King's eyes slowly flickered open as he woke up from a dreamless sleep. He stared up at the wooden ceiling of the owl house. When he rolled over, he rolled off the bed and into a nest, which let him know he was in Eda and Raine's bedroom. He slowly got up with a groan, still really tired despite getting however much sleep thanks to how much he overexerted himself. He guessed it would probably take another day or two of not using any magic and some general rest before he fully recovered.
King got up carefully, not wanting to go too fast to make his blood rush and pass out again. He shuffled towards the door, grabbing the very large fluffy red robe that was folded up by the door and putting it on. He walked down the hall and towards the stairs. As he walked down, keeping a tight hold on the railing, he heard voices in the front room. He walked down the hall and into the room where he saw not just Eda and Raine, but also Amity, Boscha, Hunter, and Masha. They all heard him enter and stopped their conversation and looked at him. Most of them looked expectant or surprised, but Eda just gave him a happy yet concerned smile.
"Hey King." Eda said softly, "Did you sleep okay kiddo? Sorry I put you in my room, no other room had a doorway big enough for you."
"Yeah, I slept fine." King said, taking a few more steps in and carefully sitting on the loveseat, thankful it didn't break under him as it wouldn't have been the first time King's constantly growing size broke furniture.
"Did you have any weird dreams?" Amity asked, getting a confused look from King.
"No, actually. I didn't dream of anything. It was just darkness." King said before turning back to Eda, "I see lots of people are here."
"Yeah, well, I figured all of us would want to know some more. You got out a whole 3 words to Raine and I."
"Why isn't Gus or Willow here?"
"We all tried texting Gus." Masha answered, "I even tried calling him, but nothing. He's not responding to anything. And he lives alone, so I can't just call a roommate or anything."
"Has anyone tried getting Matt to text him?" Boscha suggested with a smirk, "I bet he'd be able to get Gus out of the house."
"As for Willow," Hunter began, trying to keep the conversation on track, "She's holed up in her office right now. For the past 3 days I haven't been able to get anything out of her except occasional texts from her assuring me that she's not dead or kidnapped and saying she'll be at work 'Just a bit longer'. I called some of the other people at the conservatory and they say she's only been leaving for food and the bathroom and has barely said anything more than a grunt to anyone. All because she's so focused on protecting me and everyone else from Luz."
"She's gone that far? I knew she was mad after our talk but I didn't think she'd get that obsessive." Amity said.
"Wait, your talk? Like, when you two went out to the boardwalk? What happened there? When she came back after that she was covered in mud, didn't tell me anything about what you two talked about, and just took a shower, changed, and said she was going to do some work."
"We got into a bit of an argument because she thinks Luz is alive. All because of some…some things that she thinks she saw and the fact that both of us had dream-memory things about her recently."
"You both got those too?" King and Eda asked at the same time.
The four of them all looked at each other surprised as Boscha, Raine, and Masha were still playing catch-up on everything they were talking about.
"Well if Willow's obsessed with proving Luz is alive and staying at work because of that, I can easily get her to stop." King said.
"Look bud, no matter how much I try to convince her that Luz is really dead, she doesn't listen. It's like the more I try to prove her wrong, the more serious she gets about being proved right." Hunter sighed.
"No, I mean I can get her to stop trying to convince you because I can do that for her."
Hunter stared at King, in disbelief at what he just said. Everyone else besides Raine and Eda wore similar expressions, all of them not wanting to believe what King was implying.
"Y-you can't mean what I think you mean, right?" Amity stammered.
"Eda, Raine, you didn't tell them?" King asked.
"Wait, tell us what? King, you're just joking, right?" Boscha nervously chuckled.
"We wanted you to be the one to break the news. You are the one with the most information." Raine shrugged.
"You don't mean…" Masha gasped.
"Yeah. Luz is alive. Like, she's alive and kicking." King sighed, "I saw her."
"No, that can't be your only evidence." Amity said, starting to freak out, "Just because you saw her doesn't mean that she's still alive. I mean, Willow and I both thought we saw things, Willow said she saw the Collector twice, but those weren't real."
"She saw them again? And wait, are you saying you saw Luz?" Hunter asked.
"Amity, why didn't you tell me this? When did this happen?" Boscha asked, placing a hand on Amity's shoulder.
"I just…I didn't want to think that was real. It was 3 days ago, the day of the field trip. I thought I saw her when the class and I went to her memorial at the head. I also didn't mention to you that they made up a creepy nursery rhyme about her. You just looked so happy. I didn't want to ruin that. Regardless, King, just seeing her isn't enough. Even hearing her wouldn't prove anything."
"Well, I didn't just see her or just hear her. I actually talked to her. Interacted with her. Have her hold my face." King explained, slightly saddened by his retelling as even he hadn't processed it all, "She's been on the Titan Trapper island all this time. She's not doing great exactly, but she does have a cult now, so…that's cool. I didn't see everything, but I was able to get a decent look at things. Especially the dungeon. I got a really good look at that since I was stuck down there for hours after a priestess stuck me down there when I refused to join the cult. But yeah, Luz nearly killed me because I had an illusion cast over myself, she realized I was bleeding Titan's blood, we both realized who the other was because the curse has been doing a real number on her so I didn't even recognize her at first, we talked, I got to see the Collector who's apparently working with her, she got mad when she realized that I was the only one who looked for her, and I barely escaped. My ship had crashed so I couldn't use my boat and I wouldn't be able to fly since the trappers got my wings tied up in a net, so my only choice was to portal here. Since I had already done one to get Gus back here when he visited my ship, I passed out almost immediately."
Before anyone could respond to that, the door burst open and a very tired and frazzled looking Gus came in. Everyone was looking at him as he closed the door and grabbed a seat.
"So sorry I'm late guys." He apologized as he got settled, "The magic tracker took a lot of work and I was so focused that I didn't notice any of your texts. Not getting any sleep probably didn't help. So, uh, what's up? How much did I miss?"
"Luz is alive, she has a cult, she took over the Titan Trappers, she nearly killed King, and the Collector is working with her." Boscha summarized.
Gus paused then just nodded and sat down.
"Okay then. I missed a lot. Got it."
"So what, has she gone crazy or something? Next to none of that sounds like something Luz would do." Masha said.
"It was her. She's just…I don't know how to describe it. Saying she's broken sounds wrong, and also doesn't nearly suffice. But she still does care about me, so she's not all gone or completely emotionless. There's so much that I learned about what she's been through, but I still know so little. Maybe it's the curse, maybe Belos did more to her than we imagined before he died, or maybe it's the Collector. Maybe it's all three! Or maybe it's because she's been alone surrounded by a god-child and fanatics for the past decade. Maybe she didn't think she was worthy of coming back to us, so she went way too far in the other direction. I don't know what happened or what she was thinking, but all of us have changed so much in the last decade it stands to reason that she would too, especially considering the circumstances she's in."
"I do doubt those lunatics have good therapy." Eda said.
"What all did she say? Did she ask about us? You said she was mad that you were the only one who came looking, but her letters were telling us that she didn't want us to even try to look." Amity asked.
"She said she was fine with that until I showed up. She basically said that since I went to look for her, nothing should have stopped anyone else from looking too. When I told her that everyone moved on, she asked specifically if you have too, Amity. She told me that now she knows she's right in only having really trusted me and Belos, though she still calls him Philip. She really missed me, even remarking that I'm real when we figured out who the other was, like she wasn't sure I would be real even though I was right in front of her. She tried to stop me from leaving so I wouldn't be able to tell anyone else that she's alive and where she is."
"If she was so mad that nobody but you looked for her, then why would she not want anyone else to know?" Hunter asked.
"Because she didn't want anyone else to get hurt." King explained, looking straight at Hunter.
Hunter's hand hovered over his stomach where the scar from when Luz killed him was. He could understand that fear. When he found out what he was after going in Belos' mind, he was terrified of not just being found, but of hurting anyone. But unlike him who gained a support system by running away, Luz lost hers. For all they knew, maybe she had wanted to go back several times over the past few years but was aware that what she was doing was self-destructive and thus possibly in even worse shape than she was when she left.
Everyone thought about what King had told them. She was alive, but certainly not well which wasn't great. But even how they felt about Luz being alive was varied. Gus was surprised but not super emotional, Eda had had some of the most time to process but still was in disbelief, Amity was thinking about how Luz had asked about her moving on specifically, Hunter was wondering how Luz would react to seeing him again since their last interaction was reciprocal murder and also how Willow would react to all of this, Boscha was hoping that Amity was okay and was wondering if King told Luz about the two of them being together, Raine had also had more time to process than the kids so they were mainly worried about how Eda was doing, and Masha was just trying to think of what the plan was for going forward now that that bombshell had dropped.
"Well King," Eda sighed, breaking the silence, "Is there anything else we should know?"
"Yes, actually. After Hunter killed Luz, Belos brought her back with Titan's blood and she's basically a witch now. Pointy ears, spell circles, all that jazz. She also has some Titan powers, only portals as far as I know though, and still has that curse from Belos. The things that Amity and Willow saw were illusions she cast through very small portals. The Collector has been doing some spying, but I don't know what they saw or how much he told Luz." King explained.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Masha asked, "I doubt Luz will just continue to leave us be, or I guess leave most of us be it seems, now that she knows you know. I don't think she'd assume you'd keep all of this from us."
"I know exactly what we need to do." Eda said firmly, getting up from her seat next to Raine and moving to stand by the mantle so everyone could see her clearly.
"Uh, I don't think attacking her is a great idea." Gus said awkwardly.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I don't know, you just said you knew what to do then walked over to that gun you have mounted, so I assumed you were implying that you were going to say we should attack."
Eda looked over her shoulder at the mantle and saw that she was, in fact, standing right next to the human realm gun she'd had mounted over her mantle for the past few years. She sighed and looked at Gus, eyebrows raised as she silently asked him why the hell she'd be implying that.
"Wait, why do you, Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, the basically leader, the person who got a curse and instead of suffering your whole life got a badass harpy form, and the person who raised a literal Titan all alone even need a shotgun?" Masha asked.
"Eda is a collector of human trinkets. And she also finds human weapons funny because of how inferior she views them compared to magic." Raine explained, seeing Eda was too caught off guard by Masha's praise to answer right away, "As such, she has guns. This one is her favorite though because it's shiny and old, just like most of her favorite things like pens, herself, and me."
"And even if I was implying an attack, this one would do nothing useful in a fight, or at least wouldn't be useful for long." Eda added, "Sure it's good, but because it's old they don't make the ammo for it anymore so it only has 3 shots left in it. Sure I could try using human thrifting websites for more ammo, but those get expensive fast and I don't think the council or Raine would let me get away with that. If I was actually going to take a gun to a magic fight, it probably wouldn't be this one unless I got desperate or had a specific reason. Nah, I'm saving it for a special occasion, whenever one of those comes around."
"Okay, back on topic," Boscha said, wanting to know what the game plan was like Masha did, "What were you going to say when you walked over there before we started talking about stupid human weapons?"
"Ah! Right. Thank you. What I was going to say was that the council needs to know about this. But, there are other people close to Luz that have higher priority than those stuck-up prissies."
"Eda, we're in the council too." Raine said softly.
"I said what I said."
"Maybe I could try calling Willow? I've only been texting her to give her some space but since this is so important, I can try that." Hunter said.
"While she should know too, I was actually referring to Camila." Eda clarified.
Everyone went silent at that. None of them disagreed, not in the slightest, but they all had practically forgotten about her. And not a single one of them considered how she'd react to the news, not even King.
Sure they all still talked to Camila occasionally, she was good friends with Eda and Raine and had basically become like another parent for the others, especially Amity, Hunter, and Gus on account of them living with her for seven months when they were stuck in the human realm. But, despite them all being close to Camila, over the years they had all drifted from her. Camila never visited the demon realm after the first few years of Luz being gone and when Vee got her own place, Camila gave her the portal door they shared. Only at some holidays and birthdays did they ever see her, and even those weren't guarantees. So the realization that, when talking about Luz, her own mom not being anyone's thought of who should know was an uncomfortable realization for them all.
"Okay," Boscha sighed, "I know we're all thinking it, so I'm going to say it. Eda, Camila didn't cross our minds. However, you are right and we should go tell Camila."
"But we can't all go." Hunter pointed out, "With the news of Luz being alive, I don't think it would be helpful to have all of us go there. And, minimizing the amount of people will also just make breaking the news easier and simpler."
"I for one think King definitely needs to go. He was the one who was there, so out of everyone he should certainly be one of the people." Gus said.
"Okay, about that, my concealment stone kinda…broke. At one of the islands I went to there was a fight and it got broken. So unless you have a blank concealment stone or anybody has one that Gus can set for me, or you're going too and will do an illusion the whole time, I really shouldn't. I can't do the illusion over myself because I should be saving up my magic to replenish how much I overtaxed making two big long range portals in less than 24 hours. I think we can all agree that having me just out in the human realm is a bad idea, and I'm becoming less and less house sized."
"You got in a fight?" Eda chuckled, "Did you win? I mean obviously you did you're a Titan for Titan's sake so- wait, no, not important. You can tell me all the details later. You're right, you should stay here and rest up."
"I think Eda, Hunter, and Amity should all go." Masha suggested, "You guys out of all of us are the closest to Camila and were the closest to Luz."
Eda and Hunter both nodded at the suggestion, and almost everyone else thought it was reasonable. Amity, however, had a much more nervous expression. Not only from the idea of going to see Camila, but also from the knowledge of Luz asking about her specifically moving on to King still hanging in her head. Boscha noticed this and looked at her, concerned.
"Ami, if you don't want to go, you don't have to. Eda and Hunter can probably handle it on their own. Or maybe them two as well as Gus and King. But, I have confidence you'll be fine. You were in the group of people who told Camila Luz was dead when the shipwreck was found, and were also with Eda and Hunter to deliver the letter for her. I think telling her Luz is alive might be easier than those two things."
"You're right." Amity sighed, smiling at Boscha, "I can do this. How bad could it go?"
"I mean whenever people say that the answer is usually very bad, but hey this means I can get back to work or maybe sleep, which either way I'm all good with." Gus said.
"I do have one question, where is Vee?" Raine asked, "Eda and I didn't think of her as a top priority like all of you, but she should still know. Her and Luz are legally sisters after all since Camila adopted her."
"I have no idea." Masha sighed, "I've been keeping an eye on my phone and Gus has been keeping track of the portals, but ever since the council meeting there's been nothing. She told me she was going on a walk and I haven't seen her since. I know she wasn't kidnapped or anything because even without draining magic she can easily hold her own, but that also means I have no idea what she could be doing."
Raine and Eda shared a glance. They didn't know if any of the kids knew about the pro-basilisk protests, but they both did. It was just another piece of the puzzle that neither of them truly wanted to see complete. Raine thought that this meant Vee inspired whoever made the Penstagram account, but Eda had a feeling that this meant Vee was at least moderately involved with the account and protests. Vee had never gotten this mad before, so it was nigh unpredictable what she'd do. And that was terrifying.
Getting back on track with what was important in the moment, all the details of the human realm trip were smoothed out. King went over what happened in more detail just in case there were any questions, Hunter tried texting Willow a few more times telling her he was taking a quick trip to the human realm but when he got back they really needed to talk Masha reminded everyone that Camila had moved a couple years ago and was now living in Bridgeport instead of Gravesfield which everyone was highly appreciative of learning even if realizing they didn't know that even though it happened years ago did just make them feel worse, and Boscha was giving Amity a quick pep talk. Once they were all ready, Gus set up the portal to go near Camila's new address and Eda, Hunter, and Amity all went through.
The three of them emerged from an alley between townhouses. They all covered up their ears and looked for Camila's address, finding it without much difficulty. They went up the front steps and Eda rang the doorbell. After a few moments of waiting, Camila opened up the door and lit up at seeing them all.
"Hey Cammy," Eda said, "Looking smoking as always. Are you busy?"
"Eda, how would Raine react to this behavior?" Camila jokingly scolded.
"I don't know, they might join in, frankly." Eda laughed.
"I don't know why I still invite someone like you around. You witches are all so scandalous."
"My family does have a history of having a penchant for humans."
Camila just scoffed and waved them all in. Amity and Hunter were just glad that that whole interaction was over with, while Camila and Eda just chuckled at their embarrassment. Camila gave them a quick run through of her new place and told them to wait in the living room while she got them all something to drink. Her and Eda continued to talk, though she did occasionally ask casual questions to Hunter and Amity so they could all catch up. While it was nice, Eda, Hunter, and Amity still had the looming feeling of awkwardness and anxiety because of what they were there to do. Camila got them all something to drink, water for Hunter, tea for herself and Eda, and sweet iced tea for Amity, and got settled down. There was a moment of silence thanks to the three witches not knowing how exactly to start the whole conversation.
"Alright," Camila sighed, "Now that the small talk is out of the way, how about you three tell me what's wrong?"
"What? What do you mean?" Amity awkwardly chuckled, trying to play it cool and failing miserably.
"Look, I talk with dozens of people every day. I know people well. And I can tell you all are worried about something. Just spit it out."
Amity and Eda hesitated, still not knowing how to ease her into the coming bombshell. Seeing their hesitation, Hunter realized he was going to have to be the one to break the news.
"We're here because we just found out Luz is alive." Hunter said plainly, "We don't know much, but from what King told us, we know she's on the opposite end of the world from the isles and has turned the Titan Trappers into her own personal cult."
Eda and Amity were mildly surprised at how easily he was able to break the news, but mostly were just thanking the Titan they didn't have to do it. All of them did become slightly confused when Camila looked much less shocked than any of them expected. Frankly, she looked the least shocked out of everyone that had learned the news. She looked surprised, sure, but she also just nodded and drank her tea thoughtfully.
"I'm going to be honest, Cammy," Eda began, "You are taking this news very well."
"We kinda thought since you're, you know, Luz's mom you'd react much more strongly to this." Amity said.
"A part of me figured that she was alive." Camila shrugged.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, after reading the letter Luz wrote Vee and I, I was almost certain, even after the news of part of her remains being found, that she wasn't actually dead."
"Could you explain a bit more?" Eda asked, "None of us know what was in the letter for you. Vee never told any of us anything and you certainly didn't."
Camila got up and went over to one of the bookshelves. She grabbed a letter box from one of the shelves and set it on the coffee table in the middle of the seating area. She opened it up and inside were lots of papers, small keepsakes, and drawings all made by Luz throughout the years. At the top, was her letter which Camila pulled out and handed to Eda for her, Hunter, and Amity to all read.
Dear Mamá,
I know this will probably be confusing for you since you haven't seen me for a few months but…I'm not coming home. I've just done too much and I don't even know how to live with myself anymore. Eda, Hunter, Amity, Willow…everyone will probably hate me after everything I've done. I hurt people. Lots of people. Badly. And my biggest fear has always been you being angry at me. But I don't want you to be mad or disappointed.
So, I'm leaving before you get the chance.
I've done so many awful things that I don't know how I can even continue to wake up in the morning surrounded by people I love when the voice in my head is telling me that I don't deserve any of it. Because it's true. I don't deserve all the luck I've gotten. I don't deserve you or Amity or Hunter or Eda or Philip.
I love all of you too much to stick around.
Oh, and Vee, I'm so glad I got to have you as my sister. No matter what you grow into, just be yourself. That's all I could possibly ask of you. And all I can ask of you mom, is that you don't try to find me. I'm going somewhere I can't be found for a reason.
Cuidate, mamá.
Luz
Eda, Hunter, and Amity all looked up at Camila, who's eyes looked to be ever so slightly watery after Eda finished reading the letter aloud. Camila quickly blinked any tears away and cleared her throat, refocusing herself.
"This doesn't seem much different than any of ours." Amity said, "How could you be so sure of yourself?"
"Well, for multiple reasons. The day I learned about Vee and the demon realm and all that stuff, I started to do research on teenage psychology. And after you two, Luz, Willow, and Gus arrived on my doorstep, I ended up buying a few books. I wanted to give all of you, but mainly Luz, the best support system I could after everything you had been through. I didn't do perfect, the depression Luz was experiencing while you all were stuck in this realm was clearly worse than I thought considering what you all have told me about how those two months between Luz leaving me and Luz leaving everyone went. Anyways, the letter reads like someone who is running away, not like someone who is going to kill themselves."
"Nobody ever thought that's what Luz did." Hunter said, though he knew the moment he said that that was a lie that wasn't even true for himself.
"But didn't she make it look like that? From what she had told me before the portal was fixed and from what you all have told me over the years, she would have known better than to pick on that demon that supposedly killed her. She even tried to fight it once in the past, didn't she, so she would know. So, she would know exactly how to make it look like she was attacked. But it would only attack her if provoked, and she would only provoke it if she wanted to die. And, no matter how bad she got, I don't think she ever wanted to actually do. Make people think she died, sure, but actually die? Disappearing is a much better option. She said she was going somewhere she can't be found, which could be interpreted as her knowing she's going to die, or it could be her going so far, literally and metaphorically, that she'd be unrecognizable. And considering she's back, I don't think she'd abandoned hope that you all wouldn't look for her."
"Wow Cammy," Eda chuckled, impressed with Camila's analysis, "You're good."
"Well, I can't say that my hopes weren't also backed up by a sense of motherly instinct of knowing in my heart Luz wasn't dead…" Camila began to actually tear up, "…and a bit of unrealistic optimism."
"If you thought she was still alive, why didn't you tell anyone?" Amity asked, "And what about Vee? She got the letter too."
"Well, Luz was insistent that she didn't want to be found. Also, in case my instincts were just delusion, I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up. I mean, how would you react if, before you knew she was alive, someone kept insisting that she was?"
Hunter had a pang of hurt and realization when he thought of how he reacted when Willow did exactly that. He knew whatever Willow said to him when he told her the news, he would 100% deserve it. Sure she had no evidence at the time, but he still could have not brushed her off so vehemently and tried listening to her reason instead of saying she's hallucinating or paranoid.
"The entire time she was stuck in this realm, I had a feeling she was slipping." Camila continued, "And I thought that maybe, just maybe, if she could find a way back and save everyone, she would get better. She's always loved to protect people, so I just told myself all she needed was a win and she'd get better. But I was clearly wrong. Making a portal didn't help. Saving King didn't help. Saving Boscha didn't help. Saving the whole of the isles didn't help. Getting that letter let me know just how wrong I was. That it wasn't giving help that would make Luz feel better, but getting help. But it wasn't until I was too late, until we all were too late, that I realized that. But she was so firm by that point that she didn't want to be found. So I didn't tell anybody, not even Vee. I couldn't help Luz when I had the chance, so I figured the least I could do is respect her wishes when I didn't have that chance. But I see now that that was just another mistake and just because she didn't want to be found didn't mean I should have listened and tried one last time to help her."
"One thing I'm still wondering about is why you said what you did when we gave you that letter. You said "my little light really is gone". Were you just saying that so we wouldn't think you thought she was alive?" Eda asked.
"It was a reference to her mental state. She had been through so much that I didn't know nearly enough about that I thought even if she did come back, she wouldn't come back the same. And based on what you're telling me, I was right. She started a damn cult!"
Camila sighed, took off her glasses, and wiped the tears away her eyes, recomposing herself.
"I know that Luz clearly isn't doing well but…do you have anything else you can tell me about her?"
"Well she still has the curse." Hunter said frankly, "She also attacked King before she realized who he was. She's working with the Collector and, in King's words, calling her broken wouldn't suffice. She tried to keep him there so he wouldn't tell any of us that she's alive because she wants to keep us safe. Though simultaneously she was mad that King went looking for her but nobody else did. But there's still a lot all of us, even King, don't know. He barely had one conversation with her before he ran."
"So what's your plan?"
"That is for the council to decide." Eda said with chagrin, "I can't confirm anything about that."
"Can you at least tell them what you want to do?"
"Of course."
"And what is that?"
After Camila asked that, Amity and Hunter's gaze moved from her to Eda. They were also curious as to what Eda was going to tell the council. Eda looked nervously between all three of them. Even she hadn't fully figured out what she would say for the debrief to them, her proposal on what to do was still barely figured out. So instead of answering, Eda just decided to do the special move she learned when she got into politics.
Deflecting.
"Well, what would you propose?" Eda asked, thanking the Titan when she saw nobody seemed to think that was suspicious, "She is your daughter after all. And who knows, maybe your input as her mother could persuade them."
Camila thought for a moment. She knew Eda wasn't being fake with her offer, even if she was avoiding the question. She was certain whatever she told her, Eda would actually tell the council.
"I want you to tell them to keep in mind, no matter what they decide to do, Luz's actions will never change the fact that she has a mother who loves her. And whatever they do to her, they'll have to live with the knowledge that their decision not only affects her, but everyone who still loves her."
Eda just smiled slightly and nodded.
"I'll tell them that. It'll be one of the first things I say once I summarize the situation." Eda said.
"I know you will. I trust you."
Eda's smile faltered slightly. Sure she could tell the council that, but how they'd react or if that'd affect their decisions in any way was a toss up. Sure people like Lynn, Eber, and obviously Raine would feel sympathetic, but everyone else could go either way. With Darius it would depend if he was making his decision as a councilor or as a person, Asclepius would go off cold hard facts and logic, Finn and Lexi's opinions changed as the wind blew so their predictability on decisions was nonexistent, Talia would go with their gut, and Cassandra would either do the same or if she used her oracle magic to look ahead would go with whatever would lead to her idea of a greater good. All Eda knew was that there would be at least four people in support, including her. Just one more and there'd be a tie, two more and she'd have the majority in support of her and Luz. But if everyone else voted against…
"Is there anything else you need from me before we head out?" Eda asked, not wanting to complete that thought.
"Yes. I need you to promise me I'll get to see my daughter again." Camila said firmly, "Alive."
"Okay…don't know why you had to specify alive…" Eda said, a somewhat weary tone in her voice.
"Because if she's really this bad right now, there will definitely be some people who think she should die for what she did and might do. Or she might get in a fight with authorities who won't be holding back. Or she'll try to explain herself to people who aren't interested in listening who'll have made their decision long before she got the chance to talk" Camila explained.
"Okay, that's reasonable." Eda sighed, "But Cammy, I can't promise that-"
"Eda." Camila interrupted, "Promise me I'll be able to see my daughter again. Promise me I can hold my baby in my arms again. Promise me I'll be able to hug her and she'll be able to hug me back. Promise me I won't lose the best thing I ever had. Promise me that the most incredible thing Manny ever gave me won't die at the hands of witches who think it's what she deserves. Promise me that. Please."
"Okay Camila. I promise."
"Thank you."
Neither of them knew if Eda could keep that promise. And neither of them wanted to know that answer.
Amity, Hunter, and Eda all got up and began to head out. They said goodbye to Camila, told her they'd make sure to come again soon, and left. They went back to the alley where the portal door was, opened it, and went back to the owl house silently, none of them really having words after all that.
When they got back to the owl house, King, Raine, Masha, and Boscha were all in the living room just talking. When the portal closed behind Eda and she put it away, everyone just looked at her, waiting for her to tell them what to do next.
"Alright kids," She sighed with a mostly genuine smile, clasping her hands together, "Get ready to head on ou- wait. Where's Goops?"
"He left to get back to work." Masha explained, "Even though I think he needs sleep instead of more working."
"Where we going?" Boscha asked.
"To the council. We're figuring out what we're going to do about this whole situation."
All the kids looked excitedly at each other, though Raine had a more worried and knowing expression. They and Eda both knew that there was no way the council would react as well as they did to the news. And neither of them had a clue on what they'd even propose for the next action to be. Eda had an idea, but Raine was worried about what Eda could be thinking of. It was likely going to be Eda giving the proposal and not Raine, especially since it was customary for, to avoid a majority making a proposal together for an automatic win, only one councilor to give a proposal even if more than one had involvement with it.
"Just…don't get your hopes up, kids." Eda said, her smile now smaller as she was more focused on taking care of the kids than hyping them up, "The council will come to a decision. But it might not be something you like."
