The laser rifle in Luz's hands felt heavy. She'd never held a gun in her hand before. Camila absolutely refused to let Luz handle her own gun. The alternate version of Eda she'd encountered would probably (but by no means certainly) have let her handle one if Luz had thought to ask, but she had not. But she couldn't focus on her doubts. Not for one single solitary second. Not if she didn't want the enemy to triumph. It would be absolutely catastrophic if she lost. Her honor was at stake, for starters.
Luz dove under an obstacle and fired the laser rifle at the direction of the figure in the distance. They were dressed in a futuristic looking set of armor, complete with face concealing helmet and were wielding a laser rifle like hers. The figure fired back at Luz, heedless of the possibility of taking fire themself.
"We can't hold them off forever!" Caroline said from beside Luz. Most people who looked at Caroline didn't see beyond the surface. She had blond hair and blue eyes, excellent skin (seriously, Luz was jealous; she'd never had a zit in her life), and her petite frame just added to the extremely false impression that she couldn't handle herself or that she was some sort of airhead. True, Caroline had a tendency to get distracted easily, but she had an absolutely brilliant mind and, more than that, extreme amounts of empathy. She was the sort of person Luz probably would have developed a crush on once upon a time (although she was straight, so it wouldn't have gone anywhere, but at least if Caroline had rejected her, she'd have been nice about it.)
Caroline stood up. "I've got to attack them myself. It's the only way, Luz. You can deal with their evil minion yourself. Remember, using magic is cheating!"
With a shockingly loud war cry, Caroline charged at the enemy camp, her laser rifle held in both hands as if she was planning on using it as a bludgeon. The armored figure on the other side let out a yelp and fired the laser rifle in Caroline's direction, but Caroline smacked them on the side of the head, knocking them to the ground. So using magic was cheating, but that wasn't?
Caroline unloaded her laser rifle at the enemy's face, laughing maniacally as she did so. "Looks like victory is about to be ours, eh, Luz? LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
Luz turned around only to see another armored figure looking at her. She tried to fire her laser rifle at the figure's chest, but the figure was faster, and repeatedly fired the laser rifle at Luz's head. There was a buzzing sound. "TEAM UBER AWESOME WINS!" a voice called out.
Luz had experienced many strange and inexplicable things since she arrived in the Boiling Isles. She'd dueled a creature from THE REALMS FROM BEYOND THE SHADOWS to a draw. She'd spent time in an alternate universe where her father was alive. She'd rediscovered a whole new form of magic. Her brother was a demon. Her girlfriend was a witch.
Yet for her, in terms of sheer strangeness, these things weren't half as unlikely as the fact that she had actual friends now. Real human friends, who were not, as Camila had harshly put it, imaginary or reptilian, but ordinary humans who liked her for who she was. They didn't have ulterior motives. They weren't with her out of pity. They thought she was cool, and had thought that even before they learned about her magic. Through them, Luz had gotten a chance to do activities that she'd long thought she'd be forever prevented from doing – such as their regular games of laser tag at the local arcade.
"GODDAMN IT!" Caroline shouted, stomping her foot on the ground in frustration. "One day, I'll beat you at this game, Sean!"
The figure who had just "shot" Luz took his helmet off, revealing Sean Warner, Caroline's boyfriend. Sean was a nerd first and foremost. He could recite the text of ridiculously obscure comic books from memory and had forgotten more about Star Wars than most people knew. He was also very tech savvy, recently having taking up hacking as a hobby, though Luz didn't ask for details for purposes of plausible deniability. The red and white of his laser tag equipment contrasted nicely with his dark skin, short black hair, and brown eyes. He and Caroline made an excellent team – she was much better at seeing the bigger picture, whereas Sean was more of a details man – but any time they ended up on the opposite teams from one another (which was all the time, because Caroline had a competitive streak a mile wide), Caroline just got completely out of control with a desire to best her boyfriend at whatever competition they were doing.
Case in point, her braining Luz's best human friend Avery Harrington with her fake laser rifle. It had been obvious to everyone, even Luz herself (and she was not good at noticing such things, to say the least) that Avery had a crush on her, but Luz had turned them down because she was with Amity. (She'd never thought she'd actually have to turn anyone down before.) Avery had proved themself to be a true friend when they'd just moved on without giving it a second thought. And since then, Avery had proven their loyalty time and time again. Whether it was keeping the existence of Luz's magic secret, defending them against bullies, or just providing a friendly ear for Luz to tell her troubles to, Luz knew she could rely on Avery no matter what.
In the alternate reality she had visited, Avery had lived for several years in the Boiling Isles. They had developed a crush on Luz there too, and without anyone else in Other Luz's life to preclude her going out with them, they'd developed an extraordinarily strong relationship. Avery had been the first person Luz had told of her true identity in the alternate universe, and they'd supported her through the awful ordeal, even if it broke their heart to watch a girl who look like their girlfriend have to seduce someone else. They'd also fought Grom like a boss, despite being utterly frightened out of their wits the whole time.
"Did you really have to hit me?" Avery complained. They took their helmet off, revealing a tangle of ash brown hair that normally was held back in a neat ponytail, but was now a mess of practically untamable hair. "I mean, come on, Caroline. You could have seriously hurt me."
"Eh, you'll be fine," Caroline said with a wave of her hand. "You can just…"
"Use my healing magic?" Avery finished, giving her a wry look with their hazel eyes, hidden behind glasses with thick black frames. "Remember, we don't need to hide it anymore." They took out a notepad, made a healing glyph, pressed it against their head, and activated it, healing whatever damage Caroline had done to them.
Unlike Caroline and Sean, Avery had actually visited the Boiling Isles themself that summer, and thus was able to harness the Isles' ambient magic that had been absorbed into them to wield glyphs. Caroline and Sean not visiting had just been because of a lack of opportunity. The portal had been relocated to Gravity Falls and try as she might, Luz had not been able to persuade the Johnston and Warner parents to let Caroline and Sean go all the way down to Oregon, even with Camila backing her up. They didn't know about the Boiling Isles, after all.
Avery's father Steve, on the other hand, did know about the Boiling Isles. (Avery's enbyphobic mother was no longer part of their life, and thank God for that.) Even before Luz told him, Steve had believed in the occult. In fact, he ran a private library in Seattle dedicated to the occult called the Seattle Parapsychological Library, which he had opened in response to his own run-ins with the paranormal as a young man. So when Luz offered him and Avery a chance to visit Gravity Falls, the most parapsychologically significant town in the world, and an alternate dimension, Steve had eagerly seized upon it.
Avery had spent a week in the Isles back in July. Amity had gotten a fair bit jealous (completely unnecessarily so), but since her response to that was to unload more affection than average onto Luz, she didn't complain. Avery had learned a few basic glyphs, ones that they could use for self-defense and basic healing. Despite Caroline's words, Avery would not be able to heal themself with the glyph they had learned if it was a serious injury.
Over the last few days, Luz had spent a great deal of time with her friends. A lot of that was motivated by her decision to stay as far away from the internet as possible. She figured that it would not do good things to her mental health. It had been hard enough to deal with social media when the whole school hated her – now that a significant part of the whole world thought she was evil incarnate, it would be infinitely worse for her.
Her friends had filled her in on the details she was missing. Roughly a third of the country was taking her side and another third was taking Odalia's side. The remaining third seemed to be in denial of everything, grabbing onto whatever conspiracy theories they could to not have to deal with the fact that a huge portion of what they thought was true was actually a lie. Or, more precisely, not the whole truth. In any event, she was not missing much on social media. It was frankly alarming how much people now hated her personally, people who hadn't even met her, but were calling for her to be burned like the witches of old or much, much worse.
On the bright side, Leandra Phalanx, author of the Good Witch Azura series, had come out strongly on Luz's side on social media. Phalanx, as Luz had discovered, was actually secretly a witch herself, the daughter of the inventors of the portal who were refugees from the Belos regime, but she had thus far not revealed her secret, and Luz would keep it. Luz's screams of joy at finding out that her favorite author had passionately defended her had nearly deafened Caroline, who had made the mistake of sitting close to Luz when she informed her of this.
Since the encounter with Agent Johnston, neither Luz nor Camila had any encounters with any members of the government. Luz kept on wondering if random strangers were secretly government agents watching her, but she knew in her heart this was not so. If they were watching her – and they unquestionably were – they were probably so good at what they did that she'd never notice them. Still, Luz couldn't help but wonder if they'd tangled with the government for the last time.
After Caroline profusely apologized to Avery, the four friends took their show on the road to a nearby ice cream parlor. Avery guilted Caroline into paying for everyone's ice cream, which seemed to be enough recompense for them. "Looking forward to going back to school?" they said teasingly. Everyone knew things were going to be supremely weird when Luz returned.
"Not until we start doing grudgby in gym class," Luz shot back. "Which we can't do without magic. But, hey, maybe we could get all of you to the Boiling Isles eventually? I'd love to see you there. I'll run it by Eda! I'm sure she'll say yes!"
"Magic sounds so cool," Caroline admitted.
"Yeah," Sean muttered. "Cool."
Luz looked over at Sean, the bottom dropping out of her stomach. Was something going on? Had Sean decided it was just too risky to be Luz's friend anymore? It wasn't the first time a potential or even actual friend had decided that social death was just too much of a price to pay for spending time in Luz's company. And now that actual death was potentially on the agenda at the hands of hatemongers, Luz was even more fearful than usual that her friends would drop her like a hot potato.
"You have to tell her, Sean," Caroline said sternly. "She'll find out eventually."
Sean sighed, and nodded. "Luz, my parents…they kicked me out." Luz's mouth dropped open in astonishment. "I'm okay! Mr. Harrington's looking after me." Luz breathed a sigh of relief. "They freaked out over the whole Demon Realm thing. They…I'm sorry, Luz, but they believe Odalia. They're all amped to take the fight to the demons, you know? They told me I had to stop being your friend or their son…and I chose you."
Luz couldn't help but cry tears of joy a little. "Seriously? You chose me?"
"Don't get too big a head. They started talking about having to exorcise me, and I just noped right out of that situation." Despite Sean's attempt to downplay it and frame it as a decision where there was no real choice, Luz knew that he could have submitted to them like Amity had to her parents for so long. It was a choice, and he had made the right one.
"I'm so sorry, Sean," Luz whispered. "If I hadn't revealed magic, you never would have been forced into that situation."
"Yeah, I would have," Sean said bluntly. "It's not your fault. You know what jerks they are. We were going to coming to a parting of the ways sooner or later. If it wasn't about this, it would have been about something else.
Caroline reached out and squeezed Luz's hand. "Sweetie, we've got your back. Now and always. You just remember that. School…I'm not going to lie to you, Luz, it's probably going to suck a lot more than before. But I'll do whatever I can to make things easier on you."
"Thank you," Luz said, feeling proud of herself for not losing her composure and dissolving into a puddle of tears of joy.
"At least my parents are cool with it," Caroline went on. "Well, more or less. Mom is a bit uncomfortable with it, but I think having your mom talk to her helped a lot. And Dad's…well, Dad's trying. It's tough on him. He was raised to hate witchcraft and demons and all those things, and it's going to be a long while before he's comfortable with it all. Maybe don't do magic around him for now."
"All right, enough of all this feelings stuff," Sean said half-jokingly. "Luz, you've been skirting around what happened to you in that alternate universe long enough. I want to hear all about it! I mean…if you're comfortable telling us…"
Luz leaned back in her chair. "Sure I'll tell you. It's one heck of a tale! But first…I want some rocky road, Caroline."
"Coming right up!" Caroline said with a thumb's up. Luz couldn't help but smile. As long as her friends were around, she knew everything was going to be all right.
There was much about the Human Realm, in Lilith's opinion, that was bewildering. They appeared obsessed with metaphor and symbolism, routinely making things much more complicated than it needed to be. Granted, this was perfectly natural. Humans would no doubt be just as confused at the ways of the Demon Realm as Lilith was about the Human Realm.
But at least the White House was exactly what it said on the tin: a huge mansion painted white on the outside. Lilith didn't know exactly who had built it, but she approved of the intimidating nature of the structure (in a general sense; it didn't intimidate her) and the direct nature of its name. She was politely waiting alongside Eda outside the building. It was probably not best to alarm everyone by teleporting directly inside the building. The president's bodyguards appeared very well trained and armed, after all.
Lilith believed in a great deal of things, but one of the things she believed in most was making plans. (As opposed to her sister, who appeared to believe in charging in and making Lilith's life as complicated as possible.) Even before Amity had encountered Havik in Seattle back in March, Lilith had started up a think tank to figure out how to handle the Human Realm becoming aware of the Demon Realm's existence. Their task had been aided greatly by Luz and Amity's accomplishments in linking scrolls to the internet. They had puzzled out plans for several different scenarios, and, happily, the one that became reality was among the most optimistic ones. Things could have been far, far worse.
Various representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been visiting the various world capitals since Luz's announcement, trying to stabilize relationships with as many countries they could. Lilith and Eda had only personally visited the ones that were particularly important, which Lilith had decided to define as the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Lilith had been petrified that Eda would make some diplomatic faux pas which would spark a war, but there was no leaving her sister behind. Not only would Eda sneak in and cause trouble anyway, but Eda was the duly elected prime minister of the Boiling Isles, and Lilith had no right or ability to stop her from coming anyway. As much as Lilith sometimes still hated that fact, it would not do to undermine Eda's authority by making it look like she was in charge.
But Lilith had, she reluctantly conceded, underestimated her sister. After all, Eda was a con artist at heart. She knew how to get people to trust her. The Chinese had been reluctant to trust her, but she was soon swapping stories with the General Secretary and his wife like they'd been pals for decades. Eda had raved to the French president about how much she had enjoyed visiting Paris while on a date with Camila and Raine (while not mentioning Camila by name, just in case), and he had seemed quite flattered. The Russian president…well, that meeting could have gone better, but the man was such an asshole that honestly, Lilith was taking the fact that Eda didn't punch him in the face as a win. The British prime minister had despised having to even be in the same room with Eda so much that he'd gladly agreed to establish bilateral relations just to get her the hell away from him, but that was a win in itself, so Lilith would let Eda off the hook.
The point was, despite the slight setback dealing with the Russians (and, honestly, Lilith was certain that they'd end up just ignoring each other, which was probably the best outcome), Eda was doing an excellent job. But now they were in Washington DC, in the heart of the government of Luz's country. If they screwed this up, Luz could pay the price. This was, after all, a place where people had hunted witches. It had been centuries prior, yes, but still.
"Now remember, Eda, there will be no stealing anything," Lilith said sternly. "If you steal even the tiniest thing from this building, I am telling Raine." Camila would be angry with Eda, but Raine would be disappointed in her, and everyone knew that was far worse.
"Me?" Eda said with a look of wide-eyed innocence that, to be fair, probably would have fooled someone who hadn't met her yet. It hopefully would fool President Lake. "Stealing things? You've got me all wrong, Lily!" A matryoshka doll fell out of Eda's voluminous hair and landed on the ground with a clatter. Eda hurriedly scooped it up and stuffed it in her purse just as a bulky man in a dark suit, one of Lake's bodyguards, approached them.
"Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Clawthorne, welcome to the White House," the bodyguard said, and then did a doubletake at their otherworldly appearance. But he was clearly a professional, because he returned his face to a neutral expression almost instantaneously. "My name is Brian Stevens. I will have to ask you to deactivate your magic if at all possible."
"I'm afraid it is not," Lilith responded. "Our magic is a biological function. I can, however, make an Everlasting Oath not to use any within this building. The nature of our magic will compel us to keep the oath; it is physically impossible to violate it."
Stevens held out his finger and walked away, talking to someone as he did so. He returned shortly thereafter. "Thank you for your patience. Such a drastic action will not be necessary, but we would ask you to please refrain from using magic inside the building. We will likely see it as a hostile move should you do so."
"Okay," Eda said in a blasé tone. "You got it, pal. Lilith and I got nothing to hide. We don't mean anyone any harm. What's it like working here?"
Stevens looked like he was genuinely considering the question. "It's really one of the most interesting jobs around. And this…well, this is a moment I'm going to tell my grandchildren about, I can promise you that. Please follow me, ma'ams."
Eda and Lilith followed Stevens and several other bodyguards inside the building. The two of them had to pass through a machine that scanned them, and then got physically searched by several security guards. Whatever they were looking for, they must not have found, because Stevens escorted them through a wide variety of very elegant rooms. They reminded Lilith uncomfortably of the imperial, now the royal, palace. This, she realized, may very well have been deliberate on Belos' part, since he had been a human who grew up in the United States.
Finally, they were escorted into an oval room, where a dark-skinned, silver-haired woman in her fifties was sitting behind a very impressive looking desk. Lilith had seen pictures of this woman in her files. This was Joanna Lake, president of the United States.
Lake gave them a wide smile when she saw them. It was not a professional smile. It was not the smile of someone hostile either. It was the smile of someone who was genuinely gleeful about what they were seeing before them. There was awe in Lake's face. Lilith realized that she had seen that expression on her face before on Luz's face whenever she was exposed to a new part of the Boiling Isles that she thought was particularly cool. Lake was happy to learn there was more out there than mere humanity. More than that, she was ecstatic.
"Welcome to the White House!" Lake said, her voice overflowing with enthusiasm. She suddenly seemed to realize that she wasn't exactly sounding very professional, because she cleared her throat and a much more reserved expression appeared on her face. "I'm Joanna Lake, president of the United States. Thank you very much for joining me today."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Madam President," Eda said, and shook Lake's hand firmly. "This is a great place you've got here. Say, I was wondering if there was some sort of souvenir we could take back."
"It's not a tribute!" Lilith said hurriedly, just in case Lake got the wrong idea. "My niece would just be very impressed to have something like that. I mean, it doesn't have to be anything big. You could get us something from the gift shop."
Lake opened the drawer of her desk and put a calculator on it. "Would this do?"
"This is quite ideal, thank you, Madam President," Lilith said and placed the calculator in her purse. "I sense this is quite an exciting moment for you."
Lake let out a soft laugh. "I suppose so. When I was younger, I was more…shall we say, openminded to the existence of things beyond our understanding. Having real witches before me…the part of me that believed in those things once upon a time, before life taught me the consequences of such beliefs, well, it's quite satisfied."
"Luz was pretty smug when she learned that the griffin model she'd made for school was actually anatomically correct," Eda reminisced. "Do you have children, Madam President?"
Lake's face lit up with another genuine smile. "Yes! Two children, a boy and a girl. Daniel and Mikayla, ages 7 and 9. Oh, how they wanted to meet you! But I don't think this is the right time for that. Another time, hopefully. I'd love to meet Luz, to say nothing of King King? I do have that right?" Lilith nodded, impressively keeping herself from cringing. It sounded so silly when Lake said it like that. "Good."
"The Boiling Kingdom will take no sides on any earthly issue whenever possible," Eda said, giving the same spiel she'd given to the other major world leaders. Not one of them had believed her, but none of them had confronted her on the issue. Such was diplomacy. "Our only desire is to be left in peace."
Lake sighed. "Indeed. That's what we all want in the end, isn't it? I'm going to have to be frank with you, Edalyn. There are a great many people who want you dead. Who want me dead for even considering negotiating with you. Humans…can take a long time to adjust to new ideas. Not to mention the fact that the very name of your realm invokes an ancient symbol of evil. There may be rogue elements who want to sabotage peace, and I can't promise that my successors will take as kindly to this as I do."
Lilith appreciated Lake's honesty. The French president had gone on a long spiel about how liberty, egality, and fraternity were the bedrocks of his people, and how he sought nothing but cooperation and partnership with everyone. Even Lilith was openly rolling her eyes by the end of it. Every country had darkness in its past, whether it be France, the United States, or the Boiling Kingdom. "While we're on the subject of rogue elements, Madam President, we formally request the extradition of Odalia Blight so that she may stand trial for murder and unlawful mental manipulation."
Lake drummed her fingers on the desk. "Without a formal treaty of extradition, I'm afraid it would not be legal for me to acquiesce to your request. If it were solely up to me, I would certainly agree, but even the president is accountable to the law above all else."
Lilith was not surprised by that answer. While she was somewhat disappointed in the end result of it, she did respect the fact that Lake was keeping to the law even if it likely personally benefited her to break it. Lake was certainly chomping at the bit to removing the threat that Havik and Odalia posed, even if it was just the threat he posed politically to her. As soon as the story had broken about Havik's war crimes, Havik had fled the country and his present whereabouts were unknown. He was now wanted for his crimes in Sierra Leone and conspiring to murder Luz's father, an outcome that definitely warmed Lilith's heart. She had never met Luz's father, but surely if he was half the exceptional individual Luz was, his death was a tragic loss to the multiverse at large.
The meeting lasted less time than Lilith had thought it would. The meetings with the other world leaders had dragged on for hours, especially the Chinese General Secretary, who seemed to take an unseemly pleasure in dragging on the meeting as long as possible. Eventually, Eda had been forced to make up an excuse out of whole cloth to allow them to depart Beijing while not pissing anyone off.
In any case, the meetings were just to establish preliminary contact. It would take quite some time for formal bilateral relations to be established, but the informal relationships the Boiling Kingdom had established would suffice for the moment. There were a multitude of details that needed to be hammered out, but that was why they had a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after all. All in all, Lilith was ridiculously pleased with how well the meeting had turned out. Lake had proven to be eminently reasonable – while still nowhere near close to being a pushover – and it spoke well of the American people that they'd elected her, in Lilith's opinion.
"The princess…I saw on the video that she could do magic," Lake said as the meeting was winding down. "She's a full human, yes? How is she able to do that?" And can I do it? was the unspoken question that Lilith could sense behind Lake's words.
Eda looked over at Lilith, silently asking her advice about whether she should share how Luz was able to accomplish the magic. Lilith's heart was warmed by the thought that Eda trusted her enough to seek such advice. Lilith shook her head. There was a time to discuss the glyphs and how they worked for anyone who had been exposed to the Boiling Isles' ambient magic, but that time was not now. "I'm sorry, Madam President, but that information is classified."
Lake, sensing pushing wasn't going to get her the answers she sought, just nodded. There was disappointment in her face. She wanted magic. A part of her had always wanted it. It was scary how much Lake reminded her of Luz, if Luz had followed the advice of everyone around her and tried her best to become "normal." It was a tragedy, in a sense. "I see. Well, perhaps in the future you'd be willing to discuss this topic more." Eda just shrugged.
Lake took a deep breath. "Madam Prime Minister, I apologize if this steps over the line, but I'd quite like to see a demonstration of your magic. Not that I doubt you! It's just…it would be interesting to see, that's all."
"Your bodyguards informed us that usage of magic in this building would be interpreted as a hostile action," Lilith hedged. She didn't really want Eda going overboard in the magic demonstration department.
Lake waved a hand. "They work for me; they'll do what I tell them to. Don't worry about them."
Well, there was nothing for it. Lilith was just going to have to let Eda do her thing and deal with the consequences. Eda looked around the room, trying to find an idea that would serve as an effective demonstration. Finally, her gaze fell upon a potted plant near a couch, a rather sad and wilted looking thing. Eda cast a plant spell – a rather basic one, actually – to send it blooming into life, complete with flowers with vibrantly colored petals.
It was a spell a child could do, but to President Lake, it was everything she had ever wanted. It was proof that magic was real, and that she was destined to be the one to help the world embrace it. She touched the plant's flower with a reverent expression on her face. "It's beautiful," she whispered. "Thank you."
After having had a summer away from work, utilizing her copious saved up vacation time, Camila was looking forward to getting back into the swing of her job as a nurse. Utilizing healing magic was magnificent and spectacular, but there was a satisfying solidity in helping people get better the human way. Most of the healing glyphs she had learned weren't all that effective in terms of curing illnesses anyway; they mostly dealt with fixing injuries instead, which, given the tremendously dangerous nature of the Isles, there was more demand for anyway.
Still, it did make her feel guilty when she encountered a patient that she could literally heal in seconds with her magic. But she had to keep it a secret…wait, hang on a second. She didn't have to do that anymore, did she? Luz had exposed magic to the world. A very significant portion of the world's population believed in it now, although that wasn't the same thing as saying they were happy about it. She'd have to talk to her bosses about using healing glyphs. Likely they would refuse her, since it had been thoroughly untested in the Human Realm and they were opening themselves to all sorts of lawsuits if they just cavalierly introduced a new treatment, but it couldn't hurt to ask, right?
Camila was in the middle of formulating the perfect argument to get them to agree when she was summoned to her supervisor's office. John Robertson had promised that he'd get along with his workers (that was the verbiage he'd used, which was a bad sign right there) like a house on fire. Despite his façade of reasonableness, Camila had learned that he was a really nasty piece of work who treated his workers like shit, was a master of passive aggressive comments, and had absolutely no respect for anyone in any way whatsoever.
"You're fired," Robertson announced the instant she walked in the door. Well. That was new. Normally, he buried his points under mountains of corporate doubletalk. He really must be pissed about something.
"Good afternoon to you too, Mr. Robertson," Camila said, sitting down in the chair across from Robertson's desk without even asking permission. "I'm sure I misheard you just now. Did you say I've been fired? For what reason, may I ask?" Presumably this was just some negotiating tactic to convince her to take a lower salary or work more hours or something like that.
Robertson's eyes twitched and Camila immediately reevaluated her perception of the situation. The man was genuinely enraged at her. This was not just some bluff. Someone must have framed her for doing something particularly bad. That was the only plausible explanation. Well, Camila had been at the hospital for longer than most of the doctors there. She knew dozens of people who would be happy to serve as character witnesses for her if need be.
"The board has decided, and I heartily agree, that you are simply not the kind of person that this hospital wishes to continue to employ," Robertson said, his voice laced with pure fury.
Camila raised an eyebrow. "Is this because of the whole me being bi thing?" After Luz had come out of the closet, Camila had followed suit. They'd gone back to Earth to attend a pride parade back in June together. It had been one of the best experiences in her life. "Because I'm sure the board is familiar with the case of Bostock v. Clayton County which specifically banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace."
"Your sexual orientation has nothing to do with this decision," Robertson said, sounding disgusted. Clearly, he wished it had. "Rather, it has to deal with your decision to consort with demons."
Camila laughed. She couldn't help it. It was just so ridiculous to hear those words coming out of Robertson's mouth, even knowing the context. "I have never consorted with a demon in my life. My partners are both witches."
This, Camila could tell the instant the words had left her mouth, had not helped her case any. Robertson had clearly not known that Camila had two partners before he had informed her, and the news just made him hate her even more. It would also complicate things for her and her family as well once the news broke. Eda and Raine had been keeping their relationship with Camila quiet in the Human Realm because they knew about the stigma against polyamory there. But now it would be all over social media minutes after she left the room, she knew.
"Your promiscuity is just another reason why you should not be allowed to work in an environment where there are children present!" Robertson shouted at her. Homophobic asshole. Those arguments went out of style ages ago, last Camila had checked. Besides, she wasn't promiscuous. She was scrupulously loyal to her partners. They were in a closed polycule and it wasn't going to be opening anytime soon. And it had taken her a great deal of time to even work up the courage to admit to herself, much less them, that she wanted to be in a relationship with them.
Camila took a few deep breaths. She needed to keep her cool. Tranquility. Inner peace. A calm cool ocean. "NOW LISTEN HERE, SHIT FOR BRAINS!" she hollered at him. He flinched. He was frightened of her – of her magic. He was doubtlessly afraid she would turn him into a newt or something (which she wouldn't do even if she knew how, which she didn't). Camila was ashamed to admit that there was a part of her that was enjoying it.
But that part of her wasn't going to win. It wasn't the part of her that she wanted to display to the world. It wasn't the example she wanted to set for Luz. So she put her hands into the air in a placating gesture, making it clear to the man that she wasn't going to go for any glyphs or a magic wand or whatever. "What I do outside of my work time, provided that no crimes are being committed, is not of any concern to the hospital administration. This decision is blatantly illegal, and you will be hearing from my attorney. Good day to you."
She strode out of the room with her head held high, and walked over to the parking garage, confident that the hospital would settle with her lawyer out of court, maybe with a nice juicy settlement package in addition to her getting her job back. It wasn't until she reached her car that she remembered she didn't actually have an attorney. Nor did she really have the money for a good one. It was not, however, outside of the realm of possibility that she'd find someone willing to work pro bono for the sake of publicity. After all, she was something of a celebrity now as the technical Queen Mother of the Boiling Isles.
With the day unexpectedly to herself, Camila decided to do something she had been putting off for a while and drove over to Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, specifically to the Seattle Parapsychological Library. As Luz had developed a friendship with Steve's child, Camila had developed a corresponding friendship with Steve. The weight of the secrets she'd been keeping had caused her to drift apart from her other human friends, so it was nice to have someone in her life that she could be completely candid about when it came to magic and the Boiling Isles.
Still, Camila worried about what Steve's reaction would be to seeing her. They hadn't spoken since he'd visited the Isles in July, and she was concerned he'd be pissed off about magic being revealed to the world. The library was hard to find, located inside a building without much visible way of advertising on the front. If you didn't know what you were looking for, it was near impossible to accidentally stumble upon it.
It turned out that she had absolutely no reason at all to be worried, because Steve was absolutely overjoyed to see her. The instant she walked into the room, he practically bowled her over with a hug. The reason for this – other than their friendship, of course – was plain to see as soon as she looked around her: the library was absolutely packed with people. Revealing magic to the world had increased traffic to Steve's library by a huge amount, presumably from people who wanted to know what they were getting into.
"Camila Noceda!" Steve said with a huge grin. "What a delight to see you again. I can't believe Luz actually had the guts to just show everyone her magic. I was wondering what it'd take for people to believe, and now I know!"
Camila tilted her head. "So people are really believing in it now?" That didn't seem too likely to her. Humanity fancied itself a rational species, despite ridiculous amount of evidence to the contrary.
"They always wanted to," Steve explained. "It's why so much fiction centers around fantastical concepts. Religion, fantasy books, even our very dreams – we're wired to want the universe to be greater than what we can perceive."
"It would seem to me that a lot of people don't want that," Camila pointed out. "That they're scared. And very, very angry."
Steve shrugged. "Yep. We're wired that way too. That's how the ball bounces! Humanity's weird that way." Life is weird; people are weirder, Camila could remember Luz saying once. That pretty much summed it up. "Anyway, as you can see, business is booming!"
"I'm happy things are going well for you," Camila said, trying and failing to keep a hint of disgruntlement out of her voice. "I got fired. Apparently for 'consorting with demons' and setting a bad example for the children who go to the hospital."
Steve opened and closed his mouth several times. "Wow. That's ridiculous. You need to fight that. I mean, if you think about it, the Boiling Isles is just another country – it's like they fired you for dating a Canadian or something. Oh, and I can help!" He walked over to his desk, rummaged through the doors, and pulled out a business card. It was a card for Lucas Sinclair, name partner at Broadchurch & Sinclair PLLC. Camila recognized the name of the law firm. It was very prestigious and very expensive.
"I can't afford this, Steve," Camila protested.
Steve waved a hand. "Lucas is an old friend of mine – well versed in the paranormal too, so don't worry about hiding anything from him. Just say I sent you and he'll do the whole thing pro bono. Hell, he'd probably do it pro bono anyway once you explain your situation." He looked around him suddenly, as an idea seemed to occur to him. "Or…there's another option. I could get you a job here."
Camila was honestly quite flattered that Steve trusted her enough to work at his library, especially since she had no experience that quite corresponded to the task, let alone a degree in library science or anything like that. But Ballard was such a long commute from Camila's hometown. She had no idea how Steve managed to handle it. "Steve…this is extraordinarily nice of you…"
"Before you refuse, let me explain," Steve offered. "The business here is through the roof now, so I finally have enough money to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time: rent a place in Bellevue and move our operations there." Bellevue was much closer than Ballard to Camila's hometown; about equidistant. "As you're probably thinking, this is a long commute, and it'll do Avery good to have their dad around more. You're a good person, a dedicated worker, and you don't take shit from anyone. That's all I need to know about you."
Well. That did change things. But still… "I've been doing my job for a very long time, Steve. I enjoy my work. I was fired unjustly and I want it back!" Camila sighed. "If you'd asked me yesterday, I might have said yes. But now, I can't let this stand. What kind of example do I set for Luz if I just give up? To say nothing of the fact that a successful lawsuit would set a good legal precedent for later if more people get fired for their association with members of the Demon Realm."
Steve looked like he understood. "Yeah, okay. Fair. But…a lawsuit takes time, and you have bills to pay, right? Finding a new job could take ages…or you could accept my generous offer. We have health insurance! The pay's good!"
"You had me at health insurance," Camila said. "I mean, seriously, Steve, you should have led with that."
Steve gave her a winsome smile. It had probably attracted a lot of girls back in the day. Camila was not going to be one of them. He was over a decade older than her, and she was taken. "Then it's settled! Take the day off, and come in tomorrow. We're going to start packing up soon…Assistant Manager Camila Noceda."
Luz stared at her high school building. Had it always looked that big and intimidating? It had grown since she'd last been there. She was, like, 60% certain of it. Okay, that was her just being sarcastic. In reality, she was just scared and her head was accentuating the source of her fear. Well, not that the source of her fear was the building. It was the people within. She had nothing against the building itself, no matter how dull it is.
"I suppose when you've been to Hexside, all this seems a little boring in comparison, right?" Caroline responded to what Luz realized, in a surge of embarrassment, had actually been a running external monologue instead of an internal one. "Hey, it's gonna be fine. No one's gonna, like, try to burn you at the stake or anything like that." She said that last sentence jokingly, but Luz had had actual nightmares about being burnt at the stake by her classmates recently. It was, she feared, a legitimate if highly unlikely possibility.
"I guess so…I'm just frightened. I mean, I'm kind of a celebrity now, right? I just…don't want things to change. Not now that they've gotten better."
"We won't change," Sean promised her. Avery nodded beside him. "Now let's get a move on before we're late."
The four friends charged into the building, confidently. Luz had expected to be accosted by an angry mob or, alternatively, a horde of fans, but neither happened. A lot of people stared at her and whispered, but she was used to that. Okay, Luz said to herself as she took deep breaths. She could handle this. She was used to being a pariah. No one had liked her once upon a time, how much worse could it be now that some of those people legitimately wanted her to die? Surely she was safe in the school, right?
"Hi, Luz!" a perky voice said, and Luz turned to face Clara MacKinnon, the person she hated most in the entire multiverse.
Clara was the most popular girl in middle school, and that hadn't changed in high school. She'd been on the cheerleading squad, class president, head of the drama club, she did it all. And Luz had once had the world's most embarrassing crush on her. Clara had seemed so cool! And she had this awesome hairdo with this pink stripe in it, and now that Luz thought about it, she kind of resembled Amity, albeit with more tan skin and none of Amity's many positive qualities.
Clara had given Luz the time of day. They'd been lab partners, and they'd really seemed to vibe. In fact, they found that they liked some of the same anime, and Luz even introduced her to some new shows she hadn't seen before. They were heading in the direction of friends. And perhaps they could have been that. Perhaps. But Luz had started to believe that Clara had a crush on her, and with the Spring Fling rolling around, she decided to ask Clara out in the most romantic way possible.
It had ended in disaster. Clara had hit her, humiliated her, and completely severed whatever nascent friendship they could have developed. It was, no question, the absolute worst moment of Luz's life up to that point, and honestly still ranked easily within the top five. Luz had thought she could win Clara's heart through a series of grand gestures that made Luz cringe to think about today, and had ended up getting her sent to Reality Check Camp. But Clara had started it.
And now…she was standing in front of Luz, greeting her cheerfully, as if she hadn't hurt her to a level Luz hadn't thought at the time it was possible to be hurt at. "What do you want, Clara?" Luz said in a cold tone, reminiscent of Amity in "Blight mode," as Luz sometimes put it.
"Just to say hi!" she said, heedless of the warning in Luz's voice. "As class president, it's my duty to say welcome back to students…especially when they happen to be royalty!" Oh. Right. She was royalty. Luz often forgot that point, especially since she had no legal responsibilities whatsoever to go with her title.
Luz tilted her head. "Do you…actually not remember what you did to me?"
"I know we've had our differences," Clara said, in what might be the understatement of the century, "but that's all water the bridge now." Was she insane? Was Luz insane? No, surely not. She could not have imagined such a horrible moment in her life. "We need to move forward. All of us. Especially since a new era of magic and wonder is dawning!" Luz was in favor of magic and especially wonder, but the words sounded dirty in Clara's mouth.
Luz poked her in the chest. It was taking so much effort not to punch her in the face. "So you're saying you don't care about how you called me a 'Luzer dyke' and got everyone to laugh at me?!"
Clara blinked repeatedly. "Wait…that was you?" She peered at Luz, and her eyes widened. She really hadn't made the connection. "Oh, gosh, Luz…I…I'm so sorry. I was a real jerk to you back then. Could you ever forgive me?"
"No!" Luz shouted back at her. "You're a stuck up bitch, and I can't believe I ever liked you! Yeah, well, guess what? I've got a girlfriend now who's a hell of a lot better than you!" She turned her back on Clara. "Come on, friends, let's roll."
Clara tried to get Luz to talk to her, pestering her until they finally had to go to different classes, but her entreaties fell on deaf ears. Luz would never give her the time of day ever again. She had made that mistake once, and she would not make it a second time. Clara only wanted to be friends with her now because it was convenient for her. It wasn't Luz she wanted to be friends with. It was the princess of the Boiling Isles. And Luz was so much more than that.
Her classes were…okay. There was a lot of tension between her and some of the nastier students (and, unfortunately, a lot of homework, which was, Luz had discovered to her dismay, a multiversal constant), but it was all under the surface so far, and everyone seemed to want to give her a wide birth, too scared of Luz's magical wrath to accomplish anything. Unfortunately, she didn't have any classes with her friends. She did have lunch with them, though, which was nice. She also had math with Clara, which was definitely not nice, what with Clara's constant attempts to make nice with Luz. Luz had eventually resorted to drawing a random design on a sheet of paper that looked like a glyph to the uninitiated to intimidate her into backing off.
Her final class of the day was science with Mr. Charleston, and that was when things got…interesting. She'd taken a regular class with Mr. Charleston the previous year – she was in AP Bio now, also taught by him – and she'd known him to be a pretty cool guy. And while Luz loved science in general, she'd never been anything more than average at science class. It was too regimented for her tastes. It probably was not a coincidence that she didn't do excessively well at potions class either.
She liked Mr. Charleston. She also owed Mr. Charleston, because he'd been the one to set up the D&D Club where she'd met her high school friends. But she'd never been frightened of Mr. Charleston…until now.
"Luz Noceda," he called out the instant class started. He stared at her, a cold look in his eyes.
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Luz responded.
He stormed over to her desk, looking furious. Had she done something to insult him? She didn't think so, but then again, Luz wasn't always the best at knowing which of her actions might get her into trouble – see the snake incident as a prime example. "Tell me how you're able to do…'magic.'"
Ah. It wasn't Mr. Charleston Luz had insulted – it was the science he practically worshipped at the altar of. Complicating matters was the fact that Eda insisted that the fact that any human who was sufficiently exposed to the ambient magic of the Boiling Isles could do magic be kept secret for the moment. "I can't tell you that," she said apologetically. "I've been asked to keep the details a secret. And, honestly? There's a lot about it I don't understand."
"I see," he said. "Very convenient, that." It didn't actually seem all that convenient – oh, wait, that was sarcasm. (Luz's sarcasm detector was faulty a lot of the time – her autism at work – so sometimes it took her a while to figure out when people were being sarcastic.)
"Magic in the Boiling Isles in general, though, comes from a being called the Titan. Or, to be more precise, its corpse. The Isles is on the corpse of the Titan, and the magic witches and demons can do is a result of the ambient magic it released. Probably. Honestly, scientists in the Demon Realm are still trying to figure it out."
Mr. Charleston sneered at her. "Oh, I see. So what, we're just supposed to believe that? Take your word for it? Or is it more likely that this is just a scam?"
"It is more likely that it's just a scam," Luz said cavalierly, and Mr. Charleston blinked. "But it's not true. The fact of the matter is that magic is real. And, you know, maybe magic is the wrong word for it. Maybe it's just science as yet unexplained."
Luz stood up from her chair. "But you're right. You shouldn't take my word for it. You should trust the evidence of your own eyes. How's about a little experiment, eh? Under controlled conditions. Let me show you some magic. There's no green screen. Nothing up my sleeve, as they say!"
She took out a notebook, tore off a sheet of paper, and pressed it upon the table. She drew an ice glyph. Nothing particularly fancy. "Now this is the second glyph I ever learned. I had to learn it to get away from a slitherbeast – those guys are nasty pieces of work, but don't worry, they only attack when provoked." She activated the glyph and a column of ice emerged from the paper and stretched out to roughly the height of Luz's head.
Everyone looked at the ice pillar in awe. Even Mr. Charleston. "Well, Luz…I think you've taught us all a thing or two, haven't you?" Mr. Charleston said, in a much less hostile and more normal tone than usual. "Let that be a lesson to you all. There's always more that we don't know about the universe…multiverse now, I suppose. Science is about discarding our preconceptions when they don't fit the evidence. I thought one couldn't just appear to create an ice pillar out of thin air. I just got proven wrong. Note the word appear there – one can't actually make or destroy matter." He looked over at Luz, frightened that she was about to contradict him. She just shrugged. She wasn't smart enough to answer that question.
"So wait, all that skepticism was all a ruse?" Luz asked Mr. Charleston. Mr. Charleston nodded. "Wow. That wasn't very nice."
"You'll hear far worse, I'm afraid," Mr. Charleston said gravely. "All right, while that was a fascinating interlude, it's time for me to talk about the syllabus for this semester…before Luz decides to disprove more scientific laws." Luz just gave an impish grin.
The rest of the class passed on in a fairly boring fashion. Nothing significant got done, as is the way of all first days. Luz was asked to stay after the bell rang. She fervently hope that Mr. Charleston wasn't going to give her detention for breaking the laws of physics…or try to burn her at the stake. "I'm terribly sorry about earlier," he said softly instead when they were alone in the room. "I was trying to push you to see if you would stand by your magic…but I shouldn't have. Not when you've obviously had to go through a lot of crap over all this. So I won't do it again."
"It was kind of a dick move," Luz said without thinking and then winced. Had she seriously just talked to a teacher like that? Wow, she was out of practice.
Mr. Charleston crossed his arms. "Don't speak to me like that again, Luz. But you're not wrong." He peered at her closely. "Given the fact that the same patterns didn't work for me, your magic thus derives from a source other than the material itself. These glyphs harness the ambient magic of the Isles, do they not? Which must have been absorbed into you. Am I wrong?"
Luz gulped. If Mr. Charleston could figure that out, she didn't know how long Eda's decision to shield humanity from figuring out how they could wield magic would last. "I'm…still not at liberty to answer these questions."
"Hmm," Mr. Charleston said, drumming his fingers on the desk. "Even if I gave you an automatic A on every test this year?"
Luz scowled at him. She very much hoped this was another ruse. "Mr. Charleston, you're asking me to divulge state secrets for a measly good grade? Seriously? I am the princess of the Boiling Isles, sister to His Majesty, King Clawthorne Noceda, the King of Demons and of the Boiling Isles."
"Wait, your king is named King?"
"And," Luz went on, as if Mr. Charleston had never spoken, "I am completely immune to all forms of bribery." Unless it was her girlfriend giving her chocolate or kisses, of course. "You are asking me not only to betray one of the countries I live in, but my family. And I will not stand for it."
Mr. Charleston gave her a broad grin and a thumbs up. "Well said! You have integrity! I respect that a great deal. I should have sweetened the pot in retrospect. Well, Your Highness, it's been pleasant chatting with you. If you ever want to chat about the theoretical aspects of magic, my door is open at any time. Enjoy the afternoon."
Luz walked out of his room feeling like she'd dodged a bullet. Actually, the whole day had felt like that. For a celebrity, people had seemed remarkably uninterested in talking to her. Maybe they feared her. Luz hoped not. But she'd rather be feared than bullied. Or maybe they were just scared of Amity? Amity had made a rather sensational appearance at the school back in March, wherein she beat up star football player Erik Hellinger (who had totally started it).
Eh, she was overanalyzing. Maybe people were just better at adjusting to the new normal than she thought they were. Yet Luz couldn't help but think that darker times were to come.
The time that elapsed since Arend Havik had exposed the Demon Realm's existence to humanity had been among the most frustrating of his entire life. No one was acting the way they were supposed to anymore. Back when he had been young, such a display of power combined with Odalia's rather amusing pack of lies would have started a war completely instantaneously. Yet thanks to Noceda and that damnable President Lake, a lot of people were deciding to believe Noceda's side of the story instead of theirs. The fact that Noceda was telling the truth was irrelevant. War and truth had nothing to do with one another – Iraq was all the proof one needed of that.
Havik's efforts to stir up support for a war against the Demon Realm had been severely hampered by the fact that Noceda had succeeded in her efforts to expose his decision to kill Eduardo Noceda. If he had known how that run-of-the-mill assassination would come back to haunt him back in the day, he never would have done it. The man was completely unmemorable! For pity's sake, he wasn't even a Christian! And yet, people actually wanted to arrest him for killing him. The nerve!
Havik's time in the Demon Realm doing reconnaissance for breaking Odalia out of prison had served him well. He was now able to do magic to the same level as Noceda, though figuring out what glyphs did what had been a matter of guesswork. Luckily, his scientists were up to the task of finding new glyph combinations. It was nice to be rich. Illusion magic had allowed him to send one of his operatives out of the country, pretending to be him, while Havik hid in plain sight in an office building in Seattle he had bought through a shell company, disguised as the operative when he went out in public.
Despite the setbacks, Havik was confident that when Operation Eschaton was executed, the strides Noceda had made in the direction of peace would amount to nothing. By his estimation, Eschaton would kill 90% of the people living in Seattle. A couple thousand people dead brought two decades long wars. When Eschaton was complete, he'd probably be able to keep a war running into the next century if need be. He was practically salivating at the thought of all that money in his accounts. Odalia could keep her pseudo-religious motivations that seemed to change daily based on whatever delusion she was indulging in at the moment. Havik wanted to be the world's richest man. It was that simple.
In theory, all Havik needed to do until showtime was twiddle his thumbs. In practice, he needed to be seen taking some action, or Odalia would take matters into her own hands, and the last thing he wanted was that. The woman was completely mad and there was no telling what she'd do in the pursuit of her goals. Whatever they were. Havik really hadn't interrogated her about them too deeply. He was too afraid he might get answers.
That was why he had passed on an invitation to visit him to the elderly couple that now stood in his office before him. He had worried they might not come. After all, he was publicly accused of killing their son-in-law. But much to Havik's delight, Sebastian and Guadalupe Serrano, Camila Noceda's parents and Luz Noceda's maternal grandparents, appeared to buy his story about having been framed by the government hook, line, and sinker.
Camila had severed ties with her parents shortly after Luz was born. Havik was fuzzy on the details as to why, and he certainly didn't think he'd get a particularly unbiased account from the Serranos either. In any event, it was irrelevant. The fact of the matter was that they were desperate to save their daughter and granddaughter from demonic and magical influence, and Havik was willing to use that to his advantage.
"Thank you so much for coming," Havik said, and gave both Serranos a firm handshake. Sebastian seemed like a man who judged a person based on the strength of his handshake, so he made sure to give a firm one. "I'm so sorry that we had to meet under these circumstances. I can't imagine what it's like to be in your situation right now."
"We tried our best to raise her right," Sebastian lamented. "But she got seduced by these new fads. She started thinking she liked women and men! Ha! As if you could just like both!" Havik nodded encouragingly. "Even after she did the right thing and married a good, solid man, she still wouldn't drop her delusions. And to make matters worse, she's corrupted my granddaughter!"
Guadalupe shook her head, looking like she was about to cry. "Luz is wielding dark magic, indulging in carnal appetites with hellish creatures…it's not her fault, you know. She was just led astray by Camila."
Havik gave his best sympathetic face, the ones he had reserved for his wives back when he'd been married. All the while, he was practically rolling on the floor with laughter internally. These people were some of the biggest idiots he'd ever met, and he'd known some great idiots in his time. "Well, I'm here to help. I know I've made some mistakes in my life, but I found religion, and I want to save everyone now from demonic influence…including your granddaughter."
"So…you think it's still possible, then?" Sebastian said hopefully.
"Oh, more than that," Havik said with a shark-like grin. "I think it's quite certain that with my help, you'll be able to get custody of Luz Noceda."