-Luz-
The stitching of the glyph was slow work, Indigo watched Luz as she worked, they had their own little bit of fabric to practice on, simply so they could learn to do it, they kept their stitches small and neat but getting a perfect circle was not an easy task.
Luz herself was struggling to make the circle of the glyph perfect, stitching wasn't the same as just drawing, with drawing one simply used their elbow to create a circle as opposed to their wrist like most people tried doing, stitching had too many motions for that to work.
Eda strolled in with a bag of "human junk" setting it on the ground to look at the two focused teens.
"Whatcha workin on?" She asks, glancing down at the glyph made of what looked like smeared charcoal.
Luz looks up "We need to stitch this glyph into Indigo's cowl for it to work" she explains and shows Eda her progress.
"Hmm, your stitching needs work kid, gimme that" Eda says and takes it, sitting and beginning to rapidly stitch a perfect circle into the fabric, easily getting it right first time, looking at the glyph, she took more time to slowly get each line perfect,
Indigo and Luz just watch as Eda perfectly copies the glyph on the inside of the cowls hood, both their eyes shine at the perfection of it once Eda was finished
"Thanks Eda! I didn't know you could stitch so good!" Luz says with glee.
"Hah, I'm a master at stitching, as well as knitting and sewing, I had to be to keep my clothes good, do you know what those penny pinchers charge to repair stuff in town?! It's a rip off!" Eda hands Indigo the cowl as she rants to Luz about the repair shops reidiculous pricing for a complete repair of a dress she ripped once.
Indigo puts the cowl over their head, nothing happened right away, though as it was in the hood, they assumed the effect would happen once they put that on, moving to slide the hood over their head carefully.
The sensation of fluffiness overcame Indigo in an instant, when they withdrew their arms, they found them covered in purple fur!, their fingers also ended in sharply tipped claws which they could flex in and out, their arms appeared slightly bigger and possibly stronger than before.
The two beside Indigo had ceased talking and when Indigo looked over, both were staring at them, slack jawed, their emotions shifted from shock to confusion and in Luz's case, pure glee.
"OH MY GOSH! YOU'RE SO FLUFFY!" Luz yells and pounces at them.
Indigo knows Luz's intent and does not move as they get pulled into a tight hug, it's at this moment they realise their head has also changed, their ears were more flexible, their face was covered completely in fur and their nose and mouth appeared to have changed in texture and shape as well.
Indigo used one of their hands to pat at their head, finding their cowl had disappeared, now replaced by almost a mane of fluff around their neck.
Something else caught their attention and they looked at their back to see a tail flicking from under their shirt, that was in fact new.
Indigo pauses in their assessment as Luz begins petting them ruthlessly, though they didn't mind the affection, they were a bit puzzled by what had just happened.
"Well well well that is quite the powerful glyph!" Eda admires as she stands to have a look at Indigo
"You are in control of yourself right?" Eda asks and waves a hand in front of Indigo.
Indigo snorts a bit and pats Luz's head in return as the girl continues to pet her, Luz giggles and starts ruffling her ears.
"Yeh ah am" Indigo notices their voice had gone more growly and low, they soon realised why as they swiped their tongue over their lips, it felt weird.
"Hah, a partial animal transformation, it must be illusion magic, but it's some potent stuff, given we can actually interact with the additions, pfft Luz come on let the poor kid focus!" Eda says and shoos Luz off as the girl plays with Indigo's new ears, making Indigo laugh as they felt particularly ticklish there.
Luz lets go and sits down.
"I wonder if it would work on me!" Luz says with wonder
"Mmm dunno kid, I don't think you'd take it off if i made you one too" Eda says "And I kinda like having a human around y'know" Eda says and ruffles Luz's hair.
Luz giggles, but she notices Eda was actually wearing a scarf, which was odd for her.
"Are you cold Eda?"
"Huh? Oh yeah yeah, it's kinda chilly in here"
Indigo felt a spike of anxiety come off of Eda as she wrapped the scarf tighter around her chest and neck.
"Alright you two, time for school, out, out out!" Eda says and shoos the two towards the door, putting their bags on them, completely forgetting Indigo wasn't supposed to be a half feline half witchling.
"And watch out for all the emperors cover weirdo's lying on the lawn, Lilith has been getting very frequent in her attempts to get me lately and I need to cook up some witches wool" Eda adds with her eyes closed as she closes the door on the two.
Indigo glances at Luz, Luz looks behind them at all the emperors coven guys lying around that Hooty had beaten up.
"Lets just go! I bet people will be surprised!" Luz says with glee.
Indigo flicks an ear in amusement as the two head off quickly before any of the goons awaken.
Unbeknownst to the two, a certain blue haired witch had spotted them as they ran past where Hooty had flung her.
"Hmm, a human and some kind of feline… this could be just what i needed" Lilith muses to herself with a devious smile.
Much to Luz's disappointment and pleading eyes, Indigo did not keep their disguise on, figuring out that they and only they could find the edge of the cowl hood and remove it, thus removing the spell from effecting their appearance.
Luz pouts as they head into school, before spotting Amity and the twins walking together and waving erratically, Amity blushes deeply as Luz comes bounding over to them.
"Oh my gosh you guys, we know what the glyphs do!" Luz says as Indigo walks over to join her.
All three Blights look at them with curiosity.
"Really?! What? What do they do?!" Edric asks quickly.
"Weh can shoe yeh's la'er, don' wanna draw unneedeh attention" Indigo says, meeting Edrics eyes and smiling at how bright he seemed to be today, that feeling in their stomach surfaced for a while until Indigo felt an unwelcome presence approaching them, with intent to grab onto them, moving out of the way immediately.
It was a random classmate of theirs, who looked annoyed that they avoided his grasp.
"Hey, you're the one who saved the witchlings from that coyotree" he says, trying to put on a smile, it was wickedly fake and rubbed Indigo in all the wrong ways, they could feel his contempt for their friends, it made them feel sick to their stomach and they physically recoiled when he stepped closer.
"Ah am, yeh" Indigo says in an attempt to be polite and civil, just because his emotions were foul, didn't mean they would be.
"Why not ditch these losers and come hang out with us instead?" He offers.
Indigo made a face that clearly the guy didn't like.
"What? We aren't good enough for you weirdo?" He snaps and moves at Indigo, his anger bubbling like a spark meeting gasoline, it was far too quick and too hot, there was something else fueling it.
Indigo keeps their maintained distance but they didn't get to answer as Edric steps between the two of them.
"Back off Stonic, they didn't do anything to you" Edric says, his tone was even but his emotions told a different story.
Stonic moved to push Edric, Indigo moved faster, pulling Edric out of his way to the side and making him stumble to regain his balance, turning to glare at them maliciously.
The anger Indigo felt from this boy was far too much to be from one person, something was off about this Stonic boy.
Indigo stepped forward to prevent Edric getting between them again and said flatly.
"You are angry and unreasonable, I will not be joining you or your friends, go away now before I call the Principal '' Indigo used proper pronunciation this time, their message would not be mistaken.
Stonic's anger remained, but his common sense seemed to come back a bit, walking off to rage somewhere else.
Indigo looks at Edric, his emotions had flared dangerously when the guy had gotten angry at them, even now he glared daggers into the back of this Stonic boy.
"Are you both okay?" Luz asks quickly, her Amity and Emira had stayed back, not intervening due to the suddenness of the situation.
"Am aight, yeh alrigh' Ed?" Indigo says, turning back to face Edric, whose head snaps around to face them, slightly panicked before he nods and looks away, Indigo could feel his protectiveness calming slowly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright, that guy has some serious anger issues" he explains briefly.
"Ah noticed, no one person shoul' be able teh feel thah angreh" Indigo says quietly
Luz clears her throat "On a brighter note, well not really I guess but we gotta head to class"
Everyone starts heading for school.
It was around the third period that once again, Stonic tried to approach Indigo, who blatantly ignored him.
"Hey! I'm talking to you" Stonic says as Indigo walks right past him.
Indigo had guessed something had happened between this guy and Edric, so they chose not to pry further and simply avoid this persistent boy, but he simply did not want to allow this to happen.
Indigo found themselves cornered by a group of people right in the middle of a corridor, the lockers to their back and about 5 tall guys before them, Stonic in the middle.
Indigo would have chuckled if they didnt know how angry this boy could get, so they simply remained completely stoic.
"Alright you, I think it's time you learned who runs this school now" Stonic says "Ever since the Blights got soft, I've been in charge of this year, which means… hey!" Stonic watches as Indigo simply walks up the lockers, up the wall and along the roof to be on the other side of the group.
"Excuse me, I'm gonna be late for class, I don't have time for your monologue," Indigo says and begins to walk away.
Indigo felt the anger of Stonic skyrocket and decided now was a good time to run, something they were very good at, once they were a decent way out of view, they crawled up onto the ceiling and let the group pass by under them, baffled by the fact that people never looked up.
Indigo knew they would probably be heading towards their next classroom, Illusions to wait for them outside… they would be in trouble if they didn't attend.
Indigo sighs and heads towards a very specific room with iron bars.
-Edric and Emira-
The twin had begun getting worried when Indigo hadn't met them before Illusions, normally the other would wait for them just outside, but today they weren't there and it was almost time for class.
"Do you think Stonic cornered them? Maybe I should…" Edric began but was stopped by Emira.
"Ed we don't even know what class they were in last, you can't scour the whole school for them, maybe they're just…" Emira pauses as her eyes flicker over Edric's shoulder.
Edeic turns to see Stonic and his gang of bullies round the corner and look around with glares at all the students waiting for the teacher.
Stonic walks over to Edric
"Where's your little girlfriend Ed, got a bone to pick with her"
Emira had to hold Edric back as he went to lunge at the guy.
"First off, they aren't a girl, they're non binary, second we aren't in a relationship, they just know a faker when they see one" Edric shoots back and makes several people "oooooh" in response.
Stonic gives a manic look but luckily for all involved the teacher happens to arrive.
"Alright students, time to start class, please enter the room" the teacher says.
Emira has to practically drag Edric away from Stonic, into the classroom.
To both the twins' surprise, Indigo was already sitting in their seat, but Edric could see their stresa from a mile away, they looked a little out of breath, like they had been running hard recently.
Edric sat by them and Emira sat on their other side.
"What did he do?" Edric whispers as the teacher starts the lesson.
Indigo knew better than to talk during class, so they quietly thought to Edric
"Don't worry, they tried to corner me but it seems they didn't know I could climb walls"
"He also thinks you are a girl and that we are a couple" Edric murmurs.
"Both of which are quite incorrect as of now"
"Yeah… wait what do you mean as of now?"
"Oh, I can choose if I want to be a specific gender, I just haven't yet"
"Ah right…" Edric looks to the front of the class, his ears reddened, not because of the gender discussion but due to the fact that Indigo didn't seem at all worried that someone had mistook them for a couple, was that a good thing?
Indigo remained blissfully unaware of Edrics internal debate and paid attention to the teacher right up until the bell rang, they glanced at the door and raised a brow when they saw Stonic and his gang waiting outside, Stonic met their eye with a menacing scowl.
Indigo rolls their eyes, this would prove to be quite troublesome to their schedule if they kept having to interact with this person every period, so as they got up once the bell screamed, they blended in with the crowd of kids to get over to the secret doorway, once all the kids had left they quickly knocked the wall and within a minute Viney pops her head out.
"Sorreh, eh's followed meh again, can ah…?" Indigo didn't even have to finish their sentence before they were allowed inside.
"I don't like bullies, you can use the hallway whenever you need to" Viney says empathetically.
Indigo smiles, they liked Viney's mindset, they were firm but fair and their emotions were always genuine.
"Thanks Viney, Ah realleh appreciah eh" Indigo says quietly.
"Oh, but Bump announced that everyone needs to meet in the Gymnasium at fifth period, don't forget!" Viney calls as Indigo heads to their next door.
Indigo gives a thumbs up and heads to their next classroom, peeking in to find it empty and sneaking in to sit at the back desk.
For a moment there was silence, until several very negative emotions hit them like a truck, making them flinch, looking to the door, the gang was waiting outside for them again, this was going to be a long day….
Indigo groans and lets their head fall to the desk with a small thump, not knowing that the gang had heard it.
In a moment Indigo had to move as all the desks started to float around the room, hopping off their chair as it shrank, then grew and then shrunk again.
Indigo know construction magic allowed for the manipulation of real things, they were not impressed at the supposed show of force, but they knew that wasn't the intent, the intent came later as all the furniture came careening at them, they jumped out of its way and looks at the door to find the group laughing and jeering at them, they made for the door but several desks blocked their way.
Indigo felt cornered, pressed against the wall, they felt their own emotions going haywire, plus the negativity of the group, Indigo felt their resolve cumbling as they mind blanked on how to escape, they spun a finger and manifested a shield around themselves, sliding to the floor, head buried in their knees, they sent out a thought, just one thought, to those they knew would come.
"Please... help me"
It took all of a few moments.
There was a lot of yelling, many emotions occured, one was pain, others panic, others still were of rage and protectiveness.
A tap at the shield made Indigo look up to see Luz staring at her through it, her hand on the shield and a comforting smile on her face.
Indigo looked behind Luz at the door, it was open, but they saw no one else there.
Indigo drops the shield, they felt calm enough with Luz there that it was successful.
Luz gives them a quick hug
"We got your message, you okay?" She asks as she pulls back.
Indigo takes a breath and stands up
"Ah think so, jus' a lil shaken up" they reply softly.
Luz nods and leads them out, spotting the gang being reprimanded by a teacher firmly, several of them have clearly been thrown about a bit, looking disheveled.
On the other side of the corridor stood Indigo's friends, all looking absolutely livid at the group of boys, once Indigo was in view, they came running over.
The group consisted of Ed, Em, Amity, Willow, Gus, Viney, Jerbo and Barcus.
Indigo hadn't expected this many people to hear their plea but they certainly weren't complaining.
"What happened?" Amity asks quickly.
"Cornered meh in the classroom, wouln' leh meh ou' sta'ed throwin' deaks an' chairs at meh" Indigo explains quietly, they had felt helpless, stuck in that room, unable to even move freely.
Edric was currently being held back from bolting at the group by Emira, Viney and Jerbos, who were trying to talk him down.
"So what happened ou' 'ere" Indigo asks, trying to work out what actually went down.
"Well once we heard you we all came here, I don't really know how we knew to come here but… we just kinda knew" Gus says "By the way, tots understand you don't want anyone knowing about your telepathy" he adds and gives a thumbs up to Luz, who gives one back.
"Once we got here we saw those guys at the door to your classroom, we got a glimpse of what they were doing and…" Amity says before pausing as everyone looked at Edric.
"Ed knocked Stonic out" Luz continues
"Then the rest of us kinda just held everyone else back while Luz went to get you and then the teacher showed up." Willow finished the story.
Viney had looked over at Indigo once Edric was sufficiently calmed to where it only took Emira to keep him at bay
"Any injuries? I saw the shield but you never know" Viney says as she walks over.
"Nothin hit meh" Indigo says quietly.
Viney narrows her eyes as she once again looks Indigo over.
"That's a bit too specific for my liking"
"Am fineh" Indigo assures, they weren't going to mention the horrible headache that plagued them due to the sheer amount of negativity radiating from the group of guys barraging them with furniture.
Viney blinks and walks over to talk to Edric again, this time more directly and far too quietly to be heard, the rest of the group had kind of surrounded Indigo, like a circle of protection, Indigo began focusing on the lingering positivity around these guys, it helped a lot.
After a moment Viney came back with Edric, Emira and Jerbo in tow.
"Alright, no one is hurt, the idiots are being dealt with and we all have classes to get to, except you two, the teacher said once everyone was confirmed to be alright or taken to the infirmary, that you two would need to go see Bump" Viney points between Edric and Indigo.
Edric looked resigned to his fate, nodding once.
Indigo nods as well "Yeh, okay"
"I'll walk them there," Emira says quietly beside Viney, who nods in agreement.
"I'm trusting you to make sure they go Em" Viney adds as the group starts to move on and soon it's only the four of them.
"I assure you, they will," Emira says with a nod, she looked very serious.
With that, Ed, Em and Indigo began walking to the principal's office.
Neither Ed nor Indigo spoke a word, not to each other or Emira and the poor girl began worrying.
"Alright you two the coast is clear what is happening here?" Emira asks, indicating between the two.
Indigo felt Emira's confusion and returned their own in return.
"Whah?"
"What? What do you mean what? You two are completely ignoring each other" Emira says "It's not like you both to be so quiet, especially when you are right beside each other" Emira says as if the world is ending.
Edric looks at Emira with a glare and Indigo can feel his discomfort.
"Stop it Em, we are allowed to be quiet together you know" he says hoarsely, given his voice, Indigo assumed most of the yelling they had heard had been him.
"Oh no, I can practically feel the depressing energy right now, I may not have Indie's powers but I can tell when somethings wrong with you Ed, If you want me to leave before we get there just say the word, I know you'll go either way to defend Indie from that idiots accusations"
Edric sighs "They're gonna call Dad… he's gonna recognise Indie…. We were already on thin ice before…. He's gonna stop me seeing them" Edrics demeanour practically breaks at the last few words, he looks at his sister helplessly, not even looking towards Indigo, Indigo knew exactly why, which is why they hadn't tried to talk to him.
Emira's brave face fell away to an empathetic one "Ah, so that's why, look he can't possibly get Indie expelled for being bullied.."
"You and I both know he doesn't need a REASON" Edric says with his head down
"Remember what Mittens told us about her little friend Willow? I know what they can do"
Emira did remember, glancing at Indigo who meets their gaze
"They can' stop 'im seein' meh outsideh school though"
Emira felt her heart break a bit
"He doesn't mean see as in physically see you" Emira starts to explain before Edric snaps his head up
"Don't!"
"I won't! I won't! What I meant is, if you two were seen interacting by anyone who favours our father, even just for a minute or two, they'd tell him, you literally wouldn't be allowed near him in general, or you'd get expelled"
"Ah don' care abou' being expelled" Indigo says flatly.
"You don't even know what it means yet," Emira says.
Indigo shrugs "Noh, buh eh doesn' ma'er does eh?"
"It means you wouldn't be allowed back to school, you'd be a wild witch, the emperor's coven would start to hunt you down"
"So?"
"Indie you don't…"
"Ah understan' pefectleh" Indigo intercepts "buh thahs only if yer father wan's us noh teh been seen tegether righ'?"
"Yes?"
"Then yeh go' nothon teh worry bou'" Indigo says and walks around Emira to keep walking to Bumps office briskly.
Emira and Edric glance at each other in confusion before hurrying after them, trying to question them, but they arrive all too soon before Indigo says anything.
Inside sits Stonic, a patch over his eye with a healing glyph on it, behind him sat a man who was very clearly his father, across the room sat Mr Blight, who looked completely done with all this.
As the two walk in, Emira having to stay outside at Bump's request, the door shuts and Bump asks the two to take a seat.
"So, shall we start with what has occured today?" Bump asks and immediately Stonic begins in a whining tone.
"That ruffian attacked me for no good reason, what kind of witch used their fists"
Edric glares at Stonic
"One who wouldn't waste a drop of magic bile on someone like you"
"Be silent Edric" Mr Blight hisses at him.
Edrics head drops quickly, probably on instinct to his father being angry.
"I was waiting in my next classroom" Indigo starts, all eyes fall on them as they continue.
"The chairs and tables began floating, shrinking and growing and then flying around the room, I saw him" Indigo points to Stonic "and four of his friends casting spells outside the door, they were laughing and calling into the room, asking if I was scared yet, they stopped me from leaving the room so I put up a shield to stop them hitting me with the furniture… then called for help"
Bump looks confused "What do you mean by called for help? Surely anyone in earshot would have come regardless"
"I mean I used telepathy to contact my friends to help me" Indigo says, almost all the eyebrows in the room shot up aside from Edric's, who was looking at Indigo in shock.
"Telepathy? That's a bold claim" Bump says, but his tone isn't disbelieving, more so curious.
"She is…" Stonic starts but Edric snaps "They" before getting hissed at by his father again.
Stonic snorts "THEY are clearly lying, where would they have learned telepathy? They're compulsive liars spinning tails to get attention"
"I can prove it easily" came a voice in everyone's head, making almost everyone jump.
Mr Blight had turned an eye to Indigo in extreme interest.
Indigo's plan was working, they had his eye on them.
"I called for help and help came, all i know after that is what others told me happened." Indigo finishes.
Bump nods his head and looks at Stonic
"And your version of events?"
"I told you, that crazy Blight punched me cuz I was talking to his gi…. Whatever they are supposed to be" Stonic says with a huff.
"I am not Edric's property, we are friends, I see his potential, he has even tutored me in Illusion magic in his free time, he is also far more genuine than you, I would not interact with someone so callus as you, you do not even respect my gender identity, why on titan would I wish to interact with you at all?"
Mr Blight's eyes gleamed and he returned his gaze to Bump, who was looking at Stonic and his father
"Bullying is not tolerated at Hexide, your son will be suspended for two weeks" Bump concludes "I already have the admittance from your friends as to what happened Stonic, I was hoping you would at least be honest" Bump says and waves them away.
Once the two were out of the room Bump turns to Mr Blight
"As for the physical attack, a weeks detention will suffice, though it was in another's defense, it was still a violent act and must be treated as such"
Mr Blight simply nods his head once and they were all allowed to leave.
As the three walked out, Edric gets pulled to the side "Allow me a moment to speak to my son"
Indigo nods "But of course Sir"
Indigo walks around the corner where Emira was sitting, waiting.
It took a few moments for Edric to round the corner, he looked very confused.
Emira and Indigo walk over.
"What did he say?" Emira asks.
"He uh, lifted my curfew back to normal… said I should spend more time around Indigo?" Edric seemed to almost ask Emira, as if hoping she would understand what had just happened.
Emira looks at Indigo, "What did you say?"
"Ah told em abou' mah telepatheh" Indigo says simply.
"What?!" Emira says
"Yeh, goh 'is intrest, clearleh" Indigo says simply as if thats all there was to it.
"Indigo that wasn't the smartest move" Emira says simply.
"Whah harm coul' eh do?" Indigo asks with a shrug "'Sides, eh means Ed doesn' geh locked up aneh-more"
Ed blinks at Indigo "You shouldn't risk that for me Indie" he says quietly.
"Why noh? Yeh goh detention fer helpin' meh"
Edric shakes his head "That's not the same, detention is temporary, if word gets out then.."
"No ones gonna care thah a studen' knows telepatheh, Eda says ehs uncommon, noh unheadoh, so relax" Indigo says
"Well either way what's done is done, for now we have to get to the gymnasium, it's almost time for that thing" Emira says and starts walking ahead of the two.
Edric keeps side glancing at Indigo, till they look back with a raised eyebrow.
"Whah is eh Ed?"
"Nothing… nothing" Edric says and quickened his pace to walk with Emira, Indigo follows suit.
-Luz-
The gym was bustling with seated students, waiting for whatever this weird event was.
None of Luz's friends knew what this was about, so she became even more curious.
Bump comes onto the stage to speak, Luz sees Ed, Em and Indigo slip in just before he begins.
"Dear students, today we are graced with a rather important visitor, some of you will remember this esteemed guest from the Covention"
Luz heard Amity scoff a bit, remembering the covention and what had happened there, glancing at Amity, who nervously glanced away, not wanting Luz to mistake the looks she had on her face as being towards her.
Amity has not forgiven her mentor and frankly hadn't really interacted with her since the covention, the fact that Lillith had used her to cheat, not believing her strong enough to defeat a magic-less human, which honestly, she now was glad she hadn't.
Lillith appears on stage in a flourish and, out of the corner of her eye, Luz noticed Indigo flinch visibly, like they had been hit in the face, recoiling behind Edric, they had sat in the back of the bleachers so no one but Emira and Edric could see them without actually seeking them out.
Luz became very worried as she noticed Indigo was very much not okay, clinging to Edric's back while Emira tried to reassure them.
Edric was stuck in place, trying to hide the scene behind his back as the Emperor's coven leader scans the gymnasium, none of the four had absorbed what the woman had said.
Luz looks back around at Amity as the girl jabbed her in the ribs with an elbow to get her attention.
"Luz, you need to…"
Lilith's eyes fell on Luz and her smile seemed far more sinister.
"Luz the human, would you care to join me?" Lillith calls and indicates Luz.
Luz, initially froze, glancing at Amity, who grabbed her arm.
"Luz don't go down there"
Lillith makes a motion and Luz's form glowed blue as she was levitated out of Amity's grip and down onto the stage.
"Now, the Emperor has sent me to ensure this school is following the correct guidelines, judging by your uniform, I'd say it isn't is it?"
Luz freezes, glancing down at her multi-track uniform before looking back up at Lillith.
"Now I could happily ignore this blatant disregard for the Emperors rules, in exchange for the Owl Lady's surrender, you are her apprentice aren't you? It shouldn't surprise me" Lillith laughs.
"Now, you wouldn't want everyone here to be removed from their education now would you?" Lillith asks as the entire school watches on.
Luz felt all eyes on her and that old anxiety of the human world came crashing back into reality, all those eyes, watching, judging her reaction, waiting to see if she would mess up.
Lilliths smile seems almost venomous as she watches the teen squirm under the pressure of her peers, but her smile vanishes when a loud roar erupts and a flash of purple fur flies out from the bleachers towards them.
Lillith puts up a shield around her and the human, she needed her unharmed if she wanted to convince her sister to give in.
Something lands hard against the shield and Lillith examines their attacker, it was the feline from this morning, it stuck to the shield with sharp claws that almost pierced it, its purple fur was on end and its purple eyes stared at Lillith with a fierce glare, sharp teeth bared at them, unlike before where it seemed almost anthropomorphic, now it appeared to be fully beastial, it was most likely protecting Eda and this human child from her.
Lillith sends the beast flying by dispelling the shield with a blast of energy, the creature flips and lands in all fours, it looked quite graceful in its movements, almost as if it had known what was going to happen, this was curious.
Lillith summoned her staff and took a defensive stance, though it seemed she didn't have to, a young beast keeping girl had jumped forward and got the beast's attention, it had paused, this girl was clearly talented in her…. Well that was curious, another multi-tracking student.
"Easy now big thing, no need to fight" Viney says carefully, her and several other beast keeping students had formulated a quick plan to get the beast under control, they all knew what it was and just how feral they could be, in a room full of students, action needed to be swift.
Viney was the lead, she would distract the creature while the others attempted some soothing spells out of sight, well as out of sight as one could be.
The creature responded well to Vineys approach, thankfully no one had made any more moves nearby, everyone knew the beast keepers would be the best to approach this situation and for that Viney was grateful.
The creatures watch Viney approach, its demeanour is surprisingly very calm as Viney reaches forward to place a hand on its head, this was a very risky move and Viney heard many of the beast keepers still in the crowd suck in a breath.
The creature simply stood there and watched, Viney raised their other hand and drew a spell circle, the beast's eyes watched her, lighting up a little, as if in curiosity.
Viney narrows their eyes a little and removes their hand, that spell normally puts a calmed beast to sleep, if it hadn't worked then…
Viney looked around at the stage, Lillith had vanished and so had Luz.
Viney looks back and sees the beast hadn't moved from its spot, it just stared at her.
Viney glances at Principal Bump, who nods.
Viney carefully uses a spell, quickly jumping back as the creature is muzzled, the creature reacts to the muzzle, it paws at it for a moment, but stops and looks at Viney closely.
Viney felt their heart rate spike as it stood fully, but she couldn't panic, almost everyone had been silently evacuated while she had kept the beast's eye, so now they simply had to catch it.
Viney was stunned that a fully grown Jagawrath had made it this far without being spotted or hunted down; they were supposedly almost extinct due to their normally aggressive reaction to witches.
The Jaguwrath stayed put while Viney tried to approach again, this time it didn't allow her to touch it, stepping back, watching her closely, she had lost a bit of its trust and in beast keeping that could be dangerous.
"Its okay, I'm sorry for the muzzle but we don't want you hurting anyone"
Viney swore she saw a look of understanding in the beast's eyes as she spoke, but its head turned to one of the beast keepers behind it who had just summoned a net, ready to send it down over the creature, freezing when it turned to him.
"Hey! Hey!" Viney says quickly and the beast turns its head back to her, allowing the other kid to release the net, but the creature jumps away, sliding the last of its body out from under the net before it could fully hit the ground.
Viney grits her teeth a bit in frustration, the beast was clearly smart, fast and immune to sleeping and soothing spells, but an idea struck her, it was smart, maybe…
Viney moves forward slowly, the creature reacts wearily, keeping a short distance from her.
"Yeah I know I'd be unsure if some people started trying to catch me too" Viney says understandingly.
"I just wanna talk to you buddy, you seem like you understand me, do you?" Viney asks softly.
The creature listens to Viney, seemingly contemplating her words, before nodding once.
Viney felt another spike of curiosity hit her, she wanted to know all about this creature, but first she had to focus.
"Alright, well, we were trying to catch you so you wouldn't hurt anyone, but you're smart enough to realise what we are doing and you havent tried to attack any of us for it, can I ask you to just leave?" Viney asks softly.
The creature blinks and nods twice, it moves towards the door, Viney looks at Bump, who casts a spell to open the door for the creature, it trots out and once out of Viney's sight, it bounds away out of the school.
-Amity-
Getting Luz off the stage had been a task and a half, let alone before Lillith had noticed, but Amity and the twins had managed to pull it off thanks to Indigo's impromptu distraction.
Luz later explained that Indigo's earlier transformation hadn't turned her into the full beast, but she had gained beastial features.
Amity was of course less worried about all that and wanted to know if Luz herself was okay.
"Luz, Lillith was trying to use you to get to Eda, we need to get you back home before she finds us!" Amity reasons, trying to pull the human along.
"But if I don't then she'll close down the school!" Luz says quickly.
"She was bluffing Luz, it'd take more than a few multi tracking students to be proper cause to put all these witchlings out of education" Emira says reasonably.
Edric hadn't said a word, he was watching the entrance of the school
"They aren't out yet…." He says anxiously to himself.
Emira and Amity look at Edric.
"Ed they are literally a huge Jaguwrath, no ones gonna mess with them right now, not even Lillith stuck around to face them like that. That seemed to have been their plan, wish they had enlightened us a little sooner though" Emira says "Now c'mon, everyones been sent home, we need to make sure Luz gets back safely."
Edric turns and nods, though he wasn't happy about it, he knew right now at least they weren't in direct danger.
-At the Owl House-
"She WHAT?!" Eda asks, outraged when Luz explained what Lillith had said to her.
"That conniving sister of mine… I swear if i get a whiff of her again I'll give her what for, but nevermind that, where's Indigo? I know you said they went all… wild cat on Lillith but shouldn't they be back by now?"
This made Edric even more anxious and he got up, beginning to pace.
Emira gave Eda a look "Great now you"ve got him started again… just got him to relax" Emira grumbles as she gets up to try and calm her brother down.
Eda sighs in an exaggerated way "Look kid they're probably fiiiine, just sit down before I put you to sleep, your making me dizzy"
Hooty could be heard outside dealing with yet another flood of Emperors coven goons, but it stops all to suddenly and Hooty becomes very distressed, before the door gets rammed open and in scarpers a large Jaguwrath with purple fur, muzzle and all, trying to squeeze through the doorway, most likely to avoid whatever was outside.
Eda casts a spell and the Jaguwrath is pulled inside so the door can close once again.
The Jaguwrath looks up from its spot, laying belly down on the carpet, ears down and eyes searching for each person, it gives a muffled meowl.
"Well that's either our wild cat or another one whose tame" Eda concludes as Luz and Edric hurry forwards to try and pull off the muzzle, the thing stays glued to the poor things face, magically held firm.
Luz looks at the creature's eyes "Indigo, you are still in there right?".
To answer Luz's question, the big cat moves a paw to ruffle her hair, making her giggle.
"Good, how come your telepathy isn't working?" Eda asks as she walks over with Emira and Amity not far behind.
Indigo shrugs their shoulders, finding a small demon on them who loudly proclaims
"Finally! A noble steed for the king of demons, away steed away!" King kicks his little feet at Indigos neck but they just give a rumbling laugh at his antics, slightly amused.
Luz scoops King off of Indigo despite his protests "C'mon cutie, you can conquer the isles another day" she coos and scoots him along, he giggles and runs off to find his "Army" of plushies.
Eda was examining the muzzle holding Indigo's mouth closed.
"Beast keeper magic, cant even take it off, it needs to be uncast by the one who cast it, professional level spell, could only be one kid, taught her that spell myself" Eda says.
"I'm guessing Indigo cant just remove the cowl?" Luz asks and looks at Indigo, who tries their best to paw at where the cowl should be, but they simply couldn't find it with the strap of the muzzle over their head.
"Doesn't look like it, which means we gotta ask Viney to undo the spell" Luz says with a worried look.
"Why is that so bad? Indigo doesn't have to show themselves to her, they just have to seem tame enough for her to undo it, I have an idea" Emira says with a cunning grin.
-Viney-
"Okay Emira what is so important that I had to come out here right away?" Viney sayd after landing in front of the Owl House on Puddles.
Emira stood beside a very nervous Edric who waved at Viney, looking totally guilty, which was all part of the plan.
Viney looks between the two of them "Does this have something to do with what happened during that school meeting?"
Edric shuffles his feet and nods "A little yeah" he says softly as Emira nudges him sharply "Okay yes it does"
Viney narrows her eyes sharply at Edric
"Did you let a wild Jaguwrath into the school?!" She asks sharply.
"They aren't wild!" Edric quickly defends "They just… got startled with that coven leader lady appearing so suddenly"
Vineys narrowed eyes widen a bit "So you tamed a Jaguwrath?" She asks curiously.
"I mean they were pretty tame already so I just kinda… make friends with them?" Edric says, it was not a lie.
"Buuut they do still have the muzzle on them and they really don't like it so… if you could….?" Emira motions behind the Owl house.
Viney blinks "Oh! The muzzle, I forgot to remove it!" Viney runs over "Where are they? I can take it off right away"
Edric points a thumb behind the Owl House "They're just round there" Edric says as the twins lead the way around the house to where Indigo lay, still transformed and muzzled, pawing at the thing a few times before they realised the others were there and set their paw down.
Viney pauses significantly further back than the others, who only stop to look back at her
"Its okay Viney, they won't hurt you" Emira encourages and offers her a hand, Viney still seems uncertain, but reaches out to take the offered hand, letting Emira guide her closer, mirrorring how Emira had allowed her to guide her to new creatures on their day out to the leg.
The Jaguwrath watches Viney as she approaches it, it doesn't move anything but its ears, which twitch back and forth a few times, as if in anticipation, anticipation of freedom or of revenge, Viney couldn't predict, but since these two seemed to have its trust, Viney would have to hope it was the former.
Viney reaches a hand out to grasp the muzzle, having to let Emira's hand go to uncast the muzzle and stepping back as the Jaguwrath opens its maw wide and lets out a loud growl as it shakes its head, its eyes gleamed with relief and its moves forward to butt Viney with its head gently,
Viney reaches a hand to pat the Jaguwraths head, stunned for a moment at just how calm it was.
"I still can't believe this," Viney says with a half laugh, letting the Jaguwrath move away unhindered by her hand.
"Yeah but… lets keep this between us okay? We all know what some demons and witches would do to get a hold of a Jaguwrath" Edrix asks.
Viney nods "Yeah… one question though… how and why did you smuggle it into school?"
Edric freezes up, they hadn't thought of that, he glances at Emira who was also struggling to come up with an excuse.
Viney waits and glances between the two, but she doesn't have to wait long as the jaguwrath lifts a paw and flicks it at its own head, making the illusion fall.
Viney stands, mouth agape as there stood Indigo, cowl down finally, stretching out their arms.
"Sorreh 'bou' thah Viney" Indigo says "Didn' mean teh deceive yeh, bu' ah couldn' explain eh all till ah coul' talk properleh"
Viney blinks and looks at the twins who rub their necks.
"So it was all an illusion?!" She demands.
"Nah, the actual beast is real, like ah can feel eh in meh head when am like thah, ehs jus' a loh calmer when am in control" Indigo says "Yeh did well back there, ah couln' stop eh buh you goh eh calm enough to leh meh back in control"
Viney seemed stunned for a moment at the praise.
"So it… was a threat at the time?"
"Onleh teh thah ladeh, she had all the wrong feelin's, ah only wan'ed teh disguise mehsel' buh once ah puh eh on the creature took oveh"
Viney tilts her head in confusion.
Indigo decides it would be better to show than tell and flips the cowl back into their head, but this time they get the transformation from the morning rather than the full beast.
"Ah have eh glyph on meh cowl thah lehs meh change teh this form, earlier ah goh nervous eh thah ladeh and tried teh hide… an yeh saw the results oh thah idea"
Vineys eyes lit up for a moment.
"I…. Have sooo many questions right now" she says in excitement.
"Ah promise if ah can answer em then ah will, shall weh go inside? Oh buh, don' beh mad ah these guys, theh jus' wan'ed teh help me ou'"
Viney glances at the twins and sighs
"I'm not mad, I'm guessing you thought I'd think you were crazy if you just tried to tell me without proof?"
The twins nodded in sync.
"Well, I probably would have so good call, but let's keep the fibbing to a minimum alright?"
"I mean technically we never lied to you" Edric chips in.
"But you didn't correct my assumptions either" Viney points out.
"Yeah… I guess not, okay we won't do THAT again" Edric concedes.
Once inside the Owl house, Viney went on a literal tangent of questioning Indigo, who could barely keep up, they answered as many questions as they had the answers for, Viney had borrowed Luz's notebook to take notes, eagerly writing anything new down for later review.
Indigo kept getting patted by everyone, they had to admit it was nice, it felt nice to them and the person petting them seemed to brighten significantly, even Amity tried once, under Luzs constant coaxing, she smiled and patted Indigos head a few times before pulling her arm back and promptly blaming Luz, who happily accepted it and returned to madly petting Indigo's mane, after asking of course, having realised it was a little rude to keep petting Indigo without their permission, but once Indigo gave the okay, all bets were off.
Eventually Indigo removed the cowl and was back to their normal self, their reason being that they had been getting too warm with all the fur.
Edric had marveled at the stitching inside the cowl, stating that his practice attempts were nothing special and Emira had been working on his.
"You got it on you? I can finish it for ya in no time" Eda offers, her scarf still snuggly wrapped around her chest.
"No, it's still in our house, but next time we come over I'll be sure to pack it, now that we know what it can do… actually maybe we just shouldn't, I dunno how I feel about letting this guy mess about as some weird bat dog"
"It's a wolfbat! A bat dog is a completely different species" Edric complains at Emira's lack of knowledge "And I would not mess around with it…" but Edric had a hard time keeping his face straight at the thought of being able to fly around even without a staff.
"Oooh a wolfbat! Dude you gotta let me see when you get it finished!" Viney says excitedly
"Duh!" Edric says "You're like the only person who's gonna appreciate how awesome they are! Em thinks they're ugly"
"I didn't say ugly! I said different!" Emira defends as Viney looks at her in horror.
"Hmmm, well either way, make sure your kids don't tell anyone else about these disguises, don't need the dummies coven comin after these two as well" Eda says.
-An hour of randomness later-
The Blight siblings soon got a text to head home, saying their goodbyes quickly and heading off.
Indigo was lying on the couch with Luz sitting on their legs again, reading the first Azura book aloud for them.
Luz was ecstatic that Indigo had shown an interest in the books and was more than happy to oblige when they asked her to read it to them, the print was far too small for them. (they also just like Luz's reading voice.)
Luz was on Chapter 2 by the time Eda came back into the room, she seemed exhausted and Luz paused as she swore she saw a feather on Eda's elbow which could only mean one thing.
"Eda!"
It was too late, Eda was transforming.
"King!"
"Weh? Weeeeeh!"
"Get the elixir! Now!"