A Lost Owl

by Marzek

AU: Luz was not able to save Eda from petrification. Or King. Or Lilith. During her fight with Belos, she was ripped from the Boiling Isles by an unknown force and brought to Amphibia, where she crashes Anne and Sasha's reunion party. Toad Tower later fails to be destroyed. The events following that, now unfold differently than previously anticipated... TW: Death, Violence & Trauma

34. Mittensday (Part 2)

It felt like an eternity. Trapped in these... plants. It's like a kind of cocoon that you've been involuntarily imprisoned in. There is no light coming in from the outside, not that there was much of it in the basement in the first place. In addition to the lack of light, there is also no sound. One hears virtually nothing but the own heartbeat and one's own breathing in each ear. It's also very difficult to move, let alone do magic.

This perceived eternity quickly turns out to be no more than a few seconds. But any kind of torture does cause time to slow down.

The leaves around Amity begin to crumble, and at the very first flash of light, she forces her way out of her prison with all her might, resulting in her landing on all fours on an uneven gravel floor.

"WHAT. WAS. THAT?", she yells while panting heavily. She snaps her head horizontally, and sees two more... leaf cocoons in front of her, sticking out of the ground, both beginning to crumble as well. From the first cocoon in front of her, she sees Luz running out before bringing herself to a stop immediately in front of Amity. She looks similarly distraught. Nonetheless, Amity is relieved that she seems otherwise fine. And only now does Amity notice that they are no longer in the basement, but in a narrow, empty alley between two houses.

"Luz, are you alright? Are you okay?", Amity asks her, still breathing heavily. Luz blinks at her several times, at first without saying anything.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I think so... Where are we?", she asks, probably still getting used to the sudden light.

"I think we got teleported out...", Amity assumes.

"You're probably right... But admittedly, I like my version better.", Luz jokes.

"Yeah, me too.", Amity agrees.

At that point, the two girls notice that the third cocoon has largely disintegrated, and Alsa calmly steps out. Her gaze immediately falls on the girls kneeling on the ground, who are now looking at her in annoyance.

"Oh...", Alsa mutters.

"Oh?", Amity repeats sarcastically, "Forgot something?"

"I probably should have given you guys a heads up...", Alsa says awkwardly, to which both girls nod very intensely.

"I didn't even know plant teleportation was possible... So yeah, a heads up would have been really really really nice. Why was that even necessary?", Luz asks after seemingly calming down a bit. Amity not.

"Um, yeah. It's another security measure to avoid being discovered. After every time someone of us had been caught, the security measures were strengthened. It started with splitting up the group when it comes to operations, so that each group never knows the exact plan of another. Then later, the permanent hiding places were abandoned. Evacuation via root teleport is the latest measure."

"Sounds a little paranoid.", Amity comments.

"Perhaps.", Alsa confirms.

"Is there anything else we might need to know?", Luz asks. Alsa ponders for a moment.

"Well, the plan to get our people out of the Conformatorium, of course.", Alsa replies. Though Luz and Amity both have their doubts.

"Already?", Amity asks.

"Well, Liwin and I were already talking about today a few days ago and I had some thoughts.", Alsa speaks with confidence and squats down in front of the two girls, takes a stick and starts drawing in the gravel, "First of all, I must confess up front that you in particular, Luz, probably won't like it."

Luz says nothing and just shrugs her shoulders in indifference. Amity, on the other hand, raises an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Well, my plan consists of two parts: Getting in and getting out. The latter part is the harder part, mainly because we don't have any information about what it looks like inside, or what exactly we should expect inside. We would be completely blind-"

"Um, not exactly-", Luz interrupts Alsa, "I know what it looks like inside. Even though it's been a while..."

"How?", Alsa asks.

"I've broken in before. Like, twice.", Luz tells wearing a smugly grin on her face, "The first time even on the same day I first landed on the Isles."

"Uhhh...", Alsa doesn't quite know what to say to that.

"Wow... Well, even I didn't know that.", Amity remarks.

"Uh-huh. I was supposed to steal a crown for Eda and King, who was in a room full of confiscated contraband. And the second time, I wanted to just... well, you know...", Luz's mood sinks.

"I know.", Amity says, "Alsa, please go on."

"Your knowledge will help us tremendously. In general, this should be pretty easy.", Alsa says.

"So, how do we get in?", Luz asks.

"Well, this is the part you might not like very much... The easiest way is for you to get captured, then let us in from the inside-"

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right here.", Amity speaks clearly before clearing her throat, "I'm not letting Luz have to face this alone. You can forget about that right there!"

Amity kneels just immediately in front of Luz, her arms crossed as she gives Alsa a resolute look. Luz immediately knows, without Amity having to mention the word 'prophecy', why she doesn't want Luz to go alone. Luz actually agrees, though for a different reason.

"I'm not sure this idea is soo good either. Granted, that's exactly how I got in last time. I'm sure they are prepared for that..."

"And how do we get in instead?", Alsa wonders. A slight grin now graces Luz's face.

"We do it the way I got in the very first time: We'll climb through a window.", Luz announces. Alsa is confused.

"Huh. And how is that different from my plan? Besides, can't the guards see us coming from quite a distance...", she remarks.

"Not with these babies.", Luz proudly pulls out some invisibility glyphs, which she proudly shows to Alsa. She's visibly confused, but that's to be expected, "These are invisibility glyphs. Only drawback, you have to hold your breath after using them on yourself. There's another design where you have to close your eyes, but I didn't think those were all that... wise."

"Do you still carry those around?", Amity asks.

"Sure. You never know what's going to happen...", Luz replies.

"Okay... So what's going to happen once we get inside?", Alsa asks.

"We'll figure that out on the way there.", Luz replies, "Say, would you mind if we split up and meet outside the park near the Conformatorium, like, twenty, thirty minutes from now? By then we can come up with a more detailed plan..."

"Yeah, good idea.", Alsa agrees, sensing that the reason for Luz's suggestion isn't necessarily 'safety', "In the meantime, I'll see if Kate and Doug have agreed on who's going to do aerial recon for us by now. See you in a bit."

Alsa stands back up, and Luz and Amity watch her until she has left the alley and is out of sight. Immediately, Amity turns to Luz, dropping her annoyed expression.

"Luz, are you okay?", she asks, concerned.

"I could ask you the same question...", Luz counters, not answering her question, "You're still thinking about the prophecy, aren't you?"

Amity sighs.

"Yes.", she replies, "And I know you meant that I don't have to worry, but we're going to break into a prison... That's not without risks... I mean, what if a guard catches you, or if Warden Wrath is there-"

"-Then I trust that my awesome girlfriend will be there to stand by me. Besides, I think he remembers exactly what happened to him the last time we met."

Amity tries to think back. Although she still knows that Luz saved her, what exactly happened though, is gone.

"Yeah...", Amity says thoughtlessly. She knows full well that it's no use going over the whole thing again, and that Luz will probably tell her exactly the same things as she did earlier, "Okay.", she adds. But the anxiety remains.

Luz now gets up from the ground, and offers her hand to Amity. Luz reaches for her fanny pack to pull out her concealment bracelet and put it on, before both girls now leave the alley together as well, heading for the park Luz mentioned earlier. It does not only have a strategic value, measured by its proximity to their ultimate destination, for Luz it also has an emotional value since Amity took her there last week after the Brawl, where she showed her her petrified friend.

The two girlfriends have just left the alley and are now on their way west towards the Conformatorium.

Now, for the first time, they have the opportunity to see where exactly they were teleported to by Liwin. And it is actually Luz who recognizes where they are, since she has walked the path they are now walking along, in the past, when she wanted to go to the library, or walked with Eda and or King to Morton. Liwin sent them off several hundred meters from the previous meeting point.

"Why would you want to go there, of all places?", Amity asks, "It's just kind of unexpected."

"When Liwin said we were freeing people from the Conformatorium, I couldn't help but recall my first adventure, here on the Isles...", Luz's voice trails off, and a hint of nostalgia and sadness creeps into her tone, "I had just met Eda and King, and in order for Eda to let me back through her portal door, she wanted me to help her steal back King's crown, which Warden Wrath had locked away."

"King had a crown?", Amity wonders. A tiny sad smile emerges on Luz's face.

"He was the King of Demons, after all...", Luz tells, and Amity almost feels Luz's heart burst into a thousand pieces at that moment, "I just miss them, and I want to at least see King before we do that."

"Okay.", Amity replies softly.

Amity feels bad. For once, though, not because of Luz, but because of King. In fact, she can only remember two occasions when they crossed paths: During the Covention, and, after she and Luz fought a Grudgby match together with Willow, later at the Owl House. Their first encounter, at the Covention, is very clearly in her mind right now, and what a monster she was to him then. Granted, she was not any better or nicer to Luz, but at least she did apologize to her at some point. But not so to King...

The thought 'It was just a cupcake' was one that kept her from having to feel guilty for what she had done, or having to justify it, or even apologize for it, for a long time. But now... now it's too late. No apology in the world could bring Luz's friend back, wherever he might be now. And when Willow eventually came up with the idea of putting him up in that city park, she was immediately on board. For ages they, together with Gus, worked in the park, trying to make it look neat. Granted, the real occasion was actually to prepare the park as a kind of memorial to Luz, when everyone suspected that Belos had killed her, and for Amity it was a way to be able to apologize for her past behavior. But it wasn't enough.

The two girls walk through the busy streets in silence, and Amity catches herself as her eyes keep wandering to Luz, who seems to be in a completely different place mentally right now. Luz now notices Amity looking at her, and offers a tiny smile back.

"A snail for your thoughts?", Amity offers. Luz sighs.

"I'm trying to distract myself. I realized I was in a downward spiral, and I wanted to get out of it.", Luz replies, "I started thinking about how we should proceed in the Conformatorium."

'Distraction... Good idea.'

"What do you have so far?", Amity asks.

"Well, we already know how to get in at this point... The next step might be to find out where the people we are trying to rescue are being held... Do you think anyone is keeping a list?"

"We could also free everyone locked up there.", Amity suggests, "That way we could create a diversion, which could distract the guards from our escape."

"But by doing that, we would endanger the other prisoners... Let's see-"

---

Somewhere else…

"Whoa!", Skara exclaims as her leaf cocoon cracks open, and she falls backwards onto her butt, with a horrified expression on her face, "What was that?", she asks no one in particular.

"Our exit.", Liwin speaks up, "A safety measure. We are on the northern outskirts of Bonesborough."

Briskly, Skara looks around and notices that only Liwin and the other older witch, with the hawk palisman, are with her.

"Wait... Where are Luz and Amity?", Skara continues to ask. Liwin replies.

"Luz and the Blight kid have their own mission. It's better for us not to know the details of their plan. The same is the case for them.", she explains.

"Okay, I see... And what is our plan?"

"Step one: follow the map. Step two: make sure we're faster than the Emperor's Coven. Step three: make sure no stones are left behind."

"That's... pretty loosely worked out.", Skara remarks.

"Then make it better yourself!", Liwin almost shouts at her. Skara looks at her aghast, and Liwin immediately realizes her mistake, and changes her tone, "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to lose my temper like that. This week has been nothing but a disaster... As a healer, I should act more thoughtfully."

"Is that also why you're so hostile towards Amity?", Skara asks critically.

"She's a Blight, and Blights mean trouble. And on days like today, we can't have any more of that.", Liwin replies with venom in her voice.

"Everyone has bad days. Well, or weeks... But it will pass. I mean, we're here now, and we'll make sure that Belos won't get a single one of the stones.", the witch, unknown to Skara so far, speaks up.

"Yes, you're right Gwen. Look, here, a map of Forearm Forest for you, and a business card for you, Skara. Take good care of it. I'm off to build a new meeting place for later, and we'll meet up later once you succeeded.", Liwin announces, "Good luck."

And with that, Liwin says goodbye, creates a plant cocoon around herself, and disappears into the ground. The older witch now turns her attention to Skara.

"So, before we get going, perhaps I should introduce myself: I am Gwendolyn. You can call me Gwen if you'd like.", she offers her a hand, who accepts with a smile.

"Skara. Nice to meet you."

"So, shall we take a look at the map then?", Gwen asks, holding the map out to Skara. She nods and takes a look. Gwen pulls out the other map, which should lead to the Galdorstones as well, and they match the maps.

"Huh, her idea about the Forearm Forest was definitely right. I recognize some of the places...", Gwen notes. The map itself provides hardly any useful clues for inexperienced map readers. There are no settlements marked anywhere, no bodies of water except for the Boiling Sea that surrounds the arm to the north and south, and there are no distances indicated on the map either, "I recognize two obstacles there that we have to overcome-"

"You recognize them?", Skara wonders.

"Oh yes, I've been there before, albeit for a different purpose, which I had pursued several years ago. There is a thorn barrier running right through the center of the Forearm Forest. It cuts across the width of the arm. Also, I'm pretty sure this barrier isn't a naturally formed obstacle."

"You mean a witch created it! No way... Not even Belos is powerful enough to cast a spell that big."

"'Galdorstones can amplify powers, remember?", Gwen reminds her.

"But... That... ugh, okay. I'm not questioning this any further. Um, say, can't we just fly with our staffs on top of it and look for the stones from the air?", Skara asks.

"No. We don't know our exact target, and the forest can have an extremely dense canopy in places. But we will be able to approach the edge of the forest by flying. It might save us a bit of time.", Gwen offers.

"Okay good. Wait, I thought you said there were two obstacles you recognized?"

"Yes indeed. There is a giant creature that dwells in these woods. The citrane has its nest here, and it's exactly on the path suggested here.", Skara is a little speechless right now, "But don't worry: I have an idea."

"What kind?"

"Well, as you can see, this dotted line here meanders around past the thorn barrier. That means there must be an opening somewhere. We can bypass the citrane, and save more time, if we go through the thorn wall instead of around it."

"How?"

"I'll say, as Beast Keeper, I have a couple of aces up my sleeve."

"Okay...", Skara acknowledges it insecurely.

"Shall we?", Gwen prepares her staff for takeoff, and Skara follows suit. They take off and at high speed they make their way to the outer edge of Forearm Forest.

---

"There you are you guys...", Alsa realizes as Luz and Amity come into her line of sight. She had been sitting on a bench immediately adjacent to the closed-off park entrance with her crow by her ear until just a moment ago, and Luz and Amity are just approaching her.

"Who was that?", Amity asks facing the bird flying away.

"That was Doug, our scout. He was just reporting how much resistance we might be up against. But we shouldn't be discussing that here.", Alsa notes with a look at the anything but empty street that stretches past them.

"We can go in when you're ready.", Amity tells her casually.

"Go in? Whe-," Alsa cuts herself off as Amity points to the locked gate, removing the magical seal, "Oh. Of course..."

Luz and Amity slowly lead the way, their hands intertwined with each other, and with Alsa behind them. Several meters in, Amity turns to face Alsa, while Luz's head is stuck focused on something in front of her.

"Would you mind waiting a few more moments?", Amity gestures with her head in front of her towards a statue, "Luz wants to talk to someone first."

Alsa looks past them, and her eyes widen in understanding. She merely nods before Luz and Amity slowly continue walking.

Luz lets go of Amity's hand as they stand just before the pedestal.

"Hi King...", Luz begins. She breathes rather heavily and unsteadily as she looks at his petrified form. He is standing huddled to one side, with his arm covering his vision upwards, and his head fearfully turned away from there. He was scared to death. Understandably so.

And Luz begins to tear up, wiping her eyes with her hand. "Sorry. It's just... just..."

"Maybe you'd prefer me to start?", Amity offers her to which Luz nods slightly. "Hey, King. I want to apologize to you... I don't know if you remember that, or if it even matters now... Back at the Covention, I had destroyed your cupcake, and I am sorry. I was nothing but a bully at the time, let's just say it like it is. Since then, largely in fact because of Luz, I've grown, tried to become a better witch than I was. ... And... I know it's too late for this, but I just really wanted to say that I'm sorry."

Amity's gaze leads to her side, and from the corner of her eye, she sees Luz wearing a small, proud smile on her face. It's contagious, and Luz now has the strength to carry on herself.

"Um... King, do you remember our very first adventure?", Luz begins, "We're about to break in again to free innocent people who will help us make the Isles a better place... And we're going to make Belos pay! ... I wish you were here, with us."

At that, Luz lunges forward and hugs King's petrified form as tightly as she can.

"I miss you."

As Luz continues to show no signs of being able to break away from King for a while, Amity gently places a hand on Luz's shoulder.

"Do you want me to go back to Alsa already, and give you a few more moments for yourself?", Amity asks sympathetically. Luz nods. "Okay..."

Amity hesitates for a few more seconds before removing herself and heading back to Alsa, who has retreated to a respectful distance.

"Luz... needs another moment."

"I understand.", Alsa replies after glancing behind Amity, "Who was he?"

"Luz's best friend, after what she'd told me. It hasn't been two months since he was petrified...", Amity recounts.

"She's still grieving...", Alsa observes.

"She has lost a lot since then. Sometimes I wonder how she even manages to get out of bed in the morning...", Amity talks along, her gaze fixed on Luz, "Alsa, I need your opinion about something: how do you feel about prophecies?"

"I'm going to assume this has something to do with Luz... Well, in my experience, prophecies are rather context dependent. For example: In my youth, I was dating a guy named Kim while Sarah was 'just' my best friend at the time. Anyway, I had a prophecy given to me with Kim regarding my future. The ghost said that I would have children with my closest companion. But only months later, Kim left me. And it wasn't until I was with Sarah years later, that I really understood who exactly the ghost meant."

"So, you would go ahead and say that prophecies are usually accurate, right?", Amity asks nervously.

"Absolutely, yes.", Alsa confirms. Again, immense concern for her girlfriend spreads through Amity's mind. Fortunately, at that exact moment, Luz rejoins the other two, wiping her cheeks dry with her sleeve.

"Okay.", Luz begins, "I'm all set."

"So, what's the plan then?", Alsa asks.

"Well, as mentioned earlier, we're going to sneak in through a window near the top. From there, we need to find out exactly where our prisoners are. Ideally, the warden will keep a list that we need to grab.", Luz explains, but Alsa has questions.

"Ideally?", she asks to which Amity replies.

"Well, basically, we see two options: We either go quietly and unnoticed, which requires that we know where exactly our captured are... Or we free everyone, and try to use the chaos to our advantage."

"I myself am generally a fan of chaotic route...", Luz admits.

"And I think the quieter route is better.", Amity adds, "What do you think?"

Alsa herself fortunately doesn't have to think long about which way she prefers herself, which means that the last few preparations can proceed. All three of them retrieve their staffs. Luz has Owlbert, Amity has Ghost, and Alsa's palisman is a panda named Peter. Lastly, Luz takes Amity and Alsa through the application of glyphs once again, and with that everything is all set.

The three of them climb onto their staffs and lift off, but remain low to the ground for the time being, until they approach the outer limits of the Conformatorium.

The Conformatorium itself lies in a valley northwest of Bonesborough, which is surrounded by dark curved bones resembling ribs, that rise far into the air. In general, the clouds in the surrounding area also seem far more somber than in the rest of the town. Several airships patrol around the building, and a few coven guards stand guard outside. In general, there is very little observable activity around the area.

"Okay, see those round windows up there, just below the burning ring?", Luz asks, everyone nods, "There nearby are the holding cells, and the room where the contrabands are stored. I'm guessing the warden's office is also nearby."

"And we need to fly fast.", Amity adds, "We only have as much time as we can hold our breath. Once we're visible before we're inside, the plan has failed... See you inside."

And together with Luz and Alsa, Amity takes one deep breath, and applies the invisibility glyph to herself, before she and her staff turn invisible and she flies at top speed towards the window Luz described.

She clutches her staff with both hands as an oddly icy wind hits her skin. Her gaze briefly wanders downward and she sees several witches and demons looking very small.

The building gets closer and closer, and gradually Amity finds it hard to continue holding her breath.

The window is in view, and it becomes more and more obvious that the window is insanely small. Like, there's really no margin for error. It's either one has to slow down beforehand, or squeeze through the narrow, round window, way too fast, and with only a few centimeters of room to spare. Generally speaking, slowing down wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Amity doesn't know whether Luz and Alsa are just ahead of- or behind her.

'Risk it is, then...'

The wall grows closer. The window is only a little bigger than Amity.

She fixes the center of the window in her gaze, and only seconds later, she is through.

'YES!', Amity exhales in relief, which simultaneously breaks her invisibility. A second later, Luz also reappears right next to her, seemingly not having to hold her breath much. 'Reminder to myself: Ask Luz later why she won't show her magic when the others already know who she is.'

Two seconds later, Alsa reappears right at the window. She must have decided to slow down when she saw Luz and Amity already inside.

"Are you guys okay?", Luz asks in a whisper.

"That was weird... But yeah.", Alsa replies. Luz turns to Amity, who nods at her as well. Amity takes a few steps forward and is stunned.

"Whoa..."

The three of them are on the top part of a spiraling, guardrail-less stonewalk, which winds on down quite some distance. Along this stonewalk are isolation cells, blocked off with massive iron bars, all the way down, the cells no more than two meters apart from each other. And almost every single one is already occupied. To the left of each cell is a heavy-looking lever, presumably there to control the iron bars.

"Oh, my, Titan...", Alsa mutters as she steps out to the edge and is able to perceive the entire Conformatorium at once, "I knew there were a lot of people locked up in here, but this... This is beyond even my imagination..."

Amity is similarly speechless.

"Unbelievable...", she whispers, peering down over the edge as well, until something catches her eye. "No guards, though"

"It was the same the first time I was here. Eda had once said that the majority of the guards were positioned at the bottom, near the entrance, because, and I quote, 'no one would be stupid enough to jump out of a window from that high up'.", Luz tells her before turning to the first cell, where a trapped demon appears to be sleeping, "Although, that one's new."

"What do you mean?", Amity asks. Luz points to a symbol burned into the skin on one of their arms. Amity and Alsa stand by it, and immediately notice that Luz seems increasingly aggravated.

"That's a glyph.", Luz observes in a bleak voice. Another, female voice speaks up.

"The glyph prevents us from accessing our magic.", the voice speaks from the neighboring cell, and the three of them, headed by Luz, move there.

Luz voice abruptly shifts from aggravation to unexpected surprise.

"Wait a minute... I know you... You're the girl I helped escape the first time...", Luz observes, while the girl herself can't necessarily confirm it. She's sitting on the ground, looking quite pale, wearing a black vest with golden buttons and a maroon collar, underneath a beige long-sleeved shirt rolled up to her elbows, red pants, and black long boots. Completing her outfit are two black fingertip-less gloves. She herself has black hair, tied into a high ponytail with a red hair band. Her eyes are hazel, and she has two strongly protruding fangs, while they tend to be more subtle on other witches.

"We've met before?", she asks skeptically, as a thought briefly occurs to Luz, who removes her concealment bracelet, to which the girl responds happily. "Cat lady? Of course...". Suddenly Alsa interrupts the two.

"Your name is Katya, isn't it? One of the original members of the resistance against Belos...", Alsa notes excitedly. Katya nods in surprise, though hesitantly.

"Yes, that's me... Don't tell me you're here because of me...", Katya states.

"We're here to break you out, and the other members as well.", Amity explains, "Do you happen to know where they are?"

"We got separated when we got arrested. But I know they are here somewhere...", Katya explains. Luz now speaks up.

"Can we get back to the part about preventing you from accessing magic?", Luz asks, "How is that even possible? I didn't think there was anyone who knew glyph magic besides me..."

Katya brushes off one of her gloves, which also reveals the same branded symbol on her hand as it did on the demon in the first cell.

"It was around one week ago. Warden Wrath had taken all the prisoners here out of their cells one by one, because he wanted to do 'experiments' on us. The first twenty or so never came back. Not long after that, it was my turn. They took me out of my cell, locked me in a room with a big furnace, and gave me this brand. And I haven't been able to do magic since. It's like a consistent drain…", Katya explains.

"And they did that to everyone here?", Alsa asks, horrified.

"As far as I know...", Katya replies. Luz turns to Alsa and Amity.

"Okay, new plan: I'm going to have to have a talk with Warden Wrath."

"Bad plan.", Amity objects to her in the very same moment.

"We have no choice, Amity. If Warden Wrath has somehow managed to create a glyph that can rob people of their magic, we need to know, because that would be horrible news for everyone in the Isles...", Luz argues, desperation lingering in her voice, "I just need to know where this glyph came from. I just have to..."

"You wanna make sure it's not your fault, don't you?", Amity asks sympathetically. Luz nods slightly. "Okay. But not by yourself."

"Any ideas?", Alsa asks.

"We have to go to his office anyway. And if he's there...", Luz doesn't finish her sentence, but the others know exactly what she's getting at. At that point however, Katya speaks up again.

"Take me with you, I want to help.", she offers, "The lever here opens the gate."

Alsa walks towards the lever, but hesitates when she puts her hand on it.

"Wait... Will this set off an alarm?", Alsa asks.

"No.", Katya replies.

"Are you sure?", Alsa asks doubtfully, "We want to keep this whole thing mostly stealthy..."

"Quite sure. In all my time here, I've never heard an alarm going off.", Katya replies, and Alsa pulls the lever that causes the gate to rise. Alsa enters the cell.

"Can you stand up?", she asks, to which Katya shakes her head. Alsa gathers her strength and helps Katya to get up. "Luz, do you have some more invisibility glyphs? I want to get her out of here as soon as possible."

"What? No!", Katya protests, "I want to help."

"Please lower your voice...", Luz urges her firmly, "I'm sorry, but you're in no condition to help. You need help yourself right now, and Alsa is a healer. She could help remove the burn mark."

Alsa nods affirmatively, and Luz's arguments actually seem to resonate with Katya.

"All right. But if you're looking for the others, you need their names: Amber Wahlgren, Derwin Pruban, and Raine Whispers. They wear the same uniform as me. That's how you'll recognize them.", Katya insists.

"And these are the names of our people...", Alsa adds, handing Luz a folded piece of paper, "Be careful with it."

Luz hands Alsa two invisibility glyphs before the two pairs split up. Alsa and Katya exit the building the same way the group came in earlier, and Luz and Amity continue making their way up towards Warden Wrath's office.

Luz and Amity hastily proceed up the looped path, all the way towards the top, assuming that they will find the office there. Whether it's really there is nothing more than a guess. It's not like there are any building plans hanging around, or emergency exits labeled in the Conformatorium.

"Okay, behind this door here is the room where the contraband stuff is locked away.", Luz says in a whisper as they pass in front of a closed wooden door.

"Could there be anything of interest in there for us?", Amity whispers back.

"Probably not.", Luz replies, "But I might not be able to get in there anyway. The place is protected with a force field where only humans can get through. And it's not like I'm still... you know."

"Yes, you are.", Amity counters her quietly but firmly, which hits Luz most unexpectedly, "It doesn't matter that you have changed blood now, have two hearts, and can natively cast spells. You're still human, in all the ways that matter."

"You've only ever known one...", Luz notes, stepping right into Amity's trap.

"Exactly. I have exactly one reference as far as humans are concerned. And you, Luz Noceda, fit that one hundred percent. You are literally the best human I know compared to all the others.", Luz genuinely begins to giggle in response.

'Ha! Success.'

"Well, if you look at it that way, I'm the most human human you've ever met.", Luz laughs softly, "On Earth itself, I now might possibly pass for a timelord."

"A what?"

"Later. We're there."

Amity's attention now shifted to the door in front of them. Like all the others the two girls have passed so far, this one is made of wood, but it is much larger and wider. In addition, a rather large metal sign hangs in the upper center, on which the word 'Warden' has been engraved in large letters.

Luz leans her ear against the door.

"Can you hear anything?", Amity asks after a few moments. Luz continues to listen intently for a while, before shaking her head.

"He's either alone, or not there at all."

"So, what now?", Amity asks before Luz pulls out several ice glyphs.

"Well, what do you think? We're breaking in. If he's inside, we surprise and subdue him. If not, we don't. But either way, we search the office for anything useful.", Luz whispers the plan to her.

"Meaning a prisoner list, and any possible info for that glyph...", Amity clarifies. Luz nods in confirmation.

Amity positions herself right at the door, ready to push it open with all her body weight. Luz stands next to her, already ready to slip through at the first possible opportunity, and attack whoever is inside. They nod to each other in silent confirmation before Amity begins to push.

Just as the crack of the door is wide enough for Luz, she squeezes through and runs into the room beyond.

"No one's in here.", Luz says only moments later, and sounding rather disappointed. Amity has opened it door wide enough for herself now, too, before following Luz, and closing the door again from the inside.

"That's a good thing, isn't it? This way we can search undisturbed.", Amity tries to look at the matter more positively.

"I guess...", Luz replies, still sounding disappointed, before returning to Amity at the door, and applying an ice glyph to the lock.

"Say, I meant to ask you earlier, why are you still using the glyphs instead of your own magic anyway?", Amity wonders, "You didn't hold yourself back all that much with those glyphs, did you?"

"I did at first... It was something new, something unfamiliar... I spent a lot of time practicing, and memorizing the shape properly. At the Covention, after our duel, besides Eda and King, you were the first person to ever see me do magic...", Amity's eyes start to water slightly, "And then, on Monday you were there too... You know, it's not necessary for everyone to know what I can do, or what I'm capable of. I'm in high-demand enough as it is."

That last part confuses Amity slightly, so she raises her eyebrow questioningly. Luz, grinning triumphantly, tilts Amity's attention to the wall behind her. She turns and spots Luz's Wanted poster, alongside a few others. It's a good deal larger than the ones scattered in and around Bonesborough.

"You want to take that with you, don't you?", Amity asks. Luz nods in affirmation. "Go ahead. I'll take a look around the rest of the office."

The office itself looks pretty nondescript. There's a stone desk on the back wall, two other walls full of shelves crammed with a wide variety of folders, the wall with the front door is just wanted posters with enormously high finder's fees amounting to several million snails each, and the last wall is just an iron door with a large, massive padlock on it. But, in keeping with the mission, Amity turns to the folders first, while Luz, with Owlbert's help, is still busy taking down her own wanted poster from the wall and packing it up.

"I didn't think Warden Wrath had such a high regard for organization.", Amity talks to herself, "A whole shelf of nothing but folders with prisoner lists. All of them sorted by year and month... And that's over nearly two decades..."

Luz has since taken down her poster and rolled it up, and is now standing next to her with Owlbert on her shoulder.

"Where's the current month?", Luz asks.

"I don't see it.", Amity replies, before suddenly a soft meow comes from the desk. The two girls turn to see Ghost sitting in front of an open folder, licking one of her paws. "Aww, good job... Who's a good palisman?"

The two girls approach the desk, and Amity gratefully begins to scratch Ghost's head, with Ghost purring softly. Luz now speaks up.

"Amity, can you see if you can find anything about this magic-suppressing-glyph? In the meantime, I'll look for where our prisoners are."

"Sure.", Amity replies. Luz pulls out the paper Alsa has given her, opens the folder, and starts searching, while Amity looks around at the rest of the desk.

On the surface itself, there is nothing but the folder, so Amity turns to the two drawers on the right side of the desk. In the top drawer, which she opens, there is only one item: a photo of Warden Wrath and his son, Braxas. Amity smiles slightly at the sight. Tomorrow she'll be back at the library for her reading hour for the children, and Braxas has always been one of the regulars there, but also one of her favorites. He's always been pretty sweet to her, and he's pretty well behaved. After the reading sessions, he was always one of the first to offer to help clean up the children's corner.

'A good kid.', Amity thinks to herself as she puts the photo back and closes the drawer, turning her attention to the one below. As she does so, she hears Luz mutter.

"Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Wahlgren, Pruban, Whispers... Organization is all well and good, but alphabetical sorting would be more useful right now..."

Amity opens the second drawer and finds a smaller binder inside. She opens it and finds that it is a stack of written, unsent orders to Wrath's subordinates.

'Hmm, let's see... New break time regulations... Disciplinary warnings to a guard for bringing food to a prisoner at an unscheduled time... A promotion party... Uhh, patrol schedules...', Amity pulls out her scroll and takes a picture of the document, 'Okay, what else? ... Just one meal a day for prisoners? And... oh...'

"Luz, you should read this.", Amity hands her the document she just found and puts it on the folder Luz has in front of her. She takes it in her hand and begins to read.

"After the now successful test phase to reduce the danger of the prisoners, the following new regulations will come into effect immediately: All new incoming prisoners, regardless of age, will have to undergo the new procedure, necessary for our protection. The ban on talking to the prisoners remains in place. I would like to remind you urgently, that the new procedure means that the prisoners affected will suffer hallucinations, and nothing they say may be taken seriously. In addition to this, we will also forward this procedure to all other prisons, police stations, and similar security institutions, in order to protect our own people.", Luz finishes reading, and already from the way Luz almost tears the paper apart, Amity immediately sees how angry she is right now. Golden flashes appear on Luz's arms and only moments later the document bursts into flames, leaving nothing behind.

"This... this is insane.", Luz comments, aghast, "They are robbing witches and demons of their powers, and then portraying them as insane, so they won't be taken seriously? That's so... so..."

"Immoral?", Amity asks similarly horrified.

"I was going to say something more like 'disgusting,' but yeah, that fits too.", Luz replies, and closes the folder. "We have to free everyone."

"I know."

"You take a look and see if you can find anything else about the glyph and where it came from. In the meantime, I'll take a look and see what Wrath is hiding behind that locked door.", Amity nods in confirmation before pulling another stapler out of the drawer.

Meanwhile, Luz has made her way to the door, froze the massive padlock, and destroyed it with a single blow before entering the room.

Amity has placed the second stapler on the desk, and immediately notices the Emperor's Coven seal on it. She opens it and finds only a single paper on it, addressed to Warden Wrath, and dated from a little over two weeks ago.

'Warden Wrath... blah blah blah... Threat to society... blah blah blah... An experimental procedure to suppress harmful drives? Expected side effects include physical debility and hallucinations... Attached is a template that must be burned onto the prisoners' skin. The template must be destroyed after the burning iron has been created. What the-', Amity can't even finish her thought before Luz already returns, holding an object in her hand.

"I found this. Laying in a cold oven. Probably the one Katya mentioned...", Luz reports, "Did you find anything else?"

"I have reason to believe that none of the guards here know exactly what they're really doing.", Amity tells.

"What do you mean?"

"This is an instruction to Wrath for the branding iron you're holding right now, and it says it's meant to suppress harmful drives, and that weakened sensations are merely side effects...", Amity relays what she's read.

"But that doesn't necessarily make it any better... Who gave the order?", Luz asks.

"I don't know. It's not signed. It just has the Emperor's Covens seal on it.", Amity replies, taking out her scroll and photographing this document as well.

"Doesn't matter. We have what we need. We need to free these people now.", Luz announces.

"And after that?"

"After that, we'll find Alsa and explain to her what we found. The prisoners can- wait no, they can't fight. They're not in any shape to...", Luz babbles to herself before her head snaps rapidly to Amity, "I have an idea how we can not only free all the prisoners undetected, but also how we can break that... I don't know, magic-suppression spell."

"How?"

"Come on. First, I have to test something out.", Luz announces, and both girls head toward the exit. "Oh, one more thing: How do you feel about some arson?"

"I mean, we've already broken in here, looted, and are possibly going to make a huge mess here... So, why not?", Amity replies, causing Luz to smirk happily, "Buut... Let's free the people first, okay?"

Amity is heading for the exit, and creates a small flame to melt the ice Luz sealed the door with earlier, when she suddenly hears a soft poof. She turns around to see Luz taking off her concealment bracelet and packing it away.

"What are you doing?", Amity asks anxiously.

"Well, the concealment doesn't do much good when it too is being searched for via wanted poster...", Luz replies.

"That makes a surprising amount of sense...", Amity counters, "Sorry, my head is kind of somewhere else today..."

"I already noticed that.", Luz smiles, "Don't worry, if necessary, I'll do the thinking today".

Never in her life has Luz seen such a horrified expression on another person's face, let alone her girlfriend's. Luz then begins to laugh out loud, and Amity's face runs redder than ever before. Luz even has to hold onto one of the shelves in the meantime, while Amity starts muttering apologies.

"I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to insult your intelligence... Please forgive me.", Amity pleads as Luz has calmed down a bit. She squeezes her eyes shut and grabs the bottom of her black dress with her hands.

'Please don't be mad. Please don't be mad.'

"Don't worry about that," Luz says with a cheerful tone wo which Amity looks back up again, confused.

"You... aren't mad?"

"Why would I be? I was making a joke. I know where I'm at.", Luz holds Amity by the shoulders, "Really. It's all right."

"Okay.", Amity releases her grip and turns around, before pulling on the door together with Luz, and they cautiously step out.

Both girlfriends poke their heads through the slightly open door, keeping an eye out for any guards. When, as expected, no one is to be seen, they open the door fully, and step out. Luz approaches the edge to get a look down, to see if the coast is clear there as well. Turning back to Amity, she raises a thumbs up, signaling that they can begin whatever Luz may have planned.

Luz leads the way, peeking into each cell they pass. And as Katya indicated earlier, the top ones are all empty.

In the twelfth cell, the two girls find a rather large witch with cyan skin and rather broad shoulders, lying on the floor of their cell with their back facing them, cramped.

"Hey. You. Are you awake?", Luz asks in a loud whisper into their cell. Amity's head immediately rings all the alarm bells, and she jerks Luz by the shoulders.

"What are you doing?", she whispers in a serious tone.

"We need help if we're going to get everyone out at the same time. We probably can't do it alone, and I need to try something first and see if it works.", Luz tries to explain.

"I can hear you, you know?", the witch inside the cell speaks in a deep voice, before they slowly and laboriously turn to the two girls, revealing the still fresh looking burn mark on one of their hands, and then look at them in surprise. "You are not guards..."

"No, we're not. We're here to get all the unjustly imprisoned out of here.", Luz announces.

"Did Liwin seriously send some kids to get me out of here?", the witch asks with a derogatory tone.

"Wait, are you the one who got caught near Latissa?", Amity wonders.

"I am. The name is Ruby.", she introduces herself before her gaze moves to Luz. "I know you. You're the human..."

"I'm Luz.", Luz introduces herself kindly. Ruby just snorts dismissively.

"Not only does Liwin send two children to free me. One of them is a human..."

"Do you want to get out of here or not?", Amity asks annoyed.

"I'm afraid with this thing here-", Ruby raises her hand slightly, revealing the burn mark, "-I'm not going anywhere."

Without giving it much thought, Luz pulls the lever next to the iron bars, which causes them to raise, allowing Luz access. She enters Ruby's cell and kneels next to her hand, the inside surface of which is at least as large as Luz's head.

Ruby herself is a true giant, even when lying down. The width of her shoulders is almost equal to Luz's vertical height, and her arms and legs are similarly massively muscled. It is currently difficult to estimate how tall Ruby is, but Amity suspects that she is at least two meters tall. Probably taller.

Luz pulls out a glyph that Amity recognizes as a regeneration glyph.

"This is a regeneration glyph. If I apply it to your hand, I hope the scar will heal and your strength will return.", Luz explains.

"You hope?", Amity asks skeptically.

"There's a chance that there won't work, and I'll have to try something else.", Luz continues to explain.

"Do what you can't help doing, human. It can't get any worse.", Ruby says, taking her gaze from Luz and leaning her head powerlessly against the gray, stone cell wall. Luz takes a quick breath before placing the glyph on the back of Ruby's hand and activating it.

Her hand glows green as the paper dissolves, and Luz and Amity are confident. This quickly subsides as Ruby's burn mark turns red and begins to smoke.

"AAAAAAAHHHH-," Ruby screams out in pain until Luz quickly claps her hand over her mouth to muffle her scream. Amity quickly rushes outside to watch for any sign of movement.

Half a minute later, Ruby's pain-filled screaming seems to subside, and Luz removes her hand from her mouth.

"I was wrong. It could get worse.", Ruby exclaims through gritted teeth. Luz turns to Amity.

"Has anyone heard that?", Luz asks. Amity turns and shakes her head.

Luz exhales in relief before Amity returns to the cell.

"I was afraid that wouldn't work. I was hoping so badly-", Luz cuts herself off.

"What?", Amity asks.

"There's only one person whose spell I couldn't affect with my glyphs...", Luz begins, "Belos. He created this glyph."

"Are you sure? How?", Amity asks.

"I don't know how... But when I tried to free Eda, she was in chains attached to the ground. I tried to freeze the lock, and blast it, but it didn't work. My glyphs were ineffective... And that was Belos' magic.", Luz explained when Ruby spoke up.

"Can we please get back to my problem here?", Ruby demands.

"Yeah, yeah, right. I have a second idea. But it's harder to explain...", Luz tells her. Ruby just growls at her in return, but doesn't refuse.

Luz holds her hands slightly above Ruby's burn mark, and moments later summons the golden lightning bolts on her arms. Ruby turns her head to Luz as she notices the static electricity in the air. The lightning bolts dance down Luz's arm to her palms, immediately below which they form the same regeneration glyph, and start sinking into Ruby's hand. Once again, her hand begins to glow green. At first, nothing happens, which is good compared to the previous attempt. Curious and confused, Ruby looks first at Luz, and then at her own hand, where she can watch her burn mark begin to heal.

"How-", Ruby asks.

"Are you feeling better?", Luz asks. In response, Ruby tries to stand up, which she succeeds at the first attempt. Only now her true dimensions become apparent. She is at least half a meter taller than Luz or Amity. Even Warden Wrath would look small next to her. She gazes at the two girls in surprise.

Ruby clenches one of her massive fists, and within a second, her fist is completely on fire. And another few seconds later she extinguishes it again.

"Ruby is back, bitches.", she grins diabolically. She glares at Luz. "What's your plan?"

Amity is curious as well.

"I will use plant magic to link all the prisoners together a using the same healing magic on all of them through the plants. After that, I will open all the cells and Ruby, I want to ask you to help everyone out of here."

"And what about you girls?", Ruby asks. Luz turns to Amity.

"Amity, I don't know how much effort it will take for me. If necessary, you'll have to get us out of here.", Luz asks her.

"But of course.", Amity answers in the same second. Luz smiles, and pulls out an invisibility glyph and hands it to her girlfriend.

"Ruby, any questions?", Luz asks the giantess.

"What about a meeting place?" she asks.

"Do you know Alsa?", Amity asks, Ruby nods, "Seek her out. She's somewhere outside treating another prisoner there. Anything else?"

Ruby shakes her head. Luz takes a deep breath.

"Let's go then."

The three of them leave Ruby's cell and step up onto the curbstone. Luz kneels down and places both her hands flat on the front stone.

As before, Luz summons the golden lightning over her arms, only this time there are many times more, which slide into her hand and appear to transfer further into the stone.

Amity watches Luz' strained face as she summons only more and more lightning bolts that sink into her hands.

Amity turns and glances at Ruby's neighboring cell, where another prisoner appears to be sleeping. She watches for any sign of movement, but... nothing so far. She walks to the next cell, and there, she doesn't notice any movement either.

She turns back to Luz, who is still straining to produce golden lightning bolts.

'How big is this spell supposed to get, please?', she wonders.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Amity's feet begins to vibrate slightly. Cautiously, she approaches the edge of the drop and looks down. Ruby does the same.

The bottom itself can only be glimpsed, but Amity actually detects some kind of movement at the bottom, but without being able to make out any details.

The vibrations continue, but Luz is also unchanged. Amity looks down again and spots a massive green structure approaching quickly. Sure enough, in the empty middle of the Conformatorium grows an incredibly quickly growing plant, from which a small branch breaks off and shoots into every single cell. Probably to bind itself to the prisoners, as Luz said.

The top of it is quickly getting closer, and closer. Only moments later, the plant arrives at the top by the three of them. The tip begins to connect with Luz's hands, and the golden flashes now instead of going into Luz's palm, go into the absolutely gigantic plant, which now begins to glow green. The glow quickly moves downward, and into each individual cell.

For two minutes, nothing happens. No one speaks, and Luz' state remains unchanged. That is, until all the branches leaning away from the plant simultaneously retract and move to the levers next to each cell, and all the levers in the entire Conformatorium simultaneously pull down, opening all the iron bars in the building at once.

By now slightly concerned, Amity now looks to Luz, and sees the plant release her hands, and the golden flashes on her arms subside. Weakly, Luz topples to her side, and Amity immediately sprints to her. When she gets there, Ruby is also standing next to her. Slowly Luz raises her head to Ruby, and tries to speak.

"It's your turn now.", is all she can manage. Ruby looks at Amity, who nods at her affirmatively. Ruby grins diabolically before standing up, cracking her neck, lunging, and leaping onto the giant plant, smoothly slithering her way downwards.

"LISTEN UP, YOU ASSHOLES!", she roars with all her might into the void of the Conformatorium. This is so loud, in fact, that Amity covers her own ears, and protectively rests her body weight on Luz's ears, "WE WILL NOW LEAVE THIS FUCKING HELLHOLE! ... COME ON, Y'ALL AIN'T NEVER SEEN A PRISON BREAK BEFORE? COME ON YOU BASTARDS!"

'We need to get out of here.', Amity thinks to herself with aching ears. Fortunately, Ruby gets progressively quieter the further down she slides.

Amity bends down to Luz, grabs her under her knees and shoulders, and lifts her up.

'Urgh... I think I need to do some more weight lifting.'

One step at a time, she carries her girlfriend to the nearest window, and prepares Ghost, as well as her invisibility glyph.

"Luz, if you can hear me... Hold your breath."

---

It has been a while since Skara and Gwendolyn landed together in front of the Forearm Forest and entered it. But admittedly, Thorn Forest would possibly fit better as a name.

Every single tree in this forest is at least a full meter in diameter, and the brown-gray bark is covered with a number of sharp thorns that extend up to the almost opaque canopy. From the top, cyan root-like loops, also studded with thorns, snake down towards the brown soil. A few vines hang down from some lower hanging branches, blocking the way for the two witches. Fortunately, Gwendolyn has a rather large machete with her, which she uses to cut through the vines. Skara, on the other hand, uses the end of her staff to move things out of the way.

"Gwen?"

"What is it, dear?"

"I was wondering... I thought you said you'd been here before, but you didn't say why. May I ask what you were here for?", Skara asks, to which Gwendolyn sighs slightly.

"Because of my daughter.", she answers first before pausing briefly and lowering her machete, "In her youth, a terrible tragedy caused her to becoming cursed. After a very long search, I found a healer who promised me a cure in exchange for ancient artifacts... I looked everywhere, and further east of here, near the coast, I found something in an abandoned village that must have burned down completely at some point."

"A coastal town that burned down?! Weird...", Skara notes as they both continue to make their way through the forest, "Have you been able to heal your daughter?"

"Fate beat me to it, unfortunately.", Gwendolyn replies sorrowfully.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you any hurt...", Skara apologizes.

"It's all right, dear. You couldn't have known.", Gwendolyn raises her machete again and starts cutting vines again, "But now I want to ask you something too."

"Go ahead."

"You seem to know Luz and Amity well. How do you know each other?"

"Well, I've known Amity for almost... um... nine years, maybe. Maybe only eight, not quite sure.", Gwendolyn nods casually, "Luz on the other hand... I didn't really get to know her until she came back from Amphibia-"

"From where?", Gwendolyn asks, causing Skara to fall silent for a moment.

"Ohh, um... Forget I mentioned that. It's not up to me to tell.", Skara glares at her in anticipation of some reaction.

"Don't worry about it. She had told me that she was trapped in another world. I just didn't know the name of the place.", Gwendolyn explains, causing Skara to feel a sense of relief.

"Good... Good... Okay, where was I? Oh yeah... Before she disappeared, I hadn't really paid attention to her, and admittedly wasn't very nice to her. When she came back, I had just won my very first flyer derby match, and the Golden Guard was about to arrest her, all the while she wasn't even conscious.", at which point Gwendolyn's attention peaks.

"You encountered the Golden Guard?", she asks.

"He had sneaked into Hexside disguised as a student. No idea why though. He couldn't possibly have known that Luz would return that day...", Skara now answers with venom in her voice.

"I myself, until I joined the resistance against Belos, had never really had anything to do with the Emperor's Coven... I was wondering if you, as a strategist, could give me some insight into the Golden Guard's abilities and powers. What kind of witch is he?", Gwendolyn asks to casually change the subject. Skara has to think for a moment.

"I... actually never saw him cast magic... Although, I have seen him dashing, but that's about it."

"I thought members of the Emperor's Covens were skilled in any kind of magic... Why would he hold back?", Gwendolyn thinks aloud.

"Well, he was pretending to be a student in the Potions track...", Skara remarks.

"Good point.", Gwendolyn admits, "Otherwise, I almost suspected he couldn't do magic at all."

"A magic-less witch as Emperor Belos' right-hand man?", Skara repeats extremely skeptically, "Really?"

"Yeah, I know. We'll probably see soon... Say, you're a Bard witch, right?"

"Correct."

"Do you have any instruments with you?"

"I do have three instruments ready if necessary. A marble flute, a lute made of olive heartwood, and a gold-covered harp with strings made of palistrom fibers.", Skara tells her, which leaves Gwendolyn momentarily speechless.

"Good Titan... You've mastered three instruments at once?"

"No.", Skara answers calmly, "More like nine. I try to learn at least one new instrument every year. The marble flute is my most recent instrument, though I'm still a little inexperienced with it."

"Well, everybody starts out small. How long have you been practicing if I may ask?"

"I don't know, two months maybe. I haven't had too much time to practice besides school, Grudgby, and Flyer Derby."

"You probably never experienced boredom...", Gwendolyn surmises.

"Not really, no.", Skara confirms as she suddenly stops in her tracks, "Whoa... You weren't exaggerating about the size of that thing..."

Immediately in front of both of them, the thorn barrier Gwendolyn told Skara about, before they left Bonesborough, unveils itself. Stretching over a height of up to thirty meters, and to the sides as far as the eye can see, thick tendrils of thorns, tightly tangled and interconnected, block the path of the two witches.

"Hey, check this out.", Skara points to one of the nearer thorny tendrils, in front of which lies some sort of stone object, as well as the end of a thinner tendril. She walks over to it and lifts up the object, which appears to be some sort of stone knife, or sword. "Someone tried to cut through the thorn barrier..."

"I'm not surprised. The Galdorstones promise power, and even if most people think they're just a myth, it doesn't stop others from looking for them.", Gwendolyn notes, "But whoever tried to cut through the barrier must have been really desperate."

"And how do we get across? Flying?", Skara wonders.

"Tell me Skara, do you know the echo spell?", Gwendolyn asks.

"Of course. Why?"

"Please be so kind and tell me if there are Fire Bees or Briar Grubs anywhere nearby by chance?"

"Okay...", Skara replies cautiously, summoning forth her familiar harp. She plucks one of the strings, and a slight shockwave quickly moves away from them, spreading in all directions. "There are no Fire Bees around here, but I've found a swarm of Briar Grubs. What do you need them for?"

"I'll show you.", Gwendolyn draws a large yellow magic circle in the air, shortly before the trees and leaves around the two witches begin to move and rustle. Skara takes a step closer to the older witch.

Moments later, the canopy of leaves above them seems to darken, and Gwendolyn's eyes begin to glow bright yellow.

"Come to me my precious friends, and create a path for us to pass through."

Whatever has darkened the forest further is now coming at both of them at high speed, gliding past them, straight for the thorn barrier. Thousands of small, light gray grubs, each as big as a little toe, with six little wings, race toward the thorn barrier, and all Skara can hear afterwards are chewing sounds. And less than a minute later, where the thorns were just a moment ago, there is now a tunnel through which they can continue on their way.

"That's what that was.", Gwendolyn exclaims, "Briar Grubs live in these woods, and are herbivores. Their absolute favorite food is the poison secreted by all those thorns, but every now and then they'll eat the rest of the plant as well."

"That was the... most impressive and gross thing I've ever seen...", Skara comments, before both of them continue on their way.

"Not a fan of grubs?", Gwendolyn asks jokingly.

"Nu-uh.", Skara replies, a chill just running down her spine, "Grubs, ladybugs, and larvae are the three things that are welcome to go extinct for all I care, thank you very much."

"Larvae?"

"Any kind. Full extinction.", Skara adds.

"Okay... good to know."

---

"Amity! Luz! What happened?" Alsa asks, startled upon seeing the two girls appear out of nowhere in front of her, both on Amity's staff. Amity clings tightly to her staff with only one hand, while supporting Luz with the other. Amity descends first, and Alsa joins them to help Luz down as well and sitting her down in front of one of the large bones that serves as a temporary hideout.

"Things didn't go quite as planned...", Amity reports vaguely.

"I can see that.", Alsa counters, at which point Katya joins them.

"Where are the others?", Katya asks, "What happened in there?"

As Amity and Alsa set Luz on the ground, who appears to still be weakening but luckily still responsive, Amity's gaze falls on Katya's hand, where the burn mark can still be seen.

"Your hand...", Amity mutters, "Yeah, um... We went to Warden Wrath's office and found some disturbing info. I took pictures that I'll show you guys later. Basically, after that, Luz and I decided that we couldn't just leave the prisoners there, and Luz then healed and freed all of them. It shouldn't be long now, and we'll be able to see them."

Alsa's jaw drops straight to the floor as Amity finished, and Amity herself now turns to Luz, offering her a tiny smile.

"She managed to heal everyone? In such a short time? I haven't even managed to do it on just Katya yet...", Alsa speaks loudly. Luz tilts her head slightly and looks over to Katya.

"Come here.", Luz says softly and holds up her hand. Katya kneels on the floor next to Luz, and places her hand in Luz'. Luz holds her other hand directly over Katya's burn mark before the golden flashes appear on Luz' arm, travel to her hand, and disappear into Katya's hand. Shortly after, as the four of them witness the burn mark on her hand beginning to heal, Katya herself becomes more energized. Alsa stares at the healing scar in disbelief before turning to Luz, who has leaned her head back against Amity's shoulder, who has sat down next to her.

"How did you do that? Humans don't have magic.", Alsa says this more aggressively than she actually had intended.

"Luz isn't a-", Amity yells back before slapping her hands over her mouth in shock, looking at Luz with wide eyes. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to-"

Dejectedly, Luz's gaze drops to the floor, whereupon she sighs, sounding disappointed.

"It's alright, Ami. It would have come out eventually anyway...", Luz replies to her before turning to Alsa. "Something happened, a while ago... Something I won't go into detail about, but it caused me to become only half human. The other half recently allowed me to use magic without glyphs."

"So, you're more or less half a witch? Or half demon?", Alsa asks curiously.

"It doesn't matter what the other half is.", Luz replies, not lifting her gaze from the ground. No one answers anything in response, at least until Luz pulls out something she packed earlier in Warden Wrath's office. "Oh, by the way, Alsa, you should have this."

It doesn't take Alsa particularly long to identify the object as a burning iron. Still, with a questioning look, she peers at Luz. Amity steps in for her.

"According to documents we found, there was probably only one of these in the Conformatorium. The template for making it was probably destroyed on orders from the Emperor's Covens.", Amity explains.

"I'm not surprised that the Emperor's Coven is involved. Have you found a name? A person responsible?", Alsa asks.

"We suspect that Belos himself is involved, and that the prisoners in the Conformatorium were used as test subjects.", Amity replies.

"That's just downright terrible... What happened to-", Alsa began to keep inquiring as a distant, loud scream that seems to be emanating from the Conformatorium caught her attention. Alsa takes a few steps out of their temporary hiding place, and spots the large entrance gates of the Conformatorium flying open with great force, flying out of their moorings, and falling to the ground with a loud bang. Countless prisoners seem to run out of the building, while some of them stay behind and seem to be fighting back guards. In the midst of them is the witch, who Alsa thinks is Ruby, who only moments before had also let out her battle cry.

"I have to help them!", Alsa says to no one in particular before turning to the others, "You guys wait here!"

Katya quickly raises her arm to stop Alsa before she has summoned her staff, but she is already flying off. She sighs audibly loudly, causing both Luz and Amity to giggle softly. As Katya turns to both of them rapidly, both of them fall abruptly silent. Amity speaks up.

"I'm sure she knows you want to help too.", Amity tries to cheer her up a bit.

"Of course I want to help... That's the only reason I originally joined the BATs in the first place...", Katya tells at which point Luz raises her head in interest off of Amity's shoulder.

"The BATs?", she asks.

"Yes. It stands for 'Bards Against the Throne.' The tambourine is my specialty.", Katya replies.

"Cool...", Luz says, "Great idea by the way. I think every good resistance needs a catchy name."

"How did you guys actually get caught?", Amity now asks curiously.

"We actually got caught pretty early, before we thought we had accomplished much. We raided a couple of prisoner transports in Bonesborough and tried to recruit more people that way. It worked twice, before the third time, we were ambushed just outside of town, caught, and locked directly into the Conformatorium via Abomination teleportation. At first it was just Amber, Derwin, and me, but later I had heard from guards that Raine had been captured as well."

"Raine... Raine... Raine...", Luz mumbles to herself, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Well, Raine was head of the Bard coven. Raine Whispers. Anything?", Amity asks, but Luz just shakes her head.

"I think I remember that Eda used to know someone named Raine. I had found some unsent letters once... Not sure if that's the same person though.", Luz replies. Katya doesn't respond to this further, but changes the subject.

"Say, Cat Lady, how are you feeling? After all, you were totally exhausted when you got here...", she asks.

"I feel better... Even though I don't think I can walk anywhere just yet.", Luz jokes.

"Why, you still wanna go somewhere?", Amity jokes along. However, Luz doesn't respond and acts suspiciously silent. Enough that she suspects shenanigans. "Luz... Please tell me you don't have any more plans..."

An exposing grin spreads across Luz's face.

"I swear to Titan…", Amity begins, but stops herself before saying anything that might be regretted, "What is it?"

"I want to help Gwen and Skara...", Luz admits without hesitation.

"I shouldn't be surprised...", Amity talks to herself before getting lost in thought for a while.

'Damned be her adorable urge to always jump head first into a dangerous situation to help people...'

"Okay, but only on one condition.", Amity begins, to which Luz looks at her expectantly, "We're not leaving until you're fully recovered. And no discussion."

'With any luck, Gwen and Skara will be already done by then.'

"All right, okay.", Luz agrees.

"Where do you wanna go?", Katya asks, who wasn't really listening.

"Forearm Forest.", Luz answers, "But not right away."

At that point, the three of them hear an explosion coming from the Conformatorium. Amity and Katya peek out from their hiding place to see what's going on, and notice a fire rapidly spreading upwards within the building. Amity turns to Luz, who is also trying to get the few meters to them in order to watch as well, but is barely able to move from her spot.

"It looks like your arson plan is working after all.", Amity reports, to which Luz pouts slightly that she can't watch herself as well.

At that point, another loud explosion erupts, catching all three of them by surprise and startling them. Amity quickly turns around and notices black smoke rising from the center of the tower, as well as a large hole in the wall that covers at least the area of eighteen cells spread over three floors. It is so large that the burning plant in the center of the Conformatorium is clearly visible, provided one has binoculars, or very good eyes.

"What the titan was that plant earlier, Luz?", Amity asks, sounding both impressed and frightened at the same time. Just a few minutes later, the three of them hear some people let out panicked screams. Meanwhile, Luz has made it to the other two, and can now also watch as the top fifty or so meters of the Conformatorium, that is everything above the gaping hole in the outer wall, begins to lean increasingly to one side. The fighting at, and in front of the Conformatorium gates has stopped, and everyone down there starts to run away from there as fast as possible, or to get to safety in some other way.

The top falls, landing not far from the main entrance. Fortunately, there is nothing immediately inside the crater in which the Conformatorium is located, except the building itself.

An enormous cloud of dust fills the crater, and only the fire blazing in the remains of the building itself can still be seen. Everything else is obscured by the dust.

"If we were to publicly reveal that we were responsible for the destruction of the Conformatorium, is that more of a good, or more of a bad signal to the public?", Luz asks the other two witches after several minutes of silence. However, neither of them answers, as Alsa suddenly comes flying back into view towards them.

When she lands, Luz is the first to speak up.

"Please tell me everyone made it out.", Luz fervently hopes.

"I talked to Ruby, as well as your people, Katya, who said that all the cells were cleared, and no one was hit from the top of the building either. That's the good news...", Alsa reports, whereupon Luz exhales in relief.

"There is bad news?", Katya asks.

"I only encountered two of your people: Derwin and Amber. I guess the last one from your group wasn't here.", Alsa continues to report. At that, Luz speaks up.

"The Conformatorium does have a basement. The last time I was here, though, there were only giant statues there, as well as a single, huge, high-security cell.", Luz recounts.

"I'll go back in and check there in a minute, but so far there seems to be only wounded and no casualties on either side. And by the way...", Alsa now looks at Luz and Amity as she pauses, "Well done."

"Huh?", the two girlfriends look at her in confusion.

"That's probably the most damage we've ever done to the Emperor's Coven. We did a massive amount of damage to them today, and it's all thanks to you two. This was supposed to be just a small rescue operation, but this is soo much better for us. Really well done."

"Thank you.", Amity is the first to respond.

"Yeah, thanks. Um, but I have a question... Well, more like two questions.", Luz begins, to which Alsa raises an eyebrow in anticipation, "Do you know what exactly started the fire? Or the explosion?"

"Ruby started the fire. As for the explosion... No idea.", Alsa replies.

"So, what happens now?", Amity wonders.

"Now... we should leave. Also, Katya, this is for you.", Alsa hands her a business card, "On it, it always shows our next meeting place when it's arranged. Get your people and we'll all meet there as soon as we can.", Katya nods in agreement before Alsa turns to Luz and Amity, "You guys should get out of here as soon as you can too. Not long now, and this place will be overrun with coven scouts."

"I'm not fully recovered yet, but we won't stay much longer.", Luz tells her. Alsa nods in confirmation before turning her attention to Katya again.

"Should I give you a lift?", she asks her. Katya nods and climbs onto her staff with Alsa. "I'll see you guys later.", they say goodbye to Luz and Amity, leaving the two of them in their hiding spot.

Amity and Luz both lean back against each other, relaxed.

"How are you feeling?", Amity asks.

"Actually, I'm feeling quite a bit better.", Luz replies.

"And you still want to go to Forearm Forest?", she continues to ask.

"Well, of course. But I think I still need a little while.", Luz replies.

"Well-", Amity begins, but is directly interrupted again by Luz.

"-And I even already have an idea how we can get there quickly and without danger..."

"... How?"

---

"Are you really sure we'll be there soon?", Skara asks, "What makes you think that?"

"Let's call it just a hunch of mine. You can use your echo spell if you want to check.", Gwendolyn suggests.

All the way since the thorn barrier, Skara holds her golden harp in her hand instead of her staff, which she now plucks briefly. Just like the first time, a shockwave spreads through the leaves and bushes, and around between the trees. Basically, Skara expects to find nothing but nature, in which the two witches have been traveling for quite a while now. It's all the more unexpected when her echo spell sends back an answer, which leaves her quite worried, which probably shows as she just stops dead in her tracks.

"You found... something?", Gwendolyn now mirrors Skara's concern. Skara nods in response.

"People. Lots of them."

"Where?"

"I don't know the exact range of my echo spell, unfortunately, but right on the edge. And they're moving.", Skara replies.

"Good, that means they haven't found the stones yet, at least."

"That's one way to look at it...", Skara comments, before both of them now continue walking at an increased pace. Still with machete in hand, Gwendolyn now walks more briskly ahead, with Skara immediately behind her. Fortunately, and only a few minutes later, the two arrive at a clearing. More precisely, in front of a high, stone fence, which between individual stone pillars is a pointed iron fence in between two pillars each.

Skara turns her head and discovers something that could be an entrance.

"Over there.", she directs Gwendolyn's attention to the structure, and they head there.

The two witches are just standing in front of a massive stone doorway, both sides of which are decorated with some sort of masks, one of them shocked, the other amused, carved into the gray stone of the door. Immediately above the masks are two interlocking hands, and topping off the entrance gate is an incomplete stone half-arch, on which are carved the words 'Looking Glass -'. It suggests that another word belongs to it, but which seems to be missing. Gwendolyn attaches her machete to her stylish brown belt and takes out the map again.

"You're right... This is the place. The stones must be here...", she says with an optimistic tone.

"And now that we also know that this isn't completely covered by trees, that means we can fly back, and don't have to walk."

"Yes, that's true too.", Gwendolyn agrees.

The two witches brace themselves against one of the two doors and laboriously push it open, entering the place.

Immediately, they notice several things. The whole place is arranged in a circle, except for the bounding fence, which seems to be rectangular. Both of them now enter a structure, which seems to be the ruins of an old dome. They pass through stone archways that go once in a circle around the center of the place. Most of them on the lowest level are actually still intact. On the level above, only a few archways and columns are still visible. And on the level above that, only the idea that a stone dome protected the place from rain and storms still exists.

In the center of the area surrounded by the stone archways, standing in a semicircle opposite the entrance gate to the area, are nine three meter tall stone statues, all standing on small pedestals.

"What do you think this used to be?", Skara asks as they cautiously approach the center of the place. Carefully, Gwendolyn looks around.

"Hard to say... It doesn't seem to me to be a place that was visited particularly often. Maybe some kind of temple complex?", she guesses.

At that point, Skara stops abruptly in the middle of the inside square as she notices that the fog has thickened quite a bit around them.

"Gwen?", Skara begins, whereupon she turns to the young witch.

"Yes?"

"Didn't Liwin say something about a guardian?", Skara directs her gaze to the ground. The fog that surrounds both of them begins to move on its own to Skara's right, and it does so increasingly faster.

Not far from her, the fog begins to lift from the ground and thicken to the point where a creature can gradually make itself recognizable.

Skara hastily grabs Gwendolyn's arm sleeve and drags her towards the back of two statues.

"Move move move!", Skara repeats in a whisper, and just after they have found shelter behind two statues, a deafening deep roar rings out the entire site and everything around it. Unfortunately, Skara has put her hands on her ears too late, so now a loud whistle rings in her ears.

After a few moments, she cautiously peeks out from behind the statue and discovers a huge, hovering, terrifying creature. It is entirely in a midnight blue tone, but partly protected by blue armor plates on its back. Its entire underbelly is vertically striped in two light gray hues, which do have a metallic look. Also, the creature doesn't have a head. Only an opening at the top end, from which a long, blue tongue emerges, and in which two bright white eyes can be seen. The last distinctive features are the two massive claws on the side of its body, as well as the six white burning, purple wings on the creature's back plates.

Skara peers out of the corner of her eye at Gwendolyn, who is not even remotely as frightened as she is. Instead, she seems a little... confused.

"What's wrong?", Skara whispers loudly to her, after watching Gwendolyn attempting to cast several failed spells.

"I can't get a hold of that thing.", Gwendolyn remarks, "I can usually grasp any beast, but that one is beyond my control."

Skara turns her gaze again to the Beast, which once again lets out an impossibly loud roar, circulating the inner perimeter in search of the two witches.

"Let me try something.", Skara steps out from behind the statue, along with her harp in her hand.

"No, wait!", Gwendolyn wants to stop Skara, but she has already plucked a string to cast an echo spell. The resulting blast wave passes smoothly through the creature.

Now, the creature has spotted Skara, and Gwendolyn also appears from behind the statue and positions herself in front of Skara, her machete drawn, before the creature roars loudly and begins to race toward them. With a knowing look, Skara bends down and picks up a small stone from the ground, which she throws at the creature, passing right through it and falling to the ground. Gwendolyn is confused.

"It's an illusion!", Skara calls out, and the creature comes to an abrupt stop right in front of them. Impressed, Gwendolyn looks back and forth between it and Skara before the creature simply puffs out into gray smoke moments later, revealing an old man.

"You have seen straight through my illusion...", he admits, embarrassed. "Most of the others, the sight alone was enough to make them flee screaming like little babies..."

"You are the guardian of this place?", Gwendolyn asks skeptically.

"Why, yes.", he counters, "I am the keeper of the Looking Glass Graveyard."

Skara and Gwendolyn exchange incredulous glances at each other before he continues.

"Well, at least so far. But you have now proven to me that my protection is fallible- Wait a minute...", he eyes the two witches thoroughly, "You don't seem like thieves to me. What do you want?"

The Keeper tries his best to appear intimidating, but fails immediately. At that, Skara speaks up.

"A small army of Emperor's Coven scouts is on its way here to procure the Galdorstones for Belos. We want to prevent them from getting their hands on them."

"We were sent here to procure the stones for the resistance against Belos, or ultimately destroy them.", Gwendolyn adds.

"Oh no no no.", the Keeper counters. "We can't destroy the Galdorstones. No one can. No one should."

"Why not?"

"Galdorstones amplify magical potential. There's a reason why Illusionists were tasked with protecting the stones.", he explains, though that doesn't really address the question.

"So, we get to take the stones?", Skara asks.

"No."

"You do realize that we could just take the Galdorstones, right? And that you couldn't do anything about it?", Skara threatens him. Instantly however, Gwendolyn speaks up cutting her off.

"What she was trying to say is... How can we help make sure that the stones don't fall into Belos' hands? I mean, the Illusionists have been protecting this place for what? Centuries? Surely there must have been plans for such a situation..."

"Plans?", he asks, as if the word 'plan' had just struck him for the first time in his life now.

"Oh titan...", Gwendolyn groans before turning to Skara, "Would you mind standing guard outside the gate and letting us know when you see the coven guards?"

"Sure.", Skara replies, turning around, and leaving the area, but not stopping outside the gates to stand guard as asked.

The thing is, in another situation, the strategist would be quite offended to be deputized for such a mundane task as standing guard, rather than participating in the actual plan-making. The circumstances are different now since Skara actually has the beginnings of a plan. And that involves buying Gwendolyn and the Keeper time to come up with a plan, that will most likely consist of allowing Gwendolyn and her to take the Galdorstones, if it really isn't possible to destroy them completely.

Skara walks quite a distance away from the line of sight of the graveyard, but not too far that she can't easily find her way back.

She now stands in the middle of an unmarked path, identifiable only by the lack of trees in front and behind her, and the fact that sunlight can actually hit the ground in this area. Equipped with her harp in hand, she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and listens for noises.

The rustling of leaves in the wind. Critters walking among bushes. Reinforced boots marching in her direction. One of Skara's ears twitches slightly as she identifies the source.

She points her harp at it, grabs one of the strings, and stretches it as far as the material allows before releasing it, letting loose a charged, focused echo spell in the direction of the stomping.

After a moment of complete silence, the stomping increases, and they get faster. Bushes are pushed aside, branches are broken, and a short time later Skara finds herself surrounded by countless coven scouts, pointing their spears directly at her.

"DROP THE HARP!", one of the scouts orders. But Skara doesn't move, instead letting her gaze slide once from one side of her vision to the other. The rational part of her mind thinks that Skara should be peeing her pants in fear right now, however, she is completely cool and calm. "DROP THE HARP!"

"Where is he, huh?", Skara speaks slowly and clearly, "Where is the Golden Guard? Where is... Hunter?"

No one answers, and all the scouts remain in their positions, continuing to surround Skara with their spears, as some of the scouts form an opening directly in front of her. And there he is, the Golden Guard. Skara smirks as she spots him. Granted, with the golden mask, ivory cape, and mechanical staff in his hand, he does look a bit more intimidating than he did when he was still just in his Potions track Hexside uniform, but Skara knows what's under the mask.

"CITIZEN!", he calls out to her as he continues to approach her. As a sign of good will, Skara unsummons her harp. One of the taller scouts approaches her from behind, abruptly grabbing her by the shoulder, and forcing her to her knees. "How dare you attack members of the Emperor's Coven?"

Hunter now stands directly in front of her.

"How dare I?", Skara asks sarcastically. "Is that how you greet an old friend, Hunter? Or do you prefer Caleb?"

Hunter stamps the ground once with the bottom of his staff, signaling to the scouts surrounding them to raise their spears again. He leans down to Skara.

"What are you doing here, Skara?", he whispers.

"Oh, I was hoping to enlist you for an impromptu round of Flyer Derby.", Hunter snorts at that before straightening up again.

"Nonsense.", he counters, "How do you even know we're here, huh? This is a top-secret operation."

"I think it was that one.", Skara points to some scout immediately behind Hunter, "They told me."

"N-n-no.", the scout stutters as Hunter turns around, "I didn't tell anyone anything."

"Of course not.", Hunter says before leaning back down to Skara. "Tell me why you're here!"

"We're here for the same reason you are.", Skara teases him. And he falls for it.

"We? Is... is the captain here too?", he asks, his voice a lot softer now. Skara can practically hear him blushing.

"Willow doesn't know about this. Besides, I don't think she has any interest in interacting with you other than kicking your ass as payback for locking up her friend and handing her over to Belos.", and now, Hunter is pissed.

"You were stalling...", he now realizes, "Commander! Arrest her. She's going straight to the Conformatorium!", Skara's face drops, and Hunter bends over to her again, "Well, I guess you're not so talkative now, are you?"

The scout behind Skara forces her to her feet as she suddenly notices a familiar, electrostatic charge in the air around her. She's not the only one who notices it, though.

"Speaking of a friend...", Skara smirks at Hunter. Carefully, he takes a few steps back and Skara, still smiling widely, closes her eyes.

Exactly half a minute later, a bright ball of light, as bright as the sun itself appears twelve meters above them, barely above the canopy. Many of the coven scouts have looked up, of course, and those who have looked up are now writhing and screaming in pain.

Skara squints briefly, and when the blinding light seems to have disappeared, she quickly looks around in all directions for the source. Eventually she looks up and spots Luz and Amity flying on Amity's staff.

"YO, GUYS!", Skara yells up as loud as she can, "I COULD USE SOME HELP!"

Luz and Amity seem to have actually heard this and are now heading into a dive directly in her direction. Amity seems incapacitated with the control of her staff, so it is Luz who now hurls quite a few fireballs at the mostly paralyzed coven scouts, causing complete chaos.

All around Skara the fireballs explode causing scouts to fly all over the place. Skara catches sight of Hunter, who seems to be panicking, trying to get an overview of the situation, and frantically trying to give orders, which are completely drowned out by the screams of pain.

'My chance...', Skara thinks to herself, ducking away from the coven commander, summoning her staff, and flying as fast as she can back towards the graveyard, with Luz and Amity right behind her.

Less than a minute of high-speed flight and quick dodging of trees later, the three of them land back on the graveyard grounds, and Skara immediately turns to her two friends. Well, rather, she gratefully wraps her arms around them shortly after Luz and Amity too regain solid ground.

"Thank you. You guys really saved my back. If it wasn't for you guys, I'd probably be on my way to the Conformatorium right now.", Skara states. Both Luz and Amity chuckle at that.

"Yeah, about that-"

"Luz? Amity?", Gwendolyn has now noticed the two new arrivals, "What are you guys doing here? You guys were assigned to the rescue mission..."

"And we successfully completed the mission.", Luz reports.

"And in the meantime also destroyed the Conformatorium...", Amity adds. Gwendolyn is completely speechless right now. Only Skara finds suitable words.

"You're kidding, right?", she asks, "You definitely have to tell me everything later."

"Gladly.", Amity replies before Skara turns to Luz.

"How are you feeling? That time earlier you were completely exhausted...", Skara tries not to say too much, but Luz of course knows what Skara is alluding to.

"It's fine.", Luz replies, sounding quite tired though. Now Gwendolyn speaks up.

"How did you find us, anyway? Did you have a map?", she asks.

"It's hard to explain...", Luz starts, "And I don't know how much time we have right now either. Suffice it to say, I focused on Skara."

"Oh, right, thanks for the reminder.", Skara speaks up and turns to Gwendolyn, "In a few minutes tops, this place will be crawling with coven scouts. I stalled them as long as I could. Please tell me you guys reached an agreement...", Skara pleads. Gwendolyn briefly considered reproaching Skara for not standing guard at the gate as ordered, but then quickly decided that it was completely irrelevant right now.

"We can't destroy the stones. They would have to be melted down, but that only works at temperatures of molten rock. The keeper and I agreed that we would collect the stones and throw them into the Boiling Sea.", Gwendolyn reports, which Skara doesn't like at all.

"Seriously? And we're still not allowed to keep them for ourselves?"

"They could be stolen from us, and then we would have the same problem as right now. No, destruction is the best option.", Gwendolyn counters, "And unfortunately, we don't have a volcano nearby where we can dispose of the stones. Hence, the Boiling Sea"

At that point, Amity looks questioningly at Luz. Luz herself replies with an uncertain shake of her head.

"Um... We could try to melt the rock and then throw the stones into it...", Amity suggests.

"We don't have the time for that as well as the necessary power. None of us is strong enough to melt rock.", Gwendolyn argues.

"With the stones, we are.", Amity counters. Meanwhile, the Keeper has also joined the conversation.

"I think the idea sounds quite feasible.", he notes.

"Fine!", Gwendolyn interjects, "Luz, Amity, Skara, you take care of it. The Keeper and I will try to protect the place for as long as we can.

The five of them immediately split up. Gwendolyn and the Keeper run toward the graveyard entrance, while Luz, Amity, and Skara run toward the center of the place. All of the Galdorstones were already grouped together in the middle.

"Okay... We need to melt the floor...", Skara repeats their assignment though sounding rather insecure, "Nothing easier than that..."

Luz approaches the stones and picks up three of them. One of them she tosses to Amity, one to Skara, and the third she keeps for herself.

"Whoa-", Amity exclaims in surprise, "I can already feel myself getting stronger..."

"Me too.", Skara says.

"Sit on your staffs. I'm not sure how good the idea is to stand on stone that is about to be melted...", Luz exclaims.

"Good idea."

All three of them take out their staffs, and sit on them so that they are hovering slightly above the ground. Amity is the first to summon a fire spell, surprising herself with its intensity before she turns her hands towards the ground. Skara follows suit. Her flame is slightly smaller than Amity's, however. Both witches' flames are bright orange, aimed directly at the solid ground around the Galdorstones as they circle around them on their staffs at a safe distance.

Luz is the last to summon her own powers. She has put her Galdorstone in her pocket and is now summoning the golden lightning. She instantly notices that something is different.

There are more of them. And they are stronger. The first small flames form on her palms, and not only do they quickly grow larger, but they also change color. Luz directs her flame towards the ground. At first, her flame is yellow. Then it changes to a bright orange, like Amity and Skara's. Then red. Then purple. Then blue. And the air around them gets hotter and hotter. And drier and drier.

Time passes and the ground beneath them gradually begins to glow slightly, as do the Galdorstones themselves. They can hear a cracking sound, but don't know exactly where the sound is coming from.

More time passes. The air continues to get warmer, and Skara's flame progressively smaller. In addition, the three of them now hear someone shouting something unintelligible from the direction of the entrance gate.

"Guys, I can't keep this up any longer...", Skara calls out, talking against the not-quiet flames.

"It's okay!", Amity shouts back, not taking her eyes off her own flame.

"Yeah... Listen-", Luz calls out, "Give me your stone and go help Gwendolyn!"

Skara flies closer to Luz and places her Galdorstone in her other pocket before flying back to the entrance gate. Immediately upon contact with the stone, Luz's flame grows brighter, and even hotter. If she wasn't already sweating before, she definitely is now.

More time passes. Their orbits above the ground is now much larger, and the ground begins to change color, and begin to move, and gradually liquefy. Gradually, however, Amity's flame begins to dim as well.

"Luz... I can't last much longer either...", she shouts to her girlfriend.

"It's okay. Give me your stone, I'll do the rest."

By this time, both Luz and Amity are drenched in sweat, and the air is so hot that even the rain on the Boiling Isles would evaporate before it reached the ground.

Amity places her Galdorstone in Luz's hood, gives her a dry kiss on the cheek, and heads with Ghost to the entrance of the graveyard as well.

More time passes. Luz is the only one still circling the ground, and her flame is so bright, and so hot, that if it weren't for her mutations, she would immediately start burning. The once solid ground beneath her feet now bubbles and seethes, just like boiling water. The statues, who were placed in a semicircle, also no longer stand on completely solid ground, and are also gradually beginning to sway. One has already collapsed into the liquid rock, and several more are threatening to do the same. Meanwhile, there is no sign of the Galdorstones left in the center, but Luz does not yet feel that the temperature is high enough. That is, until she hears a tortured-sounding hoot from Owlbert. Luz had completely forgotten about him.

'Oh shit', she mutters, immediately breaking her fire spell, and only now can she see the extent of the destruction.

Most of the statues have fallen into the now molten rock. There is no trace left of the Galdorstones themselves. Only the last three are still there.

Luz flies a little bit higher to give Owlbert some relief before she takes the first stone out of her pocket... and drops it into the molten rock below her. She does the same with the second.

But when she retrieves the last stone out of her hood, she hesitates, but ultimately throws it in as well.

Luz grabs her staff and yanks it around before quickly flying back to the graveyard entrance, where all the others are busy fending off hordes of coven scouts who are attacking them with everything they've got. She spots several illusion copies of her friends running back and forth on the ground between trees and bushes.

It's hard to tell who's real and who's not.

"Hey guys!", Luz yells to the ground and everyone who looks like her friends looks up at her, "I'm done. Let's get out of here!"

Shortly after, all the copies, as well as the originals get on staffs and rise into the air. Luz remains in place until all of them have lifted off, leaving on the ground only the very widely scattered scouts of the Emperor's Coven. One person in particular catches Luz's eye. The Golden Guard just stands there in the midst of the chaos, looking up at her. And though Luz is completely exhausted and drenched in sweat, she can't help but think of shenanigans.

'That guy looks important...'

With a golden flash, Luz performs an extended dash, teleporting herself right behind the Golden Guard.

"Boo.", Luz whispers next to his ears. He immediately startles and lunges backwards with his mechanical staff for a punch, but just one more dash manages to put Luz out of harm's way.

"How do you do that?", he demands to know. Luz smirks at him. "You're a human. Humans can't do magic!"

"Seems like your knowledge is outdated...", Luz retorts. He lunges again for a furious punch, but Luz dashes aside again.

"What do you want, Human? Are you here just to mock me?", he demands to know. Luz steps closer to him.

"I heard you were going to lock a friend of mine in the Conformatorium...", Luz begins, dropping the smirk, "It should interest you that I destroyed it."

"Impossible!", he counters in a convinced tone.

"Well, you can see for yourself when you return wherever and report your failure.", he again angrily lunges for a blow with your staff, only this time Luz dashes into his path and knocks him backwards to the ground. His staff, now lying next to him, is kicked away by Luz. She creates a blue flame in her hand and bends down to him. A grave expression that could freeze the blood in one's veins, adorns her face. "I'm only going to say this once: I don't care who you are or who you report to later. No one threatens my friends and gets away unpunished. Remember that!"

The Golden Guard does not respond to this. Luz stands back up, applies another extended dash, and teleports onto her staff, directly above the dense canopies of trees, and begins to catch up to her friends.

Fortunately, they're not too far away yet. She spots Amity riding Ghost, Skara on her staff, and the Keeper along with Gwendolyn on her staff.

"There you are...", Amity is the first to notice that Luz has finally caught up to them, "What kept you?"

"Well, I was still talking to that one guy who looked important. Told him not to threaten my friends.", Luz casually reports. Amity raises an eyebrow and eyes Luz for a moment.

"You, Luz Noceda, threatened someone? Who are you and what did you do to my girlfriend?", Amity jokes. Luz chuckles briefly in response, before Amity continues, sounding a little less gleeful, "I'm glad that's over now, though. I was really scared for you at times. The prophecy-"

"-didn't happen.", Luz finishes her sentence. "Don't worry, I won't leave you."

"Hmm, yeah...", Amity says thoughtlessly to herself. "You know, I was thinking... My parents and the twins are currently not around, and actually I was going to ask you if you wanted to have a sleepover..."

"A sleepover?", Luz asks excitedly. Amity nods slightly.

"But...", Amity begins, which seems to stifle Luz's joy to the core, "...on the subject of the trouble you've caused me today, I'm not going to give you a choice."

"You... force me to have a sleepover party at your place?!", Luz repeats.

"Exactly. Just you and me, along with tasty food, the Good Witch Azura, comfy pajamas, and no big dangerous adventure of any kind.", Amity's voice is completely indifferent the entire time. Only at the end a faint smile creeps onto her face.

"Phew...", Luz tries to sound sarcastic, "Seems like I don't have a choice... Poor me..."

"Hey guys!", Gwendolyn calls from the top backwards, "When we're back in Bonesborough, we have a joint debriefing. Liwin just sent us the location."

"NOOOOOO...", Luz groans loudly, whereupon Amity and Skara quietly begin to giggle.

---

Much later in the Emperor's castle:

"What I hear is that you have failed your mission!", Belos shouts out to Hunter. "You were supposed to retrieve just a single Galdorstone!"

It is the middle of the night when Hunter has returned fruitlessly, with his troops. He himself and Belos are the only ones in the castle still awake, and therefore the only ones in the throne room, which is why neither of them are wearing masks.

Hunter's regret at his failure is written all over his face. Belos, on the other hand, is seething with rage as he sits on his throne.

"Uncle, it was that human girl. She... she destroyed the stones. And she is also responsible for the destruction of the Conformatorium.", Hunter tries to explain himself, "I don't know how, but our information that humans don't have magical abilities is wrong. She has some, and she's using them directly against us!"

"You're getting caught up in excuses."

"These are not excuses-", Hunter started as a slimy black spike, sharp as a sword almost cut off his ear.

"WATCH YOUR TONE!", Belos yells back at him.

"I sincerely apologize, Emperor Belos."

"However, I agree. This human is increasingly turning into a problem... And perhaps it's already even too late to stop her..."

Slightly confused, Hunter looks up, and when he sees Belos standing up, he quickly lowers his head back to the ground. Belos slowly approaches Hunter.

"Look at me.", Belos orders, and Hunter does so. Belos then places a hand on Hunter's chest. "You have your heart in the right place, and I- the Titan still has big plans for you. Don't worry about today... Go, get some rest. I'll figure out how we're going to proceed."

"Yes, Emperor Belos."

And with that, Hunter salutes and briskly walks out of the throne room. But no sooner is the door closed behind him again, a new voice speaks up. One that Belos himself has not heard for a very long time. It's a childish voice, laughing.

"What can I do for you, Collector?"

"I'm bored.", a two-dimensional being moves across the floor of the throne room. "Is the draining- Whoa... What happened to your face?"

"Is there something wrong with my face?", Belos wonders.

"Well, last time you still had that huge scar... Where did that go?"

"Collector... Even though it's certainly been many months since we've last spoken, I can assure you that the scar you're talking about is not known to me."

"Whatever... I'm still bored. I wanna play some games.", the Collector whines.

"You'll have your fun at Day of Unity... However, well..."

"However?"

"Today it turns out there's a problem that might prevent us from playing all the games I promised you after the Day of Unity."

"The other human?", the Collector asks.

"So, you were listening?", Belos asks.

"I've been watching her since she's on this world. She's interesting. Merged with the remains of the Titan, just like you. She's stronger than you."

"Are you going to help me stop her?", Belos asks.

"Why?"

"You said it yourself: She's stronger than me. If she finds out about you, she might not be as merciful as I am, and wants to prevent me from freeing you from your prison after the Day of Unity."

"If you free me right now, I could take care of her. And then we could start playing right away, too.", the Collector suggests happily.

"No. That would violate our agreement.", Belos declines, causing the Collector to frown, "Please, teach me how to stop her."