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.

13. EP 13: Shadows of Friendships Past

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 1: The Demon Realm

Chapter 13: Shadows of Friendships Past

After the Basilisk attack on Hexside and her brief stint in the Detention Track, Luz had settled into a new routine at Hexside. She'd come home after that first day (following a fun hangout in Bonesborough with all of her friends, plus Boscha) and told Eda and King about her whole day, which had initially made them angry. The Basilisk wasn't a concern to them, as they knew Luz had helped defeat it (though King was a little peeved he'd missed it), but they'd been furious about the whole detention track and magic-mixing incident, especially when Luz explained why she'd been put in detention. Eda had been ready to march down to Hexside and tear Bump a new one (and that was without learning of Luz's breakdown), but Luz had talked her down again. Beyond that, Eda was proud that Luz had helped convince Bump and Lilith to institute Multi-Tracking, and wasn't at all surprised to learn of her choice of classes.

Following that, the rest of Luz's first week at Hexside went smoothly; she spent the first three periods in the bard track with Skara, who happily helped her learn the ocarina. Luz wasn't a natural with it by any means, but she did make some good progress whilst also working on her singing and learning how to cast some of her utility spells with bardic magic. The second three periods were then spent in the construction track, were Mattholomule had taken it upon himself to help her out whenever he could in apology for the Detention Pit incident. Construction was probably the one type of magic Luz really struggled with now (excluding the ones she couldn't use), so she wasn't making much progress, but she still enjoyed learning. The final three periods of the day was spent in beast-keeping with Viney, which was an absolutely great way to end her days at Hexside. As the daughter of a vet and a Kindness Angel, Luz had extensive experience with animals and she had absolutely no disgust for even the grossest of them, resulting in her quickly becoming the second best beast-keeping student in her year, behind only Rogier, who also helped her out from time to time (Viney was in the year above them, and was easily one of the top students in the school).

The Multi-Trackers were doing great, and Luz still occasionally joined them for breaks in the Room of Shortcuts, and surprisingly, a lot more students had joined the Multi-Track program, including Amity and Boscha. Sadly neither of them had actually chosen to join an extra track; Amity now multi-tracked abominations and oracle, at the behest of her mother who wanted her to learn her type of magic too, while Boscha had been covinced to multi-track potions and abominations so her mother could have her compete with Amity more closely. Neither girl was happy about it, but neither could talk their mothers out of it.

Luz had also continued her duties as Eda's apprentice, spending some of her time after school in lessons with the Owl Lady. She no longer did chores around the house, and instead "earned her keep" by helping brew potions. She'd also reserved time to hang out with King, her friends (she'd finally gotten around to telling Willow and Gus about the Ice Temple adventure and Rasiel), and continue her translation of Philip Wittebane's Diary, which was going incredibly slowly. On top of all of that, Luz was also trying to figure out the ice glyph, which she still couldn't use without drawing it on paper like King did, and learning about her own kind from Rasiel, which was a mixed bag.

Rasiel tried to teach her more about Angelic Blessings and Alchemy, only to find Luz couldn't use the former at all. Neither could figure out why, but Luz was completely unable to give parts of her magic to others like angels were supposed to be able to. Angelic Blessings were supposed to let angels give small pieces of their magic to others to grant them extra magic if they were magical beings, or even magical powers of their own if they weren't. However Luz simply couldn't do it; she and Rasiel theorised that the Titan themselves might be preventing it, since their magic was blended with Luz's through the glyphs, but they had no way of finding out for certain. On the flip side, Luz's experience with potions meant she was fairly good at Alchemy and was slowly improving to the point that she would be able to make the components needed for the Panacea Mirror to heal Eda's Curse.

Luz's second week at Hexside started a lot slower; a pixie infestation at Hexside (courtesy of Boscha's pet pixie starting a rebellion) had closed the school on Monday, so Luz had the day off. The Owl House had received an invitation to a fun fair, so they'd decided to go together. Even Hooty came (after Luz felt too guilty to leave the excited House Demon behind) and had promptly horrified the others by popping out of his door and squeezing himself into a portable bird-house backpack. The fair had been fun, and Luz had run into Willow and Gus (though they'd kept their distance thanks to Hooty), but of course it had also been a trap. Tibbles, the little pig demon who'd been arrested after Luz rescued King and Eda from him, had come back for revenge, and invited the Owl House residents to the fair for his scheme. It had failed when Hooty happily ate Tibbles after Rasiel correctly identified a "bottle of water" he'd tried to give them as a Shrinking Poison, and Eda had then taken over his stand and used it for scams while Hooty and the kids enjoyed the rest of the fair. Luz and King had even won a pair of matching friendship bracelets by playing the festival games!

Hexside was reopened the next day, so Luz returned to her routine and enjoyed school for the first time in her short life.

A few days into this second week at Hexside, Luz was showing Willow how to have a thumb war before classes started, while Amity and Boscha hung out nearby, the former watching their game while the latter used magic to change her nails. It was this sight that Skara walked in on, smiling happily and holding an odd pile of what appeared to be red scrolls.

"Hey Skara." Luz said, looking up from thumb wrestling Willow.

"Hey girls!" Skara chirped to them all; "Time to bug out at my birthday party!"

She then handed one of the little red scrolls to Boscha, then another to Amity and a third to Luz. The scrolls then unfurled themselves, revealing themselves to be red butterflies with the words "Skara's 15th" written on their wings, surrounded by sparkling gemstones. Luz giggled as she realised Skara had made a pun; she'd have to remember to tell King that one later!

"It's invite only, but you guys are my VIPs!" Skara smiled.

"Are these made of real insect wings?" Amity said, eyes widening at the invitations.

"My Dad spared no expense!" Skara nodded, "You only turn 15 once!"

"You only turn every age once, Skara." Boscha pointed out with a deadpan expression.

Luz rolled her eyes; "Don't be a party pooper, Boscha. Thanks for inviting me, Skara!"

"No problem! I was a little worried that Dad wouldn't let me since you're the Owl Lady's kid…" Luz blinked; that story had spread like wildfire! "… but he was actually pretty psyched to meet you after I told him about you." Skara explained.

She then noticed Willow standing there awkwardly and said; "Dad's also got some important friends coming to, so I was only allowed a certain number of invites, but they all come with a "Plus One" so you could come along with Luz!"

Willow and Boscha both blinked in surprise; "You'd let me come too?" Willow asked.

"Sure! You're friends with Luz too, and you're the top plant student in our year, so you're strong too. Your old reputation as a loser has really started to fade." Skara said.

Willow blinked again, then her eyes widened as she realised Skara was right. In the past, everyone except Gus had ignored her unless she was screwing up in class or being picked on by Boscha's gang, so Willow had grown used to just ignoring everyone else in return. But Boscha hadn't actually bullied her since the Mandragora incident, Skara and the others were only ever followers, Amity was being nice and even outright friendly, and she was actually friends with Amelia. With all her old bullies no longer picking on her, becoming a top student in the plant track, and gathering a group of real friends, Willow had risen far from the bottom of the social ladder… and she was so used to ignoring everyone that she hadn't even noticed!

"That's… kind of a weird thought." she eventually said, too stunned to come up with anything else.

Luz grinned and patted her on the back; "Isn't it great? Now everyone sees how awesome you are! You should definitely come with me to Skara's party! It'll be fun!"

Willow slowly nodded, a bubble of happiness forming in her chest; in the past, she'd have assumed it was a trap to humiliate her, but there was no way her angelic friend would allow that! "S-Sure! If I'm welcome, then why not?"

Skara smiled; "Great! It's smart casual, so you don't need to get quite as fancy as you would at Grom, but you'll still want to look nice. A lot of bigwigs end up coming to these parties, so it's great for networking."

Willow nodded, but Luz looked confused; "Bigwigs come to your birthday parties?"

"It's because all our families are a part of high society. Our parents basically use our birthdays and other celebrations as excuses to get together and try to show each other up." Amity explained.

"Yeah, so try not to set off any giant monster attacks." Boscha sniped, obviously tired of no one paying her any attention. She then grimaced as she noticed her invitation butterfly begin moulting. "Ew! Skara, why did you give me one that was moulting!? Give me another one!"

Skara frowned as Boscha tossed the moulting insect away, but Luz just rolled her eyes and caught it; "I'll trade with you. Honestly, I wouldn't think a potions student would be so freaked out by a little moulting." Luz said, handing her invitation to Boscha and then helping the butterfly with its moulting. "This stuff is great in potions."

Boscha scoffed; "Ugh, whatever!" then stalked off to her class. Luz, Skara, Willow, and Amity all shared a giggle at the three-eyed girl's grumpy attitude, then headed off to their own classes.

As Luz and Skara went to bard class together, Luz couldn't help but comment; "Boscha still hasn't warmed up to me or Willow. Is she still mad about what happened when I first came here?"

Skara shrugged; "Maybe a little. She doesn't like change or threats to her power, and you're kind of both. And she doesn't like Willow suddenly rising so high. But it's Amity that really gets under her skin."

"Amity? Why her? I thought they were friends." Luz frowned.

"Nah, I'm Boscha's friend. Amity is more like her kinda-friendly rival. The problem is that only Boscha sees it that way. If Amity wasn't being forced to hang out with Boscha by her parents, then she probably wouldn't hang out with her at all. And since you came along, Amity has been hanging out with you and talking about you like crazy." Skara explained.

Luz blushed and began toying with one of her curls, "A-Amity talks about me?"

Skara noticed her blush and smirked; "Oh yeah, she mentions you all the time. I'm pretty sure you're her best friend."

The little angel squeaked and instinctively covered her face as her blush intensified, making Skara grin wider; so the rumours that Luz had a crush on Amity were true! She and the other members of Boscha's gang (excluding Boscha herself) had a bet on whether Luz returned Amity's obvious crush, who would make the first move, and how long it would take for them to hook up. With how obviously affectionate "Ice Queen Amity" was towards Luz, it was only a matter of time in their minds. Until then, Skara would just enjoy how adorably cute the two were as they stumbled over their feelings.

"But back to Boscha; she feels like since you came along, Amity is paying her even less attention. Not only that, but now that Amity and Willow are sort of on speaking terms again, Boscha's worried they'll rekindle their old friendship and she'll be replaced completely."

Luz's thoughts immediately snapped away from her crush considering her a best friend, and towards what Skara had just said; "Wait, did you just say that Willow and Amity used to be friends?"

Skara nodded; "Yeah, back when we were little kids. It was before our parents kinda pushed us together. I don't know why they stopped being friends, but I think that's part of why Boscha always got on Willow's case; she wanted to prove to Amity that she was superior."

Luz's mind began racing; why had Amity stopped being friends with Willow? Was it possible that Willow was the friend the twins had mentioned back after the Library Incident? The one Amity had been forced to give up on? If that was true, then she needed to talk to Willow! And today's classes would provide the perfect opening!

During sixth period, Luz's construction track class had a joint Gen Ed photography lesson with the plant, healing, and illusion tracks, so she'd be able to talk to Willow all about it! Plus, since this was a magic photography lesson, they'd be using special tweezers to pull memories right out of each other's heads, so Luz would get to see adorable baby Willow AND potentially fix a rift between two of her most important friends! She could hardly wait!

Luckily, Luz enjoyed her time at Hexside enough that time sped on by, and it was sixth period before she knew it. She walked to the photography room alongside Mattholomule, and found it to be a room covered in blackout curtains and illuminated by glowing red spiders. Leaving Mattholomule to partner with Gus, Luz hurried over to Willow.

"Hey Willow! Ready to pick each other's brains?" Luz grinned, holding up the memory tweezers.

Willow giggled; "Sure!" she then leaned in a whispered, "I can't wait to see some little Cherub Luz!"

Luz grinned; "Mami did say I was adorable. And I bet baby Willow was too! Now let's get to work; I've got something I wanted to ask you about afterwards."

Willow looked curious as to what Luz could want to ask her, but shrugged and sat down on a stool in front of their work station. "Be careful with my brain! I keep my thoughts in there!" she grinned.

Luz nodded and carefully poked the tweezers into Willow's ears until she felt them bite down on something. She then slowly pulled them out, along with a glowing Polaroid picture gripped in its teeth. The pictures would take a little while to fully develop, so Luz hung it up on a little peg, then repeated the process until she had the five pictures they were supposed to pull out. She then wiped down the tweezers and handed them to Willow, happily swapping places with her and getting to experience having her own memories pulled out. It was a strange feeling; it started by feeling like their was a cotton swab in her ear, but then her brain would feel fuzzy for a moment and her ear would tickle faintly as Willow pulled out her memories one by one, until she'd gotten all five and hung them up.

"Wow that feels weird!" Luz said, rubbing her ear.

"Yeah, but it'll be worth it to see the pictures!" Willow grinned.

At that point, most of the class had extracted their required memories and the teacher of the class, Professor Lavestra from the illusion track, explained some of the intricacies of the magic they were using, such as the pictures being clearer if the memory evoked strong emotions, and that if one damaged the photos then they would also damage the memories. Luz was marginally worried about what they'd do with the photos after they were done with them, but the teacher just smiled and said that destroying them with special memory sheers (which looked a little like giant sheep-sheering sheers) would erase the magic without erasing the memories, making them a safe way of disposing of the pictures.

Shortly thereafter, the photos began to develop, and since Willow's memories had been pulled out first, they were the first to develop. The first picture was an adorable picture of Willow sitting on a stall, ironically getting her picture taken for some kind of special occasion. She looked adorable, but her hair was wild and crazy.

Luz cooed at it; "Aw, you had an awkward hair phase too! I knew we were meant to be friends!"

She showed Willow an old picture of herself from her human cellphone, which showed her as a little girl with her hair tied up into three big braids, with ribbons and stickers all over them. Willow giggled; "Like two peas in a pod!"

The next few Willow memories then developed, showing memories of her playing in the park with her parents, feeding a carrot to a Dairy Spider, and opening a present on what looked like Christmas. They were all adorable, but the last one confused Luz.

"You guys have Christmas on the Boiling Isles?" she asked, pointing to the photo.

Willow tilted her head, "Christmas? I don't think I've heard of it. That memory is from the Winter Festival; the day right in the middle of Winter, where we give gifts and thanks to our families and loved ones for another year together."

Luz smiled; "Neat! It sounds like a mix of Thanksgiving and Christmas! I can't wait to see what it's like!"

"You know what I can't wait to see?" Willow said, beginning to grin mischievously as she pointed to Luz's memory pictures, "A little Cherub!"

Luz blushed and giggled as Willow eagerly looked at her memories, which had begun developing while they were discussing Christmas. The first memory was of Luz as a child of about 7 years old, holding a puppy with a bandaged paw while a kitten was playing in her long, curly hair. The second showed a slightly older Luz and her Mami together with a bouquet of flowers. The third was also of Luz and her Mami, though this time they were flying high above the clouds, both in their undisguised angelic forms and Luz being held by her Mami as they flew. The fourth was of Luz and King laughing while Luz held pieces of bread on either side of her head, and King had his face poking out through a hole in another piece. The fifth and final picture showed an event from after school just a few days ago, where Luz and Willow had gone for Toadstool Tea at a cute cafe Willow had wanted to show her.

"Whoa, two of these memories are from the last few weeks!" Willow pointed out.

Luz shrugged; "I was thinking of happy memories. It's been crazy here, but I've got more happy memories here than I do in the Human Realm. Plus must of my happy memories back there involve stuff related to my other heritage."

Willow nodded in understanding, noting the picture of Luz and Camila, which Luz was carefully pulling down so it could be swiftly destroyed before anyone else saw it and realised the truth of what she was. It was the only one where Luz wasn't concealed (it was weird seeing her with round ears in the first two pictures), but it also made Willow frown as she realised something. Aside from Luz's tiny wings (which Willow thought were adorable), Luz didn't look much different than her disguised form in these photos… she even had hazel eyes instead of amber. On the flip side, Camila had pure white hair and amber eyes like Luz's current true self, only sporting brown hair and hazel eyes when disguised in the second picture.

"Hey Luz, I get that your wings have grown, but why do you look so different in that picture." Willow asked in a whisper.

"Oh, that was before my magic awakened on my first day on the Isles. My real hair and eye colour only changed to white and amber after my wings grew and I unlocked my magic." Luz explained.

Willow nodded, her curiosity sated, but Rasiel spoke from Luz's ring. "Luz, are you saying that those tiny wings were the only angelic features you had back then?"

"Well, that and the pointed ears." Luz replied quietly. Since Willow knew about Rasiel now, Luz didn't need to worry about her listening in. "Why do you ask?"

Rasiel went quiet for a moment before replying; "I have known other human-angel hybrids, but all have had full angelic features, including hair in some shade of white or gold, and eyes in some shade of gold or blue. While the range of skin colours is about the same between angels, humans, and witches, hair and eye colour is not. I've never heard of a Cherub with naturally brown hair or hazel eyes."

Luz blinked; "Huh… Mami never mentioned that; she always said I was just a little different because I'm half-human. Do you think there's a different reason?"

"I have absolutely no idea… perhaps our species has evolved in some way since I was sealed up here in the Demon Realm. I'll have to investigate once I have my own body again." Rasiel replied, his voice trailing off as his thoughts went elsewhere.

Luz hummed, but then turned her attention back to Willow. She cast a quick illusion to disguise the memory of flying in her mother's arms, then looked over to Willow's pictures and gasped; "Oh! We got so distracted by my memories that we didn't see the last of yours!"

The two girls turned to Willow's last picture, which had long ago developed. Upon seeing the memory on it, Luz gasped and Willow huffed; it showed a little Willow at a birthday party with a little Amity hugging her.

"So it's true! You and Amity did used to be friends!" Luz whispered.

Willow grabbed the picture and turned it around; "Emphasis on the "used to be." she scowled.

Luz frowned; "I heard about it from Skara earlier; that's what I wanted to ask you about. Can you tell me what happened?"

Willow sighed and crossed her arms; "There's not much to tell. Like you, I was a late bloomer. It was even worse back then, since I wasn't even good at plant magic yet, and Amity got tired of having a weakling for a friend, so she told me she didn't want to be friends any more."

The plant lover again grabbed the picture of her and Amity as kids; "This memory is from Amity's birthday party. She seemed so happy to invite me at the time, but that was also the day she met Boscha and Skara. I guess they showed her what a "real witch" was and she decided to kick me to the curb before the party even ended." Willow said, anger and hurt in her voice.

Luz's eyes widened; now she knew for certain! It was definitely Willow that Odalia had forced Amity to stop being friends with! There was no way that Amity would so quickly toss Willow aside otherwise, especially since she looked so happy with Willow in the memory photo!

"Willow, I think we should talk to Amity. I think there was more to this than you know." Luz said seriously.

"Luz, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but it's fine. I'm over it, and Amity isn't picking on me any more. That's good enough for me." Willow said.

"But Willow, I don't believe Amity would do something so cruel just because you weren't good at magic! There's got to be more than that! If we just talk to her and get her side of the story, I'm sure you two could become friends again!" Luz implored.

Willow gave Luz a little smirk; "Do you really think that, or do you just want me to get along with Amity because you have a crush on her?"

Luz went beet red and squeaked; "W-What are you talking about? I don't-"

Willow immediately put a hand over Luz's mouth, her expression now turning serious; "Don't try to lie; you'll only hurt yourself." she said sternly, before grinning again; "Honestly, everyone at school knows you've got a crush on Amity; you have ever since the new semester started. The only one who hasn't realised is Amity." Willow explained.

Luz's face heated up so much that she was sure she was steaming; "O-Okay… so maybe I have a tiny little crush on Amity… she's just so pretty and cool! B-But that's not what this is about, honest!"

Willow narrowed her eyes; "You're really convinced that I'm missing something, aren't you?"

"Yes!"

"You know something… something you can't or won't tell me." Willow said. It wasn't a question.

Luz nodded; "It's not my place to say, but I know in my heart that you and Amity could become friends again if you just talked."

Willow frowned; "And if I don't want to? She may have been the least terrible of Boscha's gang, but she did still pick on me."

"Then… then I wouldn't blame you. But I think you at least deserve to know the truth." Luz replied.

Seeing Luz look so determined and desperate to help made Willow's heart soften a bit. Her friend really was just trying to help, as always, and truthfully Willow was curious as to the truth Luz kept alluding to. If there was something besides her old weakness that came between her and Amity, then Willow wanted to know. And besides, since Amity clearly had a crush on Luz too (again, Luz was the only one who didn't realise) and Willow was one of Luz's best friends, Amity was being pretty nice to her. She'd even privately apologised for being a bully! If it weren't for the old wounds caused by her bullying, Willow might have tried to restart their friendship without Luz's involvement.

Ultimately, she decided to agree; "Alright. I'll go with you to talk to Amity. But I'm not promising anything."

"That's all I can ask." Luz said, beaming as she hugged her first friend.

For the remainder of their photography class, Willow and Luz picked through the latter's head for a new memory photo that didn't expose her identity as an angel, while also searching for the memory sheers to destroy the one that showed her Mami's true form. It took a while, since most of Luz's happy memories in the Human Realm revolved around her angelic identity, but she eventually found a sweet family moment where a toddler Luz was being cuddled between her Mami and Papi. It made the present day Luz misty-eyed, so Willow stroked her back comfortingly and quietly told Luz that she could talk about it at any time. Willow didn't know the full story there, but it seemed obvious based on Luz's reaction that her father was no longer with them.

Once class ended (and the picture showing Angel Camila was destroyed), Luz and Willow headed straight to the cafeteria for lunch. They'd made a habit of sitting together with Gus, occasionally also joined by Amity, Skara, and/or Amelia, so the moment they arrived, Luz made a bee-line for Amity, who had just arrived.

"Amity! Can Willow and I talk? In private?" Luz asked.

Amity smiled and nodded; "Sure. Let's grab out lunches first, then we can go eat outside. It's a nice day out."

Both girls blushed as they imagined having a picnic together outside, and a watching Willow giggled at the pair of them. It was cute how oblivious they both were to each other's feelings! Eventually the three of them went to collect their lunch trays and let their other friends know where they were going (Gus opted to eat with the HAS instead), before heading outside and finding a nice place to sit down and eat in the shade of some trees on the edge of the school. Once they were seated and had eaten a bit of their lunches (today was a mystery meatloaf that kept trying to crawl away), Amity finally asked;

"So what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Luz swallowed her mouthful of food and replied; "You and Willow. Or rather, exactly why you stopped being friends."

Amity went pale, looking fearfully between Luz and Willow. If Luz knew what Amity had done, she'd definitely hate her!

"Y-You heard about that?" Amity asked nervously. She didn't think Willow would have brought it up…

"Skara told me." Luz said, making the mint-haired girl scowl. If it wasn't Skara's birthday the next day, Amity would have given the bardic girl a piece of her mind! "So I asked Willow, and she told me what happened at your birthday party years ago."

Amity's heart sank and she began to tear up. That was why Luz had asked to talk to her alone! She was going to sever their friendship in front of Willow as justice for what Amity had done to the plant-loving girl! Luz would never want to be friends with a bully; she was just too much of an angel to make this a fully public humiliation.

Luz saw the slow build up of tears and immediately assumed something wildly different; she saw it as Amity feeling deep shame and regret for what she'd done in the past bubbling up to the surface (which was actually closer than Amity's assumptions).

"Amity, it's okay. I understand how you must be feeling right now." Luz said, leaning over to rub the other girl's back; "We just want to hear your side of the story."

Amity looked up at Luz, confused. "M-My side? But I thought if Willow told you, then you'd hate me! Why would you want to hear my side?"

"Luz seems to think there is more to it." Willow said, eyeing Amity sceptically. "She's convinced there's something I don't know about, but can't tell me what."

Amity's eyes widened as she realised what Willow meant. "Luz, have you been talking to the twins?"

"Yeah, but not about you. Don't you remember back at the library?" Luz said, "You were afraid that your Mom would find out about our friendship and make you stop being friends with me, but then you said "just like she did with" before you suddenly stopped. After that, Skara mentioned how you and Willow used to be friends, and then Willow told me how you suddenly cut her off and I pieced it all together."

Willow looked at Amity with pure shock; "Wait… that's why you suddenly stopped being friends with me?" she asked. Her heart twisted painfully as Amity averted her eyes, looking down with shame as she nodded. "Your Mom made you…!?"

Amity's tears actually began to spill over; "I'm so sorry, Willow…"

Luz immediately put an arm around Amity's shoulders to comfort her, managing to stop herself from blushing by focusing on making her friend feel better rather than on her crush. Willow was so shocked that she just sat there stunned, trying to mentally cope with what she'd just been told. Amity tossing her aside had been so painful, and Willow had been without friends for years afterwards, until she met Gus when they both started the high school section of Hexside. The anger she still felt towards Amity burned, but the knowledge that Amity had been forced to give her up made that anger feel wrong. Yet the anger didn't fade.

"Amity, I want you to tell me everything. From my point of view, I showed up to your party and we were having fun, then you suddenly dragged me to your room and told me to leave, saying I was too weak and you didn't want to be my friend." Willow growled, struggling with her temper.

Amity nodded weakly; Willow deserved to know. Taking a deep breath, and drawing strength from Luz's understanding smile, Amity explained everything.

"You were my best friend. Before Luz came, you were the only real friend I ever had, the only friend I chose for myself… But you were never meant to come to that party. I invited you against my parents' wishes, and they weren't happy. They demanded I sever my ties with you and be friends with Boscha and Skara instead… and if I refused, they'd sever those ties for me. They threatened to make sure you'd never get into Hexside… I had no choice."

Luz and Willow both gasped; "C-Could they really do that!?"

"They're part of the Parent Creature Association, and have close ties to the Emperor's Coven, on top of being high up in the Abomination and Oracle Covens. That, combined with the donations they gave to the school, and they really could have kept Willow out." Amity said miserably.

Willow recoiled; "My parents would never have been able to afford to send me to St. Epiderm, and I'd have been eaten alive at Glandus… Amity, you were trying to protect me? Why didn't you ever say anything!?"

Amity refused to meet her eyes; "Because I didn't deserve to. I stood by and did nothing while my new friends bullied you… I ended up getting so used to it that I bullied you too. I acted like I was better than you, but that was never the truth. You weren't too weak to be my friend… I was too weak to be yours. It took seeing you finally snap after Boscha hurt Luz for me to realise how far things had gone, and how wrong I was. After all that, I didn't deserve to come crawling back to you, and I was scared Luz would hate me if she ever found out, so I just kept quiet. I was weak… and all I can say is that I'm sorry."

Willow gripped her chest; "You hurt me… you'll never know how much it hurt to be thrown away by your only friend!" she began to tear up, "I should hate you! For the life of me, I can't figure out why I don't! After all you did to me… why do I still want to be friends again?"

She began to sob, and a horrified Amity threw herself towards the girl, hugging her tightly. Willow weakly tried to shove Amity away, but she didn't have the will to and just let the other girl hold her, both of them sobbing together. Anger, shame, misery, and regret filled the air as the two cried, and Luz watched on, tearing up herself out of sympathy. She didn't know what to say to the two, so she opted not to say anything and instead pulled out the ocarina that Skara had been teaching her to play. She played a simple little song; the one Skara had been using to teach her how to play the instrument, filling the air with a soft and sweet little melody. It had no magic to it, and there was some obvious roughness to Luz's playing due to her inexperience, but it was soothing in its own way and helped hide the sound of their crying from any potential eavesdroppers.

It took a little while for Willow and Amity to calm down, and a little while longer for them to finally release each other and sit down beside one another. They felt awkward, and their heads and throats felt stuffy from crying, so Luz used one of King's ice glyphs to make some ice to help them cool down. They pressed the ice blocks to their heads to cool off, and drank some smilk from their lunches, then wiped their eyes.

"I'm sorry for breaking down like that." Willow said.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for. You're strong, Willow. I'm sorry I took so long to see it." Amity replied.

Luz put down her ocarina; "Are you guys doing okay?"

Willow nodded, giving Luz a watery smile; "I am. But Amity, I don't know where we go from here. I accept your apology, and I understand why you did what you did. But it still hurts. I want to be your friend again, but I don't know if it's healthy… And I don't know if I can forgive you."

"I understand." Amity said, "I don't even deserve that much. But if you want to, I'd like to be friends again too…"

Luz softly chimed in; "Maybe try to start over from the beginning? You're both still hurt for different reasons so just take it slow and do things on a trial basis. Then if things don't work out, you can go your separate ways."

Willow and Amity exchanged looks; "I'm willing if you are." Amity said, a hint of hope in her voice.

"I… I think I'd like that." Willow nodded. "If we're going to start from the beginning then…" She offered her hand; "Hi, I'm Willow Park."

Amity giggled and took her hand; "I'm Amity Blight."

The two girls shook hands, and burst into giggles, which had Luz's heart soaring. She couldn't stop herself from hugging them both, making Amity blush again and Willow smirk, especially since Luz was also trying not to blush.

"I'm so happy for you guys! We should totally all hang out and do something together! You know, to get this new friendship started on the right foot!" Luz suggested happily.

"That's not a bad idea. Any suggestions, Amity?" Willow asked, "We could go swimming at Lake Lacuna, like when we were kids. Do you have a swimsuit, Luz?"

Luz shook her head; "Nope. I grew out of my last one a few months before the summer and haven't bothered to buy a new one."

Willow smirked; "Then maybe the three of us should go swimsuit shopping first. You're a fashionable witch, Amity; you'd be perfect to help Luz."

Both Luz and Amity blushed bright red at the idea of going swimsuit shopping together. Both liked the idea a lot, but neither wanted the other to realise quite how much they liked it. Neither wanted to dismiss the idea either, out of worry that the other would think they just didn't want to go with them.

"M-Maybe we should try something else. I'm fairly certain it's Sahagin Season right now, so it might be dangerous at the lake." Amity said, coming up with a hasty excuse.

"With my luck, we'd definitely be attacked." Luz agreed. "Hmm, how about Skara's birthday party? Your old friendship ended at a birthday party, so wouldn't it be fun to start your new one at another party? You know, turn on old bad memory into something positive?"

"I actually kind of like that plan. I was going to come with you as your plus one anyway." Willow agreed.

Amity looked doubtful however; "I don't know… my parents will be there too, and if they find out I'm friends with Willow again, they might do something terrible! They may even try to get Willow kicked out of Hexside!"

"But Willow is strong now! Surely they wouldn't care any more, right?" Luz said.

"It would definitely help." Amity admitted, "But her family status is also an issue. The Parks are good people, but they're a normal family. They aren't "Elites" like the Alembic and Cadence families."

Luz and Willow exchanged frowns, then Willow asked; "What about Luz? Would your parents have a problem with her?"

"Probably… if it was my party and not Skara's, I doubt I'd have been allowed to invite her. In fact, Mom would definitely have a problem with her…" Amity said sadly.

"Just your Mom? What about your Dad? Didn't you say both your parents made you break off your friendship with Willow?" Luz asked.

"Technically yes, but Dad was just doing what Mom told him to. He doesn't really pay attention to anything but his work, and just parrots whatever Mom says. I don't think he's even aware of what she makes him say sometimes." the mint-haired girl explained.

Luz hummed as an idea came to her; "Do you think your Dad would want to stop you being friends with Willow or me without your Mom telling him to?"

Amity snorted; "No way. The Blights used to be a common family. It was Mom who was from a noble family."

"Wait, really!? I didn't know that!" Willow exclaimed.

"Yes. I don't know the full story; Dad mentioned it once while I was helping him in his workshop, but Mom got mad and made him stop. I didn't dare try asking her, and Dad won't bring it up again now that he knows it'll upset Mom." Amity explained.

Luz began to grin. "If your Dad was from a common family himself, then we can use that to convince your parents that Willow is amazing! We just need to remind them that all "Elite" families have to start out somewhere! We can use Willow's growth into a Top Student as proof that she's going somewhere in life, just like your Dad was, Amity!"

Willow and Amity exchanged looks, the former curious and the latter worried. "I guess that could work… but if it fails, then Mom will have you both in your sights! You could be kicked out of Hexside!"

Luz's grin grew wider; "Really? Who has more power at Hexside? The Parent Creature Association, or the Emperor's Coven?"

The other girls gasped as they saw where Luz was going with this. Aside from the few people who knew Luz was an angel, everyone that knew of her believed she was the Owl Lady's daughter as well as her apprentice, making her the niece of Lilith Clawthorne, the Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven! Odalia would never be able to get Bump to kick Luz out of school if Lilith stepped in, and Luz would definitely get Lilith to protect Willow too. With that particular connection at their disposal, Odalia's primary weapon against them would be neutralised! Sure she could still make things unpleasant at home for Amity, but the girl was still Lilith's apprentice, so Odalia would even be limited there!

"This might actually work! If we leverage Willow's growth along with Luz's connection to Lilith and the Owl Lady, we might actually be able to get Mom to change her mind!" Amity grinned excitedly.

"It sounds mean, but I almost hope Odalia does try to mess with us, just so we can watch Lilith slap her down!" Willow smirked.

"So we're in agreement?" Luz asked. The other girls nodded their approval; "Great! Now I've got a little something special planned to remind Odalia who she's messing with, but for that to work, I'll need you to take Willow as your plus one, Amity."

Amity agreed immediately; "Mom will hate it, but I can handle that. I'm guessing you want to invite Miss Lilith as your plus one instead?"

Luz shook her head with a smirk; "Oh no, I've got something else planned. After all, all the other invited guests are going to have their parents there, right?"

Amity and Willow both gaped at Luz, who was chuckling mischievously. They had a feeling that tomorrow night's party was going to be quite a bit more exciting than they'd originally believed!

The next evening, Luz touched down outside the Cadence Family Estate, which was situated in the upper class area of Bonesborough. With her was her plus one; none other than Eda the Owl Lady, who was dressed in her usual red dress and posing as her mother. The Owl Lady was grinning widely; Luz had told her the plan and she couldn't wait to screw with prissy little Odalia! Honestly, helping out Flowers and Boots was just a happy bonus!

Luz herself had dressed up a little for the occasion, swapping out her usual hooded shirt, jeans shorts and leggings for what she called her "Witch with a Dark Side" outfit. It was a cute black Halloween dress that was sleeveless, and had a layered skirt that flared out pleasingly, as well as a yellow band around the waist and a little crescent moon on the chest. Eda had seen the outfit and thought it looked like a roguish version of more standard smart casual clothing for young lady witches, so she'd judged it perfect for her "daughter" and gifted Luz some black boots similar to her own to complete the look.

"Remember the plan, Eda?" Luz asked, holding a wrapped present for Skara.

"Of course. All I've got to do is be my usual stunning self with the other adults and look out for your light spell. If I see that, I come over and put Odalia in her place." Eda smirked. "By the way, how did you convince this Skara chick to let me come?"

Luz grinned; "Are you kidding? When I asked her this morning if she was cool with it, she practically jumped at the chance! She said that having "The Owl Lady" at her party would make it the social event of the season!"

Eda preened; "Of course she did! I'm the life of any party, Kid! Too bad we couldn't bring King; he'd have had a great time making himself the centre of attention."

"I know, but I don't want to take attention away from Skara herself, and I was only allowed one plus one. That's why I couldn't bring Gus along too." Luz said.

When she and Willow had filled Gus in on their plan, he'd been happy not to go along with them; he'd volunteered to instead stay behind at the Owl House and hang out with King and Hooty while Eda and Luz were away so he could get an interview with one of them for his journalism class. He'd already had to get an extension due to his need for perfection, so he really didn't have the time to be going to a party anyway, especially one where he doubted "the Press" would be allowed.

He'd been interviewing Hooty as they were leaving, and the look of confusion on his face as Hooty talked still made Luz giggle. Putting that aside, Luz finally took a good look at the Cadence Family Estate; it was one of the smaller estates, but it was still pretty large, with a manor house right in the centre and extensive, well-kept grounds that included a hedge maze, and a pathway that led down the cliff behind the estate to a little private cove, which also belonged to the Cadence Family. Skara had said she'd wanted to have the party down in the cove, but since her birthday was a school day and her party had to happen later in the day to accommodate that, the cove was out of the question due to the boiling tides.

Luz and Eda walked up to the front door of the estate, where they found Amity and Willow waiting for them. Amity was wearing a slightly fancier version of her normal casual clothes, with added purple details, while Willow was wearing a nice forest green dress and had tied her hair back into a bun.

"Hey guys! You both look awesome!" Luz complimented, her eyes especially lingering on Amity.

"Thanks. You look pretty sharp yourself." Amity replied, trying to stop herself from blushing.

Luz beamed at her, then asked; "Are your parents here yet?"

Amity nodded; "They're socialising with the other adults. Are we ready to do this?"

"I am. I can't wait to stick it to Odalia!" Willow smirked, some of her repressed anger leaking out into her smile, making her look a tad bit dangerous.

Eda laughed and slapped Willow on the back; "Looks like this little wallflower is growing some thorns! Come on, let's get this party started!"

As the actual invited guests, Luz and Amity went up to the Cadence Manor door and knocked on it. It was soon answered by a man in a red and white butler's outfit, who asked for their names and invitations. The girls handed over the butterfly invitations, and introduced themselves and their plus ones, after which the butler nodded and cast a spell, turning the invitations back into regular butterflies and letting them fly away to a nearby tree, where dozens of similar butterflies were waiting.

"Please follow me." the butler said, beckoning the four ladies into the house. He led them through the fancy looking foyer and into what could only be described as a small ballroom, about the size of the Hexside Cafeteria. It was full of people, and decorated with various musical themed birthday decorations, like balloons shaped like music notes, and banners shaped like sheet music. The people present were all witches and demons that Luz recognised from school, as well as their parents. Boscha, Bo, Cat, Amelia, Jeb, and Rogier were the main ones Luz knew, and their parents were fairly easy to pick out as they looked a lot like their kids. Skara, wearing a beautiful red dress and silver tiara, was the centre of attention, and dancing with her female friends as a band played on a stage at the end of the room.

As they arrived in the room, the butler had them wait as he announced them to the other guests; "Now presenting Luz Noceda, and her guest Eda Clawthorne, and Amity Blight, and her guest, Willow Park!"

Everyone at the party turned to see the new arrivals, with the adults mostly focusing on Eda, whom they naturally knew as the infamous Owl Lady. However one was more focused on Willow, and it was obvious who she was with a single glance; Odalia Blight.

The best way Luz could describe Odalia was as an evil universe version of adult Amity; she was a mature looking woman with a curvaceous build and a face that looked like Amity's if she was fused with Cruella Deville. Her hair was a similar shade of mint to Amity's dye job, and her eyes were an icy blue that glittered with displeasure at the sight of Willow in her daughter's company. She was dressed in black pants, a violet blouse, and a white waistcoat with a purple flower pattern, and around her neck was a necklace styled after a bolo-tie, with a large light purple oracle stone threaded onto it.

Beside the displeased looking woman was a man that Luz assumed was Amity's father; Alador. He was a scruffy looking man who also appeared to be half asleep on his feet, and was wearing what appeared to be a hastily put on pair of light grey pants and a dark grey lab coat, as well as purple lensed goggles on his forehead. His hair was messy and the same brown colour as Amity's roots, and he had some light stubble and bags under his golden eyes. It was clear that he was the one Amity got her colouring from, even if Odalia had made Amity dye her hair to "match" the rest of the Blights.

Odalia looked like she was trying very hard not to make a scene with her anger, and began making her way over to the new arrivals as politely as she could. However before she could get close, an excited Skara came running over and hugged Luz and Amity.

"You're finally here! You guys are the last ones to arrive, besides my Dad's "special guests". I was worried you wouldn't show!" Skara smiled.

"And miss your big day? Not a chance! Eda delayed us a little." Luz grinned, as Eda flipped her hair.

"It's called being fashionably late. Besides, perfection like this takes time!" the Owl Lady said with a wink that had the girls giggling. Personally, Luz thought Eda looked exactly the same as always… though that was admittedly pretty good. Eda was always a snazzy dresser!

Amity and Luz then offered their presents to Skara, who took them with a delighted squeal; "Yay presents! Let's see what these are!"

The bardic girl didn't hesitate to tear into the brightly coloured boxes to get at their contents. From Amity, she got a new necklace with a pendant shaped like a gruppetto; a musical symbol remembling the letter S (to match Skara's name), which appeared to be made of some kind of deep red crystals. From Luz, she got a human MP3 player loaded with all the songs Luz could cram into it, as well as a book of sheet music for human harpists. Skara thanked the girls profusely for their presents, then turned to smile at Willow.

"Hey Willow! Sorry for kinda overlooking you there! Green is a really good colour on you!" Skara said, complimenting Willow's dress.

"Um, thanks Skara." Willow smiled awkwardly. Skara had never been an active bully; just one of Boscha's followers, but Willow still had some hurt feelings towards her. "Sorry I didn't bring a present."

Skara waved her off; "It's totally cool. To be honest, I'm just glad you showed up given some of the stuff I helped Boscha put you through…" the girl looked briefly ashamed of herself, "It was really not cool of me, and I'm sorry. It sucks that it took you nearly taking my head off with that plant abomination for me to realise how bad I'd gotten, but better late than never, right? That's why I told Luz I was okay with her plan to get you and Amity to be friends again, without the Blights wigging out."

Willow managed a small smile; "Thank you for apologising, Skara."

Skara gave the girl a wink; "No prob! Now come on, I wanna introduce you to my Dad, then we can actually enjoy the party!"

The birthday girl grabbed Willow and Luz by the hand and dragged them over to where the adults were holding court, while Eda and Amity followed along. In the centre of the group of parents was Skara's father; Severin Cadence, the third highest ranked member of the Bard Coven. He was a tall, very handsome man with skin a few shades darker than Skara's and pitch black hair. He had a goatee and a chiselled face with a kind expression, as well as shining silver eyes similar to his daughter's. He was dressed in a very snappy white tuxedo with a red tie, shirt, and rose on his chest, and the moment he saw his daughter approaching, he stopped his conversation with a bat demon and his witch wife (Luz assumed they were Rogier's parents) and held his arms out. Skara released Willow and Luz and happily jumped into his arms, being spun around by her muscular father.

"Ah, there's my baby girl! I see the last of your guests have arrived!" Severin smiled, his voice deep and joyful.

"Yep! Let me introduce Luz and Willow!" Skara said as her father put her back down.

"Wonderful to meet you ladies. I'm always glad to see my Skara make new friends." Severin said, offering his hand to the girls.

Luz and Willow shook his offered hand in turn and smiled at him; he appeared to be a very friendly man, and extremely doting towards his daughter.

"Nice to meet you too, sir." Luz replied.

"Please, call me Severin. That goes for both of you." he said, "Now Luz, I hear you're in the bard track with my daughter."

"Yeah! Skara has been helping me a lot! Thanks to her, I'm actually able to play a whole song on the ocarina even though I've only been learning it for a couple of weeks!"

Skara nodded along with a big smile, while her father puffed his chest out with pride; "That's my little girl! Any chance of seeing you in the Bard Coven in a few years time?"

Luz's smile faltered a bit; "Uh, probably not. I'm not really big on the whole coven thing… but if I was going to join one, the Bard Coven would definitely be way up there!"

"Ha! Good answer! I guess I should have expected that from the daughter of the Owl Lady! Speaking of…" Severin looked to Eda and shook her hand, "Good to see you again, Edalyn. I was glad to hear from Skara that Luz was bringing you along."

Eda smirked; "Glad to be here. You've certainly grown up from that little brat you were back in school. You've actually gotten kinda hot! I almost miss the little dweeb you were at school."

"Dad used to be a dweeb!?" Skara gasped, her smile not faltering for an instant.

Severin blushed faintly as Eda laughed; "Oh yeah, he was a year younger than me, and a real little music nerd. Though as you are now, Sevie, I'm surprised you're not having to fight off admirers!"

"Been there, done that. It didn't work out." Severin cringed, before putting a hand on his daughter's head; "Now the only lady in my life is my little symphony here."

Skara leaned into her father's touch, and Luz felt a warmth in her chest. After being told about Skara's rotten mother, she was really glad to see that her father was every bit as kind as Skara claimed he was.

At that moment, two new people walked over to join the conversation, making the entire group wary. It was Odalia and Alador; the former smiling coldly while the latter still looked barely conscious.

"Well well well, if it isn't Edalyn Clawthorne. It's been so long!" Odalia greeted.

"Odalia, what a delight to see you again." Eda lied through her teeth, "And you too, Alador. You still look like you've got more coffee in your blood than actual blood."

Alador smiled sleepily; "I'm experimenting on creating a caffeine sac to attach to a witch's heart, along with the Bile Sac. Sadly the Healing Coven refuses to help."

Eda and Severin laughed, while Odalia forced a polite chuckle and the children exchanged looks of bewildered amusement. Except for Amity of course, who had her face in her palm as she blushed with embarrassment.

Odalia then narrowed her eyes on Willow and Luz, before looking back to Eda with another false smile; "I had no idea our daughters were friends. What a… pleasant… surprise."

"Oh yeah, Boots and my Luz are as thick as thieves. They remind me a little of me and Raine Storm back when we were in school. Not too surprising really; they and Willow are three of the toughest witches in Hexside."

Odalia's eye twitched almost imperceptibly as her eyes drifted to Willow. The bespectacled girl stared back defiantly, even as she felt a spike of fear in her chest. "Yes, I'm surprised to see Willow as my daughter's guest. How did that come to pass, Amity?"

Amity gulped; even with so many people backing her up, she still felt terrified of defying her mother. "Um, I-"

She was cut off by Eda lightly shoving her, Luz, Willow, and Skara together, then towards the dance floor; "Come on, Odalia; this is a party and we've kept the girls from their friends long enough. Let them have fun; if you want to talk, then I'm available. We can catch up and reminisce about our school days. Remember when you got a face full of Escarguts when my abominations rebelled?" Eda smirked.

Odalia flushed as she tried to keep her anger in check; "H-How could I forget?" she smiled through gritted teeth.

Eda smirked, then nudged the girls away, while Luz gave her a questioning look. This hadn't been the plan they'd discussed! The Owl Lady must have known what Luz was thinking, because she whispered in Luz's ear;

"The more flustered and impatient Odalia gets, the easier it'll be to play her and get your way. I'll keep her distracted with old embarrassing stories, and make sure her composure is completely broken. Then when you guys finally talk to her, you'll have her on the back foot!"

The young angel smiled mischievously at her mentor, then nodded and helped drag the others over to the rest of the party guests, whispering to them the updated plan as they went. Willow and Skara immediately agreed with it, while Amity just looked nervous. Those nerves soon vanished as they began hanging out with the other guests, eating delicious hors d'oeuvres, dancing to the band that was playing, and overall having a great time. The other guests welcomed them with open arms, and Willow found herself being accepted by them as if she'd been one of them for years. Even Boscha was being civil with her and Luz, if only because she didn't want to ruin her best friend's birthday by starting a fight. In fact, a few of the guests (namely Cat, Bo, and Jeb) all quietly apologised for their parts in bullying her over the years; either directly or by simply standing by and doing nothing. It was strange, and Willow couldn't deny that it made her really happy to see how high her star had risen since Luz had come into her life… but a part of her also felt bitter, and a bit insecure.

Where they being nice to her now because they were scared of her after her Bile Overload? Or because she was now a top student? Did they realise that they'd been wrong to begin with, or was it just because Willow was no longer "Half-a-Witch"?

Thankfully, Willow wasn't able to fall too far into insecurity, as both Luz and Amity made sure she was distracted by having fun. Luz danced enthusiastically with everyone, even if her dancing was kind of unorthodox by witch standards (and probably by angel and human standards too), while Amity stuck close to Willow and chatted happily with her, making it feel just like the old days. It was honestly a little shocking to both of them how easily they slipped back into their old friendship so long as they weren't thinking about the bitterness or guilt they still felt beneath it all. Willow even found herself getting her own back for some of Amity's teasing over the years, by lightly teasing her about her obvious crush on Luz. It was fun, and as the party went on and Luz and Willow grew more comfortable with Skara's other friends, they opened up more.

They eventually put on a little show of their own with their magic; Luz drew some ice glyphs to create snow, which Amity used her ice magic to shape into bodies, while Willow grew pumpkins shaped like the party guests' heads, that were then placed on matching snow bodies, which Willow and Amity animated with a combination of abomination magic and vine skeletons so that they'd mimic the movements of the person they were based on. The teens all laughed and began to play around with the snowy replicas (which Luz dubbed the "Abomination Snowmen), while the parents were impressed by the display of magic.

Meanwhile, Eda was having the time of her life too. Her exuberance and the stories of her old hi-jinx (mostly embarrassing ones about Odalia) made her the centre of attention, especially with those parents who'd gone to Hexside with her in their youth. The few who'd gone to St. Epiderm or Glandus were bewildered by the crazy things she'd gotten up to, while Odalia was left fuming as she struggled to maintain a pleasant facade around the other parents. If she cracked and demanded Eda stop, it would only make her look bad and damage her reputation, so the woman was forced to bear it. Eda was loving every second of it, and considered it fair punishment for getting between the friendship of a pair of little girls.

After two hours of partying, a butler came over to Severin and whispered in his ear, making him smile excitedly. He dismissed the butler back to his post, then grabbed a fork and tapped it against his wine glass, signalling for everyone to turn to him.

"Good evening, my friends! How are you all enjoying my daughter's 15th birthday party?" Severin asked, grinning as he slowly made his way over to the doors to the foyer. The teens all cheered, and the parents applauded politely (excluding Eda, who cheered like the kids).

"Wonderful, wonderful! But the night is still young, and I have a pair of very special guests who I am very happy to introduce to you all! Please welcome…" Severin snapped his fingers and the ballroom doors opened, letting two figures walk into the room.

"The Head of the Bard Coven and my mentor; Scooter Crane! And his second in command and my long time friend; Raine Whispers!"

Skara screamed with excited delight, while the others cheered or clapped. Luz was one of the ones who clapped, curiously examining the two.

Scooter Crane was one of the coven heads she hadn't seen in person before, only a simplified picture of him on a coven banner. He hadn't been manning the bard coven's booth at the Covention like the others Luz had seen in person, and now that she'd seen him, it was obvious why. The man was old; older even than Eda looked when suffering the full effects of the curse on her body. He was a hunched over old man with mostly standard witch features, though he clearly had some demon blood too, as he had simple horns atop his head and large, clawed hands. His skin was also a very faded red, which contrasted sharply with the grey moustache and short head of hair he sported. He was wearing thick round-lensed glasses over eyes that appeared perpetually shut, and he was dressed in black and red robes and walking with a cane shaped like a musical note.

But it wasn't Scooter who really interested Luz, but his second in command: Raine Whispers. She had heard a bit about them; Principal Bump had referred to a "Mx. Whispers" hanging out with Eda as a kid, and they'd been mentioned by Skara a couple of times too, including the ugly rumour her mother had started about them being Skara's true parent. Then of course there was Eda herself, who'd once called Raine her old friend, and referred to them as "Raine Storm" earlier in the party. However Eda had resisted any attempts by Luz to learn more, and had shut her down from asking by saying that it was something too personal for her to want to tell Luz. The girl shot a brief glance towards her mentor, and saw that Eda had gone slack-jawed at the sight of the bard, and her eyes had both joy and sorrow in them.

Turning back to Raine themselves, Luz eyed them carefully. They were slim and had an androgynous figure, with skin about a single shade darker than Luz's. Their face was pleasant and had soft features with a big smile, and beautiful green eyes, and their short hair was a very light mint green that appeared almost white. They sported large round lensed glasses (similar to Scooter's) and a single long earring on their right ear, and they wore a red pants with grey boots, and a black tunic with a gold buttons and trim, a burgundy collar, white elbow-length sleeves, and a tan coloured belt. Luz liked their style quite a lot, and compared to Scooter, who looked fairly at home with everyone's attention on him, Raine looked shy, which Luz found to be sweet.

The two bards waved to the other guests, then Scooter said; "Thank you for inviting us, Severin. It is wonderful for us to be here at… where are we again?"

Raine leaned over and whispered; "Young Skara's birthday party."

"Little Skara's birthday! She's gotten older again!? Didn't she just turn 9!? Youngsters these days really do grow up fast!" Scooter chortled.

The other guests chuckled at the old man's comment; clearly he was going a little senile in his old age. Raine softly corrected him, while trying to hold in their own laughter.

"What? 15!? When did that happen!?"

"Today, Uncle Scooter! That's why its my birthday!" Skara giggled, running over and hugging the old man. Scooter smiled brightly and patted the girl's back with his large hands.

"Aw, there's Severin's little symphony! You're growing up too fast!" Scooter said.

"That's what Dad always says!" Skara said, then looked to Raine; "Hi Raine!"

"Hello Skara." Raine replied with a smile; "Happy Birthday!"

"Hehe thanks! If you two are here, then that can mean only one thing! You and Dad are going to perform!" Skara grinned.

"That we are! Once the band has finished their set, we'll be taking the stage!" Scooter declared. When it came to music, all signs of senility vanished from the old man, who instead seemed to get about ten years younger.

"Great! Can I join you too? I want to show off how good I've gotten on the harp since you last visited!" Skara asked eagerly.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" her father said, "Why not invite your friend Luz to join us too? That way the past and present top students of the bard track can play together!"

Hearing her name mentioned, Luz walked over; "I don't think I'm even close to being a top student in the bard track yet, but I wouldn't mind joining in. I can summon my ocarina if you want me to, Skara."

"Naw, just sing instead; you've got the voice for it, so show it off!" Skara said, before formally introducing Luz to Scooter and Raine.

"Nice to meet you, Luz. It's rare to get someone who can use bardic magic through singing. I'm looking forward to hearing it." Raine said kindly, offering Luz their hand to shake.

As the young angel shook their hand, Severin smirked; "That's not all you should look forward to. Luz here brought her mother along as a guest, and she just so happens to be an old flame of yours."

Raine blinked in confusion, then looked to where Severin pointed. Walking towards them from the crowd of parents was the one face they never expected to see.

"E-Eda!?"

Eda smirked, though it was a tad forced this time; "Raine Whispers. It's been too long."

Luz's jaw hung open; Raine wasn't just Eda's old friend, they were an "old flame"!? They had dated!? No wonder Eda hadn't wanted to talk about it! Eda was never fond of talking about her past relationships, and Luz could tell just by looking at Raine that this one had been different for Eda.

"W-What are you doing here?" Raine asked, a blush beginning to form on their cheeks.

"I'm here with my kid and apprentice, Luz." Eda said, lightly slapping Luz on the back.

"You have a kid!?" Raine gasped, looking Luz up and down even more closely. The more they looked, the more they began to turn an uncomfortable shade of green. "I-I would never have thought-!"

"Yeah, a big surprise to everyone, I know." Eda rolled her eyes, "It's good to see you, Raine. We should catch up some while you're here."

Raine gulped and nodded; "O-Of course! But let's wait until after our performance, okay? Can't delay the birthday girl's celebration so a couple of old timers can talk about their glory days!" they chuckled nervously.

Luz looked over to Skara, who was watching with a big grin; she was clearly enjoying this interaction as much as any performance! The girl loved her drama and soap operas, and it must have felt like one was playing out in front of her.

"We aren't that old!" Eda protested, but she accepted all the same.

With that promise for a talk later, Raine and Scooter went with Severin to socialise with the other adults, while Eda decided to chat with Alador, knowing it would drive Odalia crazy and keep her own mind off of Raine for the time being. Skara then dragged Luz back to the other teens and they continued to enjoy the party, with Skara introducing Luz to the concept of magic party games such as pin the tentacle on the demon, bobbing for crab apples (dodging the pincers was imperative), and various other games that basically constituted mini-witches' duels with two or more players flinging specific kinds of magic at each other to achieve some kind of objective.

This continued until the hired band finished their set, and happily vacated the stage to make room for the Bard Coven's performance. As soon as they did, Skara quickly dragged Luz behind the stage to prepare for the song (and to show off the new, ruby red and butterfly themed harp her father had gifted her), while Severin had brought Scooter and Raine back stage too.

"What song should we perform?" Scooter asked, sipping a drink to sooth his parched throat after so much socialising, "I'm afraid these old fingers of mine struggle to play more than one or two without rest."

"I don't know that many. I only started practicing my singing recently." Luz said, nervous to be performing with four experts. "What instruments are you guys playing?"

Scooter smiled and summoned a large floating keyboard, that looked like just the keys of a grand piano floating in front of him. Severin summoned a large cello, and the bow that came with it resembled a butterfly. Lastly, Raine summoned their violin, the scroll of which was modelled on a fox, though Luz felt something strange about it.

"How about you decide, Birthday Girl?" Raine suggested.

Skara immediately grinned and turned to Luz; "How about the Ballad of Motivation? You know that one Luz, and it'll get everyone even more pumped up!"

Luz nodded; "Alright, I think I can do that. Though I might need a refresher on the words."

Raine reached into their tunic and pulled out a book of sheet music; "I have them in here. I'll help you go over them while the others prepare." they offered kindly.

Luz agreed, and the two went a little further from the others to begin going over the lyrics while Skara, her Dad, and Scooter got themselves warmed up for their performance. Once Luz had refreshed her memory on the odd foreign lyrics (bardic spells tended to linger in the memory of the caster, so it didn't take much to remind her), she smiled up at Raine, who looked nervous.

"Do you get stage fright?" she asked.

Raine nodded; "I do. It must seem pathetic for a high-ranking member of the Bard Coven, but it's true. Eda always used to tease me for it. What about you?"

"I get a little bit of it. I mostly just want to make sure I don't screw up and ruin Skara's birthday." Luz admitted.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Skara clearly has faith in you." Raine smiled softly.

"Thanks." Luz replied, "You'll be fine too, and we'll do the best performance ever so Skara can remember this birthday forever!"

Raine chuckled and agreed, then watched as Luz began to softly sing a few scales to warm up her voice.

Unbeknownst to the young angel, Raine had been watching her more or less the whole time they'd been at the party, whenever they could let their attention wander from the conversations Severin kept dragging him into. The girl seemed sweet, and Raine was glad Skara had such a friend, as they knew that Boscha could be a bad influence while Amity was distant, but the knowledge that Luz was Eda's child tore at their insides as a question filled their mind.

Was Luz their child?

They and Eda had broken up around 15 years ago, so they would have still been together around the time the 14 year old Luz would have been conceived. Her skin colour was very close to theirs, and her eyes were a dead-ringer for Eda's; the only detail that didn't seem to come from either of them was her brown hair, but if Raine remembered correctly, Eda's mother had brown hair in her younger years. Plus there was her bardic talent, which was apparently good enough that she could use it with her voice despite not having a lot of training… Could Eda have been pregnant when they broke up? Raine didn't think she was the sort of witch to jump into another relationship on the rebound, not after how close they'd been, so they had a hard time believing Luz could have been "fathered" by anyone else. Come to think of it, Eda hadn't really been seen for about a year after their break up… and Raine had ended things in part because Eda refused to be honest about her problems with them, so they wouldn't put it past her to not tell them she was pregnant.

The details lined up too perfectly for Raine to think of another possibility; Luz had to be their daughter!

That internal revelation shook Raine to their core; they needed to talk to Eda! Raine refused to be a deadbeat parent; if Luz really was their daughter then they wanted to be a part of her life!

Before they could try and broach the topic with Luz, Skara came back over and announced that it was time to begin their performance, so Raine decided to hold off on talking to her until after they'd spoken to her mother.

The five bards took their instruments (a bat-winged microphone in Luz's case) and got up on stage, finding that the rest of the party guests were gathered in front of it, with the teens in the front and their parents in the back. Luz smiled nervously at Willow and Amity who were watching eagerly from the front row, neither of whom had heard her sing before.

Skara began their performance by plucking away at her new harp, and one by one the others joined her. Then, when it was time for the lyrics to come in, Luz began to sing.

In the audience, Eda grinned proudly at her apprentice's talent; listening to Luz singing in the shower had become a wonderful way to wake up in the mornings at the Owl House, and it tugged at Eda's heartstrings to see Luz stand side by side with the best of the Bard Coven and not be completely overshadowed. Meanwhile Willow and Amity were watching with open mouthed shock and delight, the former only growing happier when she turned to look at Amity and saw her face turning into a lovestruck tomato. For Amity, listening to Luz sing was like a drug; it filled her with so many emotions that she didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry, but she definitely knew she wanted to live in that moment forever. And that was before the Ballad of Motivation began to take effect!

But Willow wasn't the only one to see Amity's reaction; her parents had noticed too. Alador had merely raised an eyebrow, then smiled as the ballad made him feel more awake. But Odalia narrowed her eyes; this Luz girl was a fair singer, and would have been a worthy companion for Amity, especially with her relation to Lilith Clawthorne… but Odalia just knew she was somehow responsible for Willow's return to Amity's life. Amity would never defy her mother so openly, and Willow was too weak to convince her. It could only have been the corrupting influence of the Owl Lady's daughter!

As the Ballad of Motivation hits its crescendo, many in the audience were dancing; the teenagers jumping around as their energy overflowed, and their parents spinning and twirling one another like they'd done in their youths. The energy in the room was so high that when the song came to an end, they were clamouring for an encore.

Luz froze in panic; she wasn't ready to sing another song yet! Thankfully, Scooter Crane was an experienced performer and recognised her panic, so he spoke up.

"Thank you all for your enthusiasm, but these old bones need a bit of rest before I can play again! Give us some time and I'm sure we'll be able to play again later tonight!" he smiled, making a show of rubbing his wrists. Luz wouldn't have been surprised if they really did ache, as he'd been playing rather enthusiastically.

The audience accepted his excuse and the performers stepped down from the stage. Eda, Willow, and Amity immediately surrounded Luz.

"That was amazing! I'd heard you could sing, but that was something else!" Willow praised.

"It definitely beats your singing in the shower. I've gotta get the Owl House fitted with some better acoustics! Maybe I should also bust out my old cittern too." Eda said, ruffling the girl's hair.

"Thanks guys." Luz smiled, "What did you think, Amity?"

"You're incredible." Amity breathed, a blush still on her cheeks. Luz squeaked in surprise at the look Amity was giving her, and the mint-haired girl seemed to catch herself. She blushed deeper as she said; "I-I mean you sounded incredible! You're definitely good at bard magic. Yep! Just a real good singer!"

Inwardly, Amity cursed herself for sounding so dorky, but Luz's smile at her compliment was enough to calm her. Anything that made the angel girl smile like that had to be good!

Before anything more could be said, Raine walked over to the group; "You did a wonderful job up there, Luz. May I borrow your mother for a bit?"

"Thanks Raine! And sure, go right ahead." Luz replied.

Eda smirked at Raine; "Oh? Did that little ballad finally give you the motivation to come catch up with me?"

"Something like that." Raine said seriously, their eyes flicking towards Luz again for an instant. They then took Eda by the hand and began pulling her away, and Luz was treated to the sight of her mentor actually blushing and appearing flustered as she let her ex drag her off. They disappeared out through the front door of the ballroom, back to the foyer, leaving the teens behind.

Deciding to get some air herself, Luz headed through one of the glass doors along the side of the ballroom, stepping out onto a veranda that overlooked the rest of the grounds. Willow and Amity joined her, but they were not alone for long.

"Ah, Amity. I've been waiting for a chance to speak with you."

The three girls all froze, and Amity in particular went pale as she turned to find her mother smiling coldly at her, with her father stood behind her, tinkering with some half mechanical, half abomination device he'd brought along.

"G-Good evening, Mom." Amity greeted politely.

"Yes, good evening dear. I would have spoken to you earlier, but my fellow guests kept my attention." Odalia said, obviously referring to Eda. "Care to introduce me to your… friend?"

"Of course. Mom, this is my friend Luz Noceda." Amity said meekly, "Luz, this is my mother and Co-CEO of Blight Industries; Odalia Blight."

"Charmed, I'm sure." Odalia said, offering her hand to Luz.

"Nice to meet you." Luz said, taking the hand. Odalia squeezed her hand as tightly as she could without it being an overt threat, making Luz struggle to maintain her false smile.

"And of course, you and I have already met, haven't we Willow? How have you been?" Odalia asked with faux politeness.

"I've been well, Mrs Blight." Willow said, her expression painfully blank. She, Luz, and Amity were all far more on edge than they'd expected to be, since Eda wasn't around to back them up. Things were perilously close to blowing up in their faces, but there was no backing out now!

"I'm glad to hear that." Odalia lied, "Though I'm surprised to see you here, especially as my daughter's guest. It was my understanding that the two of you were no longer friends."

Willow felt a spike of irritation; "You mean after you ordered Amity to stop associating with me?"

Odalia's eyes hardened; "Ah, so Amity told you. I do apologise for that nasty bit of business, but you must understand; a Blight can only associate with a select few. The best, brightest, and most well connected. A child with little to offer us was just an unnecessary distraction."

Luz and Willow were mildly impressed Odalia managed to make herself actually seem almost apologetic as she'd said that, but literally no one who knew the woman would actually believe it.

"Unfortunately that hasn't changed, so I am curious to know why you have begun associating with Willow once again, Amity. Not to mention your friendship with Luz here; I mean no insult to you child, but if there's one thing worse than a weak associate, it is a tainted one, and being related to the Owl Lady is quite the unfortunate taint to have." Odalia said with a shake of her head and a look of faux sympathy.

"Your information is out of date, Mrs Blight." Willow said coldly, her tone barely civil. "I'm not the same weak little witch I was back then. I was a late bloomer, I won't deny it, but I am now the Top Student in all of Hexside in the plant track. Even the older classes can't compare. My teacher has compared me favourably to a young Terra Snapdragon."

Odalia raised an eyebrow, part amused and part irritated by the girl's argument. It looked like little Willow Park had grown a backbone.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one.

"And I'd say I'm far from a tainted associate." Luz chimed in; "I'm multi-tracking in three different classes and doing good in all of them, and I'm privately learning four other types of magic with a goal of mastering as many as I can. You heard Mr Cadence refer to me as a future top bard, and you saw what I could do on stage. Sure Eda is a criminal, but she's also the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, and my Aunt Lilith is the Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven… and the mentor of your daughter. It was also partly my efforts that convinced Aunt Lilith and Principal Bump to allow a multi-tracking program, which has allowed your daughter to become even more amazing. Associating with us has made Amity a better witch, and more importantly, a happier one too. That should be reason enough to keep that association."

Luz finished her speech by smiling sweetly and staring unblinking into Odalia's eyes. She'd practised that speech a dozen times since yesterday afternoon, and was pretty happy with it; she'd spoken to Odalia using her own language, even if it had felt unnatural to her. Willow was similarly staring Odalia down, proud of what she and Luz had said and ready to continue arguing with Odalia until she finally backed down and let them be friends!

As for the Blights, Amity felt a wave of excitement at seeing the girl she'd become so fond of talking forcefully to her mother, and felt a similar wave of pride towards Willow. Alador gave both girls an impressed raise of his eyebrow, pausing in his tinkering to watch them more closely. Odalia, however, was inwardly fuming. She did not like being defied, especially by children she considered far below her! But they weren't the first tough nuts she'd cracked; she knew just how to handle the situation! Then she could deal with Amity's defiance!

"Hmm, you've made some interesting points, young lady." Odalia lied, smiling coldly, "I can't truly find fault in what you're saying. Quite impressive. Very well, I'm open to discussing this further… but not here. I don't wish to air any more of my family's business where unwanted ears could be listening in."

Luz continued to smile sweetly, even as her eyes remained sharp; "Of course. Shall we continue to discuss this somewhere quieter?"

"Naturally. How about the centre of the hedge maze? Severin has put up signs to direct people through it and I happen to know there is a nice little private seating area in the middle. A perfect place to talk privately." Odalia suggested.

Luz, Willow, and Amity exchanged looks; it was obviously a trap. Amity opened her mouth to protest, but Willow grinned widely; "What a lovely sounding place for a chat! We'd be happy to, right Luz?"

"Of course! Thank you for taking some time out of your busy life to speak with us! We'll head there right now." Luz chirped.

The two immediately turned and headed down from the veranda to the hedge maze, flashing Amity a smile as they went. The mint-haired girl tried to follow, but she froze as her mother put her hand on the pink stone around her neck, making it glow. The matching stone Amity wore beneath her dress began to glow too, and her mother's voice filled her head.

"You will remain at the party, Amity. Your father and I will be the ones to clean up this little problem."

"B-But…!"

"No buts." Odalia said sharply, glaring down at her daughter, "We will be discussing your behaviour and choice of friends later. Now go back to the party. Now."

Amity stepped back with a whimper, shrinking in on herself. Her mother's voice left her head, and the woman said out loud; "We won't be long, Amity dear. Do have fun with your friends while we're gone."

With that, Odalia left for the hedge maze, dragging Alador with her. Amity watched them go, paralysed with fear. What were Luz and Willow thinking!? Eda was nowhere near the hedge maze and wouldn't be able to come to their aid! Did they really not think Odalia would stoop so low as to attack them!? Luz was one thing, but Willow should have known better!

Amity turned and began shuffling back to the party, her heart beating wildly. Should she go tell Eda? She wanted to, but she had no idea where Raine had dragged Eda off to! But what else could she do!? She didn't want her friends to be hurt, and she couldn't go back to being the bully her mother wanted her to be! But she didn't know if she could defy her on her own either!

Amity froze, her heart beating so hard in her chest that she thought she was going to have a heart attack! She had to do something! Anything! She silently asked herself; "What would Luz do?"

She remembered Luz facing down the Mandragora not once, but twice to protect her. She remembered her lying despite the pain it caused her to save Amity from the bet at the Covention. She remembered her freely taking the blame in the Library Incident to save Amity's job. She remembered her fighting the Basilisk to save the school.

What would Luz do? She would help!

With determination bubbling up in her chest, Amity spun around and began stealthily following her parents to the hedge maze. Amity would help her friends!

The girl saw her parents stop outside the entrance to the maze, and promptly ran around the side, looking for another entrance so she could get to the centre and warn Luz and Willow before her parents arrived for their "talk".

Meanwhile, Alador and Odalia looked through the main entrance, where a series of little eyeball signs had been put up, each with a pupil shaped like an arrow, pointing in the direction they needed to go to reach the centre of the maze.

"Do you have your abominations ready, dear?" Odalia asked.

Alador raised an eyebrow; "Why would I need those for a talk, Odalia?"

His wife rolled her eyes; "Honestly dear, do keep up. We're not here for a talk; we're here to teach those brats a little lesson. They aren't good enough to associate with the Blights, so we're going to make sure they don't."

Alador scowled; "You want me to use my abominations to assault a pair of teenage girls?"

"We don't need to actually harm them. Just make sure they get the message that continuing to involve themselves in our business will lead to consequences." Odalia replied.

"Why do you care so much about this, Odalia? That Luz girl is the niece of Lilith Clawthorne, and Willow is a top student now. Why not allow Amity to remain friends with them; couldn't they be valuable assets?" Alador asked.

Odalia scowled fiercely at him; "Willow is a nobody from a go nowhere family. The highest she will rise is a middling position in the Plant Coven. As for this "Luz", we all know that with her curse, the Owl Lady's days are numbered, and rumour has it that her daughter inherited it. She is a dangerous time bomb, and a blind man could see that Amity is frustratingly fond of her. Best to rip that problem out at the root before things escalate."

Alador blinked with surprise; "Amity is that close with her? I don't remember her saying anything like that. I thought they were just friends who met via Skara."

Odalia rolled her eyes; honestly, how could her husband be so brilliant with abominations but so oblivious to everything else? The simple fact that Amity had dared befriend Willow again after last time was obviously Luz's influence; obviously their little girl had been swept up into a teenage rebellion by the Owl Lady's spawn.

"Never mind all that. Summon your abominations so we can get this over with." Odalia ordered.

Alador narrowed his eyes and straightened up a bit; "No. I want no part of this; Amity has been doing incredibly well in school and in her apprenticeship with Lilith. She even has a Palisman now! If she wants to make friends outside of the children of our business partners, then I won't stand in her way. Besides, if we go ahead with this plan, she could lose not just her friends, but also her apprenticeship."

Odalia sneered; "Ugh, why do you choose the most infuriating moments to go soft! Fine, if you won't assist me, then I shall handle this myself. Go back to the party, Alador; I will clean up the mess. As usual."

She then stomped her way into the hedge maze, leaving Alador to go red in the face and growl with frustration. His wife was becoming more like his boss with every passing day! He debated following after her and trying to stop her little scheme, but ultimately sighed and decided not to; Odalia would only escalate things further over her injured pride, and if Amity was going to lose her friends, she didn't need to deal with her parents fighting on top of it. Instead he turned and began heading back to the party, trying to think of how he might cheer his youngest daughter up after all this. Perhaps they could have some father-daughter bonding time in his workshop…?

Meanwhile, Odalia marched through the hedge maze, following the signs and trying to compose herself before she reached the centre. She'd just barely managed it, and smiled coldly as she arrived at the small seating area in the centre of the maze; it sported a pavilion gazebo made of white marble, with a set of patio furniture beneath it, at which Luz and Willow were sitting and quietly chatting. The two girls looked up and smiled as they saw Odalia approach, and stood to meet her, their smiles becoming a little too wide for Odalia's tastes.

"Ah, there you are Mrs. Blight. We were beginning to think you might have gotten lost." Willow smiled.

"Is your husband not joining us?" Luz asked, looking around for signs of Alador.

"He will not be needed for this conversation." Odalia said shortly.

Luz and Willow exchanged a look, then smirked. "Well then, this is going to be a lot easier than expected!"

Odalia sneered; "What do you mean this will be easier?"

"This was a trap, right?" Luz asked.

"You invited us here to threaten or hurt us, so we'd stay away from Amity." Willow added, completely unconcerned.

Odalia gaped as the two girls giggled at her look of surprise; "So you knew, and you still came? That just proves what stupid little girls you really are!" Odalia snarled, grabbing her necklace, which housed her oracle stone.

"Of course we knew. Eda told me you were ruthless, and literally no one who talked about you had anything nice to say. We figured that once you realised you couldn't bribe us or threaten us with your position in the Parent Creature Association, you'd try to threaten us in some other way." Luz said, completely unconcerned. "Tia Lily would never let you have us expelled after all."

"We just never thought you'd actually come on your own. Did your husband refuse to play along? I guess you don't have as much command over your family as you think." Willow smirked, absolutely loving the chance to talk down to Odalia.

The older woman fumed; "How dare you!? You will both stay away from Amity if you know what's good for you! I raised my family to prominence and I'll be in the cold ground before I allow a couple of brats to threaten that!"

Luz giggled at the threat, making a vein pop out on Odalia's forehead; "That would be a scary threat, if you weren't completely powerless. If Alador had been here with his abominations, we would have actually had to fight, but with just you it's not a problem."

Odalia bared her teeth and summoned a powerful spirit from the oracle stone on her necklace. The creature was the largest such spirit that Luz had ever seen, and was definitely terrifying. Or at least, the massive, bandaged wraith would have been terrifying, it if wasn't currently quaking at the sight of Luz.

"Oops, looks like your spirit has performance anxiety, Odalia." Willow teased.

"What are you doing!?" Odalia hissed at her spirit, which was absolutely refusing to make a move towards the girls. The spirit refused to answer her, and when Odalia tried to use magic to compel the spirit to attack, it shrieked like a banshee directly into her face, then fled back into the oracle stone. Then no matter how hard she tried, Odalia just couldn't get it to come back out. Suddenly, the woman noticed a shadow behind her and spun around, finding countless thorny vines emerging from the hedges that made up the maze, all responding to Luz and Willow's magic.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Odalia, but oracle magic doesn't work on me. The spirits you need to use it with are scared of me." Luz said with a toothy grin.

"What!? Is this because of that infernal curse!?" Odalia demanded. She didn't remember anything about Eda being immune to oracle magic!

"It's definitely because of my… feathery situation." Luz said, avoiding a direct lie by alluding to her angelic nature.

"Now remind me Odalia, what coven are you in?" Willow suddenly asked. Odalia sneered at the girl, so Willow flicked her finger and one of her vines grabbed Odalia's wrist and forced her sleeve up, revealing the sigil of the Oracle Coven. "Oh that's right; the Oracle Coven. I guess that means oracle magic is the only kind you can use."

Willow's smile grew sharper; "That means that so long as Luz is around, you're completely powerless. You can't bully us, and you can't bully Amity."

Odalia felt a shudder go up her spine as she realised Willow was right; she was utterly powerless. Without oracle magic or her husband's abominations, she could do nothing against Luz or Willow, and with both girls having powerful plant magic in the centre of a hedge maze, they had an undeniable terrain advantage. Odalia inwardly seethed at her helplessness, but she hadn't become the successful woman she was now without knowing how to deal with a bad hand.

"Very well." she said bitterly, "What are your demands?"

"First, I want an apology." Willow said, "For making Amity cut off our friendship!"

Odalia narrowed her eyes, but nodded in agreement. Luz then said; "Second, you've got to promise not to come between Amity and any of her relationships ever again, unless it's genuinely toxic."

"Fine. Anything else?"

Willow and Luz exchanged a look, then Willow said; "Lastly, go easier on Amity and the twins. They're your kids, not your employees!"

"Yeah! Keep going the way you are, and the moment they're old enough to ditch you, that's what's going to happen. Unless you want to end up old and alone with no one to carry on your precious Blight family name." Luz added.

Odalia nodded stiffly, fighting the urge to roll her eyes; "Agreed. Shall we shake on it?" she asked, offering her hand.

Willow narrowed her eyes, then drew a spell circle around Odalia's hand before Luz grasped it. "I don't trust you, so you'll make an everlasting oath to keep to the terms we just set. And to never try and attack us again." Willow ordered.

Odalia nodded again, but inwardly she was smirking. These children were admittedly smarter than she'd given them credit for, but they were still just children… shockingly naive!

Before the everlasting oath could be completed, Odalia suddenly pulled back the hand Luz was grasping, yanking the girl close with a yelp of surprise. In the same instant, Odalia flicked her other hand out, causing a concealed knife to slip out into her hand, which she quickly pressed to Luz's throat threateningly.

"You didn't think you'd beat me that easily, did you?" Odalia smirked as both Luz and Willow froze. They'd never expected her to have a back up if magic didn't work!

"Let her go, Odalia!" Willow demanded, her magic causing numerous sharp roots to sprout from the ground around the woman, poised to impale her.

"I think not. But since you were nice enough to draw the circle for the everlasting oath, why don't we make use of it. You, little Luz, are going to swear to never go near any member of my family again AND do all in your power to keep Willow away too. You will also swear to obey my every command, as recompense for the humiliation you've caused me." Odalia smirked.

Luz scoffed; "And if I say no?"

"I have a knife to your throat. I'm sure your bright enough to figure it out."

The young angel glowered at the smirking woman, before suddenly grinning; "Do it."

Both Willow and Odalia blanched; "Luz, what are you doing!?" Willow cried.

"Are you stupid, girl? Do you think I'm bluffing!?" Odalia snapped, pressing the blade against her throat a little further, just barely avoiding actually breaking the skin.

"Whether you're bluffing or not doesn't matter." Luz said, "A slit throat isn't instant death. If I can cast my healing magic before I pass out, then I'll be safe. But you? Willow's roots will tear through you."

Odalia frowned, her eyes flicking around to the sharp roots that were mere inches from her flesh. "The operative word there is "if". You might not be fast enough, then where will you be?"

"Dead." Luz admitted, "But you will be too."

"Assuming Willow has the guts to follow through." Odalia smirked mockingly at the bespectacled girl, who was looking at her with such hatred that the Blight Matriarch was sure she was trying to light her on fire with her eyes.

"Even if she didn't, what do you think would happen when people found out you murdered me? Eda would kill you for certain, and take out all of Blight Industries along with you." Luz countered.

Odalia narrowed her eyes; "The Owl Lady is not a threat to me." she lied, "And counterpoint; if you die and Willow kills me, what will people do when they find out about that? Willow will be petrified for certain."

Luz frowned; they were at an impasse. Both were in equally bad positions; the only sure fire ways out of this were if one of them agreed to an oath, or Odalia slit Luz's throat and she succeeded in healing it while Willow bound the woman to prevent a second attempt or an escape. It was a gamble with Luz's life on the line, as well as Willow and Amity's futures and happiness. But Luz was an angel; she lived to help others, so she made her choice.

"No deal, Odalia. Swear the oath Willow and I gave you. There's no other way out of this for you." Luz said, amber eyes boring into Odalia's sapphire ones. Secretly, she put her free hand behind her back and drew a spell circle, casting an illusion that created glowing words on the back of her clothes, letting Willow know to bind and not kill Odalia. Willow wasn't happy, but then she sensed plant magic gathering around Luz, as the angel girl then prepared a second spell circle; one that would summon a healing lotus the instant Odalia acted against them. Luz had pushed things as far into her favour as she could; now the ball was in Odalia's court.

Odalia grimaced as she saw the determination in Luz's eyes. She really wasn't going to cave! Now her only option was to follow through with her threat (which actually had been a bluff) and hope she could take out Willow before she was killed! At least if Luz was out of the way, her oracle magic would work again! She gave Luz one last ugly sneer, and in an instant everyone knew the choice she'd made.

Luz braced herself, and Willow's eyes began to glow green as her magic threatened to rampage, but neither of them had a chance to act. Instead, a voice suddenly screamed out.

"STOP!"

Odalia flinched, instinctively pulling the knife a little further away from Luz's throat. At that moment, a tendril of purple abomination slime shot out from the shadows and bound the wrist holding the knife, then tightened. Odalia yelped as the bone in her wrist cracked, and the knife slipped from her fingers. Luz immediately released her grip on Odalia's other hand and leapt back, with one of Willow's vines wrapping around her waist and yanking her to Willow's side, while another grabbed Odalia's knife and dragged it underground. The plant loving girl then spun Luz to face her and frantically checked Luz's throat for signs of damage, but thankfully there was nothing but a faint red line from where Odalia had held the knife to her skin for too long.

The person who shouted then stepped out of the shadows, revealing themselves to be an absolutely livid Amity.

"Mother!? What in the Titan's name were you doing!?" she demanded, her eyes flashing lavender as she struggled to contain her emotions. She was so angry that she had to withdraw her abomination slime, lest she crush her mother's wrist so tightly that the hand was ripped off.

Odalia winced as she cradled her broken wrist, then glared furiously at her daughter.

"Amity!? What do you think you're doing!? I told you to go back to the party!"

"I don't care what you told me! I couldn't stand back and let you take my friends from me again!" Amity roared, really struggling to keep her magic under control. Ghost was in her hands in staff form, and pink magic was crackling around the Palisman as she too struggled to contain her fury. Amity then turned back to Luz and Willow.

"I'm sorry I took so long to get here. Turns out Mr Cadence only put up signs leading from the maze's main entrance, so I got lost for a bit." Amity said, feeling a tad embarrassed that it had taken her so long to remember she could just fly over with Ghost.

"I'd say you got here right in time. I'm 90% sure Odalia was bluffing, but it would have been kinda bad if I was wrong." Luz replied with a shaky smile. She'd been in enough life-or-death situations on the Boiling Isles to have gotten used to it, but it was still too scary.

Odalia rolled her eyes as she stalked closer to the girls; "Of course I was bluffing! As if I would actually sully my hands by killing a child!" she scoffed, not actually sure if she was lying or not. She'd been bluffing at first, but even she didn't know if she'd have followed through in that final moment. She reached for her oracle stone with her unbroken hand, but before she could even try and coax her spirit into telepathically linking her to her daughter, Amity ripped off her own necklace and crushed it beneath her heel.

Odalia grit her teeth; "Amity Blight, you are in enough trouble without digging yourself into more! Get away from those two right this instant! You association with them is at an end, and if you know what's good for you, you'll get back in line before I have to put you in your place!"

"No!" Amity growled, "You're going to listen to me for once! Luz and Willow aren't my associates, they're my friends! They're good people, who were nice to me even when I didn't deserve it! I was weaker than they ever were, but now I want to be strong like them! I want to be the kind of person they are, and not the kind of person you are! I want them to be as proud to be my friend as I am to be theirs! And I won't let you rip that away from me again!"

Luz and Willow smiled joyfully at their friend, feeling her love and affection for them in her words. However Odalia didn't take it as well.

"You insolent little-!" she reared her unbroken hand back to slap her daughter. Amity braced herself (this wasn't the first time it had happened), but her friends flew to her defence.

Willow caught the woman's wrist with a vine, and crushed it just like Amity's abomination slime had done to her other wrist, making Odalia yelp in pain. Luz, who had pulled Amity behind her the instant she saw what was about to happen, then used her concealed wings to launch herself upward a bit to erase the difference in height between her and Odalia. Then in a fit of rage like Luz had never experienced, her eyes began to glow white and she threw her fist forward, decking Odalia right in the nose, breaking it and sending the woman sprawling to the floor. Willow, her eyes now glowing a solid green as she reached the verge of a Bile Overload, then bound the woman in thorny vines, making sure the thorns shredded Odalia's fancy clothes and left shallow scratches on the woman's skin.

The two girls then glared down at Odalia, their eyes still glowing with magic and fury.

"STAY!" Luz began.

"AWAY!" Willow continued.

"FROM!"

"OUR!"

"FRIEND!" they finished together, their magic raging so much that the ground beneath them rumbled a bit with that final word.

Odalia looked up at them with both rage and terror; she was magically powerless around Luz, bound by Willow, and had two broken wrists and a broken nose. She was utterly defeated.

"Amity, are you alright?" Luz asked with concern, getting a grip on her emotions faster than Willow, who was now breathing deeply to try and calm down.

"I'm fine. Thanks for stopping her; she hasn't slapped me often, but it's never pleasant." Amity replied with a sad smile, unknowingly making both Willow and Luz furious. Willow began to curse under her breath, while Luz's eyes began glowing again. As an angel, she didn't run the risk of a Bile Overload, but it was still hard to control her magic when furious, causing it to leak out of her and make her eyes glow. The eyes were the windows to the soul after all.

"Willow, sit Odalia up for me please. I think it's time to end this." Luz said ominously, making Odalia pale.

Willow smirked and forced Odalia up and into a kneeling position with her vines. Luz then approached her, while Amity looked on fearfully.

"L-Luz, what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry Amity, I'm not going to hurt her. Just give her a little…" Luz wiggled her fingers, each of which was now tipped with a tiny blade of light magic, "… hair cut."

Amity and Willow both let out a choked laugh of surprise as Odalia began struggling against the thorny vines. Luz ignored her wiggling and protests, and began running her light blades through Odalia's hair haphazardly, shaving different parts of her head to different lengths, burning some pieces until it was black, and generally giving the Blight Matriarch the worst haircut the Demon Realm had ever seen. It was indescribably bad; like a toddler had gone at it with sheers and a lighter, and all three teenagers laughed uproariously at the finished product. Amity took a picture with her scroll to show her mother.

"H-How dare you!" Odalia shrieked as she saw the result.

"Oh put a sock in it." Luz scoffed as she and Willow summoned their own scrolls and took a myriad of pictures of Odalia. With the hair cut, bloodied nose, and obvious helplessness in Willow's vines, she looked utterly humiliated.

Once the girls were done, Willow (who's eyes were still glowing, unlike Luz's) knelt in front of the woman and smiled coldly.

"Now, this is how it's going to go. You are going to agree to never come between us and Amity again, and never act to hurt us, Amity, or any of our friends and family in any way. If you refuse, we'll go up to the party and show everyone these pictures, then spread them to the entire Boiling Isles. Your reputation will be ruined… and of course, if you actually did do something to hurt us…" Willow made her vines tighten just a little bit, making Odalia wince.

"Do we have a deal?" Willow asked.

Odalia dearly wished she could refuse and get her revenge on these brats, but they had her dead to rights. They were threatening the one thing she didn't dare risk; her reputation.

"Fine! I don't have a choice! Now let me go!" Odalia demanded, a hint of desperation creeping into her tone.

Luz and Willow exchanged looks, then turned to Amity, who silently nodded her approval. Willow then released Odalia from her vines, and Luz roughly pulled the woman to her feet.

"Good. Just remember to stick to it, and we'll all get along just fine." Luz said, before leaning in to whisper in Odalia's ear; "And if you ever try to hurt Amity again, I'll destroy far more than just your reputation." she said coldly.

Odalia shuddered and recoiled away from Luz, who plastered a pleasant smile on her face; "Bye bye now!"

The woman didn't need to be told twice; beaten and humiliated, she turned and slunk off, planning to call Alador to make excuses for her with the other party guests before going home. Once Odalia was gone, Willow calmed down and her eyes stopped glowing, while Luz let out a long sigh of relief.

"Phew! Well, that could have gone better!" Luz said, still feeling a little wound up.

"I'll say. The plan went way off the rails, but it worked out at least. We can be friends without her interfering." Willow said, before grinning; "Plus beating her up a little was great catharsis, and it wasn't even immoral since she started it!"

Amity giggled happily; "And now that we're threatening the one thing Mom cares about, we don't have to worry about her causing us trouble! I can finally live my own life! I am a little worried about Dad though… speaking off…"

She put her hands on her hips and glared at her two friends; "What were you thinking, agreeing to come here to talk to her alone!? Surely you knew it was a trap!" she scolded.

"We did, but we figured Luz could handle Odalia since she's immune to oracle magic, and we had the terrain advantage with all these plants." Willow explained.

Amity crossed her arms; "And if Dad had come too?"

Luz and Willow snapped their fingers, causing a massive Ice Wyrm to suddenly rise out from behind the hedge maze and bear down on them, breathing a chilling wind over them. Amity squeaked in surprise, whereupon Luz snapped her fingers again and dispelled the illusion, revealing that the "Ice Wyrm" was actually just a construct made of vines and partially frozen with ice glyphs.

"We prepared this to deal with him. We figured the threat of this thing would keep Alador from doing anything drastic. Besides, he didn't seem malicious like your Mom." Luz explained.

"It was tough to make so many vines that could also withstand the cold. I had to use my Power Glyph from the Covention on it. It's almost too bad I didn't get to really use it." Willow added.

Amity looked at the construct; it had fooled her for a moment, and clearly her friends had picked up some of Gus's flair for showmanship, so she expected it would have worked on her dad too. The icy breath made from ice glyphs was a nice touch too.

"You two really have gotten stronger… it's weird to think you were both "bad" at magic just a few weeks ago." Amity mused, "I guess I was worried for nothing. Thank you both for all you've done."

"Thank you too, Amity. Your arrival really helped us out." Luz smiled.

"Yeah! Now come on; with Odalia dealt with, I want to really party with my friends!" Willow said, throwing an arm around each of the other girls' shoulders. Luz and Amity happily agreed and together they headed back up to the party, hoping they hadn't been missed.

[Meanwhile]

Eda felt her heart beating faster and faster as Raine led her out of the Cadence family manor and onto the grounds, eventually taking her over to the cliff side far from any guests or employees. The effects of the Ballad of Motivation were helping her keep her nerves, as even though she was thrilled to see Raine again, she was also extremely nervous as to where this reunion could lead. Eda had dated a few times in the years since she and Raine separated; boyfriends, girlfriends, and everything in between had come and gone, but none had lasted long. Raine alone had been Eda's one long-term relationship, and the two had shared something truly special… until the curse came between them.

Shoving that thought aside, Eda leaned on the safety railing on the cliff side and smiled at Raine; "So, this is an awfully cosy and isolated spot for catching up. Have you gotten bolder over the years, Raine Storm?"

Raine blushed at the comment, a smile tugging at their lips; "You always brought out that side of me. But that's not why I dragged you here. I wanted some privacy to discuss something extremely important."

"Sure, I'm okay with that. But let's not take too long; I don't want to leave Luz along with those social piranhas for too long. The kids are mostly fine, but the parents will snap her up after that performance." Eda grinned, only half joking. She also wanted to get back before Odalia could pull anything, and so she'd be ready to back Luz up.

"Actually, it's Luz I wanted to talk about." Raine said, suddenly looking very serious.

Eda blinked; "Luz? I'm happy to talk about her, she's a great kid, but what do you want to know?"

Raine felt their eye twitching. So Eda was still dancing around the obvious issue… well then, Raine would be direct.

"I need you to answer this question, and I want you to be totally honest, alright? Please Eda; this is extremely important to me."

Eda went still; she'd rarely seen Raine so serious. If they were asking about Luz… had her singing tipped them off that she was an angel!? Was that what Raine was going to ask about!? Raine was an amazing bard, so Eda wouldn't be that surprised if they'd been able to work out Luz's secret just from that!

"Is Luz my daughter?"

Eda was so surprised by the unexpected question that she almost fell over the edge of the safety railing. Thankfully she caught herself and stared dumbly at Raine, only able to say "Huh!?" in response.

Raine frowned; "Eda, I'm being serious. Is Luz my daughter?"

"Why would you even think that?" Eda asked, still stunned by the seemingly random question.

"Her skin tone is similar to mine, her hair is curly like mine gets when its long, she has a natural talent for bardic singing, some of her mannerisms resemble mine, and no matter how I calculate it, if she is fourteen and turns fifteen before the end of the year, then you had to have been pregnant with her for 2-6 weeks before we broke up!" Raine explained, getting a little more emotional with each point, "And while we had our problems, I don't think for an instant that you'd cheat on me, so the only possible other parent would be me!"

Eda's eyes widened; a part of her felt happy that Raine had so much faith in her… and they were right of course. Eda was many things, but she never cheated in a relationship and despised those who did.

Raine grabbed Eda's hand again; "Please tell me the truth, Eda! If Luz is my daughter, then I want to be a part of her life!"

Eda sighed and shook her head; "Raine, Luz isn't your daughter. I swear it."

It hurt to see how stricken Raine was at that revelation, as it meant their mind was going to the only other possibility they could think of, which was Eda being unfaithful. Eda was quick to nip that thought in the bud.

"Luz isn't actually my daughter." she confessed, feeling oddly sad to be saying that out loud.

"I-I don't understand. Is she your adopted daughter?" Raine eventually asked.

"No, the whole thing is just a scheme I cooked up." Eda sighed, "Luz has some unique circumstances that mean she'd be in danger of being captured by the Emperor's Coven if the truth of who she is was discovered. Luckily, when Lilith found out about her she assumed Luz was my daughter, so I decided to let everyone think that, to keep her safe."

Raine nodded slowly. They were actually a bit disappointed; parenthood scared them, but Luz was a nice kid and clearly someone important to Eda if she was willing to spread a lie like that. They would have liked to try being a real parent, especially after mentoring a lot of the kids who came into the Bard Coven. But at least this meant Eda hadn't hidden their child from them.

"I see… so who is Luz really then? You can trust me, Eda." Raine said.

"Not with this, Raine Storm. For the record, I do trust you, but this is Luz's secret and I won't spread it… but I'll ask her later if she's cool with you knowing." Eda replied.

Raine accepted that; "I understand. But who is she to you?"

"She's my apprentice. She's half human, so she was raised in the Human Realm and accidentally stumbled through my portal about… 8 weeks ago? She helped me out of a jam at the Conformatorium, and I took her in as my student right after." Eda explained, smiling fondly at the memory.

Raine gave her a smile, which had Eda frowning. That was their "you're not fooling me" smile.

"So Eda the Owl Lady has taken in a young student. Maybe Luz's cover story is better than I thought; you've actually become quite motherly." Raine smirked.

Eda scowled and flicked their forehead; "I already told you that I'm not her Mom!"

"Not legally or by blood, but you still think of that girl as a daughter, don't you?" Raine said knowingly.

Eda looked away with a huff; "You've been hanging around Senile Scooter for too long. It's turned your brain to mush!"

"Eda, I've always been able to tell when you've been lying to me or hiding things from me." Raine began, giving the woman a softer smile, "And it didn't feel like a lie when you called her your kid."

Eda crossed her arms; "It's just because she's my apprentice. You know how possessive I get. Don't think too much about it."

Inwardly, the Owl Lady knew Raine was right. Luz had only been in her life for a couple of months, but she'd become someone Eda cared about deeply. But no matter how much the deepest, most suppressed parts of her heart may wish it to be otherwise, Luz was not her daughter. She had a mother of her own in the Human Realm, and it was obvious Luz loved her dearly. In just over a month's time, Luz would be going back to her real mother and Camila would be amazed by how much her angelic daughter had grown. The cracks in the relationship would heal (Eda had enough experience with Mommy Issues to spot Luz's insecurities towards her mother) and Luz would never even dream of putting Eda in the same category. Eda had no doubt the girl would still be her student and care deeply for her; Luz was too good of a person to do anything else, but she would never be more than that.

"Eda… it's okay for you to think of her like that, you know that right?" Raine said.

"No, it's not. She's got a real family to go back to. Besides, someone like me was never meant to have kids; I'm a terrible role model." Eda faked a smirk. "Not that it matters; the curse means I can't have kids anyway."

Raine gasped softly; "I'm so sorry, Eda…"

Eda waved him off; "It's fine. I never wanted kids anyway." Before Luz and King at least, "And it's far from the worst thing the curse has done to my body. I mean, you should have seen my looks before Luz and I found a way to power up my Elixirs! I looked like an old lady!"

Raine grinned; "Well you definitely look good now. Listen, I'm sorry I ambushed you with that question, and opened up such a big and uncomfortable subject for you. I-If you're still willing…" they blushed faintly, "… I-I'd like to catch up properly."

Eda smiled, feeling her melancholy fade away as she pulled Raine over to lean against the railing with her; "That might be the best idea you've had all night, Whispers!"

For the next little while, the two chatted about their lives. Raine told Eda about how things were going in the Bard Coven, and some of the secret things that they'd seen the Emperor's Coven getting up to, while Eda told Raine about King and the various misadventures the residents of the Owl House had gotten up to since Luz arrived in their lives. The two were laughing so hard that they almost missed a pair of very familiar people stomping by. In fact, they would have missed them entirely if not for one of them cursing as they left.

Eda and Raine gaped as they recognised Odalia Blight; her arms in slings made from abomination slime, her nose red and swollen, her clothes torn, and her hair sliced and burnt into the most hideous botch job Eda had ever seen. Given the way Alador was following her while looking pristine and with absolutely no sympathy for her, Eda guessed Odalia had gone too far and paid for it. Unfortunately, that also made the Owl Lady remember that she was supposed to have been backing Luz up!

She muttered a curse under her breath; "Sorry to cut the catch up short Raine, but I better go check on Luz."

"Of course. I've been away from the party for too long anyway." they agreed.

The two hurried back to the ballroom, and were surprised to find no signs of a scene or trouble at all, and Luz and her friends were chatting animatedly by the food table, none looking any worse for wear. Eda immediately rushed over to Luz, who smiled brightly as she saw Eda approach.

"Eda! Hi! You missed a fun talk out in the hedge maze!" Luz grinned.

"Sorry Luz, I got distracted talking with Raine." Eda said apologetically, "What happened?"

Luz, Willow, and Amity exchanged mischievous grins and pulled Eda off to the side to tell her everything that had gone down with Odalia. Eda was furious that Odalia had gone so far, but she cackled with delight upon hearing that each of the girls had busted the foul woman up a little, with Luz being responsible for the terrible hair cut. Raine, who was listening in, had to cover their mouth to stop them laughing at the mental image of Eda's young apprentice shaving Odalia's head.

When they were done, Eda ruffled Willow and Amity's hair; "Okay, you girls are officially becoming part of the Bad Girl Coven! Anyone who can beat down Odalia deserves it!" she then turned to Luz, and hugged her lovingly. "And you kiddo are going to be the next Head Witch! I'm proud of you!"

Luz preened at the compliment and hugged Eda back, making Eda's heart soar. Luz may not be her daughter, but until she went home next month, Eda could at least pretend.

The rest of the party extended late into the evening, since the next day was a weekend, and everyone had fun. Skara convinced Luz to sing with them again, and they and the bards regaled the guests with another song. Eda spent more time with Raine, then took Amity aside for a little talk, letting her know that if things went bad at home with Odalia or Alador, then she was to come to the Owl House, where she'd always be welcome. At the same time, Raine told Luz and Willow stories about Eda's wild youth, and the two girls were soon joined by the rest of Skara's friends, who all wanted to know more about the infamous wild witch.

Eventually the party came to an end, and the guests began going home with their parents. Raine had to carry a sleeping Scooter back to the Bard Coven, but promised Eda that they'd stay in touch, which Luz and the Owl Lady were extremely glad to hear. As Eda said a private goodbye to Raine and Willow was saying goodbye to Amelia, Luz and Amity wandered down to the estate's front gates together.

"I really wanted to thank you for everything you did, Luz." Amity said, "It's thanks to you that I was able to begin patching things up with Willow and restart our friendship."

Luz giggled; "Aw, you give me too much credit. All I did is nudge you two in the right direction; you were the one who did the hard part. You owned up to the bad things you did in the past and tried to make amends. You're amazing Amity, even if your Mom doesn't see it."

Amity shook her head with a smile; "I was only able to do that because of you. Ever since I met you, everything has changed. I can do things that I never even dreamed of. I… I can't even find the words to properly say how I feel. You… you're a real angel, Luz."

Luz beamed, a faint blush on her cheeks. But Amity wasn't quite done yet. Acting on impulse, Amity leaned in and gave Luz a peck on the cheek. Both girls felt a spark of electricity pass between them from Amity's lips to Luz's cheek, and they both turned to stare into one another's eyes. They were initially stunned by the feeling, then it fully registered what had just happened. Both girls blushed tomato red, with Luz's eyes growing large and sparkling as she gasped softly.

Amity stepped back, mortified by what she'd just done. "Uh… okay! Thanks again for all your help! Farewell forever!"

She then turned and ran off towards her home, muttering; "Why did I do that!? Why did I do that!?" over and over as she fled.

Luz watched her go, her heart beating like a humming bird inside her chest. She went weak at the knees and soon found her legs buckling beneath her, leaving her staring dumbfounded in the direction Amity had fled. Just behind her, Eda and Willow smirked, having seen the whole thing after finishing their farewells. It took a little while for them to snap Luz out of her shocked stupor, and for the whole flight home, Luz couldn't stop touching her cheek where Amity had kissed her.

Today may not have been her birthday party, but it looked like Luz had gotten a present of her own anyway!