AN: Unfortunately, this is the last chapter I have prepared, so it'll probably be a while before the next one. Don't worry, though, I am definitely not done here, because I have too much to show.
"Well, the good news is, you managed to avoid burning the house down," Eda declared as she took in what was left of the living room. There wasn't a single item of furniture in the room that hadn't been knocked down, overturned, or torn to shreds. Most of Eda's various knicknacks were either on the floor, or embedded in the wall, when they hadn't simply ended up on the grass outside.
None of which even began to acknowledge the hole in the roof, which was currently still smoldering, despite the puddles dripping off of the eves.
"The bad news is, I'm the one who's going to have to fix all this," she continued with a sigh, before turning to face the contrite looking trio standing by the front door.
It was difficult to tell who had come out looking worse from last night. Amity's clothes were still technically intact, in that they were mostly in one piece and largely the same color, which was more than could be said for the girl herself. Eda wasn't entirely sure how Hexside's number one student had managed to get Abomination goop all over her hair, but she was betting it would make an absolutely awesome story.
Gus and Willow, on the other hand, only had about a single outfit's worth of intact clothing between them. Between the rips, the scorch marks, and the copious amounts of orange paint, they mostly looked like they were wearing traffic cones that had been put through a wood chipper, before being set on fire. The plant witch also had the better part of a rose bush mixed through her hair, while Gus had somehow managed to wedge his shoes onto his hands and apparently couldn't get them off.
Eda had only gotten the briefest glimpse of King before he had darted up the stairs with a shriek of mortification, but even that quick look had suggested that Luz had somehow gotten into the stash of pixie dust that Eda kept under the sink. She suspected that he wouldn't be coming out of hiding until he washed every last ounce of glitterout of his fur.
Luz, surprisingly, looked as pristine as when they had left, her huge fuzzy body completely spotless, and without so much as a feather out of place. She was also currently engaged in snuggling enthusiastically with her mother, who was half pinned against a handy tree by her daughter's bulk.
"Aw, relax brats," she finally said, if for no other reason than to keep Amity from passing out due to sheer tension. "You kept Luz from escaping, and there's nothing in there that can't be fixed with a spell or two…" Without any further ceremony, the single portion of the roof that was currently intact slowly collapsed into Eda's bedroom with a sound like a sad trombone.
"Or three…" she added through gritted teeth. "Point is, you did good, so stop looking like I'm planning to cook you or something."
"Oh, thank goodness," Willow said, slumping in place. "I'm sorry about the ceiling, Miss Eda, but I think Luz was hungry or something and I had to stop her from chasing Gus and then Amity tried to distract her with a spell but then-"
"It's fine kid, really," Eda said. "As long as you didn't go rummaging through the liquor cabinet or something…" Her indulgent smile wilted almost as rapidly as Willow's expression. "Oh no…"
"Sorry, Miss Eda. By the time I figured out where Luz had gone, she was already halfway through the big brown bottle you keep on top, only I think she must be allergic because…"
While Willow went through a blow-by-blow commentary of how monster-sitting Luz had gone, with supporting commentary from Gus (and Hooty), Amity sidled over to where Luz was slumped, with her mother trapped beneath her fuzzy bulk.
"H-hi," she said, leaning over the happily chirping Luz to offer her hand to Camila. "I'm not sure we've been properly introduced. My name's Amity Blight; it's a real pleasure to meet you, Miss Noceda."
"Right, right," Camila said, reaching up to give the girl a firm handshake. "Eda was in such a hurry to get to Night Market, I'm afraid most of last night was something of a blur." She smiled, and pulled her hand away to give her daughter a firm scratch behind the ears. "And it's definitely a pleasure to finally meet one of my daughter's friends."
"Yeah, she's...she's pretty great, isn't she," Amity said, before flushing and looking away.
"Oh, definitely, though I'll admit that I'm not used to anybody else being able to spot it," Camila said, her expression turning wry from awkward memories.
"Yeah, that's...that's fair," Amity said, face falling. "When we first met, well… Let's just say that we got off on the wrong foot."
"Well, you're here now," Camila said, giving the girl a proud smile. "I'm sure she'll be grateful once she gets back to normal."
"You think so?"
"Of course," she declared. "I didn't raise mi tesoro to be no ingrate."
Before Amity could think of anything else to say, she heard the sound of Eda impatiently clapping her hands together.
"Alright, let's get this mess over with," the Owl Lady demanded as she clumped over to the Luz. "I'm not getting any younger over here, and it looks like I'm gonna have a lot of cleaning to do after we're done here, so we might as well get started. You still got the cure?
"Mhm," Camila hummed, reaching into her pocket to pull out the tiny bottle. She wasn't prepared for Luz's startled reaction, her daughter almost leaping away at the sight of the potion, but she reacted with admirable speed by grabbing the girl by the scruff of the neck.
"Stop that!" she barked, waggling a finger in front of her daughter's nose. "You will take your medicine, and like it!"
The owlet beast sagged in place like a scolded puppy, hanging her head and staring up at her mother with big, wet eyes. "Don't even think about it, niña," Camila protested, though her resolve was already weakening beneath the weight of the dreaded puppy eyes. "Tell you what, you take your medicine, and after you're feeling better we can go out and grab ice cream or something."
She wasn't prepared for Eda to sidle up to say, "On the one hand, I really should start cleaning up around here, but on the other hand, ice cream sounds like a really great idea."
"Oh good," Camila said, her smile turning ever so slightly sharp. "That means you'll be okay with paying, right?"
"...what?" Eda said, gaping at her like a fish out of water.
"I mean, you definitely still owe me for essentially kidnapping my daughter, even if I've mostly decided not to call the cops on you," Camila explained, folding her arms across her chest and cocking her hips. "I figure ice cream on your dime would be a good start."
Eda rubbed at her forehead, eyes narrowed in exasperation. "So this is what gratitude looks like?" she grumbled to Willow and Gus, who were watching the spectacle from the side. "Next time I find a human in my stand, I'm tossing them right back out the door."
Camila giggled quietly at the witch's overblown performance, before a soft chirp from her daughter got her back on track. "So I just give her the potion, then?" she asked, reaching up to unscrew the top.
"Yep, just give her the whole thing," Eda said, her casual posture at odds with the way she narrowed her eyes. "And make sure you don't spill anything. The potion might not be homogenous, so anything she doesn't drink could stop the whole thing from working."
"Alright." Camila unscrewed the lid, and let it fall to one side. "It's just like giving medicine to a patient." She walked up to Luz, who cringed away but otherwise waited obediently while her mother kneeled down in front of her. "Okay, just open wide and it'll all be over soon," she murmured, reaching over to pour the potion into her daughter's mouth with exaggerated care.
The second the bottle was empty, Luz jerked away, pawing at her tongue and hacking unhappily as she staggered back. "How long do you think it's going to take?" Camila asked, watching her daughter with a twinge of sympathy that lasted until she remembered some of the concoctions that Luz had fed to her.
"Dunno," Eda said with a shrug. "Could be minutes, or hours…" She was completely caught off guard by the flash that filled the clearing, blinding light painting the clearing in lines of black and white. "Or it could start happening right away, that works too!" she shouted, holding her staff at the ready.
It was impossible to see what was happening past the overwhelming glow, but Camila imagined she could hear feathers rustling themselves out of existence as flesh warped and bone cracked back into place. She could only wait on tenterhooks for the process to complete itself, hoping beyond hope that this was it, they'd gotten it right, her daughter was going to be okay…
Then the light faded as quickly as it had come, and Camila found herself staring in shock at what had taken its place. "A hyena?" she squawked, stumbling back in shock. "I thought she was going to be a dog!"
"Yeah, I gotta admit I'm feeling a little puzzled here too," Eda declared, leaning on her staff as she watched her student slump into an exhausted slouch. "Are you sure we brought home the right bottle?"
"What? Of course it was the right bottle! Hee only gave me one bottle, what was I going to do? Mix it up with the ones I'm carrying in my purse?"
"Well obviously not, seeing as how you're not actually carrying a purse…"
"That's not the point, Eda!"
They both shut up when they heard the rather disconcerting giggle coming from Luz, huddled on the ground where she had fallen. They exchanged a look, before stepping back in unison as she started struggling back to her feet, wobbling until she managed to get her paws under her.
"So, uh, never heard of a hyena before," Eda said, brandishing her staff as she moved in front of Camila. "Earth animal, right? What're they like?"
"They're not exactly common around here either," the nurse protested, her eyes locked firmly on her daughter. "I only know about them because of the Lion Ki~ing!" The word came out as a squawk when she felt the ground twist beneath her feet, sending her tumbling backwards onto the dirt.
Luz glanced up at the sound, her ears perked up in interest, and her eyes gleaming a golden brown beneath the starry night sky. She moved clumsily as she prowled towards them, her limbs a little too long, too thin, to support the thick, stocky body. Her fur was thicker than the movie had suggested, but even in the dimness Camila could make out the characteristic spots, and the distinctive mane.
Somehow, film had failed to prepare her for the size of Luz's teeth, which were sufficiently large and numerous that her daughter's jaw barely had the room to fit them all.
"Uh-huh," Eda grunted, eyes not leaving her student's face. "Did this King of yours happen to tell you that these things are friendly?"
"Um, not really?" Camila said, struggling upright. "They live in Africa, I think, they're supposed to laugh a lot, they mostly seem to live off of carrion? They were jokes, basically, faceless minions the hero could beat up without looking bad."
"Yeah, well, I'm not laughing," Eda said, her voice tight as she carefully backed up another step.
The closer Luz got, the clearer it became that her new body was no less twisted than her old one. Her limbs were too thin, yes, but her body was too stout, back twisted into a painful hunch… At least until she rose up to her full height, and then kept rising, rearing up onto her rear legs like a demented simian. Her forelegs were almost human-like, stubby claws clutching at the air as she wobbled forward, head weaving back and forth with every unsteady step. Even her face was subtly twisted, familiar human features almost vanished beneath course fur and a stubby muzzle, with a jaw so large that it was dragging the rest of her head downward.
"Luz?" The question was quiet, filled with trembling nerves, and Camila belatedly realized that she'd forgotten about the children huddled a few yards away. Amity was out in front, trembling eyes locked firmly on the face of her crush, and Camila felt her heart clench when her daughter's head swung that way with an eager whine.
With every step, the hyena best got a little faster, a little better at keeping her balance, until she was crossing the second third of the clearing twice as fast as the first. "Uh, I think I liked her first curse better," Gus admitted, nervously backing up with Willow's hand clenched in his. "Because she's kind of creeping me out…"
History repeated itself when a loose pebble suddenly sent the boy tumbling backwards, his tight grip pulling Willow after him with a startled shriek. Amity turned back out of surprise, and that was the moment when Luz leapt, too thin limbs propelling her impossibly far. Amity barely had the chance to see it coming, flinching away with a shriek of her own-
And finding herself spared when Luz was pulled up short by a trio of golden wires, which appeared out of nowhere to wrap themselves tightly around her body. They pulled themselves taught, snapping her limbs tight against her body so that she tumbled onto her belly with an unhappy yip.
"That's about enough of that," Eda declared, her fingers spinning up another spell circle as glowing lines reached out to drag Luz away from the kids. "Sorry about this kid, but you'd never forgive me if I let you munch on your friends."
Luz growled and bucked against her bonds, but the chains held firm, even when she contorted to gnaw on them with her jagged fangs. After a few moments of frantic effort she gave up, slumping across the dirt in her defeat, though her eyes had lost none of their fire.
Eda suppressed a shiver when she saw a spark of intelligence burning behind the mindless intensity. She'd faced bigger, and badder, but there was always something a little disturbing about something that wanted to eat you, and was probably clever enough to pull it off.
Better to keep this particular problem bottled up. Speaking of which… She reached up into her hair, and pulled free a brand new bottle of elixir, much to Luz's vocal dismay. "It's for your own good, kid," Eda said, tugging the stopper free and tossing it aside. The unhappy yips and howls were easy enough to ignore, but the gnashing teeth proved more of a problem, until she conjured a glowing ring to hold them open.
"There we go…" she said as she poured the elixir inside, forcibly snapping her student's jaws shut the very next moment. She looked directly into Luz's disgruntled expression and added, "The sooner you swallow, the sooner this'll be over."
The hyena-beast gave her a very distinct eye roll, before grudgingly gulping the potion down.
Eda held her breath against the moment of truth. Either the elixir would work, and Luz would be back to normal, or…
The first sign that something was happening was the way that Luz's whole body shivered, like a cat getting its fur stroked the wrong way, before contorting into a painful looking bow. The changes came quickly, limbs shrinking into a more human shape as fur vanished and her chest slimmed down into that of a gawky teenage girl. Her face was the last part to change, muzzle flattening out into a more familiar shape, while her eyes brightened into their customary light brown shine.
Eda let the chains fade away as she knelt down beside her student, her heart throbbing in her throat. "Luz? Luz! Are you okay?" she demanded, her voice rough.
"Eda…?" Luz let out a groan as she struggled upright with Eda's help, one hand rubbing at her eyes. "What happened? Where are we? And why does my mouth taste like the inside of a pottery classroom?"
"Well, first of all- wait. A pottery classroom?" Eda asked.
Luz flushed. "I, uh, might have been doing some research for my next Azura story."
"Of course you were," Eda groaned, rolling her eyes, "I don't even know why I'm surprised."
"I did tell her it was a bad idea," Willow said as she walked up to join them. "But she insisted on getting the 'authentic experience'." Her air quotes were almost as descriptive as her expression, which was caught somewhere between laughter and a sigh.
"Hey!" Luz pointed a single accusing finger at her friends. "Amity did it too!"
"Yeah, but Amity only licked, like, one pot," Gus pointed out. "You're the one who tried to lick the whole collection, and gave up halfway because your mouth was filling up with more dirt than spit."
"I didn't give up! I just...satisfied my curiosity, that's all. I could definitely have done the rest of them if I wanted to…"
As Camila stood off to one side, listening to the exchange, she was struck by the familiarity of it all. Not her familiarity with it, unfortunately, considering Luz's chronic difficulties with making friends, but the familiarity that these people shared. There was no awkwardness, no hurt feelings or uncomfortable silences.
No, they just all fit together, very different people who had found a piece of themselves with each other. It was a closeness she had found with Luz, once upon a time, a closeness she had missed. A closeness that had been lost in a haze of Azura, and obsessive fanfiction, and messages from the school principal about yet another mess that her daughter had gotten involved in…
A closeness she had tried to repair by sending her daughter away to camp, hoping that they would fix her, would make her more normal…
Only, it turned out that her daughter wasn't broken after all. The only thing Luz had needed was a place where she could fit in and be herself, with people who knew how to appreciate someone who was a little strange.
No wonder Luz had run away from camp. These people had made a better family for her than her own mother had!
Camila didn't realize that she had let out a sound of dismay until she saw her daughter perk up from the center of the huddle. Luz's eyes tracked across the clearing, until they landed squarely on her mother's face and went wide in shock and dismay.
"Mom!" Luz cried out, scrambling to her feet. "What are you doing here? I mean, how are you-?! Who-?"
Camila could see the genuine panic in Luz's eyes, the way she kept turning back and forth between her mother and her friends. 'Is this about the lie?' Camila wondered. 'Is it about getting in trouble? Or is just afraid that I'm going to look at the things she loves, and try to take them away for the second time?'
And maybe Luz was right to be afraid. Camila still hadn't decided how she felt about all of this, let alone what she was going to do about it. The important thing, though, was that her daughter was safe, and whole, and in arms reach for the first time in almost two months.
"Gracias a Dios, you're okay," Camila declared, leaping forward to engulf her daughter in a desperate hug. "My sweet baby girl, I was so worried…" She felt Luz stiffen in her arms, but then her daughter sank into the embrace, her arms wrapping tightly around Camila in turn.
"I'm sorry, Mami," Luz whispered, voice tight with shame. "I just...I…"
"It's okay," Camila said, pulling back to give Luz a serious but not unhappy look. "Eda told me the whole story, and we'll be having a talk about running away, and lying to me…" She reached out, and lifted up her daughter's chin from where it had sunk in shame. "But the important thing is that you're safe, and we're together again."
Camila hesitated, awkward and unsure at the words she wanted to say, but a quick glance past Luz at the friends huddled behind her solidified her choice. After everything they had done for her daughter, how could she possibly do anything less?
"You know I love you, right mija?" she began, reaching out to lay a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "You're the most important, the most fantastic, the most magical part of my life, and I just wanted you to know that if I ever made you doubt that-"
Luz promptly burst into tears, and leapt in for another hug. "I know Mami, I know", she blubbered, pressing her face against Camila's chest. "I love you too, so, so much."
Slowly, quietly, Camila felt some inner worry unclench itself within her chest as she wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter. Maybe things were still okay between them. Maybe...it would all turn out alright.
They stood there together until Luz's tears finally ran out, and she stepped back to look her mother in the face, still wiping at her eyes. "How did you even get here?" she asked. "I thought the only portal back home…"
She glanced back at Eda, who gave them both an exasperated wave. "Still here, you know?" the Owl Lady snarked.
Camila waved back. "Miss Eda was kind enough to invite me over, after she explained about how you had been cursed."
"Oh. I guess that…" Luz began, before the rest of Camila's words registered. "Wait, I was what?!"
"But why would someone want to curse me?" Luz asked, pacing in front of the fireplace.
They had moved the discussion into the Owl House a while ago, Luz's friends electing to stay the night rather than risk the trek back home in the dark. Most of them had fallen asleep soon after, exhausted by the night's events. Amity had been the last to succumb, but in the end she had ended up laying on the couch with the others, snoring softly.
"Got me, kid," Eda said, sagging in the tattered armchair with a heartfelt sigh. It was obvious that she was exhausted, which only made it more impressive that she had been successfully corralling her student's frantic energy. "Don't suppose you've pissed off any other wizards, lately? Maybe got into trouble at school? Bumpie definitely seems like the sort of guy who'd curse one of his students."
"I don't think so," Luz replied after a moment's consideration. "Everything has actually been pretty quiet, and Principal Bump even said that the whole thing with the greenhouse catching on fire wasn't actually my fault."
"I'm sorry, the what caught on fire?" Camila asked from where she was nursing a pot of coffee, freshly ferreted out from the back of Eda's cabinets.
"Actually, I'm with your mother on this one," the owl witch concurred with a mischievous grin. "I don't think I've heard this particular story before."
"Th-that's not important," Luz stuttered. "My point is that I can't think of anyone who'd want to curse me, and...well…" Her words trailed off, even as her gaze landed squarely on Eda, who grimaced in response.
"Sorry, kiddo," Eda sighed, giving both of them an apologetic look. "I'm pretty sure that whoever cursed me is probably the same person who cursed you, but I'll be tarred and feathered if I can figure out who it is. I mean, sure, there's lots of people who wouldn't mind cursing me now, but back then I barely qualified as a troublemaker."
"But...does it matter?" Camila asked, carefully setting her mug down on a table that was missing a leg. "Luz is cured, right? The curse is gone?"
Eda grimaced. "I wish. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The elixir is a suppressant, not a cure; as long as Luz takes it regularly, it'll hold the curse at bay, but the magic is still there."
"So, at any moment she could turn back into that...that thing?" Camila demanded, her voice a near shriek as she rose to her feet.
It was certainly loud enough to make Willow stirr unhappily in her sleep, until Luz darted over to soothe her. "It's not that bad, Mami," the witch in training explained as she pulled the blanket higher. "Eda has been living with a curse for decades, and she's doing okay. If she can do it, so can I."
"That's… that's right," Eda said, ignoring the foul taste of the lie even as her mind drifted back to a steadily growing pile of empty bottles.
It had taken almost three decades for the elixir to stop being effective. Close to thirty years of living with the curse, living on the edge, trying desperately to keep everything under control…
That was plenty of time, right? Plenty of time to find a cure, or at least a more permanent solution.
"Don't worry, Luz's mom," was all she said out loud as she shoved away that particular train of thought. She'd have plenty of time for worrying later, when her inner demons came out to play. "As long as I'm around, I'll make sure that Luz has all the potion she needs."
"But that means she'll be trapped here!" Camila blurted out, before she could stop herself. She regretted the words immediately, especially when her daughter froze mid step with a horrified expression.
"Stuck here? MamI, I'm not *trapped* here," Luz said, whirling to face her. "I want to stay here. I love it here. This place is amazing! I have friends, a mentor, I'm learning magic…" The last word was filled with so much longing that it made Camila heart ache, like the days when she was still getting used to sleeping in an empty bed. "Please don't make me go home, Mami."
"Luz…" Camila hesitated, fighting to find the right words. She didn't want to do this, not yet, not when she wasn't ready, but her stupid mouth had gotten her into this, and now she had to follow through. "Mija, you lied to me," she began, because going on the attack was always easier. "I thought you were safe at camp, and you were here the whole time, lying to me."
"I know, and i'm so sorry, but-"
Camila cut off the apology with an upraised hand. "More importantly, this place is *dangerous*. Eda told me about the monsters living here, you're living with a wanted criminal, you got cursed." Camila paused when she saw her daughter's face, distraught to the point of tears, and felt the ache in her chest deepen. "I know you like it here, Luz, but I'm supposed to think of what's best for you, not just what makes you happy."
"But this place is great for me!" Luz protested. "Look at how much I've learned!"
"I know that learning magic is exciting for you, but you have to be realistic! How are you supposed to make a living off of something that nobody else believes in?!" Camila was desperate, trying to grab at anything, everything, any excuse that would make sense, that would finally make Luz sit down and listen. "You need to think about your future!"
"You just think that magic is stupid!" her daughter shouted back, furious tears dripping down her face. "You think that everything I like is stupid! Well, maybe I don't want to be normal! Maybe I like being a weirdo! Did you ever think about that?!"
"Mija, it's not like that,," Camila protested, even as her heart sank in her chest. Why was it, that every time they tried to talk, they kept coming back to the same old argument. "I'm just-"
"But maybe that's not good enough for you," her daughter said, cutting her off. There was so much hurt in her voice that Camila trembled at the sound, her soul shook by the knowledge that, once more, she had made the wrong decision.
"Luz, that's not-" But her daughter was already running, swinging around the corner to thunder her way up the stairs. Camila watched her go, before sinking back into her chair with a heartsick sigh.
It took a quiet cough from Eda for her to remember that the other woman was in the room, and a few moments before she remembered that kids were sleeping there too. She glanced over, surprised that the argument hadn't woken them up, only to find a rather muted golden glow hanging over them.
"Soundproofing spell," Eda explained when she caught the curious look. "It's the only reason I survived having Luz as a roommate. That girl likes to wake up crazy early for no reason at all."
"Heh. She gets it from her father," Camila said, before slumping back and letting her head drop into her hands with another sigh. "How did you do it, Eda? How did you keep her under control? I can't even manage it for five minutes before we're having a fight, so how did you do it for weeks at a time?"
The owl lady squirmed, visibly uncomfortable with the subject. "Honestly, I've got no idea. I've mostly been making it up as I go along." She looked over to see Camila's miserable expression, before turning away with a sigh. "If you were hoping for actual advice, though, I'd say that the big difference is that I'm not trying to keep Luz under control, I'm just trying to teach her."
The witch spun up a quick spell, leaning back in her chair as a cup of appleblood started brewing in the kitchen. "Sure, I tried to let her know when she was being silly, and I tried to show her the right way of doing things, but most of the time I ended up letting her do her own thing. And, well, sometimes it all worked out well for her, and sometimes I ended up having to swoop in to rescue her. And then sometimes..."
Eda smiled at the fond memory, even as she reached out to accept the steaming mug. "Well, sometimes she surprised me. Surprised everyone, really. Between you and me, your kid has a real talent for over-turning the status quo."
Camila let out an unhappy little laugh. "Tell me something I don't know," the nurse said. "Every day, it was a brand new mess for me to try and clean up. Snakes in the school, reading her fanfiction out loud in the park, a thirty foot statue of Azura she was planning to build in the backyard…"
"Yeah, that definitely sounds like her…" They shared a brief chuckle at the thought, and for the moment melancholy was driven away by the mental image of Luz, and just how far she'd go for her favorite book series. Then the laughter faded away, and Eda was left to find the next thing to say. "Is it really so bad that she fits in better over here?"
"Yes," Camila said.
"No," she said a second later.
"I don't know," the nurse finally admitted, dropping her head into her hands again. "I just...this place, it's so…" She struggled to find the right word, face twisted in indecision.
"Dangerous?" Eda offered, sitting forward in her chair. "You know I'd never let anything bad happen to the kid, ri-"
"Strange," Camila said, cutting her off. The nurse swallowed hard, and turned away from whatever she saw in Eda's face, her voice heavy with shame. "I'm sorry, but it's true. This place, these people, you...you're all so bizarre, even grotesque sometimes. It scares me, a little, how well Luz fits in here, when she never fit in back home. And I'm scared that if I let her stay here, that she'll end up…"
"That she'll end up becoming more like us, and less like you," Eda said with a tired sigh. She held up a hand to cut off Camila's immediate apology. "No, no, it's a fair point. Luz has been picking up a lot of my dirty tricks, I can see how that'd be a little concerning." The Owl Lady sighed again when she saw that her quip had only made the other woman look even more guilty.
"Look," she said. "I'm not saying that I appreciate getting called a freak of nature to my face, but I'm not about to get hissy about it either. I stopped caring what other people thought about me a long time ago, and you're no exception to that. And, for what it's worth…" It only took a few moments thought to make the decision to take the plunge. "Well, I felt the same way I wandered over into the human world."
"Really?" Camila said, obviously skeptical.
"Really," Eda said with a shudder that was only slightly exaggerated. "I ended up in one of those metal and glass monstrosities that you people call a city, and let me tell you that place made my feathers stand on end. Everything was so dead, so stale...so, so orderly. It was like someone had gone around, and straightened all the curves out of the world while nobody was looking. I ended up running back through the portal and slamming the door, then swearing I'd never go back."
"That promise didn't last long, of course," she continued, finishing up her appleblood and setting it to one side. "Human trash was worth too much for me to just leave it lying around, so I had to go back eventually. But I made sure to move the portal somewhere with a lot more trees, and even then I let Owlbert do most of the actual fetching."
"So, yeah, I can get why you're a little freaked out about ending up in another world," Eda said, folding her hands in her lap for lack of better ideas. "I guess i just want to know why you think it's so bad that Luz...isn't?" Her eyes drifted up to meet Camila's again, and suddenly they were full of that searching, testing light from before, hunting for an answer deep in Camila's soul. "Is being normal really that important to you? Is making your daughter normal really more important than letting her be happy?"
Camila's first impulse was to shout, 'Of course not', but she held back because that wouldn't be the whole answer. It would, in fact, be such a small portion of the answer that it could probably qualify as a lie. "Luz didn't have any friends, back home," is what she says instead. "She was always getting in trouble at school, scaring off the other kids, or making messes for other people to clean up. And I don't have any other family, not anymore, so for the longest time it was just me and her, and…"
She trailed off, head dropping down so she could swipe at her eyes, but Eda didn't say anything, simply waiting patiently for her to continue. "Mi tesoro is a sweet, special, wonderful girl in so many ways," Camila finally said. "And I knew...or at least, I thought that nobody else would ever find that out, unless she learned how to…"
When Camila looked up again, her cheeks were damp with tears, her eyes shining wetly in the lamplight. "It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud. I wanted everyone to see how amazing my daughter was, so I tried to make her hide away the things that make her special, the things she loved…" The sharp bark of her laugh was cold, and full of loathing. "Maybe you really are a better mother for her than I was."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about me being Luz's mom?" Eda interacted. "Take it from me, sister, I'm not cut out to be anyone's parent, let alone Luz's." She shot Camila a grin, which faded quickly when the other woman's only response was to turn away in shame.
"Hey, don't be like that," the witch chided gently. "You think I've got a flawless record, over here? In case you forgot, the first thing I did when I met Luz was to blackmail her into one of my crazy schemes. We've both got moments we're not exactly proud of. So instead of focusing on what's already done, let's try and figure out what you're going to do next."
They talked together for quite some time, until long after the sun had crept its way up above the horizon, trading thoughts and ideas, plans and fears. Eda pushed for Luz going her own way, of course, ever the irreverent supporter of utter chaos. Camila mostly wanted to make sure her daughter would have something to come back to. In the end, after going through enough hot drinks to fill a bathtub, the two of them came to something approaching an agreement, and Eda went upstairs to bring Luz back so she could hear the news.
The Owl Lady took it as a good sign that she didn't hear her student sobbing when she opened the door, though any good feelings vanished when she saw the torrent of witch-lights bobbing throughout the room. Luz must have been drawing light-glyphs for literally the entire night to have made this many, and Eda could barely imagine the desperate energy behind the girl's efforts.
Luz was huddled on the windowsill, the scratch of her pencil a harsh counterpoint to her silent focus. Her face was strangely blank, her usual endless energy replaced by blind determination, eyes flat and almost dull despite the endless parade of lights hovering around her.
'Please let this work,' Eda silently prayed, before knocking on the half open door. "Hey kiddo, think you can spare a moment? Your mom and I want to have a word with you." She winced when she saw Luz cringe away, huddling even closer around her notepad. "Hey, don't worry, it's good news I promise."
"You don't need to lie to me, Eda," Luz said, morosely returning to her sketching. "I already know there's no way that Mom would let me stay here…"
"Well now, she might not be willing to let you stay here," Eda began, before her serious face became a satisfied smile. "But she never said that you couldn't come back."
"...what?" Luz asked, dragging her eyes up from the page like she was lifting a great weight. "You mean she…?"
"Come downstairs, and we'll talk about it," Eda said, before slipping back out through the door.
By the time Luz had stumbled down the stairs, Eda was already sitting off to one side, a patient witness to the rest of the room. She gave her apprentice a wave and an encouraging smile, but remained silent, leaving Luz's attention to drift over to where her mother was waiting.
Camila looked frazzled, for lack of a stronger word, particularly since she was still dressed in the clothes from last night. Still, her eyes were sharp and focused as she looked up at her daughter's approach, hands folded neatly in her lap.
"Mija," she began, stroking her fingers across each other. "First of all, I think we both owe each other an apology. Yes, you lied to me, but I haven't really given you a good reason to be honest with me. I've been treating the things you want as a distraction, and that's not fair to you, or to the work Miss Eda has put into teaching you."
Camila took a deep breath, before continuing, "I won't say I'm comfortable with you staying here. This place is a bit too… dangerous for a mother's sensibilities." The words came with a brief, if determined, smile. "Still, Miss Eda is obviously working hard to keep you safe, which is why I'm willing to give this whole adventure a...well, a trial period, for lack of a better word."
"Mami," Luz gasped, hands held up to her mouth while her eyes shined with unshed tears. "You mean…"
"You won't be staying here the whole time," Camila hastened to add. "Once we secure a steady supply of that curse elixir stuff, you'll be spending your nights at home, young lady. And once the summer is over, I'll be expecting you to keep up with all of your schoolwork, not just the stuff you get from Hexside. But if you do all your homework, and keep out of trouble-"
The rest of her words were cut off by a ballistic witch's apprentice, moving fast enough to knock her chair over entirely. "Ohmigosh, omigosh, thank you!" Luz babbled, hugging her mother tight enough to make her squeak. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh my gosh, i can't believe this!"
She pulled back just enough to flash her mother a brilliant smile, eyes sparkling brightly in the morning sun. "I didn't think you'd ever let me stay here!"
"Yes, well," Camila said, smiling up at her daughter. "Eda was very convincing when she told me-"
'That you had finally made some friends.'
'That you loved every day you spent here.'
'That you were brave, and adventurous, and oh so terribly clever.'
'That you had more talent, more *potential* as a witch than anyone she'd ever seen.'
All of them were words that she should have said, that she wanted to say, but every time she tried they just got all tangled up inside her head. It was as if admitting just how much her daughter had thrived in this world, was tantamount to surrendering Luz to the Boiling Isles completely. It was stupid and unfair, she knew it was stupid and unfair, and still the words wouldn't come.
So she settled for the next best thing, before her daughter could notice her hesitation. "-that I should give this place a chance," Camila finally said, reaching up to cup her daughters face. "After all, there must be something good to this place, if you love it so much."
"Oh, there is Mami, there's so many amazing things to see here!" Luz declared shooting up to her feet, before reaching down to tug Camila up as well. "I can't wait to show you Hexside, and the Knee...oh! And Bonesborough! Maybe you can come along on my potions run, so I can show you all the coolest houses…"
Camila found herself swept up in her daughter's enthusiasm, and listened with a bemused ear as her daughter described a cavalcade of horror movie tropes with the same enthusiasm as a girl on her first date. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all…
"Luz?" The quiet question cut through Luz's happy chatter like shears through fine thread, and Camila watched her daughter whirl on the couch with a broad smile. "What're you so excited about?" Willow asked, rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she squirmed upright beneath Gus's embrace.
"Guys, guys!" Luz declared, launching herself forward for the second time. The room was filled with the surprised squawks of her friends as the entire couch was sent toppling over. "I get to stay here! Mom is letting me stay! Well, I'm not actually staying, I still have to go home, but she's letting me come back! I'll get to keep going to Hexside, and hanging with you guys, and ohmigosh this is gonna be so awesome-!"
Camila watched with a smile, and held back her sigh. She didn't turn around when she heard the distinctive sound of Eda's heels behind her, too focused on watching her daughter's celebration with a grin on her face, and her heart in her mouth.
"Don't worry," said the Owl Lady, laying a hand on Camila's shoulder. "With the two of us on her side, what could possibly go wrong?"
Lilith put down the report, and rubbed at her eyes with a frustrated sigh. "Of course," she grumbled to the empty room. "I don't even know why I'm surprised."
Of course Edalyn wouldn't come to the only person on the whole Isles who could undo her curse. Of course she'd try to fix things on her own, instead of doing what's best for both her and her little pet. Of course she'd trust some random con artist in the Night Market instead of her own sister!
She felt a twinge of guilt resurface, before she shoved it back down. She had nothing to feel guilty about. This was only a temporary measure, after all. True, casting a curse on a child had hardly been her proudest moment, but she had been reassured by the knowledge that it would all be undone as soon as Edalyn realized the truth and turned herself in.
It would have been a simple matter for Emperor Belos to cure them both, and then Eda would be where she belonged, no damage done.
Admittedly, she hadn't been expecting the human to react to the curse so volatilely, but honestly else what could you expect? There was a reason that the worlds were kept separate, after all. Of course mixing the two of them had almost brought disaster.
And now, presuming Tibble's so-called cure worked as advertised, there was every risk that they'd end up with not one, but *two* owl beasts running around, causing chaos all across the Isles.
No, this simply wouldn't do. Edalyn's recklessness and carelessness needed to be kept in check, and if her sister couldn't see it for herself, then Lilith would simply have to take care of it herself.
Just like always.
A quick spell circle summoned one of her personal guard, who stomped in through the door to come to attention in front of her desk. "Steve, summon the troops," she said as she rose from her chair, summoning her staff with a click of her fingers. "And tell them we have a new target."
The picture she plucked from her desk bore only a passing resemblance to the young human girl who had once challenged Amity Blight to a witches duel. True, most of the features were there, the button nose and the chocolate hair done up in a manic pixie cut, but Luz had never had a smile so menacing, or eyes quite that bright. Even in the bright light of Lilith's office, the picture seemed to lurk, as though poised to leap out of the shadows at the nearest passing target.
"As of this moment," Lilith declared as she handed over the poster. " Luz the human is wanted for the crime of smuggling human artifacts, association with a known criminal, and the defiance of the Emperor's will. She is to be brought in at all costs, alive…". Lilith paused in the doorway, as a flash of hesitation flickered across her face.
This wasn't the sort of thing she could take back, after all. Still, as much as it pained her to involve a largely blameless creature in her personal mess, she had more important things to worry about than the wellbeing of a foolish human child who didn't know her place. Edalyn would understand, eventually.
"Alive," she said again, "or dead. Either way, she must be found. Do not fail me, Steve."
"Of course, Miss Lilith," he said, dipping into a quick bow before he vanished into a puff of green vapor.
"One way or another, your days are numbered, human," Lilith whispered to herself as she turned to stare out the window. "Either I get you…"
"Or the curse will."
AN: It's kinda funny, really. My first impulse was to just keep Luz as especially cute Owlet, because the picture is honestly just too adorable for words. Then I had the idea to turn Luz into a big puppy so that I could stand out from the crowd a bit more.
The idea to turn her into something else entirely came along a little later, when I realized I didn't want to take the easy route. Cute, trouble-making puppy Luz would be a lot of fun, but it'd sort of undercut the conflict a little. With Eda, there's the constant struggle to keep the Owl Beast in check, so that people stay safe, but puppyLuz lacks that sort of impact.
So i decide to diverge a little more.
Luz's new shape was inspired a lot by chapter 2, and Tibble's explanation about the curse. I wanted a shape that'd embody Luz's flaws in a unique way, and I ended up looking at Luz's home life, where most of her problems were because she was awkward, off-putting, or somewhat creepy.
It only made more sense the more I looked into what hyena's are like. They're smart, determined, and incredibly social, but they're more than a little off-putting, and they have a terrible reputation. Basically, Luz in a nutshell.