Author Note: We're getting into some of that lumity now. Just a bit. I've made some assertions about the Blight parents in the last chapter and this one, which I really don't have any grounds for. This is just how I think they might be, so I'm sure I will be proven wrong in later seasons of the show. Also, the current plan for the rest of the fic is to write and publish one chapter a day until it's done. I've been having a lot of fun writing it, thanks for all of your support by reading, leaving kudos, and commenting!
The trip to The Knee was approved, with some conditions.
It almost didn't happen due to the whole Emira and Ed being grounded thing, but her mother stepped up and convinced her father that it would be fine. Emira wasn't sure how she had pulled that off, her father was notoriously stubborn, but she couldn't complain with the result.
The conditions were that the three had to return without a single scratch on them, and the twins had to be unfailingly kind to their sister while escorting her.
Both of those conditions had been broken.
The trip itself hadn't been nearly as safe as expected. The Owl Lady showing up with the human Luz brought a brand new level of danger to the group. As Mittens had complained once before, the human seemed to attract danger to herself.
Emira, Ed, and the Owl Lady had almost been eaten by a slitherbeast, which probably would've gone after Mittens and Luz once it finished digesting them. Luckily, the two kids came through and freed them. Amity used the new fire spell to do it, and Emira made sure to tell her how brave she'd been after. Ed ruined the moment a second later by ruffling Mittens' hair.
Once the Owl Lady and Luz shot off into the distance, that left the Blight siblings to pack up and head back to town. Since Mittens had control of the spell, she could practice it safely at home with a bucket of water.
They went back to their tent and put all of their stuff back into packs. Once that was done, Ed folded the tent back to its regular size with a spell.
Once that was packed, they picked up their backpacks and set off towards town. The stuff was divided between the three of them, with some extra weight for Ed and Emira. It would take a couple hours of walking to get to town, since The Knee was far away.
"Are you sure I can't bring the bat?" Ed asked as they started walking away from where their camp had been set up. He paused to look back over the trees, as if trying to spot something.
"You don't still have it, do you?" Emira stopped next to him and asked with hands on her hips and one eyebrow raised.
Ed stuck his lower lip out in a pout. "No…" He said with a sigh. Emira reached over to pat him a couple times on the arm in a 'there there' kind of motion. It didn't seem to help.
"C'mon let's go!" Mittens called back to them from the trail a few meters away. She hadn't stopped to discuss the bat and was now waiting at a distance.
"Alright." Ed was still pouting as he gave in, moving to join Mittens on the trail. Emira followed, wishing the bat farewell in her head.
"Make sure to keep up." Mittens said pointedly, looking first at Ed then at Emira as they reached her.
Ed raised one hand in a mock salute. "Yes Ma'am." He had his usual smirk back in place. Emira followed suit, mimicking the salute.
Mittens rolled her eyes, then turned to set off down the trail. Emira glanced over at Ed and the two shared a chuckle before following.
"Before we get back, I think we need to get our story straight." Mittens adjusted her bag on her back as she spoke, turning her head slightly so that the twins could hear her.
"Not that that's a bad idea, but I'm surprised." Ed sped up a little in order to walk next to Mittens. "Miss goody two shoes, suggesting we lie to our parents? What a twist." He leaned in on Mittens for emphasis, so she fell a step behind to avoid him.
Emira cut in to bring the conversation back on track. "She's right though, we can't tell them that a slitherbeast almost ate us." She shuddered at the punishment that might bring. Forget one month, they'd be grounded for the rest of their lives.
"We'd never see the light of day again." Ed muttered, clearly imagining the same thing.
"Exactly." Mittens said with a nod. "So we need to figure out what to tell them."
"We should just say that you mastered the new spell without any trouble or danger." Emira thought keeping it simple would be best. "No need to mention the slitherbeast or the Owl Lady."
"I'm not sure which would be worse to them," Ed added, "The Owl Lady or the slitherbeast."
Mittens brow furrowed at that, her eyebrows moving closer together. "The slitherbeast for sure."
"I'm with Mittens." Emira had to agree. "Near death is far worse than covenless witches."
"I don't know." Ed shrugged his shoulders. "That Owl Lady is a wanted criminal after all."
"The Blight family will not associate with those below us!" Emira spoke loudly in a low pitch, imitating the way her father had said it many times.
"She's been doing a good job teaching Luz." Mittens interjected, but a moment later her eyes widened and a slight pink dusted her cheeks. "Or so I've heard."
"Luz cast a pretty powerful spell today." Ed mimicked the motion of the ice cannon rising from the ground with his hands. "It was weird how she cast it, looked like some kind of rune."
Mittens nodded. "She draws glyphs, not any I've seen before though. I'm not sure how it works."
Interesting, Mittens hadn't seemed to like Luz at all back at the library. In fact, she'd been more upset about Luz reading her diary than the twins reading it. But now, she knew the basics of how her magic worked and had even talked about starting a book club together.
"You seem close to her now." It wasn't a question, but Emira was watching carefully for Mittens' response.
A larger blush blossomed on Mitten's cheeks as she turned to hide her face, far more than could be attributed to the cold. "N-not really. We're going to be in the same class and I like to know my peers." The stutter didn't give her argument much validity. As Emira had suspected, there was clearly more going on between her sister and the human.
"Riiight." Ed smirked, also not buying it. "Because you totally stop in the middle of training to wave at all your classmates." Ah right, that was when he buried Mittens in the snow for not paying attention while they were sparring. She had stopped casting spells to wave at Luz. Very incriminating.
"I would." Mittens insisted, digging one of her heels against the ground as she walked. Thinking back on what Emira knew about her other friends, she doubted it.
If Ed wasn't part of this conversation, Emira might've pursued this topic further. She was quite curious about this new relationship with Luz and with how red Mittens' face was getting. Unfortunately now probably wasn't the best time to push the issue, but she couldn't resist one small tease. "Hey, knock it off Ed. Let Mittens have her secrets." Emira settled with that.
"That's right." Mittens huffed, before realizing exactly what was said and almost squeaking. "No, wait, there's no secret." Her eyes were wide as she waved her hands in a dismissive motion, that blush still easy to spot on her face.
"Fine, have it your way." Ed shrugged and adjusted his pack, agreeing to drop the topic. He quickly bounced back with a new one. "Did you see that spell the Owl Lady used?" He mimicked the arm motion the Owl Lady made when she put the slitherbeast to sleep. "That was so cool, I wonder if we could learn it."
"I think a sleep spell is part of the healing coven." Emira mused, thinking about the way the spell was cast with a smaller circle and then pushed into a larger one.
"Oh right." Ed frowned at that. "Too bad, the potential of being able to put someone to sleep is limitless."
He was right, putting someone to sleep made pranking or tricking them a lot easier. "We can ask the teacher if there is anything like it in illusions." Though Emira and Ed were excellent at illusion magic, they didn't know every spell that existed.
Emira lifted one hand to her chin as she thought about the different spells she knew, trying to figure out if one could be applied this way. The best she could come up with was using the magic to knock someone out by force.
"You're plotting something again." Mittens had fallen back to her side, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
It was Emira's turn to wave her hands dismissively. "I'm not, I swear." She couldn't help but grin when Mitten's eyebrows popped up in doubt. Emira leaned in slightly. "Not yet that is." She laughed, drawing another eye roll and a hint of a smile from her sister.
"We'll plan later." Ed matched her grin, probably already working out how to use illusion magic to knock people out.
"I want no part of this." Mittens picked up the pace, speeding ahead of her siblings.
"You'll miss all the fun." Emira called after her, chuckling again when Mittens looked back and shook her head no.
"I think I'll manage without it." Though she sounded serious, Mittens looked like she was enjoying the banter.
Ed and Emira carried on a conversation after that about different illusion spells that might be useful in knocking someone out. They couldn't think of one that wouldn't cause physical harm to the victim, unfortunately. Though she walked a meter ahead of them, Mittens was definitely still listening in.
Soon the trio was out of the snow and onto the main road back to town.
Despite almost dying, they had a successful trip.