The Angel of the Owl House

by OwlHouseAngel

Luz Noceda is a young half-angel girl living with her angel mother in the Human Realm. Her attempts to be good always backfire, and after one too many mistakes, her mother sends her to Camp Reality Check. But a chance event leaves Luz in the Demon Realm, where she meets the Owl Lady, who teaches her that in a chaotic world like the Boiling Isles, Luz might be the perfect angel.

16. EP 16: Allusions and Illusions

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 1: The Demon Realm

Chapter 16: Allusions and Illusions

Gus watched as the Coven Scouts approached, wielding spears, chains, and spell circles, ready to capture Luz. Their other friends, plus the Banshees, threw up defences to protect Luz, but Gus didn't have any magic like that; he had his illusions, so he used them as best he could.

"You want Luz, you'll have to find her first!" Gus yelled, focusing his magic and producing a huge illusion. Countless clones of himself, Luz, and all their friends appeared, completely disguising where the real Luz was. A moment of shuffling around, and even remembering where the original Luz had stood wouldn't be enough to find her!

The scouts hesitated, but their Captain, standing tall and intimidating, just marched forward and lifted her mask, revealing only a swirling void and a large toothy sneer.

"An Illusion? That's the best you can do? Step back little boy; this is a fight way above your pay grade!"

Gus then watched with horror as a stream of yellow electricity arced from the Captain's fingers and jumped between his friends, destroying the illusions and electrocuting the real ones. Gus was rooted to the spot, his eyes wide with horror as he watched his friends collapse one by one. But still the lightning didn't stop, and Gus was forced to watch as they were turned to dust. The Banshees were the first to fall, followed rapidly by Skara and then Amity, who screamed out to Luz in her last moments. King was the next to disintegrate, crying out for Eda to come help them. The last was Willow, who writhed on the ground and reached for Gus.

"Gus! Please! Save us! Help!" Willow begged.

Gus tried to cast a spell circle, conjuring an illusion of a massive monster, but it was ignored completely, and the Scouts laughed and mocked him for creating yet another fake as his friend suffered.

Willow had tears in her eyes as her expression went slack and hopeless, right before her body turned black and burned away into ash under the lightning of the captain. Gus fell to his knees, while Luz, the only other person to avoid being destroyed by the lightning, looked at him from the ground where she lay, eyes filled with betrayal.

"Why didn't you help her!? We're your friends!"

"M-My Illusions aren't helping!" Gus cried, tears streaming down his face.

The Captain stopped her lightning spell and stepped up to Luz, before suddenly shifting and twisting as she transformed. Gus gasped and recoiled in terror as the image of the Captain was replaced by that of Emperor Belos.

"Thank you, Augustus. Your little illusions were a nice sideshow. But it's over now, and I will claim my prize."

The shadows below Belos' robes stretched out and gripped Luz, then began to drag her in. Luz screamed and cried, and tried in vain to claw herself away from the Emperor.

"Gus! Please! Don't let him take me!" she begged, sobbing in terror.

Gus began to hyperventilate. He tried to draw another spell circle, but it shattered and Belos laughed mockingly.

"You can't even conjure the illusion of being useful. You can't protect anyone." Belos declared, as Luz gave one last agonised scream before being consumed by the shadows beneath Belos' robes.

Gus gripped his heart and struggled to breathe. His friends were dead! Luz was gone! He'd failed! He'd stood by and been useless! He couldn't do anything!

Then, just as the spears of the scouts bared down on him, the entire world vanished in a blink, and Gus startled awake.

He panted hard as he shot up in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat. He looked around slowly, trying to make sense of everything, and found he was in his room. Slowly, the visions he'd just seen faded from his mind and reality took it place.

His friends were all alive and free; they'd gotten zapped yesterday, but no one died and even though Luz was captured, she'd escaped with help from Boscha. Everything was fine… it had all been a horrible dream.

A knock on his bedroom door pulled Gus out of his thoughts; "Gus? Is everything alright? I heard a scream."

"Y-Yeah Dad, I'm fine. Just had a nightmare." Gus answered.

His bedroom door opened and his Dad, Perry Porter, walked into the room. He looked a lot like his son, just older and with the Oracle Coven sigil on his right wrist. He smiled kindly at his son, then took a seat on the foot of his bed.

"Are you alright now, son?" he asked, rubbing Gus's back.

"Y-Yeah… it really was just a bad dream. It wasn't real…" Gus answered, before frowning, "...not real… which means it can't do anything…"

The words "Like illusions" filled his mind, but Gus didn't let them spill. His Dad looked at him worriedly; "Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

Gus shook his head and forced himself to smile; "I'm good."

Perry didn't look convinced, but he didn't want to be pushy; Gus would talk to him when he was ready. "Well okay then. But you can talk to me any time. Now, I better head to work; will you be okay at school today?"

Gus nodded, and his dad smiled and ruffled his hair; "Attaboy. See you tonight!"

With that, Perry left for his job as a reporter at BBN-HXN News, and Gus got himself up and ready for school. The young boy tried not to let his nightmare get to him, but parts of it just kept replaying in his head. His illusions had been completely useless yesterday, and may have even made things worse! If he hadn't tried what he had, then maybe the Scout Captain wouldn't have immediately realised it was an illusion, or whipped out a lightning spell to zap them all! If he'd done something else, Luz might never have been captured! Sure she was free now, but that didn't change the fact that all of their friends had been hurt and Luz had been put through a pretty traumatizing experience because he'd not been able to do anything useful!

It was frustrating, and it must have been obvious on his face, as when he arrived at Hexside, he found Willow, Amity, and Luz looking at him with concern.

"Gus, are you okay? You've got bags under your eyes." Willow asked gently.

"Yeah, just a bad dream. Don't worry about it." Gus waved her off with a smile.

"You sure?" Luz said, tilting her head curiously.

Gus nodded; "Yep. Now enough about me; how are you guys?"

"Pretty good. Dad and Papa watched our game yesterday and were worried I'd be upset over losing, so they're taking me out for dinner tonight." Willow smiled; "I told them it was fine, but they insisted and I haven't spent much time with them lately, so I agreed. It should be fun."

Amity smiled; "That sounds nice. I've got a shift at the library after school, so I'll be busy there. It's a shame Boscha and Grudgby took up our whole weekend; I wanted to take Luz on a real date!"

Luz blushed while Gus and Willow chuckled; "W-Well then we'll just have to go next weekend instead! As for what I'm doing; I'll be working with Rasiel on the Alchemical Silver I need to make the Panacea Mirror!"

Her friends nodded in understanding; since meeting Rasiel, they'd learned about the deal he'd made with Eda to be allowed to stay at the Owl House. Luz had been working pretty hard at preparing for it and trying to find another Black Tomb by feverishly translating Philip Wittebane's Diary.

"How's that going anyway?" Amity asked.

"Good!" Luz chirped, before her face fell slightly; "Mostly…"

"Something going wrong?" Gus asked.

"Not exactly? The Alchemical Silver is coming along nicely, it's just kind of finicky and Rasiel's worried we won't be able to do the next step until we find his body. Apparently my magic isn't suited for it…" Luz sighed with frustration.

"What? But aren't you a super strong High Angel now?" Willow pointed out.

"Well I wouldn't say super strong, but I'm stronger than I was. The problem is that because of the way I've evolved, my normal angelic magic is blended with the magic of the glyphs; Titan magic. But Angelic Alchemy relies strictly on angelic magic, and it doesn't look like I have enough of that to perform the purification ritual that completes the next step." Luz explained.

Her friends looked at her with surprise; unless something was suppressing or actively draining her magic, she always seemed like an endless font of energy! The idea that she didn't have enough undiluted angelic magic to complete the silver was a little odd.

At that moment, Rasiel popped out of his ring; "Strictly speaking, Luz's magic is roughly half angelic and half Titan. As a Cherub, her magic was extremely stunted, and when she first became a full angel, the amount of angelic magic she had was closer to that of a normal Cherub, while the rest was made up of Titan magic. Now that she's a High Angel, she has a bit more angelic magic than a normal angel, but its still only half of what a High Angel should have, with the rest being Titan magic. Making purified Alchemical Silver is a very difficult task; it normally takes a team of angels working together to pull out enough magic to perform the ritual, but without my body and without involving Luz's mother, we only have what Luz has. Sadly it's just not enough right now."

Amity, Willow, and Gus exchanged frowns; "So you won't be able to cure Eda's curse until you get Rasiel's body back?"

"Yeah… we were going to have to wait until then anyway since we need his blood along with mine to complete the mirror, so it's not the end of the world. But I was hoping to have the mirror mostly done so we could complete it as soon as Rasiel gets his body back! Now that we have to wait, it'll be an extra two weeks on top of however long it takes to find Rasiel's body." Luz sighed dejectedly.

Her friends frowned again; their experience with Eda yesterday had proven that she was beginning to build up a resistance to the Elixirs. Luz's Super Elixirs had helped, but they were now about as helpful as the original Elixirs used to be, forcing Eda to drink them daily and take multiple if she became stressed or drained. If things kept going like this, they'd stop working at all within a month or so. It was a race against time to find Rasiel's body and complete the Panacea Mirror before the Curse took Eda over completely.

Gus, feeling fairly useless with his confidence shaken, wracked his brain for a way to help. "Well isn't there any other ways to boost your magic? Like potions or Power Glyphs?"

Luz's eyes widened; "Power Glyphs! That could work! Potions could be dangerous since I'd need to stop the purification ritual to drink one when I ran out of power, but anybody could slap a glyph on me and I'd be able to keep working without losing focus! Gus, you're a genius!"

The boy gave a small smile; "Glad I'm still good for something!" he joked. His friends gave him a strange look, but the bell began screaming before they could question his odd behaviour. With a promise to meet up again at lunch (since Gus had a meeting with the HAS during the break), they all split up and headed to their classes.

Luz's bard classes went by fast, as she and Skara practised together and chatted a bit about what had happened the previous day. Skara happily reported that Boscha really was making an effort to be neutral with others and had begun holding her tongue whenever she would have previously said something insulting. After leaving the Owl House the previous day, they'd gone to the Police Precinct to let them know that Boscha was safe, and they'd pretended she'd been drugged with an Amnesia Tincture just like her mother and the Scout Captain. Since they'd kept the real reason for Luz's arrest a secret and no records had been made due to the Captain wanting to cover it up, no one had bothered to try and come after her, and no one at the precinct wanted to risk the Owl Lady's or Lilith's attention by trying to recapture her, so they were quietly sweeping the incident under the rug. Skara even whispered to Luz that she'd heard a rumour that the Emperor himself had ordered the Bonesborough division of his coven to just observe Luz, but both girls thought it was just the usual rumour mill exaggerating things.

As for Boscha herself, the three-eyed girl was now relying more on snark and sarcasm than outright malice when talking with others, and while not perfect, it was a big improvement.

After bard class was over, Luz spent some time with Amity and the twins during the break, and learned that Emira was now multi-tracking in both Illusions and Healing, having been inspired by her lessons with Viney (and likely so she could spend more time with the other girl). However she also learned that Gus was apparently struggling in class.

"It was the weirdest thing." Edric began, "Usually when the older years help out the younger ones with their work, Gus just keeps working on his own since he doesn't really need the help, but today he was actually making mistakes!"

Emira nodded; "It really was strange. I noticed he seemed kind of down yesterday when he came to get our help, but I figured it was just because Luz got arrested."

"Well he said he had a nightmare last night. Maybe that's why?" Amity suggested.

The twins both cringed at that; "That's rough." Emira said sympathetically.

"Yeah, nightmares always suck, but they suck extra hard for Illusionists." Edric agreed, "Our magic is all about imagination and bringing the non-existent to life…"

"…So our dreams are almost always really vivid." Emira finished.

Luz frowned sadly; it must be awful to have a nightmare that felt that real! Normal nightmares were bad enough! Maybe she could find a way to cheer him up at lunch… perhaps with some stories of the Human Realm?

After the break was over, Luz headed to her classes with the construction track. She'd help Gus out later, but right now she needed to see if she could finally make some more potent Power Glyphs! The ones she'd tried making before Grom had been fairly pitiful, and the ones her classmates had gifted her had ended up being used by King, who'd wanted to see if he could combine them with his regular Glyph magic.

Walking into class, she smiled as she saw that Mattholomule was present. He'd rarely been in classes with her since she became an official student, but since the school's repairs were complete and Principal Bump was using the money sent by Lilith to have professionals complete the expansion, he was back in regular classes again.

"Hey Matty! Good to see you!" Luz greeted happily.

Mattholomule's face twisted uncomfortably for a moment, before he forced himself to smile at her; "Hey Luz."

Luz noticed his expression; "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just not a fan of being called Matty." he replied, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh! Sorry. What do you want me to call you?" Luz asked.

"Just Matt, or even Mattholomule. I've gotten used to that nickname." he said, relaxing again.

Luz tilted her head curiously; "Really? Even though your name is actually Matt Tholomule? How come you never corrected anyone by the way?"

Matt shrugged; "Honestly, I didn't care enough. It's basically just my whole name, which is better than some of the stuff I got called back in Glandus."

Luz scowled; after the previous day's events with Boscha, her tolerance for bullies was at an all-time low. "Well forget those jerks. You're a Hexoleo now! So Matt, I was hoping for a little favour…"

Since Matt knew her secrets from Grom, Luz freely told him what she was working on, making the boy's eyes widen.

"I'm seriously still not over the whole "Luz is an angel" thing." Matt chuckled nervously, "I know a lot of people know now, but it's still weird to think about. But whatever; you want my help to try and make better Power Glyphs?"

"Yep!" Luz said, pulling out a slip of paper from her pocket. It had a little picture of Owlbert on it, which was the design Luz had chosen for her own Power Glyphs, "I can make them strong enough to give me a tiny boost for one spell, or five seconds of a continuous spell, but it really is a tiny boost."

She cast a simple light spell, then stuck her Power Glyph on the back of her hand and repeated the spell, creating a second, slightly brighter light spell. Matt eyed the slight difference with a frown.

"Yeah, that's good for a pinch, but it won't be much good for what you're planning." he said, before grinning confidently; "Lucky for you, I've been practicing my Power Glyphs lately! I'll show you a few tips and tricks to make them better!"

Luz grinned; "Thanks Matt! You help me with this, and I'll consider us even for the whole Detention Pit thing."

Mattholomule winced at the memory; Luz had been nice to him and accepted his apology, but she still hadn't completely forgiven him for that screw up. He didn't blame her though, and was happy to finally make things square between them.

The two decided to partner together to complete their assigned work faster; Professor Freed taught them a spell to make magic swirl around their fingers and arms, allowing them to push them through stone to drill holes. Matt showed his skill in construction magic by completing the task second (only behind the top student Leia), then helping Luz. She was better with construction magic than she was when she started, but she still struggled with it since neither her angelic abilities or the glyphs she had lent themselves to construction magic. She eventually managed it though, and they had enough time to begin working on the Power Glyph problem.

Power Glyphs were one of the rare examples of modern magic still using elemental magic as a component, as it used the element of earth to weave a strengthening enchantment into paper, so that when the paper was pressed against skin, the enchantment could then flow into the user. This allowed the earth element to saturate the body, and since earth was the element of strength, endurance, and determination, it filled a witch's body (or an angel's in Luz's case) with increased physical and magical power. However, this use of elements also made Power Glyphs hard to make in the modern era, since few knew how to harness elemental magic beyond simply conjuring and manipulating the element itself; enchantments using the element's symbolic representations were an entirely different kind of magic that bordered on being forgotten.

However as Mattholomule had said, he'd improved his ability to make them by secretly studying earth magic. His older brother, a Scout in the Emperor's Coven, had brought home some old books about it after shutting down some criminal's stand at the recent Book Fair; Matt didn't know the details beyond the crook trying to scam Head Witch Lilith, but his brother had let him keep a book on the elements, which had explained the relationship between the elements of Earth and Fire, and construction magic.

Luz had watched with awe as Matt had drawn his spell circle, then seemingly dissolved it, and a huge clump of earth he'd conjured, into brown coloured magic particles which he'd then woven into some paper. He'd shaped the enchantment into his own design, which was a cartoonishly handsome version of his own face. He'd then grinned expectantly as he handed it to Luz.

"Try that!" he said.

Luz giggled at the idea of essentially giving herself a Mattholomule temporary tattoo, then obediently put the glyph on the back of her hand. The rush of magic it gave her was noticeably more than her own attempts, but it was also still far from what she needed.

"Better, but we're still not there yet." she said.

"Well then, let's do it together. Maybe try mixing some of that angel magic in." Matt suggested.

The young angel nodded, then began following Mattholomule's lead. He proved to be an actually competent teacher, as he gently instructed her in how to improve the enchantment. Luz couldn't use elemental magic that she didn't possess the glyph for, so she'd had to rely on just angelic magic to make her enchantments, which was why they were so weak, but with Matt providing the earth elemental magic, the two were able to weave a surprisingly decent enchantment. The finished product was shaped like Matt's face again, but Luz's contribution had resulted in the image having owl wings sticking out of it's head, much to her amusement.

"Feathers are a good look on you." she teased, making Matt roll his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Try it out already, I want to see how strong our combined magic is!" Mattholomule ordered, leaning forward eagerly.

Luz didn't need to be told twice, and happily slapped their Power Glyph on her hand. Immediately, she gained an aura of gold and white magic, and felt her power skyrocket.

"Whoa! I feel like I could vaporise half of Bonesborough with one light blast! This is crazy!" Luz laughed, casually producing light balls from her hands like they were soap bubbles from a bubble wand.

Mattholomule rubbed a finger under his nose proudly; "Am I awesome, or what?"

Luz nodded happily, but unfortunately, the Power Glyph faded after only a few minutes of use, reducing Luz back to her prior level of strength. She frowned; if it faded that fast, it would never last long enough to complete the Purification Ritual needed for the Alchemical Silver.

"This is better, but it's still not enough! I think the potency is right, but I need something that lasts longer, like the Power Glyph I got at the Covention." Luz sighed, remembering how effective it had been when Amity had used them against her, the Mandragora, and the Ice Wyrm.

"If you got it at the Covention, then it was probably made by Head Witch Mason. There's no one on the Isles better at construction magic than he is." Mattholomule crossed his arms, "Sorry to disappoint, but this is the best I can do for now."

"Can we ask some of the others to help?" Luz asked, pointing to the other construction students, as well as Professor Freed, who were working on their own personal projects.

Mattholomule shook his head; "Adding more power will just make the enchantment stronger; it won't make it last longer. We need to improve the basic quality of the enchantment itself. Professor Freed and Leia are probably the only ones who could do it better than me, but it still wouldn't compare to Head Witch Mason."

Luz pulled on her lips in thought; "Most of the Isles thinks I'm Eda's daughter now, so I doubt he'd give me another Power Glyph if I asked…"

The only other people who had Power Glyphs from him were Willow, Gus, and King, but all three had used them. Willow had used hers during the confrontation with Odalia, in anticipation of having to fight Alador too. Gus had used his in the fight with the Detention Pit, and King had destroyed his while trying to see if he could replicate it (which he sadly couldn't).

Sighing in defeat, Luz said; "Well, I guess that plan's a bust. Thanks for the help anyway Matt. Consider us even."

Matt nodded, but inwardly he felt dissatisfied. Back in Glandus, there was no way anyone would let him off the hook so easily after screwing up so badly. People at Hexside were a lot nicer, and Luz was obviously in a league of her own, being a Kindness High Angel, but that just made Matt feel worse about not being able to actually help her out.

He thought for a moment, before looking around to see if anyone was watching them. When he saw everyone else absorbed in their own work, he silently pulled Luz over to a corner of the room so he could whisper to her.

"Okay look, this is kind of a long shot, but I might have another way for you to boost your magic enough to complete this ritual thing." Mattholomule said quietly.

"Really? What is it!?" Luz asked excitedly, leaning in close.

"Have you ever heard of something called a Galdorstone?" Matt asked.

Luz frowned, then shook her head; "No, never."

"Well they're these ancient relics that are supposed to massively boost the power of any spell cast by someone holding one." Matt explained, "I heard about them while I was still a student at Glandus. Some of the guys I hung out with overheard some Coven Scouts talk about them, and when I asked my brother in the Emperor's Coven, he confirmed it."

Luz gasped; "If those things are real, then they might be just what I need! Do you know where they are, Matt?"

At that, Mattholomule frowned and looked away; "Not exactly. My older brother might know; he actually mentioned them again recently. We could ask him?"

Luz's first instinct was to jump at the opportunity, but Mattholomule's brother was in the Emperor's Coven. It could be risky for her to get involved in anything to do with one of them.

"Maybe… Hey Rasiel, do you know anything about these relics?" Luz asked, looking down at her ring.

Rasiel didn't emerge, and just spoke into her mind; "They sound very familiar… but I'm afraid I couldn't say more than that. But so long as they aren't related to my lost personal memories, I should be able to recall them with time. I don't know how long that'll take though."

Well that torpedoed Luz's plan to find the Galdorstones without getting involved with the Emperor's Coven. She debated with herself for a few minutes; she needed one of the Galdorstones to finish the Alchemical Silver needed to cure Eda, but if she made the wrong move around a Coven Scout, she could get arrested again! Still, scout or not, this was Mattholomule's big brother…

"Is your brother cool?" Luz asked.

Matt nodded with a big grin; "He's the best! I look up to him! He's the inspiration for my awesome haircut!"

That made Luz smile; she didn't have any older siblings of her own, but she could understand the feeling of looking up to someone and wanting to be like them. She felt the same about her Mami and Eda.

"Well then, let's do what you said and ask him about the Galdorstones. If he can really lead me to them, then it's worth a try!"

Matt smiled and agreed; "We can go after school. He has patrols around Bonesborough in the afternoons, but always makes sure to be near our house when I get home from school."

With a plan decided upon, the two spent the rest of their classes before lunch working on making more Power Glyphs, just in case they needed them. Then when lunch came, Mattholomule joined Luz as she went to sit with her friends as always, and listened as she filled them in on her plans for the evening.

They'd listened with interest to the story of the Galdorstones, especially the otherwise listless Gus, and were keen to find out just what these stones were, and what they could do. Once Luz was finished telling the story, she turned to Gus.

"So Gus, did you want to come along with me and Matt? It'll be a fun adventure! Probably!" Luz chirped, trying not to think about any potential danger. As a High Angel, she should be able to handle most dangerous beasts. Probably.

Gus looked at her with surprise; "You want me to help you?"

"Sure! You look like you could use a pick-me-up and hanging out with Matt and I should be just want you need!"

The Illusionist boy smiled brightly, but it quickly fell as self-doubt crept through his mind; "W-Wouldn't you prefer Amity or Willow?"

"Not specifically. I'd love if they could come too, but Willow's going out with her Dads tonight and Amity has a shift at the library." Luz replied.

"I do wish I could go too, but I've already promised the children that I'd read to them, and I can't bring myself to break that promise." Amity said.

Luz leaned close to Gus and put an arm around his shoulders; "Besides, I've been on adventures with Amity and Willow, and even technically with Skara and Boscha! But I haven't been on an adventure with your or Matt since the Detention Pit incident, and I don't think that really counts…"

Gus didn't look totally convinced, but it still felt nice to know he was wanted. He forced himself to smile and say; "Well if you put it like that, then sure. I'll come along. Maybe the Galdorstones will do something cool for me too!"

Luz nodded happily, but Matt burst their bubble; "Sorry to break this to you Gus, but the Galdorstones don't work on illusions. You can't really make an illusion more powerful after all."

That made Gus deflate a little with disappointment, though he didn't feel too surprised; of course they wouldn't work for the one kind of magic he knew. Still, Luz had asked for his help and he wasn't going to let her down two days in a row, so Gus forced himself to perk up a bit, regaining some of the spirit he'd lost since his nightmare.

Lunch ended soon after and everyone headed to their own classes with a plan for Luz, Gus, and Matt to meet up on the school's front steps before they headed to Mattholomule's house. After a wild but entertaining afternoon of caring for both a Unicorn and a Bicorn in the beast-keeping track (the former liked Luz a lot, while the latter didn't), Luz found she was the first to arrive at their meeting spot, followed soon after by Gus.

"Hey! Gustopher! Gusteban, Augustabeth! Any of those working for you?" she grinned teasingly.

Gus smiled despite the bitter feelings swirling inside him. "You're already the one who nicknamed me Gus. One nickname per person." he joked, gently elbowing her.

"Fine fine. Are you ready for an adventure? I've got no idea where the Galdorstones are, but it can't be anywhere obvious or people would have already found them." Luz said, getting herself pumped up. She'd already sent a message home to Eda letting her and King know she'd be late home.

Gus's smile faltered, "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Just… don't expect me to be a lot of help."

Luz frowned; "Okay, spill it Gus! Are you okay? And I mean honestly? You've been down all day and I'm getting kind of worried. Is it really just because of your nightmare?"

Gus averted his eyes; "Well the nightmare is part of it… I've just been thinking; what if it's time for me to explore different kinds of magic?"

Luz blinked, thrown off by the seemingly random shift in topic; "You mean you're thinking about Multi-Tracking? I'm all for trying new things, so I'll happily support you, but is that really what you want? What's wrong with Illusions?"

"Illusions are just so…" he waved his hand, trying to find an answer, "insubstantial. They're good for a distraction or putting on a show, but they're useless for everything else. I can't…" he hugged himself; "I can't do anything real with illusions."

Luz frowned sadly; "Gus… what brought this on? You've always been really proud of your skills as an Illusionist."

"It's because I was useless yesterday." he frowned, refusing to look directly at Luz; "Everyone else was ready to fight and protect you from the Coven Scouts, but all I could do was throw up an illusion that immediately backfired! Because of me, our friends got zapped by lightning and you were left alone to heal us, letting the Scouts arrest you!"

"Gus, that wasn't your fault!" Luz protested; "The Scout Captain is the one who cast that lightning spell!"

"But she wouldn't have done it if I hadn't used an illusion like I did! Lightning magic is really hard to control, especially when your targets are surrounded by your own allies wearing metal masks and using metal spears! She'd never have used it if I hadn't made the illusion I did! And it was such an obvious one too! It was clear it was fake from the start, but if I'd made something else; like the illusion of a monster attacking, it wouldn't have been immediately obvious that it was fake and it would have actually worked as a distraction! Or better yet, if I'd just used any other kind of magic, I might have been able to actually defend you and the others!" Gus ranted, sinking into a seating position on the school's front steps and hugging his knees. "I was worse than useless!"

Luz sat down beside him, "I get it Gus, but it really wasn't your fault. There's no guarantee she wouldn't have zapped you all anyway. Plus, you were hurt too. It was a fight we couldn't win; we were a bunch of kids against the Emperor's Coven; the best of the best!"

Gus looked at her, but it was obvious he wasn't completely convinced. Luz hated seeing him so down; he was two years younger than her and most of her friends, but she'd always thought of him as an amazing witch, and while illusions may not be real, they were still really useful. Luz couldn't count the number of times even her visual only illusions had saved her butt.

"Okay Gus, if you really feel so strongly about learning more magic, then I'll help you. Amity and I were already teaching you how to use the ice element as a component of illusion magic, but I can probably teach you how to use ice magic on its own. Just don't give up on illusions; you clearly love them." Luz said, taking Gus' hand and looking him in the eye.

The younger boy managed to smile and nod; "Thanks Luz. I'd like that."

Luz grinned and held her fist out to Gus, making him blink in confusion. "It's another human thing. You bump your fist against mine! It's sort of like a high-five, but less like a celebration and more like a bonding thing." she explained, trying to verbalise something that those growing up in the Human Realm just sort of knew.

Gus carefully bumped his fist against Luz's, then grinned; "Okay, I love this."

Luz giggled as Gus kept bumping her fist until Mattholomule finally showed up. "Sorry I'm late, I was asking Leia to show me her Power Glyphs to see if I could make mine better. Are you ready to go?"

Luz and Gus got to their feet and nodded happily, the latter feeling a little more cheerful. Matt then led the two of them into Bonesborough and over to his house, which was not far from the central bridge that stretched between the two upper districts. Almost as soon as they arrived at Matt's house, they saw a nondescript Coven Scout approaching them, and Matt waved happily.

"Bro!" he called, smiling broadly.

The Coven Scout reached over and ruffled Matt's hair; "Hey Little Bro. Brought some friends over today?"

Luz could have sworn she'd heard this scout's voice before, and her guard was up as he turned to her and Gus. "So you two little dudes are friends with my Little Bro? That's cool." he reached up and pulled back his hood and removed his mask, revealing his face.

He was a fairly handsome looking male witch, with dark brown hair like Matt's and even cut in a similar style, though Steve's looked more layered and a little messier, making it look cooler. His eyes were a clear blue, and he had a pair of moles on his left cheek, and a short white horn poking out from the right side of his forehead. He also had an openly friendly smile.

"The name's Steve. Good to meet you guys." he greeted.

"I'm Luz."

"And I'm Gus." they replied, returning his smile.

Steve narrowed his eyes on Luz for a moment, then snapped his fingers; "Oh I know you! You're the Owlet Girl!"

"Owlet Girl?" Luz raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! You're the Owl Lady's kid, which makes you the Owlet Girl. Just a little nickname I came up with. You're also Head Witch Lilith's niece! I watched your duel with Amity Blight back at the Covention." Steve grinned.

Luz, honestly kind of liking the nickname, suddenly gasped; "Wait! You were the scout that stuck around even after Amity and I started playing Rock-Paper-Scissors!"

"That's me alright! You guys used the power of friendship to make the Owl Lady and Head Witch Lilith give up their bet! That was some real friendship goals." Steve said, pumping his fist.

"If you think that was great, you should see the two of them now. They're dating." Gus grinned, amused by how much Luz was blushing at Steve's enthusiastic compliments. He summoned his scroll and showed Steve a picture of Luz and Amity cuddling together.

Steve began to tear up; "It's beautiful! All hail true love!" he cheered, throwing his fists into the air.

Seeing him get emotional made Luz feel strangely attached to Steve, so she reached up to pat the happily crying scout's shoulder. He seemed to enjoy that, saying; "Aw yeah, shoulder pats for Steve!"

Luz and Gus couldn't help but giggle at the odd but endearing scout, and he quickly composed himself. "So, what are you kids up to? Just hanging out?" Steve asked.

"Actually Bro, we had a favour to ask. Can we talk inside?" Matt asked, pointing to his front door.

Steve smiled and gave a thumbs up, then opened the door to let the kids in. The inside of their house was fairly typical by witch standards, and looked similar to when Luz had visited Willow and Gus's houses in the past; it was nice and cosy, with a lot of pictures on the wall. They showed Steve and Matt's father; a bearded and moustached man that had similar facial features to his sons, as well as two different women. The first was a demon with two white horns (both on the right side) and a forked tail, who was shown holding hands with a young Steve, while the second was a witch with short dirty blonde hair and eyes like Mattholomule's.

"That's my Mom, and the other one is Matt's Mom and my Step Mom." Steve explained as he took a seat on the sofa, watching Luz and Gus look at the pictures.

"Steve and I are half-brothers." Matt added.

"Yep! Mom lives over in Palm Stings now, but she's cool, so Matt and I go on vacation there all the time." Steve grinned, "But enough about us; what's this favour you wanted to ask me?"

Luz and Gus sat on the opposite sofa while Matt sat beside his brother; "Matt told me about something called a Galdorstone. I really need it for an important project, and he said you might know where to find one." Luz said.

Steve raised an eyebrow; "That's a big ask, Owlet Girl. The Emperor's Coven has been on a hunt for Galdorstones for a long time. Apparently the Emperor used to have a whole bunch, but he used them up while unifying the Isles into his Empire, so we're supposed to be finding more."

Luz and Gus exchanged worried looks; if the Emperor wanted them too, then it couldn't be for anything good. Still, Luz really needed that stone!

"Please Steve, if you can help us, I'll use it for what I need and then give it to you!" Luz promised, "You'd get a big promotion if you brought the coven a Galdorstone, right?"

Steve grinned; "That's sweet of you, Owlet Girl, but I wouldn't feel right taking a promotion over your achievement!"

"Is there anything we can do to convince you? Please Bro, I really owe Luz after the whole Detention Pit thing." Matt pleaded, adding that last part as a whisper.

His older brother's eyes widened for a moment; "No wonder your names sounded familiar!" he pointed to Gus; "You're the one he was trying to usurp that club from!" he then pointed to Luz, "And you're the one he threw into the Detention Pit! Hoo boy was Mom and Dad mad about that!"

Matt shuddered; that was an understatement! He'd been grounded for a month on top of all the extra chores he'd had to do! Steve had also been disappointed in him, which had stung.

"Yeah, that was us." Gus confirmed.

Steve looked surprised; "And now the three of you are friends? That's really cool! Thanks for giving my Little Bro a chance!"

"We were happy to. He worked hard to make it up to us." Luz smiled.

"And he's actually a pretty cool guy when he's not being all conniving." Gus agreed.

Matt felt a fuzziness in his chest; these two had more reason than anyone to hate him, yet they were still accepting him as a real friend. And since Luz was an angel and couldn't lie, he knew she really meant it too!

Steve grinned and slapped his little brother on the back; "You've got some good friends, Matt. Alright, Steve is gonna help you kids out!"

Luz and Gus cheered and thanked him profusely, while Matt beamed. Steve got up and headed up to his room, then came back a moment later with a box of scrolls.

"Here; these are maps that I confiscated from a stall at the Book Fair last month." Steve said, "The owner got caught selling fake maps to different treasures, but they were actually traps he used to prey on them. Head Witch Lilith took him down, and we confiscated the rest of these."

"Oh yeah! I remember that! Eda, King, and I bought a copy of a map leading to the Bloom of Eternal Youth. We ran into Tia Lily and ended up beating up the guy who tried to trap us." Luz grinned.

"Now that you mention it, Head Witch Lilith did mention running into you guys that day." Steve hummed.

Gus frowned at the scrolls; "But doesn't that mean these are all fakes? None of them will actually lead us to the Galdorstones."

"Not quite Little Dude, Steve isn't done yet." Steve grinned; "The reason I have these is because Head Witch Lilith said the fakes were way too high quality to have been just made up by the crook she nabbed. She believed that he had to have copied the style from a real map. We confiscated all of them and then Head Witch Lilith gave them to me; I'm supposed to follow each one when I'm free and see if they lead to a treasure or just another trap. Most have been duds so far."

Steve began pulling out scrolls wrapped in black ribbons; "Map to the Tomb of Ancient Head Witch Maximus? Nope, led to a bog down in the toes. Map to the Lost Fang Island? Nope; just led to empty ocean."

He tossed the black ribboned scrolls back in the box, then pulled out one with a green ribbon; "But this? Map to the Great Sword Graveyard; actually real. The place was overrun with plants and the enchanted swords there had all rusted into uselessness, but it was real."

Steve then replaced the scroll with a new one, this one without a ribbon at all; "And this one? This is the Map to the Looking Glass Ruins, were several Galdorstones are said to be hidden. I haven't followed this map yet, so I don't know if it's real or fake, but it's the only lead I have for you."

He handed the map to Luz and Gus, who gasped as they looked it over, while Matt looked up at his brother; "So this map is why you mentioned the stones!"

"But surely if this was real, then the guy who was selling the maps must have already followed it and found the stones." Gus said worriedly.

Steve shook his head; "Not necessarily. The map mentions a powerful guardian protecting the ruins. If the map is real, then the Crook might not have been able to get in and grab the stones."

"Well I think it's real!" Luz grinned, looking at the picture of the guardian creature; "This guardian looks pretty tough, and wouldn't the crook want to make the maps look inviting rather than threatening? He wouldn't be able to sell this if people were scared to go after the treasure!

Gus rubbed his chin; "Huh, you both make pretty good points. But we won't know for sure until we follow the map."

Luz nodded and turned back to Steve; "Can we please borrow this? If it turns out to be true, we'll give you the Galdorstone once we're done with it!"

Steve nodded casually; "Sure. I'm supposed to go and confirm whether this is a fake map or not, so you'd be saving me a trip and I could really use some Steve time. Just be careful; I'd hate for my little Bro and his buddies to get hurt. But first, you've got to pay the toll…"

The three students exchanged looks, while Steve gave them a mischievous grin and held up his fist; "35 noogies from Steve!"

Luz and Gus panicked for a moment, but Matt just rolled his eyes fondly; "My Bro likes giving people noogies. I'll handle the "toll", so don't worry about it."

"No! You guys are doing this for me, so I should be the one to pay the toll!" Luz argued, getting to her feet, ready to march over to Steve.

"Wait Luz, you guys should let me do it." Gus interrupted, "I'm just an illusionist, so I'm probably not gonna be a lot of help on this adventure. I should at least be able to do this."

Luz and Matt both looked worriedly at Gus, while Steve stopped smiling; "Little Dude, I think you're being kinda hard on yourself. Don't put yourself down so hard, it's not good for you."

Steve then stood up and grinned again; "But since you guys insist, I'll knock the price down to 30 noogies and split it between the three of you! Ladies first, Owlet Girl!"

Luz squeaked as Steve pulled her to his side and put her in a loose headlock. It was more like a one-armed hug, one that Luz could easily escape from, but she stood her ground and braced herself, only to be shocked when Steve actually got started. She'd gotten noogies from school bullies in the past, and it hadn't been a fun experience, but Steve's idea of a noogie was more like using his knuckles to lightly mess up her hair. It was almost like he was petting her head, which was kind of nice, and it only lasted ten seconds to boot. Apparently "10 noogies" to Steve actually meant 10 seconds of being noogied.

Steve chuckled at Luz's bewildered expression as he released her, then repeated the process with Gus. The boy was equally confused, and both he and Luz wondered if Steve was going easy on them because they were his brother's friends. But then it was Matt's turn, and the boy laughed and playfully squirmed as Steve gave him the same treatment, being only a tiny bit more forceful and certainly not enough to actually hurt.

Once Steve was done, he laughed happily; "Well, Steve has had his fill! I should get back on patrol before the Captain realises what's up. Have fun on your adventure, guys; nice to meet you Luz and Gus!"

He then packed the other scrolls back into their box and sent them to his room with a spell, before putting his mask and hood back on and heading out, waving goodbye as he did. Luz and Gus were left unsure of how to respond, making Mattholomule smirk.

"That wasn't like any noogie I ever had…" Luz murmured, absent-mindedly touching the top of her head. Gus nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Steve is kind of a touchy feely person, and he likes to tease me and my friends. His whole "toll" was just him messing with me a little. But anyway, we've got the map so we can go! Just give me a sec to change out of my uniform and I'll be right there."

His friends nodded and returned to the sofa as Matt went to his room to change. Both were still a little shocked by their encounter with Steve; they hadn't expected such a kind person to be part of the Emperor's Coven! Of course, both were a little more biased than most due to the arrest the previous day, but they still hadn't thought a Coven Scout would be so… nice!

Matt returned from his room a moment later, now wearing a tan yellow tunic over a grey hoodie with torn sleeves. He also had a rough-looking brown sash, white pants, and dark grey boots.

"Well, I'm set. I'll hold onto the map if it's cool with you guys; I want to make sure I can return it to my bro in good condition."

"Sure thing." Luz handed over the map, "Now do we need to do anything else in town?"

"I'd like to change out of my uniform too. I don't want it getting messed up while we're chasing these stones." Gus said. The other two nodded, and they left Mattholomule's house and headed for Gus', which was in one of the upper districts.

Gus went inside to change, but Luz and Matt opted to wait outside and enjoy the fresh air.

"Do you need to change too?" Matt asked.

"Nah, I've got more than one uniform if this one gets messed up. Eda insisted, since I always seem to get into trouble." Luz giggled.

"I'll say. Excluding the stuff that was obviously my fault, you sure get into a lot of weird situations. Is that normal for people like you?" Matt asked, obviously hinting to her real nature but not wanting to say it out loud in public.

Luz shrugged; "I don't know, but I have a feeling it's more normal than not for us to get into crazy situations in the Demon Realm. There was another one of my people, Cassiel, who came here 19 years ago, and she got into some crazy stuff too from what Principal Bump told me. There also had to be others too, since I'm translating the diary of a human who lived on the isles and encountered my kind here 400 years ago. Plus there's got to be a reason for why Wild Witches hated us."

Of course, their was the fate of Rasiel and his companions too, but Rasiel's true nature and relation to the Black Tombs was still a secret to everyone but the residents of the Owl House, the Blight siblings, and Willow and Gus. Everyone else just assumed he was some kind of angelic oracle spirit that Luz had brought with her. She hadn't even told Skara, Matt, or the Multi-Trackers yet, though that was because Rasiel wasn't eager for more people to know.

Matt hummed; he barely knew anything about angels and honestly wasn't that curious about them, since Luz made them seem like just another type of ordinary person. He was about to change the subject when a painfully familiar voice called out to him.

"Matty?"

The boy went stiff and pale, while Luz looked over to the person who'd called out to him. It was a girl, one dressed in the grey tunic uniform of Glandus, with a brown mantle and shorts denoting her position in the construction track. She also had matching brown gloves, and wore a sword on her right hip. Luz couldn't help but think the girl was cute; she wasn't on Amity's level, but she was still rather pretty, with dark purple hair in a slightly messier version of Amity's new hair cut, shiny orange eyes, and adorable freckles.

However, the way Matt reacted to her calling to him made Luz frown, as did her calling him Matty.

The girl came over and smiled sweetly, tapping Matt's shoulder; "Hey, Titan to Matty! Are you in there? You're not ignoring me are you?" she asked with a mock pout.

Matt turned stiffly and forced himself to smile, though it looked more like a nervous grimace; "Hi Bria. Long time no see."

"It really has been! I've barely seen you around since you transferred out of Glandus! I thought you were hiding from me." Bria giggled.

The overly sweet mannerisms was beginning to make Luz's skin crawl. If she'd met Bria on her own, she might have believed them to be genuine, but Matt's reaction made it clear Bria wasn't what she seemed to be.

"Well Glandus High is all the way in Pancrea City. It's pretty far from Bonesborough, so it seems normal not to run into each other much. Unless you live in Bonesborough too?" Luz chimed in, smiling politely.

Bria looked her up and down, noting her uniform, then smiled back; "I guess that's true. I'm only in Bonesborough because I wanted to come visit my old Pal Matty." she put an arm around the boy's shoulders, making him stiffen even further, to the point he might as well be a statue. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend, Matty?"

"Uh sure. Bria, this is Luz. Luz, this is Bria; my old friend from Glandus." Matt said nervously.

"Nice to meet you!" Bria grinned.

"You too." Luz replied.

"So what are you two doing out here together. Oh, are you two on a date?" Bria smiled teasingly, making Matt blush crimson while Luz frowned.

"No, we're just friends. The two of us and a third friend who lives here are going on a trip together." Luz said casually.

Bria seemed disappointed that Luz had reacted more to her teasing, but she was soon distracted by the map in Matt's hands. "Ooh, what's this?"

She snatched it without asking, and Matt briefly opened his mouth to protest before Bria's eyes turned on him sharply, and he promptly shut his mouth with a click of his teeth. Bria unrolled the map and glanced at it.

"A map to… the Looking Glass Ruins? Why do you want to go there, Matty?" Bria asked. She was about to peer closer at the map, but a vine suddenly shot out of the ground and yanked the map away from her before depositing it into Luz's hand.

"Sorry, but this is ours. We had to pay a price to get this, so I'd rather not let anyone else mess with it." Luz said, her face neutral even as she eyed Bria coldly.

Bria scowled at her, before faking a big smile; "I understand. But those ruins look really interesting! I'd love to tag along with you Matty! It could be like old times again."

"Sorry, but this is something Matt is doing as a favour to me, and it's kind of personal." Luz cut in.

Bria ignored her and continued to look at Matt; "What do you think, Matty?"

Matt gulped and looked shakily up at Bria, who was smiling sweetly even as her orange eyes seemed to drill into him. He shuddered, then looked over to Luz, who also smiled at him, though this time with genuine kindness. It made him feel a little better, and he was able to gather his courage enough to turn to Bria and say; "S-sorry, but I promised Luz I'd help her today. M-Maybe we can hang out another time?"

Bria's eyes flashed dangerously, but then Gus emerged from his house, now dressed in his casual clothes (a cyan coloured tunic with a white collar and matching sleeves, dark blue pants, and reddish-violet boots). "Sorry to keep you waiting guys. Everything alright out here?" Gus asked, noticing the tension.

Whatever Bria was originally going to say vanished from her mind and she gave a false sweet smile; "Everything's just fine. It's a shame we can't hang out today Matty, but I'll be sure to catch up with you another time."

That sounded almost like a threat, and Matt found himself gulping again as Bria began to walk away. Luz put a hand on his back to comfort him, while Gus, who didn't know exactly what was going on, decided to call out to Bria.

"Hey, just so you know, his name is Matt. He doesn't like being called Matty."

Bria paused mid-step and turned back to Gus; "I'll be sure to remember that. Bye bye now." she said with faux-kindness, before walking off down the street. As soon as she was gone, Matt released a huge sigh of relief.

"Oh man, that wasn't fun… Thanks for having my back there Luz, Gus." Matt said.

"No problem, Matt. I'm guessing that was one of your bullies back at Glandus?" Luz asked. She remembered Matt talking about how his "friends" at his old school actually just used him as a lackey, and figured Bria was one of them.

"Yeah… Bria was pretty low on the Glandus social ladder. The only people lower were her two other lackeys, and me. She wasn't happy when I transferred out, since it meant she was closer to the bottom. She still comes by every now and then to drag me into doing her dirty work." Matt confessed.

Luz and Gus looked concerned, but Matt quickly changed the subject; "But forget Bria. We're on an adventure, right?"

Seeing that Matt didn't want to talk about his past at Glandus any more, Luz and Gus decided to drop the subject. Luz unfurled the map again and the three of them leaned over it. According to the map, the path to the Looking Glass Ruins began in the Forearm Forest, which was the stretch of woodland that sat between Bonesborough (located near the Titan's elbow) and the Titan's right hand. The Forearm Forest wasn't quite as dangerous as the Bat Queen's forest, but it was still a risky place to venture, especially off of the beaten path.

The trio left Bonesborough and headed west through the Forearm Forest, using a light spell to help them see, since the tree canopy was so thick that very little sunlight got through it. They followed the path at first, until they reached a section of the path that was flanked with thorny vines.

"This looks like the first landmark on the map. From here, it looks like we need to head south." Luz said, checking the map.

Gus and Matt eyed the vines warily; they were thick and covered in pointy thorns that looked ready to shred them. "Okay, so how do we get through these?" Gus asked, once again feeling a little useless.

"Maybe I can make us some cutters to slash our way through?" Matt suggested, already preparing a spell.

Luz waved him off though; "Let's not cause any damage unless we need to. Here, watch this."

She drew a plant glyph in the air, making the vines glow green and bend to Luz's will, moving out of the way. Luz then smiled and clapped her hands; "Right this way, Gentleman!"

The two boys grinned and followed her, leaving the paved road and heading into the thick of the forest. As they walked, it managed to get even darker, so Luz asked Rasiel to come out of his ring so they could use his glowing spirit as additional light. Gus took another look at the map and saw they still had a ways to go before the next landmark, so he decided to ask Luz for a favour.

"Hey Luz? Remember what we talked about earlier? When you said you'd teach me some ice magic?" he began. Luz nodded, so he continued; "W-Well would you be willing to show me some now, while we're walking?"

Luz smiled happily; "Sure! You want in on this Matt?" she offered.

Matt considered it, but then shook his head. He was aiming for the Construction Coven and the book he'd read on elemental magic had stated that only the earth and fire magic was used for construction magic. He didn't see the point of learning something he'd eventually be forced to give up due to the Coven System. Instead, he decided to use the map to guide them all through the woods while Luz and Gus were distracted.

For the next little while, Luz showed Gus some ice magic, and demonstrated some of the things ice could do, and how it grew as it was created so he would have an idea of what to do. She then parroted many of the things Eda had taught her and Amity back on the knee, and even taught Gus how to draw ice glyphs so he had something to work with as he got the hang of this new magic. After all, it was easier to manipulate an existing element than it was to create it from scratch and Gus was just a beginner.

Gus listened to her lessons closely, adding them to what she and Amity had taught him the previous week. He was confident he had the basics down, but his attempts to create ice only resulted in some mild frost and bursts of very cold air. The best he'd managed on his own was a few snowflakes, which was kind of demoralising, and it wasn't helped by the fact he just couldn't manipulate the ice he or Luz created with glyph magic. He'd tried his best, reaching out with his magic in an attempt to shape the ice like he did his illusions, but it completely failed. It just felt too rigid, like he was trying to shape a brick like it was a wad of clay. Luz had repeatedly told him that ice was the element of change, fluidity, and protection, but despite that being a good fit for an Illusionist like Gus, he simply couldn't make it work!

It was frustrating and depressing him even further, which was making Luz anxious in turn, leaving her desperate for a way to make things better. The only bright spot in the lessons was that Gus's imagination meant he could create some truly detailed ice sculptures using ice glyphs; he couldn't make them move or shape them after they were made, but they were usually so impressive that he didn't need to, and Luz was sure to lavish him with praise. Gus found it sweet, but he wasn't satisfied; simply being able to picture what you want and then tapping a pre-drawn glyph felt underwhelming, especially since it relied on the magic of the Isles and not his own.

Before his mood could spiral any further, Matt called out to him and Luz.

"Guys, I think we've hit the first real obstacle."

Luz and Gus looked up to see Matt and Rasiel examining the massive wall of thorns, which seemed to be stretched over the entrance to a natural cave formed from petrified tree roots. The thorns were thick and razor sharp, and there was no clear way through, meaning they'd have to remove them to get through.

"Looks like you're up, Luz." Gus said.

The young angel nodded and drew a plant glyph in the air to take control of the thorns. A green aura surrounded them briefly, before fading away, making Luz frown. She stepped forward and gingerly snapped the tip off one of the thorns, then crumpled it in her fingers, watching it turn to dust.

"These thorns are old and dead. I can only control living plants, so I can't move them." she said.

"Can't you revive them?" Matt asked.

Luz shook her head; "Sorry, but no. I can help plants heal if they're still alive, but I can't revive dead ones. Willow might have been able to, but I bet even she'd struggle with all this."

"Then we'll just have to blast our way through. Want to whip out one of those big light blasts of yours?" Matt grinned. He'd loved watching Luz blast away at Grometheus; what guy wouldn't love watching someone shoot literal lasers from their hands?

Luz nodded and prepared to charge up a big light beam, but Rasiel stopped her with a gesture, then phased through the thorns to see what was on the other side. He returned a moment later and shook his head; "Not a good idea, Luz. The tunnel beyond these thorns is precarious; the ceiling is made from ancient roots that look to be on the verge of crumbling. If you clip some of them, the whole root system could collapse and the trees could fall and block our path even more."

Luz grimaced; "I'd rather not have to destroy huge chunks of the forest just to keep going, so I guess we'll have to do this the slow way."

Instead of firing a huge beam, she created long, thin light beam from her palm and began waving it around like a Lightsaber, hacking away at the thorns. It wasn't difficult work, but it would take a while to get through so many thick vines and thorns. As such, Mattholomule decided to help out by using construction magic to create a pair of stone machetes, one of which he handed to Gus.

"Uh, Matt? Not to be a downer, but these don't have the greatest edges…" Gus frowned, running his finger down the edge of the stone machete. It was as blunt as a butter knife, and would need a lot of force behind it.

Matt rolled his eyes; "I know that, you dork! It's hard to make a good edge using stone without taking a lot of time, so I figured you could make some ice razors along the edge."

Gus bit his lip, not feeling too confident. He picked up a small rock off the floor and used it to carve a crude ice glyph into the sides of the machete blades, then imagined what he wanted and tapped the glyphs. The blades of each Machete became coated in a thin but strong layer of ice, and it formed a razor sharp edge that would be great for hacking away at the vines. Matt demonstrated by slashing at some of them, then grinning as his blade cut through them like butter.

"See? It works. Guess you're not as useless as you think you are." Matt smirked, before getting to work.

Gus's eyes widened; "How did you know…?"

"I overheard your talk with Luz on the front steps of the school. You seemed to be having a moment, so I waited for you to be done before I came out." Matt said with a shrug; "Personally, I don't get it. The illusion you pulled on me back when I was a jerk to Luz and King, as well as the illusion you used on the Detention Pit itself… they didn't feel like something a useless person could do. But I guess that's the problem with you high achiever types; one screw up and you lose all confidence."

Gus huffed as he began helping hack away at the vines too; "Didn't you skip a grade too?"

"Yeah, but I originally went to Glandus and was the bottom of the social ladder. I didn't have any confidence to lose. You and Luz are the only reason I have any now. Guess that's another thing you're good for, eh Shorty?" Matt smirked.

"I'm not that much shorter than you! I'll hit my growth spurt any day now!" Gus protested hotly, even as he felt warmth in his chest. His confidence grew a little, and Luz and Rasiel shared a secret smile, having obviously overheard everything.

With the three working together, it didn't take much longer for them to clear the way through the thorns and vines, and the three were able to continue on their journey. Gus, now with a little more confidence and enthusiasm, continued trying to improve his control over ice magic. He didn't make much progress, but he refused to let himself feel down again; he couldn't let just one or two failures and setbacks ruin things!

The thorn-covered tunnel ended up being roughly the halfway point to the Looking Glass Ruins, and Matt and Rasiel led them on a convoluted path that frequently had them going back on themselves. It didn't make any sense, but Rasiel (who had the keenest magical senses) could feel them passing through extremely subtle magical sensors.

"I think whoever built these ruins must have hidden it with some advanced magic. Only those who follow the exact path would pass through all the sensors and open the real path forward." he theorised.

"I guess that makes sense." Luz said, looking up at the sky. Since leaving the tunnel, the forest had consisted of mostly evergreen (or rather, Ever Red) trees that made the sky clearly visible and eliminated the need for light. "If the ruins were just out in the open, people would have found them by now. I mean, witches and demons must fly over this area with their staves all the time when heading out of Bonesborough."

"Not as often as you'd think, actually." Gus said, "Both of the Titan's Palms are deserts, but while the left palm is home to Palm Stings, a resort town on the coast, the right palm is home to a Goliath Ash Moth. No one dares go to the right palm because of it. I think the only reason there's even a path through the Forearm Forest is because there's a coven outpost on the border between the palm and the wrist."

"Yeah, my bro told me that if Scouts mess up a lot, they get sent to that outpost. It's basically just an early warning system though; if the outpost suddenly gets burnt down then it means the Ash Moth is moving." Matt added.

"What is a Goliath Ash Moth?" Luz asked.

"The most powerful breed of Bug Demon in existence." Rasiel answered, "They're colossal moths with immense control over fire magic. If you find a volcano on a Titan landmass, then it's the result of these moths; they create a volcano as a cocoon for their metamorphosis."

"Whoa! That sounds amazing!" Luz gasped, trying to imagine it; "I kind of want to see it!"

"Trust me, you don't." Rasiel said seriously; "Even a Seraphim level angel would struggle to deal with one in a fight, and they're fiercely territorial. These things hunted dragons for food back when I first came to the Demon Realm." he added that last part as a whisper in Luz's ear, making her go pale. "It would have slurped up that Ice Wyrm like a noodle, and then gone looking for more."

Luz made a mental note; do not go to the right palm!

Thankfully, the three students were distracted from thoughts of the Ash Moth by a strange feeling. They passed between two trees that their map made a special point of showing, and as they did so they felt a cold shudder wash over them. It felt a bit like walking into an especially cold room, where the air forms an almost barrier of iciness. However as soon as they stepped through, they also noticed that the path they'd been following now had a new branch that led deeper into the forest.

"What was that?" Matt frowned.

"We must have triggered all the sensors! A new path opened up! Come on, let's go!" Luz said eagerly, grabbing both boys' wrists and running down the newly appeared path. It wasn't a particularly long path, and when they reached the end, they gasped as the found themselves at their destination.

"The Looking Glass Ruins…!" Gus breathed, glancing up at the gates in front of him.

The ruins were surrounded by a stone wall with iron spikes all along it, with the only entrance being a pair of large stone gates in an archway. Each half of the gates had a stone face carved into it; a smiling one on the left and a frowning one on the right, reminding Luz of theatre masks from the Human Realm. The arch way above the gate was broken and weathered, but the words "Looking Glass" could still be made out on the old stone.

Rasiel phased through the gates, sensing for any kind of magic or traps, but found nothing, so Luz and the boys pushed open the gates. They were heavy, and the hinges were stiff from countless years of neglect, but Luz used some of the weak Power Glyphs she'd made to give them the edge they needed to shove the gate open and finally grant them access to the ruins.

"I can't believe we really found it! I guess this map was real after all. Steve will be happy." Matt muttered to himself as he rolled up the map and looked around.

The inside of the ruins had no buildings, and instead looked almost like an outdoor theatre, with a circle of stone arches filling the centre of the expansive area within the outer walls. Inside these dilapidated arches was a circle of stone statues, all seemingly depicting the same robed and hooded figures, carved with their hands together in front of their chests. Time and the forest had taken a toll on the ruins, but the statues seemed largely intact (excluding the ivy creeping up them). An unnatural mist also covered the ground, moving away as Luz, Gus, and Matt walked through it.

"This place is old… really old. I feel… weirdly sombre here." Luz whispered, rubbing her arms as a chill came over her.

"Yeah, it's kind of giving me the creeps. Let's see if there really are Galdorstones here, then go home." Gus agreed.

Luz and Matt nodded, and began looking around for signs of anything that looked like a Galdorstone. Of course, they didn't know what they looked like, so it was a struggle at first, but then Luz spotted something sparkling in the hands of one of the statues. All the statues' hands were covered in ivy, so Luz flew up with her wings and carefully pulled some of it away, revealing a large cyan blue crystal. Luz gasped softly as she very carefully lifted the crystal out of the statue's hands, then touched down on the ground again.

She saw herself in the reflection of the crystal, and felt a rush of incredible power flow through her as her eyes began to glow gold. The crystal itself gained a gold aura that spread to Luz's hands, and the young angel couldn't help but draw a tiny spell circle above her head, aiming to create a small light blast.

The result was a beam large enough to disintegrate most buildings, which was thankfully shot straight up into the air. Luz yelped in surprise, not expecting that much power, then gaped as she saw that her spell had torn apart the clouds in the sky above.

"This is it!" she exclaimed, looking down at the crystal, "This must be the Galdorstone! Matt, those rumours you heard were true!"

Matt and Gus looked at the large crystal with amazement, then laughed and high-fived each other. "This is amazing! Can I try it out?" Matt asked.

Luz smiled and handed over the crystal, while using some plant magic to clear away the rest of the ivy, revealing several other Galdorstones. Every statue had one, so Luz went to collect another while Matt tested out the one Luz had handed him, creating a giant statue of himself, but shirtless, muscular, and flexing.

Gus laughed at the display and used an ice glyph to create a platform so he could reach a stone of his own, which he then tested out with the ice magic Luz had taught him. While before he could make some frost or snowflakes without the glyphs, the Galdorstone allowed him to use his own magic in the same way as the glyphs, letting him produce ice in any shape he desired. He enjoyed the power of the stone greatly, but then he noticed something.

Each statue was stood on a stone plinth, and they all had plaques on them. Before they had been hidden by ivy, but since Luz cleared it all away, they'd become visible.

"Mari the Phantom Bringer?" he murmured. His eyes suddenly widened as he came to a startling realisation. Wanting to make sure he was correct, he ran to the next statue and read it's plaque too; "Aleth the Vision Creator!? Oh no!" He read a third plaque too; "Khari the Mirage Maker! I knew it! These titles are for…!"

He turned to Luz and Gus; "Guys, stop! These aren't just any old ruins! This is an Illusionist Graveyard!"

Luz gasped and Matt recoiled, dropping the Galdorstone he'd been using. "Are you serious!?" he cried.

"Yes! Look at the names on the statues! They're all the titles of illusionists! This must be where they're buried." Gus yelled.

Luz paled as she looked at the stone in her hands; "D-Does that mean we're grave-robbing!?"

Rasiel, who'd been examining one of the larger stones, suddenly gasped and returned to his ring so he could talk to Luz telepathically.

"Luz, I recall what these Galdorstones are! They're the hearts of ancient witches!"

The young angel shrieked in surprise and dropped the stone she was holding, backing away from it quickly; "We are! We're grave-robbing!"

"The true nature of this place triggered my memory. Remember what I told you before, about how the Supreme Dragons are born from witches and demons who served the Titans, and consumed some of their five humours along with a lesser dragon's heart? Well these stones are the final result of a similar process! A witch or demon who is sufficiently filled with a Titan's power will eventually have their own blood replaced by a kind of Pseudo-Titan's Blood. Upon their deaths, their hearts would crystallise into these Galdorstones." Rasiel explained, feeling more than a little disturbed by the memory. He wondered how he'd come to learn this fact, but sadly he still didn't have most of his personal memories.

Luz gulped fearfully and put a hand to her chest; she was being infused with Titan power too through the glyphs… did that mean her heart would turn into a Galdorstone too when she died? Had these stones once belonged to people like her? Had they served some purpose for the Titan? If so, what was Luz's purpose supposed to be? Why was the Titan showing her the glyphs and giving her this power? She'd gotten some answers from Rasiel, but those answers had come with more questions!

However something else was a bigger concern at that moment; could she bring herself to take one of the Galdorstones? Luz knew she needed it to help save Eda from her curse, but she wasn't sure she could bring herself to take a stone away from it's resting place. Even now, she felt the overwhelming urge to just return the stones to the statues and high tail it home.

"What do I do? I need the magic to save Eda and we came all this way, but this feels so wrong!" Luz cried, looking to Gus and Matt for guidance.

Sadly neither boy had an answer, and since they hadn't heard Rasiel's explanation, they didn't even know how bad the situation really was!

The mist around their feet began to thicken and churn, making Matt look down nervously; "W-What's going on!? Did the weather change all of a sudden!?"

Gus frowned as the mist began to crackle with electricity; "There's no wind, and mist shouldn't act like this! Something's wrong!"

The mist grew even larger, eventually twisting into a massive cyclone that spat blue lightning as ominous glowing eyes appeared from inside it. Seeing this, Luz, Gus, and Matt ran and hid together behind one of the statues, peaking out fearfully. The cyclone eventually swelled, then burst apart to reveal the Guardian of the Looking Glass Ruins; a bizarre beast that looked like some blend of whale and dragon, with the basic body type of the former, the arms and wings of the latter, and a coating of blue flame on its tail, fins, and wings. A long tongue stretched from its mouth, and the creature's eyes appeared to shine out from inside its maw as well.

"That's the Guardian!? What on the Titan is it!?" Matt whispered urgently.

"I've never seen a monster like that! Luz, you're the beast-keeping student; do you recognise it!?" Gus asked.

Luz gave a terrified shake of her head, and sadly Rasiel didn't recognise it either, which only made the beast scarier. "It must be angry that we disturbed the stones! D-Do you think it'll let us leave peacefully if we just return them?" she asked.

The Guardian roared and began swooping around the ruins, searching for the intruders. Its blue flame accents were flaring wildly with every roar, and gouts of red flame and blue lightning burst from it every time it touched something; it clearly wasn't in the mood to play!

"I wouldn't bet on it, Luz!" Gus said. "We need to distract it and make a run for it!"

"Now would be a good time for an illusion!" Matt urged, sweating profusely.

Gus bit his lip; "I-I can't! That thing is throwing around lightning! W-What if I screw up again, and you or Luz get hurt!? I-I don't even know what that thing would be distracted by!"

Matt groaned; "Now is not a good time for another lapse in confidence, dude!"

Luz frowned; Matt was terrified and Gus was panicking and worried about screwing up. She didn't want to endanger either of them, and since this whole quest had been her idea, she'd take responsibility.

"I'll try and lure the guardian away while you guys get to safety. As soon as it's focused on me, run for it!" she ordered, before darting out from their shared hiding place and running at the beast. The boys wanted to protest, but doing so would just give away their position and make them targets too, rendering Luz's sacrifice meaningless, so they instead tried to come up with another plan.

Meanwhile, Luz took flight with her concealed wings and flew directly in front of the beast's face; "We're sorry for coming here! We didn't realise what this place really was! Please, we'll return the Galdorstones and leave, so just let us go!"

The Guardian merely responded with a roar and lunged towards Luz, making her yelp and fly away, the beast in hot pursuit. The creature was shockingly agile for something so large, forcing Luz to work hard to avoid it. Lightning and flames were crackling everywhere, and Luz was becoming more and more surprised she was succeeding in dodging them, though every near miss terrified her as she felt her luck running out.

The boys were watching her and panicking; "She can't keep this up for long! Dang it, we need to do something! Maybe I can stun it for a second so we can get out of here!" Matt said, drawing a quick spell circle. His spell coated his fist in stone from the ground, then launched the stone fist as a projectile at the Guardian, aiming for its head. However before the stone could make impact, a bolt of lightning jumped from the Guardian to the projectile, causing the stone to vanish as if it had never been there.

"W-What!?" Matt exclaimed, trying the same spell again, this time with both fists. The same thing happened again, and both stone projectiles were struck by lighting and blow into oblivion.

"It's not working!" the boy cried.

Luz, who'd seen this and worried the Guardian would turn its attention back to the boys, dived down to the ground and used plant magic to create vines to reach up and try to restrain the guardian. However, like with the stones, the vines were struck by blue lightning bolts and disappeared. However, Luz felt something strange, though she was forced to fly away again before she could properly think about it.

"Fighting is no good!" Gus scowled. This left them with only two options; distract the Guardian with something, or try to scare it off. But with none of their more practical magic working, Gus was left with only one option.

"Come on illusions, don't fail me now!" Gus whispered, before leaping from his hiding place and producing a massive illusion. His illusion took the form of a second Guardian, this one slightly larger and with more feminine characteristics in the hopes that the Guardian would either see it as a dominant rival and be chased off, or see it as a potential mate and be lured away.

His fake Guardian roared, and the real one paused from its pursuit of Luz to turn and look at it. The two Guardians stared at one another, until Gus noticed the original one flickering.

"No way… you've got to be kidding me!" he gasped, dropping his illusion. The original Guardian flickered, almost like a glitched image, before it too vanished in a puff of cyan smoke, revealing itself to have been an illusion all along. Gus, Matt, and Luz gaped, especially when they saw the three stone fist projectiles and Luz's vines all still in the spots they'd impacted or been grown; having been hidden by an illusion rather than vaporised like they'd thought.

From within the illusion, an old man stepped out; he looked extremely wizened and haggard, with a huge unkempt white beard, a head that was bald on top but with thick, wild white hair on the sides, and longer than average ears that dropped at the ends. He was wearing dark red pointy toed boots, a dirty turquoise robe that was torn and caked in mud at the bottom, and a teal coat over the top with white sleeves and a darker blue mantle that also incorporated a large pointed collar and featured the image of a broken mirror over the old man's chest.

"Oh ho! What have we here? A skilled young Illusionist, me thinks!" the man said jovially, doing a little jig.

The three students gaped as Luz landed beside Gus and Matt left his hiding place to join them.

"W-What!? The Guardian was an illusion!?" Matt exclaimed.

"Yeah, made by this guy." Gus nodded, still shocked. "Who are you, sir?"

"I am the Keeper of the Looking Glass Graveyard! It's been a long time since I've had any visitors, but to think it'd be another Illusionist!" he chortled while stooping to hug the unsettled Gus. "You used the same vision I do to scare off intruders! Most impressive!" he added, clapping his hands as he released Gus from the hug.

"This crazy old coot is the real guardian of this place? I was kinda expecting… more." Matt muttered.

"Don't be like that!" The Keeper complained, seeing the boys' unimpressed expressions, "An Illusionist has always kept watch over the Galdorstones. We gain no powers from them, so we're the least likely to use them for evil purposes! Probably."

Luz, still calming down from her frantic evasion, frowned; "Wait, if you're not really a monster and just wanted to scare us off, why did you ignore me when I offered to return the stones and leave!?" she protested.

The Keeper laughed; "Sorry Lass, my hearing isn't what it used to be!" he said, picking inside his ear with his pinky finger.

Luz gaped again; she hadn't been ignored, the Keeper was just partially deaf!? She shouldn't have been surprised given his age, but it still irked her a little.

"That said, I really can't let you kids leave with the Galdorstones. You seem like nice children, and I'd love to talk illusions with you, young man." he nodded to Gus, "But the stones mustn't leave the graveyard."

Gus and Matt frowned and turned to Luz, who bit her lip. She didn't really want to take the stones, but she really needed it! "Is there anyway we can come to an agreement to let us borrow one? Just for a day or two? I'll swear an oath to return it after I'm done; I need it to make a cure for my mentor's curse."

The Keeper looked at her with sympathy; "I'm sorry Lass, but I really can't. I could be convinced to let you use one of them while still in the graveyard, but that's the most I can offer you."

Luz frowned, wondering if that could work. The purification ritual for the Alchemical Silver needed a bit of preparation; an inscribed magic circle for the cauldron of silver to rest on, and a few other ingredients… It was theoretically possible if she could find a way to lug the cauldron of silver all the way from the Owl House without it being exposed to more impurities…

"I guess that could work. Thank you sir." Luz agreed, "I'll need to come back tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'll return the stones to their proper places."

Gus and Matt nodded in agreement, and the Keeper smiled at them; "That would be appreciated, young ones! I'm afraid my back is as bad as my hearing these days! Now I left the stones just over… there?"

He looked over to where he'd secretly placed the Galdorstones after the children had dropped them. He'd taken care to pick them up while his illusion was distracting the kids, then leave them in plain sight (albeit hidden beneath an illusion) so he wouldn't forget where they were, but he couldn't see them!

"Huh, did I forget to drop the illusion on them?" he wondered, snapping his fingers. When the stones didn't appear, he frowned. "Well that's not right…"

Suddenly, dozens of vines of ivy shot out from the ground and tied the Keeper up, making him flop over with a groan.

The kids gasped and Luz summoned up a plant glyph; "Mister Keeper! Hold on, I'll get you free!"

She tried to take control of the ivy, but found that she couldn't. The magic already manipulating it was stronger than hers, just like it had been with Arboriel the Mandragora.

"What the-!?" Luz's words were cut off by the sudden appearance of an absolutely massive abomination, which promptly grabbed her and Gus and smashed them together, making them groan before encasing together in abomination goo, leaving only their heads and feet exposed.

"What's going on!?" Matt cried, conjuring a stone machete to ward off any attackers. He was the last one not bound, so expected he'd be next, only to be surprised when he heard a trio of familiar laughs.

He turned and watched as Bria walked out from behind some rubble, smiling broadly. With her were two other Glandus students; one was a demon with lion-like features and dressed in the plant track uniform, along with having what looked like some kind of pilot's cap on his head, while the other was a witch boy with skin a shade darker than Luz's as well as spiky dark brown hair and the abomination track uniform. Matt recognised them both as Bria's friends; Angmar and Gavin.

"B-Bria!? Angmar!? Gavin!? What are you three doing here!?" Matt exclaimed, before noticing that all three were holding the missing Galdorstones, "And what are you doing with those!?"

Bria smirked; "Hello to you too, Matty! I've got to say, it was a real pain following you all the way here." she said, walking over to him casually, "When you started walking in circles, I thought for sure you'd seen us and were trying to throw us off, so imagine my surprise when we kept on your tail and found this place!"

"You followed us!?" Luz exclaimed, squirming in her bindings.

"Of course I did! How could I not after seeing that map?" Bria grinned, walking over to the tied up Luz; "My friends and I heard rumours about this place and the Galdorstones, so how could we resist a chance at coming here and taking them for ourselves!"

"We didn't honestly think this place was real." Gavin, the abomination student said.

"And we were sure you'd get eaten by the Guardian if it was." Angmar added.

"But thanks to the distraction you guys made for us, we were able to sneak away the Galdorstones at the last second!" Bria boasted, holding her stone aloft, "But honestly, if we'd known the big bad Guardian was just another useless illusionist, we'd have just stormed the place. Oh well; we still got our prize."

"Youngsters these days! No respect! Why I ought to summon the hounds and- MMF!" The Keeper's angry scolding was cut off by a wad of abomination goo slamming into his mouth, sealing his lips together.

"That's better. Now, we might as well collect the other stones too." Bria mused; "We can sell the smaller ones to the Emperor's Coven!"

"You can't take those!" Luz protested, renewing her struggles.

"They don't belong to you!" Gus agreed.

Bria rolled her eyes and flicked Luz's nose, making the young angel flinch. "This isn't Hexside, Princess. We're playing by Glandus rules now, and that means you can have anything you want so long as you're strong enough to take it!"

The girl grinned at her Galdorstone; "With this, I'll take over the entire school! Then everyone who looked down on me will bow at my feet!"

Angmar nodded enthusiastically; "And I can finally grow my own forest, and start a butterfly sanctuary!"

"And I can make the biggest abomination ever!" Gavin grinned, before bitterly adding; "I bet then Dad would pay attention to me."

Bria ignored her cohorts, as well as her fuming captives, and smirked at Matt, who was shaking in front of her; "Well Matty, since you were so helpful in leading us here, I might just forgive you for snubbing me earlier. I may even let you keep a stone for yourself! Only the littlest one though, so you don't forget your place."

Matt wilted as Bria put a condescending hand on his back; "All you've got to do is hold our stuff and carry it back for us. Even you can manage that, right?"

The boy gulped and looked away; he couldn't muster the courage to stand up to Bria, but he also wasn't going to actually do as she wanted, so he ended up just standing in place, looking at the ground. Bria sneered at him and rolled her eyes; "Whatever. Just stay out of the way."

She shoved Matt back a step, then began pilfering the remaining Galdorstones with the help of Gavin and Angmar. Luz and Gus continued to struggle in their bindings, while the Keeper seemed to have fallen asleep in his and was snoring softly.

"Luz, can't you use some magic to bust us out?" Gus whispered.

"I'm trying." Luz frowned, making a spike of ice burst out from her bound arm and pierce through the abomination goo. She tried to wriggle so the spike would cut the slime but it just reformed instantly, and when she tried freezing the cut parts of the slime before it could reform, the giant abomination would pull out and replace the frozen parts. She also tried to use plant magic, but every time she did, Angmar would sense it thanks to the Galdorstone in his possession and promptly take control of Luz's plants, wilting them instantly. Even her attempts at light beams and blades failed, as the slime reformed around them.

"Nothing's working!" Luz whined, beginning to panic as she watched the Glandus students damage the graveyard in their hunt for the Galdorstones.

"Why don't you do that big light blast thing you did when Amity tied you up back at the Covention duel?" Gus suggested.

Luz shook her head; "I can't do that with you attached to me! You'd be really badly hurt, and my control isn't precise enough to avoid you yet."

Gus grimaced, and Matt looked over to his friends with a depressed expression; "I'm sorry… This is exactly why I left Glandus. I was always Bria's stooge there… the one kid even she could push around. She never let me forget it either, and now I don't even have the guts to stand up to her… I'm still just a coward…"

"Better a stooge than a clown. Every time it feels like I'm getting my groove back, I mess up again! I can't even defend myself!" Gus frowned miserably, "If I wasn't here, Luz could free herself and beat the snot out of those bullies! Bria's right; I am just a useless illusionist…"

Luz scowled at both boys; "That's enough, you two! Matt, you're not a stooge or a coward, and Gus, you're not useless or a clown! You're both amazing! I understand how it feels to view yourself as a coward, and mess up something you know you're supposed to be good at…" she remembered how she'd fled from Grom in terror when he'd taken her mother's form, as well as her numerous attempts to help that turned out badly, "But you can't let that rule you! Matt, you're one of us Hexoleos now, so forget those Glandus jerks and have some confidence in yourself! And Gus, you're the best illusionist I've ever met! Your illusions saved me from the Detention Pit AND saved my butt earlier from the Guardian!"

Luz twisted around as much as possible so she could look both boys in the eye; "I won't let anyone badmouth my friends, not even themselves!"

Matt looked touched by Luz's words, but he was still scared and had no idea how to even help; his construction magic wouldn't cut away the abomination bindings any better than Luz's light or ice. Gus, however, felt some new determination bubble up inside him; Luz was right! Neither she nor Willow gave up whenever the situation looked grim, so he couldn't either! He was Gus Porter, future Master Illusionist and child prodigy! Surely he had the imagination to find a way out of this mess!

He closed his eyes and focused; Matt couldn't free them with his construction magic, his illusions wouldn't get them free, and Luz's light, plant, and ice magic were all being countered either by Angmar's plants or Gavin's abomination. On the surface it looked like an impossible situation, but a good showman had creativity and could think outside the box; Gus just needed to think and adapt to the situation.

"Wait a second… adapt! That's it! I get why I was having trouble with ice magic now!" he gasped; "I was treating it like it was just ice, but it isn't! The element itself is Ice and Water! The same power, just in two different forms!"

Matt raised an eyebrow; "That's nice and all Gus, but is now the time for this?"

"Yes, because now I know what to do! I was limiting myself by thinking of the Ice Element as just ice, and thinking of illusions as being nothing but fake! I needed to adapt; make ice into water, and make my illusions real!" Gus said, a broad smile stretching across his face.

"Does that mean you have an idea?" Luz asked.

Gus nodded; "Yes, I think we can get out of here AND defeat those jerks! All I need is water and illusions!"

"Water? I guess if I shoot it at a super high pressure, it could cut the slime, but wouldn't it just regenerate?" Luz frowned.

"We're not aiming to cut anything. Matt, come here; I've got a plan!" Gus said.

Matt leaned close and Gus whispered his idea to him and Luz, making both teens' eyes widen before they began grinning.

"I'd never have thought of that!" Luz smiled; "Way to go Gus!"

"I think I can do it! I'll follow your lead." Matt agreed, beginning to find his courage. With Luz and Gus backing him up, he didn't need to be scared of the likes of Bria!

"Right, we'll go on my mark. This is going to take a lot of magic though. Matt, do you have any more Power Glyphs?" Gus asked.

Matt nodded and pulled one he'd made with Luz earlier out of his pocket. At Gus's request, Matt reached up and stuck the glyph to the back of his neck, giving the illusionist a rush of power. Now that he had the strength he needed, he began the plan.

Focusing as much magic as he could through his body, Gus's eyes began to glow cyan and an imperceptible wave of magic spread across the Looking Glass Graveyard, layering a massive illusion over the entire place. Bria and her lackeys failed to notice anything, and continued to gather together the Galdorstones into a large sack.

The trio were almost finished stealing the stones, when a volley of three stone fists was suddenly launched at them. Angmar ended up taking a hard blow to the gut and flopped over with a groan, but Bria and Gavin reacted faster and blocked the attack with walls of earth and abomination slime. They then glared at the source of the attack, finding Matt stood there with his fists encased in stone, while Luz, Gus, and the Keeper were stood beside him. They were all free, and each wielded a Galdorstone in their hands.

"So, you freed your new friends, huh Matty? Too bad; guess we'll have to remind you why were on the bottom back at Glandus!" Bria smiled mockingly, drawing a spell circle to create a pillar of rock. Matt and his friends immediately split up and ran around the graveyard so Bria's pillar couldn't hit all of them, though she did manage to successfully hit Luz, who she decided was the bigger threat compared to Matt and the two illusionists.

However Luz disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing her to be an illusion.

"A fake?" Gavin muttered as he helped the winded Angmar to his feet, "Watch out, the real one could be anywhere!"

"Ugh, how did they get out of your abomination anyway?" Angmar groaned.

"No idea… they must have a trick up their sleeves! I-" Gavin's words were cut off by another barrage of stone fists raining down on him and Angmar. This time Angmar saw them coming and protected himself with plants, but Gavin hadn't reacted fast enough to block the blows entirely, instead just weakening them with a coating of abomination slime over his body.

Meanwhile, Bria was hunting down Gus, Matt, and the Keeper; suspecting them to be illusions like Luz. She successfully hit and destroyed the fake Gus and Keeper, but when she launched a stone fist of her own at Matt, it actually hit something solid and sent the boy smashing into a pillar. He slumped against it with a pained groan, and Bria stalked over and kicked him over, forcing him onto his side. She kicked him again so he'd roll onto his back, then put a foot on his chest.

"Honestly Matty, this was almost cute. I guess Hexside didn't make you totally spineless. But it's over now. Where are your little friends?" Bria asked with false sweetness.

Matt groaned; "G-Gone… they ran home as soon as I freed them. I stayed to prove I'm not a coward!"

Bria giggled; "Ha! They left you with only some pathetic illusions? That's just sad. I kind of feel sorry for you, so if you kiss my shoe and apologise, I might just forgive you."

Matt's groans turned into laughs, as he smirked up at Bria; "Be careful what you call pathetic, Bria. With the power of Galdorstones, illusions can become real!"

The girl sneered, then panicked as her foot began to sink into Matt's torso as he melted before her eyes. She shrieked at the terrifying sight, especially as Matt stretched out his melting arms and enveloped her, grabbing the Galdorstone in her hand and pulling it away. Bria reached for it, only for the stone to suddenly be shattered in Matt's grip, pelting her with chunks of blue crystal. The girl's first instinct was to deny any of this was real, but she could feel her foot sink into Matt's melting flesh, and his slimy grip on her body, as well as the remains of the Galdorstone as it had bounced off her. This was real!

She screamed in terror, and Gavin and Angmar rushed over, pulling her free by stomping on the melting Matt, who continued to laugh as his body was splattered apart. Once Bria was pulled free, the Glandus trio retreated to the middle of the graveyard and stood back to back, looking around for the real Hexside trio.

"T-They've got to still be here! I don't know how they're doing this, but it isn't real! It's all just illusions!" Bria declared shakily, snatching another Galdorstone from the sack they'd been filling.

"B-But what if the Galdorstones really do make illusions real!? I mean, how else would they even work for illusionists!?" Angmar cried.

"Cool it, Angmar! It's just a bluff! We're the ones with the stones, so we've got nothing to fear!" Gavin frowned.

"Nothing to fear?" Gus' voice echoed across the graveyard, "Sounds like you don't know how scary we illusionists can be. We can take your worst nightmares and make them real."

At that, the sky above turned red and an eerie aura appeared around the statues of the ancient illusionists. Slowly, the damage the Glandus trio had done to them while stealing the Galdorstones began to repair itself, and the statues turned to face them, blood cascading from their eyes and mouths. The ground rumbled beneath their feet as the statues creaked and cracked, coming to life and slowly stepping off of their plinths, flexing their stony fingers and stretching their carved muscles, before they began to make their way over to the Glandus Trio.

"You're not real!" Angmar squeaked as the trio shuddered in fear, "Y-You're not real!" he began to frantically pinch himself, as if trying to wake from a dream.

The statues encircled them, and the one closest to Angmar slowly stooped until the boy could feel its icy breath on his face. It reached down and pinched his arm, making him flinch violently as he really felt its cold stone grip.

"This is a nightmare you won't be waking from." it whispered eerily in a voice completely foreign to the Glandus trio.

Angmar screamed in terror, then his eyes rolled back in his head as he fainted, slumping to the ground.

"Angmar! Dang it, real or not, I won't let you beat us!" Gavin screamed, using his Galdorstone to summon a massive abomination, larger than any of the statues. The statues looked up at the creation with blank, bloody stares, while Gavin smirked despite his fear.

"Not so tough now, are you!?"

The statues turned to look at him; "The Galdorstones are ours…" they whispered in unison, "They follow our command… you stole from us to boost your magic. Now we will steal your magic in turn."

Gavin went pale as his spell circle shattered and his abomination began to slowly melt. He tried to cast another spell to restore the abomination, but his second spell circle shattered too, and the abomination completely melted into a runny purple mess on the ground. Then while Gavin was reeling from this, one of the animated statues reached out and took the Galdorstone from his hands, before shattering it, sprinkling more rubble down on him and Bria.

The boy promptly screamed in terror and ran for it, fleeing the graveyard all together and leaving both Bria and the fainted Angmar behind.

"COWARD!" Bria screamed after him, before drawing her sword and brandishing it; "I'm not afraid of you! I know you're fake!" she lied, the truth betrayed by the quiver in her voice.

She screamed as another statue suddenly lifted its leg and stomped down on her, forcing her to dodge out of the way. However the stomp hadn't been aimed at her at all, and had instead stomped down on the sack of Galdorstones, filling the air with the sound of shattering crystal. When the statue lifted its foot again, all that was left was a flat burlap sack leaking cyan powder.

Bria flinched and conjured a huge spike of earth to stab through the statue, but the massive construct took the blow without a flicker of concern, and in fact seemed to melt around the spike and reform, repairing itself. All the statues then began reaching for Bria from all angles, boxing her in. She let out a horrified scream as she tried to evade their grasp, only for her feet to suddenly turn ice cold. She looked down and saw her feet turning to stone, and she lost the ability to feel them at all. Bria flailed and fell over, then screamed again as she saw her stone feet crumble. She threw her sword and Galdorstone aside and began frantically crawling away, using her hands to try and drag herself away and escape.

"You cannot escape… but don't worry…" the statues said, moving aside to let Bria crawl away. "You wanted a Galdorstone… well you'll get to have one in your hands for all eternity…"

Bria looked up and realised she was now crawling towards a new stone plinth; this one lacked a statue, but the plaque on it was engraved with the words "Bria the Thief".

"No!" she cried, as the statues picked her up; "No no no no no!"

They put her on the plinth, and she screamed as the coldness spread up her legs and she saw more of herself turn to stone. She let out one final scream of absolute terror, before she too fainted, flopping over. She was caught by one of the statues, which gently lay her on the ground, before the entire graveyard shimmered and the illusion faded.

Most of the moving statues disappeared, leaving behind only three real ones that were made of ice and vines, with a light coating of stone over their hands. The real statues reappeared on their plinths, and the shattered Galdorstones were revealed to be random rocks, while the real Galdorstones were stored in the sack Bria had brought along, which was now in Luz's possession as she stepped out from behind one of the statues. Matt and the Keeper stepped out from behind another one, carrying an exhausted Gus on their shoulders.

"Man… I don't think I've ever concentrated so hard in my whole life!" Gus said sleepily.

"That was absolutely amazing, young man! How in the Titan's name did you do all that!? I only caught about half of it!" the Keeper exclaimed.

Luz used some plants to create some comfy vine seats for them to rest on, then tied up the fainted Angmar and Bria while Gus began to explain what they'd done.

"Well first, I used illusions to make copies of the four of us while we were still tied up, while also making us all invisible. It took some wiggling, but I managed to move my finger enough to cast the spell circle. Then the real Matt used those stone fists to draw their attention and stop them from stealing more of the Galdorstones, putting Angmar temporarily out of commission in the process, and forcing Bria to chase after the clones. While they were doing that, Matt freed you from those vines with a stone machete, then kept Gavin busy with a second flurry of stone firsts while Luz got us free from the abomination."

"Oh, I remember being freed by the construction lad. But how did the Lass free the pair of you? Last I saw, she couldn't manage it." the Keeper pointed out.

"Gus figured out that I could use water to free us! I produced tons of it from my body…" Luz demonstrated by making icy cold water gush from an ice glyph floating over her left hand, "…and I mixed it into the abomination, making it lose its consistency and turn runny! Once it couldn't support itself any more, it melted into slop and Gus and I were free! Plus Gavin was too distracted by the stone fists to notice."

Gus nodded and continued; "With us free, Luz and Matt waited until only one of the illusion clones was left, then created a mud doll with water and earth magic, which I layered the last clone over, so when Bria attacked it, there was something physical to touch. That's also why her foot sank into it and the fake Matt appeared to melt. Then while she was freaking out, Luz used a vine to steal the Galdorstone she had, while Matt switched it out with a rock under an illusion, so Luz's vine could break it."

"Then I used ice and vines to make those fake statues, which Gus made look real with illusions. It was a trick I learned from my friend Willow, who did something similar with an abomination. Matt covered their hands in stone so I could make them touch things and it would feel right. I was expecting Angmar to freak out and run, or try to fight back, so him fainting actually made it easier for us." Luz giggled.

"But what if he had fought back?" the Keeper asked.

"Luz had the Galdorstone she stole back from Bria. With that, her plant magic would have been stronger than Angmar's and she'd have stopped him just like he'd stopped her, while Gus would make it seem like Angmar's magic was being stolen, like he did with Gavin." Matt explained.

Gus nodded; "But since Angmar did faint, we were able to move on to Gavin straight away. I made it look like his magic was failing while Luz flooded the abomination he made with water, melting it like she did the one holding us. After that, Gavin ran off, which saved us the trouble and let us finish things with Bria."

"I used a big carnivorous plant to swallow the sack of Galdorstones, then had a statue "crush" an illusion left by Gus. Then I began slowly freezing her to make her think she was becoming a statue too. The ice ended up numbing her so much that she couldn't feel her feet, so when she fell down, Gus made it look like her feet had crumbled to dust. From there, Matt made a new stone plinth for her, and I had my ice and vine golems put her on it! We were gonna freeze her up to the neck, then release the illusion, but she fainted instead. She liked calling other people cowards, but she certainly screamed like a baby then!" Luz finished

The Keeper grinned and clapped for the trio; "Excellent show! Well done! Layering so many illusions on top of each other, and pulling off so many complex steps at once is an extraordinary feat!" he praised.

Gus puffed his chest out proudly, while Matt preened and Luz just smiled happily, all three enjoying the praise.

The Keeper then turned his attention to the two fainted bullies; "What will we do with them? Now that they've seen this place, they may be able to lead others here."

"I don't know. They only got here by following us, so without the map to retrace the exact steps, they might not be able to find the graveyard again." Gus said, "Maybe we could erase their memories? Luz, do you have any Amnesia Tinctures?"

The young angel shook her head; "Sorry, but no. Eda was gonna brew some with King after yesterday's debacle, but I'd need to go home to get it. Plus that Gavin guy got away…"

"I wouldn't worry about that."

The three kids and the Keeper all turned to the entrance of the graveyard, where a new figure had appeared. It was a Coven Scout, which had them all preparing for a fight, before his voice fully registered and they realised who he was.

"Bro!" Matt cheered, running over to his older brother as Steve took off his mask.

"Hey Little Bro. Looks like that map wasn't a dud after all!" Steve grinned.

"Did you follow us too?" Gus asked, not getting up since he was still too exhausted.

Steve shook his head; "Not you guys, no. After I went back on patrol, I overheard that kid…" he pointed to Bria, "… talking about her run in with you guys. She was egging the other two on to follow you. I remember all the trouble they caused my little bro back at Glandus, so I decided to follow them. Since I was technically also following the map to the Looking Glass Ruins, I could excuse it as part of my job."

"But wait, if you were there the whole time, how come you didn't help us out?" Luz frowned.

"By the time I caught up, you guys were dealing with the Guardian. Before I could jump in, Gus took it out. But then the bullies got involved and had Galdorstones. Steve is strong, but he's not "three Galdorstones" strong. I was trying to come up with a plan to free you guys and stop the bullies from running off with the stones, but before I could, you took them out yourselves. I did do something to help though."

Steve grinned and snapped his fingers, causing a large blue bubble to float towards him from outside the ruins. Inside the bubble was Gavin, unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

"I caught this guy before he could run off, and put him under a sleep spell. I'll take him and the other bullies back to their parents and let them know that the Looking Glass Ruins is protected by the Emperor's Coven, and that the Galdorstones are all Imperial Property. Emperor Belos technically did decree that all Galdorstones are his, so it's not even a lie. That should keep these brats from coming back." Steve said.

He then cast another sleep spell over Bria and Angmar, ensuring they wouldn't wake up, then placed them inside the bubble along with Gavin. Luz, Gus, and Matt all sighed with relief; now they didn't have to worry about the bullies coming back, nor did they have to carry them back to Bonesborough.

The Keeper smiled at the trio; "I owe the three of you a great debt. I feared I would have to hide the Looking Glass Graveyard for good, but it seems I will be able to keep it here. You are naturally all welcome to return; I'd enjoy the company." he then looked to Luz; "However as grateful as I am, I still cannot allow you to take a Galdorstone, even temporarily, as it would break the oath I made when I became the Keeper. But I'd be happy to let you bring whatever you need here, so you can use the stones within the Graveyard."

Luz smiled gratefully; "Thank you so much! Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to lug that cauldron of silver here, along with all the materials… even with magic, it's going to be a pain."

Matt was about to suggest using a Power Glyph to make it easier, but that gave him a better idea. "Wait Luz, why don't you and I both use the Galdorstones together to make an ultra strong Power Glyph? If we can make one that makes you strong enough and last long enough for this ritual of yours, then you won't need to take a stone or come back here with the ritual stuff!"

Luz's eyes widened as her smile grew huge; "That's a great idea! You're a genius Matt! Mister Keeper, is that okay?"

The Keeper nodded happily; "So long as the stones don't leave the Graveyard, I have no concerns."

The kids cheered, and Luz and Matt immediately grabbed the two largest Galdorstones they could find and began working together to make the Super Power Glyph. Luz provided her superior level of magic, while Matt provided the earth element and wove the enchantment, both magnified at least tenfold by the power of the Galdorstones. This was a slow process, so while they were working, Gus and Steve decided to fix the damages done to the Graveyard by Bria and her cronies. Gus would create illusions of what the place looked like when they arrived, then Steve would use construction magic to repair the statues to their former glory, allowing the Keeper to return the rest of the Galdorstones to their proper places.

By the time the repairs were completed, Luz and Matt had produced three Super Power Glyphs; one to test, one to use for the ritual, and one as an emergency back up. They'd have made more, but they were running low on strength and the Galdorstones could only multiply their existing power, so as they got weaker, so did the stones.

"Okay, here goes nothing!" Luz said, putting the test glyph on the back of her right hand. In an instant, she felt her magical power skyrocket to levels she'd never even imagined. It was absolutely monstrous, and it left Luz feeling like she had chugged a gallon of energy drinks; she was practically vibrating!

"By the Seraphim, I've never felt so energised!" Luz laughed, happiness bubbling out from her, "This is insane!"

"I can sense the difference in power clearly. With that level of strength, you're about halfway between an Arch-Angel and a Seraphim in power! It's equal to the boost of a Galdorstone itself! That will be more than enough for the ritual!" Rasiel said from within his ring. Luz couldn't see him of course, but she could hear the excitement in his voice. "It isn't degrading very quickly either, so it should last long enough. But I doubt it'll survive being removed from you."

With the confirmation that the glyphs worked, Luz took off the test one (which disintegrated a moment later, as Rasiel predicted), then hugged Matt and Gus; "Thank you guys so much! I know this adventure went a little off the rails at the end there, but I'm really glad I had you both with me!"

"Hey, we're friends aren't we? I'm as happy to help you as you are to help me." Gus grinned, holding out his fist for a fist bump; "Besides, it's thanks to you and Matt that I got my confidence as an illusionist back. And…" he used his other hand to conjure a ball of water; "… I may not be great with ice magic, but I'm getting the hang of water magic!"

Luz giggled and bumped fists with him, then did the same with Matt when she saw his fist raised too.

"I've gotta say thanks too. I never imagined I'd be able to stand up to Bria! I was only able to do it thanks to you, so thanks. Considering what I did to you both all those weeks ago, I never imagined we'd become friends." Matt said, blushing faintly.

"Aw, friendship is the real magic. Steve is gonna cry!" Steve smiled, tears building in his eyes.

The kids giggled and gave him a hug (as well as showing him the glory of the fist bump), then said their final goodbyes to the Keeper of the Looking Glass Graveyard. They all promised to visit from time to time, and Steve swore an oath not to reveal the location of the graveyard to the Emperor's Coven, so the Galdorstones would never be abused. As far as the coven would know, the map to the graveyard was just another fake.

They left the graveyard together and began the long walk back to Bonesborough, with Steve levitating the sleeping Glandus kids in a bubble behind them.

"I can't wait to tell Amity, Willow, and Skara about all this! Eda too! Though poor King is gonna be upset he missed another adventure." Luz mused, already thinking of a way to cheer her demonic little brother up.

"Considering all the crazy stuff that happens around you, I figured by now that King would expect something to happen whenever you went off somewhere without him." Gus joked. He'd rested a bit and was feeling strong enough to walk on his own, though he was still exhausted from his big show.

"It really is nuts how much trouble you manage to get into." Matt smirked, "Mandragoras, Basilisks, Grom… I'm surprised you haven't high-tailed it out of the Demon Realm!"

Luz giggled, then Steve said; "I guess Owlet Girl just ain't the giving up sort! Do you get that from your human side or your angel side?" he asked with a grin.

Steve's casual reveal of Luz's true identity made all three kids freeze and turn to him slowly. Both Luz and Gus were immediately on edge, while Steve just kept giving them a friendly smile. Luz gulped; this wasn't like the others! As nice as he was, Steve was still a Coven Scout! They looked at Matt, expecting him to be the one who told Steve, but the boy looked just as shocked as they were. Steve clearly hadn't learned from him.

"How do you know what I am?" Luz asked warily, already preparing to shoot a light beam and pull up an ice shield just in case.

Steve put his hands up slowly to show he was harmless; "Okay, so Steve needs to confess. I sort of hid this earlier, but I've known who you were for a while. As for how I know what you are… Well it starts with Head Witch Lilith. I'm actually pretty close to her, and she's talked about you a lot. I'm one of her direct subordinates, and since I'm based in Bonesborough, she asked me to keep watch over you, since you're her niece. When you got arrested yesterday, I was trying to find out the real reason for it before I reported it to her, but then you busted out on your own. I knew you'd fly to the Owl House, so I headed there on foot."

Luz's eyes widened; "You saw me… I dropped the illusion before landing, so you must have seen my true form."

"You got it. At first I thought you were just cursed like the Owl Lady, which is what Head Witch Lilith believes, but that's pretty much a public belief now, so the real secret would have to be something else, otherwise why bother with the illusions? Given how you look under your concealment stone, the only other answer I could come up with was you being an angel." Steve reasoned.

"Well, you're right… You're pretty smart." Luz murmured nervously.

Steve grinned; "Aw yeah, compliments for Steve! Oh, and for the record, I won't tell anyone. You're my little bro's friend and just a kid. I don't know what the Emperor wants with angels, but I'm not handing over a child."

Luz and her friends relaxed; Steve was so blatantly transparent in his feelings that they couldn't help but believe him.

"Thanks Steve. I'm glad at least one Scout can be trusted." Luz smiled.

"There are more like me than you think. It might be dumb to say this to the kid of a famous wild witch and rebel, but the Emperor isn't as popular as you might think. A lot of scouts have their doubts, but they don't have a choice but to obey now that they're branded." Steve said, sighing sadly as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal his Coven Sigil. "Not many other Covens will accept a reject from the Emperor's Coven, and even if we do find another coven to take us, losing most of your magic after being re-branded would be more than a lot of us could bear. I already lost my Palisman to the Emperor's Coven… Steve is beginning to regret his choices…"

Luz gasped softly, while Gus and Matt both went a bit green. Luz had told them about the Emperor's need for Palismen, and it had disgusted and terrified them. It was one of the few secrets that Luz had only told her friends, and not the rest of the school; fearing it would cause protests and panic that might draw the Emperor's attention.

"Belos took your Palisman?" Luz whispered sympathetically.

Steve shook his head with a sad smile; "No. I had a bad feeling when I heard about him collecting them all. The Palismen he took were never seen again, so I severed my connection with my own Palisman and sent him away. It was the most painful thing I've ever done, but I couldn't let the Emperor have him."

Matt hugged his big brother; "I'm sorry that happened, Bro. I always wondered what happened to Pebbles, but you were so sad that I didn't want to upset you by asking…"

The brothers hugged, but something Matt said twigged at Luz's mind.

"Wait, did you say Pebbles?" she asked. Matt nodded in response, and Luz smiled expectantly; "Was he an Axolotl Palisman?"

Steve's eyes widened; "Yeah! He was! He had a brown body with orange fins and frills."

Luz gave a delighted smile; "I know the little guy! He's one of the Palisman living with the Bat Queen! I saw him just a few weeks ago! He got a little banged up when the Mandragora attacked their forest, but I healed him up and he was all good after that! He was also one of the only Palismen there who didn't have any injuries from before the Mandragora!"

Gus and Matt, having heard the story, both grinned happily, while Steve looked over the moon.

"H-He's okay? You helped him out?" Steve asked shakily.

Luz nodded, and the Coven Scout promptly pulled her into a tight hug, spinning her around and laughing with joy; "Thank you! I was so worried about him! He was such a shy and timid little guy, I was terrified something bad would happen to him!"

Luz giggled, especially when Steve decided to toss her in the air and catch her, before finally releasing her; "You're welcome. Maybe you could go back to the Bat Queen's forest and get him? She kind of owes me a favour, so I'm sure if you explained the situation to her and Pebbles, they'd both agree to let you take him back. You could keep him a secret from Belos!"

Steve briefly looked excited by the prospect, but his smile turned sad again as she shook his head; "I can't. I broke my bond with him and hurt him… I could have chosen to quit the Emperor's Coven and join a different one, choosing to stay with him, but I was too much of a coward. I'll face Pebbles and apologise some day, but I don't have the right to partner with him again."

"Are you sure, Bro?" Matt frowned.

"Yeah, I'm sure. For now, it's enough to know he's safe and taken care of."

The little party of adventurers exchanged smiles, and continued their walk home in even higher spirits; the day had been a resounding success for all four of them!

[Later that Night]

Darkness had fallen over the Forearm Forest, as two figures crept through it while following a very specific path. The Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel were silently making their way along this path, following the route they had drawn for themselves earlier, until they finally found themselves outside the Looking Glass Graveyard.

The Golden Guard smiled beneath his mask as he thought about the Coven Scout who'd revealed this place to them. Oh, Steve had no idea he'd revealed it, but then few members of the Coven knew the true powers of the Sigil they wore. The Emperor's Coven Sigil may not seal magic like the others did, but it had other powers, such as serving as a beacon for scrying magic. The Emperor had several trusted scouts in Bonesborough, keeping an eye on the Owl Lady and her apprentice, and as soon as one reported seeing the girl in the company of Steve, the Emperor had authorised the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel to trace his steps, eventually finding the path to the Looking Glass Graveyard.

The Silver Sentinel silently made their way to the hidden nook that the Keeper was sleeping in and used their staff to cast a sleeping spell to ensure he didn't disturb them, then the Golden Guard took a stone he'd found in the forest and cast an illusion over it with his own staff, making it appear like a Galdorstone. He then reached up to one of the statues and took a real stone, switching it out with a fake.

They were only to take a single stone, to avoid being detected, so the two elites left the other stones behind and fled the Graveyard, with the Keeper none the wiser. The two nodded to each other, silently praising one another for their success as they used their staves to take to the sky and begin flying back to the Emperor's Castle.

Their mission to obtain a Galdorstone was a success.