Chapter Text
The storm that raged overhead had struck suddenly, appearing as if by magic.
The sky which had been an unbroken field of robin's egg blue just minutes ago was now shrouded in a roiling mass of black clouds that lashed the earth with sheets of rain. A wild wind howled and shrieked its way through the treetops, shredding leaves and scattering broken branches in its path, but it could barely be heard above the sound of the crashing thunder. Lightning was arcing continuously through the clouds above and the peals of thunder that roared in their wake were so close together that they seemed to be a single endless explosion of noise.
To the lone figure stumbling and weaving her way through the path, though, the storm might as well not have existed at all because she had much more important things on her mind.
Her name was Abigail, and she was running for her life.
This was made extremely difficult by the heavy, waterlogged skirts of the wedding dress she was wearing, which snagged at every protruding root and low branch and sent her sprawling into the mud.
A screeching howl pierced through the dull roar of the wind and thunder, sending an icy stab of terror into her hammering heart. Abigail swore furiously and dragged herself back to her feet, risking a single backward glance in the direction where the sound had originated.
A bulky shadow lurched and stumbled through the tree lined path behind her, illuminated in strobing flashes of lightning that gave her only blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glimpses of its features.
Fangs. Feathers. Claws. Wings. Eyes like two black pits set in a disturbingly human face.
Abigail choked out a terrified sob and tried to run while lifting the skirts of her dress away from the ground, wishing that she had chosen a different design for her gown. Maybe something closer to a track suit.
In the moments before the storm had broken, today had been one of the happiest times of Abigail’s life. She had been skeptical about her fiance’s idea to have an outdoor wedding, but the afternoon had been gorgeous and every weather app they’d checked when planning the ceremony had promised clear skies and sunshine for the whole week.
Abigail gasped out a particularly vulgar curse aimed at the makers of weather apps as her feet skidded in the churned mud of the trail and sent her slamming into a tree trunk at high speed.
Her fingernails scrabbled painfully against the rough bark of the tree as she hauled herself to her feet once more. Her lungs burned with exhaustion and spots danced before her eyes from the force of the impact.
A screech sounded from behind, closer than the first had been, and exhaustion gave way as a fresh spike of adrenaline tore through her system. She shoved off from the tree and ran on, weaving and woozy.
Minutes ago (how could it only be minues?), when the first few raindrops had started to fall the members of the wedding party had grumbled, but tried to press on with the ceremony. Abigail had even laughed a little when her fiance had whispered to her that at least things could only get better in their married life from that point on.
She’d had to yell out her ‘I do’ to be heard over the sound of thunder that had started to rumble overhead, but even as the sky darkened above she had felt euphoric that the moment she’d been waiting for through all those long months had finally come at last.
Then the screaming had started.
The creature had shot out from between the trees with a shrieking cry that had triggered all of those hardwired instincts that Abigail’s ancestors had needed when dire wolves and saber toothed-tigers had stalked them through the ancient forests. Guests had scattered in all directions after their first sight of the thing, but Abigail had frozen in place as her eyes had locked with the obsidian-black stare of the monster.
It had stalked toward her with its lips peeled back in an all-too-human grin which revealed a row of yellowed fangs, and she had felt her heart seize up in her chest at the sight.
Abigail’s brand-new husband had stepped in between her and the creature, spreading his arms wide and shouting wordless nonsense at the top of his lungs at it. In the back of her mind, somewhere between the waves of terror and confusion crashing against her sanity, Abigail recognized it as a tactic used to scare away bears that a park ranger had shown them on a camping trip several years ago.
The creature had paused and cocked its head to the side in a curiously bird-like gesture at the man’s aggressive stance.
Then it had screeched and leapt forward with its talons outstretched. The raking claws had shredded through both the rented tuxedo and the flesh beneath it with equal ease, and the man she loved fell to the ground with an agonized scream. Abigail's mind had raced as she tried to think of something, anything, she could do to save him.
At that moment Abigail learned a very important fact about herself; namely that she was the type of person who would rather be a cowardly but alive widow than a brave but dead wife.
She turned and ran, doing her best to block out the whimpering sounds of pain behind her from her mind as she did.
She had barely made it a few steps when the storm which had been brewing overhead had finally lost its patience, and the rain began to fall in earnest.
Between the blinding rain, the crashing thunder and the surreal feeling of sick terror twisting through Abigail’s gut, she had lost track of where anything was as she stumbled blindly through the forest trail in search of the parking lot.
Abigail could hear the sound of heavy feet pounding through the mud behind her and she knew at that moment that she would never be able to run fast enough to escape.
She was determined to try, though.
With a final push of effort Abigail threw every ounce of energy that she had left into her legs, ignoring the stabbing stitch in her side and the taste of acid in her mouth as she took a sharp turn down the path and saw the trees ahead give away to a flat expanse of pavement.
Her car was parked right up at the front, the “Just Married” decorations which her friends and family had applied were soaked and torn to pieces by the rain and wind but she felt her heart soar as she realized that escape was possible.
And then she remembered that the keys were in her purse, which had been left back on the picnic table in the clearing where the ceremony had taken place.
Abigail heard that hateful shrieking howl for the final time, and then turned.
The creature was paused at the edge of the tree line, watching her with its flat unblinking stare.
For a few heartbeats the two faced each other, and Abigail felt her breath catch in her throat.
Then it turned and walked back down the path from which it came, leaving her alone.
Abigail's knees buckled right out from under her with exhaustion, then she collapsed against the side of her car and slid down to the rough gravel surface of the parking lot.
It was insane. Impossible. Something out of an urban legend that locals used to trick gullible out-of-towners.
The North Woods Monster was real… the Owl Lady was real.
“You don’t have to do this,” the girl pleaded.
“I know,” whispered the hooded figure that stalked toward her, gripping a gnarled staff in her hand, “But I want to.”
“Please,” the girl said with a hitch in her voice as she raised her own staff, “I don’t want to hurt you… I never wanted to hurt you.”
The hooded figure smiled crookedly.
“You won’t,” she said, “I won’t ever let you get close enough to hurt me again.”
She flourished the staff in an elaborate twirl which ended abruptly when the length of wood slipped from her grasp and the gnarled end smacked her on the side of the head with a sharp THWACK!
“Luz!” the girl exclaimed as she rushed over to the ground where Luz Noceda lay stunned on the forest floor.
“Aw farts, I thought I had it that time,” Luz mumbled as she rubbed the swelling bump rising beneath her untidy mop of brown hair.
“You really shouldn’t try to show off so much if you always end up getting hurt like that,” the girl said with a smile in her voice.
Luz staggered back to her feet and retrieved her old tree branch ‘staff’, giving it a much simpler flourish before she planted it on the ground in front of her.
“Nonsense,” Luz said, “Anyway you know that Hecate would want to be showing off as much as possible in front of Azura before their climactic battle. She’s feeling heartbroken and betrayed, but still deep down in love with her mortal enemy and needs to prove just how strong she is. I was acting perfectly in-character.”
The girl giggled.
“Right up until your little accident I was totally buying it, yeah,” she said, “Are you sure you aren’t secretly an evil witch in real life?”
“Well, if I told you that then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?” Luz said with a wink.
The girl laughed and ran a hand through her…
Blonde? Black? Red?
Luz suddenly realized that she couldn’t tell what color the girl's hair was.
“Thanks for letting me be Azura again,” she said, “Maybe it’s a little silly to play pretend like this at our age, but I never got to do stuff like this at home when I was a kid. I'm having a lot of fun.”
She turned to Luz and gave her a shy smile.
It felt like it was a shy smile… Luz knew that it must have been… except that she couldn’t see the girl’s features at all. She knew they were there - her eyes, nose and mouth all existed - but it was like there was a fog or filter over her vision that prevented Luz from being able to see any of them clearly.
It’s happening again, Luz realized.
"We aren't 'playing pretend'," Luz objected with mock-seriousness in her voice, "We're roleplaying and re-enacting scenes from a book. It's a mature hobby that can be enjoyed by dorks of all ages."
"Oh, my mistake then," the girl said in a grave tone of voice, "Would you want to re-enact another scene with me then, my extremely mature friend?"
Luz grinned.
“I’m always happy to re-enact some Azura scenes together anytime you want ________,” Luz said.
She knew that she must have said a name, but there was nothing but an empty hole in the sentence where the syllables that formed the shape of that name would have fit.
Luz watched herself with a sense of growing detachment as she chased after the girl through the small patch of forested land behind her house. They laughed together and exchanged quotes of dialogue from The Good Witch Azura as they struck dramatic poses with their tree-branch staves.
She couldn’t tell just by looking how old she was at this point… probably too old to be playing make-believe with a friend at any rate by the look of things.
Too young to have actually had any friends at that point in her life either, for that matter.
The pair stumbled into a clearing and slumped down together on a log, panting from a mix of exhaustion and laughter.
“Hey... could you show me that trick again?” Luz asked after a short pause to catch her breath.
Luz still couldn’t see through the infuriating whatever-it-was that shrouded her face, but she knew that the girl beside her had bitten her lip and hesitated at the sound of that request.
“Please,” Luz asked, “I promise I won’t ask again for at least a month.”
The girl nodded once.
“I’ll hold you to that Noceda,” she said in a stern voice.
Even through the murky strangeness of the dream Luz could hear the softness behind the steel in her words, and felt an indescribable pang in her chest.
A hot sting pricked against Luz’s cheek. Dark flakes had begun to drift down out of the sky, like the shadow of snow.
Not yet , Luz thought with a snarl.
Not again!
She locked her eyes on the faceless girl as she extended her index finger and began to trace a circle through the air.
The flakes of ash swept in harder from above, carried on a scorching wind. Luz could feel the heat rising as the edges of the horizon grew hazy with the ring of smoke closing in around them.
The air smelled of flame and loss, and Luz's skin prickled with blossoms of pain as ash flakes peppered her body, but she did not look away from the girl.
A circle of light flared into being in midair along the path that the girl's finger had made and then collapsed into a hovering luminescent orb. She extended her hand out to Luz, offering her the small glowing ball that floated just above her palm.
“Take it,” the girl said with an unseen smile.
Her voice was faint and distorted by the roar of the firestorm which now surrounded them.
Luz reached out her hand but before she could touch the ball she was jerked away from that moment, leaving her body behind as her perspective drifted off. With a mixture of frustration and resignation she watched herself and the girl as they were consumed by the wave of flames that roared in over the landscape, leaving nothing but cinders behind.
With a gasp Luz’s eyes shot open, wide and wild with terror and the echoes of phantom pain singing through her nerves.
The window by her bed rattled in its pane as a strong gust of wind blew by. The storm which had set in that afternoon had quieted down from its earlier fury, but the rain still hadn’t stopped even when Luz had finally dragged herself to bed.
The storm had also brought a sharp chill to the air along with the rain, but Luz felt herself burning up despite it. Her whole body was fever-hot and a pounding ache had settled in at her temples.
This was nothing new for Luz, unfortunately.
That was… the third one this month?, she thought to herself.
Or was it the fourth?
Luz reached for the phone which lay atop the dresser by her bedside but then stopped herself, and grabbed the small notebook beside it instead. The room was pitch-dark except for the occasional lightning flash that could be seen through the window, but when Luz touched the pen in her hand to the notebook she knew that she could trace out the shape of the light glyph as instinctively as she could write her own name.
Maybe even easier at this point considering how messy her handwriting was at times.
Might as well try something new since I'm already up , Luz thought.
Luz closed her eyes and conjured up the familiar image of the light spell in her mind and then visualized a change. She pictured the soft white-yellow light of the spell shifting into a gentle blue shade and expanded the size of the orb until it was about the size of a grapefruit. She tapped her finger to the page, keeping the altered image firmly in her thoughts as she did.
For a moment nothing happened, and her breath caught in her throat. Old fears that had dogged her for almost half of her life returned full force in these moments.
What if there was no magic this time? What if she really was crazy like everyone had said? What if none of it was real? Had never been real?
The moment passed as the edges of the paper began to curl inward of their own volition into a ball which rose up into the air. The wad of paper vanished in a puff of energy, leaving a small glowing blue orb the size of a ping-pong ball in its place.
Luz released her held breath and cupped the light spell in her hands, savoring the slightly prickly feel of its magical energy caressing the skin of her palms.
The feverish heat which had suffused her body had begun to dissipate and the sharp pain of the migraine she had felt coming on had started to ease slightly as well. Years of experience had taught her that the less she thought of the dreams after she woke up, the less they could hurt her.
This had been a strong one though, and those usually required a distraction.
She kept her mind focused on the light orb in front of her.
Looks like color control is possible, but the size of the orb is still purely dependent on the size of the glyph , Luz thought clinically as she compared the spell in her hands to the image she had formed in her mind prior to activating the glyph.
Luz raised her cupped hand and breathed out slowly through her nose as she pushed the light orb with her mind, willing it to drift through the air toward her bedroom door.
A normal person would probably have just used their phone as a flashlight , Luz thought to herself as she got up from the bed and walked toward the door, while keeping the light orb’s movement firmly in mind.
Then again, why waste a perfectly good excuse to practice some magic?
She followed the light orb out from her room and over to the bathroom down the darkened hallway. The blue glow of the light spell reflecting off the dusty bathroom mirror lent an ethereal air to the rather shabby apartment - like an underwater cavern lined with faded wallpaper. Luz pulled open the medicine cabinet and began to rummage through its contents, squinting at the labels which were difficult to read in the unusual light cast by her spell.
The bathroom light switch was right there, but she stubbornly refused to acknowledge it as she continued to try and find the bottle she was looking for in the dim blue light.
“I should have just stuck with regular yellow,” Luz grumbled to herself.
She knew from long experience that the headaches which always accompanied her fire-dreams, as she called them, were persistent and that she wouldn’t have any hope of getting a half-decent sleep without some pharmaceutical help.
Not to mention the fact that the unseasonably cold air caused by the storm was sending twinges of pain all through her arms. She resisted the instinctive urge to scratch at the crisscrossing welts of scar tissue that twined their way around the outside of her forearms. Scratching had never helped.
Luz finished sifting through the contents of the medicine cabinet, opened a bottle of over-the-counter pain relievers and then dry swallowed two pills with practiced ease.
She combed her fingers back through her short, sweat slicked mop of dark brown hair and pointed at her tired-looking reflection in the mirror.
"You are going to be okay," she told herself in a firm voice.
The Luz in the mirror didn't look entirely convinced by that, but that was fine. She'd been having a rough night after all.
Luz knew the effects of the medication weren’t really supposed to kick in for at least another half-hour, but she still felt a slight lessening of the pressure at her temples and a dulling of the ache in her scars.
Thank god for the placebo effect , she thought with a relieved smile.
Her task complete, Luz stumbled back toward her bedroom. Now that the spike of adrenaline that had woken her up from the dream had dissipated, her body had remembered just how late it actually was and how little sleep she had been running on. The light spell at her side had weaved and bobbed about almost drunkenly as her concentration flickered between controlling the movement of the spell and controlling her own sleep-deprived body.
She settled back into the bed once more, pulled the thin blankets up to her neck and shifted around to try and find the one good spot on her pillow where all the stuffing had migrated to.
Luz tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid thinking of the fire-dream but it was like resisting the urge to poke at a loose tooth with her tongue or pick at an itching scab.
The details of the dream had rapidly faded from her mind shortly after waking, as always, and left her with only the vaguest of impressions and a familiar sense of frustration.
She had asked Eda about them, just once, but the old witch hadn’t appeared to have any idea of what Luz was talking about as she fumbled through her halting and confused explanation of the dreams.
Maybe it would be worth it to ask her again tomorrow though , Luz thought as she dismissed the light spell with a glance and closed her tired eyes.
They’ve been coming more and more often lately - I’ve had more fire-dreams in the past three months than I did in the last year.
If nothing else maybe she’ll know how to make a good sleep potion that would keep me from having them anymore.
Strangely, that thought brought Luz no peace of mind and she immediately dismissed the idea.
The dreams were painful, sometimes devastatingly so, but the thought of never having one again was somehow even more painful.
They were the only times that Luz was able to see her, after all.
Whoever she was.
The light of the rising sun rippled strangely as it passed through the dome of enchantment surrounding New Bonesborough, though no one standing outside of its borders would have noticed the effect.
It would have been a very poor illusion spell if just anyone was able to see through it that easily, after all.
Amity Blight always enjoyed the sight of the sunrise from inside the dome though, and usually made a point of taking her flying staff up high into the air so she could watch the way the dawn's first rays would bend and shift around the thick layers of magic which surrounded the small village before they finally pierced the screen and brought their light to the witches and demons living within its borders.
Unfortunately, Amity's staff had been giving her trouble again lately and she felt it was better to not risk taking it up too high this morning. She hadn't enjoyed the week she'd spent in a cast after the last time her staff's enchantment had failed her and sent her crashing to the ground while she had been chasing a fleeing demon through the woods. The healers had insisted that she'd been very lucky - not even magic would have saved her if that fall had resulted in a broken neck instead of a broken arm.
She flew low over the mostly-empty streets of the town, taking the scenic route from her small cottage on her way to work. The only citizens out at this hour were a few witches and demons setting up their market stalls for the morning. The various merchants all gave Amity a friendly wave of their hand, paw, claw or other appropriate appendage when she passed over them and she returned their greetings with a crisp salute.
Amity lived close enough to the Guardian Hall that she could have easily walked to work instead of flown, but she enjoyed the feel of the breeze in her face. She also enjoyed the way that same breeze rustled the fabric of her short white Guardian cloak and sent it whipping out behind her like the capes worn by those fictional superheroes that humans were so fond of, though she would never have admitted that to anyone.
Amity knew that with enough time the thrill of wearing the uniform would fade, but she was determined to enjoy it for as long as she could. The effort it had taken her to qualify for the Guardians had been brutal, and if she wanted to feel like a superhero for a few minutes each morning as a reward for that effort then that was nobody’s business but hers.
The Guardian Hall loomed up ahead of Amity's flight path, and she watched as the first rays of morning light fell upon the tall tower of snowy white stone, bathing it in liquid gold. The hall was one of the most impressive buildings in New Bonesborough, and resembled a small castle with its central lookout tower and high surrounding wall of heavy stone blocks that were overgrown with a thick mat of climbing vines.
The whole structure gave off an aura of strength and fortitude, as though the Hall was a great beast that had watched over the town for centuries like an ancient and stalwart protector. The witches who had designed it had done an excellent job at faking its archaic appearance, especially considering the fact that the building was actually around thirty years old and the town itself just a little more than twice its age.
Amity landed her staff at the foot of the stone steps which led up to the doorway with an unpleasant jolt, but managed to avoid losing her balance. She made a mental note to definitely get her staff looked at after her shift ended, gave one of the stylized griffon statues that flanked the steps a pat on the talon for luck and then made her way up the stairs.
In keeping with its exterior, the interior of the Guardian Hall had also been built with grandeur in mind: the vaulted ceiling of stone blocks arched high overhead and framed numerous skylights of stained glass which depicted various legends and significant moments in witch history, providing beauty as well as illumination. The building usually had a hushed feeling to it, like a library or cathedral, that encouraged whispers and quiet contemplation.
That sense of solemnity seemed to have all gone out the window today, though, and Amity was almost knocked over flat on her ass when an older guardian shoved past her and sped out the door with a barked cry of: “Watch it rookie!”
Amity had barely recovered from that display of rudeness when she realized that the rest of the Hall was in a similar state of chaos. Guardians in their distinctive white cloaks were rushing past each other in all directions, shouting back and forth in a babble of voices. With a start, Amity also realized that there were an unusually high number of humans in the building as well.
Any number greater than zero would have been unusually high, but there had to be at least a dozen there that Amity could see and as she watched she could see that even more were being hustled in and out of various side doors, which made taking an accurate count nearly impossible.
Most of the humans seemed to be dressed in formal clothing, although their garments were soaked and muddied. They were all restrained in some way - either bound up in stasis spells or rendered unconscious by a sleep charm, but a few were still awake and clearly confused by the situation they now found themselves in. One woman in particular, dressed in a very elaborate white gown that was splattered from head to toe with mud and leaves, seemed on the verge of hysterics and was resisting every sleep spell being thrown her way.
As Amity walked through the chaotic scene she could have sworn that she heard the woman scream something about the Owl Lady, and she felt her gut lurch at the mention of New Bonesborough’s most infamous eccentric.
Well, this can’t be good, she thought to herself.
A large hand gripped tight at Amity's shoulder and she spun around in surprise to find herself face to face with another guardian.
"Blight," the older guardian said in a gruff voice, "The commander wanted to see you in her office as soon as you reported in."
Amity bit back the urge to snap at the man for startling her and gave him a sharp nod instead.
"Thanks Steve," she said, and then turned to rush toward the central tower as fast as she could.
The commander was not well known for her great stores of patience.
Amity had barely tapped once on the door of the office when she heard an irritable voice scream through the wood.
“In the Titan’s unspeakable name, what now!”
Amity winced, swallowed down her initial reaction to retreat back to the safe chaos of the hallway and then opened the door instead.
“Guardian Blight reporting for duty as ordered, ma’am,” Amity said, keeping her voice level and her eyes averted from her commander's scowling face.
This wasn’t terribly difficult since Commander Kikimora was somewhat less than half of Amity’s height when she was standing, and even the tall chair and raised platform of her desk still didn’t bring her close to Amity’s eye level.
Amity realized that she wasn't the only other visitor in the commander's office this morning, because seated in the chair across from the small demon was a tall witch with straight coal black hair and a pair of hard, sapphire eyes which were currently staring daggers at Kikimora.
The small demon blew out a frustrated breath and beckoned Amity inside her office with an irritable wave of her claw.
"Come in, Blight," she said, "I understand that you're already acquainted with my esteemed guest?"
Amity nodded and then made a slight bow toward the seated witch.
"Good morning counselor Clawthorne," Amity said, trying to contain the mixture of confusion and surprise she felt at seeing her old mentor once more on top of everything else that seemed to be happening today.
The corner of the counselor’s lips twitched ever so slightly upward as she turned back in her chair to give Amity an appraising look.
"You can just call me Lilith now, Amity. We’re all adults here," she said.
Amity's eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch, but she managed to keep the surprise from showing on her face otherwise.
Maybe she's gotten friendlier since we last met? , Amity thought as she recalled the older witch’s insistence on strict formality during their magic lessons together.
Or maybe she's just gotten better at faking it now that she's spent so much time in politics.
"I was told that you wanted to see me this morning, Commander," Amity said, turning her attention back to Kikimora, who had sat silently fuming throughout the exchange of pleasantries.
“Yes. I take it you’ve noticed the little situation that we have going on outside?” Kikimora asked Amity with her usual sarcasm.
Amity nodded her head a fraction of an inch.
“Yes, it does seem a little busy this morning,” she said blandly.
“A little busy, she says,” Kikimora muttered under her breath, “It’s an unprecedented disaster in the making is what it is.”
“What happened?” Amity asked, no longer able to contain her curiosity.
Kikimora blew out the irritated sigh of someone who has had to explain the same story far too many times, but was going to do it just this once more, and then she began to speak.
“Some humans decided that it would be a wonderful idea to have a wedding in the forest right outside our doorstep - apparently one of them used to go camping here with their parents or something like that and it was a sentimental spot for them,” Kikimora said, “Which was fine. We had Guardians patrolling the borders of the town who were ready to turn back any humans that wandered too far from their celebration with a quick illusion or mind-control charm. It should have been no problem at all.”
Kikimora growled, exposing a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
“But then of course, counselor Clawthorne’s Titan-damned sister had to have one of her episodes ,” Kikimora spat.
Amity flinched. Everyone in New Bonesborough knew the tale of the Owl Lady, who was the victim of a curse that could transform her into a nightmarish beast. Many whispered that she would never have been allowed to roam free at all if she weren’t the sister of one of the community’s most influential leaders.
That same leader was now turning the full force of her icy stare at the seated demon who had just insulted her sister. Amity could see Lilith’s well manicured fingers twitch in the armrests of her chair as though they were barely holding back the urge to start aiming spells at the commander.
"We don't even know for certain that it really was Edalyn in the first place," Lilith objected in a sharp voice. "She's had her curse well under control - there hasn't been a single reported incident in years!"
“Well apparently her control is slipping, because not only was she spotted by well over a dozen humans at that damned wedding but she also mauled one of them badly,” Kikimora returned in an equally sharp tone, “The healers are working on him now - with luck he’ll survive.”
Amity drew in a sharp breath. While there were many dark rumors about the Owl Lady, she had never actually been known to have injured or killed anyone - either witch or human.
“That’s terrible,” Amity said, unable to stop herself.
“It gets worse,” the commander continued in a grim voice, “One of the witches who lives in Cypress, the human city just beyond the forest, works at one of their news reporting agencies. He contacted the Guardians this morning to let us know that humans all over the area have called in to claim that they had spotted a mysterious flying creature last night.”
Amity watched as a bleak look settled over Lilith's face at that announcement.
“Was there any video or photographic evidence taken during those sightings by the humans?” she asked.
Kikimora shook her head.
“That’s the one piece of good news in this whole fiasco,” she said, “The storm last night ruined any chance of taking clear pictures. The only ‘evidence’ the humans have is so murky and low quality that it could be just about anything in those videos... at least, those that we've seen so far anyway.”
“Well, that’s good at least,” Amity offered.
“If this had happened during a clear summer afternoon, though, it would have been a nightmare,” the commander said, “I miss the days before humans invented that damned internet-thing. It used to be so easy to just modify a few memories or pull the film out of a camera if they saw one of us doing magic - now even human children carry around devices in their pockets that can broadcast anything they see to the whole world in the blink of an eye.”
"Even if any of this is true," Lilith began, "None of it is Edalyn's fault. It's not a crime to be cursed - she's just as much of a victim here as anyone else."
"I think the dying human that my healers are trying to save might be just slightly more of a victim here than the creature that attacked him," Kikimora barked back.
Lilith's eyes flared and Amity could feel the low hum in her bones as magic started to coalesce and crackle around the older witch.
There was a moment of tense silence.
Kikimora stared back at Lilith blandly, as if pretending not to notice the sudden surge in magic coursing through the witch’s veins. After several more agonizing seconds the moment finally passed, and Amity breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the power surrounding the enraged counselor begin to die down.
"I sympathize with your situation, counselor," Kikimora began, "Truly I do. But whether it was intentional or not, the fact remains that your sister is putting our entire community in danger when she gets spotted by so many humans."
“What are you planning to do, then?” Lilith asked.
Kikimora rubbed at her temples and gave the witch a flat stare.
“I’ve just been in communication with your fellow members of the Council - they’ve taken my recommendation and decided unanimously that Edalyn Clawthorne must be brought in, both for her protection as well as for the safety of the community,” Kikimora said. “If she’s lost control of her curse it would be better to keep her contained somewhere here in New Bonesborough, instead of leaving her to roam free out there among the humans.”
"You went behind my back on this Kiki?" Lilith asked, with genuine hurt in her voice.
"I'm only doing what is necessary to keep us all safe," Kikimora said. "And I didn't go behind your back - you haven't been one of us since you left to go polish a chair on the Council."
"Let me be the one to bring her in then," Lilith said quickly. "She'll listen to me... probably."
Kikmora shook her head.
"Only a Guardian is authorized to bring in a lawbreaker," Kikimora said, "And I have the perfect one in mind for that assignment."
Amity felt a sinking feeling in her gut.
Lilith looked back and forth between Kikimora and Amity and then turned a baleful stare on the demon.
"You can't be serious - she's still practically a child," she said.
Well, so much for us all being adults here, Amity thought.
Kikimora gave Amity a look that was utterly devoid of pity.
“Well, normally we wouldn’t send our newest, greenest recruit to go apprehend a cursed fugitive all by herself, no,” Kikimora said with heavy sarcasm, “But in case you haven’t noticed all of our more senior Guardians are currently busy wrangling the crowd of humans that spotted your sister during her rampage so that we can begin extracting and destroying their memories of her. Perhaps if a certain member of the Council hadn’t slashed our budget to the bone recently we might have had more resources to deal with this situation.”
Lilith grunted an acknowledgement of the argument.
"Plus," Kikimora added, "You were the one who trained her yourself, weren't you? Don't you have more faith in your student’s skills?"
Lilith gave Kikimora a humorless smile.
"I have every confidence that Guardian Blight will be able to perform her duties perfectly," she said in a carefully diplomatic voice.
Amity bit back on her annoyance. Being the newest and youngest Guardian was already bad enough without also being used as a game piece in some sort of power play between the two rivals.
Still, she had a job to do and she was going to do it as best she could.
Amity nodded.
“Understood, ma’am,” she said, “When do I leave?”
“Soon,” Kikimora answered. “We’ll need to get you some clothes to wear in the human city and cast a few illusions to help you blend in with the round-ears. We have the address of the business that Edalyn owns in Cypress - some sort of used item shop. Do you know how to navigate human cities?”
Amity nodded hesitantly.
“Yes, I’ve taken a few trips outside of town when I was younger,” she answered in a quiet voice.
"Authorized trips?" the commander asked with a raised eyebrow.
Amity blushed, and then cursed herself internally for doing so.
You’re 23 years old Amity - no one can send you to detention anymore for stuff you did as a kid , she reminded herself.
"Not always, no," she admitted.
Kikimora gave her a small smile.
“Relax, Blight. You're not the first young witch to get curious and slip past the barrier,” she assured her. “At least you’d have an easier time blending in among them than I would have.”
Amity returned the smile with a very small upturn of her lips. Her parents’ own reaction when they had found out about her youthful adventures had been a great deal less understanding.
She felt a sharp lance of guilt pierce through her heart at the memory, but shoved it back down deep with practiced ease.
“Should I start preparing my disguise for the assignment then, ma’am?” Amity asked.
Kikimora nodded.
“Yes, I think you know the way to the illusions and undercover operations department, correct?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am,” Amity said.
“Then go - the sooner we get this whole situation under control, the sooner we can all breathe easily again,” Kikimora said. “We’re just lucky that the news hasn’t reached the rest of the town yet. The last thing I need is a crowd of hysterical witches and demons outside my door demanding to know how we are going to protect them when the human mobs come howling for our blood.”
Amity turned to leave but before she could open the door, the commander made a noise in her throat.
Amity paused and turned back to see Kikimora giving her a frank look.
“Guardian Blight… Amity. I know this assignment might feel like we’re throwing you to the werewolves, but I wouldn’t task you with this unless I was sure that you were the right witch for the job,” Kikimora said.
Amity felt a small spark of pride in her chest at the rare praise from her commander.
“Thank you, ma’am,” she said.
"Try not to let my sister get under your skin," Lilith added. "She's very good at it. Angry witches don't make good decisions."
Amity gave Lilith a polite half-bow again.
"I'll keep that in mind, counselor," she said, and then shut the door firmly behind her.
When she reached the undercover operations department, the harassed looking witch in charge gave her a quick once-over and then began pulling out various items from the trunks of human clothing they had available.
"We've got a lot of Guardians out right now on assignment, so there isn't much available," he said apologetically as he handed Amity a stack of human-style garments.
She looked over the clothing he'd given her with a sinking feeling in her chest.
"Are you sure this is all you've got?" she asked.
The witch shrugged his shoulders.
"Sorry, but everything else I've got in here is way too big or too small for you," he said.
"I don't know when you were last around humans, but I'm telling you that I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb in this stuff," Amity said.
The witch waved a dismissive claw at that.
"Don't worry about it - humans are clueless," he assured her. "Plus, there's a standard procedure that always works if you start getting too many weird looks."
Amity sighed as she shoved the bundle of clothes under her arm.
"And what would that be?" she asked.
"Just say that you're from some place called 'Florida'," the witch said, "Apparently people from that kingdom have a reputation for being weird, even by human standards."
We really need to get better training for witch-human relations around here soon , Amity thought.
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she said, with only the slightest roll of her eyes.
The illusionist department, thankfully, was able to do their work quickly and efficiently without any issues, and it wasn’t long before Amity was staring at her altered face in the mirror. She reached up to touch the pointed tips of her ears hidden behind the illusion spell to reassure herself that they were still there.
The demon in charge of casting the illusions on Amity gave her a sharp slap on the wrist with one of their flipper-like hands.
"Don't mess with the spell too much," they said, "You don't want the magic to suddenly give out on you when you're in a crowd of humans just because you couldn't stop poking at it."
Amity dutifully lowered her hands, but still found the sight of her changed face deeply unsettling. It was strange how something as simple as the rounding of her ears, blunting of her fangs and shifting of her eyes from their normal golden-amber shade to a more common brown was enough to make her seem like a totally different person.
"Aren't you going to do anything about my hair?" she asked as she gestured at the wild mane of mint-green hair that flowed down her back.
The illusionist demon shook their scaly head.
"Nah, that should pass just fine," they said as they indicated the chestnut brown roots of Amity's hair, "Witches aren't the only ones who dye it, you know? If anything, it’ll help you fit in more."
It was already early afternoon by the time that all the preparations had been completed and Amity was finally ready to leave for the city.
Now fully dressed in her ridiculous human garb and still barely resisting the urge to poke at her cosmetic illusions, she had just made her way out of the building when she had spotted Lilith at the foot of the steps leaning against one of the griffon statues in the worst fake-casual pose that Amity had ever seen.
Amity considered trying to quietly get on her staff and fly past her old mentor unnoticed, but dropped the idea. With her luck, that would be the moment her staff's faulty enchantment chose to give out and dump her right at Lilith's feet.
"Counselor Clawthorne," Amity said in a polite tone as she met her at the foot of the steps.
"Amity," Lilith said.
Her eyebrows shot up at the sight of Amity's human disguise, and one hand went up to hide the smile forming on her lips.
“Is that what humans are wearing these days?” she asked.
"I sincerely hope not. They were just low on clothes in my size," Amity said defensively.
Lilith shook her head.
"Believe me, it wasn't much better when I was a Guardian myself," she said. "The old head of undercover operations had gotten all of her ideas about what humans dressed like from some of their entertainment media that we'd found. I kept getting stopped by people asking if there was a science fiction convention in town when I was on my first undercover assignment in the city."
Amity giggled at the mental image of her stern, dignified mentor having to put up with that.
"That must have been an ordeal," she said.
"Well, I survived - though I gave that witch who thought that a Star Trek uniform was a good way to blend in unnoticed with a crowd of humans a very sharp piece of my mind after I got back," she said.
"I don't imagine you waited around for hours just to tell me a few of your old work stories though," Amity said.
Lilith nodded.
"You were always ready to get straight to the point," she said. "It's an excellent quality in a Guardian."
"And skilled flattery is an excellent quality in a counselor seeking another term," Amity pointed out.
"Cynical too," Lilith said in a dry voice, "It's like you were born for the job."
"What's the real reason you're here?" Amity asked.
Lilith glanced around slowly to make sure that no one was close enough to overhear them before she leaned in closer.
"The truth is that I was the one who wanted you for this assignment," she said quietly. "But I had to make Kiki think it was her idea. If it had been up to her she would have left it to Inquisitor Wrath and his goon squad to bring in Edalyn - or worse, the Demon Hunters.”
“Why did you want it to be me?” Amity asked.
“Because nothing about this situation feels right,” Lilith insisted. “Kikimora thinks that I’m too close to this, and maybe I am, but I know my sister. Edalyn can be wild and reckless, but she’s never hurt anyone while she was transformed before.”
“It could just be that she’s losing control of the curse,” Amity pointed out.
Lilith winced at that, but then nodded to concede the point.
“It could be,” she agreed. “I haven’t completely discounted the possibility that the curse has gotten the better of her. But I don’t want to condemn her on the word of a few human witnesses that wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an actual demon and a prankster in a silly mask if their lives depended on it.”
Amity looked at the anxious expression on the older witch’s face and couldn’t hold back the question that had been on her mind all morning.
“I would have thought that you’d be happy about this situation,” she said. “You’re always saying that witches shouldn’t be mixing with humans at all, and I’m supposed to be bringing your sister back to the community. Isn't that what you wanted anyway?”
Lilith shook her head sadly.
“I would love it if Edalyn did decide to come home,” she said. “But I want that to be her choice. I don’t want her to be dragged back here in chains like an animal. She’d never forgive me.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Amity agreed.
“I also knew that if you were assigned to this task, you would at least try to find out the truth and not just jump to conclusions,” Lilith continued. “If Eda really is guilty, then she’s guilty and should be brought in immediately - but I want you to look for evidence to prove it, or to prove that she’s innocent if she didn’t do it so that the Council and the other Guardians will leave her be.”
“Is that all?” Amity asked.
“Yes,” Lilith said.
“Then you wasted your time waiting here counselor,” Amity said, “Because I was already going to do that anyway.”
Lilith smiled.
“Thank you, Amity,” she said.
Luz wrinkled her nose as she stirred the simmering beaker of turquoise colored slime that bubbled over the Bunsen burner.
“This stuff has to be, without a doubt, the nastiest thing that I’ve ever smelled in my entire life,” she said.
“You’re still just a kid,” Eda remarked, “Trust me when I tell you that there are way nastier smells out there just waiting for you to discover them as you master the fine art of brewing potions.”
“Gosh, there’s just so much to look forward to,” Luz snarked.
“Well, that’s the glamorous life of an apprentice witch - you humans think magic is all sparkles and sunshine, but mostly it’s just kinda gross,” Eda said. “At least, the fun sort of magic is, anyway.”
“What’s this potion that we’re brewing up supposed to do again?” Luz asked as she grabbed the vial of faintly humming green powder that Eda handed her and then tipped it into the beaker.
There was a flash of brilliant silvery light from the beaker, followed by a plume of hissing ochre smoke that took the form of a shrieking reptilian face before it quickly dissipated away.
The utterly vile smell that had burned its way into Luz's sinuses was gone now, replaced by a slightly spicy scent which had a hint of lavender to it.
Eda leaned in closer and inspected the contents of the beaker, which had now turned a luminous red color. She then dipped a fingertip into the goop to taste it and hummed appreciatively.
“Dragon-venom brew has a number of fascinating properties depending on how it is used: it can create undefeatable weapons, briefly give life to inanimate objects and even allow someone to speak the secret language of the dead,” Eda said.
"Oh wow," Luz breathed as she stared at the shimmering crimson potion with a newfound appreciation.
“But mostly I just needed it as a hangover cure right now," Eda said in an offhand way. "Mama went a little too hard on the appleblood last night and my head is killing me.”
There was a whining whimper of agreement from underneath the table where Luz had been working on the potion.
“King did too now that I think about it,” Eda added, “Could you pour a little into his dish for me?”
Luz grabbed the ceramic dog dish off the floor and dumped a generous dollop of the viscous red potion into it before she set it back down at her feet.
The small demon curled up under the table sniffed at the air, lifted the floral-print eyemask off of his bony head and then flopped face first into the bowl with a groan. Luz grit her teeth at the unpleasant ringing sound of the ceramic dish colliding with King’s exposed skull, but the demon didn’t seem to mind at all as he slurped up the potion.
“Oh that’s so much better,” the demon sighed in his high-pitched voice, once he’d guzzled the last drop of potion down. “Now I only want to slaughter most of the beings on this wretched world, instead of all of them.”
“Will I be one of the ones spared from your terrible wrath?” Luz asked in a teasing tone.
King waved a claw at her magnanimously.
“Of course,” he said, “I’m going to need someone around that knows how to give good tummy rubs. It’s a surprisingly difficult skill to master.”
Eda set the now-empty beaker of dragon-venom potion down on the table with a clink and wiped off her lips with the back of her hand.
“Well, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” she said, “We can start with the real work for today.”
“What’s that?” Luz asked.
“I’ve got a big order for vanishing cream that we need to mix up by tonight for a very important client,” Eda said.
“What makes them so important?”
“They paid upfront in cash,” King explained.
“Is there any possible use for a cream that turns you invisible that isn’t incredibly shady?” Luz asked.
“Hey, I just sell them the potions - it’s up to the clients to decide what they want to do with them,” Eda said with a shrug.
Luz gave Eda a flat stare and planted her hands on her hips disapprovingly.
"Oh don't give me that look," Eda said, "You know I wouldn't be selling this stuff to someone that was going to use it for anything creepy. I think they just want to try and rob a bank or something."
"Oh, well as long as I'm only an accessory to robbery that's just fine then," Luz said dryly.
"That's the spirit," Eda said, pointedly ignoring the obvious sarcasm in the younger woman's tone.
Luz flipped through the battered and stained notebook that contained the sum total of all her knowledge of magical potions, which she'd worked hard to gain over the past few months, until she found the entry for Eda's special invisibility ointment. She ran down the recipe list with her finger, and then realized that they were low on some of the key ingredients.
"Do you know if we have any mandrake roots left?" Luz called out to Eda.
"Nope," King answered.
Luz turned and saw that the fuzzy demon had returned to his favorite perch on a cushion near the window, resting in the light of a sunbeam.
"How would you know that? You don't mix any potions," Luz said.
"I ate the last one yesterday," he informed her.
"King!" Eda shouted, "Those things are expensive - and they don't even taste good anyway. Why did you do that?"
"I like the way they scream when you bite them," he answered in a defensive tone. "Anyway, you should be glad I got rid of that last one for you - I think it was going stale. Barely managed a whimper when I bit its legs off."
The older witch blew out an exasperated sigh and raked her long fingers through her iron grey hair.
"Alright, it's not ideal but we can work around this," Eda said, "We could probably use potatoes as a substitute."
Luz raised an eyebrow.
"Potatoes?" she asked in a flat voice.
"What? A root is a root," Eda replied.
"And that'll actually work?" Luz asked.
"Well, it probably wouldn’t be as effective, no," Eda admitted. "But it might keep them invisible long enough to pull off whatever they were going to use it for... Titan willing."
"Or we could just get more mandrakes," Luz reminded her.
"Those things aren't cheap, you know," Eda griped.
"Yeah, but you don't want to be known as the lady that sells the shoddiest potions in town, right?" Luz pointed out, "We already lost a few of our customers when that one batch of fog brew went bad last month."
"Fine, then," Eda said. "Would you be able to go to the nursery downtown later today and see if they'd be able to sell us some of the plants from their 'private stock'? That witch they have working there usually has the good stuff."
"Sure thing," Luz answered with a smile.
It's been a while since I've had a chance to go see Willow , she thought.
"It’s going to take a while to do the prep-work for this potion, so I guess we can start opening up the shop in the meantime," Eda said.
Luz followed Eda through the thick black curtain which separated the employee-only back room of the building from the storefront.
She wasn't quite sure what Eda was supposed to be selling, since the front area of the shop was a chaotic jumble of odds-and-ends of all kinds. The shelves and racks were crammed with stuff that wasn't organized in any system that Luz had ever been able to figure out: delicate antique silver tea pots in pristine condition sat side by side with broken plastic kids meal toys from fast food restaurants, a collection of computers older than Luz was stacked into a pyramid in one corner while the opposite corner had a rack of actual swords bolted to the wall. The whole interior of the shop was illuminated by a tangle of multicolored Christmas lights that cast odd shadows all around the room.
Even on their busiest days, Luz couldn't remember seeing more than three customers in the store at the same time (and that had been a group of teenagers playing with the swords that Eda had had to chase out before one of them managed to hurt themselves).
To an outside observer, Eda's shop looked like the kind of place that was constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, but Luz knew that the old witch had a steady stream of regular clients that paid handsomely for the potions which they brewed together in the back room. Luz privately suspected that the shop served more as a convenient front to account for Eda’s income and a place where she could store all of the unusual human junk that she found so fascinating.
Luz unlocked the front door and flipped the small sign hanging in front of the window from "Sorry, we're closed" to "Sorry, we're open", then went to take her place behind the counter to wait out the first shift while Eda went back to work in the lab.
To pass the time Luz practiced tracing out the glyphs she knew from memory in a cheap spiral notebook she kept stashed under the counter, although she always left a small section of each circle that bordered the glyph uncompleted so that she wouldn't end up triggering any spells with an accidental brush of a finger in the wrong place.
She'd learned to do that the hard way when she'd nearly destroyed an entire display case full of Eda's prized collection of novelty sunglasses with an ill-placed ice glyph.
Luz compared the results of her glyph practice against the pictures saved on her phone of Eda tracing out spell-circles in the air, and swore under her breath when she noticed that she'd been leaving out an important part of the fire-spell glyph.
She tore a fresh piece of paper out from her notebook and started to draw row after row of the corrected fire-glyphs, doing her best to commit the correct shape of its design to muscle memory like she had with the handful of other glyphs that she knew by heart. She was extra careful to leave the circles uncompleted in each of those new practice glyphs.
It had taken forever to convince Eda that she was ready to play with fire magic, and Luz didn't intend to betray that trust by burning down her shop.
Luz had just started on a fourth page of practice glyphs when a tinkling sound broke her concentration, and she looked up in surprise.
Luz received three distinct moments of shock in rapid succession.
The first was the fact that the tinkling sound she’d heard had been from the bell hanging over the shop door, meaning that somehow against all odds they actually had a customer today.
The second was the fact that the customer in question was a young woman around Luz's age who looked absolutely stunning . Luz felt the breath catch in her throat when the stranger had turned toward her and she had taken in the sight of her delicate features: a small upturned nose, sharp cheekbones and large brown eyes accentuated by sharply drawn eyeliner. That gorgeous heart-shaped face was framed by a mane of wavy hair the same color as mint-flavored mouthwash, which was tied up in a half-tail.
Luz was no stranger to feeling tongue-tied in the presence of a pretty girl, but for some reason the emotions surging through her mind felt like they ran deeper than simple attraction. There was something sharper there, lurking just under the surface - like the flash of a shark's fin poking out from the sea.
Before Luz could examine that emotion too closely though, the thought was blown out of her mind by the third shock which was what the attractive stranger was wearing. Luz's eyes travelled down to take in the whole ensemble: a black leather motorcycle jacket which was festooned with spiked metal studs across the shoulders, a fuzzy pink sweater with a cartoon kitten on the chest which declared that the wearer was "Im-PAWS-ibly Cute!", zebra-print patterned leggings and a pair of scuffed and worn blood-red Crocs on her feet. Even Luz, who had never been accused of being stylish, would have probably hesitated before going outside in an outfit like that.
"Um... welcome to The Owl House!" Luz said.
She felt embarrassingly proud that she'd only stammered slightly.
"Say the thing!" Eda shouted at her from behind the black curtain.
Luz grit her teeth and shot a glare at the blank face of the curtain that led back to the potions lab.
Stupid extra-sharp witch hearing.
"Our deals are unbelievab-owl," Luz muttered.
Eda gave a snorting laugh, and Luz sighed.
She turned back to the young woman with an apologetic smile on her lips.
"Sorry, my boss thinks she's funny for some reason," Luz explained.
The bizarrely-dressed vision of loveliness didn't reply.
Luz realized that she hadn't actually said a word since she'd first entered the shop. Instead she was giving Luz a deer-in-the-headlights stare, one hand halfway poised to her mouth.
"Is something wrong?" Luz asked.
The stranger blinked several times and then shook her head quickly.
"No... I'm sorry, I just thought that you... never mind," she stammered.
"Are you okay?" Luz said.
"Yes, I'm fine! I'm just... from Florida!" the woman declared in a somewhat desperate tone of voice.
Okay, so she's gorgeous but also kind of a weirdo , Luz thought.
Well, hey, at least I know we have something in common now.
"Well... okay then, if you say so. Were you looking for anything in particular today?" Luz asked, "Because if you are I probably can't help you - even I don't know what we've got for sale here. It's fun to browse though."
The woman straightened up and cleared her throat, and the nervous energy in her body was replaced with a look of calm professionalism that looked completely out of place on anyone wearing Crocs.
“Actually, I wanted to ask you if the woman who owns this shop is currently in,” she said.
“You’re looking for Eva?” Luz asked, using the name that appeared on all of Eda's fake IDs.
The woman looked confused.
“No, I'm looking for Eda,” she said, “Edalyn Clawthorne.”
Luz drew in a sharp breath through her nose and gave the stranger a closer inspection.
Well, I guess that might explain why she looks like that , Luz thought.
There’s no way an actual human could look that beautiful without magic - or think that’s how people are supposed to dress for that matter.
“I guess you’ve made a mix-up with the addresses,” Luz said in an apologetic tone, “My boss's name is Evalyn Hawthorne and she’s not in at the moment.”
The woman narrowed her brown eyes and glanced over Luz’s shoulder.
“Then who was it I heard back there that made you say that goofy catch-phrase earlier?” she asked.
“Must’ve been the wind I guess,” Luz said in a bland voice.
She reached up slowly under the counter and ran her hands along the waist-high shelf built into it until her fingers found the familiar grip of a baseball bat. Sweat started to bead on Luz’s forehead as she wondered if a bat would be enough to stop whatever horrible monster was actually hiding under the illusion of the beautiful woman staring suspiciously in her direction.
“Luz? What’s going on out there?” Eda called out from behind the curtain. “Haven’t you chased that customer out yet? It's almost lunch time and I'm starving.”
The aura of steely competence that had shone out from the woman’s face just moments ago completely collapsed and she turned wide eyes back at Luz.
“Your name is Luz?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“That’s what it says on my drivers license, yeah,” Luz said. “I mean… it would say that if I had ever gotten one, that is.”
The black curtain behind Luz’s shoulder was thrown back and Eda strode out to stand beside her. Luz noticed that the older witch had taken the time to cast a quick illusion over herself to hide her more inhuman features.
“What’s going on here - are you harassing my employee?” Eda demanded. “Because I’m the only one allowed to annoy her while she’s on the clock. It’s company policy.”
The definitely-not-human woman glanced back and forth between Luz’s and Eda’s faces. There was clearly some sort of war of emotions going on in her mind, but she managed to get the situation under control, focusing her attention on the older witch.
“Are you Edalyn Clawthorne?” she asked.
Eda stiffened at the sound of her real name being spoken by a stranger.
“I might be,” Eda answered. “Why do you want to know?”
“I have some questions that I need to ask you,” the woman said.
“Are you a cop?” Eda demanded, “You have to tell me if you are!”
“She wouldn’t, actually,” Luz said. “That’s just an urban legend.”
“Well she might not have known that!” Eda snapped at Luz.
“Maybe it would be better if we talked in private - there are some very sensitive topics I need to ask you about,” the young woman said to Eda, and then tilted her head very obviously in Luz’s direction.
Eda crossed her arms.
“Anything you want to say to me you can say in front of Luz,” Eda said. “And I do mean anything .”
At that, Eda’s masking illusion dropped to reveal her pointed ears and golden eyes.
The young woman took a half step back and then turned to shoot Luz a surprised look at her complete lack of reaction to the sight of Eda’s true face.
Eda traced a spell circle in the air and Luz heard the sound of the shop's front door locking, and the heavy blackout curtains closing up over the windows.
“So, who are you and what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Eda asked in a sweet voice.
The shocked look on the young woman's face vanished. Her lips compressed into a thin line, and she traced a quick circle in the air to drop her own mask.
Luz felt the inside of her mouth go dry as she took in the sight of the woman’s amber colored eyes, delicately pointed ears and slightly-long canine teeth.
Well, I guess I was wrong , she thought.
Somehow she’s even better looking without the illusion.
“My name is Amity Blight,” she said, “I’m a Guardian and I’ve been sent to investigate an incident that you were allegedly involved in last night.”
Eda gave Amity a grin that flashed the full length of the gleaming yellow fang poking out from the corner of her lip.
“You and what army, sister?” Eda asked.
Quicker than Luz would have thought possible, the young witch traced a large circle in the air in front of her with both of her index fingers. The violet-colored energy of the circle flashed and the air within it rippled and shifted into a darkness so black that it looked like a hole torn into the fabric of reality. Luz felt her scalp prickle with fear as several pairs of lavender colored hands the size of baseball gloves emerged from the darkness to grasp the glowing edges of the circle, and four bulky creatures pulled themselves out to stand beside Amity.
“Ah,” Eda said, as the circle collapsed into nothing and left her facing off against five opponents instead of one, “That army.”
Luz had never seen anything like the creatures that Amity had just summoned: they were tall and vaguely human shaped, but formed from thick purple slime instead of flesh and bone, with crude skull-like faces and burning pinpricks of green light glowing in their hollow eye sockets.
“I would prefer it if we could have our conversation in a civilized way,” Amity said. “Believe me when I tell you that I didn’t come here looking for a fight today.”
Luz swallowed down the acid taste of fear in her throat and drew the baseball bat out from beneath the counter. She choked up her grip on the bat and gave the young witch her best defiant stare.
“Maybe you could put away your squad of slime zombies and we might be willing to believe you when you say that,” she said.
Amity glanced at the bat, clearly unimpressed.
“Is that supposed to be intimidating?” she asked. “Because it’s not working.”
Luz summoned an image into her mind and then reached up and tapped a fingertip against one of the glyphs drawn in permanent marker on the body of the bat. Emerald green flames blossomed along the length of the club, stopping short of the layer of scaly hide wrapped around the handle of the bat like grip-tape.
Luz gave Amity a fierce grin.
“How about now?” she asked.
The witch stared at Luz in shock.
“How did you do that?” she asked. “Humans can’t do magic!”
“This one can,” Luz said. “Want to see what else I can do?”
“Okay, not that this little showdown hasn’t been fun,” Eda interjected, “But I’ve been wracking my brain here and I can’t think of anything I did last night that you Guardian goons would want to hassle me about.”
Amity shot Eda a suspicious look.
“Really? Nothing at all comes to mind?” she said.
“Not unless it’s suddenly a violation of the witches code to drink way too much appleblood and watch true crime documentaries until you pass out, no,” Eda said.
Amity’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Were you with anyone at the time who could verify that was all you did yesterday evening?” she asked.
Eda nodded.
“Yeah, I had my roommate with me,” she said.
At that moment King scurried out from behind the curtains and dragged himself up onto the counter in a flurry of grunts and ‘weh’s.
“I sensed impending violence and came as fast as I could!” the demon exclaimed. “Did I miss any of the carnage?”
“King, what was I doing last night?” Eda asked.
“Getting wasted and watching some TV show about serial killers,” the demon said promptly. “Humans may be pretty useless at most things, but they sure can come up with some entertaining ways to murder each other.”
Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to call on King as a character witness , Luz thought with a sinking feeling.
Amity frowned and then nodded slightly to herself. She traced a quick circle with her finger in the air and three of the hulking slime-beasts vanished into nothingness, though the one that still remained at her side looked like it was the largest of the group.
In the spirit of cooperation, Luz released the flame-spell from the bat. The wooden club steamed gently in the air, but the strengthening runes that Eda had helped Luz carve into it had done their job and protected it from being damaged by the magical fire.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be enough to satisfy my commander,” Amity said. “Especially since testimony from familiars about their masters isn’t considered reliable evidence.”
Eda gave a snorting laugh at that and King stomped a clawed foot on the counter.
“I AM NOT HER FAMILIAR!” the demon squealed in rage.
“What crime was Eda supposed to have committed last night, anyway?” Luz asked.
The witch turned to Luz with a start, as if she had forgotten that she was there.
“Um... how much do you know about her… condition?” she asked delicately.
“You mean the fact that Eda’s cursed and sometimes turns into that Owl Lady monster that they sell t-shirts of in the souvenir shops downtown?” Luz asked.
Amity’s head swiveled back and forth between Luz and Eda, her mouth opening and closing like a surprised fish.
“By the Titan, how many of our secrets did you tell this human?” she asked.
Eda shrugged.
“Not as many as you’d think, but Luz is a sharp one,” Eda said with an affectionate grin. “She figures this stuff out pretty quickly on her own.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to if you spent more time actually teaching me stuff,” Luz muttered under her breath.
“Anyway, why is there all this talk about my curse?” Eda asked, pointedly ignoring that comment. “I’ve been dosing myself with elixir regularly and haven’t transformed in months. Plus, I sleep in a barricaded basement room nowadays so that even if I do transform, I wouldn't be able to get out and cause any trouble.”
Luz gripped her forearms tightly as she felt a crawling sensation in the scars tracing across them. She was grateful for the comforting feeling of the long sleeved shirt that hid her damaged flesh from sight.
It always prickled strangely whenever she remembered that night.
Luz snapped herself back to the present when she realized that Amity was talking.
“We’ve got a whole group of humans back at the Guardian Hall that all claim to have seen ‘The Owl Lady’ in the forest right outside…,” she turned and gave Luz a speculative look before continuing, “Right outside of New Bonesborough.”
“What? I don’t live anywhere near that dump!” Eda objected.
If Amity was offended at having her home called a dump by someone who ran a shop that peddled actual garbage, Luz wasn’t able to detect it on her face as the witch pressed on.
“There’s also a number of reports from humans here in Cypress, where you do live, that all claim to have seen a huge flying beast last night,” Amity added.
“Is that all you’ve got? That’s slim evidence to try and convict someone of such a serious charge,” Eda said.
“It was all the evidence the Council needed,” Amity said in a grim voice, “Because my commander reached out to them and got their permission to have you brought back to the Guardian Hall immediately. They feel that if you’ve lost control of your curse then it’s no longer safe to let you live out here among the humans.”
“That’s bullshit!” Luz objected.
Amity turned her amber stare in Luz’s direction, and her eyes softened.
“I agree, actually,” she said.
“You do?” Eda asked, with genuine surprise in her voice.
“I didn’t come here to drag you back with me - I came to get your side of the story,” Amity said, “And to try and find evidence to see what really happened. If you did actually transform and cause trouble like they said then you’ll be coming with me, but if you’re innocent I’d like to present the evidence to my commander to clear up the misunderstanding.”
“Well, how about that - a Guardian who actually uses her brain and doesn’t just follow orders like a golem,” Eda said with a cocked eyebrow. “Let me guess, you’re still new, right?”
Luz noticed the slight flush of anger that crept across Amity’s face at that remark.
“I can’t let you roam around free while I’m investigating the reports on the sightings here, obviously," Amity continued. "If you were actually guilty you might try and escape - so I’ll be leaving Gildersnake here to watch over you. It’s linked up to my mind, so don’t try and evade or destroy it because I’ll know right away.”
Luz shot a surprised look in Amity’s direction.
“Did you just say that your gross purple sludge-zombie is named Gildersnake?” she asked.
A fresh coating of pink bloomed across Amity’s cheeks, and Luz felt her heart skip a beat at the sight.
God, she’s cute , Luz thought.
And apparently she also knows enough about the Good Witch Azura series to have named one of her gross goopy henchmen after a fairly obscure villain from a spinoff novel…
How does that somehow make her seem even cuter?
No! Bad Luz! She’s trying to arrest your mentor - you can’t have the hots for her!
“Yeah… I named all of my Abominations after characters from books. It makes it easier to keep track of them,” Amity said.
“Dweebus alert,” Eda muttered under her breath.
Luz turned to Amity with a determined look on her face.
“I’m going with you,” Luz said.
Both Eda and Amity shot Luz simultaneous looks of surprise.
“Out of the question,” Amity said. “This is official Guardian business. I mean, technically a human like you isn’t even supposed to know anything about this stuff, much less be allowed to interfere with an investigation.”
“Are you going to report me to your boss, then?” Luz asked.
She tried to sound defiant, but her gut was churning at the prospect. Eda had very few good things to say about the way that most witches tended to treat humans who found out about their existence - especially the Guardians.
Amity looked stricken by the question and she shook her head.
“No,” she said, “No, I’m not going to do that. My only assignment here was to bring in the perpetrator responsible for last night's sightings - they didn't say anything about dealing with some crazy magic-using human. Your secret is safe with me.”
Luz felt a dozen questions wanting to fly from her lips about the witch’s strange attitude toward her, but she stuffed them back down and changed tactics.
“Look, we both want to find out the truth here,” Luz said, “And if you’re going to be travelling all around the city talking to humans, maybe it would help to have an actual human with you that would know the right questions to ask people. Stuff that might not have occurred to someone who isn’t as familiar with us.”
Amity crossed her arms.
“What makes you think I’m not familiar at dealing with humans?” she demanded.
“You’ve seen the way you’re dressed, right?” Luz asked. “I don’t think people are going to be taking you super seriously if you try to pull a good-cop/bad-cop routine in that getup.”
“I’m not any kind of cop, I’m a Guardian - there’s a difference,” Amity snipped. “And we were low on human clothes back at the Hall!”
“How about you let me come with you in exchange for borrowing some of my human clothes, then?” Luz asked, “I promise you’ll look a lot less ridiculous.”
“Eh, that’s debatable,” Eda chimed in from the side.
Amity frowned to herself, tapping the toe of her scuffed red Croc against the floor indecisively for a few seconds before she finally nodded in agreement.
“Fine,” she said, “You can come along then - both for your human expertise and a change of clothes.”
Luz shot the witch a smile.
“You won’t regret this!” she promised.
“Titan, I hope not,” Amity sighed.