Taking a second to look at her surroundings and not just the magic being used, Luz found herself enamored by the home. Off-white plaster walls with dark wood accents and red drapery all tied together with an eclectic mix of human and what she thinks are probably witch artifacts. The whole thing gives a warm, lived-in feeling that her caretaker's home just didn't give, it probably helped that the place wasn't full of religious iconography and the vague threat of damnation just for existing either.
"This is the place where I hide away from the pressures of modern life, the cops, and exes. Home sweet home!" A proud smile on Eda's face as she showed off her home. Luz could understand why she was proud, to be honest, the home was amazing, someplace that seemed to call to her in quite a few ways.
"This place is beautiful!" gushed Luz, setting her bag down by the door. No need to carry it for now and with how packed it was, it was getting kind of heavy. "Do you live here by yourself?"
Almost as if answering her question for her, the house began to shudder under heavy footsteps. "Actually," gestured Eda, pointing towards the door on the far side of the room that seemed to lead further into the house. "I have a roommate."
A deep voice boomed out from behind the door, "Who dares intrude upon I, the king of demons." the door was promptly kicked open revealing what had to be one of the cutest things that Luz had ever laid eyes on. A small creature, that for some reason her mind decided to call a youngling, she had no idea why but was too distracted by how cute it was to notice. HE, once again she somehow just knew instinctively that it was a he, was clad in a bath towel and a shower cap of all things. It all came together with the small rubber ducky to be one of the single cutest scenes that she had ever seen.
Luz seemed to teleport with how fast she crossed the room to scoop up the small demon in her arms. "You are just too cute!" she squealed cuddling him to her chest. "What's your name, little guy?" loosening her hug she props him on her hip like a baby.
Surprised by the sudden affection from what is essentially a stranger, the small demon gives a bit of a struggle attempting to get out of her arms but ultimately answers her question. "King, my name is King." he continues to struggle a bit but for some reason isn't too pressed to escape. He feels safe in the strange girl's arms, almost like when Eda holds him, his struggles at this point are just for show and confusion as to why he doesn't mind being held by her.
"Back on track you two. King this is Luz the Human. She's here to help with our little 'situation'" stated Eda grabbing King from Luz's arms and setting him down on the couch. Waving for Luz to take a seat next to the young Demon, Eda places herself in front of the two on the other side of the coffee table.
"I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly is this 'situation' your talking about?" asked Luz, hoping that she didnt accidentally get in over her head again. It wouldn't be fun trying to escape at this point, even if she could in the first palace.
"Woah, let me explain before you jump to any conclusions ok?" asked Eda, a dot of golden light appearing at the tip of her finger as she drew a large circle in the air in front of her. Luz was mesmerized, it was extremely similar to the circles that she drew when using her 'abilities' too similar to pass off as a coincidence, to be honest.
The interior of the circle seemed to darken, turning into a screen of some sort as a picture began to form a scene showing a large, dragon-like creature with a white skull-like head was shown, and a golden crown on top of its head. "King here was once a mighty king of demons, that is until his Crown of Power was stolen, and he was cursed into the form he currently resides."
"You mean this little cutie here?" asked Luz, something with that story didn't sit right with Luz, something about King himself felt like he was far too young to have been any true demon king, not that she was going to say anything about that. She did need to get home eventually and arguing with the only person that she knew could get her home wasn't a good idea.
"The crow is being held by the evil Warden Wrath and locked away by a magical force field that only a human can break through" continued Eda, the scene shown changing to show a large man in another plague doctor mask holding the crown above a glowing white door or pillar, a single figure stood in front. All in all this image gave a pretty powerful message, a lone hero facing the evil warden to regain the lost crown.
Luz internally cursed, not only were they essentially her only way home, but they were playing off her love of fantasy. It was a hard thing to resist and she knew that they had won, that being said she wasn't going to come off as too eager, call her stubborn but that just lead to issues, jumping at the bit for something like this.
"A human like you. If you help us retrieve his crown we'll send you back to your realm. So what do you say? Plus," said Eda holding up king, " who could say no to this cute face?"
"No! Please don't encourage her!" cried King, he didn't know what to think of the cuddles that the human gave him and the strange sense of security that he got from them. It was easier to act like he didn't enjoy them than try and sort out those feelings right now.
"I don't have a choice anyways do I? It's not like I know of another way home at the moment." sighed Luz, the fact of the matter was she was stuck here, at the mercy of Eda at the moment. She luckily didn't feel like she was in any real danger, the older woman just didn't give off those vibes, and she was fairly good at reading people. She just didn't like that she was trapped, again after being so close to being free too. The bright side is though that if she does this she'll finally, truly be free this time. Free to live her life, free from the torture of her grandparents, and free of the horrors that were Gravesfield Highschool.
"Nope!" playfully smirked Eda, "Now, we've no time to lose!" grabbing Luz and King Eda led them back outside and summoned her staff. Plopping the two onto the staff, King firmly in Luz's arms hops on herself and takes off back towards the town they came from.
"Uh? Where are we going?" asked Luz, surprised that Eda didn't even tell her where exactly they needed to go, or at the very least make sure that she was ready to apparently go steal the crown back right this instance.
"Some were super fun!" was Eda's only response. It didn't fill Luz with joy that's for sure, at the very least if she gets captured she has her 'abilities' to fall back on. As limited as they are.
The flight to where ever they were going didn't take that long, about ten minutes, but to Luz, it could have been an hour. She was worried, it was not that she wasn't confident in her skills or her ability to escape if there was any trouble, but she didn't know what she was going up against. As much as she thought she could trust Eda, and that honestly wasn't very much at the moment, she still would rather not go into what was likely a hostel environment blind.
"The Conformatiorium," introduced Eda, gesturing to the large stone building, surrounded by what looked like a mote made of fangs. "This is the place that they send those considered 'unsuitable for society'"
Landing side of the building, Eda let her two passengers disembark. The first thing that Luz noticed once they were on the ground, aside from the gloomy atmosphere, was just how many of Eda's wanted posters there were. She saw at least ten of the things hanging up in just the general area, and there was no telling how many more were just out of sight. "Wow, they really have a hard-on for you don't they?"
"Ha! Yeah, but were never caught because we're too slippery." bragged Eda, seemingly very proud of how badly the guards wanted her, and how good she was at escaping them. Luz couldn't blame her, it was bad, she knows but if she ever managed to get a bounty that high she'd probably be more than a bit proud of it. Not that she planned on getting a bounty in the first palace, having the government after you just made things harder, no matter the reason.
King, wanting to join in put in his two cents "Try and catch me when I'm covered in grease! I'm a squirmy little fella!" gross, but believable, the little demon was rather squirmy even without being covered in grease she could only imagine what it was like trying to keep hold of him when he was. Her point was proven on his general squirminess just a second later. King who had for some reason taken up residence on the top of her head moved around just a little too much and fell off, he luckily landed on his feet so he was ok, but it did scare Luz a bit to watch.
"You and I," pointed King, gesturing to himself and Luz, "will sneak up to the top of the tower, where they're holding my crown."
"And I'm going to make sure the warden's distracted."
"Should I have a disguise of some sort?" asked Luz, she wasn't too worried about it, she was likely going to be back in the Human Realm before too long, and even if the warden or whoever set the bounties knew what she looked like it wasn't like she would be around to have to worry about it anyways.
"No, you'll be fine. Those masks the guards wear make it really hard for them to see well, I doubt that even if you are caught that they will be able to recognize you." dismissed Eda.
"If you say so, Just to be on the safe side though…" pulling out a simple face mask from her pocket she put it on. To be honest, the masks were the only thing that she liked about the COVID epidemic. It made it easier to blend in, and in this case, gave an easy disguise.
"You know, not even going to ask why you have a mask in your pocket, but anyways, time to get this show on the road!" giving her staff a quick twirl and slamming the butt onto the ground, Eda summoned a strange glowing platform. Taking a step back off the platform herself she gave one last piece of parting advice "Hang on tight!" and they were off.
The platform rose fairly quickly up the side of the tower that made up the Conformitoum, only stopping once it reached one of the higher-up windows, one of the few that didn't have bars on it. The platform seemed to waver a bit the higher they got so Luz wasted no time grabbing King and getting off as soon as the thing stopped. It was just in time too, the second she was completely off the platform simply fizzled out of existence leaving no trace whatsoever.
"Well that was close," commented Luz, double-checking to make sure that King and secure before hopping down from the ledge.
"We would have been fine," assured King, seeming unfazed by the fact that they could have very easily been on the thing when it popped, "even if we fell we were close enough to the ledge to catch ourselves before we fell too far."
Not even bothering to give a response to that, Luz continued deeper into what could only be described as a prison. Rows and rows of cells lined almost every inch of the inside of the building, what's worse they were almost all filled. Thousands of people trapped in tiny cells that even in the worst of prisons back in the Human Realm would call inhumane. The sight made her sick.
"Hey! Kid! How'd you get out of your cell?" a voice called out from behind Luz. turning around to investigate, she was met with a young woman, likely only a few years older than herself, stuck in one of the cells.
"Um, I'm technically not a criminal so…"
"Not yet, your not!" King added, well he wasn't wrong so she once again ignored what was said. It was easier to live in denial at the moment, she didn't have the energy to dwell on the legalities of breaking into a prison.
"Neither are we. The warden just likes to lock up anyone who doesn't fit in." explained the older teen, pulling out a rather well-illustrated book, "take me, I write fanfiction of food falling in love. I like food, I like love… just let me write about it dammit!"
Another prisoner chimed in, a grotesque-looking person, a green blob of flesh with multiple eyes, and a few empty eye sockets "I'm here because I like eating my own eyes." he adds in, pulling out one of his many eyes and popping it into his mouth. It was kinda gross but as long as he didn't try and eat other people's eyes mostly harmless if the fact that the eye he ate grew back almost instantly.
"We are agents of fwee expwession!" cried another prisoner… who was a nose with limbs hair, a mouth, and eyes. She was still less weird than the eye guy though in Luz's opinion. "We will never be siwenced!"
"Yeah, she's a real big conspiracy nut." prisoner number one explained.
"The world is just a simulation! We are just characters in a story of a higher being!" yelled the nose. Yeah, Luz wasn't going to even try unpacking any of that. The last time she got into one of those philosophical debates with herself over the exitance of free will it didn't end well…
"None of those are actual crimes though, you're all innocent!" This warden guy was willing to just lock people up for being different? He seriously reminded her of her former caretakers, and not in a good way.
Her thought on the injustice of being locked for the 'crimes' they committed was interrupted by heavy, booming footsteps. "It's Warden Wrath! Hide!" warned the first prisoner. Thinking fast, Luz grabs King and ducts into one of the few open cells, pulling the door closed she makes sure it doesn't lock and trap her and King in the cell.
"I can hear you…" a dark voice echoed through the tower. A door a few cells down from where Luz hid is pushed open, and a large man, shockingly similar to the image shown by Eda steps out. Sadly the image she was shown didn't do the man justice on just how large he was. Standing at almost eight feet tall and about half that wide. The man was a terrifying wall of muscle and sinew. She hoped that he didn't notice that she wasn't one of his prisoners.
"Just what are you fools whispering about?" growled the Warden, glaring down at them. Stalking forward he stopped suddenly, one of the many wanted posters strewn across the floor seemed to catch his eye. Bending down he grabbed the offending paper and let out a snarl "Ah, the Owl Lady," crumpling the paper tightly in his fist, his arm rippled and flowed, tendrils of flesh and muscle shifting and changing, bone and cartilage grinding and snapping till in place of a hand stood a large hammer held firmly by cords of muscle and skin.
Reeling back he slammed the grotesque facsimile of a hammer into the wrought iron gate that made up the cell door of Luz and King's hiding spot. Bending and warping the metal beyond recognition. "I'll get my hands on her soon enough…" glaring down at Luz and King he scoffs walking away, the flesh and bone of his arm flowing back in reverse, back into the shape of a normal hand and arm.
The nose prisoner, either making a distraction for Luz to escape or simply too deluded in her conspiracy pipes up "Fight against the oppwessor! We will wesist! We will conquer. We will never be afwaid of you, you cweep."
Another growl escapes the warden as he walked over to the nose's cell. Glaring down he flips up the lever on the wall next to it, the door to the cell retracing up as he lifts. Seemingly not realizing what is going on the nose cries out "Hooway! I'm fwee!" only to be silenced by the large hand of Wrath wrapping around her, pining her arm to her sides and covering her mouth. All she can do is let out muffled screams of fear and pain as she is held up in front of the others.
"Let this be a lesson to all of you." giving the nose another squeeze, "there's no place in society for you if. You. cant. Fit. in!" striding back the way he came, he slipped back through the door, making sure to stomp firmly on the wanted poster of Eda as he passed.
Waiting a few moments to make sure that Wrath is gone, Luz lifts the door to her cell. The warped metal grinds and scrapes on the track it rides as she lifts. The noise doesn't help her nerves any, that's for sure, but it certainly drives home what she has to do. Rushing over to the cell of the first prisoner she grabs the lever controlling the door "don't worry, I can get you out." lifting with all her might, she barely gets the lever lifted a quarter of the way up. Her body was too weak from years of starvation at the hands of her former caretakers to fully lift the lever and free the prisoner. "NO! Dammit just a bit more!" she cries in frustration.
"Kid stop." calls the prisoner, "Just get out of here while you still can. Enjoy freedom for us." she stalks back deeper into her cell, leaving Luz standing at the lever tears pricking at her eyes. She would return, she would get these people out, even if it was the last thing she did. She wouldn't let them suffer as she did, that was a promise.
Grabbing King, she heads off toward the top of the tower, a harsh scowl etched on her face. King seeing her turmoil speaks up, "Luz, you ok?" he doesn't know why exactly but he doesn't like Luz being sad, maybe he's grown fond of her in the short amount of time he's known her, or maybe it's something else. He doesn't know, but he does know he has to do something.
"I…I'm fine King. Just some bad memories is all. Come on let's get your crown ok? Don't worry about me." smiled Luz, the expression not reaching her eyes. King having dealt with Eda for as long as he has known that that isn't the case, but also knows that confronting her about it now wasn't the best of ideas. Frowning slightly he just agrees with her "yeah, alright, let's go get my crown."
The two end up walking for a few minutes the tower much larger than they expected. Lucky for them though there seemed to be a lack of patrols inside the prison itself. Luz's best guess would be that Wrath handles most of that himself. If the display back in the holding cells was anything to go on he was certainly strong enough. They ended up reaching their goal around the same time as Eda as she flew in on her staff.
"We're in luck. The warden is distracted, tormenting some tiny creature. He won't be coming around here anytime soon." hoping off her staff she walks up to the two children. Noticing something off with Luz she decides not to comment, not knowing the girl, well really at all yet.
Luz meanwhile was lost in thought, memories long represented, and events as soon as earlier today intermingling in her mind. Feelings of fear, hatred, and a wave of righteous anger ebbing and falling in a cacophony of self-hatred driven by her inability to help, her inability to do the right thing and save those in a situation so similar to that of which she just barely managed to escape just hours ago. She vowed to her herself that she would rectify that.
Eda noticing the worsening state of the child in front of her decided to do something at least. Reaching over she nudged Luz's shoulder "come on." she said gesturing to King who ran off ahead yelling something about his crown "let's get going before he gets hurt." Knowing that Eda was right, Luz shook herself out of her previous line of thought. She needed to focus on the now, not the future, and definitely not the past.
King, who had somehow scaled up the door was fiddling around with a door knob about as big as him, hanging on to it and scurrying around it like a squirrel hopped up on caffeine. "My crown! It's close! I can sense its power!" seemingly getting fed up with the doorknob not complying with his messing about he simply rips the thing off the door breaking the lock. Dropping to the ground he had the door open and is rushing in before anyone can even stop him. Looking at Eda, she and Luz share a sigh as a zap and a yelp of pain can be heard from within.
Staring in awe at the chamber she just entered, Luz can firmly say that it exceeds her expectation. A large stone hall draped in worn and tattered banners depicting a symbol that looks vaguely familiar. Its high vaulted ceilings and polished marble floor gave way to the main attraction, a large glowing pillar in the middle of the room, about fifty feet in diameter, and with a plinth-like structure sitting a few feet in front of it facing the collum. The glow from the magic field lit the room in a cool white glow. It all adds up to a spectacular sight to Luz.
Turning back to her companions, Luz gets a front-row seat to King attempting to launch himself headfirst into the glowing pillar of energy, only to be bounced off with a crackling zap. Gearing up for another go at fruitlessly launching himself at the Eda caught him by the scruff of the neck. "We have a human, remember?"
"Oh… yeah."
Walking up to the magical force field, a pit of worry formed in her stomach. Something deep within her was telling her not to touch the barrier. Pushing that feeling away as just nerves, she pressed on, after all, she was human, wasn't she?
Reaching her hand out, a spark of energy shot out, lancing into her outstretched fingers. A flash of electric pain shot up her arm, quickly pulling her arm back and looking at her slightly singed fingers Luz could only stare in shock. This thing was meant to let humans though right? Then why in the world did it shock her?
Rushing over Eda began to fuss over her "Kid you alright?" she asked looking at the small singe mark on the tips of her fingers. "It..it shocked me?" asked Luz more than a little surprised "it's supposed to let humans through, right?"
"It should, as far I know it's just a standard anti-magic barrier, or at least it should be. I've got no idea why it shocked you, humans don't have magic after all," replied Eda, drawing a small circle in the air. Getting a closer look at the spell Luz's eyes widened. Putting two and two together it finally hit her, her mysterious 'abilities' one of the many unexplainable things about her, it turns out was magic.
Looking at Eda Luz spoke up "I-i think I know what happen…" pulling away from Eda she walked over to the Plinth next to the magic force field. Cut into its surface was a large keyhole, likely the way the barrier was turned on and off. Pointing at the plinth she quickly turned to look at Eda before drawing a circle in the air. A spell circle her mind corrected. Several loud clicks were heard from the lock, tumblers, and pins forced into place as her magic did its work. Suddenly the barrier dropped as the lock finally opened.
It honestly felt good to finally have a name for what she could do. To finally know what she was doing, that it wasn't just some strange mutation giving her strange power. It was magic. But it left a big question, humans can't do magic, Eda said so, and as far as she knew she was the only one back in the Human Realm that could even do magic as far as she knew, so what exactly was she? Pushing the thoughts of how exactly she can perform magic, magic that came from a different dimension at that out of her head for now she turned back to Eda and King.
"I got the barrier down," she called back to them, her voice shaky. The two took a second to respond, their jaws firmly planted on the floor as they witnessed what appeared to be a human do magic. Knocking herself out of her stupor Eda walked over to Luz. "That was a pretty good kid." she decided that it wasn't worth spooking the poor kid any more than they were already. She figured that finding out a revelation like that was pretty stressful, and the kid seemed pretty shaken up anyways.
"T-thanks" stuttered Luz, the shock of, well everything that's happened in the past four-ish hours still strong. She was certainly glad that Eda wasn't grilling her on what happened and just how she did what she did, she didn't think she has it in her to even begin to process what was going on at the moment.
King on the other hand could only stare in shock. He knew enough about humans from Eda that their performing magic was not a thing that happened. He had so many questions, but looking at Luz, his instincts screamed at him that it would be a bad idea to ask right now. Deciding to just follow Eda's lead on this he simply ran up and grabbed his crown. An old cardboard ring at the end of the day with only the image of a crown on it. He knew that it wasn't a real crown, that it didn't grant him real power, but it was important to him, it was one of the first gifts that Eda gave him, one of the first things that what truly his.
Looking up at what King was grabbing, Luz saw the old Burger Queen crown, she turned to Eda and asked "that crown doesn't give him any powers does it?" the older witch only sighed. She knew that she shouldn't have lied but in all honesty, the old toy was important to King, she honestly didn't fully know why but it was.
"No. no, it doesn't." confirmed Eda not being able to meet Luz's eyes "King and I don't have much in this world. We only have each other. So if that dumb crown is important to him it's important to me. And besides, us weirdos have to stick together you know?"
Luz could only blink at that response. She wasn't expecting something so, well maternal from Eda. it stirred up old feelings she had long since buried with the death of her mother. Looking over at Eda and King she could only smile.
"Well, we owe you one. Now let's get out of here before the warden finds us and loses his head," said Eda turning towards the exit only to be met with the hulking form of Warden Wrath.
"Too late." the next thing Luz knows is she is holding Eda's head in her arms, and the warden's arm was now an ax. There was also an annoying streaming noise, wait that was her. Quickly clamping her mouth shut she looked down at Eda's decapitated head. White hot fear rose in her along with the familiar feeling of what she now knows is her magic spitting and crackling under her skin. Her already exhausted body going into overdrive due to fear.
"Ow! Oh, I hate it when that happens!" complained Eda's head. There was that annoying streaming sound gain, oh wait it was her again wasn't it? Quickly snapping her mouth shut for a second time she looked at the head in her arms. It certainly looked alive, Eda's eyes moving and her slightly annoyed expression being very different from the eyes closed tongue hanging out one she had when her head was caught.
"EDA!" Luz yelled, surprised that a decapitated head was talking, and hopeful that she wasn't just hallucinating "are you ok?"
"Yeah. this just happens when you get older," said Eda, rolling her eyes and somehow shrugging with just her head.
"Does it?" asked Luz, she honestly didn't know if that was a thing that happens to witches. Wait, she can do magic, does that make her a witch? Will her head just randomly pop off?! no, no she has to focus, evil warden, now worrying about the possibility of detachable limbs later, along with the multitude of other things she is currently putting off thinking about.
Walking closer to the two, well one and a head, Wrath lets his arm de-transform, the shifting of tendrils and flesh still as disgusting as the first time she watched it "Finally, I have you cornered, Eda the Owl Lady." a tendril shoots off his arm and grabs King's crown. "My guards could never get you, but I knew if I took your pet's toy, you'd come running." crushing his fist as he did with the wanted poster back in the holding cells, he destroyed King's crown.
The look of pure heartbreak on the little demon's face was honestly gut-wrenching to Luz, his cry of "no, my crown!" and the anguish in his voice just made it all the worse. If she wasn't holding Eda's head and wasn't afraid Wrath would just recreate the scene with the crown with her she'd of rushed over and scooped King into a big hug. As it was now her magic just sent out another pulse of angry, static-y energy just under her skin, ready to react at a moment's notice.
"What do you want with me? I've never broken any of your stupid laws… in front of you at least" asked Eda, getting more than a little fed up with this guy. First, he seals King's crown, then he cuts her head off, and finally, he destroyed the damned crown that they snuck in to get back just after King got it back. That was honestly more than most of the times she got revenge on someone, this guy was gearing up for the worst Eda could think of.
Pulling out a bouquet and dropping down to one knee "I want you to go out with me!" asked Wrath several of the guards that Luz was just now noticing cheating him on in the background. She was so confused, what in the actual hell was going on right now? Did she pass out when Eda was decapitated and this is all some sort of crazy hallucination?
"Wha.." at least Eda sounded as confused as she was, it was nice not being alone in the sheer insanity that was happening in front of her.
One of the guards in the background seemed to be a bit louder than the others and caught Wrath's attention as he shot them a thumbs up before continuing "you've always eluded our capture. Always been the one who got away. I found that alluring."
She was going to vomit, this was so bad. Her absolute hatred for what was going on in front of her seemed to override her common sense as she simply couldn't stop herself from voicing her opinion "I hate everything you're saying right now." the pure horror in her voice couldn't be masked, not that she even tried. It was so bad that it simply overpowered everything else
Screaming in rage, Wrath launched his arm at Luz, it splitting and unraveling into a mess of tendrils that wrapped around Luz. "you stay out of this!" she hated this more than when he was doing his confession of love, it felt so weird! The tendrils pulsed and shifted in odd ways and she swore she could feel the bones that made up his arm moving about the tendrils as well, strange hard bits poking and brushing against her in odd unsettling ways. The only reason she didn't vomit was simply that she had nothing in her stomach to vomit up.
Grabbing Eda's head by her hair he hoisted her up high enough that she could look him straight in the eyes. "So how about it, Owl Lady? the most powerful witch of the Boiling Isles and the feared Warden Wrath. We'd be the most powerful power couple ever. It's not like you can say no right now anyways." bragged Wrath, fully thinking that his ultimatum would win over Eda. looking up at Luz and King who were struggling to free themselves from their respective captors, King having been grabbed by one of the guards while she was distracted by the piece of work in front of her. She got an idea, hopefully, she could live down the embarrassment she was about to inflict on herself.
Sighing Eda looked to Wrath "Alright, Warden, you win." man it hurt to say that, especially to the brain-dead oaf who thought that this was a good way to ask someone out. "I'd just like to say something first. Come closer. No, a little bit closer. Just…yeah, that's good!" just mere inches from his face, mask? Thing? She honestly didn't know what he looked like under the mask but that didn't matter now. Screw it, biting the dammed thing was out, she didn't want to get a mouth full of mask and not do any damage, plan B then. Blowing a raspberry into the warden's face, making sure to get the eyes well covered, Wrath freaked out. It seemed that he was a bit of a germaphobe, who knew?
"Impudent Wench!" he spat dropping Luz to wipe the spit off his mask, "Do you know how many germs are in your mouth?" well that seemed to have worked, at least the kid was free, now for her.
"Get over it!" she yelled right back at him, "you had your guards stalk me, stole from my friend, and then cut off my head! I am not going out with you!" well that seemed to have struck a nerve, he was really pissed now. Good going, Eda.
"if you don't accept, then I have no choice but to des-" the warden was cut off abruptly by Luz bringing down Owlbert onto the warden's head, hard. She didn't think that someone's head should make a crunching sound like that when hit but that was neither here nor there. Priority number one was to escape.
It seemed that at least two of the guards had some idea of what they were doing, moving to restrain her body they weren't ready for it to suddenly reach up and grab their hoods flipping them over their heads and slamming them together. They were only marginally more competent than the rest of the guards sadly for them.
It seemed that the kid got the message that it was time to blow this bloodsicle stand. In a rather impressive bout of speed and agility, she had used Owlbert to take out the two guards holding King, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, and was over to her head, all in less than five seconds. Man, this kid was starting to grow on her.
Luz was mildly terrified at the moment, she had a good distraction though to keep the fear to a manageable level. Focusing on getting out alive. Stabbing Eda's staff into the ground for a second she grabbed Eda's head and shoved it into King's arms. "Hold on to this ok?" running over to Eda's body she loads all three of them onto the staff making sure that king and Eda's heads are secured in front of her and that Eda's body is holding on tight behind her she tries to get the staff to take off.
"Uh, Up? Fly?" nope that didn't work, screw it might as well try it, "Gun it magic stick?" why was she not surprised that that was the one that worked? It was a good thing that it did though, as it seemed that Wrath was quite a bit tougher than she thought. Hauling himself up off the ground, still clearly dazed and in quite a bit of pain, the warden seemed to force himself back to being fully awake through sheer rage. With a guttural roar, he gave chase, his arms devolving into a mess of writhing, shifting tendrils that he shot forth gnashing and snapping as they flew through the air grabbing onto anything that they could. Using the new anchor point the warden launched himself at them giving chase.
Flying off the three fled the enraged warden. Ducking bobbing and weaving through the spartan corridors of the prison, dodging the occasional guard, and attempting to stay out of Wrath's range as he barreled after them. His Eldridge form gave him much more mobility than his stature would have suggested. Speeding down the twisting, turning halls of the Conformitorium, they passed the trio of cells holding the three prisoners that Luz befriended, a pang of guilt flashed through Luz as she passed. She, she would return to help them, but right now making sure that she didn't end up in a cell next to them took priority.
Guiding the staff over and down the center of the tower, Luz gunned it down to the bottom floor. Pulling up at the last moment they flew towards the front entrance, Wrath grabbing onto the center watch tower and sling-shoting himself after them, hot on their heels. Ducking down to gain more speed, Luz draws a small spell circle, another unlocking spell and another hit to her already depleted magic reserves. The main doors fly open just in time for them to fly out, taking out two guards in the process.
They are in the home stretch when Wrath gets a lucky hit off. Just barely clipping the butt of the staff he launches the three off. Instinctively grabbing each other as they fly off the staff all three land together, King drops Eda's head as they land, it luckily lands right at the feet of her body. Moving quickly Eda's body grabs its head and put it back on.
"Kid," spoke Eda, turning to Luz and pulling out the key to the portal and putting it into her hands "go back to the Human Realm." rushing off towards Wrath her hands glowing with the warm golden glow of her magic. Luz could only stand shocked, she couldn't leave them, she wouldn't leave them.
"I'm not leaving you guys here alone!" cried Luz stuffing the key into her pocket. Reaching out to grab King who was about to rush off into the fight.
Eda, dodging and weaving through Wrath's attacks, drew several small spell circles. Summoning forth several blasts of fire and stone at the enraged warden. Slipping past the mass of tangled, pulsing, tendrils of flesh and bone she fell back to where Luz was. Pulling out her staff and plopping Luz and King on it "Go kid, take King and run, ill be fine." assured Eda smaking the bottom of the staff like a horse sending Luz and King rocketing off into the air.
Wrath seeing that Eda was alone stepped up his game. Ripping off his mask he revealed his face. A gnarled maw of tusks and teeth took up almost his entire head, save for two small yellow eyes. A growl formed in his throat, a spark and fire shooting out toward Eda. thinking fast she twirled out of the way drawing a spell circle in its way as she passed, the flames disappearing into the void it summoned. With another circle drawn in the air, the fire was sent right back at Wrath. Another growl and the man pulled back his arm, its form shifting and warping to form a shield to defend from the fire.
The two continued to trade blows, spells, and fire flying across the courtyard that has become their arena. Neither gaining any ground against the other, both knew that with one slip up the other would take the fight. Luz and King in the sky could only watch as the fight continued picking up intensity as the attacks that each threw at the other just got more destructive, and got closer to the target.
Her fist tightened as she looked down at the battle below, she had to do something. Something in her gut told her that with each passing moment, the danger and chance of Eda losing just increased. Looking around, for something anything she could use to help her eyes were drawn to the window that they used to break in. that's when it hit her. That prison was full of people who had a bone to pick with the warden. She could use that.
"Hold on King, we're getting help for Eda." gunning the staff up to the open window and into the prison Luz flew to the center of the prison, atop the guards' tower. "This is going to hurt," she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes and focusing, her hand lit up with the violet glow of her magic. Raising her arm high she started the circle, the biggest circle she had drawn to date. A circle the size of her arm's entire rotation sat in the air for a second before a massive pulse of magic covered the entire prison. A cacophony of clicks and rattles filled the air only to cut off abruptly as it started, the air stood silent for just a moment before all at once, CLICK, BANG all the cell doors unlocked and opened at once.
Pushing down the sharp stab of pain, and the darkening of her vision Luz screamed out. Her voice seemingly carried through the now silent building. "The warden is outside fighting The Owl Lady, it's time to get your revenge on the one who locked you up! Don't let Eda take all the fun!" there was a pause and then a collective yell, a roar of agreement echoing throughout the entire structure.
Leading the charge, Luz guided the mob of angry prisoners out the main doors. Flooding out the group found Wrath about to send the finishing blow to Eda. The warden was interrupted at the last second by a yell of "Charge!" from Luz and the deafening roar from the former prisoners following her lead.
All hell was brought down on Wrath, all of the prisoners that he mistreated, that he wrongfully imprisoned, rained down their collective wrath on him. Luz flying ahead of the mob quickly snagged Eda and flew away from the flood of people rushing the evil warden.
Eda, couldn't believe her eyes, just as she thought that she was going to bite it, the kid she thought was human, the kid she told to take King and run, came charging out of the prison for a second time. This time with what looked like every prisoner in the place following her. She barely even noticed that the kid flew up and grabbed her, flying a bit away from the angry mob before landing.
"We should really get out of here before the guards have time to respond to this." said the kid knocking Eda out of her stupor. Looking down at the kid who just lead a prison riot to save her she saw how bad she looked. The kid was several shades paler than when she first met her a few hours previous, and along with that, she was shaking like a leaf. Deciding that yeah that would be the best bet, she took her staff back from the kid and patted the spot in front of her. "You don't look that good kid, ill drive but you sit up front ok? Don't want you falling off because you couldn't stay awake."
Luz tried to fight that she was fine, but ultimately she didn't have the energy, that last spell really took a lot out of her, and it was probably for the best if she listened. Hoping up front on the staff, King in her lap, the trio took off and headed back to the Owl House. It only took a few minutes to fly back to Eda's place, but during that time, Luz could feel herself crashing more, it was taking all of her willpower just to not let the darkness encroaching on her vision take her.
Landing, this time just outside the door Eda lead them inside, shushing Hooty as they passed. "So kid," spoke Eda, snapping her fingers and summoning the portal key from Luz's pocket, "A deal's a deal, let's get you home."
Luz looked at the portal door for a second, several thoughts running through her mind, she was not sure if it was sheer exhaustion speaking or if this strange world has grown on her, but she wanted to stay. At the very least if she did she may be able to learn some more magic, now that she knew it was magic.
Turning to voice her decision to Eda, see if she'd let her crash here for a bit, that's when the darkness that had been encroaching on her vision for the past several minutest won its fight against the dregs of adrenaline in her body. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she slumped down to the floor in a dead faint. The last thing she heard before everything went dark was Eda's worried shouts "Kid, KID!"