A/N: This is the second story in The Wild Light Series. To find the details of the full series, check out my profile page!
Chapter 1: Break Time Plagues
Luz Noceda:
Luz woke up the way she always did; a rush of energy flowing through her veins, making her body involuntarily stretch as her eyes flickered open, five or so minutes before her alarm went off. Some days she wondered why she even bothered to set an alarm on her phone. She always woke up before the alarm went off, so why did she need one? For some reason though, if she didn't set the alarm, she would just sleep in and wouldn't wake up until hours later. It was like setting the alarm told her body when she wanted to get up, and it decided to wake up her a few minutes early, just to spite her. She certainly wasn't complaining though.
A small ray of light washed over Luz's face as she sat up, rolling her shoulders and shaking the sleep out of her. She blinked a few times, closing her eyes shut tight then opening them as wide as she could each time. Completing her wake-up ritual by stretching her hands over her head one last time, Luz smiled, feeling wide awake and ready to take on the day. Despite the fact that she was pretty sure it was a Monday.
Which was weird. She always used to hate Mondays, since it signalled the start of a new week of school, which was never fun. But here, things were different. Sure, Monday still meant the start of a new week of school, but this time it was magic school! Where she got to learn magic (Hence why it's called magic school).
For once, Luz actually enjoyed waking up early to head off to classes, because her classes were actually fun and interesting. She didn't just spend seven hours sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, listening to a bored teacher explain something they didn't care about to get a paycheque. Instead, she ran around in a world full of horror and wonder, learning magic spells, identifying fantastic and mythical beasts, learning the history of a world full of life. She even had classes that were dedicated to using those spells to fight and duel. How cool was that?
Plus, people actually liked her here. She wasn't the weirdo outcast that everyone avoided (If she was lucky). She had friends, ones that really cared about her as much as she cared about them.
That was still taking some getting used to. It still didn't feel right that they felt as strongly as her as she did about them. But she would be lying if she said she didn't prefer it this way. She used to think that she'd never make friends that loved her this much. She was so, so very happy to have been proven wrong.
So yeah, even if it was a Monday, and she had to get up way too early to get to school, she was excited. She was full of energy and ready to get up and get going. Her mind flipped through its mental notes at a rapid pace, going over every class she would have today, how she was going to get around the school, what she wanted to talk to her friends about, and-
She slammed down on the brakes, grinding her thoughts to a halt. 'First things first, make sure it's actually Monday' That was an important step. There had been far too many days where she woke up thinking it was a Saturday, before later realizing it was a Wednesday or something. She learned pretty quick to always double check the date after she skipped school by accident when she was ten. The way her mom freaked out when she walked into the house and found Luz sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, eating cereal in her pyjamas sends chills down Luz's spine to this day.
Reaching underneath her pillow, she pulled out her phone, clicking the power button on the side. No response. "And of course, I forgot to charge it," she said to herself. "Good thing I'm awake anyway." Luz scanned the floor of her room, looking over the mess of loose papers, most filled with random doodles and glyphs. Spotting what she was searching for, Luz leaned to the side, reaching her arm out and slapping the tip of her finger against the corner of a small paper, dragging it towards her. "Gotcha," she whispered, holding up the lightning glyph in her hand.
Well, calling it a lightning glyph wasn't exactly accurate. It would be more accurate to say that it was a glyph combination that created lightning. But that took far too long, so lightning glyph it was. At the centre of the small, square paper was a light glyph. Drawn over the outer circle were a pair of glyphs; a fire glyph at the top of the circle, and a light glyph at the bottom.
Figuring out how to create this glyph had taken far longer than Luz would be willing to admit. Up until recently, she had only been combining glyphs by connecting them with a circle. It was only when she started to get annoyed at her lack of progress that she started trying random ideas that King, Eda, and Lilith threw out. Eventually, they discovered that you could craft spells by using one of the glyphs as a base, placing it at the centre, then having additional glyphs drawn on top of the outer circle.
But the results were worth the time it took. The lightning glyph had proven to be invaluable recently. Not only was it a powerful spell, allowing her to fling bolts of lightning around as she wished, but it could also work by being attached directly to people or objects, acting almost like a Taser when attached to a creature, and acting as a charger when attached to something like her phone. Which was convenient, since she couldn't plug her phone into an outlet anymore.
Flipping her phone over and sticking the lightning glyph to the back, she gave it a quick tap. A bright yellow glow emanated from the glyph, with small sparks of lightning running along the phone case, as well as Luz's arm, making her muscles spasm and her nerves feel tingly. Luz pressed the power button again, this time her phone coming to life, a white circle appearing on the screen to signal that it was loading up.
Luz smiled, rocking back and forth on her knees as she waited for the phone to finish powering up. As soon as she confirmed what day it was, she could get ready for school, if she even had school that day. Who knew, maybe it was still Sunday and she would have the day off. That would be nice. It would mean she had more time to spend trying to figure out new glyph combos, or researching how portals worked, or-
The phone finished loading, displaying Luz's home screen. She felt her heart drop into her stomach, the energy and life running wild and loose through her dying out in a second, her fire snuffed out. She looked at the date, a weight pressing further and further down against her chest as she re-read it, over and over.
'Monday, August 19th, 2020'
Memories of the past week came flooding back, hitting Luz all at once. Every day, she would wake up, feeling alive and rejuvenated, until she checked the date, and her heart would break.
Over the past week, she had spent every free moment she had with her head in a book, either curled up in some corner of the Bonesborough Library or sitting on the couch in the Owl House with Lilith, going over the more promising books. So far, their work had amounted to nothing. Absolutely nothing. They were no closer to figuring out how portals worked, or how they could make one.
Being honest, Luz didn't expect any different. If the knowledge of how to build portals was something that you could just find in a random library, then Emperor Belos wouldn't have wanted Eda's so badly. He would have just made his own. But he didn't. And if the Emperor of the Boiling Isles, a man who had all the power in the world and the greatest minds on the island couldn't figure out a way to build a portal, what chance did some random girl have?
But she had to try anyway. She had to find a way back to the Human Realm. She needed to find a way to see her mom again, to let her know she was okay, that she was alive and safe (Relatively speaking). And she needed to do it quickly.
Because she was supposed to be back home in less than a week.
Her camp was supposed to end on Friday, meaning she only had a few days left until she was supposed to be back home, and her mother would figure out she was missing. That she had never gone to camp in the first place. And then, just barely a week after Luz was supposed to get home-
She shook her head, slapping her cheeks. That was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about right now. There was no point. It would just make her even more upset. She couldn't afford to get all sad and shut down. She needed to be focused.
'But focused on what? '
After spending days going over tome after tome after tome, Luz and Lilith had given up, concluding that there wasn't going to be anything in the public domain that would give them any ideas. They had already scanned through the most promising leads but had found nothing. No, if they were going to figure out how portals worked, they would need to find another way.
The first idea had been to ask Eda about her portal door. After all, she had been using it for years to jump between the Human and Demon Realms. So surely, she had some idea of how it worked, or could as least tell them where she'd gotten it. Maybe that would give them a lead, or some kind of an idea of where portals came from.
"Honestly, I kinda just found it sticking out of the ground."
That was it. That was all Eda gave them. There was no haggling or stealing it from a shady vendor in the Night Market, or raiding a long forgotten ruin and finding the portal in its vault. She just stumbled upon it one day. Literally. She was just strolling through the woods, and she tripped over the briefcase that the door folded into. That was the entire story.
No one took that bit of news well. Lilith just stood statue straight, staring at Eda in complete and utter bafflement, while Luz collapsed to the floor, melting into a pile of sad goop as she let her limbs flop in random directions, lacking the energy to care about how uncomfortable she was. The best lead they had, a person who literally owned a portal for decades, gone in a single sentence. It was hard not to feel dejected.
After taking a break to de-stress and cool off, Eda, Lilith, and Luz met back up in the living room to come up with a new plan. It was clear that they didn't have any idea on where to start on building portals, and the knowledge they needed wasn't something they'd be able to find out in the open. In the end, they came to the conclusion that they had two options.
"One," Lilith had started, spine straight with one hand behind her back, as she always stood when she was lecturing or explaining something, "we can attempt to search for a place that houses knowledge of powerful magics. One that is outside of Belos' reach."
That idea got shut down pretty quickly. If something was outside of Belos' reach, it was probably out of their reach too. There was a chance that there was some hidden crypt full of lost secrets somewhere on the island that the Emperor's Coven hadn't found, but it wasn't very likely. Still, they all agreed that they would keep their ears open for anything like that. But devoting all of their time to something like that wasn't an option.
"Or two," Lilith continued, "we can learn to create a portal by ourselves." Eda and Luz gave Lilith the exact same look, tilting their heads in confusion at the same time, perfectly mirroring each other. "Unlike Belos, we aren't limited by the Coven system. We are free to use magic however we see fit." Lilith paced back and forth as she went on, waving a hand to accentuate her points. "In addition, we are using glyphs instead of bile magic. There might be certain ways that we can use magic that other witches can't. Ways which will allow us to craft a portal."
On paper, Lilith's reasoning was sound. There was a whole world of magic that had been buried under years of history. And like they had realized before, with the right combination of glyphs, anything was possible. Meaning that, theoretically, there was a way to use glyphs to create a portal.
"Just one problem Lily," Eda said, looking very doubtful. "We barely have any idea how these things work." She stuck one thumb out, pointing over at Luz. "The kid here is miles better at this stuff than either of us, and it took her ages just to figure out how to use a lightning spell." Luz pouted at the idea that her discovering a long lost way to summon lightning was something to scoff at, but she let it slide. "How are we supposed to make a portal with these things?"
Lilith nodded, looking as if she was expecting that response. "Unfortunately, you are correct. Our understanding of glyphs and how they work is far too limited. Which means, for now, we should devote our efforts to learning more about glyphs, and how to properly combine them." She paused, giving Luz a solemn look. "That's all we can do for now."
The message was clear. This was the best they could manage. Which meant that until they learned more about how glyphs worked, they would never be able to build a new portal. And that made one thing abundantly clear.
Luz wasn't going to make it back to the Human Realm in time.
She knew that already though. It was obvious from the start that figuring out how to build a portal would take weeks, months, maybe years of work. But part of Luz held onto the hope that they would somehow pull it off. That some miracle would occur, and they would find a way to make a new portal in time, or just find where they could get one. But of course, no such luck.
The revelation made her feel like her stomach was filled with stones. She felt tired and heavy, guilt stabbing at her insides. What would her mom think? Would she assume that she was kidnapped? Or that she had run away? Maybe she would think she was dead.
But there was nothing she could do about it. She just had to accept the reality that she wasn't going to make it back in time. Not in time for her to return from camp. Not in time for the first day of school. Not in time for her mom to figure out something was wrong. Not in time for-
She swallowed a sob, muffling it into her pillow. This was the third day in a row she had done this. She had gone down this entire thought process before, going over the events of the past week, the conclusions they had come to, and feeling the weight of everything press down on her. And every time, she felt her heart being ripped out and crushed under the weight of her guilt.
Right now, Luz was tempted to just curl into a ball and cry. To just scream and let out all of the pain and emotion she was feeling. But she held it back. She kept it in. Doing any of that would be pointless. All it would do is make Eda, Lilith, and King feel even worse. It was obvious how horrible they felt about not being able to help her. It was obvious that they were devastated that this was the best that they could do. Luz refused to add to their guilt by falling apart.
So she did what she always did. She grabbed hold of all the bad emotions, found the biggest imaginary bottle she could, and shoved them inside, corking the top and sealing it tight. It was something she was good at. Years of practice made her very proficient at forcing her negative emotions away, allowing her to be her usual cheery, bubbly self. Unfortunately, it was something that was getting harder to do recently.
"We want to help you. Because we care about you. A lot."
Amity's words bounced around in Luz's mind, threatening to smash into her bottle of emotions and break them free. She begged it not to. She knew that her friends cared and that they wanted to help, but this was different. This didn't involve them. There wasn't anything they could do to help. There wasn't anything anyone could do really. Telling her friends about all of this wouldn't do anything but drag them down with her. Luz wasn't the kind of friend who used the people that cared for her as a way to vent and get pity. She wanted them to be happy.
So she kept her mouth shut. And she closed her bottle of emotions, trapping everything she didn't want to feel inside. Wiping her tears and snot into her pillow (And reminding herself to wash it later), she stood up, slapping her cheeks to hype herself back up. She had school to attend, magic to learn, and friends to laugh with. No time for moping.
With that settled, she pulled her rainbow uniform from the chest she kept her clothes in and ran for the bathroom, hoping to get there before Lilith used up all the hot water again.
"Wait wait wait, so Barcus isn't a demon?" Luz asked.
Before she knew it, the school day had passed Luz by, flying forward at record speeds. Part of her was disappointed that she was done already, considering she was enjoying being able to spend time at school, learning magic and messing around with her friends. On the other hand, she had homework to do.
As much as Luz loved being able to study all nine tracks at Hexside, it did have one big disadvantage: she had homework from all of the tracks, as well as her general studies. Making sure she did all of her homework, while also studying for tests and exams, and trying to have some free time was near impossible by herself. Frankly, it was an outrageous amount of work for one person to do, and if she hadn't enjoyed learning magic as much as she did, she would have given up a long time ago.
Luckily, she had a lot of friends, all of whom were very smart, that cover most of the different tracks. So Luz has recently taken to hosting a few study sessions at the Owl House, inviting a few of her friends over to help her out with homework and studying. The whole thing worked out great for everyone. Luz would get help from some of the best witches in Hexside, and said witches would get to practice teaching their school of magic, which is a great way to study and refresh your knowledge.
So earlier in the day, Luz had invited Viney and Gus over, since they covered the subjects she was currently struggling in. Well, Viney covered the subjects. Luz was looking for help with a presentation for one of her Beastkeeping classes, as well as a test in her Healing classes. However, Gus was always welcome at a study session, considering his illusions proved invaluable for giving visual examples (Plus he was just fun to be around). Being able to see what a Skelephant really looked like, rather than reading a description or looking at a drawing really helped Luz learn. It also helped Luz realize she never wanted to see a Skelephant in real life.
Once the trio had arrived at the Owl House (Courtesy of a very good griffon), they immediately went to work, making sure Luz was 100% ready to give a presentation of the difference between insect and arachnid beast-demons. Luz was extremely thankful to her friends for helping her out. Having Gus create full scale illusions of different types of beast-demons, while Viney went over them pointing at the different parts of the creatures while explaining their anatomy and structure made the learning experience so much easier.
An hour of illusions and lectures later, Luz felted pumped up and ready to give to go. She would still need to prepare some notecards and a loose script, but now she knew what she was talking about. That would be more than enough to get her through the presentation. And if it wasn't, she'd improvise. She was good at that.
From there, the plan was to take a break for half an hour or so, then go over some basic healing theory to help Luz prepare for her test.
An hour later, and they were still goofing off and just chatting away about whatever came to their minds.
Viney was sitting upside down on the couch, her legs thrown over the back and her head hanging off the front. Luz, as usual, sat on the floor on one side of the coffee table, one knee bouncing up and down while her chin rested on her other one, while Gus sat in an elaborate seat that he had made out of illusion magic. The whole thing essentially looked like a woven basket full of pillows, which was being hung from the roof by illusory chains. Luz had asked why Gus had gone through all the effort to create that instead of just making a normal chair. Or just sitting on one of the chairs in the house. Gus simply replied "Style," and refused to elaborate further.
'He's been spending too much time with Ed and Em again.'
As always, Luz lead the conversation, moving it along at a breakneck pace as she said whatever came to her mind, her friends happily following along, making snarky comments and answering questions where they could. For the millionth time, Luz felt so lucky to have found people that didn't just tolerate her rambling, but actually seemed to enjoy it. No matter what she went on about, her friends always seemed to be interested in whatever she was saying or asking.
In this case, Luz's mind was still on Beastkeeping magic, so most of the topics she had brought up were related to that in some way or another. Sometimes that meant a question that was directly related to Beastkeeping, like "Are there healing coven specialists that only deal with beast-demons", and sometimes that meant asking things like "Are people who are attracted to demons considered furries?" Neither Gus nor Viney knew what that meant.
However, that question had eventually brought them to their current topic. After explaining what she was talking about, Luz repeated her question, asking if someone who was attracted to a demon like Barcus was a furry. This prompted Viney to reveal something Luz didn't expect.
"Nope," Viney said with a shrug. "Barcus is a witch, not a demon."
Luz stared at Viney, mouth opening and closing as she tried to find her words. "B-but, but," she stuttered, "HE'S A DOG!"
Viney chuckled. "Oof, don't let him catch you saying that."
Gus grinned along, giving Luz a 'Tsk tsk tsk', shaking his head. "Honestly Luz, you should know better by now. He's obviously an extremely rare species of cat that just so happens to look like a dog, known as pus-" He was cut off by a barrage of every pillow Viney could reach while hanging upside down getting hurled towards him, quickly burying him in his hanging chair. "Worth it," he mumbled from underneath his fluffy grave, causing Luz to laugh at how helpless and content he sounded.
With her laughter fading back to curiosity, Luz decided to go back to her original question. "Okay, as much fun as watching you murder Gus with pillows is-"
"BETRAYAL!" Gus' muffled voice yelled.
"I need you to explain how Barcus is not a demon," Luz finished.
Having run out of pillows to throw, Viney turned her attention back to Luz. "Do you want the short explanation or the long one?"
"Yes," Luz replied, as she did whenever she was asked this question.
Viney rolled her eyes, before flipping herself over to sit properly on the couch. Her face was bright red from all the blood that rushed to her head, and she wobbled a bit as she righted herself, looking dizzy for a second. "Alright, so short version," she started, having regained her balance, "Barcus has a bile sac and can use it to cast spells. That means he's a witch."
Luz blinked in confusion. "Wait, that's it? That's all it takes to be a witch?"
"Yuuuuup," Viney drawled, popping the 'p'. "It kind of has to be. There's a lot of mingling between witches and demons. At this point, it's basically impossible to find someone who is 100% witch or 100% demon. Everyone's got a little bit of mixed blood. So we need a hard line to separate whose considered a witch and whose considered a demon."
"Why?" Luz asked. "Like, if everyone is all mixed up by now, what's the point in having two separate titles for people?"
A few pillows flew across the room as Gus emerged from his fluffy mountain. "A couple of reasons," he said, grinning like he did whenever he got to explain something. "One, culture. There are a lot of people, both witches and demons, that are super proud of their culture and heritage. So giving up their title as a witch or demon is like giving up part of their family's legacy."
Luz nodded along. That was something she could understand. There had been quite a few people at her old school that claimed to be "colourblind", saying that they didn't see race, just humans. Some of their hearts were in the right place, but as someone who was very proud of who she was and where she came from, Luz didn't enjoy being seen as "just human".
"And two," Viney continued, "legal reasons. Different laws apply to demons and witches. For example, demons don't need to have a coven brand implanted when they turn 18 like witches do." Viney's face scrunched up in disgust for a second, her thoughts probably mirroring Luz's about the coven brands. "That's an obvious one, but there are a lot of laws that only apply to one or the other."
Another nod of understanding. Being able to weave magic to basically bend the laws of the universe would probably require a few more laws to keep people in check. Granted, Luz thought that some of the laws were a little too restrictive. For example, basically the entire coven system. But that was a rant she did not want to get into right now. She was enjoying the current conversation and didn't want to derail it too badly.
"Alright, so what's the long version?" Luz asked.
Cracking her knuckles, Viney repositioned herself to get more comfortable, shuffling along the couch and bringing her legs up. "So, like I said, whether or not you have a bile sac is the hard line between demon and witch, but being a witch doesn't mean you aren't part demon." She stopped for a second when she noticed Gus giving her a look. "Yeah yeah, technically everyone is part demon cuz we've all basically got demon blood in us somewhere, but you know what I mean."
Satisfied with her correction, Gus stood up from his basket chair, strafing past the coffee table and drawing a set of spell circles, each followed by a puff of teal smoke. When the smoke cleared, Luz saw five illusory figures standing on the table; Viney, Boscha, Barcus, King, and Puddles the Griffon.
Viney hummed in surprise. "Oh, well, that's actually really helpful. Thanks Gus." Gus gave a dramatic bow, placing one arm over his stomach and the other behind his back and crossing his legs, before promptly flopping back into this pillow-filled basket. "Okay, so first off, me."
Standing up and stretching, Viney walked over and stood in front of her illusory duplicate. Luz followed suit, deciding that she'd probably be able to see better from in front of the table, rather than at the edge of it. Once she stood in front of it, the illusory Viney started flexing, quickly stopping when Viney turned to glare at Gus.
"Anyways," she started, eyes lingering on Gus for a second longer, still glaring, "I'm what you'd call a 'Pheno-Witch'. As far as you can tell from my physical appearance, I'm 100% witch. Of course, I'm not actually a pure-blood witch, but no one could tell from looking at me." She points over at the ears on her illusory double. "Luckily, I don't need to describe Pheno-Witches. They basically look the same as humans, except with longer, pointed ears, and more predominant fangs.
"You mean canines," Luz corrected.
"...No, we don't have dogs for teeth Luz," Viney said slowly, looking at Luz as if she were crazy.
"No, I meant- okay, never mind. Keep going." Sometimes, trying to explain human things was a lost cause. And Luz didn't feel like trying to explain why canines could mean dogs and sharp teeth.
Viney took a few steps to the right, moving in front of the Boscha clone. "Next up, we have 'Lesser Demonic Witches', or LDWs." She jabbed a thumb into the Boscha clone's third eye, making no attempt to hide the contempt on her face. "These are witches that, for the most part, physically resemble Pheno-Witches, but have anywhere from one to a few demonic features. For example, this horrible excuse for a witch has a third eye, which is enough to classify her as an LDW."
The second Viney pulled her thumb from its eye, the Boscha clone popped, bursting into a small puff of smoke. Everyone in the room seemed much happier with it gone, grinning as its remains scattered to the wind.
"Then we've got Barcus, whose a 'Greater Demonic Witch', or GDW," Viney explained, sitting down on the coffee table next to the illusory Barcus and putting a hand on its head, gently petting it. "Some people also call them 'Pheno-Demons', but GDW is more common. Essentially, these are people that appear to be full-blooded demons, but have bile sacs, and are therefore considered witches."
Luz nodded along, scratching underneath the illusory Barcus' snout when Viney got up and moved on. Just as Gus had told her before, it felt like rubbing her hand against a balloon. Well, more like rubbing her hand against a series of long, thin balloons that were shaped like bunches of dog fur. '4 out of 10, would only recommend experiencing for the sake of experiencing things.'
"Finally," Viney said, sitting between the King and Puddles clones, "we've got 'Geno-Demons', generally just called demons, and 'Beast-Demons', generally just called beasts." Viney leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees. "Both of them are almost full-blooded demons, lacking bile sacs. The difference is that Geno-Demons are sentient, like humans and witches, while Beast-Demons are essentially just magical animals."
The illusory clone of King exploded into a puff of smoke, as the real King jumped up on the table, kicking his mimic in the back. "Ah hah! Yes! Perish! There may only be one King of Demons! ME!" he yelled, stomping down on the table where the clone once stood, before throwing his arms into the air in victory.
A moment later, King was scooped into the air by Luz, cradling him like a baby. "Awwww, you're so adorable when you brutally kill your impersonators," she said with her best puppy voice. King squealed and resisted, but eventually gave in, admitting he was cute and begrudgingly accepting her love. She knew he secretly like it, but he would rather die than admit it.
Gus leaned back in his seat, blowing razzberries in the air. "Man, I was not expecting this to turn into a lecture."
Viney shrugged her shoulders, returning to the couch. "I mean, I was supposed to be giving Luz a lesson on healing magic, but we kinda got distracted."
"Ugggggghhh, no," Gus whined. "I love you guys, but I am not sitting through a third lecture. We're taking a break."
"This was our break," Luz reminded him, giggling slightly.
"Breaks don't count if you give a lecture during the break," Gus complained. "And that was a full on lecture. You had illusory models and everything."
"You made the illusory models!"
"Doesn't matter. It's break time."
King scrambled around in Luz's arms, eventually managing to make his way onto her shoulder, standing up straight and striking a menacing pose (While also holding her head with one paw for support). "I agree! I just got here and I'm already tired of your nerd talk. It's time for some carnage!" Gus spun a small circle, creating a tiny illusory hand in front of King, who immediately gave it a high five.
Viney and Luz looked at each other, eventually shrugging their shoulders. Gus had a point, that had gotten pretty lecture-y, and Luz's healing test wasn't until next week. They could afford to slack off for a little while longer.
"Alright, so what do you suggest we do?" Viney asked, lying down and kicking her feet up.
Gus turned to look at Luz and King, giving them a smug grin and winking. Luz immediately understood his message, and prepared herself to run, King jumping off her shoulder and casually walking towards the door. "Well," Gus started, trying his best to look innocent and thoughtful, "hooooow about... LAST ONE OUTSIDE HAS THE PRICKLE-PLAGUE!"
In an instant, Gus, Luz, and King bolted out the door, leaving a confused Viney behind, who took a second to process what was happening, before trying and failing to get up off the couch and out the door before the other three. Making good use of their head start, the trio split up, running around the house to find places to hide.
Despite its odd name, Prickle-Plague was basically just tag. Someone has the Prickle-Plague, and if they touch you, they pass it on to you. Apparently it was named after an actual plague that swept across the island, spreading through water that was tainted by a species of poisonous cacti. Luz thought it was a bit morbid to name a kid's game after a deadly plague that probably killed a lot of people, but hey, that's pretty par for the course on the Boiling Isles.
Luckily, the Owl House was always a mess, both inside and outside, which meant there were plenty of places to hide and wait out the plague. If someone with the plague wasn't able to tag someone for 5 minutes, they lost, and everyone else won. So all Luz needed to do was use her knowledge of her surrounding to find the best hiding spot ever, and she'd be fine.
Unfortunately, she was on a pretty tight time limit, so she instead opted to simply jump in the first empty barrel she found, grabbing its lid and closing it. A minute passed as she heard Viney running around.
"Oh Luuuuuuz!" she drawled, her voice occasionally getting further away, then closer again. "Puddles is trying to eat your Good Witch Azura book again. You better go stop her, because I won't."
Viney continued to run around the yard, calling names and trying to taunt her friends into revealing themselves. She was getting desperate. Luz held back an evil snicker. There was no way she was going to get found. There were a million different places to hide. Viney would need to get insanely lucky to get anywhere near-
Light flooded into the barrel as Viney pulled the lid off, leaning against its rim. Luz looked up to see that Viney's nose has been replaced with a dire wolf snout, its fur the same colour as her hair. 'Oh, right. Beastkeeping magic.' Her canine nose wrinkled and scrunched up for a moment. "Has anyone ever told you that you smell like lemons and crayons?" Viney asked, before tapping Luz on the head and screaming "LUZ HAS THE PRICKLE-PLAGUE!" and running off.
"Come back here Lycan-Viney!" Luz yelled back, trying to stand up and hop out of the barrel, only succeeding in making the whole thing fall over, causing a chain reaction where a mountain of junk fell on top of her, including a ladder, a box of rubber chickens that Eda was planning to sell, and a replica of the Holy Grail made of real gold that she tried to throw out, but kept finding in random spots in the house. Luz had been wondering where it ended up.
Twenty or so minutes later, the four walked back into the Owl House, panting and out of breath, the game ending with Gus as the loser, which caught Luz by surprise. Usually, Gus never got caught, instead messing with everyone else by making illusions of himself run around taunting people. After a while, no one would be able to tell if the Gus yelling insults at them was real or fake, and they'd give up trying to tag him.
King, however, did not fall victim to Gus' mind games, and when King ended up getting tagged, Gus came out to taunt him, thinking that King would ignore him like everyone else had. That proved to be his downfall, as King, refusing to take any insults lying down, charged full speed towards Gus, latching onto his face before kicking off, giving Gus the Prickle-Plague.
That was the first time Luz had ever seen Gus get tagged. As it turned out, Gus really wasn't good at being 'it', as he spent far too long second guessing himself when he tried to find people, wasting valuable time. By the time five minutes had passed, he had walked by Luz's new hiding spot at least seven times, looking at it twice before saying "No no, she wouldn't hide there." It took everything Luz had to not laugh every time he walked by and give herself away.
As punishment for losing, Gus was forced to dispel his fancy seat and sit on the floor. In addition, he had to carry King around on his shoulders. That wasn't actually part of his punishment, but King decided that it was, before promptly climbing on Gus' shoulder. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind, idly scratching King's belly with one hand while he sat down.
Things quieted down for a while, as Viney and Gus really didn't have the energy for any more studying, so they decided to simply hang out and enjoy each other's company before they needed to head home. Having Puddles on hand meant that Viney and Gus could stick around for a while since they didn't need to walk all the way home, which Luz was thankful for. More time with friends was always a good thing.
Before long, everyone started doing their own thing, idly passing the time. Gus stood up in front of a full length mirror, casting spells to test out different haircuts that he would probably never be able to grow, while King slept in the hood of his uniform. Viney sat on a chest next to a window petting Puddles, who had stuck her head through a window.
Meanwhile, Luz had taken the entire coffee table for herself, covering it in papers and stationery supplies. If she had time to kill and wasn't going to do anything else, then she needed to keep working on her glyphs. The more time she spent on them, the more she would understand how they worked.
At least, in theory, she would. So far, all working on trying to figure out her glyphs was doing was stressing her out. She had been trying to figure out how to make a glyph that would let her bend dirt and stone, like how construction witches did. So far though, nothing was working. She had hoped that figuring out the more complex spells required having a glyph at the centre as a base would help. It didn't. She still kept hitting dead ends.
The first problem was that she didn't know which glyph to use as a base. Her best guess was a Plant Glyph, considering that plants were pretty closely associated with the earth. Plants lived in dirt and rock after all. But no matter what combination she tried with a Plant Glyph at the base, nothing worked. Every attempt just caused the paper to sputter out smoke, before dissolving to ash.
Eventually, Luz gave up, letting out a groan and letting her head fall onto the table with a 'Thump'. Viney and Gus turned to look and Luz, stopping what they were doing to check on her. On his way over, Gus took King out of his hood, placing the still sleeping demon down on a nearby pillow on the floor, before making his way over to Luz.
Viney sat down on the coffee table, pushing the frankly excessive amount of paper aside and putting a hand on Luz's head. "You doing alright there Luz?" Luz only groaned in response. Viney turned to look at Gus, silently asking 'What do I do? ', only receiving a shrug as a reply. "Um... pat pat?" Viney said with uncertainty, as she gently began petting Luz's head.
"Pat pat? Really?" Gus asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not good at comforting people, okay?" Viney half-yelled. "You want me to give you my opinions and try and solve your problems? Sure. But I have no idea how to make people feel better!"
"Isn't part of a healers job making sure her patients feel safe and comfortable?"
"I work with animals, not people. It's not my fault you guys keep getting hurt and need me to play medic."
Gus paused for a second. "I mean, you could just say no."
Viney looked at Gus like he had just slapped her across the face. "Absolutely not. I'm not just gonna leave you guys in pain. What kind of monster do you think I am?" The edge of Gus' mouth curled up. "Don't answer that."
A loud snort snapped the two of them out of their banter, as they turned to see Luz snickering into the table, her breath slightly moving the papers around her.
"Looks like someone's feeling better," Viney said with a soft grin. Luz turned her head, laying the side down on the table so she could look at Viney and Gus. "So," Viney continued, "what's got you groaning?"
Luz hesitated for a moment. This was something that they might be able to help with, at least a little. So that meant it was okay to tell them, right?
'But what if she's only asking to be nice? ' a familiar voice questioned. The thought made sense, Viney was an incredibly caring person, even if she wasn't always the best at showing it. But still...
'She asked because she cares,' Luz shot back, forcing the negative thought away, repeating it over and over. It was something Eda was teaching her to do, getting rid of negative thoughts by drowning them out with better ones. Lilith had commented that she was impressed that Eda was giving actual advice, stating something about psychology and how the mind deals with trauma, but all of it went over Luz's head.
With a sigh, Luz sat up, pulling over a half-finished glyph and setting it in front of her, Viney, and Gus. "I'm trying to learn how to make new glyphs, but nothing I'm trying is working." She picked up her pen, drawing in the remainder of the glyphs and tapping it. Gus leaned over, falling back when he got a puff of green smoke shot in his face. "I've managed to make a couple new spells, like creating fog or lightning, so I know it's possible, I just don't get how it works."
Viney sat down next to Luz, pulling over a sheet filled with ideas and crossed off glyph combinations, brow furrowing. Once Gus had recovered from his coughing fit, Gus joined them, sitting across from Luz in front of the couch.
He crossed his arms, pouting at the glyphs. "I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea how these things work, so you're gonna have to explain them first."
"Oh really?" Viney teased, "What happened to not being able to stand another lecture?"
Gus held up his hands defensively. "Hey, it's a sacrifice worth taking to give Luz a hand." That definitely helped to make Luz feel better about letting them help. Gus had been pretty clear earlier that he had enough of learning and technical speak. The fact that he not only suggested more, but stood by that decision when called out on it reassured Luz that he really did want to help. He wasn't just being nice because he had to be.
Unfortunately, Luz didn't have much to offer in terms of a lecture. "Well, you're in luck either way, cuz I got squat for ya. I barely understand how glyphs work as is."
She grabbed a stack of papers, placing it at her side, and wiped the rest of the table down, clearing it off loose sheets and random scraps. Pulling out four small paper squares, she drew the four basic glyphs; Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire, though she avoided drawing the final outer circle to make sure the glyphs wouldn't activate when Gus inevitably touched one.
"So we've got the four basic glyphs, which I either learned from nature, or from a mark left by someone else's spell. As far as we can tell though, these are the only natural glyphs. Every other spell has to come from these four." Luz recalled a very, very long session with Eda and Lilith as they tried to figure out where to find more glyphs, before coming to the conclusion that there weren't any more to find. "Lilith said that these are pretty similar to the different types of bile in a witch's heart, so it makes sense that these can be used to make any spell in the same way bile does."
"But the problem is finding out how to combine them," Viney guessed, with Luz slouching over a bit and nodding. "I guess combining the elements works the same way, but we don't really do it manually." Viney drew a circle in the air, summoning a cobalt coloured orb of light. "We kinda just follow our feelings and our guts when we cast. Not like we choose what kinds of bile to mix, our bodies just do that on their own."
"But you have to do it the hard way," Gus added, nodding along and jotting down notes on a notepad that he pulled from his nearby bag. He reached over, picking up the fire glyph and holding it right in front of his face, flipping it around. Luz was very glad she decided not to draw the outer circle on that one. "Okay, so how exactly do you combine the glyphs?"
Luz grabbed another two sheets of paper, moving the first four aside. On one, she drew a large circle, connecting an ice glyph and a fire glyph that sat opposite each other. On the other, she drew her newly discovered lightning glyph, making sure to miss a line on the central light glyph to make sure Gus didn't electrocute himself.
"As far as I know, there are two ways," Luz explained, pushing the papers forward. "The first is to connect two or more glyphs with a circle, basically combining their elements." She tapped the combined fire & ice glyph, causing it to glow red and blue, before crumpling and transforming into a globule of water. Luz flicked her hand towards a nearby plant, causing the water to arc through the air, landing in the dirt. "From there, I just tell the glyph what I want it to do. For example, mixing ice and fire lets me make water or steam."
Viney let out a low whistle as she watched the water arc through the air, but didn't interrupt the explanation. She rested her head on a fist while she watched Luz move the lightning glyph in front of them.
"The other way," Luz continued, "is to use one glyph as the base, then have extra glyphs in the outer circle. I'm gonna be honest though, I have no idea how this works. We kinda just found this by throwing ideas at a wall."
"Ewwwww," Gus squealed. "Humans rip ideas out of their head and throw them at walls? That's disgusting!" He flipped to another page of his notepad, clicking his pen. "How does it work."
"Just a saying Gus."
"...Human sayings are so weird."
The three sat in silence for a moment, all looking over the remaining glyphs. Eventually, Viney spoke up. "Okay, I'm gonna be honest, I don't think this is something you can brute force. You gotta find out how you're supposed to combine glyphs."
Luz let herself fall back onto the floor. "And how am I supposed to do that!" she asked with frustration. "It's not like I can just find someone to teach my glyph magic, considering everyone that knew how it worked is dead."
"Then let's visit a graveyard."
Luz and Gus turned to look at Viney, giving her a shared look of confusion.
"Uh, what?"
"You need to learn something that only old, dead people know," Viney explained. "Best way to do that is to go poking around in their old homes. They had to of recorded their knowledge of glyphs somewhere, right?"
"Like where?" Luz asked.
Viney leaned back, giving Luz a creepy grin. "Well, if we wanna learn from the witches of the old ages, then we have to go to where the first witches came from." She paused for dramatic effect, Luz leaning in as she waited for Viney to finish. "We'll have to go to... The Tainted Island, Necrozia!" she said in a deep voice, accompanied by Gus running over and flicking the light switch, plunging the room into darkness and shining a red spotlight over Viney.
"Oooooooo, ominous," Luz said with awe. "Gimme the deets. I'm ready for some backstory!"
"Alright, so-" Viney stopped, quietly clearing her throat. "Gus, you can stop with the dramatic lighting now." A moment later, the red spotlight disappeared. Viney waited a few seconds longer. "Oh my Titan, I am going to throw my shoe at you Gus. Turn the normal lights back on too ya dingus."
Gus eventually complied, flicking the lights back on and snickering to himself. Times like these reminded Luz that Gus was, by far, the youngest in their little group, despite how much he had been growing recently. Still, his childish antics never failed to bring a smile to her face.
Shaking her head, Viney turned back to Luz. "So, like I was saying; as the name implies, the Boiling Isles is an archipelago of islands. The Titan's corpse makes up the main island, but there's a bunch of them scattered around. Some were made by bits of Titan flesh that floated into the sea, and others were there from before the Titan fell."
Gus ran over to the couch, leaping over its arm and lying down. "Necrozia is one of the bigger islands, North of the Skull. It's where the first witches settled when the Titan died."
That didn't make much sense to Luz. "Why not just live on the Titan's corpse, like we do now?" she asked.
"It wasn't exactly safe at first," Viney explained. "It took a while for the Titan to decompose, and for its corpse to become habitable." That made more sense, though Luz struggled to call the island safe now. "But, the area around the Titan was still full of ambient magic, even before it was safe to live here. So the first witches made their homes on the nearby islands, where they learned to use magic, presumably using glyphs."
Luz's smile got wider and wider as the explanation went on. "Okay, so the Titan dies, and the first witches move to some nearby islands so they can use magic while the corpse decomposes." Viney and Gus nodded. "So why is the island 'Tainted'? Did something happen to it?"
Viney shook her head. "Not as far as I know. Once Belos took over, he declared the island to be completely off limits, saying that it had been infused with wild magic and was too dangerous to visit."
"Has that actually stopped people from going there?" Luz asked dryly, figuring she already knew the answer.
"Not at first," Gus answered nervously. "A lot of the more adventurous people decided to go anyways, see if they could find any long lost treasures. Ships would set sail for the island all the time."
Viney's expression turned serious, a grimace on her face. "People stopped going once the ships the explorers set sail on came back, filled with their corpses. They were basically just withered husks, all the life just sucked right out of them." The three of them all shuddered in unison picturing ghost ships covered in dried up corpses. That image was gonna stick in Luz's mind for a while. "So yeah, that was enough to convince people that Belos was right and that the island was cursed, or tainted, or something to that effect."
At first, Luz had been excited to hear about this mysterious island. Learning about the Boiling Isles and its history was something that Luz loved. The Isles, and even this entire realm, was such a strange mix of horror and wonder that Luz absolutely loved. Sure, they were literally living on the corpse of a creature so massive she couldn't even begin to fathom its existence, and said corpse was covered in plants and animals and demons that would tear her limb from limb without a second thought. Or any thought really.
But it was also such a beautiful place. Luz still thinks about her second day on the Boiling Isles, where Eda flew her up in the sky to look out over the entire island. She'll never forget looking out across the vast expanse of lush red forests, the way the Titan's ribs shot into the sky, towering over everything and casting shadows across the land, tips covered in snow. How despite where they were, life was flourishing. It was breathtaking.
Necrozia though, it almost sounded like they lacked that wonder. Life didn't flourish there, it was snuffed out. People would go there, full of hope and life, and they would come back not just dead, but completely and utterly drained of any semblance of life they had.
'Wait, they came back? ' she thought, the words finally clicking in her head.
"Hold on a second," Luz asked. "The ships came back? So that means there were survivors then! Someone had to sail the ship back." She waited a few seconds for a response, but Viney and Gus didn't say anything. They just looked at each other, then back to Luz. "...Okay, never mind then, I don't wanna know."
Viney rubbed the back of her neck, looking down. "Okay, I know I suggested this, but I was kinda just thinking that I'd be a good way for you to learn glyph magic. Now that I'm saying it out loud though, I'm not sure it's a good idea."
On one hand, Viney was right. This was an absolutely terrible idea. Going to an island that hundreds, maybe even thousands of people died on in an attempt to find knowledge that might not even be there? It was risky, it was rash, and it was stupid. There was absolutely no logical reason to go. But Luz had never really cared about logic. And right now, there was something far more important than her safety on the line. Her mom was waiting for her.
Luz stood up, walking over towards a nearby shelf and looking through the random bits and bobs that populated the room. It was something that Luz loved about her home. The entire house was so full of life. Everywhere you looked, something was there. There was no empty space, every inch of the room had a story to tell. But good grief, if it didn't make things hard to find.
Eventually, she found what she was looking for, grabbing a rolled up map of the Boiling Isles and bringing it back over to Gus & Viney, who had been watching her questioningly. She rolled it out over the table, scanning it over. "You said the islands were North of the Skull, right?" she asked, voice full of determination. "Do you mean these ones?" She pointed at a cluster of islands, just above the tip of the Titan's right horn.
The map didn't have a ton of detail. It was more a rough layout of the Isles, not a finely crafted piece of art the gave an accurate layout of every inch of the islands. But it painted a clear enough picture. Luz had a rough idea of where the islands she was looking for were. That would be enough.
"Woah woah woah, hold on a second Luz," Gus said while sitting up straight. "Are you actually considering this?" His face grew more panicked when Luz didn't answer, glaring at the map. "Did you miss the part about everyone going there, dying horribly, and coming back a withered husks?"
"I don't care," Luz firmly stated. "This is my best chance at learning more about how glyphs work. I have to take it."
"...Why?" Viney hesitantly asked, sounding suspicious. "I get that you wanna figure this stuff out, but is it really worth this?"
Luz didn't even hesitate. "Yes, it is."
The room went quiet for a bit. At least, Luz thought it did. She wasn't sure. Honestly, Viney and Gus could have been yelling at her, trying to talk her out of it, and she wouldn't have noticed. She was too caught up in her own thoughts, mind racing at a thousand miles an hour. She was absolutely terrified, but any fear she felt was overshadowed by the thought that if she didn't do this, she wouldn't make it home in time. It was a long shot. She barely understood how glyphs worked. Hoping that these islands would hold the key she needed to not only understand glyphs, but also to make a portal out of them, was foolish. But she had to hope. She had to.
After a while, Viney took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh, her breath shaking ever so slightly. "Okay," she said, "then I'm coming with you." Her voice was monotone and emotionless, but firm. This wasn't a question, it was a statement.
That didn't stop Luz from trying to talk her out of it. "Viney, you don't-"
"No, I don't," Viney snapped. "But guess what? I'm doing it anyway. Because I want to. End of discussion."
Luz's mind screamed at her to keep fighting. To keep trying to talk Viney out of this. This was her problem, she had absolutely no right dragging Viney into this. 'But I'm not.' Luz forced herself to think. 'She's choosing to come with me. I didn't even ask her to.'
'She's too nice to let you die alone,' a voice whispered back.
The argument looped over and over, until Luz noticed that Gus hadn't said anything. She was sure that after Viney said she was going her, he'd have jumped in. She looked over at him. He looked terrified, eyes glued to the ground. "Gus?" she said, giving him a concerned look.
He looked up at her, hesitating for a few seconds, mouth opening and closing as he tried to say something. After a few seconds, he looked away. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I just..."
"Hey, it's fine," Viney stated firmly. "You're scared. That's completely normal and fair. Sit this one out, alright?" Gus took a breath, slowly nodding.
For some reason, that made Luz feel better. She looked between Viney and Gus and felt pieces suddenly click into place. Her mind kept assuming that her friends only ever helped her because that was the kind of people they were. They were too good to not help her. That was the only reason that made sense after all.
And yet, for once, Gus didn't jump to help her without a second thought. He hesitated, and he said no. But she had known him for far longer than she had known Viney. They were arguably closer. So if Gus said no to helping her, and Viney said yes, did that mean that Viney was kinder than Gus? That she was a better person. That thought popped into her mind for a second, before promptly disappearing. That wasn't it. She knew it wasn't.
It meant that Viney wasn't helping because she felt like she had to. She just wanted to.
Luz felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She really did have the best friends ever. "Viney is right Gus," she said with a smile. "This is pretty scary. I don't want you to force yourself to come if you aren't comfortable."
Gus turned to look at her again, giving her a small smile. "Thanks. And sorry."
"Don't apologize Gus. It's alright."
A short while later, the three of them decided to call it a day. It was starting to get late, and they were all exhausted after everything. Viney said to let her know when Luz was planning on heading out to Necrozia, with a warning not to leave without her. Luz laughed and said she wouldn't dream of it, taking pride in the fact that she meant it. Viney seemed surprised, but smiled, before heading out.
Luz pulled her phone out of her pocket, checking the time. Eda and Lilith were probably going to get back from their ingredient run soon. Apparently, the two of them had helped out a rather wealthy demon with some potion they wanted, and said demon had spread the word that the Clawthorns were both willing and able to make slightly dubious potions.
From there, Eda's potion business changed from selling whatever potions she could to people that would buy from her to doing speciality orders for high paying customers. Ones that didn't want to deal with the restrictions that legal vendors had. Was it sketchy? Absolutely, but hey, that wasn't exactly new for Eda, and she promised that she wouldn't make anything too dangerous. Luz was surprised that Lilith had so readily jumped on board the idea, but it seemed like the longer she was around Eda, the more she loosened up. It was nice seeing her smiling and not constantly worrying like before.
Clicking the power button and placing her phone back in her pocket, Luz started skipping towards the kitchen. It was about time to get started on dinner, and she was in a good mood, so she figured she'd lend the sisters a hand and help them with the preparation. She still didn't know how to cook Boiling Isles food, but she could at least get everything ready for them.
And when they got back, she'd talk with them about visiting Necrozia.
Hunter, the Golden Guard:
Hunter was lying flat on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with a scowl on his face, eyes heavy and tired. But of course, despite how exhausted he was, he couldn't sleep. No matter how much he tossed and turned, he remained wide awake. By this point, he had given up on trying to get any rest, and was just letting himself feel... sorry for himself? Angry? He wasn't entirely sure. Emotions were hard.
It had been just under three weeks since his visit to Hexside, and he was still bitter about everything that had happened. All that effort and he didn't even get to see Luz Noceda, let alone talk to her. More than anything, he just wanted to talk to her, to figure out what was going on. But it's not like he could just stroll on over to the Owl House and strike up a conversation with her.
"Oh hi there Luz," he said out loud in a mocking voice, "It's me, the Golden Guard. I know you probably hate me for existing, but I just wanted to know what you are. You can totally trust me with this very secret information."
He grabbed a pillow, stuffing it against his face and groaning. It sounded ever stupider out loud. Besides, she was lying to everyone around her. Even if he could just have a casual chat with her, why would she be honest with him? No, the only way to do this was by force. He needed to put her in a situation where she had no choice but to speak with him, and he needed some leverage to make sure she told the truth.
The first idea that came into Hunter's head was to just kidnap her on her way to school and lock her in a cell until she talked. He shut that idea down pretty quickly. Kidnapping and torturing someone was a great way to get information, but not one that he had the stomach for. Threatening to do it? That was fair game, but he had the feeling that Luz would be stubborn enough to call him on his bluff, and he didn't think he could actually go through with it.
Then, there was the even bigger issue with that plan. Emperor Belos.
"Do not interact with her, Golden Guard," the Emperor had told him. "You are to keep watch from afar to ensure that she does not undermine our goals any further." His voice softened, ever so slightly, in a way that sounded like his uncle. "She is cunning and dangerous. She has taken far too much, and has seduced far too many. I will not have her take you from me too."
Hunter wanted to argue, to say that he would never betray him, but he knew that the words would fall on deaf ears. After all, Luz had managed to make Lilith, the head of the Coven and The Emperor's most loyal servant, to defect, going so far as to attempt to break the Owl Lady out of the Conformatorium. The Emperor was right, interacting with Luz for extended periods of time was too dangerous.
'She must have some kind of magic that messes with your mind, forcing you to trust her, like a charming spell' Hunter thought. That was the only explanation that made sense. It was part of why he had hired and Oracle, someone who could see through Luz's lies and deceptions, who would know if she were trying to manipulate him.
That had ended up working in his favour. Since Harriot wasn't part of the Emperor's Coven, she was only loyal to the Golden Guard, not the Emperor. He could trust her not to rat him out. As long as he treated her well and paid her right, she would stay by his side. He could trust her.
But having Harriot by his side meant nothing if he couldn't get Luz in a situation where he could make her talk. And unfortunately for Hunter, he couldn't force it this time. Not after his failed attempt to get her to talk at Hexside.
It was obvious that the Emperor didn't believe his cover story. It didn't matter that Principal Bump backed him up, he wasn't buying it. The Emperor knew him too well. And even if he wouldn't directly call him out on the lie, that didn't mean he wouldn't do anything about it. The Emperor never said anything to him, but Hunter could feel more eyes on him, no matter where he was in the castle. People were watching him. And not like the usual glances of awe when he watched by. No, this was different. He was being monitored.
Which meant he couldn't trust any of the Coven Guards. Any one of them could be a spy for the Emperor. Any one of them could rat him out if he made another move at Luz. It was too risky to get them involved. Which mean that he was lacking the manpower he needed to fabricate a situation where Luz would have no choice but to tell him what he wanted to know.
That meant he had to wait for an opportunity. For her to do something out of the ordinary, something he could manipulate to turn against her. And that was the problem. She wasn't doing anything. At all. Every day, it was the same. Wake up, go to school, go home. Sometimes, she'd visit the Bonesborough Library, or do a couple of errands around town, but that was it. Nothing interesting, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing he could use against her.
He knew it was a trick though. It had to be. She was trying to throw him off her trail, get him to let his guard down. That's when she'd go back to doing... whatever it was she did. But he wasn't stupid enough to fall for her tricks.
A small beam of light peaked into the room, shining into Hunter's eye. He squinted, sitting up and looking out the window. The sun was rising. 'Another day without sleep,' he thought bitterly. 'Guess I'm grabbing another energy potion on my way out.' He had probably gone through half the storeroom's supplies of energy elixir at this point. He knew it wasn't exactly healthy, but it couldn't be helped. He had a job to do.
Forcing himself off the bed, he walked over to his cupboard, grabbing his uniform and mask. He smiled to himself. This was the best part of the day. Where he got to stop being Hunter, and to be someone better.
But first, he had to get himself ready. He placed the uniform and mask down on the nearby desk, and opened up a drawer in the cupboard, pulling out his binder. He took off his casual clothes and forced the binder over his chest, taking in one last deep breath of air before putting it on. The fabric hugged his torso tight, pressing down onto his ribs. He hated how it felt. How painful it was. But it was better than the alternative, so he grit his teeth and dealt with the pain and shallow breaths.
He went to grab the next piece of his uniform, but his eyes caught on a nearby mirror. He couldn't help but look, even if he didn't want to. The bags under his eyes had gotten bigger again. At this point, he was starting to think they were permanent. His dirty blonde hair was messy and unkempt, going off in random directions. His magenta eyes lacked the shine they once had, something he had never been able to get back. The sharp scar that shot across his left cheek was the same as ever. That made him smile a little bit. He liked that scar. For some reason, it made him feel manly. And it was one of the few scars that didn't have a lesson behind it. He could simply appreciate it for what it was.
Forcing his gaze away from the mirror, he put on the rest of his uniform, wrapping his cloak around his shoulders, locking the clasp in place, and throwing the hood over his head. He picked up his golden mask, placing it on his face. And with that, Hunter was gone. And now, he was the Golden Guard again.
The effect was instantaneous. He stood up straight, shoulders wide instead of slouched over like usual. He looked over at the mirror again, grinning to himself. He started walking towards the door, picking up his staff and pressing the button to extend it to its full length, twirling it in his hands as he did. He had a feeling that today was going to be a good day.
Strolling through the halls of the castle, a confidant step in his stride, he made his way down to the Storeroom, telling one of the Quartermasters to grab him an energy elixir. The process of having people grab items from the castle's stores was slightly annoying but necessary. If people could just come and go, grabbing whatever they wanted, then people were sure to abuse that privilege.
The Quartermaster gave him a frown. The Golden Guard figured he must have asked this specific person for a few too many elixirs. He needed to keep better track of who he was asking. Having them get worried about his health would get annoying fast. But he didn't feel like snapping at them, so he decided to go for slight intimidation instead, tilting his head and asking "Is there a problem?" The Quartermaster shook his head, quickly running off to grab the elixir. He was a little more scared than the Golden Guard intended, but hey, it worked.
A few minutes later, with an energy elixir in hand, the Golden Guard took to the air, soaring through the skies like a comet of red light. Within minutes, he had reached his destination, a small outpost he had set up near the Owl House. It was close enough that he could come and go between there and the house itself without issue, but far enough away that the House Demon wouldn't notice. That thing had given the Coven no end of problems. Better to not risk alerting it.
As soon as he arrived, his form shifting back to normal, he noticed Harriot, standing a few feet away from him, her posture stiff and her expression completely neutral. 'Punctual as always.' Her outfit, rather than the pseudo-coven uniform from before, was something of her own. She wore a long dark purple dress with thin strips of white running along it, stretching out across the fabric before reconvening at the centre, forming a large eye on her chest. Her outfit was finished with a pair of long back gloves that covered her entire arm. He couldn't see her feet, but he was sure that Harriot was wearing black heels, as she always did.
"Shift change," the Golden Guard happily said. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep watch over the Owl House 24/7, even with energy elixirs. So Harriot kept watch while he rested. Or, attempted to rest. "Sure you're happy to finally get a break." Harriot simply shrugged as always. She never was one for casual talk. "Any new developments?"
"No," she said with her usual monotone voice, though he could just barely see the edge of her mouth curl up slightly. "At least, not yet." The Golden Guard smiled beneath his mask. She had something for him. Harriot gracefully moved her hand through the air, summoning her crystal ball.
Oracle Magic was tricky and imprecise, and something he didn't know much about. Most people thought it allowed witches to see the future. That wasn't quite true. It was more accurate to say it allowed them to predict the future. But the future was never certain. It was always in flux, the tiniest decision shifting every possibility. It was almost impossible to get everything right.
What most people also didn't understand was that Oracles couldn't just draw knowledge from nowhere. Luckily, they didn't have to. The Boiling Isles were full of spirits and spectres, wisps of creatures that had long since passed away and fused with the Titan's magic, drifting through the air. Using a focus that reflected the world around them, like a crystal ball or a mirror, an Oracle could call upon these spirits, using them to gain knowledge that would be impossible for them to find on their own.
From there, an Oracle could focus their magic through their mind, using everything they know to determine the most likely futures. The spell to scan through the future was a simple one, but one that was useless without the proper intelligence. Which was why the best Oracles were the best travelled. The ones that had been all over the Isles, connecting to spirits all across the land and calling upon their knowledge, rather than just a few select spirits.
Of course, there was more to Oracle magic than that. Predictions on a more personal scale used different tools, spectres could be summoned as guardians or assistants, and so on. But that wasn't of much interest to the Golden Guard. It was out of his reach.
The knowledge that there were certain kinds of magic that he just couldn't do never failed to bother him. His staff was powerful, true, but it had its limits. He could easily shoot across the sky, crossing the length of the Titan in the time it would take a normal witch to fly a mile, but without his own internal source of magic, like a bile sac, he couldn't focus his magic into tools like a crystal ball. He could pick up a crystal ball, which might make a spirit come and spit out a random sentence or two, but that was about it. Which meant that the majority of Oracle magic was simply impossible for him.
But that's why he had Harriot. So there was no point in being bitter. After all, she was a fantastic Oracle. She had served him well so far. And judging by the faintest hint of a smile on her face, he knew she was about to serve him well again.
"Luz Noceda has been made aware of a place; The Tainted Island. It is almost certain that she will venture there soon."
That made the Golden Guard raise an eyebrow. Necrozia wasn't the kind of place you just casually visited. At least, so he had heard. He had never visited the island himself. He never had a reason to. He let out a long whistle. "Dang, she must be desperate if she's heading all the way out there."
Harriot nodded, her smile stretching just a tiny bit further. "Very desperate," she emphasized. The Golden Guard's grin turned into a wicked smile. He could work with this.
"Well then," he said cockily, "I suppose we'll be taking a visit there ourselves. We wouldn't want her to go somewhere so dangerous all by herself, now would we?"
"I doubt she will be alone," Harriot stated. The Golden Guard crossed his arms and gave her a look, even if she couldn't see it behind his mask. "Yes, I'm aware you were being coy."
He shook his head. Harriot was a fantastic Oracle, but poor conversation. He couldn't hold it against her though. "Well, thank you for the info. Keep an ear out to see when she's heading out. The second you know when she's going, let me know." With that, he started making his way towards the Owl House, ready to begin his watch shift.
"You know," Harriot started, causing him to stop for a second, "you won't achieve anything if you don't properly rest."
He narrowed his eyes. "Did you divine that with your magic?"
"No, it's simply common sense."
"I'll keep it in mind. Dismissed."
Harriot gave a slight bow, before heading off in the opposite direction, back towards town. The Golden Guard wondered what she would do with her free time. Would she sleep? Go enjoy a day in town? Did she have friends she would talk to?
He shook his head as he walked. Those thoughts were pointless. Distractions. The answers wouldn't help him in any way. Better to focus on the mission on hand. Always look at the bigger picture. Tiny details about things like that were useless.
So he continued to think about what lay ahead, and he couldn't help but smile. This was exactly the kind of opportunity he needed. Venturing to a hostile environment, far away from any eyes that might be watching them? It was perfect. If he was really lucky, Luz would bring a few of her friends with her. Give him something to hold against her. But even if she didn't, he'd make it work.
With the Owl House in sight, he crouched low to the ground, waving his staff in front of him to camouflage himself with the forest. For now, he needed to focus on making sure none of the Owl House residents did anything too illegal. He couldn't care less about them picking a few pockets or giving some random rich idiot a potion to spite their mutuals. So long as they didn't do anything that would go against the Coven's goals, they would be allowed to live.
So he kept watch, all the while grinning, and occasionally shaking his hands with excitement, bobbing his foot up and down. All he had to do was wait.