I've been sick most of the week so I hope this chapter measures up to the previous ones.

Two days had passed since Hunter's little "playdate" and he was still tender. Apparently, the shadow person made sure he had a reminder of all the "fun" they had together.

He tried to hide his discomfort as he waited for his uncle to brief him on his mission parameters today. He was meeting up with his flying derby team today to bond with them better.

When Belos learned this, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to gain more information on Luz. "Remember, act friendly but keep them at a distance. Don't initiate a conversation about Luz. Let them bring it up."

"Yes, Uncle."

"You are not to mention whatsoever about your ties to the Emperor's Coven. Make sure to keep your sigil concealed."

"I've already put waterproof makeup on it. If we do anything that involves water it won't be revealed," the boy said, as he showed his uncle. Belos looked pleased that his nephew had thought ahead.

"Do you remember the last thing I told you?"

"Don't let them know I can't use magic. Either pretend I'm too tired or say I don't know that spell yet."

Belos had a proud look on his face. He ruffled the boy's hair, who smiled in eagerness to please. "You're the best Golden Guard that has ever served me. I know you won't disappoint me."

A short time later, Hunter was heading into Bonesborough. His friends had asked to meet him at a small café for drinks. He spotted them first and called out to them.

They waved him over and he approached the table cautiously. "Hi, everyone."

"Hi Caleb," they all replied.

He blushed upon hearing that name. "Caleb is my middle name. My first name is Hunter. I thought by going by my middle name, I wouldn't be found as fast."

The other kids accepted this and let him sit down. They had ordered him a soda which he thanked them for. "It's nice to see you again. I'm sorry about the whole identity thing."

"Since it was teenager rebellion, we will let it slide. Is it true you've never been to school before?" Viney inquired.

Hunter nodded as he took a sip of his drink. It was very tasty. "My guardian is strict about what I learn. If he finds the topic unnecessary, he'll forbid me from learning about it."

"Whoa, that sounds harsh. Why would the head of a coven do that?" Skara questioned.

"Being the head of a coven is time-consuming. Plus, there's the Emperor's law about wild magic. I would love to learn about the history of it, but I'm not allowed to for safety reasons."

Gus asked how long he had been Darius's ward. The older teen replied it was that way as far back as he could remember. He didn't know the whole story about why he ended up being Darius's ward.

Hunter found it strange that he wasn't feeling guilty about having to use Darius to replace his uncle in his answers. Did a tiny part of him actually want the lie to be true?

Thinking that her friends had overstepped, Willow started a different line of questions to get the conversation restarted.

"I remember seeing your palisman on adoption day. How did he choose you if you weren't there?" Willow asked nicely.

"Uh, Flapjack decided to run away and find his new witch all on his own. He found me and we've been together ever since. He's my first real friend."

That seemed to make the kids sad and he quickly assured him it was fine. "I had acquittances, so I wasn't completely alone. The coven heads would come to visit and I talked to a few of them. Eberwolf, the head of the Beast Keeping Coven, he's affable after you learn to understand him."

Hunter then asked about their families and he enjoyed listening to them talk. Luz had mentioned what she knew. Hearing about it first

hand made the experience better.

Eventually, they left the café to have some fun. Each person got to choose a different activity. The group wanted Hunter to pick first only he insisted that everyone else go before him.

So, they selected to do Skara's activity first. She wanted to show them a side of her that they never saw before. Skara loved music and sports. There was one other thing she liked.

She loved museums. She dragged her friends to the natural history museum. She was elated that they had a new exhibit on the history of prehistoric creatures of the Boiling Isles.

"Come on, you got to see this! A week and a half ago, an actual Stone-sleeper appeared outside the museum! The creature felt right at home in the exhibit and has been living there ever since!"

Entering the museum, it was hard for Hunter to contain himself. The items here were different from the relic room in the castle. There were exhibits on ordinary items.

There was a collection of rare telescopes used to map the skies above the Titan. In another exhibit, there were miniatures of different towns in historical periods. Willow grabbed him so he could keep up with Skara.

Walking into the exhibit was stepping through a time pool. The entire room had been transformed to match prehistoric times. The fake volcanos were his favorite part.

Then the group reached the middle of the room where the Stone-sleeper was. Little kids were feeding him small snacks. The creature nuzzled one of the kids.

As they approached, Hunter unexpectedly couldn't catch his breath. He froze in place and tried to get air into his lungs. He couldn't because his lungs felt like rocks.

Hunter started to black out. The last thing he saw was Willow running towards him.

When he woke up, he was surprised to find himself in someone's bedroom. It didn't look familiar at all.

The room held a lot of purple décor in it. There was a table with a sewing project on it. There was a large mirror on the wall opposite the king-size bed.

That's when he realized he didn't see Flapjack. He started panicking. "Flapjack! Flapjack! Where are you…ahh!"

The teenager fell flat on the bed. His lungs were feeling heavy again. Suddenly, the sensation stopped and he felt better.

There was a small chirp next to his head. Hunter managed to turn his head to the noise. "Flapjack! You're okay!"

A door opened on the other side of the room. Instinctively, Hunter hid Flapjack behind him. When he saw who was at the door, he relaxed a little.

"It's good to see you awake, little prince. How are you feeling?" Darius asked as he ambled over.

"Darius! Where am I? Why are you here?"

Darius seemed to be weighing his words carefully. "You were having trouble breathing. Your teammate Viney, couldn't figure out what was wrong. Your team captain remembered what I said about my Penstagram account."

"I arrived at the museum a few minutes later. You weren't struggling as much to breathe but it wasn't normal either. I was going to take you to the hospital when the strangest thing ensued."

"What?" Hunter asked. He was perplexed by the expression on Darius's face.

The coven head explained that the Stone-sleeper had come out of its habitat to investigate the problem. It sniffed Hunter and knelt close to him. The creature then took a deep breath and blew air into the teenager's mouth.

"Seconds later, you were breathing normally again. We couldn't figure out why but it didn't matter. I brought you to my home to recover."

It went unsaid that Emperor Belos would have prioritized if the mission was a success, rather than his nephew's health. Hunter understood that his uncle had to prioritize the needs of the Boiling Isles over one person. He was used to it.

Darius was angry that Hunter thought this neglect was normal. When the boy was first brought to the castle Belos had been the perfect example of a father. Taking care of his nephew personally; no matter how busy he was.

That started to change after Hunter's seventh birthday. He became more hands-off, letting the boy train with the scouts. If he got injured, he wasn't as concerned as he should have been.

When Hunter was nine, he broke his right wrist during a sparring session. The scouts were escorting Hunter the healer when a messenger told them to leave the boy. Apparently, Belos wanted his nephew to take care of his injury by himself.

Darius could recall the painful screams as the kid tried to reset the bones. The boy had passed out in the middle of creating a cast. The castle healer snuck in and took care of it.

After that day, no one was allowed to help Hunter in any significant way. The kid was pushed far beyond his limits. His interactions with others dwindled significantly.

He recalled the day of Hunter's ascension to being the Golden Guard. He had looked on sadly as a fourteen-year-old was given his mentor's staff. It sickened him to know a child was being forced to carry burdens he shouldn't have for at least another ten to fifteen years.

"Thank you, Darius. I'll be ready to return to the castle after a short nap." Yawning, Hunter went back to sleep. Darius scrutinized the boy for a few seconds.

There is going to be a slight change in our plan, the man thought to himself.

One night later, The Collector decided to quadruple their fun. "Tonight's going to be so much fun! My truth or dare game will be spectacular!"

First, he needed to set up the board. Having recently been able to bring a strand of Belos's hair into the In-between dimension, they tied it together with the other strands.

Thinking of the person they wanted, a cube floated over. Pressing the strands against the cube, they poured a bit of magic into them. The cube glowed a brilliant gold and the inside changed to show Belos's mind.

"I'm so glad that worked! Now, it's time to invite the players to the board! This is going to be the best game night ever!"

In the castle, Belos was sound asleep. A ring of gold energy appeared around his head. A few seconds later three colorful bubbles made their way into the room. They were brown, blue, and red.

Luz opened her eyes, expecting to be in the shadow person's dimension. Instead, she was shocked to be back in the Emperor's castle. "No, no, no. I can't be back here!"

She crawled backward from a painting of Belos and into a wall. She turned around and gasped at the painting above her.

Eda trapped in her owl form was being petrified along with Lilith and King. The Owl House was burning down with a skeleton of a dead Hooty lying on the ground.

In the background, the Bat Queen, her children, and all the palismans lay broken at Emperor Belos's feet. What was truly frightening was seeing herself standing next to him. Her expression was pure hatred aimed at Eda and the others.

"No, no, this isn't real! Where are you, shadow person? Come on out so we can play!" Luz called out. Her voice echoed through the hallways.

She ran in the direction opposite the painting. Luz searched the shadows for a sign of the person she was looking for. Suddenly, she ran into something solid.

"Ow! What's the big idea…Luz?" Hunter questioned in disbelief. On his shoulder Flapjack chirped in surprise. He held out his hand and helped her up.

"What are you doing in the castle?"

"I don't know! I went to sleep, expecting that my astral self would be playing with a shadow person for the night. I woke up instead under a painting of me standing next to Belos as he harmed my Owl House family!"

Hunter's eyes widened and he rushed down the hallway. Luz followed him and barely managed to stop when he came to a particular painting. "Is this the shadow person, you were talking about?"

Luz froze when she looked at the painting. It showed Hunter being confronted by the shadow person. The person was laughing as Hunter tried to stay on a wobbly platform.

"You've seen this person before, too?" Luz whispered. The boy nodded and explained about his playdate. Flapjack chirped several times in distress.

Hunter went on to explain he had only interacted with the person one other time. "I was taking a nap at Darius's to recover from a breathing issue. I spent two hours playing a hundred-question game with this being."

Flapjack whistled confirming this was the first time he was brought here. The two teens started getting the inkling they were not in the real castle. They were startled by a sudden roar.

The kids and Flapjack's heads slowly turned toward the source. A huge, multi-eyed, slime-like creature was approaching them. It raised one arm and bellowed at them.

Luz screamed and started to run when a black hole opened up underneath her. She fell into the void shouting in terror. Hunter and Flapjack dove in right before the hole closed up.

The trio found themselves in a dead forest. In the trunk of each tree was a faded painting. Emperor Belos was in each one. The final puzzle piece snapped into place.

"We're inside Belos's mind," she whispered in complete terror. How was it possible for her astral self to sweat in fear?

Hunter stepped on something. He looked down and jumped back. It was the broken shards of a palisman.

Flapjack squawked in fear. Hunter did his best to comfort his buddy. Nearby, Luz was using her fingers to count to ten and then back. It was a coping mechanism for handling her anxiety.

"We need to find a way back to the real world. Should we try waking ourselves up?" Hunter questioned Luz.

The girl shook her head. They were not getting out of this until they played the shadow person's game. That's what they needed to figure out.

Both of them tried to brainstorm when they heard the creature roaring again. They ran from the noise trying to find a place to hide. Flapjack chirped at one of the memories.

"We can't invade my uncle's memories He'll drag us into his subconscious if we invade them."

At least you still be alive if you go inside!" Flapjack snapped at his bonded witch.

Luz didn't hesitate as she pushed the teenager through. She crawled into the memory as the creature roared again. The teens found themselves in the memory of Belos explaining the wishes of the Titan.

The crowd listened for a few minutes. As some of them started to drift away, an explosion happened. Belos was shouting that wild witches were after him.

As the smoke cleared, Flapjack whistled for the teenagers to follow him. The cardinal palisman revealed the truth behind the attack.

Belos was berating a past Golden Guard. "You incompetent fool! You nearly took my head off with that last blast!"

The past Golden Guard dipped his head submissively before apologizing. Both teenagers noticed how the guard flinched when Belos told him they were going to another town.

He nervously asked what he should do with the rest of the explosives. When Belos told him to put on a bigger show, Hunter gasped. "Why would he want to blow up more of the town?"

"The question you should be asking is why did he want to blow up his stage on purpose," Flapjack chirped softly.

The kids got out of the memory. The mindscape appeared to have dimmed further while they were in the memory.

A childish laugh filled the air. The kids looked around trying to find the source. "I hope you are loving my game of truth or dare! Isn't it a lot of fun to discover what's real or fake?"

Luz demanded to know where the person was. Another round of cackles was heard. She was beginning to despise that sound.

"I'm not telling you. If you play my game, you'll find out my name!"

Hunter shouted they would play the person's game. "What do you want us to do next?"

"I dare each of you to go into a different version of one memory. One is false and one is true. You'll have to tell me which one is which!"

Two trees containing the same painting rolled up them. On the surface, they didn't look any different. They would have to go inside.

Luz stepped inside the memory. She shivered as she observed her surroundings. She was in a large ice cave that looked a bit familiar.

"Isn't this Slitherback's cave? Why would Belos be in here?" She edged closer to the fire to warm her astral body up.

Glancing to the side, she was surprised to see a table with strange ingredients on it. She recognized a few of the ingredients. There was palistrom wood, a gaulderstone, and two magenta-colored gems.

But she didn't recognize the other ingredients. There were scales of a creature, a bony plant, and, what appeared to be a stone sculpture in the shape of a pair of lungs. There was also an old tome open to a page with the word, "grimwalker" on it.

Something told her to look behind her. Turning around she gasped! There was a body frozen in a giant slab of ice!

The ice was too thick to pinpoint any details. The only thing she could be definitive about was the body was male. She flinched when she heard something being dragged.

It was a large cauldron with strange markings on it. They looked similar to glyph magic. At the same time, there were much more jagged and resembled words rather than shapes.

A much younger Belos was pouring what appeared to be tar into the cauldron. He opened two beakers, both emitted a distinct odor. One was boiling seawater, and the other was blood.

Eda said to never use blood magic. It's dangerous because it enhances the power of the spell. At the same time, it leaves you vulnerable to being exploited by someone using the blood.

Luz didn't want to see anymore. She ran out of Belos' memory as the sound of ingredients mixing was heard. Outside the memory, she panted and tried to make sense of what she saw.

"Hunter? Where are you? Hunter!" The boy was nowhere to be seen and the other painting was gone. "Where did you send my friend?"

"Relax, he passed my test and I dared him to enter one of Belos's memories with him in it." The shadow person replied. They materialized in front of Luz. "Are you enjoying my game, big sis?"

"NO! You're purposely trying to traumatize me!" she exclaimed. The teenager sat on the ground. She pulled off her jacket and looked at her tattoo. "Do you know what this is?"

The shadow person nodded and waited for Luz to continue. "I was enslaved, treated like an animal. I was subjected to torture under Belos' command. I have a strong suspicion it was Kikimora who made me go wild."

Taking a ragged breath, she went on. "I have been experimented on, lost my freedom, and I'm trapped in the Boiling Isles. All I want right now is my mom."

The shadow person studied her. The being didn't completely understand what was going on. They only knew that their big sis was upset.

"The game is no fun if I make you cry. So, I'll bring the other two here for a final surprise"

Hunter and Flapjack instantly appeared next to Luz. He looked very frightened. Flapjack shivered on his shoulder.

Seeing the shadow person, he immediately dropped into a defensive stance. "I am having a hard time understanding why you sent me into that memory, Collector."

Luz's entire body tensed when she heard that. "You're The Collector? If you were found by Phillip, why are you working with Belos?"

At that moment, all her encounters between The Collector and Belos finally made sense. As well as why Belos would devour the magic inside the palismens.

"Belos is Phillip Witterbane, isn't he?"

The Collector made a dinging sound. "Correct! Phillip learned about me from my worshippers, The Titan Trappers. They're a bit insane, but I still like them. I do wish they would have succeeded in their mission."

Hunter pointed out there were no more titans. Wasn't that their mission? The Collector giggled, "Not exactly. There is one baby Titan left somewhere in the demon realm."

Storing that information for later, Luz regained The Collector's attention. "How is Phillip still alive and why are you helping him?"

The Collector was indifferent as he explained the truth. "That beastly roar is from the combined souls of the palismens he consumed. They gave him magic and prolonged his life. They keep struggling to free themselves to warn others."

"As for helping him, that's simple! Once the draining spell is complete, then he'll let me out of my prison. I can't wait to play in the real world again!"

"How are you going to do that if he uses Luz and me to destroy the fallen Titan and the creatures on it?" Hunter demanded. Flapjack nudged him so he was looking at Luz as he started to explain.

"Belos said it wasn't enough to kill every sentient creature on the Boiling Isles. There's a prophecy that a magical human and powerless witch can reopen the Demon Gate. That power would go through the heart and across the land."

"Anything with magic would be obliterated by the enhanced Titan's blood!" Luz realized. That's why he wanted her back so badly! The reason he accepted her grim offer.

The word reminded her of what she saw earlier. "Hunter, do you know what a grimwalker is?"

The teenager shrugged having never heard that term before. Flapjack started panicking upon hearing that word. He was chirping excessively.

"Flapjack, slow down. What are you trying to say?" The Golden Guard got waterier. Whatever his palisman was telling him was not good news.

The Collector seem amused by what Flapjack was saying. He giggled and changed his shape to match Hunter's.

Luz told him to knock it off. "Hunter, what did Flapjack say?"

Hunter didn't respond. He seemed to be in shock unable to process the world around him. "What's wrong? Hunter, speak to me, please."

Getting no response, she locked eyes with The Collector. "You like games, right? Then how about I tell you three truths about myself if you tell me what Flapjack said."

The Collector told her to go first. Luz confessed one time when she was nine, she tried to use her origami skills to fix her mom's hood ornaments and ended up damaging the front bumper because she kept jumping on it to reach the ornament.

Her second truth was that she was training herself to be ambidextrous in case she ever lost her dominant hand to amputation. The last truth was that she was jealous that her new basilisk sister was the perfect daughter.

Admitting the last one hurt a lot. She didn't know what Vee did with the missing pages. Part of her hoped that Vee never showed her mom them, despite a smaller one wanting her mom to read them.

The Collector remarked her truths were interesting and informative. "Your Golden Guard here is the latest model in a long line of clones. Belos wanted a better version after killing Caleb."

"All it takes is a few ingredients, bits of a person's body, add a dash of witch's blood to hold the whole person together, and boom! You have a grimwalker! A magicless witch-like clone!"

Luz discovered that an astral body could throw up as she emptied her guts under a slashed memory. The body in the ice was Phillip/Belos's brother?! Who in their right mind, kills their brother to bring him back as a mindless clone?!

Seeing the kids' reactions to their revelations they wondered if maybe Belos was right in keeping his secrets. Oh well, the kids knew the truth now.

"So, I think I'll end our playdate for tonight. Take a day to figure out what games you want to play next. Bye!"

Luz shot up in bed. It was the middle of the night, but she didn't care. She needed to get up.

Putting on her shoes, she hustled down the stairs and out the door. She was halfway toward the border when she stopped. She needed to think this through.

Hunter knew how to take care of himself. The Collector might still be playing with Belos's mind. The teenager might have already gotten a headstart on his escape.

There had to be another way to help. She remembered the casual remark The Collector had made about there being a baby titan Perhaps there was something in the library about what baby titans looked like so she could as them for help.

I can't risk Amity's job at the library. How am I going to get in?

A few loud squeaks alerted her to Mousy's presence. Her beloved pet had been sleeping in the pocket of her jacket.

"Mousy! You use to live at the library. Do you think you can help me?"

Mousy nodded and clapped his paws. He was eager to be of service to his mistress.

The echo mouse showed Luz a secret mouse size hole in the back of the library. He went inside and a few minutes later, the doors opened letting her inside.

"Okay, don't think about books coming to life. You're not going to be sewn into a book," she whispered. She went over to the crystal balls to run a search.

She searched for anything on Titan Trappers. One book came up and Mousy went to get it. Two minutes later a small group of echo mice brought a slim book over to her.

"The Grand Huntsman's Code. Must be their sacred text." She leafed through the book learning about the group. They were truly gruesome.

According to their lore, the demon world started as a gigantic piece of land covering most of the world. One of the first creatures to walk among these lands was the Titans.

These massive and powerful demons had no compassion. They decimated the land in the quest for power. Their appetites were voracious leaving almost nothing for any other demons to eat.

The trappers prayed for help from the stars. A powerful star prince, neither witch nor demon, came to aid the trappers. With his help, they managed to trap and kill most of the Titans.

The surviving Titans rallied around the most powerful of them all. His roar was strong enough to shake the world. His mind was crafty and his fur so thick nothing could penetrate his hide.

The Titan King was able to push the trappers back. Keep them and the Grand Huntsman from killing any more of his kind. To bring the Titan King down, they needed to know his weakness.

The Titan King's weakness was his family. The trappers' managed to kill his queen but couldn't find her offspring's egg. The Titan King located a secret island and left his unhatched offspring there, using powerful magic to hide it from the star prince.

The Titan King managed to seal the Grand Huntsman away in the In-between dimension using a magic mirror. His dead body fell into the sea and eventually became the Boiling Isles.

Luz closed the book as she thought about what she just read. The story sounded extremely familiar. The description of the Titan King also reminded her of someone close to her.

"Mousey, please. Is there anything in the forbidden stacks about titan anatomy? Drawings of what they looked like when they had flesh on their bones?"

Mousy ran over to his friends. They chittered amongst each other for a few minutes. Seconds later, a very elderly echo mouse approached Luz.

She gingerly picked the mouse up and whispered kind words to the creature. Slowly, she reached into her windbreaker's pocket. Pulling out a tiny carrot she offered it to the elder mouse.

Once the elderly echo mouse had its fill, its eyes lit up as it started to display the book it ate. It was a field guide study done on the few known titans across the realm.

They were classified into three distinct classes: Sky, Ocean, and Land. The drawing of the sky titans reminded her of pterosaurs. The ones from the oceans reminded her of the Loch Ness Monster. But it was the one for land that stood out.

The author of the field study had discovered chunks of bone that were forming tiny islands, which changed the anatomy of the land Titan. It wasn't an exact match, but it was enough to be conclusive.

"King's a Titan. King is the son of the Boiling Isles?!" Luz exclaimed. It was a lot to process only there wasn't time to do so. She had to return and warn her family about what was going to transpire on the Day of Unity.

She was heading out when she doubled over in pain. Her stomach and intestines were being shoved out of place. The teenager felt her skin heating up.

Luz wished the throbbing in her head would stop. The arm with the tattoo went numb. She couldn't move it at all.

That's when the tattoo reappeared, only the color had changed. It wasn't purple anymore. It was the sickly green color that was on Belos's face.

Something started leaking out of the skin art. The greenish-black sludge trailed off her arm and pooled on the floor. Mousy squeaked in shock when the slime took shape.

It was the shape of a shark's head. It snapped at the teenager who scooted back. Sludge continued to spill out of her tattoo before taking shape of what she suspected were palismens souls

"Mousy, we need to go now!" Luz shouted. Her echo mouse jumped into her good hand. Using her magic, the human witch teleported back to the Owl House.

The sun was just starting to rise. The forest dwellers were enjoying its warmth after a cold night. At the Owl House, everyone was still sleeping.

Eda was sleeping in her nest when she was awoken by a large explosion. "What in the name of the Titan?" She tried to hop out of her nest, only for her legs to detach.

Grumbling, she reattached them and hurried into the main hall. She was joined by her son and her sister. Lilith's hair was half black and half red. She had been in the process of re-dying when the explosion occurred.

"What's going on? Is Hootsfier alright?"

"He better not be playing with my potions again!"

"If that's the reason he woke me up early, I'm going to have Jean Luc cut him in half!"

To the Clawthorns surprise, Owlbert and Nevermore sped out of the bedroom to the living room. They were in a panic making it hard to understand them. Eda heard two words she never wanted to hear in the same sentence: Luz and dying.

Eda didn't even realize she had transformed into her harpy self until she held Luz in her arms in midair. She was horrified by the condition her foster daughter was in.

"Luz, what happened? What is going on? Luz!"

The teenager's words came out garbled. "Eda, The Collector, they/he? Draining…on the Day…Unity. Hunter…danger…safe. Palismens…magic…King…titan."

The teenager passed out, and Eda let out a frustrated cry. "Can't we go one week without Luz getting sick or hurt?" she demanded to the universe.