"...reports continue to mount of the murderer, identified as the human Luz Noceda, perpetrating various acts of terrorism and chaos. I highly urge all viewers to act with caution if they see her. This is Perry Porter, signing off for BBN. Back to you, Hextrude."
The crystal ball cut back to the standard news broadcast, a news report covering reconstruction efforts at Glandus after a freak explosion destroyed a famous bell tower at the school. Various witches stood in front of the display watching the crystal balls.
Passing behind them, a short demon with red skin nervously walked past. The figure was dressed in a simple, unadorned cloak and was frequently looking over their shoulders. Each time they passed a group of witches and demons, they clutched their hood a bit tighter to their face.
Eventually, the figure got through the largest concentration of witches. They ducked into an alley and kept close to the wall. They peeked out of the alley, to make sure they hadn't been followed, then removed their hood, revealing themself to be Kikimora, the Emperor's (former) assistant.
"It's alright. It's ok. None of the Coven members followed you here. Belos doesn't know you are here!" Kikimora tried to reassure herself.
She was glad to be out of the castle. Ever since the Day of Unity, she had felt a certain shift in the energy there. Belos was planning something on a large scale, but not to defeat the rebellion. Whatever it was, Kikimora was certain that it would result in her almost death, just like on the Day of Unity.
She needed to get out of town, change her appearance, maybe even her name. Where she would go, she wasn't sure just yet, but she did know how she was going to achieve the other two.
Kikimora scanned the storefronts of central Bonesborough, ignoring the hazard-marked zone where a fountain had been and a writhing plant monster now was. She gasped in relief when she saw the sign for Mr. Elixir, a potions shop that her therapist had recommended her for anti-anxiety potions, before she had them executed for conspiring against the throne.
First, she looked both ways to make sure the street was clear, then scampered across it. Once she reached the shop window, she started knocking on it while standing on the tips of her talons. Every few knocks, she would glance over her shoulder to make sure no Coven scouts or guards were in the area.
After a few moments of knocking, the shutters swung open, knocking Kikimora onto her behind. She quickly recovered, though, and pulled herself up by the counter edge. As she did, a witch wearing a funnel-shaped hat poked his head out to look at Kikimora's attempt at pulling herself up, which appeared to be taking longer than expected.
"Um. Hello there? I'm Morton, welcome to Mr. Elixir. How can I help… you?" Morton looked uncomfortable as Kikimora tried to use her raw strength to pull herself up to the counter. "You can just stand there, I'll poke my head out."
"Oh, uh, thank you…" Kikimora dropped down from the counter. She didn't make eye contact with Morton out of a mix of embarrassment and discretion. "So, I heard you make many concoctions at this establishment, yes? Do you happen to have any…" Back on her talons, she tried to whisper the next part so that no one else could hear, "...appearance-changing potions?"
Morton thought for a second. "You mean an illusion potion? Or something else? I do need to warn you that if I did have any metamorphosis potions, that would be very illegal. And selling them would be even more illegal."
"I heard you provide services to wild witches, like…" Kikimora bit her lip beneath her scarf, "...like the Owl Lady."
"Oh, you mean Eda?"
"Um, yes?"
"Ah, then that won't be a problem. Any friend of Eda is a friend of mine! What flavor of metamorphosis are you looking for?" Morton brightened up, realizing he wasn't dealing with a Coven stooge who would 'appropriate' half his merchandise for some nonsense reason. "The most popular right now is 'horrific monster'. Actually, it's our only variety right now. Plenty of people want to turn into a Slitherbeast, but not a horrific version of themselves. What a shame."
"That's the only one you have?!" Kikimora was shocked. "I-I heard you had potions that could change someone's face! What happened to them?!"
"Unfortunately, it's apothecary policy to not discuss the purchases of other customers. If you found the person who bought them, maybe you could buy one from them?"
"B-but you just told me you won't say who bought them!"
"Yep! I wish I could help, but apothecary's oath and all." Morton shrugged. "Is there anything else you need? Perhaps I could set you up with a prescription of illusion potions?"
"Useless!" Kikimora shouted, then she immediately covered her mouth and looked back and forth. Once satisfied that no one was looking at her, she breathed a sigh of relief. "How much for a couple of those illusion potions?" She asked, already looking in her meager coin purse and counting out the snails she had managed to scrape together before fleeing the castle. When she looked back up, a familiar face of orange and blue was hanging over the counter smiling at her.
"Gah!" Kikimora exclaimed, dropping the coins that were in her hand.
"Oh, Kikimora," The human said, sliding across the counter like she didn't have any bones, "is that any way to greet your new best friend?"
Kikimora dropped into a combative stance. "W-what are you doing here, human?!" Her hand was primed to draw a spell circle and blast the human.
"Oh, hey Luz." Morton said to the multicolored human, who was currently wriggling on the ground like a snake. "I see you finally came out of your cave."
"What?! Is she… living in your shop?!"
"Oh, yeah." Morton said as he nodded. "She showed up the other day looking like that and wanted to buy all my appearance changing potions. Paid me double what they were worth and when I woke up the next day, she was standing over me with one uncorked." He chuckled at the memory. "Luckily, she didn't know that the potion needs the affected to envision what they'll look like afterwards. And so she's been living in my attic ever since."
Luz's body jumped up, startling Kikimora again. "Hey! You had false advertising! How am I supposed to play tricks on people if I can't change their appearance at will?"
"You could always use magic?"
Luz's body crossed her arms and pouted. "But I wanted to make people change right after drinking something normal!" Her foot was stomped on the ground several times for emphasis.
"I-I don't understand." Kikimora said. "I thought the human was a wild murderer now?"
Luz's eyes rolled in her head. "I prefer the term 'merry prankster'. And besides, as I keep trying to tell this funnel-head: Luz. Is. Not. Home!"
"Sorry, Luz, but 'The Collector' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue."
"Then just call me 'Collector'!"
"Eh, alright, I guess that works." Morton looked back into the shop and frowned. "Huh, I think we're low on smoke potion ingredients. Here, Collector, could you finish her order while I go check the back room?"
"You would ask a task of me, the greatest of we three?!" The Collector held a hand to their chest and gasped in mock surprise. "Was my monetary offer not enough to sate your hunger?!"
"If you don't, I'll lock the attic window."
The Collector squinted at the apothecarist. "...You win this round, potion-maker."
Morton stepped away from the window, while the Collector brushed themself off and then hopped back over the counter. They came to a stop with their chin in their hand, with their elbow resting on the counter, while their other arm had its hand parked on their waist.
"So, Kikimora. Still interested in that illusion potion trial? Or maybe I can interest you in one of my stock of transformation potions?" They leaned down and lowered their voice. "Or maybe we can make a special deal?"
"W-what kind of d-deal, human?" Kikimora wanted to back up and run, but her fear was getting the best of her. Maybe it would be for the best to listen to the human's deal.
The Collector's smile was wide and toothy. "Oh, it won't be much. Trust me …"
Flapjack's chirping startled Hunter awake. He practiced his deep breathing to calm his nerves, but Flapjack urgently wanted to know if he was having bad dreams again. Hunter didn't want to worry his palismen, but he knew Flapjack wouldn't let up until he told him about it.
"It's alright, Flapjack." Hunter tried to reassure the cardinal. "It was just some old memories."
Flapjack looked at his master with his big round eyes. Hunter tried to look away. "No. I know what you're doing. And it's not going to work."
In response, Flapjack just made his eyes even bigger. Hunter strained, but relented and gave Flapjack the comforting scratches he wanted. "I swear, you are such a finicky little bird." To pay Hunter back, Flapjack hopped onto his shoulder and nuzzled his chin.
"Alright, alright, enough of that." Hunter rolled off his back and stood up to look off the roof he had been sleeping on. The roof conveniently overlooked the police precinct building in Latissa, which brought back more pleasant memories for Hunter than his earlier dreams. "Huh, to think it was only a few months ago that I wrestled Luz over those palismen here. And… this is where we met, wasn't it?"
Flapjack tweeted in affirmation and happiness. Finding each other had been great luck, as even though they went through horrible things, Hunter and Flapjack had made friends and escaped a terrible situation because of their meeting.
But a trip down memory lane wasn't why they were here. They were here for the rat-worm-pulled wagon full of captured witches which was rolling down the street towards the precinct as they stood there.
Down on the street, a cloaked witch with prominent fangs watched the wagon roll by. After it passed her, she pulled a tambourine from her cloak and shook it twice. The bard magic it was being used for couldn't be heard by those nearby, but Hunter heard it clear as day. The signal for the rebellion agents to move in.
Hunter pulled up the hood of his patchwork cloak and his bandanna, while gesturing with his hand. In perfect sync, Flapjack changed into Hunter's staff, which Hunter grabbed out of the air before leaping over the edge of the roof and landing on the ground with a roll that transitioned into a jog. Meanwhile, the cloaked witch got up from her seat and started heading in the same direction.
As they headed towards the precinct, several other cloaked figures began to emerge from the crowds of Latissa to join them. The Coven guards on the wagon, meanwhile, did not notice this activity, being more concerned with getting their prisoners into the precinct for processing. They had already begun unloading the shackled witches and leading them into the building.
Several Coven scouts were scattered around the exterior. The first fell asleep to the sound of a tambourine. The second was thrown from his post by a sudden griffon attack. The third was knocked out by Hunter's staff. Unfortunately for the rebel agents, a fourth scout, a bit shorter than the rest, ran inside the precinct and the alarm bells were sounded soon after.
The Coven guards by the wagon looked up in surprise, finally noticing the rebellious witches attacking the precinct. "Get the rest of the prisoners inside!" One of the guards said to the other. "I'll deal with these punks." As he said that, he made a spell circle to summon a sizable amboniation from the ground, which roared at Hunter once it drew up to its full height.
Hunter dodged its first attack, a seeping swing of its arm, with a roll past it into a kneeling stance. From that stance, he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. "I'll keep it busy! Matt, get the door open!" He shouted behind him.
A short witch with brown hair and a permanent smirk dashed by Hunter as he dodged another strike from the guard's abomination. "Way ahead of you, boss!"
Hunter jumped up and swiped his staff at the abomination's head, but it just went straight through the goop and came out the other side. "Seriously?!" He said in disbelief. As another swing of the abomination's arms came down, he focused and teleported to the other side of the abomination.
The lumbering monster looked around to find Hunter again, turning slowly to reacquire its target. The Coven guard laughed as he directed the abomination to join its arms together into a large hammer, which he set on a direct course for Hunter. But it wouldn't reach him, as a griffon screeched out of the sky and tore through the abomination's arms, sending the goop splattering around Hunter.
"Woohoo! Take that, you Coven mook!" The griffon's rider, a witch with a fish hook earring, shouted at the guard as she and her mount circled back around for another pass.
"Grr! Stupid kids! I'll show you what happens when you mess with the–" The Coven guard didn't finish his sentence, as he fell forward, fast asleep from the fanged witch's bard magic. With its master asleep, the abomination lost the rest of its integrity and collapsed in on itself.
"You're welcome, Hunter!" Katya called out to Hunter.
Viney dismounted her griffon Puddles after landing near Hunter. "I think that went pretty well!" she said.
"It's not over yet." Hunter pointed out to his compatriots, pulling down his bandanna as he walked. "We've still got to get inside and free those witches."
"It's no good," Mattholomule called out from the steps of the precinct, "they won't open up!"
"What are you talking about? Just bust open the door with construction magic." Viney replied. "We've all seen you do it!"
"Is he trying to illusion his way in again?" Katya asked.
By the door, Mattholomule stood off to the side while a puppeteered illusion of his tried to bang on the door and beg to be let in. However, his proficiency with illusions wasn't the highest yet, so it stuttered and its sound was out of sync with the rest of it.
Hunter sighed, defeated. "This is a serious mission and he's goofing around!"
"Eh, let's let him practice a bit." Viney shrugged while giving Puddles plenty of pets for her good job. "Once he gets annoyed he'll just bring the building down."
"Oh yeah, like last time!" Katya said.
Hunter sank a little bit lower as he remembered his team's last mission, where Mattholomule had indeed brought an entire building down… with the rest of the team inside. It took Darius' timely intervention to salvage that operation, to Hunter's chagrin.
Not that he didn't like Darius, but his tendency to hover over Hunter's missions was getting frustrating. Hunter just wanted a chance to prove that he could be a leader the rebellion needed.
"Forget this!" Mattholomule yelled, breaking Hunter out of his thoughts. Mattholomule readied his spell circle and aimed for the building's foundations. But before he could crumble the supports, the building exploded into a massive fireball.
Hunter watched as Mattholomule, along with chunks of stone that used to be the building, hurtled through the air before landing in a produce seller's stand, dazed, smoking, and half-buried in scream beans. The local Latissans panicked at the sound of the explosion and began to flee the scene, leaving just the rebels at the remains of the precinct. Hunter looked back at the ruins and said with concern "Huh. That's new."
He and his two remaining team mates nodded at each other and the three moved into practiced battle stances: Hunter with his staff held tightly, Viney in a similar stance while Puddles dropped into a hostile posture, and Katya brandished her tambourine.
From the burning ruins, a single, slightly charred, Coven scout strutted out. They were whistling a tune that none of the rebels could place, even if they hadn't been focused on staying vigilant. The scout came to a stop in front of the trio, jumping a bit as they did as they seemed to just then realize that the rebels were standing there.
Hunter held his staff tight, slightly shifting to gesture to the scout. "Stop right there, scout! Put your hands where we can see them!"
The scout slowly held their hand up, elbows tight to their torso. As they shifted, Hunter could swear he caught a glimpse of a purple cloak underneath the soot-stained white cloak. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"What happened here? Are you an agent of the rebellion? Did Darius send you?"
The scout cocked their head to the side. The trio could almost see a wide smile in the shadow of the scout's mask. "Fascinating!" They said in a familiar voice. With their arms still raised, they stepped towards Hunter, to get a closer look at him. Hunter raised his staff in a threatening manner, but that didn't stop the scout from getting closer.
As they did, Hunter's staff caught on their white cloak. When they were just a breath away from Hunter's face, their cloak was pulled taut and the broach holding it up snapped. Hunter felt his breath leave his body and his stomach drop as the scout's cloak fell away to reveal a familiarly shaped blue and orange figure, with messy white hair and astrological-themed clothes.
"Luz?" He said after a moment of shock.
"You're one of Belos' Grimwalkers, aren't you?" The Collector asked. They carefully removed the mask that hung on their uncloaked face as they said "And here I thought you went and got yourself killed after you ran away!"
Hunter's mind raced through a thousand thoughts, quickly settling on one as his expression turned dark. "You're not Luz."
The Collector took a step back and laughed, while Hunter whipped his staff around and called to his teammates. "Now!"
"But, Hunter–" Viney started to say.
Hunter fired off an energy blast at the Collector, which they easily dodged. "That's not Luz! It's just something that looks like Luz!"
Katya began to play her tambourine, conjuring a sleep spell to affect the Luz doppelganger. The Collector merely plugged their ears so they wouldn't hear the song and smiled while jump-kicking Katya in the stomach. They used that attack as a spring-board to fly through the air, dropping a few pieces of paper as they did.
After a moment, the pieces of paper erupted into balls of spikes made of ice which snagged on Hunter's cloak mid teleport, grounding him for the time being. Viney, realizing the trouble her teammates were in, resolved herself and shouted "Puddles, sic 'em! I'm going to get Mattholomule up, Hunter!"
Viney dashed towards the half-conscious Mattholomule, while Hunter tore his cloak removing it from the ice spikes. He looked up and his eyes grew wide. "Wait! Dodge!" he shouted to his teammate.
"Huh–gah!" Viney exclaimed as a plant glyph exploded into a mass of vines that grabbed her and held her in place. A similar trap erupted to capture Puddles. "Hunter! Katya!" Viney shouted at her teammates while she struggled against the vines.
Katya groaned as she picked herself up off the ground. "I've… I've got this." She said between labored breaths. She prepared a cutting beat, but the Collector came flying in from out of sight to two-footed kick Katya in the back, dropping her to the ground and knocking the wind out of her.
"Let's just make sure you won't do anything crafty again, witch." The Collector said, touching an ice glyph paper to Katya's prone back. It quickly expanded into an icy prison that kept only her head free. The Collector smiled at their handiwork, pausing briefly to dodge an energy blast fired from Hunter's staff.
Hunter held his staff level, prepared to fire another blast at them. With an even tone, he asked the Collector "What did you do with Luz? Where is she?"
"Hmm," the Collector hummed, "It looks like someone didn't get the memo! Luz isn't here anymore!"
"You're just some shapeshifting demon who is trying to frame Luz!" Hunter shouted. "And I think I know how to find out where she is."
Hunter fired a trio of energy blasts at the Collector, who bounced Katya's frozen form up to block the attacks. They kept a smug look on their face as they slid under the falling frozen witch and prepared a fire glyph. The glyph erupted into flames that poured into the spot that Hunter was no longer in, as he teleported behind the Collector and swung his staff in a wide arc.
The Collector rolled on the ground to dodge Hunter's swing, then jumped up and clapped their hands together, then pulled them apart to reveal a pair of glowing fire and ice glyphs, which exploded into a smoke screen. Hunter dodged out of the smoke screen, his arm instinctively covering his mouth so he wouldn't inhale the vapor.
He looked around for any sign of the doppelganger, his staff at the ready. Sensing something coming up behind him, he instinctively spun around and connected his fist to his ambusher's face. Mattholomule fell to the ground, face a little more bruised on top of the soot from the explosion.
"Oh, oops. Sorry, Matt." Hunter apologized to the unconscious Mattholomule. He readied his staff and prepared to find the doppelganger, but before he could, he found himself trapped in vines that erupted from behind him. He fell forward due to the awkward positioning of the vines and landed flat on his face.
Flapjack deconjured their staff and began to peck at the vines in an attempt to free his partner. As he did, a gloved hand reached down and grabbed the cardinal palismen. The Collector lifted the palismen up to take a good look at him while he tweeted angrily.
"Flapjack! Let him go, you–!" Hunter exclaimed.
"Hm, yes, 'Let them go!'" The Collector said in a mocking tone, tossing the palismen over their shoulder, where he landed on a pre-placed ice glyph, trapping him in an ice block. "A common refrain, pretty boring though." They paced around to stand in front of Hunter while he picked his head up to look up at the Collector.
"Where's Luz?!" Hunter demanded.
The Collector chuckled. "Really? This song and dance is starting to get silly." The Collector squatted down to look Hunter in the eyes. "Luz isn't here anymore. Well, I guess her body is, but, really, it's my body now."
"No, there's no way…" Hunter's eyes were searching for explanations he didn't have. He realized something and slowly looked back up at the Collector. "You… you're the Collector!"
"Aha! The pawn knows more than he lets on!"
"But, why Luz?!"
"Hmm, I could tell you," the Collector said, tapping their chin in mock thought, "or I could show you!"
The Collector's eyes began to glow a bright blue and soon Hunter's eyes were glowing the same. In his mind, Hunter got to witness, from Luz's point of view, the events of the Day of Unity, leading up to the moment of her complete possession, in a single agonizing moment. Hunter's eyes stopped glowing as he was freed from the memory playback, but they remained wide as he looked up at the Collector.
"And there you go!" The Collector said as their own eyes lost their blue glow. "Now then," they said as they drew a crooked dagger engraved with the sign of the crescent moon from their belt, "I was going to watch how Belos killed you and compare it to the others for some fun, but you might actually be trouble later. So I'm going to slit your throat and let you bleed out here on the ground!"
They grabbed Hunter by his hair and held the dagger to his throat, a wild smile on their face as they prepared to personally end Hunter's life. Hunter closed his eyes; this wasn't how he had imagined his death would happen, and he wasn't ready in the slightest, but… there wasn't really a but. He didn't want to die and he was about to be killed by a monster wearing the person who was the closest thing he had to a sister's skin. This was the worst situation possible he could think of.
After a few moments, Hunter realized he wasn't dead yet. He peeked an eye open, seeing the Collector grunting as they tried to slide the knife across his throat. They had their free hand pulling on the knife-wielding hand, but it would not budge even an inch towards Hunter's neck.
After a few more moments of awkward silence, except for the sound of the Collector's attempted exertion, they dropped the knife and stared in frustration at their hand. They stood up and looked down at Hunter with a scowl. "It appears fate wants you to live for now! Till another time, this I will allow. Farewell, Grimwalker."
The Collector held their cape out and bowed, then swept the cape across their body, disappearing into a spinning twinkle of stars and the moon.
Hunter sighed, relieved that that stressful situation was now over. He looked at the rest of his team: the unconscious Mattholomule, the frozen Katya and Flapjack, Viney and Puddles desperately tearing at the vines keeping them trapped. In the background, the remains of the precinct continued to burn.
"That went well." Hunter said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
The leaders of the rebellion sat in their candle-lit tent in silence. Raine was hunched over a pile of maps, face held in their hand. Darius sat nearby, leaning back in a chair and drinking tea. And Eberwolf was busy napping underneath the table.
"I can't believe this." Raine said to their fellow rebellion leaders.
Darius took a sip of his tea before responding. "I don't know why you are so worked up."
"It's just," Raine said, gesturing with their hand as they leaned back in their chair, "I should have known."
"We all make mistakes, Raine."
"Then explain to me!" Raine said as they stood up and slammed a palm on the table for emphasis. "Why you didn't know the Head Witch of the Healing Coven's name!"
"You didn't know it either." Darius said, without looking up from his tea.
" I have the excuse of having been the newest Head Witch! You worked together with the other Coven Heads for years !"
"What can I say," Darius said with a shrug, "it never came up."
Raine covered their face with their hands and took a deep breath. The whole situation was absurd and ridiculous, even by Darius' normal standards. The Head Witch of the Healing Coven had come to pledge their support to the rebellion and not a single member of the rebellion's leadership could remember their name. Though, maybe Eberwolf knew, but didn't bother telling them because it was amusing to watch their allies suffer a diplomatic faux pas.
Before Raine could lay into Darius for the embarrassment they had all suffered, the tent flap opened and a beaten down Hunter stepped in. He stood as straight as he could, while Raine and Darius looked over with diametrically opposed reactions.
"Hunter! I trust the mission went well?" Darius looked over his shoulder and put down his tea cup.
"Hm, I hope it went better than ours." Raine crossed their arms as they turned to face Hunter.
Hunter sighed as he tried to find the words to describe what happened. He decided to start with some… relatively good news. "I made contact with the Owl House–"
Raine's look turned from sour to surprised. "Eda?! Is she ok?"
"Uh," Hunter bit his lip, "she's fine. But she said she–when I asked the Owl Lady to join the rebellion, she refused."
"Oh." Raine said with a disappointed look. "She does have those kids of hers to take care of." Hunter flinched at the indirect mention of Luz.
"It is curious, though." Darius said to Raine. "I thought you said the Owl Lady was always ready to scrap with the Emperor's Coven?"
Raine put a hand to their chin to think about this. "It's true, Eda was always the first to jump in to break some scout heads, but we have to consider that the Day of Unity put a lot of strain on so many people across the Isles. I was ready to stop pushing Eda away, but it's understandable if she doesn't believe she should stand with me now."
Raine sighed wistfully. Some regret crossed their mind when they thought about how they had pushed her away after their failed attempt to assassinate Darius and Eberwolf. But the past was the past and regretting it would only lead the both of them to an early death.
"As for my most recent mission," Hunter continued with a deep sigh, "it was, due to circumstances outside my control, a complete failure."
Raine and Darius both looked at Hunter in surprise. Raine was the first to ask the question on their minds. "None of the captured witches were freed in time?"
"Uh, no, worse, actually."
"Worse?"
"They were all incinerated when the building exploded."
"Exploded?!" Raine and Darius exclaimed simultaneously.
Darius stood up, put a hand on Hunter's shoulder, and looked him directly in the eye. "What happened, Hunter? Are you alright?"
Hunter looked down to avoid their concerned looks, but after a short chirp of encouragement from Flapjack, he swallowed the lump in his throat and began to tell the rebel leaders what had happened during his mission. What he had encountered. Who he had encountered.
After Hunter had finished his tale and left to go check up on the rest of his team, Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf sat at the war table in silence, still trying to process the idea that an entity that Belos had made a deal with had possessed a human and was wreaking havoc on the Isles completely unimpeded.
"Alright," Raine said, the first to break the silence, "this is all hard to believe–"
"Understatement of the Titan-damned century!" Darius said while he fortified his tea with something a bit stronger.
"–but, I think we can use this to our advantage."
Darius' stopped his cup mid sip. "What?" He asked. Eberwolf concurred with a raised eyebrow and a quizzical growl.
"Think about what Hunter told us. The Collector was disguised in a scout uniform."
"And? They probably stole it!"
"But that could raise suspicion for it being ill-fitting, Darius. We know how obsessed Belos is with order. If they were wearing a properly fitted scout uniform, it's because someone gave it to them."
"Someone…" Darius thought for a second about what Raine was getting at. "Someone in the Emperor's Coven, you mean?"
"Exactly."
"And, so, what? We just walk up to this 'Collector' and ask them nicely to sneak an assassin into the castle?" Darius asked incredulously.
Raine rolled their eyes. "Of course not. Not at first, of course. First, we establish contact and have them connect us to their spy in the Emperor's Coven."
"And who do you propose to make this contact?"
Raine thought hard for a moment, considering all the options. There were many members of the rebellion who were proficient at diplomacy, but the bigger issue was how many of them could even approach the Collector. Hunter had shown them the video of one of the Collector's other attacks, and they were sure that the Collector would certainly murder any normal messenger for the fun of it.
Thinking of Hunter's report, Raine had a realization. "We could–" They were hesitant to suggest it. "We could send Hunter?"
"Absolutely not!" Darius said, swiping his hand across the air in a signal for 'no'. "I won't let that monster within eyesight of Hunter. They tried to kill him!"
"But they didn't. Think about it: Hunter has an existing relationship with the Collector and we know the Collector can't kill him. He's… almost the perfect messenger."
"Hmm." Darius thought about it for a few moments, clearly unhappy with the idea but conceding that it wasn't the worst they had had recently. "Alright. On the condition that Hunter must agree to the mission. Without his consent, I will not agree to it."
"Excellent." Raine steepled their fingers together as they prepared to discuss the next topic on the agenda. "Now, Darius. Please tell me you know the name of the Head Witch of the Potions Coven?"
A particular plainly dressed demon lurked outside the tent he had seen the former Golden Guard enter, one ear close to the ground as he listened in on the conversation inside. As Hunter wrapped up his story and left, the demon scampered off behind some crates, out of sight of his 'fellow' rebels.
He retrieved a notebook from his cloak, slipping off his glove to reveal his Emperor's Coven tattoo, which he used to undo the magical lock placed on his notebook. Hunter's report was logged and several other notes were made in regard to the rebels' plans. Of particular interest was the potential double agent they had mentioned.
Satisfied with the notes, the demon closed and locked the notebook once more, then scampered off to the mess hall; it was his turn on cooking duty and he didn't want Amber to force him to wash dishes all night again. It would be several days before he could make it to the dead drop to deliver his report to Emperor Belos.
Luz sat on the couch in the living room at her home in the Human Realm. The TV was playing reruns of Monster Slayer Academia, but she wasn't really watching. She had a copy of an Azura book open in her lap, but she wasn't really reading it; even though she knew every word by heart, she couldn't get immersed in the fantasy of exploring another world through books.
Not when she was trapped inside her own mind, unable to escape.
She shifted her position to lie down on the couch. She knew she wasn't actually moving, the space itself was shifting around her to fit her new position. It felt like it should have been confusing, but as long as she didn't think about it too hard, she could walk around anywhere she could remember. As long as she didn't mind those places being utterly devoid of anyone.
What Luz wouldn't give to see her mami, Eda, even–especially–Amity. But it wasn't like she had much to give; this existence of pure thought, brought to physicality purely for an attempt by her mind to comprehend what she was experiencing.
"Well well well, look who we have here!" A voice like hers, but so much more annoying, rang out all around the space. A doppelganger of Luz materialized from stardust to stand in front of the couch, looking over Luz annoyed and frustrated.
"Hello, Collector." Luz said, picking up her Azura book and flipping to a random page to try and ignore him. "Back to gloat again?"
"Gloat? Gloat? Ha! I wish I could gloat! If I were here to gloat, I'd bleat like a goat!" The Collector crossed their arms in dissatisfaction. "I wanna know, how you got control of my arm?"
"¿Que? I-I don't know what you're talking about." She kept her eyes on her book to hide her reaction, but her confusion was genuine.
The Collector grabbed Luz's book and tossed it over his shoulder, sending it hurtling to the edge of the space, where it dissolved into stardust. He conjured an imaginary TV remote to change the channel to the events at the precinct. Luz sat up as she watched the Collector hold a knife to Hunter's throat, but not actually be able to bring it across and finish the deed.
The Collector looked at Luz and gestured accusingly at the screen, which began to play the scene back again. "How are you going to explain this, Luz?"
Luz blinked and slowly turned to look at the Collector, then back at the replaying scene. She began to chuckle, which made the Collector scowl.
"What's so funny?"
"That's Hunter."
"The Grimwalker. As you can see, we've met."
"He's…" Luz wondered how to word it that would make sense. "He's a friend. Almost like the brother I never had, really."
"A friend? A friend? " Luz could see the Collector's shadow growing, its inky black tendrils stretching around the space to cover it completely while they seethed. His eyes began to glow and he began to scream into the void. And in a moment, it was all gone and the TV was drifting off to the edge of the space with a cracked screen.
"So clever, declaring whoever to be your friend! But make no mistake, this will end." The Collector turned and walked out of the room.
"We made a deal, Collector! You wouldn't hurt my friends! I don't just make up my friends like you!" Luz shouted at the Collector as they began to fade to stardust. As he left the space, Luz could hear his voice echo throughout.
"If you interrupt me again, you'll suffer much worse. Forever I will reign, but perhaps you should rehearse!"
Luz slumped into the couch. She never knew what the Collector's rhymes were about, but that last one had sounded especially ominous to her. She curled her body up on the couch and began to think about everyone outside. She prayed to God, the Titan, anyone who might listen, that her familia would be alright in all this madness she had let loose on the Demon Realm.