Chapter Eight

Belos's words seemed to ring in the silence.

After a few moments, Lady Feronia motioned for the Silver Belle to move forward, and she did with automatonic stiffness. She stopped at the center of the carpet that led from the double doors to the throne and stood at attention before the Emperor, even as the Amethyst Artisan rose from her crouch and turned on her heel to face her. The coven heads all took steps back, their memories fresh from the last battle fought in the throne room.

'Amity,' Willow thought somberly. She tightened her fingers into loose fists. 'Don't hold back. Please.'

"Begin," Belos ordered.

With a quick circle each, both witchlings summoned and slung lashes of vines or Abomination clay — dotted with thorns and Abomination eyes — hurtling toward their opponent. The clay shredded through the vines, but more of their kind erupted from below and diverted the purple gunk up and away from Willow. Another circle and a massive kraken shrub erupted from the ground, its tentacles wriggling ominously before it closed in on Amity.

Amity traced a circle and began wheeling it with a single finger, and the Abomination she had summoned reformed from a lash into a vertical spinning wheel that tore at the tentacles and ripped them to shreds, grinding the remains into the ground. More magic poured into the construct and it again reformed into a flat puddle that slithered under her feet and rose up into a small wave that rapidly carried her around the room to make a moving target.

Willow traced a circle in each hand and vines emerged from them to form whips that she swiped and slashed through the air, each motion forming a cracking sound as the vines missed Amity by inches. A few times Amity had to draw clay from her carrier to slash them out of the air, even as they regrew to their previous length. After too many close calls, Amity tensed and her mount launched her upward before she reformed it into a curved blade that scythed over her and downward upon the Silver Belle.

Crawlway vines arose and swallowed Willow, dragging her into the stone ground a split moment before the blade crashed down upon her. It dissolved and formed a cushion to catch Amity and let her land safely. The vines reemerged some distance away to reveal Willow covered in dust but no worse for wear.

Amity rapidly traced a spell circle the width of her outstretched arms that coalesced and blasted a raging torrent of pink flames. Willow countered by summoning a Quaffing Holler, a tall, wide tree with pale wood native to the grasslands of the Shin that thrived in the frequent grass fires by absorbing the flames for sustenance — just as it did to the fires of Amity's spell, sucking them up in a howling whirlwind before releasing a plume of white smoke into the air that spread across the ceiling.

Amity reformed her Abomination into the quadruped form she'd described to Willow, and the creature yowled and raced in a circle to gather momentum before sharply turning and lunging at Willow. Borrowing her mentor's trademark move, Willow summoned an ironmaiden tree in front of her that opened its spike-filled maw and roared as the Abomination crashed into it, closing tight to trap it. But purple spikes harder than steel erupted from within and shredded the tree to splinters before retracting and melting back into sludge.

Willow swiped her arms into two circles that summoned a sabrethorn shrub — its short, spindly trunk covered with long spines that resembled swords in shape, sharpness, and strength — to cover her back, and the other conjuring a half-dozen globule trees whose pimple-like growths swelled and exploded into black sludge that poured upon the Abomination and hardened to keep it from reforming.

Or at least most of it, as Amity had enough to conjure a razor sharp rod, like a sword. Willow snipped a spine from the shrub before withering it, clearing the field. Both girls were still for a moment before they leaned onto their back feet and then lunged at each other, weapons drawn and for all appearances ready for blood.

"Enough," Belos called, his tone almost bored, and the apprentices stopped in their tracks, with their weapons inches from each others' necks. "It seems you have made a keen choice, Darius," Belos admitted. "As did Feronia. One can only hope that your contemporaries show such judgment in their own inevitable searches for apprenticeship."

Both coven heads nodded in acknowledgement to the faint praise and gestured for their apprentices to return to their side. In perfect step, they did so without a single glance at each other, Darius striding to meet his Artisan in front of Belos's throne.

"Now then," Darius said, "in your name, Emperor Belos …" Darius said. He nodded to the Artisan, who rolled down her long chain mail glove, and produced an Abomination Coven seal. With a deliberate motion, he placed it upon her arm and allowed all present to see his apprentice bound to his coven — an unspoken contribution to the Day of Unity, given the power she had just displayed.

"Excellent," Belos said levely, almost a purr. "The Titan will be pleased."

As the floor was taken by Head Witch Mawe over the matter of strange disturbances in oracular magic around the Skull, all three of the masked witchlings stayed as silent and unobtrusive as possible. Amity was in.

Now they would find out if it was worth it.

Eda hung her head in her hands as she stared at the parchment laying on the kitchen table. Luz was at Hexside and King was napping on the couch while Hooty was writing to Lily; that meant it was the perfect time to brood over the letter Luz had gotten to her from Willow. The one that detailed Raine's fate.

'Kid must be rubbing off on me even more than I thought,' Eda mused with bitter humor, 'because I keep thinking that it could be worse.'

Which was true, even if only technically. Raine wasn't dead. Though this stasis from the coven seal was pretty damn close. Eda felt her stomach wrench at the thought of gentle Raine being forced into sleep for the Titan knew how long before Belos's Day of Unity. Every fiber of her being rebelled at the idea, and she slapped her hands to the table before dragging her nails against the wood like a cat, her jaw clenched so hard she felt a tooth crack.

A tear might have fallen, too.

"Pfft, what am I? Some fragile little waif waiting for things to get better?" she snarked, standing so fast she knocked her chair backward, fires all but raging in her gold and silver eyes. "I'm Eda the Owl Lady! And I don't let things happen!" Her lips curled into a fearsome grin. "I make them happen!"

Eda strode confidently into the living room — instinctively slowing into a tiptoed stride to keep from waking King — and snatched the crystal ball before retreating upstairs. When the door was locked and she was sitting with her back to her vanity, she dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up.

Luck was on her side for once.

"Edalyn?" Lilith asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Hey, Sis," Eda said with a tense reflection of her usual easygoing grin. "I hear that you heard about Raine."

Lilith's brows arched. "I'm guessing Willow told you," she surmised, and Eda nodded. "You want to free them," Lilith said further.

"Longterm, yes," Eda said. "And they were your friend, too, back in the day. No matter how much you tried to deny it."

"They were kind enough," Lilith said distantly, before giving a faint smile. "And I hear they tried to do right by you, which I can appreciate."

"Well, Willow says they're locked up in the levels beneath the castle," Eda said.

"That's not surprising," Lilith replied, her fingers steepling in the frame of the crystal ball as she started thinking. "Willow didn't say so to me personally, but Belos wouldn't keep such a valuable hostage anywhere less protected."

"So what are the odds of us getting in there ourselves?" Eda asked, though she had a pretty good feeling about the answer.

"About as likely as Bump giving you a commendation for Student of the Year," Lilith said dryly. "The Emperor's Coven may be full of senseless buffoons, but Belos doesn't appoint weaklings. He appoints them most of all based upon loyalty," by which, of course, she meant fanaticism, "or whatever hold he can get around them." She winced at that last part before her expression relaxed into pointed warning. "And there are a lot of them in the castle."

"Dammit," Eda groused. "I mean, not exactly a shock, but still." Then her scowl morphed into a grin. "Alright, we'll need a real plan for that one." Lilith's gaze went flat at the reminder of Eda's famed stubbornness. "But in the meantime, there's also a less secure place with some new friends that two awesome witches could bust into."

After an hour of discussion as each coven head reported recent events within their organizations and compared notes on the state of the coven system — including uplifting news that a slew of wild witches being bound to their various covens — Belos adjourned the convocation and the coven heads and two apprentices filed out of the throne room.

Belos rose from his throne, grunting faintly at the crackling along his spine. Familiar aches and pains were arising, signs of his curse flaring up as much as age. He would need palismen soon to manage the condition, and he had an … idea on how to arrange that. But for now, there were more pressing matters to address.

"Hunter," Belos said, his tone in between his usual chill and the faint warmth he sometimes indulged in with his nephew, "what is your assessment of this new apprentice?"

The Golden Guard paused for a moment before answering. "She seems like an excellent choice," he admitted, his tone tinted with reluctance. Belos held back a snicker at that; Hunter had been clear on his less-than-savory views on Darius before. "She shows power and skill for her age, and pressured the Silver Belle quite well, even at a moment's notice." He paused again. "And her use of Abominations was creative as much as skilled, which is a key feature in such a witch."

"'Pressured the Silver Belle'," Belos repeated, and he noticed from the corner of his mask his nephew tense ever so faintly. Another reminder of his closeness with Ms. Park that he only permitted at the Titan's command. "Who in turn fought well against you."

"Yes, Emperor Belos," he replied.

Belos remained quiet as he thought over everything that had happened. And the seeming inevitability that his other coven heads would begin appointing teen apprentices. "Very good, Hunter," Belos said. "You are dismissed for the day."

The Golden Guard nodded and left via a back entrance, Belos keeping an eye on him through his mind's eye until he made it to his room. Belos sighed and stood to pace through his continued thoughts. He had not heard a whisper from the Titan since the vision that commanded him to allow his nephew and Feronia's apprentice to remain in touch and working together. And he was wondering at the significance of such a thing.

True, it wasn't unusual for the Titan to remain silent for long stretches of time. The record had been a perfect year after he had first built his castle, as he excavated the Titan's bile sac that now hung above him and throbbed with its beat, the sensation like a phantom feeling in his own chest.

On a whim, Belos glanced up at the beating bile sac … and hissed at the sight of the faintest blotches of white on it. With an effort of will, he severed a circular platform of stone from the throne room floor beneath him and lifted it up to bring him closer. As he drew nearer, the blotches resolved into clutches of small, snow-white flowers draping from delicate clinging vines that had grown upon the bile sace.

Lilies of the Heart.

These flowers had covered the valley of the Heart like a pestilence before Belos had come to power. They were used in wild magic and were said to grow in places where the Titan's power gathered, aside from the Knee where it was far too cold — and where better for that than above the Titan's mortifying bile sac?

But these innocuous sprigs were symbols of wild magic, and so they could not be permitted to remain. Belos had personally smothered the plant life of the valley before construction of his castle had begun, the power of his artificial magic whose secrets he had derived from the whispers of the Titan withering them to fitting blackened husks. In the time since, he had brought the tiny pieces of heresy to the point of extinction, but they always seemed to return, like a festering disease.

Or much like his curse even after treatment with the raw magic of palismen.

Belos snarled and the blood red power of his artificial magic wreathed his gauntlet as he made a slashing motion that plucked the flowers from the beating sac and bathed them in cleansing fire. He opened his Eye and examined the sac for more, finding nothing left. He nodded and lowered his platform before settling it back into its place and sealing it back to the stone.

As he began to make his way back toward a door to the portal chamber, a small detail leapt out at him. In the infrequent times he's had to weed the Titan's bile sac of those wretched invaders, it had never been more than one or two at a time. In this instance … there had been nearly a dozen flowering vines.

Belos was certain that this was important, a sign of something not right in his rule even this close to the Day of Unity, but he was no fool. It was impractical to fret about it with so little data. If something had changed, he would have to keep an eye out for more resurgences and simply note common circumstances.

As he opened the hidden door and descended the stairs, Belos grunted at a sudden pain lancing his side. His arm began to melt into black sludge and he snarled and bore every ounce of will he could muster upon it to keep it solid until the fit passed. Sweat beaded his brow behind his mask as he shuddered and took a deep breath to steady himself.

And then he resumed his way toward the portal. Now was not the time for weakness. The Day of Unity would not wait for the weak. And he refused to fall short of the Titan's will … especially so close to the endgame.

Lightning flashed above the Conformatorium, the dark clouds threatening boiling rain, and Eda mused that she had never approached the place without such an ominous atmosphere. Not when she'd first brought Luz to take back King's toy crown and not when they'd moved her here for the petrification ceremony. Only when she'd fled with Luz, King, and Lilith had the skies been clear, and there had been a crowd that night. She briefly wondered if Belos or Warden Wrath had set up enchantments specifically to summon this kind of weather for new arrivals.

"You ready for this?" Eda asked her companion, drawing the cowl of her red cloak lower over her face.

"As ready as I can be," Lilith said, a gray cloak in the same style hiding her silhouette. "You have your glyphs?"

Eda flashed several cards traced with various glyphs between her fingers in answer before slipping them back into the pouches at her belt to compliment the bandolier of potion vials over her chest. She idly ran her fingers over the carvings in the leather that denoted which pouch contained which glyph; she'd practiced her draw motions for hours that day, and Lilith's new combinations had added to it. But Luz was deep in her portal research tonight with King's help, and she wouldn't get another good night to do this.

In perfect sync, the Clawthorne sisters adjusted their hoods to hide their hair, gripped their staffs, and clapped them to the cobblestones as the eyes of Owlbert and Branwen flashed with orange-gold and blue-white light to conjure an illusion of fog rolling in over them and toward the Conformatorium. They walked toward the entrance in step, Eda on the left and Lilith on the right, and listened for incoming coven guards.

The sisters had timed their break out at three at night, when the guards would be too tired to think clearly, but not too tired to respond to an act of violence. Because a response from them was the first part of the plan. The sisters had flown in around midnight while hidden by invisibility glyphs and had slapped wanted posters collected from around Bonesborough all over one wall of the Conformatorium, the backs all inscribed with fire glyphs. They'd left it for the guards to notice and get used to before they struck.

As guards began to gather at the unnatural fog rolling in, Eda and Lilith clapped their staffs to the cobbles once more and triggered the cloud of glyphs at the far side of the massive building. An explosion ripped through the quiet night air, followed closely by light and heat, and the sound alerted a vast majority of the guards and drew them, as Luz had once said, like moths to flame. With a large portion of the security busy quelling the fire, the Clawthornes made their way into the Conformatorium.

"You're sure about this?" Eda asked.

"As sure as I possibly can be," Lilith said for the umpteenth time. "As I'm sure you've noticed, Wrath isn't exactly the most initiative demon on the Isles. He much prefers to stick to torture. As such he hasn't exactly updated his filing system." They made it to a door labeled "Records" and slipped inside just ahead of a cluster of guards rounding the corner of the corridor.

Lilith activated a light spell and looked around until she had her bearings. She moved decisively down any number of aisles until she found the one she was looking for and drew it open before digging through them. "What were their names, again?" Lilith looked up at the sound of crinkling paper and found a written list. "Oh, thank you." She took it and examined the names before nodding and partly removing three files from the drawer. She moved the light spell closer and examined them before huffing in dry amusement. "They all have cells right next to each other. Probably to try and have their despair feed on each other." She slid the files back in and closed the drawer. "Shall we?"

The sisters made their way to the huge amphitheater-like chamber that acted as the combined cell blocks, the halls of cells rising around a vaulted ceiling. Lilith led the way with Eda guarding her back, making their way up several flights of stairs until they reached a row of three cells. Cells containing three teens very familiar to Eda.

"Katya!" Eda whispered loudly. "Derwin! Amber!"

"Huh? Wha-?" The prisoner in the far left cell got up and drudged to the cell bars, her eyes heavy with fatigue and hopelessness. She blinked and rubbed her forearm over her eyes before looking closely. "Eda?"

"It's me, Katya," Eda smiled. "And my sister," she noted, and Lilith glanced over her shoulder from watching Eda's back now to give a nod of greeting.

"Eda, what're you doing here?" Katya slurred.

"Getting you out," Eda said firmly. She pulled the release lever that lifted Katya's cell bars before doing the same to Derwin's and Amber's. By now, the others had been roused and were as surprised at Eda's arrival as Katya had been. Well, Derwin was, at least.

"I knew you'd come get us, Mama Eda!" Amber cried out, hugging the Owl Lady around the waist.

"Keep it down, Amber," Eda hissed, though she patted the girl's head softly, too. She reached under her cloak and removed a tambourine and a recorder that she passed to Katya and Amber. "Sorry, Derwin," she said with a contrite grin, "couldn't fit your bassoon under the cloak."

"Oh, don't worry about me," the young man said, his eyes glittering ferociously behind his broken pince-nez. "I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve."

Eda lifted an eyebrow in curiosity before nodding and gesturing for them to fall in line. "I'll lead, Lily will take up the rear. Katya behind me, Amber in front of Lily, and Derwin in the center to support either side."

They all fell into position and began making their way through the halls of the Conformatorium. The sound of distant chaos showed that their distraction was still working, and they picked up the pace. They had to duck behind corners to avoid a few groups of guards who were making rounds to cover the situation, but they got lucky and made it outside the main hall.

"We're almost there!" Amber whispered excitedly.

"Don't count your griffins before they hatch, young lady," Lilith scolded. "That's always when the surprises come out."

As if on cue, alarms began blaring. Guards began filing into the courtyard and surrounded the group, all of them wielding swords in one hand with the other primed to trace spells. "Surrender yourselves!" one of the guards shouted, "You're surrounded and outnumbered!"

Lilith and Eda slipped on domino masks, simple white ones rather than the bat-themed ones she'd used with these very teens, and lowered their hoods before lashing out with glyphs. Lilith opened up with her ice spike move she'd used on King's island, while Eda defaulted to the potioner's mainstay of fire, blasting it from a palmed card like a flamethrower.

Katya and Amber leapt into action as well. Katya began playing her tambourine, the rapid beating on the drum skin sending small lances of concussive force at the guards, while the jingle of the zills agitated the air and made it harder for them to land spells in reply. Amber started playing her recorder, the music acting to bring drowsiness to all who heard it except for her friends.

One guard had seen fit to bring earmuffs and charged at the line, dodging spells left and right, but Derwin was good on his word. He stuck his pinky fingers between his lips and whistled a piercing tune that lifted the guard over them with a cry and sent him hurtling into his fellows. His breathing was heavy, but he braced himself to do it again.

"Stand down!" came the cry of a rumbling, basso voice familiar to all. The guards followed their orders, but remained visibly cautious as some of them parted to admit the towering form of Warden Wrath. "Ah, the little musicians want to escape. They'll have to do better than that."

"Last I checked," Katya snapped, "a human beat you twice!" She laughed derisively. "You don't exactly have street cred anymore."

"You will not mention that girl in my presence!" Wrath shouted, tearing off his mask to reveal the gaping maw beneath that trailed plumes of smoke. "She got lucky!"

"She made you draw her a map," Eda added snidely. "Not to mention she plowed through all your boys to get in here."

"Ah, the Owl Lady," Wrath crooned. Lilith sighed with vexation at her sister's antics, but kept her mask on. If there was a chance someone could get out of here unrecognized, she would take it. Although … she did have an idea, and prepared Branwen accordingly.

"Not gonna happen, you freak," Eda snapped. "I thought I had made that clear."

"Oh no, you've missed your chance, Eda," Wrath chuckled, and molded his arms into scythe blades while an orange glow built up in the back of his throat. "Now I'm just going to bring you in."

Lilith took her shot.

"Hey, Ugly!" Everyone there froze and turned to find Luz Noceda, dressed in her purple cape and armed with glyphs, her expression set in a fearsome smile as her eyes glittered maliciously. "Who's ready for round two?!"

The guards began shrieking and trying to flee, many pushing their fellows toward Luz in their panic to escape. Wrath himself took a few steps back before his pride and his fury reasserted itself. "You! You made me look like a fool in front of Kikimora and the Emperor!"

"Pretty sure you did that, Big Guy," Luz snarked. "Y'know, being beaten by a teen human with no magic."

Wrath roared and slammed his fists down upon the cobbles where Luz stood … only for the human to melt into smoke. He blinked and realized it had simply been an illusion. He frantically looked around to find his men gone and his prisoners escaped. His beady eye twitched as he realized he had been tricked and he roared in frustration and denial.

"Owl Lady!"

"Naturally, he gives you the credit," Lilith deadpanned, though her faint smirk softened the words.

"Well, I was the only one there he knew besides the kids," Eda replied. "But, hey, nice thinkin' with the illusion. How'd you know it would scare the guards so bad?"

"I didn't," Lilith admitted, "not for certain." Her smirk faded into a distant look. "But I was there, Eda. I saw what Luz did to break into the Conforatorium. The chaos and havoc she left in her wake." She shook her head and refocused on their flight. "Wrath's words implied that his men have not forgotten. I thought it would at least give us a moment to escape."

"Well, it gave us more than one moment," Katya said from behind Eda, grunting as Amber squeezed her middle. She briefly thought how ironic it was that Amber had wings, as small as they were, but was scared of heights. She cast a quick glance at Derwin riding behind Lilith, blushing so hard it could be seen over his dark skin and smirked before continuing. "How's the human doing, anyway?"

Eda laughed. "She's doing great! Getting more powerful every day with those glyphs of hers. She's getting ready to carve her own palisman, she's got a cute little rich girlfriend." Her smile faded a bit. "She's trying to build a portal to go back to her home, and really getting close."

Even over the faint wind in their ears from the flight, Katya picked up the faint bitterness in Eda's words. But she held her tongue, deciding that it wasn't her business unless Eda brought it up again.

"So where do we go from here?" Derwin asked.

"Yes, Edalyn," Lilith deadpanned, "I wouldn't mind hearing that myself."

"My first thought was the Owl House," Eda admitted. "But we're running out of room there. Plus, it's the first place the Emperor's goons would look since they know I was the one who broke you out."

"What if we head for the woods, like all of those wild witches we freed?" Katya suggested.

"That might be the best option," Lilith replied. "You're in the system as subversives, now. I read your reports while we were locating you and Katya, you are now considered a double offender due to the last time you broke out of the Conformatorium."

"It was just for writing fanfiction!" she said heatedly.

"And it would appear the Wrath and the Emperor's Coven don't care," Lilith continued, her tone unchanged from brisk practicality. "My point being that whatever you choose, you must be careful about it."

There was silence for some time before Derwin spoke up. "What about our old hideout?" Everyone looked at him. "None of us revealed its location to the Warden, right?" Katya glanced backward at Amber, who shook her head against Katya's back. Katya confirmed that they had kept it secret. "So we can live there until the heat dies down," Derwin said. "Whatever this 'Day of Unity' thing is, it's apparently coming fast. Without Raine we're not really much of a threat."

Eda pressed her painted lips as she tried to examine every angle of that plan. "You'd have to be really careful not to show yourselves," she noted.

"We know how to stay under the radar," Katya assured. "And we know for a fact that they won't execute us," she said, showing her coven seal. "So we watch our step in Bonesborough and report in to you guys as often as we can."

"You're all adults," Lilith said, though she glanced dubiously at Amber curled with fright into Katya's back, "I think."

"Amber's actually sixteen," Derwin admitted.

"My point being you are all capable of making your own decisions," Lilith added. "Eda, what do you think?"

"It's your lives," she conceded. "Let's get you guys back to the hideout before dawn." Eda led the way on Owlbert with Lilith close behind, the group even using invisibility glyphs to approach — that Eda would teach to Derwin before they left. As the Clawthorne sisters flew away, leaving the BATTs to their first day as fugitives, Lilith placed a hand on Eda's shoulder and smiled reassuringly before turning to head for their parents' house.

As Eda made her way back to the Owl House, she idly hoped that Luz and King were sleeping well. And Hooty, she supposed.

Chapter eight is here and it was so much fun to write! I hope it was as enjoyable to read.

*Willow's silent plea for Amity to not hold back was inspired by Xion in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

*Amity's wheeling shield came from Avatar: the Last Airbender, from Katara's duel with Hama in S3. A lot of her tactics are inspired by waterbending, as many of us noticed during her fight with Hunter in canon. Fitting for the voice actress of Katara, the marvelous Mae Whitman.

*Lilies of the Heart are based on lilies of the valley, and were suggested by Discord friend Therma. Thanks, you're awesome!

*Anyone remember from "Separate Tides" when we learned there are flamethrowers on the Boiling Isles?

*It continues to make me laugh thinking that Luz has become The dreaded for most of the Emperor's coven since she stormed the Conformatorium and laid waste to all in her path.

As always, please leave a review. They keep my spirits up and my will to write burning bright! May your inspirations and aspirations never falter!