Chapter 1: Abnormal Normality (The Ordinary Cycle)
Summary:
It was the dawn of a brand new week. Nothing all that special about this cycle in particular. Just another morning of forgotten elixirs, hunting for a fitting dinner, and sorting through human trash to be sold or kept. It was domestic, in a way Eda never could’ve even dreamed. She only wished her lifebound was there to experience it, too. (Pilot / Prologue Chapter).
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
So. She’ll admit it. She probably should’ve set that alarm she’d been considering last night.
Even then, she had known that not doing so was going to cause problems, but she was tired, and she didn’t want to put in the effort of summoning her scroll just to be blinded by the brightness of the enchanted parchment.
Sure, the curse didn’t affect her half-human daughter in quite the same way it affected her, but the diluted elixir still made things a little more manageable, and right then, she was absolutely regretting not preparing a morning batch in time.
Mostly because Luz was on top of the refrigerator again, and did not appear to be interested in coming down. Which was unfortunate, because she was also a little baby owl beast, nibbling on a shiny golden keychain that came back in the latest haul from the human realm.
The fact that King was sitting at the table, laughing his baby-sized skull off, was not helping.
See, Eda had come to learn a great deal from her daughter, over the last ten years. The most important was that she and the Owl Beast residing inside of her both held a great deal of similar care for their children.
That common ground was enough for them to learn and branch from. Things weren’t perfect, and they never would be, because the beast was still a curse that continually impacted her health and drained her magic, but they made do. The two of them learned to dance around one another, and, if it comes down to it, dance together in unison.
The biggest change was that Eda actually spoke to her. Not that the beast could offer any actual words back, only able to share impressions, emotions, and images, but it was more than fighting over the reigns of control.
Sure, Eda still took her elixir, but she hadn’t needed to take so little of it in nearly two decades. At this point, it was simply to keep the beast’s temper from flaring up too intensely, rather than suppressing her entirely.
They made it work. Eda’s accepted that the two of them were stuck together with no way to change that, and she’s willing to work together, as long as Ol’ Beasty didn’t go completely feral and rip somebody apart. Well, unless said person attempted to harm either of her children. If that was the case, all bets were off. It was a compromise both thought was fair.
The reason for giving her daughter a diluted version of the elixir was a bit different, since she wasn’t exactly cursed. At least, not in the traditional sense.
When Luz had first started demonstrating symptoms and transforming, Eda may have freaked out a tiny bit, and given her a full dosage of the elixir. That had gone on for a year or two, maybe, before Luz finally asked why she had to take the ‘yucky med’cine,’ and if being an owl was bad.
That led to a long talk between the two of them about the fact that, no, there wasn’t some other being inside of Luz who took control. It was always just Luz, even if she remembered thinking weird things that didn’t make a lot of sense whenever she missed her medication. So, after a lot of research on what a curseborn actually was, Eda started to dilute her own elixirs.
The diluted version of the elixir was mostly for cognitive function, allowing Luz to still think like a person and control her shifts between beast form and half-human form. If she didn’t have the elixir in the morning, she would often be overcome with some… peculiar behaviors.
Things like a fascination with shiny objects, or hunting for rats in the forests around the house, or getting into high places she’s not supposed to be. Like right then.
Eda threw her head back, both hands coming up to her temples, and groaned. From his position on the table behind her, her son let out another plea of giggles, while the tiny owl beast sitting at the top of the fridge glanced up with a tilt of her head.
Thank Titan that making a single batch of diluted elixir was able to last them several cycles, or else she would’ve lost her mind years ago, with how many times she failed to remember her morning routine. She really needed to set up a better system for this. Maybe changing medication time to somewhere in the evening instead?
Shaking her head to clear her frustration, she reached forward and grabbed one of the several vials she had just finished with. She swirled the completed ampule of medication just above the potion stand, making sure the remedy - which was one part elixir, nine parts water - had been thoroughly mixed together. Then, she twisted around, and took stock of the sight before her.
Luz was still on top of the fridge, a little gilded keychain locked comfortably in her jaw. But now, she was actually looking at her mother with an expression of open curiosity. Eda was incredibly thankful that, despite Luz not quite being herself at the moment, the little nine-year-old girl could at least recognize her witch mother.
Eda brought the little vial up, and shook it gently beneath the beam of sunlight cascading through the bay window to make it glisten.
It worked like an enchanted charm. Her daughter perked up, and the chain fell from her mouth as her head turned to track the new shiny object of interest. She let out a trilling, squeaky little hoot that was just way too adorable.
“C’mon, kiddo, come n’ get it,” Eda beckoned, firmly ignoring the way her son was still failing to hide his laughter. “It’s for you.”
The first thing the little owlet did, when she stood on her four limbs, was stretch. Her backside rose high as her front paws extended outwards, pulling at her front legs much like a cat would. Then her back end lowered while her front rose, tugging on her hind legs until they gave a small pop.
She huffed a relieved breath once she was done, tracking the glittering liquid for just a moment more. After that, she stepped forwards, off the edge of the fridge.
In a flourishing motion, she jumped down, landing gracefully on the wooden floor with a flap of her wings to break the fall. Eda brought herself down to the floor as well, giving the vial another slight shake and patting her knee in a silent motion for her daughter to come closer.
Luz’s head flicked to the side in a display of curiosity, but she followed the unspoken request without hesitation, closing the distance between the two of them.
Through the motions, Eda went, having long since grown used to the song and dance between the two of them after all these years. She reached her free hand out and soothed down some of the feathers behind Luz’s head, which instantly resulted in a purr erupting from the little beast.
Then, Eda shifted her hand, instead scratching that spot behind her daughter’s ear. She breathed a soft chuckle as Luz completely melted, collapsing into Eda’s lap and purring even louder while her beady eyes fell shut. Honestly, Eda wouldn’t have minded doing this for a while longer, but there was a purpose here. After that, Luz could make her own, mentally coherent choice to continue receiving affection instead.
“Hey, kiddo,” she said in a soft tone, one that nobody but her kids have ever actually had the pleasure of hearing her use. She paused in her scratching, allowing her daughter to regain some control of her limbs and pay attention.
The little owl’s head rose with yet another noticeable tilt to it. “Can you open your mouth for me? You know the drill.” She shook the little vial a few times for emphasis.
The young owlet seemed to pause, considering. Maybe her daughter didn’t entirely understand the reason to drink the vial at the moment, with her head all scrambled like it is, but Eda was certain the small beast could recall memories of drinking it before. Not to mention, no matter what form, her daughter always trusted her.
After a moment, the little owl opened her mouth. Giving a warm smile, Eda tilted the vial in, pouring the liquid into her daughter’s jaw. The tiny beast swallowed it right up, though she let out a small whine at the disgusting taste.
With some readjustments to her position that let her sit more comfortably on the ground, Eda went right back to smoothing the soft downy on her daughter’s head. Again, Luz melted right into the touch, falling limp against her mother’s lap and purring up a storm.
There was a few minutes before the dosage of elixir would take hold and bring Luz back to her right state of mind. Eda couldn’t help but reminisce a little, in the lull of activity.
Titan, it had almost been ten years. In just a few short cycles, a whole decade would have passed since the morning she lost the love of her life, but received the most precious little bundle of joy that would ever exist across both of the realms - and that wasn’t bias talking, it was a genuine fact.
Her daughter was nothing more than a tiny, pudgy little half-human, with rounded little ears and a brown fuzz that would soon become hair, but more prominent fangs than humans were supposed to have already growing in - or, actually, they were called canines on humans, weren’t they? Those might be different things. Luz definitely had a full set of four fangs, though, not just some pointy human teeth.
Then those little eyes had blinked up at her, a pair of luminous bulbs in the same golden hue that had been staring Eda back in the mirror her whole life, and she didn’t hesitate to plant a kiss upon her baby’s head, even with the weight of all her grief and sorrow settled on her shoulders.
That cycle, with both the good and the bad, was one she would never forget. It was filled with memories she recalled more times throughout her waking hours than she could count. There’s a lot of hurt to it, a lot of things that still ached in her heart when she remembered them. But it was the cycle her daughter came into her life, and Eda wouldn’t trade that for anything.
That didn’t make it any easier to accept, though. Death on the Boiling Isles was something that, while not quite able to be described as common, still happened far more often than anyone would like. With so many dangerous creatures and hazardous locations, the concept of meeting a premature end was one rooted in their very culture.
While the rituals to honor and send off the dead tend to vary from family to family, the beliefs regarding what comes after were reasonably more consistent. Or, at least, they were supposed to be.
What she had been raised to believe was that the dead who moved past the realm of the living would find their way to a place far beyond, to the Titan that drifts among the stars known as Galvantia the Stargazer. It was said that they lived in peace and harmony beneath the glow of nebulae, with the ability to wander across the veil and watch over their loved ones from above if they so choose.
However, the longer time had gone on, the harder it was to find a person that actually believed in the story, and the few that truly did were almost exclusively wild witches. Back when she had been a child, Galvantia was a household name, but something over the last thirty years changed that.
She didn’t know much about the latest generations, but what little she did know was that mentioning Galvantia in their company would often earn some confused and weary looks. It always struck Eda as strange, since Galvantia’s sister, Retmina the Entombed - where the wicked and vile went after death - was a common enough concept that it still came up in casual conversation all the time.
Even more confusing was the growing number of folk across the Isles who believed in a place called Heaven.
It had taken an explanation from Camila many, many years ago to understand, but a large number of humans believed in a pair of places named Heaven and Hell. The pearly gates above and the depths down below. It was weirdly similar to the concept of Galvantia and Retmina, if a bit more abstract, and Eda’s not entirely convinced that wasn’t just coincidence.
Except, now, it was like Galvantia was being replaced by its Human Realm equivalent, and she didn’t know what to make of that. She probably wouldn’t have even noticed, if she didn’t know so much about humans these cycles.
Eda could admit, despite being raised on the more traditional side of the Titan with Galvantia, she’d never actually been all that sure of what she believed. She didn’t really bother putting much thought into it all until Camila was gone.
All she knew now was that, sometimes, even when she was completely alone, it felt like there was a warm presence standing right beside her. Like a soul that wandered across the veil, she couldn’t help but note. It never failed to bring a small smile to her face, that feeling.
It wasn’t just her who noticed that feeling, either - occasionally, on quieter cycles, she could walk into the hallway to find her daughter excitedly regaling the events of the last few cycles to that one beautiful portrait of her Mami, with that same warmth buzzing in the air around her.
She would usually lean against the wall and listen along. After all, who was she to interrupt such an important conversation?
Eda blinked away from her memories, returning to the present as she suddenly found another weight pressing down on her lap. It appeared that King had climbed down from his seat and wandered over to take the free spot beside his sister.
He raised his gaze up at her owlishly, in that adorably innocent way he did whenever he wanted affection, but didn’t quite know how to ask. She huffed a quiet, fond breath, before setting the empty vial down on the floor beside her to pick up later, and beginning to pet the little demon’s skull.
He simply laid himself down against her with his eyes closed, content for the moment while he waited for his owl-shaped sister to come back to herself. She could feel him starting to purr, and a small cooing sound slipped through her lips, one that sounded far too bird-like to have been normal for a witch.
She didn’t really have a problem with that anymore. She used to hate the behaviors that carried over from the curse, to the point of intentionally suppressing them. But, after they formed their truce of sorts, and after realizing that her kids actually seemed to like those sounds, she cautiously began to embrace it.
As she looked down at her kids, she gave a wry smile at the disconnected feeling of fondness-love-admiration drifting through her, courtesy of her bodily roomate. The Owl Beast was just as enamored with their children as Eda was.
It was the first cycle of a fresh, new week, though this one in particular was fairly important. Mostly because the fourth cycle would be her daughter’s birthcycle - she was turning ten years old, which was a milestone that Eda had finally settled on a few years ago. On the sixth cycle, Luz was finally going to get to come with her to the human store and help her peddle wares to unsuspecting schmucks.
That, and, well, Eda had finally, finally caved, and was going to enroll her at Hexside the following week. Which was usually something people do far younger, but Eda hadn’t quite wanted to do it then. Or ever.
Yet, her daughter wanted to see things from a different perspective, and to socialize with other kids her age. Maybe even form herself a little group of friends. So Eda agreed. It just took her a long time to convince herself it would all be fine.
Maybe it was her own stigma against proper schooling, due to the bullying, the one-track nonsense, and her eventual wild ways after she’d dropped out. Could be a bit of unease at the idea of the Emperor’s Coven finally catching wind that she had kids. Possibly, it was just a fear of letting her daughter out of her sight for so long, without the knowledge that she’s safe at home.
Ret, maybe it was all of those combined. There were a lot of things to be worried about. But Eda had to push through all her worry. She could do that. At the end of the cycle, she would do anything for her kids.
Shaking her head lightly, Eda brought her thoughts back to the present. They didn’t have any real plans right now. With the haul that Owlbert had brought back through the portal last night sitting in the middle of the mainroom, she had decided that it was going to be a lazy cycle.
What that entailed was sorting through all the treasures and deciding what was actually worth selling or keeping, along with a healthy amount of relaxing. Probably a lot of cuddling, too, which tends to be a common theme among cycles like these.
The weather was nice outside, so she was expecting Luz to demand they head out at some point to play in the grass. Honestly, Eda was even thinking about letting the Owl Beast come out for an hour or two, let her take their daughter on a hunt for some fresh meat. Maybe even let her get some cuddle-time of her own.
The thought, a decade earlier, would’ve terrified Eda. It would have struck her frozen, to even consider such a dangerous concept. These cycles, she still felt a little apprehensive and reluctant over it, but she was willing to let it happen anyways, because the Beast loved their daughter as much as Eda did.
A quiet, soft trilling sound pulled her from her thoughts once more, and she glanced down at the smaller owl beast sitting on her lap, lifting her hand away from the petting motion she had been indulging in for the last few minutes. The two beady little eyes of her daughter opened, though now, Eda could see more of those familiar golden irises that belonged to Luz, instead of the pure black pupils that came with the curse.
“You back with me, kid?” she asked, patting the tiny owl beast’s side. King’s eyes opened lazily at the question, glancing over towards his sister.
Luz made another quiet sound, much closer to a hoot this time, as she stood herself up on all fours. She stretched again, this time simply lifting her body upwards as high as she could to pull her limbs, until she let out a small, trilling sigh.
Eda watched with a small smirk as the little owlet stepped a few paces away, just far enough for some clearance. Then, after a single second’s pause, Luz began to change.
Across her body, her brown feathers ruffled and contorted in waves, slowly receding to reveal the flesh beneath. Her limbs stretched outwards, shifting in their proportions from animalistic to personoid in a way that someone who wasn’t used to seeing the transformation might be horrified by.
She rose upwards, shifting from four paws to standing on two feet, her front legs contorting into arms as her hands regained their shape. In mere moments, the familiar baby owl had turned into an equally familiar little witchlet.
Then, of course, just as the transformation was pretty much complete, Luz lost her footing and fell backwards, landing on her behind with a breathy, “Oof.” Eda had to purse her lips to keep herself from laughing, but King held no such reservations, giggling outright.
The girl before her was disoriented, her pupils still a little larger than they should be, but at the very least, she was back to her normal, half-human self. She had a shaggy set of brown hair that matched the color of her feathers atop her head, a pair of rounded ears that came from Camila on either side of her head, and a sharp fang that she inherited from her witch blood poking out from her lips.
She was adorned in a loose Human Realm t-shirt, one of Eda’s favorites - it was black, with the image of a rising cartoon sun at the center of the chest, and the word ‘Sunshine’ across the abdomen underneath it. She was also wearing a pair of baggy, airy shorts, the kind that Cami would always wear whenever she was doing exercise, as well as a pair of white socks. It was the same outfit that Eda had watched her daughter wander off to bed with the night before.
Luz blinked a few times, trying to orient herself into being a human-witch hybrid again instead of an owl creature. She stuck her tongue out with a, “Ppbth,” causing a few stray feathers to escape her mouth and fall to the ground. Her irises shrunk a little more, reaching a natural size as her mind started to settle again.
Then, in that familiar voice Eda loves so dearly, she said, “My mouth tastes like feathers.”
By the Titan, her kid was just too adorable. Snorting laughter burst out from Eda as she shook her head, feeling so fond and so amused. “At least it doesn’t taste like a dead rodent this time,” she commented, smirking.
Luz grimaced, probably remembering how disgusting it was to cough up an entire phasmirat skeleton, which only made Eda’s smirk widen. “How’re you feelin’, sunshine?” Eda continued.
Quietly humming for a moment, Luz slightly tilted her head to the side in the same way her owl form would. “Better,” she settled on, before adding, “I think,” a second later. Her gaze flicked up to the fridge, and she bit her lower lip a little. Then, she turned back towards Eda. “I still really wanna go grab that keychain. That’s fine, right?”
A lot of behaviors tended to bleed over, be it from Eda’s curse or Luz’s status as a curseborn. Eda herself had a very similar problem with being distracted by shiny things, no matter how long it had been since she shifted between forms.
“Eh,” Eda replied, shrugging her shoulders lightly. “Better than tryin’ to eat it.” She gestured with her free hand, swirling her finger around with just enough magic to make a small shimmer in the air. “You can get it.”
It was an invitation to do a little practice, and Luz soaked it in with an excited gleam coming to her eyes.
Because of Luz’s growth in magic being stunted by biological problems, they’ve found that training like this was important. Eda had never really considered how a mixture between a human and a cursed witch might affect her daughter until the baby was in her arms.
She still wasn’t entirely sure of all the differences - there was a decent amount of information on the effects of being a curseborn, but research on human-witch hybrid children who were also a curseborn was completely nonexistent, who would’ve guessed - but this was one of them.
All of the witches in the Boiling Isles have bile sacs attached to their hearts. They siphoned energy from various sources and converted it into the four spell phlegms, which then combined inside the main chamber of the sac to form the mixture known as magic bile. That bile was what witches used to cast spells.
The bile sac was meant to grow larger right alongside the witchling’s heart as they aged. In Luz’s case, her abnormal anatomy and curseborn status had led to a different situation.
Again, Eda wasn’t all that sure on the specifics. Most of what she actually did know was what their family healer - a borderline wild witch named Riviness Styx, who only joined the Healing Coven so they could provide medical assistance to everyone equally and without scrutiny, coven sigil or not - was able to tell them. But, even then, the majority of that was just educated guesswork.
She was pretty sure it just boiled down to a bad combination of human genetics and being a curseborn. Her lungs were closer to the size of a human’s, significantly larger than a witch’s tends to be, which means she tends to have more stamina than the average witch. However, this had the drawback of leaving less room for a bile sac, partially stunting its growth.
If it were just that, they could’ve easily worked around it. Her bile sac would’ve eventually developed enough to match a witch’s, if on the weaker end. But, when combined with being born from a curse that consumed and weakened magic, her bile sac just hadn’t been able to develop properly. In fact, her bile sac was considered a full-blown disability, at least by Demon Realm standards.
Their countermeasure to this had been to practice whenever they could, attempting to make Luz’s magic usage as efficient and long-lasting as possible. This usually entailed small magical challenges to complete, which helped acclimate Luz’s body further to using magic.
It didn’t lead to any dramatic overnight improvements, as such drastic physical changes were literally impossible. But, already, Luz had been slowly getting better and better, increasing the range of her limited magic capabilities. Her improvement was part of the reason why Eda actually agreed to the whole Hexside enrollment thing.
Her son readjusted himself down on her lap, shifting so that he could watch, as he had once described it, the “pretty circle lights.” Luz took a deep breath, seemingly steeling herself a little and preparing to perform what she’s practiced, before bringing her right hand forwards.
The important thing about something like a levitation spell was that you need to have a general sense of where the object you plan to grab was located. Right now, Eda noted, Luz was likely aware of exactly where she dropped the golden chain, even without seeing it.
The other important factor in a spell was the intent, and the intention was, obviously, to bring the chain to her. Both were instinctual to witches, and that was no different for Luz, no matter how much her abilities might be reduced by biological factors.
Determination etched upon her face, Luz drew a circle with her index finger, the spell shimmering a brilliant yellow hue. With a flash, the circle dissipated, and magic of the same color coalesced atop the fridge. Eda watched with a proud smile as the golden chain rose up, then floated steadily towards them.
As it drew closer, Luz reached forward, clasping the gilded chain in her hand while the magic around it dissipated into the air. She took another breath, this one quieter, only sounding slightly winded at the exertion such a small spell had required. Which may have sounded bad, but it was actually a significant improvement from the first time she’d tried to lift something with a spell circle.
Her pupils dilated a little bit as she blinked at the chain, enamored with the way the light bounced from the gold. “It’s just so shiny, Mamá,” she said suddenly, wide eyes flicking up to her mother just in time to see Eda’s lips quirk up into a smile. “How am I supposed to not want it?” Luz shook it a little, the interlocked chains clinking together. “Why do humans have so many shiny things?”
Eda huffed out an amused breath through her nose, shaking her head slightly. “Preachin’ to the preacher, kid,” she said. That was the saying, right? Cami had said it before. It might’ve been to the choir?
But if the reason for the statement was to imply that you were saying something to someone who’s been saying the same thing for ages, wouldn’t that imply that the choir was preaching? Don’t they just do, like, background singing, or something?
Not that any of that mattered, at the moment. There’s still an overarching problem of Eda not setting the damn alarm, which had left the morning far more complicated than it needed to be. She pursed her lips at that thought. She seriously needed to figure out a better system of some kind, because this was the third time in a two-month period that she’d forgotten to brew the elixir on time.
Clearing her throat, she averted her gaze nervously when her daughter glanced over. “Sorry for, uh, waking up so late,” she apologized.
“It’s okay!” was the immediate reply, without even a single second of hesitation. When Eda’s gaze shifted back, Luz was shaking her head, a wide grin still on her face, like none of it really bothered her. It probably didn’t, and trying to make her believe that Eda was actually at fault would be a losing battle.
Eda wished she could have that level of unflappability. Luz was a stubborn little owlet after her own heart.
“I think King stopped me from, uh, going out to hunt or something.” Luz continued, giving a small, bashful shrug as her smile turned sheepish. “I don’t really remember too well right now? Everything’s kinda…” she trailed off, before letting herself fall backwards, laying flat on the ground. She threw both arms up towards the ceiling, and completed the statement with a drawn out, “Bleeegh.”
Her son shifted a little on her lap, which drew her gaze down as she stopped petting. Now that he wasn’t trapped by affection, he gave a large yawn, and lazily stretched his limbs out.
Once he’d settled down, he opened his eyes, both of those magenta irises trailing upwards to meet her gaze. “I gived sis left-over meats an’ shiny while I waited for you,” he informed her proudly.
Mm, so he had been the one to give her the keychain. Honestly, she was glad he did. She would’ve been far more distraught if she’d had to track her daughter down because the little owl decided she needed to go on a hunt again.
“Thanks for that,” she told her son warmly, scratching the back of his neck and giving a soft snort when he went limp. “Saved me a real hassle.” King let out his own little purr again, the high-pitched sound vibrating from somewhere within his chest, and his tail began to flick back and forth. Luz let out a small giggle-slash-coo at how adorable her little brother was being.
Eda’s gaze shifted upwards, first towards her daughter who met her gaze with a silent blink, then over towards the kitchen proper. She originally had started down the stairs intent on making breakfast, before the clattering of trinkets falling off the fridge and her son calling for her had brought on a different morning activity.
With a smirk, she said, “Now, I’m not against a cuddle pile, but how about we actually eat some real food, since we’re all up and active?” She began to rise, lifting King up with her as she went.
At first, he grumbled at the loss of his living mattress, but it quickly changed to a happy little “Weh!” when she shifted to keep holding him with one arm. With her free hand, she made sure to snag the discarded vial to be thoroughly sanitized for reuse later. Glassware was too damn expensive to waste.
Luz began to rise as well, a thoughtful expression dawning across her face as she did so. Her head tilted to the side again, in that incredibly adorable way that made Eda just want to wrap her arms around her kid forever. “...Could we have flatcakes?” she proposed with a hopeful smile.
The considering expression that dawned on her face was mostly for show, already content with the idea of making flatcakes. She could go for some fluffy dough cakes this morning, after all the excitement earlier. Her daughter knew it, too, because the kid huffed dramatically as soon as she noticed.
With a chuckle, Eda gave in, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “Sure, haven’t made those in a few cycles.” She gave an amused smirk at the way her daughter whopped in happiness, while her son gave a small cheer from her arms. Honestly, the two of them were simply too adorable for this world sometimes.
Once they’d settled a little - meaning Luz was still bouncing in place, but not loudly cheering - she asked, “Side of griffin eggs n’ bacon?” She figured going with the classics would be fine.
Luz couldn’t seem to voice her agreement fast enough. “Mmhmm!” she hummed, a toothy grin appearing on her face that let all four of her fangs show.
From his spot in his mother’s arms, her son added his own little, “Uh-huh!” in answer, nodding hard enough to make his whole little body shift. She gave another bout of fond laughter, interspersed with snorts. Then, she brushed her dress off, placed a kiss on the top of her son’s skull, and turned towards the kitchen counter.
It was all just so thrilling! The way the wind rushed past her, how it ruffled across her plumage in waves, with adrenaline coursing through her veins that gave her a spike of endurance. Her blood was pumping as she sprinted through the forest, making her feel so excited and alive.
It went beyond just being a game, and became something more, something wonderful. She chuffed out a breathless laugh at the thought, absently leaping right over a fallen log as if it was nothing but a miniscule bump.
She absolutely loved going on these hunts! She loved chasing prey, loved the way it made her feel, loved everything about it! She was so, so grateful that Mamá was willing not just to let Luz do this, but also, to let herself do this.
From when she was really, really young, she knew that Mamá’s curse worked differently from Luz’s abilities. For Mamá, it was like two people fighting each other all the time, trying to be the one who gets to control a single body. It was a little hard for her to understand completely, since that wasn’t how it worked for Luz - she was a curseborn!
She wasn’t really cursed, even if she had a lot of attributes that were passed down from the curse. For her, she was always just herself, no matter what, even if she forgot a lot of stuff and felt overwhelmed by instinct whenever she didn’t drink her elixir in the morning.
Usually, because she likes to sleep in her other form, she’d wake up sometimes and think a lot of weird things! Like how she needed to go hunt for food even though there was breakfast in the kitchen, or how she wanted to be in a high up spot to hoard her shinies.
Fighting for control of your own body? That sounded a lot worse, so she got why Mamá took so long to settle things with the Owl Beast.
Luz didn’t know exactly when that happened, or what they actually spoke about. But she did know that, instead of drinking down entire bottles of the elixir each morning, Mamá only sipped away at half of it, and almost every cycle, she’d let the curse come out.
But Owl Mamá - which was what Luz and King had started calling the Owl Beast! - didn’t scratch things up like she used to, or scare anyone. Except for the mean coven scouts that tried to stalk them.
Owl Mamá was a lot like Mamá. She was loving, and caring, and always happy to play or cuddle with Luz and King! So Mamá started letting Owl Mamá out more and more, sometimes during the light, sometimes through the night, and Luz was very happy about that!
She remembered when she finally convinced her mom to let her tag along on hunts - which her Owl Mamá had been going on for months to bring back large prey, for Mamá to cook into multiple meals and sell the extra stuff at the market.
At first, her mom was reluctant, saying she wasn’t that sure about it, but Luz had argued that she wasn’t ever going to stop being a curseborn. Meaning she’ll need to go on her own hunts somecycle to get food.
Luz thought Owl Mamá might’ve agreed with that or something, because after a few moments of silence, Mamá just sighed and said it was okay. Luz had been participating in them ever since! That was maybe four years ago now? Not all that long before they found King, actually.
Through the foliage ahead, she spotted a glint reflecting off the Silverwreath’s pelt as it darted through a stream of sunlight breaking between the leaves. She wasn’t stopped for a single moment by the bushes and branches that blocked her path, darting around and between each of the obstacles with the ease of a natural born hunter.
With a huffing breath, she shaved off some distance between her and her prey by jumping through the center of a massive tree that split off into two trunks, using her smaller size to her advantage. She let out a breathy giggle when, a few seconds later, she heard a thunderous crash ring out behind her, as Owl Mamá knocked the tree over entirely.
When there was another glimmer of silver shining just ahead, Luz didn’t hesitate, or really consider what she was planning to do at all. She leaped to the left first, twisting herself so her legs were facing the tree she’d just jumped towards, before using that trunk as a springboard to catapult herself forward at a surprisingly high speed.
She didn’t even have enough time to be startled by the unexpected momentum, because she practically crashed right into the Silverwreath, and was more focused on latching on.
It let out a startled, gritty squeal as her claws dug into the side of its fur. After only a moment, she spotted the weak point. It was a patch on the back of the neck, where the silver pelt was the thinnest, and though she didn’t entirely understand it, she knew that grabbing it would completely stop them from moving!
She lunged, her teeth sinking right into the flesh, and the Silverwreath let out a monstrous roar, losing its footing and crashing to the ground. It writhed beneath her locked jaw, but even with its larger size, her grip on the weak spot had it completely trapped.
Then Luz yanked, and in a display that would’ve had King cheering if he and Owl Mamá arrived just a little bit sooner, she tore off the chunk of flesh she’d bitten down on.
The beast dropped limp, and the bloody flesh in Luz’s jaw fell onto the carpet of grass beneath her.
She was left heavily panting, huffing tired breaths while her limbs trembled with excess adrenaline. The tiny clearing she was standing in was deathly silent compared to the roaring of the wind during the chase, even if there were chirping birds and buzzing insects. It took a couple of moments for it to settle in that she’d actually gotten her prey.
Her wide eyes flicked down at the Silverwreath on the ground in disbelief. She… she got her prey. She’d taken a whole Silverwreath down, all by herself! She couldn’t believe it!
When Owl Mamá finally came crashing into the clearing a few seconds later, fangs bared in a snarl, she froze in her advance. Then, she stared at the sight before her, looking baffled.
Luz looked up at her and gave a grin with fangs, blood dripping down her chin in victory. The Silverwreath laid on the ground between them, its pelt shining as it remained crumpled under the sunlight, though it was stained red with blood now.
After a short moment of shocked silence, King, who had been riding along on Mamá’s back, stood up as tall as a probably four-year-old demon could, and loudly declared, “Th’ hunt is won! Vic-tory!!”
Their Owl Mamá let out a huffing laugh, walking up towards Luz and her catch. She paced around the still beast, sniffing for a moment to make sure it was actually dead, before turning to Luz and licking down the feathers that had been disturbed during the chase as a form of proud kisses.
It made Luz purr in pride and happiness. She took the prey down, all on her own! A whole Silverwreath! It wasn’t the first hunt she’d managed to succeed at alone, but it was by far the largest and most impressive!
Silverwreath were some of the best animals to get in a hunt, too! Not only because their pelt was made from real, pure silver - though, that was definitely one of her mom’s favorite things about them, considering how much the silver was worth at the market.
The real reason they were so good, from what Mamá had told her, was because almost every single one of their organs could be eaten if they were prepared right! That made them super useful, because it meant you didn’t have to waste any meat at all.
Mamá said she learned to cook as much of the animal as you could when she was younger, and Luz thought it might’ve been because her mom ran away from home when she was really young (which Mamá didn’t like to talk about all that much). She had told Luz that Silverwreath were good for almost everything when it came to cooking!
Luz had been trying to learn some cooking by helping Mamá out in the kitchen, so she was really excited to see how her mom prepared all the parts of the Silverwreath when they got it back home.
Luz walked in circles a few times, trying her hardest to work off the excessive adrenaline-fueled excitement she was still feeling. While she was doing that, Owl Mamá wandered around the fresh meat, eyeing it. After a moment, she leaned down, grabbing the smaller creature with her large fangs in about the same place Luz had torn its flesh.
With a huff, Owl Mamá rose and began to walk back down the path through the forest they’d carved during the hunt. Luz followed right alongside, happy to have a restful walk after all the intense sprinting she’d done.
As she walked beside her Owl Mamá, she purposefully brushed herself against the larger beast’s leg in a show of affection, purring loudly. It didn’t really matter if they were two different people or not, Mamá would always be Mamá to her, and she loved her mom! Owl Mamá released a quiet huff that sounded a bit amused.
When Luz angled her head upwards to smile at her, she spotted her brother peering over the side of Mamá’s wing, looking down at her. Their gazes met, and he waved happily. She grinned back at him, thankful that she still had a mouth to do things like that in this form. His little giggle was adorable, like a cute, maniacal cackle. Her family was the best! She loved them all so, so much!
The Owl House had always been really interesting to Luz, and that wasn’t just because it was where she spent pretty much all of her time! She was reminded of that interest as their family approached the door, and Hooty perked up, though he stayed in place instead of stretching out to meet them this time.
“Hello, hoot!” he said, excited. Then he seemed to spot the Silverwreath. “Ooh, dinner’s gonna be suuuuuper good, I can already tell! Let me get the door for you!” As he spoke, he was rotating in place, completing a full rotation by the end of his sentence.
Then, his jaw unhinged, opening to encompass the door. Only, it didn’t stop at the door frame, continuing to stretch larger and larger, until suddenly, the door to the mainroom was almost twice the size it used to be. It was big enough for Owl Mamá and their catch of the hunt to fit through without squeezing like she normally would.
It wasn’t just the front door that could do that, either - after Luz entered the house, and King had jumped down from off their mom’s back, she watched as Mamá took the Silverwreath through the doorway that led into the hallway, which was now much larger than normal.
The door into the kitchen had also moved from its place - which was normally further down the hall, sitting between the mainroom and study - and was now directly across from the mainroom door. It was like a second hallway, letting Owl Mamá go straight across into the kitchen!
She could fit through the halls and doors normally, but not without a lot of extra effort. The changes to the house just made it way easier.
For Luz, it was a pretty normal thing, the way the house just seemed to rearrange itself for them whenever it suited the moment. She thought it was a combination of wards, enchantments, and how weirdly powerful Hooty was compared to other house demons. As far as she knew, most other houses can’t shift themselves around in weird ways like that.
Well, maybe they could? She hadn’t really been to a lot of different places, but she met the house demon attached to the Bonesborough Medical Facility, when she went to go get her immunities with Mx. Styx!
They were a spider demon about the size of a houndling, with one of their legs replaced by an abomaton prosthetic. Unlike Hooty, they weren’t obviously attached to the building by a physical connection, but she was preeeetty sure they could walk straight through the walls.
It only took a few moments for Owl Mamá to finish setting the Silverwreath down in the kitchen for later, and when she came back, she looked at the two of them with a tilted head.
King had collapsed against Luz’s side as if she was a pillow, ready to take his midcycle nap after so much excitement, and Luz was absolutely okay with this. She had given into one of her more animalistic urges, and began soothing down his ruffled fur with her tongue.
Luz perked up at the sound of her mom giving a quiet, chuffing laugh as she saw the two of them. She excitedly stood up to follow Owl Mamá up to the nest. King gave a small grumble at the loss of his sleeping spot, so she picked him up by the scruff of his neck with practiced ease.
He immediately went right back to sleep, like he usually did whenever he was weightless, and Luz smiled as their Owl Mamá cooed at them both.
Taking naps and sleeping in the nest with Owl Mamá was something that was actually still kind of new. About a year, she thought, but it was a little hard to remember. Luz wasn’t really sure why her mom caved so quickly when she asked, but she liked to think it was because Mamá was starting to trust her other half a bit more!
Luz had asked King about it, and the two of them had agreed it was a good idea. They’d even made a whole presentation and everything, ready to defend their clearly correct point of view, but when they asked, she just said yes. Just like that!
It kinda threw Luz off for a minute, but she refused to complain about it, even if it did suck that they didn’t get to show off their really cool presentation.
Owl Mamá was just so big, and fluffy, and warm! It made for a really good napping and sleeping spot, cuddled underneath the protective embrace of her Mamá’s wing, laying down in her much larger nest.
Turning around, Owl Mamá headed down the hallway and up the stairwell at the end, toward the upper floors. Luz followed behind in a trot, carrying her snoring brother as carefully as she could. She’d only done this a few times after their hunts, usually waiting until the night to cuddle with her Owl Mamá, but she was starting to love this little ritual!
Most people might think that a nest built from wood scraps and sticks was uncomfortable. But, then again, Luz didn’t really know. She didn’t have any friends to ask about it - that was going to change soon, since Mamá was going to enroll her in Hexside after her birthcycle! - but she didn’t think other people sleep in nests, unless the nests were made out of blankets and pillows.
Not to say that those weren’t included in Mamá’s nest, there were a lot of blankets and pillows at the bottom that she and King have brought in over time. But the nest was still an actual nest, made of sticks and stuff.
Luz had never really minded either way, though! Nests were super comfortable, and she felt her absolute safest curled up inside a bowl of sticks and twigs that she or her Mamá built. The blankets were mostly just for cushioning, since the bottom could be a bit pokey.
She did have her own nest in her room, and she was really proud of it since she built it all by herself, but a lot of the time, she and King just sneak into Mamá’s nest to lay down with her.
Their mom always groaned about having her valuable nest overtaken by little heathens, but Luz knew she didn’t mean it! It was part of why they kept doing it - her Mamá always seems really happy when they join her in her nest.
When her family finally arrived in Mamá’s room, Luz darted straight toward the nest. There, she carefully set her brother down, who grumbled something unintelligible as he shifted around to find a comfortable spot.
She hopped over the edge of the nest and began pacing around him for just a moment, before kneading the blankets slightly and settling down. She ended up curled around King protectively, with one of her wings extended over him like a blanket. He borrowed his skull under her neck, and she breathed a small chuckle at how cute it was.
Once the two of them were settled, and after she’d checked the area to make sure everything was fine and safe, Owl Mamá joined in. She did something similar to what Luz had done, but with less circling and more shifting in place before she lowered herself down. When she was comfortable and carefully settled beside Luz and King, she extended her much larger wing out, covering both of them.
Under the cover of the fluffy appendage, which was incredibly warm and comfortable, Luz pressed herself into the larger Owl Beast’s side, and purred. She received a much deeper and louder purr in response from her mom, while King began to give his own extra adorable high-pitched purr subconsciously.
When Luz let her eyes fall shut, she realized that she felt content. She was encased in the warmth of a feathery blanket, surrounded by the ones she loves the most, and still riding on that feeling of pride from taking down this cycle’s hunt all by herself! She kept purring, even as she slipped away into dreams.
She’d still be purring, with a smile on her face, when she woke up an hour or so later to the sounds of cupboards being rummaged through all the way down in the kitchen.
She was humming a familiar tune to herself as she worked, skinning away the pelt off the Silverwreath, which had been unceremoniously left sitting in the center of the kitchen by her bodily roomate. It was the first step in the butchering process, and she had laid out some fabrics that were enchanted with anti-absorption across the ground to stop the blood from spilling into the cracks between the floorboards.
As she worked, she couldn't help but consider the memories she’d gotten to watch from the back of her mind, and what they all meant. They left a lot for her to think about.
Ever since she and birdbrain had started seeing at least somewhat eye-to-eye regarding their whole shared body situation they had been stuck with, Eda stopped blacking out entirely when she transformed.
She wasn’t sure if the state she entered could still be considered a conscious one, exactly, but it was similar to the one that the Owl Beast was in most of the time. Settled in the back of their shared mind, dormant, not in control, but still able to communicate, see, and hear. Sort of like a very intense out-of-body experience.
Everything felt muted and numb, like watching through a hazy crystal ball with weak reception. Far from comfortable, but it was something, at least. It made her feel all the more guilty, realizing the Owl Beast felt that way almost all the time.
She didn’t really understand how it worked all that well, but it was better than having no memory whatsoever, so she was alright with it. At least it was something. But, anyway, the point was, through some convoluted and overly-complex curse shenanigans, she had seen the whole hunt that happened earlier in the afternoon.
It was just, Titan almighty, Luz had managed to take this thing down all on her own? Luz wasn’t actually that small, she was well aware - her Owl Beast form was a pretty decent size, about the size of a twelve-year-old hound demon, and could be an absolute force to be reckoned with when it came down to it - but the amount of skill and precision needed to land on the weak spot and tear it out was incredibly impressive.
Like a young kitten, the Silverwreath would fall completely limp if you clamped down on a specific area on the back of the neck, which had a bundle of nerves running through it.
It made the ferocious beast easy prey, if you could reach that spot. Most couldn’t. Eda was so damn proud of her daughter for managing that. Especially considering the amount of meat they have from just one kill, and the amount of snails they’ll earn off the pelt.
When Eda was striking it out on her own, a freshly bruised runaway who had a demon writing inside of her, she learned a lot. Even well before her mentor, Geneva, had entered the picture to teach her wild magic. Survival was paramount, and to stay alive, you couldn’t rely on the fact that food was always going to be available to you.
So, she’d learned to savor more than just the cuts of meat that everyone was used to eating. She would consume as much of the animal as she could, finding different ways to cook each organ that kept it all enticing to eat. Seasonings became her best friend for a good long while.
Eventually, when she’d run into her relationship with the woman who would later become her lifebound, she kept up the habit, and Camila had just gone with it. In fact, she’d even taught Eda some of the things she knew about cooking. Little fifteen-year-old Eda would be absolutely shocked to see just how much of a good cook she’d become over the years.
Her daughter was interested in learning to cook, too. The kid had been helping her in the kitchen for a while now, asking questions about different utensils and tools in an attempt to understand. It was pretty important for her to know how to actually prepare food, though it was still a bit too early to have her handle meals on her own.
It was also just plain adorable. Eda would often rattle off directions aloud, mostly so that she could get them ingrained in her head since that was just how her mind operated, but also so that Luz could get a sense of what was going on. Her daughter would always sport this little look of undivided attention that was so unfairly cute.
Eda was so settled into her rhythm and lost in her thoughts, going through the motions of slicing away at the bounty they’d gotten from the hunt, that she didn’t quite realize when the background noise just down the hall had started. It wasn’t until she had finished clearing off one of the last few segments of the animal’s hide from flesh that a light clunking sound pulled her from her reverie.
She glanced towards the door, ears flicking as she listened more intently, and she could make out the familiar voices of her kids from somewhere down the hall, accompanied by the sound of things being shifted around. It looked like the two of them had finally finished with their midcycle nap.
She huffed a fond breath, and set the carcass down, ready to take a short break and check in on her kids. They were probably in the mainroom, sorting through the pile of Human Realm trinkets for things they wanted to keep or sell.
When she got there, she leaned against the doorframe, right shoulder pressed to the wall and her arms crossed. She caught the tail end of her son asking something to his sister. “...You th’most excited ‘bout?” He was sitting beside Luz, analyzing a little bottle that seemed worthless.
Her daughter, who had been comparing two differently colored spools of yarn that she set down at her side, lifted a finger to her chin in thought, humming a little “Hmm…” as she pondered the answer. After a moment, her eyes lit up. “Getting to make friends!” she declared.
Ah, they were talking about Luz enrolling in Hexside, then. A small smile carved its way onto Eda’s face. She knew her little girl was going to be an absolute social butterfly in that school, no matter how reluctant and afraid Eda felt about letting her attend.
“I know there’s a lot of people on the scroll, but I can’t wait to have an actual group of friends!” Luz explained. Then, she paused, turned, and blinked at Eda in surprise. “Oh, hola Mamá! (hello Mama!)”
Eda smiled as her gaze met her daughter’s golden eyes. She kicked herself off the doorway, uncrossing her arms as she approached. “Hey, sunshine,” she greeted, ruffling the girl’s hair and huffing a laugh at the way she bumped into her hand like a little kitten.
Then she smirked, and brushed a hand across the crest of King’s skull, adding, “and hello to you too, y’little cutie.” King squeaked, then grumbled something about not being cute, which she promptly ignored, because it was completely wrong.
She eyed the space between the two, where a pair of black bags from the Human Realm sat. One held things that looked valuable, but the kids hadn’t been interested in keeping, and would likely be sold at her store. The other was full of junk that all looked worthless, even to Eda, and a not insignificant amount of the things she sold actually were genuine trash.
On each of her kids’ opposite sides, there was another pile, which seemed to be what they wanted to keep for themselves. “Find anything good yet, kiddos?”
“Uhm…” the young owlet started, turning to her right to sort through her keep pile. With a small noise of victory, she extracted a black bit of fabric, revealing it to be a shirt. “King found this super-duper amazing shirt that has some really strange looking werehounds on it,” she explained, grasping the article of clothing by the arms and flaring it out to show off the design. “But, uhm, they’re gray instead of brown? They don’ look like the dogs we saw at Mami’s work, either.”
Both she and her daughter had visited the veterinarian clinic several times over the years. It was, in part, because Eda wanted Luz to have at least some kind of connection to the mother she never met, but it was also because the animals there were all adorable and friendly. Usually. The dogs in particular seemed to really like Luz.
They looked similar to werehounds - which were the most common type of hound demon, with the original Isles Hound having become so rare that most people forget it existed - but were far less mangey, significantly more common, and actually domesticated.
Honestly, they looked more like Houndlings, but lacked the intelligence that the species had gained. The creatures on the shirt, though, certainly did look more like hounds than dogs tended to. What were they?
As Eda studied the design, something clicked in her head, a half-remembered memory. “Ah, lemme see that, kiddo,” she prompted. Her daughter obediently offered the shirt over, which Eda took by the shoulders and held out in front of her, squinting as she looked over the design.
Along the bottom of the design, there were five of the hound-like creatures, all standing amongst a patch of what seemed to be snow. In the center of the design was a much larger depiction of the animal, looking forwards with its head to the right side of the shirt.
Behind it on the left was another hound creature, this one appearing to be howling with a blue moon behind its head. It was honestly a pretty cool design, and she could see why Luz had thrown this in her personal keep pile.
After a moment or two of studying it, the memory ignited, slotting into place. Titan, it had been over two decades ago, before they even started dating, but Camila had shown her a picture of these creatures and explained them with all the enthusiasm of a future veterinarian.
“Right, I remember these,” she said, grinning at the way her daughter’s face lit up in excitement. She carefully avoided thinking about the longing ache in her heart that always came bundled up with Cami’s memory. “You weren’t too far off with the Human Realm dog guess. These are what came before those, I’m pretty sure.”
Then she paused, and thought that over. “Maybe,” she hedged. “Your Mami ranted to me about them at some point, but it was a really long time ago.” Luz let out a little giggle.
Eda turned the shirt around, now showing it to her kids, and began to explain. “They’re called wolves. They’re a lot like the werehounds, being more wild than dogs, and living out in the wilderness. But they don’t change form with the moon cycle.” She tapped at the large wolf in the center of the shirt. “They always look like this.”
Her daughter let out a breathless little “Woah…” at the new information, while her son tilted his head in curiosity, his tail wagging. The two of them loved learning about new things. It was a pretty major part of the reason Luz pushed so hard to enroll at Hexside.
Honestly, how’d she end up with two kids who were such little academic nerds? She pointedly ignored the fact that she had been top of her track back in Hexside for the exact same reason.
She smiled, leaning over towards her son and planting a light kiss on his bony forehead. “Good find, King,” she said, and she grinned at the way he immediately began purring. That meant he was damn proud of himself, like he should be. Then she turned back to her daughter, asking, “What else ya got there, sweetheart?”
Quickly turning back to the small pile, Luz began to dig through it, looking at her keeps. While her daughter was distracted with the task, she watched in amusement as her son critically analyzed what appeared to be a very crushed aluminum can that humans drink their sugary sodas out of.
He twisted it in his paws carefully, eyes scraping over every inch, before he shook his head somberly and put it in the useless-junk bag. She had to bite down on her lip with her gilded fang to stop herself from breaking into hysterics at the overly serious expression.
She glanced back towards her daughter, just in time to see the young girl’s hand emerge from the pile with something that glinted silver in her palm.
“I found these hoops,” Luz explained, pointing at them with her other hand and looking confused. “They’re way too small to be rings, though! I can’t fit them on my fingers.” She pouted at the admission, poking lightly at the small trinkets as if they would activate or do something special.
Which was fair. Rings in the Demon Realm, unlike their bland and boring Human Realm counterparts, tended to have power imbued within them, with gems on the crests to focus that magical energy. From what Camila told her about Human Realm rings, the ones on that end only had gems to make them look fancy. Waste of a perfectly good gemstone, she thought, but humans were weird like that.
King turned to his sister, looking at the tiny rings for a moment, before grabbing one and shoving it onto the end of one of his tiny claws. “They fit ‘round my fingies!” he declared with all the pride that a four-year-old could have.
For a short moment, Luz gave a rather dramatic pout, one that was far from serious. It was entirely for show - the look faded almost instantly, and then she was grinning again like the little sunshine she was. “That’s ‘cause you’re tiny,” she told him in earnest.
“Hey!” her son protested, indignant. He narrowed his eyes at his sister, pointing the same finger that he’d placed the silver ring on at her accusingly. “‘M a per-fect size demon king!”
Eda’s hand was pressed against her mouth, though she wasn’t sure if it was to stop herself from cooing or laughing. Probably both.
“Yes you are!” Luz proclaimed, before lovingly wrapping both her arms around her brother and pulling him into a hug with a purr erupting in her chest. Unable to resist cuddles and purrs, King followed with his own high-pitched purr right after. Eda just shook her head fondly at the two little troublemakers.
There was a time when she hadn’t quite known what a hug was. Although, back when she first learned about them, she hadn’t been sure if that was because they simply weren’t a thing in the Demon Realm, or if it was just a side-effect of how isolated she’d been as an outlawed wild witch who lived in the forests. Camila had been the one to teach her, always so willing to hand out her affection without a care in the world.
Luz was the exact same, always so physically affectionate. Hugs were a staple of the Owl House, between forehead kisses and preening-slash-ruffling hair. Eventually, when Luz and Eda finally learned that hugs actually weren’t a thing in the Demon Realm, it became Luz’s personal mission to offer hugs as often as she possibly could.
It was endearing, especially when she would stubbornly hug everyone she knew. Like Alliston’s son, Morton, or the tailor they went to whenever Luz needed new clothes, Prim.
When it seemed like the two of her kids had finished their little back and forth, Eda reached forward, taking the one little silver hoop off of King’s finger, and nabbing the other from Luz’s hand. She’d recognized what they were pretty early on into the conversation.
“Mm,” she hummed, “that’s ‘cause they’re not really rings you put on fingers. They’re earrings.” When she received a twin pair of confused looks, she repeated the word, spacing the syllables out. “Ear-rings.”
“Ear rings?” King repeated curiously. Despite the fact that he was literally four - or somewhere close to that, at least, she wasn’t actually sure - he seemed to be able to extrapolate a meaning from that just fine, like the smart little furball he was.
That didn’t dispel his confusion, though. He looked at the little hoops in Eda’s palm, then up to her ears, then back down to the earrings, before he finally looked at her with a tilted head. “How d’you put rings on ears?”
She figured that she’d have to explain this all somecycle, but honestly, she’d thought it was her daughter who would prompt the conversation, not King. He couldn’t even wear earrings! Not the traditional way, at least.
She wondered, though, glancing up at his remaining horn, if he would end up wanting a piercing there, or maybe one on his snout. Questions for an Eda in a few years, she quickly decided.
“Basically, people will get little holes poked into their ears,” she began, using her free hand to point at the spot on her own ear that she’d gotten pierced, just beneath the opening. “About right here. They call that a piercing. Loop something through the hole, like those little hoops you got, and you’re wearin’ them.” She shrugged her shoulders lightly. “It looks pretty.”
She still had the two golden earrings from all those years ago, tucked somewhere in her jewelry cabinet, where Camila had left them the morning her water broke. They’d been Eda’s originally, the set she bought when she was a highschool runaway learning wild magic, and she wore them all through her young adulthood. They’d seen her through Raine’s break-up, through the many failed hookups that came afterwards, and into her relationship with Cami.
Those earrings had ended up being part of her proposal, her offering, and the one she received in return was still strung around her neck to this cycle. She fiddled with that golden locket absently, smiling at the distant memories. She’d always been too scared to wear the earrings again, even though such a thing was common on the Isles when it came to widowed partners. It almost felt like disturbing a grave.
Luz blinked. Then she nodded, as if this made perfect sense, giving a little, “Ooh,” of understanding. She poked at her own, human-like ears, which were much smaller than the average witch’s due to their roundness. The lobes of skin under the opening were a lot larger, though. Her brow scrunched up as she thought about it. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
“Eh, yeah, a little bit,” Eda told her honestly, tilting her hand back and forth in an indecisive motion. “That’s why most places won’t poke ‘em without parent permission before you’re, uh, seventeen or eighteen, I think it was. Counts as body modification, y’know? It’s been a while since I had it done, mine’s all healed over.”
Now that she thought about it all, though, she was feeling a little less terrified about putting those old earrings back on. Still apprehensive, but she liked the idea of carrying a part of Camila around - she never wore the locket to the market, out of fear that it could get lost in the chaos she causes, but earrings were a bit harder to lose like that. With how calm things have been for the last few years, she wondered if it was finally a good time to get her ears pierced again.
She smiled slightly at her thoughts. “Think I might do it again soon, though,” she mused aloud. “I’ve been wantin’ to change my look a little.” She didn’t mention the significance behind earrings - and jewelry in general - just yet. Her kids were a little too young to understand it either way.
For a quiet moment, Eda was scrutinized by her daughter’s gaze, a pair of narrowed eyes and a scrunched brow directed at her as if she was a book to be read.
Eda narrowed her eyes right back at her daughter, cocking an eyebrow in return. King had abandoned the conversation a minute ago, and turned around to go through the larger pile again, his tail wagging behind him as he searched for treasure.
After a moment, Luz seemed to find whatever she was looking for, because her expression smoothed out, and her head twitched to the side slightly. “That’s weird,” the little owlet decided, a child-like certainty lacing her voice.
A snort escaped from Eda’s nose, and she shook her head, exasperated. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about her daughter wanting earrings for a little while longer. Maybe the kid’ll change her tune when she turns thirteen. Eda remembers running her- running Gwendolyn up the wall with how much she wanted to get her ears pierced when she was a pre-teen.
“Kid, it’s fashion,” she said, twirling her wrist in a meaningless gesture. “It rarely makes sense.”
For a moment, her little hatchling’s face scrunched up again, this time in consideration. It had no right to be as cute as it was. “Mmm, okay,” she agreed, a small shrug belaying the fact that the answer was good enough.
“Either way,” Eda circled back, “that was a great find, sunshine.” Sure, they’re just normal earrings, nothing different from a pair that you could buy from a Jewler in the Boiling Isles, but there’s a sense of novelty to them. Eda slipped them into her pocket, deciding she’ll try them on when she gets her ears pierced again.
She’s not sure why Luz decided to keep them in the first place, instead of throwing them in the bag of items she’ll sell at her store, but hey, she wasn’t gonna turn down perfectly good jewelry. She reached a hand out and ruffled her daughter’s hair, smiling at the giggle it earned her.
Luz’s smile was bright and beaming, when she turned her gaze up towards Eda. “Thanks, Mamá!” she said. The audible purring that escaped her chest while she shoved her head into Eda’s hand like a cat was enough to make Eda’s entire demeanor melt. That was also probably, at least in part, due to the mixture of love-care-pride that her roommate was giving off in regards to their kid.
Then King gave a sudden, dramatic gasp, drawing her and her daughter’s gazes over as he pulled something yellow out from the pile. She wasn’t able to get a good look at it until he’d plopped it onto his head, loudly declaring, “A crown for th’king of demons!!”
She blinked, realizing she vaguely recognized it. It wasn’t a real crown made of gold and silver like those fancy ones that the old Kings used to wear before the Savage Ages, but one made of that weird human plastic material. It was flimsy and wobbly, but had the texture of a crown painted on it, with the logo for a place called “Burger Queen” on the front, which Eda thought was some kind of restaurant.
She was pretty sure that it was illegal to be that cute. Completely and utterly against the law. An absolute crime. “Titan above,” she said, putting a hand to her chest dramatically, as if trying to make sure she was still breathing. “You’re gonna kill me with how adorable that is, bud.”
She was grinning, though, probably wider and softer than anyone outside the house had ever seen her smile before. The Owl Beast was practically radiating love and admiration, which thrummed through Eda’s chest in a bit of a feedback loop.
“It’s perfect!” her daughter declared, pulling her baby-sized brother into a hug. He whined about it, but that was clearly for show. He was purring, even as his complaints about being treated like a stuffed toy fell on deaf ears.
Eda had lost her focus on the rest of the words they exchanged by the time King and Luz began shoving each other and giggling, falling away into her thoughts.
Perfect, huh? That was a pretty good word to describe all of it, Eda found. The crown, the time she was able to spend with her children, the cycle as a whole. It was all perfect. The grief that still burdened her didn’t feel quite so heavy, nor did the weight of the past bring her down. Not when her present was filled with moments like these.
Maybe it still hurt. Maybe she still missed the presence that had once been by her side. Maybe she missed the hand that held hers, the lips that brushed her own. But, on cycles like this? Where things were just so normal, so domestic? Her children made everything feel okay, just by being themselves. That, above all else, she would call perfect.
Notes:
I will make no promises about how often this one updates, as I am terrible at updating stories. However, I do have a genuine plan for this story, and I'm excited to take it where I want to go. I hope you all will stick with me on this journey. As long as this work does not have the Abandoned Work tab and is not present within my The Vault collection, assume this is still being worked on.
Chapter Word Count: 12,773
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2022-11-21
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2023-10-24
Chapter 2: Sales Tax & Coven Guards
Summary:
The sixth cycle of the week had arrived, and with it came yet another cycle of selling human garbage as valuable treasure to unsuspecting market-goers. Only, this time, it was on the heels of her little owlet’s tenth birthcycle. A deal was a deal, and that means her kids were going to be attending with her. Something deep in her gut told her that this one might just be more important than she would ever realize.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
She’d taken Luz to Bonesborough before. Many times, in fact. Sure, she would usually drape an enchanted cloak over her daughter’s shoulders to hide her identity from sight, and she could be pretty selective about where in town she’d take Luz, but they still went out to town together.
Sometimes, they’d go restock on their elixir supply at Alliston’s shop, let his son Morton chat with Luz for a bit. Other times, they would peruse the market stalls, looking for anything they happened to need or were interested in, and occasionally stealing when it was the better option.
Every now and then, usually right after Luz had another growth spurt, they would head over to Prim’s to buy a few new articles of clothing, who was about the only local tailor that actually seemed to like Eda. They’d also come into town to attend the book fair, whenever and wherever that was happening, since Luz loved to read. And none of that was even mentioning the countless trips to the office of Healer Styx over the years.
It was just that Eda had never brought her daughter with her to the Human Collectibles stand. Considering how most cycles of pawning off trinkets to gullible market goers tended to end - usually with a fight, a chase, and a quick escape from the Coven Guard - she always settled on the idea that it was just too dangerous. But, well. Her daughter was getting older.
Considering how isolated she was, when it came to learning how to parent, she’d been dealing with a lot of the emotions that came with it on her own. She didn’t exactly have that many friends on this side of the portal, and in terms of her own family… well, one wanted to arrest her, one had almost killed her several times, and one probably never wanted to see her again after what she did to him.
The only real family she could actually turn to, who was there to help her through it all, had been her Titansend of a brother-in-law, Marcello Noceda. But he was a permanent Human Realm resident, and didn’t entirely understand how things worked in the Demon Realm.
So, because of all that, Eda was definitely struggling to comprehend that, some cycle or another, her little owlet was going to need to go beyond the confines of the nest. Spread her wings. As it turned out, actually accepting that her daughter was starting to grow up was a whole lot harder than she thought it would be.
But, for that little girl, Eda could swallow down all these doubts, take a deep breath, and go along with it. Luz needed experience outside of the little bubble they’d made for themselves out in the woods. If that meant letting her daughter accompany her to the market while she pedaled off human wares to unsuspecting witches and demons alike, or sending Luz off to magic school to let her thrive as the little social butterfly she was, then so be it.
Maybe she was still feeling incredibly nervous about it all - and birdbrain definitely wasn’t helping, with all of her anxiety over everything mixing in - but Eda’s daughter was already ten. She had to let Luz start making her own way in the world. Eda wasn’t gonna control her children like that. She wasn’t Gwendolyn.
Even if the thought of Luz flying on her own - metaphorically and literally - still terrified her, she knew she had to let it happen. Eda told her daughter that, when she reached her tenth birthcycle, things would change, and she wasn’t about to back out on that promise.
Things were going to be a bit complicated with Hexside, when that all came around. Luz had taken her mother’s lecture about the four types of magic, and how they mixed together to form every spell, including those from the nine ‘types’ that the Emperor’s Coven pushed for, to heart.
Much like Eda, she’d decided that magic was inherently designed to be mixed together. With Bump still stubbornly perpetuating the system, however, she didn’t know how that was all going to work out.
But that whole issue was a hurdle for another cycle. If she got stuck ruminating over her fears, she’d probably end up drowning in them. And, anyway, Eda was a bit more worried about the half of the agreement that mattered right now, which was saying that she would let her daughter tag along with her to the market.
Like the owlet always did whenever they were in the air, Luz had spent the flight over with wide, star-filled eyes, her gaze flicking across the horizon as she tried to drink in every detail the Boiling Isles had to offer.
Eda always liked to set out at about this time, and not just to get all the morning foot traffic at her stall - along the flight path during this part of the year, the rising sun was eclipsed by the Knee. It made the whole mountain look ethereal as light poured around it, cascading through the splits in the bone.
She could admit, she glanced behind her every few minutes, mostly to see that adorable little expression of awe and wonder on her daughter’s face.
King, on the other hand, was settled comfortably on her lap, still sleeping soundly, even as the wind whipped past. It was far earlier than he would normally wake, so she didn't mind letting him catch a bit more slumber.
That was something she hadn’t actually considered until the last minute. What, exactly, was she supposed to do with her son? Logically, she knew she could leave him to his own devices under the watchful care of Hooty - who would feed and entertain him for the time she was gone - but Eda was going to probably end up being out for nearly the entire cycle. She couldn’t just abandon her kid at home, with only Hooty to keep him company! That was, like, child cruelty!
It was different when she was leaving both of her kids at home, because they could keep each other happy and entertained until she came back to pepper them with love and affection. But leaving King all by his lonesome, without his sister? It just rang all wrong.
What if something happened while she was gone? What if he got hurt, and his Mamá wasn’t around to kiss his boo-boos better? Or what if the Coven tried to attack while she was out, forcing Hooty to defend, and he cried because he was alone and afraid? Or, even worse, what if he decides he wants to be like his Mamá, and tries to mix random potion ingredients again?
Sure, Hooty would be able to keep him relatively safe - as annoying as the house demon could be, he was good at his job - but she and the Owl Beast were both in agreement. It was too much of a risk. So, Eda had thrown her head back, groaned to herself, and just went with it. Apparently, her son was coming along, too.
She absolutely did not want to bring her probably-four-year-old son on a trip like this. The marketplace wasn’t all that dangerous, especially when you compared it to something like the Night Market or Latassia during the New Dawn Festival, but it wasn’t exactly a place for baby children, either.
Still, he was better off here, under Eda’s watchful eye with his sister to distract him, instead of being at home, where he would probably manage to cause some kind of explosion with her potion ingredients. Again.
Well, look on the bright side, Eda, she thought to herself. Maybe they’ll add him to the wanted poster when they inevitably redesign it next year, like they did with a certain mysterious, tiny, cloaked figure, who got added a bit over a year ago.
Heh. Most people would probably be horrified to see their daughter had been added onto wanted posters that were hung up all across the Isles. Eda, on the contrary, had been absolutely ecstatic, twirling a giggling Luz around and declaring it to be, “Baby’s First Wanted Poster!”
They’d celebrated with one of those unfairly delicious recipes Camila had taught her, much to Luz’s joy. Trying to find all the right ingredients in one of those indoor human food markets she can’t remember the name of had been a very confusing and convoluted ordeal, especially since Marcello was unavailable at the time. It was still absolutely worth it.
Sometimes, Eda wondered how Cami would’ve felt about their daughter on a poster with a payout that numbered in the billions of snails. Terrified, at first, seeing Luz plastered all over the Isles, even if there was too little detail to identify her. Probably would’ve had a fight or two with Eda over it, too.
But, honestly, Eda was pretty sure that she would’ve come around to it eventually. Camila had hated the coven system from the moment she learned about it. She’d said it was stifling, immoral, and dystopian, all of which Eda was in full agreement with.
She liked to imagine that her lifebound would’ve ended up being just a bit proud to see Luz on that wanted poster. Maybe. After all of the initial fretting and frustrations, at least.
With a shake of her head, Eda pushed those thoughts away for the time being. They had arrived. She settled Owlbert down in front of the large market tent she had bought to store all her junk in while she worked through the cycle - and, honestly. For all that she berated the Coven Guard over being so incompetent, the fact that they haven’t just, you know, revoked her business license and stormed the tent she was on record as the owner of was incredibly telling.
That was beside the point. She lifted King off her lap, tucking him into the crook of her arm without him waking, and dismounted. Then she helped her daughter climb down off the staff, too. Handing King off to her, who Luz accepted with a smile and a purr, Eda untied the enchanted green knapsack she used to store the entirety of her stall. She felt Luz’s eyes watching her, and she grinned.
Owlbert righted himself, then darted into her open palm, the magic of the staff buzzing against her mind eagerly. It looked like both of them wanted to put on a show for the kids.
With a spell circle drawn through her palisman, and a toss of the bag into the air for dramatic effect, the knapsack soared upward, then unfurled itself. From it, a tidal wave of furniture and nicknacks that she didn’t store in the tent came flooding forth.
Two shelves landed with satisfyingly deep thumps on either side of the open tent flap, while a white folding table that she’s pretty sure was cheaper than any of the junk she sold as human rarities unfolded itself, landing out from the wall with enough space to fit her and her kids back there.
The knapsack settled itself across the table, making it appear as if it was actually a serviceable countertop, with the register following a second after. Several smaller boxes and chests made their way to their familiar spots beside the furniture, while the trinkets she’d brought from the house found their places on the shelves and table as if they had a mind of their own.
A pole emerged from the bag, and the sign she’d built herself a few years ago - it read ‘Human Collectibles’ with a hand pointing down at the store itself - hovered over, nails driving themselves through it and into the pole, before the whole thing staked itself deep into the ground.
With her store all set up and ready to go for the cycle - barring a few things she’d need to set up herself, of course - she turned around to look at her daughter, a self-satisfied smirk playing at her lips. Having done his job, Owlbert shifted out of staff form, giving a happy couple of hoots as he landed on the counter to rest.
Luz looked amazed, little golden eyes blown wide and her mouth hanging open in a very cute expression of shock. King had been roused from his nap by the excitement, and he was staring with an owlish expression. They were both silent for about a second or two.
“Woah…” Luz eventually breathed out, admiration in her voice. “You’re so good at magic, Mamá!” King threw his arms up with a happy squeak, probably agreeing with her.
That declaration managed to draw a few attentive glances from other people in the market, but Eda didn’t really pay them any mind. She should probably care about word getting out that she’s a mother, but honestly? Hearing those words from her daughter was a bigger morale boost than any other compliment she could ever receive, and it was all she could focus on.
Probably had something to do with how much she loved her kids, who knew. Motherhood was funny like that.
She leaned down and planted a kiss on top of Luz’s forehead, ruffling the little owlet’s hair when she pulled back. “Thanks, Sunshine,” she said, and grinned a bit wider when her daughter let out a giggle. She made sure to give King a few chin scratches too, which had him purring like the little cutie he pretended not to be.
Eda’s gaze flicked back up to meet Luz’s eyes. “You wanna come stand up front with me, or would you rather find a chair in the back first?” she asked. “I’m sure I have one somewhere.” She stepped around the counter, her daughter following behind.
Luz tilted her head to the side while she thought about it, King shifting in her arms as he settled into a more comfortable spot, probably about to fall asleep again. Eda didn’t really blame him. “Uhm, I’ll go find a chair,” Luz eventually settled on. She looked down at her little brother, then back up at Eda. “Él no quiere despertar todavía. (He doesn't want to wake up yet.)”
Eda, genuinely, almost didn’t notice the shift to Español. It was the only language from the Human Realm, other than Common - though they called it English there - that she actually bothered to sit down and learn.
It definitely wasn’t the only extra language she knows, though. She can’t speak it herself, but she could understand a decent amount of Beastlin, a language that several species of intelligent beast-like demons speak, such as the Houndlings.
She also learned Riitrán as part of her training in wild culture, which was the original version of what’s now known as Runic. It used the same set of alphabetic symbols as its modern counterpart, but had its own grammatical rules and even a spoken form. Most just call that Old Tongue now.
But both of those languages were native to the Demon Realm. She didn’t count Modern Runic as an actual language, either, since that just became another script for Common after Belos took over.
She only really cared to learn Español because Cami had loved to teach her about it. It was her lifebound’s native language. It made Eda feel connected to her in a deeper, more special way, similar to the feeling of a golden locket strung around her neck - though she wasn’t wearing that at the moment, terrified as she was of losing it at the market.
It certainly helped her get through a lot of sleepless nights after her lifebound was gone, going through language books and those web-pages on that computer thing in Cami’s old office to keep up with her studies of the language as best as she could. She wasn’t perfect at it, but she could hold a solid conversation, and sounded decent enough a speaker that none of the humans who also spoke it batted an eye, so she must’ve been doing something right.
Then, when a little baby Luz had first been learning how to speak, Eda had very quickly decided to throw in Español, alongside teaching her Common, Modern Runic, and Riitrán. She wanted her daughter to share that link with her Mami, too. A chance to learn a little bit about the woman she never got to properly meet.
Because they were both halfway fluent speakers in a language nobody else on the Boiling Isles knew, they had formed an unspoken game, dancing between Common and Español whenever they felt like it, with no rhyme or reason behind the switch.
Well, okay, sometimes, the reason was to gossip, saying things in front of people who had no chance of understanding, but that was a damn good reason! It was domestic, in a way that Eda hadn’t quite felt since Camila was gone.
With a smirk, Eda pulled open the tent flap. “Alright, kiddo,” she said. “Good luck.” The inside of the tent was an absolute mess, and not one she was going to be dealing with this cycle. Ret, she didn’t even know if she actually had a chair back there. She hoped she did. As Luz slipped through the tent’s opening, she added, “Bring back anything that looks like it has monetary value!”
Her daughter glanced back with a grin, golden eyes glowing in the darkness of the tent that Eda hadn’t cast any light spells to beat away yet. “Si, Mamá! (Yes, Mama!)” she said. Eda stepped back, letting the tent flap fall shut.
Exactly two seconds passed before something inside fell over, hitting the ground with a loud metallic clang, followed by a startled “Weh?!” and a yelp.
“That wasn’t my fault!” Luz shouted, voice muffled by the fabric. Eda just let out a snorting chuckle, shaking her head in exasperation as she turns back to the greater marketplace.
Eyes skirting across the early morning marketplace, she was definitely thinking this cycle might be in the middling range of activity. Early mornings were slow, but on busy cycles, there was usually already a crowd of people looking through the stalls for whatever they needed. There weren't any events drawing her potential customers away that she could think of, either, so at least the cycle wouldn’t be entirely boring.
She wondered, noting the looks a few of the other shopkeepers were giving her, if she was going to draw extra attention this cycle specifically because she brought her kids to work. The story of a mysterious wild witch from outside of town with a daughter and son, selling items of human origin, admittedly did sound enticing.
Hey, she might be incredibly protective of her kids, but if they earn her more business because of how inherently cute they are, then that’s a win overall. It’s not really using your kids for profit if they manage to generate that profit by just existing, right? She shrugged to herself. It probably wasn’t.
Taking a deep breath, Eda’s eyes shifted up to the sky for just a moment, watching as the steam clouds drifted across the orange and black of the endless morning expanse. She’s not going to be able to keep the existence of her daughter a secret anymore.
Not when Luz was going to be heading off to school as soon as they got her enrolled. Not when both her gremlins were going to end up being at the stall on the sixth cycle of every week with her, helping to market human junk as collectibles and rarities to the residence of Bonesborough.
Luz will be at school during every third cycle, so Eda would probably only have King with her on those cycles, since, again, she wasn’t going to leave him at the house alone. She could probably keep King out of the spotlight for the most part, sure, but not Luz.
She wondered how the world was going to react, learning that the mysterious and dangerous criminal known as the Owl Lady, who lived deep within the woods and practiced the forbidden ways of wild magic, had a pair of adorable little kids who called her Mamá. Would everything stay the same, or was it all about to change? Who knew what was in store for the future.
She also couldn’t help but wonder who was gonna make the mistake of trying to use the fact she had children against her, and learn just how ferocious her bodily roommate’s protective instincts could be. She flashed herself a smirk at the thrill of vicious agreement the Owl Beast lets off in response to that thought.
It was all daunting, that was for sure. But she’d reached the point where she just couldn’t hide her kids from the world anymore, not without stifling them and dragging them down. She could still protect them, she could still keep them safe, but she couldn’t keep them sheltered in the same way she’s done for the last ten years.
Really, it’s not just granting freedom to her daughter. It was a change for them all. Only time will tell what that change was going to be. For the most part, she was content to sit back, keep her kids safe, and watch the ensuing chaos unfold.
Behind her, there was a rustle of fabric as the tent flap shifted open. “I found a chair!” Luz declared, her voice a little strained. Eda turned around, and promptly let out a snort.
Her daughter was doing her damndest to hold the white, cheaply made chair - one Eda thought was made of that Human Realm plastic stuff - with just one of her little arms. In her other arm, she was holding a small box that Eda vaguely recalled throwing in the back at some point, a little white thing with a black square on the front and a folded handle at the top that she didn’t know the use for.
Settled between the boxy thing and Luz’s armpit was a very simple plush toy, one that had a pair of jackalope ears, though no horns. It had a mouth stitched in the shape of an X, and was missing its left eye.
Since his perch had been stolen from him, King had climbed up from Luz’s arm to her head, resting on top of the ear-covering crimson beanie she was wearing like a mattress. He had probably demanded Luz grab the plushie as penance or something.
“Oh, good, I did have one,” she breathed out, relieved. She had already told her two owlets several times that, if they grew tired, she’d be willing to take them home, but they kept stubbornly insisting that they wanted to stay. Pair of little gremlins after her own heart.
If they were actually staying, she at least didn’t want her kids to be uncomfortable. She really hadn’t wanted to make her kids sit on the ground for several hours, even if she would’ve ended up giving them a whole nest of blankets as cushioning. Actually, she might still make that blanket nest, that sounded comfy.
Luz carefully lowered the chair, bending her knees to help her do it without moving her arms. Then she brought the box and plush toy out from under her arm, setting the both beside the chair.
Eda leaned in closer, doing a once-over on the little thing while Luz swung the backpack she’d brought along with them off her shoulder, setting it down on the other side of the chair. “What’s that?” Eda asked.
As she sat herself down, Luz reached up to her head, grabbing her very tiny brother and bringing him down to her lap. He mumbled something that might’ve been another “Weh,” but it was too quiet to hear.
“I don’t really know?” Luz answered, looking over at it with knit eyebrows. “It looks a lot like the tee-vee in the mainroom, but smaller and not working.”
Looking more closely at the little device, Eda saw what she meant. It did sort of look like an older, smaller, and definitely bulkier version of the television they had. The black screen reflected in the same way, at least.
They did actually use the television back at their house on occasion, though it was always a bit of a hassle. The tamed lightning that humans powered their stuff with had a lot of complicated caveats to using it, which just meant she needed to charge this big, bulky battery thing with a steady flow from a lightning spell, then hook the television up to it, and that only tended to last for about two or three hours before it needed to be recharged again.
Mostly, they just used it to watch whatever human movies or shows happen to interest Luz, since they couldn’t get the live channels like they could on the crystal ball - apparently, that didn’t work across realms, who knew? Cami definitely hadn’t, when she and Eda first set it up together.
Leaning down, Eda set the plushie that was on top of it off to the side and picked the thing up. “Hm,” she hummed, “I think you might be right, sunshine.” She turned it in her hands a few times, noticing a few seams and a large button beneath the main screen. Tapping it made a small clicking sound, but it didn’t turn on.
Maybe it needed a lightning spell too? But then she ran the risk of frying all the complex stuff on the inside that she didn’t know how to fix, so she probably shouldn’t try that until she knew there were no other options.
“Say,” Eda started, “if you can figure out how this thing works, I could make a fortune off it.” There weren’t many people in the Demon Realm who would know what this baby could probably do if it was turned on. Actually, she didn’t know if anyone outside of her little family would. She could already imagine the money she’d rake in if she could get a moving picture to show up on the flat screen.
Sure, it was pretty much a different realm’s version of a crystal ball, but it fell into that category of novel and unique. Unlike her more boring wares, it could get away with just being itself.
She shrugged, adding, “Otherwise, I’ll just sell it as a really unique black mirror, like I do with all the human scrolls.”
Her daughter offered a grin. “Okay!” she agreed happily, before leaning over to the side, careful not to jostle her brother. “I’m gonna read a bit first, though.” She tugged her backpack a bit closer, unzipping it as she spoke. “I gotta see how Azura beats the Gildersnake!”
Eda’s lips twitched into a smile as Luz reached into the main compartment of the bag and extracted the latest book in her favorite series. She was already aware of what had been packed into the little travel bag, having been the one to do it herself.
There were a few snacks from either realm, some toys and a few plushies in case King decided he wanted to subjugate the stall at some point, and, of course, some books for Luz.
Cami had bought the first book in the series back when they found out she was pregnant, a gift for their future child. She had thought it would be funny, since she was married to a witch and having a half-witch child, to get her kid a book in the genre of witchcraft.
The Good Witch Azura was a very human interpretation of witches and wizardry. It had flowery language, and its views on magic were way off compared to the real stuff, but from the moment Luz had understood it had been a gift from her Mami, she treated it like it was the most important book in the world. Each subsequent book quickly became just as important.
The newest book in the series was recent. As in, it technically hadn’t even been released yet. It had taken a bit of work, but she’d managed to snag it just in time for Luz’s tenth birthcycle. Thankfully, Leo Aridate - the owner of the bookstore in Gravesfield, and also one of those people in town that actually knew what Eda was - had gotten a few copies early.
He’d even let her pay in coin snails, instead of Human Realm money! Which was good, because she didn’t actually have any of that on hand at the moment - she really needed to sell a bunch of her extra stuff to one of those thrift stores again, in case she had to buy more human things.
Flashing her daughter a smile, Eda replied, “Sure thing, sweetheart.” She gestured outwards from the stall, towards the early morning sky. “It’s gonna be a long cycle, so I don’t mind if you and King go into the back for a nap or somethin’ later. Just tell me if you decide to, so I can set you up a blanket nest.”
That elicited a nod from her daughter, while her son remained blissfully asleep. She envied his ability to fall asleep on command. “Make sure to tell me if you wanna go home though, y’hear?” she added. “You two come before the store.”
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed, nodding yet again. Her expression was determined, though, meaning that offer probably wasn’t going to be taken up. She glanced down at her brother as he shifted around a little bit, smiling. Then she looked back at Eda with an even wider smile, her little dimples creasing. “Love you, Mamá!”
From somewhere nearby, Eda’s sensitive hearing picked up on one of the owners in a neighboring stand letting out a quiet, “Aww,” as they listened in.
Her ear twitched as she registered it, but she didn’t outwardly react. She wasn’t really too bothered by the attention, surprisingly, mostly just content with the fact that other people found Luz as adorable as she really was.
“Love you too, kid,” Eda returned, reaching over to scratch behind Luz’s ear, careful to not disturb the beanie. Eda smiled even wider when Luz started to purr. Her brother, in his sleep, began to copy the sound, and when Eda stopped scratching, the purring carried on.
They’d trapped themselves in a perpetual cycle of purring at each other. Which was just. Way too adorable.
Yeah, sure, both humans and witches don’t normally purr like that - witches can, but they stopped doing it back when the empire formed over two centuries ago for some reason - and maybe it was technically another side-effect of the curse, but who cared? It was so cute!
Eda still had a soft, warm grin lighting up her lips when she turned back around, glancing down the road as more people trickled into the marketplace. She spotted a few other shopkeepers eyeing her curiously, but she brushed that feeling off easily enough.
Instead, she watched a witch look up at the sign of her store, then begin approaching. Her first customer of the cycle, it looked like. Show time.
She knew that she could come off as particularly clueless about some of the things she sold, especially if someone who actually knew what they all did were to listen to her. Sometimes, it was even genuine, but only sometimes.
Sure, she still minced the names, and occasionally forgot what they’re actually supposed to do, but that didn’t mean she had no understanding of human technology whatsoever. Her lifebound had been a human, for crying out loud! Camila had told her an overwhelming amount of information about the Human Realm, and Eda still remembered… most of it, at least.
But, see, there was an incredibly important trick, when it came to pawning off her wares onto unsuspecting citizens. The Human Realm, among the average person, was a complete unknown, and that was what made it so interesting to them. There was a novelty to it all.
Obviously, people were going to be interested when you say something was from another realm, made by the humans that live there, used by them. The only problem with that was, a lot of what humans have on their side ends up being almost identical to things from the Demon Realm, though less fleshy and more artificial.
If the people who buy her wares realized that, a major part of what makes it all so unique crumbled away. Instead of being a black mirror that only reflected sadness with mysterious buttons on the side, it was just a human scroll that won’t turn on.
There wasn’t any novelty, nothing all that special about it, unless you count how strange it was that humans managed to tame lightning and force obey their will in such complex ways.
Some of the stuff she owned, like that little box thing Luz found, could end up being flashy enough to subvert the whole issue entirely. But, the fact still remained that most things between the realms were just too similar to stay interesting.
So, Eda intentionally skewed their purposes, switched their names out for more dramatic titles, that sort of thing. Her whole store was made up of strange, indecipherable objects, all of which held no real purpose, but could easily have a story spun from them.
Nobody wanted a simple stuffed toy that was only unique because it was from the Human Realm, so, instead, she described it as the fulcrum to an ancient ritual that humans performed in order to honor their own Titans.
People weren’t interested in a fancy looking clock that didn’t even work right because of the difference in cycle length, no, but they were allured by the mystical Golden Pyramid of Timekeeper’s Death, which had a time dial embedded in the side that could give you the exact time of your death if you let it go until it stops moving.
That plastic toy, based on a specific kind of those metal carriages - trucks, she thought they were called - that humans used to move around and carry their things in? Why, that was a toy based on a monstrous leviathan from the Human Realm, a powerful creature which rolled across the ground at high speeds and crashed into others of its kind, all fighting in battle to see which was the most powerful!
The cube with assorted, multicolored tiles that could be twisted around? That was one of the human’s most ingenious puzzles, a testament to their incredible skill-solving abilities, designed to test their mettle against the insidious forces of the dangerous colored cubes!
Honestly, she’d consider this something of an art form, designating a purpose to these assorted objects, giving them new and unique histories that’ll drive up intrigue and interest.
Was it dishonest? Eh, probably. Humans were a pretty big unknown to demons and witches, with the rumors and false tales that circulate being the only things most of anyone around here knows about them. The stories she spun to sell her human treasures only contributed to that. But that was the beauty of it.
A lot of what she claimed about her wares tended to be completely out there, even for witches and demons. Things that should genuinely be impossible, feats that wouldn’t actually work since humans didn’t exactly have any magic of their own. By the Titan, half the time, her stories could completely contradict themselves, occasionally even to the same customer!
But that was exactly why it worked. Because all of it was so absolutely unbelievable, even to people who could actively use magic, that it somehow looped back around to being completely believable.
Well, alright, maybe not everyone believed what she said. There was the occasional smartass who realized that they’re probably being lied to. She’ll tell a person that the glove they’re looking at was actually the severed hand of a latex beast in the Human Realm, and they’ll see it for the obvious lie it was.
A good chunk of them end up just rolling with it, thinking something like, “What an interesting story,” and maybe even buy it anyway, just because they can.
There were a couple of them who would try to confront her about lying straight to their faces, but they usually scampered off when they realized she genuinely didn’t care about their hurt feelings. The morality of it didn’t exactly matter to her - she had children to feed. It wasn’t like she was doing anything worse than telling a couple harmless lies.
Anyway, all of this thinking led back to the current moment, where Eda was attempting to swindle yet another passerby of their hard-earned snails, using trinkets with descriptions that were just factually incorrect. They were a particularly clueless one, she could tell, ready to accept any story she decided to spin, which she was absolutely going to extort. After all, the gullible ones were the best money-makers!
From the chest hiding underneath her totally-a-counter, she grabbed a random item that looked weird enough to hike the price up. “Can I offer you a human foot filled with holes?” she asked, setting one of those incredibly strange human shoes on top of the cloth.
Then, she hummed to herself, reaching down again and grabbing a plastic container that smelled a lot like mintbrush. As she spoke, she took off the cap and twisted the bottom, letting the strange material on the inside rise. “A bar of green human candy?” She set it down beside the chair, and did a showman’s gesture to the two of them. “Both are only twenty snails!”
The demon she was haggling was a small one, their two yellow eyes just barely higher than the countertop. They had vertical black slits for pupils, a small little bump for a nose, and a pair of massive ears that could probably hear a pin drop across town. Their skin was a pale, blueish color, and they stood on hind legs, with a rodent’s tail trailing behind them that flicked with interest at the collectibles on offer.
In particular, they seemed focused on the weird human shoe. “Hm,” they hummed. Then they glanced up at Eda, and she imagined they were trying to raise an eyebrow without actually having eyebrows. “Do you sell these in bulk?”
Eda was about to answer, even managing to slip out a “Well-” as she scrambled for a way to market this, but abruptly stopped short. Much to her surprise, a tiny head of curly brown hair had appeared at her side, golden eyes peering over the counter.
Luz had been acting as Eda’s little assistant throughout the cycle, charming customers with her inherent cuteness, but she’d sat the last few sales out to play with her brother in the back. At least, until now.
Before she could even ask what her chaotic little daughter was planning, the girl was already giving an answer for her. “Nuh-uh” she said, tapping at the shoe with a finger carefully, as if to show just how important it was. “They’re one-of-a-kind. Reeaally rare!”
Luz paused for a moment, putting a finger up to her chin in an adorable thinking expression. Then, in a move that filled Eda with pride, her owlet added, “You should pay double, ‘cause of how special it is!”
Now, see, if Eda had been the one to suggest something like that, she would’ve been met with skepticism. Which was fair enough. Even she knew that was a stretch to try and pull, after she already gave them a price. But there’s something about the inherent innocence of a child, with their blunt sort of honesty, that made it much harder to think they’d be lying.
It also helped that her daughter was just plain endearing.
“Huh,” the demon uttered, a thoughtful expression befalling their face as they considered the offer. After a moment, they shrugged. “Well, you’ve got yourself a deal, mysterious owl-themed lady and adorable child!”
The demon pulled a snail pouch out from… somewhere. She wasn’t actually sure, considering they didn't have pockets. Or clothes. They rifled through it, pulling out a stack of paper snails, which Eda happily snatched from their offering hand and began to count.
While she was loading the forty snails into her register for safe keeping - it was enchanted to only be operational for either Eda or her children - the demon picked up their newly earned object of human origin, and proudly declared, “I can’t wait to display this where nobody will ever see it!” Then they were wandering over to another stall across the way, looking for more junk to be tricked into buying.
She remembered to call out a “Thanks for doin’ business!” as they were walking away, at the very least. After that, she turned towards Luz with a grin, who was already beaming up at her.
Her owlet was holding that weird box device thing in her arms, probably still trying to get it to work. Eda ruffled her kid’s hair, bringing herself down to a knee so they were at eye level. “You’re a natural, sunshine,” Eda told her. “I’m so darn proud.”
In fact, Eda was almost a little teary-eyed, but good luck getting her to admit that. Who knew her owlet could be that smooth at cheating people out of their snails? At the praise, Luz bowed her head bashfully, a blush rising across her cheeks, though her smile remained. “How’d you come up with that so quickly?” Eda couldn’t help but ask.
Luz’s grin turned smug, and by all nine layers of Retmina, Eda could suddenly see the resemblance between the two of them. That was the same kind of smug grin Eda would give Bump right after she made his life absolute agony. “I learned from the best!” her daughter answered happily.
Eda let out a snort. “Smart cookie,” she offered, leaning forward to plant a kiss on top of her daughter’s forehead. The girl’s dimples were on full display when Eda pulled back.
For a moment, the two of them just shared in their smiles, before the sound of something being moved rang out from inside the tent. Eyes flicking over, Eda studied the entryway, which was ajar just enough for her to make out her son scampering by. “What’s your brother gotten up to?” she asked Luz, still eyeing the tent.
Luz followed Eda’s gaze over to the tent flap, offering a shrug of her shoulders. “Oh, he’s raising an army to storm the other shops, so you won’t have any enemies!” she explained.
Oh, of course. King loved those stories about kings and kingdoms Eda told the two of them so much that he had begun to rule over his plushies like his namesakes. It was really cute.
With another flurry of motion and the sound of her four-year-old son skittering about, King suddenly appeared in the entryway of the tent, standing as tall as he could with his incredibly small size.
He stuck one fist upwards in the air, and proudly declared, “Th’King of Demons will take his throne!!” Then, he scampered off to the side, tail flicking happily behind him, as he went to search for more recruits to his dark army.
Titan. He was so adorable. Eda felt the Owl Beast give off her own sense of admiration-pride-love in the back of her mind, which might’ve created a slight feedback loop, since Eda was experiencing those same emotions.
She put a hand to her chest dramatically, and beamed. “He’s ready to impose his power for my benefit,” she whispered conspiratorially to Luz, who giggled in response. “I love him so much.” With a fond shake of her head, she turns back to Luz, eyeing the little device in her daughter’s arms. “How ‘bout that thing, hun? Any progress?
“Nuh-uh,” she pouted, shaking her head. “Jus’ messing with it still.” She shook the thing, but Eda wasn’t sure if that was to put emphasis on it, or yet another attempt to get it to actually do something. Could be either. “I think it might still work, but, uhm, I dunno how?”
Luz narrowed her golden eyes at it, like it had personally offended her. “There’s gotta be something I’m- wait.” She cut off suddenly, eyebrows knitting together as she focused on something specific. Eda raised a half-curious, half-amused eyebrow at the expression.
Her daughter switched from holding it with both hands to holding the handle with one. Her now-free hand traced the top, finding a seam along a discolored panel, and she popped the whole thing off easily enough. Luz stared at the inside for a moment, before she perked up and gave a quick, “Oh!”
It took Eda a few seconds longer to recognize what she was looking at, but already, Luz was reaching over to the Human Candy bowl to grab a pair of tiny batteries - which, by the way, Eda had only put in there because it was hilarious. Not like a little sulfuric acid and metal would hurt a witch. Luz shoved the little cylinders into the slots, before replacing the panel and tapping the button.
Immediately, the screen burst to life, flickering on just like the television back home. The little device was showing some kind of pre-recorded human workout routine.
It didn’t seem like there was an option to change what it was playing, or slot in something else in like the DVD Player they had back at the house, so Eda figured it was probably some one-purpose gimmick thingy. She was pretty sure the slight high-pitched buzzing it was making meant it actually was pretty old. Cami had mentioned something about older human devices doing that, once.
“Voilà!” Luz exclaimed, setting the now-working device down on the table with the screen facing outwards, practically radiating pride in herself at figuring it out.
Noticing how the noise had dropped off all around them, Eda looked up from her daughter towards the rest of the market. The entire thing had practically come to a complete standstill. Heads turned towards the source of the sound, even other stall owners shifting their gazes around their customers just to get a view.
She heard one of the market goers - actually, that was the same demon she sold the shoe to - give a baffled “Huh?” as they turned around.
The shopkeeper doing business with that demon - another demon, with a set of three eyes, aqua skin, and a beak-like mouth, who was also the owner of the “Arms Plus Armor” stall directly across from her Human Collectibles shop - glanced up from the sale. “What’s that?” they asked, eyes wide, before ducking out from their stall to get a closer look, completely forgetting they were in the middle of being paid.
A lot of people were drawing closer now, actually. At another stand a little ways down, a demon, who had been in the middle of buying a half-cracked egg with a creature sticking out of it from a one-eyed vendor, turned. They had a set of four eyes, a snout reminiscent of a warphog, two floppy ears under a head wrap, and red skin. “That sound, it’s so alluring…” they said, beginning to approach.
With all the attention they were suddenly getting, Luz was a little overwhelmed, and ducked behind Eda to hide. She watched the crowd grow with wide eyes, though none of them really noticed her - they were all focused on the little device, watching the moving pictures on a flat surface with rapt interest.
The first one to break the mesmerized silence was that store owner from across the path, who suddenly brought out an entire stack of paper snails. “I’ll pay forty snails for the screaming box!” they declared, waving the cash around.
Then, as if spurred on by a competitor, the demon who’d bought the shoe earlier pulled out an even larger stack of cash. “I’ll give you a hundred!” they bid, an almost manic look to their eye. Eda’s eyebrows raised in surprise.
The vaguely warphog-like demon pulled out their own stack of cash, calmly rifling through it as if to count how much they would be willing to part with. She was pretty sure they had even more than the other two combined. “Can I eat the tiny person inside?” they asked.
Suddenly, the slitherbeast’s back had given out, and everyone in front of her stall was taking out stacks of paper or pouches of coin snails, offering them up in the highest bid. Blinking for a moment, Eda found herself taken completely off guard. She knew the little box thingy would draw some attention, but she hadn’t thought it would cause this much of a commotion!
With a grin quickly appearing on her face, she gave her daughter - who was still clinging to her side - an affectionate hair ruffle. “You have no idea how proud I am of you right now, sweetheart,” she crooned softly, low enough to not be heard by the crowd. There was a strange trill to her words that had absolutely come from the Owl Beast.
Luz bowed her head bashfully, her face sporting a blush as a pleased little smile graced her lips. She cuddled further into Eda’s side for a moment, hugging her. “Thank you, Mamá.”
Leaning forward, Eda began reaching out to all the offered snails, gladly accepting them. Unsurprisingly, when it came to the citizens of Bonesborough, they were all too happy to hand over their money, despite the fact she was clearly taking snails from everyone, meaning none of them were actually guaranteed to get the strange device. She was already formulating a plan that would let her keep all the snails but still get away without the crowd turning on her, and it seemed ingenious in her head.
Once most of the snails had been collected from them - they’d all become enamored with the moving pictures again, meaning they didn’t even notice they’d been swindled - Eda leaned towards her daughter, murmuring conspiratorially.
“Now, here’s the trick, since they all gave me snails.” She quickly shoved all of the money into her register while she spoke, so nobody could try and take it back. “I’m gonna throw the little tee-vee thing into the crowd, let ‘em duke it out for it, and then, we’re-” gonna sit back and watch the carnage, was what she had wanted to say. But she never got the chance.
“Busted!” interrupted a far deeper, somewhat gravelly voice, one that reverberated around the marketplace. A massive fist came down, smashing the little machine to pieces. She was suddenly very glad she’d decided to take the money before that happened, which meant she could blame someone else for cheating them of their money.
In this case, it was a coven guard. In the distraction the box had created, combined with her scheming, she hadn’t even noticed that they were approaching. Apparently, neither had literally anyone else.
For a moment, all of them were completely frozen, nobody making a move. Then, one of the patrons - a rather feline looking demon - shouted, “Run! It’s a guard!” Prompt given, the crowd frantically dispersed in every direction, bolting off with startled noises and cries of distress.
It was pretty easy to forget that, unlike the more central parts of town, the Emperor’s Coven actually tended to be feared out here in the markets. Especially with Warden Wrath’s tendency to declare anything he didn’t like ‘contraband’ and have the guards under his jurisdiction seize it.
Well. Eda had known that this was going to happen eventually. It was a given that she’d end up getting into a spat with the Coven Guard while her kids were with her at some point. She had just hoped it wasn’t going to be now. It was literally the first cycle she brought her kids to the store, and they picked this cycle of all cycles to mess with her!
At least it took them until nearly the end of the light to realize she was out and about this time. “Hoo boy,” she uttered beneath her breath, grimacing. Luz shrank back slightly, her grip tightening on Eda’s dress as she gave a hiss like a startled cat.
Thankfully, as soon as all the commotion had started around the flashy box, Owlbert had emerged from his nap in her hair and settled himself just beside the register. That meant he was on alert the moment the guard had appeared.
‘Owlmother will need staff,’ he hooted, the words passing through their mental bond. He hobbled off the side of the counter, fluttering down to the ground. Then he ducked beneath the green tablecloth, and Eda felt the pulse of magic as he began to shift into his staff form.
She absently sent a silent pulse of her thankfulness back to him. She didn’t know if she would need him for a fight, or just a quick getaway, but she appreciated having him on standby.
“Eda the Owl Lady,” the guard started, and yeesh, someone sure sounded full of themself. She always hated these kinds of guards. It also probably meant that this was one of Wrath’s - Lilith’s guards tended to just be stick-in-the-mud do-gooders. “You are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors.”
Then, the coven guard reached across the counter and grasped her arm with a firm, slightly painful tug. At her side, Luz gives a fierce growl, baring her fangs like a wild animal. “You are hereby ordered to come with me to the Conformatorium.”
Misuse of magic. What a fucking joke. She would’ve snorted at that if she wasn’t so pissed off. The only reason she’d ever go into the Conformatorium willing would either be to stage a jailbreak, start a revolution, or to grab yet another thing that Warden Wrath decided to send his cronies to steal from her.
With a violent pull, she ripped her hand right out of the guard’s grip. Ol’ Beasty was practically thrashing in the back of her mind at the threat to their hatchlings, and that ended up making Eda’s words come out closer to a snarl than she’d expected. “Would you guys quit followin’ me around?” she griped, her lip receding just enough to show her fangs. “I’m tryin’a run a legitimate business here!”
Having lost their grip on her arm, the guard decided to reach for an easier target. The unfortunate fact about this decision - for them, at least - was that they single handedly managed to set off every single protective instinct that Eda had. “And you-” the guard started, hand extending towards Luz.
Only, before Eda could annihilate them off the face of the Titan for even so much as thinking about laying a hand on her daughter, Luz suddenly shot forward, and her fangs sunk into the flesh around the limb.
It took Eda almost a full second to register what had just happened. The guard let out the most shrill shriek she’d ever heard from anyone beside Hooty, trying to desperately pull their hand back. They succeeded at getting the limb free, but that just ended up doing even more damage, since Luz had some Owl Beast strength behind her jaw.
If Luz had bit down just a bit further up the arm, she would’ve torn into the wrist, and the coven guard probably would’ve lost their whole hand. If only. As it is, the flesh that’s visible through their now-destroyed glove looks shredded to Retmina and back.
It was a little hard to think, with the ferocious howling filling up her mind, but she was really damn proud of her kid for that one. One of the first things she told Luz about fighting, when they began to practice after she turned eight, was that you only hold back during a friendly fight or formal spar. When in a real battle, you don’t pull your punches - bite, tear, go for the weak points, just fight as dirty as possible.
For a moment, Eda was almost afraid she was about to shift. The Owl Beast’s presence in her mind was suddenly so intense that she was sure she was about to find herself pushed back into the gray, watching through the haze as her body ripped the coven guard apart. She wouldn’t have even fought it.
But, thankfully, the worst of it was the feathers that began to coat her arms. With one hand, she softly shoved her kid behind her, while the other extended out enough to let her staff fly straight up into her grip, so quick that it almost blinked into existence. At the tip of the staff, Owlbert glowed with infused magic, giving even more power to the physical swing.
As it would turn out, a magic-infused physical hit from a staff was incredibly powerful, and it sent the coven guard tumbling with a startled grunt and a loud cracking sound.
They crashed into the ground painfully, flat on their back, slamming down with enough momentum that they skidded across the cobblestone market path and plowed into that “Arms Plus Armor” stall. The table snapped as they flew through it, causing the rack of severed arms hanging above the stall to break and collapse on top of them.
Huh. Eda needed to try that move more often. Only if Owlbert was okay with it, though. “You do not get to touch my daughter,” she spat out. Not that she really thought they heard her. There was no way they didn’t have a concussion after that hit.
She turned around just in time to see Luz spitting blood and fabric out of her mouth - not her own blood, thankfully, just the coven guard’s. “Blegh!” she complained with a grimace and a disgusted shiver. “Tastes like dirty leather ‘n’ rotten meat!”
So maybe Eda was still in the middle of an adrenaline high, but she managed a smile, at least. “That’s because guards like that are rotten to the core,” she imparted, her tone full of wisdom, even as her voice trembled slightly. It succeeded at making Luz giggle.
With a deep, steadying breath to calm herself down, Eda slammed the bottom end of her staff against the unfurled knapsack-turned-tablecloth, and magic enveloped it. “Hey, King, it’s time to go!” she called out behind her as all the furniture began to hover.
From inside the tent, her son gave an alarmed, “Weh!” followed by the sound of frantic scampering, a few of the different things back there clattering to the ground. She heard his paws hitting the cobblestone as he bolted out into the open. “Don’ leave me behind!” he cried. She glanced back for a moment to see that he was carrying that same plushie Luz had brought out for him when they arrived that morning.
The furniture all reached a crest point in the air, now becoming mostly motionless, and the knapsack she’d brought it all whipped off the folding table, setting itself beneath everything else.
While this was happening, Luz turned to her brother. “You’re taking them with us?” she asked, excited. “What’s their name?”
From the corner of her eye, she could see King present the little stuffed animal to his sister, as if she wasn’t the one to grab it for him. “Francois!” he proudly declared. “He’s my sec’nd in com-mand!” Eda mentally filed that name away, just like she’d done for every other member of her son’s army back at the house.
“I-I thought I was your second in command?” her daughter asked, sounding vaguely hurt. Eda frowned, a little worried about that, but kept focusing on her spell. Idiot-For-Brains was starting to climb out of the stall wreckage, and Eda would rather not kill them. In front of her kids. She’d probably kill them otherwise.
Bringing her free hand into a fist and pulling inwards, the furniture began to flow into the knapsack as though it were a vortex, bending and shrinking as they fell into the packing spell that was woven into the fabric.
Still from the corner of her eye, she saw King blink, before he shook his head. “Nuh-uh,” he said, “yous th’ other ruler nows!”
Oh, that was quite the promotion. Eda was still just an advisor on his council, though she was pretty sure he didn’t know how to pronounce either of those words yet. Her frown of concentration twitched into a small, amused smile as Luz let out a little squeal and swept her brother into a tight hug. Those two were just so cute.
The knapsack fell to the floor, tied shut with a clean knot. With a quick motion, she thrust her staff forward, looping it through the small space between the knot and the bag itself so it could hang just before the end. She brought her staff back around and jumped on it without a moment’s hesitation. Then, she looked over to her two gremlins. “Get on, kiddies,” she said, “we’ve got an escape to make!”
Luz, who was already embracing her brother, just stood up with him still in her arms. King clutched the little stuffed toy, Francois - she always forgot, were human realm jackalopes called bunnies or rabbits? - tightly, as if his life depended on it. She offered a light tug with her magic to help Luz climb on without her arms, and then she took a moment to make sure everyone was settled well.
When she looked back over towards the guard, she was just in time to watch them stand up. They were a little unsteady on their feet, with their uniform ruffled and one of the arms from the stall hanging over their shoulder. They shoved the arm off with a disgusted sound, then turned to look at the little family.
King blew a raspberry at them, which earned a frustrated growl from the guard and a grin from Eda. Kicking off the ground, she shouted, “Gun it, magic stick!” and without further ado, Owlbert jetted forward, following the path through the marketplace.
Now, Eda could’ve easily just taken to the skies right then and there, but behind her, through the whistling of the wind, she heard her daughter give an excited, “Whoo-hoo!” So, Eda maybe took a little bit longer than she normally would, flying down the cobblestone pathway.
Several shopkeepers, who were too far from the commotion to have already fled, gave her startled and surprised looks as she whipped past. A few market-goers even dramatically jumped out of the way, which, rude. She wouldn’t hit anyone while her kids were here with her, that would put them in danger!
Oh, and crashing into innocent people was bad, that too.
After a few moments of flying, they reached a four-way junction in the path, and that was where Eda decided to finally start climbing. She banked sharply to the left, before angling the staff up and ascending.
“You won't get away with this, Owl Lady and Co!” she barely heard the shout behind her, and she turned her head to look back, slightly startled. Yeesh, for such a big guard, they sure could run fast, if they kept up with her flying.
Then she broke off into laughter, Luz giggling right alongside her, as the two of them watched the Coven Guard stumble and fall right in the middle of the junction, landing flat on their face. They might just die of embarrassment long before Wrath could berate them out of existence for failing to apprehend her.
They were still laughing about it, even as Eda was bringing her staff down for a landing in the clearing just in front of their house. Owlbert kept the staff in place while Eda dismounted first, quickly turning back around to help her kids.
She lifted King up, tucking him into the crook of her left arm, where he snuggled up against her with a happy little “Weh.” Then, she offered her other hand to Luz, helping her owlet hop down off the staff.
With everyone on the ground, Owlbert took himself towards the house, flying in through an open window that Hooty opened for him - thankfully without shattering it this time - to drop the knapsack holding her stall off somewhere, and probably shift back into his animated form.
Speaking of Hooty, he was extending out from the door, drawing closer to them. Eda didn’t bat an eye. Yeah, he could be pretty unsettling, and his voice could be extremely grating at times, but, as it turned out, having an incredibly ancient house demon choose you as their keeper and create a bond with your soul made it a little bit easier to ignore all that.
Though, Beastie always hated whenever the two of them communicated through that bond, agitated by what she believed was a mental invasion. Probably something to do with old magic, since she didn’t mind when Owlbert used his bond with Eda. “You’re baa~aack!” Hooty sing-songed as he drew closer. “Hoo~oot!”
Luz let out a little gasp, and rushed over to the house demon with a happy cry of, “Hooty!” Eda shook her head fondly. Her daughter was probably the only person across the entirety of Etin that didn’t feel even the slightest discomfort with Hooty. Ret, Eda’s soul was literally bonded with him, and even she still felt uncomfortable sometimes.
When she was close enough, Luz threw her arms around Hooty’s tube-body-neck-thing, hugging him tightly. “Sorry for leaving you alone the whole cycle!”
Enamored with Luz as he always was - probably because she’d never once called him annoying or demanded he be quiet, something even Eda had been guilty of before - he snuggled against her, his version of hugging her back without literally wrapping himself around her like one of those snake things from the Human Realm.
“Aw, it’s okay, little bird!” he replied, chipper as could be. “I’m peeerrrfectly fine with being alone! I chased soooo many bugs!” Eda snorted. Of course he did. “Did you like the market?”
This had clearly been the correct question to ask. Luz slipped out of the hug, but only so she could excitedly bounce in place, flapping her hands at her side. “Yes!” she answered. “It was so awesome! When we first got there, Mamá did this really awesome spell, and the whole stall came out of her bag like whoosh!” She threw her hands up to emphasize her point.
Very quickly, the two of them had become enthralled in their conversation, with Luz excitedly retelling the events of the cycle while Hooty gave her his complete attention.
All things considered, even with the abrupt close it had come to, taking her kids to the marketplace had been an undeniable success. She’d turned the largest profit she had in weeks, which was due to a combination of the abnormally high amount of customers that were drawn by such a cute little kid acting as an assistant, and that flashy little television box thing that Luz had gotten working.
Sure, the encounter with the coven guard had sucked, but considering they’d been left with a torn up hand and a concussion, Eda figured it was fine. Luz wasn’t even upset about it! Honestly, it was like nothing phased that girl’s optimism. She reminded Eda so much of Cami, sometimes, and that thought made her heart ache.
With another fond shake of her head and a huff of breath, Eda drew a small spell circle, opening one of the windows into the mainroom so Hooty could follow them inside without needing to regenerate another pane of glass. Then, she herded the lot of them through the door, so they could all settle down for their relaxing late afternoon.
She was finally starting to feel a bit more settled with this whole arrangement she made with Luz. Yeah, her kids were going to be just fine, accompanying her to the stall. She was certain of it.
The report had come across her desk at approximately twenty hundred hours, settled at the very top of a large stack. The date listed on it indicated that it was from the cycle prior, and was attributed to the Bonesborough Police Precinct, which was under the split jurisdiction of herself and Warden Wrath.
She wasn’t sure who had dropped off this stack. She just knew that she heard someone enter her office, set the paperwork down, and walk away before she’d finished making her cup of coffee in the small quarters attached to the room. When she’d returned, she groaned aloud, as her paperwork load had just been doubled.
At the very least, whoever it was knew what Lilith’s priorities would be, as they chose to place the latest field encounter with one Edalyn “Eda the Owl Lady” Clawthorne at the very top. She swiped it up without a single moment of hesitation, skimming across it as she did every time a report about an altercation with Edalyn was left in her office.
Sometime just after eighteen hundred hours on that prior cycle, a member of the Coven Guard - their identifier listed them as CG-Two-Zero-Two-Zero, so she was just going to think of them as Twenty, for simplicity's sake - was drawn to a growing commotion in the marketplace, centered around the Human Collectibles stall.
After determining the source of the disturbance was a product that the shop was selling - described as a mysterious box-shaped object that had a flat, moving picture on the front, and was also making a large amount of noise - the guard took immediate suppression measures to stop the contraband from causing a continued disturbance.
Upon their arrival, Twenty describes the crowd dispersing in a frantic and sudden manner, which they believed to be due to the fact that no average citizen would want to be involved in an altercation between a wild witch and a coven guard.
There was already a frown tugging at her lips, finding herself frustrated with this report. It was clear this was one of the Coven members within Warden Wrath’s direct command. His exertions of power were growing bolder and bolder by the cycle, and so was his dislike of anything unorderly and improper. Specifically whatever he deemed too abnormal, too weird.
Contraband seemed to have become a catch-all term among those within his Division for anything that wasn’t strictly professional. Honestly, she believed the crowd dispersed more out of fear that they, too, would have their ‘contraband’ seized, rather than what Twenty believed.
With the crowd no longer present, the guard identified the stall owner as Eda the Owl Lady, and deemed her to be the source of the commotion. They then attempted to apprehend her. This was where Lilth’s brain function seemed to cease, for just a moment. She had to go back and read it again. Then, she read it a third time, still not quite comprehending the words her eyes were seeing.
Twenty first demanded that Edalyn come with him to the Conformatorium, which, as one would expect, yielded nothing. However, after they failed to keep their grip on her, they noticed a second person, clutching the Owl Lady’s dress and hissing at them.
This additional being was described as a short, young witchling, somewhere between the approximate age of eight and eleven based on a quick estimation. According to the guard, they had a head of brown hair beneath a maroon, hand-knit beanie, a somewhat tan complexion, and golden eyes. Their clothing was described as a set of faded blue overalls, featuring a cartoon depiction of a bat demon at the chest, overtop a purple shirt.
Seeing a possible co-conspirator or a civilian fraternizing with a criminal - and by the Titan, she had never wanted to expel a guard member more than she did right then. Really now? Someone around the age of nine or ten, a co-conspirator? Even the worst performing squadrons in her Divisions weren’t so idiotic as to believe that!
Truly, what was Warden Wrath doing with his company in Bonesborough? She needed to have a serious discussion with him about his conduct as of late. Either way, seeing this additional person, Twenty attempted to apprehend them as well.
In response, the child bit down on their hand with far more force than one would expect of someone their age. Twenty, attempting to retract their hand, did manage to free it, but also caused additional damage as the child’s teeth shredded the flesh.
They were then promptly slammed with a magic-enhanced physical blow from a staff, causing them to skid across the pavement and crash into a stall across the path, which then collapsed on top of them. She felt no sympathy.
That was all rather shocking, but it wasn’t what kept bringing Lilith up short. No, it was what followed that had completely stumped her. According to the guard, just after the direct blow knocked them into the other stall, Edalyn stated, in quotation, “You do not get to touch my daughter.”
She had read this exact line five, six times now, and no matter how many times she went over it again, she found herself incapable of comprehending what was being said. She even traced a finger along the words, almost as if trying to extract answers from the paper through her touch, and yet, she had nothing.
When she jumped ahead, skipping past that sentence for the moment so that she could at least finish the report before she had a mental breakdown, she found herself even more baffled. According to Twenty, Edalyn called out to an additional being named King, telling this new person that they were all leaving. The child that emerged from the tent was not a witch, but a demon, though the exact descent was far too obscure to properly pin down.
The guard’s description of them wasn’t all that detailed, primarily because they had a concussion at the time from being hit and thrown so hard, but they still provided what they could recall. The demon was described as a black-furred being, about the size of a small Isles Hound pup, with an external skull on their head that had a set of two skeletal horns jutting out from the back, with one broken.
They demonstrated the ability to speak, though what Twenty was able to hear had the speech patterns of a very young child, pinning their possible age between three and six.
There was a vindictive part of Lilith’s mind that was grateful they had been given a concussion by the first blow. She feared they would’ve tried to apprehend the possible toddler as well, had they not, and if they did, she got the impression she would be scanning over a much different report.
The report ended with Twenty managing to climb out from the wreckage of the stall they’d been thrown into, just in time for the Owl Lady to finish packing away her stall in a heavily enchanted storage knapsack, not including the tent. Edalyn brought the two children onto her staff, and then flew off at a high speed.
The guard attempted to follow behind, but failed to halt their escape due to a combination of Edalyn moving too fast and Twenty’s active concussion. The only thing after that was a confirmation that they received treatment for their injuries from the Healing Coven.
There was simply too much information jumbled around inside of her head. She couldn’t manage to parse any of it, because none of it was processing. Edalyn referred to the first being as her daughter, but that simply did not make sense. Because Edalyn could not be a mother. Right?
Shouldn’t this have been discovered far earlier? Admittedly, the influx of information from the scouts stationed near to the Owl House was incredibly low due to a combination of factors, but still. A daughter? That wasn’t even counting the second being, who perhaps was not referred to as one of Edalyn’s children directly, but there was enough for an assumption. None of it made sense.
Then it abruptly clicked into place, sudden enough that her entire body jolted. Hastily, she reached over to the side, the motion causing several of the papers stacked atop her desk to fall and scatter to the floor. It was telling of her active mental turmoil, how she didn’t even spare a single thought towards the incredibly important documentation that was now strewn across the ground.
She flung a particular drawer open, and from it, drew out a copy of the latest rendition of Edalyn’s wanted poster. It had received two major revisions over the last two years. The first was a raise in her bounty price, but the second had been a visual update that had baffled Lilith for ages. It now made perfect sense.
Exactly one year, two months, and six cycles ago - not that she had been counting, or anything of the sort - the wanted poster had been updated to include an additional being, which the Bonesborough Police Precinct had consistently spotted accompanying the Owl Lady on the rare occasions she was seen in town on a cycle that her stall wasn’t open.
She had personally reviewed their evidence, and determined that the addition, as strange and discomforting as the presence may be, was done properly.
The being was spotted walking alongside Edalyn through the market one dreary morning, and was spotted an additional two times after that at random, significantly spaced intervals, with the assumption being that this unknown person had been traveling with Edalyn during the various times she hadn’t been spotted as well.
They had been wearing a large, velvet cloak, assumed to be enchanted with a concealing spell, as no details underneath the hood could be made out. They were also significantly shorter than Edalyn.
The only thing about the being themself that could be uncovered - and this detail had been added to the poster - was a small, five-fingered, distinctly witch-like hand with tan-colored skin, clutching Edalyn’s as the two walked alongside each other.
She slumped back as soon as it had properly processed in her mind. Of course. It all made perfect sense. The being on the poster was likely the exact same one that Twenty had recounted attempting to apprehend and being bitten by. Meaning they currently had an eight-to-eleven-year-old on a wanted poster worth well over seven hundred and fifty billion snails. Edalyn’s… daughter.
Edalyn was, apparently, a mother. She had, at minimum, a singular child, though it was more likely that she had two, based on the evidence. Edalyn, the wanted criminal known as the Owl Lady, who had dropped out of school and ran away to embrace the ways of the wild witches, was a mother.
Edalyn, who had a curse that forcefully contorted her into a vicious creature of unimaginable nightmare - a curse that Lilith had given her, may the Titan condemn her worthless soul - had two children, at least one of them seemingly by blood, if the golden eyes meant anything.
With a strangled sound tearing out from her throat, Lilith planted her head in her hands and wished for nothing more than to collapse into a pile of dust and bones. There was simply far too much to process, an excessive amount of information that she can’t comprehend.
The only thought on her mind was that her sister was a mother, and she simply couldn’t understand that yet. The papers, left strewn about the floor below, remain forgotten for hours after that.
Notes:
Chapter Word Count: 13,224
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2022-12-01
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2023-12-02
Chapter 3: Give Me a Chance to Shine
Summary:
It had been a great many years since she stood before this building. The thing was, Eda wasn’t here for herself this time - she had a young daughter that dreams of roaming through those same halls, with friends at her side and chaos in her wake. She was going to do whatever it took to make those dreams come true. Even if it meant setting foot in a place she swore she’d never return to.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The building towered into the sky before her, almost unnaturally so. She had thought that, as she grew older, it would at least start to seem a little smaller. Yet, it was almost as if it stretched higher than it ever had before. It felt as though the very walls were taunting her, and she couldn’t stop herself from scowling at it like it was an old enemy.
Even after a long and grueling twenty-eight years since she dropped out - all those years of training in wild magic, of the love and loss that she’d experienced, of finding her own way in life while she raised a pair of kids - standing before Hexside School of Magic and Demonics was intimidating.
Almost as intimidating as that very first cycle, when she started attending. Back when she and her sister strode down this very same paved pathway towards their early education classes, dropped off by their parents only a moment before.
She knew, realistically, that things were different now. She wasn’t the little fire-haired kid she used to be, the one who was top of the potion track with her sister just a step behind, using a pocket dimension to study every strain of magic in hopes of appeasing the Coven she’d been force-fed lies about her whole life so she could stay with her sister.
She’s not that freshly cursed teenager, either, who was using those same secret tunnels to hide away from everyone else, too afraid to talk to anyone because she was terrified of herself.
All of that had happened decades ago, memories that shouldn’t hold much of an impact anymore. They didn’t, really. It was just that her mind, cruel deceiver it was, had decided to dredge up all her old trauma.
Assuming they hadn’t changed the schedule too much since she roamed these halls, it should have been about fifteen or so minutes after the first class block of the cycle began. That meant they had around twenty-five minutes before class switched over from first period to second, so they probably wouldn’t be encountering any roaming students.
The only people out and about should be those hall monitors, the ones that she heard had been brought in somewhere around eight years ago. She wasn’t really all that worried about them. Rumors said they could smell trouble, but she was here as a mother, not a criminal. They’d recognize that.
She remembered a much simpler time, one that was so many years ago. Back when her fourteenth birthcycle had come and passed, only seven or so months away from the cycle she’d be cursed. She’d been riding off the high of her victory at the Instructing Future Witches of Tomorrow program. At the time, the threat of expulsion at Principal Faust’s hands had been the most terrifying thing she thought she’d ever face.
Those memories just made her smile, these cycles. To think, that was what she used to be afraid of. It wasn’t even a year before she was facing things far scarier than that, and her fears now were so much more terrifying.
Standing before the building that once took up so much of her life, she couldn’t help but wish times were that simple again. Back when she reigned supreme as Lord Calamity, where chaos was hers to cause and havoc followed closely behind her, with a pocket dimension etched through stone walls and fond memories tucked around every single corner. She suddenly found that she almost missed those cycles, when she was so blissfully naive. Almost.
The thing was, as much fear and uncertainty as she had muddling up her head, this wasn’t for her. That thought brought her down, settling the discomfort in her chest. She smiled slightly as the presence in the back of her mind calmed as well, the Owl Beast having grown restless at Eda’s turmoil.
No, she wasn’t here for something personal, not to settle any old scores or soothe her own consciousness. She swore she’d never come back, but it wasn’t about her anymore. She was here for someone else this time.
That someone else stood just beside her, two steps behind, with a tiny hand clutched tightly in Eda’s own. That someone else was a young half-witch, half-human girl. That someone had a head of brown, curly, unkempt hair that looks so much like Camila’s. That someone had a pair of familiar golden eyes atop her tan skin, a fang poking out from her lip, and two rounded ears. That someone, in Eda’s eyes, was one of the two most important people to ever exist across both of the realms.
At the end of it all, Eda’s daughter asked her to enroll, and she agreed. Because that little girl needed more than an at-home education could offer her. As Luz’s wide eyes soaked in the scale and atmosphere of the building they’d just arrived at, Eda understood perfectly. Sure, it was a damn bitter potion to choke down, but she got it.
Luz needed friends, connections, social interaction, the whole shebang. She needed to be able to make her own choices in life, to go where she wants to go, to be who she wants to be. The only kid even close to her age she interacted with regularly, not counting her brother, was Alliston’s son, Morton. But, he didn’t even really count as a kid anymore, since he was already eighteen.
None of that was even mentioning how rusty Eda had gotten with her Oracle and Abomination Magic - she used to know enough to raise entire armies of abominations, but it’s almost been a decade since the last time she actually bothered to make one, and who even needs Oracle Magic when scrying potions work just as well without having to wrangle a crystal-bound spirit?
Maybe the teachers here could give some better lessons on those topics than Eda ever could. Even if Luz had to use the Room of Shortcuts to spy on those classrooms instead of attending in person. Which, you know, was a bit of a blow to her pride, but, hey, she could admit that she didn’t actually know everything. She was modest like that.
What Luz needed most of all, Eda realized, was a group of close-knit friends. One of those groups that all enjoyed spending time with each other, who would have each other’s backs no matter what. Sort of like the one Eda had, when she was still in school. Because if her daughter had something like that, she’d thrive.
Eda’s little gang had fallen apart as they all grew distant from one another, but she still remembered the affectionately named ‘Hexside Squad’ fondly. She’d told her daughter so many tales of their exploits. It was nice, having a group of friends like that. The kind that grinned when you sat down at their lunch table, laughed at the jokes you cracked, and always stood by your side no matter the hardships you faced. It all seems so long ago to her, now.
That was back before Perry had gone and started his apprenticeship at the news agency. Before Alador had fallen in love with a bitch who didn’t love him back, and dropped the group in favor of giving her his undivided attention. Before Darius had graduated early and fallen off the face of Etin for years, only to suddenly emerge as a high ranking member of the Abominations Coven. Before Lily had begun to avoid Eda like the plague as soon as the curse came about. The only person who stuck around after everything was Raine, and even then, that didn’t last forever.
Honestly, though, Eda wasn’t worried about something like that happening to whatever companions Luz manages to form herself. No, her little sunshine would hold that group of friends together with everything she had, through thick and thin, even if the world had come to an end. That was just how Luz was.
Sometimes, to love was to let go. Eda blinked, mentally pausing at that thought. Alright, that analogy might be a little much, considering she was just enrolling her daughter at school, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t an important mindset!
She could easily keep Luz at home, and teach her everything she needed to know - not that Eda was going to stop teaching the kid, Luz wanted to be a wild witch just like her Mamá - and that would definitely keep her daughter safe. But it would also stifle the little girl.
She wanted her daughter to flourish, more than anything. She wanted to give that young owlet the chance to carve herself a place in the world, which was something that Eda never really had when she was younger. She wanted her daughter to forge her own path, with friends at her side and the most detailed understanding of magic possible at her fingertips.
When the options were laid out like that, it suddenly became a very easy decision to make. No matter how apprehensive she was about this, she understood that it was the correct choice. If Luz wanted to go to school, make some social connections, and learn more about the few things her mom struggles with teaching her, then Eda was damn well going to make that happen.
She took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the forest that surrounded the school, mixed with the hint of freshly polished stone that hadn’t changed in the last thirty years. Who would’ve thought that, one cycle, Eda the poor little runaway would actually come back to Hexside, this time with a kid of her own.
Underneath her deep crimson cloak - one with an enchanted hood that could fit all her hair, which she had up at the moment - there was a weight settled against her chest. It wasn’t even an emotional one this time!
She was wearing that pink baby carrier she’d purchased a few weeks ago around her abdomen, and it was occupied by her son. He was completely conked out, which was probably due to a combination of how early it was, the fact that he was weightless, and the darkness he was in beneath the cloak.
Just like the other cycle, her hand had been somewhat forced. She couldn’t leave him alone at home again. She didn’t even know how long this would all take, and it could very well be evening time before they finally stumbled back into their house - she would not subject her little boy to Hooty, and Hooty alone, for that long. So, she brought him along too.
Besides, he insisted on tagging along anyway, wanting to make sure this place would “treat big sis right!” and apparently, Eda completely sucked at saying no to her adorable children. She didn’t really mind, though. The weight of her son’s head settled against her chest, just like the little hand entwined in her own, was grounding.
“Mamá?” came the inquisitive voice of Eda’s baby girl. She glanced back at Luz, looking down to meet those two golden eyes. They were filled with curiosity and wonder at the building in front of them, but also, love and concern aimed right at Eda. “Pareces más asustada que yo... (You seem more scared than me...)” she joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Yeah. Eda was pretty sure the whole humor-when-nervous thing was something her kid had picked up from her. But it still managed to make her heart melt in fondness, so, was it really that bad?
For just a moment, Eda didn’t say a word. Just looked at her daughter’s face, eyes darting over those dimples that showed even in her nervous smiles, or the two chocolate-colored brows that were scrunched together in a display of her worry.
Then, Eda sighed, her gaze returning to the building that had inspired such a mix of emotions in her. “Lo soy, cariño, (I am, honey,)” she admitted, slipping into Español without even thinking about it. “I haven’t been here since I was about fifteen.”
That period of time hadn’t exactly been a pretty one. It had been towards the end of her Second High-Year, when she’d finally decided to disappear into the wild and find her true calling. Before she’d made that choice, everything just kept getting worse, and the further into the pit she fell, the harder it was to try and climb out.
Her sister refused to speak to her for a reason she still didn’t entirely understand, her family was crumbling apart with Dad out of commission while Gwendolyn was combing the Isles for one faux cure after the other, and the school just wasn’t capable - or willing, in a concerning number of cases - to help her manage her curse.
That was one of the reasons she was so reluctant to let Luz attend. She still remembered what it was like to have the Beast Keeping Coven called on her.
It had been the last in a string of downright terrible events, the final act that broke the frayed rope keeping her tethered to Hexside. She had fled that cycle, and didn’t turn back. Well, until now, she supposed.
She wouldn’t wish a fate like that on any of the other students she’d attended with, and she would gladly let the Owl Beast rip someone apart if they tried to pull that same stunt on her daughter. Her bodily roommate let out a vicious snarl in the back of her mind at that thought, agreeing with the sentiment.
“Oh,” Luz said, eloquently. Her expression scrunched up into a thoughtful one, like she was trying to tackle a problem. After a few seconds, she must’ve figured out what she wanted to say, because she perked up. “Don’t worry!” she declared confidently. She tugged on Eda’s hand in emphasis. “I’ll be brave for both of us!”
Every time Eda thought they’d reached the pinnacle of absolute adorableness, her kids somehow managed to one-up themselves. “You are far too pure for this world, sunshine,” Eda half-joked, leaning down for a moment to press a kiss into her daughter’s forehead. Luz beamed up at her, preening - in the normal way, not the bird way.
Then, Eda looked back towards the school, taking in the familiar white and green stone, the spires that continue to tower towards the clouds. “C’mon, kiddo,” she said. “We’ve got a principal to talk to. I’m sure Bumpikins is going to be ecstatic to see me”
Eda started walking forward, her daughter quick to follow along, trailing behind her like one of those baby Human Realm ducklings, which she only really remembered so well because of the many times she and Camila had gone to the lakeside to watch them. Luz hummed quietly beneath her breath. “Will he like me?” she asked, sounding worried at the idea that he wouldn’t.
There was a part of Eda that worried over the same question. One that was still a bit bitter about the past, and thought that Bump could’ve done more for her when she was at her lowest. It was no stretch of the imagination to assume that both of Eda’s offspring were likely to be labeled harbingers of the end times by the school faculty, mostly because of her own reputation.
But another part of her remembered that she was only able to reign as Lord Calamity because she was the top student of her track. That part of her also remembered that, despite the fact he’ll probably never admit it, Bump was somewhat fond of her.
Not to mention, there was one thing more important to him than anything else, and that was the safety and well-being of the students beneath his protection. She might’ve slipped through the cracks when she was under his care, but he had more than proven himself to put the defense of his wards above all else.
He might have a coven sigil on his wrist, but he earned his title through a true challenge of self discovery and sacrifice. One recognized through wild culture, just like she had. She trusted him. Probably more than she should, actually.
With that in mind, the answer was obvious. She sent a sideways smile towards her daughter, and said, “Trust me, he’s gonna love you, hun.”
He hadn’t become her principal until the last few months before she ran away, which meant he was a lot less open about how much he cared for her, but she knew he did. She knew for a fact that he’d be enamored with Luz, no matter the chaos she’ll leave in her wake. It was hard not to be.
Apparently, this had been the correct answer, because Luz sent her a beaming smile. With those worries settled, Luz skipped along, once more excited to see the place where Eda had, for a time, been crowned king.
It was almost a little surreal, to be walking down this path once again after all these years. She simultaneously felt like it had been far too long, and not nearly long enough. She definitely hadn’t expected to feel nostalgic about this, especially with all her apprehension, and yet, here she was, being all sappy. Titan, she’d gotten older, hadn’t she?
Honestly, it was kind of funny to her now, the fact that she got away with the shit she used to pull back then. She had been the worst troublemaker of them all, and she was fairly certain that half of the incidents involving her were still causing problems to this very cycle.
But nobody was ever able to stop her because she made the school look good. Top of the potions track, second best grudgby player on the school team, straight A’s even when she was spending the majority of her cycle spying on other classes instead of attending hers. She’d been a star student.
As much as some of the teachers wanted her expelled, even after Faust’s absolutely tragic and harrowing injury - of which, not a single student actually cared about - Bump simply refused, citing that her contribution to the school’s overall reputation was too great.
She liked to think that, behind those appeasing words he’d fed to the faculty that hated her the most, he also just didn’t believe she deserved to be kicked out. That he cared too much to let that happen. She didn’t really know, though. It was a bit hard to tell with him, sometimes.
The memories were a lot heavier here, but not exactly in a bad way. Some of them were even nice. Shocking, she knew. She remembered, as clear as looking through a pure gemstone, sitting on the steps that were just up ahead, laughing her ass off at yet another one of those pointless arguments between Lily and Darius, Raine sitting at her side with a dopey little smile on their face.
In those early cycles just after she’d carved Owlbert, she remembered flying between the pillars while Perry and Raine cheered her on like the little enablers they were, the three of them all laughing when she eventually slammed straight into the wall.
She remembered sitting down with Alador that cycle when he lost his beloved pet bat, where she spun up some wild and wondrous stories to make him feel better while Darius sat on the other side, an arm wrapped around him in solidarity.
All these memories kept bubbling up as she continued forward, washing over her like a comforting swim in the warm waters of the Ulnar River. Remembering the good times helped push away the worst of her experiences, leaving a fond smile on her face and a feeling akin to balm on a burn wound in her chest.
Those good memories helped steady her. She let them swell inside and bloom as she had begun to ascend the stairway at the front of the school, her daughter energetically jumping up each step like it was a game beside her. Sure, Eda had some bad experiences with the school that tainted her mind, but she knows things will be better this time.
She found herself grinning and letting out an encouraging cheer as Luz let go of her hand, only to start racing up the stairs on all fours, like the little gremlin child she was. Yeah, things would be just fine. They won’t do to her daughter what they did to her, and she’ll damn well make sure that’s the truth. Even if heads have to roll.
It had been a rather quiet morning, come to think of it. The amount of paperwork settled on his desk at the moment seemed to be on the lighter side of the spectrum, his schedule had yet to be interrupted with some inane issue that required his attention, and he was, admittedly, feeling rather content. In hindsight, he supposed that should’ve been his first indicator that something unexpected would happen.
The second warning Hieronymus had been given, one which he had also failed to heed, was that strange smile he’d received from the current top student of the Oracle Track, Bettna Straf.
Or, perhaps failing to heed would be an improper way of describing it. Oracles were incredibly difficult to deal with at the best of times, especially with their natural affinity towards being cryptic, so he hadn’t even realized it was a proper warning until much later in the cycle.
It shocked him that she was able to sense such an unexpected and sudden change on the horizon. When he’d asked her about it, much later in the cycle, she told him that she’d only sensed it because she’d been keeping track of a series of smaller shifts in the flow of the future that she couldn’t pinpoint the source of, all of which were quickly adding up to a significantly larger shift.
He had found himself rather impressed and convinced two of her teachers to provide her with a little bit of extra credit as a reward.
In his long-eldered hands, wracked with minute tremors from the bygone trauma they had endured, he held a steaming cup of his early morning coffee. Well, to be precise, it was the third cup he’d gotten that morning, as he was far too addicted, but unwilling to forgo his morning ritual. Nothing else succeeded at waking him up so early these cycles. He was standing at the window, watching the tail end of the sunrise cast the world in such beautiful colors through a pair of eyes that were not his own.
Some part of him missed seeing the sunrise in perfect clarity through his only eye - his other had been removed when he was merely an infant, after it had become severely infected, leaving the socket sewn shut for longer than he could remember - but he could not deny, he was simply happy to be able to see at all.
Palismen were crafted to be a witch’s lifelong companion, assisting them in a multitude of ways, and his own was no different in that regard. His palisman had been helping him see since he was carved, and that only became doubly important when his remaining eye was damaged far beyond repair. Frewin was his sight, his eyes, and he would be eternally thankful for that.
Like always, whenever he ruminated on his feelings towards his faithful friend, he heard a chittering voice echo in his head. ‘My choice, my duty,’ Frewin declared, speaking over their shared mental bond. Always so quick to remind him that his palisman was as dedicated to him as he was to his palisman.
Hieronymus huffed out a breath, his lips twitching into a slight smile. “Yes, yes, I know,” he murmured aloud, still just tired enough that he failed to consider sending the words back over the bond instead. “I will still remain thankful regardless.”
Frewin graced that with a chittering laugh, little imp that he was. Hieronymus just shook his head lightly, feeling fond with his companion. He supposed he had known exactly what he was doing, when he’d carved his palisman.
As with the majority of the mornings that he found himself wandering down this very same line of thought, he could recall the near-complete loss of his sight in perfect clarity. He frowned slightly, still watching the morning sky through his palisman’s eyes.
Some cycles, he could not help but marvel at the very fact he’d truly made it out alive, if badly beaten and forever scarred. Enicori were certainly a ferocious species of beast demon, rare as they tend to be in the modern age.
They stood upon a traditional set of four legs, but each of their appendages had external bone plating that was sharpened to a deadly point on both the front and back, as well as claws that could tear through even the strongest of forged metals. Combined with the spines running down their backs to their tails, which crackled with naturally harnessed lightning, facing one alone was a certain sentencing of death.
The ordeal had happened during a field trip to the volcanic regions of the Stomach, where a recent, yet relatively safe magma vein eruption had been attracting sightseers for weeks. At the time, he had only held the mantle of principal for just over three years, and so he often found himself chaperoning these extracurricular activities.
Only, what was supposed to be a relaxing trip had turned into a full-scale evacuation when the eruption had suddenly and dramatically intensified, leaving the rocky plains half-submerged in boiling lava. Then, to make matters exponentially worse, all the activity had drawn a monster.
There was no chance of escape without the enicori being held off, so Hieronymus had made a difficult choice, knowing very well that it could be his last. If it meant those under his protection may make it out alive, then so be it.
The fight had left him with several scars. His most obvious scar, being the one over his eye, had been obtained when the enicori had kicked him straight into - and through - a tree, though he was never quite sure if it had been the claws of the feet, or the bone plate of the back legs that caused the injury.
There was also a set of four deeply gouged claw marks across his stomach from a near fatal wound, and another long gash from one of the bone plates on the left side of his back, though very few had ever seen those particular injuries.
At one point or the other, he’d thrown his crossed arms up in an attempt to protect himself from another violent blow, only to catch a direct hit from the crackling tail. It was, quite possibly, the worst shock he’d ever experienced in his life. There was a reason as to why his hands trembled like they did, despite having little visible scar tissue, and as much as he might look the part, it was not simply because of his age.
He had not learned it until some time later, but a pair of witches had appeared while he was occupying the beast, and had successfully herded the children back to safety. One was a mentor, and the other was an apprentice.
He hadn’t even been made aware of their presence until the two had saved him, just before the enicori was to finish him off. It had been quite the surprise to realize that the two were true wild witches, and even more of one when he recognized the apprentice as one of the students he’d failed most.
She had brushed off his apologies, then, saying that she had found her true calling in life and held no animosity towards him. He still wondered just how truthful that had been, all these years later.
The mentor of the two, who had introduced herself as Geneva of no surname while she healed his wounds to the best of her ability, had been the one to bestow him with his title. He would not consider himself a wild witch, with his magic restricted by the sigil upon his wrist, but he certainly knew a lot about wild culture from his own research.
That meant he was aware of just how important such a title really was. He knew exactly what it meant for Geneva to bestow him with it. The title was something he kept close to his heart, felt in his soul. It defined him, in a way.
Sometimes, in moments of reflection like this, he found himself wishing so dearly that he had chosen a path in life similar to those two. Not bound to a single method of magic, but capable of using them all. He could do so much more to keep those under his charge safe, if only he had the ability to.
The family of Abomination Magic was a strong and powerful choice when it came to the Coven-types, but he could not disregard how stifling it was. Especially for one so attuned with several families of magic, like he had been, back in his youth. His affinity for them all would have served him well, he believed.
He shook his head lightly. It would have, he knew this to be true, but then, he would not be where he was now. Here, as Principal of Hexside, he had a significant majority of the modern cycle’s youth placed under his protection.
Being a wild witch would perhaps give him more strength and power to keep them safe, but what would that matter, if the charges he sought to protect and teach would never be entrusted to him in the first place? No, for all that he disparaged the coven system in the safety of his own mind, he would not trade what he had now for what he could’ve had then.
The sound of his office door opening brought him out from his reverie, and after one last gaze at the glowing horizon, he turned away from the window.
Leaning through the entrance was one of his personally-chosen hall monitors, and even with the face-obscuring mask, he was almost instantly able to recognize who it was. They cleared their throat before speaking. “Principal Bump, sir?”
For a moment - and only a moment, nothing more - he could see someone else standing in the doorway. Well, rather, the same person, simply at a different stage in life. A much younger version of themself, tucking their strawberry hair behind their ear nervously as they tugged at the strings of their knapsack, adorned in the blue uniform of the Healing Track.
He spared a smile at the overlapping memory. “Yes, Monitor Lixt?” he asked, intentionally using their name. It was partially out of spite, as the PCA kept pushing for further anonymity among the hall monitors, ignoring his opinions on the matter entirely. “Is something the matter?”
There was a momentary pause, one so short that most wouldn’t have even noticed it. He liked to imagine that, underneath the mask they’d been forced to wear, they were smiling at being recognized so quickly. “No sir,” they replied. “There’s a walk-in parent here, if you’re available.”
Ah. Walk-Ins were a necessity with such an open campus like Hexside’s. If a parent needed to, then they may enter at any time of the cycle and request an audience with whoever they wish to speak with.
Most of the time, if they wish to meet with him in particular, it was to speak about the status of their child’s education, or discuss what track they believed their child would be best suited to. Of course, seeing as he was the principal of the entire campus, there were plenty of other reasons for parents to seek out an audience with him.
“Mm,” Hieronymus hummed in acknowledgement, before lifting his coffee cup to his lips and taking another long drink. Admittedly, he did not get walk-ins very often himself. Most will just schedule an appointment instead. Some cycles, he was so busy that any walk-ins could end up waiting hours just to meet with him.
He wondered, absently, who it could be. Most parents tended to have occupations or other major factors that kept them from coming in this early, so the majority of his meetings with them tended to take place later in the afternoon.
Could it be a parent simply wishing to check in on their child’s grades, hoping that their presence early in the cycle would guarantee them an audience? Maybe a parent had dropped their child off, only to realize that they’d forgotten what cycle it was, and needed to pick their child up for an upcoming doctor’s visit?
Or, perhaps, it would be yet another case of enrollment? Normally, he would’ve passed such a role to a member of his faculty, but, well. The Coven had demanded he handle them personally, and far be it from him to ignore such a request.
Well, he was fairly certain there was no reason to delay. Lowering the cup from his mouth, he offered a light shrug. “I suppose I do have some free time this morning.” Then, after a second-long pause, he gave himself a nod of affirmation, confirming the spoken thought. “Yes, that should be fine. If you would be so kind as to send them in?”
With a nod of acceptance and a response of “Yes sir!” Monitor Lixt whirled around in a circle, disappearing back out into the hallway. Slowly, the wooden door comes to a close behind them, leaving him alone for the time being.
Walking back to his desk, he settled down comfortably in his chair, content to await the parent’s arrival in momentary silence. Then, he let out a small sigh, his gaze wandering around his room, flicking across the office that he’d claimed as his own for nearly three decades.
After Principal Faust’s terrible accident - where a stray ball in an intense grudgby game against Glandus had shot directly towards his, ah, self-proclaimed throne, slamming into the podium box with enough force to create a small explosion - the position of principal had been passed down to him, as he had been vice principal at the time.
Looking back, it was almost comical, just how quickly the staff were willing and able to replace any evidence of Faust’s existence. By the next morning, pictures that had apparently been immediately commissioned by school faculty and painted overnight by the Artistry Coven were hung up in the office, depicting his own likeness. The ones scattered across the campus had been replaced before his first cycle as Principal had even concluded.
As he had long suspected, it would seem that not a single person had supported the late principal. Truthfully, he must admit that he felt the same. Time and time again, Hieronymus had tried to argue against the absurd policies that Faust would institute, and had been denied at every single end.
Punishments, he understood. There needed to be something that discouraged the breaking of rules, or else there was no use having them in the first place. But suspensions and expulsions for simply not being early enough, which was only one example of what that draconian tyrant had tried to implement, was far too much.
What had happened to him was a tragedy, Hieronymus would not deny that. But he would admit, he was rather relieved those dreaded years were over. His train of thought puttered off as the handle of his office door twisted.
He would not find out until much later in the cycle, but the very second the door began to open with a soft creak, the river of fate shifted into a new course. It was so sudden and so violent that it could be felt by every single oracle across the Boiling Isles.
Being locked away to abomination magic as he was, he had not experienced it for himself since his youth, but on a grander scale, oracle magic was something akin to a set of cosmic strings, playing an ever changing song. Most did not realize just how close oracle magic was to bard magic, the more wild-inclined side of him pondered.
One of the oracle students he would go on to question later in the cycle - a young girl with a crescent-shaped head named Celine - described the disturbance as a discordant chime, so loud and dramatic that it physically hurt, before the entire song abruptly changed. Like several of the band members had played the wrong note, and the entire band chose to play a completely different song in response.
Numerous students had clutched their heads and let out cries of distress at the unexpected, rather intense feeling of dramatic change. Two had even passed out, and needed to be temporarily brought to the Healing Office. Several of the school’s crystal balls had suddenly and violently cracked, including numerous that were in active use.
Some of them - thankfully, only ones that were left in storage or still sitting on shelves - had even shattered, becoming nothing more than useless glass as their bound spirits escaped into the aether.
Just as young Straf would go on to describe, they were all signs of an unprecedented, monumental change. One so potent, yet so unforeseen, that thousands of possible futures had been snuffed out all at once, only to be replaced with millions more.
He was not entirely sure of the exact metric, but the last time he could recall such an extraordinary shift was when he had still been a student of Hexside himself. He had not yet joined the Abominations Coven at the time, so he had actually felt it first-hand, though he honestly forgot what it felt like until young Celine had reminded him with a recounting of her own experience.
It had happened the very moment Glandus surrendered, marking the end of the war between the schools. That had been almost fifty years ago, now. It had ended up being such an important event that Emperor Belos himself addressed it, publicly succeeding the campus to Hexside after a victory well earned, while also declaring that he’d be funding the construction of a new Glandus campus closer to the chest.
All of that thought was much later, though. In the present, he’d caught sight of a wisp of silver hair, the light tint of orange being the only remainder of the color it once was, along with a flash of red fabric, and that was all he’d needed to immediately recognize her.
Perhaps he had not seen her beyond her wanted posters or the occasional chance passing in the nearly twenty-five years since she and her mentor had saved his life, but she was still so startlingly familiar.
She had an incredibly pale complexion, cast beneath a mane of graying hair, and though he could not see it right then, he knew that there was a yellow gem embedded in her chest with a black liquid always dancing inside. The only thing that had thrown him off for a moment was the crimson cloak she was wearing, with a carved wooden owl as the clasp. It didn’t quite disguise her, but made her just a smidge less obvious.
Her first words, delivered so flatly that it was more of a statement than a question, were, “How has this office literally not changed whatsoever in the last twenty-eight years.”
Now, there were many, many responses that a man in his position could have to a situation like this. Even though he never really demonstrated it, he was rather fond of her. That didn’t mean he couldn’t admit that she was a complete and utter menace, and her mere presence at his school had dredged up every single memory of the mayhem she wrought in her time as a student.
For the first few moments, the fact that she had been let in for a parent walk-in - which either required a child present, or a registered child within the school records - had completely spaced his mind.
He slumped in his chair, letting out what could possibly be his longest, most defeated sigh of all time. He utterly despised the way it made her perk up, as if she’d achieved some arbitrary victory. “It appears I did not drink enough coffee this morning,” he lamented. Then, he tipped his head back and downed what remained in his cup with a smooth motion.
In his office’s doorway stood Edalyn Clawthorne, with the full glory of a forty-year-old suffering from a curse that made her age appear exacerbated. She looked somewhat proud of herself for already causing him a headache with her mere presence.
Yet, there was something else to her posture, he noticed. He thought she almost looked… nervous. It was certainly interesting, to see the adult version of Lord Calamity look nervous, of all things.
“Hey, I’m on my best behavior!” she announced. She tugged her hand closer, which he hadn’t even realized was holding something just outside of the doorway. A smaller figure stepped into view, and, for just a moment, Hieronymus found himself stunned speechless. “I have a good reason to be here.”
Standing at Edalyn’s side was a young witchling. Based solely on his own estimation, he believed they were somewhere around the age of ten, if not younger. It was very, very easy for him to quickly connect some dots.
The child might have had a more tan skin tone than Edalyn, but those golden eyes were as recognizable as ever. They had curly chocolate-brown hair, which was left in an adorable, if rather unruly state, in a way that only served to further remind him of Edalyn’s own wild mane.
He did note, with a quiet bit of interest, that their ears were inexplicably round, which were an exceedingly rare shape on the Isles and usually antiquated with humans. At the very least, if their other parent was a human, it ruled out a certain bard.
The child blinked owlishly at him - and wasn’t that quite the funny thought? - as they met his gaze, hiding behind Edalyn’s leg and shyly peeking around. He couldn’t quite help it; his eyes widened as everything slotted into place, and he leaned back in his chair, contemplating. His hands came together automatically, fingers steepled.
It was only now that he recalled Edalyn had been allowed in for a parent walk-in. He never considered that Edalyn Clawthorne, the infamous Owl Lady, the legendary Lady of the Night, would have become a mother.
Yet, as someone who played a major role in her upbringing, even if he had failed to protect her as he should have, he could not shake the feeling that motherhood almost seemed to suit her. Even at a single glance, he could tell that she fit into the role better than he might have thought she would, had he ever considered the possibility.
“Well, this is quite the interesting development,” he admitted, not missing the way Edalyn twitched, trying to gauge something from his reaction. He supposed that was fair. He had heard not even a whisper of the Owl Lady having a child, despite the fact that she was a wanted criminal, so, perhaps he was now included among a short list of those who were aware.
“Take a seat, Edalyn,” he added calmly, drawing a spell circle. A pair of chairs floated over from the edge of the room, settling themselves in obvious invitation.
It was rather interesting to watch as Edalyn led the young child forth quietly, seeming so much more calm than he recalled her being the few times he’d seen her. Or, perhaps calm wasn’t the right word. He could clearly see just now nervous she was about this meeting. Rather, she seemed… steady. Balanced. As though she had spent many of her recent cycles in happiness, with less burdens weighing down on her shoulders.
Yes, he found himself thinking, noticing the laugh lines etched into her face, and the softness in her posture that he had never seen in her before. Motherhood certainly did seem to suit her.
As Edalyn settled down, her child climbed up onto the chair beside her. They still looked a bit shy and nervous, but they also showed a hint of excitement. How interesting.
He turned his gaze back to Edalyn as she began to unlatch the owl clasp of her cloak, before parting it to the side, and revealing an occupied baby carrier. He blinked, his hidden eyebrows raising in shock yet again.
Tucked comfortably into the pink carrier was a very tiny demon child, their species unrecognizable to him. They had black fur covering their rather animal-esque form, with lighter fur on their belly and at the end of their fluffy tail, as well as an external skull on their head that almost looked vaguely familiar, though he could not say why. They appeared to be deeply asleep for the moment.
Seemingly content to avoid the actual conversation for just a moment longer, Edalyn turned to her child, and asked in a low voice, “Can y’carry your brother for a little bit, hun?”
Ah. Of course. Revelation after revelation, it would seem. Edalyn was not only a mother, but a mother of two, with one of them exceedingly young in age - though, he wasn’t able to estimate precisely how old the demon child was, simply because he hadn’t a clue what species they could possibly be. They almost seemed the size of a witchling less than two years old, but they could also just be a very small demon, so he chose to wait for more clues before making an assumption.
It was almost as if every time he drew close to finishing a painted picture in his mind, something new was introduced to the canvas. He supposed that Edalyn had always succeeded in subverting his expectations.
The witchling child gave a cheerful hum of “Mmhmm!” before they reached over to extract the young demon - their brother - from the baby carrier. Once they were holding him in their arms, something even more peculiar happened.
He had never known a witch to purr before, but suddenly, the sound rumbled into existence in the witchling’s chest. A moment later, seemingly in his sleep, the tiny demon copied the sound, releasing a much higher-pitched purr. Though he wasn’t planning to admit such a thing aloud, it was sickeningly adorable.
Very vaguely, Hieronymus could recall some biology textbook he’d long since forgotten the details of, mentioning how witches had the ability to make such a sound, but hadn’t done something so “animalistic” in well over a century. It was interesting to see that this child seemingly continued to do so in spite of that.
In the back of his mind, he pondered why that may be. He had a… suspicion, of sorts, that it was something related to Edalyn’s ailment. But it was one that he did not wish to entertain, unless he was presented with further evidence.
Finally, Edalyn turned her attention back to Hieronymus, her children left thoroughly distracted with their mutual purring for the time being. She wrung her hands together, a small habit he’d watched her develop following the infliction of her curse.
He could not help but wonder, what was it that had her so wound up? Perhaps the memories of this place? Or, maybe, it was centered around the reason that had brought her here, which he believed was very likely tied to the young child in the other chair, who he hadn’t known existed just five minutes prior?
He had a vague idea of what Edalyn was planning to do, but he still wasn’t entirely sure if it was correct. Why would she want to enroll her child in Hexside?
To break the silence that had settled in the room - not counting the purring, of course - Edalyn spoke first. “Been a while since I’ve sat here, huh?” she asked, almost rhetorically. Her voice was less tense than he expected. “I gotta admit, it’s extra weird without you yellin’ at me for pickin’ fights or stealing.”
She leaned back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other. Hieronymus was fairly sure she only did to stop herself from kicking her feet up on his desk, which he appreciated. This banter, at least, was familiar.
He brought a hand to his chin, stroking it in absent thought. She was so startlingly similar to the child she used to be, and yet, more different than he knew how to describe. “Indeed,” he answered simply. “Some things certainly have changed.”
He sent a significant glance over to the young child, who stared back with a curious, though weary gaze. Their head was tucked against their brother’s external skull, and though they seemed uncomfortable, they continued purring, as if trying to convince themself that everything was alright.
With a small hum beneath his breath, he looked back at Edalyn. “I’m under the impression this will be a long discussion.”
Much to his surprise, she didn’t even bother trying to deny it. “Eh, probably?” she said, giving a light shrug of her shoulders. After a moment of pause, however, something in her blasé attitude cracked, and Edalyn sighed.
“Okay, look. I’m not gonna beat around the thornbush here,” she began, her tone suddenly serious in a way that had Hieronymus straightening slightly. “We both know things didn’t end up well when I attended Hexside, for a lot of different reasons. Don’t,” she lifted her hand in a halting motion, stopping Hieronymus just as he opened his mouth to speak. He remained silent, allowing her to continue. “Don’t apologize. You already did, and I told you we were good. I never really blamed you.”
Edalyn jerked her chin towards the little witchling beside her, who blinked at him curiously. “But despite the things I’ve told her about my childhood, my kid kept an open mind, and she wants to enroll anyway,” she explained, her voice resolute. “If that’s what she wants, then I’m gonna make it happen.”
Yet again, he was struck with that strange sense of dissonance between this woman that sat before him, and the child she once was. To willingly push past one’s selfish desires for the betterment of their children… well, he knew better than most that such a thing was a mark of a good mother.
Perhaps he was not a parent himself, even if he had occasionally considered such an idea, but he knew enough to understand what made one decent.
“Alright,” he said, giving her a small nod. “I will not apologize again, if that is what you wish. However, I will repeat that what happened in your case was a complete and utter failure on behalf of the education staff, and my own. It has never, and will never, happen again.” There were few who would appreciate the effort he had put in towards setting up systems for those suffering from curses.
Aside from Edalyn, and possibly her child - her daughter, most likely, as Edalyn had used female pronouns for them - he could count the number of cursed students on one hand. But not once had a cursed student been singled out and ostracized since Edalyn. “On that, you have my word,” he promised.
Something in his conviction must be convincing enough to her, because she nodded firmly in response, some of the tension that had built in her shoulders easing away. “Good,” was all she said.
With that part of the conversation finished, Hieronymus lifted his finger and drew a spell circle, before opening his hand in time to catch the clipboard as it appeared from thin air. He carefully didn’t react to the flash of awe that dawned over the little witchling’s expression, instead reaching over and grabbing the quill from his ink vial.
Only then did he turn his attention towards the child. “Hello, young one,” he offered. “My name is Hieronymus Bump, though Principal Bump will suffice, and I go by male pronouns. What might your name be?”
The child still appeared to be a little shy, hugging her brother tightly as though he were a stuffed animal. Not that the sleeping little demon seemed to mind. “Uhm, Luz Clawthorne, sir,” she said.
Then, after a short pause, Edalyn gave her child - Luz - a nudge with her elbow. Luz blinked, then perked up, seemingly remembering something. “Oh, uh, she/her?” she tacked on, looking toward her mother for approval.
Edalyn smiled, giving her daughter a tiny nod, which made Luz smile back. It was an intriguing interaction to watch unfold. Hieronymus raised an eyebrow at the exchange, but wisely refrained from commenting, lest Edalyn take some kind of offense.
“It is nice to meet you, young Luz,” Hieronymus told her. Though still nervous, she sent a smile towards him this time, and he offered a slight one back. “As I’m sure you are already aware, I was first Vice Principal, then Principal, when your mother originally attended Hexside.” He absently tapped the quill on the corner of the clipboard. “If I may, what is it that has brought you to want to enroll?”
Already, Luz was beginning to look just a little less shy, though she was still cuddling her brother for comfort. She had begun to lightly kick her feet below the desk. “Well, I, uhm. I-I know Mamá doesn’t really want me to, ‘cause she didn’t have a good time when she was here, but… but I don’t have any friends.”
Realization dawned over Hieronymus after only a moment. Of course. She was not only the daughter of a wild witch, but also the daughter of a notorious criminal addled with a dangerous curse. If he was to hazard a guess, she probably didn’t leave her house all too often.
It was very unlikely, then, that she would find herself placed in social situations where making friends became a possibility. At least, outside of a consistent source of social interaction, like that which was offered at a school.
“I see,” he said. Still, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t misinterpreting what she was implying, so he continued in a careful tone. “Am I correct in assuming you do not leave your house very often, and as such, have little chance to meet other children?”
“Mmhmm,” Luz hummed, nodding. “I usually gotta wear a cloak when I go out, too, ‘cause the Coven Guard are really mean and don’t like Mamá, so I don’t talk to a lot’a people.”
He was concerned with the implications behind that - had the Coven Guard attempted to harm this child? - but stayed silent as she continued to ramble. “I get to go to the slayground sometimes, though! But, the kids there are waaay younger than me, and I dunno if they really count as friends, y’know? I have a lot of mu-tu-als on Penstagram, too, but, uhm, I don’t think they’re really my friends either.”
It was readily apparent to him that this was a witchling desperate for social contact. He could already tell that she would thrive in the social sphere present amongst Hexside’s students.
“Pursuit of the more social aspects offered at Hexside is certainly a valid reason for enrollment, and I can assure you that you will be able to find friends in the students here,” he told her. “But what of your educational interests?”
He had almost been worried that she would seem upset or indifferent, but instead, Luz visibly perked up in excitement. “I really, really like learning new stuff!” she declared proudly. “Mamá teaches me a lot, and she’s the smartest witch on the whole Isles! But, uhm, sometimes, there’s stuff she doesn’t really know as much about, like oracle magic. I wanna learn everything so I can be as great of a witch as she is, and school teaches a lot of it!”
As Luz continued to pile compliments on top of the one unintentional slight against her skill, Edalyn began to blush profusely. His own amusement grew, to the point where he almost chuckled aloud. In the confines of their mental bond, Frewin had no such qualms, and let out a chittering laugh freely.
“Of course, of course.” It only made sense that she would want to learn everything she could. He was certain her mother had already mentioned the Room of Shortcuts that she was likely convinced he didn’t know about. “I would expect nothing less from the daughter of Edalyn Clawthorne.”
For a moment, he scanned over his clipboard, mumbling a few of the questions to himself and filling them in with preliminary answers. After all, this was only a pre-enrollment starting point for the paperwork he’d need to compile later. The genuine enrollment application would be filled out by Edalyn herself.
Then, he reached a section that he already knew was going to be contentious. “Ah, yes.” he began, sighing. “Now, I know this is going to be a difficult question, but it is necessary. What would you say your largest interest is, when it comes to the various types of magic?”
Edalyn sent him a sharp look, which he did his best to ignore. He knew she was likely displeased beyond measure with the requirement, but he had little choice to do anything else except uphold it.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Luz was also aware of the implications behind such a question. He watched as her shoulders sagged slightly, clearly understanding what he was truly asking. “Uhm, I… I don’t really know?” she said. “I like learning all the magic!”
Admittedly, he almost continued on that line of questioning. He had even opened his mouth, intent on explaining that they would need to narrow down her interests so that they might determine which specific track would be a good fit for her. Before he could, however, he found himself pausing.
This was an important and fundamental question for the enrollment process, that much was true. But, perhaps, it would be better for him to hash out the details with Edalyn instead. Even if they were absolutely going to argue on the matter, she would likely know best what subject Luz would thrive in, perhaps even better than Luz herself would.
In spite of her clear nervousness about this whole meeting, he could easily tell that Luz was a bright, happy child. She had a certain demeanor to her, one that spoke of easy smiles and excited babbling. It was readily apparent that she was trying her hardest to regain her normal attitude, and he could admit to himself, he did not wish to see that growing bit of positivity falter, which was very likely to happen if he pushed forward on this subject.
“Hmm,” he hummed to himself. Yes, the more he considered it, the more he realized he needed to change his method of approach. He would need to speak to Edalyn alone, and what better way to do so than to send young Luz on a tour of the school?
It would help her begin to form a mental map of the campus, as well as introduce her to the specifics of the track system. He already knew she would be enrolled, no matter what track she ended up in. There was no world in which he denied enrollment to someone of the Clawthorne lineage.
“Perhaps a tour of the campus is in order, so you may see every option we offer,” he proposed. “If you are comfortable with it, another student could show you around the school, while me and your mother discuss the more technical specifics of your enrollment.”
Luz blinked at the suggestion, before a smile quickly appeared on her face. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “That sounds really nice, Mr. Bump sir.” Edalyn remained silent, but her smirk and raised eyebrow informs him that she’s well aware of what he was trying to do. At the very least, it wasn’t disapproval, which was better than just a few seconds ago.
Hieronymus flashed an amused smile at the title bestowed upon him. Part of him suspected that the lack of nicknames wouldn’t last, so he’d take what he could get. “Then that is what we shall do,” he confirmed. “Now, who to assign as your tour guide…” He trailed off as he considered the conundrum.
Under most circumstances, he would likely have a top student provide the tour, as they could afford to miss a lesson or two, and were usually all too happy to receive the offered extra credit. Yet, he could not help but consider an alternative.
Despite what many might think, Principal Bump was not completely unaware of what went on between the student body. He may be forced to turn a blind eye to the behavior of certain students, either due to high family status or a parental presence on the PCA, but he was well informed on who had what social standing.
Recently, a specific name had come up more and more often, accompanied by the moniker of ‘Half-a-Witch,’ spoken where it was believed he couldn’t hear. It was not entirely clear why this reputation had suddenly been attached to such a kind-hearted young child, nor who seemed to be cultivating it, but he did know that their best friend had seemingly cut all ties to them as a result.
Or, perhaps, knowing what he did about the Blight Family and the concerning behavior of its matriarch, it was the cutting of ties that came first, with the faltering reputation that followed after. Hm. He should keep a closer eye on young Amity, just in case.
He couldn’t help but feel as though there was an opportunity buried within this whole ordeal, one that would allow him to silently help out a young student in need. It would also kickstart young Luz’s pursuit of friendship, which she stated was one of her main reasons for attending.
“Ah, yes.” He nodded to himself, assured in his decision. “I believe I have the perfect candidate in mind.” Reaching over to his slightly modified crystal ball, which sat at the edge of his desk, Hieronymus pulled it closer and flipped a switch on the side.
The mist inside the crystal ball flashed with the image of a microphone, indicating that the intercom system was now active, which allowed him to speak through all of the scream bells around the school’s campus. Clearing his throat, he spoke steadily into the receiver. “Willow Park to the Principal's Office, please.”
Alright, she’ll admit it. When she heard her name spoken over the intercom, she might have panicked a tiny bit. It definitely was not helped by the expectant glances from the other students, or the look of pity that Professor Hermonculus sent her.
She did her best to not look back at anyone else, especially not Amity, because she didn’t think she could take anymore of the cold glares, or the comments about her magic. She just gathered her things meekly, trying her absolute hardest to ignore the snickering and whispering that broke out around her, before stepping out of the classroom.
As she stood in the empty hallway, she released a breath she hadn’t even noticed she was starting to hold. Her shoulders slumped. She was almost eleven, this stuff shouldn’t even be getting to her! She was a big kid now! Annoyingly, that didn’t make it hurt any less. With a shake of her head, she’d begun heading down the hall towards the Principal’s Office.
She really hoped that she wasn’t getting in trouble. She didn’t think she’d done anything all that wrong in the last few cycles, especially something that would warrant a call up to the office.
She froze for a moment as a thought occurred to her. What if her dads had decided to come in and ask about her grades, and she was getting called up because they found out that she was only passing in her Abomination Theory classes?
But, as soon as that fear came, she shoved it aside, and forced herself to keep walking. No, that couldn’t have been it, both of her dads were supposed to be at work. She’d watched Dad head out early while she was getting ready for school that morning, and Papa always went to his job after he dropped her off.
Had she actually broken a rule at some point? She didn’t remember doing anything all that bad, except maybe letting Augustus ride around in her empty abomination cauldron the other cycle. But there wasn’t actually a rule against that, so it was fine, right? She thought so, anyway. She hadn’t even had another slip-up, and accidentally used her plant magic when she wasn’t supposed to!
Maybe Principal Bump just wanted to talk about her grades? She shoved down the small bit of hope that wondered if he was summoning her to tell her that she was being switched to another track, feeling guilty for the thought.
Her dads really, really wanted her to succeed in this track. It had the best opportunities, they said. Maybe she still couldn’t get abomination magic to work for her, or actually make an abomination at all, but she would keep trying! She wouldn’t disappoint them! She wouldn’t!
So lost in her thoughts, she didn’t even realize she had already walked the entire way to the office until she was suddenly standing right in front of the door, blinking up at it nervously. With a deep breath to calm her nerves - she didn’t do anything wrong, she wasn’t in trouble, she wasn’t - she stepped forward and pushed open the office door.
She didn’t actually know what she was expecting. Maybe just that Principal Bump would look at her, calmly tell her to sit down as he summoned a chair for her, and explain why she was actually called up here?
She definitely wasn’t expecting to see two other people sitting down across from the principal’s desk, who turned around to peer at her.
In the chair to her right was another kid, probably somewhere around her age. They looked at her with curious golden eyes under a curly mess of brown hair, one of their little fangs poking out from their upper lip. She didn’t even fully process the implications until a minute or two after, but their ears were very circle-y.
In their arms was a small, black-furred demon creature, with their skull on the outside of their head. Maybe they were some kind of pet?
But, honestly, the person in the chair on the left caught her attention way more than the other kid did. They were a lot taller than Bump, wearing what Willow thought was a red dress that was torn at the bottom, but it was a bit hard to tell since they also had a darker red cloak draped over top of it. Their hair reached as far down as their midsection, even more untamed than the other kid’s hair, and was a faded orange color with several completely white strands going through it.
Their skin was very pale, and they had the same golden eyes as the kid beside them. They also had one of those golden fang screw-on caps poking out from their mouth. They looked really, really familiar for some reason, but Willow couldn’t figure out why. Maybe she’d seen them before?
She swallowed nervously, shuffling in place. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t want to seem weird in front of people she didn’t know!
She quickly forced herself to look at Principal Bump, meeting his gaze. “Y-You, uhm, wanted to see me, Principal Bump?” she managed to ask, trying - and probably failing miserably - to hide how nervous she was.
“Indeed,” Principal Bump answered. He gestured towards the other kid, who tilted their head in curiosity as they looked at Willow. “This is Luz, a prospective student wishing to enroll here at Hexside, and she is in need of a tour around the campus,” the principal explained. “You are present on the list of students capable of providing one. Would you be willing to guide this tour? If you choose to, you will be excused from any classes you end up missing, and will be provided with extra credit.”
Willow blinked, surprised. That wasn’t what she… she had completely forgotten that she applied for the tour program in a desperate bid to get more extra credit in her failing classes. That had been months ago, and she’d never actually been asked to do a tour in that time, so it sort of fell out of her mind while she focused on trying to figure out why she couldn’t make an abomination.
“I-I’d be glad to show them around, sir!” she managed after a few seconds of awkward silence, blushing at how squeaky her voice sounded. The weirdly familiar adult looked very amused at Willow’s embarrassment, which only made her blush harder. At least the other kid, Luz, wasn’t laughing at her. They just looked sort of confused. “Is there, uhm, anything you really want me to cover?”
Thankfully, Principal Bump didn’t say anything about how obvious it was that she was nervous. “Oh, nothing all that specific, I would think,” he said, keeping his voice calm in a way that helped ease the anxiety in her chest. “At the very least, a general guide to the layout of Hexside shall suffice, including any areas you deem especially important for a new student to know of, as well as an explanation of the nine tracks offered at this school.”
Despite how nervous she still felt, Willow needed that extra credit. Even then, it wasn’t like she was going to say no to helping out another student - or, well, future student. “You can count on me, Principal Bump!” she said, doing her best to be brave. She must’ve managed it somehow, because he simply nodded, smiling slightly.
Maybe Luz won’t like her, and they’ll call her Half-a-Witch like everyone else did. But, maybe they won’t do that, either. Augustus didn’t, so, surely there had to be more people out there who wouldn’t want to be mean to her, right? Maybe?
For some reason, the older person who must be Luz’s parent smiled at Willow’s attempt of bravery, as if they’d realized something. Gently, they pat Luz on the back. “Alright, sweetheart, go on,” they said, speaking for the first time since Willow had entered the room. “I’ll see you when you’re done explorin’ my old stomping grounds.”
Stomping grounds? Willow tilted her head, curious. Just who was this mysterious older person?
“M’kay!” Luz exclaimed, which was also the first time they’d spoken. They paused, looking down at the little demon held in their arms, before looking back up at who Willow was steadily growing more certain had to be their parent. “Should I take King with me, too?”
“Nah, lemme have him,” the older adult answered, reaching towards the demon. Luz lifted the little pup up, letting their parent take them, who tucked the demon into the crook of their arm like a baby. “Now, shoo,” the adult said, “go explore the fancy-schmancy school you convinced me to let you attend. I’ll get everything settled here, like, ugh, paperwork.”
Luz giggled at the clear disgust, and despite herself, Willow almost did too. She didn’t know an adult could sound that indignant. But then, Luz turned towards her, smiling. Willow smiled back nervously, and held the door open for them, before following them out. She stepped ahead, leading the two of them down the hall.
They walked in awkward silence for a few moments. Willow wanted to break it, and start talking, but she wasn’t sure what she should say. How do you start a conversation with someone you don’t know? Golly, the only person she regularly spoke to - not counting all the people that bullied her - was Augustus. When was the last time she actually had a chat with anyone else? Oh Titan, she forgot how to talk to people!
Wait, wait, she knew what to do! Introductions! You’re always supposed to introduce yourself to someone, and give them your pronouns so they know what to call you. That was what her Dad and Papa told her to do.
“Uhm, I, I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself!” she said, turning to look at Luz and trying not to seem as nervous as she felt. “I’m Willow Park, she/her.”
Luz blinked, and for one very short moment, Willow was afraid she’d already made a mistake. But then, they smiled brightly. Like they were actually happy to talk to Willow. “Oh, ‘m Luz Clawthorne!” they offered. “Same pronouns. Nice to meet you, Willow!”
Maybe… maybe they wouldn’t be mean. Nobody who was mean had ever told Willow that it was nice to meet her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but… she didn’t want to think about that right now.
“You too!” she replied, though she was a little caught up on something specific. Clawthorne, Clawthorne, why did she know that surname? Was that related to why she felt like she was supposed to know who the adult back in the office was? Maybe it was one of the old and powerful families, like the- like the Blights?
Ugh, why did her thoughts keep circling back to that? She absolutely did not want to think about the Blight Family right now! In a bid to distract herself, Willow tried to change to a different subject.
The perfect topic came to her mind when she looked towards Luz once again, and noticed their - no, her, she gave Willow her pronouns - her ears. Willow had seen them earlier, but it hadn’t occurred to her just how round they were until right then. Had she ever seen rounded ears like that before? She couldn’t remember.
Usually, only humans had rounded ears, but Luz couldn’t be… actually, wait, could she be a human? Maybe she could ask? “So, uhm, I dunno if this is a rude question,” she hesitantly began, “but… are you human?”
Instead of looking offended or upset or any number of the other emotions Willow was afraid of causing, Luz just tilted her head to the side, curious. “Well, uhm, only half,” she said, in a tone that made it seem as if that was completely normal. “How’d you know?”
“The ears,” Willow immediately answered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen round ears before!” Suddenly, the excitement hit her in full force as it clicked in her head that Luz had said she was part human.
“Oh my Titan, you’re half- human, that’s so cool! Can you actually do magic?” She blurted the question out before she could even think about it, but when it registered in her head, she flinched. Oh no, wait, what if that’s really rude? You couldn’t just ask someone if they could do magic! “I-I mean-”
“It’s okay!” Luz replied, not looking even slightly offended. Willow let out a soft sigh of relief, glad she hadn’t misstepped. “I wouldn’t be upset even if I couldn’t, but I can! It’s not easy, not like when Mamá does it, ‘cause my bile sac is a lot smaller than a normal witch’s, but I still can.” With a swirl of her finger, a golden spell circle appeared in the air, before collapsing into a ball of light.
Luz cupped the spell in her hands, before offering it to Willow with a friendly smile, though she suddenly seemed a little nervous as well. “Mamá said I got a dis- uhm, disability.”
“Ooh,” Willow breathed, suddenly understanding. The official term was Magic Inability, if she remembered right, when a bile sac didn’t work how it was supposed to. Was that why Luz sounded nervous all of a sudden?
She took the offered light spell into her hands, smiling at Luz. “Don’t worry, there’s a whole bunch of students who have magic inability, and you’re already casting more than some of them can!” she tried her hardest to comfort. “They mostly end up in the Magic Theory classes, but you’ll easily make the normal classes!”
Her fumbled attempt must’ve been the right thing to do, because Luz’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Oh, okay, good,” she said, before a slight frown appeared on her face. “I dunno why I’m worried about it, Mamá keeps saying I’m doing really good at casting.”
That was something that Willow could understand. “It’s just kinda like that sometimes,” she admitted, rubbing at her arm a little self-consciously. “I worry about stuff like that a lot, too!” The two of them shared another smile - Willow really didn’t want to jinx anything, but Luz was being really nice, and she hoped it lasted.
Willow turned back, and blinked as she realized they’re emerging from the hallway into the Central Spire Chamber. “Oh, hey, we’re here!” she exclaimed. As she stepped further in, she gestured to the rest of the room in front of them. “This is the main chamber of the campus! You, uhm, you probably passed through on your way in, but it leads all the way up to the tallest spire of the school!”
“Woah…” Luz softly breathed out, before rushing over to the railing. She leaned against it, looking up and down through the chamber with wonder. “I didn’t notice how high it went before!”
Willow was so nervous about actually explaining everything. What if she slipped up on her explanations, and said something wrong, or forgot something important? No, no, she couldn’t think like that. She had a tour to give. “Okay, Willow, you got this,” she whispered to herself.
Clearing her throat and taking a step forward, she drew Luz’s attention back to her, and began to speak. “S-So, uhm, from here, all the tracks are split off into separate wings,” she started, her voice trembling a little with all the nerves, but gaining confidence as she kept going. “The one we just came from, the North Wing, is the biggest one. It has the Construction, Healing, and Illusions tracks, most of the general classes that all the tracks share, the Lunch Room, the Principal’s Office, and the Paranormatorium!”
She pointed towards the hallway leading off to their right. “Over there is the West Wing, which has the Abomination, Bard, and Beast Keeping tracks, as well as the Grudgby Courts.” Then, she pointed towards the hallway on their left. “And that way is the East Wing, which has the Oracle, Plant, and Potions tracks, along with the Library.”
Luz listened with a face of awe, holding onto every word. It made Willow feel like she was doing something right, even if she was probably forgetting some important stuff. As she finished speaking, something seemed to click in Luz’s expression, and she suddenly beamed, bouncing in place a little bit. “Oh, it’s like the nine Covens!” she realized. “I get it!”
It was a little strange that Luz didn’t seem to already know that, but Willow decided to just shrug it off. “Yeah, exactly!” she confirmed, smiling as well. Luz’s grin was so infectious! It was hard not to smile. “There’s a lot of smaller places in every wing, too, like the Floral Greenhouse, but, but it’ll be easier to explain it all when it comes up.”
Gesturing for Luz to follow her, she turned over to the right, and started walking. “C’mon, let me show you the West Wing!” she said. “It’s where I was before Principal Bump called me, ‘cause I’m, uh… I’m in the Abominations Track.” She couldn’t help the way her smile faltered as she said that.
Almost as soon as Willow began to move, Luz was following alongside. She turned to give Willow a confused look, and asked, “What’s wrong with abominations?”
Willow’s eyes widened. She hadn’t realized her dislike of the track had been that obvious! Oh no, what was she supposed to say? She wasn’t supposed to dislike her own track, even if she did! “N-Nothing!” she quickly squeaked out, blushing at her high pitch.
But Luz just tilted her head to the side, looking nothing more than curious. “Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s okay if you don’t like making them.” She gave a casual shrug, as if it was completely normal for a student in the Abominations Track to dislike making abominations. “I still can’t make one, ‘cause it’s kinda hard for me to hold them together.”
Despite how much she really didn’t like the track, Willow opened her mouth, fully intending to defend the Abominations Track - after all, it was her fault she couldn’t make an abomination, not the track’s fault.
The Abominations Coven had some of the best opportunities, just like her dads had said! Maybe she was still struggling to actually figure it all out, but that was okay! Really! Except, something made her pause before she even managed to say a word.
Maybe it was the friendly smile on Luz’s face, or maybe it was just how open and honest Luz seemed to be. It might have been because of how kind Luz had been, despite having no reason to treat Willow so nice. But, either way, Willow found that she liked talking to Luz. She reminded Willow of Augustus, and it made something shift in her chest.
Maybe… maybe she could be a little honest, too. Luz was being so nice to her, so she was going to be nice in return! “W-Well, I mean…” she hesitantly started. “It’s just that… I’ve never actually made one, either.”
Luz blinked at Willow, her expression scrunching up in confusion after a few moments. “But, you’re in the Abominations Track?” she asked.
Willow tried not to feel embarrassed, but her shoulders slumped and a blush rose across her face anyway, because her body was a traitor. “Mmhmm,” she hummed. Something seemed to shift in Luz’s expression, and that spurred Willow to try and cheer things up, even if it felt a sort of fake. “It’s alright, though!” she continued. “My dads said this track has the best opportunities, so I, I can figure it out!”
But, instead of just outright accepting that like Willow had been hoping for, Luz gave a slight frown, seeing straight through the fake enthusiasm. “Is that what you want, though?” she asked.
“Huh?” What Willow wanted? What did that mean?
Unbothered by Willow’s confusion, Luz gave another shrug. “I dunno, it just kinda seems like you’re not happy in abominations,” she elaborated, and Willow’s heart skipped a beat. “Why keep doing something when it just makes you upset? You should do what makes you happy instead!”
Again, Willow felt her eyes widen. Do what made her happy instead? Thoughts of shimmering green spell circles and beautifully dangerous flowers came to her mind, but she pushed those away, flushing with guilt. She couldn’t just switch to another track like that! She couldn’t! “But, it’s, it’s not that simple!” she stuttered out.
“Sure it is!” Luz chirped brightly - actually chirped, just like a bird, which had Willow blinking in confusion, wondering if Luz was only half-human and half-witch. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because it… I can’t… uhm, I mean…” Willow began, only to find herself faltering when she actually tried to figure out a good answer. The more she considered it, the harder it became to deny Luz might have had a point.
Her first protest was that she wasn’t allowed to cast other types of magic, but that wouldn’t really matter if she was in a different track altogether, would it? There was a part of her that wanted to claim she really was happy in the Abominations Track, but, as guilty as admitting it made her feel, she knew that she wasn’t.
Her grades would probably improve a lot if she was moved to another track, especially one that she already understood, which was only a good thing. People might even stop calling her Half-a-Witch if she was in a track she could actually cast spells for. So, why was she still so reluctant? Why couldn’t she just do what made her happy?
She already knew what the answer to that question was. Something twisted uncomfortably in her chest as she made the realization. She was so, so scared of how her dads would react, if she admitted she didn’t want to be in the Abominations Track anymore.
Because they really, really wanted her to succeed, and she understood why! She really did! She knew the Abominations Coven was one of the best ones to be in! But the more she thought about it, the more sure she was that she couldn’t succeed, and that Luz might be right. But the thought of her dads being upset with her, being disappointed in her, was just so terrifying.
She didn’t really want to admit that out loud, but… but she already told herself she was going to be honest with Luz, didn’t she? Her entire body slumped in defeat as she finally spoke. “Won’t my dads be disappointed in me?” she asked, her voice trembling a little bit.
“They shouldn’t be!” Luz was quick to insist, still offering a warm smile. “Mamá told me parents’re supposed to want ‘what’s best for their kids,’ and maybe the Abominations Track isn’t that.”
Then, she gave a light shrug, her expression becoming thoughtful. “Like how Mamá didn’t want to enroll me in school, ‘cause a lot of bad stuff happened when she was enrolled, but she’s doin’ it anyways, ‘cause she knows I want and need to!”
At the very least, Willow knew that Luz was probably right about the Abominations Track not being the best for her. She really wanted the rest of what Luz said to be right, too. “Maybe… maybe you’re right, but…” she trailed off. More than anything, she wanted all of that to be true, but she was still just so afraid.
“C’mon, think ‘bout it for a sec!” Luz chirped yet again - seriously, was there a bird-like demon species somewhere in her family tree? Willow had never heard a witch make sounds like that before. But then, something in Luz’s expression abruptly became serious. “Are you really happy in Abominations?”
For a moment, Willow found herself hesitating on the answer. There was still a part of her that didn’t want to admit it, but she really wasn’t happy in the Abominations Track, was she?
She thought about her failing grades, and the way none of her teachers really knew how to help her because abominations just didn’t click for her in the same way it did for everyone else. She thought about all the laughing and name-calling she’d had to deal with over the last few months, as everyone else’s magic became stronger, while she struggled to make anything move in her cauldron.
No, she asserted to herself. She really wasn’t happy. She felt that last lingering bit of doubt finally begin to fade away as she shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”
Luz nodded as if she’d expected that answer. “Then what kinda magic actually makes you happy?” she asked.
“Plant magic,” Willow answered immediately. It took a moment to register just how quickly she’d given her answer, and she found herself blushing in embarrassment again. “I, uhm, I’ve done it a few times, even though I’m not s’pposed to, ‘cause I’m in the Abominations Track,” she felt the need to explain. “Like, whenever I get upset, I accidentally grow vines and flowers. Sometimes, flowers even grow in my hair! It comes super easy to me, and… and it feels nice.”
It occurred to Willow that she had never actually told anyone about these feelings before. Though, that was partly because she barely ever let herself think about it before shoving the thoughts away in guilt. She never really felt like she could talk about this.
She was absolutely convinced her dads would be disappointed in her - she still wasn’t sure she fully believed Luz about that not being true - so she’d never mentioned it to them. She couldn’t go to the school staff, either, because what if she got put in the detention track for the rest of the semester, since she used magic she wasn’t supposed to?
Luz was the first person she’d ever really felt like she could actually bring this up with. The only other person who would’ve been willing to listen to her without judgment was Augustus, and even if she hadn’t been actively ignoring it all, she wasn’t sure how to talk about it with him without feeling like she was just bothering him with her problems. They were still trying to find their footing with being each other’s friends.
While Willow explained her reasoning behind liking plant magic so much, Luz nodded along in understanding. As Willow finished speaking, she gave a bright grin. “It sounds to me like you gotta switch to the Plant Track instead!” she confidently declared.
Willow could admit, she… really liked that idea. She liked that idea a lot. Even when she took a moment to consider the other tracks, none of them felt as right to her as the Plant Track did.
But, it was too good to be true, it just had to be. So she spent a few moments trying to find a way that it wouldn’t actually work out. It’s not that she didn’t want it to, or anything like that! She just didn’t want to be blindsided by something after getting her hopes up.
After a couple seconds of consideration, something finally occurred to her, and she felt her shoulders curl inwards reflexively. It felt like a weak excuse, as if she was trying to find some way out of this all because she was scared, but she still found herself bringing it up. “I… I need parental permission?” she hesitantly mentioned.
Luz blinked, before realization quickly washed over her expression. “Ooh, and you don’t wanna have to ask, right?”
With a blush, Willow nodded. “I, uhm, I-I know you said they won’t be disappointed, and I wanna believe that, but…” she trailed off. That she didn’t actually believe it yet was left unsaid, but heard all the same.
Yet, still, even in the face of Willow’s uncertainty, Luz’s smile didn’t falter. She was so overwhelmingly kind to someone she only just met, and Willow was struggling to understand why.
Instead of being upset that Willow wasn’t just going along with her idea, Luz just sent her a sympathetic look, with none of the pity she’d come to expect from the other students. “It’s okay,” Luz said, “I get it!” Despite herself, Willow felt her shoulders relax.
Then, Luz hummed, putting a finger to her chin. “There’s gotta be another way to do it…” she continued, trailing off as she visibly considered the issue. Willow tried to consider a solution as well, but nothing that would work came to mind.
Only a few seconds had passed before Luz suddenly perked up, excited. “Oh! What if you impressed Principal Bump so much that he switched your track himself?” she proposed. “He can do that, right?”
Admittedly, Willow had never actually heard of something like that happening before, but that could just be because she hadn’t paid attention well enough. Still, she was pretty sure that switching a student’s track was something Principal Bump was able to do, even without a student requesting it officially.
It actually made a lot of sense - if she managed to do what Luz was suggesting, she wouldn’t need to ask for permission at all. “I think so?” she finally answered after a few seconds of thoughtful pause.
Triumph flashed across Luz’s expression, and she snapped her fingers. “Then that’s what we gotta do!” she declared. She was confident, like she had no doubt that Willow would be able to just do that.
“How would I do that, though?” Willow asked, nervously scratching at her arm. “I dunno if I’m that good at plant magic…” She didn’t have nearly that much confidence in herself.
Not that she didn’t trust Luz! Again, what Luz was saying made a lot of sense. But, how could Willow do enough to impress Principal Bump? She wasn’t anyone special, she was just… plain ol’ Willow Park. Half-a-Witch Willow.
In spite of how visible her doubt probably was, Luz remained undeterred. With an excited grin, she said, “I think I have an idea!” However, that was as far as she got before the two of them realized they’d made it to the main chamber of the Abominations Track.
Unlike the massive chamber located under the Central Spire, the room that acted as the entryway into the Abominations Track was arguably less grand, though that didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive. It featured a relatively large bronze statue of an abomination in the middle, rising out of a cauldron like it had just been summoned.
At each corner of the room were massive windows, with four entryways in between them, including the one they had just walked through. The other three entrances around them all led to the Abominations Track proper, connecting to the network of hallways that housed the lockers and classrooms.
Additionally, the left and right halls led straight to the corner spires of the school’s main structure, inside of which were stairwells. They connected the three tracks of the wing together, as the Abominations Track was located on the third floor, and the two other tracks could be reached by going down.
Willow was pretty sure that nobody actually used those stairwells - it was easier to switch floors in the North Wing, where the general classes were, and it wasn’t like anyone needed to walk from one track to another very often.
After a moment, the two of them looked back at each other, almost in sync. It gave Willow the very sudden urge to giggle, but she held it in. Luz tilted her head to the side slightly. “But, uhm, maybe I should wait to tell you?” she said, finishing her sentence from a moment ago.
Willow nodded along to what her fr- to what Luz said. “Yeah, we gotta do the tour first, ‘cause it’s important,” she mentioned. “Maybe after we’re done with the West Wing? I still need to show you all the tracks and the Grudbgy Court!”
She shied away from calling Luz her friend, even in her thoughts. Don’t get her wrong, Luz was so nice and friendly and awesome and Willow would love to be friends with her! It was just that… well, she was scared.
She’d only ever had a single other friend before she helped Augustus in that empty classroom, and that friendship didn’t end well. She didn’t want to think Luz would turn on her like that - but she never thought Amity would, either.
Luz let out an excited gasp, pulling Willow away from her thoughts. “Grudbgy?!” she nearly shouted, just barely managing to keep her voice low enough that they didn’t disturb the numerous classes going on around them. “Me and Mamá play that all the time! Let’s go, I gotta see it right now!”
This time, Willow wasn’t able to hold it in, and giggled outright at Luz’s enthusiasm. Luz sent her a grin, giggling as well. As the two head further into the Abominations Track, Willow couldn’t help but hope that her stupid fears were actually stupid. She really did like the thought of the two of them becoming friends, even if she was still too scared to bring it up.
Notes:
I'm not dead! I promise you, my lack of activity has genuinely been me just juggling multiple projects, as well as wanting to meet certain goal posts before I start sharing what I've written. I'm nearly done with drafting up this entire arc, and since I've reached that point of certainty, I felt comfortable sharing the first of what I hope will only be a three chapter arc, but could very well become four, since I have a chronic writing problem. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and though I can't promise when the next one will come, I can promise that it will.
Chapter Word Count: 15,925
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-01-27
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-03-15
Chapter 4: Name on the Dotted Line
Summary:
As Luz partook in a tour that brought her all across the school, making herself a friend before she’d even been officially enrolled, she began to formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Eda continued to prove again and again that she’ll do whatever it would take to make her daughter happy. That included arguing with the principal about the safety of children, and cleaning up old messes.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The door slowly fell shut as her daughter and that other kid, Willow Park, headed out to do their tour, leaving the office in silence. Eda had a sneaking suspicion that Bumpity had chosen that particular student for a reason, but she wasn’t entirely sure what that reason could be.
She was hopeful, though. After all, what’s a better way to help form a friendship than to pair two kids in need of friends together? That sounded a lot like something she thought he’d do.
The two of them might’ve had their differences in opinion over the years, but Eda hadn’t been lying to herself earlier. Even if her Hexside cycles were still frustratingly haunting to her, she never really blamed him for any of the crap that had happened.
In fact, she trusted him. Probably more than she rightly should. Of course, that was likely a byproduct of him earning his title in wild culture, but still. He could make bad choices, and he could do stupid things, but she knew that, no matter what, he always wanted the best for his students, even if those students were only potential and hadn’t actually been enrolled yet.
So, she figured he knew what he was doing, and decided not to push. It gave her a little bit of insight into the fact that he probably wasn’t going to give her any trouble with enrolling her daughter, regardless of the fact that Luz didn’t actually exist in any official Boiling Isles registries.
That didn’t mean they weren’t going to argue about the curriculum her daughter was going to be on, not with how drastically different their opinions were from one another. But it eased something in her chest all the same.
The silence only lasted for a few moments longer. It wasn’t uncomfortable, exactly, but there’s something tense underneath it. Both of them were well aware that this probably wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation, especially when they reached the topic of magic tracks.
Bumpmister was the first to finally break it. “Is she human?” he asked.
Eda shrugged her shoulders, making her way back over to her chair. She was careful to not disturb her son as she lowered herself into the seat. “Only half,” she admitted. Not that he would fully understand what that meant. Riveness was probably the only other person across the Isles that actually understood the specifics behind being half-witch, half-human.
With a nod, Bump circled around his desk, lowering himself into his seat with a weary breath of air. Part of her had to wonder how much trouble those scars underneath his robes were giving him. “And how old is she?” he prodded.
Slightly unsure of where that line of questioning was going, Eda decided to humor him as she gently lowered her son onto her lap. “Just turned ten a few cycles ago,” she answered, running her fingers through her son’s fur, soothing it down. She listened to the quiet, high-pitched rumble of his mid-slumber purring. It helped to calm her down, a little bit.
Bumpikins just let out a noncommittal hum, visibly indifferent. “Most children begin attending school around the age of six, eight at the very latest,” he commented casually, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “You waited some time to enroll her.”
Ah. So that’s what he was trying to gather from his questions. She sent him a flat look. “Do I really need to explain why?” He knew, better than anyone else, the reason Eda would be struggling with this sort of thing.
“Perhaps not,” he admitted, tilting his head slightly as he conceded the point. “But I am still curious to hear your reasoning.”
He wasn’t trying to embarrass her or dredge up old memories, she realized. He was earnest. That much, she could see. And damn it all to Retmina, she trusted him far too much. It was like she was that little girl she used to be again, still fresh into her high-years, sitting before the new principal and wondering if she could say what she wanted to say.
Eda huffed a tired breath out. “It’s just… I don’t…” she tried, before breaking off with a frustrated sigh. “Look, she and my son are all I have left, alright?” It rankled to admit it out loud, but the blunt honesty made his eyes widen in surprise, so she’d tentatively say it was worth it.
“Lilith’s been trying to hunt me down for years, so she can force me to join the Emperor’s Coven and have the Emperor ‘heal my curse,’” Eda continued. “I refuse to let my- to let Gwendolyn anywhere near them, after what she tried to do to me. And, Ret, I haven’t even heard from my Dad since I ran away. But, uh, couldn’t tell you if I hid myself too well, or if he just hasn’t bothered.”
For a short moment, Eda fell silent, contemplating just how honest she was willing to be with him. Then, she shrugged to herself, shoving her doubt out the window and giving a mental “fuck it” as she made her decision.
“You know what, I can admit it. I’m terrified to let that kid outta my sight.” His eyes widened even further at the continued honesty, and she flashed him a strained, small, but genuine smile. “I always have been. But, for Titan’s sake, she doesn’t have a single friend outside of Morton, the son of the potioneer that brews my elixir.”
She shook her head slightly, wishing the world was different. that her daughter would be safe in public. What she wouldn’t give for Luz to be able to live without the threat of the Empire hanging over her for daring to be born. “So, if she wants to give this a chance, then I’m not gonna say no.”
Despite his apparent surprise, Bump nodded along to her words, an understanding expression on his face. “All valid reasons,” he agreed, “and I certainly am not judging you for taking so much time - the very fact that you are even doing this at all is more than I would have expected, given our previous failures.”
But then, hesitation dawned over Bumpity’s expression. “I… do not wish to pry,” he began carefully, and she already knew she wouldn't be happy about whatever he was asking. “But what of young Luz’s other parent?”
She understood. Even as a fresh spike of old grief and pain lanced through her heart, she understood why he asked. He was just curious - no other parent was here, and that usually either meant they were busy with something else, or weren’t involved in any of their lives for whatever reason. He probably didn’t even suspect that the truth was a possibility.
She just gave him a small, sad smile, her shoulders falling slightly as her grief involuntarily bled into her expression. She pointedly said nothing in response, letting him come to his own conclusion, focusing instead on gently carding her fingers through her son’s fur.
It was obvious when the answer to his question clicked in his head. His resolute and calm expression faltered, for just a moment. Several emotions flickered across his face, though she really only caught a flash of sadness and a split-second of self-reprimand. It was a bit hard to interpret his expressions, with his palisman covering the upper half of his face like that.
“I… I see,” he said after a long moment. “My apologies for bringing it up.”
She waved off his apologies with a dismissive hand. “It’s fine,” she told him, her voice steady. The grief wasn’t anything new, not when she felt it every cycle. “You didn’t know.” She wouldn’t fault him for wanting to know, either. He cared about her, she knew, even if he was even worse at showing it as she got older.
Conceding the point, Princy-B dipped his head. Then, after a moment of thought, he let out a tired sigh. Reaching across his desk, he picked that clipboard from earlier up again, the one he was writing on as he questioned Luz about her motivations.
Before he even opened his mouth, she already knew what conversation he was about to start.
“I am well aware that we are going to disagree on this, but it is a question that we both knew was going to be brought up through the enrollment process,” he began, looking as though he was dreading the response. “What track would you like Luz to be placed within?”
From the moment she walked into this office, she knew that this was what they would be caught up on. It was inevitable. He might know much more than most about wild magic, but he continues to strictly perpetuate the coven system, and that wouldn’t work for Eda. More importantly, though, it wouldn’t work for Luz.
Continuing to smooth down her son’s fur, she simply said, “All of them.”
Bumpikins blinked, taken off guard by her bold and up-front answer. It was much more amusing than she thought it would be. “Edalyn-” he started.
“She will find a way to study them all, even if you try to restrict her from it,” Eda replied, cutting him off. She knew exactly what he was about to say, and she did not care to hear a repeat of the same arguments he used against her, all those years back. “That’s not a threat, that’s a fact.”
Much to her surprise, he sent her a knowing look. “I am well aware,” he admitted, and she raised an eyebrow. Did he know about the Room of Shortcuts? Was it even still there? Bump continued, “But you know as well as I that, if I were to publicly endorsed such a thing, the Coven-”
Immediately, any of her good humor vanished, and her eyebrows fell into a glare. “Who in the nine layers of Retmina gives a damn about what the Emperor’s Coven thinks-?” she started.
Bump lifted a frustrated hand, and even so many years after she’s attended, it’s still effective at silencing her. “Do you truly think I do not wish to see my students thrive?!” He nearly shouted.
Then, he paused, his eyes shutting as he took a deep breath, before he continued at a lower volume. “I know of several who are suited to multiple types of magic, just as you and I both were, and I can do nothing for them. I have had to move two students to the detention track in the last four months because they mixed magic, and it is for their protection.”
She couldn’t stop her scowl at this declaration. Bump’s expression fell into an uncharacteristic look of pleading. “If the Emperor’s Coven were to catch wind of the idea that students wish to combine multiple magic tracks, then we’d be forced into becoming the next Glandus!” His tone begged for her to understand, to know that he only chooses this path for the safety of his students.
Eda had always preferred outright defiance to hiding behind cowardice. Her bodily roommate, who had remained silent for the majority of the meeting, snarled in agreement with that thought.
“Then protect them!” she burst, just barely managing to hold herself back from yelling. “Keep them safe from the powers that be, but let them thrive where they wish to, even if it is against the rules you bind yourself to!” She needed him to understand. To see how she saw. So, only half-consciously, she found herself slipping into Riitrán. “⌠Etin’s grace, Guiding Shield, behave as though your title earned is true!⌡”
Bump flinched at the blatant usage of Old Tongue out loud. It probably wasn’t often that he heard it spoken - using it in public was a good way to get yourself declared a wild witch on the spot, even if you had a coven sigil. “It is not that simple, Edalyn!” he outright shouted, losing control of his volume.
Her control slipped as well. “Then make it simple-!” she thundered, before startling and abruptly cutting herself off with a sharp breath through her teeth when she heard a whimper. Across from her, Bump’s expression stuttered, equally as startled. Eda’s head shot down to look at her son, who was curled up in a ball on her lap, overwhelmed by the loud voices and trembling slightly.
Oh, Titan forgive her, she was such a fucking idiot. “Shi-oot, sorry, sorry kiddo,” she quickly apologized, her volume falling low enough to be a murmur. Damn it! She knew he was sensitive to loud noises!
At some point during the argument, she’d apparently stopped petting him. Of course, she clearly needed to correct this mistake, so she began to soothe his fur down once more. He shifted slightly, pressing into the contact like a needy kitten. “M’ma?” he mumbled, still half-asleep, but apparently conscious enough to speak.
“It’s okay, King,” she said softly, falling into that same tone she only ever used with her kids. She didn’t care about the fact that Bumpity was watching her from across the desk - comforting her kid was more important than keeping a few shreds of her reputation. “You can go back to sleep. Didn’t mean to get so loud.”
With an “Mmph, weh,” her son collapsed fully into her lap again, almost immediately falling back asleep. She continued to pet him for a few moments in silence, just to make sure he wasn’t about to wake up again.
He was still pretty tuckered out - he wasn’t much of a morning kid. Though, she was expecting that to change, soon enough. He could go from cute and cuddly to an absolute chaotic terror in seconds, especially if he was given sugar. Then, sighing, her eyes shifted back up and she met Bump’s gaze with a tight expression.
“Look,” she began, her voice low and serious. “You dedicated your soul to this, Hieronymus, just as I have dedicated mine to the practice of wild magic. You knew what it meant when you accepted the title Geneva bestowed you. It is your sworn duty to ensure that the future thrives, by whatever means necessary. Stifling them, even if it is for their protection, does not fulfill that purpose. It only harms them in the same way that the Emperor’s Coven does.”
She took a good look at him, for just a moment. At the defeated posture he sat with, the tired lilt of his mouth, the way his palisman’s tail was barely flicking behind his neck. The way he suppressed a flinch when she compared his actions to those of the Emperor’s Coven.
He was listening, not just dismissing her with the same old excuses. Good. With a small nod, she switched to Riitrán once more. “⌠I have spoken mine, Guiding Shield. It is your choice to listen.⌡”
That, more than anything, seemed to finally get the message through his thick skull. He let out a long, weary sigh, slumping in his seat. She thought she might’ve even seen a little bit of realization flicker across his expression.
“⌠Yours has been spoken and heard, Lady of the Night.⌡” he offered in return, not only using the proper response, but speaking it in Riitrán, which she’d never actually heard him do before. His accent was a bit more posh and academic than hers - a clear sign that he learned from burn-marked books and banned literature, instead of through a mentor like she did.
“Your arguments have certainly improved since the cycles of Principal Faust,” he continued, a bit of humor sneaking through his weariness, though only for a moment. “I will consider what you have said, alright? Believe it or not, I am more on your side than you might believe.”
“I don’t doubt your conviction,” she admitted, because she didn’t. He earned his title by proving himself through hardship and adversity, just as she earned hers. She knew that he would die before he let harm come to those under his protection. “I just think you need the occasional kick in the- the behind, to make the right choices.”
He raised an eyebrow at her pointed avoidance of swearing - even if her son was asleep, she wasn’t about to use those kinds of words in front of her four-year-old - but didn’t comment on it. Instead, he just said, “I suppose that is fair.”
Some of the tension in Eda’s shoulders finally began to bleed away, knowing that he was at least receptive to what she was trying to say. “Now, will you let me enroll my daughter in every course?” she asked.
To his credit, Bumpmister genuinely seems to consider the request this time, weighing the options in his head. “I… Perhaps,” he answered, after a few moments of thought. “Perhaps I will, yes. But we will continue this discussion later.”
Part of her wanted to protest not getting an immediate answer, but the fact she’d even convinced him to consider taking this step was already a big enough feat. He began to rise from his seat, gesturing for Eda to remain seated. “You have certainly given me much to think about, but, before that, there is a lot that still needs to be answered for.”
As he walked over towards a particular set of filing cabinets, Eda’s hands stilled where they’d been holding and gently petting her son, realization dawning on her. She knew which file cabinet he was going for. She’d planned out a heist to steal its contents, once, which was why there used to be (or, might still be?) a Room of Shortcuts entrance just beside it. “Uh-oh.”
“Yes, ‘uh-oh,’” he said, opening up a specific drawer and reaching inside. “Did you think I planned to simply sweep everything beneath the rug? The necrotic experiments, the graffiti, the property damage, the scams, the cheating, Miss Jenkinmeyer's teeth.”
He pulled out a stack of papers and folders that seemed far larger than what should’ve physically been able to fit inside that cabinet drawer, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d used an expansion spell for it. Turning back towards his desk and walking over, Bump continued. “There is still penance to be had for all the trouble you caused, back when you were still attending, Edalyn.” With that, he unceremoniously dropped the stack of papers onto the table.
The loud sound caused King to startle awake with a sudden “Weh?!” Bump glanced down at him in surprise, before looking back up at Eda with an apologetic expression on his face, which was about the only reason she didn’t glare at him hard enough to light him on fire with her mind for interrupting her baby’s nap.
After a moment of catching his bearings, King let out a big yawn that had the Owl Beast (and maybe Eda as well) mentally cooing, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He turned towards the stack, then blinked. “Oh, wow,” he murmured. “Tha’s a lot’a paper.”
Sending one last look towards Bumpity-Bump, she leaned forwards a little bit to take a gander at the stack. It was made up of numerous different files and folders, all of which were held together by string, stubborn determination, and probably some kind of dark magic. At the very top was a page that declared it the ‘Permanent Record’ of ‘Edalyn Clawthorne.’
Tentatively, she poked at the massive record, as if to test for any enchantments or visual tricks. It didn’t waver or change in any way, so there probably wasn’t any illusion magic making it seem taller.
Then, she looked over some of the folder tabs, which peeked out of the stack with month and year labels. From what she could tell, it seemed to cover as far back as her time in the Early Education Classes, but looking at the dates listed closer to the top, she couldn’t help noticing that the last few months of her time at Hexside were inexplicably missing. It made her wonder.
“Huh,” she uttered, leaning back in her seat. Then, she looked up at Bump with an expression so innocent that even her children wouldn’t have been fooled by it. “Not gonna lie, I thought there’d be more.”
His drawn out, exasperated sigh was so worth it, and she made sure he knew by breaking out into snorting laughter, her son giggling right alongside her.
School was… strange, Luz had decided. So far, she’d only had the chance to sit in on a few minutes of a single class, but even then, she could already tell that it was very different from how Mamá had been teaching her magic back home.
Everything was just so… orderly! The students sat at desks, in organized rows, facing towards the front of the room, while the teacher stood up front and gave a lesson about the composition of an Abomination. Some of them were taking notes, but nobody was actually doing anything except listening!
If she was sitting down to learn, she was used to sitting in a fluffy nest of blankets and pillows, either in the mainroom or the study, where her mom would not only explain, but show Luz whatever she was learning! Then, they’d practice it together, and go back and forth about what her thoughts were, or what she could do differently to make the spell work better, or even just to answer any questions she might have.
That didn’t even mention the stuff she learned outside, like plant magic in the garden behind the house! There weren't really any rules when she learned at home, they just kinda did whatever. Luz liked to think of it as chaotic, because she really liked that word!
But school was different. Or, at least, that class was. Maybe other ones wouldn’t be. It was… well, Luz wasn’t entirely sure how to describe it? Structured, maybe? She didn’t really know. It just wasn’t the same.
Everything that all the students would be learning already seemed to be planned out in advance. She had a chance to look at the schedule pinned to the chalkboard up front, and every single cycle of the whole month was labeled with some sort of lesson!
What happened if you were curious about something else, and wanted to learn more about it? Or if you got confused, and you needed a different explanation to understand?
If that happened with a lesson back home, Luz would just ask Mamá, and the entire lesson would shift, usually looping back to what she had been learning about in the first place! Would you just have to wait until whatever you wanted to learn came up later?
Not that she was trying to say she already disliked school or anything! Even if it was different, she was still excited to attend! It was just strange. She would have to figure out what she could and couldn’t do. This wasn’t like a lesson with Mamá, where she could learn about whatever she wanted, when ever she wanted.
It was more like… like reading a book from start to finish, without going back, or skipping ahead, or looking at any other books in between. Yeah, that made sense! She could learn how to do that!
Because Luz really wanted to do this. Even if she struggled with learning the way that everyone else seems to, she really wanted the chance to make friends.
She might already have one, too! She wasn’t entirely sure, because she’d never really had friends before, and she was a bit scared to ask, but Willow was awesome! She hoped that, if they weren’t friends already, they would be!
After watching that abominations class for a couple of minutes - and stopping a couple of meanies from saying stuff about Willow behind the teacher’s back by growling at them, which Willow was still sending her confused looks over, as if Luz wouldn’t stand up against bullies like that - Willow had brought them over to one of the hallways that overlooked the Grudgby Court. They’d arrived just in time to catch the tail end of a practice game, too!
While they leaned against the window and watched, cheering quietly every time one team made a goal and trying not to disturb the classes happening behind them, Luz found herself telling Willow about the many times she and her mom would set up a makeshift court in the backyard and play a round of Grudgby themselves, with her little brother as a referee.
She would always lose, of course, because Mamá was a way better player than Luz was, but they had so much fun that she didn’t really care! It just meant that her mom wasn’t going easy on her, and despite that, she still managed to make some goals. She was so, so excited to play an actual game, once she was enrolled!
Willow admitted she’d never actually played the game herself, but she always wanted to try, so Luz suggested that they try together! It would be fun! For some reason, that seemed to surprise Willow, before she agreed with a hesitant sort of hope in her expression. Luz didn’t really know what that was about, but it probably wasn’t too important, so she could figure it out later.
Having finished going through the West Wing, Willow then began to lead Luz back to that super tall main chamber and over towards the East Wing. Along the way, Luz may have started to ramble about her home life a little bit.
She couldn’t help it! She never got to tell anyone about her family, so she was really happy to talk to someone who was willing to listen to her!
It was kind of interesting, seeing how different her life was from someone who was raised in the city, actually listening to the Emperor’s laws. Willow didn’t say anything out loud, but Luz could see the confusion when she began to talk about her lessons back home.
Especially when Luz went from talking about how awesome it felt to use plant magic and grow food in her backyard, to mentioning that she had finally memorized almost all of the chords on her guitar, to explaining why skinglo was her absolute favorite potion to brew. She… might have forgotten that non-wild witches probably didn’t learn about every different magic family like she did.
As they got closer to the East Wing, and Willow was reminding her of the tracks that were in it, she offhandedly mentioned that Mamá used to be in the Potions Track. Willow had tilted her head in curiosity, but, again, she hadn’t asked.
Luz couldn’t help but wonder what that was about. Maybe she was trying to figure out who Mamá was? It didn’t seem like she recognized the infamous Owl Lady, when she’d walked into the Principal’s Office.
Well, if that was the case, then Luz wasn’t going to say anything! She was very much hoping to become friends with Willow, and that would probably be a lot harder to do if Willow got scared off by all those fake stories the Emperor’s Coven told about wild witches. But, also, she just didn’t want to spoil the surprise!
“Okay, so, that should be all the tracks and classes in the East Wing!” Willow eventually declared, after the two of them had finally made it through the third and final track of the wing, the Potions Track. They were on the first floor now, having started on the third in the Oracle Track.
“We’ve got a lot of time left before the scream for First Break,” Willow continued, “which means we can spend the rest of it exploring the Library!”
A library? “Ooh, I like libraries!” Luz chirped with a grin, an excited bounce in her step. “We have this really big one back at home with all sorts of books, but Mamá calls it a ‘Study.’ Is the one here as big as the one in Bonesborough?”
That one was huge, and it had so many books! The only downside was that a lot of the ones she wanted to read were either locked in the forbidden sections, still hidden in secret hiding spots all around the Isles, or burned up during the Literary Cleanse. Stupid Empire and their stupid book bans.
Willow shook her head. “Not as big as that one,” she admitted, “but it’s still pretty big. It’s got two whole floors of books!” Luz gasped in excitement. Two whole floors? That was a lot of books!
The two fell into a short lull of silence for a few moments. Then, suddenly, Willow lightly smacked her own forehead. “Oh!” Willow said. Luz blinked as she looked over at the other girl, confused. “I totally forgot, you were supposed to tell me about your idea when we finished the West Wing!”
Luz’s eyes widened at the reminder. “Oh yeah, my super awesome idea! I sorta forgot too, ‘cause I got so excited about the classes,” she said, scratching the back of her neck sheepishly.
But before she could actually feel embarrassed about forgetting, she shook her head, and began to delve into her brilliant plan. “So, the problem is that we gotta impress everyone with your amazing plant magic skills, but you’re not fully sure how well you can do it, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Willow replied, nodding along. Luz still thought that Willow wouldn’t need any help using plant magic, but that wasn’t going to stop her from providing some assistance.
“Okay, so, uhm, lemme explain,” Luz began, taking a deep breath. “Mamá sells a bunch of random human stuff that she collects from all sorts of places, and one of those places is the trash slugs that wash up on the shore.” Luz shrugged at the slight confusion that fell over Willow’s face. “I dunno why they’re all full of human realm stuff, but they eat a lot of random junk. They also eat lots of the seeds that fall into the ocean!”
In fact, aside from all the little fish that trash slugs eat, seeds were a major part of their diet! Luz sorta only knew that because Mamá had explained it to King, once, when he asked why they were eating the seeds.
“What’s really, really cool about the trash slugs,” Luz continued, excited to share her knowledge, “is that they have these weird glands which infuse everything they eat with magic! It’s sorta like putting way more magic into something than it normally needs, which makes it reeeaaally powerful. The seeds grow super big, and they’re easy to work with! We use them whenever we’re low on snails to grow our own food, and sell the extra during Harvest!”
Luz grinned as she saw realization come across Willow’s expression, but she finished off her explanation anyway. “Even if your plant magic wasn’t super good, you’d be able to grow a lot with them, but I bet you’re super- duper good at it, so you could easily cover the whole central chamber with it!”
Willow ducked her head, a blush across her cheeks. “Oh,” she uttered, before raising her voice. “I, uhm, I-I like that idea, it actually sounds really good.” Willow looked over towards her, and Luz tilted her head to the side when she noticed Willow’s expression.
She looked kind of sad, and a little bit lost. Kind of like Mamá did that one time Primm said she was a good friend. “But… but I don’t get it,” Willow said. “You really wanna help me that much?”
Oh. When those meanies were talking bad about Willow in the abomination class earlier, Luz had sort of begun to think that Willow might be bullied - as in, the name-calling and mean-words kind of bullying, not the kind of bullying the Coven Guard did to Luz and her family. Was she not used to people being nice to her?
Well, that was stupid! Luz would just have to fix that. “Yup!” she answered. “That’s what friends are for!”
Suddenly, Willow began to slow down, prompting Luz to do the same. She blinked at Luz with wide eyes. Luz didn’t understand why until Willow suddenly asked, “Friends?”
This time, Luz was the one who was confused. Then, she paused, and thought about what she said. Oh. She hadn’t even realized she called Willow her friend. She was supposed to wait until she was more sure that Willow would be okay with that! “Oh, uhm, I mean, i-if you wanna be?” Luz stammered out, suddenly nervous. What if Willow didn’t want to be friends?
But, almost as quickly as that doubt and fear appeared, it vanished with the bright, genuine smile that Willow gave her. “Yes!” she answered. “I’d love to be your friend!”
Luz’s shoulders slumped in relief as the worry in her chest faded away. “Oh, okay,” she breathed out, before her eyes widened in realization. Wait, Willow said yes to being friends, which meant that they were friends now. Oh Titan, Willow was her friend! She wasn’t even enrolled yet, but Luz already made her first friend!
Willow must’ve felt the same, because when she began to walk again, she had a bounce in her step. “Once you start attending with us, I’m gonna get to show you all the really nice and quiet hang-out spots!” she babbled happily. “Maybe I’ll even have time this cycle to introduce you to my other friend, Augustus! He’s a little younger than me, but he’s really smart.”
Hold on, another friend? Luz hadn’t thought she would even make one friend! At least, not until she’d actually started attending school, once her enrollment was done. Now she had the chance to make a whole two friends?! She sent Willow an excited grin, skipping happily alongside her. “Okay!”
Willow returned the smile with one of her own as the two of them turned a corner into a new hallway. Then, she turned back towards the direction they were walking, and suddenly perked up. “Oh, we’re here!” she announced, coming to a stop in front of a pair of blue-painted wooden doors. Luz did the same, stopping just beside her.
Along the frame above the doors was a little stone icon of an open book, with two pairs of book stacks on either side, the ones closer to the middle taller than the others. Just above the stone icons was a large label that simply read “Library.”
It looked really similar to the entrance of the Gym, which they’d passed by back in the West Wing. But, instead of a large room for various sports and the occasional battle to the death, Luz could see towering bookcases and something that looked like a second floor balcony through the vertical windows on either door.
Grabbing the bronze handles and pressing down on the button with her thumb, Willow pulled one of the doors open and let Luz step inside first. She entered just after, the door gently closing behind them. She stepped ahead of Luz, and made a grand, sweeping gesture towards the room. “Welcome to the Hexside Library, Luz!” she said, lowering her voice to not disturb the quiet.
Luz let out a soft “Woah…” as she looked around the library with awe. The room was giant - nowhere near as massive as the Bonesborough Library, and not nearly as tall as the Study back home, but it had to have been five times the size of the central chamber!
The entire space was shaped like a massive - she paused to count the number of walls - octagon, though the leftmost and rightmost walls were extended a lot farther than she could see. There were tables and comfy-looking chairs scattered all across the library, but she could see a section in the middle that looked like a main working area, and despite how far away it was, she could make out some crystal balls at the tables.
Above that area was an octagonal section cut out of the roof, along with four more rectangular cuts between the center and the corner walls, which revealed a second floor above. Bookcases that towered all the way to the ceiling lined the majority of the walls, with more arranged in rows and islands filling out the main part of the room.
In addition to the several windows, orbs of warm light magic lit the room in a soft glow, lazily drifting through the air. Luz gasped in excitement as a book fluttered past, its two halves flapping like the wings of a shrillerfly, before tucking itself into an open space in a nearby bookshelf.
The books organized themselves, just like the Study back home! The ones at the Bonesborough Library didn’t do that, - instead, librarians had to keep everything organized, so she hadn't thought the books at this library would!
Off to Luz’s left, there was what seemed to be a main desk, where a kind-looking older witch sat. Their white hair was pinned back in a bun, and the bronze nameplate in front of them - which Luz could just barely make out - read “Mrs. Jenemire.”
She had been studying something on a crystal ball when Luz and Willow walked in, but glanced up when Luz looked over. She gave the two of them what Luz thought was a grandmotherly smile and waved, which Luz happily returned.
Willow began to walk again, heading towards a path between the bookcases that led straight towards the middle of the room. Luz quickly caught up, before slowing down enough to walk side-by-side with her new friend. “C’mon, lemme show you around a little bit before First Break!” Willow exclaimed softly. Then, a little more hesitantly, she added, “Maybe… maybe we can, uhm, look into a little Plant Magic, too?”
At that, Luz felt herself perk up in excitement. “I’d love to!” she quiet-shouted. Not only did that basically confirm that Willow would probably end up going through with her incredibly awesome and perfect plan, but it meant that they were going to research beforehand! Luz might struggle with sitting still for long periods of time, but if they could learn some new stuff about Plant Magic, that would help a whole lot!
“O-Okay!” Willow squeaked out, sounding a little surprised at Luz’s enthusiasm. Luz just sent her a friendly smile, and after a moment, she managed one in return.
Turning forwards once again, Willow gestured down the hallway of bookcases ahead of them, which lead towards the middle of the Library, and began to explain. “So, over this way is the study area,” she told Luz. “It has the public-use crystal balls, and just like in the Bonesborough Library, you can use them to look up the location of every book…!”
As the girls wandered further into the Library - one enamored by the wealth of knowledge around them, the other guiding the two of them along, and both basking in their brand new friendship - neither of them noticed that kindly old woman sitting at the front desk was watching them disappear with a warm smile on her face. It was so pleasant to see that young Park had found herself a new friend.
She certainly deserved to have someone in her corner, Varun Jenemire thought to herself. Especially after all of that nonsense that happened between her and the youngest of the Blight family. She just hoped that this one wouldn’t turn their back on the little Park.
Throwing her head back, she let out a very put-upon groan. “I don’t wanna do this!” Eda Clawthorne, the infamous Owl Lady, the Lady of the Night, whined through her gritted teeth, like she was a fifteen-year-old again.
Her son, who had been standing on her shoulders with one little arm holding onto her hair to keep himself upright, let out a plea of giggles as he began to climb down her back towards the ground. She pointedly ignored him. More amused with her behavior than anything else, Bumpity gave her an intentionally condescending pat on the back.
“Ah, there’s the whiny rebel teenager I remember,” he smirked, and the way his tone almost sounded fond of her and her antics was not something she expected to experience when she woke up this morning. “I was almost a little worried she’d been completely buried beneath all of those maternal instincts.”
She took offense to that. Her personality was a carefully cultivated mixture of chaos, destruction, and maybe a tiny bit of maturity, like a complex potion!
“Hey!” she cried indignantly, scowling at him. He simply raised an eyebrow. “I can be an adult teenager and a respectable mother!” King, who's giggling had just started to calm down, promptly broke out into even more laughter.
“Yes, yes, so you claim, ” he drawled. Annoyingly, he still only seemed to be amused with her. When did her reputation fall so far? Didn’t she used to inspire fear in the hearts of everyone in Hexside? She completely ignored the fact that she’d never had such a reputation with Bump to begin with.
Drawing a spell circle and holding out an open palm, Bumpy-Boo summoned a mop from thin air, with a bucket full of water appearing at the same time and landing on the ground between the two of them.
“Now, you’ll be needing this-” he began, thrusting the mop into Eda’s hands, which she instinctively grabbed, “-to clean up all the hexed graffiti you left us.”
Then, like the absolute bastard he was, he promptly turned around and started to leave. “Good luck,” he declared, walking off to go do Titan-knows-what. Eda made sure to stick her tongue out at his retreating form, just for good measure.
Once he disappeared from view, she turned back towards the wall with a huff of breath through her nose, shaking her head in exasperation with herself. “Ay ay ay, las cosas que hago por mi hija, (...the things I do for my daughter,)” she murmured. That girl had better absolutely love it here, because this was only the first of many chores she was going to have to do.
Eyeing the wall in front of her, she skimmed over the hexed graffiti she apparently left behind, back when she ran away some twenty-eight years ago. How nobody had managed to remove it in all this time baffled her. Maybe her hexes were just that good, even back then?
It was a row of six lockers. Over top of the two on the left, in stylized text that was different for every word, she had apparently painted the words “Eda Rules,” and then “Bump Eats Stink.” The middle lockers were pretty much clear, though the one on the left had two little swirls of orange at the top, and the one on the right had a little bit of bleedover from the lockers beside it.
On the two rightmost lockers, there were three lighting symbols of yellow and pink, two different copies of the word “Hoot” with one in white and the other in light blue, a dark blue swirl, and her own name tagged in light green at the bottom right. Well, at least her work had been credited to her.
After a moment, she shrugged to herself. “This can’t be that difficult, right?” she wondered aloud. After all, the graffiti was apparently made with her hexes - it shouldn’t respond to her like it would to others, unless she specifically designed it to do so, which she was… fairly certain she didn’t do.
She dumped the mop into the bucket, sloshing it around for a moment. Then, she raised the mop, and swung it like a weapon across the word “Stink,” hoping to splatter it with soapy water.
Almost instantly, she was proven completely wrong as the entire set of words jolted upwards. The words “Eda Rules” went up so far that they cut off at the top of the lockers.
Her son immediately burst out into even more giggles. She tried again, slashing up and to the right, but the graffiti just moved down and to the left, now cut off halfway from the side. From the corner of her eye, she saw her son fall onto his butt from laughing so hard.
“You have got to be kidding me!” she whined petulantly, taking a step back to reevaluate her approach. Of course it wasn’t going to be simple, when have things ever been that easy for her? Logically, she either hexed the graffiti to react to her, or she somehow put enough magic into it to give the graffiti some semblance of sentience.
She was banking on it being the latter - before she was cursed, she had a lot of magic at her fingertips, even that young. It wasn’t until Geneva that she learned how to fully control it. “Why did I have to go an’ give it sentience?” she complained to herself.
Shaking her head, she dipped the mop once more, determination washing over her. She was going to do this, not for her, but for her daughter. She had to do this to get Luz enrolled - she didn’t think Bumpikins would prevent the enrollment if she didn’t finish all the chores he was going to set her on, but she’d rather not test it.
Lifting the mop, she swung again, causing the words to jerk away once more. Her eyes narrowed, and with a scowl on her face, she slowly inched the mop closer to the graffiti. Just as slowly, the text backed away from the mop. When she moved the mop away, it just as slowly moved back into its original position.
Oh, so that’s how it was going to be. Dear Titan above, this was so annoying! She took a deep breath, a growl building up in her chest as her grip on the mop tightened. Then, she burst into motion.
She lifted the mop off the wall, only to slam it back down right where the sentence had been. Startled, it jerked to the left. She chased it, causing it to move up, then over to the right. Suddenly in the line of fire, all the graffiti on that side scattered out of the way, running along the bottom towards the left as she chased after it, then upwards as she reached the bottom left corner.
Abruptly, all of the Graffiti spiraled towards the middle and formed a whirlwind of color. Her mop froze as she stared incredulously, watching the colors morph into a new set of words, “MOTHER NOOO!!!” As soon as she read it, she flinched back slightly.
That was. Completely unfair. Absolutely against the rules. She would go so far as to consider that cheating, and she was the only one who got to cheat! “Oh, come on!” she shouted, lowering the mop as she scowled and pointed an accusing finger at the graffiti. “That’s playin’ dirty, preying on my parental-ness.”
From his spot on the ground, hugging his stomach as he tried to get his giggling under control, King spoke up. “Is-” he tried to start, only to break off with another bout of giggles. She sent him a flat look. His voice shook once he finally got himself under control enough to continue. “Is it my sibling too now?” he asked.
It’s official. This child was going to be the actual death of her. She thought it would be Luz, but no, her son was going to manage it first.
She groaned in absolute agony, tossing her head back. “Well now I can’t erase it,” she cried out, “you’ve gone and claimed it Kin!” Her son just broke off into even more laughter, while she reared back and slammed the mop into the ground in front of her. It cracked in half as it hit the floor.
She was already feeling bad about the fact she would have to erase something at least half-sentient, but to harm something, anything that had been verbally claimed as Kin? She couldn’t do that, it was against the ancient laws! To claim Kin was to fold one into a family, fully sentient or not. “Damn it,” she murmured, huffing a defeated breath. “Uh. Hm.”
Realization struck her, right then, and she perked back up. It had claimed her as a parent, which gave her an idea. See, the thing about sentience born of magic, was that it always had a little bit of the caster’s personality embedded into it.
Claiming her as a parent meant that she might have some way to convince it to listen to her, and if it had some part of her personality, she probably knew how to do so. “Okay,” she began. “If you’re anything like me, then maybe we can… hash out a deal, or something.”
Honestly, Eda wasn’t actually expecting an actual response, having thought it wouldn’t be sentient enough for that. But suddenly, the graffiti swirled into another mass of mixed colors, before emerging as a new set of words. Again, in mismatched scripts, the graffiti now read, “We’re Listening…”
She stared at it for a moment, taken aback by just how aware it seemed to be. “Huh,” she uttered, frowning. “I really did give it sentience. Why did I think that was a good idea?”
How much of herself had young-Eda actually put into this damn graffiti? Did she even know how to do these kinds of spells back then? She genuinely didn’t remember, it was so long ago, and so unimportant at the time compared to everything else.
Clearing her throat, she raised her voice. “Alright, so, the problem is, you can’t stay here,” she explained. To sentient graffiti. What in Retmina’s Chains was her life anymore? “I need ol’ Bumpikins to think I removed you, or else he won’t let my daughter enroll - uh, your sister, I guess?” That was weird to think about. How many kids did she actually have now?
She shook her head, dismissing that thought for later. “Anyways,” she continued, “here’s an important question; can you travel from the lockers to the wall?”
When she’d been trying to clean it, the graffiti had been cutting itself off against the edges of the lockers. She wondered if it might’ve been wrapping around the sides and top of the lockers, instead of straight up disappearing. It seems like she might’ve assumed correctly, because the graffiti swirled into a jumble of colors yet again, before jerking upwards and off the row of lockers entirely.
Now, it was situated on the indent in the wall above the lockers, beneath the archway that spanned over the top of it. It was split into three messages, being “Yes!” “YEAH!” and “You Bet!”
Eda grinned. That definitely made things a lot easier, and it meant that her idea might just work. After all, the best way to get her attention was to offer the ability to create even more calamity, and she thought the graffiti would probably feel the same.
“Alright, perfect,” she said. Then, she turned towards the wall beside the bay of lockers, and moved closer. “Now, lemme just…”
Gliding a hand across the stone, she sent out slight pulses of her magic, just to check if it was still where it should be. Sure enough, the magic bounced back at her. So he really hadn’t destroyed it, then. Either Bump never found out it existed, which she doubted after what he implied during their earlier argument, or he left it for some reason.
She placed her finger against the blank section of wall, and drew a small circle, starting from the top. Then, once she closed the loop, she dragged her finger down, making a line through the circle and out of the bottom, forming the shape of a keyhole. A door-shaped section of the wall flashed with her yellow magic, before it suddenly popped open.
Perfect. Pulling the door open, she turned back towards the graffiti with a triumphant smirk on her lips. “If you stay in here, not only are you gonna be safe, but you can access the whole school,” she proclaimed. “Imagine how funny it’ll be when someone finds you in a different spot every time they pass through!” Hook, line, and sinker.
The graffiti swirled together one last time, moving to be above the opening to the Room of Shortcuts. It shifted into a mismatched set of words that read, “THANK YOU MOTHER!!!” Then, after the moment had passed, it suddenly shot down, disappearing as it wrapped around and through the doorway.
When she looked inside, she could see various symbols and words spreading across the walls of the room, exploring the new space they’d been given. One of them had even morphed into the word “Woah…” which was just adorable.
Dusting off her hand dramatically, Eda took a step back from the door, grinning. “And that’s how it’s done,” she declared. Her plan had worked like an enchanted crystal charm.
King, who had finally got his rampant giggling under control, climbed his way back up her side like a little kitten. Once he reached the top, he collapsed onto her shoulder, laying on his stomach. “Weh? Secret room?” he asked, pointing towards the still-open hidden door.
With a dismissive wave of her hand, she replied, “Oh, that’s just my old pocket dimension.” She turned her head slightly to look at her son. “The one I like to call the Room of Shortcuts.”
“Ooh, m’kay,” King said, nodding. “You tolded us ‘bout it b’fore.”
Alright, good, he did remember the whole spiel Eda gave to her daughter about it. She hadn’t been sure if he was awake for that or not. “Yep, I sure did,” she said. She reached over to scratch his chin, and grinned when he began to purr, his tail brushing against her back as it began to wag. “I’m a little surprised it’s still intact, but hey, that just means I don’t have to bother making a new one.”
She couldn’t help but think about Bump’s knowledge. He’d known the room was there, she was certain that it was what he’d been implying when he said that he was aware Luz would study every track anyway.
But, for some reason, he hadn’t destroyed it. Why hadn’t he? It certainly couldn’t have been his nostalgia. There was some kind of reason, but she didn’t know what that reason was yet. She needed to talk with him about it, when she got the chance. Probably once she was done with all his stupid chores.
Turning her attention back towards the room itself, she gave it a quick once-over. Everything seemed good at first glance, though she could tell, even without examining the magic directly, that she would need to reweave the pocket dimension to make some improvements.
Better concealment enchantments first and foremost, she thought. She could improve the old notice-me-not spell she used by combining it with an acoustic space spell, so it wouldn’t be broken if you spoke while standing inside the doorway, too. Maybe some kind of detection spell that prevented it from being opened or found by anyone with an Emperor’s Coven sigil? She could probably do that.
With a final hum, she shoved the door shut. It flashed with golden light at the seams, before the seams vanished, and the door melded back into the wall. “I was plannin’ on showin’ you and Luz the place when we’re done with all the errands Bump’s havin’ me run, since I get the feeling your sister’s gonna need it,” Eda explained.
Drawing another spell circle to summon the bucket and broken mop into her hands, she continued, “It was my secret way of getting around the school. I used to pull so many pranks through it.” Then, lowering her voice to a murmur, she added, “Plus, y’know, I also studied multiple magic tracks from there.”
She began to walk off in the same direction that she’d watched Bumpity head off in earlier, hoping he hadn’t gone too far. As she did so, her son said, “Woah, Chaos Mama.”
“Dang right!” Eda declared, probably more proud than she should be. There was something about getting compliments from her kids that made them feel all the more real. “They used to call me Lord Calamity, back in my cycle.”
Wait a second. She paused, and thought over what she just said. Then, she grimaced. “By the Titan, that made me sound old.” Apparently, that was incredibly funny, her son immediately broke off into even more giggles. He was really giggly this morning, for some reason. Maybe this whole situation was just that hilarious.
She shook her head in exasperation as she emerged into another hallway. “Anyways, let’s go find Bumpity-Bump,” she said, taking off towards the Central Spire Chamber on a whim. If she was to hazard a guess, whatever mess he would have her clean up next was probably around there. “Something tells me the rest of this won't be as easy as that was.”
Okay, so, Willow had to admit, she wasn’t all that sure how their deep dive into the plant magic section of the Library had turned into an expedition into the nearby Floral Greenhouse. Specifically, one that had the goal of acquiring a small plant pot and some flower seeds, which they brought back with them to the library for some experimentation.
She blamed Luz - her brand new friend, oh Titan, Willow had made a new friend - for it. She’d made a really good point about how Willow had never grown a plant from a seed before, and they needed to see how well she could do it if they were to enact her grand plan.
That wasn’t to say that she was upset with Luz, though! Not at all! Even if they did break the rules a little bit, there was something so fun about sneaking through the empty Plant Track Homeroom, giggling with each other like they weren’t trying to be stealthy, stopping multiple times to fawn over the incredible plants all around them. It was the most fun she’d had in months, and she still couldn’t stop smiling.
The flower that Willow chose was a Repetla, a fairly abundant red flower that could be found all across the Boiling Isles! Its petals were frilly and thin, flared out in a beautiful pattern, but their stalks were covered in thorns.
According to Luz, they looked a lot like a flower from the Human Realm called a Rose, but with bigger petals and way more thorns. Which was awesome! Though, Luz also admitted that she hadn’t looked at one in a little while, so she wasn’t sure how accurate that is.
Willow always liked the meaning behind repetlas - they’re pretty and nice to look at, but they could be prickly and defensive if you tried to harm them. They represented the survival and continuation of life, and giving one to someone was like saying that you’re happy they’re still alive!
Now, the two of them had found a quiet corner of the plant magic section, hidden away from any other students or school staff, and Luz was attempting to guide Willow through the process of intentionally growing a plant from a seed. The two of them were sitting just beside each other on the carpet, criss-cross apple blood, halfway turned towards one another. The plant pot was settled on Willow’s lap, seed already buried beneath the soil.
“Okay,” Luz began, her hands hovering just above Willow’s on either side of the pot. “So, once you’ve found the seed and focused on it, all you gotta do is draw a spell circle and encourage it to grow with your magic!”
That made a lot of sense to Willow! “Oh, m’kay,” she said, nodding. She had never actually tried to grow a flower intentionally before, only having done it by accident a couple of times.
She also might have a really vague memory of accidentally growing a whole tree one time? But she never found that tree again, and she still wasn’t entirely sure that it hadn’t just been a dream. It wouldn’t have been the first time she dreamed about using plant magic.
Her gaze flicked back down to the soil in the pot. After a moment, she closed her eyes, and tentatively reached out towards where the flower should be with her magic. Every plant in the Demon Realm was a living being, she knew, which meant that they had a spirit, even if they weren’t sentient enough to have a soul.
Sending out small tendrils of magic to feel around for things, like unhidden spirits or magic-infused ingredients, was something she intuitively knew how to do. Most witches began to learn how to do that just after their first light spell.
Most sentient beings hid their spirits and souls from that method of detection subconsciously, which was why she couldn’t just walk around Bonesborough and get a sense of everyone around her through magic. Not to mention, it would be weird to just go around poking at other people’s spirits! Most plantlife, on the other hand, didn’t have enough sentience to bother learning how to do such a thing.
It didn’t take her long to find the seedling. Every interpretation of a being’s spirit was different, depending on the person, but the core of the spirit was almost always the same. To her, the little flower’s spirit felt sort of like a calm, gentle breeze on a hillside. The temperature was pleasant, and the hillside was peaceful.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. It felt like there was a distant rumble of thunder in the wind, and at a moment’s notice, the peaceful hill could be swept up in a raging storm. She thought that her interpretation was fitting for a Repetla.
For just a moment, she was confused by a strange feeling her magic picked up just beside her. It was a spark of energetic excitement, right alongside a sense of warm compassion and kindness, and felt a lot like a late-night campfire in the middle of a forest clearing. There were… feathers, she thought, soft ones that felt like a baby bird, and if she listened hard enough, she thought she could hear the hooting of an owl.
It took her a couple of seconds to realize that it was Luz she was sensing, who, for some reason, didn’t seem to be hiding her spirit. Or, no, that wasn’t right. It sort of felt like she was hiding her spirit, but she had left a window open for Willow to see through. It was… strange. Willow had never seen someone do that before.
She mentally shook herself, returning her focus on the seedling. Her new friend’s weird spirit window thing was something she could ask about later.
After a short moment of confusion over what she was supposed to do with her magic, she shrugged to herself, and drew the spell circle. She pushed her magic towards the flower, only to frown as she suddenly met unexpected resistance. Maybe she just wasn’t trying hard enough?
Determined, she forced even more of her magic forwards, concentrating it all into the little seedling. This was taking way more effort than she thought it would! But, before she could start worrying that she might not be able to figure this out, Luz let out an excited gasp, and said, “You did it!”
“I did?” Willow asked, blinking her eyes open in surprise. With all the resistance she’d felt, there was no way it had grown that quickly, right? She’d only been trying for a few seconds!
But, sure enough, there was now a healthy-looking repetla sitting in the pot on her lap. “Oh!” she exclaimed, somewhat shocked. “I did!” She didn’t understand. Was she actually doing it right?
Curious, Luz leaned in a little bit, examining the flower. She tilted her head slightly, then poked at one of the petals, which was a vibrant, beautiful red. “You picked a really pretty flower,” she said, “and it grew so fast!”
That was true. The flower looked perfect, and clearly, she had managed to grow it. But something about the pushback she felt was still bothering her. “I, uhm. I think I might’ve done something a little wrong, though?” she admitted. “It felt a lot harder to do this time. Like, it’s easier to do it accidentally? If that makes sense?”
One time, while she was trying to practice making abominations in the forest near to the school, she got so upset that she accidentally grew enough flowers to cover the whole clearing! Why was it so easy to do that, but harder to do this?
“Hmm…” Luz hummed in thought, putting a finger to her chin. She was silent for a moment, considering the issue, before she suddenly perked up. “Oh, wait, I think I know what’s wrong!” she announced. Willow leaned in, curious. “How’re you supposed to summon an abomination? Like, whaddya do with your magic?”
Right, Luz had mentioned earlier that she’s never made an abomination before, either. Willow took a moment to think about it. “Uhm, well, you usually gotta command it to rise,” she explained. “You sorta push your magic into the ingredients and force it to do what you want, I think? I heard saying the commands out loud helps when you’re learning.” She may have never really gotten it, but she still knew what she was supposed to do with her magic.
“Is that what you were doing with the flower, too?” Luz asked, sounding as though she might’ve figured out the problem.
Willow blinked. Had she done that? She hadn’t really noticed, in the moment, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she did. She had been sending her magic into the flower the same way she would send it into abomination goo. Was that why it was so hard to do? “I think so,” she admitted.
Snapping her fingers, Luz declared, “That’s the problem! Mamá says that plants are living things, and things that are alive don’t like being forced to do stuff! I dunno if this is right, but I’m pretty sure abominations aren’t alive.”
Willow nodded along. Abominations weren’t living beings, just constructs made of magic, sort of like a conjured projectile. They didn’t even have a spirit, much less a soul!
“Try casting it differently,” Luz suggested. “Instead of forcing the flower to grow like an abomination, you sorta need to just, uhm, ease the magic towards them, and let them take it!”
“Ooh,” Willow breathed out, “that makes a lotta sense.” So, because it was a living creature, and not a magic construct or a conjured spell, she couldn’t force it to use her magic? She was still a bit mystified by how quickly she managed to grow the flower despite doing it right, but that explained why it felt so wrong. “Uhm. Okay, lemme try this again.”
For a second time, Willow closed her eyes, and examined the flower like she did before. She poked at its spirit with her magic, and watched in fascination as its presence shifted slightly, like it was acknowledging her. It wasn’t conscious, exactly - some plants had more sentience than others, though repetlas were pretty low on the scale - but it served to remind her that the flower was alive.
After a moment, she drew another spell circle. Instead of thrusting her magic forwards, she tentatively offered it, letting the little flower examine it first. A second passed without much happening, before the flower’s presence shifted again, opening up to accept the magic being offered. It eagerly soaked up what she was offering, and it brought a smile to her face.
Not even a whole five seconds had passed before Willow heard a soft, awestruck “Woah…” being breathed out from just beside her. Confused, she blinked her eyes open, only for them to quickly widen in shock.
Because, where there had been a relatively normal-looking repetla before, there was now a repetla that was almost three times the size! The flower’s already-vibrant petals had become even more vibrant, so colorful and pretty that they almost hurt to look at, and the healthy green of the stem had only gotten more obvious.
The little leaves that came off of the flower’s stem had swelled and multiplied, while the thorns that ran up and down the stem looked as though they’d been freshly sharpened. Not to mention, it was almost tall enough to reach above her head now!
“O-Oh,” Willow uttered, breathless. She couldn’t help but stare in awe. It was… it was beautiful! She had never seen a repetla as amazing as the one that was sitting in the pot! Which made it all the more unbelievable that she had been the one to grow it. She glanced up towards her new friend, and couldn’t help asking, “I. I did that?”
Luz’s gaze rose to meet hers, and she beamed. “Mmhmm!” she hummed. She looked just as astonished by the repetla as Willow felt.
Still shocked, Willow looked at the flower once again. “Wow,” she breathed. She still could barely believe that she had made such a pretty flower.
Then, she looked back up at Luz, a grin spreading across her face. “You were right, it was a lot easier to let them soak the magic in,” she admitted to her new friend. “It, uhm, felt way nicer than trying to make them grow, too! I’ve never even seen a Repetla grow this big before!” She lifted the pot for emphasis.
“See, I told you!” Luz said, but she didn’t sound smug or anything, just happy to be right. “You’re super good at plant magic! You got it waaaay faster than I did when Mamá was teaching me.” She shrugged. “It took me a whole week to figure out how to encourage them with my magic, which might be ‘cause my magic is weaker, and I’ve definitely never made anything grow that well before!”
As each compliment was layered on, Willow felt her face heat up more and more. It was a little bit overwhelming. She was supposed to be Half-a-Witch Willow, who’s magic had not only come in late, but never came in properly. She still couldn’t make a single abomination, not even when she was a whole ten years old! She wasn’t supposed to be good at magic!
But, how could she keep believing that, when she managed to grow the prettiest repetla she’s ever seen? Which was why she was so overwhelmed. She would’ve never thought she could manage this.
At least, not if Luz hadn’t encouraged her to try. So, Willow turned to her new friend, a shy smile on her face. “Thank you, Luz,” she said, her voice earnest. “So, so much. I’m really happy to have you as a friend.”
For a moment, it almost looked like Luz was about to burst from an overload of happiness. A grin quickly spread across her face, one so wide that it looked as though it might hurt. Then, suddenly, she jolted forward, crashing into Willow’s side and bringing her arms around her. “I’m happy to be your friend, too!” she said.
Willow blinked. “This is… new?” she admitted, mystified with the gesture she found herself in. What exactly was happening right now? Why was her new friend wrapping her arms around Willow?
It was no secret that witches were social creatures. They enjoyed physical contact with the ones they loved, just as much as any other species. She was pretty sure she’s been held like this before, too. She could recall her fathers having done so, and even a few times where Am- she shied away from that thought before it even had a chance to take form.
Either way, it wasn’t exactly unheard of to wrap your arms around someone, but it wasn’t really done like this. It seemed a bit different, compared to the way her Papa held her to his chest while they sat on the couch, watching the crystal ball together, or the way her Dad pulled her into his arms to lift her up.
At Willow’s statement-slash-question, Luz paused, blinking as well. Willow couldn’t see Luz’s face right then, since her head was buried in Luz’s shoulder, but she heard the huff of air as Luz realized something. “Oh yeah,” she said. “I sorta forgot hugs aren’t a thing in the Demon Realm.”
“This is called a hug?” From what she could tell, it was rather simple. Just wrapping your arms around someone, holding them like a bundle of blankets. Willow can’t help but wonder why she’d never heard of it before, even under a different name. “Is it from the Human Realm?”
Luz nodded, offering a simple “Yep!” in reply.
“Oh,” Willow softly breathed out. It was a little shocking to know that this gesture, this hug, was a human one. How often did humans share these hugs with one another? With how casually Luz had pulled Willow into one, she figured it had to be at least somewhat common, which only made her more confused that she had never experienced one like this before.
She had to get Luz to show this to Augustus, after she introduced the two of them to each other. This hug, it was just so comfortable. Luz was warm, and the feeling of two arms holding her was enough to make something in her chest ease away into nothingness, a feeling she hadn’t even noticed was there.
After a moment of considering how she felt, she found herself melting into the contact, leaning against Luz as she tentatively wrapped her own arms around her friend. “This is nice,” she admitted. “I like this.”
When the hug had been reciprocated, Luz let out a… well, Willow thought it was some kind of trilling sound? She wasn’t actually all that sure. It sounded like a really pretty musical note, the kind that a bird would make during the early hours of the morning. Seriously, how was Luz making these noises?
Willow momentarily set her thoughts about whether or not her friend was part demon aside as Luz started to speak. “I know, right?” Luz said. “It’s my mission to give as many hugs as I can, so they eventually become normal in the Demon Realm, too!”
Considering just how much she was enjoying this hug, Willow thought that sounded like an absolutely amazing idea. Clearly, the Demon Realm had been missing out. “A worthy goal,” she intoned, giving a sage nod.
The two of them only managed to hold out for a few seconds before they both burst into giggles, struggling to stay quiet enough to not disturb the peace of the library.
Once their laughter had petered off, they fell into a companionable silence. It wasn’t even an awkward one! Usually, whenever she and another student would run out of things to say to each other, it would end up that way. The only person she could sit in silence with was Augustus, but that was mostly due to the fact he could hold a whole conversation by himself.
Not that she minded or anything! She liked sitting at his side and listening to him ramble on about the latest thing he learned regarding humans! There just hadn’t been a time where they’d sat with one another in silence. Their friendship was still only a few months old, after all.
She wasn’t very sure what that said about her friendship with Luz, that they had only been friends for a couple of hours, and they were already comfortable enough to sit in comfortable silence and share these wonderful hugs with each other. She definitely wasn’t trying to compare it to her friendship with Augustus, but maybe it was a little different?
She and Augustus tended to be a little cautious with each other, she thought. Afraid to misstep, since neither of them had the best experience with their previous friendships. The people he used to call friends had only been using him for their homework, and she… she would rather not think about the friendship she lost.
But, on the contrary, Luz had been completely unafraid to declare that Willow was now her friend. She might’ve worried a little bit about being rejected afterwards - as if Willow would ever say no to being friends with someone so nice and kind! - but Luz was still the first one to call Willow a friend.
She was the one to suggest they look into plant magic, and the one that dragged Willow along for an adventure to the Floral Greenhouse. Golly, she had even been the one to pull Willow into this hug!
It was a lot more forward than Willow was used to, especially between herself and Augustus. Maybe she needed to try and be more confident in their friendship, like Luz was with her? That might help her become better friends with Augustus!
Eventually, the comfortable silence they’d settled into was broken when Luz shifted around. Willow leaned back a tiny bit, just enough to see her face without breaking the hug. Luz grinned at her. “Hey, so, what should we do with Leia?” She wondered, her tone casual.
Willow blinked. Leia? Who was- wait, was she talking about the repetla? “Did you just name the flower?” she asked, incredulous.
The expression on Luz’s face was completely innocent. “They like it!” she playfully protested. “See?” Luz pulled one of her arms away from the hug, moving her hand closer to the flower, her pointer finger hovering just a few centimeters away from the petals.
The little repetla - Leia, apparently - leaned towards the finger, nudging it with as much affection as a flower could offer. Willow couldn’t help but giggle at the adorable sight. “Should we put them back in the Floral Greenhouse?” Luz continued. “They’d probably be happy to have such a cool flower!”
“I think I have a better idea, actually!” Willow found herself announcing, a plan having already begun to form in her head. But, before she could explain her idea, she came to the sudden realization that the two of them were still wrapped in a hug.
It definitely wasn’t uncomfortable, but she couldn’t exactly do anything with her arms around her friend. She wasn’t sure how you were supposed to stop one of these, actually. “Right, uhm, how do you leave a hug without it seeming rude?”
“Oh, like this,” Luz replied, gently pulling her arms away from Willow, and prompting Willow to do the same. She was still beaming, and Willow offered her a smile in return. She missed the warmth of the hug already, but she tentatively decided she could probably ask Luz for another one at some point. “What’s your idea?” Luz asked.
“Well,” Willow began, “we grew my- er, uhm, Leia, we grew Leia in the library, so maybe the librarian would be happy to have them? Mrs. Jenemire’s always been super nice to me, and, and she didn’t even tell on me that time she saw me looking through one of the plant track books!”
In fact, she thought Mrs. Jenemire was one of the kindest teachers in the entire school! Some of the other students thought she was scary and intimidating, but Willow had never got that impression. She would just help Willow find whatever books she was looking for with that grandmotherly smile, and one time, she chased off a couple of kids that had come in to bully Willow!
“I’d love to give her my first intentional flower,” Willow finished. It seemed like a fitting gift, knowing the meaning behind it.
Luz’s grin shifted into something that was a little bit softer, but still just as warm. “Aww, that’s sweet!” she chirped - yet again, just like a bird. Willow was determined to ask about that, the next chance she got. “Let’s do it!”
Just as her friend finished speaking, the scream for First Break rang out across the campus. She didn’t miss the way Luz gave a small flinch at the loud noise. It sort of made sense - Willow had gotten the impression earlier that Luz had never actually been to a school before, and was probably not used to anything louder than an alarm demon.
“That’s the First Break Scream!” she told her new friend, beginning to stand up. She tucked the pot holding her flower under one arm, taking care to not hurt herself on any of the thorns. Luz rose to stand up beside her.
Willow didn’t even notice herself doing it, but she absently reached over with her free hand and took Luz’s, pulling her along without a second thought. “C’mon, let’s go give her the flower, and then head to the lunchroom!” she continued. “I can introduce you to Augustus! You’re gonna be great friends!”
Luz nodded, sharing a smile with Willow. Then, together, they went off towards the front desk to deliver the flower Willow had grown, hand-in-hand, content with the friendship that had quickly bloomed between them. And as they disappeared through the library doors, a kindly old woman’s gaze trailed after them.
Well, that had certainly been a pleasant sight to see, she thought to herself. Already, the friendship between the two girls had grown into something extravagant, and she could tell it would stay together through the hurdles yet to come.
She gently pet the petals of the flower she’d been given - Leia, according to the hastily slapped-on label, which was also signed with the names Willow and Luz along the bottom - and gave a small laugh as it bumped into her hand like a little kitten. It was an absolutely wonderful gift to receive from little Park, and she would cherish it for as long as it would live.
Varun could admit, she had always held a suspicion that Willow was more inclined to Plant Magic. It only made her wonder all the more as to why the girl was still in the Abominations Track. Clearly, her talents belong elsewhere.
You don’t usually find an abominations student sneakily trying to look through books on Plant Magic for just any reason, after all. She even suspected that her fathers might be aware of such a fact, what with naming her something so on-the-nose like Willow. So why had they placed her in abominations?
But, well, it wasn’t exactly her place to judge. They likely had their reasons, even if it was ultimately Willow’s decision to abide by those reasons or not. Varun was just glad that this new friend seemed to know how to motivate Willow into finally taking things into her own hands.
If students asked her about the new flower set on her desk, three sizes larger than a repetla would normally grow, then she would simply say a pair of wonderful students had gifted it to her. And later, if one Principal Bump happened to receive a letter encouraging him to keep an eye out for a student named Willow Park, who might just put on a show worthy of a track switch, well, she believed that was her own business.
Notes:
This chapter was planned to release on the Nineteenth, but in honor of reaching Two Hundred Kudos (thank you to all my wonderful readers), I decided to go ahead and release it a few days early! I present to you, the second chapter in the Hexside Enrollment Arc! I sincerely hope you all enjoy this chapter, this arc has been incredibly fun to write. Also, happy Valentines Day!
Chapter Word Count: 13,864
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-01-14
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-03-15
Chapter 5: We’ll All Be Just Fine
Summary:
Eda was beginning to realize that, maybe, she and Principal Bump had a lot more in common than she thought. Luz, on the other hand, was just happy to be making yet another new friend. That meant she was up to two whole friends! Topped off with a tour of the Super-Duper Secret Room her Mamá made back when she attended Hexside, it ended up being a very good cycle.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
So, maybe Eda was a little bit frustrated with her past self. Well, okay, it was definitely more than a little bit.
Don’t get her wrong, these pranks she pulled and the decades-long wars some of them started were all absolutely hilarious, and she would do them again in a heartbeat if it was up to her. But, right now, she wasn’t feeling all that enthusiastic about some of the things the fourteen-to-fifteen-year-old version of her pulled off.
This was mostly because it was her who had to clean all of it up, instead of some poor, underpaid janitor. She wasn’t even getting paid to do it! Like some twisted form of community service, she was just earning the right to actually enroll her daughter.
The worst part was, she’s pretty sure that none of this was actually necessary to get her daughter on the student roster. She knew damn well that Bumpity was already enamored with her kid and excited to have another Clawthorne attending Hexside, even if chaos would stick to Luz, like one of those tacky magnets from the Human Realm she had stuck all over the fridge that Camila had bought for their house.
No, he was just using this ordeal as a cash-in to clean up some of the messes she had left. She couldn’t even challenge it, because, then, he really could make it a requirement to get Luz enrolled, and that would mean she’d end up having to do it all anyway! The devious old bastard had trapped her! She was actually kind of impressed.
Take the task she had just finished with, for example. Summoning a couple of ghouls from the nearby Ghost Dimension and flooding the girl’s locker room with a bunch of ethereal, otherworldly beings? Actual comedy gold. She still believed that was one of her best practical jokes to date, and the fact that it had continued to cause problems for the twenty-eight years she’d been gone was unbelievably hilarious. Plus, the war it had spawned had been pretty fun to fight in.
The only problem was, she couldn’t exactly enjoy the humor of it, because here she was, sagging under the weight of exhaustion as she dragged along a bag full of writhing ghosts, purple ectoplasm dripping from her drenched mane. It was a lot less funny and exciting when she was the one that had to clean it all up. Who knew? Not her, apparently. Figured.
Just a couple hallways away from the lunchroom she’d been told to meet Bump in, she paused in her step, dropping the tied-off bag to the floor where it continued to thrash. She stretched her arms above her head, a breath escaping from her chest as her back loudly popped. Yeesh, her body had seen some better cycles. Then, she reached back down, and continued to drag the bag along.
Well, at least her son had a decent enough time, chasing ghosts around the room and cackling like a demon overrun with power as he helped herd them all into the bag. Maybe it wasn’t the demon kingdom she’d been telling him stories about, but he ruled over that haunted girl’s locker room with an iron fist, living out his dreams of being a tyrannical ruler for about ten minutes, and it had been absolutely adorable.
Watching King sock a harmless ghost with all his little might definitely made everything feel so much better. Even the Owl Beast, who spent the whole ordeal feeling agitated and twitchy because she couldn’t exactly tear ghouls to shreds with her claws, couldn’t stop herself from cooing at the sight.
Eda had mentally noted down that she needed to start teaching him the proper technique for delivering a good punch. He’d be happy to learn it, the bloodthirsty little toddler.
The Owl Beast had certainly agreed with the sentiment, letting off her own pulse of pride-protectiveness. She liked their kids being able to defend themselves, even if she hated the thought of them being in a situation where she wasn’t there to help them. Eda understood. She felt the exact same way.
Finally, Eda stumbled her way into the still-familiar lunchroom. She gazed out across the sea of students for a moment, attempting to figure out where Bumpmister happened to be. He’d just said to meet him here. After only a moment, she spotted him watching over the room idly from his place against the wall to her right, and she began to trudge her way towards him.
A few students sent her confused and curious looks, but none of them seemed to recognize her just yet. Pity. But, as much as making her presence more widely known seemed enticing, it was best if she at least tried to stay off the radar.
As she walked over, she found her eyes sweeping across the lunchroom once more, reminiscing. With a startling amount of clarity, she could still remember the time she set an entire army of abominations loose within this very room, all in a bid to get a food fight going after Iylan had stolen Lilith’s lunch money. It was mostly so she could justify slamming a whole metal tray into his head.
Of course, a very minor potion-related mishap had resulted in her abominations accidentally gaining sentience - and now that she was thinking about it, that seemed to be a running trend with a lot of her various pranks - and they revolted against her, merging together into one giant abomination and attempting to take over the school. That had then led to her, Lilith, and surprisingly, Iylan teaming up in order to stop it. The memory was enough to elicit a smile and a breathless chuckle.
When she finally reached her former principal, she unceremoniously tossed the bag at his feet. It landed with a wet sounding thud, continuing to writhe in vain as purple ectoplasm dripped off the sides. The amount of containment wards she’d enchanted that bag with were enough to make Warden Wrath break down crying, so those ghouls were not getting out of there.
Princy-B glanced down at it with a deadpan expression, before looking up to her with an eyebrow raised. “There,” she huffed out, scowling as his expression turned into something smug. “The girls’ changing room is now completely ghost-free.”
As she was speaking, King finally managed to catch up, having chosen to walk on his own due to the fact she was covered in ectoplasm. Combined with the intense ruling of the girl’s changing room that he’d partaken in, he was all tuckered out. As soon as he reached her, he collapsed against her leg, yawning. He glanced up at Bump with those bulbous, yellow, innocent-but-absolutely-not eyes. “Shoul’n’t you‘ve called ‘n’ ex-or-cist?” he asked.
It was honestly a bit funny, watching Bumpmister soften when faced with the adorable little enigma that was her son, a warm smile flickering across his expression. He would never admit to such a thing out loud, but he was a total softy.
“We did try that, young one,” he answered, and King tilted his head in curiosity. “Well, at least, we were under the impression that they were a group of exorcists. Their attempts to reclaim the changing room tore a hole between our dimension and the neighboring Ghost Dimension, resulting in the ghouls nearly taking over the entire Right Arm.” Bump shrugged. “We chose not to bother, after that.”
“I’m still convinced you were getting scammed by those Ghost Blaster guys,” Eda commented. Even back then, they hadn’t seemed all that professional to her, and she was the king of not being professional. They treated the whole thing like they were in some kooky show on the crystal ball.
“Oh, I’m certain we were,” Bumpity said, rolling his eyes. “They charged such an exorbitant rate, considering they accidentally caused an entire, if local, war.” Eda couldn’t hold in her snort, and Bump sent her a slightly wry look. “Why do you think I never had the issue dealt with up until now? Exorcists are expensive, and we haven’t had the budget to deal with it for years.”
Heh. She remembered that whole war fondly. Due to the fact that the ghouls were mostly harmless, if incredibly annoying, a large number of those conscripted to the local task force that fought against the invaders were students looking for extra credit. While the Emperor’s Coven contained the expansion of the ghosts and herded them back towards the epicenter in Hexside, the students were tasked with capturing and returning them to their home dimension.
It seemed like so much more fun, way back when, especially compared to now. But, then again, maybe there was a reason for that. After all, she’d still had her whole cliche together, back when that all went down.
She remembered tossing a shifting bag towards Perry with a grin on her face, only to whirl around in shock when Darius blasted a ghoul that tried to sneak up on her hard enough to send it straight back to its dimension, no portal required. She remembered playing a duet with Raine as they stood before the police precinct, drawing in all of the ghosts from the surrounding buildings, only for Alador to trap them in a mechanical abomination net he’d constructed in his free time.
She remembered just how much her face had been hurting from how hard she was smiling, standing side-by-side with her sister as they beat back a horde of ectoplasmic menaces from the steps of the library. It had all just been… different, back then. She had friends now, don’t get her wrong, but it wasn’t the same as it used to be.
With a small huff of breath, she pulled herself away from her memories, and focused back on the conversation at hand. “Y’know, that war wasn’t actually my fault, for once,” she idly mused.
Bumpikins sent her an unimpressed look. “You are certainly still to blame,” he declared with a dismissive wave of his hand. She scowled at him, though even she could admit that it felt half-hearted. He just looked humored, and maybe the slightest bit nostalgic. “Perhaps you didn’t tear the rift yourself,” he continued, “but you are the one who summoned a pack of feral transdimensional ghosts.”
Clearly, he had only lived through all of these years just to spite her. Okay, she didn’t actually believe that, but she would totally be willing to, if he ever said as much. “I despise you,” she grumbled.
“So you say,” Bump dismissed, brushing her declaration aside with a small shrug. You know, like an asshole that knew she wasn’t as much of a grouch as she acted like she was.
“Are you ready to give up?” He brought a hand above her head, and plucked a stray ghost from her hair, before tossing it aside into the nearby garbage can. When he looked back to her, she could see the mirth dancing in his eyes. “You’ve only just barely scratched the surface.”
Oh, what a smug, overconfident jackass! Titan, she wished she actually hated him sometimes. An animalistic growl bubbled up in her chest as she narrowed her eyes dangerously, partially influenced by the Owl Beast. Princy-B just returned the gesture with a flat, completely unimpressed look.
Much to her annoyance, it seemed like he could probably tell that her heart wasn’t really in it, even if she really was annoyed with him. Neither was the Owl Beast’s, really - she just liked to be threatening.
Not that it actually ended up mattering all that much, anyway. The growl sputtered off only a few seconds later, one of her ears flicking as a familiar laugh sliced through the dull roar of students eating and chattering. In an instant, her head turned to look across the room, searching for the source.
It only took a few seconds for her gaze to zero in on the person she was seeking. At the other end of the room, sitting at one of the emptier tables just beside a window, a smile stretched across her ten-year-old face that had her cute little dimples showing in full, was Eda’s daughter.
The laughter that she’d let out was joyful and bright. Even from this distance, her expression looked equally as delighted. Sitting just beside Luz was that same kid Bump had called into the office to give her a tour of the campus, Willow. Eda wasn’t exactly sure if she’d ever met the kid’s parents before, but the surname of Park seemed vaguely familiar.
Seated across from the two of them was another student. This one appeared to be a bit younger, with dark skin and a head of fluffy, almost spiked hair. She almost had to do a double take, with how much the kid looked like Perry, back when her group of friends was still intact. Did Perry go and have himself a little Porter? Yeesh, it really had been a while, hadn’t it?
Maybe she should give him a call on the crystal ball sometime, check in on him. He’s one of the few members of their old group that probably wouldn’t hang up on her immediately. Especially if she opened by mentioning their kids were friends, assuming that student actually was his kid.
Seeing her daughter already forming friendships wasn’t exactly that surprising. The moment she’d laid eyes on the student Bumpity called up to the principal’s office, Eda suspected they’d been chosen intentionally. He cared deeply for all of his students, and he tended to, if not know them very well, at least have a general idea of their personalities and academics.
He likely picked Willow because he knew that they would slot well with whatever he saw in Luz. She didn’t know whether she should be impressed by his abilities, or pissed off that he was so good at manipulating her into cleaning up her old messes by trapping her like that.
She decided on the former. As annoyed as she was with being played so well, she figured that her daughter already bonding with other students was significantly more important. The Owl Beast, who had grown just as agitated as Eda was with being manipulated, let out a grudging huff, and began to settle down.
Having apparently recovered from his exhausting walk, and curious as to what had caught his mother’s attention, King began to claw his way up her leg and back, carefully avoiding a few patches of ectoplasm. Once he reached her shoulder, he climbed on, using her head to steady himself as he stood. He let out a happy little sound as he noticed his sister, and a smile formed subconsciously on Eda’s lips.
“‘Course she’s already made friends with ‘em,” she found herself murmuring, the last remnants of her frustrations melting away. “Social little owlet. She’s gonna love it here.”
A soft, musical trill escaped from her throat, a sound that certainly wasn’t natural to witch biology. She didn’t really notice. She didn’t see the slightly startled look that Bumpity sent towards her at the sound, either, too focused on the sight across the room.
She wasn’t entirely sure what managed to catch her daughter’s attention, but suddenly, Luz’s gaze lifted from her new friends, and two pairs of golden eyes met from across the room. Eda’s smile went soft as she watched Luz’s expression light up like a witchling’s first spell.
She couldn’t make out what the kid told her new friends, even with her more sensitive hearing - there was way too much noise to hear something that far away at the moment, and the roar of the lunchroom was already giving Eda a headache - but the excited wave that Luz sent her just after was obvious enough. Following Luz’s gaze, those two little friends turned to see Eda as well, curious expressions across their faces.
The smallest of the three, who Eda was steadily growing more certain looked too much like a little Perry to be a coincidence, gave a wave that was almost as energetic as Luz’s. That Willow kid, meanwhile, raised their hand in a motionless sort of wave, much calmer than the other two.
Eda dipped her head in greeting, a slight smirking across her face. Up on Eda’s shoulder, King returned the set of three waves with one of his own, his entire little body swaying side-to-side from the sheer energy of it. The whole interaction was utterly adorable, enough that even the Owl Beast couldn’t stop herself from letting out a pulse of love-adoration.
Maybe Eda was still a bit ticked off that she’d been manipulated so well, but, to be honest, she didn’t actually mind nearly as much as she felt like she should. The thought of her little girl already having made some friends, as well as having the chance to experience life as a normal kid instead of being shackled down as the daughter of a notorious criminal, was enough to damper her anger.
This was what her daughter wanted, and, Titan, she’d move Galvantia and Retmina alike just to make that kid smile.
With a decisive nod, Eda asserted that this was the correct choice. She was probably going to have the absolute worst bad-ache cycle tomorrow, but it would be worth it. “Alright,” she began confidently, turning to look at her former principal. “What’s next on the agenda, Bumpikins?”
A slightly manic grin flashed across his face, like he’d just gotten the winning numbers at one of those rigged Covention lotteries. Ol’ Beasty let out a mental growl, and Eda was momentarily overwhelmed with the feeling of being backed into a corner. Twirling his finger into an absent spell, Bump plucked a plunger out of the air, and silently raised it in answer.
She took back every single nice thing she’d ever thought about him. He was absolutely evil. A traitor. The most wicked principal of them all. Worse than Faust. No, worse than Belos. Eda dropped her head into her hands, and let out an agonized groan. “Titan, give me strength,” she begged. King just broke out into giggles at his mother’s misfortune, the little gremlin.
Snack time at Hexside, which happened during the highly anticipated First Break that had been looming over the tour since it began, had offered Luz a very, very important choice. This absolutely crucial decision, which could very well decide the fate of the entire Boiling Isles, was specifically between a bag of raw Warphog meat strips, or a bag of packaged Mextou steak bites.
Alright, so, maybe the world wasn’t actually going to end if she didn’t make the right choice, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t struggling to choose between the two options she had! Meat was one of the bestest things to eat in the whole world - Mamá once said it had something to do with her being more carnivore than herbivore? - and she loved to snack on it throughout the cycle whenever there was enough to allow for it, even if it was raw.
Though, she wasn’t actually sure if witches were normally able to eat meat raw? She didn’t think so. It might be related to the whole ‘being a curse-born’ thing. But, clearly, since it was an actual option being offered as a snack, there must be someone in the school who was capable of it, like some strain of bipedal demon!
Therefore, she felt it was perfectly acceptable for her to indulge in a raw snack. After all, she could see the blood of the meat pooling at the bottom of the bag, and that was enough to make her mouth start watering. Without any further delay, Luz swiped up a bag of the raw meat stripes, letting out a happy trill.
The lunch-person that was supervising the snack counter sent her a look of surprise. She wasn’t entirely sure how to explain her whole situation without revealing too much, so instead, she just smiled up at them, making sure her fangs were showing. According to Mamá, despite being as short as baby fangs, they looked a lot more like adult fangs, which usually implied some kind of demonic heritage in witchlings as young as she was.
Their gaze softened in understanding, and a smile flickered onto their expression as they offered Luz a nod. She nodded back, holding her newly acquired snack to her chest. Then, she turned away from the lunch-person, and began to walk back over to Willow’s side. Luz’s brand new friend had been waiting for her just up ahead, having already grabbed her own snack a few moments before - a bag of fried fairy wings!
Willow sent Luz an odd look as she began to lead them somewhere deeper into the lunchroom, frowning in confusion. Luz tilted her head to the side in curiosity, and at the unspoken prompt, Willow asked, “Isn’t raw meat dangerous for witches?” Then, her frown melted into something more thoughtful. “At least, that’s what Papa told me.”
Despite how much Luz already trusted her new friend, she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to explain that she was actually a curseborn. Mostly because they were out in the open, and even if her curse wasn’t really a curse like Mamá’s was, it still fell into the same family, which meant that it was kind of taboo to talk about casually. But, even then, Luz was honestly a bit nervous about sharing the truth with someone.
She knew that her mom hadn’t meant to scare her, when she’d told Luz a few cycles ago that people might treat her differently if they knew she was a curseborn, but it still stuck with her. What if Willow didn’t want to be friends with someone that was cursed?
Part of her could tell that was a bit far-fetched, knowing what she already knew about Willow, but she couldn’t shake the fear. Maybe she could just tell Willow some other time, when she felt more confident about it. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea! She was so smart.
“I dunno,” Luz answered, shrugging one shoulder, tearing the bag open. “Maybe. Not to me, though.” She drew one of the raw meat strips out from the bag, and eagerly bit down on it. It was easily torn apart with the help of her fangs. She sent a smile to her bewildered friend as she chewed, letting out a pleased hum at the flavor. “Tastes really good!”
For a moment, Willow stared at Luz blankly, before she eventually shrugged. “Oh. Okay. Can’t argue with that,” she decided, turning back towards the direction she’d been leading both of them in.
The area that Willow led Luz to was at the very back of the Lunchroom. She gestured to the mostly-empty table that they were drawing closer to, which sat beside one of the large windows that looked out towards the Grudgby Courts. “Here’s where me ‘n’ Augustus usually sit,” she said, leading Luz over towards the end closest to the window. “Not a lotta people like sitting all the way back here, so we probably won’t get bothered.”
Well, saying it like that made it seem as though there was a chance they would get bothered, even if it was small. Luz tilted her head to the side, curious, and repeated, “Probably?”
“Oh,” Willow squeaked, sounding a bit sheepish, “well, uhm, sometimes Boscha comes over here to say mean stuff.” Luz began to frown. That sounded a lot like a bully. She knew a lot about bullies, but the ones she usually had to deal with were a lot older and also trying to arrest her. She’d never dealt with a bully that was around her age before.
Seeing the expression on Luz’s face, Willow quickly reassured, “But it’s alright! She goes away after a few minutes to sit with her friends, and she’s probably already with them anyways.”
That didn’t really make it any better, Luz thought. Willow stepped over the bench to sit down, and Luz followed suit, sitting just beside her new friend. “Hmm,” Luz hummed, thinking some more. Luckily for Willow, Luz happened to be an expert in dealing with bullies! “I could bite her, if you want.”
Willow, who had opened the bag of fried fairy wings while Luz was speaking and just crunched down on her first one, promptly choked.
Luz made an aborted motion to slap her back, like she would do whenever King swallowed something without chewing, but refrained when it seemed like Willow managed to get it down. She turned to send Luz an incredulous look. “Wh- you- you can’t just bite someone, Luz!” she sputtered.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t socially acceptable to people that didn’t live in the woods and hunt for prey like Luz did, but that wasn’t going to stop her! She channeled a little bit of the Lord Calamity that she inherited from her mom - she still hadn’t thought of a good title for herself yet, but she’d figure it out! - and gave a perfectly innocent smile. “Sure I can!” Luz declared. “Who’s gonna stop me?”
Just like she had been hoping for, Willow burst into giggles, and a grin split across Luz’s face. Things between the two of them were still pretty new, but already, Luz loved making her new friend laugh!
For a moment, she tried her absolute hardest to hold herself back, but quickly fell victim to the giggles as well, and both of them were swept away in their laughter. She thought she might’ve seen a few confused looks sent their way from the students scattered around them, but it was kind of hard to tell when she was giggling so much.
Of course, that also meant that Luz hadn’t realized another student was approaching her and Willow until they sat down across the table from the two of them. “Hi Willow!” they said, and Luz managed to get her giggles under control enough to actually look up at them. “Who’s the new kid?”
They were a bit shorter than Luz and Willow, and maybe a bit younger from the sound of their voice, but she wasn’t sure exactly how much younger they were. They had dark skin, and a head of black hair, which was styled up to be fluffy, almost spiky. She still tended to get the coven colors mixed up a lot, so it took her a moment to figure out what track they were in from their uniform, but she was pretty sure that was the blue of the Illusions Track, and not the Healing Track.
“Hey Augustus!” Willow greeted, grin still on her face, and everything suddenly clicked into place in Luz’s mind. Oh, this was Willow’s other friend, Augustus! She was so excited to finally meet them! Willow gestured to Luz. “This is Luz… Clawthorne, right?” She turned towards Luz at the end, curious.
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed, nodding in confirmation.
With a nod in return, Willow turned back towards Augustus. “She’s being enrolled, so Bump has me showing her around the school,” she explained.
“Hi!” Luz chirped out, excited. She didn’t notice the sideways glance Willow sent her at the bird-like sound, or how Augustus blinked in surprise. “It’s nice to meet you!” She paused for a second, then suddenly remembered she was forgetting the pronouns again. “Oh, right, I use she/her!”
“Nice to meet you too!” Augustus said in return. “Uhm, he/him for me.” They - no, he - sounded a little bit nervous, but Luz wasn’t entirely sure why. Maybe he was worried about her not wanting to be friends with him, like how Luz had been worried about Willow saying no to their friendship earlier?
Well, that wouldn’t do! Clearly, Luz had to make her intentions to be his friend a lot more apparent. “Willow’s mentioned you a few times!” Luz said. “But, uhm, your name’s a little long. Can I call you something shorter?” That was something friends did, right? Come up with shorter names for each other? Oh no, what if he took offense to that?
Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Instead, Augustus let out an excited gasp. “A nickname?” he asked. “For me?” Luz nodded, and he grinned, looking like he was in awe. “I’ve never had a nickname before! O-Of course you can!”
“Oh, okay!” Luz replied, relieved that her idea had worked out. She already had the perfect nickname in mind, too! During one of her trips to the Human Realm with her Mamá, she had visited the place that Mami used to work at, the Gravesfield Animal Clinic.
Mami was a veterinarian, which Mamá had said was sort of like a Healer that specialized in animals, like someone who used both Healing and Beast Keeping magic. One of the nurses there - the one who had let Luz pet one of the very cute dogs, which were really similar to the Houndlings of the Boiling Isles, but without the intelligence - had actually been named Augustus as well!
“Well, uhm, mi Mami used to work with someone named Augustus!” Luz continued, explaining her thought process. “He told me to just call him Gus when I met him, ‘cause that’s what everyone else called him. How’s that sound?”
“Gus?” Willow repeated aloud, testing the name out. From the corner of her eye, Luz could see the smile that flashed across Willow’s face. “I like it!” she declared. “It’s short, but still you.”
The newly-nicknamed Gus seemed to agree, stars shimmering in his eyes so intensely that Luz thought he might’ve been using illusion magic to enhance it. “It’s perfect!!” he said, bouncing in place. “Wow, call me it!” Luz couldn’t help but beam at him. He kind of reminded her of a slightly older version of her little brother!
Suddenly, Gus paused. “Wait,” he said, his eyes narrowing as he seemed to notice something on Luz’s face. Confused, Luz reached up and poked at herself, just to make sure there wasn’t any blood dripping down her chin from her raw snack. Nope, nothing there.
Just as quickly as he noticed whatever he was looking at, though, Gus made some kind of realization. “No,” he breathed out in shock, eyes wide as he reached up and fiddled with his ears. “No, it- it couldn’t be…”
It was safe to say that Luz was super-duper extra confused now. Had she done something wrong? She turned over towards Willow for some kind of guidance - maybe she knew what Gus had noticed, since they’ve been friends for longer? - just in time for Willow to grin at her. “Augustus - or, uhm, Gus, I should start getting used to that - absolutely loves learning about humans,” she explained.
“Ooh, okay,” Luz replied, nodding. “That makes sense.” Gus must have noticed how rounded her ears were, just like Willow had. That was probably why he started messing with his own ears!
Gus’ expression, which had been filled with shock and awe, shifted into something between hopeful and outright excited, as though all of his dreams had just come true. “Are-” he began loudly, before his mouth abruptly clicked shut. Then, in a whisper-shout, he tried again. “Are you really a human?!”
Luz was thankful that he cut himself off before he announced it to the whole lunchroom. It’s not like she minded if people knew about her human heritage. After all, she hadn’t even worn her favorite beanie, the dark red one Mamá had stitched for her. But she’d gone through enough of her mom’s lectures about the rarity of humans and the dangers that come with that to know she didn’t want that information reaching the wrong people!
“Well, only half?” Luz admitted, smiling at the surprised look Gus sent her. “Mami’s a human, but Mamá’s a witch. I got parts from both. I don’t think humans normally have golden eyes, and Mamá said that Mami never had full fangs like me.” She brought a finger up to her mouth and pushed her lip up, revealing the entirety of her right fang. “See?” They may look a lot more like adult fangs than witchling fangs, but it got the point across!
Breathing out a soft “Woah…” in awe, Gus reached up and gently prodded at his own fang, probably realizing that hers were a bit sharper. Then, his eyes flicked down to her neck, before darting back up to meet her eyes with a curious look. “Where are your gills?” he asked innocently.
Luz blinked. “Gills?” she repeated in confusion. She knew what those were, even though sea creatures didn’t come up very often in her lessons with Mamá since it was so hard to study something that lived in the boiling seas, but why would she have those?
Seeing her baffled expression, Gus faltered, his shoulders slumping in disappointment. “Aw, wait, do humans not have gills?” he whined, eyebrows drawing together as he pouted. From the corner of her eye, Luz saw as Willow brought a hand up to her mouth to stop herself from laughing. “I could’ve sworn they had gills. How do they breathe with all the water?”
Oh, okay. Luz could see where he might’ve gotten that idea. Sometimes, Mamá would bring home science and history books from the Human Realm, and Luz read through them because it makes her feel closer with her Mami.
The first time she read a section about how the planet’s surface was seventy percent water, she asked her mom why humans hadn’t built underwater cities yet, especially since the oceans didn’t boil like they do in the Demon Realm. Apparently, it was really hard for them to do without magic, which was lame. Cities under the water would be so cool!
Luz giggled good-naturedly, making sure to smile at Gus so he didn’t think she’s laughing at him. “Nuh-uh, humans don’t have Gills,” she offered, happy to talk about her other half to someone that was actually interested. “They all live on land, surrounded by all the water, like we do in the Demon Realm.”
Then, she hummed, trying to remember all the differences she did have, since Gus was so interested. “The family doctor says I’ve got bigger lungs than other witches, though! It’s part’a why my bile sac is smaller.”
As she was explaining, Gus had reached into his knapsack and pulled out a little notepad, which he started scribbling on. “That’s so awesome!” he gushed. “How long can you hold your breath for?” Willow shook her head fondly at him, but seemed just as interested in the answer as he was.
Luz’s nose scrunched up as she considered that. She remembered trying to find the answer to that question before, even though Mx. Styx told her she shouldn’t. “Uhmm, I think the longest I did was two minutes?” she said, a little uncertain. “It made me really light-headed!” She didn’t remember her exact time, but she thought it had been somewhere over a minute and a half.
At her side, Willow made a shocked sound, and Luz turned to look over. Willow’s eyes were wide. “Two minutes?!” she repeated incredulously. “I can only hold mine for fifty seconds!”
“The average witch can only hold theirs for forty-five!” Gus added, equally as shocked. Luz and Willow looked at him in surprise. “What?” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “They mentioned that in biology a few cycles ago!”
That seemed fair enough of an explanation for Luz, so she just nodded, shifting her focus back to all the things Mx. Styx had talked to her about. “There’s a few things I can’t eat ‘cause I ‘don’t have a detoxi gland on my liver,’ either!” she chirped. “Like dawnberries, and chimeran meat.”
It was very unfortunate, because Mamá and King both loved chimeran meat, and Luz had really wanted to like it with them. No matter how hard she tried, though, it just wouldn’t agree with her stomach. That was okay, though. She was fine with enjoying something else, like a big mextou steak, while her mom and brother had the chimera for themselves.
Willow squinted, looking between Luz and the open bag of raw meat strips she was snacking out of pointedly. “But you can eat raw warphog meat?” Luz offered her a sheepish smile.
“I’m, uhm, technically also part demon? I think?” she said, reaching into the bag and pulling out another strip, before tossing it into her mouth with a pleased sound. “I dunno how to describe it without explaining the whole thing.” Which she really was going to do at some point, she decided. Eventually. Once she’d built up the nerve.
With a blink, Willow let out a simple, “Oh, okay.” She didn’t sound all that surprised. Hm. Maybe Luz had been trilling and chirping a lot more than she thought she was.
Now, Luz didn’t know what had caught her attention - she thought it might’ve been the feeling of being watched by someone, which she was really good at noticing - but she suddenly found herself looking all the way across the room. It took her a moment of looking around, but she eventually met a pair of golden eyes.
She promptly let out an excited gasp, drawing the attention of her new friends. “Oh!” she said. “There’s Mamá and my little brother!” She hadn’t known they were in the lunchroom! She sent her family a wide, excited wave.
At the other end of the lunchroom, her mom was standing beside Principal Bump, smiling at Luz. She looked like she was covered in some kind of purple goop. Not abomination goop, but some other type of goop, like slime. King was standing on their mom’s shoulder, using her head to balance himself.
Luz’s new friends both followed her gaze, looking over towards Mamá. Gus offered a wave just as enthusiastic as Luz’s was, while Willow lifted her hand in a motionless wave, smiling. Mamá smirked at the three of them, dipping her head in greeting. King returned Luz’s wave just as enthusiastically, his whole little body swaying back and forth.
After a moment, Willow turned back towards Luz with a grin, her eyes sparkling. “Your brother is so adorable!” she declared.
“Right?” Luz chirped, glad that someone else was able to see just how adorable her little brother was. “I love him so much!” He was the absolute cutest wittle demon on all of Etin!
“Wait, that’s your mom?” Gus suddenly asked, sounding surprised. Luz looked over at him, tilting her head in curiosity, and he smiled back a little sheepishly. “I dunno why, but she looks kinda familiar!” Willow blinked, then turned to look at Mamá again, her expression thoughtful as if she thought Mamá was familiar too.
Well, they probably recognized her from the wanted posters, since they all had Mamá’s face plastered on them. It had a super high bounty, and most people needed to do a double take when they passed by one. Luz didn’t really want to mention that. Her friends were going to find out her mom was a wild witch eventually, but the longer they didn’t, the more sure Luz could be that they wouldn’t be scared off by it!
“Maybe you saw her at the market!” she suggested, excited to talk about the Human Collectibles shop instead. Luz absolutely loved her first cycle there! “She runs a stall that sells human stuff, and I got to go with her on the sixth cycle of last week! I’m gonna be there again this week, too. It was really fun!”
Willow continued to stare for a little bit longer, but Gus turned to look at Luz. He hesitated, his expression growing a little bit nervous. “Maybe, uhm, maybe me and Willow could come by next time to see you?” he timidly proposed. “We don’t got class on the sixth cycle.” Willow finally turned back as he spoke, and excitedly nodded along with him, sending Luz a hopeful grin.
Luz blinked at the two of them, stunned. They… they both already wanted to see her again? She could kind of understand that with Willow, but she had only just met Gus! Maybe he really did want to be friends with her as much as she wanted to be friends with him?
She couldn’t help but beam. Oh Titan, she had a pair of friends now! Friends that actually wanted to see her again, and hang out outside of school! This was the best cycle ever! “That sounds really nice!” Luz trilled. “I’d love for you guys to visit. You could even meet my mom ‘n’ my brother!”
“Sounds like a plan!” Willow declared, Gus giving his own nod of agreement this time. To seal their future meet-up, Willow tentatively swept Luz into another hug. Luz returned the embrace as enthusiastically as she possibly could while still sitting down. She loved having friends!
Stretching her hands out above her head, Eda let out a groan as the tension in her back broke, giving a loud pop. From the corner of her eye, she noticed as Bump sent her a slightly worried look at the sound, but she was more focused on the wave of fondness that crashed over her as her son wrapped himself around her upper arm to stay on her shoulder.
All of her limbs were starting to feel a bit like a watered down abomination, and everything was beginning to ache in a way that was uncomfortably familiar. It sort of felt as if she’d spent the whole cycle fighting for control against an unwilling transformation. Not that normal transformations didn’t hurt, but the ones she fought against could leave her unable to move for several cycles .
Just after that thought, an image flashed across her vision. It showed her and the Owl Beast, sitting together along a monochrome beach, staring out across a sea of golden elixir. Accompanying it was a pulse of remorse-understanding. Eda huffed a quiet breath, and pushed her own feelings of regret-understanding back towards the Owl Beast in return. It was all in the past - they were getting better at seeing eye-to-eye these cycles.
“Alright, I dealt with the rest of the graffiti, apologized to Jenkinmeyer for stealing her teeth, and caught all of the wild cerebi,” Eda griped, sending her former principal a half-hearted glare. Annoyingly, she still couldn’t muster up enough of a will to actually be pissed off at him, even after he put her through the wringer. “Are we good now? I’ve been at this for hours, and I can already tell I’m gonna have the worst backache tomorrow.”
Up on her shoulder, King let out a whine of distress at hearing about his mother’s pain. Eda reached over and scratched him under his chin in comfort. “Aw, cheer up, kiddo,” she cooed. “I’ll be fine after some rest time in the nest. All three of us can call it a lazy cycle.”
King was completely unable to resist the influence of chin scratches, and immediately began to purr. “Hmm… ’kay,” he agreed through the rumbles. Just as she predicted. He was always satiated by promises of cuddling and napping.
“Indeed, that should be everything,” Bumpity confirmed, drawing her attention back over towards him. He looked a bit contrite, like he’d realized he might’ve made a mistake. “My apologies if I overworked you. I am ashamed to admit I hadn’t quite considered the strain your ailment might put you under.”
Eda waved a dismissive hand at him, unbothered. “Eh, ain’t nothin’ I’m not used to,” she said. “Birdbrain ‘n’ me might be on better terms these cycles, but the transformations still do a number on my joints, and I’m doin’ it a lot more often than I used to. Like I said, I’ll probably just end up taking the cycle off from preparing my potion orders, and just nap instead.”
It hadn’t really occurred to her that this news might be a bit shocking until she saw the startled look Bumpmister sent her. “You… have made allies with your curse?” he asked. “Not that such a feat is impossible, of course, but with how… volatile yours had been while you were enrolled, I must admit that I’m surprised.”
She couldn’t blame him for thinking that. The last time the two of them had really spoken, underneath a rain of ash while a sparking corpse laid in a crater nearby, the curse had been nothing more than the monster lurking underneath Eda’s skin. By Retmina, she hadn’t thought it was possible, until she’d taken that leap of faith and saw through the Owl Beast’s eyes for once.
“Would you believe that she’s just as much of a mother as I am?” Eda remarked, sending Bump an exhausted smile as his expression only grew more shocked. “I didn’t, at first. But that was our common ground, and we figured things out from there.” Then, careful not to jostle her son, she shrugged, her smile shifting into a bit of a half-smirk. “Mostly, anyways. Neither of us are happy with being stuck to each other like this, but there’s nothing we can do to change it.”
Her perspective had changed a lot over these last few years. Seeing through the Owl Beast’s eyes had really opened her own eyes on just how mutual their situation actually was. If she had only known that, back when she was still in Hexside, things could’ve ended up so much different. But, honestly, she was mostly just relieved that the nightmarish part of the curse was over.
At least she knew what she knew now. Because, now, her daughter was about to be enrolled in Hexside. With everything she learned, she could use it all to guide and protect Luz. Which brought her back to the most important fact of all, being Luz’s status as a curseborn.
Titan above, this was the part of the conversation she’d been dreading. Apprehension began to pool in her chest, but still, she was committed. “Alright, so,” she haltingly began. “That, uh. Brings me to another concern that me and you need to actually discuss. I don’t think I need to bother explaining the mechanics of curse passage through genetics, do I?”
“You needn’t,” Bumpity answered, letting out a weary sigh. “I did, of course, perform further research into the topic after our failure with you, but I believe every adult in a position of guidance and tutoring worthy of their job knows the tale of the werehounds. I had been hopeful that your lack of mentioning implied it hadn’t occurred in this case, but… well, I suppose that was a tad bit too optimistic.”
Eda quietly sent her thankfulness up to the Titan. She hadn’t even known where to begin if Bump said he did need her to explain, but the werehounds were the perfect example, and he already knew of them. They’d become a major topic of study among scholars and researchers alike over the last few decades.
After that whole conversation with her daughter about the uniqueness of what they had, at the time, assumed was a separate version of the curse, Eda had dove straight into all of the information about curse passage she could find. It didn’t take her long to find the story of the werehounds for herself.
It all started with a single man, some many thousands of years ago, cursed with an affliction known as Lycanthropy. That concept actually did exist in the Human Realm, even if most humans didn’t believe it was real, and they tended to refer to it as Werewolfism instead.
Though, apparently, the term Lycanthropy also existed in their realm as well. Some ancient species called the Greeks used to use it, according to one of those massive information pages on the computer-thing in Camila’s office. It made her wonder.
Nobody was quite sure when the birth of the werehounds had actually happened. The leading theory was that the man’s cursed form… sired the first with a traditional Isles Hound - which, funnily enough, had become so rare compared to the many subspecies that spawned from it, like the werehounds, that they were seen as more of a historic common ancestor than a still-living species.
Depending on the phases of Etin’s two moons, the werehounds would shift to appear closer to one form or the other. When the moons were closer to full - their phases were offset because of how much further out Anoria was than Destina, so it varied - the werehounds reflected the man’s cursed form. But when the moons were mostly hidden by shadow, the weerehounds looked almost exactly like the near-extinct wild hounds.
Despite being born from a cursed being, none of them were actually cursed, per say. They were closer to an offshoot species, born of two species being merged together into one. That was where all of those studies became important. Curseborns still had several elements of the curse that their species originator was cursed with, but the curse had seemingly rewritten itself into the new species’ genetic scripture.
She had dug up a multitude of unpublished research papers that she very legally obtained from the Healing Coven’s archives, and studied them extensively. One paper was about the theory that Lycanthropy medication - something only first brewed as recent as one-hundred and six years ago - might function to mitigate the shifts of the werehounds, in the same way it worked with a being actually afflicted with the curse.
In lesser doses, the paper had theorized, this could also be used to reduce the heightened aggression that the werehounds experienced when they were in their curse-like form. No tests to actually prove or disprove this had been done, however, because the Office of the Healing Coven decreed it unnecessary research, and refused to fund it. Worthless bastards.
That was how she came up with the idea to dilute her own elixir, and give that to her daughter to help Luz retain her mind in her other form, as well as dim down the intensity of the instincts that came with it. It worked perfectly. In fact, it worked so well that their family doctor had actually begun writing an anonymous research paper on it, in order to help other families that might be stuck in a similar situation.
Of course, that’s all beside the point. The main takeaway was that the werehounds were, by all accounts, a functionally new species that spawned from a curse. The prime example of a curseborn species. It was the go-to basis when it came to passing down a curse through genetics.
Bump hummed to himself, and when she looked towards him, his expression was deeply thoughtful. After a moment, he turned his gaze back to meet hers. “If you could please describe her version to me?” he requested, keeping his tone even. “Simply as a preface, nothing more. I will be having you fill out documentation on this-”
She opened her mouth, fully intent to protest that - the trust she had in him was completely different from the absolute and utter lack of trust she had in the rest of the school’s staff and faculty. But, he raised a forestalling hand, silencing her before she had the chance.
“Trust me when I say that it will be handled with the utmost care,” he tried his best to assure her, offering a look of understanding. “No eyes beyond my own, the Head Healer of Hexside, and yours will see it. Everyone else will be on a need-to-know basis.” Determination flickered across his expression, and, for just a moment, she could see Guiding Shield walking beside her instead. “I refuse to let what happened last time occur again.”
Something about his resolve actually got her to stop and consider it. It would only be, what was that, three people who could see those medical documents? Maybe four, but that was only if Riveness became involved with the process, which they probably would, since they were about as close to the leading expert on human-witch-curseborn hybrids as one could get.
Part of her couldn’t shake the anxiety that his word wasn’t enough. That there might still be some way for the Coven to come calling, and he’d be forced to hand over what he had. But, Titan, maybe she really did trust him far too much, because she was pretty sure she believed him.
Her shoulders fell slightly as she made the realization. If he said he refused to let it happen again, she had no other choice than to trust him. So, she said, “Alright, fine,” offering him a nod of acceptance. She silently prayed that he wouldn’t let her down. It was the best she could do.
King, noticing her frustrations, began to paw at her shoulder, wordlessly asking her to hold him. She shifted one of her arms, letting the little demon climb down into it and cuddle up. With her other arm, she began to soothe down his fur, and he immediately let out a high-pitched purr.
“So, first things first, she’s always herself, even when she’s an Owl Beast,” Eda began, and already, Bump’s surprise began to mount. He knew full well how the curse felt to her - she had described it to him, back when they met in that field of ash and lava. “Normally, she wouldn’t have much of her mind in her other form, but I’ve managed to mitigate that with a diluted version of my own elixir.”
Princy-B nodded along silently, prompting her to keep going. Eda continued, “She takes it every morning before she leaves the house - though, I’ve been thinking about moving it to every night, so we stop forgetting - and it lets her retain herself during a ‘shift,’ as we’ve dubbed it. It also makes the instincts that come with being a curseborn a little less overwhelming.” Then, Eda frowned slightly
“I think she also has some kind of pain suppressant built into her for her shifts?” she mentioned, shrugging. “‘Cause she claims shifting doesn’t hurt. At all.” If she could see Bumpmister’s eyebrows, she was pretty sure they’d be up to his hairline, but the widening of Ferwin’s eyes showed his feelings well enough. “Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” she huffed, smirking at his shock.
“In fact,” Eda elaborated, “she actually enjoys switching forms, and does it to comfort herself whenever she’s upset. When we practice spar, she tends to change forms at random to keep her opponent on their toes, so keep that in mind if she ever gets into a fight with someone or something like that.” That kid was absolutely vicious in a fight. Just like her Mamá taught her.
Honestly, what little she had offered so far already seemed to be taking him off guard, but still, Bump was doing his best to listen and process. “Mm,” he hummed lightly. “Do you expect her to be getting into fights?”
“Normally, she’s an absolute sweetheart,” Eda told him upfront. That kid had a heart of gold. “But, if she’s threatened, she’s gonna bite, and trust me, she bites hard. One Coven Guard already learned that when they tried to grab her and nearly lost their hand.”
Disgust flashed across Bumpity’s expression, angered by the thought of a Coven Guard attempting to apprehend a literal child. She flashed him a violent grin in agreement, fangs on full display, but kept going. “She’s also ready and willing to keep the people she loves safe, too. That’s probably gonna extend to those friends you set her up with.”
She sent him a pointed look, not quite accusing him of anything, but making sure he knew she was onto him. He just met it with a raised brow bone. “Anyways,” she said, shaking her head, “back on topic. She’s got a whole lotta behaviors that carry over from the curse, even with her medication.”
Eda grimaced as she wracked her brain for the full list. “Not entirely sure what can fit into that category, but, off the top of my head: she purrs, which you’ve probably heard her do; she growls, especially if she’s feeling threatened or uncomfortable; she enjoys physical contact even more than the average witch, but only from people she trusts; and she can make some very owl-like noises, even in her witchling form.”
Pausing, she tried to remember if there was anything else. “Oh, and she can't eat certain things because of her human genetics, but she can eat raw meat, for some reason.” That one always frustrated her. The kid would love chimera meat, if she could actually stomach it. “There’s, uh, probably a lot more that I’m forgettin’, but I’m so used to most of it that I don’t really know what is and isn’t strange behavior, y’know?”
A considering look flashed across Bump’s face as he tilted his head in thought. “There are several species who attend this school that demonstrate similar animalistic behaviors,” he admitted, and she nodded along. “Of course, most tend to be demonic in nature, but the Isles are certainly no stranger to unique species with unique features.”
He frowned, then, looking vaguely frustrated. “She may receive criticism for the way she acts from some of her more… high-civilized peers,” he cautioned, before his frustration melted into mirth. “But, as long as it does not put the school in jeopardy, I suppose I will simply turn my gaze the other way, if she were to end up biting someone.” Eda let out a startled laugh. She hadn’t expected him to throw in any of his dry ass humor!
Bumpity offered her a small, but genuine, smile. “Aside from that, I would suggest you make an extra batch of your diluted elixir the next chance you get,” he continued. “You can bring it here when you drop your daughter off on her first cycle, and have it submitted to cold storage, just in case she ends up needing it.”
That seemed reasonable enough to her. “Yeah, alright, I can do that,” she said, offering him a nod. Having a batch ready here would help cover her bases, even if she was already planning to maybe move potion time from breakfast to bedtime.
Now, look. Eda trusted him. She trusted him a whole lot, significantly more than she reasonably should, as she’d reiterated several times by now. But she was doing this all to make sure her daughter was safe, and trusting wasn’t enough. She needed a promise. “I, uh, don’t mean to sound distrustful or anything,” she hesitantly began, “but you won’t be telling the Emperor’s Coven about this, will you?”
The glance that Bumpity sent her at a slight hint of hurt in it, which was fair, before it suddenly melted into something closer to understanding. “No,” was his simple answer. “Hexside’s campus is safe for you both.” Then, he let out an indignant scoff. “I’m the principal, not a stooge. Your daughter is under my protection, and I will ensure her safety.”
But would that be enough, she couldn’t help doubting. After all, she knew what he was willing to sacrifice in the name of safety. “What kinda protection are we talkin’ here, Bumpster?” she asked, absently scratching her son’s head behind the base of his skull. “The kind that leads you to put kids in the detention track?”
That question had been bothering her since their argument in his office, and she’d been waiting for the right moment to bring it back up. At the thinly veiled barb, Bumpity winced, pursing his lips. “I suppose I deserved that,” he said. “I was wondering when this topic would come up again.”
He looked further down the hall, not focused on anything, besides whatever he saw behind his eyes. “As I told you earlier, I am more sympathetic to your beliefs than you might believe,” he explained. “As much as they force me and the other principals to rotate as announcers for the Covention every time it comes around, I do not hold much support for the system. It is just as you said; if my students thrive when they mix magic, then I should let them thrive.”
More frustration flickered across his face, and he shook his head. “But I was not simply exaggerating when I said that we’d turn into the next Glandus if the Emperor’s Coven found out,” he continued. “Our distance from the Chest would not matter, the Emperor himself would breathe down our necks. Of course, there is more than meets the eye to that story.” He sent her a significant look.
Eda remained silent for a moment, considering what he might be referring to. He was sending kids to detention to keep them safe, he’d said. But, he also claimed to still be sympathetic towards them, and wanting them to learn. He had also said that he was well aware Luz would study every single track anyways, even if he tried to stop her, which probably meant he was aware of the Room of Shortcuts.
Those puzzle pieces could connect, she realized. Because the main entrance to that pocket dimension was in the… oh, of course. “Ah,” she uttered, her eyebrows raising as she suddenly figured out exactly what he meant. “So, you do know about it, huh?”
This time, Bumpster offered her a half-smile. “When you were still attending,” he began in lieu of a direct answer, “I was at least vaguely aware that you were somehow managing to learn more than potions. I chose not to pursue it at the time, as I myself had been studying certain topics that I was… not legally permitted to. But I still knew it was happening.”
Shaking his head, he continued. “It wasn’t until four years after you had left that I finally found one of the entrances.” He sent her a knowing look. “You’ll be proud to know that it took me several months to crack the lock. It should also be of no surprise that it was the crawlspace Faust and myself had caught you just outside of.”
Eda let out a snorting laugh at that. It was almost poetic, knowing that was the entrance that sold her out. “I had just shoved Lily inside before you both caught me,” she mentioned, sending Bumpity a lopsided smirk as her laughter died down. “Spared her all the sh- stuff I ended up having to go through afterwards.”
“Mm,” Bump hummed yet again. “I had wondered why she was not with you. You had both been attached at the hip in those cycles.” He shook his head lightly, dismissing the memory. “Either way, I did indeed find your pocket dimension. I will admit, at first, I was intent on removing it, as it had long-since served its purpose.”
For a second or two, he hesitated, frowning slightly. “But, then, I found the entrance that led to the Detention Track’s main room, where I had only just sent a young student named Sabrina for mixing plant magic with healing magic,” he explained. “I suppose I connected some dots, and realized what the true purpose of the room was intended to be.”
Sabrina. That name seemed familiar. Why was that name familiar? Abruptly, Bump huffed, sending Eda a particular look. “Not that you didn’t use it for other purposes, don’t think I’m not aware of how you got away from Miss Jenkinmeyer after taking her dentures.”
Immediately, King began to giggle, having already heard that exact story before, along with his sister. Eda lifted her free hand into a surrendering gesture, a smirk playing across her lips. “Guilty as charged.”
Bumpy-Boo just rolled his eyes, letting out an amused breath, before pushing on. “I conveniently left the entrance to the room open, and left a small inscription on the wall with the proper gesture to open the other entrances,” he said, and Eda’s head snapped over towards him in shock. She figured he did something to help, but she hadn’t expected it to have been so direct!
“At the time,” he continued, “I believed it was the only way I could keep them safe, while not stifling them as much as the Empire wished me to.” His mouth twitched down into a thoughtful frown. “Though now, I will admit, I doubt that was the right choice.”
Well, Ret, she hadn’t expected that at all. “It was better than I thought you’d done, at least,” she huffed. She’d figured he just turned a blind eye, not that he was actively helping them to access the Room of Shortcuts.
“But simply being better than the alternative does not make the option a good one,” Bumpmister countered, one hand raising to cup his chin in thought. “Even if I am giving them the tools to study what they wish, the method that I have done so…” he shook his head as he trailed off. “It only harms them overall. Socially, academically, and personally. You were certainly right on that point.”
“I get it,” Eda told him, because she did. She gently began to pet her son’s fur once again as she spoke. “As much as I disagree with what you did, I get why you did it. Logically, I can see how it makes sense, and minimizes the risk of the Coven finding out.”
She thought about it for a moment, then let out a snort. “Maybe part’a the reason I’m so against it is just ‘cause of how loud and brash about defying the Emperor I tend to be.” She gave a light shrug. “It feels like cowardice to bow down like that, and if there’s one thing me and the Owl Beast can agree on, besides our love for the kids, it’s that we hate cowardice.”
Bump gave her a thoughtful look at that, yet didn’t interrupt. She continued on. “But even with good intentions, that doesn’t change the fact that those kids probably end up lost, thinking the very system they’re sworn to has rejected them for being talented at more than one magic family.”
Dipping his head in a conceding nod, Bumpster said, “Exactly. It sews distrust, not only in myself, but the education system as a whole. You have reminded me of who I am meant to be, ⌠for my title earned stands as Guiding Shield,⌡ and I have been slacking in my duties.” The sudden shift in and out of Riitrán was a little surprising, though Eda thought it was fitting.
“So yes,” Bump declared with a sense of finality, “as you likely expected, I concede. Your daughter will be able to enroll in whatever tracks she wants, as will any other students who wish to learn multiple magic types.” He offered her a dry, if small, smile. “I’m smart enough to know when I’ve made a mistake.” Eda could help but give another snort at that.
Finally, though, the two had arrived back at Bump’s office. “Ah, here we are,” Bumpmister announced, stepping forward. He pulled the door for Eda, holding it open for her. “Come now, all that’s left is the paperwork,” he said. “It should be notably less strenuous than the other tasks you’ve been given up to this point.”
“It dang well better be,” she griped, only half-sarcastic, because by the Titan did her back ache. She stepped through the door, and Bumpity followed just behind her “Let’s just get this done with, yeah? There’s a Room of Shortcuts ready to be toured by a pair of gremlins who want to see it, and then I’m crashing in my nest for the next twenty-five hours.”
Bump quickly settled down in his chair, and Eda followed suit, carefully lowering herself onto the seat across from him. He raised a single eyebrow - at least, she thought he did. “This generation of magic-mixing students have yet to find it,” he said.
It was a silent offer to keep it that way. But, she wouldn’t be Lord Calamity of the Misfit Witches if she turned her back on a couple of fellow magic-mixing miscreants. That, and Luz would probably give her that adorable little frustrated look, then turn around and let the other kids in anyways, because that’s just how she was.
So, Eda waved her free hand in dismissal. “Eh, let ‘em use it,” she answered. “They’re gonna be needing it with the amount of classes they’re taking, even if they only pick two tracks. Trust me, those shortcuts were an absolute lifesaver when I was studying every single magic family.”
“Not to mention,” she added, “if the Coven comes knocking before you have some kinda excuse they’ll buy, you’ll have a place to hide ‘em. I was plannin’ to make some improvements to it, anyways, to keep anyone using it safe.” No member of the Emperor’s Coven was ever going to be able to find that room once she was done with it. She’d learned a whole lot of new wards since she was a teenager.
Bumpity nodded, not at all surprised with her answer. “Understood,” he said. The damn asshole knew her way too well. As if to reinforce that thought, he added, “And, for the record, I agree with your stance.”
Drawing a spell circle, Bumpster used his magic to open a drawer, then summoned two separate packets from within it, and offered them to Eda. She gently lowered her son down to her lap, where he curled up and continued to purr like a little kitten, and took them both.
“Everything you’ll need to fill out for Luz’s enrollment is contained within the first packet,” Bump explained as she began to flip through the packet with the title ‘Enrollment Application’ stamped across the top. “The second one is where you will fill out the information on her, ah, ‘medical condition.’”
As much as she jokes about it, she really did hate paperwork. It was way too strict and orderly for her tastes. But, well. This was for Luz, and she’d do just about anything for that kid. “...Right, okay,” she uttered, trying to fill in all the blanks with her mind before she took a pen to the paper.
Bumpmister began to shuffle some things around on his desk, pulling out a few papers from Titan-knows-where. “Feel free to ask any questions you might have,” he said. “For now, it appears that I need to get started on the monumental amount of paperwork you just gave me.”
Oh, she did sort of convince him to basically rewrite his entire curriculum to now accommodate students taking multiple tracks, didn’t she? Eda couldn’t help but snort at his misfortune.
Setting the packet down on the table, she reached over to his pen holder, and swiped one of them for herself. All of the information on the first page seemed easy enough to fill out. On the dotted line under the “Name” section, after a quick moment of hesitation, she took a deep breath and wrote out her sunshine’s full name, “Luz N. Clawthorne.”
A little over an hour and a half had passed since First Break came to an end, and the tour had continued on from there. The North Wing was a lot larger than the other two sections of the school. It didn’t only house the final three tracks, but it also had most of the general classes and a bunch of other extra stuff, like the Paranormatorioum!
Luz couldn’t help but grin as she listened to all the things her wonderful tour-guide-slash-new-friend rambled on about. Like how there were numerous afterschool and lunchtime clubs that students could join based out of this wing, or how the Gym they saw back in the West Wing was actually used as an impromptu arena on several occasions, including the annual fight against Gromethius the Fearbringer!
Of course, she had already known who Grom was. Mamá had told her and King the story of when Tía Lily - who Luz was really hoping to meet one cycle, once she stopped hanging out with bullies all the time! - was selected as Grom Queen, and Mamá had taken her place when it seemed like she was about to break down.
She was pretty sure one of Tía Lily’s biggest fears had been something related to Mrs. Gwendolyn, if she remembered the story right. Luz was considerably less excited to meet her some cycle.
Gus had even stopped by for a chat about the Illusions Track while they were going through. It was awesome! He apparently conjured up an illusion of himself to take his place in class so he could see them, one that was so convincing the teacher hadn’t even realized he left, which was super impressive.
She was gonna ask him for some tips, when she started attending! Well, actually, she wasn’t exactly sure how that would work? She was most likely going to be spying on classes through the Room of Shortcuts that Mamá said she was gonna show Luz, since she could only take one track.
Maybe he would be willing to pass her notes? If she explained how interested she was in learning illusions, he might not be as weirded out about the whole ‘secretly studying multiple magic tracks’ thing!
Finally, the tour led her and Willow full circle, bringing them right back to the door of the Principal’s Office. Even though the tour was over, Luz was still buzzing with happiness. She’d had so much fun, and she made two whole friends! It made her feel super excited to attend, even if she had to sneak around to study all the tracks she wanted to learn about.
As the two of them came to a stop just outside the door, Willow turned around to send Luz a smile. “It was really nice to meet you, Luz!” she said, taking Luz’s hands into her own.
With a grin so wide that her face started to hurt, Luz decided to do her new friend one better, and tugged her into another embrace. “It was nice to meet you too!” she replied. “I’m so happy to have a friend! You were a really good tour guide!”
Willow melted into the hug, returning the gesture just as tightly. She really seemed to like them! Luz would need to remember that for later. “Thank you!” she said, sounding a little flustered. “When do you start attending school? I can’t wait until we can hang out together during breaks!”
She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that Gus and Willow actually wanted to hang out with her. “Uhm, on the first of Slaypril, I think?” Luz answered, a little bit uncertain, before nodding to herself in confirmation. ‘Yeah, Slaypril First. Cause that’s when the new quarter starts, ‘ccording to Mamá.”
Blinking, Willow said, “Ooh, okay, that makes sense.” The two fell into a short silence for a few moments, basking in the warmth of their shared hug, before Willow tugged away and took a step back. “W-Well, uhm, I guess this is goodbye?”
“Only for now!” Luz was quick to remind her, hearing just how sad she sounded about it. “We’re gonna see each other again in a few cycles, right?” She was a bit sad to see her new friend go too, but the thought of their upcoming plans on the sixth cycle of the week was enough to tide her over.
“Mmhmm!” Willow hummed in agreement. “Me ‘n’ Gus’ll stop by, promise!” She turned to look back down the hall they’d come down, before turning back to Luz. “I, uhm, I gotta head back to class now,” she continued. “But, but I’ll think about your idea some more, okay? I’ll give you an answer when we see each other again.”
She was totally going to go through with their plan, Luz was sure of it. Instead of pointing that out, though, she just grinned. “Sure thing!” she said. Then, with a long and drawn out “Byeeeeee!” that Mamá would be proud of, she pulled the door to the office open, and slipped inside.
At the other end of the room, her mom and Mr. Bump were sitting across from each other at the desk, both of them turned to look back towards her. Luz beamed as her and Mamá’s eyes met, and her mom returned it with a grin of her own. She began to stand up, lifting King from where he’d been sleeping on her lap.
Luz was moving before she even processed it. Mamá just barely finished tucking King into the crook of her arm before Luz crashed into her side, embracing her. “Hola de nuevo, Mamá! (Hello again, Mama!)” Luz happily chirped as she smiled up at her mom.
Huffing a soft breath, Mamá leaned down and planted a kiss on Luz’s forehead, which had her letting out a little giggle. “Hola a ti también, mi pequeña Luz, (Hello to you too, my little Light,)” Mamá murmured, brushing one of Luz’s stray hairs to the side. “You have a good tour?”
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed. The whole tour was awesome, but one part of it had been her absolute favorite. “I made two whole friends!” she happily declared. “Their names are Gus and Willow and they were so awesome and nice to me and they’re the bestest ever!” She wanted to make sure her mom knew just how amazing they both were.
Mamá let out a very familiar plea of snorting laughter, lifting her free hand from their hug to preen through Luz’s hair. “You’re not even attending yet and you’ve already found yourself some little Hexside nerds to be friends with, huh?”
“Yep!” Luz trilled, leaning into the fingers raking through her hair. She only barely noticed the thoughtful look that flashed across the principal’s expression at the sound, who was watching the whole interaction with undisguised curiosity.
But, then, Luz grew a tiny bit nervous. “Is, uhm, is it okay if they come by the stand on the sixth cycle?” she asked. “They know where it is, a-and they wanna come see me again!”
She didn’t think Mamá would say no to having her new friends come visit the Human Collectibles stall, but she wasn’t sure. She’d been so reluctant to even let Luz and King come with her, because the Emperor Coven would come and bully her. Maybe she wouldn’t want Luz’s friends to risk being caught up in that.
Thankfully, Mamá just sent her a knowing smile. “‘Course they can, Sunshine,” she said, and Luz’s shoulders slumped in relief. “I’m glad you made some friends that’re excited to see you. They’re the best kind.”
Luz nodded along. She’d heard stories of Mamá’s old group of friends, but she hadn’t realized just how nice it felt to have people who actually wanted to see her again. Then, Mamá raised an eyebrow, her smile turning into a smirk. “They recognize who I am yet?”
She had to think about that for a moment. “Well, uhm, I dunno. I don’t think so?” she answered, a little uncertain. They had both noticed that her mom looked familiar, but she was pretty sure they accepted the explanation of her running the Human Collectibles stand.
“Willow seemed like she might’ve, at one point,” Luz added, her face scrunched up in consideration. “But, she never said anything, so I’m not sure.” Not that Luz knew what she would’ve said about it. Willow had definitely suspected something, though. She stared at Mamá for a lot longer than Gus, after he mentioned how familiar Luz’s mom looked.
“Huh,” Mamá grunted, her expression tilted thoughtfully. But, after only a moment, she gave a light shrug instead. “Well, I’ll try not to scare ‘em off, I guess,” she said. Luz couldn’t help letting out another plea of giggles. Mamá might act all uncaring about it, but Luz knew she was going to try and be as unthreatening to Willow and Gus as possible.
Shaking her head lightly, Mamá’s expression shifted, and she sent Luz a mischievous grin. It only took a moment to figure out why. “Oh!” Luz breathed, excitement growing. “Do we getta go see the secret room now?”
Instead of responding right away, Mamá stepped away from their hug and lightly jostled her little brother awake, with King letting out an adorable little disgruntled squeak that had Luz cooing. Then, Mamá gently set him on the ground.
King spent a second or two stretching, like he always did whenever he’d just woken up, before he quickly scampered over to Luz. He climbed up onto her shoe and latched onto her leg, sending their mom a glare. Luz had to bite into her lip with her fang to stop herself from giggling again. He was just so cute!
Now that her arms were free, Mamá raised her hands up above her head, stretching out her back until it let out a loud pop. For some reason, Mr. Bump looked at Mamá with what seemed like concern. Didn’t he know those were just Mamá noises? “I think we’re about done here now, ain’t we, Princy-B?” Mamá asked, turning to look at him.
Oh, wow, the principal looked super annoyed by that nickname. He let out a tired-sounding sigh, glaring at Mamá. “Do not call me that.”
Mamá just grinned even wider. She leaned over towards Luz, and whispered in that one way that wasn’t really a whisper. “Make sure to call him that a few times for me, okay?” she asked.
“Promise,” Luz swore, giving her mom a serious nod as she solemnly accepted her new task. She absolutely needed to start calling him that name, his reaction was so funny.
Mr. Bump sent both of them a flat, unimpressed look. Luz exchanged a quick glance with her mom, and the two of them came to a silent agreement. In tandem, they turned to look back at Principal Bump with matching expressions of pure innocence, just like Mamá had taught her to do.
Looking as though he was regretting his entire existence - Luz was trying so hard not to laugh - Mr. Bump shook his head. His eyes closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, waving his other hand absently. “Yes, yes, that should be everything,” he said, his tone exhausted.
Then, he turned his gaze towards Luz, and she blinked at him in return. “Young Luz, you’re scheduled to return during the afterschool period of the thirty-fourth in order to take your placement exams, and once those are complete, you’ll be provided with your blank uniform,” he explained. “Your completed schedule should be ready by your first cycle, which is on the first of Slaypril, just in time for the start of Quarter Two.”
“Got it!” she chirruped. Oh Titan, she was going to be attending witch school! Maybe. If she could pass the placement exams, which she was maybe feeling a liiittle nervous about? She trusted Willow, though, and Willow said she’d be able to make it into all of the normal classes!
Well, not all the normal classes. That thought made her pause. With how much she’d spent the cycle talking about all the magic she liked to learn, she sort of forgot that she’d only be able to take one track. Not that she wasn’t going to be sneaking around and looking at all the classes from Mamá’s super-secret Room of Shortcuts, but, well, it still sucked.
Turning towards her mom, Luz tilted her head to the side, frowning a tiny bit. “Uhm, what track did you put me in?” she asked. She wouldn’t mind whatever it was, unless it was, like, Abominations.
“C’mon, hun, whaddya take me for?” Mamá said, flashing Luz a wide, proud grin. “I used my charming personality and convinced Bump to let you take all of ‘em, just like you wanted to.”
It took a moment for that to actually process. Luz felt her eyes blow wide, her lingering sadness from only being able to do one track abruptly vanishing. “Wait, really?!” she nearly shouted, bouncing on her heels in joy.
Mamá’s grin shifted into a satisfied smirk, and she reached over, ruffling Luz’s hair. “Yes, really,” she said. Luz leaned into the contact, eyes still wide in astonishment as she stared up at the bestest mom ever of all time. She couldn’t believe it!
“Your personality is the furthest thing from charming, Edalyn,” Mr. Bump suddenly cut in, ignoring Mamá’s indignant cry of, “Wh- hey!” Luz and King both let out giggles at their mom’s expense. Just like she taught them to!
Once again, the principal turned his attention back towards Luz. “She did, however, raise some rather good points, which led me to re-evaluated my public stance on allowing mixed magic within Hexside,” he said. “It will take some time to properly prepare - at least a few weeks, by my estimation - but I have already begun to plan out the foundation of a system that will allow this to work.”
Then, Mr. Bump raised an eyebrow - or, at least, Luz thought he was raising an eyebrow. It was a little hard to tell, with the imp covering his head like that. “That being said, you are aware of the monumental course load that will be placed on you, correct?” he asked, sounding a little worried for her. “Your general, non-track classes will remain the same, but your track-related workload will total that of nine students.”
Which Luz had actually thought about. Or, rather, she’d dreamt about it, because she didn’t actually think she’d get to take that many tracks. But, apparently, she was going to now! Which was! The absolute best thing ever! She was going to get to learn every kind of magic like a real wild witch, and it wasn’t even going to be all illegal like it was with Mamá!
She knew that it was going to be a lot of work. It was even a little bit scary, how much work she was about to put on herself. But the joke was on them, because she loved learning about magic! Being born with a weakened bile sac just made her want to learn even harder, because she wasn’t going to let some stupid disability ruin her chance to be a good witch!
When she grew up, she wanted to become as awesome of a witch as her mom was. That meant she had to learn all the magic she could, even the really boring stuff and all the super-illegal stuff, because Mamá knew it all too! She was gonna show that meanie Emperor Belos that wild witches were witches too!
So, she was okay with all the work she was going to have to do. Sitting still and reading was hard sometimes, but she’d read a whole thousand books if it meant being a better witch. “Mmhmm!” Luz hummed in answer, smiling. “I know it’s gonna be a lot, but I wanna learn everything I can!”
Bump still seemed a bit concerned, but he simply shook his head. “Well, so long as you’re aware of the strain you’re placing yourself under, I suppose it’s fine. Keep in mind that, once the system is in place, you will be able to switch out of any tracks you do not wish to remain in.”
That was good! Not because Luz wanted to drop out of any of her tracks, that would be counterproductive to the whole ‘wanting to be an awesome wild witch’ thing. But, knowing the option would be there was nice. There were a few classes Luz was apparently being put in now that seemed a little intimidating. Like abominations!
Don’t get her wrong, she wanted to learn as much about abominations as she could, especially because Mamá wasn’t as good at making them anymore. But, well. Luz hadn’t exactly been lying to Willow when she admitted she’d never managed to make one before. It was a little scary.
But that wasn’t going to stop her! At most, she’d only get out of the track to come back to it later, once she was more confident that she could figure it out. “M’kay!” Luz replied. “Thank you, Mr. Bump sir!”
The principal just made a dismissive gesture with his hand, waving off her gratitude. “Your thanks are appreciated, but unnecessary,” he stated, far from unkindly. “I am simply doing what I was supposed to be doing, as your mother has reminded me.”
Well, if he wasn’t going to take her thanks, then she’d just give them to someone who would! Turning towards her mom once again, Luz declared, “You’re the best, Mamá!”
“Dang right I am,” she said. She reached over and started to scratch at that one really good spot, just behind Luz’s ear. “And don’t you forget it.” Luz couldn’t stop herself from breaking into purrs even if she wanted to.
Mr. Bump cleared his throat. When Luz looked over towards him, he had one of those tiny almost-smiles that a lot of adults who weren’t as expressive as Mamá usually did instead of a grin. Did everyone start to get sadder when they grow up? She hoped not, she didn’t want to be sad!
With them both looking towards him, he met Mamá’s eyes. “Now, if I recall correctly, there is an entrance to your pocket dimension somewhere within this office,” he said, giving a sweeping gesture to the rest of the room. “You may use it, if you so wish. I’m not entirely sure which wall it is located in, though.”
Mamá sent him a wide grin in return, the same one that usually came right before she set something on fire. “Sure thing, Bumpiboo.”
Letting out an exasperated groan, he shoved his head into his hands as if he’d just developed a headache. “Titan above, that was the worst one yet,” he griped. His expression alone had Luz breaking into even more giggles, joined this time by her little brother’s high-pitched voice.
With a smirk on her face, Mamá wandered over to a blank spot on the wall, just beside a couple of filing cabinets. She placed her finger against the wall, then drew the keyhole symbol that she showed Luz how to do the previous cycle. Suddenly, a section of the wall as tall as Mamá flashed with an outline of gold, before it swung open like a door.
Luz could already see the room on the other side, and it looked awesome! Over at his desk, Mr. Bump raised his head from his hands to peer at the door as it opened, and Luz was pretty sure something like recognition flashed across his face.
Turning back towards Luz and King, Mamá jerked her head towards the door, beckoning them both to follow her. “C’mon, kiddies,” she said, stepping through the doorway. “You’re gonna love this.”
King shoved himself off of Luz’s leg, falling down onto all fours so he could stretch again. Luz began to follow after her mother, but paused at the doorway. She forgot to say goodbye! Her little brother scampered by her feet as she turned around to wave at Mr. Bump. “Byeeee Principal Bump!”
Taken by surprise, the principal blinked once, then twice, before another one of those small smiles appeared. He lifted one of his hands in a motionless wave, his head tilting slightly to the side. Luz’s grin widened, and she waved even harder in her enthusiasm.
Then, unable to hold herself back any longer, she whirled around and nearly sprinted into the legendary Room of Shortcuts. She came to a stop at the edge of a walkway, just beside Mamá, and looked across the room with wide eyes. “Woah…” she breathed.
At Luz’s side, Mamá made a grand, sweeping gesture, motioning to the whole room in front of them. “Welcome to the Room of Shortcuts, you little chaos gremlins,” she offered in introduction.
The chamber was absolutely massive! Maybe not as spacious as the Central Spire Chamber that Willow had shown her during the tour, but it had to be just as tall, if not even taller! She leaned over the walkway, glancing up and down as she soaked in the rest of the room.
Each of the eight stone-brick walls that surrounded her were absolutely covered in various doors of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The spaces surrounding many of the doors, aside from having even more doors, were also filled by a bunch of different windows. Like all of the doors, the windows came in all different kinds, and many were tilted at odd angles. Each one of them was letting the mid-cycle sun shine into the room.
It all kind of broke Luz’s brain a tiny bit. The windows could all see outside, but the doors all led to places around the school. That wasn’t even counting the doors and windows that were embedded into the ceiling and laid out on the floor. She knew that spatial magic could defy logic like that - she saw it happen with her own house all the time - but this was just crazy!
Jutting out from the wall was a spiral walkway, which she was standing on. It sloped down to her left, leading all the way down to the ground several floors below, and up to her right, climbing to the very top of the room and stopping just before the ceiling. She was already high enough off the ground that she felt a little intimidated, and she was only halfway up the room!
It’s not that she didn’t know how to catch herself - according to Mamá, all witches learn how to break their falls with a modified levitation spell pretty early on, and Luz wasn’t any different. It was just a very, very tall room. But, then, some of her worry began to fade as she found herself wondering what it would feel like to soar through the air in here while in her other form.
On the blank spaces of the wall in between all the openings were graffiti symbols, except they had to be hexed, because she watched as they moved! A pale-blue lighting symbol zipped up and down and left and right in the same way King did whenever he had too many sweets, while a swirl of purple drifted much slower, moving from one door to the next and stopping as if analyzing each of them.
Luz didn’t even know you could give graffiti sentience like that! Oh Titan, she so needed to ask her mom how she did it at some point. She could think of so many funny things she would do with that power!
As she was soaking in every detail of the room, King came up to her side, tail wagging in excitement. He nudged his boney snout against her leg in a show of affection, and she responded by reaching down and scratching the fur behind his skull. He immediately began to loudly purr.
Then, she turned her attention back towards her mom, still affectionately scratching her brother. Now that she had carefully observed the room for about five seconds or so, she felt confident enough to announce, “This room makes no sense!” Which, okay, maybe that felt just a tiny bit obvious, now that she’d said it out loud, but still.
Mamá let out an amused snort. “That’s the point, kid,” she said. “Pocket dimensions rarely make sense.”
She started to walk down the sloped spiral pathway, heading towards the bottom of the massive room. Luz quickly scooped her brother into her arms, who let out a little “Weh” as he settled comfortably into her arms, before she fell into step behind her mom.
“Each door here leads to a different part of the school, meaning you can cross from one end of the building to the other in just a few seconds if you know the right doors to take,” Mamá explained, nodding her head towards the doors as they walked past. “The windows let you view different areas outside the school, just in case, I dunno, a coven guard shows up, or the apocalypse is happening, somethin’ like that. I used to watch the Grudgby games through ‘em, after I quit the team.”
Oh, so the windows actually had an actual purpose? Luz thought they were just for light! “That’s so cool!” she exclaimed, coming to a stop beside a sideways window to take a look for herself.
Through the glass, she could see the very same stone pathway that she and her mom had walked down earlier that morning, the one that led straight up to the front doors of the school. Then, she blinked as she watched a young griffin suddenly run past.
A student in a dark blue uniform - which Luz thought was maybe the Healing Track? - sprinted after the griffin, shouting something Luz couldn’t hear through the window. Another kid, this one in a red uniform that Luz knew was for the Bard Track, chased after the two of them, playing an instrument in what looked like an attempt to calm the griffin down.
Huh. Okay then. Were things always so chaotic here? If they were, then Luz was going to absolutely love attending Hexside! Maybe her worries from earlier in the cycle about everything being a little too structured would be proven wrong.
She continued to follow after her mom, speeding up a tiny bit to close the distance her quick stop had made. From the corner of her eye, she saw something move, and turned over to look. In a large spot of surprisingly empty wall, a bunch of those moving graffiti seemed to have gathered together.
As soon as she looked over, the various shapes and symbols started to swirl together in a whirlwind of color. She blinked as the colorful mass began to form the words “HELLO SISTER!!!” The first word had a bubbly sort of text script, while the second had sharp letters with a thick outline.
Sister? Luz tilted her head to the side, curious. She hadn’t thought the graffiti was that sentient. Now she really wanted to learn that spell. “Why’s the graffiti calling me their sister?”
Mamá looked back at Luz in surprise, then over to the wall where the words had appeared. “Oh, right,” she said, huffing an amused breath. She sent a fond look towards King. “Blame your brother. He claimed ‘em Kin.”
When Luz glanced down towards her brother, who was nestled comfortably into her arms, he threw his hands up and declared “Art sibling!”
Snorting, Mamá shook her head in exasperation. She did that a lot whenever King did something really silly. Or when Luz did something silly. “See?”
“Oh, okay,” Luz replied. “That makes sense.” And she really did understand. Mamá had sat her down and explained it after she started calling King her little brother, but apparently, claiming someone as Kin was considered a type of oath in wild culture.
Not that Mamá was upset Luz had claimed King as Kin! In fact, she actually told Luz that she probably would’ve claimed him as Kin within the week if Luz hadn’t done it first. It was just that Luz hadn’t realized it was something super-duper important until after she’d already done it. King probably didn’t understand exactly what he’d done, but, well. Ancient law was ancient law.
One of the exclamation marks split off from the rest of the graffiti, then shifted to form a cartoonish looking hand, which then waved at them. King happily waved back at his newly claimed sibling - siblings? How many siblings did she have now? - while Luz offered the hand a smile.
By now, they had made it all the way down the spiral ramp, and were stepping out onto the ground floor. “Alright, this is the bottom level,” Mamá said, before pointing over towards a hallway Luz hadn’t been able to see from up where they’d entered. “That hall over there leads to the Detention Track’s classroom, where I put the main entrance.”
Luz burst into giggles at that, because of course the main entrance was in the detention room. It made perfect sense! At the very least, Luz knew that she would be able to easily escape detention if she was ever sent there.
Looking around now that they were at the bottom of the room, Luz found herself focusing on the various doors scattered all across the floor. How did those ones work? She wandered over to the closest one, readjusting her little brother so she wouldn’t drop him, and crouched down.
With her free hand, she pulled the door handle, and was surprised to hear the click of a lock coming undone as she pressed the button in. They must only be locked from the outside! Peering down, she could see the lunchroom that she, Willow, and Gus had all spent their First Break at. She was looking in from the ceiling, so the floor doors must lead into rooms from the top!
There was nobody in the room right now except for someone that Luz thought was a janitor - they were the ones that cleaned up after people, right? - but they didn’t seem to notice the door suddenly appearing above them. That was probably for the best.
With a small hum to herself, she gently closed the door, trying not to startle the poor demon trying to clean up the lunchroom. At the very least, she was happy that she knew how the floor doors worked now!
She looked up to see Mamá standing right beside her, smirking in amusement. But then, she noticed something across the room from her, and glanced over towards it. “Ooh, what’s that?” she asked, standing back up and walking over to it.
Sitting in a clear space on the wall, just in front of the ramp, was what looked like a large painting frame. It was completely hidden underneath various pieces of graffiti and splotches of paint, though. Most of it was random splatters, but there was a big yellow lighting bolt symbol with a purple outline, as well as a massive light blue streak across the top.
Luz could make out a pair of crossed arms with yellow sleeves, which Luz recognized from her mom’s old Potion Track uniform, and part of the cowl that all the students Luz saw throughout the cycle were wearing. She could also see the hands and chin, but all that told her was that whoever was in the painting had very pale skin. The silhouette of the painting looked a little familiar, but she didn’t know why.
Surrounding the painting were a bunch of different painted signatures, all of them in different scripts. Luz was pretty sure that was called “Tagging” because she remembered Mamá saying that word after she signed her name next to a big painting of an Owl she made on the side of the Police Precinct in Bonesborough.
One read, “SABRINA WUZ HERE” in yellow and green, while another right beside it said “RAD MADDIE” in red, with small lightning symbols on either side of it. On the opposite side of the painting, another one proclaimed “Emmy Rules!” in dark blue overtop a green heart, while the final one just above said “Never Forget CHRIS” in gold.
Had other students been using the Room of Shortcuts too? Maybe they had been using it to study all the tracks, just like Luz was going to before she got enrolled in all of them! She wondered if any of them were still around. She would love to make friends with other students that wanted to study multiple tracks!
As she drew closer, Luz noticed that there was a plaque embedded in the bottom of the painting. Once she was able to make out the words, she read them out loud. “Lord Calamity?” Her eyes widened, and she turned toward her mom. “Wait, that’s your nickname!”
“Weh!” King chirped - she thought his sound counted as a chirp, and he was an honorary bird anyway, even if they didn’t know his actual species - from Luz’s arms. “Chaos Mama!”
“Huh,” Mamá grunted, her curious look quickly turning into another smirk. “Didn’t think this old thing was still around. At least this graffiti isn’t hexed, so I should be able to just…” and she trailed off, twirling a small spell circle.
Luz watched in wonder as the graffiti signatures all around the painting shifted, leaving a bit more space between them and the painting. Several splatters of paint peeled themselves off, gathering into a floating ball of swirling colors, before slapping back onto the wall as a second lightning symbol.
The first lighting symbol shifted itself onto the wall, setting itself between Maddie’s and Sabrina’s tags. The long light blue smear just scooted up a little, now settled on the wall above the painting.
The purple and orange paint, which had been covering the painting’s face, peeled away and started to swirl together. Then, it slammed back into the wall, forming a new tag beside the painting. It read “EDA” with a little owl symbol beside it that looked a lot like Owlbert.
“There we go, that’s better,” Mamá declared, dusting off her hands dramatically.
Luz let out an excited gasp as she realized why the silhouette of the painting had seemed familiar when she first looked at it. The painting was of Mamá when she was still a student! “Tiny Mamá!” Luz blurted, bouncing on her heels a tiny bit. The painting even had the same exact smirk that Mamá still had!
After a moment of pause, Mamá turned and sent Luz a strange look. “Sunshine, I’m literally older in that painting than you are right now,” she said.
“B-But, but, tiny Mamá!” Luz protested, blinking up at her mom. Didn’t Mamá realize how small she was in the painting? It was so weird, seeing what your super tall mom with orange-gray hair looked like as a kid!
She wasn’t sure if King was trying to support her argument, or just decided to repeat what she said because it sounded funny, but he threw his little arms up again and began to chant “Ti-ny Mama! Ti-ny Mama!”
Faced with their combined, absolutely adorable argument - see, Luz knew how to weaponize her cute-ness! - Mamá let out a snort. “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that,” she said, shrugging her shoulders in clear defeat. Yes! Victory for the Tiny Mamá Coven!
Then, Mamá took a step back. “C’mon kiddo, lemme show you some of the more important doors,” she said, beginning to walk back towards the spiral ramp. “You’ll probably need to experiment to figure it all out, but at least you won’t be late for class when you start attending. Probably.”
With a nod, Luz began to follow her mom up the ramp. Mamá reached out with her right hand and brushed it along the wall with a small frown. “Either way,” she continued, “I gotta make some adjustments to the enchantment on this place, maybe move a few doors around just in case, so we’ve got time.”
“Okay!” Luz said, grinning with anticipation. Maybe she could show the Room of Shortcuts to her new friends! It would be a nice place for her, Willow, and Gus to hang out together. She had a feeling that she was going to be using this room a whole lot, once she starts attending school.
Hours later, Luz was slumped against her mom’s back, only half-awake as Mamá flew them back towards the Owl House on her staff. King was tucked into Mamá’s lap, and Luz could just barely see him kicking his legs while he looked down, probably imagining himself stomping across the Titan as a giant demon.
Far below their staff, the forests of the Right Arm flew past, and Luz could tell they’d be home soon. It was a smooth flight, like it always was whenever Luz and King were too tired out to ask for big loops or rolls. It had gotten so late in the cycle that the sun was starting to sink towards the horizon, the purple sky starting to lean towards black.
As of this cycle, she was enrolled in Hexside, just like she had wanted to be. She’d even made friends! Two whole friends! Titan, she still couldn’t believe it. She’d only known Willow and Gus for a single cycle so far, and she really only got to see Gus for a small part of it, but she already loved having them. They were just so nice and kind to her! The sixth cycle couldn’t come soon enough.
She was so, so tired. She could probably sleep for an entire week. Okay, maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but either way, she was sleepy. She’s pretty sure that Mamá was too. Not only had she needed to do a bunch of stuff for Mr. Bump, but at the end of their tour through the Room of Shortcuts, Luz had watched Mamá reweave the entire pocket dimension.
From what she’d said to Luz while she was doing it, she was making it better at protecting anyone inside. Now, it would lock out anyone who had an Emperor’s Coven Sigil on their arm, which was a good thing, because they were all meanies! Well, except for Tía Lily, but Luz wasn’t supposed to talk to her until she stopped hanging out with all the bullies anyway.
It was also now completely impossible to detect the room unless you knew the exact spell to cast, which Luz had obviously been taught. Plus, she could speak in the doorways without being heard now! Apparently, the old enhancement would break if you made too much noise, but the new one had an acoustic space built into it, so nobody would see her unless she wanted them to see her.
Luz let out a big yawn, leaning even more of her weight onto her mom as she reached up to rub at her eyes. “Mamá?” she asked tiredly.
Turning her head to the side, just enough to look back and see Luz’s face, Mamá said, “Yeah, babes?” She was smiling in that way she smiled when it was just the three (or four, counting Hooty) of them.
Her smile was so warm and soft. A lot like the nest. It was really warm, and had a lot of soft blankets in it. Luz really wanted to get into the nest, actually. Wait, no, focus, Luz. She’s supposed to be making sure Mamá knew how much she appreciated everything.
She tried to force her eyes to open, but she could only manage to make them open halfway. “Th’nk you,” she uttered softly, her words slurring together a little bit. It was good enough.
Mamá huffed a quiet, breathy laugh, turning back to face the direction they were flying. “No problem,” she said. Luz didn’t think it was. Mamá had a really bad time at school, but she still enrolled Luz anyway. It meant a lot to Luz. “Tired?”
Luz’s eyes shut completely, and her head slumped even further against Mamá’s back. “Mmhmm,” she managed to hum. If Luz was able to, she would pass out right then and there, even if they were a couple hundred meters in the air. But she was pretty sure her owl instincts wouldn’t let her actually sleep until she was in a nest.
“We’ll call it an early night and head straight to the nest,” Mamá promised, instantly becoming Luz’s favorite person of all time ever. Which she already was, but that’s beside the point. “I could use a nap too, after all that excitement.”
The sleepy giggle that Luz let out just made Mamá smile even wider, especially when it turned into a soft trill at the very end. And as they started to lower through the clouds, Luz couldn’t help but think again, this cycle had been the absolute bestest cycle ever. She couldn’t wait to start attending Hexside!
Notes:
With that, we've reached the conclusion of the Hexside Enrollment Arc. I won't spoil anything that comes next, but I have some fun plot ideas for the next couple of chapters and beyond, so I'll be excited to share them once they're ready. Until then, I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Word Count: 18,658
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-03-08
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-03-15
Chapter 6: Betwixt the Vile & the Virtuous
Summary:
It had taken nearly a week to process, but, now, she had come to terms - relatively speaking, that is - with the state of her familial affairs. A visit to her sister’s home was in order. She wasn’t quite sure what that was going to entail, but there was one small thing she needed to take care of first, which the Emperor could not hear about. She needed a disguise.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The Night Market was a place where the vile and despicable roamed the streets, pawning off their illegal wares to residents who would ask no questions and be asked none in return. Where the items came from, what they would be used for, those offering them for sale, and those wishing to buy them - none of it mattered among these hallowed cobblestone pathways.
The Emperor’s Coven could never seem to disband it, no matter how many raids came through. The vendors had slowly perfected the art of escaping imprisonment in the years that had passed since its initial inception, and would reappear the very next night in order to continue unimpeded. Such a fact was why Emperor Belos chose to cancel any and all incursions on the Night Market as a whole, leaving it to fester and grow into the sprawling scrawl of dangerous midnight magicks it had now become.
She hated this place. In fact, Lilith would go so far to say she truly despised it, unlike anything else she had ever despised before. She couldn’t help but reiterate this in her mind as she tugged her enchanted cloak of concealment a little tighter around her.
She had always held a keen dislike for it, even before her first visit. But after the wrong scroll found its way into her hands, she could hold nothing but pure, unmitigated disdain toward this market of the night. The very act of walking between these various dark-colored stalls, cautiously wandering beneath the dim red-washed lighting cast from the skull lanterns above, made her feel as though she was wading through a thick layer of mud from the Latissian Bogs.
It brought a cold feeling across her skin, sending shivers wracking down her spine. She almost had to wonder if there was some kind of subtle, influential magic at work in the background, morphing her emotions to make this discomfort seem so intense. The oppressive atmosphere only worked to make her feel rather skittish and weary, in comparison to her normally confident persona.
Perhaps that was because she was visiting the market as Lilith Clawthorne, instead of being able to hide behind the power commanded by the title of Head Coveness Cawthorne.
It had been around a week and a half since she’d initially read the report written by Guard Twenty, and was subsequently forced to completely revise everything she thought she knew about her sister. Roughly six cycles, give or take the fact that it was now past midnight and into the seventh, since she had discovered that, apparently, at some point within the last twelve years, she had been made an aunt.
She had read the report an immeasurable number of times over, having even copied it word-for-word to a blank parchment so she could continue to do so after having filed the original away. Yet, for those first few cycles, she had difficulty with getting the facts that she knew to connect in her mind.
It was a sort of situation where, logically, she was well aware of what Edalyn had said about the small witchling child present at her stall on the twenty-fourth of Scabuary. She had claimed the child to be her daughter, then called out to yet another demonic child named King, who was likely of a similar familial relation. Which made her their mother. Lilith had understood all of that.
Yet, much to her frustration, drawing the actual connection between these points of data had been significantly more difficult. Because it was her sister, her wild witch of a sibling, who was apparently a mother.
The unfettered daughter of Gwendolyn Clawthorne, who had run off into the woods to become a criminal after being cursed - and who’s fault was that, her thoughts scathingly reminded her, and she struggled to suppress the self-loathing wince - had, at some point, become a mother.
Then, two cycles after reading the report, it had occurred to her just how unfair she was being. Because why couldn’t her sister be a mother? Why was it so difficult to accept that her sister had, apparently, been raising two children for the last decade or so?
It had taken several more cycles for her to, if not quite work past the disbelief she still felt about it, at least process most of what the report had implied. It tore down many of the preconceived notions she had formed about her sister. Ones that, upon second examination, were absolutely shameful for her to have.
She had written a narrative to justify her treatment of her sister, she had slowly begun to realize. A narrative that she subscribed to without much thought, born of a vindictive sort of frustration.
When had hurtling insults at Edalyn, ridiculing her for the things she had done to survive after she was cursed and ran away, become so commonplace? Why was it so much easier for her to lament over the fact that her sister was selling garbage to unsuspecting citizens, rather than try to be involved in her sister’s life in spite of that?
How many of the criminal acts that Edalyn had partaken in were, in reality, only done for the safety of her children? How many times had Lilith unknowingly ostracized her own sister for only trying to make sure her kids had enough food to eat?
Not to mention, who was the other person involved in Edalyn’s life, the person she had chosen to settle down with? It certainly could not be a particular bard. They were currently far too involved in working their way up through the Bard Coven to be the other parent, and as much as she personally had against Whispers, they were no deadbeat.
Who even was her mysterious niece in the first place, or her possible other demonic nibling? Why did she not know about any of this until now?
Because she had stubbornly abided by the limited contact rules. Because she had entered the Coven in a time where she was doing all she could to avoid her sister - after having cursed her, may Retmina’s chains bind her to the depths for what she had done - and it had seemed so much simpler to just accept that she was not supposed to remain in contact with her family.
Because, at some point or another, she had subconsciously decided that her position in the Coven was more important than being involved in her sister’s life. That obtaining a cure was more important than being there for her sister through thick and thin.
Never had she loathed herself more than in that moment, when she had first reached that final conclusion. Her sister was a wild witch. A criminal. Who did she have in her corner? Who could she fall back on for assistance to help her raise her children? Her significant other, of course, whoever that may be, but who else?
Very few, if any at all. Who would willingly associate themselves with a wild witch, outside of other wild witches, when it risked drawing the ire of the Emperor’s Coven towards them?
Once she reached that particular series of conclusions and the multitude of further questions they spawned, she had begun to realize that, in order to get the answers that she wanted - no, the answers that she needed - she would likely need to pay her sister a visit.
She knew where the house was, of course. After all, she had led several of the attempted raids of the property herself, first as Commander, then Head Coveness Clawthorne. These cycles, she was directly in charge of the efforts to apprehend Edalyn, which had led to a permanent station of scouts around the house (and now, she could not shake the confusion that she felt over the existence of the two children having evaded her guard for so long).
Yet, she hadn’t simply visited her sister as Lilith Clawthorne, with no other strings attached or ulterior motives, since… Titan. She couldn’t even seem to recall. The realization sent a lance of pain through her chest, and her head fell a little lower as she continued down the cobblestone pathway.
There was a taste of ash in her mouth, bitter and harsh. She didn’t even remember the last time she visited her sister without trying to arrest the woman. What kind of sister did that make her?
No wonder her sister had never spoken to her about her niblings. Over the last twenty years or so, the most interaction they’ve shared was her various attempts to convince Edalyn to come without struggle, and indoctrinate her into the Emperor’s Coven so she may be cleansed of her curse.
A thought occurred to Lilth, coming to the forefront of her mind so suddenly that it made her feel ill - did Edalyn think Lilith would do the same to her niblings? Have the young children arrested, and either carted off to the Conformatorium, or forcibly brought into the coven itself?
After all, was that not what the guard from the other week had attempted to do to her niece? Arrest her? Lilith would never do such a thing, never, but how would Edalyn know that, after all Lilith had done to her?
Then, just as abruptly, there was another thought. What would happen if Edalyn had been arrested? It was true that Lilith always intended to allow her sister free reign, after she was brought into the coven, but the thought suddenly stuck out in her mind like a painful needle. That plan had never accounted for children.
Because, as much as she wanted, needed Belos to keep his word, she could not deny that she feared he would decide Edalyn was better off imprisoned, and give Lilith no say in the matter. He had spoken many, many times about the Titan’s opinions on wild witches, and the fact Edalyn wasn’t slated to be petrified was already a blessing. But that did not rule out imprisonment, and Lilith would be powerless to stop it.
She had contingencies and secondary plans for a scenario like that, but, again, none had accounted for children. Would Edalyn finally tell Lilith about the two? Or would she keep them hidden, out of fear that Lilith might attempt to apprehend them too? What would Lilith’s niblings think?
The scenario flickered before her eyes in disturbing clarity. A young child with curly brown hair and golden eyes, sitting beside an even younger child with black fur and an external skull, both waiting patiently for their mother to come home. Waiting for minutes, then hours, then entire cycles, slowly growing more and more terrified as nobody came. Crying, begging for a mother that won’t be returning.
Abruptly, Lilith was forced to swallow down the bile in her throat, taking a shaky breath as she slammed her eyes shut. Dear Titan. She felt sick. She forced those thoughts away, pushing past the terrible ideas her mind decided to conjure, and instead focused on what was more important.
Lilith needed to see her sister. Needed to talk to her. Needed to prove to Edalyn that, no matter the mistakes she had made, no matter how terrible of a sister she had become in her pursuit towards providing Edalyn a cure, she would never wish to harm her niblings.
She needed to do so not as Head Coveness Clawthorne, not as a disciple of the Emperor, but as Lilith Clawthorne. The daughter of Gwendolyn and Dell Clawthorne, and the older sister of Edalyn Clawthorne. She needed to fix this. She did not know how to do so, but she needed to.
So. That brought her to the reason she was currently strolling through such a detestable market of night, doing her absolute best to remain as unnoticeable as possible. She was in dire need of a better disguise than the simple enchanted cloak she happened to have on hand.
While the garment was designed to cast a vanta-black shadow, easily concealing the details of her face - and it had occurred to her that this was quite possibly the same enchantment that the cloak masking Edalyn’s daughter on the wanted poster had used - it would likely encourage the scouts stationed around Edalyn’s house to attempt using a nullifying spell, which would lead them to discovering she was the one underneath it.
It was only made for surface-level identity obfuscation, and came with no imbued nullification protection. To add such safeguards would take a more skilled enchantress than she was. She had commissioned it decades ago by now, before she had even joined with the Emperor’s Coven. Nobody was aware that she owned it. She had never expected to actually use it again.
She didn’t like this cloak very much. It was the very same one she had worn that terrible night, when she found a scroll in her hands and ruined someone’s life with it.
And, no, she had not overlooked the fact that the cloak she was currently wearing could easily be nullified with the right spell. A spell that she was certain many of the denizens surrounding her knew. Yes, this was part of the reason that she was struggling to keep herself from trembling.
But that was beside the point. If she were to instead substitute the enchanted cloak for a normal cloak, and use a concealment stone in its place, they would be unaware of the fact she was still using illusion magic to mask her appearance.
Concealment stones were designed to be undetectable to anyone but the most powerful of witches, which would lessen the chances of the scouts attempting a nullifying spell. Even then, most stones come with nullification protection imbued within them as a standard. If they did end up trying, they would likely fail, as it takes skill and knowledge to defeat more advanced illusions.
Only true illusionists were good at dispelling the magic of concealment stones, and, as the old saying goes, a valet of all trades was a master of none. She was not so blindly loyal as to purposefully overlook the weaknesses of the Coven system.
Instead, assuming they don’t try to confront her, the scouts would simply chart down the visitor to the Owl Lady’s house, like they were supposed to do, which would end up in a report on her desk. A report that she could conveniently forget to pass onto His Excellency, lest this mysterious visitor somehow draw his further scrutiny.
Concealment stones were not fundamentally illegal, of course. After all, she knew a great deal of people who had several in their possession, such as the Blight Family. Even she had one. Or, at least, Coveness Clawthorne did.
However, removing the stone designated as her own from the armory required prior authorization - specifically from the Emperor himself, due to her rank - which she would not be able to obtain without risking her entire plan. But, even if she managed to do so without amassing suspicion, she was not so idiotic as to believe the stone wasn’t enchanted with multiple tracking spells. Her cover would be blown before she even reached the house.
As they were gemstones filled with a high concentration of illusion magic, concealment stones could cost a high price. That had not stopped many of the criminals she’d encountered over the years from using them just as much as the average consumer, if not more. She supposed that, if she was going behind the Coven’s back to visit her estranged sister, it was as good a method as any to hide her identity.
She already had the perfect disguise in mind. After all, none of the coven guard or scouts under her command were aware that she straightened and dyed her hair, nor that she had a prescription for glasses which she forwent in favor of vision spells.
With some subtle shifts to her face, a switch of her hair color back to her natural red, a more untamed hairstyle like that which appeared in her old school photos, a pair of glasses, and a change of outfit, she could easily slip past her own scouts without arousing much suspicion as to her true identity. The trick to this disguise was that her sister would easily be able to recognize her, even if nobody else would.
She was wearing her glasses now, in fact. It was the only reason she was even willing to risk wearing her easily defeated cloak of concealment out into the market like this. At the very least, if that were to happen, a much longer second glance would be needed to connect her to her more prominent identity, which might just give her enough time to escape.
When she had slipped the glasses on and dispelled her vision spell, she’d been startled to find just how much of a difference they made. Was her vision truly so abhorrent, even with spells to enhance it?
She had originally decided against including her glasses within her uniform, as the lenses she tended to prefer were a bit too large and unprofessional for such an outfit. But, now, she was wondering if that had been such a good idea. Apparently, her vision had deteriorated even worse than she originally thought.
She certainly would need a new set entirely - the frames were slightly bent, one of the lenses had been cracked, and it was undeniable that the prescription was nearly two decades out of date - but considering how much they improved her vision, she was starting to consider if she should begin wearing her glasses in her off time. Perhaps she could even obtain a secondary, smaller pair, and request to have it added to her uniform’s registry?
On her way out, she had glanced in the mirror with her enchanted cloak draped over her head, if only to make sure everything in her makeshift disguise had been working correctly. While the concealment magic left anything beneath the hood cast in pure darkness, her large, circular lenses, for some reason, had begun to glow.
It had left her a little surprised, but, honestly, she thought it would help to conceal her identity even further. Not that it would prevent her cloak’s concealment from being beaten, which was why it was not enough to shake the worry of exposure. But it helped.
The longer she walked through the Night Market, however, the more she was beginning to realize that none of the others actually seemed to care.
There were many wandering the streets all around her, all varied in appearance and hailing from what seemed like every stretch of life possible. But nobody was sparing her a second glance, even with the very obvious nature of her enchanted cloak.
Just to her right, there was a bipedal demon with four muscular arms, their bare chest absolutely covered in scars. They had a marred face that reminded her heavily of the worst inmates at the Conformatorium. Two large fangs portrudded from their mouth, leaving them with a natural snarl, and one of their four eyes had a laceration across it, the pupil having gone white with blindness.
That demon walked right past a witch, who was examining some sort of tiny brown pouch at one of the many stalls lining the pathway. They had tan skin, a head of dark brown hair, and freckles dusting their face, all of which made them seem rather young. They were wearing a simple outfit, black pants with a pale-brown tunic overtop, and a black shawl across their shoulders.
They had a set of bracelets around their wrist, ones decorated with colorful beads. It almost looked like something that a tiny child would give to their parent.
She knew, of course, that the Night Market was not just limited to those of a criminal background. Many different kinds of people came here, all for their own reasons, so long as they could tolerate it. But knowing that was different from seeing it for herself first-hand.
It was incredibly dark out tonight, which only contributed to the overwhelming atmosphere of the midnight market around her. The moons above were almost entirely lost to shadow, well into their most unlit phases.
Anoria, the largest of the two moons, could only be seen thanks to her magic-enhanced glow. Despite this, she was shining much more dim than usual, only casting the faintest glimmer of pale moonlight across the surface of Etin. Her sister seemed to have completely vanished from view altogether - there was no sign or sight of Destina’s rust-colored surface anywhere in the night sky.
Pulling her hood even tighter over her head, Lilith bit her lip as she wearily eyed the many stores around her. Off to the left was a stall seemingly selling a variety of time-keeping trinkets, rightfully dubbed “The Timesaver’s Wares.” It appeared rather mundane, considering where it was set up.
Right beside that was a location entitled “Bloodtrade,” which seemed to be a bloodbank of some sort, where blood of all kinds could be donated or purchased without any questions being asked. There were entire bags of labeled blood types set out on display, indicating they had no short supply of donations.
Yes, things certainly seemed to operate outside of Emperor Belos’ purview down here. Bloodbanks had been outlawed at some point during His Excellency’s two-century long reign, on the basis that Vampires had become an enemy of the Empire following some sort of insurrection that she believed had occurred prior to the First War of Civil Dissent. Or, had it been the second?
It was a topic she had frustratingly little information on, the historian part of her mind couldn’t help but remind her. Just one of the many things that had brought her to question her place in the Emperor’s Coven over the last decade.
But she would never dare voice those doubts. She needed her position, needed the power she held, so that she could fix the many mistakes she’d made with her sister. Even if her desperation towards keeping that position at any cost was exactly what had led her into this disastrous state of affairs between her and Edalyn.
She was willing to risk it all for something as important as repairing her fractured family bonds, that much was true, but she would not lose her chance at a cure over some admittedly blasphemous speculation.
To her right, she spotted a trinket shop named “Mud & Sundry.” From a cursory glance, that store might have what she was seeking, based on the wide assortment of items on display. However, the bubbly demon fronting it - who looked staunchly like a warphog if it had no hair, was pink, and stood on two legs - was currently in the process of up-charging a customer to the extreme. It didn’t give her much confidence she would be able to afford what she needed.
She passed by another called “Haunted Masks,” owned by a rather unsettling elderly witch in a large, purple cloak, a golden clasp securing it around their neck. She shuddered as she thought she saw one of the masks on display blinking at her, and hastily continued on without a second glance.
Another one, this one titled “Organ Donation,” had her steering clear of it by a wide berth as soon as she caught sight of the bloodied witch standing behind the counter. She did not want to be anywhere near such a place, on the off chance that the store’s owner was resorting to more abrasive measures to get their donations.
Perhaps it was a bit overly cautious of her, but one could never be too careful. By the Titan, she absolutely hated this loathsome market.
Eventually, she spotted a store that might just have what she needed. It was a rather quaint square tent, with fabric stained in an off-white color, accented by thin black stripes that ran vertically up the sides. The sign above the tent’s opening declared it to be “Harbinger’s General Emporium.”
The interior - which she could just barely see into, through the half-open entryway - appeared to be illuminated by the soft orange glow of candlelight. It was a welcome reprieve from the oppressive red lighting that bathed the Night Market.
She could make out a coat rack, a couple of crystal balls stacked atop a wooden crate, and a witches broom haphazardly shoved into a metal bin with several other tools inside. Further in, she could see what looked to be shelves and stacked wares, though the details were lost from this distance. It seemed like the kind of store that might have a little bit of everything.
If any of the stalls within this Titan-forsaken market of miscreants were to have something like a concealment stone, she was certain that this store would be one of them.
Taking a deep breath, she did her best to shove down her nerves. She must see this through, she reminded herself harshly. She needed to speak to Edalyn. She needed to fix this. Without a proper disguise, there would be no way to reverse all the damage she had done to her sister. With that goal in mind, she forced herself to walk forward.
Lightly brushing the tent flap open, she entered to find an interior that seemed larger than the exterior would imply. It indicated the usage of a low-level, though powerful, expansion spell. Sure enough, along the wooden baseboard that ran around the bottom of the tent, she could spot the subtle glow of etched runes.
All around her, there were various crates and barrels, stacked beside what looked to be hand-carved shelves. They lined the walls of the tent, with more in the center dividing the space into a set of three rows. One row, which opened up directly in front of her, led straight from the entrance to the counter at the other end of the tent.
Assorted items of varying purpose took up as much of the open space as possible. From just a quick glance, she could see several pairs of boots lined up on one of the shelves to her right, just above a set of dolls that looked uncannily realistic, both of which were right next to a collection of various instruments.
There was a stack of assorted books sitting on a crate to her left, topped off with a couple of stray knives. The shelf just beside that was filled to the brim with basic sets of potioneering supplies and glassware.
It appeared as though there was no rhyme or reason behind how the store was organized. In the back of her mind, spurred on by her earlier ruminations, she couldn’t help but compare the disorderly nature of it to how her younger sister’s bedroom used to look, back when they were children. Her heart ached at the thought.
“Aye, step up’ta th’counter, will ya?” a distinctly accented voice called out from straight ahead, causing Lilith to startle violently, her gaze snapping towards them in an instant. “Tell Ol’ Harbinger what yer lookin’ fer.”
She breathed out a soft huff, attempting to calm her sudden nerves. Titan, she hadn’t even realized the counter was occupied. Her mind must truly be more distracted than she thought.
The towering demon behind the counter - who she believed was likely named Harbinger - had a distinctly biped form, if significantly larger than the average witch, and with similarly bulkier limbs. They had a gray, somewhat bluish coat of shaggy fur, which was crossed with scars and lacerations. Some were new enough to still be twinged dark red with fresh demonic blood.
Their face was rather hound-like in nature, with a protruding snout and tufts of fur that stuck out on either side. A set of four fangs emerged from their mouth, protruding outwards and hooking back. They had a multitude of eyes. The three largest of them were clearly the main set, while she quickly counted an additional seven smaller ones surrounding them. All of them were fully black, indicating an affinity towards low-light conditions.
The center of their face was discolored slightly, brushed with a lighter shade of fur. On either side of their head, they had two large, fluffy ears, which were angled almost directly downward. They had a pair of horns as well, the leftmost of which featured a noticeable crack. Between their horns, embedded in the center of their forehead, was a green gem.
Underneath a sleeveless black overcoat, they wore a slightly off-white, equally sleeveless shirt, leaving their scar-covered arms on full display. There was a circular gemstone resting against their chest, strung into a necklace, which shined the same green color as the gem atop their head.
She could not help but note that their voice also had a more southern infliction. The sort one would normally hear from those born and raised on the Left Hip and Thigh, where farmland was most abundant. It suddenly gave her an… idea, for the alibi she would need to come up with to actually visit Edalyn, but she would revisit that thought later.
Harbinger’s arms were crossed, and it was impossible to tell if they were smiling or silently snarling at her. Not wishing to immediately find herself in the bad graces of such an intimidating demon before she even had the chance to attempt purchasing a concealment stone, Lilith obediently began to walk forward.
Once she reached the counter, she carefully brought a shaking hand into her cloak, and pulled out the bag of snails she stuffed into one of the interior pockets. “I am in need of a concealment stone,” she announced, setting the bag of snails on the countertop.
Her voice was light and toneless, though she couldn’t manage to suppress the slight tremble to her words. She sounded nothing like Coveness Clawthorne, which was partially her intention. Though, quite honestly, she didn’t sound much like Lilith Clawthorne, either.
All of Harbinger’s eyes blinked in a sort of wave motion, moving across their face from left to right. They gave a sardonic head tilt, which she thought was possibly their equivalent of raising an eyebrow. “That’s ‘n’ awful simple trinket ta be comin’ ta these stalls for, lil’ witch,” they said. Their lip quirked up into what might’ve been a smirk, but she still wasn’t quite sure. They were exceptionally hard to read. “Those ain’t ‘xactly illegal.”
“I am… aware,” she said, mostly to buy herself a moment to think. She needed to come up with a cover story that would explain her reasoning to be visiting such a dangerous market for something so simple and unassuming as a concealment stone. What would Harbinger believe?
It occurred to her, after a short moment of thought, that a slightly blander and nondescript take on the genuine truth might just work. It was a risk, certainly. An absolutely massive risk, even, because Harbinger was most definitely in the category of those who would be capable of easily dispelling her cloak’s magic and seeing the face underneath.
But, what kind of criminal wouldn’t want to sell something to, say, a coven scout planning on undermining their own coven in some undisclosed way?
She prayed to the Titan below that their willingness to go against the Empire would be enough to overpower their curiosity into her true identity. What would they do with the identity of a lowly coven scout, anyway? Selling out a rogue coven scout would only serve to better help the Emperor’s Coven.
With her plan in mind, she let out a careful sigh, allowing her shoulders to droop into what might outwardly be perceived as a conceding gesture. “I require an untraceable way of obtaining one,” she explained. “I-I do not want the Emperor’s Coven catching wind of my purchase.”
Her heart and bile sac were hammering in tandem, her chest filled with a mixture of anxiety and worry. As much as she was struggling with these emotions, she was also pragmatic enough to recognize how well the slight warble to her words contributed to her persona as a nervous scout.
Harbinger’s eyes seemed to crease, and they suddenly looked… somewhere between surprised and interested, Lilith thought. “Ah, yer part’a ‘em, ain’tcha?” they asked, peering at her slightly closer. Yet, they drew no spell circle, not attempting to find out for themself.
She said nothing, letting the silence answer for her. In response, they let out a chuckle, a deep and rasping sort of sound. “Ol’ Emperor pro’lly ain’t gonna be happy if ya get caught, scout.” They studied her for a moment more, before they finally shrugged. “Yer funeral, though.” Something in her chest relaxed as the subject was dropped.
Grabbing the pouch, Harbinger weighed it in their massive palm, tossing it up and catching it. With an inscrutable grunt, they pulled the top open and took a look inside. Lilith had stuffed it with somewhere around the average price of a concealment stone, plus an extra half, which was more than even the Blight Family would be willing to pay for one.
Something in their expression twitched as they silently tallied up all the snails inside. She wasn’t sure if it was a positive or negative reaction until they abruptly said “Generous.” They tied the bag shut, then pulled open one side of their overcoat and stuffed it into an interior pocket. “Y’gotta deal, new-blood.”
They bent down to reach for something underneath the counter, which was perfect timing, because Lilith couldn’t stop the violent flinch she gave from just hearing that Titan-damned title.
For a moment, it felt as though she was standing in front of “Midnight Magicks,” seventeen years old all over again, being handed a scroll that would do more damage than she could ever know by a vendor shrouded in shadows. One that called her by that very same title as they lied straight to her face about what the scroll would do.
But, then, the sound of a cabinet being closed brought her blinking back to herself. “Looks like yer in luck,” Harbinger said, rising back to their full height. “Only had one’a ‘em left in stock.” They set their palm onto the counter, and slip something towards her.
They moved their hand to reveal the concealment stone. The gemstone was cut into a diamond shape, glimmering a pale turquoise color. She could sense the illusions magic radiating outward from it in its exposed, inactive state. “Best get goin’ now, b’fore some’a the bigger players come ‘round, y’hear?” Harbinger told her, though Lilith could not tell if it was a warning or a threat.
“O-Of course,” she stuttered, then swallowed down her nerves as best she could. She reached forward and took the concealment stone into her hand, carefully tucking it away into the same interior pocket she’d used to hold her pouch of snails.
Subtly, as she was pocketing it, she drew a spell circle with her free hand. With some quick spellwork, she was able to determine that, at the very least, there were no tracking enchantments placed on the stone, though she couldn’t do a deeper analysis until she went somewhere safer. It was good enough for now. “Thank you,” she said, mostly out of habit.
However, instead of accepting her offered thanks in good grace, Harbinger let out an undignified snort, shaking their head slightly. “Them manners ain’t gonna get’cha nowhere out ‘ere, lil’ witch,” they advised her, flashing their teeth. “Not when yer th’only one showin’ ‘em. Head on out.”
A little more shaky than she would’ve liked, Lilith offered a nod, before whirling around and quickly making her way towards the exit of the tent. As she was reaching the entryway, she could just barely hear Harbinger mutter “Damn new-bloods, always th’same,” underneath their breath.
This time, she just barely suppressed the flinch as she ducked out of the store. Once again out on the cobblestone pathways of the Night Market, Lilith headed back the way she came, her head bowed and her cloak pulled tightly around her.
She walked, and walked, and walked, and she did not slow down until she had reached the very outskirts of the market, where red light gave way to warmer witchlight lanterns that lit Bonesborough’s walkways. Even then, she did not allow herself to relax until she found herself nearby the Bonesborough Library.
Skirting past the few passers by still wandering the midnight paths, she quietly slipped down an empty alleyway, carefully keeping her senses extended through magic to ensure that nobody was tailing her. Once she was reasonably sure she was alone - one could never know for certain - she finally slowed to a leisurely pace.
As she walked between the buildings that lined this thin cobblestone walkway, she reached into her cloak, and pulled the concealed stone from her pocket. The orange glow of the lanterns around her shone on it like fires in the middle of the boiling seas.
Drawing a spell circle with her off hand, she cast a significantly more in-depth analysis spell, and prodded at the gemstone with her magic. The results were a little surprising to her. Not only was the stone completely unimbued with any tracking magic, but it was completely unhexed, and equally as uncursed. Meaning she was handling a completely normal concealment stone.
For those who had never handled a concealment stone before, they might be surprised to know that each and every one required some minor calibrations to function optimally. Otherwise, the stone wouldn’t quite know how to affect someone, and would simply interpret a conjured disguise based on the last directives it was imbued with.
This didn’t mean that you couldn’t take the stone off of one person and place it on another, but it did mean that the results you would get could be drastically different from what you expect.
Illusionary directives - which were a simplistic, academic way to describe the willpower within the spell that directs how an illusion was shaped - could be either specific or broad. If not attempting to stick specifically to one or the other, illusionists will often switch between the two without even realizing it. The former could translate over to a new user well enough, but the latter could unintentionally lead to unexpected illusions.
After all, if you enchant a stone to give you red, square glasses, it will give anyone who wears it red, square glasses. If you enchant it to copy the appearance of someone else, it will give anyone who wears it that appearance. But if you simply enchant a stone to “make me look pretty,” the definition behind prettiness, and whatever the end result might be based on that definition, will end up changing between users.
If a stone had no prior directives, then it will simply conjure nothing. However, judging by the way illusion magic seemed to curl off the stone in whisps, she would be willing to bet that this gem did indeed already have something imprinted on it. She wasn’t about to test and see what that imprint might be. For all she knew, it could be enchanted to disguise her as a wanted criminal.
For the changes she wanted to make, she would need to enchant the stone herself. This was done by casting the illusion spell as she normally would, but with the additional step of using even more magic to channel this spell and slowly inscribe it into the stone.
That meant it took more magic depending on how much you want the Concealment Stone to do. It was part of the reason she was trying to stick to such a simple disguise. If she were to want to replace her whole face, or, Titan forbid, disguise herself as someone else entirely, she would need to put far more magic into it than simply doing the few alterations she was thinking of.
As it were, she already knew exactly what she planned to do. For the most part, she simply wanted to change her hairstyle, and should go with a different eye color as well. The tiny bit of extra flesh into her cheeks she planned to add would be the most magically intensive part of the spellcast. The rest of her disguise would be handled through her clothing.
She hesitated for a short moment, looking around the alleyway she was currently traversing. Nobody was around to see her, and the only lights she could see were the lanterns that lit the path ahead of her. Now was as good a time as any to handle this, she supposed.
Picturing the illusion within her mind, she visualized how this altered version of herself would look. She could imagine herself at her current age, but with a set of curly red hair that looked almost as untamed, if not more so than Edalyn’s, exactly like her hair appeared in her Hexside cycles. She imagined herself looking in the mirror with a set of ocean-blue eyes staring back, a much different shade from her natural green. She saw herself with a little more fat on her face, as if she actually ate three meals a cycle, instead of her normal one with ration bars to substitute the rest.
With the image now settled into her mind, she drew a spell circle, and pressed her magic into the stone that sat on her palm. She felt as the prior directives began to fade away, new instructions sliding into place. Her magic continued to organize these directions, soaking into the concealment stone in a steady stream as she kept walking.
It took nearly six minutes to complete, even with such simple instructions. But, eventually, she felt the pulse of illusionary magic beginning to emerge from the stone once more as the enchantment was complete. She brought her own magic to a stop before she could accidentally overfill it.
Letting out a quiet, slightly exhausted sigh - she was only working off so many hours of sleep, and her already exhausted bile sac had just pushed a whole six minutes worth of steady magic into enchanting a gemstone - she continued down the path, heading further into town.
The nearest safehouse was under surveillance, as nearly all Emperor’s Coven safehouses were. She could not wear her cloak of concealment into it without compromising the fact she had one, and that would put the entire night outing she had so carefully worked to keep hidden at risk. Not to mention, as far as anyone in the Coven was aware, she was currently sleeping in her personal safehouse out by Fibril Falls. Luckily, she knew of somewhere else she could rest for the night.
She slipped the concealment stone back into her interior pocket as she took a turn down another alley and began to walk back towards the Bonesborough Library. The building may have been closed for the night, and she might not have a Scroll of Unlocking on hand, but that would not stop her from making her way inside.
It only took her a few more minutes of walking to reach the library’s doors. Once she was in front of them, she reached out and traced a hand against the wood reverantly. It had been years since she last had the chance to visit the library outside of Coven business. Oh, how she had missed it.
After a moment, she began to carefully trace a symbol against the door. She began drawing a circle counterclockwise until the shape closed at the very top, before dragging her finger down and out the bottom of it to form the shape of a keyhole. It was the very same symbol she and Edalyn had once designed to open the Room of Shortcuts.
Like an old friend, the magic that guarded the door pulsed back at her, recognizing who she was, and the lock audibly unlatched. Without a sound, Lilith gently pulled the door open, then softly shut it behind her.
Standing in the middle of the library’s entrance, moonlight shining through the stained glass window above and behind her, she was suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia. Titan, how many times had Lilith dragged her sister here, on those too-quiet nights where she couldn’t sleep? Too many times to count, she thought. For a while, the Bonesborough Library had been her safe space.
Edalyn had always verbally detested the fact that Lilith felt so comfortable among literature, but, well. Lilith wasn’t the only one the door would unlock for. For all she acted like she hated reading and studying, Edalyn could be lost for hours among these halls.
As she walked past the front desk and in between the bookshelves, Lilith wished she had dragged Edalyn to the library instead, the night that everything would go so wrong. She wished that she had roused Edalyn from her sleep, and asked to talk between the books.
She wished that she just told Edalyn about her troubles, so she could reassure Lilith like she always managed to, and maybe reveal the fact she was planning to forfeit so Lilith could make it in without contest.
She wished that she hadn’t been such a coward, all those years ago. Maybe then, the Night Market wouldn’t have seemed like her only way to secure her future.
Finally, Lilith made it to the romance novel section. She huffed a small, exasperated breath, still a bit miffed over the placement. Edalyn had thought she was being sooo funny, putting the room here. The only reason Lilith tolerated it was because of how much effort Edalyn had put into making it for her. Well, that, and the fact nobody would ever be able to connect something in the romance section to Lilith Clawthorne.
It took her a moment to find the right book, seeing as it had been literal decades since she visited this place - it seemed rather obvious in hindsight, considering the book was named “The Lone Witch & the Secret Room” - but as soon as she pulled it, the entire shelf shuddered to life. It slid to the side to reveal a very familiar room behind it.
She stepped inside, feeling the subtle sort of shift in her gut that came from entering a pocket dimension, and made sure to pull the door closed behind her just to be safe. She began to walk a bit further in, but slowed to a stop after only a moment, blinking in surprise. Someone had been in here recently.
There was nobody inside the room now, thankfully, but the room had most definitely changed. It used to be lit by the warm glow of witchlights and an abundance of wax candles, but now, it was mostly lit by glowing models of planets and cartoonish stars that hung from the ceiling.
She could’ve sworn that she had let Edalyn place various knick-knacks on the shelves off to her right, but it would seem that they too had been filled up with books, just like the shelves on the left Lilith had kept her personal interests in.
The paintings she used to have up had seemingly been taken down, and were replaced with paper posters of various topics, including an Emperor’s Coven one that featured her own face. She pointedly avoided looking at that one in particular.
The desk across from her had once been covered in sketches of historic architecture and that one diorama she made for class that she’d been so proud of. Now, it had various books stacked on it. One in particular had been left open, as if it had been in the middle of being read when it was abandoned.
She walked over to the desk, peering down at the open book. The first paragraph she read was rather flowery and simplistic, a bit like children’s literature. Gently, she lifted the left side of the book and peeked at the cover. It was a story entitled “The Good Witch Azura” and featured art of a witch with green hair, wearing a white and purple dress.
Lilith set the book back to how it was, turning to look at the rest of the room once more. How… strange. Had someone stumbled across her secret room, and decided to use it for themself? Not that she minded, of course. She was actually rather glad to know that the room was still of use to someone.
She just hoped her visitation wasn’t intruding upon anything personal to them. But she really did have no other place to go for the time being. Maybe they would be willing to let it slide if they were aware she was the previous owner of the room?
Hm. Perhaps she could write a note? One thanking them for breathing new life into her old hideout, while also apologizing for barging in without permission? Yes, that sounded like a good idea.
Nodding to herself, Lilith walked over to the pile of cushions and blankets that had been left in the corner. After reaching into the interior pocket and grabbing her concealment stone, she shrugged off the cloak and tossed it to the side to be picked up when she left later on. Then, she began to sort through the pile until she found the most unused blanket and the stiffest pillow.
She dragged them over to the chair, pulled the seat out, and sat herself down. She tucked the pillow behind her head, and brought the blanket over her lap. Then, she leaned back a tiny bit, letting out a long breath. She may have been slightly more exhausted than she thought. Thankfully, it wouldn’t be her first time sleeping while sitting up.
After a moment, she brought the concealment stone up into her vision, staring into the shimmering turquoise thoughtfully.
She was well aware that she had made a lot of mistakes in her life. Too many to count. There was no doubt in her mind that there was a special place in Retmina already waiting for her. But hurting her sister had always been the worst one.
It was the reason she had stayed in the Coven for so long, even when the training became so intense that she could barely make it through a single cycle without a new injury, and the workload threatened to bury her in a grave if Kikimora didn’t manage to do so first. She could not leave. Emperor Belos had promised her that he would cure Edalyn, if Lilith only brought her into the coven.
That had to mean something. It had to, or else everything Lilith had done was for nothing. All she had sacrificed was for naught.
But, somewhere along the way, she had partially lost sight of that goal. She wasn’t exactly sure when. Because she was trying to fix her mistake of hurting her sister. That had always been the reason behind her actions. So why did she continue to hurt her sister?
She had wanted them to be in the Coven together, like they always dreamed, but she knew Edalyn. There was always going to be a chance that Edalyn would resent her, would hate her, and never want to see her again. That had been okay for Lilith, too. Because, in the end, Edalyn would still be cured.
It never really occurred to her that, under that mindset, she had allowed herself to become someone easy to hate. She had fallen into a role where she antagonized her sister, where she ridiculed Edalyn for all that the woman had needed to do to survive, where she acted like she was superior to her sister. She had become her sister’s enemy.
Which, of course, seemed rather obvious when stated like that. Edalyn was very vocal about how against the Emperor’s Coven she was, and by nature, that made the two of them adversaries. But there was a difference between being on opposing sides and being enemies. Lilith had alienated herself so far that now, she was nothing more than one of the thousands vying to take the Owl Lady down.
That wasn’t what she wanted. She hadn’t meant for things to be like this. So why did she let it slip so far? Why did she let things fall apart? Why couldn’t she just hold on to the bonds she still had?
If only it hadn’t taken finding out about her niblings to actually get it into her head that she was making a mistake. It frustrated her so deeply that she needed to be slapped across the face with the fact that she was an aunt before she finally came to the conclusion that she was still hurting her sister. She wished it hadn’t taken secrets being exposed before she finally came to her senses.
She had to fix this. She still wasn’t sure how she was going to, but she had to. She was going to find some way to show Edalyn that everything she had done was for her family. Whatever it would take. That was the very last thought she had, before she finally slipped away into slumber.
Despite the fact that concealment stones - and illusion magic in general - were conjured visual representations of magic used to distort reality, bent to the will of the caster or the item imbued with it, she could not help but continue to be surprised at how physical many illusions could be.
She marveled at this as she carded a hand through her now-red locks of hair, fiddling absently with the slightly shorter, but curlier bangs she now had. Despite the fact that she knew her hair should feel stiffer, thanks to the constant dyework and straightening over the years, it felt silky in the same way it used to when she was a child, and the curls were so lifelike.
She intrinsically understood that concealment stones were powerful. They were simple enough to imbue with illusionary details, if rather exhausting on whoever enchanted it, but able to display illusions with the same power only a seasoned illusionist could hold. Not to mention, they were also incredibly difficult to detect.
But, there was still a novelty between seeing how they affect others, and experiencing it affecting herself first-hand. As old as she was starting to become, for as many years as she’d experienced all different kinds of illusion magicks, and no matter how many times she’d used a Concealment Stone before, she could not help but continue to be awed by it.
Early on the morning following the night she acquired the stone, after she had left a note of thanks for the user of her library hideaway, she had snuck all the way back out to the safehouse she was supposed to be staying at.
Thankfully, her Fibril Falls safehouse was one of the very, very few safehouses that did not have any sort of constant surveillance watching over it, either by stationed guards or periodic scrying. Unlike the other Emperor’s Coven safehouses, which could be used by various high-ranking officials, this particular safehouse was one that specifically belonged to her.
It had been a gift from the Emperor himself, following her promotion to Head Coveness. An offering from the Titan for her unwavering loyalty, he had said. She couldn’t help but shudder in guilt as she recalled his words. She presumed Kikimora and the Golden Guard had similar safehouses of their own.
From there, she had returned to the castle, nobody aware of her midnight excursion. Things carried on like normal, as if she hadn’t secretly gone behind the Coven’s back.
Another six or so cycles since her visit to the Night Market had passed before she was finally able to finish setting up her alibi for this visit. She couldn’t risk anyone finding out about her true purpose. She even had an accomplice, of sorts. Technically. Steve didn’t know all the details, but he was at least aware that they were undermining His Excellency.
She was absolutely certain that she would not be recognized by her scouts. Nobody stationed on the surveillance team around the Owl House had been in the Emperor’s Coven long enough to have ever seen her when she was a mere scout, or even when she had still been a captain. She checked.
That did not stop her from nervously tugging the edges of her brown cloak a little bit closer, keeping her head angled down to make it harder for her face to be spotted. Partially, it was for her own piece of mind, but it also served to support the alibi she had developed.
If she was confronted, her plan was to explain that she was one of Edalyn’s cousins, Amalyn, coming to check in on her estranged family. Her genuine nerves could easily be explained away as worry over the fact that she was visiting a wanted wild witch of a cousin. Her resemblance to Edalyn, even with the disguise, was rather obvious, so posing as a family member of some kind seemed like the only logical choice. She had even forged a few documents, just in case.
Hopefully, though, she would not be confronted. She preferred to avoid being questioned by the coven scouts entirely. However, she could not discount the possibility that it would happen, so it didn’t hurt to be prepared for any potential complications.
While Lilith’s hair, eyes, and face had all been handled by the concealment stone, she had needed to find an alternative outfit to wear in place of her normal black dress uniform. Luckily, she found a wardrobe that, while perhaps a little drab and unappealing, was still serviceable enough to work.
It had taken a bit of time, but she managed to find a velvet skirt that had reached all the way down to just above her ankles. She had slipped on a dark, long-sleeved undershirt to start with, and worn an old half-cropped shirt she had dug up from the very back of her closet. It was light brown, with darker brown text on the front that read “S.M.H.” for the Supernatural Museum of History.
Flora, her former mentor in the Emperor’s Coven, was perhaps one of the very few who knew how much of a history buff Lilith could be. Thankfully, she wasn’t involved in anything pertaining to the Owl Lady, which meant nobody would be there to make the connection.
To top it all off, Lilith had found an old, discarded brown cloak with a gilded clasp at a resale store, which she thoroughly washed before embedding the Concealment Stone into it. The stone was hidden in plain sight.
It did not radiate any noticeable magic in its active state. This meant that, for all the scouts around her would know, it was just a natural gemstone with the couple of weaker protective enchantments she had imbued it with for good measure. Such a practice was far from uncommon.
This outfit was so very far outside of Lilith’s normal style - regarding both her uniform and her very few leisurely outfits - that she didn’t think a single person would ever be able to make the connection between her and her disguise. Well, no, at least one person would, but that was the intention.
Unfortunately, that did not assist in softening any of the paranoia she was feeling just then. She was defying the Emperor in a rather spectacular way, and would absolutely be tried for treason if she was caught.
After all, as Warden Wrath’s guards at Police Precinct One-Two-Eight had been demonstrating more and more as of late, even so much as interacting with a high-profile criminal was now apparently grounds for capture and delivery to the Conformatorium.
For someone in a position such as hers, to be caught doing something like this? She would be executed. Or, perhaps even worse, she would be petrified behind closed doors.
She shuddered, shoving those thoughts aside for the time being, trying desperately to cling to the singular thread of confidence that was doing its very best to hold her together. This was all for a good reason, she told herself. This was worth risking her head over. Even if she was never given the chance to meet her niblings, she was going to try her damndest to fix things with Edalyn.
For years, she had let her relationship with her sister fall into disrepair, and now, she’d been given, as Edalyn would so crudely put it, the “kick in the ass” she had needed to actually realize that this was a bad thing. She was not going to let some meager fears (they were far from meager, but downplaying them helped) discourage her from her path.
She repeated this in her mind several times over, until the vice grip of dread stopped squeezing her heart so tightly.
There was a part of her mind that was stuck wondering if doing this might be easier to convince Edalyn to join with the Emperor’s Coven. Assuming Lilith could actually manage to make amends with her, that was.
She was not so naive as to believe that her sister would support the idea up front. But, maybe, if she truly found a way to fix this, and the two of them start interacting on a more consistent basis again, it may very well assist in making a stronger case about her sister joining. If only for a temporary period of time.
See, somewhere between leaving her secluded space in the Library and walking through the forest towards her sister’s house, Lilith had come to the conclusion that Edalyn would likely not be staying in the Coven. Not when she was a mother who had children at home. Her plan was still reshaping itself around that fact, but, at the very least, she already knew Edalyn would not stay in.
It wasn’t quite as well known by the general populace, unless they were related to someone who was inside or worked inside it themselves, but the Emperor's Coven was a very isolated network.
Coven scouts were expected to adhere to the guidelines of closed contact. They were expected to cut all interaction with their families, and dedicate themselves to their position. They were expected to remain diligent, with no personal distractions, and that meant little to no involvement in any personal or familial matters.
Lilith had done exactly as she was asked for decades now. She was fairly certain she had only breached those rules a few times, in her early years, before she had doubled down and began to follow them to the letter.
In fact, the last time she had actually stopped by to speak to her sister - and she had come to this conclusion after an entire afternoon of attempting to recall - was when Edalyn had just broken up with Raine Whispers. She’d snuck out to console her little sister, despite the fact that, at the time, she was firmly under those aforementioned contact restrictions.
It was that particular breach of protocol that had nearly gotten her expelled from the Emperor's Coven entirely, and it led her to never risk such a thing again.
That had been just a little over two decades ago, by now. Back during that short period of time where Edalyn was living in a crummy, run-down apartment while she looked for a new place to stay, since she’d been staying with Whispers prior. There was a reason Coveness Clawthorne refused to interact with Scooter Crane’s most diligent and aspiring protégé.
Eventually, she had actually been permitted to re-establish contact with her family, specifically after she had graduated from a Scout Squad Leader to a Captain. But, by then, her sister had already turned to a life of crime through wild magic, meaning contact with her was just plain unlawful. It also seemed like Lilith’s parents had all but forgotten about her, so there was nobody really left for her to talk to.
Those rules were where the current problem arose from. Edalyn was a parent. The Emperor’s Coven would seek out talent at an early age for many reasons, but one of the most important was because of the isolationist nature of the job title. You were expected to cut all contact with family unless you were of the rank Captain or higher. It was easy enough to cut your own parents and siblings out of your life, but you couldn’t exactly do that when you had children of your own.
Not that Lilith believed the entire plan would need to be reformatted, no. Edalyn could easily just have her partner - whoever the other parent of her children might be - watch over them as she entered the Coven. It was just that, now, there was a reason she would need to escape.
Lilith now needed to devise some sort of exit strategy for Edalyn, because there was no doubt she wouldn’t want to stay in. She couldn’t stay in, not when she had children to go back home to. She was a mother now. It complicated things, but this was not entirely unsalvageable.
She was firmly ignoring the part of her mind that claimed creating a plan to assist Edalyn in escaping the Coven was a betrayal of the Empire. She knew that it was. She did. But this had always been more about her sister, rather than the two of them getting to be in the Coven together like they’d always dreamed of when they were kids. Those points had simply lined up for all these years. They no longer did.
There was another part of her mind, one that she wasn’t trying nearly as hard to ignore, which couldn’t help but question these restrictions placed on those who join the Emperor’s Coven. She was starting to see them as unreasonable. It was different, now that she was looking at it from an alternate perspective.
It didn’t seem very strange when it was her who had to cut contact with her family - it wasn’t like she’d had much contact with them to cut in the first place. But what kind of system would separate a parent from their child, and call it a necessity? What kind of system would split families apart, and declare it was a worthy sacrifice?
Titan, it all felt so wrong. Which seemed backwards, because it was the Titan who proclaimed it to be right. But, faced with the fact that her sister would be unable to contact her own children if she entered the Coven, she suddenly could no longer deny the doubts that had been weighing on her.
It bothered her, all of this distrust in her faith that had suddenly cropped up over the last two weeks. She may have had her occasional moments of uncharitable feelings over her many years in the Coven, but never had she been so overwhelmed with uncertainty as she was now. Except, she knew that this was all coming from a legitimate place, which honestly made it even worse.
If Edalyn were to join, she would be restricted from remaining in contact with her family. Or, considering what she recalled of the training regiment, she would quite possibly be encouraged to indoctrinate her children too, which was something that even a Lilith who wasn’t beginning to feel a bit disillusioned would be firmly against.
There was a certain amount of dedication and strength needed to enter the Emperor’s Coven. It would beat you down, again and again, and you had to get back up. It was your duty. Lilith would never want to subject those demands to anyone under the age of seventeen, and especially not to what was left of her precious family. Edalyn could make it through, but the children?
No, it would be far safer for Edalyn to simply stay out of contact with her children, but that still felt so wrong. Even considering a plan centered around that idea felt a disgusting betrayal, one that would only harm her dearest sister. The concept made her sick to her stomach.
Wasn’t that what started this all in the first place? The realization that she was still hurting Edalyn? The realization that the relationship between them had crumbled so far, Lilith hadn’t had a clue she was an aunt until a simple incident accidentally exposed the truth?
She would not hurt her sister any longer. This had always been about her family, first and foremost. It was about time she started acting like it.
Closing her eyes, Lilith brought a hand up, tiredly rubbing at them beneath her glasses. By the Titan, she felt so exhausted. A bone-deep sort of weariness, making her feel sluggish and worn, even when the amount of caffeine currently bolstering her at the moment was probably dangerous.
The Emperor’s Coven, no matter how many flaws she was beginning to notice with it, was still the best choice for her sister. Edalyn could still be cured of her ailment through it. Even if it had become less of a plan for the future and more of a means to an end. A tool, instead of a way of life.
It meant helping Edalyn to escape from the Coven - and finding some way to remove the brand from her arm, because Edalyn would never rest until she was free of any perceived control Emperor Belos might have over her - but it was still one of the only methods that would undoubtedly remove the curse.
For all her ruminations, however, finding some way to get Edalyn into the Coven was not her top priority. In fact, at this very moment, it was so far down on her list of priorities that it might as well not even be on the list in the first place.
Because, as much as she had spent this walk trapped in thought over what parts of her plan would need to change, she had not been lying before. She would do whatever it would take to prove to her sister that everything she had done over these years - disregarding the further harm to their relationship she had unintentionally inflicted - had all been for her family.
If that meant defying the will of the Emperor, perhaps even walking against the path that the Titan had laid out for her through his lips, then so be it. She may struggle with that, but she would do so even if it meant years would pass before she could finally find some way to convince Edalyn to join her among the ranks of the Empire.
She would walk this stretch of forest trail a thousand times over if it was what repaired the bonds that had been left broken. Even if it meant living what surmounted to a double life.
There was movement out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed, pulling her away from her thoughts. Her head twitched towards it, but she managed to keep herself from looking over completely and spoiling the fact that she’d seen. Between the underbrush to her right, she spotted a glimmer of gold on white that flowed like a cape, which vanished as quickly as it appeared.
It would seem that she had finally gained herself a tail of coven scouts. Or, perhaps, they had been following her for the last few minutes, and she had simply been too distracted by her own ruminations to notice.
While she was carefully keeping her head angled straight so as to not tip them off, she noticed another shift on the opposite side of the trail. She wasn’t able to spot any hint of a scout this time, only the brush rustling as they slipped past. However, it was enough to let her know that they had her surrounded on either side.
The sound of foliage being disturbed was just obvious enough that she could use it to her advantage. Safely masked as simple paranoia born of her obvious nervousness, Lilith glanced around. Her scouts were too well trained to be spotted so directly, but she wasn’t the head of the Emperor’s Coven for nothing. She had received all the training they had, with significantly more on top of it.
It took her a few moments of carefully hidden examination, but she was able to tell there were at least more than the two she originally noted, scattered in the brush around her. A minimum of four, but likely more than that.
If she was to extrapolate based on imperial tactics, there had to be at least a full squad of six lying in wait. That certainly complicated matters. This was a full ambush, not just the simple confrontation she had planned for.
If it had only been two or three scouts approaching her, they would’ve likely halted her, demanded answers, and then just forced her to turn around when she gave her fabricated backstory. But, if they had a full squad surrounding her, it was possible they had already flagged her as a potential threat. If that was the case, there was now a not-insignificant possibility that they would determine her plan to contact her “cousin” Edalyn to be a knowing and direct violation of the law, followed by an attempt to arrest her.
She could, of course, fight her way out of the confrontation. She certainly had the skill, and had gotten… a relatively okay amount of sleep the night before. But that would put her alias at risk of being compromised, which was a terrible outcome. Lilith had planned to keep using this alias.
There might be a way to work with this. If she kept herself as unthreatening and unassuming as possible, perhaps the squad would simply decide she was a little in over her head, and take pity on her? It meant an alternative approach would be necessary to reach her final goal, but-
Her train of thought was abruptly cut off when, without warning, something slammed straight into her stomach.
The air was forced out from her lungs in a startled yelp as she was flung back by the sudden impact. She sailed through the air for what had to be a whole six meters before she crashed into one of the trees that she had just passed by moments before, collapsing onto her side.
Through her momentary daze, she heard the scouts that had been tailing her let out cries of worry and fear, followed by the rustling of leaves as they all quickly scattered, fleeing further into the underbrush.
From her place now laid out on the dirt path, wrapping both of her arms around her abdomen, Lilith let out a series of breathless coughs, before groaning in pain once she managed to get some air down. Titan, that had hurt. She could already feel her stomach beginning to bruise.
Still, it was only a single hit, and she was far from helpless. Powering through the pain, she scrambled to lift herself back up, only to freeze as soon as she managed to sit up when an entirely unwelcome grating and high-pitched voice began to speak.
“Ooh, ooh, new friend!” it - they? Was it even sentient? - said. Her gaze snapped up. Staring down at her through two black voids of ancient horrors that did not even deserve to even be called eyes, was one of the demons that haunted her nightmares. “Did you come to visit lil ol’ meeee? Nobody ever stops by to say hi!”
This entire visit had been planned out. She had devised a complicated alibi to back it up, and had even arranged several contingencies for it just in case. Yet, despite all of the careful consideration she’d put into every aspect of this plan, she had somehow missed an entire variable.
She had been so preoccupied with thoughts of her own scouts, so distracted by just how terrifying the idea of speaking to Edalyn face-to-face was, that she had forgotten her sister’s house was defended by an owl tube demon creature thing she didn’t even know the name of. How could she have forgotten about her sister’s security system?
Lilith’s jaw moved, but no words emerged. Those eyes seem to stare straight into her soul, reading every aspect of her very being. After a moment of silence, the soft breeze blowing through the trees being the only sound around, the creature’s eyes narrowed. “Heeey,” it said, “I know you…”
Oh Titan. She was about to die.
In spite of how frayed her nerves had been, not only during this excursion, but during her trip to the Night Market as well, there was not much that could inspire such abject terror in Lilith’s heart.
Much of that instinctual fear had practically been beaten out of her over her years in the Emperor’s Coven - either through training, through missions, or through her grueling assignments. She was still afraid of many things, don’t get her wrong, but it was very rare for it to be so overwhelming that she could do nothing but cower away.
Only, this was the very same creature that she had once watched systematically dismantle an entire company of coven scouts with ruthless, terrifying efficiency. An absolute evisceration it had enjoyed carrying out. Sixty trained soldiers, all down in under ten minutes. And here she was, weaponless, defenseless, and at its mercy.
“W-Wait, wait, don’t attack!” she shouted in desperation, throwing her hands up in surrender as she scrambled back against the tree. “I’m not here on behalf of the Emperor’s Coven!”
The owl tube demon coiled in a way that was extremely similar to a serpent. Its body shifted as it tilted its head, and she couldn’t help but shiver at the prickle of old magic brushing across her skin. “Mmmhmmmm,” it hummed skeptically, “are you suuuure?”
“I…” she faltered, the slightest bit confused at its skepticism. It seemed rather obvious to her, given the circumstances. Was it even capable of being skeptical? “Y-Yes, I’m sure, why would I be disguised like this if I was supposed to be here? Edalyn is the only one who could recognize me like this.” Then, with a thoughtful frown, she added, “And you, I suppose.”
She jolted, her head turning to follow as the owl tube stretched further, twisting around behind her to suddenly be on her other side. “Of course I can, hoot,” it said, grinning. “I can see your sooooul!”
Oh. Okay. That was quite the wonderful fact to know. Right. Had she ever mentioned that she absolutely despised some of the things old magic could do?
Even more disturbingly, why across all nine layers of Retmina could the creature smile when it had a beak? She couldn’t help but shiver again. “That is… mildly terrifying,” she said, leaning away from the owl thing.
In contrast to her statement, the demon creature lit up as though it had received a compliment. “Thanks!” it declared, visibly preening.
She was very suddenly hit with such an overwhelming sense of Edalyn, who would do that exact same sort of thing to Principal Bump, that it made her mentally double back to her confusion on the owl tube’s state of sentience.
If the demon tube really was sentient, should she be using they instead of it? Did it - or, they? - actually even care? Some demons could be very particular about being called an it, while others didn’t really mind. Maybe she should ask Edalyn. She always just assumed that it - no, she was going to switch to they, just to be safe - that they were just some sort of security construct, like an abomination, and not an actual living being.
“I wasn’t-” she began in protest, only to cut off with a huff when she realized the argument wasn’t worth it. She learned better from dealing with Edalyn. “You know what, nevermind.” Then, a smidge more hesitantly, she asked, “May I please, ah, visit my sister now?”
Thankfully, the demon decided to stop encroaching upon her personal space, and retreated from their position around her back. They were now coiled up just in front of her. “Hmmmm…” they hummed, yet again. “Only if you answer one siiimple question!”
Of course. Letting out a soft sigh, Lilith buried her head in her hands, her shoulders slumping. “What is your question, owl demon tube thing?” she asked. Actually, if she was going to be treating them like a sentient being, she should probably try to learn their name at some point.
They twisted their entire body cylindrically until they were looking at Lilith upside-down, their expression and tone taking on something half-playful, half-serious. “Why’re you visiting?” they asked, blunt enough to startle her. “It’s been aaaages since you came over without trying to arrest my keeper!”
There was something incredibly unsettling about their jubilant persona, when combined with the fact that old magic seemed to roll off of them waves. She had thought, before, that it was a byproduct of whatever wild witch summoning ritual had brought them to be, but now that she was under the impression they actually were a sentient being, it made her even more uncomfortable.
Because it meant that they truly were something powerful. Something far more intelligent than she could possibly even comprehend. But the way that they played up their immature personality… it made it seem like they were wearing their own disguise.
But, then, they suddenly seemed to pause, tilting their head even further as a considering sort of expression befell their face. “Aaactually I don’t think you’ve eeeever visited without that happening.”
She couldn’t help but shift uneasily at their words, the familiar guilt that had been simmering in her chest for over two weeks now flaring up once again, making her want to wince. It was not as though she would deny their remark. It had been so unbelievably long since she last took the time to visit her sister without ulterior motives.
“I… w-well, I was informed of something through a report I received, and I needed to know for myself that it was true,” Lilith answered honestly. “I have zero intention of providing any of the information I learn to the Coven, I assure you.” Then, in a tone that almost sounded pleading, she finished, “I just… I-I want to see my sister.”
The owl demon tube blinked rather slowly at her. She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d ever seen them do that before. For a few deafening moments, silence reigned, and fear began to gradually grow that they would say no. That they would demand she leave.
But, then, just as her hands were beginning to tremble once again, they chirped out a cheery “Okay! Hoot!” They began to twist around in a full circle, keeping their eyes focused on Lilith the entire time. She tried her hardest to not be disturbed. “If she lets you meet them, tell the baby birds I said hiiiiii…!”
Their last word trailed off into the distance as they shot back towards her sister’s house like they’d been yanked away. They disappeared into the underbrush of the forest, vanishing from sight. Almost as quickly as they had appeared and rearranged her internal organs, they were gone.
Lilith stared after them for a few moments, almost struck silent by the implications behind their parting words. “Baby… birds?” she softly whispered to herself in disbelief.
Of course the children had been given such an adorable nickname. That was not what took her off guard, or, at least, not exactly. Something about those two little words had struck her. Perhaps it was as simple as the imagery of birds being related to her niblings. Or, maybe, it was just brought on by the sudden impact of there being so much as a mere chance she would be able to meet the children, should Edalyn actually agree.
Whatever the case, she suddenly found herself all too aware that she was only a few more minutes away from her sister’s house. This meeting was no longer something she was working on achieving, rerouting suspicion over and sourcing disguises for. It was here. It was now.
She was terrified. Because what if all the damage that she had inadvertently done to her sister could never be repaired? What if her mistakes were so great that nothing she ever tried could fix these broken bonds between her and Edalyn? What if this visit only served to prove that Lilith had destroyed something she could never get back?
No, no, she couldn’t think like that. If she got caught up on all the what-ifs, she would spiral and spiral until she broke down in tears. She had to fix this. She still had absolutely no clue how to actually do that, but she needed to.
Things had fallen out of her control. Somewhere, somehow, she had decided that her pursuit of Edalyn’s cure would come before everything else, even the very sister she was chasing after it for, and she had detached herself from her family in the process. She had left Edalyn alone. She had left her sister, who was now a mother, without anyone to help her.
No more. Lilith would not continue to harm her sister for any longer. There were some things she could not change, like the fact she was assigned to indict Edalyn into the Coven, but she could find some way to stall until the time was right, and she would find some way to help her sister escape. She could try her best to make amends.
With a firm nod to herself, she began walking down the path towards her sister’s home, goal clear in her mind. She was going to fix this. Whatever it would take, she was going to fix this.
As much as she longed to, it didn’t matter whether or not she got to meet the children. Not being involved in her niblings lives would hurt, but, ultimately, it was Edalyn’s decision, and Lilith would respect whatever her sister chose. It was not as if she deserved to be in their lives, anyway.
No, all that truly mattered, was proving to her sister that everything she had done was for her family. Because, at the end of the cycle, Lilith would do absolutely anything for them. Anything.
Notes:
Lilith time! She's very confused, unsure of herself, and acting on several impulses at once, but she's going to meet with her sister no matter what it takes. Writing her way of thinking was a very interesting experience, and I hope I did her character justice with how I depicted her.
I also wanted to apologize for taking so long to get these chapters out. It's a combination of things. Motivation is a pain, and life keeps punching me in the face for some reason. My writing process ends up being a bit slow because of it all. Thanks for being patient, though. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Chapter Word Count: 14,374
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-04-26
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-05-13
Chapter 7: Family Ties & Unheard Cries
Summary:
She was as ready as she was ever going to be for the following conversation. She hadn’t a clue how it would go, but that wouldn’t stop her from trying to fix this. The wake-up call she’d needed was finding out that she’d been made an aunt without her knowledge, and by the Titan, she’d do whatever she must to even get the slightest chance at making amends with her family.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Something that wasn’t discussed very often - though still remained notable whenever she would preside over the reports of the raids she didn’t attend, or write reports for her own personally-led raids - was the exceedingly low rate of casualties that came with attempting to attack Edalyn’s house.
She did not mean casualties in terms of incapacitated scouts. Those were certainly still common, and sometimes rather overwhelming. She had not been kidding about the time she witnessed the owl tube absolutely obliterate an entire company in the span of a mere ten minutes. No, injuries and broken bones occurred without fail during raids. Instead, she meant casualties in terms of deaths.
It was rare for a death to happen during a raid. One would think that leading an attempt to attack the Owl Lady’s house would result in more. Lilith presumed it was the only reason Emperor Belos could order them at the rate which he did, being about once every three-to-six months, since they rarely lost any soldiers during these attempted incursions.
It was not often that Edalyn would defend the house herself. Not exactly. That role primarily seemed to fall on the owl tube, who handled the brunt of the attacking force with terrifying ease. She would only ever slip out into the fray if things became too overwhelming for the house demon, which was an exceptionally rare occurrence.
The two tended to stick to non-lethal tactics whenever possible, as she had noticed in her strategic analysis of her sister’s home defense. Sure, they had no qualms roughing up the invasion force, leaving a lot of beaten bodies scattered across the clearing’s floor. But, truthfully, the worst that her squads tended to walk away with was the trauma of being forcefully pulled into one of those horrifying tea parties that the owl tube demon was known to hold.
In a way, it was strange. Lilith knew that her sister’s security measures could very easily eradicate several of the scouts in an invading force, slowly whittling down their numbers over time. Even Edalyn herself would be capable of taking out a couple at a time.
His Excellency might call off the raids at that point, deeming them an unnecessary loss of life. Or, she considered with a slight frown, he would order a full-scale invasion against the house in retaliation, one with so many bodies involved that Edalyn could put up no real defense.
Hm. Under that light, she supposed it made a lot more sense to stay non-lethal, especially considering the information Lilith now had regarding the existence of her niblings.
Of course, none of this was to say that casualties never happened at all. The goal of the raids, as occasional as they may be, had always been to overwhelm the house’s defenses, seize the building, and capture Edalyn alive. Occasionally, one of Lilith’s scouts got a little too cocky, or refused to back down after taking one too many hits.
She’d watched one run straight for the door, once, only for the house demon to violently startle, then slam into them with enough force to render them dead by the time her forces managed to recover the body. She remembered that particular event so well, even two years later, because she had ordered a retreat as soon as it happened, not wanting to risk any more lives.
Knowing what she did now, she had to wonder if that scout would have entered the house, only to find a terrified little girl and a baby demon, both cowering behind a furious Edalyn that would’ve disemboweled them in seconds.
No matter what, though, if there was a casualty, they always had the ability to recover the body. Sometimes, it was because the owl tube creature left an obvious hole in their defence, just wide enough for another scout to move in and extract their downed fellow soldier.
Other times, if the raid had been pushed too far back, the scouts that swept the area later would find the body at the edge of the clearing, laid beneath a white sheet with a series of rune inscriptions - specifically in Riitrán, which she didn’t know how to read - written across the top. Lilith only vaguely recognized it as an honorment of the lost in wild culture, from a scouting mission she had decades ago to a buried mortuary.
In the history of periodic raids against Edalyn’s house, there had only been two exceptions to these unspoken rules of non-lethality and recoverability. Specifically, two raids that had gone so catastrophically wrong, and resulted in an abnormally high right of casualties.
She had been present for neither of these raids, but she had extensively reviewed all the reports that followed them. Both shared a very similar progression of events.
Firstly, the owl tube had been overwhelmed, seemingly by proxy of having already been in a weakened state for some unknown reason, possibly through an illness. Second, Edalyn had been forced to step outside, joining into the fight. Third, and most importantly, Edalyn had received enough damage to overwhelm her as well.
The survivors of both events reported that Edalyn had let out a deafening scream - one that sounded far more like the screech of a monstrous beast, filled with a vicious sort of rage - before the strength of Retmina had broken loose.
Compared to the house demon and Edalyn, when it came to non-lethality while still managing to keep the home safe, the Owl Beast did not seem to share such limitations. It was a vicious predator, after all. One that was willing to keep what it had likely claimed as its aerie safe at any cost. Forcing it onto the defense had deadly consequences.
Once it had been let out, carnage was left in its wake. Both times this had happened, it was nothing short of a complete and utter massacre.
The average raiding party led against the Owl House was about half a company, approximately thirty soldiers total, though the amount would vary depending on the circumstances around the attack. The most that would ever attack at one time was a full company, sixty soldiers, but this was incredibly rare. That number also didn’t account for the company’s captain, or any additional commanders and officers from higher up in the chain of command.
On both of these particular missions, there was a somewhat higher number of active combatants. Forty-two and forty-seven respectively. The first raid in which the Owl Beast came out, only twenty-one returned. The second, only sixteen.
The soldiers who came back from those two missions never did quite recover, after losing so many of their fellow scouts in such a disastrous way. Two of the survivors would later disappear without a trace, possibly having run away. Another was found passed away in the barracks, surrounded by far too many empty potion vials. The rest had mostly been transferred into guard postings around various major cities after that, keeping them away from any further combat.
It was all Lilith could do for them, seeing as the Emperor’s Coven didn’t have any non-active duty postings. Yet another failing of the system, she noticed. She wished she would stop noticing all these flaws. Or that she could at least do something to fix them.
These fatal raids were the main reason that Lilith had instituted a new set of orders for all scouts involved with missions related to the infamous Owl Lady. If the Owl Beast was to appear, immediately call off the raid and retreat. If the beast was spotted during any scouting missions, immediately retreat. Never engage the beast in combat under any circumstances.
She had always assumed that the Owl Beast came out because Edalyn was weakened, and could no longer resist its influence, allowing the beast to decimate what it deemed to be the foreign invaders. However, she had never been able to shake the feeling that the beast’s ferocity was abnormal. Now that she was aware of the children, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was tied to them in some way.
She had always known that the beast was vicious, strong, and very capable of harm. After all, she had seen what happened to her father, the very same cycle Edalyn ran away. But the amount of rage shown during these failed assaults had almost been incomprehensible.
Had the Owl Beast become something of a last line of defense, in order to keep the invasion force as far away from its claimed aerie? Was it so willing to maim and kill simply because of that? Or was its unbridled anger specifically fueled by the presence of the children? Had it, perhaps, claimed them as its own?
As she was overwhelmed, could it be that Edalyn had given up on holding back, and let the curse out, if only to keep her children safe? Lilith didn’t know the answer to these questions. She… wasn’t sure how she felt about this series of thoughts.
Over the years, increasingly so as of recent, there had also been an abnormal amount of times that the Owl Beast had been spotted outside of the house. None of the scouts who managed to record it remained nearby for long, as they were all under orders to retreat upon sighting the beast. But, accounting for probable misses due to location and time, it seemed as if the beast left the house and returned almost every single cycle.
Without further investigation - and further unnecessary risk to her scouts, which she refused to allow - they didn’t know exactly why the beast was leaving and returning so frequently.
It shouldn’t have been happening at all. Lilith was well aware that her sister had been taking elixirs to mitigate the curse for decades by this point. The fact that the beast seemed to be out so often, and seemingly would return to the house without Edalyn having to reclaim control, spoke of something more complicated happening behind the scenes.
Maybe the beast truly had claimed the children as its own. Maybe it really was only so vicious because it was just trying to keep Lilith’s niblings safe, and would go to far greater lengths to do so than Edalyn would ever dare tread. Which implied it had some form of… of sentience. Sentience, and intelligence.
But there was no way that could be correct, right? It simply didn’t make any logical sense. The beast was just that - a completely wild and untamed beast. It was just a curse. Right?
She did not like the amount of doubt she was suddenly feeling in that conclusion. She did not like it at all.
Cautiously approaching the door, she took quiet note of the wooden owl face nestled in the center. It seemed like the demon had entered a dormant sort of state, and turned to wood. She didn’t know they could do such a thing - she had never seen them go dormant first-hand. Despite the apparent slumber, though, the hum of old magic continued to buzz on her skin, like sightless eyes watching her.
When she was only a few paces away from the door, it suddenly swung open, and Lilith stumbled back slightly in surprise, letting out an incredibly embarrassing squeak. She did her best to quickly regain her footing as she met a pair of golden eyes staring back at her from the doorway.
“Huh,” Edalyn grunted out, raising a sardonic eyebrow. “Guess he wasn’t kiddin’ after all.” She leaned her shoulder against the door, looking over Lilith with a critical eye. Lilith quietly studied her in return.
Her sister looked… different, she realized. It was obvious from the moment Edalyn opened the door. Something was softer about her, compared to the many times they had faced off against each other over the years. She looked rather comfortable, as if she’d just been interrupted in the midst of a very relaxed cycle.
She was wearing a red sweatshirt, one with darker red cuffs that pinched around her wrists and a low enough neckline to reveal the upper half of the gemstone embedded into her chest. She was also adorned in a pair of baggy, gray, soft-looking sweatpants. She had a pair of brown slippers with little ears, two beady eyes, and a stitched-on nose, themed after what seemed to be a childish depiction of a Jaggard Bear from the forests of the Right Hip.
There was a gilded locket strung around her neck, hanging just above where the bottom of her chest stone would be beneath the top. Interestingly, she was also wearing a pair of equally golden earrings.
Although Lilith certainly hadn’t been paying close attention to her sister’s attire, the last time they had encountered each other - as she had been trying to arrest the woman, she recalled with a fresh spike of guilt - she didn’t believe that Edalyn was wearing earrings. She knew that her sister used to wear that very same pair, but she can’t recall when that stopped.
In a strange way that Lilith was not at all used to, Edalyn seemed domestic. The casual, comfortable attire made it far easier to imagine the woman standing in the doorway was a mother, and not just her brash and chaotic sister that had turned to crime and wild magic after being cursed.
Under the gaze of her estranged sister, Lilith could only stand stock-still, highly unsure of herself. It had been many, many years since the two of them spoke to one another casually, and she was beginning to realize that she had possibly forgotten how to do so. It certainly didn’t help that her social skills were just as abysmal as they’d always been.
After a moment of silence, Edalyn seemed to reach some sort of conclusion, nodding to herself. “You look better with your old hair,” she commented, sounding overly casual. “Makes you look less pretentious.”
Lilith blinked. “Uhm. Thank… you?” she replied hesitantly. Was that meant to be a compliment, or had she just been insulted? Being called pretentious felt like an insult. What was wrong with her hair? She actually rather liked how it was styled, after so many years of straightening and dying it.
Amused, Edalyn let out a very familiar snort, one that had Lilith’s heart aching. “You’re welcome,” she retorted with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. Insult, then. Understood.
For a moment, Edalyn’s eyes looked out to scan across the clearing surrounding the house. She glanced back inside the house, as if checking for something, before turning back towards Lilith. “Now, I’m assuming the disguise is so that the scouts stationed around my house I’m not supposed to know about don’t realize it’s you visiting.”
It wasn’t all that much of a surprise to know that Edalyn was well aware of the posting around her house. Scouts had been spotted before during surveillance, after all. It likely contributed to just how little information her forces actually managed to gather, including the existence of the children.
“Get in here,” Edalyn continued, jerking her head through the door. “I made coffee.” Without another word, she kicked herself off the wall, and turned around. She walked further into the house, leaving the door open behind her in clear invitation.
Lilith stared after her sister for a moment, hesitating. Was she… truly being let inside? Just like that? She hadn’t thought… or, at least, she had thought it would take much more of a conversation outside, standing underneath the porch’s canopy, before she would be let through the door.
“...Okay,” she breathed out to nobody. She felt unsure of herself, and already as if she was on the wrong foot, but she had made it this far. She would see this through. She needed to.
She stepped through the door and pulled it closed behind her. With hesitant, wide eyes, she took in the interior of the houses he had spent so many raids over the years trying to enter. As many times as she had led scouts against this place, she had never actually seen the inside before.
Her first, immediate impression of the mainroom was that it seemed incredibly cozy. It was saturated with a healthy amount of ambient magic, which appeared to be wafting off an enchanted hearth off to her left. It provided the room with not just a physical warmth, but a magical one as well.
It was a far cry from the meticulously maintained halls at the Emperor’s Coven, which she would go so far as to describe as oppressive. Even the rather well-used, but extremely neat safe house she had in Fibril Falls could not compare.
Her second impression, which she came to just a moment later, was that the house seemed to be rather cluttered. Decorations covered nearly every single centimeter of available wall space, from pictures and paintings to trinkets on floating shelves to so much more. Toys, blankets, books, and several other miscellaneous items were haphazardly shoved against the edges of the room in an effort to at least give a walkable path.
Truthfully, it came together to make the home feel well-worn. Lilith’s family truly lived here, in a way she had never quite experienced beyond her childhood. It helped to further strengthen that connection she struggled with, between Edalyn and the fact that she was a mother.
The entire room seemed to be lit by a combination of fire from the hearth and candles set up along the rim shelf lining where the wall met the ceiling. The ceiling above her held a massive mural of a large, one-eyed creature. It had a crest of some sort on the back of its head, and seemed to be breathing fire from the mandibles on either side of its mouth. She had never seen such a creature before.
Lining the perimeter of the room were crimson curtains, which seemed to hang from the bottom of the shelves, just a little bit off the wall. They had all been tied off at the corners of the room.
Around her, the mainroom seemed to be almost twice the size of what should've logically been possible within the constraints of the house. She wasn’t quite sure if that was a quirk of having such a powerful house demon imbued with old magic, an extremely powerful expansion spell, or a combination of the two.
Her curiosity began to war with her disgust as she watched the walls shift ever-so-slightly around her. They seemed to do so rhythmically, in what she suddenly realized was a breathing pattern. The entire room was breathing. Just how embedded into the house was the owl tube demon?
She knew that house demons, no matter the shape, form, or origin, were magically bonded to their chosen structure. But she had never seen one before that had practically become the house.
There was an overwhelming number of details about the room she quickly took note of. To her right, along the wall to her back, there were a pair of chests, one of which was left open. It revealed an interior filled to the absolute brim with children’s toys and stuffed animals, several more scattered on the ground around it.
Just beside the doorway she stood in, there was a set of hooks embedded in the wall. However, all that hung from it was a maroon beanie that looked as though it had been hand-stitched. The only reason she recognized it as her niece’s was because of just how many times she’d read Twenty’s report.
Against the rightmost wall was a red couch, with mismatched fabric, a few stains, and a couple of worn down holes that revealed the stuffing inside. In front of it was a low coffee table, one that had a metal skirt around it. On either side of the couch were rounded end tables, one overflowing with books, while the other held a witchlamp.
The wall behind the couch was seemingly the most decorated of them all. Between a number of small photos and pictures too small to make out from this distance, she noted several hung weapons, a mounted hand that she hoped was fake, a second place medal of some kind, a stylized sort of a hand pointing up, and the skull of a mextou. There were a pair of items set on opposing shelves that she had never seen before, quite possibly from the Human Realm.
However, the largest item of all, which took up the majority of the wall, was a framed, enlarged version of Edalyn’s current wanted poster. It proudly displayed her seven-hundred billion snail bounty. Lilith bit her lip as her gaze momentarily swept over the second, smaller figure, wearing a crimson robe.
Off to her left, flanking either side of the aforementioned hearth were a row of cabinets, shelves running just above them. Both were absolutely filled with various items, from miscellaneous potions to books to even more candles.
In front of the leftmost cabinet was a small wooden crate and an elderdial clock. On the right was an ornate mirror, with what seemed to be the face of an owl at the center of the top that looked highly similar to the owl tube demon in the front door. She couldn’t help but wonder if Edalyn had perhaps carved it herself.
Sitting along the top of the hearth was a peculiar item that simply had to be some kind of relic from the Human Realm. It was a large, black, flat rectangle, set up on tiny legs that held it upright. Lilith wasn’t entirely sure what it was made of, but she could see the unfocused light of the candles above dancing in the reflection on its surface.
Set out on the ground in front of the hearth was a collection of stray blankets and pillows, with assorted plushies and stuffed animals scattered in between. There were even a couple of books. She could imagine two children cuddling up the fire here, the elder of the two reading while the other one hugged that large, round, white-furred jaggard bear.
The thought made her heart ache in a way she was beginning to become familiar with. She had missed so much of her niblings’ lives already. She would perhaps be forced to miss the rest of them, too. This glimpse, however slight it might be… it meant everything to her.
Lilith forced herself to start moving. The far wall, which she was currently following Edalyn towards, had a doorway that led into a hallway. Lit candles on thin pedestals flanked either side, while the area to the right of it was occupied by a green couch. It was smaller, and obviously used less often than the red one.
Between more floating shelves, pictures, and hung up weaponry, however, a specific painting above the couch caught Lilith’s eye as she drew closer. Her breathing hitched.
It showed Edalyn sitting comfortably on an ornate couch, and judging by her likeness to the current version of herself, it could be from no more than two years ago. She was smiling, one of the softest smiles Lilith had ever seen on her face. She wore a dark velvet suit top with a black collar and similar cuffs, a gray undershirt that peaked out from under the bottom, and a set of black dress pants. Quite possibly, it was the most formal Lilith had ever seen her sister dress.
But what had truly captured Lilith’s attention was the other two beings in the painting. Laying on Edalyn’s lap, curled up into a little ball, was a tiny demon that could only be the one named King. They looked like a little black-furred hound, to be honest, though the external skull was not something she had ever seen in any other offshoot species of Isles Hound.
Tucked under Edalyn’s left arm was a young witchlet. They had a head of untamed brown hair on tanned skin, one fang peeking out from their lip in a slight overbite, and a very, very familiar set of golden eyes. They were grinning, bright and happy, with so much warmth that it put the magic wafting off the nearby hearth to shame.
That could only be Lilith’s niece. There was simply no other explanation as to who the adorable child may have been. She did her best to drink in every detail, lest she never meet the girl face-to-face.
In the painting, the girl wore a sleeveless black overcoat, held together by three buttons. There was a little repetla tucked into the pocket on the left side of her chest. Her undershirt, which poked out above the collar and covered her arms, was lighter with a slightly bluish tint. The formal pants she had been wearing were gray.
It took a moment for her to notice, but, suddenly, she realized that the child’s ears were inexplicably round. The implications sent her reeling.
It couldn’t be. There was simply no way that… but, no, there was a way, she realized. Edalyn had some sort of method for obtaining items from the Human Realm, as was made clear by the various items she sold at her stall. Who was to say that she couldn’t use this method to cross between the realms?
She shoved the thoughts about her niece’s species to the wayside for the time, and continued to follow Edalyn as she entered the hallway. It didn’t mean anything, Lilith told herself. So what if her niece was part human? Perhaps they were a magicless species, only a pale imitation of a witch, but this was her niece. So it didn’t. Matter.
The hallway extended out in either direction through the door. Down the way to her left, it ended short at an ajar doorway, which was open just enough to reveal a bathroom that didn’t seem like it should fit where it was. Much farther down the right, past several doorways, was a stairwell that climbed high enough to be out of sight.
Around the two of them, the hallway’s walls were absolutely covered in a nearly overwhelming number of framed pictures and paintings. They depicted various different locations and faces. Edalyn paid them no mind as she walked down the hall.
Lilith followed behind, her hands tucked against her chest as she stole glances at some of the pictures. There was a feeling of wonder in her chest at having the chance to see these memories, but, also, a bitter sort of sorrow at having missed them when they first happened.
One picture showed the same child from the painting in the mainroom - Lilith’s niece, oh Titan - at a much younger age, perhaps only a year or two old. She was toddling along towards a younger looking Edalyn, who had her arms stretched out wide. There was a brilliant grin on her face, despite the fact that she looked absolutely exhausted, the bags under her eyes dark enough to be mistaken for makeup.
Another showed Lilith’s niece, much closer to how she looked in the mainroom painting, sleeping on a bundle of blankets that had been haphazardly left on the red couch. Lilith’s other nibling, King, appeared to be wrapped tightly in her arms, cuddled like a stuffed animal. It was adorable.
On Lilith’s right was a much larger frame, one that had an entire space on the wall to itself, and she slowed as she passed by it. Depicted within it was a person she’d never seen before, one who had the very same curly brown hair and tan skin that Lilith’s niece did. They had a pair of red glasses, and seemed to be wearing a green jacket over a light blue shirt. Just like Lilith’s niece, their ears appeared to be inexplicably round.
Just beside it was a smaller picture, showing a significantly younger Edalyn - she could only have been somewhere in her late twenties - with her arm wrapped around that very same mysterious human. They appeared to be sharing a bottle of apple blood in a room Lilith didn’t recognize.
There was only one clear answer as to who this might be. Their appearance matched up far too well with Edalyn’s little girl to be denied. She couldn’t help but wonder, why weren’t they included in the earlier painting?
Lilith’s eyes then flicked to a picture she could actually recognize. It was an image of herself and her sister from when they were teens, taken after just having won a major grudgby game. Their arms were wrapped around each other’s shoulders, and their smiles seemed so naive now.
That picture must’ve been from nearly thirty years ago. Lilith remembered it being hung up in the hallway, just outside Edalyn’s door before she ran away. She hadn’t even realized it was taken that night. Seeing it again tugged at Lilith’s heart.
But then, her gaze shifted to another image, and… was that the Owl Beast? She stumbled in her step, unable to stop herself from taking a second look.
It actually was. It depicted the Owl Beast laying in some kind of nest that was absolutely overflowing with blankets. That, on its own, was enough to completely shock her - as far as she could recall, her sister had always hated reminders that the curse existed - but something even more startling had caught her eye.
Because the image had been taken from the self-aimed format that most scrolls were capable of doing these cycles, and at the corner of the frame, seemingly holding the camera, was the grinning face of her niece.
It was almost as if the hulking creature behind her was of no threat at all. One of the Owl Beast’s eyes was opened slightly, looking towards the camera, towards Lilith’s niece. There was the slightest of grins on Edalyn’s distorted face, something that almost looked like a smile of amusement. As if the wild beast found the young girl’s antics amusing.
Something within her mind seemed to click with a realization. Her earlier doubts, her thoughts of sentience and intelligence, they all suddenly bubbled back to the surface.
Her thoughts about the beast had been fleeting and not entirely concrete. It had been a randomly tossed-out suggestion, the idea that it had claimed Edalyn’s children as its own. She hadn’t entirely believed that. After all, it was supposed to just be a wild beast. A curse. A monster.
But this, this was confirmation. How could she look at this photo, with the creature smiling at the little girl, and not think that the beast somehow believed the child to be its own? Anyone else would have been eviscerated. Brutally torn apart. But there was Lilith’s niece, smiling as if the beast was a normal part of life.
It shouldn’t mean anything. It didn’t mean anything, really. Just because the curse was quite possibly more sentient and intelligent than she had originally thought, likely had adopted the children, and could quite possibly be working with Edalyn instead of against, did not mean she needed to completely revitalize her plans yet again.
Swallowing, Lilith turned away from the photo, and continued to follow Edalyn through another doorway. Surely, her sister would still want the foreign curse to be removed, considering how much it harmed her overall. It tainted her magic, weakened her, and slowly killed her. Even if Lilith’s faith in the Coven was beginning to waver, it was still undeniably the best opportunity for a cure.
Maybe, if she told herself that enough times, she would start to feel more certain about it. Damn all of this sudden doubt she couldn’t rid herself of.
With a shake of her head, she pushed away these thoughts, and instead began to look around the new room, which appeared to be a kitchen. Across the top of the room was a system of shelves that followed the perimeter, just like the mainroom. It was filled to the brim with various items, like books, bags of ingredients, and a few things she couldn’t identify that looked rather human in nature.
There was a stove against the wall she was standing by, just off to her left, which seemed to have pots, pans, and various cutlery hung up above it. The wall to her right appeared to be mostly used for storage, various boxes, jars, and sacks tossed against it. One jar read “Cookies” while another, slightly smaller jar was labeled “Flatcake Mix.” Directly across from her was a door that seemed to exit behind the house, sitting beside the bay window.
At the far end of the room, just beside a double doorway into what seemed to be a pantry, was a row of cabinets. Above them was a shelf with hooks to hold mugs. Both were host to various cutlery, pots, and a couple of clean dishes. Sitting in between the cabinets and the pantry was a strange, tall, slightly off-white object. It looked reminiscent of a cupboard, and produced a low, soft hum. Like most of the items she didn’t recognize, she assumed it must have been some kind of human realm commodity.
Sitting in front of the bay window was a large table. There was a bench set up on the longer end opposite to the window. A stool was sat at the closest end, while a lone chair was left at the farther one. The bay window itself seemed to also be set up for seating, with pillows and a blanket laid out on the inset.
Edalyn immediately made her way towards the counter, determination etched into her face. After a momentary hesitation, Lilith followed behind, taking a seat at the clearly lesser-used chair. She made sure to shift it slightly towards the table, just to give her sister as much room as she could.
There was a much smaller object on the counter that Lilith hadn’t noticed at first, which seemed to be a white platform that went under and over some kind of glass fishbowl with a handle. It seemed to have been running for some time, as it had just finished up whatever it was doing with a loud churring sound. The bowl was filled with a dark brown liquid, one that looked quite familiar.
Was that… coffee? How intriguing. Edalyn had mentioned making some, but Lilith had assumed she’d done it the same way everyone else did. It was clear that this was yet another human trinket of some kind, so did that mean humans also had coffee? Sure enough, when Edalyn pulled the glass bowl out from the strange object, the familiar smell of java began to waft through the air.
She reached up and grabbed one of the mugs from above her, setting it down on the counter. Then, she finally spoke as she reached for a second one, startling Lilith slightly. “You still take your coffee with a splash of spider’s milk,” she asked, “or has the Coven converted you to that black sludge?” She still hadn’t looked at Lilith a single time since they met at the front door.
In truth, being in the Coven had actually brought her to acquire a bit of a taste for black coffee, since it was so much quicker to make, and woke her up like nothing else could. It was what she drank most mornings.
But, back when they were both teenagers, and they had snuck enough drinks from their parent’s cups to acquire a taste for it, Edalyn got quite invested in the process of making coffee. It made sense, given the similarity to making potions. She missed the way her sister used to make it. “Ah, with milk, thank you,” she answered.
“Mm,” Edalyn hummed. “Good answer.” She began to pour the coffee into one of the mugs with one hand, while drawing a spell circle with her other. The white cupboard opened itself, and out from it came a carton of spider’s milk. Oh, so it was a sort of cold storage, then. Interesting. Lilith hadn’t realized humans had those.
Once she finished pouring out the second cup, Edalyn pulled a spoon out from one of the cabinet drawers. She carefully splashed an amount of milk into either cup, then gently stirred them for a few moments. Then, bending down, she opened one of the cabinets and pulled out what looked to be a bag of marshmallows.
Rising with a groan, she pulled out four of the fluffy white treats, and tossed two of them into either mug. Then, she picked up both cups, and turned back around, leaving all of the supplies she’d used out on the counter.
She placed one mug, a pink one with the words “World’s Best Veterinarian” on it (whatever that meant), right in front of Lilith. “Thank you,” Lilith offered softly. Edalyn gave a single nod, before squeezing between Lilith and the wall to grab a seat on the farther side of the bay window.
As her sister settled into the collection of pillows and blankets, Lilith raised the cup to her lips and took a drink. The warmth soothed a feeling in her chest that she hadn’t even realized was there. It tasted just as wonderfully as she remembered.
Edalyn was cuddled comfortably in the corner of the bay window, her legs tucked up against her chest as she cupped her own mug in both her hands. Hers was white, and read “30 & Flirty.” She looked relaxed, but there was a tense line to her shoulders. Silently, she raised it to her lips and took a long sip.
Finally, for the first time since Lilith entered the house, her sister looked at her. Something in Edalyn’s serious expression was hesitant, almost like she was trying to find the words to start. But that was okay. Lilith didn’t know how to start this conversation, either. “You don’t normally do social visits,” Edalyn eventually settled on.
Lilith pursed her lips. Yes, it was a hassle to actually get this visit organized - it took her almost a full week to get her alibi set up, and that wasn’t even counting all the planning she did beforehand - but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have managed it at any point in the past. She could have, should have done it sooner.
But, then again, she supposed that being a coward was nothing new to her. Neither was ending up so lost in her own desperation that she forgot about everyone else, up until she hurt them in the process.
Her shoulders slumped, feelings of self-loathing welling up once again. “I suppose that I don’t,” she murmured, her tone quiet and regretful. “Not nearly as often as I should.”
Something twitched in Edalyn’s expression, the hesitance almost seeming to melt away. She raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You mean you want to visit me?” she asked, incredulous. “That’d be a first.”
Lilith flinched, feeling her bile sac twist in knots. “Sister, I-” she started, before looking away in shame. “Please don’t be like that.” Not that she had any right to ask such a thing. Edalyn deserved to be unyielding, even if it hurt.
Expression falling flat, Edalyn retorted, “What, suspicious?” She let out an incredulous scoff, swirling her coffee around and keeping her eyes focused on it. “You’re the head of the same people that’re huntin’ me down for practicing magic the way I want to, and you haven’t come by just to just visit since Raine broke things off with me some twenty-three years ago,” she stated bluntly. “You made it damn clear the Coven was more important, considering you’ve pretty much missed the majority of my life.”
Flinching as each accusation was laid on top of her, Lilith’s head bowed, the guilt weighing down on her shoulders. Edalyn just rolled her eyes, huffing out a frustrated breath as she sent Lilith a sideways glare over the rim of her mug. “Forgive me for being a bit reluctant to believe that,” she finished.
Lilith remained in silence for a moment. It was… painful, hearing that Edalyn truly believed Lilith thought the Coven was more important than family. Because that was so very far from the truth. Didn’t she know that the Coven was only important because of what it could do for her family?
No. She didn’t. Because Lilith never showed her that. She just left her sister alone, became her sister’s enemy, and expected her sister to understand. “I know,” she said, her voice small and trembling. “I… I know. I’m sorry.”
For a moment, her sister just studied her with knitted eyebrows. Whatever Edalyn was looking for, she found it a moment later, realization dawning over her face. “You actually are, aren’t you?” she murmured, enough shock bleeding into her words that Lilith felt another stab of shame. “Huh.”
Edalyn lifted the mug up to her lips, taking another drink. Then, she let out a soft sigh, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean, I get it, don’t go gettin’ yourself in a twist,” she said, her voice intentionally light. She flicked her wrist towards nothing in particular. “You’re a big-name coven leader now, with all those recruitment posters touting your face. I’m the dangerous, evil wild witch of the woods that the emperor’s wanted dead for years. There’s not much crossover.”
Lilith’s eyebrows drew together as her mind got caught up on a specific part of her sister’s statement. “The emperor doesn’t want you dead,” she protested.
Her sister just rolled her eyes yet again, huffing. “Yeah, yeah, I know the whole spiel, he gave you permission to pardon me if you convert me, whatever,” she dismissed flippantly, before her expression hardened as she met Lilith’s eyes. “Doesn’t mean I don’t know what he’s been doin’ to the rest of ‘em.”
All that Lilith could do was avert her gaze, lifting her mug to take a long drink of her coffee. She knew all too well what punishment awaited wild witches bound for the Conformatorium. Most were imprisoned in a secure wing of the complex, though Lilith had never actually seen them herself, as that was Warden Wrath’s jurisdiction.
But for the most prolific of them? There had not been a public petrification in somewhere around twenty-eight years or so, with the last one happening near the time when Edalyn ran away. That did not mean nothing was going on behind closed doors.
Edalyn took her own swig of coffee, before she abruptly said, “I used to have a mentor, y’know?”
Lilith blinked at her in confusion. She hadn’t even known that wild witches did mentorships. She knew that there was a way of passing knowledge down, but she assumed it was more of an open, communal system.
Her sister just snorted at the expression on her face in an achingly familiar way. “Don’t give me that look,” Edalyn said. “The modern apprenticeship is based on the old ways. Wild witches did it first, and everyone else just conveniently forgot it wasn’t some system Belos made.”
She went silent for a moment, her gaze looking off towards nothing as she became lost in thought. “My mentor was… a bit strict, I’ll admit, but kind-hearted,” Edalyn explained. “She could be pretty intense, but I figured out early on that she was only aiming to make me the best witch I could be. Never pushed me too far, even as she was having me go beyond my limits on the daily.”
Her tone was almost reverent, in a way Lilith had never heard her speak of someone before. Reverent, and so very fond. It reminded Lilith of the way one would speak about their own parents, laced with that sort of pride that came from being raised by someone you looked up to. She didn’t know how to feel about that.
Then, Edalyn chuffed a small, weak laugh. “Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure she was one of the few people on the Isles who actually got to meet my lifebound, too.”
She didn’t notice, so lost in her memories, but Lilith physically startled at the mention of a lifebound. It hadn’t quite occurred to her that, if Edalyn had gone and had a child, she was very likely to be lifebonded to the other parent - probably that human Lilith had seen in the hallway painting.
But, then, grief began to bleed into Edalyn’s expression. “She disappeared somewhere around fifteen years ago now, just up and vanished one cycle,” she admitted, and Lilith’s heart started to sink. “Now, she wasn’t the kind of person to leave without a word like that - by Galvantia, that old hag couldn’t even leave for a weekend trip to the damn knee without leaving some overly long message for me - so I thought it was a bit suspicious.”
Edalyn shrugged, but something in her eyes looked broken as she continued to stare at nothing. “Didn’t get my answer until about two years ago, when I broke into the Conformatorium that one time and got my bounty raised even higher for it,” she said. “I didn’t even realize it was her at first. But, even in stone, I’d recognize that face anywhere.”
As though she’d been punched, the breath was stolen from Lilith’s chest, her eyes going wide with horror. Her sister’s mentor had been petrified. The mentor she spoke of almost like a second mother had been turned to stone. Nobody quite knew what the experience was like, as it was irreversible, but it was said to be a fate worse than death.
Her mentor must have been an incredibly powerful witch to have earned such a dire sentence. She must have been so prolific that she had a bounty numbering in the millions, just like Edalyn did now. Fifteen years ago… it was possible that she was of the Galvantia Creed, before that was wiped out by the Empire.
“O-Oh,” Lilith whispered shakily, realization dawning over her as she stared down into her coffee. Edalyn’s meteor had been petrified. By the Empire. Likely on the Emperor's orders, as such a punishment had always been under his and Warden Wrath’s purview. It suddenly made perfect sense. Was it truly any wonder so she adamantly refused to join, when the Coven had stolen the life of her mentor?
How many people had died in Edalyn’s life, since they last spoke to one another like this? How many lives was her sister forced to mourn alone, with so very few people to help her through that grief? How many of these deaths that surrounded Edalyn could be traced back to the Emperor’s Coven?
That last thought brought a wave of nausea rolling through Lilith’s gut. She had been in charge of leading several raids against wild witches, and she had seen many of them off to the Conformatorium herself, leaving them under those with the jurisdiction to decide their punishments.
She never would have met Edalyn’s mentor, as that was well before her time leading these missions, but she suddenly couldn’t help wondering how many of those she carted off considered themselves to be Edalyn’s friends. She wondered how many of them were turned to stone, left in a hall Lilith had never seen.
It was a sobering feeling, the growing realization that there was truly a reason behind Edalyn’s hatred of the Coven, beyond a disdain for authority and indoctrination into wild culture. It hurt even more for Lilith to realize that she was a part of the very same institution that had hurt Edalyn so.
Every time she thought she understood all of the harm she had already caused, she learned of even more pain that had been inflicted onto her dearest sister.
Lilith swallowed thickly, that familiar guilt scorching its way through her chest. “I. I’m so sorry,” she eventually managed to choke out. “I didn’t know.” Her apologies were not enough. They would never be enough. But she pushed all her earnesty into them, because it was all she could do.
She hadn’t known. She had no clue that, while she was focusing on working her way into the Emperor’s inner circle, her sister had been left by the wayside, raising two kids, mourning deaths, and just struggling to stay alive. She hadn’t realized Edalyn had so very few to fall back on, and she had abandoned her sister. She just didn’t know. What kind of sister did that make Lilith?
Instead of being upset or angry - both reactions that Lilith thought were absolutely deserved - Edalyn just waved her hand in dismissal, her eyes finally focusing on the present. “Don’t be,” she huffed. “I doubt you were even involved, considering how long ago it happened. You were still just a, uh, a captain around then, right? Didn’t get promoted to commander for another year or so.”
Stunned, Lilith could only nod in silent confirmation. How had Edalyn known that off the top of her head? They hadn’t even been in contact during that period of time. Had Edalyn been checking on Lilith?
At her nod, Edalyn continued. “It ain’t really that important anymore, anyways. No matter how you cut it, she’s gone, and it was done on Emperor Bonehead’s orders. He’ll destroy my culture, my fellow wild witches, even my own family without any remorse, but not me?” She scoffed. “Yeah, right. His pardon means nothing. He just won’t kill me where you can see.”
What was Lilith to believe? Because her sister was right. The Emperor had been very clear about the Titan’s thoughts on wild witches. If they refused the manner in which the Titan had demanded magic be confined, then they were to be punished for their crimes.
So then, why was he so willing to pardon Edalyn? It was a question she had always been too scared to ask, because she had to believe he would honor that word, or the last three decades of her life spent in the Coven would all be worthless. But she couldn’t lie and claim that the question didn’t weigh heavy on her shoulders. Because the Emperor had taken Edalyn’s mentor away.
Edalyn’s mentor. Who she spoke of like a second mother, with all the fondness and love that one would direct towards them. Someone who was turned into stone, and was currently located within a hall of the Conformatorium that Lilith had never been to.
Someone who Lilith had never even had the chance to meet. Because Lilith had been too invested in the pursuit of a cure to realize that Edalyn was grieving alone. “What… what was your mentor’s name?” she hesitantly, desperately asked.
“Geneva,” Edalyn answered softly, her voice only the slightest bit broken. “Dropped her family’s surname long before I met her. Best teacher I could’ve asked for.” She lifted her coffee to her lips and took another long sip.
Lilith said nothing. There was nothing she could say, to make this better. All she could do was commit Geneva’s name to memory, silently vowing to find out exactly what had led to her petrification.
As the mug lowered, Lilith’s sister started to speak again. “But, hey, you’re not just here to listen to me ramble about how my life’s been since you left, are you?” she began, offering a smirk that only looked half-fake. “I know how you think, you’ve got a reason for being here. Tell me, what’s so important that little miss coven head would go and get herself a disguise, just to sneak past her own scouts?”
“I. Uhm.” Lilith cleared her throat, suddenly finding herself nervous and off-footed. The abrupt shift in the direction of the conversation had sent her reeling for a moment. “I-I, ah, came to several realizations as of late, after I received a report back on the twenty-fifth from a coven guard. It was about an altercation that occurred on the previous cycle. I… believe you already know which event I’m referring to?”
With a half-lidded look that Lilith didn’t believe for a moment, Edalyn gave a lazy smile. “Mmhmm,” she hummed. “Lemme guess, asshole went and wrote down what I said, didn’t they?” The words were spoken flippantly, but Lilith didn’t miss the sharp, almost predatory gleam that flashed in her eyes.
Lilith simply noded in confirmation. “That is correct,” was all she said. Then, she lifted her cup to her lips, and took another drink of her coffee.
Mirroring her, Edalyn took a drink of her own coffee as well, leaning back slightly. “Yeah?” she huffed once the cup was lowered. “Guess I didn’t concuss ‘em hard enough. Shame.” She was silent for a moment. Then, deceptively calm, she asked, “They write down that they tried to grab her, too?”
Very suddenly, Lilith was struck with the reminder that it was an absolute miracle Guard Twenty wasn’t returned to the Bonesborough Police Precinct as a corpse beneath a white rune-inscribed sheet. But, then again, she was fairly certain the white sheet was an honorment of some kind, and she doubted Edalyn would be willing to show them any honor.
“Indeed, they did,” Lilith admitted. “Though, based on what was included with the medical report, I doubt they would have succeeded, even if you hadn’t intervened.” Not only had the hand needed stitches, but she was fairly sure the Healing Coven had noted a loss of mobility in at least two fingers.
Edalyn, the chaotic woman she was, just grinned. It wasn’t a very big one, and she still looked particularly homicidal, but it was something, at least. “Heh, yeah, Sunshine got ‘em good.”
To be quite honest, it was a struggle for Lilith to refrain herself from carrying out equally homicidal actions. “I will admit, it took all of my self control to not march over to the police precinct and have them emancipated from their position on the grounds of abuse of power,” she said. “Or reduce them to a pile of ash myself.”
At that specific declaration, Edalyn raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you?” she asked. “Not the killing them part, I can sorta understand why you can’t do that, I guess, but you couldn’t have just… fired ‘em, or somethin’?”
Lilith let out a sigh, swirling her coffee absently. If only it were that simple. “Believe me when I say that I wanted nothing more than to go through with those ideas,” she said. “However, while Police Precinct One-Two-Eight might be considered part of my jurisdiction, I’m sure you are well aware that Warden Wrath of the Conformatorium has a stake in their operations as well.”
“If I was to have the coven guard in question tried for misconduct,” she continued, “Wrath would demand my reasoning, and the ensuing conflict could very well be taken up the chain of command to Belos himself.”
It was one of the most difficult parts of having such a high rank - there was only one real superior that could deal with disputes. Not to mention, the absolutely frustrating fact that none of the other high-ranking officials of the Emperor's Coven had to share a portion of their divisions with someone else.
Edalyn’s expression flashed with amusement. “What, don’t think Emperor Bonehead would take your side?” she asked.
“In all honesty, I’m not quite sure,” Lilith admitted. She let out a soft, quiet chuckle at the look of surprise that flashed across Edalyn’s face. “Technically, it would be considered a prejudiced case, as one or more of those involved are related to me.”
“Perhaps, if I gathered evidence of the same officer doing this to others, it would be enough,” she elaborated. “But the fact that it was my sister and my n-niece who were involved would bring my protests of the event into question.” As she finished speaking, she raised her coffee cup to her lips and took another drink.
Graciously, Edalyn ignored the way that Lilith stuttered over the word niece. Instead, she frowned incredulously. “That is, by far, the dumbest shit I’ve heard in the last month,” she declared.
Tilting her head slightly, Lilith softly replied “I do not disagree with you. Despite how much I’ve adhered to the limited contact rules of the Coven, I can admit that I’ve never quite understood them. As of late, I’ve found myself questioning their necessity even further.”
Because how could Lilith accept that this was the way things were supposed to be? How could it be okay that she was prevented from seeing her family, forced to miss out on all these memories? How could she continue to hurt her sister with her absence, to leave Edalyn alone in her grief, when everything she had done had always been for her family?
If she had gone through with the old version of her plan to get her sister into the Coven, how could she possibly stand by and justify the fact that Edalyn would be restricted from seeing her children again?
“Oh?” Edalyn breathed, leaning forward in interest. Her curiosity was as sharp as a knife. “Is that doubt in the Emperor's Coven I hear?”
With a frown flickering onto her face, Lilith simply answered “Yes. As I said, I came to a number of realizations, following the incident. I have been… questioning a lot of things, these last few weeks.”
She was starting to see through so many cracks in the system she subscribed herself to, and the picture on the other side wasn’t nearly as enticing as the one she’d been seeing since she was a child. She had been willingly ignoring her doubts in favor of the promises she was given, turning a blind eye to strange choices and unsettling practices as long as she was given the cure to her sister’s curse.
Her introspection over the last two weeks had led her to see these isolationist rules in a new light, however. Because, again, when it was just her that these rules applied to, they made sense. When she had thought about it in regards to her subordinates, she had felt… discomforted, but simply continued to accept that this was the way things were.
But thinking about it in terms of her wonderful little sister had changed things. Edalyn was a mother. She had two children. Those rules that governed Lilith’s life just wouldn’t work anymore, if they affected Edalyn in such a way. It was a little funny, how much her life continued to revolve around her sister.
Edalyn snorted. “Good,” she said, that signature smirk of hers returning to her face. “Blind adherence is stupid and short-sighted. Never go along with something until you've questioned everything at least once, even if you don’t think you need to.” Lilith blinked.
“That is… surprisingly good advice,” she admitted, a bit taken off guard. Was blind adherence not what she had abided by? If she had just taken a step back and studied the Coven, questioning all these things she was now having doubts about, would she have noticed the problem much sooner?
“Damn straight it is,” Edalyn huffed, puffing out her chest in pride. “I learned from some pretty wonderful people.” Some of that grief from earlier welled up behind her eyes. “A lot’s changed in the last two decades, y’know.”
Lilith’s feelings of guilt flared up once more, and she bowed her head slightly. “Indeed,” was all she managed to say. She brought her coffee mug up to her mouth once again, and took another sip. She quietly wished she had defied the rules years ago, instead of waiting all this time.
Her sister took a long drink of her own coffee. A few more moments passed in silence, before Edalyn began to speak once again. “Do I need to explain to you why I’ve never mentioned them before?” she asked, that same sharpness from discussing Guard Twenty’s actions returning to her gaze.
It made Lilith feel like she was seconds away from being hunted like prey if she said the wrong thing. “No,” Lilith responded. “No, I, I understand.”
Truly, she did, even if it hurt to admit. Two decades had gone by, and the only words they shared with one another were taunts, jibes, and, on her part, demands for surrender. Lilith would never want to endanger her own niblings, nor would she want to separate Edalyn from them for more time than absolutely necessary, but there was simply no way her sister would’ve known that.
To Edalyn, she had just been Commander Clawthorne, then Head Coveness Clawthorne, both of whom were so intent on carrying out the will of the Emperor that they forgot who they were doing it for. Both of whom had refused to ever stop for a moment and be Lilith Clawthorne instead, or even just… Lily.
“Good,” Edalyn said. Then, she leaned forward, her brow falling as her expression shifted into a menacing glare. Lilith felt herself straightening under the sudden scrutiny.
“Now, let me make something as crystal clear as I possibly can,” she began, blunt and harsh. “You try usin’ the two of ‘em as some kinda leverage to get me to join the Emperor’s Coven, or bring harm to them in any way, and the fact that we’re sisters won’t stop me from digging your goddamn grave and sending you straight to Retmina myself.”
She finished the sentence pointing at Lilith. As she spoke, black bleed into the edges of her eyes. Lilith couldn’t help but tremble at the sight. “That’s a line I suggest you stay far away from crossin’. Got it?”
“Yes, o-of course!” Lilith quickly stuttered out without hesitation. “I would even swear an oath!” The thought of the Owl Beast coming out was terrifying, but her sister believing she would ever harm her niblings was even more so. She needed Edalyn to understand.
The offer of an oath seemed to succeed at breaking through Edalyn’s aggravation, and the black at the edge of her eyes receded. “Mm,” she hummed. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Then, Edalyn leaned back, lifting her cup and taking another quick sip of her coffee.
“I have two of ‘em,” she began after a moment. Suddenly, something was different about her. She seemed softer, warmth entering her voice. “King and Luz Clawthorne. They’re my pair of little baby gremlins. King’s the tiny demon, Luz is the witchling.”
Smiling fondly, she continued, “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs over the years, but those two… they’re everything to me.” She sounded so adoring of them. As if they hung the very stars in the skies, instead of the Celestials.
Perhaps she had only seen these children through reports and paintings up until this point, but she could already tell that they were absolutely perfect. “They sound quite wonderful.” Lilith lifted her coffee and took another drink as her sister let out an undignified snort.
“That’s ‘cause they are,” Edalyn said. “King’s the youngest. I think he’s around four years old? I never had ‘em take a blood sample to check, he was way too small when I took him for his immunities for me to be comfortable doing it then. I should probably schedule that at some point in the next, I dunno, decade.”
She paused for a moment to take another long sip of her java. “Me ‘n’ Luz found him on some uncharted island in the middle of the sea, when we were taking shelter from the rain after a long trip. Little guy was guarded by this creepy ass stone creature thing, broke his horn tryin’a get me.”
“I was never all that sure why the kid was there,” Edalyn continued, “but hey, that doesn’t really matter all that much anymore. The rain had cleared up by then, and we took him back home with us.” She offered Lilith a bit of a sheepish smile. “We, uh, kinda thought he was a pet, y’know?”
Lilith wasn’t entirely sure if it would even be accepted, but it had been nearly thirty years since she last had the chance to properly tease her sister. Tentatively, she raised a playfully judgemental eyebrow. “Edalyn.”
The indignant look that flashed across Edalyn’s expression was absolutely worth taking the risk. “Hey, how was I supposed to know?” she whined. “He looks like a little bonehound! Just, y’know, with a furry body that looks a lot more like a Houndling or Isles Hound.”
With the wave of an absent hand, she pressed on, “We realized we were wrong when he started saying actual words, anyhow.” Lilith leaned forward, letting out a sound of interest. That sounded like a story. She loved it when her sister told stories.
Edalyn indulged her with a smirk. “He’d built a bunch of little people figures out of the junk I had layin’ around,” she began, “and I said it looked like a King amongst his subjects. Apparently, he liked that title, ‘cause the little guy squeaked out ‘King!’ and fell right on his ass immediately after. Most adorable shit I’ve seen to this cycle. Luz pretty much proclaimed him Kin right then and there.”
There was a strange emphasis put on the word kin in that last sentence, and she was quite curious as to why. Did it perhaps have some sort of meaning in wild culture? However, such thoughts fell to the wayside as she found herself overwhelmed with admiration for the child she had never met.
She could imagine the little furry demon from the painting doing exactly what Edalyn said, and it was an adorable mental image. Something specific had caught her attention, though. “Wait a moment, so his first word was…” she asked, trailing off at the end.
“‘King?’” her sister prompted, before letting out a plea of heart-wrenchingly familiar snorting chuckles. “Yep,” she answered, popping the P. “It’s such a King thing to do, too. I figured it was a good enough name for him, and he seemed happy with it.”
Lilith’s nephew sounded so wonderful. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was going to get the chance to meet him, or her niece - she would hold no blame against Edalyn if she chose not to let that happen - but Lilith hoped she would.
For a moment, Edalyn was silent, looking out the window just beside her. Through it, the backyard garden was visible, which the scouts around the house hadn’t even noticed was being made until weeks after it was fully set up. Then, she turned back towards Lilith. “Luz just turned ten on the twenty-second,” she said.
“Ah, so I have just missed her birthcycle, then,” Lilith said, trying to sound as if the fact didn’t hurt. She wasn’t entirely sure she succeeded. But, then again, it was her own fault. “She is, uhm, yours, correct?”
She wasn’t sure why she even bothered asking. She already knew the answer. There was a very clear picture being painted, between those very familiar golden eyes she’d seen in the family portrait, and the human elements from the person she’d seen in the hallway painting.
Her sister raised an eyebrow, her expression falling a bit flat. “Yes, she’s mine by blood,” she answered pointedly. “Not that it matters, since both of my kids are my kids.”
“Right,” Lilith murmured, giving a quick nod. “I-I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.” She truly didn’t. Her niece was her niece, and her nephew was her nephew. They were both her sister’s children, and therefore, Lilith’s family, too.
Perhaps her sister understood that, because Edalyn just let out a soft sigh. “Yeah,” she huffed. “I know you didn’t.”
Despite knowing, Lilith still wanted… well, she supposed she wanted to hear confirmation that her niece truly was at least partially human. “I was… looking at the paintings and pictures you had hung throughout the halls,” she began hesitantly. “Her ears are… inexplicably round.”
“Half-human, half-witch,” Edalyn answered bluntly, as if it wasn’t something so absolutely unheard of. But, then, the sharpness flashed through her eyes once again. “That ain’t gonna be a problem, is it?”
Lilith startled slightly at the sudden suspicion. “No, no, certainly not,” she answered genuinely. “I know that I can be a bit… superioristic when speaking about humans, but her species truly does not matter to me, just as it does not matter for my nephew. They are… they are still family.”
It was a terrifying thing to say out loud, but it seemed to be what Edalyn needed to hear. The sharpness melted away, and she relaxed back into her seat. “Good,” she said. “Just. Had to make sure. There’s a lot of people out there who hate humans on principle.”
In part, Lilith understood. She could admit that her opinion of humans had always been a bit low. To her, they just seemed to be weaker versions of witches, with absolutely no magic to speak of. It was something they had to make up for through various objects and technologies, all of which seemed to do the same things a few simple spells could manage.
But none of that truly mattered, here and now. She would not let such insignificant personal prejudices taint her opinion of her own niece.
“Anyways, the kid’s an absolute sweetheart,” Edalyn finally said after a few moments of pause. “Dunno where she learned that from, but she’s got a heart of gold. If you even look slightly upset in her presence, she will be hugging you until you smile. She’s smart as Ret, too, lemme tell ya. That girl practically soaks up any scrap of knowledge she can find. She actually likes learning things, the weirdo.”
A small part of Lilith’s mind couldn’t help but wonder what this “hugging” Edalyn mentioned was supposed to be. But instead of questioning that, a small smile worked its way onto Lilith’s lips as she found another opportunity for teasing. “I distinctly recall you enjoying learning as well, Edalyn,” she said.
“Lies and slander,” Edalyn quickly countered. “You can’t prove anything.” It was enough to draw a soft huff of amusement from Lilith’s chest. At the sound, Edalyn smiled. “Anyways, you’ll love the two of ‘em, Lils.”
Lilith’s gaze snapped to Edalyn, her eyes widening as she blinked. Did she truly mean that? “I… get to meet them?” she asked, hesitance lacing her voice.
She had known, inherently, that she might be given a chance to meet these wonderful children at some point. From the very moment the owl tube demon had implied such with their parting words, she had been aware it was on the table. But she supposed she hadn’t quite believed it to be a possibility. She had wished for it, but she had not expected that wish to come true.
Something in Edalyn’s expression pinched with confusion, like she hadn’t been expecting such a question. “Of course you get to meet them,” she stated, as though it was obvious. “Did you really think I was gonna say you couldn’t meet your niece and nephew after you went through all the trouble of making it here?”
How was she to respond to such a thing? How was she supposed to admit that she had thought Edalyn would prevent her from meeting the children? She didn’t know, so she simply remained silent. She lifted her cup and took a long sip of her coffee, refusing to meet her sister’s eyes.
Edalyn’s expression fell slightly, for reasons Lilith couldn’t even begin to comprehend. “You did.”
For a moment, Lilith struggled to find the words to explain. “I just,” she began haltingly, before pursing her lips. “I would not have blamed you, if you didn’t. I certainly do not deserve the chance.”
She had done so much damage to Edalyn, over these last decades. It started with a curse - may the Titan condemn her sorrowful soul to the darkest corner of Retmina for such a crime - and only continued on and on from there. She had not only left her sister on her own, but had treated her terribly. No, she wouldn’t have blamed Edalyn at all.
Edalyn’s frown only deepend. For a moment, Lilith was afraid she had somehow offended her sister. Only a moment later, it suddenly became apparent that her sister’s old protective streak - something that Lilith had thought to be long since gone, after all she’d done over the years - was sparking.
“Let me get this through your coven-bound head, Lily,” she began, her voice stern. “Me and you, we’re gonna have our spats. We’re definitely gonna argue about a lot of shit, and we're probably even gonna have some genuine fights, magic and all. But you’re still my damn sister.”
“If I thought you were gonna sell my kids out to the Coven,” she said, “then, yeah, I’d bar your sorry ass from ever meeting them, no doubt about it.” Lilith couldn’t help but flinch at the very idea.
Then, Edalyn tilted her head slightly, and it took a moment for Lilith to realize she was eyeing her now-red hair. “But right now, I see the effort you went through just to come over here without alerting your own scouts of your intentions, so, fuck, I dunno. It’s hard to trust this, but I’m trying.”
“B-But, but why?” Lilith asked desperately, unable to contain her protests any longer. “I don’t get it. I've been such a terrible sister, and I hadn't even realized just how bad it had gotten until I found out I had a niece and nephew I was never told about! And, and rightfully so!”
Lilith buried her head in her hands, self-loathing washing over her in waves. “Of course you never told me about them,” she lamented. “I have belittled you, insulted you, attacked you, treated you like you mean nothing to me, and I don’t even know why!” The outburst had visibly startled Edalyn, who stared at her with wide eyes. Like she couldn’t believe it was happening.
“You mean everything to me!” Lilith abruptly blurted in a rush, and she was so, so guilt-ridden to realize she had never actually said that out loud before. “You always have, and I am ashamed it took such a drastic reveal for me to remember that. This is the first time we’ve spoken in two decades, and I don’t…” she faltered. “I don’t know how to fix any of this.”
For a moment longer, Edalyn continued to stare in silence, her eyes blown in shock. Then, she shook her head lightly. “I mean, yeah, you fucked up pretty bad,” she said bluntly. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. You left me on my own for a long time. I’ve mourned a lot of people alone, with only my kids to help me keep my head on straight.”
Though she couldn’t see Edalyn, Lilith was fairly certain her sister was frowning thoughtfully. “Ret, the last ten times I can remember encountering you, it either involved you trying to convince me to come into the Emperor’s Coven willingly, or you trying to capture me and force me in.”
Lilith’s head remained bowed as each failure was stacked on top of her. She couldn’t hold back the flinch at the very last declaration, knowing it to be true. Her sister remained for a moment.
“But, uh, right now?” Edalyn began, sounding only a little bit hesitant. “None of that… really matters, I guess. You’re here now, aren’t you? You’re trying. That, uh, seems like a good enough first step to me.”
Her sister let out a snort, and she could imagine Edalyn rolling her eyes. “I’m a little annoyed it took my daughter’s existence being exposed for it to actually happen,” she huffed, “but I guess that’s as good of a kick in the ass as any.”
Continuing to frown down at her coffee, Lilith couldn’t help but think she was still failing to do this properly. “It still does not feel like enough,” she confessed quietly. It felt as if it were an admission of guilt.
“You’re trying,” Edalyn repeated. When Lilith finally looked up, her sister had a small, slight smile on her lips. “That’s… well, it’s not perfect, but it’s alright for now. We’ll see what else you can do in that department as… whatever this is keeps developing.”
Then, Edalyn huffed out a soft laugh. “I don’t know what kinda ‘realizations’ you had that made you suddenly want to start treatin’ me like family again, but, shit, I ain’t gonna complain.” She paused for a moment to lift her coffee back to her lips and take another sip, before continuing. “At the very least, Luz’s gonna be happy to finally meet her Tía Lily.”
That word, “Tía,” was another that Lilith had never heard of before. She could only assume it was some sort of stand-in for aunt. But, then, what Edalyn had said actually processed. “You’ve… spoken to her about me?” Lilith asked, a bit surprised.
Rolling her eyes, Edalyn replied, “‘Course I have. You’re her aunt.” She huffed a sarcastic sounding breath. “Yeah, I wasn’t gonna let you two meet when you still had your head up your ass, but you’re here now, and she’s always wanted to meet you. Kid doesn’t exactly have a lot of family, only an uncle on her other side.”
That alone confirmed to Lilith that she truly had left her sister with very few in her corner. But she was here now, and for some incomprehensible reason, it seemed as though Edalyn was truly giving her an actual second chance to make things right. She refused to let this opportunity go to waste.
“King’ll probably seem a little indifferent,” Edalyn continued, sending Lilith another of those tiny smiles. “But I think that’s mostly because he’s a bit too young to really understand how serious all of this is.”
“I see,” Lilith responded, tilting her head slightly. She didn’t mind if her nephew wasn’t enthusiastic about meeting her. Honestly, before this conversation, she had thought the children would only know her as the woman that occasionally tried to arrest their mother - even having the chance to see the child with her own eyes was a blessing she thought herself unworthy of.
Taking another sip of her coffee, Lilith couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by how empty it was starting to become. Truly, Edalyn’s java continued to be as incredible as it was decades ago.
As she hummed in contentment over the wonderful taste, she thought back to that word she did not recognize, tía. If it really did mean something akin to aunt, she had to wonder what language it was from. It certainly wasn’t from any language that she knew. Perhaps it was Riitrán? “I…” she hesitantly began. “If I may, what-?”
But before she could finish the sentence with “...language was that word from,” she was cut off by a silencing hand gesture from her sister.
For a moment, Lilith felt a flash of indignation and annoyance over being cut off in such an abrupt manner, but it only took another second to realize Edalyn wasn’t actually looking towards her. Instead, she was looking towards the door that led into the hallway, one of her ears twitching as if she were listening to something.
Lilith followed her gaze, tilting her head to listen closer. “King?” Edalyn called out. “That you, hun?”
Lilith only just managed to hear the lightest tapping of clawed feet against the hallway floor before a very young, high-pitched voice began to speak. “Mama?” the voice of her nephew called back, sounding a little confused and lost. “Mama where?”
She turned back towards Edalyn to see that the other woman’s smile had gone soft, filled with that warmth from earlier. It was as if the very presence of one of her children soothed her soul over. “In the kitchen,” Edalyn crooned, her voice so startlingly soft.
In that very moment, Lilith could see Edalyn for the mother that she was. She had noticed the warmth when it first appeared, but now, it was as if her whole demeanor had changed. Something about her had visibly relaxed, like she was abruptly at peace. For the first time, Lilith could say that, despite all of her shameful misgivings she had struggled with after discovering the truth, motherhood seemed to truly suit Edalyn.
Then, it occurred to her that Edalyn had just told the little demon pup where they were. Which probably meant he was about to come into the room. Meaning Lilith was about to see him. Oh Titan, she was about to meet her nephew!
Of course, she had seen him already through paintings and hallway pictures, but there was something much more visceral about the prospect of meeting one of her sister’s children properly. She only had time for a single moment of bated breath before the little demonling padded around the corner and into the kitchen.
Seeing him with her own eyes, she felt that Edalyn’s description - a bonehound with a furry body more reminiscent of a more traditional Isles Hound - was quite accurate. The shape of his external skull seemed a little different from most other bonehounds, but somehow, still vaguely familiar. She wasn’t sure where she would have seen it before.
He had fluffy black fur, with tufts of paler fur at the end of his bushy tail and across his stomach. Atop his external skull was a pair of horns, though just like Edalyn had mentioned during the story of how she found him, one of them had been snapped off.
Strung around his neck was a red collar with a golden pendant at the front. Etched into the surface were the initials of “K.C.” She assumed that they probably stood for “King Clawthorne.”
His left hand was trailing behind him, dragging along what seemed to be a simplistic stuffed jackalope, though without any horns, and with one eye replaced by a stitched cross. His right hand was rubbing at his eyes sleepily. A moment later, they opened to reveal that the whites of his eyes were not actually white, but yellow, with beautiful purple-pink irises.
Her nephew looked towards her, then blinked as he noticed the person he’d never seen before. He glanced between her and Edalyn, before pointing towards Lilith in confusion. “Weh?” he… said? What a strange sound of curiosity. “Who’s tha’?”
Edalyn just kept smiling softly. “That’s your Tía Lily, kiddo,” she explained. “I told you ‘bout her, remember?” Lilith lifted her hand in an awkward wave. Oh Titan, oh Titan, that was her nephew! What was she even supposed to say? She did not know how to interact with children whatsoever.
Realization dawned over King’s expression. “Oh, uh-huh, I rem’ber,” he said, nodding along. He stared at Lilith for a few more moments, blinking with those rather bulbous eyes, before he suddenly began to pad over towards Edalyn.
Lilith’s sister watched with amusement dancing in her expression as the little demon pup wandered right up to her, before throwing his hands up in a universal request to be picked up. Edalyn snorted, setting her coffee mug down on the table across from her. Then, she reached down and lifted her son up from under his arms.
As soon as she placed her son down on her lap, he set the little stuffed animal down, kneaded at her lap for a moment, then curled around it, settling in comfortably. Impossibly, Edalyn’s smile seemed to soften even further. “Did you come all the way down here just to use me as your mattress?” She asked, her tone so utterly gentle. Lilith had never heard her sister so soft-spoken before.
As the interaction played out in front of her, Lilith lifted her mug to her lips one last time, slowly draining the last remains of her cup. She quietly wondered if Edalyn would be willing to provide seconds.
“Mmhmm,” King hummed, absolutely shameless. “Wer’n’t in th’ nest.” His voice seemed to tremble with a higher-pitched tone behind it, which she realized after a moment was a purr. Oh Titan, he was so cute. Lilith couldn’t stop herself from smiling into her coffee even if she wanted to.
Slowly, Edalyn carded a hand through her son’s fur, looking down at him with what could only be described as pure admiration. “Sorry, bud,’ she apologized needlessly, though there was something strange about her voice now. “Had to do some adult talk. You still tired?”
It took a beat for Lilith to recognize, but Edalyn’s voice sounded slightly off because there was a deep sort of rumble behind her words. Was she…? Lilith blinked in shock. She was. It was a little less noticeable than King’s, but, if she wasn’t mistaken, her sister was genuinely purring. Seemingly in response to the purrs of her son.
Was this a side effect of the curse? Did those no longer bother Edalyn? Obviously, there was something going on between her and her curse, given the images of the Owl Beast in the hallway, and the fact that the beast seemed to leave the house almost every single cycle, but reminders like that had always bothered Edalyn.
Any time she would accidentally chirp, or let out a noise just a bit too bird-like, she would flinch and tumble over her words. Then again, though, that hadn’t happened with Lilith there to witness it since Hexside. Maybe things really had changed.
King nodded silently to Edalyn’s question, his purring growing a little louder as her fingers raked through his fur. Edalyn let out an amused huff. “Alright, we’ll try to keep our voices down,” she told him. “Go ahead an’ go back to sleep.”
Then, with her off hand, she drew a spell circle. On the counter, golden magic enveloped the carton of spider’s milk, the glass bowl filled with coffee, and the bag of marshmallows, all of which began to float over towards the table.
“You need a refill too, Lils?” Edalyn asked, looking towards Lilith for the first time since her son had entered the room.
Apparently, Galvantia had chosen to bless her, because she hadn’t even needed to ask. “Yes, please,” she said, and the relief must have been palpable, because Edalyn sent her a knowing smirk. Lilith drew a light blue spell circle, passing her cup over.
She watched in absolute fascination as Edalyn began to refill their cups with the practiced ease of someone who often only had to deal with a sleeping little demon on their lap. She topped off both cups quickly with her own hands, the spider’s milk splashing itself in through magic while she picked another four marshmallows from the bag.
It was all done in seconds, with the same kind of grace Lilith had only seen during those old recordings of their own mother, when they were both still young enough to be carried around.
As Edalyn passed back Lilith’s cup, she smirked, nodding her head down towards the little demonling curled up in her lap. “See what I meant?” she said. “He doesn’t really get how important it is. Though, the fact he’s actually willing to sleep around you without having his head covered like a baby bird usually means he trusts you, so that’s a plus.”
Oh. He… trusted her? Lilith hadn’t been expecting that. She glanced down at the young child, feeling something in her chest soften. “He is quite adorable, I must say,” she admitted, her eyes flicking back up to Edalyn with a tiny smile gracing her lips.
“Yeah,” Edalyn agreed, “he is.” She continued to brush her hand through King’s fur. She let out a quiet snort, looking down at her son with that same soft, loving expression she’d had since he appeared. “He’s already passed out,” she huffed fondly.
An equally soft smile found its way onto Lilith’s face as she lifted her coffee cup to her mouth. “Is, is your daughter home as well?” Lilith hesitantly asked as soon as she lowered the mug, shifting a tiny bit in her seat.
She tried her best to keep the hope she felt from bleeding into her voice, but she wasn’t sure she managed it. She couldn’t help it - now that she knew she could, she so desperately wanted to meet the other of Edalyn’s children. Meeting King was absolutely wonderful, but like Edalyn said, he didn’t seem to grasp how incredibly out-of-character her presence was.
Instead of teasing her over her very obvious excitement over possibly meeting her niece, Edalyn’s smile turned a bit apologetic, which was enough of an answer on its own. “Nah,” Edalyn denied, “she’s at Hexside.”
It was said with such normality, as if the very fact that Edalyn had enrolled her child in Hexside wasn’t an absolute revelation and a half. Lilith blinked in surprise, staring at her sister as if she’d grown a second head. “You. Enrolled your daughter at Hexside?” she asked haltingly, not quite believing her.
Edalyn continued to seem deceptively casual about it, in a way that told Lilith her sister was very much aware how abnormal this was. “She wanted to,” Edalyn said. “She made a very compelling case about how she wants to make friends and learn absolutely everything she can so she can, and I quote, ‘be as good of a witch as you are, Mamá!’”
She shrugged lightly. “I figured, eh, why not?” Edalyn said flippantly, as if it were truly that simple. Then, her eyebrows knit together as a thoughtful expression washed over her face. “Y’know, after I spent two years deflecting and finding excuses.”
“Ah,” Lilith breathed, suddenly hit with a wave of fondness. “That seems much more like you.” The fact that she had enrolled her daughter in Hexside had seemed like such a strange change of pace, considering what Lilith knew of Edalyn. But knowing that it had taken two years to actually do so was a lot more fitting.
As she was hoping to see from her light teasing, Edalyn scowled playfully in return. “I resent that,” she declared. Something about this casual back-and-forth banter with Edalyn soothed over her heart.
Lilith smirked, truly smirked, perhaps for the first time in months. “Mm, resemble,” she countered.
Edalyn huffed out an amused breath, rolling her eyes, but her grin never faltered. Lilith’s smirk faded into a subtler, yet still genuine smile. “I’m quite curious, did she follow in your footsteps?” she asked. “What track was she placed into?” Though she had no doubt Edalyn continued to hate that restriction just as much, if not more than she used to when she was attending Hexside.
She saw a flash across Edalyn’s expression, something that almost looked like apprehension, and it made her pause. She watched in slight confusion as her sister turned to look out the window, visibly warring with herself on what answer she should give. Was the answer to her question truly so worthy of hesitance?
After a few moments, Edalyn turned back. Her smile had grown a little smaller, and there seemed to be a slight strain in it, but it was still there. “She’s in all of ‘em,” Edalyn said.
Lilith blinked, not quite sure how to interpret that answer. Perhaps her niece was studying all of them, in the same way Edalyn had? She wasn’t entirely sure. That explanation didn’t seem like it warranted such hesitance. “...Like you were?” she asked in clarification. “With the Room of Shortcuts?”
“No,” Edalyn huffed. Seeing Lilith’s confusion, she quickly began to elaborate. “Well, yes, she knows about the room of shortcuts, but that’s not what I meant. She’s enrolled in all of them.”
That was… what? As far as Lilith was aware, that should genuinely have been impossible. But it didn’t make any sense for Edalyn to be lying about this, either. “You. She. Truly?” Lilith managed to haltingly ask, taken completely off guard. It seemed as though her words had abandoned her.
Her sister was sending her a bit of a cautious, searching look, as if she wasn’t sure how Lilith would actually react to this information. “Yep,” was all she said in answer, continuing to card a hand through her son’s fur.
Lilith could recall just how many times Edalyn had fought against the singular track restrictions in the past, only to be shot down at every turn. Even when Vice Principal Bump ascended to the leadership of Hexside, after Principal Faust’s unfortunate accident, he was clear on his stance.
From many years of interacting with the Principal, through proxy of the Emperor’s Coven, she had been under the impression that he held no discontent for the Coven System. Not even did he seem to hold the most subtle of personal protests, like those which Principal Amaranth of St. Epiderm held, but tried desperately to hide. To her, Principal Bump had always seemed willing to staunchly uphold the Empire’s laws without complaint.
So to hear Edalyn say that he had actually allowed this? That he had truly let Lilith’s niece enroll in more than a single track? It was an absolute shock. Had something happened recently that caused his ideals to change? “How did you…?” Lilith began to ask, trailing off as she tried to find the words.
Thankfully, Edalyn still knew her so well, even after all these years apart. “Get Bumpikins to change his mind?” She filled in. After Lilith nodded in confirmation, Edalyn let out a snort. “ I didn’t. I just convinced him to start actin’ like the principal he’s supposed to be.”
Before Lilith had the chance to process what that might’ve meant, Edalyn was continuing. “Not that he made it easy. That was a whole ordeal on its own.” She shivered dramatically. “I had to do. So many chores. He made me clean up every single mess I’d left behind when I ran away, which, y’know, was fair, even if it was a pain in the behind to do. I’d do it ten times over for that kid.”
The sentiment behind that final statement was something that Lilith could appreciate. It was a willingness to do absolutely anything for your loved ones, no matter the cost. The resolve to go as far as necessary to keep them safe, even if it meant sacrifice. Being reminded of that was what had brought her here, after all.
Frustratingly, she wasn’t really able to remain focused on that for all that long. The majority of her thoughts were stuck worrying over the choice Principal Bump had apparently made.
It was so drastic and sudden of a shift in direction, to go from staying firm in upholding the law that magic types were not to be practiced in tandem outside of the Emperor’s Coven, only to suddenly whirl around and put one foot halfway over the line. But, most confusing of all was what Edalyn had implied. That Bump’s opinion on the matter actually hadn’t changed, only his actions.
Because that would mean that he had never truly been as against letting his students practice multiple magic types as he portrayed, but had still remained unwilling to risk drawing the ire of the empire by allowing it outright. Or, at least, he had been unwilling. Now, it would seem things were different.
Truthfully, it wasn’t even that she thought allowing a specialized system for training in mixed magic was an inherently bad idea - the amount of scouts that came under her command that did not understand a single thing about more than the magic type they pursued in their education was truly baffling.
To do so behind the back of the Empire, however… it would only incite their wrath. That could only end badly for him, if he did not have a complex and comprehensive plan to make this work in the eyes of the law.
It could be said that Lilith didn’t quite know the Hexside principal as well as she might have wished. It was exceptionally difficult to read him, made even more difficult by the fact that his true face was never visible, hidden behind his palismen. Perhaps that was how he concealed his true feelings so well from her.
But from the very little she truly understood about him, she knew that he cared for the students within his school a great deal. In fact, she would go so far as to say he thought of himself as a sort of guardian to the student body. They were under his protection - she could swear he’d said that to her, once.
So to risk his very position as their principal, it didn’t make sense. “I must admit, I don’t quite understand how he could be so willing to make that decision,” she hesitantly spoke aloud. "The amount of risk he’s placing himself under-”
“-Shouldn’t matter, as long as the Emperor’s Coven doesn’t find out before he has some kinda excuse,” Edalyn declared, cutting Lilith off. She was sending Lilith an assessing sort of look now, and after a moment, her expression hardened. “Unless you’re planning to tell them yourself?” she accused.
Lilith involuntarily sucked in a sharp, slightly hurt breath, startled to be faced by the sudden doubt. “No!” she quickly blurted out. “I-I will not share anything I’ve discovered tonight, I assure you.”
Despite her attempt at reassurance, as weak as it might’ve been, all that she saw flash across Edalyn’s eyes was even more uncertainty. It disappeared behind a blank expression just as quickly. “That so?” she prompted, her voice faux casual.
There it was. The limit to the belief that Edalyn had thus far managed to bestow upon Lilith. It felt as if a floor creaking ominously below had finally fallen out from underneath her. She recognized that blankness now gracing her sister’s face. Edalyn’s feelings were being tucked behind a mask.
That very same sort of mask she would wear in their youth, when she feared her emotions being seen. Either by someone who she cared deeply for, and did not want to burden, or… someone who she had decided was an adversary.
It occurred to Lilith, in that moment, just how deeply she had broken her sister’s trust. Edalyn truly believed, at least in some part, that Lilith would take all which she had learned throughout this visit, and report every single one of the secrets that had been kept for over a decade back to His Excellency. And it was entirely her own fault.
She was the one who caused this distance between them, intentional or not. She had stepped away from her family in the pursuit of a cure, and lost sight of the very reason she chased after one in the first place. Somewhere along the way, she had let herself become nothing more than a stranger.
The thing was, despite how little Edalyn thought of her at the moment, Lilith genuinely had no intentions of mentioning the fact that Bump was allowing his students to multi-track. Even disregarding her own opinions on such a program, if the Emperor was to find out about such a thing happening behind his back, he would call for a takeover of the school. It would quickly become just as much of a glorified training camp as Glandus now was.
Lilith may still align herself with the Empire, despite her growing uncertainty in the system as a whole, but even she knew what an absolute catastrophe that would be. That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that, if Lilith were to bring this information to the Emperor, her niece would be firmly in the crossfire.
She had sworn that she would never bring harm to her niece. But, clearly, Edalyn didn’t understand the gravity behind such a promise. Yet another failure of Lilith’s, of course. But this time, it was a failure she could correct.
Taking a soft breath, Lilith met her sister’s distrustful gaze, and began to speak. “I swear, through everlasting oath, that I will never bring harm to either of your children, nor will I report anything that I have learned or will learn about throughout the duration of this visit to the Emperor’s Coven.”
Her voice was firm, and as she spoke, she drew a pale blue spell circle in the air between her and her sister. Once the terms had been stated clear and concise, she thrust her hand through it, binding herself to the oath.
“The only reason anyone would discover that Principal Bump is allowing mixed tracks before he was ready for such a fact to be known, would be if the Coven Inspections discovered it - which I am unable to halt,” she elaborated. Then, the slightest of smiles twitched onto her lips. “Though, personally, I don’t believe the principal to be so unprepared that a simple inspection would be what ends up bringing his loyalty into question.”
Edalyn blinked down at the offered hand, her eyes wide in shock. It only lasted for a moment, before the sharpness of her features melted into awe. “You were serious,” she murmured in disbelief.
It seemed as though Edalyn was finally beginning to understand just how earnest this truly was. Lilith tilted her head slightly in a sideways nod. “Indeed.”
For one long, silent moment, Edalyn glanced up and met Lilith’s eyes, searching for something. Lilith did her best to push her sincerity and honesty into her gaze, praying that it was enough. Then, Edalyn looked back down at the hand. After a few seconds more, she reached out and clasped Lilith’s hand in her own, allowing it to be gently pulled through the spell circle.
“Then I swear that, so long as you uphold the oath, you will have a place in mine and my children’s lives,” Edalyn declared, and the spell circle flashed yellow as the new terms settled into the oath.
Lilith’s shoulders fell slightly. She hadn’t intended for her sister to add on her own stipulation, and certainly not to make a promise of something so significant. “You did not need to set terms, sister,” she gently murmured.
How could she be expected to uphold such a statement, when she would eventually discover the truth behind the origins of her curse? Perhaps the blow would be softened, if Lilith could secure the cure before that happened, but Edalyn would still be completely justified in never letting Lilith near her family again after learning who had been the one to bestow her with the Owl Beast.
The thought of her sister becoming an oathbreaker, being punished by her own magic over something so absolutely deserved, terrified her.
All that she received in return was an achingly familiar look of stubbornness. “I wanted to,” she asserted, determination burning in her eyes. “You want me to trust you, and, Ret, I want you to trust me.” As if she thought Lilith wouldn’t already lay down her life for her.
She was going to regret this somecycle, Lilith couldn’t help but think. Everyone always did. Still, it was enough to draw a small, fragile smile out of her. “Then the everlasting oath is sealed,” she recited.
They both withdrew their hands, separating from under the spell circle, which faded away. Around the wrist of the hand Edalyn used for the oath, another circle of light blue magic flashed into existence, mirroring the yellow one that appeared around Lilith’s.
After only a moment, the twin circles sank into their skin, disappearing beneath the flesh. She could feel as the promise etched itself into her soul, a binded pact that now made her wrist feel heavy. More than anything, it seemed that the binding of such a hefty oath was what finally broke through Edalyn’s last line of defensiveness.
Tension that Lilith hadn’t even noticed Edalyn was holding finally began to seep away from her shoulders as she slumped in what seemed to be relief. “It’s nice to have you back, sis,” she said. A tinier, but so very genuine smile worked its way onto her face. “Don’t leave me this time, yeah?”
Lilith couldn’t quite manage to bite down her flinch, and she had no doubt that Edalyn had seen it. “I… I promise you, I won’t make that mistake again,” she softly swore in earnest. “I had not realized… just how deeply I hurt you, with my actions. I refuse to do so again.”
Releasing a slow, shaky breath, the last traces of Edalyn’s suspicion faded away into nothing. “Good, that’s, uh, that’s good,” she managed, still sounding a bit shell-shocked by it all, but her faint grin was growing wider all the same. “How long’re you gonna be able to stick around before people start getting suspicious?”
“No more than another hour and a half, I’m afraid,” Lilith admitted, rather put-out by the fact. “Since I presume Hexside’s schedule hasn’t changed all that much within the last few decades, I’ll have to wait to meet my niece until I can find another chance to return. My alibi won’t be able to cover me for that long.”
At most, assuming Kikimora didn’t attempt to recall her early for whatever asinine reason she could find to justify feeding their evergoing feud, Lilith was to return to the Castle before Anoria disappeared below the horizon. She would be expected to give her report to the Emperor as soon as she arrived.
Interest sparked in Edalyn’s eyes. She learned forward, though was careful not to disturb her son, who remained completely asleep in her lap as she carded an absent hand through his fur. “What’d you tell ‘em you were up to?” she asked.
Lilith let out a quiet hum, her head tilting to the side slightly. “As far as the Coven is concerned, myself and Steve - one of the scouts I’m considering promoting to my personal squadron - went out to the farlands on the Left Hip in order to ascertain the legitimacy of rumors about a certain owl-related wild witch being present in the region,” she explained.
There had been a lot happening behind the scenes to set up such an alibi, not even counting all the preparatory work she’d put into her disguise. Just a cycle prior, a carefully crafted fake report had been submitted to the Police Precinct of Bonesborough, one that worked its way right up to Lilith’s desk.
It had been designed in such a way that would leave no suspicion as to why Lilith Clawthorne would want to personally investigate it - after all, everyone knew that she was one to pounce on anything even vaguely related to the infamous Owl Lady. However, those rumors were just vague enough to justify only bringing a single coven scout as backup.
“It was a complicated mission to set up without anyone looking too far into it,” she summed up, not wishing to bore Edalyn with the details. “In truth, I’m using this time to come visit you, while Steve is using it to visit his little brother, as he indirectly confided in me that they haven’t seen each other in quite some time.”
“Aww, breakin’ the rules?” her sister goaded, taking on something of an impish tone. “I’m so proud of you!”
Of course she was. Lilith knew that she was smiling, but she still rolled her eyes at Edalyn’s antics. Being teased by Edalyn without malice made something soften in her chest. “Thank you, my dear sister,” she said, playfully sarcastic. “Is this what you teach your children?”
“Dang right it is,” Edalyn declared, her grin widening even further. It was only in that moment where Lilith realized her sister had not uttered a single swear word since her son had appeared. Then, Edalyn added, “What fun is there in life without a little chaos?”
Oh dear Titan below. That had to be the most Edalyn-like statement to have ever been spoken aloud. Lilith lifted her cup, silently sipping away at her coffee for a moment while she marveled the woman her sister had grown to be. “It’s startling just how little you’ve changed, despite having changed so much.”
There was a younger version of Edalyn, one that she struggled to remember was three decades out of date, who had been full of smug grins, chaotic charm, and restless energy. Not to say that those aspects weren’t at least partially still present, as they had certainly yet to fade away like the fire-orange of Edalyn’s hair was beginning to.
But, now, they accompanied these new, domestic, motherly aspects that had since appeared in Edalyn’s personality. Lilith’s magnificent little sister had grown up. She just never stopped for a moment and took the time to actually notice, until now. It was a bittersweet sort of realization.
“Heh, yeah,” Edalyn murmured a little self-consciously, reaching up to scratch behind her neck. “Think I’m starting to realize that too.” She paused for a moment, raising her coffee mug to her lips and taking a long drink.
Once the cup was lowered, she suddenly asked, “What were you gonna ask before King walked in, anyhow?”
Lilith blinked, a bit taken off guard by the sudden shift in topic, before her earlier curiosities over the word Tía came flooding back. “Ah, right,” she said, “I was going to ask what language that word, ‘Tia,’ was from. I’m guessing it means something similar to Aunt, based on how you used it?”
“Ding ding, got that one right,” Edalyn responded, sending her a lazy smirk. “It’s Spanish. Language from the Human Realm that I learned.” Lilith found herself a bit surprised.
As far as she’d been aware, humans shared the usage of common with all of witchkind. It had never occurred to her that they might have other languages as well, because, well, the Demon Realm didn’t. Unless one counted the now heavily outdated Riitrán, of course. It seemed… inefficient, to not just use a singular, unified language.
“Taught it to my daughter when I started her on Common and… a few others,” Edalyn continued. Then, her grin flickered into something softer, that warmth returning once again. “Her name actually means ‘Light’ in that language,” she admitted. “I was in a pretty dark place at the time, and she’s my sunshine.”
“Oh,” Lilith breathed, several emotions welling in her chest. “That’s rather sweet.” She hadn’t a clue what could’ve happened in Edalyn’s life around that point - Geneva had disappeared far before that, hadn’t she? - but she was so glad to know that her niece had been there for Edalyn, when Lilith had not.
That photo in the hallway she had looked at in passing, the one that showed her niece toddling towards a happy, yet so very tired Edalyn, suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
“Yeah, Cami would’a loved it,” Edalyn said, a grin flashing across her face, though it was tinged with another emotion, one so complex and intense that Lilith couldn’t quite pin it down. “Spanish was her native tongue, since, apparently, humans have, like, a million different languages or something. They’re all spread out across their planet, instead of focused on just a couple of landmases like we are.”
Completely side-stepping those rather mind blowing facts about the Human Realm for the time being, Lilith instead focused on the fact that the person Edalyn had spoken of, Cami, was apparently a human. “This ‘Cami,’ is she the lifebound you previously mentioned?” she asked, just to clarify.
Something was deeply wrong, Lilith abruptly began to realize. The look in Edalyn’s eyes could almost be called shattered, so much worse than the broken expression she’d had when discussing Geneva. Her lips had twitched up into another smile, but this one was so saddened that it physically hurt to look at, and Lilith’s heart sank.
“Yeah,” Edalyn uttered gently, her voice terrifyingly hollow as her shoulders slumped. She looked down at her coffee, swirling it absently. “She was.”
It was grief. The emotion that had wormed its way into Edalyn’s expression as soon as she spoke of Cami was grief. It was so much deeper and so much more visceral than that which had appeared during the conversation about Geneva, enough that Lilith hadn’t fully recognized it until it was screaming at her.
“Oh,” came the soft sound of realization, slipping out from her lips as her stomach twisted in knots. The air was stolen away from her lungs. This time, the deliberate usage of past-tense was not lost on her. She carefully set her coffee cup down, lest it accidentally slip from her fingers and shatter upon the ground.
In an instant, it all made too much sense. It had seemed strange that there had been no hide nor hair of the previously mentioned lifebound, beyond the glances of history she’d seen lining the hallway. Some part of her mind had simply assumed she was just off somewhere else, perhaps working some kind of job in the human realm. It had never even occurred to her that the truth could be so heartbreaking.
Because, not only had Edalyn lost her partner in Whispers, her sister in Lilith, and her apparent mentor-slash-mother-figure in Geneva. But, somewhere along the way, she had lost her lifebound. Lilith’s sister had been made a widow.
Lilith did not have very many who were close enough to her to be considered a friend. In fact, she wasn’t entirely sure if there were any at all - perhaps Steve, if she were to be generous in her description of their developing relationship, but whatever friendship might be blooming between was still well within its infancy. She hadn’t even yet convinced him to stop calling her ma’am the few times that they had spoken casually now.
She had never felt a need to search for any true friends, content enough with the working acquaintanceships that she shared between most beneath her command. To become attached was to willingly allow yourself a weakness, and Lilith was nothing if not careful to hide any factors about herself that an enemy could exploit.
It wasn’t until something seemed to click during a very recent conversation with Steve that she began to consider if such a sacrifice was worthwhile enough to risk, like it was with Edalyn.
All of this was to say that, despite her many years spent in service to His Excellency, Lilith had never experienced a loss on such a personal level. She was too young to really remember her grandparents before they passed, she had yet to lose a member of her family, and she had no remaining friends to mourn. It was hard to comprehend that her sister had gone through two of such losses now.
There was only a singular person in Lilith’s life who remained important enough for their loss to dearly harm, and that would be Edalyn. Or, well, not just Edalyn. Her delightful little children, whose lives Lilith was apparently allowed to be involved in, too.
Imagining a scenario where she lost Edalyn was enough to form a pit in her chest, and that didn’t even speak to the downright nauseating feeling she was overcome with from even thinking of a world where one of the children was taken away. To experience that sort of pain more than once… Lilith knew she could not survive it. She wasn’t quite sure how Edalyn had.
But, then, she glanced down at the little furry demon, nestled comfortably in her sister’s lap as he snored away. She thought about the child she had yet to meet yet, the light that Edalyn had needed to see through the darkness. Perhaps she did know how.
If only Lilith had stopped for a moment and looked at what she was doing to her sister. Maybe then, she could’ve helped Edalyn through the darkness, too. “I. I’m sorry,” Lilith began haltingly. “I’m so sorry that I was not there for you.”
Something flickered across Edalyn’s expression. She still looked as though the grief and pain was weighing her down, but despite that, she managed a shaky little smile. “I’m just glad you’re here now, Lils,” she said. “It… it means something. I’ll keep sayin’ it ‘till you get it through your head.”
It still very much felt like it was far from enough. But Edalyn was stubborn, and if she refused to hold such willful negligence against Lilith, then it would be best to refrain from arguing.
Instead, she found herself swallowing. “How, uhm. How long ago did she…?” she began hesitantly, only to trail off at the end. She didn’t quite want to say the words aloud, but she desperately wanted to know. How long had she abandoned her sister to grieve alone?
“Just a little over ten years ago, now,” Edalyn sighed out in answer, looking up towards the ceiling. “Anniversary just came and went.” As she spoke, she reached up with one hand and absently began to fiddle with the gilded locket strung around her neck.
Lilith peered at it, curious. She had noticed her sister wearing it in the doorway, but she hadn’t taken the time to actually examine it. It was etched with an intricate design, one of what appeared to be a phoenix rising away from curling fire. There was a word etched along the bottom, but it was too small for her to see. At the center of the phoenix was an embedded, uncolored gem.
Then, her sister’s words actually processed, and Lilith felt herself pause. Ten years ago? With the anniversary having only just recently passed? But, Luz had only just turned ten, according to Edalyn. That would mean… oh.
Suddenly, everything she had observed throughout her visit clicked together, like a puzzle she had abruptly discovered the answer to. There were no pictures or paintings of the children alongside Edalyn’s lifebound, this “Cami.” Like they had never even had the chance to meet.
Edalyn had been in a dark period of her life when Luz was born, one so prolific that it influenced the name she’d chosen for her daughter. That had stuck with Lilith, the moment her sister had mentioned it, but she hadn’t quite caught onto the implications that held until now. Because, if she understood what her sister was saying, her lifebound had not made it through the birth.
Still, she took a careful breath, and clarified, “On Luz’s birthcycle?” She wanted to be sure she wasn’t misunderstanding.
“Yeah.” Edalyn huffed a quiet, soft, humorless laugh, suddenly sounding so very tired. “She just… didn’t make it through. ‘Complications’ or somethin’ like that. I dunno. I wasn’t really listenin’ to ‘em at that point.”
Her eyes fell shut, and she offered a somber shrug. “Getting to celebrate Luz’s birthcycle helps make the grief that flares up around this time of year a little less intense, y’know? I can just focus on making my kids happy. Take ‘em on nice trips, get ‘em all the gifts they want. Keeps my mind off everything else.”
For a moment, she fell silent, lifting her cup to her lips and taking a long drink of her coffee. It didn’t feel like that was all she wanted to say, so Lilith remained silent. When the cup lowered, Edalyn spoke again. “Still hurts like a visit to Retmina, though,” she admitted, her voice quiet enough that it broke.
It had been a great many years since Lilith had heard her sister’s voice crack like that. It wrenched at her heart. She reached across the table, extending her hand in offering. “I won’t let you suffer alone again, sister,” she promised. “I have made that mistake far too many times already, and I will not repeat it any longer.”
Finally, finally, a smile worked its way back onto Edalyn’s face. It was light, and still dimmed by grief, but it was genuine. She reached out and took Lilith’s hand. “I’ll hold you to that, yeah?” she said, tears swimming in her eyes. “Thanks. For comin’ back.”
But Lilith could only shake her head, dismissing the unwarranted gratitude. Her own eyes began to water as she returned her sister’s smile. “I should’ve never left in the first place,” she murmured. “I truly don’t know why I did.”
It seems so idiotic, now that she was looking back with hindsight. How had she deluded herself so thoroughly into believing that there was no sacrifice too great, when one of those sacrifices ended up being the bond between her and her sister? How could she have ever believed such a tradeoff was worthwhile, when it only served to harm Edalyn further?
She hadn’t a clue. It was so very frustrating of a realization. Yet, for some reason she still struggled to fathom, her sister was giving her a second chance to make this all right. Maybe, just maybe, she can start to make up for all the lost time.
“Will you… tell me about her?” Lilith tentatively asked, curious to learn more about the human that Edalyn had apparently loved deeply enough to settle down with. “Perhaps offering a few stories would make you feel better.”
For one long, drawn out moment, Edalyn fell silent, staring at nothing in particular. She wouldn’t meet Lilith’s eyes. It lasted so long that Lilith’s heart began to fall, believing she had somehow overstepped these new boundaries she was trying to learn, and that her sister was going to deny the request.
But, eventually, Edalyn sniffled, a stray tear trailing down her cheek. She reached up to brush the water away. “Okay,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I. I can do that.” Taking a deep breath, she visibly began to collect herself.
Her eyes fell shut, and with the same hand, she clutched the locket that was strung around her neck. She rubbed a thumb over the engraving of the phoenix, pressing it against the gemstone, as she offered Lilith a soft, trembling smile. “Y’know what, I got the perfect story in mind,” she said. “Let me tell you ‘bout the cycle we first met.”
Notes:
This is my longest chapter by far. It takes up fifty whole pages in my google doc, a twenty thousand word behemoth. Sorry to all of my fellow ADHD readers, but I just had so much I needed to write down that I couldn't help but go a little overboard. I am significantly more proud of this chapter after having rewritten it - Chapters Six and Seven are now some of my personal favorites so far.
The depiction of the first floor shown just above was created using Dungeon Alchemist, an idea which I got from one of this project's inspirations, Titan's Blessing by MarztheIncredible and urbanbirdbud. Mapping out vague interior spaces helps significantly with figuring out how to describe them with words in a way that the reader will be able to visualize mentally.
Chapter Word Count: 20,309
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-05-15
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-05-13
Chapter 8: Our Futures, We Shall Forge
Summary:
On the first cycle of the new month, the time had finally come. Armed with an incredible plan and a seed infused with magic, Luz made her way to her first cycle of school, ready to embark on her epic journey to help her friend Willow show just how good she is at plant magic! Before she could actually do that, though, she had to get her class schedule, and have her uniform made super colorful!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Luz had heard of the term “stage-fright” before. She remembered it being mentioned at some point during a conversation about Mx. Whispers, while she and her mom were listening to their newest album on the vein-yl player.
Mamá had been friends with them when they were both in school, and she said that it had started all the way back then. Something about a school play? It had left Mx. Whispers absolutely terrified of performing, or even giving public speeches at all. That was why they never did live shows in front of big crowds, Mamá had said. Which was a little upsetting. Luz would’ve loved to go to one of their shows, their music was amazing.
Now, Luz didn’t think she was having stage-fright at the moment, but it was reeeally close! In the cycles leading up to her entrance exam, she’d been so excited and confident. Even when she was walking to the Paranormatorium with Mamá, she’d been so energetic that she was skipping!
But, as soon as she finally got behind the curtain, she suddenly felt super nervous! It had slammed into her from out of nowhere, and left her feeling a little terrified as doubts started to float around in her mind. It was making her chest feel kind of funny, too, like it was light but also constricted at the same time, and she really didn’t know why.
She knew that she would do fine. She’d even practiced the exam multiple times over the last few cycles, just to make sure she could manage it! But, all of a sudden, it was like none of that mattered.
Because what if she wasn’t good enough to pass the exam, even after everything she practiced, and Mr. Bump had to deny her entry to the school? She didn’t think he was mean, he’d been super-duper nice when she met him last week, but sometimes, people did things that they didn’t want to because their job made them do it.
Like how her Tía Lily always tried to arrest Mamá, because she was a cop and Mamá was a criminal! Which was dumb, because her mom was mostly only a criminal for not joining a coven, but that was beside the point!
She chewed on her lip, wincing when she accidentally poked herself with one of her fangs. She was getting worried over nothing! Willow had said that most students who couldn’t cast magic got put into the magic theory classes during the tour last week. So, if Luz failed, she would probably just get put there, not denied access to the school!
But she wasn’t going to fail, because she practiced for this so many times. She could do this! She could! Unfortunately, her assurances didn’t make the funny feeling in her chest go away like she wanted it to.
Maybe her worries hadn’t been as internal as she thought they were, because Mamá, who was standing right beside Luz in the backstage area with a King settled comfortably in her arms, leaned over.
She gave Luz an encouraging smile. “It’s just one easy test, and then you’ll get to come back in a few cycles and actually attend,” she said, sounding way more confident than Luz felt at the moment. “You got this, kid. Show ‘em what you can do!”
With her free hand, she gave a very gentle shove to Luz’s back, encouraging her towards the center of the stage. Blinking up at her mom, Luz managed a shaky grin. “O-Okay!” she squeaked out, the end of the word falling into a nervous trill.
Mamá just gave a little trilling sound back, sort of like a bird laughing, and it made that uncomfortable feeling in her chest ease a tiny bit. Mamá sounds always helped make her feel steadier!
Taking a breath, Luz walked out towards the middle of the stage, where a little marking was left for her to stand on, trying to force herself into feeling confident again. The Paranormatorium had been completely empty when she first arrived, but there was space for a whole bunch of people, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of everyone!
Right when she reached the middle of the stage, the blue curtain blocking off the rest of the room began to draw open. A really bright spotlight suddenly flashed on, and centered on her. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light. “Ooh, fancy,” she said.
As the room finally came into view, she felt her nerves slipping away. Principal Bump was the only person in the whole entire seating area! It made her feel so much better, knowing he was the only one watching. “Hello!” she greeted, lifting her hand to wave at him.
The principal gave her another one of those little almost-smiles. “Hello again, young one,” he offered in return. He looked down at the clipboard in his hands, lifting his stylus in preparation. “For the record, please state your name and any other relevant information.”
“Yes sir!” Luz chirped out happily, sufficiently distracted from her worries about the exam. She loved sharing things about herself! She just never really got the chance to do it. Most of the people she interacted with already knew a lot about her and her family, and she had only just made her first friends.
There were very few people she had ever gotten to talk about herself with - well, unless she counted the Human Realm, but that wasn’t the same since only a few of the humans there knew she was a witch. Her penstagram mutuals also didn’t count, since they didn’t even know her name.
Up until a few cycles ago, Prim and Alliston had been the only witches Luz ever got to talk to. Technically, Mx. Styx was also on that list? But they had already known who Luz was from as early as she could remember, so they kind of already knew everything about her and her family. But that was all changing now, though!
“Uhm, my full name is Luz Noceda Clawthorne, I go by female pronouns, I’m half-human, and I have a little brother!” She quickly listed out, gaining confidence as she spoke. She puffed her chest up while she explained, her hands curled into fists and settled against her hips in a pose she’d definitely seen Mamá do before. It made her feel extra confident!
Mr. Bump had been writing all of that down as she explained it, looking a little amused, but he’d paused when she mentioned her brother. He glanced up at her with a raised eyebrow. “Is that last one important?” he asked.
She gave a casual shrug. “It is if he sneaks in through my backpack.” She didn’t doubt he would try, but she wasn’t actually sure if their mom would let that happen or not? Mamá was really protective of King!
But, then again, she might let him sneak along if he promised to cause a bunch of chaos in her name, and if Luz promised to watch out for him. He’d be super safe, Luz would never let anything happen to her little brother, so, who knew, maybe it would happen somecycle.
At Luz’s answer, Mamá let out a loud snort from the backstage area she’d been watching from. Her brother, still held comfortably in their mom’s arms, let out a plea of maniacal giggles that had Luz grinning. Even more of the fear that had been making her chest feel funny was gone now, and she was starting to feel way better!
Principal Bump’s eyes - or, his Imp’s eyes? She wasn’t entirely clear on what was happening with that - darted over towards the backstage area, narrowing into something that looked kind of accusatory. He couldn’t see Mamá and King, though, since they were hiding behind the curtain.
After a moment, he shook his head. “Moving on,” he said, his attention shifting back to Luz. “To be admitted into Hexside’s main curriculum, you will need to demonstrate that you can cast at least two different spells, and cast six consecutive spells in a row. Do you believe you are capable of this?”
Some of that fear came back again, but it wasn’t as bad as before. She was still a tiny bit afraid she would pass out while trying to cast so many spells, but she knew she could do it! She’d managed to do a whole ten spells in a row when she was practicing last cycle, before she had to stop.
Well, okay, maybe she needed to be carried back into the house by her mom after she almost fainted. But that was beside the point!
She bounced in place as her excitement grew, amping herself up. “Yes!” she answered. She could do this! She was gonna show him how awesome she was at doing magic, and then she’d get to learn alongside her amazing friends!
With a smile at her enthusiasm, Mr. Bump gestured towards her. “Then, if you would please,” he instructed. He lifted his clipboard up a tiny bit in anticipation and set the stylus’ tip towards the top.
All she had to do was cast at least six spells total, since the first two that showed she could do different spells would count towards the six she had to do in a row. “I got this,” she whispered to herself in reassurance, “I can do this.” Then, she took an extra deep breath, and began moving.
She drew a spell circle, one that shimmered yellow just like Mamá’s magic, which flashed almost-white before it collapsed in a small ball of light. Just to show off how awesome her light magic skills were, she willed the little ball to fly towards Mr. Bump, swirling around his head before it came back to the stage.
Drawing another spell circle, she felt a tug on her bile sac as it flashed light blue and two spikes of ice formed on either side of her. She threw her right hand up as she willed them to grow taller. She might have underestimated how much strength she put into the motion, though, because both ice spikes shot straight up and crashed into the ceiling with the sound of cracking wood.
A couple chunks of wood debris fell from above, landing around her on the stage. From off to the side, she heard Mamá let out an amused snort. “Oops,” she chirped out.
The principal eyed the ice spikes that were now impaled into the ceiling - and kind of breaking through the stage floor, now that she thought about it - with a thoughtful expression. Which was a pretty good sign, Luz thought! That was better than being upset about the accidental damage!
“Impressive control, if rather excessive,” he commented, and Luz nodded along, because that was true. But she really didn’t know she could make them that tall, honest! “That’s your first requirement completed.”
Luz was already feeling a little bit overexerted from her first display, but she wasn’t gonna just give up yet! She really wanted to show off by continuing to do unique spells, and now that most of her worry about not being good enough was gone, she felt like she could.
She offered a shaky smile, then took another really deep breath, getting ready. She just had to do four more spells. That was easy enough! The ones she wanted to do came to her mind after only a moment of thought.
In short succession, she drew four more shimmering spell circles, each one casting as she started the next. The first one flashed green before it collapsed, and across the stage, numerous vines began to grow, with little vibrant flowers peppered across them. The second spell circle thinned and shot outwards, arcing brilliantly into a yellow lightning bolt that struck an empty chair.
The third one flashed an orangish red as it collapsed into a ball, igniting to reveal it was actually a fireball. The projectile flung itself somewhere above her, though Luz didn’t really notice where it went, since she was so focused on casting. The fourth spell circle faded away as soon as it formed, and a nearby crate on the stage exploded into a bunch of frogs, which began hopping around the room.
When she was done casting, she bent over a little bit, bracing herself on her knees as she panted from exertion. It was only then that she noticed the amount of damage she’d accidentally caused.
Her vines had grown through the planks on the stage, one of the seats in the crowd had been partially melted, and there was debris scattered around the area. She also smelled smoke, but she was a little too disoriented to know why. It made her a little nervous. She hadn’t meant to break anything! She was just trying to show how good she was by casting as many cool spells as she could.
From the backstage area nearby, where her mom was looking really proud of her, Luz heard her little brother let out a cheer. “Whoo! Destruction!!” Oh Titan, he was so adorable!
Despite the teeny tiny bit of chaos she caused, Mr. Bump didn’t look all that upset or bothered. He simply picked a stray frog off of his shoulder and tossed it to the side. Then, he looked up at the banister, which caused her to glance up too. She blinked as she noticed that her fireball must’ve hit it, because it was actually on fire. That would explain the smoke. With a small purple spell circle, the principal doused the fire with conjured water.
“Very impressive,” he said, and Luz preened in spite of her exhaustion. He stroked his chin, another one of those tiny smiles on his face. “Most witchlets don’t master some of those spells until they’re about thirteen. You somehow managed to not cause as much property damage as your mother did during her entry exam, which is better than I was expecting.”
Oh yeah. Mamá had told Luz about her own entry exam, trying to make her a little less nervous. Apparently, her mom accidentally destroyed the entire stage, and brought the roof down! Compared to that, Luz hadn’t nearly been that destructive. So, she thought she probably wasn’t going to be in trouble.
Still, though, she wanted to make sure she hadn’t actually messed up. “That’s… good, right?” she asked, short of breath. She might’ve done less damage, but she still broke the stage and set the banister on fire.
“Yes,” Bump answered, a little slowly. He gave her a funny look, too, like he thought it should’ve been obvious. “It is.” He glanced down to scribble one last thing on his clipboard, before looking back up and offering her yet another small smile. Her own mouth twitched into a shaky grin in return, because a smile was good! “Welcome, Luz Clawthorne, to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics.”
It took a moment for her sluggish mind to connect the dots, slowly realizing that an introduction like that meant she actually passed the exam, and made it into the normal classes.
She lifted a fist in triumph, wobbling a little on her feet. “Hooray…!” she cheered. She was feeling a little light-headed. Was the room supposed to be spinning that much? She didn’t think so. Rooms weren’t normally supposed to spin like that
Those spells must’ve taken a lot out of her. Probably because she tried to cast them all extra well, so that Mr. Bump saw how good she could be at magic!
The principal must’ve noticed how dizzy she suddenly felt, because he stood up, sending her a concerned look as he set his clipboard down. “Now, please drink some water and sit down for a moment,” he requested, frowning slightly. “I would prefer you to not faint.”
Luz nodded along, still riding on the euphoria of actually passing the exam. Her mom - who had come to her side at some point, when had that happened? - helped her lower down to the ground as Mr. Bump drew a spell circle and summoned a goblet of water.
As soon as she was sitting, her little brother clambered up onto her lap, his tail wagging in excitement from watching his big sister do so much cool magic. He started to babble about how awesome her, as he loved to call them, “pretty circle lights” had been. She just gave him an exhausted smile, scratching the back of his neck and making him release a loud purr, which had her purring too.
She accepted the goblet from the principal and took a long drink of water. Despite how wobbly and exhausted she felt from casting so many spells, she was so, so happy. She had passed her exam!
That meant she was now officially a hexside student, like her friends, and she was going to be able to attend all the classes because her mom was awesome and convinced Principal Bump to let her! She couldn’t wait for the first of Slaypril to come around!
Once she managed to get her breath back and stopped shaking so badly, she was going to practice spells even harder. That would show Mamá there really wasn’t anything to be worried about, and everything would go super-duper well when she started attending school!
With a groan, Eda dropped down onto the couch beside her daughter, gently nursing the cup of coffee she’d just finished making to soothe the morning aches away. That particular job had once belonged to her apple blood, many years ago, but she’d weaned herself off that particular addiction when her drinking habits got significantly worse after Cami’s death.
There was a bottle of the stuff tucked in the back of her pantree. The same brand they always used to share together. She knew exactly where it was, because she’d put it there after she shelved the habit. It hadn’t been opened in about nine years or so.
It’ll be another nine before she ever considers having a drink again. Couldn’t raise her kids if she was stumbling around half-drunk all the time.
Almost immediately as Eda sat down, Luz leaned comfortably against her side, continuing to sort through the school bag that was settled on her lap without pause. On the ground in front of them, Eda’s son was chasing his own tail in circles, with the occasional, “Weh!” whenever he drew close to biting it. She smiled into her cup, basking in the beautifully domestic moment.
Honestly, it had been so long since Eda actually attended school herself, she didn’t quite remember everything her daughter would need to bring along with her. That had led them to spend roughly half an hour going through a lot of what they had in the house, searching for anything that might end up being important.
They’d eventually packed several parchment scrolls, a few empty tomes for notes, a couple of the curriculum textbooks Eda happened to still have, a binder to carry homework assignments and important paperwork, numerous lead and ink styluses, and a couple other small trinkets.
Most of it was going to be stored inside whatever locker Luz was assigned, and there were still several more textbooks she’d need to request a copy of once they became relevant, but for now, it was good enough.
Eda had packed a few things into her own satchel as well, one of the enchanted ones that she would normally use whenever she was delivering potions under her fake identity. Inside was the last of the paperwork she needed to turn in for Luz’s enrollment - a few documents Riveness had to sign off on, and an application to be permitted as a chaperon on field trips that she’d argued with herself for cycles over filling out - and an extra batch of elixir to be put in the school’s cold storage for emergencies.
Somewhere in the midst of it all, Eda had actually stopped long enough to take a picture of her daughter in her blank uniform, as was tradition. When her kid came home, she’d take another picture with her track colors, and both pictures would absolutely be hung beside each other on the wall behind the couch.
She had absolutely no clue what Bump was gonna do for the track colors. But, in spite of her continued hesitance about sending her daughter to school, she was so damn excited to get that second picture.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t struggling, though. In fact, there was a whole lot of fear she was trying to shove down. It was like a nervous energy bubbling in her chest, one that had her tapping her nails against the edge of her cup idly as she frowned at nothing. She was self-aware enough to know that her own trauma was still coloring her view of the education system, and she hated that fact.
By the end of her time at Hexside, she’d fallen from the grace of being a chaos god, and instead became nothing more than a volatile potion one small nudge of the pot away from blowing up. The scorn she’d been shown left a mark. She still hadn’t managed to taper down the worry that the same thing would happen to Luz.
The Owl Beast wasn’t fairing much better, roiling in frustration at the back of Eda’s mind. Partially, that was fueled by Eda’s whole issue, but Ol’ Beasty also just hated it whenever she was faced with an obstacle she couldn’t take care of by sinking her claws into it. You know, like emotions. Blegh.
But, Ret, Eda hadn’t gotten this far by letting all the fears she felt control her. She liked to think she was better than that. Being enrolled in Hexside was what her daughter wanted, so Eda would make it happen, even if the thought still made her feel a bit off-centered.
With a small sigh, she shook her head, shoving away those thoughts as she took a long drag of her coffee. All that left her with was disbelief. Titan, her daughter was going to school.
Things really had changed, hadn’t they? Her precious baby girl was starting to grow up. Soon enough, she’d be the reigning King of Hexside, making friends left and right as she learned more and more magic every cycle. There were a whole lot of complicated feelings swirling around in her heart, but, honestly, she just felt proud.
She was so unbelievably proud of her kid. Because Eda hadn’t been shy about her time in school. She had told Luz pretty much everything. But here her daughter was, keeping an open mind, still willing to try even after knowing how wrong it had done her mother.
That, more than anything, told Eda her baby would be fine. Luz wasn’t going into this blind. She knew what could happen, which meant she would be more likely to avoid the troubles that had plagued Eda’s time there. And even if she didn’t, well, Luz always had her mother to fall back on. Eda felt the beast calm down a little bit at that final assertion, settling with the equivalent of a mental huff.
Taking another long sip of her coffee, she leaned her head back a little bit, looking over her daughter’s shoulder and into the bag. She could make out the shape of the leather-bound tomes and textbooks fairly easily, spotting the binder just a second later. She knew all the writing utensils were in the front pouch, and that the runes she’d sown into the bottom of the bag would keep it from being opened by anyone else.
Yet, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t enough. That she was missing something. “You sure we got everything, babes?” she asked, frowning in thought. “I know I can be a bit forgetful sometimes.”
Luz shifted her head so that she could look up at her mother, smiling so bright that she was living up to her namesake. “Sí, Mamá, (Yes, Mama,)” she answered, sounding far more confident than Eda felt. Then, like the little sweetheart she was, she tried to reassure her slightly-distressed mother. “I’ll be okay! You don’t gotta worry!”
It should be completely illegal for her kids to be so good to her. Absolutely unfair, how amazing of a daughter she had. Cami was way too big of an influence on the little gremlin, which was shocking, considering neither of them have ever met.
“Yeah, I know,” Eda admitted, because she did. She might be struggling to accept it, but she knew everything would be alright. “I ain’t ever gonna stop worryin’ about you, though.” She leaned forward a little bit, planting a soft kiss on her daughter’s forehead, eliciting an adorable little giggle. “My little light’s just growing up so fast, I’m not sure I can keep up.”
Her daughter twisted to the side, wrapping her arms around Eda’s midsection with a little grin gracing her expression. “‘Course you can!” she protested, not even skipping a beat. “You’re th’most powerful witch on the Isles!”
Eda couldn’t help it - a laugh burst out from her chest, snorts interlaced between her chuckles. Her kid was just too precious. “Little flatterer,” she huffed fondly, and grinned even wider when Luz preened at the praise.
Taking another drag of her coffee, Eda’s eyes shifted back to the back, specifically towards one of the side pockets. “Remind me again why you’re sneaking one of our enchanted seeds into the school?” she asked.
She’d watched the girl wrap one carefully in a soft cloth and slip it into that pocket a minute ago for some reason. Eda’s smile turned teasing as a thought came to her. “I know you’re the daughter of Lord Calamity and all that, but I at least thought you’d wait until the second or third cycle to create some chaos.”
Luz’s whole expression lit up in excitement. “I’m gonna help my friend Willow!” she declared, bouncing in place slightly.
It only took a moment for Eda to connect the name to the face. “That’s Flowers, right?” she asked in clarification, receiving a nod and another little giggle from Luz over the nickname. Eda hummed. “She seemed nice, when you brought her and Goops over to the stall.”
Despite how much fun those kids had with Luz that cycle, they had both been a little skittish and nervous around Eda. Apparently, at some point over the few cycles between the twenty-seventh and the thirtieth, the two of them had actually made the connection and realized their friend’s mom was the infamous Owl Lady.
But Eda had kept that promise she made to Luz, and did her best to not seem threatening. It was easy enough - she’d never hurt a kid, no matter what lies the Emperor tried to spread about her culture. They’d kept their distance, at first, and didn’t really interact with her all that much without Luz as a proxy, but Eda liked to think it only took them around thirty minutes to realize that Eda was nothing like the stories.
The fact that she was so clearly a mother had probably helped soften the blow, at least a little bit. King had tired himself out only a few minutes after the two arrived, and wanted to be held while he napped. Which meant that Eda spent the entire time subtly checking on the kids in the back of her tent with an armful of four-year-old demon.
By the end of their whole hangout session, the two of them seemed like they weren’t really afraid of her anymore. Just sort of unsure and weary, which wasn’t great, exactly, but still better than nothing.
She might’ve earned some of Goops’ favor at the very end, though. As they were getting ready to head off, she’d asked him if his dad happened to be Perry Porter. When he said yes - she knew it! - she told him to let ol’ Porter know that his Hexside pal Lord Calamity wanted to have a chat with him sometime.
Apparently, the kid had heard stories about her from his father, which was not something she had been expecting. Perry was a great friend, don’t get her wrong, but, well. She was a wild witch and a criminal now. Still, Goops’ eyes had blown wide in excitement as he promised that he would. So she was pretty sure that had earned some points with the kid.
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed happily in reply. “The nicest! She’s in the Abomination Track, ‘cause her dads wanted her to take that one even though she doesn’t, but she’s super- duper good at plant magic, so I’m gonna help her switch tracks!”
See, she had sort of guessed that. At least, partially. The kid hadn’t been in her Hexside uniform, so Eda didn’t actually realize Flowers was in the abominations track, but she knew Luz’s new friend had a knack for plant magic. Eda just figured she was some kind of prodigy plant mage, with how quick she’d grown those flowers to give to Luz and Goops. That was the reason Eda had picked the nickname Flowers, after all.
Vaguely, Eda could remember Flowers mentioning something like what Luz was saying, now that she was thinking about it. How the kid hoped their “plan” worked out. But it was said somewhere around the time when Luz was rambling about wanting to take literally every class, so she hadn’t thought to focus on it.
Both Flowers and Goops had looked a bit startled by the prospect, but they didn’t seem all that distressed over it. Not surprised, either, but that could be chalked up to the fact that their friend’s mom was literally the Owl Lady.
No, they just seemed thoughtful. Especially when Luz pointed out that the Emperor’s Coven got to use all the families of magic, so why couldn’t she? Eda was so proud of her, encouraging her friends to question authority like that.
She wasn’t even all that surprised by Luz’s answer. She just shook her head fondly, running a hand through Luz’s hair in a preening motion that both of them loved. Bird instincts, she was pretty sure. “Just can’t stop yourself from helping others out, huh?”
Even while she was melting into the preening motion, Luz gave an unashamed grin. “Nope!” she declared, sounding so very proud of herself for that fact. Eda couldn’t help but snort at the little ankle-biter, laying her head on the crown of her daughter’s for a moment.
She felt an almost overwhelming surge of adoration hit her, both her own and the Owl Beast’s mixing together. “Titan, te amo mucho, (I love you so much,)” she said, her voice soft. A musical trill escaped from her throat, only half-courtesy of her bodily roomate. “You’ve got a little heart’a gold, just like your Mami. She’d be so, so proud of you, if she were here right now.”
The amount of misadventures Eda had been dragged into with that woman was absurd, and usually, all of them spawned from Camila’s inherent need to help others. If she hadn’t gone into the veterinary field, Cami would’ve probably been a healer, just so she could do more for people who needed help.
Eda tried her best to ignore the familiar sting that comes along with thinking about all the time she’s missed with her lifebound. How much she wished her lifebound was here, getting to see the wonderful little girl their daughter was.
It helped when Luz snuggled her way further into Eda’s side, drawing her out from the swirling thoughts in her head. “Gracias, Mamá, (Thank you, Mama,)” Luz said, equally as soft. “Yo también te amo. (I love you too.)”
They stayed like that for a few moments, sitting on the couch, with Eda’s head resting on her daughter’s, and Luz snuggled into her side. There was a purr rumbling in Eda’s chest, but she wasn’t clear if it was coming from her or the Owl Beast. It might be both of them.
It felt a bit like they were in sync, in a weird way she still wasn’t used to, even after several years of the two not at each other’s throats. She didn’t really care all that much either way, though. Not when Luz was purring back, the sound hitching adorably every here and there.
As for King, well. He’d evolved from chasing his tail, at least. At some point, he’d scampered over to the mainroom’s toy chest, grabbed a little toy phasmarat that crinkled when you touched it, and started roughousing with it. He would bite into it, his head shaking back and forth viciously like he was killing it. Then he’d toss it a little ways away from himself, only to pounce on it again with another little “Weh!”
Considering she’d watched him kill and eat a real phasmarat before with that same tactic - which was a completely healthy and normal thing for four-year-old demon toddlers to do, according to the fifty or so demon parenting books she’d checked out from the library after Luz claimed him Kin - he was doing a good job of beating the toy one up. He was such a cute little predator.
Eventually, Luz shifted a little bit, probably a little too energetic to stay still for much longer, and Eda decided now was as good a time as any to start moving. With one last long drink to drain her mug, Eda set her coffee cup on the table in front of the couch, then lifted herself up.
Once she was on her feet, she brought her hands above her head stretching with a groan as her limbs popped a couple times. “Now, you ready to head off?” she asked her daughter. King was a bit too occupied reigning supreme over his toy phasmarat to hear. “We should get goin’ if we wanna be there on time.”
That excitement Luz had been showing earlier came crashing back in full force. She quickly zipped the backpack shut, checking over it for just a moment, before jumping to her feet and swinging it over her shoulder. “¡Sí! Estoy tan listo! (Yes! I'm so ready!)” she exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
With a grin on her lips, Eda patted her daughter on the head, laughing at the way the girl nuzzled into the hand like a baby kitten. “Entonces, ¿por qué esperar? (Then why wait?)” she asked rhetorically. She rolled her shoulders one more time, just to make sure they were loose enough to be comfortable, then turned to her son and called, “C’mon King, we’re headin’ out now.”
King paused when he heard his name, his head snapping up with those vibrant little scarlet eyes looking up at her. Then, he quickly scampered into motion.
He sprinted on all fours straight towards her, leaping as soon as he was in range. Latching on with his claws, he began climbing his way up her pant leg. Despite acting like a little retmaid with a case of the zoomies, he only nicked her slightly on her thigh this time. Usually, he got her a lot worse than that, and she had a few scars to prove it. Not that she ever really minded.
In no time at all, he’d made it all the way up to her shoulder, where he perched himself happily, nuzzling his bony snout into Eda’s cheek. “We will take th’ school over ‘n make it our new kingd’m!” he declared.
While he was speaking, she began moving towards the door, grabbing her satchel and quickly bringing it around to rest over her clear shoulder. Her daughter followed behind eagerly as she pushed the front door open. “Good luck stealin’ that place from Bumpity,” Eda told him, grinning. “I tried when I went to Hexside, and it didn’t exactly work out.”
Of course, she had specifically tried to do it by organizing the oracle spirits into a military force as a protest against being denied the ability to apply for every track. Her plan had been to take over the school for a single cycle and create some sort of multitracking program, so she could join it once she handed the school back to Bump.
Honestly, with hindsight, she could admit that it hadn’t been a very well thought out plan. Not only was making a program like that from scratch something she didn’t even think she could do now, but there was nothing stopping Bump from just. Shutting the program down as soon as he got control of the school back.
Not that it really even mattered. The attempted coup hadn’t even lasted a full hour. Her amassed forces had been absolutely decimated by a very unimpressed principal, and she ended up in detention for a whole week. She still blamed the oracle spirits for that failure.
Her son tilted his head in thought, letting out a cute little, “Hmmmm.” While he was considering that conundrum, she stuck her hand out, palm up, sending out a pulse through her bond with Owlbert in summon.
She received a small pulse of wordless, sleepy acknowledgement, and felt as he started to move around somewhere in the house, clearly not in his staff form. He’d probably been resting in a blanket nest somewhere, if she were to guess, and she just woke him up. Oh well. She’d get him some treats on the way home in apology.
“Maybe we gots’ta do it quietly?” her son suggested after a moment. “Like th’ book you read me!”
That’s right, she did read him that book. It was one of the first young adult books her daughter had started reading, back when she started branching out into higher reading levels once she found books specific to her age level to be too easy. It was one entitled “Subterfuge.”
King had wanted to know why his big sister liked it so much. It was about a spy in a dystopian world, tasked with stopping a series of crime syndicates. One of the major groups the spy had gone against, he actually went undercover in, stealing the whole syndicate out from under the leader by convincing them to be loyal to him, using them for much more altruistic tasks while continuing his mission.
Taking over the education industry from the inside… that could work. “Y’know, you might be onto somethin’, bud,” she said. Of course, a plan like that would require her to actually become a teacher, and that was such a funny thought that she snorted aloud.
No way in all nine layers of Retmina would she ever join the ranks of the education stooges. Like Bump or some other headmaster would even want her, what with her wild witch ideas and extensive criminal record. She could teach her daughter, sure, but there’s no way she’d enjoy teaching any ol’ random kiddo, right?
Finally, Owlbert arrived, hopping through a window and swooping out into her open palm. He gave a quick nip at her fingers painlessly, in something like a kiss - no hard feelings about waking him up, then. But she was still going to get him treats anyway, because she spoiled all of her babies rotten.
He hobbled off her hand and flew into the air with a beat of his wings, spinning around at the crest of his swoop. Between one beat and the next, he seamlessly shifted into his wooden form. The staff began to form beneath him, phasing into existence from the top down. Once it had fully taken form, the staff shifted from vertical to horizontal, lowering itself to hover at just the right height.
Eda went first, swinging her leg over the staff as she brought her son down from her shoulders, settling him in the small space just in front of her. “Alright, Luz,” she began. “After we drop you off, me and your brother’ll head out to do a few potion deliveries, and after that, we’ll probably just, I dunno, sleep the rest of the cycle, or somethin’.”
As Eda was speaking, her daughter began to climb up on the staff behind her. “M’kay!” she chirped out, wrapping her arms around Eda’s stomach and settling in comfortably.
Nearby, she felt a flash of old magic shift through the air as Hooty shifted from wood to flesh. He extended slightly out of the door, coiling up like a worm coming out of a wound on an apple. “Bye Byeeeee, you guys!” He called out to them. “Have fun at schoo~ool!”
“Bye Hooty!” Luz shouted back, her and her brother both waving goodbye to the mystical horror that was Eda’s security system. King’s wave was a bit grudging, compared to Luz’s enthusiastic one - unlike his sister, he wasn’t all that good at ignoring how annoying Hooty’s shrill voice could be.
Shaking her head, Eda added, “Me n’ King’ll be back in a couple hours!” She was doing her potion runs a bit earlier than usual, this cycle. Normally, she’d wait until fourteen hundred to handle them, but she wanted to spend the rest of the cycle relaxing and trying not to stress out over her daughter being at school.
She was looking forward to lazing about with her son once they got back. Combined with the excitement of conquering fictional kingdoms, she was hoping he’d be all tuckered out quickly. He was such a little cuddle bug when he got tired.
Hopefully, nothing would interrupt that. She could use some good ol’ cuddling-with-her-adorable-son-time at some point this cycle.
Snapping straight, Hooty gave a serious, determined nod. “I’ll keep the house suuuper safe until you come back!” he promised, twisting himself upside-down as he spoke. Eda knew damn well that he meant it, too.
If any opportunistic scouts from the group of coven losers that stalked her house tried to sneak in while they were gone, they’d probably end up going home with a couple of bruises. And broken bones. And residual trauma from one of Hooty’s tea parties - even Luz did her best to avoid being pulled into those.
With a jaunty two-finger salute to her house demon, Eda kicked off the ground, rising into the air. She watched Hooty retreat back to the door from the corner of her eye. As they ascended higher into the air, her daughter suddenly spoke up behind her. “Oh, uhm, Mamá?” she started. “While you guys’re out, can you get me some of those-”
“-The diary free ice-scream pops?” Eda finished for her, knowing exactly what the kid was about to ask. “I noticed you were out when I was checkin’ the fridge this morning. I’ll grab some more, we’ve got enough snails for it.
Or, well, they would, after this potion delivery run. Money wasn’t exactly tight, per say, especially not after all the snails her daughter raked in with that little tee-vee thing she got working on the twenty-fourth. But Eda had a budgeting system, and she stuck by it a bit religiously.
Marcello’s responsible ass was the one who convinced her to actually learn how to make one of those, because he hated fun. Apparently, motherhood came with the stipulation that you had to start keeping track of your money to make sure you could afford shit. Lame.
Eda didn’t look back to see, too focused on aiming them towards Hexside and kicking Owlbert into motion, but she heard a little “Yess!” from her daughter, and felt one arm lift away from its place around her abdomen as Luz pumped her fist in success. The snort she let out at her daughter’s antics ended up being lost in the wind.
Goodbyes were a bit somber. Don’t get Luz wrong, she was super excited to actually be getting to attend Hexside! It was just… she’d never really spent a whole cycle without her mom or her brother before.
They either went everywhere together as a family, or she and King stayed at home with Hooty while Mamá went out to do Mamá things. Like selling human trinkets at her stall before Luz finally convinced her to let the two of them come along, or doing potion deliveries under her fake name, or even messing with the coven guards because they deserved it.
But, for the whole cycle, it was just going to be Luz, all on her own. Sure, she’d have her brand new friends to hang out with, but still. She didn’t even have Hooty to keep her company! It was a bit scary.
That was okay, though! She was a big girl now, a whole ten years old, so she could go most of the cycle without her mom or her little brother! Maybe she was still a little afraid to be without her family for so long, but she knew everything would be okay. She’d have her new friends to help her get through the cycle.
Mamá brought Owlbet down at the very end of the stone pathway, just before the clearing ended and the Right Arm Forests began. Luz was the first one to jump down off the staff, too excited to sit still for much longer.
Mamá huffed out a soft laugh as she picked King up and climbed off the staff herself. She set him down beside her. As soon as he finished stretching like a little kitty cat, he reached out and grabbed onto her dress, looking around the clearing in curiosity. Luz turned to look as well.
All along the path was a whole bunch of activity. Some students were huddled together in groups, hanging out with each other or walking towards the school together. Others were still being dropped off, climbing down from their parents staves just like she had.
There were even a few of the older kids who had flown in on their own staves! It was so cool. Luz couldn’t wait until she was old enough to carve her own palismen!
Luz watched all the other students move around for a little bit, before she turned back to look at Mamá, that same uncomfortable feeling she had when she was doing the entry exam suddenly in her chest again. Still, she managed to send her mom a smile. “I’m gonna miss you, Mamá,” she admitted.
“Yeah, I know, Sunshine,” Mamá said, grunting as she knelt down in front of Luz and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “But, hey, it’ll be over before you even know it, and then you’ll get to come home and nap with your brother for an hour or two. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
That did sound really nice. Especially since that time in the afternoon was when the sun came through one of the windows just right, and it made the couch super warm. “Mmhmm,” Luz hummed, nodding along.
Lifting up the hand that was on Luz’s shoulder, Mamá gently ran her finger’s through Luz’s hair. She couldn’t stop herself from leaning into the touch. She loved having her hair preened.
“You got this, y’hear me?” Mamá told her, confident enough that it made Luz feel confident. “You’re gonna show that school who’s boss.” She gave Luz’s hair one final ruffle, leaving her curls all over the place. Then, she leaned in a little bit, a smug grin flashing across her face. “Here’s a hint: it’s the Clawthornes.”
Letting out a trilling giggle, that feeling in Luz’s chest started to wash away. Mamá jokes always made her feel safer, just like the chirps and croons that came from the curse. It wasn’t completely gone, but she already felt better.
“Promise!” she swore, bouncing in place a tiny bit. “I’ll even cause some chaos, just for you!” Nothing that would get her into actual trouble, since she didn’t want to get detention on her very first cycle - she was aiming closer to somewhere around the third cycle - but her plan to help Willow later in the afternoon was definitely going to cause some chaos!
She could probably throw a few extra things in on top of that, in the name of anarchy and destruction!
Mamá let out a soft croon, leaning in to plant a kiss on Luz’s forehead. “Atta girl,” she cheered, grinning. Then, she softly shoved at Luz’s shoulder. “Now, go on. Go get your schedule and find your way to class. I’ve gotta swing by a few offices to drop some stuff off, but then I’m headin’ out. I’ll be back at fifteen thirty to pick you up.”
There was one more super-with- extra -duper thing that Luz had to do before she headed off. Ducking under the hand, she crashed into her mother’s side and threw her arms around Mamá, holding on tight. “Te amo, Mamá, (I love you, Mama,)” she murmured.
Returning the hug just as tightly, Mamá leaned down a little bit and settled her cheek on the top of Luz’s head. Just as quietly, she murmured back, “Yo también te amo, mi lucecita. (I love you too, my little light.)”
Then, probably because he was feeling a tiny bit left out, her little brother suddenly slammed into her leg, giving her his own hug. “King too!” he declared, his fluffy tail wagging in wide arcs when she looked down.
With another giggle, Luz brought a hand down to scratch under his chin. “King too,” she said. “Love you, King.” He let out a really loud purr at that, his tail doubling in speed as he bumped his head against her leg. Her little brother was so adorable!
The hug lasted a few moments longer, before Luz finally decided that she had to let go. She grinned up at her mom one final time, which Mamá returned with a warm smirk. Then, she took a deep breath, turned around, and started walking towards the massive school that she was now attending.
She couldn’t help but look back a few times during the trek down the stone path. She watched as her mom helped King up onto her staff, before climbing on herself. After a moment, the two of them lifted off the ground.
Then, abruptly, they shot off straight towards the school, flying over Luz’s head with a whoosh of air. She let out a giggle as they slammed straight through the front doors of the school, scaring a few of the students who were about to walk through them.
As her family disappeared out of sight, Luz took another steadying breath. She might be a bit scared to be without her mom and brother, but she could do this! She was so ready! She was going to learn a bunch of cool magic, and also would get to try making friends with other people, which was exactly what she wanted. And then, right as she was reaching the front steps, her cycle immediately got a million times better!
From somewhere off to the side, she heard a pair of voices she was starting to become very familiar with calling out, “Luz!” She whipped around, already knowing who it was the moment she heard, but still grinning wide at the sight of her very new friends, Willow and Gus.
“Friends!” she said excitedly, running towards them to close the distance. When they reached each other, Luz happily wrapped both of them in short hugs, just like she had done on the thirtieth when they came by Mamá’s stall.
When she’d done it then, Willow had grinned and melted into the contact. Gus, after learning a hug was a human thing, had gotten that same expression he got whenever she told him cool human facts, so Luz figured they both liked getting them from her!
This time was no different, both of them returning the hug without a second thought. When she pulled away, she started bouncing in place again, excited. “I’m a Hexside student now!” she announced, waving her arms to show off her school uniform. It was still an undeclared gray, since Principal Bump wasn’t gonna give her track colors until he finished her schedule.
Both of them gasped in awe at her declaration. Willow gave a wide grin, just as excited as Luz’s, while she looked at the uniform. “Congrats!” she said happily. It made Luz feel so much better about passing the exam!
Much like Luz had, Gus started bouncing in place a little bit, too. “You did it!” he cheered, then drew a small spell circle. It was an off-white one, slightly blue, but not exactly the usual color of an illusion spell.
Luz recognized it, though - it was the spell circle from summoning one of those super cool pre-made illusions! They were sold at a few stalls down in the market, and you could cast them without even knowing anything about illusions. Mamá had made a few of them herself before. She liked to throw at the Coven Guards to confuse them!
Grabbing the completed spell circle, Gus threw his hand upwards dramatically, and bright blue text sprung into the air, surrounded by sparkles. Luz blinked. It read, “BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME!” which didn’t really seem right. She had passed the exam!
Willow seemed to think the same, and quickly sent a glare at Gus. He offered a little nervous laugh at their expressions. “Sorry, I was, uhm, covering my bases,” he explained. “They must’ve gotten mixed up when I bought them!”
That answer was enough to stop Willow from glaring. Instead, she shook her head with a fond smile and a huff. Luz just shrugged - she didn’t mind! The illusion was still cool, even if it was the wrong text.
Then Willow turned back towards Luz with a hesitant smile. “I know you kinda already said you did, but, uhm, did you… actually get to apply for every class?” she asked.
“Uh-huh!” Luz answered, grinning. “Princy-B says I get my uniform after I go meet him in his office!” Luz wasn’t upset by her friend’s hesitance. She knew that Willow was just having a really hard time understanding that mixing magic wasn’t dangerous, but it was very apparent that she was trying to.
Mamá had always told Luz that the Emperor told everyone that “Wild Magic” actually was dangerous, and had been doing that since he came to power over two-hundred years ago!
That was, like, how long Luz had lived, but twenty times over! She was pretty sure, at least. She was still working on learning her times tables. Luz figured that, if she had been told a lie her whole life, and everyone she knew believed the lie as well, then she would probably have a hard time believing the truth, too!
She watched her friend blink at the strange nickname for the principal - she was absolutely going to use that nickname on Mr. Bump when she went to get her schedule and see how he reacted! - before Willow shook her head.
“I, uhm, I’m really happy for you,” she admitted. Then, she stepped forward and hugged Luz this time. Which, of course, Luz was all too happy to return, hugging her friend back as tightly as she could.
She loved it when people hugged her first! Having friends was the best! “Thank you!” she chirped. Her face was starting to hurt from how much she was grinning. “Are you excited about lunch?”
Willow immediately perked up in excitement, her ears twitching higher. “Mmhmm!” she hummed. She had been pretty nervous about the idea, back when Luz first proposed it, but she’d started to warm up to it when they hung out on the thirtieth!
Luz looked to the side as she noticed her other friend tilting his head, looking a bit confused and lost. “Wait, what’s happening at lunch?” he asked, glancing between the two of them.
Oh. That was right, Luz had never actually told him about the plan! She felt a small spike of guilt at that. She didn’t mean to hide it from him, she just forgot he didn’t know! He didn’t ask when Willow mentioned it during their visit to Mamá’s stall, so Luz figured she must’ve told him! But, then again, he had been pretty distracted looking at all the human stuff scattered around the tent.
The guilt went away extra fast, because she was too excited about their future plans to stay upset. “We’re gonna show everyone how good Willow is at plant magic!” Luz declared, swaying in place as she kept hugging Willow - neither of them were very interested in leaving the embrace at the moment.
“Oh!” he breathed out, realization dawning over his face as he nodded. “Willow is the best at plant magic! Can I help?” He started bouncing in place again, just as thrilled as Luz was now that he actually knew what was going on.
With a little squeak, Willow buried her head in Luz’s shoulder. “Guys…” she whined, clearly embarrassed. Despite that, she still didn’t exit the hug. Luz tilted her head away to get a look at Willow’s face, and giggled at how much she was blushing over the compliment. Not that she seemed actually upset, though - Luz could see her smiling!
Everyone who thought Willow wasn’t good at magic was really dumb. She clearly only struggled because abominations weren’t her strength! Willow was incredible with plant magic, and Luz was going to help her friend prove it!
After another giggle - because her first one had made Willow give her a very indignant pout - Luz turned back to Gus. “Of course you can!” she said, beaming wide. “We’re gonna use an enchanted seed to grow pretty plants all over the main chamber!”
It should be super-duper easy, too! Aside from the fact that Mamá had been gardening with them for years, Luz had once watched her mom use a single one of the enchanted seeds to almost instantly replenish a whole section of the forest, after it got damaged by a gorenado a few months ago! Luz knew that, with how strong Willow was at plant magic, she could easily cover a whole two main chambers!
Well, there was only one, but if there were two main chambers, then she could. Maybe she could convince Willow to grow some plants in the Room of Shortcuts at some point, after she showed it to them? That would make the room look even cooler than it already did!
“That’s a really good idea!” Gus admitted, before drawing another one of those pre-made illusion circles. He didn’t do the cool grabbing and tossing thing he’d done with the last one, but instead let the spell circle collapse into an illusion and spring upwards, like those really cool fire-works from the Human Realm. But, again, the text seemed weirdly negative, reading ‘WHAT A TRAGEDY!’
Luz couldn’t stop the small snerk from escaping her nose, while Willow let out a sigh. Gus blinked up at his illusion for a moment, then sagged in defeat. “O-Okay, I think I grabbed the wrong set entirely,” he admitted, a little dejected. “I’m, uh, I’ma just get rid of these. Sorry, Luz.”
Wait, Luz didn’t want to see her new friend sad! It was one of the main reasons she had came up with the big plan to help Willow - aside from it being the right thing to do, of course.
She quickly gave a bright grin, because even if the words were wrong and a little bit sad, she was honestly touched he went through the effort of getting pre-made illusions just to congratulate her! “It’s okay!” Luz told him. “I’m sure if I failed the entry exams, they would’ve made me feel waaaay better.”
Finally, after a surprisingly long time, Willow started to pull away, and Luz let go immediately. Willow must really like her hugs, if she was willing to keep it going for that long! Luz decided that, as long as Willow was okay with it, she was going to give her friend as many hugs as possible.
Willow smiled at her as they separated, before blinking. With a wave of her hand, her friend’s scroll suddenly appears, and she gives it a quick look before turning back to Luz. “Class starts in fifteen minutes, so you should probably get going,” she said.
Luz let out a small gasp. She didn’t have much time! She still had to go to the Principal’s Office to get her schedule from Principle Bump, and then she had to get all the way to her first class.
She couldn’t be late for her first class, that would be bad! The not-fun, boring type of bad, she meant. “Oh yeah! I-I’ll meet you guys at First Break!” she promised.
“See you then!” Willow said, offering Luz a parting wave.
Gus chimed in with, “Bye, Luz!” Apparently, he wanted to try one last time with the illusions he bought. He drew a final spell circle, letting the spell circle collapse and fling itself into the air again. Just like the last two, it wasn’t exactly the happy message Gus was hoping for.
This time, it read ‘GOODBYE FOREVER!’ which was actually a little bit closer to what he was going for than Luz was expecting it to be. He looked up at it and gave a little pout as Willow sent him a fondly exasperated look. “Seriously?”
Luz was still giggling good-naturedly over it, even as she was making her way up the steps and through the massive wooden double doors. She wandered through the entrance hall, passing other children who gave her curious looks - she couldn’t tell if it was because she was laughing, or because she was new - before finally arriving in the Central Spire Chamber.
With a grin on her face, she began heading towards where she remembered the Principal’s Office being. She was still a bit nervous to be without her family, but she had her new and really awesome friends, and she was getting to take the classes she wanted to! It all made her feel really, really excited for the cycle ahead!
One of the most unfortunate aspects about this massive shift in the rules and structure of the standard curriculum, Hieronymus had come to realize, was that it involved quite a lot of paperwork on his end.
That, and needing to inform a number of entrusted faculty about these upcoming changes early, so they may adequately prepare to handle those within the new Multitracking Program he was currently developing. Of course, only some staff were to be informed early. Others, he did not wish to allow word reaching until the program was fully established.
He had already spent the entirety of the last week working towards bringing these changes to fruition - beginning immediately after Edalyn convinced him to step up in his role of Guiding Shield - but it was still so very far from complete. There was always more to be done every time he turned around.
The largest problem he’d faced so far was trying to figure out how to actually portray the program to those who might find it a little too close to dangerous topics. Specifically, he needed to come up with some way that he could keep those who wish to multitrack safe from the scrutiny of the Emperor’s Coven. His search for an answer to this issue was making the process of developing this new curriculum both tedious and slow.
He could not simply just hide the program from view. There were far too many students that would be willing to turn over information on their peers for a chance to gain the favor of the Coven, despite such behavior being more befitting of those attending Glandus than his school.
Unfortunately, when it came to the limited slots within the Emperor's Coven, many students would find their morals being tested. It was heartwrenching for him to admit, but a worrying number of children beneath his care would be found lacking, and he knew it well.
So far, his best idea had been to brand the multitrack program as something of an Emperor’s Coven education regiment, specializing in advanced training on using several kinds of magic at once. It would take some time to do, and would need some careful management, but it was the most logical option.
After all, the Emperor’s Coven was permitted to practice every branch of magic. To an extent, that was. They would never dabble into what could be considered Wild Magic, even if mixing the magic families came rather close.
His only significant worry with that plan was the fact that the identity of the students in that program would be revealed to the Coven. He wasn’t quite sure how many would like to apply for the program in the future - beyond those two students who were recently placed in the detention track for mixing magic, of course - but he was aware that they would likely not want to be under the purview of the Emperor’s Coven at the completion of their education, assuming they wished to keep mixing their magicks.
It was a genuine worry, especially if the quarterly Coven Inspections decide to investigate this program for potential new recruits. Several of the students who may end up joining the program would probably not have the most positive views of the coven system in general, thanks to their affinity towards mixing magic types.
He did not like the idea of the Emperor’s Coven having a reason to keep an attentive eye on them. Who was to say that they wouldn’t force these students to join a coven immediately after graduation, in order to prevent them from possibly turning down the dreaded path of wild magic? He would not put it past them, certainly not after learning they had attempted to apprehend a ten-year-old child.
However, his biggest worry at the moment was actually regarding that particular ten-year-old - Luz Clawthorne, whom he’d just finished filling out a schedule for.
In spite of Edalyn’s rather anti-authority and anarchistic nature, he had always felt fondly for his former star student. He could already tell, even after having only met her twice now, that he would likely feel the same regarding the latest generation of Clawthorne as well.
She was also the student planning to take every single course available, and if the Coven did end up investigating the program, she would easily draw the most attention. That would only lead to them discovering her existence in the school records, then bring them to notice her last name.
He absolutely, under no circumstances, did not want anyone in the Emperor’s Coven catching wind that the infamous Owl Lady had a young daughter attending Hexside. As he told Edalyn while she was enrolling her daughter, he was no stooge for the Emperor. He would never endanger his students, even if he must break the law to keep them safe.
Not only was he concerned for the young child who wanted to be just like her mother, but he also feared for the student body as a whole. Because no daughter of the Owl Lady would ever enroll in a program tailored towards joining the Emperor’s. That would only lead towards further scrutiny, and the true purpose behind the program would quickly be unveiled from there.
No, Hieronymus simply couldn’t allow the Emperor’s Coven to know exactly which students were in the program, not with the risk to their safety it presented. But marketing the program as one tailored towards the coven was likely the best strategy to make it work without drawing the Emperor’s scrutiny - hiding it all in plain sight, as it were.
It was a conflict that made it all rather complicated, and he was not sure how to reach a solution that could seamlessly solve both issues at once. He could perhaps lie about the names of those included within the program, he mused. But then, if he were to be asked to allow an interview of a program member to be conducted, the lie would almost certainly fall apart.
Maybe he could use the names of those genuinely interested in the Emperor’s Coven to mask them? A shell program to disguise the real one underneath? Except, that would again run the risk of those in the shell program ratting out the multitrackers in order to gain favor with the coven, lest they were to discover its cover-up nature. What to do, what to do?
He was certain that, if he continued to brainstorm ideas, he would come up with something that might just work. Tailoring the program to hide in plain sight would prevent it from being reported by any opportunistic students or concerned parents, but doing so would also bring a separate risk of discovery directly from the coven’s attention, so he must find a solution that settles somewhere in between.
However, he would need to think on this all later, when he was not preoccupied with other duties that have arisen. He pushed those thoughts to the side for the time being, focusing instead on the present.
On the related topic of multitrack students, Hieronymus was starting to believe that his previous assumption of two additional members to the program was already being challenged. With a light sip from his cup of coffee, he listened as now-Head Monitor Lixt continued to present the latest breach of outdated student conduct.
“Her name is Viney Estella,” Lixt explained, tapping at the picture on the provided student file they’d brought along with them. “She’s specifically in the healing track, but, well, you’ve seen the recording, sir.”
Unfortunately, because of how overloaded his schedule had already become by this massive educational shift he was undertaking, it would appear that Hieronymus had yet to actually inform the Hall Monitors of the new developments regarding the education regiment.
He had thought he sent a memo to them through the school’s crystal ball messaging system, but the task must’ve slipped his mind while he was busy making other preparations. Rather unfortunate, but he could hardly be blamed, what with the monumental amount of work he had been buried beneath. Well, now was as good a time as any to correct this minor oversight.
He did not believe Lixt would be opposed - Hieronymus still distinctly recalled that, during their application process shortly after he had become principal, they struggled to choose between the Healing Track and the Oracle Track. He couldn’t help but wonder, if he had made this decision to change so drastically much earlier, how their magic would’ve evolved with both specialties in mind?
“Indeed, I have,” Hieronymus answered with a small nod. He set his coffee cup down and steepled his hands together absently.
In fact, he had just finished watching the footage on his office’s crystal ball when Lixt had entered his office. Though, truthfully, he had watched at least part of the chaos first hand through his office’s window, just after the Clawthorne Family had disappeared into the Room of Shortcuts.
He hummed thoughtfully, trying to find the right way of phrasing his response. “Despite the seemingly unintended consequence of claiming the unclaimed griffon as her own, her usage of a beast-soothing spell did assist in stopping the creature’s panic,” was what he settled on. “This is especially important to consider when it is noted that Ms. Melody’s attempts at calming the griffon had failed.”
There was a very slight pause, and Hieronymus could almost imagine the way Head Monitor Lixt blinked at the intentional lack of discipline in his words. It was difficult to read their emotions through the PCA-approved masks provided to the Hall Monitors, but their body language alone revealed their confusion. “What shall be done about it, sir?” they asked after a moment.
He couldn’t quite help himself - He smirked. “No administrative action will be made at this time,” he declared. He would be the first to admit that his humor may have become a bit dry in his eldering age.
This time, the pause was even more obvious. Monitor Lixt visibly stuttered to a halt, mulling over what he’d just said. Through their mental link, he heard Frewin break into chittering laughter. Again, he found himself wishing he hadn’t let the PCA convince him to provide the masks to the Hall Monitors, if only so that he could see Lixt’s expression at that moment.
“Sir?” they began, their words slow and drawn out. “Isn’t what she did against the regulations?” Even as they attempted to clarify, he could tell by their tone that they were starting to catch on to the fact something had drastically changed.
With a tip of his head, Hieronymus answered, “It was,” putting emphasis on the usage of past-tense. He began to sort through a few things on his desk, noticing at the edge of his awareness that someone had been standing outside of his office for at least a minute or two. He had a fair idea of who that might be.
“That is where my work over the last week comes in, Monitor Lixt,” he continued. “A prospective student and her mother helped me re-evaluate some of my previous beliefs.” They tilted their head, curious at what he was implying. They likely knew which mother and student he was referring to - they were the one to let the little family into the room, after all.
Then, Hieronymus turned his attention towards the door. He couldn’t help but smile as he heard a squeak, the pair of golden eyes that had been peering around the frame ducking out of view. “Speaking of, please do come in, Clawthorne.”
After a small moment of silence, Edalyn’s young daughter emerged, slipping through the open door. She looked rather sheepish at getting caught. “S-Sorry for eavesdropping, sir,” she began almost immediately. “The door was open and I didn’t wanna interrupt.”
She certainly appeared to be feeling far better than she had just a few cycles ago, when she had proven herself capable of achieving the minimum requirements for the standard curriculum.
Edalyn had previously told him that her bile sac was underdeveloped due to a complicated mixture of human biology and curse mechanics, of course, which meant he went into the exam knowing the young child may struggle. But he hadn’t quite realized just how much it would affect young Luz until he nearly saw her collapse after she passed the exam.
It had worried him, seeing her sway on the stage, but she still succeeded in casting all six spells. It proved that, in spite of her rather detrimental case of Magic Inability, she was still perfectly capable of partaking in classes that required actual spellcasting.
He had simply decided to pass the information along to Head Healer Lott Kor - the school healer in charge of Luz’s medical case, who was already privy to the fact that Luz was a Curseborn thanks to the documentation Edalyn had submitted.
He had received quite a lengthy response, most of which boiled down to a form of “did you really believe I wasn’t already handling this?” Apparently, as soon as Healer Kor had been made aware of the young Clawthorne’s special biology, he had called Edalyn to request as much information as possible. She had pointed him towards the healing office of Riveness Styx, and the two were now in regular contact with one another.
In fact, when Edalyn had burst through the main doors of the school and flown through the hallways on her staff nearly ten minutes ago - Titan, she might be a mother now, but she certainly hadn’t changed - she had dropped off a few documents that Healer Kor had needed Healer Styx to sign off on, all pertaining to special exceptions made to accommodate for Luz’s unique biology.
Still, he made sure a vague notice was passed around to all of the teachers whose classes young Clawthorne would be attending. He would be remiss to make sure a careful eye was kept on her, lest she suffer from the symptoms of Magic Fatigue, but continue to stubbornly push through just like her mother would.
He waved off young Luz’s concern with an absent gesture. “It is of no consequence. You will likely discover the topic of our conversation in at least a few cycles time.”
She may not have arrived early enough to hear that the discussion had originally been about Ms. Estella, but he was well aware that Luz would become involved in that situation. He intended to have her show young Viney - along with the other magic mixers, currently in the Detention Track but slated to be removed from it - the Room of Shortcuts within a cycle or two, pending their interviews for the multitracking program.
Now that she was in the room, he beckoned the little Clawthorne to approach, grabbing the schedule packet he had finished assembling from its place on the side of his desk. “Now, I’ve drawn up your schedule, if you would like to review it.”
As she drew near to his desk, he offered the schedule to her, and she took it with a curious expression, beginning to flip through the pages slowly. It had taken quite a bit of thought to organize it in a way that would provide a proper education, while still accounting for the course load of nine different tracks, alongside the general classes.
There were nine class periods per cycle, split into three segments of three classes called class blocks. In between the first and second class blocks was First Break, while Lunch, occasionally referred to as Second Break by some, was set just between the second and third blocks. At least one class block was slated for the General Classes, which varied in position per student based on what track the student was in. This usually left the other two blocks for their track classes.
However, this format became a bit complicated when more tracks were introduced. Luckily, he’d managed to find a solution for the young Clawthorne that was, at the very least, functional.
On her schedule, the third and final class block had been allotted as the general classes, leaving the first two blocks open. Each block, she would cycle between tracks, having been through all nine by the end of a school week. On the third cycle of the week was an extra tenth class block, which was considered a free section in order to fill space.
However, it was also provided to assist with the monumental class load. After all, in this configuration, she would often be missing large portions of individual tracks to attend to others, causing her to drastically fall behind if she wasn’t on top of her studies.
She could use this free block in a variety of ways, be it studying for a class she needs to catch up in, attending whatever classes she chooses, or even using the Room of Shortcuts to watch numerous class sessions in quick succession, similar to how he presumed the former Detention Track students had gotten away with their studying.
He was only mildly worried that she might use this allotted free block to do other activities, such as creating mayhem. She was, after all, the daughter of Edalyn Clawthorne, and expecting her to not be involved in something at least once within a weekly time frame was a blessing that even the Titan might not be capable of providing.
Thankfully, he was certain that Luz’s hunger for knowledge would keep her dedicated towards her studies through the majority of her free time. Much like Edalyn - though that woman would probably still deny it - she seemed to actually enjoy receiving an education.
“I did my best to not make it too complicated, but seeing as you are taking on such a monumental course load, it was rather difficult,” Hieronymus admitted, watching as she scanned through the five-page long packet.
“You will also likely have some difficulties with missing certain classes in favor of others, since the majority of all courses happen at the same time. This is why the second block on the third cycle is considered free time, so that you may use it to view or attend other classes as you choose, as well as study on your own time.” He offered her a small, soft smile. “Do you have any questions or requests regarding your schedule?”
Luz blinked, before shaking her head emphatically. “Uhmm, no, I think I get it,” she said, and she seems confident enough. He did try his best to make it all understandable, so he was glad to know that she wasn’t confused.
However, much to his dread, she suddenly began to smirk, as though she’d just gotten an idea. It was a very familiar smirk, one that almost looked exactly like her mother’s. The sort of grin that Edalyn would give just after she’d caused yet another section of the school to be destroyed in her escapades. “Thank you, Princy-B!”
Well. If there had been any doubt that this was indeed Edalyn’s spawn, then it was certainly gone. One hand came to his forehead as he suddenly got a Clawthorne-shaped headache, and he let out a small groan. Another round of Frewin’s chuffing laughter through their mental bond did not help.
“Oh dear Titan, you’re doing it too,” he lamented. “I’m… just going to ignore that.” He firmly chose to also disregard the way she giggled, pleased with the suffering she had just inflicted. And the way that Monitor Lixt chuckled softly at his agony. The absolute betrayal.
With a shake of his head, he focused back on the matter at hand. “Your class is starting soon, so allow me to give you your uniform.” Each uniform was designed to have the colors interchangeable, specifically for the purpose of course assignments, so he simply drew a spell circle with the new color scheme in mind.
The spell circle fizzled away, and at the young Clawthorne’s feet, a green circle appeared, which rose from her toes to her head while she watched, stars in her eyes. “I contacted an associate of mine within the Tailor’s Coven to design it,” he explains.
When the process was complete, he couldn’t help but grin as she inspected it. The right sleeve featured the Construction and Beast Keeping track colors, both colors split at the elbow joint. The left sleeve was similarly split between the Oracle and Plant Track colors.
The leggings were split into three sections, the topmost color on either denoting the Potions Track. The right leg featured the Bard and Abomination Track colors, while the left had the Healing and Illusion Track colors, both split at the knee.
Finding a way to fit all nine tracks on a single, four-limbed uniform - specifically without allowing the uniform to become loathsome to look at - had been quite the challenge, but he believed he and his associate had managed it fairly well. He felt rather proud as Luz let out a happy gasp and proclaimed “I love it!”
Hieronymus offered a small smile at that. “I am delighted to hear so,” he admitted, grateful that his work was not in vain.
Not only had he needed to design her uniform, but he had needed to organize all the colors into a system that would allow for numerous combinations. He was anticipating all the additional members to the program, each of whom would have their own magical interests.
With her uniform and schedule sorted, he tilted his head towards the door. “Now, go on, you have class to attend in…” he trailed off as he spared a quick glance up to his office’s clock. “Five minutes.”
His newest student blinked, letting out a surprised, “Oh!” Then she clutched the schedule tightly to her chest, and grinned. It was shockingly adorable. She quickly began to scurry out of the room, speaking as she went. “Thank you Principal Bump sir byeeee!”
The final word trailed off as she got further from the room, echoing from down the hall. He huffed fondly at the drawn out goodbye, reminded yet again just how much like her mother she seemed to be.
Unsurprisingly, Head Monitor Lixt had gone silent when the child had entered, aside their chuckle a few moments prior. Most of the Hall Monitors tended to stay silent around the children, only partially due to the restrictions imposed by the PCA. The uniform change in particular seemed to have finally tipped them off as to what was happening, and they stared at the door for a few moments after Clawthorne left, body language very much conveying their shock.
He waited patiently until they seemingly reigned themself back in, feeling as Frewin’s tail flicked against his neck in amusement. “Did… you just…?” they breathed out hesitantly.
“Indeed I did,” Hieronymus answered simply. “And truthfully, I do not believe I regret it.” That was partially a lie. He didn’t simply believe - he knew he did not regret it. Not at all. He may not practice, but he had always held ideals that would have him labeled a wild witch if he had not gotten their brand set upon his wrist.
His only reasoning for not creating this program sooner had been because he believed it would protect the children better, to keep them confined to the detention track. A rather misguided attempt at ensuring their safety, he had begun to realize on the heels of his conversation with Edalyn.
For a moment, Monitor Lixt simply stared at him, before casually leaned back against the wall just beside the painting of his own likeness. They let out a small whistle. “Times are changing, I suppose,” they commented. They sounded almost unaffected by the news, even more than he had expected of them. “Almost makes me wish I was a kid again. Would’a loved the chance to take more than one.”
Hieronymus huffed a small, breathy laugh, having guessed correctly. Lixt hums, thoughtful, and he could imagine a small smirk behind that mask. “I’m curious to see what Estella’s uniform will look like,” they said. Oh, good. It would appear they’ve fully caught on to what these changes meant.
Admittedly, he felt a little guilty. He had not truly considered it before he made the decision, but the amount of extra work this whole ordeal was causing did not only apply to him.
Teachers had to prepare for students who would only attend during certain cycles. Several of his most trusted faculty needed to be informed about the Room of Shortcuts, if only as a safety precaution. And, of course, the hall monitors needed to keep all of the students safe, even if the Emperor’s Coven was the one that came knocking.
Still, he just wanted to be sure the message was coming across. “You are… aware, what this will mean for your duties, correct?” he asked, Frewin’s eyebrows knitting together in an imitation of his own.
“Of course I am,” they retorted without a skipped beat, sounding almost offended at the insinuation that they wouldn’t. “We all are. Protection of the students supersedes all, including law.” They made a small gesture with their hand, whirling it around by the wrist vaguely. “If you have decreed that they may mix their magicks, then it is our sworn duty to keep them safe while they do so.”
Sagging in relief, Hieronymus offered them a wry grin. “And that, right there, is exactly why I promoted you.” He chuckled lightly at the way they shifted, imagining the little bashful grin that likely appeared on their face beneath the mask. “Might I entrust you to pass down this information to those under your command?”
“Of course, sir,” they quickly affirmed, nodding. They kicked off the wall, tilting their head slightly in curiosity. “Will there be anything else?”
Hieronymus furrowed his brow in thought, feeling Frewin copy the motion, as he tried to think. Then it occurred to him as he glanced down at his desk, where his crystal ball’s inbox still held a message from the librarian.
“Ah, yes, one last thing,” he said. “If you or any of those who report to you come upon a commotion in the central chamber somewhere around lunch time, then please do not hamper it. I’ve received a message regarding it from Mrs. Jenemire, and will be going to view it myself.”
He was not yet quite sure what it would be. All he was told was that it involved a prospective Plant Track student, who was a little too scared to ask their parents to switch them over, and wanted to prove themself. He had a… suspicion about who the message might be in reference to.
Monitor Lixt just offered another nod. “Understood, sir.” Then, with a flourishing bow, they added, “I will take my leave now.”
“Of course,” Hieronymus returned with a small nod and a slight upward twitch of his lips into a soft smile. He was happy they had chosen to apply as a Hall Monitor. He had always been rather fond of them, when they attended Hexside themself. “I will see you later, Head Monitor Lixt.”
Offering a parting wave, Monitor Lixt began to head towards the doorway. “And I will see you as well, Prin- uh, Principal Bump.” They suddenly grew very sheepish at the stutter, pausing in their step.
He frowned. That was an unusual breach of their cool demeanor. What could have- and then, it suddenly occurred to him what they might have been about to say. He decided to put that aforementioned fondness he felt for them on hold for a moment. Flatly, he said, “You were going to call me Princy-B, weren’t you.”
Despite their momentary stutter, he could see in real time as they regained their confidence. He imagined that they were grinning behind the mask. “I absolutely was,” they admitted.
Head falling back into his hands with a long, rather drawn out sigh, Hieronymus uttered, “Insubordinate.” Despite not even being here, Edalyn’s antics continue to haunt him. Monitor Lixt let out a chuckle as they walked out of the office, seemingly heading off towards the main Hall Monitor lounge.
It took him a moment of staring at the now-empty doorway through Frewin’s eyes to realize he was not only alone again, but now at something of a loose end for the duration of the first class period.
He supposed, with a slight shrug to himself, that he could go back to considering what he was to do in regards to the multitrack program. Perhaps he could even begin pursuing some different ideas, if only to see how feasible they would end up being in practice.
After he completed some of his remaining paperwork on the new program, that was. Thankfully, he still had a few weeks before the quarterly inspection was scheduled to happen, and he should hopefully have a solution by then.
Perhaps he should contact Edalyn? As much as Hieronymus loathed to admit it, her expertise in undermining the coven might come in handy in this situation. He nodded slowly at the thought, taking a long sip of his coffee. That could work. She would likely be especially receptive to assisting in this matter, if not because she loved going against figures of authority, then simply because the issue put her daughter at risk as well.
He will do so in another cycle or two, he decided after a moment. He had some important documentation to fill out for the time being, and he should likely get to that as soon as possible. With a weary sigh, withdrew a pen once more, and got back to work.
Notes:
For anyone confused: this and the next chapter take place on the same day as the last chapter! Luz is attending her first day at school when Lilith finally manages to sneak a visit to the Owl House. Take a look at that chapter if you missed the design of Luz's school uniform, which is featured in the art section at the end. I would also like to mention that I am not a native Spanish speaker, nor really know the language all that well! I've triple-checked my translations as much as I could, but if you find any errors with them, please don't hesitate to let me know.
So, when I started most of my active projects (those being Daughter of the Wild One, The Brother and the Father, and a few projects I've been working on in the background), I belatedly realized I hadn't actually done much planning about where I wanted to take these stories. I write spontaniously, and that doesn't really work well for a large-scale project like this. To compensate, I've been spending the last few months sitting down and actually planning out where I want these stories to go. Details still tend to change as I write the individual chapters, but I'm starting to get a much clearer picture of how I want this story - along with my others - to play out.
This is a major part of why it's been taking so long for me to actually get chapters out on all of my stories, and I apologize for that. I've been prominently working in bursts, but with my attention divided across at least four different major projects (while also fleshing out the starts of a few minor projects), combined with the aforementioned planning I've been doing, it's certainly been a slow crawl. I'm doing my best to improve that, but it may continue like this for a little while as I work through what I need to. Until that's all said and done, I'm so glad that all of you have stuck with me through this, and continue to read my stories when I get around to updating them. Thank you so, so much. You are all awesome and epic.
Chapter Word Count: 15,252
Original Chapter Publication Date: 2023-08-23
Chapter Rewrite Publication Date: 2025-06-11
Chapter 9: Brewing Fog & Friendship Alike
Summary:
After a journey through the Room of Shortcuts, it was time for Luz’s very first class. She was a bit nervous, especially since everyone kept looking at her, but thankfully, she made herself another new friend who was willing to help her out. She also received her title from her teachers, before she could even think of one herself, and she loved it so much!
Notes:
Hey! You! Yeah, you! I just wanted to let you know that as of the release of Chapter Nine, ALL PREVIOUS CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN REWRITTEN! Please, go take another read through them - I am significantly happier with them now.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had come to her attention that she might have a slight problem with reaching her class. Namely, even after the tour she’d been given by her friend just a week before, she had no clue where her class was supposed to be.
She also had only a little over five minutes to actually get to it, and that time was very quickly draining. She couldn’t be late for her first class! What kind of message would that send to her teachers and fellow students? Luz might take after her mom just a little bit when it comes to chaotic happenings - even if they’re not always her fault! - but that didn’t mean she wanted to be seen as a delinquent!
She liked breaking rules in an awesome and fun way, like her plan that she was going to be doing with Willow later! Not in a bad way. Unless they’re the Emperor’s laws, but those were stupid, which meant she was justified in defying them! Plus, if she wanted to get away with her ‘chaotic-ness’ as Mamá had described it once, she needed to at least be a reliable student.
So, she hatched herself a brilliant, incredible, amazing strategy to reach the class in time. She would simply use a shortcut! In her head, she thanked Mamá a whole ten times over as she used the spell that she’d been taught to prod at sections of the wall with her magic, waiting to feel it bounce off the Room of Shortcuts.
After a few moments, she felt it pulse back at her, and grinned to herself. This particular entrance was sitting on a section of wall between two windows, which seemed a little impossible, considering that meant the outside was on the other side, but Luz figured that was just normal for pocket dimensions.
With her finger, Luz traced out a small circle against the stone, starting at the top before looping back around. Then, from the top, she dragged her finger down, making a line through the circle, before continuing a little ways out the bottom like a tail. The symbol glowed with her yellowish magic, before fading as the entrance opened itself. Then, she slipped inside, closing the door behind her.
It wasn’t until she was inside the room, looking between the schedule still held in her hands and the greater chamber she was now standing in, that she realized yet another problem.
Her classroom was supposed to be in Room P-Eighteen, which was labeled as being on the third floor. Except the Room of Shortcuts was impossibly tall with way, way too many doors, and none of them were labeled! She was only on the second loop of the winding pathway up, but it continued towards the roof for another three or four loops.
She didn’t know where to even begin with navigating the chamber! Mamá had shown her some of the most important doors, like the one that led to the Paranormatorium or the one to the Lunchroom, but she kind of forgot where a lot of them were, including the one that led to the Potions Track’s entryway!
Distress grew in her chest as she realized she very well might still be late to her class. “Oh, geeze, I don’t even know where I gotta be!” she cried out, scrambling to think of a solution.
That was when movement had caught her eye, and she glanced over. There were a pair of those enchanted graffiti markings drifting lazily against the wall, the ones that King had adopted as their siblings. At her cry, they’d begun to move towards her.
One was in the shape of a cartoonish looking eye, their pupil colored light blue. The other was shaped like a purple lightning bolt with a yellow shadow. She turned to them fully as they reached the wall just beside her, and tilted her head in curiosity.
The purple lightning bolt suddenly swirled in a circle of color, before it seemed to settle as a hand with an extended pointer finger, equally as cartoonish as the eye. It - They? She was going to go with they - bobbed up and down, and from her perspective, it looked like they were pointing at her schedule.
She blinked at them as their silent request occurred to her. “Oh, you wanna know where I need to go?” she asked. The eye shifted, bobbing up and down like the hand, as if they were nodding at her. The hand had put down their pointer finger and was now giving a thumbs up.
Luz turned her schedule around, checking it twice to make sure she was pointing at the right room number. The eye symbol squinted at it slightly, before shifting up and down again slightly, like another nod. Then, the two symbols started to move, with the hand beckoning her to follow. She quickly scrambled to keep up with them.
While she was walking, she passed by a cluster of even more various graffiti symbols. As she got close, a couple of them swirled together in a bright and colorful display, before forming into text. They read out, “Hello Again!” Both words were in different fonts - a sharp script for the first word, and a stylized, somewhat bubbly one for the second.
She smiled at the words, offering a wave in return, before speeding up in her climb along the incline to catch up with the two symbols leading her somewhere. They brought her up the spiral for about a loop and a half, before all three of them finally arrived at a door.
The eye symbol stopped beside it and began to look at her expectantly. The hand had drifted to hover above and to the left of the door, before extending their pointer finger once more and pointing down towards it. Luz understood what they were trying to tell her immediately.
“This is where the class is?” Luz asked, pointing to the door herself and tilting her head in question. The graffiti eye bobs at her again, nodding, while the hand shifts into an okay symbol.
She grinned, the worry in her chest starting to dissipate. She really had nothing to worry about! “Thank you, graffiti siblings!” she said. “Love you!” With another swirling of color, both of the symbols shift into hearts, and she giggles at their antics. Maybe they’re only partially conscious, but more siblings was always a plus in her mind!
For a moment, she looked over the door, trying her absolute hardest to remember what it looked like so she wouldn’t get lost again. It was made of old wooden planks, and painted a dull red. There were three iron clamps extending out from the hinges to hold the whole door together.
The handle was made of brass, and it had a keyhole on this side, which Luz didn’t really understand - the doors locked themselves when they closed, and unlocked when they were opened from the inside or by using the key spell. There weren’t even actual keys for the doors!
The door was inset into the wall, without an obvious frame like some of the other doors had. Right beside it was a small, circular window. She could see a treeline through it, but she couldn’t tell what part of the forest she was looking at without getting a closer look. Except she didn’t have any more time to do that - she had to get to class!
Twisting the doorknob and pushing the door open, she glances around curiously. According to Mamá, nobody would notice her or the open door unless she wanted them to. It used to be that you couldn’t make too much noise or the spell would break, but her mom fixed that when she redid the enchantments.
Sure enough, none of the other students seemed to realize one of the walls had opened, though that was probably helped by the fact that they were all looking in other directions.
Carefully, Luz stepped out of the room, gently closing the door behind her. As soon as the door was closed, one of the students - a demon with a tall head, two eyes stacked vertically, and purple hair beneath their cowl’s hood - looked over towards her and blinked, a bit surprised. Which made sense. Luz did kind of just appear out of nowhere.
Then more stares were sent her way, and she felt her shoulders raise subconsciously. It took her a moment to realize that it was probably due to her uniform. She was the only multitracking student around, after all!
As far as she could tell, she seemed to be the only student with more than one color on her uniform in the area. Actually, she wasn’t actually sure if Mr. Bump had even told anyone about the program yet, so she might be the only one in the whole school with multiple colors!
Which was a slightly scary thought. Was she supposed to be keeping it a secret? Wait, no, that didn’t make sense, why would he give her the colorful uniform if she was supposed to be quiet about the Multitracking Program?
Doing her best to brush off the feeling of eyes watching her, Luz glanced down at her schedule, then back up towards the hall. She could see students trickling into the various classrooms lining the area, but none seemed to be worried, meaning she’d made it early enough to be on time!
She was supposed to be heading towards Room P-Eighteen, where her first class was at. It was one named Potions One-Oh-One, under a teacher named Professor Lialurchen. It was the first of her three Potions classes, since she was in the Potions Track during the first block on the first cycle of the week!
When she came out of the Room of Shortcuts, she had been left standing right next to Room P-Fourteen. The next one down the hall to her left was P-Fifteen, so she began moving in that direction.
It didn’t take her very long to find the right room, and she immediately rushed through the door. Only, as soon as she stepped into the classroom, she froze.
That was… a lot of seats! There were four rows of desks in the classroom, with three desks in each row, and each desk had two seats. Most of them were occupied by other students, but she didn’t know if the ones that didn’t have students were already taken.
Where was she supposed to sit down? What if she picked a random seat, and it turned out to be someone else’s, so they got mad at her for taking their spot? She didn’t know what to do!
Vaguely, she noticed that the older witch at the front of the classroom - probably the teacher - was giving her an encouraging smile, but she was still super lost. Could she just… go sit down? Was that how it worked? She didn’t know, she’d never been in a classroom before!
Then she realized that the dull murmur of students had fallen off at some point, and now everyone was staring at her and her uniform the longer she stood still, which didn’t help at all!
Thankfully, her building panic came to a stop when a student in the second row caught Luz’s attention with a wave. They were immediately recognizable as a witch-like biped demon, but Luz didn’t really focus on that - she was used to seeing demons of all shapes and sizes, especially since her little brother was one too!
This student had a large eyeball that seemed to be the size of their entire head, leaving no room for a mouth as far as she could tell. They had their uniform hood up and over their head, but Luz could see their bangs and the top of their hair peeking out, which was a dark cyan. It was such a pretty color, which made Luz wonder why they had their hood on.
Like everyone else in the classroom, all of the limbs on their school uniform were a solid yellow, though Luz did notice that their sleeves seemed a whole lot more baggy than normal, enough to fall away from their wrist slightly as they waved. Considering Luz’s uniform came tailored to fit her arms snugly, she wondered if that was something you had to ask for.
With Luz’s attention caught, the other student patted the empty chair beside them in a clear invitation, which was just beside the windows. She felt her shoulders slump in relief as she realized she wasn’t gonna have to figure it out all on her own.
She didn’t waste any time, already walking towards the offered seat with a smile growing on her face. She pointedly ignored the stares that were following her, though she couldn’t help nervously fidgeting with the straps of her backpack.
As she made the quick trek, the murmur of students talking to each other began to pick up again, their eyes finally moving away, and she released the small breath she’d been holding. She really, really hoped the rest of her classes wouldn’t start like that. She’d been so nervous!
Luz sat down, still smiling. She slipped her backpack off her shoulders and set it down on the ground beside her - she needed it with her for now, since she didn’t know what books and supplies she needed for what classes yet. The desk had a mostly clear surface, though there was a set of multiple little cubbies at the back end, all labeled with different ingredient names, as well as a collection of glassware.
After a moment of getting herself situated, Luz turned to her desk partner. “Thank you!” she said happily, making sure to keep her voice from being too loud. She didn’t want to draw the whole classroom’s attention again! “I didn’t really know where to sit.”
The other student turned to look at her. They had been trying to seem like they weren’t side-eying her while she was sitting down, but Luz had been around her mom long enough to know how to spot people giving her funny looks.
After a moment of hesitance, they began to speak. “Glad to help,” they said. “Allowed to sit wherever.” Luz’s ears twitched slightly - something that came from her witch half, though they didn’t have the same range of motion as a normal witch’s. The other student’s voice sounded a little strange, but she wasn’t sure why, so she internally shrugged that thought off. It probably wasn’t important!
“Ooh, okay!” she replied in understanding. She could sit wherever she wanted! She wondered if that applied to every classroom, or if it was just this one. Not that she was planning to move, though! Her desk partner was super nice and offered her the seat, so maybe they could end up being friends! “I’ve never been in a classroom before,” she admitted, “so I dunno how they work.”
Her desk partner - she really needed to ask for their name and pronouns - gave a very noticeable blink. It was a little hard to tell, since they lacked a mouth, but Luz thinks their expression was one of surprise. “You… understood me?” they asked.
She mentally patted herself on the back for her incredibly good expression reading skills, because they sounded pretty surprised, too! Then, she actually processed what they said, and tilted her head to the side in confusion. Why wouldn't she have understood them? “Was I not supposed to?”
As soon as she’d finished speaking, though, it all suddenly clicked in her head. “Oh, wait, I know!” she exclaimed - quietly, that was. It sounded muffled! That’s why her desk partner’s voice seemed a little bit strange when they spoke!
It was kinda like how Mamá would sound on one of her bad ache cycles, when she refused to lift her head from her pillow, but insisted on talking to Luz and King instead of sleeping because she was silly. “It’s ‘cause you’re, uhm, talking through your eye, right?”
The other student gave a nod. It all made so much sense now! It wasn’t that they didn’t have a mouth, their eye was the mouth! That’s so cool. Offering a grin, Luz said, “It does sound kinda muffled, but I can hear you fine!” She paused for a second, thinking that over. She supposed her hearing was a lot better than a normal witch’s, so maybe that was why it was so surprising? “But that’s probably ‘cause I have really good hearing,” she added.
Then she blinked, and perked up a tiny bit. She could introduce herself now! It seemed like a good time, at least. If she introduced herself, maybe they would introduce themselves back? “Oh, I’m Luz!” she declared. “Luz Clawthorne! Uhm, she/her.”
The other student tilted their head to give her a sideways look. After a second or two of silence, they replied, “Eileen. She/her.” Ah-ha! Her incredible plan to get their name and pronouns was a complete success!
Luz was really learning a whole lot about making new friends and interacting with other kids! Coming to school had been such a good idea! Her desk partner - Eileen, Luz knew her name now! - gave another blink before adding, “You’re nice.”
A giggle escaped from Luz’s lips, and she relaxed even more. She was pretty sure that the two of them were already on track to be besties! Luz was so excited! You could never have too many friends, especially when you have a lot of enemies like Mamá did. “Thanks!” she responded, grinning happily. “It’s nice to meet you, Eileen!”
Her brand new friend - Luz was just going to go with that unless Eileen said she didn’t want to be friends, but Luz didn’t think that would happen - smiled in return. Or, well, her expression seemed like a smile. Again, it was a little hard for Luz to read, but Eileen’s lower eyelid was crinkled in that way that most people’s eyes did when they smiled, so Luz thought it was her version of a smile.
“You too,” Eileen softly said in reply. Yeah, they were totally friends now. Which meant that Luz had already made three whole friends over the span of a few weeks, so she must be doing something right!
Just in time for the end of their conversation, the late scream rang out from the hallway. Luz flinched slightly at the sound, but that was mostly because she wasn’t used to it - Mamá never really used alarm demons because loud noises were bad when you were working on potions, so instead, she would just set alarms and reminders on her scroll.
The students who had been trickling in just before the late scream took their seats. The murmuring of the classroom died down as the older man at the front of the classroom stood up with a grin on his face.
Now that she wasn’t worrying about finding a seat, or in the middle of a conversation with Eileen, she took the opportunity to actually focus on the teacher, Professor Lialurchen. Then, she blinked. They almost look like an old war hero from the Human Realm, like the picture of Bisabuelo Antonio in Mami’s photo album!
They have a fancy dark blue uniform coat, one that had the potion track colors on a strip around their lower arms. They had a lighter blue neck wrap, with another line of Potion Track gold, held together by a golden medallion on the chest.
Their hair was grayed out, with a streak of white running through it behind their ears, and their eyes were almost the same color. They had a big scar on their left cheek, and a small chunk was missing from their right ear, which only made them look even more like an old soldier.
For a moment, Luz was a little worried that they were gonna act a bit like an instructor from the Emperor’s Coven - Luz and her mom spied on a training session one time, and wow, those guys were mean - but their smile was way too warm and friendly for that to happen.
“We meet yet again, class of mine!” they said, and their voice was as nice as their grin. “Though, this time, I believe I see some new faces?” Luz swore their eyes darted to her for a second, but it was so fast that she wasn’t entirely sure. “How exciting! Feel free to introduce yourselves to your peers when you get the chance, I won’t make you stand up and declare your name like some other teachers might.”
Luz was very happy about that. She wasn’t sure she could introduce herself to the entire class without freezing again!
Then, Professor Lialurchen took a step to the side, before drawing a spell circle. It was a yellowish one, a lot like Luz and Mamá’s spell circles. For most beings, that meant an affinity towards potioneering as a magical focus.
But circle colors could be different for a whole bunch of reasons - the teacher’s was slightly more orange than the normal yellow, almost a midpoint between potions and beast keeping. Luz didn’t really have an affinity towards one specific magic type, but her spell circles were still a bright yellow, almost exactly like her mom’s.
The teacher stuck their hand through the spell circle, which disappeared into thin air like a portal. Then, from it, they withdrew a small potion bottle, which they very promptly slammed onto the desk with a dramatic swing. With the sound of shattering glass, a cloud of purple smoke billowed out, obscuring the desk and the chalkboard behind it. Several students gasped, and Luz was pretty sure she was one of them.
The smoke only lasted for a few seconds before it dissipated, parting to reveal Professor Lialurchen on the opposite end of the desk, as though they’d teleported. They were out of the way of the chalkboard, which had been drawn on while the smoke was blocking it.
In large script was the title of the class, “Potions 101,” with a subtitle of “Let’s mix it up!” written just beneath it. Surrounding these words were a couple of cutely drawn potion bottles, vials, and flasks.
Luz blinked, her eyes wide. That was so cool! Usually, her mom was the only kind of person to show off like that! The other kids in the class began to clap, a few even letting out cheers, and Luz joined in enthusiastically. She was pretty sure this teacher was already her favorite, even if it was the first class of the first cycle.
They gave a theatrical bow in response to the applause, grinning. “Thank you, thank you. Such wonderful students, I say!” Okay, they were definitely her favorite! They straightened up, placing a hand on their chest as they continued.
“Now, for those new faces in here, I am Professor Elliot Lialurchen, he/him, though Professor or Mr. Lialurchen will suffice. And this…” he gestured dramatically to the board behind him, “is Potions One-Oh-One! Where we’ll be discussing the fundamentals of potion making, as well as several basic recipes that are necessities for any expert potioneer!”
Luz grinned at that. She knew a lot about potions - Mamá had been top of the potions track when she was in school, and was a well-respected potioneer under her fake name! Even if Luz didn’t really learn anything new, she was still excited.
Then, Mr. Lialurchen - she switched from Professor to Mister, now that she knew his pronouns, so she could remember them easier! - drew a second spell circle, again reaching through it to extract another potion bottle. Now that Luz was seeing the bottle for a second time, she thought it might be a fog brew!
She’d made those before! This one was also thrown to the desk, though angled in a way that makes it plume out towards the class. A few of the students up front shrieked and giggled as the smoke blew past them.
When the dense mist cleared, it revealed that the teacher had gone from behind his desk to standing in front of it, as if he teleported again! “In honor of the new semester,” he announced, “we’ll be beginning a new unit this cycle - Fog Brews!” Ah-ha! She knew it!
With a grin still on his face, Mr. Lialurchen began to pace back and forth in front of the students, excitedly speaking about the subject. “Now, fog brews might seem like exceptionally easy potions to the trained eye - and, in truth, they are - but they hold an incredibly important place in any potioneer’s repertoire! Not only are they used as a base for numerous other potions, but they also act as a very good introduction to the family of brew-class potions.”
That was something that Luz already knew. A few of the fog brews that she had made before had been used as bases in her mom’s potions! Luz would make the safer half, and then Mamá would let her watch while she made more complex potions with it, like Firestarters, or Stink Bombs!
“Plus,” Mr. Lialurchen continued, “a little flair has never hurt anyone!” Then he paused, and a thoughtful expression grew on his face. “Well, most of the time, anyway,” he added. Laughter and giggles broke out across the room.
Luz sported a wide grin, knowing that he was right. She remembered that one time on her seventh birthcycle, when she and Mamá were practicing flame dancing - a reeaally old form of dancing from wild culture that’s meant to be extra dramatic - and Mamá’s dress caught on fire!
Then the teacher drew another spell circle, accompanying it with an upwards gesture of his hand. In front of every student, the air shimmered, then solidified into small potion cauldrons. Luz blinked. That was a really cool summoning spell! She’d seen her mom do it before, of course, but it never really occurred to her that other people could do it too!
“For those of you who are new here,” Mr. Lialurchen explained, “I always like to have the class follow the standard recipe from the book before we dive into the greater lesson, both as a test of sorts, and to set a baseline. Failure is not! Possible!” he made sure to stress the last two words. “This is merely a starting point, to gauge what and how I should teach.”
He glanced around the room, taking in all the nods that came with his declaration, before continuing. “Now, if you would all be so kind as to flip to page twenty-four of your Standard Potioneering textbooks?”
Her ears twitched again as the sounds of fabric rustling, pages flipping, and murmuring voices began, the class around her following through. Most of the students already had the book on their desks, probably taken from their lockers instead of carrying it around the whole cycle, but a few had their knapsacks and backpacks with them like she did.
From the corner of her eye, she watched Eileen begin flipping through her copy of the book. Nervously, Luz began to rifle through her own backpack, hoping it was one of the textbooks her Mamá had packed for her.
She pulled out three of the wrong books before she finally found the right one, a grin lighting up her face. She set it on the table with a little “Yess!” and a small victory fist pump. Then, she blinked. Wow, her book sure looked old! Compared to Eileen’s, at least.
Aside from just looking well used, it also had a different color of leather for the cover, and she was pretty sure that, if she had the chance to compare, the design on the front would be different, too! As she flipped through, she noticed all the little notes on the margins, detailing how to improve the recipes and end up with different results.
This one had belonged to Mamá, back when she was in school. It had probably been edited a whole bunch since then, which was why hers looked so old. Either way, the pages seemed similar enough when she glanced between her copy and Eileen’s, so it probably wasn’t an issue!
Apparently, Mr. Lialurchen had also seen her kind of outdated version of the book. She hadn’t noticed, focused on making sure she even had the book, but he’d been looking around the classroom and watching as the students did what he asked. When he’d noticed her book, he paused.
“Ah, young Clawthorne?” he called out. Luz glanced up and blinked in shock, startled that she’d been called. He was looking at her with a warm expression and a tilted head. “Might I take a look at that version of the textbook?”
Oh, he probably just wanted to check and make sure the contents weren’t too different from the up-to-date one! “Mmhmm!” she hummed, nodding.
Mr. Lialurchen began to approach, and when he drew close, she offered the book over to him. He accepted the textbook graciously, giving a curious hum as he flipped through a few pages.
After a second, his smile widened. “Ah, I had thought I recognized this one!” he said, sounding overjoyed at the fact. “This belonged to your mother, did it not?”
Luz found herself blinking again. She hadn’t known that Mr. Lialurchen knew her mom! He looked kind of old, but she hadn’t thought he was that old. Had he taught her too? “Yes sir!” she answered, giving her own grin. “You knew Mamá?”
Somewhere else in the classroom, a few snickers broke out, and Luz blushed in embarrassment, a little confused. Why were they laughing? Had she said something weird?
The snickering didn’t really last long, though. Mr. Lialurchen looked over towards whoever was doing it, his expression suddenly stern and reprimanding, with the change sudden enough to startle Luz. He looked a little scary when he did that! Under his glare, the laughter died out pretty fast.
Then he turned back to Luz, and his expression was back to being warm and happy, as if he’d never even frowned at all. “Oh, absolutely!” he replied happily. “I daresay she had been one of my most eager students, when she still attended.” Luz’s own grin came back to her face. He really had taught Mamá!
Then he leaned in a little, and spoke in that same not-quiet whisper Mamá would do for jokes, like he was revealing a secret. “Many teachers were hesitant to call her by her title of Lord Calamity, but I had known it was fitting from the moment I heard it!” Okay, so he was one hundred and ten percent definitely her favorite now!
He offered the book back to her, and she took it. It had been flipped to the correct page. “Now, I’m certain the recipe for a fog brew has not changed all that drastically since they revised the Standard Potioneering series of textbooks,” he said, “so I will allow you to use this one. However, please cross-reference the recipe with the one present in Ms. Eileen’s textbook, if you would not mind? Just to be safe.”
Luz nodded, saying “Of course!” Glancing over to her desk partner, she met Eileen’s gaze and received a small nod of agreement. Eileen even pushed her own book a little closer, so the two could share without taking the whole book from each other. Luz’s new friend - she was extra sure of it now - was so nice!
The teacher straightened up, giving a single, soft clap as he did. “Splendid!” He took a step back, away from their desk, and then began to walk between the other desks. “You may all begin!” he announced. The noise of all the students, starting to grab their potion ingredients, as well as asking questions or just talking to one another, began to rise.
“Ah, and remember, while modification is encouraged, be careful about changing the recipe!” Mr. Lialurchen added, his voice rising with the noise in the classroom to speak over it. “While fog brews are not volatile when done improperly, like some more advanced potions, they do tend to become inert if a mistake is made!” With that, he continued wandering between desks, heading over as a student asked him for help with measuring.
With implicit permission to start, Luz peered into her cauldron, just to make sure. It had already been scrubbed clean of any previous potion residue, and filled with the necessary water for a fog brew, which was good. A quick glance at the glassware nearby showed it was all clean as well.
That meant Luz didn’t need to worry about cleaning her equipment herself! One of the biggest things that Mamá stressed about potion making was lab safety, which included sanitizing everything thoroughly. She also wasn’t supposed to use magic when she was making potions, because it could draw magic out of the ingredients and reduce the potion’s potency.
But, she thought that might be another one of those things that came from the Old Ways? She glanced over to the side and spotted another student with dark purple hair and three eyes using a spell to start mixing their cauldron while they measured an ingredient in a small vial. Hm. Yeah, probably wild witch stuff.
But she wanted to do things the right way, and that meant no magic. Not that it would be a problem for Luz! She was used to conserving her magic until she really, really needed it - at least, when she wasn’t practicing!
It took a little bit of stretching, but Luz was able to reach the ingredient cubbies and the glassware without a spell circle. Elieen gave her what she thought was a curious look, having just taken her own ingredients with a spell, but didn’t ask.
She started by gathering the base ingredients, which there were three of: Gastorus Concentrate, Silicallus, and Endretic Powder. The Gastorus Concentrate was a liquid, so she also grabbed one of the graduated cylinders.
Just to make sure the measurements in her head were right, she checked her own book, and then checked Eileen’s to make sure they hadn’t changed much. The only thing that seemed to have changed was the amount of Endretic Powder, which was okay, since you didn’t have to be extra specific with it anyways.
She carefully poured fifty milliliters of Gastorus Concentrate into the graduated cylinder, bringing it close to her eye just to be sure - She was confident enough in herself to add most of the ingredients by eye, but the Gastorus Concentrate was the most important ingredient, and it had to be almost exact for the potion to work. She also filled another vial with Endretic Powder, somewhere around two hundred milligrams.
With a small, confident nod to herself, she poured the contents of the graduated cylinder into the cauldron, smiling when the potion color immediately turned a dark, vaguely red color. That was what it was supposed to do when you got it right!
Next up was the Silicallus, which was actually one of the most abundant minerals on the Isles and in the Human Realm! Though, it was just called Silica over there, and apparently, it wasn’t formed from the calluses of a Titan decomposing. Which seemed kind of strange to her.
How did it all get there if it didn’t come from decomposition? Did it fall from space a really long time ago, like the rarer minerals under the non-Titan landmasses across Etin did? She shook her head. That wasn’t important right now!
Silicallus, in its raw form, was a type of white, slightly see-through crystal. Thankfully, the amount of it wasn’t as specific as the Gastorus Concentrate, which means she didn’t have to be super precise with the cut! Some solid potion ingredients have to be cut extra specific, and even a slight mistake could cause a disaster.
She snapped one of the crystals off from the main chunk, studying it for a moment to make sure it was at least close enough to what was needed, then slipped it in. Immediately, the mixture began to bubble as the Silicallus sank, dissolving as it reacted with the Gastorus Concentrate.
This was the part where Luz was supposed to start stirring, so she took her stir rod and began bringing it in circles around the cauldron. Physically stirring a potion was a real workout, but at least fog brews weren’t the kind of potions that become slightly solid while they’re being made! Those ones were way harder to stir, especially since they’ll harden up if you stop stirring and ruin the whole potion!
Eileen sent her another look, but Luz just offered a smile back. Even if she wasn’t following her mom’s rules, she would still want to stir manually - it made her feel stronger!
The final ingredient to add to the mixture was the Endretic Powder, which was made from the leaves of a tree she couldn’t remember the name of. The powder itself was yellow, which was why the standard fog brews usually have a yellowish-brown color to them!
If you added more of the powder to the mixture, the color would be a bit more orange, and it would produce a bit more smoke. But if you added too much of it, the mixture could be overwhelmed, and the potion would stop working!
While still stirring, she grabbed the small vial she’d already filled with Endretic Powder, and slowly began to pour it in. As the powder was added, the already-bubbling liquid began to froth, and a clear yellow color started to appear. She kept going until the yellow became a little more orange, stopping when she was confident that more would only mess it up.
Then, Luz grinned. She was feeling really happy with her potion so far! Now, she just needed to stir it for a little while longer, so all the ingredients were thoroughly mixed together. Then, as soon as she stopped stirring, it would start producing the fog, and she’ll be ready to continue!
She took a moment to look behind her, towards the rest of the room. Several students were about where she was, and a few were only a step behind. Mr. Lialurchen was calmly talking with one student, who was frowning at their unmoving cauldron. Another student - that same pink-haired witch she noticed earlier - already seemed done, but was looking for something in the cubbies.
Stopping her stirring, Luz grinned as the potion began to release fog. She quickly topped the cauldron with its lid for a moment so she could keep working. But, as she was reaching towards the ingredient cubbies, her hand paused midair.
Was she even allowed to change the recipe as much as she was planning to? Mr. Lialurchen had said that some modification was encouraged, but the version Luz was used to brewing was really different from the standard. She lowered her hand, then turned towards her new friend. “Hey Eileen?”
Eileen gave a small hum in acknowledgement. They were using magic to continue stirring while they poured in their Endretic Powder, watching the mixture carefully to make sure they didn’t add too much. If Luz wasn’t mistaken, she thought Eileen might’ve even gone a little over the standard as well!
With her legs kicking under the table, Luz asked, “Would Mr. Lialurchen be upset if I, uhm, changed my recipe… more than a little bit?” She really liked the red color that the version she knew had, though she did know how to make it change a few other colors, too. Plus, it was so much more powerful, which made the potions that used it as a base even stronger!
While Luz was speaking, Eileen had finished with the Endredic Powder, and paused to listen. Her head turned to glance at Luz, the stirring spell still going behind her, and gave a singular blink. “Will it work?” was all she asked.
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed, giving a nod for good measure. “I’ve made fog brews before, but the one I make with Mamá is different, and I kinda like that version better.” She knew they were only just starting out on the new lesson, but she was really excited to show off what she knew!
With something like understanding dawning over her single eye, Eileen gave a nod. “He likes innovation,” she said in explanation, shrugging lightly.
Oh, that’s good to know! One of Luz’s favorite things about potion making was when you’re in the middle of working on one, and something about it just suddenly clicked, and it all made perfect sense!
It had only happened to her a few times, like when she realized she could replace the Repetla Petals in a Florania Accelerator with Croak Tree Root to make it last even longer, but Mamá had moments like that almost every time she brewed! “M’kay, good!” Luz said, happy. “Thank you Eileen!”
Eileen’s expression morphed into that same one from earlier - the one that looked a lot like a smile - as she tilted her head to the side. “No problem,” she said. Luz grinned right back, then turned and reached for the ingredient cubbies again, her excitement building.
It only took her a few moments of searching to find the right ingredients. One was Sea Salt, stored in a little glass container, which the label said had been taken right from the shores of the Right Arm. Nobody was really sure why, but Sea Salt had a really high magical charge, which made it a very useful substance in a lot of places!
The other ingredient she grabbed was some Snarlic, kept in a small vial, which was usually used for seasoning food. In potioneering, it had a whole bunch of other uses, because when it was combined with Sea Salt, it suddenly became way more reactive!
Mamá said that was part of the reason you couldn’t use Sea Salt to salt food, since Snarlic was so common in cooking. You know, aside from the fact that Sea Salt had a natural poison in it that witches weren’t resistant to.
She opened the lid, and immediately started stirring to halt the fog production, though a little bit of it managed to trickle down onto the desk and start falling towards the floor before it dissipated. She beamed at that, happy that even her baseline fog brew was strong enough to reach that far!
The first thing she did was add in the sea salt, which didn’t really do anything. On its own, the sea salt didn’t react with any of the other potion ingredients. Then, still stirring, she carefully sprinkled in some of the Snarlic.
Almost immediately, the Snarlic reacted with the Sea Salt, and then the new compound reacted with the rest of the potion. Her cauldron shuddered violently, and she startled, using her stirring rod to keep it in place. She always forgot that it shook like that!
Now she could feel a bunch of the kids around her staring, which she did her best to ignore. Eileen glanced over for a second, but then just shrugged and continued stirring her own potion when it didn’t go up in flames. It was a good thing Luz knew it wasn’t going to explode!
As the new ingredients mixed in, the color quickly went from an orange-ish brown to a deep velvet. The color reminded her of her mom’s dress, which, now that she thought about it, might be part of why she liked it so much. It was bubbling twice as much as it had been before, though thankfully, it had stopped shaking the cauldron after the color finished changing.
She kept stirring for a few moments, grabbing the lid. The second she stopped stirring, the fog was going to start being produced at a really, really fast rate, so she needed to put the lid on as quickly as possible! She wanted her super cool fog brew to be a surprise!
After a few moments and a deep breath, she took the stirring rod out from the cauldron. In less than a second, she brought the lid down, slamming it into place as quickly as she was able to.
Then, she brought her hands away from the cauldron, eyeing it. There weren’t any leaks, and only a few wisps of the velvet smoke made it out, which dissolved into the air quickly. Her fog brew was ready! She beamed, eager to show the teacher whenever he came around to grade her potion.
The strange looks some of the other students were giving her weren’t enough to make her upset this time. Especially when she turned to look towards Eileen, and received another one of those eye-smiles!
It only took a couple minutes after she finished with her potion for the rest of the class to be done as well. Mr. Lialurchen had been helping the stragglers, who probably messed up on the Gastorus Concentrate measurements - even she did that sometimes, which was why she was so glad it was the first step!
She watched as the teacher took a look around the classroom, noticing just about all of them with lidded cauldrons, looking back at him. “Alright, it seems as though everyone’s finished!” he announced, grinning. “Make sure your lids are secured well. When I come around, I’ll ask you to lift the lid, and we’ll see how your fog brew turned out.”
Then, he put a single finger up, like he was pointing at the ceiling. “Remember, there’s no failing here! Not succeeding is only a step in the right direction!”
Luz blinked. That was the second time he’d said something like that, but she only understood what he was actually saying right then. It kind of reminded her of Mamá, who always said that making mistakes was one of the best ways to learn, since you knew what to do better next time.
She leaned over towards her new friend. “I like him,” she admitted in a murmur. “He’s nice.” Eileen simply nodded silently in agreement.
Mr. Lialurchen began going from one student to the next, asking them to remove their cauldron lids and let the potion’s fog flow. Fog brews naturally produced a thick fog when left standing, and only really created large, sudden clouds when the container that they were in was smashed, like with the bottles at the start of the class!
Only, the teacher’s pattern didn’t really make much sense to Luz? He started at the back of the classroom first, going student by student from the left side of the class to the right. Except, once he finished with that row, he jumped all the way to the first row instead of going to the third!
Luz glanced over to Eileen with a confused look, only to receive a slight head tilt and a nod, which Luz believed was supposed to mean that this was normal. Maybe.
While she waited for the teacher to arrive at her table, Luz took the time to start putting her ingredients back into the cubbies where they belonged. After a moment, Eileen began to do the same. She didn’t even use spell circles this time, instead doing it manually like Luz was!
Then, the two of them put their dirtied glassware back, making sure to keep it separate from the still-clean glassware so whoever cleaned it didn’t have to do extra work. Once they were done, the two of them shared another grin.
With the desk cleaned up and organized, Luz turned her attention back to Mr. Lialurchen. When he had finished with the first row, Mr. Lialurchen skipped the second, looping back around to the third. Which meant that Luz’s row was the last to be graded. He had already finished with the first table, and was onto the second.
He was currently speaking to the first student at that table, but she had been too distracted to hear most of the conversation. She only caught the tail end of it. “If you could please remove your lid?” He asked.
The student - who, she realized, was actually the one that had seen her in the hallway when she left the Room of Shortcuts, with the two vertically stacked eyes and light blue skin - squeaked out, “Yes sir!”
Lifting their lid, yellowish smoke began to rise from the cauldron, pouring down the sides and onto the desk. Since the fog was denser than air, it only really rose when it was exploding out of a potion bottle. It fanned out from there, dissipating before it reached the edges of the table.
With a firm nod, Mr. Lialurchen sent the student a smile. “Wonderful work, Orii!” he commended. “It behaves exactly as it should based on the recipe.”
Luz absently nodded along. It reminded her a lot of the first fog brew she made a few years ago, when Mamá was first teaching her the basics of potioneering. Which wasn’t a bad thing!
She just started a lot earlier than most people did, and that was why her potion knowledge was already so far along. Plus, she learned from her mom, who was the best potioneer on the whole Isles! Mr. Lialurchen was a really good teacher, but Mamá would always be the greatest.
Blushing, Orii replied, “Thank you, sir!” before they set the lid back down on the cauldron, cutting off the smokey mist.
Mr. Lialurchen took a dramatically wide step to his left, which put him right in front of the next student, the one with purple hair and three eyes that Luz had noticed earlier. “Ah, Boscha,” he said, grinning with excitement. “No doubt your example will exceed expectations?”
Luz frowned slightly. That name was familiar, but she wasn’t actually sure why. Where had she heard it before?
With a matching grin, and sounding very confident, Boscha replied, “As always.” Then, they lifted their lid up, and before a full second had passed, fog was billowing out of the cauldron. The red, yellow, and orange coloring of the fog swirled together in a way that made it look like fire! Luz thought that was awesome.
It was way more powerful than the normal fog brew, too! After it reached the table, it kept going, cascading onto the ground below like a waterfall and spreading out from there. Luz looked down and blinked in surprise as the fiery fog brushed past her legs, dissipating just before it hit the wall. That was a really good one!
Mr. Lialurchen agreed, a wide grin lighting up his face as he watched. “I’m impressed!” He declared. “I do always love when some safe deviation from the standard recipe is done.” Something in Luz’s chest relaxed a little bit at that. She completely trusted Eileen’s word, but at least now, she knew for sure that her potion wouldn’t be too much! “What did you substitute to get that color?”
Boscha - Luz really needed to figure out where she’d heard their name before - just gave the teacher a smug grin. “Endretic Powder, with Enderium Root,” she explained, sounding very proud of herself.
Oh, that made sense! Enderium Root was actually from the same tree as Endretic Powder, which she had only now remembered was called an Enderium Tree. The two had very similar properties because of that!
Luz was pretty sure that fire bees had become the main pollinator of the tree’s flowers, causing some of their inherit magic to be infused into the tree. It was why they could be so energetic and fire-like when used for potions. That was also why Endretic Powder had a natural orange color, and the Enderium Root made the potion look sorta like fire!
“Ah, I expected as much,” Mr. Lialurchen said, nodding. Luz thought that he probably knew exactly what ingredients would do what to the potion, just like Mamá did. “Wonderfully done! The color choice certainly gives it a flare of fire, doesn’t it?”
Bosch nodded, and it was pretty obvious from the expression on their face that they were proud of their potion. They set their lid back on top of the cauldron, leaving the fog to slowly dissipate.
Before it was completely gone, Luz had fun kicking her feet in mist, sending orange and red whisps into the air. It was like playing with fire, but without the accidentally-burning-yourself part! The version her mom had taught her was still her favorite, but she really wanted to try making the version of a fog brew Boscha made sometime!
Finally, Mr. Lialurchen had arrived at their desk. Luz was on the last seat of the row, the right side of the desk, which meant she was gonna go after Eileen. Oh, wait. Luz just realized she was gonna be the last person to go in the whole class.
“Hello, Eileen,” he greeted kindly, offering her a grin. “If you would please remove your lid?” Nodding, Eileen lifted her lid off her cauldron. Much like Orii’s, the fog brew was pretty close to the standard, though Luz could tell it was a bit more orange than yellow, and escaped the cauldron just a little bit faster.
It fell down the sides of the cauldron, and then fanned out across the desk. Instead of dissipating on the desk like Orii’s did, though, it kept going, falling over the edge of the desk and waterfalling towards the ground, finally fading away about halfway down.
Maybe it wasn’t a crazy concoction like the one Luz - or Boscha - made, but it was still cool! Especially if this was Eileen’s first or second time making the potion. “Excellent!” Mr Lialurchen declared, and he looked impressed again, with that really warm smile on his face. He scratched at his chin for a moment. “If I might, did you increase the amount of Endretic Powder, by chance?”
Eileen gave him a nod. “One-fourth extra,” she said, raising a hand and tilting it from side-to-side instead of adding an about in. It made Luz wonder if it was hard for Eileen to speak, or if she just preferred not to, since other people might not understand her.
In fact, even the teacher seemed to have trouble with interpreting what she was saying. While Luz could understand her new friend just fine, she watched as Mr. Lialurchen blinked, pausing for a second or so before the words seemed to click.
“A smart choice!” he praised, and Eileen’s eye shifted in a way that almost looked pleased. “Innovation is important, but if you’re never sure how far you can change on a recipe, do it in small quantities!” As he spoke, he straightened up, looking around the classroom to address everyone. Eileen nodded, and so did a bunch of the other kids.
As Mr. Lialurchen took one step to the side, putting him directly in front of her, Luz saw something in his expression light up. “Ah, young Clawthorne!” he said. “I have been excited to see what you’ve done.” She gave a wide-eyed, surprised blink. Wow, she hadn’t realized he was hoping to see hers! It made her glad she went with the much cooler recipe. “If you could please?” he continued, gesturing to the cauldron.
Luz grinned, her own excitement bubbling up in her chest. She hoped he liked what she made! With a nod, she said, “Yes sir!” and wasted no further time before lifting up the lid.
She hadn’t even managed to get the lid fully off of the cauldron when the crimson-red fog suddenly began to billow out of the opening, almost twice the speed of Boscha’s. It quickly poured out onto the desk, before fanning out and falling down at the edges to the floor.
When the fog reached the ground, it didn’t stop, speeding straight for the walls of the classroom. Then it bounced off of the wall, flowing back on itself like water, flooding the entire room. Within just a few seconds, the whole floor had been covered in the crimson fog. It rose all the way up to just above her ankles before it seemed to settle.
Mr. Lialurchen’s eyebrows were raised high, about as much as she thought they could go, and he looked completely shocked. “Quite impressive, indeed!” he declared. “Most would not be capable of producing such a powerful fog brew until after we finished covering the entire subject. The color, the consistency, it is all perfectly done!”
Luz was beaming at this point, a blush across her cheeks as she was stacked with compliments. She was really happy with how it turned out, and that it impressed him so much! He gave her a knowing smile. “I am certain your mother has given you some advice?”
“Mmhmm!” Luz hummed. “I added some Sea Salt an’ Snarlic! She said it makes it waaay better!” Her mom was an incredible potioneer, and Luz wasn’t afraid to admit where she got her knowledge from. When they all got old enough to take an apprenticeship, everyone wanted to be apprenticed by someone who’s really good at what they teach, right? Because then, it means that they can work towards being just as good!
Maybe Luz wasn’t exactly apprenticed to her mom - she was still a few years away from twelve, where she’d be eligible for apprenticeships in wild culture - but that didn’t mean Mamá wasn’t teaching her a lot already!
With a hearty laugh, Mr. Lialurchen agreed, “Indeed it does!” Then another expression came across his face, the kind of thoughtful, calculating look she’s seen her mom have when she’s faced with a really interesting challenge. Luz tilted her head in curiosity, wondering what that was about.
The expression didn’t last too long. Only a few seconds later, he was grinning again. “I should’ve expected nothing less from you, Little Chaos.”
Luz blinked. Then, she blinked again, still trying to process what he’d said. Little Chaos? That sounded… well, that sounded a lot like the title her mom used to have, Lord Calamity.
Hadn’t Mr. Lialurchen said he’d been one of the first to start using the title? He’d said it really fondly, too, like when Mamá talked about Luz and King to the couple of people who knew they exist! Was he giving her a title? When she thought about it, Little Chaos was a pretty close nickname to something like… oh. It suddenly clicked in her head. It was close to something like Lord Chaos.
The name rolled around in her head for a second or two, settling in. Then a wide grin broke out across her face, warmth filling her chest. It was perfect! She had a nickname-slash-title now, just like Mamá did! Just like she’d wanted! Oh Titan, this was the best first cycle of school ever!
She was so swept up in the joy of having her own title that she almost missed what Mr. Lialurchen said, after he’d turned to face the greater portion of the classroom. “Now, do not let Luz, Boscha, and Gallum’s wonderful examples dishearten you!” he assured them kindly.
Luz wished she hadn’t been so caught up in cleaning her desk, because she missed Gallum’s fog brew, whoever they were!
“Instead, be proud of what you have all achieved, and strive for improvement,” the teacher continued. “I was impressed by every single one of you, which was beyond my expectations, considering we have never covered fog brews within this class. Even if it is an easy potion to brew, it is one that remains essential.”
Mr. Lialurchen began to head towards the front of the classroom. “Tomorrow,” he said, “we will begin our dive into basic fog density, as well as adding color to your fog brew as a way to make your brew more visually appealing.”
As he reached the front, he drew another spell circle. A two-shelved wooden rack appeared on his desk, with a collection of round bottles stored safely on it. He carefully lifted one out, and held it up for the class to see. Luz was struggling to keep focused on him, but the light bouncing off the glass was just so shiny!
“As for now,” he said, “we have about six minutes left of class, and I would like to give you this time to bottle samples of your potions to present to your parents or guardians.” Then, suddenly, Mr. Lialurchen’s gaze turned towards her, and her eyes widened. “Luz, would you be willing to help me pass out the bottles?”
For a moment, she stared at him, before pointing to herself with a tilt of the head, just to make sure she didn’t mishear. He wanted her to help him? He let out another warm chuckle, and nodded in response. Oh wow, he really did!
She stood up from her chair, and happily answered, “Of course, sir!” before skipping around the edge of the classroom to reach the front.
After a few minutes of passing out bottles and sharing as many friendly smiles with as many of the other students as she could - there were a few that seemed like they were jealous of her for some reason, or just didn’t seem to like her, but the rest of them were way nicer, so she didn’t let that bother her! - Luz had her own fog brew bottled up, held comfortably against her chest.
Along with the reddish color, the bottle had a slight vibration to it, which reminded her a lot of her mother’s purr. It helped her banish away the last few bits of unease she still felt about her first cycle at school, focusing on the rumble and thinking of Mamá giving her a comforting hug!
She was a bit distracted by the familiar rumbling, so much so that she didn’t even notice the person walking up behind her, not until she was roughly shoved to the side. She let out a yelp as she stumbled and fell to the ground, almost dropping her fog brew, but just barely managing to keep a tight hold on it. “H-Hey!” she stuttered out.
The person who had shoved her was that same pink-haired student with three eyes named Boscha, the same one who had made the cool fire-like fog brew. They didn’t apologize, or even turn around to look at Luz at all.
They just said, “Watch where you’re going,” while they walked away. Frowning, she lightly bared her fangs in a silent hiss at the other kid’s retreating back. She hated bullies! There went her hope of getting through the first cycle without having to deal with any.
Just as Boscha was disappearing around a corner down the hall, Eileen stepped over from the classroom door, and offered a helping hand. Luz sent her friend a thankful smile, accepting the offered hand and getting pulled back to her feet. “Thank you, Eileen,” she said, and Eileen nodded. Then, Luz looked back down the hall, scowling slightly. “I dunno why she’s being such a meanie.”
Eileen gave her a sympathetic look, but she didn’t seem all that surprised. “Boscha’s always mean,” she replied, giving a slight shrug. “Maybe she’s upset ‘cause your fog brew’s better.”
“Oh,” Luz said, “I guess that makes sense.” Well, not entirely. Luz thought that Boscha’s fog brew had been awesome and unique in its own way, so she couldn’t understand why the other student would be so upset about Luz’s fog brew.
She would say that neither of them had been better than one another, just good in their own ways. Luz’s was more powerful, sure, but Boscha’s had been pretty cool looking! Thinking it over just made her more frustrated.
Then, all of a sudden, it clicked. She let out a gasp of realization as she finally recalled where she’d heard Boscha’s name before. It had been an entire week ago, when she was touring the school with Willow and becoming the bestest of friends ever!
“Wait, that was that Boscha? My friend Willow’s mentioned her before!” Luz paused, then frowned to herself thoughtfully. She was pretty sure Willow had mentioned Boscha coming over to make fun of her and Gus on occasion. “What she said makes a lot more sense now.”
Eileen gave an understanding nod, her eye twitching in a way that looked a bit like a frown. It was probably really easy to assume what Willow had been complaining about, even without Luz explaining. “Only nice to friends,” Eileen remarked.
Luz found herself frowning as well. She absolutely hated bullies, but bullies that messed with her friends were even worse! Maybe she only just started to make them, but nobody was allowed to mess with her friends.
She cleared her throat as she cut off a growl that wanted to emerge from her chest. “I’ll try and stay away from her, then,” Luz said, huffing a grumpy breath. “I don’t like biting people, but I will!”
Almost as quickly as Luz’s frown had appeared, it shifted into a beaming smile as Eileen giggled in response, which was the first time she’d heard her friend laugh. Having friends was so awesome! Luz really wanted to keep talking with Eileen, but they only had four minutes to get to their next classes, so that would only work if they were heading in the same direction.
Oh, wait, maybe they were! “Hey, uhm, what class do you have next?” she asked, looking down at her schedule to check what her own class was.
Taken a bit surprised by the question, Eileen blinked. Then, she tilted her head. “Potions in Motion,” she said. “Mrs. Che. P-Five.” That was perfect! It was the exact same class and teacher that Luz had next!
“Oh, me too!” Luz chirped, her excitement rising once more. Not only were they going to be able to walk over to class together, but they might even be partners again! “You wanna walk there together?”
Eileen paused for a moment, like she wasn’t expecting the question, before she offered another shrug. “M’kay,” she replied.
Her voice was a bit tonless, making it seem like she was indifferent to the idea. But her eye was scrunched up in the way Luz was starting to understand meant she was smiling, so she knew Eileen was happy about it! Maybe she just struggled to show it with words, kind of like how she didn’t always talk in complete sentences?
As her friend began to walk down the hall, Luz skipped happily alongside, following her. After all, Eileen probably knew where Classroom P-Five was better than Luz!
After a moment, Luz finally works up the courage to ask about something that’s been on her mind since they met. “Hey, I was meaning to ask, why do you have your hood up?” Then, it occurred to her that it might be a private reason, and she blinked. “But, but if that’s a personal question, you don’t gotta answer!” she scrambled to add. “I’m just curious.”
With a sideways look, Eileen said, “Oh. Uhm. It’s okay.” She gave another shrug, and didn’t look all that bothered about it, so Luz decided she probably hadn’t upset her friend any. Which was good! Luz didn’t want to upset her friends!
As she turned back ahead, Eileen began to explain. “My eye unsettles people,” she said. “Think I’ll have a normal face. Startles them.”
“What?” Luz blurted aloud, a puzzled frown tugging her mouth down. That didn’t make sense. Why would anyone find Eileen’s eye unsettling? “That’s dumb. Your eye is so cool!”
Sure, it was a pretty unique feature for someone who looked a lot like a witch, but plenty of witch-like demons had really interesting differences like that! Honestly, Luz was a little bit jealous of people who had such obvious demonic traits. She would absolutely love to have a pair of horns that matched her brother’s!
Eileen looked at Luz again, this time with what looked like confusion in her eye. “You… think so?” She sounded like she didn’t entirely believe it.
Well, that just wasn’t going to do. Luz’s friends weren’t allowed to think of themselves as any less than amazing, because they all were! “Uh-huh!” Luz exclaimed, nodding. “Demonic features like that are awesome! And your hair, it’s such a pretty color!”
Luz had only been able to see a little bit of it so far, but the dark cyan was a really nice look! Luz liked her own brown hair, since it looked a lot like her Mami’s, but all the different hair colors that witches had were so interesting to her. “I think you should wear it out more, ‘cause it looks really nice.”
At the barrage of unstoppable compliments - Luz was going to make sure her new friend knew how great she was! - Eileen lifted a hand, fiddling with one of her bangs in a movement that seemed a little embarrassed. “Oh,” they uttered. They went quiet for a few steps, before they added a soft, “Thank you.” Luz just offered her a grin in return.
The two of them continued forwards in comfortable silence. Then, after another few steps, Eileen lifted her hand again, reaching up to her hood. With a somewhat cautious motion, she brushed it back, letting her hair fall back into its natural place. Her hair was a bit messy in the back, probably because it had been tucked into a hood, but Luz had been completely right - it was really pretty!
Instead of drawing more attention to it, though, Luz jumped straight into a new discussion about what she was excited for in their next class. She thought Eileen might have appreciated it, with the way her eye was smiling the whole rest of the walk.
Notes:
So. It's, uh. It's been a while. About a year and a half, in fact.
Shortly after I published Chapter Eight of this story, I began to look back on some of my work from 2021, 2022, and early 2023, and I came to the realization that it was no longer matching my current standards. My writing style went through a rapid evolution during 2023 and continuing into 2024. So, a bit impulsively, I decided I would rewrite them all.
I've been rewriting all the chapters of this story and publishing them quietly in the background, all of which are now out if you missed my message at the start of this chapter. I also just posted the first chapter of the rewritten Fear Stops None, Salvation Seeker - if you're into Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach fanfics, please, go take a look. I'm so happy with how it's turning out. There's some work done for both Eden of the Soul and The Brother and the Father, but my main focus has been on the former two.
Then, a whole bunch of things happened in my life. Between switching what insulin pump I was on, moving back to Cali for a few months, and starting on a new medication, my life never seemed to really calm down for a minute. But, I'm back in Arizona now. I'm finding the motivation to write and make mods again. I'm hoping that motivation continues.
So I present to you, Daughter of the Wild One, Chapter Nine! I am incredibly proud of this. Genuinely. I am so much happier with where my writing is now, even compared to 2023. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and here's to trying to get another chapter finished without my motivation dying for a whole year!
Chapter Word Count: 11,629
Chapter Publication Date: 2025-06-11
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