Here's Part 2!
Nox's current form: a purple Otter styled beanie hat situated on Luz's head.
Luz's current attire in the story: a black suit that vaguely resembled a dress. Below the suit, she is also wearing black trousers and dark brown boots. The rest of her attire includes wearing a red bandana sporting a crescent moon crest which shrouds the lower regions of her face, and a black glove on her right hand.
Apologies if its somewhat shorter but to make up for it I have a little surprise at the end of the chapter.
Anyways enjoy!
After bringing Eda up to her nest, Luz, Nox, and King went back down stairs while they waited for the storm to pass.
"Oh come on. This is all she does" Nox exclaimed as Luz tried to draw a spell circle in the air like Eda demonstrated earlier only for nothing to happen. "Why you gotta be so mysterious, owl lady?" the doll said as she and Luz continued to watched the video of Eda on their phone in the hopes of figuring out how to do magic.
"You know who else is mysterious? Let me tell you about Katuur Tempester, the Master of the Night Market!" King exclaimed as he shoved into Luz and Nox's face what appeared to be a picture of a muscular humanoid demon of imposing height with partial parts of their facial region hidden underneath a hood, solely revealing their dark snout along with thin lips, and a full, chin curtain beard circling their jawline "He's...rumored to be an Etherious like you Luz but no one has actually been able to confirm if it's true"
"Not now, King. We need to figure out this spell. But Luz doesn't have a Bile sack...thingy then what's the point? She'll just be twirling her finger around unmagically forever" Nox muttered as Luz continued to repeatedly do the gesture that at some point she accidentally manifested what seemed to be a small mass of shadows which caused her to jump in surprise before quickly lowering her hand.
King was quick to notice this
"I know Eda already asked this but why do you guys even care about learning magic so much?" King asked. "I mean, Luz is an Etherious for crying out loud! From what I read from books you guys are able to use dark magic!" to prove his point King picked up one of his books before showing to Luz and Nox a page with the description "The Etherious are a rare class of demons native to the Boiling Isles. These creatures wields a dark form of magic called 'Curse Power' which makes them as dangerous as they are mysterious. Their only weakness is-"
The description seemed to end there due to the rest of the pages having been scribbled over while the rest looked like it had been torn out much to Luz's disappointment.
"Curse Power..." Nox said out loud while Luz cringe at the "dangerous" word. "Well that just gives us more reason to never use it"
"But why?!" King asked.
"Because it would make me feel less empty" Luz thought to herself.
"Look King all you need to know is that the only reason we even used our 'dark magic' back at the conformatorium is because we had no choice. So we would really appreciate it if you just drop it ok?" Nox said rather sweetly though King noticed that there was a hint of malice and annoyance in Nox's tone while Luz gave him an apologetic look.
King sighed. "If I help you learn that spell, can we continue our lessons?"
Luz's face seems to light up at that while Nox said "Oh, yes, yes. You can teach us more about demons all week if you help us learn this spell"
King nodded, "Well, she said witches used to do magic differently, so there has to be a way, right?" He said, sketching something in his notebook. "And I have a theory!"
The demon showed Luz and Nox his sketches, which showed some kind of jar followed by a plus sign and a rude sketch of Eda. Beneath them was the word "MAGIC". "Every day I notice Eda sneaking drinks of this special elixirs, then she always gets a boost of energy. I think that's where she gets her powers! And I know where to get some."
"Really?" Nox asked
"Yes" King said
Luz suddenly pulled him into a hug, happily spinning him around. "Thank you so much! You sweet little prince!" Nox said happily
"King. I'm King and I'm not little!" The demon exclaimed. Luz gently lowered the demon back to the floor. "Alright, I'll go get the elixir, you two wait for me in the kitchen."
True to his word, the tiny demon returned a few minutes later with a bottle filled with what appeared to be a shiny, golden liquid before handing it to Luz. "One magic elixir. As promised!" he said proudly
The demon girl hesitantly took it before pulling off the cork with a look of curiosity. "This is it Luz! You're about to learn magic! Real magic! This is historic!" Nox said as Luz got ready to drink the elixir only for a thunder clap to startle her, making her drop the vial.
"Golden elixir. Gone! This is awful!" Nox cried out
"Eh, we can always find another one." King said with a shrug "Besides, it's just a light spell! We don't need that, this house is full of lamps!"
"Yeah no. Lamps are boring! Heck Luz was able to make a working lamp from a bunch of scraps once. Besides the light spell is better because its magic!" Nox said. Luz remembers that incident well. They had been staying with a science teacher who often leaves a lot of spare parts lying around. So to pass the time she got into the hobby of making whatever gadgets she could from scraps.
"Fair point" King answered
"Remember when you made that metal detector?" Nox asked
"Oh yeah. That was fun" Luz answered, she had learned the hard way on why one should never point two metal detectors towards each other.
The two were pulled from their mental conversation when all of a sudden all the lights went out.
"Hey who turned off the lights?" Nox questioned sarcastically
"Ugh, Hooty controls the lights. He probably just fell asleep." King said in an annoyed tone
"Hoot! Hoot!" came Hooty's frantic cries which was followed by a loud crashing sound
"Oh for the love of-" King started to say in an annoyed tone but was interrupted by Nox
"Hang on Hooty! We're coming" Nox yelled as Luz quickly ran with King jumping on her shoulder. When they got to the living room, they were faced with a horrifying sight.
In front of them, Hooty was laying on the floor, as a large figure shrouded in darkness dug its claws on the poor house demon.
"H-Hooty!" Luz yelled worriedly upon seeing the horrible state Hooty was in.
"Get the hell away from him you...you... mysterious monster! " Nox yelled, as Luz without warning raised one of her arms and shot forward what appeared to be a loud screeching shockwave towards the monster. The monster bared its fangs with a hiss before managing to evade Luz's attack by quickly leaping to the side which took everyone off guard by how fast it was
Taking advantage of everyone's surprised state it charged towards what it deemed the most dangerous creature in the room which just so happened to be a now terrified Luz. The girl barely had time to react when the monster tackled her against a wall and pinning her with its talons. Luz lets out a pained gasp before desperately attempting to push off the monster.
Seeing this, Nox immediately opened her mouth before all of a sudden a mass of shadowy tendrils emerged from it which quickly wrapped themselves around the monster and tossing it aside while at the same time managing to release Luz.
Nox then retracted the tendrils back into her mouth before saying "Back off creature" with a glare.
"Are you okay Luz?" Nox asked through the link
"I-I'm fine. Thank you Nox" Luz answered as she quickly got back on her feet.
Luz and Nox then got ready to assault the creature at the same time, when a lightning strike illuminated the room and fully revealed the beast.
It was covered in grey feathers and had a bird like physiology but what truly unnerved the two was the beast's face. "Ms. Eda/Eda?!" the two yelled at the same time
The beast that was supposedly Eda shook her head, and glared at Luz before quickly running back outside. The demon girl simply stood there, completely shocked at this.
"What the heck was that?!" came a rather high pitched voice from behind. Luz and Nox turned around and there they saw that it was King who had fallen off the former's shoulder earlier and was now looking at the broken door with a terrified look.
"It was Eda! I saw its face! Oh, man. Did you see her eyes? They were like‐‐ Grrr! What happened to her?" Nox frantically said as Luz also tried to make sense of everything that was happening
King frowned, looking between Luz and the broken door. This had never happened before, Eda had never shown any signs of turning into a monster. Something must have happened for her to- Oh crap. King's eyes widened in realization and horror
"Uh-Oh." he quietly muttered but was still heard by Nox and Luz
"Uh-Oh? What's uh-oh? Oh damn it don't tell me you had something to do with Eda turning into a monster, King" Nox said in an accusing tone.
"That elixir wasn't giving Eda her powers! It was preventing her from turning into that thing, she must have some kind of curse!" King explained
"You've got to be kidding me" Nox deadpanned "You said that elixir makes gave her powers! Not her freaking medicine for whatever's happening to her right now!"
"Ok first of all I said it was just a theory ok?! And second of all we need to get her to drink that elixir again..." King said urgently "Use your dark magic on her or something!"
Luz's eyes widened at this while Nox said "Are you crazy?! We don't want to hurt Eda!"
King frowned at this and was about to argue, but was interrupted by a familiar roar of Eda from upstairs. "Alright Alright just keep it down or else we'll end up as owl beast snacks"
"For the record if we got caught I would feed you to her...as a last resort of course" Nox said jokingly which caused King to protest with an indignant "hey!"
Meanwhile Luz couldn't help but release a tired sigh at their current situation while at the same time coming up with possible solutions for it. Without wasting time she picked up King before getting out of the living room just in case Eda comes back and attacks her again.
There was a... part of her that wanted to run away again just to avoid any more trouble like she has always done in the past but she knew it would be selfish of her to do that now. And even if she did leave that would mean abandoning King alone in the house with the owl beast, and she couldn't bring herself to do that no matter how terrified she is.
All of a sudden dark thoughts plagued her mind as she made her way down a hallway
Coward...
Why do you resist?
You can help them...
All you need to do is...let...go...
Luz's eyes widened in shocked at those thoughts before quickly pushing them away as she continued down the hallway with King and Nox.
"God I was hoping to spend the day reading books with Luz not trying to hide from a crazy Owl Beast Eda" Nox groaned in annoyance causing King to get a guilty look on his face before speaking up
"Guys…" King started to say "I'm so sorry."
"Huh? What for?" Nox asked
"This is all my fault. I was the one that came up with the idea of the elixir. It's just- I wanted you two be into demons like you're into magic, y'know? No one takes me seriously, and I don't have any friends..." King said as tears were forming in the corner of his eyes.
Hearing this both Nox and Luz shook their head before giving King a sympathetic look. "Hey now don't say that. If anything its both our fault since in hindsight we really should have known better than to drink some liquid we knew nothing about, so its not your fault at least not entirely." Nox said, while Luz nodded in agreement. "Besides, you're a pretty cool teacher. Way better than the ones back in the human realm."
"R-Really?" King sniffed while wiping away his tears.
"Y-Yeah. Y-You're...a good t-teacher...King" Luz said
The trio then shared a smile, but unfortunately the moment was ruined when they heard a growl coming from down the hallway. Luz gasped, quickly jumping to a room to her side and closing the door behind her. The demon girl put her weight against the door, while Nox manifested a few more of her tendrils from her mouth to reinforce the door just to ensure that Eda could not break in
The three demons held their breath as the Owl Beast's footsteps drew closer and closer to the door which was soon followed by another growl. They heard Eda come to a stop behind the door, and for a moment they thought she would try to break it down but thankfully the attack never came when Eda proceeded down the hallway.
Luz and Nox finally sighed in relief as the former, slid down the door until she was sitting down. King hopped down from her shoulder.
"Alright, we can't just hide forever so we need a plan that does not involve beating the crap out of Eda." Nox suddenly said, then she looked at King. "King, you're the demon expert! Any ideas?"
The demon's eyes all but lit up with excitement at the compliment. "Let's see… When we saw her she was bigger, covered in feathers, and had black eyes..." King's eyes widened in realization . "That's it! Demons with black eyes are highly sensitive to light! That's it. Light! Luz, use your human wonder rectangle"
"I-I can't" Luz hesitantly said, before taking out her phone and showing that it had been cracked
"What's wrong?"
Nox sighed. "The camera is all blasted Chief. It would be a miracle if it even worked anymore with how damaged it is"
King frowned. "Well, what about that light spell?"
"Ugh You already saw. Luz can't draw circles in the air!" Nox replied, while Luz did the gesture to prove her point. "She's not like Eda…" Nox said, as Luz opened her phone(which was thankfully still functional) before playing the video again. Eda's recording played once again, but this time the phone suddenly went black for moment. Nox was about to curse about the phone's broken state when it suddenly opened again with the frozen image of Eda seemingly glitching and briefly revealing a humanoid shadow before it morphed into what appeared to be a symbol.
Luz gasped, quickly getting a pen and paper from inside Nox. "T-There's a pattern in t-the spell circle"
King got closer to the demon girl, looking as she copied the pattern in her screen. Once she completed it, she gently tapped it with the pen. The pattern glowed, then the paper slowly curled in on itself before turning into an orb of golden light.
"Oh my god. Luz…you just did magic" Nox said in surprise while Luz couldn't help but give huge smile, King barely holding onto her arm "I-I did it. I did magic"
A distant roar from Eda made Luz suddenly jump in surprise and popping the orb
"We are not gonna stop her with something that small!" King complained, in a more shushed voice. Nox frowned at that, but couldn't help but agree when all of a sudden Luz got an idea which she immediately shared to Nox through the link
"Whoah are you sure about that?" Nox asked
"Y-Yes. I think it can work" Luz said.
"Alright then. You're the boss"
"Hey King, Luz got a plan to get Eda back to normal but we're gonna need your help. What do you say, buddy?" Nox asked
"I'm in!" King replied, without a hint of hesitation
"Awesome"
Eda stalked the living room, restlessly sniffing around the place. She could smell the scent of that dangerous demon in her territory but she could not get a specific read on where exactly she is. The smell of the boiling rain from out side masked it too much
She growled as she carefully inspected a book, when a clicking sound caught her attention. Standing there on the doorway to the hallway was the little furry thing(which she can't help but feel familiar to), and on his paws… The shiny thing.
"What do we have here?" King said nonchanlantly while flipping the pen. ", what lovely thing do we have here? It's just so dang shiny. Oh, my. Oh, dear!"
Eda stares at the pen's light, cooing before screeching and , lunging at King. The tiny demon quickly ran out of the way, the owl beast hot on his heels. Then, he took a sharp turn. Eda tried to follow, but a pile of King's books caused her to slip and fall down with a screech. Before she could even try to get up, a large blanket fell on her.
Luz and Nox looked down at their transformed host from a ladder, finishing up a large light glyph on the wall. "Sorry Owl Lady, but this is for your own good!" The doll demon said, before Luz tapped the large glyph just as the transformed witch got rid of the blanket.
The last thing the Owl Beast saw was a horrible blinding light before, darkness consumed her.
Eda abruptly got up in her nest with a gasp. "Ugh, what happened?". She took the large white straw in her mouth, carefully inspecting it before noticing where it led. Her elixir. "Huh. I was wondering where that went."
"Actually." King's high pitched voice said to her side. "We found a spare one in your closet!"
Eda narrowed her eyes. "King! You stole my elixir?! Why I oughta break every single bone in your miserable b-"
King shushed her in response, which only infuriated Eda even more. "Over there!" The demon pointed at a corner in Eda's room. Sitting there was Luz and Nox, with the former scribbling something in a small paper with over a dozen golden orbs of light above her. Luz tapped the paper, which crumbled into a new ball of light that soon joined the rest.
"Wow… How is she doing that?" The witch said, looking at the lights in fascination. She notice the look of sheer joy on Luz's face
"I don't know, but she did it all on her own." The demon then sighed. "Hey, I, uh, kind of messed a bunch of things up back there. And I just wanted to say I'm sorry.."
Eda's frown returned. "Well, you better be. I got a long list of disgusting chores with your name on it" Her face then softened before she sighed. "It's not entirely your fault though."
The witch looked up at Luz and Nox, who walked over towards them while making another light spell. "I haven't really been completely honest with you guys. When I was younger I was cursed. I dunno who did it or why, all I know is if I don't take my elixir I… Turn into that thing." She sighed. "That's why they call me the Owl Lady. It's not ideal but… It's manageable. I really should have told you instead of hiding it."
Luz and Nox sat down on the edge of Eda's nest. "It's okay, we get. Back on earth people used to see us as a monster too. Sure there were a few that were nice but they kept us at an arms reach most of the time" The living puppet explained while Luz nodded in confirmation
Hearing this Eda suddenly put a hand on the teen's shoulder, stopping her dead on her tracks. "Now now, don't give me none of that crap, you two." She said, a stern look on her face. "What I have is a curse, it turns me into a monster. You are different ok? Sure you're an Etherious which granted don't really have quite a good reputation if you ask me" The witch said with a shrug. "But what I'm trying to say is that you're just a kid who's living her life the way she want which last I checked is not monstrous at all"
Luz and Nox blinked in surprise, before smiling and hugging Eda. The witch was taken aback by the gesture, but decided not to say anything and let the kid do her thing. After a few seconds, Eda broke the hug. "You know kid I've been meaning to ask you something if you don't mind"
"Uh sure what is it?" Nox said
"What's your last name? Since you'll be staying with me for a while it would be weird for me not to know" Eda explained
Luz seemed to have been taken back by the question and for a moment she got a conflicted look on her face before answering "Its...Hopkins. My last name is Hopkins"
"So its Luz Hopkins then huh?" Eda said to which Luz nodded "Heh...its a nice name, kid"
Some time later in Bonesborough
"Vee! Come on down for dinner!"
Vee winced in front of her crystal ball. The young girl was currently playing a recently released game which was basically a virtual version of Hexes Hold'em on her crystal ball. She'd only recently gotten into it, and was quickly becoming obsessed with the game.
Though she had to hide this new guilty pleasure from her family. She has been told to avoid it after all, they'd freak if they found out she had been constantly playing this game which has been said to be very addictive
She giggled just a bit at the current game she was playing, she had been matched up against someone named"BADGIRLCOVEN" who was very competitive in a funny way and not like some jerks on penstagram . She had played this game with her older sister, Aye-Aye too, though she wasn't interested in the game much due to always being busy with her work as an inspector.
It was so much fun! She played so many games with many different combinations though certain mix of cards often easily wins her games. A couple of times though, she'd play a few troll cards just to get on her opponent's nerves.
One favorite part about it that she loved was that it allowed her to talk to new people. One time she played against someone whom she ended up taking to all night even after their game was over. She remembers that their name was Skara or something. She actually kept in contact with her too and even got to personally meet her. She was really pretty.
But one time… Skara talked about her school life. She often spoke about it, real casually. She talked about all the school activities she takes part in. About all the things she also learned! And sometimes Skara would even show off what she learned for her which was really nice of her to do so.
She wanted to be like Skara and other kids her age. She wanted to be able to go to school and study under a track and even join the a coven one day. Then maybe if she's lucky maybe even become a coven head.
Which was why it sucked that her mom wanted her to simply be a merchant one day because she didn't trust schools and their systems.
"Dinner time mija," a woman walked into Vee room. She was in her early thirties, and looked like an older version of Vee with the exception of having round ears unlike Vee's pointy ones. Vee had her back turned to her, so she missed the warm smile her mother had as she stared for a moment at her young daughter.
By the time her daughter had turned around, her mother was frowning just a bit. "Vee, that doesn't look like your activities I gave you." the woman scolded while eyeing a news article about the annual covention that was lying on her daughter's desk.
This gentle admonishment was met by a wince from Vee. "I'm only playing a bit Mami! I'll be down soon!"
"Vee...what did I tell you about playing games? You need to finish your activities first" the woman told her daughter, getting a groan from her.
"I know mom…can I go to the covention tomorrow? I wanted to show it to my new friends!"
"Pretty please..." Vee pouted cutely at her mother who hesitated at this.
"*Sigh* Just make sure you finish all your chores first before you go."
Hearing this, Vee grinned widely before rushing towards her mother, hugging tight around the waist. "Thanks Ms Camil- I mean Mom!"
Vee's mom smiled down at her daughter as she left the room.
When her mom had left the room Vee couldn't help but release a sad sigh. She had thought about what her mom said. Every member of her family have always been against the coven system in some form but aren't very vocal about it. Including her older sisters despite the fact that one them literally works as a school inspector . Maybe she would outgrow her desire to attend school one day
Then she noticed the crystal ball that she recently got from her sister Ivy the other day. Vee hesitated before picking up it up. Oh well she might as well read her own fortune before going down. She rubbed her hand over the crystal ball which then glowed before a ghost like entity materialized from it.
"Hoooh~ You will go to an important event with your friends tomorrow! But beware for they hide a dark and troubled secret~" The ghost said in an ominous tone.
"Wow I did not expect that" Vee said in a surprised tone before shaking her head and then putting away the crystal ball.
Oh well even though the crystal ball kinda warned her she might as well invite her new friends Luz and Nox to the annual covention tomorrow.
Like what's the worse that could happen?
Author's Note:
Sooo originally Vee was supposed to play a major role for this chapter which basically involved her helping subdue Owl Beast Eda while at the same time outing herself as a basilisk but I had to scrap the idea due to it conflicting with the flow of the chapter as well as some pacing but don't worry she is set to appear in the Covention chapter instead...
Also yeah...Luz's last name is indeed Hopkins and Camila is alive and has a lil family of basilisks...
I'll just leave you to process that information. Also Merry Christmas to everyone!(Probably should have put this in the beginning)
Review Responses
Gamelover41592- aw thanks and I'm happy to be back. I hope you enjoyed this update.
ArashiNokitsune- good choice. I have more reveals and plot twists for this au and I would like to say "Nothing is what it seems at first glance"
garonus56- yep Willow cared a big deal about Lucia in the past before the "incident". And yeah like King Luz is indeed a special type of demon.
OMAC001- well I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Bladewolf56- aw thanks!
skyway920- interesting observation :)
TheFranninator- I really appreciate your feedback man! it really helps with the writing. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
So that's all for now see you guys next chapter!