The first thing Luz felt when she went into Amity's mind was warm softness. It was like she was ensconced in a warm blanket, one that filled her body with utter contentment. But she couldn't see anything. It was completely pitch black. Was this how Amity thought? What exactly did the utter darkness signify? Complete and utter hopelessness? The overwhelming dark malevolence of Odalia? Something much, much worse?
"You, uh, you might wanna open your eyes there, Luz," a girl's voice called out, higher, older, and breathier than Amity's usual voice.
Luz gave out a nervous laugh and found that, sure enough, the darkness was actually because she had her eyes closed. The reason why she felt like she was wrapped in a warm blanket was because she was. She was lying in a four poster bed with several blankets on it in a bedroom. The room was exceptionally elegant, furnished in a Deadwardian style, with furnishings, walls, and floors in colors of maroon and dark purple, with gold trimmings. Lotus blossoms featured prominently in Deadwardian architecture, and they certainly seemed to be the overwhelming motif there. They were printed on the wallpaper, placed on the carpet, carved into the furnishings.
On the walls were paintings of various memories that Amity had of her experiences with Luz. Luz knew that Amity was a very gifted artist, and in her head, she seemed to be better at it than she was in real life. The depictions of Luz had light streaming off of her, as if she was an angel descending from the heavens. And, in Luz's opinion, they made her look far more beautiful than she actually was, although she wasn't sure whether or not this was her tendency towards self-deprecation talking.
A girl was standing in front of her. It was Amity, but also…not. She was around the same age as Emira and had a slight resemblance to her as well, seeming to be an amalgamation of Emira and Amity's facial features. She had brown hair that flowed down to her shoulders and was also tied in the back. Luz's attention wasn't drawn to any of those things, though, even though it should have been. It was drawn to the fact that she was wearing a fearleading uniform that left very little to the imagination, and seemed to be even skimpier than the ones Hexside's fearleaders actually wore. Luz's eyes wandered down to the girl's legs, and NO! Bad Luz! You're here on a mission, not here to get distracted by the most beautiful pair of legs you've ever – mission! Remember your mission!
"You like it?" Inner Amity said in a tone of voice that could only be called sultry. "I remember when you tried out for the squad this summer." In a highly ironic turn of events, Luz had been rejected from the squad on the grounds that she wasn't scary enough, the exact opposite of the reason she'd been rejected from the cheerleading squad in middle school. "I thought you looked so incredibly sexy in the uniform, batata. You think I look sexy?"
"Yes," Luz admitted, and then smacked herself upside the head. "No! I mean, yes, but…stop distracting me! Look, you just admitted you remembered the tryouts, which means you have Amity's memories. Could you please return them to her?"
Inner Amity strode over to her, her hips swaying side to side in an almost hypnotic motion. "I'm Amelia," she purred. "Amelia Blight. It's so nice you're finally here."
Luz put up a hand and Amelia immediately stopped in her tracks. "I don't want this," she said. It was a lie in one sense – some parts of her very, very much wanted it. But it was the truth in another, more fundamental sense. When she eventually dressed up and traveled with Amity, she wanted it to be because Amity wanted her, not just because she thought she was obliged to do it like regressed Amity did or because she was trying to distract her like Amelia. "Stop it."
Amelia walked over to an armchair and put her face in her hands. Luz could hear her sobbing and a surge of pity went through her. "I should have known you didn't want me," Amelia said through her tears. "Why would anyone want me?"
"I'm here to give Amity her memories back," Luz said gently but firmly. "If you do that, in three years, I promise we will do this for real, and I will want it very much."
Amelia looked up, her face red and embarrassed, not the usual blushing she got whenever Luz did something romantic for her, but genuinely mortified. "Titan, I'm so sorry. I came on way too strong, didn't I?" She started gesturing with her hands frantically. "It's just…you're finally here! Luz Noceda, the most beautiful, brilliant, and kind girl in the entire multiverse! My girlfriend! And I just…got ahead of myself." Luz couldn't help but feel awe that Amity's inner self thought of her in such hyperbolic terms.
She got out of the bed and almost immediately let out a shriek when she discovered that she was entirely naked. And that her proportions were…shall we say, more generous than normal. Amity had never seen Luz naked; she had just guessed – fairly badly – at what Luz would look like in her imagination. "Clothes!" Luz shrieked. "Imagine me up some clothes, Amelia!"
Amelia laughed nervously, then snapped her fingers and Luz was in her Hexside uniform. It looked a little snugger than normal, but, hey, compromise was important in a relationship, right? "And these," Luz said, pointing at her breasts, "are smaller."
Amelia blinked. "They are? Well, that'll teach me." She waved a hand and Luz's breasts shrank to their normal size. "So, um, let's start again. I am Amelia Blight, and it's the highest honor I can think of to have you living here in this palace. We have everything you could ever possibly want – a library with every book I have ever read, a full service entirely automated kitchen, and a game room with air shockey tables."
Luz tried to keep an even smile on her face, but she was starting to get frustrated. "Amelia, thank you for your offer, and, honestly, I might just come back here one day, because these are some swanky digs, but will you give me Amity's memories back or not?"
Amelia sighed, looking genuinely regretful. "It's not up to me, luzezika de mi alma. But never mind that. Come on, let me show you around the place!" She held out her hand. Luz hesitated to grab it, but she figured that if she played Amelia's game for a while, she might be more cooperative later. She certainly wouldn't succumb to any of her seduction techniques – if she was going to have her first time, it was going to be in real life, damn it! – but it surely couldn't hurt to cooperate for a while. Besides, she was quite curious to see the mindscape's library.
The rest of the house was just as elegant as the bedroom was. While it was as fancy as Blight Manor had once been before Emira renovated it into a deliberately hideous style, there was a warmth and a vibrancy to the space that Blight Manor had been definitely lacking before. This wasn't just a house; it was a home. But it was a home that Amelia lived alone in, with the exception of a few clearly non-sentient abomination servants. Another thing that Luz couldn't help but notice was that there were no windows anywhere. No skylights, no openings to whatever was outside this mansion at all. The light in the space appeared to be just there, powered solely by Amity's imagination.
It was a huge house, just absolutely filled with rooms. Pretty much everything Luz could possibly imagine being in a fancy mansion, Amelia had in her home. She even had a bowling alley, though she admitted that she'd just seen pictures of them and had no actual idea how bowling worked. Luz utterly loved the space, and wondered if it would be possible in the future to build a similar one in the real world once they needed a place of their own. With construction magic, it really wouldn't be that difficult, in her opinion.
"And this is the library, and this one is absolutely going to knock your socks off!" Amelia promised her. Thankfully, Amelia had stopped trying to seduce her (which was good news, because Luz did not know how much longer she would have been able to resist). She was instead acting extremely hyper, like she was on a sugar binge, stimming a ton, and looking at Luz as if she was the most precious thing in the entire universe. Luz couldn't help but like it.
The library definitely lived up to its expectations. It was bigger than any library Luz had seen in real life, its proportions only possible thanks to the power of Amity's imagination. Books lined the shelves as far as the eye could see. There was a huge section of the library solely dedicated to the Good Witch Azura books and associated fanfic. Luz was flattered to see that her fanfiction was foremost among them, literally placed upon an actual pedestal. She never thought she was anything more than an average writer; writing was just a hobby for her. But Amity actually thought her fanfic was worthy of praise!
Amelia telekinetically summoned a book to her hand, plopped down on an extraordinarily comfy looking couch, and started reading. "So what do you think?" she asked in a deliberately casual tone.
"This is amazing!" Luz said, completely truthfully. "Gee, Amity – Amelia, sorry – I knew you had a spectacular imagination, but this just takes it to a whole other level. I will definitely come back here later. So…about the memories?"
Amelia tilted her head. "Oh, Luz. I'm afraid you've misunderstood. I'm not going to let you leave here." The bottom dropped out of Luz's stomach. "I did mention that, right?"
"No!" Luz snapped.
"Oh," Amelia said with a giggle. "Wow. That's just…I can't believe that slipped my mind. Silly Amelia! Yeah, no, you're staying here for the rest of your life. You can't leave here. I won't let you."
"We'll soon see about that," Luz snarled, and she stormed out of the library, heading directly to the foyer of the mansion. Amelia appeared out of thin air and leaned against a wall casually, not seeming to make any move to stop her. Luz grabbed onto the doorknob of the absolutely massive pair of front doors and then electricity surged through her body and threw her across the room.
Amelia looked down at her, pity in her expression. "I meant that literally, Luz. I will not allow you to leave this place. It's just not safe." She kneeled down and stroked Luz's hair tenderly. "I'm not going to lose you. I already lost you once when Amity rejected you – and that was not on me, by the way. I will not lose you a second time. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow Mother will take all your happiness away from you, that's my motto!"
Luz scrambled away from Amelia. For the first time since the witch's duel, she was afraid of a part of her girlfriend. She had no clue Amity had all these latent yandere tendencies in her. True, a part of it was kind of hot, but the rest of it was ridiculously disturbing. "Amelia, I don't want this. I don't want you."
"Don't worry, I won't force you to do anything, including me," Amelia promised. "Don't think of it as a prison. Think of it as your palace. You can have anything you want here. I can make facsimiles of your friends, of your mami, so you won't be alone. You don't even have to remember it's not real if you don't want to. We can have adventures! Hell, we can star in our own Good Witch Azura fanfic if you want!"
The two of them stood up. "Luz, the world's hurt us so much," Amelia said, her voice begging and pleading. "There is no pain here." Luz's still aching body begged to differ, but she understood what Amelia was getting at. "You lost your dad. In a sense, you lost Amity too. Here, you won't have to lose anyone ever again. No one's gonna make fun of you. No one's gonna hurt you. You'll be happy. Don't you want that?"
Luz did. Oh, God, how she wanted it. Ever since the Demon Realm had been revealed to the world, everything had been so hectic. She just wanted things to slow down for a few moments, so she and Amity could have a peaceful life, not one that was dominated by the fear of what would happen when Havik and Odalia struck next. Amelia was offering her a perfect utopia, nothing more than pure, endless happiness.
And Amity would forevermore remain without her memories. Moreover, Luz would be gone from the real world. Her friends, her family, they'd all have to mourn her. What would Camila say? Her eyes widened, as she realized she hadn't heard hide nor hair from Camila since she'd arrived in Amity's mindscape. "Amelia, where's Mami?" she demanded.
Amelia let out a nervous laugh. "Luz, wouldn't you rather talk about something more fun?"
Luz grabbed Amelia by both arms and slammed her against a wall. "Where. Is. Mami?"
"She's not here," Amelia admitted. "She must have ended up there." She shuddered in fear. Wherever there was, it couldn't have been anything good. "It doesn't matter. She's lost to us both. Enmity has her." Enmity, the opposite of amity. Well, that didn't bode well at all. "It's hard enough for me to fight her forces off. Mounting a rescue mission, it's just more than I'm capable of right now. I used to be much more powerful. You gave me that power, Luz. But since Amity lost her memories, Enmity's been pressing her advantage."
Amelia waved a hand and a window appeared in the wall. Luz let out a gasp at what was outside. There was an actual, literal battlefield, which looked like a cross between the battle Amity had participated in against the forces of Belos and the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan. (Luz knew it had been a mistake to let Amity watch that movie.) The sky was pitch black, not even lit by stars. Trenches lined bare, desiccated fields that stretched out far into the distance. Oracle spirits, which appeared to be on Amelia's side, duked it out with abominations that were presumably Enmity's forces, while witches from every coven battled each other with spells that lit up the sky with colors Luz couldn't even describe if she tried. And in the distance was an ominous looking castle that appeared to be made entirely of frozen abomination goop, obviously where Enmity lived.
"Amelia, who is Enmity?" Luz asked, fear filling her voice.
"Since there's so much conflict in Amity, she developed two inner selves," Amelia explained. "You'd need the consent of us both to get the memories back. I'm all her positive instincts. Her willingness to help others, her love for you, her creativity, her zest for life. Enmity is all of Amity's negative instincts. Her desire to hurt others, her apathy towards others' feelings, her anger at the world, her paranoia and distrust. She broke up with you and bullied Willow. If Enmity indeed has your mother…she's not going to let her live."
"Then you have to let me go out there and rescue her!" Luz demanded.
"No!" Amelia shouted. "Look at it out there, Luz! It's a battlefield! You will be obliterated before you take two steps! I can't protect you out there, not anymore! Look…if you really, really want it…I'll let you go back to the real world. But I can't let you fight against Enmity. You won't win. You can't."
Luz smirked at her. "That's where you're wrong, because I've done it before. I sneaked into Amity's heart. I removed all of Enmity's influence. I helped turn Amity from a bully to a true friend. If I did it before, I can do it now." She gave a devious smile. "And, given what you know of me, it shouldn't surprise you to learn I have a foolproof plan to do it."
Amelia looked hopeful for the first time Luz had seen her. "Okay, what is it?"
Camila's head felt like someone was hitting it repeatedly with a baseball bat, and it wasn't until she opened her eyes that she realized that this was actually the case. "I HATE YOU!" a voice screamed. It sounded like Amity's, but different somehow. Camila couldn't concentrate enough to figure out how. She had suspected that given Amity's issues, it wouldn't be nearly as simple as just asking her inner self politely, but being beaten upside the head seemed a little bit much.
"WHY DID YOU COME HERE?!" the voice demanded. Camila was thrown across the room against a column that looked like it was made of purple ice, and then abomination goop covered every part of her body below her chin. Now that she wasn't being beaten, she was able to concentrate long enough to see the girl before her.
Like her voice, the physical appearance of the girl was Amity, and yet it was not. She was wearing a Hexside abominations track uniform. Her facial features resembled a cross between Amity and Odalia. She had green hair exactly like her mother's, with extremely faint purple highlights, and one of her eyes was blue, while the other was the normal gold color. She looked to be a few years younger than the real Amity and in a flash of insight, Camila realized that this was the version of Amity Odalia had tried to turn her into. It wasn't the one she'd succeeded in turning her into, but it was very close.
"Amity, there's no need for violence," Camila said in her most reasonable tone. "We are both civilized individuals; we can talk this out. I'm here to ask you to return your conscious self's memories."
"It's Enmity," Enmity snarled at her, throwing the baseball bat on the ground. She got in Camila's face and bared her fangs. Goodness, those were sharp. Sharper, Camila couldn't help but notice, than the ones that Amity actually possessed in real life. Perhaps some people would be afraid, but, honestly, Camila could not bring herself to be afraid of a child, especially one who she loved almost as much as her own daughter. "Do not make that mistake again, Noceda."
Camila frowned. "And can I ask why you hate me so much?"
"You really have to ask that question?" Enmity said contemptuously. "It's because of the way you've been manipulating me!"
Camila couldn't help but laugh out loud. "I've been manipulating you? Honey, I think you're barking up the wrong tree there. It's your mother who was manipulating you. You know, with the whole taking away your memories thing. I've shown you love and kindness and respect."
Enmity sniffed. "Only for your own purposes. You're just a social climber." Camila blinked a couple of times. Of all the things she thought Amity would ever have accused her of, that was definitely not one of them. "You're certainly much better at manipulation than Mother is, I'll give you that. Having a sense of empathy, I imagine, helps immensely on that front."
Camila closed her eyes and concentrated. According to Luz, the alternate Willow had been able to use the power of imagination to act against Lucia. In theory, she would be able to do the same against Enmity. So she imagined her bonds disintegrating and then she opened them and it was so. Enmity opened and closed her mouth in total shock a few times and readied herself into a martial arts stance that she'd probably seen in some movie somewhere. But Camila didn't make a move in her direction. She just sat down on the floor.
Now that she was in less danger than before, she took stock of her surroundings. She was in a castle that reminded her very much of Elsa's castle in Frozen (for rather obvious reasons, that movie had resonated quite a bit with Amity), but instead of being made of ice, it was made of frozen abomination goop. The furniture was stark and utilitarian. There was no feeling in this place, no life. Was this what the inside of Amity's head was like? That was just sad.
"If you're going to kill me," not that Camila believed for a second Enmity was capable of doing that, "then I think I have a right to know why. What makes you believe I've been manipulating you?"
Enmity looked at her like she was stupid. "Gee, Camila, I have no clue. Maybe it's the fact that you've singlehandedly become one of the most powerful people in the Isles, and by far the most powerful human?" Camila was bewildered by that statement. She didn't have any power. "You've gotten your daughter named princess, you've gotten the king to think of you as a mother, you've seduced the prime minister, and now you're trying to acquire Blight Industries by marrying me off to Luz. That's power in spades. Mother wishes she could be that powerful."
Okay, from that perspective, Camila could see a bit where Amity was coming from. But it wasn't as if Camila had meant to do that. It had all just happened as a result of circumstances largely outside of her control. At least there was one part of that statement she could absolutely refute, though. "If I recall correctly, Enmity, it was you who wanted to get married to Luz, and I refused you."
Enmity didn't look like this had gotten to her at all. She just nodded. "Sure. You didn't have anything to gain by accepting the betrothal contract at that time. You knew our relationship would keep. And at that very same meeting, you made me more dependent on you and fractured what little loyalty remained to Mother."
That was a definite mischaracterization of events. What had actually happened was that Camila had finally gotten Amity to understand that her parents never loved her, and that absolutely nothing she could ever do, no accomplishment she could ever achieve, would change that. Camila had offered her true, unconditional love, and Amity had seemed to accept it. It must not have sunk in as deeply as Camila had thought.
"Enmity, can you not see that Amity is miserable without her memories of Luz?" Camila asked, trying a different tactic. "Giving them back to her will make her happier."
"And that is precisely why I am not giving them back to her," Enmity said, her voice passionless and as calm as a lake undisturbed by any breeze. "I will not permit her to be happy."
Camila just felt bewildered. Why would anyone do that to herself? It didn't seem to make any sense. "You want her to be miserable?"
"Yes," Enmity confirmed. "If she is not happy, then it will not hurt when it is taken away from her." Ah. That did make sense, from a twisted perspective. Amity had probably gotten a lot of happiness taken away from her as a child by her parents. At some point, she must have put walls around her to prevent herself from getting her hopes up again…at least until Luz had singlehandedly knocked them all down.
Camila took a few steps towards Enmity's direction. Enmity froze in her tracks, as if she was scared Camila would hurt her. Camila burned to hug the poor girl, but that would be a very bad idea, she knew. "I know how you feel," she whispered. "Because I felt the same way after I lost Eduardo. It was so sudden. He was just ripped away from me, no warning, nothing. I was petrified of losing Luz too, of the rest of my life collapsing just as suddenly. So I just…shut off. Went numb."
"So what happened?" Enmity asked, sounding genuinely curious. That was a good sign.
"The same thing that happened to you, nuera que será," Camila said with a smile. "Luz happened. She noticed how sad I was and she made it her personal mission to cheer me up." And Luz, as she always did, went ridiculously overboard, with glitter filled drawings and breakfasts in bed that got the firefighters called to the Noceda residence no less than five times and extremely long lists about why Camila was the best mother ever. "She was…excessive about it, true. But in a way, it was exactly what I needed. It reminded me I had something to live for."
A tear fell from Enmity's eye. Enmity wiped it away, and Camila pretended she had not seen it. "Your situation was different," she pointed out. "Your fears were irrational. Mine are not. Mother is a clear and present danger to me, and she always has been. There is no choice but to follow her will, because she cannot be defeated. She is completely invincible. I built this life for myself and she took it away. Should Amity get her memories back, Mother will do it once more. But this time, she will kill Luz."
Camila tilted her head. "I'm sorry, are we talking about the same person? Because I'm pretty sure Emira cut her head off, and there isn't any coming back from that." She frowned. "There isn't any coming back from that, is there? I know Eda can survive decapitation, but I'm pretty sure that's just because of her curse."
Enmity threw back her head and laugh. "You seriously thought I was fooled by that little performance Edric put on?" She looked at Camila more carefully. "Ah. They tricked you too, didn't they? Well, that does make sense. But, no, that wasn't my mother, as much as my conscious self wanted to believe it was. It was just an illusion. I've lived with illusionists all my life; I know what they look like."
Camila's first instinct was to think that this was just more of Enmity's rampant pessimism, but the more she thought about it, the more she suspected Enmity could be right. Odalia had gone down really easy. And as crazy as she was, Odalia had heretofore not gotten herself involved in fights she wasn't absolutely certain she could win. It didn't make a ton of sense for her to just attack an event attended by multiple coven leaders and Eda, especially since she'd gone to a lot of trouble to neutralize just the latter during their confrontation at T-Mobile Park.
"You could be right," Camila conceded. "In fact, I do believe you are. But that doesn't disprove my overall point. Your mother is a mortal woman, Amity. In the alternate universe, my counterpart killed hers by shooting her in the back of the head. She's nowhere close to invincible. She can and will be defeated."
Enmity rolled her eyes. "Oh, great. And then you'll just throw her in jail again and then she'll break out and the whole process will start again."
"That's not going to happen, Enmity," Camila said solemnly. "The Boiling Kingdom has had her tried in absentia for her crimes, and this time, she has been sentenced to death." It was true. It hadn't exactly been very difficult to make that happen, what with her attacks on the royal family. Camila wasn't sure exactly how fond of the idea she was in theory, but in practice, she knew that Odalia had to die, and there was no getting around it.
She had the advantage. She knew it. So she pressed it, walking closer and closer to Enmity. Enmity took a few steps backwards and when she did, Camila stopped walking. She did not want to frighten the poor girl. "Enmity, we both know I'm not a social climber. I'm not interested in wealth or status and power. The only thing I care about is securing the safety and happiness of those I love – including you. You're a very intelligent girl. I know you know that. So why do you hate me?"
"I don't hate you," Enmity lied. "I don't hate anyone. Like all emotions, especially love, hate is a waste of time. My emotions and thoughts and feelings are not relevant, because I will never, ever get a chance to utilize them in the way I seek."
"That would be a lot more believable if you hadn't hit me repeatedly with a baseball bat while shouting about how much you hate me," Camila pointed out.
"Drat."
Camila took her chances and spread her arms in a motion that beckoned Enmity to give her a hug. She did not bite. Darn it. "Just give me an honest answer. Please. You owe me that much. Why do you hate me?"
"Because you gave me hope!" Enmity snarled and then before Camila's eyes, she transformed into an abomination, grabbed Camila and threw her at the ceiling. The pain may have been technically imaginary, but someone had clearly not given her brain the memo, because it certainly felt like she fallen from a great height when she landed on the floor. "How dare you give me hope?! How dare you make me think that things would get better?! That I can have everything I want!"
It was all Camila could do to not break down into tears. Amity's existence had been hopeless, quite literally, until she met Luz. She'd had a set of expectations to fulfill, a set role to play, and no one and nothing had the ability or authority to save them from it. And then Luz had come swooping into her life and changed all that.
That was bad enough from Enmity's perspective. But then Camila had shattered what remained of her previous worldview. Had crushed the dreams Amity had possessed of finally gaining her parents' approval. It had been necessary, of course, but still…it had hurt immensely. Moreover, Camila had shown her that unconditional love was the norm and that it was Odalia's at best highly conditional excuse for love that was the exception. Amity knew that what had been done to her wasn't just wrong, it had been completely pointless.
Camila had shown Amity a way forward, given her the belief that she really could have a maternal figure who loved her, and then that had been taken away from her when Odalia removed her memories. It was almost as devastating a blow to her inner self as losing her relationship with Luz had been. No, no doubt more. Amity had, in theory, been able to accept the idea that she would have a loved one in a romantic sense – even if she believed that would be a husband, not a wife – since that was something society had instilled in her. It was a hypothetical scenario, but not something Amity could know for certain wouldn't happen. But she knew she wouldn't get love from a mother figure…right up until the moment she did.
"You know…" Camila said slowly, picking herself off the floor. "In our world, we have a story of a thing called Pandora's box. I don't know if there's a similar myth in the Boiling Isles." Enmity shook her head. "There was a box – actually, an urn; Luz is very big on people correcting that mistranslation – and in this urn was all the evils of the world. Pandora opened the box and it all came out into the world: hate, disease, floods, you name it. But one thing remained in the box, and that thing was hope."
Enmity laughed. "Yeah, I've heard that before. Things will get better, Amity! You just have to hope they will!"
"Ah, you misunderstand, as many people who tell that story do," Camila said. "Hope was in the urn in the first place because it was an evil, and it stayed in the box because it was far worse than anything else in the urn." Enmity looked like she was struggling to know how to react to that. "I cannot promise you that if you give Amity her memories back, she will be happy forever. I will not give you that hope, Enmity, because it would be cruel. What I can promise you is that our top priority now is killing Odalia. No more messing around. No more loopholes. I'm going to murder that bitch in cold blood if I can."
Enmity's mouth opened and closed repeatedly. "What?"
"It is very noble of you to try to shield Amity from pain," Camila said, meaning every word. "But in the words of a very wise man, life is pain, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something." She touched Enmity's shoulder experimentally. Enmity made no move to stop her. "I just have one more question for you and then I'm going to leave this up to you. I can't force you to do anything. I've made my case." She looked her daughter-in-law to be in the eyes. "What would Azura do in this situation?"
Enmity blinked. "Excuse me? What does that have to do with anything?"
"It has everything to do with it," Camila said. "I know Azura is one of the most important influences in your life, a light shining in the darkness that was your past."
"Azura was…a distraction," Enmity mumbled, but the words were obviously sounding unconvincing even to her. "She's not real."
"Neither are you," Camila reminded her. "What would Azura do?"
Enmity snapped her fingers and she was back in her human form. Her hair had changed. It wasn't purple, but it looked like it had been when Camila first met her, with brown in it. It was a start. "The right thing," she admitted. "She'd do the right thing. She'd give Amity back her memories."
"So what are you going to do?" Camila said. "And no matter what option you choose…it won't make me love you any less."
Enmity opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so, the sound of alarms echoed throughout the palace. "This was a trick!" she snarled. "You were trying to delay me! So your daughter and Amelia," she snarled the name as if it was a curse, "could get into my sanctum and slay me!"
"Wait, who's Amelia?" Camila asked, and then she was cocooned against the wall again, this time with goop covering her mouth. It was sticky and disgusting.
"If they want a fight," Enmity hissed, and conjured scimitars made of compressed abomination goop, "then I shall oblige."
In Luz's opinion, this was her best plan yet, and there was some pretty stiff competition for that slot. She didn't like to brag, but she was a master strategist. True, a lot of her plans had failed in such a manner that spectacular barely even described them, but those failures were hardly her fault. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, after all, whether that enemy was a ravenous slitherbeast or her language arts teacher. Anyway, the point was, she had a brilliant plan, and there was no way it could fail. Absolutely no way. It was pure genius, and Amelia would recognize that immediately.
"This is the dumbest plan in the history of creation," Amelia complained. Luz felt betrayed at that comment. Clearly, Amelia was not the side of her girlfriend who was good at tactical matters, or she would have recognized the utter magnificence of the plan. "She's not going to fall for it for an instant!"
"Of course she is," Luz assured her. "Look, this plan is based on one that's thousands of years old. It has the weight of history behind it. And never once in all of human history has it failed." Luz decided not to tell her that never in human history had it succeeded either; it had, in fact, never been implemented in real life, only in stories. But, then again, she wasn't in real life right now anyway, so it was a fitting choice.
"Look," Luz went on, trying a different track, "do you have any clue what I'm talking about?"
"No."
"And if you don't, neither does Enmity," Luz pointed out. "She's never gonna see it coming. Relax. I'll handle the hard part. All you need to do is keep her distracted."
Luz reached out and stroked Amelia's face. Amelia leaned into the gesture like a starving woman leaned towards food. Luz felt slightly guilty about manipulating her like this, but the ends justified the means, didn't they? "You love me, right, Amelia?" Amelia nodded eagerly. "So I'm going to have to ask for your trust."
"I trust you," Amelia said immediately. "I'll follow you anywhere."
"Good!" Luz said and gave her a hug. She might have kept the hug going for longer than average, but that was, as she unconvincingly told herself, just because Amelia really needed some extra affection, no other reason, most definitely.
Once the hug was finally over, Luz reluctantly disentangled herself and beheld the instrument that would make her plan successful: a gigantic statue of Hecate, Amity's favorite character in the Good Witch Azura series by far, that Luz had imagined into existence. Luz didn't care how nasty Enmity was. She was a part of Amity and that meant there was no way she could resist anything even vaguely Hecate related. It just wasn't at all possible.
After getting into the secret compartment in the back of the statue, Luz allowed Amelia to wheel the statue out of the mansion. Luz watched through the airholes as Amelia traversed the battlefield with the greatest of ease. Enmity's forces attacked her and she dodged every attack with sinuous ease, using all sorts of magic from a wide variety of disciplines to wreck the soldiers attacking her. Abomination troops imploded, and witch soldiers were knocked unconscious. Amelia may have looked bubbly and kind of spacy on the surface, but she was just as strong and brilliant as her conscious mind deep down.
The castle in the distance seemed to pulsate with malevolence the closer Luz got to it. She felt overpowering feelings of despair and fear. But these were artificially placed, she knew, and they seemed to fade almost as soon as they arrived. It was because it was her they were being directed against, she realized. As evil as Amelia had made Enmity out to be, she was unable to harm Luz in any lasting manner because of Amity's love for her. This was definitely an encouraging sign.
"It's not too late to turn back, Luz," Amelia said, her voice almost begging. "You can live a perfect existence with me."
"And leave my girlfriend to her worst nightmare?" Luz asked. "No, thanks! And even if I wanted to do that, you really think I'm the sort of person who'd leave my mom in Enmity's hands? You know me better than that."
Amelia sighed. "Yeah, well, it was worth a shot."
After what felt like forever, they finally made their way to the gates of the citadel. A column of blue light suddenly manifested in front of them and Enmity stepped out of it. At first, Luz was bewildered at Enmity's appearance – this young girl, even younger than the real Amity, was the thing that Amelia was afraid of? But Luz knew that there was more involved her in merely the physical. A numb coldness simply radiated off Enmity in droves. That coldness seemed much more threatening than the abomination scimitars she held in each hand. It was that coldness that Amity had been ensconced in during her bullying days; an apathy that she'd put on as armor.
As they had planned, Amelia knelt before Enmity, who looked down at her suspiciously. "I surrender," she said, sounding quite sincere. Luz had to hand it to her; she was a very good actress. "And as a gesture of good faith, I have this statue of Hecate as a gift."
Enmity threw back her head and laughed. "Oh, really?" she said, and held one of her scimitars to Amelia's throat. "Why in the universes should I accept your surrender? I should just kill you right now."
"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Amelia said with a vicious smirk. "I've implanted an idea into Amity's head that if you kill me, she's going to write a Malinzura fanfic."
Enmity's face went even paler than normal, a considerable accomplishment. "You…you wouldn't. This is…it's just a bluff! Not even you are capable of such an atrocity!"
"I'm capable of quite a lot more than that," Amelia hissed. "It'll be a slow burn. A very slow burn, just to prolong your agony. And you know what will get the match finally lit? There will only be one bed." Enmity let out a horrified gasp. "Just think how many Hezura shippers will switch to Malinzura when I'm done…"
Enmity threw up her hands in frustration. "You giraffing monster. Fine! I accept your surrender, then. Abominations, take her to the dungeons! And bring this admittedly beautiful statue to my quarters."
Everything was going precisely as planned. And people said Luz's ideas were terrible. Clearly, they had never had a chance to bask in the glow of her tactical genius. The old Trojan horse routine was a classic, and it was one that Amity had no clue about. That would have to change, of course – when Luz got back, she'd give Amity a book about Greek mythology. It would be interesting to see which myths had a basis in the Demon Realm.
And for once, luck was on her side too, because Camila was tied to a pillar in Enmity's quarters. All she had to do was wait for Enmity to leave and then Luz would be able to rescue her and together, the two of them would kill Enmity, thus allowing Amelia to restore Amity's memories. God, this was her best plan ever. Everyone would be so jealous of her skills when she got back into the real world.
"You know, my daughter's probably inside that statue," Camila said conversationally, and Luz couldn't help but let out a gasp. Betrayed by her own mother? Had Enmity brainwashed Camila somehow? That treacherous fiend! How could a Hezura shipper be so diabolical? "I mean, the Trojan horse routine? Come on, this has Luz written all over it."
Enmity located the door to the statue and threw Luz onto the ground. "How could you, mami?!" she demanded.
"Sorry, Luz," Camila said with a slight grin. "But things are not what they appear to be. Enmity isn't pure evil, any more than Amelia is pure good. I'm making very good progress convincing her to give her back her memories. I don't know what you're planning, but I do know that it's not going to help my own plans any."
Luz crossed her arms. "Seriously? You're gonna trust her? She's the dark side of Amity, the embodiment of her worst qualities."
"There are no inherently negative qualities," Camila argued. "Any quality can become negative when used incorrectly or positive when used correctly. Enmity has influenced Amity to make mistakes, yes, but at the end of the day, Amity's conscious self chose to bully Willow, to isolate herself, to break up with you."
Luz narrowed her eyes. "Then why is she keeping you hostage?"
Enmity burst out laughing. "Like Amelia is any better! Let me guess, she tried to keep you in her fancy mansion forever, am I right?"
Okay. Well. When Enmity put it like that, yeah, Luz could definitely see where she was coming from. "Both of you are parts of Amity," Camila said, "and every minute you spend fighting is only weakening her. Think of what you could do together!"
"Align myself with that hedonistic bimbo?" Enmity said contemptuously. "She was going to make Amity make Malinzura fanfic. How can you trust someone who has such horrible taste in shipping? Is it not transparently obvious that Hecate is Azura's true love?"
"Yeah, there's sure no better person for Amity than Luz, am I right?" Luz said casually. "She's helped Amity through all sorts of dangers, helped her become the best version of herself, and supported her through things that would have broken another person."
"Exactly!" Enmity said, sounding eagerly enthusiastic, not anywhere close to sinister. She blinked a couple of times as what Luz said sank in. "Hang on…" She sighed. "I see what you did there. Okay, Luz, do you think that –"
The doors slammed open and Amelia ran in, having somehow gotten her hand on Enmity's scimitars. She leaped through the air, going faster and higher than Amity was capable of in real life, and would have chopped Enmity's head off if she hadn't rolled out of the way just in time. "You know, for someone who surrendered, you're not doing a whole lot of giving up!" Enmity complained as she conjured new swords for herself.
"I will never surrender myself to you," Amelia snarled. "You silly fool! That was all a clever ruse! You see, that statue was really a hiding place for none other than Luz Noceda!" Luz gave a wave, and Amelia faltered for a few seconds. "Oh. You figured that out. Dandy."
Enmity waved her hand and Camila fell to the ground with a thud. She walked over to her and put the sword to Camila's throat. "Back off or I'll kill her."
"I don't believe you," Amelia said, and advanced on her. "She's just as precious to you as she is to me at the end of the day. And once you're dead, I'm going to be the only one of us who's gonna get her love! Just me! Not you!" Sparks flew as their swords crossed and crashed into each other with vicious intensity.
"Luz, isn't there anything you can do to distract her?!" Camila asked desperately, and an idea came to Luz's mind. She concentrated hard and Lucia formed in front of them. Both Enmity and Amelia stared at her, dumbfounded. Enmity just looked confused, but Amelia looked absolutely lovestruck. Oh, dear.
Lucia gave a huge grin. "Well, hello there, beautiful," she purred. "I'm Lucia. That is one hell of an outfit you're wearing there…but it's gonna look so much better when it's on the floor."
"I'm not sure I'm liking where this was going," Camila said, looking somewhat nauseous.
Lucia practically pounced on Amelia and started making out with her as if she was trying to merge their faces together. "MY EYES!" Camila screeched and proceeded to throw up all over the floor. Ah, yes. Luz had forgotten that it might be somewhat traumatizing for Camila to see her younger self make out with her daughter's girlfriend's inner self. Oops. Well, on the bright side, Amelia was definitely not going to kill Enmity any time soon.
"I'm gonna dress up and travel with you so hard you'll forget your own name," Lucia promised Amelia, and Enmity let out a high pitched shriek, threw her swords into the air, and snapped her fingers. Instantly, Luz, Enmity and Camila were teleported to the foyer.
Camila leaned against a wall, breathing heavily, looking as if she was on the edge of having a nervous breakdown. "Please tell me there is a way I can forget that when this is over," Camila begged.
"Yeah, we'll get on that," Luz promised Camila. "Sorry about that, mom…it was the first thing that came to mind." She looked over at Enmity. "Please give Amity back her memories. Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
Enmity crossed her arms. "I…I just don't know. If I do…what's to stop Mother from taking them away again? And what if she kills you? I don't…Luz, I don't know how Amity will recover from it if you die."
"I don't know if you've heard, but I'm kind of resilient," Luz bragged. "Seriously, I've fought against things way above my weight class. Hell, I helped kill a fae queen! I think I can tackle your mom."
Enmity started pacing around, nervousness radiating all over her face. "Luz, I…I'd really like to believe you. I really would. But…I'm just so scared. Things keep going wrong for us. Mother's been running circles around us all. She's just so much smarter and more powerful than I am."
"Your mother is pathetic," Luz said harshly. "She's a weakling. She's a shadow of her former self. She's lost her infrastructure, she's epically failing at selling her con to the masses, and she's completely directionless. She's just lashing out randomly at people now, hoping that if she gets some sort of a victory, it'll make things better for her."
Camila directed a proud smile at Luz. "She's right, Enmity. Odalia is a coward and a liar. She has deceived you into thinking she is stronger than she really is. But it is we who hold the advantage. We will strengthen your mind as much as possible; she will not be able to get through those defenses, I swear."
Enmity take a deep breath. "Okay." She waved a hand and an altar appeared in front of her. She sliced her palm open with her bare fingernails and a few drops of blood fell onto the altar. "Get Amelia here and have her shed her blood too, and her memories will be back."
Luz gave Enmity a hug. At first, Enmity stiffened, but she quickly leaned into the hug. "I'm sorry, Luz," she whispered. "I'm sorry for being such a coward."
"You did the right thing when it counted," Luz assured her, and she walked up the staircase. Upon entering Enmity's quarters, Luz tripped on seemingly nothing and fell to the ground at the scene before her. Both Amelia and Lucia were on a bed that really didn't look suitable for the kind of activities they were doing at all. Luz was honestly shocked Amity's imagination was capable of conjuring the things her and Luz's ids were doing. Amity had confessed that she'd read a few Hezura smut fics in her time but she'd seriously undersold what was in those fics, apparently. "Oh my gosh, this just can't be happening," Luz said, covering her eyes with her hands.
"You're just jealous you're not getting any," Lucia drawled.
"That's not – you know what, I'm not going to argue with you. Get dressed and get downstairs ASAP. We're getting Amity's memories back and we're going to do it now."
Luz stormed out of the room, absolutely furious. She couldn't believe her inner self got laid before she did. It was not fair at all. "Everything all right up there?" Camila asked her as she charged back into the foyer.
"I don't want to talk about it," Luz said flatly.
A few minutes later, Lucia and Amelia slunk down the staircase, dressed in more or less the clothes they'd been before they had started their shenanigans, though Luz was pretty sure Lucia wasn't wearing a bra anymore. "Okay, Amelia," Luz said, trying to keep her voice at its customary perky tone. Was she actually jealous of her inner self? She wasn't sure what that said about her. "All we need you to do is bleed on that altar and Amity will have her memories back!"
Amelia took a deep breath, conjured a knife in her hand, and then the doors to the palace were thrown off their hinges and landed on the other side of the room in a shower of wooden shards. The Imperial March started playing in the background from no discernable music source and Luz would have laughed if it weren't for the fact that Odalia came strolling into the room just then.
Odalia looked so much larger, scarier, and more powerful than she did in real life. Her eyes radiated pure malice, she practically crackled with power, and she towered over everyone in the room like she was some sort of an ancient goddess of vengeance. With the twitch of her fingers, Enmity and Amelia's bodies moved not of their own accord to a kneeling position on the floor. "I will not permit this," she said, and it was as if the words had the weight of a million tons of stone. It was hard for Luz to envision even going against Odalia's will for a second. Was this what Amity felt around her mother all the time?
"Keeping Amity's memories away from her is the will of the Titan," Odalia said serenely. "I'm sure you are good girls who wouldn't go against the will of the Titan."
"No, Mother," both Enmity and Amelia chorused in eerie harmony.
"They may be good girls," Lucia said with a smirk, "but I'm not." Odalia turned to face her and then Lucia threw a fireball at her face. Amity's mother just smirked and faced the fireball head-on and seemed pretty surprised when it burned off half her face. Shrieking in pain and agony, Odalia healed the damage, but she'd already lost control of her daughters, who were on their feet again.
"How is this possible?!" Odalia yelled. "These brats have never been able to harm me! Why can you?"
Lucia threw back her head and laughed. "Oh, they've been able to harm you. They just haven't been willing to!" She stepped forward, sparks of electricity blazing in her hands. "I, on the other hand, am Amelia's awesome girlfriend. It's my job to protect her, just as it's Luz's job to protect Amity." She pumped electricity into Odalia's chest and Odalia screamed.
She waved her hand around as if she was conducting an orchestra and shadows coalesced around her, taking the form of sharp strips of blackness and sliced away at Odalia's skin, humming a jaunty tune as she did. "Give up," she suggested. "You're gonna lose in real life. Just stop this before I make your death hurt."
"Never!" Odalia screamed and she let out an unearthly shriek that disintegrated all the shadows slicing into her. She waved a hand and Lucia was thrown through the ceiling and flung off into the distance. "You are mine, Amity. You will always be mine. I brought you into this world, and I will take you out of it! No matter how far you go, you will never escape me." She made a fist and both of Amity's inner selves were thrown into the air and held there. Red light formed around them and the two of them shouted in pain.
Camila tackled Odalia and started punching her in the face over and over again, screaming obscenities in Ladino that Luz didn't even understand. Wow. Camila must have been really angry to skip the Spanish swearing entirely in favor of the traditional Sephardic language of her childhood. She followed it up by snapping Odalia's neck and tossing her to the floor.
"I don't understand you," Camila said. "I don't understand how you could possibly look at Amity and ever see her as anything less than extraordinary, much less have the contempt you have for her. To have overcome your influence, even with the help of Luz, was a feat far more impressive than any form of magic out there." She kicked Odalia in the face. "I hope there is a hell, Odalia, so you can burn in it!"
Camila reached into Odalia's chest with her hand and tried to find her heart, but, of course, since this was just a construct of her, there wasn't one. Unfortunately, Camila's brief moment of confusion allowed Odalia to regain her strength and blast Camila with magic so intense that she smashed her way through two walls before landing on the ground, unconscious.
Odalia healed herself and then walked slowly but inexorably over to Luz, who tried to back away, only to reach a wall, both metaphorically and literally. "I'm going to teach you a lesson, Mittens," she said, her voice whisper quiet yet carrying perfectly through the space. "I'm going to slowly rip your human to shreds and you're going to watch."
"Amity, save me!" Luz begged the inner selves, who were still frozen in place.
"I can't!" Enmity said.
"She's too powerful!" Amelia agreed.
Luz's eyes widened in fear as her worst enemy conjured a whip to her hands. And then she got it. She didn't know why she didn't get it before, but she got it now. "Maybe she's too powerful for you alone," she said, "but not for the both of you united!"
"What?!" the two of them chorused simultaneously.
"You've spent enough time fighting each other!" Luz said. "It's time you united your forces and fought against the true enemy here." The whip cracked and pure agony enveloped her flesh. "QUICKLY!"
Enmity and Amelia shared a glance. "I can't trust you," Amelia said. "You're just going to hurt Amity by denying her all the happiness she rightfully deserves."
"Well, I can't trust you," Enmity shot back. "You're just going to make Amity so happy that she'll get overconfident!"
There was silence for a while, punctuated only by Odalia's maniacal laughter as she flayed Luz alive. "Well, what if I made sure Amity got the happiness she deserves, and you make sure she doesn't get too cocky?" Amelia suggested. "Luz is right. Fighting each other hasn't done anything but made Amity vulnerable. We have to work together."
Enmity took a deep breath. "I must be crazy…but okay."
And then both girls snapped their fingers simultaneously and with a flash of light, both of them were gone. In their place was one singular figure, the splitting image of none other than Hecate herself. Odalia turned around and let out a gasp. She looked absolutely terrified. "No…it's not possible," she whispered. "Fifteen years! For fifteen years, I've kept you separate!"
"And you'll never succeed in separating us again," Hecate vowed.
Odalia tried to put a reasonable expression on her face. "We…we can negotiate. There's no reason for hostility. I'm your mother, Amity. I've only wanted what was best for you."
"Yeah me too," Hecate said. "The difference between us is that I was right, and you were wrong." She waved a hand and Odalia blinked out of existence. There was no flashy exit, absolutely nothing to denote that she'd been there before. Odalia had no more power over Amity's mind.
Luz clapped her hands and Camila regained consciousness. She also dismissed Lucia. She really hoped that whatever damage she'd taken from the fight with Odalia wouldn't somehow cause Luz damage in the real world. It probably wouldn't. Camila walked over to them, a huge grin on her face. "I like this form of you, Amity," Camila said. "It suits you."
"Thank you, Camila," Hecate said, her voice light and airy. "And thank you, Luz. You finally gave me the strength I needed to be victorious." She snapped her fingers. "Amity has her memories back."
Luz gave Hecate a hug, not one with any sexy or romantic connotations, but just a person giving affection to a person who sorely needed it. "I'm so glad you finally won, Hecate. It was a well deserved victory."
"I love you, Luz," Hecate said.
"I love you too," Luz said and she gave her a light kiss on her lips and then she was back in the real world and Amity was kissing her for real.
Luz broke off the kiss and prayed that what they'd did worked. "Amity? Are you…you again?"
"I most definitely am, mi valiente defensora," Amity said, and Luz almost cried in relief. "I missed you so much. I am so sorry I said those cruel things to you. I don't blame you if you're too hurt to be with me anymore…"
Luz laughed. "Oh, come on, like I went to all that trouble to break up with you now! I'm not going to blame you for what your mother made you do. She may not have controlled your actions then, but if it hadn't been for her mental manipulation, you never would have hurt me. No, sweetheart, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life."
"Hmm," Amity said in a mock contemplative voice. "I suppose I can live with that." She walked over to Edric, who had his arms spread out for a hug, and punched him in the face. "If you ever give me a sensory overload deliberately again, I will kill you." Luz suspected she was actually quite serious. "You're getting the silent treatment for the rest of the day, and tomorrow, I will shower you with so much love and affection you will wish you'd never been born!"
Next, she walked over to Emira. "Congratulations on getting married, Emira!" she said, and gave her an actual hug. "I'm so sorry the real me wasn't there for the ceremony."
"Nonsense, Amy," Emira said dismissively. "Having you back is the best wedding present I could ever possibly get."
Amity marched straight over to Näkijä. "I want you to put as many protections against oracle magic as you possibly can on me," she commanded, and then blanched as she realized who she had just ordered around. "Uh, please?"
Fortunately, Näkijä just looked amused, tinged with the faintest hint of respect, at Amity's brazenness. She pressed her paw against Amity's forehead, and then raised an eyebrow, impressed. "In all honesty, there is not much I can do. Whatever Miss and Mrs. Noceda did in there fortified your mental defenses to an exceptionally impressive degree. In the last few centuries, I have only seen more effective defenses a few dozen times. I could probably eventually break my way through it, but your progenitrix is definitely not powerful enough." Amity gave a huge grin.
"So what now?" Skara asked Amity.
"Now? Now we win."
