Here we go. Chapter 2. BUt before we get into that, I want to give some replies to reviews given. I will try to do so for every chapter.
KaliAnn: Thanks, I want to do something different yet familiar
Guest: Yeah, Hunter is pretty much a mess. Belos is no one to be messesd with.
Hunter wasn't surprised about the amount of Coven members running around this early in the morning. It was always like this. People getting late for something or hoping to get the best missions if they were the first.
They were acting like wild animals fighting over their food. It never changed anything though. The Emperor gave those the important jobs who he thought were worthy of it. Which often resulted in Hunter himself. Sometimes others as well.
Today though, things were different. He saw one of the soldiers carrying the human he had met a few weeks ago. Unconscious and being thrown over someone's shoulder. He shouldn't have don't it, but Hunter found himself following them.
With some luck, Belos wanted to see him anyway. For now, though, he had no official job. He was doing his usual morning routine when he spotted them. Walking around the palace, looking for potential problems. But when he saw them, something just felt wrong.
Of course, he could ignore it and wait for his uncle to officially call him, but that didn't feel right. If she was here, unconscious at that, it wasn't out of free will. It meant she got into a fight, and they kidnapped her. Which also meant his uncle wanted it.
Yeah, she got into a little trouble because of the Owl Lady, but not enough to get kidnaped. This wasn't normal. The human wasn't arrested. She was an actual prisoner. So, he followed. Hunter couldn't help it or stop himself.
The mask covered his worried expression as he followed. Flapjack was in his coat and tweeted something, but Hunter didn't listen. It had grown into a new habit of his to always take the red cardinal with him. But now wasn't the right time.
"Go back to my room" he whispered. "This is too dangerous for you."
The response he got wasn't very nice, but the bird followed the order anyway. Hunter sighed in relief. At least that problem was solved for now. As long as no one saw him, everything was fine.
The teen continued to follow the guards through the castle. They didn't go to the throne room, like he originally thought, but one he had never entered. Not because he wasn't allowed to, but simply because he had no reason to.
As the door opened, Hunter saw his uncle standing by a table. It was a simple wooden table. Nothing special about it. Well, maybe except for the cuffs attached to it. The teen held back a gasp at what was possibly about to happen. Belos didn't plan to cut her open, right?
No, of course not. They were only there to make sure she couldn't run away, he told himself. Run from what though, a small voice in the back of his mind asked. He shook his head. His uncle was a good person. He didn't hurt people like that.
Belos quickly noticed him entering with the rest of the guards.
"Ah, you are already here, good. Pun her on the table, then leave us" Belos ordered.
The guards obeyed, laying the human down on the table and leaving the room, closing the door. Hunter took a deep breath. There were a lot of things that could happen now. And he could only hope for the best of all those options. But he knew it would probably end somewhere in between.
"I'm sorry uncle" he said while taking of his mask. "I got curious."
"You know what I think about your curiosity Hunter" Belos answered.
He did. Hunter really did. "It's good and useful as long as it is not about wild magic" Hunter never forgot those words. They were burned in his mind.
"Exactly. But I am glad that you are here" he said, attaching the cuffs to the humans' wrists and ancles.
Hunter watched carefully. In his eyes, no one actually deserved death. Wild witches needed help to see their errors, that's all. Death was a harsh punishment. And he would never be fine with it.
What, though, would he do if his uncle decided to kill someone while he was in the same room? Especially someone who had shown him nothing but kindness, despite her wild magic.
Hunter didn't have an answer to that.
"Why is the human here?" he dared to ask.
"Because of the portal. While we have the key with barely enough titans' blood, I hope to find more about how it works from her" Belos explained.
"I honestly doubt she would be willing to tell us. Whether or not she knows anything" Hunter said.
Belos hummed, roaming through one of he books he had opened beside the human's head. He was searching for something, no doubt a spell. What for, Hunter didn't know.
"I agree, she would not. But that is what spells are for."
Hunter hesitated. "Then how are we going to find out?"
"Not we, Hunter, you. I will send you into her mind. Find every memory about the portal. Report everything you see about it. Avoid her inner self though. She would interfere without hesitation" Belos said.
Hunter swallowed hard. That was a lot to ask. And if he messed up, well, he didn't want to find out. But he would have to do this. There was no way he could refuse. He tried anyway.
"Are you sure? I've never entered someone's mind. A humans at that" he tried.
"I trust you can do this Hunter. No witch has ever entered the mind of a human, but I am confident that it is very similar."
The teen took a deep breath before he nodded.
"Very good. Then I will send you into her mind now. But remember to be careful" Belos said.
Next thing he knew, he was walking around in what must've been the humans mind. It was colorful, which didn't surprise him. It was an open space. Some people tried to hide certain memories, but she didn't. The human had nothing to hide.
Still, Hunter heeded to words of his uncle, walking around carefully. He didn't want to be spotted by the inner human. The pictures of her memories were projected large books. They all had a title.
He was in some sort of library. But the books weren't neatly stored in shelves, but there were large ones and they told important stories. One at the time. There were no special sections. Great. Of course even her mind was chaotic.
One read: Luz Noceda and the first day of school
Hunter scoffed. Of course, she was a fantasy freak. It wasn't a surprise that her memories were labeled like books. And she was the main character in every story.
Most memories didn't seem interesting. Only showing important events in her past. Her first school day. Her first detention, whatever that was, first day on the boiling isles, the otter-costume disaster. Wait-what?
Hunter turned back to the memory of the human walking into the door that led to the demon realm. Huh, maybe he would find something in there. Carefully, Hunter opened the book and stepped inside.
After the light faded, Hunter saw the human following the palisman of the Owl Lady into the old house. She yelled after it, before wondering where she had landed.
Just a few seconds later, she snatched a book from the Owl Lady who was about to burn it. The human intended to run back through the portal but was stopped.
A short talk later, she was already friends with the Owl Lady and running from Coven scouts. Hunter scoffed. Nothing helpful. He walked back out, closing the large book.
While roaming through various memories, the teen found nothing that could help him. Nothing that told him how to repair the portal properly. It was like he thought. She didn't know anything about this. For once, he was right.
Walking out of the last memory he could find about the portal, he leaned against a wall. This wasn't good. What would happen if he came back without any results? Hunter rubbed the scar on his cheek. It usually didn't end well.
And what would happen to the human? She was still a prisoner. And Hunter didn't even know what happened for her to get captured like this. One thing was sure though. She wouldn't be allowed to simply leave.
"Hey! A voice yelled.
Hunter looked up to see the human starring at him. He didn't know if she was angry, if she even knew what was going on.
"What are you doing in here?" she demanded.
"Uh….." Humter looked at the memory he just came out of. She followed his line of view and narrowed her eyes.
"Are you spying on me? In MY mind?"
"It's-it's not what you think" he stammered. "Emperor Belos wanted me to do this."
She crossed her arms over her chest, seemingly in thought. Hunter didn't know if she believed him, or if that was even important. What mattered was that he got out of her mind unharmed.
"He wanted you to do what? Spy on my memories?" she seethed
"Kinda….." he said.
She took a deep breath. "Okay" she said. "I believe you."
Y-you do?" he asked.
She nodded. "Of course. Hunter, we may not know each other that good, but you are not the bad guy. So, why are you here?"
"Ah, well…." He trailed off. Should he tell her? Hunter knew that the human was smart. She would figure it out on her own. And it wasn't that big of a secret that his uncle intended to enter the human world.
"I'm supposed to find out everything you know about the portal" he confessed.
She hummed, then nodded. "I don't really know that much though."
"I noticed" Hunter rolled his eyes. There was nothing useful in her mind. At least not about the portal.
"How did you get in here anyway?" she leaned her head to the side.
"Oh! Belos send me in" he said cheerfully. Why did he though?
"Belos!? Wait, am I in the castle?" she shrieked.
"I thought you were aware of what happened" Hunter raised an eyebrow.
Though, thinking about it, how would she? She entered the castle while being unconscious.
"All I remember is that I followed a clue from my mouse and then scouts attacked me. I didn't have enough glyphs with me for all of them" she shook her head.
"Your mouse? Human you aren't making any sense." He shook his head.
"You know my name Hunter. It's Luz, not human. Use it. And I mean my echo-mouse. It shows me everything that was written in a diary that another human wrote long ago when he landed here" Luz said.
"Everything?" he asked.
"Yeah! At least when it feels like doing it" she muttered.
Was that a coincidence? How would they know where to search for her? There was no way that any of them would've known about the echo-mouse. He didn't even know that another human had entered the demon realm before.
"Is there any possible way that someone else had read that diary as well?"
"No way. It was in some super restricted area that not even Amity was allowed to enter" Luz waved her hand.
The youngest Blight? The teen wasn't aware that she had any friends. Well, thing's chance.
"Okay, back to the main problem. You know nothing. Great. I get to go back without any results" he groaned.
"Sorry" Luz gave an apologetic smile.
"Why are you apologizing? Shouldn't it be good for you to keep such information away from he?" he raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, yeah, I guess. But I don't see why Belos even thought I would know anything else" she shrugged.
"Then I guess I'll hang around some more until he gets me out of here" Hunter muttered, leaning against one of the many bookshelves.
He took one of them out and wasn't surprised to see something about witches. Something cheesy. Maybe he'd rather talk with the human until then.
"I'm sorry I couldn't find anything uncle" he apologized.
It took maybe one more hour until he was taken back to the real world. And some questions lingered in his mind.
"Don't worry Hunter. I had a feeling that there wasn't anything else. But now we at least know for certain" Belos sighed.
Hunter looked back at the still unconscious human. Terra had made sure she wouldn't wake up any time soon. It worried him a bit. Like this, she couldn't eat or drink. She'd get weak fast. And then….
He shook his head. That wouldn't happen.
On his way out of the room, his eyes fell on one of the pages in a spell book that was opened. He took a closer look.
"Uncle, what is this for?" he dared to ask, standing in front of the book.
Belos looked over his shoulder to see what his nephew was looking at. He chuckled.
"Ah, that. It is a mind-erasing spell" he explained.
"Erasing?" Hunter repeated.
"Yes. Even if the human doesn't know anything about the portal, she could still be useful. She has shown talent with her own spells. Though binding her to a circle wouldn't change anything, I believe she could be a great warrior."
His eyes lingered on the page. It said that the user could erase anything from the mind of the victim they wanted. If they used the right ingredients. It was some sort of tea. That's why Terra had been here. She was showing Belos how to prepare that spell.
There was a catch though. Once one knew what ingredients to use, it would have to brew for six days. Only then would it work correctly. One thing was obvious as well.
"Uncle, no one knows how a human would react to this" he said with some concern.
"Oh, don't worry about that. If she can't handle it, then the problem is solved in another way" Belos dismissed his worries and left the room.
Hunter said nothing after that. It wouldn't have any use. His uncle would just talk around the topic again. He made his mind up that day.
No matter how thankful he was that his uncle had taken him in and showed him another way of using magic, he wasn't going to take it. Not this time.
Erasing her memory meant she would lose everything she had. Everything she knew. And everything she was. No memory except for the ones Belos wanted her to have. The teen looked over to where she was bound.
He would have to prepare for this. Leaving now was too obvious. A few days, he told himself, then he'd bring her back to the Owl House. He could think of the consequences later. No one deserved that.
Five days later, he was gone
"And then I came here" Hunter said, emptying the cup. He had to admit, chocolate was pretty good.
"That took you two days?" Eda asked.
"Yeah. I had to be careful. And we took a few breaks to eat and stuff" he shrugged.
Eda hummed. "Okay, I'm glad you did what you did. But wont they notice that you're gone?"
Hunter shook his head. "With some hope they think that Luz broke out and I followed her. I can handle it."
Eda shared a look with King. She didn't like the sound of that. She sighed. "You can have the couch tonight. I'll carry Luz upstairs. We talk in the morning when Luz is awake. Then we'll make a plan of what happens next."
She stood up from her chair, heading for the main room. Without much effort, she lifted to sleeping human from the couch and up the stairs. She placed her on her bed and covered her up.
"You keep an eye on her. Call me if something happens" she told King.
The demon nodded and laid down at the end of the blanket. Eda went back to one of the closets, pulling out one more blanket and a pillow. Entering the main room, she threw them on the couch for the teen.
"Get some sleep. Try not to think much" she gave him an awkward pat on the head, before heading to her nest.
Hunter laid on the couch, having pulled off most of his clothing. The boots, his coat, gloves. All that. It took a while, but eventually, sleep came to him. She was right. He could worry about everything in the morning.
But he had some explaining to do. Like having entered the mind of a teenage girl and wandering around alone in there for a while.
Oh boy…