Kaufetag 4, Fifth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE The Covention Hall
Luz could barely contain her excitement, doing everything she could to not just jump out of her seat and yell for the show to begin. Practically vibrating from all the pent up energy, she resorted to bouncing her knee up and down and tapping her feet.
"You good, kiddo?" Eda asked, turning to the teenager.
"Oh, sorry. I'll stop. I'm just excited, that's all." Luz responded, stopping her foot mid-tap.
"Well, that makes one of us." The Owl Lady said with a grumble.
Luz looked around the theatre, trying to find Willow and Gus, but she couldn't see them anywhere. Hopefully they had gotten better seats then her. She was in the mother of all nosebleed seats, positioned in one of the highest rows, barely able to see the stage at the center of the theatre.
Suddenly, a huge cloud of smoke appeared on the stage, and out of the pyrotechnics emerged Hieronymous Bump. Summoning a microphone, the principal began speaking.
"As a principal, I've seen many witches and demons walk the halls of my school. While some students may have gone the ordinary route of joining one of the main nine covens, or even specializing in a smaller coven, there are a few outliers. There are a few students who go above and beyond what is expected. Through academic excellence and an upstanding character, a select few of my students have been accepted into the Emperor's Coven. Tasked with enforcing the will of our great Emperor, members of his coven act as the standardbearers of society. There are quite a few perks that come with being a member of the Emperor's Coven, as well."
A collection of Emperor's Coven scouts emerged from the floor, adorned in cloaks and their signature beaked masks. Each scout then drew a spell circle, causing balls of fire, water, abomination goop, and rock to appear.
"When you become a member of the Emperor's Coven, you have access to all, and I do mean all, types of magic, with no restrictions whatsoever. But, I don't think you all came here to listen to an old witch talk about his job, so now, for the moment you have all been waiting for. The mystery guest for this year's Covention is the head witch of the Emperor's Coven herself, Lilith!"
A giant white illusion of a raven swooped down to the stage from out of nowhere, before dissipating and revealing a tall witch dressed in a simple black dress with similarly long black hair. Luz couldn't help but notice the similarities this Lilith lady had with Eda. Both of them shared a lot of features, most noticeably being the pale white skin. Lilith stepped forward and Bump moved to the side, allowing her command of the stage.
"Greetings, witches and demons. Although Hieronymous has given an adequate description of the prerequisites for joining the Emperor's Coven, he has forgotten to mention one thing. Prospective members of the Emperor's Coven must also prove themselves to be knowledgeable in all aspects of spell-casting while also being powerful enough to cast exceptionally taxing spells."
"Does this count as powerful?" A member of the audience yelled, before drawing a spell circle. Luz didn't know what to expect, but she certainly didn't expect for the student's head to enlarge to a size more fitting of a giant, only to topple over and crush the other student next to them. A sickening CRACK echoed throughout the theatre.
"No. Will someone contact a member of the Healing Coven for that poor witch?" Lilith stated flatly. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, the final requirement for joining this prestigious coven is to showcase a mastery of numerous types of magic, both in theory and in practice.
"If you don't show the mastery right away, but have the potential and are simply in needing of training, then that training shall be provided to you while you work for the coven. I will leave you with this: joining the Emperor's Coven, while challenging, is more than worth it. So, be more! The Emperor's Coven awaits you!"
With a spread of her arms, Lilith summoned the white raven and looked over the crowd. Her eyes moved from student to student, until she locked her gaze onto the Owl Lady. A mix of anger and sadness shown on the coven head's face as she stared at her sister.
Luz noticed Eda's surprised look. "Do you know her, Eda?" Luz asked, turning to the witch.
"I guess you could say that." Eda replied, eyes still locked on her sister.
Eda stormed out of the theatre, going as fast as she could without drawing too much attention to herself. Luz ran up to the witch.
"Eda, where are you going?"
"I'm getting out of this Titan-forsaken building. I need to go back to the house and wash the smell of Emperor boot-licking off."
"What? That's insane! We haven't even gotten a chance to check out all of the covens yet."
Eda simply grunted and started walking even faster. Shrugging her shoulders, Luz turned around, only to walk straight into Amity, knocking both of them to the ground.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I should've watched where I was going," Luz said, climbing to her feet and offering her hand to the fallen Blight.
"No worries. I'm fine." Amity replied, grabbing the hand and pulling herself up. The lavender-haired witch found her eyes drawn to the basilisk's ears, which were noticeably pointed, not unlike her own.
"Good idea giving yourself witch ears. A human walking around the Covention would have definitely drawn some unwanted attention," Amity continued.
"Thanks. This is way easier than doing a giant, bladed snake-monster. Plus, it's not as taxing on my magic reservoirs."
"I've been wondering: how exactly do your... magic reservoirs work? Do you have to, like, drain a witch every other day or you go crazy?"
"To be honest? I'm not 100% sure. The only people I've ever drained are Warden Wrath and Principal Bump, and I haven't had, like, a hunger attack or anything, so I think as long as I have had some magic in the past few weeks, then I should be good."
"Hmm. That's interesting."
"Amity, I've been looking for you." Amity and Luz turned to see Lilith approaching them quickly.
"Oh, hello Miss Clawthorne. I thought you would still be busy with coven business." Amity said, bowing her head slightly.
"Today's the Covention, so I used my one day off to allow myself some leisure time today. Plus, I knew you'd be here, so I thought I'd check up on my protégé and see how her studies were doing."
"My studies are going well, Miss Clawthorne. Top Student, as per normal, with the highest marks in every class."
"I expected nothing less, Amity. Keep up your grades an you'll undoubtedly become a member of the Emperor's Coven one day."
"Thank you, Miss Clawthorne."
"And who might you be?" Lilith turned to Luz. "I don't think I've seen you before."
"Luz Noceda, Miss. Nice to meet you." Luz offered a handshake, being sure to follow those lessons she had learned from cotillion.
"I see that manners aren't a completely foreign concept to witches your age. Thank the Titan." Lilith replied, giving Luz a solid handshake.
"This might be a weird question, but are you related to Eda the Owl Lady?" Luz asked, hoping to answer the question that had been bouncing around in the back of her mind.
"Yes, Edalyn is my sister, ironic as that may seem. May I ask why you want to know?"
"Well, Eda has been my sort of landlord, sort of teacher for the past few weeks."
"I'm sorry, are you telling me that Edalyn has taken you on as her apprentice?" Lilith's face grew worried.
"Pretty much, yeah." Luz responded.
Lilith squatted down to be at eye-level with Luz and grabbed her shoulder lightly. "Child, take this advice to heart: stay far, far away from Edalyn. She is incredibly dangerous, both to herself, and to others."
"Luz, there you are!" The trio of Luz, Amity, and Lilith turned to see Eda walking over, King hoisted upon her shoulder, smears of what looked like cupcake frosting covering his mouth, with dozens of trinkets and accessories draped over his person.
"Hello, Lilith." Eda said, her normally snarky demeanor replaced with a cold, exact one.
"Hello, Edalyn. I see you've still taken to dressing in garbage." Lilith looked Eda's outfit up and down.
"The only garbage here is the propaganda you're spewing to these kids."
"I'm helping the people of the Isles follow the will of the Emperor, and by extension, the Titan itself. Are you telling me that I shouldn't be following what the Titan wants. In fact, I'm even training the next generation of witches, and what are you doing? You're probably teaching her how to rob a witch blind or some heinous activity like that."
"I'll have you know that Luz here could absolutely destroy any of your stuck-up little mini-mes."
"Are you saying that you are a better teacher than me? Fine. Let's put that to the test." With a spin of her finger, Lilith destroyed all of the WANTED posters that had Eda's face on them. "For the rest of the day, your bounty is voided. In an hours time, your apprentice will face my protégé in a Witch's Duel. Use that time to prepare however you see fit. Shall we set the conditions?"
"Sure," Eda responded. "If Luz wins, you have to... buy me a lifetime's supply of apple blood and get rid of my bounty forever."
Lilith laughed at Eda's requests. "Of course, and if Amity wins, then you'll have to join the Emperor's Coven immediately."
Eda grimaced at what would happen if Amity won, but stuck her hand out. "Let's make it official then. Everlasting Oath and all that."
"Gladly," Lilith replied, drawing a spell circle around Eda's wrist before shaking hands. "The Everlasting Oath is sealed."
Luz and Eda sequestered themselves into a derelict corner of the Covention hall, with the closest booth being far out of earshot. King had once again ran off, but they both knew he would be alright. He was too cute to be seriously injured.
"So, how does this 'Witch's Duel' thing even work? I doubt it's like how they are in The Good Witch Azura." Luz asked, wringing her hands nervously.
"Well, a traditional Witch's Duel is between two witches and ends when one of them beefs it. Pretty much all magic is allowed, with the sole exception of autonecromancy. That one defeats the whole 'to the death' part. Everything else is fair game, though. Oh, and getting help from outside sources is also not allowed. But everything that you have naturally at your disposal can be used."
"So that means..." Luz started.
"That you could drain the Blight kid of all her magic and it would be totally legal? Yup!" Eda said cheerfully.
"What? No! Why would I want to do that? I don't want to have to kill anyone!" Luz yelled.
"Oh, well why didn't you just say that." Eda deadpanned.
"That's what I was trying to–" Luz let out a groan. "Ugh. How do we get out of this duel thing without anyone dying?"
"The only way a Witch's Duel ends before one a combatant's death is when one or both of the parties are found to be cheating while the Duel is in progress," Eda answered.
"And since I can't exactly resurrect myself, I'm guessing the only way I can cheat is through outside interference?" Luz said dourly.
"Ya got it in one, kiddo," Eda replied with a grin.
Luz jogged in place at on edge of the theatre floor, stationing herself opposite Amity and Lilith. Stopping every so often to stretch out her muscles, she hoped everything went to plan. If not, well, Luz didn't want to think about what would happen if the plan failed.
"So all I have to do is to avoid Amity for a while and then get her to step on one of these little mounds of dirt? Then I'll get DQed and Amity will win with nobody dying?" Luz asked, making sure she knew exactly what to do.
"Pretty much, yeah. And be sure to sell you being surprised by the trap. That'll make it super obvious that you're getting help," Eda said.
"Alright." Luz let out a deep breath and readied herself. Across the floor, she saw Lilith and Amity having a brief discussion, with Lilith being oddly touchy with the young witch, especially around the back of her neck. Amity looked nervous, and rightfully so.
Lilith stopped talking to Amity and walked to the center of the floor, where Eda soon joined her.
"Citizens of the Isles, you are here to stand witness to a Witch's Duel. The conflicting parties are myself, Lilith Clawthorne, and my sister, Edalyn Clawthorne. We shall not be fighting directly, and will instead be represented in the Duel. My representative will be Amity Blight, heir apparent to Blight Industries. Edalyn's representative will be Luz Noceda, some witch she probably kidnapped. Other than that, standard Duel rules apply. No help from non-combatants, and no self-resurrection. This Duel will end when one of the combatants is killed. The only way this Duel will end early is if one of the combatants is found to be cheating. If so, the Duel will be immediately stopped, and the cheating party will be ruled the loser. The wagers are as follows: if Amity wins, Edalyn will be immediately inducted into the Emperor's Coven, and if Luz wins, then Edalyn will receive a lifetime's supply of apple blood and have her bounty permanently voided."
Luz did her best to ignore the chanting of the crowd, trying to block out the noise and focus on the duel.
Across the floor, Amity gave a small wave and a smile.
Taking one final breath, Luz steeled herself.
Lilith raised her hand, palm open, and held it for a second before slicing downwards.
"Let the Duel commence!"
