"What about this one?" Amity held up an outfit on a hanger in front of herself. It was an ensemble of dark colors and sharp edges that looked like it could cut someone. "I think it says 'mysteriously dangerous'. Or I could do this one." She held up another outfit in her other hand; this one consisting of a loose top, also in dark colors, but matched with a purple skirt. "This one definitely says 'dangerously mysterious'. What do you think, Eda?"
Eda sat on the sofa in the Owl House with King and Hooty beside her. Amity had insisted on getting their help with her outfit, so they had been at this all morning. King was laying on his side with a bored look on his face. Eda was leaned forward, her hands clasped together in front of her face, carefully inspecting the two outfits.
A pile of outfits had slowly grown beside the couch over the course of the morning. Some, like the clown suit, had been dismissed immediately. Most were variations on the outfits Amity was showing off now: dark colors, fancy designs, and slight alterations from the others.
"Well I think you'd look hoot-tastic in either one! Or any of the others!" Hooty said.
"Aww, thanks Hooty!" Amity shot Hooty a grateful smile. "You always keep my spirits up."
"Not a problem, Mittens! And, uh," Hooty leaned in towards Amity, "does this mean you've forgiven me for the kidnapp–"
"Absolutely not!" Amity said in the same cheerful tone without losing her smile.
"Look, Amity," Eda said as Hooty returned to her side, slightly dejected, "I don't think Luz'll mind what you're wearing. I know I wouldn't! It's just a date, after all."
"Do you even have more than one outfit?" King asked, raising a non-existent eyebrow.
Eda went to answer the question, but paused and thought about it for a second. "Well, Lilith left some of her clothes here, plus I've got my suit and all the novelty shirts I've pulled out of the trash…"
"Focus, team!" Amity said with a clap, bringing everyone else's attention back to her. "For what it's worth, Eda, this is our first date. EVER. I can't mess this up! What if I wear a shade of purple that is too dark and it looks like black and then it gets too hot and I start to sweat?! And then I get Luz all sweaty as we run to the shade, and then, and then, and then…"
"Uh oh!" King said. "She's spiraling again."
"On it, hoot!" Hooty said.
He extended his neck to fly over and grabbed Amity, gently placing her in one of the empty chairs. While he did that, King ran to the kitchen. He quickly returned with a glass of tea and placed it in Amity's hands. And, finally, Eda pulled her mandolin out from under the couch and began to play a relaxing, non-magical tune.
Amity looked at the assembled trio who looked back at her expectantly, Eda's music slowly filling the room with a calming tune.
Amity took a deep breath, sipped the tea King had provided, and sat back in the chair.
"I'm alright." she said. "Sorry, it's just…"
"You want everything to go perfectly, I get it, Amity." Eda said as she continued to noodle on her mandolin. "But perfect is the enemy of, well, everything! I understand, though; back when me and Raine went on our first date, I was a mess . I ended up showing up two hours late, half-dressed, and with drool covering half my face!"
"So why did you two keep dating if that first date went so badly?" Amity asked.
"What? No! It actually went great! We had an amazing time, because we were there to be with one another! It also helped that it was a concert and I arrived just in time for the show to start." Eda played the last few notes of the tune, then set her instrument on the couch before standing beside Amity and leaning on the chair she was sitting in. "What I'm trying to say is that Luz wants this date to go perfectly as well. I don't think my best student would begrudge you if you showed up with a little bit of a messy appearance. As long as you're both trying to make it work, it'll work out."
Amity looked down at her tea, then up at Eda with a soft smile. "Thanks, Eda."
Eda beamed back, showing off her gold fang. "Anytime, kid."
Amity glanced at the pile of outfits. The wheels began to turn in her head. "I think I've got the perfect idea for my outfit…"
Eda, King, and Hooty watched while Amity dug through the pile, eventually procuring the outfit pieces she required.
After changing, she stepped out to reveal her final outfit: a simple black dress tied at the waist with a purple sash, dark grey leggings, and plain boots. The outfit was accented by her favorite orchid pendant, which had been delivered some weeks ago by the twins, but had sat in her room for all those weeks.
"Lookin' good!" Eda said with a nod.
"Yeah! You're gonna win this date for sure!" King said, his arms raised above his head.
"Don't forget to tell us all about what hooted when you get back!" Hooty said.
"Alright, let's make this the best, most mundane, slice-of-life date that's ever been dated!" Amity shouted, pumping her fist in the air as she headed out the front door, ducking under Hooty's extended Hooty as she did.
"Oh, that reminds me." King said, turning to Eda. He tapped his claws together and looked up at his mom with wide, beggin eyes. "There's a new iced screams place in town, and I was wondering if I could go get some? And, maybe, perhaps, borrow a few snails…"
Eda chuckled and softly shook her head. "Well… of course you can go get some!" She dug through her pockets and handed King a small pile of coins, enough for the iced scream and a little extra for emergencies. "Here you go, have fun you little gremlin!"
"Yippee!" King jumped up in excitement and grabbed the coins out of Eda's hands. He ran out the door, shouting "Thanks, Eda!" behind him.
"Be back before sundown! And watch out for bounty hunters! And knives!" Eda called out after King, who was already crossing past the hills on the road into town.
Eda sat back down on the couch and pulled out her mandolin again. After shooing Hooty away, she settled onto the couch for a nice jam session without the kids around.
Or she would, if Willow and Gus hadn't slammed open the door right before she played the first note of the song.
"Hi Miss Eda!" Willow said with a wave.
"Where's Amity?" Gus said urgently as he looked around the room.
He dashed in and began to check underneath the furniture, books, and even inside Hooty. Eda raised an eyebrow and said "She just left for her date… is something wrong?"
"Oh, no!" Willow waved her hands in front of her to clear up any misunderstanding. "We just wanted to follow her to make sure her date goes perfectly!" Gus popped his head up and nodded vigorously.
"Uh huh." Eda settled back and began to double check the tune of her mandolin. "I think she was meeting Luz in front of the Bonesborough library. You might be able to catch them if you hurry."
"Alright! Let's go, Willow!" Gus said before he ran out of the house.
"Thanks, Miss Eda!" Willow said before hurrying off after Gus.
Eda shook her head and finished tuning her instrument. A few tentative plucks of the strings to ensure that everything was in order. She really had to practice, if she wanted to impress Raine the next time they met up.
And it would all go great as soon as she practiced this song–
"Eda!" Hooty shouted, swinging the door open to address the lady of the Owl House. "You'll never guess who's here!"
"Ugh, is it Bump? My mother? A tax collector?"
"Hey, Owl Lady." Hunter said. He stood in the doorway of the Owl House, a mournful and serious expression on his face. It was mirrored by his palismen, who was perched on Hunter's shoulder.
"Oh, hey blondie." Eda said. She sounded disappointed that it hadn't been one of the ones she had listed. At least those would be entertaining, if annoying. This was just annoying. "Congrats on the election win. I don't need to call you 'Emperor blondie' now, do I?"
"Eda, please, listen." Hunter stepped into the Owl House and came to a stop in front of the coffee table. "I know I left here on… less than ideal terms, last time. But this is serious. You need to know what happened to Luz."
"She's been possessed. We're working on a fix for that. Tell me something new."
"She's working with the Collector."
Eda sat up and turned her head to match Hunter and her eye lines. She could see that the corners of Hunter's eyes were slightly more red than the normal dark rings underneath them he always had. And she noticed Flapjack had not attempted to bother Owlbert as soon as the pair had entered the house.
"Tell me everything, Hunter."
Amity stood outside the Bonesborough library, gently rocking back and forth on her heels as she looked around for Luz to arrive. Or, at least, the Collector in Luz's body.
She wasn't certain that the Collector's message had been genuine, that she would really get to have her date with Luz. But the message had been pretty clear, even if it did look like a ransom note.
"Purple-haired girl who is Luz's friend!" the Collector shouted from across the street, waving his hand back and forth at her as they ran across the street. In the process, causing two wagons and a ratworm-rider to swerve to avoid them and crash into one another.
"Collector. I'm guessing this is genuine, then?" Amity said as she held up the note.
"I made a promise! Hehe!" Their lackadaisical tone quickly turned deadly serious. "I wouldn't ever break a pinkie promise."
Their expression returned to normal while Amity stood there, slightly taken aback. "Besides, you fulfilled your end of the deal, so there's no reason I wouldn't let you two do this date!" the Collector said.
They lightly booped Amity on the nose, surprising her. She shook her head and looked at the Collector. "And I get to do this date without you interfering whatsoever?"
"Of course, of course! In fact…"
Luz's body shuddered for a moment before a smaller body manifested beside it, dressed in similar clothes, but more like pajamas, with a small nightcap adorning their head instead of a full cloak. They almost looked like a child in this form…
"Tada! Now you don't have to worry about me getting in the way of your date!" the Collector, now in the smaller body, said as he displayed his arms and stood on one foot. Meanwhile, Luz's body stood slack behind him.
"How long have you been able to do that?" Amity said as she took a small step back.
"Hmmm…" the Collector thought and answered, "I dunno! But my power keeps coming back to me. Soon enough I might not even need Luz's body!"
"So you'd let her go?!" Amity asked.
"Hey, now! I never said that." the Collector said with a chuckle. "She has been a pretty good playmate. Maybe even one of the best I've ever met! I don't want to lose such a good friend like that."
"But that's–"
"Not my problem! You're right!" the Collector said as he scanned the shops in the area. "Now then, I need to get some food! I don't normally need to eat, but right now I'm feeling hungry! Bye! Have fun! I'll be back later to pick up Luz!" The Collector ran off down the street to a food cart selling roasted mystery meat skewers.
Amity didn't stop to watch them run off. She was too focused on Luz, who was slowly waking up, swaying this way and that while her eyes blinked unevenly.
"Ugh, what happened? Where am I? Is it playtime? What are we playing?"
"Luz?" Amity grabbed her girlfriend by the shoulders to steady her. "Luz!"
"Amity?" Luz mumbled. Her eyes tried to focus in front of her. She ended up sticking her arm out and cupped Amity's face in her hand. As she felt that familiar warmth, her face began to light up.
Luz had a contented smile on her face as she gazed into the eyes of her now red-faced girlfriend. She laughed to herself as she mumbled "Hehe… tomato…"
"LUZ!" Amity lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Luz. She pressed her eyes tightly closed, to fight back the tears that she could feel coming on from this reunion.
"Oh, hey, Amity." Luz said slowly, her voice slowly catching up to the same level of awake as the rest of her body. She ran her fingers through Amity's hair and gently brushed against her ears, which sent them into a flutter-storm. "How've you been? What'd I miss?"
Amity pushed herself out of the hug and looked at Luz, who looked back with a smile. Amity let out a little half laugh as she began to say "We've got a lot to talk about. But that can wait until after our date."
Luz's eyes widened. "Oh, shoot! Hermanito told me and I completely forgot that it was today!"
Amity stood at Luz's side and held her hand tight. "Don't worry, I've got everything planned out. There's this really nice place that sells food we can both eat and it's right by a whole bunch of shops."
"Sounds like the perfect setting for the most exciting, time-of-our-lives date ever! Let's start our date!" Luz pointed her finger forward in a random direction, which Amity gently redirected towards the correct direction as she rolled her eyes. Lovingly, of course.
While the pair walked off down the street, past the wrecked wagons, hand in hand, a witch with curly brown hair and another with braided green hair popped their heads out of a nearby bush.
"It's a good thing we got here on time!" Gus said.
"C'mon, we better hurry if we're going to follow them!" Willow exclaimed as she exited the bush.
Gus shrugged and dispelled the spell that had created the bushes. He spun a new illusion around himself and Willow as they headed after the pair of lovebirds.
They began their date at the sufficiently fancy restaurant that Amity had managed to secure a reservation at, after cross-referencing the menu with Eda's list of things that Luz could eat without getting sick. But she didn't have to worry, she thought to herself, since it seemed like Luz was happily eating anything the waiters put in front of her.
Including the tableware? And the plates… Amity had to hold her back to keep her from biting into the busboy's arm.
At the table behind them, Willow and Gus hid behind the tall menus of the restaurant, but were thrown out when the host demon noticed they had snuck in without a reservation.
After their meal, and Amity's profuse apology to the host for her girlfriend eating an entire tablecloth, the pair headed to the Book Nook, Amity's favorite book store in Bonesborough. Since Amity loved the same book series as Luz, she thought she might be able to show her girlfriend some of the other series that she had been reading. But Luz completely avoided the fantasy section and flitted from section to section, leaving Amity holding two books that she had hoped to introduce to Luz.
At one of the tables near the front, Willow and Gus hid behind magazines as they surreptitiously watched the pair. They shared a look as Amity attempted to explain the plot of one book to a Luz who was too busy imitating the poses of the characters on the covers of the books on the shelves.
The last item on Amity's date plan was a concert by Boscha's band in the town square. They weren't friends anymore, per say, but Boscha at least seemed to be turning over a new leaf. She had even sent Amity two tickets to the show as a show of good faith. Amity thought it was pretty lucky that it was happening on the same day as her date.
But the concert was a disaster. Besides Amity and Luz, there were only a handful of other guests. Equipment kept breaking on the stage, the sound cut out completely at one point, and the drummer, Skara, briefly caught on fire at one point during her drum solo.
To top it all off, Luz insisted on bringing a bucket of tomatoes to throw at Boscha. Amity was just glad Luz missed every throw; the grudgby team captain was unsurprisingly good at dodging incoming projectiles.
At least the music had been pretty good. For someone who hadn't been in the Bard track, Boscha was a good musician.
Willow and Gus sat at the rubble where the fountain had been, hiding their faces with giant dead leaves– from the plant monster that the rebellion had slain a few weeks back– with holes cut in them so they could see.
Gus grimaced and tugged on his collar, while Willow frowned and shook her head at her friends' unfortunate situation. They both hoped Amity had a way to solve this, because this date was looking like a disaster.
"Whadda you mean I can't get sprinkles?! I want sprinkles!"
King waited patiently in line at the iced screams stand. The kid in front of him, apparently wearing blue and bluish-grey pajamas, had ordered before King had even arrived, but was arguing with the stand owner over the topping he could get. The kid insisted he could get free toppings, but the owner pointed at the sign saying 'all toppings +1 snail'.
"But last time I got them for free!" the kid exclaimed, their tone pretty frustrated.
"Like I said, kid, doesn't matter. The sign's the sign, and I don't make exceptions." The stand owner looked over the kid at the line forming behind him and King. "Now, if you ain't gonna pay up, you gotta get out. I got paying customers to serve here!"
"But! But!" The kid sounded on the verge of tears. King rocked back and forth on his hind paws and considered what Eda, or Luz, would do in the situation.
"Um?" King spoke up, getting the attention of the kid and the stand owner. "I've got an extra snail? Could I pay for his sprinkles?"
The kid, whose skin was yellow and blue, looked at King with wide eyes filled with relief. "Really? Really! Yay! Thank you thank you thank you!"
"You sure, demon kid?" the stand owner said.
"Yeah." King said as he handed over one of the extra snails that Eda had given him. "It seems like the right thing to do."
"Well, since you're paying, what do you want, demon kid?"
"Oh! Uh, I think it's called 'Dreamscythcle'?" King handed up the snails for his iced screams.
"Comin' right up." the stand owner said as they dipped into his cart.
"Ohmystars!" the star-pajama-wearing kid said, his hands held close together as he hopped up and down in excitement. "Thank you thank you thank you! I don't know what I would have done without your help!"
"Oh, well," King rubbed the back of his skull bashfully, "like I said, it was the right thing to do. I'd hate to want sprinkles and not get any."
"Here you go, kids." The stand owner handed down two cones of iced screams, one pale white and filled with little chunks of nuts, the other a swirl of orange and white. Both were lightly emitting screaming noises as little ghostly figures wisped off the frozen treats.
The kid and King each grabbed their respective cones and began to dig in as they stepped aside to let the line continue. King started to walk away, but he was stopped when the kid appeared in front of him, licking his iced screams with an excited smile on his face.
"You wanna play together?" the kid said eagerly. "We could take over the world together! It'll be fun!"
"No thanks. I've… Given up on the whole world domination thing." King put air quotes around world domination with his free hand, the other busy preventing his iced screams cone from tipping over. He started to walk away again.
"Oh… Well, what do you like to play?" the kid said. They sped up to keep up with King. "Do you like hide and seek? I'm really good at that game. What about tag? Dodgespell? Bloodscotch? Capture the–"
The kid was looming in front of King now. It almost made King's cone tip over, but careful maneuvering on his part kept his iced screams intact.
"Look," King said with a sigh, "I just wanted to get some iced screams, then go home. I'm not in the mood to play."
"Oh." the kid seemed to shrink down at King's exasperated statement. "Alright. I just thought we might have fun together. And no one else wanted to play…"
King watched as the kid turned away, their face looking like it was fighting back tears. King scrunched his eyes closed and threw his head back to try and grant himself strength. With strength gained, he opened his mouth and downed his entire cone with one loud crunch.
"Hey! Wait!" King shouted after the kid, who half-turned back towards King. "If you want to hang out and talk, I'd be ok with that. Just for a little bit. I have to be back home before sunset."
The kid blinked twice, their mouth slightly agape. Once they regained their stance, he smiled softly and said "That sounds like fun."
"Awesome! My name's King, by the way." King said as he held out his hand to the kid.
"I'm the Colle…" the kid began to say, but stopped partway through with a frown. He shook their head and tried again. "You can call me Collei."
Collei put his pinky finger in King's hand, which King assumed was the closest he was willing to get to a handshake. The pair shook pinky and paw, then walked off and began chatting.
Amity sighed. So far the date was a disaster and it just kept getting worse.
No matter where they went, disaster quickly followed, or Luz did something outrageous, or both. At least nothing could go horribly wrong at an iced screams stand.
She hoped.
"What are you going to get, Amity?" Luz asked her girlfriend while hanging off her with one arm. "I want to try all the flavors!"
"Luz?"
"Que pasa?"
"Don't take this the wrong way," Amity said cautiously, "but you've been acting strange all day. Are you alright? Did the Collector do something to your head?"
"Whaaat? I'm fine!" Luz said as she hauled herself up to set her chin on Amity's shoulder. "Hermanito and I have just been playing a bunch. We've been having a great time! You two should play sometime!"
"I–" Amity tried to say something, but Luz interrupted her.
"Oop! Looks like we've got some secret admirers!"
"What?"
Amity turned to look in the same direction as Luz, accidentally causing Luz to drop to the ground, since she was hanging off of Amity.
On a bench a short ways away, half-hidden behind large loaves of bread, were Willow and Gus. Despite their best efforts, it was painfully obvious that they were spying on them.
"I can't believe them!" Amity fumed, marching out of the line with Luz clutching onto her ankle and being dragged behind her.
As she approached, the spying pair tried to look innocent. Willow whistled while Gus stuffed his mouth with the entire loaf of bread. Neither's performance was convincing.
"What are you two doing here!" Amity hissed at them. "How long have you been following us!"
"Oh! Hey, Amity!" Willow said, pretending that she just noticed Amity standing there. "We were just out on the town and–"
"Gus never eats that much bread in one sitting, Willow." Amity crossed her arms in frustration.
"Shuh ah dh!" Gus tried to say through a mouthful of bread. He gulped it down and repeated himself. "Sure I do! I'm a growing boy, and puberty does weird things to a growing witch's body!"
Amity just looked at him with her eyebrow raised, as if to say "Oh really?"
"Yeah, she's not going to buy it, Gus." Willow said as she put a hand on Gus' shoulder. "We've been following you all day. Someone was supposed to keep us disguised so you wouldn't notice." she conceded, sending a slight elbow and side eye into Gus' side when she said 'someone'.
He responded with a shrug. "I thought our disguises were really good."
"I knew it!" Amity exclaimed. "I can't believe you would do this, Willow! We talked about this last night!"
"I know!" Willow said, standing up to punctuate her sentence. "It's just… I was worried. I thought the Collector might be tricking you, or someone was trying to kidnap you, or something even worse! I wanted your date to be the best ever, I didn't mean to–"
"Get caught?" Amity said, finishing Willow's sentence. Willow looked away, ashamed.
"It's one thing to offer advice beforehand, but this was Luz and mine's day! The first chance for us to be together since the Day of Unity, with no Collector, no crazy plots or shenanigans, no backstabbing friends! But it's been a disaster! And now I find out you've been following us all day? I…"
"Amity…" Gus said softly while Amity had crouched down and wrapped her arms around her legs. "It's not Willow's fault. I pushed her into it."
"Gus!" Willow exclaimed. "This was my idea, not yours! I dragged you along because I needed your help!"
"It was both of our ideas!" Gus said, mirroring Willow's passion.
"Stop it, both of you!" Amity shouted from her crouched position.
"In case anyone wants my opinion," Luz said from her position on the ground, "I think this is the perfect time for us to all play a game together! What better way to defuse this tension than with a nice game of hide and seek?"
The other three looked at Luz, then each other, then back to Luz. Each sighed and agreed with Luz's suggestion.
"Fine…"
"I guess…"
"It's unconventional, but I like it."
"Great!" Luz jumped up, dragging Amity to her feet as she did. She was full of energy, even if her girlfriend wasn't. "I'll be 'it' first. Everybody gets a five minute head start, then I'll start seeking!"
Amity ran off first while Luz began to count with her arms covering her eyes. Willow departed second, in the opposite direction from Amity. Gus watched them both leave, his head swinging from one direction to the other. Finally, with a sigh, he ran off in a third direction, away from both of them.
King and Collei's walk had taken them to the Bonesborough playground, where they were taking turns going down the slide. Collei was having a ton of fun, but King's heart wasn't quite in it. He was raising his arms and saying "Weeee!" but there was no energy behind it.
"Come on, King! Let's go again!" Collei said after following King down the slide again.
"I think I'm going to sit over there for a bit." King said, pointing to a nearby park bench.
"Oh! Ok!" Collei said. "I'll come with you!"
King hopped up onto the bench, followed quickly by Collei. The bi-colored child bounced in their seat as he looked at King expectantly. King sighed, causing Collei to stop bouncing and take on a worried expression.
"What's the matter? Did someone break your favorite toy? I can beat them up for you!"
"What?!" King exclaimed before leveling his voice back. "I mean, no, I'm fine. A lot has been happening and someone who's been like a sister to me disappeared a while back–"
"During the draining sp– the Day of Unity?"
"Yeah. Things haven't been the same at home since then. I'm worried E– my mom hasn't fully accepted what happened."
"I know what you mean." Collei said. He looked up at the sky and kicked his legs back and forth under the bench. "I got grounded for, like, forever . All because I wanted to play a game!"
"What were you trying to play?"
"All kinds of stuff! I think it was the kid I was trying to play with. Their dad got all mad and locked me up."
"That's horrible! What kind of parent would let their kid get trapped by someone else's parent?"
"It's fine! Really." Collei had a sad smile on his face. "I don't really talk to them anymore."
"That's kinda sad…" King looked downcast, "but I guess if they let that happen… Good riddance to them!"
The pair fell silent after King's exclamation. King felt he had intruded too much into someone else's family life, especially after they had just met. King coughed to ease the silence, while Collei continued to kick his legs back and forth out of boredom.
"You know," King said cautiously, breaking the silence and getting Collei's attention, "do you want to play a game? Maybe tag?"
"Yeah!" Collei jumped up and off the bench. "You be 'it' first! Can't catch me! Hahaha!"
Collei dashed off into the playground, leaving King behind to shout "Hey, wait up!"
Amity sat in an alleyway, crouched down with her arms wrapped around her legs. For the purposes of the game they were playing, her position was doing an excellent job of minimizing her silhouette and keeping her hidden from Luz. It also allowed her to pout quietly without anyone noticing.
She was still sore about Willow and Gus following them, but she could understand their position. She was meeting with a known murderer, who held her girlfriend's life in his hands. Any good friend would be concerned about that.
Maybe it was just the nerves from the date getting to her that had made her snap at them like that. Plus all the disasters, which couldn't have been their fault if they tried.
They should have told her what they were planning. She wouldn't have minded a lookout. If they had talked to her about it…
"Blight!"
Amity looked up to see a very tired Hunter hunched over, his upper body held up by his arms placed on his knees. His palismen, Flapjack if Amity remembered correctly, flapped his wings furiously and tugged at Hunter's forelock in a vain attempt to assist him in staying upright.
"Hunter? What are you doing here?" Amity whispered to him. "And keep it down, we're playing hide and seek."
"Although we should be eating iced screams right now." Amity mumbled under her breath.
"No… Time…" Hunter said between breaths. "In… Danger…"
"What, my date is in danger?" Amity rolled her eyes. "That airship has already sailed. This date has been a disaster!"
"No… Luz!" Hunter stood upright and took in a huge gulp of air, then exhaled it slowly and brought his breathing back under control. "Gus and Willow and you are in danger! Luz is working with the Collector!"
"What?!"
"Something happened to her, between when I saw her in the In-Between Realm and when she showed up to be my campaign manager!"
"But she was fine when we escaped from that storybook together!" Amity did a double take. "Wait, Luz was your campaign manager?"
Hunter responded with his own double take which morphed into a confused look. "You were trapped in a storybook? How does that even work?"
Both looked at the other for a moment, then exclaimed simultaneously "Wait, that doesn't matter!"
Amity stood up quickly, conjuring her staff from thin air with a twirl of her hand. "We can talk about that later. If Luz is willingly working with the Collector, Willow and Gus are in danger!"
"Exactly. Come on, Flapjack!" At Hunter's command, Flapjack flew down from holding Hunter's forelock in his beak and conjured their staff. Hunter hopped on the staff and said "You go find Willow and Gus, I'll keep Luz occupied!"
He flew off out of the alleyway on his staff. Amity followed, taking to the skies in order to find her friends. She just hoped they could forgive her for lashing out like that earlier.
If it was for Luz's sake, she was certain they'd drop this feud for another time.
"Where are youuu?" Luz said as she skipped along the road. She checked behind each barrel, crate, and sign for any trace of her three playmates. But none could be found. "Wow, you guys are really good at hiding! Maybe I should get some pointers from you?"
As she was inspecting a suspicious looking chair, she felt a sudden and violent impact against her left side. The force was enough to send her careening through the air, where she bounced off of the ground, then a crate, through a dangling sign that was left spinning by her hit, and landed in a barrel full of slightly warm rainwater.
Little star children danced around her head as her head spun from the impact. She shook off the dizziness and shouted "Hey! Watch where you're going! I'm trying to play a game right now!" She fished a handful of glyphs from a pocket in her cloak and narrowed her eyes on her assailant.
The Grimwalker.
Hunter's breaths were heavy while he moved back to his practiced stance for hand to hand combat. He had been taken by surprise by Luz last time, but this time he had the element of surprise.
"Well, well, well!" Luz said as she hauled herself out of the rain barrel. "Look who came crawling back! The Grimwalker."
Hunter flinched as she said Grimwalker.
"So, I'm not 'Hunter' anymore? Is my sister gone for good?" Hunter said, trying not to let his discomfort show.
"Your sister ? Ha! You wish!" Luz's laugh was harsh. "You're just a toy! Hermanito showed me that! And I must say, it was a lot of fun playing with you during the campaign!"
"I don't think you mean that." Hunter said as he began to pace around Luz while keeping his stance facing her. "Luz doesn't talk like that."
Luz's expression turned dark and her eyebrows furrowed. "Well maybe I'm just tired of getting kicked around! Maybe I'm finally free of those stupid limitations of 'kindness' and 'mercy' and now I can see the world for what it really is: a playground for me and hermanito and our favorite playmates!"
Luz wasn't moving from her spot, but Hunter didn't mind, since his movements were keeping her attention. He wasn't trying to make her mad, but it was helping with his plan. All he had to do was make sure she was distracted until Flapjack got into position…
"Do it, Flapjack!" Hunter shouted to his palismen, who was situated on the roof above Luz with a bucket dangling from his beak.
The cardinal chirped and tipped the bucket over, sending a splash of watery mud falling onto Luz's head.
"What the–?!"
Hunter dashed forward with one arm up to catch Flapjack as he conjured their staff and fell through the air. After catching his palismen, Hunter took his staff and began to draw in the mud that had pooled around Luz. Once he had finished the rough ice glyph design, he smacked it with his gloved hand, then backpedaled away from Luz.
As the mud began to freeze and trap Luz in place, she reacted quickly. She retrieved a piece of paper from her cloak and slapped the paper on the rapidly growing ice shell with her one free hand.
Almost instantly, the fire glyph did its work and melted the ice back into water. Luz shook off as much of the mud as she could as she stepped out of what remained of the fragile ice shell.
"I see someone learned a new trick!"
"I learned from the best." Hunter said with a cocky smile.
He dashed forward, causing Luz to prepare to intercept him, only to use his teleportation spell to appear behind Luz. While she tried to turn and react, he brought his staff down on Luz with a thwack, sending her sliding across the ground on her back.
As she slid, she kicked her legs out and somersaulted into a standing position with her arms raised. With a quick bounce on her heels, she leapt forward into a cartwheel.
"Oh Hunter! Guess what? We were playing hide and seek!" Luz shouted as she spun end over end towards Hunter. "And I'm it! "
Luz jumped out of her cartwheel with one hand out, intending to 'tag' Hunter.
A potentially fatal tag for him, he realized.
As she hurtled through the air, Hunter dodged to the side, but was too slow. Luz's momentum as she tagged the ground was enough to blow a crater in the ground with a resounding boom. The shrapnel from which struck Hunter in the gut.
He landed from his interrupted dodge gripping his stomach. He felt lucky that his hand didn't feel wet and wasn't red when he held it up to his face.
He could hear something, far away.
Chirping?
Flapjack.
Flapjack was saying something. Begging Hunter to get up.
He was trying, he tried to say, but that hit had knocked a bit more than the wind out of him. His muscles burned, his breath was shallow, he couldn't feel his ears.
He was pretty sure he didn't normally feel like this.
All Flapjack got from his partner as he begged him to stand up, as Luz righted herself and had begun to walk towards the pair, was a pained groan.
"If it's any consolation, Hunt– Grimwalker ," Luz said as she approached the incapacitated witch, "the shock should keep you from feeling any pain when I do this."
She reached down towards Hunter's neck, a wild smile on her face. But she was halted.
Flapjack stood his ground on Hunter's overturned body. His wings were outstretched and he looked up at Luz with a defiant look in his eye. He was also not saying a single chirp or tweet. He didn't have to say a word to convey his meaning.
You will not hurt my boy, he was stating, without first going through me.
"Tch, stupid palismen." Luz raised her hand to slap away Flapjack.
Flapjack braced himself for oblivion.
"Not so fast, Collector– Luz– Colluz!" Gus shouted from the back of his staff as he flew in from above a nearby shop.
"Not again!" Luz said right before Gus jumped off his staff and collided with her, feet first. She landed a few feet away from the site of the drop-kick, clutching her right side. "First Hu– the Grimwalker kicks me in the left, now you on the right! What did my ribs do to deserve this?!"
"Amity, I got her!" Gus shouted to Amity, who rode in behind him on her staff and landed near where he was splayed out on the cobblestones.
"Good job. I'll take it from here." Amity said as she dismounted.
She turned to Luz, who was slowly standing up, still clutching her side and muttering "How does a kid that small… hit so hard?"
"Batata!" Amity said the pet name with conviction. It almost sounded silly said so seriously, but Amity wanted to bring Luz back, as best she could. And if that meant making a fool of herself, then so be it.
"Batata– Luz. Please, come back to me." Amity's tone softened when she said Luz. "Whatever deal you made, it isn't worth hurting your friends! Your family!"
Luz stumbled forward, towards Amity.
Amity swallowed the lump in her throat. "Your girlfriend…"
Amity clenched her fists and scrunched her face, then shouted "LUZ! DON'T GIVE UP! YOU CAN FIGHT HIM! THIS ISN'T YOU!"
Amity peeked her eyes open to see Luz stopped in front of her, a soft and heartstruck expression on her face.
Amity returned it with a soft smile. Maybe she had broken through to the real Luz, this was all over–
Luz smirked as she sucker punched Amity in the gut. Not hard enough to kill, just hard enough for Amity's expression to shift to shock and despair. She fell to the ground, in obvious pain.
"Amity!" Gus shouted. He jumped to his feet and brandished his staff towards the looming Luz.
"Oh, look, the little pipsqueak is going to stand up to me now!" Luz said with a derisive laugh. "Go on, conjure a bunny out of your hat!"
"You know I don't have any animals in any hats." Gus said. He unclipped the magic amplifier from his collar and readied his staff. "But I do have this !"
He twirled his staff around his arm to create the spell circle, then tapped it with the magic amplifier, sending a circle of powerful illusion magic on a crash course with the approaching Luz. She didn't even bother to dodge, letting the magic cascade over her.
Which was, as it turns out, a bad idea.
Luz and Gus's eyes glowed brilliant blue as he focused the spell. She gripped her head as her memories began to flash through her mind. She let out a screech as the memories continued to flash.
"NO! PLEASE! NOT AGAIN!"
Gus shuddered and hyperventilated as he witnessed the myriad of death, torture, and more that Luz had been witness to during her time as the Collector's body. The Collector's manipulation of her memories, to enhance the worst parts of what she saw. The resulting mindset that had been cultivated by the precocious godling.
It was overwhelming to the young illusionist.
Gus collapsed, the spell broken. Luz struggled back to her feet, her face twisted in anger. She stumbled forward, her bloodshot eyes blinking rapidly.
"Never again. We'll never be alone again. Never again…" She repeated over and over. She stood over Gus' half-conscious form, clutching a myriad of glyph papers in her hand. "Never again…" Luz wound her hand full of glyphs back and prepared to inflict them on the witch as she continued to mutter "Never again…" over and over.
Only for her arm to hitch as she began to swing it.
The glyph papers tumbled out of her hand, landing harmlessly on Gus.
She turned her head to match her gaze with Willow, who held Luz's arm back with a vine summoned by her plant magic. Willow was already readying another spell circle with her free hand.
And her expression was furious.
With a yank of the vine, she threw Luz to the ground. With a spin of her finger, more vines encircled the ensorceled girl. Luz tried to pull a fire glyph from her cloak, but Willow merely walked up and snatched it out of her hand before she could activate it.
Luz kicked up with her legs, shredding the vines that bound her, then following that motion into a backflip onto her feet. "Nice try, Willow, but I'm a bit stronger than your little–"
As Luz looked up, she saw Willow rise into the air, surrounded by a mass of vines and plants of all kinds.
Willow's eyes glowed brilliant emerald green, the light pouring out like a mystical flame.
She waved her hand and slammed part of the mass into Luz, smashing her into a crater in the street.
"No! I'm supposed to play with you! Not the other way around!" Luz shouted as she struggled against the plants holding her down.
Willow flexed her hand, causing the plants holding Luz down to suddenly sprout average-sized orange flowers with two layers of petals. The flowers began emitting a sweet smell, reminiscent of chamomile, that caused Luz to grow sluggish. Luz could barely keep her eyes open under the influence of the sweet scent, which only seemed to affect her.
After a few moments more struggle, Luz's body stopped moving.
Willow could see Luz's chest moving up and down once the plants holding her were removed.
Willow let her expression relax slightly into a reflexive smile. The glow faded from her eyes.
"Is she…?" Hunter said as he shakily picked himself off the ground. Flapjack excitedly flapped around his partner, singing a happy bird song.
"She's asleep. A whole lot of sleeping nettle pollen will do that to you!" Willow said, her tone chipper. "We still need to make sure none of her bones are broken, but she should be asleep for a while."
"Don't sleeping nettles cause–" Hunter groaned and winced as he walked, one hand holding his side, "–heightened dreams?"
"I'm sure she'll be fine. What're a few vivid dreams?" Willow said as she took Hunter's arm over her shoulder and helped him over to where Luz was laying.
"Nothing good for her." Gus said. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat up. "I saw what she saw, what the Collector made her see. It was…"
"Bad?" Amity said. She hauled herself up to a sitting position a short distance away. Ghost had detached herself from their staff and was rubbing her head on Amity in an attempt to keep her partner calm.
"I was going to say 'full of murder and death', but 'bad' is apt."
"So she's dreaming of those memories?" Amity said.
"Possibly?" Gus said. "I'd have to cast another spell to find out."
"Is it possible those altered memories are what caused her to change so drastically?" Hunter said, still being supported by Willow. "If we fix them, she might go back to normal?" Flapjack chirped from Hunter's shoulder. "Oh, right; back to Luz normal."
"Do we have time to go into her mindscape?" Willow asked.
"Maybe we can block the memories, without going into her mindscape?" Amity offered. "We can help her work through them later, but if we bury them in her mind, they wouldn't be able to affect her. Right?"
"Well, maybe? I'm not super proficient with magic that messes with minds." Gus looked down at Luz lying near him, her face twisting this way and that and her body wanting to do the same but nearly failing to respond to the signals. "But… if it means I can save Luz…"
Gus looked up when he felt Hunter's free hand gently touch his shoulder. "It's up to you, Gus. We can always find another way." Hunter said.
Gus looked at Hunter and Willow. Hunter's face was smiling, but he was hiding a lot of pain. Willow was also trying to keep her smile up, but her eyes betrayed her; they were full of worry.
He turned to Amity, who was crouched over Luz. She clutched her girlfriend's hand in stoic silence, but Gus could see wet spots on Luz's clothes, directly below where Amity's face was.
"I can do it." Gus said. He crouched next to Luz and unclipped his magic amplifier. He paused to take a breath. "Alright. This should– no, this will work."
He used the magic amplifier to draw the spell circled in the air above Luz's unconscious body. The air began to crackle slightly as he gently lowered the spell onto Luz.
Once it made contact, Gus' eyes were forced fully open, glowing bright blue. Drops of light seemed to drip from the corner of his eyes, like glowing tears.
The other three watched on with bated breath.
Then it was done. Gus' eyes ceased their glow, Luz's face returned to a calm state, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Is she–?" Amity began to say.
"Mmmm…" Luz groaned. Amity turned faster than anyone could react. Amity's eyes were the first thing Luz saw as she opened her eyes, followed by the concerned looks of Gus, Hunter, and Willow.
"Oh, hey guys… Why is my body so sore?" Luz said as she tried to sit up. Amity practically fell onto Luz, holding her tight in her arms.
"Luz!" Amity said in a half-sob. She began to repeat herself over and over, to the point that Luz raised her eyebrow in confusion. She looked at Gus with a quizzical look.
"So, there's a lot you are probably missing…" Gus began. He explained what had happened to her and how they had fixed the problem. Luz could hardly believe that some altered memories would make her act so out of character, but accepted the explanation.
"Well, that's certainly a lot to take in. And probably worth a few trips to therapy…" Luz said, trying to stay chipper.
"At this point, I think we all need therapy." Hunter said with a chuckle, then a "Ow ow…".
"Based on everything you've said, I've been the Collector's body for a while now." Luz said, her sitting position maintained by Amity's careful support. "I didn't think I'd ever come back, to be honest. But, since you were able to bring me back, I think it's time we dealt with the Collector's plans."
"But how?" Gus asked. "He's still tied to your body. Right now, the only way to get him out would be to–" Gus gulped rather than say what was on his mind.
"Maybe not…" Luz said. "Amity, you said they are close to not needing my body anymore, right?"
"Yes, the Collector told me himself. But wouldn't a free Collector lead to chaos?"
"When me and King went to the Titan Trapper's island, they were trying to free them from a disc using King as a sacrifice. If we can get one of those discs, we can seal the Collector in it after he separates himself from my body!"
"Sure, but where are we going to find one of those discs?" Willow said. She gestured to everyone but Luz as she said "We don't know what it looks like."
"No, but King does." Luz said with a smirk. "Let him know that Luzura wants to know. He'll know what it means."
"And once we have the disc?" Amity asked with a serious expression.
"No idea. I don't think I'll be of much use until they are separated from me." Luz said with a shrug.
"Great. So we have to trust your rat to show us something he saw once and we don't even know how to use it." Hunter said with a groan, partially from pain and partially from annoyance at Luz's lackadaisical planning. But he couldn't help smiling at it.
"I'll do my best to fight back before you guys show up. Other than that, I'll be keeping a low profile in our mind." Luz said. She leaned over and pecked a kiss on Amity's cheek, which turned red at Luz's touch. "I'm trusting you guys to get me out of there in one piece!"
Amity pecked a kiss on Luz's cheek, then said "Don't worry. We won't leave you behind, ever again."
"Unless you set the school on fire. Then we might leave you to suffer Bump's wrath." Willow said jokingly.
"If I set the school on fire again, I totally deserve to get chewed out by Princy B." Luz replied. She signaled to Amity to let her lie back down on the ground. "Now then, I've got dead to play and you guys have a disc to find! Good luck!"
"You too, Luz." Gus said before the group stood up and began to walk away.
Each of them couldn't help but look back at Luz laying in the street, pretending to be unconscious. Amity's look back was the longest; the last thing she wanted to do was run away and let the Collector have Luz again.
But she had to trust Luz.
And Luz had to trust her.
No pressure!
"Hey, King?" Collei said to the young demon at his side as the two walked through the streets of Bonesborough. "Thanks for playing with me. It was a lot of fun. I hope we can do it again some time!"
King rubbed the back of his skull bashfully. "Don't mention it! I had a lot of fun too." King stopped in the road with his hands held together. He wasn't sure if he should ask this, but…
"Hey, Collei?"
"Yeah?" Collei stopped and turned to look at King.
"You seem like you need a place to stay… If you want, you could come and stay with me and my mom? I'm sure she wouldn't mind me bringing a friend home…"
Collei beamed proudly at King. "I've actually got a great place I'm staying at! And a friend who'll never leave me!"
"Oh! Ok…" King said.
Seeing King's dejected look, Collei scratched their yellow cheek, then sighed. "But you're a good friend, King. Maybe next time we can play at your house!"
King nodded. "That sounds like fun."
"Yeah!" Collei said. He turned and stuck his foot out to walk, but froze when he noticed something in the street.
"What's the matter?" King asked as he peeked around Collei's leg to look at what they were looking at.
It looked like a teenager laying in the street, with yellow and blue skin…
King's eyes widened as he realized who he was looking at.
"It's my friend! See you later King!" Collei said as they ran off towards Luz's unconscious form. King watched Collei disappear into stardust above Luz's body.
He didn't stay to get caught by the Collector. He scampered away, as fast as he could, through the streets of Bonesborough, back to the Owl House.
In the throne room of the Emperor's castle, Philip sat on his throne.
For the first time since the day he had tried to use the draining spell, he could hear nothing but the beating heart behind his throne.
No prattling sycophants seeking his approval, no Grimwalker begging for praise and purpose, no pointless whispering from nervous guards.
No Caleb.
Philip smiled as he held up the Titan's Vein ore that had been hewn into a disc by his own hands, as according to the ancient rites he had discovered in the head of the Titan. Its glossy surface shone in the torchlight, the glow illuminating the etching of a crescent moon in the surface of the disc.
"Finally, all the pieces are in place." Philip said to no one. How he was glad to not hear any response to his words. "During the second draining spell, the rebellion will attack, and I will be able to reclaim the Galdorstone from that foolish Hunter. And the Collector will not be able to resist confronting me."
He rose from his throne, dramatically flourishing his robes as he did so. Philip donned his persona of Belos and stashed the disc in his robes. He exited the throne room and headed out onto the balcony overlooking the castle's courtyard.
In the courtyard, what remained of the loyal members of the Covens had amassed. At the sight of their Emperor, they broke into cheers. The replacements for each of the missing Coven Heads stood at the forefront of the crowd, decked in their official white robes, their grim determination contrasting against the excitement of the crowd.
Belos smiled a devious smile, but from a distance, one could mistake it for a grandfatherly one, as the loyalists did. He waved to his foolish followers, who were unaware that by the end of tomorrow, the Boiling Isles would become a graveyard.
He thought it a shame that he wouldn't be able to save Luz, considering that the Collector has her so deep in his clutches. The energy drained from the witches and demons would be just enough to power the door one last time. He couldn't be concerned with trivialities at this crucial juncture.
It was almost time for the Day of Reunion to begin.