Lilith stood near the top rung of the ladder, looking carefully at each volume that sat in the tall bookcase. Amity, sat cross-legged nearby in a velvet chair, flipping through an encyclopedia. The sketch of the off-looking pictogram Luz had taken from the Emperor's palace, lay on a footstool at Amity's side. Lilith moved her eyes along the spines of the books, then turned to look at Amity.

"Any luck?"

"Nope, not yet," Amity replied, flipping back her azure green hair.

"Keep looking. If you don't find anything in that one, try the next in that series."

"Will do."

For the next few minutes, the only sounds that could be heard in the Owl House library were the flipping of pages and movement of books, in and out of the shelves. As Lilith looked through one book (entitled A History of Pre-Unified Boiling Isles), Amity broke the silence.

"You know, we haven't really been together since..."

Amity's voice trailed off, realizing the old wounds she just opened. Even though it had been nearly a year, Amity was still embarrassed from that day.

Lilith stopped reading for a moment, glancing over at the big, cushioned, purple couch that sat at the far wall. Amity looked up at her mentor and noticed her staring at the couch, a subtle, melancholy look on her face.

"I...I'm sorry for bringing it up."

Lilith closed her eyes.

"It's all right Amity, it was my fault..."

She opened her eyes again.

The door to the library opened. King walked through them, holding an envelope in his right hand.

"Hey King" Amity said, as she smiled and gave a quick wave.

"Amity," he replied back with a nod.

King headed over to Lilith and as she stepped down off the ladder, he handed her the envelope. Lilith opened the letter.

Lilith,

Found the farmer and another coven member, down at that farm we were at a few days ago. Found something else, too. You'll want to come down here and see.

-Eda

"Thank you for the letter, King, ok lets go Eda needs us"

Eda,removed the sheets of both corpses to show Lilith what had happened to them. The bodies' clothing had been removed; they were mutilated in the exact same manner as the cattle. Both the deceased farmer and the second guard left with him were drained of blood; their internal organs, removed; their eyes and tongue, gone. Even their genitals were missing, cauterized wounds marking where they once were.

It seemed more disturbing to Lilith to see humans dissected in this way. The dead cattle had only given her some sense of disgust, but this was something different. She wanted to vomit, but for some reason, she couldn't.

"What was the 'something else' you found?"

Eda motioned to King. He came forward, holding two objects, one in each hand. He handed them off to Eda, who, in turn, held them forward for Lilith to observe.

"We found them buried in the dirt, right next to where the corpses were."

The objects were circular plates, made of precious metal; one was gold, the other silver. They were both the same size, that of a standard dinner plate. Lilith reached out and took the silver one from Eda's hand. Despite its thinness, it felt heavier than it appeared. However, the strangest thing about both plates was the odd symbol carved on them: the plates' symbols were identical (albeit smaller) to the pattern that had appeared in the very same field just two days before.

Lilith looked at the angles on the plate, and though she was going to properly measure them when she could, she already knew they would all be 33 degrees.

Lilith handed the plate back to King, and looked down at the two bodies again.

Alador sat at the end of the long table in the council room. On either side of table were Coven heads, the Emperor sat the far end.

The Orcale coven head was the first to voice his disapproval.

"This Owl coven is becoming a hinderance, the Blight daughter has joined them a f your own coven head has joined her now."

"That will not be a problem. We have new Coven head in Alador to lead the Emperor's coven "the Emperor replied.

"And how can you be certain he will be trusted? After what has occurred with his daughter?" Abomination's coven head interjected.

"I quite agree," said the Bard Coven head. "This sort of thing is unprecedented, and it certainly will not make any of us look favourable."

"We will be fine. None of this reflects poorly on any coven," Alador replie.

"It reflects poorly on you as a ruler. That, in turn, makes all of us suffer," said the Illusion coven head.

"You have only been the coven head for about six months, and in my opinion, you have done an insufficient job of looking after your covens interests," he said accusingly.

Construction coven head interrupted him. "I object to that statement, and I believe you are making unfair judgements that have little to do with the situation at hand. Personally, I believe in Emperor Belos, he trusts Alador."

The old man turned to the Construction coven hesd.

"Oh really? I am being unfair, am I? According to you, he cant even keep his daughter in line, where is she? With that Owl lady am i wrong?"

"How are we to trust your judgement when, a relatively short time ago, you tried to force your children into the Emperor's coven."

"That is irrelevant to-"

"Irrelevant? You almost killed everyone as Hexside'."

"That is enough," Emperor Belos declared. He stood up from his seat. "This meeting is adjourned. You are all dismissed."

The council members got up from their seats, all slowly filing out of the room.

Lilith was about to get up and leave the Owl House Library, when she heard a quiet knock on the door.

"Lilith?"

It was Amity's voice.

"Come in."

Amity opened the door and walked in, carrying the pictogram sketch in her hand.

"Me and Luz just got home, Rough day?"

"That's a bit of an understatement, Amity. You have something to show me?"

"Well, sort of...," Amity said.

"Meaning?"

"Well, I don't know what this thing says, but I think I've figured out the closest language to it."

"Which is?"

"Ancient Gozerian," said Amity.

"What? Gozerian? As in Gozer?"

"Well, like I said, Gozerian is the closest thing to it. I double-checked to make sure, but there's no mistaking it. The lines and curves of that language correspond pretty closely to this sketch."

"But if that's the case, where do we go from here?", Lilith thought aloud.