Luz didn't say anything at first. She couldn't. She was too shocked by the realization she was coming to. The marks on the wall, the state of the house, and now Eda's staff and this emblem? This wasn't a simple break-in like Luz had thought like she had been hoping as she carefully searched the house for any intruders that might still remain in the house. No, this had been a fight, a struggle, and it was clear that Eda had lost. She would never go anywhere without her staff.
Gus and Willow entered the threshold of the house and stopped there, taking a look around the house, not knowing how to respond to what was going on. They silently watched as Luz retrieved the amulet and stood with it.
Luz turned around and showed the Emblem for the Emperor's Coven to Gus and Willow.
"Look at this!" Luz exclaimed.
"Is that…?" Willow adjusted her glasses, squinting at the medal Luz was holding tightly in her palm.
"The Emperor's Coven?" Gus finished her sentence.
Luz quietly reached down and picked up the staff. As soon she had the staff in her hands everything felt real, it broke her out of her shock. For so long Luz had longed for a stave like Eda's, but to inherit Eda's staff in such a way...it felt wrong, dirty. As Luz looked over the staff, she was reminded of all the time she had spent with Eda. Five long years, full of laughs, adventure, true friendship. Eda was family to her and having her torn away felt like a cold stab to the heart. Luz couldn't help but imagine the thought of never seeing Eda again, it formed a pit in her started to bring tears to her eyes.
"Th-they must have found her," Luz started to pant, her eyes began to dart around the room. Her head filled with ideas and scenarios about what could have happened, how scenarios could have played out, how things could have been different, what could have been happening to Eda at that very moment. "They must have come after Eda got home from the shop while we were still at the festival." She takes a minute to think about that. "If- If I had just convinced her to come with us to the festival none of this would have happened."
"Hey, you can't think like that." Willow tried to console her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."
"Yeah, the question now though... What do we do now?" Gus asked the room.
King gave Gus a look, thinking he was moving too fast.
It was at this point that the pain, the hurt, the loss of having Eda stolen started to turn into something else. It crept up on Luz and was unnoticeable at first. It started as a warmth below her ears, spreading through her neck and cheeks. As her mind started to direct itself on other thoughts. Not on mourning, but on how to fix the problem, on how to get Eda back, and how to make the people responsible pay. Her free hand curled into a first and she gritted her teeth as rage became her primary emotion.
Luz then looked at Gus after a moment as if the answer was obvious. "We're going to get her back." She faced the door and started heading towards it.
"Whoa whoa whoa." Gus stepped in front of Luz, blocking her path out of the house. "Do you even have a plan? Where are you going to go?"
"I don't know." Luz gnashed her teeth together as she spat out her words. "I'll go start blasting the nearest Emperor's Coven encampment until I get answers"
"Okay…" Gus puts his hands together in the most calming gesture he can manage. "You could do that. But, that will probably end in you getting arrested and nowhere closer to freeing Eda. Instead, Let me offer this suggestion."
Luz didn't look like she was willing to consider whatever proposal Gus was cooking up until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see King looking up at her.
"Just hear him out, and after that, if you still want to go trash some Emperor's Coven jerks then I'll be right there with you," King said.
Gus takes a step around Luz to get to the center of the room to give himself some space to cast before doing a couple incantations. A map of the boiling isles appears as a hologram in the living room of the owl house, with a blinking "x" to indicate their current location. Then there was a dotted line traveling across the land northwest to a town Luz had never heard of with a circled dot.
"I know a guy. He lives in NorthHaven. He used to be part of the Emperor's Coven. If anyone knows anything about where Eda would be being kept, it would be him." Gus explained.
"How is this any better than just forcing them to tell us where they are keeping her?" Luz folded her arms.
"Well, instead of fighting a whole battalion of guards we won't be fighting anyone, Laurence is my friend, he will come through for us," Gus argued.
"Oh, I think I remember Laurence, he was your buddy in school when your two covens cross-trained, right?" Willow asked.
"Yeah, that's right, we got to be really good friends, even after he went back to his Emperor's Coven specific training. But eventually, he ended up washing out, so now he's our man on the 'inside' so to speak," Gus said.
"Where did you say he lives? NorthHaven?" King interjected. "Huh, never been there, but it looks like it's not too far of a fly from here."
"That's… the problem. You know that we can only get away with flying around town here because we are far enough away from the capital. Once we are about halfway to NorthHaven we are going to start running into the Emperor Coven's flying patrols and we will have to go the rest of the way on foot. This means we can fly about half the way there in half a day, but once we are on foot the going will be a lot slower. The second half of the journey will probably take us more like two days." Gus went on.
"Meaning?" Luz asked, still fidgeting.
"Meaning we need to get supplies because it looks like we are going to be camping outside for a couple nights, we will need a few tents, some cooking equipment, food to eat…" Gus started rattling off a list. "And… there is the issue that the market doesn't open until morning."
At this, Luz's heart dropped. She would have to wait until morning to even begin her quest to save Eda. Even though she was filled to the brim with anger, determination, energy, and adrenaline she would have to try to go to bed while Eda is out there somewhere in the clutches of the Emperor's Coven.
"Come on, Luz why don't you come home with me and you can sleep at my house tonight?" Willow asked.
"Y-yeah, sure…" Luz gave an unenthusiastic reply.
Willow and Gus walked outside, getting ready to head home.
"Hold on a second, there is something I need to check," Luz shouted from the doorway.
Luz ran up the stairs to Eda's room and went to the corner of the room. She got down on her hands and knees and started feeling around the floorboards.
"Now, where is it?" She asked herself.
After searching a bit Luz's fingers found the gap between the floorboard and the baseboard that make the perfect grip to pull the loose floorboard up. Which revealed a large sack of golden coins, neatly tied off with a bit of string. Eda wouldn't mind if Luz used this to save her, right?
Luz came back down the stairs and found King still inside, waiting on her. As Luz went to step outside King stopped her.
"Didn't you want to ask Hooty what happened?" King asked her.
Luz bit her lip indecisively. She then grabbed her spellbook and began to flip through it.
"I don't know if I have a spell to wake him up, I've never had to revitalize a house before…" Luz said. At this, King slapped Hooty.
"H-huh?" Hooty said, waking up.
"Hooty!" Luz said, taking a step closer to the owl. "Do you remember anything about what happened?"
"Huh? What? Where am I?" Hooty was too disoriented to even acknowledge Luz's question.
"Hooty!" Luz grabbed Hooty's face. "Focus!"
"Luz… Oh, what happened?" Hooty asked.
"Hooty, Eda is gone, the Emperor's Coven took her. You had to have seen something!" Luz said exasperated.
"Uhh." Hooty shook his head as much as he could for being stuck in a door. "Yeah, yeah I remember Eda getting home, then not too long later seeing three dark figures approaching the house. They looked like big guys, for me, anyway. They did kind of look like Emperor's Coven goons now that I think about it, but more… official? But before they even got close enough to say a word they blasted me and the next thing I know, you are waking me up."
Luz sighed, no particularly useful information. "Okay, I think I'm going to go stay at Willow's tonight. Is that alright? Are you going to be okay by yourself, Hooty?" Luz asked.
"Y-yeah, I should be okay, just a little sore," Hooty replied.
"In the morning we are going to go get Eda back. So we may not be back for a while, alright?" Luz told him.
Hooty nodded. "Please get her back, Luz." Hooty almost begged.
"We will," Luz assured him before shutting the door, turning her back and walking towards Willow who was waiting on her flight staff. Luz and King boarded Willow's flight staff and then looked over to Gus who was still waiting on them.
"Meet us at Willow's place at daybreak, Okay?" Luz said to him.
"Okay," Gus made the OK sign with his hands and took off on his staff.
Willow, Luz, and King took off as well. The flight staff was obviously not made for this many passengers and was flying slowly, and low to the ground. But, in time they made it through town to Willow's house. It was a quaint little house on the east side of town.
Willow lived alone now, having just recently moved out of her parents' house. It would have been nightmarish having to explain Luz's situation to them, and having them fret and worry over her, while at the same time wanting her out the door because she is a wanted criminal. Willow's parents never met her friends too much so they never made the connection between Luz and the ' Witch of the Scroll' wanted posters. But seeing her up close for a long time might jog their memory.
Willow put on a pot of tea once they got inside. King immediately started looking for a place to curl up and claim as his own for the night. He found a bean bag-like chair next to the sofa in the living room that he sank into as he laid down on it. Luz sat on the sofa, just recounting all the events that took place that day and tried not to think of all the horrible things that could be happening to Eda.
Willow brought three teacups into the room and placed one in front of each of them on the coffee table that sat between King's chair and the couch. King opened one eye to look at the teacup. He sat up enough to grab the teacup. He sniffed it a bit, then took a big sip before recoiling.
"That's hot!" He exclaimed. Then he chugged the rest of the cup and set it back down on the coffee table. Then laid back down.
"Thanks, Willow," Luz said as she took the cup and began to blow on it.
"So, do you want to talk about it?" Willow asked.
"I don't know. No?" Luz said. She scratched her head. "I don't know what there is even to talk about. I just want tomorrow to come as fast as it can. I don't know how I'm going to get any sleep tonight."
"The tea should help with that," Willow said.
Luz smiled and looked at the tea. "Thanks, Willow." She said again, beginning to sip at her tea.
"I only have the one bed upstairs in my bedroom, so the only place for you guys to sleep is down here." She looked over at King "Looks like he already took the chair."
"That's fine, I can sleep here." Luz patted the couch.
"I'll get you a pillow and blanket," Willow said, putting her cup down. She went to a nearby closet and ruffled around in there for a bit before coming back with a pillow and two big fluffy blankets. She handed one to Luz and then draped the other one over King.
"Thanks, Willow," Luz repeated for the third time.
Willow sat back down and drank the remainder of her tea before breaking the silence between them. "We will go get supplies in the morning then head out, and in a day or two we will meet up with Gus's friend. He will tell us where Eda is, and we can plan on what to do from there, okay? But we will get her back, don't worry." After a pause she concluded, "Why don't you try to get some sleep?"
Luz didn't respond right away, trying to process everything, she knew the plan, but hearing it all laid out made her realize there was uncertainty in it. What if Gus's friend didn't have information? What if they ran into Emperor's Coven guards along the trail to NorthHaven? What if they get to where Eda is being held and they were too late?
"Yeah, okay." She responded weakly as she also finished her tea. She set her cup on the coffee table to be dealt with in the morning. Luz set up her bed, putting the pillow at one end of the couch and spreading the blanket over the rest of it.
"Alright, if you guys are all set up for the night, I should probably be getting to bed too then." Willow yawned. She headed for the stairs. "I'm right up here if you need anything, Luz."
"Okay, see you in the morning," Luz replied as she clicked off the light to the living room. She crawled under the blanket on the couch and heard Willow climb the stairs up to her room and shut the door. It was silent in the house except for King's breathing. Luz rolled over on her side and thought of Eda. A couple tears rolled down her cheek before she drifted off to sleep.