Getting out of Blight Manor was a simple task considering both Amity's siblings and parents were all over at the factory for the presentation and sale. She had impulsively made her way to the factory first, but security had been tightened now that the event was in full swing. Guards of both abomination and demon were at each door and patrolling the grounds. She was going to need help.
Finding and getting to Gus Porter's house in Bonesborough proved more difficult than escaping her home. Luz likely had no idea what she was getting into, and Amity couldn't shake the feeling that Odalia was willing to make an example of her. While she didn't know Gus as well as she did Willow at one point, she didn't think Willow would trust her intentions without Gus to back her up.
The Porter home wasn't as wealthy as the manor by any means, but it was far more comfortable and homey than many other residences in Bonesborough. It was a stone building, rather than built out of the natural tissue and bones of the Titan, and decorated in yellows and blues with orbs of magical light that illuminated the porch. She could hear the familiar sound of Perry Porter's voice inside from an open window, though it was raised beyond what anyone would hear on the news.
"I don't understand, Gus! You could have joined the Illusionist Coven in two years on your current track. Been the head Witch of it in six! Then you get yourself expelled?! What were you thinking?!"
"Dad, you've been telling me how disappointed you are for hours." Gus replied, barely loud enough for Amity to hear from outside. "Can I go to my room now?"
The was a long pause as Perry continued to pace before the tendon springs of a chair squeaked. "I'm sorry, Gus. I just never expected this from you. I can't be off reporting the news from across the Boiling Isles if I'm worried about how you're doing here at home." he said, and Amity reluctantly strained to hear more. "Maybe you shouldn't hang around with that Human girl anymore."
"This isn't Luz's fault, dad!" Gus argued. "It was…" he paused, and Amity bit her lip, expecting the blame to fall on her shoulders as it should. It was her parents that expelled them, and it was Amity who just stood there and let it happen. "It was mine. You want me to be the best, but I'm only twelve. Hanging out with Willow and Luz lets me feel like a kid."
"Gus, I have no problem with Willow. Meeting her last year has really helped you come out of your shell. But after taking Edalyn's house for a joyride and destroying the detention pit…"
"Neither of which were Luz's fault, dad."
Perry heaved a sigh and stood. "We'll talk about this in the morning. I'm holding you to your promise of helping me present at the Gland Prix this year." he said, his voice taking on a forced, jovial tone.
"Sure, dad."
Amity listened to the awkward pause before Mr. Porter left the room, and she peeked in at Gus standing up from the couch he had been sitting on for his lecture. "Psst!"
"Huh?" Gus asked, looking about the room.
"Did you say something?" Perry asked, and Amity ducked out of view as he looked into the room from the open kitchen.
"Uh, no. I'm just going to go to my room." Gus announced, and his tiny footfalls disappeared. Amity carefully snuck her way to the back of the building, where a window sat closed next to an external door. Then, making sure no one was watching from nearby houses, she prepared to enter the building by summoning a tiny abomination. She placed it on the window sill, only to find Gus staring at her through his now open curtains.
"What are you doing here?"
"I think Luz needs my… needs our help." she frowned, expecting him to call his father. "I know we haven't hung out much, and I've just stood by while Boscha bullied you, and I'm sorry about that, but Luz shouldn't have to suffer for what I did or didn't do."
"What makes you think Luz is in… y'know what? Nevermind." he said, tracing a light blue spell circle that conjured a copy of himself sitting at his desk. Amity's eyes widened at the amount of unrecognizable stuff in Gus's room.
"Is all that from the Human Realm?" she asked curiously, trying to piece together what everything would be for.
"Sure is. My dad and I like to go to the beach on his days off." he smiled. "Now, where's Luz?"
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." he repeated. "Amity, Luz might have some weird ideas, but she knows how to choose her friends, and she's picked you to be one of them. I'd defy the Emperor himself if she needed me to." he declared with a grin and a clenched fist.
"I don't think it'll come to that, but I admire your enthusiasm." Amity replied. "We need to break into the Blight Factory and keep Luz from becoming target practice."
Gus's enthusiasm wilted at the mention of breaking into the highly secure Blight Industries Abomination Weapons Facility during a private presentation. "Your parents wouldn't actually use their weapons against a couple of kids though, right?"
Amity stared at him for a long moment. "We should probably get going." she replied, dragging him along until his legs began to move.
"We should get back up!" Gus whispered. "Why did you come to me first instead of Willow? She's more powerful than you think!"
"I've put Willow through enough!" she admitted, moving back toward the Manor. "Between having to cut all ties with her and then nearly burning her brains, why would she help me?"
"Maybe you should be asking why she would help Luz."
Amity stopped her progress and growled in irritation, looking down the street to where she knew Willow's home was. "Look, my parents don't like Willow, alright? I don't want to risk my parents seeing her there."
"Maybe it's time for your parents to get a wake up call." Gus said, looking Amity in the eye. "Willow's an amazing friend. Any parent would be crazy to not want their kid knowing her."
Closing her eyes, Amity took a breath and set herself in a new direction. "Okay, but we'll need to make this quick. Who knows what kind of trouble Luz is in."
The pair made their way to the Park household, a two-story home built into a large molar with typical siding on two sides and the smooth, yellow-white surface of a tooth on the others. The tough calcium foundation protected it from the various plague-like weather of the Boiling Isles, though the flowery vines that crawled up the outside of the structure added a necessary, freshly living appearance to the decor.
Amity couldn't forget Willow's room. It was on the second floor, and some of her happiest childhood memories took place there when they hadn't been playing outside by the lake or causing trouble in the library. She couldn't help but smile fondly until hearing Willow's dads.
"To make sure you're getting a top notch education, we're quitting our jobs to homeschool you!"
"And we'll spend all of our free time having fun as a family."
Willow's parents, Harvey and Gilbert, had always loved when Amity came over to spend time with Willow. Harvey was stern and intimidating to an eight-year-old. He had broad shoulders, deep brown skin, and a sizeable girth but with gentle eyes and hands that gave him away as more of a stuffed toy once you got to know him. He enjoyed telling stories of the full head of brown hair he once had that he said had now moved down to his face except for a tuft on top and above his pointed ears. His history in the Abomination Track was likely what set Willow on the same path and had been a common topic that Amity probably annoyed him with questions of.
On the other hand, Gilbert Park had been on the Construction Track in his younger days but had a far more laid-back and seemingly worry-free demeanor than his husband. He wore glasses, like Willow, and shared her complexion and greenish-black hair.
"We'll see you at first light for a test on…" Harvey paused a moment before continuing. "The life cycle of a common swamp toad!"
Amity began tracing a spell circle to conjure a pillar of abomination mud that could lift her to Willow's window, but Gus grabbed her wrist to keep her from completing it. "Hold up. I have something more subtle in mind." He began rotating his fingers, and a tiny spell circle appeared between them. After a minute, Willow came to her window.
"Luz needs our help!" Amity shouted up as quietly as she could.
"Again…" Gus added, sounding annoyed at having to defy his father to rescue his human friend. Amity was starting to feel like this had happened more than she knew.
Willow looked back at her room nervously before climbing out her window. "Let me help!" Amity offered, starting to retrace her circle.
"I got it." Willow whispered back. A small set of flowers at the base of the house beneath her window suddenly began to glow green and exploded with life. Vines combined, reaching up to her with conveniently placed leaves to create a ladder for her to climb down. "Okay, what's going on?" she asked, looking directly at Gus.
Before he could speak, Amity interjected. "Look, I'm sorry you guys got expelled because of me. I knew this would happen but I couldn't help but want to be friends with someone decent. Right now though, I think Luz is trying to get you all back into school by making a deal with my mom. She wanted my help to do it earlier but…"
Willow placed a hand on Amity's shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. "But you're trying to fix your mistake. That's what good friends do."
At first, Amity resisted the hug out of reflex before letting herself relax and sink into it, and she sniffed, wiping away a tear that she couldn't hold back. Then, a moment later, she could feel her chest begin to compress, and she gasped from Willow's surprisingly strong embrace. "Willow… that's enough…"
"You looked like you needed it." Willow said with a forced smile, letting go and holding Amity at arm's length. She adjusted her glasses and subtly wiped her own eyes as she did. "Now let's go save Luz."
The road back to Blight Manor and the nearby Abomination factory was all uphill. The run left all three students winded when they reached the factory gate. It had been cut into a massive bone that was an impressive barrier to unwanted visitors. Though guarded by both demons and abominations, the front doors were wide open, and cheers could be heard from inside. Luz's unmistakable screams of terror and distress cut through the raucous praise, causing Amity's pointed ears to perk up in alarm. "I'm not sure how much longer she's going to last."
"It's not like your mom would, y'know…" Gus asked, dragging a finger over his throat and making a tearing sound.
"Well…" Amity said, trailing off as she shared a nervous look with Willow.
"Wow."
"Okay, I can use the root system underground to tunnel our way in." Willow explained.
"That'll take too long." Amity countered, pounding a fist into her other hand. "We should just rush the guards at the door!" She was confident that she could take control of the abominations and possibly use them on the large demon guards, but it would set off every alarm in the building.
A grin formed on Gus's face as he announced his idea. "No, no, no! I'll distract them with illusions of beautiful lady guards!" he said, beginning to trace out a spell circle.
Willow slapped his hand out of casting the spell. "This isn't a cartoon from the forties, Gus! We need a better plan!"
Amity would have chuckled at the reference to retro animation of the anthropomorphic jabbitt dressing up as alternating genders to carry out wacky antics if the situation wasn't so dire. She remembered watching them at Willow's home, as it was a favorite of her dads.
"This could work!" Gus argued, beginning to cast an illusion again.
Amity was growing impatient. "We should just bust our way through!" she started to shout. She wished someone like Amelia was here to come up with a plan.
"You're stunting my growth as an artist!" Gus continued as Willow interrupted his spell again. "Just let me try this!"
Their arguments began to blend together, each raising their voice over the other until they were interrupted and gasped in surprise at being caught.
"Here's an idea: Why don't you just walk through the front?" Edric asked, holding up a trio of dark green cloaks that the potential investors all wore to hide their identities while purchasing weaponry. He tossed them to the group one at a time with a mischievous grin. Emira stood beside him, hands on her hips and the same grin on her lips.
Amity hadn't even considered asking her brother and sister for help, especially with how they had acted at school earlier that day. "Ed? Em? You're helping?"
"Of course!" Emira said with a smile and a playful shrug. "Just don't tell mom."
Finally, something was going right. They needed to get in, distract her parents and the audience, and get Luz out of there with no one knowing what happened. They'd have to deal with the expulsion later. Amity pulled the cloak on and clasped it under her chin as Willow and Gus did the same. The trio nodded at each other, confident in the new entry plan, and turned to pass through the gate.
"Amity!" Gus whispered. "There's something on your back!"
She stopped and reached back, pulling a small square of parchment that had been stuck to her cloak that read, "HEX ME!" and rolled her eyes. She collected similar notes on Willow's and Gus's backs as well and magically threw them back in Edric's face. She scowled at her older prankster siblings and pointed a finger at each of them before backing away to join her friends.
They neared the door, and Amity whispered to Gus the information necessary to create an invitation to gain them access to the event. "I helped make them, and Mom didn't care much about who attended so long as the invitation had a valid address and verifiable number of snails. If we pretend to be from Scapula City, we should be fine. Use my Uncle's address." she said, reciting the street name in time for Gus to summon the invitations before they reached the doors.
"Invitations?" The demon guard asked, holding out a hand. With their identities still concealed, Gus handed his fake invitations over to the large and familiar demon guard. Goreman was still wearing his eye patch and would have recognized Amity easily had they not been wearing the cloaks. He looked them over lazily and stuffed them into an abomination strong box. Finally, he hooked his thumb over his shoulder to usher them inside. "You're late. Show's almost over."
"Uh, not a problem." Gus assured him, his newly deepened voice being unrecognizable to the Demon Hunter. Willow elbowed him lightly in the side, and the group moved through. "I thought for sure we were busted." he whispered.
"What?" Amity asked. "How do you know Goreman?"
"We took Eda's house for a joyride one time and he tried to have us thrown off of a cliff so we stomped on him and destroyed his Demon Hunting party." Willow explained. "How do you know him?"
"I almost took out his eye and he hunted me through Latissa while I was baby sitting and then I kept him from kidnapping Grom." she explained. Suddenly, Luz screamed from the stage, snapping them all back to the situation they now found themselves in. She was currently being grasped by a large abomination hand as a combat Abomiton left the stage with a crossbow in hand. Luz looked tired and bruised, and her multitrack Hexside uniform was tattered and torn. The abomination fist gently lowered her to the stage floor as Odalia took the center position.
"Thank you, thank you. And they said we couldn't make crossbows more fun!" she grinned as a small wave of laughter swept through the crowd. "Next, we're very excited to show you our last product from this line." She stepped aside to allow the stage to open, and Luz crawled out of the way in a panic. The lift began to rise, and lights started to shine over the crowd before converging on a monstrous, armored abomiton. "My husband has been toiling away to bring you the Abomiton 2.0!"
The crowd gasped, and Amity's eyes widened at the imposing figure. It was larger than the one she had to face the day before. A large crystal like the one that powered the abominamobile was housed in an armored casing in its torso. She could see the modifications her father had packed into it that would make it stronger, faster, and more deadly than the prototype she had torn apart. She wasn't sure she would stand a chance against it, but she was certain that Luz wouldn't.
She wouldn't be able to make it through the crowd without getting caught, but she had spent enough time exploring the factory to know the alternate routes to the stage. She flipped the hood of her cloak back in order to see as she began climbing a nearby maintenance ladder that would lead into the ceiling support structure and lighting system. As she ascended, her mother's voice over the amplifier grew louder. "It's bigger! It's better! The Abomiton 2.0 is the perfect soldier. It won't rest until its enemy is completely eliminated!"
Odalia's emphasis sent a chill through Amity, and the following crash and screams made her climb faster. She couldn't hear Willow or Gus climbing the ladder below her, so she had to assume that they had been caught by security and that she was alone. More crashes came from below, and she heard Luz's scream of terror quickly approach before seeing her flailing shadow sail upward and land on a thick rafter above the stage.
Amity continued to climb. If she was going to save Luz's life, she couldn't lose focus. There was more crashing and the sound of sword fighting before a bright explosion shook the building and nearly knocked Amity from her now lethal height above the show floor. She looked down to see only wreckage and smoke below her, and she climbed out onto the maintenance scaffolding before taking a breath to calm herself. "Come on, Luz…" she whispered, hoping she was okay.
"Hey, I'm alive!" she finally heard Luz's voice echo through the chamber as the dust and smoke settled. Luz was curled around one of her vines, hanging a short distance above the stage. The crowd had scattered, looking on from the safety of the outer walls, with Willow and Gus being held tightly by abominations.
The loud snap of the vine breaking reverberated through the room, and Luz let out a surprised yelp as she landed on the floor. The Abomiton gathered its form from the pile it had fallen into, standing over Luz and transforming one of its limbs into a massive scythe-like blade to finish her off. Amity instinctively reached out with both hands, her magic taking hold of the creature's form, mere inches from it bisecting Luz. She might not be able to control it, but she might be able to change its form.
With a grunt of effort, Amity splayed out her fingers into the spell circles that had enveloped her palms. The Abomiton's putty-like hands exploded, and it reared back in surprise, looking down at its sagging stumps. "Hey!" she shouted, attracting everyone's attention. "Stay away from my Luz!" The order came from absolute focus and the frustrations of being treated like an abomination over the last several years. She set herself to the task of bringing ruin onto this creation, and she reached out to grasp a nearby rope on a pulley that quickly lowered her to the stage far below. She landed with a grunt and stood, putting herself between the Abomiton and Luz.
"Amity Blight!" Odalia shouted into her mind like a grating migraine. "You are in so much troub…"
Amity cut the message off, taking the pink glowing necklace she had worn for years at her mother's request and crushing the small glass orb in one hand where her mother was sure to see. Then, she turned back to face Luz with a look of concern. "Luz, are you okay?"
"Uh-huh." Luz squeaked, her eyes wide. "Look out!" she added, pointing back at the recovering Abomiton. Amity clenched her teeth in determination, pulling all of her emotions over the last few months that she had pressed down into her core and fed it into her magic. Her spell circles blazed as the Abomiton stood and attempted to bring a fist down onto Amity. Its husk began to bubble and hiss, and it struggled to step forward as hard as Amity did to keep it at bay.
"Amity!" Odalia called angrily. "Get away from the human!"
"No!" Amity replied, barely acknowledging that her mother was even there. Instead, her focus was solely on the Abomiton, and she leaned into her magic, pushing it back and slowly sliding its armored feet across the floor. "You're going to listen to me for once. Luz, Gus, and Willow are my friends! They're nice to each other! They listen to each other! They make me think about the kind of person I really… want… to be!" she cried through clenched teeth. Then, with a flourish, she forced the Abomiton to its knees and its arms to pool on the floor around it. She readied herself for another round with the soldier construct as the audience began complaining and jeering about the display.
Suddenly, she felt something touch her rear end and turned to see that Luz had bumped into her, putting her back to Amity's with a set of her glyph papers readied. She met Luz's gaze for a moment and couldn't help but blush embarrassingly at the accidental butt bump. Then, turning away awkwardly, Amity wavered slightly in her focus to keep the Abomiton down.
"Ugh! What do you want?!" Odalia growled, the sad tone of a diminishing 'UNITS SOLD' meter mounted on the wall behind her causing her usual calm facade to fade.
Amity knew precisely what she wanted. Her short time dealing with her mother's enslaved genie and the years of bargaining with her had taught her everything she needed to know about how to do business with her parents. "Let my friends back into Hexside, or else your precious investors will watch me rip this thing apart bit by bit."
"Can you actually do that?" Luz whispered, an odd tone in her voice that Amity didn't recognize.
Amity shushed her. She honestly wasn't sure if she could, but she couldn't have her mother calling her bluff. Odalia paced back and forth, and Amity glared at her with absolute resolve.
"Fine!" Odalia growled. "It's a deal! Just stop with the theatrics!" she scowled, angrily balling her hands into fists.
Amity glanced back at Luz and met her eyes with a smile. She took a breath and turned her attention back to the Abomiton, closing her spell circles and preparing to move at a moment's notice. Now free to follow its last order, the Abomiton raised a powerful arm, transforming its hand into a massive maul and bringing it down on both of them. Amity curled her arms around Luz, knocking her to the floor and tucking her legs up under Luz's in a fetal position, holding her close as the Abomiton's hammer automatically shaped itself to avoid harming Amity. Dust and splinters of wood exploded around them with the impact, and she could hear Luz cry out in surprise. "You're okay." Amity whispered, holding her tighter as the area quieted and the dust settled. "Just play dead."
The Abomiton lifted its maul, and Amity rolled away from Luz to act as though she had just suffered the full force of the weapon. Luz, too, splayed herself out. Then, with a glance at each other, the pair laid perfectly still and waited.
Confident that its mission was complete, the Abomiton turned toward the audience and shut itself down. The following silence was shattered by uproarious applause from the crowd, and the happy tone of the "UNITS SOLD" meter surged up before letting out a loud pop.
"As if I'd actually let them go back!" Odalia shouted as the crowd began to disperse from the factory. "I will call every authority I know! I'll make sure they can't…"
"Odalia!" called Alador. Amity picked herself up and helped Willow pull Luz to her feet before she turned her attention to her parents. "You made a deal with your daughter, and a Blight always upholds their end of the deal."
Amity smiled, seeing her father stand to his full height and speak so sternly to her mother in her defence. Alador approached his wife and whispered something in her ear that seemed to calm her down as Luz placed a hand on Amity's shoulder, bringing her attention back to the friends around her. "Let's get you home, Luz." she said as the girl bravely put one foot in front of the other despite her evident exhaustion.
The four of them climbed off stage and exited the factory before speaking up, their words coming out rapidly once they were outside the gate and out of the earshot of Amity's parents. "Wow, Luz! Your glyph magic is really getting good!" Willow exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Gus added. "You were really holding that thing off!"
"I'm just glad Amity was able to get us all back into Hexside." Luz said with a yawn. "I'm starting to think my plan wasn't going to work."
Amity said nothing, walking behind the group, beginning to feel the wear of the day herself. She was going to have to accept a few things going forward. One; was that she would have to start standing up to her mother and talking to her in ways that caught her attention. In deals. And two, she would have to be content with being friends with Luz. It wouldn't be that hard. Right?
They dropped Gus off at home first, as it was on the way to Willow's, and they stood behind him as he knocked on his own door. It took a minute before Mr. Porter arrived to open it. "Gus? What are you…"
The four children looked through the door to see Gus's illusion look surprised that he had appeared at the door before vanishing in a puff of blue smoke. "Sorry that I snuck out, Dad." Gus said, unable to look his father in the eyes. "But Luz was in trouble, and…"
"And he's been accepted back into Hexside!" Luz blurted out excitedly. "We all have, so there's no use getting mad. Right?"
Mr. Porter crossed his arms and thought for a moment, looking over all four kids on his doorstep. "I think it's time we reviewed our rules about communicating, young man." he said and rubbed the bridge of his nose in quiet frustration. "But… thank you, human. Normally, I prefer to remain impartial, but your actions at the petrification inspired a lot of people lately. Things are changing, and I hope you all be careful." He then knelt to Gus's height and put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I never told you this then, but it looks like you're growing up. Your actions at the ceremony made me more proud, and afraid for your safety, than ever before."
Amity couldn't help but feel jealous at witnessing the exchange between Gus and his father. She had tried many times to be close to her father again, but he was always working so much. Now, with these new Abomitons going on the market in such high demand, it was likely that she'd see even less of him.
Father and son said their good nights to the three girls and retreated into their home, and Amity, Luz, and Willow continued to their next stop. "Are you cold?" Amity asked as she noticed Luz was hugging herself, but a turn of her face showed an uncomfortable wetness in her eyes. "Wait, are you hurt?!"
Willow also looked concerned and embraced her friend while Amity stood by, still uncomfortable with the prospect of being in that proximity. "Luz, what's wrong?" Willow asked.
"It's nothing… really. Just seeing Gus with his dad makes me miss my… my family."
"Why don't you just go back and visit? Can't you use Eda's portal?" Amity asked, biting her lip, concerned that she might not return if she did.
Luz nodded at Willow in thanks and wiped her cheeks. "Well, not exactly." she said, continuing. "When I was at the Petrification Ceremony, the Emperor wanted it in exchange for Eda, King, and Lilith. But I couldn't let him have it, right? Who knows what he wanted a portal back to the Human Realm for. So, once he let me go to rescue Eda and the others, I kinda… blew it up."
Amity and Willow stopped in stunned silence while Luz continued forward. "You blew up the portal?!" Amity asked, suddenly flooded with a slew of contradicting emotions. If Luz no longer had a way home, she was stuck here in the Demon Realm. In Amity's life. But away from her home and family.
"You rescued Lilith?!" Willow asked, just as surprised. "She used Gus and I to get Eda to rescue you!"
"She what?!" Amity asked, now adding vengeful anger to her cauldron of feelings.
"It's cool, you guys. She's been living at the Owl House with us the last few weeks. It's kind of a long story, but not only did she curse Eda, she gave up her magic to cure her again. Kinda. She was actually trying to get Eda to join the Emperor's Coven so that he could heal her curse. Turns out that he's just a big liar and a jerk though."
Amity and Willow looked at each other with concern and confusion. They had been taught that the Emperor was good all their lives. That he spoke for the Titan itself and had the interests and prosperity of witches and demons at heart. But why would he want Luz's portal? "Maybe you misinterpreted something?" she asked.
"I don't think so." Luz replied. "The Human Realm has had a lot of people like Emperor Belos in our history, and their rule rarely goes well for the people." She lifted her head and forced a smile. "Well, here we are, Willow. Tooth, sweet, tooth." she grinned.
As they neared the house, the front door opened, and Harvey filled it with a look of anger and worry on his face. "Willow Park!" he called. "Get into this house now!"
"Uh oh." Willow squeaked, approaching her father.
The large man looked directly at Amity, his imposing figure towering over hers, and she swallowed nervously. "You will not be causing any more trouble for our daughter, do I make myself clear?!"
Amity's eyes widened in surprise, and she grimaced under Harvey Park's gaze. "But, I…"
"Hey! Amity helped…" Luz began, but Willow, stopped halfway between her friends and father, clenched her hands into fists.
"Papa, Amity helped this time." she said, looking back at Amity with a smile. "Gus, Luz, and I are back in Hexside thanks to her."
"But…"
"She knows she made mistakes, and I know it wasn't really her fault, but she's working hard to change."
Gilbert Park appeared behind his husband and wrapped an arm around his partner's rotund torso. "What's going on? Willow? What are you doing out here?" he asked, poorly pretending that he didn't know she had been gone. "Amity?" he added, now with genuine surprise. He looked at the three girls and smiled with a nod.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow." Harvey said, his angry eyes finally giving way to a moment of playfulness. "After school."
Surprise and realization came to Gilbert's face, and he stepped out to embrace his daughter. "You're back in Hexside?!"
Willow nodded. "We all are. Luz and Amity helped sort everything out."
Gilbert looked Luz up and down, noting her torn clothes, scraped skin, and abomination stains. "It looks like you've had quite the adventure tonight. Would you like to come in? Maybe have some tea?"
While Willow looked hopeful, Luz reluctantly waved the offer away. "I actually really need to get back to the Owl House. I've been teaching Eda and Lilith how to use glyphs, and I'm just sort of hoping that they haven't frozen the place into a block of ice." she laughed.
Willow and her parents bid Luz and Amity a good night before closing their door again, and the pair stood alone in the street. Luz rubbed her neck, awkwardly looking away as she spoke. "You, ah, you don't really have to walk me home, Amity. The Owl House is aways away and it's getting pretty late. I don't really want you to get in any more trouble."
"I could actually use a walk, to be honest. That whole… thing… was a little hectic, so I don't mind." she said, pausing. "That's what friends do, right?"
Luz seemed startled, and Amity thought she had seen a glimmer of a frown. "Right. You. Are. Right. So I guess we'll just… go." she stammered, hesitating for a few seconds before starting on her way to the Owl House.
The walk was long and uncharacteristically silent, interspersed with odd questions from both. "So how are you going to get back to the Human Realm without a portal?" Amity finally asked at one point. Typically, she was perfectly fine with silences, but for the first time, she was more interested in getting to know someone over reading a book or just being alone with her own thoughts.
"I'm not sure." she replied, casting glances in Amity's direction. "I guess I'll just have to figure out how to build my own. I mean, someone did it at some point. Maybe there's notes or instructions somewhere, y'know?"
"Hmm. Well, I've never heard of anything like that in my reading, but I'm sure something will come up."
"Thanks. Y'know, I'm pretty lucky to have you. Met you, I mean! And Gus and Willow. And Eda and King and Hooty… heh."
"Uhm, thanks? I'm glad we met too." Amity said. There was another long pause, filled with uncomfortable fidgeting until the lights from the Owl House began peering through the trees. "What is that?" she asked as they approached the old house and saw an impressive ice statue that had been melting for some time. It stood as tall as Luz or Amity and resembled a sad ferret-duck.
"I'd say someone has been practicing their ice glyph magic." Luz replied, stopping a fair distance away from the door. "Thank you, Amity." she said without turning around. "For helping in Willow's mind, and the Grudgeby match, walking me home, and for saving me tonight, even after you warned me that trying to talk to your mom wouldn't work. I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but I got the feeling you don't hear that enough. Good night." she said, finally turning to flash a tired smile. She took a deep breath and opened the door, greeting the occupants inside. "Hey guys!" Amity watched after her for a few moments more, returning the smile before turning to make her trek back home.