Gehetag 3, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | Hexside School of Magic and Demonics
As Luz stared at the spell circle pointed in her face, she fought the urge to consume the spell. (Blowing her cover on her first day of school would not be cool.) Thankfully, the student dispelled the circle before Luz could gobble it up.
"Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm Viney!" The newly dubbed Viney offered a handshake, which Luz slowly accepted. As Viney withdrew her hand, Luz noticed that her sleeves were a shade of gray that Luz hadn't seen before.
"Nice to meet you," Luz responded. "If you don't mind me asking, what's with the gray sleeves?"
"Oh, these things?" Viney said, turning her arms this way and that, showing them off to Luz. "They mean that I'm stuck in the Detention Track."
"The Detention… Track?" That was certainly new to Luz.
"Bump created it because the Detention Pit is still getting repaired. He wanted to keep all of us troublemakers wrangled in one spot so he stuck us all in an old classroom and called it the Detention Track," Viney explained.
Rubbing at the back of her neck, Luz knew why the Pit was under repair. "I might have had something to do with the Pit breaking."
Viney gasped. "No way! That was you?!"
"Yeah," the basilisk responded, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth. "There was a Human Appreciation Society meeting, a rock going through a window, lots of stuff. It was this whole ordeal."
"Well, I don't know how you did it," Viney said with a smile, "but thanks for breaking the Pit. It's made detention way more fun."
"You're welcome?" Luz replied slowly, more of a question than a statement. Viney was happy to be in detention? Why was that?
"Follow me, I want you to meet the rest of the crew," Viney said, grabbing Luz's arm and dragging the basilisk along before she could argue. Eventually, the two stopped at the end of the hallway, the corridor opening to a spiral that led all the way up to the ceiling. Doors and platforms of all sorts of styles were scattered about randomly along the… tower? Where was this place, actually? Was it some kind of pocket dimension inside Hexside? That was probably a question to ask Eda when Luz got back to the Owl House after the school day ended.
As Luz admired the architecture, Viney called out to her fellow Detention Track students. "Oi! Jerbo, Barcus! Come on out!"
From behind a door above Luz, two figures appeared: one being a lanky male witch with pale skin and short, unkempt brown hair, the other being a… dog wearing a Hexside uniform?
"How do we know she won't rat us out to Bump?" the lanky student said. (Luz was pretty sure that was Jerbo, because the dog student being named Barcus made way too much sense based on everything she had learned about the Isles.)
"She's cool, Jerbo," Viney responded. "Luz here is actually the one who broke the Detention Pit in the first place."
Jerbo's eyes grew wide. "Woah, really? In that case, there's no doubt you belong with us troublemakers. Welcome to the Detention Track, Luz."
"Slow your roll, Jerbo," Viney interjected, holding up a hand to tell him to pause. "We need a total consensus before we let her in. What do you say, Barcus?"
If she has already proven herself a troublemaker, then I say we let her stay,Barcus woofed. Luz swore that she could actually hear actual intelligible sound underneath the growls and best way she could describe how it sounded was that it was like she was listening to music and had two songs going at once, the audio overlapping, but still being able to pick out the lyrics from both songs.
"She's in," Jerbo translated for Viney.
Plus, her aura is interesting. Strong, yet also silly, like a baby's laughter,the dog demon added.
"Aww, thanks. Strong and silly is totally my kind of vibe," Luz said before Jerbo could translate.
Viney slowly turned to Luz, a shocked expression on her face. "Hold up, you can understand Barcus?"
"Yeah. Can you not?" Luz hoped that she hadn't just accidentally something a little too basilisk-y.
"No," Viney answered, drawing out the syllable. "Jerbo can, though, but that's only because his great-great-great grandpa was a centaur. You sure you don't have any demon blood in ya by chance?"
"Maybe? I'm not a huge genealogy buff," Luz offered as an answer. She wasn't necessarily lying, as she was part demon, after all.
"Well aren't you full of mysteries, then," Viney said in a chipper tone. "I would say 'Welcome to the Detention Track,' but given that you're not actually in detention that won't work. In that case, welcome to the… uhh… Troublemaker Troupe."
Luz laughed. "That's got a nice ring to it. Say, how did you guys get in detention anyway? I doubt they'd throw you in here for, like, liking school too much."
"No, that's pretty much exactly what happened," Viney responded with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Wait, what? How does that make any sense?" Luz was confused to say the least.
"We all got busted for trying to mix different tracks of magic," Viney explained with a harrumph.
That came as a surprise to Luz. "I mean, I know that there's the whole 'One witch, one coven' thing, but I didn't think Bump would actually enforce it so harshly at Hexside. What tracks were you combining to piss him off so much, anyway?"
"Well, I thought that mixing Beast Keeping and Healing would be a good idea," Viney started. "I had Puddles, my pet griffin, help out with injured students in the Healing track. He'd help calm people down, offer treats to the younger kids, that kinda stuff. When Bump caught wind of that, though, he threw me in here and said that 'wild animals cause more harm than good'. Except Puddles isn't even wild! He's only clawed my face four times in the past month, which is super low for him."
That last statement concerned Luz. "How many times does Puddles normally claw your face?"
Viney thought about it for a while before responding. "Usually like… 9 or 10 times a month. He's an absolute angel, though."
"Sure…" Luz said slowly. "What about you, Jerbo? How'd you end up trapped here?"
"I wanted to combine Abominations and Plant magic," Jerbo said. "Bump didn't like that either. Apparently it's fine for a regular Abomination to leave goopy footprints all over the place, but the second a plant-based Abomination starts tracking mud in the classroom, everyone loses their minds. It's a double standard, I'm telling you!"
Barcus was the last of the crew to explain how he'd ended up in detention. I faced similar backlash to Jerbo when trying to blend Potions and Oracle magic together. Everything was going well until I made a teacher resign and that was when Bump had to step in. I had concocted a brew that was supposed to tell the winning lotto numbers, but what it actually ended up doing was predicting that the teacher would die within the week. Given, she did look at a painbow and have her body turned inside out, so at least my prediction was accurate.
Luz hoped that last part was a joke, but knowing the Isles it probably wasn't.
"When we first found this place, we didn't know what exactly to make of it," Viney started, walking over to a door. "But when we realized that all these doors could take us anywhere in the school, we knew what we had to do."
"And what's that?" Luz asked, not entirely sure where Viney was going with this.
"Well, Bump didn't like it when we studied multiple tracks of magic, right? So what if we used this room to study all the tracks?" Viney explained.
"So, you feel up for exploring beyond just Beast Keeping magic?" Viney asked with a grin.
"Heck yeah, let's do it!" Luz responded with a fist pump.
Peeking through the door closest to her, Luz saw into a classroom. This door gave her a birds-eye view of the room, and based on all the cauldrons and alchemical ingredients, this was most likely where a potions track class was held. Most of the seats were already filled in, and the teacher was standing at the front of the room, a potion held in each hand.
As Luz watched on, the teacher began to speak. "Alright, everyone's here, so I think we can start a few minutes early. Today we will be working on…" The teacher then threw down the potions, causing a cloud of smoke to appear and surround them. "Smoke bombs!"
Mrs. Lulamoon always has a flair for the dramatic, Barcus told Luz.
"I'll always appreciate a teacher who knows how to have fun with what they teach," Luz replied, nodding in approval.
Another door caught Luz's attention. "Ooh, hello. Where does this one lead? " She thought aloud. Not waiting for an answer from the other troublemakers, Luz opened the door and peeked in.
Amity paced back and forth in the halls of Hexside. Sure, class was starting in a few minutes and her next class was on the other side of the school, but that wasn't important right now. What was important right now was Amity figuring out how to deal with The Luz Problem.
The two had only known each other for what? A month, if that? Despite that, Luz was willing to face down a fully grown slitherbeast to protect Amity, and Luz won the fight . Yet the second the dust (or rather, the snow) had settled, she had just gone back to her normal, peppy self like she hadn't just saved Amity's life. Seeing Luz, brave, stupid, cute Luz, stand up for her made her feel… things. Things that Amity had never felt before. What really solidified those weird new feelings, though, was when Luz had gone searching through the giant snowbank just to find that silly little flower. Something about seeing the girl running around, covered head to toe in snow with the stupidest, cutest, most determined smile on her face really did something for Amity.
There was no way Luz hadn't noticed how Amity had practically turned red as a bloodfruit back on the Knee, and now the young Blight had no idea how to deal with that fact. When Luz had arrived earlier today, Amity had just run off before the basilisk could see her. Unfortunately, bolting whenever Luz got near her wasn't a very feasible plan, so she'd need to come up with something better.
Maybe she could just play it off like nothing happened? Then again, gaslighting her friend/crush/acquaintance seemed like a cruel thing to do, so that was off the table as well. Besides, from how the two had interacted before, it wasn't like Luz was completely oblivious to everything that happened around her. The girl was smarter than people gave her credit for, and if Amity started lying straight to her face then she'd probably end up getting immediately called out on her chicanery.
Unbeknownst to the young Blight, a door had opened in the ceiling above her.
Placing her back against a locker and sliding down until she was seated on the stone floor, Amity had no idea what to do. Burying her head in her hands, she let out a muffled groan. "Gah, this is all so confusing!"
The door above Amity closed quietly, leaving her alone to her thoughts.
Luz probably wasn't supposed to see that, but she couldn't help but wonder what Amity was looking so down in the dumps about. Plus, wasn't she supposed to be in class by now?
Wait…
Luz was also supposed to be in class, yet here she was messing around in Eda's shortcut room. Checking her phone, Luz saw that class was going to start in just five minutes! Picking a door at random, Luz threw it open and started running as fast as her legs could carry her.
As she sprinted through the halls, Luz hoped that she'd only be a few minutes late to class. Why did her classroom have to be all the way out in the fields of all places? Even though there was pretty much no way she was actually going to make it on time, the less late she was to class, the better.
Rounding a corner, Luz plowed straight into Principal Bump, knocking the both of them to the floor. Scrambling to get to her feet, she began apologizing profusely. "Oh my Titan. I am so sorry, Principal Bump."
Grabbing onto a nearby locker to pull himself up, Bump dusted his robe off before looking down at the young basilisk. "What are you in such a rush for, Miss Noceda?"
Quick, make up a cover story! Luz's brain shouted at her. "Would you believe me If I said I got lost?"
"Normally, I would. One can easily get caught up in the twists and turns of these halls." Bump waited a bit before continuing. "However, given that the class you should be in right now is outside the school, I feel it would be much harder to miss the giant gaggle of students crowded together."
"Rats, I thought that would work," Luz said to herself.
"I wasn't born yesterday, Miss Noceda," the principal replied. "Now, hurry along, but no running."
Nodding in affirmation, Luz speedwalked to her next class.
Bump waited for the Inspector to show. She was supposed to be here at 10:00 sharp, yet it was 10:06 and there was no sign of her. For all the previous inspections, she had been prompt in her arrival, so the sudden tardiness was more than a little suspect. Tapping his foot impatiently, Bump decided to give the Inspector a few more minutes to show. Perhaps she was dealing with more pressing issues? That would make sense. Bump doubted that he could be on time for 20 years straight though, so he supposed that some slack was warranted. On the other hand, though, if he had set up the Paranoratorium just for the Inspector to never show, then he would be mighty peeved.
After even more waiting, the principal moved to re-enter his school, only for the Inspector to finally make their grand entrance just as Bump's hand grazed the door handle. As she stepped out of the swirling mass of blue magic, the Inspector bowed.
"Welcome to Hexside, Inspector," Bump greeted the official, walking back down the steps to accompany her inside his school.
"Greetings, Headmaster," the Inspector replied. Bump thought that was… odd. She had always referred to him by his given name before, so why the sudden change?
"If your school is up to standards," the Inspector continued, "then the Emperor's Coven will graciously continue its funding. If you don't meet our standard, though…"
Bump noticed the implied threat. Forcing a smile, he held the door for the Inspector as they both entered the school proper. Once he was behind her, though, Bump's smile fell. Strange things were afoot at Hexside.
Number One found Hexside quite intriguing. Not because of any of the tasty morsels running about, though. Those things were a snail-bit a dozen, and she'd already had her fill at Glandus just a few hours prior. There was something else, or rather, some one else. A familiar scent clung to the walls of this school. The scent of her kind. One of the students here was not who they claimed to be, and based on how strong the scent was, they were likely still here in the school.
"Pardon the abruptness, Headmaster, but would it be okay if I was to sit in on a class before we go through with the presentation?" Number One inquired.
"I don't see why not," the principal responded, though Number One sensed the hesitation in his voice.
"Splendid," Number One said.
Closing her eyes, she stilled her mind and focused on sensing if any of her kin were close. She'd had the ability to track the location of other nearby basilisks as far back as she could remember. Three and Four had said that it was some type of mutation and that it "invaded their privacy" whenever she used it. Two, conversely, claimed her ability was a gift from the Titan so that she could always find her family.
Oh, Two, you naive fool. He was far too trusting of the witches that had kept him in shackles. The second they put on a veneer of actually caring for him, he latched onto the idea that there was some good in those despicable creatures. What a surprise he was in for when the same witches he thought to be his friends would render him nothing more than a charred corpse when he tried to escape.
When Number One felt a mind respond to her search, she opened her eyes and smiled. "I think I'll join one of the classes out in the fields. I feel some fresh air would do me some good."
"Do you need directions, Inspector?" Number One didn't miss how the principal was shifting on his heels.
"No, thank you. I can find my way by myself. You can return to your duties for now," Number One said, shooing the man away. It was high time she finally met up with another one of her kind after all this time. With a determined gait, she set off for the fields.
So far, Caring for Mythical Creatures had been way more interesting than the one with Ms. Nascimento. If Mr. Livingstone had noticed that Luz had arrived late, he didn't make a big fuss about it, so that was a win in Luz's book. Just when the lesson was getting good, though, Principal Bump came over to the students and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"One second, class," Mr. Livingstone said, before he and Bump walked off to talk in private.
Luz wasn't quite sure what Bump would have to talk with the teacher for, but based on the way that Bump was repeatedly pointing at Luz, it was probably about her. Eventually, the conversation came to an end. Mr. Livingstone returned to his students, resuming his lesson on how to identify and treat different types of necrotic infections, while Bump pulled Luz away from the group.
"Follow me," he said, and Luz followed. As the two got further and further from Hexside, Luz was starting to question why Bump had taken her out of class. Was she in trouble for something? Had he figured out about her meeting the kids from the Detention Track, or was it something else?
"So, are you gonna tell me why we're walking into the middle of nowhere?" Luz finally settled on asking, breaking the silence.
Bump surveyed the area around the two of them. Deciding that they were now sufficiently far away from everyone else, the principal motioned for Luz to stop. Then, the principal suddenly wrapped Luz in a hug, causing the young girl to falter as she tried to figure out what was going on.
"Five, I can't believe I finally found you," Not-Bump said, releasing the hug. "How long have you been hiding as a student here? Have you seen Three or Four since the breakout? Last I saw, they were busy dragging Two to safety."
"Today is literally my first day here, and no, I haven't found Three or Four yet." The lie slipped off Luz's tongue smoothly. She had a feeling that it would be better if the other basilisk, Number One, presumably, didn't know about Tre and Ivy staying with the Bat Queen.
"Well, at least we've found each other," Number One said. "Tell me, when was the last time you've fed?"
"Just the other day, actually. I've worked my way into the family of a powerful witch and have slowly been siphoning magic from her," Luz replied, further entrenching herself in a web of lies.
The other basilisk nodded and smiled. "Well aren't you a fiendish little creature. I knew you would come to reason eventually. Those vermin touting themselves as the chosen of the Titan deserve nothing more than to have their very essence drained from them as they writhe in agony."
That solidified it for Luz: Number One was off her rocker in the worst kind of way.
"Before I found you, I was going to raze this institution by myself," Number One continued, "but now that I know you are here as well, we can divide and conquer. Return to your class and act as if nothing is out of the ordinary. When those snotty little witchlings have finished their presentation, I will strike out at the headmaster. Once those miscreants start running about, that is when you shall shed your disguise and join me. Together, we shall have our revenge!"
Before Luz could even respond to Number One's mad ramblings, the greater basilisk had already assumed the form of the Inspector. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a presentation to sit through."
"Principal Bump! Principal Bump! Principal Bump!" Luz yelled as she ran into the witch's office..
Bump looked up from his desk. "Yes, Miss Noceda?"
Not stopping to catch her breath, Luz began relaying her message as fast as she could. "The inspector lady! She's actually the basilisk that attacked Glandus, and she's gonna —"
"Attack Hexside as well. Yes, I've already figured that out," Bump finished for her.
"Oh," Luz said bluntly.
"I'm not stupid, Miss Noceda," her principal said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to finish locking down the school before the impostor realizes that the Paranoratorium is completely empty."
Walking over to a blank section on the wall, Bump cast a spell circle before slamming his palms against the wall. A series of runes and symbols emanated from his hands as the school's defense system activated, causing familiar red wards to appear from every archway and cover every door.
"There," Bump said with finality. "The intruder is now locked inside the Paranoratorium and she can't hurt anyone."
Luz was a little apprehensive to start celebrating, though. "Okay, but now what are we gonna do? It's not like we can just leave her in there so that she'll slowly starve to death! That would be inhumane!"
Bump paused to think about that. "Yes, I suppose we are in quite the predicament." He then turned the question on Luz. "Given that we are dealing with one of your kind, what do you suggest we do?"
"Well, we're definitely not going to Stanley Galaxy her," Luz responded. "Trying to reform a bad guy through the power of love and forgiveness doesn't work when the bad guy is hell bent on consuming everyone's magic. I doubt the promise of 'good vibes and friendship' can make her change her mind. Although, there are other ways we can solve this problem. More… physical ways."
"Are you suggesting that we try to fight the intruder head on?" Bump asked.
"Not exactly," Luz replied with a mischievous grin, "but trust me. I've got a plan."