Part 2: Chapter 9 - Last Drops

Alador Blight wiped the back of his gloved hand across his brow, trying to wipe away the sweat that was just beginning to get beneath his goggles and.. Titan, curse it all. He pulled the goggles up and felt them squish into the abomination goo he had just wiped on his face. It wasn't exactly an odd occurrence, given his line of work. Given what studies interested him.

An abomination lay on the examination table before him, its chest opened and exposed as it stared at him and unhelpfully poked a slimy finger at one of the internal ingredient nodes that was pulsating. "If you make that rupture like the last one, I'm not replacing it."

He didn't mean it, and the abomination continued to look at him with that half-sentience they always seemed to possess when he spent enough time with them. After a long moment, it slowly poked the finger back into the node while holding eye contact with him, and he sighed before planting his feet and sliding his chair across the laboratory floor to the other table. A tattered old rag lay crumpled into a ball there, perfect to clear his eyes of sweat and and then clean the inside rims of his goggles.

At least, he had meant to, but the chime alerting him that the front doors of Blight Manor had been opened sounded off in the corner of the room. He lay the rag down, ignoring the noisy and unmistakable splat of another ingredient node rupturing and spraying its contents over his workstation as he moved to the door. Staying focused on something other than his work or whatever strange topic had snagged his attention this month had never been his strong suit, and no one had ever stayed around long enough for him to notice they had gone, not until Odalia.

Sure, it had made for a lonely childhood. A lonely life. He had realized far too late that other people needed attention just like magical practice did, that relationships didn't hold themselves up if he dropped one end of them and walked away. Far too late to realize that not everyone who held on despite his.. Distracted nature, as his father would carefully put it.. Was the best kind of person to be around.

Oh, how curious he had been that Odalia didn't just enjoy his bouts of inattentiveness, she thrived on them, just as his parents had.

Alador thought that was just how people worked when they loved you, encouraging his pursuits while leaving him alone.

He believed it right up until the twins left, driven from their home by their own mother, and a bulb had finally flickered on in the back of his thick, idiotic skull that said 'Oh, maybe I should've paid more attention to my children!'. Like it was some sort of revolutionary thought.

He had really never been a 'people person', though. They didn't make sense, not like abominations, not like magic. Abominatons were static beings. Mix ingredients exactly this way and you would get exactly this abomination. With magic? There were rules, structures that could be set and abided to, maybe even bent if you excelled.

People were messy.

Fatherhood had never been his plan, and marriage had never been a goal he had ever considered. Odalia didn't seem to mind that they had never really been intimate outside of creating their children, didn't seem to care much about his thoughts outside his work. It wasn't a happy or warm relationship, not like he saw with other witches, but he had thought it suited him. He had no real desire to, after all these years of tacitly agreeing with her increasingly harsher methods of raising their children, engage with her on a level higher than familiar partnership.

Intimacy itself had never appealed to him to begin with, and where Odalia fulfilled her desires was none of his business. She was a cold person, not at all like their children. Unruly as the twins might have been, they were vibrant and chaotic. They constantly interrupted his work and his thoughts in pursuit of attention and affection. He hadn't realized he needed to give it to them until they were already gone, hadn't realized he had enjoyed their chaos until they had rightfully left him to the work he had placed above them.

"Blasted.." He muttered the word as he realized he still had on his gloves and overcoat, made to keep most of the goo from following him outside of his lab and into the house. With a sigh he peeled the heavy gloves off and tossed them back down the hallway, following it with the coat, that landed with a thud and a sticky noise that informed him he would be cleaning up a mess later.

The chime in his lab was relatively new, a spell he had set a year after the twins had left. A ward made to go off when Amity stepped through the door, or maybe even Edric or Emira returning. Perhaps it was extremely unrealistic for him to expect his two eldest to just waltz in, those relationships were.. Too far gone. He had failed so utterly, after all. He knew that now.

But with Amity? It was late, but maybe not too late.

He had been trying, hoping to build some sort of bridge over the chasm he had helped create between them. She spoke with him as formally and stilted as Odalia had taught her to address her parents. It felt.. Foreign. Uncertain. It certainly stepped outside of his comfort zone to seek someone out and try to connect, but everything in him screamed to try.

He made it to the foyer just as his daughter was beginning to ascend the staircase, dismissing her palisman staff with a flourish. "Amity, welcome home."

Had he congratulated her on carving it?

She took another step before freezing at her name, turning back to face him and descending back down to the ground floor before she stood up straight and did her best to look him directly in the eye. It always felt uncomfortable to look people in the eye, even decades after his father had drilled the practice into him over long, grueling hours. He never wavered, but it left his skin crawling. "Thank you, father. Did I interrupt your work?" She gestured her hand at him, and Alador took a moment of staring at her before he realized he had not gotten the goo cleaned from his face.

And his goggles were still in place.

Where had he put that rag?

He'd have to replace that node, too, and likely several others as that abomination got to prodding its insides with the lackadaisical curiosity of a mindless creation hellbent on unmaking itself.

Amity's hair was showing a lot more of the auburn color she naturally had, the same shade as his own. Odalia wouldn't like that.

He should say something about it.

He thought the color suited Amity, though.

Amity?

Amity!

Focus, Alador!

He pulled himself from his tangent of thought and shook his head. "No, not at all, I just wanted to.." What, exactly, was he wanting to know? Titan, what were parents supposed to discuss with their children? "To check in with you. How is your performance at school?"

"Satisfactory." She spoke with a clipped tone, pride evident in her vivid gold eyes. She had inherited his looks down to his slight build, her long and misproportioned limbs telling him that she was due for a late growth spurt, just as he had experienced around her age. Hopefully her peers didn't make as much fun of her for it. "I am exceeding all of the expectations of a witchling my age, mother will have no complaints of my upcoming grade report."

"Oh? Excellent, she will be pleased." He clenched his fingers to avoid rubbing his hands together in nervousness. It was a compulsion, after all.

And a Blight musn't show weakness.

A Blight doesn't give in to such base instinctual urges.

"Of course, father. I won't settle for anything less, just as you and mother taught me." Amity's smile was cold, a sweetness that did not reach her eyes. It was just another in a long line of recent developments that left something inside Alador feeling uneasy. Their relationship had never been particularly warm since she was very little, but this new Amity he saw more and more.. He must have made a face, because concern flashed across her stony expression for just a moment. "Don't worry, I won't fail you. Not like your other daughter."

"You don't have to.." Those words hit his heart heavily, and Alador strained to keep himself from directly asking when she had grown so cold towards her siblings. "Emira is quite an accomplished witch, you know."

He didn't mean it to sound so brisk, but there a moment of an expression flashing across Amity's face. Confusion, like she didn't understand what he was saying. "I'll work to eclipse her too, then." His daughter's unwavering smile faltered for half a beat as he wondered what she meant, a twitch in her facial muscles as she glanced towards the stairs. "I'm sorry, father, I have a.. School project I need to complete. It's on a bit of a deadline."

Alador scrambled to recover, the mood shifting so quickly it left his mind exhausted trying to keep up. Mere conversation was so much harder than it needed to be sometimes. "Oh, of course." An idea hit his thoughts, following right to his mouth without a second of being considered. "Do you require any assistance?"

Amity paused from the way she was turning to head upstairs, eyes narrowing at him as if trying to read his intentions. It's not a test. It's not a test. He tried to fill his expression with that sentiment, but after a moment the young witch just smiled and shook her head. "I can handle it. It honestly feels like I've been working on this for years, I want to finish it on my own."

"I see. Good luck then, try to.." He faltered a bit, searching his mind for what a normal father might say. All that came to him were the things that usually slipped his notice when it got in the zone of working. "Try to remember to eat something today."

"I'll.. Get some breakfast later." The strange look she gave him before turning away left him perplexed.

Breakfast?

He looked to the windows, to the rising sun.

Oh.

He'd worked through the night, again.

Why was Amity just coming home, then?

When he turned back to look and ask such a question, Amity was already walking around the banister to head for her room, leaving him feeling extremely awkward and alone in the foyer.

One of the house servants emerged from the waiting room, a bucket of cleaning supplies floating behind her as she gave him a nod of acknowledgement before going about her day. He returned it, silently thankful the witch didn't deign to comment on his obvious bewilderment. Or, if she had overheard any of that, his completely objective lack of any parental talent.

Was that.. A good talk?

Alador suppressed his groan and settled for pinching the bridge of his nose as he turned around to march back towards his laboratory. He hadn't the slightest clue how to tell if it was or not.

Amity came to her senses with a start, gasping as she felt power thrumming through her veins, her breath coming in gasps. She was standing in the center of the room, arms held in front of her, palms up and fingers curled inward.

Drip, drip, drip.

She blinked, glancing around for the source of the sound. Like droplets of water falling, but thicker.. More viscous. It wasn't hard to find what it was, swirls of blood surrounding her in the air, spinning and weaving to an fro like they had just been channeled to cast something particularly powerful.

It fell to the wooden floor in a rush that made her instinctively jump and look down to try and avoid letting any splash on her shoes.

Her eyes widened as she peered down at her hands, and the growing pool of crimson that lay in front of her boots, reaching the toes of the shoes just as her breathing hitched in her chest. Blood coated her fingers, pooling in her palms, and dripping off the sides. A lot of blood.

What had she been doing?

Her mind tried to wrack her memories as panic seeped in from every corner, her breaths coming in more shallow and quicker just as she was helpfully supplied with the last moment of consciousness being one of the wind in her hair. Flying over Bonesborough, on her way back from helping the Owl Lady warn Luz. She had blacked out on top of Artemis, she remembered the darkness taking her vision bit by bit.

Lost time, again.

Open books were scattered in a circle around her, their pages fluttered in a windless breeze as the power surging through her affected the area surrounding her.

What had she been doing?!

She couldn't breath, and her mouth opened to pull in air but did nothing but make a wheezing sound as Amity took all the power she felt burning in her veins and focused it inward. She could heal this, she could fix this.

Nothing happened as it continued to course through her, excess energy burning inside her and following her impulses as her mind continued to steep her even deeper into the panic attack. She thought her heart and bile sack were going to explode when she felt a shift in the air.

A shift far below her feet.

Her perception shifted like the ground itself had moved, like the bones of the Titan were shifting.

A deafening crack sounded through the air, rattling the windows to her room so hard she thought they would shatter. It helped shove the panic in her mind aside as a flash of light drew her attention outside, to where the sky was suddenly brighter than before.

Gripping her bloodied hands tight, Amity moved over to the window and looked out to the source of the light. Bolts of energy were snaking outward from far above Bonesborough, while pieces of red sky and clouds seemed to fall and disintegrate into nothingness. If she didn't know better, it looked like the sky had been made of glass and someone had took a hammer to it.

She really hoped she knew better.

Lightning surged out in all directions from the hole in the sky, and the light show exploding out from it illuminated enough of the Isles that the shadows were cast by it, instead of the sun.

It couldn't have lasted more than a minute, but slowly the pieces that seemed to be falling away from the sky into nothingness began to settle back into the way they were supposed to be, like a jigsaw of reality itself. The hole closed, and the lightning sparked a few more times before it died down. Eventually she pulled away from the window, realizing she had pressed against it.

Amity looked at the bloody handprint she had left on the window, then down at her own palms, stained a bright red with fresh liquid.

What had she done?

The sky breaking apart, it turned out, was not her fault.

Amity had breathed a sigh a relief when an incessant tapping at her window a few hours later had only been a familiar owl palisman. Luckily Owlbert had arrived while she was sitting cross-legged in the ring of books trying to figure out the formulas written in their margins, the equations flowing from one page of a book to another page of a different book.

If he had flown up while she had been cleaning up the blood? That would've been a whole other problem. How would she explain that to the residents of the Owl House?

Owlbert waited patiently outside until she opened the window, taking the letter from the cute owl and scratching his feathers lightly. "Thanks, little guy." He didn't leave immediately, instead hopping inside and hooting at Artemis, who sleekly jumped up to the window to examine the other palisman with a soft mew.

The handwriting was sloppy, rushed. On the back of an old wanted poster for the Owl Lady.

Luz is back.

Come to Owl House a few hours after school ends.

Her heart stopped dead in her chest as her eyes read and reread the words, repeating them as they built like a chorus in her thoughts until she realized she had just been staring straight ahead while the two palismans danced around each other, both of them making noises as they played.

Amity's fingers trembled as she set the letter down on the desk near the window, sinking back into her chair as she tried to sort out what exactly she was feeling.

Artemis paused mid preparations for a pounce on the owl, her violet eyes focusing on Amity as she jumped to the desk and mewled for attention. She was joined a second later by Owlbert, whose yellow eyes watched her curiously.

Both of them received half-attentive head pats for their concern.

Luz was back.

Luz was back!

Oh Titan, no..

Emotion all mixed together in her chest and in her head as she gripped the front of her tunic and placed her fist right against her hammering heart. Of course the warning hadn't mattered.

Of course Amity couldn't have gotten even that simple thing right.

She rose from the desk with a start that rattled the table and caused Owlbert to jump up and flap his wings in annoyance as Artemis jumped away with a hiss. Pacing across her room, she dug her fingers into the brown roots of her hair, holding her palms flat against her head as she whispered to herself. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Amity only stopped when she saw her own reflection in the mirror near her door.

A smug version of herself stared back at her from the mirror, golden eyes boring into her as her own voice filled her thoughts.

She will return to you.

No, no, no..

And your only reward will be to watch her die in your arms.

Amity didn't mean to be rude to Hooty.

He was usually fine, maybe a bit annoying, nothing she couldn't handle.

And she had knocked, waiting patiently to be let in. Definitely patient.

Okay, she had only waited half a moment before flinging open the door and cutting the house demon off mid-sentence.

Amity stepped inside the warmth of the Owl House, being greeted by the chatter of several people inside. She tried to control herself, tried to make her eyes not appear so wild as they searched for the human.

The Owl Lady found her gaze first, stepping forward with an expression that said 'We need to talk first'. Not that she could stop herself from marching over, intending to demand answers from the older witch. How had Luz gotten here? Why had she ignored the warning?

What had Amity done wrong?

"Before you ask, she's okay." Amity felt a knot in her chest loosen, even as all of her demands fell away. She held a hand to her heart, breathing out a sigh of relief she had been holding since she had read that letter, a worry that had consumed almost every thought. Her mind had been particularly helpful to her terror by in filling in every possible horrible scenario for what could have happened to Luz since coming back to the Isles since she had read the letter. "Yeah, kid, let it out. There's been no signs, nothing to suggest that the Emperor's Coven knows that the little light show earlier was anything but a fluke."

Amity felt the color drain from her face. "That was her?!" She hadn't meant to shout, but the entire house fell silent at her words.

Another voice chimed in then. "Amity!" Willow was at her side suddenly, ignoring her bewildered expression and taking advantage of her shock by pulling her into a hug that, for a moment, she was honestly worried the Plant Track witch was attempting to snap her in half with. With her friend's mouth so close to her ear, she was sure no one else could hear the words. "We still need to have that talk."

Willow pulled away, a grin on the girl's face despite herself as she looked back to where she had run to Amity from. "Hey Luz, it's-" Her expression fell as Eda followed their gaze to an empty space near the stairs.

A long sigh came from the older witch. "Yeah, I was afraid of that. She's been pretty.. Uh, overwhelmed by the whole experience." Eda's face contorted with a grimace. "I don't know all the details, but Lily says some pretty rough things went down in her world, y'know?"

Amity just stared at the two in front of her, unsure of what to say.

Of course Luz had been through terrible things in the Human Realm! She had seen some of them.

She had told Willow as much.

"Why don't you go talk to her, I'd bet ya my favorite slippers she's on the roof." Her attention was pulled back to Eda as the witch clapped her on the shoulder.

"M-Me?"

The calm, leveled voice of the older Clawthorne sister reached her then. "Edalyn is right, she could use the support of a friend like you." Lilith moved into her view, setting a comforting hand down on her other shoulder. "She's seen Willow and Gus and talked a bit with them, but I have a feeling she really missed you, too."

Amity felt the tips of her ears flush for a moment, nodding slowly as she met Willow's gaze and received a nod of confirmation in return. "Okay, I'll.. Go talk to her."

"If you don't want to talk, I can go.."

Please don't tell me to go.

The human girl turned to face Amity, and she didn't know what she expected, but it certainly wasn't what she saw before her. Eyes she had remembered as being warm and fully brown now featured a ring of gold that matched her own hue. Or, at least, the hue of her eyes she had before she had allowed her new magic to sap away vitality in exchange for power.

Long pointed ears flapped with excitement, then shivered in uncertainty, then flattened to the sides of the girl's head in fear.

Her own ears would be mirroring Luz's if she let them, she could understand the rush of emotion. She had felt it too, seeing the girl again.

She knew immediately who had crafted the illusion of witch features.

Titan below, Ed, good work.

It was her first focused look of Luz in three years, one that wasn't filtered across the vast space between realms and blurred by resistance to her magic. And it was of a polymorphed witchling version of her old friend.

It was still cute enough she had to fight against the urge to stare. Edric did a really good job, after all. Amity could picture the self satisfied smirk on her brother's face, and she almost wished he could be here to see her reaction. He'd get such a kick out of it, Emira would too.

She continued to admire the work, and definitely not the girl, until she saw the scars, and a flash of anger ignited in her heart.

"S-sorry." The sound of Luz's voice made Amity realize she had been a split second away from baring her fangs, and she quickly shoved the fury aside. This wasn't about her feelings, she needed to make sure Luz was alright.

The apology had been mumbled out by the human, and Amity didn't know what she was apologizing for as she took a step towards her old friend. Those ears continued to flap until Luz slapped her hands up against them, flushing with embarrassment. Amity reached out, suppressing a laugh as her eyes noticed the dark cloth on her left hand she had forgotten to hide with an illusion, and she dropped her hand back to her side awkwardly.

Luz looked like she had been through hell, and Amity knew more than she could ever admit of what the girl had been through. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as she tried to find the right words. "I can.. Imagine it must be overwhelming to be back."

Those weren't the right words. That was obvious as Luz recoiled against the stone wall and retreated from her. She even started to turn away, but Amity moved forward then.

Actions had always been easier for her than words, and she settled her hand on the girl's shoulder, gently pulling her back around. "Luz, I.."

Missed you.

Failed you.

Ruined everything, I'm so sorry.

Instead of saying anything close to that, her mind let her push through the loathing that was building up inside her. Luz needed comfort, more than anything. She reached up and pulled the hands away from the girl's polymorphed ears, watching them twitch in a way that betrayed the shock and fear in her friend. It wasn't exactly fair to Luz, that every emotion be on display while she rigidly controlled her own ears.

Well, not so rigidly.

They'd been twitching and flicking about regardless. But still, she was trying to keep herself under control.

She slipped her left hand back from Luz's fingers a bit, so she wouldn't feel that rough and calloused skin she had failed to hide. She squeezed her fingers around the soft and warm hands in her own. "You don't have to hide from me. I'm just really glad you're back."

And she was.

Amity almost gasped at the rush of happiness that came over her.

Relief at seeing Luz here. Alive. Healthy. It filled ever bit of her being with joy and she couldn't stop herself from her ears twitching happily. Those wide, brown eyes flicked over to watch, only causing them to flap a bit faster.

The human crashed against her, pulling her in tight and holding her like she was the only lifeline left in the world, and began to sob into the crook of her neck. That was all it took for tears to begin to slip from the corners of Amity's eyes too.

Amity wasn't sure how long she held the other girl. She was really only aware of the burning in her cheeks and her ears, the way her thoughts were jumbled into an incoherent mess at being so close to the human she had missed for so long.

Oh, and a brief thought of how the slight slope they were on that led up to the small garden box made the embrace very uncomfortable to hold for as long as they did.

But this was Luz, and she wasn't about to be the first to pull away.

Luz was nearly a foot taller than her now, all gangly limbs and boyish good looks, wiry and lean. Grown in a way that left Amity feeling lightheaded in a way she hadn't since..

Nope.

She pushed the memory of being picked up off a Grudgby field from her mind, along with all the heady teenage hormones that came with it.

Amity had gone three years without so much as an inkling of interest in anyone, but minutes back in her life and Luz had already got her heart feeling like it would never be calm again.

It was just a crush, her mind reasoned, nothing serious.

But she still felt so good holding her, and being held by her. It felt like it was everything she had been needing, everything she hadn't known she was missing.

It had taken a bit, but Luz had stopped crying, the sniffling slowing to every few minutes to clear her nose. Eventually, the girl pulled away from her, leaving her happy to look her over and craving the warmth that had just left. Reddened eyes stared back at her as Amity couldn't help the smile that reached her lips. "Better?"

Another sniffle, and Luz nodded with a small smile. It had felt good to let out some of the emotions she had kept bottled up. "Better."

"Good." Amity's eyes wandered over the human's features again, narrowing as she settled on those scars that now adorned the dark skin of Luz's cheeks. The one on the left was jagged and deep, from cheekbone to jawline. The two on the right weren't quite as bad, not as deep or as long, crawling up from her jawline like she had be struck by claws. It made the baby hairs on the back of Amity's neck rise as a chill went down her spine. Ed wouldn't have used those as part of the illusion, right? "Did.. Are these real?"

Her fingers were touching them before she realized what she was doing, and Luz's reply came in a stammering mess. If Amity hadn't been so focused, she would have noticed the way her fingertips slid over a blush. "U-uh, yeah. I sorta.. Just got them today?"

Amity frowned at that, letting the girl's face go. Instead, she let out a soft noise of curiosity. "Can I.. Is it okay if I take the illusion away for a moment?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Edric explained this spell. It's okay."

She raised an eyebrow. So she had been right, this was her brother's handiwork. The twins had looked out for Luz and made sure no one would see a human wandering around the Isles while the Emperor was looking for one. An ache deep in her heart reared its head.

Titan, she missed them.

Her index finger drew the spell circle as she drew on the magic in her bile sack, ethereal purple fire leaping into existence above the palm of her right hand. The polymorph bled away as the glow reached across Luz's face, revealing the true color of her eyes and those rounded ears.

The tips of Amity's ears burned.

Cute.

Luz was chuckling and rubbing the back of her neck, smiling as she explained that Edric had told her it was advanced magic, so of course Amity would know it. Amity nodded to this, but didn't really process what was said as she stared at the girl with her thoughts falling over themselves again.

She still couldn't believe Luz was back!

So much had changed.

Gone was the baby fat of their earlier teens, instead leaving behind a firm jawline and defined cheekbones. Streaks of a dark purple dye were present throughout the messy strands of brown hair, which was longer in the back and allowed to rest near Luz's collarbone. It was enough to be made into a short ponytail, if the girl had wanted to.

Amity let the veilfire hover in the air as she felt drawn to reach forward and lightly touch a finger against the two rings that now adorned the top of Luz's left ear, no earrings in either lobe anymore. Those were interesting.

Her hand seized in place as she seemed to realize her body had gotten ahead of her mind.

What, exactly, did she think she was doing?

She stared at the wide, dark brown eyes that were searching hers, and the reddened cheeks before her. "Uh.."

Luz looked away, and the breaking of eye contact allowed Amity to breathe as she leaned back, her spell remaining in the air as she glanced back at the girl. "They don't.. They don't look bad, do they?" The human's voice was quiet, uncertain. Vulnerable.

"What?" The incredulous expression that met her gaze didn't explain it, it wasn't until Luz touched her own cheeks that Amity understood what she had meant. The scars! "Oh! No, they look, um.."

Amity stared. They were scars, and beneath the immense worry for who had hurt her friend lay an.. Appreciation?

There was no time to really unpack that. Nope, she was just gonna bury those thoughts down and hope they never saw the light of day again.

She flicked her ears consciously to disguise the flutter they were about to make, clearing her throat before continuing. "They don't look bad. You look.. Really pretty. Pretty good!" The urge to slap herself was rising as she felt her ear tips ignite again. Time for a graceful Blight subject change. "What, um.. What happened?"

Nailed it?

But her old friend didn't seem to mind, settling back against the stone wall behind them and talking with her. Over the next half hour, Luz explained to her a bit about what the last three years had been like, and she dutifully acted like she hadn't been spying on the girl for the same time. The tale ended with something that left her blood running cold; A raging spirit reaching through the portal to grasp her, clawing at her, cutting into her skin where it could and trying to drag her through.

That was how Luz had described it.

Clawing at her.

Nothing left to shield her from the claws that seek her.

The spirit's words echoed in her head as she gulped, listening to Luz wrap up her story with an adorable and telling flap of her ears that said she certainly hadn't shared everything. Amity didn't pry. Luz's secrets were hers to carry, until she felt like sharing. She had already stolen a few from the girl, did things she suddenly felt much more ashamed for doing. None of it seemed so necessary now, did it?

"-and Eda and Lilith told me it could be something called.. Soul Projection?"

The human shrugged, but Amity still couldn't feel anything but ice running in her veins as she shivered. "Luz.. What was the color of the apparition that came for you?"

She was pretty sure of the answer already, but.. She had to ask. Had to make sure.

"It was, uh, purple? Dark purple." Amity ran a hand back into her messy mane of hair, pushing it back and smoothing it down as she tried to keep her expression neutral and failed. "..Why?"

"My.. Mother." Amity spit the word out like poison on her tongue. There was no way it was a coincidence, she had seen the spell in the textbooks Odalia had handed down to her when she first expressed interested in Oracle magic. "She's a very powerful witch, capable of such magic. She's also.. She's also the head of the Emperor's Coven now."

Luz's complexion paled somewhat, her eyes looking past Amity for a moment before flicking back. "She.. Did this?"

"I can't be sure, but.. Her magic is purple, like mine-" Amity gestured at the floating veilfire, the pale magenta glow of it still making Luz appear as she should be while they spoke. "-but darker. It.. Makes sense, the Emperor would have her trying to find a way to you."

Amity looked away, painfully aware that she was omitting that the whole reason her mother had been able to reach Luz was because of her. It was all her fault. Luz must have sensed her discomfort, because a hand found her shoulder. She didn't have the courage to look back at the girl.

"Your mom sucks, then." The absurdity of it drew her gaze up and pulled a surprised laugh from her, one that Luz joined in on for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oh, mierda!"

Amity blinked, memories from years ago of Luz speaking this unknown language flooding back to her as she shook her head. She couldn't translate it, but she was pretty sure she knew what the girl meant from the tone that was used. "What?!"

"My mami, she's.. Oh I need to tell her I'm alright. I texted her right before I was pulled in to the portal, told her I was coming right back!" Luz frantically pulled something from her pocket, pressing a button to turn it on. It took a few moments before the screen flickered on. "..She's been off her shift for an hour or so.. Oh man, ella va a matarme!"

But her friend hesitated, dark eyes searching the light in her hands with uncertainty. This was hard for Luz, she could see. "You're.. Worried she'll be mad?"

A nod came. "I couldn't text her earlier. But sitting here with.." Luz's words trailed off, her dark brown eyes finding Amity. Her cheeks darkened. So did Amity's. "..I uh, I think I can do it. I mean, I feel brave enough to."

Amity bit her bottom lip as she watched the girl worry a thumb into the case around the device she held. There was a better method. It just meant doing something she had said she was done doing. Something she'd give up after getting the warning to Luz.

Her palm itched.

It was Luz, though.

What could it hurt?

Just one more time.

She reached over and put her hand over Luz's on top of the device the girl was waiting to respond, ignoring the way that the warmth of contact seemed to spread back through her. "How about a.. More personal way to tell her?"

Luz had her reservations about using the same magic that had been used to communicate with her in the Human Realm, remembering the fuzziness in her head and the in and out connection. But, Amity had assured her that had been because of some kind of interference specific to her. The witch had neglected to go into more detail than that.

Not that Luz needed more detail! She trusted Amity, and she wanted to see her mami. But she also wished it made more sense to her. She'd lost three years in the Demon Realm, three years of schooling.

Amity was even more impressive now, it made her feel like she had been left behind. She had been so distracted staring at that radiant grin that she had almost missed the explanation that her polymorphed appearance would not transfer through the spell, since it was a mental projection, not a physical one.

What had really sold her on the idea though was the smile Amity had worn when she had been talking about the formulas of the spell. It was so confident, so warm. It had left her feeling.. Good.

Happy and giggly inside. Better.

She settled with 'better', and resolved not to ask herself why she felt that way.

She'd found a lot of girls cute before, but this was Amity. This was a girl she hadn't seen for three years and had just bawled her eyes out on. What a mess she was.

Her self pity party was broken by both of her hands being taken by the witch, pale and slender fingers around her palms with short nails painted in a scratched and broken black polish. "Are you ready?"

Luz flashed the girl a winning smile. "Ready."

Violet circles of blazing magic ignited into being around Amity's wrists, without needing to be drawn. Her mind drew a blank for a moment before supplying her with the infinitely helpful thought that Amity was so talented before a rush of power swept from their joined hands and through her body.

Being projected across realms was like being pulled by a single thread across the sky. For a moment it felt exactly like it had from the moment she was pulled through the portal and was lost in that.. Whole space full of nothing. Then she was standing in the kitchen of the apartment, her feet wobbling as she tried to orient herself after such a rush of slamming into awareness back home. She went to catch herself on the table, and was lucky she hadn't really lost her balance as her hand swept through it as if it wasn't even there. "W-Whoa!"

"Mija?!" Her mom's voice came through immediately after she spoke, the sound of footsteps running down the hallway. "I didn't hear you come in! Dónde has estado?!"

Luz cringed as she turned around to face her mom, wishing she had asked Amity if there was a way to hide the scars she had gotten earlier, too. There was no way that Camila Noceda, nurse extraordinaire, was gonna miss those. Oh she was gonna get the talking to of the century. "Hi, mami. I, uh.." Her mom stared at her as she nervously laughed and raised an hand up to rub at the back of her neck awkwardly.

Oh boy, she had really screwed up this time. "I've got a lot to catch you up on."

Author's Note: And here we are, the final chapter of part 2! The story will, of course, continue in part 3. I wanna thank everyone who has stuck around despite the delays of this part, it's meant a lot to see familiar names popping up in reviews. I hope you've all enjoyed this part, and I look forward to showing you the next when its ready.

Which brings me to.. A point. Obviously there was some delays during this part coming out. Part of it was just the absolutely terrible last year and a half we've all had, but I also recently was officially diagnosed for something that's effected me all my life. On one hand knowing has been freeing, a lot of things make sense now. On the other, I'm dealing with a lot of internal issues that were ingrained by the adults in my life to explain away how I felt and acted. Autism was used as an insult when I was a teenager, and now it's a part of me. It's hard, and it's been taxing. This isn't meant to sound dire or dramatic, in fact I feel a lot more happy and hopeful than I ever have in these past few months! I just do not know when the next part will be out, because I will be spending a lot of time working on myself. But I will get it out as soon as is possible, and I thank you for your patience in that matter. 3 'Til next time, my friends! -Fox