The guard tilted the jar to the side, examining it. The little worm hit the side of the glass, then wiggled around to flip itself over again. It squirmed and ran inside the jar, attempting to escape, but it was futile. The guard made a please "hm" sound before pocketing the jar.
"Good work Blight. The Emperor will be pleased to hear you finished this assignment so quickly." His voice was tough and low.
"Thank you, Juno." Amity nodded.
"Speaking of which, I was told to give you two another if you completed the first before the week's end." He handed Amity another slip of paper. It was creased in some areas, like it was folded up inside of someone's pocket. On the page, there was a crude drawing of a half witch, half beast type of person with wings as ears and a horn protruding out of their head. It was a WANTED poster for their capture, marking at 1,000 snails.
"A wanted witch? Already?" Amity looked over to Luz, who seemed confused, but had the spirit. "I mean, sure, we got the worm easy enough, but I don't think this is easy enough for Luz. She still needs practice before an assignment like this." Amity tried to whisper, but Luz could still overhear the conversation. She looked at her staff. She felt ready enough.
"Not my call, Blight. Just get it done before next week's over. I don't want to have to pick them up for you." And with that, he left the room.
They were set up in one of the main halls of the Emperor's Castle, close to the entrance. It was one of the main drop off points for captures. Amity slumped over a bit before repositioning herself. She turned and began walking towards the exit. "C'mon, Luz. We got a lot of work to do with this one."
"It's just a simple witch capture, right? I can handle it. I mean, that worm was a bit much, but once I shocked it-" Luz was interrupted.
"Yeah, and you fell off the side of the cliff right after. Look, i know you can take care of yourself, but I don't think you realize just how dangerous this could be. That was one worm. One. This is a witch, and not only that, it looks like a half witch, which are way more powerful than just full blooded beasts or witches." Amity held Luz's hands, lifting them up in a pleading position. "I don't need you to think you can do more than you actually can. This," she gestured at the staff, "this thing isn't helping as much as it's hurting. You need to get more control of it before we take on a capture like this."
Luz pulled away, grabbed her staff with both hands. Her brows pressed together. "I can do it."
"Of course you can, but-"
"I can do it." Luz pressed. "I wanted to be a witch, and this is my ticket to it." She lifted the staff. "I don't want to be a burden. I want to help." She looked at Amity through the mask, but even with the barrier between their eyes, Amity could practically see the pride. It was more than pride, even. It was a need. She sighed.
"Okay, but promise me one thing. Don't be near a fall off when you use this thing," she smacked the staff, pushing Luz a bit along with it. Their laughter erupted as the tension died out. It was worrying. Luz was only human, after all, but humans were capable too. Amity knew that. She saw how smart and resourceful Luz was. Finding those glyphs and making it into the Emperor's Coven like that was something to be respected. No one had ever pulled that off before. But then again, no one was a human who stumbled into the Boiling Isles. Only one human was ever heard of, but he was long gone, possibly dead. No one knows.
Amity just hoped that same fate wouldn't befall the one she promised to keep safe.
—-
The Isles were full of interesting creatures of all shapes and sizes. There were plenty of towns and markets to house them all, no matter how odd. The roads in the town were lined with stone and were wide enough to let in a large beast, so long as everyone else piled to the sides to let them through.
Amity and Luz trailed this road for a while. This was the last known location of the perp, and they have been spotted here frequently. Luz tapped her staff on the ground as she walked. Amity's palisman was out, looking over the roads from the rooftops. Her staff was put away aside from that. Sphinx jumped from roof to roof, careful not to make much noise. She was very agile and nimble as she pranced around.
Luz looked at her go in awe, wishing she had one of her own. She, of course, wanted a bat. It would be fun to have a little bat as a pet, especially one that can turn into a powerful, magic granting staff.
Amity put her hand out in front of Luz, stopping them both.
"What is it?" Luz whispered. Amity didn't answer, she looked back, then motioned with her head for Luz to follow her lead. They stepped to the side into an alleyway, away from the road. They pressed their backs against the cold wall, not breathing or moving for anything. Luz decided to break this silence of movement, and peeked over Amity to look at the main road. The beastly witch walked by slowly. They wore a red cloak that covered most of their features, but the face was hard to forget. Luz's eyes widened. "Is that the one?" She whispered. Amity quickly put her hand up and shushed her, but it was too late. The witch's ear perked up inside the cloak as they straightened up.
Amity prayed they weren't spotted. She waited for a second, still. Luz followed her lead in that. They barely breathed as sweat dripped down Amity's forehead. Suddenly, the witch began to run.
"After them!" Amity shouted, bolting out of the alleyway, trying to be quick on their heels. Luz scrambled alongside her, trying to keep pace.
Within a minute she was already winded. "I wish..I..Didn't hate P.E…" She huffed as she tried to follow.
"Sphynx!" Amity lifted her hand as Sphynx jumped down from the rooftops, turning back into the staff as she fell into Amity's spread palm. She swung the staff around before speeding up her pursuit. They chased throughout the streets, running into civillians as they went. The streets weren't too crowded as it was much later after the midday rush, so Luz was thankful for that.
The witch stopped as they came upon a wall, creeping up to be about 4x their own height. Way too high up to attempt to climb it in such a short amount of time. They looked around for an exit while Amity and Luz were closing in. They saw a window open in the one of the buildings and gunned for it.
Amity saw what they were going for and acted fast. She pointed her staff, trying to aim it properly while running. The purple magic erupted into icicles that barelled down the street, forcing paserbys to the side in fear of being impaled. The witch didn't look back as they jumped into the open window, narrowly avoiding the icicle storm as it slashed the giant wall.
Amity halted, catching her breath. "We need to catch them on the other side." She pointed up the wall.
Luz caught up, her breathing heavy and winded as she slumped over with her hands on her knees. "I'm gonna take a second, I'll catch up, go on ahead."
Amity looked back, a bit irritated. "You said you were ready for this."
"I am! I am!" Luz projected, then had to get a whiff of air in, "I'm gonna try something else, see if we can throw them off." Amity sighed before making a pillar of ice, bringing her up to the top of the wall. She looked down at Luz before continuing her chase.
Luz took in another few breaths of air before straightening up. "Oh man, I really need to work out." She looked around, trying to come up with a plan. She turned around to think, but something caught her eye at the end of the street. Someone with large grey, spikey hair walked through the crowd. She could barely make them out, but it looked familiar. An image flashed in her mind of the first face she met when she came to the Isles.
The Owl Lady.
Luz's breathing stiffened. The one who brought her there. The one who held the door to getting her home was right there. She was was sure of it. She turned, looking up at the icy pillar. She had a job to do, and by all means she meant to do it, but this was much too important. She was sure they would forgive her if she brought back the door, or even The Owl Lady. She seemed to be much more valuable to the Emeperor than anything else she could bring him.
She nodded, affirming her choice to herself, then began to run.
By the time she made it to the main road again, she had lost her. Luz looked around frantically. Her uniform made it easy to get through the small crowd. She could hear some whispers around her. At least that's one good thing this uniform does.
Her attention was grabbed as she caught a glimpse of grey in her peripheral. She turned quickly and sure enough, there she was; The Owl Lady. She wore a red cloak over her already red, torn up dress. She was walking with something. Or someone. Luz couldn't see that well from so far away, but it looked like she was talking to a tiny furry creature with a skull on its head.
Luz gripped her staff before sliding through the crowd. As she neared her target, she could overhear their conversation. It had something to do with a "hooty" and "apple blood". Luz knew what the other thing was, but not a "hooty".
"Probably code for something criminal." She scrunched her face, nodding in affirmation. She began to see a few wanted posters of The Owl Lady plastered on some of the buildings surrounding the street. She knew how dangerous this criminal was. The fact that she was the only one with access to the human realm…Luz knew she needed that door, though it didn't look like The Owl Lady had it on her.
She began to think of a plan as she stalked. She remembered Amity. She would be looking for her by now. She had to hurry or Amity could ruin her stealth.
The Owl Lady and her dog thing began to turn a corner. She was a bit of ways still behind them, so she needed to catch up fast or lose them for who knows how long. She pushed through the now growing crowd. More and more creatures and witches began to pile in. She had no idea what was causing them to suddenly appear. An idea came into her head, but she needed to be faster than ever to pull it off.
"Step aside, in the name of the Emperor's Coven!" Luz lifted her staff, slamming it down, emitting an electrical beam into the air. The crowd began to scatter in all different directions, making sure to give way to the coven guard, but also to get away from the lightning bolt.
Luz ran down the street to the corner she saw the witch run to. Sure enough, she had heard Luz's war cry and began to run. "Stop!" Luz yelled out, chasing after. The street was long enough for a good chase, but began to divide. The Owl Lady began to delve into the secitoning streets, attempting to throw the hunter off their tracks. Luz noticed the witch had picked up the dog creature. It looked behind at Luz and sqeaked.
"Nyeh! Faster Eda!" He yelled. Luz was taken aback by the sudden speech, but was quickly back into her mindset. Everything on the Boiling Isles was weird and crazy, this was just another instance.
She chased on, using her staff to blast away anything in her way. Her tiredness wasn't even a bother as she was so focused on catching her prey. She needed that door.
Eda turned around, stopping suddenly. She opened her hand, and appeared a brown staff with that same owl on it that she saw during her first day in the Isles. Eda spun the staff, creating a spell circle. Luz knew she had to fight or be blown back. She stopped, standing her ground, readying her own staff. She could hear mumbles of protest from the small beast. Eda didn't seem to listen.
It became a staredown, both witches with their staffs at the ready, waiting to make the first move. The tension of the air was so thick, you could drown in it. Luz almost did as she began to feel the heat and sweat pouring over her.
"So, what's the Emperor up to these days?" Eda asked. She seemed to be stalling. Luz didn't answer. Her staff continued to charge, electricity bouncing off it into every direction, fizzling out before making contact with anything. "You don't want to do this. I could let you walk away and you don't need to tell your boss that you couldn't manage to catch me." Eda smirked. She seemed cocky.
"The rumors are true. You do talk too much." Luz bit her tongue, but heard laughter.
"Finally, a guard that gives banter back. I like your spunk. I'll go easy on ya." Eda's brows pressed together as her knees bent. Luz could sense an upcoming attack. Sure enough, Eda released the spell circle and a thousands vines destroyed the ground beneath Luz, gnashing and tearing through to try and grab her.
Luz yipped and raised her staff. She swung it around, feeling that same connection from before. This time, a bit more controlled. The lightning struck from the staff to the gnarly vines, burning them to a crisp while cutting them apart. Luz was almost surprised by the amount of power that was coming from the staff. She grinned under her mask. "That's more like it!" She jumped off one of the vines, running towards Eda. Eda attempted more spells to keep Luz at bay, but each one was blasted away with each with Luz's staff.
Eda stumbled back, then began to run again. "Okay, this was fun, but gotta go!" She tried to stay comedic, but fear began to show. Luz kept on. Each use of the staff felt stronger, and she felt stronger. It was like a high she couldn't bare to come down from. A rush of adrenaline. She was so close to catching the person who brought her here. So close to being able to prove herself and have a way home. The staff was a tool for these things. She felt like a true Azura.
Eda tried another spell of ice, shooting towards Luz. She gripped the staff's handle, focusing. A blast of electricity rocketed her into the sky. The electricity coursed through her body, lighting up her eyes with tinges of bright yellow. The lightning inside began to burn. It burned. And it burned.
Luz twitched, trying to aim the staff again, but the pain kept her from keeping her arms still. Eda was on the run, and she was too far in the air to catch her now. As she began to plummet, she attempted to use the staff again, wanting to break her fall. She saw a slight yellow glow from under her sleeves and gloves. Sweat poured down her face, hitting the inside of the mask and she felt her body explode from the inside out with electrical firing. She grit her teeth, trying to steady her hands as they fought against her.
The world began to go dark. The light emitting her grew stronger, but the world grew black. She felt weak. Too weak to keep her eyes open. It was like the adrenaline was suddenly sapped out.
The ground was approaching.
Too fast.
Too sudden.
But she couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to meet it.
The world went black
