A pair of worn, featureless ceramic glasses waited to be filled.
The best coffee blend currently available in the castle bubbled in a pot, with two cubes of sugar and an ounce of creamer for each cup on the side.
Their portable stove blazed healthily as the coffee pot boiled just enough for the two mugs. It wouldn't do to waste good caffeine.
One steaming drink found its way to Lilith Clawthorne's desk, the firm rap on wood from the mug making her jerk fitfully from her nap. She wasted little time in downing as much liquid as quickly as possible without searing the flesh of her mouth too horribly, while her more awake underling made certain to take only measured sips, standing at attention quietly.
The leader of the Emperor's Coven muttered darkly to herself as she peered blearily into the depths of her cup, as if trying to parse secrets from the way its dregs settled to the bottom. Considering it wasn't tea leaves, she likely wouldn't be able to determine much, if anything.
"Well," She stated only partially to herself. "Edalyn remains as crafty as ever. I can't say that I was betting on an active accomplice."
Her audience remained silent, awaiting her address.
"I definitely wasn't anticipating some kind of – invisible spellcasting, either. I didn't even think something like that would be possible without serious magical artifacts." One hand rubbed subconsciously at her chin as Lilith pondered the aftermath of their disastrous attempt at an arrest earlier.
She released an exaggerated sigh that left her sagging, looking aged beyond her years. Finally, she turned to address her company, absentmindedly noting the still-steaming cup in their hand.
"I didn't see much after the spell, but you – you were the only one cognizant to get an attack off at my sister and her little helper." Lilith looked her over, the remainder of her professional countenance softening. "A commendable effort, by the way. What are your thoughts on the matter, Miss Blight?"
Dropping her impeccable stance, Amity Blight shook herself free of her coven-issue cloak, clipping the avian mask to her belt while draining the remnants of her coffee in a single gulp.
"The chase involving the demon was clearly an act." She spoke succinctly, free of any judgment in her tone. "There were enough minor fires set to keep a majority of the coven members occupied, and the rest of the distraction was sold by the crowd panicking." A pause, as she thought over the circumstances of the day. "The Owl Lady needed time to pack, at least the fifteen minutes we spent with her accomplice."
Amity didn't dare continue into the depths of taboo topics, but a pointed gaze had Lilith nodding at her assessment.
"The curse seems to be slowing her down, then. I can clearly recall her spiriting away entire tents worth of goods with little effort in the past." The coven commander seemed to perk up as her mind mulled over their conversation, the thrill of the hunt reinvigorating her.
Perhaps she didn't mind casually addressing her sibling's affliction, but Amity would happily leave her commanding officer to speak of such things. It felt a tad… uncouth to talk so freely of someone that ill, even if they were a repeat offender.
"Do you have any adjustments to the coven's orders, Miss Clawthorne?"
"No." The answer was firm, in spite of her earlier frustrations. "Remind the others to stay as they are – observe the Owl House and report any findings to me, nothing more. Edalyn is my responsibility." She picked at her sullied cloak, expression souring for a moment. "Clearly a head-on confrontation will simply add to the trouble of containing her. A workaround of some sort is necessary, for her and that damnable house demon."
"And her accomplice, Miss Clawthorne?" Best to cover this territory sooner rather than later.
"Place her under observation when available, as well. I am curious as to how she accomplished those acts today, but drawing Edalyn's ire by targeting a possible apprentice seems unwise. Especially considering we know little about her capabilities."
Amity hesitated, feeling her queries drawing closer to toeing the line.
"…Do you believe the Emperor should be informed of these developments, ma'am? The Owl Lady is one thing, but what her companion did…"
"That will not be necessary, Miss Blight." The cordiality fled her voice at the suggestion, and Amity knew it was a response born of fear, not conviction. "There are numerous logical explanations as to how that young witch did what she did, and we currently have little idea of the 'how' or 'why.' Better to understand the situation further before we waste our Emperor's time with frivolities."
"Of course, ma'am." Came the clipped response. "At your leave, then."
Lilith levelled a tired look in her direction, a tinge of regret settling in her expression before she gave her underling a weak smile.
"Apologies for my loss of temper, Amity. It was a valid question." Her grin grew, turning wryer as her posture loosened. "You know that you don't need to be so formal with me. I'm not going to snap your head off for a bit of wit – you can leave the gargoyle impression to the more fearful minions."
That was enough to break the ice a bit, Amity letting a small chuckle escape alongside her own smile.
"My parents sought to raise a perfect young lady of House Blight, Miss Lilith. It's not something easily dropped."
Lilith's expression darkened at the mention of her parents, a bit of determination filling her spine as she stood from her desk, clapping both hands gently to Amity's shoulders.
"Odalia and Alador may have brought up an impeccable young Blight," She stated firmly, holding Amity's gaze. "But I've trained a prodigy for years who is more than the sum of her parent's lessons on manners and etiquette, important as they might be."
Her smile returned then, softer and warmer than its prior appearance.
"You'll make a fantastic coven leader, one day. Just the right amount of character to offset the terrifying reputation of heading the Emperor's Coven itself." She gave a cheeky chuckle at the blush crawling up her employee's cheeks.
"Thank you, ma'am. It – means a lot, coming from you."
Lilith released the grip on her young charge, stepping back a respectful distance as she folded her hands in a parade rest.
"Certainly. It's important to ensure your underlings know when they've done an outstanding job – as much as it pains me to admit it, an organization like this is only as strong as the weakest link."
A mischievous twinkle broke her stern façade once more, making Amity tense at the sly smirk sliding into her expression.
"Of course, this also means I am obligated to check on the coven's health from time to time, including their mental wellbeing." A pause, as her face blanked. "Tell me, Miss Blight, do you have any potential suitors in mind? It's important to maintain a balanced life outside of work, and -"
"Well Miss Clawthorne I appreciate your glowing review of my performance but I really must be updating the coven detachment on our orders so I'll be going now, goodbye!" Amity all but fled her commander's office, the muffled sounds of Lilith's guffaws hidden behind a hand chasing the desperate girl from the room.
It took but a moment to reaffix her equipment, the sleek metal of her mask hiding the burning in her cheeks and ears from the good-natured ribbing. Miss Clawthorne was lucky that Amity considered her a… major influence on her life, what with her occasional teasing about finding the girl a 'partner.'
She was less than a year into her membership with the Emperor's Coven, and barely out of secondary education. The thought of tying herself to anyone for the rest of her life was not the most appealing of prospects, currently. That went doubly so if her commander – or worse, her parents – were looking for a suitor from the… wrong pool of bachelors.
Amity shook herself from such unprofessional thoughts, spine straightening and stride growing confident as she slipped back into the role of deputy-head for the prestigious Emperor's Coven. Orders needed to be dished out, members needed to be checked medically for any lingering effects of the day's blunder, and the law still stood to be upheld by its dedicated servants.
The first order of business: to establish a watch rotation on the misbegotten Owl House deep in the Bonesborough woods, and locate a viable weakness to exploit.
Amity Blight moved with purpose into the belly of the Emperor's domain, her timely departure from Lilith's office preventing her from witnessing the coven leader in deep thought, staring a burning hole towards the inner keep where their liege resided.
From the moment the kid wandered up to her stall, Eda Clawthorne had her pegged as either an inexperienced coven rat – or a runaway, completely and utterly out of their depth.
She wasn't exactly a local celebrity per se, but every resident of Bonesborough knew the name and likeness of Eda, the great and powerful Owl Lady. This girl, though – she didn't even so much as flinch when the witch dropped her name casually. She was too busy gawking at the piles of human garbage cluttering Eda's stall, as if the random useless trinkets held the mysteries of the universe within them.
Except her wares – they weren't as 'pointless' as she might have assumed, not based on how the strange girl had gotten some of it functioning. Only a bunch of magicless schmucks would think to make a miniature Scroll capable of doing math on the fly for their children, but the Owl Lady was silently impressed, both with the utility of the device – and the handiness of her odd customer. It was almost jarring, how someone so bad at intentionally hiding information at surface level tried desperately to play their cards close to their chest.
And oh, did Luz Noceda need to work on her deceptions. She might have fooled ol' Lilith and her lackeys with that little show in the market, but spend more than a minute speaking to the teenager and she was likely to fumble her fibs in short order. Coins that were 'old family heirlooms,' huh? Yet they looked practically clean out of the mint, even if they were a bit smudged up with grime. Asking about local prices while trying to act low-key, letting her obsessive interest with humans shine through every other sentence – the girl needed to get her story straight if she expected to actually trick anyone determined to parse out the truth.
After all was said and done, Eda still had her money on the kid being a runaway, even with her poorly maintained falsehoods. It was difficult to admit how much of a punch to the gut that was, seeing a hungry young witch – or human teenager, as it were – asking naïve questions about how to feed herself. Where she could stay, what she could pawn to keep herself afloat. Titan, she was such a sucker. If Luz hadn't started their conversation with such an off-kilter approach, she might never have even questioned the oddities in front of her. As it was, Eda still had to contend with her long-buried sympathetic instincts even as she prodded the girl for information to see if she'd slip up and let onto whatever game she was trying to play.
But the more obvious elements of her newfound houseguest were only a drop in the bucket of Eda's curiosity. The knowledge of human devices and interest in their scraps, giving way to reveal that the kid herself was human – which didn't add up at all, in the Owl Lady's books.
It was well-established fact, both on the Isles and in the Human Realm, that the round-eared cousins of Demon Realm witches could not perform any kind of magic. Not the simplest bit of spellcraft was available to them, and so they made do with their own arcane sciences and lessons that went right over Eda's head.
Yet she had clearly witnessed Luz blast the Emperor's Coven goons with some kind of mass sleep spell – without a circle in sight, to boot. Besides that, she'd been a little too busy packing to see what the original distraction she mustered up was, but could've sworn that a little demon of all things had just appeared from the blue to tackle Luz and lead her screaming away into the market. And then their daring flight into the sky – one toady gets a solid fireball racing after them, and the kid just stops it full bore, a simple wave of her hand that made the shot disappear without so much as a pop.
Color Eda interested in her little find at the marketplace. It wasn't until the end of their flight home that she could confirm her suspicions about Luz's heritage for herself, but that just made the mystery all the more tantalizing.
Powerful, unknown types of magic cast by a human of all people; add to the fact that the kid's humor jived well with her own, and the all-but-stated appearance of a runaway fleeing home – the Owl Lady was determined to figure this chick's deal out, and maybe get some nice new tricks to sweeten the deal. Any magic that strong had to have come from somebody well hidden from Belos' tyrannical reign against 'wild magic,' and if they were willing to teach some random human… Maybe a witch struggling with the shackles of a draining curse could stand to benefit from more power at her disposal.
Eda didn't acknowledge to herself that she'd have still offered a place to sleep, even if the girl wasn't a powerful or handy magic user. There was no way her presence on the Isles was in any way a coincidence – how would a human even get here? The Owl Lady was the only person with a way to the Human Realm on the islands, as far as she knew. Had to be one hell of a story.
Once she'd gotten a better picture of Luz and her whole deal, Eda would bring up the portal.
Wouldn't want to spook a runaway kid with the threat of getting hauled home, after all.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Chapter originally posted on 2-20-2021.
