In general, belts aren't a thing in the Boiling Isles. With tailors who work magic quite literally, everybody's clothes fit with perfection. No material goes to waste, and everybody looks their best.
Of course, some more... industrious residents of the Isles tried to restrict the use of magic in clothing production. They claimed that magic could be used to hex shirts, or curse shoes, to either the detriment or unfair advantage of the wearer.
But despite them, belts became obsolete. Reduced to a novelty of sorts that were strung up in an armoury rather than a wardrobe. Over the centuries their use even became a topic for discourse, the knowledge of how they worked or their purpose lost to the ages.
Any new belts that appeared in the Isles nowadays originated from the human realm, either through washing up from a freak portal, or through a transaction of gastropod origin to the benefit of one Eda the Owl Lady.
Any time that Eda went to the human realm to gather more treasures for her stall, belts would often be among the mix. Without fail, every day, the belts would make up the majority of what remained. An unsellable tangled mess of leather and brass.
The people of the Isles knew what belts were. They existed here at home, why would they believe a known cheat and con artist that these were real human novelties? She must be trying to unload her unwanted merchandise without having to give anything away for free. The one word that sent chills down her back anytime she sensed its presence, was 'charity'.
Today though, Eda thanked the Titan that she still had all these buckles and straps, they made for good restraints.
Snaking through the house, the slimy, wriggling body of a familiar owl tube reached from his perch in the front door, through the living room, through the hallway, past the stairs, and into the kitchen.
Strapped to the table in front of her, Hooty stared at Eda with his beady eyes. Those pupil-less voids, devoid of reasonable intelligence, drilled a hole into her very being. Luz and King stood on either side of the table, making sure that every belt was as tight as can be. There was not a square inch of bird worm torso that was not adorned with a makeshift strap.
"Now Hooty," giving comfort and reassurance was not something natural to the grey-haired witch, but since taking in her two children she had far more practice than any parent should. "These restraints are for your protection. Not ours. If you freak out during this I don't want to have to put you down."
Delivered in a half-serious, half-joking tone, everyone present knew that these straps were for little more than a placebo of safety.
Animated by the rare occurrence of receiving direct communication, Hooty wobbled side to side, shaking the whole table. If he wanted to, he could have lifted it with ease, or chosen to brake the straps and go about his day. "Hoot! I'd like to see you try, we both know how that would end."
And he was right, Eda had never been at the receiving end of Hooty's full wrath, or at least the highest level she had witnessed some other poor souls subjected to. Hooty always seemed happy, unbothered by the events of the world, and the Owl Lady suspected that this wasn't due to a lack of awareness, but rather the knowledge that he could change anything he wanted to, if it caused the slightest inconvenience to himself, or to any of those he held dear.
She shivered, the thought of being considered a close friend of Hooty was terrifying. Also, I guess, his unknown level of pure power was something that could make even the most stoic witches and demons take a step back.
"Don't worry Hoots, I'm sure this will be as smooth as slime." The human in the room offered her patented 'Luz seal of approval', as well as a finger gun, in return getting a soft smile and sense of ease from the house demon. Seeing him like this was sad, but the restraints made everyone feel better.
Hooty had been acting stranger than normal today, if they hadn't been going into his mindscape to find where Eda left her keys, they would most likely have gone in to make sure that no brain-destroying parasites or ghosts were living there.
Luz was sure she had even seen Hooty having a full-on conversation with himself in the basement earlier. She had peeked in from the top of the stairs and saw him facing an empty corner of the room, talking to someone who wasn't there. It was unnerving, and Luz wanted to see that specific memory from Hooty's perspective. "How bad can your mindscape really be? Willow's was a challenge at first, but once you get the hang of things it's just like riding a bike."
Hooty didn't know what a bike was, or how he was meant to ride one with his unique physique, but the lack of seriousness that the girl showed for entering his very consciousness was concerning. "Are you guys sure you wanna go in there? My mind can be a little... much, for people at times."
"Nonsense Hooty," a dismissive tone in the voice of the woman about to put her teenage daughter inside his skull, or whatever mass was equivalent to that inside his head. "You know part of the deal for us to put up with you is that you help me find things. Even if you don't know where they are."
The owl scowled in return, regretting signing that extremely real and legitimate contract. Also for agreeing to several more clauses in the same document that probably violated his rights as a living creature, in return for a realistic body drawn on his door.
"You ready kiddo?"
"Almost, I gotta get my... mind-walker suit." Pausing for dramatic effect, and swiping one arm in a slow motion across her face in an attempt to look extravagant. Luz spun around, gathering speed before launching herself out of the kitchen and up the stairs, no doubt to find the most fantastical and Azura-ey pieces of clothing known to Titan.
Eda rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the table. Next to Hooty's squashed frame, King sat drawing with his favourite red crayon. Pages of graphic depictions of violence were strewn over the countertop. Each time he finished a piece, King exhibited it with pride to everyone in the room. Hopeful that he could receive the highest honour imaginable, having his work stuck on the fridge.
"Sounds like someone is getting too old and creaky to do her own chores." The little monster snickered to himself. At least he didn't have to do it.
"Watch it, King, you'll be old and decrepit like me someday. These things can come back to haunt you. Besides, Luz volunteered to do this." Eda certainly wasn't going to reject an offer of free labour, especially if it was something she wasn't getting paid to do in the first place.
"Why do you even have keys anyway? Is your magic too weak to lock things the proper way?" King turned his full attention to Eda now, the question asked in a joking, but mocking tone, with noticeable and genuine concern at its root.
Eda brushed it off, waving a dismissive hand towards the demon, "Pfft, no... I have many reasons I prefer the allure of a physical lock and key. Do you know how easily unlocked magic seals are if you have even part of the original spell? Or if you're powerful enough you can brute force your way through anything! I should know, I created the technique!" Proud to be the cause of her own paranoia, Eda resumed her last-minute checks to make sure this would be as 'smooth as slime', some might say. She had to teach that girl some better idioms.
"If you're so great then why don't you just use a magic tracking spell or something to find your keys? Surely 'Eda the Owl Lady' is powerful enough to do one little thing." King was sure he already knew the answer, but watching Eda get worked up trying to explain her convoluted system to stay analogue was always funny.
"Because King," she paused, already knowing the irony of the situation the answer left her in, before continuing through gritted teeth, "I put a spell on the keys to make them unfindable by magic." Pouting at her brilliant defence system backfiring, the little demon rolled on his back giggling.
She should be doing this work herself. She was the one who lost her keys, she was the one who decided to use Hooty as a tracking service, and she was the one who was preparing to go through with it. At least she was until Luz had all but begged to take her place. Going through the memories of one person must have given her a taste for it, but that was a problem for later.
"Ready Eda!" A force to be reckoned with barrelled into the room, narrowly avoiding the table, complete with what looked like a cursed flashlight and an assortment of mismatched chainmail, no doubt scavenged from various nooks and crannies throughout the house. "Time to shine!" She clicked the torch on to enlighten both the room and her point.
"Alright, now remember, Hooty is a lot older than that plant girl from last time, and he probably has a better memory too, so it might take you a while to find anything useful." Bending down to meet her brave explorer's eye level, Eda made sure that these words were met with full concentration and seriousness.
Her paying attention face in full swing, Luz drew the flashlight like a sword, the strong beam of light it created feeling like a cool but useless light-cutlass. "I got it, I got it. It's gonna be a bit bigger in there than with Willow, a few more rows of trees I gotta walk down, big whoop." Each swish of the light sword cut through Eda's hopes and expectations with expert finesse and class.
"No no no. I don't think you fully understand." She grabbed Luz by the shoulders to bring her to a standstill, "Hooty is ancient. He has memories from before we as a species knew about mindscapes. Any time I've gone in there, I never found the edge, never ran out of memories to invade, or even seen his early days. I don't know a lot about Hooty, and I'm not entirely sure he does himself, some memories are just so far away that he can't access them anymore."
This earned a look of confusion from the brown-haired witch, she was certain that all memories in a mindscape were equally accessible. It is not a physical place, and it is all inside the mind of a single individual. How can a memory be too far away?
Eda clocked the befuddlement from Luz, "When you enter a mindscape, where do you show up?" An impromptu lesson would force the young girl to actually put her own brain into action.
"Uhm, you just appear? Right? In the middle of the trees?" Not knowing what was expected as an answer was not a new thing, Luz had improvised many a response back home.
"Correct. In the middle. The centre of the mindscape is where memories are drawn from, the closer to the centre, the more recent or powerful the memory is. Over time, things get... pushed back. However hard it is for you to get to the memory, that is proportionally how difficult it is for the owner of the mindscape to recall it."
Luz thought back to her previous excursion into the mind of a friend. She had appeared in the middle of a small forest, with a line of trees on either side and water beyond those rows. She could see almost every tree at all times. Eda never found the edge of Hooty's memories? How much does he remember? Or how old can he be?
"Well, it looks like the existential dread from realising where you're going kicked in. Good luck!" Without wasting a moment, Eda raised her arms and cast a sleep spell over Hooty, not that he needed it, as breaking from their intense revision session the two witches were met with the sight of King drawing both a pair of glasses and a handlebar moustache on the bird's face. The level of detail and sheer scale of the artwork made it seem like Hooty had already been out cold for a while.
Once she was sure he was actually sleeping, and not faking it like last time, Eda spun around once more and without so much as a countdown cast Luz into a fine yellow dust, guiding her into one of Hooty's ear canals.
Satisfied with her handy work, Eda sat back in her chair, leaning on two legs, rocking back just enough to reach peak comfort. It would be a few hours before she would bring Luz back, it takes a while to find something if you don't have an idea where to start looking, but she was sure Luz could figure it out. After all, she learned from the best, or at least someone who thought they were the best, and that kind of confidence is a skill in itself.
"Hey, Eda?" A small voice from the master artisan broke through her thoughts, however fleeting and self-centred they were, "If you've been into Hooty's mind before, couldn't the inner Hooty help you at all?"
"The what." Bolting upright so fast the sound barrier would have broken if she weren't in such a panic.
"The inner Hooty? I kind of like the idea that there is a mini-me inside my head." Turning towards his surrogate mother, King's eyes widened as he gasped at a new idea. "Do you think I could talk to the inner me? I want to know what I really think of myself, and how great I am!" He jumped up and down, clapping his little paws together in excitement.
This self-absorbed fantasy was lost on the older witch, who hadn't heard a word said since the inner Hooty squirmed its way to the forefront of her mind. Memories of whom were best left far away from the centre of the mindscape, preferably burned if it were not for their value as a cautionary aid.
Eda leapt to her feet and pulled at her hair, "Ah, farts! I forgot to warn her about the inner Hooty!" But it was too late. Luz was in there with no connection to the outside world. She would have to face this inner demon alone.