Luz rushed downstairs and into the living room, where everyone was hanging out. Everyone turned and looked at her, confused by her look of urgency.
"Guys," Luz breathlessly began, "I know you aren't going to believe me but, okay, so I was doodling in my journal and ended up drawing a glyph. When I tapped it, it didn't disintegrate like what happens when you try to use glyphs in the human realm. It actually flickered and started to work before going back to being just paper."
Everyone stared at her in a confused silence. A realization dawned on Luz as they looked at her.
"You…you don't believe me…do you?"
Amity stood up and walked over to Luz.
"Batata, today has been exciting. I think it's understandable that you might start to, well, see things. You spent so long using glyphs, it's understandable that at the thought of being able to do magic again, you thought that you could here."
Luz took a step back in disbelief.
"You seriously don't believe me. Here! I can prove it!"
Luz grabbed a blank piece of paper from the piles they were using to plan and drew a light glyph. But, when she tapped it, it just disintegrated.
"I…I don't know why that didn't work. It did before, I swear!"
"Luz, it's okay. We're all excited to go back." Willow said comfortingly, resting her hand on her shoulder, "And you're probably anxious about going back."
"Why would I be anxious?" Luz scoffed, moving Willow's hand.
"Well, have you talked to mom yet?" Vee asked.
"Of course I-"
Luz was hit with the realization that she hadn't told her yet. And they were going to go soon.
She was going to break her promise and leave her again.
Luz walked over to the couch and slumped into it, holding her head in her hands.
"She's going to be devastated." She whispered.
Amity sat down next to her and wrapped her arms around her.
"Luz, if it'll be too hard, you don't have to go. We can go and once everything is over we can come back. We'll make more portals that are stable so we can travel between the realms whenever we want."
"What? No! I have to go. I abandoned so many people. I can't just leave them. I'll…I'll figure something out. I can talk to mom."
Right once she said that, Camila stuck her head into the living room.
"Dinner's ready!" She chipperly said.
Everyone got up and headed into the dining room. A looming sense of dread hung over Luz.
They sat down at the table and got very excited when Camila brought in a tray with a massive pizza on it.
"Since you are so close to getting a new portal," Camila began, setting the tray down, "I figured we could celebrate with some pizza!"
Immediately everyone started to dig in. Well, everyone except Luz who couldn't eat anything with the knowledge that soon, she'd have to break her mom's heart and leave again.
"Hey, uh, mom?" Luz slowly said.
"Yes, mija?"
"Well, um, I just felt like I needed to tell you that…"
Luz trailed off. She couldn't bring herself to just tell her mom that she's going back to the isles.
"I just wanted to tell you that I was thinking of you and I going into town on a little mother-daughter outing? With how hectic everything has been and with so many new people in the house, we haven't gotten a chance to spend time together."
Camila stared for a moment, before smiling and nodding.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea, mi pequeña luz."
Luz smiled back and took a slice of pizza. It'd been years since her mom called her that.
So while sure it'd break her mom's heart to leave again, maybe after spending a day together the blow could be softened.
The next morning Luz quickly got up, dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast, wanting the day together to be as long as possible.
It seemed like her mom had a similar idea as instead of making breakfast like usual she left out a bunch of breakfast options.
Luz grabbed a breakfast bar and went to the door, where her mom was already pulling on her jacket.
"Ready to head out, Luz?"
"Definitely."
Luz and Camila got into the car and drove into the downtown area. They parked by the park and walked everywhere else.
When they got to the town square, Luz couldn't help but stare at the statue.
"A memorial to the famed witch hunters and protectors of Gravesfield, Philip and Caleb Wittebane, ~1610-1647"
"Damn liars." Luz grumbled under her breath.
"That Caleb looks a lot like Hunter." Camila said.
"It's a long story. To simplify, Hunter is a clone, technically Grimwalker, of Caleb that Philip, who is also Belos, made after a perceived betrayal caused him to kill Caleb."
"Which is why Hunter sometimes calls Belos his uncle? Because he's the kind of son of his brother?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Also, those dates aren't when they actually died. It's when they went to the isles for good."
"So if you got a statue it'd say 2008-2022?" Camila asked almost mournfully.
Luz was taken aback and turned from the statue to look at her mom who, though smiling, looked like she would break any moment.
"You want to go back to the demon realm with your friends, don't you?"
"Mom I don't know what you're-"
"Mija, I know you. And you want to go back with your friends. You care about them, you have people you want to save, and you even call that place home."
Luz felt paralyzed with guilt. She wanted to tell her gently, ease her into it, not like this.
"How long have you known that was my plan?" Luz choked out.
"A few weeks now I've figured, but when you called it home yesterday, I knew. Even if you hadn't asked to spend the day together, I would have offered it."
"So…you're not gonna try and stop me?"
"I thought about it, but no. I won't. Even if I tried I wouldn't be able to stop you. Now come on, we have an appointment to get to."
Camila brought Luz to the local general doctor's office.
"I wouldn't want you to go adventuring without knowing you're healthy, would I?" Camila said, seeing Luz's confusion.
They checked in, sat in the waiting room, and after a bit were called back.
At first everything seemed fine from the initial questions and checking Luz's ears and eyes, but something seemed off when they got to checking her blood pressure.
"Strange. It's really high. Are you anxious right now? Or feeling any other extreme emotions?" The doctor asked
"Uh, I don't think so." Luz said.
"Let me check your heart rate."
She did and similarly, her heart rate was also high.
"Have you been eating enough? Drinking enough water?"
"Yeah. Three meals a day plus snacks and I drink plenty of water."
"How has your breathing been?"
"I haven't noticed anything. Maybe?"
"Have you been consuming any alcohol or illegal drugs?"
"What? No! Of course not."
The doctor took a few notes, a confused look on their face.
"I recommend seeing a cardiologist. Your heart rate and blood pressure being high with seemingly no cause is a potential reason for concern. I can give you a recommendation if you want one."
"Oh, Luz is going on a trip soon. I don't know if we'll have time to get that done." Camila explained.
"Well, keep an eye on your heart rate. If it starts to cause problems for you you should really get that checked out. Okay?"
Luz and Camila both nodded. Camila took the recommendation and they left to continue their day together.
"So, where we going next, mamá? Maybe the museum?" Luz asked jokingly.
"Oh, no we shouldn't. The curator banned me como el hijo de puta que es." She said, mumbling the last part.
Luz just laughed and they went to go to one of the other stores in the area.
After a long day, Camila and Luz drove back home. When they got back to the house, they heard some loud noise coming from inside. They were confused but when they went in, they understood as a banner made of paper taped together was hanging in the entryway.
"We can go home!"
Inside the living room, Vee was playing music off her phone and the others were all in various forms of celebration.
Amity and Willow were dancing together surprisingly well, Gus was laughing at them lightheartedly, Hunter was standing on the wall eating a cupcake as he watched Amity and Willow, and Vee was loving DJing the little party.
With a smile, Luz walked over to the two dancing.
"Mind if I cut in, Willow?" She asked.
"Oh please. Amity is the only reason I didn't fall over during that."
Willow walked off to stand by Hunter and Luz and Amity began dancing together. Vee immediately changed the music to something slower, which made Amity scoff, though she didn't protest.
"So I see you guys made big progress?" Luz said.
"Yeah! We brought Vee to the old house and she found a small stash of Titan's blood under the floorboards."
"We really should have brought her along sooner, being able to smell magic and all."
They both laughed as they danced to the music. As they spun, Luz watched what everyone was up to. Willow now also had a cupcake and was talking to Hunter. Gus was currently swaying with an illusion of himself. Vee and Camila were whispering about something.
"We haven't danced since Grom." Amity pointed out.
"Feels like ages ago. Thankfully, we have plenty more Grom Nights ahead of us."
"You talked to your mom!"
"Yeah! And she's completely understanding with me going back to the Isles. She even took me to the doctor so I'd be in fighting shape."
"Did it go well?"
"Yep! Possible heart issue but I'd need to see a cardiologist to know for sure. It's probably nothing though."
"It sucks you don't have magic here," Amity sighed, "If you did a healer could just scan your body and know what's wrong with you with just magic."
"Do you not have specialists in the Demon Realm?"
"Kind of, but not to the level you humans do. We have general, emergency, and children's healthcare. Nothing more than that."
"You see, this is why the isles are amazing. I remember Eda once told me you guys have what humans would call universal healthcare!"
They both laughed again and, as the song finally wound down, they sat down on the couch that was currently moved up to the wall.
"Alright ya love birds, now that you're done let's get our final plan in order." Gus said, clapping his hands together.
Everyone moved so that we were sitting in a circle.
"Luz and I have the portal door all put together. All we need to do is add the Titan's blood. We have enough to mess up once before we go. There was more blood but most of it was dried up. When we get to the demon realm we can just get more blood from King when Luz comes back here, whenever that is." Amity explained.
"So, when are we heading out?" Asked Willow, "I'm really anxious to get back to my dads."
"I just wanna go back." Admitted Hunter, "Nothing against you Ms. Noceda, but I'm feeling real homesick."
"My dad is probably super worried."
"I doubt Odalia is, but dad, Ed, and Em are likely worried too."
Everyone turned and looked to Luz, waiting for her call on what to do.
"I don't see why we should wait any longer than necessary."
Everyone looked excited, but paused before celebrating for Luz to finish.
"Guys, let's go home."
Everyone exploded into celebration. Luz and the group went and packed up anything they might need and Camila gave them back the clothes they arrived in, now repaired.
The whole gang was filled with nervous excitement, talking about everything they're going to do when they get back.
While there was some variation, there were a few things they all agreed they had to do:
Find their families, get King, and figure out how to beat the Collector.
After everyone was packed up, they took the Titan's blood and went to the portal.
"You ready?" Amity nervously asked Luz.
"As I'll ever be."
Luz took half the Titan's blood and poured it onto the portal. The door immediately began reacting. It almost seemed to be shuddering as the magic worked through it. The door morphed and changed before opening up.
And for a few seconds the doorway led to the mirror world.
Then, it showed what looked like the sky of the Isles.
Everyone cheered again and went to go through, saying their goodbyes to Camila and Vee.
Gus went through first, followed by Hunter, then Willow, then Amity.
All that was left was Luz.
With tears in her eyes she turned back to Camila and Vee and pulled them into a tight hug.
"I'm going to miss you so much. And once we beat the Collector, we'll make a stable portal door so I can come and visit whenever. And I'll tell you all about it."
"I know you will, mija. Now go, join your friends."
As she started to walk away, Vee grabbed her. She stuck her head up and started sniffing the air.
"I think all the magic coming from the portal is messing with my smell because you smell off."
Confused slightly but brushing it off, Luz waved goodbye and walked through the portal, closing the door behind her.
She looked up to the red sky, and to the orange trees in the distance.
She was back.
And boy was everything different.