A few weeks ago…
"Well, folks, Eda the Owl Lady has appeared on stage, which means the petrification process is about to begin", the reporter seen in the crystal ball reports. The camera is aimed at a high platform, from the center of which a gate opens and a cage is raises out of the ground.
'Is that Eda? That must be this curse that Luz told me about'
Amity is lying on her bed, still with her broken ankle that she sustained in her Grudgby match. To pass the time, she's been flipping through all the countless boring channels and now she's stuck on this live broadcast.
Next to Eda's cage, another person appears, who doesn't introduce themselves. However, Amity knows that this is Kikimora. Her mentor Lilith had once introduced them to each other during a tour of the Emperor's Palace.
Kikimora walks over to a set of switches on the left end of the platform and flips a few of them. Another hatch opens next to Eda's cage and a strange contraption emerges. Amity has never witnessed a petrification in her life, and this contraption is just as intimidating as the thought of petrification itself.
'Knowing Luz, she's going to try to save Eda... Stupid cast... If I didn't have you, I could help her'
Suddenly more people enter the platform while the petrification device begins charging up.
"LILITH?", Amity screams, aghast.
"And in a shocking turn of events, head coven leader Lilith Clawthorne is now in the holding cage, escorted by what appears to be a deranged cat.", the reporter comments from the crystal ball, when suddenly Augustus appears in the picture and Willow takes the microphone away from him.
'Willow?'
"Yeah, what's happening to Eda isn't right. She might not always follow the rules, but she hasn't done anything worthy of petrification. The emperor should let Eda go."
"Let Eda go!", Augustus calls from behind Willow. The spectators who have gathered for the petrification at the Conformatorium join in, shouting alongside Willow and Augustus.
"Let Eda go! Let Eda go!".
During the tracking shot across the crowd, not only are many of Amity's acquaintances there demanding Eda's release, surprisingly even a few guards join in.
'Did Lilith betray the emperor? Why? The Emperor's Coven has been her whole life...' Amity looks up from the crystal ball to the poster hanging on the wall next to her. 'Are all of these just lies? TALK TO ME!'
Before she can continue mentally yelling at the poster on her wall, something strange seems to be happening at the Conformatorium. The whole area seems to shake unusually violently and the petrification machine activates. The tremors calm down quickly, but painful screams can be heard from the cage. In a close-up shot she can now see how the two witches and the demon are slowly being turned into stone. Eda is the first to complete the petrification process. Her demon is the next one. Lilith looks helplessly and desperately at the camera, and she too has now been completely petrified.
Amity's stomach turns at the sight, and she is forced to look away from the crystal ball.
'Wait... Why hasn't Luz shown up? Eda and her demon were the only family that she had here. She would never stand by while they were taken away from her forever'
She opens her scroll and immediately opens up Willow's contact:
HELLO_WILLOW
[A]: Willow. Where is Luz?
[W]: I don't know. Gus and I had thought that she would also be here in the Conformatorium to free Eda but we didn't see her
Suddenly, Amity notices Emperor Belos stepping onto the platform. There seems to be a small piece missing from his mask
"Children of the Isles... By the Titan's will, these criminals were turned to stone. Let their fate be a lesson about the dangers of wild magic. The body of the Owl Lady will be on display in Bonesborough Market as a warning never to defy the Titan's will."
HELLO_WILLOW
[A]: I'm sure something happened to her. Did you see the emperors cracked mask?
[W]: Gus and I are going to go look for her. I've even asked a few people who are going to help us.
[A]: I'm coming too
[W]: No!
[A]: What no? Of course I will help find her
[W]: Do you still have your cast?
[A]: …
[W]: I'll take that as a yes. You're not going to be of any help to us if you only have one working leg
[A]: I can create an Abomination that can carry me
[W]: I know you're dying to help, but you're no help while hurt.
[A]: Curse you, Boscha!
[W]: Hehe
[W]: Look, if you really want to help, your mother knows oracle magic, right? Maybe she can- wait, never mind. I was just remembering what kind of witch she is
[A]: Willow…
[W]: Yeah, sorry.
[A]: You can't expect me to sit idly by at home while you guys go off looking for Luz
[W]: Look at it this way: the quicker your leg heals, the quicker you'll both be reunited.
[A]: Is this an allusion for something?
[W]: I'll let you know when we find her.
[W]: Bye
Amity reluctantly decides to stay in bed and follow Willow's advice. She tries to convince herself that Luz has nothing to do with the fact that Emperor Belos' mask is missing a piece. Although in vain.
She tries to get her mind off things. Like her own mentor, Lilith, betraying her coven, throwing away the future she theoretically would have had. But Amity's future is also uncertain now. She's only sure of two things: on the one hand, she definitely doesn't want to be in the Emperor's Coven anymore, and on the other hand, she wants Luz to be okay. The latter perhaps more than anything else...
A couple days later…
Yesterday Amity's cast has been removed, and today is the first day she's able to go back to school. Her mother urged the healers to take down the cast sooner and for once, she actually agreed with her.
For the past few days, Amity has been chatting with Willow and even Gus almost non-stop, hoping they'll find Luz. However, there is no sign of her so far. Since school starts again today, she hopes that Luz will be there, even if the odds are not too good.
She doesn't really care about school at the moment. In fact, nothing matters right now. Not the classes, not her grades, not her parents, not her siblings, not her status as a top student... Absolutely nothing, except to find Luz.
Usually, Amity walks to school together with Edric and Emira, but eventually breaks away from them and waits for Boscha, Skara, and/or Amelia. Today, however, she runs past her mother, who wishes Ed and Em a productive day, out of the house, ignoring her mother's urging her to come back, focused on her destination: Hexside. She ignores everything and everyone until she reaches her destination. She's criss-crossing the whole campus and through the whole building and... nothing. No sign of Luz.
She heads back to the main entrance. Since school hasn't started yet, she hopes there's a chance she just hasn't arrived yet. So, with that, Amity waits at the main entrance for a while, as the whole student body walks past her. No one seems to notice Amity, even though she's sitting right on the steps leading up to the entrance.
After a while, Willow and Augustus appear, who seem to head straight towards Amity.
"Hey Amity...", Willow greets.
"Hey, Willow. Augustus.", she greets back.
"You really don't look well right now... quite depressed actually…", Augustus notes. Usually, she would give him at least a verbal slap in the face for that, but right now, he's absolutely right. For a while, silence surrounds the group. Willow and Augustus look at her, but Amity's gaze is on the floor.
"It's because of Luz, isn't it?", Willow asks in a sad voice. Amity nods. Silence again. "I know how you feel. Luz is my best friend-", Willow says, but is cut off by Amity, who is now starring directly into her eyes.
"You haven't the slightest idea how I feel!", she says sharply, "She... she's the best thing that ever happened to me in my fucking life.", Willow is shocked at that. She has never heard her former best friend swear like that before, "She managed to make me feel like someone would actually be happy to see me for once for who I am, and make me feel like I meant something to her. I never got to tell her how much she actually meant to me. And now she's gone. Just like-"
Amity suddenly realizes what she actually said just now, as Willow and Augustus stare at her wide-eyed.
"I... need to go", she says, and runs off.
She runs for a while to make sure no one is following her. She had heard Willow call her name a couple of times, but now all is quiet. She doesn't know for sure where she is. Except that she's probably in the middle of a forest.
'I can't do this... I can't be among witches who all pretend nothing happened. As if Luz didn't...'
Sorrow washes over her as she wanders aimlessly through the forest for what feels like hours. At some point she begins to hear the boiling sea, and directly walks towards this source of noise. She crosses a path that she doesn't immediately recognize and walks along this path towards the source of the noise. In addition to the waves crashing against a shore somewhere, Amity now hears something else.
"HOOOT!"
"AAHHH!", Amity yells before falling backwards. "You? I walked all the way to the Owl House?"
"You look sad. Who hurt my best friend's friend? Hoot"
Amity chuckles. Quite unusual for her. However, that is changing quickly as she asks "Say, is Luz home?"
"Nope. I haven't seen her since she went to save Eda. That must have been a few hours ago..."
Amity's heart breaks into a thousand pieces as she hears this, and more tears form in her eyes. 'Oh no... he has no idea what happened... Can I really tell him?'
"Hooty, um... That was several days ago"
"Hm?", Hooty gives her a questioning look after being distracted by a bug flying through the air next to him. "Eda... She was petrified. Just like King. And Lilith... And Luz is... she's... gone…", Amity admits, her gaze never leaving the ground. And again, silence fills the the space around her. Only the water of the boiling sea can be heard. Hooty speaks up
"You can come in if you want. I won't bother you.", Nothing more can be heard of his eccentric, optimistically cheerful nature. "I'll be back later".
He rams his head into the ground and seems to be burrowing somewhere. Amity carefully enters the Owl Lady's house. And as if her heart wasn't broken enough, it only gets worse as she enters the living room. Multi-colored garlands, balloons, confetti and party hats are scattered throughout the room. There is a huge cake on the living room table, and something must have exploded on top. And next to the cake is a loose ribbon with a card next to it, which Amity picks up and sits down on a couch before reading it.
TO A YOUNG WITCH FROM HER PROUD MENTOR - EDA
That's when all the dams burst inside Amity and she breaks down completely. She falls sideways onto the couch and pulls her legs up to her chest. The sorrow in their tears and the intensity of her sobs can be felt throughout the house. Fortunately, there is currently no one who can see her so emotionally vulnerable at the moment. Unfortunately, she knows that that bird tube will come back sooner or later. But before that can actually happen, Amity falls asleep.
She herself has only been to the Owl Lady's house three time in her life before. The first time, she helped Luz restore Willow's memories, which she had accidentally destroyed… The second time she had helped Luz train for Grom, and the third time, she was invited to celebrate her victory in the Grudgby match against Boscha, along with Luz and her other friends. Well, it wasn't a victory on points, just on an emotional level. It was still nice though.
And now... Amity is alone in the owl lady's house, and she knows that she really shouldn't be there. At the same time, it feels like a safe haven. Like a place where she can be herself, without any expectations being laid on her, without any stress and without worries. Perhaps she will come here more often in the future. Despite Hooty...
Amity wakes up again when she hears a loud knock against wood.
'Is he back already?', she wonders and opens her eyes, which are still pretty red and a somewhat swollen.
"Willow?", she asks when she notices who is standing in the doorway.
"Oh, Ami..."
"No, stop! I don't want your pity... What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing", she says snippy, and gradually walks over to the couch, and sits down next to her.
"Hooty came into school earlier and told me you were here. Got everyone pretty rattled as he meandered through the hallways", Willow says, amused.
"I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you earlier."
"Apology accepted. But why did you go here of all places?"
Amity chuckles. "When I ran away, I just wanted to get away. I had no destination. Just wanted to get away… From everything. After a while I ran into Hooty, and he said I could come in if I wanted to."
"And the way you look, you've been crying for a long time..."
Amity nods.
"I have to apologize too", Willow says at which Amity looks confused, "I said earlier that I know how you would feel. That was insensitive of me. I know you care more about Luz than anyone else... and also that you feel more towards her than towards others... right?"
"You got me...", Amity blushes and grins. "How did you find out?"
"Seriously? Your crush on Luz was so obvious, I think everyone knew it. Well, except Gus... and Luz herself..."
Amity and Willow continue talking for a while, mostly about how oblivious Luz is. Hooty joins them too eventually, which neither girl seems to mind. Plans are even thrown around about how they could get the two girls together. There is a lot of laughter and some eating of the huge cake, which, considering its age, still tastes surprisingly good.
After a little more than two hours, Willow says it's time to go home.
"Amity, do you want me to walk you home?", Willow offers.
"Yes, that would be nice. I think I can expect some trouble from Mom for skipping class today..."
"Unlikely.", Willow says to Amity's surprise, "Gus created an illusion of you that took your place today. You don't need to worry about that..." Amity has tears in her eyes again. Tears of joy.
"Willow... I really didn't deserve you as a friend.", Amity wraps Willow in a big hug.
"You really should say thank you to Gus. But I'm happy to pass your hug on to him.", Willow jokes and Amity laughs.
"I'll thank him when I get home. Oh, I almost forgot something...", Amity says, turning back towards the Owl House and calling out to Hooty.
"Hey, Hooty. If you want, I'll come visit you again soon", She doesn't understand what Hooty is replying due to her distance from the house, but he curls up and seems pretty happy about it.
"You know, after what Luz once told me, you really can't stand him...", Willow notes.
"It was like that too. But today... was nice. And I have the feeling that I'm changing too..."
"I think that's great. You're really becoming a better version of yourself... And Luz will see that too once she gets back here."
"You think?"
"But absolutely. Not even Belos would be able to keep Luz away from you. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow tricked her and sent her back to the human realm. And I wouldn't be surprised if she's there, working on a way to come back and kick his ass."
"Thank you, Willow. You're really a great friend"
"The best.", Willow corrects her with a content smile on her face.
The rest of the week is fairly uneventful. Amity goes to school normally, and it doesn't seem to bother anyone that suddenly a student, especially a human student, suddenly no longer shows up. But she tries to hold back her distaste for this behavior, and not break anyone's bones on Hexside because of that.
For the weekend, Amity had promised her parents that she would help out at the Blight Industries demonstration. So far, Edric and Emira had always done it, but she was probably old enough to be on stage herself. For the most part, that was going well, up until the moment a photo detached from a sleeve of her dress, fell to the ground, and was almost destroyed by one of her father's Abomaton soldiers, and Amity instinctively destroyed the Abomaton herself. Her mother was quite upset about this and told her to put on a better show at the next demonstration.
Of course, this action did not go unpunished, and that's why her parents showed up in Hexside the next day. Amity is talking to Willow and Gus when suddenly the speakers in the hall activate.
"You can't just come in here", they hear Principal Bump argue.
"Yes, we can.", they hear a second female voice speaking, "We are the parent-creature-association... Luz Noceda, Willow Park and Augustus Porter. Report to Principal Bumps office immediately. And you too, Amity."
"MOM?", Amity calls out in surprise, and Willow and Gus look at her. "This is not good..."
"I'm sure nothing bad will happen. Right, Willow?", Gus asks optimistically, to which Willow looks skeptical.
"Come on. We shouldn't keep her waiting", Amity rushes.
Arriving in Bump's office, Amity notices her parents standing on either side of Principal Bump. Her mother, Odalia, looks visibly angry, while her father, Alador, just looks tired and bored.
Since Amity is the last one to enter the room, she closes the door behind her and sits down in one of the two free chairs, right next to Willow.
"Where's the human?", Odalia demands to know.
"We don't know.", Amity replies.
"Don't lie to me! I know you're friends with this... human", she says reproachfully.
"We really don't know where she is. She disappeared during the last petrification ceremony…", Willow explains.
"Oh... I didn't... realize that", Bump admits. He sounds sad.
"Of course, you didn't notice! Nobody seems to have noticed! The only human on the Isles disappears without a trace, and absolutely nobody seems to care!", Amity calls out with an unprecedented aggressiveness. Willow puts a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.
"AMITY!", Odalia yells, who seems to calm down quickly. "We'll talk about that later... First we'll talk about you both, since the human doesn't want to show up."
She now looks at Willow and Gus, while Amity gives her an exasperated look.
"The Abomination situation, the destruction of detention, the rampage of Grom... These are but a few incidents that have endangered Hexside students, including our daughter. So, the PCA has decided...", she clears her throat as a prompt for Alador to continue now.
"Oh, right. These two are bad influences and must be executed." The three students gasp heavily until he corrects himself. "I mean, expelled." Willow and Gus are even more shocked now and Amity now looks over at her friends worriedly. However, before she can say anything, her talisman activates and she hears her mother's voice within her head.
'Take this as a lesson, mittens. A Blight always upholds their end of the deal'
Amity is now visibly unsettled and looks down ashamed.
Bump now speaks up: "Sadly, I have no choice in the matter. Willow, Augustus, effective immediately, you are no longer students of Hexside. Should Luz reappear, this order will apply to her as well."
Willow and Augustus look at Amity for help.
"NO!", Amity shouts, surprising Odalia. "I won't let you ruin my friends' lives."
"Amity, I think you're forgetting where your place is…", Odalia says in a direct tone to Amity, whose blood appears to be boiling at the moment.
"No, now you listen to me, mother!", Amity yells angrily as she rips the necklace with the talisman from her neck, and breaks it into small pieces with one hand. "I promised you that I would help with your stupid demonstration and if you don't leave my friends alone now and, in the future, I will personally make sure that you never sell a single weapon or Abomaton ever again."
"You're bluffing! You would also damage your own future by doing so", Odalia warns her. It's never been easy for Amity to gauge what her mother is thinking or feeling (if she has any feelings at all), but right now she notices fear in her mother's eyes. Amity has never stood up to her parents ever before, but it seems effective.
"Are you willing to take the risk?", Odalia remains silent and appears to be weighing her options. Everyone else in the room, including Alador, is watching this interaction with great interest.
"This is taking too long. Father, is the intruder alarm activated at home?", Alador nods at that, and she walks over to the window of Principal Bump's office, opens it and yells "HOOTY!" as loud as she can. She turns to the people in the office and coolly says "He'll be right here"
Willow and Gus sense Amity's plans and exchange meaningful looks. Amity's parents and Bump are just confused right now. Less than a minute later, Hooty appears at the window Amity just called him from.
"Hello, bestie. Uh, are those your parents?"
"Yes, that's right. Hold on, I have a favor to ask of you", Amity says in a very friendly tone.
"I'll do anything for you, best friend"
"Great. You know where I live, right?", she asks, to which Hooty nods energetically. "I'd really appreciate it if you could break in there and destroy every Abomination you find. But only those, nothing else"
Hootys widens his eyes with anticipation at her wish, and vanishes just as quickly as he appeared. Amity turns back to her mother and her voice turns venomous.
"Do you still think I'm bluffing?", before Odalia can even think about what just happened though, a beeping noise can be heard from Alador. He picks up a round glass plate on his coat.
Just seconds after Hooty left Hexside, he is now seen on her father's glass plate, crashing through the front door screaming 'HOOT', and tearing up all the Abomination butlers in the Blights' Mansion. Odalia stands open-mouthed in shock as she follows the happenings within the Blight household. Amity, on the other hand, has the biggest smug grin on her face right now.
"Fine!", she says reluctantly, "You won. Willow and Augustus can stay. But Amity, this will have consequences. Come on Alador, we're leaving."
As soon as Amity's parents close the door behind them, Willow and Augustus erupt in cheers.
"Oh my titan, that was sooo cool", Augustus celebrates.
"Amity, I'm so proud of you", Willow says before hearing Principal Bump clear his throat. All three are immediately calm and look at Bump.
"I... am impressed, too, Miss Blight. The PCA has far too much power in these matters. Willow Park, Augustus Porter, your ban is lifted effective immediately."
"Thank you, Principal Bump. I still have one thing to do though...", Amity heads back to the window, and calls Hooty over to her again.
"You did great, Hooty. I'll come by later and tell you what that was about."
Hooty retreats back towards the Owl House. Amity closes the window and says to herself "Sometimes it's quite beneficial to befriend a powerful demon."
Principal Bump just nods before Amity leaves the room, happier than ever.
Later Amity met her siblings and of course they wanted to know what their parents wanted from her. Amity gave them the synopsis and they congratulated her. That same day, Amity went to the Owl House to tell Hooty everything again, and that evening itself was the last presentation, Amity had promised to help out with. While Amity found her father's Abomaton 2.0 more challenging than the last version, the show she pulled off was effective enough to meet her mother's expectations.
As Amity walked past her mother from the stage, she just said to her, "You're welcome."