After getting assaulted by Hooty for what felt like the hundredth time, Lilith decided to take a break and lie down on the couch. The couch had served her well as a place for her to try and forget her troubles, and there was no reason for tonight to be any different, especially with all that she had been through up until then.
"Lilith!" Unfortunately, there was one form of trouble that not even the couch could save her from, and it came barrelling toward her in a barely sober jaunt.
"Edalyn, I'm tired, and I don't have the energy to deal with more of your taunting. Come back in an hour, or something," Lilith said.
"First of all, you don't get to tell me when I can and can't bother you, you coucher, you," Eda said, the comment stinging a surprising amount. "More importantly, you don't get to act all innocent as you sit there with whatever master plan you've cooked up underway."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Eda then put a white feather in front of Lilith's face as if it were meant to signify some sort of big reveal. "I'm going to slap you if you try and tickle my nose with that."
"Still playing dumb, are we? We both know that this is one of Crowley's feathers, so you want to tell me what it was doing in my room?"
"Your guess is as good as mine because Crowley has been down here all night." Lilith pointed behind the couch to where her staff was situated atop a pile of dirty laundry and empty noodle containers.
"Yeah, he's there now, but we both know he's fast enough to have flown from my room to back down here without getting seen." Lilith, much to her own annoyance, sat up at that.
"Interesting choice of words there, Edalyn. 'Without getting seen'. Now, if Crowley did go into your room, why would he do it in a way that ensured that he wouldn't be seen? The only reason I could imagine is if you're accusing Crowley of stealing from you, and as much as he likes shiny things, he knows better than to pick through your stash. What do you think he stole from you, then?" Eda just stood there stammering nonsense, and with each stammer, Lilith smiled a little wider.
"I don't need to take this from you, you know! This is my house, so if I say your bird stole something from me, then I don't have to say what it is, nor do I have to provide proof of any kind!"
"Edalyn, you're drunk."
"That's beside the point!" Eda attempted to throw the feather at her, only for her to stumble about and nearly fall over.
"Well, if I'm not mistaken, there are about three-and-a-half hours left in the Swindle. I am heavily bruised, so I'm going to take a little break, but feel free to take advantage of that to make your move. You probably should get started on something pretty soon. After all, it's not like either of us has the ball, right?"
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Eda asked, shooting her a glare. After a few seconds of that, Eda stomped outside and slammed the door behind her. Lilith heard a hiss from Hooty and the sound of shattering wood, so it seemed that she made a go for the Grudgby ball, only for Hooty to smack her into a tree.
"Worked like a charm," Lilith said. At her cue, Crowley, who had only been pretending to be in his locked state, hopped off of the staff and flew up to Lilith's side, upon which she presented him with a reward of a back scratch and the shiny spoon she used for her last three cereal dinners. As Crowley played with that, Eda stepped off the couch and made her way to the pile of dirty clothes and empty noodle containers behind the couch.
After fishing through that for a bit, she was able to hold the championship Grudgby ball again for the sake of basking in her own excellence.
Very clever of you to never give Hooty the real ball, Edalyn, Lilith thought. You even kept me from inspecting it by distracting me with nostalgic thoughts of Odalia, but that only lasted so long. After that, it only took a negligible amount of external bleeding on my part to realize that the ball in Hooty's possession didn't have a real bloodstain on it, meaning that the true championship Grudgby ball was with you all along. I faked about half of my failed attempts to keep your guard down, and after those fireworks rattled you like I knew they would, it was the perfect chance to strike. Lilith took a note to thank King in her victory speech at midnight. After all, as odd a thing as it was, if it wasn't for him telling her that people were going to be lighting fireworks nearby, she never would have been able to concoct her masterstroke.
The best part about it all was that I was able to force you to grapple with that monster in order to maintain your illusion, lest your treachery be exposed and the integrity of the Swindle be thrown into jeopardy. By the time you think you've done enough, you'll probably be too tired to challenge me any further. Lilith let out a laugh as she spun the Grudgby ball around. You truly underestimated me, Edalyn. When I said that a Swindle required certain skills, I meant it, and now we're seeing what happens when a rank amateur tries to challenge a seasoned master like myself: complete and utter humiliation on the part of the amateur!
Lilith let out a laugh as she stored the Grudgby ball away once more, and with any luck, it would simply be the first of a long string of laughter she would be able to execute at Eda's expense.
There was a first time for everything, and the first time of that would surely be sweet.
Time ticked onwards, and soon enough, there were only a little over two hours left in the Swindle. Eda stopped going after Hooty after a while and retired to her room to recover from her wounds, and Lilith ended up following suit in order to do her share of maintaining the illusion. She might have done that a little too well, of course, as evidenced by how hard a time she was having trying to get up from the couch.
"You know what? Swindles are dumb," King said, licking chocolate from the bottom of a plastic bag. "I mean, as fun as it is to watch you and Eda get smacked around by Hooty, I was kinda hoping to see you two smack around each other a bit."
"Yes, well, life isn't about the things we want to see happen," Lilith said.
"God, you're boring. When's someone gonna do something interesting around here?" When Lilith ignored King, King threw his empty bag to the floor and stormed out of the house in a huff. The Swindle was hers, so he could do what he wanted. The only thing she was obligated to do was wait out the clock for her victory to be assured, and she was more than happy to do that.
"Oh, no!" Interrupting that process was the sound of Hooty screaming and being pummeled by someone or something. In an instinctual panic, Lilith grabbed her staff and ran outside to inspect the situation, and sure enough, Hooty's elongated form was sprawled out across the ground covered in dirt and patches of an odd goo she couldn't completely identify.
"What happened, Hooty? Is the Emperor's Coven attacking?" Lilith asked.
"I don't know! Someone just came out of nowhere and sucker-punched me, hoot!" Hooty said.
"It had to be the Emperor's Coven, then. Only people as elite and competent as the witches who make up their incredibly powerful forces could have done this." All of that was something Lilith wholeheartedly believed. "Okay, first things first, have to call Luz and tell her to spend the night with Amity, not that she'd be particularly upset about that, and then Edalyn and I have to—"
"And the worst part is that they popped my ball!" Hooty twisted his body around to show the deflated Grudgby ball underneath him. "I'll never be happy again! Never, never, never—Look, ants! I'm gonna eat them!" Hooty then proceeded to do just that.
"Who cares about that, Hooty? There are more important things going on than a worthless—That conniving harlot!"
"Who, me?" Lilith ignored Hooty and ran back inside the Owl House. If what she was thinking was true, then she needed to hurry back to safeguard what was rightfully hers before it was too late, and she needed to do it with the kind of poise and precision a multi-time Swindle winner like herself was expected to exhibit.
Unfortunately, tripping over the hem of her dress and falling face-first into her dirty laundry didn't help much in that regard. Still, it did allow for Lilith to dig through it all rather quickly, and after rifling through dirty socks and leftover pieces of noodle, her worst fear was realized: the Grudgby ball was gone.
"Once again: Edalyn, you conniving harlot."