The Darkness Whispers
-At the Cave-
Edric hops off the staff and bounces on his heels with excitement as the other two take their time getting off of Owlbert, the two palismens had floen beside them and each took their respective new owners shoulder to rest on.
Indigo looks at the cave entrance, their pointed ears twitch and the feeling of nervousness in their stomach makes them flex their hands, the idea of answers was both highly exciting but also extremely daunting, there was also the possibility absolutely nothing would be revealed at all.
Mollus gave Indigo's war a peck which made them flinch, apparently predicting this little bird's movements was a lot harder than it was for others, it simply seemed to be bringing them back to reality as Edric approached them, his emotions seemed worried.
"Hey, you okay? You seem anxious" he murmurs, Luz was already ahead of them, preparing her light glyphs.
"Ah'm…. Feelin' ahlo'ah things righ' naw, no' sure hoe teh…. Describe eh all" Indigo admits just as quietly
"Hey… If you don't want to go now…" Edric started, trying to give them an out, he seemed to feel like he had pressured them to come now with his earlier outburst.
"Eh's okay Ed, Ah wan' teh do this naw, deh sooner deh betteh righ'?" Indigo asks with a shrug and a half smile
"'Sides, yeh guys 're here teh help, whah coul' go wrong?"
Edric smiles and offers them a hand, they accept it and start heading for the void-like entrance.
Luz spots them and hops over to take Indigo's other hand, offering her own support as the three walk forward back into the darkness.
The two Mimicidaes immediately flutter off the two teens shoulders once inside the cave, the orbs begin lowering rapidly till they form the usual circle in the middle, it was much bigger since last time.
Luz grabs her pile of light glyphs and after saying "Bap!" Sends the papers into the air, the lights swirl and behind falling into place with the large spiral.
Indigo felt far better once the lights were in view, in the centre sat their small indigo orb, it always made them smile, it was their first spell after all.
"Where did our palismens go?" Edeic asks as he looks around, though how he hoped to spot his purely black policemen in the darkness surrounding the circle Indigo wasn't sure.
Indigo walks forwards slowly towards the circle, they began to notice it looked almost like a glyph for light in its shape, but it wasn't completed yet, they were sure it would take a lot more glyphs to get it solid enough for one to actually take advantage of the shape to use the lights as a glyph like Lux did with paper.
Luz was admiring the circle herself, grinning at the number of lights and just how much she was able to light up for them
"It should be about a quarter lit up by now" she says with excitement.
Indigo turns to Luz and ruffles her hair a bit
"Ah would'n dough eh fer a secon' Ah appreciate how much effor' yeh been puttin' inteh this place fer meh" Indigo says and gives Luz a small one armed hug which Luz happily returns with a full one.
Once Luz released them, she seemed to put on her serious face
"So, what are we hoping to find? Maybe some clues? Some wall paintings or murals maybe?"
Indigo tilts her head at Luz "Paintings?"
"Yeah, or like wall carvings or something, its like my glyphs but drawings of other things using paint, we have enough light to maybe shoe a wall or to if we can direct them that way somehow" Luz explains and tries to scoop a few lights in the direction she was walking in, they followed her with ease
"Nice, it works, okay let's get as many as we can over this way" Luz says and starta gathering lights to follow her.
Indigo glances over at Edric, who was still looking for his palismen
"I'm sure they'll come back, let's try Luz's idea, maybe they're waiting for us to figure something out," Indigo says.
Edric looks over to them and nods with a half smile, but, especially in the cave, they knew he was anxious without his little friend nearby.
Indigo and Edric gathered all the lights they could together and headed towards Luz who had apparently found the wall, her emotions seemed confused.
Once Indigo approached, they sae Luz trying to sketch what looked like a glyph that had been seemingly carved into the bone of the horn, though she didn't quite have enough light to see it fully, so Indigo scooped theirs and Edric's collective lights all around the wall, this indeed lit up the glyph for Luz, it also shine light on many other glyphs dotting the surface around it.
Lux gasps in glee and begins jotting down as many as she can see
"Oh wow, these are all glyphs! I need more light!" Luz says and heads back towards the circle of light to get more lights.
Indigo stares at the decent sized circles, some were familiar, others were new, Indigo reaches out towards a small light glyph and touches it, to their surprise, it releases a small orb of light, even as the glyph remains on the wall.
Edric had reached out for another glyph, a new one, Indigo had seen Luz jot that one down so they knew it was a new one to her as well, once Edric touches it, he recoils as aquamarine sludge pours out of the glyph and forms a small abomination which looks up at Ed expectantly.
Indigo flinches away from the thing, they were never really fond of those things.
Esric however leans down to examine it, it had the colouring of his magic, he gave it a testing poke, it was made of the same stuff as normal abominations, it was simply a different colour.
"Uh, Abomination… rest?" The abomination fell into a puddle which evaporated away before their eyes.
"An abomination glyph…" Edric says thoughtfully and looks back at the picture of the glyph.
"This is all wild magic" he concurs softly.
"Wild magic?" Indigo asks in confusion.
"As in, a form of magic the Emporer deems "wrong" because everyone can cast it with the same ease as others, like if I joined the Illusions conven, I would only be able to do Illusion magic, but no one could stop me drawing these glyphs to create an abomination, theoretically the bigger the glyph is, the bigger the spells effect, which would make the abomination tougher, I mean it just sounds like a dumb system to me, why should we give up all our other magic for the sake of one guys word that this is somehoe better?" Edric rambles for a while as he looks at and occasionally tests some of the glyphs, ending up getting sprayed by a water glyph when he touches it.
Indigo giggles as Edric wipes the water off his face and gives a pretend glare before tapping one in front of Indigo and laughing as they simply allowed it to spray them, noy bothering to move, despite the speed, Indigo very much enjoyed water, so they weren't worried about getting splashed by it.
Luz had come back since and was jotting down notes on the glyphs as Indigo and Edric began testing them out.
It soon became evident which glyphs were which by a glance, both Edric ane Indigo avoided the obviously electric glyph as they were both soaked and didn't want to be zapped by it.
A pattern began emerging as they made their way around, it seemed as if the newly discovered earth glyphs went upwords, each one, when tapped went out the same length no matter its size or the length of time one held it down for and despite the abundance of new glyphs, there always seemed to be an earth glyph not a few paces away, as if it were making a set of stairs up the wall.
It had been almost an hour, after finding all this, Indigo was tempted to call it quits and let the two go home, but before they even got through thinking it, Luz had made a sort of staircase and was now trying to climb it, calling to the two to follow her.
Indigo realises the young witches apprentice was using the earth glyphs to go upwards.
"Luz, this cave ehs really tall, ah don' think yer gettin' teh deh top aneh time soon, lehs call eh a day maybeh?"
"No way! I'm sure this'll lead us somewhere, it's too purposeful not to be important, c'mon!" Lux encourages and Indigo knows they just want to help them get closure, she really was too sweet.
Indigo sighs and begins scaling the haphazardly put together staircase of earth, ice and… bone? She could swear some of these stairs were made of bone.
"Luz? Did yeh learn eh bone glyph?" Indigo asks uncertainty.
"No… those were… already there" Luz calls back from above them.
Indigo pauses in her scaling and notices almost all the stairs were made of bone now, like they had been carved from the horn itself.
Indigo felt a tap at her heel and glanced back to see half of Edric's face looking up at her, the light orbs were thinning out in number and not all of them were visible.
"Luz we're runnin outta light 'ere"
"Oh! Every third step has a light glyph beside it, I've been watching the patterns!" Luz replies "I think we're almost to the top!"
Indigo shivers at the thought and presses on, tapping every third glyph to get another small indigo light, a hand grasp Indigo's arm after a moment and they let it, they knew it was Edric's, they could feel his concern growing more prominent the higher they went up.
"Indigo, if you want us to stop for now, you're allowed to say so, I don't think Luz realises how far she's already pushing you" Edric whispers honestly.
"She's noh pushing meh…." Indigo tries to smother their own feelings for now, tries to hide them, but it seemed like even in the darkness of the cave, Edric could read them as well as they could read him.
"Indie, she's just excited, but the cave isn't going anywhere, she can come back again anytime with you, she won't be mad or disappointed if all this is too much for you" Edric says calmly.
Indigo swears it's as if Edric was getting her sense of emotions with how easily he was reading them.
"How are you reading me so well?" Indigo asks through their minds, they knew their phrasing seemed odd but Edric knew exactly what they were getting at.
"Heh, you're showing emotions a whole lot more now than you were before, but not everyone sees the signs, I already know how much this stuff can worry you, Luz doesn't, so she's not looking for the signs, like how your ears pin back when you're getting worried, or how you hands start twitching like you need to climb something at any minute, I don't need to read your emotions to know your worried and really want to stop"
Indigo felt their ears twitch down, while they were contemplating this, Edric leaned around them carefully.
"Hey Luz, it's getting late outside, we should probably call it here now" Edric knew Luz was also considering his need to get back before curfew, so when she immediately calls back "Okay, you're right, let's get going!" He just smiles at Indigo as the three start heading back down the staircase.
Indigo remained silent as they descended the odd staircase, thankfully the activated glyphs had stayed out by the time they got down to them, once all three had passed though, they retracted one by one, as if the cave itself knew they weren't needed anymore.
Once all three were on the ground again, the lights began to return to their previous spots in the circle of lights illuminating the cave.
"You guys ever get the feeling this place is…. Living?" Luz asks as she glances at the older teens, making her way towards the exit with one of the light orbs in front of her.
"Well eh ehs par' oh this ti'an you mentioned befoh" Indigo says softly.
"Yeah but the titan itself is dead… right?" Luz asks and the two glance at Edric, who looks to the side a bit before shrugging, uncertain.
"I mean, we live in its bones so I'm gonna say yes?" Edric says, still sounding uncertain about it all.
Luz just hums curiously, watching the orbs move by themselves as they guided them to the exit.
Indigo looks at the last orb as it seemed to bob in place before the endless blackness, what was making it stay there, what would make it float back up to the top once they were out of range of its light, so many questions floated through their mind that they didn't even realise Luz had already walked through the entrance to the outside, though they were surprised to realise Esrix hadn't left yet, he had been watching them as they stared at the light.
"Any theories?" He asks curiously.
Indigo shakes their head slowly
"Neh idea whah is happ'nin' there" Indigo says and pokes the orb, rather than blinking out, it simply moves away from the touch, continuing to glow softly.
"Hmm, odd that it didn't vanish" Edric says and reaches for the light, it moved once again before it was touched.
"Hmph, come back here!" Edric demands and continues to try and grab the light, it flies around his hands in a comical fashion and even seems to boop his nose once or twice in the process.
Indigo just stood there, trying not to laugh out loud, just kind of snickering until Edric gave up with a huff, then they couldn't hold back when he looked at them, pouting.
Edric gives a pretend glare
"And just what are you laughing at?" He asks and advances at Indigo, who promptly looks up, grinning and darting to the side as Edric tries to grab them in a headlock, continuing to laugh.
"Yeh can' catch meh!" Indigo says and sticks their tongue out.
"Oh yeah? I'm gonna test that theory" Edric says and tries again, still missing but still amused nonetheless.
After a few more attempts Esric puts up his hands "Alright Alright I cant catch you, lets go, Luz must have been waiting outside this whole time.
Indigo nods before looking for the entrance, they always knew where it was when inside the cave, but the light made it easier to guide Edric to it.
The light orb was back in its original spot.
Indigo walks over and puts up a hand to find the void black layer of the entrance that seemed to resist them, frowning, they tried again, but the substance simply refused to allow them to pass.
Indigo felt panic flutter in their chest as they tried even harder to push at the entrance, Edric notices their panic and comes over to them, gently guiding them back a few steps and telling them to take a breath.
Indigo does so, before looking back at the entrance.
"Eh won' leh meh through" they explain briefly.
Edric nods once "Yeah I could see… but why would it stop us from leaving?" Edric moves closer "Luz walked through it just fine about 5 minutes ago"
"6 minutes have passed here so outside it has been 12…. Maybe the weather patterns changed? But if its not letting us out does that mean it's also stopping Luz from getting back in? What if she's stuck out there in boiling rain!"
Indigo had switched to thoughts in their panicked state, too worked up to bother speaking aloud and wasting time.
"Easy Indie, Luz has the Owl Lady's staff, remember? She can always fly away if it is boiling rain or some other threat, there's no need to panic"
Something catched Indigo's eye, near the floor, something fluttered into the cave from outside.
Edric notices as well, it seemed the light was just bright enough to illuminate it for him, he reaches down and picks it up, bringing it close to the light.
"Guys, you were taking a while so i tried to come back and make sure you were okay but the cave wont let me back inside and I think I know why, there are clouds forming over the skull and they're headed this way, I'm gonna ride back and let Amity and Emira know whats going on, I'll be back as soon as the rain stops, Luz"
"She fit all that onto that tony bit of paper?" Indigo asks and moves to see it.
Luz's writing was tiny, but all the words did in fact fit onto the page.
"Huh"
"So we are stuck here till the rain stops…"
"Actually we are stuck here for twice as long as it takes the rain to stop"
"The shortest bouts of boiling rain are like an hour or two"
"We are going to be here for a while then"
Both teens look at each other in dismay for a moment before Indigo notices the lights floating down, trying to lead them somewhere else.
"... Where would it be trying to lead us now?" Edric asks uncertainty.
"I have no idea" Indigo thinks back softly, they felt Edric take their hand, he felt anxious, very anxious.
Indigo held Edric's hand tight as they began to follow the lights, they stopped at a wall, but a set of smaller lights now circled a new kind of glyph, it was large, the inside seems to consist of a large but thin oval shape going from one side to the other.
"I don't think we've seen this one before" Edric says quietly, examining it carefully.
"Definitely not… but it doesn't seem dangerous in any way" Indigo thinks back, reaching out carefully, Indigo felt Esric's grip tighten around their hand, he felt… protective, he wants to protect them, how sweet of him.
Once the glyph was touched, it glowed softly, then, below the two began glowing in a large disc shape which then began rising, both teens yelped in surprise and stumbled to get their balance, basically falling against each other, before righting themselves with the other's help.
The platform rose slowly of its own volition, Indigo looked down below the disc to see they were a considerable ways off the ground now.
"Its taking us up" Edric says as he looks up
"Up to what though?" Indigo asks in her mind, Edric didn't need Indigo's powers to see how anxious they were becoming, but he couldn't stop the platform, so he simply held their hand tightly as the only real form of support he had.
"It'll be okay, maybe we'll find our palismens!" Edric says to try and calm Indigo's anxiety.
Indigo tried to smile, but they knew Esric didn't buy it as he continued to try and make them feel better.
"C'mon Indie, whatever is up there can't be bad, right?" He asks and squeezes their hand.
Indigo sighs softly "It's not it being bad I'm worried about, it's… just all so new and…. Scary, I don't…. i know these people that are meant to be my parents, the way everyone I've ever met reacts to their parents is so different… how am I supposed to react to them?" Indigo asks pleadingly, looking at Edric in hopes of an answer.
Edric feels his ears pin to his head, he didn't exactly have the best example of parents.
"I don't know, but… it's clear they cared about you, I mean, this cave was made to protect YOU, I get the feeling they wouldn't have left unless they had to, with the way our palismens copied their words, it's clear they probably left to protect you from something, maybe they had to lure something away? I don't know for sure but… I think they were the good kind of parents so… let's just… see where all this goes, I'll be right here with you, okay?"
Indigo listens to Edric speaking with all the focus they had, they needed a distraction, his speech not only gave them one, but brought back the odd feeling from before, the not unpleasant tingling in their stomach, they were pretty sure of what it was, but they couldn't quite say anything yet, Edric was adamant about sharing his feelings with them, they would let him do that first.
When Indigo just stared and said nothing, Esrix began fidgeting under their gaze until the disc below them slowed to a halt, making them both jump and look around, apart from the disc illuminating them to each other, everything was in darkness again.
Slowly, as if pulled by a string, the light orbs began rising, one by one, melding together and forming a bridge of pure light under their feet, neither teen dared step forward, both too nervous to test the limits of this bridge, though they didn't get much choice as the disc below them began slanting upwards and basically slid them onto it.
Both landed with an audible "Oof" on the solid light bridge, both winded and relieved as they stood slowly.
"I suppose we follow this now" Edric says quietly.
Indigo pauses even as Edric takes a step forward, they meet his eye before slowly nodding and following as Edric took the lead.
The light bridge didn't have a visible end to it, it just looked like it would stretch on forever.
Something must have been acting as a barrier, Edric unknowingly walked right into the unseeable barrier, stumbling back and gripping his head "Ow…"
Indigo's ears pinned to their head, whatever it was had hurt Ed!
Indigo moves forward, first checking before them, before turning yo check on Edric, who looks up at them.
"I'm okay… but there's some kind of barrier there, clearly I'm not allowed through it, Mittens can make barriers like that too, if you aren't permitted through by the caster then you can't pass" Edric explains.
Indigo ignored what Edric said, well most of it, they heard him say he was okay, after that they went back to checking for whatever had hurt him, waving a hand in front of them to find the barrier, but their hand met no resistance, confused for a moment, they look back at Edric.
Edeic moves to put out a hand, once he reached just past Indigo, his hand was stopped and repulsed, he gave a small hiss of pain.
Indigo looked at the area Edric's hand couldn't pass, there was no emotion tied to whatever was stopping them, this frustrated them even more, making them hiss at thin air.
"Hey, hey, its okay, no need to get mad… it's letting you through so it must be for your eyes only right? I can…. Wait here" Six reasons and normally Indigo would accept it calmly and reasonably, but right now, Indigo didn't want to be calm and reasonable, they really needed Edrix with them, they simply couldn't muster up the courage to continue without him, so they'd be damned of they were gonna let some invisible wall stop them.
Edric realised what they were thinking before they even though a word to him.
"Indie… please don't try to pull me…." Edric didn't get the rest of his sentence out before Indigo pulled him through the barrier with their body as his shield, it had worked!
Indigo had ended up falling over in the process of pulling Edric through under them, Edric looked startled but was otherwise unharmed, his expression changed a bit.
Indigo felt their ears pin to their head, Edric was not happy with them at the moment, all they needed to see were those golden eyes narrowing under the furrowing of eyebrows, they didn't even need their powers to observe the change.
Edric said nothing at the time but Indigo knew full well he was angry at them for their impulsive decision, but for now, Edric simply took a deep breath and offered them a hand up, Indigo accepted it quickly, being pulled to their feet before their hand was dropped.
Indigo felt regret begin to eat away at their stomach, it was bad when they felt someone else's, it was even worse when it was their own, their ears stayed pressed against their head and their arms instinctively hugged their body in some futile attempt to comfort themselves.
Edeic notices the change in their demeanour and outs two and two together
"I'm not mad at you Indie" he says softly.
Indigo turns her eyes to Edric "Yeh know full well Ah can read how yer feelin'" they say quietly
"Yes I do, and yes I am annoyed that you didn't listen to me but I'm not just gonna up and abandon you over it, I know how anxious you've been, even when Luz was still here you weren't particularly ready to do this, I kinda figured once I said about staying back that you might argue over it and come up with a plan, I wasn't expecting you to act so suddenly though so you caught me off guard and I got worried that the barrier would hurt you like it hurt me" Edric explains.
"Ah panicked….." Indigo says and hugged themselves tighter "ah wasn' really thinkin' staigheh, am sorreh ah pulled yeh through an worried yeh like thah"
Edric gives a sigh "I accept your apology, I know this situation has you on edge, c'mere" Edric opens his arms a bit and gives an "oof" as Indigo practically flings themselves into the hig
"Easy, easy" Edric says breathlessly, he has to tap their back as they hug him far too tightly.
Indigo quickly loosens their grip but their hug is still a tight one, they just aren't suffocating the poor boy anymore, allowing him to hug them back hentley for a moment before pulling out of the hug.
"Yeesh, you're stronger than you let on huh?" Edric says in amusement as they let go.
Indigo shrugs their shoulders.
"Never had to usr mah full strength before" Indigo says
"I assure you, a hug doesn't need to be that tight" Edric says in good humour which makes Indigo giggle a bit.
The two felt better after their little banter and both turned to face forwards to see what lay ahead of them.
Along the light pathway, stood what looked like a wooden door with an odd knocker, at that distance it just looked like an odd amalgamation of shapes
Indigo felt the tension return to their body as they looked at the door, stepping away from it slightly, walking right against Edric who had moved to stop them fleeing.
"It's okay, it's just a door, we don't have to go in but we could take a closer look" Edric reassures them softly, putting a hand on their shoulder.
Indigo looks back at Edric before looking forward at the door again, swallowing audibly and taking a deep breath, moving forwards with Edric right behind them.
Upon approaching the door, the weird knocker revealed it was in fact, two different creatures moulded into one, one side appeared to be some kind of big cat, the other appeared to be a wolfbat, which Edric identified pretty quickly as one of his favourite creatures.
Indigo was slightly distracted by Edric gushing about Wolfbats, they smiled as he went on a tangent about how soft their fluff was supposed to be but how rare they were so it was hard to know for sure, neither one realises that the door is slightly ajar before them, rather than fully closed like they had thought.
A small chirp made both teens jump out of their skin as the door got pushed a little more open by two little feathery undles tumbling out onto the light bridge.
"Tolken?"
"Mollus?"
Both birds look up and chirp incessantly at the two, who began talking back at the same time.
"What do you mean what took us so long? Were you here the whole time?"
"Hey yer the one thah flew off on meh, don go actin all high an mighey"
The two birds flap up to their respective owners shoulder and jab their beaks towards the door.
Edric had taken a quick peek inside the door when it had opened slightly, glancing at Indigo
"It looks like a room, a well lit room" he murmurs.
Indigo looks at the door, they knew Edric wouldn't go in unless they wanted to.
It took a few moments of silence and Mollus packing their neck a few times to convince themselves to reach forward to pull the door open.
As Edric had said, there appeared to be a well lit and rather homely room before them, the room had a wooden floor with a large circular rug in the middle, a large four person couch rested against the farthest wall, it looked well worn and appeared to have larte scratches on it, as if a large cat had used it as a scratching post on multiple occasions, it was a deep chocolate brown colour.
Behind the couch appeared to be stairs leading up to a balcony for rooms above, the left of the room housed a built in fireplace, complete with a ready lit fire crackling away, considering its purplish hue, it was easy to assume it was a magically cast fire which meant it wouldn't have burnt out no matter what length of time passed.
The walls of the room were littered in carved glyphs of different sizes and shapes, as if the inhabitants were experimenting with them.
The walls also housed the occasional picture, almost all of them featured the same two people but Indigo didn't look very closely, they felt that feeling eating away at them any time they looked at those pictures, so instead they walked forwards into the room, trying to figure out where they should go next.
Once Edric enters the room, the door behind them shuts, which makes both teens jump out of their skin, Indigo instinctively bolts at the door to try and open it, panicking when it doesn't budge, backing off to look around for any threats.
Edric quickly tries to calm them down by putting his hand on their shoulder.
"Easy, Indie, easy" he says soothingly, but he is still watching the area carefully, just in case.
Something glows and a door seems to appear on the wall opposite the fireplace, it glowed blue which screamed illusion, so neither of the illusionist teens made any move towards it, though they didn't have to, as the door opened and the two figures from the picture seemly walked into the room, the blue glow surrounding them signalled immediately that the two were illusions, but right away it was clear they weren't the same as your run of the mill illusions, they seemed completely solid, one bumped the rug out of place as they walked by it, making it crumple before smoothing it back out with their foot.
Indigo had immediately backed away behind Edric as the two figures walked forward, Edric himself felt like backing away in the presence of these very clearly powerful witches, even if they were just illusions.
Once the two stopped walking and stood before them, Esric dared to look them over.
The pair were, for a lack of a better word, confusing.
Edeic had originally thought someone couldn't be more ambiguous than Indigo in terms of gender, though it didn't seem like a huge leap away, the two seemed even more confusing to identify, both were as pale as you could be, though one sported fiercely red hair and the other was a light blue, the red haired witches hair looked more like a mane than anything else, comparable to the Owl Lady's in size and general unkemptness, whereas the blue haired witch had theirs smoothed out and tied into many different styles of braids, surprisingly their eyes didn't match their hair or each others, the red haired witch had almost yellow eyes with sharp pupils while the other had gentle brown ones.
The pair look over the two carefully in silence for several painstaking moments.
Indigo grew more and more anxious the longer this silence lasted, they kept the urge to hiss at the seemingly emotionless creatures at bay, they kene illusions didn't own their own emotions so trying to read them was pointless, but not being able to read them meant they had the upper hand and that in itself scared Indigo.
Edric had an almost defensive posture around Indigo, though if he had to guess he was no match for these witches, but he certainly wasn't just going to just thrust Indigo into this situation alone, they needed support and if hiding behind him was the support they needed right now, then he would oblige.
The two witches continued their long silence but yet seemed to watch the two expectantly, as if awaiting some form of communication from them.
Indigo was not about to speak and Esric wasn't sure it was his place to say anything.
As if they could sense the teens planned continuation of silence, the blue haired witch spoke first.
"Hello little one" they began, their voice was just like the one Mollus had copied and it sent a wave of shakiness through Indigo, it was almost like the sweetest music mixed with the most harsh of sounds, what was the phrase? Bittersweet.
"Hmm, they do not know us dear, it saddens me to confirm your fears, but we never returned to them" The red haired witch says quietly, their voice rings like a sharp bells through Indigo's ears, as they spoke their sharp serrated teeth were shown, Indigo felt their own teeth tighten together as their jaw sets in place.
"Ah, that explains their silence, though our magic lives on, perhaps our story had yet to end?" The blue haired witch observes.
"It is likely, but let us not raise false hopes" the red haired witch replies, the two moved their eyes to Edric, who tenses as their eyes combed him carefully.
"They have brought someone, a curIous selection, I believe them to be of male gender perhaps? Though one ought not assume, are though of male gender?" The blue haired witch seems to ask.
Edric just nods once, completely out of his element and not really sure how to act.
"Ah good, those eyes are distinctive, eh mus' come from a strong family, poss'bleh a high rankin' one, most likeleh in good favours weh the Emperor, though 'is min' says eh doneh wish fer this teh be so, eh doneh see the value in thah tyrants system" the red haired witch's tone has changed, it seems to relax more and more until their way of speaking fits with hoe Indigo speaks around their teeth, rather than forcing their speech to be more distinctive.
Edeic felt as if he was being read like a book once the red haired witch spoke of him, he felt like hiding all these thoughts away behind a curtain, but given that the red haired witch had probably read all his emotions by now, there wasn't much left to hide.
"Hmm, what is the nature of their relationship?" The blue haired witch asls their partner, who doesn't speak as they meet Edric's eye and give him a smile.
"They are developin' well, we shouldn' pry further than thah meh dear, they are still young'uns"
The blue haired witch blinks at their partner and returns their gaze to the two.
"I do wish we could soothe our little one, they seem so distressed, what i wouldn't give to hold them"
The red haired witch turns their eye to Indigo who visibly flinches and ducks fully behind Edric, knowing their emotions were being read.
"Our poor lil one is noh readeh fer us yeh, theh 'ave much teh learn an' see, theh aren' readeh teh meeh' us yeh"
"Oh little one…. Are they ready to receive our gift yet?"
"... Theh accepted our pal'smens, seems onleh righ' teh give 'em nahw"
Both witches lift an arm as if ready to cast a spell, but rather than drawing a circle, they both lift their hands up slowly, from the floor, rising from what looks like a spell circle, came a double staff, just like Eda had described, it was like two seperate staffs that had been carved to be together and yet apart at the same time, once in view, the two halves separated and floated to the two teens.
Indigo remained firmly against Esric's back, not looking at the events before them, too overwhelmed to do anything else.
Edric puts up his hands shakily to accept both the staffs floating his way one white and one black.
"You will both be welcomed back whenever you need us, ah, one more parting gift, those two large glyphs above the fireplace, memorise them, they will be very useful, you must stitch them into an important article of clothing, one you will wear often, you will see what it does when you put on your chosen article.'
Edric looks at the two glyphs the blue haired witch points to, before looking back to see the two heading for the door again.
Once the door closes and vanishes, Edric moves one of the staffs to his other hand and promptly turns to pull Indigo into a tight one armed hug, to which Indigo breaks down into.
Indigo couldn't hold all of the emotion inside any longer, letting everything out in long agonising wails, they didn't even understand why, they just simply couldn't take these feelings being kept inside them, they needed them out and this seemed to be the only way to achieve that, Edric made no attempt to stop them, he simply held them as they yelled nothing but noise into his shoulder and cried against him.
The two palismens sat on the teens shoulders had been utterly silent through this whole ordeal, Mollus now sat, observing their human balling into the other witch's shoulder, well this wouldn't do at all, they thought to themselves, chirping once at Talken whose little eyes had been on Indigo until he was roused to look their way.
"Fix this" was the clear look Tolken got from his palispartner.
Tolken pops his beak and hops a little closer to Edric's neck, chirping into Edric's ear softly.
Edric closes his eyes, listening to his palismen speak to him even as Indigo cried loudly into his shoulder.
Edric let his mind slowly calm down, focusing on that little feeling he always felt when Indigo helped him feel better, letting it radiate from his mind, he knew Indigo was still watching his mind, his own emotions may have contributed to Indigo's anxiety, so now he was only going to give them one thing to focus on, one very distinctive thing.
Indigo's breath became more even, their wails were silenced and their head fell completely against Edeic's shoulder, they were now completely asleep.
Edric gently lead Indigo to sit on the couch, with extreme difficulty, getting them to free his hand and allow him to stand and go to examine the two glyphs the blue haired witch had pointed to, the two symbols were very distinctive, one seemed to be the full picture of the cat creature on the knocker, the other held the full picture of the wolfbat, how on earth was he supposed to remember all the detail in these things? Let alone stitch them into something well enough for it to work.
An idea pops into Edric's head and he glances around, before spotting something useful, a stack of old papers, he trots over to pick one up, making sure it was nothing important, turning it to find it to be a wanted poster, specifically on the two witches they had just encountered, they were laid in a large pile in the corner of the room, on the floor, he doubted they were momentos and took another, moving towards the fireplace again.
Edric realises he doesn't have anything to draw with, looking down at the pages woefully, that is until his palismen hops forward and pecks his hand before flying down to the fire and pecking out a bit of charcoal, flapping back up to his shoulder.
"Ah, clever boy" Edeic says and pats the little proud bird on the head a few times before he bent down to pick up the now cool enough to touch piece of charcoal.
Carefully, Edric places one of the papers over the first glyph and rubs the charcoal over it, as expected, any places that dipped due to the carving, were left untouched by the black smudges of the charcoal, leaving a perfect copy of the glyph.
Edric does this a second time for the other glyph, now having two perfect copies of the glyphs they would apparently need.
Indigo stirred a bit as Edric began trying to clear his hands of the black charcoal dust, he ended up using another wanted poster, glancing over as Indigo sat up in sleepy confusion.
Edric walks over as Indigo bolts up in their confusion, they capmed a little at Edric's presence.
"It's okay, we can leave now if you want to" Edric says and offers a hand, the other holds one poster between each of his fingers to stop them smudging together.
Indigo nods quickly, wanting out of here as soon as possible, they needed some time to digest all the new things that had just come to them.
Edric gently leads Indigo to the door, which swings open on its own, allowing them both out.
Once out and back onto the bridge of light, Indigo lets out the breath they had been holding, but their tight grip on Edric's hand didn't loosen any egen as the disc of light reappeared to let them back down to the ground.
"Do you…. Want to talk about it?" Edric asks softly, once the two had started descending to the ground.
Indigo stared straight ahead, their eyes looked unfocused and unsure.
"I don't know…."
"That's… that's okay, it's just in case you want to, I'm here to listen" Edric says, gently buding their side with his, making them look over and nod once with the ghost of a smile.
"Thank you Ed… for coming with me"
Edric grins back "Of course! You've helped me a ton, it's only fair I return the favour, oh, since they gave us the staff for our palismens, we can come back whenever we like!" Edric adds as an attempt to make things more positive.
Indigo, though still very conflicted, understood the importance of this, it gave them very easy access to the cave, no longer needing to pull Luz along with them, though no doubt once she was told of all the new glyphs she would probably tag along anyways.
"Oh, I guess I'll have to teach you to fly huh? That could be fun" Edric says and this somewhat brightens Indigo's mood, finally managing a full smile at the thought.
"I dunno, I've actually ridden more than you in the last week, maybe I should teach YOU"
Edric scoffed in mock offense as Indigo chuckles.
"Oh how dare you!" He says and lets go of their hand to reach around and put them in a headlock, a gentle playful one.
Indigo didn't even bother struggling, they simply kept laughing as Edric held them like that for a few seconds before letting them go.
The platform finally reaches the ground and the two step forward, realising the lights were leading them back to the entrance again.
"How long has it been?" Edric asks quickly.
"Outside about two hours have passed by" Indigo informs him as they walk.
"If we are fast and the cave lets us out now, we could make it to the owl house, then get to my place, I'll need my bag if I'm gonna hide these and Tolken from my parents' ' Edric explains.
Indigo looks at the two pictures Edric held "What are those for?"
"These are smudgings of the two glyphs that…. Uh, were offered to us, the ones they said about stitching onto our clothes, that it would help us in some way? I'm not sure what they'll actually do though" Edric says as he pulls them up and into a hand each.
Indigo looks at the two and moves a hand to take the one with the large cat on it, Edric seemed pleased about the wolfbat before, it was only logical to let him have that one.
Before the two knew it they were at the last light orb, Edric reaches out a hand and thankfully, it slid through the inky black void with no resistance, Indigo tried as well and sighed with relief as it also allowed their hand to pass through, both stepped out into the evening air,
"So where do we start with the flying lessons?" Indigo asks, they seemed to be sticking to their thoughts for speaking a lot lately, Edric had a hunch of why but said nothing about it yet.
"Well first we should get our palismens on the staffs, Tolken would you mind?" Edric shifts the staffs from under his arm and passes Indigo the white one, offering Tolken the black staff, Tolken hops onto it and Edric turns the little bird till it becomes a wooden carving of his little companion.
Indigo looks at the staff and then at Mollus, who just watched expectantly.
"Would you please?" Indigo thinks to the little bird, who, with great dignity, flutters to the top of the staff to be gently turned and returned to their carved state.
Indigo looks over at Edric as he lifts the staff up and taps the end to the ground, causing Tolkens eyes to glow bright yellow and its wings to open wide.
Edric looked giddy with excitement, noticing Indigo watching him and scratching the back of his neck sheepishly
"I saw Luz and The Owl Lady do it and I wanted to try it," he admits with a half shrug.
Indigo gives a little chuckle and copies the action to active Mollus' flight wings.
Edric then briefly explained about controlling the staff in the air, showing them where to grip.
"As for take off, you just kinda hop off the ground and the staff will do the rest" Edric says, showing it in practice by gently hopping off the ground as Tolken's wings flap and allow him to hover in the air.
Indigo follows suit and soon the two are slowly flying away from the cave, both clutching their paper against their chest while the other hand steers their staff.
Indigo loved the feeling of flying, they would have loved to have tried more advanced things, but given they were heading back to try and get Edric home, they didn't want to waste more time, they were just glad Edric wanted to go back, they were worried with the boys sudden disregard for his home life and his parents tightening grip on his life in general, making it worse wouldn't exactly benefit him any.
It took serious concentration to fly their staffs one handed, but once the Owl House was in view, the two began speeding up, noticing someone eaving at them from the groun, it looked like Luz, who was beaming at them as they flew closer.
Both the teens smile as they land and Luz comes bolting over, bouncing on her feet
"Oh my gosh! Where did you get those staffs, what are those glyphs! What happened?!"
"One thing at a time Luz, Edric needa to get home first before his curfew, can you fly us there? We took the long route to avoid town so no one saw our staffs" Indigo thinks to the excited human.
Luz quickly gets serious.
"Yeah I can fly you, i think I heard Amity and Emira say about a cover story where Ed was tutoring a classmate" she explains.
Edric nods and thinks "If we say we were at the Library, we could get away with it, but you need a bag, it'll look more convincing."
"You can borrow my book bag, I'll go get it!"
"Can you grab my bag too?" Edric calls.
"On it!"
Indigo moved to u screw Mollus from their staff, allowing them to flutter back into their shoulder and side step up to their neck, where they sat comfortably under their ear.
Edric lets Tolken go, who does a few loops around his head, landing on it and hopping around, pecking him good naturedly before hopping from his ear to his shoulder as Edric laughs and waves him off his head.
Luz came out with the two bags in hand, as well as Owlbert on his staff.
Edric and Indigo take the bags, letting Luz deliver the staffs into the owl house for safe keeping.
Once all three were ready, Luz flew the two tp the forest just outside Blight manor.
-Amity-
Once Edric finished his story, the three sat in silence for a while, digesting all these new facrs.
Emira examines the glyph Edric had taken out of his bag, glancing at Amity.
"I think I know the perfect thing to add this to" she says with a smile.
Amity grins in return.
Edric simply looked both confused and delighted.
"Really?! But I cant stitch"
Emira and Amity chuckle between themselves as Edric looks at them helplessly.
-Luz-
"Wow… that must have been a lot to take in…" Luz says softly.
Indigo was lying on yhe couch, literally across it, with Luz laying basically sitting on their legs as they explained everything, they seemed to find it comforting.
"Yeh, an' Ed got these glyphs, eh says we gotta stitch em teh somethin we plan teh wear aloh"
Luz looks at the latge charcoal rubning of a glyph on the table.
"Ooooh I have the petfect thing!" She says and hops up
"Dont go anywhere! And dont fall asleep!" Luz commands as sye tuns upstairs.
"Ah don' do eh on purpose yknow!" Came the muffled reply.
Luz came bou ding back down with something purple on her hands, handing it to Indigo
"Its a cowl, it sits around your neck but it has a hood you can put up if you need to"
Indigo looks at the cowl for a moment and smiles
"Thah should work, wanna help meh stitch the glyph on eh?"
"Yes! What colour of thread do you want?"
"Yeh can pick eh ah don' mind"
"Lets go with red!"
"Sure"