Schlimmtag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Owl House
Slamming the door shut, Luz turned her back to it before slumping to the floor, not even bothering to shift her tail out of the way. Taking in deep breaths, she did her best to recoup her energy. She had just spent the past few minutes in a dead sprint, trying to get to the house as fast as possible. After one more deep inhale, she slowly exhaled. They'd made it. Outside, she could hear the sounds of Hooty obliterating the animal control demons who were after Eda.
Eda nervously tapped her back paw. When she had gulped down the elixir, it didn't turn her back into her normal form, but it did give her control over the Owl Beast, whatever good that did her. In fact, this was probably worse than not having control over the Beast. She couldn't draw a spell circle, couldn't talk, couldn't do anything useful thanks to Bird Brain not having opposable thumbs. At least when the Beast was in control she didn't have to deal with those frustrations.
"Don't worry, Eda," Luz reassured her mentor (and herself). "I'll get you an elixir lickety split." Scrambling up off the floor, Luz ran into the kitchen, with the Owl Lady moseying in behind her. As Luz scaled the kitchen counter, Eda's maternal instincts kicked in. Kid, you better not do anything stupid , she thought to herself.
As Luz teetered precariously on the counter, she reached above her head and undid the lock on the cabinet. Yanking the door open, Luz stood up on the tips of her toes so she could see into the cabinet. Scooching a few miscellaneous potions out of the way, Luz saw her prize. Grabbing the elixir, she spun on her heel so that she could hop down. Except her foot slipped.
Time seemed to slow down as Luz fell. Before she could even realize what she was doing, Eda was running to catch the basilisk before she could impact the ground. It was only when Luz looked into Eda's eyes from being cradled in her arms that Eda realized what had happened. Firstly, she was somehow back in her regular body again. Secondly, she had just snatched Luz out of mid-air when she was all the way across the kitchen just a second before. Deciding to not look a gift snorse in the mouth, Eda gently set Luz back on her feet. The basilisk dusted herself off, a goofy smile on her face as she offered the elixir to her mentor.
"Here you go, Eda!" Luz said, only to realize that Eda looked very not Owl Beast-y. "Oh, never mind."
"Thanks, kiddo," Eda replied, ruffling Luz's hair. "But I'm good… somehow."
"How did you get your body back?" Luz asked.
Eda shrugged her shoulders in response. "Beats me. All I knew was that you could get hurt, and I wasn't gonna let that happen. Guess the Owl Beast agreed."
Luz smiled. "Aww, you care about me. Maybe it was you going all Mama Bear that turned you back. You know, a strong emotions kinda thing?"
Eda scrunched her face up. Magic could be influenced when a witch was in a particularly emotional state, so that wasn't an entirely unfounded idea.
Suddenly, Hooty snaked his head into the kitchen. "GUESS WHAT JUST ARRIVED, HOOT HOOT! IT'S THE MAIL!" Luz watched as a ball of what she assumed to be letters traveled up Hooty's esophagus, only to get caught in his throat. The bird… tube… thing hacked a few times before finally expelling the ball of letters onto the kitchen floor, all of them coated in a thin layer of mucus. Scooping up the letters, Eda dumped them on the table before beginning to sort through them.
"Taxes." Eda crumpled that one up and threw it behind her, landing directly in the trash can.
"Scam." Another letter joined the taxes in the trash.
"Death hex." Another letter in the trash. After a few seconds, though, a miniature black hole formed and sucked in the trash can before disappearing.
Looking behind her, Eda saw that the trash can was no more and pouted. "Dang." Turning back to the mail, she continued sorting it through.
"Book fair reminder." Eda began to crumple up the letter, but an audible SQUEE drew her attention. The noise had somehow come from Luz, who was staring at her with giant puppy dog eyes.
The Owl Lady sighed. "Let me guess, you want to go to the book fair." Luz couldn't even verbalize her excitement, instead responding by fervently nodding her head.
Eda groaned. "Fine." Turning upstairs, she shouted to get the attention of a certain skull-headed demon. "Oi, King! We're going to the book fair, so get down here unless you wanna walk."
Lilith let out a ground of frustration. Her sister was housing a basilisk, and who knew how much longer Edalyn had until the rabid creature decided that she was its next meal. When Wrath had awoken from his coma, she had initially dismissed his rambling about a "giant, snake-ish demon" draining him of nearly all of his magic as mere hallucinations. It was only when Lilith met with Head Witch Cutburn and discussed what a basilisk attack actually looked like did she actually consider Wrath's statements. But how could Edalyn have allied herself with a demon from a supposedly extinct species? Considering that basilisks had the ability to shapeshift, though, Lilith posited that the demon could have been hiding in plain sight under a disguise.
But how could Edalyn have found out about the basilisk if it was concealing its true nature?
Thinking back to her presentation at the Covention, she remembered that Edalyn had recently taken on an apprentice. What was the witchlet's name? Liz? Lice? It was something like that. Regardless of what Edalyn's apprentice's name was, that brought up another question: who did Lilith meet at the Covention? If that was the actual Liz (or whatever her name was), then both she and Edalyn were in danger of the basilisk turning on them at a moment's notice. If Lilith had met the basilisk, though, then she didn't even want to think about what that entailed. The head of the Emperor's Coven had a million questions, and only one person could answer them. Donning her cloak, Lilith silently closed the door to her office.
Only to turn around and run directly into Steve.
"Hey, Lils! Whatcha doin?" her bodyguard/assistant/friend asked.
"Oh, hello Steve," Lilith replied awkwardly. "What are you doing here?"
"My job," he said slowly. "You know, protecting you from attacks, scaring away rabid fans, stuff like that."
"Right, right. That was a stupid question, my apologies," Lilith responded, pulling on her signature raven mask that distinguished her as the leader of the EC.
"So, where are we heading?" Steve asked as he traveled beside his boss.
"Wherever my sister is," Lilith answered.
Steve nodded. "This going to be an official thing or is it off the books?"
"Unofficial," Lilith said quickly. "Edalyn is rubbing elbows with dangerous company, and I intend to set her straight before she gets herself hurt or worse."
"Ahh, family stuff. Got it," Steve replied, nodding.
"Do you have any clue where Edalyn might be, Steve? I know that you are far more of a… social butterknifefly than I am." While Lilith prided herself on being the leader of the Emperor's Coven, all that responsibility left her with little time to go "out on the town" as it were.
"If I had to guess, I'd probably say the book fair at the Bonesborough Public Library," Steve answered. "It's going on this week, and I doubt the Owl Lady would pass up an opportunity to sell her finds from the Human Realm when the market isn't open."
Lilith hadn't even thought of the annual BPL book fair. "I guess that's a better start than nothing. Let's go."
Luz was having the time of her life at the book fair. It was everything a bookworm like her could have asked for and then some. There was a zine-making workshop that she had attended, the leaflet she had constructed tucked away safely in the pocket of her hoodie. There were also a few meet-and-greets she had watched from afar. No Mildred Featherwhyle, obviously, but there was a guy named Volo who had gathered a considerable crowd as he blabbered about his supposed feats of daring-do. Luz had to admit that this guy knew how to really ham it up for an audience. Leaping from table to table, miming out sword fights, it was a pretty entertaining show, even though it was obviously hyperbolized.
One thing, or rather, one person that Luz didn't expect to see was Amity Blight wandering through the shelves.
"Hey, Amity!" Luz called out to get the emerald-haired witch's attention.
Amity turned to see who had called her name and smiled when she realized who it was. "Hi, Luz. Found any books you want to buy?"
"Not yet," Luz replied. "I'm sure I'll find one, though. There's like a billion books here."
Amity laughed. "This place is big, but it's not that big, okay." Reaching into her bag, she then withdrew The Good Witch Azura: Fall of Zargothrax and offered it to Luz. "And before I forget, here's your book back."
Luz waved her hand in dismissal. "No, I told you that you could keep it, and I meant it. That's yours now."
"Oh, thanks then." As Amity placed the book back in her bag, a slip of paper between the pages caught her eye. Oh crud, that was the drawing she had made of herself and Malingale the Mysterious Soothsayer. Amity was really thankful that she got to keep the book now. If Luz had seen the drawing, she probably would have never let the young Blight live it down.
"So, what did you think of the book?" Luz asked.
"It was… good," Amity responded.
Luz gasped. "'It was good'? That's all you have to say about Hecate's incredible friends-to-lovers arc with Azura as they travel together through the Desert of Despair to find the Amulet of Amore?"
"Okay, yeah, I was happy to see them finally get together. At least Featherwhyle didn't force them into a 'will they, won't they' thing and stretch it out over a couple books." Amity admitted.
"Yeah, that would have been not cool," Luz agreed.
"Lily, what are you doing?!" Eda's voice broke through the background noise of the fair.
"Amity, get away from that creature right now," Lilith shouted.
Luz and Amity turned to see both of the Clawthorne sisters approaching them, Lilith storming ahead while Eda was trying to talk her down from whatever it was she was trying to do. The elder sister then placed herself between Luz and Amity before drawing a spell circle and leveling it at Luz.
"Uhm, what are you doing, Ms. Clawthorne?" Amity asked her old mentor.
"I'm protecting you from this dangerous creature," Lilith responded.
"Lily, be rational for one second," Eda pleaded after catching up to the group.
"I am," Lilith replied coldly. "This vermin has replaced your apprentice, and I intend to deliver it back to where it belongs."
"'Replaced'? Lily, what are you talking about?" Eda asked, feigning confusion about what her sister meant.
"Your so-called apprentice is actually a basilisk," Lilith said, pointing a finger at Luz.
"Yeah, I know," the Owl Lady replied with a smirk.
Lilith froze as her brain tried to comprehend what she just heard. Edalyn knew and she didn't care. That confirmed it for Lilith. The curse had messed with Edalyn's brain so much that she was somehow fine with living with what was essentially an apex predator.
"You realize that means that that creature could drain you of all your magic at any second, right?" Lilith was dumbfounded at her sister's apathy to the revelation.
"Yeah, but she'd never do that," Eda retorted. "Would you ever do that, kiddo?"
"Nope, never in a million years!" Luz responded with a smile.
"Sorry to butt in, but I have to agree," Amity said from behind Lilith. "I've never felt in danger when around Luz. Well, except for when we met at Hexside, but that doesn't count."
"Aww, thanks Amity," Luz said.
"If you're not evil, then why did you assault Warden Wrath at the Conformatorium?" Lilith asked.
"Because he cut off Eda's head," Luz said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
Lilith raised a finger to object before considering what she would have done if she was in that situation. "Alright, I'll give you that."
"Thank you," the basilisk replied.
Eda clapped to get everyone's attention. "Well, that's great. Now that we're all friends, how about we do something more productive than threatening my student, hmm?" Turning around, the Owl Lady started walking away.
"I suppose that would do us good," Lilith said.
Bending down, the witch then whispered into Luz's ear. "Listen, creature, and listen well. You may have fooled Edalyn, but I am not so easily convinced. You say you mean her no harm, and I implore you to keep your word. If I find that you have harmed my sister in any way, I will have your head on a platter before Lord Belos by nightfall. That is not a threat, that is a promise. Do you understand?"
Luz nodded. She understood perfectly.