A/N: Phew. Well, this chapter took me longer to write than what I was hoping for, for a number of reasons. But the main ones are that 1) I had to set up a lot of twists here in preparation for episode 13; 2) I got indecisive about what I wanted to focus on here to avoid making this episode unnecessarily long; 3) Luz was hard to write. More on that at the bottom of the chapter; and 4) we've currently got a heatwave going on and it is so bad, it's killed my muse to write. No kidding. It's unbearable and hard to focus. But after a bit of pushing and constant mental debates, I've finally got the next portion of the episode written up. XD I have a feeling you guys are going to enjoy this part, because not only are you going to find some more hints pertaining to a certain someone and witness tension and drama building up between Luz and Lizzie, but you will probably tell at least a quarter of the way into the chapter that I had a bit of fun with a specific interaction between Lizzie and Eda. I'll see if you can guess which one it is...

Thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, reviewing, following and reading this fanfic. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. Not sure when I'm going to have Chapter 36 out, as I am working simultaneously on updating another fic of mine for the end of this month. Plus, apparently, this heatwave is supposed to continue into next week. So, do expect delays. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the next chapter. Also, another reminder that I still have that poll for your thoughts on Season 1A still on my profile. Please do check it out when you get the chance; I'd love to hear which retellings you guys enjoyed seeing Lizzie in.


Chapter 35: Sick with Envy

Lizzie knew she shouldn't have been surprised to see the Blights at the Knee. The location wasn't a secret and based on the few stories she recalled her parents telling her, the area was a popular destination for those with magic looking to get stronger (with Eda's earlier explanations further intensifying that theory). But that didn't stop her body from slumping as she took in the wide-eyed blink of Amity Blight staring at her, along with the bright smiles and waves of Edric and Emira Blight standing just behind her, the pair calling out to Lizzie without a second thought.

"Liz!"

"Hey, Lizzie!"

'… Oh, Titan, end me.'

Like she, Eda, and Luz were, Lizzie could see that the Blights currently wore outfits designed to help them fend off the cold and chilly atmosphere of the Knee, seemingly designed using the colours that matched the type of magic they used (a guess that had Lizzie biting the inside of her lip to prevent herself from chuckling, simply because she found it funny). Amity was wearing a purple coat with light purple fluff around the hood, with the addition of black leggings, purple gloves, dark purple boots with matching fluff to the coat and fluffy purple earmuffs. The twins, on the other hand, were wearing blue coats with black fluffy innards, coupled with black gloves and brown boots. Like their casual outfits, it seemed like the twins were attempting to match each other, with the only differences being Edric wearing black fluffy earmuffs and long trousers, while Emira wore a purple fluffy hat to cover the top of her head and appeared to have her trousers tucked into her boots. Although Lizzie did note that the colour of the hat and the band Edric's earmuffs were attached to corresponded with the colours of Amity's outfit, with Amity's earmuff band matching the black colour of the twins' outfits, another thing that forced her to suck in a deep breath through her nostrils before she released a laugh.

The moment Edric and Emira had drawn attention to Lizzie though, the older witch caught Luz ducking behind the ruins and yanking Eda down with her out of the corner of her eyes, an action that left the blonde witch raising a brow in their general direction. She hadn't caught Luz's expression during the initial revelation, so she couldn't be blamed for being confused by her reaction.

'What's gotten into Luz? Have I missed something?'

At seeing the Blights beginning to walk over to her, Lizzie knew that her questions were going to remain rhetorical for the time being, deciding to give the trio a wave and forced smile so she wasn't being rude, even if it was through a sigh.

'Guess I'm on my own for now.'

"Hey, guys," she said weakly. "Fancy seeing you here."

"We could say the same!" Emira replied as the trio stopped close to her, the twins' smiles never leaving their faces.

Lizzie's gaze eventually focused on Amity since she was at the front of the pack while Edric and Emira stood on either side just behind her respectively, especially when the youngest Blight spoke.

"Elisabeth," Amity said monotonously, acknowledging the older witch with a nod.

Lizzie noted Amity held an indifferent expression while briefly raising a brow at hearing her first name, which she took as a sign that she was neither uncomfortable nor overly comfortable with her presence.

'Huh. I guess that's a bit of an improvement from our last encounter at the library. I mean, Amity did use my first name then too, but she was in the clutches of a giant pink rabbit. Not exactly the time to be focused on how you address someone.'

"… Amity," Lizzie replied and returned the nod, an act which prompted the young Blight to raise a brow; Lizzie couldn't blame her, considering this was the first time she'd addressed the younger girl by her first name to her face. "Very surprised to see you here." Lizzie's eyes flitted between Edric and Emira on either side of her. "And with the 'terrible twosome' no less."

Edric released an exaggerated gasp and placed a hand to his chest, slouching his body as if Lizzie had physically wounded him with her comment. "Ouch."

Amity rolled her eyes at her brother. "They insisted on helping me train."

Lizzie tilted her head to the side with a blink. "Train?"

"Mittens has exams coming up," Emira explained as she wrapped an arm around Amity's shoulders and pulled her into her side, which the younger witch squinted at out of disapproval.

"And what better way to show our baby sister our love and support than helping her prep!" Edric added, resting an elbow on Amity's opposite shoulder with a grin.

At seeing Lizzie purse her lips at the pair and lean back a bit at their behaviour, Amity leaned forward towards Lizzie and lowered her voice, placing the back of her hand by her mouth to try to prevent her siblings from hearing.

"They've been acting extra nice and protective since the… library incident."

"Ah…" Lizzie mumbled and nodded stiffly in understanding, watching Emira reach over to pinch both of Amity's cheeks, making the younger Blight's eye twitch. 'Looks like I got through to them both a little too well then...' "Although, why would you want their help with your training? Isn't Lilith still your mentor?"

Lizzie saw Amity's shoulders stiffen at the mention of Lilith's name, prompting the green-haired witch to grip at her elbow and lower her gaze to the snowy ground. Both Edric and Emira exchanged furrowed brows before the latter stepped away from her sister to approach Lizzie and whisper into her closest ear.

"Mittens cut her ties after the incident at Covention. She felt the coven leader was more concerned about maintaining her image rather than her student's best interests."

"Right…" Lizzie replied in kind, her eyes drooping at recalling the rollercoaster of emotions Amity seemed to go through when Eda had yanked that Construction Coven glyph off the back of her neck. 'Not that I can blame her. What Lilith did was pretty scummy.'

Unfortunately for Emira, Amity still heard, prompting her to respond after willing herself to lock eyes with the blonde witch again. "I asked Ed and Em to help me so I could beat their highest score on the exam."

"But even with our help, it's impossible," Edric remarked with a prideful smile and a raised chin, moving his hand to her shoulder to give it a rough pat. "After all, she still needs to use a training wand to learn new spells."

Amity's cheeks flushed a bright red when she turned and scowled at her older brother, clearly embarrassed at his insults. Yet that quickly disappeared with raised brows when she heard Lizzie laugh, turning to the older witch just in time to see her cover her smirk with her hand.

"Well, that's mighty bold of you to say,"—she leaned forward towards the shorter witch with her hand partially raised, exposing her widened smirk—"since it's coming from the witch who once held his training wand backwards and covered himself in soot the first time he used it~."

Emira cackled and hunched forward with her arms hugging her abdomen, her body violently shaking from her laughter. Meanwhile, Edric covered his cheeks with his hands and backed up at feeling the heat immediately rising to his face, staring at Lizzie wide-eyed and his own face flushing pink.

"H-Hey! Way to go exposing me!" Edric briefly glanced at Amity when the youngest Blight snorted and turned her head away to hide her amused smile, prompting the older green-haired teen to loudly clear his throat while his twin took deep breaths to calm down, her own cheeks flushed from her laughing fit. "Ahem! B-But enough about us!"

"Yeah," Emira chimed in once she was able. She straightened up and lightly nudged Lizzie in the side with her elbow, giving the older witch a sideways glance. "What brings you to the Knee? Are you doing your own training?"

Lizzie's eyes momentarily darted to where Luz and Eda were hiding before giving the trio of Blights a small smile, noting that neither of the pair had bothered to come out yet. She felt there was no reason to lie to them… kind of. "Not me personally." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of Luz and Eda. "I'm just here to help Eda with Luz's training. She's trying to learn—"

"A cool new spell!" Luz's shout interrupted Lizzie and caused the blonde witch to flinch out of surprise, forcing the four witches to look towards the young human standing up behind the ruined wall. She had a hand held up and an unusually wide grin on her face, something that left Lizzie narrowing her eyes especially at the next words that left her mouth. "Yup! T-That's totally what Liz was going to say! A-ha…"

'Is that sweat gathering on her face?'

From Lizzie's view, it looked like Luz's face had grown a bit moist, with her shoulders squared and her waving appearing stiff and robotic-like. Her reactions were certainly reminiscent to the type of behaviour Lizzie recognised Luz to do when she was up to something, a fact further proven when the girl's hazel eyes locked with Amity's golden own (whose brow was raised at Luz's actions, making Lizzie wonder if even Amity was starting to think Luz was acting weird).

"Heya, Amity!" Luz went to lean her left arm against the top of the wall. "So, you're here for—"

The Latina was cut off when the snow underneath her arm failed to create the necessary friction to support the pressure she put on the stone, resulting in Luz's eyes widening at feeling her arm slide off suddenly and cause her to lose her balance.

"Whoa—!"

With a loud cry, Luz found herself falling forward over the wall and crashing onto her left side in the snow with a loud thud and splat, with all three of the Blights watching this on with raised brows and wide blinks. Lizzie winced and sucked in a breath through her teeth at watching chunks of snow fling into the air from the impact, with the noise even prompting Eda to peek round from her hiding spot out of concern.

'Oof. I bet that hurt.'

And Lizzie wasn't wrong. Despite her unceremonious landing, Luz was quick to straighten up, bend her right leg, cup her left hand under her chin and then support her body with her right arm lying flat, looking up at Amity with a forced smile and nervous sounding laugh.

"Haha…! I'm okay…!"

But it only took a couple of seconds for her act to drop when the pressure on her left elbow became too much, causing Luz's smile to fade with a quiet hiss and jerk of her arm. The young girl sat up with her left arm cradled and clutched to her chest, her gaze immediately turning to Lizzie's. Luz's slightly squinted expression and current stance alone were enough for the young witch to piece together what the human was asking of her, yet Luz still felt the need to speak up in a quiet voice when she gave her a wobbly smile.

"Uh… Liz?" She raised her elbow a little and briefly turned her eyes to it. "A little help please?"

With a quiet sigh and shake of the head, Lizzie moved away from the Blights and approached Luz without hesitation.

"You're lucky I stocked up on my supplies before we left," Lizzie grumbled as she reached her gloved hand into her satchel before she even gave herself the chance to flip the lid open, rummaging around for her healing potion and the sanitised supplies she'd put in there too.

By the time Lizzie had knelt on one knee in front of Luz, she'd pulled out a tiny vial of dark blue liquid while Luz had rolled up her coat sleeve to expose her elbow, which had small red-like scrape marks on her skin; apparently, Luz had managed to scrape her arm when she'd lost her grip on the snowy wall.

'At least her coat is still intact. I can't remember if either Eda or I actually packed a sowing kit…'

And speaking of Eda, Lizzie thought she saw the Owl Lady stand and walk off with her hands behind her back within range of her peripheral vision, yet the blonde witch paid it no heed. Eda likely didn't know what was going on and was looking for an excuse to slowly sneak away from the situation without making a scene, especially now that she knew Luz was okay… ish.

Although Lizzie's focus remained on removing the cork from the vial and pouring some of its contents onto the cotton ball she'd taken from her satchel, it didn't stop her catching sight of twin shadows creeping their way behind her to linger on either side of Luz, with said younger girl momentarily blinking up at the two witches who had slunk their way to Lizzie's side. Of course, Lizzie didn't pay them any mind, keeping her focus on her current task and handing Luz the now drenched cotton ball. She knew it was the Blight twins being nosy, as she was familiar with their past behaviour enough.

"Dab that on your wound and it'll clear up in a jiffy," Lizzie instructed, which Luz nodded stiffly to as she did as she was told.

This allowed the older witch to spy movement from the shadow on her right side when the silhouette raised their hand and tried to stretch it towards where Lizzie's satchel was on her opposite side. Without turning her head, Lizzie addressed the culprit with a low hiss, doing so almost as if it was instinctual.

"Edric Blight, don't you even think about it."

The silhouette's hand froze in place from where it had reached halfway towards its destination, which Lizzie took as her prompt to peek over her right shoulder with a squint. She was met with the forced tooth-bearing grin of Edric, who slowly retracted his one hand while using the other to rub at the back of his neck with a shrug—the sight caused a brief warmth of familiarity to blossom in her chest, almost as if she was experiencing seeing this reaction of his twice over.

"You can't blame a guy for trying! You keep your secrets well-guarded!"

"And I intend to keep it that way, thank you."

It was around this time that Lizzie saw Amity move to stand beside her brother. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest and her gaze appeared fixed on Luz while she wiped the cotton ball over her scrapes. It looked like the youngest Blight was concerned for Luz and wanted to make sure she was okay. Out of the corner of her eyes, Lizzie saw Luz look to Amity with a small smile and open her mouth in preparation to speak, likely to return them to whatever she'd intended to say to the green-haired girl before her fall had interrupted her. However, before she even got the chance to say anything, Emira beat her to it, all while placing both her hands on Lizzie's left shoulder and leaning forward to get a peek at the vial in Lizzie's lap.

"That doesn't look like any store-bought healing potions or elixirs I know of," she remarked, ignoring the feeling of Lizzie's shoulders hunching at the pressure she was applying to her one side. The two witches locked eyes as Lizzie corked the vial, prompting the blonde witch to see the younger greenette's golden pupils widen a little with awe. "Did you make this?"

But Lizzie didn't answer straight away, instead quietly gulping at the intensifying warmth still lingering within the confines of her chest. It was hard to ignore, but that shouldn't have been surprising for the older witch, a fact that caused her to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself from smirking.

For a moment, the blonde found herself being reminded of the two short adolescent amateur witches from her Hexside days: the curious and eager-to-learn older sister with the endless questions and who didn't know the meaning of 'personal space', and the mischievous and cheeky younger brother who was too nosy for his own good and almost always took advantage of her lowered guard to try to get a peek at her notes. Compared to their younger selves, they seemed like they'd matured a bit over the last three years since she'd seen them. But that didn't stop the blonde from catching the familiar mischievous and curious glints lighting up their eyes when she'd glanced at them both. And while at the time she'd found them to be annoying and a pair of nuisances, recent events had opened her eyes a bit to the twin Blights.

'Geez, these two haven't changed much, have they?'

There was a short moment of delay, only for Lizzie to loudly clear her throat and respond to Emira in a quiet voice, keeping her gaze solely on the vial in her hands.

"Uh-huh." She gave the vial a little shake, making the dark blue liquid inside slosh against the sides of the glass. "Although, it's accurate to say that I combined already existing recipes and strengthened it with matching spells."

"Recipes and spells?" Edric repeated, deciding to copy his sister and bend down to peek over Lizzie's other shoulder with the tilt of his head. "How many recipes and spells are in there?"

"Three of each. It's supposed to be an 'all-in-one' type of potion, specifically for surface wounds."

"Whoa, really?" Emira exclaimed as she inched her face closer to the vial, staring back at her wide, golden eyed and agape mouthed reflection. "That's so cool."

"Yeah," Edric mumbled in agreement, a wide smile stretching across his face as he dared to glance over at Luz's elbow, just about catching the fading blue glow against her now healed skin. "It's nice to see your expulsion hasn't stopped you making new potions, Redwood."

Lizzie blinked widely at Edric's comment then, feeling a sudden heat rush to her face that she could only assume was out of embarrassment. "Is it?"

"It really is," Emira answered, eventually pulling back and choosing to rest her arms against Lizzie's shoulder instead, placing her chin atop them with a small smile. "Even back then, you always seemed to come up with powerful stuff. We don't care if it's breaking the rules. You have a knack for creativity."

When was the last time she'd received a compliment like that on her potion work? Probably from Luz, she thought. Although she did recall Eda being the first one to actually take pride in her work and her creativity, which made for a nice change from the negativity she was used to. Hearing some more positivity from other witches made her chest swell with pride, and for a moment the blonde felt brave enough to raise her chin and smile faintly.

"O-Oh?" She stammered, briefly pausing to swallow before continuing. "T-Thank you. But considering I'm using established recipes, I wouldn't say it was that creative—"

"I'm working on something powerful and creative too!" Luz's abrupt interruption made Lizzie flinch in surprise, with all three witches glancing at the young human to see her leaping to her feet and putting her hands to her hips.

Lizzie's brows furrowed at Luz's behaviour and the droplets of sweat she could literally see trickling down the girl's face, forcing her to stay silent for the time being. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on with Luz, but if she didn't know any better… it seemed like she was trying to divert the attention towards her.

'Isn't this the second time she's lied now?'

Edric and Emira, on the other hand, gave each other quick sideways glances before they both stood up and moved from Lizzie's side to approach Luz instead, which Lizzie took as her cue to stand and return her supplies to her satchel.

"How powerful and creative?" Edric asked as he mimicked Luz's current stance, while Emira clasped her hands behind her back.

Luz puffed her chest out at this. "I wish I could tell you. But it's so crazy, I can't even describe how crazy it is!" The younger girl smiled widely and jabbed a thumb into the chest of her coat. "That's how incredible of a teacher Eda is!"

And, as if on cue, Lizzie spied said 'teacher' marching over to the group from behind Luz, carrying a brown basket filled to the brim with snowballs on her right arm.

"Hey, girls!" Eda said with a grin as she held up the basket for them to see, with Luz raising a brow when the Owl Lady stopped beside her. "You want me to show you how you can identify different types of snow? Hint: it involves taste." Eda grabbed a snowball from the top of the pile and held it out towards Luz, who immediately frowned, squinted and leaned away to avoid it as much as possible. This left Eda to frown in return, prompting the Owl Lady to step closer to the human and proceed to squish the hardened snow against her closest cheek. "C'mon! Eat it and tell me what you taste!"

Edric and Emira watched Luz scrunching her face up against Eda's physical insistence to force the snow into her mouth with raised brows (and in Emira's case a hand on her cheek with her other palm elevating her elbow), while Amity and Lizzie were left with drooped eyes at the scene that was unfolding before them.

'Dear Titan…'

"Eda, quit forcing Luz to eat snow," Lizzie said sternly while stepping towards the pair with her arms crossed and a scowl on her brow. "You could get her sick. You don't know what's been walking on it."

Eda rolled her eyes and plopped the snowball back into the basket. "Killjoy."

But then Lizzie saw Eda's eyes light up after a few seconds of staring at her snowball horde, prompting the blonde's eyes to narrow at the slight smirk she saw slip onto her employer's face. It didn't take much for Lizzie to figure out what was going through Eda's head in that moment. The look she currently had said it all.

"Hey, Redwood," Eda began and gripped both sides of the basket in her gloved hands, her smirk widening with a slight squint. Her next words confirmed Lizzie's fears. "I bet you fifty snails I can fit all these in my mouth and swallow 'em without getting brain freeze."

And before Eda's words could properly be processed by the young witches and lone human gathered at the Knee, the Owl Lady was already tilting her head and the basket back, with snowballs tumbling and piling up into her open mouth. Luz scrunched her face up and looked away with two fingers massaging her forehead, while Lizzie was left facepalming and briefly closing her eyes, grumbling under her breath.

"Eda, for the love of the Titan…"

Luz dared to peek towards the Blights then, seeing Amity watching this scene on with her arms still folded and an indifferent expression, while Edric and Emira just stared with the occasional blink and the slight tilt of their heads.

"Uh…" Emira eventually said once Eda had emptied the entire contents of the basket into her mouth and tossed it to one side, tilting her head. "Is this supposed to be some kind of special magic?"

"Ahem," Amity cleared her throat, prompting both Edric and Emira to give her a sideways glance. "I don't think the Owl Lady is willing to give up her secrets pertaining to her… powerful spells," she answered monotonously. She gave Luz a nod before she turned to walk away. "We should leave them to their training."

Edric and Emira straightened out at this and glanced at Eda and Lizzie once more, with Luz cringing at doing the same and seeing Eda pointing her fingers at her mouth that was now looking close to bursting from the packed in snowballs, so much so her cheeks had puffed up. She reminded Luz of a very hungry squirrel who had overloaded its mouth with acorns. Lizzie, meanwhile, wasn't impressed with Eda's antics, as evidenced when she frowned at Eda making muffled attempts to speak. She twirled her index finger to draw a spell circle, alighting her fingertip with a small flame. From context, Luz could quickly conclude that Eda had literally bitten off more than she could chew and was now struggling to swallow the snow.

"It's rude to talk with your mouth full," the younger witch said sarcastically before she moved her flaming fingertip closer to the hardened ice balls sticking out of Eda's mouth. "Now, stay still."

It didn't take long for the boiling temperatures emitted from the flame to cause the snowballs to lose their structure and start to melt, allowing Eda to close her mouth and thickly swallow them in one loud gulp. Lizzie stepped back and dispersed the flame with another twirl of her finger, watching with drooped eyes as Eda's face contorted with pain and her hands flew to her forehead.

"Ack! Brain freeze! Brain freeze!"

"Well, that's what you get for trying to eat a bunch of snow! What were you expecting to happen?!"

Luz quietly groaned and turned back to the Blight twins with hunched shoulders and her eyes closed, mentally wishing she could blend in with the snow right now because of Lizzie and Eda. But surprisingly, Edric and Emira were rather calm despite Eda's antics, with Emira offering Luz a small smile while Edric bent down to scoop a ball of snow up from the ground, which he held close to his face with a raised brow.

"Mittens is right. We'll catch up with you and Liz later, human," Emira said to Luz, catching Edric within her peripheral vision slowly moving the snowball closer to his face and sticking his tongue out as if he was going to lick it. "Good luck with your… training."

Edric flinched when Emira suddenly swatted her hand towards him and smacked the snowball out of his hand, grabbing him by the wrist and quickly dragging him after Amity. In response, Edric's body briefly slumped with a dejected 'Aw…' escaping him as he allowed himself to be pulled backwards, yet he was soon perking up and smiling alongside Emira to wave at the trio, with Luz returning the same smile and wave.

"See you later, Luz, Liz!"

Lizzie broke her attention away from Eda massaging her forehead at hearing Edric address her, quickly waving and smiling at the twins so she didn't seem rude. Once the Blights were out of earshot, however, Lizzie faced Eda again with her hands to her hips, her smile melting into a frown.

"I hope you're happy with yourself, Eda."

Eda rolled her eyes and shook her head with a grumble. "I don't know what you're mad about. I'm the one who's out of fifty snails…"

Lizzie grabbed at the hair on the front of her head and gave it a tug. "That shouldn't be your main concern!"

Eda furrowed her brows and opened her mouth with a retort already on the tip of her tongue, yet before she even had a chance to say it, Luz's yelling beat her to it.

"Would you two please take this seriously?!" Lizzie and Eda turned to Luz at the same time, seeing the Latina girl glaring at them with her fists shaking at her sides.

For a moment, Lizzie's and Eda's reactions were delayed. And why wouldn't they be when Luz was suddenly displaying a bout of anger seemingly out of nowhere? It was only natural it would leave them momentarily speechless. But unlike Lizzie, Eda was quicker to bounce back.

"You need to take us seriously," Eda answered strictly, placing her hands to her hips and turning her head to the side with her eyes closed. "Go ahead and eat snow without my guidance! You'll see where it gets you!"

When Luz's words finally processed, however, Lizzie blinked widely and raised her brows, retracting her hands to her chest at feeling that dull ache sprouting up once again; why did Luz's words suddenly sound familiar? And it was that question that prompted her to speak up in a quiet voice.

"Wait, what did I do?"

"You were about to tell them I haven't learned a second spell!" Luz hissed, prompting her cheeks to flush a faint red from the anger she was apparently unleashing. "I lied to Amity during our meet-up so she didn't think I belonged in the baby class!"

"And how was I supposed to know that?" Lizzie responded sarcastically as she crossed her arms and looked off to the side. "You're taking this too seriously, Luz. I thought you would have learned from the incident at the library about trying to kiss-up to the Blights!"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't need to if you hadn't almost embarrassed me!"

The next words that left Luz's mouth made Lizzie's blood run cold, prompting her body to stiffen. A familiar male voice filled with frustration and venom unlocked from deep within the crevices of her memory, almost mirroring Luz's words as they bit back at her.

'But I wouldn't have to fight so hard for his love and admiration if you didn't keep embarrassing me, Elisabeth!'

'… Xander?'

Lizzie's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets when she recognised the owner of the voice, and yet she was only given a few seconds to dwell on the recollected words of the speaker.

"—Ah!" Lizzie cried out at the sudden sharp pain that attacked her head, forcing her to duck her head down and squeeze her eyes shut while burying her face into her arms.

Luz's anger immediately melted away to be replaced by shock upon gasping at Lizzie's reaction, with Eda staring at the blonde witch wide-eyed until she found the will to move to Lizzie's front and grasp her by the shoulders.

"Lizzie?" When Lizzie didn't answer with anything except breathless hissing, Eda tightened her grip on her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake back and forth as she went to question her again, her tone flooding with worry. "Lizzie, what's wrong?"

Yet Lizzie couldn't bring herself to say anything yet. Out of nowhere, her head had brought forth a sharp pain that was pounding against her temples, and for a moment she was convinced it wasn't going to stop. But then Eda's gentle voice broke through the pounding.

"Kid, breathe. Take deep breaths."

It took a couple of seconds for Lizzie to follow Eda's instructions, and after at least four deep and loud breaths through her mouth, she felt the pain in her head slowly begin to subside, allowing her body to slump out of relief when she was sure she couldn't feel it anymore. It had disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

'What the…? What was that…?'

"… Liz?" Luz's pained and brittle voice brought Lizzie back to reality, prompting the blonde to lower her arms and see the young human beside Eda and staring at her with tear-filled eyes; no doubt she was probably worried she'd just done something to her.

"S-Sorry," Lizzie eventually mumbled, which Eda took as her cue to release the younger witch and take a step back to give her some room. Lizzie raised her head and rubbed a hand against the middle of it, continuing with a stammer. "I-I don't know what happened there. My head just started to hurt all of a sudden..."

"You're okay, though, right?" Luz pressed, her voice cracking. "Because if what I said hurt you, I-I didn't mean it! R-Really, I'm sorry!"

Technically, she wasn't. But it was clear to Lizzie that Luz was worrying about her.

"I'm okay," Lizzie answered with a forced smile and reached a finger up to Luz's eyes to wipe her tears away. "It wasn't your fault. Don't worry."

Luz's lips quivered a little at this, yet she nodded, with Lizzie mentally thanking the Titan that Luz wasn't going to beat herself up over this. Out of the corner of her eyes, though, she saw Eda looking at her with a slight squint and her lips pressed together in a thin line, indicating she was likely suspicious about whatever had just happened to her. And that fact was proven to the young witch when the Owl Lady placed a hand to her closest shoulder.

"You should still take a break, just to be sure." Eda jabbed a thumb and tilted her head towards their left. "We'll set up camp over there so you can rest. Then I can help Luz with her training."

The mention of training caused Luz to perk up and smile widely, prompting the young human to move round Lizzie and Eda and start running on ahead.

"Great! I can't wait to learn my second spell!"

Lizzie expected Eda and her to follow straight after Luz. But as the young witch turned to do so, she felt Eda's gloved hand clamp down tight on her shoulder. Lizzie looked to the Owl Lady to see her frowning, catching a certain glint in her eye that basically spelled out 'I-know-something's-up'. Her next words were spoken lowly to avoid Luz overhearing her.

"This is related to what happened back at the Owl House, isn't it?"

Lizzie's eyes widened when she recalled the pains she'd felt back at the Owl House during the time she'd spoken with Eda about teaching her more spells, realising she'd briefly forgotten about it until now.

'Now that Eda mentions it… Luz's words caused those pains, didn't they? And the same thing happened just now too, even though the pain was a little different…'

"I don't know," Lizzie quietly answered after glancing in Luz's direction to make sure she was distracted, furrowing her brows at her technical employer. "But I'm starting to suspect it is."

Eda's frown deepened. "Once I've helped Luz, you're going to tell me what's going on, all right?" And Lizzie nodded without hesitation, knowing it was useless to hide anything from her employer. "Good."

Eda placed her other hand on Lizzie's other shoulder and began to lead her after Luz, officially ending their discussion. Yet Lizzie found herself pondering on the voice she'd heard not too long ago, her arms wrapping around her middle as she kept her gaze locked on the snowy ground crunching underneath her boots.

'That voice… was Xander's. But why would Luz's words be connected to him?'


Although Eda had originally told Lizzie and Luz that they were staying at the Knee for no more than a day at the most, she still thought it was a good idea to set up camp so they had somewhere warm to retreat to when the cold of the Knee became too much. This was why the moment the Owl Lady led the witch and human pair to an elevated cliff-like area on the edge of the ruins that overlooked the area they'd previously been stood, she wasted no time in yanking out a bunch of equipment from her messy hair needed to put up a tent and went about delegating tasks between Lizzie and Luz suited to their abilities. Luz was in charge of gathering firewood and rocks and constructing it between two logs that Eda used her levitation magic to place on either side of a pair of rocks, while Lizzie was left helping Eda pitch up what turned out to be… a very shoddy tent. As with Luz's and Eda's clothes, the light purple sheeted and dome shaped tent was decorated with a monster-like theme, containing six large horns poking through the top and four small ones littered around the entrance, which was covered with a tassel-like burgundy door. However, the tent itself was also littered with tiny rectangle patches of tape, especially on the tent's right side, which held a dark purple sheet that went diagonally across. This wasn't much of a surprise to Lizzie, though. Eda was a known cheapskate, so she frequently used whatever she could get her hands on to fix things instead of spending snails to get it done properly. She suspected Eda had probably found this tent while rummaging through garbage and thus attempted to patch it up herself.

With the fire lit and the tent set up, Eda took Luz off elsewhere to focus on her training to learn a second spell, leaving Lizzie sitting by the fire on the furthest rock to be alone with the orange sky of dusk approaching and her thoughts. And while her original plan had been to dwell on her strange and sudden unresolved feelings during the absence of the Owl Lady and the Latina human, she wound up getting an unexpected distraction from her current vantage point, courtesy of the Blights down below.

With her back to the roaring orange and yellow flames of the fire, her hands supporting her cheeks and her elbows resting on her thighs, Lizzie watched from above as a smiling Amity (stood off to the left in a wide stance) fired a purple flame from the tip of the brown training wand with the purple handle towards the right, where Emira and Edric respectively stood opposite her. The purple stream headed straight for a grinning Edric, who managed to stumble to the right to avoid getting hit. Meanwhile, Emira was conjuring a blue spell circle with her left index finger, giving rise to a large snowy hand and arm that emerged from the snow in front of Amity and lunged towards her. Luckily, Amity had seen it within her peripheral vision, prompting her to draw a purple spell circle with the wand in front of her face and create a transparent, semi-circle shaped purple forcefield to flash before her just in time, stemming from behind the circle. The snow hand splattered into snowy chunks that flew off to the sides the moment it collided with the forcefield, a sight that Lizzie noticed caused Emira's smile to widen as she folded her arms across her chest.

'Huh. Would you look at that. Maybe those two are finally being genuine siblings to her now.'

As Amity swiped her wand off to the left to conjure the forcefield away, her golden eyes locked with Lizzie's with a wide blink. Despite her surprise, though, Lizzie was left blinking widely herself when the youngest Blight's smile shrunk a little and she offered her a wave, an expression and action that the older witch soon found herself returning.

'Don't know if she's trying to make an effort to not be rude. But at least it's better than her actually being rude.'

With Amity distracted, however, Lizzie managed to catch Edric's sly smirk as he raised his right index finger, clearly intent on casting a spell to humiliate his sister. It was for that reason that just as Edric started drawing the spell circle, Lizzie raised her own finger and pointed her tip towards the snow at her feet and drew a small spell circle, causing a small chunk of snow to rise and mould into a snowball while levitating off the ground.

Before Edric even had chance to complete his spell circle, Lizzie smiled slyly and flicked her finger in the younger witch's direction, sending the levitating snowball flying through the air. It smacked straight into Edric's forehead and sent the green-haired boy stumbling backwards onto his bottom, with his spell circle wobbling and dispersing into thin air when it couldn't be completed. Emira and Amity both turned to look at Edric with wide gapes, their initial reactions delayed. But the moment they heard Lizzie break out into loud laughter (with a quick glance in her direction revealing the blonde to be leaning back on the rock she was seated on and clutching her abdomen), the two sisters found their shock shifting into amused grins, followed by laughter. Amity ended up hunching forward with her gloved hand covering her mouth, while Emira was gripping at her stomach with her head thrown back. Edric, on the other hand, didn't look impressed, wasting no time in sending a narrow-eyed stare in Lizzie's direction with his arms crossed.

Familiar snorting from behind her soon silenced Lizzie's mirth. The blonde witch straightened out and looked over her shoulder to see Eda approaching her, carrying a steaming blue mug in one hand and a steaming red mug in the other.

"I'll admit, it's strange seeing a mischievous side to you. But it is entertaining."

Lizzie smirked and rolled her eyes as she swivelled round to face the older witch, accepting the red mug into her palms when Eda reached it out to her.

"Well, don't get used to it, Owl Lady. It's not something I do often."

'Not anymore, anyway.'

Eda chuckled and settled on the log to Lizzie's right, silently watching the blonde witch blow on her boiling beverage before taking a quick sip. During this time, the blonde dared to peek over her shoulder to see where the Blights were, only to find that they were heading back towards wherever their camp was, probably to take a break, Lizzie guessed.

"Where's Luz?" Lizzie asked as she lowered her mug away from her lips and faced Eda again, to which Eda responded by jabbing her thumb over her shoulder towards a group of red leaved, snow-covered trees were.

"Over there. I've told her to watch the land carefully to see what it tells her."

"You mean like all those times you made me stare at things when you taught me spells?"

Eda winked and held up a finger. "Exactly! Like you've said, Luz's magic is not that different from ours. It's just a different technique, one which involved the earliest witches getting in touch with nature." She raised her mug close to her mouth to take a sip. "So hopefully, if I apply and combine the same methods of the Savage Ages and what I've done with you, Luz'll learn her second spell in no time!"

Lizzie furrowed her brows at this and turned away to stare at her reflection in her drink just as Eda gulped down some of her own, her eyes drooping.

"And you honestly think she'll listen to you this time?"

Eda shrugged her shoulders in response and held her mug above her thighs with both hands. "Who knows." She leaned forward with a raised brow. "Although, I'm guessing you're only asking because you've noticed something's up, right?"

Lizzie nodded stiffly and sighed heavily, closing her eyes at recalling their last conversation together prior to coming to the Knee. "If by 'something' you mean 'jealousy', then yeah, sure." When Eda didn't say anything in response, Lizzie took it as her cue to elaborate, opening her eyes and turning them to the Owl Lady with a furrowed brow. "During our past training sessions together, I've noticed Luz has a habit of putting herself down and constantly comparing my progress to hers." She tapped her fingers against her mug. "I thought at first it was down to the unrealistic expectations she'd gained from that Azura book series. But since getting her Hexside leaflet, she's been overly critical of herself and me. It's like she thinks she's competing with everybody."

"But what has that got to do with you?" Eda questioned as she squinted at the blonde witch. "Earlier, you started acting weird because of something Luz said to you. Then not too long ago, her yelling somehow triggered a headache. So,"—she reached over to give Lizzie a gentle flick in the forehead, making the witch flinch and close an eye in response—"what gives?"

Lizzie shook her head to pull herself together. "I don't know. I can't make sense of it myself." She turned her eyes to the roaring flames of the fire, a hand reaching up to rub at her forehead where Eda had flicked her when she started mumbling. "But I won't deny that her behaviour and words as of recent have felt… familiar."

"Familiar? How?"

Lizzie hunched her shoulders and looked at her boots, Xander's former words springing up in her mind once more. "It's hard to describe. Yet the best way to put it would be that it's a sense of déjà vu, as if I've experienced a similar situation before. Like… she's acting like someone I've encountered before."

"And would that 'someone' happen to be Mister Tool?" Eda asked, causing Lizzie to whip her head towards the Owl Lady with her mouth dropping open, as if her jaw had lost its hinge. The younger blonde sat there wide-eyed and as frozen as a statue, with Eda straightening up and remaining indifferent to the witch's shock; although, in the least, her reaction revealed the Owl Lady was correct with her guess. "What's with that look?" She tapped her left temple three times with her finger. "You have suppressed memories up there. Why else would your head have started hurting just from Luz shouting one sentence at you? It couldn't have been anything else other than you remembering someone saying something similar to you before, right?"

It took a solid moment for Lizzie to snap out of her shock, her shoulders slumping with the crinkling of her nose. "I sometimes forget you're sharp behind that lazy demeanour of yours." Eda briefly smirked at that comment, but it soon faded as she took a gulp from her mug while Lizzie continued talking with the raise of one of her palms and an exasperated huff. "But yes, apparently I remembered Xander saying something like that to me once." She frowned slightly and scratched at the side of her head. "Even though I can't understand why…"

With a satisfied 'Ah!' and a quick wipe of her mouth with her sleeve, Eda scooted closer to the end of the log she was sat on, attempting to get as close to Lizzie as she could. "Well, do you remember our conversation when we were walking back from Hexside that day?"

Lizzie raised a brow at immediately recalling what Eda meant. "You mean the one where I said I was glad that I couldn't remember him because of how bad of an influence he was on me?"

Eda made a clicking sound with her tongue and winked. "Bingo." Eda raised a finger along with her chin, attempting to mimic a 'matter-of-fact' and professional tone when she spoke (one which had Lizzie biting the inside of her lip at feeling her shoulders twinge with the urge to laugh). "Based on everything I know about Tool-bag so far, I think he's insecure. He's never liked the fact that you're better than he is at potions for whatever reason, which is probably why he made your life miserable." Eda dropped the act and placed a hand to Lizzie's shoulder, using a gentler tone. "Now, obviously, Luz is nothing like him; although, I can't deny that you're right about her lack of confidence in herself. That could be why she's been doing and saying what she has. But given the way she's been acting lately… do you think it's possible that you've been projecting your experiences with him onto Luz?"

Lizzie's brows knitted together with the tilt of her head. "Projecting?"

"Yeah." Eda jerked her head towards Lizzie's satchel resting against her side. "That incident between you two made you overly cautious about using that explosive potion of yours. But since confronting him, you've begun using it more." She removed her hand from Lizzie's shoulder and gave her nose a light tap. "And it's the same with Luz. You were hesitant when I gave you my list of spells. You lied to the twins about why you were on the Knee. You clammed up when Luz stole their attention from you and then you got upset at the things she was yelling at you." When Lizzie hunched her shoulders and lowered her gaze to her lap, Eda brought her mug close to her mouth again ready to take another swig, a brow raising. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were subconsciously trying to sabotage yourself under the belief you're stealing my attention away from Luz."

Eda's words made Lizzie feel as if a lightbulb had just flicked on inside her head. Her gaze snapped up to the Owl Lady's with a quiet gasp, her eyes growing as wide as saucers. But she didn't anything aloud, deciding to let Eda finish off her beverage before their discussion went on.

'She's right… That would explain the strange pains I've been getting and the feelings of dread and guilt that keep cropping up. Xander blames me for everything wrong in his life and because of how much Luz's words have mirrored his… I must have convinced myself that I was doing the same to Luz, even though I've been making efforts to help her.'

Once Eda was finished, she put the now empty mug on the ground and held Lizzie gently by the shoulders, frowning sternly at the younger witch in her hold. "Look, you have just of a right to learn magic from me as Luz does. You shouldn't let her personal feelings get in the way." Eda gave the area behind her a quick glance over her shoulder before she continued. "You should go talk to her. It'll help to clear the air between you two."

Lizzie immediately nodded to that, prompting Eda to shuffle away and release her hold on the young blonde. Although Lizzie had been thinking of doing it anyway, she knew now that the situation was turning dire. "Yeah, you're right. If it's affecting my behaviour, I should say something. And it might help Luz if she can open up to me a little."

Lizzie's body tensed when Eda lightly punched her closest shoulder, grinning from ear-to-ear. "There you go!" As Lizzie raised her mug to her lips and gulped down the last of her beverage, Eda looked to the sky for a moment. Black had started to blend into orange, bringing with it the golden twinkling orbs scattered across, each with its own varying shades of brightness. "Someone needs to check on her anyhow. It's getting dark and she's not usually so quiet…"

"Maybe she's finally come to her senses and is concentrating," Lizzie joked with a chuckle at finishing her drink. She stood up and placed the mug on the rock behind her, stretching her arms above her head before walking off in the direction Eda had pointed out to her earlier. When she passed behind the Owl Lady she gave the older witch a quick pat on the back, shooting her a small smile. "Thanks for listening, Eda."

Eda returned the smile and collected her mug from the ground, choosing to raise it as a form of acknowledgement. "Anything to keep you out of your own head." Lizzie snorted as she turned to focus on where she was going, adjusting her hood and then slipping her hands into the pockets of her coat. "And when you get back, you'd better have chosen a spell to learn from that list I gave you!"

"Sure thing!" Lizzie shouted back without turning round this time.

She trudged away from the little campsite and towards where another side of the cliff they were on faced to the innards of the Boiling Isles. Although there was quite a distance between the campsite and the edge of the cliff where Luz supposedly was, the elevated land she was walking on was still high enough to expose the Titan's cracked skull on the other side of the red land, along with the ribs that arched over the cracked ground and thin river that ran through the middle out to the Boiling Sea. Slowly, the further she walked, the blackness in the sky was swallowing what little remained of the lingering orange hue burning around her, changing the scattered clouds above and below her to darkened, puffy shadows.

Yet Lizzie found that the further she got away from the campsite, the stronger the empty feeling in her stomach got when it seemed to appear out of nowhere. Despite her talk with Eda and the fact she was about to resolve this issue with Luz once and for all, it was evident to the young witch that something was still unsettling her about all of this. Her mind wandered back to the venomous words she'd recalled Xander once saying to her, her lips pressing together as she struggled to place a mental image to those words. Where had she heard them? Why had he said them? And how did they wind up suppressed to begin with?

'I mean… the last question is a no-brainer, right? Xander traumatised me, so I blocked him out. But… why can't I shake the feeling it's not as simple as that? Could it be the conversation I heard him have with that unknown caller in Bonesborough?'

Lizzie hunched her shoulders at the faint recollection of that conversation; the way Xander's voice had cracked, the shouts of being forced to do the bidding of someone else, the cowering of his body as he apologised for his angry outburst… Couple that with Eda's theories from earlier, and for Lizzie it suddenly felt like what she'd recalled him saying was starting to make sense.

'He was angry at me… because he claimed I was stopping him from receiving love and admiration from someone: a 'he', to be specific. And considering what Eda said, it wouldn't surprise me if the reason why Luz's words triggered me to remember that was because Xander was just like her, in that he's insecure about himself because of what I could do.' Her brow furrowed as she focused her eyes on the faint sight of her breath escaping and dispersing into the chilly air of the Knee. 'Outside of school, I never saw Xander, so I knew very little about his background to begin with. But I wouldn't be surprised if after everything I've just discussed with Eda, the person he mentioned during his rant and that 'sir' he was addressing before were actually the…'

Lizzie trailed off and slowed her pace a bit at catching a familiar figure a small distance ahead of her within her peripheral vision. It took a couple of blinks for the young witch to process who she was seeing, who happened to be Luz standing at the cliff edge with her back to the blonde. Lizzie's instant reaction was to call out to Luz to give her a greeting, but just as the witch opened her mouth to say Luz's name… she paused at noticing the posture the young human had taken.

Luz was standing at the cliff edge with her body partly turned to the left and her legs spread apart, with her right arm partly raised. Lizzie couldn't see what Luz was holding, yet one quick dart of the eyes to the ground by Luz's left foot had her catching sight of an opened book. She was too far away to see what was written in it, but it didn't take much for the alarm bells in Lizzie's head to start blaring loudly. Something wasn't right.

As Luz went to move her right arm in a circular motion, Lizzie took that as her opportunity to speak up and take a step forward, her brow furrowing out of suspicion.

"Luz?"

Luz released a startled cry that caused Lizzie's eyes to widen and freeze on the spot. The young Latina whipped round to face the older witch with a wide gape and a blink to match, her body stiffening the moment hazel locked with green. Witch and human stayed as still as statues during their brief silent stare down, with the former witnessing the latter gulp thickly at the sweat she could visibly see gathering on the sides of Luz's forehead. Lizzie's initial instinct in that moment was to ask Luz why she was acting like King whenever she caught him snooping through Eda's kitchen cupboards, but then her eyes dared to break away to look at the object clutched tightly in Luz's gloved right hand, resembling a neat stick with a purple handle.

It didn't take much for Lizzie to put two-and-two together, her mouth dropping open and twitching with the urge to say something. For a few seconds, all she could manage was a few strangled noises, yet eventually she managed to force some words out as a high-pitched squeak.

"Luzwhy do you have Amity's wand?"

She already had an answer in mind, and she blamed the similarities that had cropped up between Xander and Luz. She was hoping that Luz hadn't done what she'd thought she'd done, and yet considering Luz had taken things from Eda before behind her back and that she was acting shifty prior to her arrival… it was hard for her to ignore the possibility.

With trembling hands, Luz gripped at both ends of the wand and brought it close to her chest, twisting it between her palms.

"I-I just wanted to learn real magic!" Luz stuttered in protest as she hunched her shoulders, taking a step closer to the edge of the cliff. "Eda's lessons weren't working! So, I borrowed Amity's wand to help me!"

And there it was: the expected response.

'She stole that from Amity, didn't she?'

Lizzie clutched an arm over her stomach at the familiar dread she felt swirl in the pits of her stomach, making her feel like her insides had flipped inside out (unless that had actually happened, which… she knew it could to some people in the isles).

'Darn it! This is exactly what I was worried was going to happen…'

Déjà vu was crawling up her throat in the form of nausea, causing her to breathe heavily through her nose before she could bring herself to say anything.

"You… You stole Amity's wand?" Lizzie mumbled with wide eyes, unable to believe what Luz had just said to her.

"No, no!" Luz objected with the shake of her head, her voice rising an octave or two as she did so. "I was going to give it back, I swear—"

"You shouldn't have taken it in the first place!" Lizzie snapped, leaving Luz raising her brows with a slight gape. And why wouldn't she be surprised when it was obvious the older witch's behaviour was beginning to resemble her confrontation with Edric and Emira during the incident at the library? "I can't believe you'd resort to stealing! What were you thinking?!"

"I was thinking that it could actually help me learn magic!" Luz bit back venomously with a scowl, releasing one of her hands from the wand to ball her hands into fists at her sides. "All Eda did was make me lick snow and organise twigs by size and smell rocks! How's that helping me learn magic?!"

"Stop making excuses, Luz," Lizzie hissed, pointing a finger back in the direction she'd just come from. "I know she hasn't been the best teacher to you, but considering how unique your magic is, she's trying her best." The blonde witch took a step forward at the sudden surge of adrenaline she felt spike through her veins. "If you weren't so impatient and actually listened to her, you probably would have learnt that second spell by now!"

"Well, maybe if Eda wasn't so lazy, I wouldn't be up in some snowy mountains trying to connect with nature!" Luz spat.

The moment those words left Luz's mouth, Lizzie blinked widely, her jaw twitching at the heat she could feel rushing to her face. The blonde witch couldn't remember the last time she'd felt like there was a fire sparking in her stomach, but if the bubbling in her gut was any indication, it had been a while. The young human, meanwhile, didn't process the gravity of the situation until she saw Lizzie's cheeks flush bright scarlet, prompting Luz to gulp and shrink back a bit at the blaze burning behind her green eyes.

Luz realised it was too late to take her words back now.

"That does it." Lizzie held out her palm and made a beckoning motion with her fingers, her jaw clenching a bit. "Give me the wand."

Luz's gaze flickered between the wand in her grasp and Lizzie's tense face, her brow furrowing as she spoke up with a quiet mutter. "What? Why?"

"Because I'm returning it to Amity."

Luz immediately hugged the wand to her chest and peeked over her shoulder before shuffling away from the older witch, being wary of how close to the cliff edge she was. The Latina's arms shook violently (whether from the cold, fear of Lizzie's anger, or her own suppressed rage, she didn't know) as she shook her head in defiance and squeezed her eyes shut.

"No."

But Lizzie didn't accept that answer. The blonde witch stomped forward with wide strides, something Luz only noticed when she dared to open an eye to peek at hearing the crunching of snow coming towards her.

"Luz, give me the wand—"

"I said no!" Luz suddenly yelled.

Without taking a moment to think her actions through, Luz leaned back and raised the wand with her right hand, forcing Lizzie to an immediate stop at the sight of a large orange spell circle being drawn before the human. Lizzie's shoulders stiffened the moment the two ends connected and brought forth a crackling, misshapen ball of fire in an orange flash, one that was just as big as Luz's head, in fact. Lizzie's and Luz's eyes widened for a few seconds, only for Luz to instinctively grip at the handle of the wand with both hands as it began to repeatedly move around from side to side in a frenzy, occasionally crying out and yelping while keeping her feet dug into the snow.

'Oh, no…'

Lizzie knew in that moment that Luz unleashed too much magical power from the wand, and now she was struggling to control it.

Yellow sprung up amongst the orange flames as the fire attempted to mould itself into a fireball, just when Luz had pointed the wand skyward. The fireball engulfed most of the wand as it prepared to launch itself into the air, a sight that prompted Lizzie to dive towards Luz when the flames got too close to her hands.

"Luz!"

Luz screamed in pain seconds before Lizzie shoved her to the ground onto her right side. The wand was forced out of her grip, causing the two to land front-first into the snow, with the older witch partially shielding the latter from above. The fireball broke free from the wand's tip and ascended with great speed into the darkened sky, with Luz's and Lizzie's gazes following it when it made a glowing arch shape in its wake. The fireball eventually dipped downwards behind a small gathering of trees a good distance away from them, its collision with the ground being signalled by a loud bang and a brief streaking flash of bright light.

Neither witch nor human dared to move, even when a flock of birds took flight from behind the trees to scarper from the disaster and the bright light faded after a solid few seconds. A deathly silence hung in the air between them, all while they attempted to process the events that had occurred only mere moments ago.

But then… an angry and ferocious roar sliced through the stillness like a large knife, prompting the colour to drain from Lizzie's face and turn her as pale as Eda.

'Oh, Titan.'

Lizzie realised there and then that the attack hadn't hit the ground. It had hit a creature. And although she didn't recognise the creature's roar… it didn't take a genius to figure out what creature she'd just hit.

Her suspicions were proven correct at the sight of a white fluffy creature slowly emerging from in between the trees, angrily snarling and exposing its yellow pointed teeth, all the while its beady blue eyes stared straight towards them. On the right side of its face was a circular burn mark, one that had burnt away its fur and revealed its scorched and sore looking flesh.

'Oh, Mother of the Titan…'

Luz and Lizzie remained where they were as the Slitherbeast stalked towards them, eventually stopping a small distance away to take on a wide stance and release another angry roar from its large maw. All the former could think to do in that moment was recoil a little and stare on while sucking in a breath through her teeth, her body practically paralysed and rooted to the spot. Because she knew she had broken the one rule Eda had given them: never disturb the Slitherbeast.


A/N: Yup. So, as you guys just read, I did divert from canon quite a bit here. It's never explained why Eda actually goes ahead to shove all the snowballs in her mouth at once, and it seemed in character for her to do it as a bet, seeing as it has been proven that she is naturally reckless and doesn't think before she does things (*coughEclipseLakecough*). Thought it'd be funny for her to make a bet with Lizzie and then be forced to suffer the repercussions of her actions... XD And having Lizzie expose her mischievous side was an opportunity I had to take. Also thought it was fitting for Edric and Emira to take an interest in Lizzie's concoctions. Season 2B has them taking an interest in potions and healing magic respectively, so it acts as a nice little nod towards that for later episodes. And then the argument between Luz and Lizzie... well, that wasn't supposed to happen like that. But seeing as tensions were high in this scene, I thought it made sense to have Lizzie and Luz do things that were a little out of character for them. Luz doesn't insult Eda when she rants about her lack of teaching, but re-watching Adventures in the Elements made me realise that while Eda was lax with her teaching, Luz's impatience and misconceptions regarding magic made her seem a little spoilt and ungrateful. I saw it as an opportunity to play with here. Also, it seemed right for Lizzie to be triggered by Luz's behaviour, especially given she knows about Eda's declining condition with the curse here and knows Eda is trying her best to make up for lost time with her apprentice. Makes sense our young witch would lose her temper the moment Luz insulted Eda, especially because not only does Lizzie respect Eda a great deal, but like she pointed out with King back in episode 3, Eda's 'unorthodox methods' helped Lizzie to learn magic, so she knows Eda's a good teacher despite her approaches. I did my best to keep Luz as in character as possible though, so hopefully I succeeded with that.