Chapter Three
"So what are we looking for again?" Luz asked as she followed Eda into the woods of a park.
"Anything that looks like it comes from your neck of the woods," Eda said, clutching her ornate walking stick capped with an owl figurine. Luz had been surprised to find that Eda owned a witch's staff, an emotion that had paled in comparison to the shock upon learning that she had carved it herself from real palistrom wood!
Apparently, Eda had gotten her hands on a book of staff lore and had stumbled upon a chunk of palistrom wood — unmistakable by its unique texture and wood grain — and had decided to try her hand at it. The rite to animate the paliman had somehow worked, though "Owlbert" had only had the strength for a single hoot of greeting and conjuring his staff before he went dormant, as he'd largely been for the nearly three decades since. Apparently, he'd only woken up eight times since his carving.
King pushed past them, his nose snuffling at the ground as he searched out artifacts. "I got something," he called, and darted forward into the underbrush. Eda and Luz were close behind for a good five minute jog before they stumbled upon a collection of odds and ends that looked like it came from the dump back in Bonesborough, where Luz had grown up. The detritus had washed up on the shore of a pond hidden by a grove of willow trees and looked worn enough to be mistaken for antiques.
"Oh, yeah! Pay dirt!" Eda shouted, rushing forward to begin gathering her wares. Luz was … less than enthusiastic.
"So, Eda," she ventured with a forced smile, "what if we tried something a little different?" She ducked under a bard's flute with the enchantment script filed off. "I mean, we could actually use these things. You know, sell them for what they are …?"
"Nah," Eda deflected, "humans can't use them. There's not enough magic in the air. Heck, it can barely keep up that family across town."
"Family?" Luz asked.
Had it been possible, Eda would have gone paler. "Oh, farts," she groaned, rubbing her forehead with her fingers.
"Are there other witches here?" Luz asked, her eyes wide with shock and hope.
"I can't tell you, Luz," Eda said sternly. "I shouldn't have even let that slip." She gave Luz a heavy look, one that silently told her that no other information would come out of her … while also confirming what little she had let slip.
"I just realized," Luz said in an over-the-top fashion, "that I left something back at the shop. I'm gonna go get it."
"Uh-huh," Eda drolled, her lips twitching. "I'll finish up here and meet ya back there. 'Kay?"
"You got it!" Luz shouted, turning on her heel and racing off.
"You're slipping," King noted wryly.
"Stow it, Mutt," Eda deadpanned. "And back at it!"
As the Owl Lady and her demon companion kept scavenging for goods, Luz jogged for the city proper. The very idea that there were more witches in Gravesfield than just her was even more joyous than she could have expected! She jogged until the stitch in her side made her stumble to a halt as she leaned against a tree. "Oh Titan, that hurts," she groaned. "I gotta start working out, or something."
"You can do it!"
Luz stood up in surprise at the voice that echoed through the trees. "Mysterious voice of encouragement …?" she asked, walking toward the sound. "It better not be a ghost," she added bitterly. Luz parted some bushes to find a girl her age sitting on a tree root in a small clearing, dressed in what looked like a school uniform and twiddling her thumbs with clear apprehension as she looked away from a wheelbarrow covered by a tarp. "Ooh, a local," Luz whispered with a fascinated smile.
This girl was a little shorter than average, with dark hair that hung at chin-length to frame large, canted eyes of a bright emerald-green set in a round face with fair skin behind a pair of round glasses. At first glance she seemed chubby, but in an adorable, natural way that hid the full curves seen at the second glance.
"You can do it!" the girl said again, now clearly speaking to herself as she began pacing around the clearing. "Even if you get a bad grade, it won't completely destroy your GPA! And Dad's right about there being opportunities in this field." Her eyes grew frigiley determined. "Now, time for school!"
In her built-up enthusiasm, the girl had stepped on a flower, which she noticed after the fact. She gasped and knelt before it, apologizing as if she'd harmed a sapient creature. …Then she glanced around before tracing a spell circle — Luz would recognize one anywhere! — that sprinkled fine motes of emerald magic to restore the flower to full bloom.
"No way!" Luz whispered. There was no way she was that lucky!
Just as the girl seemed relaxed with a soft, easy smile, she tensed at the sound of wheels approaching. Into the clearing rolled another wheelbarrow with a tarp, this one ridden by another girl reading a book.
The second girl, also Luz's age, was as lean and angular as the first was rounded. She was slim and taller, about Luz's height, with mint-green hair pulled back into a short tail. Her skin was alabaster to the first girl's faintest tan, her eyes wide, but sharp and dark with eyeliner that made her golden-brown irises pop. She had a strong jaw and Luz noticed lean muscle that contrasted subtle curves of her own. In addition to the uniform, she wore an orchid pendant and dark bracelets, as well as a star-shaped pin on her left breast.
"Willow," the second girl said with something … odd in her tone. Like condescension, but … not? Huh? The girl slid down from her own wheelbarrow. "Wow, you're so bland I almost rolled into you." There was the full condescension.
"Hi, Amity," the first girl, Willow, said carefully.
"Willow, shouldn't you get to class early?" Amity asked, her tone now cold, devoid of real emotion. "To prepare your-?" Willow's wheelbarrow tilted and tipped over, the tarp falling away to reveal a ragtag assembly of metal pieces and wires that sparked and went dead. "Oh, Willow," Amity said in disappointment, "you don't have anything to show." Willow turned away and hugged herself, her cheeks burning with shame. "See, this right here," Amity said as she rubbed her eyes with one hand, "is why they call you 'halfwit'." She smirked and placed a hand on her chest.
"I, on the other hand …" She whipped something that looked like a controller from her jacket and typed in a command. The tarp fell from her wheelbarrow to reveal something that looked to Luz like a metal Abomination. It spread its arms as if to show off before Amity typed in another, longer command. The metal machine revealed a marker from its finger and traced a star on Willow's forehead. "You're a star," the machine droned before retracting and folding back down into a crouch.
"Aww, it's like mine," Amity said. "But meaningless." She turned on her heel and picked up her wheelbarrow to move along. "See you in class, Superstar," she called back. As Amity passed her hiding place, Luz stuck her tongue out at her back, recalling bullies of her own from back home at her school, Hexside, from her attempts to join multiple magic tracks. And the incidents that had arisen from her experiments.
"Oh, see you in class, Superstar," Willow mimicked before angrily wiping away the marker. "I hate it when you do that, Amity!" Luz winced in sympathy. "I hate robotics, I hate failing …!" She began breathing heavily, her eyes screwed shut and color rising up her neck to paint her cheeks. "Gah! I can't take it anymore!"
Willow's eyes burst open, glowing vibrant solid green. Luz's eyes widened in shock, the image pricking something in her memory, before the ground beneath Willow swelled and erupted with massive, thorny vines that swayed and lashed with her fury. Luz was so stunned at the sheer power of the display that she failed to notice a vine wrap around her ankle and haul her into the air with a yelp of surprise.
Luz oriented herself and traced an orange spell circle, swiftly adding in a sigil within the circle, that froze the vine solid and had it snap to free her. She tumbled to the ground and prepared to draw upon the reserves of her bile sac, silently debating on whether to burn the vines with fire or try to pit her own not-inconsiderable plant magic against Willow's. Willow turned to face her, her glowing eyes hard and frightening … before the glow faded and Willow gasped, her hands clapped to her lips.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she shouted, gently directing the plants away.
"It's okay," Luz said flippantly, already willing to forgive, "the thorns barely hurt." Luz's easygoing smile faded as Willow looked at her closely.
"Your ears …" she whispered. Luz held her hands to her ears and noticed that Willow's were round, like a human's. Willow gasped, this time with shock and obvious joy. "You're a witch!" she said, her lips spread in a joyous smile. "This is amazing! Another witch on Earth! How'd you get here? What're you doing here? Can you go back?"
"Well, I-" Luz's answers were cut off by the distant sound of a bell.
"Oh, right," Willow said, visibly wilting, "I have school. Can't miss disappointing my teacher." She waved. "Nice to meet you," she said with a sad smile before moving to pick up her machine.
"Hold on!" Luz said, holding out her hand for a shake. "I'm Luz of Bonesborough. And you're Willow, right?" She glanced down and smiled. "I'm not bad at plant magic myself, but what you just did with the vines was … Titan's bones, it was amazing!"
"Thanks," Willow said, "but I shouldn't even be doing magic. My parents and I have to hide what we are. Plus, there's not a lot of magic to go around."
Luz's mouth fell open. "So it's not just me?" she asked. "I've felt exhausted ever since I came here."
"No, it's not just you," Willow said with that same sad smile. "My dads say they felt the same way when they came here. Because there's so little magic in this world, it takes forever to replenish your magic bile." Willow glanced at her project, her lips pressed in ire. "Not that it really matters when you're building these dumb things." She kicked the wheelbarrow. "I just wish I could get just one good grade!" She looked up and turned back to Luz. "I'm so sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to unload that on you."
"Oh no, it's fine," Luz said, flicking her hand in dismissal. "It's like having a friend." Her smile faded a bit. "I don't have many of those. Or any, really."
"I can relate," Willow said, her sad smile back.
Luz blinked in surprise. Seriously? But Willow was so pretty, and if that display was any indication she had serious latent power, too. Back at Hexside, she'd probably be bombarded with friends and admirers. Luz glanced down at the metal pieces that were spilled around Willow's project and smiled as an idea came to her. "Well, you've got one in me, Willow." She held out her hand again. "I'm Luz Noceda," she offered.
Willow looked at the offered hand in something like disbelief before she smiled and lifted a hand to brush her fingers against a ring on her middle finger. The ring, set with what Luz recognized as a small concealment stone, flashed with sky-blue light and a glamour faded to reveal her own pointed ears. "I'm Willow Park," she replied, taking Luz's hand in a shake.
"It's nice to meet you, Willow," Luz said cheerily. Then her smile turned devious, her lips twisting in a feline grin as she nudged bits of metal with the toe of her shoe. "And as your friend, I have an idea on getting you that good grade."
Willow had little trouble hauling her wheelbarrow to school. Few cared to ask, but she worked out every morning and her natural pudge covered quite a bit of muscle. As she maneuvered through the halls, Willow kept a sharp eye out for Amity, Boscha, and even Hunter. She'd thought about his words on Friday in the back of her mind all weekend, and she wasn't sure how she would react when she saw him again.
Willow unlocked her locker and began to switch out her books when someone bumped into her. Not the harsh jostle of Boscha, but like someone didn't see where they were going. Willow looked backward to find Augustus — known to her as Gus — her only friend at Hexside, with his face buried in a book about the history of shamans and similar figures.
"Willow, you would not believe how humans view witches," he cackled.
"Witches?!" Willow yelped. "I haven't … seen any. Wha?" She laughed nervously as she felt sweat bead her brow. Luckily, Gus was too deep in his "journalist mode" to notice her awful lie.
"Did you know that in Viking-era Scandinavia, the magic of seidr was considered a woman-only pursuit, and men learning it was considered a cultural shame! Why?" He calmed down a bit. "Though, it is kinda progressive for that time for a woman-only great power."
"Recognize, brother!" came Luz's voice from under Willow's tarp. Gus blinked in surprise and looked from the tarp to Willow.
"Okay, Gus, I've got something to show you. But you have to be cool about it."
"I can be cool!" he shouted enthusiastically, already the opposite of cool-headed.
Willow chuckled and pulled out the controller she would have used for her automaton had she calibrated it right. Or, you know, had a functioning machine. "And here's the introduction," she said, as if thinking out loud.
A humanoid shape plated in steel rose up and spoke. "Tada! I'm an automaton! Willow rules!"
"Luz, that's not how robots act," Willow pointed out nervously.
Gus looked baffled before his eyes widened as he made a leap of intuition. "No. It can't be."
The "robot" removed its helmet to reveal a girl with tanned skin, brown hair in a pixie cut … and pointed ears. "What's up, little man?" she asked.
"You're a-!" Gus gasped before Willow slapped her hand over his mouth.
"Gus, remember what you promised last year," she said evenly. Gus relaxed and nodded against her palm before she released him. "This is Luz," Willow said, gesturing to her as Luz slipped her helmet back on and then opened the faceplate so she could be seen without exposing her ears. "And yes, she's … like me."
"Unbelievable," Gus said in awe. "And she's actually, y'know … from there?" He winced and glanced at Willow's downcast look. "Sorry, Willow! I mean she's lived there like … all her life?"
"Sure have," Luz confirmed. "And Willow's told me all about you, Gus. The intrepid reporter who found the truth and befriended your fellow outcast."
"You know about me!" Gus said, removing a paper pad and pen from his coat pockets. "Okay, just a few dozen questions about your homeland! First off-!" He was cut off by the bell ringing. "Ah nuts, I gotta get to English." He ran off with his paper, pen, and book. "See ya later, Willow and friend!"
"Aw, he's cute," Luz commented. "Like a puppy, not like a stud."
"He's a sweetheart and a great friend," Willow said. Then she tilted her head to look at Luz from over her glasses. "Now back into the darkness you go~!" she said sweetly.
"Yes, master," Luz droned, drawing upon her experience with Abominations for inspiration. Willow nodded in approval and got moving to her own class.
Hunter's eyes were harder than steel as he focused on the sketch of a grotesque. For his advanced architecture class, he'd decided to try his hand at designing and building a miniature cathedral made of actual stone. He'd taken to drawing out the grotesques and gargoyles in his spare time over the weekend … mostly to distract himself from thinking about the events that had happened before.
First off was being attacked by a basilisk. Hunter had read as much as he could about the Boiling Isles from the sources his uncle had scrounged up, and what the few more modern demon realm books he'd gotten his hands on claimed, that species of demon should have been extinct. Guess the authors missed a few.
Hunter had been raised on stories of the Boiling Isles passed down from his uncle Philip, who claimed that one of their ancestors — Philip Wittebane the First, his uncle Philip the Second's supposed namesake — had traveled there by accident and labored for five years to successfully return. But the method to return to Earth was useless in a world with as little magic as the human realm, and so Philip of olde had devoted his life and his incredible intellect to improving his home.
If he were completely honest, Hunter had started to believe that his uncle's tales were just that: tall tales. He'd been discouraged by the lack of evidence aside from Philip's readings of "faint magic" that could have been electromagnetic radiation or any other phenomenon. But then that thing, that serpentine monstrosity that went after him for the pendant around his neck that it claimed held magic, had come for him. And while he had subdued it — with help — it was living proof that his uncle's stories were at least based on facts!
Which led to his second point of thought: Ms. Willow Park. A real-life witch.
Hunter could hardly believe his eyes as he'd witnessed Willow command common house plants and encourage exponential growth and free movement in the span of seconds, her will and her power molding them into lashing, thorny tentacles that had bound a beast demon thrice Hunter's size! The basilisk had sapped the magic from its restraints and turned on Willow, but that had given Hunter the opening he needed to taze it into submission.
Part of the reason he had spoken with Willow on Friday was to see how she was holding up. Another had been to talk to, you know, an actual witch! And yet another had been to warn her of his genuine concerns.
Travel between the human and demon realms with any form of reliability was supposed to be so difficult as to be almost impossible. And this basilisk had come to Gravesfield … after a Puppeteer. Hunter had tracked stories of a monster in the parks luring joggers to rob and interrogate them, and had even caught a glimpse of it before sightings abruptly disappeared. The disappearance had been disappointing, but the implications of its very presence were … unsettling.
Hunter had a gut feeling that something was coming, something mankind had never seen before. This city needed a protector, and while Hunter would have jumped at the chance to do so — you could blame his childhood closet full of superhero comics for that — he knew that he wasn't the best option.
Willow was. A bonafide witch of the Boiling Isles.
Hunter's line of thought was broken by the bell ringing for the next period. Athletics.
Hunter gathered his things and headed for the locker room, reading his favorite book along the way: the Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles. It described the Isles as the carcass of a powerful fallen Titan of eons past, a colossus whose carcass laying in the Boiling Sea now served as an archipelago for an entire society. It described the chaotic Savage Ages and feared Emperor Belos who had ended them. And it described the coven system the Emperor had put in place to make it happen. Hunter wondered, not for the first time, how old the book was and if this Emperor Belos and his coven system were still a reality on the Boiling Isles.
Hunter quickly changed and entered the indoor track, casually glancing around for Willow. First he found Amity Blight and ever-so-slightly curled his lip. The Blight family owned and operated Blight Industries, a "security" manufactory that secretly sold off arms to the highest bidder. Given their size and purpose, they were the main competitors of Empire Enterprises. And it was no secret that Odalia, the matriarch of the family, hoped to unite the companies by marrying one of her children off to Hunter.
He'd been pressured to go out once with Amity's older sister Emira, who was thankfully in a different Athletics period, and had not much enjoyed himself. She was witty and charming and he had to admit was quite lovely. But she had no sense of purpose or duty, concerned only with entertaining herself and her siblings. That was an immediate turn-off.
His uncle had been very apologetic about the whole thing, confiding that he was worried about Hunter not dating in school. Hunter had assured Philip that he was fine as he was for the time being and didn't want to "fish." He would make a move when he found a girl he felt was worth the effort; one who was probably pretty, but more than that was smart, who was passionate, and who above all else was kind. That, thankfully, had kept his uncle from setting him up with Amity.
Hunter glanced around again as he went through his own preparatory stretches and finally found Willow. She was standing to the side and apparently hiding herself behind her arms. He lifted an eyebrow at that — she was actually quite pretty, so why be shy about it? — before deciding that self-esteem issues could arise in anyone.
As the coach called everyone together, Hunter made his way to stand beside Willow as he'd done the previous Friday. He caught the scent of roses when he was around her and it … soothed him. Hmm.
Hunter was putting his things up in his locker when the alarms went off. What in the-?! Hunter's stomach twisted and he ran for the robotics wing of the school, some instinct warning him that this had to do with Willow. Had she been discovered as a witch?! Had something else appeared in the school?
Hunter slid on his knees under a barricade blast door that lowered to block off the hallway from the school's central hall. Hunter glanced up at the spiraling halls that surrounded the circular main chamber and ran calculations that he'd idly gone through a million times over the last few years attending Westside. Calculations for climbing between floors. With parkour.
Hunter took a running start and leapt for the next floor from the railing, catching it by his hands and hauling himself up. He repeated the process until he reached the robotics floor and looked around. He noticed a line of automatons patrolling the circular landing when he felt something come at him from behind. He spun out of the range of one of the robots and continued the spin to kick it in the chest and send it sprawling.
"Jerk," Hunter groused with a faint smirk. His smirk faded as the hairs on the backs of his neck and arms stood up and he ducked behind a pillar — just in time to avoid a wave of green that rushed past. Hunter tracked the course of the wave — actually a twisting mass of vines — that rammed into the school's Principal Robinson and lifted him to crash into the ceiling.
Wow.
Also, what was happening?
Willow put aside the spent seed and ran for the door with Luz. Luckily, the few students that had stuck around when school ended had ducked into classrooms at the sound of the alarm blaring and left plenty of empty space without onlookers. They were close when a group of robots cut them off, led by a haggard and furious-looking Amity. "I'm not letting you get away so easily! That badge belongs to me!" She pulled out her controller and pressed a central button. "Seize!" she shouted, and the group of robots charged.
"I got this," Luz whispered and traced two spell circles behind her back that she layered on top of each other, and suddenly fog was billowing from her hands to fill the hallway. With cover, Luz launched balls of fire at one of the robots that melted through its outer shell and destroyed the circuits within. That was one down, but there was no way fighting them all wouldn't waste too much time for security to arrive. Willow traced a circle and trapped the robots in a net of leftover vines.
"Get out of here!" she said, her tone heavy with strain.
"What? I'm not leaving you!"
"I may get detention, but you'll be arrested. So go now!" Willow commanded the vines to scoop Luz up, away, and out the front doors of the school. Just in time for an automaton to break free and charge at her. Willow paled at the ache in her chest from using so much magic, her stamina not near what it could be without proper training, and the sudden pain brought her to her knees where couldn't properly defend herself. She looked away, and a metallic clang echoed through the hall … but she felt no pain.
Willow looked up to find Hunter standing over her before he charged with a blinding series of punches that opened up the robot's casing and left it vulnerable to him tearing out its circuits. He was breathing heavily as he looked back to regard her with … soft eyes. "You okay?" he asked.
Willow squeaked, suddenly incapable of speech, but she was able to bring herself to nod.
"Who is responsible for this?!" Principal Robinson's voice tore through the hall as he strode forward in his academic robe and stole, his long and incredibly shiny midnight hair pulled back in a calf-length tail. His single brown eye flashed in contrast to the simple black eyepatch that covered the other.
"Her!" Amity stomped forward over vines to point accusingly at Willow. "Who else, sir? I don't know how, but Willow Park did this!"
The principal looked at Willow, then at Hunter, and then back to Willow. "Do you contest these charges, Ms. Park?"
"No sir," Willow whispered, bowing her head in shame.
"Principal Robinson-" Hunter started, but the man lifted a hand to forestall anything else.
"Ms. Park …" he said, his voice stern, "…it seems you have long been on the wrong academic track." All three students looked at him in shock at the words. He did not smile, but his eyes flashed with something like amusement. "I cannot imagine how you managed to make this happen, but it demonstrates an aptitude for botany that I have yet to see matched. As such, in light of your clear grounds for expulsion in the robotics track, you will officially be transferred to the botany track. Effective first-thing tomorrow."
"Willow!" Gus ran toward them and slid to a halt, clutching at a stitch in his side. "Don't expel her, sir! I-!"
"Calm down, Augustus, no one is being expelled," Robinson said, then glanced at Willow. "Unless you would prefer that?" he asked. Willow shook her head, her face pale. "Very well," Robinson said with amusement in his voice. "I will handle the paperwork myself. Until then, I believe the school day is over and I have calls to make about getting all of this cleaned up." He flicked his hand at the doors. "Good day, students."
As he turned away to pick his way over vines and presumably make his way back to his office, Amity shot a narrow-eyed glare at Willow and an even more spiteful one at Hunter before rushing to catch up, asking about extra credit in her robotics classes for her role in apprehending the trespasser.
"Well, that was different," Hunter said. He looked at Willow, who blushed and looked down at her collapsed hands. "Willow? Is there anywhere you need to be?"
Willow looked up in surprise at the offer and was about to decline when part of her conversation with Luz from earlier in the day came to mind. She glanced at Gus, who looked back in confusion, and replied, "Actually, if you don't mind … Do you know where the Owl House is?"
"Yes, thank you, Principal Robinson," Philip said into an earpiece as he typed at his laptop. "I assure you, I will have a team of my finest botanists and construction workers there within the hour to handle the situation. Yes, of course. … Yes, please keep me informed. Have a wonderful day."
Philip ended the call and quickly stored the recorded conversation in a personal server to review later. With that done, he accessed the security footage of Westside. He winced at the fact that this was only dubiously legal due to his company's contract to equip the school with said cameras, and a clause that they could access the grid for reasons pertaining to Empire's interests. Then he shook it off to discuss with the principal later and ran an analysis program.
Philip left the program to run as he took out his personal phone and called his nephew. It rang thrice before Hunter picked up. "Hunter? Oh, thank heavens. Principal Robinson called and said there was an incident at the school. Are you alright?" He listened intently as Hunter explained some clearly-altered tale about a mad-scientist-type student who was messing with experimental fertilizers. He also caught laughter on the line, but not from his nephew. Did Hunter … have friends with him? Philip smiled at the thought before focusing again.
"I'm glad to hear you're alright, m'boy," he said. "I'll see you at home later. Goodbye." Philip hung up and brushed his chin in thought. Then the footage program pinged to indicate it was finished. Philip checked the compiled feed and his eyes widened at what he saw.
A bespectacled student cast a spell circle over a single large seed that then burst into a plethora of vines to capture Principal Robinson. Her companion, a classically Hispanic-looking girl casting spells that created a thick mist, with flashes within the mist implying further magic. Then the vague outline of the first girl commanding the vines around them.
Philip leaned back in his chair and turned what he had seen over in his mind. His suspicions about witches in Gravesfield were correct, it would seem. And for quite some time in the case of that first girl in a student's uniform. Philip entered a program that would scrub the evidence from the security footage, blurring it to make identification impossible.
That done, Philip input one last command into his laptop, focusing on a short feed of Hunter battling an automaton to protect the witch girl. The same one who had conjured the vines … much like he had seen on the fringes of the feed with the basilisk.
"God Almighty," Philip said, "what will come next?"
Chapter three, everybody!
*I decided to dig into Gus's interest in journalism hinted at in "Understanding Willow" with his journalism class and article that took up the B-plot. It was also really fun to turn his canon interest in humans on its head with an interest in magic and its practitioners - since I myself have a similar academic interest. It was easy to relate to it, and thus write it. **Also, the bit about seidr was all true!
*The events of Willow's presentation, the event in the cafeteria, and the principal's introduction occurred largely the same as canon. Why re-hash something that's already just fine, right?
*Yes, Luz's style of spellcasting is different from those we've seen in canon. Feel free to theorize - it will be explained later.
*For those of you who are wondering, Philip II is a caring and attentive guardian, if easily distracted by his research. How will the reveal of canon!Philip's ... demeanor impact the story? Wait and see! It was very fun to adjust and adapt the narrative.
If you like what you've seen, leave a review! I love to hear your thoughts. And may your own works be fruitful and fun!
