When the Emperor said he would be keeping an eye on the residents of the Owl House, Gold assumed that the duty of spying on them would be rotated among the coven members. This did not appear to be the case so far.
It wasn't as if nobody else was assigned the job; it was more that no one else wanted to take it. The combination of having to deal with Edalyn Clawthorne's house demon and having to spend any lengthy amount of time with him seemed to be putting them off.
He didn't have many he could call friends in the coven, but that just left him more time to practice his magic and serve his leader.
If only the assignment weren't so dull.
He perched far enough away that the house demon wouldn't see him, but he was close enough to see into at least one room. This appeared to be the human Luz's room. And - for the last few hours - the human girl had been doodling on scraps of paper (primarily runes, although some depictions of herself and the youngest Blight witch), looking for a very long time into a purple rectangle, and chasing Edalyn's pet around in an attempt to dress him up in a tiny costume.
He'd been reporting back everything of consequence, although the Emperor already knew about her glyphs, so there wasn't that much else to say.
After a while, the girl finally left her room, and Gold noticed at the front door were three figures. He couldn't make them out from his vantage point, so deftly, he cloaked himself from detection as best he could and scaled up to the roof to peek over the front of the house.
Carefully he hovered over the roof, uncertain if he touched down on it if it would alert the demon to his presence. His gaze landed on the human's visitors; the three Blight children. The younger one looked annoyed at the twins, but Luz appeared pleased to see them all.
Luz pulled out one of her symbols and brought it to her chest, vanishing before her friends' eyes. After less than a minute, she reappeared, gasping for breath behind Amity, frightening the girl.
The older two laughed as their sister went red, but Luz quickly redirected Edric's and Emira's attention back to the glyph still in her hand. They seemed impressed with her newly acquired skill, and Gold had to admit he was a little bit as well. Redirecting light to hide so entirely in plain sight was a feat many witches struggled with.
But here she was - a human at that - utilizing a spell with only drawings… and now using it to play a game of hide-and-seek in plain sight with her friends.
The two older Blights also intrigued him. In addition to becoming invisible themselves, they appeared to be able to perfectly glamour themselves to look like Luz, causing three identical humans running around the outside of the house going in and out of visibility to add another dimension to the game.
The magic was good, but as he watched them laugh and dance around Amity, Gold felt a twinge of something resembling envy. Their frivolity reminded him of his solitary nature. He didn't have friends or even peers to do such things within the Emperor's Coven. Most of his fellow members were far older and resented having him around.
But this… this looked like fun. A foreign concept to him but one he often mused about.
He continued to observe them long after it was time to report back, watching as two more witchlings - a boy and a girl - arrived and joined in the game as well. The more fun they had, the bigger the ache he began to feel at his one very evident lack of it.
A thought then occurred to him, an idea that might give him at least a little time for himself to have some of that fun he so craved. The only question was if he would be able to pull it off.
He zeroed in on the Blight siblings. The two eldest were clearly highly skilled with their illusions. If he could--
"HOOT, HOOT! INTRUDER ON THE ROOF, HOOT!"
He cursed under his breath; in his musing, he'd gotten careless. His foot had made contact with the roof, and now the whole house was screaming. Swiftly he took to the sky, hoping that his staff was fast enough that none of the witches on the ground had seen.
Ralfred, the abomi-butler, sloshed his way down to the basement workshop where Edric had been cursed to spend his evening. Not literally cursed, but it sure felt like it. He leaned against a pole, fiddling with a small coin-shaped piece of metal by flipping it between each finger. He and his sister Emira had been there for an hour, and they usually would have created illusion copies of themselves to take their place and snuck away by now.
However, their mother knew that was precisely what they'd do, so she sat in one corner of the room sorting oracle stones and keeping an eye on them both.
They'd made the mistake of letting themselves fall from the first and second top student placements of their year, and as punishment, he and Emira were forced to help their father with his work. 'Help' tended to entail things like keeping Alador on task when he fell down a rabbit hole of research or helping him find that piece of paper he had in his hand yesterday.
Neither he nor his twin actually cared about school, but part of the deal they'd made with their mom when they chose the Illusions track over Oracle was that they had to be the best. Good thing that most of their school work came naturally to them. The rest of it they could charm their classmates into doing for them.
"Oh, that must be Ralfred with our lunch. Edric, Emira, you may take a break to eat," then to her husband, "Alador, you too. I know if I don't sit you down you'll forget to eat."
Alador paused in his smelting, removing his goggles and making his way to sit next to his wife. Emira hadn't been doing anything either, so there was nothing really for them to take a break from.
Their abomi-butler was not alone, though. Emira tapped his shoulder and directed Edric's attention to the figure descending the stairs behind the goopy creature.
Clad in a long, white, hooded cloak, gold mask obscuring his face, the newly appointed head of the Emperor's Coven stood one step above the floor, not so subtly keeping himself above the rest of them.
"Good day, Blights," he greeted them, his mask keeping a mystery of where exactly he was looking. Edric assumed he was addressing his mother more than anyone. Coven heads tended to do that, although his voice was a surprise to him. He had heard that the Golden Guard was their age but hearing it for himself… Edric was sort of impressed by his command over the room and his parents. They didn't go so far as to bow before the Guard, but their reverence was palpable.
"I'm here on essential official business," the Guard continued. "I require assistance from your eldest children."
Odalia stood and stepped forward, her slight nerves at his presence only visible to Edric. He knew when his mom was legitimately caught off guard.
"As much as it would honor us to have our children aid the Emperor, I'm afraid they have a lot of school work to catch up on once they've done their tasks here."
"I don't think I remember asking," came the Guard's reply.
"Pardon me, my lord, but you can't just barge in here and take my children to enlist them in who knows what," Odalia said, her reverent tone abandoned. "Edric and Emira are needed here to assist their father and myself in--"
"In what, Mrs. Blight?" He interrupted his voice calm. "The emperor purchased your full stock of Abomotons. Or were you planning on making more? Please understand that it wouldn't be in your best interest to continue your work unless it's to serve the empire."
Odalia bristled, her usual collected demeanor faltering. "That isn't-- What I meant was that my children are integral parts in Blight Industries. We have many other innovations for our company, and as their mother, I only wish to teach them valuable skills."
"And what's more valuable than using those skills to aid your emperor." The Guard's voice may have sounded young, but he spoke with the authority of a much older witch.
"If it is such an inconvenience, I suppose I don't need them both." The offer may have been meant to accommodate, but Edric could tell the actual message was that he would be leaving with one of them no matter what.
"Mom, it's really no big deal," Emira said. "One of us can go, and the other will stay here."
Odalia sighed in resignation. "Fine, but decide quickly. Your father might need your help as Amity is otherwise occupied."
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" He offered, holding out his closed fist to Emira.
He noticed Em give a fleeting glance in the direction of the still waiting guard. Her fears of not getting others to see them as individuals and 'being stuck with him forever' still echoed in his mind. This could be an opportunity for her to get away and do something of her own.
But still, Edric knew Em also secretly feared their family's ever-growing connections to Emperor Belos. She'd never admit it, but they both knew their days of mischief were numbered the closer they got to graduation and the more entangled their parents became in empirical matters.
That split second of brotherly protectiveness was all he needed to encourage him to do what an illusionist did best: misdirect. Or, in essence, cheat.
They both pumped their fists in the familiar pattern of the game. The second he saw Em's fingers begin to form a shape, he quietly cast a small cloud of dust to waft into his sister's face, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut just long enough for him to see her two fingers but without her seeing his hand.
In one swift movement, Edric had tapped his fist on top of Emira's fingers and bounded away from her before she could adequately recover.
"Oh well, rock beats scissors, I win! Guess I'm going with Mr. Goldie over there!"
"But Ed, we didn't decide if the winner or loser had to--"
"See you later, sis!" He waved enthusiastically, rushing up to the Golden Guard and attempting to link the boy's arm with his own.
The guard deftly shrugged away from Edric's touch. "Very well then, follow me."
As Edric did as he was told, the guard spoke up again, this time a tad quieter.
"And don't call me 'Goldie.'"
"Okay, then what should I call you?" He asked. "Mr. Gold? Mr. Guard?"
"You most likely won't need to call me anything," he answered as they moved farther away from Blight Manor. "What we need of you won't take long."
"Is that why we're walking on foot to wherever we're going? You have a staff, and I'll bet some other sweet ride courtesy of your coven."
It was hard to get a read on this guy, Edric thought. Not only the apparent lack of facial features to work off of, but the way the other boy carried himself gave off a no-nonsense vibe that was as hard to see past as the mask was.