"Get back here, you brat!" The Coven Guard shouted after the Collector as they ran down the alleyway behind the former Bonesborough Precinct.
The Collector giggled to himself as the Coven Guards tripped over each other trying to make the tight turn. Their stocky forms just couldn't keep up with the Collector's wily human body.
As they turned a corner, satisfied to have lost the guards, they ran face first into a short and sturdy figure wearing a hard hat.
The Collector looked up from the ground, one hand on his head nursing the new bruise. His hood had fallen back, revealing their shaggy white hair, which the Collector preferred to keep loose.
The figure stood with arms crossed, sternly looking down at the Collector. His bushy brow furrowed, indicating that there was no escape for the Collector this time. Behind him, a group of Coven Scouts rounded the corner to reinforce the Head Witch of the Construction Coven.
"Head Witch!" Called another group of guards, closing off the third exit to the alleyway. "What should we do?"
The Head Witch, called Mason to his friends, gestured around the alleyway, indicating that it should be closed off so that the human couldn't escape them this time.
To further his explanation, he twirled his finger and cast a spell, summoning a wall to close off the path that the Collector had run out from.
The scouts and guards quickly followed suit, creating stone walls with Construction magic to close off every conceivable exit to the area.
Well, every ground exit.
While they were busy setting up Mason's 'net', the Collector was busy lying on their back, watching the clouds pass by above them. They laughed as one passed by that looked a bit like a butt.
Once the 'net' was set and the Coven goons stood ready to capture or obliterate the Collector, he popped up from the ground in one smooth motion, landing on their feet with practiced ease with arms out wide for balance.
"It's been pretty fun playing tag, friends!" The Collector said, sincerely. They had been excellent tag partners, even if they didn't really understand the rules. Besides, broken bones only enhanced the experience, from the Collector's experience. "But I've got more places to be than here! So I'll just–"
"You're not going anywhere, human!" One of the scouts said with not insignificant vitriol behind her words. She had a purple spell circle at the ready, aimed right at the Collector's head.
The other scouts prepared their own spells, while Mason spun a spell circle to create a pair of stone manacles in which to bind the Collector.
The Collector sighed, smiled, and shook his head. When would these Coven goons learn that if someone wanted to stop playing, you should let them leave? How inconsiderate of them!
Mason began to approach, manacles at the ready, open to receive the Collector's wrists. But the Collector wasn't going to go out without a bang.
They reached into their cloak and pulled out a glyph paper, then slapped it onto the ground before the scouts and guards could react.
"Well, if you insist we gotta play, let's play a new game!" The Collector said with a smirk.
The glyph glowed green and after a moment's pause, a solid trunk of plant erupted from the ground, launching the Collector into the air, above the highest walls the Coven goons had erected.
And, for good measure, the Collector decided to use a bit of his own power for a bit of fun. If they were going to keep chasing them, those goons might as well chase them.
From their position on the ground, Mason and the scouts and guards saw the Collector ride the stalk up, but it was over a dozen Collectors that ended up jumping off and fleeing into the city in every direction.
"Catch me if you can, nerds!" The Collectors called out as they leapt out and dispersed into the streets of Bonesborough.
Mason grumbled, but dutifully directed the scouts and guards to begin the search for the duplicated Collector.
The Collector walked past the Bonesborough Park, Porta-Hooty slung over his back. Hooty had his head twisted around and was rambling on about nothing.
"And that was when it was decided: I was no longer allowed to eat apples anymore! But I still sneak a few every now and then…"
"Wow! And here I thought you'd die from that much cyanide! Now, tell me about that time with the tunnel of love?"
"Oh! That's one of my favorite stories from one of my favorite days! Ok, so…"
The conversation trailed off as the pair walked off under a nearby bridge, out of sight of the park. One park bench in particular.
Gus let out the breath he had been holding as he came back into sight.
He sighed as he sunk into the bench. "I did it again…" He wanted to sink even deeper into the bench, maybe even the ground, if he could. "They were just walking by, why did I have to disappear? It's not like anyone could care about some kid sitting on a bench. And it's the most secluded park in town! How are there so many people walking by here?!"
"Hey there!"
Gus yelped and instinctively twirled his finger to generate a spell circle. He took a deep breath and vanished from sight.
The figure that had greeted Gus stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. They shrugged and took a seat on the bench right next to Gus.
They began to hum a jaunty tune, patting their legs, clad in star-patterned pants. in time with the music in their head.
Gus could feel his lungs burning; he had to breathe or else he'd pass out. Either way, he'd be revealed to this stranger, but all he wanted was to be alone.
He finally gasped for air, coughing at the sudden inhalation.
"You okay?" The stranger's voice sounded concerned.
"I'm goo-I'm fine." Gus caught his voice mid cough and tried to sound more mature. The walls were up now. All he had to do was not interact with the stranger. His head turned towards the stranger to give them some more platitudes, but his breath hitched in his throat as he recognized their face.
"What's the matter?" The Collector said with a wry smile. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"The Collector!" Gus jumped up and pointed at the Collector. "What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, you know," The Collector waved his hand around to emphasize the self-evident ridiculousness of their situation, "running from those Coven goons, since they don't want to play tag properly. I mean, come on! I only sent one of them flying into the sky! He'll be fine once he lands!"
The Collector stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, if he lands."
Gus was frozen in his stance. "I heard about you from Willow." Gus chattered through his fear. "You're some kind of space god that stole Luz's body!"
"Hey!" The Collector exclaimed, sticking his nose up and turning slightly away in offense. "I didn't steal anything! We made a bargain, and so now I have this body! Stealing is wrong!"
"Well, you still stole it! You should give it back!" Gus said, his confidence growing. "I also heard from Willow that you can't hurt any of Luz's friends! So that means I'll make you give Luz her body back!"
The Collector rolled their eyes. "Ugh! This again. First the purple-haired girl, now you? So annoying!"
They crossed their arms and began to mull something over in his head. Multiple expressions flashed by, from frustration to agreement to disgust to finally a satisfied expression. Gus watched this cautiously, his finger still pointing at the Collector.
"Alright, goops, I've got a deal for you!" The Collector said, coming out of their thoughts and back into reality. "If you talk to me for a bit, then I'll let Luz have her body back!"
"What? Really?" Gus was taken aback. Would it really be that easy?
"Of course! Take a seat, buddy, and let's talk for a bit!" The Collector said, patting the bench beside them.
Gus looked at the Collector warily, then walked over and sat down on the bench. The whole time, he kept his suspicious eyes trained on the Collector, to make sure they didn't do any funny business.
"So… Collector… what exactly do you want to talk about?" Gus said, not taking his eyes off of the Collector for even a moment.
"Hmm…" The Collector put a finger to their smile as they thought. "How about… why were you hiding when I got here?"
Gus' gut flipped and his expression swapped from suspicion to fear to anger. He had really hoped he wouldn't have to talk about that. "Why do you want to know about that?"
"I dunno. But it sounds like you've got something to hide! Don't worry, I'm great at keeping secrets!"
Gus hummed in frustration. "You won't tell anyone else?"
"No one will ever find out!" The Collector promised.
"Fine. I was hiding because I didn't want to talk to anyone." Gus said plainly.
The Collector nodded. "Yeah yeah, I guessed that. But why didn't you want to talk to anyone?"
"Well…" Gus held himself back. Was he really going to spill his guts out to an entity that stole his friend's body? Then again, if he just pretended it was Luz…
"It's my dad."
"Ooh! Daddy issues!" The Collector giggled. "Is he not supportive of your school track? No, wait! Did he die from the draining spell? Shadow on the wall!"
"Uh, not exactly." Gus sighed, releasing the tension that he had unknowingly built up. "Ever since the Day of Unity, he's been… distant. He gets up and goes to work fine, but when he's at home, he just stares out the window. I'm not even sure if he's ever looking at anything."
"What a scoop!" The Collector laughed.
"It's not funny!" Gus exclaimed. "I don't know what to do! When I went to see him in the healing tents after that day, he was just laying there. He couldn't even look at me! And I overheard the medic talking about maybe having to amputate the limb…"
"Oooohh, you said something to him, didn't you?" The Collector playfully poked Gus in the shoulder.
"I-I tried to lighten the mood." Gus said, his voice cracking as the memory rushed back to the front of his mind. "I made a joke about what a waste all that time training on the mic with his left hand had been. A-and he just looked at me. With the emptiest, coldest look I've ever seen."
"Hahaha! I knew it!" The Collector held their stomach as they tried to contain their laughter. "That's got to be some of the worst joke material I've ever heard!"
"I was just trying to lighten the mood!" Gus shouted, the painful memory encroaching on his mind. "Why did he have to look at me like that?! Why won't he talk to me anymore?!"
"There we go…" The Collector stopped his laughter and grinned in satisfaction. "Hey, Goops, remember that time you almost died? What was that like?"
Gus began to hyperventilate, he couldn't calm himself down, couldn't focus in order to use his breathing technique. It was like the Collector was just egging him on, trying to make him go over the edge.
And it was working; numerous instances of near-death experiences began to fill his mind. He hadn't realized how many he had experienced: the Moonlight Conjuring with the demon hunters, the carnival where they had been shrunk and almost eaten, half a dozen in the month leading up to the Day of Unity alone!
"No, no, no!" Gus gripped the sides of his head with both hands, keeping his eyes shut tight. "I can handle this stuff! I am Augustus Porter, the strongest illusionist on the entire Boiling Isles!"
"Are you sure? I only see a coward!" The Collector's voice whispered in both Gus' ears simultaneously. Buried imposter syndrome broke out of its prison in Gus' mind and spilled out into the chaos of death and functional abandonment that was already at the forefront of his mind.
Gus fell to the ground, screaming, as his eyes shot open and glowed a vibrant bright blue. The landscape around them already began to shift and change; it was only an illusion, the Collector knew, but it was exactly what he was hoping for.
The Collector leaned down to pat Gus' prone form on the shoulder. "Thanks for the talk, buddy! Glad I could convince you to provide the playing field for the most epic game of hide and seek this realm has ever seen!"
Gus convulsed on the ground, the worst moments of his life flashing before his eyes and peeling off to generate a new labyrinthian space that overtook Bonesborough. He couldn't hear the Collector as they thanked him and he couldn't see when he walked off, leaving Gus writhing on the ground, reliving his worst memories.
"Don't worry! I'll come check on you in a few hours, once we're all done playing for today!" The Collector waved a hand, not looking at the tortured Gus. "Well, if I remember, that is!"
"Aw, dangit, not again!" Eda said as she walked the streets of Bonesborough. Every few feet she had to stop and pluck out another batch of feathers that had grown in when she wasn't looking. "This is the fifth time today! This is getting ridiculous."
She walked up to and banged on the window of Mr. Elixir. "Morton! You there?" She shouted into the shop. "I need some elixir! You got any in stock?"
Eda paused for a moment, then let out a grumble. "I've got snails this time…"
The window swung open quickly, barely giving Eda enough time to dodge out of the way. Morton the potion maker stood at the window with his normal customer service smile on his face.
"Hey Eda, how are things?" Morton said, leaning forward onto the counter.
"Ah, you know," Eda said, plucking yet another batch of feathers off her arm, "it's goin'. You got any elixir I can buy? Kinda in an emergency situation here."
"Not a problem, Eda!" Morton said, reaching under the counter and returning a moment later with a bottle of the orange-gold elixir. He held it out to her with a genuine smile. "Here you go!"
"Uh, thanks." Eda grabbed the bottle out of his hand and uncorked it quickly.
It was almost at her lips when she realized she was forgetting one crucial step. "How much do I owe you? I think I've got at least a handful of snails…"
"Oh, no no no!" Morton waved his hands in refusal. "Please, Eda, you're one of my most loyal customers. That elixir is on the house today!"
"Riiiight…" Eda's eyes narrowed. She stuck a finger in Morton's face accusingly. "Who are you and what have you done with my apothecarist?"
"What?" Morton's eyes flashed with fear and he held his arms up. "I-uh-uh…"
Eda couldn't hold the pose for long before she broke out laughing. "Just jerkin' your chain, Morton. Still, normally you're such a scrooge, why the change of mind?"
"Like I said, you're one of my best customers, Eda." Morton said, watching carefully as Eda threw back the potion and down it all in one chug. "And I just wanted to give you something fun."
Eda watched happily as the feathers that had grown on her fell off and no remaining feathers began to grow.
She turned back to thank Morton, who stood there with a wide grin on his face, but her expression grew confused as it seemed like she was falling down.
Eda rubbed her temple as a raging headache shot through her head. "What–" Eda said, surprised by how much less gravely her voice sounded, "what was in that elixir, Morton?!"
"Hahaha!" Morton cackled as he suddenly leapt up onto the counter. "Congrats, Owl Lady! You just got Collectored!"
He paused for a moment, looking slightly confused. "Collectored? Collected? Collectized?" He shrugged. "Eh, whatever."
"What the heck are you, aaaahhh!" Eda screamed as she felt her whole body burning. She pulled at her hair and fell to her hands and knees.
Finally opening her eyes, she saw tufts of bright orange hair clutched in her hands, like she had had as a kid. She looked up at Morton, who was now sitting on the counter, kicking his legs back and forth.
Based on the bad attempt at a catchphrase, and the intense pain she was in, Eda had only one guess for who was really behind this.
"Collector!" She exclaimed. "What did you do to me?"
The Collector took a piece of glyph paper off their chest, dissolving the illusion of Morton that they had projected in order to trick Eda. The glyph paper crumbled into ashes and drifted away on the breeze while the Collector sat on the counter looking smug.
"Oh, don't overreact so much!" The Collector said, waving off Eda's pain. "It's just a de-aging potion I mixed into your normal elixir. It still works as an elixir, but now we get to have a lot of fun!"
"Wha-aaaahhh!" Eda tried to ask, but keeled back over as the pain hit her heart.
"You know, it's pretty funny." The Collector mused. "My deal said I couldn't hurt anyone, which apparently means I can't do stuff like hit, stab, play tag with, or forcibly transform anyone on Luz's list." They counted off each method on his fingers as they talked. "But it turns out that I can totally do that stuff to people, as long as I'm not the one doing it! All I have to do is make them do it to themselves!"
Eda could barely hear the Collector over her own screams of pain as the transformation really kicked into gear. Bones and organs shifted, once forgotten muscles cried out for energy. She could even feel the Owl Beast inside her, crying out in pain as it suffered the same effects as her.
Finally, the pain stopped and Eda collapsed onto the ground. Her breathing was labored and uneven, but she endeavored to stand. Shakily, she made her way back to her feet.
"I'm a teenager again?!" Eda exclaimed as she inspected the changes the potion had wrought on her body. Her voice matching her teenage one was throwing her off.
"Isn't it exciting?" The Collector asked, very giddy about the whole affair. "Now your slow old body won't slow us down while we play!"
"Hey! That's my body you're talking about!" Eda said, leaping at the Collector with a fist drawn, intent on dealing with him the old fashioned way. However, a sudden breeze made her look down and realize while she had shrunk, her clothing had not.
"Ack! I'm naked!" She said, diving into the potion shop. After a moment, her eyes popped above the counter, glaring at the Collector. "This isn't over, you two-toned–"
"Pfft, don't freak out!" The Collector interrupted. "I made sure to put a Hexside uniform underneath the counter for you. I'm a prankster, not evil."
Eda rummaged underneath the counter, quickly finding the stashed uniform. "Huh. Thanks? Wait-no! Nevermind."
She decided to put the conflict aside until she had gotten changed. The Collector, for his part, patiently waited outside the potion shop for Eda to emerge, fully clothed in the uniform they had provided.
"Lookin' sharp, Owl Lady!" The Collector said, shooting finger guns at Eda. She responded with another glare and a low growl.
"I look like a teenager!" Eda said, frustrated. "How did you ever do this? I've made de-aging potions before and they didn't do half of whatever that did."
"Oh, you know, I just put in a little Collector magic," The Collector shrugged, picking up the empty elixir to examine it, "gave it some extra oomph, yeah? The pain part was probably because someone had to drink it all at once."
Eda crossed her arms and grumbled off to the side. "So what if I chug my elixirs. They taste like bloodberries and those taste disgusting." Her expression turned surprised. "Oh man, I even sound like a teenager now. Collector, you gotta change me back, I don't think I can live as a teenager all over again!"
"Oh, don't worry!" The Collector said, throwing an arm over Eda's shoulder and giving her a twisted smile. "The effects are (probably) temporary! And besides–"
"Boop!"
They poked Eda's forehead with the pointer finger of their free hand, sending her eyes rolling back into her head and her stance into a stagger. The Collector's arm over her shoulder steadied her, though, and after a few moments, her two golden eyes rolled back into place. She blinked a couple times and squinted as she tried to adjust to the light.
"Wha– Where am I?" Ed said, putting a hand to her head as she tried to remember. "The last thing I remember is… me and Raine. We were… ugh. We were walking home? But we were in the forest; how did we get to downtown Bonesborough?"
"Isn't it obvious, ya dingus?" Raine said, slapping Eda on the back. They looked exactly the same as they had at school earlier. Though Eda distinctly remembered a mustard stain on their left sleeve. "We're going to play the biggest, most awesomest game of hide-and-seek the Isles have ever seen!"
"Wait, really?" Eda asked. "When did we decide to do that?"
"Uh, we were just talking about it yesterday?" Raine said, taking their arm off of Eda's shoulder. "Are you feeling alright? Maybe we should call it off."
"What, no! I'm fiiine." Eda said with a laugh, feeling the weird vibe start to dissipate, but not disappear. "So, who all is playing with us? When do we start?"
"Only all of Bonesborough!" Raine said with their arms out wide. "And you'll know when it starts. Should be any moment now…"
As they said that, a strange, two-toned figure in a starry cloak dashed past the pair. On their back was a small house-like backpack that an owl-like tube thing was sticking its head out of. The owl-like tube thing was busy oscillating between shouting insults at the Coven Guards chasing the pair and shooting flasks of fire oil.
"Take this, oppressors of the highest order! I WILL NEVER WEAR PANTS!"
"Hooty, focus!" The cloaked figure said as they passed Eda and Raine.
After the bizarre pair passed, a gaggle of Coven guards and scouts followed, spells at the ready and firing at the pair.
"Get back here, terrorist!"
"Watch out for that bird-thing!"
"Agh! I only had two days until retirement!"
Just as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared down the street. Eda and Raine shared a look, and Eda cracked a joke.
"Wow, a lot of Coven folks out and about today. Who was that, enemy of the throne number one?" Eda snorted as she laughed at her bad joke, unaware of how accurate she was in that moment. Her laugh petered out and she looked at her friend. "Seriously, though, when is this game gonna–"
Eda suddenly felt the space around her shift, as if she was being thrust through several foreign memories. After the feeling subsided, she looked around to find that she was, somehow, back in the forest out near her dad's old tower.
"The game starts now~!" Eda heard Raines voice call out. She smirked; she knew the forests like the back of her hand. There was no way she was losing to Raine in a game of hide-and-seek.
"I don't think you really understand this whole 'hide-and-seek' thing." The Collector said, dangling upside down, wrapped in plants.
Willow sat on her bed, arms crossed and expression thoroughly annoyed.
"You tried to sneak into my room." Willow said, keeping her tone even. "And then you started throwing my stuff on the ground! I'm pretty sure this is a fair response."
The Collector rolled his eyes. "Ah, come on! Scroll games always have money in pots and stuff! How was I supposed to know yours just had dirt in them?"
"Uh, the plants?"
"Pfft. Yeah, right, like that'd stop me." The Collector said with a smirk.
"It didn't!" Willow shouted, raising her arms to emphasize her point. "Life is not a game, Collector!"
The Collector just laughed at Willow earnest point. Willow pinched the bridge of her nose, pushing her glasses up in the process. Was this anything like what Hunter had had to deal with in the In-Between Realm? If so, she could understand his desire to never interact with the Collector again.
"Hey, look," The Collector said, "if I say I'm sorry about breaking your pots and stuff, will you let me go?"
Willow took a deep breath before responding. In, 2, 3, 4. Out, 2, 3, 4.
"Absolutely not." She said, matter-of-factly.
The Collector's brow furrowed. "What? That's not fair! I've got other games to play!"
He began to kick and push at the plants binding them, trying to break out and escape Willow's grasp. Willow responded with a simple twirl of her finger to create a glowing green spell circle, which caused the plants to constrict tighter and prevent the Collector from moving whatsoever.
"You've got a lot to answer for, Collector." Willow's glasses shined menacingly as she loomed over him. "And I wanna know everything. For example: how do we free Luz?"
"Ugh, this conversation again?" The Collector groaned. "I already told the purple friend–"
"We already know she's still in there, Collector! Hunter told us everything about what happened in the In-Between Realm."
"Yeah, and like I said, she's not going anywhere until I want her to!" The Collector insisted. "Why do you all even care? She wasn't a good friend, she left all of you! If she was really your friend, you would have made sure she couldn't leave. And then didn't want to leave."
Willow spun her spell circle again, causing the plants to constrict further, eliciting an "Ow ow oww!" from the Collector. Once she was pretty sure they had gotten the point, she spun the spell circle back and loosened the plants back to merely immobilizing.
Willow sighed. "Don't ever talk about Luz like that again, Collector. She might not be the most reliable person, or the least impulsive, but she's the friendliest person I've ever met and she believes in her friends!"
"Ugh, a power of friendship speech…" The Collector said to the side.
"I know she trusts her friends. Even if she made a stupid agreement, she wouldn't have done it without a good reason–"
"Oooor…" The Collector retorted. "She was super impulsive and agreed to a deal without considering what it meant? And now she's just sulking around in our head not doing anything except feeling sorry for herself?"
Willow was taken aback by the Collector insinuation. "No way. I believe in Luz. I don't think–"
"Yeah, yeah. I feel like I've heard this a few too many times at this point." The Collector said, giving a big sigh. "Oh, by the way, you might want to deal with that."
Willow looked confused for a moment, then she heard a knock at the door. She spun as she heard her dad saying in his deep voice "Willow, sweetie? Is someone in there with you?"
"Dad!" Willow shouted as she scrambled to the door. She cracked it open, just in time to see her dad in the process of reaching for the knob. "Dad, no, I'm fine. There's no one else here!"
"Oh, really?" Her other dad said, standing just off behind the two in the hallway.
"Really!" Willow said with a desperate smile.
She looked back, double checking that the Collector was still wrapped up. They were busy whistling and bobbing their head amid the mass of plants that filled the room.
She looked back at her dad, who raised an eyebrow at her desperate expression. He shrugged. "Well, alright. I made sandwiches for lunch, let me know if you and your friend want any, alright?"
"Thanks dad." Willow said as she shut the door and turned the lock. She let out a sigh of relief.
"Wow, your dad is really nice, Willow! You think I can have one of those sandwiches?" Willow's blood chilled as she heard that familiar annoying voice.
She spun around to see the plant trap she had had the Collector trapped in ripped apart and two Collectors standing by the balcony, one of which was wearing the Porta-Hooty house that she had seen a couple times when she was over at the Owl House. And protruding from it was an all-together too excited Hooty, who smiled at Willow and waved his body in greeting.
"Hooty?! Two Collectors?! WHAT?!" Willow shouted in disbelief.
"Hi Willow!" Hooty said. "I see you've met my new friend! Aren't they just the best?"
"C'mon Hooty," the new Collector said, "we've got to get to the party! We don't want to be late, do we?"
"No way!" Hooty said, turning to the Collector. He turned back to Willow and waved goodbye. "Bye Willow! See you at the party!"
The Collectors jumped off the balcony with a cheeky wave back at Willow. She rushed after them, looking out onto the street to see where they had gone.
She was greeted by a bizarre sight as the streets seemed to waver and shift with every look at them. One moment it was the normal street, the next it was the halls of Hexside, and the next after that it was a spooky graveyard.
She spotted the Collectors running off in different directions. The one with Hooty seemed to be heading north, while the other was headed east. She shook her head in disbelief at what was going on. It looked a lot like what happened at Hexside.
"I don't know what's going on, but I've got to stop them before they do any lasting harm to the town!" She said with determination.
She grabbed one of her still-intact plants and jumped out into the streets, hitting the ground at a run as she chased after the Collector that had headed to the east.
Meanwhile, at the Park household, Willow's dad opened the front door, only to be greeted by a mass of leafy branches. "Gilbert? Did this door always open into a forest?"
"Dang it!" Eda shouted after her fourth wrong turn. She had thought she was in the forest on the Gut, but she had only taken two steps before she was in the middle of Hexside! This confusion had repeated several times as she tried to chase after Raine, but she was no closer to finding them than she was to figuring out where she was this time.
Luckily, though, there appeared to be someone else in this area, which looked like the forest again, but a different one than before.
"Hey!" She called out to the purple-haired girl, who was carrying a kid in a light blue vest.
The girl had a double take as she looked at Eda. "Eda?" She said, confusion in her voice. "Is that you?"
"Woah, I knew I was famous, but this is crazy!" Eda laughed as she jogged over to the pair. "You guys playing hide-and-seek too, right? You seen Raine? I'm not really sure if I'm hiding or seeking, but I'm pretty sure I'm seeking."
"What? Eda, don't you remember who we–" The girl started to say, before being interrupted by the boy groaning, his eyes fluttering open and closed rapidly. The girl turned to him with a concerned look. "Gus! Hang in there, buddy."
"Woah, what happened to him?" Eda said, taking a closer look at this 'Gus'. "And why do I have the urge to call him 'goops'?"
"I don't know, exactly, but he's the one that's causing all of this." The girl said, gesturing around herself. "It's all one massive illusion spell."
"Oh! That explains it!" Eda said, lightly dropping her fist into her hand. "I was wondering how Raine set all this up. Figures they'd have backup!"
"You said Raine? Do you mean Raine Whispers?" The girl asked.
Eda nodded. "Yeah! They said we were playing hide-and-seek. But it was kinda weird, because I thought we were just walking home."
"I see." An oddly familiar figure said as they walked out of a nearby alleyway filled with illusionary trees. "So that's what's going on."
"Woah, who the heck are you?" Eda said in surprise.
"Raine! Thank goodness." The girl said in relief. "I lost track of them in the labyrinth, but I know they're the one that did this to Gus."
"Hettie should be able to help him, but we need to find the Collector first." 'Raine' said as they adopted a thinking pose. "There's no telling what kind of chaos he's causing right now. It was a mistake to try and negotiate with them, in hindsight."
"Wait, Raine?" Eda said in disbelief. Admittedly, the resemblance was uncanny, as if someone cast an aging spell on them when Eda wasn't looking, but… "No way, I just saw you! You didn't look anything like this!"
"Eda…" Raine looked at Eda with more concern than Eda had ever seen them show in her life. There was also something else there, a hint of longing, buried behind their eyes. It only lasted a moment before they were back to a serious expression. "The Collector must be behind this too. But I don't understand, how did they do this to them if he can't harm Luz's friends or family?"
"Amity?" Another voice said, behind Eda. She turned to see a girl with dark green hair holding a plant walking up. "What are you doing here? Is Gus alright?"
"It's a long story, Willow." The purple haired girl, Amity, replied.
"Don't worry, miss Willow," Raine said, putting on a comforting tone, "your friend will be fine, just as soon as we get him back to our camp. But first we need to stop the Collector from causing any more devastation."
"Wait, you guys are chasing him too? I saw two of them run off in this direction." Willow said.
"Two of them?" Amity said, surprised.
Raine nodded in understanding. "That explains a lot. Like how we encountered him right before me and Amity got split up."
Eda's head was spinning, these people were talking. "What the heck is going on? Can someone please explain who the heck this 'Collector' is? And why do we have to stop the Collector, shouldn't we just leave that to the Emperor's Coven?"
Amity, Raine, and Willow all looked at Eda in surprise, then at each other.
"They must have really done a number on you if you're thinking the Emperor's Coven is good, Eda." Raine commented. "We'll have some healers take a look at you when we get back."
"What? No! I'm fine!" Eda shouted, taking a step back and preparing a spell circle. But as she finished spinning it, rather than the warning shot she had planned, the circle turned black and crumbled before her eyes. "Wait, what? My magic! What happened to my magic?!"
"Eda, please, calm down." Raine said carefully, reaching towards Eda with an outstretched hand.
"No! No no no!" Eda shouted, backing away from Raine in fear. She closed her eyes and held her head in her hands as a wave of pain shot through. "What's going on? Why does my head hurt so much? Aaaaaahhhh!"
"Eda!" Amity said, desperately.
Raine held a hand out to block Amity from making any sudden moves. "I had hoped I wouldn't have to do this." They said with a sigh and a shake of their head. They used their magic to conjure their violin, marked by the storm cloud placed by Eda's hand so long ago. They lifted their instrument to their shoulder and set the bow on the strings.
The tune they played was mournful, but soft and slow. It drifted through the air and through Eda's mind, slipping in unnoticed. As the spell took hold, Eda could feel her eyelids growing heavy and fluttering as she tried to stay awake. Her whole body wavered and she fell to her knees, then to the ground, but Willow was there to soften her fall with a cry of "Miss Eda!"
As the spell came to an end, the last words Eda heard before slipping into unconsciousness was a whisper on the tune. "I'm sorry, Eda." Raine's voice said amongst the notes.
Raine's expression hardened while Willow set Eda on the ground, gently. They turned to the unseen audience they knew were watching and shouted out "Collector! Enough games!"
The three conscious witches looked about as their surroundings filled with childish laughter from every direction.
From the alleyway that looked like a cave-in, the Collector stepped out, their hood down and a pleased smile on their face. "Ah, but we only just started?" They said with a chuckle that seemed to echo around the group.
"Collector! Whatever you did to Gus, make it stop!" Amity said.
"Ah ah ah!" The Collector said, wagging their finger. "Unfortunately, I can't stop what I didn't start."
"Is this really fun for you?" Willow asked as she prepared to unleash her plant. "Tormenting us, trying to hurt us?"
"Yeah!" The Collector said. The murmuring echo seemed to agree with him. "Aren't you guys having a good time?"
"No!" Willow exclaimed.
The Collector shrugged. "Well, then you must all be broken?"
"This is the end, Collector." Raine said, readying their violin.
As they did, the illusions that surrounded them began to fade away and the streets returned to normal.
But the sight of a pile of Coven Guards and Scouts greeted the group. At the peak of the pile was the unconscious body of the Head Witch of the Construction Coven. All around the area, puddles of abomination goop and spiked pillars lay strewn about, the aftermath of a furious battle.
Sitting atop the pile of bodies, as well as on rooftops and standing in the street, were more Collectors. Nearly a dozen or so who stood by while their representative did most of the talking for them. One of them had the Porta-Hooty on their back, and Hooty waved himself at the group with a "Hey guys, glad you could make it!"
Raine looked taken aback at the sight of so many Collectors. How was this possible?
"Oh, right, you guys didn't know, but I copied myself a few times." The Collector with their hood down said.
The Collector wearing the Porta-Hooty continued. "And then we planned this whole hide-and-seek game with the town!"
One last Collector, covered in blood, finished the thought. "But then you guys decided you just had to stop me in the name of 'justice' and 'peace'. Ugh, so boring!"
Raine steeled theirself, even as they could barely hold back their nervousness. "I guess I'll have to fight all of you, then."
"We'll fight all of them, you mean." Amity said, readying her staff and several glyph papers.
"Yeah! Let's kick their butts!" Willow said, casting a spell to overgrow her plant into a small monstrosity.
Raine looked surprised at the two young witches, but their expression grew bold and the three prepared for the most epic battle of their lives, probably.
The Collector looked at the three posing in front of them, then pulled out their scroll and looked at it with a tired expression. After a couple presses on the screen, they put it away and sighed.
"I'm bored!" They pouted, suddenly "This was fun when I was on top, but now you guys are all gonna beat me up and I don't want to play anymore!"
"Wha–" Amity started to say.
Each of the Collector doppelgangers faded into stardust before the trio's eyes. Hooty was left unceremoniously crashing off the side of the pile of bodies, landing with a hard "Ow!"
The Collector turned up their nose. "I'm going home. Don't follow me!" He said as he began to walk off down the street. Amity, Willow, and Raine could only watch in disbelief as he walked down the street, then turned the corner out of sight. They half expected it to be a trick, only to be sorely frustrated when it turned out to not be.
"What?!" Amity exclaimed in shock as her senses finally returned to her. "All that suspense and threat for nothing?! "
"Well, at least we're alright?" Willow said, using a spell to return her plant back to its original flowery self. She looked at the two unconscious witches lying on the road. "Except for them…"
Raine took a deep breath. They knew Eda would be the death of them some day, but they figured it would be from a dangerous stunt, not high blood pressure. "Let's get these two to the healers at our camp. Hopefully we'll be able to help them."
"Speaking of, Amity, why did Gus' labyrinth shut down all of the sudden?" Willow asked.
Amity leaned down and lifted Gus up onto her shoulders before she answered. "Oh, right, that. Well, there was this glyph combo that Luz was working on. I think it was a magic-canceling spell, a counter spell. I'll admit, it only had a 50/50 chance of stopping Gus' breakdown."
"What was the other 50?" Raine asked as they picked up the smaller than they remembered Eda.
"That it was a power-enhancing spell that would make his illusions into our new reality." Amity said with a brief haunted look on her face. Her expression quickly changed back to normal. "Good thing it didn't though!"
"Yeah…" Willow said as the three walked off in the direction of the rebellion's camp, carrying the two unconscious witches with them.
Back at the pile of bodies, Hooty lay on the ground. "Hey guys? Hoot hoot hello?" He said, somewhat worried he had been forgotten. "Can someone take me back home please? It's cold here on the–OH MY GOSH A BUG! Omnomnomnom!"
Hooty sighed. "Ahhh, that was goood. Welp! Back to my crushing sadness and loneliness! Hoot hoot!"