Rothem: Finally finished this one! I tried to get this chapter out on Halloween but I had to tinker with this arc for a while as this essentially handles some lore and a bit of world building.

Nox's current form: a purple Otter styled beanie hat situated on Luz's head

Anyways on with the chapter! Enjoy!

Things are not always

what they seem;

the first appearance

deceives many

"Damnit!" Willow said to herself as she ran through a forest while enveloped in what appeared to be a barrier and was carrying a bouquet of flowers resembling white roses. All the while acid seemed to be dropping from the sky and burning everything around her that wasn't acid resistant

Boiling Rain. Oh how she hated this weather. It always destroyed a lot of precious plant life and was just a pain in the ass to deal with.

The young witch immediately came to a stop when she saw that she had finally reached her destination.

It was a clearing in the middle of a forest and in the center is what appeared to be a tombstone which was surrounded by many flowers that was being damaged by the acidic rain.

Without wasting a second Willow immediately casted a spell circle around the entire area that enveloped the tombstone and the flowers in a protective barrier to prevent the boiling rain from further desecrating it. Thank god she had familiarized herself with the signs of incoming boiling rains otherwise she may have been too late.

She walked up to the tombstone and placed the flowers she was carrying next to it. In addition to the flowers the tombstone had a number of items in front of it including a music box, an old practice wand, an empty vial, a heart locket with the words "Best Friends Forever", and lastly a beat up toy otter doll which had a lot of stitches on it.

"Hey...Lucia" Willow said to the the tombstone "Sorry I didn't get here sooner" she gave a dry chuckle before mentally reading the inscription on the grave just as she had done every time she comes here no matter how much it hurts to do so.

In Memory of Lucia Noceda...Beloved Friend and Daughter...

"Your mom wanted to come but... something came up at her workplace about some lady who will be coming over to pick up her order of elixir" Willow said sadly...

"You know...I met someone at school the other day. She looked a lot like you and for a moment I thought that maybe..." Willow stopped her line of thoughts as she felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

It had hurt during that time last week whenever she had looked at Luz's face all she can see looking back was her old friend. With that same innocent look and the same smile. It brought back painful memories of that day which flashed through her mind. She had never forgotten the day Lucia died, nor the funeral in the rain that came later.

But she wasn't gonna let that cloud her judgement and choose to outright avoid Luz and Nox who had called her their friend. She wasn't like that damn Blight.

With a sigh the young witch proceeded to do what she came here for which was to tend to the grave all the while having a one sided conversation with a person she knew was never coming back.

Unknown to the young witch. In a nearby tree Amity Blight who was holding a bouquet of flowers can be seen from behind a tree and seemingly observing with a look of sadness before shaking her head and walking away

Earlier at the Owl House...

The day in the boiling isles could be described as dark and cloudy accompanied by the sound of rumbling, a sign that rain would be coming soon. Luz can be seen standing in her room looking at what appeared to be a trunk full of different kinds of clothes..

"Do I really have to change?" Luz asked Nox who was still in her hat form and was currently being worn by a doll placed on a nearby table

"Well Eda did say you looked like the Grim Reaper" Nox said jokingly before holding up a photo of what literally looked like the Grim Reaper casually drinking what was presumably beer.

Luz's face heats up in embarrassment. Eda had told her early this morning that she should change up her attire since just like Nox had said she looked like the Grim Reaper. Fortunately Eda had a chest full of clothes which are her size for her to choose a new outfit.

"I guess...it wouldn't...hurt...to try on something...new" Luz said before going through the clothes that Eda had provided for her.

"Pfft! How about that one?" Nox was holding back her laugh as Luz was currently holding what appeared to be an otter onesie "You can be an Otter with a dark side! haha"

Luz looked at the onesie and for a moment she seriously considered it before she shook her head before putting it away for later use

"Alright. Though you can definitely use it as pajamas right?" Nox asked while Luz continued to go through the numerous outfits in the trunks. She couldn't settle on one as one they were all too...bright and they left parts of her exposed that she really didn't want other people seeing.

"I...don't like any of...these" Luz said with a sigh as she closed the trunk.

"Aww. That's a shame. It would have been nice to see you in something new but I respect your decision" Nox said which earned a smile from Luz

All of a sudden the door was kicked open causing the two to jump in surprise. The two then looked towards the door and saw that it was none other than King.

"Luz, Nox!" King shouted as he ran to her, making her looked down to him with a look of surprise. "I've been looking all over for you two!"

"Why? You wanted us to scratch your belly again?" Nox asked teasingly as she was picked up by Luz and placed on her head.

"No!" King said before adding "Ok yes but that's not what I'm here for. You said that Luz grew up in the human realm all her life right Nox?"

"That's about right" Nox said while Luz nodded

"So Luz doesn't know anything about the boiling Isles other than what you've recently learned together right?"

"Where are you going with this?" Nox asked

"Its a surprise! Follow me downstairs! I got something to show you!" King said excitedly before running out the door

Without wasting a second Luz picked up Nox and placed her on her head before going after the cute little demon.

"This surprise better be worth it" Nox said as she and Luz entered the living room. They sat down by a pile of books that they had hoarded the past few days

"Don't worry. I won't disappoint you" King said before cleared his voice and climbing up a large chest, standing in front of a cork board hidden by a red curtain. "Fellow Demon Luz and Nox!" He said, pointing a finger at the girl. "You've been so obsessed with witchcraft and reading boring old books that you haven't learned anything about our kind!"

The tiny demon then pulled the curtain, uncovering the board behind it and revealing all kinds of images of demons while putting on a large blue teaching hat. "Prepare yourself for demons 101!" He then started pacing around, adopting an incredibly adorable teacher attitude. "Demons like us are grim tricksters of the twilight, creatures of sulfur and bone. We live only to create chaos and misery and-! Hey are you two even paying attention?!"

"Hm?" Nox said, seeming completely unimpressed while Luz looked like she was half asleep already

"Come on, I'm giving you guys the lessons you should have learned a long time ago, you should be paying attention!"

Hearing this, Luz's eyes widened in understanding before Nox spoke. "Well apologies that we're not paying attention King, it's just that… I dunno, me and Luz did spend a lot of time reading "boring books" which included demonology books. Heck we already know over half of this stuff you want to teach us about including basics like the three Bs" the living doll explained before opening her mouth and began regurgitating something.

First thing that came out of her mouth was book titled Demonology 101, followed by many other books of similar topics including one book which seemed to have a handprint with the number "2" on it.

King frowned at this. "Oh…I didn't...I thought you were just reading fairy tails again"

"Hey come on, that doesn't mean you can't tell us more about demons since all we've read about was the basics! Besides we have yet to actually learn anything about Etherious demons which is what Luz is supposed to be" The doll said, trying to cheer King up.

King seemed to perk up at this and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the sound of thunder

"Uh oh, looks like it's gonna rain."

Hearing this Luz and Nox turned to the door, before the former quickly walked outside with a wide smile. "Rain! I love the rain!" Nox said, as she and Luz walked outside and not even hearing King trying to stop her. "I always love feeling the first drops on my face, the cold refreshing feeling of water… And I bet you do too, little buddy!" Nox said as Luz squatted in front of a flower… Which promptly withered as soon as a raindrop fell on it.

"W-What?" Nox said while Luz's eyes widened in shock.

"Boiling Rain!" came Eda's voice from down the path, the witch soon coming into view while running as fast as she could. "Everybody inside!" She yelled, taking hold of Luz's shoulder and rushing indoors, and quickly throwing the demon girl and puppet inside the house before looking outside.

"Phew! That was close. But the important thing is you didn't get hurt." Eda said, turning around to look at Luz and Nox who was now on the floor, the latter giving her an unamused look.

"Yep." Nox deadpanned as Luz slowly got up. "Not hurt."

"I stand by my statement." Eda said with a smirk before she cleared her throat, getting back up while getting some dust out of her dress. "Anyways I'm gonna go and set up a shield for the house."

A few moments later, Eda was standing outside with a golden shield protecting her from the rain as she prepared a spell.

"Boiling rain in the Boiling Isles, the weather here is so fun!" Nox commented as Luz sat on the porch with King.

"Yeah we don't get weather here. We have plagues, gorenados, shale hail, painbows!" Eda replied, saying the last word in a song-like tune.

"It's like a rainbow, but looking at it turns you inside out!" King happily explained, wagging his tail. Luz shuddered at the idea of a rainbow turning a person inside out. An entry from a recent demonology book she read came to her mind, about how some demons had some form of resistance if not outright immunity to the "weathers" in the boiling Isles especially the more powerful they are. They had enjoyed reading about demons. Now If only she and Nox could find a book that had information on the Etherious as every book they found outright has them listed as unknown, missing, no info available or has the pages obscured and even torn out.

Hopefully King knows something about them since he is going to be giving a lesson.

"Until the boiling rain stops, no one is allowed outside." Eda stated, swaying her hands around a ball of pure white magic.

"And if the rain doesn't get you… The Snaggleback will!" King said, producing a book which contained images of the demon in question. "They wander the rain feeding on boiled tourists!"

Luz fidgeted uncomfortable at the image while Nox was unimpressed by. "If that thing wants to get to us it will have to go through me, Nox the Protector!" She said proudly.

"Hoot! Will you hurry up with that force field?! The rain is getting to my precious stucco!" Hooty's voice interrupted them.

"Yeah yeah, I got it." Eda replied, placing the magical ball on Owlbert with a quick spin of the staff and making her personal shield expand until it enveloped the entire house. Luz and Nox just watched, completely awestruck at the display of magic

"Wow... Someday we can be as cool as Eda the Owl Lady! Magical, sassy, surprisingly foxy for her age. Hey, why do they call you the Owl Lady, anyway?" Nox asked as the witch walked over with a smug grin.

"Cause I'm so wise." She replied proudly

"Cause she coughs up rat bones!" Hooty commented

"I think it's because she gets distracted by shiny objects." King deadpanned.

"No I don't!" Eda objected

In response King pulled out a pen from under his hat and clicked it, making it shine with a pink light. Eda's pupils instantly dilated, her focus now solely on the shiny pen.

"It shimmers, it sparkles, it shines and delights. I must have it for my nest!"

The witch crouched down on all fours before leaping towards the object, which King promptly pulled out of the way, causing Eda to crash to the ground which earned an amused chuckle from Nox and Luz.

"Did you say nest?" Nox said excitedly while Luz made an ooh face. "Can me and Luz have one for our room?! We could have a nest party!"

"Bleugh. That forcefield really took a lot out of me." Eda said as she rubbed her temples and walked back inside when Nox had a look of realization on her face.

"Uh‐oh. Moving a little slow. Age finally catching up to ya?" King said with a grin before Eda hoods his head with the hat causing him to yell in surprise" Darkness!"

"Wait a minute! Since we will be stuck in the house Eda won't have any excuse not to teach Luz a spell!" Nox gleefully said, as she and Luz followed Eda back inside.

"But… Don't you want to finish our lesson? There is tons of stuff you could learn from it, I got an entire chapter about Doll Demons like Nox! We could even skip to the High Tier demons if you want" King said with a hint of desperation in his tone while clutching his book on his side.

Hearing this Luz stopped dead on her tracks before Nox sighed. The demon girl turned around kneeling so she and Nox could be closer to the tiny demon. "Sorry lil buddy, its just that me and Luz spent the entire day yesterday reading demon books, and we have yet to learn anything about magic" The living doll said while Luz gently patted King's head. "Tell you what we can continue our lesson after Eda teaches us a spell, alright?"

King sighed with a look of sadness on his face. "Alright…"

Luz gave king a sympathetic look before turning around and walking towards Eda, who was laying on the couch, covered in a blanket and half asleep. "Oh Ms. teacher!" Nox said, in a singsong tone.

"Forget it you two, I'm not teaching you magic tonight." The witch grumbled, not even bothering to open her eyes.

"Oh come on! How are we supposed to earn a witch's staff if we don't know any spells?" Nox pleaded

"No, I'm a sleepy little owl." Eda cut her off before pulling the blanket over her head, covering herself from head to toe with it. She smiled, feeling sleep gently tugging her until the sound of of clicks made her eyes shoot wide open. "Sparkle thing"

Eda quickly sat up, looking at Luz and Nox like a cat. Or rather, at the pen Luz was holding. "Oh? This?" The living doll smugly said, while Luz waved the pen around. Eda jumped on the couch's armrest on all fours, then pounced, only to fall face first on the floor when Luz withdrew the pen.

"Teach us one spell, and we'll give you your sparkle thing."

"I respect your cunning, but I also hate two for it." Eda said, looking up at the cunning doll demon without even bothering to get up. The witch finally rose to her feet, summoning Owlbert to her side.

"Alright kid, if you wanna get this right, don't make… Me… Repeat my...self…" She said, barely managing to stay awake. "Alright so for your first spell, I'm gonna teach you how to create… Light." The witch stated, drawing a golden circle in the air. Once it connected a floating orb of pure white appeared, gently levitating down towards Luz and Nox before popping.

"Now… some people think magic comes from thin air, but that's dumb and stupid." Eda continued. "Everything comes from something! Let me ask you something, kids. Where do you think magic comes from?"

"Uuuh…from...the... heart?" Luz said as if she was unsure of her own answer

Eda blinked. "Actually… You're right!" Luz and Nox gasped in awe, making Eda realize what the girl meant. "No really, it comes from a large sac of bile attached to a witch's heart!" She explained, producing a diagram that showed exactly that from her hair.

"Oh gross! Can we keep that?" Nox asked way too eagerly

"No." Eda deadpanned. "Now, everything depends on the spell circle. The bigger the circle, the bigger the spell." She explained, drawing a large spell circle that created an equally large light orb to match.

"Wait… How would Luz, do magic then? You said Etherious can't use magic right? Plus she doesn't really have a bile sack" Nox said to which Luz nodded in confirmation. The reason Luz was sure of that was because a few years back she had an X-ray and she saw that her heart was perfectly normal aside from a weird anomaly the doctor found. Something about how her heart wasn't beating at all yet she's somehow alive and how her body was so unnaturally cold.

"That was a weird day" Nox said through the link.

"Yeah" Luz answered

Eda got a thoughtful look on her face "That's about right. Usually demons especially biped types also have a bile sac like witches does… But Luz isn't exactly a normal demon either. Being an Etherious she's a special case. Besides why do you want to learn magic so badly huh? Don't you already have that thing you did back at the conformatorium and that whole shadow thing?"

"I..." Luz opened her mouth to speak before closing it again and looking away

"We have our reason Ms. Eda and we would really prefer not to talk about it" Nox said seriously.

Eda blinked. "Alright I won't pry. Anyways if I remember correctly I know Etherious have their own set of abilities that are unique to their kind but I don't really know much about it as they are a rare sight these days" Eda explained.

"Yeah before you two came along the last Etherious sighting was decades ago!" King commented from behind.

"Darn. Well can you at least do the circle thingy again? Luz can record it with her phone, maybe we'll be able to figure out how it works! One more spell won't kill you!" Nox practically begged while Luz got her phone from her pockets. Eda simply groaned in response

"Ugh, alright." The witch waited for Luz to start her weird device to record, then sighed. "Now, you see, the spell circle is key because…" She explained once more, drawing a very unstable looking circle with her index finger before suddenly collapsing with a yawn.

"Looks like one more spell killed Eda." King deadpanned.

"Oh my god!" Luz yelled frantically.

"Our obsession with magic knocked out Eda!" Nox added in a yell

"Yep, she's out cold" King said nonchalantly as he repeatedly slapped Eda's face.

"We should get help, right?" Nox said as Luz walked towards the door before being stopped by the small demon.

"Boiling Rains, remember?" King said

"No let her try. It'll be funny" Hooty commented from the door earning a collective glare from Nox and King.

"But what if Eda's dead?" Luz said, looking at Eda's body on the floor with a look of worry only for said woman to suddenly mumble something revealing that she was only unconscious.

"Remember when her head got cut off last week? That woman can survive anything. She's probably just tired from staying up all night chasing shrews and voles."

"Alright" Luz sighed. "We should still take her to her bed though" Nox added

"Fine" King groaned.

As Luz and King went to carry Eda they failed to notice a suspicious figure watching them through the window...

To be continued...

Author's Note.

Heeeyyyy. Soooo this chapter took way longer to write than I planned to. That's all I have to say about that other than once again thank you to TheFranninator for helping me with the chapter.

Review Responses.

Gamelover41592- Glad you like it! I had fun with the dynamic between Boscha and Willow.

garonus56- yep. a lot of things will be different for this AU so stay tune to find out about the mysteries. Lucia...well all I can say is she was definitely important for a number of people.

ArashiNokitsune- hehe. glad to hear that. I have a few more plot twists and surprises for this story.

TheFranninator- thank you!

skyway920- heh guilty as charged. I do agree that the show doesn't seem to put much focus on demons much but yeah for this story I intend to expand more on their lore and the specific types and categories like Luz being an Etherious and Nox unsurprisingly being classified as a doll demon. As for the power scale well if she only acts in self defense its about 3 but if in the rare instance she is angered...Beg and pray for mercy.

X-Kaul- thank you!