Part 2: Chapter 8 - The Claws
"So you see, you want to trim these leaves here, since they're already starting to wilt."
Willow took the shears and cut away the dying pieces of the plant, the main stalk swaying back and forth happily in its new soil. Leaning back, she offered the tool to the student she was helping. "Here, you try. And don't be afraid if it snaps at you, it's too young to really get a good grip, just pull your arm back if it does."
"Uh huh.. N-no problem!" Jerbo, the dual track student she had dueled earlier that morning, took the shears and leaned in slowly, just time to jump nearly out of his own skin when there was a thump nearby. Willow turned, seeing one of her friends against the door frame of the Plant track greenhouse.
Amity was a mess, all out of place green hair and sweat, causing Willow to take a step towards the witch. "Amity! What's going on?"
"I just.." Amity took in deep gulps of air, looking like she had ran to this building, but it shouldn't have winded her like this. They were only a bit off of the main Hexside campus, after all. The girl held up a finger indicating she needed a minute. "It's.. It's urgent!"
Blinking slowly, Willow turned back towards Jerbo, wearing a tight and controlled smile. "Hey Jerbo, how about we finish this later?" The boy was froze clutching the shears to his chest, still frightened from the scare earlier, and his eyes flicked to her.
"Oh, okay, sure, yeah!" He managed to squeak the words out before handing her the tool and walking off, rubbing the back of his neck and mumbling about 'just pull your arm back?!'.
Willow waited until he was out of earshot before turning back to Amity, raising a suspicious eyebrow her way. "Aren't you supposed to be Prophecies and Palm Readings right now?"
Amity straightened, pushing the hairs that had stuck to the sweat on her face back as she nodded, taking another deep breath before answering her. The witch's expression was easy enough to read. Fear. Guilt. "I need your help, Luz is in danger."
Narrowing her eyes, Willow reached out and took her friend's hand, ignoring her protest and pulling her towards one of the side rooms. Once they were inside and the door was closed, she whirled on the girl. She wasn't angry, she told herself, this burning in her chest was disappointment. "Are you scrying on her again?! Amity, we talked about this!"
Maybe she was a little angry.
The other witch had the gall to look taken aback. "No, I haven't been scrying on her! I used my mother's crystal ball."
Amity looked like she hadn't meant to let that slip, immediately paling as Willow's eyes widened and then narrowed once again, a sigh leaving her as she shook her head. "..Really, Amity?"
"I know! It's stupid, and it's reckless, and I'm pathetic, I get it." Willow opened her mouth to say that wasn't what she meant, but the girl continued. "But the spirit in it told me Luz is in danger, and it showed me.. Something." Amity faltered and looked away from her, rubbing her right thumb against her left palm nervously. "Something about the Emperor. He's.. Looking for her. Needs her, for.. A spell or something?"
Willow let out a slow breath as she tried to process the information. She had been lucky to avoid any consequences three years ago when she and Gus had spoke on the Owl Lady's behalf at the Petrification Ceremony, but what Eda had told her about the Emperor in the wake of Luz's disappearance, and the discovery that he had been the cause of her friend vanishing? She had no love for the Emperor, but she also knew better than to stick her head where it didn't belong.
But, this was Luz.
"Okay, I'll help."
"Before you say no, you-" Amity blinked at her, golden eyes widening. "You'll help?"
Willow laid a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder. She hadn't said anything, had been worried it would scare Amity off from her completely, but she could definitely feel that the girl's shoulder was more skin and bones than it appeared. And if the way Amity tried to flinch out of her grip was any indication, it was worth filing it away to ask later. "It's Luz, Amity. She's still my friend. If she's in danger, I'm gonna help."
Amity took a moment to consider her words before nodding. "So, the spell I've been using to try and talk to her, I can appear and talk to you with it, right? We saw that the other day when, uh.. You and.. Um, Skara." The witch paused, smiling apologetically before waving a hand in the air between them to dismiss the very fresh and embarrassing memory, leaving only Willow's reddened cheeks. "Anyway! The spirit said she's fighting the connection somehow, but I bet if I can get you to Luz, you'll be able to get through."
With her nose scrunched up as she ran through the logic the other girl was using, Willow shook her head slowly. It didn't make much sense. "Why would sending me over be any different than you?"
"Well, you were her friend."
Oh. Willow frowned. "Amity, you were-"
"Just try it, please."
Willow paused, staring the witch in front of her in the eye. "Fine. But we're going to have a talk about.. All this, once Luz is safe." She gestured at Amity's disheveled appearance, and her friend's expression flashed with understanding for just a second before a feigned confusion set in. She honestly thought she was fooling Willow, it would almost be funny if it hadn't left her so worried. "I'm ready."
Amity reached out and took her hand, closing her other fist with a.. Was that a wince? Willow wanted to address the strangeness she had seen overtaking her friend, but there was no time as purple circles ignited around her wrists.
There was a flash before the spell truly took effect, and for a moment, Willow wondered where those dark circles had come from that now sat under Amity's eyes. Before she could process what had suddenly happened to her friend, her awareness was yanked away to the Human Realm.
Four tries over the course of a day and half, and Amity succeeded in nothing but exhausting herself to the point where she passed out somewhere between the front doors and her room.
It was over a day later when she came back to her senses, slumped over a neatly arranged desk that looked like it had been recently cleaned. There were ink stains on her fingers and the side of her hand, but she couldn't remember what she had been writing, and a cursory glance through each of the books on the desk didn't give her a clue.
There was a note though, just a torn corner of paper left beneath the last stack she checked, written in her own handwriting.
'Don't open up the cut for a few days. Too weak.'
Normally Amity would have objected to being told what to do like that, even by herself, but she definitely felt weak. In the left drawer of her desk was a notebook she hadn't written in for a year or so, but even it had noted that using her blood to fuel magic to the point of exhaustion was what caused these black outs, something she had caught on to early on. Despite that, she had even tried the next day to warn Luz herself. None of the tries had been successful, they couldn't be seen so long as the connection was blocked.
If the spirit hadn't been lying.
That thought made her feel like she had shed another five pounds that she couldn't afford to lose. It was definitely the thought, not literally.
She hoped.
She spent the next four days researching, spending what little magic she could spare from a recovering bile sack on the illusion she had crafted to make herself appear like she hadn't been wasting away. She ignored messages from Willow reminding her that they needed to have a talk, answering only when the girl reached out for an information on her progress to warn Luz.
Gus sent supportive illusory messages to her, and several tiny illusory versions of himself that shouted encouragement from her windowsill. She hadn't minded the little cheering versions of the boy as she went about her day. Well, until she had used a bit of her magic to obliterate them with a fireball. He seemed to get the message after that and stuck to messaging her scroll.
Her father said a few words in passing when they saw one another, mentioning it was nice to see her around the house more often in the last week. She didn't understand what he was trying to do, didn't know when he would have even had time to notice if she were present or absent. Without her mother around, he didn't ever seem to leave his laboratory unless the Abominations coven had a meeting he had to attend.
She saw him reaching out and didn't know what to do with it, because she didn't know where to start to repair a relationship that had been dead in the water for at least a decade now. Because her mind was stuck on trying to solve her latest problem.
All of the books she had, she had spent three years pouring through.
All of the libraries on the Isles, she had spent three years combing through for scraps of information.
There were no answers to find that she hadn't already scraped the bottom of every barrel for.
If was on the fifth day she gave up on finding the answer. She had spent the day staring at the same book, flipping pages every hour or so to try and convince herself to read even a single word.
Her thoughts felt heavy.
She didn't like what this had all done to her, and she couldn't pretend it was worth it anymore. Three years of obsession, of overworking herself. Constant blackouts and a headache that was ever present at the back of her head. For what?
She had destroyed that spirit, barely had a functioning friendship with a handful of people. She had slipping grades, an absent family, a body that was slowly breaking down, and for what?
Confirmation that at the end of this, even if she got what she wanted and found a way to open a portal, she would still lose. Luz would be hurt, maybe even die, if the spirit had told the truth. And why would it have spent its last moment of existence lying?
Her palm had scabbed over, and itched. Every inch of her arm itched. It was maddening, leaving her in an even worse mood these last few days. Skara had asked for her help with something between classes and Amity had snapped at her, marching off right back home instead of to her next class.
And that was why she was sitting at her desk, staring at a book whose words slid and jumbled and faded away as she stared at the pages.
Willow had been right, she was obsessed. More importantly, she had become something she had never wanted to be. Obsessed with power, just like her mother. The scary thing was, she couldn't ever remember making a choice to be this way.
She had set out to talk to Luz, maybe give her the option to come back to the Isles.
When had it become everything to her?
Why did even thinking about the human make her heart hurt?
Amity sighed and drew her knees up to her chest, resting her shins against the edge of her desk so she could bury her head against her folded arms, curled up in a ball in the seat of her chair.
Aside from her arm, she did feel physically better after the last few days. At least, somewhat better than she had in months. She had actually gotten some sleep that didn't leave her as tired as when she laid down in bed.
It wasn't hard to figure out the why.
Blood Magic extracted a different price than regular magic, she had known from the moment she found it. It took blood, life, her health to use it. The first blackouts were when she first starting depending on it to get through each day. It made everything easier, and every pain in her body briefly faded away when she used it. It felt good, even when she had noticed that her palm felt worse healing than it did when it was opened.
The headache was slowly improving, after weeks on end with it pounding constantly in a space somehow right behind her eyes and at the back of her head at the same time. Food began to carry a taste again, the dark circles under her eyes had even somewhat faded.
So why did she still feel terrible?
Amity groaned and gently raised her head before smacking her forehead against her knees, wishing an answer to that question wasn't as difficult as resisting reaching for the knife that she knew was in the left drawer of her desk, right beside the journal she had started the day the vial shattered in her hand.
She clenched the fingers of her left hand, trying to stop the itch that was working its way up from the palm.
Her fangs bit into the sides of her tongue.
It was a losing fight from the beginning as she reached down to pull the drawer open, but Amity paused as the abrupt scraping of wood was joined by the sounds of several vials clattering together.
Truesight potions, brewed by the Owl Lady back when Amity had been too afraid to admit that they didn't do anything. She couldn't remember the lie she had told to get her to stop sending them via palisman every few weeks.
The Owl Lady. Eda.
That was it!
Amity blinked slowly at the vials, her eyes sliding over the knife that lay atop a worn journal.
Luz had been friends with Willow and Gus, but she loved Eda. Every time the human mentioned the witch, it had been with so much love that Amity distinctly remembered feeling a bit drawn to the idea of staying around them as they tried to find a way to communicate with Luz. An idea that had died with her last outburst and storming out of the Owl House.
But now, Eda had to be the key.
Amity grabbed the knife before shutting the drawer, knowing what she had to do.
Amity put her back against a tree, just a minute or so from the Owl House. Leaning Artemis against a shoulder, she reached into the back of her waistband and drew the knife she had hidden under her shirt. The itching had stopped when she had seen the vials, had the idea.
She didn't want to go back to depending on it, to the constant aches and the blackouts.
She wanted the power back so badly.
She didn't want to go back to obsessing.
Titan, she wanted to feel that power again.
She shouldn't risk sliding back into the habit.
This was Luz, though.
That was a thought that stuck in her head, drowning out all the others that reared their heads. This was to warn Luz, to save her from what the spirit had said, from Amity's mistake. Whatever it cost her, at this point, it had to be worth it.
She hissed, not realizing she had began to drag the blade across her palm until she was already bleeding. She wiped the blade off on the side of her tunic before hiding it away beneath the loose clothing again, and reached for where she normally kept a bandage.
Where she had stopped doing so because she had realized she was slowly feeling physically better.
Stupid.
Stupid!
Amity grit her teeth before she reached down to the front hem of her school tunic, tearing the black cloth in a line and wrapping it around her palm to keep herself from bleeding all over the forest floor and spilling her secret to the two people who absolutely could not know about it. A few of the weeds were already leaning towards the droplets that had fallen when she tied off the makeshift bandage and weaved an illusion around it to make her hand appear unblemished.
Normal.
It had taken a few minutes of Hooty talking her ears off before the door had opened and the house demon had made a noise of protest as he was slammed against the wall. If the Owl Lady was surprised to see her, or harbored any negativity for her since their last interaction, she definitely didn't show it. "Sorry, kid. Lily's the one who can tell if he's talking to someone else or just talking to himself."
A hand waved her into the warm and comfortable atmosphere of the Owl House, and Amity stepped in to look around.
It felt frozen in time, almost, the piles of junk and various framed wanted posters still in the same place as they had been.
But at the same time it had been rearranged, cleaned in some areas. There seemed to be less junk from the Human Realm overall, but she couldn't be sure of that.
That wasn't all that had changed, as the light inside shone off of Eda's orange hair, the only sign of grey being a long streak on the side of it now. "Did you just come over to stare? Seems a bit rude, but I guess a beauty like mine captivates everyone!"
"I- Uh.." Amity felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she realized she had been staring. It looked like years had vanished from the older witch from the last time she had seen her, it was fascinating the toll the curse had taken on her and how it had improved over the years. Sharing that burden must have been such a relief to the Owl Lady. "You just look.. Different! Uh, a good different."
"Edalyn, don't tease the girl." Coming down the steps into the living room was Lilith, wearing wide glasses that sat high up the woman's nose, and a silver raven with blue eyes perched on her shoulder that peered at Amity. "Amity, it's good to see you again."
She stared at the two Clawthorne sisters as they shared a small back and forth about King being asleep before their attention returned to her. "Uh, it's good to see you again, too."
Wow, that sounded more convincing than it did to her ears, right?
"So what's up, littlest Blight? Need something?" Amity opened her mouth but was cut off when Eda continued. "Fashion tips? Love potion? To learn the embarrassing childhood stories of your old tutor?"
"Edalyn!"
Amity blinked a few times as the sisters bickered, shaking her head before tilting it. "Um, no. I need your help to warn Luz." That brought the mood down immediately, both of the older witches turning their full attention to her. "I overheard something.. Something I wasn't supposed to. The Emperor is looking for a way to bring her back over, he needs her to do.."
She gulped, not sure what to follow that up with. It had to do with Luz's blood though, and that didn't exactly point towards it being a benign interest in her friend.
"That explains the coven snooping around here a few weeks ago, he's looking for a human." Lilith's voice was filled with disdain, and pulled Amity from her thoughts just as the Owl Lady grabbed her shoulders.
"What did Belos say about Luz, specifically?"
The vibrant gold mismatched with grey irises focused on her with an intensity she forgot the usually flippant and dismissive Eda could possess, and she gulped hard. "He said he needed the blood of someone who isn't from here, but has used magic. Look, I tried to warn her, I even sent Willow and Gus through my spell, but she's blocking it somehow. I just hoped that you.." She gestured towards Eda with a hopeful glance.
"I'm in, kid." Eda's grip on her shoulders squeezed once, before the witch drew back and rose to her full height. "I'll get through to her."
Holding the spell circle between her open palm, she could feel the trickle of red that was slowly joining the stains along the torn piece of her school uniform that was wrapped around her left hand. Every droplet was soon burned away before it could dry, feeding the power of the spell as beads of sweat ran down her face.
Eda was talking out loud about Luz, and it seemed like her hunch about the Owl Lady had been right, since the girl could see her. It made sense. She had wasted so much time trying to make herself be the one.
Three years and she was blocked out like a bad memory.
She buried the hurt that rose with that thought down deep. It didn't have to exist if she just didn't acknowledge it.
Lilith was not focusing on her sister, though. Instead she was watching Amity, a gaze boring into her that was making the younger witch glance over every few seconds before finally she spoke up. "What is it?"
Amity grit the words out. She wasn't worried that Lilith knew the secret to her power, or anything like that. She just needed the witch to stop staring at her with that proud smile. "This is very advanced magic, Amity. It's quite something to see you so advanced for your age."
Thanks, I cheated to get here. Be proud of me! The thought soured for a moment, before she realized she actually needed to say something out loud.
"..T-Thanks!" The rest of her attempt at gratitude was lost in a groan as the violet circle in her palm dimmed somewhat, and she turned her attention back to it in order to maintain the connection. "She's still blocking it!"
"Why would she be blocking it? No, no, no, it's gotta be some kind of interference, Blight, trust me on that.." Eda spoke as if she was half paying attention to her actual surroundings, and half to whatever she was seeing through the spell.
"Amity would know better than you, Edalyn.." Without looking, the younger Clawthorne sister extended a hand and raised her middle finger to Lilith. "Oh, very mature!"
Another flicker in the spell circle caused Amity to bite back a whimper as she felt the blood magic tear into the wound on her palm, seeking more of the power she had fed to it. That was new. "Look kid, I dunno what's happening on your side, but the connection won't last long like this. We need to go over what- And she's gone again."
Amity nearly crumbled to her knees as she let out a sigh of relief, the magical strain lessening as she tried to catch her breath. When she finally had the energy to look back up, both of the witches were staring at her with clear concern in their eyes, and it was the Owl Lady who spoke first. "When was the last time you slept, kid?"
"I'm fine! We.. We need to get the warning through." Amity stood back up as she spoke, steeling herself for another casting of her spell, but Lilith raised a hand to stop her.
"Lets take a moment for you to rest, first."
"But, I-"
She began to protest when Eda joined in alongside her sister and barely pushed against one of Amity's shoulders, the slightest bit of force causing her footing to stumble. The only reason she didn't end up on the floor was because the Owl Lady caught her. "Yeah, Lily's right. Sit down on the couch and take a breath."
"You know it's bad when she agrees that I'm right." Lilith's poor attempt for a joke masked the way she guided Amity to the ripped and uneven cushion of the couch in the living room of the Owl House, without a doubt the worst looking and most comfortable piece of furniture she'd ever come across on the Isles. The witch's hands rested on her shoulders and gently pushed her down. "Sit."
The commanding tone wasn't one that Amity had the strength to combat, the heavy ache in her muscles and that sickly feeling in her limbs telling her she had already overdone it on using her blood magic. If she wasn't due for a black out tonight, it would come in the next day.
And she still needed to cast the spell one more time.
"How's your bile sack?"
Amity blinked up at Eda before the lie came too easily to her lips. "It's fine, I can keep going until we get the message to Luz."
"Can you? You're starting to look a little.." There was that concerned glance again, and Amity's blood froze as she considered that the illusion may have dropped. That could happen, right? Her frazzled and exhausted brain gave her the mental equivalent of a shrug, the unhelpful thoughts swirling together into a mess as she shook her head and tuned back in to what Eda was saying. "-can see and hear me, which is progress, right? Next time we can get it, and it's not like she's gonna go looking for the portal if we just take a minute, okay?"
She was able to fill in the blanks of what had been said and give a nod, just as Lilith pushed a cup of something that was warm and smelled delightfully fragrant into her hands. "Okay." Taking a long sip of the hot tea, she felt it flood through her body in a wave of warmth. Her fingers stopped the trembling she hadn't noticed, the uncomfortable bubbling in her bile sack slowed enough that it didn't feel like a burning just behind her heart.
And Amity felt for a second the relief from a thousand different pains she hadn't been aware of in quite some time, little things that had long ago become part of her base line of normal.
Just one more use of blood magic, and then she'd stop forever.
That was what she told herself.
She hoped it would be true.
Amity took another sip and held the cup closer to her chest as if it could help keep that wave of warmth from bleeding away after a few moments. The Clawthorne sisters spoke back and forth while they waited, with Eda describing what she had seen of the Human Realm around Luz, and Lilith put forward a few theories on what kind of interference could be causing such a localized disruption to the spell. Amity was starting having trouble paying attention to much more than the worsening ache in the back of her head.
One more black out. I can do this.
She could get better, stop using blood magic. Luz was better off far away from the Boiling Isles, anyway.
Far away from her.
Amity stared at the bottom of an empty mug, holding it a moment as she enjoyed the last of the tea's warmth running through her. Looking up, she found the older witches turned away and still speaking. She stood up on steadier feet, straightened to her full height, and clenched her left fingers into her palm to agitate the wound and cause its trickle of blood to continue again.
"Okay, I'm ready."
They had worked late into the night for so long it had become morning, and Amity was on a staff ride home an hour later. After three years, she succeeded in getting something through to Luz, even if it was a warning to stay far away. Amity told herself it was for the best, that this was the only way for this to end.
The spirit had told her on no uncertain terms what would happen if Luz returned.
Disentangling the human girl from her was the only way, a gnawing sensation in her gut rising at the thought. She couldn't spend any more time being selfish, driving herself past healthy limits and letting it consume her.
She-
Amity was halfway back to Blight Manor, high above Bonesborough on her staff when darkness began to claim her vision and panic set it. "A-Artemis..!"
Her body slumped forward, but a hand reached out to catch herself.
Odalia Blight paced the throne room, listening to the deep beat of the Titan's Heart as she cast the occasional glare in the direction of the apparatus that supported the portal door.
Every moment that the human remained out of their grasp, the Emperor grew more and more coldly disappointed and angry with her.
Every moment that the human wasn't caught in her clutches, she was failing.
She spent every waking moment she could, every day and night, searching through the tomes kept within the walls of the Emperor's castle, looking for a substitute or another way into the Human Realm. Knowledge that had been saved from the Savage Ages, forbidden to all but the greatest witches of the greatest coven, and she had found nothing.
Forcing herself not to act like she had actually heard something from the portal, Odalia pointedly looked at the throne itself, the center of power in the Boiling Isles.
She hadn't been home in weeks. In.. Months? Not that Blight Manor was a necessary faucet of her life, but it held her daughter. The legacy she had carefully planned out long ago, one that the two ungrateful twins had forsaken.
They had left her with the less talented child, the one who always had to give twice the effort for half the result. She hated them for that.
She would have given them this, the throne. Instead, she had to contend with Amity and her increasingly cryptic messages. There hadn't been one in a week or so, but it was all nearly prepared, her daughter had promised her.
So happy to improve herself, her remaining daughter. It was a salvageable situation.
A clack echoed through the room, and another, drawing her to turn and face the source of the noise.
A small stone skipped across marble steps and slid across the floor, just inches from her boots.
Odalia slowly bent down to pick it up, turning it in her hand for a moment before she leveled her gaze upon the portal door, a breath catching in her chest. Swirling darkness was visible for just a moment before the door slammed back on itself, closing once again.
Holding the stone, a grin crept across Odalia Blight's features.
Author's Note: Another extension on part 2, so it'll end on chapter 9! Thank you to everyone who has been supporting the story, reading your reviews has been great! I hope you all are enjoying season 2, too, I know I have been. Lemme know what you think of this chapter, 'til next time! -Fox