King was sitting in the front room of the owl house, a party hat on his head. There were balloons and streamers, decorations, and even a crumble shaped like his head that Hooty had made. It was his birthday, his 18th to be exact. Everyone had been so happy and excited, but King knew what was coming.

The party had died down a half hour ago. Eda had finally gotten the last few guests out of the house and was taking a quick work call. Lots of people showed up, and most of them just left offerings to the young Titan without actually sticking around. Lilith might have gotten over her adoration of King a while ago but the other citizens weren't so fast to change and still praised King.

Eda tucked her crow phone into her hair and walked over to King with a soft smile. She sat on the couch next to him and pulled him over so he leaned against her, his head resting on her shoulder.

"Hey, buddy. How did you like the party? Got lots of offerings this year. People really like you." Eda said.

"They don't like me, they just think I'm a god. You can take any offerings you want." King sighed.

"Why so sad? It's your birthday! Kinda. I wonder if someday your Titan powers will get to the point where you'll become semi-omniscient and we can celebrate on your actual birthday instead of the day I kidnapped you." Eda laughed.

King just continued to stare forward, not looking at Eda. When Eda looked at the spot King was staring at, she sighed knowingly.

His eyes were transfixed on that cheesy photo he, Luz, Eda, and Hooty got done.

"I miss her too. It must be hard hitting such a big age milestone without her here. But hey, we can hope that even though she was human she has the same afterlife all other witches get, returning to the Titan that we rose from."

"I still can't actually believe she's dead. We just know she stole a boat 8 years ago! She could be alive!"

"Sure she could be alive, there isn't anything to say she isn't, but it's just easier to assume the worst. Besides, it's not like I can just get a boat and look for her." Eda explained.

King perked up at that thought. It never occurred to him that he could just look for her himself. He could find her.

He could be the one to bring Luz home.

"Maybe you can't, but I can." King said.

"What?" Eda said, half chuckling and half concerned.

"I can get a boat and go looking. If I find her, great! If not, then I'll be able to create some of the most accurate maps to date that will be completely free of bias from Belos' cartographers. It'll also help our society gain more knowledge of possible other cultures living on different Titans. It'll be educational for our society as well as having the possible bonus of maybe finding Luz. Don't you want to see if you can get your daughter back, even if there's a slim chance?"

"Luz wasn't my daughter." Eda said firmly, "She's just some kid I practically kidnapped."

"But if she's still alive, wouldn't it be great to have her back?" King said, basically pleading.

Eda just sighed and stood up, walking over to the other side of the front room and picking up that photo King had been staring at. After looking at it for a few seconds, she placed it face down and turned back to King.

"You're 18 and can do what you want. You're an adult. I can check with the council and see if it's okay for you to go on a purely explorational voyage. If you happen upon Luz, great. If not, then she's just gone and nothing has changed. You might have to build up a case for the council on why you should go. If they say no there's nothing I can do. If they say yes…just don't get your hopes up. Okay, kiddo?"

King gave Eda a small nod and got up from the couch. He walked over to her and gave her a tight hug.

"I'm going to get my sister back. I'll find her eventually."

Eda sighed and pet the top of his head.

"Sounds awesome. Now, how about you go find Lily? She can help you build up your case. You know how much of a nerd she is." Eda said, releasing King from the hug and nudging him to the door.

King went over and happily walked through, taking a step outside to go to the museum. However, the second he walked through the door the ground beneath him vanished. He started to plummet towards dark, murky, unnatural waters. After a few seconds of free falling, he began to hover in place thanks to him starting to flap his wings on instinct. It was then that King realized he was back to his normal self instead of how he looked two years ago like he had looked when that memory he dreamt of happened.

This new place was definitely not a memory.

The walls were made of tall, jagged rocks and the waters were black with hints of gold and green. Floating cubes could be seen in the distance. Directly below him was the bow of a crashed ship. And in front of him floating high in the air was a purple tinted orb.

The whole place felt familiar somehow.

Then he heard that voice.

"Come on, I'm tired of just toying around!" The Collector whined, sounding much older than they had last time King heard them, "Let's actually do something!"

There was a muffled sound of a reply, but nothing King could hear.

"I know you have your big plan but something is going to mess it up. I just have this feeling that- wait. I sense something here. It's familiar. Wait! It's your little guy!"

"King?" A distorted yet familiar sounding voice gasped.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't go! And…they're gone. Great. You enjoying the show, buddy?"

There was a sudden crash and King was jolted awake and fell onto the floor. As King rubbed his head and got up, he noticed that the ship seemed to be tilted up, which was never a good sign. He got up on deck to look around and saw a massive jagged rock was somehow speared right into the hull of the ship. It was thankfully just high enough that water didn't start getting in right away but it still wasn't ideal. King had some repair supplies, sure, but not enough to fix that much damage, as well as any more damage he couldn't see.

Thankfully, crashing was a sign that he had finally arrived at his destination. He was at the Titan directly on the other side of the world from the Boiling Isles stuck in what looked like the pelvic bone of whatever Titan he just crashed into.

"Uh, sorry for crashing!" King called out to the Titan awkwardly.

Not wanting to waste any time and let the damage get worse, King grabbed his cloak and went to go and find the nearest town to get supplies and help with repairs. Past times he'd needed to take stops, it had been no problem, and the two previous times he needed repairs locals were always happy to help, but the whole island had an off feeling about it that wasn't helped by that weird dream. He stretched his wings a bit, ran down the deck for some momentum then leapt off the ship and began to fly.

He went up fairly high, getting a good idea on where the nearest town was. This Titan wasn't that large, which King ignored the implications of, but it still didn't seem to have many towns. There was a large city on the lower left side of the ribs a few miles from where King crashed, but no other visible settlements anywhere else. There was a chance that those areas were just uninhabitable for some factor King couldn't see from so high up, but it was still weird to see the concentration of people all in one area. And even weirder were the two large, unnaturally bright lights near the center of the town.

Deciding he could just figure it out when he got into town, King flew further inland before landing a mile out from the town. He knew from experience of his first few islands that people tended to react very strongly to Titans, both positively and negatively, so landing in the town was a bad idea. A slight complication to his hope for subtlety was the fact that at his last island his concealment stone had broken when he got in a fight. Thankfully there was a possible solution.

King began to summon glyphs and arrange them in a specific way. He had had to do lots of experimenting, the glyph combos that worked on the Isles were different from what worked for him but, when King got the glyphs arranged in the exact right way, thought of how he looked when disguised with the concealment stone, and walked into the glyph combo, an illusion covered King.

He became much shorter, though he was still fairly tall, his horns and skull were gone, replaced with a regular face, fluffy black hair, and long pointy ears, though he did have one fang like Eda did. His fur went away and was now regular skin, an ashy white slightly darker than Eda's. He no longer had wings but still had his cloak and Bad Girl Coven shirt and now was also wearing black jeans and black and white ankle boots. He would still stand out, but at least now he looked like a regular old witch instead of a Titan. As long as he was at least a little focused on maintaining the illusion, he would be able to draw much less attention to himself.

With that all out of the way, King began his trek towards the town. The stars were shining brightly and the moon shone overhead so it wasn't hard to see even without a light spell, which King was thankful for. The terrain was full of hills, but very little nature. Some nearly dead blue-green grass, a few thorny bushes, black sand, pale blue stumps, and some dark and threatening trees, sure, but there were no rolling plains, sprawling beaches, or dense forests in sight. There weren't even any bug or beast demons. Most of that could be excused because it was a different Titan and thus would have different flora and fauna, in species and number, but it still was odd. The whole island had an odd, vaguely familiar feeling that was frankly unnerving and wouldn't leave King.

After a while of walking, King could faintly hear the sounds of people just past the hill he was currently on. When he hit the top of the hill and was able to get a much better and clearer look at the lone settlement, all the feelings of unease and familiarity came rushing back and King felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

He was on the island of the Titan Trappers.

Thankfully, it did seem to be significantly changed from how it was over a decade ago. The architecture had only evolved slightly, but there was so much more stuff that was brand new. Any iconography that once depicted Titans or the Collector was replaced with bright gold, white, and green and images of fire and light. The few people that were roaming around were no longer disguised as Titans and looked like just regular old witches. The only weird part of what they looked like was it seemed that everyone had a strange marking on them, every person having it on a different part of their body. As King cautiously approached the town, he got a much clearer look at the markings. And his caution was now joined by horror.

The markings were burn scars.

And they all looked like hand prints.

Much to his chagrin, he still had to get supplies and some extra help to repair his ship so he was stuck. So against his better judgment and large desire to leave, King walked out of the hilly terrain and went from the black dirt and sand to the cold, gray stone. Since there were so few people out as he walked the streets, he caught everyone's eye as he walked down the streets looking for a place he could spend the night before looking for supplies in the morning. King started to near the center of town and was able to see what was the source of the two bright lights he had seen while flying. There was a massive temple and on the sides of the steps leading up to it there were two large basins with pure white and yellow flames burning brightly. Across the road from the temple was a chapel with a large clock tower, looking like something similar to old churches in the human realm. King looked up at the clock and saw the time clicking down towards 10. When the hand struck the hour, there was the ringing on a large bell inside the tower. And the moment the chimes stopped, the doors to the chapel swung open and masses of people flooded out of the building and onto the street. King was instantly surrounded by people moving past and around him, paying him no mind as they just went on with their nights. King slowly but surely pushed his way forward, going towards the chapel to hopefully get a kind person there to help him out. As he finally got to the door, he got shoved past hard enough that he was forcibly turned around. When the crowd finally cleared, he was able to catch his breath after all the chaos. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind and he practically jumped as he spun around to see who grabbed him.

The person was obviously important, wearing a gold and white robe that had a hole on one of the shoulders, showing a handprint-shaped burn mark out for all to see. They had greenish-brown eyes and shoulder length dark-brown hair with a slight curl to it. Covering the left half their face was a golden mask made to look like a sun.

"You." They said, a slight raspy sound to their voice, "You aren't from around here."

"Oh, yeah. I'm an explorer. I've been spending a while circumnavigating this world and accidentally crashed my ship when I fell asleep. I would like to request a place to stay the night, some supplies to fix my ship, and some people who can help if possible. I can't really get anywhere with how damaged it is and the damage is low enough that, thanks to the boiling waters, nothing would last long enough to get me to the next island." King explained, nervous but somewhat trusting the person in front of him.

If these people weren't killing Titans anymore, maybe they had turned over a new leaf and wouldn't be horrible to work with and were actually trustworthy.

"I see." The person said, nodding slowly, "Well I think I might be able to help. I am Priestess Stella, one of the few high priests here. We all are servants of the Light. Now, before I find you a place to stay, perhaps you would like to give up your ways of exploration and instead stay here? In just two days we are inducting many new members into the following of the Light. It is very peaceful here. The Light makes sure we have no conflict with the outsiders."

King cringed internally as he saw that this place, while no longer a cult of people wanting to kill him, was still a cult.

"I'm good. I'll just sleep, fix my ship, and be out of here." King said, trying to be as polite as possible.

"I see. Well, that's a shame. Come with me and I'll show you where visitors like you stay."

King cautiously followed as the priestess led him through the church, on guard in case anything happened or she tried to do anything as retribution for refusing her offer. They went past the rows and rows of pews and up to a large altar in the front. The priestess pressed a button on the altar which made it slide out of the way, revealing a hidden staircase. While his suspicion was only growing, King still followed as he was led down the stairs and the entrance closed behind him.

They went through winding hallways, dimly lit by a soft light source coming though the edges where the walls met the ceiling. There was a dank and musty feeling to the area, not helped at all by the humidity. The halls seemed to be going on forever, though occasionally there would be a staircase that they walked right past.

"The Light had these constructed as a way for her and her most trusted followers to be able to navigate the town unseen. It was built like a maze, few knowing the way around. There is also a defense system that can be turned on whenever to combat anyone who might try to use these to assassinate or otherwise harm the Light, though even if they made it to the Light, they would perish in their attempts. You will be meeting with the Light, as it is customary to do when new people come, especially if they are just passing through."

King mentally took note of everything he was being told just in case, even though he was pretty sure that this priestess was taking him somewhere to die. The whole "meeting with light" thing just felt like a metaphor for death. But, he didn't want to get in a fight unless he had to. And besides, he still had to repair his ship so getting in a fight with someone of high status was a bad idea.

Eventually they reached a golden door with shiny black streaks running through it, like a gold bar streaked with obsidian. The priestess drew a spell circle and summoned a small flame. They touched it to the black streaks, and it slowly began to glow. There was the sound of a faint click and the door opened. The priestess gestured for King to go inside and, even though he knew this was definitely a trap, he still walked in. Unsurprisingly, the priestess shut the door behind him and it locked shut again.

"The Light will see you shortly." King heard them say before they walked away.

King sighed and wandered around the large, dark room he was in. His dark-vision was pretty good, so he imagined to anyone else it would be pitch black. It was mostly empty with stone making up the whole room. There were a few pillars, some chains bolted to the walls, unlit torches, a few metal grates on the ceiling, and long solid things littering the ground that King told himself were pieces of a wooden staff but knew where broken bones.

Seeing nothing happening and no door besides the one he came through, King just leaned up against one of the pillars and tried to think of a way out as he waited for anything to happen. He figured that, if he didn't have to fight his way out, he might be able to reason with whoever came to get him but if not, he'd just find something else to temporarily repair his ship. Even with the residual tiredness of his portal to the other side of the world for Gus he did hours ago, he figured he still had enough energy to make one back to his ship where he could use some hardened strangle-weed that would probably be growing in the water near where he crashed to patch up the hole until he got to another island and could do something more permanent.

But before King could further think of the logistics of that, he heard the sound of something big and wet hitting the ground. King scanned the room, seeing if maybe a rotting body that was stuck to the ceiling hit the ground, but there was nothing. What he could see was a disgusting pile of goo under one of the vents, which King took as meaning some broken waste pipes were close to the ventilation system for the room and were leaking. Gross, but based on the look and smell of the rest of the room and the hallways, wasn't that unbelievable. King, tired of standing, finally sat down, leaning his head back on the pillar. He figured the last resort repair idea needed further thought and he could stand to be in the cell a while longer. Hours passed by as he sat on the cold floor. He had been captured before, but it was never so boring and he had never had to stick around just in case. Most captures ended with him busting down the door or a wall or, if he had the energy, portalling to the other side of the door

It quickly became less boring when he faintly heard the sound of breathing. He looked around the room but couldn't see anything, which just made him panic.

"I can sense you. You can't just hide behind a pillar." A creepy voice growled.

King slowly stood up and continued to look, panic growing as he tried to find whatever or whoever was talking while still needing to maintain the illusion over him.

"You aren't from around here. And you don't want to stay."

"Yeah, uh, sorry?" King said awkwardly, "Are you this Light that the priestess kept talking about?"

"Yes, I am. But I go by many names. None of which I shall list for you. That's just cliche and frankly I don't care enough. This place must stay unknown from outsiders. I do not want anyone to know of this, the people, or me."

"Let me guess, you want to kill me?" King sighed, cracking his neck as he tried to calm himself with the reassurance that whoever this thing was wouldn't be able to beat him.

"Yes, I do. But first, where are you from? And why are you here? You have no reason to lie to me. These will be your last moments."

"Okay, sure, I guess that makes sense." King said, though he knew he wasn't actually going to be honest, "I'm from a small boating colony by the Simmering Shoals. I decided to go and explore and found this place."

There was an eerie silence, the strange voice not responding to what King said. Then breaking the silence, a dripping sound. King looked up and saw a vaguely-humanoid figure on the ceiling, staring at him, breaths ragged and slowly getting faster as the being's heartbeat pounded so hard King could hear it.

"LIAR!"

The thing lunged at King, knocking him off his feet and slamming him into the ground. Its fingers morphed into claws and began to dig into King's neck, quickly breaking through his skin and making him bleed. It was breathing hard as it dug its claws deeper, distracting King from fighting back as all of his focus went to not dropping the illusion yet so this creature didn't find out he was a Titan and possibly get even more mad. But then, as the thing looked down from King's face to his neck, its grip loosened. King shoved the thing off but it looked like it barely noticed as it watched King's blue blood run down its claws and seep into its gooey body.

"Titan's blood?" It whispered, voice now completely different as the growl and distortion it had before was gone.

King knew that voice.

"Luz?"

The illusion dropped.

"King?"

King stared as the goo morphed and changed into regular skin, hair, and clothing. Not a mindless creature, but Luz was sitting there in front of him. Luz drew a spell circle and the torches in the room lit up with pure white flame and he could see her clearly. She was much taller than before, which was a given considering how long it had been. Her hair draped down to past her shoulders, much lighter than it was before with even some white streaks, and pointed ears poking out through the slight curls of hair. She had an overall malnourished and washed-out look. Running down the left side of her face was a long green scar branching from the scar that was on her eyebrow. Her eyes had a slight blue-gray tint to them. Her clothes were a little dirty, but still nice. Long, formal looking black pants, black ankle boots, a white off-the-shoulder top, and a white and yellow cape that covered her left arm. Or at least it was supposed to, as it was out of the way and King could see the lower half of her left arm sticking out and still in its cursed form despite the rest of her body turning back.

Luz just cracked a small smile and moved over to King slowly, almost like she was scared of him. When she was on her knees right in front of him, she reached out and cupped his face in her right hand, almost on instinct covering her left arm under her shoulder cape as she did. Her thumb rubbed his cheek as she stared into his eyes and began to tear up.

"You're real." She said softly, beginning to cry.

Luz practically collapsed into King and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him tight as she could. King was still processing what was happening but didn't try to stop her. It looked like seeing him was the happiest thing she had had in a long time, and her breaking down at seeing he was real just furthered his concern for her. But the concern could wait. For the moment, he could let his big sister hug him for the first time in a decade.

Eventually, Luz did get up, wipe her eyes, and just smile at King.

"You're so big!" She said, laughing with how giddy she was.

"Yeah, I hit a real growth spurt." King chuckled, "But look at you! You look so much more mature! May I ask about the-"

"Arm?" Luz interrupted, "Yeah that's a bit of a sore spot. Literally! Having a hunk of curse just dragged around all the time is the worst. But hey, before you comment any more on my appearance, I should probably freshen up."

Luz drew a spell circle and summoned a pouch that appeared to be sewn out of demon hide and held liquid. King mentally questioned how she was able to do that, but considering her ears weren't round it was obvious something happened to make her basically a witch. Luz drank a little more than half of whatever was inside and, sure enough, she did slowly start to look better, the malnourished and washed-out look going away and making her look much more healthy, her eyes became a darker brown, and even the scar of the curse just turning into a normal scar. She wasn't perfectly fine looking, her cheekbones were still visible, she had eye bags, her hair still looked unhealthy, and the arm was still there, but it was an improvement, no matter how slight it was.

"Wow. Whatever you just drank would kill as an anti-aging product."

"It's a little concoction Philip invented. Plasma of a Titan and palistrom wood dust. I have his notebook so I know the recipe. I've had to make a few adjustments, Titan plasma is almost as hard to find as its blood and palistrom wood is hard to come by. But I've found ways." Luz explained.

"Palistrom wood? Like, palismen?" King asked somewhat hesitantly.

"Sure the stuff that makes it, but I don't eat palismen like Belos did. I find uncarved wood, turn it into dust, and add that to the plasma. I am running low, though. If I didn't get your blood on me I'd have to have drunk the whole pouch. Most of these things are like protein shakes now, palistrom wood powder mixed with boiling sea water, after it's distilled, of course."

King just looked at Luz kinda confused, but Luz didn't seem to notice. She was just acting like everything was normal, or at least the normal that was there years ago.

"So," King began, trying to change the topic, "You have a cult now?"

"It's a bit more complex than that, but I guess. I'm just a figurehead, really. I don't run most of the ceremonies. That's the job of my various priests." Luz shrugged, "I can actually show you some things that'll help explain this more."

Luz stood up and helped King up. Seeing his full height, she looked amazed for a moment before turning to the door. She just had to touch it for it to open up and let them out. She led King through a few hallways before going to a staircase and leading King up and out a small door. They emerged in a hallway that would seem innocuous if not for all of the gold and marble and banners. Luz took King though some more hallways, passing through a larger hallway with large pillars and statues of Luz in various poses, which tracked considering how revered she seemed to be. Luz looked unperturbed by it all but King was taken aback. Eventually they got to a room with tons of pedestals, each holding various things. After taking a few steps in, Luz paused and turned to King.

"The necklace with the symbol, would you mind taking it off?" Luz asked somewhat awkwardly.

King was confused but obliged. Luz took it from his hand and put it on an empty pedestal, grabbed a cloth off of another thing and moved it to cover that instead. Luz went over to one of the many couches in the back of the room but as King was coming over, he noticed what had been covered by the cloth and froze.

It was a round, slightly purple disk with a crescent moon on it.

"Welcome to my relic room, King!" Luz said, not really noting what he was staring at, "What do you think? It has everything. My palisman egg which still hasn't hatched yet, a Titan Trapper helmet, a branding glove, a piece of a Titan's heart, a copy of the first Azura book, scales of a selkidomus, and a few other things too."

"You…made a replica of the Collector's disk?" King asked.

"Oh, no that's not a replica." Luz chuckled, "It's the disk I put Collie in."

"Collie?"

"Well their name is long so I gave them a nickname."

"They sure did!" The Collector laughed, their shadowy figure emerging from the disk.

King stumbled back in shock and fear, falling onto one of the couches. The Collector just giggled at them and followed, hanging out on the wall behind King. They looked over at Luz and saw her raising an eyebrow at them. He sighed and moved over to the wall behind Luz instead.

"I told you King was here! But you didn't believe me and got all mad." The Collector said to Luz.

"It was just hard to believe. You can understand that." Luz said, speaking to the Collector like how she had spoken to King when she went into big-sister mode long ago.

"I guess. But hey, now we know why I haven't been able to see King in two years!"

"Wait, what do they mean by that?" King asked.

"Oh, the Collector has sometimes popped in on you guys on my request, or just because they feel like it sometimes. They give me updates on how everyone is doing. They can just travel through shadows and reflections so they aren't bound to any specific place in this form. They just can't do anything though, unlike me who can just create a portal there."

King felt a twinge of jealousy at how casually Luz mentioned she could make portals. She just had Titan's blood or plasma or whatever in her system but seemed more competent at Titan magic than he, an actual Titan, was.

"So, you can make portals? That's cool. I assume it's thanks to Titan's plasma which I'm guessing is also why your ears are pointy instead of round." King said, trying to keep a casual feel to the conversation.

"Close, but actually Philip revived me with Titan's blood after Hunter killed me, so I got way more witchy. Like, I am biologically really close to a witch. I can't do any Titan things besides making portals. And even those I can only make small ones or else I'll get completely drained. I could hardly make one big enough to stick my arm through before passing out. Thankfully any portal is big enough to cast spells though."

"Why do you need to cast spells through portals?"

"So she can mess with her ex-friends!" The Collector answered, laughing.

"Collie!" Luz scolded, "What did I tell you about answering questions for people? I'm sorry King, I've helped him mature a lot but he's still not at the maturity level I'd hoped they'd be by now. But I'm stuck with him. Pinky swore that as long as I could be with them, I'd make sure they were never alone again."

King was just feeling more and more awkward. Luz was similar to how he remembered her, but she was also really different. So much more relaxed in the worst way possible, borderline careless and as if anything she did was fine. He had so many questions, most of them about her mental well being because she was probably, and understandably, going through some rough times mentally. The best King could think of doing was keeping Luz calm so she didn't go into her curse form or break down or something.

"So, uh, you have a whole lot of statues, huh? Seems like you're treated more like a god than how Lilith treated me when she found out I was a Titan." King said awkwardly.

"The Trappers think I'm the most powerful being alive. A human that gained magic then died and came back as a witch with a curse and a mix of human blood and Titan's blood pumping through my veins. I've lost a fight only once post natural magic abilities but came back stronger because of that loss and captured the mighty Grand Huntsman." Luz said casually, though King noticed the Collector had a pang of sadness when their old nickname was said, "Since they think I'm more powerful than anyone, they treat me like a god. But…I don't want to be a god. All I want is to be a normal person with my friends again."

"It doesn't look like you're trying to stop the Trappers from worshiping you. If you just want to be normal and have your friends, why embrace the power and position you're being put in?" King questioned.

"Well why can't I have power and friends? Why can't I be a god to some wackjobs and be normal to the people I actually care about? Why am I not allowed to have the best of both things?" Luz asked, beginning to sound frustrated by the question, "I've always had to choose. Human realm or demon realm. Eda and Hunter or Philip. Serving justice or getting redemption. Fearing the curse or utilizing it. Why am I not allowed to have both? Have it all?!"

"I'm not saying you can't, I'm just asking about your methods. And there's still so much I don't know. What happened after your fight with Hunter? Is Belos really dead like you told Hunter in the letter? How did you get this cult? What's the deal with the curse? Are you even doing okay? I'm worried about you, Luz. About your mental and emotional stability. 10 years with fanatics can not be good for you."

Luz stood up from the couch as she stared at King. The corner of her mouth twitched, then she began to laugh. It became more and more manic as she slowly walked over to King. And as she walked, tears began to form in her eyes.

"You don't think I'm fine? Okay then! I'll answer your little questions. I died and Philip brought me back after he made himself human again. He also made me an artificial staff, kept me alive, invented things to make life with the curse easier, wrote me a song, and called me the daughter he never had. He was then killed over and over by the Collector in front of my very eyes before being reduced to a bloody pulp. I didn't lie about that. Tarak convinced the Trappers to worship me and I told them to meet me at the Simmering Shoals so we could all go to their island, and before you ask, since we weren't busy exploring the world we just used magic to get here way faster than the time it took you. The curse is something I've embraced and used as a tool. It keeps me strong and is the ultimate weapon. And as for my stability, I have no idea what's normal anymore so what's considered stable is beyond me. Is that what you wanted to hear? That I know everything except how I'm doing?"

"Luz, that's okay. You're going through a lot. We can leave this place. I can take you back to the isles. We can heal your curse and you can go stay in whichever realm you want. You can stay in both! You can get your friends and your normal life!" King said as he stood up, holding his hands out and trying to calm Luz down.

"That's the problem with what I want. It's impossible. I'm never going to get my normal life, buddy. I've ruined it too much. I ran away. I faked my death. I killed Hunter, and even though it was temporary I didn't know he would be able to come back and killed him anyways. Nobody will take me back. They'll all be scared of me." Luz said, practically growling.

"I'm not scared of you!" King exclaimed.

"Why not!?" Luz screamed, tears finally bursting as her eyes flashed blue.

King took a step back without thinking, looking shocked at Luz's outburst and a little fearful. Luz reached under her cape and clutched her curse arm. Whether it was a nervous habit or her holding herself back, King couldn't tell. But what he could see was that Luz was even more scared of the outburst than he was, her breathing picking up as she took a few steps back.

"Luz, please, let me help you." King said softly, reaching out a hand to her.

"No. You aren't going to help me." Luz said coldly, pinpricks of blue still in her eyes, "I'm glad that you came. You were the only one I never resented because you have done nothing to me, with this. But I know now that anyone else could have come, they just decided not to. If you never came here I wouldn't have known that. So thanks, buddy. Genuinely. Besides Philip, you were the only other person I knew I could trust. I know now that I was right to only trust you two."

"That's not how it is. We wanted to look for you but we thought you were dead. Everybody who knew I was looking for you told me I was wasting my time. I had to lie about why I needed a ship because I knew that the council wouldn't let me. I only came looking for you because I couldn't believe you were dead. And I never moved on when everyone else did."

"Even Amity moved on?" Luz asked, cocking her head to the side curiously.

King realized his mistake and didn't say anything. He just looked at the floor. But that reaction was more than enough for Luz. She chuckled and let go of her arm, wiping the goo of the curse that had stuck to her hand onto her pant leg. She flopped back on the couch and looked at King with a soft smile, the corner of her lips twitching.

"I'm so glad to see you, King. But I can't let you leave this place. Nobody is able to know that this place exists. I'm not going to kill you, even as far gone as I've become I couldn't live with myself if I did that, but I am not letting you leave either. If you get out you'll just tell everyone I'm alive, but I can't have them know that. No, I'd rather live in their heads as an uncertainty. It's why I've been messing with Amity and Willow, mostly Willow, through illusions recently. To keep them uncertain."

King began to take more steps back, breaths becoming quicker as he stared at the girl who used to be like a sister to him.

"What happened to you?" He asked, voice shaky.

"I've been through more than I'd ever tell you, than I could ever tell you." Luz said, leaning forward, "I didn't break. I shattered. Shattered into a million pieces, so many that I'll never find. A pane of glass dropped in a dark room can't be fixed. It'll only cut anyone who tries."

Luz stood back up and began to walk towards King, him still slowly walking back.

"You can't get off this island. Nobody else is going to get hurt by me. Make this easy and just sit down. Please."

King took a deep breath, then turned and ran as fast as he could. He sprinted through the halls and could just barely make out a scream that slowly got distorted. As he tried to get out of the temple, rounding corners at random and hoping for no dead ends, he eventually emerged at the entrance. He was able to look across the road to see the clock tower and see that it was around 3am. He sighed with relief and paused to take a few breaths, tired from the running and still not recovered from the portal he did so many hours ago. He couldn't take any more than just a few breaths though, because a loud bell began to ring out, hurting King's ears as he was slightly disoriented from the high pitch. It cut off and King looked around, but he didn't see anything.

Then suddenly, all the doors on the buildings below swung open and people came out. They locked eyes with King. And after a few seconds, all of them came rushing towards him.

King panicked, looking around for a place to escape. The only viable direction was up, so King spread his wings and shot up into the air, taking no time to stretch or get a running start. He flew over all the people as best he could and watched as they followed him from below. He was fairly sure he'd be safe for a bit, the only problem being losing them so he could land, fix the ship, and leave. There became another problem when he heard someone yelling below.

"Ready the net launchers!"

"Of course they have net launchers." King grumbled under his breath.

He tried to fly away faster, keeping an eye on all the people chasing him. He did eventually spot a few launchers. He summoned some ice glyphs and blasted balls of ice at the launchers. He was able to freeze a few but there were three that managed to fire. He dodged the first, blasted back the second with a yell, but the third got tangled up in his wings. King couldn't reach them to get them off as he began to fall towards the ground. Using fire glyphs, he managed to slow his descent by pushing himself upwards. He was able to get as far out of town as he could.

He was fairly far away from the horde of cultists when he crashed into the ground. It hurt, but King had to force himself up and keep running. He still couldn't reach the net and he didn't want to risk hurting himself by using any glyphs on it, so he just tried to deal with it. He eventually got to his ship and his mind was racing. He thought of his plan earlier, using dried strangle-weed as a temporary patch up, but one glance into the waters showed that getting enough in this area would be a challenge. It seemed like even the plant life underwater wasn't safe from the near-total destruction of local wildlife. Swimming with his wings tied up would be stupid, he couldn't fly, he couldn't get the net off alone without potentially hurting himself, getting in the water and just wading would only work for a short time before they found a way to get to him, trying to use the boiling waters to break the net would take too long, and his ship would sink the moment he tried to use it to sail.

He was stuck.

King's hope that he lost all the cultists was dashed when he heard them coming in the distance. King's mind continued racing as he tried to figure out what to do. He might be able to hold them off for a while, but they seemed persistent and he was already tired enough already. He might only be able to last a few hours before just passing out. King could see the front of the hoard and, in a panic, climbed through the hole in the hull of the ship. He went back as far as he could, trying to think of anything that could work. He could hear the cultists getting closer. They had seen him get into the ship. There was nothing he could do without getting exhausted way too fast.

So, he decided on the one thing that would work, even if it would completely exhaust him.

King stuck a claw out in the air and focused as much as he could. As his claw pierced the air, he dragged it down as he created a portal. He felt the energy draining out of him as he severely overtaxed his magic. Once the portal was just barely big enough to fit through, he stopped. The first few cultists got into the ship as he stumbled forward through the portal and closed it behind him.

King's vision blurred as he looked up at Eda and Raine staring at him as they were sitting in the living room of the owl house, looking at him with a mix of confusion, concern, and shock.

"Luz." King said, weak and breathless, "She's alive."

King collapsed onto the ground and couldn't make out what Eda and Raine were saying. His eyes just flickered shut and he passed out.