The house hadn't been hard to find, which Amity had never really thought about before, but seemed odd to her now. How had Eda managed to go so long living in plan sight without being captured? Amity knew she was a powerful witch, but still. There had to be something about it she was missing. Ultimately she supposed it didn't matter much, at least not right now.
As she approached she second guessed this whole thing for what had to be the hundredth time since leaving her home. Her parents voices rang in her head, all the horror stories about The Owl Lady and the crimes she's committed. But those voices quickly shifted. The disappointment. The pity. The "what a shame"s. Even if everything they'd said about Eda was true (which honestly Amity wasn't completely sure she believed), it was worth risking it if it got ride of those voices.
But would Luz even want to help her? Why would she? Sure, they had had some nice moments in the library and at the Witch Arena, but that didn't mean they were friends, and at the convention Amity had been fairly vocal about not thinking Luz could do magic. This felt almost like a cruel trick of fate, and she wouldn't be surprised if her own words ended up being thrown back in her face. Didn't she deserve it? Besides they would be more true then when she'd said them to Luz. She wasn't a witch anymore.
Either way, she had to try.
Taking a deep breath Amity moved into the clearing that held the famous Owl House and made her way to the front door. Before she could lose her nerve she raised her hand to knock, though it never made contact.
"I don't know you, hoot hoot."
"Ah!" Amity jumped back as the owl face slowly started to turn. She'd assumed it was decoration, but now not only was it talking but it'd dislodged itself from the door and through some sort of tube had snaked its way towards her. Her hand raised, the circle motion coming naturally. It was only when nothing happened that she even realized she'd been doing it.
"I'm Hooty, hoot hoot. I guard the owl house." The… thing came to a stop inches from her face, far to close. "Who are you here to see?"
"Uh- is Luz here?" Amity didn't like how awkward her voice came out, but she was still thrown off by… well whatever Hooty was.
"Yup! I'll let her know you're here, hoot hoot!"
The tube shot away from her, up to the top of the house. As much as she wanted to Amity couldn't look away as the tube got longer and longer, all the way to the top floor and through an open window. A minute later the tube was condensing, somehow all slipping seamlessly back into the circle in the door and the face was in front of her again. "Luz said to come in, she'll be down in a second, hoot hoot."
Then, to her relief, it sunk completely back into the circle and the door swung open. Still, Amity watched the door carefully as she entered, only relaxing when it swung shut behind her. Though that relaxation was cut shorts as she processed that she was standing in The Owl House. As if to confirm this a glance to the side showed her a large wanted poster on full display, and though it was possibly the least interesting thing in the room, her eyes flicking around to take it all in. She hadn't even come close when Luz appeared, though as soon as she did Amity's full attention went to her.
"Amity?" Luz was smiling, but she was clearly hesitant "Hey. What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you." As soon as she said it Amity felt awkward, sure it had come out harsher then she'd meant. "Please."
"Sure," Luz nodded, though Amity could tell she was still unsure about this whole situation "What's up?"
"I-" She glanced towards the other room where she could hear someone moving around, then over at the door where the owl tube was probably still listening, before finally back at Luz. "In private. If that's alright?"
If possible the confused look Luz had been giving her got even stronger, which was cute enough that Amity became aware of it even as so many more important thoughts were filling her head. "Alright. Come on, we can go to my room."
"Right, thanks," Amity shoved her hands in her pockets as she followed Luz through the house. On any other day the house would have fascinated her, the decorations that littered the walls and things seeming to be shoved in random corners more then enough to draw Amity's attention. Right now though her brain was firmly fixed on her goal.
Luz's room didn't seem much like a bedroom at all. The clutter seemed pretty standard for every part of the house, and honestly it wouldn't have surprised Amity if the room were a mess, but the stuff shoved in it didn't really seem like it even belonged to Luz. Most striking was the lack of a bed, just a sleeping bag on the floor.
Luz herself seemed unbothered by any of this though, just moving over to clear some books off a chest "Here- sorry I don't have an actual chair, but you can sit if you want."
"Oh- uh- thanks," Amity nodded, taking a seat on the chest. Luz glanced around, seeming to debate for a second before pushing herself up onto another chest.
"So, what's going on? I have to admit you kind of surprised me. When Hooty said I had a visitor I assumed it was Willow. Maybe Gus."
Right, Luz was friends with Willow. Great that just made everything more complicated. Had Willow told her about them? If she had Luz didn't seem to turned off by it, so probably not. Still, it just sent another reminder through her head of the cruel irony of this whole thing. The whole reason their friendship had ended was because of Willow's lack of ability. The same thing she'd been rude to Luz about.
"Firstly I want to say I'm sorry for how I've acted in the past, especially at the convention. I know it doesn't excuse it, but I was still angry about the abomination incident. Which, I also know I didn't handle well. Just being top of the class is- was, really important to me. Still I know I went a little crazy." Even as she said it though Amity didn't feel like it fully made up for it, especially with how she'd been at the convention. Especially with what she was about to ask.
"It's fine," Luz shrugged a bit, seeming unconcerned "I messed up at the library and the witch arena, so we're even."
They weren't the same things. Luz hadn't meant to be mean about it, Amity had, but she supposed it was better to just let it hold up. At least for now. So instead of arguing, Amity just nodded. She took a deep breath and let it out before speaking again.
"I was wondering if you could- would be willing to show me how you do magic?" As soon as she said it Amity felt her nerves spike, her hand tapping against her knee "I understand if not, I know I was super rude to you and Willow about magic, and it probably sounds like I'm just apologizing because now I need your help, but I swear I was already planning to beforehand-"
"Your magic hasn't come back?" Luz cut off, before blinking "Sorry, you were still talking. Sometimes I interrupt without meaning to. I was just surprised. I mean Willow and Gus both got theirs back."
Was it that obvious? Amity supposed so, why else would she suddenly be interested in how Luz does magic? She clenched her jaw a bit, determined not to let the mix of emotions that brought up in her show. "The basilisk only had their magic for a few minutes. Not enough time to fully absorb it. Most students seem to have gotten it back. I was the first person it attacked."
Okay, technically Bump was the first person attacked, but close enough. The outcome was the same, her magic hadn't come back. She'd thought maybe with time it would, but it had been a week and there was still no sign of it.
"Amity- I'm sorry," Luz's voice was remarkably soft. Amity knew she meant well but if anything it sent a slight annoyance through her. She couldn't take it. All the pitying looks, the whispers, the disappointment.
Luz pushed herself up before Amity could figure out what to say. "But of course I'll show you how I do magic. We're friends right? I'm not going to just hide it from you. I don't know the glyph for abominations, but I can show you the ones I do know for now, and I'm sure we can figure it out."
As she spoke Luz moved around the room, grabbing paper from next to the window sill and going over to rifle through her bag in search of a pen. Then she was back, kneeling on the floor next to the trunk she'd been sitting on. Smiling a bit, Amity pushed herself up to go over and kneel on the other side of the trunk.
"There actually isn't much to it. You just draw the glyph, give it a tap, and boom magic," Luz seemed to be almost radiating energy as she explained, already drawing out a glyph to demonstrate. There was something almost contagious about it, and Amity felt her own hopes starting to rise as she watched the careful pattern and the paper crumple into itself, replaced with a bright ball of light. "Here, I'll draw it again so you can copy it."
"Right, thanks," Amity nodded, watching as Luz repeated the pattern before passing her the pen and paper.
The pen felt heavy in her hand. Amity let out a breath, forcing herself to take her time as she copied the pattern in front of her, not wanting to rush and mess it up. She wasn't sure how much leeway magic glyphs gave you, but that was something to figure out a later time.
When she was done she glanced up at Luz for a moment, taking in the other girl's smile and excitement and letting it fuel her own confidence. Looking back down Amity set down the pen before tapping the center of the design.
Nothing happened.
Amity's breath caught. She pressed the design again, but it still just sat there. Then again. And again.
"No," She breathed, before reality caught up with her. The hope and excitement were taken over by anger. She grabbed the paper, balling it up in her fist. Then she was on her feet, heading towards the door. She needed to get out. Now. Before she did something she'd regret. "This is stupid. Sorry for bugging you."
"Amity," Luz's voice was still sort of soft despite the snippiness in Amity's comment "Maybe we're just missing something-"
"Like what Luz?" Amity snapped, anger getting the better of her as she turned towards her again "You said it yourself. You draw the glyph and tap it. That's it. There's no special trick or step we could have missed. It didn't work. That's it."
"We don't know that," Luz insisted "I get that it's frustrating, but if I had given up-"
"No, you don't," Amity cut off, fist clenching around the paper "This isn't a game or a story. For you learning magic is a fun trick, but for me it's my life. I've been working at it for as long as I can remember, and now it's just gone."
"Okay. You're right. I don't know what it's like, I just started learning magic. And it sucks, it really does, but magic isn't all you are. There are plenty of people who don't have magic and they're fine, even on the Boiling Isles, not everyone is a witch."
"Blights are." There wasn't as much sting to it as there should have been, some of the bite disappearing at that statement. Amity shook her head. "Blights are witches. We're renowned for our magical ability. We have been some of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles for generations."
Still no magic? I suppose we have to accept the inevitable. It is disappointing. There was so much potential.
"That doesn't mean you have to be." Luz's voice was remarkably soft, even in the face of Amity's obvious bitterness and frustration. Yet somehow it seemed to cut through the thoughts echoing through Amity's head. "I know you wanted to be one, and it sucks that you might not be able to, but you don't have to be."
"Yeah, well, tell that to my parents," Amity muttered, going stiff as soon as she had. She shouldn't have said that. It had been beyond stupid, but she'd been caught up in the thoughts racing through her head at the disappointment of her final hope disappearing. She refused to look at Luz, glaring a hole in a spot near the bottom of her wall instead, hand still clutched around the useless glyph.
"If you want me to then I'd happily do it."
There was so much confidence in it that Amity knew Luz was being serious. For a brief moment she let the image of that float in her head. Luz, still wearing her cat hoodie and barely coming to her father's chest, marching up to him and her mother. Telling them directly that magical ability wasn't the only thing that mattered, that plenty of people lived without it.
The fantasy was short lived. The conversation wouldn't have ended well. Likely they wouldn't reply at all, or simply ask Luz to leave. Then there would be the rant about how rude she had been and 'Do you think all humans pry into each others business' so on and so forth. Not worth it. Though the sight would be incredible.
Amity couldn't bring herself to respond, the emotions swirling through her to strong. Humor, anger, disappointment, warmth. It was a lot, and the only thing she could really think to do was to move, sitting on the edge of the bedroll. If she had been thinking clearly she never would have done that, at least not without prompting. It was overstepping. Improper. But her brain was to scrambled to care as she sat, pulling up her knees and looping her arms around them lightly. Luckily Luz didn't seem to care, just moving to sit down next to her.
"They're so disappointed," Amity's mumbled, more to herself then to Luz. Slowly she unclenched her hand, turning her palm up so they could see the crumpled glyph. "I thought if I could get this to work, at least it would be something. At least I'd still be a witch. It was stupid, it's not like it would have been enough for them anyway."
"They wouldn't have been happy you could still do magic?" Luz was looking at her curiously. Amity knew she should stop talking, but she didn't care. Besides, there was something about the way Luz was looking at her that made her want to share. To finally have someone who at least some what understood.
"They probably would have been a little happy, but unless I found a way to create fully formed abominations again they still would be disappointed. Honestly they would have probably just told me not to do it in public." Despite her current mood she smiled a bit, putting on a ridiculously proper voice, "'You would merely draw attention to yourself. We wouldn't want to remind people of your unfortunate situation and risk the family reputation, now would we?'"
Luz didn't laugh. Maybe it wasn't funny if you didn't know them, or maybe Amity had just done a bad job portraying it. She wasn't always the best at landing jokes.
Instead she did something better. Carefully Luz reached up to take Amity's hand with her own. Amity didn't protest, just letting the paper she'd been holding fall to the floor, watching as it drifted the short distance to the ground.
"I'm sorry." Luz's voice was soft, but also held her usual confidence again. "That's awful. That they would care about what people think instead of just being happy for you."
Luz said it as if it were obvious. As if it was clear how her parents should react and it was nothing like what Amity had said.
"Yeah, well, what else is knew?" She muttered, leaning forward to rest her cheek on her arms, head turned away from Luz.
"What do you mean?" Then after a second "Sorry, you don't have to answer. I know I have a habit of pressing to far, just- if you want to."
"It's okay," Amity assured, squeezing her hand a bit though she didn't look back. It actually felt weirdly nice to talk. "I just mean- caring about appearances is the opposite of new. Mostly it's small things. Like my hair. My mother wanted me to dye it. I don't mind, I actually like it, but she's constantly pestering me to dye it again the second she sees brown. It's just small stuff like that."
"Even small stuff is messed up," Luz insisted, "I mean, it's good you like your hair, and I like it a lot too, but you shouldn't feel like you have to dye it. I should just be something you do because you want to."
"It was just an example," Amity shrugged, suddenly feeling awkward about it. Was it really that odd? Her parents were more intense then anyone else's she knew, but Bocha's were similar with stuff like that, so were Skara's to some degree. "Whatever. It doesn't really matter since it didn't work."
"I'll help you figure it out. I'm sure there's a way, we just have to find it," there was a pause and a squeeze of her hand, "But only if it's what you want."
"What?" Amity finally looked back at Luz, confusion clear on her face "Why wouldn't it be?"
"I don't know just-" Luz's confidence finally seemed to falter, and she looked almost awkward. "Just, I meant what I said earlier. There's so much more to you then being able to do magic, and you don't have to become a great witch just because your parents want you too. I think this could be a good chance to like, actually think about what you want to do, and if it is magic then great I'll happily help you figure it out, but I want to do it for you, not for them."
The implications of Luz's words washed over her. Honestly the idea of what she would do if she wasn't a witch had never even occurred to Amity. Her whole life had been focused on the singular goal of becoming a powerful witch. After the attack all her thoughts had been focused on finding a solution to get her magic back. But if it was actually what she wanted hadn't occurred to her, because of course it was, wasn't it?
Now that the thought was in her head she wasn't so sure. For as long as Amity could remember she'd wanted to be a powerful witch, but she couldn't remember why. It had just always been there. What had been the reason? Her parents wanted her to join the Emperor's Coven, but surely there was more then just that, right? Nothing was coming to her though.
Which raised the question, did she actually want it? If not, then what did she want?
Amity shifted so she was facing Luz. Then she reached forward to hug her. The action caught them both off guard, but after a second Luz hugged her back.
It didn't last long before Amity was pulling away again. She let her arms fall to her side, but stayed how she was, facing Luz instead of turning off the bedroll again. "Sorry I just- thank you Luz. Seriously."
"No problem- hugs are great! I mean, I've wanted to hug you like four times since you've been here, but I didn't want to overstep, so I figured I'd just settle for your hand, which you seemed fine with," Luz reached up to rub the back of her neck awkwardly, and Amity was struck with how cute it was.
Had Luz always been cute? No. Obviously it was just cause she was sort of flustered, and Amity was already in a weird emotional state. Nothing else.
Amity pushed herself up "I should go. It's nearing dinner time and I'm sure you've got things to get back to."
"Not really," Luz shrugged, but she didn't protest, just pushing herself up as well. She reached out to put a hand on Amity's shoulder, giving it the slightest squeeze "Let me know what you want to do. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. I don't give up very easily."
"I noticed," Amity assured, giving Luz a small smile. The other girl returned it. "I'll let you know."
"Great, see you at school."
"Yeah, see you at school."
For a second Amity just looked over at Luz. The smile, the confidence, the way her eyes were watching her. It came together to make Amity believe things really would be alright. That they would figure out away for her to do magic again. If that's what she wanted. And even if they didn't, that wouldn't be the end of the world either.
She looked back for a second longer then she should have, before turning to leave the room and head back out of The Owl House.
Note: So, I actually wrote this before Young Blood Old Souls, which is why Amity can't do glyph magic. I put off posting it for months because I was trying to rework it so the glyph magic did work, but the story just didn't flow right that way. Ultimately I decided to leave it how it originally was. Maybe the basilisk didn't just eat their magic but also whatever allows Luz to connect to the island?