Amity Serrano was seven years old when she discovered her destiny, and, like a lot of people, she discovered hers in a library. She'd been a lonely child. She had very few friends. Anyone who made the effort of trying to be friends with her soon discovered that it just put a target on their back, and backed away. Amity couldn't blame them, but it still made her sad every time it happened.
It really didn't make any sense to her why people hated her. Sure, her ears were pointy, but people came in all different shapes and sizes. It didn't make her some sort of a freak of nature, like her bullies called her. And while Em and Ed came to her defense the best they could, they were still two grades above her and couldn't come to her defense all the time. Besides, it made Amity embarrassed to have to rely on her siblings to defend her. She wanted to be able to defend herself.
While people would abandon or even betray her, books never would. But the librarian in her elementary school was scary and seemed to hate everyone. Every time Amity tried to check out a book, she could feel her judgment, even if she didn't say anything. According to the librarian, she was reading books that were way too advanced for her. Amity didn't know about that. It seemed to her that maybe it wasn't anyone's business what she was reading but herself.
At any rate, Amity was not one to give up, and since her school library wasn't a fun place to be, she found solace in the public library instead. She lived just a block away from her local library, and it was close enough that her mami let her walk there alone whenever she wanted to, as long as her mami knew where she was going. And there, she found that the librarians didn't care about how advanced her reading was. They just wanted her to find the right books for her.
In time, she managed to strike up a friendship with the children's librarian, Miss Hopper. It was rumored by the kids that Miss Hopper was a witch, the kind that ate children and lived in a gingerbread house. One kid said she saw her move stuff with her mind once. Well, if Miss Hopper was a witch, she definitely hid it well. Amity didn't believe in those kind of things anyway, and even if it was true, all she had to do was make sure she didn't get invited back to Miss Hopper's gingerbread house in the woods. She was sure as heck smarter than Hansel and Gretel, after all.
Anyway, Miss Hopper was super nice to Amity. She never treated Amity like she was stupid just because she was a kid. Or weird because she had pointy ears and stimmed. Miss Hopper treated her as a friend, and her reading recommendations were top notch. One day, the day she discovered her destiny, Miss Hopper gave her a book entitled So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Amity was skeptical.
"Kind of a weird title, don't you think?" Amity asked her.
"It's not a series for everyone," Miss Hopper admitted. "It's not as pedestrian as Harry Potter. But I have a feeling, Amity, that it is precisely what you need."
Miss Hopper, as always, was right. Amity forgot she had checked out the book for a while, but when an especially rainy day trapped her indoors, she rediscovered it and set out to read it. She found herself enthralled by the story told, lost in the book in a way that she hadn't been in ages.
Nita Callahan, a girl who loved books and got bullied for reasons that barely made any sense to her (just like Amity!), discovered a mysterious book at her local library. It turned out to be a magical text that allowed her to become a wizard. But unlike Harry Potter's style of wizardry, the kind of wizardry that Nita had came with responsibilities. Wizards had to fight against the Lone Power, the embodiment of evil and inventor of death, in an effort to slow down the death of the universe. When granted power, they had to face a test, an Ordeal, where they would fight directly against the Lone Power and thwart its evil schemes. With the help of her friend Kit, Nita passed her Ordeal and took her rightful place as a wizard.
It should be noted at this point that Amity was of an age and a maturity level that she could distinguish fiction from reality. When she recited the Wizard's Oath, the words that signified one taking on one's responsibility as a wizard, she didn't truly expect anything to happen. So when she tried to cast a spell to stop the rain so she could go outside and play, just for kicks, she was stunned when the rain actually stopped.
Her first reaction was joy. Elation, really. She finally had an answer as to why she was so strange, why she was the unique way that she was. It was because she was meant to become a wizard! And then her reaction turned to fear. What if the rain never started again?! Crops would die! People would starve to death!
So she cast another spell and the rain was restored like it never left. At that point, Amity knew it wasn't just a coincidence. It wasn't a fluke. Amity Serrano was a wizard. And soon, she'd have to face her Ordeal.
Except she never did. She waited for years and years, but the closest thing she got to an Ordeal was facing down the lunchroom's mystery meat. To be fair, it was eerily plausible that that stuff was the work of the Lone Power, but still, Amity was pretty sure she was meant for something more important than that.
As time went on, she had to concede that Duane got some of the details wrong. She never got a Manual, for example – the magical artifact that one could access to learn whatever pertinent information one needed to accomplish one's wizardly assignments. And she couldn't use the Speech, the ability that wizards had to communicate with anything, including inanimate objects and the weather.
Most people would have figured they had been wrong, that it was just a coincidence both times. That they did not have magic. That they were not a wizard. Except Amity knew that was hogwash, because she'd used her magic for other feats that really couldn't be classified as anything other than supernatural. She had magic; she'd acquired it after taking the Wizard's Oath; she was a wizard. It was simple and obvious. And she knew that one day, she'd get her Ordeal and join the broader wizarding community. After all, the Powers that ran the universe were very busy. Amity could barely handle all the homework she had to handle every night. If she had the workload of a Power, she'd probably be forgetting to do a lot of things.
Amity happily told just about everyone she knew about her wizardly status. She realized later in retrospect that this had not been a smart idea, but fortunately she was of an age where such comments were met with comments about what a great imagination she had instead of people worrying about her mental health. No one believed her, but that was okay. Well, it did kind of hurt that Mami didn't believe her. But then again, Nita's own parents hadn't believed her until she took them to the Moon, and Amity wasn't quite confident enough in her magical skills to be able to do that safely.
When she told Miss Hopper about all of this, she had expected her not to believe either. But Miss Hopper instead took her out to the small garden attached to the library and asked her to prove it. So Amity did. She made the plants grow. Not very much, but the growth was noticeable.
And then Miss Hopper did something entirely unexpected. She summoned a chair to where she was standing with the power of her mind and sat down on it. "Are you a wizard too?!" Amity said eagerly. "Are you supposed to be my Senior?" A Senior Wizard was basically the equivalent of one's mentor and supervisor. "Do you know why I haven't gotten my Ordeal yet?"
Miss Hopper telekinetically summoned another chair for Amity and Amity sat down on it. "No, sweetie, I'm not a wizard. There's no such thing as a wizard. Diane Duane made all that up. My powers were forced on me by very bad men. You, on the other hand, were probably born with yours. I can train you in your powers, if you'll let me."
Amity nodded eagerly. Miss Hopper was going to train her in magic! She could honestly think of nothing cooler. "Mami's going to be so happy to hear that! She didn't believe me, but she'll believe you, because you're an adult!"
Miss Hopper sighed. "Amity, I'd love to say you're right, but in truth, there's no telling how your mother would react. I could cause you more harm than good. We'll have to do our training in secret. How about I tutor you in your schoolwork…and when we're done, I'll tutor you in your powers? Or your magic, however you want to think of it."
Amity didn't understand exactly what Miss Hopper meant by that. How could telling Mami that her daughter was extraordinary do her any harm? But Miss Hopper was smart and she had survived the very bad men who had bestowed her powers upon her, so Amity supposed she knew what she was talking about. Still, the idea of lying to her mami wasn't one she liked. "Wizards aren't supposed to lie," she reminded Miss Hopper. Lying was extremely frowned upon if you were a wizard. Wizards could not lie with the Speech and were charged not to lie with their regular language.
"Well, I'm not a wizard," Miss Hopper pointed out. "You won't be the one lying. I really will tutor you for school. I'll just be providing some extra tutoring, free of charge."
"Okay," Amity said. "When do we start?"
The answer to that question turned out to be right then and there. Amity soon discovered that her powers could enable her to do incredible things. She could read people's minds if she really concentrated, form creatures out of mud or sand, and even blast holes in things. Every weekday, she received training with Miss Hopper, either at their tutoring sessions or at the library. Camila was none the wiser.
As the years went on, Amity's training sessions with Miss Hopper continued, and she continued expanding the boundaries of her own magic. There were moments when her belief in her wizardry wavered. But all she had to do was cast a spell and she knew that she was destined for greater things. She stopped telling people about her wizardry after she'd been sent to the school psychiatrist for it, but that was okay.
And if she used her magic to maybe thwart bullies every so often, well, that was just reducing entropy in the long run, wasn't it? Perfectly permissible.
Years passed and Miss Hopper became friends with Camila. Very good friends. And one day, when Amity was twelve, Camila and Jane, as she insisted that Amity call her now, sat Amity down and informed her that the two of them were dating. Amity was shocked. She had known that it was possible for women to like other women that way, but really only in the abstract. She'd never met anyone who was like that. Camila clarified that while Jane liked only other women, she liked both men and women.
And she had made it very clear to Amity that no matter who Amity liked, she would be loved and supported.
Amity was happy for her parents – whoops, her mother and her tutor – but she had bigger things on her mind. And that bigger thing was Clara, head cheerleader at her middle school. Amity had been doing a group project with her in science, and for some reason, she had a lot of trouble getting Clara's face out of her head. Her heart seemed to speed up whenever she looked at her.
And now she knew why. She knew she liked girls, exclusively. It took her months to work up the courage to tell her mami that. Thankfully, Camila reacted just as well as Amity had hoped she would. Amity wasn't so keen on working up the courage to tell Clara she liked her though. She was scared Clara would think she was gross. Clara had somehow become a true friend during that time, and she didn't want to risk that friendship just because of some silly crush that she thought would go away in time.
Finally, though, when she was fourteen, Amity's crush on Clara was becoming so distracting for her that she realized she had to do something about it, lest it slip out at an even worse moment. So, rambling embarrassingly, she had confessed her feelings towards Clara, and asked her out on a date.
Clara had rejected her.
Not in the way Amity feared, admittedly. Clara just told her she was really flattered, but she didn't like girls that way. She insisted that they still remained friends. She was adamant that their friendship should not disintegrate because of feelings Amity couldn't help and that she could never return. She said all the right things, and Amity didn't hear any of them. The feeling of rejection, of heartbreak, was so strong that she just ran off, ignoring Clara shouting at her to come back, that she didn't mean to hurt her.
That didn't matter anyway. Amity was just as hurt.
So she ran off to the old abandoned house in the woods, the one everyone said was infested with ghosts, the one Jane said gave her a really bad feeling. Amity didn't care about that anymore. Her Ordeal had never arrived, her best friend had rejected her, and she was feeling like there'd never be any more light in the world. Her emotions were haunting her. The ghosts would have to wait in line.
Inside, there were no ghosts. Only a mysterious door with an eye emblazoned on it. Amity knew, instinctively, in her bones, that this was it. Her destiny had arrived. On the other side of the door was her Ordeal.
And then she'd ran through, tripped on what turned out to be a frying pan, gotten her head stuck in a bucket, and hit her head on the floor. Not an auspicious beginning to her Ordeal, to be sure.
"And, well, you know the rest," Amity said, concluding telling all of this to Luz. "That's the whole story!"
Amity did not lie directly, but she did lie by omission, and she had left out one critical detail from the story. She left out the detail where waiting for her when the bucket was taken off her head was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Best not to tell Luz that yet. Her heart still stung from Clara's rejection, even if it was hard to think about Clara when gazing at Luz's pretty face.
That pretty face was now filled with…well, skepticism. Not complete disbelief, as so many people before her had reacted when Amity had revealed her wizardry to them. But skepticism, nonetheless. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"
"No!" Luz said firmly. "Definitely not. I just think maybe you're, you know, wrong? I don't think you're a wizard, Amity. I think you're a witch."
Amity rolled her eyes. "We're seriously going to quibble about gendered terms here? I can call myself a wizard even if I'm a girl."
Luz shook her head. "That's not what I mean! I mean, you're not human. The dominant species of the Boiling Isles, they're called witches. They look human on the outside, but they have a bile sac – like you do – that allows them to do magic. You must have been born here."
Huh. Amity had never thought there was a biological reason for her magic, but it did make sense. It was a much more plausible theory than she was some sort of bizarre mutant. But that only explained how she could do magic. It didn't explain why. "That may be true, but it doesn't disprove what I said."
Luz pursed her lips, looking thoughtful. "Yeah. I mean…the multiverse is a strange place. Maybe this universe does have wizards like in the books. But I'm still not persuaded. You can't use the Speech; you don't have a Manual; you haven't been on an Ordeal. Please don't take this the wrong way, but you haven't offered any proof at all."
Amity's first reaction was anger. Luz lived in a magical world. She, of all people, should have believed her. But then she realized she was being unfair. It was a huge thing to ask someone to believe. The whole thing made her sound like she had delusions of grandeur. It made her look arrogant and out of touch with reality. Luz had been super nice in response. And it hadn't been just to humor her either. She really was willing to give Amity the benefit of the doubt, even if she didn't agree.
"Well, maybe we'll find some proof," Amity suggested. "I hope it doesn't take too long. My mami and my siblings must be worried sick about me. And Clara. I shouldn't have ran from her…"
Luz shook her head. "Amity, you did what you had to do. It's not like you cursed her." A grimace flashed across her face briefly. Had she known someone who had been cursed?
There was no time to ask her that question, and, in any case, it was too personal for Amity to ask right now anyway. Luz brought her back to the Owl House. It turned out to be aptly named, as Amity soon discovered when she met the demon who comprised it.
"Oh, boy!" Hooty said enthusiastically. "I just met you, but I can tell that we're going to be the best of friends!"
"I'd be honored by your friendship," Amity said politely. One could never have enough friends, even if one of them was a highly annoying house demon. "I'm Amity Serrano. I'll be staying here for…a while." She successfully fought back tears at the fear that she would never go back home. "That is, if it's okay with you?"
Hooty's mouth dropped open with astonishment. Amity had a hunch that this was the first time in ages that anyone had asked for his permission about anything. "You're my best friend forever, Amity! Of course you can stay here!"
Luz looked highly impressed. "Wow. I thought you said you weren't good at making friends?"
"I'm good at making friends," Amity responded. "I'm bad at keeping them."
As soon as they walked into the house, Amity was met with the cutest looking creature she had ever seen in her life. It looked vaguely like a dog, but its head was a skull and it didn't appear to have a mouth. "Holy smokes, that thing is cute."
"He's not a thing," Luz chastised her. "He's my little brother, and his name is King."
"Yes!" King shouted. "I am the all-powerful King of Demons, and this is my sister, the Princess of Demons! Kneel before me!"
Amity knelt before the King of Demons without a single instant of hesitation. It cost her nothing to do so, and she had insulted him. She was pretty sure that he was too cute to really be the King of Demons, but in the event that he was, it did not pay to piss him off. "I apologize, Your Majesty. It was wrong of me to belittle you in such a fashion. I am but a humble peasant, but I request your hospitality in these lodgings until such a time as the portal to Earth is repaired and I can return to my family."
King looked taken aback. Clearly, no one had reacted to him in such a manner in quite some time. "Oh. Um, yes, I hereby grant you permission to stay in this house. By my royal authority. But remember, miscreant: I require frequent belly rubs!"
Luz giggled and gave him his required belly rub. "He's just a cutie pie at heart."
"I am wise and beneficent to my subjects!" King protested. "It's not the same thing!"
Luz kissed him on the forehead and tried to tickle him, causing King to run away with a shriek. "It's really nice of you to humor him like that, Amity. He's not a real king, but…you know, who are we to burst his bubble?"
Amity had a hunch that all this humoring King would come back to haunt them eventually, but it certainly wasn't any of her business. She took a seat on the couch, hoping that it wouldn't turn out to be alive or something like that, and then the sheer weight of what was before her sank in. She was in another universe. She didn't have her mother, siblings, or Jane to help her out. And somehow, she had to defeat a tyrant so powerful that he'd managed to place the entirety of this realm under his ironclad grasp.
It was just too much to ask of a fourteen year old. But she'd made a bargain with the Powers and she would die before she broke it. That was the problem, though. What if it was too much for her? What if she died in pursuit of her destiny?
"Hey, um, I know you're down but…I've got something that could cheer you up!" Luz said. "Be right back!"
Luz ran off and returned a few minutes later with a very unexpected object in her hand. It wasn't anything that in her ordinary life would be strange. In the Demon Realm, though, it was the last thing she expected to see. It was a Kindle.
"This is my Kindle," Luz explained. "It's an electronic device that – what the hell am I explaining this to you for? You know already. There's no internet access with the portal destroyed, but there's lots of books downloaded onto here."
"How do you charge it without the portal?" Amity wondered.
"Lightning spell. Eda has to do it. Don't try doing it yourself; you'll get electrocuted."
Amity took the Kindle from Luz, touched by her generosity. It was a small matter to her, probably, but to Amity, it was rare to get gestures of kindness from people her age, and it meant so much. "Thank you."
"Looks like drama is nearing, hoot hoot!" Hooty announced as he opened the door and let Eduardo and a woman who must have been Eda into the house.
"For the last time, Eddie, it was to protect you!" Eda said, sounding like she'd indeed made that argument repeatedly. "So if you needed to defend the portal, you could!"
"How exactly could I have defended the portal with guns you didn't bother telling me about?" Eduardo retorted. "You are this close to sleeping on the couch, mi búho!"
Eda appeared to notice Amity for the first time and, eager for an excuse that got the heat off of her for a few seconds, walked up to her and made a pose she probably thought made her look impressive. "I'm Eda Clawthorne, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles! Rebel, entrepreneur, mother, this lady does it all! You've met my wonderful, forgiving husband Eduardo and my daughter Luz already, of course."
Amity's treasonous cheeks turned pink at the thought of Luz. She had been so kind and polite and one could not forget about beautiful, and Powers, she was getting a crush on her. Well, that wasn't good. Her last crush had ended horribly. She didn't even know if witches were able to be attracted to the same sex, much less whether Luz was. "She's been very nice," she said in response to Eda's statement.
Eda nodded slowly. "How's about we have a little chat in private?"
She led Amity to a door, down a cavernous set of steps, and into a basement. She put an arm around Amity's shoulder. It was a friendly, gentle touch, but carried with it the implication that it could become unfriendly in a hurry. "You know why they call me the Owl Lady? Well, it's for a lot of reasons. One of them is that I have super good eyesight."
"It's daytime," Amity pointed out. "Owls have good eyesight in the nighttime. Their daytime vision sucks."
Eda rolled her eyes and withdrew her arm. "You are just like Luz. What I'm getting at is that I can see how you've been looking at my daughter." Amity let out an undignified squeak. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble! I get it! She's quite the catch – she is my kid, after all. But Luz just went through a breakup. Like, today. So…if you want to pursue her, you might want to give her some time. That's just advice, not a threat or anything."
"I like your daughter," Amity admitted. "She's smart and nice and pretty. But I'm not ready to ask anyone out right now. I just got rejected and it hurt. A lot. But…um, if I do want to ask her out later, do I stand a chance?"
Eda tilted her head. "How would I know that?"
"Does she like girls?" Amity clarified.
"Ah! Yeah, Luz swings both ways. She's super out about it, don't worry." Well, that was nice to know. "And, um, it's none of my business how you swing, but you should know you don't have to worry about homophobia. We don't really have that here. I mean, there are a few jerks, but all in all, you could scream you liked girls from the rooftops and no one would give a shitake mushroom." Amity giggled. "Eddie says I'm not supposed to use swears in front of King because he's impressionable, and I guess I just got used to not using them at all."
Eda reached out and squeezed both Amity's wrists. "We're going to do everything we can to get you home. I'm not going to lie to you and pretend it's a sure thing. But if it can be done, I'll do it."
"Thank you, Mrs. Clawthorne."
Eda gagged. "Look, I got two rules: You break Luz's heart, I break your legs; and no one is to call me Mrs. Clawthorne. Ever. You call me Eda, or Eda the Owl Lady if you need to do formal carp. Now you can repay me by begging Eddie to not make me sleep on the couch."
Amity tried to persuade Eduardo to not have Eda sleep on the couch, but her heart wasn't in it, mostly because she agreed with him. She had hidden a huge secret from her husband, one that had nearly gotten him killed, and now she had to pay the price. Sure enough, her entreaties had gone nowhere, especially when Luz and King had evaded taking a stance on the matter.
Amity, on the other hand, ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag stashed in the attic. According to Eduardo, Hooty would be able to grow a new guest bedroom for her, but it would take a few weeks. Amity did not want to think at all about what such a process entailed. It would probably break her sanity, if she wasn't insane already and hallucinating everything that had happened.
It had hurt to spend the night in the Owl House, knowing that her family was worried sick about her, but it couldn't be helped. She was confident she'd be able to get the portal repaired after her Ordeal was finished. Anyway, it was probably for the best. She was absolutely certain that Mami would never let her participate in her Ordeal, given how dangerous it was going to be.
The next morning, Eda announced that she had to get someone else to make her daily rounds delivering potions of dubious legality she had sold to the unsuspecting masses. Wrath had recanted his testimony against Eduardo, but the unwanted attention meant it was probably best that Eda keep a low profile for the time being. Eduardo had to go to his own job working at the Bonesborough Devourer, the local newspaper, so he was out of the running. Thus, Luz was the designated deliverer.
"I'd like to go with her," Amity requested.
"You sure?" Eda said. "Bonesborough can be pretty overwhelming for a newcomer, especially someone from Earth. I don't want to stress you out."
"It's better than sitting around all day and worrying about never seeing my family again," Amity retorted. "It'll give me a chance to get some fresh air and meet people."
Eda shrugged. "Okay. You know your mind best. Don't say I didn't warn you! And remember, not everyone is as they seem around here. Luz knows the score. Do what she tells you to. Safety wise. If she tells you to kiss her…well, use your own discretion!" She let out a cackle.
"MOM!" Luz said, her cheeks flushed a brilliant scarlet. "Come on! Be nice!" Eda just kept on cackling. It was very on point for the witch motif, Amity had to concede. Very Wicked Witch of the West. She didn't stop until the two of them were out the door.
Amity had been right that getting out of the Owl House would be good for her. Moreover, she liked being able to help Eda with her job. She would have felt guilty about taking up space in their house if she wasn't able to help out in return. The people she met on the job were also extremely interesting. Only roughly half of them were witches. The rest of them were creatures of all sorts of shapes and sizes, some of them resembling creatures from human mythology, but quite a few of them just being seemingly completely randomly put together. Most people would have been freaked out by the very inhuman nature of such creatures, but Amity thought it was cool. She'd always loved scary things. Halloween was her favorite time of the year.
And even if it had been deeply disturbing, it would have been worth it to spend time with Luz. Luz was an enigma and one that Amity very much wanted to know more about. There were times when she looked at Amity as if she was expecting to see an entirely different person standing before her, especially when Amity talked about her time on Earth. Maybe she was comparing Amity to her ex?
"So, um, I don't mean to intrude, but Eda told me that you broke up with someone?" Amity asked delicately.
Luz was silent for a few moments, trying to formulate a response. "Yeah. Their name is Avery. It just…wasn't working. I don't want to talk about why. But we're still good friends! It wasn't because they were being a jerk or anything like that. It was a mutual thing."
"Is there anything I can do?" Amity asked. Like maybe take you out on a date? Tragically, the words refused to leave her head. It was probably too forward to her to ask right now anyway.
"Yeah, you can be my friend," Luz responded. "I don't have a ton of them. I get bullied a lot. Probably more than you do. I, uh, I'm half-human and I can't naturally do magic. I have to use an artificial method. So I get a lot of taunts at school. You know, Half a Witch Luz. Things like that."
Amity made a fist and slammed it into the palm of her hand. "Well, anyone bothers you, send them to me. They won't bother you for much longer." Why was she making a promise she had no ability to keep? What was wrong with her? But as she looked at the incredibly grateful face that Luz was making, she realized she'd do whatever it took to keep that promise.
When it came time to make their final delivery, Luz's face paled. "Oh, no. I really should have seen this coming…"
"What's the matter?" Amity asked.
Luz's face twisted in disgust. "It's Adegast. He's a con artist. He's got a real grudge against Eda. We…we could be in danger if we go there." She looked like she was about to say something else, but then thought better of it.
"Oh, relax, Luz, we'll go in and out," Amity said. She believed Luz, but she was sure Eda wouldn't send them to make deliveries to someone who was really dangerous. It was probably someone with the same name. "Eda's going to need all the money she can get her hands on if she's going to recreate the portal, after all."
Luz looked like she wanted to argue, but knew that arguing would be futile. Quite wise of her. Amity could argue until the cows came home. It was one of her favorite pastimes. No one in existence was more stubborn than her when she got an idea in her head. After all, she tended to be right more times than she wasn't.
And certainly the magnificent castle that Adegast inhabited didn't exactly scream "evil con artist" to Amity. True, it was incredibly tacky, more resembling the castle from Cinderella than what she would expect an actual, real life castle to be like. But that was probably a testament more to the architect of the castle's evil (or at least horrible taste) than Adegast's. Amity was beginning to suspect that this con artist that Luz was talking about deliberately took on the same name as Eda's client in order to take advantage of his air of elegance and refinement.
The inside of the castle was even more impressive (and horribly gaudy) than the outside. Amity and Luz went into a large, circular room filled to the brim with books. Amity could practically feel herself salivate just looking at them. Maybe if she asked Adegast really nicely, he would let her read some of them? Stranger things had happened.
An old man wearing a purple robe decorated with yellow stars emerged from another room. Wow. He looked…pretty damn wizardly, now that Amity thought about it, what with the long white beard and the half-moon glasses, and the calm, pleasant demeanor. If she'd seen him back on Earth, she'd have thought he was a Dumbledore cosplayer.
"Dai stihó, Miss Serrano," Adegast said warmly, and Amity's heart almost stopped. He had just given her the traditional wizardly greeting. Amity had stumbled upon her Senior! Her Ordeal was about to begin! She barely restrained herself from letting out a squeal of joy; such an action would have been undignified.
"I am on errantry, Mr. Adegast," Amity said formally, using the term for on wizardly business, "and I greet you."
Adegast offered her a gentle smile and walked over to her. He appeared to be studying her. "Yes, you'll do," he muttered.
"Well, we've got these deliveries for you, so…"
Adegast waved a hand idly. "Yes, yes, set them anywhere." He reached out and squeezed Amity's hands gently. "I have been waiting for you to arrive for the past seven years, my dear Amity. Tell me, what delayed you?"
"I…I don't know…" Amity stammered. She was supposed to be here seven years ago? These people could have been free for seven years?! Was it her fault? Had she screwed up somehow?
Adegast gave her a gentle smile, but one that somehow made Amity uneasy nevertheless. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed to have many more teeth than an ordinary human should have. Though, of course, Adegast was clearly biologically a witch himself, given his pointy ears. "It doesn't matter. I'm sure you had your reasons. What matters is that you're here now. And just in time too." He made a disapproving noise. Amity hoped that it wasn't being directed at her. "Emperor Belos intends to unite your realm and mine. Many will die if he succeeds. The Lone Power has been whispering in his ear – some whisper that he has killed Belos and taken his place to direct his plans more effectively."
Amity looked over at Luz. "Did you hear anything about this?"
Luz shrugged. She looked profoundly uneasy. "I really think we should go."
"My dear child, you're free to leave whenever you like," Adegast assured her. "Both of you are. I'd understand, Amity, if you didn't think you were noble enough to help me defeat the emperor. Wizardry is not for everyone after all. It is only offered to the purest of hearts."
"No!" Amity shouted. The last thing she wanted was to have her wizardry taken away from her. If that happened, everyone would lose their memory of her ever having been a wizard, including her. She'd be left a shell, with nothing to sustain her. "Adegast, I swear, I am up to the task, whatever it may be."
Adegast rubbed his hands together with anticipation. "My dear, I believe you. I sense the makings of greatness in you. You could be the strongest wizard who ever lived one day. Perhaps the one destined to vanquish the Lone Power once and for all." Amity laughed at that. She was powerful, true, but she'd never be that powerful. "In the meantime, I am here to get you started on your Ordeal."
Amity put a brave, heroic expression on her face. At least, she hoped that was what it looked like. By the way that Luz was struggling to hold back laughter, she was starting to suspect otherwise. "I am ready."
Adegast gave her a map. "This will lead you to the Celestial Staff, a weapon imbued with enough power to enable me – er, that is to say, us – to take down Belos." He put a hand on her shoulder. "The entire fate of the Boiling Isles and your own realm stands in the balance. If you think you are unworthy of such responsibility, you need only say the word and I will return you to your realm."
Amity blinked. "You can do that? Can you send a message to my realm?"
"Er…" Adegast looked lost for words for a few seconds. "Um, I could, of course, but I am an old man, and such a powerful feat of magic would exhaust me, perhaps to the point of death. But once I have the Staff, I will be strong enough to do it."
Luz narrowed her eyes. "If you're not strong enough to send a message to Earth, then how are you strong enough to send Amity back to Earth?"
That was a good question, and Amity looked over at Adegast to see what his answer was. He let out a nervous laugh. "You know…that's a good point. I do apologize, Miss Serrano, but I'm afraid that if you want to return to Earth, you will have to wait until another, more righteous wizard arrives to claim the Staff."
Luz looked over at Amity pleadingly. "Amity, please tell me that you see how sketchy this is. He's just playing on your need for validation to lure you into a trap!"
Amity did not have a need for validation. She had taken on the mantle of wizard for selfless reasons. Sure, she wasn't perfect – who was? But she was just trying to do the right thing to the best of her ability. She'd been waiting half her life to fulfill her destiny, and now it was standing in front of her. She wasn't about to give it up just because Luz was overly paranoid. She meant well, naturally, but in this case, she was just flat out wrong. Anyway, if Adegast wanted them dead, they'd be dead already. True, he was an old man, but that just meant that he was probably exponentially more skilled in magic than she was, and likely could wipe the floor with the two of them if he chose.
"I swear to you, Adegast, that I will not let you down," Amity vowed. "I will claim the Celestial Staff and bring it to you, no matter what perils I will have to face along the journey. But…you promise to send me home once I've claimed it?"
Adegast's eyes appeared to twinkle in the light. "My dear, once you've completed your Ordeal, you will be able to send yourself home. I believe in you." Amity was thrilled. Her Senior believed in her. All those years of mockery, of doubt, of endless waiting, were finally done, and she was about to move into the next, glorious phase of her life.
When she got back to the Owl House, she told everyone about the quest that awaited her and asked if they wanted to join. Hooty wanted to, but he wasn't able to go that far from the house without the house disintegrating. King also wanted to, but Eda forbade him. She was definitely in agreement with Luz that Adegast was not to be trusted. Apparently, he was some sort of puppeteer demon according to her, and showed her a photograph of a slimy looking purple demon vaguely resembling an octopus. It didn't look a thing like the Adegast that they'd met, so she disregarded it.
Luz had spent all day trying to talk her out of going on the quest, but to no avail. Amity didn't blame her too much for it. She was just trying to be overprotective, and it warmed her heart (only her heart, Amity told herself sternly and unconvincingly) to have someone looking out for her. Finally, Luz had decided that if Amity was going to be "walking into a blatantly obvious trap," she'd be right there with her.
Eda forbade Luz from accompanying Amity, and Luz was not at all surprised to learn the next morning that Luz was going nonetheless. She had apparently inherited her mother's rebel spirit over her father's cautious approach to matters.
"I'm really grateful that you're doing this for me," Amity said. "I know you don't believe me or Adegast…but that just makes it even more special that you're here anyway."
Luz looked Amity in the face, avoiding eye contact with her. Amity wasn't overly fond of eye contact – although she could handle it in relatively small doses – because she was autistic. But maybe it was also because she was a witch? Maybe it was a witch thing? She tried to remember if she saw Eda make eye contact with anyone, but failed.
"Amity," Luz said. Ah, that's right, Luz had been trying to talk to her before Amity had started spacing out. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise. You can rely on me to have your back."
Amity reached out and squeezed Luz's hand, and her face flushed. Yeah, there was no way Amity's little crush wasn't mutual. But it was definitely not the time to pursue that. "Thank you."
Amity had worried that they'd encounter all sorts of horrible monsters, but other than a mist that made her eyes water, they didn't really appear to be encountering anyone on the first part of the journey until they reached a village full of cat-like beings. Luz tensed up, looking as if she was expecting an attack any moment. But the cat creatures looked harmless. Granted, they were cats, who, in the words of Terry Pratchett, would only amusingly tolerate humans until someone came up with a tin opener that could be opened with a paw, so Amity wasn't ready to let her guard down entirely.
A muscular young man emerged from the waters of a fountain, seemingly at random, and strode over to them. "So you're the wizard chosen by the Powers to claim the Celestial Staff," the man said.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Amity said, pushing her way past him, but he grabbed her arm to prevent her from moving. His grip was strong, far stronger than Amity had anticipated.
"I'm Nevareth Bladestrife, teen prince of Angstmore," the idiot said, as if Amity cared one iota about what this pushy teenager who reminded her of Erik Hellinger, chief bully at her school, had to say. "And I seek to join you on this quest of yours."
Amity finally extricated herself from his grip. "Not interested. Go away."
Bladestrife blinked, as if he couldn't comprehend the concept of someone not being interested in spending time with him. Amity had never understood the appeal of guys, and Bladestrife was a prime example of just why that was the case. He probably thought that just because he had rippling muscles, girls would crawl over him. Well, Amity was the lesbianest lesbian who had ever lesbianed and she was so not interested.
"I can be of help to you," Bladestrife argued. "You would be unwise to reject my assistance."
Amity conjured a dagger made of ice in her hand and held it to his throat. "Listen, creep, I said no, and that means no. I wouldn't be interested in you even if I liked guys, which I don't. Now go away."
Bladestrife, pouting, walked away. A few seconds later, a beautiful blonde woman, tall and ethereal, like what Cate Blanchett would be like if she was a teenager, emerged from the tavern, but Amity didn't pay her a second glance. They had a quest to go on, and they were already wasting time.
Again, other than that fog which was beginning to make her head hurt too, Luz and Amity's journey to the Bridge of Forever, as the map labeled it, was entirely uneventful. It was honestly getting to be a bit too uneventful, and Amity was starting to get paranoid that some horrible creature would leap out at her at any moment. But it didn't, and when they reached the Bridge of Forever, another of those cat-like creatures was waiting for them.
The creature cavorted and said, "Hum-di-diddle, to pass the bridge, you must first solve my riddle."
Cliché, Amity supposed, but then again, riddles were a time honored part of mythology. The Heiðrik saga, the Sphinx from the tale of Oedipus, and Samson's riddle from the Tanakh were just a few examples of that. She readied herself to answer the riddle. She would need to summon all of her mental prowess for this feat, but she was ready for it.
"Your quest shall stop if you fail this game," the creature said. Was it cursed to speak only in verse or something? "So tell me, my dear, what is my name?"
"It's Chris, isn't it," Luz said flatly. Amity was impressed at first. She knew that Luz studied oracle magic, but it was so cool to see it in action. Then she saw that Luz was pointing at a nametag Chris was wearing, and then she wasn't quite as impressed.
Amity conjured an ice sword to her hand and pointed it at Chris's throat. "Are you leading us into a trap? That was the stupidest riddle I've ever heard!"
"No, no!" Chris protested. "I…well, you see, I'm under a curse. A horrible geas! Yes! Levied by Emperor Belos himself! I am supposed to devour all who cannot answer my riddle! But the geas does not say how difficult the riddle should be, and I am morally opposed to devouring sentient beings, so I made it as easy as possible."
Amity disintegrated the ice sword, feeling absolutely awful that she'd assumed Chris to be plotting against them. He was yet another victim of Belos, a victim of the Lone Power. Turning sentients against each other – even wizards – was one of the Lone Power's favorite ploys, and she'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. "I am terribly sorry."
"Well, no matter, dear," Chris said. "Here, take this ring." He held out an obsidian ring to her. "It has been in my family for generations. It is said that its destined bearer will defeat a great evil and I can see that you, my dear, have the makings of greatness necessary to do that."
"I don't think you should do that, Amity," Luz warned her just as she was about to put the ring on her finger.
Amity turned to face her. "What the hell is your problem? I'm here to help you, and you've done nothing but complain since we started out on this journey! I'm here to help you destroy the emperor! You know, the guy who nearly got your dad executed without a trial?! That emperor?!"
Luz looked like she was about to say something that she was finding difficult to say, but instead she just shook her head. "Amity…can't you see all the warning signs here? Adegast has some sinister scheme in mind! I know it! Why don't you?"
"Fine! If you don't want to help me, then just go back to the Owl House!"
Luz looked down at the ground. A tear rolled down her cheek. Amity wished that she could take those words back, but there was no reverse button in life, even with magic. "I…no, Luz, that's not what I meant."
Luz started walking away, an expression of profound resignation on her face. "Okay, Amity. I get it. I'll be back at the Owl House when you're done. I never should have gotten involved in this." Soon enough, the fog swallowed her up, leaving Amity alone with Chris. She barely even noticed him slide the ring on her finger.
What had Amity done? She'd alienated a person who'd shown her kindness, respect, and friendship, and for what? The sake of her ego? The satisfaction of being right? She decided right then and there that it was not worth it. Luz was the Kit to her Nita. The Ordeal would keep. Right now, mending her friendship was much more important, so she started to walk back.
"What are you doing?" Chris said, a note of menace in his voice.
"I'll be back, don't worry," Amity promised. "But I have to do something first, something much more important than this."
"But what could be more important than your Ordeal?" Chris argued, and a chill rode down Amity's back. She had never mentioned the Ordeal to Chris. The only way that she could have known about it was…oh, shit. Luz had been right.
Luz had been right all along.
She summoned another ice sword to her hand. Or, rather, that was her intention. But instead, the magic failed to work. The ring! Adegast's ring must be impeding her magic. Before she could do anything about it, the ring morphed into a set of chains that bound her hands together. Chris morphed into the wizard form of Adegast, and then into Nevareth, and then into that blonde girl that she'd briefly witnessed back at the village, and then into his true form: the octopus demon from the photograph Eda showed her.
"I don't understand," Amity whispered. "Was this my Ordeal all along? Was I supposed to see through your ruse and failed?"
"You stupid, foolish girl," Adegast spat at her. "Your inability to separate delusion from reality will be your undoing. Once I learned about your delusions through a scrying spell, I was able to target my approach to cater to them using some rather simple oracle spells."
No. That couldn't be true. Could it? She wasn't delusional. She had magic, she had taken the Wizard's Oath, she had a destiny! She was meant to defeat Emperor Belos. The fact that she'd gotten waylaid by a diabolical scheme concocted by one of the Lone Power's servants was just a stepping stone on her greater journey.
Adegast grabbed her with one of his tentacles. "And you're still doing it! You're still trying to figure out how my deceptions and your delusions can be compatible! There are truly no creatures more naïve in the multiverse than humans."
He was a liar, of course. Adegast had demonstrably proven that. He had lied about everything, conjured elaborate deceptions to trick her. Of course she was lying about her being delusional. Damn it, Amity was a wizard! She had a responsibility! She could do magic…
…through her bile sac. A bile sac that every witch in the realm had. She couldn't use the Speech. She never got an Ordeal. She never received a Manual. There had never been any proof at all that she was a wizard.
"I…I'm not a wizard," Amity whispered, the words costing her so much to say, but even more to deny. It was true, she realized now. She'd been living a lie, lost in a delusion, for the past seven years. It had become the central focus of her life for half as long as she'd been alive. And it was all for nothing because Adegast was right. There was no Lone Power. There was no Ordeal.
Amity Serrano had never, ever had a special destiny, and she'd been the dumbest witch alive for ever believing that she had.
"Oh, I can feel the emotions that are churning through you right now," Adegast purred. "You will be a simply sensational meal. Once I kill Eda, you will be a very tasty dessert."
Amity barely even heard him, so lost in her own self-hatred and depression that she was. But then, she did hear footsteps, and Adegast moved to face the owner of those footsteps, and then Luz jumped at him, her agility magically enhanced with glyphs she had affixed to her shoes, and pressed a glyph against his head. Amity used her laser spell to sever the tentacle holding her just seconds before the glyph activated and Adegast's head was consumed in a massive fireball. The bonds holding her disintegrated.
"Are you okay?" Luz said and Amity swore that she would keep a cool head and a happy face and that was when she burst into tears. The tears kept on flowing and she didn't seem to capable of making them stop. Luz helped her onto a flat rock nearby and sat down next to her, holding her as she cried, not saying anything, just…being there.
"I'm sorry I left," Luz said. "I realized it was a mistake the moment I did it. I'd have been there sooner, but this darn fog makes it impossible to see anything."
"I'm not a wizard," Amity whispered. "And I'm an idiot for thinking I was."
Luz shook her head. "Amity, you're too hard on yourself." She looked like she was struggling to figure out how to say something for a few moments. "The reason why I was so insistent that you turn back, it was because something like this happened to me a while ago. I got tricked too. I was tricked into believing I was the Chosen One. But I wasn't. Just a sucker."
Amity sighed. "But, Luz, I've been believing this for half my life. It's formed the core of my identity. I don't know who I am without it."
"You don't have to be without it," Luz said. Amity blinked. What did that mean? "Look, I'm Jewish." Amity was stunned. What were the odds of encountering another Jew in the Boiling Isles? "And…I stopped believing that the stuff in the Torah literally happened a long time ago. I don't believe God created the Earth in seven days. I don't believe that Noah had an ark with two of every animal. I don't believe in the Garden of Eden or the ten plagues or Jonah and the whale.
"But that's not the same thing as saying I'm not Jewish. My faith means something to me. I do believe that God created our multiverse. I believe my magic is a gift from him. But I don't believe in everything the faith teaches me."
"You're saying I can just…pretend to believe that I'm a wizard sometimes?" Amity said.
Luz shook her head. "What I'm saying is that you should think of it as a religion. Look, you may have been wrong, literally speaking. But believing in that stuff allowed you to wield your magic responsibly and ethically. Fighting evil, slowing entropy, helping others – it's a worthy goal!" She sighed. "I, on the other hand, got suckered because I was selfish, and believed that I had a special destiny, purely because I was me."
Amity reached out and squeezed Luz's hand. "That's not true, Luz. You're not selfish."
"Oh, I am," Luz said, a bitter tone in her voice. "You have no idea exactly how selfish I am. But, you, you're the most responsible person I've ever met! You were seven, and you were ready to face off against pure evil because you believed it was the right thing to do!"
Amity laughed. "Oh, Luz, I'm not some paragon of virtue."
"Really? Name one selfish thing you've ever used your magic for."
"I used it to cheat on a test once," Amity admitted. She had never admitted that to a living soul before. Luz gasped. It was not a sarcastic gasp. It wasn't necessary an appalled one either. But she was surprised, as if the revelation had caused her to reevaluate something about Amity. She must have taken academic honesty very seriously. "It was kind of an accident. I was just so stressed about it, and I just wished so hard that I knew the answers and then I did. I could have chosen not to use them, but I cheated my way to an A with them."
Luz sighed. "You're not her, are you?" she muttered. Amity had no idea what she meant by that. "Yeah. I guess I get that now." She stood up. "This day sucked, but I can still redeem it a little bit…if you trust me?"
Amity stood up too. "I trust you, Luz. I'm sorry I didn't before."
Luz led them back to the Owl House, where Eda was waiting for them. "Quest didn't go well, I take it?" she said, appearing to divine precisely what happened.
"Actually, I think it may have been exactly what I needed," Amity said. It was true, too. She would not have lasted long in the Isles with her delusions…with her beliefs tying her down.
"Can I borrow Owlbert?" Luz asked. "I need to show Amity something."
"Sure. Be back soon, though. The sun's setting in a few minutes and I don't want you out after nightfall. And no touching below the waist!" Luz turned so red that Amity was very surprised that she didn't end up passing out. But she mostly recovered her composure and hopped on Owlbert, which turned out to be a magic staff. Amity steeled her courage – it looked so fragile! – and hopped on next to Luz.
With expert skill, Luz piloted the staff high above the trees, so high that Amity was starting to find it difficult to breathe. The clouds parted below her to reveal the land of the Boiling Isles. Well, land turned out to be a misnomer. It was actually, now that she was looking at it from above, the corpse of some positively gargantuan animal. They were all living on its bones.
"That's the Titan," Luz explained. "It's through him that magic exists. I believe that he's a version of God. I can't prove it. But I believe it anyway." She smiled at Amity. "You were seven years old, and you were capable of doing terrifying things. Of course you chose to believe that there was a reason for it. It doesn't make you dumb. It just makes you human. Well, you know what I mean."
Amity did know what she meant. "You're so nice to me, Luz, even after I led you into a blatantly obvious trap."
"Hey, none of that," Luz said sternly. "That was Adegast's fault. You know, in a way, it's a good thing you don't have a special destiny. It means that you can chart your own course."
Amity sighed. "Right now, I just want to go home. You've all been so kind to me, but I belong on Earth. I proved that today."
"Well, as long as you're here, you might as well enjoy it, right?" Luz suggested, and then she pointed at the sky in front of them. Amity couldn't help but let out a gasp. The sun was setting and it looked absolutely magnificent. It was all blues and purples and greens, a marked contrast to the usual colors of the sunset on Earth.
"It's so beautiful," Amity whispered. "Thank you, Luz. Thank you for everything."