Watching Luz walk through the Collector's portal stirred something within Amity, like a dark prophecy had come to pass. When it closed, Eda pulled her out of the haze.
"Where to next, kiddo?" she said, full of bravado.
"What?" said Amity.
"I mean, you can stay here if you want," said Eda. "But I would have figured you'd want to go see your family." She leaned down and pointed to the portal. "Or follow your girlfriend?"
"No," said Amity. "She needs space right now. But seeing my family does sound nice."
"Well you gotta free ride there." Eda held out her hand in which Owlbert transformed into a staff. "One time only."
"Thanks Eda." Amity took Ghost in staff form. "I could use the company."
"I forget how independent you kids are nowadays." As Amity and Eda tore through the sky to Blight Manor, Eda tried to comfort the ailing teen. "You know she won't be gone forever, right?"
Amity gazed down at the forest zipping by below. "I'm not so sure this time. Luz almost didn't come back with us to the Demon Realm." Eda looked surprised. "She didn't say anything, but I could tell she was feeling guilty about helping Belos and the whole time she was here, it was like she wanted to be anywhere else. Then she died and lost her magic all at once."
"Luz told you about that?" said Eda.
"This morning, before everyone woke up."
"I was wondering why you two were up so early." Eda considered for a moment. "Listen Amity, Luz might need some time — a lot of time, considering everything you just laid out — but magic… It's who she is. It's like you with abominations or me with breaking rules. It's her reason for living. I know you can see it in her: the way she lights up at stuff we think is normal. She's stubborn, but Luz isn't stupid enough to deny her reason for living. She'll come around. We just have to let her."
Amity sighed. "I hope you're right." They landed, said their goodbyes, and parted ways. Amity stopped at the gate and took a long look at her home. All the memories — good and bad — bubbled up. They could start again, though, she thought: Edric, Emira, Dad, and her. They could become a family again. When Amity arrived at the front door, she heard a voice on the other side, her father's.
"Please, try to see it from our perspective!"
"Your perspective!" The second voice was her mother's. "All I've ever done was for this family and all of you have fought me at every step of the way! When have you ever seen my perspective?"
Everything Amity had felt in that moment fell away and the only thing left was anger. She threw open the door. "What the hell is she doing here!" She pointed at Odalia who stood on the parlor rug with Alador. Ed and Em sat on the couch, not involving themselves.
"Last I checked, Mittens dear, I was a member of this family!"
"You have no right to call me that! You're no family of mine!"
"Amity," said Alador. "Please—"
"It's quite alright, darling," interrupted Odalia. "I've had enough of this mistreatment. I'm going to my room."
As Odalia left the room, Alador rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I'm sleeping in the guest room tonight."
"Why are you letting her get away with this?" pointed Amity. "Did you forget she helped Belos nearly kill everyone!"
Ed and Em stood to defend their father, but he held out a hand. "So did I, if you recall."
"No, Dad," said Amity. "That's different—"
"How so?" asked Alador. "I knew I couldn't trust Belos and yet I built him an army. For what? Safety, prestige, favor. All the things your mother has dedicated her life to bringing to this family."
"She's not my mother," said Amity.
"Maybe so," said Alador. "But she's still my wife."
Father and daughter stared at each other for a long moment. Then Amity stormed out of the house. Alador put his face in his hand and rested his body weight on the fireplace, as if he could not hold himself up. The twins looked at each other — silently communicating — before breaking. Amity made her way to the factory, the rubble and blast marks still showing signs of the fight that took place there months ago. She entered the warehouse, stared up at the hole in the ceiling, then located the slime vats. There was still plenty left — more than enough to do what she needed to do.
"Dad, I get what you're trying to do," said Emira to her father in the parlor. "But Amity has a point." Emira put her hand on his shoulder as Alador turned to his eldest daughter, expressionless. "Mom may have looked out for the family, but she was never good to us. She was never good to you. Is she really worth all the effort?"
"Oh, Emira." Alador fell into the armchair and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know anymore. I'm not oblivious. Odalia has been a reproachable wretch for as long as I've known her. But she does want what's best for this family, even if she doesn't know what that is. I'm so tired of having to constantly pick out the good in her. I'm tired of having to defend her. I'm tired of having to defend your independence from her, but I don't know. I still love her."
Emira sat on the armrest and wrapped her arms around him. "It's okay, Dad," she said. "We'll figure it out. Together."
When Amity was done, the ruins of her family's factory piled around her like a trash heap. She put away her long scythes of slime, satisfied that her mother's legacy had been completely destroyed. Edric had watched in his jointed full body cast as his sister tore down his family's livelihood. He took a deep breath and approached Amity still seething with rage.
"You think it's destroyed enough or do you wanna give it a few more goes?" he said.
"Not in the mood, Ed," said Amity.
"I don't blame you," Ed continued. "I hate this place too. It's the reason my parents never paid any attention to me."
"What do you want?" shouted Amity.
"I want to know if we're going to be okay," he said.
"I'm not mad at you!"
"Then who do you think I'm talking about?"
"What! You want me to get along with Mom? After everything she's done to us!"
Edric sighed and sat on a twisted hunk of metal. "Do you remember when we were little and we'd go to the Bonesborough fair as a family?" "Yes." "Remember the year the grand prize for the screamball booth was a stuffed rexconctlypus? You wanted that thing so bad." "But I needed a perfect score. I remember." "You spent your whole day at the fair trying to get that score. When Mom said it was time to go home, you started screaming and clinging to the booth. So Mom went to the fairmaster and demanded he give you the prize. She threatened to pull our family's donation to the fair the next year." "She did?" "Oh yeah, I guess you and Dad had to stay at the booth because you just would not let go of the screamball ramp." Amity smiled. "I wasn't that bad." "Yeah you were. The booth literally had to shut down until we left the fair." They giggled.
"When Mom came back and told you what happened, you were so happy. Like, you were still crying your eyes out but they were tears of joy." Amity remembered fondly her favorite plushy but the image of her mother still seared her guts. "What's your point?" "My point is that Mom could have pried you off that table and dragged you home, but she knew how important that stuffy was to you, so she used our family's influence to get it." "So I'm supposed to forgive Mom for nearly destroying the world because she got me a plushy one time?" "No, Mom is a raging bitch; I'm not denying that. I'm just saying she has redeeming qualities. I'm only asking if she's irredeemable." "It didn't look like she wanted to be redeemed in there!" Amity pointed to the manor. "You know how Mom is. She's gonna need time."
There they were: two people in Amity's life that needed time, one of them the love of her life, the other a persistent hex on it. If only she could switch their places. Nevermind. She couldn't do that to Camila and Vee.
"Are you okay?" asked Edric.
"Yeah, just thinking about something else."
"You know, I want to talk about that too."
"What?"
"Your something else. Or anything else that's bothering you."
"You getting sappy on me, Ed?"
"I get that I've kind of been a jerk to you for most of your life. I'm sorry. But you're still my sister. I care about you."
Amity thought for a long time. "If all of you want to give Mom another chance, then fine. I won't get in the way. But if she wants a chance from me, she has to earn it. I had to earn all the chances she gave me." Ed smiled and sighed, then gestured for them to return to the house. Once inside, Amity approached her father. "I'm sorry I yelled at you; I just wasn't expecting Mom to be here."
Alador put his arms around her. "I understand your concerns," he said. "I'll be careful."
"I'm so happy to have you back, Dad." Amity let loose several tears.
"Me too, Mittens." Alador dropped a few tears as well. The Blights in the room gathered around the armchair for a group hug. Later, Amity changed out of her Hecate costume and into her familiar robes. All the Blights would gather that night for a family dinner, the first they had had in months. Amity and Odalia took some convincing, but they agreed to sit in the same room together as long as they didn't have to speak to one another. Edric and Emira cooked while Odalia, Alador, and Amity set the table. The clinking of the cutlery provided the only noise in the dining room. Eventually, the silence was suffocating Amity and she switched places with Emira in the kitchen. Alador could only clear his throat. Once the sky grew dark, the meal came out in three dishes: roasted reznik entrails, web casserole, and a fairy pie. Only one end of the Blights' long dining table was set, napkins folded, with a mummified abomination corpse as the centerpiece. The upper half of a torso sat upright on the table — arms outstretched, reaching for something — a terrible glower on its face. Odalia and Alador sat at the head of the table, Amity on her father's side, the twins on the other. The dinner began in silence aside from the slopping of the entrails, the clanging of the silverware, and the bumping of moving bodies. Alador cleared his throat again. "So, I heard from Principal Bump at the archives that Hexside would resume the semester starting next week. Are you all excited to return to your studies?"
"Yes," said Edric. "Ever since I started multitrack studies, I've been really getting into my homework."
Emira coughed. "Nerd alert."
"Don't act like you hadn't been going nuts for your healing classes," said Edric.
"Yeah, it's been nice." Emira zoned out for a split moment. "I wonder if it will even be called multitrack studies anymore?"
"What do you mean?" asked Ed.
"I mean the magic tracks were all Belos' idea, weren't they?" said Em. "He used them to sort everyone so that they would all fit into his empire. It would be kind of weird if we kept using the same system that's been holding us back for half a century."
"Everything's going to change," said Amity. "Not just school or the coven system. Everything."
Alador, who had been enjoying his roasted entrail, grew stiff as the following silence lasted longer and longer. Then Odalia spoke. "The coven system might change," she said, staring at the sigil on her wrist. "But there are advantages to categorizing magic." She looked back up at her family, smirking. "I mean, there's no denying that abomination magic is different from illusions."
"I know someone at school who can make abominations out of plant soil," said Amity.
"Really?" said Alador. "They don't use slime?"
"I'm not familiar with the mechanics, but he uses plant magic to do it," Amity concluded.
"Intriguing." Alador lost himself in thought. When he regained his senses, another silence had lingered on. Alador cleared his throat for the third time that night. "Amity, how are things going with, uh, Luz?"
Amity stiffened, entrails dangling from her mouth. Em spoke up. "Great, right? You should have seen them at Hexside during the Collector ordeal. They were all over each other." Amity turned red as she slurped the entrails into her mouth. "All… understanding of each other and… stuff." Emira shrank as her words became quieter and quieter.
Odalia picked at her nails. "Which one is Luz, again?"
"The human girl," explained Alador. "The one that was staying with Eda Clawthorne."
"Oh yes, the one I had expelled. Amity, dear, how much longer are you going to play with that girl?"
"Odalia!" Alador scorned. Ed and Em dropped their forks on the table. Amity wanted to scream, but she didn't. She kept her mouth shut.
Odalia glared at her daughter. "You're not going to answer me?"
Amity said nothing.
"Well, if I'm just going to be ignored, then I may as well leave, shan't I?"
"Mom!" said Emira. "You said you would be here as long as you and Amity didn't have to talk to each other. That rule goes for Amity as well."
Odalia turned from her eldest daughter to her youngest. Amity stared at her plate, poking at her cobwebs with her fork. "Very well. Forgive me if I don't feel like speaking in company that won't speak back." Nobody spoke for the rest of dinner. Amity was the first to stand. She picked up her plate and moved toward the kitchen to wash it. "Don't bother," said Odalia. "Just have the abomination do it." Odalia snapped her fingers and an abomination appeared from a shuttered away closet.
"I can do it myself," said Amity.
"Why?" asked Odalia. "I understand you all wanted to have a 'family meal' and cook everything yourselves like a 'common family.' The reznik was very good by the way, darling," she said to Edric. "But we're no common family. We're Blights. We have more snails than anyone else in Bonesborough. We don't need to toil away like this."
"Maybe I want a common family," Amity said. She gave her plate to the abomination and left the room.
"I thought this was a good idea," said Alador as he laid his head in his hands. Edric and Emira stood up and collected the plates.
"I thought it was a great idea, Dad," said Emira as she leaned in to kiss him on the back of the head. The twins took the plates to the kitchen and started washing up.
"Why is everyone acting like I'm a pox on this night?" asked Odalia.
"Because you are," said Alador. Odalia shot up from her chair but Alador grabbed her wrist. "This family has followed your vision since its inception. I have toiled away to make your dreams a reality. Our children bend over backwards to meet your expectations. But you've never asked any of us what we want. Quite frankly, Odalia, I don't care to know your perspective right now. I've lived my whole life in your perspective. If you want to be part of this family, you need to shut up and start listening. Maybe if you had started earlier, the Day of Unity never would have happened." Alador let go of his wife and, without giving her another glance, left her alone in the dining room.
Amity slammed the door to her room. Ghost jumped through the doorway at the last moment. Amity grunted. "How dare she say that about Luz!" Amity kicked her desk and subsequently stubbed her toe. "Ah!" She hopped on one foot to the bed and sat down. Ghost came up to curl up beside her. "I don't know if I can do this, girl." She stroked Ghost's head. "I thought I could but Mom is just… evil!" She breathed deeply for several moments. She looked at her stuffed rexconctlypus, then back down at Ghost. "You wanna fly?"
Ghost transformed and Amity took her companion to the sky. She flew to the suburbs. All the buildings in Bonesborough had cracked and crumbled due to the movement of the Titan but especially out here. Almost every window had shattered, every support showed signs of wear and stress, and a few buildings on the outskirts had even fully collapsed. She hovered mid-air above Willow's house and glanced through the window. Thankfully, her house in the middle of the burbs remained mostly unscathed. Inside, Willow, Gilbert, and Harvey played a board game. They all had bright smiles on their faces. Amity could only hear the cricketgosque screeching in the night, but she could see the family inside laughing and laughing. She frowned and turned away.
She flew this time to central Bonesborough — just off the main street where the night market was held — to Adder's Alley. She'd heard Ed and Em talk about hanging out here many times and honestly, she didn't know where else to go. She strolled down the thoroughfare until a bar caught her eye and wandered in. The place was dingy — smokey. Most of the booths along the wall only had one occupant and a tall handle of whatever poison they had picked out for themselves. Of the four tables in the middle of the room, only one had any patrons: three demons playing dice. The bartender was a lanky witch with dark grey hair and burgundy eyes. He towered over his patrons, moving between them like a praying mantis. Amity went to the back and sat in one of the empty booths.
She thought. She thought for a long time. The more she thought, the less she liked the reality she was living in. She was so lost in thought, she didn't realize the bartender standing over her. "Can I get you anything?"
Amity jumped back in the booth. His voice was like a dial tone, long and monotonous. "Um, smilk," she said and looked down at her hands.
"You don't belong here, little girl."
Amity huffed. "Fine, I'll go somewhere else."
"No no no, we can make you belong."
Amity looked back at the bartender, but he wasn't there. In his place stood a giant praying mantis wearing the bartender's clothes. Amity moved to leave the booth, but the insect blocked her path. It swiped at her with its blade-like appendages. Amity rolled under the table, onto the sticky floor. She launched a wave of abomination goop at the bartender's four legs, pushing him back just enough that she could crawl out from under the table. By the time Amity stood up, the demons playing dice had gotten up and flanked the bartender. They surrounded her. Just as they were about to descend on her, a great pillar of stone burst out of the floorboards under the mantis, smooshing him into the ceiling. A second pillar jutted out of the first and knocked away one of the other demons, giving Amity enough room to slip past and eye her would-be savior: a pale witch with freckles dotting her face and dark purple hair. She held a spell circle hovering in each hand and a power glyph on her wrist. Her clothes were bedraggled, clearly uncared for, but she wore a short lavender robe and seafoam green leggings.
"Back off, Zeno!" spoke the witch to the crushed mantis. "This one's mine."
Amity created a whip of slime to beat back the remaining demons and she and the young witch ran from the bar. They ran toward the main street. "Why the night market?" said Amity once they had gotten lost in the crowd. It was a slow night, but still busy enough to disappear into. "This place isn't much better than that bar."
"That place isn't a bar." The witch donned her hood, still moving through the crowd. "It's a vice haven."
"Why did they want me?" "For non-bipeds, the best stuff is made from magic bile. And plenty of people will pay good money for a fresh set of organs." "They wanted my bile?" "And your organs."
Amity shook her head. "Why the night market?"
"Cause I just burned my connection for you and now I have to make a pickup," said the witch. "I have no idea why you followed me."
Amity groaned. "What's your name?" she asked.
"What, you wanna be friends?" The witch glanced back, smirking.
"Well, you did help me get out of that nightmare."
"So? Just take the favor and go."
"But why me?" asked Amity.
The witch stopped at a corner and held out her hand to stop Amity. She scanned the area. "I've seen plenty of witches and bipeds get snatched up in that bar. I guess I just got sick of it." She picked a direction and headed off again.
Amity jogged to catch up. "That's a lousy explanation."
"Yeah well, that's the one I got."
Amity followed in silence for a few more moments. "What's your name?" she said again.
The witch stopped dead and pinched the bridge of her nose. "If I tell you my name, will you stop bothering me?"
Amity considered, then nodded.
The witch sighed. "Bria," she said and continued her pace.
"My name's Am—"
"Hupupupp!" Bria put her hand on Amity's lips. "No more bothering."
So Amity followed in silence for a time. At some point, Bria's pace slowed and eventually, she halted. She leaned on a wall to catch her breath. "You okay?" said Amity.
"Yeah," Bria said as she peeled the power glyph off her flesh. Amity hadn't noticed before, but Bria had sallow skin and deep bags under her eyes. "Just need to make my pickup."
They continued at a slower pace through the night market until they reached Bria's destination, a tiny stall near the edge of the market. Before they approached, Bria turned to Amity. "Don't speak," she said before walking up to the thin, blue demon at the stall. "Krenob," she said. "I need a stack."
"I thought I was too pricey for you, Bree," said the demon.
"Yeah well, everybody's pricey these days."
"Ain't that the truth." Krenob reached under the counter and put a stack of power glyphs on top of it. "20-count, scavenged from the Bonesborough Construction Coven branch, two-hundred snails."
"Two-hundred!" Bria exclaimed. "You tryna hustle me?"
"Not at all." Krenob spoke like water smoothing over stones. "You know how hard it is to find supply with the Collector's minions roaming around?"
"I don't… have that much," said Bria.
"Sorry, Bria. Business has grown since we last dealt. I can't make compromises for friends anymore."
Amity watched this all unfold from a few feet away. Bria had a look on her face Amity hadn't seen on her yet: desperation. She reached into her pouch. "Here." She put two hundred-snail pieces on the counter.
"Woah, Bria! Who's the high roller?" said Krenob.
"None of your business," said Bria. "'Night." She took the glyph stack in one hand and Amity in the other and moved them away to a scant alley. She pulled a glyph off the stack and placed it on her wrist, right where the last one was. She sighed, looking immediately relieved. "What'd you say your name was?"
"Amity Blight," said Amity.
Bria's eyes widened, before relaxing again. "Well thanks, Blight."
"Just consider it thanks for saving me back there."
Bria smiled. "You handled yourself pretty well. I thought rich people paid bodyguards to fight for them."
"I'm not that rich and… I've had some experiences."
Bria pulled off another glyph. "You ever used a power glyph before?"
"Once," Amity said, remembering Luz's first covention. "It wasn't a good experience."
"Well, it couldn't have been the glyph. This stuff is pure bliss." She held the glyph out to Amity. "Come on, try it. It's the least I can do after you spotted me for it."
Amity did remember how powerful she felt, even if she hadn't known why at the time. She felt like she could take on anything. She looked Bria in the eyes. Those orange irises held nothing but gratitude in that moment. Amity looked back down and took the glyph.