A sequel to "Hunter's Palisman." At first, that story was a one of, but then I had a few ideas for a continuation. Hope you enjoy.
Luz met up with Amity on the way to school. Amity had actually gotten her mother off her back for changing her hair, mainly by bringing up the agreement they had to keep Luz and the others at Hexside. Odalia can't do much at this point to stop Amity from making the friends she wants or dying her hair any color she wants.
Luz and Amity had been officially dating for about a week, and they've been the talk of the school. The new power couple, if you will. The whole school pretty much knew they were gonna get together since Grom. It was pretty obvious to anyone who's name wasn't Luz or Amity.
Luz kissed Amity goodbye as they went to their separate classes, though Luz would see her later in her abomination class.
Luz went to sit down at her desk. She was pretty excited because she was gonna learn some bard spells today. She always loved music and wanted to master an instrument. She played a bit of piano and had messed with some other instruments, but she never stuck with it.
The teacher walked into the room.
"Hello class, we have a new student today. He couldn't decide on a coven to join, so he decided to try all of them."
Oh wow, cool, Luz thought. Another student who decided to try everything, just like me.
"Please, give a warm welcome to...Hunter!"
Wait, Hunter? What the hell?
Hunter came into the classroom.
"Uh, hi everyone..."
The Golden Guard is in my class?
The teacher came up to him. "So, tell us a bit about yourself."
"Oh, uh...hi, I'm Hunter. I...uh..."
"No pressure," the teacher said, reassuring him.
"I don't...know a lot about my past...for now I'm staying with Lilith Clawthorne, so I guess that would make me kinda like her adopted son. I'm a powerless witch, descended from some of the first witches on the Boiling Isles, and...I wanted to come here and learn as much as I can."
"Thank you," the teacher said. "There should be a seat available next to our human student, Luz."
Hunter looked out towards Luz. This is gonna be awkward...
He sat down next to Luz. She looked over at him, but he tried to avoid eye contact. He had a lot of shame over what he did as the Golden Guard, specifically to Luz. He only attended Hexside because otherwise he'd be a covenless witch. He didn't expect to see Luz so soon, though the possibility of them crossing paths definitely crossed his mind.
After class, Luz went to meet up with Hunter. She had questions for him, but she didn't want the other students to overhear. He was walking to his next class. His schedule was a bit different, which was generally done so that the students who studied multiple tracks didn't have all the same classes together, and so they could meet some more of the other students.
"Hey Hunter, wait!"
Hunter turned around. "What do you want?"
"Good to see you, too," Luz said sarcastically. That was pretty rude.
"Sorry...I'm a bit...on edge..."
"Why are you attending Hexside all of a sudden? I thought..."
"I'm...no longer in the Emperor's Coven..."
"Wait, what happened?"
"I...don't want to talk about it..."
"Hunter...it's okay to talk about your problems..."
"I'm sorry...I gotta get to class...see you later..."
Hunter continued walking towards his class. Luz stood there. How do I reach him?
Last time she saw Hunter, he had come to warn the Bat Queen that Emperor Belos wanted to have her captured. Is that why he isn't in the Emperor's Coven anymore?
Luz went to her next class. She walked into the abomination classroom, and Amity waved at her excitedly. Amity could barely contain herself. Luz waved back, but it was very weak. Amity noticed, and suddenly her excitement waned.
"Luz, what's wrong?"
Luz sat down next to Amity.
"Not much...it's just...this new student is having problems and...I don't know how to reach out to him. I can tell you more at lunchtime."
"Oh...okay..." Amity turned her attention back to the teacher, who presented today's lesson on abominations.
After a few more classes, Amity met up with Luz outside the cafeteria.
"So, who's the new kid?" Amity asked.
"His name is Hunter...I've met him before..."
"So, what's the issue?"
"He's...the Golden Guard...or at least he used to be..."
"The...Golden Guard? How do you know this? He's never shown his face!"
"It's...a long story..."
"So, what happened?"
"That's the part I'm trying to figure out. My best guess is that Belos found out that he warned the Bat Queen...he was assigned to capture her, but he couldn't do it."
"Wow...that must've taken a lot of courage to disobey the Emperor like that, especially being his right hand man..."
"Yea...you're right..." Luz looked over at Hunter in the cafeteria, who was sitting alone at a table in the corner of the room. Nobody seemed to use that table for whatever reason.
"Wanna talk to him?" Amity asked.
"I don't know...maybe he just needs time..."
"I can hear you two talking about me, you know..." Hunter said.
"I'm sorry, Hunter, I just..." Luz didn't realize how loudly they were talking.
Hunter sighed. "If you wanna know what happened, then take a seat over here."
Luz and Amity sat down.
"Is she with you?"
"Oh, yea, this is Amity, my g...girlfriend..." Luz nearly blew a blood vessel at finally be able to say the word 'girlfriend.'
"Okay, this is...painful for me to remember, but...I guess I need to get this off my chest...Belos found out about my palisman...Kikimora told him about it. She must've been sneaking by my room again."
"Is this...something she always does?" Amity asked.
"Oh absolutely. That girl doesn't know the meaning of the word 'privacy.'" Hunter chuckled a bit before his face turned more serious. "Belos...almost killed my palisman...I couldn't let that happen...so, I fought Belos and...he banished me from the coven..."
Luz put her hand on Hunter's shoulder. "As far as I'm concerned...you did the right thing..."
"But...I still have...conflicting feelings..."
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
"I mean that...some part of me still cares enough about Belos to want to find a cure for his curse..."
"Curse?"
"Yea...he...tried using wild magic to prolong his life...and well, it worked, but...over time, as he kept prolonging his life, it really messed him up."
Luz and Amity were sitting there in stunned silence at the information Hunter was giving them.
"That's...why I needed to get palismen for him...to keep it under control..."
That explains the palismen...Luz thought.
"Yea but...why help him?" Amity asked. "He's not exactly a nice guy..."
"He basically raised me after my family disappeared...I have some sort of distant relation to Belos, though I'm not sure how far removed we are. To be honest, I don't know how old he is. For all I know, he could be hundreds of years old."
"If that's the case, he could possibly be old enough to have met Philip Wittebane..." Luz said.
"Who's Philip Wittebane?" Hunter asked.
"He was a human who came to the Boiling Isles sometime in the 1600s. He left his journal in the library, and he mentioned trying to create a portal back to the human realm...meaning that Eda's portal probably once belonged to him...but, I destroyed it when Belos got his hands on it."
"We'd tell you more," Amity said, "but unfortunately, an echo mouse ate the diary, and we can't get it to cough up any more info, so..."
"Ah, yea, the castle had an infestation of them a while back," Hunter said. "We had to replace a lot of documents...but if Belos knew Philip Wittebane, then it's possible that's how he knew about the portal."
"Meaning...Belos may know what happened to him..." Amity suggested.
"Only problem is he never told me anything even when I was part of the coven, and he certainly won't tell me anything now...so I guess that's another dead end...but I need to tell you something important...Belos still has the portal, and he's been...repairing it..."
"What?" Luz and Amity both said this in unison.
"The Day of Unity is when...Belos will combine both of our realms..."
Luz was frozen in fear. Is that what Belos' plan is? That's why he needed the portal?
"We can't let that happen!" Amity said. "Who knows what will happen if the demon realm and human realm are combined?"
"I know what will happen..." Hunter said. "I'll tell you, but...you're not gonna like what you hear..."