And now, a darker take on Gwendolyn Clawthorne.
It's gonna get rough. You've been warned.
The Owl Coven
Chapter 17
Mother Knows Best
"Isn't she just the best? So smart!"
Amity blushed under Luz's praise, even as she sent her abomination project back into its cauldron. Due to how finicky the portal was being this week, Luz had decided to record something in lieu of a conversation with her mom. And somehow, Amity had been sucked into showing off the project they'd done together.
Not that she was really complaining. She was pretty proud of the work she and Luz had put in, and any occasion to make her girlfriend smile was to be taken.
Amity smiled and looked on as Luz wrapped things up, chattering a goodbye in Spanish before saving the video to send later. When Luz settled back onto the couch, staring up at the mural on the living room's ceiling, Amity snuggled up next to her.
"Good talk?"
"Yeah, I just wish I could have more. Is it so wrong to want to hug my mother?"
"You're asking the wrong person," Amity deadpanned, "My mother's terrible, in case you've forgotten."
"Isn't Lilith your mom now?" Luz asked, giving her girlfriend a look.
"I don't think either of us are comfortable with the word," Amity dithered, "I share her last name now, but as much as Eda jokes about it, I can't really see myself calling Lilith 'Mom'. Is that weird?"
"Everyone does things at their own pace, kid."
The girls looked over to see Eda leaning against the doorway into the rest of the house, watching them with a small smile.
"You two aren't there yet, that's fine. It took a bit for Luz to start calling me madre."
"You like it," Luz teased.
"You know I do," Eda laughed, "I'm just thankful I'm good at it."
She got an awkward look on her face.
"I…I never really thought I'd be a good mom, honestly."
"What?" Luz gasped, "Why? You're fun, smart, super-supportive…so what if you were technically a criminal and a—wait, was it the curse? Were you afraid of passing it on?"
"A bit, yeah," Eda said, tapping at the jewel on her chest, "Obviously, that's not a concern anymore, but that was a reason before. Although mostly it was…more emotional reasons."
"I think I get it," Amity said sadly, "I think I'd like kids someday, but I'm also afraid of passing on something of my mother, even if I didn't mean to."
Eda nodded.
"Yeah, I can see that concern. My case isn't…well, it's kind of like that, but in a different way."
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
Eda squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced
"On second thought, I really don't want to talk about it."
"Talk about what?" Lilith asked as she and King poked their heads in.
"Eda's going to give backstory!" Luz chirped, a big grin on her face.
"No I wasn't," Eda replied.
"Kind of sounded like you were," Amity said, now looking curious herself.
"No, I wasn't," Eda repeated a bit more forcefully
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Hooty must be slacking," King hummed.
"Unless it's someone he knows," Amity countered.
"Who though?" Eda asked, and she opened the front door.
"Edalyn!"
The woman on the other side was old, her short hair in shades of gray. She wore an austere-looking dress and carried a staff with an enormous bird of prey perched atop it. Her powerful-looking arms were stretched wide, as if looking to hug Eda.
Eda's response is immediate.
"No."
And she slammed the door shut.
"Wait, what was—"
"No," Eda repeated, cutting off Luz.
"Eda, what—"
"No," Eda repeated, cutting off King.
"Edalyn, was that Mother?" Lilith asked in a shocked tone.
"No," Eda repeated, glaring at her sister.
"Why would you slam the door in our mother's face?" Lilith all but gasped.
"No," Eda repeated, "I am not dealing with this. You won't—Lily, no!"
But Lilith had already raced across the room, flung open the door, and hugged her mother.
"Oh! Lilith! Such a surprise! Ah, still dying your hair I see, very sleek-looking."
"It's been ages, Mother," Lilith smiled, "You're looking well."
"Active living," her mother replied, flexing her free arm.
"Dang, that bicep game," Luz whistled.
The older woman noticed the two children sitting on the couch, and hummed a bit before walking inside.
"Well, hello. I'm Gwendolyn, and as you might have guessed, I'm Edalyn and Lilith's mother. Are you their apprentices, or have I been made a grandmother when I wasn't looking?"
Luz and Amity looked at each other for a moment.
"Little of both," they chorused.
Gwendolyn laughed, looking at them with a warm air.
"Oh, you two are adorable! Pleasure to meet you! Still not much for proper channels, are you Edalyn?"
"Says the woman who speaks to quack healers," Eda muttered so quietly that only King, who had crawled up to rest on her shoulder, caught it.
"Uh, hi Gwen!" he said hesitantly, deciding to see if he could puzzle out things from further conversation.
"Ah, King! You're looking healthy," Gwen said, reaching out to scratch King's skull, oblivious to Eda's hardening glare.
"Funny, Eda doesn't really talk about her mom," Luz ventured, "Where've you been?"
"She travels a lot," King said.
"Oh, indeed. I've just come back from a very long excursion beyond the Boiling Isles, seeking information from wise men and miraculous healers," Gwen said.
"Is that what you call them?" Eda replied, louder than her previous comment.
"And today shall be the culmination of thirty years of work—"
"That's what you said last time," Eda interjected with a growl.
"Oh, don't be like that! Now, if I may, I have something to—"
"Not in my house," Eda snarled, gesturing sharply and unseating King, "NOT in my house!"
"But Edalyn, this will help your curse!"
The room got very quiet.
"Her…curse?" Luz ventured.
"Did she not tell you about it?" Gwen asked, a curious look on her face.
"Mother, how long did you say you've been abroad?" Lilith asked slowly.
"Oh, quite some time."
"And your last newspaper was…"
"Months ago. Why?"
Eda buried her head in her hand.
"Why am I not surprised?" Eda grumbled, "She never listens."
"Well, regardless, that curse won't be a problem for long."
"It hasn't been a problem for ages," Eda grunted.
"You're not still on that nasty elixir, are you?" Gwen scoffed, "Who knows what's in those things?"
"I do, because I'm a potioneer. This ringing any bells, or did you just tune it out like so many other things I've said on the subject?"
"Don't be so stiff, that stuff just isn't healthy."
"As opposed to the things you've been trying to hawk on me since I was Luz's age?" Eda replied coldly.
Gwendolyn actually looked chastened at that.
"Ah. You're still upset about the mineral solution."
"YES I'M STILL UPSET ABOUT—"
Eda forced herself to stop, breathing deeply several times. It took a minute before she continued with forced calm.
"I am not getting into this again, especially not in front of the children. Lily, why don't you take Gwendolyn out for lunch, get her caught up on things. I cannot deal with her brand of trash slug excrement right now."
She looked at Gwendolyn with a haughty expression.
"Good day, Gwendolyn," she said, and turned to leave.
Gwen reached her hand out.
"Edalyn, don't be—"
"I SAID GOOD DAY!" Eda shouted, briefly whirling to pierce the old woman with a glowing gaze.
The shock of it practically knocked Gwendolyn back, and Eda took the opportunity to head deeper into the Owl House and away from her oblivious mother
Lilith very awkwardly escorted her mother out, leaving all three kids by themselves.
"What just happened?" Amity asked.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," King said resolutely, only to be scooped up by Luz before he could take two steps.
"Maybe we shouldn't," she said.
King looked at her in shock.
"You are being cautious? And about backstories?"
"King, you've known her longer than I have. Have you ever seen Eda that upset?"
King inhaled…then paused. He raised one claw, then lowered it.
"Well there was…"
And then he stopped, and made a disgruntled noise.
"Exactly. This is really serious, and I don't want to set Madre off if I don't have to."
King grumbled at that, but dropped it.
"Must be really serious, though," Amity chimed in, "That was only a few degrees off the protective rage I saw during the Sergei incident."
Luz looked toward where Eda had gone, a worried frown on her face.
oOo
Lilith returned an hour later, looking paler than usual. She went straight to the kitchen, where Eda was waiting at the table. Resting before her were two mugs and a large jug.
"Is that the harder apple blood?" Lilith asked.
Eda nodded, and Lilith poured herself a glass. She drained it in one go.
"That bad, huh?" Eda asked with the air of already knowing the answer to her question.
"Good night! Has she always been so stubborn?"
"Well, she kept showing up at my doorstep every few months with a new crazy idea, so," Eda shrugged.
"You know, for a while there, I was a little upset and jealous that Mother apparently visits you and not me, but now I'm not sure if I shouldn't be grateful instead!"
Eda hummed, then turned her head towards the doorway.
"You might as well come in, kids. I know you're curious."
Luz, Amity, and King filed in, taking their own seats.
"So…pretty bad, then?" Amity asked.
"She had no idea of recent events. Not Belos and the aborted petrification, not the pardon, not even the Blight scandal," Lilith said, "To her credit, she was suitably horrified by the last one. That, unfortunately, was the high point. I told her about the deal and the Healing Hat, and she just looked at me like I was making an excuse. Then she has the gall to lecture me about my sudden career change, as if she has a leg to stand on with her constant traveling!"
"Nothing new, I'm afraid," Eda replied, "She never did well with my curse. Kept nagging me about my management strategies for years, even when I had months of time between transformations as proof that it worked!"
"So what is the full story?" Luz asked.
The sisters sighed heavily.
"I remember that Mother kept shopping around to one healer after another concerning the curse, and how they all gave her the same or similar answers," Lilith said.
"Yeah, although I'm sure there's a few instances you missed," Eda nodded, slipping into storyteller mode, "The prognosis was that my curse was incurable, especially since the Healing Hat was under such tight security that it might as well not exist from a medical standpoint. Gwendolyn never accepted that. While every doctor, nurse, and emergency tech was telling us to use mitigation strategies and adjust my lifestyle to manage it, she kept seeking answers. Time marched on, I got good at keeping up with my elixir regimen, and Gwendolyn got more and more desperate. She started seeking out answers anywhere she could, regardless of source. And over time, those 'answers' became less factual, more insane in their rationale.
"A few years back, I realized that she'd gone completely around the bend with this subject. Something about purging my body of parasites to strengthen it and help it fight off the curse. I still don't know what her train of logic was on that one. Now, I knew from experience that she wouldn't listen to me. She never did, even when I shoved proof of my strategies and their results in her face, so I tried to limit my exposure instead."
Eda rapped her fingers against the table for a moment.
"The last straw was a little over a year pre-Luz. She came with what she called a 'mineral solution.' It wasn't the first quack remedy she'd tried to test, but it would be the last. As a potioneer, I knew from first sight that that mixture was bad news. I refused to take it, no matter how hard she pushed, and boy did she push.
"She seemed to give up after a while, but a few days later, it happened. I was extra bleary that morning, went for a swig of elixir without really looking…and then I saw her palisman in the window, watching me. She'd replaced one of my elixirs with her solution."
Eda took a fortifying sip of her drink, then set her mug down heavily, a grim look on her face.
"I ended up in the hospital for a week."
Everything stopped. So great was the silence that the only sound that could be heard was a tree falling in the distance with an echoing BOOM.
"The docs said I was really damn lucky," Eda said soberly, "If Owlbert hadn't have flown me there as quickly as he did, or if I had ingested more of that cursed brew, I would have ended up with a hole in my stomach the size of a terque plum."
"Madre de Dios," Luz whispered, her hands at her mouth.
Amity's jaw was dropped and her eyes were wide. Lilith poured herself another drink and knocked it back.
"You never told me this," King whispered, starting to tear up, "You said you'd gone on a hunt for rare ingredients."
"Didn't want you to worry," Eda sighed, "But if you think that was bad, Gwendolyn soon found me. I heard her screaming at one of the doctors, and the doctor shutting her down. A nurse was checking on me, and I told her 'Get that woman out of here. I don't want to see her'. From what I was told later, security had to practically drag her out. All the while, she was ranting her wild conspiracies and claiming that her solution would have worked given enough time."
Eda chuckled darkly.
"I guess it would have, in a way. I wouldn't have had to worry about that curse."
"Eda," Lilith breathed, reaching out to grasp her sister's shoulder, "Don't even joke about that."
Eda didn't respond, but she briefly reached up to lace her fingers with Lilith's.
"So what happened next?" Luz asked.
"Not much to say," Eda shrugged, "She showed up at my door two weeks later. I sent King off to the bakery with some snails, and the second he was gone, I reamed her out. Must have screamed at her for a half-hour. Worst part was, I don't think she fully realized what she'd done wrong. In her mind, I hadn't given that stuff enough of a chance to work."
"She put you in the hospital!" Amity all but screamed.
"And that was the final straw. I realized then and there that she was never going to change. That if I kept humoring her, even implicitly, one of her quack remedies was going to cause even worse damage, maybe even kill me. So I told her flat out that I never wanted to see her again."
Eda sighed.
"She kept trying, naturally. But after the fifth slammed door, she seemed to take a hint. Last I'd heard from her, she sent a postcard. Talked about how she was giving me some space, and she was going to look for new remedies on a neighboring archipelago. The letter made good kindling. The only other person who knew what was going on was Hooty, but he didn't know everything and I swore him to secrecy about what he did."
Amity saw movement outside the kitchen window, and it took her a second to realize that it was an eavesdropping Hooty. She was struck by how sad he looked.
"I'm sorry you had to deal with that alone, sister," Lilith said morosely.
"All that, and she just…doesn't she care?" Luz asked, tears in her eyes.
"That's the problem, owlet. She does. She cares so much that it's blinded her to everything else. She's so desperate to 'help' me that she can't see that she's actually hurting me."
Eda sighed, a thousand-yard stare on her face.
"She just…won't listen. Not to the doctors, not to the potioneers, not to anyone…not even to me. No, forget centuries of medical knowledge, Mother Knows Best. All it costs is her common sense and my sense of safety."
Luz came around the table and tearfully hugged Eda. Eda pulled her in close, rubbing Luz's back.
"Don't cry over this, Luz. This had built up over years. There's nothing else for it. Besides, it's not like I don't have people in my corner now. I don't need Gwendolyn, I've got you. And you're a thousand times better."
Luz gave a weak hiccup and nuzzled further into Eda's embrace.
oOo
The next day…
Hooty stretched his way through the window, catching Eda's attention.
"Uh, Eda? Someone's at the door for you…"
"Why so nervous? Do I owe them money?"
"No, but…okay, he says he comes in peace, but…ah, maybe you should just take this one."
Giving Hooty an odd look, Eda went over to the front door. On the doorstep was a figure dressed in clothing similar to the Emperor's Coven, but personalized to denote his obvious status. The golden mask gleamed in the morning sun. His stance was relaxed, and he twisted his staff around in his hand with a casual air.
A part of Eda left over from her more criminal days urged caution, but she still found herself mouthing off.
"That owl mask your idea of a joke?"
"I'm not here to arrest you, as I told your house demon," the masked youth said, "I'm—"
"The Golden Guard, yeah, I know. Lily told me about you. She hates you, by the way."
The masked witch just hummed in surprise, then peered past Eda.
"She's not around, is she?"
Lilith was actually out with Amity, on what Eda had jokingly called a 'mother-daughter spa date', but Eda wasn't about to tell him that.
"She's out. So whaddya want?"
"Just seeking some information," he shrugged, "Bit of a milk-run for me, but I was bored and decided not to delegate. A shyster has been selling medical 'miracles', dangerous ones. They've been traced to the area. And since you're…well, you—"
"Gee, thanks."
"I wanted to know of you'd seen anything funny."
Eda stared at him for a bit before sighing.
"You might as well come in," she said, moving away from the door, "I'm going to put on some tea, because this is going to be that kind of conversation."
Golden hesitantly followed Eda into the house. He only stopped at the entrance to the kitchen, where he locked eyes with the human.
"Uh, Eda?" she said nervously.
"Relax, owlet. He's here under a white flag."
Eda kept walking, only pausing by the small cauldron Luz was working with. She took in the color and light smoke of the potion and gave a nod.
"Looks good. Bottle up what you need for school, we'll sell the rest."
Then Eda rummaged through a cabinet for the box of teas, a kettle setting on a now-lit stove burner with a wave of her hand.
Golden took a seat at the table, leaving his staff by the doorway. He and Luz stared at each other for a moment, the human going through the motions of bottling her potion.
"So, why are you here?" she asked.
"Well, for one thing, I was promised tea," he replied lightly.
"You going to drink it with that mask on?"
Golden was still and silent for a moment, then reached up to remove his mask. Luz took in the pale face, blond hair, small scars, and reddish eyes with a hum.
"You know, for all the build-up Lilith gave, I didn't expect someone barely older than me."
"And what did you expect?"
"I don't know, late teens at least? Lilith said teenager, but not exactly how old. She hates you, by the way."
"I've heard," Golden deadpanned.
The two lapsed into silence until Eda arrived with the teapot and mugs. Golden took his without complaint, only asking for some honey after a single sip. Eda waved her finger, and a bottle flew to the table.
"Never seen that kind of packaging," Golden hummed, taking in the bear-shaped bottle.
"Got it from the human realm ages back," Eda replied.
Golden stopped reaching for the bottle, giving it an odd look.
"Is that still safe?"
"Human honey doesn't go bad," Luz spoke up, "Is witch honey not like that?"
"It tends to evaporate if you leave it in the sun too long," Eda replied, "And it starts to lose its sweetness after a month. Other than that, not too much different from the human stuff."
Golden regarded the bottle for a moment more, then shrugged and grabbed it.
"So as I was saying before," he began, "There's been a spate of medical quackery around the chest region of the Boiling Isles. We traced the source of these so-called remedies to the Bonesborough area. Full disclosure, your name did come up, but was swiftly discarded. Apparently, despite not being a member, the Potions Coven considers you a reliable producer of quality products."
"My potioneering skills were never in doubt, even when I was a wanted fugitive," Eda smiled.
"But I decided that said fugitive days left you with a sense for the underground, and I was hoping you'd lend a hand. The stuff being sold is dangerous, and has been getting people very sick."
"How sick?" Luz asked.
"No deaths yet, thank the Titan, but multiple people in the hospital, and a handful in intensive care, including the grandson of the Construction head. Which is how this was brought to our attention. Poor kid's in a bad way, and the old man is howling for blood."
"Understandable," Eda said, looking briefly to Luz.
"Which brings me to you. From the fact that you invited me in for tea, I imagine you have some idea of who's behind this."
Eda sipped at her own tea, visibly steeling herself, before she spoke again.
"Let me tell you about my mother…"
And so Eda spoke. Luz noted that she kept some of the more emotionally-fraught details to herself, and glossed over her own hospitalization, but made no bones about her contempt for Gwendolyn Clawthorne's poor medical decisions.
"…and so you see why I think she'd be caught up in this. I doubt she's peddling these quack medicines, but she might be helping spread word of them without knowing how bad they actually are."
"So she might lead us to the chief quack," Golden said with an expectant air.
"Possibly," Eda replied, "Either way, this next bit is going to be fuuuunnnn."
oOo
"Edalyn!" Gwendolyn smiled, her arms wide as she stepped forward, "I'm so glad you've come around to—"
Eda slammed her staff on the ground in front of her, glaring all the while. Gwendolyn stopped and took a step back.
"Not at the hug stage, right."
"Look, let's not beat around the bush. You clearly read that letter I sent with Owlbert, so let's talk."
"You wish to meet the man who can cure you before you agree to anything, I understand. But why the sudden change of heart?"
Eda shrugged off Gwendolyn's questioning look with a scoff.
"I was outvoted, honestly. The kids don't know you like I do, so I'm mostly doing this to please them. They think it's worth a shot."
"Well, you won't be disappointed," Gwendolyn beamed.
"I'm sure," Eda deadpanned.
"Now let's get going, we've got a walk ahead of us," Gwendolyn said, starting off, "Incidentally, what did the children say to convince you?"
"It was mostly Luz. Ball of sunshine, that one, but she also worries. She wore me down. Amity was a bit more skeptical."
"Ah, yes, I did some looking and found out about the Blight scandal," Gwendolyn huffed, "That poor girl. It was good of you and Lilith to take her in."
"It just kind of happened, honestly."
"Perhaps it was fate."
Eda hummed, briefly looking behind her.
"Not much of a believer in fate."
The air behind her shimmered a bit, and she hid a smile.
oOo
Gwendolyn pressed her necklace against the rock, and a symbol appeared. Stone shifted, revealing a doorway.
"Years of tracking down information on curses and the healing thereof, and I finally found him. He's a true genius."
"So you've said," Eda said, "But if he's so smart, why isn't he working with other doctors? Why hide out here?"
"Given your previous occupation, I'd think you'd be sympathetic to those forced to live in the shadows by an uncaring world," Gwendolyn replied, "Master Wartlop's methods are unconventional, but they are brilliant. From what he's said, it seems the establishment didn't care for him, ignored him at best and actively sabotaged him at worst. Now those who seek his gifts must prove themselves trustworthy."
Eda simply hummed.
"But there will be no need to worry," Gwendolyn continued, "I know that you had Lilith lie for you to avoid me, but I won't hold it against you. I swear, you won't regret this. Once your curse is truly gone, you'll thank me."
Within the cave, a little gremlin knelt before the feet of a larger demon, with four arms and a long beard. He was dressed in the robes of a monk, and he reached out a glowing hand. The mass of boils on the gremlin's face melted away like ice into water, and the gremlin jumped for joy.
"Thank you, Wartlop!"
Wartlop raised his elderly head, and his long mustache twitched into a smile.
"Gwendolyn, my pupil. Your aura is shining bright!"
"Master Wartlop," Gwendolyn said with a smile, walking forward and sinking into a bow, "I've brought the sacred items you requested, and as a bonus, my daughter, who wishes to meet you."
"She has?" Wartlop asked hesitantly.
"Yes, I know you like to vet people before seeing them, but I assure you, everything is fine," Gwendolyn said, "After all, I've dedicated years of my life to helping my daughter, no matter the cost."
Gwendolyn beckoned Eda forward.
"Now, come closer, dear. No need to be shy. In a few minutes, you'll see how silly you've been over all this."
"I'm not apologizing for keeping myself healthy," Eda grunted, "Nor am I apologizing for this next part."
Eda thrust her staff up, yellow light pooling around the end. A jet of it shot forward and hit Wartlop square in the chest. The demon fell back, his robes disgorging several gremlins. The head hit the ground, tiny legs scrabbling out of it and revealing it was a mask.
"Don't try to scam a scammer, boys," Eda said with a smirk.
Gwendolyn could only stand in shock as Eda conjured a blob of goo and trapped two gremlins before they could escape. The others managed to get around Eda, but then the entrance to the cave shivered.
Golden's invisibility spell dropped, revealing himself and Luz, both ready for action. A pair of wings flexed out from beneath Luz's cloak.
"Luz used Whirlwind," she purred.
A funny thing about Luz's wing spell and its creation was that the wings themselves achieved flight through a combination of muscle and magic. The wings could warp the air around them, allowing them to achieve the necessary lift and thrust to carry Luz into the air. It hadn't taken long for the thought to occur that if the wings could do that with air, could that same effect be used in other ways?
One of said other ways consisted of a powerful gust of wind that bowled over the escaping gremlins. It was super-effective.
Golden teleported to where the gremlins were being blown, a net of energy waiting to capture them. He almost lost his concentration when, jostled by the wind, a book fell from the shelf and hit him in the shoulder. As Eda telekinetically shoved her gooey captives into the net to join their brethren, Golden opened the book on a whim and flipped through it.
"As I thought. Full of their so-called remedies. Ten to one they've sold copies of this to the ones deep in their scam. Let's see here…rubbish…rubbish…that's not how crystal therapies work…rubbish…wait, aromatherapy for broken legs?"
"Let me see that," Luz said, sliding in next to Golden and reading as well, "Bird songs for stuffy noses? Frog-spawn for pimples? Ice for deformed extremities? What the heck is all this?!"
Suddenly, Luz snatched the book from Golden's hands, reading one page closely. She dropped the book, stomped over to the trapped gremlins, and began screaming at them in Spanish.
"Okay, what was that?" Eda asked.
Golden picked the book back up.
"Looks like…casting aspirations of corruption and greed upon all healers and potioneers. Something about how they only want money, and you should instead give that money to Wartlop."
"Ah, that makes sense," Eda hummed, "Luz's mom is a nurse, a human healer. She probably took offense on mother's behalf."
"Well, there's certainly enough here to charge them for multiple counts of fraud, improper use and sale of poisons, all the good stuff," Golden said, pulling out what looked like a golden pocket watch, "Maybe a few of the families of the victims will want to sue over how these idiots put their loved ones in the hospital, that'll be fun. Anyway, I'll call a clean-up crew, get all this stuff processed and the dangerous 'medicines' neutralized. Hopefully, they kept records of their ill-gotten gains so it can be returned to its proper owners. And I'm sure there's some reward money for these fraudsters, I'll get it sent to your account."
"Just send it to my PO Box," Eda replied, "I don't have an official bank account. Never trusted banks."
"Noted."
"Okay, Luz, I think they get it," Eda said, pulling the still-swearing Luz away, "Let's get home, and we can make some cookies, yes?"
"Chocolate and cinnamon?" Luz asked.
"Whatever you want."
"I…don't understand," Gwendolyn said, finally finding her voice.
"What's to understand?" Eda asked with a glare, "You were scammed. Wartlop was a fraud that sold medicines to desperate people, medicines that made them ill. Hospital ill."
"But…but…"
"But what?" Eda snarled, "How is this any different from what you've been doing for years?! People whose jobs it is to know and/or find out about medical stuff told you over and over that management was the only way forward, but you didn't listen! Hang centuries of medical knowledge, you've done a few hours of half-baked research, so you know better somehow! And you wonder why I don't like talking to you when you dump on stuff I've put large portions of my life into."
Eda sighed heavily.
"You know, it's your own fault. You were so desperate to make it all go away that you didn't stop and think about what you were actually doing, what kind of poison you were swallowing disguised as medicine. And you know what the worst part is?"
Eda's face softened a bit, shifting from anger to pity.
"When I was younger, I thought you were smart and capable. I wanted to be like that, and I like to think I made it. But the woman I looked up to is gone. Now, you're just another mark."
Eda led Luz out of the cave. Gwendolyn watched them go with a stunned look.
oOo
Sunset was starting, and Gwendolyn found herself staring at the Owl House.
She's spent the last several hours watching from nearby as members of the local guard and the Emperor's Coven sewed up what was left of 'Wartlop's' operations. She watched as the gremlins were carted away, heard what they had been responsible for.
She squeezed her eyes shut, still reeling from new information. What had she supported? How blind had she been?
How many more like her daughters had been hurt by them?
Questions bounced around in her head as she knocked.
Lilith answered the door, and immediately frowned.
"She doesn't want to talk to you."
"I thought I'd try," Gwendolyn said weakly, "Lilith…where did I go wrong?"
"You know perfectly well where you went wrong," Lilith said, "Ask what you really want to ask: where do I go from here?"
Gwendolyn looked contrite.
"Well? Where do I go from here?"
Lilith let out a slow breath. In a way, she was the best person to answer that question, given how she'd hurt Eda in the past. But it still wasn't an easy answer.
"Don't just apologize. We know you're sorry, but sorry doesn't change what happened. You have to work to make things right. Prove that you want to help. Something big or several small things, maybe both if you can swing it, to show that you care. But it all starts with you. You did all this out of willful ignorance, a conscious choice to avoid learning hard truths. That kind of thing can be hard to fix. But you'll have to. You have to dedicate yourself to learning and growing. If you don't, then you'll remain where you are: blind to the world, deaf to reason, and alone in a situation you caused."
Lilith closed the door at that proclamation, ending the conversation.
Gwendolyn walked back into town, weighed down by the knowledge that she had failed her children so horribly. As she rested against a wall, a flyer caught her eye, an advertisement for a self-help seminar sponsored by the community center.
"Work to make things right," she muttered.
Gwen's an anti-vaxxer.
Don't look at me like that, that's the analogy people are making. Seriously, look at the episode again, especially how Gwendolyn talks about the subject, and replace 'curse' with something like 'autism'. Go on, go do that, I'll wait.
…
…
NOW you see it!
Here's the thing, guys. I LIKE that episode. It's a good metaphor for some parents and their desperation to try and 'fix' their kids. They see that their blessed child has autism or some other chronic condition, and their method of handling it is not to accept it and be supportive, it's to try and deal with it on a more permanent basis. It's understandable, even if it isn't very healthy.
There's a range of reactions to this kind of thing. Not everything is as extreme as looking for dangerous miracle cures or ranting about how 'vaccines gave my baby autism' or all that rot. Sometimes it's like what Gwen did, refusing to deal with it rationally like her daughter is doing. Eda has a system in place, she's maintaining it and living as healthy a life as possible, but Gwen can't see that.
And to the episode's credit, they did skim towards the more dangerous aspects of this mindset, with Gwen using insane or dangerous cure attempts, until her actions cause things to go wrong and she's forced to see the rotten fruits of her labor.
I like how they don't completely make her the bad guy…but they aren't shy with hinting that she's very close to it. Stealing all the elixirs so Eda would HAVE to try her cures was a serious dick move, and it endangered her children and her kind-of-granddaughter in the process. I am fully convinced that if Luz had tossed over an elixir and Eda had drank it before screaming at her mother, the rest of the episode would have turned out very differently. Eda, Luz, and King would have worked together to deal with Raven!Lilith, and Gwen wouldn't have gone back to the phony shaman and realized she'd been scammed. She wouldn't have fully seen that her actions were harmful, and instead doubled down. "It could still work, I just needed more time!" She might have even kept up on the path she was on and gotten someone more seriously hurt at a later date.
They didn't do this. But it could have happened.
This whole thing was my take on things. Gwendolyn had gone further down that path, and because of the harm she caused in her single-mindedness, she's lost her daughter in ways beyond the physical. There's already fan-theories that Gwen might have used something in the past that actually hurt Eda. I'm unsure about that, I feel that if something like that had happened, Eda might have been less annoyed and more hostile when her mother first showed up. So thus, in this version of events, Gwen fed Eda something that references a thing that, sadly, exists in the human world.
It's called the Miracle Mineral Solution. It's something that's been claimed to treat or even cure autism, cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, arthritis, high cholesterol, acid reflux, digestive problems, high blood pressure, obesity, parasites, depression, dental issues, all kinds of infections, the list goes on.
In reality, this is a mixture of sodium chloride solution and a specific acid. The result is chlorine dioxide, an industrial cleaner, aka BLEACH
I am serious. There are people out there so desperate for an easy solution that they refuse to listen to doctors and instead get caught up in shysters that sell them a bleach compound under the guise of a miracle cure. They will try to use this on autistic children. This. Is. Real.
I was half expecting something like it to show up in Gwen's new book, which is why I bring it up.
When I look at Gwendolyn, I see a microcosm of those types of people, but one that got a serious reality check before it got too far. The sad thing is, a lot of those people don't get that reality check, and the costs are horrible, even potentially deadly. That's what I wanted to portray in this chapter. A woman who didn't realize she was harming her daughter until said daughter had completely cut her out of her life.
In the end, she just wouldn't listen. Canon Gwen learned to be better. This Gwen…well, I'll leave that for you to decide.