-Lilith-
The MCU newly rebuilt headquarters / Friday December 23rd, 10:00
Lilith stood still with a rigid posture while she tried to close her eyes to calm herself, but it was impossible due to the sounds around her: The ringing of hammers, the chatter of conversations, and the crackle of someone welding something nearby was distracting her. It was to be expected, after all, she was in the middle of a construction zone. She sighed as she watched the workers do their job. They moved around carrying piles of wood, tools, heavy machinery, rocks cables, sacs of cement, and all kinds of materials they used to clear the rubble and rebuild the building.
"The reconstruction is going well. At this rate I will have my office back by new year, if I'm still working here that is"
It had been one week since the battle against the dragon, one week since the most dangerous moment her organization had faced in a while. They captured the demon but the witch flew away and they were unable to track her since then. The outcome of the battle had been far from good, and it had left their headquarters in ruins, but at least their walls could be rebuilt, unlike everything else that was broken
"Lilith" Steve's voice called for her "It's time"
Without any more words she turned around and walked inside. Today the higher ups had a meeting with her, and the rest of the people in charge of this mission. There were far too many things that could go wrong in this meeting, in the best of cases she would be demoted to a mere scout, or maybe they'll erase her memories and fire her.
In the worst case they would imprison her forever.
"Lilith" Steve caught up with her as she walked "Are you sure you don't want me to be there?"
"I'm absolutely certain" A part of her wanted to have some reassurance but these were the results of her actions, and she was going to face them like a responsible adult without any fear "I don't need anyone to hold my hand. Besides, if they see you they might shift the blame, are you ready to face the questioning of the council?"
Steve gulped, he never had been good with these sorts of things.
"Didn't think so…" Lilith kept walking.
"Wait! That might be true but still… if everything goes wrong this may be the last time we will be able to speak to each other, don't you want to say something?" He asked with pleading eyes.
She pondered the question. In her line of work the chance of dying was quite high and every mission could be her last. She had made peace with that idea several years ago, and made the proper arrangements for that particular outcome: All of her money and most of her possessions would go to Eda (and to Luz as well, after she updated her will recently). Her weapons, files on cases, and anything useful to fight would go to Steve and her other partners. Finally, her house would go to her parents, a place where they can grow old in peace. Although she doubted that the higher ups would kill her (The possibility was always there) getting fired, or banished, or imprisoned would be the same for her.
"No. Not really" She said solemnly.
"Lilith!" He yelled with shock.
"I have never enjoyed saying goodbye, and I'm not one to enjoy sentimentalism either, but I will say this: Whatever happens today I am glad to have served with you, you always were a valuable friend" She said with a smile.
Steve made some whimpering noises and hugged her tightly, while she just awkwardly patted his back. When he was done they separated and she could see a tear falling down his cheek.
"Right, uh… Let's keep going" He said.
They marched towards the meeting room, passing through blasted walls, hanging cables, broken glass, and the construction workers doing repairs. Then, when they finally reached the meeting room, Lilith saw something she wasn't expecting. Lawrence, Ralph, and every single scout that worked under her command were in front of the doors to the meeting room forming two lines at either side of it.
"What is this?" She asked.
"We wanted to wish you luck in the meeting" One of her agents explained "And well… Maybe this would be the last time we get to talk to you, so we wanted to thank you for everything you did for us"
Lilith couldn't believe it. She always had a reputation of being ruthless and unfair with her people, but now they were making an honor guard for her.
"Lawrence?" She moved towards the agent, she was surprised to see the agent here, they haven't been on the best of terms after the last battle.
"We may have our differences, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you" He offered her a smile.
Steve positioned himself with the rest and she smiled. If she was able to have this many people with her then it meant that she must have done something right.
With a determined stare she crossed the honor guard and opened the door.
She advanced without hesitation into the dark room, only guided by the light that was coming from the hallway. The door closed behind her and she was left in complete darkness until a light appeared on top of her, only illuminating her close surroundings.
"The trial will begin now" A voice said to her right, it was so raspy and old that Lilith couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman "We are gathered here to decide the fate of Lilith Clawthorne, whether or not she deserves a punishment for her actions, and to determine a fitting one should that be the case"
Lilith stood tall with her chin raised. She did not know where the people were so she just kept looking forward.
"Let's review the facts before we start with the sentence, that way she can clarify some things that might not have carried over to the reports" Said a newer voice, it sounded younger and it had a slight eastern european accent, a male without a doubt.
There were murmurs of agreement
"Fine then" The first voice spoke "Lilith Clawthorne, do you have any idea why you are here?"
"I am being judged because of the damage my actions caused to both this organization and the planet" She said solemnly "I am not going to ask for forgiveness for it, nor am I going to beg to be spared of my fate. If the council decides that that I deserve a punishment then I'll bare it, no matter what it is"
"What a noble attitude. Let's see if you can keep it up" A new voice said in an amusing tone.
"We are not here to discuss how you feel about this trial. Are you aware that your actions created trouble for the organization and put lives in danger?" The first voice asked.
"Yes, I am aware of that. It is because of it I said that I would face any punishment this council deems worthy" She said
"An interesting view" A new voice appeared, this time a female "But your confidence tells us that you don't regret any of this"
"I don't have regrets, I just don't see the use of them" That was a lie. There were too many (far too many) things that she regretted in her life, but the council did not need to know that.
"This is fine and all, but we should move on" Again the European accent. She heard the rustling of some paper from somewhere "Let's start with the latest of your infractions: You let a dragon tear a quarter of a city full of civilians, care to elaborate on that?"
Lilith clenched her fists and took a long breath, she had prepared for this.
"The dragon attacked us before that, it ambushed our facility" She pointed towards the cracks in the wall that were visible in the tiny light.
"Yes miss Clawthorne, we can see that" The old voice grumbled in annoyance.
"We did have to see the poor state of your headquarters on our way here, we are not blind. Though that raises the question, how did that beast find you?" The European guy asked.
"It was a premeditated attack. The Dragon was actually a demon capable of doing magic, we had several encounters with him in the past so he harbored anger towards us" She knew that all of them knew about this, they were merely testing her "Earlier that day our scouts went patrolling after they heard rumors of a beast attacking the town center, they came back because they couldn't find anything but that was part of the demon's plan: He put a tracker on their truck and that led him here"
"Hmmm, and where exactly are those agents now?" He asked and she knew where he was trying to get at.
"They have been fired and mind-wiped already" That had been an order from Marcus.
"Good. You shouldn't be able to fuck up that badly and still remain here. It's only fair, don't you think?" He asked with a mocking tone.
"Stop teasing her and move on already!" The woman's voice intervened "We already know what happened so let's skip to the part where you chase a dragon off the entire city, can you explain why did you take that option? You clearly had other choices"
Lilith considered what to answer. She could just stick with the facts, but that wouldn't do her any favor. These people already knew what happened, just repeating it to them wasn't going to do her any favors, so she had to stand her ground.
"Have any of you led men into battle?" She asked them.
Judging by the silence that followed after, her boldness had the effect she had hoped.
"If we were in another circumstances, I would feel offended by your question" The raspy voice said "You should know better than anyone that in order to go high in this organization you need to fight for this planet at least once. If you expect us to be mere paper-pushers with no fighting experience you are going to be dissapointed"
"Then you know what's like to have dozens of lives depend on you, make tough choices that would shape those lives, to have to choose between two bad options with no clear solution" She took a breath to stabilize her speech "When the dragon attacked the second time we were on the road in a vulnerable position, not to mention near a highly populated area, so we had to move. I had two options: To fall back and let the dragon do as it pleased (maybe it would've ran away, maybe it would've set the town in flames), or lead that beast away to a more secluded area and confront it there. I chose the latter"
"So you decided to enrage it and ran towards the people? Explain to me how that makes sense" said the European guy.
"At that point I wasn't aware that the monster was capable of rational thought. As far as I knew it behaved like any beast, so I believed that it would be possible to scare it away" She answered.
"Oh so you made yourselves look bigger and made noises like when you encounter a bear? That's cute" She could hear that man's smirk on his voice.
"Quiet!" The old voice returned "Miss Clawthorne, you were aware that the monster released a prisoner from your facility before that, right? That should've told you that you weren't dealing with a mere animal"
"At the time that was mere speculation to me. I did not know for sure what it might've done if I'd have left alone, but I did know that the chances of people getting hurt would skyrocket with that thing nearby, so I took the chance"
"Yes. You took the chance and it went to worse, so I'd say that it was the wrong call"
"Was it?" She asked.
There was a deep silence in the room "Miss Clawthorne… do you realize that part of the city was destroyed by the same monster that was chasing you?" The old voice said "There were several injured and-"
"But how many died?"
They were all silent after that.
"Exactly. Not a single civilian died that day, and that's because me and my men managed to evacuate most of the civilians in the area before leading it there, and then fought it in a secluded area. You may criticize my methods (and maybe you are right by doing so) but the safety of humankind it's always my number 1 priority, that you cannot negate"
"Well that's lovely" The european guy spoke again and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes "But we are not here to question your morals, only your results. You are aware that thanks to your little stunt the whole world knows about us right?"
There was a *beep* noise and a screen came from the roof. It turned on showing the local news, they were broadcasting a video and images of the dragon wrecking a building.
"There's no way that we could wipe the memory of everyone there and call this a 'terrorist attack' or a 'gas leak' like we always do. Witches are one thing, their magic disrupts electronic devices so we don't have to worry about recordings, but something this big is going to make it to the internet with no problem. What do you have to say for yourself there?"
Lilith bit the inside of her cheek to calm herself. This was the type of thing that she was afraid of: The organization had declared a code omega and decided that there was no point in trying to hide the existence of magical beings anymore (At least the ones in gravesfield) because of the overwhelming evidence supporting them. The government was forced to make a statement about it and the general population was not happy about it.
"If I may intervene" A familiar voice with a scottish accent spoke up and all the others groaned in annoyance.
"Marcus?" She asked.
A new light came on and illuminated a corner of the room, showing her the old mentor on a chair with a smile.
"Markus!" The old voice berated him.
"What? Sorry ta ruin yer mysterious theater but I do not like being in the dark" The others grumbled in annoyance "I don't think that it's fair to blame that on the lass. We all knew that this was going to happen sooner or later and several people, myself included, were responsible for it, she merely was the last drop"
"So then she should get spared from a punishment because of that? Hmph, you always have been weak towards your previous wards" Said the woman.
"I did not say that. She should get punished, as anyone who fecks up this badly should, but I do not like that you are making it seem like she did something awful when a lot of ye were hoping that something like this happened"
The others went on an uproar.
"You cannot possibly say-" the raspy voice started
"Oh come on, you fuckers have been talking for years about how it was so hard to keep magic hidden and how it would all be better if everyone knew about it. I know these might not be the best circumstances for that but this woman has given you the chance to do what you wanted, you cannot pretend that you are deeply offended for what she did while in reality you are ecstatic about the opportunities it brings!"
"What?" Lilith asked, dumbfounded.
"Marcus! You can't just say that!" The woman roared "Yes, we have been looking for a way to safely reveal magic to the public, but this isn't it! Even if we end up benefiting from her actions that does not change the fact that she endangered both our men and the people living in the city"
"Agreed" The old voice said "We had plans for revealing the existence of extra dimensional beings to the common folk, but now things are speeding up thanks to your former apprentice"
"What is done is done, we can only adapt to the circumstances. Now I agree that she should face some sort of punishment, but nothing of the permanent kind. A lass of her skills and knowledge could always be a powerful asset to us, if you check her track record-"
"Her track record is part of the reason why she is here!" The european guy spat "The incident with the dragon was just the last drop. I have several reports that speak of her actions against magical creatures, some of them even come from you, her aggressive behavior has caused several interactions in the past"
Marcus opened her mouth but she was quicker than him.
"I won't deny those actions, and perhaps I was too harsh as well, but you need to know that all the things I did were for the ideals this organization has" She said and then flashed a 'do-not-interfere' glare towards Marcus, he just raised his hands in surrender.
"Perhaps, we are being too harsh too" She was surprised to hear a new female voice. As far as she knew trials of this kind of trials only allowed five judges, and since marcus was there she just assumed that Mr X was the last one "I checked her track record myself, and while her aggressive tendencies might sometimes compromise the mission her talent, experience, and quick decision-making are quite useful for us. I agree with Markus that we should find a suitable punishment for Lilith but let her remain in our organization"
"So what? She gets out with a slap in the wrist after the mess she caused?" Asked the European guy.
"That's exactly why she should remain here, to fix that mess" Answered the new voice.
"Hmm, I guess we could agree on a fitting punishment for her and allow her to remain here, after some time of absence of course" The second voice said "But I can't feel that this operation is secure if she remains in charge here. You said that we need her skills and experience, well I say that she could provide those as a soldier"
Her eyes widened at that.
"So demote her from her position and force her to leave as punishment, that's fine by me" The raspy voice mumbled in agreement.
"We would be basically giving her a paid vacation after the mess she made… oh well, I guess that would do" The European man said.
Lilith was sure that her hands were bleeding with how much she was pressing her nails against her palm, but she didn't say anything. She told them that she was going to accept any punishment they deemed fit, so she was going to stick by that.
"So we are all in favor?" The last voice asked and there were murmurs of agreements "Then it's decided. From this point on Lilith Clawthorne will take a leave of absence for a time that the council will determine later. When she comes back she will be stripped of her rank and made into one of our scouts. Does the accused have anything to say?"
"No…" Lilith forced herself to say.
"We declare this trial over then" The raspy voice decided.
Several minutes later
"Lilith, wait!" Marcus called for her while she was walking in the hallway and she turned back to face him.
"What do you want?" She snapped at him.
"Just want to check on ya. I know that you probably hate me for butting in but-" She didn't want to hear more.
"BUT NOTHING!" She roared and several scouts who were walking by stopped in their tracks to look at them "Marcus, what you did was insulting, why did you do it?"
"Consider it an early christmas present" He tried to crack a joke but he backed up when he saw her expression "I'm sorry for that, but it had to be done"
"No! You did not need to intervene, I was FINE defending myself" she stressed every word with clenching teeth.
"Were you? Your defense basically consisted of 'yeah I did it, so what?'. You would've not convinced them with that, not to mention you were missing information"
Oh yes, the council was planning to reveal magic to the world. A part of her still couldn't believe that they were planning to do something so stupid.
"Still, I didn't need you to come to my defense like a parent, do you realize the impression that you left the others in the council?"
"What did you want me to do? Just sit there and watch as my best agent loses everything? What would've happened if they erased your mind, Lilith? You have been working with us for almost twenty years! A memory loss that big would carry severe neurological damage that could affect your motor or cognitive skills. Do you think I would be happy seeing you in a wheelchair or become stupid?" He had good points but she did not care.
"This isn't about you, this is about me! If I'm not able to defend my cause then I deserve that sort of punishment" At this point tears were flowing from her eyeballs but she did not care "Look at what happened with the dragon, it was a disaster! And- WHAT ARE YOU TWO LOOKING AT" She addressed the two scouts who were watching their conversation. They ran away as soon as her gaze fell on them.
"Well I'm sorry for not respecting your feelings then, but I will always choose the mission before those" his expression was dead serious "Right now we are in a tough situation, and I need all of my soldiers with me"
"Damn it!" She spun around and punched a nearby concrete wall, she could hear her knuckles crack.
"Gotta put some ice on it" Marcus said.
She moved towards a window and looked out while she rested her hand on a windowsill. It was a beautiful day outside, a rare sight this deep in winter: The sky was clear even though it had snowed before, and all of their men were doing their respective jobs to repair the facility.
"Lilith, why don't you take this as a small vacation? You deserve it. You could spend time with your sister and her daughter, reconnect with that old ward of yours, or maybe you could even try and research historical places like you always wanted. We made a recount: According to the list that belos gave us we have captured all of the magical beings that appeared in our realm, that on itself is a cause for celebration"
"But that's not counting the artifacts, the witches, nor the magical relics they posses"
"But still, it's a start! Go home, be with your family. Rest, and as soon as I detect that we have danger I promise that I will call for you" Marcus reassured her.
Lilith couldn't hold them anymore and the tears started flowing through her eyes. She broke down and Marcus held her as she whimpered in his arms
-Luz-
The owl house, west gravesfield / Saturday December 24th, 9:30 am
Luz wrapped herself in her covers as light came from her window and hit her right in the face. She really should get up and close her curtains, and maybe start her day, but she was so comfortable there that she didn't want to move. She usually didn't oversleep but she had been so tired since the battle with the dragon and it had been so cold these weeks, she deserved a time of peace after all of the work she had done (Both keeping the streets safe and acing her tests) so she decided to stay in her bed for five… more… seconds…
"Lily! Where are you, you old hag! We were supposed to be on our way an hour ago!" She heard Eda scream from downstairs and her drowsiness dissipated.
Sighing she got up to start her day. She got out of bed and washed her face to wake herself up, then she remembered something that made her excited: Today Eda and Lilith were leaving to spend Christmas with their parents, which left the entire house for her, a rare event for sure.
"Oh my gosh I'm so excited!"
She hadn't had much time for herself ever since she got to earth, besides the brief times where Eda had an appointment, which had been a huge contrast with her previous life, where she had lived alone for years. She put on her clothes, made her bed, and went downstairs to greet her housemates.
"Good morning everyone! How's- Ahh!" She was surprised to see the house was in disarray, well more than usual. The owl house was never tidy but it was the right amount of messy that it seemed endearing: Creaking floors, broken walls, and piles of uncanny things all over the place. However, now it was overflowing with clothes and Eda's personal stuff "Did a tornado pass through here?"
"If by a 'tornado' you mean Eda, then yes" Lilith appeared behind her holding a steaming cup of coffee and an annoyed expression "Good morning Luz, hope you slept well"
She was about to reply the same to Lilith when she saw the state she was in. She had bags under her puffy eyes. Her hair, which was always tidy, was a mess that resembled a bird's nest.
"Whoa, did YOU sleep well? What happened?" It was a huge contrast compared to her usual perfectionist demeanor.
"I just had a rough day at work, now I have to look forward to a day of my parents being disappointed at who I am, and Eda's nonsense doesn't help" She took a sip of her coffee and sighed "Edalyn! All my things are in the truck already, I don't know what you are yapping about!"
"Then what the hell is all of this junk?" Eda's voice came from downstairs "The living room is filled with office shit, I thought you were packing to do work on the road"
Upon hearing this Lilith spat out her coffee and choked, some of it landed on Luz's face.
"Eda! Those are classified files from my work, please tell me you didn't read them!" She then ran downstairs.
Luz cleaned off the coffee remaining on her face and prepared herself for a new day.
Twenty minutes later
"Do you have everything?" Luz asked as Eda carried her suitcase towards the car.
"For the last time kid, yes! Sheesh you do not need to act like my mom, I am going to have a lot of that already" Eda said as she opened the trunk.
"All of this would've been avoided if you packed yesterday, Edalyn" Lilith commented.
"Hey I was having a good day in business!" With a grunt, she put her suitcase in the trunk and closed it "Alright kid, are you sure you can keep everything in order while we are out?"
"Yep!" She announced proudly.
"I still think that Luz should come with us, maybe this could be a good way to present her to mother" Lilith proposed hopefully.
"Absolutely not! I haven't talked to her about Luz so there's no way of knowing how she would react, maybe those facebook groups already convinced her that immigrants are the source of all evil" Eda had told her that there was some sort of bad blood between Lilith and her parents, so Luz thought that she was trying to gain an ally for this endeavor by bringing her along "Or she might think that Luz is my biological daughter, and there's no way I'd know how to deal with all of… that"
Luz felt a shiver down her spine when she heard that. Yeah, it was better not to think about it.
"True, but are you sure that you want to spend Christmas alone?" Lilith asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm totally fine!" She still was struggling to grasp what this whole Christmas thing was all about. Apparently it was about a carpenter that was unjustly killed a long time ago, but it was also about an old burglar dressed in red who liked milk and cookies? It was confusing and at this point she was afraid to ask "I can alway call my… mom if I feel lonely. Oh andEda said that it was ok for my friends to come here tomorrow, I'm throwing a party!" She added with excitement.
Lilith looked at her sister with surprise "Wow, that's rather generous of you Eda"
"Meh, It is going to be the only time when we are not around, so it seems the perfect opportunity for this" She ruffled Luz's hair and moved back inside to grab the next box "Just try not to burn the place down, kiddo"
"I'll do my best to take care of the store! Oh, and I take care of King too!"
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that" Eda said while holding King's carrier with the cat inside "My mom loves him, so she will be really mad if I would forget him"
"Sometimes I think she loves that cat more than me" Lilith commented snarkily.
King, for his part, was pawing at the bars of the cage and meowing furiously. It seemed that he did not like the idea of a holiday trip.
"Oh yes mister, you are going to get ambushed by granny kisses and get your ribs crushed by a hug" Eda taunted him with a smile "I'm sorry buddy but it's you or me"
"Can we just go?" Lilith asked "Let's just get this over with"
"Right" She put King in in the car and turned to face her "Luz I am trusting you with the house, so don't make me regret this, kid"
"Don't worry Eda, I'll be fine! Now go, you told me they were expecting you for lunch" She tried to not show her excitement.
"Oh crap! You are right. Come on Lily, we gotta boogie" She grabbed Lilith's arm before she could say goodbye to Luz and they started driving through the snow.
Luz kept waving at them and she actually waited until they were out of sight before crying a scream of joy.
Four hours later
"They are still talking about you, the internet is still blowing up even a week later. They even made AMVs of you, look!" Gus kept rambling about the videos her fans had made of her.
"No, I very much don't want to" She groaned.
Ever since the world found out about magic and the authorities admitted it the internet has been blowing up with things about her: Theories, videos, posts, speculations, and even fanart. She didn't want to deal with that stuff so she avoided the internet and the TV like plague.
Gus, on the other hand, was ecstatic about it. He and his geek buddies had gained an incredible reputation last week. That was the reason for this discord call.
"Oh come on, it's really good!" His voice echoed from the computer on the table "They really put some effort into it!"
"That's great but we talked about this. I really don't want to know what everyone is saying about me, and I'm kinda busy trying to prepare lunch at the moment" She said as she chopped the lettuce "By the way, shouldn't you be doing the same thing with your dad?"
"Nah, reporters keep getting called to cover all of the magic related stuff. He probably won't come back until night time"
"Oh" She wasn't very well versed with this 'christmas' thing but she knew it was a time for being together in family "Are you going to be okay alone?"
"What? Oh, it's fine! Dad promised to be here before midnight, so it's okey. Moreover I have something else to show you…" She could tell that he was trying to change the subject but she knew better than to push him for it "I know I have it right over here and- whoa! Okey, Luz! You really need to see this"
"Gus I already told you, I'm not interested in that stuff" She mumbled in frustration while she washed the vegetables.
"No! I'm not talking about that. This isn't any fan-submitted stuff, I'm serious!" He sounded genuine so she stopped her cooking and went over the computer screen to see.
He was sharing with her a video of the sky above gravesfield. It was filmed with a phone so the quality wasn't good, but she could distinguish a peculiar shape soaring in between the buildings.
"I never saw it but based on what you told me, isn't that-"
"The Gryphon!" She screamed and jumped in surprise. The quality was bad, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was the case.
"That's what I thought! The comments said that it was just circling around a general area instead of flying high, so maybe its nest is nearby? I don't know, but it's worth checking out. So I was thinking that maybe we could call Willow and the three of us could- Luz? Are you there?"
But she was gone.
Thirty minutes later
It took her several attempts to locate the exact position of the area depicted in the video that Gus sent her. The boy kept insisting on helping but she sternly refused, there was no way she was going to drag the two of them to this after what happened with the basilisk.
She managed to locate the building from the video by pure luck, but when she landed there were no signs of anything there. Not wanting to lose hope, she flew around the building while cloaked in her invisibility glyph. Griffins usually did not leave magical trails for her to track, so she had to rely on her eyes.
"Come on! How hidden could it be! It is a giant pigeon standing on top of a nest made out of stolen things, it should be easy"
For once in her life, things were as easy as she imagined them to be. She found the beast lying down on its nest in a balcony on the lower floors with a ledge over to cover it from the falling snow. When she approached she saw that the nest was much like the one she had seen before, made out of stolen things that shone a little.
"Okey I just gotta sneak up in there and grab the piece of the staff, easy" She told herself.
Creeping on her tiptoes to not disturb the sleeping beast she approached the pile of stolen objects. Luz was so focused trying to remember where the piece was that she did not hear the slight rumbling until it was too late, the beast shifted and rolled to the side to face her.
"Oh" Luz gulped "So it wasn't sleeping"
She quickly rolled back and assumed a combat position, but was surprised to see that it hadn't reacted to her presence at all. It lazily stretched and liked its beak, but didn't do much else.
"Ohh-key? Are you not in the mood?" She tentatively approached the beast and nothing happened. She did some sudden movements to catch its attention but it didn't even blink. After a while she extended her hand forwards, feeling like she might lose her fingers here, and poked the animal.
Nothing, it just puffed and went back to sleep.
"This is starting to get scary. Is everything alright, little guy?" She abandoned all sense of security and put herself right beside the flying creature.
Now that she was up close she could see that there was something wrong with it. Her mother used to heal beasts and she drilled all of her biological knowledge on her at an early age, so she could tell that an animal wasn't feeling good by just looking at them. In the case of the gryphon it was obvious by the lack of luster on its hair and the way that its feathers were falling off, not to mention its recent attitude.
"Aww, are you ok? I know we aren't on the best terms but can you let me help you? It's not gonna hurt you, I promise" She tried to sound as non-threatening as she could.
The bird made no objections so she started working. First she used a spell from the healing coven to give it a general check up, something like humans do with X-rays and ultrasound. She detected no broken bones or strange shapes on its digestive tract so she moved to analyze external parts of its body to look for a disease. She searched its talons, wings, beak, eyes, and she even checked her temperature to search for a cold (somehow along the process Luz found out it was a her, don't ask about it), but she didn't find anything.
"Well… unless you let me look inside of your esophagus I'm out of options" She confessed.
The animal made an irritated squeak and decided to hide its face on one of its wings.
"Hey come on, I'm not giving up. Don't be like that" She lifted the wing but she was surprised with what she saw.
The Griffon was crying, there were tears coming out of her eyes and she was sobbing, she didn't even know that they were capable of that.
"Oh no! Don't cry, it's ok" She hugged her, throwing away any instinct of survival. Instead of pushing her away the magical being nuzzled against her and covered them with her wings. They just kept embracing each other for a minute and after a while Luz started crying too, why? She didn't know, but there was something in this beast's sadness that resonated deep within her.
After a while they let go of each other. Luz caressed her beak when an idea came to her mind.
"You are homesick" She said "This is all because you miss the boiling isles"
She didn't know if the Gryphon could understand speech but when she said those words it got up from its nest and looked at her with big googly eyes.
"Yes, I know about the isles. Here, I have a friend that can help us with translation" She created a spell circle and made Owlbert appear, the tiny owl hopped around and looked at the bigger bird with curiosity "You are missing a friend, right? Well, he can keep you company for now"
The gryphon wiggled excitedly upon seeing another magical creature and booped it excitedly with its beak. Owlbert took well and started to fly around her while she tried to catch it, it looked like a cat playing with one of those toys with a string attached.
Luz relaxed on the cheerful scene in front of her, but couldn't help feeling like this was her fault. This animal had been trapped alone for the last six months in an unknown place, probably it struggled to find stuff to eat and had to run away from humans (That's if it never ate one of them). Her poor state wasn't due to any disease, but because she was too depressed to properly groom herself, which was really worrying considering how much wild gryphons took care of their aspect.
"Gosh I can't imagine how much you have suffered, and what have I been doing? Playing around, studying, fighting with the coven witches, worrying about crushes, and overall having a good time" Her sad thoughts were interrupted when she felt something shoving her back, the gryphon nudging her as if inviting her to play.
"I'm fine, thanks" She smiled.
She scratched it on the chin and it shuddered with pleasure. Sadly the movement made its wings hit the ceiling, which provoked a bunch of snow to fall from it on top of them. Luz laughed and cleaned herself with her hands, but the gryphon was not happy about their new white cover, it shook itself like a dog out of the water and sneezed.
"Whoa, watch it buddy!" She covered herself to avoid the incoming snow "You really don't like snow huh? Come to think of it, the only part of the isles where it snows it's on the knee and the shoulder, but griffins don't go to those places" that would mean that it wasn't prepared for the cold, it probably wouldn't survive the winter "You poor thing…"
She grabbed its face and nuzzled against it while her hand caressed the top of its head. It huffed and rumbled in comfort.
"It's gonna be ok, you don't have to be alone anymore! I can take you to…" She stopped herself mid sentence.
She realized that she was about to invite this giant hybrid home, how would she do that? Would she fit inside the owl house? How would she feed it? What would she tell Eda? And how would she hide it from Lilith? There were far too many risks in here, and she wasn't sure she could pull this off, but at the same time she couldn't leave her here. She racked her brains thinking of a way to solve this when something came to her mind, a talk she had with someone when a similar beast appeared.
"We will transport it into a facility to keep it from hurting any other person. But don't worry, we will feed it and take care to its other needs"
"So you are going to imprison it?" Anger flared up on her chest "You can't do that! It's a living being!"
"Oh really? And what do you propose we do? Let it harm people? This isn't an earth animal, there are no nature reservations or national parks that are appropriate for that thing, if we tried to release it into the wilds it would devastate the wildlife and probably cause the extinction of a dozen species. This may not be great for it but it's the best solution we have for now"
She realized what she had to do.
Three hours later
Finding the quarters of the people in suits had been easy, all she had to do was ask Gus to look up where the dragon came from, find destroyed buildings and bingo, men in suits holding magical weaponry.
The hard thing was to transport the Gryphon there. She had to feed it, play with it, wait until it fell asleep, and then carry it with a wind spell through the sky. It took her a lot of time and energy but it was done, she casted an invisibility spell on both of them and descended to the roof of the building. Luz knew that they would be here soon because they had their magic sensors so she acted quick, she pressed a kiss on the side of the sleeping animal, and left a sign on top of it that read "PLEASE TAKE CARE OF HER".
When the guards arrived she was already thirty meters in the air, clutching the piece of the staff.
"I am done goofing around here, I will make my way home"
-Hunter-
Gravesfield's park / Saturday december 31st, 1:00 pm
Hunter found human burial rituals intriguing.
Witches buried their deceased because by doing so they were sending them back with the titan, it was a way of thanking him for giving them the gifts of life and magic. But humans didn't have any of that, there was no god in their ground, for them it was just ground, so he wondered why they chose this way to honor their dead. He had read about the numerous religions in this realm but he did not understand them well, so he decided to stop looking into that.
A shudder interrupted his thoughts and he rubbed his hands together to get warmer. He had learned that the weather got terrible around this season, cold enough to generate snow, that never happened in the boiling isles and he was terrified at the thought of this being a common occurrence.
"If this happens every year I really don't want to stick around. Why does it have to get so cold? And why isn't anyone else freaking out about it?" He saw how all the humans around were thrilled with the concept of snow, the kids were even throwing it at each other, everyone was acting as if enormous amounts of ice falling from the sky was a wonderful thing "I'll never understand humans"
He looked around and saw how everyone was having a good time surrounded by their loved ones.
Everyone but him
*Sigh* "I guess it's time" without any more ceremony, he entered the park.
There were rituals that witches were supposed to perform when one of their loved ones passed away, traditions and ceremonies that must be respected. Hunter hadn't done any of those because… because all this time he had been hoping he was still alive. But after two weeks he had to face the facts.
Wrath was dead.
He died to protect them. He cared enough about them to sacrifice his own life and the humans killed him without mercy, it made his blood boil.
"Are we doing this or not?" Abigail's voice distracted him from his thoughts. He sighed and nodded at her.
After the incident he had taken her back home and helped her recover. He didn't like it but it was the last thing he had promised to Wrath, it had to be done.
Together they moved forwards and arrived at a more secluded part of the park. Back in summer, when they were living in an apartment nearby, Wrath liked to go to this place near the pond and feed the ducks under the shade of a tree, it was the only place in the city where he found solace.
"We are here" She announced.
"Great, just look around to see if anyone is watching us while I do this" He said as he pulled his staff and decompressed it.
"Who cares if humans see it? Just do it already!" She ordered.
In any other circumstance he would've retorted, but now he merely chose to grab her shoulder firmly and looked at her straight in the eyes.
"Let's not fight, not today" He asked with a pleading tone and a broken voice.
"Fine… I'll keep watch" She relented. It seemed that the fact that Wrath saved her life softened her up a little bit, small miracles.
Hunter nodded and went near a tree to start working. With his magic he dug up a hole in the ground. It started small but after a while he had dug up to seven meters of earth. He looked back to see how things were going and saw that Abigail had placed an illusion over them to make sure that no human could see what they were doing.
"It's ready" He said.
"Are you sure that's deep enough?" She asked.
"It will do"
Both of them stepped together in front of the hole he had made and contemplated it for a second, then he pulled something from his pocket. It was raggedy and burned, but it was still recognizable as a part of Wrath's mask; it had fallen off when he transformed into a dragon the second time.
"Heyy, buddy…" Hunter started but he choked on his own tears and had to stop.
What was he supposed to say? Words like "I'm sorry" or "Thank you" seemed too vague for the emotions he wanted to transmit. There were rituals for those things, protocols and traditions that must be followed, but they didn't have the resources or the expertease to carry those so they resorted to this, which felt like blasphemy, this was not how a noble warrior should be honored.
"I-I… I'm sorry bud. I wish we could have done more to help you, and I wish I would've gotten to know you better" He kneeled down in the dirt as he cried "I couldn't do anything to protect you back then, but there's something we can do for you now, I swear to the titan that we will make those humans pay! No matter how long it takes, no matter what we have to do, I swear that we will get them"
He just kept crying for a few seconds, and then he got up to let Abigail speak. The woman had been silent for most of the ceremony, so she only spoke a few words.
"I'm grateful for everything, you were a true friend" It felt nice hearing her say that.
Without any more ceremony, he tossed the remains of his mask and offered a silent prayer to the titan, even if he knew it was pointless.
Their god had no presence here.
They covered the improvised tomb and waited until there were no humans nearby to drop the illusion. As they left the place, Hunter could not stop himself from glancing back at the tree.
"I am assuming that you know what's happening next" Abigail said after they exited the park.
Hunter sighed in frustration. Him and Abigail never got along and Wrath had been the one that united them, now that he wasn't here they didn't have any reason to remain together, so they were going their separate ways.
It also meant that they would probably become enemies in the future. They were just competition for each other and Hunter was certain that if Abigail ever got back she would tell her uncle a lie about how he died in the human realm.
Honestly he would do the same thing to her
"I have been expecting it for months, it was inevitable" He took a long breath and looked at the sky "But let's not start today, or for a while at least"
"What's the matter, do you think that you can't beat me?" She teased.
"Wrath would have wanted us to be friends, let's honor him by not fighting at least on this day" He pleaded.
"Agreed. I would also be willing to extend our little ceasefire for a while longer if you gave me some of the magic items we collected, how about the half?" She asked.
"I already have them separated here" He offered her the handbag he was carrying "I was expecting this request and I think it's reasonable, after all you helped gather all of those" He wasn't telling her that he chose magical items that he wouldn't miss.
"Dang, I'm impressed. Okey, you got yourself a deal" She grabbed the heavy bag and turned around, but then stopped and looked at him "Only one of us is going to go back to the boiling isles, you know that right?"
Hunter nodded and offered his hand, which she took.
"May the best one win"
After that handshake he started walking without looking back. As he headed towards his job a thought formed in his mind.
"I'm going back there Uncle, no matter what"
-Belos-
The emperor's castle in the boiling isles / Sunday January 1st 1:00
"Sir! We have a signal!" One of his subordinates called for him.
He rose to his feet with difficulty, the pain of his illness made walking difficult in this instance but he refused to show weakness in front of others. He approached the machine in the middle of the laboratory with caution and saw many numbers and graphics that made little sense to him, but the technicians in charge seemed really excited about them. Speaking about them, there were a dozen in this room running around with papers and taking measurements with their instruments. All of them were working really hard to fulfill his dreams but so far none of them was able to do what he asked them to.
He hoped, for all of their sakes, that some of them would.
"Are you certain? Because several times I was told that attempting a connection with the other side is impossible" He was tired of excuses.
"We still need to run some tests, but we are positive! It seems that you were wise in making us check stuff after the incident last year, we have found a new development" The coven scout in front of him announced excitedly.
"Really? What changed from before? Have we- ugh" He clenched his chest and almost collapsed as an intense pain took over all of his body.
"Sir!" The scientist exclaimed.
They were about to call for help but he just extended a hand to silence them. He managed to land on a chair and took deep breaths to stabilize himself. After some moments, he was able to stand up again.
"Are you-" He didn't give them time to ask.
"I am FINE, dale. Could you please move on with your explanation?"
"R-R-Right. Ehm, as I was saying before… traveling between dimensions like that is impossible, even with a functioning portal like we have" He pointed towards the giant metallic circle in the room "Without any coordinates or an object from a specific realm we would be traveling with no direction, it would be like trying to play darts with your eyes closed"
"So you would land on a random location hoping it was the one" He was trying to focus on the conversation but the migraine was making it difficult.
"Just bear it, I will be getting a new batch of palismen soon enough"
"Correct, which would take a long time and be incredibly dangerous"
"I am assuming that I will hear the good news at some point" He asked in annoyance.
"Yes. All of this was true, until yesterday" He tapped a machine and a holographic projection displayed an image of a trail of light in a neverending cosmos "We have found traces of magic with our scans. Someone tried, maybe successfully, to use a transportation spell to cross in between dimensions, sound familiar?" The scout asked.
Belos couldn't contain his curiosity "Are you sure it's them?"
"Impossible to know, but the trail is coming from us, and the incident of the vault was the only instance where a person in this realm used that kind of magic, so I'm betting on that"
"How did this happen? People in the boiling isles have experimented with realm walking for centuries" If there was something like this, he would have known about it.
"It's hard to say, but if I were to guess" He tapped the machine again and the image zoomed in to show the center of the trail of light. It seemed that the middle of it was the thickest part "I think that there's something in there, stuck in between the two places. My theory is that it's keeping the link between the two worlds"
He clenched his fist to avoid showing any emotion beyond his regal posture. Finally, after all these years, a way to fulfill his ambition.
"Start working as soon as possible, I'll gather the troops" He turned around to walk away but he was stopped by a cough.
"Yeah… about that…" He cleared his throat "I'm afraid that I have some bad news on that front"
Belos felt an uncontrollable rage built in the base of his stomach. He clenched his fist and demonic hands appeared from the ground to grab the coven scout.
"What?"
"T-t-th-the-th-they managed to travel with the spell" He struggled to talk with the hands grabbing his throat "B-Bu-Buuut something went wrong. The path they used wasn't completely closed after they passed, which is unnatural, almost like the spell was tampered with when-ack!" He screamed when one of the hands twisted his arm.
"Get to the point!" He really did not have time for this.
"The path is unstable! We might be able to get a link there, something strong enough to send objects, but not people! Anyone who gets sent there would surely die!"
"So you are telling me" He got closer to him and all the lights in the lab flickered, the researches stopped what they were doing and looked at him in terror "That you called me here with 'good news', told me my portal could work, and at the end it was ALL FOR NOTHING?!"
He didn't give him a chance to answer. His screams of agony echoed throughout the entire castle as he was pierced by multiple spikes in several parts of his body, he didn't even go for the vital spots first, he wanted him to live through the pain. When the ghastly spectacle finished his unrecognizable carcass fell to the ground unceremoniously.
"Good titan… someone call the clean up crew" One of his soldiers nodded and scrambled away, he seemed too happy to escape the scene "As for the rest of you, I suggest you start making yourselves useful, unless you want to end up like him" He jabbed a thumb at the corpse.
All of them were shaking with fear, far too scared to respond. He was considering if he had to apply more or less pressure to fix this when one of them gulped and moved forward.
"Sir, there is a way we could still use the portal to our favor, even in these conditions" She did her best to sound secure but he could detect the quiver in her voice.
"Oh really? Wonderful, tell me how" He shifted his demeanor to appear less threatening.
"We might not be able to send our scouts but objects might be enough to deter our foes" She moved towards the holographic machine that showed the trail of light with extreme caution "I am not entirely sure that this could work, but what about sending a petrified person through the portal? The humans told us that the intense magic for dimension travel managed to awake them from their state, right? If the path its still open it could still work, statues are objects after all"
Belos was stunned, and so was everyone in the room. This scientist did not have any credentials and her uniform, which told her she was new to the team.
"Well well, a young prodigy"
"Hmmm, it is not as good as having direct access, but I suppose this will have to do as a temporary measure. What is your name dear?" He asked.
"M-Mirra sir" She seemed nervous of having his whole attention.
"Congratulations Mirra, you just have been promoted" He turned to face the others "The rest of you, make sure she has everything necessary to complete this project, I have big hopes on it"
All of them nodded and started working on their previous machines, meanwhile he turned around to go to his chambers before his curse decided to act up again. Before he left the room he took one last look at the portal.
"Soon enough you'll see me again, dear brother"
And with that we have a wrap! I gotta be honest, I really liked writing this fic.
There is one regret I have tho: Not being able to update it faster, not only was it annoying for you guys (I could tell the viewership dropped with how long the chapters took) but also it kinda screwed my plans for the multiple books. The original idea was to update steadily until the book ended, then take a hiatus to write most of the next book, but life got in the way and now I feel like I can't do that, updating every two months can be considered as a hiatus to some people. So I decided that I will start working on the next book right away (which makes the book division kinda pointless, but whatever) and I promise that it won't take longer than my latest updates.
For all of you lumity fanatics who feel like they got scammed with the miniscule amount of Lumity on this fic, I have to say that I warned you (I did say that this was a slow burn and that I wasn't focused on romance a lot), but don't despair! I promise you that the next book is going to be fully charged with that sapphic fluff and angst you all love so much.
Finally, I would like to thank you all for sticking with me after all of these years (literally, it has been more than a year my god) without your support I would not have continued this and the fic would have faded into my subconsciousness like the rest of my fixations. Special thanks to Digieykid, Coffee_and_sleep, NotSpaz_JCJ, and everyone who commented on this journey, stay tuned my friends.