Chapter Twenty-One

"This is the dumbest thing I've ever done," Hunter groused.

The unmasked Golden Guard swooped low over the trees on his palisman staff, dressed in his dark clothes and goldenrod vest as he drew within sight of the Owl House. Willow had messaged him on Penstagram and asked him to check in on Luz, though she'd been rather silent as to the "why."

Hunter briefly thought back to what had happened the previous morning when they had woken up in that hotel bed, still dressed in their uniforms. It had been somewhat awkward, but it wasn't like they hadn't woken up next to each other fully-clothed before. Hunter had barely taken the time to kiss Willow's forehead before rushing back to the castle to try and play-off a busted alarm clock.

He was grateful that Belos had been too absorbed into his research and work on the portal door to notice. Or at least to make a big deal about it. And it was that very research that gave Hunter the opportunity to sneak out yet again to look in on arguably his first friend. Or at least the first person to treat him remotely with kindness besides his uncle.

Hunter settled on the lawn and approached the Owl House as Lil Rascal shrunk to his true form and perched on his favorite spot on Hunter's shoulder.

"Heya, Hunter!" Hooty greeted, snaking out of his place in the front door.

"Hooty," Hunter said neutrally. He and Hooty had come to something of an understanding during his first visit to the Owl House when Willow had "introduced" him to her extended found family. When he'd stormed off in hurt anger from Luz revealing his lack of magic to Eda and likely King, Hooty had pestered him until he'd finally snapped and ranted his feelings to the house demon … and it had honestly made him feel better. Hooty had then given some advice about honesty and being true to oneself that had made no sense at the time but hindsight had proven to have merit. And Hunter appreciated it.

Hence, their understanding.

Hooty opened up to reveal Eda and King sitting on the couch looking worried. "Hey, Blondie," Eda said with a shadow of her usual grin.

"Eda," Hunter said back, a little awkwardly. Honestly, he still wasn't sure how to act around the Owl Lady. His dream of fighting his darker self had shown him that he recognized her as a friend, at least subconsciously, but that didn't make interacting with a known criminal and long-time wild witch any easier. "Where's Luz? Willow said she wanted to talk?"

Eda gave him directions and Hunter climbed the stairs to eventually arrive at her door. He rubbed the back of his neck as irrational nerves flared up before he steeled himself and knocked. "Luz? It's Hunter. You wanted to talk?"

He heard movement inside the room before the door opened just wide enough to show Luz's face. Hunter's eyebrows shot up at how tired she looked, dark circles under her eyes that while not as deep as his own, were still noticeable against her darker skin. "Hey," she said quietly.

"Hi," Hunter said, further unsettled by Luz's tone. The human usually was bursting with energy and just sheer cheer, and seeing her otherwise was … wrong. Just wrong.

"Come in," Luz said. "We need to talk." She opened the door to let him in and he made sure to keep her in the corner of his vision, Luz's strange behavior putting him on edge. Luz padded to her bedroll and clutched her pillow to her front, eyes glazed and lost in the distance.

"What do you know about basilisks?" Luz asked.

Hunter lifted an eyebrow and looked at Lil Rascal in question, the little palisman shrugging his wings. "Um, a little. I heard about that incident at Hexside, and it was tied to something at Glandus. Since the thing impersonated a coven official, Belos wanted it investigated. They're supposed to be extinct but that's clearly not true, they can apparently shapeshift, and they feed directly on magic." He narrowed his eyes a little. "The Emperor's Coven has been experimenting with their remains for the last year or so trying to figure some stuff out. Why do you ask?"

"Apparently they were successful," Luz said sardonically. Luz went on to explain about the in-between world, her being able to speak with her doppleganger who turned out to be an adolescent basilisk, the demon's capture, her mother freeing "Vee," and even her promise to return home.

"You're saying that the Emperor's Coven has resurrected a species of demon just to study it?" Hunter asked, laughing hollowly. "T-That's ridiculous!"

"Vee told me about where she was held, Hunter," Luz said. "I could hear the misery in her voice. As someone who's been there, it sounded like the Conformatorium." She stood up, her voice level even as her hands curled into fists. "And what other coven would have the resources and the leeway to use them for something like that?"

Hunter looked away and tried to come up with a rebuttal. But whatever theory he came up with didn't hold up to scrutiny. The Beastkeeper Coven might have had the know-how to accomplish this, but the Emperor's Coven would have shut it down without clearance. The Healing Coven would have similar knowledge, but posed the same clearance issue. And neither coven — nor any coven — would have the sheer resources for this kind of project anyway.

The thought that Luz was lying came briefly to mind, but Hunter's stomach twisted and he stomped the idea to mush. Luz was a friend, a good friend. She had never been anything but honest with him before. Titan, she'd repeatedly lied on his behalf when he'd attended Hexside, which had allowed him to make friends and even have his relationship with Willow!

Which meant she was telling the truth. But the Emperor's Coven could never undertake such a program without Belos's explict approval … which meant he knew and had neglected to share this with Hunter, his supposed right-hand man. His nephew.

What else could his uncle be hiding?

Hunter looked around for something to ground his thoughts from this descending spiral and latched onto a textbook and notes on Luz's desk. "What are you working on?" he asked.

Luz was looking worriedly at Hunter and pressed her lips into a line as she decided to let the topic shift. If that look of panic was genuine, he really didn't know anything about Vee or her friends. "Oracle homework," she replied, loosely crossing her arms.

"Really?" Hunter asked, with real interest. "I'm not bad at Oracle magic. What are you covering?"

"We're studying mind magic," Luz said, sitting at her desk and leafing through her textbook with Hunter looking over her shoulder. "Eda once did a spell to send me and Amity into Willow's mind to fix damaged memories, and we're using something similar."

"Damaged memories?" Hunter asked quietly.

"Long story, Willow's fine, I'll tell you later," Luz said briskly. "Eda said the spell she used was 'partly illegal,' but apparently a similar spell to enter your own mind is fully legal. We've been assigned a project to investigate our own mindscape and write a report on it." She groaned with frustration. "The problem is that I don't have magic of my own or a staff, which means I can't do the spell!"

"Why not borrow Eda's staff?" Hunter asked.

Luz seemed to sag a bit at the question. As Hunter wracked his brain for a way to take it back, Luz replied, "Owlbert is Eda's palisman. Until I have one of my own, I want to respect that."

"Belos said you used Owlbert to attack him just fine," Hunter commented.

"That was different," Luz said firmly. "A life-or-death situation. Not just for me, but for Eda, King, and Lilith, too."

Hunter couldn't say he fully understood, but what he could understand was sticking to one's principles. He continued to mull over Luz's predicament when Lil Rascal chirped from his shoulder. Hunter blinked and thought over the idea in his mind before coming to a conclusion.

"What if we go into my mind?"

"What?" Luz asked in clear surprise.

"Like I said, I've got some talent in Oracle magic," Hunter bragged. "If you show me the spell in your textbook, I can bring us both into my head and you can make a report." He snorted a laugh. "I'll even sign it for authenticity."

Luz's look of stunned confusion gave way to joy. "That's amazing!" She jumped up and glomped him in a hug. "Thanks, Hunter!"

"No problem," Hunter grunted before shaking himself free. He slid Luz's book towards himself and studied the spell descriptor as Luz gathered a pen and notebook, before looking at Lil Rascal to cue him. The palisman tweeted and expanded before Hunter took him up and held out his hand for Luz's. Luz gripped his hand, but Hunter slipped his grip higher so that they were grasping forearms.

"And …" he said as he traced a yellow spell circle above them, "here we go."

The spell circle broke apart into a wave of light that cascaded over them … and dispersed to reveal Hunter's unconscious — and lightly snoring — form splayed across the floor with motes of golden magic floating above his head. Lil Rascal tweeted 'Good luck' and perched beside his head to settle and await their return.

Luz yelped as she landed in a blank void, much the same as when she and Amity had been sent into Willow's mind. She looked around before a bright light flared and she had to clench her eyes shut against it until it faded away and she opened her eyes to see … Huh.

Much like Willow's, Hunter's mind took the form of a forest. But unlike the lush, almost cultivated greenery of hers, Hunter's mind was more of an overgrown wood filled with hanging vines and briar bushes. Large columns of stone, like the pieces of Stonehenge back in the human realm, were scattered around, many of them cracked or even fallen. And the trees that held his memory portraits were … scarred, as if someone had taken a blade to them.

"What do you think?"

Luz yelped and spun around to find Hunter regarding her, though he seemed … off. He wasn't completely solid like her, but he was more defined than the translucent figure of Inner Willow had been.

"It's … a lot different than Willow's mind," Luz admitted.

"Mindscapes tend to reflect the individual," Hunter said, then grinned. "I've read a lot about this subject."

"Nerd," Luz teased.

"Dork," he fired back.

"Well, let's get started!" Luz said, unfurling her notebook and pen. "Any juicy ones you don't mind sharing?"

"Define 'juicy'," Hunter groused. "If you think I'm gonna give you free reign of my memories with Willow, you've got another-"

"Found one!" Luz shouted before she jumped into a portrait. Hunter rushed over and yelped at the scene of himself and Willow in a tearful embrace … in the Hexside greenhouse.

"Luz, wait!" Hunter shouted as he jumped in, too.

Why did he have to be such a nice guy?

"So how's Luz doing?" Gus asked.

"I don't know," Amity said, her eyes downcast. The device she'd gotten from Luz — a tamagotchi, she'd called it — still remained silent. "Willow, you said Hunter was going to talk to her. Has he said anything?"

Willow summoned her scroll and checked. "Just that he's at the Owl House." She banished the scroll and gave a smile. "But I'm sure they're fine. What could happen?"

"That was so sweet!" Luz cried as they exited the Hexside memory. Hunter's face was burning, his ears turned down in frustrated mortification. That was honestly one of his favorite memories, a time when he and Willow first connected with each other on a personal level. And now Luz had seen something so private.

"Okay, ground rules for the rest of this little trip!" Hunter snapped. "Do not go into a memory without my explicit permission!"

"Yeah, that's fair," Luz said. "By the way, we need to examine three memories from different stages of your life. I'd say that last one counts as recent, so now we just need 'hobby' and 'childhood'."

"Hobby?" Hunter asked. "I don't have a lot of those."

"Come on, there's nothing you do for fun?" Luz asked, a challenging look in her eyes. "I know you study wild magic under the covers."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "I doubt your teacher wants a description of me reading." He hummed and thought for a moment.

"Say, where's the Inner Hunter?" Luz asked. "Maybe he could help."

"You're looking at him," Hunter said, gesturing to himself. "This spell intertwines the inner self and the conscious mind to create a kind of hybrid entity. It doesn't last long, but it gets the job done." He crossed his arms. "That was in your textbook, by the way. Do you read anything besides those kiddie Azura books?"

"I happen to read a lot, thank you!" Luz said, crossing her arms. "I just got distracted is all."

"Uh-huh, sure," Hunter replied. He turned and began searching the portraits until he found something. "Here. Why don't we go into this?" He gestured at the portrait to find a younger Hunter, perhaps as a preteen, soaring between two buildings. "It's when I started learning wall running."

They dove into a few other memories after that, such as when Hunter received his mechanized staff from Belos when he became the Golden Guard or a few less gruesome missions, before their wandering led them to the section of Hunter's mind before his life at the castle.

"What's this one?" Luz asked, gesturing to a memory that seemed sharp with emotion, but the edges faded with time.

"I'm not sure," Hunter said wistfully. "I remember it being important, but it was so long ago that-"

"Let's go!" Luz shouted, hauling him bodily through the portrait. She really was shockingly strong.

The memory dropped them into a Bonesborough slayground, where a young Hunter was surrounded by bullies. He fought them off with vigor and valor, but was overpowered by their numbers and rudimentary magic. Luz felt her heart clench at the scene, suddenly imagining herself if she had never discovered the glyphs. She looked at Hunter and found him stone-faced as he too watched.

Then, when Hunter was on his last legs … something else happened.

Vines burst from the ground and snared all of the boys to lift them into the air. A figure blurred by time stood her ground and screamed denials at the bullies, the vines tightening. The bullies begged for mercy that would have been denied if little Hunter hadn't calmed the girl — for it was certainly a little girl — from her rage.

Then the girl passed out and Hunter made her comfortable before calls for the girl's name, also faded with time, chased him away.

When the duo emerged from the memory, Luz was grinning like a madwoman. "Holy Titan, I love the 'forgotten first meeting' trope!" she squealed. "It's so romantic!"

"What are you talking about?" Hunter asked.

"That was Willow!" Luz shouted. "How did you not get that?"

"Wil- What?"

"Willow? Your girlfriend?" Luz asked, as if encouraging a small child. "C'mon, that vines thing is exactly how she and I first met! You met Willow when you were kids, she protected you from bullies, then you calmed her down. And you both forgot the details and still found each other again!" She squealed and hugged her shoulders before falling to her knees. "Es tan lindo!"

Hunter blinked and thought over Luz's words, replaying the recollection in his mind. It was true, that little girl had instinctively used vines to protect him, which was a very Willow thing to do. Could it be that Luz was right? Could Willow … be his syphara …?

He wandered aimlessly for a moment as he mulled over the thought before leaning against a memory tree … that clinked like metal? He looked up and stumbled backward in shock to find one of his memories chained up. What the-?

"Hunter? You okay?" Luz called as she jogged to catch up to him. She followed his line of sight and gasped at the sight. "Whoa. What does that mean?" she asked. She waited for an answer before looking back at Hunter … who seemed to be in shock. "Hunter?" Her stomach started twisting with nerves. Hunter never missed a chance to exposit. "Hunter, what's the metaphor or whatever behind this?"

"It means a memory has been sealed away," Hunter said. "Altered to make it seem different. It's possible, but only through crazy-complex Oracle magic."

"So someone doesn't want you remembering this?" Luz asked. She took hold of the chains, noticing that they appeared scratched and dented as if over years of abuse. "Let's see what it is," she said, and tugged hard. The chains cracked and shattered to reveal the portrait of the inside of a small, burning home — and a woman's dainty hand lying in a pool of blood.

"It can't be …" Hunter said. This memory?

He dove in before he could think about it.

"Hunter!" Luz shouted before diving right behind him.

Luz landed on a wooden floor of a single-room house full of worn furniture. She looked around and saw that everything there was much the same: worn down with use, but well-loved and cared for. Laughter caught her ears and another little Hunter stood with a slim woman with golden blonde hair, dark circles under her eyes and crow's feet at the corners, and faint stress lines creasing her face … but all softened with a smile so full of love it made Luz's heart ache for her mami.

"Mama," little Hunter said, "can I lick the spoon?"

The woman — Hunter's mother — smiled and titled the spoon she'd been using to stir batter to her little boy before someone pounded at the door. Hunter's mother frowned and put the bowl down. "Stay here, sweetie," she said before moving out of the kitchen area and to the front door. She pushed a curtain just a little to the side and gasped.

Then the door exploded outward and she was flung to the ground with a cry of pain. In the open doorway stood a trio of menacing figures shrouded in cloaks. "The woman is powerless," the leader scorned. "Secure the boy!" And they all converged on Hunter.

Then one shouted with pained shock and fell with a kitchen knife thrust through her calf. Hunter's mother shirked with fury and tackled another, smashing a jar of preserves over his head. "Hunter, run!" she shouted and swept the legs of the last witch from underneath him, the man still in shock at a powerless witch fighting back.

His mother grappled with the last witch as the first one wailed over the knife in her leg and the other lay unconscious or dead from the shattered jar. She rolled him over with the strength only a mother can bring to bear and tore at his cloak to reveal a square-faced witch with a thin beard.

And then the memory flickered as Hunter's mother pressed her shoe to the witch's face and leaned back with his arm to dislocate the shoulder … and bared his previously unmarked wrist to reveal a familiar sigil on his inner arm. But not a sigil …

A brand.

The winged triangle and sword of the Emperor's Coven.

Luz gasped as Hunter's mother jerked the man's arm from its socket as a stunned and terrified little Hunter watched. "Hunter, go!" she shouted. "I love you, my dearest. Run, now!" Then the witch with a knife in her leg tackled the mother and wrapped her hands around the woman's throat.

Little Hunter turned and ran with terrified tears in his eyes … and he didn't look back as his home was consumed with flames.

The memory flashed and Hunter and Luz reappeared in his main mindscape.

"Hunter …?" Luz asked.

Hunter was wide-eyed, one of them twitching and his mouth set in a furious rictus. His hands were twitching as if looking for something to squeeze the life out of and his breathing was growing labored. Then his image started to flicker and the blinding light reappeared to sear Luz away.

Luz gasped as she awoke on the floor of her room in the Owl House to find Hunter breathing heavily, sweat beading his forehead and his pupils shrunk to pinpricks. He looked to be on the verge of a panic attack. He leapt to his feet and ran from the room, thundering down the stairs.

"Hunter!" Luz shouted as she stumbled after him. She leapt down the stairs three at a time, but emerged into the living room to find the door wide open and no trace of her friend.

"Luz, what happened?" King asked from Eda's lap.

"What's going on?" Eda asked seriously.

Luz tried to force her brain to come up with a coherent response, but she was coming up empty.

Dios mio … What could all of this mean?!

Chapter Twenty-One, everybody!

*For the record, the overall concept of this chapter was devised long before "Hollow Mind" premiered. That being said, there were certainly some influences after I watched the fact. But the idea of Hunter reliving the night he lost his mother by entering his own mind with Luz has been in the books for a few months now.

*Vee never actually stated that the Emperor's coven had been the one to resurrect and experiment on the basilisks, but Luz has shown in canon to have a powerful sense of intuition. I figure she connected the dots.

*The idea of Hunter having a knack for Oracle magic is completely my brain child, and I'm not sure where it came from. I do figure in canon that he has a decent grasp of most kinds of magic, being such an eclectic reader.

*The revised intra-mind spell is also my idea. I figure Oracle magic has dominion over the mind, given Odalia's telepathic amulets. Though "Labyrinth Runners" implies Illusions can play with one's OWN mind ...

As always, thank you so much for reading! Leave a review if you like, and may your own works be fruitful!