Vee slithered out of the old house and into the light of a new world. So this was the Human Realm. A place of peace and tranquility, according to her fellow basilisks. Though since they'd never so much as stepped foot out of the Conformatorium in their lives, just like her, she wasn't sure where they were getting their info from. But so far, it was checking out. The air was filled with relaxing sounds, not sounds of pain and agony, the trees were a vibrant green color, and nothing was trying to kill her. At the moment.

"Vee!" a voice called out. Vee let out a shriek as she realized she may well have spoken too soon. A middle-aged human woman stepped into the clearing. At least, Vee thought she must have been human. Her ears were round, so that was definitely a point in that direction. The woman looked very kind, but Vee wasn't going to relax so quickly. Some of the worst of her torturers had put on a very kind façade when they were among their fellow witches. Or maybe they were kind people to everyone but Vee.

Vee quickly changed into the form of the girl she'd seen at the market. If the woman was looking for a basilisk, maybe she'd be fooled by seeing a fellow human in front of her. "Oh, there you are, sweetie," the woman said with a warm smile. "Goodness me, the resemblance is uncanny, isn't it?" This comment was accompanied by a much more sad facial expression.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Vee stammered. "We're all humans here!"

The woman sighed. "Of course you're scared. Why didn't I realize it the first time around?" The woman bent down so they were at eye level with each other. "I'm not going to hurt you, Vee." Vee had heard that one before. "My name is Camila Noceda. You can call me Camila if you want. I know you're not my daughter Luz."

"What?!" Vee said and honestly, her voice didn't even sound anywhere near vaguely convincing now and she didn't even know why she was still trying other than sheer force of habit. "Of course I'm Liz!"

Camila laughed. "Luz, dear. Don't worry. I'm a friend."

"If you know who I am," Vee said cautiously, "then you know why I'm having trouble believing that."

Camila sighed, a deep look of sadness on her face. "Unfortunately, I do. So I suppose the best thing I can do is be honest with you." Vee felt a spasm of guilt, since she had been planning on doing the exact opposite. Camila sat down on the steps of the house. Vee hesitated for a long time. A part of her wanted to run as far as she could, terrified that this was some elaborate trick to bring her back to the Demon Realm, to hurt her once again. But even if it was, even if she ran, where would she go? So she sat down next to Camila.

"I'm from the future," Camila said. "I went with my daughter and her friends through a portal back to the Boiling Isles, but instead it took us into the bodies of our past selves with our memories intact. I don't know how and I don't know why, but I do know we have a second chance."

For some reason, Vee believed Camila, even though she had never heard of anyone time traveling before and there was no evidence other than Camila knowing who she is. "But…I didn't go back?"

Camila shook her head. "No, mija. You stayed. You weren't ready to return and there was nothing wrong with that."

"It sounds like we were close," Vee ventured.

For a second, Camila looked like she was about to cry, but it passed extremely quickly, so quickly Vee wondered if she had even imagined it. "You passed as Luz for a very long time. But even in your disguise, I grew to love your quirks, your essential Vee-ness. Then after I found out who you were, you became a second daughter to me, openly."

Oh. Wow. That was a lot to unpack. Vee liked Camila, but they'd just met. She couldn't quite see thinking of her as a mother just yet. "What's going to happen to me, then?"

"Actually, we're going to do pretty much exactly what we did in the other timeline," Camila said. "Thank goodness Cosmic Frontier prepared me for this sort of thing." Vee didn't know who this Frontier person was, but she was glad Camila had a friend who had helped her out. "You're going to Reality Check Camp. I sent Luz because…well, I shouldn't have done it, really. But while it wasn't suitable for her, it was perfect for you. It'll teach you all about how to blend in as human."

Vee shrugged. She didn't know anything about what Camila was talking about, but nothing could be much worse than the Conformatorium. "So…you're going away?"

"Yes," Camila said with a sigh. "We have work to do in the Demon Realm, and I am not going to let Luz run around there unsupervised this time around. You'll be perfectly safe at the camp. You'll make friends and maybe even find a special someone." She winked. Vee had no idea what Camila meant by that. "I'm sure it'll go just like last time – with one key difference. When you get home, you'll have someone to look after you and you won't ever have to hide around me again."

This all sounded absolutely wonderful to Vee. "There's one thing I don't understand, though," she said. "If I lied to you, if I tricked you, why did you forgive me? Why treat me like another daughter?"

Camila planted a kiss on the forehead of Vee's stolen visage. "Because you deserve love, Vee. Now why don't you get into my car and I'll let you pick the playlist if you want?"

"Sure!" Vee said and practically bounced to an upright position. "Quick question: What's a car?"

Edric looked around his bedroom very carefully. With Mom lurking behind every shadow, sometimes literally, there was no such thing as being too careful. When he was absolutely certain Mom had sent no spirits to spy on him or was using shadow magic to peer from an isolated corner of the room or had placed another one of Dad's Abomabugs in the bookcase again, he reached under his bed and pulled out a box.

At the top of the box was a set of ridiculously cliched romance novels, like Crepuscule, the famous witch-human romance (as if humans were even real). Edric put that aside and then pulled out a magazine whose contents could perhaps most charitably described as adult. He skimmed through pages of boys wearing very little clothing for a few seconds. Then, satisfied with the notion Mom wasn't going to suddenly bust through the doors and berate him for possessing "degenerate publications," he put the magazines aside to reveal the real target of his surreptitious actions: the beast-keeping textbook he'd stolen from the Hexside library.

"Ah, here we go," Edric said as he sat down on his bed and started reading from the forbidden tome. Mom would kill him if she knew he secretly had ambitions to become a beast keeper. She always looked down on that branch of magic, seeing them as nothing more than glorified zookeepers. Never mind that beast keepers worked with some of the most powerful creatures in the Isles or that they were the backbone of the Isles' transportation system.

Edric had just gotten to a chapter about griffons when the door burst open and Amity ran in, looking almost frantic. Edric had trained himself not to care about his little sister – it just wasn't worth the heartache it brought when Amity inevitably tattled on them – but it was so hard. Amity was so pitiful and adorable and it was like kicking a little kitten sometimes. But now there was nothing of the ice cold, Mom-like façade Amity constantly put up in her. Amity wasn't looking at Edric with open contempt or long-suffering annoyance. There was…love there now. Amity loved Edric again. Maybe…maybe she had never really stopped?

"Oh, Edric, I missed you so much!" Amity said, practically tackling him with a hug. There were tears running down her cheeks. Amity would never "sully" herself with something as base and low as crying. She had said that herself on numerous occasions, berating Edric for the sin of actually feeling things.

"Emira?" Edric said tentatively, bracing himself for the other shoe to drop. He really, really hoped it wasn't Emira. Now that his little sister was back from the depths of being a Mini-Mom, he didn't want to ever lose her again. If this was Emira, making him think Amity was back to normal, it would mean war. Such a thing would be a serious line crossed.

Amity rolled her eyes. "Oh, you're such a doofus." Well, that was classic Amity. "I'm tangible. Emira can't do tangible illusions."

"Well, what's got you all worked up, then, Mittens?" Edric said, trying to affect his usual devil may care attitude. Funny how it was so much more difficult to summon up when lichy Amity wasn't around to use as a foil.

"I…" Amity hesitated. "I just wanted to tell you how much I love you."

Edric's jaw dropped open. When was the last time he'd ever heard that from Amity? Definitely not since she'd been forced to break things off with Willow. "I love you too, Amity." The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them. Despite that, when Amity's face lit up, Edric couldn't bring himself to regret them for a single solitary second.

"Listen, Edric, I'm so sorry," Amity went on. Maybe Edric was dreaming, he concluded. That…actually made a lot of sense, as sad as the thought was. He'd had dreams where Amity returned to the sweet kid she used to be before. This was a lot more vivid than all of them combined, though. "I was a real nasty piece of work. I mean, you weren't much better, but it's not your fault. It's Odalia's."

What the heck? Since when the hell had Amity despised their mother that much, laden her name with the same amount of contempt she'd put into the name of one of the Olympians? "Amity, where is all this coming from?"

Amity hesitated for a very long time. "I can't tell you now. I don't think you'd believe me. But I'll tell you eventually, I promise. There are some things I have to do now." She gave Edric another quick hug. "But things'll be better soon enough. If everything goes well, we won't have to worry about Odalia ever again."

"Do they ever go well?" Edric asked.

Amity paused. "Well…no. But that just means we're due!" With a jaunty wave, she walked out of the room.

Edric almost fell onto his bed with the force of sheer shock and bewilderment. What in the Titan's name had happened to Amity? Had she just woke up as a different person that morning? Maybe she'd had three spirits visit her in the night like in A Walpurgisnacht Carol. It took the better part of five minutes for Edric to break himself out of his swirling thoughts and knock on Emira's door. He was so consumed by confusion that he didn't even notice when he left his box of illicit material on his bed.

"Oh, thank Titan," Emira said, looking extremely shellshocked. "I didn't imagine that."

"What the heck is going on?!" Edric shouted. "What happened to Amity?"

Emira looked almost haunted. "I don't know, Ed. I've never seen Amity look so…happy. She borrowed my purple hair dye. Mom's gonna freak. How are we going to protect her?"

Edric had no idea. But he knew one thing: he would do it, no matter what the cost. He didn't realize how much he had missed Amity being her own person until he saw it again with her own two eyes. "Em…are we bad siblings?"

In past years, Emira would have just dismissed this with a snide comment which would make Edric feel bad for being too sensitive, a wuss. But now, she just looked lost. "Maybe," she whispered.

"Well…not anymore," Edric said, trying to put a bright face on things. "From now on, we're going to be the best siblings we can be!"

Emira grinned. "Yeah! And that means we're going to follow Amity wherever she's going. Because she just sneaked out of the house." She pointed to the window of her room. Sure enough, Amity was sneaking through the front yard, dodging all manner of traps as if she'd had years of experience in doing it. Despite the fact Edric knew there was no way she could have had any such thing.

Edric knew that because he and Emira did have years of experience sneaking out of the house and the two of them promptly put those skills to use following Amity to the market, of all places, somewhere "reputable" members of the Blight family wouldn't be caught dead being. Fortunately, Amity may have developed a sudden personality change, but she didn't get any better at figuring out when her siblings were following her invisibly.

Amity spotted a girl of the same age with tan skin wearing a cat eared hoodie and rushed over to her. Edric's mouth dropped open when Amity wrapped her arms around the girl and gave her a big kiss on the lips.

"Amity has a girlfriend?!" Emira said incredulously. Edric was just as flabbergasted. How could this be? He didn't recognize the girl from Hexside and where else could Amity have met her? Not to mention, she must have been hiding this secret romance for ages, without any of them having a clue. Was it possible Amity was some sort of mastermind, a mischief maker even more talented than Edric and Emira put together? The idea seemed ludicrous, but a better one was not presenting itself.

Amity pulled the hood off of her girlfriend's head and Edric couldn't help but let out a loud gasp. "Amity's girlfriend is a human?!" Edric said. Humans were real and Amity had been dating one?! What other surprises awaited them? If humans were real, grimwalkers might be real too, for all Edric knew.

"Luz, I missed you so much," Amity said in a voice that really could only be called sensuous. She gazed into Luz's eyes as if all the secrets to the universe lay within them.

"Amity's in love?!" Emira said.

Luz looked nervously at the ground. "Really? I was worried you wouldn't want to have anything to do with me. After…after how I helped Belos." Huh? Why was Luz acting as if helping the emperor was akin to helping Zeus himself?

Amity her hands on Luz's shoulders. "Batata, that wasn't your fault. He tricked you. I couldn't stop loving you. Not for that, not for anything." She kissed Luz again. "Because you're the most beautiful, amazing girl in this or any world."

"AMITY HAS GAME?!" Edric shouted.

Amity stomped over to the two of them, as if they weren't invisible at all and shoved them to the ground, dispelling the invisibility spell, and said, "Yeah, and you know what else I've got? Excellent hearing!"

"Amity, come on, you have to admit this is a little surprising," Emira pointed out reasonably. "I mean, why haven't we heard anything about this human girlfriend of yours?"

Edric laughed. "Yeah, and how did someone like you end up with someone as good looking as her – oh, my Titan, I should not have said that."

"You most certainly should not," Amity agreed. She formed a spell circle and an abomination of far better quality than anything Edric had ever seen her use before appeared. Then the human pulled out a piece of paper with a design on it, tapped on it, and then another abomination appeared. It wasn't of as high quality as Amity's, but the fact remained a human had made it! How?!

"Oh, man, I've missed my glyphs!" Luz said with a delighted laugh.

Amity gave a sweet, poisonous smile. "I promise to give you explanations later. But for now, it's time for revenge."

Edric let out a high pitched scream as the abominations started to chase him and Emira around the market.

If there was one thing Darius hated above all else, it was paperwork. Nothing held a candle to it, not wild witches, not the various whims of Belos, nothing at all. One would think once Darius had become a coven head, he wouldn't have to do paperwork anymore. But, no, this particular paperwork had to be filled out by someone of the rank of coven head or higher, and it wasn't like he could get Belos to do his job for him. If only there was some poor sap he could hoist it on…

Wait a second. There was! Belos may not have been able to do the paperwork for him, but his nephew could! And Hunter was notoriously gullible. All he had to do was say Belos would really appreciate him doing a favor for a coven head and the dork would be putty in his hands. It was a shame, really. Where was the spine his predecessor had shown? That inimitable spark that made Fletcher such a good friend? Nowhere to be found, that's where.

So Darius plastered a friendly grin on his face and walked into Hunter's quarters…only to find the boy about to sneak out the window. Wait, what? Darius did a visible doubletake. The emperor's ultimate lickspittle was trying to sneak out of the castle? The idiot whose only ambition in life seemed to be to serve Belos's will? It didn't make any sense.

"And just where do you think you're going, young man?"

Hunter looked panicked. "I was just…stretching my calves on the windowsill! Isometric exercise! Care to join me?"

Darius crossed his arms. He was in no mood for silliness…well, ever, but especially right now. "Hunter, you're sneaking out of the castle. You can tell me why you're sneaking out of the castle, or you can tell Belos."

Hunter started shaking, actually shaking, and for the first time in ages, Darius felt a spike of pity for the kid. "I…am sneaking out…to meet with a girl!" He looked very proud of this for some reason, though Darius couldn't imagine why. "Yes! Her name is Willow Park!"

"You have a girlfriend?" Darius asked, simply befuddled now. He knew he certainly didn't keep track of every detail of Hunter's life, but surely something as big as a secret romance wouldn't have escaped Darius's notice, especially since Hunter was absolutely terrible at keeping secrets.

Hunter's cheeks blushed ferociously. Yes, this was definitely checking out now. That was exactly like Fletcher looked whenever he fell in love with someone, which, annoyingly, he tended to do at the drop of a hat. "Uh…yes. Yes, that's right. She's my girlfriend?" Darius didn't believe Hunter, but he did believe he wanted Willow to be.

"So tell me a little bit about this girl who's captured the heart of the Golden Guard," Darius said, knowing that Hunter would rant to him for hours later even if he didn't ask and it was better to just get it over with now.

Hunter's eyes lit up. "Oh my Titan, yes, Willow is awesome. She's so strong and powerful and a great flyer derby player and she's so nice and pretty and – oh, Titan, I have a crush on Willow!"

Darius laughed. "You're just figuring out now that you have a crush on your girlfriend?"

"Er…"

"Well, whatever. I'm just glad you're happy, I suppose. Has anyone taught you how to use protection spells?"

Hunter ran screaming out of the room. Darius guffawed. Teenagers never changed, no matter if they were witches or grimwalkers. Hunter didn't even realize he couldn't even use such spells without a bile sac. Now how would he show his support but in a thoroughly embarrassing way so that no one knew how much he cared deep down? Oh, he had the perfect plan. He pulled out his crow and called his secretary.

"Tanya, I need to get the contact information for the parents of a student named Willow Park."

Gilbert Park put down his crow with great trepidation. Out of the blue, Darius Deamonne, head of the Abominations Coven, of all people, had just called him and let him know that Willow not only had a boyfriend, but that said boyfriend was none other than the Golden Guard himself! If he didn't know any better, he would assume it was some sort of prank and honestly, a part of him was leaning in that direction. After all, Willow had shown no signs of being in love or dating anyone recently. She'd…actually seemed rather miserable as of late, though she wouldn't open up as to why and persistently claimed she was totally fine.

"Did we seriously hear what we just heard?" Harvey asked. "Willow and the Golden Guard?" He looked furious at the very thought and Gilbert knew very well why. Though Darius had assured them that Hunter was sixteen so there was nothing to worry about on that part, Gilbert was still afraid Hunter would end up breaking Willow's heart. After all, as the Golden Guard, heir to the throne and nephew to the emperor, he probably had every eligible boy, girl, and none of the above after him. No doubt he left a trail of conquests in his wake.

"I'm sure there's an explanation," Gilbert said, not at all meaning his words. "It could be just a prank or maybe a misunderstanding. Let's ask Willow. We don't want to make any assumptions we'll regret."

As if on cue, Willow walked into the room. She'd certainly been acting weird today. She'd embraced her dads like she hadn't seen them in ages, like she'd thought them to be dead or even worse. She had said she just had a nightmare, but Gilbert wasn't nearly so certain. "Hi, dads! I'm heading over to the Owl…er, no. Blight…no, that's off the list too…" She brightened. "Gus's house! I'm going to Gus's house!"

Harvey put his hands on his hips. "Really, young lady? Are you sure you're not sneaking off to meet with your boyfriend?!"

"I…don't have a boyfriend, though," Willow said in a tone of total confusion and Gilbert believed she was telling the truth.

Harvey didn't look convinced, however, and looked disappointed in Willow. She cringed. "Oh, and so these rumors you've been dating the Golden Guard are just lies?"

Willow looked utterly stunned to hear the Golden Guard's name mentioned. "I…no! No, we're just friends!"

Okay, this was starting to make sense now. Gilbert believed Willow. She and Hunter were really just genuinely friends and she was probably hiding the friendship so he wouldn't get in trouble for associating with someone of a low social class. Darius had just misinterpreted their relationship, because, honestly, that guy knew nothing about teenagers, even when he had been one.

"We're just concerned he might try to take advantage of you, honey," Harvey said in a much more gentle tone, probably coming to the same conclusion as Gilbert. "He's very rich and famous and powerful and we're worried he might string you along and break your heart. He hasn't made any moves on you?"

Willow stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. "No, and I've been dropping hints for ages! I mean, it's not his fault he grew up in a cult, but you'd think watching Luz and Amity be, well, Luz and Amity would have given him a clue or two about how these things work." Gilbert didn't know what he was more surprised by: Willow referring to the Emperor's Coven as a cult or her being back in contact with Amity.

Gilbert gave a knowing glance at Harvey as he recalled a very similar conversation he'd had with his own mothers until he lost patience and just kissed the bloody idiot who was now his beloved husband. "So how did the two of you meet?"

Now Willow let out a squeak. "Uh, can you ask another question?"

Well, Gilbert didn't want to embarrass Willow. Now. "You'd tell us if you thought he was taking advantage of you, right? I mean, I know you might be reluctant to say anything, given how powerful he is, but I promise, we will believe you."

Willow let out a fearsome glare the likes of which Gilbert had rarely seen. "How can you say such things? Hunter's the sweetest, kindest, most honorable man I've ever met." She scowled. "Maybe too honorable," she grumbled under her breath.

The doorbell rang and Willow bounded over to the door with a perky spring in her step. She was the happiest Gilbert had seen her in months. He made a decision right there and then. He wasn't going to get in her way if she wanted to start up a relationship with Hunter. Though he still thought the relationship would end in heartbreak. Ultimately, though, that was just something teenagers had to go through sometimes, and Gilbert would be ready with eye scream when it all went south.

To Gilbert's total lack of surprise, Hunter was on the doorstep, though he was surprised to see him accompanied by Gus and Perry. "Wow, Messrs. Park, great to see you again!" Gus said with a grin. "It's been too long!"

Hunter gave an extraordinarily stiff bow, looking frightened out of his wits. "Blessings be upon this house," he stammered. "Um, Mr. Park, oh, and Mr. Park, of course! I, uh…hang on." He pulled out a scroll and mouthed a few phrases under his breath. "I would like to ask permission to court your daughter."

"Finally," Gus muttered. "It's been months of having to listen to them dance around each other."

Willow's mouth dropped open and she let out a squeal of happiness. "Really?! You mean it, Hunter?"

"Yeah, I…I guess I didn't realize how important you were to me until now," Hunter said bashfully. "So, uh, you want to go out with me, Willow?"

"Heck yeah I do!" Willow said, and she summoned up what must have been all of her courage and planted a kiss on Hunter's cheek.

Harvey cleared his throat pointedly. "Not that this isn't nice to see, but I believe he asked us for our blessing, young lady," he said in a mock stern tone which took in the lovebirds completely. "And to that I say…you have it!" Willow jumped up and down with happiness. "Just remember, if you break her heart, we break your spine."

"I won't let you down, sir," Hunter vowed. "So where should we go on our first date, Willow?"

Gus cleared his throat. "Uh, not that this isn't, well, painful to watch, actually, but don't we kind of have a Belos problem to deal with?"

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Gilbert whispered to Perry, who shook his head.

"Oh, don't worry, Mrs. Noceda's got it handled," Willow promised Gus.

Eda was in love. She was not the type of person who fell in love at the drop of a hat, but she definitely had a type and Camila Noceda checked all the boxes. Drop dead gorgeous? Check. Seeing straight through all of Eda's minotaurshit instantaneously? Check. Hated Belos with the burning passion of a thousand suns? Double check!

It had certainly come as a surprise to her when the beautiful human and her teenage daughter Luz had shown up at her stand and sent the guards packing when they came to arrest her, Luz using some sort of weird magic the likes of which Eda had never seen before. Luz was a feisty girl with an irrepressible can do spirit who reminded Eda eerily of herself at that age. She had proceeded to charm King by giving him a new Crown of Power and promising to play all sorts of games with him.

There was something very strange about the humans, too. Eda wasn't born yesterday and she was pretty sure she had figured it out. They must have gone through a time pool, because they were way too familiar with the Boiling Isles and Eda would have known if there were humans in the Isles before now. And by the shocked looks on Luz and Camila's faces when she mentioned this, she was pretty sure she pegged the situation exactly. But there was a far more pertinent question to be had, more important than any temporal shenanigans.

"So, pretty lady, you don't happen to be in the market for a girlfriend, do you?" Eda asked Camila with a flirtatious wink.

Camila blushed heavily. Luz looked torn between cheering in joy and screaming in total mortification. "I…well, we can have that conversation later." Later sounded good! Later wasn't a no! "For now, we need to take advantage of the element of surprise and kill that pendejo Belos."

Luz looked shocked, though Eda couldn't tell if it was because of the swearing or because Camila had just casually talked about committing murder in front of her. "Are you sure, mami?"

Camila's fist clenched. "I will not permit Hunter to be in that monster's custody for a single second longer. Eda, do you have any human weapons we can use?"

Eda wasn't honestly sure so she led the two of them back to the Owl House. Luz went straight to Eda's secret cabinet of items she thought might be dangerous human artifacts (but could just as easily be pieces of junk). The fact Luz knew how to get past her foolproof protections, knowing the password exactly, definitely lent credence to the time travelers theory.

"Aha!" Luz said, holding up some sort of long cylindrical tube. "This'll do the trick quite nicely!"

"Well, you can't say we won't be making an explosive entrance," Camila joked. She was a lover of puns too! What a woman. "All right, who's up for regicide?"

"And then a date?" Eda asked hopefully.

Camila tilted her head and smiled a dazzling smile. "You know what, why not?"

Luz rubbed her hands together. "Camileda is a go. Maybe Camilraeda if I play my cards precisely correctly later…"

"What was that?" Camila asked.

"Nothing!" She gave a winning smile. "Hey, Eda, wanna rob the Bonesborough Garden Club? I've got someone I need to meet again."

A potential stepdaughter who liked crime? This relationship was starting to get more appealing by the second! "You got it, kiddo! Remember, the family that slays together, stays together!" Camila glared at her. "Uh, just an expression."

Lilith had once thought of herself as completely unflappable. Now, alas, she could not hold that title anymore, because the last thing she'd expected had occurred. During the middle of a perfectly ordinary meeting of the coven heads, one of the usual snore-fests Belos always insisted on attending, a human woman had waltzed into the room and fired what looked like some sort of fireworks launcher at Belos.

The firework – which had to be something far, far stronger than a mere firework – had struck true and had completely obliterated Belos before he could get a single word out. It had also killed Adrian and Terra, who were sitting close to him, and injured several other coven heads. However, Lilith had been left untouched. The source of this miraculous occurrence revealed itself moments later when Edalyn strode in next. She must have shielded Lilith using a spell.

"Guards!" Lilith called out. "Seize the Owl Lady and the human!"

"Belay that order!" a voice called out and the Golden Guard walked into the room, accompanied by a human who was probably the assassin's daughter, a teenaged girl, a boy a few years younger than him and most shockingly of all, her protegee Amity Blight. "Do not harm the humans!"

"But, sir, they committed treason!" Vitimir said. "They assassinated the emperor!"

The Golden Guard snarled at him. "I am the emperor now and I say they are to be pardoned for their actions!" He sat on the throne as if he'd been sitting there all his life. The Golden Guard…no, Emperor Hunter now, seemed like he'd been born for leadership. "I have more edicts. The coven system is to be abolished! All wild magic is now legal! The basilisks in the Conformatorium are to be freed. Edalyn Clawthorne is pardoned. And we will do everything in our power to remove people's sigils so they can practice magic freely."

There were some disgruntled mumblings, but not many. The only true loyalist to the Coven system among them had been Terra. Everyone else had been in it for the power and the power had now gone straight in Hunter's direction.

Lilith made a decision in that moment. She could either support someone who might decide to get rid of Edalyn at a later date or support the boy who'd offered her a chance to make things right with her sister as she'd wanted for so many years. "All hail Emperor Hunter!" she shouted.

It took a few tries, but she got the rest of the coven heads hailing him eventually. Amity whispered something in Hunter's ear. "Oh, and one last thing. Odalia Blight is to immediately lose custody of her children and be investigated for any crimes she may have committed. Or, you know, maybe ones she hasn't too. We'll play it by ear. Whatever works."

Hunter yawned and got up from the table. "Well, I've got one more meeting before I get some sleep." Everyone looked stunned he had even mentioned the word sleep. "And this one, I've really been looking forward to."

Every day was the same for Flapjack in the loving embrace of the Bat Queen. He'd gone to the Bat Queen for protection after Belos had murdered his last symbiont and he'd gotten it, but it had come with soul crushing boredom. He wished he could be with a symbiont again without having to worry about them incurring Belos's wrath, but after hundreds of years, he'd accepted it was never to be.

But today was different. Clover and Emmeline had been acting so strangely today. They'd started talking about having symbionts they'd never mentioned before, Willow and Gus. And then the Bat Queen had visited them with the welcome news that Belos had been killed and overthrown by his nephew Hunter. At that point, Clover and Emmeline had basically dragged him to the palace. Flapjack could have flown away, but he was very curious as to what was going on.

As the three of them flew into the courtyard (well, Flapjack and Clover carrying Emmeline), a blond boy stepped out of the palace. He looked just like Flapjack's Caleb! He must have been one of the copies Belos had made over the years. "Oh, Flapjack," the boy – Hunter no doubt by his regalia – said and then he burst into tears. "I'm so sorry! I let you get hurt – killed. I should have been smarter! Sharper! Something!"

I'm okay now! Flapjack promised Hunter, who grinned like a loon upon realizing he could bond with his symbiont again. I don't really know you, but I feel like I should.

"Would you…would you be my palisman again, Flap?" Hunter asked. "Please? I'll do such a better job again this time around." He seemed so sad and beaten down. Flapjack would work on that. The two of them would work on it together.

Hunter, there's nothing in the world I'd like better.