After around an hour of Belos describing how he created the branding glove in the first place and Luz suggesting ways to reverse engineer a way to change the glove to remove the coven sigils, they both were fairly sure it would work. Luz had been tweaking it bit by bit, following Belos's instructions on how to do all the magic necessary. It was fascinating for Luz the entire time because she basically got to learn exactly how the sigils worked, what magic they used, how they were connected to the spell, their built in defense against removal, and every little detail that made them so brutal. With a ton of tweaks done, Luz and Belos were both confident it would successfully take off the sigils, but there was one problem.
They needed a test.
"You know, maybe I should have given myself an Emperor's coven sigil before we started tweaking it so I could test it on myself." Luz said, looking at the glove.
"Well you could try starting with someone you don't like. Kikimora is one of the people who is comatose, right?" Belos suggested.
"Yeah, I really hope you're joking."
"Of course. Joking. Then a stranger, perhaps?"
"Philip, we aren't testing on a living person when we don't know if it'll work. However, we don't have time to fly back to the Isles to use a body to test it."
"There could always be some cadavers here. Maybe one of your medical friends will know if there is a mortuary of sorts. It's been 7 months and there's an apocalypse, so it's unlikely there hasn't been anyone who's died."
Luz was in agreement but, even though she suggested the idea, was still disgusted that that was the plan they were going with. But, no matter how wrong it felt, it was really their best bet.
Luz grabbed the glove, put it in her backpack and, after testing out an invisibility spell on it just to be safe which thankfully worked, headed back to the tower. She swiftly walked around for a while before running into Emira.
"Hey Luz! Where you going in such a rush?" Emira asked.
"I was actually looking for you. I was just, uh, wondering about a few things about this whole place."
"Ask away. I've been here a while so I can answer just about anything."
"Has, um, has anyone…died here?" Luz asked nervously, fumbling her goal of being inconspicuous.
"Oh. Why do you ask?"
"Well on the scouting mission I saw tons of dead people and it got me curious if anyone died while here. And like, if there was a morgue or whatever the process is if people die here."
Emira looked at Luz, one eyebrow raised. Luz could feel a droplet of sweat going down the back of her neck, which confused her because she was frankly freezing, despite everyone else seeming like they thought the temperature was perfect.
Before Luz could continue that line of thought further, Emira went to answer.
"No, nobody has died here. If someone did, Eda has a procedure set up so that any found and living relatives can have a small funeral in a private area. Any belongings will be given to family and close friends and anything else will be recycled. The person will be cremated and given to their family who can decide what to do. If they have no family alive or here, the belongings will be stored for two months before being recycled in case someone comes. Also after that period their ashes will be scattered in a location meaningful to that person. So yeah, if anyone died and you weren't close, you'd never have to see the body. I bet you're probably not a fan of dead people after seeing the carnage that is Bonesborough at the moment."
"Yeah. That's why I asked." Luz said, mind racing as she tried to think of what to do, "Anyway I should probably go. I'm going to hang out with Amity and the others."
Before Emira could say anything, Luz quickly walked off, clutching her backpack straps tightly and leaving a very confused and suspicious Emira behind.
She walked through the tower, just turning wherever felt good, and she had gotten far enough away, Luz ducked into an empty hall and just sighed as she slid down the wall and tucked her head into her knees.
"Well, what now?" Belos asked,
"I don't know. I doubt anyone would consent to letting me test this on them and the second I ask they'll tell Eda who will ask questions and figure everything out."
"Then I suppose you'll have to find some other way to be helpful."
Or you could keep this plan and be really helpful. The voice in her head whispered.
Luz looked up and noticed the hallway she was in. The door right across from her was the one where all the comatose people are. Slowly, she stood up and slipped off her backpack. She grabbed the glove and slid it on, which should have been difficult because it was still invisible, yet she did it smoothly like an advanced robot going through its programmed processes. She looked at the door, then the scanner pad, then her hand that didn't have the invisible glove.
"Little Light, what are you doing?" Belos asked, realizing she was planning something.
"Helping the person who needs it most."
Luz's hand morphed into a rotten green fist and she leapt across the hallway and punched the door, making it swing open and denting it, although not fully breaking it off its hinges. An alarm started to blare, but Luz ignored it, having tunnel vision and focusing on one person's hospital bed.
Raine's.
She used the quick dash she always saw Hunter use to get over to their side and gently took their arm. She took the invisibility off the glove, changed the symbol on the palm to bard, and lowered her hand down to Raine's wrist. However, before she could do anything, she was grabbed from behind and her arms were pulled back.
Emira and Viney dragged Luz away from Raine as she tried to pull out of their tight grips.
"This is what was is your bag?" Viney questioned, "A branding glove?! Where did you even get this?"
"And what were you doing!?" Emira asked harshly, "Or thinking for that matter?"
The alarm seemed to be causing a small crowd to form around the doorway, but Emira quickly threw up an illusion to keep people from seeing what was inside.
"LET GO!" Luz yelled, voice distorting slightly.
She felt her skin bubble and she pulled herself out of Viney and Emira's grip. She stumbled slightly before using the quick dash to get back to Raine. She grabbed Raine's arm and pressed the glove against their sigil. As they held it down, they saw Raine begin to twitch slightly. Luz gasped as she realized this was actually working.
"Raine!"
Luz looked behind her and saw Eda, in her harpy form and furious, got over to Luz before she could move and grabbed her and pulled her off their arm. Luz squirmed and tried to get out, tried to use the curse, but nothing. Eda's grip tightened as she hovered just above the ground, barely being able to fly in the room.
"Luz, you better have a damn good answer why in the name of the Titan you have a branding glove and, of everyone you could have, used it on my ex!"
Luz stopped fighting, tears in her eyes. She looked around trying to find an escape, but nothing. Instead, she saw Raine's sigil start to glow and crack.
"Eda." Luz gasped quietly.
"If you weren't basically my kid I'd have half a mind to snap your arms just so you wouldn't get such a batshit insane thought."
The cracks on the sigil grew and. the pieces faded away
"Eda." Luz said slightly louder, beginning to squirm again.
"And I swear if I see you doing one more Titan damn idiodic thing I might just have you grounded to never so much as leave this tower again you immature, unthinking, untrained-"
"Eda?"
Eda turned her attention from Luz to Raine, who had their eyes open and was squinting at her, not able to see her great without their glasses. Eda let Luz down, dropped to the ground and rushed over to Raine. She had tears in her eyes and had a hand clapped over her mouth. Raine slowly sat themselves up slightly and looked for their glasses, grabbing them off the table by the medical bed once they spotted them and putting them on. Immediately their face flushed and they chuckled.
"So this is what your harpy form looks like." They said weakly.
Raine began coughing and pushed themselves up so they were sat up all the way. At this point, Viney and Emira had gotten over, looking awestruck. They both started pulling out various medical things and began doing tests. Eda turned back into her normal form and stepped back with Luz, giving Emira and Viney room to work.
"Kid, what did you do?" Eda softly asked, "That glove, you did something, didn't you?"
"Uh, yeah. I just used what I learned in Belos' mind and what I know about him in general to reverse engineer a way to change the glove to be able to take off the sigils rather than give them."
"This is incredible. Luz, we can bring all these people back. I-I was sure they'd be stuck like this until we defeated the Collector, maybe past that. But now they can help and just…be alive. We'll have to catch them all up, but we can do that once they're all awake." Eda was beaming at Luz, a small tear forming in her eye that she wiped away before pulling Luz close, "Now, what do you say we get along with waking all these powerful suckers up?"
Luz nodded and began going from bed to bed, removing the sigils of comatose people. They woke up, Emira, Viney, Eda, and even eventually Alador, who easily could get through Emira's illusion over the door, came in and gave them a brief explanation of what was going on and checked on their vitals. It was a lot, but it was incredible. Seeing Raine, Darius, Eber, Lilith, even Kikimora, and all the others awake and talking was incredible for Luz. She felt like she was finally doing something for the good of everyone. The people there were already bantering. Lilith, Darius, Raine, Alador, and Eda especially.
Eda didn't tell them that Luz had changed the glove with magic, just that she found a way to do it. It was reasonable, but it still was hard to keep such an awesome thing a secret. From her friends, her girlfriend, her cool aunt. Eda, Viney, Emira, Alador, Boscha, King, Hunter, and Belos were the only ones that knew Luz could do magic, not including the Collector. But even with so relatively few people knowing she was the one responsible for this, it still made Luz proud.
"So, am I trustworthy yet?" Belos whispered.
"You're getting there." Luz quietly replied, trying to not look suspicious, "Thank you so much, Philip. This is incredible."
"And you should feel pride in this. I helped, but you did most of the work. You are the incredible one, Little Light."
"Thanks."
"Who are you talking to, Luz?"
Luz spun around to see a very confused Amity, who at some point had slipped through the illusion on the door and came inside the room.
"What's going on? Why are all the coven heads here? Why are Emira and dad here? Why do you have a branding glove?! Luz, what is going on here?"
Emira and Alador heard Amity's questioning and sheepishly came over and joined Luz, figuring it was probably best for them to not just ignore her.
"Mittens, look," Alador sighed, "This whole thing is complicated and really you should just go. You weren't supposed to see this."
"Dad, she has the right to know." Emira hissed.
"Know what? What are you guys hiding from me?" Amity demanded.
Luz felt very awkward as she knew where this was going, and thus knew it was a family matter. She trailed behind Amity as Alador and Emira led her to the back of the room and moved the curtain around the back medical bed. Amity gasped as she saw the state her mother was in. At first her face seemed to be filled with sadness and guilt, but that quickly morphed into anger.
"You…hid this from me? My mother was lying comatose and amputated…and you didn't tell me? I have been here for days now. I thought she was captured or dead. And all of you didn't bother to tell me she was alive! Dad, Em, does Edric know too?"
Emira and Alador silently nodded, knowing it wouldn't be great to try and reason with her right now. She was so furious her face had turned bright red.
"My own family! They didn't tell me! Luz, you knew about this too? What else have you been hiding from me? You've been so tired and introverted lately. What's going on? You're my girlfriend for Titan's sake! You said you'd stop hiding things from me! None of you should have been hiding this from me. Did you even think about telling me this? Were you ever going to? Or was it just going to be like everyone else here? Let people know they're here when they're okay? I swear to fucking Titan if I found out that you guys are hiding anything else from me that I should know I'll-"
Amity suddenly froze, getting confusion from Luz, Alador, and Emira. Amity slowly turned to see Odalia was holding her hand. When she looked at her face, she saw her mother weakly smiling at her. Amity gasped and fell to her knees. She cried and held Odalia's hand tight. Emira and Alador were also amazed she was awake again. Alador moved to her other side and rested a hand on her stump of a left shoulder while Emira tried to focus on taking notes, a task that was surprisingly hard, even considering where their relationship left off. Luz was standing a foot behind Amity, still feeling awkward about the whole situation.
"Mom, mom you're awake." Amity said through the tears, "I-I don't know how long you've been out but I assume since the day of unity and…and…how am I supposed to feel?"
"Well for starters you can pull yourself together, princess. Though, I don't know how long I've been out either. I just remember the draining spell and trying to chop off my…"
Odalia glanced at the stump at her left shoulder where Alador was resting his hand. She simply sighed, closed her eyes, and turned away.
"How long has it been?" She flatly asked.
"Just about seven months." Emira said, holding her medical chart, "You were found the day after the draining spell stopped. Your arm was infected and we had to amputate."
"You did this, Emira?"
"Most of the best healers were taken out by the draining spell. Viney and I had no sigil, so we were okay from the beginning. We've been taking care of most of the medical stuff. Dad has been helping with tech, Eda has scavenged supplies and makes potions, and a few people help where they can. But yeah, it's mostly me and Viney doing this. I didn't cut off your arm, but I was there and helped Viney with whatever she needed."
"One day you're pulling pranks with illusions with your brother, and the next you might as well be a top ranking healing coven member."
Odalia chuckled, a surprising sight, then looked at Luz and narrowed her eyes slightly. Luz felt panicked as she was going to have to be involved now.
"Human, are you still seeing my daughter?"
"Yes." Luz croaked out, feeling like a massive weight was on her chest.
"And you're not going to hurt, use, or get her into a life she'll regret?"
"No, of course not."
"Well, my life went down the drain and I'm not going to drag my precious princess down with me. Do whatever you wish. I don't approve, she could do much better than you, but I know I won't be able to stop you."
"T-thank you." Luz stuttered, genuinely shocked by how Odalia was acting, though she figured being in a coma for over half a year was bound to affect someone.
"Wait, seriously?" Amity asked in disbelief, getting up from kneeling, but still holding Odalia's hand.
"Mittens, you have clearly grown. I trust you enough. If this human ends up disappointing you, I know she'll pay. You are like me in that way. Fierce and stubborn. Glad you at least got something from me."
Finally, Odalia turned to Alador. She looked him up and down, noting his messy hair and attire, and his hunched over position. However, she was pleasantly surprised to see her glare did make him straighten up like it used to.
"Alador. I see you're doing well." She said cordially.
"I am, 'Dalia." He responded in a similar tone.
"Do you have something you want to tell me?"
"I want a divorce."
"You can have the kids, I get the brand and 70% of the assets. After whatever is going on is over, of course."
"Of course. I'll see if we can have some form of officalness taken care of."
"Once I'm out of this bed, I'll gladly help split up you bitches!" Darius yelled from across the room.
"I see Darius hasn't changed after being nearly dead for months." Alador grumbled.
Emira, Amity, and even Luz we're shocked at how quick the whole divorce discussion happened, but the adults had already moved on before they could say anything.
"Now, enough with this sentimentality. Also try to stop crying, princess. It's not a good look. Though I doubt the human would care how you look, silly creature she is. I'll let Emira do whatever healer things she must, and I need to talk to Amity, but you can go, Alador and…Lucy was it?"
"Luz. Her name is Luz." Amity growled, "And to believe I actually thought for a moment you had changed. You were actually being polite for once. Complimentary even! You're okay with Emira doing magic from two covens, have accepted Luz and I are dating, and you and dad got the details of your divorce arranged quickly! And now you're just being awful again at the drop of a hat. I guess I was stupid to think you wouldn't go right back to your regular behavior of making demands and telling people to go away when you're done with them. So I'm not going to listen to you anymore and I'm not going to stay. Luz?"
Luz nodded at Amity and they started to walk out. Alador stepped back and started just doing busywork, trying to escape the situation before it got awkward. Emira had quickly gotten to work on grabbing tools to check up on Odalia. Most everyone else in the room were too busy to notice everything that just happened but knew not to disturb a Blight that was storming out of a room.
"I woke up because of you, Amity."
Amity stopped and turned back to her mother, who was currently sitting up and having her vitals checked by human medical equipment that ended up in the Isles.
"When I was out, I wasn't out because I had a sigil like all the others. I was in a coma because of the trauma. And I didn't wake up because I didn't feel like I deserved it. I was trapped in an endless nightmare of guilt and regret. But then I heard your voice. And I knew it was real and you were alive. I woke up because of you."
Amity came over and once again knelt next to her, but this time much more composed. Odalia took her hand and held it tight as she could with the small amount of strength she had regained. Continuing to surprise everyone who was paying attention, she actually began to start crying.
"I am so sorry for everything, Amity. Please, give me another chance. I'm leaving your father, but we can still have some sort of relationship. I know I said I wouldn't drag you down but you're all I have for a chance at repairing this family! Emira is too old, Edric and I were never close…my arm is gone and…Amity I…"
Odalia trailed off into crying again, but Amity stayed stoic. She moved her mother's hair out of her face and offered her a box of tissues, which Odalia accepted. After she pulled herself together, Amity stood up, though she continued to hold her mother's hand.
"We are never going to have the relationship you want us to have. I still love you, but you can't just undo 14 years. We won't be all mother-daughter, but we can work on it. It'll take time for me to trust you again, but if you work we can still have a relationship. Not a close one or a normal one, but one nonetheless. Okay?"
"I-I guess I can work with that. Look at you being all mature too. How did you learn such healthy boundaries?"
Amity turned to Luz with a smile before looking back at Odalia.
"My awesome girlfriend."
"You know," Odalia said quietly with a smirk, "Your father would say the exact same thing about the person he dated before me when they were still together. Not to say you and Luc—Luz will break up! Their breakup was my doing actually. But yeah, you and the human are, at the very least, good for each other. No matter how much I hate it."
Amity smiled at Odalia, let go of her hand and took Luz's. As they walked out, there were people who smiled at her or mouthed her a thanks. Apparently, Eda had made sure to tell them she was the reason they were awake again. Just before the two left, a metal and abomination hand grabbed Luz by the shoulder. She turned to see Eda absolutely beaming.
"I know I already said this, but you are amazing and an absolute wonder. You actually brought back my sister and my Raine. I don't think I'd ever need to ask anything of you again to help out around here. You are the best daughter I could have asked for. So thank you."
Eda pulled Luz into a hug, which Luz quickly reciprocated. When Eda released her, she smiled, rustled up her hair, and went back to work. As Luz ran her fingers through her hair to make sure Eda hadn't tangled it, Emira and Alador came over to her and Amity.
"I am so sorry I hid this from you, Amity. Emira told me to tell you the night you arrived, but I couldn't bring myself to. But I should have told you about your mother."
"Hey, it's okay." Amity assured, "And I'm sorry for yelling. Just please, can all you guys promise to not hide anything from me? You're the closest people I have in life and I don't want you to hide things from me just because you think I won't be able to handle it.
"Of course, Amity."
"Sure thing, mittens. And I'll make sure to catch Ed up too, not that I think he could hide something from anyone but, hey, he should still know."
While Alador and Emira were easily able to promise to not hide anything, it wasn't so simple for Luz. She hadn't told her about her magic or Belos. And if that nightmare she had a few nights ago was any sign, it was probably a bad idea to tell her, or anyone for that matter. But she couldn't lie to her any more than she could promise to not hide anything.
"Yeah. Nothing to worry about from me either." Luz simply said.
Sure it was vague, but she wasn't lying or making a promise she couldn't keep.
With all of that finally done, Luz and Amity left the room As they walked into the hall, Luz got a glance of Eda, Raine, Lilith, and Darius talking, and Alador going to join them. They all looked so happy. And she helped them be happy. She was actually able to be helpful.
Less than 24 hours after the people in comas awoke, Eda told the whole hideout and explained everything. Thankfully, everyone was fairly understanding. Everything was going great in general. Hunter was quickly able to fully recover and began training Luz in self defense. Those lessons were combined with Eda's magic lessons. They worked through the spells Luz had learned from glyph combos at a nice and steady pace. And, when she wasn't getting lessons from Eda or Hunter, she and Belos practiced and advanced her magical skills. They discovered it was easiest for her to do spells she had done with glyphs, but she could do spells she had witnessed closely or repeatedly without much trouble. Some of Willow's cool plant spells, basic illusions, Hunter's quick dash, a sleep spell, magic blasts, and stuff like that. Belos was even able to show her how to use his curse in various ways and techniques to keep her cool and not lose control. Besides the lessons, Luz spent time hanging out with her friends, the coven heads, and Amity. Darius and Amity had actually begun to get decently close, while Luz spent time getting to know Raine more. In what felt like a blur, a month had passed since she stepped foot back in the Demon Realm. But when she tried to think back on what had happened, she could only remember snippets.
"You need to stop blocking with your face."
"It's okay, your foot just slipped again. I can heal that up for you, no matter how nasty or painful."
"You sure you don't want to go on another scouting mission?"
"Are you positive Eda will like this?"
"Do you wanna finally go on our first date?"
"Come on, hit me harder than that! I was raised in the emperor's coven."
"You need to focus so you don't get hurt like this, Little Light. I can't always be here to heal you."
"Are you okay, kid? You have a limp and look dead tired."
"I think I'm going to ask her out."
"You know you could tell me anything, right?"
"Come on, channel your anger. Yeah! That's it! But don't go that hard so quickly or you'll get tired fast."
"Everyone gets hurt on the road to greatness, so think nothing of the scars as they can be easily hidden."
"I don't think we should practice today. You don't look okay."
"I'm doing fine, but are you? Eda has said she's worried."
"You're changing plans again?"
"I think you need to take a break. You're in no condition to fight."
"Keep pushing through the pain, my Little Light. Don't let the curse slow you down."
"Kid, you should get checked out. At least start taking some sleep potions."
"Is this that human dissociation thing? Or zoning out maybe?
"Luz, are you listening? What has been going on with you? I thought we weren't keeping secrets."
Everything was going great.