Ever since Eda woke up, she knew it was going to be an awful day.
A storm was rolling in. Her head hurt, her sinuses hurt. She could feel the strain on her magic acutely, in a way she hadn't in ages. All she wanted to do was sleep.
Or die. Either would do.
But, of course, the world loved to laugh at her. Which is how she had gotten stuck with babysitting duty while Luz was at the market.
"Eda!" King whined. She groaned, and lifted her head to look at the little demon. "Pay attention!"
She should really make more of an effort to listen to him, she thought. The little guy had gotten so excited to reach her things. He had even dressed up, wearing a shiny, bright red cape with a high collar.
So with energy she didn't have, she sat up straighter, and leaned back in her seat. "I'm listening, I'm listening. Go on."
King huffed, before tapping at the cork board behind him. It was full of different drawings he had done, all connected with red string. Most of them were childish renditions of demons, but some of them showed a woman with a pointy hat, fighting.
"Demons 101!" He announced. "Demons like me are grim tricksters of the twilight, creatures of sulfur and bone!"
"Terrifying." Eda snarked. King sighed, annoyed.
"Don't mock me! We live only to create chaos and misery!" King yelled, before opening up a book to show more drawings. "Our only weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments! But only sometimes."
"Oh, you guys are sensitive. You know girls love a sensitive side."
"Ew!" King's face scrunched up at the very thought as Eda laughed. Not for the first time, she had to wonder just how old this little demon that lived with Luz was. Was he actually just a little kid?
"What is your relationship with Luz anyway?" Eda asked, interrupting King's rant about Snagglebacks. King stopped, looking at her in annoyance.
"You stop me for this?" He huffed. "I was on a roll."
Eda rolled her eyes. Oh yeah, King was such a child. Unlike her, a 14 years old.
"It's obvious, isn't it? Just like the stories." King continued. He struck a pose, his cape flying out behind him. "She's a hero, and I'm the evil demon king arch nemesis!"
"Uh… you're enemies?" Eda sat up straight, surprised. King rolled his eyes.
"Jeez! Not right now!" He waved his hand as there was thunder outside, signaling rain. "When I get my power back! Until then, she is my favorite person ever!"
Uh, ok. That was weird, and even Eda could see how sad that can turn in the future. But that wasn't really her problem, was it? Luz was an adult. She knew what she was doing, surely, having a little demon arch nemesis living in her house.
"Rain! Rain Time!" Hooty yelled as the door opened. Luz ran in, jacket over her head with little sizzling holes on it from the rain.
"Oh, cutting it close!" Luz said, shaking her jacket out.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Hooty twisted his head upside down. "Rain is hitting my precious stucco!"
Luz grimaced. She looked over at Hooty sheepishly, fidgeting with her jacket. "Yeah, about that…"
"What?" Hooty asked, yelling as only Hooty could. "WHAT?"
"I'm sorry Hooty! The tarp got badly damaged in the last rainstorm! I kinda… never replaced it?"
Oh, that made sense, she guessed. As a human, Luz couldn't make the rainshield like witches could. Eda frowned, looking down at her jewel, as Hooty screamed, upset at Luz. Luz was making pacifying statements as Eda came to her decision, sighing.
"I got it." She said, standing up.
"You got…. What?" Luz stopped pacifying Hooty, looking at her confused.
"The rainshield!" Eda smirked, pointing to herself confidently. It didn't matter how awful she felt- the confidence was real. "You got a witch living here now!"
And as soon as she does this, maybe she could go take a nap.
xXx
"Maybe I shouldn't have let her do that…" Luz mused, sitting in the living room with King. King shrugged, drawing at the table with a book of demons open in front of him.
"Eh, she's been off all day." He said. "She didn't even want to listen to my lecture about demons!"
"You know King, most people don't like lectures."
"I like lectures!" Hooty said, opening the door to talk to them. "Especially now that my nice glassy finish isn't being attacked by boiling pain!"
"You don't get my demon lectures!" King snapped, pointing at Hooty angrily.
"And you don't have a glossy finish." Luz said, getting up and going over to the door. "Last time I painted you, I painted you matte."
"I repainted part of myself to shine-"
Luz cut the house demon off by slamming the door. Hooty didn't seem to care, at least, as Luz could still hear him ranting at nobody about his shine, muffled by the door.
"Titan, he is insufferable." King said, getting out a new drawing.
"He protects us, King. So be nice." She said as she sat back down. "Also, he would be more insufferable if he was being hit by boiling rain right now. So I guess we're lucky."
"Yeah, lucky Eda gave us a rain shield before she went to pass out." King looked up at her. "You know, she's always drinking these elixirs."
"Huh?" Luz sat up straight, frowning at the small demon. "What elixirs?"
"Eh, I dunno. Round bottle, shiny gold insides. She sneaks away and drinks 'em when she thinks no one's watching. She does it a lot when we go out potion deliveries." King jumped up, getting up on top of the table and flicked his cape out. "But I, as the King of Demons, am always watching-Hey!"
Luz grabbed him before he noticed her and placed him back down on the floor. "Yep, always watching buddy. And you know the rules- no standing on the tables."
She ignored his offended "Weh!" and looked up the stair where Eda had disappeared to. Should she just go ask her? No, no. Why would Eda tell her anything? She was just some strange human lady that was letting her stay in her house.
Maybe if-
"Hey! Luz!"
Luz looked down at King, startled. He was holding a drawing and stomping his foot. She realized that he had probably been trying to get her attention for a while, if he was already to foot stomping. She winced.
"Sorry, King. What is it?" She tried. King wasn't appeased, crossing his arms angrily.
"You aren't paying attention to my lectures! You and Eda!" He said. Luz was almost sure he was pouting, even though he couldn't actually pout.
"Lo siento." She sighed, getting up. She felt way too restless to just be sitting down. Which was a shame. She used to love to just laze about during rainy days. "I'm just…"
"Worried about Eda?" King questioned, much softer and much less pouty. Luz nodded as she walked to the kitchen.
"Do you want any hot chocolate?" She asked, getting out a pot and filling it with spider milk. The taste was a little off, but the consistency was close enough for this. And the chocolate flavor normally overtook the milk flavor anyway. "Vee got me the ones with tiny marshmallows."
"I do love tiny human marshmallows…" She heard King mutter. She glanced back, seeing him staring at his paper before looking back at her. "If I go get you the elixir so you can see what it is, can you listen to my demon lecture then?"
Luz froze at the suggestion. Steal the elixir? She hadn't even thought to do that. Eda would be so mad at Luz if she found out.
If she found out. Eda was asleep right now, and would probably be none the wiser…
She gave a slow nod, against her better judgment, and King was gone in a flash, scurrying up the steps to the bedrooms.
Luz knew that she had made mistakes in her life. Dropping out of human high school to sneak around a magic school instead was one of them. Telling her mom that- 'no, Mami, she totally was enrolled in the magic school!' was another. Fooling most of the isles into thinking she was a witch was yet another. Letting her sister finish school for her and practically take over her human life to a point that she couldn't really go back-
The point was, she had made mistakes in her life. She didn't want taking in a homeless, runaway teenager to be one of them.
But this. Letting an 8 year old with an authority problem talk her into stealing what seemed to be medicine for the said homeless, runaway teen? Yeah, she could definitely admit that was a mistake.
But it wasn't one that she was going to stop, no matter how guilty she felt. Eda wouldn't tell her what was wrong. Luz didn't want to force her to tell her what was wrong. So, to find out what was wrong, she just needed to examine what meditation Eda was taking. Quick, easy, and she'll have it back before Eda wakes up! Promise!
"I, Demon King…. King! Has returned with the bounty!" King cried, jumping into the room from the stairs. Luz laughed, gently taking the elixir bottle from him as the milk heated up on the stove. Ok, maybe she could also admit that reading the Azura books to King every night was also a bit of a mistake. But hey, those were high literature.
"Thank you King." She said, holding the bottle up to inspect the contents in the light. "Don't forget to be quiet though. We don't want to wake Eda up while we're doing this."
"Right! Don't wanna get caught in the heist!" King said, much, much softer with his paws over his mouth. Right. Maybe she shouldn't have read him all those heist books either. But they were just so good!
Her first instinct was to break the elixir down, but that wasn't something she could do. She needed to be able to give this back at the end after all! So the next best thing was popping open the bottle and smelling it, all while keeping half an eye on the milk on the stove.
The fumes hit her nose, making her gag, just a little. It sure smelled of heavy duty medicine- sharp, acidic, and an undercurrent of rot. She had come to learn the hard way to associate that smell with medicine, as so many mushrooms on the Isles were used in potions in a way that they never were in human medicine.
(She remembered the last time she got a human cold instead of the common mold, and how confused she was in her fevered daze that the medicine smelled of cherry and not the awful blend of elixirs.)
She gave it another whiff as there was a flash of lightning outside. Could she taste it, she wondered? Probably not. As much as she wanted to, she knew the consequence of a human trying something they were supposed to.
(Getting knocked down and bed ridden for days during high school after drinking something your friend sworn up and down was harmless hair changing potion would do that to you.)
Still, a little drop on her tongue shouldn't hurt her much.
She tilted the potion to her mouth as there was a clap of thunder. She jerked at the loud noise, bottle slipping from her grasp. It fell before she could even think to catch it, landing on-
King's hand, who had run over as soon as he saw it strt to fall. Part of it spilled out, onto the floor, King's paw, and the top half of the bottle, but most of it was fine.
She breathes a sigh of relief at the adverted crisis.
And then the room was plunged into darkness, only highlighted by the sound of crashing glass as King dropped the bottle instead.
xXx
"Do you think she'll be mad?" Kng asked softly as Luz checked on Hooty.
The poor, weird, demon bird tube had been knocked to the floor, unconscious. Luz frowned, looking away from Hooty to King.
"Who? Eda?" She asked. Would Eda be mad? Absolutely. What she said instead was, "I won't tell if you won't. Now, can you help me out here with a bap?"
King blinked, before running over. "Bap!" He said with a giggle, smacking Hooty in the face. Hooty didn't stir, and Luz, out of options and with bigger things to deal with, lifted the down door up and leaned it against the wall.
"Whatever did this escaped into the rain. What could survive that?" She mused, looking out at the sizzling ground that was their front yard at the moment. King gasped, nearly a squeal, and she looked at him in surprise at being so happy.
"Oh, my gosh. The Snaggleback!" He said, waving his arms. "It feeds during the rains. It must have stumbled across our house and seen us inside."
"I am almost sure it's not that." Luz said, standing up. "Snagglebacks can handle the rain but they aren't very strong physically. I don't think one could get past Hooty-"
There was a howl, much to close for comfort, that cut her off. She ran outside, trying to catch a glimpse of the thing attacking her home. She was just in time to see a shadowy creature jump through an upstairs window.
Upstairs. Where Eda was sleeping, and probably hadn't woken up yet to know there was something in the house.
"Oh, that's not good." Luz said, running back inside. She grabbed King as she ran past, not trusting him to stay out of sight if she left him alone.
"This is great! A wild demon, up close and personal! " King said as they ran up the stairs. Luz gave him a disapproving look that he totally ignored. Jeez, Luz thought, who raised this kid?
Right, she did.
As she got to the top of the stairs, she slowed. She sat King down, pulling out a light glyph to illuminate the hallway.
"Stay out of sight." She told King, at least trying to get him to listen to her. The little demon huffed, but still hid against the wall like she wanted. Well, there was one thing out of the way for her.
She walked as quietly as she could down the hall, avoiding every creaky and squeaky piece of wood she could. If there was any advantage of her living here for the past 30 odd years, it was that she could be quiet if she wanted to.
This was starting to unnerve her. She clearly saw something enter her house, but why was it so quiet? Nothing was out of place, and there were no sounds of a fight.
She gulped, worry slowly cranking up in level as she neared Eda's door. She opened it slowly, wincing as it creaked open.
"Eda?" She called out, hoping that the girl was just still asleep. She took a step inside, holding up her light, before freezing.
The room was empty, and trashed. The cot that she had made Eda to sleep on was torn to bits, and the contents of her bag was strewn all over the room, revealing more glowing elixirs. The window was shattered, with broken glass sprayed all over the floor.
Her breath caught in her throat. She had one job with this girl- keep her safe. That was the bare minimum when it came to taking care of kids. And what does she go and do? Let some monster sneak into her house and take Eda while she herself was busy stealing from the teenager!
"Is Eda dead?" King asked, peeking into the room from between her legs. Luz jumped at the sudden appearance, glaring down at the little demon.
"No! She isn't!" She hoped she wasn't lying. "And I told you to stay out of sight!"
"You want me to stay alone in a corner while there's a monster running around, taking people?" King asked. Luz flushed and looked back at the torn up room.
"Never mind, stay with me." She stepped further into the room. She moved quickly, looking at the slash marks left in the blankets and pillows.
She frowned, confusion cutting through her panic. Something was wrong here. The glass was on the floor, but looking closer, it seemed most of it was on the outside. That meant the window was broken from something trying to get out, not something trying to get in.
And the slash marks didn't have any blood on them, thankfully. But that meant that it was unlikely that Eda struggled against the monster. There was no way that something that left these marks wouldn't have hurt Eda in the process.
"I'm going to go get my demon book!" King said, cutting her thoughts off.
"W-wait-!" She tried to stop him, but he was out of sight and down the hall before she could. She sighed, a touch annoyed. But that was just like King- he argues to stay with her, and then runs off right after.
She should have made him stay out of sight where he would be safe.
xXx
"I got it!" King cried, running back up the stairs. He didn't know how to feel right now. On one hand, he hoped Eda was ok. On the other hand, this just proves why his demon lectures were so important-
He slid to a stop as he went around the corner, thoughts as frozen in place as he was as a large shadowy creature blocked his way.
"H-hello-" He forced out, backing up slowly. He held his book close to his chest, hoping against hope that this creature stayed as still as it was until he could get away and find Luz. Luz would know what to do. She always knew what to do.
But as he took a step back, the floor squeaked. He jumped, startled at the sudden noise, causing the monster to rush forward, startled in turn at his sudden movement.
He screamed, running back down the stairs to get away from the thing. He jumped off the banister, thankfully small enough to fit through the gap unlike the monster, and dove under the coffee table. He listened, hand over snout, as the monster ran past his hiding spot.
It was only when he couldn't hear it anymore that he let himself breath.
Ok, ok. He didn't get a good look at what that was, but he was sure it wasn't a Snaggleback. So that was one thing off the list. And- and he bet that didn't even matter!
Because that thing was clearly a demon, and as the King of Demons, then he just had to order it to stop! And to give back Eda! He could be the hero, just like Villainess Lucy when she sided with Azura once again in the 6th book-
The table flipped up, letting the little light in the room hit him. He screamed, loud and scared, until he recognized the little light ball in his face.
"Luz!" He jumped up, throwing himself at the human. She held him back just as tightly. "Luz, I was so sc- worried! Where did you go?!"
"King! Oh, I'm so glad you're safe." She said, putting him on her shoulder. In her other hand, King could see that she had one of those elixirs from Eda's room. "But please stay with me this time!"
"Luz, I was wrong the whole time!" He said quickly, the words almost running together. "That's no Snaggleback!"
"I know." Luz said as the creature ran back at them from the kitchen. King screamed and clung to Luz, as she just stood. She lifted a hand up, activating two light glyphs at once to make a bigger shine. "It's-"
"Eda?!" King gasped when the light was properly shone on the monster. The creature looked like some weird, monstrous owl, with rows and rows of sharp teeth and red-orange feathers. But the face, behind the sharp teeth and big eyes, was unmistakably Eda's face.
The monster- Eda?- hissed as the light hit her, crashing into the table as she was frantically trying to get away. She ran back up stairs as the light faded back down to a normal little ball, lighting up Luz's serious face.
"No one broke into Eda's room." Luz said. "Someone broke out."
"What happened to her?" King asked quietly, hiding his face against Luz's head. Luz sighed.
"I don't know, Mijo." She said sadly, looking at the elixir in her hand. "But I think we found the reason she's a run away."
Oh. He suddenly understood what Luz wasn't telling him.
"The elixir." His eyesight blurred. He sniffled. "It prevents her from turning into that thing. She's turned into a nightmare and it's all my fault. I'm so sorry, Luz!"
"What? No, no!" She reached up with her free hand and hugged him the best she could. "I agreed to it. I'm the adult here-"
"I-I just wanted someone to be into demons like me." King admitted quietly, rubbing his eyes. "Ever since Eda got here, I haven't had much attention. I just wanted someone to listen to my lectures. Maybe finally someone would care about creatures like me."
"King." Luz said, voice serious. She picked him off her shoulder and placed him down on the coffee table. King looked up at her, wide eyed, as she knelt down to his level, illuminated briefly by lightening outside.
"I thought- the rules-"
"Who cares about the rules right now? Right now, I need you to listen to me." Luz said, cupping his face. "King, you are so very important to me. I am so sorry that I haven't been paying attention to you, and I will fix that once this is all over. If this happens again, I need you to tell me. I never, ever want you to feel like you're all alone, alright?"
King sniffled, rubbing his face against her hand like a cat. "Ok Luz. I'm sorry."
"No apologies." Luz smiled, before looking up the stairs where Eda disappeared to. "Now, do you want to finish the lectures?"
"What?" King looked at her in surprise. "Right now?"
"Well, here's what we know. One, Eda's a monster right now. Two, she needs to drink this," Luz held up the bottle of elixir for emphasis. "To turn back. We need a way to get her to drink it and who knows more about demons than the best teacher in the world?"
King brightened, rubbing his tears away quickly. "Me! Me!"
Luz laughed, picking him back up as there was a crash from upstairs. "Ok, little dude. Tell me, got a plan?"
"Let's see…" King rubbed his chin. He was absolutely determined to give Luz the best plan he had. He had to show that her faith in him was not wasted! "Demons with black eyes are usually sensitive to light. She really really didn't like your light glyph."
"She really didn't." Luz said, turning to walk up the stairs slowly.
"But we need something big…."
Luz stopped on a stair, thinking. Then, with a smile, she took out a pen from her pocket.
"I think I have an idea myself."
xXx
Eda woke up.
God, she wished she woke up slowly. But as it was, she woke up all at once, gasping for air and with a blinding headache.
What happened? Every part of her hurt, from her head down to her toes. She was exhausted, which was odd because the last thing she remembered was going to go take a nap-
No, wait. No, the last thing she remembered was waking up, startled, to the sound of thunder. Jewel nearly black, and feathers flying around her she had scrambled for the elixir she kept close to her bed. When she couldn't find it, she had panicked even more, trying to get over to her bag.
She didn't remember reaching her bag.
She shot up in a panic, noticing for the first time a straw hanging out of her mouth. She spit it out with a cough, looking down to what it was in.
An elixir! Mostly drunk, but still a couple of gulps left in it. She took it and drank it fast, if only to calm her fast beating heart.
"Are you ok?" Luz asked, making Eda jump in surprise. She hadn't even noticed the human in the room. She hadn't even looked at the room she was in, because it certainly wasn't hers. More spacious than her room, though not by much, with a dresser, a corner labeled "StringBean corner" and a nice comfy bed she was currently on, it was clear that she was in Luz's room. For some reason.
"What uh… What happened?" She asked hoarsely, watching as King climbed onto the bed with her. She was hoping against hope that what she thought had happened hadn't happened, but even she knew that she was just fooling herself. She had woken up with an elixir in her mouth- that clearly meant that she had transformed.
"The lights went out, and then there was a crash, and then you were this big owl beast!" King said, throwing his arms up. "But don't you worry! We didn't panic at all and kept our heads the entire time!"
Eda was sure that meant King had run around, terrified. But she wasn't going to tease him for it, not today. She knew what she could do when she was like that. She was glad she hadn't seemed to hurt either of them.
But she still had an idea what happened next.
"I'm sorry." She said, miserable. "I'll go get my stuff and-"
"What? Why are you getting your stuff?" Luz asked, confused. Then, she gasped, realizing. "Mija! You aren't going to leave, are you? You don't have to do that!"
"But I-" Eda looked up at Luz, who was just shaking her head.
"No! I won't force you to stay, but I wouldn't just kick you out ike that, especially over a curse!"
Eda really really wanted to believe that but…
The thought must have shown on her face, because in the next moment, Luz's face softened into sadness.
"Did someone-" She cut off because she finished. "No matter. You'll have a home here. And hey, this is the first time it's happened, so you must have done a pretty good job of keeping it at bay!"
"Oh, uh… yeah." Eda chuckled a little, looking down at the empty bottle still in her hand. "I can usually get one of these before it happens, but I just couldn't find one in time."
King and Luz looked at her, wide eyed and guilty. She narrowed her eyes at them, getting a bad feeling as she pieced the evidence together.
"What did you two do-" She started to ask, only to be cut off by King.
"So, anyway, what did you do to be cursed anyway?" He asked.
"King!" Luz scolded, flicking his head. King rubbed her forehead, pouting, as he rephrased.
"How'd you get cursed anyway? Better?"
Eda laughed, startled that she even could at the moment. "I don't know how it happened. It just.. Showed up one day. The only thing to even help it a little is-"
"The elixirs." Luz finished for her. "Have you been buying them yourself?"
"Ah… yes? A Lot of pickpocket money, a little from the tips for delivery."
"Ok, first. No more stealing without permission." Luz said, giving her a look. "You're going to get caught one day. Two, save the money you get from delivery tips. I'll start getting these for you."
"What? But I can handle it!" This is part of why Eda didn't want to tell Luz, didn't want to tell anyone. Sure, she didn't want to be kicked out and looked at in fear, but she also didn't want to be looked at in pity. To be treated as something made of glass, something fragile, like she was going to break if they pushed too hard.
Her family had done both. Her mother didn't want to talk to her about it, only showing up with more and more over the top "Cures". Lilith only looked at her sadly when they weren't arguing. Her dad-
The less said about her dad, the better.
"I know you can." Luz said gently. It made Eda fume. "It doesn't mean you have to do it alone. You have to handle this everyday. This is just something small that I can do to help."
The anger left Eda abruptly. Maybe she was just too tired to hold it. Maybe she felt touched by what Luz was saying. It was hard to tell. She looked away without saying anything.
"No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, it's manageable." Luz continued. "You're a child under my care for now. This is like… the bare minimum."
Eda opened her mouth to argue. To argue what, she didn't know, but she was sure to argue something. Only to be cut off by-
"Hey, hey! Is anyone there?" Hooty yelled from downstairs. King held her paws over his ears, eyes squeezed shut. "Hello? Hoot? I'm on the floor. It's cold!"
"That voice." King yelled, jumping off the bed. "That horrific voice!"
Luz and Eda looked at each for a long moment before devolving into laughter.
"We'll take care of him." Luz said, afterwards, getting her breath back. "You stay in bed."
"Also!" Hooty shrieked. "Something is burning!"
Luz's face turned to horror as she shot up. "The hot chocolate!" She yelled, running out the door. Eda watched her go, a smile on her face. She laid back down and just… stared at the ceiling, until sleep took her once again.
xXx
What is this? Other POVs than Eda? Amazing. Didn't know that could happen.
Less horror based than the show's version, but to be fair, Luz is an adult here and not a 14 year old. So that helps.
Luz is not getting a favorable opinion of Eda's home life, because she's only getting the bare minimum information of it.
Next up- The Covention! New and old faces galore! Or just three, really.
is anyone reading this over here?