Luz blew out a cloud of smoke as she walked through the red-leafed forest, broken twigs crunching beneath her feet. She hadn't spent much time in nature over the course of her life, growing up in the city as she did. Turns out it took getting trapped in an alternate dimension to get her to appreciate trees, even if they were red and possibly carnivorous.

It was still striking to her how similar the Boiling Isles were to Earth. Or Luz supposed how similar Daemonicus was to Earth. Eda had told her the Isles were just one continent, roughly the size of Australia, on a planet of scorching seas. However, the witches had never found any other land or other Titans. No ship had made it through the steam, and according to the Imperial Coven, to stray too far from the Titan was a sin that would see you stripped of your magic and unable to find your way home.

After the incident in Bonesborough, Eda had set some ground rules for Luz. She was still trying to find a way to recreate the portal door, and Eda had brought out some books on the subject to help her. But Luz couldn't spend more than four hours a day working on the door. She had to find something else to do- draw, play with Monarch, graffiti public property, whatever she thought of. Today, Eda had told her to get outside and appreciate the air, so that's what she was doing. Maybe the cigarette filling her lungs with nicotine-laced smoke wasn't helping, but fuck it, it felt good.

(The fact that this was one of the last few cigarettes she had with her, and her searches had turned up no Boiling Isles alternatives to tobacco, and her attempts to wean herself off the drug had been a miserable failure, wasn't something she was thinking about.)

Luz was drawing up on the outskirts of Bonesborough, and slowly made her way into the city, pulling her beanie over her ears. Nobody had outright attacked her (except Severine), but she still got a lot of weird looks and hushed whispers for her liking when she went out with her ears on display. She got enough of that on Earth, didn't need any more.

With no warning, a brass valve in the side of a building sprayed a cloud of steam into her face. Luz choked and staggered away, cursing angrily in Spanish. She swiftly rounded a corner into a dingy alley. Hopefully the buildings there wouldn't attack her.

She heard footsteps crunching in the alley and quickly ducked behind a dumpster, reaching for her bat. She didn't need another mugging.

Whoever it was appeared not to notice her, pacing back and forth on the cobbled streets. Luz heard them muttering to themself, missing most of the words, but they were clearly frustrated. The human snuck a look out from behind the dumpster.

It was a young dirty witch looking around Luz's age. She had messy green hair and a short, stout frame. A pair of glasses sat slightly askew over her face, and she wore an orange trenchcoat with more than a few rips. This, Luz immediately thought, was a girl who knew how to take a punch. A small cauldron sat at her feet.

The girl suddenly looked down the alley, straight towards Luz, and froze. Luz fleetingly worried that she was going to have to fight someone, but no sooner had she dismissed the idea of a mugger so young than someone else stepped into view. Luz hadn't even heard her walk down the alley.

She was tall. Damn, she was tall, those legs just kept going up. Her skin was pale, almost unnaturally so. Spiked black bracelets wound her wrists while her legs were wrapped in fishnet stockings. She wore purple shorts and a white jersey reading Hexer, tight enough to leave little to the imagination about her large bosom. Her hair was a wild purple mane streaked with brown, and various gold ornaments hung from her pierced ears. A crescent moon necklace curled around her neck. There was something off about her eyes, though. They were gold, and utterly empty of any passion or spark.

"I missed you in today's lesson, Willow," said the beautiful witch in the cold tone that the pretty ones always used. "Magistrate Bump wasn't happy that you weren't there."

The other girl- apparently named Willow- instantly donned a fake smile. In a scratchy, dry voice, she said "Oh gee golly gosh, Amity, I didn't know you were looking for me. It's so kind of you, truly it is-"

"If you want to run around in the gutters like some wyld trash, go ahead, Half-A-Witch," said Amity. "But you're in the Abominations Coven now. The supreme Coven under Imperial. Commanding soldiers out of the Holy Titan's own blood. If you act like a failure, you betray your rank."

"I don't know, Blight. You're the Abominations superstar, and you seem like a failure to me," said Willow.

Amity laughed. It was a quiet chuckle at first, but swiftly increased into cackling, Amity pounding the dumpster in her paroxysms. Luz would later notice that she had left a dent. "Really," the witch choked out, "You think I'm a failure, Half-A-Witch? I'm sure the delinquent trash would know how much of a failure the star athlete and heiress of billions was."

"Yeah, I do, Bitchy Blight," said Willow, slowly stalking towards Amity, her voice low. "Because through all of it, you're completely-"

By that point, Willow was standing right in front of Amity and talking so quiet that Luz couldn't make out her words. But Amity certainly heard it. She let out a wordless scream of fury as her knee immediately slammed into Willow's guts, causing her to double over in pain. Amity grabbed her by her shoulders and slammed her into the wall.

The heavyset witch desperately staggered away from Amity. Her face skewed in concentration as she, with both hands traced a huge circle of green light in the air. A blob of thick purple liquid rose out of her cauldron and shaped itself into a vaguely humanoid form, green eyes flashing out of it. Moaning, it slowly stalked towards Amity.

But the tall witch laughed. "Is that what you call an abomination?" With a single finger, she traced a purple circle in the air. A towering geyser of purple goop spewed out of the ground, forming into a seven-foot-tall horned warrior made of ever-shifting ooze, pockmarked by dozens of green eyes. Moving like a flowing river, Amity's abomination rapidly rushed at Willow's abomination, seized it by its arms, and tore it in half in a splatter of goo.

Willow desperately tried to run down the alley, but Amity's abomination was faster. It flowed into her path and backhanded her into the wall. Willow had no time to recover before the beast seized her by her face.

Amity clenched her fist and the abomination immediately froze, looming over the defeated Willow. Slowly, Amity walked towards the witch. Luz wanted to jump in and help Willow, but an icy pit of fear was sinking into her gut. What if her bat wasn't enough to stand up to the abomination?

"I could kill you now, you know," said Amity to Willow, her voice terrifyingly calm. "Have my abomination crush your head and leave your broken body to rot in this alleyway. I doubt anyone would ever find you."

Willow let out a muffled, whimpering moan. Amity smiled. Luz grabbed her bat and prepared to charge and smash Amity in the face, but before she could move, Amity traced another circle. The abomination sucked into the ground, leaving not a drop of purple ooze behind.

Without a word, Amity turned and walked away.

Willow gasped and panted for breath, slumping against the wall in exhaustion. She came to sit on the cobbled ground and gathered her breath. Lethargically, she put her glasses, knocked off in the brawl, back onto her face. They were cracked and warped, and Willow gave a wet laugh.

Luz waited until she was sure that Amity was gone, then slowly stepped out from behind the dumpster. Willow barely reacted as Luz walked forward, striding down to her. Luz noticed that her eyes were focused on Luz's heavy, chipped baseball bat. Luz quickly held her bat behind her back and extended a hand towards Willow. Tentatively, as if unsure if it would be snatched away the second she fell for it, Willow reached up and took Luz's hand, and Luz helped her up.

"Hi, I'm Luz Noceda," Luz introduced herself. "I saw all that go down, holy fucking shit, I'm sorry. That Amity bitch's a complete psycho. You alright? There anywhere you can go to for help?"

Willow didn't react for a second, her face frozen, then said, quickly, "I'm Willow Park. Abominations Coven."

"Yeah, I heard," said Luz. "You, uh… did a nice job when you summoned that thing!" She gestured to Willow's cauldron.

Willow brushed off Luz's hand with a grunt. "I'm shit at it. Amity ripped up my abomination like it was nothing." She paused, and then a furious energy entered her voice. "I'm gonna be better one day, and then I'll show her. I'll leave her shitting out this damn abomination goop for weeks, and I'll-" She broke off, abruptly realizing that Luz was still there. "Anyway. You should go."

"What? But I just met you!" said Luz.

"Yeah. You just saw me get beat up by one of the strongest witches in our age range," said Willow. "I get it, y'know. Nobody wants to hang with the Half-A-Witch. You don't have to pretend. It's fine." She tried for a smile on that last word, and if Luz hadn't seen it so many times in the mirror, she would've believed it.

Luz took a minute to respond. "Well," she said finally, "I'm not anyone. I'm Luz Noceda, and I don't care how good a witch you are so long as you've got dirt on popular jerks and are up for a good time."

Willow didn't say anything, as if waiting for the joke, until suddenly Luz motioned for her to follow, jumped onto the dumpster, and climbed up the wall of the alley onto a ledge. "C'mon, let's get to the roofs," said the human. Willow immediately gained a determined smirk and, in two bounds from the dumpster to the ledge, was standing next to Luz.

"I think I'm gonna like you," said Willow. She grabbed a drainpipe running up the wall and, with practiced ease, climbed up to the roof of the building. Luz struggled to follow, out of breath. Once Willow got going, she got going. Willow chuckled as Luz clambered up the last floor and extended an arm to help her up.

The witch and the human stood on a shingled roof, overlooking Bonesborough sprawling out before them. Chimneys poured out steam on huge brass factories as a zeppelin floated overhead to a dock. The Titan's Cathedral, ever present in the demon city, was at their backs, providing an uninterrupted view of countless two-to-three story houses, boxy and square. Towers poked up here and there, giving the city a bit of variety. Shouting commotion filled the streets blending to background noise, the music of the masonry.

"I love this place," Luz muttered.

"Yeah, Bonesborough's great," said Willow. Luz realized that the witch had heard her. Guess those pointy ears must be useful.

Should I tell her, Luz thought, and immediately knew the answer. "Bonesborough is nice. But I actually meant the Boiling Isles." She yanked off her red beanie, exposing the rounded tips of her ears.

"A human?" Willow breathed. She stared for a moment, taking it in. Then, slowly, she started to laugh. "Oh, he's gonna be pissed when I tell him!"

"What?" said Luz. "Who are you telling what?"

Willow grinned. "There's someone I think you should meet."

Willow had led Luz across several rooftops in a confusing labyrinth of ledges, drainpipes, and the occasional strategically-placed board bridging alleyways. They now stood on the cornice wrapping around the roof of a large hall, painted a light blue. Emblazoned on the front was a hand mirror casting a shadow, identical to one of the varying symbols Luz had seen on the Titan's Cathedral. She should probably ask about that.

Before she could, though, Willow reached down to one of the windows and traced a circle of green light. A tiny white flower bloomed on the sill, sprouting out from between the flagstones. "Huh, you can do… plant magic?" said Luz in surprise. The Isles found a new way to surprise her almost every day.

"Technically I'm not supposed to, being an Abominations apprentice and all," said Willow, "But something tells me you won't tell anyone." She smirked. "Anyway, it's not just for decoration. This is the Ribrunner signal, so he should be here in three, two-"

Someone on the inside shoved the window open. "Willow!" hissed a voice mixing that Scottish/Southern accent with the wondrous turmoil of puberty. "Madame Cecelia's teaching us how to maintain invisibility spells while running! Why are you giving the signal now?!"

"Because if I didn't tell you about this before she left, you'd kill me and then yourself," said Willow without a trace of irony. "Come on, Augustus! Just do that decoy thing you did last time!"

Luz heard a faint sigh, then the chime of a magic circle being drawn. Then the window opened, and someone climbed out.

He was short, quite clearly younger than both Luz and Willow. Luz placed him in his early teens. He had dark brown skin, and wore a black leather jacket and dark blue fanny pack. His black hair was cut in an undercut, the top standing up in a curly frizz. A strip of tape on his chin covered what Luz presumed to be a cut of some kind. His left eye was a blue-gray, but his right glowed bright blue in a way Luz had never seen before, even among the strange inhabitants of the Boiling Isles. "You know, I'm only still learning illusion magic!" he complained, expertly walking across the windowsill to Willow. "I can't just pull an illusory replica of myself out of my ass and leave it in class! Keeping it up is going to take it out of me, and if Madame Cecelia finds out she'll take it out of my hide-

"Yeah, you can forget all about Madame Cecelia now, Augustus," said Willow bluntly. "I brought you your greatest dream." She gestured to Luz.

Luz waved in greeting. "'Sup. Name's Luz."

Augustus blinked, then smiled. "Hi, Luz! Always nice to meet a new friend. Although I don't see why I have to meet you now…" He glanced over to Willow at this.

"Look, I promise it's important," said Willow. She turned to Luz and said, "I promise Augustus is a good kid, and this would mean a lot to him. Would you mind taking off your beanie?"

Luz blinked. "Umm…" Her eyes flitted over to Augustus, who looked confused at their strange conversation. He did seem pretty young, and earnest. Just so long as she avoided saying anything about Eda, this probably wouldn't turn out to be another Severine. With a deep breath, she reached to her head and pulled off the beanie, revealing her rounded ears.

Augustus' eyes widened as he sucked in a breath. He stood stock-still for all of one second, than ran towards Luz and grabbed her by the lapels of her jacket. "You're a human! A real human! I took my illusion-seeing class and I know those ears aren't illusions like that thing those kids did once and they're real ears and you're a real human! On the real Boiling Isles! Titan below, is this a dream, Willow?! Tell me this isn't a dream!"

"Not a dream. Now let go of me!" said Luz, jerking away from Augustus.

Augustus jumped back quickly and seemed to take a minute to compose himself, although a huge grin remained. "Sorry! I've just spent most of my life learning about Earth. I think it's so fascinating, but I never imagined that I'd actually meet a human! This is basically a dream come true."

Luz found herself smiling at his enthusiasm. "Yeah, I can see that. Kid Me probably would've had the same reaction to coming to this place."

"So, Augustus, what do you say?" said Willow in what was probably supposed to be a lilting voice but came out cracked and raw through her hoarse cadence. Augustus didn't mind. He tackled Willow into a tight hug, saying "Thank you so much! This is literally a dream come true!" Willow seemed surprised, but awkwardly wrapped her arms around him to pat his back.

Augustus quickly broke away from her to turn back to Luz. "Do you mind if I ask some questions?" Before Luz could respond, he said, "Never mind, this is a bad spot for an interview. Let's hit the roofs!"

"What about Madame Cecelia?" said Willow in her hoarse attempt at a teasing voice.

"Fuck Madame Cecelia!" shouted Augustus, punching the air, then sprinted around the cornice. Luz glanced at Willow, who smirked and nodded. Luz started after Augustus, carefully balancing on the cornice while still trying to move as fast as she could to keep pace. The adrenaline pumped through her body, urging her onward in the race.

Rounding a corner, she carefully crossed a board serving as a makeshift bridge over an alley, arriving on a much smaller, more drab roof. Augustus was running across the rooftops, dropping down lower and lower. With a shout, Luz sprinted after him, energy rushing through her body.

It had been a long time since she had felt so free.

Of course, it didn't last. After a few minutes of running, Luz collapsed on a chimney, supporting herself up with both hands. She gasped for breath, but began coughing midway, each cough carrying the taste of nicotine. A sudden slap to her back nearly bowled her over, and she turned to see Willow behind her.

Luz tried to yell at Willow, but it came out as a weak scratch before her voice suddenly slotted back into place. She instead quietly said "Thanks."

Augustus walked up to them. "Okay, this is good enough. So, can I ask you some questions?" He traced a circle of blue light, and the words HUMAN STUFF appeared in thin air out of the same light.

Luz shrugged. "Sure, so long as you answer me some questions. Seeing more of Bonesborough, I feel like there's stuff I don't know, and I don't like that feeling."

Augustus nodded enthusiastically. "Done!" He seemed to go over a mental checklist, then said "Everyone says humans are all super-backwards and they don't have the stuff we have in the Boiling Isles. But I know that's not true, right?!"

"It's not," said Luz, smirking. This elicited a squeal of delight from Augustus. "We've got all kinds of stuff that you guys don't have here! Cell phones, trains, medicine, TV, guns…"

Augustus' smile grew wider and wider as he wrote every word Luz said in illusory script (or at least something close to it). "I knew it! I've heard about these "sel-fones" before, but nobody's ever believed me until now! They must have a range across the entire galaxy, right? Our scrolls only cover the planet!"

Luz froze. "Hold on, what?"

Willow took out a rectangle made of bone, the same mirror as Gus' guildhall emblazoned on the back. A square of vitreous fluid formed a screen showing various apps. "This is a scroll. Pretty much everyone has one. It uses Illusion magic to allow people to communicate from anywhere in the Boiling Isles and access websites, so long as you remember to charge it every decade." She smirked. "Something you're not telling us about phones?"

"Uh… they're not that," said Luz. "Phones aren't… magic, they don't work that well."

Augustus' face fell. "Oh." He crossed out sel fones in the illusory script. "But what about all the other stuff?"

"Well, our trains and taxis can get us around cities within an hour, if traffic permits-"

"The Telekine Coven can get you places in a second," said Augustus, his face slowly sinking further.

"Planes can cross the planet within hours!"

"A dirigible with the proper Telekine enchantments could probably do the same thing if not for Boiling Rainstorms…"

"Guns can let you murder anyone with pretty much no regulation at all for who gets to buy it, God bless America…"

"Amity's nearly murdered me over twenty times by now by twirling her fingers, and faced no repercussions!" Willow interjected brightly.

"Ah… medicine…"

Augustus' eyes lit up. "Oh, I know you guys have vaccines too! Did you make any improvements on the cancer vaccine?"

Luz blinked. Then she walked over to the ledge, sat down, and buried her face in her hands. Thereafter, she said, "So Earth is a shithole. Okay, already knew that one."

"Wha… bu-but… tha…" Augustus stammered, apparently trying to process it all. Luz's stomach sank, she hadn't meant to make him feel bad.

Willow spoke up. "Hey Luz, what would Augustus' name be in Human?"

"Uh… Augustus is a name on Earth too," said Luz, causing the witch in question to start muttering about cultural carryover through Pre-Deadwardian interspatial trade. Luz thought rapidly when an answer suddenly popped into her head- of course it was there, why wasn't it the first thing she thought of?

"There's a lotta nicknames coming out of Augustus, but the most common one is probably Gus," said the human.

Augustus looked up and enthusiasm began to seep back into his eyes. "Gus…" he said to himself, musing over the name. "Gus Porter, my human name…"

"Ya like it?" asked Luz.

"I love it!" he said, punching the air. "Willow, call me Gus from now on!"

"Okay, Gus," she smiled. And that was that.

"Alright, you asked me questions, now it's my turn," said Luz. "I keep hearing about 'Covens', but just what are they?"

Willow and Gus jerked towards Luz in shock. "You've never heard of covens?!" Willow exclaimed.

"Well, of course she wouldn't have," Gus realized. "Humans don't have magic and so they can't join covens. That's gotta be difficult to go through life with."

"I am not hearing a lot of explanation," said Luz.

Gus sat down. "So… it's like this," he began. "When the Titan slumbered, They let the first beasts eat Their meat and get magic. Then those beasts became witches. But the thing is, the Titan didn't just let anyone take whatever magic they wanted. That's wyld talk. When each beast ate the meat of the Titan, in exchange, they took a special purpose to use magic for. Nothing else. Your Coven."

Luz listened, the witches' words seizing her ear. It all seemed so great- a god giving a purpose for everyone's life? There'd be no need to worry about your future, you'd just be set up for everything. A voice like Eda's suddenly appeared in her head. Don't trust them.

"At first, witches didn't know that, and they all used wyld magic and listened for the voice of the Titan. It was anarchy- no one can have that much magic, or hear the Titan on their own!" said Gus, passion in his voice. "It was called the Savage Ages. But then the Emperor showed up," he went on as his eyes filled with wonder. "Emperor Belos could hear the voice of the Titan. He told everyone about Covens and how they should be living, and spoke for the Titan so that everyone would know what the Titan. Pretty soon, all the wyld magic was destroyed and witches were living in the Empire the way the Titan intended."

Willow took over. "Covens are pretty much everything. There's seven, and they've all got a bunch of sub-guilds for training new witches, and developing new magic- oh, and businesses, duh. If you don't see a Coven insignia on a shop, you can bet it'll be selling something shady." She tugged at her sleeve. "You spend your childhood training in whatever Covens you want, but once you figure out which one the Titan planned for you, you take the tests and join. Then you get that Coven's sigil, to protect you from using other kinds of magic." Willow paused for a moment, then said, more quietly, "Anyone over eighteen without a sigil is a wyld witch until they get one."

Gus lifted his wrist to show what looked like a light blue tattoo of that same mirror. "I'm in the Illusion Coven!" he said. "They do mass media, communication, and all sorts of things. Sure, it's not the most glamorous, but there's always a job for an illusionist!" He reached over to noogie Willow, and said teasingly, "But Willow here's gonna join the Abominations Coven, and be a fancy-shmancy princess over the Boiling Isles and never call, write, or visit!"

Willow shoved him, but Luz was feeling icy fingers sink into her gut. Willow and Gus sounded so happy talking about it, but Covens stole almost all witches' magic and trapped them in a handful of societal roles while this Belos guy controlled the religion exclusively. No wonder Eda didn't want to join them- she'd be made into a puppet for the Empire.

Even so, Gus and Willow were definitely nice enough. She remembered Severine's attempts to deceive her, and the young witches weren't doing anything close to that. And they were currently both skipping their Coven instruction to hang out with her, an outsider. Maybe they could just be friends to her, people she could hang out with and not care about Covens and wyld witches.

"Hey guys," she interrupted, reaching into her jacket, "Care for a piece of human culture?"

After a couple minutes, the witches had successfully lit up cigarettes and were blowing out clouds of smoke, dangling their legs off the roof. Gus grinned. "I haven't felt this calm in, like, ever! What is this magic?"

Luz exhaled a cloud of acrid smoke around her head, breathing it in deeply. "It's a plant called tobacco. I've only got a couple cigs left, anyway. Which is just as well for you guys- ya don't want to smoke as much as I do."

"Why not?" said Willow, sounding a lot less lethargic than before.

"Once I run out- which will probably happen tomorrow- I'm not gonna do so good. Withdrawal is a bitch," said Luz. "But I can deal with it. What Covens are there?"

Gus traced a magic circle and conjured an illusory pyramid. It was divided into seven colored layers with the sigils of the Titan's Cathedral- a yellow bubbling bottle, the familiar teal mirror casting a shadow, a blue silhouette fading away, a green flower, a red flame full of snowflakes, a purple horned demon face, and a white cross with a crow mask in the intersection. "Potions is the biggest Coven which makes a bunch of minor commodities, I told you why Illusion is the best, Telekine handles construction and public transport, Plant witches make food, Elemental witches deal with weather and demolition, Abominations witches lead armies of the monsters they summon and the men they command, and the Imperial Coven are sworn to the Emperor himself. They use all branches of magic to enforce the law of the Titan. They have to be extra careful to have all that power, which is why the Emperor handpicks them himself!"

"So what's this Belos guy like, anyway?" said Luz.

"Couldn't say," said Willow. "The Emperor hasn't come out of the Imperial Fortress in years. The Head Witch of the Imperial Coven is the one who speaks for him."

"I heard that he's so devastatingly beautiful, anyone who looks at him will kill themselves, and he secludes himself for the sake of everyone around him," said Gus.

"I heard he was injured by wyld magic, and he's got a horrific scar over his face," said Willow. "So he has to wear a mask just like his scouts!"

Luz chuckled. "Have you ever considered that the real Emperor was the friends you made along the way?"

Willow looked confused, but Gus laughed. "The Wizard of Oz! Somebody gets my human references!"

Luz grinned. It had been a long time since she'd even seen the movie, but holy shit was it everywhere for some reason. As she, Gus, and Willow talked about all things from Earth and Daemonicus in the smoke of cigarettes atop the building, somehow, Luz felt less lonely than she had ever felt before.