"Thanks for looking after her, miss Eda." Edric said, stashing the biscuits Eda had made for them in his backpack.
"It means a lot for us to know she's doing alright," Emira said, "even if she wasn't ready to see us."
Eda laughed playfully. "Don't mention it, kids. She's basically family at this point, so I wouldn't even think about tossing her out!"
Edric and Emira laughed with Eda at her joke and finished unpacking the last of the supplies they had been asked to deliver from Blight Manor.
"Alright, you kids take care and make sure to stay safe out there." Eda said.
Edric dashed down the path first, stopping briefly to wave back and shout "Thanks miss Eda!"
Emira jogged after her brother, twisting back to say as she ran "Take care, miss Eda! Tell Mittens we love her!"
"Take care, you crazy kids!" Eda chuckled and waved with a smile on her face. Once the twins were out of sight, her smile dropped slightly into a more bittersweet look.
"Hey, Eda! What's the matter? You want me to puke up some owl pelletizers for you?" Hooty twisted his body around the open door to address Eda.
"Not right now, Hooty. Just keep watch for me, will you?" Eda sighed as she closed the door. From inside, she could hear Hooty's muffled "Yes mam!" through the door.
She took a deep breath and looked over to the hallway doorway, catching a brief glimpse of brown-rooted purple hair duck back behind the frame.
"It's ok, Amity. They left. It's just us now." She called out to the hiding teen, who poked her head back out and looked around the living room.
Slowly, she crept out of the doorway, making sure to not make eye contact with Eda as she made for the supplies from home. A few changes of clothes, various skin and hair care items, and a few assorted personal items were laid out on the table. She needed the changes of clothes, especially, as in the last week she had been staying at the Owl House, she hadn't had a backup set of clothes, so she had had to borrow some of Luz's t-shirts and such.
Amity had always dreamed of staying over at her girlfriend's place, wearing her clothes, waking up before her and surprising her with hot paincakes. But her girlfriend wasn't here, so there was no way she could fulfill that last dream and the others felt empty without her reactions to them.
Amity focused on sorting the supplies, pushing those thoughts from her mind before they could overwhelm her again. Eda stood nearby, watching Amity's internal struggle while an internal struggle of her own raged.
"Amity?" She froze when she heard Eda say her name, slowly returning to her sorting as if she hadn't heard Eda. Eda sighed. "You don't have to talk, alright? Just listen, maybe nod or shake your head. Is that alright?"
Eda waited until she got a small nod from Amity, then continued. "It's been a little while since the Day of Unity and everything. I just want to make sure you're feeling alright. And ever since we saw that video… well. This is the first time you've been out of the room in a few days. Are you ready to talk?" Amity waited several seconds before cautiously nodding.
"Alright, Amity," Eda said as she settled onto the couch, patting one of the cushions to beckon Amity to take a seat of her own, "we've got all the time in the world. We'll stop when you want to, we'll talk when you feel up to it. And if you need a snack or some apple blood, let me know and you'll have it."
Amity curled up on the other side of the couch from Eda, still avoiding eye contact, but breathing easier than before. She was starting to feel at home at the Owl House. A small whisper came out of her mouth, barely loud enough for Eda to hear. "Thanks, miss Eda."
The salty boiling sea crashed up against the keel of the ship as it steamed its way through the waves. Captain Salty, a large lobster-clawed demon familiar with the waves, kept a hand on the wheel as he guided his ship towards its destination. A destination requested by a certain passenger he was transporting.
The passenger in question was busy evacuating the contents of her stomach into the boiling sea.
"Why did I ever let Eda convince me to travel by boat?" Lilith said, wiping a bit of vomit off her mouth as she sat against the wall on the deck of the ship.
"Hey, now, lass!" Salty shouted down from the wheel with indignation. "This be a ship, not a boat! Next thing I know you'll be callin' me dinghy a galleon!"
Lilith groaned as she felt the biscuits Eda had made that morning on their way back up. "Sorry for my ignorance, Salty!" She shouted up to Salty after losing the biscuits over the side. "But honestly, though, why couldn't the titan bones be closer to the Isles? I could have just flown over and been done with my report before you could say–"
"Cattywampus?" A new voice beside Lilith said.
"Hm, no. I was going to say–gah!" Lilith recoiled when she realized how close the new figure had positioned their face next to her own. She didn't remember anyone else chartering Salty's services, so who else could be on this ship? She got her answer when she looked up and saw the blue and orange skin and white hair underneath the starry purple cloak.
"You!" Lilith gasped, crawling backwards and conjuring her staff out of fear. "You're the Collector!"
"No, I'm–" The Collector stopped mid-sentence, hand halted mid face-palm as realization hit them. They looked at Lilith and cozied their face up to hers. "Wait, what did you say?"
"Th-the Collector? The entity that was trapped in the Titan's bones?"
"Finally!" The Collector joyously jumped into the air. "Someone got it right on the first try!"
"I-I had heard from Edalyn that the Collector had possessed the body of the human, Luz Noceda…" Lilith slowly stood up, her staff at the ready.
"Edalyn… ah, the Owl Lady!" The Collector rubbed their chin as they thought. "Which would make you Lilith Clawthorne! Former Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!"
"I take it you've seen Luz's memories of me?"
"Hm, no, actually." The Collector said while making a variety of strange hand motions. "I used to hang out with Belos in the throne room. Oh man, did he have a lot of rude things to say about you!"
Lilith was disturbed by the Collector's admission, but also surprised that he had apparently not accessed Luz's memories. Knowledge was power, after all; it was half the reason Lilith was on this Titan-blasted ship.
Lilith's mind turned back to reality, where she was startled to see the Collector trying to drive a dagger into her heart.
Trying and failing, though. Despite their exertion, even pulling on the knife-wielding hand with the other, their arm wouldn't budge an inch towards Lilith. She raised an eyebrow at the sight, then stepped to the side. After she did, the Collector suddenly fell forward, driving the dagger into the deck with a yelp.
"Um, are you alright?" Lilith asked the prone Collector.
They responded by leaping up to standing in one smooth motion. "Never better! Though I am disappointed you're on the list." They said, tossing their knife up into the air.
"The… list?"
"Don't worry about it, 'cool aunt' Lilith." The Collector said with a smirk, then continued with a shrug. "All you really need to know is that if you're on the list, I can't touch you."
"How… considerate."
The Collector merely responded with a hum. They leaned on the side of the ship, watching the waves roll by with a gentle smile. Lilith wasn't sure what was going through the Collector's head right now, though she was certain they were disappointed in not being able to stab her for whatever reason.
And she had seen the video on Penstagram–Eda had sent it to her–she knew that the Collector had a grudge against Belos of some kind. She wondered what they were doing on this ship, so far from the Boiling Isles.
Against her better judgment, she decided to ask. "Colle–" Lilith yelped and jumped back in fright as a handbatross suddenly fell out of the air, the Collector's jagged knife lodged deep in its chest. It was still twitching as Lilith felt her dinner from yesterday start to rise in her stomach.
The Collector laughed at Lilith and leaned forward to grab their knife out of the handbatross. Then, after checking that it was fully dead, they called up to Salty. "Hey, captain! I caught us lunch!"
"What the–?" Salty shouted, surprised. "Lilith, why didn't ya tell me yer niece would be joinin' us? Go ahead and throw that bird on the block, kid! I'll be down to fix it up in a bit!"
The Collector carried the handbatross over to the deck galley, tossing the bird onto the cutting board. Sensing someone watching them, they turned around to look at Lilith, who was glaring daggers at them.
"No worries, Salty's also on the list." The Collector said. "I can't hurt him either. And trust me, I tried."
Lilith pushed up her glasses and composed herself. "Collector," she asked pointedly, "why are you here?"
The Collector sighed. "A philosophical question, from a sharp mind. Alas, I know not where fell our creator's intervention, nor what purpose I am assigned. Thus, I must–"
"No, not 'why are you here' in the grand scheme of things," Lilith said, cutting off the Collector, "why are you on this ship?"
"Hmm…" The Collector looked Lilith over as they thought about her question, then answered with another question. "Why are you here, Lilith Clawthorne?"
"What?" Lilith said, taken aback by the turn around.
"What exactly are you looking for out here, in the boiling seas?"
"I am assembling an exhibit for the museum. Balusters are one thing, but we know so little about what the Titan is and where its kind came from." Lilith explained with some pride. "Luz… before the Day of Unity… she went to an island far away from the Boiling Isles. To hide from the Emperor's goons. But when she returned, she told me the island was the finger of another titan. With things… not returning to normal, but certainly calming down for now, I proposed an expedition to the head curator: to map the boiling seas and find the remains of the titans."
"Starting with the one dear old Luz found, huh?" The Collector chuckled.
"But that's the thing; Luz didn't find it. Its location was on a map, in a letter addressed to King Clawthorne."
The Collector smiled. "Oh? Really, now?"
"She said the island had a portal to the other side of the world, where a cult of titan-killing warriors lived."
"Oh my, that sounds dangerous!" The Collector said with mock surprise. Their eyebrows lowered as their mouth curled into a devious smile. "What kind of cult was it?"
"I-I beg your pardon? Um…" Lilith said, broken out of her explanatory focus. With this new question, she searched her memory for the answer. "It was a… it was… oh no. Sweet Titan, no!" Realization dawned on Lilith as she thought about it. Her head snapped in the direction of the Collector, who was smiling wide.
"Please, miss Clawthorne… tell me why I'm here."
"Through the portal on the finger-shaped island," Lilith said, haltingly, "was a cult dedicated to reviving and serving…"
"Me." The Collector said, finishing Lilith's sentence. They began to giggle as Lilith grappled with the revelation she had just realized.
Lilith thought to herself that maybe she could convince Salty to turn around, then convince the curator to cancel the exhibit. Anything to keep the Collector away from it, from their very own army. Her thoughts were shaken out by Salty's call.
"Land ho! Prepare the dinghy!"
Amity scarfed down the Hex Mix while a disturbed King and an amused Eda looked on.
"I knew you hadn't been eating enough, kid." Eda said.
"I've never seen anyone eat that much junk food in a single sitting…" King said in awe.
Amity, not paying attention to their comments, finished off the bag and tossed it in the pile with the remains of the snacks Eda had gotten her. She washed the salty snack down with a glass of water, which combined in her throat to make a loud burp. Amity covered her mouth in embarrassment, but Eda just smiled warmly at her while King cheered her on from the side of the couch.
"How're you feeling, Amity?" Eda asked. "I think we've still got some ice cream, if you want some more…"
Eda trailed off as Amity sank into the couch with a deep, eyes closed sigh. "I think…" Amity said without making eye contact, her arms crossed over her chest. "I think I've had enough for right now."
"I know what'll help!" King said as he jumped up on the couch and wrapped Amity in a tight hug. "A biiig hug! That always worked for Luz."
Amity flinched at the embrace and the mention of Luz, her mind throwing itself back to the worst surprise she had ever experienced. She went stiff and started to breathe faster than normal.
"King! No!" Eda shouted as she dove over to the other side of the couch, carefully separating him from Amity. King let out a confused "Weh?" while Eda held him up before placing him back on his feet on the floor.
King's face was sad as he searched Eda and Amity's for an explanation of what he had done wrong. As it slowly dawned on him, he twiddled his fingers and looked away in shame. "I'm sorry. I just-I just wanted to help."
Eda kneeled down and put a hand on King's shoulder. "It's alright, King." She said in a soft, reassuring tone. "Amity's just… not ready for that kind of help yet. It's been pretty rough for her. Here, how about you go get that tub of ice cream? And make sure to get a nice big bowl for yourself first!"
King looked up at Eda's reassuring smile, then back down to his hands. "Ok…" He said, turning and walking towards the kitchen. Eda stood back up and sighed in relief.
Looking back at Amity, she was slowly calming back down, but she was clearly fighting back tears as she clutched her arms, hunched over her lap with haggard breaths. Eda knew better than to repeat what King had done to trigger her.
Instead she began to breathe in and out in a steady rhythm, making sure to vocalize loud enough for Amity to hear her. Gradually, Amity's breathing synced up with Eda's, giving her not too much air in or out, letting her relax her body. As Amity's breathing steadied, so did her body; her hands unclutched her arms and she let her abdomen stretch so that her deep breaths could fill her whole chest.
"I'm sorry, miss Eda…" Amity said with shame as she sunk back into the couch once more. "I-I…just…"
Eda made her way back into her seat on the couch. "Just keep breathing, kid. Don't force it out."
Amity did as Eda said, continuing to breathe deeply. Finally, she reached a point she could consider 'calm'. She could still feel the emotions roiling just below, but they listened to her and didn't pour out of her at this moment, which was all she could ask for right now.
"There we go. How are you feeling?" Eda asked.
"Calm, I think."
"That's all we ask for nowadays." Eda said with a chuckle. Then she got more serious. "Do you want to talk about anything?"
Amity's voice jumped up to a frustrated tone, tinged by sadness. "What am I even supposed to say right now? 'I miss Luz'? Why am I even getting so worked up over a girlfriend, staying at her house, eating her food, wearing her clothes?" The frustration drained from her voice and she could feel the stinging as tears began to flow once more. "Why won't it go away…"
Her crying was interrupted by Eda holding a box of tissues up to her. She took a few to blow her nose and wipe her eyes while Eda talked. "The pain you feel-the thing that won't go away, stuck deep in your heart. That's proof that Luz is way more than 'just a girlfriend' to you."
Eda looked at her hand, briefly shifting it into harpy mode. "And rejecting that grief, that pain, won't heal you. It'll grow its thorns deeper and deeper into your heart, eventually making you lash out and reject even the smallest token of friendship."
"So, what?" Amity asked with indignation. "I'm just supposed to forget all about her and then it'll all go away? Should I really forget her?"
"Of course not!" Eda exclaimed, then withdrew to a more even tone, after realizing she had spooked Amity. "Pretending like you never met her will make you feel even worse. The best thing you could do for Luz is to find a way to bring her back."
"Luz is…" Amity swallowed the lump in her throat. "She's gone. I can't bring her back. No one can…"
"Maybe." Eda said as she picked up a different box off the table and held it out to Amity. "But I can think of one witch that will stop at nothing to protect her girlfriend. Who would move the Titan if it meant even a slim chance of seeing her again."
Amity looked at the box curiously. It was labeled 'Emergency Mittens Supplies'. "What's this?" She asked.
Eda chuckled, then placed the box in her lap and carefully removed the lid. Amity leaned over to look at what was in the box, but she only caught a brief flash of blue eyes before what was inside leaped out, pounced on her, and knocked her off the couch.
"Ghost?!" Amity exclaimed as her palismen nuzzled her chin affectionately. "I thought I'd lost you!"
"Your sister found her after the battle at Hexside." Eda explained. "She wasn't doing so hot, with that big crack in her. Luckily, you're dating the granddaughter of the best palismen-maker on the Isles! My old man can't carve new palismen anymore, but dang it if he can't fix them up better than anyone else!"
Amity picked up the white cat to inspect her. Indeed, there was a large scar where the Coven scout had cracked Ghost with their lightning spell. Amity felt a rush of tears come on once more, so she held Ghost close, while the palismen grudgingly accepted the deep cuddle if it meant Amity felt better. Once she was satisfied with Ghost's corporeality, Amity settled her in her cross-legged lap and gave her plenty of pets.
"Thank you, miss–." Amity caught herself mid sentence. "Thank you, Eda."
"Don't mention it, kid." Eda said, shooting Amity a finger gun.
"So… what now?" Amity asked.
"Well…" Eda mused, "I've tried making plans before and I can't think of a single one that turned out the way I thought it would. But plans are still a good thing to have. You know?"
"Uh…" Amity's eyebrow was cocked in confusion.
Eda sighed amusedly. "If you're gonna get out there and rescue Luz from whatever's got her, you better find out all you can about it!"
"And use that information to make a plan to save Luz!" Amity said, realizing where Eda was going with it. "I better check Luz's notes! Maybe they've got a clue for what we're dealing with!"
She stood up, Ghost instinctually conjuring her staff as she did, and dashed towards Luz's room. She poked her head back around after rounding the door out of the room. "Let me know when dinner is! I'm gonna need fuel for this!"
King walked back into the living room with a confused look. "Wow, she perked up really quick! What'd I miss?"
"Nothing much." Eda said, smiling at the thought of Amity working hard to save Luz. She looked down at King and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, where's the ice cream?"
"I, uh," King looked away slightly, his face covered in guilt, "I might have had a really big bowl. So now we don't have any more ice cream."
Eda shook her head in amusement. True, she had assumed King would do this, but it was certainly funny the way he worded it. She patted him on the skull and made for the kitchen. "C'mon, we've got a big meal to fix up. And you're gonna help, since you ate all the ice cream."
"Weh?" King said as he watched Eda walk off. "Wait for me!"
Lilith was apprehensive as she pulled the oars of the dinghy in long strokes. The Collector was just… sitting there in the dinghy with her, an amused look on their face the whole time. With each stroke, they got closer to landing on the remains of the finger-shaped island.
She knew the Collector couldn't hurt her, so there was nothing stopping her from not rowing. Aside from morbid curiosity as a scholar of history. What scholar wouldn't leap at the chance to observe a long-lost tribe of witches with their own complex social hierarchy, rituals, and other cultural aspects? It was a massive boon for the historical community of the Boiling Isles, certainly!
If they didn't slaughter her at the behest of the Collector, of course.
She shuddered at the thought. The Collector couldn't kill her theirself, but she had no idea how Luz's deal with them had been worded, whether or not it covered indirect harm as well. She wished Salty had joined them, but in his own words "There be some things that the sea dogs were ne'er meant to see."
The dinghy jumped to a stop at the shore of the island. Lilith tried not to turn around, since, in her mind, that would make everything that was about to happen far too real. The Collector, for their part, jumped onto land with a giggle and a spin.
"Ah, it's so wonderful to be here, to be so close to my worshippers!" They said, finishing their spin with a pose. "I wonder which greeting ceremony they have prepared? Ooh, wait, no! Don't guess! I want it to be a surprise!"
Lilith's hands clutched the oars and she kept staring out at the ship. "Well, you're here! I suppose I should head back to the ship–"
"Nonsense!" The Collector said, grabbing Lilith by the armpits and hauling her off the dinghy.
"Wha–oh my! You're much stronger than Luz!" Lilith said as she landed on the stone shore, her knees shaking something fierce.
"I'll need someone to record all the smiling faces, of course!" The Collector said as they smacked Lilith on the back, knocking some air out of her. "I'd do it myself, but I have a feeling we're gonna be all over the place!"
Lilith's arms jumped up to catch the scroll the Collector tossed back at her. After catching it, she used one hand to straighten her glasses to get a good look at what remained of the finger that had comprised most of the island. The chunks were massive and scattered all over the island.
"C'mon slowdy poke!" The Collector shouted from slightly further up the path. Lilith hurried along to catch up.
Together, they walked through the ruins of the finger. Giant stone-like chunks directed their path deeper in, until finally they came to a chunk covered in a spiderweb of cracks emanating out from a central key-like gap. Despite planning on coming here, Lilith had had no idea what to expect from the island.
"So, Collector, how do you plan on finding this place?" Lilith asked. "If there were any mechanisms here, I'm pretty sure they have been violently destroyed by whatever caused this."
"Hmm, yes. The titan kid did this, I'm pretty sure." The Collector mused. They kneeled by the cracked chunk and ran their hand across the cracks. "But it wasn't a mechanism that allowed passage; it was magic!"
"Magic? Wild magic?" Lilith said with some disbelief. "I thought you were allied with Belos! Wouldn't that mean–"
"That I hate wild magic like him?" The Collector blew a raspberry at the thought. "Puh-lease, I'm literally made of magic! He's just an obsessed old weirdo who hates you witches more than he hates himself." They paused to think about the last statement. "Well, maybe not anymore?"
"So… what?" Lilith asked while the Collector doodled on a scrap of paper. "Do we just zap this with magic, then we open a portal to wherever this village is?"
"Something like that!" The Collector slapped the cracked chunk with the paper they had been doodling on, revealing it to have been a glyph combination. The glyph glowed and the cracked chunk began to glow along with it. The air began to hum around them and crackle with electricity.
"What's going on?!" Lilith exclaimed.
The Collector laughed as the hum increased in intensity. "Hold on to something! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"
Lilith shut her eyes as the hum crescendoed to its peak and a massive flash of light filled the area. She could feel herself tumbling in the air, weightless. Without any better option, she screamed in terror while the Collector just let out a maniacal laugh.
Then, just as suddenly, they weren't tumbling anymore. Lilith straightened her glasses and sat up from her newfound position on the ground. Adjusting to the light level took her a moment of blinking, but the sight she saw was breathtaking.
As far as the eye could see, a graveyard of titans. Titan bones of every conceivable shape and size littered the seascape.
She could see that this island in particular was made of a titan's palm resting just above the sea level. Above the gentle hills of the palm, she could see a tower of some kind.
The Collector was already standing and heartily sniffing the air. "Ah, you've got to love that dead titan smell! Even after centuries of decay, you can still smell the despair on their bones!"
"We–we're nowhere near the Boiling Isles, are we, Collector?" Lilith said, shakily standing, her legs still a bit jellied from her time on Salty's ship, not to mention the intense terror she was currently experiencing.
The Collector laughed. "Nope! If I remember right, we're on the other side of the world!" They stretched their arms for a moment, then put their hands on their waist like an adventurer looking out at a new land to explore. "Now, let's get in there! We don't want to keep my adoring fans waiting, do we? And don't forget to record!"
Lilith steeled her resolve and prepared the scroll. If nothing else, she didn't want to anger the Collector while they were within spitting distance of their personal army of fanatics. For now, she would play along and perhaps get some eye-opening anthropological information.
Tarak admired his spear, freshly thrice-sharpened. The Trappers had been preparing for the greatest expedition of their lives: to hunt down the titan that had gotten away. It was the greatest shame of their history, to the best of his knowledge.
But together, they would find the creature and free their god, once and for all!
All they needed to do was avoid interlopers, like that bird-tube-thing and girl that had been traveling with the titan. The same girl that was currently walking over the hills towards the village.
"Wait, what?" Tarak said out loud. Borath the Large and Jonothon paused their spear-sharpening efforts and looked up at the large Trapper.
He looked at them, then back at the approaching figures. He focused his sight on them.
"Is-is that…" He wasn't certain, so he grabbed a spyglass from his pouch and looked again.
"Is that the girl who accompanied the titan child?!"
Borath and Jonothon leapt up at the mention of the girl, gripping their spears with anxious zeal. They looked at Tarak expectantly.
He looked at them, then down as he thought. He nodded, raising his spear high and letting out a call to the village.
"Titan Trappers! Prepare for battle! Our enemy returns! To arms!"
Trappers poked their heads out of their homes as Tarak, Borath, and Jonothon marched towards the approaching figures. With even the possibility of redemption in the eyes of the Grand Huntsman in their minds, they grabbed their weapons and marched out to join the growing mob.
The mob had spears, polearms, swords, and more at the ready. They were ready for redemption and they were ready to kill a titan.
"Ah, excellent! My adoring public is coming to me!" The Collector laughed, while the angry mob began to encircle the pair.
Lilith looked about. Her hands were shaking in fear once more, making the scroll's picture bounce around chaotically.
The apparent leader of the cultists leveled a spear at the pair and spoke in a strong, extravagant tone. "Halt, interlopers! You enter the territory of the Titan Trappers, servants of the Grand Huntsman!"
"I thought it was the Great Huntsman?" The Collector asked, lightly leaning on the tip of the cultist's spear.
Murmuring broke out among the Trappers. Some of the other Trappers began to call out various names for their god.
"Is it not the Great Huntsman?"
"I always assumed it was short for Grandfather Huntsman."
"All hail the Perfectly Ultimate Great Huntsman!"
"Out of my way!" An scratchy old man's voice ordered from the back of the crowd. Trappers moved out of the way as an elder Trapper made his way through the crowd, before bursting through the tight lines to reveal his tiny, old form with his baby titan skull sitting on his head and the ever-burning candle on top of that. "And it is the Grand Huntsman, you idiots!"
"Bill! What are you doing down here?!" The apparent leader asked in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be polishing your shrine at this hour?"
"Shut it, Tarak!" Bill shouted as he pointed a bony finger at Tarak. "I can always hear when the alarm bells ring and they don't ring often, you ninny! So dang right I'm gonna come down and see what all the fuss is about? Now then, something about an enem–"
Bill gasped as he turned and looked at the Collector mid-sentence. He ran and jumped onto the Collector, holding their cloak to keep himself up.
His eyes narrowed as he looked them up and down.
"Human! What are you doing back here?!" Bill thought for a moment, then revised his question. "How are you back here?! You and your titan child destroyed the portal when you went through it, somehow!"
Bill turned his gaze over to Lilith, who nervously waved at the cultist. "And you!" He tapped his finger to his chin and pondered. "I don't know who you are."
"O-oh! I'm Lilith Clawthorne, assistant curat–" Lilith started to say before being cut off as Bill continued.
"But! If you're traveling with this human!" He jammed his finger into the Collector's smile-dimpled cheek. "Then you must be trouble! What is it this time, human? Here to embarrass us in front of the Great Huntsman again?!"
Tarak cleared his throat behind Bill. "Uh, it's Grand Huntsman, Bill."
"I-know-what-I-said-Tarak!" Bill snapped at the other Trapper.
The Collector's face had remained completely still throughout Bill's rant. Only after Bill returned his attention to them, did they make their move.
They grabbed Bill by the nape of his shirt and gently pulled him off of their chest, holding him up just in front of them.
They half-turned back to Lilith, gesturing to the scroll with their eyes. After a moment of confusion, Lilith brought the scroll back up to film whatever the Collector was about to do.
"Rejoice, Titan Trappers! Your god has returned, free of his prison!" The Collector announced with a smile. "Your Mighty Huntsman is here to lead you to glory and victory!"
The Collector's announcement was met first with silence, then raucous laughter from the assembled Titan Trappers.
The Collector's expression grew dark with every second of laughter.
Bill wiped away a tear from his eye from laughing so hard. "Sorry, human, that's just too funny! You? The Grand Huntsman? Ha!"
"Bill speaks the truth, interloper!" Tarak said. "We, the faithful of the Grand Huntsman, know that he is still trapped in his prison. How could he have been freed without the prophecy being fulfilled? Your appearance is clearly just an attempt to confuse and demean us!"
The Collector let out a resigned sigh.
"Well, you see… that's the thing." The Collector said as they dropped Bill onto the ground.
They cracked their neck and began to stretch their arms. "I was cooped up in that place for so long, I had a few plans running to free myself!"
With their arms stretched, they began to stretch their legs. "But, to my surprise, none of them ended up freeing me! Instead, a certain girl gave me a deal and I took it!"
Their legs were stretched, now they were doing a few last minute torso stretches. "And, well, I thought, 'I should go invite everyone who tried to free me to play a game!' And everything I've seen here is making me really want to play with you all!"
"Play?" Bill asked, picking himself up off the ground.
"Titan Trappers do not play , human!" Tarak huffed, several Trappers behind him huffing in agreement. "We hunt ! Even when we must entertain ourselves, we hunt for that–"
"Shut up, Tarak!" Bill interjected. He turned back to the Collector. "What exactly are you suggesting we 'play', human?" He asked.
The Collector spun a knife on their fingertip, watching the crooked blade spin round and round. "Oh, nothing major. Just a little game I like to call 'Don't Get Killed by the Collector'!"
"That's… that's an odd name for a game…" Bill said, cautiously. "How… do we win?"
As he said that, they tumbled their knife into a casually threatening grip. "I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory, really."
Bill looked from the knife to the Collector's dangerous smile and back again. His eyes grew wide as the gravity of the situation slowly dawned on him.
"Tarak–!" Bill began to turn and shout, before the Collector pounced and drove their dagger into his heart.
The assembled Trappers recoiled at the sudden escalation on the Collector's part. Tarak looked down at Bill, whose eyes were already starting to roll back in their sockets.
"Run, y-idiots! She'll k-ki-kill y-" Bill tried to warn the other Trappers between coughs and hacks as his throat filled with blood.
Predictably, the Trappers–including Tarak–didn't listen, choosing instead to dive forward, speartip first. Instead of impaling the Collector, their spears ran through Bill's dying body.
They drew their spears back for another thrust, unaware of the slips of paper that had been affixed to their shafts, just below the speartips.
The spears exploded into a variety mix of fire, ice, and carnivorous plants. The unlucky spear holders were engulfed in their particular brand of pain and death.
At the sight of their comrades' gruesome ends, the other Trappers made their decisions. Some, especially those on the edge of the crowd, fled towards the village square and the armory. Others, enraged by the attacks, charged forward to meet a similar end to their former comrades.
Tarak, for his part, clung on to life far longer than the others. He had engaged the Collector in direct combat among the corpses of his fellows. However, every spear thrust was met with a dodge and every tackle attempt was met with another stab wound.
In the midst of the chaos, as glyph papers flew every which way and the Collector danced around the massive Tarak, Lilith cowered behind a rock. She was still recording as much as she could, between ducking behind the rock to avoid the occasional thrown weapon or explosion.
She was witnessing the end of a culture. A violent and genocidal culture, yes, but a unique and fascinating culture nonetheless. She had to make sure to record its final moments, if only for posterity.
After a few more minutes of absolute chaos, silence fell on the village. Tarak lay slowly dying, his spear thrust through his throat in a stunning display of mercy for the Collector.
The rest of the Trappers' bodies were strewn about, some arrayed in a desperate final defense, others obviously killed by wounds sustained during their attempt to flee.
Lilith could hear the Collector in one of the houses finishing off one of the stragglers as she walked through the village, documenting the aftermath.
The Collector stepped out of the building, holding a fur pelt that they were using to dry their hands of the blood they had accumulated during the slaughter. Once satisfied with their level of cleanliness, they tossed the pelt on to the body of one of the Trappers.
"Good game, everyone! Really, I had a great time!" The Collector giggled. "I wish we could play again, but…" Their giggle broke into a full-bodied laugh.
"I thought…" Lilith started, "I thought you wanted an army. Why-why did you kill them all, Collector?"
The Collector squatted down to search the Trappers' bodies for valuables. "Well, I never said I wanted an army, Lilith. You did!" They said, rolling their eyes at an ornate bone necklace on one of the Trappers before tossing it over their shoulder. "Maybe that was on the table, maybe not. It all depended on how they reacted!"
"What do you mean?"
"I was planning to play this game with a few of them, sure," The Collector explained, "but that was just for not freeing me faster than Belos did. Everything else was because they were being mean to me! That's not very nice, you know!"
"So, I figured they'd all love a chance to play a game with their favorite god!" The Collector continued, popping up from a pile of corpses with an infant titan skull on their head. "It's not my fault they couldn't keep up with me! Except for that one big guy, he was a lot of fun!"
"Is that why–" Lilith began, before being interrupted by the Collector.
"Yep! A good show means a slow death!" They slid down the pile of corpses, momentarily losing their balance as they did. "Too bad, though. A great show would have meant he got to live! And he was sooo close!"
Lilith looked around, her stomach desperately trying to dredge up anything else to evacuate. "How much more of this do I have to record?" She asked, turning back to the Collector.
"Hm? Oh, that's probably enough." The Collector waved it off. "I'll post it when we get back. Speaking of, we better hurry while we've still got daylight! I really want to try that bird that Salty was cooking!"
The Collector ran off towards the portal area with a skip in their step.
Lilith took one last look around and wondered if she was partly responsible for the slaughter that took place on this island. As she walked after the Collector, through the deepest part of the carnage, she wondered if anyone would ever find this graveyard. Or maybe, she mused, it would be lost to time and sink below the waves of the Boiling Sea, never to be seen again.
Regardless, it upset her stomach.
Or maybe that was just the thought of having to travel by ship back to the Boiling Isles.