The Angel of the Owl House
Season 2: The Human Realm
Chapter 3: Gatherings and Gales
Following the battle with the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel, and Luz's successful completion of her trial for Eberwolf and her rebels within the Beast-Keeping Coven, Luz and her companions had found themselves being towed by the Selkidomus they'd saved to a massive island made from a Titan's arm, which was hidden within the treacherous and normally impassable Maelstrom Strait, surrounded by whirlpools and a massive cyclone wall. It was only thanks to the Selkidomus that they were able to get through it safely.
Valtora gave some instructions to Eber, who passed them onto the Selkidomus, leading the helpful beast to swim to the Island's south-facing beaches and pull the ship ashore. It was a bit of a rough ride for the people on board, but the Loving Leopard was soon fully beached.
"Right, everybody disembark. Luz, I'll need some help from you to set up a rudimentary dry dock so I can get to work on repairing the ship. If we're quick and use magic, the repairs should be done before midnight, and we can get home by morning." Valtora ordered, grabbing a rope ladder and unfurling it down to the ground.
Viney, Salty, and his crew immediately climbed down, while Luz flew down with King and Eber on her shoulders, leaving Valtora to show off her athleticism by just leaping off the boat and landing on the sandy beach below.
Valtora took a look at the frozen over holes in the ship's hull, then examined the damaged propellers, before smiling; "Yep! I was right; the explosion of the Frigate didn't do too much damage; it just severed part of the rudder chain and some of the bolts holding on the propeller assembly so it can't turn properly. The cuts are clean though, so I should be able to weld them back together! We'll be home by morning!"
"Why not just camp here tonight and sail in the morning?" Rasiel asked, "Surely its safer than sailing at night?"
"Aye, but I swore to my Meesha that I'd have Viney back home so we can spend a day together as a family before she goes back to school. My wife has a rare day off from the hospital, so I don't want to ruin that!" Valtora said seriously, acting as if it were life or death.
No one could question the Beast-Keeper's love for her wife (considering she literally named her ship after her), so they decided not to comment. Instead, everyone but Luz and Valtora began to explore the beach. While they were exploring, Luz helped construct a dry dock by slowly growing trees to prop the ship upright, then create walkways of vines and bark planks so Valtora could get everywhere she needed to both examine the ship and began patching it up. Valtora briefly boarded the ship again, then came back with a box of carpentry tools, mechanic tools, and a blow torch… or at least, items that looked like they had the same functions as those tools. The "blow torch" was actually a sleepy looking lizard with a tongue made of fire, while things like the wood saw were made from the jaw bones and teeth of some unknown monster.
"Right! Leave the cutting and carving to me, Luz! I just need you to grow more wood for me to make patches for the hull, and maybe use some of that flame and light beam stuff of yours to help weld the metal pieces back together! Think you can handle that?" Valtora asked.
"Aye Aye, Captain!" Luz saluted with a tired smile. She honestly could use more of a rest after the fight, but she wasn't going to complain.
As she and Valtora got to work, Salty and his crew came over to help too, cleaning off demonic barnacles from the ship's hull, swabbing the deck, and assisting in carving the wood Luz grew into usable planks. They even began to sing sea shanties, and roped Luz into singing along, filling the evening air with song.
Viney played with the Mother Selkidomus and her baby not far away, so she could assist her mother if need be, while King, Rasiel, and Eber continued to explore the beach until they were satisfied they'd largely seen everything. Eber used Beast-Keeping magic to mimic the echolocation abilities of bats and similar beasts, allowing her to detect things from greater distances, so they didn't actually need to see everything to know what was present. After a while, they decided to head in-land (after letting the others know), and Eber carried King on her back as she ran full-pelt around the Titan Arm Island.
Eber prided herself on her agility, and at full speed when using her own Wild Heart Spell (which made her look far more like a Dire Wolf), she could run from one of the Boiling Isles' palms to the other in just five hours. This Titan was slightly smaller and it was only one arm, so it only took an hour and a half of running and echolocation for the Beast-Keeping Coven Head to have mentally mapped out 90% of the Island.
The upper part of the arm to the south east was almost entirely underwater, and was now a large reef, while the surface sections were all beach. The rest of the upper arm that was above sea-level was largely covered in grasslands, flowers, and sand dunes, making it a rather beautiful place, ideal for vacations. At the elbow, the Titan's forearm began to slowly ascend upwards, creating an incline like a mildly steep hill (though thanks to the size of the titan, the top of this incline was still several kilometres above the sea). The base of the hill was grassland, turning rocky and almost mountainous the higher it got. Then there was the hand of the Titan, which unlike the Boiling Isles' palm deserts, was covered in a rainforest-like biome, with tall, snow tipped finger mountains surrounding it.
There was no sign of civilisation or sapient life anywhere on the island, with only wild animals and a few unintelligent Beast Demons roaming around. The island's isolation from the rest of the world by the Maelstrom Strait had kept Witches and intelligent Demons from settling in the place, and the lack of any obvious predators had resulted in the island's wildlife being fairly docile. There was also apparently no Primordial Wellspring, so the unintelligent demons on the island hadn't evolved and gained sapience like those on the Boiling Isles.
As Eber returned to the beach with King (who'd been fairly quiet) and Rasiel, she spoke with the Angel Spirit.
"Titan Island isolated, no dangers, only Selkidomus get us here… perfect place for Rebel Den!" Eber said, grinning widely.
"It truly is ideal as a hideout! There's no land route, the sea route is blocked by whirlpools, and the sky route is blocked by the cyclone wall. We only got here with the Selkidomus' help, so there's no way the Emperor or his forces will be able to get here." Rasiel agreed. "It'll be a perfect refuge for people fleeing the Emperor too."
"Great idea! But won't it be tough getting here from the Boiling Isles and back? Valtora's ship isn't very big so we can't bring that many people, and I don't think the Selkidomus could tow anything bigger." King pointed out.
Rasiel waved off his concern; "That's not a problem. We can just build a Teleportation Circle."
King and Eber both stared at him in shock; "Y-You can make something like that!?" King exclaimed.
"Well I can't, not without magic, but I can teach Luz how to do it. They're a bit difficult to construct, but still easier than the Panacea Mirror." Rasiel said casually, "They're quite common in Angel society. I assume from your reactions that they're rarer here in the Demon Realm?"
Eber nodded; "Portals very rare. Emperor only one can make, but only small. Transport between places in Boiling Isles."
Rasiel hummed; "I guess that makes sense. Teleportation Circles as I know them require angelic alchemy and Harmonic Synchronisation, which is only achievable through Choir Magic."
"Okay, I understood maybe half of those words." King said.
"Choir Magic is the angelic equivalent to Bardic magic. While Witches and Demons prefer to use instruments, Angels prefer their voices. We also harmonise with each other to make the spells more effective. Choir Magic is the basis of all our transportation and portal magic. It's possible Belos is the only one to make them due to him being an angel too, or he could be using a different, Demon Realm method that he's keeping to himself." Rasiel explained.
Eber and King just nodded along, and soon they found themselves back at the beach. It had gotten dark now, but by the look of the Loving Leopard, repairs were almost complete. They'd patched all the holes in the hull with new planks, and fixed both the rudder chain and propeller, and were now finishing up repairs by welding a metal plate over a hole in the furnace.
"Hey guys!" Luz waved to them, "We're almost done here so we'll be sailing home in about twenty minutes! How did your explorations go?"
King smiled; "Great! There's not a lot here, but Eberwolf and Rasiel have a plan!"
Luz tilted her head curiously, and since Valtora had the last repairs well in hand, the young angel joined Salty's Crew and Viney in sitting with the returning explorers and listening to what they had to say. Luz was excited by the idea of having a secret rebel base that only they can reach, while Viney was interested to see if there were any animal species native to the island that couldn't be found on the Boiling Isles. However Viney did have one concern.
"Creating a Teleportation Circle would be awesome, but wouldn't it also be a risk? Part of what makes this place so great is that no one can get here without the Selkidomus' help. If we make a circle, won't anyone be able to come along and use it?" Viney asked.
"Technically, anyone could stow away on your mother's ship to get here too. Besides, we wouldn't even need to hide the circle; only an angel's Choir Magic can open it. That means only Luz and Belos, assuming he's capable of singing AND knows the right song." Rasiel countered.
Luz hummed; "It sounds ideal! So how would we make it?"
Rasiel held up three fingers; "Aside from you and your magic, we'd need three things; Harmonic Crystals created through angelic alchemy, a hard stone base to carve the circle in, and an outdoor space big enough. The latter two shouldn't be too hard, and the Harmonic Crystals are finicky but doable. It would take maybe a day to make them, carve the circles, and set up the spell, and that's really taking your time."
He then explained the process in a bit more detail. Firstly, the Teleportation Circles had to come in pairs and could ONLY move things between itself and its linked circle. It also needed to be outside, as otherwise the people using it would smash through any ceilings. The spell circle carved onto the stone base (which was to make sure the circles didn't wear out too fast) were the anchor for the spell, and four Harmonic Crystals would be placed at key points on the circle; with three smaller crystals recording the X, Y, and Z axis coordinates of the circle and the fourth, larger crystal acting as the master crystal that harmonised the others. Once a circle and its crystals were in place, Luz would have to use Bardic/Choir magic to sing a melody of her choosing, which the Harmonic Crystals would synchronise with. If she did this again with the second circle, the two circles would be synchronised with each other, and whenever Luz sang the necessary melody with Choir magic, anything on the activated circle would be warped to the other one, along with Luz herself.
It sounded complicated to Luz and her friends, but Rasiel was confident that it wouldn't be too hard for her, especially after the multi-level process of creating the Panacea Mirror. To angels, Teleportation Circles really were minor things, especially compared to Portals between Realms (which even Rasiel had no idea how to make); the Ancient Seraphim compared them to the difference between a Demon Realm Cart and Camila's car, or a powered Dingy to a full ship.
Since the circle would need to be set up on both sides, Luz was tempted to start work on it right away, but Valtora, who'd just finished the last of the repairs, came over and said; "It's best to talk it over with Head Witch Darius, and the CATTs leaders first. They'd have the final say, and would want to decide where the circles were built."
Luz and the others couldn't argue with that, so they resolved to wait until Eber had spoken to the others before doing anything.
"Anyway, the Loving Leopard is now seaworthy and can sail under her own power again! All aboard so we can get home!" Valtora grinned.
Everyone cheered and immediately used the rope ladder to climb back up onto the ship. Luz used vines to once again connect them to the Selkidomus for the return journey to through the strait, then banished the trees and vines she'd used to make the dry dock. The Mother Selkidomus then pulled them off the beach and they were once again sailing the oceans. The trip back through the strait was as rough as the last time, and Luz once again put up a barrier just in case, but thankfully they got through it safe and sound, and as soon as they were out of range of the whirlpools, Luz undid the vines so the ship could sail under its own power and the Selkidomus and its baby were free.
However all the barriers, fighting, and help repairing the ship had really drained Luz by this point, so Viney basically picked the tiny Arch-Angel up and slung her over her muscular shoulders before heading below deck to put her to sleep in her Mama's unused bunk. King went with them and curled up beside Luz, both completely asleep within seconds.
Back up on deck, Eber spoke to the Selkidomus and arranged for her to return to the Simmering Shoals to await their return, since they'd need her to get back through the strait at least one more time. The Selkidomus would remain at her old den for three days, and if they hadn't returned within that time, she and her baby would return to the Titan Arm Island alone, taking refuge there and leaving them without their way through the whirlpools.
After that, Viney and Valtora both turned in for the night themselves, trusting Salty and his crew to sail the ship under Eber's supervision, as she needed little sleep and Salty and his crew were used to long voyages through the night. By the time they all awoke, they were only a few minutes away from docking back in Bonesborough, the sun rising slowly to the east. Valtora took over sailing, and brought the Loving Leopard into port at the same exact dock as she'd used before leaving. Luz cast an illusion over Eberwolf to make her look like King again, just in case any of the Emperor's Scouts were around, then disembarked with King, Eber, and Rasiel, leaving Viney and the others onboard.
"Thanks for all your help, Viney and Valtora! You too Salty!" Luz said politely. "What will you guys do now?"
"Arrr, with Cap'n Valtora's permission, me crew and I will linger. If ye be sailing back to the island later, we'll be there to help!" Salty said, his crew of sailors nodding behind him.
"Viney and I will be spending the day with my Meesha, but I've already given Salty permission to use my ship to take you back to the island if you decide to sail there again today." Valtora replied, before adding; "I'll also talk to her about the CATTs. She's on board with my helping Head Witch Eber's rebellion, so she should be okay with that too."
Viney nodded, then whispered to Luz; "And I'll take your advice and talk to Emira. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to call her while my Mom is putting the moves on Mama." she said with a cheeky wink, making Luz giggle.
Luz then asked; "You two won't be in trouble for beating up the scouts, will you?"
Eber shook her head; "Eber write letter; give permission to Sea Friend to deal with Selkidomus as she want. Sea Friend told them, they attack anyway. Scouts defy Eber's order, big trouble."
"Oh! So you'll give Valtora written orders to back up what she told the scouts! Then if they get mad, she can say they attacked her despite her having permission!" Luz grinned, remembering the story Viney had told them the previous night while sailing.
Eber nodded with a mischievous smirk; "Scouts deserted too. BIG big trouble. No problem from them."
"Perfect! Well we better get back home! Thanks again for everything guys! Have fun with your Mama and Wife!" the young angel said, beginning to walk away while waving. King, Eber, and Rasiel waved as well, and the group went their separate ways.
Luz eagerly took to the skies and flew to the Owl House, where Hooty greeted them.
"Hi Guys! It's great to see you! Hoot!" Hooty said cheerfully, extending from his door to greet them.
"It's great to see you too, Hoo-Whoa!" Luz gasped, looking at the House Demon; "What happened to you!?"
Hooty was looking rough; he had bruises and angry red swellings all over him. "Oh, this? Nothing much, I just went on an awesome adventure with Lulu! I took on some Fire Bees!"
Eber shuddered; "The Bird Worm scares Eber."
"He has that effect on everyone, you get used to it." Rasiel replied.
"Who the heck is Lulu?" King asked.
"That would be me."
Lilith poked her head out the living room window; "Hootsifer and I had a bit of a misadventure yesterday. Come on in, Raine is making breakfast and Eda is still trying to wake up, so I'll tell you all about it while we wait, then you can tell us about your trip."
Luz and King both felt their stomachs rumble at the mention of breakfast and happily ran inside, Luz stopping only to pet Hooty and apply some healing magic to his wounds, much to the Demon's happiness. The kids ran right through into the kitchen, while Rasiel and Eber followed behind at a slower pace. Rasiel went to reclaim his body, which was still sat on the couch where he'd left it, and scowled when he saw make-up had been applied to his face and a jaunty noble lady's hat had been placed on his head.
"Do I even want to know?" Rasiel asked with a sigh.
Lilith chuckled; "After the misadventure yesterday, Hooty wanted to have a tea party and I couldn't refuse him. You might have been roped in as "Lady Lord Raspberry of Caplacier." If it makes you feel any better, that eyeshadow is definitely your shade."
Eber snickered and Rasiel groaned; "Fantastic." he said in a deadpan, merging with his body again and reanimating it. He stood and stretched, then began heading to the bathroom; "I'm going to go and "De-Fabulous" myself before Luz and King see me like this and get any ideas."
He disappeared from the room and Lilith and Eber exchanged grins, then headed into the kitchen. They arrived to see Raine (wearing a "Kiss the Cook" apron from the Human Realm) being hugged by Luz and King.
"I'm glad you're both home safe and sound. Your Mom was very worried when she tried to call you last night and found she couldn't. She'd forgotten the range limit." Raine said, keeping their tone pleasant so the two wouldn't think they were in trouble.
"It turned out to be a tougher day than we expected. The Golden Goof accidentally blew up his own ship!" Luz smirked.
"But we'll tell you that later! King want num-nums!" the little Demon demanded.
Raine chuckled; "Sit at the table and breakfast will be served in a moment, your majesty." they said with a smirk.
King and Luz took their seats, and Lilith and Eber sat across from them. Raine dished them all up some Orc Bacon, Griffin Eggs, and slices of Ghoast, then sat with a mug of Apple Blood (the diluted, soft variety) as Lilith told them about her adventure with Hooty. Raine had spent the previous day talking logistics with Darius, and Eda had decided to go back to selling human junk and potions, leaving Lilith with nothing to do. She'd wanted to do something to help the cause and begin redeeming herself to Eda and the rest of the family, so Lilith had decided to brew a Scrying Potion that could be used to spy on a place rather than a person, letting them see inside the Emperor's Castle (and since it wasn't technically Oracle Magic, they didn't need to worry about Belos' angelic immunity to it).
Things had gone well at first, with Hooty following Lilith because he'd wanted to help, though Lilith thought he was keeping an eye on her for Eda. Determined to prove she was trustworthy and useful, Lilith had been a little too liberal with her magic while gathering the ingredients (as she hadn't wanted to waste their limited funds on buying them, or take any from Eda's stores), and used up all the magic Luz had given her, leaving her nearly powerless right after she'd angered some Fire Bees. Hooty had come to her rescue, and the two had become friends. The Scrying Potion had also been completed, and one bottle each had been prepared for Luz, King, Eda, and Raine, to use whenever they wished.
"Awesome work, Lilith!" Luz praised, happily accepting the bottle of purple potion, "We can use these when we need to see the Emperor's plans! But how do they work without Oracle Magic?"
"Unlike normal scrying done with spirits, this potion works by creating a one-way magic mirror between the user and their desired location. It's sort of like making a window that connects wherever you want, and you can see through it but nothing on the other side can see it or you." Lilith explained happily.
Luz was amazed, while King, still having his issues with Lilith, just took his bottle with a muttered; "I will accept your offering."
Once Lilith's story was done, Rasiel returned (sans make-up and hat) and Raine filled them in on what they'd gotten up to with Darius, which was largely discussing their forces, where they were based, what they'd achieved, and what their current objectives were. It was largely logistics and organisational talk, and only Eberwolf and Rasiel had any real interest; Luz tried to pay attention but found her mind wandering, while King had completely zoned out. Raine didn't blame them though; they'd been bored too!
It was then that Eda arrived, groggy and still half-asleep. She didn't register anyone around her at first, but then Luz and King both beamed at her.
"Morning Mom!" they said together.
Eda blinked, then her eyes widened as she was suddenly completely awake. "Kids!" she greeted happily, hugging the two; "You're back! Aw man, the Empty Nest Syndrome hits hard when you're not here at night! How'd it go with the Selkidomus and the Emperor's stooges? Did you do good?" she asked, after kissing the tops of their heads.
"Yeah! Luz and I whooped their butts!" King said proudly.
"It was really tough though! And we made an awesome discovery! Listen to this…" Luz nodded eagerly, before going into a full account of what had happened once they reached the Simmering Shoals. Eda, Lilith, and Raine were extremely proud to hear that not only had they saved the Selkidomus and her baby, but also defeated the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel! They all made sure to tell them so too, making King preen at the praise while Luz blushed and squirmed in her seat, feeling shy over their repeated compliments. But then there was the discovery of the Titan Arm Island, and Eber's idea to make the place their home base, on top of Rasiel's idea for a Teleportation Circle to get them there.
"Seriously!?" Eda exclaimed, "You found an undiscovered Titan!?"
"No one has ever breached the Maelstrom Strait; there hasn't been a single record of someone surviving it! This is the discovery of the century!" Lilith added excitedly.
"And it would provide us with the ultimate safe house! Even if we lost the rebellion completely, we could resettle there and start a new life entirely! This could be just what we need!" Raine grinned, "Hold on, let me call Darius; he'll want to hear this!"
Raine pulled out their scroll and called the Abomination Coven Head, who immediately promised to rush over from the Bonesborough safehouse he was staying at. He was there in minutes, panting as he rushed through Hooty's door and into the Owl House.
He took one look at Luz and King and said; "Tell me more about this island."
"I can do you one better and show you!" Luz grinned, lifting the bottle of Scrying Potion. "King and Eber saw more of the island than I did, so they can use this to show you it!"
Eber barked in approval, and Eda grinned; "Great idea, Owlet! Here." she grabbed a large clean dish and placed it on the table, "Pour it in here!"
Luz obediently uncorked the bottle and poured the purple liquid into the dish, after which Eberwolf closed her eyes and focused on the places she wanted to show, before dipping a claw into the centre of the potion. The surface of the potion rippled and showed the Titan Arm Island as Eber had first seen it from the Loving Leopard. The group who'd yet to see it oohed and ahhed in amazement as Eber continued to show them different views of the island's different regions, until the potion ran out of strength and the images disappeared.
"Marvellous! This is perfect! I propose we begin work to establish a Home Base on this Island immediately!" Darius declared, smiling wide.
Eda, Raine, and Eber (the other three leaders of their rebel alliance) all agreed in an instant, then Darius turned to Luz and King; "Excellent work you two! I don't offer praise lightly, but completing your task, humbling the Little Prince, finding some sailors to be our new recruits, AND discovering a perfect location for us to set up a safe place to live away from the Emperor? You do good work! I'm starting to almost believe the Titan really does favour you both!"
Luz and King exchanged knowing grins; Darius and Eber hadn't been told the truth about King yet, so they had no idea how accurate Darius' words had been.
With it now being decided that a new base would be established on the island, the four leaders of the CATTs (no matter how much Darius disliked the name) began to discuss how to handle it. It involved a lot of technical talk about supplies and construction and logistics that Luz and King found boring, so Eda (who also found it boring) tasked Lilith with handling her part in the meeting and took the kids off with Rasiel to begin work on the Teleportation Circle.
Since they needed a sturdy and secure place under the open sky, and one that not just anyone could wander into, Eda suggested they set it up on the top of the Owl House's stone tower. Rasiel inspected the place and deemed it sufficient, then began to teach Luz how to carve the circle. It didn't take long to carve thanks to Luz's light beams (empowered with a little of the fire glyph's destruction aspect) and her uncanny ability to draw perfect circles, meaning they were able to swiftly move down to the basement lab to begin work on transmuting the Harmonic Crystals. That was a complex task that required a lot of alchemical processes, angelic magic, and some moderately uncommon minerals that Eda thankfully had in her stores, and creating a full set of eight crystals, four for each of the two circles, which took Luz the better part of the morning. Eda had spent that time teaching King some more of her own potions craft, which the little Titan enjoyed greatly, even if they couldn't do anything too flashy in case they disrupted the angels at work.
After the crystals were complete, Luz finished setting up the Owl House Teleportation Circle. It was actually a new experience for her to cast traditional Choir Magic after being so used to Bardic Magic, but it was an interesting experience! The three smaller crystals floated in a triangular formation around the teleportation circle as Luz sang a melody to the larger crystal, which floated in the centre, and once she'd finished, the crystals disappeared into the circle itself, which began to glow softly, awaiting the completion of its partner circle.
With one circle complete, Luz, Eda, and King went on a field trip to complete the second one. They grabbed some lunch in Bonesborough and then headed to the docks, where Salty was happy to take them out to the Simmering Shoals again. As they prepared for the journey journey, King showed off his glyph combos to his amazed and very proud Mom, while Luz called Amity, Willow, and Gus to fill them in on what was happening since she'd only sent them brief texts of explanation so far. All of them were eager to see the Island, and Amity was especially missing her. The lavender-haired girl had also had some news to share with Luz too;
"You won't believe it, but Viney called Emira this morning and asked her to meet her in town! She was having breakfast with her Mothers at some cafe or something, and wanted Emira to join her!" Amity gossiped, her smile clear in the sound of her voice. "And guess what happened next!"
"Viney asked her out." Luz said knowingly.
"She did! Emira came home maybe half an hour ago and was freaking out! She kept squealing into her pillow! It was great! I got to tease her for being hopelessly in love for a change!" Amity giggled.
Luz nearly melted at the sound of her laughter; "Keep giggling like that and you'll be teasing me for the same thing!" she flirted.
Amity paused, and Luz was sure she was blushing; "Oh Luz… just for that, I'm going to have to make you blush when I next see you!" Amity flirted right back.
"I'm looking forward to it! Did Emira mention anything else about Viney?" Luz asked, wondering if Emira would have told her siblings about Viney's secret demon features.
"I don't think so? It was mostly a lot of squealing and gushing about something fluffy and adorable? I figure Viney must have brought along Puddles or an animal she was taking care of." Amity said.
Luz smirked; so Viney HAD told Emira! And it looked like it had gone well! The young angel rubbed her hands together in anticipation; she'd be getting unlimited Puddles petting whenever she wanted now! That bet had been one of her smarter ideas!
She and Amity chatted a bit longer, but then it was time to set sail, so the call had to end before Luz went out of range. A few hours and a nice easy voyage later, and the Simmering Shoals were in sight, as were the Selkidomus and her child. Eber hadn't come with them, so Luz couldn't speak to the Selkidomus in the beast's own language, nor could she understand her growls and barks, but she understood her body language and the Selkidomus could still largely understand her, so it wasn't too much trouble for them to get the Selkidomus and her baby to swim with them to the Maelstrom Strait. However, unlike last time, Luz didn't bother tying the ship to the Selkidomus. The reason for this became clear once they arrived on the edge of the Maelstrom Strait.
"We'll ride through the strait on the Selkidomus' back, so the ship doesn't need to come through too." Luz explained to Salty and his crew; "We're setting up the Teleportation Circle, so we'll use it to get home. Not bringing the ship means the Selkidomus won't need to take you guys back out again, then come in again on her own."
"Arrr, that be wise. No need to face the storm when we be dropping you off and sailing home again! We'll drop anchor and wait in these waters until ye let us know we can leave. Just in case the circle doesn't work! Titan Speed to ye, Luz and King!" Salty replied, saluting with his crab claw. Luz and King grinned and saluted right back, then went with Eda and Rasiel to sit on the Selkidomus' back. Luz then covered them all with a barrier, just in case, and the Selkidomus weaved through the whirlpools and swam right through the cyclone wall to reach the Titan Arm Island.
Eda reacted with just as much awe as the others had upon first seeing it, and Rasiel, who hadn't had a body last time he visited, took note of the climate; "Hmm, it's fairly moderate here. A bit colder than the Boiling Isles, though I suppose we are further north. I suspect the tips of the fingers would be colder than the Knee!"
Luz shivered at the thought; "Let's avoid there for now then. We need a good place to begin carving the second circle."
Eda nodded; "Yeah, somewhere down here on the upper arm would be best. Do you remember seeing any good stone down here, King?"
The little Titan nodded; "There's a good spot in the field just a little ways from here. I'll show you!"
He then scurried off as fast as he could, and Luz, Eda, and Rasiel ran after him, the exercise getting their blood pumping again after so long on the ship. King led them to a small section of field just a kilometre away from the beginning of the incline, which had several large boulders and slabs of stone, a few of which were even big and sturdy enough for the Owl House to sit on!
"This one seems perfect," Rasiel said, stamping on one slab of flat grey stone, "It's a good location and the stone is strong. Ideal for carving the circle."
"Awesome! I'll get to it!" Luz said, already preparing her light glyphs. She got on her knees and began to carve the circle, while Eda and King watched. The latter turned to his Mom with a question.
"Hey Mom, how exactly do trees and stones show up on a Titan's body anyway? Do grown-up Titans have rocks in their body?"
"Well, remember that one of the Titan's five humours is Earth? That earth is actually the Titan's flesh that has begun to decay, becoming like the dirt we saw in the Human Realm. It's the weakest of the five humours magically, but the magic in it is still great nutrition for plants and bugs. Sometimes, if the weather and atmosphere is right and the conditions are met, pieces of the Titan's flesh, or earth, can become fossilised and turn into stone." Eda explained; "As for the trees and plant-life, seeds dropped by birds who come to feed on the Titan's body take root as the flesh turns to earth, resulting in all the vegetation."
King's eyes shone with interest; "Whoa… my people are amazing!"
Rasiel smirked; "You always thought you were a King of Demons. But in reality, Titans are more like the Gods of Demons, and the source of life for countless creatures. I guess you're even more amazing than you thought you were!"
King puffed his chest out with pride over that, but then felt something squirming in his stomach. Just a few weeks ago, the reveal that he was basically a member of a God Race would have made him brag and boast and demand tribute from all those around him, but now? Now it made him nervous. He looked to his sister, an Angel, who had become a symbol to the Rebellion largely because she was seen as a servant of the Titans. King wondered how they'd treat him if they knew the truth; only the residents of the Owl House (sans Lilith whom King didn't trust yet) and Luz's closest friends knew that he was a Titan, and the idea of letting more people find out filled him with dread.
He'd be worshipped for certain, praised and given all the tributes he could want! But he didn't know if he wanted that any more. Things had changed so much in recent weeks, and the reality of his situation felt so much more intense.
Feeling a little shy as his emotions caught up with him, King scurried up Luz's back as she worked and nestled into her hood. "Is it okay if I stay here with you for a bit, Luz?" he asked in a small voice.
The others realised that being on this new Titan Island must be emotional for the little guy, so they smiled sympathetically. "Of course, Little Brother." Luz said, barely pausing in her work. She wanted to cuddle and fuss him, but it would only embarrass him at the moment.
"Thanks, Big Sister." King replied, closing his eyes to take a nap.
At that moment, as King nestled against the back of her neck and her light beams carved into the stone of the Titan Arm, Luz felt a pulse inside her head and chest. Her heart beat a tiny bit faster, and a whisper echoed through her mind.
"Angel… Sister… King…"
"W-What?" she gasped, looking around.
"You okay there, Owlet?" Eda asked, seeing her expression.
"Did either of you say something just now?" Luz replied.
Eda and Rasiel shook their heads, making Luz frown. Had she imagined it? Or had King muttered something she'd missed while drifting off for his nap? Luz didn't know for certain, but she put it out of her mind and got back to work; it was probably nothing anyway.
It took only a short while to get the stone fully carved and the Harmonic Crystals in place. Once the circle was set up, Luz used her Choir Magic to harmonise with the crystals and activate the spell, while synchronising them with the other circle. Once she'd sung the same melody as she had at the Owl House, the crystals disappeared into the completed circle, which glowed just like its partner had. The glow then intensified, becoming a solid gold light for several seconds, before vanishing entirely.
"The synchronising is complete. Now you just have to sing the melody and anything on this circle should be instantly transported to the other one." Rasiel said.
"Let's test it with something before we try it out ourselves." Luz suggested, not wanting to even think about would could happen if she'd messed it up.
"How would we check that the test worked? Your scrolls can't contact the isles from this far away." Rasiel pointed out.
"We'll use this." Eda said, pulling out a Comm-pact. "These things don't have a range limit."
Luz eyed it curiously; "Then why do we not use these for all calls instead of scrolls?"
"Because they work a little like these circles of yours." Eda explained; "They're either built in pairs and can only connect to each other, or are built alongside a master Comm-pact which can receive calls from all the lesser ones in the set. They're also owned strictly by the Emperor's Coven. Lilith swiped this one from Kikimora back at the Petrification Ceremony. It connects to the one she already had."
"So we can use this to call Lilith!" Luz cheered; "Let's try sending something then!"
"You got it! We'll try this." Eda said, taking off one of her large golden earrings and putting it in the circle. She then nodded to Luz, who sang the melody. In an instant, the Harmonic crystals manifested from the circle, with the small ones spinning around it and the large one glowing brightly above it. There was a bright flash, and a beam of golden light shot into the sky, before the crystals disappeared again. The earring was absent now, so Eda opened up her comm-pact out her and called Lilith, asking her to go up to the tower and check the circle there. Lilith had actually already been at the circle, and reported back that she and the others had heard the circle activate, and when she arrived up there to investigate, she had indeed found Eda's earring safe and sound.
"Looks like it works! Who wants to be the first to try it out!" Eda said, keeping Lilith on the line.
"Let me. I can't be killed, so I won't be in danger." Rasiel volunteered, stepping onto the circle.
Luz was a bit more nervous this time, but Rasiel just nodded confidently at her and she sang the melody. Rasiel disappeared in a beam of light, and an instant later, Lilith's voice spoke from Eda's comm-pact.
"Rasiel just showed up in a big beam of gold light!"
"I'm in one piece and unharmed. The teleportation spell felt just like it should. It's safe; you did well, Luz." Rasiel told her.
The younger angel sighed with relief; "Thank the Seraphim and the Titan! Okay, let's all head back together!"
Eda agreed, and the two ladies waved goodbye to the Selkidomus, who would be remaining inside the Maelstrom Strait for her own safety and that of her child from now on. The beast gave a loud roar of farewell, and Luz, Eda, and the napping King stepped onto the Teleportation Circle. Luz sang the activation melody, and they were transported to the Owl House.
It was an unusual feeling; golden light blinded them and they felt their bodies began to tingle, while their feet felt like they were floating off the ground for a moment. It lasted for less than a second before the tingling faded and their feet touched solid ground again, and the golden light faded to reveal they were now atop the Owl House's stone tower, and Lilith and Rasiel were waiting for them, the former holding Eda's earring.
"Another success!" Eda declared, "Good job, Owlet!"
"Thanks Mom! I'm not done yet though! Let me check that it works both ways while you go get Raine, Eber, and Darius." Luz said, deciding to let King keep napping in her hood, since he hadn't stirred during the teleport.
Eda agreed and took her earring back from Lilith before going to get the others. While she did that, Luz teleported back to the island, and then back to the Owl House once again, confirming that the circles had truly been completed correctly. She then returned to the island once more so she was close enough to use her scroll to call Salty and let him know that he and his crew could sail home safely. She had just hung up and returned to the Owl House again when Eda returned with the others.
"Done already?" Darius asked.
"Yep! I tested it and everything!" Luz chirped.
Darius nodded with satisfaction and checked the time; it was now the early evening (around 6pm). "You got it done inside a day, just like Rasiel said. Impressive. Now let's check this island out in person; I've already got people on standby to begin moving in."
Everyone stepped back into the circle (which was large enough that it could contain about twenty people if they were huddled together) and Luz activated it, warping them back to the Titan Arm Island.
Darius, Raine, and Lilith looked around at it for the first time, awestruck. "This is incredible!" Raine gasped.
"It's a bit smaller than the Boiling Isles' right arm, but it's still massive! And we have it all to ourselves!" Lilith cheered, "This isn't a bad location for the teleportation circle either. We could build a whole town here!"
"Indeed. Good quality stone, a lot of space, and the rainforest up in the palm. If we can clear some farmland and find iron deposits, we'll have everything we need to be self-sufficient." Darius said, stroking his chin with a pleased expression. "To think that the Selkidomus mission would end with such a massive boon…"
Eber barked in agreement; "Lots of space for Pack and Beasts too! Good new home! Safe new home!"
"I'm glad everything worked out! What do we do now?" Luz asked.
"You, little angel, have earned a rest." Darius said, looking at her kindly; "We'll begin establishing the base tomorrow, while you take a day off. Have fun, take that Little Blight on a date or something; do whatever teenagers do in this day and age."
Luz smiled gratefully, while Eda smirked; "Awfully nice of you, Darry-Boy! I thought you might put her to work again!"
Darius scoffed while Raine shook their head in exasperation; "Darius isn't a monster, Eda."
"Quite. I can be perfectly respectful and kind to those who prove themselves deserving." Darius said haughtily; "Your little angelic apprentice has proven herself to be deserving. I'm not so sure about you, though." he added that last part as a light-hearted jab, making Eda snort.
"Whatever you say, Darry-Boy."
"Stop calling me that!"
"Never!"
While those two bickered and their friends laughed, Raine suggested; "Why don't we celebrate this success with a meal? We could have a barbecue down on the beach! We haven't done that since we were in our twenties, right Eda?"
"Ooh, that's a wonderful idea! I should go and collect Hootsifer so he can join in too." Lilith smiled.
Eber barked her approval too, and Rasiel smiled; "I've never had barbecue before. Intriguing!"
Darius and Eda briefly stopped their bickering to give a thumbs up, so Raine turned to Luz; "What do you think Sparks? Sound good to you?"
"Yeah!" Luz cheered, not having had a barbecue on the beach since her Papi passed away. "Let's do it! Owl House Barbecue!"
Her yell of joy caused King to stir from his nap, and upon realising what the excitement was about, he quickly joined in with Luz in cheering for a barbecue.
For the rest of the night, the residents of the Owl House (plus Darius and Eberwolf) celebrated the completion of the Selkidomus mission and the discovery of the Titan Arm Island. Luz briefly returned to the Boiling Isles with Lilith and Raine to collect Hooty and the food and supplies need for the barbecue, as well as to put up a barrier around the Owl House to protect it while Hooty was away. She briefly considered asking to call her friends and invite them to join them, but one look at King's face made her decide against it; he was still a little emotional over the new Titan and the reality of mortality for his species, so she decided to keep the party to a smaller, family affair (plus their new allies). The little party was just what they needed to unwind from all the stress that had built up over the past few weeks, and they all enjoyed a pleasant evening on the beach with good food and good company. It cheered King up as well, and by the time Eda tucked him and Luz into their nests for the night, he was back to his usual impish self.
Since they needed Luz to use the teleportation circle, the party on the beach was over the minute Eda saw the girl's eyes begin to droop from tiredness, so they'd all come back to the Owl House. Darius and Eber watched Eda carry the girl (who'd nearly fallen asleep the instant they'd gotten back) and the little Demon child up stairs, then politely excused themselves for the night and headed home.
As the two Coven Heads walked down the forest path from the Owl House to Bonesborough, Eber barked to Darius; "Nostalgia strong today."
Darius nodded; "Indeed. Arguing with Eda while Raine and Lilith watch, and you egg us on? It was just like our days at Hexside."
"Little Light too." Eber barked, a bittersweetness to her tone.
Her fellow Coven Head closed his eyes with a sigh; "Her too. She acts quite a bit differently, but her looks… she really is a dead-ringer for Cassiel."
Eber whined, and Darius opened his eyes again; "Cassiel told us that angels from the same order looked alike, but I never realised the resemblance was that strong. It was like looking at a 15 year old Cassiel again. It makes me wonder how she and Em are doing."
"Little Light not Angel Friend's Pup?" Eber asked.
Darius shook his head; "I probed Edalyn for answers once she'd had a few glasses of Apple Blood. Luz's mother didn't leave the Divine Realm until she was 18, and her name is Camila. It seems it truly was just a coincidence that two different Kindness Angels appeared in the Boiling Isles…"
Eber was silent for a moment, then barked; "Little Light still good. Brings back nice memories. Helps people."
Darius smiled and nodded; "I can agree to that. She humbled the Little Prince as well; with any luck, it'll make him more bearable."
Eber gave a doubtful grumble, which made Darius chuckle as the two continued home.
[Two Days Later]
The day after the construction of the Teleportation Circles was a true day off for Luz, just as Darius and the others had said. She'd woken up after sleeping in for the first time in weeks, and after she'd had breakfast, she'd found herself in the unusual position of having virtually nothing to do. There was no school and Eda wouldn't teach her anything or give her any work to do! In fact, her only job was activating the Teleportation Circle, which the adults were using to ferry people and supplies to and from the island.
However even with the myriad of witches, demons, and supplies coming and going, Luz still found herself with a lot of time on her hands, so devoted it to calling her friends and inviting them to come to the Island too to spend time with them. Amity had come over in a heartbeat, as had Edric (since Emira was off on her date with Viney), but the others had been busy spending time with their families. Oddly, Gus hadn't even answered her call, instead declining the call and sending a text message saying he wasn't feeling so good and would hopefully talk to her when he was feeling better.
Edric had kept King company, having a boys day which they spent exploring the island and getting up to some mostly good-spirited mischief, while Luz had taken Darius' suggestion and spent the day off on a beach date with Amity. It was a real Human Realm-style beach date too, as Luz had used her ice magic to dam off a section of the Boiling Sea, then cool it down until it was safe to swim in, much to Amity's amusement. The two girls enjoyed playing for the rest of the day, and the workers establishing the new base would occasionally come down to join them, taking a dip in the cooled section of the sea to refresh themselves.
It was like a slice of a real Summer Vacation, making Luz laugh at the irony of it only happening AFTER her Summer Vacation was technically over!
While the girls had been playing and being romantic on the beach (Amity had made good on her promise to make Luz blush many times, the first of which had simply been stepping out in her swimsuit), the CATTs' new home base was growing rapidly. Darius had called in some favours from some friends in the Construction Coven, who had producing houses and other buildings, constructing a small village around the Teleportation Circle, which became the equivalent of the new settlement's town square. The houses were simple, and largely served as living quarters for the rebels, and the wild witches they were hiding from the Emperor. There were also storehouses and stables for supplies and the Beast-Keepers' tamed allies, as well as a training hall and a small fort that had been dubbed HQ, though that was a few weeks away from being ready, even with Construction Magic. It was mostly structures that would be of immediate use to the rebels, but Luz and Amity had already heard Raine and Darius discuss adding more structures to make it a real village, like shops and centres for recreational activities.
By the end of the day, the area around the Teleportation Circle had become a small hamlet, and many of the wild witches and Conformatorium escapees who'd either joined or taken refuge with the CATTs had begun moving in. Raine's three founding members; Katya, Amber, and Derwin were among the first to move to the island full time, seeing as they and many of their other allies had been living in the now abandoned Bonesborough Precinct of the Emperor's Coven, which was due to be demolished as part of the truce agreement.
The only other developments that day had been the discovery of a cave system on the underside of the Titan's forearm, with a usable entrance at the base of the elbow. Beast-Keepers led by Eber, as well as Abominations made by Darius' subordinates were being sent in to survey the place for use as emergency shelters and potential mines.
Despite enjoying her day off and loving her date with Amity, when Luz awoke the day after, she felt pretty eager to get back to helping people! She only had today and tomorrow before she returned to the Human Realm for the weekend, and Luz really wanted to get as much work done for the CATTs as possible, since she'd be unable to operate the teleportation circle for the whole weekend while she was away.
After washing and dressing, Luz headed downstairs, where she found the rest of the Owl Family (aside from the still snoozing King) around the breakfast table.
"Good morning!" she chirped happily.
"Morning Owlet!" her Mom said, kissing the girl's forehead as she took her seat.
"Good morning Sparks." Raine added, passing her a plate.
"Good morning, Luz." Lilith and Rasiel greeted together, barely looking up from the map they were pouring over.
"What are you two doing?" Luz asked them as she tucked into her food.
"Charting out the new island and preparing a full geographical survey." Lilith replied.
"Ooh, nerd stuff! Can I help?" Luz asked.
Eda smirked and ruffled her hair; "Actually, you'll be helping Raine and I today. Darius and Eber got on our case about being lax in our recruiting, so we decided to go to the families whose kids or other members had helped at the Petrification Ceremony and see if we can get them to join the CATTs."
Raine nodded; "As we're the leaders of the CATTs, and you're basically the face of our rebellion, we thought it best if the three of us go in person."
Luz went over the list in her head, then said; "So we'll be visiting the Parks, Mr Porter, the Blights, the Alembics, the Cadences, the Tholomules, Barcus and Jerbo's families, and the parents of Bo and the Banshees?"
She'd skipped Viney's folks; the Leonis family, since they were already part of the rebellion.
"Pretty much, though we're not going near the Alembics or Blights. Amity and the Twins are already on our side, but after what you did to her at Skara's party, Odalia would sooner give all her money away to the poor than come and help us." Eda said, smirking happily at the memory.
"And Callisto Alembic tried to sell you out to the Emperor once already; its best not to trust her." Raine added, making Luz shudder and Eda scowl as they recalled that incident.
Counting on her fingers, Luz realised that still left them with a whopping nine families to visit! "I guess that's our morning decided!" she said, shovelling down the last few bites; "Let's get this show on the road!"
Eda and Raine both smiled, and since they'd finished their food already, they stood and got ready to head out. They left Rasiel and Lilith to watch the house (and King, who was still sleeping off his energetic day playing with Edric), then walked to Bonesborough.
To make things simple, they visited each house on their list in the order they came across them, so the first house they visited belonged to Bo's family, the Curborns. Bo's parents, a male and female witch from the Illusion and Construction Covens respectively, were quiet and friendly people who politely listened to Raine (who was designated as "the talker" of the trio) as they made their case for why the CATTs were necessary, and if they'd be willing to join. Both of them discussed it for a moment, and then agreed; they'd been devotees of the Titan since they could walk, and saw Luz's ascension and curing of Petrification as proof of her having the Titan's favour and not Belos. They both agreed to an Everlasting Oath (which only prevented them from betraying the CATTs' secrets) and gave their contact information to Raine, who promised to be in contact soon.
That gave them a very strong start, and the trio were smiling as they headed to the next house, belonging to Amelia Eden and her two parents. Her Mom was a female witch, while her other parent was a gender-neutral witch with some inherited demon features in the form of two extra arms. Sadly, both were members of the Plant Coven and nearly threw the trio out of their home for fear of what would happen if Terra Snapdragon, the head of their coven, got even a whiff of treason from them. Amelia herself had to reluctantly apologise that she'd been forbidden from helping too, and Luz had understood even if she was disappointed.
Cat's family, the Lisleds, also refused to join. Cat lived with her single mother and her aunt and uncle, all of whom were witches with similar features to her. Her mother was part of the Potions Coven, while her aunt and uncle were in the Healing Coven, and while they sympathised with the CATTs, they didn't want to get involved in a civil war, especially since their lives were pretty good under the Emperor's rule.
"Well this isn't going well. Three families and only one willing to join up." Eda scowled as they left the Lisled home, "You'd think overthrowing a tyrant would be more popular!"
"Not everyone knows that side of Belos, Eda." Raine said, taking her hand with a gentle smile; "To us he's a monster and victimiser, but to many others, he brought order to the wild Savage Ages and gave us decades of peace. A lot of people don't want to go against him for that reason."
"A lot will be afraid too." Luz added with a sad frown; "Belos is powerful and has a huge army! Most people would be terrified to go up against that!"
Eda still grumbled and muttered; "I did, even when I was on my own! I could have won too, if not for the stupid curse…"
"Not everyone can be as amazing as you, Mom." Luz said.
Eda snorted; "Bah, enough of my belly-aching. We've still got six families to go! Whose next?"
The answer turned out to be Jerbo's parents; the Nelumbo family, and it was another wasted trip, though not for the reason the trio expected. Jerbo's father was a member of the Potions Coven and a sitting member of the Bonesborough Council, who had spoken out in defence of the CATTs in previous meetings and was fully on their side, while his mother was a member of the Abominations Coven and already a part of Darius' faction of rebels! They'd been very proud of Jerbo when he'd helped with the other kids at the Conformatorium too.
After that was Barcus' parents; for whom Luz had to translate since both were Canine Demons. Barcus' mother was a Direwolf, which were large, intelligent wolves that could grow or shrink from dog size to horse size by tensing their muscles, and his father was a Dog Lycan, basically making him a werewolf-like being that never transformed out of beast form, and which were considered the Canine equivalent to the Feline Cait Sith. His father was a member of the Beast-Keeping Coven and was more than happy to join the rebels, while Barcus' mother (technically a wild witch, but one that was ignored as many believed her to be a mere beast and not intelligent) was also willing to join after Barcus vouched for Luz.
Having three out of five families joining them (or already having joined them) really lifted Eda's spirits, especially since the last four families were shoo-ins in her mind! The Parks and Perry Porter were the parents of Luz's best friends, Severin Cadence was one of Raine's oldest friends, and the Tholomules were already half on their side thanks to Matt and Steve!
Eda proved to be mostly correct too; Gilbert and Harvey Park had signed up almost before Raine could finish their pitch; both felt that they owed Luz for helping their daughter flourish into the strong young woman she'd become, and had been beyond furious when Willow had told them what Belos had done to Luz. The idea of the Emperor torturing a child and trying to force her to kill her own mother was disgusting and inexcusable to them, and while neither would be much good as frontline fighters, both were happy to join the CATTs, with the proviso that Willow could help so long as she was not put in danger unless it was necessary. Naturally Eda and Raine had agreed, and Luz found herself being fed cookies by Harvey, who thought her shrunken wings were adorable.
Perry Porter had joined almost as fast, having had a front row seat to the battle with Belos at the Conformatorium. He knew his son would always side with his friends, and Perry refused to be on a different side than his son, or to remain neutral while Gus fought the Emperor's Coven. Besides, he also disliked the idea of Gus being forced to join the Illusion Coven under the current Head Witch: Adrian Graye Vernworth, whom gave Perry the creeps with his prima-donna persona.
The Tholomules were a partial success; Matt and Steve had already talked to their parents, since Steve was a full member of the CATTs and a spy within the Emperor's Coven, so Raine didn't have to make much of an argument to convince them. Their father, Bart, was a member of the Construction Coven and was willing to join with his sons, but his wife (Matt's mother) politely declined and only offered to support her family in their decisions rather than get involved herself, as she was a peaceful woman. Steve also passed on that his Mom in Palm Stings had been asked too, and also declined, but would allow CATTs to take refuge in her home if need be, and receive some patching up from her since she was in the Healing Coven.
With six out of eight families now either fully or partially joining up with the CATTs, the trio happily made their way to the Cadence Manor to speak with Severin. Getting him on side would be a massive boon, as he was going to be the new Head of the Bard Coven soon, since Scooter had already announced his retirement.
They arrived at the manor and knocked on the door, and just like when they'd come for Skara's birthday party, the door was answered by the Severin family butler, though this time he was wearing a less fancy dark red suit. He took one look at them and gasped.
"M-Mx. Whispers!? I-I confess to not expecting to see you here! Are you here to visit Master Severin?" he then glanced to Luz, "Or perhaps Mistress Skara?"
"We're here to talk to Severin, though it would be nice to see Skara too." Raine smiled pleasantly.
The Butler nodded nervously, then hurried off after politely asking them to wait where they were. A few minutes later, Skara and Severin arrived in the entrance hall, the former smiling brightly while the latter looked conflicted. Skara ran over to them and cheerfully greeted them.
"Hey Luz! It's great to see you walking around in your true form!" Skara said, "What's with your wings though? They've become tiny! They're adorable!" she said, turning Luz around so she could touch her shrunken wings.
"Haha, it's a new spell my Mami taught me!" Luz said, giggling as Skara touched her wings, making them tickle.
Severin smiled sadly; "My Little Symphony, what have I told you about being so touchy without asking first?"
Skara pulled her hands back; "Oh! Sorry Luz, I got a little carried away."
"It's fine, I don't mind." Luz smiled, "I was the same when I was younger; I wanted to hug everyone! It took a while for me to realise not everyone wanted to be hugged."
Skara giggled; "Well you can always hug me, Bard Buddy!" she said, quickly hugging her before running and hugging Raine.
"Hi Raine! And you too Eda!" she said, making the two chuckle.
"Hello Skara, I'm glad to see you're doing well." Raine smiled, patting the top of her head.
"Hey, kid. I've got to thank you for helping Luz and the others save me at the Petrification Ceremony. I owe you one, kid." Eda added, roughly messing up Skara's hair.
The girl pulled away and gave a mock pout as she fixed her pale hair. "Easy on the do! But you're welcome! What brings you three here anyway?"
Raine stepped forward, looking to Severin (who'd noticeably been having trouble speaking up) and said; "The three of us are here representing the Covens Against the Throne, aka The CATTs."
"Meow!" Luz added, making Skara giggle.
"We wanted to talk to you about our goals, and potentially get your help." Raine continued.
Severin's expression became pained; "I feared that's what this would be about…"
"Daddy?" Skara frowned.
"I'm sorry Raine; you've always been a good friend to me, just as Luz has been to my Symphony, but I have to decline." Severin said, regret clear in his voice.
Skara gasped; "But why, Daddy!? I told you everything that Belos did to Luz! Don't you believe me!?"
"I believe you, Skara. But I'm afraid there are things involved here that you're too young to understand." Severin said to her, before looking Raine in the eye; "Before Skara talked to me, I assumed you were only rebelling to save your lost love, Raine."
"Not so lost any more." Eda muttered, taking Raine's hand.
That brought a sad smile to the older Cadence's face as he continued; "However her story shed some more light on your actions, and I fully sympathise. But even with that sympathy, I cannot turn against the Emperor and the Covens."
"Severin, you must understand that Belos is not a good person or a good leader! Even before talking to Eda and seeing what he did to Luz, I uncovered proof that he prioritises control through threats and force!" Raine said passionately, "People have disappeared, and innocent people end up locked in the Conformatorium for no crimes other than not fitting in with the Emperor's will! Eda may have committed crimes, but she never did anything to earn a trillion snail bounty, and even under the Emperor's written laws, she hasn't committed a crime worthy of Petrification, and yet the Emperor sentenced her without a public trial! Surely you must see these are the actions of a truly corrupt man!"
Severin once again looked pained; "I understand, Raine. When it was decided that I would replace you as Scooter's successor, I was granted audience with the Emperor and questioned him about these things myself! He expressed his deep regret for the things he's had to do, but with the Day of Unity approaching, he has had to act in harsher ways to ensure the Titan's Will is done."
"You can't seriously believe that load of crud!? He tortured my daughter and turned her into a monster to try and kill me! The whole Petrification Ceremony was a trap to catch Luz and get my portal!" Eda protested, "Look me in the eye and- actually no, look Luz in the eye and tell her that the things Belos did to her were for the greater good!" she demanded, fuming.
Severin, predictably, could only meet Luz's eyes for a moment before lowering them again; "Luz, I am truly sorry. What was done to you was horrible beyond words, and I can understand fully why you'd turn on the Emperor after experiencing that. But I truly believe in the Titan's Will and what the Emperor wants for us all. He went about it the wrong way; the man is very sick, as you saw at the end of your fight with him, and it is beginning to effect his mind. He told me this himself."
"Severin, he is lying to you." Raine said, "That man feels no regret for what he's doing! I don't know what the Day of Unity is, but I know its not what he claims! Everything he does is for his own will, not the Titan's!"
Skara nodded; "That's right, Dad! Did you forget how the Titan gave Luz the power to cure Petrification? Or stand up to Belos!?"
"The Emperor assured me that those were the result of some form of Wild Magic. Eda's curse corrupted the petrification magic, and those bizarre glyphs caused Luz's growth in power." Severin argued.
"Those are just lies spread by that Bonehead!" Eda snapped, "Surely you can't be dumb enough to believe in them!"
Severin straightened his back and glared at Eda; "You may call me dumb all you want, but my family owes everything to Belos. We owe our prosperity to his rule! My parents and grandparents all fought for Belos! My grandfather gave his life in battle to help Belos win his throne! The good life we have now, and all that I can provide to my daughter, is the reward the Cadence Family received for our loyalty! You wish me to turn on the man that my family bled and died for! I am not blind to the Emperor's crueller actions… but he answered for them in a way I can't deny, and to question that is to question what my family gave up so much for! I will not spit on the sacrifices of my forebears by betraying the man who has shown me that even his worst acts have purpose behind them!"
Raine and Eda both gaped at the man's impassioned response, while Skara looked severely torn; she'd known that her Great-Grandfather had died on the side of the Emperor during the unification of the Isles and the ending of the Savage Ages, but she'd never realised that the wealth and luxury they enjoyed was due to that sacrifice. Still, in her heart of hearts, Skara could not agree; her ancestors had been mislead!
Luz opened her mouth to argue with Severin, but stopped herself before she could actually say anything; what proof did she have to make Severin believe her word over Belos? It was easy to see Belos as evil from her perspective, given what she'd seen and experienced, but how did all this look from Severin's point of view? To most people on the Isles, the Emperor was seen as a benevolent force; a being who spoke to the Titan and wielded immense power, which he used to spread order and peace, even if he had to use force to do it. Even Luz's friends had once been believers in the Emperor; it had taken a combination of Luz's presence and seeing Belos' actions for themselves before they'd changed their minds. But Severin had every reason NOT to turn on Belos, and even then he'd still questioned the Emperor about his actions, and been given answers he had no reason not to believe. Luz could stand there and claim, with her angelically enforced honesty, that everything Belos had said was a lie, but that would mean only that she truly believed it; it didn't mean she was right, and that's exactly what Severin would think.
The impassioned man took a deep breath and finally met Luz's eyes and held her gaze; "Luz, I will not try to justify what the Emperor did to you. It was unforgivable, and even if I believe he had his reasons, based in desperation and his growing sickness, I won't ask you to accept them. But I truly believe that the Day of Unity and the Titan's Will are what the Emperor is striving for. I urge you to try and make peace with the Emperor. To work with him for the good of the Isles and its people. Perhaps to even succeed him as the voice of the Titan."
Luz held his gaze for several long moments, then shook her head; "I think you're a good man, Severin. I think you're a great dad too. But I think you're wrong, just like you think I'm wrong. I don't think either of us is going to be able to convince the other." she said sadly.
Severin nodded just as sadly, already expecting that; "I see. Then I will say this; I formally decline any association with the CATTs and will do my duty as the future Head of the Bard Coven. That duty may force me to oppose you some day… but that is not today. I pray to the Titan that the day never comes. I must ask you to leave now."
Eda looked ready to argue, but Raine shook their head mournfully, and Luz took her Mom's hand and began walking her out of the mansion.
"Farewell, Old Friend." Severin whispered, unshed tears glistening in his eyes; "And thank you for everything."
Raine, in a similar state, nodded; "And thank you, Severin. May the Titan watch over you."
Skara watched with a pained heart as Luz, Raine, and Eda left, the mansion door closing behind them. A brief flare of anger filled her as she turned to yell at her father, but she stopped as she saw her dad wipe the tears from his eyes. Raine had been his oldest friend; one of the few he'd made at Hexside and within the Bard Coven, and seeing them walk away, now on the opposite side of the growing civil war, must have hurt immeasurably. Still, Skara had no intention of seeing her own friend on the opposite side of that same war!
"Dad, I think you're wrong! Our family may have sided with Belos in the past, but I don't think Great-Grandpa or any of our ancestors would want to side with the man he is now! So…" she hesitated, then steeled herself; "So I'm going to help my friends!"
Severin looked at her for a long moment, then said; "When your mother did what she did, I made a promise to you. I promised that I would never do what she did; I'd support you becoming who you choose to be, even if its not what I want for you. I'd always love you, no matter your choice. There is not a thing in this world you could do that will change that." he knelt and put his hands on Skara's shoulders.
"I love you, Skara. I refuse to fight against you. If you wish to join the CATTs and help your friends, then I won't stand in your way… The Emperor can compel me to fight my old friend, but not you. My choices haven't changed, but you will always be my precious Symphony." he said, smiling lovingly.
Skara sniffled and hugged her Dad; "Thank you, Daddy. Even if I'm against the Emperor, I'll never be against you either! I love you!"
"I love you too, baby. Now go chase your friend, and tell Luz again that I am sorry."
Skara nodded, and her father kissed her on the cheek, then gently dried her eyes. After that, he stood up and nodded to her with a sad smile, before turning and heading off to his room. Skara took a moment to fully compose herself, then ran out of the mansion. She saw Luz and the others just about to leave the grounds, and ran after them as quickly as she could.
"Wait!" she cried.
Luz heard her and paused, making her Mom and Raine stop too. "Skara? What is it? Are you okay?" the young angel asked. She noted the slightly reddened eyes, but didn't comment.
"I'm fine! I want to join the CATTs!" she declared.
The trio gasped in surprise; "You want to join up with us!?" Eda exclaimed, beginning to grin again.
"Yes! I don't agree with my Dad! I want to fight Belos!" Skara said earnestly.
Luz smiled; "I'm glad! I was kind of scared you might not want to be friends any more after things went badly with your Dad!"
Raine shook their head; "While I'm happy you agree with our cause too Skara, I don't know if we can accept. Your father was really against it and we can't go behind his back to recruit his daughter. We don't want to tear families apart."
"Dad is okay with it!" Skara quickly corrected them, "Well, not okay okay, but he knows this is what I want to do and said he wouldn't stop me! So please let me join!"
Raine frowned and looked at the ladies with them; both Luz and Eda looked like they were happy to accept, but Raine still had their doubts. "Are you absolutely certain about this, Skara? This isn't a game or a fun club with friends; you could end up in big trouble if the Emperor finds out you're one of us."
Skara narrowed her eyes; "I know this isn't a game! That monster hurt my friend and is making you and my dad oppose each other! I want to stop him AND get proof that Belos is evil! Proof that'll make Dad realise that our family should turn against Belos! The only way to do that is by helping the CATTs!" she said, before grabbing Raine's hand between both of hers and practically begging; "I can be really useful too! Luz saw how good I was when we fought the Greater Basilisk, and I'm the top Bard at school and used to play Grudgby for the Banshees! I can hold my own! Please Raine!"
Raine had to look away; they'd known Skara since she was a newborn and had never been able to resist her when she pleaded with them so earnestly. And they couldn't deny that Skara was right; she was as good or better than Raine themselves had been at her age, which meant she was probably better than many of the Bards who had been among the CATTs recruits gained from the Conformatorium! She would be an invaluable ally!
"Alright. I won't object, but you'll need to swear an oath that you won't give any of our secrets to your Dad, okay?" Raine said. Honestly they'd have trusted her without the oath, but they could already tell Darius would disagree.
Skara didn't even hesitate and since she already had her hands around Raine's, she drew a spell circle to prepare the oath immediately. After the usual oath was given, both Luz and Eda grinned widely, the latter slapping Skara on the back.
"You've got guts, girly! You'll fit in fine! You're also the last of Luz's pals to agree to join up!"
Luz nodded; "Yep! Amity, Willow, Gus, Matt, Edric, Emira, Viney, Barcus, and Jerbo all agreed to join up! Oh, and Bo did too! Cat and Amelia said no though."
Skara wasn't too surprised by that; "That's still a lot of people! What about Boscha?"
"We decided against talking to the Alembics, after what happened between Callisto and Luz." Raine said diplomatically.
That made Skara wince, though she didn't argue; Callisto had been out of line doing what she had! "That's probably for the best. I don't think Boscha would be interested anyway. Still, I might be able to convince her to at least brew us some potions from time to time!"
"Great idea!" Luz said, before looking to Eda and Raine; "The Cadences were our last stop, right? It's not even the afternoon yet, so what should we do for the rest of the day?"
"Honestly, I could go for some lunch." Eda said, "I bet King is driving Lilith crazy too right about now. Let's head back to the house and get some grub, then we can see if anything needs to be done on the island."
Skara blinked; "Island? What island?"
Luz grinned; "Oh, you are gonna love this!" she smiled.
The three of them invited Skara back to the Owl House to have lunch with them, and once they were out of Bonesborough and away from prying ears, Luz told her about the adventure with the Selkidomus and the discovery of the Titan Arm Island. As expected, Skara was amazed by the discovery and couldn't wait to see it.
When they arrived at the Owl House, they found Steve and his Emperor's Coven defectors talking with Lilith and Councilman Cal Nelumbo (Jerbo's father), while Matt and Jerbo were hanging out with King, and Rasiel was keeping Hooty busy so he didn't interfere with Lilith's work. Lilith smiled and greeted them upon their return, while King excitedly scurried over and leapt onto Luz's shoulders.
"Welcome back. Congratulations on a fairly productive morning!" Lilith said, having been receiving text updates from Eda. "Work on the Island Base has been progressing wonderfully. Our friends here would like to see it and offer their assistance, and have already received permission from Darius and Eber. We've been waiting for you to return to give your opinion."
Eda frowned; "Careful what you say, Lilith! Have these guys all taken oaths?"
Lilith rolled her eyes; "Honestly Edalyn, I'm not a fool. Everyone here took an oath not to knowingly give our secrets to anyone outside of the CATTs. I oversaw it myself."
"Good work, Lilith. How goes the geographical survey?" Raine asked.
As the adults began that discussion, Luz and Skara walked over to Matt and Jerbo. "So you guys are coming to the island too?"
"Yep! I'm gonna put my awesome construction magic to work building up our new base! I got a lot of practice helping to rebuild the school, so I might as well use it!" Matt smirked.
"I'm mostly coming along with my Dad, but I can use Abomination magic, so I can help with the cave survey that Miss Lilith told us about! I can't believe we're not just overturning our corrupt society, but building a whole new one!" Jerbo beamed. Of all Luz's friends, he was probably the one who was the most against the Coven System, seeing it as outdated and pointless.
Skara grinned at them; "So it looks like all of us are going to be helping out! The next generation fixing the messes of the last generation!"
Jerbo and Matt both cheered, while Luz giggled and King commented; "Why are teenagers so gun-ho about work? I'd have thought they'd hate it!"
Luz smiled; "I think its more the rebellion side than the work. If teenagers love one thing, its rebelling!" she joked before adding "Honestly, rebelling isn't really a big thing for angels, but I get to live out some of my old Azura fantasies by working with magical allies to fight evil! I even have my own Hecate!"
"Speaking off, where is Amity? I'm surprised she's not with you." Matt asked. He'd borrowed and read Luz's Azura books as part of his interest in human culture, so he'd understood Luz's Hecate reference.
"She's having a shopping day with Willow." Luz replied.
The teens continued to chat for a few minutes as the adults talked business, eventually heading inside with Rasiel to make and eat lunch. Skara, Matt, and Jerbo got their first full experience dealing with Hooty, and were suitably horrified by the excitable Owl Tube. After lunch (which the adults eventually joined them for), it was finally time to return to the Island!
Everyone climbed up to the Teleportation Circle on the stone Tower, and Luz grinned as she said; "Alright Gentle-people, please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times!"
"Just go, you dork!" Matt laughed, the only one besides Eda to get the reference.
Luz stuck out her tongue, then sang the activation melody and warped them all (sans Rasiel who stayed behind with Hooty) to the Titan Arm Island. They arrived to find that the little hamlet was even more built up than it had been when Luz left the previous evening, as the CATTs had worked through the night! The place was now more like a small village, and the first-timers gaped in amazement at the sight of it all. A few of the workers looked up to see the new arrivals and yell their greetings before getting back to work, while the CATTs on guard were eyeing Steve and his fellow defectors with distrust, not helped by the fact that all but Steve were in full Scout uniforms.
Darius was the one to come over and greet them, though he frowned at the teenagers.
"You're back from your recruitment mission. I hear your efforts went well." Darius said to Raine.
"Six out of nine families joined, and with Councilman Nelumbo on our side, we have a voice in the Bonesborough Council." Raine replied. "We couldn't convince Severin though."
That made Darius frown; "A pity. With him on our side, we'd have had three of the ten major Coven Heads on our side."
"It wasn't a total failure though! We've got Severin's daughter Skara on our side!" Luz smiled, slapping Skara on the back. "She even got permission! Sort of…"
"And you're certain we can trust her?" Darius asked with a raised eyebrow. Skara felt her hackles rise, but Luz just waved the man off.
"Of course! She's one of my closest friends! Besides, she took the same oath as everyone else."
Darius stared at the bard girl for a few seconds, an expression of judgement on his face, while Skara glared right back defiantly, daring him to say he had a problem with her. Her glares didn't have the effect she'd hoped, as Darius just looked mildly amused.
"Fine, I'll take your word for it. Though to be honest, I object to bringing children here. This isn't a slayground or dayscare, nor is it an after school club. We do serious work here." Darius said.
Skara, Jerbo, and Matt all looked affronted, while Eda rolled her eyes; "Get of your high griffin, Darry-Boy! The kids are willing to help, so let them! It's not like we plan on sending them into battle on the front lines!"
"If they are here to help then fine; we'll put them to work. We can't have idle hands getting in the way!" Darius retorted, looking the trio of teenagers up and down. He pointed to Matt; "You boy, what can you do to assist us?"
"I'm a pretty good Construction Witch! Good enough to skip a year of school." Matt said, sticking his chin out defiantly.
"Good, then you can help the construction team working on the road leading up the wrist." Darius pointed to the incline, where other Construction Witches and Wild Witches had begun building a road to connect the growing village with the rainforest in the palm.
Matt didn't need to be told twice and ran off to show his stuff, only waving to his friends and his brother Steve as he went.
Next Darius turned to Jerbo; "And you?"
"I multi-track in plants and abominations." Jerbo answered, drawing a green spell circle with one hand and a pink one with the other. The dirt beneath their feet rose up and shaped itself into a humanoid form, with vines inside it to control its movement. "I was planning to assist with the Cave Survey!
"Not bad. Someone who can produce usable abominations without wasting our slime supplies can be useful. Very well, you've got your wish; report to Eber at the base camp down at the elbow." Darius ordered.
Jerbo said "Yes sir!" and walked towards the beach, which was currently the only path to the elbow.
Finally, Darius looked to Skara and said; "No need to ask what magic you use, little Cadence. How good are you at Bardic Magic?"
"I'm awesome! The best in school!" Skara boasted shamelessly. It wasn't an empty boast either; not even the students in Junior or Senior year could best her!
"Can you calm beasts with your songs? Or use Echolocation?" the Coven Head asked.
"Naturally."
"Then you can partner up with that lad who just left and help with the Cave Survey. Eber reported some large beasts in the caves, and while they appear docile, they could become violent when cornered, or react badly to light. We've been sending Bards in with the Beast-Keepers to help deal with them, but you can handle that alone, right?" Darius smirked with a hint of challenge.
"Easily!" Skara scoffed, stomping off after Jerbo, determined to show Darius just how awesome she was.
The adults smiled at the girls' energy, with Raine and Lilith taking the newcomers with them for a briefing on their own duties, and Eda grabbing King and taking him off for some potions lessons, leaving Luz with Darius.
"So, what's my job for the afternoon? Scouting? Construction? Helping with the wild life?" Luz asked eagerly.
"No. You will be taking lessons from me." Darius told her.
Luz frowned; "But I can't use abomination magic…"
The man rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose; "Not on magic, Baby Bird. On decorum."
"D-Decorum!?" Luz spluttered, almost completely thrown off (the new nickname didn't help matters either).
"Indeed. You are the face of the CATTs, so many will look to you. They will not feel inspired by a skittish child, and while you seem to have a kind of natural charisma when helping others, you are still too childish! I will teach you how to carry yourself with dignity and properly function as an ambassador and dignitary. It will be important for winning over more powerful allies." Darius explained.
Luz shifted uncomfortably; "I don't know about this… isn't it better to just be natural?"
"My lessons are not going to turn you into some stuffy blue-blood or whatever nonsense words Edalyn uses for the upper crust. I will just teach you how to put a bit more class into your natural state. Even a little can go a long way when it comes to winning over allies. You grand declaration of being the "Arch-Angel of the Boiling Isles" was a good step in the right direction, but a step does not a journey make." he replied, before smirking; "And if you need further motivation, imagine how the Littlest Blight will react to seeing you act with a dash more chivalry?"
Luz blushed and asked in a small voice; "You really think Amity would like that?"
"Of course. The basis of my lessons is to help you charm our potential allies; I'm sure they'll help you charm your lady too. Remember, just because you're already together does not mean you should stop charming her!"
The young angel blushed a little deeper, then nodded; "Okay! Teach me, Professor Darius!"
"Excellent!" Darius put a hand on Luz's back and began to nudge her along, "Now my first lesson is on presentation, namely your attire. Casual and comfort are fine, but remember that looks are the first thing people will notice, so you need to make a strong impression…
[Meanwhile]
Skara caught up with Jerbo in no time, who was surprised to see her. "Skara? What's up?"
"That jerk Darius gave me the job of backing you up in the caves." Skara replied, "And we're going to show him we're not just stupid kids by doing an awesome job, got it?"
Jerbo put his hands up in surrender; "Whoa there, you'll get no arguments from me! I don't like being seen as a burden either.
Skara nodded, then calmed herself a little; "Sorry, I get a little wound up sometimes. Especially when someone implies I can't do something or I'm not good enough." she said.
Jerbo smiled and patted the younger girl's shoulder; "I've noticed. Don't worry, I understand. Half the reason I became a Magic-Mixer was me hating people telling me I can't do something! As far as I'm concerned, the only limits to my abilities are the ones I give myself!"
Skara smiled at the boy; the two had gotten off on the wrong foot when they'd first met back on Luz's first official day as a Hexside student, but after they'd apologised to each other and worked together in the bard track a few times, they'd formed a mutual respect for each other. They couldn't exactly be called friends; they were friendly acquaintances at best, primarily only being involved with each other in class or due to Luz, but they still respected each other and their skills.
The two walked down the beach to the Titan's elbow, which was beneath the elevated wrist and palm, meaning they were in perpetual shade with half the island on top of them, even before actually going into the caves! They found the Cave Surveyors' Base Camp, which consisted of several cabins built on wooden platforms constructed on the Boiling Sea, and saw a massive cave entrance on the elbow itself, which was illuminated with firefly torches and had been expanded and reinforced with wood and stone, creating what looked like the beginnings of a mine.
As the teens approached, they were stopped by Derwin, one of Raine's apprentices and a founding member of the BATTs, before they became the CATTs.
"Whoa there kids. Sorry, but the caves and base camp are off-limits to everyone but the Surveying Team. It can be dangerous here." Derwin said.
"We were sent to help the Surveyors by Head Witch Darius." Jerbo replied.
Derwin blinked in surprise; "Really? Well I suppose you handled yourselves well enough at the Conformatorium…" he stroked his chin in thought, then shrugged; "If Darius gave the okay, then I'm not going to complain; we need all the help we can get; the old veins of the wrist are expansive and full of enough skittish beasts that we could really use more bards to help calm them. You're a welcome addition, Miss Cadence."
"Thanks, Derwin." Skara smiled. She knew Derwin quite well, since he'd regularly accompanied Raine when they'd visited Cadence Manor for Bard Coven meetings with her dad. He was also the half-brother of Rogier, the boy Skara had gone to Grom with.
"Come with me to speak to Eber; they'll give you your assignment." Derwin said, turning and heading back to the Base Camp. Skara and Jerbo obediently followed him and were led to the largest of the log buildings, which served as the meeting room and headquarters for the CATTs survey team.
Upon walking inside, they found various witches and demons milling about, either checking equipment, examining minerals they'd found underground, or gathered around tables with maps on them. Eber herself was at the largest of these tables, sat on the table itself and using her claws to point at various points on a large map of the cave system, which was still incomplete. She was barking softly to the people around her while an interpreter from the Beast-Keeping Coven translated for those who couldn't understand her. Derwin led the kids right up to the table, and Eber looked up at them.
"Bassoon Bard. You bring pups?" she barked.
Derwin, who could understand them just fine, nodded; "Darius sent them to help with the Survey."
Eber raised a fluffy eyebrow, and the others around the room looked at them doubtfully, which bothered both teens. "What can Pups do?" Eber asked.
Derwin turned to the teens to ask the question again in common, but Jerbo answered automatically, able to understand Eber just as he could Barcus. He gave the same answer that he'd given to Darius, and added Skara's abilities and accomplishments as well. That seemed to impress the others in the room, who promptly went back to their business.
Eber seemed surprised and pleased by Jerbo's understanding, then said "Pups can help. Bassoon Bard, you lead Scar Song and Gerbil on survey."
Derwin nodded, while Jerbo grimaced and said; "Actually, Head Witch Eber? I'd rather not be called that. My friend Barcus, who speaks a similar language, uses this for my name." he said, before doing his best to imitate a bark.
Since the Direwolf language didn't use the same syllables as common, many people's names didn't translate well, hence the need for nicknames like Bassoon Bard and Little Light. However, similar to how users of Sign Language would have custom signs for their names, speakers of the Direwolf Language would have custom barks for their names, and Barcus had developed one for Jerbo and his other friends.
Eber nodded and repeated the bark; "Jerbo, then. Will remember that. Bassoon Bard, come look."
Derwin stepped closer to the table, bringing Jerbo and Skara with him. Eber then walked over to the part of the map that showed the veins and cave system that stretched into the forearm. The area directly below the settlement and Teleportation Circle had been fully explored already for the sake of exposing any structural weaknesses, but there were still huge swathes of the forearm's caves that have yet to be explored. Eber drew a rough circle around an empty stretch of map to the south of the settlement.
"Bassoon Bard, you take team here. Low danger, good start for Pups." Eber instructed.
"Got it. We'll gear up and head in." Derwin replied, before turning back to the kids; "We've got our assigned area, now we just need to get equipment."
Skara and Jerbo nodded, then followed Derwin out of the meeting hall and over to a supply shed, which was being guarded by a large, full-blooded Direwolf. Skara, who'd never seen one before, was terrified of the Griffin-sized wolf, who growled softly as they approached. Jerbo, who had experience with the species thanks to Barcus' Mom, just smiled and nodded politely. Derwin explained the situation and the Direwolf moved aside, allowing him to go in and grab three pre-filled backpacks.
"Here we are! Our standard surveyor's kit! Everything we could need." he said, handing a pack each to the teens.
The packs had a lantern and mining helmet attached to it with clips, and contained a canteen of water, a pickaxe and shovel for digging, and cartography tools for mapping out the areas they were exploring. There was also ration bars and some animal feed for both carnivores and herbivores.
"Why do we need all this?" Skara asked as she slung the pack over her shoulders and put on the helmet. "We're just exploring, not actually mining, right?
"Yes, but cave-ins can happen. The pickaxe and shovel are to dig ourselves out if the worst should happen, and the water and rations are to survive until rescue if we can't. The feed is also to help deal with animals." Derwin explained. "Eber arranged it so that even non-typical survey teams can get the work done, since we're limited on manpower."
"What would be a normal team?" Jerbo asked as the trio began walking to the cave entrance.
"We normally go in as teams of three or four. A Construction Witch to make sure the tunnels stay stable, a Beast-Keeper to deal with any creatures living in the caves, and a Bard to handle echolocation. Unfortunately since we don't have many allies in the Construction Coven, we've been sending Abomination Witches in their place when we have to, since the abominations can safely explore unsurveyed areas for structural weaknesses before we have to send actual people in. It's already saved a few lives from would-be cave ins." Derwin said, pulling out a copy of the map that Eber had been using. It showed all the veins and caves, as well as a few that were marked by a red X. "These are the ones that we've discovered are too dangerous to go into without reinforcing them first." he then pointed to others marked by black Xs, "And these are the ones that collapsed already."
Skara and Jerbo looked impressed; "Wow, you guys really worked out a whole system already!? It's only been like a day or two since Luz found this place!" Skara exclaimed.
Derwin smirked as he rolled up the map and stowed it in his pack. "We're not the Emperor's Coven; we can't afford to risk lives, so we prioritised safety. Besides, this is the same procedure used by mining groups; we just adapted it to work with the manpower we have available. Now lets get to work! Trust me, it'll be worth it; nothing makes dinner taste better than working down in these caves all afternoon!"
Skara and Jerbo cheered and followed Derwin into the caves. They traversed the already explored stretch of veins and arteries, which were reinforced with wood and stone pillars and lit up with lanterns and torches. Small cages containing feral fairies screeching and demanding the skin of whoever passed them were set up every now and again too, to act as an early warning system if they struck a poison gas vein. They headed eastward, through the tunnels that stretched into the upper arm, and Skara took note of several areas that were blocked off with wooden planks marked by red or black Xs, as well as a few open tunnels that had a tiny abomination guard standing outside.
"What's up with those?" she asked.
"Those are tunnels that are currently being surveyed. If something happens to the team beyond the tunnel, their abomination will run for help." Derwin explained, pulling a small purple pot from his pocket; "I have one too. Darius made them himself."
Jerbo looked at the pot with desire; "Wow… I need to ask Darius if I can study that later!"
"I'm sure he'll agree if you ask nicely. Darius seems like a strict guy, but he's pretty reasonable if you're respectful. Anyway; look alive guys, we're here!" Derwin said, leading them into a tunnel that didn't have any lanterns or support beams. "Our goal is to map out as much of these tunnels as possible until quitting time! Jerbo, you'll use plant magic to keep the tunnels stable and abominations to scout ahead; can you see through the eyes of your abominations?"
Jerbo nodded proudly; the spell to let an Abomination witch temporarily see and hear through their creations was a complicated one, and he was one of the few at Hexside who could do it! The only others he knew of were Amity Blight and a handful of seniors.
"Great! Skara, you'll be in-charge of using echolocation to locate hidden passages in the dark. Leave any beast taming to me for now, but be prepared to back me up just in case."
"Got it." Skara said, summoning the butterfly themed harp she got for her birthday.
With that, the unusual team lit their lanterns, Derwin released the Abomination from the small pot, and got to work. Skara played her harp, allowing the tune to echo down the tunnels. She kept her eyes closed and focused on the bardic magic in the notes she played, paying special attention to where they spread and how far they went before hitting something solid. This exposed every tunnel, even those that were hidden in dark crevices, and revealed which ones were shallow and which went deeper in, as well as when there were vertical shafts in the floor that they could risk falling into. They explored the shallow tunnels first to confirm there was nothing harmful, and so Jerbo could use his plant magic to grow roots to reinforce them and show that they've been explored. They even explored the vertical shafts by having Jerbo send an abomination made of earth into the shafts, attached to a vine while Jerbo saw through their eyes. The ones that were safe were noted on the map, and the ones that were either dangerous or led to other tunnels were marked with flowers to denote where they'd need to comeback to reinforce or fully explore an area. As the kids worked, Derwin maintained the map, carefully drawing out the areas they'd explored to add to the large map of the whole cave system. He'd also dealt with a small group of monsters; Goblin Land Sharks, which were little green shark-like creatures that inhabited dark places. They were timid beasts and afraid of light, so it was no effort for Derwin to keep them docile with a song on his bassoon, then mark off the area. Monster dens tended to be in dead-ends, so once they were noted, the surveyors would ignore them.
No need to chase harmless creatures from their homes after all!
After an hour of work, the trio had covered quite a bit of ground, and the caves were beginning to get a little warmer, as they got closer to the section of the upper arm that was submerged in the Boiling Sea. Derwin warned them that they wouldn't be able go too much further, as the tunnels would be flooded with boiling water.
Then they came across a very unusual sight; a large, wide tunnel that was completely full of a strange, glassy blue stone. It looked like it had partially melted then hardened again, leaving behind walls, stalagmites and stalactites of strange, bulbous stone bubbles. It looked rather pretty in the light of their lanterns.
"What is this stuff? Some kind of gemstone? Or volcanic glass?" Jerbo muttered.
"Whatever it is, I want some! This would make a great souvenir for Boscha and Dad!" Skara smiled, reaching to snap off the end of a Stalactite. Before she could touch it however, Derwin's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, pulling it away.
"Don't touch it!" he yelled urgently.
Skara yelped and pulled her hand away; "Okay okay! Geez, I was just gonna take a little… is it something super valuable to the CATTs?" she asked.
"No, it's Fool's Blood. Titan Blood that lost its magic and coagulated. It signifies a decaying vein. It's fragile and if you break even a little, all of it will crumble and the tunnel will collapse on our heads." Derwin said. They'd already suffered several cave-ins because of it. "We need to report this. You go back to the entrance of the caves, I'll follow behind after I've checked how deep this goes."
The teens nodded, now feeling very nervous to be so close to such dangerous stuff. They hurried out of the tunnel as quickly and cautiously as they could, retreating back to the last fork in the path.
"Okay, so pretty blue rocks equal crazy death blood! Good to know!" Skara commented. "Let's head down this path instead."
She pointed to the other path leading off from the fork which, based on her echolocation, went even deeper than the Fool's Blood path. She began to hum as she walked down it, but Jerbo stopped her.
"Wait Skara, we should wait for Derwin to come back." he said worriedly.
Skara frowned; "Why? There's only one other path, so he can catch up easily enough. I want to get back to work and show Darius that we're awesome and whatever job he gives us!"
Jerbo crossed his arms; "You can't prove Head Witch Darius wrong about teenagers if you rush off like a dumb teenager! That would just prove he shouldn't have trusted us to be responsible! Remember, this is a serious rebel organisation and we're doing important work! Mapping this place out helps keep the island safe, which keeps the rebels safe, which keeps the Boiling Isles safe! If we play around, we'll get kicked out!"
Skara opened her mouth to argue, but soon thought better of it and instead stopped in her tracks, choosing to pout as she leaned against the cave wall; "Fine… I'm sorry. I just want to help out Luz and Raine."
"Me too." Jerbo said, leaning against the wall beside her, "You're the type to throw yourself fully into everything you do. I understand."
"Think you've worked out some of my character quirks, do you?" Skara grinned; "Hoping to unlock my tragic backstory?"
Jerbo raised an eyebrow at her, making her giggle; "Sorry, just some lingo I picked up from Luz. She's been showing me these human things called "video games". I don't really get it, but there are some awesome soundtracks!"
"Interesting. But what was that bit about tragic backstories?" Jerbo asked.
Skara put a finger to her lips; "Oh no Mister, no secrets from me. Unless you want to tell me your tragic backstory first?"
Jerbo snorted; "Sorry to disappoint, but my life hasn't been all that bad. I've got a great family with parents who love and support me, and a few really good friends. My biggest problems in life were getting thrown into the Detention Track and some kids bullying me for being a skinny little nerd." he said with a shrug; "But now there's an official Multi-Track course and no one picks on me after hearing about the Greater Basilisk fight. Life is pretty good."
"Well that's good." Skara said, before a thought came to her. She sheepishly asked; "Uh, was I one of the kids who bullied you?"
"Not unless you count our first meeting when you came to "save" Luz from Detention. And that was both of us being jerks." the boy replied; "I'm surprised you wouldn't remember if you picked on me."
Skara frowned; "I wasn't the nicest girl. I picked on a lot of people… Pretty much everyone who wasn't in our clique, actually. Some got it worse than others, like poor Willow."
Jerbo hummed; he was tempted to make a comment, but Skara seemed genuinely remorseful about her past actions. Instead he asked; "Have you apologised to them?"
"Some, yeah. But I, uh, don't remember a lot of the worst of it. I guess it didn't matter enough to me at the time. It was just a part of the routine." Skara admitted, looking even more downcast.
"The fact that you're trying is a big deal. You should-"
Skara's eyes suddenly widened and she pressed a finger to Jerbo's lips while a finger on her other hand went to her own lips, miming a shush. She then looked down the tunnel Jerbo had stopped her going down. Jerbo, puzzled, tried to see or hear whatever caught Skara's attention, but he couldn't detect anything.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"A voice, from further down the tunnel." Skara whispered back, her ears wiggling as she focused on the sound.
"But no one is supposed to be in this area but us. Maybe Derwin found another connection between the blood tunnel and this one, and is doubling back?" Jerbo suggested.
Skara shook her head; "No… it's a female voice. One I think I recognise… and another familiar female voice too. One of them sounds like… Kikimora!?"
Jerbo's eyes widened; "The Emperor's assistant!? No way!?" he whispered urgently.
Skara nodded; "I'm sure of it! I heard her talk enough on that tour of the castle, and on stage at the Petrification! I'm certain that's her voice!"
Jerbo gulped; "We should go get Derwin, or run back to base camp to warn Head Witch Eber."
"No. There's no chance Kikimora got on the island, not with Luz being the only way on or off. It must be a spy talking to her! We need to find out who!" Skara whispered back, silently rushing down the tunnel.
Jerbo blinked in surprise and yelled after her. He wanted to follow her, but felt it was a bad idea to go traipsing through the dark after an unknown enemy. After a minute or arguing with himself, he shook his head ruefully and hurried after her.
Meanwhile, Skara ran down the dark tunnel, dimming her lantern until she could just barely see, just in case the light drew the spy's attention. She eventually came to a small shaft in the ground that had a soft light coming out of it, so the girl turned off her lantern altogether and peered into the shaft, which was just two metres deep and about a metre wide.
Inside was a figure, largely concealed by the darkness, holding a Comm-pact, which was the source of the soft light. Kikimora was the person on the mirror's surface, and she was yelling angrily.
"Need I remind you of your one and only job!? You are supposed to get us information on the rebels! So why are you refusing to do your job!?" Kikimora snapped.
"I'm not refusing, I'm physically incapable!" the spy snapped back, a distinctly feminine voice that Skara recognised, but almost couldn't believe.
"How are you incapable!? You have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mouth to speak! You have everything you need!" Kikimora yelled.
"And I can't speak because I was forced to take an Everlasting Oath! The angel is cautious; she and the rebels force all members to take an oath that prevents us from knowingly giving away our secrets to anyone outside of the organisation! I'm only barely skirting it to tell you this much, and it only works because the oath itself isn't a secret, nor is the fact that the angel is involved!" the spy explained impatiently. "I've got tons of information, but I can't say a word about it! I can't even write it down!"
Kikimora sneered; "I need that information! I've been relegated to serving that stuck-up silver brat and her irritating golden doppelganger, and that information could finally see me rise back to my proper station! Your future is dependent on it too!"
"Well unless you can think of a way for me to give these secrets without breaking the oath, we're both out of luck!"
Kikimora went silent for a second, before saying; "Continue your spying mission. Once you return, report to the Emperor's Castle and we can use Mind Exploration Magic to get the information directly from your head. Since you're not giving us the information, it shouldn't trigger the oath!"
The Spy nodded; "That should work. I'll go straight away and-"
Before Skara had a chance to hide herself, the spy looked up to climb out of the shaft, coming face to face with the girl. Both of them were illuminated only by the dim light given off by the Comm-pact, but it was enough for both to recognise each other.
"K-Katya!?" Skara gasped. She'd recognised the voice of Raine's apprentice and one of the founding BATTs members, but she'd honestly thought she'd been mistaken. Now that she was face to face with the woman, she couldn't say that any more.
Katya looked up at Skara with shock, which quickly melted into outrage. "I've been spotted! Someone overhead our conversation!" she yelled.
Kikimora's voice shrieked over the Comm-pact; "Destroy them! Don't let your cover be blown!"
Skara paled and scrambled to her feet before turning and running back the way she came. She was confident in her skills as a Bard, but she wasn't so confident that she could take on an adult witch trained by Raine! She heard Katya climbing out of the shaft and giving chase, both rushing through the dark without their lanterns, fearing that the other would be able to more easily spot them if they made any light.
As they neared a fork in the dark tunnel, Skara took a gamble and whistled sharply, using Bardic magic to create a flash bang effect. She'd closed her eyes before hand and deafened her ears with Bardic magic, so when the effect went off, she was able to keep running without worry, and when she restored her hearing, she heard Katya's voice screaming and cursing a few dozen paces behind her. With the spy momentarily distracted, Skara stopped running and picked up a loose stone on the ground, before pressed herself against the cave wall and waiting in total silence. When Katya recovered from the shock of the flash bang and continued running, reaching the fork, she paused and looked back and forth, sniffing the air.
"Which way did she go…?" the spy asked.
Skara then threw the stone she'd picked up down the tunnel she didn't want to go down, drawing Katya's attention. "There!" she snarled, beginning to run in the direction she'd heard the stone clattering to the ground. The younger bard waited a few seconds for Katya to disappear down the tunnel, then sighed with relief and continued running back to the others.
Before she reached the fork where she'd left Jerbo, Skara found the boy wandering towards her, trying to find which direction she'd taken when she'd raced off. He looked up upon hearing her running and smiled with relief.
"Skara! There you are! What were you thinking running off like that!?"
"No time for that Jerbo! I found the spy! It's Katya! She was talking to Kikimora!" Skara yelled, not slowing her pace and instead grabbing Jerbo's wrist as she ran past him, dragging him along.
"Katya!? No way! She couldn't be a spy!" Jerbo protested.
"I heard AND saw her! Unfortunately she also saw me and is after me. We need to find Derwin ASAP!"
Jerbo still looked doubtful, but he wasn't going to take risks here. "Follow me; I found another way into the Fool's Blood Tunnel while I was looking for you."
He then lead her down a series of short twists and turns which emerged into the long tunnel filled with the dangerous Fool's Blood. They both made their lanterns as bright as they could so they could see all the blood and wouldn't crash into it, then looked around for signs of Derwin, eventually finding him slowly mapping out the end of the tunnel.
"Derwin!" Skara yelled as she ran over to him, "Derwin, I found a spy!"
The man blinked in surprise; "What!? A spy!? What are you talking about!?"
"It's Katya! I saw her talking to Kikimora on a Comm-pact, she's-"
Before Skara could finish her sentence, she felt something bounce off her thigh and frowned, looking down to see a tiny pebble had hit her. Jerbo and Derwin both looked at it too, before paling as they noticed the blue colour of the pebble. Their eyes trailed up to a stalagmite beside Skara, the tip of which had broken off.
Something had disturbed the Fool's Blood.
Time moved almost in slow motion as the trio watched the stalagmite crack and break apart, decaying rapidly and causing a chain reaction that made all the other Fool's Blood begin to crack and crumble. The tunnel shook as it became unstable, and large chunks of the ceiling began to rain down on them.
"OUT! NOW!" Derwin yelled, conjuring his Bassoon and playing a loud note to blast away some of the rubble about to land on their heads. Skara and Jerbo turned on their heels and ran for the closest exit from the tunnel, only to find it caved in and forcing them to find another. Jerbo began using some of the softer earth of the crumbling tunnel to create large abominations, reinforced with vine skeletons and bark armour, which he ordered to shield them as they made their escape. They reached the opening of the tunnel, the same one they'd first entered through, and saw that it too had begun to cave in. With no other ways out, Skara summoned her harp and strummed it, creating a sharp tone that sent sonic blades into the blockage, shattering it and allowing the trio to escape.
Barely a moment after all three had escaped the tunnel, Jerbo's abominations blocked the entrance to the collapsing tunnel with their bodies, and after a few seconds, the caves stopped shaking and only the sounds of their frantic panting and small rocks clattering to the ground filled the air.
"T-That was too close!" Jerbo gasped.
"I'll say!" Derwin said, sighing deeply with relief before turning to look at Skara with annoyance; "I told you to be careful!"
"I didn't touch anything, I swear!" Skara yelled, before shaking her head; "Besides, that doesn't matter! Derwin, I saw Katya talking to Kikimora! She's a spy!"
Derwin's eyes widened; "Katya? Impossible! She'd never be a spy! She's a founding member of the BATTs before we became the CATTs! She has more reason to hate the Emperor's Coven than me or Amber, since they imprisoned her unjustly! Skara, she was instrumental in both Conformatorium prison breaks! Aside from Luz and Raine, she's probably the one most responsible for growing the CATTs as big as it is!"
"I know what I saw, Derwin! I saw her face AND heard her voice!" Skara yelled seriously. "In fact, I bet the spy was the one to cause that cave-in! She was chasing me through the tunnels and I felt a pebble hit my leg right before the Fool's Blood starting breaking!"
Derwin looked extremely doubtful, and even Jerbo was looking at her with unsure eyes. Neither fully believed Skara was right, but nor did they think she was lying, and when it came to a potential spy, they couldn't take any risks. Even if she was mistaken, they had to investigate.
"Let's get back to the surface and talk to the bosses; they'll know what to do." Derwin said, leaving no room for argument. Skara and Jerbo both nodded in agreement and the three of them ran down the tunnels they'd mapped back into the previously explored areas, before finally leaving the cave system entirely. As soon as they were out in fresh air again, they headed to the HQ of the Surveyor Base Camp, where Eber was still working and adding newly explored tunnels to the master map she'd been making.
"Head Witch Eberwolf, we have a disturbing report! Skara here believes she encountered one of our people spying on us for Kikimora." Derwin said, before reluctantly adding; "It's Katya."
Eber, whose expression had become serious, raised a doubtful eyebrow at that. But then she nodded solemnly and summoned her scroll and began making calls. Skara didn't understand a word she said, but Jerbo quietly informed her that Eber was calling Darius, Raine, and Eda, arranging to meet them in the new meeting hall built in the village, since HQ still wasn't fit for use yet. None had sounded amused when Eber explained the situation to them, but had nonetheless agreed to meet, with Darius promising to apprehend Katya and bring her to the meeting too. Skara wondered how he planned to do that, but she assumed it would involve sending his abominations into the tunnels.
Once the calls were finished, Eber ordered the trio to follow her back to the village, where they immediately headed to the Meeting Hall. The hall was built to resemble the architecture of Bonesborough (like many of the buildings in the growing village), and the interior resembled the Paranoratorium at Hexside, with an elevated stage and several rows of seating in front of it ,and a long table with numerous chairs behind it up on the stage itself, which would be where the leaders of the CATTs would sit as they addressed their members. When Skara and the others entered, they discovered they were the last to arrive; Raine, Lilith, Eda, and Darius were muttering lowly to one another, and Luz was stood off to the side with King and, shockingly, Katya.
Skara gasped upon seeing the witch (who was being watched, but not restrained by a large Abomination); how had she gotten here so quickly!? Had she found some other exit from the caves!?
Darius looked up upon seeing Eber and the trio enter, his face grim and unamused. He gestured for them to all step up onto the stage with the others, then once they had, he said; "Right, we're all here. Explain this "Spy" you claim to have found." he ordered, looking at Derwin.
The young man shook his head and said; "I never actually saw this spy. Skara was the one to find and report them to us."
Everyone turned to Skara, and Darius raised an eyebrow; "In that case, you explain." he ordered.
"I saw Katya talking to Kikimora on a Comm-pact down in the tunnels." Skara said, glaring at the woman, "She was talking about how to get around the oath to reveal the information she'd learned from the CATTs!"
Luz and King gasped, while the adults all looked between each other with a mix of surprise and doubt. Katya just looked like she'd been blind-sided. "W-What!? No! I would never do that! I swear, you've got it all wrong!"
"Skara, are you absolutely certain of what you saw?" Raine asked, "There's no way you could be mistaken?"
Skara shook her head; "I never forget a voice, and I saw her face with my own eyes!"
Eda and Lilith both exchanged looks, then turned to keep their eyes on Katya, who was becoming more and more distressed as she pleaded her innocence. Neither Clawthorne looked convinced by either side of the story, but they weren't going to take risks. Raine looked far more doubtful, and Darius looked outright disbelieving, but it was Luz's reaction that surprised Skara most; the young angel was actually standing almost protectively in front of Katya. She appeared conflicted, but didn't move away from the woman.
Raine silenced everyone with a whistle, then turned back to Skara and said; "Tell us everything that happened down in the tunnels. Leave nothing out." they ordered.
Skara was a bit surprised to see such a serious and stern side from the usually gentle Raine, but she obeyed them anyway and accurately reported everything that happened from the moment they entered the cave system to the moment they left it, including the full details of her run-in with the spy, her escape, and the cave-in that she insisted was caused by the spy throwing a stone at the Fool's Blood beside her in an attempt to bury her, Derwin, and Jerbo alive.
Naturally, Katya vehemently denied all of this, and insisted she was innocent. Darius, who still looked disbelieving of Skara's story, looked to Jerbo and asked; "Did you see or hear any of this?"
Jerbo reluctantly shook his head; "No sir. Skara said she heard Kikimora's voice talking to someone, then raced off down the tunnel. By the time I found the path she'd taken and caught up to her, she was already running back from her encounter."
Darius hummed then asked; "And neither you nor Derwin saw anyone else before the cave-in happened?"
Jerbo and Derwin both shook their heads, before Derwin added; "At first, I thought Skara accidentally disturbed the Fool's Blood. She was gesturing pretty enthusiastically as she mentioned a spy, so I thought she might have accidentally knocked some of the Fool's Blood off of the stalagmite beside her. It wasn't until we escaped that Skara mentioned feeling a pebble hit her leg."
"Did either of you see a pebble hit her?" Lilith asked.
Again, both shook their heads; "The only pebble I saw was made of Fool's Blood." Jerbo said.
Darius looked unimpressed; "So we have no evidence at all besides the word of one girl? A girl who raced off on her own after initially trying to go off alone and being stopped, and who may have caused a nearly lethal cave-in?"
Skara growled; "I'm not lying! I know what I saw!"
"And we know what we saw." Darius said with narrowed eyes, walking over to stand beside Katya and Luz.
"Luz! You believe me, right?" Skara asked. Luz grimaced, and Skara felt her heart drop; "Y-You… you don't believe me?" she said, shocked.
Luz quickly said; "It's not that I think you're lying! It's just… you have to be wrong."
"Indeed. Because what we saw was Katya being with us for the last hour!" Darius said, completely unimpressed.
Skara's eyes widened; "W-What!?"
Luz nodded; "It's true. Darius has been teaching me how to be diplomatic and charming, and grabbed Katya when she was coming back from her Lunch break so I'd have someone to practice on." she explained; "She was with us the whole time!"
"B-But I don't understand! I saw her!" Skara stuttered out. How could Katya have been with Luz the whole time if she'd seen her down in the tunnels!?
"If you really saw me down there, then it was an imposter." Katya said, calming down a little now that she knew she had an airtight alibi. "I won't go down into the caves; after getting locked up the first time, I'm not a big fan of dark, cramped spaces."
Everyone exchanged looks, with Lilith eventually saying; "If Skara is telling the truth, then the Katya she saw must have been an illusion or some kind of transformation."
Raine nodded in agreement; "An illusion good enough to make someone both look AND sound like someone else would require a very skilled illusionist."
"We don't have any members of the Illusion Coven currently on the island." Darius said, "So if the girl is telling the truth, it means it has to be either a Wild Witch or one of the Emperor's Coven defectors."
"No way would any Wild Witch side with Belos." Eda pointed out.
"Not unless he was threatening someone they cared about." Luz added, "I wouldn't put it past him."
The group muttered amongst themselves for a moment, wondering how to go about investigating the spy. Darius still had his doubts about Skara's story; he thought it was more likely that Skara had made the whole story up to excuse running off on her own despite Jerbo telling her not to, then almost causing the cave-in. Katya had been picked as a random scapegoat since she was one of the CATTs Skara knew and could identify, but also one that could be easily proven innocent so she wouldn't get into any real trouble. It genuinely wouldn't surprise the Abomination Coven Head; he'd heard pettier stories from some of the snobbish brats who joined his coven, fresh from school.
However, even with his strong doubts, Darius wasn't willing to voice them or dismiss the story completely, as if there really was a spy, then letting them roam free could be dangerous.
"How do we go about investigating? There are collectively about three dozen Wild Witches and Emperor's Coven defectors currently on the island, and if the girl's story is true, then they could be in disguise, so we don't even know for certain if they'd be among those two groups. We'd need to gather everyone on the island in one place, then disperse any illusions before giving everyone Blabber Serum." Darius stated.
"We don't have nearly enough serum." Lilith said. "But I could start making some; I know the recipe and I think we have the ingredients in our stores."
"I can help!" Luz volunteered.
"Me too! Eda's already been teaching me potions all afternoon!" King also volunteered.
Eda nodded; "Between Lilith, myself, and the kids, we should be able to make enough by dinner time. That'd be the best bet."
"So we spike the food with Blabber Serum?" Skara asked.
Raine shook their head; "No, that would be a bad idea. It would damage everyone's trust in us as leaders if we force it on all of them. We'll just use dinner as an excuse to get everyone together. We're trying to keep this place secret and safe, so we keep a careful record of everyone who comes and goes from the island, which means we'll be able to tell immediately if someone is missing. Once they're together, we'll dispel any illusions then explain the situation and ask everyone to take Blabber Serum one at a time."
That was met with agreement from everyone, and the meeting soon broke up. Eber decided to take Derwin back to the Surveyor Base Camp and order a halt to all cave surveys for the day. They kept records of the people who went into the caves just like they did for the island itself, so closing the caves for the day and checking the people who came out would hopefully let them catch anyone not supposed to be there, or expose anyone with a doppelganger. The Clawthorne sisters took Luz and King to the potions laboratory that had been built in the village so they could get to work on the Blabber Serum, while Raine planned to take Katya with them on an inspection of the village, since the young woman was still a bit shaken by the accusation and the idea that a traitor had used her face.
Before the two could leave, Skara approached Katya and said; "I'm sorry for accusing you like that. I didn't want to believe you were a traitor, but I couldn't doubt my eyes and ears."
Katya smiled; "I forgive you, Skara. If I'd been in your place and had seen the spy disguising themselves as you, I'd have probably done the same thing. No hard feelings, okay?"
"Yeah! Thanks Katya. By the way…" Skara leaned in with a conspiratorial grin; "… when is the next chapter of your story going to be done? Leek and Onion were just about to face off for Green Bean's love! I've got to see who wins! I haven't been this invested in a pairing since Lumity!"
Katya grinned; "All good things come to those who wait. It'll be a few days yet."
Skara pouted, but then smiled and waved to the older girl as she left with Raine. That left just Darius, Jerbo, and herself together in the meeting hall.
"So what should we do? The caves are closed… maybe I could go help Luz? I'm not a potions student, but Boscha taught me a few tricks." Skara wondered aloud.
"You will be assisting me. I have paperwork that needs doing for my coven." Darius said, deciding to keep Skara where he could see her just in case his earlier impression of her was correct. He looked to Jerbo and said "Jerbo, was it? You can help the brewing team. Use that plant magic of yours to help grow the ingredients, so our entire stock isn't wasted."
Skara pouted but didn't argue (Darius already looked annoyed with the whole situation, and she didn't want to add to it), while Jerbo reluctantly nodded and watched as Darius escorted Skara away to wherever he kept his paperwork. He was a bit confused by why Darius would ask him to help the potion brewers; Skara was the one who had some experience, while he was the one who would be interested in helping with Abomination Coven business. He didn't buy the excuse about the plants, since Luz and King would be able to use glyph magic to make them far more easily than he could. He thought about it as he left to meet up with the brewing team, and the more he went over the details of the meeting, the more his confusion turned into annoyance.
He'd noticed that Darius always framed the spy incident as "the girl's story" and questioned its veracity. It didn't take much thinking after that for Jerbo to realise that Darius didn't believe Skara, and was probably having her do paperwork with him as some kind of thinly veiled punishment or to keep an eye on her.
Jerbo scowled; that didn't sit right with him. He'd had his issues with Skara, but he didn't believe for an instant that she'd lie, especially about something important. The quiet moment they'd shared, in which Skara had spoken of her regrets, made Jerbo certain of that. These thoughts refused to leave his mind, even as he met up with Luz and the rest of the Clawthornes so he could help them with the brewing.
Brewing with the Clawthornes was an interesting experience, and definitely helped Jerbo's mood improve even if they didn't take his mind off of Darius and Skara. Luz hummed and sang as they brewed, while Lilith and Eda bickered and teased one another whilst arguing over precise measurements and methods, all while King sat at his own little cauldron in the corner, throwing together the ingredients of the Blabber Serum like a child playing with their dinner yet still somehow making it correctly. It was almost surreal for the boy, who stuck close to Luz during that process. She helpfully walked him through how to prepare and combine the ingredients, and Jerbo actually managed to make a cauldron of Blabber Serum for himself! Luz proved to be a pretty good teacher!
But still, his mind wandered until he eventually asked for a break and went for a walk down on the beach. Something was still bothering him about the spy situation; had that fake Katya really just been an illusion? Jerbo was no Illusionist, but even he knew that creating an illusion that made one look AND sound like someone else was not that easy, and the fact it had fooled even Skara's sharp ears meant the user was very skilled. Jerbo knew talent like that was very rare; Gus, Edric, and Emira were the only people he knew who were that good, and all three could be reasonably called prodigies.
Suddenly, Lilith's words came to him; "If Skara is telling the truth, then the Katya she saw must have been an illusion or some kind of transformation."
Jerbo gasped; that was it! Now he knew why the situation was bothering him! It was familiar! Now he had a hunch, and if his hunch was right, everyone on the island was in massive danger! Bringing everyone together at dinner would be a potential disaster!
Urgently, he grabbed his scroll and called a friend, thanking his lucky stars that she'd come to the island earlier; "Viney? It's Jerbo; sorry to bother you but I've got a question about beasts…"
[Later that Evening]
It was a great relief to Skara when she heard the loud announcement that an island-wide dinner was about to be held out on the beach. She'd been stuck in an office attached to the meeting hall, helping Darius do paperwork all afternoon and it was the most mind-numbingly boring task she'd ever been saddled with. It was all work for the Abomination Coven too, so it wasn't even helping the CATTs (beyond keeping Darius' cover), which made it all the more frustrating. Darius had also been rather dull company, saying "We're not here for idle chit-chat." whenever she tried to fill the silence.
She actually sighed with joyous relief when the announcement came (posts with Demonic Speaker Horns were set up in all the populated areas to act as an island wide alert system), asking everyone to come down to the beach for a large communal dinner, meant as a celebration for the establishment of their new base.
Darius looked up from his work and said; "Well, time to see if this story of yours is true after all."
Skara frowned; "It is! This will prove it!"
"Let's just hope we don't lose the trust of our people by pulling this stunt. You realise that if there is no spy, everyone is going to be looking at you as the problem." Darius warned.
"What is your problem with me!? What have I done to tick you off so much!?" Skara demanded, finally losing her temper.
Darius stood from his desk and walked towards the door; "I dislike children who get too big for their britches, especially when they've had a silver spoon in their mouths since birth. You are smug in your abilities… perhaps rightly so, but until you show you are as skilled as you claim to be and not here solely because of your connections to Luz, Raine, or Severin, I have no patience for it. I have enough of a headache dealing with the Little Prince, without adding a Little Princess to that."
Skara frowned; "You'll see! You'll see that I'm not just some spoiled princess! I'm not some rotten brat! Not any more…"
Darius raised an eyebrow; "Is that so? Then let us go catch us a spy, Little Cadence."
With that he swept out of the room, his cape fluttering as he went. Skara followed a moment behind, desperately hoping everything would go well. The two left the meeting hall and headed down to the beach, where they found a trio of long tables had been set out, as well as two long benches for each one. Plates and cutlery had been set up, and a field kitchen had been assembled nearby, where a group of CATTs with culinary skills had whipped up a delicious smelling meal, with different dishes to suit the myriad of different tastes. People were arriving from all corners of the island to take seats at one of the tables, while Abominations made of sand and grass served everyone drinks in anticipation of a toast.
Skara recognised the Abominations as Jerbo's work, and spotted the boy talking quietly to Luz, King, and Eda. She walked over to them and smiled.
"Hey guys. I hope your afternoon was more fun than mine." Skara greeted with a weary smile.
Luz gave her a hug; "I'm sorry you got stuck doing paperwork with Darius! He can be a real task master and perfectionist!" she said, remembering her own brief lessons with him earlier. "But don't worry, he'll be eating his words soon enough."
"I hope so. I know what I saw… but what if no one believes me?" Skara asked, beginning to feel insecure.
"Don't you worry, kid." Eda grinned, "Jerbo here came up with a little plan. If dispelling illusions won't reveal the spy, then his idea should."
"Yeah! We've been brewing all afternoon to get it done!" King cheerfully added; "It was way more fun than Blabber Serum! For bonus points, we got to stick Lilith with making the actual Blabber Serum!"
The little Titan high-fived a cackling Eda, while Luz put her hands on her hips; "I know you're still mad at Lilith, and you have a right to be, but do you have to give her so much grief when she's trying her best to make up for it?"
"Luz, she cursed me and handed you over to Belos." Eda deadpanned.
"I know… I just feel bad for her, you know? She's trying to make up for her mistakes. That should mean something." Luz frowned, blushing slightly.
Skara rolled her eyes with a smile; "There's that bleeding heart of yours again. You really need to get that looked at, you know?"
Eda and King chuckled while Luz stuck her tongue out, making Skara smirk and say; "Save that for Amity."
Eda cackled and Luz went beet red, while King just looked confused. As the trio of Clawthornes dealt with that situation, Skara turned to Jerbo; "So what is this plan of yours?"
Jerbo grinned and tapped the side of his nose; "That's a little surprise. Trust me though; if my hunch is right, then we won't even need Blabber Serum! And even if I'm wrong, we still have the original plan."
Now Skara felt even more curious, but she decided to respect Jerbo's wish to keep it as a surprise. After a few minutes, everyone had arrived and taken seats at their benches, with only a few spaces left at the head of the middle table, which was meant for the CATTs' leaders, King, Skara, Jerbo, and Lilith, and at the other ends of the three tables, meant for the cooks. Raine walked over to Eda and Luz and said; "Everyone is present and accounted for. Every person who stepped through that Teleportation Circle today is here. If there is a spy, they're here."
"Show time! You ready, kids?" Eda grinned.
Luz nodded and handed King to Skara, "You guys take a seat with Lilith. We "leaders" are going to make a little speech first." she said, making air quotes with her fingers when she called herself a leader. It wasn't a title she felt she deserved after all, but she wasn't going to question what people wanted.
Skara, King, and Jerbo nodded, then went over to Lilith and joined her in their seats, while Luz went with Eda and Raine. They joined Darius and Eber, who were stood in front of the tables, and the five leaders stood together in a line. Darius raised a glass and tapped it with a little fork, getting everyone's attention like he was at a fancy dinner.
"Everyone, may I have your attention please?" he requested, causing a hush to come over the CATTs. "We are gathered here today in celebration of the successful establishment of our new home base. A place were we can be safe from Belos and his tyranny, while fighting so that those on the Boiling Isles may also enjoy such safety. While not all of our number could be here this evening, it is thanks to each and everyone of us that this haven has been constructed so quickly! In just two days, we have created a home on this once undiscovered island. Please join me in giving thanks to the Titan to whom this land once belonged."
Darius handed his glass and fork to an abomination servant, then put his hands together. Everyone else mimicked the gesture and offered a prayer of thanks to the Titan of the Island, with Luz and King especially wishing them peace wherever their soul had ended up. After that solemn moment, Eda spoke up (since not everyone could understand Eber and Raine was still too shy for public displays like this).
"Now that we've given our thanks, it's time to get down to business! And by business, I mean party! We've got some good eats today, to celebrate a job well done! To go with that celebration, my apprentice here is going to treat you all to a nice little song before we eat!" Eda grinned, nodding to Luz.
The girl smiled nervously and gave a short curtsey to the gathered CATTs, all of whom were curious to hear an Arch-Angel's song, especially since it was known she was in the bard track at Hexside. Raine summoned their Palisman in violin form while Eda summoned an old cittern, and the two began to play a song together; one that the few Bards in the crowd (namely Skara, Katya, Amber, and Derwin) recognised as the Revealing Revel; a bardic song that dispelled illusions. Luz began to sing the rarely heard words to the song, and everyone relaxed and enjoyed the pleasant song. Skara enjoyed it also, but like Darius and Eber, her eyes were focused on the crowd, scanning them for any signs of changing appearances. A few people changed slightly, becoming a bit more unkempt looking as their Concealment Stones malfunctioned for a moment (thankfully most people were too into the song to notice), but no one changed enough for the illusions to be an attempt at hiding their identities. When the song came to an end, Skara found herself being disappointed for two reasons; the end of the music, and the lack of a spy reveal. She bit her lip nervously as she looked back at the others, catching Darius' eye as the man kept a painfully blank expression.
There was a round of applause as Luz, Eda, and Raine all bowed to their audience. When she straightened up again, the still blushing Luz smiled at everyone and said; "Thank you all. I hope our short performance was a nice opening to the wonderful meal we've prepared! Now as one last thing before we eat, I'd like to propose a toast with something special!"
She nodded to Jerbo, and the boy subtly cast a spell, causing several of his soil abominations to come running out from the kitchen area holding bottles of some kind of purple liquid. It looked almost like wine of some kind, but as the abominations began to serve it to everyone, Luz explained; "This is something that my Mom, Brother, and I cooked up together! It uses a rare fruit that is quite expensive these days; usually only the stuffed shirt nobles who serve Belos get to eat it or drink wine made from it, but King and I were able to grow some! We only made juice though, we didn't want everyone getting sloshed before the meal could start!" Luz joked.
There were some good natured chuckles from the CATTs as everyone's glasses were filled. A few people looked slightly worried about the purple juice, but Luz helpfully reassured them; "Don't worry; the juice isn't harmful to any species of Witch or Demons. It won't hurt you no matter who or what you are!"
Coming from an angel, everyone had no choice but to believe her, so they held their glasses high as Luz and the CATTs leaders raised their own.
"A toast! To the CATTs!" Luz declared.
"TO THE CATTS!" everyone cheered, before as one, they all lifted their glasses to their lips and took a sip.
Skara smacked her lips, finding the fruity liquid to be quite sweet with a hint of tartness. The taste was reminiscent of diluted Apple Blood, with a rich berry flavour mixed in that was a mix of Demon Realm Scareberries and Human Realm Raspberries (which had begun being cultivated in the Demon Realm, after Eda had brought some through years ago). Skara found it quite tasty, and that was the general consensus among the CATTs.
Once everyone had taken a sip, Luz smiled widely and gestured for Jerbo to stand up and join her. "I hope you all enjoyed that! Now that we've all had some, I'm sure you're all wondering why we decided to give you this little taste. Well to explain it, let me introduce you all to Jerbo Nelumbo, the son of Councilman Cal Nelumbo; he's one of the pioneers of the Multi-Track Program at Hexside, and was the one to suggest this particular fruit. He'll tell you all about it!"
Luz stepped back and allowed Jerbo to stand in front of the curious crowd with a grin. "Good evening everyone. Don't worry, I'm sure you won't be kept from your evening meals for much longer. I wanted to take a moment to properly introduce the juice that the Clawthorne family made for you all. It is a pure juice extract made from a rare fruit called Newtangerines. They're a purple, citrus fruit that is quite rare in the modern era, but in the ancient past it was a famous fruit whose juice was given by witches and demons to their guests when welcoming them into their home. It seemed appropriate to toast our new home!"
There were some cheers and shouts of agreement from the CATTs, who were in largely good spirits. Jerbo grinned wider; "But the reason this juice was given was because in those ancient days, this fruit was known by two other names. The first is Glamour Rot. You can probably guess what it does based on that name, but if not, the second name will make it clear…"
As he spoke, one of the Emperor's Coven Defectors began to shiver, feeling a sudden chill spread through their body. Steve and the other defectors turned to look at them, since it was a warm evening and it seemed odd for someone to be shivering. The defector in question was even wearing their full uniform still, minus the mask, revealing their face which was that of a fairly plain maroon haired witch. He shuddered more, and to the shock of everyone around him, his skin began to turn slimy and scaly, while darkening to a reddish brown.
Jerbo took notice and finished his sentence with a vindicated grin; "That second name? It's Basilisk's Bane! It's juice isn't poisonous, but it reacts with a Basilisk's stomach acid in a way that temporarily neutralises all magic inside them, including their ability to disguise themselves and devour magic! It was given as a welcome drink in an era in which Basilisks disguising themselves to infiltrate people's homes was a common occurrence!"
Everyone around the slowly transforming Emperor's Coven Defector jumped to their feet and backed off, terrified of having their magic devoured by the Basilisk the Defector had been revealed to be. An uproar came across the CATTs as Jerbo joined Luz, King, and the CATTs Leaders in rushing forward to surround the Basilisk.
"Don't worry, everyone! It can't eat your magic at the moment! Not while the juice is still in its body!" Jerbo shouted. That reassured people, but not enough to risk getting close to the thought-to-be extinct creature. Only Skara and Lilith actually stepped forward to join them.
The Basilisk had transformed fully back into their own form now, revealing themselves to be a large, serpentine creature, quite a bit smaller than Subject Zero; the Greater Basilisk but also a fair bit bigger than Vee. It's scales were a dull reddish brown, with some mottled light creamy brown patches around its mouth and underbelly, while its hair and fins were a similarly dull maroon colour. Unlike Vee, its eyes were oblong shaped and a swampy green, with no irises and only wide pupils like a frog's. Its ears were similar to Vee's, though longer and droopier, and its face was slightly longer and more serpentine with no real discernible neck between it and its torso. As the creature had transformed back, its clothes had disappeared since they were part of its disguise, causing an Emperor's Coven Comm-Pact to fall out of its pocket, which Luz immediately snagged and held aloft
"See!? I was right! There WAS a spy!" Skara cheered, feeling totally vindicated.
Jerbo nodded; "After the meeting earlier, something about this whole situation was bothering me. I couldn't think of anyone on the island who could be a traitor and was that good at Illusion magic, so I thought it might be something different! It felt familiar, and then I remembered the incident at school with the fake inspector! Luz had told me and our other friends about the other Basilisks made by the Emperor's Coven, so I realised that the spy could be one of those Basilisks! That's why I called Viney to ask about how to neutralise their powers!"
Raine, who hadn't been in on the Juice plot (only Jerbo, Luz, King, and Eda had been), gasped as they realised something; "Our original plan was to find the spy by gathering everyone together and asking them to take Blabber Serum! But if the spy was a Basilisk, they could have felt cornered and immediately started eating everyone's magic before we could fight back! We'd be caught unawares and potentially helpless!"
"It could have been the end of the CATTs!" Lilith exclaimed.
Those words had all of the CATTs preparing spell circles and drawing whatever weapons they had, pointing them at the Basilisk, who had coiled around themselves fearfully. Eber growled softly at it, while Darius could only shake his head; "It appears I was mistaken. Very well, we can address that later; first we apprehend this creature!" he declared, before creating a massive scimitar out of Abomination goo.
The Basilisk shrieked in a hissing voice that sounded vaguely masculine; "No! I don't want to die!"
Using its coiled, serpentine tail, it suddenly sprang over the heads of the people immediately surrounding it and fled, making its way towards the water. Darius remodelled his scimitar into a spear and tossed it at the creature, though it slithered out of the way too quickly, making Darius miss. It easily darted and slithered through the crowd of CATTs, hissing and snarling to intimidate the few who tried to grab it physically, using its slick body to slide out of the grip of anyone who succeeded, and continued heading to the Boiling Sea. The rest of the CATTs wanted to cast spells at it, but so long as it was in their midst, it was too dangerous to fling spells; they could hit their own allies! Thanks to that, the Basilisk burst from the crowd and made it to the water, diving into the Boiling Sea without a hint of hesitation. There was some surprise from the CATTs, but not Luz or Jerbo, the former already knowing that Basilisks were semi-aquatic and the latter having been told by Viney the day before.
The Basilisk used its powerful tail to swim away as fast as it could, heading south-east towards the hurricane wall that surrounded the entire island.
"It's getting away!" Skara yelled.
"It'll never survive the Maelstrom Strait. Even if by some miracle it pierces the hurricane, the whirlpools will swallow it and drag in beneath the sea. Once its pulled down, it'll be crushed by the pressure." Lilith replied.
Luz didn't like the sound of that; this Basilisk was one of Vee's fellow captives, and one of the last of their race! She wouldn't let it die!
"I'm going after it!" Luz declared, growing her wings to full size and taking flight. She began flying after it, but before she'd cleared the beach, Skara yelled after her.
"Wait! Take me too! I started this hunt and I want to end it!" she declared.
Luz, not having time to argue nor the inclination too, shrugged and flew behind Skara, wrapping her arms around the girl's waist from behind, then hoisting her up as she once again took to the skies. Thankfully Skara was fairly light, perhaps even more so than Amity, so carrying her wasn't too much of a problem. With the girl in her arms, Luz darted through the air in pursuit of the Basilisk, who remained fairly close to the surface as it swam away.
Skara summoned her harp and began to play tunes, which transformed into literal magical notes, just like the kind seen in sheet music, that shot into the water around the Basilisk, trying to steer it away from the hurricane wall that they were all rapidly approaching. This wasn't working however, as the few magical notes to hit the Basilisk itself did nothing but sting mildly, since Skara wanted to capture and not kill it. With the hurricane right ahead of them, Skara tried one final last ditch effort to capture the Basilisk by playing a tune that conjured a musical bar that stretched down into the water like a net. Sadly the Basilisk slipped through and dove deeper under the water, hoping to escape by going under the hurricane wall.
Unfortunately for the terrified creature, even as deep as it swam, the hurricane still sucked it up and the Basilisk screamed in terror as it was ripped out of the water by the turbulent winds, becoming trapped inside the hurricane wall. Luz and Skara looked on in horror as the Basilisk was whipped around in the spiralling gales.
"We need to save it!" Luz yelled over the roar of the wind and sea.
"We can't get any closer!" Skara yelled back, "Even without the wind, if we get closer, the boiling water whipped up by the hurricane will hit us!"
"Don't worry! I'll take care of that! Just hang on!" the young Arch-Angel cried, before conjuring a crystal barrier around the two of them. The barrier protected them from the water, but Luz knew that the minute she dove into the hurricane itself, she would be blown around just like the Basilisk; she didn't have the Selkidomus to hang onto this time, and even if she stopped to go and get the beast to help her, the Basilisk was now up too high.
Luz flew as close as she dared, trying to get to wherever the Basilisk was being blown about, but being forced to back off whenever she felt her barrier begin to get sucked in. She whined in frustration; "Dang it, I can't get any closer!"
Skara frowned and wracked her brain, before gasping as an idea came to her; "I think I can help! Let me try something!"
Luz nodded and Skara closed her eyes and began to play her harp again, weaving bardic magic into her fingers as she produced a beautiful melody. The melody caused Luz and her barrier to glow faintly red, and the young angel felt the pull of the wind on her grow weaker.
"What is this?" she wondered aloud.
"Wind magic!" Skara said, not pausing in her playing; "Wind is one of the elemental components of Bardic Magic! You taught me that yourself in class once, remember?"
Luz nodded; it was in one of the first classes they'd had together following the Greater Basilisk attack. Luz had been making a point of telling all her friends about elemental magic and encouraging them to try out the elements that made up their preferred magic types. She'd assumed Skara wouldn't bother learning wind magic however, as she was already amazing at Bardic Magic and preferred to use it to cast other types of spells, rather than using other spells to cast Bardic Magic. However by the look of things, Skara had figured out how to use Bardic Magic to produce Wind Magic, rather than the other way around like normal elemental casting.
"This is incredible!" Luz gasped, "I think I can fly through the hurricane! At least a little!"
"Good! Then get going, I can't keep this up for long!" Skara yelled, already struggling to maintain her focus while playing.
Luz didn't need to be told twice, and she dove into the hurricane. Her barrier protected the two of them from the worst of it, but it only gave Luz a little more control over where she flew; it was nowhere near enough to pass through the hurricane. Still, it was enough for her to fly to where the poor Basilisk was being blown, using the wind to speed up her wings as she flew. When she caught up with the Basilisk, Luz cast another barrier spell, this time snagging the Basilisk and protecting it from the wind. Maintaining her grip on it with her magic, Luz yelled to Skara.
"Give it all you've got! I need just a little more power to break free of the wind currents!"
Skara grunted and continued to play as she always had, but poured more magic into it, intensifying the glow around Luz and her barrier. Luz then began to flap her wings hard as she fought against the hurricane to escape. Still, it wasn't quite enough and Luz found herself being dragged back by the gales.
"More! We're being pulled in!" Luz screamed, flapping her wings with all her might. She'd have tried adding her own bardic skills to the mix, but between flying and maintaining two barriers, she couldn't focus on singing too.
"I am not getting sucked into this stupid hurricane! I am not going to be some useless, spoiled brat!" Skara growled to herself, magic and emotion overflowing inside her. Her eyes began to glow with red magic, and her fingertips each glowed with a red aura of bardic magic as they practically danced across the strings of her harp. Her song went from gentle and melodious to fast, hard, and powerful; like a lullaby becoming a power ballad, and the wind magic aura around Luz and her barrier intensified, momentarily growing strong enough to allow Luz full control of where she flew without worrying about the wind.
"GO!" Skara screamed.
Luz flew as fast as she could, nearly straining her wing joints with how hard she was working them. Both girls screamed out a battle cry as they nearly escaped the hurricane's currents, and right before they finally got away, the red light around Luz's barrier seemed to intensify. It became a brief flash that made Luz yelp and blink hard, but it was not enough to stop her from flying, and the girl shot clear out of the hurricane.
She was flying so hard and so fast that by the time she realised she was free of the wind, Luz had flown herself, Skara, and the Basilisk halfway back to the Titan Arm Island.
"Ha ha! We did it!" Skara cheered even as she panted, her fingers feeling numb from her rapid playing; "We got the Basilisk AND escaped the hurricane!"
"That's not all…" Luz whispered reverently, still blinking hard from the bright flash; "I think I've just found a new glyph!"
The bardic girl gasped in amazement; "Seriously!?"
Luz nodded; "Yeah! Let's get back to dry land and deal with the Basilisk, then I can show you. King is going to be so excited!"
With that, the angel dropped the barrier around herself and Skara, but maintained the one around the Basilisk, using it like a cell to keep it contained. The poor thing was terrified after its harrowing experience, and had curled in on itself, so Luz was sure to fly gently before landing on the beach.
She set Skara down then landed herself, and the two girls were immediately surrounded by the CATTs. Eda and King leapt at Luz, the former hugging her tightly and the latter crawling into her hood to hug her from behind.
"Owlet! Thank goodness you're okay! When you two went into the hurricane, we were terrified you wouldn't be getting out!" Eda cried, kissing Luz's hair over and over.
"Sorry to worry you, Mom. But don't worry; thanks to Skara's awesome playing, we escaped and even caught the Basilisk!" Luz smiled.
"Indeed! Excellent work, Sparks! And you as well, Skara! If not for your warning, we might never have known there was a spy!"
Skara puffed her chest out proudly, preparing to boast of her accomplishment and rub it into Darius' face. It was clear from his expression that he was expecting it too… but that made Skara pause. Instead, she just smiled and humbly said; "I'm glad to have helped. I was serious when I chose to join the CATTs; I want to stop Belos, not just play around."
Darius looked surprised, then smiled and chuckled at the girl; "It appears I misjudged you, Little Cadence. I'm man enough to admit I was wrong, both about the spy… and about you. Perhaps you're not a spoiled little princess after all. Good work."
Skara beamed, and both Luz and Jerbo patted her on the back. Darius then turned to the gathered CATTs and freely announced everything that had happened earlier, with Skara finding the spy and their plans to catch and expose them. Some of the CATTs were a little upset that the celebration dinner had been arranged partly under false pretences, but Raine assured them all that such a celebration was always planned; it was just brought forward for the sake of exposing the spy in their midst.
"We owe you one too, Jerbo." Raine then said, nodding to the boy; "Your idea with the juice and the toast was well done."
"Thank you, Mx. Whispers." Jerbo said, then nodded to Luz, Skara, Eda, and King; "But we all played our part. This victory took all of us."
"Then let's have a round of applause for Jerbo, Skara, Luz, Eda, and King!" Raine declared, and the CATTs all cheered loudly and began to clap. Eda felt a little guilty, since all she'd done was help distil the juice of the Newtangerines that Luz and King grew with their glyphs, but she wasn't going to quibble over that now.
Once the applause was done, one of the CATTs pointed to the Basilisk (still cowering in Luz's barrier), and yelled; "What do we do with that thing?"
"Do we kill it?" another asked.
The Basilisk shrieked in terror, and Luz quickly shook her head; "NO! No, we don't need to hurt them! This poor creature was created in a lab by Belos, and turned into a weapon and tool! Let me talk to them!"
There was some muttering, but most of the CATTs either agreed outright or looked to one of the other leaders. Eber, Eda, and Raine immediately nodded along with Luz's request, and while Darius looked doubtful, he acquiesced to the others.
"We'll leave it to you, Owlet. As for the rest of you lot; it's dinner time so sit your butts down! Last one seated is on dishwashing duty!" Eda yelled.
That got everyone moving, and soon it was just the CATTs five leaders, Skara, King, and Jerbo stood around the trapped Basilisk. Luz carefully knelt down in front of it and spoke through the barrier.
"Hello. My name is Luz Noceda-Clawthorne. I'm not going to hurt you, or let anyone else hurt you." she assured it. "Can you tell me your name?"
The Basilisk, still shaking in fear, looked up at her; "S-Subject Number Three." it answered.
"Subject Three, huh? I've met two of your fellows; Subject Zero and Subject Five." Luz replied.
The mention of Subject Zero made the Basilisk cringe, but the mention of Vee had it perking up again; "Five? You saw Subject Five? She was the little one… the baby. Is she safe? Is she alive?"
Luz nodded and summoned her scroll to show Subject Three a picture that she'd taken on Monday, before coming back to the Demon Realm. It was a big group photo of Luz, Camila, Vee, and everyone who'd gone to the Human Realm with Luz. It showed Vee smiling and being held against Camila's left side, in her true Quetzalcoatl Basilisk form. Subject Three gasped softly.
"Number Five… she looks different… but happy." Subject Three whispered.
Luz nodded; "My Mami basically adopted her. We gave her some angelic magic and she evolved into a Quetzalcoatl Basilisk. She's safe now, and happy. We're protecting her so Belos and the Emperor's Coven can never get her again."
She snapped her fingers and the barrier vanished, freeing the Basilisk. The others looked ready to act if Subject Three tried to run, but Luz just smiled and held out her hand; "She told me about you and Subject Four too. How you escaped together before splitting up. You were very brave, but I guess you got caught?"
Subject Three nodded; "We were free for only a couple of days. The Emperor caught us… Subject Zero was the last one to be found. The Emperor said an angel defeated her… was that you?"
"Yes. Jerbo, Skara, and I, as well as some more friends, defeated her when she attacked our school. Is she okay? I-Is she suffering?" Luz asked. Ever since learning about Vee, a part of her had feared for Subject Zero; she was a monster, but Luz didn't want her to suffer at Belos' hands.
Thankfully, Subject Three shook their head; "She is still crazy, but we weren't suffering. After we were recaptured, the Emperor wanted us trained and taught. They gave us people to devour the magic from, and made us study and learn. Gave us strange potions that made our heads fuzzy, then clear. They made us smarter."
Luz nodded as she listened; that explained why Subject Three seemed almost as smart as Vee, when Vee had described them as "struggling with their mind at times."
"They did not hurt us, besides putting these new rings on us." Subject Three finished, holding up their tail to show a new tail ring, similar to the one Luz had cut from Vee. It was black with a purple stone that looked like an Oracle Stone, similar to the one in Luz's ring and King's collar.
"Can the Emperor track you through that?" Luz asked.
Subject Three nodded; "They could, but it stopped working when you teleported us here. Kikimora can still tell its attached, but can't tell where I am."
"If it works on Oracle Magic, then either it can't contact anyone across the salty sea, or Luz's angelic magic scared off the spirit inside it." Eda said.
"Well then, I might as well finish the job." Luz smiled. She gently took the Basilisk's tail, making them flinch, and after promising she wouldn't hurt them, she carefully cut the ring in half and removed it, before vaporising it in an instant.
Subject Three stared at her in shock for a moment, then the Comm-pact Luz had grabbed earlier began to vibrate. Luz hummed; part of the tracking rings must use the same magic as the comm-pacts, and that's how Kikimora knew when it was removed. The angel stood and moved so that Kikimora would only be able to see the ocean once Luz answered the call. She then opened the Comm-pact and Kikimora's face appeared.
"Subject Three, what is going on? Your tracking ring has been disabled and… you!" Kikimora gasped as she registered who she was looking at.
"Yep, me. Unfortunately for you, Kikimora, your spy was caught. Don't worry though, I'll take good care of them. Tell Belos to get ready to kiss his throne goodbye!" Luz smirked.
"I will do no such thing, you corrupted little-"
The Emperor's former assistant was cut off by Luz closing the Comm-pact, then melting it in a blast of fire. Subject Three stared at the molten remains of the comm-pact, which Luz then froze into a chunk of ice to dispose of later.
"A-Am I free?"
"Yes. You were coerced into spying on us, so you don't deserve to be locked up again. Would you be willing to make another Everlasting Oath that you won't do anything at all to hurt innocent people? If you do, I'm sure I can convince the CATTs to let you live here safely, just like Vee is in the Human Realm. I can give you an Angelic Blessing too, so you can have magic without preying on people." Luz replied, not even bothering to ask the others. She'd convince them later… somehow.
"Vee?" Subject Three repeated.
"Oh, that's Subject Five's new name. We should probably give you one too… Do you have a preferred gender?" Luz asked.
"I prefer male, but I don't care that much. Are you really going to give me a name?" he asked back.
Luz nodded; "Sure! A person should have a real name! Hmm, what to call you…? Maybe Malingale? He's a character in my favourite book series and started out as a villain, but only because he was being forced to work for the bad guys!"
The Basilisk didn't like the sound of that, so the others began suggesting names.
"Jean-Luc!" King suggested.
"Maybe Basil?" Raine offered.
"How about Grimson? 'Cause he's kinda red and kinda grim!" Eda grinned.
"I think Newton would suit him!" Jerbo said.
Darius blinked; "Wasn't he an enemy spy a minute ago? Now we're naming him like a pet!? Also, we're getting ahead of ourselves! He hasn't actually agreed to the oath yet!"
Eber, completely ignoring her old friend, barked "Chameleon!"
Subject Three didn't really like any of those names (nor did he understand Eber's), and since Skara was the only one not to suggest one yet, he looked to her. She rubbed her chin and hummed, then grinned and suggested;
"How about Treble?"
"Treble?" Subject Three repeated.
"Yep! It's a symbol used in music." Skara said, picking up a stick and drawing it in the sand; "The "Tre" part is also close to Tres, which is the number Three in Spanish! Plus the whole word sounds a bit like trouble, which feels kind of fitting! My dad called me Trouble as an affectionate nickname sometimes when I played pranks on him as a kid."
The Basilisk seemed to like it, and Luz looked to Skara with a coy smirk; "And how do you know any Spanish? I don't remember teaching you that!"
Skara smirked back; "Your girlfriend taught me some. The bard track shares a study hall period with the abomination track in the afternoon, when you're off in the beast-keeping track, and Amity uses me to practice the Spanish you teach her."
Luz gave a dreamy sigh; "Oh Hermosa… I really need to do something nice for her again sometime soon."
Darius' eye twitched; "Can we please get back to naming the Basilisk so we can then get back to deciding what to do with him!? Our tangents are having tangents!"
"Oops! Sorry Darius!" Luz said as the others chuckled at the man's annoyance. "So what do you think, Subject Three? Do you like Treble?"
The Basilisk thought a bit more, then smiled and nodded; "Yes! I think I'd like to be called Treble. Thank you for my name!" he said, bowing his head to Skara.
"You're welcome! Now are you going to be good and swear that oath to Luz? If you do, the CATTs can offer you sanctuary!" Skara smiled at him.
"Will I have to fight for you instead?" Treble asked.
Everyone shook their heads; "Our people fight because they want to. No one is here against their will." Raine said.
"A-And you'd really let me stay here after what I tried to do?"
Luz nodded; "What you tried to do was really bad, but thanks to Vee, I understand your situation. You weren't given a choice, were you? It was do what Kikimora ordered, or spend the rest of your life in a cage… or worse, right?"
Treble nodded slowly, making Luz smile and pat him on the head; "Then we can't fairly judge you. Besides, we've got members of our own group who started off working for the bad guys and had a change of heart. It would be unfair to condemn you and not them."
The others nodded in agreement, and Darius actually found himself coming around too; Luz had a point after all. Lilith, Steve, and numerous other defectors from the Emperor's Coven, and even their own covens, were once loyal to the Emperor and switched sides; if they were given a chance, then it was fair that Treble was too.
Faced with this argument and feeling warmed by the kindly angel's smile, Treble gave his own wide, serpentine smile. He looked a bit like a smiling puppy, and both Luz and Skara cooed at the adorable sight.
"You are very strange… but I like you." Treble said earnestly. "You saved my life when you could have left me to die in that big wind."
"I'm a big weirdo, just like you and the rest of these guys!" Luz laughed; "And we weirdos need to stick together!"
Treble nodded; "Then I'd like to accept your offer. I will swear your oath."
Luz beamed and gently took his hand as she had Skara draw the spell circle. Treble swore not to betray Luz's trust and not to knowingly or willingly do anything to endanger the CATTs and their allies, or aid their enemies in the Emperor's Coven. Once the oath was over, Raine smiled and said;
"I'll go inform the rest of the CATTs so no one freaks out or gets the wrong idea. Not everyone is going to be happy about this, but they should accept it… with time."
The others agreed, and Darius and Eber decided to follow Raine to offer their support, leaving Treble behind with the Clawthornes and kids.
Jerbo said; "Still, it's pretty amazing you were able to help Luz fly through that hurricane, Skara! It looked like you used wind magic!"
"I did! I whipped up wind around us that blew in the opposite direction of the wind blowing at us, to cancel it out a bit. It was rough, but it worked." Skara explained.
That made Luz gasp; "Oh! That reminds me! King, you won't believe what happened while we were escaping the hurricane!"
King began to wiggle eagerly; "What!? What happened!?"
Luz took the stick Skara had used a minute ago and drew the glyph that had been embedded into her mind. King gasped, seeing the new design. He eagerly pressed it, and it glowed with a silvery grey light before producing a burst of wind.
"The wind glyph! We've found the wind glyph!" King cheered.
"That's the fifth one you've found!" Eda grinned; "I wonder how you'll change if you bond with this one! And what combos King will be able to whip up!"
Jerbo and Skara both looked interested to see where this would lead too, but before Luz and King could begin to experiment with drawing the new glyph, Lilith came over to let them know that Raine and the other Coven Heads had smoothed things over with the CATTs.
"They've told everyone the situation and since Treble has taken an oath, the others are choosing to trust him. Or rather, trust all of you who trust him." Lilith said. "Now you should all come and eat! The food is still hot and everyone is clamouring to start! I had the cooks prepare a plate for Treble too."
"You did?" Treble blinked.
Lilith grinned; "I had a feeling that Luz would end up taking you in, so I had the cooks prepare it as soon as Luz and Skara flew off after you."
Treble was surprised, while Luz and Skara felt cheered by her confidence in them. They all followed her back to the tables, where everyone had shuffled along so Treble's place had been moved to beside Luz and the others. There were a few less pleased looks, but overall the CATTs were willing to accept the Basilisk as a fellow refugee hiding from the Emperor.
With no more announcements, songs, or toasts to be made, the food was finally served and everyone got to tuck in. It was delicious, and well worth the wait, with slightly different dishes being served so that every witch and demon had a meal that was appetizing for their species. It started off like a fine-dining experience, but it soon became more casual, and a party atmosphere formed (especially by those deep in their cups). Steve came over to talk to Eda and Lilith, and reported that he'd investigated the situation around the scout that Treble had been impersonating. It turned out that they were actually a real defector and one of the few whose identity had been discovered at the Conformatorium. As a result, he'd been poisoned in his home by agents of the Emperor's Coven and was now in the Bonesborough Hospital, recovering. Since Treble had replaced him, and his family weren't involved with the CATTs, the news hadn't spread until Steve looked into it. Now the man was in the care of Meesha Leonis, Viney's mother and the chief healer at the Bonesborough Hospital.
The party continued on after that, with many toasting to the health of the poisoned scout. That had gotten a few glares thrown Treble's way, but the Basilisk cleverly asked for a glass of the Glamour Rot juice, which he chugged down with a smile; his way of showing he could be trusted. That earned him a bit of respect and acceptance, and plans were already being drawn up to have everyone Luz brought through the Teleportation Circle drink some before they were allowed on the island.
As the evening progressed a bit, a mildly tipsy Eda raised her glass for another toast (and another excuse to get everyone to drink and party more).
"Alright everybody, get your glasses filled! We're gonna toast our island again!" she cheered.
The other drunken CATTs cheered too, but an equally tipsy Amber protested. She got to her feet, stood on the table and shouted; "It's always "The Island" this and "The Island" that… are we just gonna keep calling it "The Island"? Let's give it a proper name!"
Salty, who was one of the new CATTs helping out on the Island, raised his claw; "I second that! Law of the sea says that the finders be the keepers! Ye who found the island, names it! Cap'n Luz!"
He turned towards the angel, who blinked in surprise; "Ye found this place, so ye name it! What's it gonna be!?"
Suddenly feeling like she'd been put on the spot (especially with hundreds of people now staring at her expectantly), Luz wracked her brain for an answer. All she could think of was something to do with wind! The Island was surrounded by a hurricane wall, and she'd found the wind glyph here…
"How about… Digale Island! You know, like Gale winds." she suggested.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a loud cheer as the CATTs agreed to her suggestion. Darius (who alongside Raine was the only fully sober adult present) nodded in agreement and announced; "Then henceforth, this island shall be known as Digale Island, and our new base will be Digale Village!"
And like that, the CATTs new base had a name, and the Basilisk known as Treble had a home. The CATTs were beginning to really establish themselves; now it was time to begin taking the fight to the Emperor's Coven.
