A/N: ... Hi. Yes, this chapter is three weeks overdue. Don't really have much of an excuse this time except I burned out. Been feeling fairly underappreciated in RL and here lately and it took a toll on my muse. There were days I would open up my word document and just stare at my screen wondering what the point of writing was. Still not completely over it, to be honest, but I managed to finally push myself to get this chapter done, at least. Not gonna lie, it sucks when you try to put your heart and soul into something and then nobody can be bothered to say anything. Even if the whole reason I wrote this fic was for myself, it's a nice bonus when others engage and you can share your ideas with them. Silence really can be a muse-killer, but I suppose demanding readers can also be muse-killers. It's hard to find a balance. And while seeing the view count rising is nice, it doesn't really help us gauge whether people like our stuff or not. For all I know, a lot of those clicks are just people who happened upon this by accident and don't care. But of course, I'm not gonna stop updating this fic because of it. I write for fun, after all. And I don't like leaving things unfinished. But yeah, sorry for the rant and the long chapter. There was a lot I had to pack into here, and for those of you who are bothered, I'll expand more on that during the notes at the end. I will mention, however, that I have included non-canon explanations surrounding magic once again in this chapter. So, please take what Lizzie says to Luz with a grain of salt.

Normally, this would be the part where I thank people for the continued support, but seeing as nothing's changed since last update, I only say it to whoever is still bothering to read my stuff. Your support is greatly appreciated. I do encourage you guys to support the writers on here whose stories deserve the attention, as there are quite a few in this fandom whose stories aren't being given what they deserve (I've been doing that lately as a show of support). You don't necessarily have to comment on every chapter and be overly analytical with reviews. Even if you just tell the writers you like their story or occasionally review every other chapter, that's more than enough to make them feel like they're not wasting their time. Your words could ultimately be the reason why a writer decides not to quit.

I don't know when Chapter 37 is going to be up, but I will warn those who are interested that Episode 13 is going to be an original storyline surrounding what Lizzie gets up to while Luz is at Hexside, so it will likely take time to form. Until then, I hope the conclusion to Episode 12 keeps you occupied.


Chapter 36: A Witch's Roots

Compared to when Lizzie had last seen the Slitherbeast upon their arrival to the Knee, she realised that the creature being on level ground and closer to them made it look twice as terrifying as it had done before. And that was without the fact that Luz had gone and injured it and made it more aggressive than when it had calmly been chewing on that log. Either way, the blonde witch kept her gaze fixed solely on the Slitherbeast when it started to circle them towards the left, choosing to remain still and quiet while simultaneously observing it with a wary gaze. She was trying to stay calm, but she couldn't deny that her heavy breathing and thudding pulse in her ears weren't helping her nerves right now.

'Okay, Elisabeth. Don't panic. You and Luz might be out here on your own right now, but just remember what Eda said: leave it alone and it will leave you alone. As long as we stay quiet and still, maybe it won't see us as a threat and go away.'

Aside from a few low growls released from the beast's mouth as it paced towards the right, Lizzie and Luz did not speak a word, which the former mentally sighed at because at least Luz was being wise in this situation and not making it worse. But that quickly changed when she heard the latter breathe heavily with a quiet hiss through her teeth, prompting her to momentarily break eye contact to give Luz a sideways glance.

The Latina girl had since pulled herself up onto her knees and was hugging her trembling hands close to her chest, having squeezed her eyes shut tight enough that tears lingered in the corners of her lids. At first, Lizzie wasn't sure what was wrong with Luz, but after a few more seconds of staring, she noticed the material of Luz's gloves was missing on the back of her hands, exposing red blotched skin to the frosty air. Her stomach twisted at the sight; she felt like someone had just punched her in the gut and knocked the air out of her lungs.

'Oh, Titan. Not again.'

She knew it wasn't her fault this time, and yet the look of pain on Luz's face left a dull ache in her chest.

Giving the Slitherbeast a quick look and making sure it was still moving back and forth (which it was, having now returned to pacing to the right), Lizzie slowly got to her knees and shuffled her way to Luz's side, gently taking the young human's wrists to hold her hands steady enough to get a better look at her injuries.

'The burns don't look too serious. Luz must have mitigated the damage after we fell into the snow. She'll still need to be treated once we get away from the Slitherbeast, though.'

The gentle touch forced Luz's eyes open, resulting in the tears streaming down her cheeks. Despite her blurry vision, Luz took this chance to peek round Lizzie's shoulder, blinking repeatedly to fix her eyesight at noticing the blurred image of the Slitherbeast having stopped still.

A couple of blinks later and Luz was left watching the Slitherbeast grunt and lower its head down to the snowy ground. She followed its gaze to the black charred tip of Amity's wand sticking out of the snow close to where they were, causing her to gulp thickly at the lump that sprung to her throat. She could already guess what was about to happen next, even as the Slitherbeast released a loud roar and charged towards them on all fours.

"Look out!" Luz bellowed seconds after Lizzie whipped her body round at the noise.

With snow flying into the air in its wake, the Slitherbeast gained on the pair quickly and raised its right front paw behind it ready for a swipe. Unfortunately, this happened at the same time Lizzie lifted her right index finger and drew a large spell circle, meaning that when the Slitherbeast flung its paw straight towards them, it collided with the transparent semi-sphered forcefield flashing into existence around the two with a resounding thud. Luz winced and closed an eye at the branch-like cracks that immediately formed at the impact, cowering with the expectation of the forcefield shattering into pieces with one hit. However, Luz's brows were soon raising at the barrier remaining up and the Slitherbeast briefly retracting with a low growl, prompting her gaze to go straight to Lizzie at where she was currently knelt before her.

The young witch had both of her palms raised to the front of the forcefield, with her trembling fingers stretched apart as far as they could go. Lizzie was breathing heavily, her brow was visibly drenched in sweat and her teeth were gritted so hard Luz swore she could hear them scraping against each other.

'C'mon, Elisabeth! Focus! You have to protect Luz! You have to protect Luz!'

Luz's jaw slacked at the visible strain the older girl was displaying, unable to move her gaze away while Lizzie's squinted one remained fixed on the forcefield.

"No way…" Luz mumbled under her breath. "How is she…?"

Of course, Lizzie hadn't noticed her recent breakthrough. All she could sense right now was the adrenaline pumping through her limbs and her pulse pounding in her ears, further muffling the ferocious roar the Slitherbeast unleashed as it raised its left paw and swiped it against the other side of the forcefield. Luz yelped and covered her hands over her ears while ducking her head down, once again anticipating the forcefield to break at further cracks forming. But still, the forcefield stayed up, prompting a growl to escape Lizzie's mouth.

"Nice try, you big galoot!" She shouted sarcastically, ignoring her posture slumping from the strain catching up to her. "But if you want Luz… you're going to have to go through me!"

With that defiant yell, Lizzie grunted and shoved her palms forward, shattering the forcefield herself in a small blast-like gust. The force sent the Slitherbeast tumbling backwards with a confused roar, leaving Lizzie and Luz gasping and blinking simultaneously as the large, fluffy creature crashed onto its back a good distance away from them.

"Wait…" Lizzie said as the realisation of what had just happened smacked her in the face faster than Emira slapping that snowball out of Edric's hand, prompting her to blink again and stare down at her gloved palms. "Did my forcefield spell actually stay up?!"

'But how did that happen? All the other times I used it, it broke immediately upon getting hit!'

"Celebrate that later!" Luz quickly replied. She jumped to her feet and reached out one hand to grab the spell book, with the other one reaching for Amity's wand. "We need to find Eda!"

'Ah. Right. Slitherbeast, mortal danger; almost forgot.'

Lizzie leapt to her feet and followed after Luz when the younger human dashed away from the cliff area and in the direction Lizzie had previously arrived in. The pair kept their eyes on the wailing Slitherbeast rolling from side to side and lashing its legs at the air in case it succeeded in standing up; although Lizzie thought she saw Luz occasionally wincing and heard her hiss once or twice. The burns on her hands were probably being aggravated, she guessed.

'I need to remember to heal that when we get out of this mess.'

However, the two girls didn't get very far before a familiar and concerned voice broke through the creature's distressed noises, calling for them.

"Lizzie?! Luz?!"

Eda appeared running towards them with her staff in hand just as Lizzie and Luz passed the Slitherbeast, causing both parties to skid to a stop to prevent a collision. Yet neither party had time to process the other's presence, because within a matter of seconds, Luz and Lizzie were looking behind them at the loud thud the Slitherbeast made upon finally getting to its feet. Shaking itself free of snow, the creature roared and charged straight towards them, prompting Luz to screech and Lizzie to step in front of her with her left arm held out, her other one raising to conjure a spell.

"Watch out!" Eda shouted in warning and ran over as the Slitherbeast gained on them, managing to get in front of Lizzie in a wide stance and hold her staff up with a scowl.

Lizzie stumbled back a step as Eda looked ready to cast a spell, yet before she even had the chance, the Slitherbeast was raising is left paw and swiping towards them, catching Eda in its grasp in one fell swoop.

"Ah!" Eda yelped as her arms were pinned to her sides and she was brought close to the Slitherbeast's face, resulting in her staff slipping from her grip and into the snow.

"Eda!" Luz and Lizzie shrieked the Owl Lady's name simultaneously, watching with wide eyes while their technical guardian was trapped in the grip of the large beast now standing on two legs.

Everything was moving too quickly for Lizzie's mind to process anything, and once again she was struggling to cope.

Running footsteps crunching in the snow from behind became the next distraction for Lizzie, followed by the sound of something whizzing past her from her left and then from her right. A thin, glowing blue rope wrapped itself tightly round the Slitherbeast's left wrist, only for the same blue rope to then wrap itself tightly round the creature's right wrist. The Slitherbeast was given no time to react before it dropped to the snowy ground on its front and began writhing about, with Eda's gaze turning between its restraints with wide blinks.

However, Lizzie and Luz knew who those ropes belonged to, as they both recalled seeing a similar attack used to restrain Otabin during the incident at the library. This was why the pair only reacted with a raised brow when they peeked behind themselves, seeing Edric and Emira standing from right to left respectively on either side with both of their hands tugging against their conjured ropes.

The moment she and Lizzie locked gazes, Emira smirked when she and her brother dug their heels into the snowy ground, taking on a wide stance and leaning back to help them fight against the force being exerted by the Slitherbeast.

"Hey there! Looks like our timing was perfect, huh?"

The blonde witch was unable to stop a loud sigh from escaping her, followed by a breathless chuckle; for once, she was actually glad to see them.

"Oho. You have no idea," was Lizzie's sarcastic response.

"Luz! Elisabeth!"

Amity's shouts came next as she darted towards Lizzie and Luz in the stead of her siblings, showing that she'd been apparently close behind them.

"Are you okay?!" She asked once she stopped close to them. But right as Lizzie opened her mouth to answer, she spied Amity's eyes growing large at something behind her, prompting the older witch to stay silent. It didn't take a genius to work out that Amity had seen Luz with her wand and spell book, which Amity proved when her brow furrowed at the taut words that left her mouth next. "Wait, what are you doing with my stuff?"

Out of the corner of her eyes, Lizzie spotted Luz instinctively bringing the items in her hold close to her chest, her gaze flitting between them and Amity as she tried to form an answer, only to spout nothing but filler instead.

"… Uh…"

"Leave the explanations for later!" Eda yelled to the four witches and lone human over the Slitherbeast's pained roars, occasionally wincing at the creature writhing around and blowing out her eardrums. "Finish it off while you've got it!"

Deepening her furrowed brow, Amity stomped to Luz and snatched the spell book and wand straight out of her grasp, not once acknowledging the gaping human as she pushed past her.

"I'm on it!" Amity replied while tucking the spell book under her left arm, holding her wand in her right.

Lizzie warily observed Amity get close to the Slitherbeast and raise her wand with a scowl, wasting no time in drawing a medium sized, purple spell circle in front of her face. The blonde witch also dared to glance between Edric and Emira at hearing the pair grunting with effort to fight against the beast's strength, witnessing the soles of their feet sliding back and forth as they tried to keep grounded.

'Gotta give the twins some credit: they're lasting longer against this thing's strength than I thought they would…'

Her attention returned to Amity at hearing the hiss of fire springing life, with Amity having conjured a medium sized purple flame at the forefront of the spell circle. However, just as quickly as it appeared, the flame fizzled out into the frosty air, with the spell circle vanishing with it. Both Lizzie and Amity quietly gasped at this, with the latter of the two recovering the fastest with a scowl.

"Huh?" Amity questioned.

She smacked the tip of her wand against her palm a couple of times to try to get it to work, but she soon paused mid-smack at hearing a faint beeping noise, prompting her golden eyes to lock with the battery display on the left side of the handle. Amity had expected the battery representation to be halfway full of green triangles, yet instead she was met with the sight of a lone red one flashing in time with the beeping, indicating that the battery in the wand had been used up. And it didn't take much for her to guess why that was the case…

Amity immediately whipped her head back in the direction of Luz, with the latter gulping loudly at sighting the greenette's scowl deepening, her interrogative question coming out with a hint of a snarl.

"Did you use all of the battery up?"

Luz furrowed her brow and wrung her hands together at her front, with Lizzie huffing and smacking a palm to her forehead at recalling Luz's earlier attempt to cast a spell from said wand, the one that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

'Yup. That fireball was pretty powerful.'

"N-Not on purpose!" Luz stuttered, with Lizzie mumbling under her breath about being relieved Luz wasn't trying to deny anything anymore. "I-I was just trying to cast one spell a-and lost control of it—"

"Apologise later, Luz!" Emira interrupted through gritted teeth, with her and Edric digging their heels into the snow enough to steady themselves and then peek over their shoulders at the younger girl.

"Yeah!" Edric agreed with a faint frown. "If Mittens can't take it, then you do it! Use one of those powerful spells you told us about!"

Luz's eyes widened as her gaze flitted between the frowning twins who were expecting her to jump in to save the day, prompting Lizzie to spy the Latina's forehead growing moist with sweat. Of course, she chose not to say anything, instead letting Luz take the lead on this one, even though it was clearly obvious she didn't want to come clean with the truth…

"I…" Luz began and took a step back, her eyes eventually locking with a still scowling Amity a small distance away from her. "B-But I don't actually—"

Luz never got to finish her sentence, because her hesitance had cost Edric and Emira their concentration, allowing the Slitherbeast to get the upper hand in a matter of seconds. With a defiant roar, the furry creature brought itself onto its back legs and yanked both of its arms upwards harshly against its restraints. Amity, Luz and Lizzie were left gaping when this loosened the twins' grips in one go, forcing Edric and Emira to fall forward with loud yelps and crash onto their fronts into the snow, their spell conjured ropes disappearing in a light blue flash.

"Edric! Emira!" Amity called out to her siblings in alarm and dashed towards them as fast as her legs would allow.

But just as Amity reached them and was about to kneel to see if her brother was okay, Lizzie caught the Slitherbeast raising its right paw behind its head, readying itself for a swipe.

"Amity, watch out!"

Lizzie shouted the warning too late, as by the time the youngest Blight was swirling round to look behind her, the Slitherbeast's paw swooped down and dug deep into the snow underneath her and her siblings, attempting to scoop them up into its grasp. The poor green-haired witch froze upon realising what was happening, so much so that her spell book and wand easily slipped from her grasp, plopping together into the snow once the Slitherbeast's paw ascended. Thankfully for Amity, her sister and brother wasted no time in acting with the small timeframe they had when the creature raised its paw, fighting against their disorientation with clenched teeth and each lashing a foot out to kick their youngest sibling in both of her shins. Amity found herself losing her balance and tumbling backwards with a loud cry, dropping shortly from the Slitherbeast's paw and landing in the snow on her back seconds before the creature's claws ensnared her older siblings tightly.

"No!" Amity yelled breathlessly as the impact briefly knocked the air out of her lungs, leaving her lying there defenceless and forced to watch her siblings being brought close to the Slitherbeast's face.

The Slitherbeast flitted its gaze between the twins and Eda before shoving the former two into its left paw's grip, squishing the trio together into a restricted clump. For a moment, Lizzie assumed it was going to target one of them next. But then, without warning, the creature moved forward on three legs and bounded straight ahead, forcing Amity, Lizzie and Luz to clumsily scatter in separate directions to avoid getting trampled on against the small tremors emitted from its pounding feet and amid the terrified cries of its prisoners.

'Oh, no! It's trying to escape!'

Once the Slitherbeast had passed them, Amity and Lizzie were the first ones to recover and run after the large creature, with Amity grabbing her wand and spell book and Lizzie snatching Eda's staff from the snowy ground in their wake. Lizzie was already wracking her brain for an idea on how to tackle this creature without angering it further during the chase behind the youngest Blight, even with her pulse pounding in her ears and her clear struggle to keep up. She had to admit, for a large creature, it was pretty fast.

'Attacking it directly might anger it further. I don't know Eda's sleep spell. And while I could use a light potion or the light or earth spells to distract it and slow it down, it's too far ahead for me to throw or cast anything. But if I don't do something, they're going to get away. What do I do?'

Unfortunately, Lizzie's mental question soon turned rhetorical, because neither of the pair were fast enough to keep up with the creature. Before they knew it, the Slitherbeast had gotten a good distance ahead and disappeared down a steep snowy slope, forcing Lizzie and Amity to stumble to a stop at the slope's edge. With heaving chests and bulging eyes, the two witches helplessly watched the Slitherbeast's back retreat between the scattered trees below, to the point where neither of them noticed or acknowledged Luz eventually catching up to them, mimicking their expressions when she stopped behind Lizzie.

'… Oh, Titan, no.'

Lizzie didn't want to believe what had just happened. The situation had escalated so quickly, yet she wanted so badly to deny that the Slitherbeast had just abducted her technical employer and the oldest children of one of the most powerful families in the Boiling Isles. But as a tense silence fell between the trio on the snowy hill, their gazes fixed on the rustling trees which momentarily exposed the creature's retreat, Lizzie knew she couldn't ignore reality any longer.

Eda, Edric and Emira had been taken by the Slitherbeast.

Lizzie's growl shattered the silence like glass, making both Amity and Luz flinch and recoil as she twisted the Owl Lady's staff between her palms. For a moment, the two teens were convinced Lizzie was about to snap the staff in half, but—of course—she didn't. She was angry, but she wasn't careless enough to destroy her technical employer's only form of transport.

"Damn it all!" She hissed, only to quickly suck in a deep breath through her nostrils and then release it out of her mouth after a few seconds. The next time she spoke, her tone was much calmer. "I know there's no point in getting frustrated, but I just had to let that out."

"And I don't blame you," Amity quietly agreed as she relaxed her stance, but she kept a tight grip on her wand and spell book. She was already turning away to walk ahead after giving the older witch a light nudge with her elbow. "C'mon. We need to go after it."

Lizzie raised a brow at this. But before she could open her mouth to respond, Luz's shocked shout beat her to it, which also prompted Amity to stop walking.

"Wait, what?!" The young human moved towards Amity and Lizzie with a furrowed brow and wide blink, holding her arms out. "Why just you two?!"

"Because you're the reason they're in this mess to begin with!" Amity snapped and whipped around to glare at the other teen, forcing Luz to flinch and back up a step at the venom. "If you hadn't taken my belongings without my permission, none of this would be happening!"

"Which is why I need to fix it!" Luz protested with a quivering lip and the slight bow of her head, fiddling with her thumbs. "I-I'm sorry! I know what I did was wrong! But that thing has my mentor! I have to help her!"

"Oh, now she's your mentor?" Amity replied sarcastically, holding up her wand and spell book in either hand. "You didn't seem to care about your mentor's teachings earlier, considering you had these!" She jabbed her wand in Luz's direction, which made Luz raise her palms up in surrender. "And may I point out that thing also has my brother and sister! I have to help them as well!"

Luz fell silent at Amity's response, which Lizzie was going to take as her cue to intervene, seeing as she knew this was getting out of hand. Yet she found her gaze flitting to Eda's staff for a moment when the conversation Luz and Lizzie had had the day they'd stormed the Conformatorium sprung to mind, spurred on by Luz's words to Amity just now. If she recalled correctly, they somewhat mimicked the ones she'd spoken to her about rescuing Eda the first time.

'I understand Amity's anger perfectly. Luz lied, stole from her and inadvertently caused the Slitherbeast to go on a rampage to begin with. But putting Luz down even more isn't going to help the situation, and if she's not careful, then Luz's self-esteem is going to be damaged further.'

Quiet hissing from Luz brought Lizzie out of her thoughts with a flinch. The older witch gaped at seeing the younger girl squinting and bringing her hands close to her chest, making her remember that Luz still had those burns on the back of her hands. Out of the corner of her eyes, she thought she saw Amity's eyes widen a little at the sight of the injuries sustained.

'Ack, drat! Forgot about that. I blame the commotion…'

Lizzie was about to move towards Luz in order to treat her burns; however, as Luz hunched her shoulders upon breaking eye contact with Amity in what appeared to be a moment of defeat, Amity's heavy sigh brought Lizzie's attention to the young Blight. She witnessed the slump of the younger witch's shoulders and her voice growing quiet at her next words.

"It's better that you stay put until we get back." Amity's eyes drooped at taking a quick peek at Luz's hands again. "Otherwise, you'll only get hurt."

Luz's eyes widened when Amity raised her right index finger and started to draw a glowing, purple spell circle. But the spell circle cut off and dispersed when Amity was interrupted by Lizzie holding out Eda's staff close to the younger witch's face.

"There's no need for that," Lizzie stated sternly, which both Amity's and Luz's brows raised at. "The Slitherbeast is only angry because it's been injured. We can end this if we can calm it down, but we can't do it with just the two of us."

"And you really think we need to bring Luz along to help?" Amity asked with a raised brow, prompting Lizzie to nod.

"I do." Lizzie jerked her head towards the younger human. "Luz might not look like much, but she's taken on worse foes than the Slitherbeast. We need her as backup."

Luz found a shaky smile slowly spread across her face at Lizzie coming to her defence, briefly squeezing her eyes shut at feeling tears begin to rise in them; whether from the pain of her burns or because she was touched at Lizzie's words, the blonde didn't know. But Amity remained unconvinced by the older witch's words, her glare returning and deepening as she pointed towards the Latina human.

"But she just confessed to lying about knowing two spells! She only knows the light spell, which is basic at best! How is that supposed to help us?!"

Lizzie momentarily squinted at Amity's words, a sense of déjà vu quickly washing over her with a loud gasp, as if someone had just punched her in the gut. She realised the youngest Blight's questions were reminiscent of the one Luz had during their first training session together, prompting the conversation to propel itself to the front of her mind like King throwing one of his toys across the living room.

'But how can I do that with my light symbol? The spell doesn't work unless I touch the symbol, and all that does is bring forth an orb of light.'

'Well, that's typically all the light spell does. But you've seen how useful they are at blinding foes. And since it's an orb, you can hold it and throw it. That's the best way to make a big flash.'

'Like your light potions?'

'Exactly!'

'Wait.' Lizzie once again found her gaze flitting to her employer's staff clutched tightly between her gloved hands. 'Luz has wielded Eda's staff like a weapon before, hasn't she? She did it at the Conformatorium, right?'

The former plans she'd tried to conjure earlier for tackling the Slitherbeast hadn't made any sense when Lizzie had applied them to herself. But recalling the two times Luz had successfully used Eda's staff as a bat at the Conformatorium (once when protecting her and Eda from a guard and then a second time when she'd batted those fireworks into Warden Wrath's mouth) when she didn't have the means for magic available was suddenly starting to string some of these ideas together…

'Aha. Yes. I can see that working.'

Luz and Amity, in the meantime, had been staring Lizzie down intently in silence while waiting for her to respond to the latter's question, with the occasional blink being the only indication that they were alive and hadn't been turned into statues. Yet that soon changed when Lizzie turned to Luz with a wide smirk, her next words spoken in a playful tone.

"Trust me, Blight: you underestimate how imaginative young Luz can be." Amity cocked her head to the side as she watched Lizzie gently shove Eda's staff Luz's way, with the young Latina eventually taking it between her hands with raised brows and a wide blink. "We can deal with the reason for Luz's antics later. For now, let's just focus on locating the Slitherbeast and assessing the situation before coming up with a plan."

Amity's reaction was delayed. But after staring at Lizzie's back with slightly widened eyes and then at Luz (who pursed her lips and made a whimpering sound as she tried to pull off a 'puppy'-like look), the greenette huffed loudly and brought her spell book and wand close to her chest, slowly nodding in agreement.

"Fine." She turned her head away when her cheeks flushed a faint pink, attempting to mumble what she said next while opening up her coat to slip her items inside of it. "I know from the incident at the library that you're well-prepared, so I'll trust your judgement this time."

But Lizzie still managed to catch what was said clearly, causing a faint smirk to appear for a few seconds.

"Glad you agree. Before that, though…" The blonde witch reached into her satchel and took out a healing potion vial and cotton ball, turning to Luz with her smirk dimming down into a smile. "…we should really treat those burns, shouldn't we?"

Luz could only respond with a forced laugh and small smile of her own, her eyes briefly closing. That was enough indication to Lizzie that Luz agreed with her.


Once Luz's injuries were sorted, the trio set off in the direction the Slitherbeast was last seen in to see if they could locate where it had taken Eda and the Blight twins, being guided by the faint light of the crescent moon hovering in the darkened sky and from the balls of light that had been cast by both Lizzie and Luz. Because of the snowy climate and how large the furry creature actually was, it had left quite a bit of evidence in its wake when it had fled the area, mostly consisting of a path of askew trees arched at unusual angles and clawed footprints that had remained visible due to the current lack of snowfall. Amity and Lizzie had never been to the Knee before, and obviously Luz hadn't either, so they naturally wouldn't have found their way around without this mess acting as a guide, especially because there was no physical map that existed for the Knee as far as the two witches of the group were aware. So, Lizzie was mentally thanking the Titan for this stroke of luck, because otherwise things would have become much difficult for them had that turned out to be the case.

With Lizzie leading the charge and Amity and Luz trailing close behind her, it didn't take long before the group had managed to quickly cross the snowy terrain and arrive at an open area ahead with a snowy, rocky cliff looming over them at a great height. Lizzie, Luz and Amity slowed to a halt in front of two large claw-like footprints that stopped before the tall, arch-like entrance of what she assumed was a cave at the cliff's bottom, partially shrouded in a light fog on the outside and shadow on the inside with its rock and stalagmite decorated interior exposed a little.

Luz and Amity stood on either side of Lizzie as the trio of girls gave the entrance and footprints a quick glance over, with Luz being the one to whisper the obvious despite their current evidence being enough to solidify the Slitherbeast's presence in the area.

"Do you think the Slitherbeast took them into that cave?"

A low and ferocious growl echoed from inside as if to confirm the answer to Luz's question, causing the human to gulp thickly and step to the side to get closer to Lizzie, whose eyes drooped in response to the situation.

"… Did that answer your question?"

"We don't have time for this," Amity grumbled as she walked onward with her fists at her sides. "We have to hurry."

Lizzie and Luz followed the young green-haired witch without another word (with the Latina human holding Eda's staff in both hands close to her chest after summoning her ball of light away), showing their silent agreement with her sentiment.

'She's right. We can't come up with a proper plan until we know where Eda and the twins are.' Lizzie dared to glance at Amity's back as they crossed over into the darkness of the cave's entrance, a faint smirk slipping onto her face. 'Although, I can't help but notice that she seems to have learnt from the incident with Otabin a bit. Good on her.'

The three stuck close together while their gazes trailed over the bumpy and uneven walls, mentally noting that compared to the outside, the inside seemed much bigger the further in they ventured. The deeper parts of the cave lacked a ceiling, yet because of the walls surrounding them, Lizzie wasn't surprised to hear their faint and slow footsteps collectively echo, along with the faint thuds that came from the cave's depths; most likely the footsteps of the Slitherbeast, Lizzie assumed.

It wasn't until she started to spy the colouring of the cave walls shifting into a dark green and a purple dried goop-like substance with skeleton bones plastered on random parts of the cave that the blonde witch started to gauge how far in they were, causing her to gulp thickly and grip tightly onto her satchel strap at the tingle that shot down her spine; she had to admit, they looked eerie under the limited amount of light she had in her hold.

'Why do I get the feeling this might be where it lives?'

Eventually, Amity stopped in front of a bit of rocky wall that protruded out to create a narrow path round into a wider area on its other side, which prompted Luz and Lizzie to stop as well. The Slitherbeast's thudding steps sounded like they were coming from the other side of this rock, proving to the trio just how close they now were.

After a brief exchange of furrowed brows and nods (with Lizzie summoning away her light orb at acknowledging the cavern had enough light for them to see now), the girls sucked in a deep breath and crept close to the protruding rock. Going from top to bottom in a single line, Lizzie, Amity and Luz dared to peek round the corner to see the area ahead without alerting the Slitherbeast as cautiously and quietly as they could, keeping their gloved hands pressed flat against the bumpy and hard surface before them.

A quick scan of the open space revealed the retreating back of the Slitherbeast moving off towards the right, exposing the tall, sloped surface of another rock opposite to their current location. Above that rock, though, were Eda, Emira and Edric in that order, pinned to the rocky walls of the cavern by the same purple goop covering their middles and arms that Lizzie recalled seeing decorating other parts of the walls (which, coincidentally, was also splattered on the sides of the rock they were hanging above, along with the bones). Compared to them however, the goop coating the trio of witches looked stickier and fresher, if the brighter colour and moist sheen it had were any indication. Lizzie bent her fingers close to her palms at feeling them become clammy, already putting two and two together in her head as the Slitherbeast's footsteps died away.

'Don't tell me… the Slitherbeast did that…' The colour slowly drained from her face, turning her skin a ghostly white. 'Oh, Titan. I don't know much about beasts, but if there's one thing I do know because of Hooty, it's that every predator has a way to catch its prey. Which means… it's probably planning on eating them.'

And apparently, Lizzie wasn't the only one to jump to that conclusion. A brief look down at Amity revealed the quivering lip of the younger witch with sweat slowly gathering on the sides of her forehead. And then there was Luz, who wasted no time in letting out a startled gasp and ducking behind the rock so she could stand up straight and cover her mouth.

"Oh, boy…" She squeaked and muttered something else in Spanish that the two witches naturally wouldn't have understood, prompting Amity and Lizzie to retreat and join her standing upright again. "I've read enough fantasy books to know where this is going! We've got to do something!"

Amity scowled and placed a hand to her chin, her eyes immediately turning to Lizzie's satchel when she spoke up in a low voice (naturally to avoid giving off a loud echo that could alert the Slitherbeast to their presence).

"Well, Elisabeth mentioned the Slitherbeast was upset because it was hurt, correct? And if I recall, you have healing potions and know basic healing spells." She locked eyes with the older witch while pointing towards the satchel. "Would your magic or potions work on its injury?"

Lizzie nodded stiffly and brought her satchel close to her front; she didn't need to think it through, after all. She'd witnessed Luz's attack and seen its injury.

"Yup," she answered quietly. "It has a burn wound, and my magic and potions cover that. However, I wouldn't be able to use it without getting close to the Slitherbeast. And unfortunately…" She momentarily clenched a hand into a fist. "I don't know any spells that could stun it or restrain it straight away."

Lizzie didn't want to admit it out loud, but Eda's words about her being at a heavy disadvantage with her spell set was starting to become more truthful.

'Dang it, Eda.'

"What about your forcefield spell?" Luz suggested, prompting Lizzie to shake her head.

"No. I see your thinking, Luz, but I'm sure what I did back there was just dumb luck in the moment." Lizzie saw Luz furrow her brows at this, likely not agreeing with her words. But she made no move to argue her point. "We need a spell that is guaranteed to work." Lizzie looked behind her to where the trio of hostages were, her gaze focused specifically on Eda. "Eda knows a sleep spell. If we can free her and the twins, she could knock it out long enough for me to heal its burn."

"And if that doesn't work, Ed and Em are more than capable of keeping it restrained long enough for you to act," Amity added while folding her arms, her gaze eventually following Lizzie's to stare at the goop keeping her siblings and Eda restrained. "But then the question remains: how do we rescue them from that goop and the Slitherbeast?"

"Already ahead of you on that, Blight." Lizzie jabbed a thumb towards Luz and smiled widely, puffing her chest out a bit. "Luz and I can distract the Slitherbeast and lure it away, giving you the opportunity to break them free."

"Wait, what?" Luz and Amity questioned simultaneously with stiffening shoulders.

Lizzie focused on Luz with a shrug and her arms held out on either side. "Well, Luz, you are the one who injured the Slitherbeast in the first place. It only makes sense it'd get distracted upon recognising your face, considering how it reacted earlier." When Luz showed no reaction to her words, Lizzie waved her hand about, her smile staying up. "But that's nothing to worry about! You can handle yourself just fine."

Luz was the first of the pair to recover, pulling Eda's staff close to her chest as she did so with a shake of the head. "B-But I only know the light spell! What am I supposed to do with that?"

Lizzie's smile morphed into a grin as she reached a hand to place atop of Luz's head, bending down so they were on eye level. "Remember that conversation we had a while back about the different ways you can use the light glyph?" Luz nodded after a few seconds of delay, prompting Lizzie to tap a finger against Owlbert's head. "Well, if you swat them at the Slitherbeast the same way you batted those fireworks into Warden Wrath's mouth, you'll be fine."

Luz gasped sharply and turned her gaze down to Eda's staff in her grip (while Lizzie caught Amity tilting her head out of the corner of her eyes—she was probably trying to figure out what 'fireworks' were or why Luz had fought Warden Wrath to begin with, maybe both), which she tightened with the slight twist of her fingers. "Oh, yeah! I didn't think of that!"

"Probably because you've been too busy giving yourself a hard time." Luz faced Lizzie again and briefly closed her eyes when the older witch ruffled her hair with a hand. "I know you're desperate to learn a new spell, Luz. But don't forget what I said before." She tapped the side of her forehead with a finger. "How you manipulate the spell is just as important as the amount you have. Just because it's a basic spell, doesn't mean you can't use it to get an advantage in battle." She winked. "You got that this time?"

Luz was silent as she opened her eyes and stared at Lizzie, appearing to be slowly absorbing her words (which the witch mentally sighed at). Eventually she smiled and straightened out her posture, turning Eda's staff horizontal with her chin up and one hand giving the blonde a small salute. "Yes, ma'am! You can count on me!"

Lizzie laughed a bit and gave Luz's head a ruffle with her fingers, knocking her hat to a slanted angle as she pulled away and righted herself again. "Good to know."

That's what she said on the outside. But on the inside, a sense of pride swelled in her chest at the sight of Luz's cheery demeanour.

'There's the chirpy and optimistic human teen from the Conformatorium. It's great to have you back, Luz.'

"Well, that's all fine for you," Amity grumbled, turning to Lizzie with a furrowed brow and her gloved hands to her chest. "But I can't free them from the goop without the fire spell! And I can't cast it without my wand, which Luz damaged and drained!"

Lizzie saw Luz's shoulders slump at this, but that didn't stop the older witch from rolling her eyes and giving the shorter and younger witch a gentle flick in the middle of her forehead, causing Luz to raise her brows in surprise and Amity to flinch and rub her palm against her forehead.

"Of course you can cast it without your wand." Lizzie held her hands out on either side of her. "Don't tell me Luz's misplaced confidence in herself has started to rub off on you too."

Amity scowled and pursed her lips, her cheeks flushing a light pink. "No!" Her flush turned darker when she saw Lizzie's brow raise in challenge, prompting a sigh to escape as she turned her golden eyes to her boots. Using one hand to support her elbow, she hugged her arm close to her chest, her voice growing quieter. "I've just never had to cast that spell without the training wand before."

"But that doesn't mean you can't do it!" Luz piped up, causing Amity and Lizzie to turn to her with wide blinks as the young human tapped her temple with an index finger. "You use memorisation to cast spells, right? You can just picture how you do it with the wand and copy the motion with your finger when you draw the spell circle."

Amity raised her hand close to her mouth with a slight gape, squinting a little while her question delayed itself from leaving her. "That's right. H-How did you…?"

When Amity trailed off, Luz stepped to Lizzie's side and gave her closest arm a light nudge with her elbow, making the older blonde flinch. "Liz taught me that!" The Latina girl glanced up at the witch with a wide smile and wink. "She's been acting as a substitute teacher for Eda."

Lizzie found herself returning the smile and facing Amity, seeing the youngest Blight glancing between the two girls with repeated blinks, as if she was struggling to process what Luz was saying.

"Luz isn't wrong though," Lizzie eventually said with a heavy shrug. "As long as you focus, you should be fine, shouldn't you?"

Amity continued to stare at the older witch and teenage human in silence, momentarily speechless. But before she could even think to open her mouth to respond, the thudding footsteps of the Slitherbeast echoed from behind the rock. The trio peeked back at the scene to see the furry, white behind of the creature stalking its way towards Eda and the twins, prompting Amity's shoulders and eyes to droop in dismay.

"… It's not like I have much choice now," Amity responded with a huff.

Lizzie wasted no time in turning to Luz and giving her a rough pat on her closest shoulder, taking the younger girl by surprise with a wide blink.

"All right, Luz. This is all on you now. No pressure."

Luz frowned and nodded stiffly, bringing Eda's staff close to her front.

"Roger!"

"I'll be waiting at the entrance with some hopefully finished drawings of the light glyph in the snow. But if all goes sour…" Lizzie released Luz and pointed to the staff. "…use Eda's staff to make a quick getaway. You know how to ride it better than I do."

"You got it!"

Lizzie took one quick look to make sure the Slitherbeast had its attention focused on its hostage before she darted in the direction of the entrance, whisper-shouting back to Amity and Luz as she did so.

"Best of luck!" Lizzie lowered her voice a little more for the next part, failing to say it quietly enough so Amity and Luz didn't hear her. "You're gonna need it…"

Amity and Luz silently watched Lizzie leave before the pair exchanged glances, with the former raising a brow at the latter after a few seconds of delay.

"Does she have any confidence in her own plan? Because it sounds like she's just winging it."

And in response, Luz gave a small smile and shrugged her shoulders. "I can't tell. But I know from experience that she has Eda's quick thinking." Her smile widened with a forced chuckle. "Well, when she isn't panicking anyway…" Amity squinted at this, prompting Luz to puff her chest out and smack Eda's staff against her palm. "Now, c'mon! We've got a mentor and two siblings to save!"


Meanwhile, Lizzie had made her way back outside to the entrance of the cave and wasted no time in enacting her part of the plan. Just opposite the cave's entrance was a tall tree trunk that stood out amongst the coloured foliage surrounding it, with its branches bare and its bark possessing a dark depressing grey colour to it. It was the area in front of it that she chose as her spot to draw, digging the toes of her boot into the snow as deep as she needed it to go and dragging her foot through it to split the snow apart. She would have used her hands or attempted to find a branch to create a quicker drawing, but she knew she had limited amount of time before Luz came charging out here with the Slitherbeast on her trail. She had to work with what she had (without cold fingers slowing her down).

'This is why I'm glad I've spent so much time with Luz during her magic training. I've seen that light glyph so many times that I can probably draw it with my eyes closed.'

She didn't know if that was something she should be proud of, but that didn't stop the swell of warmth that blossomed in her chest for some reason.

Despite being forced to support herself on one foot and occasionally wobbling due to her struggles to keep herself balanced, Lizzie managed to draw at least three small glyphs in the snow by the time she heard Luz's shout echo loudly from the confines of the cave.

"Hey, you big idiot! I'm over here!"

Next thing Lizzie knew, there was a low ferocious growl, soon followed by bounding, thudding footsteps and Luz screaming at the top of her lungs. The young witch found herself recalling the moment they'd first uncovered Eda's curse and King had distracted Eda to lure her into their trap, a memory that left the blonde facepalming while she continued to finish up the circle of the fourth glyph. She couldn't deny it: Luz's tactic was very similar to King's, outside of the fact he manipulated Eda's weakness for shiny things.

'… Oh, bother. Maybe I should have used a light potion instead.' Her brow furrowed a bit as her eyes locked with the snow. 'Although that probably would have been worse, considering the snow isn't hard enough for the vial to smash. And throwing it at the Slitherbeast would have caused further injury.'

As Luz's screams and the Slitherbeast's thudding gained on her, Lizzie stomped her foot against the completed glyph before moving onto the next one, repeating the same action for all four and causing the small orbs of light to flash into existence from the snowy ground beneath her. The last one was formed right as Luz was seen running for her life through the entrance and towards where Lizzie was stood, with the Slitherbeast not too far behind. It was running so quickly on all-fours that its feet barely touched the ground, giving the illusion that it was almost soaring through the air after the young human.

'Yeesh! That thing is fast!'

Yet Luz was somehow faster; Lizzie blamed the adrenaline likely pumping through the human's veins right about now.

With her right index finger raised in case she needed to cast a spell, Lizzie darted out of the way to allow Luz to get behind the line of glowing orbs. While it would have been wise for her to jump in to protect Luz at this moment in time, she thought it best to stay out of the distraction as much as she could, only jumping in when it was absolutely necessary. She wanted to ensure that Luz got a chance to use her light glyph in battle against another creature outside of Eda, which would hopefully prove her words right and give Luz a much needed confidence boost in her own abilities.

'I'm not worried.' As the oblivious and simple-minded Slitherbeast continued its charge, Lizzie observed Luz grinning and spreading her legs apart, gripping Eda's staff with both hands and swinging it behind her head like a bat. 'Luz has proven herself a capable fighter even before she discovered the glyphs. If she could take on Warden Wrath with nothing but a bunch of fireworks and a staff wielded like a bat, she can take on a simple-minded creature with a bunch of light orbs.'

"Batter up!" Luz exclaimed.

The staff was swung forward when there was only a small gap left between Luz and the large creature. The side of the owl palisman connected with the orb and sent it soaring the moment they made contact, prompting Lizzie to witness a yellow blur whizz through the air and hit the Slitherbeast in the middle of the forehead, scattering into a small explosion of tiny pieces that dispersed in thin air upon impact.

The Slitherbeast skidded to a sharp halt in the snow and roared out of confusion at the unexpected attack, shaking its head back and forth in attempt to pull itself together. Meanwhile, Luz took advantage of the creature's lowered guard to move to the next orb in line and repeat her earlier actions, swatting it hard enough to send it straight into the side of the Slitherbeast's face (thankfully, the side without the burn). The Slitherbeast stumbled backwards and lowered its head, only to growl and flinch when Luz sent the final two light orbs in succession into the other side of its face (which, unfortunately, struck the burn this time).

"Yes!" Luz pumped a fist in the air and grinned in Lizzie's direction. "Looks like you were right, Liz." She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows. "I guess I'm finally moving in the light direction."

Lizzie's reaction was delayed by a couple of seconds, yet the moment she managed to process Luz's attempted pun, she was loudly groaning and smacking her palms to her forehead.

"Luz, of all the times you choose to make puns…"

"What?" Luz's smirk widened as she twirled Eda's staff between her fingers and stabbing the bottom end into the snow, placing her other hand to her hip. "It's not the cool catchphrase I was looking for, but it's better light than never, right?"

"Oh my Titan…" Lizzie grumbled and squeezed her eyes shut, digging her fingers into her fringe while Luz tilted her head to the side.

"Oh, c'mon! They're not that bad, are they? I'm just doing what feels light."

"Luz, seriously. My ears are going to bleed."

'But that's a clear indicator that you're back to your old self…'

It was around this time that Lizzie caught sounds of the group of Amity, Eda, Edric and Emira running out of the cave, prompting her to drop her hands from her face and look over to see them stopping just in front of the entrance and giving Luz the cue to move over towards Lizzie while the Slitherbeast shook its head again to get its bearings. She noticed the latter three didn't have any traces of that goop on their clothes or skin, prompting the blonde witch to smile faintly and raise her chin a bit.

'See, Blight? I knew you could do it.'

Lizzie had expected Amity to fill Eda in on the plan so she could cast the sleep spell without any delays, hence why she showed no reaction to Eda straightening out her back and cracking her knuckles.

"All right, kids!" She loudly declared, getting the Slitherbeast's attention almost immediately and causing it to whip its body round in her direction. "You'd better be paying attention, 'cause I'm only doing this cool thing once!"

Eda remained unfazed by the Slitherbeast releasing a ferocious roar and darting at her without warning, while the Blight siblings did the wise thing and wasted no time moving to the side to avoid the large creature's charge. Spreading her legs apart and crossing her arms with a wide grin, Eda bent both her index fingers to alight their tips with a golden light on each. She moved both her arms in a circular motion in opposite directions and then brought her fingertips to her front to touch together, all the while the Slitherbeast bounded closer and closer. Sweeping her hands off to the sides, Eda conjured a large golden spell circle that encompassed her entire being, which she shoved forward with a small grunt.

Just as the Slitherbeast was close to destroying what little space was left between it and the Owl Lady, the spell circle increased in size and forced the creature to pass through it, its effects already taking hold. The Slitherbeast stumbled onto its back legs and raised its front legs in the air to steady itself against the strength exerted from the spell circle enveloping it, yet the moment it disappeared in a small flash, the creature let out a low growl before limply dropping to the ground with a loud thud, its furry limbs sprawled out.

There were a few seconds of silence as Eda stood straight and the young witches and lone human were left silently staring at the scene, awaiting a reaction from the Slitherbeast to indicate what had happened. But in the end, loud snoring escaped the creature's mouth, causing the Blights, Lizzie and Luz to become wide eyed and gape. Eda, on the other hand, smiled widely at her handywork and put her hands to her hips.

"And that is how you deal with an angry Slitherbeast the right way," the Owl Lady proudly stated. She turned to Lizzie and jerked her head in the snoozing creature's direction. "It's on you now, Redwood. Sort its injury out and let's get out of here."

It took a few seconds before Lizzie managed to snap herself out of her awed shock, with Eda's words reminding her of the situation at hand and Luz sealing the deal when she grinned and pumped her fists above her head.

"Yes! That's my mentor!"

Once Luz had run off towards Eda and the Blights had deemed it safe to approach the duo, Lizzie finally brought herself to shake her head to regain her focus, giving her forehead a quick tap with her palm for good measure.

'You can dwell on what Eda did later, Elisabeth. Right now, you need to sort out the Slitherbeast.'

As the young witch went to approach the creature in question and walk round towards its injured side, she heard Luz and company break off into their own conversations while catching a quick glimpse of the young Latina returning Eda's staff to her. She didn't give the content of the conversations much thought, however, deeming it none of her business. Luz needed to apologise to Eda and Amity for her behaviour, after all, and Edric and Emira were likely going to butt in with their teasing towards their sister for her display of magic. It was better she left them to it and just focused on the task at hand.

But the moment Lizzie reached the burned side of the snoring Slitherbeast and raised an index finger ready to draw a spell circle, she found her train of thought flitting to Eda's display of magic mere seconds ago, vividly recalling her complex movements and how quickly the spell had been cast and how it had taken hold of the target. It made her momentarily look back on the previous fights she'd had as she alighted her finger and drew the small, blue glowing spell circle, holding it in place with her fingertip.

'You know, thinking about it, it would be beneficial to learn spells I can use to restrain or stun an opponent. It'd make escaping dangerous situations much more useful, outside of the fact that having the twins and Eda present has made realise that Luz and I would have been in big trouble without their abilities.'

"Achoo!"

Eda's loud sneeze made Lizzie flinch and briefly break away from her task to give the Owl Lady a sideways glance, catching her snorting the contents of her nose back up into her nostrils. Luckily, it hadn't been enough to break Lizzie's concentration, but that didn't stop the blonde from quietly chuckling before she looked away again.

'Well, Eda, looks like our trip to the Knee wasn't wasted, after all. Because I've finally made up my mind about which spell I want to learn next…'


With the apologies and reconciliations out of the way (and once Lizzie had succeeded in healing the Slitherbeast), the group left the Slitherbeast's lair and made their way back to their respective camps on the Knee, with Luz bidding farewell to Amity and her siblings while Lizzie helped Eda to put away the tent and tidy things up. Although they hadn't planned to stay the night anyways, they thought it was best to clean up and leave as soon as possible due to the Slitherbeast now knowing where they were (apparently, Eda wasn't sure how long her sleep spell was supposed to last) and also because of the light snowfall that had descended from the partially cloudy night sky. But this was why Lizzie wasn't surprised when she saw Luz return to the camp while Eda was packing the unpitched tent away with drooped shoulders and limp arms, along with her head hanging towards the floor. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had brought this on.

Lizzie silently watched Luz drag herself over to where the fire was still burning and plop down onto the log in front of it. The human's eyes drooped as she rested her elbows on her thighs and cupped her cheeks with her hands, giving the crackling flames before her the thousand-yard stare. The sight of the disheartened Luz had Lizzie sighing heavily and scratching at her chest with a hand, the feeling of someone's hand squeezing that area quickly taking hold.

'No. No more delays, Elisabeth. You need to talk to her.'

After giving Eda a quick glance to make sure the Owl Lady was going to be okay on her own, Lizzie trudged over to Luz and sat beside her without saying a word, with Luz herself showing no reaction to the older witch's presence. For a while, human and witch were left to dwell in the lingering silence between them, outside of the spitting flames from the fire and the occasional gust that whistled on by. But when it became evident to Lizzie that Luz wasn't going to speak, the blonde witch decided to take the helm with a question.

"Did Amity accept your apology?"

"Mhm," Luz mumbled, all the while keeping her gaze locked solely on the flames dancing in the reflection of her hazel eyes. "She understood why I did it, but she said I didn't have to lie to her." Luz smiled a little and forced a low chuckle. "At least she accepted my idea to run a Good Witch Azura book club, even if we aren't going to be in the same class…"

Lizzie closed her eyes at hearing Luz's sentence trail off in the end, daring to turn her head to the younger girl with a furrowed brow. "I'm sorry you didn't get to learn your second spell."

"I should be the one saying 'sorry'," Luz replied with the slight shake and bow of the head, finally breaking her gaze away from the roaring flames. "You were right. I should have just listened to Eda instead of trying to look for shortcuts. It didn't help that I was taking some of that annoyance out on you." Luz scratched at the back of her neck. "I've brought this on myself."

"Well, you're not entirely to blame. Everything you think you know about magic comes from a flowery fiction book. The main character makes learning magic look easier than it actually is in the Boiling Isles."

"Yeah. I'm starting to see that now," Luz said with another forced chuckle.

"But you did well using that light spell today." Lizzie reached a hand over to give Luz's closest shoulder a light shove. "So, try not to let it get to you, okay? I'm sure you'll learn your second spell eventually."

Lizzie's words seemed to strike a sudden thought within young Luz, evidenced by the wide blink and straightened back the older witch saw her do. Luckily, Lizzie didn't need to question if she should ask Luz about it or not, because the Latina was soon twisting her body to face her and address her.

"Liz, how did you learn the light spell?"

Lizzie's brows raised at the question, still surprised despite the fact she knew she shouldn't have been. This question should have been expected.

"How did I learn the light spell?" Lizzie repeated, prompting Luz to nod and tap her temple with a finger.

"I know you use that memorisation technique, but Eda said that I had to…" Luz trailed off and darted her eyes to the side before raising two fingers on either hand to mimic quotes. "…'get in touch with nature' like the earliest witches did." She raised her shoulders and forced a smile, her cheeks flushing a faint pink. "I'm not sure how to do that. Or what she meant. I just wanted to know if staring at the Boiling Isles was something I was supposed to be doing."

"Ah…" Lizzie replied in understanding, nodding slowly. "Well, it's hard for me to explain, to be honest." She cupped her cheek with a hand and rested her elbow on her thigh, her gaze briefly downcast. "Typically, because we have bile sacs and palismen, witches nowadays don't really need to connect with anything to use magic. Depending on the witch, the magic type and their magical strengths, the method for learning can differ."

Luz raised her brow and tilted her head to the side a bit. "Really?"

"Mhm. All witches know similar spells. But those factors tend to be the reason why the spell's casting and effects are different, which is why the method of learning isn't the same for every witch." Lizzie held her other hand out palm-up, observing the white, fluffy looking ball-like snowflakes splattering against her glove as a hexagonal shape before melting away into water seconds later. "Some witches learn new spells watching others, some do it following written instructions, some use training wands, like Amity. But when it comes down to me and the light spell…?" Lizzie turned her gaze towards the darkened sky looming above them, her green eyes focusing on the orb-like stars littering the black canvas between the clouds. "I learnt it staring at the stars."

"At the stars?" Luz repeated with a blink, following Lizzie's gaze to the scattered and blinking orbs lighting the sky.

"Yup." Lizzie smiled fondly at recalling the day in question, picturing herself and Eda lying side by side atop the kitchen roof of the Owl House staring at the same dark sky and orb lights. "Eda was never my teacher, but there were occasions where I'd ask her to teach me a spell if I thought I could use it for an existing potion recipe. This is the case with the light spell. And while I expected her to just show me how to do it, she instead dragged me onto the kitchen roof of the Owl House and made us lie there stargazing all night."

Lizzie heard Luz giggle at that, briefly glancing over when the human snorted and covered her mouth with a gloved hand.

"Sounds like something Eda would do."

An amused smile slipped onto the blonde's face with a breathless sigh. "She told me I needed to understand the basics of how light worked before I could cast the spell. I thought she was crazy…" Lizzie turned her eyes to her right hand as she raised it, slowly wriggling her index finger back and forth when her expression softened. "But she was one of the most feared witches on the isles, so I decided to listen to her and see if she was just trying to distract me."

"But it worked, didn't it?" Luz asked, prompting Lizzie to lock eyes with the younger girl with a widened smile.

"Of course it did." The blonde witch peeked over her shoulder at the Owl Lady in question, who was currently preoccupied with shoving the remainder of their tent supplies back into the bush of grey and white streaked hair atop her head. The sight had Lizzie releasing a breathless chuckle. "I've said this a lot, but… despite how odd Eda's methods are, they often come from a logical place. I wouldn't be surprised if she used the same methods when learning magic herself, based on what she thought the earliest witches did."

Luz followed her gaze towards Eda and found herself covering her own smile with a hand at watching the Owl Lady's struggle with her hair. "I can tell you have a lot of respect for Eda."

"Why wouldn't I? Underneath Eda's lazy demeanour is a witch who really knows her stuff. She's taught me so much, even if she feels like she hasn't…" At feeling Luz's eyes on her, Lizzie quickly turned her head away and loudly cleared her throat at feeling her cheeks heat up. "B-But that's probably why Eda was trying to have you watch the land. She must have thought you'd see something that would give you a hint, like with your phone."

"Like with my phone…?" Luz mumbled to herself, her brow furrowing as she returned her eyes to the darkened sky.

Lizzie remained oblivious to Luz squinting and sitting up on the log to try to get a better view of the stars scattered about like glowing marbles. It wasn't until she heard Luz gasp sharply that she focused on the younger girl, watching with a raised brow as Luz raised an index finger and slowly traced it in the air, as if she was attempting to draw something.

"Luz?"

But Luz didn't answer. After a moment, she moved that hand to her chin and looked down at her lap, only for Lizzie's eyes to follow when she saw Luz's grow wide all of a sudden. A snowflake had splattered onto Luz's knee, exposing its hexagonal shape and intricate patterns. Yet in the middle of the snowflake was a transparent circle with a strange pattern, depicting a diamond-like shape going vertically with a line down the middle, while a hill-like shape passed horizontally through the bottom half of the circle and diamond shape.

'What the…?'

Neither Lizzie nor Luz moved for the time being. They both stayed as still and silent as statues, staring at this detailed set of shapes with occasional blinks and slight gapes. Lizzie, especially, felt a sense of déjà vu wash over her like a wave, as if she'd experienced a similar scene before now with something else. And apparently Luz had the same idea, because the moment green and hazel broke away from the snowflake and locked eyes, the Latina wasted no time in leaning toward the snowy ground with a frown.

'Don't tell me that's another glyph. It's gotta be, right?'

The blonde witch observed Luz using her index finger to draw a replica of the pattern she was seeing in the snowflake that was at least a few times bigger, doing so at an awkward angle to avoid it sliding off her knee into little droplets (the snow melted rather quickly, after all, especially in front of the fire). Once she was finished, though, Luz proceeded to stick her tongue out and lightly smack the newly drawn pattern with her palm.

A light blue glow outlined the pattern as cracking ice suddenly emerged from the spell circle, causing Luz and Lizzie to recoil with loud shrieks. Forming into the shape of a circular pillar, it rose as high as their knees before it stopped growing, leaving Luz and Lizzie frozen to the log (and not because of the freezing temperatures, of course) for what felt like ages. And who could blame them? Because Lizzie was certain this was how she reacted the first time Luz had used the light glyph.

'Holy Titan…'

"Liz…?" Luz eventually said after the silence had dragged on for a moment, with Lizzie responding in kind without either of the girls moving their eyes away from the pillar, as if doing so would mean it would disappear instantly.

"… Yeah?"

"Did I just learn my second spell?"

There was a moment of pause as Lizzie flitted her gaze between Luz and the ice pillar now in between them. But after giving her cheek a light pinch to make sure this wasn't a dream and getting her confirmation, she managed to croak out an answer. "… I think you did."

That was all Luz needed as confirmation.

"I learnt my second spell…" She said quietly, waiting a couple of seconds for a smile to break out on her face before she repeated that sentence again in a bolder tone. "I learnt my second spell."

With a high-pitched squeal, the young human launched herself at Lizzie and wrapped her arms round her shoulders, causing Lizzie to wobble a bit with a breathless gasp.

"I did it, Liz! Now I won't have to go into the baby class!"

It took Lizzie a moment before she managed to collect herself. With a small smile appearing, the blonde witch brought her arms up to return the hug, giving the human a light pat on the back as she did so.

"See? I told you Eda was on to something."

"Girls!" Eda's concerned voice brought the pair back to reality in an instant. They whipped their heads round to the sight of the approaching Owl Lady, whose brow was furrowed. "What's going— Whoa…" Eda interrupted herself and slowed to a stop at her wide golden eyes sighting the ice pillar in between her two charges, immediately going silent.

"Eda!" Luz excitedly called out to the Owl Lady and leapt over the log to run up to Eda's side, bouncing up and down on her toes as if she was on a sugar rush. "Do you see it?!" She pointed back at the ice pillar slowly losing its structure thanks to the heat of the fire, with water trickling down its sides. "I learnt my second spell! I made the connection, just like you said!"

Eda's reaction was delayed, but after a couple of seconds, she returned Luz's grin and ruffled a gloved hand against the top of Luz's hat, which she scuffed around while Luz reacted with hunched shoulders and the brief closing of her eyes.

"I told you, didn't I? Nice work, kiddo!"

As Eda said the last part, however, she directed a wink in Lizzie's direction, who responded by turning her gaze away when she thought she felt a blush beginning to heat up on her face. Clearly that latter remark was also meant for her, even though she felt like she hadn't done much.

'At least we know how Luz can locate the glyphs now.' Lizzie focused on the ice pillar once more while Luz beamed at Eda and said something about being excited to surprise Amity the next time she saw her, which was now half liquid and half solid because of the fire. 'She's finally starting to make progress. And hopefully, that'll continue.'

"Good to know we can end this trip on a high note for you both," Eda continued, with Lizzie raising her brows at processing the Owl Lady's words when she turned away and stretched her arms above her head. "I'm almost done packing up, so once you put out that fire, we can hit the road."

"Wait, wait, what?" Lizzie sputtered and shot to her feet, prompting Eda to glance at her from over her shoulder. "What do you mean 'you both'?"

Eda jerked a thumb in Luz's direction and shrugged her shoulders. "Luz said you'd finally started getting the hang of your forcefield spell. Thought that counted."

Lizzie blinked widely and focused on Luz as Eda made to walk away, with Luz responding with a grin and putting her hands behind her back.

"She's not wrong. You might think it was a fluke, but I think being in a dangerous situation might have helped." Luz winked and swirled round on her heels to follow after Eda. "It must have given you a reason to keep that forcefield up for longer, right?"

Lizzie silently gaped as she watched Luz trail after the Owl Lady, finding herself at a complete loss for words. She felt like Luz's words had tied her tongue up into a knot, and why wouldn't she when what the young human had just said to her actually made sense?

'Holy Titan, that's right. All the other times I used it, I was in my comfort zone in a safe place. But being pitted against the Slitherbeast in unknown territory must have given me more of a reason to fight back and push me past my limits…' It took a moment before Lizzie released a relieved laugh and tilted her head back a bit, lightly smacking a palm against her forehead. 'Dang it, Luz. And to think you've been putting yourself down all of this time. You seem to see things in me that I can't.'


The journey back to the Owl House from the Knee was much quieter than Lizzie had expected. Considering the day they'd had and Luz being excited mere moments ago about learning a second spell, the blonde witch had anticipated Luz's excited chatter to be the one to fill the silence instead of the whipping wind. But then again, she wasn't exactly surprised by it either. A lot had happened within the last twenty-four hours, from dealing with an injured Slitherbeast, to arguments breaking out because of Luz's impatience, to Amity, Luz and Lizzie each making progress where their magic was concerned. Understandably, it was a lot to unpack, with emotions running high throughout most of it. So, the moment the Owl House finally came into view and the trio dismounted from Eda's staff, the initial assumption for our blonde witch was that they were heading straight to bed without any further chaos.

Boy, had she been wrong.

Luz, Eda and Lizzie (in that order) were left staring with wide blinks and slight gapes in the opened doorway of the brightly lit living room, having been met with a sight that Lizzie and Luz had never thought they'd have seen again since the whole mess with Eda's curse during the boiling rain.

Furniture laid overturned and broken, such as in the case of the red sofa, which rested on its side spewing stuffing from its back and with its cushions having fallen off. Stuffing was literally raining from the ceiling and decorating the carpet, with Lizzie spying what she guessed were random body parts of stuffed toys scattered amongst the mess (one of which she identified as the stuffing leaking decapitated head of the teddy bear King had taken from Eda's trash pile, along with the top half of what looked like a tortoise and maybe the blue bottom half of a toy that had two legs with stuffing oozing out of them too). Lizzie thought she also saw a humanoid body drawn on the front door in a weird pose around the area where Hooty usually lingered.

And speaking of Hooty… said house demon was apparently stretched out towards the middle of the carnage, sharing what appeared to be a hug with King (if she was guessing right based on seeing King's paws wrapped round the side of Hooty's head).

'What in the Mother of the Titan happened in here?'

With Luz slowly moving her head back and forth between the mess across the floor and Lizzie solely focused on King and Hooty, it was no surprise that Eda became the first to break the silence with the loud clearing of her throat, prompting the little demon and house demon to turn towards the trio with blinks.

"What the heck have you two been doing?" Eda angrily asked with a scowl, holding her hands out towards the stuffing on the ground. "I haven't seen a mess like this since you two roped Lizzie into fighting for King's mouse toy—"

"Please don't remind me of that." Lizzie interrupted with a grumble, placing two fingers to her temples while Luz glanced over with a raised brow. "I can already feel a headache coming on."

King returned the scowl and faced Eda properly along with Hooty, whom he moved his paws back and forth to. "Excuse me. We're trying to have a moment here."

"Yeah!" Hooty screeched in agreement while throwing his head around with wide eyes. "You'll never understand what we've been through tonight! I will be haunted by this forever! Hoot hoot!"

Eda's eyes and shoulders drooped at the responses she got, clearly indicating she was already done with the nonsense of her other two charges. She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, running her hand down her face to the point where she briefly stretched her skin.

"… Redwood?"

Lizzie gave Eda a sideways glance at being addressed. "Yes?"

"Remind me never to leave these two knuckleheads home alone again."

Remembering their conversation from earlier today, Lizzie failed to suppress a smirk at Eda's request, already guessing that she was regretting not listening to the blonde when she'd made her warning. But considering the trio had had a long day, Lizzie did Eda a kindness and decided to hold back on rubbing in her error, instead releasing a quiet sigh and closing her eyes.

'You never learn, do you, Eda?'

"Duly noted."


A/N: I thought it was better for Luz to learn her second spell after the incident with the Slitherbeast rather than before for two reasons: 1) I wanted Luz and Lizzie to have a proper heartfelt bonding moment that wasn't rushed. The time between Amity chasing after the Slitherbeast and Luz realising her error in the canon plot was too short for the two of them to actually have a proper conversation. It had to be done properly. 2) Luz doesn't get to use the light glyph much in a proper fight, and the whole situation at present fit nicely into what Luz and Lizzie discussed during Chapter 16. I wanted to give Luz an opportunity to express her creativity and get to use her light glyph a little more, so then when she did in fact learn the ice spell, it was a much more rewarding conclusion to her trip to the Knee. I took a risk stemming away from canon with this, but I like what I did with it. I was also going to have Lizzie learn a new spell here, but I decided in the end that she needed to improve her forcefield one instead. After all, it helps to reinforce her point in Chapter 16. And again... thought it would have been rushed if I tried to slot it into here, especially seeing as Lizzie technically hasn't seen Eda use her sleep spell much.