Camila's hand was gripped to the doorknob. She could not believe what she was looking at, so many years had passed but she could still recognize the woman that she loved perfectly even with the ravages left by her curse. She was about to throw herself into her arms like when they were younger when the witch continued talking. "It's Luz, Luz is in the Boiling Isles and she is sick."
Camila could feel her heart breaking into pieces again, but then she shook her head. That couldn't be possible, Luz was on a Summer Camp far away from any danger, the woman bit her lip in an attempt to relax and focus, this could be a trap, someone from the Emperor's Coven pretending to be Eda to finally catch her and take her back to that horrible man, "I… I don't know you… Y... You can't be here… pl…please leave." she tried to step backwards back into her home, but Eda quickly grab the door to stop her from closing it.
"Camille we don't have time for the mistrust game! Luz is not okay!" She scream with all the air in her lungs.
It had been so long that Camila hadn't heard that name that she had already forgotten that it was supposed to be her real name. Being at a closer distance she could see directly into her eyes, that golden glow distinguishable even in the dark, that challenging look that she did not surrender to anyone. She was definitely her Eda, the one and only Edalyn Clawthorne. But that only left another more important question, "How… how do you know my daughter's name?".
The look on Eda's face revealed an incredible amount of guilt that did not go unnoticed by Camila "Have… Have you been spying me?", Camila's shocked eyes quickly transformed into an accusatory gaze, "Is this some kind of plan to get me back to the Isles?!" The woman raised her voice in a tone just as accusatory as her eyes.
Eda took a step back, this attitude had taken her by surprise, she knew very well the Camille's character when she was upset but it had never really been the objective of this. "No! Its not that, I can explain you, but you need to come with me!" She tried to step forward again, but she could already feel the curse wanting to take control over her body. With all her willpower Eda managed to maintain her current form.
"This surprises me coming from you Eda, under any other circumstance I would have at least considered going with you back, but using my daughter's name to try to attract me is something I will not tolerate". Camila sounded hurt, this was the woman she had loved from years, had something changed her in her absence? Has the curse corrupted her noble heart?.
Both women began to argue back and forth, the mistrust that Camila had developed from being in hiding for so many years against Eda's haste and instability caused by the curse and the state of her apprentice.
King watched unable to say anything, at first he was curious because this was supposed to be Luz's mother, but at the same time the way Eda spoke to her seemed that of old lovers. Or at least that's how it was until they started arguing, "I told you to go as far as you can! Not 10 steps outside the portal!" "Do you have an idea how hard is to live in this world?! You can just go and reclaim a property as yours!". "STOP!" The demon screamed in despair, his Boo Boo Buddy was in trouble and they needed to come back soon, these two could solve their relationship problems later.
That actually worked because it made them stop arguing for a second to look at him. Eda took advantage of this distraction and took the woman by the wrist to start practically dragging her away "I'm sorry Camille but I promise you that once we are there you will see that Im telling you the truth".
"Eda let me go!" Camila tried to fight back, but so much time pretending to be a human and without her magic to boost her strength there was nothing she could do. The witch's grip on her wrist was so strong that it almost cut off her circulation, "Eda you are hurting me!" This was followed by a thunder that illuminated the whole sky and shake the ground with its impact.
Eda turned to look at her immediately, and when she noticed that she was squeezing her with more force than she intended, she released her by taking a step back. This damn curse, to this day she still couldn't forgive herself for attacking her loved one when they were young, then attacking her apprentice, and now making her use an excess of force on the woman she loved. This was all the curse fault; If she wasn't cursed she would had been strong enough to fight for her hand sooner, they would have been happy together and maybe Luz would be her biological daughter.
This is all Lilith's fault!.
Inside Eda the anger was boiling again, running through her veins and beginning her transformation, she couldn't take it anymore, she no longer had magic and the pessimism in her mind told her that maybe they were already too late and the worst would have already happened. The sound of the rain was completely gone, King's screams for her attention as well, and finally Camille's pleas for her to keep control of her as well. For a moment, Eda was consumed by the darkness.
Then a sensation of heat that she hadn't felt in a long time washed over her. She adored Luz's hugs even when she pretended to not know what they were, but they were nothing compared to what her beloved gave her. Little by little the darkness moved away again alongside the black feather that begin to cover her body, the world around her became palpable again instead of a realm of incorporeal shadows that terrified her so much, and there she was, her Camille, embracing her like that day more than 30 years ago when she transformed for the first time.
Eda always felt so vulnerable in Camille's arms, she always felt as if all her walls were turning to dust as she hugged her and said those words, the same ones that she had used to calm her apprentice when she had an outburst of anger. She barely managed to keep the tears at bay from flowing freely like the last time and luckily the rain from the human world helped her to hide them. Looking directly at the woman in front of her, she could see that although she was worried about her, she was still understandably upset.
"Listen, I know this is not the romantic reunion that neither of us probably expected, hell I would give everything so that this would have happened in a different way. I don't care if you do not want to be with me again after this, but for all the love you have for your daughter please trust me on this".
Camila at first doubted, but thinking again that after all this was Eda, the same Eda who was with her in her most difficult moments while she lived on the islands and she knew that she could trust her with her life, heck she had done the same thing when Eda offered to use her portal to flee in search of a new life even knowing that they would probably never see each other again. Camila let Eda go, only to get up and offer her hand to help her do the same. "I trust you, Eda".
The portal reopened in the living room of the Owl House, through which two totally soaked figures passed through first that were immediately received by Willow. "By the Titan Eda is raining there! Are you two okay?!".
Eda lightly patted Willow's shoulder, she was definitely Elon and Garrick's child as she had the same protective and affectionate demeanor as both of them. "We are fine kid, and not two, but three". She stepped aside to let a third figure pass through the portal.
Camila doubted for a second, she really was about to return to her home realm after so many years. As soon as she entered she could feel a tremendous blow of nostalgia when she saw the room where she and her lover had spent a few evenings, of course some things had changed; some more weapons hanging on the wall, a little more garbage piled up in the corners, and of course, Eda's gigantic wanted poster on display next to a small banned poster of her daughter. Wait. She stepped back to look at him closely. There was no doubt that that was Luz, that was her Luz. Luz really was on the isles. Panic began to build in Camila's chest, Eda was telling the truth, so Luz was really sick, and she had lost valuable time due to her mistrust. She rolled over as well as she could while her legs shake. "Where is she?" Her voice came out as a whisper, and before they could ask what she had said, it came out again but now as a desperate cry "Where is my Daughter?!".
Eda must have known that something was wrong when upon arrival she saw neither the illusions boy nor Luz where she had left her resting.
Luz had gotten worse shortly after they left, they did not know what to do so they had called the only person they knew they could trust because she was a friend of Luz, a girl who studied both in the Beast Keeping and the Healing track, Viney.
Viney arrived quickly thanks to her flying over her friend Puddles, and because Hooty was very reluctant to let her pass, Gus had to use some illusions to distract him long enough so that they could get Luz out of the house and carry her back to the healer's house where she had all her equipment. Willow stayed behind to let Eda know as soon as they got back and that's why they were rushing now.
Camila felt her legs ache, not from the effort of running but from the weight she felt on her, the enormous guilt she felt in her heart. What if they are late? What if they had arrived on time if she hadn't mistrusted Eda? After running for what felt like hours despite being only minutes, they finally reached the house where Willow said this Viney girl lived, a little cabin with a large barn to one side on the outskirts of Bonesborough.
Eda was the first to made it to the door, knocking it so hard it was a surprise that this didn't collapsed. "Open! Open right now!" She was about to knock again when the door opened itself, it was Gus, he looked concerned, probably thinking that someone had followed them until he recognized Eda's voice and so he opened the door.
The five walk from the house to the barn, it was there that Viney had taken Luz after they arrived. In the place there was equipment of all kinds, from medical to beast care. Everything was well divided and organized, so much so that even Camila was surprised because she still remembered that most of her contemporaries lacked these cares regarding their workspaces. "Gus? Is that you? Did Willow and the Owl Lady finally are here?" A voice came from the back of the barn, there was a curtain that functioned as a wall dividing what would be the main section of another room. "I hope they have found who they were looking for because if not then I am going to take her to the hospital!" Viney walked through the curtain to receive her visitors, she was received by four pairs of eyes fixed on her, the fifth pair practically ignored her completely because it was fixed on the bed that was behind her.
It was now that the world really fell apart for Camila, her little girl, her happiness for the last years, her Luz, lying on a bed barely breathing, without her earrings that let the world see her true self that Camila had hidden for so long. This was a nightmare, a nightmare from which she could not wake up.