There was something truly special about the knee. Maybe it was the high up view of the rest of the isle. Maybe it was the abundance of magic floating through air. Maybe it was the mysterious snow-covered ruins. But the best thing about this trip in particular was Luz's reaction to it all.
I don't think I'd ever seen someone so excited to train. She circled around me and her mentor, walking much faster than the both of us. The pep in the human's step kicked up the snow underneath her.
"Is this your first-time seeing snow?" I asked as the human bounded around in it.
"Oh no. Connecticut gets tons of snow in the winter".
"In the winter? What about the rest of the year?". Luz stopped for a moment to gawk at me.
"You guys don't get snow in the winter?".
"Nope," Eda answered from ahead. "The only place that gets snow is here".
"You mean you get a bunch of snow and it all melts after winter's over?".
The human laughed at how baffled I sounded. I don't think the knee had ever been without snow. But in the human realm it got so cold it snowed, then it got hot enough for that snow to melt?
"The weather has to be awful in the human realm" I deduced; my voice lined with pity. "How do you guys deal with it?".
"We have air conditioners and heaters. They help cool down or heat up places whenever we need them to" Luz explained, making me even more confused. How did they change the temperature in the room without magic?
"It's best not to question it, Minty," Eda chuckled. "Humans have all sorts of stuff that does weird things, all run on electricity".
"Electricity? But isn't that made of magic?".
"I'll explain it later. Or maybe I can take you to the human realm and show you".
I felt my face begin to flush at that. You mean Luz and I would hang out in the human realm…for an entire day…just the two of us.
No! It wouldn't be like that! Luz didn't see me that way. We were just friends. In fact, I didn't know if Luz was into girls to begin with.
"That…um…would be". Thank Titan that Eda quickly jumped in and stopped my stammering.
"I thought you were hiding from your mom?".
"I'm not…hiding from her" Luz pressed, doing a little stammering of her own. "I'm just…not really ready to tell her about this place".
"What's wrong with "this place"?" Eda huffed.
"Well I was supposed to go to this summer camp to make me more normal, but I went to a real-life fantasy world instead. She's probably not going to be happy about that".
"Yuck! Why would you want to be normal?" her mentor scoffed. "Being weird is much more fun".
"I don't want to be but…". Luz needed a moment to swallow the lump of sadness in her throat. "My shenanigans got people hurt in the human realm…and here I guess".
"Got people hurt?" I prodded. "That can't be true".
"It is. I have a habit of getting a little carried away with school projects. The reason my principal suggested I go to summer camp was because I brought a bunch of live garter snakes to school".
"Are those poisonous in the human realm?". Eda and I both shared the same confusion. Hexide had a grand selection of beasts that visited and even lived in the school, many much more dangerous than a simple snake.
"Of course not! I'd never bring something like that to school!". Luz then sighed while she quickly went back to reprimanding herself. "But they still have fangs. A lot of people got bit".
"Oh no" Eda drawled. "You mean everyone got bitten by something with tiny fangs. Those poor, poor children".
"Eda's right, Luz. Snake bites aren't that big a deal. Your classmates are just acting like a bunch of babies" I reassured.
Luz tried her hardest to be consoled, but her guilty frown refused to go away. Her eyes couldn't help but move to my death wound, the conversation striking a tender cord.
"Don't worry" I said, redirecting Luz's glance. "You've got Hexide's former top student on your side now".
Despite the ache that clung to it, I puffed out my chest. My old title had turned sour for me, but I couldn't let that show. It would only make Luz more upset.
"Now don't you go turn my apprentice into some nerd" Eda joked. I flashed my fangs in a sneer.
"If you think a multiple academic award winning grudgby team captain is a nerd, I hate to see what you consider cool".
"Did you study hard and always follow the rules?".
"That has noth–".
"Then you're a nerd".
"She doesn't follow the rules anymore" Luz chuckled.
"Yeah. She's broken into two places this month. Baby Blight's finally learning how to be cool".
"Aren't we here for a reason?" I huffed.
"Right!". Eda stopped in front of her apprentice. She held out one of her arms, pointing at a cluster of ruins in the distance. "Witches have been coming to the knee to develop their magic ever since the savage ages".
"The savage ages?".
"That's what we call the period before Belos's rule," I explained. "It was back before the coven system was established. Witches were allowed to do anything they wanted, then the Titan spoke to Belos and helped him return order to the isles".
"That sounds like a bunch of baloney" Luz uttered skeptically.
"That better be another word for griffin shit" her teacher joshingly scolded.
"That's basically what it means. But baloney is edible".
As Luz spoke, Eda bent over and made a snowball. She held out in front of Luz to bring her attention to it, before shoving it into the human's mouth. Luz shivered, the cold suddenly hitting her hard.
"Before you practice any spells you need to learn everything there is to know about the isles. Our first lesson, the different types of snow and what they taste like!".
She couldn't've been serious! Tasting snow?! How was that going to help Luz find new glyphs?!
"This is serious Eda! If I don't learn another spell by the beginning of the semester, they're going to stick me in the baby class!" Luz shouted after swallowing the mass of snow.
The new semester was about a week away, and Luz was freaking out. When she was first told that principal Bump was going to allow her to go to Hexide, she could barely contain her excitement. She buried herself in pamphlets, watched all of the promotional videos.
But when it came time to talk about her entry exam, my friend came to a horrible realization. She only knew one spell, and in order to be in my year, you had to at least know two.
"I am serious! You don't cast spells like everyone else, so you have to train differently from anyone else. Now here,". Eda tossed another ball of snow into Luz's face. "Really let the snow melt in your mouth".
I decided to leave the two to their "training", though not before giving Luz a silent "good luck". I settled down under a large orange pine, leaning back against its trunk. After shutting my eyes for a few minutes, I came to a realization of my own. I had absolutely nothing to do.
At least in the amulet, I had a bed and a crystal ball. And I know. I could always ask to be put back into the amulet, but that very idea made me shudder. It didn't take long for that loud purple room to get to me. The lack of shadows in there, the bright solid colors, the piercing silence that the noises on the crystal ball couldn't cover, it all broke me down really fast. That's why I always slept when I went in there. I never needed the rest, death giving me an abundance of energy, but I could never stand to be awake in that room for very long.
I decided to follow Eda's lead. I started with making snowballs. I would pack them as hard as I could before throwing them far in front of me. It may have been a couple years since my last game of grudgby, but my arm was still just as strong.
Yet, that got old really quick. I had to find something that took a bit more focus to pull my mind away from my boredom. I began sculpting more complex shapes like towers and even golems. I couldn't control the snow with magic like I used to be able to with abomination matter, but I remembered all the dimensions, how much goes where.
They got bigger and bigger until I created one half my size. When I had finished it, I stood back and stared at it for a little bit. At first, I felt sort of nostalgic. The snow golem in front of me brought me back to the first time I had successfully made a golem on my own, and the first time I'd correctly made abomination sludge. All the years of acing reports, actually impressing Miss Lilith, whenever all my hard work would pay off with a perfect spell, it all came flooding back to me. For one wonderful moment, I felt truly proud of myself.
But reality kicked in and that pride fluttered away, just like the many years I spent on abomination magic. I would never make another abomination again. I had lost that ability when I'd lost my life.
For half of my life, I had spent hours upon hours of mastering abominations, and in the end it turned out to be a waste. I couldn't do magic anymore, outside what spirits could do, and I could never join the emperor's coven. In the end, all the studying, the training, all the people I hurt, it was all for nothing.
"Did I even accomplish anything in my life, anything that actually matters?". My silent question made a tear fall down my face without me knowing.
I was so lost inside my head I didn't hear the sound of crunching snow behind me. By the time I had noticed Luz approach me, she had already noticed my watery eyes.
"Hey. What's wrong?". Luz, for once, spoke softly.
"Nothing" I uttered as I wiped my tears. "Just reminiscing".
Luz sat down beside me. Her caring stare pressed for me to open up.
"If there's something wrong, you can tell me". When I didn't respond she added, "It's not healthy to keep it in".
If it were anyone else, I would've yelled at them to leave me alone. But it was Luz. I truly trusted her, enough to where I could share my worries with her.
"I know I'm still here as a ghost but…my life is over. Everything I've worked hard for is gone".
"It's not all gone," Luz argued. "Yeah, you can't go to school anymore or work at the library, but it's like you said. You're still here".
"But it's too late to make anything of myself. I'm just a ghost now, a ghost who can't do anything but sit and wait until I move on. And that may never happen".
"You're not just a ghost". The light in Luz's eyes brought a comforting warmth into my soul. "You're Amity Blight".
"And what's so special about that?".
"What do you mean "what's so special"? You're the witch who saved me from my cursed mentor. You're the reason I learned my first spell". The human put her hand over mine. Though she didn't mean it to be romantic, my heart fluttered. "I didn't know you very well while you were alive, but the ghost you are now is pretty great".
I couldn't help but smile. My sadness, if only temporarily, melted away. Despite what Luz said being about me, my admiration was directed at her.
"Thank you" I murmured quietly.
"For what?".
"For a lot of things".
"Hey kid!" Eda called from up the way. "Thought you said you wanted to go skating".
"Oh, right". Luz perked up. "Eda and I found this frozen pond. Do you want to come skating with us?".
"Can I even skate?" I responded. "My feet don't touch the ground".
"Well, there's only one way to find out". The happy human rose to her feet. "Com' on".
The ice on the frozen pond was at least half a foot deep, despite it laying in the sun. By the time Luz and I had made it there, Eda was already gliding on the ice. For a woman her age, she surprisingly had good form.
I testingly stepped above the ice. I slid my foot a little to see if it would slip, but unfortunately the air over the ice wasn't any slicker.
"Well," Luz said while walking onto the pond. "It was worth a sho–ah!"
Luz's foot slipped from under her, sending her backwards onto her back. The little "gr" she let out afterwards made me chuckle. I couldn't help it. The look on her face was just too cute.
"Here" I giggled while pulling the human back up. She struggled to stay up right, wobbling like the ground was shaking underneath her. "Push your foot out to the side, like this".
As I demonstrated, I began to slide as if I were on the ice below. With a few more kicks, I was out in the middle of the pond. In my excitement I spun around and jumped into the air. Gracefully, I landed on one foot and balanced on it for a few moments.
I circled back to Luz, who was trying out my advice. With a few kicks of her own she began to slowly crawl across the ice.
"There you go!" I cheered as I glided alongside her.
I moved in front of her and started skating backwards. She tried to match my speed but instead flopped forwards. Luckily, I was close enough to catch her and hoist her back up.
"Keep working at it. You'll get it eventually".
I left Luz to her trial and error, as I went back towards the center. With the elegance of a swan, I flew through the air. The more and more jumps and spins I did the flashier I got with them. The corner of my eye stayed on Luz. Yes, I wanted to make sure she didn't fall, but I was also pretty curious about Luz's reaction.
Her bright brown eyes glimmered like a star filled sky. Her mouth gaped as her gaze followed me around. In the meanwhile, she mindlessly skated. She ditzily wandered up the outside, then straight into Eda.
Eda and Luz stumbled onto the cold hard ground, the latter landing face first. I instantly stopped my little display and raced up to the two of them. Eda was quick to her feet, despite the new ache in her back. Luz on the other hand stopped on her knees. She stared down at the ice, which was now covered in blood. Drops from her injured nose ran down her lip.
"Luz!" I hollered in alarm. "Are you alright?".
She didn't respond. Instead, she poked her finger into the pool of blood and started drawing something. It was a glyph but not the light glyph. This one looked like a bow with a tiny diamond under it and a larger one in the center with a line through the middle of it.
When the human tapped on it, the blood began to glow. The shine banded together before disappearing, a small ice pillar in its place.
"Yes! Yes!". Luz leapt up, only to slip again. This time Eda and I were there to steady her. "I did it! I learned my second spell!".
"And you did it in the most graceful way possible" Eda joked as she patted her on the back. "Bump's gonna be impressed for sure".
"Well, your presentation can't just be two spells. You'll also need to give a run down on your past experience, flaunt your talents, choose what track to study-–". An "ahem" and a glare from Eda stopped my ramble. "Er…But we can work on that later".
Eda pulled a rag from her mane of hair and handed it to her apprentice. As she fumbled back into the snow, she held it up against her nose. Despite the nosebleed, Luz was just as full of excitement as when we had first arrived.
She bent down to the ground and drew another ice glyph, this one much bigger. The human then hopped onto it and was flung up into the air. The sight made my heart stop…figuratively speaking. Was Luz trying to get herself killed?!
"Luz!" I shouted while she landed in a large snow pile. "Aren't you injured enough?".
"Relax, Amity. I've just got a bloody nose. What harm can that do?".
The sound of giant footsteps and falling trees grew louder and louder as something approached us. From out of the shadows a large white beast lumbered into our view. It sniffed the air while its fanged filled maw hung open. The scent it found brought its attention to us, or more specifically Luz.
"The slitherbeast!" I gasped. "It must smell the blood!".
Racing forwards, Eda raised her hand to summon a spell circle. But before she was able to cast it, the slitherbeast's huge claws latched onto her. It scooped up Luz just as quickly. As she tried to squirm out of the monster's paw she cried out in fear.
Breaking out of my shock, I sent a wall of flames towards the beast. Just the sight of the flames sent it backwards, sending a shrill screech from its throat. Now that its mouth was open, I went for the two tiny blue eyes under its lip. The flash from the attack made it rear onto its hindlegs like a spooked snake-horse.
I summoned a large blaze and aimed for the monster's back foot. That had to have been enough to bring him down. But before I could throw it, the slitherbeast retreated back the other way with Eda and Luz still in its grip.
"No!" I growled while it bounded off. I followed the monster as fast as I could but that wasn't fast enough. The beast soon left my sight.
A heavy fatigue fell on top of me making my limbs feel feeble and weak. I felt some invisible force yanking me forwards. It was as if I was being carried back to the slitherbeast's lair just like Eda and Luz were.
"Is this what being away from the amulet feels like?" I thought as I involuntarily trudged along.
My dread felt just as heavy. Each second Eda and Luz were alone with that thing surged horror through my veins. I had no clue what I would do when I found them. My fire seemed to have only been an inconvenience to the beast. I needed something stronger.
But what else did I have? I could summon fire, shapeshift, and turn invisible. That was it.
When I had finally caught up to the slitherbeast, some of my strength returned. It was over on a rocky ledge, its prey stuck to a wall with sludge. The monster waved its paw over the mentor and apprentice's head, sprinkling something onto them.
"Titan" Eda sniffled. "I hate garlic".
"This is it," Luz whimpered. The way her voice shook made my heart ache. "Te quiero, mamá. Lamento haberte fallado. (I love you, mama. I'm sorry I failed you)".
"Luz'' Eda's voice had uncharacteristically serious. "When the slitherbeast starts eating me, run".
"What! I can't just–".
"No, Luz! When you get the chance, you need to run!".
As if it were listening to their conversation, the slitherbeast plucked the small human from the wall. It sniffed her for a moment, then licked its chops. The monster opened its mouth wide, ready to pop the human into its mouth like a fried fairy.
Not only did the rest of my weakness disappear, but the sight gave me an unexplainable strength. A ferocity that couldn't be contained by the titan himself lit ablaze. My surroundings, my senses, even my own thoughts, were all drowned out by the feeling of protective furry that overtook me.
In that moment there was only one thing that mattered to me! Everything that got in between me and MY LUZ had to be destroyed!
With a piercing war cry, I drew a giant spell circle out in front of me! The dirt on the ground quickly started to part as I pulled a wave of goo into reality! I flung it into the air, over my head, while it all lumped together into a daunting shape! Fire wrapped around it, giving the bird-like creature I had created fiery wings!
"ABOMINATION!" I yowled. "ATTACK!".
The phoenix screeched as it dove towards the slitherbeast. With its scalding hot talons, it dug into the monster's back! The beast instantly dropped Luz to the ground, a pile of bones breaking her fall.
As my attack jammed its sharp beak against the slitherbeast, I raced up to the human. My shining golden eyes looked her over a few times, anxious to find even the smallest scratch on the girl.
"Luz!". My howl echoed off the cave walls. "Are you alright?! Did it hurt you?!".
"Eda!", was all she answered with. "We need to get to Eda!".
I followed her up the rocky ledge to where the older witch was waiting patiently throughout the whole ordeal. I held a flame up to the gunk binding her to the wall. It quickly melted as if it was warm macholate. Once her feet hit the ground, Eda grabbed her apprentice and swung her onto her staff. With a kick the two of them bolted for the mouth of the cave. I followed close behind while my attack fell and sunk back into the ground.
"That had to've been the coolest thing I've ever seen!". Luz squeed once we were far enough away from the slitherbeast. "Was that a phoenix?!".
"I…I guess? I don't really know what happened. I saw that Luz was in trouble and I got this sudden burst of energy".
"Well, whatever happened back there it was pretty impressive" Eda praised while looking behind her shoulder. "You fight a lot like your dad used to, you know, until your mom got a hold of his ba–".
Luz stopped her mentor with a warning smack on the back. Her elation then bounced back twice as strong while her attention turned back to me.
"You have to show me more abomination tricks when we get back!".
"Abomination?" I uttered.
I dove into my memories, trying to recover anything I remembered from the attack. It was fuzzy but I recalled giving my spell an order: "abomination, attack".
"Yeah! That's what you made the phoenix out of right?" Luz asked as the realization struck me.
"I can still do abominations" I murmured before my glee burst. "I still have abomination magic!".
"Heck yeah, you do!" Luz cheered with me. "You've still got it!".
My friend's smile brought me to life. My happiness burned into energy. I felt that I could take on the whole isles as long as Luz was there to back me. I'd never felt so strong than when I was with her.
I couldn't help but wonder if Luz felt the same. When her mentor turned into the owlbeast, or when she fought Katif in my honor, she looked to me for help. I was able to give her the strength to believe in herself, to accomplish the near impossible.
We both made each other more powerful.
The word "powerful" made my stomach suddenly drop. The words of the book spirit crept its way from the back of my mind.
"Hey, Amity?" Luz called, breaking me out of my sullied thoughts. "You alright?".
"Yeah" I lied with a sigh. "I'm just glad you're okay".