For a little while, things settled into the routine and mundane for the Owl House and its inhabitants once again.
Eda brewed potions and hawked her scavenged junk on the unsuspecting public; King spent his days lounging in the lap of luxury, his royal self bristling and battling against the others he shared space with; Owlbert enjoyed the role of the exasperated audience, only able to roll his eyes at the shenanigans of his mistress and her squabbling youngling; and Hooty did what he was best at, that being playing the part of both a nuisance and living traumatic event for the unwary.
As for their Guest, she retained a silent, unbroken vigil over the hustle and bustle of her caretakers, slipping in and out of a fugue that refused to fade. With every passing day, the Owl Lady felt the trickle of concern deep in her breast increase in its flow whenever she fed the dozing girl, taking each instance of those deep brown irises fluttering open and viewing the world around her for the victories that they were. All she could offer, however, was the same bevy of bandages and alchemical recipes for recovery that the woman had doggedly stuck to as her patient's wounds scarred over, as slow to heal as the steady drip of water from a rusting faucet.
In time, it came to feel as if they'd always had an enigma of a human houseguest sat amongst them, though she'd yet to speak a single word to any of the bunch. The general air of hope for her eventual recovery remained unflagging, even as days turned to weeks and summer fell upon the Boiling Isles.
Eda Clawthorne was truly beginning to feel that she'd gotten the hang of caring for an infirm otherworldly visitor and the myriad of constant, esoteric necessities their presence demanded by the time the days were lengthy and bright and punishingly hot.
Of course, that was just about when the universe decided it was the proper time to throw a second human at them.
From the moment she'd first laid her wandering, widened eyes on the reaches of the Demon Realm, Luz Noceda knew that she had finally found something truly special.
Oh, sure, she spent her fledgling minutes on the shores of the Boiling Isles attempting to avoid a panic attack, what with the skin fairies and sprawling market stalls and witch crime, but those facts were small potatoes to the majestic arc of a fallen god's ribs as she soared through the sky, eyes watering in the wind, while a mysterious merchant whispered intriguing truths in her ear with a laugh.
Her awed gaze swept over pine trees taller than the skyscrapers of her own world, their needles the color of freshly spilt lifeblood. They swooped and dove on the old woman's magic staff through winging clouds of screeching bats and prehistoric birds, sprinting through the purpled sky of a perpetual autumn that stretched from each end of the horizon into infinity. Luz swore she could feel the supernatural pull of that wondrous image, fuzzing static against her dimpled skin, while they flew low and fast over port towns and cliffside colonies clinging to the great bones of the lost Titan like hungry barnacles.
It was almost too much to take in with a single pass, something she was quick to realize once they began their descent into a balding clearing along an open stretch of a rocky precipice, upon which an archaic home perched like a squatting seagull. Any disappointment she might've felt at the all-too abrupt end to their airborne journey across the astounding lands of the Isles was easily brushed away by the bubbling excitement she felt as Eda the Owl Lady led her to the front door of that gorgeous home, with its soaring stone tower crossed by the crazed asymmetry of its eaves, easing them past the blinking form of her living knocker when the maw of that whinging face distended to allow them entrance.
They stood there in the foyer of an ancient shaman's home crossed with an unrepentant hoarder's trove, a burst of bobbing lights in orange and yellow flickering across the ceiling in circuitous patterns, and the pale witch's voice cut across Luz's exponentially expanding joy.
"Welcome to… the Owl House."
Eda allowed her newest recruit to wander dazedly into the depths of her home, the starstruck girl's eyes glinting in the light of dancing candles and burning spellfire.
"…Where I hide away from the pressures of modern life." Luz's host stepped up to the girl's side, a flick of her wrist allowing her compacted satchel of goods to find a new home somewhere out of sight. "Also, the cops. Also… ex-boyfriends."
She bookmarked the statement with a snort of amusement, even as the human teen gave an ecstatic hum at her words.
"This place is beautiful," Luz breathed, spinning slowly in place so that she might drink in the wonder of it all. "Do you live here all alone?"
As it turned out, the enigmatic old woman did not, in fact, live the full life of a hermit – a fact that filled Luz with joy as she squeezed the struggling figure of Eda's tiny roommate close to her chest, squealing with delight at his stubby paws and adorable cries for help.
"Who's my little guy?" She crooned to the wriggling King of Demons, basking in the softness of his curly fur. "Who's my little guy? Is it you?"
"I don't know who your 'little guy' is!" He yelped, reaching for the unmoved witch watching his battle with a smirk. "Eda, save me!"
"Alright, alright," She sighed melodramatically, pulling the grasping girl free from the target of her affection. "King, this is Luz the human. She's here to help us with our little… situation."
"Wait, you mean…?" The diminutive tyrant gasped in delight, his prior terror already forgotten in the face of his goal. "My crown!"
"Mhm." Placing the becalmed teen upon the floor once more, the keen-eyed witch stepped before her two companions, arms windmilling a spell circle into being even as she moved. "So – lemme explain what we're doing here, kid."
Witnessing the shifting illusions play out before her, weaving together the strands of a mystical quest in the making, Luz bravely resisted the urge to crow with victory at the promise of a true magical adventure, the very same that her dreaming heart and mind had yearned for over the course of nearly her entire life.
Admittedly, that fantastical expectation she held in her mind suffered a bit in the face of reality, as she and King trudged through a sea of weary faces locked away in the depths of an odious prison less than an hour later, its halls unwelcoming and weighing upon her soul as if the stones themselves sat atop her shoulders. She absorbed the listless complaints of the unfortunate inmates as they sought to meet back up with Eda, who had infiltrated the towering spire of a jail from another access point, the dreary realization of their circumstances giving way to fear as she and her companion hid themselves from the wrath of the passing warden, shivering with horror in their untended cell of choice.
The real blow to the magic of their daring mission came when they finally reached the grand hall where the King of Demons' diadem had been sealed away, locked within a column of searing light that threatened to scorch any magical entity that attempted entry. Sat atop that mound of disintegrating artifacts and mundane junk, its majestic tines bent by time and seeping water, Luz found –
"A paper Burger Queen crown?"
She watched King dart about excitedly, overwhelmed by his grand victory.
"Finally!" He yelled, tiny arms punching the air. "My crown! I can feel my glorious power surging through me once more." The short boy gestured grandly at the limp form of a plush toy that had tumbled free of the enclosure as Luz stepped over old trash and crumbling plastic. "You! I shall call you Francois, and you shall be the first addition to my army of darkness!"
The human girl looked on, disbelief clear in her face as she addressed the witch at her side.
"That crown doesn't give him any special powers, does it."
It was not a question.
"Nope," The older woman popped her singular response with her lips, grinning guilelessly, only backtracking once she'd caught sight of the expression marring her unwitting accomplice's features. "Ah, just look at us, Luz. King and I don't have much in this world – just each other. So if that dumb thing makes him happy, then it matters to me, too. 'Sides -" Here she winked knowingly at the disgruntled human girl, her smirk softening into something warmer. "Us weirdos have to stick together, y'know?"
She did in fact know, perhaps better than the old witch could ever understand, but that didn't excuse the unnecessary deception. While Luz might've needed their help to return home, it wasn't as if she was ever actually going to turn her nose up at the promise of a supernatural side-quest on the boring road of life she'd found herself riding the last few years. And… it still did her heart good, to be included in such a disharmonious team, even if only for a short time.
Before she could voice any such thoughts, however, the hulking shadow of a monstrous silhouette made itself known behind the oblivious woman stood before her, and suddenly the thought of lies and camaraderie fell to the wayside as the massive brute lunged forward, and decapitated Eda directly in front of her.
Staring in shock at the glassy gaze of the skull now gripped in her shaking hands, numbness creeping over her mind, the wide-eyed human's blank panic was only broken by the blink of the Owl Lady's eyes while her severed head boldly announced -
"Ow! Oh, I hate it when this happens."
Luz screamed.
Things became a bit fuzzier after that with all of the adrenaline flooding her body. The young girl bore witness to Warden Wrath's simpering efforts at achieving any spark of romantic interest within the woman he'd just beheaded, which was just… ew. Then she was smacking him over the head with the Owl Lady's living staff, and off they shot, the three of them twisting and spiraling through the bleak corridors of the Conformatorium with its enraged minder hot on their heels, bounding along like a furious ape.
They burst into the reaches of the rear courtyard just as Wrath caught up in his pursuit, sending the lot of them sprawling through the freshly blasted hole in the walls of that miserable institution, a breathless Eda hurriedly trying to send Luz away from the rapidly escalating battle with a shove and a bark of encouragement. Hovering on her borrowed staff, though, watching the pale woman duck and weave beneath cleaving blows as she spun bolts of supernatural force together to defend herself and King, the human girl found herself unable to abandon the fight so easily.
Instead, she rallied the hesitant forms of those misbegotten prisoners released along the path of their frantic flight, heading the charge into the fray as they tackled the shocked warden from behind and battered him to the ground. A witty remark and a parting gift of her remaining fireworks – the same ones she very probably should not have ever brought into her high school, in hindsight – were more than enough to secure their escape, prisoners fleeing into the night as the Owl Lady and her gaggle of misfits roared upwards into the dying evening sky, backlit by bursting rockets and streamers.
She'd even managed to get in a good monologue and a lesson on friendship and self-confidence by the time they'd left. Luz was willing to consider their expedition a win for that fact alone.
And then, the time that she'd been dreading since the first heady buzz of fear and excitement had hit her system arrived – and the grinning witch offered her access to the otherworldly portal she'd so blithely stumbled through earlier that day, free to return to the dull reality of life on modern day Earth.
By all rights, Luz should've been clamoring at the bit to head for the safety of home. She'd certainly have to figure out some way to explain everything that had happened to her mother, who would want to know how and why her daughter was not on the bus headed for that horrible summer camp. And then there was the ever-present danger that had dogged her heels since that first trembling step, unscrupulous carnivores and greedy fools who were more than willing to harm an innocent child if it benefitted them. Plus, on top of all of that, there was now a serious nonzero chance that her name would be joining Eda and King's on the wanted posters that dotted the town of Bonesborough and its countless communal boards.
Yet, for every thought that screamed at the girl, that sought to disillusion her to the fears of the wider world that surrounded her – Luz couldn't help herself as she felt her lips move, dancing to the tune of her heart and not her head.
"Okay." She turned slowly, looking away from the grand mirror that bounced the picturesque scene of her place between the demon and witch she'd tentatively befriended across its surface. "So, I know you got your head cut off, and we started a whole prison riot… but I think this is the most fun I've ever had."
The admission felt awkward, when she put it that way, but it contained only truth.
"I don't fit in at home," Luz confided quietly, her confidence wilting at the reminder of what awaited her on Earth. "And – you don't fit in here. So, if I were to stay… then we could not fit in together."
She allowed hope to fill her words, even as she tossed the pamphlet depicting her fate as prisoner to some horrid summer camp to the side, scorn clear in the motion. Eda's blazing eyes tracked its fall, an eyebrow quirked, but she didn't rebuke the girl – and so Luz soldiered on.
"I want to stay and become a witch – like you." After a moment's hesitation, she pulled her beloved fantasy novel out – freshly saved from the Owl Lady herself that morning – as she gave its cover a tender grin. "And like Azura."
The living witch before her snorted out a laugh, her disbelief clear.
"What? All right, that's just crazy." She patted the shorter girl on her shoulder consolingly, making a clear effort to keep her smirk sympathetic. "Humans can't become witches, kid. It's a biological thing."
But Luz was not one to be deterred from her dreams so easily.
"Well, maybe that's because they haven't tried." Brow furrowed, precious tome returned to its resting place, she gave the older woman her most practiced pleading expression. "If you teach me how to be a witch, I'll do anything you want."
King perked up at her words, and the little scamp tugged at Eda's drooping red dress excitedly, eyes shining with desire.
"Ooh, let her stay! She can make us snacks!"
The stoic Owl Lady rolled her eyes, any semblance of sternness melting at his demands even while she scooped the tiny demon into her arms, dumping him onto her slim shoulders with a smooth motion. She seemed to ponder the suggestion a few seconds longer, before blowing a good-natured sigh through her nose, wry grin returning as Luz squealed in anticipatory excitement.
"Well, I could always stand to have another pair of hands working out around here. Titan knows there's plenty to do. But -" Here, she wagged her finger, her would-be apprentice tracking the gesture intently. "You have to get some work done for me before we start on any spells. Capiche, kid?"
The human girl didn't respond, at least not verbally – instead opting to enwrap the two of them in a crushing hug, one that had the Owl Lady choking on her spit as King was crushed mercilessly into her ribs.
And that was that.
In almost no time at all, Luz Noceda had found a new home, one that claimed her awed heart with ease. She spent her first night as a witch's apprentice spreading out her meager assortment of belongings in the attic space she'd been granted, tamping her sleeping bag into submission as borrowed blankets and pillows cushioned her from the floor, and dusty old furniture became the home for her handful of toiletries.
Even with all of the exhausting running and shrieking and fighting from the day, though, her mind buzzed too heavily with a lust for magical adventure to settle easily. Not even the vibration of a delayed message from her mother's cellphone, ringing through her own device as the girl lay flat on her cobbled sleeping arrangement, was enough to soothe her mind.
I wonder how I still have reception out here? Luz pondered. I guess I'll ask Eda about it tomorrow. Right after our first magic lesson!
Feeling the nervous hum of energy still racing under her ribs, Luz eventually decided to perhaps indulge in some of her burning curiosity a little on the early side, and – with a careful step over the dozing form of King, who had joined her sometime earlier – the gleeful human girl stepped back into the darkened upper halls of the Owl House.
Any sense of intrigue or exploration was quickly snuffed by the approach of her host, who startled her with a question from behind, nearly making Luz jump out of her skin right then and there.
"Couldn't sleep, kid?"
She squeaked at the sudden interruption, slamming shut the outer door of what Luz had found to be another bathroom, even as the teen whirled around to face the amused older woman.
"Gah! Criminy, Eda, how are you so quiet!? You're still wearing heels!" Clutching her racing heart, she let out a shaky breath, before quietly adding, "And, yeah. I was too hyped up to knock out real fast."
"Ah, that's fair," The witch hummed, her fanged smile evident in the tone of her warm voice. "We did pack a lot in for your first day, didn't we?"
"You could definitely say that, yeah."
It took Luz a moment for the sight of the pale spellcaster to register with her admittedly exhausted brain, but when it did, she couldn't help the confused blink at what she found.
"Oh, am I interrupting a midnight snack? Sorry if I was making too much noise – these floorboards are way creakier than I'm used to."
"Nah, you're good. And this ain't for me." Eda gestured with the steaming bowl of soup she clutched in her claws, a frayed potholder insulating her palm from the heat. "It slipped my mind a bit, what with all of the introductions and having to play cops an' robbers this morning, but it occurs to me that you haven't actually met everybody here just yet. You interested?"
Nodding eagerly, the barefooted girl padded along behind the lengthy stride of her aging host, questions scalding the tip of her tongue as they descended deeper into the black halls of the second floor.
"In a shocking display of foresight, when Hooty saw and heard me coming with somebody he didn't already know, he went ahead and stashed our roomie upstairs where she'd be safe." The witch explained as they marched along. "I guess even a goober like him has a good idea, every once in a while. If you were trouble, then there wouldn't be much we could do if you got past us and into the house with our guest."
"Who is this person, anyway?" She couldn't help asking the obvious, a question that simply earned her a mysterious smirk from the infamous Owl Lady of Bonesborough.
"I'll show you."
They stopped before the splintered form of a distant door, its panels clearly shredded by the corrosion of time with scratches and peeling paint. Eda opened the unlatched portal with a nudge of her booted toe, allowing the warm light of a burning oil lamp to spill into the hall they shared. Luz hustled in behind her, curiosity pushing her forward as the witch stepped aside – only to freeze at the sight, anxiety shooting through her icy lungs as breath deserted her, and with a disorienting sensation of vertigo, the girl immediately came to regret her nosiness.
"Luz, let me introduce you to the first human to find their way to the Boiling Isles in a very long time."
She barely heard Eda's low words, though, exposed feet planted to the floorboards as if roots had sprouted from her toes, eyes unmoving from the intense stare that had caught her own gaze. Brown eyes, so deep and dark they almost seemed black in the low light, drilled into the shocked girl's vision. The sunken visage, sullen and silent, was nearly enough to distract her from the delayed jolt of horror that flooded her tightened gut as Luz took in the rest of the seated woman's body.
Pallid scars crisscrossed almost every inch of pale and exposed flesh on her face and hand, their shiny lengths gently reflecting the flicker of the mounted lamp's light. Cuts and burns dotted her visible body in equal measure, slicing into wide lips and arcing over stern cheekbones. Their marks played second fiddle, however, to the truly impressive duo of craters that marred the girl's forehead – a sight that even Luz Noceda, holding as little an interest in firearms as an American could have, recognized as the mark of passing projectiles. And then there was the severed arm, her right limb terminating in a lumpy stump, thickly bound with gauze and glowing patches scrawled out in an eldritch language –
But those details came to her as if through a fog, little observations of a stunned mind at the moment of impact.
Because staring into those listless eyes, their hooded silhouette locked onto Luz's motionless self, was like looking at the brooding form of a specter from ages past.
"Luz? Everything good?"
The words jolted her from the shock that had paralyzed her, and with a too-jerky motion, her head shot towards Eda. For a single, heart-wrenching moment, the girl's staggered mind thought she was looking at the ghost of her own mother, face drawn in tightly withheld exhaustion, her slumped shoulders held close as a spoonful of broth was offered to the sagging occupant of a stained hospital bed, brown eyes dulled by the weight of uncaring circumstance –
But she shook herself from the fuzzy sense of déjà vu, and the witch's features swam back into focus, the superimposed image of her mami fading back into the mists of time. It was only Eda sat before her, brows furrowed with concern, a dangling utensil in hand as she offered sustenance to a slumped stranger in a strange land.
No echoing beeps and clacks emitted from resting hospital equipment, because there was none present. Wispy curtains fluttered in an open breeze, not the recycled breath of a chugging air conditioner.
And when her eyes skipped back to the face of the girl before her, the comatose woman had fallen back into an uneasy rest, the marred lines of her face tight with tension – but no hopeless brown eyes stared at her any longer, an uncanny mirror to her own.
"S-Sorry, Eda. Zoned out a little there. Wasn't expecting to see a, uh… another human so soon!"
Her laugh was forced, she knew it and so did the witch, but neither of them opted to comment.
"Yeah," The seated woman uttered slowly, gingerly forcing a portion of sustenance into the unresisting patient's lips. "Well, that'd make two of us. King and I found her a few weeks back, out on the beach. Things… weren't looking too hot for a while there, but if there's one thing this gal knows how to do -" She patted her own bicep for emphasis, pride replacing her momentary worry. "It's improvise in a sticky situation. And here we are."
"Here we are," Luz repeated dully, eyes locked onto the black-haired girl before her. If she hadn't already suspected the source of the stranger's enforced rest, it was made plenty clear by the sheared patch of lengthy locks that had only just begun to return as a fine curtain of fuzz, stitches and healing wounds splitting the progression of the hairs like a bolt of lightning.
A few more minutes passed in heavy silence, the witch continuing to doggedly care for her ailing houseguest, before the standing human girl could take the weight of it no longer.
"Well, it's super interesting that I'm not the only one here from Earth, and, uh – yeah. But I'm pretty pooped, actually, so I'm gonna head back to bed." The young teen gestured over her shoulder weakly towards the ajar door, giving her host a wobbly grin. "Anything you need my help with before I hit the sack?"
"We're all good here." Eda waved off the offer good-naturedly, returning her attention to the limp form of the wounded girl. "I'll see you in the morning, 'kay? If I'm not up before the rest of you, don't let King play with the stove. He'll burn the damn house down before he'd ever manage to produce something edible."
"Can do, Owl Lady," Luz replied, shooting finger guns at the older woman as she hastily retreated. "Sweet dreams!"
The promise of candy-coated nightly wanderings certainly appealed to the unnerved teen, as she settled back in amongst her makeshift nest, carefully entangling her feet in the sack beneath King's small body. Her sudden brush with an unexpected reminder of things long since passed had stolen the last of her anxious energy from Luz's body, and thankfully, it did not take her all that much longer before slumber claimed her.
Flashes of the day's events chased her drifting mind, warped by her surging subconscious, leaking the worry from her relaxing body as they played across her closed eyelids. A quiet sigh of contentment left her as sleep snuck over the young student.
At the edge of her resting mind, nipping at disjointed thoughts of her exciting future on the Isles, whispered memories of bleached white tile and the sterile smell of a hospital haunted Luz Noceda's soul.
There was a new addition to the strange home that had found Taylor where she'd fallen.
She'd caught sight of her in one of her more lucid moments, slipping in and out of proper consciousness as her unending struggles persisted. The reach of her waking mind was slow to return to her soul's grasp, steadily lengthening periods of blinking eyes and twitching fingers marking the passage of time in the world beyond her spectral prison.
The fact that such occurrences were still only minutes at best, not to mention few and far between, did little to deter one Taylor Hebert. Surrender was not in her nature.
But for all her ceaseless persistence, she was not immune to the anxieties that her wretched situation spurred within her. Worries about her fate, sealed away in that twilight space between worlds, constantly scratched at her ribs and stomach. Some moments she swore she could not breathe from the low-level fear, unable to offload the weight of her distracting, autonomous reactions to discomfort into her trustworthy swarm as it was long gone - her second and much more all-encompassing mask stripped away by the loss of power and damage to her mindscape - but even then, she always, always fought.
When she'd looked into that younger girl's eyes, though, seen the clear indicators of her species – her softly rounded ears and the gentle tones of a suppressed familial accent, from the mouth of someone used to multiple languages – Taylor had found something new to be concerned about.
Because when their gazes met, the clearly human girl had frozen in horror, and the trapped parahuman was forced to confront the sudden and discomforting possibility that she had not escaped the repercussions of the Gold Morning so easily. It wasn't long before the unexpected arrival had all but fled the room; even then, the former warlord's concerns did not abate.
Did the teenager know who she stared at, rooted in shock, looking for all the world as if she'd been slapped with a fish? Had the governments of those affected Earths smeared the image of her exposed face across whatever remained of available media, hunting her for the infamous and unimaginable power she'd wielded before?
If she did – if that girl knew just who sat before her, swaddled in old clothes and all but helpless – would she try and finish what Contessa had started? Worse, what might happen if she informed Taylor's caretakers of the circumstances of her injuries?
She didn't, couldn't know what was running through the teen's panicking mind, when their eyes managed to lock before the pull of her unnatural malaise dragged Taylor below once again.
But she'd never been one to have much luck. Best to assume the worst.
Which meant that, broken body and shattered power aside, the parahuman would now have to work out just how she might survive any future assassination attempts… or abandonment in her half-dead state.
Taylor couldn't stop the groan that escaped her at the thought, even as she continued to wrestle with her stony shackles.
"It's always something, isn't it."
It was not a question.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Chapter and notes originally posted on 5-10-2023.
Taylor isn't the only mama suffering from trauma in this story.
Next, we'll be taking a look at Luz's first few days with the Owl House crew, as she confronts her newfound opportunities for learning real magic - along with the reminders of something she thought she'd made peace with a long time ago.
Thanks again to everyone who's taken the time to read, comment and like! Love hearing your guys' feedback.
