A/N: Oof. This chapter's almost two months late, huh? Can't remember the last time I had this happen. XD But yeah... I got terrible writer's block for this chapter during the talk between Xander and Lizzie. I was struggling immensely to keep Xander in character and try to figure out the direction the conversation needed to go in, especially with the revelations I've been building up to being thrown into the mix and whether or not I was going to extend this chapter out to include the end of the grudgby game (I'll expand on this in the author's notes at the end of the chapter). But after a lot of rewriting, I think I've finally nailed it... even if it means moving the end of the game to Chapter 61. Sorry. XD Fear not, though! I plan on making Chapter 61 the final chapter for 'Wing It Like Witches', whether that means it goes up to 10,000 words or more. There isn't much left to include in terms of canon, but there are scenes involving Xander that will require quite a bit of detail, so expect the next update to take longer than a month, and not just because of my other writing projects, either.

Either way, thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reviewing and reading this fanfic. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. Remember that The Owlcast is also over on AO3 under the same title and username, should you need it. But in the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this long awaited chapter despite the almost two monthly delay. XD

Chapter 60: Cheaters Never Prosper

The first thing Xander was met with upon opening his eyes was bleary white to the left side of his vision. The second thing Xander was met with was blindingly bright light attacking him from the right side, the latter of which started to hurt his right eye. With a pained grunt, the young adult witch squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head with a brief shake, attempting to rouse himself and regain control of his senses.

"Argh…" he uttered through clenched teeth. "What happened…?"

His question was answered by an intense briny smell wafting into his nose and burning at the inside of his nostrils, crashing the vague memory of what happened before he passed out back into his head like a violent wave into a group of rocks—he'd gone with Lilith into the forests on the outskirts of Bonesborough in search of Elisabeth and the Owl Lady, which was suspected to be located close to the Boiling Sea. However, they appeared to be confronted by a brown… worm… creature? He didn't remember getting a good look at what it was. What he did remember, however, was shoving Lilith aside when that creature attacked her, then a sharp pain shooting down his forehead and the bridge of his nose, then his mask shattering, then him falling towards the ground while a horrified Lilith watched on and then… darkness.

He didn't feel like he was in pain now, which was a good thing, he supposed. But then that begged the question: where was he now?

A loud high-pitched whistle rang through Xander's ears and disrupted his train of thought, jolting his body into a proper sitting position and snapping his eyes open with a startled gasp. This was swiftly followed by a familiar and shrill high-pitched voice shouting from his right.

"Point goes to Eda!"

"What in the Titan's name?!" Xander cried out with multiple blinks, attempting to get his bearings and adjust his blurry vision—

Wait a second. Was something covering his left eye? Was it his eye patch? When did that get on his face in place of his broken mask—?

His confused list of questions were interrupted by a blurry streak of black scrambling up the front of his uniform and onto his right shoulder, nuzzling at his cheek with worried whimpers and causing him to instinctively flinch out of surprise. Of course, there was only one name that immediately came to mind for Xander once he'd taken a few seconds to process things, because who else was this black and furry creature going to be?

"Bandit?" The name left Xander's lips instinctively as his lone green eye fell upon the ferret palisman fretting over him, giving him the moment he needed to allow his vision to settle with a few more forced blinks. "Is that you, little buddy?"

An affirmative squeak was given in reply, confirming the young coven scout's already obvious suspicions. But before Xander could question his palisman companion about what was going on, the concerned voice of Lilith Clawthorne called his name from a short distance ahead of him.

"Xander!" Xander's lone green eye immediately drew itself to the makeshift court on the opposite of the area he appeared to be in, only for it to widen at seeing the Emperor's Coven leader standing close to the court's middle on the left side with a furrowed brow and the slump of her shoulders, as though she was relieved to see he was okay— Wait, what happened to her cloak? "You're finally awake. Thank goodness."

"Madam Lilith?" the younger blonde mumbled with a frown forming on his face, only for a loud and derisive snort to sound from Lilith's left and have her turn her head to the culprit with a scowl when they chose to speak.

"About dang time too," the familiar voice of the Owl Lady quipped, whom Xander's head whipped towards upon spying the middle-aged witch standing in front of the makeshift goal with her hands to her hips and a cheeky smirk— Hang on, what was that jacket she was wearing? "Almost had us convinced the birdbrain had knocked you into a coma!"

"The Owl Lady—?!" Xander started to shriek, but then he cut himself off with a squint the moment the last of Eda's words sunk in. "Wait. Birdbrain?"

A grating and creepily chipper high-pitched voice eagerly answered his query in the Owl Lady's stead from just above him, the familiarity of its owner immediately striking Xander in the form of an electrical tingle that made the hairs on his skin stand on end. "That's me! But I usually go by Hooty!"

A brown and furry cylindrical neck arched in front of him until an upside-down circular, beige and wooden owl face was staring intensely into his one-eyed gaze with its beady brown eyes, its orange beak morphed into the semblance of what Xander could only assume was the creepiest smile he'd ever beheld. A whistle dangled upside down from his neck, with the blue cap formerly on his head falling to the ground with a light plop due to not being secured properly. The colour slowly drained from the young coven scout's face and sweat started to gather at the sides of his forehead as he beheld the creature before him, with Bandit retreating to the inside of his cloak with a quiet whimper; he didn't seem fond of the creature either. Yet the creature remained unfazed by these reactions.

"Hiya, Xander!" it cheerily greeted. "How ya feeling?"

And in response? The young Blackwood screamed so deafeningly, he could feel his throat burning, as though his own voice was acidic. His adrenaline spiked and pounded in his joints, kicking his flight response into gear and encouraging him to push himself backwards away from the danger. But as Xander moved his shoulders, his screaming cut off with a shocked gasp at realising his arms were pinned to his sides, forcing him to look down at himself. His jaw dropped open wider at seeing he was wrapped up in this creature's body like a poor unsuspecting echo mouse trapped by a brown and furry snake, eliciting a panicked wheeze.

The blonde-haired witch sat petrified under the house demon's iron grip, his breathing growing ragged and catching in the confines of his throat. Luckily, before his panic could escalate, Xander was distracted by a thick, dark blue binder slamming down hard atop Hooty's head with a resounding thump, causing the coven scout to instinctively wince and close his visible eye at the sight of Hooty squeezing his eyes shut and stiffening his body in response, his fur ruffling and sticking up.

"Ouch!" he cried out in pain and quickly retracted from the weaponised object, only for the familiar voice Xander recognised to be his younger cousin's to swiftly follow.

"Hooty!" she scolded, causing Xander to whip his head to his left to see Lizzie standing up and scowling at the owl demon currently shaking his head about, clutching the binder in her right hand while her left one was placed to her hip. "Knock it off!"

Hooty scowled and pursed his beak with a squint, obviously not pleased by the 'unprovoked' attack on his head. "I wasn't doing anything!" he protested.

"It doesn't matter what you were doing!" Lizzie retorted sternly as she crouched down and collected Hooty's hat from the ground, proceeding to lightly slam it on top of his head again and making Hooty briefly close his eyes. "Do you really think he wants you in his face after what you did to him earlier?"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"You're the one who knocked him out!"

"But—"

"No buts!" Lizzie stepped back and then pointed at the pretend grudgby court without taking her eyes off the owl demon. "Go back to refereeing the grudgby match and leave Xander to me."

Xander resumed his gawking once he was able to process the sight he was currently beholding, unsure of what he was supposed to be more shocked by—the appearance of Lizzie (then again, if the Owl Lady was here, it was inevitable she'd be, he concluded), the fact that she was defending him from this thing, or the fact his younger cousin was casually arguing and simultaneously telling off the creepy owl creature named 'Hooty' like it was a naughty pet bird. Or was it more snake? Possibly a tube? Xander wasn't sure anymore.

Silence descended between the young witch and owl demon then, the pair locked in an intense stare down while Xander's and Bandit's (who had since poked his head out of his owner's clothes to get a peek at what was going on) gazes occasionally flitted between them. After what felt like forever, Hooty was the first to break with an exasperated sigh and squinted beady eyes, slowly slithering his way through the air and back to the pretend court without taking his eyes off Lizzie.

"Buzzkill!" he complained.

Lizzie didn't reply, waiting until Hooty was hovering close to the middle of the court before releasing an annoyed sigh of her own and rubbing her temples with her fingers on her empty hand.

"Dammit, Hooty," she cursed under her breath, eventually returning her voice to regular volume when focusing on Eda and Lilith, who had been observing the entire scene unfolding with bewildered (in Lilith's case) and amused (in Eda's case) expressions. "Carry on with your game! I've got this!"

"Are ya sure, kid?!" Eda shouted back.

"I'm sure!"

"Gotcha!" Eda raised her thumbs above her head, shooting Xander a cheeky grin. "And don't worry, Tool-bag!—"

"Who are you calling Tool-bag, Bird-lady?!" Xander screeched, causing Bandit's ears to droop with a wince at his owner's voice hurting his eardrums.

"—You shouldn't be stuck there much longer!" Eda jabbed one of her thumbs in Lilith's direction. "I'm one point away from swiping victory from my sister!"

Lilith loudly scoffed and rolled her eyes at Eda's comment, yet for the time being, she refrained from retorting, shouting over to Xander with her hands cupping either side of her face.

"Either way, fear not, Xander! I have everything under control! So, just sit there and wait for further instruction!" Lilith turned away just as Xander's jaw speechlessly dropped at her declaration, his lone eye bulging with disbelief at watching her and Eda return to the middle of the pretend grudgby court. "Though, I wouldn't get cocky if I were you, sister. There's still plenty of time for the tides to turn. Besides,"—Lilith paused to shoot Eda an amused smirk—"cockiness isn't a good look for you."

And in typical Eda fashion, the younger Clawthorne promptly responded with a scowl and her tongue sticking out to blow her older sister a raspberry. "Says the one who is green with envy!"

Lizzie quietly groaned at the sisters' bantering and shook her head in disappointment, eventually turning away with her hand placed to her forehead. "Why am I the only witch here closest to acting like an actual adult?" she grumbled.

It took Lizzie a few seconds to remember that her cousin was still sitting on the ground and staring at her like she'd grown a second head, a realisation that didn't occur until she ended up making eye contact with him by accident. One look at his expression alone was all she needed to know just how confused and shocked he was by everything that had unfolded before him. She could only imagine the number and types of questions swirling round in that noggin' of his that he probably wanted to ask.

After prolonging the silent stare down by a solid thirty seconds, Lizzie released a heavy sigh and slumped her shoulders, eyeing Bandit still peeking at her just above Xander's cloak as she dragged herself back to her former sitting spot.

"Bandit, please do the honours of getting your confused owner up to speed." Lizzie plopped down close to Xander and purposely left some space between them, opening Eda's photo album again at a random page and crossing her legs. "I'm too mentally drained to do it."

Bandit replied with what Lizzie guessed was an affirmative squeak. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted Xander turning his head towards her with a raised brow, not looking the least bit as enthusiastic as his ferret palisman had sounded with the idea.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically. "Is it really too much trouble for you to speak to me directly?"

"It is when the person I'm talking to thinks I'm a liar," Lizzie retaliated without pulling away from her current task.

A loud "Ha!" echoed from King where he was still standing beside the chalkboard, prompting Xander to lean forward and poke his head round Lizzie's front to investigate the noise, only for his eye to widen and his brows to shoot up at sighting the little demon in his… 'armour of intimidation'. The second she saw Xander's mouth open in preparation to question King's attire, the younger blonde witch promptly forced it closed again by taking one hand off the book cover and clicking her fingers in front of the other blonde's face.

"Direct all your questions to the ferret palisman, please! He'll explain everything!"

Xander grunted out of annoyance and recoiled from his younger cousin's hand with the roll of his eyes, yet he did the wise thing and refrained from saying anything else. Despite having no clue what was going on, Xander could easily guess that the Owl Lady and his cousin currently had the upper-hand and had roped the leader of the Emperor's Coven into their madness. His recklessness earlier clearly cost him, so he was going to have to play this very delicately. Considering how protective Eda was of Lizzie the last time he'd seen her at Covention, and what he'd witnessed that bird-tube do to him, it was in his best interest not to get on her bad side.

Though as the young coven scout straightened up again, he couldn't help giving Lizzie a sideways glance with the slight turning of his head (she was sitting on the side that his eye patch was on), mentally noting of her drooped eyes and slumped posture while focusing on the open pages of the book in her hands. At first, he assumed it was probably a textbook, but one quick scan of the assorted and colourful stickers on the cover said otherwise.

What was she looking at that was apparently more important than talking to him?

"So, the outcome of the Owl Lady's arrest is now dependent on whoever wins this silly match?" Xander questioned once Bandit had finished explaining everything. Bandit answered with a stiff nod and accompanying squeak, prompting Xander to look at Lizzie with a crinkled nose and twisted lips. "And you let this happen?"

"I didn't let it happen," the younger blonde stated matter-of-factly and turned her nose up to the sky. "Lilith is just a terrible influence and manages to bring the worst out of Eda whenever they're together. Reasoning with her when her sister is present is like shouting at a brick wall."

Xander briefly directed his gaze back to the pretend court to observe Lilith making a dash to Eda's goal with a triumphant laugh while Eda ran after her shouting something indiscernible, the sight of the two middle-aged witches acting childish causing his lone eye to twitch.

"I'd argue that goes both ways," he muttered despondently, a comment that Lizzie still heard and ended up huffing at as she, too, dared to peek over at what her technical employer and older sister were doing.

'At least we agree on something.'

Xander broke his attention away from the grudgby game to slouch against his demonic snake-like and furry binds pinning his arms to his sides, his eye giving them a proper look over now that he wasn't internally freaking out over his current predicament. "Then we really have to sit here and let the chips fall where they may?"

"Looks like it." Lizzie returned her eyes to the book in her lap and flipped over to the next set of pages.

"Can't you at least convince that bird… tube…" The coven scout paused and frowned upon struggling to find the right words to describe Hooty (because who else would he be talking about?), only to shake his head and groan out of frustration. "… whatever-it-is to release me?"

"No can do," Lizzie answered with forced emphasis, making Xander scrunch his face and nose up with a scowl.

"Why not?!"

"Because the last time we parted ways, you made it very clear nothing was going to change between us."

"Even though I'm currently under the command of the Emperor's Coven leader and have to do whatever she says?"

Lizzie partially turned to face Xander with a sceptically raised brow, naturally not convinced by any of the words that left her cousin's mouth. "You mean the same coven leader you called naïve right to my face?"

Silence descended between the two cousins then, with Xander initially pressing his lips together as the corners twitched uncontrollably, along with his visible eye. He did not appreciate Lizzie throwing his own words back in his face, a sight that left the younger blonde witch curling her own lips together to prevent a snort from slipping.

Around thirty seconds passed before Xander was forced to avert his gaze to the ground at the red flush that overtook his cheeks with the frustrated growl that left his mouth, likely out of annoyance that he couldn't refute Lizzie's argument. Still, Xander's reaction didn't bother Lizzie in the slightest, and she resumed her earlier sleuthing under the impression that that was the end of their interaction. But then the young witch's gaze happened to gloss over a particular wide-panning picture of a teenage Eda and teenage Lilith in front of the main entrance to Hexside, causing the blonde witch to straighten up with a forced blink.

The picture itself looked to be normal enough, showing teenage Eda and Lilith sitting together on the school's bottom step in their Hexside uniforms with the former on the left and the latter on the right. Eda was grinning from ear-to-ear and leaning into her older sister's shoulder with her right arm pulled around her and the two fingers on her other hand held up in a peace sign, while Lilith was clasping her hands together in her lap with her shoulders hunched shyly smiling at the camera. But it was the two witch students on the far-left side of the steps that prompted Lizzie to bring the book closer to her face, her green eyes bulging.

The two witches were female and looked to be a couple of years younger than teenage Eda, walking side by side partway down the steps deep in conversation, suggesting that they initially weren't aware of the picture being taken. The witch student on the right, who was an inch shorter than her friend on the left and hugging a small pile of books to her chest, had shoulder-length, straight brunette hair that swept to the left side of her forehead and draped in front of her ears and blue eyes, bearing the purple sleeves and leggings on her Hexside uniform to represent she was in the Oracle Magic Track. Lizzie didn't recognise this student at all. The grinning witch on the left holding her hands up with her fingers splayed, however, was. Her straight blonde hair, right-swept fringe, brown eyes and the Bard Magic Track coloured sleeves and leggings on her uniform instantly gave her away.

'Mother…'

Lizzie slowly lowered the book back into her lap with a gape and wide eyes, her gaze frozen to teenage Marigold's beaming face. But then a breath-sucking gasp close to her ear sliced through Lizzie's train of thought and snapped her back to reality with a startled flinch. Lizzie whipped her head to the left and recoiled at seeing Xander leaning over to peek at the photograph, his mouth agape and his lone eye so wide she could see his veins protruding.

"Holy Titan…" Xander said in a cracked and slightly high-pitched voice, causing the younger blonde to notice the watery sheen gradually building up in his eye, looking like he was on the verge of bursting into tears. "It's her…"

Lizzie furrowed her brows out of confusion and followed Xander's gaze back to the photograph, wondering if he was talking about her mother. She and Xander were currently living under the same roof, after all, and Marigold was the only one in the picture that Lizzie recognised out of the two students. But the more she allowed her eyes to flicker between Xander and the photograph, the more she doubted her assumption. Xander looked so vulnerable, a sight Lizzie hadn't seen since she eavesdropped on his crow phone conversation that once in Bonesborough. She couldn't imagine him having such a reaction to seeing her parents, especially because she could only guess how badly her uncle had gone and negatively painted their image to Xander. But unlike back then, Xander wasn't afraid. He looked like a lost child who'd just been reunited with a ghost from his past.

Although, upon scrutinising the Oracle student's appearance a little more closely, she did seem familiar to Lizzie. Something deep in the crevices of Lizzie's mind was faintly resonating with that face, like a fisherman whose fishing hook had become caught beneath the surface of the water and who was repeatedly tugging to try to bring up their catch. There was a memory there, a vague one, that her mind was continuously attempting to yank free from its mental pools, yet no matter how long and hard she stared at the witch's face, that memory refused to emerge from the water.

Who is she? That was the question that tingled on the tip of Lizzie's tongue when she faced her cousin, prepared to ask him outright in the hopes that it would jog her memory somehow. But the moment she did, Xander's image became overlapped by a younger version of himself in his Hexside uniform, turning to look at her with both of his green eyes intact and teary and causing her own eyes to grow wide with shock.

'… Huh?'

During this time on the grudgby court, Eda was charging towards Lilith's goal with the grudgby ball secured under her left arm and her older sister trailing not too far behind her, both of the Clawthorne witches wearing concentrated frowns for their respective objectives—Eda's being to score one more point and win the match, and Lilith's to intercept the ball and turn the tides back in her favour. As the Owl Lady gradually closed the distance between her and the goal post however, it appeared that she was the one poised to be victorious, so much so that Eda couldn't help letting a triumphant smile slip onto her lips as she took the grudgby ball into her left palm and raised it behind her head, preparing her aim and getting ready to toss it straight into the net.

But just as the youngest Clawthorne began to bring her arm forwards, a pained yelp that Eda immediately recognised made the middle-aged witch's joints freeze over. Letting out a shocked gasp as she dug her heels into the hardened ground and skidded straight to a stop, Eda whirled her body in the direction of her technical charge hunched over with her palms to her forehead and her fingers digging into her scalp, while Xander looked on with a startled recoil and a small gape. Bandit released a high-pitched squeak and scrambled over down his owner's clothes to get to Lizzie's closest knee, and then there was King, who dropped his piece of chalk with a startled 'Weh!' and briefly jolted before wide pink eyes focused on the young blonde.

"Lizzie!" Eda yelled the moment she found her voice, allowing the grudgby ball to fall from her palm and angle itself downward to the ground instead of straight to the net.

The Owl Lady was more than prepared to rush from the court and right to Lizzie's side when she saw King scurrying over with panicked panting, but that soon changed when she started to move forward and her peripheral vision caught the grudgby ball rebounding off the ground and high into the air again with a single bounce, followed by a black blur gracefully swooping upward in its direction like a raven and its prey.

Eda dazedly whipped round to witness Lilith grab the ball in mid-air and secure it between her palms with a determined frown, landing on her feet again shortly after and then making a mad dash for the other side of the court. Before the Owl Lady knew it, Lilith was closing in on her goal post, leaping towards it like a gazelle, clutching the metal pole of the goal tightly in her left hand while passing the ball to her other one, and then swinging round the goal post once to dunk the ball into the net, remaining composed and elegant the entire time.

Eda was brought back to reality by the high-pitched sound elicited from the whistle blown by Hooty just to the right side of the court, watching with a scowl and bared teeth as Lilith dropped to the ground and landed on her feet with heavy breaths and a hand to her hip.

"That's a point to Lilith!" Hooty chirped. "Looks like we have a tiebreaker! Hoot!"

"Hey!" Eda shouted and pointed her finger accusingly at Lilith, who regarded her younger sister with an icy stare. "She cheated!"

"I cheated?" Lilith parroted incredulously upon regaining her breath, only to tut and shake her head out of disapproval. "Bold of the Covention cheater to assume I'm the one cheating."

"You cheated then too!"

"And you think that allows you to blame others for your own mistakes?"

Eda's nostrils flared. "If I hadn't gotten distracted, I would have beaten you right there and then!"

"Exactly, sister; if you hadn't gotten distracted." Lilith shrugged nonchalantly in response. "You can't blame me for losing your concentration."

Eda released a gluttonous growl and balled her hands into shaking fists at her sides, her face gradually flushing a bright red from the anger she was struggling to suppress. However, before the Owl Lady could unleash her unchecked rage at the smug smiled leader of the Emperor's Coven, King's panicked yelling from behind Eda caused the colour to swiftly drain from her face.

"Edaaaaaa!" The white and grey-haired witch looked back to see Lizzie still hunched forward with her face buried into her arms, Bandit gently nudging Lizzie's closest elbow with his tail and ears drooped, Xander frozen in place like a petrified statue, and a worriedly frowning King now standing on Lizzie's other side and rubbing at her closest knee with one of his paws, clearly attempting to be comforting. "You'd better get over here! It's another headache!"

King's words brought Xander out of his shellshock with a faint frown and a forced blink, his lone eye squinting at the little demon and repeating what he said as a mumble. "A headache?"

Meanwhile, Lilith continued to stare at her younger sister's back, her smug smile still in place. "Well then, Edalyn?" she taunted in a mocking tone. "Aren't you going to check on your adoring fan? I think you could use the break~."

It took all of the Owl Lady's willpower not to turn around and direct a fire spell straight at her (probably still) smug smiling sister's face. Oh, how she wanted to burn it away so bad! But Lizzie was her priority right now. So, after several seconds of silent contemplation, Eda squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled and exhaled sharply to regain her composure, counting to 'five' in her head for good measure. She opened her eyes again when she was sure she was calm and slowly faced Hooty, resisting the urge to look at Lilith while making a capital 'T' shape with her arms.

"Timeout, Hooty. Gotta make sure Redwood's all right."

"Okie-dokie!" Hooty cheerily replied with the beaming semblance of a smile, once again appearing unfazed by the taunting exchange that had just occurred between the two sisters. "But when you get back, there'll be one more play to decide the winner!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Eda replied dismissively and waved the owl demon off with a hand. "Just keep an eye on my sister, will ya?"

"Roger dodger! Hoot hoot!"

Upon seeing the Owl Lady approach their little group with a sour look on her face, Xander swallowed thickly and scooted backwards on his bottom to get as far away from Lizzie as he could. Had he been able to lift his arms, he would have held up his palms in surrender to emphasise his innocence.

"I didn't touch her! S-She just looked at me and then—"

"Easy, Tool-bag," Eda grumpily reassured as she knelt before the two blondes, ignoring the older of the two cousins scrunching his nose at the insulting nickname. "We already know."

Xander fell still at this as his attention returned to Lizzie still hunched over her lap with her face cradled in the crooks of her arms when Eda's did, watching the younger blonde rock slightly back and forth and listen to her heavy breathing.

"Kid?" Eda slowly reached her hands out and placed them gently upon Lizzie's shoulders, bringing her rocking to a standstill. "You good?"

Luckily for the Owl Lady, by the time she'd asked the question, Lizzie's pain was quickly subsiding, so she didn't have to wait long for the blonde witch to say anything after two confirming nods and a small huff.

"Peachy," Lizzie said sarcastically as she gradually sat up and moved her fingers to her temples to massage them, which Eda took as her cue to let Lizzie go.

Meanwhile, Bandit took this as the cue to cease his nudges and nuzzles and to crawl back over to Xander's lap, with the mentioned witch leaning down close to his ferret palisman and lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Bandit, do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Bandit looked up at his owner and shook his head, making Xander's shoulders slump upon sitting up properly again. "It was worth a shot."

"What happened?" King pressed with a tilted head, returning Xander's and Bandit's attention to the current conversation. "That one looked and sounded like it came out of nowhere!"

Lizzie's eyes drooped in dismay at this. "They all come out of nowhere, King."

"You know what I mean!" King waved his arms dismissively and then crossed them in front of his chest with the roll of his eyes. "It didn't look like there was a trigger this time!"

Xander's brows knitted together at the mention of 'trigger'. But then he watched Eda's golden eyes become drawn to the opened pages of the photo album still resting in the younger witch's lap.

"Is that my Hexside photo album?" Eda questioned incredulously, collecting the opened book into her palms upon returning her attention to Lizzie again. "What are you doing with this?"

"She said she was 'sleuthing'," King explained in Lizzie's stead and raised both sets of his claws to mimic quotation marks around the last thing he said. "It's related to what she asked you earlier, apparently."

"What she asked me earlier?"

"When I asked about your age, Eda," Lizzie clarified, prompting Eda's brows to raise with a blink at remembering what the younger witch was getting at.

"Oh, yeah." The Owl Lady turned the book round to get a glimpse at the pages they'd been left open on during Lizzie's 'episode' a moment ago. "And did it have something to do with your 'memory block' just now?"

Lizzie rolled her eyes playfully at the phrase Eda had used to describe her headache, yet just as she opened her mouth to respond to the older witch, Xander beat her to it.

"Memory block?" he repeated with a sceptically raised brow, his lone eye shifting between Lizzie and Eda out of confusion before focusing specifically on the latter of the two witches. "Do you mean the headache?"

Ah. Lizzie had almost forgotten Xander was sitting right next to her and listening in to the ensuing conversation.

"Yes," Lizzie answered Xander with forced emphasis, lifting a palm once more to rub at the middle of her forehead. "I got a headache because my brain was trying to stop me from remembering a memory connected to that Oracle student."

"Oracle student?" Eda questioned, looking down at the still opened photo album and pointing a claw-nailed finger to the unknown Oracle student in question. "You mean this witch in the background?"

"Uh-huh," Lizzie confirmed. "She seemed familiar when I gave the photograph a closer look, but the headache didn't hit until I looked at Xander."

"And Tool-bag knows who she is?"

"My name is Xander, Bird-lady," Xander hissed and scowled at the older witch, only to relax his expression with a surprised blink at seeing Lizzie give him a gentle and sympathetic pat on his closest shoulder.

"Don't waste your breath. Trust me—they've called me 'Lizzie' for the last three years despite my very vocal objections." King responded to this statement with a high-pitched giggle from behind his paws. "But yes, Eda, he does."

"And so should you," Xander added in a tight tone, rolling his good eye. "But of course you insist on playing up the theatrics."

Lizzie clicked her tongue in disapproval at the scathing comment, but she chose not to fire a retort back. After all, it wasn't like Xander was going to believe a word she said. On the other hand, Eda ignored for the moment Xander and leaned in closer to the photograph, narrowing her golden eyes and staring intensely at it.

That just left King frowning in confusion and glancing between the two cousins with multiple blinks. "What theatrics?"

"Xander thinks I'm faking my memory loss," Lizzie elaborated monotonously, causing King's jaw to drop open and his eyes to widen.

"What?!"

But King's shocked reaction went ignored by Xander, who was glaring at Lizzie with such vitriol, Lizzie could have sworn he was trying to burn holes through her very soul.

"I don't think anything," he spat. "I know you are."

"Sure," Lizzie responded sarcastically, hoping that the conversation was going to be concluded there.

But then Eda abruptly lowered the photo album away from her face and sat upright again with a short jolt.

"Oh! I know who this is!" she exclaimed and jabbed an index finger harshly into the page a couple of times. "Didn't know her personally, but she was from the Lunalight family!"

"The Lunalight family?" Lizzie mumbled and furrowed her brows in thought, scooting closer to Eda's left side to get another peek at the photograph along with King, who moved to Eda's other side. The younger blonde caught Xander intently watching her within her peripheral vision, yet she wisely chose to ignore it, namely because the surname Eda spoke of sounded familiar somehow. "I feel like I've heard of them somewhere before now…"

King jabbed a claw in Xander's direction with a wink. "Maybe you heard it from him and can't remember!" he joked, causing both him and Lizzie to break out into amused snickers.

Xander, on the other hand, was not amused, as proven by the narrowing of his lone eye at the little demon. "She definitely did not. Though, it's bold of the demonic mongrel in a cheerleading outfit to make a mockery of an Emperor's Coven scout."

King's snickers stopped at the last thing Xander said as he gave a shocked blink, prompting Xander to triumphantly smirk and lift his chin to the air under the belief he'd just put the little demon in his place. However, the young coven scout's smirk was quick to fade at sighting the awed glint that entered King's pink eyes, a loud oxygen-sucking gasp sounding from behind the paws that flew to his bony jaw.

"Wait!" he cried excitedly and briefly glanced down at his attire. "This 'armour of intimidation' is for a leader of cheers?"

Xander lifted a confused brow at the little demon's question. "What? No! That's not what I was—"

"Yes!" King's eyes sparkled as he clenched his paws into tight fists and held them high above his head, spreading his legs apart in a proud stance. "I knew you'd granted me this powerful attire for a reason, Eda! The King of Demons is also a leader of cheers, a commander of admiration!"

"… Uh…" was all Xander could utter as he stared at King with a dumbfounded gape and repeated blinks, naturally at a loss for words.

Meanwhile, Lizzie lightly facepalmed her forehead at King's misinformed proclamation, leaving the Owl Lady turning her head away and pressing her palms hard against her lips, trying to muffle the breathy snorts threatening to spill at how hilarious it was that King's naivety had furthered what she'd started as a harmless joke.

"Y-Yeah, s-sure!" Eda forced out in between suppressed snorts, making her technical charge shake her head a couple of times at the tears she could see building in the Owl Lady's eyes.

'Titan, help me…'

Luckily for Lizzie, Eda's amusement was short-lived, as she eventually managed to calm herself down enough to talk properly after a sharp intake and exhale of breath through her nose.

"Whew!" She paused to wipe a stray tear from one of her eyes with a finger. "But joking aside, I bet Redwood's probably heard of 'em anyways, because—"

Though, before Eda could continue, the snooty voice of Lilith swiftly cut her off and finished her sentence for her. "—they're a wealthy and powerful witch family of fortune tellers known throughout the Boiling Isles."

All four heads turned to look at the Emperor's Coven leader standing behind the Owl Lady with her arms crossed against her middle, a sight that left Eda scowling up at her older sister and scrunching her nose.

"You couldn't have let me finish?"

"You were taking your time," Lilith retorted and casually shrugged. "I was beginning to think you were getting nervous about the tiebreaker." Ignoring the eye roll and inaudible grumble Eda gave her in reply, Lilith focused her attention on the photograph wedged into Eda's photo album a second time, arching her body over to allow her aquamarine eyes to scrutinise it closer. "I believe that young witch is 'Cecilia Lunalight', the current patriarch's only child and daughter. I wasn't aware she was there when that photograph was taken…"

"You and me both, sister," Eda muttered in agreement, only to scratch at the side of her head. "Then again, some of my memories of Hexside are a little fuzzy these days…"

Lilith tutted patronisingly and exaggeratedly shook her head in disappointment. "Is that your apple blood addiction finally catching up to you, Edalyn?"

Eda blindly swatted her hand in Lilith's direction, forcing the Emperor's Coven leader upright to avoid the swipe. "Oh, stow it!" Closing the photo album shut again with both palms and placing it back into Lizzie's lap, Eda got to her feet and faced Lilith with a cocky smile, arching her backwards with her hands on her lower back until she heard a satisfying crack. "Don't we have a grudgby game I need to crush you at?"

"Indeed, we do." Lilith briefly watched King scurry off back to the chalkboard before she peeked round her younger sister at Lizzie. "Provided Elisabeth is well now, of course."

Lizzie heard Xander mutter 'She was always fine,' under his breath, yet she purposely ignored him, instead giving Eda a small thumbs-up when she glanced at her from over her shoulder.

"Redwood's all good," Eda reiterated for Lilith's benefit, prompting the Emperor's Coven leader to nod in acknowledgement.

"Glad to hear it." Lilith turned around and strolled back to the grudgby court at the same time Hooty retracted himself back, though that didn't stop her from shooting the Owl Lady a sarcastic remark. "Maybe now you won't have to resort to cheating to win another match, like you did during Covention."

Lizzie was expecting Eda to brush off the jab with a forced laugh and flippant wave of her hand, returning her older sister's competitive energy using a clever jab of her own. After all, even if what Lilith said was true, the Owl Lady never cared for what people thought of her. She acted on her own terms and no one else's, a fact Lizzie had come to learn the hard on many occasions. However, instead, the younger blonde spied Eda's shoulders stiffen and hunch, her body faintly flinching at Lilith's words. Eda still had her back to Lizzie, so she couldn't see her technical employer's face. But she could definitely sense that something was off based on the Owl Lady's closed body language, especially when Eda stayed where she was and never followed after Lilith to the grudgby court.

"… Eda?" Lizzie finally addressed the older witch after a minute had gone by and she still hadn't moved. The blonde witch watched Eda shake her head about, relax her stiff posture and then partially turn to face her before saying anything else, noticing a dazed glint in her golden eyes that dispersed as they made eye contact. "Are you okay?"

As if a switch had been flipped on the back of her head, Eda's surprised demeanour swiftly shifted into a cocky smile, a hand going to her hip. "Right as the Boiling Rain, kid! Just remembered that I needed a quick favour from you."

Lizzie's brow raised out of confusion and curiosity, though she couldn't help squinting a little out of suspicion too; why did she get the feeling Eda was up to something? "What is it?"

Sticking out her tongue to the side, Eda plunged her other hand into her bushy mane of grey and white hair and rummaged around until she yanked her Hexside lunchbox out by the handle. It squeaked loudly as she bent down at the waist and gently dropped it into Lizzie's lap, remaining unfazed by the surprised blink and recoil the younger witch gave in response. "Hold onto that for me, would ya?"

It took Lizzie several seconds to process what she was staring at, yet the moment she did, the blonde's jaw dropped open like an old door on loose hinges.

"W-W-W-What?" Lizzie finally stuttered out. Grabbing the lunchbox with both hands, she looked between it and Eda multiple times and repeatedly blinked, struggling to comprehend what her technical employer was doing. "D-Don't you need this?"

"Nah!" Eda gave an open-armed shrug and stood up straight again. "It's been deadweight in my hair throughout the whole game anyways. It's better if I just get rid of it for this one."

"B-But didn't you say—?"

"I did." Eda silenced Lizzie by taking a firm grip on her right shoulder. "But you said it yourself, right?" The Owl Lady paused and to give Lizzie's shoulder a squeeze and wink. "If you're good at something, you don't need tricks to win."

Lizzie caught the Owl Lady's purposeful change in wording from what she'd originally said, having a feeling that she'd done so knowing Xander was sitting beside her. But her brain couldn't even begin to formulate a response to the verbal acknowledgement that Eda had come to this epiphany because she'd remembered what she'd said to her earlier. All she could do was speechlessly watch Eda pull away and walk towards the pretend grudgby court with her shoulders squared and her chest puffed out, an air of confidence wafting around her as she went.

"I told you I'd learnt my lesson from Covention, kid," Eda continued. "So, don't you worry about me." She looked back at the still shocked Lizzie while continuing her walk to click her tongue and do the finger-gun motion with both index fingers and thumbs, her cocky smile morphing into a wide grin. "I'll show Lil I've still got the skills to pay the bills!"

A/N: So, you all are probably wondering why Xander still didn't believe Lizzie has memory problems. After rewriting this scene multiple times, I realised that it was completely out of character for Xander at this point to actually start his epiphany, especially as the focus of this particular scene was on the proper reveal of the final OC who I have been hinting at throughout previous chapters. However, Xander and Lizzie will get a moment to themselves when I finally end the grudgby game in Chapter 61, because I felt that was a better place to expand on Xander actually thinking into things, among other stuff I still need to address. This is why I cut the ending of the game off from this chapter, because that moment between Lilith and Eda is going to play a big role into this. But yeah, you've also now found out the other thing I was building up to: Marigold, Allard and Ulritch have been confirmed to be attending Hexside around the same time as Eda. I mean, this was already hinted at quite a bit with the 'Blackwood' Eda kept mentioning, along with Allard name dropping Raine during Chapter 53. But considering what Bump revealed during Chapter 53 about the Blackwood brothers, it shouldn't be too difficult for you guys to guess which Blackwood Eda was talking about in Chapter 57. And yes, I changed the way Eda decides to not cheat during the grudgby match. As funny as it was when she discovered Luz had cleaned out her cheat box and was forced to use her own skills, I wanted to give her a bit of character development here and come to the decision on her own without knowing of the truth at the time. Seemed very in character for Eda to stubbornly do so and have Lizzie's words hammer home once Lilith reminded her of what happened at Covention. XD