A/N: hehe, fun fact! I, uh, almost listed and saved this episode as chapter 7 on Ao3, which meant an entirely next episode would've gone up for y'all Ao3 folks while the FFN readers would've had this episode instead. Luckily I caught it, so alls well, but it was just a minor error on my end I almost slipped up with! lol.
Chapter Summary: The Noceda sisters find themselves enthralled once they learn about witch covens and "covention". Unfortunately they also find themselves entangled with rivalries along the way!
Word Count: 12,776
Covention
A vacant strip in the market district was definitely a strange sight to see, but Lealtad found it to be an equally very interesting sight to photograph. She was having a blast, taking pictures of all the decrepit walls and rundown paths, the sky, and even Eda's stall itself—its isolation was somewhat profound. It was like parking lots at night or empty parks in the late evening. A populated social joint suddenly lacking both those things. And in all honesty? Lealtad couldn't care less about the lack of business.
Was that a result of Luz reading Good Witch Azura out loud again?
Maybe.
Did she pretend to have extensive interest in photographing a stepped on plant in the pavement?
Perhaps.
Nonetheless, Lealtad happily employed any strategy to pull herself away from Luz's narration. In all honesty, ever since Luz learned that light glyph a couple days ago Leal found herself enjoying the novelties of such magic almost as much as Luz. Why? Free. Lighting. The light glyphs were easily a great accessory for Lealtad to add some more natural lighting and brighten her shots without having to use her camera's built-in flash. More nighttime/outdoorsy photos suffered less from being blown out by her flash and now had a warmer atmosphere in them.
It was interesting that magic could have such convenient uses for things like hobbies! To Leal, this was just the added bonus to Luz finally making her dream a reality. Being able to utilize this light magic for herself was just a plus in the greater multiplication of awesomeness that was her sister being happy. Lealtad getting free lighting? That was cool. Luz actually becoming a witch? That was amazing. The fact that light was Luz's first spell was perhaps the most fitting thing that could've happened that night. Their days have never been without a light glyph since.
And Leal wouldn't have changed that for a single thing in the world.
She pulled her gaze away from the viewfinder and looked down at her camera's screen, scrolling through her gallery out of nostalgia. Their mom hadn't been as eager or worried as of recent, which was something Lealtad predicted would happen after the first couple weeks. Her worry and anxiety was no doubt calming down with each passing day and Leal's texts must've played a hand in reassurance at the very least. She had translated Luz's excitement with the light glyph by stating she had done a really cool camp activity all on her own and impressed the counselors, even going as far as to taking a picture of a smiling Luz when she was outside with King (without the demon dog of course).
It was funny that within that shot, the light surrounding Luz was actually her own glyphs. The irony of Luz's true excitement just being out of frame made Leal laugh a bit. The photo in question came up in her gallery and Leal couldn't help but smile at it. Sunshine had her own sunshine…
And yes, she made that joke several times, much to Luz's displeasure.
Today, however, was slow on two accounts. The market being completely empty was strange, but Leal didn't mind since that meant less chances of getting chased by coven guards or getting eaten by some demon of some kind. On her mother's end, she was informed the day prior that some of her coworkers and friends wanted to do a group outing of some kind in celebration of summer—turns out a lot of parents sent their kids to some kind of summer camp back in Gravesfield. So without any prompting to keep texting their mother, and after extensively capturing all angles of a dead flower, Lealtad resigned herself to returning to the booth.
"—King of Artists," she heard King state as he gestured to the sky.
"Wait," Luz quirked a brow, "I thought you were the King of Demons." Leal caught King as he made a look of shock. "Are you just making this up now?" her sister innocently asked.
"Doesn't matter!" King declared as he turned around.
Lealtad snorted at the sight, gathering both their attention. So he was a bit like Luz was when she was younger. His Demons 101 lecture was a fair amount of informative as well as imaginative whenever his personal drawings came up. A bit of fantasy and storytelling here and there, play it for fun! She knew how to handle that. She walked over and patted the demon dog's head, smiling at him. "Yeah, Sunshine, doesn't matter!" She secretly winked at her before turning back to King. "Scruffy's a big, powerful monarch of the demons, aren't ya?" she playfully prompted him.
King excitedly nodded. "Exactly! My followers would leave me offerings in fear of me!"
"Well, I can offer you more of this tantalizing book," Luz suggested as she pulled her book up and shook it temptingly.
Lealtad rolled her eyes but was surprised to hear Eda groan before she could do so herself. They all looked at her as she stopped dusting. "Please stop reading that," she begged. "Its flowery language is an insult to witches and driving away all our serious customers!" she shouted, waving her feather duster in Luz's face.
"You get used to it when ya live with her," Lealtad teased.
"Also, what customers?" Luz asked, gesturing to the empty lot. "There aren't even any other stands around."
"Yeah, what's up with that?" Leal inquired. "Today some kinda holiday?"
"No, it's a bad omen," Eda cryptically explained, "There must be something horrible happening today."
"The Boiling Isles being more horrible than usual? Colour me shocked," Lealtad dryly remarked.
"Luz!" Lealtad's head whipped toward the familiar voice in the coming distance. She was surprised to find Willow and Gus, the two witch kids Luz had befriended, fast approaching them. "Something amazing is happening today!" Gus announced.
"Gus, Willow," Luz greeted, "Hey!"
"Ahh, the human fanboy and the Poison Ivy girl." Lealted nodded at the two. "Porter, Park," she threw up a two fingered salute.
Willow's face slightly blushed as Gus eagerly waved back.
"You guys fancy buying human stuff?" Lealtad prompted, gesturing to the stand. She leaned over and whispered, "Might be able to swing ya discount."
"N-No thanks," Willow politely declined.
"Maybe another time," Gus whispered in awe. He shook himself out of his wonderment. "We actually came to tell you about a cool witch event today!" he explained.
His friend lifted a small poster. "It's the annual covention!" Lealtad furrowed a confused brow as the witch girl elaborated, "Student witches get to see all the types of covens before they're placed in one!"
Leal blinked. "Wow, that sounds a lot more autonomous than Hogwarts' way of choosing," she mused, earning a chuckle from her sister.
"There's even a mystery guest this year!" Willow temptingly pointed out.
She shrugged back. "Hard to be excited 'bout a mystery guest when we don't even know the actual guests," she said to Luz.
"Well, that makes it a double mystery for us!" she cleverly replied.
Leal clicked her teeth as she shot Luz a finger gun. "Touché, hermana." She turned around and grabbed her bat and messenger bag, slinging the latter over her right shoulder while shouldering her red bat on her left. She turned to Luz with a small smile. "I'm game if you are, Sunshine."
She squealed, clasping her hands together. "A job fair for witches!" Luz excitedly exclaimed. "Eda," she pleadingly bonked her head against said witch's arm, "can we go?"
"Absolutely not," she firmly replied. Lealtad's brows raised in shock as her sister dramatically groaned, slumping down to the ground. "I never joined a coven for a reason. Sure, it's like a fun club for witches, but you're also giving up your magical independence to be part of a crooked system!" she declared, slamming her fist on the table.
Willow visibly frowned at that as she lowered her poster a bit.
Eda seemed to recognize the girl's discomfort and backpedaled a bit as she added, "But, y'know, no judgement." She crossed her arms. "In any case, I haven't been to one since we were girls."
"We?" Luz repeated, perking up from her slumped form.
"I mean—"
"Who's 'we'?" Luz asked as she shot up to her feet. Excitedly pointing Eda's way, she said, "You have a mysterious past! Now we gotta go!"
"No," Eda firmly asserted.
Lealtad stepped forward. "Yeah, I mean, if Dama Búho doesn't wanna talk 'bout her past—that's fair enough, Sunshine," she gently reminded her. Respecting people's privacy was a given in her book, and especially since the Owl Beast incident, she wasn't sure what else Eda felt comfortable revealing in front of company like Willow and Gus.
Luz wilted a bit. "Okay okay."
"That said," Leal smugly added, enjoying Eda's scowl, "the unrelated discussion of Luz attending a…" she turned to Willow, "what'd ya call it again?"
"Covention," Willow supplied with a giggle.
"Covention," Lealtad cheekily repeated. "As her mentor, don't you think you're inclined to let your student be exposed to something other witch students have access to?"
Eda narrowed her eyes at her, determined to stay unbroken.
She looked to Luz, nodding at her to do her thing.
"Then you leave me no choice," Luz turned to King and motioned him to go on.
Thus, King began his own Shakespearean reading of Azura, much to Eda's complaints and obvious irritation. She threw down the portal and walked through, but Luz quickly threw King in after her to solidify the torture. In truth, as much as Leal had loathed to hear her sister read aloud about her favourite story, hearing someone else suffer was a good change of pace. Eda barely lasted a second before she came stomping back.
"Stop it, stop it!" she begged, King, who was sat atop her head. "I will literally do anything to stop this!"
Lealtad and Luz exchanged a classic shit-eating grin before turning back to Eda.
"Well," Leal drawled. She jutted her hip out to the newcomers as she tilted her head at them. "I believe Park and Porter here extended an invitation to us?"
::TITLE OPENING::
The covention hall was the same size as most halls Lealtad was familiar with when it came to events like Fan Expo and Comic Con. There was a sign about Alchemists Anonymous that made Lealtad put a pin in to ask about later or another time, but in the end, the evident excitement of the hustle and bustle of this event was clear as day. Several witches of all kinds of species were pouring in and out and Lealtad revelled in Eda's annoyed groan as they arrived right before the entrance. Before departing from her stand, Eda also brought along a cowl for her supposed disguise, though several tabloid magazines told Leal that hoods rarely worked for known figures in terms of blending in.
But that didn't stop Eda from trying to get the hood over her large head of hair, even though she wagered King hanging off of it wasn't exactly helping her chances.
"Gotta… keep a… low profile," she muttered as she kept tugging at her hood. King gathered some kindness and moved over her head, helping get it over halfway through.
Luz joined in and started pushing Eda's hair into her hood, straining as she asked, "Is this cowl really necessary?"
"Do you think all my wanted posters are for petty theft?" Eda rhetorically remarked. At that cue, however, a collection of items fell out from her hair and onto the ground.
Lealtad snorted as she cocked her head slightly, smirking at the witch.
She blankly blinked in response. "Okay, partly," she corrected. "But the big whammy is I disobeyed the law and refused to join a coven," she explained as she bent down and scooped up her stolen items back into her hair. "If I'm seen, I could go to jail. Again."
Willow perkily stepped forward with the poster as she said, "Maybe this informative event will inspire you to join a coven."
Eda drew a spell circle that yanked the plant girl's hood over her face, making Lealtad chuckle. As she backed away and pulled off her hood, Leal reached out to her and patted her shoulder. "Don't take it personally—Dama Búho is always against traditional education." She winked.
Willow laughed back, smiling at her.
"Didn't you say traditional learning isn't always good?" the Owl Lady pointedly shot back.
Leal shrugged. "Within reason. So far all I'm seeing is a tied game between methods," she teased.
Eda bristled. "Hey! She learned a spell, didn't she!"
"You didn't teach her at first," she listed off on her right hand, "and when you did, you adopted a more traditional style."
The witch growled as she clenched her fists. "Let's just get this over with," she grumbled, motioning the kids to go inside.
Upon entering, Luz gasped. "Was I even alive before now?" she asked in wonder.
Lealtad whistled in agreement. "No me diga," she said as she brought her camera up to her face. "Feels like Comic Con… but with magic." She snapped a few pictures as she scanned the hall.
The inside of the hall, though not too dissimilar to most conventions she'd been to in the human world, was a great mix of what she expected versus that trademarked Boiling Isles weirdness. Flying brooms and stalls, booths and stalls, but overall? It felt like what Luz said: a "job fair for witches." Hanging above, there were nine banners of different colours with symbols etched onto them. It was slightly irksome that the left side had five while the right had four—as opposed to a proper triangle alignment—but Lealtad gathered they were important to behold.
"Those are the main nine covens," Gus explained, catching Lealtad's gaze, "but there are hundreds of other ones you can join."
"Ahh, so that's the corresponding colour thing y'all got going on?" she guessed, pointing to his arm sleeve.
"Yup!" Willow nodded as they began walking into the hall. "There's Flower Coven, Artist Coven, Big Dog Coven, Small Cat Coven, Tiniest Cat Coven—" Eda released a very audible groan, stopping the group in their tracks. Willow teasingly leaned over to Luz and whispered, "Also the Grumpy Coven."
The kids made a show of hiding their laughter but Lealtad outright snorted. "Maybe you can join that one, Dama Búho!" she mused.
Eda shook her fist at them. "What was that!"
Willow yelped as she ran forward with Luz, tugging her along as Gus and King followed after. Lealtad smugly shrugged at the bitter witch as she chased after her sister, leaving Eda behind.
"Wait," she asked, "What makes Flower Coven different from the Plant Coven?"
Gus turned to her with a stern stare. "Don't. She'll launch into a nine minute rant… it's not fun."
Willow's cheeks flushed as she crossed her arms. "I will not. It-It's just a simple distinction is all!" She jumped a bit as Leal placed her hand on her shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't worry Park. Feel free to lecture 'bout the semantics with me later." She shot her wink. "I've lived with Sunshine, I can handle nine minutes."
Willow's redness didn't settle at that much to Leal's surprise. She must've been really embarrassed or annoyed by Gus' joke. Lealtad noted to herself to remind Luz later not to make many plant and flower jokes.
"Ooh, what's that!" Luz asked as she pointed at a group of witches wearing hardhats up ahead.
"That's the Construction Coven," Willow explained, her cheeks now settling down. The bearded witch who seemed to be heading the area lifted an entire stack of building materials with little to no effort, sending them high into the air before landing perfectly into a constructed house. "One of the main nine!"
"Super Saiyan power ups aside," she commented, "something tells me a house built like that isn't exactly structurally sound." She brought her viewfinder up to her eye and snapped a shot of the finished house with the burly witch standing beside it.
"Oh don't worry, they know what they're doing!" Willow assured her. "They use power glyphs to increase their strength."
Lealtad's eyes widened as the witch placed one of the glyphs on a creature—who looked familiar for some reason—causing the little dude to go into a fit of rage, throwing people and things aimlessly all over the place.
She winced at the sight as her sister uttered in awe, "Yowza-wowza."
She blinked in shock as an ethereal looking Luz appeared from behind her sister and echoed, "Yowza-wowza."
"¡Mierda!" Lealtad exclaimed.
"Yowza-whaaaa…" Luz drawled with her jaw dropping.
The two traced the clone as it wandered off and toward a corner with a bunch of other Hexside students wearing Gus' colours. She waved goodbye before dissipating into nothingness, while the two standing on either side of her waved their hands around in a dazzling feat of entertainment.
"Ahhh, you've been taken in by the allure of the Illusionist Coven." He gestured to himself. "We like to magic with a hint," he drew a blue spell circle, puffing into a cloud of smoke a few feet away from them, "of showmanship!" The other two puffed into reality right behind Gus, clearly playing up his act.
Lealtad tucked her bat under her arm as she gave the boy and his members a good showing of applause. "Bravo, Porter, consider me entertained."
Willow suddenly stepped up beside her, looking determined. "Th-The Plant Coven's cool too! We have lots of cool flora! An-And we all get to get together to tend to each other's plants!"
"Wow! Acceptance? Comradery? A sense of belonging? Covens sound incredible!" her sister said in awe.
Lealtad snorted. "They also sound like Drama Clubs," she joked.
Luz pointedly ignored her as she turned to Eda. "Eda, why haven't you ever joined one?"
She responded by twirling her student back around where the Illusionist Coven were. "Watch closely, girls," she whispered as she gestured ahead. One of Gus' peers was seemingly welcoming another student into their ranks, placing a weird tattoo symbol on their wrist. "When you join a coven, all your other magic is sealed away." From the symbol, a series of light blue veins spread throughout the kid's arm and all the way to his face, causing him to express some mild discomfort.
"From now on, that kid will only be able to make illusions," Eda explained. She triumphantly placed her hands on her hips. "Since I never joined a coven," she drew two spell circles in both her hands, creating a ball of fire in one and water in the other, "I can do every kind of magic!" She waved them away and walked off, proudly declaring, "That's why I'm the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.
"That's… actually pretty badass," Lealtad commended her. She glanced at her sister, noticing the jaw dropped looks of awe she and her friends had and laughed as they followed after her. She followed suit, shaking her head at their riveted excitement as they went further down the hall.
In all honesty… Lealtad could understand Eda's point.
This all sounded so amazing and empowering to be surrounded by other like minded people. Though, if everyone had bile sacs including biped demons, then their ability to cast all forms of magic was something they were evolved to do. She understood it that much in terms of how evolution worked. In that case, Leal didn't get the idea of restricting a person's full abilities for them to stay in one singular field. If having all at once made it difficult to be proficient at learning, then why was Eda able to be so good at… everything?
The more she thought about it, the more Lealtad felt a bit discomforted by the prospects. Of course, what did she know? All she used light glyphs for was to make her photos look nice. She hardly stood a chance at understanding this world's educational and biological philosophies. On that thought, she still continued to snap more and more pictures of each booth, excited by the prospects of having such an expanded gallery today. Sure, she had some fun snapping photos earlier, but the hustle and bustle of this event was exactly like Comic Con or Fan Expo.
That might've been why Lealtad wasn't too quick to dismiss this place entirely just yet. She and Luz had gone to a few before, most with their mother, but they enjoyed each one to the fullest extent. Lealtad loved that such places let her sister thrive amongst other weirdos but also allowed her to take some photos of like minded people. Covention felt no different. From those Illusionist kids alone, Leal could feel that everyone here was excited and passionate about the Covens they represented and wanted to join.
And that case was even more prominent for the panel they were approaching at the end of the hall. It had a massive banner above a curtained door with a Zelda-looking triforce/master sword design on it. It was a gold-like palette with wings in the background of a sword, piercing through a yellow orb, all within a large triangle. It honestly looked like fan-made Legends of Zelda art at first glance. Just before them, standing beside a set of blue stanchions, were six people covered in cloaks with weird looking beak masks.
Lealtad's honest first reaction was to laugh at the gimmicky get ups—they seriously looked like basic bird masks—but she gathered from the way they all stood high and proud, they were important people.
"That panel looks popular," her sister astutely observed.
Gus gasped. "It's the Emperor's Coven!" He turned to Willow, slapping his forehead. "You think they'll sign my forehead?"
"Only one way to find out!" Willow eagerly replied as the two dashed inside.
Lealtad blinked at their excitement. So they were clearly a big deal around here…
Her sister's ability to empathetically absorb excitement came in full force as she nearly darted right after her friends. But, she noticed Eda's lack of movement and frowned as she stopped halfway. "Aren't you coming, Eda?" she asked, jerking her thumb toward the entrance.
"No way," she denied, waving her hand as she turned around. "Of all the covens, they're the worst. I'll wait out here." She pointed at her feet.
Luz placatingly held up her hands. "I get it, Eda. Covens: bad. Individualism: good," she stated as she weighed the options on her hands. "But I'm still figuring this world out, so I'm going to go in there and make up my own mind, okay?"
Lealtad dropped a low whistle as she bumped her elbow against Luz's shoulder. "Damn, preach it, Sunshine!" she teased as she followed her sister inside.
Luz playfully rolled her eyes in response.
All things considered: the way Luz worded it was the best way for Leal to form her own opinion as well. Despite her skepticism and clear bias toward this place's familiarity, Luz had a point. Sometimes one's own perspective is all that's needed. "Seriously though," she said, "Never stop using that heart of yours, okay?" She added a wink for good measure. "Your way with words never ceases to amaze me, Luz."
Luz's cheeks tinted a light red as she smiled up at her. "Gracias, hermana."
She smiled back. "De nada," she easily replied as the two made their way to a vacant few seats near the middle of a huge arena. "Now, let's see what this is all about." The second the two sat down, Lealtad rested her bat up against the empty space beside her. She pulled up her camera and aimed it right at the stage at the bottom of the arena anticipating the show would begin there. She felt Luz shift a bit and looked to her right, surprised to find Eda now sitting beside them. She smirked, "What happened to 'they're the worst'?" she teased.
Eda crossed her arms. "Well they also have good venues for hiding from guards," she quipped back.
"Shh!" Luz hissed. "It's starting!" she announced as the lights dimmed and a random set of spotlights centered upon the stage. Lealtad squinted at the person coming forward as the techno music boomed around the stadium. He had a black long black gown with a gold yoke and a gold trim on his sleeves' cuffs, as well as a blue stole draped over his shoulders. Most notably, he had a maroon imp-like creature covering half his face, but he seemed nonplussed by it as he smiled and conjured up a mic with a spell circle.
As he began his speech, Lealtad leaned over to her sister and whispered, "Is that the principal that almost dissected you?"
"Uhhhh," Luz sheepishly nodded.
Leal scoffed. So it was Principal Bump. Though she could respect the guy's determination to keep intruders out of his school, dissection was a bit extreme—especially when it was her sister that was on the table. She tuned back into the speech as a random student a row before them, just enlarged his head for seemingly no reason at all, causing it to fall and crush his poor seatmate.
"Dios mío, this place is fucking weird," she muttered under her breath, lowering her camera to her chest.
"Wow. I failed you as a principal," the MC grimaced. Grabbing the mic, he brought it to his mouth and continued on, "It's being selected to join the best of the best. And there are none better than the jewel of the coven system," three weird plumes of blue smoke emerged at the foot of the stage, and out rose three of those uniformed beak wearing guys from the entrance, "and the enforcers of His will, the Emperor's Coven." They all stood triumphantly still, unmoved.
"Whoa!" Luz uttered.
Lealtad heard some sort of "psst" noise to her left and looked over, laughing as she found Gus and Willow a few seats down pointing at Gus's signed head (though all it said was just EMPEROR'S COVEN). She lightly elbowed Luz's shoulder and pointed her attention over to them, leaning back so her sister could wave at them.
"Feast your eyes on this elite force," Bump went on to hype them up, "each member handpicked to help usher in a new age of controlled magic."
The three Emperor's Coven members drew spell circles into the sky and shot off beams of fire, a strange blue looking lazer, and a white sparkling bolt of electricity. Lealtad immediately snapped a photo of the spectacle, feeling as though it was just the beginning. The peak of their beams collided at the top and created an orb of bright white before exploding like a firework. Her snap came just a second too late, as the aftermath of the sparks hung in the air along with confetti.
"Tsk, mierda," she cursed, looking down at her screen, reviewing the photo. The flare was okay, but it didn't look as good as the actual collision would've.
"When does that elite force get here?" Eda jokingly mused, laughing at her own joke with a literal knee slap.
Lealtad rolled her eyes, somewhat amused. "I'll say, they look like they ripped off a bootleg plague doctor." The magic was cool. But staying here for nearly a couple of weeks taught Leal that magic was always cool. Eda showed that fashion sense also played a fair amount and the Emperor's Coven just looked downright dorky.
"Members of the Emperor's Coven have access to all—yes, all forms of magic," Bump explained as the three held the orbs of their casted beams in their palms. "Ooh. Aah," he dramatically added.
And for some reason, the audience parroted him?
Lealtad, however, found herself hooked onto Principal Bump's "all" comment. She spared a look to Eda, who was still laughing at her own joke, and frowned. There must've been a big reason why she wouldn't join the Emperor's Coven if they straight up allowed their members to use all forms of magic. And if it had something to do with employing yourself underneath "The Man" she could understand why Eda would be reserved about it.
"Buuut, only the best can ascend these ranks. Some day that could be one of you!" he pointed into the crowd.
A few rows diagonally ahead of them, a girl with light two toned green hair squealed in excitement, causing Leal to roll her eyes.
Meanwhile, the three Coven members drew their capes in front of them and vanished into puffs of smoke. "And now, I'm pleased to introduce the esteemed leader of this coven and this year's mystery guest," Bump excitedly shouted, "You know her, you love her! Lilith!"
Eda's laughter stopped as the audience gasped in awe.
So this clearly was an important person.
The ceiling illuminated with blue hues of light, that suddenly shaped themselves into a form of a raven-like creature perched atop a branch. The speed at which Lealtad snapped toward the light show and captured a photo was astoundingly impressive in her own opinion. She luckily caught right before it moved too, flying straight down toward the stage and langin right in front of Principal Bump. As soon as it touched the floor, a shockwave of light emitted from its talons and upward toward the stands. And just in the silhouette of the raven, stood a figure with a masquerade mask and a white cloak donned over her black gown.
She raised her arms up, causing the mask to levitate and the silhouette to dissipate instantly. A round of applause and whooping echoed throughout the arena and Lealtad herself zoomed in on the woman, getting a close look at her features. She had a very goth-like appearance with her nails and lipstick, along with her navy blue hair.
"You know her?" Luz asked Eda, causing Leal to look over at the witch's shocked face.
"Youuu could say that," she simply answered.
Her sister gasped, slapping her cheeks. "Mysterious past."
Lealtad mockingly mimed her sister as she leaned toward her. "Respecting boundaries," she stage-whispered. Luz pouted at her, while Leal in turn stuck her tongue out.
"Thank you all!" Lilith announced as she discarded her white cloak and mask with a finger twirl. Her long hair was revealed and Leal snorted at the obvious goth element, snapping a picture of her. "It wasn't easy for me to rise to the top," she humbly stated, "I also started from humble beginnings." She clenched her fist in excitement. "Now I have the highest honor of enforcing the Emperor's will. So be more!" She then spun around as she waved her open palm, conjuring her rave light show once again. "The Emperor's Coven awaits you!" The raven spread its wings wide before exploding into balls of light cyan, slowly trickling down the arena.
She made her departure right away as the crowd uproared with cheer and applause.
Lealtad confusedly tilted her head. "Uhhh, that wasn't really much of an appearance?" she pointed out. She looked to her seatmates' reactions, not surprised by Luz's look of wonder, but definitely put off by Eda's glare. "Yikes, Dama Búho, what's with the glare?"
She tutted, turning her head away. "Nothing. Oh look," she dryly pointed back at the entrance, "they're handing out magazines."
Luz gasped as she launched out of her seat and right over to the Emperor's Coven member handing them out.
"Sunshine, hang on!" Leal shouted, chasing after her. Whatever Eda was brooding about was her business she supposed, Luz was here to learn after all. Right as she caught up with Luz and awkwardly helped her pay for the magazines which weren't free for some reason (unlike the event) Luz noticed Eda storming ahead without them.
Lealtad was about to lecture her sister on the method of at least carrying some snails on her to pay for things like these but failed as Luz was as quick to rush after Eda. She merely sighed as she shouldered her bat and dug the magazine into her messenger bag, trailing after the two.
"Eda, where are you going?" Luz asked, grabbing Eda by the arm.
"I'm gonna head home and wash the con funk off my skin," she bitterly replied, pulling Luz's hands off.
Luz dug into Leal's bag and pulled out the magazine. "But we haven't even taken the quiz to determine our Coven type!" she addressed, flipping it open.
Eda shot it with a small fire spell before departing.
Lealtad simply shrugged. "Huh, guess you can rule out Abominations…" she mused, observing the torn hole.
"Ooh check this out!" Luz shook the magazine as she began walking off. "A punky potionist!"
"Wouldn't it be a chemist?" she confusedly asked. Her eyes widened as she caught her sister's pathing. "Ah, Luz watch ou—"
It was too late, as she already bumped into that two toned green haired girl from the panel. Leal rushed up behind Luz, ready to apologize on her behalf but the girl spoke first.
"Watch where you're… oh, it's you, Willow's Abomination… thing," she snidely said.
Leal balked at that, narrowing her eyes. "Excuse you? This is my sister and she is not a thing," Leal snarked as she gripped at her bat tightly, "And second—"
"Whoa whoa, Leal, let me handle this?" Luz stepped in front of her, gesturing to her to calm down. "So, hi Amity! Funny story, not an Abomination. Sorry for the confusion last week. An-And for bumping into you! I'm Luz Noceda, the human." She held out her hand as she nodded toward Lealtad, "And this is my sister, Lealtad! Also a human, well, obviously—"
"Ugh, put that away!" the girl groaned, smacking Luz's outstretched hand. "You're the one that got me in trouble with Principal Bump and I never get in trouble," she angrily pointed out before walking away.
Lealtad scoffed. "You also seem to never remove that stick up your—"
"Leal," Luz hissed as she elbowed her. She then walked after Amity, awkwardly pointing out, "T-To be fair, you were okay with him trying to dissect me, so—"
"Wait, this is that chick who was picking on Willow?" Lealtad barked, stomping right after Luz.
Amity stared at her. "You know Half-a-Witch?" she amusedly replied.
Leal narrowed her eyes as she gripped at her bat firmly, devilishly smiling at the girl. Now that she thought about it, she recalled this girl mocking Willow the day they first met. "Nah, I know Willow," she replied, "As in Willow Park. But you? You're about to learn manners from the end of my bat!" She arched her arms up, ready to swing but Luz stepped in front of her, stopping her. "¡Hermanita, muévete! ¡Voy a vencer a esta perra!"
"¡Cálmate!" Luz gritted through her teeth. "¡No hagas que nos echen!"
Lealtad took a deep breath as she glared at the witch girl, who—even though she held her scowl—had an obvious fearful look in her eyes. Proud of scaring her a little, Leal smugly smirked at her. Even though her sister had a point about getting kicked out, she was glad this girl was clearly less bark than bite right now.
"You can't be here! This covention is for witches only," Amity shouted back.
"Well, I'm learning how to be a witch," Luz simply answered, "I'm receiving magic lessons from a powerful witch and a ferocious demon."
Amity crossed her arms as she leaned over, looking over Luz's shoulder. "Is that your ferocious demon there?" she mockingly inquired.
The Noceda sisters turned around and found King coming toward them, wearing a plethora of coven merch that included a shirt, scarf that was way too big for him, and a hat pierced by his horn. He stopped and turned at the bakers following him, then swallowed his cupcake in his hands whole before swiping another one from their tray. He darted toward them excitedly. "Oh, hey, Leal, Luz! Look at all those offerings—wah!" he whined as he tripped on his own scarf, falling face first into the floor.
Lealtad cringed as she rushed over, narrowly avoiding the fallen cupcake as she helped the poor demon up. She checked his chin over as she rubbed his head comfortingly. "You alright, Scruffy? That looked painful." She watched her sister reach for the cupcake and sighed. "Sunshine, don't it's already—"
A foot came down right onto the cupcake, causing it to splatter further across the floor. Leal glanced up and glared as she realized the perpetrator to be Amity. "Oops," she sarcastically remarked as she rested her cheek on her fist, "that was an accident." Even though she was just about to tell Luz not to pick it up, this girl stepping on it intentionally was a whole different story.
"Funny," Leal stood up, twirling her bat around in her hand, "I have a feeling my bat is 'bout to have an accident with your ankles."
"Why are you being so mean, Amity?" Luz shouted at her.
"Because you and your pet are giving witches in training a bad name," she replied with her arms crossed.
"¡Oye!, he's not a pet!" Lealtad stomped her foot. "And that's not an excuse!"
"Yeah," Luz agreed, "he's a very good boy, and the King of Demons!"
"And if anyone's giving witches in training a bad name, it's you, you brat," Leal spat out.
Amity sneered at her. "Oooh, you gonna swing your club at me?" she teased.
Lealtad grinned as she stepped closer, giving her bat one more twirl. "Ahh, don't tempt me wannabe goth chick," she snarked. "I'll send your ass back to the entrance with one swing." She excitedly chuckled, just waiting for this witch to give her another reason to.
"Please, the most your little human club can do is hammer in a nail," Amity shot back. She waved her hand dismissively. "But of course, your response is very… human."
Lealtad's grin grew tenfold. It was time to break a kid's head apparently.
"I'll tell you what, Amity," Luz's voice stopped her. She looked back and watched her sister stand up and march toward them. That fierce look, that determination, it was enough to snap Leal out of her anger momentarily and watch in pride. This was the Luz Noceda passion she loved so much. "It's one thing to say I can't be a witch—"
"'Cause you can't."
"Says who?" Leal scoffed.
"—But it's another thing to bully my friends," Luz pressed on. She pointed at Leal. "And it's something else entirely to make fun of my sister." Luz clenched her fists as she rapidly rambled out, "Just like The Good Witch Azura said when facing down her rival Hecate at the Bog of Immediate Regret…" she pointed at Amity, "I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!"
The onlookers and King all gasped, and it was then Lealtad noticed the audience they gathered. Along with the fact that her sister just said something that sounded made up but clearly had shocking connotations here. Leal looked back and watched as Amity walked up to Luz, narrowly standing an inch away from Luz's face (which was way too close for Leal's comfort).
She smiled back as she slowly said, "I accept. Let's set the terms for this duel, shall we?"
"One, if I win, you apologize to King for squashing his cupcake."
"Good night, sweet child," she heard King whisper presumably to his cupcake.
" And two, you admit that humans can be witches too," Luz tacked on.
Lealtad blinked. "Aaand," she prompted Luz, who stared at her in confusion. "She also calls Park names?" she reminded her.
Luz's eyes widened. "Right!" She whipped back to Amity. "And three, you take back your nicknames about Willow!"
"Fine by me. But when I win, not only do you have to tell the whole covention you're not a witch, you have to stop training forever," she darkly replied.
"Christ, what an edgelord," Lealtad muttered under her breath.
"Fine, let's shake on it," Luz demanded, holding her hand out.
Amity drew a bright purplish spell circle around Luz's hand before shaking it. Their hands shone a bright yellow and all of Leal's red flags waved. "Uhh, wait, Luz take your hand out—"
"The everlasting oath is sealed," Amity proudly stated before retracting her hand.
"That's probably fine," Luz quickly said to herself, causing Lealtad to groan.
"Meet back inside the theater in one hour." Amity turned around and began walking away, "Let's see what kind of witch you are."
"King," Luz turned to him, "I-I can win this, right?"
The demon in question was preoccupied wolfing down his destroyed cupcake, only pausing for a moment to look at her. "Mmm? Oh, yeah—no."
Lealtad frowned at that. One-third of the reason her sister was doing this was for that little demon child. She walked up beside Luz and released a tired sigh.
"Find Eda?" her little sister suggested.
"Find Eda."
::::
"You're supposed to be the responsible one!" Luz shouted at her as they ran down the covention hall side by side.
"Hey, I pushed as far as I could, you stopped me from settling it in like three seconds with a swing to her ankles!"
"But you're supposed to stop me!"
"I tried to but you clearly wanted to shake hands in the weird glowly circle!" She released a loud groan. "Can we just agree we both screwed up and focus on finding Eda so you don't get killed?"
Luz nodded. "Yeah! That's good! That's good, we should—I found her!" she hastily shouted as she pointed over Lealtad's shoulder. She came to a halt and found the witch in question talking with Lilith from the Emperor's Coven. The two sprinted straight toward her. "Eda, I need your help!" Luz announced as she stopped between the two. "I accidentally challenged Amity to a witch's duel, and I think she's going to kill me all the way dead!" she slumped to the floor, falling to her knees as she whined.
" Mmm, it seems your student has met my strongest protégé," Lilith smugly stated. She crouched down to Luz's level and pointed at her ears. "And look at those ears! Is she human? Haha, where did you even find one of these!" she remarked, standing back up.
Leal stepped in with her bat, pointing it at Lilith's face, prompting her to back off a few steps. "Over in Back-Off-Alley and just to the side of Minding-Your-Own Business Boulevard."
"Ohh? Two? Well, I suppose you always were a collector," Lilith uninterestedly added.
"Speaking of collecting," Lealtad twirled her bat, "why don't you collect your lettuce haired student—she's due a lesson in manners," she snidely said.
Eda laughed behind her.
Lilith merely rolled her eyes. "Okay, Edalyn," she drew a spell circle and suddenly, all of Eda's wanted posters began burning up from the walls, "For one day, you won't have to hide from the law, because I want to see how good a teacher you really are." She turned around and began walking off.
Leal childishly flipped her off whilst Eda knelt down and patted Luz's back. "Come on, kid. Time to prepare for bloodshed."
"But… whose blood?" Luz timidly asked.
"Anyone's guess!" she chuckled as she patted her back once more. She hoisted Luz up to her feet and pointed at a corner across the hall. "Let's go somewhere more secluded!" The two Nocedas followed after Eda, right over to a wall with some scattered boxes and stall supplies. Eda sat Luz down on a small cardboard box as she pulled a sweat band from inside her hair (the irony) and wrapped it around the top of her head.
"Alright, Luz," she placed her hands on her hips and turned to Luz, "Let's start your training." She stepped toward Luz as she wiggled her fingers. "Now, I'm coming at you with a blast of fire. What do you do?"
Luz simply pulled on her cat hoodie and fell to the floor in a fetal position.
"Oh, that's right. I haven't taught you many spells, huh?"
Luz shook her head as Leal groaned. "By the way, this totally proves my point earlier today," she mused, earning a scowl from the witch. She glanced down and gasped in realization, remembering her camera. "Hey! What if I take another picture of Eda casting a spell?" she asked, holding up her camera. "Maybe the same thing will happen like it did your light spell!"
Eda snapped her finger. "That's an idea!" she commended. "Ready? This one'll be a fire one," she prompted with her finger held up. Leatled aimed her camera right on her and nodded. As Eda drew the circle Lealtad snapped several photos before the flaming ball was created. Eda then dispersed the spell with a simple wave of her hand.
They all gathered around Leal to see the results and simultaneously frowned as she skimmed through, finding merely just a bright orange-ish circle and that was all. No glyph patterns. She sighed. "Mierda, so there goes that idea."
"M-Maybe we should try other spells?" Luz suggested.
Eda shook her head. "Nah, what happened with the light spell, that…" she pensively looked off into the distance, "that was something else. It certainly isn't something we have time to hash out." She shrugged. "Guess this is a bust. Boy, I hope you didn't make an everlasting oath to stop learning magic or anything. You'd be toast." She teased as she pointed at Luz.
"I-Is there a glowy hand thing that happens or… uh," Luz asked.
"Abomination, rise!" the familiar bratty sound of Amity's voice made Leal growl as they all looked over to the source. Lilith was stood behind Amity, who summoned a small Abomination just at her feet. The purple goop then twisted its head off and threw it.
Lealtad scoffed. "Please, what kind of attack—" she watched as the disembodied head flew and knocked out a baker clean in the face. "Okay! It's very efficient I suppose."
"Oooh boy," Eda said.
"I can't believe I'm gonna have to stop learning magic," Luz complained.
"No, you're not quitting that easy, Sunshine," Lealtad demanded as she knelt down beside Luz. She held out her bat to her, extending the grip toward Luz.
She gasped. "Wait… you're giving me your bat?"
"I'm loaning you my bat," she corrected. She winked. "Go for her ankles. One good swing and she won't be able to walk. Show her how humans get it done."
Luz gripped at the bat nervously as she frowned. "I-I don't know Leal, that's a you sort of thing."
"Then fine," she rolled her eyes, "just use it to defend yourself at the very least! Punting that puny Abomination is a piece of cake!" Luz's worry was evident as ever, and Lealtad decided calming her down a bit was the best course of action at easing her nerves. "How about we get a Yu-Gi-Yoh Duel Disk and place all your light glyphs up on there?"
Luz tilted her head puzzlingly at her, nearly smiling. "What?"
Leal shrugged with a goofy smirk. "I'm just saying intimidation goes a long way!" She stood up and posed like Joey Wheeler. "If you roll up slinging your glyphs like trap cards and shit, that'll be badass!" She laughed. "Half the fight is just flare anyways. You saw her freeze up a bit earlier with how I nearly swung—she scares easy!"
Luz laughed, shaking her head. "I feel like that says more about you then it does me." She stood up and held Leal's bat firmly, testing a swing. "And I don't think light glyph traps will be enough to save me."
"Traps hmm?" Eda muttered.
"What was that?" the two Nocedas glanced at her.
"Oh, nothing," she casually dismissed. She walked over and grabbed Luz's shoulders, shaking them. "Trust me Luz. We are not gonna let those snobs win that easy! We are not gonna let them win at all. I've got an idea."
::::
Despite her repeated demands, Lilith told Lealtad only the combatants and their mentors need be in the arena. The older Noceda begrudgingly had to make her way back out and up the theater steps to find a seat. Upon her arrival, she caught the murmurs of the crowd reacting to a human being in the Boiling Isles as well as commenting on their lack of magical ability. Before she could spout off about how wrong they were, a whistle caught her attention. It was Willow, waving at her and gesturing to an empty seat beside her with Gus to her left.
She smiled gratefully as she rushed over, sitting beside the Plant witch. "Thanks, Park," she said. "Where've you two been?"
"We went to go check back on our coven's booths and were about to invite you two but you guys ran off," Gus explained. "Where you clearly got wrapped up into more shenanigans."
Lealtad sighed, rubbing her head. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Sunshine got excited by the magazines, then we ran into that lettuce head down there—" Willow snorted at that. She quickly covered her mouth as her cheeks reddened, but Leal continued, "who granted us the displeasure of opening her mouth and letting her voice be heard, and now Luz has to fight her."
Willow cleared her throat. "Yup. Amity sometimes has that effect on people. Boscha is worse, but so is their whole squad," she grumbled. Gus comfortingly patted the girl's back. Lealtad gently smiled as she placed a hand on Willow's shoulder. The girl flinched for a moment, then turned to her, a bit red in the face.
"If Luz hadn't stopped me, I would've pounded that brat's head before she could even think to come up with another dumb nickname," she assured her.
Willow blinked. "Really?"
Leal winked. "Really." Willow smiled in appreciation before turning away, her face clearly still red. The human girl leaned back a bit and mouthed to Gus, "She okay?"
He shot a nervous smile, glancing back at Willow before answering her, "She's fine!" he said with a thumbs up. "Do you think she can take her?" Gus asked aloud.
Lealtad looked back down at the arena, watching as Luz and Amity walked up to each other. "I think my sister can do anything," she confidently stated. "But…" she didn't even need to turn on her camera to see her sister's hesitance as she held up the bat, "I think it's more of a case of her wanting to do something."
"Whaddya mean?" Gus asked.
"It's—" a random, loud, piercing scream startled her. "The Hell was that?"
"It's the bell?" Willow answered.
Lealtad just shook her head and sighed. "Of course it is." The match had begun, and a massive Abomination grew from Amity's spell circle. "Dios mío it was not that big last time we saw it!"
Willow gasped. "I don't think I've ever seen Amity create one that big, from scratch, in class!"
"She must be really motivated," Gus commented.
Lealtad rolled her eyes. "Ugh, why does she get the anime motivation power up?"
"The what?" the two asked.
"Nothing," she waved off. As Luz ran away from the Abomination, it began pulling off his head. Lealtad shot up to her feet and shouted, "Luz! Zig zag!"
Her sister must've caught her warning, as she started to dart in a z-like pattern, narrowly dodging the airborne head as it collided near her. She backed up against the wall as the Abomination grew a new head and marched after her. Lealtad cursed under her breath. This was bad. If Luz wasn't going to go on the offensive before, she definitely wouldn't do it now with a noticeable power difference. With each step it neared, Lealtad felt her instincts scream at her that she should jump down there and take the bullet for Luz.
Just jump.
Get on its head, thrash it around.
Or go straight for the brat, knock her out and it might unsummon the Abomination.
She felt a hand grip her wrist and whipped around, surprised to see Willow holding her. She had a shockingly strong grip. "If you interfere, it'll be an immediate forfeit. Luz will lose right away."
Lealtad stared at her pleadingly. "She's my sister. It's her and me, always."
A sudden burst of a flaming pillar startled her and the crowd, and Leal looked back only to find the Abomination scorching and burnt. How did… did Luz do that? Lealtad sat down, contemplating the scene before her. But there was no glyph in the ground. And Eda didn't teach her anything new in the last few minutes before the duel.
"I. Love. Offerings!" King's voice erupted her train of thought. She turned around and sighed as she saw King standing behind them, covered in an abundance of shirts, scarves, and hats. "What did I miss?"
"Luz is in a witch's duel!" Willow answered.
"Yeah! And she can win it all!" Gus cheered, "Yeah yeah!"
"Wha," King blinked.
Lealtad frowned at him. "Scruffy, a third of the reason she's even doing this is for your honour!"
He clenched his fists as he shook his merch in his hands. "Then I'll go to the front and cheer for her!" he declared as he made his way down the steps.
A huge gust of wind emerged from the arena and Lealtad saw its point of origin was in from the ground. Both the Abomination and Amity were caught up in it and flung back. Lealtad squinted, bringing up her camera then zoomed in at the stage. There were mounds all over the place. She gasped.
"Traps hmm?"
Lealtad laughed, shaking her head. "Alright, Dama Búho, I'll give you this one," she whispered to herself, "Thanks for looking out for mi hermana." She mused, "Talk about literally activating a trap card."
"Hey!" she heard King shout a few steps down. "You root for Luz or nobody!" He moved toward the person cheering for Amity, but then tripped on his scarf, which sent up tumbling down the steps.
Leal's eyes widened in alarm. "King!" she shouted as she chased after him.
"Wait Leal—" she had heard Willow shout. A series of footsteps sounded off behind her, leaving her to assume the two followed after her, but she didn't care about them right now because King was tumbling. The way he fell down each step looked painful, and to make matters worse, he went over the railing at the end and fell into the arena. Leal gasped as she rushed to the railing, just in time to see him falling right onto a mound. The mounds… that were booby trapped.
Shit.
"King, move—"
Surprisingly, not a single elemental explosion erupted. Instead, a cluster of spikes launched up from under him, piercing through his tacky merch but narrowly avoiding his body. Leal's heart nearly stopped as she realized King was okay.
She breathed a relieved sigh, nearly falling back had Willow not caught her and stabilized her. She looked at the witch and offered a grateful smile. "Thanks, Park."
The girl's face was red once again for some reason as she squeaked out, "No problem!"
"Spikes?" Luz's voice rang out in shock.
The three looked back and watched as Eda threw up a supportive thumbs up.
"I knew it!" Amity shouted. "You were cheating!"
Lealtad rolled her eyes and groaned. Yeah, cheating was wrong and whatever, but she honestly couldn't care less about the morals when it was her sister's life on the line.
Lilith said with a feigned sadness, "Oh Eda." Her voice then picked up, "I do believe this means you lose!" The crowd erupted with a gasp, causing Leal to roll her eyes again.
"It wasn't my idea to cheat!" Luz explained as she walked toward Amity, pleading, "And when I found out, I tried to stop it, but—"
"Who could believe anything you say?" Amity said with disgust.
Leal grit her teeth. This girl is playing the moral high ground now? After she made fun of Willow and ruined King's cupcake? She gripped at her bat as she narrowed her eyes at the lettuce head. To her surprise, Eda was tailing after her—Leal genuinely hoped it was to beat the shit out of the brat—but to an even greater surprise, it was to yank a small piece of paper off of Amity's neck.
Lealtad blinked in confusion as Eda held it up for the crowd to see. At the same time, Amity's Abomination shrunk by a considerable amount, falling just short of King's height. Its oversized head still remained and crushed the small goop monster as it fell down to the ground. "A power glyph from the Construction Coven!" Eda announced.
"She cheated," Willow whispered in awe.
Lealtad's jaw dropped. "That hypocritical ¡pequeña perra!" she hissed, throwing a leg up on the railing. Gus and Willow's arms reached out for Leal's right arm, pulling her back.
"Leal, what are you doing!" Gus shouted.
"I'm going to beat up that mocosa who thinks she can talk shit and act all high and mighty!" Lealtad shrugged off the witches' hands and looked down beneath her. The drop was fairly big but she didn't care. Luz was for some reason looking sorry for Amity and looked as though she was about to chase after her. "Sunshine! Stop!" she shouted as she hopped down. The fall wasn't as bad on her knees as she thought, so she sprinted toward Luz.
"Wait, Leal, help me!" King begged, shaking in his frozen torment.
Leal gasped. "¡Mierda! Right, sorry King!" she shouted as she turned toward him. "Don't struggle too much, you might cause more tears!" He obeyed her direction and waited. She looked down beneath him and bit her lip at the set of smaller spikes gathered around. One wrong move could make King fall in. "Luz, help me—" Leal's plea fell short as she turned and found her sister sprinting after Amity through the tunnel, with her bat. "¡Luz!" She turned back to King with an annoyed groan.
After a deep breath she locked eyes with King. "Alright King," she calmly said, "gimme a sec. I'm gonna break the small spikes so I can close and pull you up and over, got it?"
"Okay, okay, just watch my offerings!" he begged.
Lealtad chuckled a bit, glad he wasn't too stressed over his own mortal peril, as she kicked the spikes at her feet. She looked toward Eda, about to call for her help but realized she was teasing Lilith like a teenager, while the latter shouted like a child that got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. She was starting to realize that Eda and Lilith's rivalry might've been deeper than she thought. And that those two got Luz wrapped up in it. Leal simply sighed and worked at it on her own, figuring Eda wouldn't be much help—at least not with her current objective of being a smug witch (though Lilith's annoyance was a bit enjoyable).
As soon as all the spikes were out of the way, she carefully pulled King up and over the spikes, making sure not to tear up his offerings anymore. She set him down and checked him over. "You good, Scruffy?" she asked, "No cuts? No bruises? No nothing?"
He looked up at her with teary eyes.
Her eyes widened. "What? What is it?"
"My offerings," he quietly whined.
Lealtad released a noise that was a mixture of a relieved sigh and a chuckle. "Hey, at least some of them are okay," she held up his blue scarf and wrapped it around his neck, "and teared up shirts are a total fashion trend back in my world."
His eyes lit up at that. "Really?"
She nodded. "Really. Plus, I'm pretty sure that adorable face of yours can get more offerings if you wanted," she punctuated her point as she patted his skull head and winked at him.
He softly giggled in response, so Leal took that as a win.
"Oh, that's it!" Lilith's voice rang out, startling Lealtad and King. The two looked over in time to see the witch conjure up her staff from out of nowhere. She created a fiery blue spell circle with it, spinning it rapidly before sending her staff through and causing a tunnel of flame to launch toward Eda.
Leal gasped as the blast sent Eda zooming past them and into the wall at the stage.
"Eda!" she and King shouted in alarm, rushing toward her. The crowd had gasped in shock and awe as murmurs broke out but she tuned them out as she approached the witch.
Eda emerged from the plume of blue fire with a grin. "There she is," she smugly said as she landed on her feet. "Leal, take King outside. Mama's about to wreck old Lily's nails." She held her hand out and summoned Owlbert from also out of nowhere and conjured a spell circle as she spun her staff—
Which flew out of her hand and nearly into Leal's face, had she not caught it. She blankly stared at Eda as she held it out for her. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" she monotonously asked.
Eda ignored her as she snatched her staff and stabbed it through her spell circle, sending a bright fire-like beam toward Lilith who countered with a similar spell. Lealtad realized that witches must have a sort of magical colour alignment or trait personal to them. Though that train of thought hadn't lasted long as the fire collisions began sparking off and sent all over the arena under an onlooker's declaration of a "Witch's duel."
The fight quickly became a real live showing of Harry Potter mixed with Dragon Ball Z with how insane Lilith and Eda were casting spells at each other. It was at this moment Lealtad genuinely believed Eda was the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. She sent up a Hooty-like Earthworm to block an attack and made it chase after Lilith, who teleported around dodging it. Even though it wasn't much, the expression on Eda's face told Leal all she needed to know.
She was just having a blast.
She wasn't taking it seriously at all.
The screams of the crowd shook Leal out of her awe and she realized a bit of Lilith's flames had caught on the stands. She narrowed her eyes in irritation. How could she be the leader of the Emperor's Coven and fail to protect the people—oh, what was Leal thinking, this was on brand for typical law enforcement. Though her concern was raised as she noticed Gus and Willow were gone.
"King, c'mon, we gotta see if Gus and Willow are okay!" she shouted as she picked up King and ran into the tunnel. If those two kids got hurt because a couple of adults were having a pissing contest, Lealtad would not be pleased with Lilith or Eda. As soon as they got back into the covention hall, Leal's eyes darted around in search of the two witches. After a bit of looking and finding nothing, she lifted King up on her shoulders. "Do you see them?"
"I do!" he said. "Oh! And they're near a tote bag stand!" he added elatedly.
Lealtad laughed as she followed his finger's direction. "Perfect," she blew out a strand of his scarf that was blocking her face, "you could stand to put some of your offerings in one." Once they neared the stand, she sighed in relief at the sight of how unharmed they looked.
"Lealtad!" Willow shouted, noticing their arrival, "You're okay!"
"Me?" She snorted. "You guys were getting blasted up in the stands. Y'all alright?" She kept King steady as she dug her free hand into her messenger bag, rummaging around. "I have some plasters," she looked back at Willow, "those things I used to patch up Luz from when we met? They might help you guys any bruises or cuts—"
"We're fine!" Willow assured her.
Gus smirked. "Do they help with aches? 'Cause I think Willow could use one on her heart."
His friend reddened a bit at that as Leal blinked confusedly. "Her heart? Why?"
Willow gritted her teeth as she slapped Gus' arm. "Nothing! Gus is just making a witch joke!" she hastily shouted.
Leal shrugged—lightly, as King was still on her shoulders—before nodding at Gus. "You mind passing me one of those tote bags at the stand? Scruffy could use 'em." The tote bags were yellow and had a graphic that said I rat covention. Or at least she thought they said that. The rat drawing in the middle of the design was very random and not contextually clear to a foreigner like her.
"Ah, they cost 20 snails though." Gus seethed. Lealtad scrunched a brow and he elaborated, "It's this really eco-friendly material that—"
Leal snorted amusedly. "Ah shit, that's a thing here too? Dios mío, I really hope global warming isn't as well," she remarked as she dug around in her bag. She brandished 20 snails and handed it over to Gus, who quickly made the transaction with the clerk.
Willow's brows raised. "You're gonna get it?"
Lealtad smiled, feeling like it was no big deal. "Eh, why not? Scruffy can use the thing and tote bags have a lot of uses anyways." As Gus returned with the tote bag held out, Leal pulled King off and held him in the air, allowing him to toss his offerings into the bag one by one. "You good now, buddy? Feeling lighter?"
"Yup!" He then hopped out of her hands and into the bag. "Now carry me! We have to find Luz!"
Leal nodded as she took the bag out of Gus' hand and slung it over right shoulder, letting it dangle alongside her messenger bag. She looked at Gus and smiled. "Thanks."
He laughed. "No problem? It was your money, you know?"
"Technically it was Dama Búho's," she corrected. "But not for that." She looked to Willow. "For finding my sister and I and telling her about today. This was a cool day, all things considered." She frowned, "And while the displeasure of meeting Amity in person was something I wish could amend with a swift bat to her skull—"
Gus cackled as Willow's jaw dropped scandalously.
"—I still thought today was pretty fun." She looked down at King. "This fleabag had fun, Sunshine will no doubt think today was fun even after the Amity Incident, and Eda seemed like she was having the time of her life fighting Lilith so I guess it was a win all around in the Owl House today!"
The two witches laughed.
"Well gee, now you make it sound like we just made your whole day!" Willow joked.
She chuckled. "In any case. Just… thanks for inviting us along and introducing mi hermana to all this. It didn't sound like Eda would ever let us know about this event so it was great for Luz to learn 'bout all this." She held out her fist and the two stepped back, alarmed. She blinked a bit then winced as the realization hit her. "Ah, right! Um, this is a human thing? You just—" she brought her other fist over and bumped them together, "kinda bump 'em? It's called 'giving props.'" She held it out to them again.
Gus eagerly stepped forward, and just as eagerly fist bumped her (maybe too eagerly).
Willow slowly propped her but not before lighting red once again.
Lealtad stepped forward and tilted her head in concern. "You okay, Park? You've been a bit red all day—you sick?"
Gus sniggered as Willow's redness increased. That was clearly embarrassment. Leal feared she had pointed out a terrible condition of hers or something of the sort but Willow quickly explained, "I-It's a witch thing! D-Don't worry, I should be able to manage it!"
She smiled in relief. "Good to know." She turned around and held up a peace sign. "Whelp, gotta find Luz! See ya around!" The two witches shouted their goodbyes as Leal and King scoured the floor. This process would be a bit easier with Eda, but she was clearly occupied. With her in mind, that prompted a thought in Leal. "Yo Scruffy."
"Eh?"
"Do you know that Lilith chick? Or at least, her relationship with Eda?"
"Oh! Yeah!" King nodded. "She's her sister!"
Lealtad froze. "That woman is Eda's sister?"
"Uh-huh. Been chasing her down for years apparently. Trying to get her to join the Emperor's Coven," he disinterestedly explained as he kept looking.
Leal couldn't help but think about that. They were sisters. And they were blasting each other. And not like in some Gen Z slang way of dissing and slinging insults at one another. They were using lethal spells that forced a crowd to evacuate a theater. She and Luz had fights before, and some were like those typical physical sibling fights, but she had never once aimed to hurt Luz. Even on the occasion of her being really upset with Luz or not wanting to put up with Luz's aggression, Leal couldn't hurt Luz like that.
Though she couldn't speak for every family dynamic.
Not all families were like hers. Not all families are the same at all. Some could have a bond like hers, one that made Lealtad want to drop everything to protect Luz. Others could make them want to sling explosive spells at each other with no remorse. Bonds did go deeper than blood, she understood that. Sometimes the blood you're stuck with is something you don't want to be a part of. Lealtad understood that not all families worked out sometimes.
"Trust me when I say I know all too well how far older sisters go to look after their little sisters."
Curious, Lealtad asked, "Is Lilith her older sister or…"
"I dunno. I think she's like a year older," King replied.
Then… what did Eda mean by that?
"I found Luz!"
Lealtad's thoughts instantly vanished as relief overtook her. She saw Luz near the women's bathroom, looking distraught and rushed toward her. "Luz!" she shouted, startling the girl.
"Ah, Leal!" Her eyes adorably widened as they drew to align. "And King in a tote bag!"
"Are you okay?" she asked, regaining her attention. "That perra didn't try anything did—"
"Leal," Luz hissed. "Stop saying stuff like that."
Her sense of seriousness surprised her for a second. And then she shot her guess. "Sunshine, I swear, if this is because she spouted some sob story and made you sympathetic: I told you, people lie in this world—that includes the Boiling Isles, as we learned with Adegast." She placed a hand on Luz's shoulder. "She had no right lying either—"
"She was crying," the sincerity in Luz's voice caught Leal's attention. "She didn't know about the glyph, Leal. Lilith must've placed it on her without her knowing and she just felt so embarrassed because I keep embarrassing her and now with all this—" She released a sigh. "I just… I feel bad about it. This was her future on the line and everyone saw it."
Lealtad smiled as she squeezed Luz's shoulder, gathering her attention. "Luz, your loving heart is something I adore but I just… don't feel ya on this one." She softly chuckled, shaking her head. "You're allowed to call me an ass for this or whatever, but this girl? From what I've seen? Is a brat and a bully. And I know people have their own issues or their own problems and that spirals into them projecting onto others or venting in unhealthy ways to victims of circumstance—"
"Yeah, a facet of life that's really tragic," Luz agreed.
"Exactly!" Leal nodded. "But even if lettuce head's got some tragic anime backstory that doesn't grant her the right to pick on Willow and say you're not worthy of being a witch." She scoffed. "Having more hardships in life doesn't mean you're automatically right. She doesn't need to impose that shit here especially. And in my book, if anyone's got the balls to sling insults at you, then they've got the rights for me to sling my bat at their face."
Luz giggled. "Okay Leal. I get what you mean. But… I'm not ruling Amity out yet."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course you won't. Just… don't do your girl, Park dirty like that," she advised. "She and Gus invited us today 'member? I already said bye to 'em and thanks for all that." She laughed. "The way Eda's fighting, I'm assuming we're gonna need a quick exit."
"Eda's fighting?" Luz's eyes lit up. "Oh, speaking of," she handed Lealtad her bat, "tradesies?"
Leal giggled as she handed King over to Luz, allowing her sister to pet his head, as she took her bat back and rested it on shoulder like usual. Less for her to carry, and she could tell Luz wanted to carry King the second she saw him in the bag. Luz apologized for leaving King behind but made up for it with a peck to his skull.
"Y'know, it's one thing to run after a twerp who's bullying you, but it's another to run off with my bat." She frowned with her hip jutting out.
"What if I was going to use it to beat her up?" Luz teased.
"Like you would." Leal snorted. "Honestly don't even know why I lent you the damn thing in the first place. Not like you'd slug lettuce head with it."
She frowned. "I get you don't like her but calling her lettuce head is a bit hypocritical don't you think?"
Lealtad sighed. "Fine. I won't call her lettuce head in front of you." Luz balked at that. "Hey, she also teases Park and she didn't seem to mind my nickname for Amity." She shrugged smugly. "Park might be petty, but it feels like I got her stamp of approval." Her sister rolled her eyes at that, not impressed in the slightest.
"We gotta go," Eda announced as she appeared behind the two.
Luz stared up at her. "How'd you get away from Lilith?"
"Let's just say she had a real 'snack attack.' Hah!" She snorted, holding up her finger as she walked toward the door. "Wait, I got a better one… "
Lealtad rolled her eyes (she was definitely in danger of rolling them out of her head at this rate) as she followed after her, but stopped when she noticed Luz lag behind.
"Eda…" the witch in question stopped and turned as well. "Do you think I'll ever be a true witch?" Luz timidly asked.
Lealtad turned to Eda. She wasn't even going to try and make her sister feel better right now. After everything that happened today, this was a learning experience in its own right. Leal had learned well enough that that kind of field was out of her depth. Eda was her mentor, so she had to take the reins here.
"What? I don't know," she casually replied, "And who's a true witch? These suckers?" she pointed behind her. "According to them, that means being in a coven, but I never joined one and I'm better than all of them combined. You gotta be your own witch."
"My own witch," Luz repeated in awe.
Lealtad smiled, tucking her bat under her arm once again as she lightly applauded Eda. "Well said, Dama Búho." She was genuinely impressed, in all earnesty.
"You're dama right!" Eda joked.
She didn't bother correcting her at that as she let her have the moment. After seeing her fight a bit in the theater, Lealtad knew for a fact that Eda's self-proclaimed title wasn't entirely unearned. In any case, she was a bit relieved to know her faith in the witch as not just as Luz's mentor, but a protector, was well placed.
"Now, let's go before my sister realizes I tied her pointy shoes together," Eda suggested as she pointed to the door. A shriek from Lilith in the distance made Lealtad cackle. What splendid timing. "Aaaand, that's our cue!" Eda said as she looped back and gently urged the two toward the door.
"Sister? Now that's a mysterious past payoff!" Luz commented.
"Oh, you think that's all the mystery I got? Wait until you hear about my parents," Eda remarked as they exited the building.
"What? You've got parents? I need to know more!"
"You very much don't!" King insisted.
Lealtad laughed. "Yeah, Luz, try to respect a woman's privacy. If Dama Búho doesn't wanna share her life story that's fine!"
Eda beamed at her. "Thank you, Bean Head."
"But just to be safe, she doesn't also turn into a raven beast or something right?" Leal teased, cupping her hand as she stage whispered.
Eda rolled her eyes. "Very funny."
"Hey, just be glad I'm not giving you too much crap for roping my sister in your family beef," Leal pointed out. She noted the brief apprehensive look on Eda before she covered it up with an apologetic smile. "Just promise the next time we run into your family, you tell us?"
She winked as she shot a set of finger guns. "It's a promise, Bean Head." She clicked her teeth.
She laughed back. "It better damn be, Edalyn."
A/N: A fun thing about rewriting/working alongside canon, is the pacing of events. The cold open was hilariously fast paced and I love that about cartoons. You have a runtime, a plot, and a systematic way of trying to get all your things in order as quickly as possible. It's both commendable and admirable how writers and directors try to cram as much as possible as efficiently and effectively as possible. Of course here, I made the cold open longer but that's just a fault of me wanting the conversations to actually seem like conversations? Willow and Gus just show up and deliver the exposition and I'm like, "Nah nah, small talk first. That's how people do!" It's also a case of like, "Ummm we haven't seen these two for an episode? This is how they interact upon another meeting?"
But let's skip to the part that I'm sure EVERYONE was excited to talk about... that's right, Lealtad carrying King on her shoulders!
I'm kidding! I'm kidding! So Amity has officially appeared in Leal's life and has made her impression. A lot of Lumity/Amity fans will feel awkward about these points in times in fics like these because it's hard for some to grasp that Amity WAS a terrible person before all her growth and everything. Surface level, what Leal sees is cookie cutter behaviour that has hurt Luz back at home. In her spunky rage, this is quite possibly the first time Lealtad has EVER been within arms reach of a bully that's teased Luz and had the opportunity to react. And while Amity hasn't done much to tease Luz like Willow, Leal still feels for Luz's new friends and wouldn't wanna wish bullying on anyone!
It's one of those things that I felt like there'd be a lot of disagreement or dissatisfaction with how it's going to progress, but I assure you what's in store may be very satisfying in the end in terms of relationships. On that note, Lilith has been revealed and another element of sisterhood has entered the fray! You can see at this point that of the two sisters, Lealtad has a better memory for certain things. So the sister comment from Episode 1 part 2, is definitely something that'll linger and for the most part, Lealtad's first impressions of the two newest characters aren't very positive.
Aaaaand you'll have to bear with that. Though I will say, planning this relationships and plotting out the episode structures for season 2? It is GREATLY fun. So, don't worry, good things are in story for the future of this story. Let's hope season 2 canon won't ruin me TOO much... heh...
Review Responses:
Demon dark mezzo sangue: Ahh, I love your in depth reviews! Yeah, I definitely consider the fact that Leal's relationship with Luz—as loving as it is—can be like most typical sibling relationships. She loves her sister's passion, but she definitely doesn't the same amount of the love for things she's passionate about, lol! And yeah, Lealtad is a bit out of touch with her generation. FMA is probably one of Leal's favourite anime so the reference HAD to be made. I'm also glad you liked the photography idea! I thought it was a nice change. Lealtad getting upset with Eda is more of her trying to be open and less antagonistic, especially after last episode, and like she points out: to Eda's credit, she seemed to be very responsible about managing it beforehand. She just has experience with Luz and Camila's line of work and just medicine in general that she's not too quick to judge about stuff like that. Really happy that you're enjoying the story so far!
starrat: Sweet! Hoped you enjoyed this one! And hope you'll like the next! ( ^‿^)
OMAC001: Glad you liked it! And well, Leal's camera IS a few years old, not bad enough to be damaged. Definitely old enough to have a minor thing like accidentally capturing a photo just by being dropped. Uuuunless you meant "canon" as in the canon of the show. In that case, fair enough! lol.
MarauderPrime12: Pleased to hear it, as always ( ^‿^)
As always, feel free to hit me up on tumblr if ya got asks! And leave a comment if you liked this chapter!
Next chapter update: April 13th, 2022
Stay safe, and stay lovely y'all.
Until next time,
- Bleh