Luz and Varian spent hours looking through their notes on the portal door and both diaries to figure out how to remake the portal. After the dance at the Coven Day Parade, Emperor Belos made a special announcement that The Day of Unity will be happening in a year when an eclipse from both the human realm and the demon realm collide together. Every demon and witch will journal to the head of the isles and then inherit a world free of wild magic. Hunter told Varian that he would look into what Belos had planned. But it's been a week and Varian heard nothing from Hunter.
Varian kept waiting and waiting for a letter from Hunter but nothing showed up. He kept flipping through the pages of Demanitus's diary trying to find any clues but he found nothing. Ruddiger suddenly comes in through the window with a letter from Hunter in his mouth. Varian took the letter and read it, Hunter couldn't find much because Belos kept his office locked tight but he did find two incantations on a small piece of paper with the same symbols on the scroll piece. Varian pulled it out from the envelope and looked it over; he saw the symbols for the sun and moon above the incantations.
Before he could read them, Luz grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room. "We're missing Lilith's congratulation party for her new job! Come on!" Luz shouted.
Varian had completely forgotten about the party for Lilith. She had recently gotten a new job as an assistant curator for the Supernatural Museum of History. Varian and Luz managed to make it to the living room but they only just missed Hooty's toast to Lilith. Varian went to look for Lilith to congratulate her for her new job but he found her outside talking to another witch who was being a little egotistic. The woman only came to the party just to make sure Lilith wasn't causing any trouble and to bring her stuff from her old office. The witch used her whip to lasso a griffin and took off on it.
"I'm guessing you know her," Varian asked Lilith.
"That was Flora D'esplora, bad-girl historian, celebrity, and my former mentor in the Emperor's Coven," Lilith answered.
Flora managed to get under Lilith's skin, making her question her life. Lilith complained that she never got to do anything exciting besides desk work. At the same time, Flora went out on adventures, taming wild creatures and eating mummy jerky. Lilith vowed that she would be just as exciting as Flora, by coming up with an exhibit that'll knock the Titan's socks off. She marched back into the house determined to prove Flora wrong. Varian wasn't sure if he should be worried or support Lilith.
Varian went back to reading the diary until he found an entry that shocked him, Demanitus arrived in the Boiling Isles around the same time as Philip. He went to the living room to find Luz who had finished looking at Philip's diary about the Deadwardian Era and his quest for someone called the Collector. The only time Varian had heard of that name was from the cravings in the tower where King was found. Eda thought that this Collector sounded a bit like a jerk. Luz figured that the Collector could help her and Varian make a working portal.
"Well, did Philip ever mention meeting Demanitus?" Varian asked.
That got Luz's attention from her slump. Varian opened the diary to the page where Demanitus had somehow arrived in the Boiling Isles in the Deadwardian Era. They got to the part where Demanitus saved Philip from two demons that were bullying him. Luz got completely impatient and wanted to try and find a way to go back in time and talk to him. Luz suddenly got a great idea, she asked Eda if time magic was a thing. Eda told her that it wasn't a thing but there was something kind of similar.
Eda pulled out a book called History's Top 10 Plot Holes from the shelf. "Back in the day, I was a bit of an urban-legend junkie. Twigfoot, Lenderman, possums..."
"Those are real." Luz interrupted.
"Yeah. Sure kid. Anyway, there are stories about these things called time pools. Mythical puddles that act as windows into the past. But they're never in the same spot twice. Me and Lily used to search for them. She'd say I forced her into it, but I think she had more fun than me." Eda explained.
This gave Luz a brilliant idea; she dragged Varian to the room where Lilith was working on her first exhibit for the museum. She was thinking of an exhibit on Deadwardian balusters just to prove that she was a bad-girl historian like Flora. Both Luz and Varian weren't sure about the exhibit, but Luz already thought Lilith was cool, and not just because she called her "Cool Aunt Lilith" in her journal. Luz opened the book to the page on time pols and showed it to Lilith. She suggested that Lilith can make an exhibit on time pools while she and Varian talk to Philip and Demanitus about the portal.
"I did cobble together a device to find these with Eda. It should be in the box Flora returned to me. But it was faulty. It needed more power than I could ever give it." Lilith explained.
Luz immediately got an idea then she ran out of the room to grab something. Both Varian and Lilith could hear clattering followed by a loud crash before Luz returned with the key. "Would Titan Blood do the trick?" Luz asked.
Lilith, Varian, and Luz set out to find the time pools with her device. Luz cracked the glass part of the key a bit so a few drops of blood fell into the tube part of Lilith's device. Varian made sure to wrap the key in a piece of fabric so they wouldn't lose anymore. They spent the whole day and night looking for the time pools. By the next morning, Lilith was certain that they were getting closer, and sure enough, she was right. Lilith broke off a piece of tree bark and then placed it in the device which made the bark turn wrinkled.
"Ha! Exactly what I thought. These are wrinkling oaks." Lilith stated, excitedly.
"Um, these trees don't look wrinkled." Varian pointed out.
"That's because something's keeping them locked in time," Lilith answered.
She double-checked her calculations before concluding that the time pools should be at the shore in front of them but there was nothing there. Lilith was sure that she was right, she tripped over a rock and then kicked some sand in an angry fit. Varian kicked a stone but suddenly, it just disappeared in the sand which left ripples. While Lilith was going on a panic rant, Varian stuck his head in the same spot where the rock fell through. His head poked out to somewhere that looked like a prehistoric era of the Boiling Isles.
Varian pulled his head out of the ground then he turned to Luz and Lilith to tell them that they had found the time pools. Lilith looked shocked but she was grateful that she wasn't wrong. She dove her head into the same spot Varian was and saw a creature that turned to stone when it fell asleep. She pulled her head out of the time pool, Luz marked all of them with sticks to point out their spots. "A Stone Sleeper from the Hecktaceous period. Did you know they have a ticklish spot behind their ear?" Lilith asked, excitedly.
Luz wasn't even paying attention to what Lilith was saying, she was poking her head through the time pools trying to find Philip's timeline. Lilith stuck her head in another one only to get hit by herself from ten minutes ago. Varian stuck his head into a time pool that showed him Bonesborough but it was smaller. He spotted a witch carrying a basket of clothes to wash. He asked her what era this was and she replied that this era was the Deadwardian Era. Varian quickly pulled his head out of the time pool and told Lilith and Luz that he found the right one.
Before they dove in, Lilith reminded them that they all needed to get out before the tide came in or they could be trapped in that timeline and cause a butterfly effect on the time stream. Lilith shook off her worry and put on a confident adventure face to be a bad girl historian. Varian, Luz, and Lilith dove into the time pool that led to the Deadwardian Era. Lilith stole a hat and scarf from the woman's basket to hide her hair while Luz took a helmet from a skeleton knight to hide her ears. Varian put his goggles over his face then he pulled up his hoodie from his cloak to cover his ears.
Lilith told them this era was called the Savage Ages which was before Belos came into power and banished wild magic so these witches could be dangerous. But they were anything but dangerous, everyone in Bonesborough was using multiple magic to help each other or enjoy themselves. "This doesn't look dangerous. This looks awesome. Why did Belos want to banish wild magic in the first place?" Luz asked Lilith.
"Well, the Titan supposedly doesn't like it," Lilith answered.
While Lilith looked around the village over almost every little thing, Varian and Luz asked around about Philip. But they got the same answer from everyone they talked to, no one had seen him. They were about to give up when they suddenly heard a commotion coming from behind a few buildings. They saw two demons messing with a guy by tossing his journal in the air like a game of monkey in the middle. The poor guy had one leg in a splint, he got pushed to the ground by one of the demons, demanding their snails. The guy promised that he'd get them their snails after he finished his mission.
But the demons would not listen, instead, one of them summoned fire and dangled the journal over it threatening to burn it. Seconds before they could burn the journal someone tackled the demon to the ground and then snatched the journal from them. The other demon charged at the man but he moved out of the way causing the demon to crash into the other demon. Both of them ran away in embarrassment but gave the men death glares. The stranger helped the injured man up from the ground and then handed them the journal.
"Thank you. I don't think I've met a witch who was willing to help a human like me. I'm Philip Wittebane." The man spoke.
Luz and Varian gasped, they had found Philip which meant that the guy who had saved him was Lord Demanitus. The three of them walked out of hiding and Luz tried to talk to Philip but he snapped at her thinking that Luz was going to make fun of him. Demanitus told Philip to at least hear them out. Philip reluctantly agreed to listen; Luz explained that she and Varian knew what it was like to be far away from home and that maybe they could help each other out. Philip accepted their help, and even Demanitus joined them in finding the Collector.
They headed out of town then Philip started to lead the way to the Collector. He was limping most of the way but Demanitus gave him a staff to help him walk. Luz came up with a fake story for their reason to find the Collector. They reached a cave, Philip reached into his bag for a torch but Luz pulled out a light glyph and lit the cave up a bit. Philip was impressed with Luz's trick and so was Demanitus. "I thought I was the only one who used picto-glyphs," Philip stated.
"You use glyphs too?" Luz asked before handing Philip a copy of the light glyph.
"How else could I have survived here? Plant growth, ice, fire. Took years to find them. Almost as if the world wanted to hide them from me." Philip answered then he drew the light glyph in his journal.
Luz was gushing about how she had taught Philip something new. Philip used the light glyph to light the way as they continued walking through the cave. Philip praised Luz calling her a warrior and a scholar. Varian took out a vial that glowed to give a little bit more light, Demanitus seemed impressed to see another alchemist. Varian blushed from the praise he got from Demanitus. When they reached a certain point in the tunnel, Philip lit the cave well enough to draw a bigger and different kind of glyph.
"What is this?" Varian asked.
"A shortcut. To the Collector." Philip answered.
With that, he activated the glyph then a blinding light surrounded them and the next thing they knew, they were somewhere else. Varian saw a giant ray of light coming from a hole, he looked out and saw that they were inside the head of the Titan itself. Lilith freaked out hearing that they were inside the Titan's head since this was sacred ground and no one was allowed inside it. Philip understood now why no one would accompany him. Every legend that he had heard tells that The Collector lies here behind that door.
He stopped then he noticed something was off with the door. The mechanism that locked the door was mostly done like someone had gotten here before him. He tried to walk more but his injured leg gave out and he fell to the ground. Luz told him that she, Varian, and Lilith could check out the door while Demanitus tended to Philip's wound. Just as Lilith touched the door, it opened by itself then something grabbed Lilith by the waist and dragged her into the room. Luz and Varian called out to Lilith who was screaming in fear.
Demanitus and Philip rushed inside with Varian and Luz only to find a dark creature holding Lilith hostage. The creature looked at Demanitus with a wicked grin. "So, the deceiver came to this realm? Must be my lucky day." the creature spoke in a sinister tone.
Demanitus's face turned pale white; he knew who that monster was. "You know this beast?" Philip asked.
But before Demanitus could say a word, Luz fired a fire glyph at the monster which made it drop Lilith. Lilith and Luz ran for cover as the creature tried to attack them. Demanitus pulled Varian out of the creature's blind rage before he got hurt. The creature pulled something out of the ground, a circular object with a crescent moon symbol. "There you are." the creature hissed.
Philip gasped "That's The Collector! That creature can not have them!" he shouted.
Varian's powers started coming again but this time, he summoned a black rock that hit the creature straight at the face. The creature howled in pain and dropped the Collector, thankfully Demanitus caught it just in time. They all ran out of the room before that creature could catch them. Philip started drawing out the glyph but he needed more time to finish it and the creature was coming. Demanitus started fiddling with the door lock trying to lock the creature in that same room. Varian helped him get the lock back to normal and then they shut the door before the creature could reach them.
Philip used his glyph to teleport them out of the head and back out into the forest. "Ok. I think we lost the monster. Whatever that monster was." Luz said.
"That was no monster. But an old enemy of mine. I thought I had gotten rid of them but seeing them here. I fear they might try to take over this realm. I never meant to cause you and your aunt harm Luzura." Demanitus apologized.
Philip looked a little confused, he still thought Demanitus was a witch. Demanitus told Philip that he was from Ancient Corona or the human realm and he had no idea how he had gotten to the Boiling Isles in the first place. Philip asked him if he would want to tag along with him on his quest, not just for company but so they can work together to get back home. Luz wanted to ask Philip about how The Collector was going to help him build a portal to the Human Realm. But Demanitus told him that if his old enemy wanted the Collector then it might be best if they kept the Collector hidden from people who would abuse their power.
Luz understood Demanitus's concern but she was a little disappointed not to get any information on how to build a portal. They still had a little time left before the tide came in so this gave Lilith more time to learn about the Deadwardian balusters. When they returned to their timeline, they returned to the Owl House around sunset. While they were gone, Eda found closure with her father after twenty years ago when the Owl Beast hurt him so badly that he couldn't make a new palismen.
"Hey nerds! How was your nerd quest? You find those dead nerds?" Eda asked, jokingly.
"Laying it on a little thick Eda. But yeah, we found Philip and Demanitus. Best day of my life!" Varian exclaimed.