥳🥳🥳
For this chapter, there is something I should clarify in advance:
The individual subchapters are not in chronological order. I will put the chronological order in the other notes-section at the end of the chapter.On another note (no pun intended): I'm currently looking for a new Beta-Reader for ALO, since my last one resigned due to already being overloaded with RL-projects. So if anyone is interested and has solid english skills, feel free to reach out to me on my Discord-Server: https://discord.gg/79H6Mkve3K
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Luz & Raine
"Emira, come on. We're already late...", Alador calls into Blight Manor, who is waiting outside alongside Darius and Eberwolf, with a large brown suitcase standing on the ground next to him.
"Ugh, do you really need that much stuff?", Darius asks the engineer flippantly.
"Most of what's in there is actually lab equipment and research notes.", Alador calmly explains, "And since they've asked for my help, I'll do my best to do just that."
Darius remains silent at that, not wanting to agree that the Abomination engineer actually has a point.
"You argue like couple.", Eberwolf comments.
"I won't even dignify that comment with a glance.", Darius turns his back on Eber, causing the beast to snicker.
"EMIRA!", Alador calls out again.
"Yes, yes. I'm here.", Emira replies in an annoyed tone, with a suitcase in one hand and a cage in the other, closing the doors of the manor behind her.
"Travel snack?", Eberwolf asks curiously.
"What? No!", Emira hisses back, "This is Batric. He was Ed's, and I'm not leaving him behind. He wouldn't have wanted that."
"Honor your brother? You good sister.", Eberwolf says, "Sorry for assumption."
"It's okay.", Emira replies, her blood pressure still high, "So, Dad, how come Mittens isn't here too, carrying suitcases?"
"Because she said she doesn't have any things here that are really important to her.", Alador explains, a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Are you two almost done with this family talk?", Darius asks, annoyed.
"Yes.", Alador and his daughter answer at the same time.
"Good. Besides, you can talk to Amity yourselves once we get there and the meeting is over.", Darius explains before drawing a purple magic circle, trapping the four of them in an Abomination bubble whilst pulling them all into the ground.
"-but unfortunately it's only a prototype so far.", Luz is talking in front of an extremely crowded dining room in the Clawthorne household, standing on one of the stairs to the upper floor with Amity right next to her. "It will probably be a few more days before we can put our plan into motion."
A knock at the front door briefly interrupts the meeting. Dell, who has positioned himself as the listener furthest back, goes and opens the front door, revealing the four new arrivals, who are now being stared at by eighteen pairs of eyes. Liwin notices a slight tension in the room at the arrival of the two Coven Heads.
"Almost forgot.", she speaks up, "We have new members as of today, who many of you may already know. Alador Blight, who will be supporting us as an engineer, as well as the former Head Witches Darius from the Abomination Coven and Eberwolf from the Beast Keeper Coven."
"Former Head Witches?", Darius asks out loud.
"The covens are history, Deamonne. Get over it.", Liwin replies mockingly.
"Never fan of system. Good they're gone.", Eberwolf comments, at which Darius just scoffs at them. Liwin continues.
"Anyway, they've offered us their support and we'd be fools not to accept it.", someone in the crowd raises their hand, "And if anyone says they're going to stab us in the back and betray us to the enemy... I trust them.", the hand lowers itself again. "Anyway, since it will be a few more days before we can start executing our plan, we'll continue as before. Here are the new patrol routes: Willow, Skara, you take the northern city limits of Bonesborough. Katya, Derwin, and Gus, you take the southern border. Ruby and I, we're going to Latissa-"
The distribution of tasks takes some more time before the meeting officially ends and people disperse. Gwen takes care of settling in the new arrivals, and Luz was about to spend the rest of the day relaxing with Amity when a certain Raine Whispers suddenly approaches her.
"So you are the famous Luz Noceda, the human.", Raine bows slightly, "I am happy that we finally meet each other."
"Uhh...", she looks slightly uncertainly at Amity, "Thank you. You're welcome."
"I was hoping we could talk. In private."
"Oh, of course.", she agrees, before turning back to her girlfriend, "Ami, are you okay going ahead? I'll catch up with you."
"Of course. I'll wait outside.", Amity gives Luz a little kiss on her cheek before walking down the stairs past Raine.
"Okay, come with me.", she addresses Raine. She leads the bard up the stairs and enters the first room on her right.
"Titan...", Raine's breath catches in their throat, their eyes staring into the room in wonder. On the walls are several posters of former celebrity witches or movie posters or skulls of dead creatures. A lone bed stands across a window high up near the ceiling, and several candlesticks in the shape of moons and stars hang down from the ceiling. "This was Eda's room..."
"You knew Eda?", Luz wonders.
"You could say that...", Raine answers vaguely, "It looks exactly the same as it did back then..."
Luz takes a deep breath. "Gwen once told me that Eda ran away from home after an accident with her dad and hasn't touched this room or let anyone in here since. I only had to look at Dell and knew immediately what kind of accident it was. Those claw marks were unmistakable...", she shakes her head, "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
At that very moment, Raine is hit with a ball of guilt.
"About Eda, actually.", they confess, "B-but I can totally understand if that's a sore point for you."
Luz contemplates their words for a moment. "No, it's okay."
"You sure?", they ask cautiously at which Luz nods. The two of them sit down on the bed while Raine searches for the right words.
"When... when you all rescued me from the Emperor's Castle, Gwen had told me that you... you were Eda's- you're her daughter.", Raine recalls. Luz reacts less than they had expected.
"Not biologically, no.", Luz replies in a sad tone.
"Do I hear a 'but'?"
"No... Eda took me in as an apprentice after I ran away from home."
"From the human realm?", Raine asks, at which Luz nods.
"She had promised to teach me magic if I would help her with her businesses. Difficult without a bile-sac. But then one night, when Eda had turned into the Owl Beast, I had found my first spell. The light glyph.", Luz snaps her fingers, and after a brief flash of golden light, a floating orb of light appears, hovering in the air. "Not exactly like this, of course. That came later... Back then, everything only worked with pen and paper."
"So you lived with her and learned magic?", Raine summarizes.
"In the beginning, yes. She later enrolled me in Hexside, and my life pretty much went uphill from there.", Raine thinks they can spot a small nostalgic smile on her face, "And over time, Eda became like a mother figure to me... No, scratch that. Eda was a second mom to me. And then when Lilith captured her, and- and-"
"It's okay, you don't have to keep talking. You couldn't have done anything."
"EXACTLY!", Luz snaps at them, "I couldn't do anything when Eda and Lilith were fighting! There was nothing I could do to cure her curse! I couldn't do anything because I was just a fucking human! You want to know what I did?", Luz doesn't wait for an answer, "I just left. Just walked back to the Owl House and cried like a little child."
"You couldn't have-"
"But I did! I came back, broke into her cell, and walked right into Belos' trap.", Raine remains silent, "I fought fucking Belos himself after he put Lilith and King in Eda's cage as well. And what good did all that do? The fucking Titan himself had torn me from this world and my whole family got petrified."
Rage-streaked tears flow from her eyes, her whole body shaking and covered in golden lightning bolt racing all over her. Raine doesn't think Luz is aware of that last part.
[ 🎵 ] https://youtu.be/qJfWgfLjWnw?si
Not knowing what they can say to make the situation any better, Raine summons their violin and begins to play. Luz immediately stares at them, confused, as a soft aura radiates throughout the room, partially levitating objects.
"This is a song I once wrote for Eda.", they explain as they play, "I originally called it 'Raine's Rhapsody', but I renamed it 'Eda's Requiem' in her honor."
Luz says nothing as she simply listens to them with wide eyes.
"I've known Eda forever, I loved her too, though probably not as much as you. Or at least in the same way as you do. We hadn't seen each other in decades, but my feelings for her never went away. Despite the fact that we hadn't seen each other, Eda continued to have a huge impact on my life. She was actually the one who inspired me to create the BATS and seek out like-minded people to fight against an unjust system. And when I found out what happened to her... I became negligent. The only woman I'd ever loved, gone.", their play stutters, "Not long after, we were captured... I miss her, but I'm also eternally grateful for her having been a big part of my life."
In the meantime, Luz's tears have subsided somewhat, as has her own magic.
"If you had the chance to do something different if you could, what would you do?", Luz suddenly asks.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's say you could travel back in time to the point where you met Eda. Would you want to do anything differently over time?", she clarifies.
"I didn't know about her curse back then. And I think that was part of the reason for our breakup...", Raine confesses.
"You were actually together?", Luz wonders.
"Five years.", they answer.
"You know, a few months ago I would have tried to squeeze every last bit of info out of you-", Raine smiles at that while Luz rubs her eyes.
"Not today?", Raine asks teasingly, at which Luz just shakes her head.
"Today I just want my mom back."
"I- Understandable... Tell me, what would you change?"
"Huh?", Luz looks at them.
"If you could go back in time, what would you change?", they clarify. Luz doesn't have to think about it for long.
"I wouldn't let Lilith get her hands on Eda. I would do everything in my power to save her.", at that, however, an idea occurs to her, "I need to know one thing: Is time magic a thing?"
"Heh...", Raine chuckles slightly, knowing exactly what she's thinking about, "I'm sorry, but I don't think so."
"Oh, ok... So the only way is forward, right?", Luz asks, now sounding depressed.
"I'm sorry.", Raine says, at which Luz gets up from the bed again.
"No, it's okay... Umm, it was nice to meet you. Really.", Luz's face has a slight smile on it, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes.
"I'm glad you think so."
"If you want to talk again... I'll probably be around here somewhere.", Luz says, before ultimately leaving the room and heading outside to meet back up with Amity. It was a long day already.
Sasha
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
With a loud groan, Sasha forces herself into consciousness as the shrill beeping of her alarm clock rings in her ears.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep-
She manages to turn over in her bed, despite her eyes still closed, and switch off the alarm she had set for herself the night before on her phone. With the silence returning, Sasha flops herself back onto her pillow, once again groaning loudly.
The last few weeks since her arrival back on earth have been... interesting, due to a lack of a better term. After completely trashing her room when she arrived at her father's house, she had a good cry the next day with her housekeeper Maja. She hadn't told her everything, how could she? Anthropomorphic frogs? Other worlds with intelligent life on it? And everyone there speaking English for some reason? Even Maja would declare her crazy and put her in a psychiatric hospital... No, Sasha was just giving a very, very, very, very oversimplified version of the events. But it was good enough. Unfortunately, Maja had no particular advice on what Sasha should do now, apart from trying to resume her old life. She had also suggested forgiving Anne, which the blonde girl immediately and very loudly ruled out.
After Sasha's little outburst of anger, Maja had suggested that she try to let her anger out through sport and exercise. This made the girl feel slightly nostalgic, as Grime had made the exact same suggestion to her all that time ago to get her power under control. Specifically, Maja had suggested she train in her father's gym, or join her in a trial session at her fencing club. She had immediately thought of her sparring exercises with Grime and promptly accepted the woman’s offer.
The fact that Sasha was a natural with a rapier was anything but a surprise. Even if her initial style was still a little too aggressive as she was used to fight with heavier weapons.
Nevertheless, she has spent every single waking second since then either in the fencing club, or on the treadmill, at the punching bag, or on the cardio machines in her father's gym. Every single second was precious. For what, though... she couldn’t tell.
She had barely exchanged ten words with her father since her return back that evening. Until today, he hadn't even acknowledged that Sasha had been missing for months. Only on the third day of her return did he eventually reach out to her, even if only to let her know that he was going on a business trip for two months and probably wouldn't be back before Halloween. As usual. Sasha wouldn't be surprised if she spent Thanksgiving alone again, just like last year. Not as if anyone had known. Sure, Anne's parents would have invited her immediately and without hesitation if Anne herself had known about it.
'Don't show any weakness.' That was the old Sasha's motto. But where does today's Sasha stand? Anne and Marcy are gone. Her family, Grime, is gone. Her biological father was never really there. Her biological mother ran away when she was little and got herself a new family... Sasha is alone. Alone and angry. At her former friends, her life, and the world. She feels lost, in a way, as if the former lieutenant under Captain Grime no longer belongs in this world, as if she no longer has a place here...
Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee-
Sasha's mind immediately snaps back to the present, and she has to restrain herself from taking her phone and just smashing it full force into the wall, hoping it will shatter into a thousand pieces. Instead, she turns off the third and as well as all the subsequent alarms. She bolts upright to sit on the edge of her bed, yawning heavily, and stretching her arms. She looks at the time.
6:20
"This is a horrible idea...", she mutters to herself, "Why did I let myself be talked into this?"
At that, a memory of the conversation she had with Maja yesterday afternoon pops into her head.
"Sasha, my herzblatt, I know the last few weeks, if not months, have been incredibly difficult for you, and while I'm incredibly proud of you and how much you've accomplished in that time, I'm worried that you've lost your path in life. I mean, physically you're in top form, but what are your plans for the future? What do you want to do when you grow up?", Sasha hadn't replied to that, "Look, how about this idea? Go back to school tomorrow. And if not to study, at least to be around your peers again. I know I myself am not here as often as you might like, but I can still see that you're lonely... Please, do it for me."
"For you.", past and present Sasha answer at the same time, the latter with a deep sigh.
She pushes herself up from her bed and wanders sleepily to her relatively new closet, having completely destroyed her old one back then. She opens one of the two doors and lets her gaze fall with disdain on her school uniform, which she hasn't worn in months. The light gray shirt with the pink collar and the Saint James Middle School crest printed in the middle of the chest. And the short pink skirt. Sasha feels sick just imagining having to wear something like that again... And then those ugly shoes with heels.
'I miss my boots.', she thinks to herself before opening the other cupboard door where she has stowed her 'old' uniform. In the door itself hangs her pink Heron Sword replica, as well as THAT dagger, and the copper key with its eye looking like it's staring at her.
Sasha's gaze drifts straight to the sword. After her arrival, she had forced her father to have one made for her. Unfortunately, it is not as light as the original and feels quite foreign in her hand, but better to have one sword than none at all.
"Wonder if I could take that with me today...", she talks to herself before shaking her head wildly. Instead, she grabs her school uniform and a fresh pair of underwear before leaving her room and entering the bathroom.
It doesn't take her too long to finish and get the last few preparations done. With a scrunchie in one hand and her long, blonde hair in the other, she stands in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at herself, frozen. Before she arrived in Amphibia, her morning routine was always exactly the same: shower, fix her hair and put it in a braid, put on make-up, have breakfast, and leave. This had derailed for her once she arrived in Toad Tower, at least at first, and her time after Toad Tower even more so. It's been weeks since she last had even a hair tie in her hand, and months since she last touched make-up. And admittedly, her skin is far healthier than it ever was before.
'Can I really just go back to my old self like this?', she wonders. She stays in this pose for a little while longer before eventually putting her hands down, determined not to return to her old self.
She leaves the bathroom and returns to her room to retrieve her phone. As she picks it up, she accidentally opens her messenger. Inside are several text conversations, without exceptions all unread. To this day, the only people who know that Sasha is back are her father, Maja, and... Anne (plus her parents, probably).
Anne... It's been weeks since she texted Anne to fuck off. Since then, she had received hundreds more messages from her former friend, each and every one unread and ignored. Well, until sometime last week. Since then, she had stopped texting her, which is absolutely fine by Sasha. She merely stuffs her phone into a backpack along with... Sasha rolls her eyes, not even wanting to try to learn anything today. Everything she owns in terms of writing materials or books remains exactly where it has been for the last few months. On her desk. Gathering dust.
She glances around her room again to see if she shouldn't take something really important with her. Her gaze falls on her sword again. The urge to simply carry it around the school and threaten anyone who gets on her nerves with it is quite strong, but it is probably illegal. Not that she cares about that aspect, but the sword is also too big to just carry around in her backpack. Then she suddenly feels her gaze drawn to the copper key right next to it again. She takes it from its hook, her thumb wandering over the staring eye, the urge to press it growing within her.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
The alarm on her phone snaps her out of her thoughts, and she puts the key back before reaching for her uniform shoes instead. Looking at them in disgust, she breaks off the heels before putting them on and quickly leaving her room.
On the stairs down to the first floor, she switches off her reminder alarm clock that she has to leave to get to school on time. Instinctively, she enters her father's workplace and reaches for the desk phone with the limousine service on speed dial. Sasha stops herself before she can press the button.
'What the...', she thinks to herself in disgust with the earpiece to her ear. 'No...', she puts the phone back down, backing away from the table. 'That was the old Sasha. Not me.'
Instead, she makes her way to her father’s crammed garage, heading to the far corner, where her old bike is right where she last left it. She straightens it up and checks the tire pressure, only to be surprised to find that it's still good despite all this time. Because of the aforementioned packed garage, Sasha pushes her bike back into the living room and then out of the front door before heading towards St. James.
It takes Sasha fifteen minutes to cover the distance. Pre-Amphibia, it would have taken her up to three times as long. That would also explain why the courtyard in front of the school is still so relatively empty.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was the first one here...", she speaks her thoughts aloud. "Yes, well, I'm usually not on time when I take the bike anyway..."
Sasha pushes her bike to the bike stands, where she takes a moment to try to remember the combination of her lock.
She must have been standing there for quite a while, because as time went on, the first parents began to arrive, unloading their children right in front of the school's main entrance. And Sasha herself still can't remember her combination. 'Whatever...', she eventually thinks to herself, before simply leaving her bike unlocked, just walking away. Unfortunately, due to carelessness, she runs straight into another girl, sending them both to the ground.
"Hey, watch it you-", the other girl cuts herself off as soon as she realizes who exactly just ran into her. "Holy shit! Waybright???"
The girl, wearing a backwards-facing purple baseball cap over her ginger pigtails straightens up at the same time as Sasha.
"Maggie.", Sasha acknowledges her without any emotions on her face.
"I don't believe it. You're really back...", Maggie is amazed, "Rumor has it that you and your two minions have been kidnapped or some crap like that. But gurl, you've really put on some muscle. You could easily get the whole football team under your fingers if you wanted-"
As the girl continues to talk for what seems like forever, Sasha actively starts to get bored and regret the whole day already.
"Yo, Waybright?", Maggie waves in front of her face.
"What?", Sasha replies with more venom than intended.
"Chill, girl!", Maggie backs off, "I was just asking you if Wu and Boobchuy were back too?"
'So Anne hasn't been back to school since then either... Good to know.'
"Don't know. Don't care.", Sasha replies flatly. This confuses the ginger girl.
"What?"
"They could be lying dead in some alley and I wouldn't give a shit.", Sasha explains, a little more aggressively, "Anything else?"
"Uhh, no.", the teenager replies, looking slightly scared at Sasha, "Glad you're back. I... um, have to go."
As Maggie walks away, Sasha lets out an inward sigh. 'This is going to be a very long day...'
And a long day it was as Sasha finally arrives back home a good eight hours later, sliding down the front door with a loud groan. This whole day had only two single good events: Firstly, to her surprise, Sasha's bike hasn't been stolen, and secondly, Sasha had probably given off such a hostile aura that everyone, without exception, left her alone. Teachers and students alike. Plus, Anne wasn't there. Everything else, on the other hand, was the greatest torture after everything Sasha had experienced in Amphibia. Every class, for forty-five minutes, Sasha just sat and "listened" to the various teachers, whose names she didn't even know, and when the class was over, she left immediately. Grime's briefings were definitely more exciting than all of that... And then came lunch. And as much as Sasha hated it at first when she arrived in Amphibia, at that moment she really would have eaten bugs she'd found under an old rock again instead of what garbage they served in the cafeteria.
'Today was definitely more draining than any training session.'
For several minutes she just sits there, taking in the silence in the house, all in an attempt to calm her nerves.
'How can people as old as me get so much more annoying in just a few months? It was easier to deal with a bunch of misbehaving and untrained toad soldiers... Ugh, I think I'm going to have to go bitch to someone about all this again...'
At that, Sasha grabs her backpack and pulls out her phone to check the date.
'Thursday... Maja won't be back until Saturday... Ugh...', she groans internally, before hovering her finger above her messager-app, internally going through her list of actual contacts, which only brings up one name she could actually talk to about her day. Anne.
'Nope. I can't forgive her for what she did!', her inner voice firm but not free of doubt, 'Right?'
She opens the app, only to stare at Anne's missing profile picture for a while. Sasha still remembers the picture she had used before all of them got transported to Amphibia. By Marcy. It was taken on her birthday, Anne's, when the two girls had skipped school. A now tainted memory.
Sasha switches off her phone, 'Nope, I don't need to vent that badly...', she declares, before pushing herself up from the floor and making her way up the stairs to her room. There, she just throws her backpack lovelessly against a wall, and lets herself fall face-first onto her bed.
She takes a deep breath before a disgusting smell hits her nose.
'Ew... I really should take another shower.', she straightens up again, 'God, earth has really made me soft...'
She gets up and heads straight to her closet again, opening both doors at the same time. She eyes her various shirts, considering what she would rather wear, as she feels her gaze forced, just as earlier that day, to the copper key hanging inside the door, the urge to press the button steadily growing.
She grunts, before just grabbing the key from its holder, pressing the button, expecting nothing to happen, just like when she pressed it last time in Amphibia.
She jumps a little as a white light appears from behind her, accompanied by an electrical noise, and a door appears. In the middle of her room. 'What the fuck!'
Directly in front of her is a door, carved from beautiful brown wood, decorated with all kinds of patterns. And then there is this huge yellow eye with a black, slit-eyed pupil, completely identical to the one on the key in its upper half. She approaches the closed door cautiously, looking for signs of any threat or possibly familiar symbols. Nothing. The door and that key definitely belong together.
Sasha hesitantly reaches for the golden door knob, twisting it, slowly and carefully opening in the door. What she sees amazes her.
"Trees... Trees with red leaves... and red grass... in my room."
Sasha steps around the door again, just to make sure none of this is a trick. "Nothing... But it can't be- Oh, what am I talking about? Of course it can be real...", she shakes her head at her question. Nevertheless, her heart rate is slightly higher than before. She swallows hard, standing in front of the door. She holds out her hand.
"Though maybe it's just a 3D painting...", her hand passes the door frame, "Okay, nope, not a painting. Not only that, but the temperature on the other side is completely different. It's cooler."
Sasha holds the key tightly in her hand before grabbing the loop and swinging the key around her neck like a necklace, hiding the key itself under her shirt.
Sasha takes another deep breath before taking a step through the door. She turns around, not sure that the door would stay after she steps through it. Luckily, it's still there.
'Way back secured...', she thinks to herself, before taking a closer look at her surroundings. 'The grass is really red… It really doesn't just look that way... This is definitely neither Amphibia nor Earth...'
Sasha has landed in what looks like a small wooded area. The trees are not very close together, red grass growing between them, and there is no apparent sign of civilization.
'A short reconnaissance mission won't hurt.', she thinks to herself before slowly walking away from the door. She turns around briefly, still seeing the inside of her room through the doorframe, 'Heh, weird.'
One step at a time she moves away from the door, slightly paranoid of every single sound, be it the rustling of the wind in the leaves, possible hostile creatures, or... explosions?
Sasha's eyes widen as she reaches a path of sorts not far from the door. Her head snaps to the left, two flying things quickly approach, followed by many more other flying things. As the seconds pass, she notices that the two flying things ahead are people. Flying through the air... on sticks?
"SKARA! I’M HEADING DOWN! There is someone!"
"GOT IT!"
'Shit!', Sasha curses herself at being spotted.
The girl ahead approaches Sasha rapidly, jumping off her stick above her, landing in a bush that Sasha is sure wasn't there a second ago. She quickly straightens up, positioning herself protectively in front of Sasha. The other girl, Skara apparently, lands directly next to her, both girls looking in the direction they just came from.
"Are those... robots?", Sasha asks, incredulous. The girls ignore her question, their what looks like staffs firmly in their hands, ready to attack.
"Stay behind us!", the first girl shouts. Only now does Sasha realize that the two girls are not much older than she is.
'Nine robots.', she counts the incoming enemies and spots the first missiles coming straight at her.
The first girl draws a glowing green circle in the air, at which thick vines shoot out of the ground, intercepting each and every one of the incoming rockets. The second girl seems to pull a purple flute out of nowhere, bringing it to her mouth. With the first note played, the instrument begins to glow red, and the flying robots suddenly seem to slow down, also shrouded in a red glow. Sasha gets an idea.
"All yours, Willow.", Skara speaks quickly, briefly interrupting her music.
"On it.", Willow confirms, before briefly breaking her eye contact with the robots to turn around, "You should probably- and she's gone."
"WILLOW, WATCH OUT!", Skara shouts before interrupting her music playing and shoving Willow to the ground as a missile whizzes right past their heads, exploding not far behind them. Skara brings a hand to her mouth and lets out a shrill whistle, creating a shockwave that knocks three of the attacking robots out of the air. Willow, with her hands on the ground, sends spiky vines shooting up from the ground beneath the robots, causing two of them to explode.
"We have to get out of here!", Skara shouts as the remaining robots come closer and closer.
"I-", Willow's sentence cuts short as she sees something running out of the corner of her eye. Sasha, with her sword firmly in her hand, comes running out the door, pushes herself off the ground near the two other girls, hitting the formation-flying robot ahead, slicing through the hull like butter, distracting the remaining three robots.
As they are focused on Sasha, Willow straightens up, drawing two magic circles that cause the red grass beneath two robots to grow extremely fast, grabbing the two robots and pulling them into the ground before they can do anything. Sasha skillfully dodges the attacks of the remaining robot before attacking again, delivering the killing blow to the last remaining robot with a horizontal slash through its torso.
Only slightly out of breath, Sasha straightens up, and with the immediate danger over, she turns her attention to her "rescuers". Unfortunately, they speak up first.
"Oh my titan, that was incredible!", Skara speaks in total awe over the younger girl.
"Are you hurt?", Willow approaches her, "Are you-", Willow cuts herself off, staring at Sasha with huge eyes.
"Do I have something on my face?", Sasha asks with an uncertain tone. Willow blinks a few times in disbelief.
"You- you're human...", Willow stutters in shock until she looks in the direction Sasha just came running from, where she spots a lone, open door in the middle of trees, "You have the portal door???", she asks, just more shocked.
"You know what that is?", Sasha asks.
"Of course.", Willow replies energetically, "That is the portal between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm."
"Demon-what?"
"But Luz said she lost the key...", Skara says, slightly lost in thought.
"Luz?", Sasha asks, "About your height, short brown hair, wearing a hoodie with cat ears?"
"Yup. That's her...", Willow energetically confirms, "My name is Willow, by the way. And this is Skara."
"Sasha. Sasha Waybright.", she introduces herself, at which the faces of the two girls drop. "Your faces tell me that you've already heard of me..."
"You could say that.", Skara tells her, "Luz told us about you when she returned. And none of it was particularly good."
"From bullying all the way to murder!", Willow fills in the blanks, now glaring at Sasha. The human girl, however, just shrugs it off.
"I stab someone in the back once and they hold it against you forever...", Sasha speaks jokingly, but the two girls in front of her are definitely not laughing. They're merely narrowing their eyes, and pointing their staffs at her, "Speaking of... um, Luz: Is she around by any chance?"
"Luz is... on a mission. Out of range.", Skara explains firmly.
"She's trying to save this world from an invasion.", Willow states, "Normally I would have asked you if you wanted to help, but from what we know about you, I will definitely not be turning my back on you!"
"Whatever.", Sasha says, rolling her eyes, "It's not my problem."
And with that, Sasha turns her back on the two girls and is already halfway back to the door when she takes a quick glance at one of the pieces of rubble, at which she freezes dead in her tracks.
"That can't be...", she mutters in shock, before turning back, "That's the crest of Amphibia.", she exclaims. The other two girls show no reaction to this statement. Willow approaches in Sasha's direction.
"They arrived here quite a while ago. Those Frobots are rampaging everywhere, killing and kidnapping people.", Willow explains coldly, "But like you said, it's not your problem."
Sasha feels a heavy sense of guilt, but keeps her head up. 'Looks like I need to talk to Anne after all.'
Without another word, she walks back to the door, the key already back in her hand.
"Hey, wait!", Sasha hears Willow's voice approaching quickly, just as she has already passed the door frame, "Could you perhaps leave the ke-"
Before Willow could even fully express her question, Sasha had already pressed the button again, closing the door behind her. In addition to guilt, another feeling suddenly returns to her mind: Anger. She grips her sword tightly before lashing out and taking her anger out on her room again.
Olivia & Yunan
A few weeks before the Invasion…
"I hate this.", Yunan grumbles.
"Being on a mission with me?", Olivia jokes.
"What? No...", Yunan replies with honest shock, "I-I would never turn down a joint mission with you..."
"I know. I was merely making a joke.", Olivia pats Yunan's arm affectionately.
"Oh...", the general takes a few seconds to process.
The two of them stand at the lookout of Andrias' first completed so-called transport ships, filled with nearly two hundred Frobots stationed inside. Lady Olivia and General Yunan are the only living beings on board, and it is slowly moving towards Frog Valley as Andrias has ordered them.
"So, what exactly do you hate?", Olivia asks after a while once she realized that the silence was getting too much for her.
"Huh? Oh...", Yunan snaps back to reality, "Well, absolutely all of this. I mean, King Andrias had all the guards thrown out of the palace, disbanded the Night Guard and replaced them with those things...", Yunan points to a hall behind her where all the currently inactive Frobots are stored. "And then there's all this talk about this Amphibian Empire. What does that even mean?"
"Well, it's probably to do with this new advisor Andrias has acquired, and he just wants to make Amphibia a better place for everyone..."
Yunan just stares at her. "Oh Olivia... You good, naive soul..."
"What?", Olivia asks out loud, feeling both somewhat confused and attacked by that statement, "I'm not naive."
"Okay, let's try this another way then.", Yunan begins, "These Frobots first arrived the day Andrias somehow came into possession of the music box."
"I'm pretty sure Master Marcy talked her friend into letting him have the box before they returned to their world.", Olivia speaks confidently.
"That's not my point, but we'll get to that. The Frobots came the day Andrias came into possession of the music box, right?", Yunan repeats her question.
"Correct."
"And that means that Andrias must have been waiting for this day for quite a while if he already had Frobots ready to go, right?"
"Perhaps..."
"Andrias had told us about this new advisor that's helping him create this Amphibian Empire, and since the Frobots seem to be part of this grand plan, it's safe to assume that this mysterious advisor has been around for a while, right?"
"Umm-"
"And if I remember correctly from the court protocols drawn up by King Andrias himself regarding his royal advisors, it's mandatory that all of the king's advisors work together when it comes to important decisions that affect the entire continent."
"YOU know the court protocols? You?", Olivia asks, genuinely taken aback.
"Only if it helps my case.", Yunan replies flatly, "Anyway, as far as I know, none of us have met this mysterious advisor, have we?"
"What are you getting at, Yunan?", Olivia asks, really not wanting to give her the obvious answer.
"My point is that Andrias is hiding something from us.", Yunan gestures with her head behind her, "And given that army of Frobots behind us, I don't think it's going to be the peaceful mission like he wanted us to believe."
"King Andrias, you wanted to see us?", Olivia and Yunan have entered the throne room of the flying palace, and now stand bowing before the giant king.
"Olivia! Yunan!", Andrias greets the two Newts with a huge grin on his face, "It's good to see you. How are you, how are things?"
Both newts look at each other in silence for a moment before Olivia speaks first.
"Um... the new mines you commissioned around Death's Eye Mountain officially became operational this morning. The people of Newtopia are complaining about-"
"Yeah, imma stop you right here.", Andrias' still cheerful voice interrupts Lady Olivia, "Heh, I wasn't asking for a status report, I was asking how you were doing."
"Oh...", Olivia replies, "We're fine, Sire."
"Great!", his voice booming through the throne room, "Listen. I have an assignment for the both of you. You will oversee a mission in Frog Valley. Since the Valley has declared itself independent, we will take everything that belongs to us back."
"That... Sounds only fair, Sire.", Olivia comments.
"I'm glad you agree.", Andrias smiles. "Anyway, the Frobots you will be accompanying have already received their orders. You two won't have to do anything but take notes in case there are any abnormalities. Think of this as a kind of test run."
"Yes, Sire.", Olivia lowers her head in acknowledgement. Yunan copies her gesture, but otherwise remains completely silent. "We'll be on our way immediately."
"Are you saying that the king has anything but the best interests of his subjects in mind?", Lady Olivia accuses the general, "That borders on treason."
"Well, we are here now.", Yunan speaks in a surprisingly relaxed tone in the face of Olivia's accusations. "In a few minutes we'll see if my suspicions turn out to be true or false. And it looks like the Frobots are activating."
In groups of five, the two hundred stockpiled Frobots march out of the storage room and past Olivia and Yunan, before each group flies to a different part of the valley. Some groups fly to the outermost areas, others into the centers of villages, others land in the middle of forests, and still others in the middle of nowhere.
From their position high up in the air, the two newts can look over the entire valley. The buildings that make up the villages are absolutely tiny, and on the paths between them they can make out small dots moving slowly.
"Did you know I've never been here before?", Olivia asks calmly, resting her arms relaxed on the railing in front of her and enjoying the view. "It looks so beautiful. So peaceful..."
And that's when the screams started.
Olivia's and Yunan's heads immediately snap to one of the many sources of the noise. Close to their position yet far below them, right on the edge of the valley, is a village in which has a massive fire in the middle of it has erupted, spreading rapidly in all directions. With wide, horrified eyes, Lady Olivia stares down, all while General Yunan merely closes her eyes and lets out a sad sigh.
"Orkori.", Yunan eventually speaks, "One thousand inhabitants... I came through there once on a mission."
Thirty-nine more similar fires break out in the Valley, exactly where the Frobots landed. For minutes, the two Newts stare at the flames spreading unhindered, engulfing everything and everyone who can't get away fast enough.
A few minutes into the spreading inferno, Yunan looks over at Olivia, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Olivia?", Yunan turns to her, full of worry.
"Why?", she asks in a broken voice, not taking her eyes off the tragedy, "Why would he do something like that?"
"He's taking back everything that's his.", Yunan replies coldly, "That's what he said. He sees the whole valley as stolen land. And he's taking it back, no matter the cost... And there's nothing we can do about it."
Lady Olivia suddenly hits the railing with clenched fists. "Wrong!"
"Huh?"
"You're right. There's nothing we can do for these poor frogs down here right now.", Olivia wipes away a tear, drying her cheek, "But we can try to prevent something like this from happening again!"
"And your oath to the king?", Yunan wonders. After all, Lady Olivia has committed her whole life to this oath.
"I have never pledged myself to King Andrias, but to the throne and the people.", Olivia speaks with a serious tone, "And even if I had pledged myself to him personally: Screw him. He's no longer a king, he is just a murderer now."
A moment of silence ensues.
"Soo... now that we've both officially crossed the threshold of treason... What shall we do?", Yunan asks. While she appreciates Lady Olivia's rebellious side, the general has absolutely no idea what it's like to work not for, but against a despot.
"The first Frobots are returning.", Olivia observes, "We'll talk more when we get back."
"He will want to see us.", Yunan notes.
"Doesn't matter. We'll keep playing our roles as long as it's safe for us."
Less than fifteen minutes after their arrival in the valley, everything was already completely ablaze, with dark smoke and soot rising so high into the air that it could be seen from anywhere on the continent. Every tree in the vast forests no longer anything but ash, every house now uninhabitable, every life... gone. Wiped out.
About an hour later, the two women find themselves back in the palace in front of King Andrias, who congratulates them with excellent spirits, as if they had passed some kind of test or received awards. Olivia and Yunan hardly spoke during the audience itself.
Only when Andrias released them for the rest of the day and they are allowed to leave the throne room do the two newts let out a breath that relaxes all their muscles and nerves.
"And now what?", Yunan asks, leaning against a wall in the otherwise empty corridor. Olivia takes another breath before speaking up.
"Come with me."
Lady Olivia leads Yunan away from the throne room, walking up two flights of stairs at one end of the palace before descending another three flights at the other.
"Are you trying to shake off any pursuers or what?", Yunan jokes after a while.
"Heh, don't worry, we'll be right there.", Olivia walks down another flight of stairs, which leads to a single, large, round room in which countless wooden barrels are stored.
"The wine cellar?", Yunan notes in astonishment, "Admittedly, I could have a drink..."
"That's not what we're here for.", Olivia remarks, earning a disappointed sigh from the general, "Here."
Olivia steps into the center of the room, up to what looks like a trapdoor. "Give me a hand, please."
"Of course.", Yunan steps up to the handle on the floor and opens the trapdoor, which is too heavy for Olivia, seemingly with no effort. "My lady..."
A slight blush appears on Olivia's face before she scurries past the general and advances the further steps into the interior of the palace.
"Ugh, more steps?", Yunan whines after they close the trapdoor behind them. Olivia merely chuckles at that. "And what kind of place is this anyway?"
As soon as the two of them reach the bottom of the stairs, Olivia speaks up.
"Welcome... to the catacombs."
"Catacombs?", Yunan asks, confused, "I didn't know the palace had catacombs."
"Nobody knows that.", Olivia explains as they enter a corridor filled with all kind of mirrors on the walls, "When I was but a mere tadpole, I explored the whole palace whenever I could, and eventually I found this."
Lady Olivia stands in front of one of the mirrors and pushes a hidden button on its frame. A mechanical click can be heard and a secret door opens, revealing an entire, fully equipped hidden room. Inside, a few cozy-looking pieces of furniture, and warm lighting in the form of yellow mushroom lights on the walls.
"I can't say exactly how old this room is, but I always assumed it was built by the same Newts who also built the rest of the catacombs.", Olivia explains, before looking at Yunan.
"Wait wait wait... As a tadpole, you were able to get that trapdoor open?", the general asks in shock. Olivia chuckles at that.
"I had help.", she replies smugly, "After all, back then I was totally adorable. No-one was ever able to say no to me."
'Not just back then...', Yunan thinks to herself before she shoots herself back to reality. "So- and how exactly do you know that's safe? That he won't find out about us?"
"The catacombs, like a surprising number of other secret places in the palace, are not marked on any maps or blueprints. Even I don't really know all of them, despite me knowing many... And look at the dimensions of all this. Andrias himself has never been down here, and couldn't come here even if he wanted to. He, and probably all his ancestors, are just too tall for that.", Olivia explains, "Besides, this is a secret room, in a secret corridor, hidden in a room that no one goes into except the staff who are no longer here. There are absolutely no ears that could be listening to us. So no need to worry, General."
"Good point.", Yunan agrees, before she and Olivia would enter their new joint headquarters and discuss their initial plans to uncover and stop Andrias' plans.
Day of the Invasion…
"Did you feel that?", Yunan asks Olivia, both of them in their headquarters, where the latter was about to share her latest observations and her larger plan. An intense feeling of electrostatic in the air had interrupted both women's trains of thought.
"Check?", Yunan asks.
"Take vantage point three. It's safer.", Olivia suggests. Yunan nods, presses the switch to open the door to their headquarters, and within seconds has disappeared towards the viewpoint previously known as 'Marcy's room', but renamed for security reasons.
Both Olivia and Yunan are now actually living in their hideout after an incident a few weeks ago when Andrias' mysterious advisor was officially introduced to them. Both newts were so disturbed by this reveal, and said such rash things, that half a dozen Frobots shot at them with everything they had at their disposal until the two of them were able to return to their hideout.
Darcy and Andrias have both been searching for them ever since, but fortunately without any success. However, the Frobots they are using to search feel as though they are getting closer every day, and every day in hiding grows more and more paranoia that they will be found and all their efforts will be in vain.
Only a few minutes later, the headquarters door opens again, bad news written all over Yunan's face.
"We are in another world. And I don't think it's the human world.", she reports with a serious expression.
"They've deviated from their plan? Why?", Olivia asks herself, before shaking her head and walking to her workshop area where her project from the last few weeks lies.
"Do we have enough time for a second one?", Yunan wonders, gesturing at the dismantled Frobot in front of them. Olivia shakes her head.
"It was a miracle that we were able to get hold of a defective model at all.", she says in a dejected tone, "And it took a whole week to refit this one for me. I don't think we, or the people of this world, have the time for that."
"It's okay.", Yunan tries to reassure her, "I will find a way out of the palace. Or I'll stay here and keep gathering information."
"N-no. Sooner or later they'll track you down.", Olivia objects.
"Then maybe I should make sure I buy you a little more time so you can get away."
Lady Olivia's eyes widen in utter horror at her suggestion. "No! You have no idea what you're getting yourself into when you're captured. They could torture you, kill you!"
"Olivia.", Yunan takes her hands in her own, "We both know these things are closing in on us day by day. If I turn myself in now, I can divert their trail away from you."
"… I really can't talk you out of it, can I?", Olivia speaks with a sense of impending loss in her voice.
"No.", Yunan answers firmly. The shorter newt takes a deep and shaky breath.
"If I let you do this, swear I will see you again! SWEAR IT!", Olivia yells with tears in her eyes.
"I swear we will see each other again. I swear it on my rank as General Yunan Longclaw, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian army!", Yunan replies, causing a sad smile to appear on Olivia’s face.
"I have to be honest: I'm scared.", Olivia confesses, "For you. For me. What if everything we've found out doesn't work? What if we can change absolutely nothing? What if they execute you just because we escaped them for so long?"
"Hey, hey, hey...", Yunan softly holds both sides of Olivia's face, looking her straight in the eye, "I know all this seems really rushed and rash, but you have the brains of us. I know with complete certainty that your plan, whatever it is, will work."
"Heh...", Olivia chuckles, "Blind faith, huh?"
"Not blind. I see you every day, after all.", Olivia visibly blushes after Yunan's comment, "And I know what you're capable of."
"I- mmmm...", Olivia cuts herself short, as if anything she might say would not be true. And she's not lying to her.
"Come on Livvy, you can say it.", Yunan teases her.
"You're truly impossible...", Olivia shakes her head, a smile on her face.
"My charm is irresistible, after all..."
"I don't even know what you mean."
"You love it, admit it.", Yunan smirks at her.
"There is someone I love...", Olivia looks at her playfully.
"Someone I know?", Yunan plays along.
"Maybe. She was in the army. Is quite tall and agile. Beautiful hair, and always knows what to say to make my day better, no matter how miserable it was."
"That sounds like an absolute dream girl. You really have to introduce me to her."
At that, the two Newts burst into laughter, but as they hold each other close, their laughter gradually turns to tears.
"I don't want to lose you.", Olivia admits. Yunan gently holds her face.
"You won't.", Yunan says, before leaning down slightly and giving her partner a long, lingering kiss, both of them longing for more.
"You know-", the taller Newt begins after their kiss breaks apart, "Despite all the suffering and bullshit we've had to endure in the last few weeks, I wouldn't trade what happened for anything in the world."
"Yunan, I lo-"
"Don't.", she cuts Olivia off, "Tell me when we meet again."
Interrogation
Four days.
Almost four days have passed since the king's former advisor managed to escape from the palace and was abducted to this house by the young human. Well, 'abducted' isn't exactly the right word, considering that Olivia gave herself up voluntarily and on the human's terms.
For four days she has been locked up in this house now, which certainly has a lot of character. And judging by the two large wanted posters displayed in the living room, the human appears to be a wanted criminal in this world, together with a slightly older-looking woman depicted on the other poster. More likely the owner of this house, but just like the human, she doesn't seem to get around here either. Or at least not since Olivia has been here.
Her days here have been anything but boring. The little owl hasn't left her side since receiving its instructions. Olivia had tried to initiate conversations at first, but the bird was probably just an animal with a higher intelligence but without the ability to speak. The same cannot be said about the self-proclaimed house demon. What the owl doesn't have in language skills, the demon definitely has in abundance, evidenced by the fact that he takes every opportunity to talk to Olivia about every tiny and unimportant topic, be it his breakfast, or the history of the house, or how many leaves he has mistaken for bugs and eaten anyway. At one point Olivia had suspected that this was all a form of torture initiated by the human to break her mind.
It took her about two days to figure out how to push his buttons, and actually make him somewhat useful to her. She had learned one important thing: the demon was incredibly lonely. So instead of Olivia continuing to try increasingly desperately to ignore the demon's pointless conversations, she gradually began to actively approach him. It started with a simple question about who the older woman on the wanted posters is or was.
Apparently, her name is Eda, nicknamed 'the Owl Lady' and being wanted by the authorities for refusing to submit to an oppressive system. He had also briefly mentioned a demon king, which had raised her an eyebrow, but she had not yet been able to get any further explanation. And considering the sheer amount of times the demon's attention left him, that's already a whole lot of information Olivia could get about this new world, or at least about a few of its inhabitants.
Besides just talking to him, she had also invited him over for tea after actually finding tea bags in the kitchen. And despite his... poor table manners, it turned out to be a pleasant event. Another of his good points came to light after Olivia discovered a drink called 'Apple Blood'. She drank a whole bottle of it before she realized it was an alcoholic drink. Over time, she lost more and more of her sense of balance and eventually even lost consciousness. The next day, Olivia was all the more surprised when she found herself tucked up on the couch, with a hot cup of tea in front of her. She had initially assumed that the human or one of the other residents had found her and helped her up, but the house was still empty. The demon immediately darted out the door to check on her when he realized she was awake, and was really attentive and caring to the person who was still technically his prisoner.
It's day four, and with Hooty currently asleep, despite the fact that it's only early afternoon, Olivia had to find something else to do. She had briefly considered sneaking a look at the two rooms in the house that the human had declared out of bounds when the little owl was asleep, but then decided against it in order to not break the little trust she had gained. Instead, Olivia had found knitting needles and made herself comfortable on the couch in the living room with a hot cup of tea. She was in the process of knitting herself a sweater, since wearing the same dress every single day proved to be a tad uncomfortable.
It's already two-thirds finished when a bright flash of light from outside the house snaps her out of her concentration. She is inclined to get up and look when the door suddenly opens and three people enter. Luz, the human, her angry purple-haired girlfriend, and a slightly taller but much older woman who has tied her short white hair in a short plait.
Olivia rises from the couch to greet the new arrivals with her hands clasped in front of her dress.
'About time.', Olivia thinks to herself, annoyed.
"I'm so sorry you had to wait so long.", Luz apologizes, "but we had to do some research and prepare a few things."
"I understand.", Olivia lies, "I accept your apology. In fact, my time here wasn't all that unpleasant."
"Oh, that's good.", Luz takes a breath of relief, "Hooty's already made more than one person lose their mind."
"He was actually very kind to me.", Olivia assures her with a smile.
"Okay, great.", Luz says, "Okay, so, quick introductions. You've already met my girlfriend Amity here."
"Yes, I recall her.", Olivia bows slightly, but receives nothing but a death stare from the girl. Luz continues.
"And this here is Diane Liwin. She's sort of the head of our... organization.", Luz introduces her. The older woman gives her a firm nod.
"We're going to ask you a few questions one by one, which we hope you'll answer honestly.", Liwin explains with an intimidating tone that reminds Olivia a lot of her own mother, "We're hoping for your voluntary cooperation. If this is not the case, we will force you to cooperate..."
"But of course. I'll tell you everything you want to know.", Olivia assures them. But the girl, Amity, doesn't seem to believe her.
"I don't buy it.", she says doubtfully, before walking around the table directly, looking her straight in the eye.
"Hold out your hand!", Amity orders her, which the newt does immediately, albeit slightly confused. To her utter surprise, the girl draws a glowing circle around her hand in the air. "Swear that everything you say is true, otherwise you will die in an instant!"
Olivia looks taken aback at the fierce girl, before daring a glance at the human, who just nods at her. "I swear that everything I say is the known truth, and that if I don't, I will die instantly."
At that, Amity takes the newt's hand, shaking it once, but not letting go yet. "The everlasting oath is sealed. Lie only once and you die. Got it?", the young girl stares hatefully into her eyes, and only when Olivia nods does she let go. There is now a slightly glowing ring around Olivia's wrist, indicating that the spell was successful. The Newt is suddenly quite a bit more nervous, if not slightly terrified of what she is about to face. Fortunately, Luz speaks up, cutting through the tense mood with her friendly voice.
"Okay, now that that's done, I'll get us chairs and we can get started. Lady Olivia, you're welcome to stay on the couch. I'll be right back."
Luz leaves the living room for the kitchen, leaving the remaining three people in an awkward and clearly tense silence. Olivia is definitely not going to expect any pleasantries from Amity. From Ms. or Mrs. Liwin, on the other hand... the older woman seems a little more sophisticated.
"Any of you want something to drink?", Luz's voice echoes from the direction of the kitchen. Olivia watches as Amity visibly rolls her eyes.
"Not for me, thank you.", she calls back to her.
"I don't need anything either.", Liwin also calls in the direction of the kitchen.
"Lady Olivia?", Luz calls out unexpectedly. Olivia had previously assumed that the human only meant her friends.
"I still have some tea left. Thank you very much.", Olivia calls out.
Less than two minutes later, Luz returns with two chairs, one in each arm, one for Liwin and one for Amity. She heads back to the kitchen for a moment and fetches a third chair for herself, which she places right next to Amity's. She leaves the living room a third time and returns with a steaming cup, which she holds in both hands.
"I made myself some hot chocolate.", she smiles brightly before turning to Olivia, "It's kind of like hot chocopede soup."
"I see.", Olivia nods in acknowledgement.
"Okay, well, we can start now. So-", Liwin explains before Amity cuts her off.
"DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH MY BROTHER'S DEATH?"
"No.", Olivia answers simply, while Luz tries to stop her girlfriend from ripping Newt's head off. "When the palace traveled to this world, I was in hiding."
A low growl is all Olivia gets from Amity. Liwin sees this as an opportunity to continue.
"To my first question: have you ever been subservient to the enemy, or are you still subservient today?", she asks.
"For most of my life, I served directly under King Andrias as his royal advisor.", Olivia explains, "My mother had prepared me in my youth to take over from her when she retired. I served under him as advisor for twenty-five years, additionally managing all of the surrounding lands. Well, at least until Andrias came into possession of the music box. Then he revealed himself to be the monster he had been hiding for a thousand years. And after he sent me and General Yunan on a mission to Frog Valley, we couldn't just stand around and watch any longer, so we turned our backs on him and started working against him."
"Are you a spy for Andrias?", Liwin continues.
"No. On the contrary: I spied against him."
"O-okay, h-hold on a second.", Luz speaks up, in a suddenly rather nervous voice, "W-when we found you, you said that Andrias had burned down Frog Valley..."
"If you want to ask me if I was there, the answer is unfortunately yes. Andrias had forced us to watch everything. A 'test run', he said. He meant it would happen for those who rebelled against him... I'm sorry. I know you had friends there."
"Hm...", Luz growls softly, her attitude shifting from friendly to serious, "I still do... Next question: Anne Boonchuy. Maddie Flour. Hopediah, Sprig, and Polly Plantar. What was the last time you heard from them?"
Olivia thinks for a moment before answering. "Anne, Master Marcy, and their friends were scheduled to arrive the day Andrias seized the music box. You probably already know what happened to Marcy, so I'm assuming that they actually all arrived at the palace as planned. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened after that."
"So where could they be?", Luz demands to know.
"If they're still alive-"
"They are!"
"If they're still alive, they either escaped or got captured.", Olivia speculates. Luz slowly nods to herself.
"Amity, come with me. I'm leaving a little earlier than planned.", she says, earning a nod from both Liwin and Amity. The two young girls get up from their chairs without a word and leave the house through the main entrance.
"There's a plan?", Olivia asks, "T- To stop Andrias and Darcy?"
"Don't worry about it.", Liwin replies firmly. Olivia huffs at that, but doesn't comment further. She is well aware that she has no right to ask anything of anyone. She definitely has to earn that first.
"What can you tell me about the enemy soldiers? Are there others like you were inside these metal demons?", Liwin asks.
"Metal demons? Um, no. Luz probably told you about how she found me...", she waits for a response, which she doesn't get, "No, the Frobots Andrias and Darcy are using aren't manned."
"So like Abomatrons, I see..."
"Abomatrons?"
"Don't worry about it.", Liwin shoots her down again, "How many of these Frobots does the enemy have?"
"According to my information, they came to this world with fifteen thousand Frobots and have not yet requested reinforcements."
"And they could?", Liwin asks.
"As long as they have access to the music box, yes."
"I see. Luz had already told me everything she knew about the box...", Liwin's voice trails off. "Next question: Where are the abducted inhabitants of this world being held?"
"Either in the palace, or in one of the other transporters above the big cities."
"Very good. What are the enemy's objectives in this world?"
"According to my information, this world was not originally part of their plans.", Liwin raises an eyebrow at that, "The original plan was probably to invade the human world and not only to steal all the world's resources, but also to use part of the population as slaves."
"It's a good thing Luz didn't just hear that then...", Liwin shakes her head, "And they're pursuing the same goals here? Why this sudden change of plans?"
"I suspect they're here to study the magic of this world, and use it for themselves to become even stronger.", Olivia guesses, a grim expression on her face, "I mean, imagine Frobots being able to perform magic. No one would be safe."
Liwin takes a long, deep breath before the front door suddenly opens again. Luz sticks her head inside.
"We're ready.", she announces, "Owlbert!"
The little owl that has been watching over Olivia all this time flies off from his position and transforms into a wooden staff in mid-flight, landing directly in Luz's hand. Olivia is astonished and Liwin turns to the girl.
"And you're sure you want to do this on your own?", she asks her.
"It's going to be quicker that way.", Luz assures her. Olivia can see from the older woman's face that she is definitely worried about the human, "Besides, you know exactly what's at stake."
"And I'm beginning to regret my agreement...", Liwin says.
"Olivia.", Luz addresses the Newt directly, a grin gracing her face, "I think you'll want to see this too."
Liwin and Lady Olivia both rise from their seats and join the other two girls in the area immediately in front of the house. On the sandy ground, the two girls have drawn what looks like a complex series of runes or glyphs, connected by circles that expand to several meters in diameter.
"I double-checked everything.", Amity has a piece of magic parchment or something similar in her hand, which reminds Olivia of Marcy's phone, "It's all set."
"Um, if you don't mind me asking...", Olivia speaks up, "What is all this?"
Luz smirks in her direction, getting down on her knees at the edge of the drawings. Liwin speaks up.
"While you and I will continue our little conversation in a moment, Luz will go somewhere else to execute the first part of our plan.", she explains. Luz presses both her hands firmly on the outermost line, which begins to light up in a golden hue. The glow spreads across every single line drawn, while the wind picks up slightly at the same time. Individual grains of sand rise up from all around them, and Olivia feels the urge to hold on to something as the wind around the four of them grows stronger and stronger. There is sand gathering above the glowing lines, forming a disc in its center. Amity and Liwin avert their gazes to shield their eyes from the sand, while Luz stares right into the center of the floating collection of sand with a smirk on her face. The spell seems to light up almost completely as the swirling sand disc tilts into a vertical position around a sort of opening in the center, no larger than thirty centimeters in diameter.
"Is that-", Olivia speaks up, too stunned to continue. Luz rises and steps closer to the opening.
"Yes, it is. But I'm not done yet.", she says with unheard-of confidence. She steps into the glowing lines, the glow probably able to exist even without the sand. She raises both her hands towards the opening and closes her eyes. Golden flashes form on her arms, which shoot in rapid succession to her fingers and from there into the disc. The opening widens, the swirling sand thins, and a loud gasp escapes Olivia.
"That- that’s Newtopia!", she exclaims, "You- you created a portal back to Amphibia??? B-But how?"
The event horizon of the portal now spans two meters, at which Luz has lowered her arms again. Through the portal, the four of them look at a piece of Newtopian architecture familiar to Olivia from the upper ring of her hometown.
"I did. Took a long time, and a lot of experimenting. I had to completely change my approach from trying to teleport from one world to another to a more physical passageway, like a wormhole, or-"
"Luz!", Amity snaps her back to reality.
"Oh, yeah, right. Anyway, I'm traveling to Amphibia and I'll be back in a few days."
Lady Olivia just stares at the young girl in a very much not ladylike manner, while Luz herself stands in front of the portal, ready to step through.
"Wish me luck."
Luz steps through the portal, which closes completely a moment later and disappears.
Notes:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well as what's going to happen in the next one. Also, it would mean the world to me if you'll let me know your thoughts about this chapter <3
Have a nice dayChronological order of subchapters:
* Olivia & Yunan
* Luz & Raine
* Interrogation
* Sasha
Chapter 47: Back to Where it Ended...
Summary:
Luz steps through the portal.
Notes:
I'm writing this just 30 minutes before Saturday officially ends. To say I'm stressed would be an understatement...
Anyway, welcome back. This is kind of a two-parter, but at the same time it's not, because it doesn't say 'Part 1' or anything up there. I would also recommend you to re-read chapter 9 to catch up on some things.
There's also a little surprise in store during this chapter for those who also read other Owlphibia-fics. It's pretty hard to miss ;)With all that being said, hope you'll enjoy it <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Luz, I know this is all extremely important to you, but don't you think you should master regular teleportation first?"
"Yes, I'm sure I should. But it's definitely been way too long, and I just need to know how she's doing."
"Okay, this is attempt number fourteen for cross-dimensional teleportation."
'I'm still in the Demon Realm... Don't know exactly where I am yet. I'll have a quick look around'
"What about Anne? She originally had the Music Box. What about the Plantars? Are they okay?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know the details. I wasn't there when Andrias got the Music Box. And I'm afraid the bad news doesn't end there... Not long after he got to the box, he launched a widespread attack on Frog Valley. He burned it all to the ground."
"Any survivors?"
"Possibly."
"But you don't know who and where... Andrias told us Anne was dead, but I refuse to believe that."
"I might even have two ideas about what do to differently next time..."
"It's only a prototype so far. It will probably be a few more days before we can put our plan into motion."
"Is that-"
"Yes, it is. But I'm not done yet."
"That- that's Newtopia! You created a portal back to Amphibia???"
"I did. Took a long time and a lot of experimenting."
Luz stands directly in front of the event horizon, with Lady Olivia, Liwin, and Amity all standing behind her. The portal, several meters in diameter, is still swirling sand through the air at its rim, creating a drizzling sound. Or maybe it's coming from the portal itself, who knows.
She stands there with nothing more than a full stomach and her staff in her hand. Nervous. The way things are going now, the whole thing wasn't actually planned at all. The original plan was that Luz wouldn't be traveling for another few days, because some of the older members of the CATs had previously insisted that she take a few more tests to make sure her travel method was indeed safe. It was also originally insisted that she take some more equipment with her, mainly from Willow's fathers and Gwendolyn, who are genuinely worried about her. It's actually pretty sweet that they care about her, but annoying at the same time.
'They don't trust me.', the voice in her head speaks, 'I'm the only one who can do this. Only I have experience in other worlds. Worlds, plural... And all because they still see me as a child. I'll show them that they can trust me to do more. That I'm not a child. I'm half-titan for fucks sake. I'm the most powerful being on three worlds...'
Luz takes a deep breath, clearing her mind.
"Wish me luck.", she speaks before stepping through the portal and finding herself in Amphibia. She takes another deep breath, immediately recognizing this different air. It's salty, warmer, and more humid.
'Oh, how I've missed this...'
Luz just stands there, her eyes closed, simply enjoying the old yet new atmosphere. She hears the portal back to the Isles close behind her and disappear completely.
"Good luck."
"GAH!!!!", Luz' jumps out of her skin, almost falling over. Someone laughs at that. It's Amity's laugh. Reaching for one of her hearts with her hand, eyes wide with fright, Luz turns backwards. Behind her, right where the portal was, stands Amity with a fake innocent smile on her face.
"AMI??? What are you doing here?", Luz asks her in a reproachful tone.
"I don't know what you mean." she replies, feigning innocence.
"You shouldn't even be here.", Luz replies with a hint of panic, "I'll - I'll send you back."
"No, you won't.", Amity replies now in a firmer tone, "Did you really think you were going on this mission alone? ... There were quite a few volunteers who wanted to accompany you, but I knew how stubborn you can be and managed to persuade them that I would be the one to accompany you, and the others agreed to pretend to let you go alone by yourself."
'They don't trust me.', the voice in Luz's head repeated.
"You lied to me?"
"I'd rather say we protected your back. And continue to do so.", Amity explains as she steps closer to her girlfriend, "I know you're stronger than all of us and that you feel responsible for the invasion- please hear me out. We know you feel that way and that you would prefer to do everything on your own... But remember: We are a team. And I'm not just talking about the CATs, I'm talking about you and me too. You and I are a team, and you're not going to send me back because we're going to complete this mission together. Besides, I want to see where you've been in the time you've been here."
Luz blinks at her a few times before she finds her words again.
"How long did you work on the speech?", she asks. Amity ponders for a moment.
"Uh... About since you said you wanted to come back here.", the purple-haired girl replies, which causes a chuckle to escape her girlfriend.
"Heh, okay.", Luz gives in, "But for the record: I would have sent anyone else back."
"Yeah, I know. Luckily for me, I'm not them."
With that issue out of the way, the two girls now take a moment to find out exactly where they are in Amphibia. They know that they are in Newtopia not only because of Lady Olivia's moderately helpful comment a few minutes ago, but also because Luz was the one who opened the portal here in the first place. Taking a closer look at their location, however, is not particularly helpful. Luz and Amity have landed in a curved cobbled alley surrounded on either side by colorful multi-story apartment buildings adorned with corals, sea shells, and other nautical decorations, just as Luz remembers them. What Luz definitely does not remember are all the boarded-up windows and doors, which brings a frown to her face.
"Okay, um... Let's go... that way.", Luz gestures uphill behind Amity for the two of them, hoping they can get a better view of where they are in the city.
As the two of them wander silently through the empty alley, Luz can't help but think that something is off here. The atmosphere is exactly the same as when she left Amphibia. Apart from the boarded-up windows and doors, everything looks the same, even though Luz has never been to this particular part of the city before. No, it is that unnerving silence that has no place in this city. When Luz was last here, the whole city was still full of life at almost any time of day, even if it was just the city guards patrolling the streets and alleyways.
'This is wrong.'
A few minutes into their walk, Amity speaks up.
"So... this was the last place you were before you returned to the Isles?", she wonders as the empty looking buildings slowly pass by.
"Well, not quite. The last thing I remember is that creepy basement under Andrias' palace."
"Creepy basement? Why, did he hide bodies there?", she jokes, but quickly realizes that Luz isn't laughing. "Seriously? Although, why do I even ask? Of course he has bodies in the basement."
"Yeah... I already didn't trust him back then. I knew there was something sinister surrounding him.", Luz adds.
"And you were right."
"That doesn't necessarily make me feel any better...", Luz exclaims.
"But that's why we're here, isn't it? To find help."
"More or less..."
"Huh?", Amity huffs questioningly, "What do you mean by 'more or less'?"
Luz bites her tongue as a sense of hypocrisy fills her mind. She stops and takes a deep breath before answering.
"I... I wasn't completely honest when I told everyone about my plan.", she begins, but stops herself to see how Amity reacts. She just looks at her, silently waiting for her to continue. "I was serious about being here to seek help, but not specifically here-here... The thing is, my friends were last seen here."
Luz lets her gaze wander to the ground.
"And you want to see if they're still around?", Luz nods, not looking at her. "Admittedly, I had already thought something like that."
"You - you're not angry?"
"For being worried?"
"Because I lied to you!"
"I'd just say we're even then.", Amity replies, which leaves Luz genuinely speechless. At least for a few seconds.
"... I don't deserve you...", Luz mutters.
Amity feels as if she can see the ghost of a tear in her eye and closes the distance to her girlfriend, cupping her cheeks with her hands and planting a small kiss in the other girl's lips. "You more than anyone else.", she smiles.
"Besides...", Amity continues, "I really wanna meet your friends."
"Heh, fair enough."
Hand in hand, the two girls walk off again.
The alley actually goes on for quite a while, snaking through what feels like the entire city, before they eventually reach an open space.
"You know, we could have flown here...", Amity suddenly speaks up. Luz can't help but smack her palm against her forehead in disbelief, causing Amity to chuckle briefly in amusement. "Don't worry, I hadn't thought of it either."
"Yea... Doesn't matter anymore.", Luz says as the two girls enter a place not unfamiliar to Luz.
Luz remembers exactly how she and Maddie first arrived in Newtopia all that time ago. Just like with Maddie back then, Luz leads Amity to a bench, which is dangerously close to an unsecured, incredibly steep drop. Luz remembers how she and Maddie used to sit here, where Luz used watch all the people walking up and over this place, just going about their daily lives. There's none of that left now. Besides the two of them, there is no-one around.
The two girlfriends stand in front of the bench, from where they can look out over the entire city from high above. Luz's voice displays a hint of sadness before she speaks up. "Welcome to Newtopia, Amity."
"Luz? What's wrong?", Amity asks anxiously, averting her eyes from the sight in front of her.
"I don't know.", she replies as she wipes away a tear, "It's just... This feels just like Bonesborough. It's like the whole town... died..."
"Luz...", Amity puts her hand on her shoulder sympathetically.
"There's one place I'd like to check.", Luz dodges the subject and merely brings out Owlbert in his staff form.
"I'll go with you wherever you end up.", Amity assures her, which brings a small smile to her face, not seeing Luz's hearts begin to melt every single time.
"I will find you.", Luz mutters to herself.
Amity takes out Ghost, readying herself. Now with a grin on her face, a hint of mischief in her eyes, and Owlbert in her hand, Luz turns to Amity. "Ready?"
"Are you planning to do something stupid?"
"Don't know, you tell me.", Luz replies, before running off and jumping over the edge with a loud 'geronimo', giving Amity a heart attack in the process. "Woooooohoooooooooo"
Amity looks over the edge, tense, and sees Luz now sitting on Owlbert, racing down the steep wall. "Titan, Luz...", she shakes her head. She glances once at Ghost, who meows back at her before shrugging her shoulders.
Grabbing her staff tightly, Amity also runs off, leaping off the ledge.
She spreads her arms and closes her eyes for a moment, convinced beyond doubt that this is by far one of the stupidest ideas ever. Nevertheless, she enjoys the way the wind flies through her hair, the rustling in her ears... The ultimate feeling of freedom.
Unfortunately, a very short one, because after thirty meters of free fall, she is forced to open her eyes again, positioning her staff between her legs, and now gliding down the steep wall in a somewhat more controlled manner, directly following Luz on her curved trajectory, who is flying at high speed, screaming happily as the races along the wide street between two house fronts. Amity, flying about a hundred meters behind her, lets her gaze wander from time to time to the ground and the houses below, where, probably in response to Luz's screams, she sees heads of some... creatures peering out of windows, which Amity then also quickly flies past at speeds beyond all good and evil.
Amity barely manages to catch up with Luz until they eventually reach the end of the road. But instead of slowing down or landing, Luz merely pulls her staff up and comes to a halt above a row of houses. She seems to be looking for something.
"Luz...", Amity catches up to her and stops alongside her, "you're literally insane.", she laughs.
"Hehe... Admittedly, I've always wanted to try skydiving. And this was definitely the closest I could do.", she shakes her hand wildly, "I'm still all jittery."
"Yeah, I can see that. It was nice-", Amity admits, "What's skydiving?"
"It's a human hobby. Basically falling from an extremely high altitude.", she explains.
"Sounds dangerous. But I can see what the appeal is...", Amity says, "Another thing: you flew like an ace."
"Yeah, I'm barely flying these days, and that just felt great."
"Uh, yeah, not my point.", Amity says, causing Luz to tilt her head slightly, "When all this is over, you might be interested in checking out the Gland Prix. It's a race between students of Hexside, Glandus, and St. Epiderm. I think you'd win that easily."
"Maybe...", Luz replies after a moment, "I'll think about it."
"Good, and to get back to our mission, on the way here, I've seen some... creatures that were attracted by your screaming. The city doesn't seem to be abandoned after all."
"Maybe they're all hiding for some reason.", Luz speculates, "Anyway, we're almost where I wanted to go. After me."
"There, there it is!"
Luz screams with joy as a multi-storey yellow house surrounded by many other colorful houses appears on the empty, wide street as the two girlfriends fly close over the partly pointed, partly flat roofs.
"Luz, stop.", Amity whispers loudly and hurriedly, but Luz apparently can't hear her. She draws a small purple magic circle, which grabs Luz and her staff with abomination goo and pulls both of them back onto the roof above which Amity is hovering. "Luz, stop!"
"What?", Luz looks at her Girlfriend in confusion as the sound of stomping comes closer to their position. The two girls hide on the roof as Luz also notices the sound, and look down at the street below them, where three Frobots are coming towards them on the street below, passing them by unaware of their presence. "Wow, you have good hearing."
"Thanks.", Amity replies sheepishly, "When you grow up with siblings like Ed and Em, it's necessary to be able to hear which one of them was trying to prank me. Or if it's a prank at all, or if they just wanted to talk."
"How do you tell the difference?", Luz wonders, genuinely curious.
"When Ed walks- walked normally, he had heavy steps. When Em walks normally, her steps are lighter. When they tried to prank me, they went into a kind of stealth mode. Both of them only walked on tiptoes, and inside the Manor without shoes to be as quiet as possible."
"And how did you recognize them then?"
"Blight Manor is quite old, and it's not long since the floors were replaced. So when I heard the yielding of wood I knew that a prank is imminent. And if anyone chuckled softly while doing so, it was Ed."
Luz chuckles at that notion, but at the same time a feeling of guilt fills her mind. "I've... I've been meaning to-"
"They're gone.", Amity whispers to her, interrupting Luz, "We can go on."
"... okay.", Luz replies, pushing down her previous thought.
Luz and Amity get back on their staffs and glide silently down the wall of the house until, seconds later, they land right in front of the yellow house they've just spotted. Luz sighs sadly. Like many of the other houses in Newtopia, all the windows and the front door are boarded up.
"Okay-," Amity speaks up after Luz just stands there in silence for several moments, "If I remember, you said you were staying with some girl. Isa, or something? Is this her house?", she asks. Luz nods.
"Iva. A friend of Maddie's.", she explains, before taking a step forward, "Come on, let's go in."
"You want to break in?", Amity wonders.
"Sure, why not? We're not stealing anything. And we're not staying. And no-one is around."
"Hm, ok.", Amity just shrugs her shoulders, before summoning some abomination goo, which rips the board off the front door and carefully sets it down next to it. Luz steps forward and opens the surprisingly unlocked door, and the two girls enter what Luz remembers all too well as the living room of Iva's house.
Again, or still, with a sad look on her face, Luz looks around. Apart from the furniture, the living room is empty.
"Iva had something like a small library here in her house.", she says as she walks through the dust-filled room. It quickly becomes clear that the room hasn't been ventilated for a while. Luz runs her fingers over the empty, dust-covered bookshelves as a thought occurs to her. "Amity, come with me. I want to show you something."
Intrigued, Amity follows Luz through the living room, past what looks like a kitchen without a door, to a door next to a staircase to the upper floors. Luz touches one of the mushrooms that seem to be sprouting from the wall throughout the apartment, which, to Amity's shock and surprise, begins to glow at the touch.
"Whoa...", she exclaims slowly, before turning to Luz, who has a small grin on her face, "But how...? That's a mushroom..."
"To be completely honest... I don't know. Mushrooms are used for a lot of things here. There are even some that can explode.", Luz explains, making Amity swallow slightly paranoid, "Don't worry, not these ones. The exploding mushrooms are, as far as I remember, blue with white spots."
Amity exhales in relief. "Don't scare me like that...", she says playfully annoyed.
"Sorry. But that wasn't at all what I wanted to show you."
Luz grabs the door handle and opens the door where she and Maddie spent a few nights.
"Holy Titan...", Amity mutters, "This is my secret study room in the library... But how-"
Like the living room, this room is free of any kind of object that is not a piece of furniture, but also not part of the building. Luz reminisces for a moment, the image of her and Maddie's first night in Newtopia clearly visible before her eyes.
"I actually said the exact same thing back then. I said 'This is Amity's secret hideout' or something along those lines.", Luz speaks nostalgically.
"But how is that possible?"
"It could be an interdimensional constant.", Luz says, at which Amity merely tilts her head in confusion, "Maddie said that it's objects, people, and apparently places that exist on multiple worlds-, in multiple dimensions and universes at the same time. She explained it to me after I came across a few 'The Good Witch Azura' books here in Amphibia. And this room could also be such a constant. Maddie never found any concrete evidence for this theory, though."
"Maybe we'll find more later on.", Amity suspects, "Maybe there are such constants on the Isles from other worlds and we don't even know about them..."
"Good Witch Azura?", Luz asks.
"Well, yeah, apart from that."
"IS ANYONE IN THERE?", a male voice sounds from the side of the main entrance, causing both Luz and Amity to freeze in place, "HELLO?"
Just standing there, the two girls look at each other with wide eyes, afraid of having been caught. Luz is the first to snap back and quietly make her way back towards the main corridor. Amity shakes her head wildly before Luz sticks her head out the door and makes eye contact with a spear-wielding Newt standing in the middle of the living room. Obviously a guard.
"Heyyy...", Luz speaks in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice, "Sorry for just barging in here, but my girlfriend and I are looking for some friends of mine who were last seen in Newtopia."
The Newt merely stares at Luz, clutching his spear tightly in his hands, visibly nervous and scared. "Who are you? What are you?", he asks with a trembling voice.
"Oh, I'm Luz, and this-", she reaches her hand into the room.
"Luz, no!"
"- and this is Amity.", she continues, after pulling the witch towards her into the hallway.
"What are you?", the guard asks again, "Are you friends of Master Marcy?"
"I am, she's not.", Luz replies, at which the Guard lowers his spear, "And I'm part human, part something else. Amity is a witch."
"A magic-user?", the guard gasps, the tension in the air suddenly completely gone.
"Both of us, actually.", Luz replies.
"Oh my frog, that's fantastic.", the guard exclaims excitedly, "We need your help. Newtopia needs your help."
Luz and Amity exchange thoughtful glances. Amity shrugs her shoulders indifferently. "Okay, we'll help. What do you need?", Luz asks.
"Come with me. I need to take you to the university.", the guard gestures for the two girls to follow him as he moves back towards the door, "They'll explain everything to you there, and maybe even help you find your friends."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place? Let's go.", Luz exclaims, suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic than just a few minutes ago. She follows him straight outside, with Amity right behind her. They both notice the guard walking towards an open sewer cover in the middle of the empty street.
"Wait!", Amity exclaims in disgust, "You don't seriously want us to crawl through the sewers, do you?"
"It's the only safe way into the university where we won't be discovered by the Frobots.", he explains.
"We could fly...", Luz suggests, at which the guard shakes his head.
"Everything around the university will be shot down. Plus, personally I'm afraid of heights."
"Fine.", Amity growls.
"Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.", Amity repeatedly exclaims in utter disgust as she climbs down the steps into Newtopia's sewers right after Luz. She can already smell a foul, disgusting odor. "I hope it will be worth it."
To Amity's mild surprise, the sewer isn't quite as cramped and disgusting as she originally thought. The actual sewage flows in a separate part of the tunnel, surrounded on both sides by walkways. The sewer is also big enough for all three of them to be able to stand upright in it. Nevertheless, it still smells terrible down here.
"Huh, it's not as bad as I thought.", Luz comments casually.
"Are you serious?"
"I mean, it's bad, but I was afraid of something way worse.", Luz justifies herself.
"Oh, alright, okay.", Amity replies. The guard has now also reached the other two girls, having previously closed the manhole cover again. He now stands in front of them, about half a head shorter and with a glowing mushroom in his hand.
"This way. I'm going ahead.", he declares, heading in a seemingly random direction with Luz and Amity behind him, following him.
As they walk, Amity leans slightly towards Luz and begins to whisper.
"So, this is a... newt?", she asks her girlfriend with slight uncertainty.
"That's right.", Luz confirms excitedly but at the same volume, "Newts are the only ones with a visible tail, and slightly protruding snouts. Plus, they're among the physically largest intelligent species in Amphibia."
"I can hear you, you know?", the guard walking in front of them speaks up.
"Sorry.", Luz speaks up as the two girls catch up a little distance to him. "Um, tell me, what happened in Newtopia to make the town look so deserted?"
"King Andrias happened.", he replies coldly, "He turned the continent into a wasteland. Traders no longer dare to come here, people no longer have any food. Some have fled, some tried to fight back. None of them have returned. We had hoped that after the king disappeared, things would get better, but his machines haven't stopped working."
"He's still building more soldiers.", Amity says.
"Soldiers?", the guard asks.
"Those Frobots.", she clarifies, "He's currently invading my world."
"Oh... My condolences.", he says quietly.
"That's why we're here.", Luz speaks up, "We need help if we wanna stop him."
"I'm afraid you won't be able to get much of that here. But the Headmaster will be able to explain that to you better.", the guard explains, "He handles everything."
"Alright."
Knock - Knock Knock - Knock - Knock - Knock
The guard knocks rhythmically from below against a seemingly random hatch cover, which is opened from the outside a few moments later, and one by one the three of them climb out after spending over an hour underground.
"Finally!", Amity exclaims, "Freedom! Fresh air! Oh, how I've missed you..."
A hand from above helps the three of them out of the tunnels before the hatch is closed again behind them.
They now find themselves in a very high, long, but not too wide hall. The architectural style of the whole place looks like one of those old european churches or monasteries. The floor is made of rust-colored polished marble, the walls consist of wooden panels, some large and small, some arranged vertically, some horizontally, some dark brown, others lighter. Also on the walls are a number of enormously large glowing mushrooms that illuminate the entire hall. There is actually quite a lot to illuminate, because the hall is absolutely overcrowded. Scattered all over the floor are makeshift betters, some with four Newts sitting on each one. It is impossible to count how many beds there are in this hall alone, but it is clear that it feels like the entire city population must have been accommodated here.
As soon as Luz and Amity have stepped out of the hatch and are now standing upright, Amity leans towards Luz as the two of them look over all the heads of the Newts in front of them.
"Luz, I've never felt so tall in my life.", she admits, whispering.
"HAH!", Luz laughs loudly at that, which draws the attention of some of the Newts in front of them. Gradually the conversations die out, and with each passing second it gets quieter and more and more newts stare at the two girls. Instinctively, Amity reaches for Luz's hand.
"Why are they staring at us like that?", Amity whispers again, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.
"Many have never seen creatures like us before. I mean, Marcy was a celebrity here, but I don't think she went out much."
"I see."
At that, the guard speaks up again. "Come on, I'll take you both to the Headmaster. Excuse us, please let us through."
The three of them push through the sheer mass of newts, with the guard walking ahead and Luz and Amity behind him, not letting go of each other's hand at any point. As they walk, they can hear some of the newts whispering.
"I thought beasts were kept in the zoo-"
"Is that Master Marcy? Has she finally returned?"
"Ugh, more mouths to feed."
"What are those things?"
"What's that smell?"
Five minutes later, the three of them turn into a somewhat emptier corridor, at the end of which there is a single, but large door. On it is a sign reading 'Headmaster'. The guard knocks on the door in exactly the same rhythm as he did on the hatch earlier.
Knock - Knock Knock - Knock - Knock - Knock
"I'm busy.", it sounds through the closed door, "Come back tomorrow!"
Against the Headmaster's instructions, the guard opens the door, revealing Luz and Amity to him. "I'm sorry Professor, but this can't wait."
"Hi. I'm Luz, this is Amity.", Luz introduces herself while the headmaster quietly eyes the two girls.
The headmaster is an older, magenta-skinned newt, with medium-length gray hair and an equally long gray beard. On his snout sit a pair of glasses with small, round lenses, and under his eyes are the biggest dark circles imaginable. He looks as if he hasn't slept for weeks. A tired smile adorns his face as he recognizes one of the two figures in front of him.
"Luz Noceda.", he greets Luz, which makes the half-human's jaw drop to the floor.
"You know who I am?"
"Indeed. Before she last left for Frog Valley, I spent some time with Master Marcy in preparation for her travels, and she told me a lot about you.", he speaks in a tired, yet gentle voice. "She said you came to Amphibia from another world, which is not the human world. Is that true?"
"The Demon Realm.", Amity replies, "which is currently under attack by King Andrias."
"Oh...", the headmaster replies.
"That's why we're here.", Luz says, "We were actually hoping to get some help for our cause here."
"I'm afraid we have more than enough problems here ourselves and far too few resources to be able to do anything.", the professor explains dejectedly.
"That's another reason we're here. We've been told that you're looking for magic users, and we want to help."
"That would be fantastic.", the professor says, "I'm afraid I can't make any promises, but if you help us, your efforts will not go unrewarded."
"About that...", Luz begins, "I'm looking for some friends of mine, and I was hoping they might have come by here."
"We keep full lists of the names of all the refugees who have sought refuge here. If you can give me the names of your friends, I'll see if they're here.", the professor assures her. He takes a pen in his hand, ready to write down the names Luz gives her.
"Hopediah, Polly, and Sprig Plantar. Anne Boonchuy. Maddie Flour. And Iva Odal.", she lists. The professor stops at the last name.
"Ms. Odal?"
"You know her?"
"She works as a volunteer in the biology department.", he explains, at which Luz visibly lights up. "Um, are those all the names?"
"Yes. Can I see Iva? Where is that department?", Luz asks impatiently.
"I can take you there. We can talk more on the way.", the professor says before getting up from his desk and joining the others at the door. He turns to the guard who is still standing with the two girls. "Thank you very much, you can take the rest of today off."
Luz is brimming with excitement and joy as the headmaster leads her and Amity through the halls and corridors.
"I don't think I've properly introduced myself. My name is Professor Herringbone."
"Amity Blight.", she introduces herself. "So, what are the university's problems and how can we help? And why did you search for magic users specifically?"
"Frog, I don't even know where to start...", the professor says, continuing without thinking, "We're starting to run out of space. All the rooms in the student halls of residence have been converted into rooms for the refugees, and yet people are already sleeping in the corridors. Now that all the merchants have started avoiding the city or have been killed in attacks outside the walls, we don't have enough food to feed everyone, and we only started growing our own food a few weeks ago. We use the biology department for that."
"How is it that all these people have left their homes?", Amity asks critically.
"When the palace took to the air, many houses in the upper ring were destroyed, unfortunately including the hospital. All the injured and their relatives were therefore brought here and treated. Over time, the word has spread that the university is a safe place that the Frobots patrolling the city do not enter."
"Have there been any attacks on civilians?", she continues.
"Yes.", the professor answers in a somber voice, "Before King Andrias disappeared, he had issued a general curfew. The Frobots have orders to open fire on anyone they catch on the streets. No matter what time of day, whether adult or child."
"Feels familiar.", Amity mutters.
"That happens on your world too?", he asks, at which Amity just nods.
"So, you need help. What can we do?", Amity asks with a serious tone, "Get those Frobots out of the city?"
"No!", he exclaims with an anxious tone, "There aren't many Frobots in the city right now, which helps us save more people. If all the Frobots suddenly disappear, they will only produce more than before, which will then overrun the city and make our mission even more difficult."
"I see."
"I don't know exactly what skills you have, but we need more supportive help.", he explains.
"I know a very basic healing spell, and I'm sure Luz can help them with their food situation.", Amity offers.
"That would be absolutely fantastic.", he says happily, "We only have one person capable of brewing healing potions, and she will appreciate your help immensely. And it might be a good opportunity for us to stock up on potions."
"I'll help where I can.", Amity assures him as the three of them slowly reach their destination.
"Miss Odal.", Professor Herringbone announces as he reaches one of the laboratories, which has been converted into one of four greenhouses, "You have a visitor."
The slender half- newt, half-axolotl with the shoulder-length light blue gills, kneeling in damp earth surrounded by small plants sprouting from the ground, looks up at him. From wall to wall, the entire floor is covered with soil, and only a few wooden planks lying loosely on the ground serving as a path between the tiny growing plants, which are also illuminated by the wide window front. It also illuminates the green overall Iva is wearing when she stands up and notices Luz and Amity standing in the doorway accompanied by Professor Herringbone.
Iva stands up, her eyes wide with joy and shock.
"Luz?"
Iva practically shoots up and nearly loses her footing as she runs across the damp earth and almost falls face first into the dirt as Luz comes towards her, luckily catching her. The two girls share a brief, yet long-awaited hug. As their embrace breaks up, Iva looks past Luz's shoulder.
"Is that-?"
"Yup.", Luz grins broadly, "Iva, this is Amity, my girlfriend. Amity, this is Iva."
Luz leads Iva to her girlfriend, who holds out a hand. "Amity Blight. Nice to meet you."
"Blight? Huh...", Iva shakes her hand with a curious tone.
"Have you heard that name before?", Luz wonders.
"Something like that.", Iva answers mysteriously. "Anyway, how come you're back? Last I heard, you got possessed by some ghost and disappeared! How is that even possible and why are you back?"
"Uhh, that last question is easy. I'm trying to find my friends again, and we offered our help here for the university. I'm helping you with the food.", Luz explains.
"Uh, very good.", Iva says before Amity speaks up.
"And I offered my help at the Infirmary.", she explains.
"Great. Um, when you're downstairs, please say hi to Amara for me, okay?"
"Uh, sure. I can do that."
A short time later, Amity, led by Professor Herringbone, leaves the biology department to give Luz and Iva some space, as the two of them probably have some catching up to do. Fortunately, the destination for the two of them is anything but far away. The Infirmary is actually just a single corridor away, hidden behind an obvious set of double doors. They enter the Infirmary and immediately discover a definitely overworked pink-skinned newt with long brown hair, tending to seven injured patients by herself.
"Ms. Light, I-", the professor begins, but is immediately interrupted.
"Yes, yes, whatever. Find a bed and I'll be right there for you.", the newt replies without even averting her gaze.
'Poor thing...', Amity thinks to herself, 'Even her eye bags already have eye bags...'
The two of them watch with some discomfort as she moves from bed to bed, forcing her patients to drink some kind of potion. The professor speaks up.
"Ms. Light, you really should take a break.", he urges her. However, she continues to ignore him. Whether it's a conscious decision or fatigue, exhaustion and stress, no one can say.
"Well, I'm here to help.", Amity repeats loudly enough that only the professor can hear her, "Do you want me to help her too?"
"I don't think she has taken a break today. Or slept.", he tells her, "Please. Go ahead."
Amity nods before she draws a hand-width purple magic circle in the air and shoots Abomination-Goo out of the small bottle on her belt towards the stressed-out Newt. Instead of being pinned to the ground by the slime as expected, she dodges the attack and slams the slime back with her tail against the wall in Amity's direction. She snaps at her, a furious look in her eyes.
Suddenly she runs at her at full speed, fortunately without any more potions in her hands, and with a quick twist slams her tail into Amity's stomach so hard that she flies out of the room through the door.
"AMARA!", he yells angrily at her.
Amity was thrown from the newt into the hallway opposite the entrance and landed hard on her back on the wooden floor. But given that this is far from her first sports injury, she manages to pick herself up just fine before Amara kicks open the doors to the outside and stomps towards her.
"Amara! Stand down!", Professor Herringbone calls out to her.
As Amara closes in quickly, Amity creates a flame spell that envelops her entire hand in a bright blue flame.
"You better listen to him.", she speaks in a threatening tone of voice. Amara, startled by the sudden heat right in front of her face, recoils and falls to the ground, hitting her head in the process.
"Ow, my head...", she groans as the Professor and Amity rush to her aid.
"Sorry for assaulting you.", Amity apologizes. She kneels beside her head and applies her simple healing spell to her head, where a small wound had formed from her fall which is completely gone after just a few seconds. "There, better. How are you feeling?"
"You're... strangely helpful for a monster.", she says before looking at Professor Herringbone, "What is that thing? And how do I know it doesn't eat newts?"
"IT has a name.", Amity snaps at her, "It’s Amity."
"Ms. Blight and Ms. Noceda are magic users and have offered to help us.", he explains. When the word 'magic users' is mentioned, Amara's eyes widen hugely and she stifles a gasp.
Both Amity and the Professor help her up and escort her back to the Infirmary, where they place her on one of the few empty beds.
"Please take a break, Ms. Light.", the Professor urges, but continues before she can get another word in, "Ms. Blight will take care of your patients while you rest for a moment. This is not a suggestion!"
"Yes, Professor.", Amara replies, admitting her defeat as she drops her head onto the pillow. He turns towards the door, but doesn't leave without turning his attention to Amity first.
"Do you think you'll manage here?", he asks in a calm voice. Amity nods at that. "Very well. In the meantime, I'll check the refugee documentation for Ms. Noceda's friends."
Without another word, he leaves the infirmary, leaving the two girls, as well as the injured patients who have just witnessed the entire scene. Before the witch turns her attention to her recently rendered mute patients, however, she walks past them to the exhausted newt.
"Hey, sorry again."
"It's all right.", Amara talks with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Are you all right?"
"Yea. It's just... He does not get mad at me. This kind of thing doesn't happen to me. Ever."
"I don't think he's really mad.", Amity replies, trying to sound understanding as the whole subject seems extremely familiar to her. "I'm sure he's more concerned about your health than your performance. I know that well. When I overworked myself at school, my teachers were the same."
"Hmph.", is all Amara says in reply.
At that, Amity turns her attention to her first patient, who must have a broken forearm as it is partly in a cast. He looks at her with a fearful expression, flinching slightly as she begins to draw her spell circle.
"Hey! I won't hurt you.", Amity says firmly, "But I will paralyze you temporarily if you don't stop squirming around like that."
At that, the fear in his eyes only intensified, but at the same time he sees himself helplessly at her mercy and complies with her order. Amity does not return his fearful gaze, but concentrates fully on her spell. She imagines in her mind's eye the broken bone in his arm, the fracture itself, and some of the slightly damaged muscles around it as the spell grabs the two parts, fusing them together until-
"Done."
"What?", the newt in front of her asks, confused.
"Your arm is healed. You're done here."
"But-", his complaint is cut short as Amity grabs the hand of his formerly broken arm and pulls him off his bed and onto his feet. His first reaction was a mix of fear and anger, which quickly changes to pleasant surprise and relief. "My arm is healed. That's incredible."
"You're welcome.", Amity replies, "But you'll have to deal with the cast yourself. Have a good day."
Without paying him any further attention, she moves on to her next patient, who, like the others, has witnessed the last interaction herself. The next slightly older-looking patient lies there stiff as a board as Amity approaches her, staring at the witch with fear in her eyes.
Amity eyes her patient from top to bottom, unable to detect any visible injury.
"Uh, sore throat.", she speaks in a low voice.
Amity nods at that, and applies her spell to her throat. The spell takes about three minutes to heal everything well enough, until Amity realizes that the spell can't find anything to heal anymore and cancels it. Instead of dragging her off the bed like the patient before her, Amity is suddenly overcome with a feeling of exhaustion, at which she wobbles a step away from the bed.
"Whew, I think I need a second.", she holds her head before turning to the newt, "You're done and you're free to go."
With that, Amity stumbles another step backwards, where she nearly falls against the bed behind her and has to prop herself upright, gathering some concerned gazes in the process.
"You really are a witch, aren't you?", Amara speaks up suddenly, no trace of her previous disdain for Amity in her voice.
Breathing heavily, she heaves herself onto the bed and looks at Amara for a moment.
"Always have been.", she says.
"I used to know a witch- er, a magic user.", Amara starts to tell, "Me and a few others were her apprentices for a while. She taught us everything, lots of spells and curses. And after all this crap here went down, I offered to run the infirmary as the only one capable of brewing healing potions."
"Potions were never really my strong point actually. I've only learned to control Abominations, as well as a simple healing spell from my sister, who in turn knows it from her girlfriend.", Amity explains.
"Abominations?", Amara asks, confused, at which Amity points to her abomination slime, which is still stuck to the wall near the exit. "Oh. But magic seems to come naturally to you, like an innate ability."
"Yes that is correct in part. It just depends on what you learn and practice for a long time. Sure, I could still learn other kinds of magic, but it's the easiest if you start early as a child."
"Are all spells that draining to you?"
"It's been a very long time since I felt that way. New spells are always a bit more difficult and require more strength until your body gets used to them and you practise more and get better. And I haven't even used this healing spell four times since I've known it."
"Huh, interesting.", Amara replies as she lifts herself off her sickbed and walks over to Amity. "Are you hungry? I still have some snacks in my potions lab."
"Sure."
Amity gets up from her bed, only to stumble forward a few steps again before Amara thankfully catches her and props her up.
"Careful... Come on, I'll bring you there."
Supporting the weakened girl by the shoulders, Amara guides her to the end of the room, away from the rest of the patients and through a gray curtain into a smaller, adjoining room.
"Ugh, I know now how Luz must have felt...", Amity mutters.
"Someone you know I presume?"
"My girlfriend.", the purple-haired witch replies, "She had completely exhausted herself after getting my dad to- ... Nevermind."
"Is she here too?", Amara asks, sensing that this is a sensitive topic.
"Yes. She's helping Iva in the biology department. I'm supposed to say hi to you from her, by the way."
"Oh...", Amara smiles slightly at that, "Thank you."
Amara leads Amity to a comfortable-looking chair with a matching back and armrests, where she sets her down. The whole room looks like an elegant office, which has been converted into a makeshift potion lab. There are pictures and framed awards on the walls in equal measure, as well as shelves full of potion ingredients and reference books. And, of course, the huge potion cauldron in the middle of the room, in which a light blue potion is currently being brewed. Behind a second, identical chair on which Amara drops, Amity discovers an open cabinet behind her full of different colored, partially glowing potions.
"Holy Titan...", Amity marvels, prompting Amara to turn around to face the same cabinet.
"Oh, I've been brewing this for the last two weeks or so.", the newt explains.
"What's all this?"
"Various things. Healing potions, paralysis, growth, shrinking, strength, invisibility, speed, hairiness, transformation, stunning, melting, freezing, petrification, beastification, and a few sleep potions."
"Wow, what's all that for?", Amity wonders.
"Honestly? I just wanted to stay in practice. Apart from healing and sleeping potions, I have no use for any of the others.", she explains.
"Heh... We should definitely talk to Luz about this later.", Amity says ominously, "But right now, I could use a snack."
"Right. I’ll get them right away."
"Wait wait wait... Newt-jitzu?", Amity asks with a chuckle, "That sounds made up."
"And yet I kicked your ass earlier."
"Hmm... Point taken."
A little over an hour has passed since Amity first entered the Infirmary, and she and Amara seem to have more in common than originally thought. Controlling, rich, and powerful parents who planned and controlled their every move, always expecting nothing less than absolute perfection. When they were both younger, they were forbidden to associate with other children of their choosing, but while Amity grew up with the twins, Amara has no siblings.
After the two girls got to know each other a little better over some insect snacks, which Amity actually found quite delicious and packed a few for Luz as well, they set out together to heal the remaining patients and release them, after which they find the Infirmary completely empty.
"Maybe I should check on Luz.", Amity says thoughtfully as she looks around the room.
"I'll come with you.", Amara joins in, "I'm not supposed to leave the Infirmary unattended, but..."
"You want to see your girlfriend?", Amity asks, part teasing, part curious, "don't think I didn't see your smile earlier."
"I have no idea what you're talking about.", Amara says, feigning ignorance, before opening up and disappearing out the door. Amity follows her in an amused mood.
They step out onto the hallway, at which Amity realizes that the newt is walking in the wrong direction.
"This way.", Amity says, pointing to her left. Amara, who was just in the hallway straight ahead from the Infirmary, turns around on the spot, walking back and immediately past Amity, who herself is grinning gleefully.
Less than sixty steps later, they find themselves outside the biology labs, where the two girls can already hear Luz's voice through the door, talking about her time on the Isles. They quietly open the door, behind which Luz and Iva are both sitting on one of the floor panels with their backs turned to them.
"- and then she chased me all over town through every alley and street imaginable. I thought I'd shaken her off in the woods to the Owl House, but I guess she knew exactly where I was going."
"You are only THERE???", Amity exclaims in surprise, sending a jolt of shock through both girls' entire bodies.
"Amity!"
"What, we've been gone for over an hour and you're only at that part of the story?", the witch asks.
"I've just drifted off a lot, okay?", Luz explains with a false attack, "ADHD, you know?"
"AAAMARAAAA!", Iva suddenly shouts, standing up and running to her before practically showering the brunette Newt with kisses all over her face. Amara grins and giggles sheepishly until she realizes the two of them have an audience.
"Ivy, stop.", Amara gently nudges her away from her. Her gaze first wanders to Amity, whose look more than clearly says 'I knew it'. Her eyes move on to Luz, who stands up with a friendly smile on her face, walks over to her and holds out her hand.
"Hi, I'm Luz."
"Amara. Amara Light.", she introduces herself, at which Luz looks at Amity with wide eyes, still shaking Amara's hand. "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, no, no.", Luz abruptly lets go of her hand, "Your names just sound very similar."
Amity and Amara look at each other in confusion. Luz continues.
"You know what I mean. Amity... Amara... Blight... Light...", she emphasizes.
"Wait- wait- wait...", Amity glances quickly back and forth between Luz and Amara, "You don't think we're both..."
"Could be.", Luz shrugs her shoulders.
"Holy Titan..."
"Uh, could someone fill us in on what's going on?", Iva asks, her mind swirling in confusion.
"Maybe later.", Luz replies, "How'd it go with you guys?"
"We emptied the infirmary.", Amity replies.
"She means 'we cured all the patients'.", Amara corrects her.
"Uh, great.", Luz replies enthusiastically, "We... well..."
"You were just chatting, I know."
"Hey, not fair... Okay, we weren't particularly productive, but... uhh...", Luz loses the thread.
"I'm growing plants here. That kind of thing takes a lot of time.", Iva explains, whereupon Luz thinks for a moment and shakes her head.
"What exactly are you growing here?", she asks.
"Only wheat here and across the hall, and various vegetables in the other labs.", Iva explains.
"Yeah, I can work with that.", Luz says smugly as the first few golden lightning bolts appear on her arms, at which Amara quickly pulls Iva into cover behind her. With a plant glyph in front of her inner eyes, the lightning bolts shoot directly into the earth, and huge, fully-grown wheat plants emerge within seconds wherever only the smallest sprouts had previously sprouted. Both Iva and Amara are completely astonished.
"You did tell me that you now have your own magic, but to see it with your own eyes... just whoa.", Iva marvels, "Can you teach me how to do that? We could supply the whole town with food that way, making us no longer depending from the traders that aren't coming anymore."
"Sorry, but I don't think that's going to be possible.", Luz says with just a hint of certainty, "I mean, I can show you the glyphs and explain how they work, but I can't guarantee you'll be able to activate them, and definitely not after I'm gone."
"What do you mean?"
"When I first arrived in Amphibia, I was the only one who could activate my glyphs.", Luz recounts, "On the Isles, the glyphs were- or are powered by the Titan's magic. And before I left this world again, I met the Titan. Well, the part of him from this world... Anyway, he had transferred all his magic to me, which I believe allowed me to activate the glyphs up to that point."
"But why only you?"
"Because of Owlbert, perhaps. I don't know...", Luz shrugs her shoulders as an idea pops into her head. "Let's test it out."
Luz pulls out two glyphs from her emergency supply, which she carries with her at all times, and hands Iva two light glyphs. She continues.
"Here's what we're going to do: Iva, you activate one of the glyphs now, and we'll see if anything happens. You just have to tap the paper to do this.", Luz explains at which Iva nods, "Then I'll teleport away for a few seconds while you try to activate the second glyph."
"Where are you going?", Amity wonders.
"Once to the other end of the city and back.", Luz elaborates. Amity doesn't say anything else, which Luz takes as a sign of approval to start her experiment. "So, Iva, activate the first glyph!"
Iva does as she is told and activates the light glyph, which surprisingly actually works and creates a ball of light, silently floating in the air above her hand. Luz stares at the orb in genuine surprise, but doesn't comment on it for the moment.
"Okay, very good.", she says instead, "When I'm gone right now, you activate the second glyph, okay?"
"Okay."
Luz takes a few steps back from the others and activates her teleport spell, whereupon she disappears completely after a few moments. Iva presses her fingers on the glyph again, and nothing happens at first. Then, however, after a few more seconds, the paper crumples up and actually forms another ball of light, although it is only a fraction of the size of the previous orb.
About twenty seconds later, Luz reappears in the room, the orb long gone.
"So?", she asks expectantly.
"It worked, but the light was much smaller.", Amara reports.
"I was expecting that.", Luz says in a thoughtful tone, "Okay, here's my theory: before the Titan transferred his magic to me, he had somehow only allowed me to access his magic, which makes sense, since he also threw me specifically into Amphibia. And now that his magic is in me, that selectivity no longer exists. However, I have to be actively nearby for other people to be able to use glyphs. So when Amity and I leave later, the glyphs won't do you much good."
"I think I understand.", Iva says, clearly disappointed.
"Don't worry, I'll help you where I can until then.", Luz tries to cheer her up.
Shortly afterwards, there is a knock on the lab door. It opens and the headmaster enters the room with an enormous amazement in his eyes.
"My goodness...", he has to pick his jaw up from the floor as he spots the enormous plants in front of him, "This is incredible. Did you work this miracle?", he looks at Luz and Amity, the latter of the two pointing at Luz.
"I did, like I promised.", Luz exclaims proudly, "Was your search successful, Professor?"
"I'm afraid I don't come with good news.", he begins, "We've been able to look through about a third of the list, but so far we haven't been able to find any of the names you gave me. I'm actually here to offer you both a place to sleep for the night and I'll have a result by tomorrow morning."
Luz and Amity look at each other, both apparently thinking the same thing.
"We accept your offer, Professor. Thank you very much.", Amity says gratefully.
"Very good. Shall I show you to your accommodation?", he asks.
"I'll go with you, Professor.", Amity says, "I'm sure Luz and Iva still have more than enough to do."
"And I should head back to the Infirmary.", Amara says goodbye, "It's been nice to meet you both."
And with that, the three of them leave the biology department again, leaving Luz and Iva with their farm work. Amara splits off from Amity and Professor Herringbone, the two of them walking back towards his office.
"I'll have two beds brought in for you. I just need to take a few documents with me and will let you use my office for the night."
"Thank you very much, Professor. That's very kind of you.", Amity thanks him with a slight bow of her head.
"No, I have to thank you. You and Ms. Noceda. You've made two of our biggest problems by far a lot more manageable, and that so soon after your arrival. That's a huge weight off all our shoulders."
"But these are not permanent solutions.", Amity interjects.
"I know, but please let us worry about that.", he insists, "I can imagine that your mission will help us all too when you succeed. And that's why I'll do what I can to help you both."
"Thank you."
A few hours pass, the sun has long since disappeared behind Newtopia's enormously high walls, and darkness has enveloped the city. Luz and Amity sit across from each other on their makeshift beds in the Headmaster's office, just talking with each other.
"How many harvests did you collect today?", Amity asks.
"Umm... Seven, I think."
"Seriously?!", Amity exclaims, incredibly impressed.
"I knew farming was incredibly physically demanding, but I'm literally aching right now.", she whines jokingly, "It was worth it though."
"I can imagine you're completely exhausted."
"Totally...", the half-human admits, "I could just fall asleep right now, but there's something I wanted to talk to you about first."
"Huh?", Amity hums.
"It's actually been on my mind for a while, and- and I know what you're going to say. You're going to say that there's nothing I could have done, or that I was right to try anyway, or-"
"Luz!", Amity gently cuts her girlfriend off, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about... about Edric. When- when I tried to bring him back.", Luz averts her eyes.
"What are you talking about?", Amity asks, sounding genuinely confused.
"Before I got your dad... We both arrived at the knee and I was trying to heal his body. Took quite a lot out of me...", Luz recounts the painful events, her gaze focused on Amity, whose face doesn't show a hint of recognition.
"Noo... You were exhausted when you got Dad...", Amity contradicts.
"No, I didn't. I-", Luz chops herself off as a horrible realization hits her, "Oh Ami, no."
"What?"
"No no no no... Why did you do that?"
"What- what did I do?", Amity asks, slightly panicing now.
"The funeral.", Luz says as if that explains everything, "You chose the memory where I tried to bring Edric back, which then... was burned."
"Yeah, that's the point of it. Along with the deceased, shared memories are also cremated. A good one and a bad one. I suppose there was a reason I chose this particular memory."
"You really shouldn't have done that.", Luz complains for a reason that even she doesn't know.
"But I did apparently. What do you want to hear from me?", Amity asks, slightly annoyed by this topic, which actually makes Luz shut up for a moment.
"I- Um, so-", she stutters, "Ugh, I don't know. Guess it just hurts that you just... erased that memory. Like, a part of us, even if it was probably one of the worst moments of our lives."
"I understand you, you know.", Amity stands up and walks over to Luz, sitting down next to her, "I can't tell you why I chose that memory. I can only guess, and I suspect it was something that caused negative feelings for you. At least that would be the only reason I would do it today."
"Negative feelings?", Luz asks.
"Like, I don't know...", Amity thinks for a moment, "I can imagine that I somehow reproached you internally or something. That... that I had some thoughts that weren't fair to you and might have had an unfairly negative impact on our relationship."
"That... that makes an awful lot of sense. I mean, I remember you being quite a bit more distant from me up until the funeral, but I had thought you just needed time and space to grieve. I know that everyone grieves differently...", Luz states before turning to Amity, "Ami, can you promise me something?"
"Anything."
"Please don't do that again.", Luz takes her hands into her own, "Please don't erase any more memories. When we reach a hurdle, however big it may be, we will overcome it together. Together, we can do anything."
"Heh, yeah that's right.", Amity says, "Okay. I promise."
"Thank you."
Notes:
'Amara Light' was kindly allowed to be used by me as a guest character by ChampionElCid. I didn't want to say anything in the previous author's notes so as not to spoil the surprise. I will also not saying anything about the possible implications of her appearance.
Anyway, I'd love to read your thoughts about this chapter. Your comments, no matter how long or short, they always make my day 😁
Chapter 48: … and to Where it Started.
Summary:
Luz and Amity make their way to Frog Valley. Will there be any survivors?
Notes:
Hey. Sorry for the delay. A friend of mine introduced me to anime, and I watched nearly 50 anime since June (Thank you, Veo <3)
Chapter Text
A disturbance...'
Valeriana has been away from the continent for a few weeks with her new apprentice, on an island far away from the continent. To be more precise: on the most western island of the Dawnblood Islands, beyond the Caecilian Coast in the south-west of Amphibia.
"Master?", a worried voice asks as their master suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence.
It is in the middle of their early afternoon rune-carving session together when Valeriana jumps up with a soft hiss all of a sudden, pointing her head somewhere towards the mainland with an unhealthy cracking sound, her eyes wide.
"Master? Has anything happened?"
Valeriana continues to completely ignore her apprentice, maintaining her stance for almost a full minute.
"It finally happened.", she mutters barely audible, "Although, she surely took her time.", she adds in a sudden annoyed tone.
"Who, Master? What are you talking about?"
"I, my talented apprentice, am talking about the fact that your apprenticeship is over. Effective immediately."
"WHAT?"
"Watch your volume!"
"Excuse me, Master.", she apologizes with a slight bow of her head, "But if you don't mind me asking, what do you mean by 'my apprenticeship is over'? Did I do something wrong?"
"Go and pack your things.", she replies, ignoring her question completely.
"Yes, Master.", she complies, but visibly unhappy. Laying her stone tablet on the warm sandy beach, she makes her way back to the large tent that has always served as shelter for the two of them, no matter where they have been.
On her first day, Master Valeriana had given her a part of the tent for herself, even with her own wall for privacy. Admittedly, she doesn't even have that many personal items from her home in her section, but mostly memories and ingredients that she has found and kept on their travels together. With a few rare earths from a dead volcano, the ashes of an extinguished furnace, a piece of armor from a defeated soldier, and a few other ingredients, she had managed to create a completely new spell as part of her last exam, which, when cast, melts any form of metallic armor on a potential opponent without harming the body underneath. Well, apart from the melting metal. That probably hurts.
This last trial had finally allowed her to advance to a level 4 witch. That puts her just a single level away from her first master, from whom she learned the basics of magic all those years ago, and just three levels away from Master Valeriana herself, who is the only known level 7 witch in all of Amphibia.
She is about to pack up all her things when she hears Valeriana enter the tent as well, but clearly stays in the main area.
"There's this old prophecy... no, it can't really be called that.", Valeriana pauses briefly, thoughtful in her posture, "It was more of a personal request, a plea... From someone far, far more powerful than anything I've ever seen."
"What is it?"
"Didn't I tell you to pack?", Valeriana scolds her apprentice, before a moment later silence returns and she continues to talk to herself as if nothing had happened. "A powerful being, dead for millions of years, with a single request: 'Help her'."
"Very vague.", the apprentice comments on her thoughts, now standing directly in front of Valeriana with a packed, enchanted bag in her hand, "Any idea who she is? 'She' doesn't necessarily narrow down the number of people... And why right now? And what does this have to do with my apprenticeship?"
"You're asking too many questions again.", Valeriana reprimands her, although this time without any harshness in her voice, "I've known of her existence for a very long time, but I've only known of her identity for a few months."
"Who is it?"
"Come with me.", Valeriana turns away from her and walks out of the tent, "We cannot risk missing her under any circumstances."
"Ms. Noceda. Ms. Blight. There you are.", The Headmaster steps closer to the two girls, who are enjoying a delicious breakfast together with several other newts in the mess hall. Luz, with a full mouth and Amity with a cross-cut sandwich in her hands, they both look up at him curiously.
"I've had two food bundles prepared for you two for your continuing journey.", he says, placing two bundles rolled up in cloth on their table.
"Fänk yu wäri much.", Luz speaks with her mouth full.
"Luz!", Amity exclaims, "Thank you very much, Professor Herringbone."
"Unfortunately, I also bring bad news. The search for Ms. Noceda's friends was unsuccessful.", he reports with his head lowered. Luz swallows and exhales deeply.
"I already thought so.", Luz says, her tone solemn, "We walked the grounds once this morning and didn't see anyone. When I talked with Iva yesterday, I don't think she'd seen anyone here either."
"I wish I could have done more."
"You've done more than enough for us, Professor.", Amity says with a smile on her face, "We'll just say goodbye to Iva in a moment and then continue our journey."
"Of course. I wish you both the best of luck. And a safe journey.", he says goodbye with a benevolent nod of his head before departing, leaving the two girls alone again.
"Would you like to say goodbye to Amara?", Luz asks, at which the witch shakes her head.
"I already did.", she replies, "I stopped by the Infirmary earlier and had a quick chat with her."
"Oh, okay.", Luz says, throwing the last piece of her sandwich into her mouth while Amity still has a good half of hers in front of her.
"If you want, you can go ahead. I'll be ready by the time you're done."
"You sure?", Luz asks.
"Sure. I'm sure you'll still have plenty to talk about.", she answers her with a knowing smile.
"Okay. See you in a bit."
And with that, Luz gets up, walks straight out of the mess hall and finds herself in the biology department just a few minutes later. She peers into the first lab, the seeds from last night not yet harvested.
"Iva?"
No answer. She heads for the second lab.
"Iva? Are you here?"
Again, no answer. She approaches the third lab, but before she raises her voice, she already spots the familiar half-newt, half-axolotl hard at work harvesting vegetables.
"Hehe, I thought you'd be here.", Luz says, at which Iva immediately turns to her.
"Luz!", she calls out, visibly happy to see her. However, her mood sombers quickly, "You're leaving already?"
"We have to. Every day we don't find allies, people die. I can't let that happen. People trust... me.", Luz replies, even if this last word came across as obviously unconvincing.
"But you don't believe that.", Iva replies. This is not a question that Luz can answer in the affirmative or in the negative. It is a statement set in stone. Luz averts her eyes. "Luz, I'm afraid I'm not a psychiatrist, but I know that something is bothering you. Would you like to talk about it? I'm sure you and your girlfriend still have a little time left here..."
Actually, Luz would prefer nothing more than to say 'no' and walk away. But at the same time-
"Do you doubt your abilities?", Iva suddenly asks, snapping Luz out of her thoughts.
"No. It's-"
"Do you doubt your intentions and goals?", Iva continues to ask, not giving Luz time to evade her questions.
"N-no.", Luz replies.
"Do you think people won't support you if you ask for it?"
"A little bit. But that's not it."
"What is it then?", Iva asks, crossing her arms. It's a trap. One that Luz can't escape from so easily. Sure, it's not a physical trap, but still- "So?"
"I- So-", Luz stutters to herself, so she doesn't notice the door open behind her and Amity entering the lab.
"She's insecure because people think she's just a kid, despite her abilities, and don't allow her to fulfill her potential.", Amity summarizes, at which Luz's head snaps around. "Sorry, Luz."
"H-How long have you been listening?", Luz asks in surprise, but doesn’t receive an answer as Iva speaks up again.
"I wish there was something I could tell you to make your situation better for you.", Iva admits sadly, "But I remember a saying from my parents' tailor: 'Dress for what you wanna be, not for what you already are'. He gave me this advice after two schools rejected my applications for apprenticeships."
"How does that apply to Luz?", Amity asks, not quite understanding what Iva is getting at.
"The principle is the same. If Luz doesn't want to be seen as a child anymore, maybe she should act differently.", Iva explains, "I'm not talking about a total makeover or anything like that, but rather about acting a little more responsibly."
"So not something like moving a fixed plan forward by days without prior agreement and traveling to another world just like that?", Luz asks jokingly.
"Among other things.", Iva agrees, "Listen: I can't promise you that it'll work. They might continue to see you as a child forever because they care about you and want to keep you safe."
"Mmmm...", Luz grumbles.
"Just think about it.", Iva suggests, before approaching Luz with wide arms, embracing her, at which Luz's muscle memory kicks in and she hugs her back, despite being in a minimally upset mood.
After Luz, she also gives Amity a hug, albeit a shorter one. "Travel carefully. It's dangerous outside the walls."
"I'm not worried about that.", Luz says with her best attempt at a smile, "We're taking a shortcut, after all."
"A shortcut?", Iva asks as Amity leans over to Luz and hands her something.
"You left your bundle in the mess hall.", Amity whispers.
"Sorry." Luz takes it before turning back to Iva. "You're welcome to watch. I think you might like that."
Luz and Amity leave the lab and position themselves directly in the middle of the corridor, with Iva leaning curiously against the doorway. Luz stands with her legs apart in a firm stance and Amity calmly grabs her forearm. Luz closes her eyes and stretches her empty hand forward. Just like the plant growth spells from last night, the golden lightning bolts shoot across Luz's arms into her outstretched hand, but instead of shooting into the ground, they begin to circle around the two girlfriends, forming symbols and connecting lines, a giant semicircular glyph two meters in diameter. A startled gasp escapes Iva when she sees the huge interconnection of the many different glyphs, consisting of the flowing golden lightning bolts that light up the entire corridor in a subtle golden glow.
"I'll think about what you said.", is the last thing Luz says before she and Amity vanish into thin air with a bright flash of light.
As the light disappears, a loud, sharp gasp escapes Luz, moments before Amity too opens her eyes again.
"Oh my Titan...", she mutters under her breath, her hands pressed over her mouth in shock as she notices what it is that shocked Luz so badly.
Luz remembers her first flight with Maddie outside of Frog Valley, clearly recalling vast green fields and forests, full of life. As the two girlfriends now stand there, looking into the distance, however, they can no longer see any of that. The green meadows have been replaced by dead, brown earth, the forests either cut down or completely dead as well.
Near the horizon, they witness huge machines steadily destroying more and more of the former stunningly beautiful nature, replacing it with disgusting factories dumping any radioactive or generally harmful waste into the previously clear blue rivers, turning them a sickeningly glowing green.
"Estos gilipollas lo han destruido todo.", Luz swears angrily and full of disgust, "Come on. We have to go the other way. Even if it might not look any better there."
Luz immediately turns away, beginning to make her way through the open pass towards Frog Valley with a clearly angry look on face.
Amity actually didn't realize what Luz had said as she stares at the scenery, breathless, speechless, and in shock. Luz had told her many stories about the beauty of this world. Beauty that is now slowly raining down from the sky like snow in the form of ash and soot, slowly polluting the air for a long time to come. Unconsciously, she opens her hand and a piece of ash falls into it.
'Is this what Andrias and Darcy are intending to do in the Isles as well? Poison everything?', her mind full of worry and now for the first time, fear. Amity turns to the side, expecting Luz to still stand next to her, but finds the space next to her empty. "Luz?"
She continues to turn where she finds her girlfriend a little further away, obviously enraged. Amity falls into a short sprint to catch up to her as she begins to climb up the rocky path.
"Luz?", Amity asks cautiously after catching up to her.
"Please, not now Ami."
Luz sounds extremely hurt. "Okay.", the witch replies softly, but makes an attempt to grab Luz's hand, which the half-human doesn't seem to reciprocate at the moment.
'Seeing all this has really gotten to her...', she assumes, silently continuing the climb, worrying about her girlfriend, 'How could I not understand her?'
After almost twenty minutes of steep climbing, the path had turned out to be much more strenuous than first thought, which is why Luz had suggested they take a break and have a look at the food packs that Professor Herringbone gave them. While they eat, Amity takes the opportunity to talk to Luz.
"So... how much higher do you think we have to go?", she asks, attempting small-talk at first, "And wouldn't it be more comfortable if we flew the distance? Or teleport?"
Luz shakes her head. "It's better this way. I- ... I'm not ready to see it."
"Oh."
"I know- I know it doesn't make sense, that it's best to just get it over with as quickly as possible, but- but seeing all this with my own eyes, smelling the burnt air... I mean, I knew how bad it was, and I had tried to mentally prepare as much as I could beforehand… but in the end it was still a kick in the stomach."
Sitting on a few small boulders, Amity moves a little closer to Luz.
"Believe it or not, but I feel the same way.", she admits, "I may not have your memories of this place, but I see your hatred and fear, and honestly? I'm scared too."
"Huh?"
"I mean, despite our plan, we had no idea what Andrias' plan is on the Isles- what his actual goal is.", Amity states, gesturing widely to the horizon, "And then this. He's going to leave the Isles looking exactly the same, isn't he? The whole landscape, destroyed. The people, either enslaved or killed."
Luz doesn't comment further, but continues to eat the food she's been given in silence, while Amity wonders what's going on in her head.
"Let's keep going.", Luz says, just a short time later as she's packing up her things, signaling that she would prefer to avoid this topic completely. Is Luz in denial, believing she can avoid something unavoidable?
"Are you sure you want to keep walking and not flying?", Amity asks with a worried tone, at which the half-human just slowly nods.
The two girls continue up the stone path for more than another thirty minutes before they finally make out the literal and metaphorical top of the mountain. As the path becomes increasingly shallow as the two girls walk along the only existing walkable path between the even higher mountains, Amity notices that Luz is walking slower and slower. Amity knows it's not due to exhaustion, as they have just set off from another break.
"Luz, please wait a minute.", Amity gently grabs her arm, who doesn't offer any resistance anymore at this point. She merely gives the witch a raised inquisitive eyebrow in response. "How long are you going to drag this out? You're not usually afraid of anything. What did you call yourself back then?", Amity thinks for a moment before it comes back to her, "My fearless champion?!"
Luz lets out a sad and quiet chuckle at that.
"Heh, yeah I remember.", she says, "But that was just Grom."
'Just Grom?', Amity wonders before Luz continues.
"Do you know what's up ahead? What could be waiting for me up there and beyond? HMM?", Luz asks but doesn't wait for an answer, "The burnt forests without life, the ruins of the village that took me in, THE CHARRED CORPSES OF MY FRIENDS!!!"
Horrified, Amity takes a step back at her girlfriend's loud outburst.
"Luz, maybe we should be a little quieter-", Amity tries to calm her down, which totally falls on deaf ears.
"THE BODIES OF MADDIE, SPRIG, AND POLLY, ALL OF WHOM STILL CHILDREN! HOP POP, WHO TOOK ME IN AND WHO HAS ALREADY DIED IN FRONT OF MY EYES ONCE BEFORE! ANNE, WHOSE GREATEST WISH WAS TO REUNITE WITH HER FRIENDS AND FIND A WAY BACK TO EARTH AND HER PARENTS!", Luz lists up, her voice not softening, "ALL OF THEM COULD BE LYING THERE ON THE GROUND, BURNED BEYOND RECOGNITION! ... So please excuse me if I don't want to reach the place of my worst nightmares any faster than necessary."
"Luz, I'm-", Amity cuts herself off as she notices a not unfamiliar noise from behind the two girls and abruptly turns around. "DUCK!"
Regardless of whether Luz heard her warning or not, she grabs her by the shoulders, dragging her to the ground along with herself before a missile whizzes past them by a hair's breadth and smashes into a boulder further ahead.
"Frobots!", the two girls exclaim in unison, their previous conversation immediately forgotten.
As if on impulse, Amity creates several Abominations, roughly the same size and shape as her and Luz. Things like this have worked quite well as decoys so far, as the warm nature of Abominations is indistinguishable from that of humans or witches for the robots.
They look in the direction from which the attack came and discover a group of twelve Frobots flying straight towards them with their weapons drawn, eager to destroy the decoys.
Luz and Amity scramble to their feet. While Amity uses the Abomination goo from the destroyed decoys to shoot concentrated projectiles at one Frobot after another, Luz presses both her hands against the rock wall and uses construction magic to break out thick boulders and hurl them against the attacking Frobots with as much force as she can gather.
Less than twenty seconds pass and all the attackers are lying on the ground, completely demolished and destroyed, when the two girls suddenly hear an ominous beeping.
Amity cautiously approaches the source, one of the Frobots.
Another robot beeps. And another one. And another one. Amity looks at them in confusion, while Luz quickly realizes what is happening. She grabs her hand.
"Ami, run!", Luz drags her away, "They're about to blow up!"
The two girls run as fast as their legs can carry them. Unfortunately, they don't get far before an extremely loud and violent explosion knocks them to the ground. Luz quickly turns onto her back, witnessing how the blast has seemingly dislodged the surrounding rocks, triggering a massive rockslide that has completely buried the path the two girls just came from, as well as potential remnants of the Frobots.
"Whoa, Amity, are you okay?", Luz asks worriedly, shortly after the rumbling of the boulders has subsided. She quickly moves her upright, only to see the side of her pants ripped open and a bleeding wound just beneath. A nasty looking one. "Wait, I got this."
Luz carefully places her hands flat on her leg, directly above and below the wound. The golden lightning bolts race from Luz's arms into Amity's leg, where they both can watch the wound repair itself at high speed, quickly stopping the bleeding.
"Better?", Luz asks, looking at Amity's face, now free of pain. She nods at that.
"But the pants are ruined."
"Yeah... Not sure think I can fix that.", Luz says, before standing up and giving her girlfriend a hand, carefully helping her to her feet as well. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah."
Once Amity is firmly back on her feet, Luz turns back towards the destroyed Frobots one last time with absolute rage written all over her face.
'They hurt her.', she narrows her eyes, gritting her teeth, 'They hurt my Amity. If they weren't already junk, I'd-'
"Luz.", Amity speaks softly and grabs Luz's hand, which immediately snaps her out of her thoughts, "We should keep moving. They might have called for reinforcements."
After a moment, Luz turns back to the rubble and debris, raising her free hand straight up, facing it. Beneath her skin, fury-fueled magic simmers, wanting to be released at all costs. From her shoulders, the lightning bolts emerge, though this time they are not entirely gold, but carry with them a slim dark purple rim.
"Luz?", Amity asks hesitantly with a hint of worry in her voice. Luz herself, on the other hand, directs her golden-purple lightning bolts to her free palm just before a massive directed explosion turns all the debris and Frobot parts into nothing more than grains of dust.
Even after the explosion, Luz does not avert her gaze, but stares into the gathering dust, breathing heavily.
"I- I won't let myself lose anyone else I love!", Luz declares with a determination and confidence in her voice that has never been heard before, "Whoever tries to hurt them won't live a long life!"
Silence falls over the two girls as the last bit of dust settles. Amity looks at Luz, several emotions battling for dominance in her mind. Admiration and embarrassment at the sheer amount of strength her girlfriend radiates. Pride that Luz has done so well over time, never stopped training and improving her skills. Sadness and worry for her, that all of this is going to be too much for her, that she will try to carry it all herself, and that she could end up losing parts of herself if all of this is over.
"Luz.", Amity says after a few seconds of silence, slightly dragging her by the arm, "Come on. We have to get out of here."
"By the way: They didn't hit me."
"What?"
"You blame yourself for me getting hurt. I can see it in the look on your face.", Amity pauses briefly as she looks at Luz, "The Frobots didn't hit me."
"But-"
"The shockwave. I bruised my leg from my fall."
"Oh..."
The two girls continued to walk quite a distance. Far enough away that they thought they wouldn't be found by any reinforcements that might have been called. In fact, they are almost near the end of the pass between the mountains surrounding the valley. And luckily for Luz especially, they did not stumble upon any corpses yet. Not that that puts her heart any more at ease…
Instead, Luz's heart is pounding in her chest, and only Amity's hand in hers keeps her legs from giving way as the two girls get closer and closer to the end of the pass. They walk around one last large boulder before the path in front of them splits in two, with a huge chasm in between, from where they can overlook the whole valley in front of them. Or at least what's left of it.
'Oh Titan...', Amity thinks to herself in shock before letting her gaze wander to Luz, whose own gaze is fixed on the valley before them, where one color in particular catches their eyes: black. Everywhere.
Forests previously seen from above as nothing but a single green expanse are now charred black. Nothing more than charred trunks are left of many of the large trees. All the vast fields are gone as well. Amity's gaze lingers on Luz, her hand in her own. The poor half-human is trembling wildly all over her body, but who miraculously still manages to stay on her feet. She doesn't cry either, which the witch would have expected. Instead, Luz just stares coldly into the valley before a small gasp escapes her.
"They even tore down Toad Tower...", Luz states looking eastwards, "That doesn't make any sense. The Toads were working directly for Andrias..."
Amity isn't sure what to say to that, as there's a moment of silence before Luz pulls out Owlbert and prepares to fly off.
"I need to check something.", she says, before putting a piece of cloth over her mouth and nose to protect herself from the ash-contaminated air in the air. Amity does the same and moments later the two girls are airborne, heading east along the mountain range.
A few minutes into the flight, Amity speaks up.
"You haven't told me what exactly we're looking for.", she remarks.
"Toad Tower, or the remains of it.", Luz clarifies, "I actually crashed there when I came to Amphibia. Like, literally... Anyway, the whole tower is made of stone, so the flames wouldn't have really harmed anyone in it. And I think that if there are ruins, we might find the survivors there that Lady Olivia told us about."
"Do you remember where exactly it was?"
"No, not quite. When I woke up, I was already at the Plantars.", Luz remembers, "I only saw the tower from the air once when Maddie and I flew to Newtopia. It was somewhere around here."
"There, maybe?", Amity asks, pointing to a large pile of stone rubble to her right. Luz comes to a stop in the air next to Amity and follows her gaze towards the ground. At second glance, the stone structures actually do suggest an artificial structure. Or well, a former artificial structure.
"Could be. Let's check it out.", Luz says, before she and Amity quickly drop in altitude together and land on a cliff overlooking the ruins.
They stand at the remains of what looks like a wooden bridge over a ravine, at the bottom of which lie parts of two massive iron gates, partly buried by a countless pile of stones and boulders. The only thing left standing on the other side is a single stone pillar surrounded by more stones, many of them with traces of fire and explosions on them.
"I think I'll take back what I just said.", Luz exhales after a few seconds of complete silence, sounding dejected.
"That this isn't the right place?"
"That someone is hiding here.", Luz clarifies, "No one is hiding here. No one could be hiding here."
"Ou-kay. Shall we fly over the area once to be on the safe side?", Amity suggests, which Luz rejects with a slight shake of her head. "What else do you suggest? The resistance must be hiding somewhere."
"I do have another idea, and even if that's a dead end as well, we can always lure them to us by causing a bit of chaos and havoc. They have to come to us if they want to investigate."
"And what if they see us as enemies and won't listen to us?", Amity argues.
"We'll see if it comes to that. But for now..."
Luz raises her hand high, summoning her lightning bolts, which have returned to their original golden color, rapidly forming a half-sphere of linked glyphs before both girls disappear in a blinding flash of light.
As always, the light quickly brightens and the two girls open their eyes, only this time to be met by nothing but total darkness. Luz still notices Amity's hand in hers. She drags her foot across the ground, expecting stone floor but finds gravel instead.
"This is... strange.", Luz speaks softly but immediately notices a slight echo.
"Did something go wrong?", Amity asks, mimicking her volume, "Where are we anyway?"
"Wait a second.", Luz says before summoning a handful of light orbs and spreads them across a wide area in the air in front of them with a fluid sweep of her arm, revealing the sheer destruction of the cave Luz once knew.
Colorless crystals all over the walls that look as brittle as gray glass, with many of them already fallen to the floor and shattered into countless pieces.
"A cave?", Amity looks at Luz in confusion.
"This is the cave where I revived Hop Pop and met the Titan and... where he gave me his powers."
"He was in this cave?", Amity asks, skeptical.
"No, not quite.", Luz replies chuckling nostalgically, "He was this cave. His magic was stored in those crystals, as well as part of his soul."
"And so after he transferred everything to you, he disappeared?", Amity asks, "I mean, it would blow a lot of people's minds if they knew he was even still there."
"He just disappeared from this world. Well, probably. I think."
"Huh?", Amity listens, "Does that mean-"
"I'll tell you later.", Luz brings Owlbert into flying position, grabs a light orb, and slowly rises into the air, as the stony path in front of them has been mostly destroyed by the fallen crystals. Amity follows her.
Luz recognizes the small island in the middle of the cave and lands on it. Although the island itself is no longer surrounded by the water that originally flowed around it, it is still easily recognizable.
"From the looks of it, there's no one here either.", Amity looks around before landing next to Luz, who is standing in front of a huge broken crystal with one hand resting on it.
"THE COMBINATION OF MY BLOOD WITH THE MINERALS OF THIS WORLD HAVE CREATED THIS PLACE. THE MAGIC OF MY BLOOD THAT WENT INTO THIS WORLD CREATED THESE CRYSTAL FORMATIONS. HERE IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT YOU."
"I remember... someone had called my name"
"INDEED."
Luz turns in Amity's direction, but not directly towards her, but slightly past her towards the stone bridge that originally crossed the flowing water. With Amity curiously but quietly behind her, Luz squats facing three parallel deep blade marks in the rock in front of her, right behind the bridge.
"My name is General Yunan, Scourge of the Sand Wars, Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, aaaaaand... the youngest newt to ever achieve the rank of General in the great Newtopian army! You have no right to be here. Leave this place"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken. YOU have no right to be here, General."
"Listen, I know you're a friend of Marcy's and I really shouldn't be telling you, but I've been given orders by King Andrias to ensure that no one knows of the existence of this place, by any means necessary. So I beg you: go, before you force me to use means that I would hate to use against a child."
"You leave me no choice then"
Luz frowns as she slowly runs her fingertips over the marks in the stone. She notices Amity's hand on her shoulder from behind her.
"I've hurt someone. Right here."
"With... claws?", Amity asks in an attempt to lighten Luz's overly serious mood. Unfortunately, Luz doesn't respond the way she'd hoped.
"Not mine. Granted, technically it wasn't me who fought either. The Titan had control of my body and I had to beg him not to kill the general."
"The general?"
"General Yunan. Lady Olivia had mentioned her before."
"Oh, right."
"She had acted on orders from Andrias. I don't think it was her job to attack me. She had called me an intruder, but -"
Amity listens to Luz continue her story while her own gaze momentarily wanders to the light glyph resting on Luz's other shoulder.
'Huh?'
Amity has to look twice as she realizes that the light orb is actively deforming before her eyes. Simple deformations, simple geometric shapes. Corners, edges...
"Amity? Is something wrong?", Luz looks at her with worried eyes, snapping her out of it, "You seemed lost in thought."
Amity's gaze flickers one last time to the orb, which has returned to its perfectly stable round shape.
"Uh, yeah. I think so...", the witch admits, "Sorry."
"It's not a problem. But we should get leaving."
"Chaos?", Amity asks.
"Not yet.", Luz replies to Amity's surprise, her tone saddening, "There's one other place I want- no, need to go first."
Luz gets Owlbert into flying position before gesturing to Amity to fly with her instead of on her own staff.
"You want to fly?!", Amity asks skeptically, looking around the cave looking for an exit, but in vain. "Wouldn't teleporting make more sense?"
"Don't worry, I know where the exit is.", Luz replies confidently, "Come on. Jump up."
'Luz avoids the question. Seems she's not ready for what she's expecting...', Amity muses as she sits down behind Luz without comment, who takes off from the ground surprisingly quickly. Rapidly they fly over the ruined path in the direction they came from before, speeding towards a broken archway.
"Luz, the wall?!", Amity shouts with growing urgency and panic in her voice as the massive stone perimeter of the cave gets closer and closer. The half-human, however, has a knowing smirk on her face. "LUUUZ!"
With her eyes squeezed shut, Amity awaits the impact in the stone, but is then surprised by the renewed smell of ash in the air. She opens her eyes, only to find herself on the outside again, surrounded by old, very old ruins. However, she finds her heart rate going through the roof at the moment.
"Luz!", Amity sits up from the staff, breathing heavily, "Please stop doing this. My poor heart can't handle this for long."
"What do you mean?", Luz asks, still grinning.
"This isn't a joke, I'm serious!", Amity speaks seriously, causing Luz's grim to drop as she realizes her girlfriend is actually serious, "This is the second time you've almost given me a heart attack with your recklessness! And that's only since yesterday!"
Guilt slowly builds up in her head as Amity continues talking.
"First you jump off a cliff in Newtopia without knowing what's at the bottom, and now you're racing at high speed in a closed cave before you teleported us out at the last second!"
"In my defense: You jumped in after me.", she says sheepishly, "And I didn't teleport us. There is a portal here-"
"LUZ!", Amity shouts, before calming herself, taking a deep breath, "You have no idea how scared I was... ... If you remember, after the Bonesborough Brawl, you wanted me to promise not to be so reckless myself anymore. And I did make that promise."
"Y-yeah, I remember. I'm sorry, Amity."
"I don't want your apology.", Amity replies sternly, which causes Luz to raise an eyebrow. Amity grabs one of her hands and looks her directly in her eyes with their faces so close that Luz can feel Amity's breath on her skin. "What I want is for you to make me the same promise I made you back then. Promise me you'll be more considerate. Not just for yourself, but also for those who are with you... Please promise me that you won't play with your life like that anymore."
Luz swallows hard under Amity's crushing gaze. "Okay. I promise."
"Say it.", Amity demands, not letting up on her pressure, "All of it."
"I promise I won't act so recklessly in the future... if it's avoidable."
"Luz-"
"Amity, we're part of a war.", Luz states just as seriously as the witch, "I can't guarantee you complete safety. That would only be possible if we hid somewhere far away and waited it out until it was all over. All at the cost of our friends' lives. And I am not paying that price... ... The only thing I can promise is that I won't put myself in such reckless danger again. Can you accept that?"
Amity stares fixedly at Luz for a few moments before exhaling in relief and unexpectedly wrapping her in a tight hug.
"Huh?", Luz huffs out.
"Don't get me wrong, I love absolutely everything about you. Even that you put yourself in danger to save your friends with no regard for yourself.", Amity says while running her fingers through Luz's hair, not breaking the hug and causing Luz to blush, "But if you're doing it with no rhyme or reason..."
"No, no, I get it.", Luz assures her, "I'm sorry."
In response, Amity hugs her even tighter. The two girls remain in this position for a while until Amity speaks up after a while.
"Shall we get going?"
"Yea.", Luz replies quietly, "Jump on. I won't fly fast either."
Amity nods and climbs behind Luz on Owlbert, holding tightly onto her.
"Don't forget your mask."
Slower than before, the two girlfriends fly over the former forest, occasional ash landing in Luz's eyes.
During the time they have been in the cave, the clouds have continued to grow over their area, barely allowing any light through. The sky is a single dark gray layer with black flakes of ash trickling down.
A bad omen.
Ten minutes into their flight, they have passed over the forest and Amity notices Luz steadily slowing down and approaching the ground before descending.
"Luz, is there something?", Amity asks before following Luz's own gaze and spotting some damaged structures some distance ahead of them. "Oh..."
Amity descends the staff as well to stand next to Luz.
"Is that... the village?", she asks the half-human quietly. She looks at Luz, who gulps hard, before nodding ever so slightly.
"I'd like to walk the rest if you don't mind.", Luz requests, her voice small.
"Of course."
The two girls start walking. But not even a few steps later, Luz notices something wet landing on her face. She stops for a moment and touches the wet spot with one finger. The tip of her finger is dark gray as she looks at it.
"Ash rain.", she remarks.
More and more drops fall from the clouds above them, but Luz continues walking undeterred. The rain gets heavier, each drop interspersed with soot and ash that not only gets the girls wet, but also turns them a shade of gray, bit by bit. Every drop stains their clothes, settles in their hair, and tints their skin. Before it gets too bad, Amity creates a force field above her head, big enough for herself and Luz.
"Luz, come under the force field.", Amity speaks softly. Luz walks a few steps ahead of her. She doesn't answer immediately.
"I'm good.", she eventually replies.
"Luz...", Amity speaks with a disappointed tone. She grabs Luz's arm, hooks it in her own, and pulls her under the force field next to her. Luz shows no sign of resistance.
Luz knows exactly that Wartwood lies straight ahead of her. Or what's left of it. She can picture all the houses, the stores, the people clearly in her mind... even the destroyed wall that used to mark the border of the village. Now the destroyed wall stands almost three meters tall with obvious battle and explosion marks everywhere.
The two girls approach the entrance to the village.
"Slow to accept, and even slower to respect."
"Huh?", Amity listens up.
"That's Wartwood's official motto.", Luz elaborates, stopping in front of the archway into the village. Luz does not yet dare to raise her eyes off the ground to acknowledge the destruction before her. She just stands there, her eyes fixed to the ground and her ears open in search of any audible signs of life. Though she is just able to hear the rain splashing on the gravel path and evaporating on contact with the force field. Everything else, however, is... silent.
"Luz, do you want me to go ahead?", Amity asks her with their arms still intertwined.
"N-no. I just need a moment."
"Okay.", Amity replies compassionately, "Take all the time you need."
A few minutes pass as Luz tries to gather her mental strength and calm her panicking heart.
'It's all right. It's okay. It's like the anniversary of Papa’s death... It's like going to the cemetery with mom - only with Ami instead...'
"I- I'm not sure I'm ready, but let's go.", Luz lifts her head.
"Are you really sure?"
"Mhm.", Luz nods. She untangles her and Amity's arms before taking her hand and giving it a small squish.
Surprisingly for Amity, Luz leads the way and strolls through the gate hand in hand, finally entering the ruins of Wartwood after this long journey.
Besides the fortified wall, Luz finds more things right behind it that she definitely doesn't remember, mostly in the form of defensive structures. Several wooden watchtowers, most of them fallen over or very badly damaged, but also two trebuchets, equally badly damaged. Amity notices a disturbed expression on Luz's face.
"This doesn't feel right...", Luz mutters as she looks around. "There were less than a hundred frogs living here. And these fortifications- it all seems so out of place."
"It would make sense that they fought back when Andrias attacked.", Amity surmises.
"That's true, but the timeline of events doesn't fit... I mean, when were those walls built? When these towers? When these trebuchets? It can't have happened in just a few days."
"You think these facilities were all built before the attack?", Amity continues to ask.
"With so few inhabitants? Definitely.", Luz replies doubtfully. "Never were these things intended for Andrias' attacks. They would have needed to start building them when Andrias stole the box. That can't be the reason for all these."
"Maybe we'll find more answers further inside the village.", Amity suggests, to which Luz silently agrees.
It doesn't take long before the first few ruined houses come into view and the two girls passing them. Not much further ahead, they arrive in the town center, where the extent of the destruction is even greater than at the village border. Explosion craters in the ground and collapsed, abandoned buildings, but also destroyed Frobots and pieces of armor spread around everywhere.
"They put up a fight.", Luz observes. Amity glances over at her to catch a glimpse of her emotional state. Luz's gaze is fixed on a damaged breastplate, icy and calculated. It makes Amity take a step back.
"L-Luz?"
"That's a toad breastplate. And there's two more up ahead...", she says, but doesn't actually answer any question, "Toads and frogs hate each other. And I don't see any frog corpses here."
Luz lets her gaze wander. Grub n' Go, destroyed beyond recognition. Felicia's Teashoppe, badly damaged. City Hollow, destroyed. Loggle's, the Seed Store, the Bakery... all extremely badly damaged.
The girl snaps out of her thoughts as Amity suddenly grabs her shoulders and pulls her towards her.
"What's wrong with you???", she yells into her face, "All this time you've been terrified of being here, but now you seem like you don't care! You were here! You knew all the people here! And now you talk about dead bodies as if- if- ...", Amity sighs deeply and lets go of her, "What's wrong? Please talk to me."
"Would you believe me if I told you that this was intentional?", she turns to Amity.
"Huh? What do you mean?", she asks, confused. Luz turns back to the breastplate.
"Call it being in denial if you want. Or me being delusional. Whatever. It's the only thing that's allowing me to stay composed right now."
Amity's eyes stare at Luz, stunned. She continues.
"I'm completely freaking out inside right now if I'm being honest."
"Then let go. Let it out. It wouldn't bother me.", Amity whispers to her confidently, but Luz shakes her head.
"No. Not here.", Luz refuses, "I don't cry in graveyards. On principle."
"But this isn't a-", the witch cuts herself off, "Oh... Right, I see. But please... Don't bottle it all up."
"I'm not making any promises.", Luz stands up again, "Let's go on to the marketplace."
"How many people do you think survived this attack?", Amity asks as the two girls start walking again.
"Realistically?", Amity nods hesitantly before Luz lapses into silence for a moment, stopping in her tracks, "After seeing all this? … No one."
Amity tries to ignore the emotionlessness in Luz's voice, but if she's honest, this side of Luz is nothing but intimidating and terrifying. However, it doesn't stay that way for long, when she discovers something through a passageway between two ruined houses that definitely doesn't belong in this place. She stops.
"Luz."
The girl addressed turns around. "Huh?"
"Come over here. You should see this."
"What is it?", Luz walks over to Amity, looking in the direction Amity is pointing, "WHAT THE HECK???? Who would put up a tent here???"
'Luz is absolutely furious. But rightly so. This is beyond downright disrespectful!', Amity shares Luz's anger, "Let's go check it out."
The two girls head through the passageway and approach a large hexagonal brown tent with what looks like a small store display attached to it, in which actual goods are on display. They also notice an actual small chimney sticking out of its top.
"What is that? What the fuck is that?", Luz asks, genuinely irritated as they approach the tent.
"Whoever owns this tent must have come here after everything was destroyed.", Amity observes as the two girls come to a halt in front of the shop's display.
"Do you think there's someone here thinking they can sell things here out of all places? Or are they just desperate pillagers?", Luz asks in a loud, angry voice.
"’Valeriana's Mysterious Goods’.", Amity reads aloud, snapping Luz out of her anger, whereupon she stares at her in confusion. The young witch points to a sign next to the display which Luz's gaze follows, leaving her dumbfounded.
"No pillagers."
"Being a merchant and a pillager are not mutually exclusive.", Luz remarks, now a little calmer, "But that name, 'Valeriana', sounds familiar. As if this is a person I am supposed to seek out."
Amity takes a few steps to the side while Luz is busy searching her brain for the correct memories regarding that name, and takes a look inside the tent. On the inside, it definitely does not look like a tent, but more like a base for a well-read nomad.
In the middle is a large, round, colorful carpet. There are two comfy but old-looking couches on top of it, and there are bookshelves full of books all over the place, as well as several bound-up scrolls of paper.
'This doesn't look like a nomad's tent...', Amity thinks to herself, slightly disturbed, "Hello? Is someone in here? Valeriana?"
No response. Generally no sounds from the inside. She enters the tent and, as expected, finds no one there either. On a small table, an upturned book with a bookmark catches her attention.
"'Cooking for Beginners - First Edition'.", Amity reads out, "And even signed by the author... Weird."
She puts the book back exactly as she found it and looks at a few more. "'2000 Ways To Wire Traps', 'Spanish Commanders and the Meaning Of It', 'What Exactly Is An Izu And How To Stop It From Annoying You???'… Spanish is Luz's language. Maybe I'll ask her about that later."
Amity looks at some other books and scrolls before stepping through the curtain that leads outside to behind the display of goods, in front of which Luz is still lost in memories.
"Did you find what you were looking for?", Amity asks, but Luz doesn't respond, "Luz?"
"Huh?", her head snaps to the side where she still assumes her girlfriend is, "Uh..."
"Over here, silly.", Amity speaks with amusement. "I checked the tent. Valeriana's not here."
"I see."
"Did you remember why you need to find this Valeriana?"
"All I remember is that it was the Titan who told me to find her. Why, I have no idea."
"She's probably somewhere in or around the village.", Amity suspects. Luz's mood shifts again visibly, and not in a way that the witch particularly likes.
"Doesn't matter.", Luz replies coldly, "We can go look for her when we're done here and we've found the survivors."
Amity jumps over the display and back to Luz. She continues.
"Come. There's one last place I want to check out in a bit."
The two girlfriends walk back to the marketplace. The view there is not that much different compared to the village center. There too, there are signs of intense fighting, but nothing that particularly stands out.
As they walk away, Amity points out that the rain is beginning to let up, which Luz doesn't comment on. They walk on in silence until they pass Valeriana's tent again and Amity speaks up.
"You know, when looking through the tent, I found quite a lot of different books. Valeriana seems to have a large collection. A lot of it dealing with different types of magic, though nothing we know of from the Isles. I'd like to ask her about it when we meet her."
"Huh? Yeah, sure.", Luz replies.
'Damn. I thought I could get her with that...', Amity curses to herself.
The two of them are on a longer path to what looks like a gigantic stump of a tree that was felled ages ago. It was probably converted into a house some time afterwards, which was also heavily trashed, but is far from being a ruin like many other buildings in the village.
Luz suddenly gasps loudly, her feet frozen to the ground and her jaw dropping to the floor. Amity looks straight at her, worried.
"Luz, what's wrong?"
"There- There is someone.", Luz whispers without wasting time. Amity's head snaps forward instantly, where she does indeed spot a figure sitting next to a door, wearing a black chestplate.
"HEY! YOU THERE!", Luz yells and takes off running.
"Luz, don't!", Amity yells after her, but to no avail.
As she runs and Amity tries to catch up, the figure gets up from their seat, enters the house, and closes the door behind them. About ten seconds later, Luz reaches the front door and throws herself against it with all her body weight, only to realize with surprise that the door is not locked at all, and falls to the floor with a wump.
"Luz!", Amity quickly rushes to her side, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"W- Where are they?", Luz asks in an urgent tone kneeling on all fours, slightly hurt from her uncontrolled fall. She tries to stand up, but struggles visibly.
"Luz, don't! You're hurt!", Amity pleads, which Luz skillfully ignores, tries anyway, and fails as her legs give out.
"YOU! COME BACK!", Luz yells with growing desperation, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Amity drops to her knees beside her and hugs her close as Luz pours out all the emotions she's been bottling up all this time. "Please, come back..."
All her dams break at this moment. Her suppressed fears and worries, her grief that she didn't want to acknowledge and accept... and although they now turn out not to be true, Luz is definitely not crying tears of joy. The girl clings to Amity with all her might, who can feel Luz's body shaking and trembling.
"It's okay... Let it all out.", Amity speaks softly and full of compassion. She holds the crying girl close, one hand on her back and the other stroking the back of her head, hoping that this gesture will calm her down a little.
'We shouldn't have come here...', Amity thinks to herself as her heart aches with every single second that her most important treasure, the person she has vowed to always protect from any suffering and pain, is crying her heart out. 'I feel like I failed her- I failed to protect her precious heart... I really am a horrible girlfriend.' She hugs Luz closer to her.
"Ami... Can't- breathe...", Luz says with enormous effort, at which Amity's arms immediately snap back. She stares at her with eyes wide open in shock.
"Luz... I'm so, so sorry."
"No, no, it-", Luz gulps strongly, wiping tears from her face, "It's okay... I was just hoping that- … you know, it's not important."
"Come on. Please tell me..."
"I- I was just hoping they missed me as much as I missed them... Instead, they're hiding from me as well as from Andrias' Frobots.", Luz closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before her gaze shifts to Amity, "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would affect me this much."
Amity feels the urge to apologize as well, but holds her tongue. She knows very well that this is not something Luz wants to hear right now. "No, I understand."
A moment passes in complete silence.
"Ami? If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone for a moment.", Luz speaks softly, "You can stay here, but I'd like to be in the basement for a while."
"In the basement?", Amity asks, confused.
"... Anne's room.", Luz elaborates.
"Oh... right...", she replies with her head hanging down. 'Right. Luz had told me that she and Anne shared her room before she left for Newtopia.'
Amity's thoughts are interrupted when she notices a hatch slam shut. "Luz?"
'It looks exactly the same...', Luz is amazed as she descends the stairs. 'This is probably the least damaged room in all of Wartwood right now.'
Largely undamaged, but otherwise completely trashed. There are various items of clothing and bedding scattered everywhere, boxes, moldy food and, on the bed, the plush version of Domino 2, which Luz remembers clearly from when Anne told her the story of Domino and Domino 2.
'Wait a minute... Is the bed bigger than before?', Luz wonders, every trace of her previous sadness gone and replaced by great curiosity. She steps closer to the bed. 'Two mattresses and two blankets? ... No way...'
Luz's gaze wanders to the small photo board hanging on the stone wall right next to the bed. The first thing that catches her eye is the photo that Luz discovered on her first night awake in this basement. The one picture of Anne, Sasha and Marcy that was taken while they were still on earth. The other pictures seem much more recent.
'Wait, how did Anne take these pictures so that she could hang them on the wall? They look and feel like polaroids…'
The first other picture shows a selfie of Anne and Sprig, taken in a cage, both of them covered in filth. The next one is a family picture of the Plantars with Anne hugging all three of them. The last picture has been flipped to face the wall.
Luz climbs over the bed where she reaches for the flipped photo. A slight smirk appears on her face.
'Ha! I knew it.'
The last picture she now holds in her hand is a selfie of Sprig standing on the steps down to the basement. In the background, Anne and Marcy are deep asleep on this very bed, Marcy snuggled up close to Anne's chest with both of their hands intertwined.
Luz smiles as she reminisces about times gone by. In particular, she remembers the first time she saw Anne and Marcy together back in Newtopia. Even then, it was more than obvious that- or rather how much they felt for each other. It was obvious even to Ms. Oblivious aka. Luz Noceda. Just not for the two lovebirds in question.
'Feels familiar.', she thinks to herself with a somber yet simultaneously happy tone before looking at the picture again, 'But I'm very happy that the two of them have found each other... They look very happy. I hope that wherever they are, they're happy tog-'
Luz practically bites her tongue as she realizes what she was actually thinking and remembers where Marcy actually is right now. And who is not with her.
'Anne probably doesn't know about any of this- if she's even still ali-', Luz slaps herself hard across the face, causing a few tears to fall. 'NO! ... No! Anne is alright. I know that.'
Knock - Knock
'Huh?'
Luz's watery eyes wander to the basement hatch where the knocking came from. Without Luz saying anything, the hatch is pulled open and Amity's head emerges.
"Luz. You should come up for a second. I've found, uhh… something."
Several minutes earlier...
"Luz?", Amity asks after she hears the basement hatch close and finds Luz nowhere to be seen. 'That's right. She said she needed some alone-time.'
Amity takes this opportunity to take a closer look at this house, where Luz has lived for so long. Or at least for a while when she wasn't with her.
Like most of the other buildings in the village, this one was not spared by the flames. The windows Amity spots are cracked if not totally broken from the heat. There are also clear traces of fire around the front door, although the door itself looks relatively intact, at least on the inside. Surprisingly, the same applies to the interior furnishings. As most of the furniture is on a stone floor, the damage inside is minimal.
Amity approaches the stairs to the upper floor, but finds her way blocked. It seems that part of the upper floor has collapsed.
'So much for that idea...', she shakes her head in disappointment. Sure, the witch could simply clear away the rubble with an Abomination, but that could only further weaken the overall structural integrity. 'Then again, this is all a giant tree...', she considers the thoughts, 'No. It's too risky.'
Amity steps back into what she believes is the living room. The flames were definitely active here. They have spread from the window across the wooden floor, engulfing everything in their path. Fortunately, this seems to be the only area that has suffered any real damage, at least on the first floor. The entrance area was protected by all the stone features. The same goes for the kitchen area right beside it.
The witch thinks about going outside for a breath of fresh air. This thought quickly disappears with a glance through the broken window where it is still raining ash. 'Uhh... Nope!', she thinks to herself with a hint of disgust.
Amity slowly trots over to the couch, which has clearly suffered fire damage, but apart from that still looks pretty much intact, although completely filthy with soot. She creates a sheet of Abomination goo, which she uses to magically wipe over the entire couch, absorbing every bit of soot and leaving a clean, yet damaged surface. Amity wipes a finger over the surface to confirm that it's really clean before deciding to sit down and let her gaze wander around the room.
Minutes pass in which Amity does nothing but wait quietly for Luz to return. The thought of taking a nap crossed her mind. A few minutes in she had summoned Ghost. The white cat leans against Amity's leg and lets the young witch cuddle and pamper her all over her body, which the Palisman visibly and audibly enjoys judging by her loud purring.
Amity, and consequently Ghost, are violently startled when a loud mechanical clicking noise snaps them out of their calm. They jump to their feet (and paws) and Amity creates pink flames that encircle her fists and gets into a fighting stance in the direction of where the increasingly mechanical sounds come from: The fireplace.
The bricks that form the smoke outlet to the outside begin to move one after the other, forming a widening gap. A gap from which, even before it is completely open, an excited creature jumps out, which Amity believes to be a frog.
"WHERE IS SHE?", the frog with the light pink mushroom-shaped hair and just one visible yellow eye asks no one in particular, "Where's my best friend???", before her eyes fall on Amity and her burning fists, causing her to fall into absolute amazement like the biggest fangirl. "Flames that don't burn skin.... Pointy ears... You're a witch.", she mutters awestruck.
"Huh?!", Amity replies, confused. The frog's eyes are sparkling with admiration.
"Maddie! It's rude to stare like that!", another male and older sounding voice reprimands her. An older frog appears, followed by two more frog children. He turns to Amity, who just stares at him, completely flabbergasted when he shows no reaction to her burning fists. "I would like to apologize to you for her behavior."
At that, the young witch extinguishes her flames. "It- it's okay."
The older frog clears his throat before continuing. "Is it true? Is Luz here? Is she back?", he looks around the room hurriedly while Amity still doesn't quite understand what's going on, "Chuck had reported that you and Luz had arrived and brought us straight here."
"So you- know her...", Amity states, "Okay, I'll get her."
With a feeling of unease, Amity walks towards the basement hatch.
'I'm sure she knows them. It's nothing to worry about.'
She crouches down in front of the hatch and opens it just enough to stick her head in and discover Luz, who looks quite lost in thought.
"Luz. You should come up for a second. I've found, uhh... something."
"Huh?" Luz turns to her and wipes the tears away from her eyes. Not unnoticed by Amity, though.
"Is something wrong? Have you been crying?", she asks worriedly. Luz shakes her head dismissively.
"It's okay... I'm okay."
Amity looks at her doubtfully as Luz turns back to the bed and places the picture in her hand upside down on it before climbing the stairs up back to the first floor.
But even before Luz reaches the top, the three frog children jump towards her with tears in their eyes and throw her straight to the floor while hugging her tightly. It takes Luz a moment to process what she has just seen.
"Luz, you're back!", the male pink frog cries, "I thought I'd never see you again."
"S-Sprig?", Luz asks in a barely audible voice.
"I always knew you would come back.", The youngest of the three frogs speaks up.
"Polly?"
The last of the three frogs, the one with the bright pink hair, doesn't say anything but clings tightly to Luz as she's also crying.
"M-M-Maddie?", Luz's voice trembles as she looks the girl in the eye. Only now does she realize what's going on. The fourth frog speaks up.
"As soon as Chuck told us that you were on your way here, we rushed over.", the older frog explains with an incredibly warm smile on his face, "It warms my heart to see that you're okay."
"Hop Pop...", Luz finds her voice again and starts to cry tears of joy. The three frog children take a step back, slightly worried. This worry, however, disappears immediately as Luz grabs Maddie and pulls her close in a bone-crushing hug, crying her heart out with joy at full volume. Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop join this hug immediately.
"I- I thought you were- you were all-", Luz speaks between sobs. Despite her unable to get the words out of her throat, they immediately know what she means.
"Oh sweety...", Hop Pop speaks up sympathetically, "Don't worry, we survived. Most of Wartwood did, actually. Well, the people..."
"But- but how?", Luz sobs. She does have calmed down a bit, but is still not ready to let go of Maddie. The frog in question has already accepted her fate.
"We've been hiding in the Plantar family tunnels.", Polly explains excitedly, which earns her a confused look from Luz.
"Heh.", Hop Pop chuckles, "It's easier to show you than to explain."
The hug dissolves and, to Maddie's relief, Luz lets go of her as well. Hop Pop offers her a hand to help her stand up. Luz wants to take his hand, but she flinches violently and with pure horror written all over her face when she notices his right leg. Or rather the lack of it.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG?", Luz screams in shock as she can hardly take her eyes off of it. She stares at the iron prosthesis that replaces his leg and foot from his right knee on down.
"Oh that ole thing?", Hop Pop laughs, "I'll tell you the story at dinner. You two must be hungry."
At that, Polly speaks up.
"You talk about legs and don't say anything about mine???", she says as she strikes one pose after another, all emphasizing her leg muscles.
"S-sorry Polly, but my head is everywhere and nowhere right now.", Luz explains only a little calmer but still quite winded, "I'm sorry."
"We're straight out of Newtopia and Luz in particular is pretty emotionally wrecked at the moment.", Amity speaks up, at which Luz just nods in agreement.
"By the way, who are you? Her girlfriend?", Sprig asks teasingly.
"Yes.", is all Amity says in response.
"Wait... really?", he asks again, this time looking at Luz, who nods in confirmation. Kinda dumbstruck, he looks at Amity again.
"My name is Amity Blight. It's nice to meet more of Luz's friends.", she introduces herself, "And I suggest we continue this conversation after Luz in particular has had some rest. Can you spare some space for us somewhere?"
Hop Pop smiles warmly at her, "Space is not an issue for us. Come with me. I'll take you there."
At that Luz finally accepts Hop Pop's hand who helps her stand up. Amity stands on her other side and together the group enters the same tunnel that the frogs have just emerged from without any further ado. Several meters inside, the fireplace mechanism closes and Hop Pop speaks up.
"I don't want to pre-empt our upcoming conversation, but I have to ask: you said you just came from Newtopia. I'm admittedly a little surprised that anyone is still alive there at all... However, may I ask why you were there?"
"Right...", Amity begins, "We came here because we're on a mission."
"A mission?", Maddie asks, who, like Amity, is currently descending the stairs closely beside Luz.
"The truth is, we need help.", Amity explains, at which the group stops and turns to the witch. "The Boiling Isles are being attacked as we speak."
Chapter 49: Help!
Summary:
Luz and Amity can finally take care of the mission that they came to Amphibia for in the first place
Notes:
Prepare for quite a lore-dump <3
I might have lost part of my sanity while writing this
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
… Step ... Step ... Step ... Step ...
Covered and drenched in ashes and blood, she stomps heavily over the gravel paths into the city. The blood is not just her own, but many people's mixed together.
… … Step ... ... Step ... ... Step ... ... Step ... ...
Every single step stings painfully in her legs after days and days of fighting and without any sleep. It was nothing short of a massacre. And the worst thing: There was nothing she could have done to prevent any of it.
... ... ... Step ... ... ... Step ... ... ... Step ... ... ...
By the time she finally joined the group, they were already outnumbered seventeen to one. Her allies fell one by one until only she remained.
Gus. Willow. Liwin. Raine. Katya. Skara. Boscha. Amity-
'Ami-'
... ... ... Step ... ... ... Drop.
She falls to her knees, her body ready to give up.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!", she cries loud enough that the whole ground around her begins to shake wildly. Tears pour from her eyes, mingling immediately with the ashes and blood.
She has seen with her own eyes how her friends were brutally ripped from life in that ambush. The images are still vivid in her mind. Images of Gus, his head exploding and spreading blood and brain matter in all directions. Images of Willow impaled with blades and completely shredded within seconds. Amity being decapitated right next to her while she was still holding her hand.
And then came the flames. It all happened so fast that no one could have teleported to safety in time. Luz had to watch and listen in real time as the rest of them burned to death, all of them fully conscious. All except Luz, who couldn't be harmed by magic attacks.
Luz, the only survivor of the last defense against them. Luz, the last survivor of the Boiling Isles.
They won. They have won and moved on to the next world. They left her behind as the last witness of their crimes. Alone.
Tears of grief, fury, and despair interspersed with ash and the blood of her friends fall to the ground, only to evaporate instantly.
Everything is gone. Submerged in the flames of the enemy. The Isles still burn to this day, every single inch of it. The ground beneath Luz's feet is seething hot. Not that she cares anymore. Not that she cares about anything anymore. She falls forward onto all fours. Nothing matters anymore. She lets everything run free. Tears, emotions, her magic. Everything flows out of her. Her hate-filled tears drop to the ground, dark purple lightning flashes all over her body, wildly striking the ground and the air, becoming ever stronger and more intense by the minute.
"LUZ!"
Wild and uncontrolled, the lightning strikes any target, no matter how small or big, some even hitting the same spot two or three times. Deafening explosions ring out with every second.
Luz suddenly flies backwards many meters with severe pain in her face, as if heavily kicked in her face, where she hits her head on impact on the ground.
Minutes earlier...
"Seriously?", Amity asks incredulously as she and Maddie casually walk together along a corridor inside the underground housing area.
"Of course. After all, I learned from the best."
"Yes, but that you manage to write a whole book about glyph magic without ever being able to use it yourself."
Maddie grins. "That's just the theoretical aspect, after all, based on direct research and months of experimentation. The cave you were in that you told me about; I used what was left of the magic in it to further my experiments and understand the language behind it. The vocabulary. The grammar. The syntax. And the most interesting thing is that it works exclusively non-verbally. Words are not spoken, but written. So when Luz activates a glyph - what are you laughing at?"
"You talk just like Luz does.", Amity chuckles at her explanation, before taking on a slightly sadder tone, "Or at least like she did."
"Yeah. When I saw her earlier, she seemed different to how I remembered her.", Maddie remembers how little Luz reacted to seeing her again. It was as if she wasn't there. "I know you said you wanted to wait with the details for your meeting with the Commander later, but... Is it really that bad back over there?"
Amity stops in her tracks, her gaze fixed on the ground. "The day of the invasion, my brother and Odalia, my biological mother, were killed. And since then, they've been either abducting the inhabitants of all the major cities or slaughtering them in the streets."
"I... see... I'm sorry I asked."
The two girls remain silent for a while. Maddie, her gaze averted from the witch in front of her out of guilt, and Amity, unpleasant thoughts being brought back into her mind.
"It's okay, actually. Odalia's body was instantly vaporized, and I've erased the memory of my brother's death, according to Luz. So that's no longer a problem at all."
"... Did you actually hear yourself talking just now?"
"...", Amity stares blankly at the frog as she reconsiders her words, when both she and Maddie are suddenly overcome by a strange feeling. Something in the air that makes Amity's hair stand.
"What is that?", Maddie asks, but for Amity, this feeling is just all too familiar.
"That's Luz! Something's wrong!", Amity exclaims with urgency, before running straight back in the direction they just came from, back to Luz and Amity's room.
"Wait, what?", Maddie calls after her, trying to keep up.
Static electricity, growing more intense the closer they get to the source. Amity arrives at Luz's door with Maddie a little way behind her. She doesn't wait and yanks open the door to her room, only to be caught by a barrage of purple lightning and thrown across the hallway, with heavy burns where the lightning caught her.
"AAARGGHHH!", Amity grunts in pain. She has been hit in five places, and she notices a spreading pain at each of these points.
"Amity!", Maddie shrieks before instinctively pulling out a few throwable curses to attack whatever it is that has attacked Amity, and which she suspects, has Luz in its grip.
"No! Don't come any closer!", Amity shouts, her gaze not diverting from the open door of the room from which the lightning bolts are shooting out. "I can absorb some of the lightning, but you'd get fried by it. Her magic is completely out of control right now."
"Her... magic?"
Painfully, and with the help of the wall behind her, Amity manages to straighten up. She draws a magic circle, which causes her whole body to be covered in a thin layer of abomination goo. Maddie stares wide-eyed in amazement.
Every single step is filled with agony, but slowly Amity manages to approaches the door. She can already feel Luz's magic being absorbed by her abomination suit.
'Luz's magic is extremely intense. I can't hold out for long...', she thinks to herself as one lightning bolt after another strikes her suit. 'Really not.'
"Luz!", Amity calls into the room and immediately spots Luz lying on the bed, her face contorted, her body squirming from side to side. Immediately she rushes over to the bed, grabbing Luz to try to shake her awake. But in vain. "Luz! Wake up! You're having a nightmare."
Amity shakes her by her shoulders, but all Luz does is continue to squirm and whine as the half-human continues to spill magic uncontrollably into the surrounding area. The amount of purple lightning absorbed by her suit is also getting stronger, pushing the suit itself to its limits judging from the holes that are forming and spreading.
"LUZ!", Amity cries out as she continues to try and wake up her girlfriend. Unfortunately, also unsuccessfully. 'There's only one thing left I can do now before she destroys everything. I'm sorry, Luz.'
"WAKE! UP!", Amity screams as she reaches out with one hand and gives Luz a near-full-force slap. Luz immediately opens her eyes, the lightning disappearing at the same moment. With an expression of utter confusion, she stares silently at Amity. The witch notices that the other girl is shaking heavily and on the verge of tears. "Luz, are you okay? You had a nightmare and I had to-"
Luz latches onto her girlfriend, burying her face in her arms before starting to loudly bawl her heart out. She clings to her with all her might, as if she would disappear if she ever let her go again.
"Shhhhhh...", Amity strokes Luz's head as she's holding her close as well. "It's all right. It was just a dream. It's over."
Maddie appears at the door with a worried look for her friend on her face. Her eyes meet Amity's, who looks just as helpless as the frog is feeling right now. Not wanting to be imposing, Maddie remains standing in the doorway, even if even that feels rather awkward to her. She almost wants to reach for the door handle and give them both their privacy when Amity motions the frog over.
Maddie hesitates. On the one hand, this is an intimate moment between girlfriends, but on the other... She sighs inwardly before entering the room and approaching Luz and Amity, placing a hand on Luz's shoulder.
"Luz.", she begins, "I know you've had to go through some horrible things... And this is going to sound pretty selfish, but I'm so glad you're here. That I have my best friend back."
"M-Maddie?", Luz gasps. She lets go of Amity to just look at her frog friend. For seconds. It feels like an eternity that she stares at her without blinking, as if she's only now realizing that she's back in the real world. "Maddie. ... What happened here?"
Luz looks around the room. Every wall, every piece of furniture, the floor, and the ceiling are all covered with traces of melted spots but without any corresponding burn marks.
"Lightning. Dark purple.", Amity clarifies. Luz stares at her wide-eyed for a moment.
"Oh- I get it.", Luz lowers her gaze before discovering an open wound on Amity's thigh and widening her eyes in horror. "AMI! YOU'RE HURT!"
Her eyes dart over and over in search of more wounds, and sure enough, she discovers four more identical wounds. "Did I...?"
"No, no, no, don't worry. They don't even hurt."
That's a lie.
"Don't care! I'll heal them anyway.", Luz exclaims. She creates renewed-golden lightning that momentarily alarms Maddie. Amity had already anticipated this reaction.
"Don't worry, this is what her magic usually looks like.", Amity explains to her while Luz casts her healing spell. Now a little calmer and utterly fascinated, Maddie stares inquisitively at the golden lightning that simultaneously pierces Amity's skin and restores her to full health by closing each and every wound directly in front of her eyes.
"Wow...", the frog mutters wordlessly. Millions upon millions of questions flash through her mind at that very moment. 'Lightning as a source of her magic? No. After all, in nature, lightning doesn't come from the lightning itself, but from the clouds. Where does her magic come from? And how did she get it? I really have to ask her. That's the best basic material for my second volume. Buuut… given the situation, that can wait.'
"Would you want to talk about your dream?", Amity asks while Luz has almost finished her healing spell. She shakes her head.
"No.", Luz answers plainly before changing the subject, "I can't believe we're really here. And that there are actually survivors after all that Lady Olivia has told us."
"Lady Olivia?", Maddie asks thinking. "Isn't that the Newt who caught us in the royal library back then?"
"That's the one.", Luz says before chuckling lightly for a moment, "Although I have to admit I'd forgotten about that too until just now... Anyway, Olivia had told us that there were survivors here after Andrias' attack and we came here immediately. But then when we got here to the valley and saw all the damage... Well, you can imagine."
"I don't have to imagine.", Maddie speaks solemnly, "After all, I haven't been here much longer than you two."
"What do you mean?", Amity asks. Luz looks at her, also confused.
"I arrived about two hours before you two, give or take. I saw Dad's bakery in ruins, the house I grew up in completely burnt down. Even I couldn't contain myself at the sight. Luckily, Master probably already knew about the hideout. I was so glad to see that everyone was safe."
"Your... Master?"
"Oh, right. You don't know yet.", Maddie's mood takes an abrupt turn for the better, "I am, or rather was, a student of a level seven magic user. And I myself am now a level four magic user. You, on the other hand..."
"Heh, yeah. Congratulations, by the way.", Luz finishes her spell and turns her full attention to Maddie. "Yeah, I'm probably not even on the scale anymore."
"Speaking of which: How is that even possible?", Maddie wants to know, now that the conversation is moving in a direction that allows her to ask all her questions, "You don't even use glyphs anymore either, if I saw that right."
"Well, the short version is that I'm not completely human anymore.", Luz says, gaining a raised eyebrow from her frog friend, "As of right now I'm half human, and half Titan."
Maddie just stands there quietly, the gears visibly working in her head. "You changed your species???"
Luz and Amity chuckle at that, finding her outburst amusing.
"No, not quite. Okay, listen. I'll tell you... Remember our sleepover back in the castle?", Maddie nods, "When we escaped from the basement, I saw a ghost blocking my way. It looked like a wolf, except quite big."
"Yeah, I remember. We came back when we realized you weren't with us. We saw you and the wolf, who then somehow ran into you and, we suspected, possessed you before fleeing Newtopia with you."
"Yea, I figured something like that must have happened.", Luz says, deep in thought, "You see, that wasn't really a wolf, but some kind of companion of the Titan that he sent out to find me."
"The Titan?", Maddie asks, spitting out tea if she had any, "As in the kilometer-sized creature that forms the Boiling Isles that has been dead for frog knows how long already? That Titan?"
"You know about that?", Amity asks, seeming rather impressed.
"The source of my information is sitting right next to you.", Maddie replies snippily, at which Amity just wants to punch herself in the face.
"Yeah, right. Obviously...", Amity says, clearly embarrassed. Luz continues.
"Long story short: The Titan told me that he was responsible for me being pulled to Amphibia in the first place.", she recounts, increasingly upset, "You know, first he tells me that he took me from the Isles 'for my own safety', only to send me back there for the very same reason."
"You know, the more you tell me, the more I get the impression that you don't seem to like the Titan...", Maddie comments in a sarcastic tone. Luz doesn't reply to this comment with more than a disapproving look.
"Anyway... After he told me everything, he asked for my help."
"Seriously??", Maddie asks incredulously, "After everything he took from you? What did he want from you?”
"Granted, I haven't done anything in that regard yet. And honestly, the details are pretty irrelevant to me right now.", Luz says. She looks at Maddie, whose expression makes it crystal clear that she wants to know more. "He wants me to find someone, destroy the music box Andrias currently possesses, destroy some temples, kill Belos, and save the Titan’s only remaining descendant. The only thing I intend to do out of all that right now is to destroy the box. Or at least take it away from the enemy."
"Huh, ok. That's not a small number of tasks... I wonder what he's trying to do with all this...", Maddie replies thoughtfully, "Well, if he means the same temples I know about, I might be able to help you."
"What do you mean?", Amity asks.
"The temples I'm talking about were used to charge the gems that make up the power of the Music Box. Maybe he knew about the dangers of the box and wanted to prevent it from happening again.", Maddie suspects.
"Why are you doing this?", Luz asks, "Why do you want to help a mission that I was told to fulfill and I have no interest in doing?"
"Because I know you, Luz.", Maddie replies instantly, causing Luz to be taken aback quite a bit, "I know the Titan has caused you unimaginable grief and pain, but it has also given you a huge gift. You once told me that becoming a Witch was your greatest dream, and he granted you that wish."
"That's true, but-"
"I'm not done yet.", Maddie interrupts Luz, "I said I know you. And the Luz I know would never turn down a request for help, no matter who it came from."
Silence hangs in the air. Luz knows that what Maddie is saying is not wrong. But at the same time, there has never been a situation in her life, or in her imagination, where she can feel as much resentment towards a being as she does right now.
"Luz, I hate to say it, but I agree with her."
"Huh?", Luz exclaims, waiting for her girlfriend to elaborate.
"Don't get me wrong, I understand your reluctance. But at the same time, it's the Titan himself who asked you for help and gave you his magic to fulfill a task that he has no way of fulfilling himself. With his status as a god, he could have simply ignored all that is currently happening and just let it happen, but because he cares about all the beings underneath him, he has asked for your help. Helping him would therefore also mean helping everyone else."
Luz ponders Amity's words for a while, looking for reasonable counterarguments. Unfortunately for her, her reasoning is completely spotless and flawless. Luz sighs in defeat.
"Fine.", Luz states reluctantly, "But I insist that you help, Mads."
"I would be honored.", Maddie bows with a fat grin on her face. Luz can't help but at least smile at her antics. "Would you like me to make you a map with the locations of the temples?"
"Later. A little destruction will do me good once we're done here.", Luz speaks, "You could maybe help with something else: You wouldn't happen to know of any Titans still alive here in Amphibia?"
"Granted, for the longest time I didn't even know about the dead one here.", Maddie replies, gaining another defeated sigh from Luz, "But you did mention a person you were looking for. Maybe I can help you with that, if they're from the Valley."
"I'm afraid I don't know where this person is from. Their name is Valeriana."
"Huh?!", Maddie stands there, dumbfounded. Amity notices this.
"Do you know someone with that name?"
"That's my Master.", Maddie answers slowly as a gigantic realization hits her, "OH MY FROG! THAT'S WHAT SHE MEANT!"
"What's wrong?"
"My master! She knew about you! You're the reason we came back here!", Maddie exclaims loudly, "She said, and I quote ’We cannot risk missing her under any circumstances'."
"Should we go and find her right away then?", Amity asks, infected by Maddie's excitement.
"No.", Luz puts a huge damper on the general mood. "Just because I agreed to help the Titan doesn't mean I'm neglecting our primary mission. That still has top priority."
"Fair.", Maddie replies indifferently, "If you like, I could take you to the Resistance commander. She makes all the important decisions here. She'll be able to help you with whatever you need."
"Luz, don't you want to wait a bit? After all, you've just woken up from a nightmare.", Amity asks, to which Luz shakes her head.
"I'm fine, Ami.", She gets up from the bed, and even though her legs tremble briefly at first, she quickly stabilizes. "See?"
"Okay." Amity accepts, "Maddie, lead the way."
The group leaves the room and with Maddie leading the way, the girls walk through what appears to be a hand-dug tunnel through the underground. They pass through door after door, all numbered. The numbers go down by 2 the further they get to the end of the hallway. They pass the occasional frog, but none that Luz recognizes.
They approach the end of the hallway and arrive in a large cavernous space, buzzing with life and activity. Built into what looks like gigantic roots, Luz discovers a completely intact infrastructure. Among them are a store for armor and weapons, a 'Grub & Gone' based on 'Grub & Go', a Medbay, Stumpy's, a store for Battle Snails... and all of it brightly illuminated by a giant glowing mushroom that lights up the entire area from the cavernous ceiling. Spread over three levels, there are countless frogs, a few toads and newts going about their daily lives in a surprisingly relaxed mood. Some of them are going shopping, some are being trained in the use of weapons by toads, a few children are playing among the people, and a few people are sitting with a fishing rod by a small river that flows through the underground base.
Luz stands at the railing and looks around the base in amazement and surprise. Maddie and Amity, on the other hand, not so much, mainly because the two girls have only just explored the base together.
"Come on. The Commander's office is up ahead.", Maddie snaps Luz back to reality and follows Maddie's gaze to a wide wooden door guarded by a spear-wielding newt and a sword-wielding toad.
The three girls head straight to where they are stopped by the Newt.
"State your business here!", he demands to know whilst blocking the way with his spear.
"Is the commander available at the moment?", Maddie replies indirectly.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No...", Maddie grows slightly irritated.
"Then get lost."
Maddie, Luz, and Maddie stand there, staring in shock at this level of pure disrespect while the newt merely returns to his position, completely ignoring the three girls. Amity is almost bursting with anger when the toad suddenly speaks up in a somewhat timid tone.
"Please don't hold it against him. He just has a tendency to take his job a little too seriously.", he says, which only earns him an annoyed grunt from the newt.
"Can you help us then?", Maddie asks the comparably much friendlier toad, "My friends have something urgent to discuss with the commander."
"I'm sorry, but the commander is in an important meeting right now.", the toad lowers his gaze, "B-but I'll tell her you were looking for her. M-may I please ask for your names?"
"I'm Luz Noceda, this is Amity Blight."
"Thank you.
I'll pass that on. Come back in an hour or so.", he replies. Maddie thanks him before the three girls turn around and walk away.
"Anyone up for breakfast while we wait?", Luz asks.
"You mean lunch, right?", Maddie jokes.
"I've only just woken up. So, it's breakfast no matter what time it is.", Luz explains.
"I'm hungry too. Let's go eat something.", Amity agrees, "There's a cafeteria back there."
Unanimously agreeing, the three girls set off in the direction of the cafeteria, which is not far behind Stumpy's. Once they reach the place, they are greeted by a hall in which frogs, newts, and toads are all eating their meals or are simply enjoying their free time together, spread across many tables.
"It's more of a tavern than a cafeteria...", Amity remarks. Luz looks around the room until she suddenly lets out an excited gasp.
"The Plantars are over there!", Luz exclaims. She takes Amity by the hand and drags her towards the table where her frog family is sitting. Sprig and Polly notice Luz immediately and practically jump up from their seats, across the table, and come to a halt in front of her, not wanting to overwhelm her again.
"You're better!", Polly exclaims excitedly. Luz crouches down and embraces the two siblings. "I- um, I mean, Sprig was totally out of his mind when you collapsed in front of us."
"Huh? I collapsed?", Luz asks, her eyes wandering to Amity and Maddie, who both nod slightly. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm feeling better already. But- I'm hungry."
"Then come here and eat dinner with us.", Hop Pop invites her with a smile on his face before his gaze wanders to Maddie and Amity, "You two are welcome too. We've got plenty of room."
Luz definitely doesn't need to be told twice, as she grabs an empty chair from another table, and sits down with the Plantars.
"Thank you.", Amity thanks her before she and Maddie do the same and grab a couple of chairs. "Luz, Maddie. Want me to get you something?"
"Yes, please.", Luz replies.
"I won't say no to that offer.", Maddie also replies and Amity heads to the buffet-style table and puts together a breakfast for her two friends.
Sprig and Polly take their seats again, but before they are properly seated Luz speaks up, her tone serious.
"Guys, I need to ask you something important because I think you're the most likely to tell me the truth.", she starts, all eyes on her, "Where is Anne?"
"Anne?", Hop Pop speaks up in surprise, though this question was not totally unexpected. Sprig and Polly are also taken aback by this question. "She went home. Back to her world."
"O-okay, take a step back, please...", Luz says, not understanding, while Amity comes back to the table with two filled trays and sits down quietly next to Luz. "What exactly do you mean by 'she went home'?"
"Exactly what he said.", Sprig replies though in a sad tone, "It went like this: We all traveled to Newtopia together that day, gave Andrias the charged box, and he opened a portal where Anne and Sasha went through."
"And what was on the other side?", Luz asks critically, earning confused looks from the Plantars, "Okay, let me ask another way: Were you able to verify that the portal actually led to Earth?"
A silence surrounds the table, so loud that Luz can hear the hearts of everyone present pounding in their chests while almost every pair of eyes stares at her, wide-eyed. A feeling of unease spreads among the Plantars.
"W-what are you saying, Luz?", Hop Pop stutters at which Luz sighs.
"I'll take that as a no...", she pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Sprig."
"Y-Yes?"
"Remember how I said, back then, that I suspected Andrias was evil? When I said that he wasn't trustworthy?"
"Yeah, I remember something vaguely.", Sprig tries to sound casual.
"Good. Very good.", Luz responds with a smile that makes the frogs' hair stand on end. Unbeknownst to them, the whole cafeteria has fallen silent, listening attentively to the stern lecture. Luz doesn't speak loudly, she doesn't shout, but everyone present notices every single word is covered in a layer of extreme anger. "Anne also knew about my suspicions, and so did M-... Marcy. And because no one listened to me, we're now in this mess."
The Plantars are covered in guilt and sit with their heads bowed. No one dares to disagree, because they all know that Luz is right, that if they had listened to her, all the inhabitants of the Valley would not have lost so much. But Luz is far from done.
"So, now let's summarize everything that's happened since then... Andrias used the Music Box to get rid of Anne and Sasha. Where they are, and whether they're still alive at all... heh, who knows. I certainly don't. So then at some point he kidnapped Marcy and let something take over her body."
"WHAT?", Maddie and the Plantars exclaim in unison.
"How do you know that?", Maddie asks.
"I'll get to that in a minute.", Luz doesn't answer her question. "So then Andrias decides to raise a huge army of Frobots. And this very army is currently on the Boiling Isles where Andrias, together with Darcy, as the possessed Marcy is now called, is kidnapping and ruthlessly slaughtering the population of the Isles at this very moment."
"Okay Luz, I think that's enough!", Amity grabs Luz's hand, which instantly snaps the half-human out of her angry rant. She loses herself in her eyes for a while, which noticeably lowers her heartbeat, calming her down in general. Luz lowers her gaze and takes a deep breath before she hesitantly raises it again to look at the Plantars, who all appear overwhelmed with guilt. She feels bad, and sorry.
"I- I'm sorry.", Luz apologizes, "It wasn't my intention to rant at you like that. You guys didn't do anything wrong."
"No, Luz.", Hop Pop interjects, "We knew about your warning, and we chose not to act on it. Your reaction is completely appropriate."
"But there was no evidence to support my claims. Not even circumstantial."
"Luz, what exactly are you trying to accomplish here right now?", Hop Pop cuts her off, completely throwing Luz off her game. She tries to find an answer to his question, but her mind has gone completely blank. She just stares blankly at the old frog, who returns her gaze with an unexpected softness in his eyes. "Because, if we're being completely honest, it sounds like you're trying to make your own warning out to be incorrect."
"Wha-? I don't- huh?"
"Hop Pop, I think you broke her.", Sprig speaks up after a longer moment of silence. The older frog just chuckles at that before getting Luz's attention again.
"Listen, Luz. I know you have pretty strong feelings about this, and that's completely understandable. But even if you hadn't warned us back then, events would probably have unfolded in exactly the same way sooner or later. So... what do you think about leaving the past in the past in this case? Well, what do you say?"
"Uh... umm...", Luz stutters as her thoughts visibly struggle to comprehend his suggestion. She widens her eyes in realization as she realizes how pointless her own points were, and lowers her head in shame. "Okay.", she replies quietly.
For the next while, the five of them devote themselves entirely to their breakfast, the mood too down for casual conversation. Almost a half hour passes before Luz has worked up enough courage to speak up again.
"Um, say Hop Pop...", Luz begins, her voice low, "If it's okay to ask, what happened to your leg?"
"Tunnel collapse.", Polly answers for him without missing a beat before turning her attention back to her food.
"... huh?"
Hop Pop releases an exasperated sigh at his granddaughter’s nerves. He stares at her intensely for several seconds before his gaze softens and he turns his attention to Luz.
"It's true. It was at the very beginning when we started to slowly explore this place and fill it with people."
"Um, if I may...", Amity interrupts him, "What had prompted you to bring all the inhabitants underground in the first place? I mean, your timing was more than perfect..."
"It was actually pretty close.", Sprig reports, "On the way back to the Valley, we had seen some of the Frobots flying on their way to Andrias’ palace. What convinced us that he was actually a threat was when we saw him and his troops heading in our direction. Hop Pop then rounded everyone up and evacuated them to our family basement, leaving only a small team of voluntary fighters on the surface."
"I- I think we saw them. Or what was left of them...", Luz admits solemnly.
"I know. And their sacrifices won't be forgotten.", Hop Pop tells her, "We've set aside a whole room to commemorate the fallen. If you like, I can take you both there later...", he offers.
"Only if there's time.", Luz replies.
"Good, to get back to the story. It was pretty cramped down here at first. All the side tunnels for the bedrooms didn't exist at first. So while Andrias launched his attack upstairs, we spread out our perimeter down here in several teams and began digging tunnels. One day there was an earthquake, which destabilized the tunnel in which I, Ben, the former commander, and one of the Toads had been working. The tunnel didn't have any reinforcements and it collapsed over our heads. I was lucky and only lost my leg. Unfortunately, the other two didn't make it."
Luz and Amity look rather distraught at the old frog, who, completely unperturbed, recounts how two people he knew were crushed to death in front of him. In the same accident that cost him his leg.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.", Luz genuinely regrets her question. Actually, she regrets this whole conversation. This is definitely not the kind of 'family'-reunion she had in mind. Admittedly, she feels a little alienated. Sure, the Plantars obviously missed her a lot, but Luz can’t help but feel a bit out of place, and has no idea why.
With a frown on her face, Amity speaks up. "You seem to have coped well with that memory."
A short hollow laugh escapes Hop Pop.
"Oh no, not at all, dear. I don't have time for that.", he says with a disturbing smile on his face. "We're currently fighting for our survival. There will be plenty of time to deal with the trauma afterwards. Isn't that right, Luz?"
"Huh?", she asks, startled, "Wh-what do you mean?"
"Don't act so surprised. Pain has been written all over your face since the day you first arrived here... I naively assumed at the time that it was the Boiling Isles themselves that had you so battered, seeing that place as hell itself. But you've been through a very different kind of hell. Multiple times the way you look like. You- no, both of you have already lost so much. I can see it in your eyes... Can you say you've taken the time to process all this properly?"
"No.", Amity answers immediately and without hesitation. "While I was able to bury him, I...", she shakes her head as if trying to dispel an unwanted thought, "There are still too many people in danger."
"Mhm. My point exactly.", Hop Pop nods with his lips pressed together, "And while I'm definitely not in a position to help the forces directly, I can use my skills as a farmer to help feed all the refugees and aid workers here."
Glad that Hop Pop has changed the subject slightly, Luz speaks up. "And what about you two?", she asks Sprig and Polly directly. Sprig perks up and answers first, as Polly is still eating. He pulls out a slingshot from his back pocket and loads a cherry into it before gesturing the slingshot aiming across the room.
"I'm part of a unit that's taking back Amphibia!", he announces full of pride.
"And I'm training all these wimps in the use of heavy weapons!", Polly reveals with an enormous proud grin on her face.
"Heavy weapons?", Amity asks with doubt in her voice.
"I also work in research and development.", she adds proudly. Luz herself already knew about Polly's affinity for weapons of all kinds, but that doesn't stop her and Amity from looking at the other two frogs present with questioning glances. Only Maddie doesn't seem surprised. Both Hop Pop and Sprig nod at them in confirmation.
"Aren't both of you a bit... young?", Amity wonders.
"Well, I'm the best sniper around.", Sprig brags proudly.
"And I've got Frobo, who I'm studying with a few other people and developing countermeasures.", Polly reports.
"Frobo?", Luz asks.
"A tamed Frobot.", Maddie explains.
"HUH?!", the two girlfriends exclaim in shock. Amity is the first to find her voice again. "You managed to tame a Frobot???"
"As much as I'd like to admit it, no.", Polly replies with a dejected tone, "He just showed up one day and never left my side. Plus, he listens to my orders and my orders only."
"So you're more babysitter than researcher?", Maddie asks skeptically. In response, Polly merely pouts, angrily mumbling something under her breath. Her family and friends all giggle at that, which lifts the general mood enormously.
"Admittedly, you could probably team up with my father. He's currently trying to reverse engineer the technical plans and such using destroyed Frobots. According to him, progress is... slow.", Amity admits after a while.
"Huh... So if you want, I can give you the technical schematics.", Polly offers, "Although, come to think of it, I might as well let you have Frobo. On the condition that I accompany him, of course."
"NO WAY!", Hop Pop is fiercely against Polly's offer, "There's no way you're going into a war zone alone! You're staying right here where it's safe."
"And what about Sprig?", Polly demands to know, "He gets to join a strike force, but I'm not even allowed out of this cave?"
"Sprig is only allowed outside on the condition that he stays out of physical combat and only intervenes from a distance.", Hop Pop explains, "And if it were up to me, even that would be too much."
"No, no.", Amity tries to reassure the agitated frog, "The schematics are more than enough. Thank you very much."
Polly pouts at that while Hop Pop sighs in relief. On that, Luz speaks up.
"Don't get me wrong Hop Pop, I'd love it if you'd come back to the Isles with us... But I totally understand if you say your priority is Amphibia."
Sprig and Polly exchange guilty looks, torn between their desires to save their own home and help their friend. (And maybe seeing Anne again)
They know they are needed here, if only in a limited capacity given their age. But it's a fact that Polly's influence on Frobo has clearly helped the research and counter-defense against the Frobots immensely, even if she doesn't contribute too much herself. Unlike Sprig, who actively participates in field missions. Not as if anyone other than Sprig knows much about it. His missions so far have all been subject to a certain degree of secrecy, which the young frog takes excessively seriously.
For another half hour or so, they all sit and relax in the cafeteria, catching each other up on the latest stories. Luz talks about the resistance movement she joined, which was originally just opposed to Belos and the Coven system, and Maddie and the Plantars talk about how the Frogs defeated the Toads. There's actually no time for any more tales, as a familiar Toad suddenly enters the cafeteria looking for someone.
"LUZ NOCEDA? AMITY BLIGHT? ARE YOU HERE?”, the Toad Guard from earlier calls out, attracting the attention of absolutely everyone. Luz looks over at him and waves.
"OVER HERE!", she calls back.
The guard notices her immediately and approaches her table, forcing his way past several other diners. He salutes as he arrives at the table.
"The Commander now has time for you.", he reports before his gaze wanders briefly to Maddie, "Miss Flour, you are also expected."
"Hm?", the frog looks confused before she merely shrugs her shoulders in acceptance, "Okay."
"Commander.", the toad holds the door open for Luz, Amity, and Maddie to enter, before closing the door behind them and leaving the five of them alone.
Five, one might wonder. Yes, indeed. And both Luz and Maddie stare at the two figures in front of them.
"Master?!", Maddie calls out in surprise.
"Mrs. Croaker??? You're the commander???", Luz exclaims loudly.
The two elders sitting in front of the three girls at a log-shaped table look up at them in amusement. Luz's gaze is fixed on Mrs. Croaker. The half-human remembers her as a nice, but slightly frail-looking elderly frog lady. Now in front of her sits the same frog, only wearing a gray metal breastplate and a slightly rusty-looking helmet on her head. Her eye, which is afflicted with cataracts, is now adorned with a wide but fortunately well-healed scar and one of her hands appears to be missing two fingers. Her whole appearance has changed. She doesn't look old and fragile, but like someone with a lifetime of combat experience.
Maddie greets her master with a slight bow as Mrs. Croaker stands up and approaches Luz, a gentle smile on her face.
"Luz, dear... I'm glad to see you again.", she takes Luz's hand in her own before looking her up and down, "And healthy too... You are, aren't you?"
The frog grabs Luz's face with both hands using unexpected strength and pulls her closer to observe her more in depth.
'Whoa! I knew she cared for me, but for her to be so worried about me...'
"Although, there's something different about you.", Mrs. Croaker suddenly mutters, catching Luz's and Amity's attention, "Are you mutated? ... No, it's not that. But that's not a new head, is it? Can humans grow new heads? ... Luz, were you decapitated recently?"
Luz would like to laugh at this remark and dismiss it as a funny joke if it weren't for the serious look of concern in the frog's eyes.
"N-no.", Luz answers briefly and succinctly. She grabs Mrs. Croaker's hands and takes them away from her face. "I still have the same head, but..."
"But?"
"You could say I've mutated. Or rather, that I've been changed."
"What happened?", the older frog asks. Luz hesitates slightly.
Unknown to the two of them, the fifth individual had her gaze fixed closely on Luz, trying to assess and analyze her.
'That's her? That's not quite what I expected...', she thinks to herself with doubt and dismissiveness. 'Just one way to find out if she's really the one I'm waiting for.'
She grabs her staff with her glove-covered tail and points it directly at Luz, which she initially doesn't notice. A glowing golden beam of light emerges from the tip of the staff, aimed directly at Luz's chest. The half-human jumps back in alarm, while Amity and Maddie also take up fighting positions.
"MASTER!"
"LUZ!"
"Please don't resist!", the newt speaks in a calm voice. Amity creates two spiky Abomination gauntlets, ready to attack the newt. That is, until Luz speaks up.
"Ami, wait!", Amity looks at her in complete surprise, "She's not attacking me."
The witch looks back and forth between her girlfriend and the non-attacking attacker and ultimately decides to trust Luz. Despite her skepticism.
"Wise decision.", the newt says, "Don't worry, I just need to check something."
"Check what?", Amity demands to know in a distrustful and venomous tone.
The golden beam aimed at Luz begins to pulsate moments later, causing the newt's eyes to widen in surprise. Her gaze meets Luz's.
"You can use it, can't you?", the newt asks in a hopeful tone, "His magic."
Luz's gaze lowers and she observes the golden beam of light reaching her chest. She can't put her finger on it, but it feels like an answer is expected of her, that she must do something.
'She said his magic. Does she know about the glyphs? Or about the Titan himself?', Luz asks herself inwardly as an idea occurs to her, 'Maybe it'll work...'
The half-human summons her golden lightning, which instinctively travels to her chest and begins to wrap themselves around the beam of light, heading all the way to the newt's staff. Wide-eyed and more excited than ever before in her long life, she stares fixatedly at the golden lightning approaching her on the same-colored beam. They reach the top of the wooden staff, but do not stop there. At the tip, they begin to wrap themselves tightly around the old wood like a strand of golden silk. Winding down, round and round, slowly towards the Newt's tail, everyone, even Amity, gazes in amazement at the spectacle before them, which none of them even begin to understand.
The lightning wraps about halfway up the staff before the Newt snaps out of her astonishment and fascination and cancels her spell, which also immediately causes Luz's magic to dissipate into thin air.
"What exactly just happened?", Maddie speaks up after a few seconds of silence. Her gaze, however, is completely fixed on her master's ancient staff. "It... looks different." There's a clear visual difference between the part of the staff Luz's magic touched it and the part she didn't. While the lower part appears old, worn, and slightly brittle, the wood on top looks like... healed.
Suddenly, the Newt grabs her staff with her hand, stomping the end against the ground. A blindingly bright light surrounds her. When it disappears again, the four of them no longer see the newt in her dark robe, but completely clothed in white, surrounded by a benevolent aura. She drops to one knee directly in front of Luz with her head bowed.
"Wha-", the half-human stammers in shock. Those around them also observe the situation before them in shock and incomprehension.
"My name is Valeriana, and I have waited nearly a thousand years for your arrival, Chosen Daughter of the Titan.", she gives the others before her a moment to process what just happened, "I am a member of the Order of the Last Titan. Or rather the last member, to be precise. Our task has been, since its founding many thousands of years ago, the study of magic on this world, as well as on many others. We have learned, revived the past, and recovered lost knowledge."
"Other worlds?", Luz asks reluctantly.
"As a matter of fact. And on our many journeys, we encountered one being, the Titan.", Valeriana continues.
"But... hasn't the Titan been dead for millions of years?", Amity interrupts her.
"And does that mean you've visited the Demon Realm?", Luz asks.
"Yes. To both questions.", the Newt replies to Luz's delight and Amity's confusion, "Please let me elaborate."
"Please wait.", Luz interrupts this time, "Maybe we should all sit down for this."
"As you wish.", Valeriana rises and sits down where she was sitting with Mrs. Croaker before. The other three girls join her at the table and Valeriana starts to talk.
"Please wait a second.", Amity speaks up before Valeriana begins to talk and turns to Luz. "I know how much you love backstories, but don't you think we should talk about what we came here for in the first place first?"
Luz thinks for a moment. "Good point, Ami. Do you mind Ms. Valeriana?"
"Please, just Valeriana will do. And I don't mind postponing this.", the newt replies in an almost submissive tone. Something that particularly creeps out Maddie, who has spent all these months learning under her rather strict guidance.
"All right, Luz dear, what can I do for you?", Mrs. Croaker asks in a friendly tone. Luz's expression, on the other hand, is suddenly turning incredibly serious.
"I'll make it quick. King Andrias is currently attacking our world. The previous 'government' has collapsed, infrastructure has been destroyed, he is kidnapping civilians regardless of age or gender, or simply slaughtering them in the streets. The group we belong to has an idea on how to stop him, but we need help to make it work."
"If you're asking for troops or something, the answer is ‘no’.", Mrs. Croaker states sternly.
"Fortunately, that's not what we need. I know you guys have enough problems of your own here in Amphibia."
"Okay, in that case, I'm all ears. What do you need?", the older frog asks, her voice a little softer again now that this issue has been clarified.
"Space, mostly.", Luz says before Amity continues.
"Our plan ultimately calls for a surprise attack on Andrias' palace at a time when he can't deploy his Frobots. And before that happens, we would want to evacuate the rest of the civilian population. To here.", she explains. Mrs. Croaker doesn't seem entirely averse to her plan. "It- It would only be for a few days at most, too. We anticipate enormous collateral damage."
"How many refugees are we talking about here?"
That's the question Luz and Amity were most afraid of, and what could cause all this to fall through.
"Um...", Luz hesitates, swallowing nervously, "A couple thousand..."
"Huh."
A single word. This is Mrs. Croaker's answer to Luz and Amity's request, standing for neither acceptance nor rejection.
The older frog remains silent, looking at the group with an unrecognizable expression on her face. Luz in particular has no idea what's going on in her head, what she's thinking, and whether or not she's willing to help them. And to be honest, the half-titan is starting to panic.
Maddie, noticing this, speaks up. "Mrs. Croaker?"
The frog addressed looks up and peers into Luz's eyes with a slight smirk on her face.
"That might just work."
"Huh? What exactly?"
Without answering directly, Mrs. Croaker gets up from her seat and opens a chest of drawers against the wall, on the top drawer of which are countless rolled-up rolls of paper. She seems to be looking for something in particular, judging by her audible mumbling.
"Let's see, where is that thing? ... Nah, this is from last week. This is of Wartwood. That's from Loggle... There!"
Mrs. Croaker grabs a roll of paper and closes the drawer. She returns to the table where she purposefully grabs another roll and lays them out in front of the others, both next to each other. The first paper roll, which was already on the table, shows an out-of-date map of Frog Valley with several red crosses drawn all over the valley. The second roll shows a series of lines starting from a small circle. Mrs. Croaker speaks up.
"Look, since we've settled down here, we've also started mapping out everything while expanding this place.", she overlays the two maps, "The parts in black here around Wartwood are part of the original cave system. The few adjacent lines in blue represent the tunnels we dug ourselves. And do you see this one yellow line bordering the blue one heading all the way north? This is where we discovered an existing artificial tunnel system. This one tunnel in particular extends northwards outside the valley."
Valeriana raises an intrigued eyebrow at the mention of the tunnel. She briefly looks as if she wants to comment on it, but for some reason decides to keep quiet for now. Mrs. Croaker continues.
"We can't say how far the network extends. It stretches for quite a few kilometers to some of Andrias' production facilities. We use some of the tunnels for our operations, and I'm sure the facility will be perfect for your purposes."
"Really?", Luz and Amity both ask excitedly.
"I have a few conditions, of course.", Mrs. Croaker puts a damper on the two girls' joy. Fortunately, they quickly regain their composure.
"Of course.", Luz says in a very diplomatic tone, "Please tell us your conditions."
"You claim you can defeat Andrias and his troops. Those are some big words... My condition is this: convince me that you really can actually pull it off. That the people you send here won't suddenly stay here forever just 'cause you two promised too much."
Luz and Amity look at each other for a moment. "That's... fair. Ami?"
"During the time since after arriving on the Isles, we've already managed to destroy many of his forces. And as far as we've been able to observe, not once have reinforcements been called in.", Amity reports, "We suspect that Andrias is no longer able to open portals."
"Elaborate!", Valeriana suddenly speaks up, her tone stern.
"When they arrived in Amphibia, Emperor Belos had met with the enemy. In exchange for a promise not to interfere in the invasion, they gave him one of the gems to 'borrow'."
Valeriana lets out a deep, deeply annoyed grumble at that piece of news, leaving the others slightly confused, but no one questions it for now.
"Another enemy?", Mrs. Croaker asks, "An ally of Andrias?"
"No. The exchange was due to pressure from Belos.", Amity reports, "He had used his magic to take control of the palace."
Valeriana again growls at that.
"And you're sure they're not working together?", Maddie asks Luz directly, "From what you said about that Belos guy back then, he's at least as evil as Andrias."
"Andrias' and Belos' goals are both evil, but they don't share the same ones.", Luz clarifies, "Granted, we don't know Belos’ current goal. He has actually completely disappeared from the surface of the world since the start of the invasion. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but at least it allows us to focus on one problem at a time."
"I think we're getting a little off topic here.", Mrs. Croaker speaks up, "I asked you to convince me that you can defeat Andrias and his army. So far, I've only heard about circumstances."
"There's not much point in revealing our exact plan...", Luz pauses to think, "What about a practical demonstration? I know you're targeting Andrias' production facilities."
"Do you want to join a task force?", Mrs. Croaker asks.
"More or less.", Luz replies, "I don't think our words alone will convince you, so I hope a practical demonstration will persuade you to accept our proposal..."
"What do you propose?"
"I'm sure you have a few particularly well-secured targets that you haven't been able to attack yet. Give me one or two of those and Amity and I will take them out.", Luz suggests full of confidence.
"Just the two of you?", Mrs. Croaker asks with a raised eyebrow, "I wouldn't mind giving you a few people to assist."
"Observers maybe?", Amity suggests, "I'm confident we can manage that alone."
At that, Valeriana speaks up, "I'd be happy to take on that role, if I'm allowed."
"You're not under my command. So you can do what you want. I'll have one of my people accompany you, though.", Mrs. Croaker insists.
"I don't mind."
30 minutes of planning and explanations later...
Immediately after the conclusion of the planning phase, all of them left Mrs. Croaker's office and made their way to one of the most remote parts of the underground base.
"Is this... concrete?", Luz wonders aloud. The gray, smooth walls were very different from the dark brown soil that the frogs had dug themselves through by hand.
"We just call it graystone.", Mrs. Croaker shrugs her shoulders. "It should take you about eight to ten hours to meet your contact. It's going to be a long walk."
"Who said we were walking?", Amity asks, smirking, before taking out her staff and hovering it over the ground in a flying position. Luz follows suit. Mrs. Croaker blinks silently at the two girls several times.
"I don't even know why this surprises me anymore.", she slightly shakes her head.
"Valeriana, can you fly?", Luz asks the older Newt.
"I cannot."
"Then you'll fly with me. Ami, can you take Maddie with you?"
"Sure.", Amity replies casually.
With that, Maddie jumps on Ghost up behind Amity and Valeriana sits sideways behind Luz on Owlbert. But before they fly off, Mrs. Croaker has a few parting words for them.
"Luz, I know you're powerful, but I still want you to be careful. All of you. Our best teams have not been able to capture this facility."
A small smile appears on Luz's face. "Thank you, I appreciate your concern. But the outcome is worth the risk. That's all that matters."
"Still... Take care of yourself."
"I will."
With a powerful blast of air, the two staffs shoot forward into the tunnel.
"What an acceleration...", Valeriana marvels at the staffs' abilities.
"Yeah, right?", Luz grins.
"Now that we have some time amongst ourselves, would you mind continuing our earlier conversation?"
"Right, you wanted to talk about your order, right?”, Amity speaks up, who is flying parallel to Luz. Valeriana nods in confirmation.
"Go ahead.", Luz gives her decisive okay.
The tale of our Order begins long before its actual founding. The founding members originally began as part of King Werara's research and exploration division. This was even before the founding of the first Amphibian Empire. Amphibia was already quite technologically advanced back then, if only relatively compared to the technological golden age of the Empire. The king at the time was a tyrant, completely megalomaniacal. Said the continent wasn't big enough for him. He wanted to rule the whole world. He ordered the research and exploration division to map the whole world so that he could further expand his power. The cartographers came back with nothing but maps of oceans. The king was furious as he learned that Amphibia was the only continent, had several of the cartographers executed on the spot and declared that the planet was no longer big enough for him. This gave rise to the space program. It took a couple of decades, but after a while the researchers managed to set up a scientific research station on the moon. But the king wanted more and traditional space travel was too slow and too expensive by his reckoning. He wanted to conquer new worlds faster. So the space program was scrapped, with the exception of supply flights to and from the moon. Researchers all over the world were instructed to develop a new method of extraplanetary transportation. The solution they came up with after years and years of research was called precision teleportation or something like that. The technology itself, as well as the knowledge of how it worked, was lost over the millennia since then. All the knowledge remains is the fact that the machine required vast amounts of energy and the moon was converted into a gigantic generator that was sent back to the planet's surface to power it. As you may have noticed, I haven't mentioned the Music Box at all so far. This is because the society of the time did not know magic as we know it today.
For the first test after its completion, the mad king gathered a fully armed army at the test site. The researchers successfully opened the portal, which was actually stable. The only problem was that no one knew exactly where the portal was connected to. A gas was flowing out of the portal which quickly proved to be deadly. It settled on the ground, surrounding all the soldiers and most of the researchers, and began to decompose each of them alive from the feet up. None of the soldiers and explorers stationed at the site survived. The king, however, was not deterred by this catastrophe and gathered a new army. For the second and each subsequent attempt, the king sent a team of specially protected explorers ahead to assess the target location before the king took the world. For decades, the king expanded his empire unhindered, planet after planet, some uninhabited, some inhabited. He didn't care, according to him everything belonged to him. He encountered primitive civilizations, which he subjugated or destroyed, but also advanced ones, which he immediately declared war on.
The first war he did not win immediately was against an advanced race called the Helenians. The Helenians were not only more technologically advanced, they were also able to detect planets under the control of King Werara, despite the distance between his worlds. It was a brutal war, and very one-sided. Day by day, the king lost contact with planets under his control and grew increasingly aggressive and panicked. In the end, it turned out that the teleport network itself was the weak point. In a desperate decision, the king cut the teleport connection from Amphibia to all his other worlds and ordered the researchers and explorers to find a way to defend themselves against this superior force, as it would only be a matter of time before the enemy found Amphibia itself. From that point, the king sent out explorers, not with the intention of taking over new worlds, but to gather new knowledge.
A few months later, King Werara was assassinated by his son, Prince Ardel, who was upset by what he must have called his 'cowardly retreat'. So while the explorers were still traveling in the vastness of space, the new King Ardel had assembled new armies and restored the teleport connections to the outer worlds.
What the new king did not know, however, was that the explorers his father had sent out had already found something.
Far away on a storm-stricken planet, a group of explorers had been stranded in a cave by a flood after following an unidentified signal. According to their estimates, the group was still half a continent away from their unknown destination. But with nothing better to do than wait for the storm to subside, some of the explorers had banded together and decided to explore the cave while the rest guarded their equipment.
The geologists among them had a field day analyzing all the rocks and mapping all the veins. At an apparent dead end, the equipment suddenly began to glitch out. The previously displayed coordinates were no longer correct and changed multiple times every second. It was either a nearby ore that was interfering with the devices, or an anomaly of a different kind. One of the geologists felt over the stone surface when he suddenly disappeared into that very wall. The other explorers quickly realized that it was some kind of portal, disguised as a simple rock wall, and hurried after it. On the other side they found a chamber of immeasurable size, full of huge, brightly colored crystals on all surfaces. The geologists went completely mad. The group called in the rest and they all spent nearly two months trying to figure out why these crystals were eluding their measuring devices. They were able to determine that part of the crystals were simply crystallized local earths, but the other part was a complete mystery to Amphibia's brightest minds. And they knew that this other part was imbued with an incredibly powerful energy that could not be measured with their machines. They knew they had found something, but didn't know what to do with it. They returned to Amphibia with some samples to work in secret on possible applications. The former King Werara was informed of the excursion shortly before his death. His successor and all subsequent kings were kept in the dark out of mistrust. Even Andrias only knew the "legend" of "the Source".
While the researchers worked, the explorers again traveled from world to world until they landed on a planet full of gigantic corpses. At least two of you can guess which world it was. This world was simply called the 'Giant Graveyard' back then. At first glance, the planet appeared to be fairly unremarkable, but one particular corpse stood out. It was in the form of intelligent life that had emerged from its rotting remains: taller than the average Newt, different skin and hair colors, pointed ears, and with the seemingly innate ability to transform the world around it with apparent force of will. Aka, magic, as it would be called today. A concept completely alien to the researchers of the time. The witches back then all lived in small communities of a few hundred people, similar to those here in Frog Valley. In terms of magical abilities, witches back then only knew spells like basic temperature manipulation, basic earth manipulation, and basic light manipulation. Thanks to the support of the witches of the time, the researchers were led to a cave in one of the knees of the deceased Titan, in which there was a lake, filled with a purple substance. The native witches called this substance 'Titan's Blood'. They imagined this gigantic corpse to be responsible for their existence as the all-powerful Titan, whom they worshipped and adored as their deity and protector. Even from a distance, the explorers' devices measured an energy signature uncannily similar to that of the crystals they had previously found on other worlds. When they asked their native leaders to take a sample, they fiercely refused, arguing that Titan's Blood is sacred and must not be desecrated under any circumstances. Wanting to respect their decision, the team accepted it, and prepared to leave this cave. Not even half a minute after they set off again, one of their guides suddenly stopped in their tracks, their eyes glowing gold. The explorers were quite nervous, but the locals looked at the witch in awe.
When the witch regained consciousness, they told the explorers that they could take samples. When asked what had caused this sudden change of heart, the other witches explained that it was the Titan himself who had spoken to them. Most of the researchers did not question what they were told and immediately rushed off to get the samples. The name of the researcher who did not immediately run along was Erwin Scen. Not long after, he became one of the first three founding members of the Order.
Back in Amphibia, all the researchers worked on the newly found materials. Scen, however, did not. He did not research possible applications. Instead, he was the one who would later find out that those colorful crystals consisted partly of Titan's Blood. The number of worlds where crystals were found at that time already amounted to six. And Scen was sure that there would be some in Amphibia as well. He put together a plan to sneak out of the facility at a particularly busy time with his exploration equipment and search Amphibia for those very same powerful crystals. Not to gain their power for himself, but to explore them. What is the Titan? What makes it so powerful? How did this Titan's Blood spread to so many worlds? Is the Titan really dead? And what killed him?
With his unauthorized departure from his post having officially betrayed the king, Scen set off. After a few weeks of operating under the radar following his betrayal, he found himself in northern Frog Valley, in a government building belonging to the Governor of the Valley. Scen located a portal inside the building that led to a cave that looked identical to the other caves, equally filled with colorful crystals covering every surface. Inside, he encountered said governor, who had set up a small office in the center of the cave on a small island, amidst all the crystals around him, along with a giant floating crystal directly above his desk. When asked if he knew what this place was, he replied something stupid that was not important enough to be written down for history. Scen asked to have a closer look at the crystals.
Scen stepped closer to the floating crystal, something that had never been seen in any other of the caves before. He touched the crystal and upon contact found himself surrounded by complete emptiness, the ground a liquid but not feeling wet. In short, Scen reported that a disembodied voice had introduced itself as a part of the Titan that had been cast out into many different worlds upon his death. He himself was only a disembodied existence, bound to Amphibia as every other part was bound to its respective planet. According to Scen, the two of them had been talking for several hours, and the researcher began to understand the witches of the Demon Realm as well as their view of him as a god, a deity. The Titan revealed the basics of the concepts of magic to the researcher, but made one non-negotiable condition: He wished for his magic to be used peacefully by all, however Scen was to do everything in his power to ensure that the Titan's magic did not fall into evil hands, aka. those of the new king. At least no more than has already happened. What Scen didn't know at the time was that someone had found a practical use for some of the gems he had brought with him, in the form of an energy source.
Scen hurried back to the capital as quickly as he could to see what his colleagues had created. He discovered a small box with three small Gems built into it, one red-pinkish, one pale green, and one pale blue. The Music Box that Andrias now has in his possession, in case you haven't realized it, built by a young, ambitious newt who has just been accepted as a researcher in King Ardel's research facility. Me.
Scen had a long chat with me and a few others, told us about his meeting with the Titan, and used one of the gems to perform real magic that the Titan had taught him. He showed us all this to get us to give up our research and destroy everything but the Music Box. Some of those present, despite what they saw, declared Scen mad and turned their backs on him. But not those who had seen the caves on the other planets with their own eyes. Those who were left believed him and even agreed with him. King Ardel was extremely unpopular and none of us wanted to make him even more powerful with unlimited access to magic. At the same time, no one wanted the enemy to completely destroy Amphibia if they found our world. So we made a deal: They would give King Ardel the Music Box so he could stop the Helenians from destroying our world, and in turn destroy every bit of official knowledge and research. Anything that could help build a second Music Box or even more powerful weapons. From that moment on, we called ourselves the 'Order of the Titan'. In secret, we continued to research the concept of magic and how it could be spread to the general population in accordance with the Titan's wishes.
For millennia we worked on exactly that. The power of the Music Box began to be used for civilian purposes after the end of the war, and more and more people in the civilian population began to learn magic. And finally, to prevent more of the wrong people from learning about the Titan, we had to do some ugly things: We destroyed all the devices that could detect the Titan's power, erased the coordinates of all the planets with crystal caves, destroyed the Governor’s house of Frog Valley, and erased the memories of many dozen people who weren't part of the Order.
Over time, we learned more about Titan's magic and began to value his words above all else. Even we, who didn't believe in spiritualism at first, fell one by one. We learned and passed on our knowledge to the people, while making sure that the powerful would learn nothing about it. For control and surveillance, we built hidden facilities all over the continent. In fact, we are currently in one of them. I can tell you more about that as soon as we reach our destination.
Then, about a thousand years ago, during the reign of King Aldrich shortly before his demise, the music box was stolen. According to stories, the perpetrator was a friend of Prince Andrias. Alarms went off all over our facilities, and as the only member on the planet, I went in search of her. It was a young frog. For about a week, they suddenly appeared to have vanished from the planet. One day I noticed her reappearance somewhere in Frog Valley. I sought her out that same day, and after some reassurance and explaining that I wasn't sent by anyone Newtopia, she proceeded to tell me that she received a vision from the music box about the destruction of Amphibia and hid it in another world where no one can reach and misuse it. Admittedly, I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, the vision may have been a warning from the Titan himself, but on the other, the frog's hasty actions meant that all the other members of my order were now stranded on other planets where they were researching new forms of magic. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I might have acted in exactly the same way if I had had to make her decision. I let her go and she built her own life, far away from the capital. And as the last member of my order in Amphibia, it was up to me to preserve our knowledge and teach magic to those who were deemed worthy.
And the rest is history.
"I'm sure you have many questions.", Valeriana speaks up after a very long moment of complete silence.
"That was... a lot.", Maddie comments quietly, "Not sure I caught everything."
Amity is the first to actually address Valeriana's question directly. "I think I speak for all of us when I ask: How fucking old are you?"
"Rude!", the old newt exclaims at Amity's unnecessary swearing, "But to be honest, I stopped counting after two hundred years."
"Do all newts get that old?", Luz asks curiously.
"No.", Valeriana answers without hesitation, "There are different ways to achieve a long life or even immortality. For example, my existence is linked to a special object. As long as it exists, I stay alive."
"Sooo cooool.", Luz is amazed, but unfortunately has to concentrate on flying, "Earlier, you said that Amphibia had teleport technology before the music box. Wouldn't that have made it possible to bring back the other members of your order?"
"I actually had the very same idea. But it was a fact that over time since the box was first used, every technology became dependent on the box itself as a source of energy. Over time, all other forms of power generation became obsolete, and so did the old technologies that relied on it. Within the Order, some of the techniques used are still documented, but nowhere in Amphibia are there ways to power teleporters."
"Yes, that makes sense..."
"Master, if I may also ask a question-"
"How many times do I have to remind you that you no longer have to call me 'Master'?", Valeriana exclaims, suddenly slightly annoyed.
"With all due respect, but calling you anything other than 'Master' just feels... wrong.", Maddie replies.
"Fine then.", Valeriana relents, "What do you want to know?"
"How did you know about Luz?", Maddie asks, which also earns her a curious glance from Luz, "I mean, you never spoke of her, and when you declared my training complete, suddenly nothing was more important than traveling to Wartwood."
"I'd be interested to know as well.", Luz adds, "You seemed to know about my connection to Titan before we met."
Valeriana sighs. "I'm afraid it's not easy to explain... I told you earlier that I am the creator of the music box. During the experimentation phase, there was an... incident, the details of which are not important. Since then, however, I have been able to sense every use of magic in relation to the music box. So when you and your girlfriend over there arrived in Amphibia, I knew immediately."
"You also had mumbled something about a request, Master."
"That's correct. It's about something that happened a couple hundred years ago. I received a telepathic communication from the Titan, but not from the fragment that is here in Amphibia. He sounded like he was under tremendous strain and pain. He only spoke two words before the connection was abruptly cut off: 'Help her'. And I just recently realized that he was talking about you."
"Okay, let me recap. The Titan told you 'Help her' many hundreds of years ago, and earlier today you pointed a beam of light at me, and that's enough to declare me the 'Chosen Daughter of the Titan' in your opinion?", Luz summarizes questioningly.
"Yes.", Valeriana declares plainly, a look of 'obviously' in her eyes.
"It does make sense if you think about it.", Maddie chimes in.
"True.", Amity says as well, "I mean, he literally chose you."
"Yeah, but daughter? I mean, I already have parents- ... Well, my mom...", Luz cuts herself off and contemplates her family situation for a moment with a frown on her face, "If I'm really supposed to see the Titan as a parent, then I'm really worried about my mom..."
"Why is that?"
"Well, my dad died when I was eight, the Titan has been dead for millions of years, Eda is... you know..."
"I know.", Amity says sympathetically.
"My point is that I don't want any more dead family members. Biologically related or not.", Luz states, her heart heavy, though she quickly buries it deep down within herself again.
"Speaking about that-", Maddie speaks up, but not loud enough for anyone to hear her. Instead, Luz continues.
"So... 'Daughter of the Titan'. Not sure if I like that, but I have to ask: What exactly does that even mean? Like, for me?", Luz asks. Valeriana sighs in rising frustration.
"It means that I will help you, no matter what you need.", she declares.
"Even if that means you actively fighting in a war on another world?", Amity asks with a critical tone.
"Indeed. If that's what she wants."
"Does that mean I have an actual follower now?", Luz wonders, slightly disturbed. 'Followers on social media are one thing, but in real life? I'm not running a cult...'
Luz grumbles softly at that.
"Not just one, Luz.", Amity speaks up teasingly.
"You're my girlfriend. That doesn't count... Doesn't matter now. I think I can already see the end of the tunnel up ahead.", Luz changes the unsettling subject.
"Smooth...", Maddie mumbles sarcastically as she rolls her eyes.
Nevertheless, Luz has told the truth as the four of them quickly reach the end of the tunnel. They come to a halt in front of a thick-looking steel door, in a massive hole has been hacked through it, based on the broken pickaxes lying around the opening. One by one, they climb through the hole and enter a huge room that brings a sense of recognition to both Luz and Maddie.
A huge room, so tall that it is impossible to see the actual ceiling. On the walls, on stone pillars that stretch up into the darkness, there are now several brightly burning torch stands scattered around, illuminating parts of the room. Between some of the pillars are several more doors, which have also been opened with brute force. In the middle of the room, three chairs of different sizes stand in front of a makeshift-looking table on which many different papers are scattered. Luz's gaze shifts to her left, where she suspects an oversized door and several huge black rectangles directly above it. Unfortunately, the light from the torches doesn't reach high enough for her to confirm it, so Luz gathers some magic and casts a series of light orbs towards the wall, revealing exactly what Luz had previously suspected.
"Marvelous.", Valeriana mutters under her breath.
"Maddie?", Luz speaks up.
"You recognize the room too, don't you?", the addressed frog replies. Luz hums affirmatively.
"You've been here before?", Valeriana asks curiously. The two girls nod. Luz explains.
"On our - well, my first flight to Newtopia, we came across this room by chance. But we didn't stay long.", Luz remembers, "We also had no idea what this room was for at the time."
"It was one of our surveillance rooms, this one specially designed for the valley.", Valeriana explains, "There's another one not far from here for the surrounding areas. But without the power of the Music Box, of course, nothing works anymore. Although..."
Without a warning, Valeriana grabs Luz's wrist who releases a startles yelp, and drags her to one of the three chairs, where she presses her hand on the stone armrest. "Try channeling your magic into the stone."
Luz does as she is told, and after a few seconds of nothing happening, something starts to glow brightly on the stone. This something flows along the edge and the outside of the chair into the ground like water flowing through a ditch. Hissing and droning noises sound from an unidentifiable direction, indicating that something is about to happen. For several seconds, nothing happens, until suddenly the ceiling of the room is illuminated by immensely bright lights, which suddenly blind most of the members of the group. Luz instinctively pulls her arm back to cover her eyes as the light switches off again shortly afterwards.
"HEY!", someone suddenly shouts from the direction of one of the other doors, from which a smaller-than-Maddie-sized frog emerges, "WHO TURNED ON THE LIGHT?"
"Toadie?", Maddie is the first to react to the small, light green frog with the dark gray chest plate on his upper body and a clipboard in his hand, stomping angrily towards them with small steps.
"WE'RE DOING OUR BEST DOWN HERE TO AVOID DETECTION, AND YOU'RE TURNING ON LIGHTS THAT MIGHT ATTRACT FROBOTS LIKE FIREFLIES!!!"
While Toadie continues to rant, Luz kneels down to Maddie. "Wasn't he the frog that used to follow the mayor everywhere?", she asks in a whisper.
"Yeah, but after Toadstool got arrested and he wasn't allowed to go with him, Toadie went a bit crazy and started getting on everyone's nerves. Not sure what happened after I left, but he seems to have been dumped here... Or he's here to organizing or oversee stuff. He's good at that.", Maddie whispers back.
"Oke, thanks, I see."
"AND HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT?", Toadie asks after his long, detailed rant, which Maddie and Luz pretty much ignored.
"Master Luz is the one who achieved it.", Valeriana blurts out without a second thought.
"WHAT??? Master?", Luz freaks out, "Where did that suddenly come from?"
"As the chosen daughter of Titan, it is my duty to serve you. That makes you my master, as well of every other member of the order if they were around.", Valeriana explains, "Or do you prefer a different title?"
"Just Luz. That's good enough.", Luz answers swiftly, hoping that it really is enough.
"I'm afraid that's not good enough for a being with your power.", Valeriana says, at which Luz just groans in response.
"Hey!", an impatient Toadie speaks up again, snapping his fingers in front of the two arguing. In response, all eyes are on him now. "Thank you. So, who are you? I recognize Ms. Flour over there, but not the rest of you."
Luz tilts her head in confusion, remembering well that she definitely met him- or at least the mayor at the time. 'I mean, back then I was standing on a stage in front of the whole of Wartwood. Surely he was there too... Or have I changed too much since then?', she wonders inwardly, 'I mean, I'm wearing a ponytail now, but is that enough to make him forget me?' Ultimately, Luz shakes her head to get this thought out of her head and explains the situation instead.
"Commander Croaker sent us. We're to take care of the boulder.", she explains.
"Just you four?", Toadie asks incredulously, "Do you have a death wish?"
"Actually, it's just the two of us.", Amity clarifies, pointing to herself and Luz, "The two of them are just observers."
"You're crazy...", Toadie shakes his head, "You two are human, aren't you?"
"Something like that.", Luz replies vaguely.
"Well... you're no Anne, but if you're anywhere near as good as her, then...", Toadie takes a long breath, "Follow me!"
Toadie leads the group through the same door through which he himself has just stormed in minutes earlier. For several minutes, the five of them walk through a series of corridors before arriving in another huge room with another unnecessarily high ceiling. This room, however, is full of various items of equipment, tents, and there is even a cooking area.
"It's so quiet. Is there no one here but you?", Amity wonders aloud.
"The scouts are outside right now to check out the current Frobots' patrol routes.", Toadie explains.
"And what are you doing here? As in, what's your job here?", Luz asks.
"I write reports for the Commander, and take care of the strike teams that come through here. Like you bunch.", he explains as the group arrives in front of a small, segregated area full of weapons and gear. "So, what can I give you suicidal bunch for your final equipment?"
Luz and Amity look at each other briefly, "Oh, we don't need anything."
The four of them can clearly see little Toadie's blood pressure visibly rising on his face, as well as him pressing his fingers very, very tightly into his clipboard. "Um, what?", he asks, having to take a double-take at what he just heard, "Could you repeat that, please? Because to me sounded like you said you wanted to tackle the boulder without any equipment."
"We have our staffs, and we probably don't even need them.", Luz comments as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which only makes Toadie's frustration and disbelief skyrocket even further.
"Fine!", he exclaims sharply, "Then you probably don't need a description of the location or the terrain either, do you?"
"Oh yes, that would actually be quite nice.", Luz says with a smile so innocent that it almost infuriates poor Toadie even further. Nevertheless, he tries his best to keep his nerves. He lets his mind wander, back to the time when he still had Mayor Toadstool to be around every single day, long before everything went down the drain for him. He sighs before leading the group to a nearby table, pulling out a rolled-up map, and unrolling it for all of them to see.
"So, listen up: The Boulder is one of the largest facilities for the production of more specialized Frobots. Talking about Bombers, talking about Tank-Bots, talking about Fire Frobots, and so on and so forth. As you can see here, most of the facility is located inside one of the outermost mountains that form the edge of the valley. At least twenty Frobots patrol the ground and air at any given time. The biggest problem, however, is that the facility has only one way in, which is also specially secured. There are no controls accessible from the outside or anything like that, which allows for attacks from the outside. As a result, we have no idea what the facility looks like on the inside and where one could cause the most damage. So you would be going in blind. I'm telling you, it's a suicide mission. Are you sure you won't change your minds?", he asks, genuinely hoping they'd heed his warnings. But a shake of Luz's head immediately shatters it again.
"We're going through with it. The fate of far too many people depends on it.”, Luz exclaims confidently, "I mean, all this stone might scramble things a bit, but I'm still confident that the facility will go offline today."
"You already have an idea, Luz?", Amity asks.
"I kinda want to leave it a surprise, but...", Luz pauses for a moment, "The Conformatorium."
"Ooooouuuuuuuhhhh.", Amity exclaims in understanding and excitement. Maddie, Valeriana, and Toadie look at each other in confusion. "Don't worry. You're gonna love it."
Thirty minutes later, the group finds itself behind a dirt cliff on the surface with the guarded facility in sight. It was Toadie who had reluctantly shown them the way after Luz practically grabbed him and dragged him along with the group. Amity and Maddie found his desperate attempts to free himself from her grip quite amusing, and even more so when he finally accepted his situation and got carried under Luz's arm like a pitiful sandbag.
"Maddie, did you bring the seed I asked you for earlier?", Luz asks. Maddie rummages around in her bag for a moment before pulling out a seed almost the size of her fist.
"Perfect.", Luz exclaims quietly yet with excitement, "You know, last time I did it without seed, but hopefully I'll have an easier time getting through the rock with one."
"Nothing you say makes any sense.", Toadie complains, before Luz sets the little frog down on the ground next to her and takes the seed from Maddie.
"Maybe.", Luz admits, "Keep your eyes on the base and you'll see what I'm talking about."
With that out of the way, Luz positions herself directly against the cliff and presses the seed into the earth, leaving her hands resting loosely on the surface. She closes her eyes and begins to feel her magic building inside her, shooting out of every single pore and winding its way down her arms into the ground and connecting with the seed. The growth acceleration spell, a variation on the basic plant glyph, requires two things like most complex spells do: Imagination and good concentration skills.
The seed sprouts, and it is up to Luz to control the direction in which it grows. For evolutionary reasons, the sprout immediately wants to grow upwards, where it can photosynthesize and absorb nutrients. With her magic, however, she forces it to grow in a different direction. The sapling breaks open and begins to grow rapidly away from Luz. The material, which grows faster and faster, solidifies in record time as it races through the loose soil. The soil itself becomes denser and harder, and the sprout makes slower progress. Instead, it grows wider with several offshoots, which also all try to push forward at the same time. The pressure increases with every second, eventually rising so much that the rock ruptures, which immediately triggers a chain reaction. The plant forces its way through, spreads the fissure and causes the ground in the entire area to shake slightly, which definitely does not escape anyone's notice.
When the plant suddenly bursts out of the rock into a space filled with air, complete chaos breaks out. Free from the pressure of the rock, the wood spreads rapidly in all directions, either destroying or absorbing everything in its path, every metal, every mineral, every possibly unnatural liquid. The main trunk is already five meters thick and continues to grow. Branches grow, trying to force their way through the rock surrounding the room, while the main trunk continues to expand both in diameter and height. Five meters wide, six meters wide, ten meters wide, and the treetop has already pierced seven floors and counting.
From what the five observers on the outside can tell, less than two minutes have passed since Luz began casting her spell before all of them can feel the ground shake beneath their feet. At the same time, Luz ends her spell, whereupon the three Amphibian natives look at the half-human with looks ranging from fear, to curiosity, to awe.
"I think that's good enough.", Luz exclaims quietly while wiping her hands on her pants.
"What- what exactly just happened?", Toadie asks, slightly anxious. In his eyes, this previously seemingly nothing but arrogant person has just caused the ground to shake.
"Just watch. It's not done yet.", is all Luz says to him before she moves to stand next to Amity where they intertwine their hands as they watch the upcoming destruction from the safety of their hiding place. With her head resting on Luz's shoulder, they watch as increasingly large chunks break out of the mountain and fall down the side of the mountain on all sides, even catching a few of the patrolling Frobots who have no idea what's happening in the first place.
There are explosions from inside the facility and more and more boulders begin to crumble downwards as suddenly the top of the small mountain explodes and a giant tree shoots out on top of it, rocketing high into the sky.
"Well, that should be it now. That should have destroyed the facility quite permanently.”, Luz says after a moment of silence while the others all continue to stare at the giant tree in front of them, "Although, the whole thing took a little longer than I had hoped... Must have been because of the rock. Anyway, you wanna head back?"
"H-how did you do that?", Maddie asks, ignoring her question, on the one hand completely astonished, but also slightly intimidated. 'That's at least level eight magic, if not ten or eleven'
"Wrong.", Valeriana states, causing Maddie to jump in shock. The others are left looking confused, "What you saw is just a simple level two growth spell, but amplified to the extreme with Master's magic capacity. As a result, it can no longer be defined using the traditional number system."
"Did you just read my mind?!", Maddie reproaches her former master, who merely clicks her tongue dismissively and shakes her head.
"You're just as easy to read as an open book.", she explains.
"Creepy.", Luz whispers to no one in particular, "Anyway, should we head back now?"
"Yes, please.", Maddie replies, flushed with embarrassment.
"Toadie?", Luz asks the little frog, who seems to be actively trying to avoid Luz's gaze. He nods sheepishly. 'That must have been pretty intimidating for him...', Luz surmises inwardly as she prepares her teleport spell, freaking out those who aren't familiar with it.
No more than a few seconds pass before the group of five find themselves back in Wartwood accompanied by a blinding light, more precisely they find themselves directly in front of the ruined Plantar house with an unimpressed Chuck standing guard outside the front door.
"You know teleportation spells too?", Maddie asks in amazement.
"Sure. How do you think I got back to Amphibia?", Luz asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Right...", Maddie admits sheepishly, "You'll have to show me everything you can do now sometime later."
"Heh, will do.", Luz promises her, "Come on, let's head inside."
Chuck unlocks the door and the group steps inside. Luz holds the door open for everyone, but keeps a close eye on Toadie, who continues to keep his head facing the ground. Amity has already pressed the mechanism to open the secret fireplace tunnel entrance when Toadie suddenly speaks up in a tiny voice.
"Um, Miss Luz? Could we have a little chat please? In private...", he requests.
"Um, sure.", Luz replies before turning to the others, "Go ahead to Mrs. Croaker. I'll be right behind you."
Half a minute later, with the others gone and the entrance closed again, Luz and Toadie are now standing among themselves in what used to be the Plantar family living room. Luz doesn't have to ask why Toadie wants to speak to her alone, as he immediately begins to explain himself.
"Miss Luz, I would like to apologize profusely.", the little frog still cannot take his eyes off the floor, "I treated you with utter disrespect, which was completely inappropriate, even given my ignorance of your abilities. Under Mayor- er, former Mayor Toadstool, this would never have happened and he would certainly have punished me severely for this sheer disrespect towards a guest... There is no excuse for my behavior earlier. All I can do is ask for forgiveness and offer to make amends."
Luz blinks several times to herself before dropping to one knee and looking at Toadie with a sympathetic smile. "I forgive you. No conditions."
At that, Toadie lifts his head and stares at Luz in complete surprise. "What, really?"
"Imma be honest, I was more offended when you didn't remember me from my first time in Amphibia whatsoever.", Toadie's expression shows utter confusion at Luz's words, "I was there when Sasha killed Hop Pop. I was the one who brought him back."
"Really? You?", he asks critically, "Although, now that I have a closer look at you, I can see a certain resemblance...", he comments, which earns a small chuckle from Luz.
"I'm glad I was able to give your memory a boost.", she says, "And I already have an idea of how you can make amends."
"Please, tell me! I'll do anything!", he demands, somewhat desperate. His conscience is probably quite heavily burdened by his actions.
"Stop calling me 'Miss' Luz. I already have the problem of Valeriana suddenly calling me 'Master', which I have to somehow talk her out of or, if necessary, train her out of. But really, just 'Luz' is good enough."
"All right... Luz."
"Perfect. Let's go join the others now, then. I'm sure Mrs. Croaker is wondering why we're back already."
Luz and Toadie follow the others into the underground base where everyone, with the exception of Valeriana, has already gone into Mrs. Croaker's office and is waiting for the other two to arrive.
"What took you so long?", Mrs. Croaker demands to know, "Is what I would normally ask after a mission. Because normally a mission like this takes up to two days, but you just left here earlier and you're already back... Let me guess, you just grabbed Toadie and immediately turned back?"
Mrs. Croaker sounds pretty serious right now, but at least Luz knows it's not meant as an accusation or an insult. She knows that, like Toadie earlier, the older frog cannot imagine that such a mission could be completed so quickly, let alone successfully.
"No, Commander.", Toadie speaks up, to the surprise of both the others as well as Mrs. Croaker. "I can report that the 'Boulder' has been officially destroyed. After Luz's efforts, it can be assumed that the facility will be unusable for at least a couple of years, but more likely forever."
"Seriously?", Mrs. Croaker looks like she's about to fall out of her chair in her disbelief. Luz, Amity, and Maddie all nod simultaneously, the latter of theirs with a smirk on her face, because despite the slight intimidation of Luz's magic, Maddie is immensely proud that her friend managed to prove Mrs. Croaker wrong. Toadie continues.
"I will provide a full report later, Commander."
"All right.", Mrs. Croaker slaps her hands on her desk and gets up from her seat. She walks up to Luz and holds a hand out to her, "You've proven yourself worthy and backed up your words with actions. And I will do the same. Your request for help is hereby accepted."
With a wide grin on her face, Luz accepts the handshake. Amity, on the other hand feels pretty giddy herself, evidenced by the fact that Amity gives Luz a big kiss on the cheek after the handshake is over.
"I knew you could do it.", she praises her.
"We.", Luz corrects her, "You were there too, after all."
Amity just rolls her eyes in response.
"Luz?", Mrs. Croaker speaks up, "We'll be all set when you're ready to send the refugees over. But please promise me one thing."
"Hm?"
"Kick Andrias' ass for us!"
"Will do!", Luz grins.
With that, Luz, Amity, and Maddie leave Mrs. Croaker's office, but hear her voice speak again one more time. "Toadie you stay! From now on, you will help me with the preparations for-"
"You know Luz, I'm curious: why didn't you teleport us right down here earlier?", Maddie asks right after they've left the office.
"Too risky.", is Luz's short answer, "The chance of error is too great. I might be good with magic, but not as good as someone who's been able to use it for their whole lifes. I mean, we could theoretically have appeared in the rock itself. Teleporting to open fields is safer."
"Makes sense.", Maddie agrees, "Anyway, I should go to my dad and say goodbye."
"Why? You're coming with us?"
"Of course. I can't leave my friends to fight all by themselves.”, Maddie argues.
"Alright. We'll meet you on the surface when you're ready."
"I'll be there. Don't leave without me!", Maddie says and runs off to find her father and sisters.
"Well, there wasn't much resistance from you...", Amity comments once Maddie is out of earshot, "Should I be feeling jealous?", she asks jokingly. In response, Luz slaps her upper arm with no force behind it.
"Maddie is one of my best friends here in Amphibia, but she's also well versed in magic. We'll need her help.", Luz replies more seriously than her girlfriend expected.
"I know. I just want to tease you."
The two girls lean against the railing in the large main cave and quietly watch all the action and commotion for a while.
"Oh, by the way, where's Valeriana? I need to talk to her too before we leave.", Luz wonders.
"Uh, she said something about having to find her bird..."
"... ... That woman is crazy.", Luz comments, shaking her head, whereupon Amity has to suppress a short laugh. "What do you think about her?"
"Apart from the fact that she's clearly completely crazy?", Amity asks, to which Luz nods, "Her long life and her work as a researcher, assuming her story is completely true, could help us a lot. She probably has a great knowledge of magic and technology and knows more about Andrias' and Darcy's technology than anyone else."
"Even though she's crazy?"
"You mean even though she thinks of you as a deity?", Amity grins, "I think you'll be able to live with that."
"Urghhhhh...", Luz groans loudly, "Alright.", she says, sounding defeated.
"Master Luz!"
"Oh, Valeriana. There you are.", Luz greets the Newt, who now has a purple parrot-like bird with huge red eyes and a golden necklace setting on her shoulder, "And you've found your bird..."
"Master, this is Leander.", Valeriana introduces him.
"Master! Master!", Leander chirps.
"Greeeat... Actually, Valeriana, I've been wanting to talk to you."
"Of course, Master. What is it about?"
"About the Titan, and the tasks he gave me.", Luz explains, at which the Newt gives her her full attention, "There are three things: I was supposed to track you down. I'm supposed to destroy some temples. And I'm supposed to... deactivate the music box. There's more, but only these three things concern Amphibia."
"The temples..." the newt mutters thoughtfully.
"I assume that the Titan wants to prevent something like Andrias' grab for power from ever happening again.", Luz surmises. Valeriana, on the other hand, seems slightly mentally absent.
"Disabling the mechanisms of two of the temples should be a simple matter.", the Newt eventually speaks up, "Not that it matters anyway, because recharging gems requires an energy source."
"I'm afraid I don't understand. What are these temples?"
"Oh I'm sorry, of course you wouldn't know, Master... Eons ago, three temples were placed on the continent that allow to recharge the gems of the Music Box once their magic has been depleted. However, the temples themselves are not generators, but merely methods of transmitting power from a person to recharge the gems."
"Does that mean that the gems on the music box are nothing more than batteries?" Luz asks, somewhat bewildered.
"More or less, yes.", Valeriana confirms Luz's theory, "Somehow your three human friends came into possession of a modified form of Titan's magic, which was fully transferred into the gems through the temples."
"Then what am I?"
"You are the Chosen Daughter of Titan, Master."
"No, that's not what I mean. I mean, how do I fit into that whole thing?", Luz wants to know.
"You are the source, the origin. You are free to do whatever you wish. There are no obstacles and no rules. You yourself would even be able to recharge the individual gems or create new ones if you so wish."
"I think I understand...", Luz says thoughtfully, "So having one of the gems would be completely useless to me, right?"
"Not necessarily...", Valeriana says before turning to her bird. She reaches for its golden necklace and removes a colorless stone.
"Don't tell me this is what I think it is!"
"Master, this is an almost empty gem that hasn't been used for thousands of years."
"You've been keeping something powerful like that on your bird???"
"Yes. It once served me as a weapon and tool, but thanks to my staff here, it was no longer needed. Please, I want you to have it."
Valeriana holds out the gem to Luz, who hesitantly accepts it. She holds it in her hand, but nothing happens.
"What exactly should happen now?", Luz asks aloud.
"Try to charge it with your magic and imagine something you need right now.", Valeriana explains vaguely as if it were the easiest thing in the world. And to Luz's surprise, it actually is. The half-human begins to transfer her magic into the gem, which slowly begins to glow a dark purple. She closes her eyes and tries to think of something she might need at the moment, but comes up with nothing. Nevertheless, she feels something moving and transforming in her hands. Luz opens her eyes and finds in her hands a sword made of dark steel with a purple gem embedded in the handle. The half-human is stunned.
"It's a sword...", she speaks to herself, "I wasn't even thinking about a sword."
"Maybe not consciously, no. But subconsciously you must have thought that such a weapon could be of help to you.", Valeriana explains.
"O-Okay.", Luz exclaims, "So now I have a magic sword...Well that's something..."
"It can also change its shape into different things. Imagine a piece of jewelry, for example."
Luz does as she is told and seconds later finds a thin necklace in her hand in which the gem has been incorporated.
"Wow..." Luz exclaims, kinda speechless yet feeling grateful, "Can all gems do that?"
"Heh, no master. I created this gem myself and cast the necessary spells on it. It's one of a kind in the universe."
"Wow... thanks.", Luz says, truly amazed. "While we're at it, I'd like to ask you for something."
"What is it?"
“Come with us to the Demon Realm and help us defeat Andrias.”, Luz states, to which Valeriana doesn't even have to ponder about it.
"Your wish is my command, Master."
Less than an hour later, everyone is standing in the Plantars' former living room, ready to leave. Luz, with her new convenient necklace, Valeriana, who has packed her entire tent and bird into a small and surprisingly light suitcase, Maddie, who is also carrying a small suitcase and a thick book in her arms, Amity, who is holding Luz's hand, and the Plantars who want to see them off.
"And you're sure you wouldn't rather spend the next night here as well?", Hop Pop asks, not wanting Luz especially to leave so soon.
"I'm sorry, but time is something we don't have much of.", Luz explains, "But I promise I'll come visit you as soon as all this is over."
"Okay, I'll take your word for it.", Hop Pop says, at which Luz leans down and gives him a heartwarming hug.
"Of course. I see you as my family after all... Same goes for you two.", Luz says, pointing to Sprig and Polly. The latter has been pouting the whole time.
"I still want to come with you.", she whines.
"I'm sorry Polly, but you're needed here.", Luz says diplomatically. She doesn't want to hurt her feelings with the truth that she's still a baby and therefore too young. "But your technical blueprints will be invaluable to us."
"I know, but still...", she whines. Luz smiles, reaches for the youngest frog and gives her a hug as well. Lastly, she turns to Sprig, who is wiping a tear from his eye.
"Please, please take care of yourself. I don't want to lose another sister...", his voice breaks for a moment. Even Luz and Amity get a lump stuck in their throats at his words.
"You won't.", Luz tries to reassure him, "And as for Anne.... Let's just say I have a plan."
"Huh? What plan?", he wants to know. Luz hugs him too, but doesn't answer his question.
The group leaves the house, where Luz uses the end of her staff to draw the same glyph combination in the ground that she used for her portal to Amphibia.
When that's done, she kneels at the farthest line, where she channels her magic into the glyph, and also like the first time, an event horizon forms, a stable portal to the Boiling Isles. Luz stands up and wipes the dirt from her hands back on her pants before approaching the event horizon and sticking nothing but her head inside.
"Okay, it's the right place.", she reports a few seconds later, "Maddie, Valeriana, you two go ahead. You'll find a huge mansion on the other side. Knock on it and tell them Luz Noceda sent you to help."
"Wait...", Amity interrupts her girlfriend, "We're not going with them?"
Luz turns to Sprig and looks him straight in the eye, "Amity, we're both going to find Anne."
The young frog widens his eyes in shock.
Valeriana and Maddie say their goodbyes to Luz and Amity and enter the portal, which closes immediately behind them. Luz kneels down again in the same place before them and opens another portal.
"Wait...", Amity speaks up again, "If we go to find Anne, does that mean that-"
"Yes.", Luz grins, "We're taking a detour to Earth."
"Oh my Titan...", the witch gasps. The two girlfriends had never really talked about it in depth before, but Amity had been hoping to go on a date with Luz on her home world for a very long time. She is so deep in thought that she doesn't even notice the portal opening up in front of her.
"Ami?", Luz brings the witch back to the present.
"Yes?"
"I've verified the destination. The portal leads to Earth. We can go."
"O-Okay..."
She doesn't dare say it out loud, but at this very moment Amity is more nervous and excited than she has ever been in her life. Her heart is pounding in her chest and her hands are getting a little sweaty. She also starts to feel slightly dizzy.
Luz takes her by the hand and leads her slowly to the portal. Luz turns to the Plantars one last time and waves goodbye to them before the two girlfriends step through the portal which closes behind them a few seconds later.
"Oh, it was nice to see Luz again... Though I hope it's not the last time...", Hop Pop says to no one in particular, "Hey, wait a minute... Has anyone seen Sprig?"
Notes:
On another note: Once chapter 50 is out, I'm planning to host a Q&A on my Discord-Server. I will give out the concrete date once the next chapter is out. https://discord.gg/79H6Mkve3K
Chapter 50: It's Been Soo Long
Summary:
Luz, Amity, and Sprig find themselves on a mission. A mission to locate their friend Anne Boonchuy.
Notes:
50 Chapters. A Lost Owl has officially reached 50 chapters. Also, totally
notplanned, today exactly 3 years ago I posted my first ever chapter of this fanfiction. And now, 3 years, 50 chapters, and almost 470k words later, we are here.
Not only do I feel very proud of what I achieved so far, but I'm also incredibly thankful for every single one of you who accompanied me on this journey, especially those who took the time and effort to write thoughtful comments. Or really any comments. I'm not picky 😇Anyway, before I bore you to death, imma let you read the chapter first. I'll write a bit more in the end notes, along with a few announcements.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“What? Already?”, Darcy exclaims in mild surprise, “Huh...”
The Frobot who has just brought them a report removes itself wordlessly and passes Andrias, who enters Darcy's lab with a plate of cookies in his hand.
“Is something the matter, my lord?”, he asks as he places the plate on a relatively clean area of one of the counters.
“Uhhh, are those cream cookies with blue frosting?”, Darcy asks as soon as they notice Andrias' presence. They immediately walk over and, still with various sticky liquids on their hands, grab one of the cookies and take an indulgent bite out of it.
“Wiff if foo guuud.”, they exclaim with their mouth full. Andrias waits a few seconds while his lord eats before repeating his question.
“My lord, you sounded a bit surprised a moment ago. Has something happened?”
“Oh, that...”, they swallow what's left in their mouth, “Nothing important, just a status report on our test subjects. Apparently, we've already used up almost sixty percent.”
“Should I acquire more? Our operations are currently focused more on resource acquisition. I can procure more subjects if you wish.”
“Naaaaaahh...”, Darcy dismisses the idea with a wave of their hand, “In fact, we don't think we have any further use for the rest for now. So you can do whatever you want with them.”
“As you wish, my lord.”, Andrias bows slightly, “Before I forget: One of the Frobots on Earth has sent a report. It seems to have measured a huge surge of energy, which disappeared again only seconds later.”
“What was the cause?”, Darcy's tone shifts to something slightly darker.
“The energy signature didn't belong to the two girls we're monitoring.”, Andrias reports, “There's a third party involved.”
“Send orders to both Cloakbots to intervene immediately!”, Darcy orders, "No holding back!"
“Yes, my lord.”
“Oh, and while you're at it, send one of the prisoners to us. We think it's time for the next phase...”
Around the same time on Earth…
The two girlfriends step through the portal, which vanishes a few seconds later with a fizzling sound into nothingness. Amity takes a look around at where they have wound up, while Luz experiences a moment of slight disorientation, dizziness, and light-headedness after the two interplanetary portals she has opened in the span of two minutes, which her body needs a moment to handle. The witch turns around and discovers that she and Luz are on an incredibly vast and relatively expanse of land. There are no trees, fields, buildings, or people nearby. She realizes that she and Luz are standing on a concrete-like material that stretches like an enormously wide strip as far as the eye can see on one direction. She also spots several wide white stripes painted on the ground, which also stretch out into the middle of the distance. Some distance away, she can spot a few buildings and strangely shaped white... things on wheels. It's also incredibly loud, judging by the slight roaring Amity is hearing from every direction, no matter where she turns her head.
“This is Earth?”, Amity asks Luz in a disappointed tone. The latter seems to have caught herself and gradually begins to take in her surroundings, when suddenly a third voice speaks up.
“What's that white thing in the air coming towards us?”
“SPRIG??”, Luz's head snaps to the little frog boy, who points into the air behind Luz with an innocently curious look, and after a few seconds she realizes that a large airliner is heading straight for the three of them. “ShitShitShitShitShitSHIT!!!”, Luz exclaims in panic, grabs Amity and Sprig by the arms, and uses her dash spell to teleport the three of them almost a hundred meters away, right outside the airport on which they have apparently managed to appear. Luz now stands there, her whole body trembling, her heart racing, and her breathing unsteady.
“An airport...”, she mutters quietly, “I transported us onto a fucking runway...”
“Luz... are you okay? You look pale and you're shaking...”, Amity asks, kinda already knowing the answer.
“What's a runway?”, Sprig asks, drawing the two girls' attention back to him and throwing Luz out of her spiral at the same time.
“SPRIG!”, she all but yells at him, “What are you doing here???”
The frog boy opens his mouth, but before he can say anything and explain himself, Luz shuts him up.
“Actually, I don't need to know. I'm sending you back!”, she exclaims.
“NO, DON'T!”, he screams in panic, “Please don't send me back!”
“But I promised you that-”
“I'M USELESS AT HOME!”, he exclaims, sounding thoroughly desperate.
“Didn't you say you were one of the best snipers, whatever that is?”, Amity interjects, which seems to be just another thing weighing on his mind.
“I lied. I was just trying to impress Luz...”, he admits quietly, a few tears sprouting at the corners of his eyes, “Polly and I both… Maddie did say that Polly was nothing more than a glorious babysitter, and it was absolutely true. And when I initially volunteered for combat missions, I was really excited when I got accepted. But then came Hop Pop, who took advantage of his long friendship with Commander Croaker to make sure that Polly wasn't allowed to actively participate in research and I wasn't allowed to actively participate in combat. So I basically ended up being nothing more than a lookout on missions. I just wanted to help everyone…”
Hearing that, Luz's frustration and annoyance at Sprig's sneaking into her portal rapidly turns to pity and empathy during his narration.
“And now you want to help us find Anne?”
“I just want to help, no matter what. I just want to be... useful.”, Sprig pleads to the two girls, “Please don't send me back. I want to accompany you. Please...”
“Yes, yes, fine. You can come with us.”, Luz rubs the pinch of her nose.
“Really?”, Sprig asks, suddenly incredibly happy and excited.
“Yes.”, she replies in an exasperated sigh, “And even if I wanted to, I don't think I could send you back so soon. These kind of portals are draining quite a bit of energy, and I suspect it will take me at least a day to recover enough to open new portals. And until then, we'll have to hide you from humanity somehow.”
“Hide? Why?”, the young frog boy asks.
“Most humans would see you as an alien from another world and some would try to capture you and perform experiments on you.”, Luz explains.
“Oh...”
“Um, Luz, wouldn't I be an 'alien' too by that definition?”, Amity wonders.
“It would be a little different for you. You'd be seen more as an elf.”, Luz explains, “The problem would be the same for you, but it would be a lot easier to make you look human.”
“Why would humans do things like that?”
“I think that's something for later.”, Luz replies, “First we have to find a disguise for Sprig and find out exactly where exactly we are.”
The truth is, however, that Luz doesn't want to ruin the images of humanity that the two of them have. Amity's only reference for how humanity as a whole is Luz herself, while Sprig's references are Luz, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, and apart from Sasha, the image they have of humanity is quite positive. There's no need for Luz to destroy that image by telling them about the dark reality.
“Can't you just make him invisible?”, Amity suggests. Luz looks thoughtfully at Sprig for a moment, who returns her gaze expectantly.
“It would be possible, but only with restrictions...”, Luz says, at which Amity nods understandably. “I wish I had a big backpack with me so I could carry him on my back.”
“Hey, I'm not a stuffed animal that you can just stuff into a backpack!”, Sprig complains, though not particularly vigorously, “But if you really want to carry me, I would sit on your shoulders.”
Without hesitation, Luz squats down and lets Sprig jump onto her shoulder. At the same time, Amity feels a hint of jealousy, which she doesn't let on apart from a small pout.
“This is a good time to try something. Sprig, close your eyes!”, Luz tells him, to which Sprig complies. But before he is able to ask what Luz wants to try, it seems to be already over. “Yes, it worked.”
Sprig opens his eyes to see what's going on, only to find nothing. “Huh? What happened?”
“Partial invisibility!”, Luz exclaims happily, “Since you're sitting on my shoulders, I can make you invisible without becoming invisible myself.”
“Really? Cool. I want to see that!”
“Um...”, Luz pauses for a moment, “The thing about this spell is that the person becoming invisible has to either hold their breath or have their eyes closed.”
“I can hold my breath.”, Sprig argues, at which Luz just shakes her head.
“I know that you want to see all the stuff here, but we can do that later after we found Anne.”
“Okay.”, he replies dejectedly.
“So, Sprig, you'll probably have to keep your eyes closed the whole time-”
“Aw, man.”
“- And Ami, it would be great if you could hide your ears. Oh, and let’s try to not use too flashy magic. We should try to keep a low profile. The rest shouldn't be a problem then.”
Amity briefly considers her options before she eventually merely slides her hair over her ears. “Like this?”, she asks her.
“Yeah, that's perfect.”, Luz comments, which makes Amity smile.
And with those two problems out of the way, Luz and Amity, with Sprig on Luz's shoulders, make their way along the fence that surrounds the airport. Curious about this new world, Sprig and Amity start asking lots of questions.
“So, what is this 'airport' now?”, Sprig asks.
“Um... That white thing from just now that almost killed us is called an airplane. Conceptually, you can think of it as a flying ship with all of this as its harbor.”
“I thought there was no magic here on Earth.”, Amity remarks.
“Unfortunately, that's true.”, Luz says, “Everything that looks like magic in this world was created through scientific observation and development. The first airplanes were created by observing and studying birds. The first prototypes were designed for one, maximum two people and could do no more than glide. That was a little over a hundred years ago.”
“And how many people can fit in an airplane like that today?”, Amity wonders.
“That depends on the model... I would estimate that the largest models can carry around eight hundred people...”, Luz estimates.
“Cooool...”, Sprig marvels at that, “Get we get on one?”
“No.”, Luz shoots down his idea immediately, which seems to disappoint not only him slightly, but Amity as well, “Not only are the tickets pretty expensive, and we don't have any money, it would also take a lot longer to get anywhere than if we just teleport.”
“Are there many other airports like this?”, Amity asks.
“Oh yes, all over the world, thousands.”, Luz replies, “We're about to arrive at a road, by the way. Sprig, you should close your eyes in case we run into people.”
Displeased, Sprig closes his eyes and Luz casts her invisibility spell as the three of them arrive at a road leading to the main terminal of the airport. While Luz is holding Amity's hand, Amity asks several questions about the cars passing them, which Luz tries to answer as best she can, when suddenly something catches her eye.
“Wait a minute...”, she stops in her tracks, “They're driving on the left side of the road and have yellow license plates. I think I know where we are!”
“Really?”, Amity asks.
“Well, roughly.”, Luz corrects herself, “We're about a whole continent and an ocean away from our destination.”
“A continent? What's that?”, Amity asks, at which Luz looks at her in confusion for a moment until she realizes that the witches and demons in the Demon Realm must be completely unfamiliar with the concept of countries and continents since they only know their Titan.
“A huge land mass surrounded by oceans, so to speak.”
“Like the Titan?”
“Bigger. The Titan is more like a huge island.”, Luz explains, at which Amity nods gratefully, “I'll show you a map later, then you'll see what I mean.”
“Alright.”
“Um, Luz-”, Sprig speaks up, “Why do you even need to know where we are? Can't you just teleport anywhere?”
“I'm afraid it's not that simple...”, Luz explains to the invisible Sprig as Luz and Amity walk down the street parallel to the airport terminal, “The thing is, my teleportation only has a limited range and I may have to make several jumps depending on the distance. I'm sure I can cross my home country, the United States, in one jump, but that doesn't include the ocean that lies between us and there.”
And while Luz explains to Sprig how her teleportation magic works, Amity takes a look through the glass walls into the terminal, filled with hundreds of humans, all going about their daily lives, unaware of the potential danger that could one day befall them as it did the Isles. Amity actually would like to stop here for a moment, sit down, and just watch the people for a while. Almost all the humans in there have suitcases with them, be they young, old, people of different skin colors, some in suits, some dressed rather strangely...
Her gaze wanders from the huge terminal to the one-way street to their left, where she observes people getting in and out of these cars, as Luz called them. When a few seconds later a more unusual, long rectangular orange car pulls up next to them and dozens of humans get out, Amity can't help but stare, feeling slightly intimidated by the sheer size of it. While she is still able to look up at the roofs of the other cars, this thing is at least twice as big and three times as long.
“L-Luz, what i-is-”, Amity asks her girlfriend, who fortunately knows immediately what she wants to ask.
“Oh, it's called a bus.”, she explains, “Buses are basically extra spacious cars that can carry dozens of people at a time and go almost anywhere on fixed routes. Admittedly, I find this design far better than the one I know from Gravesfield. So much more elegant...”
“Ugh... I wanna see it too...”, Sprig complains, struggling to not immediately rip open his eyes and jump off of Luz's shoulders to touch whatever this bus-thing is.
“I know. But letting humans see you without a disguise would cause mass panic. And we need to be as inconspicuous as possible.”, Luz tries to explain, at which Sprig grabs hold of her hair, slightly stressed. “If it helps, the same goes for Ghost and Owlbert, my and Amity's Palismans. While a cat and an owl are not uncommon around here, they would only draw extra attention to us.”
“Yeah, okay...”, Sprig says, still sounding disappointed.
“Anyway, ready to move on?”, Luz asks the two of them.
“Where are we going anyway?”, Amity's mind suddenly jumps to this question as her thoughts had been elsewhere until just now.
“Somewhere away from the people. And I even have an idea where that could be. Follow me.”, Luz practically turns around on the spot and pulls Amity lightly towards the main entrance to the airport. They squeeze between a few humans until they eventually find themselves inside.
“Wait...”, Sprig speaks up, “How can it be warmer in here than outside? I can’t feel any stoves or fires in here...”
“... I was just about to ask the exact same thing...”, Amity says, though a little quieter, “I mean, it would be easy with magic, but you said there wasn't any here.”
“Um, I can't say exactly how it works here in particular-”, she replies vaguely, “But I'm guessing there are hidden heaters somewhere.”
“Heaters?”
“They're basically pipe systems through which very hot gas is fed, which heats the surrounding air.”, Luz explains further. The concept of heaters on the Boiling Isles actually works on a similar principle, but it is based on fire magic. “Anyway, over there, that's where we need to go.”
Luz points to one of two white doors on the wall, on which small figures are depicted in black. Amity immediately knows what they are.
“Toilets?”, she asks skeptically.
“If we're lucky, they'll be empty enough for us to disappear unnoticed.", Luz explains her plan. At that, Amity just shrugs her shoulders.
They watch as a woman with a suitcase leaves the ladies' room and enter after her, where they luckily find no one at first glance.
“Good, it's empty.”, Luz observes, “We'll probably have to make three jumps. I'd say Greenland, the east coast, and then over to the west coast.”
“Huh?”, Sprig asks.
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.”, Luz says, “Anyway, I need to warn you: It's probably going to get pretty cold after two of the jumps. We won't stay there for long, but just that you're aware of what to expect.”
“Okay, I'm ready.”, Amity says, not letting go of her girlfriend's hand.
“Me too. Your body heat should keep me from freezing if it really gets too cold.”, Sprig says. Luz nods one last time in affirmation before activating her teleport spell causing the three of them to disappear in a bright flash of light.
Just as Luz stated, it took her exactly three jumps to get all the way to Los Angeles.
After their first jump, the three of them landed in the middle of a snowy desert near the southern coast of Greenland. The two girls immediately start to shiver due to the rapid drop in temperature from 10°C in the UK to the -2°C here while, even after just a few seconds, a massive ice cube has formed around Sprig's head down to his shoulders. Fortunately, the rest is protected by Luz's body heat. Unfortunately, he can't breathe.
The second jump doesn't necessarily take them to warmer climates, and more specifically they land somewhere in the region between Toronto and Sudbury in Canada. The sun brings a slight warmth in the form of 3°C, but this is nowhere near enough to melt the ice around Sprig's head.
The last jump, which covers the remaining 4300 kilometers, finally brings them directly to their destination, although not quite to the altitude Luz was aiming for. The three of them do not land on the ground, but at a height of around 310 meters, right on the helipad of the US Bank Tower, from where they can overlook the entire city of Los Angeles. Instead of doing just that, however, Luz breaks her invisibility spell on Sprig, drops him off of her shoulders and activates a fire spell in an attempt to quickly remove the ice from his head so that he can breathe again. Luz knows from her mother that frogs can reduce all bodily functions to near zero during hibernation, including heartbeat and breathing. Sprig doesn't have that luck right now as he is actively suffocating as nothing more than his airways are frozen.
“Ami, you too!”, Luz commands her to also cast a fire spell on the ice as Sprig struggles to claw at the ice with increasing panic. The two girls' flames focus on a single point just above his head while a few sprawling flames encircle the rest of it, slowly making the ice melt. Seconds pass that feel like hours while they can do nothing more than wait. Not for the ice to melt, because if it did, Sprig would be long dead by then. No, they're waiting for a crack to appear.
The ice cracks seconds later. Luz wastes no time and stops the fire spell before reaching into the crack in the ice with both of her hands and using nothing but physical strength to break the block in two, which immediately fall to the ground.
Sprig falls backwards onto his back; Luz immediately kneels beside him as he begins to breathe frantically.
“Sprig, calm breaths, try to slow down. It's better now. The ice is gone...”, Luz takes his hand as she tries to calm him down and stop him from gasping for breath.
While Luz takes care of Sprig, Amity stands off to the side and simply observes the two of them, but also lets her gaze wander a little. Her gaze wanders over the skyline, something the young witch has never seen before in her life. The biggest city she knows is Bonesborough, and Los Angeles is at least ten to twenty times as big, and that's just in terms of area. She has similarly never seen buildings this tall. Sure, there are tall structures on the Isles too, like the chimneys of the Blight Industries factories, or houses that are being held a hundred meters in the air, but there are so many buildings here in just this city alone that are just as tall or even taller.
What she also notices is a certain background noise from somewhere further down the building, probably on ground level, full of sounds she's never heard before and, admittedly, would put a decent strain on her comparatively more sensitive hearing if she were closer to the sources of the noise. But that is also when she picks up a faint metallic clunk coming from Luz's direction. Her head snaps around to find nothing but her girlfriend and Sprig there, the latter of which who seems quite a bit healthier. Nevertheless, she can't shake this feeling that something beside the three of them has appeared next to them on this platform.
Another metallic clunk. 'It's definitely there, I'm not imagining it.', she thinks to herself. Amity squints her eyes, looking out for... something that could be there.
Another clunk, and this time she's sure she's seen something moving in the air behind Luz.
“Luz, there-”
“I know.”, Luz replies, despite obviously not looking at what Amity's seeing. She grabs her necklace and charges the gem at its center with her magic as discreetly as possible until it forms a handle. She grips it as tightly as she can before turning rapidly and the blade of her sword collides with an invisible metallic surface, which on impact is revealed to be a disguised Frobot with a now rather deeply dented spot on the side.
“Assassination attempt- failed. Cloaking- failed. Repair- not possible.”
“You won't have time to repair anything!”, Luz exclaims, “Amity!”
“On it!”
Amity quickly creates two curved Abomination blades and immediately charges in to attack. Luz casts a fire spell on the blade of her sword and also immediately pounces towards the damaged Frobot. Amity runs head-on towards the Frobot and draws its attention, while Luz tries to attack from the side. Amity lunges and aims for its legs. The Frobot merely takes a step back, causing Amity to miss him completely. As planned, he stumbles as he dodges directly into Luz's path, who is already lunging with her flaming sword, ready to hit it in the midsection... The Frobot bends his upper body in an unnatural angle, causing Luz's sword to narrowly miss his outer hull. Off-balance from the missed strike, she stumbles past him. She has barely any time to react as the Frobot uses the momentum to kick Luz in her midsection, sending her skidding across the rooftop and ultimately comes to a stop near Sprig. In the same turn, the Frobot leaps and grabs one of Amity's blades with one claw and her arm with the other, which she uses to throw it absurdly fast over Luz like a rag doll. The latter tries to catch her and they both fall to the ground again in pain.
“This thing is so much more agile than those other metal boxes!”, Amity complains. The Frobot seems to have heard this, because it lets out a creepy sounding giggle as it transforms its hands with rapidly rotating circular saws.
Luz feels a sharp sting shooting up her wrist due to the crash and uses her sword to help her stand up. She is not yet ready to fight as the Frobot already rushes forward, ready to chop its target up into lots of little pieces, when suddenly a blue object lands between its head and body casing and gets stuck there. Surprised, the Frobot turns to Sprig, who is holding his slingshot in his hand and has just fired a Boomshroom with pinpoint accuracy. The Frobot realizes what this is and rapidly tries to grab it before the Boomshroom pulsates quickly and ultimately explodes the Frobot's head off its body.
Luz throws herself over Amity to try and shield her from possible debris.
The now broken shell of the Frobot falls forward lifelessly, leaving the two girls stunned, as well as a bit embarrassed.
“Sprig-”, Amity straightens up, a few abrasions and a few bruises on her body, “Thank you.”
The frog boy, visibly feeling better, hurries over to Amity to help her get up, as Luz is busy with other things.
“This went... terrible.”, she vents her frustration as she examines her sword a little more closely, “No, this was outright pathetic... I've never used a real sword before- where did I get the idea that I could use it in an actual fight???”
Amity and Sprig exchange a worried look as Luz continues.
“I mean, I'm supposed to be the strongest, the one to save the Isles, the one-”
“Says who?”, Amity interrupts Luz's ranting before going on a mental downward spiral.
“Huh?”
“Who says you're supposed to be the one to save the Isles? Might as well be me. Or Liwin. Or even my dad... Who says it has to be you exactly?”, Amity asks, but doesn't give Luz time to answer yet, “Sure, magic-wise you're the strongest, but no one can do absolutely everything. Not even you.”
“... Ouch.”, Luz feigns being hurt, though that may be somewhat accurate. “I mean... hm.”
“Listen. If you want, we can look for a sword-fighting instructor for you when we get back to the Isles.”, Amity offers her pouting girlfriend.
“How about Sasha?”, Sprig suddenly suggests, at which Luz looks at him kinda distraught for several seconds.
“I'm quite disturbed that that's the first name you've come up with. I mean, you do remember that she killed your grandfather, don't you?”
“She did, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't hate her quite so much for it anymore. Just a little bit...”, he says, pinching his fingers closely together, “And I think Anne feels the same way after her and Sasha's duel where she nearly killed her. Again.”
“I don't know...”, Luz says uncertainly to herself, “I mean, I can forgive a lot, but it is a fact that Sasha is a murderer and had taken someone who was important to me. Maybe not as much as to you or Anne, but still... Even the fact that I was able to revive him doesn't contradict the fact that he died at her hands.”
“Luz, I understand your point very well, but I don't see too many more options if you want to learn to fight with a sword.”, Sprig argues, “I mean, Anne learned from Tritonio, and I have no idea where that guy is... Sasha learned from Grime, who nobody knows where he is either.”
“And on the Isles, I don't know of anyone who uses swords off the top of my head. Spears maybe, but not swords...”, Amity throws in.
“Um, Sprig, rewind for a second... Anne knows how to use a sword?”, Luz asks.
“She's only ever used it once, as far as I remember.”, Sprig replies.
“Do you think she could help me?”, Luz asks further, at which Sprig frowns a little skeptically.
“I'll be honest, Sasha has more experience with the sword than Anne, but I can understand why you wouldn't want her as a teacher.”
“Well, we have to find Anne in this huge city first anyway...”, Amity interjects again.
“Right. We have to get outta here anyway... We're lucky there aren't any cameras up here, but an explosion like just now should definitely attract a lot of attention rather soon.”, Luz states before stepping towards the edge of the helipad and quickly scanning her view in search of something specific. When she doesn't find what she's looking for in the first area, she hurries to another spot and continues searching.
“What are you looking for?”
“I don't know where Anne lives, so we need to narrow down the search. I know her parents own a restaurant, but finding it from up here is pretty much impossible. So I'll see if I can find a Thai temple. She had once mentioned that she used to have to visit one regularly. And I hope we can find someone there who can help us.”
“Can you even see anything at all from up here?”, Amity asks, standing next to her with Sprig, “I mean, I can basically only see gray...”
Luz stares into the distance at one point, where she notices a few airplanes of different sizes flying all in the same direction. “I spotted the airport...”
“And how should that hel-”
“Well, where there are airports, there are also tourist information boards that can help us.”, Luz explains to the other two, who haven't understood a single word of what Luz has just told them. This is especially clear by the absolutely confused looking expressions on their faces, “Don't worry, it's like a scavenger hunt.”
“Oh, ok.”, Amity just says, “I'll go wherever you go.”
“Sprig, do you feel well enough to keep going?”, Luz asks him.
“I'm okay.”
With the next intermediate destination in mind, Sprig jumps back onto Luz's shoulders. Before doing anything though, she casts a healing-spell to remove any damages.
“Ami, this time you both need to close your eyes. I'm going to have to make all three of us invisible until I can make sure no one spots us.”, Luz states, “The airport here is one of the busiest in the world, and there will be people everywhere.”
“Got it.”
Sprig and Amity close their eyes, Luz holds her breath to cast an invisibility spell before casting her teleport spell and moments later, the three of them find themselves at Los Angeles International Airport. In the middle of the large Terminal B, they stand surrounded by dozens of humans between two of the three check-in aisles of the terminal.
Luz hastily looks around, looking for a good place to undo her spell, and discovers an elevator a bit further down the aisle. Hand in hand, Luz carefully pulls Amity behind her to the elevator and presses the call-button. Luckily, the door opens immediately, Luz hurries the three of them inside, the doors close, and Luz finally exhales in relief, breaking the spell.
“Phew, okay... Ami, Sprig, you can open your eyes now. We got a moment in here.”
“What is this?”, Amity wonders curiously.
“An elevator. Imagine a box that can move vertically between floors of a building.”, Luz explains.
“Um, guys...”, Sprig begins.
“Yeah?”
“Haven't we forgotten something?”, he asks, after which there is a moment of uncertain silence, “A certain Frobot on a certain roof...”
“... Oh shit...”, Luz mutters while she and Amity exchange slightly horrified glances.
“Should we go back?”
“... N-no.”, Luz replies after a moment's hesitation.
“But it will be found by humans...”, Amity gives her opinion.
“I know.”, Luz replies quietly, “We can take care of it as soon as we've taken care of everything here.”
“And if we don't make it in time?”
“Then humanity will have a small advantage if we can't defeat Andrias and he and Darcy attack Earth.”, Luz says frighteningly unemotional, “Now that I think about it, maybe we shouldn't intervene after all.”
“But we should definitely talk about what happened later.”, Amity insists, “Maybe once we’re back on the Isles.”
“Definitely.”, Luz agrees, “But first we need some information... Sprig, can you close your eyes again?”
“Sure.”, he replies before Luz casts another invisibility spell on just him and the three of them exit the elevator. And as for their current strategy...
“Okay Ami, look out for signs with a question mark on them.”, Luz says, “They're usually information points.”
“Okay, will do.”
Slowly and hand in hand, the two girls walk down the long check-in aisle, and Amity is fascinated by everything she sees. By all the lights, all the humans, not so much by all the noise... At one point, to Luz's surprise, Amity stops and looks up at a departure board with a puzzled but interested look.
“Wait... There's no magic here, so this isn't an... abnormally huge scroll. Is that one of those phones like you had?”, Amity asks divinely innocently, to which Luz can't help but suppress a short laugh.
“You're adorable, do you know that?”, Luz laughs, causing a huuge blush to appear on Amity's face, “But no, it's not a phone, even though the technology is basically the same for both. Um, it's a display, or generally just called a screen. The technology behind it consists of intelligent stones through which electricity flows.”
“Intelligent stones???”, Amity asks incredulously.
“Sort of, yes.”, Luz answers seriously, “I know about silicon, and... some other minerals that are built into them.”
“And there's no magic here?! Suuure.”, Amity says sarcastically, before moving on.
A few minutes later, the three of them find themselves near the main entrance, where something catches Amity's eye.
“Luz, over there.”, the witch points in the direction of a blue sign on the wall with a white question mark on it, next to it another sign titled ‘Information’.
“Perfect.”, Luz praises her, “I'll do the talking.”
Together they approach the information desk. Behind it stands a man in his early twenties, short brown hair, short beard. His completely bored and absent look doesn't give Luz too much hope that he will really help them. That is, until she notices a small pride pin right above his name tag, which gives Luz an idea.
“Hel-lo.”, Luz greets the man with an overly friendly tone. “Hello?”, she asks, still keeping the same tone after he didn't respond the first time. The man blinks several times before he finally notices the two girls.
“Sorry. Double shift...”, he yawns briefly, "How can I help you?", he asks in a typical customer service voice.
“Well, my girlfriend and I have just arrived in LA for the first time and we want to surprise a friend.”, Luz begins, “However, after we landed, our phones were stolen.”
The man is surprised by the word girlfriend, which is immediately reflected in his voice. “If you want to make a report, I'm afraid you're in the wrong place.”
“I know. Our parents are already dealing with that.”, Luz states, “We're here because we're hoping you can help us find a travel-route, because unfortunately our schedules were all on our phones.”
“What kind of person would I be if I didn't help...”, the man replies, no trace of the customer advisor's voice to be heard anymore, “Hold on... Where exactly do you have to go?”
“The plan was to surprise her at work. She works in a Thai temple, but we can't remember exactly which one...”
“Admittedly, I'm not sure how happy I'd be if my friends came to visit me at work... Where have you just come from?”, he asks curiously.
“Connecticut.”, Luz answers while the man is typing away at his computer.
“Well okay, that changes things. If friends fly halfway across the country, I think that would make my day.”
“Exactly, and we had the very same thought.”, Luz agrees.
The man continues typing on his keyboard before turning his attention back to the girls.
“Quick question: Buddhist or Hindu temple?”, he asks, at which Luz responds somewhat puzzled at first.
“Uhhh... Buddhist, I think.”
“Okay, then I'll give you the big three. Number one is the Wat Thai temple in North Hollywood. They seem to have very good Thai food there. Number two is the Hsi Lai Temple - I hope I pronounced that right. It's the largest Buddhist temple in the States in terms of area. It is located in Hacienda Heights. Number three is the Thien Hau Temple in Chinatown, one of the most popular among the Asia- descended population. Well, at least according to the article I'm reading here.”
“That's absolutely perfect, thank you very much.”, Luz is visibly delighted, “Um, you wouldn't happen to think you could mark them on a map and print them out?”
The man grins slyly, “I'm actually already on it.”
“Oh my gosh, you're a hero.”, Luz exclaims. Moments later, the man disappears into a back room before returning with a printed sheet of paper. He hands it to Luz and Amity.
On it is a 2D map of Los Angeles, where the three temples described are clearly marked with red pins.
“Thank you so, so much.”, Luz thanks him with a huge grin, “You've been a huge help to us, but we should get back to our parents.”
“It was a pleasure. Have a great trip.”
He waves after the two girls, who disappear into the crowd of people while holding hands.
“That was some good acting, Luz.”, the invisible Sprig compliments her.
“You think so?”, she asks back.
“I agree. That was good.”, Amity chimes in.
“Um.... thanks.”, Luz says, slightly embarrassed, ‘That was nothing...’
“So, what's our first destination?”, Amity asks, looking at the map, “We're here, right?”
She points to the bottom left of the map.
“Right, here's the airport. And it looks like the three temples are almost in a straight line from north to east.”
“I'd say we start up there at Wat Thai, then check the Thien Hau temple, and the Hsi Lai temple after that.”, Amity suggests.
“Let's do it like this then. Sprig?”, Luz asks.
“As long as I can open my eyes again soon, I don't care.”, Sprig replies, growing somewhat impatient, “Not sure how long I can sit here quietly without touching anything with all the noises and smells around me.”
“Yeah... I can already feel you pulling at my hair more and more...”, Luz remarks, strangely enough in a tone as if it doesn't bother her.
The three of them step back into the exact same elevator as before, and just like the first time they jumped here, Luz makes all three of them invisible before they embark on their fifth teleport of the day.
The three of them find themselves in a small parking lot. Or rather, only Luz, as the other two still have their eyes closed. The parking lot with less than twenty spaces is full of cars, but Luz has somehow managed to teleport the three of them to an empty space, which is right between two vans. 'Wow... lucky landing...'
She exhales softly, breaking her invisibility spell, before nudging Amity with her elbow as a sign that she can open her eyes as well. The witch opens them and realizes to her surprise that she can no longer see giant buildings in any direction. The only slightly larger building in sight is what she can only assume is the temple, based on the red roof with the golden ornaments.
They step out away from the vans, giving the two of them their first glimpse of the main temple building.
“Pretty.”, Amity comments on the structure.
“Come on, I think I can see the entrance up ahead.”
As they walk, they can peer through the fancy white brick fence with copper elements onto the grounds, which are already bustling with activity.
“It looks like a market.”, Amity observes.
“It's pretty crowded for being so early.”
“Is it early?”, Sprig asks, at which Luz turns silent for a moment.
“I... have no idea.”, Luz replies sheepishly, which earns her an amused snort from her girlfriend, “Honestly, my sense of time has been completely lost since we left Amphibia. Lemme see... When we arrived in Great Britain, I think it was afternoon. The time difference to here should be about seven to nine hours, if I'm not mistaken... So we should be somewhere in the late morning range.” No one corrects her at that. “Anyway, let's keep going.”
Even before they enter the market, which takes place entirely in another, but completely closed parking lot, their olfactory senses are flooded with strong smells of extremely appealing food, making their mouths water. All of them.
“Wow...”, Luz mutters.
“Mhm...”, Amity hums in agreement.
“Luz...”, Sprig starts, pulling more of Luz's hair, “I can't take it anymore.”
The three of them pass the first stalls where steaming food is on display. At a stall a little further on, Luz discovers a sign saying 'Free Samples', consisting of... something… nice-smelling on a skewer.
The stall owner notices the girls immediately and gives them a friendly smile. “Please take.”
“Thank you very much.”, Luz thanks the man and gives one of the skewers to Amity, while keeping the other for herself.
“Sprig, I got you something. But you'll have to be patient until we're out of sight.”, the frog boy merely grumbles in reply. Either that, or it was his stomach.
The girls push past the countless people standing in the way of their destination, the main building of the temple. After many shoulder collisions and scurried apologies, the three of them find themselves in an empty corridor between what looks like a small kitchen and a small, dark storage room. The girls stop in the doorway to the storeroom when Luz speaks up.
“Sprig, you can open your eyes now.”
The young frog doesn't need to be told twice, as jittery and tingly as he is feeling, and immediately jumps off Luz's shoulders with wide eyes and lands in a pile of discarded packaging. All the pent-up energy in him escapes at breakneck speed as he jumps from point to point through the room, touching, feeling and sniffing all the new and unfamiliar textures. He even seems to have completely forgotten that Luz is still holding a snack for him.
Amity has to squint her eyes to follow his movements in the darkness. “How can he see anything?”
“Frogs have good night vision. Even better than cats.”, Luz explains, not even attempting to keep an eye on her friend. “Hey Sprig.”
“Huh?”, the frog boy immediately stops in his tracks, his head snapping straight towards Luz. She holds up her something-on-a-stick, whereupon Sprig leaps towards the girl in one big jump and snatches the snack from her hand with his tongue.
“Yeah, still gross.”, Luz comments with a hint of disgust in her voice. Simultaneously, Sprig eats his snack with great pleasure.
“Vevi devifiouf.”, he comments with his mouth full and without a care in the world. So unconcerned, in fact, that he doesn't notice that someone is standing behind Luz and Amity, who has clearly been observing them for the last few seconds.
“Is that a frog?”
Despite the fact that there is not a hint of fear or hostility in this question, all three friends' blood freezes in an instant.
Directly in front of them is a middle-aged woman carrying a couple of empty-looking food containers. She is wearing a purple sweater with white trousers. Most noticeable, however, is the massive brown bush of hair on her head.
As a panicked reflex, Luz slams her hand back directly over Sprig's eyes and silently casts an invisibility spell. Something the woman in front of her has witnessed in its entirety.
“Frog? What frog? There's no frog here.”, Luz stammers out, which causes the woman to snicker for a short moment. She crouches down between Luz and Amity and looks at the place where Luz has hidden the invisible frog boy.
“Tell me-”, she speaks in a soft voice, “-does your name happen to be... Sprig?”
With shocked gasps, Luz and Amity stare at each other while Sprig himself slowly removes Luz's hand from his face and thus breaks the invisibility spell. With wide eyes and a look of worry and uncertainty in his eyes, he stares at her for a few seconds in awe. “How do you know?”
Luz and Amity are actually asking each other the exact same question, but are too physically immobilized by their shock to use their voices.
“Heh...”, the woman smiles with a hint of sadness, “I've seen enough drawings and pictures of him to recognize him anywhere.”
'Drawings?', Luz wonders in confusion, 'Wait...'
“A-Are you Anne's mom?”, Sprig beats Luz to it and asks the question that came to her mind before she could have. The woman answers with a slight nod.
“Wait... drawings and-”, Luz mutters under her breath, before looking at Anne's mom with an intense gaze, “That means Anne really made it back?”
The mood shifts in an instant as Anne's mom breaks eye contact with the three friends with a sad look on her face and lowers her head. A weak sigh escapes her before she speaks up again. “Let me just take these things away and then we'll talk. Is that okay?”
After unanimous agreement, Mrs. Boonchuy enters the kitchen and comes out a few minutes later with some clothes.
“I took the liberty of helping myself to the lost-and-found box. I'm not sure if all this stuff will fit, but it should help hide your friend a little better.”
She hands them a gray beanie, a dark blue hoodie, jeans, and a pair of sneakers. All in children's sizes, of course. In addition, she gives him a mask so that he can cover most of his face.
“Thank you very much.”, Luz and Sprig thank her, while another, totally different thought crosses Amity's mind. 'How does one lose their pants?'
Sprig puts on the clothes he has been given, but needs Luz's help to lace up his sneakers. “AHA! Now no one will find out that I'm not human!”, he exclaims with conviction.
“Well, at least as long as nobody takes a closer look.”, Amity interjects.
“So... how is Anne?”, Luz asks kinda anxiously, “You see, we only came here to see her.”
Mrs. Boonchuy smiles at that, though her smile doesn't reach her eyes. “Come with me. I know where we can talk undisturbed.”
Mrs. Boonchuy leads the three friends out of the temple and towards the parking lot. Sprig, who until now has been unable or not allowed to see almost anything of the earth, is wide-eyed with amazement as all these new sensory impressions enter his brain. All these huge humans, the delicious-looking food, even the clouds seem like something very special to him. On the way to her destination, Mrs. Boonchuy makes a short detour to a food stall with a sign reading 'Thai Go', where she talks briefly to a man. The man looks briefly at the three friends before nodding with a small smile and giving Mrs. Boonchuy a kiss. Luz, Amity, and Sprig don't know the details of what they talked about and Mrs. Boonchuy doesn't tell them when she comes back. She leads the three of them to the parking lot and arrives in front of a red van. In fact, this is exactly one of the vans that the three friends arrived at the temple between earlier.
Mrs. Boonchuy unlocks the doors. “Please, get in.”
Amity and Sprig look at her with questioning glances. Moments later, Luz speaks up apologetically.
“Sorry. These two have never been to Earth before. I'll help them.”, Luz opens the door for them and lets her friends in first.
“I... I see.”, Mrs. Boonchuy replies, somewhat puzzled. 'The girl neither?', she wonders, before pushing the thought aside for the time being, “Then please help them buckle up too.”
“We're going somewhere?”, Luz asks, which Mrs. Boonchuy confirms. 'She's Anne's mom. It'll be fine...'
Luz also enters the van after she has strapped Sprig and Amity in. She notices that the two of them are slightly confused by this procedure, but after Luz does the same for herself, they simply accept it for the time being. Mrs. Boonchuy starts the car, which startles Amity and Sprig, causing them to yelp aloud. Luz takes Amity's hand to calm her down.
“Both of you are really not from here...”, Mrs. Boonchuy observes aloud as she's backing out of the parking spot.
“Sprig is from Amphibia, while Amity here comes from the Demon Realm.”, Luz explains, “Don't worry, it sounds worse than it is. It's actually quite nice there.”
“She doesn't look like a demon at all...”
“I'm a witch, actually.”, Amity corrects the older woman's misconception.
“I... see.”, Mrs. Boonchuy mutters, unsure what to do with this information. “By the way, your name is Luz, isn't it? Are you from another world too?”
“Heh, no, I'm from Connecticut.”, Luz replies, “And yes, I am Luz. I assume Anne told you about me?”
Mrs. Boonchuy presses her lips together before nodding. “When she came home, she told us about her - or rather your - adventures. Also showed us some pictures on her phone... I'm sure she didn't tell us everything, but enough to get a rough idea.”, she tells them before pausing briefly. “You... you asked earlier how Anne was doing. Unfortunately, the answer is 'not good'. And it's perhaps even worse than what I know.”
“What happened?”, Sprig asks anxiously, “She was fine when I last saw her. She was worried about Sasha, who was storming off mad.”
“I get the impression from what Anne told us that Sasha is partly to blame for her current condition.”, Mrs. Boonchuy states, “You too, Luz.”
“Me? How’s that?”, she asks in return, confused.
“Not long after she returned, she told us that she was going to try to contact you in case you were back as well. I don't know the details, but afterwards Anne cried non-stop all evening and locked herself in her room. Bee and I have never felt so helpless.”
“I don't want to seem disrespectful, but Luz hasn't been back on Earth for months.”, Amity decides to interject, but not without making sure to keep her tone respectful, “We just found a way to travel between worlds a few days ago.”
“Really? How?”, Mrs. Boonchuy asks incredulously.
“Uh, that's rather complicated to explain...”, Luz awkwardly rubs her neck, “Let's just say that it involves learning a dead non-verbal language that only I know at the moment.”
“Then maybe you could help Anne, if she'll let you.”, Mrs. Boonchuy concludes.
“If she'll let me?”
“She totally shut down.”, Mrs. Boonchuy says, “She doesn't talk to us or anyone really anymore, she hardly leaves her room anymore, and her therapist even said that Anne is showing severe signs of depression among other things.”
Sprig in particular doesn't know exactly what this depression is, but can guess from the context, and from Luz and Amity's reactions, that it's not a good thing. “If Anne's not well, I'll do anything I can and am not giving up until she's better!”, he proclaims enthusiastically, which earns him some quiet chuckles. “For me, Anne is family-”, he states in a suddenly more solemn tone, “-and at home in Wartwood, family always comes first before anything else. I won't leave her side.”
“Anne had actually said exactly the same thing about you...”, Mrs. Boonchuy says with a sad smile.
“Um, Mrs. Boonchuy... Do you have any plans for Anne to help her? It seems like therapy isn't working and her condition seems to only getting worse...”, Luz notes. Mrs. Boonchuy sighs deeply before answering a long moment later.
“Anne... During the time she has been away, Anne has changed. It was only for a brief moment that I could see this new Anne, but it was clear to me that she no longer had a place here. She has grown in Amphibia. She is no longer the trouble-making girl who disappeared on her birthday... Do you know what Anne was like before she disappeared?”
Luz shakes her head.
“She was my little girl, my little gemstone. And at the same time, unreliability personified. She loved to laze around and spend every spare second with Sasha and Marcy. The three of them were absolutely inseparable and Anne would do absolutely anything for her friends, heedless of the consequences. School? Housework? Responsibilities? Those were all alien concepts to her. As a result, I was completely surprised - no, shocked - when she came back and told us that she lived in a village full of frogs on a farm, and ate bugs and insects, that she and Sasha fought with actual swords, and then there was even the war... Did all that really happen?”
“Mhm, yes.”, Sprig confirms, “In my eyes, Anne is a true hero. Not just to me but to everyone in Frog Valley. And while it is true that she accidentally started a war, she was also the one who saved a lot of lives, including mine.”
Mrs. Boonchuy glances in the rearview mirror at Luz, who merely shrugs her shoulders. “I don't know anything about that. I wasn't in Amphibia at the time anymore.”
“But didn't you say...? Uh, never mind.”, Mrs. Boonchuy decides not to ask about the details of Luz's last sentence, “Back to your question: My husband and I had spent ages debating about the possibility of placing Anne in a psychiatric hospital in the hope that she would get better afterwards. The only other option we saw, which we had promised Anne, was to find a way for her to return to her frog family. And until today, we only saw the first option as realistic.”
“... You would be willing to give up your daughter?”, Luz asks, flabbergasted.
“God, no.”, Mrs. Boonchuy replies in an instant, “But I love her too much to watch her suffer so much. I'd rather know that she lives happy and healthy in another world than in a constant state in depression and despair here on earth- with us...”
“There might be a chance that you wouldn't have to be permanently separated from each other, if you want to pursue that option.”, Luz suggests in short before explaining her train of thought, “As long as I'm around, I can regularly open portals between worlds. You - or Anne - can visit each other whenever you want... Provided I know in advance.”
“That would be fantastic.”
“I should point out, however, that the general situation is not particularly... stable, to put it that way.”, Luz states vaguely.
“What do you mean?”
“Had Anne told you about King Andrias?”, Luz inquires, which Mrs. Boonchuy confirms, remembering that he is the king who has ruled all of Amphibia for supposedly a thousand years, “Exactly. Um, it turns out he's evil and Marcy is being held hostage by him.”
“WHAT?”
What Luz said was deliberately kept vague. In the same way, Luz deliberately said nothing about the possession. Or their attack on the Isles.
“We really hope that Anne and Sasha would be willing to help us free her. Especially given the connection Anne has with Marcy.”
“If you were subtly implying that my daughter is in love with Marcy, you're already several years off.”, Mrs. Boonchuy says to Luz's surprise with a smirk on her face, “I've known for years that they have feelings for each other. Admittedly, at first I even expected Sasha to be in on it as well...”
“I don't know what to say to that...”, Luz mutters before returning to her previous topic, “Anyway, it wouldn't be without danger. Admittedly, it's not much safer here either. When we arrived here in LA, we were attacked by one of Andrias' robot soldiers. It was probably a scout or spy monitoring Anne and/or Sasha.”
“As her mother, her happiness and well-being are most important to me.”, Mrs. Boonchuy replies in a stern tone, “That being said, can you guarantee her safety?”
Luz frowns at her question knowing that she cannot answer yes. In the fight against Andrias, many people have already lost their lives or been kidnapped. And Luz knows that she would put her friends and Sasha at exactly the same risk.
At that, Sprig speaks up. “Anne is one of the best fighters I know. And especially when she uses her powers, she's unstoppable.”, he sounds almost boastful, “She's definitely en-par with Sasha, who learned to fight among toad soldiers.”
Once again, Mrs. Boonchuy glances at Luz in the rear-view mirror. “Oh, yes, that's actually correct. While I've never seen Anne fight, I have fought Sasha myself. For the reason for that I don't like her, but I acknowledge her strength and skill with the sword. Okay, dislike is an understatement - I hate her. But I'm hoping for her help as well as Anne's.”
“If you want to talk to Sasha, we'll drive to her place first. Not only is her house closer, but it'll give me some time to think about everything.”
They drive on in silence for a few minutes before Mrs. Boonchuy speaks up again.
“Say, Luz, is it really true that you haven't been back on Earth for months?”
“Yes. Why?”, Luz replies.
“I mean, it's not really any of my business, but... do your parents know?”, Mrs. Boonchuy asks, glancing over to Luz in the rear-view mirror, who herself looks away guiltily. “I see...”
“It's complicated... My mom wanted to send me to a special summer camp to become 'normal'.”, Luz states, raising quotation marks in the air, “She tried to take away what made me happy - what made me me. So I ran away.”
“Do you regret it?”, she continues to ask, whereupon Luz reflects effectively for a few moments.
“No.”
“Do you miss your mom?”
“Yes.”, Luz answers way more quickly this time.
“Then I would recommend that you contact her sometime soon.”, Mrs. Boonchuy suggests, “If your mother loves you anywhere nearly as much as I love Anne, she is out of her mind with worry for you. I'm not in a position to tell you what you should or shouldn't do, but as a mother who hasn't seen her daughter for months and didn't know if she was even alive or not, I can understand her possible feelings...”
“...”
“Just... think about it.”
Luz nods silently, lost in thoughts and feelings of guilt. Amity, noticing this, offers her her shoulder to lean on with no more than a glance, which the half-human gratefully accepts.
“Aaaanne...”, a soft voice calls out after her, “Oh Aaaanne... I can see that you're awake...”
Anne can't hide the small smile on her face as she continues to lie in her eerily cozy and warm bed with her eyes closed.
“Ou-kay, I guess I'll have to bring out the big guns then...”, the voice continues, sounding quite smug. But despite the vague threat, Anne feels completely relaxed and at ease. Moments later, a warm hand touches her cheek and soft lips meet hers. A few seconds pass and the kiss breaks up again, at which Anne frowns.
“Your breath stinks terribly.”, she mutters at which she finally opens her eyes and looks at what she thinks is the most beautiful girl in the world lying next to her in bed, who can't help but laugh at Anne's comment. It's that kind of laugh that can instantly melt every worry and every frozen heart. “Good morning, Marmar.”, Anne smiles at her.
“Good morning, Anna-Banana.”, Marcy smiles back before snuggling closer to Anne and resting her head on her chest, holding her girlfriend close. Anne, lying on her back and scratching Marcy's back with one hand, lets her gaze glide around her room. The warm morning sun shines through the window into Anne's room. If she looks closely, she can make out the dust in the air, illuminated by the light. Okay, actually, it's not just Anne's room anymore. After Anne and Marcy returned to Earth together, the latter immediately moved in with the Boonchuys without any objections. The two girlfriends have since spent every single day together and, with Marcy's help, even managed to get Anne and Sasha to make up.
Anne just lies there, the only thing she can feel is the gentle breathing of her girlfriend, from outside she hears a few cars driving past. It's an absolutely perfect morning.
“You know, it feels like a perfect dream.”, Anne exclaims softly with a smile on her face. Marcy shifts in her position a little so that she can look Anne straight in the eyes.
“Of course it is a dream. After all, we are with each other. Always.”, she answers feeling just as happy. Anne leans down to Marcy for another kiss when suddenly someone rings the doorbell. Anne groans at this unexpected interruption and utter mood-killer, which causes Marcy to giggle.
“You know, we could just stay in bed. Let mom and dad take care of it.”, Anne whines as the doorbell rings again.
“They're already gone on their way to the temple.”, Marcy explains sympathetically, “Come on. It's probably Sasha. She promised to take us to the movies today.”
“Fine, alright.”, Anne gives in. She just can't say no to her girlfriend. She gets up and walks comically across the mattress to avoid stepping on her precious Marcy when her foot suddenly catches on the bed frame and she falls face first onto the floor.
“Ouch.”, Anne groans in pain. She had tried to break her fall with her arm, but somehow managed to hit the floor forehead first. She turns onto her back and is about to place her hand on her forehead when a single glance at her arm is enough to freeze her movement completely.
Her room is no longer brightly lit by the sunlight, but completely darkened even with blankets covering her window. Her forearms are completely bandaged, though the right bandage must have come loose from her fall. 'Oh...', Anne lifts her head slightly and finds her bed completely empty before dropping it carelessly back onto the hard wooden floor.
“Of course it was another nightmare...”, Anne mutters in a highly indifferent tone.
This was not the first time Anne had had this dream of waking up with Marcy by her side. The dream that she was not completely alone and had been abandoned by everyone she loved. The dream that everything is all right. The dream that she is happy. Night after night the same dream, which after the first week she no longer classified as a dream but as a nightmare. Not because of what happens in it, but because of what happens when she wakes up again.
In the first few weeks, Anne sank into a sea of tears every time she woke up after such a nightmare. Today, however... Anne can't even remember the last time she cried. Sure, she wants to cry but her eyes are completely dried out by this point. Comparatively speaking, this was one of the better nightmares today, as her feelings of utter despair and bottomless loneliness felt less severe than usual. Anne knows that she is severely depressed, so she appreciates her current state of emotionlessness. Better to feel nothing at all and numb than to feel something bad, is what she likes to think on days like these.
Suddenly Anne hears the front doorbell ring again. With a slight frown, she rolls her head slightly to the side towards her bedroom door. 'Oh... So the doorbell was real...', she thinks before deciding to ignore it completely. Instead, she turns her attention back to the bandages on her arms.
'Oh what the hell, I have to change them soon anyway...', she thinks to herself before starting to unwind the loose right bandage, which she then simply throws into a corner of her room, where there are already several more used bandages, many of them stained red by her blood. Her gaze lingers on her now exposed arm, which is covered in scars. Some of them are across her arm, clearly cut with a sharp object. Others are quite wide and run the whole length of her forearm, so deep that blood has flowed in places, created by her own fingernails. There are also a few scars from her time in Amphibia, but these are now fewer in number. At least in direct comparison.
Each of these new scars is a testament to one of her failures. At least that's what Anne thinks. Does it make sense? Is it rational? No one would blame Anne, especially in her current situation. But ultimately, nobody knows the whole truth except her.
No one but her knows about her failure to hold on to her friends. She wasn't good enough.
No one but her knows about her broken promises. She wasn't trustworthy enough.
No one but her knows about the killing desire she once felt towards her former best friend. She was a monster.
No one but her knows about her lowest point. The only witness being the single long vertical scar underneath her left bandage.
No one but her knows that at one particular moment she was ready to end it all forever. But she didn't even succeed. What a loser-
'Enough self-pity!', Anne declares in frustration before struggling to pick herself up from the floor. The main reason for this is that some jerk can't stop ringing the doorbell. “And what the fuck is wrong with this fucking doorbell?”
Fed up enough to finally do something herself, she pulls herself together. For a few moments she considers taking off the left bandage as well, but the repeated ringing of the doorbell immediately interrupts this train of thought. Since Anne is already wearing pants, she simply grabs the nearby zipper hoodie, pulls it on and stomps down the stairs to her room, not immediately to the door, but first to the kitchen.
“Is it too much to ask for someone to answer the fucking- ... huh?”, Anne shouts into the kitchen before she notices that there's no one there. Her gaze wanders towards the living room, from where she doesn't hear anyone either. 'Are they at work?'
With a shake of her head and another ring of the doorbell, Anne quickly dismisses the question and this time actually stomps straight to the door, which she throws open with all her might, ready to scream and beat up the asshole on the other side. When she opens the door, however, absolutely none of this happens.
“Took you long enough, Boonchuy.”
Anne is completely frozen.
“And admittedly, you look like absolute shit. No offense.”
Anne blinks.
“What is it? Do I have something on my armor?”
It's Sasha, standing directly in front of her, wearing her Toad Army uniform for some reason.
Anne vividly remembers their last interaction back in Amphibia when Sasha stormed off in a rage after Anne told her that Grime had turned himself in. Sasha's anger was, understandably, aimed directly and solely at Anne. Even days later, every attempt at contact was met with a 'Fuck you Boonchuy'. And now here she is, standing at Anne's front door, same outfit, armed with a sword, the only difference being that she's wearing her hair loose right now and that her expression doesn't show the hint of the rage that she remembers. She just seems slightly annoyed that she had to wait so long for someone to respond.
Anne finally finds her voice. “S-Sasha??? What are you doing here?”, she asks, confused.
“I’m here to talk with you, mostly.”
“Just talking?”
“Yes, Anne. Just talking!”, Sasha clarifies, her frustration rising. Anne, however, shows no reaction to this, “May I come in?”
Instead of answering verbally, she simply steps aside and lets Sasha walk past her. Anne closes the door behind her before she realizes that Sasha is climbing the stairs, which causes a slight panic within Anne. 'No way can Sasha see my room!'
“Sasha. Where are you going?”, Anne asks, pretending that everything is fine- that she is fine.
“Your room, duh.”, Sasha asks with a look that just says ‘obviously’.
“Living room!”, Anne speaks in a commanding tone. This is already the longest conversation she's had with anyone in weeks.
“But we were always in your room when we met...”, Sasha argues, honestly wondering what Anne's problem is.
“And you've lost that privilege. Living room.”, Anne replies coldly.
“Hm, fine.”, she blonde huffs and struts into the living room, where she sits down on the couch. Anne follows and sits down next to her... but as far away from her as possible. Sasha raises an eyebrow at her, but doesn't comment further. And Anne just sits there, waiting for Sasha to start with whatever she wants to talk about so badly.
Instead of talking, Sasha stares at Anne silently, her eyes jumping from part to part as if she's looking for something about her. She has a serious look on her face, but not caused by frustration or rage, she seems more... worried.
“Why are you staring like that?”, Anne asks in an accusatory tone, to which Sasha replies with some delay.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Sasha asks.
“N-Nothing happened.”, Anne tries to avoid the subject, but Sasha is having none of it.
“Uh-huh... Tell me Anne, do you remember my old nickname 'Queen of Manipulation'? Do you think I can't tell when you're lying to me?”
“As if I owe you anything...”
“Fuck yes you do!”, Sasha all but yells at her in response but quickly raises her hands in an attempt to defuse the situation, “Sorry- I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to yell at you.”
Anne merely crosses her arms in front of her former friend while inwardly she is almost crying. Sasha continues.
“Look, let me paint you a picture of what I see in front of me right now.”, Sasha explains without giving Anne a chance to object, “In front of me I see a girl who I remember as always having positive sunshine-attitude, who is now dressed like a dark rain cloud. A blabbermouth who now can't even say something like 'Hi. How are you?'. A girl who currently has such red eyes and dark circles underneath them, that even I wonder when she last had a really good night's sleep.”
'Shit, she knows...', Anne thinks to herself while her body can do no more than blink at Sasha.
“Your reaction tells me I'm right. So, back to my question: what the fuck happened to you?”
“What happened?! Take a wiiild guess, Sash!”, Anne demands, ‘Well, she caught me so I might as well just go all out’.
“Amphibia happened. You happened, and you murdered someone very dear to me. Imagine seeing your own family murdered right in front of you, dying in your own arms...”, Anne pauses for a moment to let the words sink in, “But then, as it turns out, he betrayed me as well by burying the music box instead of leaving it with people he knew to find out more about how we could use it to get back to Earth. But you too weren't finished yet. It wasn't enough for you to kill Hop Pop, you wanted to wipe out all the frogs... And if Marcy hadn't intervened, I wouldn't have been able to hold back against any of you. And speaking of Marcy, she had previously confessed to me that she was the reason we were stranded in Amphibia in the first place... So maybe you realize that all of this didn't leave me unaffected!”, Anne pauses again, and although it looks like Sasha wants to say something, Anne doesn't give her the chance, “But I was still able to cope with all of that until the day Andrias sent us home. You stormed off, understandably angry, but I stayed around and waited for Marcy to follow us. She never did and then the portal closed right before my eyes. She had made her choice and stayed behind in Amphibia. And I loved her so much, and-” Anne's voice begins to shake slightly and tears form at the corners of her eyes, “By that point, you could say, I've truly lost my marbles... he- heh- hehehehe”
Anne's laughter quickly turns into loud sobs that fill the living room. Sasha unable to bear the sight, scoots closer to her before enveloping her in a comforting hug.
“But- but that wasn't the end...”, Anne continues between her sobs, being hold by Sasha, “You continued to hate me, I lost my family, Luz acted like she didn't know me anymore, and my girlfriend just threw me away. I just- just- ... I just couldn't handle it anymore.”
“God, Anne...”, Sasha mutters as her former childhood friend lies crying in her arms, looking absolutely small. This is no longer the girl who was full of energy defending her village, no longer the girl she wants to hate more than anyone else. It's just a girl who, like her, has lost everything important in her life and couldn't bear all this burden and pain anymore. A girl, who broke down under it all.
The two of them remain in this position for a while before they hear the sound of a car arriving and parking outside.
“They're back already?”, Anne asks in a low voice. Sasha gets up from the couch and dares to look out of the living room window, from which she can clearly see the driveway. 'Nothing went as planned just now... I just wanted to offer Anne a chance to get away from here, but with her parents around and Anne's condition, I can forget it...'
Sasha sees Anne's mom get out of her van, but is not the only one, which is causing her eyes to widen in surprise and shock. “Just your mom... along with a few... guests.”
“What?”, Anne asks, confused, “Guests?!”
“Don't worry about it.”, Sasha says dismissively with a hint of anticipation and excitement, which only confuses Anne even more, “I'll take care of it.”
With that said, Sasha leaves the living room and steps out the front door, only to nearly run into Mrs. Boonchuy outside.
“Sasha!”, she exclaims excitedly, approaching her with a big hug, “Oh my god it's good to see you again.”
“Heey, Mrs. B.”, Sasha greets her back trying to stay cool, though she really welcomes this interaction right now. After all, Mrs. Boonchuy was more of a mom to her than her own mother for a very long time of her life.
“We were just at your house and were wondering why no one was there.”, Mrs. Boonchuy explains before taking a step back and getting her first good look at the outfit Sasha is wearing. But someone else comes to ask her questions about her armor before she does.
“Long time no see, Sasha! What's up with the armor?”, Luz stands next to Mrs. Boonchuy with her arms crossed and an aggressive expression on her face.
“Well, let's just say that I've heard you have some problems with robots...”, Sasha replies teasingly, which immediately makes Luz's jaw drop to the floor.
“W-WHAT? HOW?”
“There's something we need to have a little talk about.”, Sasha merely declares before turning her attention to the poorly disguised frog behind Luz. “Didn't think I'd see that little pipsqueak- umm, Sprig again. How the hell are you here?”
As if on cue, the five of them hear a loud bang, noticing Anne standing in the open doorway. Her eyes intensely focused on Sprig. She’s frozen. For a terrifying second, she wonders of she’s having another nightmare. But then Sprig’s voice breaks through her shock.
“ANNE!”
That’s all it took. She’s already moving. With a great leap, he pushes himself off the ground and jumps straight into Anne's arms, causing both of them to fall onto the grass as she catches him in her arms. The two friends laugh with tears in their eyes as they roll over the grass in each other's arms. Anne's laughter, however, can easily be mistaken for sobs. The outside observers don't dare interrupt this reunion. Mrs. Boonchuy smiles joyfully, also with tears in the corners of her eyes at the sight of her daughter.
The two reunited friends lie on the grass for minutes until the tears on their faces eventually dry up.
“I've missed you so much...”, Sprig mumbles into Anne's shoulder.
“I've missed you too. So so- so very much...”, she hugs him close one last time before she realized something, ”But- but how can you be here? Do you have the music box?”
Sprig, still holding on to her, shakes his head. “No, it was Luz. She can travel between worlds on her own and was looking for you.”
Unfortunately for him, Anne has already stopped listening to him after 'It was Luz' and instead turns her head in Luz's direction. Luz waves at her with a smile, while Anne glares at her with a fierce look. “Anne?”
Instead of answering Sprig, she grabs him, stands up quickly, and runs wordlessly into the house, kicking the door shut with her leg.
“Eh?”, Luz mutters after a few seconds, “What was that about?”
She glances at Mrs. Boonchuy, whose happy smile from a few seconds ago is now replaced by a dejected and exhausted frown on her face. She sighs.
“Come inside for now. I'll get you something to drink...”
As they enter the house, they notice the absence of Anne and assume that she and Sprig have retreated to her room.
“So, what do you want to drink?”, Mrs. Boonchuy asks as soon as they enter the kitchen.
“Coffee, please.”, Sasha replies without hesitation. Mrs. Boonchuy doesn't seem surprised.
“Let me guess: black, two sugars?”, she asks.
“You got it.”, Sasha smiles and winks at her, “Admittedly, coffee is one of the few things I've really missed from Earth. Sure, Amphibia has buggachinos, but it's really not the same.”
“Do I want to know what buggachinos are?”, Mrs. Boonchuy dares to ask as she starts to boil water, to which Sasha merely shakes her head. She then turns to Luz and Amity. “And what would you two like?”
“Tea, if possible. Doesn't matter what kind.”, Luz replies with a kind smile after a moment's thought.
“For me too.”, Amity says, "Thank you."
“Two herbal teas, coming right up.”
While the three girls wait for their drinks, Luz wastes no time in addressing Sasha about her previous statement.
“So, Sasha, what do you know?”, Luz asks with more than a twinge of aggression.
“I don't want to beat around the bush, so I'll get straight to the point. Do you recognize this?”, Sasha asks her, pulling out a bronze key with an eye-shaped button, at which both Luz and Amity gasp.
“THE PORTAL KEY??? But- but how? When?”, Luz asks in shock.
“Since you arrived in Amphibia. But it's only worked since I've been back on Earth.”, Sasha explains, her voice steady.
“And you- you used it?”
“Yeah, I stepped out in some forest. Ran into some friends of yours. What were their names again?”, Sasha thinks for a moment, “Uh, Skara and... something with W-”
“Willow?”, Amity interjects.
“Exactly.”, Sasha confirms it, “Anyway, they had some problems with robots, so I helped out a bit.”
“And now what? Do you want a reward or something?”
“By frog, would you mind toning down your fucking hostility?!”, Sasha kinda snaps at Luz.
“HEY!”, Mrs. Boonchuy interjects angrily, “No swearing in this house.”
“Sorry.”, Sasha half-heartily apologizes before turning back to Luz, “Seriously, this is really getting on my nerves. I understand that you don't like me, but I want to offer you my help here, so cut me some slack.”
“Wait- what?”, Luz stares at Sasha finding herself quite dumbfounded, “You want- to help? Why?”
Sasha rolls her eyes at her, “Is it so hard to understand that I'm not a bad person?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”, Luz replies, “You know what you've done.”
By now the drinks are ready, which Mrs. Boonchuy places in front of the girls before sitting down quietly next to Amity and, like the purple-haired witch, listening quietly to the girls arguing.
“Lemme get this straight.”, Sasha begins, “I'm not here to ask you if I'm allowed to help. I'm not going to stay here on earth and waste my time doing nothing.”
“But what about your parents?”, Mrs. Boonchuy suddenly interjects.
“What about them?”, Sasha asks back, “My mom has completely forgotten that I exist. It was like that even before we arrived in Amphibia. And do you want to know what the first thing Dad said after I got home was? He asked me 'How was school?'”
“Oh...”
“They won't miss me and I won't miss them.”, Sasha declares, and even Mrs. Boonchuy finds it hard to argue. She knows that since their divorce, Sasha's parents have been pretty neglectful. “Anyway, I know Andrias is in their world, which means Grimsey could be there too. He's the only family I still acknowledge and I'll do what I can to save him.”
“Um-”, Luz suddenly speaks up, “We don't know for sure if Andrias brought any prisoners from Amphibia. We only know about Lady Olivia, General Yunan, and... Marcy.”
“Marcy too?”
“Yes, but that's a bit more... complicated.”, Luz answers vaguely.
“Just more reasons not to stay here.”, Sasha declares, “I'm definitely going, whether you support me or not. However... it would be nice to have some allies on the other side.”
“Okay, but only on one condition.”
“I won't give you the key back.”, Sasha insists.
“Keep it. I don't need it anymore... Just... take good care of it. It once belonged to someone very close to me who is no longer around.”, Luz replies softly, "Anyway, my condition is that you teach me how to use a sword properly.”
“Eh?”, Sasha asks in utter confusion. She hadn't expected that. Her confusion only increases as Luz rips her necklace off her neck, which moments later transforms into a sword with a dark steel blade, that she now holds loosely in her hand. Sasha blinks for several seconds, not knowing what to say. Fortunately, Luz explains the situation to her before having to ask.
“The base for this sword is an empty yet modified Gem, like the one you, Anne, and Marcy have, though I fill it with my own magic.”
“Your own magic?”, Sasha asks before remembering, “Wait, right. You could do magic with those paper things. I remember how annoying that was...”
“Heh...”, Luz's face shows a brief smug grin, also remembering their fight. Sasha had won back then before Anne joined in, but Luz herself hadn't done too badly, “Yeah, but no. The thing is, I'm not fully human anymore.”
“What?”, Sasha asked, puzzled.
“What?”, Mrs. Boonchuy exclaims at the same time.
“It's... complicated, but I can say with confidence that I am the most powerful being in at least three worlds.” In response, the other two can do no more than blink silently at her. Amity leans over to them.
“I think you broke them.”, she whispers, which earns her a quiet giggle.
“So, the most powerful being in three worlds needs my help because she can't handle a simple sword, do I understand correctly?”, Sasha asks teasingly.
“That sounds so stupid coming from you...”, Luz mutters, kinda regretting what she just said.
“Anyway, if you want, we can start right away.”, Sasha offers, “Mrs. B, do you still have those wooden swords from years ago somewhere?”
“... Oh my god, I completely forgot. You three used to have a pirate phase...”, Mrs. Boonchuy exclaims in delight as she recovers those memories, “Um, go check the garage. If we still have them, they should be there.”
“Thanks.”
A little earlier…
Anne has just kicked the front door shut with Sprig in her arms and runs up the stairs to her room, which she also slams shut behind her.
“Anne?”, Sprig drops out of Anne's arms and watches her with a concerned look. She paces up and down her room, clearly feeling tense and on edge. She mumbles something unintelligible; she probably hasn't heard him. “Anne!”, he tries again, a little louder.
“What the heck Sprig!”, she snaps at him, her mood incomprehensible to him at the moment. Just a moment ago she was happy to see him again, then she ran off in a huff, and now she's angry with him? “What are they doing here? They shouldn't be here!”
“I mean, I can see what you have against Sasha, but what do you have against Luz?”, he asks, truly not understanding the whole situation. Anne merely huffs at his question.
“She knows exactly what she's done.”
“I kinda doubt that...”, Sprig states, not wanting to stand any longer and sits down on her bed.
Admittedly, this isn't the kind of reunion he's been envisioning and hoping for all this time. Sure, he knows she missed him as much as he missed her, but Anne has changed since they last saw each other. He's never seen her so upset and irrational... In other circumstances, Sprig would have been happy to explore the whole human world with Anne by his side, showing and explaining all sorts of new things to him. But even now, sitting in the middle of Anne's room on Earth, which is filled with all sorts of new stuff and textures just waiting for him to be explored, Sprig can't help but focus on his best friend and block out everything else.
“When I got back to Earth, I was looking for her. I called her and even talked to her, and she said she didn't know who I was!”, Sprig has the feeling that she's talking herself into a bit of a stupor, “And before you ask, it was one hundred percent her voice.”
“Anne- mmm... from what she told me, the last time she was here on Earth before today was in the summer. She said that she's only recently been able to travel between worlds herself.”, he tries to soothe her with a calm voice.
“Well, then she's just a liar!”, she exclaims, “Yes, she probably even left Amphibia on purpose back after the sleepover.”
“... You don't really think that, do you?”
“Why not?”, she leans in pretty close to him, bordering on too close, “Huh, Sprig? After all, all my friends have left me, so why not her too? Sasha hates me, Marcy ditched me, and Luz acts like she doesn't know me. Seems pretty obvious to me.”
“Then what are the two of them doing here, Anne? If they hate you or pretend to know you, why did they take it upon themselves to seek you out?”, Sprig points out the flaw in her logic, at which Anne keeps quiet, “To me, that doesn't sound like an action by people who left you... And you're also forgetting one thing: I owe it to Luz that I can be here with you now. Or do you think I hate you too?”
“I- mmm...”, Anne grumbles.
“Anne, I've missed you more than you know. The same goes for Hop Pop and Polly. And even Luz. In fact, she went all this way and expense because she needs your help.”, Anne remains silent while Sprig continues, “Anne... Wartwood has been destroyed.”
“WHAT???”, Anne jumps up, looking at him for the slightest sign that he was lying.
“It was Andrias. He had an army of Frobots and attacked Frog Valley with them.”, Anne's eyes water at his explanation, “Most of us are fine. We were able to evacuate most of the population underground, and we're fighting his troops every day. And according to Luz, Andrias has also attacked her world. She needs you- no, we need you.”
“W-what about Marcy?”, she asks, her voice shaky.
“You'll have to ask Luz.”, Sprig answers firmly. He can clearly see in her face how much she is currently struggling with herself and what to believe.
She lets herself fall onto her bed sitting upright.
“Idonwanna...”, she mumbles with a hint of... something. Is it shame?
Sprig stands up and moves to stand on Anne's upper legs so that he is directly at eye level with her. He gives her an unusually serious look, which takes Anne by surprise.
“Anne! What are you so scared of?”, he demands to know without understanding her actual state of mind. It's nothing but a not-incorrect guess. But Sprig is not finished yet, “You are Anne Boonchuy, my sister, and the hero of Wartwood - no, you are my hero... You have always fearlessly defended us or the village. You saved my life even before you knew my name, you defended Wartwood from the tax collectors at a time when you were not yet part of the community, you were ready to attack your own former best friend- admittedly, more out of revenge and blind vengeance, but still... So, what are you afraid of now?”
“I dunno...”, she mumbles lowly, “It's... complicated.”
“Why?”, he asks in an exasperated tone.
“Because I've changed, Sprig. I'm not that hero anymore- I don't deserve that title.”
“... Who says you have a say in that?”, Sprig replies, slowly getting a sense of what's going on with his best friend.
“Huh?”
“Anne, you've proven your worth far more than once as the hero and protector of Wartwood, and you have no right to escape that responsibility!”
“B-but my powers-”
“You don't need them.”, Sprig firmly replies, inwardly glad that Anne at least no longer denies her titles, “You haven't had your powers for most of the time. It was just you and just you. Your name is Anne Boonchuy, after all, and not 'the blue flame' or anything... Your skills are all yours, the ones you trained and mastered yourself.”
“But you said that Wartwood is destroyed. I already failed!”, Anne points out.
“Buildings can be rebuilt. Plants can be replanted. The people, the heart of Wartwood, are safe. And they need you to help make their world safe again.”
“But what can I do on my own?”
“No one said you were alone. You have me, and Luz, and Amity-”
“Who's Amity?”, Anne asks, interrupting him.
“Luz's girlfriend.”
“Wait... That's THE Amity??”, Anne's mood shifts abruptly, albeit this time to the positive.
“Yup. Luz managed to get reunited with her back then and you and Marcy can do it too.”, Sprig tries to inspire her with hope, which he's sure Anne has had absolutely none of since she's been back on Earth, “There are more people backing you up than you think, and not just in one world, but in three. You can get back everything you think you've lost. The only thing you have to do is get up, climb down the stairs, and talk to Luz. She has a plan to defeat Andrias and she needs all the help she can get.”
“...”
“The least you can achieve is to get an explanation from her about what happened when you tried to contact her. I'm sure it's all one big misunderstanding. And both that and your heart can be cleared if you just talk to her.”
“Sprig?”
“Yes.”
“I'll do it.”, Anne states, making Sprig's heart jump with joy on the inside, “But...”
“But?”
“I want a hug from you first. You have no idea how much I've missed you...”, Anne mumbles again with tears in her eyes but a small smile on her face. Sprig is only too happy to comply.
Only a few minutes pass since Anne hesitantly agreed to leave her room and talk to Luz. Sprig has jumped onto her shoulder as she leaves her room and hugs her hair while Anne herself tiptoes quietly down the stairs. Downstairs, she peers around a corner towards the kitchen and watches as her mom sits down next to the girl with purple hair, aka. apparently Amity, on the steps leading to the back garden, both with steaming drinks in their hands. Anne can easily peek out the back door into the garden, where she can observe Luz practicing basic positions, stances, and movements with a wooden sword under Sasha's instruction and supervision. At the moment it's vertical swings from above.
Anne decides to sneak a little closer to the point where she can hear her mom and Amity talking.
“Tell me...”, her mom starts.
“Hm?”, Amity turns her gaze away from Luz and looks up at her.
“How bad are things really?”, she asks, without taking her eyes off what's happening in the garden in front of her.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
Her mom sighs, “I'm not as oblivious as you might think. Do you think I haven't noticed that you guys deliberately avoid naming things? I'm definitely not too old to realize that you guys are hiding things. So, back to my question: how bad is it really?”, Amity thinks about her answer for a few seconds. “Before I decide whether or not to allow Anne to accompany you, I need to know how big a risk I'm sending her into.”
“The risk...”, Amity mutters as if her voice is currently having a thousand-yard-stare, “If we fail, Anne won't be safe on Earth either. No one will... At best she'll probably be captured, at worst killed on the open road.”
Anne's mom stares at Amity, her eyes wide with shock.
“Earth is still safe for the time being, but if we fail, it will be a target too.”
“I-”, Anne's mom swallows hard, “I'm assuming this is happening somewhere else right now...”
Amity nods solemnly, “The first strike killed my brother. And my birth mother... A lot of people have been kidnapped and killed, and the survivors are either hiding or fighting back. Like Luz and I and a lot of other people.”
“And what about this Amphibia?”, Anne's mom asks concerned.
“The main force is currently in the Demon Realm, my home, while Amphibia is Andrias' planet of origin. Luz had said that the planet used to be a beautiful, rural world prior to the invasion. With my own eyes, however, I saw nothing but ruthless destruction of nature and the production of more enemy troops.”
“Production?”
“They're exclusively robots.”, Amity explains, “We assume he's fighting with robots instead of organic troops because they're easier to replace, and organic troops might have trouble with his commands.”
“And they're produced in Amphibia?”, Anne's mom continues.
“Yeah.”, Amity confirms, “The inhabitants of Amphibia are fighting and sabotaging the troop production, while we will attack Andrias directly. It's the only way to protect all three worlds.”
“And what role is my Anne supposed to play in all of this?”, Anne's mom asks further, to which Amity just shrugs her shoulders.
“Admittedly, originally, before we left, Luz just wanted to make sure that Anne and the Plantars were still alive after Andrias and Da- umm, after we were told they were dead.”, Amity confesses, “Asking her for help only came up a while ago, probably from the powers she has that Luz told me about. I don't know the exact reason.”
“So... and how are you two holding up? After all, you just told me that you're both actively fighting in a war...”
“Luz... lost a lot even before the invasion started and she's determined not to lose anything and anyone else.”, Amity states, “As for me... I don't know. I have Luz by my side, which... helps. I'm sure that once we win, I'll go through at least five breakdowns at the same time. But I don't have time for that now. Not yet.”
“That's not healthy...”, Anne's mom commented, “You're practically still children. You can just stay on earth and-”
“That's not an option!”, Luz suddenly interjects loudly as she continues to focus on her exercise. For a tiny little moment, countless tiny little golden flashes shot out of her body, all no longer than a few millimeters, but still noticeable. “We are not willing to leave anyone behind, be it friends, family, or complete strangers. We owe it to all those who are already dead or have been abducted.”
“Dear-”, Anne's mom now directly addresses Luz, whose air thrusts are getting noticeably stronger by the second, “You are not responsible for the well-being of the world.”
“Of course I am!”, Luz exclaims with heavy breaths, “Without me, Andrias would never have found out about the existence of the Demon Realm.”
“And then what?”, Sasha speaks up now too, mirroring Luz's tone, “Then he might have attacked Earth directly! The point is, you don't know.”
At that, unexpectedly, Anne speaks up quietly.
“I gave him the music box...”, she says quietly enough that her mom and Amity realize she said something, but not what.
“Anne...”, her mom speaks softly.
“What did you say?” Amity asks her to repeat herself.
“I GAVE HIM THE BOX!”, Anne yells, causing both Luz and Sasha to stop what they're doing and to look at her, "Without me none of this would have happened...", she adds quietly as she averts her gaze to the ground. “Mom, please let me help them. I have to.”
“Honey, you don-”
“I do!”, Anne insists. Her mom sighs in defeat. With some effort, she gets up and approaches Anne. She puts her hands on her shoulders after Sprig hops down from them.
“And there's nothing I can say to change your mind?”, she asks her daughter.
“Nothing.”
“And you know exactly what you're getting yourself into?”
“I do! If it means I can save Marcy, I'll do anything.”, Anne replies with more determination than her mom has ever seen. She realizes that she is completely powerless.
“All right, but only under two conditions.”, her mom demands, at which Anne listens attentively. “One: you don't leave until you've said goodbye to your dad. Two... You come back to us.”
Anne smiles at that, from her mother's point of view for the first time in many, many months.
“I promise.”, she grins before her mom gives her a tight hug.
'To see her smile, to hear her talk, to have her around me... All this time since she's been back, I've had none of that. She's lost her place here and keeping her here would be torture... for all of us... Come on Oum, there's only one option.', she thinks to herself as she hugs her. Once they break off again, she sighs and looks at her daughter with damp eyes, "It hurts to let you go again. But to be able to see you like this, this sacrifice is a small one.”
“See me? How?”
“Happy.”, her mom replies, smiling.
“I love you, mom.”, Anne says, embracing her in another big hug.
A few minutes pass before they all find themselves in the living room. Anne, Sprig, and Mrs. Boonchuy are sitting on the couch with Luz, Amity, and Sasha facing them. Aside from Anne's mom, the girls and Sprig fill each other in on what's happened since they last saw each other in Amphibia and at least found Anne and Sasha back on Earth. Well, it's mostly Anne and Luz talking, with Sasha, Sprig, and Amity giving occasional comments or additional information.
“So he really did attack your world...”, Anne mutters for everyone to hear. It sounds like a question, but doesn't require any confirmation. “Then you, Luz, were really on Earth last summer... I'm so confused.”, she continues as she puts her head in her hands.
“Anne, your mom already told me that you tried to call me on your first day back. You know by now that you didn't actually speak to me. Can you tell me exactly what happened?”, Luz asks with a serious tone.
“Well... I knew you were from Connecticut, so I kind of searched online for phone numbers associated with the name 'Noceda'. I don't remember how long it took, but after a while I talked to a woman who I think was your mom.”, Luz feels a tinge of guilt this point in Anne's story, but doesn't let it show in her appearance, “I asked her your name and shortly after I heard your voice. But you- no, she said she didn't know me. I told her about Amphibia and that Belos guy and- she got all panicky and hung up...”
It's clear that Anne is having a hard time reliving this memory after trying to bury it for so long. Her body trembles slightly and Sprig leans against her, hoping to ground her and calm her down. At that, Sasha speaks up.
“Do you have a twin sister perhaps or something?”, she wonders.
“No, I've always been an only child. While my parents wanted-”, Luz breaks herself off abruptly and shakes her head, “Not important. But you've given me an idea.”
“And what would that be?”
“A basilisk.”, Luz answers, to which Amity nods thoughtfully in agreement.
“It would make sense... Basilisks can copy the look and appearance of a person absolutely perfectly and imitate said person.”, Amity explains, “They usually feed exclusively on magic, which is why I'm a little confused as to what one of them is doing on Earth and pretending to be Luz.”
“Or even when the Basilisk came here.”, Luz adds, “I mean, there's only one portal door as far as I know and Sasha has had the key since I arrived in Amphibia. And before that, Eda or I were always there when the door was opened.”
“So this basilisk... Is it dangerous to humans?”, Mrs. Boonchuy asks for the curiosity of not just her.
“It's hard to say...”, Amity replies, “Basilisks are generally considered extinct, but one attacked our school a few months ago and robbed people of their magic. Here on Earth, this essential element is missing. So I would say not really.”
“I still don't like the fact that one of them is pretending to be me and might even be a danger to my mom.”, Luz states firmly.
“If you want to fight, I'll come with you!”, Sasha volunteers, whereupon they all look at her with a confused ‘why’-look. “What?”
Luz shakes her head, “No, if I'm going back, I'm just taking Amity with me. It'll be bad enough having to face my mom after all this time.”, She takes a deep breath, “We'll manage.”
“Should we then head to your world already?”, Sasha asks, holding up the key.
“No, it would be better if we all went together.”, Luz decides, “Besides, you have no idea where our hideout is, let alone know the geography of the Isles.”
“Fair point.”, Sasha shrugs her shoulders.
“I suggest we leave together in the morning.”, Luz suggests, “That will give me enough time to talk to my mom... Admittedly, I'm not looking forward to it.”
“I can imagine...”
“Really?”, Luz asks skeptically, “Because unlike you guys, who were somewhat accidentally teleported to Amphibia, I ran away from home on purpose. And my mom doesn't know anything about that. She thinks I went to summer camp and am now living at her house... Oh god, I have to explain to her that she practically lived with an alien who stole my face for months...”, her voice is full of dread, “Anyway, we should get going. We'll be back tomorrow at the latest.”
“Wait!”, Anne suddenly gets up from the couch and heads up the stairs, “I've got something of yours...”
Luz and Amity look at each other in confusion. The others in the room also shrug their shoulders without knowing what she meant either.
Anne returns less than a minute later with an open backpack in her hand. She reaches inside and pulls out a blue and white hoodie.
“My cat hoodie!”, Luz exclaims in surprise before staring at Anne with wide eyes, “But-”
“After you disappeared, I took your things with me. It's all here.”, Anne replies in an indifferent no-big-deal tone. She hands Luz her cat hoodie, her gray-blue shorts, her sneakers, and her phone with the purple bat case. “Your battery is probably empty. I didn't charge it.”
“That's all right. Thank you, Anne.”, Luz gives her a grateful smile. The truth is, however, that until just now everyone present had forgotten that Anne had her things. The backpack had just been lying in a corner of her closet for a long time, forgotten and collecting dust. After Luz's alleged betrayal at the time, Anne actually wanted to destroy all her things. However, this idea was quickly forgotten after her first bad nights back on earth.
“Should I put your things away for you?”, Amity offers, “I have enough space for everything.”
“Thanks, Ami.”, Luz replies and hands her her clothes, which she immediately stows in her magic bag. Everything except her old phone, on the back of which Luz discovers a sticky note with a phone number on it. She looks at Anne questioningly.
“That's mine. Write to me as soon as you have power again.”, Anne says, which subliminally comes across as a demand.
“I... I'm not sure if my number is still active, but I'm sure it'll work out somehow.”, Luz replies confidently.
“By the way, Luz, there's something that just popped into my mind: you said you'd be back here tomorrow. Do you think your mom will let you leave?”, Sasha suddenly asks, glancing occasionally at Anne's mom. This question catches Luz off guard, as she stares at her for a moment before her gaze too wanders to Anne's mom. She takes a deep breath before answering quietly.
“She won't have a choice. This is bigger than her.”, Luz announces while Mrs. Boonchuy looks at her with a pitying look, "I'll burn the bridge as soon as I get there."
“I think the saying goes differently...”, Sprig mutters.
“Luz, dear, are you really sure you want to do this?”, Mrs. Boonchuy speaks up, knowing firsthand how it feels to lose her only daughter, “This could break your mother's heart.”
“She wanted to send me away so that I could become 'normal'. She didn't seem to have a problem with it at the time.”, Luz states indifferently, “Besides, there's too much at stake right now that I won't give up just in order to protect her feelings. I do hope I can convince her, and if not...”
“Bridges and stuff?”, Sprig finishes her sentence for her, whereupon she nods reluctantly.
“A-Anyway, we should get going.”
“Do you want me to drive you somewhere?”, Mrs. Boonchuy offers. Secretly, she hopes she can spend more time with her trying to convince Luz not to break her mother's heart.
“Thank you, but that's not necessary.”, Luz declines her offer before turning to Sasha, “You should take a few steps aside.”
Intrigued, the blonde follows the instruction and moves to stand next to the couch. Luz grabs Amity's hand and moments later golden lightning bolts appear around Luz's arms, encircling the two girls as if in a narrow spherical shape made of strange symbols. Of course, this is only from the perspective of uninformed people like Mrs. Boonchuy, Anne, and Sasha, who stare at the two girls with wide eyes.
“Close your eyes. It's going to be very bright.”, Luz warns those present before the two of them disappear into thin air seconds later with a blinding flash of light.
Silence returns to the Boonchuys living room, which Sprig eventually breaks.
“I think I'm blind...”, he mutters, prompting Anne to chuckle.
Yesterday evening, about 4000 kilometers away...
Camila once again had to work a late shift at the clinic after two of her colleagues were out sick. Her shift normally ends at 6pm on Fridays, but it's been weeks since she was actually able to clock out on time. It is just over 9 p.m. by the time she finally arrives home.
“Mija, I'm home.”, Camila calls out after she lets the front door fall shut and locks it behind her. Vee's face, in her Luz disguise, pokes out of the kitchen with a smile on her face.
“Hi mom.”, she greets her, “Did you have to work overtime again?”
Vee walks up to Camila and gives the overworked vet a warm hug, which she is only too happy to accept. Camila really is at the end of her tether, so now she's taking every bit of energy and positivity she can get.
“Ernesto and Riega are sick.”, Camila reports powerlessly, before noticing a fragrant smell, “What smells so good?”
A wide grin appears on Vee's face, “I cooked dinner. I figured it was going to be late again today, so I thought you should at least have a little less to do here... I also took the liberty of vacuuming the house.”
“Luz, you didn't have to take all this on yourself...”
“But I wanted to. You've more than earned some rest for everything you do for me.”, Vee declares with a proud chest, "That's the bare minimum."
Camila can't help but be utterly stunned, even if this is far from the first time her daughter has been so genuinely compassionate and helpful since returning from summer camp. She remembers all the chaos personified that her daughter was before. Her room really was always pure chaos, she never helped around the house on her own, only after being asked, and since she's been back, she seems like a completely different person. And to this day, the question gnaws at Camila's subconscious as to whether the camp was really the right decision. However, the question quickly becomes irrelevant every time she sees how happy her daughter is. And not only that, she's even in a romantic relationship with a really great person.
“You know, I had an idea.”
“What is it?”, Vee asks, tilting her head to the side curiously.
“What do you say we have a family day tomorrow?”, Camila suggests, “We play games, cook something to eat together, maybe watch a few early Christmas movies... What do you think?”
Vee's face literally lights up, “Can I invite Masha?”
Camila laughs, “I knew you'd ask that. Of course. They're practically family already.”
Vee practically starts beaming with joy and runs past her up the stairs towards her room, “I'll ask them right away if they're free tomorrow!”
“Heh, young love...”, Camila chuckles nostalgically, ‘Oh Manny, if only you could see Luz. Our girl has grown up so much... You would be so proud.’
The next morning, there's an early knock at the Noceda residence. So early, in fact, that the first rays of sunshine have just barely emerged on the horizon. Vee, who could hardly sleep with anticipation, hurries to the door to let her partner in.
“Hi Masha.”, she exclaims happily, “You're up early.”
“Hey, cutie snake.”, Masha says with a teasing tone, “You're up early too. I was actually hoping to break in and sneak into your room to wake you up.”
“Wouldn't have worked. I've been up for a while.”, Vee invites Masha in and takes off their rather thick-looking coat and hangs it up.
“Is your mom awake yet?”, they ask, to which Vee replies with a shake of the head, “Well, I think she's awake, but she's probably still in bed. I'm just about to prepare breakfast.”
“Do you need help?”
“From you?”, Vee asks, feigning distaste, before winking at her, “Always.”
In the months since Vee landed on Earth, she has come a long way. Back then, everything was new, strange, and downright terrifying. The people- humans, unfamiliar sounds, and a constant sense of danger still lingering from her time on the Boiling Isles. Everything was a threat. Her time at camp taught her a lot, not only about human companionship, but she also experienced friendship for the first time in her life. Sure, there were the other escaped basilisks back on the Isles, but the relationship between them all was always a bit... awkward.
Over time, Vee learned not only about the world, but also about Camila's real daughter, Luz. Before her escape to Earth, she had seen her exactly once, just long enough to copy her form.
After Camila picked Vee up again after the camp was over after all those weeks, she had a pretty general idea about the human world and how things work, but still had no idea how to behave towards Luz's mother. On the way to the camp, Vee had hardly spoken, which Camila put down to supposed nervousness. On the way back, Vee had talked a lot more, mainly about everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks. By the time they arrived “home”, Vee had caught her first glimpse of Luz's personality. In a single word: chaos. At first, Vee was a little reserved around Camila, but equally so when it came to claiming Luz's things for herself. Sure, Vee had her own things, but hadn't dared to go near the things that weren't hers. She wasn't even willing to lie down in Luz's bed and instead claimed the top of the double bed for herself.
About a month into living with Camila, Vee decided for herself that the real Luz wasn't coming back. Sure, her guilt bit her a little when she packed up Luz's things and threw them away, but at the same time she saw it as a new beginning for herself, a chance to live her own life. Something she never had before. The only thing she didn't go for was her disguise. Not because she didn't want to, but mainly because she couldn't. Transforming requires magic, which is in very short supply on earth. Sure, Masha was once able to buy some magic-imbued playing cards for Vee from some weird guy, but they would have lost their magic by now if Vee hadn't eaten them all. Since then, she has been running on emergency reserves. Every change to her disguise costs money, which is why she quickly settled on a standard disguise for herself and even started wearing actual clothes instead of shaping them as part of herself. And over the last few months, this method had worked very well and not just because of the dropping temperatures that she didn't know about.
After the 'incident', the day she not only revealed her secret to Masha, which had almost been discovered by another person earlier, Masha had tirelessly helped her build up her confidence and slowly reduce her fears and anxieties. Thanks to their help, Vee can lead a fear-free life as her own person. Not only free of fear, but thanks to Masha's influence, the basilisk-in-hiding is becoming increasingly bold. It's not just Masha themselves that Vee has the confidence to do things to and with, the two of them have even talked about the possibility of letting Camila in on her secret. However, Vee is not willing to do this. Confessing everything to Camila would mean losing everything she has come to love over the last near six months. Well, apart from Masha, who has sworn to stand by her side regardless of what life throws at her.
A few more hours have passed and the three of them are sitting comfortably snuggled up on the couch in the living room with full stomachs, watching a Christmas special of a show that Camila had picked out. Sure, Christmas is still couple few weeks away, but she felt like it. Camila sits with a steaming cup of tea on one side of the couch, snuggled up in a cozy blanket, with Vee snuggled up to Masha, who are sharing one blanket between them. Masha sips a hot chocolate while Vee drinks a now almost empty mug of plum juice.
“Hush up, both of you. Oh, sorry about this, girl. We are just three passing, perfectly ordinary roof people, doing some emergency roof things. Carry on. Merry Christmas. If, if it is Christmas, I mean. Heh, heh. I don't much care for things like that, myself. Pfft. I mean, Christmas.”
“... Are you Santa Claus?”
“Me? No. Oh, no. It's ridiculous. Heh, heh. No, no, no.”
“Rudolph! Rudolph! Down here now! ... ... All right, fine, yes. Yes, it's me. Ha! Guilty. How did you recognize me?”
“Okay. No. Hang on. Stop. Shut up. What? Seriously, you, you're Father Christmas. You're real.”
“Of course I'm real. How do you think those presents got under the tree every year? By magic?”
“Well, I thought it was my mum and-”
“Heh, I love Clara.”, Masha chuckles.
“I like her too.”, Vee agrees, “She seems the most likeable of them all so far.”
“Really?”, Camila asks doubtfully, rising an eyebrow at her, “I thought you liked Amy the most.”
“Hey, I'm still allowed to change my mind, aren't I?”, Vee asks in return.
“No, you aren't.”, Masha teases her with a smile.
“Oh shut up.”, Vee replies playfully and snuggles closer to Masha as her whole body is suddenly flooded with an intense feeling of panic and fear. She sits up stiffly and with an absolutely terrified expression, her gaze bounces back and forth all over the room. Her desire to escape has jumped from zero to two hundred in an instant.
“Luz, what's wrong?”
'I'm scared to death!', is what Vee would like to say. “N-nothing, m-mom.”, she stutters instead. “L-let's just keep watching.”
She tries to calm her nerves when, even after almost half a minute, nothing unusual or dangerous has happened. She tries breathing exercises, rhythmic finger exercises, or whatever else she thinks might help her to calm her nerves. All things, of course, that Masha and Camila have been concerned about and witnessed in their entirety, and which for some reason or another don't work for the basilisk-in-hiding.
Every single one of her instincts is screaming at her with a single order: RUN!
Vee believes she's a little calmer by now, but jolts up in horror when she hears the creak of a wooden plank. Her body is now completely frozen with fear. Now standing and looking towards the living room door, she realizes to her absolute terror that a person she had hoped never to see again is standing in the doorway.
“You!”, that person growls deeply.
A few minutes earlier...
Just a few seconds after Luz and Amity teleported away from the bright and, for this time of year, comparatively warm Los Angeles, the two girlfriends find themselves in a dark, cold, wet, and generally rather run-down cabin. For Amity, a shiver runs down her spine.
“Don't tell me this is your house!”
“It's not.”, Luz replies, “As far as I know, this cabin has been empty for at least eight decades... Though I used to play here when I was younger.”
“... A-Anyway, how are you feeling?”
“Hm? I'm fine, why do you ask?”
“You're anything but fine, Luz.”, Amity replies sternly, “Are you really ready to hurt your own mother?”
“You don't know her.”
“Exactly.”, Amity agrees, “You never shared much about your life before you came to the Isles. But based on what a great person you are, I can't imagine your mom is a bad person. At least not like Odalia.”
“She-”, Luz grumbles softly, “Can we talk about this after we take care of the basilisk?”
“It seems to me that you'd rather not talk about it at all.”, Amity crosses her arms.
“That's... not wrong.”, Luz admits hesitantly, “It's just a bad time... ... No, that's not true either. I'm just worried that... that if I think too much about what I'm going to do or plan ahead, I'll just break down and become completely useless in the future when I'm really needed. And I can't afford that.”
“Luz, don't you think that's inevitable when you run into your mom again?”
“Not if I bury all thoughts of it deep down and don't let it get to me.”
“Keeping it all bottled up inside you will only make it worse.”, Amity remarks.
“I can deal with it once we've defeated Andrias and Darcy. Everything else can wait.”, Luz decides, which simultaneously marks the end of the subject. Amity sighs in defeat. Luz approaches the door to the outside, where the afternoon sun is shining through its slits. Before she can open the door, however, she is held back by Amity, who locks her in a tight embrace from behind and rests her head on Luz's shoulder. Luz herself says nothing and simply places one of her hands on Amity's forearms and gives another squeeze. No words are needed to know that Luz has more than needed this hug. Amity's hugs have always been magical in their own way as they keep Luz's mind somewhat grounded, which, at times like these, she needs more than anything.
The two girls exit the cabin and carefully make their way to Luz's house. The entire distance is only a few minutes, but for Luz the walk really cannot be long enough. Today is the first time in months since she last faced her mom. Back then she had lied to her, disappointed her, and abandoned her when she ran away. She wasn't there on the death anniversary of her father or even her own birthday. And saving her from the basilisk today is the first step to making amends. At least that's the plan. What could go wrong?
They cross the street from where the two of them can see light coming from inside the house. Luz also notices her mom's car in the driveway, which means she realizes that at the very least she is home. At that, she stops and pulls out Owlbert, who changes from his wooden form into his owl form and looks at Luz with a tired expression.
“I'm sorry I woke you-”, she apologizes, “but I need your help. Can you fly around the house and tell me who's inside?”
Owlbert hoots affirmatively, spreads his little wings, and jumps off her hand. Less than a minute later, he returns and lands on her hand again. According to his report, there's an older woman inside, as well as two girls, one of whom, confusingly, looks exactly like Luz.
“Yeah, don't worry about it.”, Luz caresses him, "You can go back to sleep now. You did well."
Owlbert transforms back, and Luz turns to Amity. “Mom's in there, as well as the basilisk and some other girl.", she reports.
“A second basilisk?”, Amity wonders. Luz thinks for a moment.
“We can't rule that out, even though I doubt it.”, Luz replies after a while, “We'll just see how she reacts and then decide spontaneously.”
“Okay. How should we proceed when we're inside?”, Amity asks, “Attack on sight?”
“Nah, I think my mom would totally freak out if we did that.”, Luz reasons, “We confront it and try to push it away from mom.”
“Magic?”
“Not until it attacks first.”, Luz decides, “We should also try not to get too close. Don't let it repeat the attack on Hexside.”
“Yeah, don't remind me...”, Amity says, slightly embarrassed, “Anyway, I'm ready.”
Luz nods towards her and the two of them walk up the steps to the front door, which fortunately isn't locked yet and opens without a single noise. They tiptoe into the hallway, but stop abruptly when they suddenly hear noises coming from the living room.
“Luz, what's wrong?”, Luz hears her mother ask. She gasps inwardly at the sound of her voice and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that a few happy tears well up in her eyes as well. Amity puts a hand on Luz's shoulder, who turns to her with a smile and rubs the tears from her eyes.
“N-nothing, m-mom. L-let's just keep watching.”, they hear another voice say. It is clearly Luz's voice, but not Luz who has spoken these words. A fact that fills the real Luz with rage. 'How dare that thing use her name!'
At that moment, all plans to stay hidden fly out the window and Luz steps into action moments later.
“You!”, Luz growls deeply as she catches sight of the basilisk wearing her face. “How dare you, basilisk!”
The basilisk addressed gasps in horror, and is even on the verge of hyperventilating, nothing of which Luz notices. The half-human has nothing else on her mind but to expose and defeat her opponent, so she doesn't even notice the reactions of the others.
“Oh no-”, whispers the still-seated teenager, while her mom looks back and forth between her two apparent daughters, totally overwhelmed by this situation.
Basilisk-Luz stumbles backwards, completely terrified as Luz walks menacingly towards her. “No! Nononono!“, it cries out in panic, “I'M NOT GOING BACK!”, it screams as it looks around for a way out, “I AM NOT GOING BACK!”, it cries loudly, turns around, runs, and jumps out through a window.
“Ami, outside!”, Luz exclaims as she herself runs off in pursuit of the basilisk. “Hi mom, sorry mom, I'll explain later.”
Amity runs back out the front door with her staff in her hand, while Luz follows the basilisk straight through the window, leaving two people behind.
“ShitShitShitShitShitSHIT-”, Masha mutters under her breath, panicking.
“M-Masha, what just h-happened?”, Camila asks, having great difficulty understanding what just happened.
Masha stands up, ready to follow and save Vee. “Something very bad. I'm sorry, but I have to help her.”, she answers and runs to the front door without hesitation, following the three girls into the woods behind the house.
Vee's greatest fear has come true. Surrounded by trees, the young basilisk is currently running for her life while she is being chased by the real Luz and a witch from the Boiling Isles.
“I AM NOT GOING BACK!”, she yells at no-one in particular. Her heart pounds wildly in her chest and her panic increasingly tightens her airways. With tears in her eyes, she runs past trees and through bushes. She knows that she really has no other option but to fight. 'I'm sorry, Masha.'
Luz is only about five meters behind her, while Amity tries to cut Vee off on her staff from the side in order to encircle her. Vee can't do anything against Luz, believing her to be fully human, so she takes a sharp angle behind a tree and runs towards Amity.
Vee stops only a few meters away from Amity in the undergrowth and does what she was specially created to do. She puffs herself up and absorbs all the magic coming from the witch. Amity tries to dodge, but accidentally hits a tree with her staff, loses control, and falls to the ground. Vee continues to suck, but stops after a few seconds.
“LEAVE ME ALONE AND I'LL STOP!”, Vee demands, shouting loud enough for even Luz to be able to hear her. She waits a moment for a response, but all she hears is a metallic clang followed by the heavy thud of a tree hitting the ground less than a meter away from her. Vee's whole body trembles and her blood freezes, but before she can see what exactly has happened, she feels the cold of a blade against her throat.
“Move and you'll lose your head!”, Luz whispers into Vee's ears from behind.
Holding her sword in this position, Luz steps forward and allows Vee her first closer look at Luz's face and she feels frozen in a state of terror. It's not the sword at her throat or the expression on Luz's face that tells her she's serious about her threat, it's a scent she's completely overlooked before now. Normally, witches and demons have an odor about them, corresponding to their magical potential, while humans appear completely odorless to basilisks. And Luz is not odorless. On the contrary, Luz, who should not smell at all, smells as if all the ambient magic on the Boiling Isles has been pressed and compressed into her comparatively tiny body.
Luz turns briefly to Amity, who is approaching her, limping slightly and using her staff as a walking stick. Her tone changes abruptly from the way she was talking to Vee.
“Ami, are you okay?”, she asks worriedly, but a single look from her is enough of an answer, “Okay, let me help you.”
Luz raises her free hand towards Amity and sends golden lightning bolts from her hand straight into Amity's body. A few seconds later, all the stolen magic is replenished. Vee's legs give way and she falls to the floor in fear of her, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“So...”, Luz speaks up, pointing the tip of her sword threateningly directly into Vee's face, “Speak!”
“Idonwannagoback.”, Vee mutters under her breath, crying and unable to speak.
“DON'T HURT HER!”, Masha has finally caught up with the other three girls and positions herself with her arms spread wide between Luz and Vee, who is slumped on the ground. Luz raises her sword, now pointing it at Masha.
“Are you a basilisk too?”
“No, I am a human.”
“Then step aside! This doesn't concern you.”, Luz lowers her sword slightly.
“I'm not moving!”, Masha declares with determination, “I'm not leaving my girlfriend alone.”
“Girlfriend?”, Luz thinks to herself, confused. “She's a liar and a thief!”
“She's a refugee, a survivor!”, Masha all but yells.
“Elaborate!”
Before Masha gets the chance to explain anything, Amity speaks up.
“Please be quiet for a moment, everyone.”
“Wh-”, Masha tries to ask why, but is stopped by Luz's blade, followed by a be-quiet gesture. Silently, the girls watch as Amity simply stands there with her eyes closed, her pointed ears twitching occasionally. It's just a hunch she has, but she listens intently into the forest. She hears the rustling of the leaves in the wind, the heavy breathing of the three girls in front of her, and possibly the source of her queasy gut feeling.
“We were followed.”, Amity calmly states before opening her eyes, she draws a quick magic circle and fires a series of abomination bullets in the direction of one of the thicker trees. Bullet after bullet hits the tree, one of them eventually hitting something metallic. Her spell has penetrated a cloaked Frobot that was spying on the girls in a treetop, which now tumbles to the ground. She hit a shoulder that shot off one of the arms.
The Frobot eventually lands on its legs.
“Mission failed. Stealth broken. Surveillance no longer possible.”, a flap opens in the Frobot's chest, showing a countdown from ten, "Self-destruct initiated."
“Shit!”, Luz and Amity yell in unison as they immediately jump onto action. Not thinking they could destroy the Frobot in so little time, they decide on a different strategy. “Amity, wrap it up.”
Amity immediately uses the abomination-goo of her bullets and molds them around the frobot, forming a thick, solid sphere around it. Luz activates earth magic and plant magic and creates a cocoon of thick roots, reinforced with solid granite from deep within the earth, three layers thick. “Get down!”
The countdown begins and the Frobots' energy core overloads in a matter of moments, instantly destroying Amity's barrier. Luz's cocoon is thinner at the top than at the base, so much of the explosion and blast wave is deflected upwards. On its way, it destroys all trees, treetops, and even clouds immediately above their position in a widespread cone shape. The ground beneath them cracks and shakes, and Luz has placed herself protectively over Amity, while Masha has placed herself protectively over Vee.
A few seconds later it is all over again, and the forest in a radius of around fifty meters is destroyed with no more than two-meter-high tree trunks left standing. Even in the clouds above them there is a round hole with a radius of several hundred meters.
Luz lets herself fall backwards onto the ground, filled with relief. She even starts laughing briefly. “But of course it wanted to kill us again...”
“But to explode immediately?”, Amity follows suit, though not quite as immune to the shock of what happened as Luz is, “The other one didn't do that.”
Luz exhales deeply, “I think they're interconnected and this one wanted to prevent a shutdown just like the one in LA did.”
“That... does make sense, I guess...”
For a brief minute, both Luz and Amity forget the presence of Vee and Masha, the latter of the two checking on Vee to see if she's okay. The poor thing is absolutely frightened and in tears, shaking all over her body. Even parts of her Luz-disguise have started to change back to her normal basilisk form. Granted, after that thing just now, Masha isn't doing too well for the most part as well, but they're holding it together. For Vee.
“W-what was that?”, Masha raises up on their knees towards Luz and Amity. Luz is the first to stand up and answer her question.
“Well, it seems your little girlfriend has not only fooled everyone here, but also a thousand-year-old dictator-asshole.”
“What?”, Masha asks, understanding absolutely nothing.
“Never mind. The thing was a robot, sent to spy on her- me.”, Luz explains, “The real target was me, but since she stole my identity... You know the rest. So, back to the topic-”
“WHAT HAPPENED HERE?”, another voice reaches the four of them. It's Camila, completely beside herself with panic and at the end of her tether, having just witnessed the end of the attack and the current extensive destruction. Frantically, her gaze snaps back and forth between Luz and Vee, who is lying in Masha's arms. Her gaze glides through the fresh forest clearing, but also upwards, where she now spots the hole in the sky for the first time. “M-Masha, what's going on here?”
It says a lot that the panicked mother doesn't ask her own daughter/daughters first, but this third party known to her. Admittedly, Luz didn't want her mother here in the first place, but takes this opportunity.
“That's right, Masha! Why don't you enlighten us?”, Luz mocks them. Masha gives her a disgusting look.
“You are disgusting!”, they angrily spit at her, while she hugs the cowering Vee close to her, “There are only six of her kind left, and she is number five. Brought back into existence for research by this Belos guy. She's spent her whole life in captivity, being experimented on and tortured daily. She was thirteen when she saw the sunlight for the first time and escaped with most of the others. They were hunted, separated from each other, and left to fend for themselves. And then she saw you!”
Luz feels a tinge of guilt at her tale for how she's behaved so far, but Masha isn't done yet. Camila listens to their words in shock and confusion, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Luz and the girl in Masha's arms. Masha continues.
“She saw you, Luz Noceda, and her chance to escape her life of running once and for all. You, who ran away from home to another world because of a stupid summer camp and she took your place, which you threw away oh so willingly!”, Masha continues angrily, “And another thing: the camp was actually great. If only because I got to meet this incredibly brave, innocent, and amazing being. Everything you are not.”
Camila has been listening quietly and slowly it clicks in her head. Her gaze slides from Vee and Masha to Luz.
“L-Luz?”, she asks hesitantly and anxiously. Luz returns her gaze for less than a second before lowering it in shame, “Is that true? You- you ran away, and- and she-?”, Camila looks at Vee, where she discovers glimpses of her real form. Vee returns Camila's gaze with the fear of an abused puppy, “A-and you... All these months- and you- you're not-?”
Vee, still holding tightly onto Masha, looking at her over their shoulder at Camila, slightly shakes her head.
“I think I need to sit down...”, Camila sighs exasperated, “Can we please talk at home?”
Luz raises her eyes again and frowns, looking at Vee and Masha. At that, Amity takes her hand and speaks up.
“Luz, I think we've established enough that she's not a threat to anyone.”, she argues in a soft voice, “Let it go.”
The half-human takes a deep breath and transforms her sword back to her necklace, “Okay.”
Luz and Amity approach Camila, Vee, and Masha, but the latter has something to share.
“Don't get too close to her!”, Masha threatens Luz, who looks mildly uninterested.
“Alright, then I'll do it differently.”, Luz announces, and activates her teleportation spell, which teleports the five of them back to the Noceda's living room in an instant.
Camila's body trembles, her gaze seeking out Luz. “What was that? How-”
“Magic, mom.”, Luz explains, “A lot has happened since you last saw me.”
“M-magic?!”, Luz nods at that. Camila blinks at her daughter speechlessly for several seconds, “I need a drink.”
She turns around and makes her way to the kitchen, where she pours herself a glass of red wine. The others follow her. Camila downs the glass as quickly as if it were water before pouring herself another one.
“O-okay, let me get this straight: my daughter ran away from home almost six months ago, and the girl I thought was my daughter since then is a...?”, Camila looks questioningly at the girls in front of her.
“I- I'm a basilisk.”, Vee stutters anxiously, still with tears in her eyes, “I'm able to change my form and I pretended to be your real daughter... I'm sorry.”
Camila takes a deep breath, “It's not your fault, mija. I am not blaming you- for anything.”, Vee smiles slightly, "By the way, since you are not Luz, what should I call you?"
Masha speaks up, “Umm, after I found out her secret- I'm sorry I kept that from you too, by the way- anyway, we sat down together afterwards and she decided on the name ‘Vee’.”
“Vee, huh? That's a nice name. I'm happy you're here, Vee.”, Camila smiles at the basilisk with failing disguise, which starts to sob weakly at that and throws itself into Camila's arms. Camila's compassionate tone changes rapidly as her gaze shifts to Luz. It is... sad.
Luz doesn't know how to feel right now. On one hand, she's pretty happy that the Basiliksk-that Vee isn't a threat to her mom, but at the same time, she feels guilty for how horrible she acted towards a perfectly innocent creature. She's glad that her mom was so cool with the news about the existence of magic, but Luz feels conflicted about the fact that her mom is hugging a semi-alien girl who still partially wears Luz's face. No, she knows exactly how she's feeling. She feels replaced, and it clearly shows on her face.
“Luz, was living with me really that terrible for you?”
“No.”, Luz answers curtly.
“Then why-?”, Camila asks, her expression hinting of desperation.
“Don't you really know?!”, Luz asks angrily and pauses for a moment, “You were ready to send me away because of the way I was and you thought I needed to change, to ‘fit in’. You wanted to turn me into something I wasn't... Don't get me wrong, the decision to run away wasn't easy for me.”
“But why- when-”
“When you said you had to leave for work.”, Luz replies, her voice indifferent, “I found a door. A door that connects ours to another world. The Demon Realm.”
“Demons?”, Camila's eyes widen.
“And witches, yes.”, Luz confirms, “You're holding one of these demons in your arms right now, by the way. Anyway, I met a witch. The most powerful witch, Eda Clawthorne. And I made a deal with her.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Well, she was the one who owned the portal door, and for a small favor for someone else, she was willing to send me back.”, Luz recounts vaguely, “It all went well and, in the end, she was willing to keep her end of the deal. But I was now faced with a choice: Do I want to return to a world where I had no friends and where even my own mother couldn't accept me for who I was, or do I stay and pursue my dreams?”
“And you chose to leave me?”, Camila asks with a shaky voice.
“You threw me away the moment you signed me up for this camp!”, Luz retorts with a lot of pent-up anger in her voice, “For Vee and Masha, this place may have been a wonderful experience, but for me, it was the biggest breach of trust imaginable.”
“I just wanted you to live your life without any more worries or struggles...” Camila argues, “You never got along with other kids, you kept ending up in the principal's office, and you almost got expelled.”
“And you thought I should have been the one who needed to change? For them?”, Luz asks critically, “For those who bullied me for years? For those who put me down verbally and physically for years? I remember insults like 'Luzer', that 'the world would be a better place without me', or that 'I was to blame for dad's death'.”
“Humans called you that?”, Amity's broken-sounding voice suddenly speaks up, to which Luz immediately turns. The purple-haired witch's face is filled with rage, but also with visible tears at the corners of her eyes.
“I- I didn't know.” Camila stutters. It is actually the truth.
“I know. I didn't tell anyone, after all. Well, at least not after the first few times, when the teachers didn't do anything, which only motivated the people even more.”, the indifference in Luz's voice remains unchanged. Inwardly, however, she regrets that she has hurt Amity with her words. The witch behind her is raging with anger and rage beyond measure, her fists completely engulfed in purple flames for a moment. Luz stealthily grabs one of Amity's hands from behind her back, which at least restores some of her self-control.
“And why didn't you ever tell me?”, Camila asks.
“It all started shortly after we moved here, and your thoughts were mostly with Dad's health. After he died, you - we both were completely devastated. I could see how much you were suffering and I didn't want to make it worse by adding my own problems.”
“Luz, I-”, Camila starts, but she is interrupted by Luz, who doesn't seem to have finished yet.
“After he died, Dad left me a book. Do you remember which book it was?”, Luz asks, at which point Camila's face lights up with recognition. And regret. “I owe it to him that I fell in love with the Good Witch Azura series. But it's been so much more than an obsession for me, mom. It's made the hard days so much more bearable. Dad's death, the bullying.... And I wouldn't have met Amity without it.”, Luz turns to Amity with a smile, who returns her smile after a moment of realization.
For Amity, Luz has always been a person who wears her heart on her sleeve but has buried her past deep inside her. And now suddenly learning so much at once is not so easy for the young witch to digest. 'Luz? No friends? My Luz???' was one of the thoughts that made absolutely no sense to her. From her perspective, Luz was a whirlwind of social energy from day one and made her first friends, Willow and Gus, even before her first official day at school. The idea that there are people who would dislike or even hate her perfect Luz is completely unfathomable.
Camila looks back and forth between the two smiling girls as she comes to a second, perhaps even more important realization. Her heart leaps for joy, but she is unable to ask her about it because Luz is still talking.
“Believe it or not, I've made friends in the Demon Realm. Willow, the most powerful plant witch, Gus, the most talented illusionist, Skara, a musician who can play more instruments than I can count, Viney, a healer who keeps a full-grown Griffin as a pet...”, her tone shifts abruptly from joyful to sad, ”Eda, the most powerful witch who took me in and looked after me... King, a sweet demon who was like a little brother to me...”, Luz sniffs once before her tone lights up again, ”And those are just the ones from one world.”
“... You just said 'was'...”, Masha notes. Luz flinches at that.
“They're... gone.”, she admits, ‘And there was nothing I could have done to save them.’
Camila doesn't like the implications at all. She can see that Luz is trying to hide it, but she recognizes the pain in her eyes.
“Luz... Don't.”, Amity says softly.
“Don't worry. I won't go into details.”, Luz tries to reassure her.
“Luz, mija, what happened to you?”, with a shaking voice, Camila finally asks the question that has been on her mind for a while now. Her face, her eyes - something bad happened to her in the time she was away. Something broke inside her.
“In short: I lost.”, Luz replies in barely above a whisper, struggling to keep her emotions under control. She swallows hard before she continues, “Both a lot and many.”
“Oh Luz...”, Camila replies sympathetically, not sure what to say. She knew- felt- that there was something weighing heavily on her daughter's heart, but hearing it out loud makes it all the more real. Instead, she instinctively reaches out to her and wraps her in her arms, which instantly breaks all her dams. Loud cries fill the house, raw and unrestrained, filled by months of suppressed pain and grief releasing all at once. Luz clings to her mother as the tears flow like a never-ending waterfall. “Shhhh... It's all right. You're back home now... Let it all out.”
Luz shakes her head violently against her mom’s shoulder. It is not all right. It can never be alright. Nothing can ever return back to the way it used to be. Nothing she did can be undone.
That sentence, although well-intentioned, is one of the reasons for her pain. Or rather, the one that is yet to come. Everything that has built up inside her so far is flowing out of her right now. All those she has lost. All those she has abandoned. All the hopes that weigh on her. The guilt for the invasion of the Boiling Isles. The guilt for the suffering of so many witches and demons- frogs, toads, and newts... All the consequences of her choices, and all the secrets and lies.
“I'm so sorry, mom!”, Luz chokes out, her body trembling with feelings of guilt pressing into her ribs like a knife.
Camila gently strokes her hair, where she now notices the little ponytail for the first time. Luz clings to her mother, who radiates a warmth that she has missed more than she had realized. The safety and comfort she feels in her arms...
“No, I'm sorry.”, Camila says in a soft voice, “I was wrong to expect you to change. You are perfect, Luz. You are my light, the brightest star in the night sky.”
At that, Luz only cries harder. How can she be light when all she has done is to bring darkness? How can she be the brightest star when all she feels is the crushing weight of everything she lost? And yet, she clings to her mother anyway.
From behind, Amity lays a gentle hand on her back. Because admittedly, the purple-haired witch feels absolutely helpless right now. The love of her life is crying her eyes out, and there's nothing she can do for her right now. There are no comforting words that could help her. She watches as tears gradually form in Camila's eyes as well and hugs Luz closer to her.
Luz's sobs don't subside. If anything, they only get stronger, more painful, more desperate. Only barely intelligible words come out of her mouth. “I tried... I tried so hard, mom... I couldn't help anyone.”
For Amity, this scene becomes more unbearable with every passing second. Although quieter, she also sheds tears for her girlfriend. Nevertheless, she feels completely out of place, totally out of place and like an intruder. Fortunately for her, she is not the only one who feels this way as her gaze snaps to Vee and Mashe, who seem to be leaving the kitchen inconspicuously and offer to accompany Amity with a nod of their heads. Her gaze wanders to the reunited mother and daughter one last time before she decides to give them some space.
Vee and Masha lead Amity out of the kitchen, up the stairs to the upper floor, and towards a room at the end of the corridor. Amity, however, stops in the middle of the hallway, staring at a wall full of framed pictures above a dresser and spread over the entirety of the wall. Pictures of Luz as a toddler, laughing and being thrown into the air by her mom. Pictures from one of Luz's birthdays, where she grimaces as she tries to blow out the candles on a cake. A picture of Luz and her mom, where Luz is wearing a ridiculous looking purple pointed hat. A picture of Luz with both of her parents. A picture of Luz with lots of long braids, measuring her own height. Amity can't help to chuckle at these, though it's a sad one.
“She looks so happy...”, she mutters under her breath before wiping tears away from her eyes. She doesn't realize that Vee is approaching her in her true basilisk form.
“I have to admit that I don't know much about Luz, but what I do know is that my first impression of her was wrong.”, the basilisk speaks in a hesitant tone of voice. It must be incredibly hard even for her to just talk to one of the people they were chasing less than half an hour ago.
Amity sniffles, “Yeah, mine too.”
“I... I have to ask; how did you find out about me? Why did you come here?”, Vee asks. She already knows part of the reason, but she still needs to hear the answer for her own peace of mind.
Masha joins the three of them and offers to talk about it, though not necessarily in this cold hallway. They enter Luz's old room, currently Vee's, and offer Amity the desk chair while Vee and Masha sit down on the bottom of the double bed.
“This is Luz's room, isn't it?”, Amity wonders quietly.
“More or less.”, Vee replies, “After I thought she wasn't coming back, I... threw away most of her things away.
Like posters, figurines, manga... something like that. After what I heard today, I kinda regret the whole thing a bit.”
“Mhm...”, Amity merely nods. She should be angry, but all she feels is indifference. It might be different if Luz were standing right next to her and if Camila hadn't accepted the basilisk into her family earlier, but it is what it is.
“Um, back to my question...”
“Right.”, Amity nods, “You hurt one of Luz's friends deeply a while ago, though probably unknowingly: Anne. Does that name mean anything to you?”
“Y-yeah... And she wanted to get revenge?”
“No.”, Amity replies softly, “Listen, a few months ago, a full-grown basilisk attacked several schools on the Isles, including Luz's and mine. It had claimed to be a representative or something from the Emperor's Coven and injured many students and teachers. Our concern when we heard that someone was impersonating Luz here, was that the people here, and especially Luz's mom, were in danger.”, she explains before bowing her head in shame, “I want to apologize for that, by the way. You are not a threat and we acted wrongly. I am sorry. Luz most likely is too.”
“I accept.”, Vee replies unexpectedly quickly.
“Really?”, Amity and Masha ask in surprise.
“Yes, on one condition.”, Vee says to which Amity nods, “Why does Luz smell like the Isles? I mean, using my nose, I am able to scent magic, and she doesn't smell like a witch or a demon, she smells like the Isles themselves. How is she able to do magic?”
“That... is a very complicated question with an unbelievable answer...”, Amity has to blink several times before being able to formulate an answer, “The short answer is that Luz is no longer fully biologically human. She's half human, half... Titan.”
“Impossible.”, Vee comments, “There are no living titans. How could Luz change half her species?”
“I can try to explain it the way Luz explained it to me, but I can't promise I'll get it right.”, Amity offers, which Vee accepts.
Some time passes as the three of them talk. Amity tells Vee as best she can how it is possible that Luz has become half titan, but also answers questions from the excited Masha, who asks incredibly precise questions about her as a witch but also magic in general. In the kitchen, however, Luz has largely cried most of her tears, and the two of them have sat down in the living room.
“M-mom?”
“Yes, my angel?”
“There are still a few things I need to tell you.”, Luz's gaze is averted from her mother in shame.
“That can wait until tomorrow. You should get some rest first.”, Camila says sympathetically, but Luz shakes her head resolutely.
“No, it's too important!”, Luz insists, “The thing is... something happened when I was away... w-with me...”
“You mean why you can use magic?”, Camila asks, “Granted, I still can't get my head around the fact that this is all real. Magic? Other worlds? Witches and demons? That I have two daughters now?”
“Mom, please. This is serious.”, Luz says.
“I'm sorry, but after everything that just happened, I just need this.”, Camila replies, “Please, go on.”
Luz exhales deeply, “The blood running through my veins is no longer red.”
“Huh?”, Camila asks, not understanding. “What do you mean, your blood is no longer red?”
Luz thought she was going to ask this question. But it's better than saying 'Hey mom, I'm not fully human anymore. Surprise!'
“That's not all.”, Luz says, not answering her question immediately, “Can you please get your stethoscope?”
Camila has a thousand questions in her head right now, but does as her daughter asks. She gets her stethoscope and returns to the living room shortly afterwards. Luz points to her left heart, which Camila listens to.
“I... don't hear anything abnormal.”, she comments. Luz then grabs the end of the tube and pulls it over her right heart. Camila's eyes widen in shock. “Wha- You have two- That's not-”
“It's complicated to explain, mom-”
“Someone implanted a second heart in you???”, Camila cuts her off, feeling quite angry right now.
“N-no. Like I said, it's complicated.”
“Luz... Please don't keep me in suspense like this.”
“Someone... something asked me for help.”, Luz tries to be as vague and family-friendly as possible, “And to accept this help, I needed a kind of blood transfusion to make me stronger.”
“Stronger? Luz, please speak clearly. You're not making any sense.”, Camila asks with a hint of desperation. Luz takes a deep breath.
“There are many different kinds of life in the universe. Humans, witches, demons, anthropomorphic amphibians, and so-called titans.”, Luz begins to talk calmly. Well, at least as calmly as possible, because her hearts are racing in her chest, “Titans are physically extinct, and their bodies form the landmass for life in the Demon Realm. One of these Titans forms the Boiling Isles, the place where I have been living for the last few months. This Titan has been dead for millions of years, and from its corpse, biological life has formed over the years with the ability to utilize a simple form of Titan magic. Can you follow me that far?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with my question?”
“I'll get to that in a moment.”, Luz replies, “When a Titan dies, its magic goes out of control. In the case of the Boiling Isles, several blood capsules have teleported across many different planets and formed caves full of crystals filled with magical energy. What also splits is the Titan's consciousness since it doesn't die with the body. And it was one of these consciousness shards that asked me for help.”
“And what were you supposed to do?”
“It asked me to free the main consciousness, which is being kept suppressed by a third party.”
“That sounds... terrible.”, Camila remarks, "But didn't you say something about a blood transfusion?"
“Mhm.”, Luz nods, “Figuratively speaking, that's true, yes. As far as I know, the shard gave me all the magic that was available in the cave. However, to protect me from any negative effects, he had to make a few adjustments... to my body. Including the second heart.”
“Including that?! What else?”
“Um, I have a life expectancy of close to fifteen thousand years and I can't be harmed with magic.”
Camila gasps in shock. And that wasn't even the biggest bomb Luz had prepared. However, Camila has to let that sink in first. She lets herself fall powerlessly against the back of her couch.
“That is... a lot to take in.”, Camila's voice is quite weak, “And- and you didn't make any of this up?”
Luz shakes her head. Normally this question would bother her, but in these circumstances, it is completely understandable. “But that's not all...”
“There's more???”
Luz nods slightly, but swallows hard, “I... I won't be able to stay here.”
“Huh? What?”, Camila stutters.
“I have to go back to the Boiling Isles. I'm needed there.”, Luz argues, but this falls on deaf ears with her mother.
“Let's talk about that tomorrow.”, Camila declares and struggles off the couch, her head buzzing with new, overwhelming information, “I... I need a good night's sleep after all this.”
“But mom-”
“Luz, we'll talk about it tomorrow!”, Camila interrupts Luz sternly, “You need to rest too.”
Luz lowers her head in defeat, at which Camila leans down and gives her a little hug. “I'll clean up here. Why don't you go and join the others? I think they've gone upstairs.”
“Okay, mom.”, Luz stands up too, dejected, “I love you.”
“Luz!”, Amity jumps up in relief and joy, hugging her tightly with all the love she can let out at once. “How do you feel?”
“Idunno...”, Luz lets her head rest powerlessly on Amity's shoulder, “I told her about myself- what I am now.”
“And how did she react?”
“She seems to believe me at least.”
“That still doesn't sound very promising...”, Amity notices, at which Luz nods, “Mom wasn't willing to listen to me when I said we had to go back.”
“Hey, don't worry your cute little head about it. We'll work it out.”, Amity says confidently, before giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks.”, Luz smiles.
“Um, when you talk about going back to the Demon Realm, you're not talking about me, are you?”, Vee inquires. Her voice sounds joking, but everyone present knows full well that this is a genuine concern of hers.
“Hm? No.”, Luz replies, her expression serious, “No one should really have to be there at the moment if it’s not necessary.”
“Do I want to know why?”, Masha wonders.
“No.”, Luz and Amity answer at the same time.
“Fair enough.”, Masha shrugs her shoulders.
“But Vee...”, Luz speaks up, “Maybe this is a good time for you to explain to me what you did to my room...”
The evening comes to a pleasantly quiet end. Masha went home a while after dark, and Camila went to bed early, as announced. She had offered Amity a mattress to sleep on beforehand, which she declined with a glance at Luz. Until the three remaining girls went to bed, Vee was the center of attention. For example, in the form of a video recorded by Luz in which Vee sincerely apologizes to Anne. Luz had been able to charge her old phone, which she wanted to use to send it to Anne, but she found that her number was no longer active. Vee explained that she told Camila that she lost her phone during the camp, long before she learned what it was.
This was followed by an apology from Luz for her earlier behavior, which Vee accepted without hesitation, given her circumstances and the previous apology she got from Amity. Not long after, the three of them eventually went to bed. Vee, who sleeps alone in the top bunk, and Luz and Amity, who share the bottom bunk.
However, this night turns out not to be a long one for the two girlfriends. Luz is the first to wake up since she has set a vibrating alarm on her scroll for seven in the morning. The sun has not yet risen and it is quite chilly even inside her room. Her gaze wanders to Amity, who is still fast asleep opposite her, as well as Ghost and Owlbert, who have made themselves comfortable between the two girls and also seem to be fast asleep. Luz's gaze wanders further down her bed, where Vee's tail is sticking out over the edge of the top bunk. She also overhears a light snoring from the top bunk.
'Heh...', she thinks to herself, amused, before turning to look at her old room as a whole, 'It's been so long since I last slept in my bed. Or in a bed in general. When was the last time? In Newtopia, during the sleepover? Gosh, it feels like it's been more than two and a half years now...'
Luz's gaze falls on the sideboard next to the window. She remembers all the figurines she has collected over the years and all the posters she has put up on the wall, all of which are now gone. Only the shadows still remain.
She carefully pulls the blanket off her and moves to sit on the edge of her bed, where she takes a deep breath. 'What was it that Anne's mom said? Anne doesn't belong in this world anymore, or something, right? Maybe that applies to me too... Anne's home is in Amphibia, but where is mine? I love mom, but what else do I have here? Anime? Cartoons? The internet? ... Is that enough for me to live here permanently? Fifteen thousand years is a long time... On the Isles, I've built a life for myself, with my own friends, my own little family full of lovable weirdos. What will it be like when we have defeated Andrias? Anne, Sasha, and Marcy will probably want to go back to Amphibia. ... I could visit them. I could always come visit mom too, come to think of it... or even abuela. With my powers, I don't need plane tickets to cross an entire ocean...', Luz cuts herself off, sighing inwardly, 'One thing at a time.'
Luz turns to Amity and gently strokes her hair to wake her up.
“Luz?”, she asks after barely a minute in a completely sleepy voice. She is still a little too loud for Luz's liking, so she encourages her to be a little quieter, “It's still early.”
Luz smiles at her, “Come on. We should head out.”
“... What about your mom?”, Amity whispers, concerned.
“I'll be back as soon as we've sorted it all out.”, Luz replies confidently. Amity sighs in defeat, but doesn't say anything else. Together they wake Ghost and Owlbert and make as much effort as possible to dress as quietly as possible so as not to alert Vee to their plan.
Tiptoeing out of the room with their shoes in their hands, Luz quietly closes the door behind them. With a guilty rumble in Luz's stomach, they sneak past Camila's bedroom door and down the stairs. At the front door, they put on their shoes and return their palismen to their wooden forms before quietly leaving the house.
“And where are you going?”
Luz and Amity are startled when they suddenly discover Vee in front of them. Not asleep, but wide awake and in her basilisk form. And she's blocking their way with her arms crossed.
“Vee.”
“Are you really going to break her heart again?”, the basilisk asks, clearly upset, “She's only just won her real daughter back and you want to take that away from her again?”
“This is bigger than her.”
“That is your reason?”
“It doesn't matter what my reason is. People are going to die if I don't go back!”, Luz argues, trying with all her might to get her point across. Sure, she could just overpower Vee, but she wants to build a positive relationship with the basilisk in the future, if possible.
“Tell me, what's happening on the Isles right now that can't wait a single day?”
“An invasion.”, Luz replies coldly, “Yesterday's robot? Thousands are swarming over the Isles right now, kidnapping or killing everything in their path. And if we don't defeat them, Earth will be their next target.”
“I... I don't care what happens to the Demon Realm.”, Vee states, “But if mom- if Camila is in danger...I won't stop you.”
She slithers out of the way, but watches the two girls keenly. Before they pass her, Luz speaks up again.
“Thank you. And if you want, you can keep pretending to be me.”, Luz offers.
“Pass. I want to see who I can be myself.”, Vee replies, “And even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I don't have enough magic left for a complete transformation. Don't know why, but your teleport sucked powers from me too.”
“Then let me help you.”, Luz offers, grabbing Vee's hand and pouring a large amount of her magic into the basilisk's body.
“Thank you.”, she quietly says after barely half a minute. The amount Luz has given her is about the same as if Vee had to steal from three hundred witches combined. “Um, by the way: Can't you teleport? Why are you leaving on foot?”
“There's one place I want to see again first.”
“That... doesn't really answer my question, but okay.”, Vee turns and walks back into the house. “Masha was right about you…”, she mutters under her own breath as she closes the door behind her.
“How do you think she got down here before we did?”, Amity wonders, at which Luz looks at the house to her open window. Amity follows her gaze, “Ah, I see. So, this place where you want to go...”
“I'm sorry I didn't say anything, but this idea came to me rather off the top of my head. Since you met my mom, I'd like to introduce you to my dad as well.”, Luz explains. Amity grabs Luz's hand, Intertwining their fingers with each other.
“I'd love to meet him.”, Amity replies with a smile.
The walk to Gravesfield Cemetery is a comparatively short one of just a few minutes. The streets leading there are brightly lit by streetlights and it is so cold that the two girls' breath is clearly visible in the air. They reach the cemetery entrance, consisting of a thick stone arch with old-looking lanterns attached to either side.
They pass through the gate and no longer walk along a stone path, but along a gravel path with these old path lamps at regular intervals along the sides. There are trees at regular intervals all over the grounds, their dense leaves contributing to the mood, which right now is not exactly sad, but rather melancholic. They walk past dozens of different rows of gravestones until Luz eventually turns off the main path onto a somewhat narrower one. From then on, it's only another twenty meters until Luz and Amity arrive at their destination.
“We're here.”, Luz announces.
Amity looks at the grave in front of her, a concept that is completely foreign to her, as in the Isles the dead are all cremated without exception. There are no graves there, but no gravestones either. Despite the strangeness, she thinks the concept of the gravestone is a nice idea. Luz's father's gravestone is made of a beautiful polished andesite stone with something engraved on it.
Manuel 'Manny' Noceda
26th of November 1982 - 22nd of August 2013
=We are eternally grateful for the time we had together=
“Hi dad.”, Luz interrupts the silence of the cemetery, “I'm sorry I missed your anniversary this year. B-believe it or not, but I was in another world. Well, two, technically. I've made a lot of friends and learned a lot in that time. I think you'd like my friends. Heh, especially Gus, though I think he'd give you at least an earful. Maybe more like three.”, Luz jokes, “Anyway, I'd like you to meet someone: This is Amity.”
“H-Hi, Mr. Noceda.”, Amity feels a little weird talking to a rock, but she does it for Luz, “Um, I honestly don't know what to say... I should probably say thank you. Luz said that she only discovered the Good Witch Azura because of you, and if she hadn't discovered the series for herself, I don't think I could be where I am today. I love your daughter; she is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Before I met her, I was nothing more than a puppet of my birth mother, and it was Luz who showed me a world beyond that... There is so much I owe to her, and- and don't worry Mr. Noceda. I will stand by her side and protect her until the end of my life.”
“Uhh, Amiiiii!”, Luz squeaks before giving her a big kiss on her cheek. “Anyway, dad, even though my life isn't perfect right now, I hope I can make you proud. And if you run into a witch named Eda or a little demon named King in the afterlife, please say hi for me and tell them I love them and miss them very much. Just like you...”
Luz takes a few steps back with Amity. “Love you, dad.”
“This was nice.”, Amity speaks softly, resting her head on Luz's shoulder. “I didn't know humans could talk to the dead.”
“Heh, they can't. It's more of a symbolic conversation.”, Luz explains, “Usually mom and I come here every year on the anniversary of his death and tell him about our year. That way he stays in our hearts forever, mom always said.”
“It's a nice tradition.”
“Yeah...”, Luz mutters. The two girlfriends share a nice moment of silence, “Are you ready to leave?”
“I'm going wherever you're going; you know that.”, Amity replies, her body just too comfortable to move.
Luz starts to cast her teleportation circle when suddenly an unexpected voice is heard that is filled with utter panic.
“LUZ! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
It's Camila. Apparently, she ran the entire way in her home to the graveyard, her bathrobe flapping in the freezing cold wind, and her slippers nearly slipping off her feet. She must have bolted out the door, half-asleep, not even stopping to think about the temperature. Vee most likely woke her up and told her everything. Luz’s magic bathes the entire scene in golden light, and despite the distance, Luz can clearly see the tears and despair in her eyes. She pauses her spell, which, to outsiders, must look like a dome made up of bright gold lines and symbols just hovering in the air.
“Leaving, mom. I told you about it.”, Luz is trying not to take this situation too much to heart. Her voice is firmer that she feels.
“You want to leave me again?”, Camila’s voice breaks at the last word. She slowly approaches the dome with the two girls within, “Why don't you tell me, Luz? Tell me if I'm a bad mother!”
“It's not about you, mom!”, Luz all but yells, clenching her fists, “If I don't leave people will die! If I don't go, a whole world will be wiped out, and Earth will be next!”
Camila violently shakes her head, not understanding anything. “What are you talking about?”, she cries, her tears now clearly illuminated by the light of Luz's magic, her sobs echoing through the empty cemetery.
“It's a war, mom.”, Luz replies sternly, though feeling like she’s on the verge of collapse.
“War?!”, Camila screeches, “Luz, you're fifteen! This is way too dangerous!”
“Yes, I know that it’s dangerous! But I can't stand to see any more people die, mom! Eda was petrified! King was petrified! Hop Pop was murdered! I was the one who brought him back to life!”, Luz now gasps, her words spilling out faster than she can control them, “You see this dome? This is me! Nobody can do that but me! No one but me can save the people who have been kidnapped or avenge those who have already been killed. Amity here lost her brother and her mother, and I couldn't bring them back!”, Luz talks herself into an abyss so that she doesn't realize how her façade is beginning to crumble and tears are already actively streaming down her face.
“Luz…”, Camila whispers, “You're not God.”
“But I'm the closest thing there is!”
“Luz, please!”, Camila falls to her knees in front of her, not caring about the gravel under her knees, the cold air, the tears freely streaming down her face, and she now begs her with all her heart, “Please don't go. Please don't leave me.”
Luz’s entire body aches. She wants to run to her, she wants to throw her arms around her mom, to bury her face in her shoulder, and sob like a child. But that’s the thing: She cannot afford to be. She swallows the guilt that suffocating her.
“I'm sorry, mom. I will come back to you.”, Luz promises.
She forces herself to avert her gaze. She forces herself to resume the spell. And within mere moments, they explode in a burst of light… leaving Camila alone.
She reaches out to where her daughter has been just moments ago, grasping nothing but air. It is completely silent, except for the weeping of a mother.
Even before the light disappears completely, Luz’s legs buckle beneath her. She collapses onto her knees, barely noticing the grass she landed on. Her entire body in trembling, her hands are shaking, her breath is unsteady. The air is crushing her, her breath catches in her throat.
Then, all at once, everything bursts out of her. “AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
A scream full of agony tears though the night, ripping from the deepest parts of her, where she pushed down every bit of guilt, shame, fear, and exhaustion. She collapses forward onto her hands, her fingers digging into the earth. She is barely able to breathe through her sobs, the pain in her chest in unbearable.
Luz made a choice.
She promised to not hurt her mother.
She promised to not make her cry.
And yet, she left her alone- no, she chose to leave her alone.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!”, another heart-wrenching scream escapes into the night.
Amity cannot do more than hug her with all her might, trying to share her pain, to share her grief.
Within the house next to the garden that the two girls landed in, one by one the people inside get woken up by the noise. The first one to approach them is Anne.
“What- happened?”
Notes:
So, did you think that chapter 49 was long already? HA! This is a special chapter, so of course I had to make this one even longer ^^
To be perfectly honest, I did not plan for this chapter to be this long. It just happened. And I won't promise that it won't happen again... Anyway, not for the announcements that I mentioned in the previous note:
- I'm sure many of you already saw it, but last December I commissioned the amazing Dr. Neque to draw a scene from ALO's 5th chapter. If you haven't seen it yet you can either go back to chapter 5, or click here.
- Since this is ALO's 3rd anniversary, I wanted to do something special, so I commissioned him again to draw a scene from this very chapter. Watch out on his socials (Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr,
- From Monday, Feb. the 3rd, 12:00 (UTC) until Wednesday, Feb. the 5th, 23:59(also UTC) I will be hosting a public Q&A on my Discord-server for everyone interested. Invite: https://discord.gg/79H6Mkve3K
See ya next time or during my Q&A
Chapter 51: Meanwhile on the Boiling Isles, Again!
Notes:
If you're expecting a continuation of chapter 50: Well, you're out of luck. You have to wait for the next one for that :P
(Also, for a short time, 'A Lost Owl' now holds the title of 'Longest Owlphibia-fic on the Internet')
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Days earlier, moments after Luz and Amity entered the portal to Amphibia...
The interdimensional portal just fizzles out, leaving Liwin, Lady Olivia, and Hooty stunned behind at the Owl House. Okay, admittedly, it’s more Liwin and Lady Olivia than Hooty as the latter doesn't react nearly as strongly as the other two. While Liwin knew about Luz and Amity's research into teleporting and portal spells, meaning that she knew they were working on it, this was still the first time she'd felt such an intense magical aura from a single spell, cast by a single individual. Lady Olivia, on the other hand, merely stares wide-eyed in amazement at the empty spot in front of her, where she could just catch a glimpse of her old home mere moments ago. To say it felt surreal is no exaggeration.
“That's... impossible...”, the royal newt mutters under her breath, “Are they really-”
“Yes.”, Liwin replies immediately, “I don't know exactly how long the two of them have been working on this, but Luz's goal to return to Amphibia has been established for a long time. Not that that's relevant to you... Regardless, come back in, we're not finished yet.”
“I understand.”
The interrogation. Lady Olivia had almost forgotten about it. Just like the glowing, transparent ring circling her underarm. The one that would kill her if she ever lied while the spell is active. At least that's what she was told, but honestly? She has no desire to find out whether that is true or not.
She and Liwin sit down again in exactly the same seats in the living room where they were just sitting.
“Granted, since Luz and Amity have pushed their part of the plan ahead, we need to speed this up as well because I need to let the others know.”, Liwin explains.
'So there really is a plan to defeat Andrias and Darcy...', Lady Olivia thinks to herself, “I see.”
In the end, Lady Olivia turned out to be a rather useless captive, at least in terms of strategically valuable information. She knows nothing about the castle's defenses or of the troop transports, nothing about the abductees, and nothing about the Frobots. Only the latter is not a problem thanks to Alador who is slowly making progress with his own research. In the end, the only thing she could tell Liwin that was of strategic value was that she knows the entire layout of Andrias' castle by heart and is willing to draw up the plans for them.
And for that very reason, the two of them are now standing outside the Owl House, ready to set off for the CATs' hideout. Lady Olivia has gained enough of Liwin's trust that she no longer needs to be held prisoner in isolation.
Directly in front of the Owl House, Liwin prepares her staff for the journey, while Lady Olivia still stands at the door facing Hooty.
“Hooty.”, to Liwin's surprise, Lady Olivia performs a small curtsy, “I want to thank you. Both for your company and for your, admittedly unorthodox but courteous, hospitality.”
“It was an honor, my lady.”, Hooty also bows(?), “Please come again anytime you want to visit us at the Hotel Hooty-HOOT!”
“We'll see.”, Lady Olivia smiles before she joins Liwin, sits behind her on her staff, and the two of them take off together.
“Um... what exactly was that just now?”, Liwin wonders, a hint of disturbance in her voice.
“Hm? You mean Hooty?”
“Yeah. It almost sounded like you two were like friends... Admittedly, that's not something I could relate to. I mean, as a healer, I've dealt with a lot of different witches and demons, but nothing comes close to this... creature.”
“My thoughts were exactly the same at first.”, Lady Olivia admits, “From what I had observed of him in the first few days, he didn't seem to have a high intelligence, but a great desire to be found useful. Or no, not useful... involved is a better word. Once I realized that, I was able to control his mannerisms to a certain extent, which made my time a lot more bearable.”
“Uh-huh.”, Liwin comments, 'She admits to manipulating him... Hmm, it's probably better if Amity's spell remains active for now.'
And as if Lady Olivia had read her mind... “If you don't mind me asking, this truth spell...”
“Ah yes. If you're asking if I can remove it, the answer is 'no'.”, Liwin replies, "This is what is commonly referred to as an 'Everlasting Oath', a promise between two parties with the Titan himself as a witness. The only ways to get rid of it are to break the Oath, not necessarily an option in your case, or to wait for Amity and ask her to undo the Oath once she returns. The only other known scenario I can think of is if one of the two people involved suddenly dies. That would also dissolve the Oath.”
“I would not dare to hope for the death of a child!”, Lady Olivia exclaims in utter disgust at the very idea.
“Then you'll have to wait.”, Liwin states, “I can't tell you how long the two of them will be gone, though.”
“That's... all right. Sure, it's frustrating, but I'm old enough to be able to wait a little longer.”
“Old? What can I say then?”, Liwin jokes with a short yet loud laugh.
The flight from Owl House to the CATs' hideout took just under thirty minutes and was unexpectedly uneventful. Lady Olivia would have liked to get an aerial view of these new, foreign lands, but Liwin had insisted on flying near the ground to avoid being spotted by enemy troops. On the last sprint of her flight, Liwin flew into a dark forest, full of trees about half the height of Newtopia's outermost walls, allowing only about five to ten percent of the sunlight to even touch the forest floor.
Liwin slows her staff moments before the two of them arrive and land in a clearing. In its center and standing directly in front of them is a huge wooden house - no, a manor, built without any sense or understanding, without any sense of architecture or structural engineering, but... with charm. Lady Olivia recognizes at first glance that this house is several generations old and has been extended and altered piece by piece over the decades and centuries.
The two of them enter the manor and end up in what looks like a spacious dining room. To their left is a huge, round window, where a pink-haired girl with three eyes is sitting on an elongated bench, reading a book. Opposite her, sitting on two chairs simultaneously, is a woman who Olivia can only describe as truly colossal. With short, flaming red hair, a height of more than two and a half meters, and shoulders so broad that with that muscle mass she could be dangerous to Andrias if the two were ever to face each other in an arm-wrestle match. Sure, Andrias would win on sheer body mass alone, but this woman would at least stand a chance...
“Huh? You're back already?”, she asks as Olivia and Liwin close the door behind them.
“The others left already?”, Liwin asks in return instead of answering the question.
“Yo. The last group left ten minutes ago.”
“Dammit...”, Liwin curses mildly before turning to Olivia, “Looks like we didn't have to hurry after all.”
“Hm?”, the red-haired woman now notices Lady Olivia, who was standing behind Liwin, and approaches her. Standing a little too close and towering like a mountain in front of her, Lady Olivia can't help but feel a little intimidated inside. A mischievous grin appears on the giantess's face. “So, you're this Lady Olivia that little Luz told us so much about, huh?”
“Um yes. T-That's me.”, Lady Olivia stutters slightly, 'Why does she remind me so much of Yunan?’
“Ruby! Leave her alone.”, Liwin steps in, at which the giantess laughs out loud.
“Lady, since you seem to have gained enough of Diane's trust, I won't be like that. The name is Ruby. Specializing in bard magic.”
“WAIT, WHAT???”, the pink-haired witch suddenly shrieks up in genuine shock, “You're a Bard? You?”
“Oh, shut up triclops.”, Ruby retorts, not as angry as she looks like, “Just because I can't handle instruments doesn't mean I can't use sounds to my advantage.”, she smirks.
“... That's not what I had in mind, but okay.”, the pink-haired girl returns to her reading. “Still weird to see Ms. Musclehead as a bard...”, she quietly mutters to herself.
“Anyway, back to topic-”, Liwin takes up the conversation again, “Olivia here has agreed to support us and provide us with detailed plans of the enemy's main base.”
“Wait a minute- didn't Amity and her hum- um, I mean Luz go with you earlier?”, the pink-haired witch wonders aloud.
“Yeah, that's the other thing I originally wanted to address with everyone else present at first...”, Liwin states, “Luz and Amity decided to go ahead with step one of the plan and left for Amphibia for the evacuation talks.”
'Evacuation talks?', Lady Olivia wonders inwardly as Liwin continues.
“But since you seem so concerned about others, I'm assigning you to guard Olivia here.”
“WHAT? Why me?”, the young witch complains, “Why not mom or Willow's dads? They have nothing to do around here anyway.”
“Because you, Boscha, requested to join us.”, Liwin reminds her, “Your exact words were, and I quote: ‘I want to do something good for once in my life’.”
The girl, Boscha, grumbles in annoyance. “Fine.”
“You can let her work with you and Alador in the workshop downstairs.”, Liwin continues, “Ruby and I are about to head out for our own patrol.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah...”, Boscha decides to ignore them and approaches Lady Olivia instead. “So, your name is Olivia, isn’t it? You look rather... overdressed.”
Boscha examines her from top to bottom. But despite the fact that she is practically a being from another world, the pink-haired witch appears totally unfazed. Her gaze lingers on Olivia's left arm for a moment when Liwin speaks up and breaks her concentration.
“You two seem to get along, very well. In that case, Ruby, we're leaving.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Oh, and Boscha?”, Liwin turns to her one last time with a serious look, “Remember, you're not allowed to leave the premises by yourself!”
Boscha merely glares at her before the two older witches leave the manor, closing the door behind them.
“That was rather... hostile.”, Olivia comments moments after Liwin and Ruby are out the door, "She treated me rather politely, and she probably considered me an enemy spy at first."
“Are you one?”
“No.”, Olivia replies firmly, “I have no intention of ever working for Andrias again.”
“And she bought that?”, Boscha asks with doubtful raised eyebrows.
“There are... measures that were taken to prevent me from lying.”, Olivia explains vaguely. Boscha seems to be very little surprised.
“Yes, the Oath is more than obvious.”, she points to Olivia's arm, “What does it do when you lie?”
“I die.”, Olivia replies in a somber tone.
“Heh, sounds fun.”, Boscha replies sarcastically, “Follow me. I'll show you where you can work.”
With that, Boscha leads Olivia past the stairs, through a door, and through some unnecessarily complicated corridors before they eventually arrive at the bottom of a staircase whose only door is closed in front of them. Boscha knocks, but with no answer from the other side.
Grumbling, Boscha digs out a key from her pants pocket. “Did he really fall asleep again?”
She unlocks the door and lets it bang open with a loud bang, startling a man at the other end of the room.
“AH!”
“Didn't you say you'd watch until I got back from my break, old man?”
“Huh? What?”, the man mumbles in a completely sleepy voice, visibly disoriented. And while Boscha throws all sorts of obscenities at him, Lady Olivia takes a look at this workshop. And it really is just that. A perfectly normal, ordinary-looking workshop... with several robot parts scattered on one side of the room, and two bubbling cauldrons standing on the other. Admittedly, this sight reminds Lady Olivia very much of her tool shed in Andrias' palace, where she used to tend to the Royal Gardens. 'The poor things have probably died by now... A shame, really.'
Lady Olivia has been lost in thought long enough that she has completely missed Boscha's swearing, which, by the way, is not at all befitting of a girl her age, and is now devoting all her attention to her again. “So, you've gone a whole night without sleep again?”, she sounds more troubled than angry now, “How many times do I have to tell you that's not healthy?”
“I knooowww...”, he whines like a child, “It's just- I've finally been able to gain access to the programming, but I can't for the life of me translate this code.”, he complains while gesturing at a floating magically produced text behind him. Lady Olivia tilts her head to the side and glances at the text. And even though she doesn't quite understand what she's seeing, she definitely recognizes words and expressions that are written in Ancient Amphibian runes.
“Um...”, she speaks up quietly, “I might be able to help.”
The other two look at Olivia with questioning glances, prompting her to elaborate.
“When I was younger, I was forced to learn this language. I'm a bit... rusty nowadays, but I suppose my skills could still be of use here."
“Y-Yes. Yes! YES!”, he accepts Olivia's offer without hesitation stands up and shakes her hand with a relieved smile. Only now does she really notice how exhausted the man really looks. Dark circles around his eyes, hunched, weak posture, and he sways a little even when he stands still. “I don't know who you are, but if you can help me, it would save me an eternity of working time... My name is Alador, by the way.”
“Olivia. My pleasure.”, she also introduces herself, "I can start immediately, but I'll have to take care of my own task later, if that's okay with you."
“Of course, of course...”, he nods, wobbling slightly, “In the meantime, I should probably catch up on some sleep, if that's all right with you, Miss Boscha?”
“Why are you asking me? I'm not your boss.”, she huffs at him, which he promptly interprets as ‘yes’. Completely exhausted, he stumbles past her and Olivia and up the stairs, missing one or two steps as he does so. Boscha and Olivia stare after him for a moment until he is out of sight.
“Is he going to be okay?”, Olivia asks carefully, at which Boscha merely shrugs in response.
“Meh, it's not my problem.”
“If you don't mind me asking... What is the arrangement between the two of you? You say you're not his boss, but...”, Lady Olivia asks after starting to translate the first few lines.
“I'm not, he just doesn't have a spine.”, Boscha replies, leaning against a table and occasionally glancing at her cauldrons, “He's Amity's dad, a true workaholic for whom the word ‘break’ is a non-existent word. And since I still want to maintain/rebuild at least some form friendship with Amity, even after what I've done for reasons that are totally unimportant to you, I'm keeping an eye on her father.”
“After what you did?”, Olivia asks, “Didn't Liwin say something similar earlier, about you wanting to do something good?”
Boscha grumbles audibly at that, before raising her closed fist, the top of it facing Lady Olivia, revealing a yellow-green symbol glowing. “See this? This piece of- ... this thing, is proof that my actions nearly led to the death of my only remaining friend. This thing prevents me from using any other magic that is not recognized as part of the Potions coven for the rest of my life.”, Olivia takes a moment to process this, which doesn't necessarily stop Boscha, ”In short: I fucked up, got shunned and widely hated, had time to think about things, got forcibly dragged here by my moms, got hated here too, and because I couldn't take it anymore, I'm now in this filthy basement where I babysit Amity's dad and brew potions. The hu- mmm, Luz even said that I've entered my 'Redemption-Arc', whatever that means.”
“Sounds like she doesn't hate you.”, Olivia comments. Boscha merely rolls her eyes at that.
“I doubt she's capable of hating anyone. She's far too soft for that.”
“Huh... Interesting.”
“...what?”
“It's just...”, Olivia thinks about the best way to phrase it, “Personally, that seems like a pretty superficial assessment of her character.”
“And you know better?”, Boscha challenges.
“No, not at all.”, she shakes her head in reply, “I know too little about her circumstances to form an educated opinion.”
“Well, I used to bully her relentlessly, and now she's like my biggest fan to 'redeem' myself.”, Boscha explains, “She in particular has more than enough reasons to hate me.”
“These two things are not contradictory.”, Olivia says, “Some people hold grudges for a very long time, others can forgive easily. I cannot say what she thinks about you and I dare not guess what exactly you have done, but what I have witnessed and learned about Luz Noceda is that she is not a person who gives up on other people lightly.... Your bullying of her, was that something that was based on mutual antagonism?”
“N-no.”, Boscha suddenly becomes very uncomfortable with this topic, “Just me.”
“Did she ever fight back?”
“Not until half-a-wi- mmm... when Willow became my target too.”
“What happened?”
“She challenged me to Grudgby-match.”, Olivia looks slightly confused, “A magical sport.”
“Has she ever done anything to you that you would consider objectively unfair?”
Boscha now has had enough. “What's your point?”
“While I'm sure she saw your behavior as extremely unfair, she didn't seem to bring herself down to your level. She didn't fight fire with fire. Your dislike of her was not mutual.”
“So?”
“Boscha, do you regret your actions?”
“A little. Maybe...”, she answers lamely, “Why?”
“Because, from what I gather, she wants you to succeed. In general.”, Olivia replies, “She wants you to be a better person - to redeem yourself.”
“...”, Boscha looks puzzled at the newt, “Whatever. Just get back to work. I'm taking a break.”
“Are you sure it was wise to leave them alone?”, Ruby asks a few minutes after the pair have been flying through the ground within a root cocoon developed by Willow towards their current patrol zone, namely the town of Latissa.
“Sure. Boscha wanted to help, so she's helping.”, Liwin reasons, actually not really caring what Boscha does. Because even if she is the child of her colleague/friend Alsa, Liwin remembers very well the stunt that the pink-haired triclops pulled on Hexside back then. “Besides, in case of emergency, Alador, Sarah, and Willow's dads are there in case of any real trouble.”
“This Olivia, what do you make of her?”, Ruby continues in an uncharacteristically serious tone. It's not often that Ruby shows her true wits and ability to think strategically.
“She understands her place. From what she's said about herself, she's spent most of her life as a servant, so to speak, and the way she acts and reacts reflects that.”, Liwin explains, "She'll listen to Boscha and follow the rules."
“You trust her that much?”, Ruby asks doubtfully.
“Who? Boscha or Olivia?”
“Both, I guess.”
“Hmm... I guess I do trust them to a certain amount. It's a mix of trust and the question 'What could possibly happen?', you know?"
“I don't like this naivety of yours.”, Ruby commented.
“Then you probably don't like my idea of officially naming Luz co-leader of the CATs either, do you?”, Liwin asks teasingly, though Ruby seems to be giving it some serious thought.
“Actually, I don't think it's such a bad idea.”, the red-haired giantess replies to Liwin's surprise, “The kid is already seen as their leader by all the other kids anyway. They do whatever Luz tells them. The small one is empathetic, always listens to the input of others, sees what she sets out to do through to the end no matter the consequences, and she is simply the most powerful of all of us, even if it hurts to admit it.”
“I didn't expect that. But... I'm surprised and pleased that you agree with my assessment.”, Liwin says proudly, “I'll talk to her as soon as the two Lovebirds are back.”
“Heh, don't remind me of that.”, Ruby laughs briefly before her tone suddenly becomes more serious again, “Amity is probably the only reason why I doubt Luz should be co-leader. The two of them are far too dependent on each other.”
“I know what you mean.”, Liwin muses, “Luz would always prioritize Amity's safety first in any decision she makes. Always. The little Blight is definitely her biggest weakness.”
“Does that change your decision at all?”, Ruby wonders.
“Hmm...”, the elder healer contemplates for a moment, “No, not really. She holds a deep personal grudge against both Andrias and Darcy, but also Belos, and from what I can tell, she's definitely not going to lose sight of her targets. That's why she came up with the plan to evacuate the civilian population, after all. So that she doesn't have to hold back later.”
“Diane, do you really think that will work?”
“Luz has good speaking and negotiating skills, despite her age. I have no doubt that she will able to convince them. Besides, like you just said, she doesn't let go of her objective once she's set one.”
“That's not what I meant.”, Ruby replies, shaking her head, which gets her a confused hum from Liwin, “I mean strictly logistical. The evacuation. It's one problem to find a place where we can evacuate everyone, but have you thought about how we can get all the civilians together and get them to actually evacuate? But what if, when the time comes, people are too scared to leave their hiding places? What if people don't dare to go out in the rain? What if people think our offer is a trap?”
“Finding the people is actually comparatively easy. Persuading them, on the other hand...”, Liwin stops herself, fully aware that she hasn't even thought about this part of the plan. Ruby nods knowingly.
“Sure, we could force them and take away their choice. The people on the other side at the evacuation zone would then have a very hard time, though...”
“I know...”, Liwin speaks softly, “You know, let's all debate together later on what the best course of action is. Pretty sure we need more than just two heads for that.”
“Heh, agreed.”
“Besides, it's not far to Latissa anymore.”, she skillfully changes the subject, “Ruby, you were last there a week ago. What was the situation then?”
“Most of the local gangs had already either given up or lost the fight against the Frobots last time I was there. Rumor has it that the two biggest of them joined forces and withdrew from the fight, leaving everyone else with no chance but to retreat themselves or die.”
“Uh... the ‘Red Claws’ and the ‘Hoodlums’ if I remember correctly, right?”, Liwin asks to which Ruby nods. “Do you think we'd bump into your parents with the Claws?”
“Y-You wanna talk to them?”, Ruby asks, utterly appalled.
“Yeah.”, Liwin replies, until she realizes she should explain her thought, “Well, with the gangs, not your parents.”
Ruby exhales with relief. “I really thought... Don't scare me like that!”, she feigns anger towards her, "Then why were you asking about my parents?"
“It was just a thought. I mean, when we first met and got you and your brother out, I had the impression that the relationship with your parents was a bit... difficult, or rather uncertain.”, Liwin explains herself.
“Nothing is uncertain when it comes to them.”, Ruby spats with utter disgust, “Those child-abusing bastards have nothing to expect from me. They were the lowest of the lowest henchmen within the Claws, but thought they were the very greatest. No one would have batted an eye if they would have died on day one after I was gone.”
Ruby's parents. Filth of the lowest kind. Growing up in Latissa, it's pretty much impossible not to come into contact with violence or gangs sooner or later. The guards of the Emperor's Coven had actually managed to keep the peace in the city for the most part. Not that that stopped Mr. and Mrs. Ruby's parents from joining a then-small gang at a young age and devoting their entire existence to a life of drugs, intimidation, and violence. They started out as simple lackeys, and they were absolutely horrible at it. Three gang co-leaders died under their protection, they burned down the wrong stores several times for “missing protection money”, and they more often than not picked fights with enemy gang members. When they found out they were going to be taken care of within the gang she got pregnant, so they were let go for the time being. Ruby was the second of four children. They had sold the first son for drugs when she was pregnant with Ruby. For Ruby herself, however, they had other plans: Make her do what they were supposed to do. As soon as Ruby could walk, talk, and handle knives, she was the one who had to secretly commit thefts for her parents, put people out of their way, and make money for them. At age fifteen, Ruby had two other younger siblings. She was followed by a sister and a brother a few years after that. Ruby's sister was less “talented” than Ruby, and so she was “lent out” to various clients by her parents and without the knowledge of anyone else. One day she didn't come home and Ruby went looking for her.
She found her after two days of tireless searching. In a dark, empty, and disgustingly dirty back alley near some dumped trash. Motionless and with her clothes nowhere to be seen. She just grabbed her and ran with her through the whole town in search of a healer who could help her sister. This healer turned out to be Diane Liwin, who unfortunately could do nothing more for Ruby than comfort her through her tears.
“I see...”, Liwin says, slightly lost in thought, “Do you know where the two gangs are joined?”
“The East Pit Market.”, Ruby replies instantly, “Also happens to be big enough to hide quite a lot of people. Used to be Claw-territory”
“Current leaders?”
“Benjamin and... Uh, no idea.”, she replies, "No idea who's running the Claws at the moment. Been kinda avoiding them."
“Ruby, would you rather I do this one by myself?”
“Nah, it's fine. The mission is more important than my personal feelings.”
Liwin frowns at that, “Okay. If you say so.”
Mission log – Hunter – Day: I don’t know. Lost track
I presume this is now the second week I've spent here in Latissa. Or maybe not. It's hard to say in all this time underground without any sunlight.
I had pretended to be one of the civilian evacuees and was assigned to a shelter with a small family by the local leaders. Space is in short supply down here, as are food, water, and sanitary facilities. Since I arrived, there have been three riots over lack of food and water, but with three hundred individuals spread over an area only slightly larger than Uncle's throne room, this is hardly surprising. I would like to help, but my mission does not allow me to reveal my true identity. And admittedly: It's getting more difficult by the day.
The child in my accommodation is called Shawn, estimated to be ten years old. His fathers are Bashir and Curzon. Both teachers at a local school. The boy had told me that he had just come from swimming lessons when Latissa was first attacked. The three of them have been down here ever since and have only been out once, only to find out that their house was destroyed with none of their belongings surviving. And now they're all at the mercy of Latissa's gangs who have taken over and, to my surprise, are actually trying to keep some sort of order here.
The Emperor's Coven has abandoned all the people here. And not just since the invasion. The presence in Latissa has always been weak. It makes perfect sense that the survivors now prefer to be protected by a gang. The people are desperate. Day in and day out, we feel tremors on the surface all the way down here. The gang members and volunteers who have agreed to scour the surface for food and water come back with fewer and fewer people and supplies each time.
It makes me question what I'm even doing here. Uncle gave me this list of things to get for him, but is that really the solution? Surely, he could have stopped all of this right at the beginning, but he said it was all part of Titan's will. But, is that really true? All the death? All the suffering is what the Titan intended for us? I can't - don't want to believe that.
But I have to trust Uncle. He will have a plan to save everyone. Maybe all the stuff he wants me to get is for a device that can revive the dead. Yes, that must be it.
Anyway, I'm going to join one of the retrieval groups again today to continue my search. According to my sources, two of the things I need should be right here in Latissa. I should check the list again, but I'm pretty sure they're here.
- -
Echo Quartz(Found in the eastern ring finger) - -
Astral Whispers(Found in Bonesborough - looks like water, but smells like rotten griffin eggs) - - Feather of the Forgotten (Most likely in Latissa)
- - Photo-Hog (Most likely near Latissa)
- -
Eonstone(Found at the bottom of Lake Zehensee) - -
Moonveil Mist(Found at the ruins of the Knee) - - Glass Kelp (Most likely north of the Skull)
- - Galdorstone (???)
'Just four more things...', Hunter muses hopefully, before all hope vanishes into thin air as he reaches the last item on the list. Feeling ashamed and annoyed, he recalls the incident at the Looking Glass Graveyard. 'Those stupid activists or whatever destroyed all the Galdorstones. Even after days of digging, there was nothing left of them.'
“Hey, Shawn. Do you happen to know what time it is?”, Hunter asks after closing his mission journal and storing it away. The witch in question lowers a book entitled 'That Time a Slime Built a Nation', which Hunter had actually brought him from his last trip as a thank you for his hospitality. He had also brought gifts for Bashir and Curzon.
“You better get going right about now.”, Shawn replies, knowing exactly why he's asking. “Say, weren't you once the one with the perfect sense of time?”, he continues to ask in a teasing tone. Hunter playfully punches him in the upper arm.
“I'll get going then. Tell your dads I might bring back some stuff for them.”, Hunter says goodbye, grabs Flapjack in his staff-form, and leaves the small-, no, tiniest hut.
The hideout he is in is completely packed across all three dimensions. Temporary shelters are stacked on top of- and next to each other along all the walls from top to bottom. There are torch holders at regular intervals on every other floor, providing at least a little artificial light in the complete darkness of the underground.
The floor of the cave is no better, as it is lined with tents or simply sleeping bags with a narrow walkway in the middle that leads from the secret cave entrance to the command room, and adjoining storage room for supplies at the other end.
Hunter walks along the surprisingly empty corridor between all the tents- all the refugees- all the people. Past families with very young children, widows who have lost spouses, children who have lost their parents, people who are completely malnourished, people who are sick or dying...
Hunter walks a little faster.
At the end of the passage, he stops and releases the shaky breath he didn't know he was holding. At times like this, he is grateful that he is allowed to live in one of the makeshift huts. In other circumstances he would have had absolutely nothing against having nothing more than a sleeping bag, but with all the despair, and pain, and death around him 24/7...
Swallowing this thought, he approaches the door that leads to the room from where the suppliance missions are planned. He stops in front of the metal door when he hears a loud and extremely angry voice from inside. He feels a bang coming from inside and pulls the door open, sprinting inside. “CHIEF!”
As soon as he sets foot in the room, however, his body grinds to a halt against his will as he catches sight of the scene before him. In the wall to his left, which is made of solid rock, yelps a hole about two meters in diameter with what appear to be massive roots growing out of it that were definitely not there before. Directly in front of it stands an older but well-built woman with white hair, bound together in a short ponytail, a bit taller than he himself, with her head exhaustedly in her hands. To his left is a woman with short flaming red hair. Very tall, very muscular, and apparently very angry... at something or someone closer to the wall in front of her. Not that he can avert his eyes to investigate at the moment.
“Hey Ruby, you're scaring the kid here!”, the older woman to his right exclaims.
“Huh?”, Ruby turns to her first, before turning her gaze to Hunter for the first time, who is staring directly at her with wide eyes. “Oh, sorry.”
“N-no problem.”, Hunter stutters after several seconds of awkward silence. And while Ruby feels a little bad for scaring an innocent kid like him, Hunter has just realized he must have a thing for muscular women.
Ruby takes a step back from the wall, probably in an attempt to cool off, giving Hunter his first opportunity to see what or who she's so angry at. Chief Dagrull. Or Boss, as he has been called by all the members of both gangs since the merger. Directly above his head is a massive, fist-sized crater in the solid wall of rock. Hunter himself doesn't really want to know for sure, but he's pretty sure that Dagrull has peed himself. Instead, he continues to observe Ruby, who is pacing up and down rather upset, and mumbling something incomprehensible to herself.
At that, Chief Dagrull speaks up, his voice timid and shaking. “They- they're not here, if that helps...”
Her head snaps back to him, fury in her eyes. “THESE FUCKERS DESERVE NOTHING LESS THAN A PAINFUL DEATH!”, she takes a shaky breath, seemingly ready to punch another crater in the wall, “So tell me, boss, why did you let them live? And think very carefully about how you answer that.”
Chief Dagrull breaks out in a thick bead of sweat.
“I, um- we- so-”
While Chief Dagrull freezes in fear and stutters to himself with presumably wet pants, here is a short excerpt from his biography.
F. J. Dagrull was not even eighteen years old when the group called the 'Red Claws' was founded. Together with friends at the time, he had made a name for himself in the slums near the harbor of Latissa. Terrorizing people, robbing docked ships, extorting protection money, carrying out raids and so on and so on. His nickname was 'the fearless butcher'. Not a very creative name, but pretty accurate for who he was.
Over time, the number of his followers, or patrons, grew. Some clans later were either fought, blackmailed, or incorporated with him at the forefront of brutal battles until the Red Claws reached their current size. All under Dagrull's iron-hard leadership. Despite his name, he always put one thing above all else: his people. He always fought to protect them, every man, woman, and child under him, even if it meant that others paid with their lives.
Excerpt end.
Chief F. J. 'fearless butcher' Dagrull now lies cowering, soiled, and without any dignity left in the corner of the room, while the other two women seem to have completely forgotten about his existence.
“Don't worry Ruby, even if he only banished them back then, I don't think they survived the invasion.”, the older woman tries to comfort Ruby.
“Yeah, I know. I was just hoping that at least he'd have enough balls to give them what those bastards deserve.”, an impatient throat-clearing reminds the two women that Hunter still exists. “Oh, sorry kid. I'm sorry you had to see that.”
“That's okay.”, Hunter replies, his tone casual, “I've seen worse. My name is Hunter, by the way. And you guys are...?”
“Oh, I'm Diane, this is Ruby.”
“I don't suppose you're here for a supply mission, are you?”, Hunter asks.
“No.”, Ruby answers slowly, “We're actually here to patrol the area and meet the wimp over there.”
“What she means is that we're here to offer our support and get an idea of the situation.”
“You're not from Latissa.”, Hunter remarks. He isn't really able to articulate the reason why, but something about these two women is bothering him enormously right now. Or rather, something about what they've just said. Patrol? Offering support? In a town like Latissa, where people are largely looking out for themselves, especially at the moment? Yeah, no.
"Technically, we are from here, but we haven't lived here for ages.", Liwin replies truthfully, "But you don't wanna know that. We've just arrived from Bonesborough and we really just want to see what's become of Latissa."
"You're sightseeing?!", Hunter asks incredulously.
"More like gathering intel on the enemy.", Ruby clarifies, at which Hunter's eyes light up.
"You're from the Emperor's Coven?", he asks, his tone relieved.
"Heh, no.", Ruby replies, crushing his hope, "Just the opposite, actually."
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it.", Liwin shuts Ruby down, glaring at her for a second, "Anyway, you said something about supply missions. What's that?"
At that moment, another person enters the room. A man in his mid-forties, his head almost clean-shaven, and his visible head and arms covered in scars, some of them decades old. "It's in the name, isn't it? Or are you stupid?"
"Flawrik? Is that you?", Ruby stares at him for a few moments.
“I'm glad you remember me, Ruby.”, he replies in a completely indifferent tone, "We were quite relieved when you finally disappeared. The fact that you're here now is definitely a bad omen."
"Um, sorry, but you are-?", Liwin asks the newcomer.
"Oh, where are my manners?", Flawrik's tone changes abruptly, "Benjamin Flawrik. Leader of the Hoodlums. At your service."
"I used to rob them regularly. Only got me once. He wanted to take me to his family's farm.", Ruby remembers with a sharp laugh. Flawrik can't help but crack a toothy grin too.
"But only because you kept overpowering my men. I still don't know how you did it...", he shakes his head, "It doesn't matter now... What do you want?"
"Information.", Ruby replies, her tone changing serious in an instant, "About what's going on on the surface."
“And why should we help you?”, Flawrik argues, "As far as I'm concerned, you broke in here and did what the hell do I know to Dagrull. Tze, pathetic excuse of a leader."
"What makes you think I need your help? We've managed perfectly well since then without it. In fact, we have a plan to put an end to all that stuff above us once and for all. And without any more civilian casualties."
"Bullshit!", Flawrik retorts, at which Ruby flashes a toothy grin at him.
'A plan? Against them?', Hunter, who has only been listening quietly so far, thinks to himself, 'Uncle, is that what you've been doing?'
"If you say so. I don't care about your opinion. And about your approval even less.”, Ruby snaps her fingers at him, “It's going to happen in Bonesborough. After we've evacuated the entire civilian population. We could maybe... Although, forget it."
"What?"
"If you'd be willing to work with us, we might be willing to evacuate some of your people here too."
"HA!", Flawrik laughs out loud at this completely nonsensical offer, "We're in a fucking cave here, in case you haven't noticed, and the surface is swarming with these gray fuckthings. Where are you going to evacuate a thousand people without anyone noticing?"
Ruby smirks at that, “We have a master of teleportation magic among our ranks.”
"... Fine, whatever. Do what you want.", he immediately turns his back to them, "In ten minutes there'll be a general briefing from our scouts for the supply missions. Feel free to attend. And Hunter..."
“Yes, boss?”, he startles briefly at the mention of his name.
"I know you're not officially under my command, but you're a good kid. Don't let those two out of your sight, understand?"
"Yes, boss."
With great relief on Hunter's part, Flawrik leaves the room again. Why relief? Because, although he would never admit it, Benjamin Flawrik is one of the most intimidating people he has ever met. Even more so than his uncle. Upon their first meeting, Flawrik had immediately peeked through his 'Caleb' persona and realized that he wasn't who he said he was. That he didn't realize he was/is on a mission assignment from Belos was just luck, according to Hunter. Or he knew and just didn't say anything. In any case, Hunter would never mess with this man.
The next ten minutes passed annoyingly slowly for Hunter. Now that he has been on his own for so long and is no longer subject to any command structure due to the elimination of the Emperor's Coven, his sense of time has changed massively. Back then, he never knew such a thing as boredom. There was always something to do, orders to carry out or to assign. The coven never slept is what people used to say. But his life since then has been... different. Quieter. More unpredictable.
As for Liwin and Ruby, his doubts towards them have changed very little. Sure, the way Ruby dealt with both leaders of Latissa's biggest and most influential gangs has left a massive impression on him which definitely earns her some extra respect points, but he still can't shake the feeling that it would be a mistake to trust them. For this reason, he follows Flawrik's instructions to the letter and keeps a close eye on them. Even if it means that the three of them have to endure the wait in complete, unbearable silence.
One by one, the other volunteers enter the room after Hunter, visibly confused by the huge new hole in the wall, but not questioning it any further. When the last person enters the room and closes the door behind them, there are about fifteen people in the room, not counting Hunter, Ruby, and Liwin. The last person to close the door was in fact Dagrull, who must have secretly slipped out of the room at some point during the conversation with Flawrik to (hopefully) get a change of clothes. With him again is Flawrik, who seems to be in charge of this briefing.
Here is a rough summary of the next thirty to forty minutes:
Both ports of Latissa have been completely reduced to rubble, both the commercial and military ones. All boats, ships, and personnel have also been annihilated. The industrial area to the west consists largely of ruins in serious danger of collapse. The city center is overrun with enemy patrols that no longer kidnap people but kill on sight. The scouts were able to find a few trapped people on their way out, who couldn't get out with all the enemies around them. To the east near the museum, the enemy has flattened an entire neighborhood and is building some kind of apparatus. So that area would be avoided.
For Hunter, Ruby and Liwin, however, one thing was certain: they need to go there. And as if fate was playing into their hands, Hunter was tasked with escorting the two witches through Latissa while they did whatever they wanted to do.
“Yo, Olivia. How's things down here?”
“That was a long break, Boscha.”
“I took a nap. So?”
Lady Olivia lets out a deep sigh at the girl's obvious laziness. When she arrived, she saw her occupied in a break, and now she has slept for several hours while potentially dangerous liquids bubble right next to Olivia, which is supposed to be under Boscha's supervision.
“I've been translating all these words for two hours now, but I haven't the faintest idea what any of this is.”, Olivia reports, slightly exhausted.
“Honestly? You look like you could really do with a break too. Come on, let's go for a walk.”, Boscha suggests with a bittersweet tone, as if she has more than just a few ulterior motives. Olivia frowns at her.
“A break?! When you just took one? Don't you have any responsibilities of your own to take care of?”, she inquires almost accusingly.
“You say that like I'm lazy...”, Boscha clicks her tongue dismissively, “Don't worry. We're just going for a little walk in the forest. There's something I want to see.”
'I don't trust this...', Olivia thinks to herself, doubting Boscha's intentions, “You do know that a lot of murder stories start like this?”
“Listen, the only reason I want you with me is because I'm not allowed to go out by myself.”
“Ou-kay...”, Olivia replies, still unconvinced.
“I'm still kind of in a trial phase. Or they just don't trust me, period. Anyway, none of this will matter if I find what I'm looking for.”
“And what are you looking for?”, Olivia wonders.
“You'll see when we get there.”, Boscha crosses her arms expectantly, “So, are you coming?”
“Do I have a choice?”, the newt asks, exasperated.
“Nope.”
Boscha grabs Olivia's arm and pulls her confidently out of the basement workshop, up the stairs, and towards the front door. Before they reach it, however, the two of them hear a voice from the adjoining kitchen, where an older man is standing with a warm cup of tea looking straight at them.
“And where are you two ladies going?”
“We just wanted to take a little walk, Mr. Clawthorne.”, Boscha replies, again with a bittersweet tone. And from the look on the older man's face, he probably believes her.
“Is that so?”, he inquires, his gaze wandering to the window, “It's really nice weather outside for a walk... I hope you do remember that no one should enter the forest if they value their own life, don't you?”
Lady Olivia gulps at that while Boscha speaks up, “But of course, Mr. Clawthorne. I would never risk my own life for such a nonsensical reason.”
“All right, then.”, he smiles at the two of them, “Have a good time.”
The newt suddenly has a very, very bad feeling about this whole operation. Unfortunately for her though, Boscha has no intention of dealing with her worries or fears, or even doing anything about them as she pulls her out of the door and towards the forest. The forest with trees so high that they block out all sunlight. The forest she was specifically told to stay away from. The forest where death is said to lurk. It is precisely this forest that the young pink-haired witch walks purposefully towards with a mischievous grin and Olivia unwillingly in tow.
As soon as they leave the sunlight, they have officially entered the forest, and with a jolt Olivia's pulse quickens and her senses sharpen.
'Terrifying...', Olivia thinks to herself before her gaze wanders back one last time as the two of them move further and further away from the clearing of the Clawthornes, and forward again to Boscha, who walks on, completely unperturbed and determined.
For Olivia, the worst thing about this forest after just a few minutes in this murky place is not the darkness itself, but the silence that comes with it and this constant feeling of being watched. A glance upwards reveals close to all the sunlight being blocked out by an eerily dense canopy of leaves, there are no sounds of leaves or bushes rustling in the wind, and no sounds of animals living in the forest. There is nothing but the footsteps of Boscha and Olivia passing through the undergrowth.
The whole forest doesn't just feel empty, but deserted. As if something is living here that has driven out all other life at some point.
And despite all these fear-inducing factors, the two of them keep walking further. And further. And further. Until the ground beneath their feet suddenly makes a completely different sound. One loud enough for both of them to overhear and stop, a morbid look on Olivia's face.
“Please tell me I'm standing on a thick, smooth branch.”, the Newt begs Boscha.
“Uh, sure, a branch.”, Boscha replies, her gaze also slowly sliding over the forest floor in front of and around her for the first time, “A smooth, white, bony... branch.”
Lady Olivia's gaze wanders from the definitely-not-bone up into her surroundings, spotting more in every direction. Big ones, small ones, skull-shaped ones, it's all there.
“Okay, enough is enough.”, Olivia puts her foot down, though not literally, “If you don't tell me now why you led me into this frog-cursed graveyard, I'll turn around here and now and you can sacrifice yourself to the forest by yourself for all I care!”
Boscha looks at her with a displeased expression, but Lady Olivia is not willing to give in when she currently has the constant feeling that death is lurking behind every tree, behind every shadow, and she awaits Boscha's reaction with crossed arms and a partly angry, partly fearful look. The triclops sighs.
“Fine, I think you deserve an explanation.”, she starts with a tired tone as if she has just had a lengthy discussion with herself, “All of this is the Bat Queen’s Forest. Absolutely everything here is under her protection, and from what I've heard, that includes abandoned, rejected, and deserted Palismen.”
“Palismen?”
Boscha pulls out her own crab palisman, “This is Maya. She's a palisman, a kind of lifelong companion.”
“And you want to meet this Bat Queen? Why?”
“I'm hoping to gain her support for the CATs to improve my standing with them.”, Boscha explains, “A win-win for everyone.”
“And you know exactly where we have to go?”
“Maya used to live here. She knows the way.”
“And this Bat Queen- will she even listen to you?”, Olivia asks skeptically about the young witch's plan, “She sounds pretty important. And I mean, look around us. Does this look like an invitation to you?”
“Pfft! It's just a deterrent for the weak-minded.”, Boscha exclaims, completely sure of herself. Olivia merely sighs at that in defeat.
'This kid has absolutely no sense of danger...', she thinks to herself, subtly shaking her head, “Okay. Go.”
“What?”
“This place reeks of death, and despite everything, will not allow a child to walk into this death trap alone.”
“I'm not a-”
“I said go!”
They continue walking. Instead of Olivia being pulled behind her by Boscha's arm however, she now walks alongside her somewhat voluntarily, though still kinda mad at her.
They walk for another twenty minutes or so until they come to an unusually wide tree blocking their way. Boscha, and therefore Olivia, stop in front of it.
“Here?”, Lady Olivia asks, after the two of them have not exchanged a single word with each other in the last twenty minutes. The atmosphere between the two had become rather tense in the meantime. “Please don't tell me you're lost...”
“Can you be quiet for a moment?”
Maybe it still is.
“Maya?”, Boscha takes out her palisman, which detaches itself from the staff and which she holds in her hands, “Are you sure we're in the right place?”
The palisman rattles her scissors, which from Lady Olivia's point of view can mean absolutely anything. The Palisman leaps from Boscha's hands to the ground and crawls towards the tree before she slams one of her claws against a very specific spot. Part of the tree's bark suddenly begins to glow and dissolve, revealing a passageway that leads through the tree.
Maya turns back to Boscha, clattering her claws joyfully, before the witch picks her up again and places her on her shoulder.
“Wait.”, Olivia stops her from going any further, “Please tell me you have a precise plan.”
“Of course I have a plan.”, Olivia feels a teeny tiny moment of relief, “I'll go in there and make her an offer.”
“All right, so you don't have a plan.”
“Heey!”
“Listen-”, Olivia starts, her tone firm, “I've lived and worked my whole life for a Royal Family and among royals. I know how to talk to them and how to gain their favor... And honestly, you lack any respect for others.”
“Hey!”
“Blame the oath if you want to.”, Olivia crosses her arms, “Anyway, do what I do if you want your plan to succeed. Agreed?”
Boscha grumbles under her breath, but eventually agrees, albeit reluctantly.
Slowly and somewhat on edge, Lady Olivia and Boscha plus Maya enter the crack in the tree and enter what can only really be described as a sort of half-cave. The floor and all the walls are made of enormously high rocks that merge into trees above, but the area is open at the top. If the sun were exactly over the opening, sunlight could actually reach the floor.
Apart from that, it doesn't look dissimilar to the outside. The floor is partly covered with grass or moss, and various bones and skulls are scattered everywhere. But what catches their eye above all else is the enormous pile of gold at the other end of this half-cave. This otherwise surprisingly empty half-cave.
Both with their guards up, they walk on, step by step, until they hear a screeching sound coming from above. Their heads snap upwards, where they spot a creature with two abnormally huge wings flying towards them. Olivia kneels down and pulls Boscha down with her, mere moments before it flies just short above their lowered heads and lands in front of them.
'This is bad... and this must be her. This Bat Queen.', Lady Olivia thinks to herself as Boscha just chokes on her own tongue over what happened. Both of them keep their heads lowered as the Bat Queen approaches them with a quite fierce look on her face. Taking in their postures and lack of reaction to her arrival, she slows down her approach slightly.
"Hmm, how very interesting. Most of who approach me have wish of death. You are brave... or stupid."
The Bat Queen stops right in front of the two intruders, eyeing them both critically. Her gaze lingers on Boscha, who can feel her gaze right on her skin.
"You. I remember you.”, she says in an ominous tone, “The angry one. Raise your head."
“Y-yes, ma'am.”, Boscha finds herself unexpectedly stuttering with her standing that close to her. Every bit of misguided courage she had talked herself into having is gone. For a moment, she glances over at Lady Olivia, who remains visibly composed on one knee, her head down with her eyes closed. Neither of them notice all the others around them.
“You adopted Maya, did you not?”, the Bat Queen asks, but doesn't need an answer as her gaze is already set on the little crab palisman on Bosha's shoulder. The sound of clattering claws seems to suffice as an answer. “Maya dear, how have you been?”, her voice suddenly no longer intimidating, but almost motherly. Unbeknownst to Olivia, both Maya's and the Bat Queen's eyes light up for a longer moment.
"I glad you have your family. Many of your brothers and sisters do not...”, her gaze wanders again, “You! Prisoners of truth!"
Lady Olivia is extremely sure that she is meant and raises her head, but remains down on one knee, unlike Boscha. “Your highness.”
“You two have entered my forest.”, she hisses at the two of them, "I would have taken your heads if not for Maya. State your reason."
Boscha wants to speak up, but Lady Olivia beats her to it. “Your Highness, we have entered your realm to ask for your help in the fight against the invaders.”
The Bat Queen doesn't have to think twice. "No."
"No? But why???", Boscha suddenly exclaims. Something Olivia would love to punish her for just now.
"Witches are just as bad. Not worthy of trust. Not worthy of help."
“If I may speak...”, Lady Olivia tries to begin speaking again, "I am not from here. May I ask why you think so?"
"This forest is protection. The broken ones. The discarded. The lost. The forgotten ones. One day Witch came and offered me a deal: New homes for some of my shelterlings. Some, like Maya, got one. The rest were stolen. They were not protected. The trust was broken and my shelterlings lost."
“And everyone deserved to die for that?”
“Boscha!”, Olivia scolds her. The pink-haired witch ignores her.
"And you think they'll stop at this forest? They'll attack you too and possibly burn down everything here.”, Boscha now sounds angry, “You can hide all you want, but that won't stop you from having to defend yourself sooner or later. And do you think you stand a chance alone as opposed to with allies?"
The Bat Queen remains quiet at that. Lady Olivia stands up.
"Honored Bat Queen. I have spent my life serving under a king I believed to be a true and just one. He betrayed me and all the people who supported him to invade this world. He also betrayed my trust, and I will do everything I can until my last breath to help the people of this world stop him.", the Bat Queen glances at the spell around Olivia's arm before looking at her again.
“Your words speak true.”, she mutters, her voice insecure, "But... My help needs trust. Trust takes time. You don't have time, my answer is ‘no’."
"Then- what about your legendary trials? Rumor has it that no one has ever been able to pass them.", Boscha argues with a hint of desperation in her voice.
"One did. I owe her."
"Then we can-"
"No!", the Bat Queen exclaims. A shocked silence returns to the half-cave. “You leave.” Boscha and Olivia just stand there for a long second. “Now.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”, Lady Olivia is the first to regain her composure.
“But-”, Boscha wants to protest.
“Let's go.”
As soon as the two of them (plus Maya) step back into the forest, the passage behind them disappears completely, leaving absolutely no trace that it ever existed.
“Well, that was a waste of time...”, Boscha complains. In search of confirmation, she turns to Lady Olivia, who seems to be deep in thought. “What's the matter?”
“I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion.”
“Why not? She has quite obviously turned us down.”
“You may be a little too young to understand, but there's often more to these interactions than the obvious.”, Olivia states, infuriating the witch next to her, “Tell me, did you notice anything about her behavior?”
“About her behavior?”, Boscha ponders for a moment as the two of them slowly make their way back. “Uh, no. I was kinda busy-”
“While you were explaining the obvious to her, I paid attention to the reactions of the others. Those of their 'fosterlings'.”
“What? There was no one else there.”
Olivia shakes her head, “Yes, lots of countless little beings like your Maya, observing us. And like the Bat Queen herself, they gave off an aura of worry and unease, which tells me they're particularly aware of their situation and the dangers that come with it.” A soft 'huh' escapes Boscha before the newt continues. “I'm pretty sure the Bat Queen will join the fight at some point in the future. Whether she joins us directly or fights on her own terms remains to be seen, though.”
“Huh... Then maybe this wasn't a complete waste of time after all...”, Boscha mutters, petting Maya, “I don't say this often, but... Thanks.”
The sun was already well past its zenith when the respective expeditions set off into Latissa. Almost all the groups immediately headed towards the former industrial district. Except for the trio consisting of Hunter, Liwin, and Ruby. Their destination was somewhere else.
“What do you mean we're not attacking?”, Hunter asks while the three of them hide in the ruins of a former residential building. It is clear that it has only recently been attacked judging by the blood and gore that has not yet dried on some of the walls. Hunter saw that and immediately wanted to attack the patrolling Frobots they passed less than two minutes ago.
“Keep your voice down!”, Ruby orders him in an angry whisper. "If we attack one, others will be aware of us within minutes. And that's a fight we cannot win."
"Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment. Revenge won't bring these people back.", Liwin puts a hand on his shoulder, which he brushes away angrily.
“That just... isn't right.”, he grumbles, "You said you had a plan to end all this, and now you're refusing to fight?"
“We cannot save everyone.”, Ruby mutters darkly, glaring at him, “Neither can you.”
“What d-”
“Let's keep going.”, Liwin interrupts him, “Next stop is the museum. It's still two blocks away.”
Liwin leaves the room back towards the exit, which in this case is nothing more than a huge hole in the outer wall of the house in the opposite room. Ruby follows immediately, Hunter too, albeit rather hesitantly.
As soon as he takes his first step back outside, he finds himself blinded by the glaring sun. It takes a moment before he can perceive the main street in front of him. He rubs his slightly aching eyes before turning his gaze squinting first to the right where he knows the patrol from earlier was walking down, then to the left towards Liwin and Ruby. Frowning, he makes a small sprint with his staff in his hand to catch up to them.
“You know-”, Ruby starts, her tone no longer upset but instead rather amused, “For being our guide, you spend quite a bit of time behind us instead of directing us.”
“Oh please, like you really need me to be your guide...”, Hunter rolls his eyes. Ruby seems kinda... unhappy with him answer.
“You're no fun.”, she grumbles.
“And you're not making any sense.”, he grumbles back.
“Quiet, you two!”, Liwin commands them in a louder whisper as the trio approaches a small alleyway between two ruined buildings. The older healer takes a look inside before gesturing to them that the coast is clear and they can move on.
“You know, since you two are actually from Latissa, I have a question.”
“Shoot.”, Liwin encourages him to speak.
“Have you ever heard of a 'Photo-Hog'? Or the 'Feather of the Forgotten'?”
“I've heard of Photo-Hogs, but I've never encountered one.”, Ruby replies.
“Me neither. However, I once treated someone who was attacked by one.”, Liwin says, “It's a creature that feeds on memories. It attaches itself to its victim's head and uses tweezer-like teeth to extract memories, which it then devours.”
Hunter gulps heavily. “A-and the feather?”
“No clue, kid.”
“Hmm...”, Liwin doesn't answer right away. “I think I read once that it's an artifact, but I can't remember exactly what it does. Heh, ironic, isn't it?”, she chuckles. “Any particular reason why you're asking?”
“Not really.”, he lies, shrugging his shoulders, “My parents are explorers. They left on an expedition before the invasion, and I'm trying to retrace their steps.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“It's okay. I'm used to them not being around.”, he replies, which is technically not a lie. 'Not that I've ever met them. Or know their names...'
Hunter had actually asked Belos about his parents- or rather his family history in general- several times, but the memories were probably too much for his uncle to talk about. Maybe he'd tell him in a few years or so. No matter how long it takes.
A few more minutes of sneaking later, the three of them arrive at a medium-sized open square with a destroyed well in the middle. They're standing under a protruding roof, hidden from the sensors of the Frobots flying through the air right above their heads.
“I count fifteen.”, Ruby whispers.
“Eighteen.”, Hunter corrects her, “Why are there so many here? That wasn't mentioned in the briefing.”
“It looks like they're circling around something behind the museum...”, Liwin speaks up too, “Crossing the square like that is too risky.”
“Around the outside? Take the long way around?”, Hunter suggests.
“The shortcut?”, the red-haired witch suggests as an alternative.
“Shortcut?”, Hunter asks, confused.
“Trust me, it'll be a lot of fun.”, Ruby smirks at him. For some reason, however, Hunter feels mildly threatened by this. Following him, the red-haired witch glances back at Liwin with an expectant look as they suddenly feel the ground shake beneath their feet, accompanied by the sound of a small explosion which just happens to be coming from the direction the three of them are heading.
“Shortcut it is.”, Liwin decides, originally not wanting to go along with Ruby's idea. “Sorry, kid. After me.”
With the healer leading the way, the three of them sneak back the way they came and enter one of the abandoned houses. Hunter, who has absolutely no idea what's going on, looks up at Ruby, who grins mischievously.
“Okay, this is good enough.”, Liwin decides, standing in the middle of the remains of a living room, “Kid, brace yourself. It'll only take a few seconds.”
“What will-”, he is about to ask, when all of a sudden oversized leaves shoot out of the ground and completely enclose him within moments and pull him underground. “AAH-”
Hunter immediately finds himself completely disoriented and deprived of all senses. Unable to see, hear, smell or feel any movement, he begins to panic slightly.
'They've imprisoned me?!', is the very first thought that occurs to him, 'No, wait. Remember your training. What exactly am I supposed to do in a situation like this again?'
The (former) Golden guard remembers his time as a cadet. He fondly remembers being locked in a light and soundproof capsule for hours and hours by the commanders of that time. This usually lasted until the next watch shift, when he was let out again and reported on his experiences. The people always had a funny look on their faces that Hunter could never really figure out. 'Wait- how exactly am I supposed to g-'
Before he can ask himself this question again, a small vibration hits him and the cocoon around him begins to rapidly break apart. 'Huh?'
Soft light meets his eyes as he realizes exactly where he is. Polished granite floor around him, high ceiling, and barriers of velvet ribbons spread out...
“We're in the museum?!”, he steps out of the rest of the cocoon, where he finds his legs slightly wobbly. Liwin and Ruby seem to have already emerged from their cocoons.
“So? How was your first time?”, Ruby asks him with a huge grin on her face.
“It was... okay. I've experienced something similar before.”, he replies lamely, to which the red-haired witch merely stares at him for a while with an unrecognizable expression on her face. It's kinda unnerving. “What?”
“You really know how to crush hopes and expectations.”
“What?”
At that Liwin speaks up, “Translation: She can't tease you the way she wants. Anyway, let's move on. I'd like to get out of this section in case any Frobots have noticed our intrusion.”
“I- I think I need a minute.”, he draws her attention to his shaky legs, "You go ahead. I'll catch up.”
“Are you sure?”, Liwin asks.
“I can defend myself; I'll be fine.”, Hunter tries to reassure them.
“The kid will be fine.”, Ruby argues unexpectedly in his defense, “Besides, if it comes to that he can shout for us. Then it won't matter who hears us or not.”
Liwin ponders with an intense look at Hunter before sighing in defeat, “Fine. In the meantime, we'll see where the back exit is. Don't take too long.”
“Yes, ma'am.”, he salutes half-heartedly. The healer frowns at him before she and Ruby slowly walk away from him.
Hunter lets out a deep breath before standing up straight. 'Finally... ... Huh?'
He looks down at himself and sees his legs still shaking. Frowning at them, he decides to take the time to look around until his body has calmed down. Given the state of almost everything in Latissa, it is more than surprising to see the museum, or at least the wing Hunter is currently in, largely intact. Well, apart from the three new holes in the fairly unscathed floor. Based on the exhibits on display, he appears to be in a natural history wing of the museum.
Directly to his right, for example, is a fossilized skeleton of a Stone sleeper from the Hecktaceous Period, dating back several hundred thousand years. He also notices exhibits that deal with the history of Latissa itself. One example is the remains of a stone hut that has been dated to around three thousand years ago. In this wing there are many skeletons or other remains on display to show how the witches and demons looked and lived back then. But, despite all this, there is no sign of the 'Feather of the Forgotten'.
“That's not too bad. After all, the museum is pretty big.”, he tries to give himself a little boost of motivation. “Okay, where to now?”
He glances up at a display about the layout of the museum. 'Okay, there's an exhibition about the Titan itself, an art exhibition, local history... Hmm... Local history sounds the most promising by comparison.'
With his legs steadying a little, he makes his way towards the exhibition in question, passing more skeletons on display and a full-scale replica of Latissa as a wooden settlement from around a thousand years ago, which captures his gaze for a longer moment.
Hunter reaches his destination pretty quickly. After all, it's literally right in the room next door. Even if there is no door.
Compared to the last room, this one looks a little less unscathed. One of the window fronts has been destroyed, as have two of the central exhibits in the middle of the room. Nothing more than the remains of stone, glass, and tattered book pages are left. The rest? Comparatively intact. Several display cases holding various exhibits are damaged with the pieces themselves largely intact or with burn marks, most likely from Frobot weapons.
'Probably too few possible hiding places to reduce everything here to rubble.', Hunter guesses to himself before taking a closer look at the pieces on display.
The first long display case shows an open book entitled 'Laws and Statutes of the Merchant City of Latissa'. He skims the pages with little interest before moving on. The next piece is part of the city's old flag, which was flown until around fifty years ago. Further on, there is nothing more than the charred remains of what looks like an old piece of parchment. He walks on.
A row of portraits of famous people who were born in Latissa. Hunter is about to walk past them when one of the portraits in particular catches his eye. He bends down to read the description. 'Diane Liwin - Born 1967, founder and president witch of the 'Society of Free Healers for the Impoverished and Victims of Gang Crime' until disbanded in 1999 by decree of the leader of the healing coven Hettie Cutburn.', he reads in his head, 'Really? I knew there was more about her than I thought. At least it confirms that Hettie's always been a nasty person.'
Hunter goes on, from display case to display case, from exhibit to exhibit, none of it having anything to do with the feather. Throughout his entire journey, Hunter has talked to all sorts of people to see if they know anything about the artifacts Hunter needs to retrieve and where they are located. Including the 'Feather of the Forgotten', which he only found out from a former merchant that the feather is supposed to be in the museum in Latissa. And that the feather is supposed to have something to do with preserving memories, whatever that means. It seems that only his uncle knows its exact function.
Hunter wanders through the exhibition, and the next one without finding what he is looking for. That is, until he arrives at a book on display and reads the accompanying explanatory sign with his eyes. '-completed. The author died shortly afterwards. To this day, however, no one can remember her name or ever having met her. Photos of other people found in her house were discussed with said other persons, who remembered the image itself, but not the person next to them. As a result, her house was examined more closely and an artifact was found which was dubbed the 'Feather of the Forgotten', alluding to the author's lack of remembrance. The feather itself can now be seen in the town's archives, where it is safely researched and stored.'
'YES! FINALLY A REAL CLUE!', he cheers in his head. Why? Because the city archives are part of the town hall, which is located in a part of the city relatively untouched by Frobots.
“YO, HUNTER!”, he suddenly hears Ruby calling his name. He immediately buries all thoughts of the feather, picks up his feet, and runs as fast as he can in the direction her voice came from. Several seconds later, he finds the two older witches two exhibition rooms away, peering out of a huge window. He hears a constant, muffled hammering, but doesn't pay any attention to it just yet. “Well, found what you were looking for?”
“What-”
“Come here and have a look at this.”, Liwin interrupts him, whereupon he looks out of the large window and can't help but gasp in shock.
“This used to be a whole housing district...”, he gasps as he looks at the completely empty area where thousands of people once lived. Instead, all the three of them see is a huge hole in the ground where a giant metal thing with huge red eyes is sticking out, seemingly vibrating. “What is that?”, he asks in a low voice.
Liwin, with an angry look on her face, replies, “They're probably drilling for ores deep underground. But that's not what bothers me.”
“What?”
“I have a hunch they're using captured people as forced labor.”
“WHAT?”
“Keep your voice down.”, Liwin reprimands him, her facial expression unchanging. It's literally freaking him out a bit right now, “Before you got here, we saw Frobots leading some witches down there.”
“They're being forced to destroy their own homeland?”, Hunter exclaims, “This is beyond disgusting.”
His gaze wanders over to Ruby, who has so far been uncharacteristically silent. Even her gaze conveys nothing but barely controlled anger. “We have to save them.”
“I know.”, Liwin replies, gritting her teeth, “But you know we can't.”
Hunter is completely ready to complain again, however, Liwin cuts in front of him, which shuts him up. “We have far too few people and even less information.”
“So does that mean we’re not doing anything here either?”, Hunter accuses them.
“We're not going to save these people. At least not today.”
“Huh?”
“Use your brain, kid!”, Ruby snaps at him, “That the people are being used as forced labor is a good thing, at least relatively speaking. That they're working means there's a use for them that makes them more useful as labor as opposed to just killing them. Forced laborers can be freed. Dead ones can't.”
“I... see.”, he lets out a deep sigh, “So, what do we do?”
“Diane and I are going to do what we came to Latissa to do: Investigate. You're welcome to join us, kid.”
“I will. I want to help!”, he exclaims full of conviction, earning him a genuine glad smirk from the red-haired witch.
“Okay, how do we proceed?”, Hunter asks after the three of them have returned to their entry point inside the museum. “Not via the surface I suppose...”
“Not unless you want to die.”, Ruby comments, “You saw all those patrols out there.”
“No, we're digging through the ground.”, Liwin explains, at which Hunter visibly recoils.
“You- you don't mean those cocoons again, do you?”, he asks, trembling, 'Not again. I'm not going to get trapped like that again.'
Ruby grins at him mischievously, “Why, do you wanna go again?”
“Stop it, Ruby.”, Liwin scolds her, which gets a laugh out of the redhead, “No, we'll walk. You'll see.”
Liwin squats down in front of one of the holes and casts a plant spell, which doesn't seem to do anything at first glance. The chief healer crouches motionless with her eyes closed. Hunter, visibly confused, looks at Ruby for guidance, who herself just stands there with her arms crossed, awaiting whatever Liwin is doing. He lets out a silent sigh before turning his gaze to Liwin's magic circle and noticing something unusual by sheer coincidence. As is usually the case with plant spells, her magic circle is not completely green. Parts of it are red. 'What?'
She opens her eyes again, which Hunter takes as a sign to get rid of all his questions at once.
“What was that spell? The circle wasn't one color? Was that mixed magic? But you have a coven sigil...”
“Oh, this thing here?”, Liwin grins, holding out the back of her hand with the sigil of the healing coven towards him, “This is a tattoo.”
“This- That is the Healing Coven, but that was plant magic...”, Hunter feels like his brain is about to explode.
“Don't worry your little golden head about it.”, Ruby teases him, but he doesn't notice because he's too caught up in his own head.
“Hey, snap out of it.”, Liwin literally snaps a few times right in front of his face to bring him back, “Anyway, that spell just now was Plant Magic mixed with a bit of Bard Magic. There are ancient, vast root systems all through the ground that I can use to create an inverted map of sorts.”
“An inverted map?”
“Basically: where there are no roots, there is a tunnel.”, the healer explains again for the fools among them. “And this is where the bard part comes in. I can pick up vibrations and sound through the roots. Basically, what that means for us is that I've found a tunnel with forced laborers and no guards in it.”
“That's- amazing.”, Hunter says, quite dumbfounded.
“We'll make contact with the prisoners and discuss next steps.”, Liwin concludes.
“And what if that's not enough for them?”, Hunter interjects.
“What do you mean?”, Ruby asks back.
“Well, in their eyes, you're probably their rescuers, and telling them that you're not there to really save anyone.”, he elaborates.
“Not gonna lie, that's a valid argument.”, Ruby admits, to which Liwin nods thoughtfully.
“Let's take care of one problem at a time for now. We'll see what happens afterwards.”
'Aka. She doesn't have a plan.', Hunter thinks to himself.
Minutes later, the three of them find themselves in a tunnel made of thick roots with several glowing leaves at regular intervals. These roots are even thicker than usual for Liwin in order to absorb the vibrations from the enemy's digging and prevent the tunnel from collapsing.
Raising her hand, Liwin gestures the other two to stop.
“What is it? Why are we stopping?”
“Do you have to keep asking so many questions all the time?”, Ruby wonders.
Liwin and Hunter both disregard her question completely. The healer speaks up. “We're here, and I notice several witches in the tunnel just ahead of us. I'll push the rest of the rock out of the way manually and cut off the mineshaft.”
Liwin opens the root web that has dug through the ground for her, revealing a wall of solid rock laid out before her. Drawing a brown circle in the air causes the stone to move out of their way, revealing a manually dug mineshaft in front of them. She draws another circle to close the path to their right, so that they can talk undisturbed to the prisoners without being noticed by Frobots.
The three of them enter the manually dug tunnel, only to stop dead in their tracks when they see what, or rather who, is in front of them and is working without being bothered by their presence.
“You're kidding me!”, Ruby growls deeply, rage in her voice.
“Uhh, hello?”, Hunter calls out to the total of five workers in front of him. But none of the five respond. “Hello? We're here to help you.”
Five witches of various ages are working in front of him, equipped with nothing more than pickaxes that hack into the walls. They are also wearing normal, everyday clothes. One of the women is even wearing shoes with finger-length heels and a completely filthy evening dress. There is no safety equipment such as helmets or anything similar, nor are there any safeguards for the mineshafts itself.
“Something's not right here...”, he mumbles before deciding to approach one of them. Careful not to get hit in the face with one of the pickaxes, he approaches one of the men, but stops when he discovers a purple collar on or rather around his neck. He looks around and... every one of them is wearing one. He walks around one of them, only to find their eyes glowing completely purple. 'It doesn't even look like they're breathing...'
“Hey, these people are all wearing... collars? What-?” he was about to say when he turns around and spots the scene between the two women behind him. Ruby in front of him, encased arm-deep in rock by Liwin. “What are you doing?”
“LET ME OUT FOR FUCKS SAKE!”, Ruby growls, “THOSE FUCKERS DESERVE TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY DID TO RAIN!”
The red-haired giantess squeezes and squirms in an attempt to free herself. Hunter approaches Liwin, but Ruby noticed him first. Her tone changes abruptly.
“Hey Hunter. Be a good kid and free me. Okay?”, she requests very politely, but he is skeptical.
“For what?”, he asks, a frown adorning his face, “Who is going to die?”
“Come on, be a good Golden Guard and LET. ME. OUT!”
“Wha-”, he stumbles back a few steps, not only because of her outburst, “When? How?”
“Oh, all this time.”
“Ruby!”, Liwin admonishes her, her staff pointed directly at her. She draws a plant spell that wraps a root around her mouth, which the giantess easily bites through.
“All of us know about the little Golden Guard who's been wandering the Isles during this shitshow, asking all sorts of people about strange things. Probably sent by his beloved fucking uncle!”, Ruby accuses him. Incredulously, Hunter looks at Liwin, who is clearly avoiding his gaze.
“How?”, his voice no more than a whisper and now with his own staff in his hand.
Liwin sighs, now directly looking at him, “You once fought a few of us. The Looking Glass Graveyard. Remember?”
“Does that mean that-”
“Yes, that's how we learned your real name. Descriptions of your appearance from the others helped.”, she explains, “If it makes you feel any better, we had no idea you were in Latissa at the same time as us. This was pure coincidence.”
“Oh-kay...”, Hunter mutters, his mind racing at insane speeds, “What now? Are you trying to capture me?”
The healer takes a deep breath. “Right now, neither you nor Belos are our enemies.”, Liwin replies with a low voice, “Especially with the curiosity you showed during your tour, you gave us a good insight into what Belos seems to be planning. We are very grateful to you for that.”
“You- you're letting me go?”, Hunter asks incredulously.
“Like I said, you're not our enemy.”
Unbeknownst to them, Ruby has secretly started to successfully crumble the rock holding her captive.
“RUBY!”, Liwin shouts as the rock cracks open and the red-haired witch runs into the tunnel towards one of the elderly-looking prisoners, lashing out with her massive fist and smashing her head against the rock, smashing it to pieces in the process. Liwin and Hunter can only watch in bewilderment and horror as Ruby breathes heavily like a wild animal after what she just did.
“That was for Rain, you fucking pig of a mother!”
“M-mother?”, Hunter asks in a shaky voice.
“She avenged her younger sister. Don't ask.”, Liwin answers in a defeated tone. A moment of silence envelops the tunnel, with only the regular simultaneous sounds of chopping of the four remaining pickaxes.
About a minute later, Ruby straightens up and approaches the others, who look at her with either utter fear or angry indifference. “Sorry you had to see that, Kid. It was necessary.”
“I... I should leave.”
A few days later…
“Uncle? Uncle, are you here?”
For the first time since Hunter was sent on his mission, he returns to his uncle's lab inside the Titan's Skull, his spirits high. Hunter just came flying in though one of the eye sockets on Flapjack. Upon reaching the huge ornate stone door, he pushes it open and enters the lab behind it, which his uncle has used as a base since the beginning of the invasion.
What wasn't there on his last visit is a strange contraption built around a pedestal that rises some two meters into the air. The closest comparison Hunter can think of is a circular, unfinished stone circle, like a kind of passageway.
“Hunter? You're back already?”, Belos emerges from a smaller side room, looking more like an engineer than a ruler. His hair is tied back in a loose braid, he wears an overall, and goggles around his neck. Hunter, surprised for a moment, goes to his knees in a deep bow.
“Indeed.”, he confirms, “It fills me with joy to have fulfilled all your expectations, my lord.”
“Show me your finds.”, Belos demands. Without any objections, Hunter takes out a small pouch, which expands to many times its size when he opens it, forming a kind of tent. “Hm?”
“This is an artifact I acquired from a traveling merchant.”, Hunter reports with pride in his voice, “It has greatly simplified my efforts to transport everything safely and securely.”
Belos nods in satisfaction and enters the tent with Hunter right behind him.
Inside, he finds several containers and two cages, one of which is made entirely of glass.
“Over here we have the Echo Quartz, which I found in the eastern ring finger. In the glass cage are the Astral Whispers, which emit a terrible stench. Next to it is an Eonstone and Glass Kelp, the latter soaked in water to keep it fresh. In the jar next to it is the Moonveil Mist, which I... borrowed from a museum on the left knee. Next to it is the Feather of the Forgotten, and in the cage, there is the Photo-Hog. I'm sorry uncle, but I couldn't locate any Galdorstones.”
“Why is the animal dead?”, Belos asks instead of asking about the Galdorstone, as he had expected.
“Hm? Oh, because it's not possible to transport living creatures with the artifact. Plus, it kept trying to eat my memories. I'm not sure if it actually succeeded in some of his attempts or not.”
Belos looks around with a sympathetic look before turning to Hunter and placing a hand on his shoulder. “You did well. The Titan is proud of your accomplishments.”
“Thank you.”, Hunter bows, “Um, if you don't mind me asking, why did I have to get all this stuff?”
A curious look adorns Belos' face. He contemplates his question. “Come with me, I'll show you.”
The two of them leave the tent and approach the apparatus unknown to Hunter.
“This here... is the solution to our problems.”, Belos begins dramatically, “And the beginning of the end of our enemies.”
“What exactly does it do?”
“In colloquial terms, it opens a door to a very distant place.”, he says with a smile on his face.
“And there's something there that we can use to put an end to the invasion?”, Hunter asks excitedly.
“Indeed.”, Belos nods, “And every single item you brought with you will serve a purpose. The hog would have been more useful alive, but it will work this way too.”
“I'm sorry, Uncle.”, Hunter lowers his head, “I've let you down.”
“Not at all, Hunter.”, Belos puts one hand on Hunter's shoulder and the other over his heart, “Absolutely everything is going exactly as the Titan planned. And you have successfully done your part.”
“Un-Uncle?”, some fear creeps into Hunter's voice at his uncle's ominous tone. He tries to take a step back, but Belos' grip on his shoulder holds him rigidly in place.
“You were by far the most loyal of them all. The others have betrayed and betrayed me, but not you.”, Belos smiles as Hunter squirms slightly in pain, “And now it's time for your reward.”
“Unc- UGH!”
A sharp pain erupts in Hunter's chest, and his whole body begins to convulse. His gaze wanders downwards, only to discover that Belos has pierced his chest with his arm turned into a spear. With a shaky expression, he looks back up at his uncle, who has a completely emotionless expression on his face. To his and Belos' surprise, Belos' arm suddenly turns goo, allowing Hunter to stumble backwards away from him. Within seconds, Belos' arm has reformed and he looks down disparagingly at Hunter, who has fallen.
“I missed? Guess I forgot where exactly I put it...”, he mumbles. Hunter looks down at the incredibly painful hole inside him, 'Why am I not bleeding?'
His gaze snaps back up in time to see Belos take another swing with his goo-arm formed into a lance. In seconds, Hunter summons Flapjack and dashes to the side just in time.
“Stop. Moving!”, Belos orders him. However, Hunter is currently in nothing but deathly fear. Trembling, in pain, and breathing heavily, Hunter dodges another attack and quickly flees towards the exit. Belos teleports into his path several times, but Hunter's short-range teleports save him each time.
Belos teleports to the bridge outside the lab and Hunter instinctively jumps off the bridge. Surprised, Belos looks after him, not realizing that Hunter has already reached the Titan's eyes on the other side, flying behind Belos' back on his staff.
Belos teleports right behind him, still trying to get him back with an outstretched goo-arm, but it's too late.
“Soooooooo...”, a voice he doesn't want to hear at all appears next to him, “He got away. You must be a reeally good catcher if he's so scared of you.”
“...”, Belos doesn't answer him, but merely stares after Hunter angrily.
“Don't you want to go after him?”
“... No.”, Belos decides, his facial expression resolute. “But it's time I invite some old... friends... to play the game.”
Somewhere further south...
“I- can't... anymore...”
Hunter has been flying for about half an hour, and the adrenaline that has kept him awake so far is starting to wear off and he is rapidly losing energy. Flapjack notices this and immediately reduces his altitude and speed.
“Flap...”, he breathes out, loosening his grip on the staff. Still two meters above the ground, Hunter loses consciousness and staggers from his staff to the ground.
Flapjack, extremely worried about his best friend, transforms back into his natural form and looks around him for possible help. Luckily for him, someone has been watching the entire thing just now.
“Hello Hunter. It's been a while...”
Notes:
So, for this part I have an announcement:
- If you rememeber what I said at the end of chapter 50, I announced a QnA. If you're interested in reading it, I posted it on my new DeviantArt account, where I will also post new previews in the future: DeviantArt: MarzekAO3 - QnA
- Also, remember that Belos is a liar. I am too.
Chapter 52: The Cost of a Soul - [Part 1]
Summary:
Luz & Co finally return to the Boiling Isles, and the big day is approaching fast. There is a lot preparation still left to do
Notes:
This is it, folks. 'A Lost Owl' is now the longest Owlphibia-fic not only to surpass 500.000 words, but also officially the longest Owlphibia-fic in the entire internet (Not counting fics with more than those two fandoms)
And to celebrate that, I commissioned the amazing artist IncroyableDraws to create an official cover art piece for my story, which I think turned out beautifully. Feel free to check it out on Reddit or on Tumblr already, or on ALO's first chapter in a few days:
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/1lharp0/fanfictionselfpromo_a_lost_owl/
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sleep does not come easily to one Anne Boonchuy. Not after the day she has experienced today. Not only is Sasha talking to her again, but Luz is also back, and she has even brought her best friend from two worlds with her... somehow. Her best friend/little brother Sprig, who is currently fast asleep on an air mattress right next to her bed. She had banned Sasha from her room, which is why she is sleeping on the couch in the living room. Why, one might ask? Why is Sprig allowed to sleep in her room and her former best friend of eight years isn't?
Isn't that obvious?
The answer is trust. Something Anne doesn't have too much of at the moment. Sasha has often manipulated her, taken advantage of her, played her, and thrown her away once they returned to Earth. And the last part was particularly painful. Suddenly being all alone when she had everything before. Her girlfriend, her frog family, her friends Sasha and Luz... And now they're back, and Anne doesn't know what to think or feel. Grateful? Hopeful? What if they all leave again? What if someone finds out what Anne has been doing all this time back on Earth, especially to herself?
'I feel so stupid...', Anne puts her lower arm over her eyes as she lies motionless in her bed. She enjoys the cool feeling of her skin for a moment before taking it down again just to stare blankly against her ceiling. 'Did I even thank Luz for bringing Sprig back to me before she left for her mom? What if she doesn't come back- Again... ... No! She went to all this trouble to bring him to me. Plus, she needs my help. She won't leave again... She's just- just visiting her mom. Must be nice to have the ability to go wherever you want all the time...'
Her strange uncoherent self-rant gets interrupted as an intense electrostatic shockwave ripples throughout the house, causing all of her hair to stand up in an instant. As if on instinct, she shoots up, her hand immediately reaching for the sweatshirt lying right next to her in her bed.
She looks over the edge of her bed at Sprig, who doesn't seem to have noticed anything and is luckily still sleeping peacefully.
It is quiet in the house. For seconds, which feels like an eternity whilst her heart beats against her chest in anticipation of... something.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
'That came from the backyard.'
Anne jumps up as quietly as possible so as not to wake Sprig, who is still fast asleep, pulls on her sweatshirt, and leaves her room. 'Was that Luz? Hasn’t she just left earlier...'
She closes her room door behind her and sneaks past her parents' room, who surely must have heard that scream as well, and heads down the stairs.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!"
'It really is Luz. And she sounds awful.'
Hurrying a little, she descends two steps at a time and spots Sasha at the bottom to her left, still half-asleep and in her uniform, in which she has apparently been sleeping. Ignoring her, Anne hurries to the back door that leads into the garden and almost tears it from its latch.
Not far ahead of her, she recognizes the two figures who she had not been expected back so soon, and not in this state either. Luz on her knees in the grass, crying her eyes out with all her strength. And Amity, hugging her tightly, not ready to let her go.
“What- happened?”, Anne asks aloud when Amity notices her. She steps out of the door-
"WAIT! DON'T-", Amity tries to warn her, but by then she has already stepped onto the grass and a massive dark purple bolt of lightning erupts from the grass and hits Anne directly in the stomach, throwing her far back into the house.
“Anne!”, Sasha exclaims as Anne literally hits the ground right next to her head first. She bends down to check on her, checking her head for possible injuries when she feels a small flash of something hit her hand, at which she believes she briefly saw pink. The brunette groans. “Anne, are you okay?”, Sasha asks worriedly.
“M' more worried ‘bout Luz.”, she mumbles back, “Help me up.”
Sasha reaches out her hand and hoists her back to her feet. With her as her support, the two of them walk back towards the back door, where they feel the ground beneath their feet tremble and shake slightly.
This time, both girls stop on the concrete steps.
“What just happened?”, Anne asks Amity over Luz's sobs.
“Her magic is out of control.”, the witch replies. At the same time, Luz literally claws at the grass and unknowingly discharges all her magic into the ground. With her other hand, she strikes the grass-free earth in front of her. The ground shakes again.
"Luz-"
Another blow. And another one. She reaches out with her left fist and strikes the ground with all her might, whereupon a dark purple lightning bolt shoots out of the ground several meters behind her and strikes the tree in the corner of the garden, the upper half of which is vaporizing in an instant. And with each strike, the shaking of the ground becomes more violent.
“LUZ!”, Sasha now yells, honestly scared of the girl’s power. The girl addressed snaps her head towards her, only for Sasha to step back in horror as she catches sight of Luz's pitch-black eyes, where nothing more than her purple irises is visible. At least until the next time she blinks and they return to their natural color. With an angry look and tears flowing down her face, Luz looks at the two slightly frightened girls inside the house and... just stares at them.
Unnerved by her stare, one of the two girls takes a step back. Amity notices this and gently grabs Luz's face, turning her head towards her own. She cups her face with both her hands, making sure that she always touches her girlfriend directly with at least one hand.
“Luz...”, Amity whispers to her with a soft smile on her face. Luz, an already absolute emotional mess, feels her face heating up.
“A-Ami?”, she replies weakly. The witch looks deep into her eyes, which are puffy and red from all the crying. A simple gesture, but distracting enough to almost completely dry up Luz's magic output.
“You look tired.”, Amity takes her in her arms, each girl's head resting on the other's shoulder. Holding her tight, Amity slides her fingers through Luz's hair until moments later all tension has drained from the exhausted girl's body. Her arms hang limp from her shoulders, and only her chest is slightly rising with each breath.
Amity lets out a breath of relief she didn't know she was holding. Her gaze meets Anne and Sasha, who are staring at her wide-eyed. Judging the ground to be safe now, she waves both of them over. Although hesitant at first, the two girls approach her and Luz cautiously.
"Is she-"
"Sleeping, yeah.", Amity whispers, still stroking Luz's hair.
“What happened?”, Anne repeats her previous question. Amity takes a glance at the sleeping girl in her arms.
"Can we bring her in first, please? I'll tell you everything afterwards.", she asks the two of them, to which both girls nod.
After a bit of a weird- graceful transport of Luz into the living room, she is now lying there on one of the two couches, snuggled up in a thick blanket that seems to have been crocheted by hand by Anne’s mom, sound asleep. Anne and Sasha observe Amity cuddling Luz in the blanket and stroking some of her hair out of her face and hiding it behind her ears.
'Hm?', the witch thinks to herself as she notices a kind of bump just above Luz's ear. 'A bump?’
With extreme care and caution, she pushes a hair aside until her scalp is visible, or rather a piece of bone just visible through her hair. 'Wait? Is that a baby horn? ... Heh, she really is a titan.'
Giving Luz a kiss on her forehead, she stands up and wordlessly turns to Anne and Sasha, who accompany her to the kitchen. But not before the three of them run into Anne's parents, who are still partly asleep.
“Anne, Sasha, what-?”, Oum squeezes her eyes to try to focus on Amity, "Wait, Amity? ... You and Luz are back already?"
"Yes. It went... not very well.", she replies with her head down. Both Oum and Bee are silent at her for an unnervingly long moment.
“Does your arrival have anything to do with the earthquake just now?”, Bee asks. Interestingly, this is the very first thing Anne's father has ever asked the young witch. In fact, this is their very first interaction.
“Um, yes.”, Amity answers hesitantly, whereupon Bee thinks for a moment and nods slowly.
“Alright...”, he speaks very slowly.
“Are you okay?”, Oum asks, seemingly a little more awake than her husband.
Amity nods. “I’m alright.”
"Okay. Then let's go back to sleep. Come on, honey."
“Yes, ma'am.”, he follows her like a completely sleepy, over-tired puppy led by her hand and Anne, Sasha, and Amity make their way into the kitchen.
The three girls sit down at the kitchen table, Sasha glances out of the window at the smoking remains of the tree in Anne's garden under which she has spent so much time together with Anne and Marcy. Taking a deep breath, a partly angry, partly anxious expression settles on Amity.
"I'm going to jump right in: What the fuck is she?", Sasha asks, trying not to freak out, "I mean, we know that humans might kinda be able to use some kind of magic, but what she just did out there… Earlier she said she's not fully human anymore-"
"What?", Anne interrupts her in surprise, "Not fully human anymore? What's that supposed to mean?"
Amity sighs, “To be perfectly honest, I'd feel better if you could ask her yourself, but I'll answer as best I can.”, she states, Anne's and Sasha's gazes on her, "Luz is part human, and part Titan. A being with boundless magical potential and power."
“H-how?”, Anne asks while Sasha seems deep in thought with her arms crossed.
"Apparently, when Titans die, it's only their physical form that dies, not their soul, so to speak. Their soul gets split up, and one such splinter was in Amphibia, who asked Luz for help.”, Amity tries to remember as many details as possible, “Luz had agreed. But in order to fulfill his request, it was necessary to modify her body."
"Modify as in...?"
“A second heart, magic resistance from the outside, a blood exchange according to Luz, plus, she can now control magic herself, which she was previously only able to do with glyphs.”
“I remember the glyphs.”, Anne says.
“Me too.”, Sasha seconds that, though her memory is a little less pleasant, “So, that out there was-”
“Luz magic, yes.”, Amity completes her guess, “Completely out of control, though.”
“This is- a lot.”, Anne mutters, “Has this happened before? Her magic going out of control like that, I mean.”
“Yeah, twice in Amphibia.”, Amity replies, deliberately not mentioning the nightmare considering that Luz is asleep right now, "Actually burned me pretty badly. Unintentionally, of course."
Anne and Sasha share a concerned gaze before Amity continues, "By the way, Anne, how are you holding up? You took a direct hit, didn't you?"
"Right. Anne, how are you even walking right now?", Sasha adds. The girl in question simply looks down at herself, exactly where she was hit. She slides her fingers over her stomach area, but nothing.
“I'm- fine.”, Anne replies, not quite believing her own words herself.
"This is going to sound strange, but... did you see any colors?", Sasha wonders.
"I- yeah, now that I think about it. When you helped me up, I saw blue for a couple seconds."
“And I saw pink. Though only for a moment.”
Amity looks back and forth between the two girls, “Does that mean anything?”
“Our powers might be connected to her...”, Sasha concludes, “...somehow.”
"That... actually makes sense.", Amity mutters thoughtfully.
"Really? How?"
“You should ask Valeriana that once we get to the Isles.”
“Valeriana?”, Anne asks, looking at the witch with utter confusion, “Why is she- you know, never mind.”
“Who?”, Sasha asks.
“A Newt.”, Anne answers, "A weird- newt. You'll see when you see her."
“A frog girl called Maddie will be there too.”, Amity continues.
"Maddie? Well, that makes sense with her being Luz's friend and stuff."
Amity nods slightly.
"There is... one more thing I'd like to address.”, Sasha begins, though hesitantly, “This girl's power is dangerous. And not just for the enemy."
“We will be fine.”, Amity says.
"Really?! What if this happens again like it did just now?”, Sasha asks, her gaze stern, “This girl literally made the ground tremble."
"Before we arrived, Luz basically abandoned her mother. Her mother, wearing only a bathrobe, in tears and on her knees, begging her not to leave her again... This is by far not a normal situation and definitely a justified reaction, merely transferred by her magic to her surroundings."
Sasha just frowns at her before Anne speaks up, "I think- I think I understand her. If my mom did that- no one wants to see their own mom cry."
“My mom could- and did- die, for all I cared.”, Amity mutters, which is definitely not lost on the other two girls, “But I know that's not the standard.”
"My mom sucks too. Both parents, actually. So, I can partially relate...", Sasha agrees.
A moment of silence envelops the three girls, interrupted by a yawning Anne.
"I think I should go back to bed. Don't wanna leave Sprig alone in my room for too long, even if he is deep asleep."
“Wait.”, Amity stops her, who turns to her curiously, “Given what happened, are you still willing to come to the Isles and help us?”, she asks with an anxious tone.
“I'll do anything to get my Marcy back.”, Anne replies without hesitation, surprising Sasha in the process.
“I'm still on board too.”, Sasha affirms, which fills Amity with relief.
“Thank you.”, the witch says with a relieved smile, “Good night, Anne.”
"Thank you. Night, guys.", she says and disappears up the stairs, leaving Amity and Sasha behind.
“What about you? Where are you sleeping? My couch is taken.”, Sasha asks Amity.
"I'm staying with Luz. Just in case."
“In case you need to absorb her magic again?”, Sasha wonders.
"Absorb her-? ... I don't think I did that."
“How come her magic didn't attack you too then?”
"Direct contact I suppose. I think I felt her magic slip over me.”, Amity replies, though not quite sure about that herself, “Don't quote me on that, though."
"Like a Faraday cage or whatever it's called? I see...", Sasha mutters, at which Amity just nods who has not having the slightest idea what that girl is talking about. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna head to the bathroom real quick. Remember: Hands off my couch!"
Luz slowly regains consciousness, and for reasons she can't remember yet, she feels like shit. At this very moment, she only knows three things: Firstly, that she is feeling incredibly exhausted. Secondly, that she is lying on an incredibly comfortable surface. And thirdly, that she can hear an unfamiliar voice nearby.
“Thank you very much, Michelle. ... Last night, southern California was struck by a series of earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 3.2. Thousands of people across the Los Angeles area were thrown out of their beds, although fortunately there were no injuries or any damage to buildings and local infrastructure reported. We asked a few people on the street about it:”
“What, only 3.2? I didn't notice anything.”
“My cat woke me up, but she just wanted a snack- What? An earthquake? There was an earthquake? When?”
“Wait...”, a couple smirks at each other, “Honestly, we thought it was something completely different...”
“Yes, the police force was very busy last night. Almost every unit in the city has been deployed to bring the situation under control. The chaos was enormous, and that was before we even got anywhere-”
“Are you my mummy?”
“Ouat? Ön örthquäke? 'm sure it's Obama's fault! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S- uhh, -A!”
“You've heard it yourself, ladies and gentlemen. Distressed reactions from distressed people. When our editorial team inquired with the Governor whether the National Guard would be deployed to assist those affected, we were denied a response... We now turn to our local geologist Professor Dr. Stein Hauer to get his expert opinion on last night's events before we start a special broadcast on the subject lasting several hours. So, Professor, what's your assessment of last night's massive earthquake?”
“You know, Tom, an earthquake of that magnitude-”
The voices immediately disappear after an annoyed grunt from a different direction. “It's always the same: everything is unnecessarily hyped up for attention...”
'Wait, that's not mom...', Luz thinks to herself before finally gathering enough strength to open her eyes. Frowning, her gaze meets a certain blonde, “Sasha?”
“Well look at that, sleeping beauty is finally awake.”, Sasha comments jokingly, “But honestly, good to see you seem a little better. You know, that little one of yours hasn't left your side all night. I'm jealous, honestly.”
'Huh?', Luz wonders, slightly confused. Her gaze wanders down a little where she notices Amity, who has fallen asleep on the edge of the couch Luz is lying on. The purple-haired witch is snoring lightly, and Luz has to pull herself together very hard not to die at the cuteness of the scene in front of her.
“Wait-”, Luz says, turning her head to Sasha with a serious expression, “I think I just remembered what happened last night...”
Sasha immediately feels the instinct to retreat, “B-but you feel better now, don't you? No purple lightning? No Luz-induced earthquakes?”
“No- what?”, a look of realization on her face, “What did I do?”
“Just caused the ground to shake and blew up a tree.”, Sasha replies in a casual tone, which is definitely not an act. The half-human looks like she's mentally on another planet altogether. “So, how are you feeling? Lightning-y?”
“... I don't know. A little... tired?”
“Understandable.”, Sasha notices how Amity seems to be waking up, “I'll leave you and your little witch girlfriend alone. I'll let the others know that you're awake.”
“Luz?”
Amity rubs her eyes, still half asleep, and once again Luz could die at the sight. “I'm right here.”
Under her blanket, Luz slides aside to give Amity the opportunity to sit next to her, which the young witch is only too happy to do.
“How are you feeling?”
“I'm... better. No, that’s not true. I feel… tired, mostly.”, Luz replies softly, “Sorry, I just remembered what happened last night.”
Amity's gaze lowers, “You were in so much pain... And there was nothing I could do to help you.”
“I'm not sure there was anything you could have done.”, Luz mutters, “Say, were you here all night?”
“Of course!”, Amity all but yells at her, before looking away again, “I mean, under no circumstances would I have left you alone with your pain. There was nothing I could do when you were awake and I thought... well, maybe my presence will at least help you sleep peacefully.”
Luz can't help but stare at her girlfriend, not even noticing the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“Did- did I ever tell you how much I adore you?”, Amity stares wide-eyed at her girlfriend, a warm blush on her face, “All this time you've stayed by my side and supported me no matter how down or lost I felt... You've always been there, and- and I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend. Heh, you know, sometimes I think back to the Bonesborough Brawl and how I seriously doubted if I wanted to be with you. I'd slap myself from back then in the face if I could... I mean, Amity, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I just want you to know that.”
For a long moment Amity finds herself completely frozen, both in body and voice. Her body reels on its own and throws itself into Luz's arms in a tight embrace. “No, you are the best thing that's ever happened to me. Everything you've ever done has turned my life completely upside down, and always for the better. Thanks to you, I can call Willow my friend again. Thanks to you, I found the courage to stand up to my parents and fight for myself. Thanks to you, I know what it feels like to be happy and loved, even if it sometimes comes at a price. I mean, if you had never come into my life, I might already be on a safe path towards the Emperor's Coven today. Or Odalia might be forcing me into marriage with one of the other influential families... Honestly, even the thought of that makes me shudder.”, Amity slowly pulls away from the hug and looks at Luz, who has tears of her own in her eyes, and a soft smile on her face, "So Luz, thank you for being in my life. I don't know where I would be without you. I just know that I definitely wouldn't be as nearly as happy as I am right now.", and pulls her close for a kiss that fills both girls with unforgettable bliss.
“I love you, Ami.”
“I love you too, my light. More than you can imagine.”
The two girlfriends lean in for another kiss when they suddenly hear a third voice.
“Aww, young love. How sweet...”
While Amity immediately buries her face in Luz's shoulder, completely flushed, the latter turns around only to see Oum Boonchuy standing in the entrance to the living room.
“Come. Otherwise, your khai jeaw will get cold.”, Oum adds before turning around and leaving the two lovers alone again.
“Khai... Jeaw?”, Amity asks confused, her blush only minimally reduced until now. Luz seems similarly clueless.
“Breakfast if I had to guess.”, she replies, shrugging her shoulders. And as if it couldn't be any more convenient, a loud rumbling of an empty stomach fills the silence of the living room. Both Luz and Amity have to snort at that. “Guess I'm hungrier than I thought. Are you coming with me?”
“I'll go anywhere with you.”, the witch replies with a lovestruck smile.
“Wow, this is delicious.”, Amity compliments the Thai omlette that Oum has prepared for all of them, which includes the three Boonchuys, Sprig, Sasha, as well as Luz and Amity. All of them nodding in agreement, “Lots of herbs I've never experienced before. Pretty spicy too.”
“Thank you very much, Amity.”, Oum smiles, “I figured since at least two of you have never tried Thai food, or any food from Earth for that matter, that I'd make you something special. Sprig, how do you like it?”
Several pairs of eyes turn to Sprig, who suddenly jumps up, runs to the sink and drinks tons of water in a thick stream. Nearly everyone giggles at that.
“I guess frogs can't handle spiciness.”, Luz says with a grin.
“Well, in Amphibia, I cooked a lot myself whenever Hop Pop let me. I mean, I literally created a whole restaurant with Thai recipes, and nobody ever complained about spiciness.”, Anne recalls, "Maybe it's just spices from Earth that he can't tolerate."
About a minute later, Sprig sits back down at the table, still completely red and with pain in his mouth. You'd almost think his breath was on fire. “Phuh, that's like Hop Pop's Pain Peppers... Aside from being pretty delicious, though.”, he says before taking another big bite and running back to the tap.
“Well, I'm very glad you all like it.”, Oum comments with a proud smile on her face, “By the way Luz, I was told you weren't feeling well when you and Amity got back here. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nope.”, the girl replies without any hesitation, “But I'm better now, if that's your next question.” Under the table, she holds Amity's hand, who gives her a reassuring squeeze.
“All right, that's good to hear.”
“Do you already have a plan for when you are planning to leave?”, Bee suddenly speaks up. Luz swallows the food in her mouth before answering.
“Preferably as soon as possible.”, Luz replies. Her gaze glazes over to Anne and Sasha, looking for objections, but finds none. “I have to tell the others that I was successful in Amphibia.”
“What do you mean?”, Sasha asks with a critical tone.
“The plan is to evacuate the civilian population to Amphibia when our counterattack begins.”, Luz explains, “And for that, I needed Mrs. Croaker's permission first, of course.”
“Mrs. Croaker??”, Anne asks, confused, “Why her?”
“She's leading the resistance that's entrenched in Wartwood.”
“What about Ben? He was in charge of the rebellion against the Toads.”, Anne continues, at which Luz merely shakes her head, “I... see. Well, I'm pretty sure Mrs. Croaker is competent enough for that.”
“Sasha-”, Luz begins, “Before we leave, is there anything else you still want to get and take with you?”
“No, I have everything I need right here.”, she replies, pointing to her armor that she is already wearing, as well as the sword that lies right next to her on the floor and her phone on the table.
“Sprig? - Wait, no, forget that. Anne?”, Luz continues to ask.
“Huh?”, Anne lifts her head, her mouth still full of food. She awkwardly tries to eat her food faster, “Should all be in my room.”
“Alright.”, Luz begins, “You don't have to hurry. We'll leave as soon as you're done.”
The six of them don't really hurry with breakfast, and the whole room is filled with pleasant conversation. Anne and Sprig tell her parents about some of the funnier stories from Amphibia that they didn't know about yet, and Sasha goes over practice plans for her swordsmanship training with Luz once they get to the Isles. And Amity just listens with interest.
“Well, I think I'll go and pack.”, Anne suddenly declares, getting up from the table.
“Can I help you with that?”, Sprig offers, but Anne smiles and refuses.
Instead, she leaves the kitchen, heads up the stairs, enters her room, and collapses face forward onto her bed with an exhausted heave. Suddenly being social after such a long period of (self-)isolation is anything but easy. Quite the opposite, in fact. Talking, laughing, listening, the mere presence of other people in her immediate surroundings. A weak, hollow laugh escapes her lips. 'Heh, I think I need a nap. A veeery long one...'
A minute passes in which Anne doesn't move a bit and instead just lies there. Her body is heavy, her mind exhausted, her eyes tired.
Suddenly it's already two minutes.
Then five.
Then ten.
“I don't think I can do this...”, Anne mumbles under her breath.
“I wouldn't blame you.”
Anne's mind immediately jumps into overdrive. 'I did lock my door, didn't I?', she ponders.
“Yes, you did.”
Hesitantly, Anne rolls onto her back and sits up to locate the source of the voice. Two glances meet and Anne's breath immediately catches in shock.
“Ma- Marcy...”, Anne puts her hands over her mouth in disbelief, tears of despair in her eyes. “It- it's really you?”
Leaning against the locked bedroom door, arms folded and smiling softly, she is indeed standing there: Marcy Wu, wrapped in a faint green aura. “Yes and no.”, she replies.
“W-what?”, Anne wants nothing more than to jump up and hug the girl she loves and missed so much, but for some reason her legs refuse to move at all. Marcy walks over to Anne, tears now streaming down her cheeks, and kneels down in front of her. She holds out a hand to her. “Give me your hand.”
There is not a hint of haste in Marcy's voice or her actions. Full of patience and with a gentle smile on her face, she awaits Anne's reaction. Slowly Anne reaches out, only to find her hand slipping through Marcy's. Completely horrified and uncomprehending, her head snaps up to Marcy.
“I'm not really here. And I'm not really her either...”, she explains, her smile sad but not faltering, “I am the memories you have of her. If I remember correctly, you once had a similar experience with Sprig on the way to Newtopia.”
“Y-yeah, I remember.”, Anne mutters dejectedly, wiping away the tears on the sleeve of her hoodie, “So you- you're just a hallucination?”
“Something like that.”
“Why?”, Anne asks, dejected, happy, and stressed out all at once, “Why now? Why- you?”
Marcy gets up and sits down next to Anne on her bed. “Gosh, you even smell like her...”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”, Marcy laughs, which only makes Anne's heart break further, “I'm here because-, well your subconscious called me here because you need me.... Your powers might have something to do with it too.”
“My powers? But they're-”
“-gone?”, Marcy completes her question. Anne nods. “You remember last night? When Luz's magic went out of control and hit you?”, Anne shakes her head before she does eventually remember and nods, “Do you remember back in Amphibia when we were looking for Luz, I shouted at Yunan, and we got lost in the woods near Wartwood?”, Anne nods again, “You found me then because your heart wanted to find me. You found me through my own heartbeat.”
“I don't understand...”
“I'm sorry. I could probably explain it better if I had access to her vocabulary... I'll try again: your power is your heart, and Marcy is a big part of it, if not the biggest. Last night your power got a boost which temporarily reactivated them. And in response to your pain, I appeared.”
“I- see.”, Anne sniffles, “Gosh, I've missed you so much.”
“It's been really hard for you, hasn't it?”
“You know what's happened since then, don't you?”, Anne lowers her head and looks down at her covered arms. Marcy nods.
“Yes, I know.”, she replies, "And I don't blame you for it. She wouldn't do it either.”, Anne remains silent, her gaze fixed on her sleeves and what lies beneath. Marcy continues. “You said earlier that you couldn't do it. Do you want to tell me why?”
“You can read my mind. You already know the answer.”
“That's true, but you should admit it to yourself as well. After all, I'm here to help you.”
Anne grumbles at that. “I've changed since you left. Yesterday Sprig told me I was a hero, but look at me!”, she all but yells, pulling her sleeves up, revealing all the scars she's inflicted on herself, “Heroes don't give up. Heroes don’t get depressed. Heroes don't wanna- ... die.”
“You're not a hero, Anne.”, Marcy says with a comforting tone, which only confuses Anne.
“Huh?!”
“You are thirteen.”, Marcy states bluntly, “You're not some superhero like the ones in the comics and manga Marcy likes so much. You're a miracle, Anne. But not a hero.”
“A miracle? What do you mean?”
“Just over the last year, you've seen and experienced things that other people would dismiss as mere fiction.”, she says, “You survived a whole month alone in a forest in another world. You were one of the first humans to make contact with an otherworldly civilization and managed to be accepted as one of their own. You've been given superpowers that might as well have come from an anime. And you're only thirteen. What you've done is not play hero; you've survived. Nothing more, nothing less. In your time you have improved the lives of your fellow frogs, but not by being a heroine, but because you are you. You are Anne Boonchuy. You are charismatic, you have always found the ability to make friends with everyone, and you have a huge and beautiful heart.”
“If you weren't you, I'd say you were lying, but...”
“But?”
“But Marcy could tell me that the Earth has three moons and one of them is made entirely of blue cheese, and I'd believe her. You're basically cheating is what I wanna say.”, Anne almost cracks a small smile. “Thank you. Talking to you; hearing your voice has helped. Really.”
“The only other thing I would have liked to offer is a hug, but we've already covered that.”, even Marcy now sounds a bit disappointed.
“Don't worry. I'll get my hug as soon as we've rescued you- her.”, Anne declares.
“Is that a hint of hope I hear in your voice?”, Marcy asks teasingly.
“You just reminded me what's really important to me. And what I am missing.”, Anne says.
“Then my work here is done.”
“Wait!”, Anne says.
“Huh?”
“Before you go... … I love you, Mar-Mar.”
Marcy puts her hands around Anne's cheeks, even if the latter can't feel the touch, “I love you too, Anna-Banana.”
Seconds later, Marcy, or whatever she was, is gone again, and Anne finds herself alone in her room once again.
“Marcy, I swear on my life: I will save you!”
With this announcement and her new-found motivation, Anne jumps up from her bed and starts packing. She grabs her pink backpack from her desk chair and throws open the doors of her closet, from where she grabs two long-sleeved shirts and stuffs them carelessly into her backpack. She does the same with a pair of dark leggings and random underwear from the drawer next to her bedroom door.
To be honest with herself, Anne has no idea how long she'll be gone - or if she'll ever come back. After all, she could just live with Marcy in Amphibia for the rest of their lives after she rescues her. Maybe in a little cottage near Wartwood. Maybe even with a shared bedroom. Anne would always do breakfast in the morning while Marcy worked in her study or personal library. During the day Anne would work on Hop Pop's farm while Marcy advised the new government. Maybe, at some point they could even adopt a child togeth-
THUMP
Anne dropped to her knees, breathing heavily, a blush on her face with the intensity of a forest fire.
'No, it's too soon for that!', she mentally slabs herself in reference to these fantasies. It's actually been quite a long time since Anne has thought about something like her future or plans in general. Plans for the day, plans for school or therapy, plans for food - this sudden change feels strange. Anne shakes her head. 'One thing at a time.'
Her backpack is already pretty full of necessities by now. But of everything in her room, there's one place however Anne hasn't touched ever since her return to Earth. At the bottom of her drawer, covered in a thin layer of dust, lies a certain golden chest plate, a pair of golden gauntlets, and golden boots that protect her legs up to her knees, all of it adorned with translucent blue crystal-like material. Anne grabs the chest plate and wipes the dust off with her sleeve, revealing the reflection of her face. She looks down, revealing a frown looking back at her.
She reminisces back to when she first held it in her hand.
“I like who I see in the mirror right now... I see myself smiling- genuinely smiling... It's perfect.”, she remembers her own words, as well as Marcy's response.
“You're right. It's perfect. You're perfect.”
Anne releases a heavy sigh. “For Marcy.”
Two minutes later, Anne is fully dressed, complete with chest plate, boots, and gauntlets with her dark gray sweater and comfy leggings underneath. She is almost ready to leave her room when one last thought occurs to her. Her gaze wanders to her bedside table, where she opens the drawer. With a conflicted look, she stares for a long moment at the only object inside: a single razor blade with small dried bloodstains on one side. Her hand is halfway to reaching for it when Anne suddenly freezes in her movement.
'I... shouldn't...', she tells herself, but can neither take her arm back nor take her eyes off the blade. She knows perfectly well that she should leave it here. The rational part of her knows very well that this is anything but a healthy coping strategy, even the first time she did it. She remembers each time and the overwhelming feeling of shame afterwards. Anne sighs, closes her eyes, reaches for the blade and simply drops it into her backpack before closing it. She immediately feels disappointed in herself. 'I simply won't use it. It's easy. It's just- just in case, yeah.'
She casually slings her backpack over her shoulder before leaving her room and making her way back down to the kitchen.
“Ready.”, is how she announces her arrival. Sasha is the first to speak up.
“It's strange to see you wearing so much dark stuff. Though it works with the armor.”
“You look... very expensive right now. Is that real gold?”, Anne's father inquires.
“Alright.”, Luz says, ignoring both comments, “Portal key?”
“Right here.”, Sasha holds out the bronze key and presses the yellow button. The air buzzes briefly and a familiar brown door appears in the middle of the hallway leading into the kitchen.
“Alright, we're ready.”, Luz announces as she gets up from the table.
“Not so fast.”, Oum and Bee say in unison. Anne's parents get up from the table with their eyes fixed on Anne. The girl approaches her parents and hugs them both tightly at the same time. From behind her, she hears the others talking to each other. “Let's give them some space.”
“Are you going to be alright?”, Bee is the first to speak up, none of the three Boonchuys willing to break up the hug.
“Alright?”, Anne echoes their question.
'Doesn't matter.', is what she wants to say, “I'm not worried.”
“But we are.”, Oum replies, “I mean, I know you'll be traveling with Sasha, but... what about sleep? Where are you going to sleep? What are you going to eat?”
“Okay, ignoring the Sasha-part just now, Luz lives there and I trust her. She'll know where I can sleep and what I can eat.”, she explains, before setting up a smile, “Don't worry. Nothing will happen to me.”
The hug splits up, her father sighing, “We know that. But we're your parents. Worrying about you is part of the job. Which is why…”, he interrupts his sentence and hurries to the fridge, from where he pulls out an orange plastic lunchbox, “Which is why we cannot let you go without proper provisions for your journey.”, he hands it to Anne before leaning over and whispering to her. “I've taken the liberty of packing some of your favorite snacks for you - ow!”
Oum hits him lightly with her hand in his side, “I guess you mean ‘we’, right?”
“Yes, honey. You're right, honey.”
Anne opens the lunchbox, finding it fully filled with everything she missed during her time in Amphibia: chocolate, chips, gummy bears, but also a few Thai specialties, most likely prepared by her mom. “When did you-?”
“Last night, after you went to bed.”, Oum answers her with a calm tone, while suppressing a yawn, “Took a little longer than expected.”
“... Just for me?”, Anne asks with some hesitation, as she can't figure out why they would go to such lengths for someone like her, who has spent the whole time locked up in her room, sulking and being depressed and completely rejecting her parents' attempts to help her. They had tried to get her to play games with her, which was met with a “no”. They had tried to get her to go back to school: No. They had tried to lure her out of her room with her favorite food: No. They had tried to let Domino into her room to let her socialize: The cat was kicked out, figuratively of course. They had tried lots of different things for a long time until eventually they stopped. Anne “enjoyed” the silence that followed where she no longer had to live with all the guilt of pushing her parents away, but could, according to Anne, begin to forget her. After all, one cannot miss and worry about someone they forgot about.
“But of course.”, Bee grins, “You can share everything with your friends, of course, if you want.”
'WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?', is what Anne wants to shout, 'YOU SHOULD BE MAD AT ME; YOU SHOULD YELL AT ME!', followed by a very quiet 'Just... why?’
“You guys...”, Anne says instead, trying her hardest to appear thankful and to suppress the immense guilt that's currently eating her from the inside. “Umm, I think we should get going. I have a girlfriend to save, after all.”, she adds while inwardly cringing at what she just said.
“And we're looking forward to you introducing her to us.”
“Introduce her?”, Anne now appears to be genuinely confused, “It's Marcy. You already know her.”
“Yes, as your friend, Anne. A girlfriend is a toootally different story.”, her dad explains. A long, unpleasant pause follows.
“... Right. Um, I should be going.”
Anne wants to turn around and join the others when her mother pulls her into another, this time shorter, hug. “We believe in you. You can do it.”, her father says.
“Bring your girlfriend home.”, her mother adds, a genuine smile gracing her face.
“I- I will.”
The hug ends and Anne goes to join the others waiting outside the open door heading to the Boiling Isles. Sasha seems to be talking to Amity about something while Luz stares at her phone.
“You brought your phone?”, Anne wonders aloud.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I left it charging overnight back in Gravesfield and haven't had a chance to check it yet.”, Luz explains, “The only notification on it is from Vee.”
Anne looks confused. “The basilisk who pretended to be me.”, Luz reminds her, which earns her a knowing nod from the other girl, “Anyway, she writes that she hates me for what I did. Well, whatever... Not that I really need my phone anymore.”
With a shrug of her shoulders, she puts it away again and turns to the others. “Everyone ready?”
“Ready.”, replies one after the other, none of whom are questioning her last statement. For now, at least. Luz turns to Anne's parents.
“Thank you for letting us stay here.”
“No, we have to thank you.”, Oum says, “You gave us what we thought we'd never see again. You are all welcome to come by and stay anytime.”
“Thank you for the offer.”, Sprig looks like he's bowing to them.
“Alright, let's go!”
It's just after dawn on the Boiling Isles and Darcy has been working all night on their personal project. Well, their side project. And it's just about finished and ready to be unveiled.
A heavy knock at the entrance to their private lab, however, snaps them out of their excitement. “What?”, they growl.
They remotely unlock the door, whereupon Andrias enters the lab. “Oh, it's just you...”
He looks somewhat confused, “Were you expecting someone else, my lord?”
“He is back, isn't he?”, Darcy narrows their eyes in annoyance. Their sensors, which are all over the palace, have measured a known and annoying energy level a short while ago.
“Indeed.”, Andrias confirms their suspicions, “He asked for an audience with you specifically. He's waiting in the throne room.”
“Good. He can wait there until I'm finished.”, they smirk, “While you're here, you can be the first to witness the results of our project. Observe!”
Darcy's hands reach to the back of their helmet, specifically to the port of the cable that connects them directly to the palace systems. Andrias, who has at no point been briefed on his lord's personal ambitions or personal projects, his anxiety level rises alarmingly fast while Darcy blindly tinkers with the port that connects them to the castle and is basically nothing less than what keeps them alive. "M-my Lord-", he stutters fearfully. But before he can express his worries, the cable snaps off Darcy's helmet, their body immediately slumping forwards but still standing. Andrias just stands there, unable to move.
“Oooohhhhhhhh!!!”, their torso snaps up again after a terrifying couple of seconds, “This is sooo much better.”, they grin, spin, and very much enjoy their newfound freedom of movement. All while leaving the giant newt utterly confused.
"But- my Lord- if you don't mind me asking: What exactly just happened?"
"Well, after taking a closer look at Marcy's possessions- and after some experimentation, we've realized the true potential of some of the human technology. Most of it is actually worthless in the face of our own creations, but one technology has piqued our interest: Wireless. Data. Transmission."
Andrias gasps, "Does that mean-"
"Our body is now completely mobile.", Darcy grins evilly, "No more need for a physical connection as well as direct updates with palace systems in real time from anywhere in the palace- and beyond."
"And- beyond?", Andrias finds himself positively shocked, "My Lord, that's fantastic news. Um, is there a limit to the range?"
“Several kilometers as of right now, according to our calculations.”, they reply proudly, "Though this was only a first live test. With more time, the connection can cover the entire surface of any given planet."
"My congratulations on this extraordinary achievement, my Lord.", the giant newt drops to one knee in a deep bow, which gets met with an utterly deadpan expression from Darcy, "You have thrown off the shackles of your former vessel and have now achieved ultimate freedom-"
"That's enough!", Darcy snaps at him, now annoyed, "You don't have to repeat what we already know!"
“Yes, my lord.”, he stands up again.
"Well, you've ruined our mood. We might as well attend to this intruder now...", Darcy says in a still annoyed tone.
"Of course. I shall lead the way."
Fifteen extremely slow minutes later, the two of them arrive at the throne room. They could have been quicker, but Darcy wanted to impose her own foul mood on her unexpected/unwanted guest, especially after Andrias' unsolicited bootlicking.
“What do you want?”, Darcy demands to know even before the massive doors to the throne room are completely open, their eyes already fixed on the foreign figure standing at the only window that has not yet been repaired or sealed off.
“Is this the proper way to greet visitors?”, Belos, two or three heads taller than Darcy and dressed in his floor-length robe, turns away from the window and towards the throne room, which has been remodeled since his last visit. "And you have remodeled, I see. Very... rustic."
The throne room, which previously seemed large, brightly lit, and inviting, is now dark, oppressive, and crammed with cables covered in red-orange eyes, near all of them directed at Belos. The only major light source, besides the one remaining window, is a huge mechanical eye immediately behind the newly constructed throne, scaled down to Darcy's size, which stood exactly where Andrias' was before; a truly oppressive atmosphere. Something that surely did not escape Belos during his wait. A thought that cheers up the megalomaniac hivemind slightly.
“...”, neither Darcy nor Andrias react in any way to Belos' attempt at- something.
"Fine. I'm here to make you an offer, a trade so to speak.", he reveals his apparently true intentions.
“If you're here to ‘borrow’ another gem, then-”, Andrias is interrupted by a hand gesture from Darcy, “Yes, my lord. I apologize.”
“From ruler to henchman, what a tragedy.”, Belos speaks sarcastically.
“Speak!”
“I offer you an opportunity to thwart one of your strongest enemies.”, he says, which leaves Darcy quite unimpressed, “By now you should have learned of Luz Noceda, don't you?”
Darcy growls at that, “An anomaly...”
“A disruptor, rather.”, the emperor corrects them, "Her power is increasing day by day, and conventional methods of stopping her no longer work. You should have realized that by now. And if it is not immediately eliminated, she will launch a successful attack on this very castle in a few days."
Andrias almost caught himself thinking that nothing could penetrate the palace's shields, but the proof to the contrary was right in front of him. 'I'd better stay quiet.'
"And we're just supposed to believe that? HA!", Darcy laughs at the ridiculousness. Belos, however, doesn't laugh.
“You should measure an abnormal energy in a few seconds, followed by her energy signature returning to the Isles.”, Belos continues to speak despite their laughter, which almost immediately stops in their throat.
'What? That’s- an energy spike, just now- but that's- ... impossible-', frozen in their movement, their numerous eyes snap to Belos's mask.
“My lord?”
Ignoring him, Darcy hastily activates several holographic displays that transmit live images from many, many corners of the Boiling Isles. A town, a ruin, a forest, the list is enormous. Multiple times a second, Darcy switches simultaneously between camera-feeds on all the monitors until one of them lands on a slightly overgrown patch of forest, revealing a freestanding door from which four girls and a frog emerge. Their gaze snaps back to Belos. “How?”, they demand to know, their voice dark and threatening.
“Ghosts.”, Belos answers, unimpressed by their gaze and expression.
“Explain!”
“Do you accept my proposal then?”, he asks, whereupon Darcy ponders for a moment. Dissatisfied, they speak up again.
“What do you want?”
"I recently had a certain piece of property stolen from me and I intend to get it back. To get it back, I need a- … let's call it a distraction."
“A distraction?!”, Darcy is absolutely furious now.
“In return for your service, you get an unconquerable enemy off your back, and I reveal the secret of my knowledge.”, Belos offers, “Or is your pride getting in the way?”
Gritting their teeth, they speak up again, “We- accept.”
“A wise decision.”, Belos replies, clearly pleased with himself, "I summon ghosts, spirits so to speak, who tell me the future. The world they come from is not subject to the laws of time as we are. I summon them, they do my bidding, and then disappear into the ether, their existence erased for all eternity."
“And the other thing?”, Andrias demands to know, mirroring the rage of his lord at the humiliation they encountered. Belos doesn't answer with words, but simply points to the holographic monitor, where the image of the five people is frozen. Darcy follows his gaze, and reveals an evil grin as they realize what his idea is.
“Devious.”, they say, their previous anger momentarily forgotten.
“You understand, very well.”, Belos speaks up again, "I advise you to prepare everything for tomorrow. You will know when the time is right. I will handle the rest myself... Oh, and one more thing: it won't be long before my use for your gem is no longer necessary, and it will be returned to you unscathed. Farewell, and may the Titan be with you."
Not even a second later, he has already completely disappeared from the throne room.
“FUUUUCCCKKKK!”, Darcy yells at the top of their lungs, "WHAT DOES THIS WORM THINK WHO HE IS???? US? A MERE… DISTRACTION???"
“That someone like him thinks he can humiliate you with unpunished-”
“SHUT UP!”, Andrias winces at his Lord's anger directed at him. They manage to take a deep breath before continuing, which helps a little, “We really need a plan to dispose of him. And as quickly as possible. His presence alone is the biggest obstacle to our plans.”
Andrias dares to raise his voice, “But- he can predict the future. He will know our tactics before we do.”
“But only if what he said is actually true...”
“You have doubts about his words, my lord? His proof was clear.”, Andrias is secretly quite relieved that he hasn't been shouted at again.
“Predicting the future is mathematically impossible. Seven moons got completely destroyed because of this impossibility when we attempted it ourselves...”
“It's unusual to hear that word coming out of your mouth, my lord.”, Andrias remarks.
“It is very frustrating. We've spent decades on research, and then THIS GUY comes along and says that spirits are the solution?”, they growl in frustration, “Whatever, we'll find a way.”
“What do you intend to do now, my lord?”
Darcy paces through the throne room for a while, deep in thought, before waving at him in dismissal. “We can deal with him later. Try to find his lair, for now. His energy signature is shielded wherever he is.”
“I'll take care of it, my lord. I'll send patrols all over the Isles to find him.”, Andrias says with conviction, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
“Hmm, no.”, they reply, though they change their mind real quick, a devious grin appearing on their face, “Wait... Prepare the Toads. This could be an excellent opportunity to test their new skills in the field. Feel free to give them some toys as well.”
“And what will you do, if you don't mind me asking, my lord?”
At first, they just grin in reply, “Our body needs a few modifications of its own.”, they say before they turn their back on him, “Make sure we're not disturbed until tomorrow.”
Andrias bows, “Yes, my lord.”
“He will deal with her, and we will deal with him...”, he hears his master murmur as he leaves the throne room in the direction of their lab.
The group of five steps through the door from the Boonchuys' cozy house with only one single step onto a sparsely overgrown forest on the Boiling Isles.
“It's warmer here...”, Sprig mutters cheerfully, “Thank Frog.”
It seems to be just as late on the Boiling Isles as it is on Earth, however that is possible, which means that the sun has only just risen here too, bathing the whole area in a warm, orange hue with its sunlight.
“Is the grass here... red?”, Anne wonders aloud.
Most of the group currently feel quite at easy at the moment. All except Luz, who is the only one to notice the clouds of smoke rising into the sky beyond the treetops of the forest.
“Well... welcome to the Boiling Isles, everyone.”, Luz says in a sad tone.
“I don't know why, but I was expecting something a little gloomier when I imagined a place called the Demon Realm...”, they hear Oum comment from the other side of the door. All of them turn to Anne's parents, who wave goodbye to them with smiles on their faces. “Good luck to you all.”
“Y-yeah...”, Luz mumbles before turning to Sasha, “You should make the door vanish again before we're getting discovered.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, good idea.”, the blonde girl replies. They wave back before the door disappears into the ground moments later.
At that, Luz wants to speak up at that very same moment, telling them to get all of them to the hideout, but Anne cuts her off before she can get to it. The taller girl grabs Luz by her upper arms and stares her down with an intense glare.
“Luz, I want- no, I need you to promise me something!”, Anne demands. Luz doesn't really react to that, while the others are quite a bit more shocked. “I'm only doing this for Marcy. So, promise me that you'll do everything in your power to save her!”
At that, Luz takes a deep breath, “My priority is the people of the Boiling Isles. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten about Marcy. She's my friend too.”
Ignoring everything she's just said, Anne just squeezes tighter, which Luz thankfully doesn't really notice, “Promise it!”
While it may come across to some as if Anne is threatening Luz, only very few catch the pure level of desperation in her voice and the traces of dried tears around Anne's eyes, which includes Luz herself. Before she can say anything, however, Amity is right between the two of them with her staff pointing at Anne. “Back off!”, she threatens Anne.
“Ami-”, Luz speaks up in a calm voice, slowly pushing her girlfriend's staff away from Anne's face, “-it's okay.”
“Huh?”
“After all, if I were in her position and this would be about you instead of Marcy, I would do exactly the same thing.”, she continues, before turning her gaze back to Anne, “I promise. We will bring Marcy back.”
“Good.”, Anne replies coldly.
“What... just happened?”, Sprig speaks up.
“I'd say desperation mixed with trust issues.”, Sasha answers him, “You three good now? I just don't want to keep standing around this exposed.”
“Y-Yeah.”, Anne replies.
“I'm fine. And good idea.”, Luz says. “Everyone, please gather round. I'll teleport us straight to our hiding place.”
“Teleport as in with- magic? Your magic?!”, Sasha speaks up, her voice suddenly a little higher than normal.
“It's safe, don't worry.”, Luz tries to reassure her.
“Yeah, that's what you say...”
Luz merely smiles at that, before her gaze wanders to Amity, who in turn is keeping a sharp eye on Anne. 'Heh, of course.' She reaches for her hand, which immediately seems to calm the witch. At the same time, Sprig jumps onto Anne's shoulders as he already knows what's coming.
“Okay, you all need to hold onto me. Otherwise, you might get left behind.”, Luz continues. At that, Anne hooks onto Luz's arm, while Sasha puts her hand loosely on Amity's shoulder. And as soon as everyone is connected, Luz summons her magic, which immediately causes Sasha to flinch slightly. Within seconds, all five of them are trapped in a dome of glowing golden glyphs of all kinds, disappearing a moment later as if they had never been there. And none of them having been any wiser about the cloaked Frobot watching them.
“You call this a hideout?”, Sasha exclaims in amazement, “You might as well live in a lighthouse with a big billboard above that says 'We are here'...”
“Heh, yeah, that was kind of my first thought too.”, Luz recalls, “But even if the estate is that tall, the trees around here are even taller. Plus, I've been told there's a permanently active illusion spell that hides the clearing.”
“Oh... ok. Smart.”, Sasha replies, tilting her head back and looking up, where at first glance she can't see anything out of the ordinary. But then, at second glance, she discovers a strange phenomenon in the air, at about the height of the treetops: A kind of shimmer in the air, comparable to heat distortions near the ground on hot summer days on Earth. 'Hm, practical.'
With Sprig marveling at the size of the estate and comparing it with the Plantar's farm, the group approaches the front door. Luz stops them just in front of it.
“Okay, I don't know how many people are already awake, so we better not make too much noise. All right?”
But before anyone can answer, the door opens from the inside and a certain three-eyed witch with pink hair steps out, facing them.
“Boscha.”, Luz and Amity speak at the same time, although with different emotions mixed into their voices.
“Amity. Luz. You're back already?”
To Amity's taste, there is far less malice in Boscha's voice than she expected. She even used Luz's name correctly. 'Something's wrong.', she concludes inwardly before Luz speaks up again.
“Yeah, and it was a complete success.”, she boasts, “Say, are the others up yet?”
“Most of them, yes. Well, except maybe our newest captive. He's been asleep for days now.”, Boscha mentions casually. The others look at her in confusion. “Belos's lackey.”
“Wait-”, Luz says, somewhat disturbed, “Are you talking about Hunter?”
“Yeah, that guy.”, Boscha confirms grimly, "The others won't let me in to see him, by the way. They say ’I'd want to get revenge on him' or something. Whatever. Welcome back.”
Boscha steps aside to make room for the others. Luz goes ahead, the others follow her, with the exception of Amity, who walks a little slower behind all of them.
“You should check on your personal prisoner, by the way.”, Boscha says.
“Personal prisoner?”, Amity questions, mildly confused. The others who are already inside also turn around curiously.
“A newt. Wears a dress all the time. Goes by the name of Olivia. Ring any bells?”
“Wait-”, Anne speaks up at that, “Olivia, as in Lady Olivia? She's here too?!”
Amity, however, ignores her, “If she's still alive, she has earned our trust. I'll break the oath- later.”
“Heh, you're a cruel one, Amity Blight.”, Boscha smirks in amusement. “You know what? Screw the break. This might be even better.”
Still confused by this interaction just now, Amity just stands there as Boscha re-enters the house. She merely shakes her head and follows the others.
Once inside, Luz leans towards Amity, whispering, “I know you still dislike her- and don't trust her for what she did, but she's changing. I mean, she's not just calling me 'human' anymore. That's a start, isn't it?”
“Not good enough.”
“Alright.”, Luz sighs before turning to Anne, Sasha, and Sprig, “Okay, let's make sure we get you three settled somewhere around here for now. Amity and I need to check on Lady Olivia. And then see what's going on with Hunter here.”
“Um, if it's okay, I'd like to see Lady Olivia too. I- wanna talk to her.”, Anne says, though for Luz this has a strange undertone.
“About Marcy?”, Luz asks accusingly, “Not sure that's such a good idea.”
“You think I'd freak out on her. That's what you think, isn't it?”
Surprisingly, Sprig cuts in from her shoulders, “I mean, you were freaking out on Luz earlier.”
She blinks a couple of times before ultimately shrugging her shoulders, “Fair enough.”
“No, no, you're welcome to talk to her.”, Luz backs down, “Just not alone, is what I'm saying. Sasha?”
“I don't care about her.”, she replies, referring to the newt, “But I'm coming with you anyway.”
“Luz, Amity, you're back?”
The voice comes from the direction of the stairs, at the railing of which they spot Liwin and greet her.
“Yeah, and it was a complete success.”, Luz declares.
“Very good. Shall I get the others together for a meeting?”
“We actually wanted to go to Lady Olivia first and disperse the oath.”, Luz explains.
“Ah, okay. She's in the basement with Alador. Your other two friends too...”, Liwin informs them, “I'll let the others know you're back and gather them for a meeting. Then your three new friends will have the chance to properly introduce themselves.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
A short walk later, the group finds themselves in front of a very slightly open basement door that leads into the shared workshop of Amity's dad and Boscha, where Lady Olivia is presumably also working, judging by the sound of what's going on inside.
“For the fifteenth time Alador, I have my own tasks to do here! I can't draw plans and translate your code at the same time.", they hear Lady Olivia's voice in what sounds like frustration that has been building up for weeks or even months, even though she's only been here a few days.
“Pleeeeaseee... You've been doing this for days now... Aren't you done at some point?”, they hear Alador in an almost desperately pleading tone.
“Only about halfway.”, she replies firmly, “And don't you have the pride as an engineer to solve a puzzle like this on your own?”
Alador only audibly grumbles at that, clearly conflicted about her statement/question just now, which the group outside takes as a sign to enter the workshop. Inside, four pairs of eyes immediately lock onto the group as they enter.
“Luz!”, a raspy yet cheerful voice comes from her left as a certain light blue frog runs across a wooden table towards her, hugging her as she stands right on the edge.
“Maddie! It's great to see you!”, Luz hugs the frog back, which is now at eye level with her.
“You too.”, she replies, before starting to whisper, “You and I are going to have to have a serious talk later when you have some time for yourself!” The hug breaks up and for a moment Luz realizes from Maddie's face that the frog is undoubtedly serious. She nods briefly in reply.
“Maddie, you're looking good.”, Anne now speaks up, complimenting her new outfit. She remembers how the frog used to wear nothing more than her black fabric as a kind of dress with a piece of rope as a belt. And now? The young frog/aspiring witch/curse user now wears real pants for the first time, though already stained. She wears a black, short-sleeved shirt with a tight collar and a sleeveless white, also stained, top over it. And instead of a rope belt, she now wears a jacket tied loosely around her hips.
“I agree.”, Luz says, “You kinda look like an engineer.”
“Yeah, a few of your friends said I needed something different than my dress.”, she rolls her eyes, “And honestly, I appreciate their thought. And it's pretty comfortable too.”
“So, there were no problems when you arrived?”, Luz wonders further. At that, Valeriana speaks up, whose attention has so far been on one of the bubbling cauldrons.
“No, Master.”, the newt replies before dropping to one knee and bowing low directly to Luz. The mood in the room instantly shifts to one of instant confusion, much to the detriment of Luz, who wants nothing more than to sink to the floor in embarrassment. “Apart from some initial mistrust, there were no problems. We reported on our relationship with you, which was enough to get everyone to accept us.”
Luz is silent for a moment and takes a deep breath. “Didn't I tell you to not call me that anymore?”
“Yes, you did, Master.”, Valeriana replies, at which Luz just groans loudly.
At least five pairs of curious and confused eyes are now on Luz. All except Amity's and Maddie's, who already know about the matter. However, the situation is awkward for everyone except the old Newt. Anne is the one who breaks the awkward silence.
“Luz, what's going on here? Why is she calling you Master?”
The girl merely exhales in defeat as an idea occurs to her. 'Wait a minute. I can let her do this...', she thinks to herself. “Valeriana, please go explain it to the others.”
“Yes, Master.”, Newt says and stands up again before she turns to the group to explain the relationship between her and Luz. However, the latter interrupts her before she can begin.
“Not here, though. Amity and I need to have a word with Lady Olivia.”
“Yes, Master.”, Valeriana bows and ushers all those interested out of the workshop, leaving only Luz, Amity, Maddie, Alador and Olivia behind.
As soon as the others have left the workshop and closed the door behind them, Olivia speaks up.
“You want to talk to me? Is it about the mission you've just returned from?”
“No...?”, Luz replies in a confused, questioning tone, “Actually, we just wanted to ask you if you're getting tired of that thing on your arm?”
Newt looks down at the glowing ring around her arm. She chuckles at that, “Heh, funny. I was so engrossed in my work here the whole time that I completely forgot about it... This girl, Boscha, has been trying to get me to lie somehow the whole time, not that she succeeded with it...”, she recalls, "But yes, I'd like to get rid of it."
“Perfect. Amity?”
“Wait, not yet.”, the witch says, her gaze heavily focused on Olivia. “I want you to answer two more questions for me first.”
“I am entirely at your mercy. Therefore, I will answer as best I can.”, Olivia replies, her nobility shining through.
“Number one, are you prepared to do everything in your power to stop Andrias and Darcy, even at the cost of your own happiness?”, she asks in an eerily serious tone, though no longer as aggressive as when they last met days ago.
Olivia doesn't have to think long. “Yes.”
“Second question.”, the witch continues, this time not looking at the Newt, but at her father, "Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that you had nothing to do with the death of my brother and my birth mother?"
His eyes widen.
“Yes, I can guarantee it.”, she replies, which doesn't seem to be enough for the witch based on her sharp stare, “I was already on the run with General Yunan when the palace entered this world.”
Alador's gaze, which was initially on Olivia, glides back to Amity, who herself looks back at Olivia. “Fine. Give me your hand.”, Amity draws a magic circle and grabs Olivia's hand through it. The circle disappears moments later. “The Oath is unbound.”
“Much appreciated.”, Olivia nods in gratitude.
“Mittens- no, Amity.”, Alador speaks up now that the interaction with Olivia seems to be over. He seems down, “I- I noticed that you weren't here the past couple of days.”
“Really? You noticed? All by yourself?”, Amity asks skeptically. Alador looks into her eyes for a moment before lowering them again in shame.
“No...”, he replies in a whisper. Someone else told him not that long ago.
“Dad, listen… After Ed died, you said- no, promised that you wanted to be a better father for me and Em, and that you wouldn't sink into work all day anymore.”, Amity reminds him of his promise, her voice filled with disappointment, ”You didn't realize I was gone, which honestly might as well be my fault, since that was an extremely spontaneous decision on my part to accompany Luz... So, here's my question, Dad: Did you do anything other than work while I was gone? Did you eat? Slept? Spent time with Emira?”
“She- visited me once or twice...”, he replies, his head down. Amity's head turns to Olivia.
“He was forced to take breaks several times by Boscha.”, she explains, at which the witch sighs.
“Mittens, you don't understand.”, he tries to justify himself, “There's a threat out there that endangers everything I have left. I'm not a strategist, I'm not a fighter, I'm an engineer. The only way I can help you all, the only way I can protect you both, is by using my brain.”
“I never said you shouldn't do that.”, Amity replies with a neutral expression, “Dad. We'd rather have you working eight hours a day at one hundred percent capacity than twenty hours a day at thirty percent... Do you understand what I'm trying to say?”
“You want me to take more breaks.”, he replies, “But-”
“No buts!”, Amity says firmly, “I'm going to assume that you worked all night. So, you're going to take today off and have lunch with Em and me later. You have no say in the matter. Understood?”
Wordlessly, Alador stares at her, quietly wondering when his youngest daughter became so... assertive. “I really am a mess, aren't I? ... Alright, I'm taking the day off.”
“Very good. Now get out of here.”, Amity orders him, “Oh, there's an important meeting coming up. I want you to go to sleep afterwards. Without an alarm clock.”
Alador gets up from his small wooden chair and puts his hands on Amity's shoulders, “I'm glad you're here. I'll see you later.”
“Later, Dad.”
Alador leaves the workshop, leaving Luz, Amity, Olivia, and Maddie behind.
“Well, that was indeed an unusual father-daughter dynamic.”, Lady Olivia comments.
“Yeah, Ami, are you okay?”, Luz asks.
“Yeah, I'm fine... As for his 'work ethic', he's always been like that. Before Ed died, I hardly had any memories with him because he was always working. And when he did talk to me, it was to enforce my mother's will. With her gone, he doesn't know what to do with himself. He means well, and I know he really wants to help, but this is not a solution.”
“Down here seems to be my permanent workplace.”, Olivia speaks up, “If you want, I can keep an eye on him and remind him to take breaks and whatnot.”
“Thanks for the offer.”, the witch replies, right in time as the door to the workshop opens again and the group around Valeriana steps back inside.
“You know, I always thought that the Music Box was created by mystical frogs from thousands and thousands of years ago, but definitely not that its creator is still alive.”, Sprig comments, at which Anne nods thoughtfully in agreement.
“Yeah, but that also means there's a spell or something that can prolong life.”, Sasha says. Valeriana, on the other hand, remains silent as she returns to Luz's side.
The latter speaks up, “Everyone brought up to date?”
“More or less, yeah.”, Sasha says, “It's weird that you have a follower, though. Pretty cult-like.”
Luz groans, “Please don't remind me... Anyway, we should get back upstairs. Liwin should have gathered the others by now. Time for you to meet the others.”
“I'm staying here.”, Boscha suddenly speaks up, having been uncharacteristically quiet so far, “Someone has to look after the cauldrons.”
“Are you sure you're not simply not interested in attending the meeting?”, Olivia asks her with a raised eyebrow.
“It could be a combination of both.”, the three-eyed witch says, shrugging.
Shortly afterwards, the group, minus Boscha, steps back into the entrance area, which over time had become the generally accepted briefing and meeting area of the CATs. With them now present are all nineteen of the twenty members, in addition to the other guests eavesdropping on the conversation from the top of the stairs. Most of the people down here are casually chatting. Liwin with Raine and Alsa. Gwen and Ruby are chatting with Willow and Skara, the latter two casually holding hands. Dell and Gus are standing next to a seated Alador, who looks more dead than alive. Right next to him sit Darius, Eberwolf and Steve, reminiscing about the time before the invasion. Katya, Derwin, and Amber sit together by the large window next to the front door, drinking warm drinks of some sort, all of them snuggled together in a single, oversized blanket.
As the door leading to the depths of the estate, aka the basement among other things, closes, several heads turn toward the group, including Willow's.
“Luz!”, she beams, pushing past a few people and spreading her arms wide in expectation of a big hug.
“Willow!”, Luz grins back, accepting the hug immediately. Gus follows, while Skara and Ruby stay behind and watch the reunion from a distance with smiles on their faces.
“I'm glad you're back.”, Willow says before her gaze shifts to Amity, “Both of you... Aaand it looks like you brought more friends.”
“Yo!”, Sasha greets her, while Anne remains silent. Those who look a little closer quickly notice that Anne is visibly uncomfortable and slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in such a confined space. She also seems to be mouthing something under her breath, which only Sprig, lying on her hair, can hear.
During this interaction, Liwin has climbed up to the halfway point of the stairs, quieting everyone with her mere presence.
“It looks like we're all here now, except for Boscha, but that's no surprise.”, she says as Luz, Amity, Anne, Sasha, Maddie, and Valeriana push their way through the crowd toward the stairs. Once there, Luz and Amity climb the steps to the chief healer. “As you can all see, Luz and Amity are back from their mission in Amphibia, which I told you about days ago. Luz.”
“R-Right...”, Luz begins with all eyes in the room focused on her, “I'll start with the good news: We have the go-ahead for the evacuation of the civilians. We have been provided with a huge underground tunnel system where we can easily accommodate the entire population of Bonesborough.” Joyful applause interrupts Luz, mainly from the Blanket Trio. “The bad news concerns the supply of food for the civilians... the tunnel system is located in a valley full of farmers, but everything on the surface has been completely destroyed by Andrias and the original inhabitants have fled underground.”
Amity picks up on Luz's explanation, “The point is that the people there barely have enough to survive themselves and can share very little with our people.”
Alsa speaks up, “That means that our counterattack must either be successful very quickly, or the civilians must bring their own food with them during the evacuation, which will increase the duration of the whole operation."
“Which is why one of us has to support the evacuation from the other side.”, Liwin says, “Ideally someone who's able to use plant magic to grow food on site. That means of all the people here, only Willow and I are eligible... But we can debate that later. Luz, Amity, you can continue.”
“Yeah-”, Luz picks up the word again, “While we were away, we also picked up a few more allies. You've already met Maddie and Valeriana, both experts in the magic system of Amphibia. In addition, Maddie has mastered a variety of spells and curses that don't exist here on the Isles and could be of great help to us if necessary. Besides them, there are also Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright, and Sprig Plantar. Anne and Sasha are humans, as I once was. They are both melee fighters, while Sprig is good at ranged combat."
As soon as Luz finishes speaking, polite applause breaks out in the room. It doesn't last long before Liwin takes the floor again and the room calms down.
“Okay, thanks for the report, Luz. However, I'm not quite done with you yet.” Luz was already about to descend with Amity when she stops, slightly confused, and turns back to Liwin, who has a mischievous smirk on her face; the kind Luz so far only saw on Eda before when she has forged a new plan to make money. “While you two lovebirds were off in another world, I gathered a couple of opinions, all about you, Luz. From the moment you decided to join our then small group, we've accomplished things we thought were simply impossible before. Before you, we were just four people: Alsa, Gwen, me, and Ruby, who was still being held captive in the Conformatorium at the time.”
“Urgh, don't remind me!”, everyone hears Ruby grumble, causing a few amused chuckles from the crowd. Liwin continues.
“It is thanks to you that we got Ruby back, but also that no one will ever be locked up for no reason in the Conformatorium again. It is only thanks to you that we were able to prevent the Galdorstones from falling into the wrong hands. You have contributed massively to almost quintupling our membership numbers, and without you, around half of us would not be here today. Therefore, Luz Noceda, in light of all these achievements, it is my pleasure to officially appoint you as our new co-leader.”
At that, the whole room erupts in cheers and loud applause.
'So that's why Boscha didn't want to come...', Amity thinks to herself in amusement before jumping over to Luz to congratulate her with a big hug and a big kiss on her cheek. “Congratulations.”
“Did you- know?”, Luz whispers to her, just loud enough for her to hear over the noise of the applause.
“No, but I knew you deserved it.”, the purple-haired witch replies.
Luz's gaze wanders around the room. The Blanket Trio and her closest friends are definitely cheering the loudest. Ruby claps energetically, even if her facial expression doesn't quite match the general mood. Her gaze moves on to Raine, who applauds with a smile on their face. They appear genuine. Her gaze moves on to Darius, who is applauding politely, but his face is not too happy. Her search for impressions is interrupted when an increasingly loud chant reaches her ears.
“Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!”
What was previously only demanded by the Blanket Trio is gaining more followers by the second. Luz raises her hands to ask everyone to quiet down as she steps up to the railing. The audience falls silent, attentive.
“Um... thank you, everyone.”, Luz begins, before trying to lean inconspicuously towards Liwin, “Everyone decided that, didn't they?”
“We voted on it.”
“Oh, ok.”, she replies, turning back to the others, “Thank you for your trust. We will make it through this! Together we will reclaim our home and save or avenge all those who were taken from us!”
It's a short speech but effective, given that the room quickly erupts into cheers and applause again.
As the noise begins to die down, Liwin approaches the railing again, “Okay, everyone, I think that's all for now. Thank you for your participation. Remember what I said yesterday and use today to gather your strength for tomorrow. We need you all at full capacity.”
People start to disperse when Luz remembers something she almost forgot. “Wait a minute. Wasn't there something about Hunter being here somewhere?”
“Oh yeah.”, Skara speaks up, “Me and Willow found him a few days ago. Wasn't pretty.”
“I'm telling you Skar, that's exactly how it was. And it was awful.”, Willow laughs as she and Skara patrol the outskirts of Bonesborough. Skara chuckles along with her. And they're definitely not paying attention to their volume, which is entirely on purpose.
“First of all: Skar?”
“Don't like it?”
“Meh...”, the bard witch replies with a shrug, “Second: Honestly? I still don't understand why your fathers put you in the Abomination track back then. You grew seaweed all over the lake. If that wasn't a sign...”
“Well...”, Willow starts off, cringing a bit at the memory, “It was actually my idea.”
“Because you still wanted to be close to Amity?”, Skara wonders, which is quickly confirmed by Willow with a slight nod, “I mean, she was your best and probably only friend. That kind of makes sense, even if she hurt you.”
“Still, it wasn't my smartest decision... Heh, at least there are no more pots of goo exploding around me.”, Willow tries to lighten the mood with a joke, which leaves Skara cold. Instead of laughing, she grabs Willow's arm and hugs her close. She looks sad.
“You were in a bad place mentally back then. And loneliness can lead to bad decisions. I know that.”, Skara tells her, “At my old school, you know, before Hexside, I wasn't very popular either. I only played music all day at school, which quickly annoyed the other students and teachers.”, she chuckles to herself, “Then, we moved. New town, new people, I didn't know anyone. Boscha was the first to approach me. Or rather, her parents approached mine. She was always bragging about her talent and her parents' wealth. And because I didn't know any better, I went along.”
“You know, speaking of Boscha... Did you ever forgive her?”, Willow cuts the subject off abruptly. The bard thinks for a moment while the two of them continue walking.
Suddenly Skara notices a noise approaching their position. Forgetting the conversation, she summons her violin, ready to destroy whatever she has detected. Willow hasn't noticed it yet, but Skara's hearing has always been better and more reliable than hers. The plant witch prepares a spell that will encase whatever is coming with roots so Skara can blow it up afterwards.
It's getting closer.
“Wait!”, Skara raises a hand. Her girlfriend looks at her questioningly, “They're not Frobots.”
“No reason not to stay alert.”, Willow comments, which Skara supports unequivocally. The two girls listen quietly and attentively to the approaching something. By the time Willow can hear anything at all, Skara has already noticed more precise details.
“One person. Heavy breathing, possibly injured.”
“Titan, what I wouldn't give for your hearing sometimes...”, Willow whispers, causing a playful smirk to appear on the bard's face.
“Learn to play nine instruments to perfection, then you'll automatically develop better hearing. Speaking of, they're drifting away from us.”
“I think I can see them. They're fast. Come on!”, Willow says in a rushed tone, reaching for Skara's hand before creating a thick root under their feet which the two girlfriends use as a surfboard to keep up with the speed of their pursuit. They chase them for about a minute before the person they’re chasing appears to be losing both altitude and speed. They adjust their pace and remain at a safe distance. That is, until the figure suddenly falls face-first from several meters above the ground from their staff and remains motionless on the floor.
For a very brief moment, both girls are concerned for their fellow unknown witch and speed up again. That changes quickly when they recognize a particular blond boy who is vividly etched in the two girls' memories. As they approach him, they immediately notice the red cardinal palisman chirping loudly in their direction in full panic, but also the yapping, huge hole that has pierced his chest and is bleeding alarmingly little for its size.
Willow crouches down in front of his motionless head, which is partially lying in mud, her hands resting loosely on her knees. “Hello Hunter. It's been a while...”
The two girls let go of their own palismen who try to calm the panicking cardinal palisman. Skara actually kneels on the ground next to the boy and glances at the wound with a disgusted frown on her face.
“Silly question, but... he's dead, right?”, the bard asks, “I mean, a wound like that...”
“And yet he managed to fly here from wherever he was before.”, Willow says, doubt in her voice, “The question is, in any case, what we do with him?”, she continues, cracking her knuckles.
“I think it's wrong to leave him here.”, Skara voices her opinion.
“Why?”, Willow replies with unexpectedly full of pointed venom in her voice.
The two girls' eyes meet, and the bard doesn't like the look in Willow's eyes at all. The witch, who is usually so gentle and warm-hearted towards everyone, looks at the bard with a pointed, cold gaze. “W-what do you mean?”
“He's the enemy, Emperor Belos' right-hand man. He's the one who invaded Hexside. Twice. He kidnapped Luz when she was unconscious—he betrayed us.”
Skara frowns, “Us? Or rather—you?”
“What?”
“Don't think I didn't notice that you liked ‘Caleb’ when you didn't know who he really was?”, Skara says, “He broke your heart.”
“So what? He never deserved it anyway.”
“Then punish him for it later.”, Skara suddenly suggests, which Willow clearly didn't expect, “After we save his life. I say we take him back to the others and tell Liwin.”
“Why?”, the plant witch asks, her voice now far less venomous, looking at her girlfriend.
“Could you live with seeing someone in need and not acting? Even if it's him?”, Willow looks at his palisman, who has pressed himself against his chest with open wings, and the other two who are close to him. She clenches her fists.
“Fine.”, she hisses. She approaches him from the side, which serves as a signal for the palismen to move away from him. She turns him onto his back, crouches over his chest, and punches him will near all her might, the sound echoing loudly through the surroundings. After a brief shock, his palisman begins to attack the plant witch, but freezes briefly at the sight of her icy gaze on him. “If you know what he has done, you know he deserved this.”, she tells him with a venomous tone. He backs off in fear. She turns to Skara, who is in a similar situation to Flapjack.
“Willow...”, the bard mutters with deep concern. She has never seen her so violent before.
“Let's just go.”, she replies, exhaustion evident in her voice, “The sooner he gets to Liwin, the sooner I'll feel better.”
“In here?”, Luz inquires, at which she reveals a confirming nod, “Is he awake?”
“No.”, Liwin replies, "He hasn't been conscious since Willow and Skara brought him back. He shows no reaction to outside influences, be it touch, sound, smell, and so on."
“By touch, you mean when Willow smacked him?”, Luz asks curiously and with a hint of smugness in her voice.
"Among other things, yes.", Liwin confirms, whereupon she, Luz, and Valeriana enter the makeshift infirmary, which had previously been nothing more than a guest room. Willow and Skara, like Boscha, were forbidden access to Hunter. The same actually goes for anyone who had negative dealings with him before. In fact, the same ban would have applied to Luz given her emotional instability, but forbidding the co-leader to do so, plus given her abilities, it made little sense to enforce this ban on her as well.
They enter the room and a breeze of sterility blows into Luz's face. A nice smelling one. The three of them step into the room, which, like all the other rooms, is lined with wood but with a single small round window that can no longer be opened after generations of disuse. On one side of the room is a chest of drawers along the full width of the wall, containing a wide variety of medical items, including various potions, bandages, ointments, a stack of healing glyphs and whatever else a chief healer might need. Opposite the door is a large closet, and right next to it a small shelf on which a small red palisman sleeps in a little nest. After all, even a being made entirely of wood has to sleep sometimes. And right next to him, on one of two raised beds that also serve as examination tables, a certain blond boy lies unconscious, covered with a beige blanket. The three of them stand on opposite sides of his bed.
"Do you have any idea why he's not waking up?", Luz wonders, observing his face closely, trying to suppress the urge to hit him as well.
"It could have to do with the nature of his injury, combined with intense trauma. It could be some kind of self-protection mechanism.", Liwin replies.
“What kind of injury was it?”, Valeriana now speaks up. Liwin admittedly has no idea why she wanted to be there. However, the Newt's eccentric behavior over the last few days had already given her enough reason not to question her anymore.
“Look for yourself.”, Liwin replies and pulls his blanket down to stomach level, revealing a gaping hole at about the level where the heart and bile sac of witches and most two-legged demons would be. In shock, Luz stumbles back for a second.
"Fascinating."
"You didn't heal him?", Luz voices her opinion as Valeriana pushes past Liwin to examine the wound more closely.
"Nothing I tried worked.", Liwin replies, to Luz's surprise. "Traditional spells had no effect. The same went for your healing glyphs."
"How? I could heal pretty much any living thing with them. They should work."
"That's the thing...", the healer starts, "This boy isn't a witch. He has no flesh in his body, no blood, no bile, no organs, no brain-"
"But-", Luz stumbles in shock and surprise, "He's clearly alive. Look: he's breathing."
Suddenly, they hear Valeriana voice a realization. "A golem."
"What?", Luz and Liwin exclaim in unison.
“Well, not quite that.”, the Newt begins, “This boy is an artificially created being with a basic structure made of a wood I'm not familiar with.”
"Palistrom wood.", Luz raises a questioning eyebrow at the healer, "That's the same wood that palismen are made of."
Luz stares at her as if she has gone mad before her eyes, demanding an explanation. The healer continues. “While I couldn't heal him, I was able to examine him, and his inner workings are quite fascinating: palistrom wood that serves as muscle structure, microscopic selcidomus scales as skin cells, bones from various monsters found throughout the isles, and most significantly, a Galdorstone as a heart substitute.”
While Liwin explains her findings, Valeriana looks directly into the open wound, her enhanced eyes curious and completely undisturbed as she examines the internal processes.
“So!”, the newt claps once, catching the attention of the other two, "He was definitely attacked by someone rather than something. And that someone was aiming at the stone from the angles of the entry and exit points. I could reconstruct what happened if we could find the place where he was attacked."
"I'm pretty sure I already know who attacked him.", Luz says, her expression grim, "It has to be Belos."
"Who?"
"Calls himself 'Emperor', ruled the Isles until the invasion began, and had been looking for Galdorstones before.", Liwin explains.
“Plus, he always called him his nephew.”
Luz glances at her with a raised eyebrow. 'How do you know that?', she wants to ask, but saves it for another time.
“That is just cruel...”, she says instead, “Does he even know he's not a witch? -That he is not- real? Imma be honest: as much as I hate him for what he's done, I can't help but feel sorry for him.”
“A bad but sad boy...”, Liwin mutters.
“Back to my realizations - no. First, I have a question.”, Valeriana looks at Liwin, “Are you sure your attempts at repairing the damage were completely ineffective?”
“Yes.”
“That's where I disagree. It is a fact that the cells of the golem's body are regenerating, and I suspect that your attempts at healing have contributed to that.”
“Explain.”
"No matter the world I visited, the way trees work is pretty similar everywhere: they absorb one substance from the atmosphere to sustain themselves, and give off another substance as waste that they can't utilize. Given that the golem's body is largely made of this palistrom wood, I theorized that it draws magic from the atmosphere to slowly, very slowly regenerate itself."
“That sounds pretty far-fetched.”, the healer challenges her theory, "But let's assume your hypothesis is correct. Based on my own observations when I treated him, I didn't observe any visible changes. If he really is absorbing magic from the environment to heal himself, my spells should have definitely accelerated the healing process."
"But that's assuming that every type of magic is identical.", Valeriana adds, throwing the witch off. She turns to Luz, "Master, what was the reason you were able to use your glyphs back when you first arrived in Amphibia?"
"The Titan. Or rather, the crystallized residue of his magic.", the half-titan answers confidently, though still confused on what the newt is getting on.
"A magic field.", Valeriana adds, turning her gaze back to Liwin, "The same field that envelops this entire world and allows the use of glyphs. In contrast, the magic of witches and demons is based on self-produced bile, which is fundamentally different in usage and effect. And this kind of magic seems to be repelled by the golem."
“You remember when I said that I also used Luz's healing glyphs, and they had no effect either?”, Liwin reminds her in a snarky tone. The newt, however, ignores this.
"Master, I propose an experiment.", the newt says, "Transfer your magic into the golem's body. If I'm right, that should speed up the regeneration."
Luz sighs and looks at Liwin, who merely shrugs her shoulders as if to say 'Might as well try at this point.'
"Okay. But he definitely owes me if this is going to work.", she prepares herself, placing her hands on his chest above and below the yelping wound, "Liwin, can you restrain him for when he wakes up?"
"He won't be able to hurt us, if that's your concern."
“I know you said he can't use magic, but I'm worried about the Galdorstone within him.”, Luz explains. Liwin nods in understanding and fixes the (former) Golden Guard with thick roots to the bed railing.
Without looking directly at the wound, Luz slowly and steadily pours her magic over her arms down into his body.
Half a minute later, Liwin speaks up, "By Titan, it's working..." She still sounds unhappy about it, though.
"Master, you can increase your output to speed up the process.", Valeriana tells Luz.
"I know. I just don't want to unintentionally kill him."
She increases her output ever so slightly and everyone present can witness Hunter's injury begin to regenerate rapidly. The whole procedure only took a few minutes. However, it looks like he is still not waking up.
"Have we missed anything?", Valeriana wonders aloud, "Admittedly, I personally have no experience with golems of this complexity..."
"Really? You don't know something for once?", Liwin scoffs.
“I'm not omniscient.”, the newt frowns at the healer.
“Guys, stop!”, Luz finishes whatever it is between the two of them, a smirk forming on her face, “I have an idea.”
Luz creates a single, narrow, golden lightning bolt, which she moves up to her outstretched index finger and lets it circle around the tip of it. She quickly leans forward and flicks it against his forehead, where the energy hits him like an electric shock.
'Heh, I'm a living defibrillator.', Luz thinks to herself in a sly and smug undertone. A tone that disappears in an instant and gets replaced by guilt as soon as Hunter opens his eyes, filled with pure panic and absolute terror. Breathing frantically and irregularly, his eyes jump from point to point in the room, recognizing or perceiving absolutely nothing and no one. He struggles against his fixations, which only makes things worse for him.
"Flap- Flapjack?!", he stutters, his voice getting louder, "FLAPJACK?!"
The red cardinal immediately springs back into consciousness, jumps out of his nest and rushes straight to his best friend and owner. He lands on his chest and rubs his head along Hunter's face, which seems to calm the panicked youngster somewhat. Liwin removes the restraints holding him in place, whereupon he immediately embraces his palisman and quietly starts crying.
Liwin looks up at Luz and Valeriana, gesturing for them to follow her as she steps away from the bed and towards the opposite side of the room, giving her patient some space and privacy.
“I need you two to leave!”, the healer immediately begins explaining without letting either of the others speak, "Having him reunited with his palisman may have stopped him from having a full-blown panic attack, but he's still far from ready to be questioned. His body may be healed, but now it's his mind's turn. He needs rest, and since you've already met him in person, it might just upset him if he saw you. I'll keep an eye on him."
“Hm, okay, I can understand that he wouldn't react well to me, but what about her?”, Luz asks, pointing to Valeriana, who is standing obediently behind her. Liwin looks up and frowns at the Newt.
'She bugs me.', is what she would like to answer, "Look at her. Is that a trustworthy face you'd want to see right after waking up?"
"Fair point.", Luz admits after briefly looking at her, "I'll go and see where Amity is with the tour for Anne, Sprig, and Sasha. We still need to work out where the three of them are going to sleep."
"You do that. I'll let you know when he's ready."
Luz nods in confirmation and leaves the makeshift infirmary with Valeriana behind her. The half-Titan leans against the closed door and lets out a deep sigh.
“I feel like a total piece of shit...”, she mutters, with Valeriana listening intently, "I thought to myself, 'Hey, he's the enemy. Perfect time for some harmless mischief', and what happens? He has a full-blown panic attack..."
"Master Luz-"
"I told you not to call me that!"
Valeriana frowns, "What I meant to say is that such a reaction was in all likelihood inevitable. He has hardly had time to process what happened since the attack on him. If the wound had regenerated and woken up on its own at some point, his reaction would have been the same. You are not to blame for this."
"I wish I could say that makes me feel better. Still, thank you.", Luz says. “I'm just so tired of hurting people who didn't deserve it in the end.”
"Having that kind of concern is a sign that you still have good in you, that you're a good person with noble goals."
"You're only saying that because the Titan chose me. You have no idea what you're talking about; what I did!", Luz snaps back.
"I'm saying that because I see your actions. Everything you do is a mirror for your soul. Sure, you make mistakes, but who doesn't? Remember, it was me who developed the weapon Andrias is now using to attack this world.", Valeriana argues calmly. Luz remains silent for a moment.
“I think I'd like to be alone for a moment.”, Luz lies. In reality she just wants her to stop trying to cheer her up, 'Please just go away...'
"Yes, Master."
Luz doesn't even have time to get mad at Newt for ignoring her wish again before she's completely gone already. Luz groans again, trying to ground herself.
A few minutes later and she hasn't moved a bit. "I know I said I wanted to check on Amity and the others, but...", she mutters, 'I don't want them to see me like this.... I know: MADDIE! She wanted to see me alone anyway.'
She immediately makes her way back towards the entrance area, passing through branching corridors, past doors from which she overhears familiar voices, and down several flights of stairs. When one thinks about it, the infirmary is in a completely unfavorable strategic location, given the distance it takes to walk there all the way from the entrance.
Regardless, Luz arrives downstairs a short time later, where she last saw Maddie, and where the only person currently there is Darius, sitting comfortably at a table, quietly crocheting. His project seems to be a turtleneck sweater.
Luz descends the remaining staircase, her gaze never straying from Darius. However, he notices her and speaks up before she has a chance.
“Congratulations on your promotion.”, he says without looking up from his current project, “Although I have to say that I voted against it.”
"Um... thanks?", Luz replies at this maybe-maybe-not-compliment, "May I ask why?"
He looks up, his gaze meeting hers, "You're not fit to be a leader- or a co-leader. Sure, you're objectively powerful and have a positive influence on the witches around you, but you're completely inexperienced. You're how old? Fifteen? You're a kid, you should be in school and allowed to be a kid."
"And you think I don't know that?!", Luz counters, clearly agitated by his words, "It is my fault that the Isles are being attacked in the first place, it is my responsibility to be here and do everything I can to help!"
Darius smirks at her works, "You sound just like him."
"Like who?", Luz huffs.
"The Young Prince, the Emperor's ‘nephew’.", he explains, "Always tried to impose his position as Golden Guard on us as if that meant anything. Always said that the emperor put him in charge and that he had to live up to the former Golden Guards... Sound familiar?"
Luz merely growls in reply. He continues, "Your inexperience and young age aren't even the biggest problems. Your power has a huge weakness called Amity Blight."
"Amity is not a weakness! She's my strength!", Luz exclaims, at which Darius grabs the bridge of his nose.
“Cute. But no, she's not. You and her are deeply dependent on each other. That's not what a good leader should be.”, Darius says, his voice firm and his gaze fixed on Luz, who clearly doesn't understand what he's getting at, “A leader must be able to make difficult decisions that serve the interests of the greater good. Especially now. And you wouldn't be able to do that if it meant risking the lives of your friends, even if it meant saving the lives of thousands of people in return. On the contrary, if someone were to put Amity in danger, for example, you would drop everything to come to her aid. Am I wrong?"
"I-"
Luz doesn't know how to answer that.
"Anyway, I know you didn't come here to be lectured. So, how can I help you?"
"Um...", Luz needs a second or two to gather her thoughts, "M-Maddie. Do you know where she is?"
"Who?"
"Frog. About half my size. Dressed like an engineer today.", Luz describes her frog friend, earner her a weak chuckle from the former coven head.
“Oh yeah, that one.”, he recalls, "She was talking to Mrs. Clawthorne about a greenhouse. Maybe you'll find her there."
Darius immediately turns back to his turtleneck sweater, no longer paying any further attention to Luz. “Uh, thanks.”
Luz immediately leaves the room through the door next to the staircase, which also happens to lead towards Alador's workshop as well as the laundry room where the laundry of all the residents is taken care of, as well as many more. Her body leads her automatically in one direction while her mind is preoccupied with something completely different.
'He's wrong! I mean, I didn't ask to be made co-leader, but Liwin must have had good reasons for that.', she thinks to herself as she wanders through the corridors in complete auto mode, 'But to claim that I would abandon people to save my friends, that's just- just... Shit, I think he's right. Right…?'
Luz tries his best to remember situations that might refute his statements. 'The Brawl? ...No, I literally threw that guy all across Bonesborough. Detention with Gus and Matt? ...I mean, I destroyed the room, but I saved people from that thing... Oh, who am I kidding?! ...Grom maybe? Hmm, no, I just ran away. Although, I wonder how I'd fare against it today... Better not think about it, or it'll happen for real. ...What else? The Conformatorium, perhaps? It was an official mission and I basically shut it down for good. Does that count if no one I knew was there? What else?'
While Luz was thinking, she unconsciously arrived at her destination, 'Hm? Oh, I'm here already?'
The greenhouse, also known as the garden. Dell's garden, to be precise. Luz hasn't been in there yet. Not for lack of interest, but rather for lack of time and opportunities. Plus, she was told that the Clawthornes keep the petrified body of Lilith there, which seemed a bit morbid, even in her opinion.
She enters through the already open doors and is immediately flooded with the smells and scents of countless colorful plants from everywhere in the Boiling Isles. She makes her way across the path made of large stone slabs that runs through the plants.
'What was with this circus of Tibbles? Sure, I had rescued my friends and those poor caged animals... I wonder if he's still alive-', Luz is almost gets hit in the face by a branch at head height when she wasn't paying attention for a moment, “Ouch.”
'No, that doesn't count either. The animals attacked him and the spectators afterwards, so Demon Patrol was called in. Have I really never done anything selfless where someone didn't get hurt?'
She continues walking until she notices voices from somewhere ahead.
“-blossoms really do have an amazing absorption rate.”, she immediately recalls the raspy voice of her friend, who, knowing her, has just become head over heels for a whole new kind of magic research.
“Feel free to keep a few specimens.”, that's Dell, his voice as gentle as ever, “Anyone who emits such joy for my plants, I'm happy to share with what I have.”
“Really?”, a short pause, “You're too kind.”
Luz approaches and attracts the attention of the two plant admirers with the sound of her footsteps.
“Oh, hello there.”, Dell greets Luz with his friendliest smile. For a tiny moment, Luz has to think of her father. A thought that is quickly suppressed. 'I failed him too...'
“Luz!”, Maddie is equally happy to see her. In her lap is a thick book in which she seems to be writing.
“Hey. What are you doing?”, Luz asks.
“Dell has agreed to explain the local flora to me.”, Maddie proudly shows Luz the sketches she made earlier. There are pages upon pages of over-detailed and hyper-realistic sketches, combined with pages full of notes, but also a few real plants that have been flattened into the pages themselves. It actually remembers her of Marcy.
"Wow... How long have you been working on this?"
"A few days... Practically ever since I got here.”, her frog friend explains, “Dell has been a huge help in compiling the information."
“It's always a good thing to pass on your knowledge to the next generation.”, the old witch replies with a touch of nostalgia, “I've actually wanted to write a book like this myself for years, but...”, he raises his hands, which are shaking considerably, “I definitely cannot hold a pencil like this.”
“May I ask what happened?”, Luz asks, compassion in her voice. Looking at the huge scar over his left eye, she actually already has a hunch.
“Old age?”, Maddie jokes, causing the old man to let out a short, hearty laugh. A moment later he sighs deeply.
"No... What happened was a tragic accident.", he replies vaguely, holding one hand in the other and running his thumb over the palm of his hand. He shakes his head, "It's been decades since that happened. It has no relevance anymore." He smiles again, even if it doesn't quite reach his eyes.
“Weren't healers able to help you?”, Luz wonders aloud.
"Oh yes, they were. But even healing magic has its limits.”, he remarks, “Like I said, it's no longer relevant."
Luz frowns, clearly disagreeing with him. “May- May I give it a try?”
“For what?”
"Your injuries. I know a thing or two...", she now grins at him. Maddie shows a similar expression.
"By this point, I stopped believing in miracles... There are some things I deeply miss, but I've accepted that it's just not possible anymore.”, he looks directly at Luz, “I don't expect it to work, but you have my permission to try."
Luz smiles and positions herself directly opposite him. Maddie gets up and stands beside the two of them, not wanting to miss this moment under any circumstances.
“Please, give me your hands.”, she asks him in a soft voice, taking his hands in hers. Even as she holds them tightly, Luz can feel the trembling in his hands. She takes a deep breath and releases her magic.
The golden lightning glides over her arms with the softness of feathers in the air. Each of them slides over her fingers into his and disappears under his skin. A soft, green aura begins to surround him and to expand. Around his hands, where scarred tissue slowly begins to disappear. Around his arms, where nerve damage that is decades old is being repaired. Around his upper body, where his ageing heart is being given new energy. Around his head-
“By the name of the Titan...”, he mutters as he begins to open his eye. The eye that was violently removed decades ago. With tears in his eyes, he looks down at his arms, where the green glow slowly begins to fade. Luz smiles at him as he takes his hands from hers and holds them in front of his face. The hands of which there is no trace of the trembling that has restricting and impairing him all these years.
The dam in his eyes breaks and he pulls Luz into a tight embrace. Tears of joy roll down his cheeks. "Thank you so much. Oh, thank you- thank you so much.”, he cries softly but happily, “What a fool I was to stop believing in miracles..."
With a startled gasp, he breaks the embrace, but still holds Luz firmly by the shoulders.
“I need to talk to my wife.”
"Go for it. She's currently giving friends of mine a tour of the house.", Luz says, grinning widely. Dell doesn't wait any longer than necessary and hurries as fast as his legs allow back down the path towards where he expects Gwendolyn to be. Even when he's out of sight, Luz can't stop smiling.
"Ha! Take that, Darius!", Maddie, standing beside her, chuckles, “What?”
“Oh, nothing.”, the frog replies, playing innocent, "But anyway, good thing you're here. I've got something for you."
“Oh?”
Maddie walks over to a stone bench where a rather thick and heavy looking brown leather bag has been left. She opens the flap and pulls out an only slightly smaller book than the one she was writing in earlier. Although, the term ‘tome’ is more appropriate in this context. It's as thick as Maddie's fist and about as big as her whole upper body. Luz follows her to the seat, mainly so she doesn't have to carry it so far. The frog turns the book around so Luz can read the title. "Basic and Advanced Glyph Magic - written by Maddie Flour and... Luz Noceda?"
“Surprise!”, Maddie grins, “You remember, don't you? We were experimenting with your glyphs and I wanted to compile the results. When you disappeared again, I continued my research in the cave while the ambient magic was still accessible, and then again when Master Valeriana accepted me as her apprentice. Here-”, Maddie pats the book cover, “- is absolutely everything there is to know about glyph magic and the language behind it. Come on, open it! I wanna see your reaction."
Luz immediately does as she's told and opens to the first page, aka. the introduction.
“You can skip this part.”, the frog tells her. Luz turns the page and finds the table of contents.
"‘A strange magic system - definitions and basics’, ‘Magic as a non-verbal language’, ‘The basic glyphs - light, ice, life, and energy’, ‘Grammar and sentence structure’... Maddie, this is- ...", Luz is a little lost for words to express her thoughts correctly. “- this is incredible.”
“Thanks.”, Maddie grins at her best friend, basking in her praise, "But don't forget that this is a team effort. Without you; your ideas and input, none of this would exist today."
“I don't know what to say...”
"You don't need to say anything. Your reaction is already thanks enough for me... By the way, turn to page forty."
Curious about what's there, she first looks at the table of contents. “... A practical guide to illusion magic?”, Maddie just grins in reply, “Don't tell me you found a glyph combo for illusions?!”
“You'd be surprised.”, the frog replies, “Now turn the page already!”
“Yes, partner!”, Luz turns to page forty and looks confusedly at the page where she finds nothing more than a deliberately incomplete light glyph. No combinations, no variations; just a very simple light glyph. “What?”
Maddie smirks. “Remember what you told me about using plant magic to create every plant imaginable?”
"Yeah, it's important that you visualize in detail what exactly it is you want- ... ... No... Don't tell me it's been this easy all along."
“No, it really hasn't been.”, Maddie replies to Luz's surprise, "And that realization has given me a massive amount of respect for someone like Gus who creates illusions like it's nothing. I've spent countless hours practicing myself, and I couldn't make more than simple shapes."
“I mean, I've got a pretty good handle on my own magic by now...”, Luz begins, creating a few lightning bolts that she lets cycle in a triangular formation above her hand, “I should give it a try.”
Maddie doesn't comment further and just lets her friend do whatever she has in mind. Luz starts with a simple light orb, which she lets hover over her hand. “Okay, now a cube.”, she tries to imagine a perfect cube in her mind's eye, just as she always does for any other form of magic that requires a certain amount of imagination to work. But nothing happens at first. Luz squints her eyes and tries to concentrate extra hard on what she wants the result to be.
Nothing happens for about a minute.
Increasingly impatient, she starts to send more magic into the orb, but this only makes it glow brighter.
With a sigh, she lets the orb fade out again. Maddie sympathizes with her. “Don't worry that it won't work on the first try. As I said, i've spent countless hours practicing myself and I don't have more to show for it.” Maddie takes out one of her own light glyphs, activates it, and its orb deforms into an egg shape, “I just tried to form a pyramid.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean.”, Luz says, her motivation nonetheless a little shaken, "Regardless, I'm extremely grateful. If you don't mind, I'll read it later."
“You don't need to stress about it.”, Maddie says with a dismissive hand gesture, “It's all yours.”
Luz gives Maddie a hearty hug, which the frog is only too happy to return. After all, all that time ago, Luz gave her the gift of friendship. Sure, she'd gotten along just fine with Sprig and Anne and a few others, but it was with Luz that she found a friend who always looked forward to spending time with her, sharing ideas and theories; one who shared her greatest passions. And she can never be grateful enough for that. The hug breaks again after a while and Maddie speaks up.
“In return, there's one thing you could do for me.”
“Of course.”, Luz replies with a smile even before the frog has told her what it's about, “Whatever you want.”
“I'd like to meet your mentor.”
The smile disappears from Luz's face. "Um, sure. If you want, we can go right now."
“Whenever you're ready.”
“I- I'd stop by the Owl House first and drop off the book, if that's okay with you.”
"Sure. Go ahead.", Maddie replies. Based on Luz's reaction, she now feels a little bad for her request, but it's too late to back out at this point anyway.
After Luz informed someone of her plans, aka. Darius, she immediately teleports herself and Maddie to the Owl House living room.
Luz wastes no time and heads up the nearby stairs while Maddie stays behind downstairs. "I'll be right back. Try not to get eaten by Hooty."
“Wut?”, Maddie asks, slightly disturbed, but receives no answer as Luz has already disappeared. With a short sigh, Maddie decides to have a look around this infamous house that Luz told so many stories about back then.
“Somehow, I was expecting more... I don't know, adventure.”, she mutters, "But this is just a living room. Granted, it might as well be my old room. Or Master's tent, based on all this stuff." Her gaze wanders around the room. A couch in front of a wall decorated with all sorts of stuff, ranging from a severed hand, to a sword, an assumed animal skull, and positioned very centrally, a large framed wanted poster. "So that must be Eda... And that's a lot of zeros. And Luz's is right next to it... Dang girl, what the heck have you done?"
“Who did what?”, Luz asks in a casual tone as she re-enters the living room, Owlbert in staff-form in her hand. Maddie points to her wanted poster, at which Luz laughs briefly. "That thing actually came out when I was still in Amphibia. I suppose Belos wanted to ‘get back’ at me for attacking him."
"So... treason?", she asks at which Luz merely shrugs in response. “Anyway, wanna go?”
Maddie's gaze slides to Luz's hand, where she notices Owlbert, “Isn't it a little too dangerous to fly?”
"Normally yes, but I'd like to try out a spell Willow has developed. I haven't had the chance to try that out yet and it sounds like fun.", she explains, at which Maddie has no objections.
The two of them step out of the house and wake Hooty in the process, who must have had a very pleasant dream. “Luz?”, he asks in a sleepy tone. He still seems to be still half asleep.
Luz crouches down to his face and puts a hand on his head with a smile and strokes him a little, "Yes, it's me. I just brought something over. You can go back to sleep."
"Okay. If you say so...”, he replies, his voice getting softer with each syllable, “Hoot”
Without making much noise, Luz and Maddie sneak a little further away before the latter speaks up.
"I have to admit, I've never seen a neck that long. Or a creature that's nothing but neck.", she comments on the appearance of the demon who lies behind them, all curled up in itself.
"He's a house demon. He is literally the house itself.", Luz explains. Maddie tries to imagine it, but even she shudders at the thought. "Yeah, feel that. I've either gotten used to the idea and/or I've gotten good at not questioning it... Anyway, ready to go?"
Luz brings Owlbert into alignment. “Hoot?”, the little owl asks Luz.
“We're going to visit Eda.”, Luz answers. Owlbert doesn't respond any further. He probably feels the same way as Luz herself, even if she hides her current feelings behind a cheerful mask.
Luz lifts Maddie onto the staff and places her in front of her before using a plant spell mixed with earth magic to create a hole in the ground and encapsulating the two of them with thick, partially luminescent roots.
“From what Willow told me, she usually flies into the ground at high speeds already, but since this is my first time doing this, I don't want to take any chances.”, Luz says, speaking more to herself than to Maddie or Owlbert. Luz channels her magic into the staff itself, from where it radiates out into a perfect sphere around the three of them. Slowly, Luz begins to move, her gaze constantly watching to see if the root cocoon moves with her. And fortunately for her, it does. They slowly pick up speed.
“How do you know if you're flying in the right direction?”, Maddie speaks up after a few minutes.
“Root echo.”, Luz answers, "Or at least that's the short version. The roots that surround us connect with others in the area as we fly and form a kind of map in my head. It's not particularly detailed, and I can basically only ‘see’ where there are no roots. And where there are no roots in a larger area, there is a settlement or a town."
“So, you're just guessing?”
“Coupled with a good sense of direction and a rough map of the area that I have stored in my head, yes.”, Luz replies. The three of them are flying at anything but top speed, but given the facts of Luz's inner discomfort and that this is her first attempt at this magic, it's quite understandable.
“Luz, do you know what all this reminds me of?”
“Hm?”, she hums questioningly.
“When we both flew to Newtopia.”, Maddie explains, "Well, apart from the view. It was much better back then."
“Heh.”, Luz laughs weakly, “It feels like ages ago.”
“Have you ever wondered what your life would be like today if you had never come to Amphibia?”
“HA!”, Luz laughs out loud this time, traces of madness in her laughter, "When haven't I? My family would still be here, I wouldn't have broken my mom's heart, maybe I'd be in Hexside right now or even back in a school on Earth, and there definitely wouldn't be a war here that has already cost so many lives!"
The already smaller frog hunches forward, feeling guilty for digging up that pain in her friend all over again, even if she knows full well that she was never free of it anyway, “Sorry.”, Maddie mutters, "But one more thing, though. If you could choose...", Maddie turns to Luz, watching her very conflicted expression who's quite clearly avoiding to look at her, "Right. Of course..."
“I'm sorry...”, Luz says, her voice barely quieter than a forced whisper.
Minutes later, the three of them break through the ground back to the surface somewhere in the outskirts of the remains of what was once a jubilant and vibrant Bonesborough. Crushing through the surface, Luz flies at relatively high speed through one of the town's larger main streets. The cobblestone streets beneath their feet are broken, destroyed, or blocked with rubble, the buildings they fly past mostly abandoned and partly in ruins. Luz remembers very clearly how she walked this very path with Willow and Gus on their way to spend some time in the city. Luz frowns as she flies past all of it.
Shortly afterwards, the three of them arrive at what's left of the market place, whereupon Luz slows down and comes to a full stop. Being here reminds her of very first day on the Isles, whereupon a slight smile creeps onto her face. She remembers her first meeting with Eda, and how she had almost made her a potential fortune with a simple battery-powered tv. And how she was almost arrested for the first time. And afterwards broke into someplace for the first time. Okay, it was just the Conformatorium, but still.
“You're smiling.”, Maddie, already off the staff, states, “What are you thinking about?”
“My first day here.”, Luz replies, her voice nostalgic, as she’s letting her gaze wander. It lands on a small gap in a stone wall, where Luz knows that a deep abyss awaits on the other side. She points to that gap. "That's where I entered the Isles for the first time. It was pretty surreal, now that I think about it."
“How so?”
"Back then, I could only dream of things like other worlds, witches, demons, or even magic. And then suddenly, one day, I was here, where everything I had dreamed of was true. I met Eda, and she took me in as her apprentice, even though she was anything but a good teacher. Heh, though I almost called her mom several times back then."
“Don't you still do that?”, the frog wonders.
"... Yeah. But I never got the chance to tell her directly and mean it.”, Luz dries her eyes, which she didn't realize had tears in them until just now, “Anyway, Maddie Flour, let me introduce you to the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles: Edalyn Clawthorne, the Owl Lady. Eda, this is Maddie, my best friend from another world."
“I am honored to make your acquaintance, oh mighty Owl Lady.”, Maddie says, bowing to the witch’s petrified form, which Luz finds a little silly. The frog girl turns to Luz, “Is this the curse you told me about?”, she asks further, referring to Eda's beast form.
"It's a transformation curse. Every time her magic reserves were too low, she transformed into the Owl Beast.", Luz explains, "She had to drink an elixir several times a week to stop it from happening... Say, you as a curse expert, do you think you could have done something about it if you had been here back then?"
The frog ponders for a moment as she visually examines Eda's petrified form, "It depends. In Amphibia, curses are subject to certain rules. One is that a curse can only be broken by the person who cast it. And then it also depends on the type of curse and how complex it is and how difficult it is to create a counter curse. If their curse is a simple beast transformation curse, this can be done quickly. However, if it's a more complex one..."
“What exactly is the difference?”
“A simple transformation curse only changes a person's appearance.”, Maddie explains, "A complex one also changes the personality and makes the victim absolutely feral and violent. In the past, these kinds of curses have often resulted in the death of the caster. And from the look on your face, her curse seems to be the latter."
“Yeah...”
“One more question: would you mind if I took a sample from your mentor for research purposes?”
“Huh, sure, go ahead.”, Luz replies, whereupon Maddie lands with a single high jump on Eda's enormous back and searches for individual petrified protruding hair that can be easily broken off. Luckily for her, she finds one pretty quickly, breaks it off with ease, and puts it in a container for safekeeping.
"Can you teleport us back? I'd like to start my tests immediately."
Luz tilts her head slightly, silently wondering why Maddie is in such a hurry when a counter-curse wouldn't do Eda any good anymore even if she found a counter-curse. “Um, sure.”
"Ideally straight to the workshop. I've already prepared something there."
The big house tour ends for Amity, Anne, Sasha, and Sprig right where it started: In the basement. With Amity leading the way, they enter the room, where Boscha greets them with a disinterested look.
"Okay, that should be all for now. As you saw, there are still some empty rooms here in the house. Do you have any wishes as to where you want to sleep?", the purple-haired witch asks the other three in her group.
“I don't really care.”, Sasha is the first to answer, "So far I've slept anywhere from a cold cell, to a barn, to the most comfortable beds you can imagine. Anywhere will do."
“I'll go wherever Anne goes.”, Sprig replies second. Anne, on the other hand, seems a little hesitant.
"If you don't mind me asking: Where are you and Luz sleeping? You didn't say anything about it during the tour."
“Luz and I usually stay at Owl House over night.”, the witch replies.
“Owl House?”, Anne asks, imagining a house full of real owls, “How many owls are we talking about?”
At exactly this point, Boscha suddenly bursts out laughing, whereupon all eyes are immediately on her.
“Are you serious?”, the three-eyed witch asks while holding her stomach from laughing. Literally everyone in the room looks at her with a facial expression that makes most people immediately stop what they're doing. To Boscha's detriment, however, she is not one of those people.
Boscha's laughter stops abruptly as a metallic clang can be heard and the witch is confronted with the tip of a very sharp sword, at the other end of which stands a very pissed off looking Sasha. Hesitantly, all three of Boscha's eyes look up at the blonde human.
“Care to explain what was just so funny?”
Boscha gulps, her gaze jumping to the blade over and over, "Well... Owls..." She glances nervously at the others, who, like Sasha, aren't laughing either, and instead just look down at her.
A loud sigh from Amity eases the tension, which Sasha also takes as a sign to sheath her sword again. "There are no owls in the Owl House. It's called that because Eda's nickname was the Owl Lady."
“Ohhh.”, Anne says.
“Yeah, I made a similar mistake once.”, Amity chuckles, which slowly evolves into a small laugh, "I had thought Luz would be frying owls there... Speaking of Luz..."
A certain electrostatic charge builds up in the air, with which Amity in particular is more than familiar. The others seem to notice something as well, but can't place it the way she can. Moments later, a blindingly bright light appears in the room and Luz and Maddie are now standing where it occurred. Amity immediately steps forward to give her girlfriend a loving hug.
“Where were you that it called for a teleport to get down here?”, Amity asks, while a few of the others are still recovering from a brief blindness caused by the flash of light. Especially Boscha. But honestly? Serves her right.
“Maddie wanted to meet Eda.”
Luz and Amity's gazes follow Maddie, who, without paying any form of attention to anyone, immediately heads to the countertop of her workstation that visibly screams ‘Maddie's Stuff - Hands Off’. She casually jumps onto the table and reaches for something on one of the small shelves hanging on the wall, which are filled with various potions in tiny bottles as well as ingredients. She rummages for a moment and takes out a small bottle containing a light blue liquid. The same light blue that is also brewing in a cauldron not far from her in fairly large quantities.
Maddie takes out the sample she took from Eda earlier and lays the petrified hair flat on the table before opening the bottle and covering the entire hair with its contents. The contents somehow react with the sample, resulting in a small cloud of smoke that quickly dissipates.
Nothing happens for a second before suddenly... "YES! FROG YEAH!", the frog cheers as if she has just made the discovery of a lifetime. With a grin so wide it borders on mania, Maddie jumps from her table to Luz, who, along with everyone else, has no idea what just happened. With a wide grin, she holds out the single gray hair to her.
It takes her a few seconds to understand, but once she does, she grabs the single hair with a shaky hand and collapses to her knees with tears in her eyes. Her breath trembles, as does her whole body, as she holds this single hair tightly between her fingers. A hair that is no longer as solid as stone.
“Luz!”, Amity exclaims, immediately huddling over her girlfriend.
“Okay, can someone tell me what's going on right now?”, Boscha suddenly speaks up as well.
“Oh Titan...”, Amity mutters with her hands clapped over her mouth in shock as she realizes what exactly Luz is holding in her hands. Boscha looks at Maddie, who can't stop beaming, looking for an explanation.
“H-how?”, Luz openly asks as well.
"There is a creature in Amphibia called the ‘Chicka-lisk’. When provoked, it has the ability to turn things to stone. Over the eons of its existence, curse researchers have searched for a cure, and eventually found one-"
“Hold on- hold on- hold on!”, Boscha interrupts Maddie's explanation, now equally stunned as the other two girls, “Are you seriously saying you've found a cure for petrification?”
“No, I'm not.”, the frog replies, "Someone else did it. I'm just able to replicate it."
At this moment, Anne also chimes in as well, "Um, if you don't mind me asking: What is the big deal about it?"
Amity is the one to turn towards the human, "Petrification is a punishment considered worse than death here on the Isles. It has always been deemed incurable."
“Anyway, back to my explanation...”, Maddie continues, "The reason I didn't bring this up earlier is because I didn't know if the cure I know of applies to petrification from this world- if it's the same kind of petrification. However, there's still a problem to solve before we can actually use it on anyone."
Luz's brief sense of happiness is dampened by this last sentence. “What is it?”, she asks, her tone serious.
“Luz, do you remember what I said about what it takes to successfully bring a person back to life after they die?”, Maddie asks before she can think of anything, "Oh, wait, no. I told Marcy, not you. Okay, when a living being dies, their soul, or whatever you want to call it, is taken to the afterworld, that's the natural course of things. Some souls need very little time for this journey or, depending on how attached they were to their life, a very long time. The more time passes, the greater the chance that an attempt at resuscitation will fail because the soul no longer wants to leave the afterworld. And forcing it to do so can lead to irreparable damage. If we heal your mentor from her petrification now, her body will be nothing more than an empty shell. That is what I would call a fate worse than death."
“So, you're saying that somehow we have to find Eda's and King's souls and convince them to return?”, Luz asks aloud as she dries her tears.
"King? Oh, right, your brother. I remember now... But yes, that is basically it."
Luz grins. “In that case, I know exactly the person who can help us.”
The sun is still high above a cloud-rich sky when Luz, Maddie, and Anne arrive at the gates outside Hexside. Why Anne, the attentive reader may now ask. Well...
“Luz, wait!” Anne stopped her and Maddie before they could teleport away, “I want to come with you.”
"Are you sure? You've never struck me as the kind of person who enjoys spending time in a school. Granted, Hexside is a school for magic, but at the end of the day, it's still a school."
Anne leaned forward to Luz, whispering, "Honestly? I just want to get out of here. So many people at once, and all in one place, it makes me feel a bit... you know."
"Yeah, I think I can imagine. You can come with me. And if you want to talk about it later, I'll be happy to listen."
“This is a school?!”, Maddie exclaims in genuine surprise, “It's a castle!”
“Huh? Right, Wartwood didn't have a school, did it?”, Luz tries to remember, at which Anne shakes her head.
“I mean, technically it did, but it was more of a ruin than a school.”, she states.
“Was destroyed by Giant Millipedes a year or so ago and no one had ever rebuilt it.”, Maddie says before coughing into her fist, “Toadstool. Who said that?”
“Yeah, I think I've only met him once or so, but that definitely sounds like something he'd do.”, Luz replies before changing the subject, "Anyway, welcome to Hexside, the School for Magic and Demonics. ... It didn't always look this run-down, if you're wondering."
The last time Luz was here was before the start of the invasion, the day some covenhead with a forgettable name and face tried to infiltrate the school with Hunter's help, in order to put magic seals on everyone. That was the last time she saw Hexside undamaged. But now... One of the supporting pillars of the school's canopy is destroyed, as well as the left tower and the central tower, the upper third of which is missing. All visible windows are boarded up from the inside or outside, and the main door is also partially destroyed. A single glance around the forecourt also shows why: countless destroyed Frobots are scattered around, most of them obviously struck down with magic, based on the traces of it that are still visible.
“This place must have been the target of many attacks.”, Anne observes, “But like any school, this is a fortress.”
“Human schools are fortresses?”, Maddie wonders.
“Only in the figurative sense.”, Luz adds, "Once we're inside, we'll look for Celine. She's in the Oracle track and will be able to help us. You'll recognize her by her head, which is shaped like a crescent moon. But don't tell her that when you see her, though."
“Sure, no problem.”, Anne says, and Maddie nods in agreement before the three of them climb the steps and enter the large main corridor. And apart from a few scattered battle marks, the interior here appears to be largely undamaged. Well, at least in this part of the building.
"According to Gus, who was last here with Steve as part of a patrol, Hexside is being used as a sanctuary place. Principal Bump manages resources and staff, consisting of surviving teachers and volunteer parents seeking shelter with their families.", Luz relays the information as they walk, all of which she learned from Gus before she left. Maddie was also there, but Anne was not.
At first glance, the main corridors of the school look completely deserted. No people in the corridors, no noises to be heard.
“This silence is unnerving.”, Anne whispers to no-one in particular.
“I wouldn't be surprised if they've shrouded the whole school in illusions.”, Luz replies before a bad idea occurs to her, “HEY! ANYONE HERE?”
Maddie and Anne shoot her horrified looks.
“Luz?”, a girl with brown wavy hair and square-lensed glasses appears, seemingly out of nowhere and, for Luz at least, as a complete surprise.
“Cat?”, Luz asks, surprised, “I'm glad to see you walking after what Boscha did to you.”
“Y-yeah.”, the witch says, her tone rather sad, "We shouldn't talk here. Come with me. I'll take you to the others."
Cat steps through what appears to be a solid wall, and Luz, knowing it's an illusion, follows right behind. Anne and Maddie exchange questioning glances before they, too, step through the illusion, albeit a little more hesitantly. On the other side, the mood and atmosphere is surprisingly different: There are a few witches and demons in the corridor, dozens of them hiding there alone. But the mood is by no means bad. People are chatting, children are running through the corridors playing and screaming and almost crashing into Luz and Cat.
"In case you're wondering, Luz, I've only just been released from the healers. My parents took refuge here in Hexside with a few others as soon as I was able to leave town.", Cat tells her.
“Have you been able to talk to anyone about what's happened since then?”
"Yeah, I have. That's why I'm here to help.", the witch replies eagerly.
“Have you ever spoken to Boscha since then?”
"We've been talking about Pensta regularly since I woke up. She felt absolutely terrible for what she did.”, Cat tells her, “She also joined a resistance movement to fight for justice. Not sure I could do that."
“Granted, Boscha was on probation for a long time before she was actually allowed to do anything.”
"Wait... Are you in on this too?", Cat asks.
“Yup. All three of us.”, Luz turns and gestures to the other two walking behind them, “That's Anne and Maddie.”
Cat observes the two of them briefly before her expression becomes friendly again, “You two are definitely not from here.”
“Anne is a human like I used to be, and Maddie-”
"Wait... 'used to be'?", Cat wonders, confused.
“Long story.”, Luz replies, “Anyway, do you know where we can find Celine from the Oracle track?”
"The last time I saw her, she was in the labs. Celine is part of the team that predicts possible attacks on the school. I can take you to her."
"Celine? You in here?", Cat asks when they arrive at the oracle lab a few minutes later with the others behind her.
"Over here. What's up?", the witch in question waves at her in greeting.
“Someone wants to see you.”, the brunette witch steps aside, revealing Luz and the others.
“Oh. Hey Luz.”, the one-eyed witch with the two white curved horns greets her.
“Celine, I need your help!”, Luz gets straight to the point.
“Mine in particular?”
“I mean, I could also ask Professor Ilora, but that's more like plan B.”
"Aww, thanks for your trust. So, what can I help you with?", Celine smiles, feeling slightly unnerved by Luz's sudden over-serious expression.
“I need to make contact with the ghost world!”, Luz replies in a very serious tone.
“Ou-kay...”, Celine replies as she leads the three of them to one of the tables, where there is already a crystal ball that she needs for the task, “Anyone special?”
"Yes. Edalyn Clawthorne.", Luz says, leaving Celine stunned for a second.
"Right... I forgot for a moment that you were her student.", the girl admits before starting to cast the necessary spell to contact her soul. Celine and Luz had actually learned this spell at the same time. At the time, Luz had tried to contact Lilith, but unfortunately without success. And Celine now seems to have the same problem with Eda. Luz suggests reaching Lilith, but after several minutes the result is the same.
“I fucking hate this...”, disappointed and upset, Luz slumps down in a chair.
"If you don't mind me asking: What do you want to talk to them about anyway?", Celine asks.
"About... mmm... there is a chance to get them back. But it won't work if their souls don't play along."
“You- you found a cure for petrification?”, the witch asks, her breath hitching. Luz nods, but gestures to her to please keep her voice down. “That's a miracle.”
“Not really.”, Maddie speaks up, “It's not an uncommon problem in my world.”
Celine blinks silently at Maddie several times for a good moment, "I was wondering what you were. That settles that too... You know Luz, there's another option."
Luz immediately listens as these words leave the witch's lips, her mood instantly lightening. She continues. “I could summon another spirit that you might be able to pass your message on to.” Luz is immediately on board.
"That's a great idea. Go for it!"
Celine does as she suggested. Instead of simply contacting a soul from the Ghost World, the oracle witch now attempts to summon a spirit into the Demon Realm. Luz and Maddie watch Celine's work with utmost amazement, while Anne is a little intimidated and overwhelmed by it all. Sure, through Maddie and her own powers she is aware of the existence of magic, and from Earth she can vaguely remember everyday life at school. But to see magic on such a scale that is absolutely commonplace for people her own age... In fact, this isn't the first time Anne has wondered if she would have coped in this world the way Luz did. Sure, back then, before everything around her, as well as herself, collapsed, she was an absolute social magnet. She definitely wouldn't have had any problems making friends. But learning magic? That would have been more Marcy's thing. Her current self couldn't imagine coping in this world as she's doing right now. For her, there is only one option, one place to live-
"It worked! Someone answered my call.", Celine interrupts Anne's thought processes as an indigo-colored gas escapes from the crystal ball and forms into a person-like shape in the air above it.
“'Sup?”, In front of, or rather above the four of them floats a spirit, slightly transparent and light indigo in color. It has yellow eyes, a protruding blue nose and a very muscular-looking upper body. The rest of him is still connected to the crystal ball.
"Um, hey. I'm Luz.", The half-human introduces himself.
"Jeff. Written J-E-F-F.”, he spells out his name, which earns him a few confused looks, “Yeah, people keep confusing me with my boyfriend, who has a similar name, and no one can ever remember the correct spelling... Anyway...”, Jeff the spirit looks around the room a bit, but also at the people standing around him, “Huh, a frog, a human, and whatever you two are. This isn't Earth, is it?"
“Nope. You're in the Demon Realm.”, Celine replies, "And I'm a witch. We were hoping you could help Luz here."
Jeff turns to Luz, "Okay young... whatever you are. What can I do for you?"
“First of all, I'm half human.”, Luz says, "I need your help to contact someone. Ideally by delivering a message for me-"
“No can do.”, Jeff immediately shoots Luz down, leaving her stunned for a good few seconds. Picking his ear, he continues, "Do you know how incredibly gigantic the ghost world is? Do you know how many people have died since the beginning of time? Sorry, sweetie, but if you want to find someone, you'll have to do it yourself."
“We already tried, but we couldn't reach anyone-”, Luz complains. Jeff, on the other hand, shakes his head.
“That's not what I mean.”, he clarifies, "I mean that you enter the ghost world yourself and search for whoever you want yourself. You wouldn't be the first non-dead person here either. A human I know came here recently to save a friend. So why not you too?"
“How?”, Luz, Maddie, and Celine ask in unison.
"Simple. After our call here is over, I'll open a portal at your location. As soon as you step through, your soul will be extracted from your physical form and you can enter the ghost world as you please."
“What happens to my body?”, Luz asks.
"It stays behind. From what I've been told, it's still alive, but pretty desolate. An empty shell, so to speak, until the moment you return."
“I'll do it!”, Luz accepts his offer without hesitation, "But can we do it tomorrow? I have to prepare a few things first."
Jeff just shrugs, "What is ‘tomorrow’ for you is nothing more than a ‘second’ for me. The concept of time works differently in here than what you mortals are used to."
“What exactly does that mean?”, Luz asks, but Jeff doesn't feel like answering any more of her questions.
"How about this? I'll tell you all about it ‘tomorrow’.”, he offers with quotation marks in the air, “I'll even offer to give you a general tour once you're here. Agreed?"
“Agreed.”, Luz agrees, whereupon Jeff slowly begins to disappear.
“Good. Then I can take a quick nap until then...”, he mutters until he and his voice have completely disappeared.
“Celine, you're the best!”, Luz grins at the one-eyed witch.
“That was truly amazing!”, Maddie joins in, albeit for different reasons, "The existence of a ghost world has only ever been speculated in our world, but it's real. By frog, I really need to research this further... Not until the war and all that is over, of course.", she grins awkwardly.
"Um, I'd love to teach you. And thank you.", Celine smiles.
“Okay, with that out of the way, maybe we should talk to Bump and then we can head back.”, Luz tells Anne and Maddie before turning her attention back to Celine, “Do you happen to know where Bump is?”
"Usually in his office. It looks empty, but that's just an illusion.", Celine explains. At that, Cat speaks up again.
“I'll take you there.”
Admittedly, Luz knows Hexside's layout as well as the inside of her pant pocket, which makes a guide there seem a little unnecessary. Plus, Luz and Cat have probably never really interacted with each other before today. Sure, the two girls were in the ‘Advanced Healing’ class together, but there was never more than a friendly hello between them, especially not when Boscha was around the witch. Talking to her like that now feels... strange.
And before she knows it, the four of them are standing in front of Bump's office, which actually looks fairly empty, trashed, and abandoned.
"We're here. I'm off again. See you around Luz. You two as well.", Cat bids farewell and re-enters the previous illusion, disappearing from sight and earshot of the others.
“She was nice.”, Maddie comments after no one else speaks, “So, what do we want from this Bump?”
"Right... Um, now that the evacuation point is secured, I still need to brief him on when and how things will go down tomorrow.”, Luz explains, “I mean, I don't have to do that, but since we're here anyway..."
“Yeah, makes sense.”, Maddie replies. Luz immediately steps through the illusion with the frog glancing at Anne first before following her.
“Hey, are you okay?”, she asks, to which Anne shakes her head wordlessly.
“Would you like to wait here?”, another shake of her head.
“Would you like to take a break after this?”, she continues, to which Anne nods in confirmation. “Okay. Then let's do this fast.”, Maddie says before the two of them follow Luz.
“Luz?”, Bump looks up from his desk in surprise as Luz steps through the illusion. Last time she saw him, his eyes were covered by... something, but seeing him with an actual palisman sitting next to him of his desk makes many things click within her head. She waves at him just before Anne and Maddie join her. "I'm relieved to see you safe and sound these days. And with new companions, I see."
"Right. This here is Maddie, a curse user from another world outside the Demon Realm and the Human Realm, and this here is Anne, a human like I used to be. They're going to help us with the big day tomorrow."
“Big day?”, Bump asks, seemingly genuinely confused.
“Um, not sure how much you've been told by others so far, but in order to defeat those up there, we've deemed it necessary to evacuate the civilian population to a safe place that the enemy can't reach under any circumstances.”
“Which kind of place woul-”
"Another world. Only temporarily, of course.", Luz interrupts him and finishes her explanation. “We believe that collateral damage cannot be avoided going forward, and this way we can at least prevent more people from dying or being kidnapped.”
“Hmm...”, Bump seems deep in thought for a moment, "That's a noble goal, and indeed I haven't heard of it before. And to be blunt, the very idea of such an undertaking is simply insane."
“As if that's ever stopped me...”, Luz smirks at him, causing him to release a brief chuckle.
"It's definitely no secret that I'd like to see all the people here under my roof safe. But before I agree, I need to know exactly how this evacuation will work.", he insists with a firm tone.
“Fair enough.”, Luz relents, while Anne and Maddie sit down quietly on free chairs near the door and listen to Luz's explanation, "The finer details are still a bit vague, but here's the broad outline: A big storm bringing boiling rain is forecast for tomorrow around noon. This will limit the enemy forces or, with a bit of luck, even paralyze them completely. We will use this small window of opportunity to carry out several operations simultaneously using small teams. I will equip the majority of the teams with teleport glyphs, which will go to the enemy transport ships and free as many prisoners as possible as quickly as possible, which will be gathered together in the center of Bonesborough, which will be protected by a large-scale protective barrier. At the same time, the civilians still hiding in the area are also led there. Once everyone is ready to be transported, I'll open a portal and we'll send all the civilians through to the other side, and bring them back once the enemy is defeated."
“That sounds like a very big ‘if’ to me.” Bump notes sternly, "What makes you think it's even possible to defeat them? What if you can't do it?"
"There is simply no other option. If we don't make it, there's nowhere for the evacuees to go back to anyway.", Luz replies in an over-serious tone.
“Okay, you've convinced me.”, Bump says, a feeling of relief flooding over Luz, "There's no point in hiding here forever if there are other options... But a portal to another world? By titan, the amount of magic such an undertaking would take... Anyway, how should we prepare?"
“Tell people about the evacuation, and that they'll be picked up tomorrow as soon as it starts raining.”, Luz explains, "Plus, people should take anything they can carry that doesn't restrict their mobility too much. I'm talking about sleeping options, food, and so on. Just the basics."
“Alright, I'll pass on the information and instruct people to be ready on time.”
"Perfect. That's all then.", Luz says, ready to leave his office again.
“One more thing.”, Bump stops her, “Do you really think this will work?”
"Without resistance? No.”, Luz states bluntly, “But we have nature and enough talented people on our side. The chance of succeeding is not guaranteed, but this way we can still protect as many lives as possible. It's better than everyone alive hiding everywhere with no idea how long they can survive on their own with all those things in the air still hunting people down."
"Alright... On behalf of everyone, I place my trust in you."
Luz smiles, “Thank you, Principal Bump.”
Anne and Maddie are the first to step back out of the illusion into the empty-looking corridor, with Luz immediately behind them. Maddie speaks up as soon as Luz has left the view- and sound-suppressing field. “Luz, would you mind if we took a break somewhere?”
"Well, we don't really need anything else. As far as I'm concerned, we're done for now.”, Luz says, “We know how to save Eda, King, and maybe even Lilith, we've prepared everything we need here. I still have a bit of work to do myself, but you're welcome to stay in for the rest day."
“Great.”, Maddie says, risking a glance in Anne's direction, which Luz notices.
"I see. Shall I take us to the Owl House then? It should be fairly quiet there.", she asks, to which Anne nods silently. Luz smiles in understanding and activates her teleport spell in the middle of the corridor, teleporting the three of them directly to the Owl House living room.
Luz looks worriedly at Anne. She's never actually seen one of her friends lose the ability to speak, so she doesn't really know what to do. Given what she's learned about Anne's last few months, it definitely suggests that her psyche is severely damaged. Loss, isolation, the feeling of being betrayed... Luz herself is no stranger to these feelings, but she has always had- and still has people she can lean on. Anne didn't have that while she was on Earth, and she suffered massively from it in a way that Luz can't imagine.
“You can sleep here on the couch if you want to lie down for a bit.”, Luz offers, genuinely wanting to help her friend, "You can sleep in my bed if you want. Amity and I would take the couches then later."
Anne's gaze wanders to the couch, the rest of her following. She grabs a pillow and hugs it close to her before lying down on her side. "Maddie and I should get back to the others. Shall I send Sprig over?", Luz continues to ask, which Anne answers with a slight, exhausted nod, followed by a faint but grateful smile. "Gladly. If Hooty is bothering you, you're welcome to go to my room. It's usually dark and cool in there, and Hooty can't get in so easily after I've locked the window a while ago."
Anne looks confused, her gaze bouncing around the room from front door to the door in the direction of the kitchen. Luz explains.
"Hooty is the house demon here. The house itself, so to speak. A bit eccentric and he talks a lot... really a lot.”, she says, “But he's a good soul. And a good defense system."
Anne cracks a brief smile.
"Anyway, we should get going. Do you think you can join us tomorrow? If not, I'd totally understand.", Luz asks, which Anne answers with a nod along with a dismissive hand gesture. "Alright, have a good rest then. See you tomorrow."
Anne lies down and closes her eyes as Luz and Maddie leave the house through the front door, hearing them talking to someone outside. Hooty, probably. Moments later, a bright light shines through the windows of the house, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
'I fucking hate this...', she thinks to herself, now that she is once again completely alone. Since she arrived back on Earth, her psyche has taken a massive turn for the worse. But it's never been so bad that she's gone completely mute. Well, apart from the self-harm, but that doesn't count right now. Sure, Anne hardly spoke to anyone during that time, but it can't be that she goes completely mute when she's simply overwhelmed by a few too many people. That's not reasonable... right?
In the midst of her inner breakdown, she doesn't even notice that Sprig has also been teleported to the Owl House by now, and that he's looking at her with a worried expression. Luz and Maddie had told him the short version of what had happened, and he had insisted on coming to her immediately, even before Luz could offer it to him herself.
Now standing in front of her and seeing how she's completely caught up in her own head, he can't help but climb up to her and snuggle up to his best friend to offer her even the slightest bit of comfort.
After Luz and Maddie found and delivered Sprig, the two of them immediately get to work on their own mission tomorrow, which doesn't have quite as much to do with the evacuation. Sure, Luz will help however she can, especially with the portal and the glyphs, but her top priority is to save her family. A priority that Maddie shares, and that most of the others don't know about yet. Which is exactly how it will stay until tomorrow.
Maddie hastily disappears back to the workshop in the basement to tend to the final stages of cure development, while Luz is busy preparing incomplete teleport glyphs that the others can use tomorrow to teleport to and from wherever they need to go, en masse if necessary. Once that's done, she gathers some of the people she thinks will definitely be traveling tomorrow and tries to explain to them in as much detail as possible how exactly these glyphs work and how they are to be used. She covers everything from the size of the glyph that needs to be drawn on the ground to teleport multiple people, to the fact that those activating the glyphs need to imagine exactly where they want to land, namely in the center of Bonesborough.
All in all, a process that took several hours. In the meantime, some of the others came by, namely Amity, Sasha, and Valeriana. Amity to remind Luz not to do too much, and that she and Emira are preparing the planned dinner with her father, and Luz can definitely be there too. With two winks. Meaning: not optional. Sasha came by to ask about Anne, and to offer Luz more sword training for today, which she gratefully postponed until tomorrow morning. Valeriana somehow already knew about the events in Hexside without anyone telling her, and offered her support. And it turns out that despite having only one arm, the newt can draw glyphs quite well and in great detail. Even with her tail, somehow.
By now it's close to sundown, and there are still two things on Luz's agenda for the rest of the day. Firstly, of course, dinner with Amity's family, but also a certain prisoner who, according to Liwin, can now be questioned and, according to her, has not caused any problems so far.
Luz stands in front of the door to the infirmary and takes a deep breath. 'Today has been a long day. Better not make it any longer by playing around and stick to the job in hand.'
Another deep breath, and she opens the door, on the other side of which Liwin is already waiting for her. Luz and Hunter's eyes meet and the latter gives Luz a hostile look.
"What is she doing here? She's a criminal!", Hunter spits as the words come out of his throat.
“You sure seem to have a lot of energy for someone who's been speared.”, Luz remarks sarcastically as she and Liwin approach his bed. Hunter's gaze snaps to Liwin.
“You betrayed me!”, he accuses the healer, “You want to hand me over to those criminals!”
Liwin and Luz care little for his accusations. The latter speaks up, while the former casts a spell that once again binds Hunter's hands to the railing of his bed. In her opinion, this is unfortunately necessary after his suddenly hostile behavior. "I should introduce myself. My name is Luz Noceda, co-leader of the CATs, the Covens Again the Throne. And this is Diane Liwin, founder and leader of the CATs."
A look of betrayal spreads across Hunter's face, on par with when a subordinate scout ate Hunter's rations on a field mission.
“You deliberately misled me.”, Hunter accuses Liwin, “You pretended to be just a healer-”
“Which I am.”, Liwin confirms, before his gaze moves on to Luz, "And youuu... You're nothing more than a terrorist!"
Luz is not interested in his accusations, “Are you done?”
"Ohhhoho no. Only when I have stopped breathing!", he smirks at her. Luz, already feeling tired of him, steps closer to him, summoning her magic around her arms with each step she takes closer to him. He recoils slightly as he catches sight of the golden flashes bouncing dangerously close to his bedside. “What is that?”, he asks in increasing panic, "Stop! Stop it I said!"
“Don't worry Hunter, former Golden Guard, I just have a few questions for you.”, Luz smiles a bit, which starts creeping the boy out, no trace of his brave-boy persona left. In all honesty, Luz did say she didn't want to play around, but she's definitely enjoying seeing him so small now after his oh so big words. “Let's start with your so-called uncle.”
“I-I won't tell you anything!”, he stutters, “I'm the Emperor's loyal right hand.”
"And you really believe that? After what he did to you? After he impaled you?"
“Tze...”, Hunter rolls his eyes at her, “The Emperor has always appreciated me and recognized me for my loyalty.”
Luz, who until a moment ago was trying to intimidate him, now looks at him in confusion, “Wait... you seriously don't remember?”, she asks before turning to Liwin.
“He didn't recognize me either.”, the healer says, “I suspect his mind suppressed his memories of last week as a self-protection mechanism.”
"Bullshit! My memories are perfect.", Hunter exclaims. In confusion, Luz looks at Flapjack, who is sitting next to Hunter's head and also just twitching his wings. Luz groans loudly.
“Dude, listen-”, Luz begins, “Even if you don't remember last week, surely you'll remember that the Boiling Isles are under attack right now.”
"But of course. The Emperor has been working on a way to stop the enemy once and for all for quite a while now. And then it's your turn!", he threatens them.
“Oh really?”, Luz feigns surprise, "What kind of weapon does he have? Do tell"
Hunter snorts, “As if I would tell someone like you his top-secret plans.”
Luz frowns at him just before Liwin speaks up. “Luz, I don't think he has any idea what Belos' plan is.”
"Of course I know that. He trusts me."
Liwin continues, "Belos has sent you all over the Boiling Isles with a list of completely bizarre items that he wants you to get for him. Isn't that right? And also that he didn't tell you what these items do."
"How do you know that- I mean... No."
"I know because you told me. It was only a few days ago when we met in Latissa.", Liwin reports, which Hunter naturally doesn't believe, "One of the items was the ‘Feather of the Forgotten’. And I assume another item was a Galdorstone, correct?"
“How do you know that?!”, he now finally drops the act.
“She already told you.”, Luz says, before Liwin resumes speaking.
"A few days ago, you were found outside Bonesborough by some of our members, with an arm-sized hole in your chest. Your little palisman was beside himself with panic and worry about you.", she reports. Hunter turns his gaze to Flapjack, who is chirping hurriedly. Luz and Liwin assume he is telling him his version of events.
"NO! I don't believe you!", he defends himself, "He would never do such a thing!"
“You don't even believe your own Palisman?!”, Luz asks reproachfully. Hunter looks at Flapjack, at first insulted, then conflicted.
"Seems you need time to think. We'll check on you again tomorrow.", Luz decides to end the questioning at this point. “I hope you'll remember more by tomorrow and be a bit more cooperative.”
With this statement, she turns her back on Hunter, exchanges a brief glance with Liwin and leaves the infirmary, annoyed and frustrated.
Luckily for her, she knows exactly where to go to feel almost instantly better: to the third floor. Where Emira and Viney have their room, and where the big dinner is about to take place. And honestly? Luz hasn't eaten anything yet today and is starting to feel a little hungry.
As soon as Luz reaches the third floor, her nose is flooded with fragrant smells, which she is only too happy to enjoy. At least until she remembers that the food here is Boiling Isles food, and she still hasn't tested whether her now non-human body can even tolerate this kind of food. It would be bad if it wasn't...
Luz enters the dining room on the third floor, where a second kitchen is directly adjacent, and where Amity and Emira are working from the sounds of it coming from within. Luckily for Luz, though, she's not the only one in the room waiting hungrily for the fantastic smelling food. Emira's girlfriend Viney is already there too, sitting at the already set dining table, as is Alador, who is sitting at the head of the table and looks far more awake by now.
“Hey, Viney.”, Luz greets the healer / Beast Keeper with a smile.
"Hey Luz. It's been a while.", she replies, also with a smile.
“Y-yeah...”, Luz awkwardly rubs her neck, "Um, I wanted to tell you thanks for being there for Emira since... you know."
“It's only natural.”, Viney replies, "I had to make sure my parents and Puddles were safe first, but other than that, I haven't left her side. And between you and me, she was devastated. Losing him... it broke her."
“I can definitely imagine.”, Luz says, “Say, does Em still hate me?”
“Hmm...”, Viney thinks for a moment, "I wouldn't say she hates you... But I'm sure she won't attack you. Well, not again."
“What are the chances?”, she feels compelled to ask.
"That she will attack after all? Maybe a few percent. The time since then has helped her a lot.", Viney says, “Well, me too. I'm now quite good at healing not only physical wounds, but also psychological ones."
“Heh, good to know...”, Luz replies with a weak laugh, 'Anne might need her. Fuck, I might need her...'
Luz sits down on one of the free chairs opposite Viney and takes full advantage of the opportunity to have a backrest. 'This is heaven...'
A little later, Amity and Emira join them, bringing large plates full of all kinds of food into the room, the smells of which make Luz drool. And to describe the dishes visually in a nutshell, even in just one word, it would be: lively.
Amity puts down her plates and immediately takes the seated Luz in her arms from behind the moment she has the chance. “I missed you.”, she whispers.
“I missed you too.” Luz whispers back before Amity gives her a little kiss on the head. “Imma be honest, today was a long day.”
“Oh, please, do tell while we eat.”, Alador suddenly speaks up, “This all looks so delicious that I hardly want to wait.”
Both Amity and Emira look at their father with joyful expressions. The latter speaks up. “So a hypothetical promise to get more of it would be reason enough to get you out of your basement more often?”, Emira asks, leaving Alador dumbfounded for a minute.
“Maybe...”, he replies, his voice a little smaller again, his shoulders slumped.
“Regardless-” Amity begins, "I'm glad you got some sleep, Dad. You look a lot more... alive."
He chuckles weakly at that, rubbing his heck in shame, "Y-yeah. Um, thanks... for- for keeping an eye on me. Bo- both of you. I couldn't ask for better daughters."
"Daaaaad! Too cheesy!", Emira whines loudly, even though everyone present knows she doesn't mean it.
The mood is good, and as it turns out, for Luz in particular, the cuisine of the Boiling Isles is now far more tolerable for her than it was when she first came to the Isles. Luz remembers the eating contest she once took part in, and the amount of unholy pain she had to endure afterwards. It was so bad, even Eda was worried and immediately took her to a healer.
“You're smiling.”, Amity observes, the plate in front of her empty by now, “What are you thinking about right now?”
“Heh, Maddie said the exact same thing to me earlier.”, Luz chuckles before her tone becomes a little more nostalgic, "About Eda. And an eating contest."
“Yea, I see you in one of those.”, Viney comments, “Did you win?”
“Nah.”, Luz replies with a dismissive gesture, "But that's when I found out that Isles cuisine isn't safe for humans. I'm actually quite glad that I can tolerate this now. Thank Titan, I say...", she says and laughs about it. Amity grins with her, but the others just look at her in confusion. After a nice, hearty laugh, Luz falls silent again and her mood also plummets.
“Ami?”
“Yeah?”
"I... I was thinking a bit earlier, and I've made a decision."
“What kind of decision?”
“I- It would be- I think it would be better if you didn't help with the evacuation tomorrow.”, Luz says, which puts everyone else at the table in a shocked mood.
“What do you mean?”, Amity asks, clearly not understanding.
"I was made aware of something earlier: And that is that if the worst comes to worst, I will always and only help the people closest to me. And that's you.", Luz tries to explain, all the others present hanging on to her lips attentively. If anyone were paying attention to her right now, they would see Emira nod in agreement. "If anything were to happen to you tomorrow, I would jeopardize the whole mission if it meant I could save you. And I can't do that."
“Luz...”
“I agree with her.”, Emira speaks up, her tone stern, “You're the only sibling I have left, and I'd rather let the boiling sea freeze over before I let myself lose you too!”
“Luz, I want to protect you too.”, Amity argues, which is really sweet.
“I know, but I think you're forgetting what I am now.”, Luz argues, "I'll be fine. Plus, I'm not going to do that much."
“What do you mean?”, Amity asks. Luz hesitates slightly.
'Should I really tell her about this? I mean, she'd find out tomorrow anyway... Oh, fuck it', she decides, “I'll travel to the ghost world tomorrow, as soon as I'm no longer urgently needed, and go look for Eda, King, and maybe Lilith.”
“Why?”, the witch continues to ask, before remembering earlier when she and Maddie came back from the town, "No.... Don't say that-"
“Yes.”, Luz replies, smiling, “Celine had made contact with a spirit who can take me to the ghost world tomorrow.”
“Um, can someone explain what you're talking about?”, Emira speaks up. Luz and Amity exchange glances.
“May I?”, Amity asks, to which Luz nods and confirms, “Maddie, Luz's frog friend has brought a petrification cure from her world.”
“WHAT?!”, Emira, Viney, and Alador all shout. “Impossible!”, Viney exclaims in disbelief.
"No, it's true. We tested it live earlier. It works...", Luz smiles, leaving everyone but Amity genuinely stunned.
“I need to talk to that frog...”, Viney mutters.
“But wait-”, Amity starts, “to change everyone back, don't you need all three statues too?”
"... Yes, that's right...", Luz replies.
“Then- how about I go and get the statue of King while everyone else is busy evacuating?”
“No!”, Emira and Alador immediately interject. “It would still be too dangerous.”, Alador argues.
“I didn't say anything about going alone...”, Amity argues, which seems to appease her two family members slightly, "Alsa could accompany me. I already know she won't have much to do during the evacuation. And she knows healing magic."
“Hmm...”, Alador ponders, prompting Amity to continue.
“Plus, I can use my Abomination to both carry King and defend myself at the same time if necessary.”
“I really don't like this-”, Emira says, “I'm coming too.”
“What?!”, Amity, Luz, Viney, and Alador exclaim.
“Someone has to make sure you don't do anything stupid.”, the eldest Blight daughter argues.
“Then I'll come too.”, Viney volunteers, “Emmy and I have offered to help with the evacuation on the other side, but I'm sure a side trip like this won't hurt the schedule too bad.”
“You guys...”, Luz looks at them with tears in her eyes. Emira scoffs at her.
“I'm doing this for my little sister, not for you.”, she says, which has no effect whatsoever on Luz's reaction.
All eyes are now on Alador.
"Ugh... fine.”, he mutters, “You stay away from all dangerous areas, especially the city center, and you have to maintain force fields at all times. Understood?"
“Yes, Dad!”
And with that, the day draws to a close.
Notes:
Hope you liked it, and I hope you're looking forward to Part 2.
But now, I unfortunately have to share a bit of bad news: Starting very soon, I will go back to school for 2 years to get a degree in IT. During that time, A Lost Owl will not go on hiatus, but updates will be rarer than they are already. Sorry about that already.
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GodzillaMaster on Chapter 1 Wed 02 Feb 2022 09:49PM UTC
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Crady on Chapter 2 Mon 14 Feb 2022 05:40PM UTC
Last Edited Mon 14 Feb 2022 05:40PM UTC
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