The guards grabbed Raine and forced their mouth open, but Camila was already moving. She activated one of the summoning glyphs she'd put in her pocket and summoned her gun to her hand. Outside of the first time she shot Valefar, she'd only fired the gun on a gun range on two occasions, and was nowhere near close to being a skilled markswoman. She wouldn't have been able to come anywhere close to doing any fancy trick shots like in the movies. She couldn't, for example, shoot the love potion out of his hand.

So instead, she aimed at Valefar's center mass, where the anatomy textbook said that his heart should have been, and pulled the trigger.

The effects were nigh instantaneous. A disgusting looking yellowish substance erupted out of his body. It was not blood, but bile. The bullet had hit Valefar right in the bile sac. In addition to the effect on Valefar, the sound of the gunshot appeared to have temporarily incapacitated every witch in the room, including Valefar's guards. Their ears, Camila remembered, were sensitive to loud noises, and even in the Boiling Isles, there were few louder noises than a gun being fired. In that instant of hesitation, she grabbed the Chalice out of Valefar's hands, affixed a fire glyph to it, and threw it out the window.

The Augmentation Chalice hit the ramparts of the mansion, activating the glyph and causing it to explode in a massive fireball.

The only thing that could cure her, the only hope she had of salvaging her relationship with Raine and Eda, was now gone.

Camila dragged the two witches she was in love with out of the room, as they clutched their ears and screamed in pain. She shoved them through the halls of the mansion, marveling at the fact that she was able to do so. Camila knew that exposure to the Boiling Isles' magic field made one stronger, but there was seeing its effects on Luz and then there was experiencing it for oneself. She could hear Valefar's bestial roaring that seemed to continue no matter how far away they got from his office. Hopefully, it wouldn't end up haunting her nightmares.

"Titan, those things are loud!" Eda complained once she seemed to be back in possession of her faculties. "How do you manage to have wars without all your soldiers going deaf?"

"A lot of our soldiers do have problems with hearing," Camila responded. She looked over at Raine, who appeared to be quite disturbed by their near brush with ensorcellment. "Raine, are you all right?"

Raine shook their head. "But we can deal with that later. We have to get out of here and warn Lilith. Valefar is going to come after Luz directly now unless she stops him."

Camila smirked at them. "Actually, I have a much, much better idea. Let's get to the ballroom. It's time to end this once and for all…human-style."

She ignored the queries from the two of them precisely what that meant. She could have answered them, but that would have spoiled the surprise. Much to her own surprise, Camila was finding that she had a flair for the dramatic that she never really got a chance to exercise much before all this started. Besides, if they knew about the plan, they could divulge it to Valefar if they got captured and placed under his control. Granted, so could she, but it was best to keep it to as few people as possible.

Was it possible, she wondered, to be under the control of two love potions simultaneously? A question for later, she supposed. Right now, a golden opportunity to stop Valefar's reign of terror forever had presented itself, and Camila was not going to let it pass her by.

It took time to sneak back to the ballroom, but luckily, their informant had also given them a floor map of the castle, including where all its secret passageways are. "Okay," Eda said once they'd gotten inside. "The exit's right there. Let's go."

Camila shook her head. "Nope. I have a plan, and it involves staying here."

"But Valefar's going to find us here!" Raine shouted at her.

Camila didn't know she was capable of making such a vicious smile as the one that now graced her face. "Exactly. He should be walking in here any moment now."

As if on cue, the doors to the ballroom slammed open and Valefar stormed into the room, looking fully healed now. He must have taken a potion. Angry was perhaps a vast understatement for what he was experiencing right now. Camila wasn't too worried – she still had both the gun and the plan – but it was hard not to be frightened when staring at that animalistic snarl of fury.

"Humans!" Valefar screamed at them. "You will die for the dire treachery you have shown me today! You will die in utter agony!"

"Oh, you want to talk treachery, Valefar?" Camila said smugly, and she reached into her purse to reveal her ultimate weapon: her cell phone. "Well, if you're such a great admirer of our culture as you say, then you'll know that this thing isn't just good for watching videos. It's also good for recording them."

And without another word, Camila played the recording that she'd started just before the guards had captured her. She'd figured that Valefar was exactly the sort of villain who would monologue about his megalomaniacal schemes, and she had been proven correct. No one in the room looked especially amused at hearing Valefar's plans to conquer the world, especially when they heard that said plan involved enslaving them first.

Valefar let out a shaky laugh. "This is…a farce. It's a trick! The human manufactured that recording in an effort to frame me. I would never do such a thing!"

Valefar's words appeared to be falling on deaf ears. People were exiting the ballroom in droves. One of the ones who wasn't, Camila couldn't help but notice, was Hart. Instead, she was leaning against a wall, watching their confrontation as if it was an amusing TV show she was watching, sipping her champagne – no, wait, Raine had called it grape blood – with a satisfied expression on her face.

"Weak-willed cowards!" Valefar screamed at his former sycophants. Then he turned back to face Camila. "You may have cost me the Augmentation Chalice, but I still have my supercharged love potions! I will break you, Camila Noceda, and then you'll want to help me enslave your daughter! Guards! Seize them! Kill anyone who stands in your way!"

Camila activated the summoning glyph for the vial of holy water and hurled it at Valefar. It splattered all over him, accomplishing nothing but confusing him. Well, so much for that myth. Rather than taking a chance at salt being ineffective against demons too, Camila simply opted for the tried and true and opened fire on Valefar and any guard that came near the three of them.

Two guards took bullets in the chest, but they kept coming. The rest of Camila's bullets went wide and missed completely. Soon enough, the gun clicked empty and she tossed it on the ground. Foolishly, she hadn't thought of making a summoning glyph for extra ammunition.

Camila summoned the dagger to her hand. If it was a choice between getting enslaved by Valefar and death at its hands, she knew which one she would be choosing…although she definitely did not have confidence in her ability to make that choice if the time came. The guards advanced on them, and their defeat seemed certain.

Then Eda did the last thing that Camila would have ever expected. She transformed into a winged, harpy like creature, with viciously sharp claws and almost entirely black eyes except for glowing yellow irises. It was the sort of thing that should have caused Camila to freak out and scream in fear.

It was instead the single hottest thing that Camila had ever seen in her life.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY RAINE AND CAMILA!" Eda shrieked, her voice acquiring echoing harmonics that seemed to sink down into the depths of Camila's soul. She slashed away at the guards with her claws. One of them tried to slashed at her with his sword, but Eda's claws tore through the strong metal as if she was tearing through paper.

"Wait, humans can do that?" Valefar asked one of his goons, sounding positively befuddled. "Have they always been able to do that, or is it just this one human?" When he didn't answer him, Valefar casually snapped his neck and took his sword.

Raine looked over at Camila and smirked at the stunned, slack-jawed on her face. "Yeah, she always gets me going looking like that too, but we've got to focus, okay?"

Raine was right. As distractingly alluring as the sight was, it was almost certainly the love potion playing tricks on her again. There was no way she'd find such a thing sexy if she was in her right mind. Right?

Moving impossibly fast, Eda's claws sliced and diced away at the guards, easily overpowering everyone around her. Over half of the guards were killed in the onslaught by Camila's estimation. She thought that she should be feeling pity for them – after all, if the rumors were true, then they could be just victims of Valefar themselves – but she couldn't bring herself to feel badly about their deaths. It had been done in very clear self-defense.

Eda turned towards Valefar and that's when he rammed the sword right into Eda's chest.

The sword went straight through her, right up to the hilt, coming out the other side of her body. Her harpy form abruptly retracted, and so did the illusion. Valefar withdrew the sword from Eda's chest, gasping in horror at the sight of the prime minister standing before him. Before he could say another word, the doors to the ballroom opened and Lilith, flanked by over twenty LEC agents, stormed into the room.

"Where's the son of a bitch who tried to hurt my niece?!" Lilith screamed. She then gasped at seeing Eda wounded on the floor.

"This isn't what it looks like," Valefar stammered, his sword still dripping with the prime minister's blood. "There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. These miscreants broke into my house!"

"Not so," Camila said smugly. "I was invited, and I could bring two guests with me. It's right here on the invitation. The invitation which, if you might recall, you went to rather extreme lengths to make sure I accepted. I warned you once already, Valefar. You shouldn't have messed with mi hija. "

Lilith punched Valefar in the face, breaking his nose. "Oops. My hand slipped there. Valefar, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Prime Minister Edalyn Clawthorne. We'll sort out the rest of your many, many other charges later. Take him away!"

Valefar dropped the sword on the ground and burst out crying. "It's not fair!" he whined as the LEC agents handcuffed him and dragged him out of the room.

"I'll work on getting the wards down," Lilith said. "In the meantime, try to use the healing glyphs on her. We'll summon a medevac, but she may bleed out before they get here." She proceeded to extend her hands and then appeared to be in some kind of trance.

Camila went over to Eda and was quite surprised to see that in addition to Raine doing CPR on her, so was Hart. "Why are you helping me save Eda's life?"

"Are you really in a position to deny my help if you don't like my motivations?" Hart asked.

"No."

"Then I suggest you shut up and let me save her," Hart said, and Camila did exactly that.

She took her healing glyphs out of her purse and pressed one against Camila's chest. They would work. They would have to work. She would make them work.

But they didn't. They didn't work, because she couldn't believe that they would. They didn't work because the world had broken her down and made her believe in pure rationality, that there was no magic in the world, that there was no hope in the world. They weren't working for the same reason that she had tried to send Luz to Camp Reality Check: Because she had given up.

Camila was no longer ready to give up. Losing Eda was simply an unacceptable outcome. It could not happen, because she would not permit it to happen. Not to someone she loved.

It's not real love, part of her screamed. You've been bespelled, you moron! And even if it was real love, who's to say they'd ever feel the same way back? What if you're just a tool to add spice to their relationship? They'll dump you in a hot minute!

She'd not been worthy of loving them. She never had been. How could she be? They were ultrapowerful, super-hot witches, and what was Camila? Just an ordinary nurse from Earth who couldn't even do healing magic.

"Camila…" Raine said, and all it took was that one word for her to know how ridiculous she was being. No one and nothing, not even the strongest love potion in the world, could fake that trusting, adoring look in their eyes. "I trust you."

Raine trusted her. They trusted her! And now, Camila decided, it was time to trust herself. It was time to trust her instincts, trust her feelings. So what if what she was feeling wasn't real? What she'd been feeling before getting bespelled was real. It would have become this real in time, Camila knew it. So she'd just skipped ahead a few steps. Big deal.

"I love you, Eda and Raine," Camila whispered, and then the glyph glowed a haunting blue color and the wound closed.

It had worked. She had healed herself, and in so doing, gained the ability to heal Eda.

"Awesome!" Eda said, almost knocking her over with a hug. "That was so awesome! The way that you just recorded the whole conversation! I never would have thought of that!"

Raine kissed Camila gently on the lips. "You love us, eh?"

Camila let out a nervous chuckle. "Can we have this conversation another time? All this fighting and emotional catharsis stuff left me wiped out."

"Want me to fly you home?" Eda asked her, transforming back into her harpy form. Camila let out a squeak and felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Or, you know, we can walk too. Whatever works for you."

"Yeah. Walking might be best."

The heist had been an unqualified success. Valefar had been charged with so many crimes that Raine could barely keep track of them. His lawyers tried their best to get him cleared, but in the end, there was only so much that they could do, given that their client had stabbed the prime minister in the chest in front of a plethora of extremely important individuals who were happily testifying against him. In the end, Valefar had no choice but to make a deal in order to avoid the death penalty, and gave up his associates in droves. His whole criminal organization collapsed overnight, and while another one would doubtlessly fill the power vacuum, the Isles were unquestionably a safer place.

Unfortunately, Hart did not appear to have suffered any from her association with Valefar, who either hadn't been willing or able to spill dirt on her. In fact, her political star was rising now. Her decision to help save Eda's life had been hailed as a stunning display of bipartisanship and a heroic act. Centrists who had doubts about her integrity were now flocking towards the Traditionalist Alliance. But on the other hand, Eda had gained a lot of political goodwill too by taking down Valefar and thwarting his plot to take over the Isles. In the end, it would probably end up balancing out.

Anyway, Raine was happy to leave the politics to the professionals. They would certainly never have any talent in that field. They did enough by supporting Eda. And there were a lot more important issues at hand to deal with.

It took a few days for them to get Eda and Camila to sit down with them for a talk. Camila kept on inventing excuses to avoid them, and Eda was genuinely busy with government business. But eventually, they'd worn Camila down. It was time to deal with this relationship stuff once and for all.

"Okay, I'd like to start off," Camila said. "I have to confess something to you." Raine felt like they were going to explode with excitement. Camila was about to confess her love for them! They'd been dreaming about this moment for ages.

"Lilith showed up at the Owl House a few days after our date," Camila went on. Huh? "She brought the love potion that Cat was going to use on Luz for you to analyze, Eda. But Hooty startled me and I spilled some on myself and now…now I'm in love with you both. And it's not real. The antidote wouldn't work! And I'm so sorry, but now that the Augmentation Chalice has been destroyed, I can't be with you. I can't consent when I've been bespelled like this, not truly."

Eda put up a hand before she could go any further. "Camila, did you get any in your mouth?"

"No," Camila said slowly, sounding confused. "It got onto my arms, but I didn't ingest any of it, if that's what you're asking."

"Then you're fine!" Eda said with a wide grin. "Love potion has to be ingested. Getting some on your skin ain't gonna cut it."

Camila's eyes widened in shock and then a smile slowly flitted across her face. "Then you're telling me that…that everything I've been feeling is real?! That I really love you?"

Raine reached out and kissed Camila on the cheek. "Not only that, but I love you too, Camila Noceda. And I would be truly honored if you would be my girlfriend."

Camila let out a joyful laugh. "Well…then yes! And I'd love it if you were my…?"

"Partner," Raine responded.

"I'd love it if you were my partner," Camila finished. "Eda, would you be my girlfriend?"

Eda opened and closed her mouth a few times. Raine could hardly believe what they were seeing. They hadn't seen her this flustered since she was a teenager! "Uh…yeah. Yeah, I would love that."

A flirty look formed on Camila's face. "You know, I'd sure love to kiss you in Harpy Beast form. Do you mind?"

Eda winked at her and transformed into the Harpy Beast. "I got no clue what about this thing gets people going, but I'm sure not complaining!" Camila grabbed her and kissed her with force and passion that Raine was left both shocked and aroused by. They weren't complaining either about having the chance to watch that.

After that, the three of them settled down on the couch to watch another movie on Eda's television. Eda enfolded the two of them in her wings, and Raine knew that whatever happened in the movie, the three of them would definitely end up living happily ever after.

The movie, called The Satanic Rites of Dracula, was easily one of the worst that Raine could envision. This was, according to Camila, the point. After the terrifying events of the heist, she wanted to watch a movie where she could laugh at the so-called dangers. She got what she wanted there, that was for sure.

"OH MY GOD, YOU'RE TOGETHER NOW!" a voice shrieked and Raine nearly jumped out of their skin. That had been far more startling than any vampire could ever be. Luz practically leaped across the room and was alarmingly close to their faces far quicker than Raine thought humans were capable of moving.

Camila nodded. "That's right, mija. We're all in a relationship now. It just happened, actually. I wanted to tell you in person, but I guess that's done now!"

"This is so amazing!" Luz said, jumping up and down now. "When I found out that your so-called date was just a cover for a heist, I was like, no! Because the three of you were so cute together! But now you're together anyway, and that's so awesome!"

Raine smiled fondly at her. "I'm so glad that you approve, Luz. That means a great deal to me."

Luz nodded slowly. "I really feel like I should be calling you something other than Raine. I mean, you're dating both my moms now. You're like family."

Raine shook their head. "Luz, you can call me whatever you feel comfortable with. I'm perfectly fine with you just calling me Raine. If I'm honest, I actually do prefer it."

"Okay, then. Raine it is." Her face abruptly became serious. "But I want to warn you right now. If you hurt my mom, either one of them, mami is going to bring out la chancla. And you are not going to like it when she brings out la chancla." Then her face turned back to her normal perky expression. "Enjoy the movie!"

Raine gulped. "Camila, what is la chancla?" Camila just gave them a completely unconvincing expression of bewilderment. "Eda, what is la chancla?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good."

Camila smiled sweetly. "I'm sure that neither of you will have to find out."

For their first real date with Eda and Camila together – and, no, the heist decidedly had not counted as that, despite Eda's assertions to the contrary – Raine wanted to do something utterly special. The only problem was that they were still too unfamiliar with human romance to figure out what that might be. They'd watched romantic comedies, which, despite their name, Raine hadn't found all that funny, but suspected that they were wildly inaccurate.

Fortunately, Stan's niece Mabel was a love expert. According to her, she'd once matched a goat and a pig together, and though Raine didn't actually know what either of those things were, it certainly sounded like an impressive achievement given the way she talked about it. Together, the two of them had concocted a surefire plan that Mabel assured them would make the most romantic date in the Human Realm that was physically possible.

Then, because Mabel had sounded like she had a tendency to go a lot overboard sometimes, Raine had proceeded to run the plan past Mabel's wife Pacifica, who had promptly vetoed over half of Mabel's suggestions and added a few more of her own. After that, they consulted Dipper and his wife Wendy. They'd gone pretty overboard with the vetoing in Raine's opinion, who had added back some of the suggestions they'd taken out. In the end, the end product looked ridiculously solid.

"I don't understand why I've been blindfolded here," Camila complained as Eda and Raine led her over to the portal.

"It's supposed to be a surprise," Raine said patiently. "A very romantic surprise."

The two of them led her through the portal into the human realm, and Eda removed the blindfold. Camila looked distinctly unimpressed. "Oh, lovely. It's an alleyway. Have you been getting romantic tips from Stan again? Because I specifically told you not to do that. Either he's deliberately lying about human romance or he's utterly inept at that."

"Oh, ye of little faith," Eda said, and led her out of the alleyway and into the streets of Paris. Camila gasped as she saw the gargantuan arch – the Arc de Triomphe according to the guidebook Eda had managed to acquire – standing in front of her. "I formally retract my statement," Camila whispered.

Eda gestured at the arch with such pride that one would mistake her for having built it. "We're giving you the most romantic human date possible, because you're so special and you deserve it so much!"

Camila let out a squeal. "This is sensational! I always dreamed of seeing Paris, but there never seemed to be enough money in the budget for it. Thank you so much for this. Both of you."

Raine had set the itinerary, so they led their girlfriends (they had girlfriends now!) over to the first item on the agenda, seeing the art museum known as the Louvre. The museum was absolutely gargantuan, making the largest art museum in the Boiling Isles look pathetic by comparison. Then again, the Isles had never been known for their thriving art scene.

They'd been worried about showing too much affection in public, but no one appeared to be giving the three of them a second glance when they all kissed each other. Mabel had said that the French were more understanding of such things. Then again, perhaps it was just that no one really gave a damn about what three tourists were doing in such a crowded space.

Human art was extremely fascinating. In a way, it resembled its own form of bard magic. Objectively speaking, it was just paint arranged in unique ways. But subjectively, it brought so many brilliant emotions to the forefront, to the point where Raine almost felt overwhelmed by it. Each time they felt that way, though, they just had to look at their beautiful girlfriends and they'd find that they were anchored once more.

After seeing the Louvre, the three of them got lunch at a nearby café. Raine still found human food dull and tasteless by comparison to the food available in the Isles, but they had to admit that the French definitely a good job at trying to make it delicious, especially their cheese. It was strange, but the three of them hadn't seemed to need to talk very much so far. It was almost as if whatever needed to be said was just being said without words. Raine was very content to just bask in the company of Camila and Eda and enjoy the beautiful Parisian skyline.

After lunch, the three of them climbed the Eiffel Tower. There was a device that could have gotten them up to the top much faster, but Camila had insisted on climbing, as the views were sensational. Raine had to agree with that, although their aching feet vehemently tried their best to protest otherwise.

Either way, the view from the top was worth it. Raine couldn't help but shed a few tears when they saw it. The city spread out almost as far as the eye could see. It made Bonesborough look like a small town in comparison. It was…humbling, in a way. Was this what Amity had felt like when she had seen Seattle from the top of the Space Needle?

"I wish I could turn into the Harpy Beast right now, carry you two and show you this city from the air," Eda mused. "But, you know, I'd probably get shot and drop the two of you, so, yeah, that's not a real good idea. Man, this is so stunning."

"I can think of something that's more stunning," Camila said. "Actually…two somethings." And then she kissed each of them, one after the other, in quick succession. "I'm just…so happy right now. I never imagined my life could be this good."

"How's the healing magic going?" Raine asked her.

Camila gave a wide smile. "Now that I can use the glyphs, I'm improving my progress in them by leaps and bounds. My knowledge of human healing methods is an asset now, not a liability. I just wish that I could use them when I get back to Earth. But I can't. No one there can know that magic is real."

Eda kissed her on the forehead. "Maybe one day, your people will be in a place where we can reveal the secret. For now, all that matters to me is that my favorite humans know that magic is real."

After they were done at the Eiffel Tower, they spent most of the afternoon just wandering around Paris, soaking up the sights and trying to stop Eda from shoplifting expensive clothing and shiny jewelry. They appeared to be mostly successful in that regard, although Raine had a sneaking suspicion that they hadn't managed to get everything.

Finally, the three of them had dinner at L'Ambroisie, which according to Dipper had maintained a 3-star Michelin rating for over thirty years. Raine didn't know what that was either, but context suggested that this was a very good thing. It also turned out to be a very expensive thing, but Eda assured them that she had things handled on the money front. Raine really hoped that it didn't mean that they were going to dine and dash. It probably didn't. Eda had to know that doing such a thing would have completely ruined the date.

"I'm just…still in shock over all this," Camila said. "I mean, magic is one thing, but I'm sitting in one of the fanciest restaurant in Paris with my two partners now, and it's just…amazing. You know, when I sent Luz to summer camp, never in a billion years could I have ever envisioned that anything like this would happen."

Eda gave her a warm and tender smile. "Well, as much as I hate saying it, I'm kind of glad you did. If you hadn't, I never would have met you or Luz."

Camila sighed. "It's going to be a shame to give all this up when the summer is over, even if it's only going to be for a while." She took a deep breath. "I've made a decision, and I want you to know that I've given it a great deal of thought. It's one that I've been trying to make for a while now, and this just pushed it over the edge. When Luz becomes an adult, I intend to permanently move to the Boiling Isles."

Eda gave her a high five. "All right! I mean, I was kind of hoping."

"The fact that I have two people I'm in love with there just sealed the deal. Luz was never meant for life on Earth, and I'm only now just starting to realize that I wasn't either. The Isles were always my destiny, even if I didn't know it."

Eda reached out and squeezed Camila's hand. "Love you, Cammy."

"I love you too, Eda the Harpy Lady."

Eda should have known better to expect Lilith to have anything more than a calm Hexus Hold 'Em face when she stormed into her office in full Harpy Beast form. While most witches would have peed their pants in fear, to Lilith, it was barely worthy of her looking up from her paperwork.

"I had a lovely chat with Hooty this morning," Eda said. "Turns out that when you pay him the slightest amount of attention, he spills the beans on everything." Aha. Most witches wouldn't have noticed it, but Eda knew each and every one of Lilith's tells, and the fact that her sister had folded her hands meant that she was making her nervous. Good. She should be. "Including, but not limited to the fact that you were the one who fed us the information about the Augmentation Chalice and Valefar's defenses."

Lilith relaxed. "That's a fascinating theory, Edalyn. Though I certainly don't admit to anything, let us say, for the sake of argument, that it's true. In that case, it would have been because my niece was targeted by a sadistic bastard and I was willing to do anything to bring him down, including, yes, manipulating you into conducting a highly illegal heist. Not to mention stopping Valefar from doing whatever evil things he wanted to do with the Chalice." She grimaced. "I certainly didn't expect you to bring Luz's biological mother into it, though. That wasn't the wisest choice you've ever made, although I suppose it worked out in the end."

Eda stalked over to her and now real fear registered on Lilith's face. "He also told me that the two of you plotted to place Camila in a position where she'd think she was bespelled!" Hooty had proudly announced that he had ambushed Camila at just the right moment for her to be startled into dropping the vial. "How could you be so irresponsible? What if she'd somehow ingested it?!"

"Nothing would have happened!" Lilith said, looking frantic. "It was just colored water in the vial! I knew she had hang-ups because of her human mores, and I thought that if she thought she was bespelled, the placebo effect would have done the rest."

Eda slammed her fist on the desk. "It didn't help, Lilith! Instead, you freaked her out, and you nearly ruined our entire relationship! Hell, you nearly got me killed because Camila's insecurities were standing in the way of her ability to use healing magic!"

Lilith slumped back in her chair. "I'm so sorry, Eda. I had no idea. I was honestly just trying to help. Please tell me that there's some way of making up for it."

Eda smirked at her. "Well, actually, there is. You can take my place at my meeting with the ambassador from THE REALMS FROM BEYOND THE SHADOWS." That dude had been a persistent thorn in her side for ages. No one knew exactly where THE REALMS FROM BEYOND THE SHADOWS were, or why they were always written, spoken, and thought of in full caps, but the one thing Eda did know is that the shadow creature that served as its ambassador was an asshole.

"But the ambassador is a pompous, misogynistic twit," Lilith whined.

"Okay, it's either that or I'll never speak to you again," Eda said. "Take your pick."

"Damn you."

With that out of the way, Eda was able to use her meeting time to do what she'd been planning to do all along, only without the downside of invoking a diplomatic incident with THE REALMS FROM BEYOND THE SHADOWS. (One day, she'd figure out how to think that in lowercase…and how one could think things in uppercase in the first place.)

With the windows open in the Owl House constantly now except for in times of boiling rain, Eda was able to fly in using her Harpy Beast form without raising any eyebrows. It was nice to be able to be her true self around Camila, especially as she was often quite insatiable around said true self. But this wasn't the time for that, so she quickly transferred back into her normal form. It was time for a much more important thing. Luz's mysterious project was over and now Eda was finally going to learn what it was.

Luz and her friends, along with Camila and Raine, had already gathered in the living room of the Owl House, and were waiting for her. "Okay!" Luz said, clapping her hands. "Well, the first thing I should let you know is that the ever-so-responsible Willow was hugely helpful in overseeing this project."

"Only because I didn't want to be responsible for you getting yourselves hurt doing it yourself," Willow muttered.

"So without further ado, I have a gift for you, mami, to thank you for being you," Luz said. "It's something that we worked super hard on, pushing the boundaries of magic, just to make this gift!" Amity nudged Luz. "Oh, right, and my awesome girlfriend wants to say a few words!"

Amity gave a warm smile at Camila. "Camila, you're the first adult in my life that's shown me real, genuine love. The love that my parents should have shown, but never did. You showed me that I can really belong in a family, not because I've earned it, but because I'm just me."

"Oh, Amity," Camila said, sounding touched. "I'm so grateful that I'm so important to you."

"As a small token of the love I have for you," Amity went on, "I also made you a gift. And, if I may brag for a few moments, it's actually much more impressive than Luz's gift. Well, from a magical perspective." Luz gave her an indulgent look that indicated that she did not agree with her in the slightest, but was holding back to keep from hurting her feelings. Ah, young love. "But Luz will give you her gift first."

Luz used a summoning glyph to make a large, leather bound book appear in front of her. Camila opened it and gasped in astonishment at what she saw inside. Eda walked over and looked at what turned out to be a photo album, seeming to exclusively contained pictures of a handsome, distinguished looking man in his mid-thirties, taken at very, very close range. She realized that these were all pictures of Luz's father.

"Luz, where did you find all of these?" Camila said, sounding shocked. "I don't remember taking any of these."

"That's because you didn't! We extracted them from my memories!"

Camila gasped. "So that's why they all look like they were shot at such a close range. This is incredible! And you did this all for me?"

Luz looked uncharacteristically serious. "Let's be honest here, mami. Not many parents would have let me be here, even part of the time, when they heard about how dangerous it was here. Not many parents would have known me well enough to know that this was a part of who I am. You did. And that's why you're an amazing mami."

Camila reached out and gave Luz an extremely tight hug, tears flowing openly down her face. "Ninguna madre ha sido bendecida con una hija mejor," she said, sobs making her unfamiliar language even more difficult for Eda to understand. "I love you so much."

Once everyone had calmed down, Camila looked over at Amity to see what her gift would be. Amity cast a summoning circle, and a videotape, just like the ones that Eda, Raine, and Camila had been watching movies on, appeared in her hand. "I wanted to do something extraordinarily special for you. No one has ever blended magic and human technology in such a manner…until now. Until me. And no one has ever deserved receiving a gift of such an unprecedented nature until you."

"This is just fancy talk for 'she wanted to upstage me,'" Luz said in a joking tone. Amity let out a giggle and kissed Luz on the cheek.

Amity went over and put the tape in the VCR. When it started playing, Eda wasn't actually certain what she was looking at. Everything was blurry and bright and the image quality was absolutely horrible, but eventually, she caught a few details. The video appeared to be of some sort of hospital room? There was a loud crying sound over everything.

Camila gasped, looking completely gobsmacked. "No…it's not possible."

Eda didn't get it. Then the crying stopped and the camera showed a younger, disheveled Camila lying in a hospital bed, looking at the screen with an expression of infinite wonder. "It's a girl," she said in the video. "Eduardo, it's a girl! ¡Es nuestra propria hija! What should we name her?"

"Luz," Eduardo said, no doubt in the voice in any way whatsoever. "She will be the light of our lives, and we will call her Luz."

"Then Luz it is."

The video turned off. Amity offered an apologetic smile. "It was really hard to get that footage. We had to face down Luz's inner self, which was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. But we got it. It was…it was really scary to experience. Everything was so bright and so loud, and Luz was so frightened. But then she saw you, Camila, and she knew that everything would be all right. And she was right."

"I spoke to Dad," Luz said eagerly. Wait, hang on a second. What? That didn't make any sense at all. "He told me that he was totally cool with the three of you dating. I was right. He just wants you to be happy."

Camila looked freaked out at this. "We spoke to a construct of Eduardo in Luz's subconscious," Amity clarified. "I'm not asserting that he's the real thing. But perhaps Luz is right and he's a fragment of Eduardo's soul trying to look after his daughter. Who knows?" Camila breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hang on a second," Raine said. "Those were your memories of being born, Luz? I thought humans didn't have any memories from their earliest years."

"The memories are there, they're just blocked," Amity explained, more than a little smugness in her tone. And, in Eda's opinion, it was more than justified. To bypass infantile amnesia and somehow create a video of being born was one of the most incredible feats of magic Eda had ever seen. "I'm sorry the footage wasn't very good."

Camila laughed. "You're sorry? Amity, this is literally the most incredible thing I've ever seen! Both of you are absolutely incredible. Luz, so many people would be absolutely petrified of their girlfriend seeing their baby pictures, yet you got your girlfriend to help you make more! And, Amity, you advanced the field of magic solely to make me happy. That's…astonishing. I love you both."

She wrapped both of them in a hug. They all just let that moment drag on for ages, no one wanting to break it, because it was perfect.

There was magic in the world now, Camila knew. Both literally and metaphorically. She could do real magic, and she had the magic of having two loving partners, plus an amazing daughter and daughter-in-law-to-be. Everything was great, and for the first time, she didn't feel that stab of hurt that Eduardo was not there to enjoy it, because she knew that he was.

As she flipped through the photo album of Luz's memories of her father just before bed, Camila couldn't help but let out a contented sigh, completely and utterly at peace. "Buenas noches, Eduardo. Te amo."