When all was said and done with the Bonesborough potion delivery, the trio returned to the isolated Owl House just as the warm illumination of early evening flooded the clearing, royal hues of color shooting through the atmosphere above.
Eda greeted them at the door, ushering her exhausted assistants inside to reveal a warm meal waiting for them, steam still wafting from the grilled cuts of meat and vegetables. Luz and her companions tucked in without comment, the miles-long walk leaving them with little desire to dawdle on putting away a hot dinner. They lounged in companiable silence, though Eda and Willow seemed to swell with eagerness as they carved through their plates, leaving Luz to sigh fondly at the blatant anticipation of being taught new magics. Honestly, she couldn't complain – she clearly recalled her own buzzing excitement when the soothsayers of the Kor had proudly proclaimed that she held some latent talent for their mystic arts.
Luz was not terribly familiar with the intricacies of casting through the methodology of 'spell circles' the two witches used, but quietly hoped there wouldn't be too much impediment to imparting what she knew onto the women. In all likelihood, they'd be struggling a lot more with actually connecting to the natural mana around them than anything else. She definitely had, in the past.
"Alright, I can tell you guys are eager to get started. Wanna get out there before we burn through all our daylight?" Luz hiked a thumb over her shoulder, gesturing to the front door. King wandered away from the table, his focus fading as post-meal drowsiness lulled him into a doze, flopping onto the couch bodily.
"Sounds good to me. Let's get moving, green girl." Eda slapped the bespectacled witch on the shoulder as she moved to the sink, scooping Willow's empty plate up as she passed.
"I should probably warn you I've never really tried teaching something like this before," Luz mentioned cautiously, grabbing her staff from where it lay. "And I'm probably gonna have to go through some technical stuff before we really get going on the more fun bits."
Eda waved a hand dismissively from the counter, not even bothering to turn around.
"Take your time, kid. We've got plenty to spare, so don't sweat it – let's just do things right the first time."
She could work with that.
The overbearing heat of the summer was washing away while day turned to night, brilliant tendrils of approaching purple streaking the sky while Luz led her eager students outdoors. She took a quick detour to meet her slumbering elemental friend, giving the being a few friendly pats on the rocky skull, rousing it from inactivity.
"It was great seeing you again, buddy." She muttered warmly against its rocky bulk. "Why don't we get you home, make sure nobody tries to make a move on your stretch of jungle?"
One massive limb reached up, gently stroking her under the chin as chirping insects and lonely calls of fowl emanated from the spirit.
"Don't worry about me," Luz snagged its passing paw, giving a tender smile as she traced a comforting pattern against its stone limb. "I'll make sure to summon you again soon – no more big stretches between visits. I swear."
It sighed like whipping winds split against twisted mountain peaks, leaning into the planeswalker's touch as she pressed their foreheads together with a hum.
"See you later, big guy. Stay safe, you hear?" Luz didn't wait for a response, the inhuman brush of its mind against hers through their bond letting her know just how the elemental felt. Without ceremony the mage took a step back, snapping the standing thread of mana snarled up between herself and the spirit, watching its body crumble away into nothingness as its soul was returned to the untamed jungles of its homeland. A pang of regret ran through her at the loss of connection to her oldest friend, a melancholy tilt to her head as Luz took a moment to compose herself.
When the mage felt ready, she turned back to her prospective students, the pair of witches looking at the spot her companion had faded away with notable interest.
"Was wondering how you planned to get a gigantic boulder monster home, but I wasn't expecting 'vaporizing it' to be the answer." Eda's statement came across as joking, but the raw thirst for knowledge in her expression belied her humor.
"It'll be fine – sending things back doesn't hurt them, normally." Luz waved the concern away, drawing on her accumulated lore of spell mechanics. "I just cut the connection that was keeping my buddy anchored, and without that bond to hold it in place, the magic took it home."
"Now that's some handy spellwork," The Owl Lady whistled appreciatively. "All you'd need is somebody who can pull that off to drag a person where they gotta go, and kick 'em back to where they came from once they're done doing whatever. Can think of a few good applications for it…"
"Summoning's a bit more complicated than that," Luz noted slowly. "But yeah, being able to bring in different creatures is pretty useful. We'll focus on doing that later, though – let's start from the beginning. This is gonna be a lot, so let me know if you need me to go back over anything."
Luz strode towards the cliffside, back towards the lapping sea far below as she took a seat in a patch of untrampled grass and moss. After a moment's hesitation, the other women followed, seating themselves similarly as they waited for the lesson to begin.
"When I first started learning how to use magic," Luz began evenly. "My teachers told me that there are five main types of mana in the world you can access, which is the energy produced by different kinds of biomes, based on the landmarks and what lives there. That magic is expressed in one of five colors: red magic coming from mountains, blue being generated by bodies of water and islands, green mana for forests, white spells coming out of plains, and then black mana from swamps."
As she spoke, the young mage rested her palms facing up on her knees, directing the flow of ethereal potential into her body while the swaying trees and crashing waves filled Luz with their borrowed power.
"It's easiest to reach for mana when you can connect with those lands, by visiting and learning about them. As for what colors you can use, it's based more on personality than anything else. Take me for example!" She left her hands cupped loosely, gesturing up to her confident grin with index fingers. "I'm passionate about my goals and hobbies, so I mesh pretty well with red magic. And since I spend so much time with nature, green spells are doable for me, too."
"What about the other three colors?" Willow questioned, eyes glittering behind her glasses with anticipation. "And why does you character affect what you can do?"
"Well, blue is based on learning and curiosity, which is something else I've been dabbling in. White magic has a lot to do with being orderly and in tune with other people, and black is more about being - uh, ambitious and self-serving. That's a nice way to put it, yeah."
Condensed mana was beginning to form in the planeswalker's open hands, now, swirls of transparent energy coalescing into being as blue and green magics traveled through her open mind and body. The gentle whorls of the growing orbs caught her audience's eyes, leaving them to stare as she drew further power into physical being.
"As to why who you are affects what's easiest or best for you to learn, it's because each kind of magic has a theme to its spells. Red's aggressive, powerful, letting you throw lots of fire and lightning around. White is a lot about buffing things up, or making them orderly. Black is all about gaining the upper hand by any means, and it tends to be a bit less… pretty, than some of the other colors."
Luz paused as the spells in her palms finalized, a stable orb of raw green magic in one hand, and the fluid twirling of blue mana in the other. Eyeing her audience for a moment longer, she shuffled forward on her knees, depositing the ball of verdant emerald into Willow Park's outstretched hands and giving the sapphire sphere to Eda as the older witch followed suit.
"Green mana has to do with nature and growth, with a lot of it based on connecting with and summoning critters to help you out. Blue on the other hand is a lot less physical, more about touching people's minds and messing with reality in fun ways. Every color's got its strengths and weaknesses, but that's the gist of what you'll probably see from them."
Willow was cupping her orb of mana like a newborn child, gazing with wonder at its pulsing core. The Owl Lady however was much less gentle, lightly prodding and rolling the reactive ball of magic caught between her pale hands as she tested its limits. The sight brought a smile to Luz's face – she'd guessed pretty well about who would take best to what.
"Now that's really interesting and all," The older witch began, eyes not leaving her captured blob of magic. "But how do we turn that into viable spells? Just – wing it, or something?"
Luz shrugged, folding her empty hands in her lap as she relaxed under the gentle ebb and flow of passing mana in the air around her.
"Sometimes you learn through tutors, who give you an idea of how to feel and shape things with your mind. Other times, you just go at it and think really hard about what you want to occur until you can force the magic to work with you. After I… had to leave my first set of teachers, I got a lot of it down through trial and error, or bugging people I met to help me test out new stuff. As far as I know, if you can dump power into the spell and have a decent idea of what you want, you can get just about anything to happen – and the more landmarks or terrains you can connect with, the more mana you can draw in.
"But first!"
Luz leapt to her feet, startling the witches from their enchantment with the gifted portions of power.
"We need to get you both acquainted with the sources of mana here, if you want to actually do anything. That little bit I gave you is to figure out what you should be thinking and feeling when you're trying to connect to a big font of magic."
She guided the younger witch away from their cliffside perch by the elbow, leaving Willow standing at the darkening tree line.
"Once you guys are hooked up to the mana here," Luz announced loudly, standing between her two students. "We can start working on how to actually use it. But you gotta feel the land first, so – meditation time!"
It brought an easy grin to her face, hearing the twin groans of mild aggravation at that statement. Ah, how it felt to be the master this time, making her poor groveling learners go through the same tedious – if necessary – first steps she had once struggled with.
"Just give me a holler if you want some advice. I'll be doing some stuff of my own over here!"
At that, Luz descended to her knees once more, eyes slipping closed as she aligned her breathing with the pulse of magical currents across the Isles.
She could feel the pathways magic took here with relative ease, the bursting potential of such a vibrant world overflowing into its people and surroundings. So much of her lower-level interactions with magic were done subconsciously, the formidable pull of a planeswalker's instincts that she had a difficult time verbalizing, but Luz loved her casual relationship with the mana of the multiverse. She didn't need to be some megalomaniac trying to rule the entirety of reality – her goals these days were simple, really.
Discover more about the worlds around her. Make friends, and try to hold onto them as best she could. Find a way home to her waiting mother.
Easy-peasy, at least in theory. But if she didn't strive to make more connections, learn as much as she could – there was no hope of her ever returning to Earth.
With determination growing in her mind, Luz reached out to the wider Boiling Isles through her senses.
She could feel the fizzle of distant, untapped magics burning through the skies, the wild variety of terrains and people inhabiting the islands of reclaimed bone creating a kaleidoscope of color. It wasn't always easy to detect new sources and ley lines of natural mana, but the connection to the forests and deep seas encasing the Isles that Luz had already established gave her some capacity to suss out those hidden nodules of magicka. Well beyond her reach grew upswells of tranquil white mana wafting off the plains, while sickly roots of greedy black magic reached out towards her wandering mind from further afar.
The closest source of untouched magic, however, came from the sweeping arch of the dead giant's kneecap, where Luz had spent her first night beneath the stars. She hadn't been focused on growing her power base at the time, too wrapped up in the wonder of exploring a new world and the burning frustration of remaining so far from Earth. But now with her mind unclouded, the grand peaks of imperious mountains bursting from the titanic leg bones called to her passionate emotions, tantalizing in their potential for harnessing the most ferocious aspects of nature itself.
Luz wouldn't be able to properly connect to such an outlet at her current distance, being forced to rely on planes once traveled to fuel her red magics. However, maybe Eda could be convinced to make a trip up the slopes? The Owl Lady struck her as someone who might hold some interest in the raw destruction of flames and electricity.
On that note…
Her eyes reopened, letting her immersion in the latticework of passing magics fade from focus as Luz turned to see how the witches were fairing at connecting with nature. Both of them were seated before their elements of interest, Eda facing the sea stretching across the horizon while Willow gazed into the shadows of the evening forest. Both looked like they were a tad uncertain, expressions turning over in concentration and annoyance as they sought the sensations she had described to them, mana samples held tightly.
What could she do to help them focus on what she now understood instinctually…?
Feeling a flash of inspiration, Luz stood once more, walking back towards the house as she called out to the other present occupant.
"Hey, Hooty! Could you do me a quick favor?"
The house demon cracked his black eyes open, gazing down at the hopeful girl.
"Sure, Luz! Whatcha need? It looks like Eda and Willow are gonna pop something if they stare any harder at those balls you gave them."
"Could you grab my pack from upstairs, the one I came in with? I have a few souvenirs that might make things easier for the ladies with their magic lessons."
"Can do!" He singsonged, stretching from the frame of his door and ascending to the upper windows of the Owl House. "Be right back!"
In short order the bird creature returned with her pack, Luz throwing a quick "Thanks!" over her shoulder as she moved back to her students, rummaging through the satchel for some older sentimental stuff. She might've lost a good amount of the items she'd cared for over the years, but Luz had managed to retain some of the smaller trinkets that had once been gifted to her in an effort to assist magical lessons. Where were… aha!
She went to check on Eda first, the pale woman angrily squashing her gob of blue magic between her hands while aggravated mutters on the wind reached the girl's ears.
"Any luck?" Luck questioned rhetorically, already having a decent feeling of what the answer would be.
"No," The Owl Lady growled, palming the sphere in her grasp like a recalcitrant crystal ball. "I keep getting – flashes of what it seemed like you meant earlier, but it won't stop slipping away. Not quite sure what I'm doing wrong, kid."
"Well…" She drew the single syllable out, fiddling with tool in hand. "For as weird as it might sound, thinking really hard at blue magic doesn't always work. Sometimes you've gotta go with the flow, you know? Put your mind to something, and work the magic into it." The planeswalker stooped down, placing a small knot of carved wooden blocks and tinkling metal chains in one of Eda's hands.
"This is a puzzle toy that one of my tutors gave me to chew through while I was getting the hang of blue spells. Try to figure it out while you're focusing on the mana in the air, see if you make any headway."
"Hmm… alright, I guess." The witch seemed somewhat hesitant to switch her focus to a perceived distraction, but relented shortly. "I'll call you back over if I figure something out."
Luz nodded at her statement, moving to the border of the tree line as the woman pondered her new outlet. Willow's lesson would probably be a bit more straightforward, but that was blue mana for you: a pain in the butt to get a grasp of at first, but unbelievably useful once you knew how to get it going.
The younger witch was staring at the foliage surrounding the clearing, working the fingers of a free hand gently into the loose soil she sat on, eyes narrowed as she considered the plant life before her. She looked up from her pondering as Luz approached, giving her a small, if strained, smile.
"Sorry Luz, I'm having a real time of it trying to do what you said. It's weird too," Willow frowned, her frustration bubbling to the surface. "The magic I know best is working with plants, making them grow big and healthy. But I guess I'm so used to the structure of spell circles that this kinda spiritual stuff is just…" Her hand left the patch of ground she was worrying at, giving a vague gesture towards the treetops above.
"Yeah, I get it." Luz gave a sympathetic nod, searching within her bags once more. "Nature's supposed to be pretty easy to get, you know? So doing lots of goofy stuff like 'meditating' and 'feeling' the magic doesn't come easily." Her response elicited a giggle of amusement from the dark-haired witch, the girl's bright green eyes tracking the mage's movements curiously.
"But even if the method is different, that experience is important." She found her item of interest within the sack, her tanned hand opening to reveal a small packet wrapped tightly with twine. "You know what you need to get the plant growing, how to make it larger and stronger without overdoing it. So, seeing as that's the case…"
The seal on the parcel came apart with the flick of a finger, crumbles of soil from another world slipping free as Luz revealed her prize – a handful of small ovular seeds in a gooey case, nestled amongst rich fertilizer, the faint remnants of the enchantment preserving the new life fading into airborne wisps.
"Here's what I want you to try, same as Eda: put your mind to getting something done. See if you can get these to sprout, but only with green mana, no cheating with the stuff you already know. I'll even sweeten the deal!" Luz gave her a winning grin, depositing the prize in the girl's open hand. "If you can get them growing, you can keep them. They're a kind of fruit called tomatoes – I'm not too familiar with the things growing on the Boiling Isles, but they're pretty tasty. Healthy, too."
She didn't mention that the variants of tomatoes from her homeworld were a tad different from the Ravnican crops that Willow was holding, but what the witch didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
"Really? Thank you, Luz." The other girl gave the gift a surprised look, carefully inspecting the tiny seeds in the dying light. "I can't say I'm familiar with that kind of plant, no. And they're even edible? I'll have to see if I can transplant them to my garden back home – maybe my fathers could use them for dinner once they get bigger."
Willow seemed to hesitate a moment, her expression growing more guarded as she gave her magic tutor a carefully blank look.
"You know, it's kind of weird. I know every plant on the next three islands in the chain, and I've never heard of something called 'tomatoes.' Tatos, maybe, but not this specific plant." There was a glint in her eye as she continued, Luz's gut giving a little tumble at the curiosity in her gaze. "And your clothes too – they're pretty different from the stuff around here. A lot of witches like cloaks and all that, but it's still pretty common for girls to wear dresses or leggings, you know. Not really actual pants, or separate shirts…" She gave a brief pause in her ruminations, before pushing forward with her questions.
"Where did you say you came from again? I know you're human, so you probably weren't born on the Isles, but… where were you learning this kind of magic? You must've been staying somewhat close. I don't think I've ever even heard of anybody coming from overseas in my lifetime."
Luz stood upright abruptly, a nervous laugh barking from her chest as she quickly repacked her bags. This was exactly the kind of thing she was afraid of being asked, and there wasn't much in the way of established etiquette for planeswalkers when it came to discussing the greater multiverse. It seemed that by general consensus, not mentioning you were from another world was the standing school of thought, with only a select few people being made aware of just how small they really were in the grand scheme of things.
History had long since proven that giving people ideas about traveling across the wider expanse of existence wasn't always the best course of action. With that in mind Luz decided on deflection, and she would save this internal debate for another day.
"S-Sorry Willow, but you're gonna need a few more magic lessons with me before you can unlock my mysterious backstory. Maybe take me out to dinner too, before you start grilling me." Nope, too far, shut up before you say something stupider.
Willow at least seemed to find her response amusing, giving a light giggle as she accepted the current lack of answers to her questions, shaking her head in good-natured defeat.
"Alright, alright, I get it. Sorry to disappoint, but I'll probably have to take a pass on that date. Not really my style if you catch my drift. Guess I'll have to figure out some other way to weasel the information out of you!" The melodramatic shimmy of her raised hands, complete with explosive sigh and rolling eyes, drew a more genuine fit of chuckles from her companion.
"Well… I sure am a sucker for info dumping on friends, you know." Luz sprawled loosely on the grass, propped up with her hands as she gave Willow a shy little smile.
"That's perfect, since I'm always in the market for new pals!" Willow replied, returning the grin. The pair fell into companiable silence once more, the plant witch focusing once again on her task of mastering understanding of the local forest.
Luz tracked her progress from the corner of her eye, noting how the other girl was slowly relaxing, the distraction of their conversation settling her nerves as she took in a deep breath. The girl held it quietly, waiting, waiting – and released the air in a whoosh, perfectly synchronized with the brush of the breeze rustling through the woods.
She didn't dare interrupt now, full attention on the meditating woman before her as Willow's breathing fell in step with the light gusts of air rattling the leaves above. Luz couldn't tell who was influencing who – were the air currents and creaking branches directing the girl's inhalation, or following the pattern she set? There was a sense of anticipation in the air, and so she held the silence, transferring her gaze to the seedlings cupped closely against Willow's chest, the same as her steadily thrumming orb of mana.
It felt like hours that they sat, motionless, before a twitch of motion in the young witch's palm caught Luz's eye. To her delight, the plants were swelling with new, unnatural life, tender roots spreading from cracking pods into the sample of black dirt held in hand. The process was slow but steady, the trickle of green mana widening to a true flow as Luz's companion willed the freshly spawned life to obey her will, the bare beginnings of stalks pointing skywards for the crops to taste their first glimpse of light.
"Willow." The hushed awe of her voice must have alerted the girl to her success, waking her with a shocked blink from the trance of instinctive spellcasting, even as Willow glanced down at her clutched gift. She let out a gasp of shocked wonder at the sight.
"I – Luz, I did it! I saw the entire forest for just a moment, every plant and animal, and it was just – so huge. So… different! I've never felt magic like that before." She squealed with glee at her victory, barely even noticing the orb of condensed mana fading away in her hand as she ran gentle fingers over the sprouting buds of foreign plant life.
"Good job, Willow!" Luz crowed, joy swelling at her newfound friend's success. "You did even better than I expected. And now that you've connected with the forest, every time afterwards will be a little easier and faster. Once you've got the basics down, you'll be able to draw on more mana for bigger spells, too, from here and further out. Heck, it should also help you if you wanna try it with different colors of magic too."
The plump witch caught her in a one-armed bear hug, the two celebrating her victory even as she voiced another question on her mind.
"What changed though? I wasn't doing anything different, just – focusing on the sound of the woods, and making my breathing line up, and it all seemed to… click!"
"Magic can be…" Luz began, the gears of her mind turning over as a new theory came to the forefront. "Pretty obtuse to work with, at times. Some of its symbolic, or tied up in metaphors and themes. Green magic's biggest thing is growth – growing stronger, and smarter, or even maybe… your connections to others?" She suggested, wiggling her eyebrows at the other girl with a smile.
Willow gave a hearty laugh at that, shaking her head disbelievingly even as she gazed with adoration at the sight of her success, sitting merrily in her palm.
Buoyed by the witch's achievement, the pair moved away from the edge of the clearing, going to check on the older woman still sat before the cliffside as she fought with Luz's puzzle knot in one hand.
"I heard a whole bunch of screaming and shouting over there," Eda stated absentmindedly, attention on the challenge before her. "Nobody was getting eaten by a demon, right? I'm not really feeling like playing at animal control."
"Eda, I did it!" Willow brandished her small sprouts towards her mentor, finally dragging her attention away from the toy. "I connected with the forest, and got Luz's plants to grow! Watch."
The girl focused her attention on the humming thread of mana still strung between her mind and the land itself, closing her eyes in concentration as the sprigs swelled upward, growing an extra couple of visible inches for the Owl Lady to inspect.
"Huh! Nice work, girly. Not a circle in sight either." Eda gave her student a pleased smile, frustrations forgotten for the moment in pride at her apprentice's accomplishment.
"Any progress on your front, Eda?" Luz prodded her, looking down at the partially solved puzzle in hand.
The Owl Lady groaned in resurgent irritation, giving the puzzle a scathing look.
"I have been fighting with this thing for the better part of an hour now, and I've gotten all but one part of it figured out." She pointed a lengthy nail at a particular segment of the object's wooden core. "I can tell that there's another layer inside of there, with some loose shifting pieces – but they don't budge, no matter what I do."
"You've almost got it," Luz commented encouragingly. "That was the big hang-up for me, too. I'll give you a hint – how do you move something without touching it? That's what my teacher told me to think about."
Her head turned to track the rapidly disappearing sunlight on the horizon, the warm indigo of the skyline fading into deeper blacks and blues for the night.
"Why don't we come back to this tomorrow, when it's brighter? Blue's the hardest kinda magic to figure out, but it's got a lot of flexibility to make up for it. I can always rustle up another blob of mana for you to test in the future."
The Owl Lady gave one last aggravated shake of the toy, before relenting with a put-upon sigh.
"Fine, I'll sleep on it and try again tomorrow. Gotta prove to you kids that you can teach an old witch new tricks, after all."
The trio packed up for the evening after Luz dispelled the concentration of magic, placing Willow's healthy new growths into a set of old planters Eda had lying around from her pile of human refuse. Luz wished the girl a goodnight from the porch step as the Owl Lady flew them into the sky on her staff, wrangling a promise to visit when she was able for another hangout and magic session. She watched their shrinking forms for a moment before stepping back inside, wishing Hooty and King a good night as she made to retire.
A nice, lengthy shower after a hard day's work just about put her to sleep on the spot. Fire magic may do a decent job of maintaining heat when you bathe in a bubbling river far from civilization, but it had nothing on decent plumbing. Hair and teeth brushed, sleeping clothes thrown on, and Luz was out like a light before she could even be certain Eda had returned safely.
The dreams came for her once again, details crisper and more defined than before.
The Titan's spine stretched into the infinite once more, but now it was teeming with uncanny life. Mosses and vines coated the crumbling vertebrae, while tremendous trees sprouted from unseen soil far below. Their branches reached towards the white void of the sky, swaying in a nonexistent breeze.
There were no calls of animals, nor gusts of air to move the plants growing here. And yet they swayed and twisted in ethereal winds, utterly silent, a disturbing mockery of the forests found on the Boiling Isles. The fog was less encompassing now, tendrils of mist wrapping in and out of the foliage like a parody of something living.
Luz continued onwards, as she had done before.
When the titanic skull loomed above her, its surface seemed to writhe with organic growth. Creepers and more slick patches of lichens covered its lower half, a massive trunk not unlike the oakwoods of Earth swelling from the void of an eye socket.
Luz fought the winds picking up around her, anchoring herself by hand to the bones as air blasted from the gaping chasm of the Titan's mouth for a second time. She desperately tried to make out any sense of words or feelings from the gust, but the only sound she could detect was a slithering hint of whispers on the edge of detection, unknowable murmurs in alien voices growing by the moment.
The planeswalker found herself tumbling to the invisible ground far below before she could make out any one call, the vague feeling of being seen by a gargantuan presence prickling her senses while the void soared up to meet her.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Chapter originally posted on 2-24-2021.
To clarify the questions I saw, this story takes place roughly 4-5 years after the original start of Owl house canon, so the characters are all roughly half a decade older. This will be expounded on in dialogue throughout the later story, but it doesn't hurt to mention it ahead of time here.
