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It had been three days and Raine still hadn't woken up.
Three days and they hadn’t so much as moved or let out a whimper in their magically induced sleep.
Eda knew she owed the others a better explanation than a simple shrug about what was happening. She had a random witch none of them knew curled up in her nest cocooned in basically every soft/fluffy thing she’d been able to find in the house minus whatever was in Luz’s room.
But how was she going to explain them… and her history with them to the others.
Eda sighed and pulled her thoughts back together. She gently moved the hair out of Raine’s face for the third time in the last hour, their mint green hair refusing to remain put no matter how many times she tried to fix it.
There were still angry red marks scarring their dark skin, barely visible in the darkness surrounding them. But with each dose of the potion she’d whipped up in a flurry of panic when she’d first found them, the marks faded just a little bit more.
At the very least Raine wasn’t as pale or sickly as they had been when Eda had first found them. They’d been in the woods on the outskirts of the house, bloodied and bruised and barely standing as they clawed their way in a daze in the general direction of the Owl House. They’d collapsed into her arms with nothing a weak utterance of her name before going completely limp in her arms, seeming to succumb to their injuries once they registered they were somewhere safe.
It had been three long, excruciating days since.
She’d even called Lilith, who’d at the very least been able to fill in the gaps about their current condition, explaining the magic that would have been used on them and giving Eda some ideas for how to counteract it (and offering to come help, though Eda declined, knowing how important it was for Lilith to spend time with their parents.)
And they were healing!
Slowly.
Which was fine.
She was fine.
The potions she’d made were working and if she was just patient and waited a little longer...
Well everything would be fine!
She just wished they’d at least open their eyes.
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Eda carefully moved over and lifted their head up into her lap, where she began to carefully card her fingers through their hair.
She’d already cleaned them up as best she could, but the gesture was comforting for her at the very least. It made her feel like she was doing something.
“I wish I still had my magic... I might be a little bit more useful to you then,” Eda forced herself to keep her breathing even, even as she felt her throat close up and tears threaten to make an appearance. “It’ll be okay though... Lilly said it’s going to be okay-”
Eda cut herself off as her voice cracked and it took all her strength not to pick the poor witch up and just squeeze them against her and hope that the gesture would be enough to heal whatever harm was done to them that was keeping them from waking up.
“Hey, um- Eda?”
Eda’s head shot up and she met her apprentice’s nervous gaze, the younger girl barely holding eye contact for a couple of seconds before deciding to look at the floor.
Luz had been helping her while she was distracted taking care of Raine. Eda wasn’t a hundred percent sure of everything Luz had been taking care of but she was fairly certain that Luz had washed Hooty for her at some point which was almost as concerning as having said apprentice walk in on her staring lovingly down at her ex-partner who was currently sleeping off weeks of torture at the hands of the Emperor’s Coven.
“Yes, kid?” Eda was proud that her voice didn't crack.
“So, umm...” Luz stepped into the room and let the door click quietly shut behind her. “I don’t want to intrude or anything but um... are you okay?”
Eda nearly tried to pass it off like everything was fine and normal.
Nearly.
Instead, she sighed and patted the spot in the nest next to her.
“Come’re, let me tell you a little story.”
Luz lit up like a Snoggletog tree.
“Oh my God... am I about to get super secret Eda backstory!” Luz not-so-gracefully clambered into the nest next to Eda with a huge grin on her face.
“Oh, har-har,” Eda rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Keep that up and I won’t tell you jack.”
Luz responded with what Eda assumed was a weird Earth gesture that Eda took to mean she wasn’t going to say… anything if the lack of verbal response was anything to go by.
“Well...” Eda realized she wasn't entirely sure where to start, so she started in the most obvious place. “You probably are curious who this is?” Eda gestured down towards Raine.
Luz didn't respond verbally again, only nodded her head enthusiastically.
“Alright, well… this is Raine Whispers. They’re... well to start they’re the Head of the Bard Coven.”
“Wait, did you kidnap the Head of the Bard Coven?” Luz whisper-yelled in response, starting down at Raine with a horrified expression on her face.
“What? No, I didn’t kidnap them!” Eda scratched the back of her head nervously. “We sort of... had a little bit of a revolution against Belos and got caught.”
“Wait, when did that happen? I have so many questions,” Luz was practically buzzing next to her, her eyes wide with excitement.
“It was a month ago, while you and King were training for your big race. I helped them stop a series of raids for Wild Witches in Bonesborough and we... bonded.”
“Wait a minute!” Luz jolted upright. “Are you telling me you met the Head of the Bard Coven and immediately fell into a sizzling hot romance! With tension and yearning and-”
Eda cut her off with a hand over her mouth. She chose to ignore the blush spreading across her own face.
“It wasn’t quite like that kid. You see, back when I was a bit older than you... Raine and I were like… a thing.”
There was a long pause.
“Like... a romantic thing?” Luz squeaked out looking so excited Eda was worried she’d burst a blood vessel.
“Yeah, we were dating. But well... I pushed them away because I was scared of my curse and we broke up... they joined the Bard Coven and I became the Owl Lady.”
“But then you saw each other again and the sparks flew just like the first time you ever laid eyes on each other?” Luz’s excitement was infectious and Eda couldn't help chuckling at the younger girl’s enthusiasm.
“Kinda like that, yeah.”
Luz seemed to sober slightly.
“Wait, but you said you got caught? How did...” she left the question hanging.
“I don’t know how they escaped. I’ve been working on a plan to rescue them from the Emperor but then I just found them wandering around in the woods looking for the house a couple days ago. But I escaped because they sacrificed themself so I could get back home to you and King.”
“That’s... so romantic!” Luz whisper-squeaked like she was worried about waking them up. “And then they escaped and came looking for you!” She gasped dramatically and Eda would have pulled back in alarm at the excitement radiating off the girl if she didn't have Raine’s head in her lap. “What are you going to do when they wake up?”
“I... honestly haven't thought that far ahead, kid. I’ve been too distracted trying to make sure they will wake up.”
“Well... what do you want to do?”
Eda laughed, the sound far more resigned than happy.
“To be honest, Luz, I don’t really know,” Eda absentmindedly started running her fingers through Raine’s hair again. “It feels like it's a couple of decades too late to...”
She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
“You’re still in love with them, aren't you?”
Eda was taken off guard by the sincerity in Luz’s voice. All the teasing replaced with a soft, thoughtful expression as she stared down at Raine.
To hell with it, let's try brutal honesty for once.
“Yeah, I am.”
Luz looked just about as surprised as Eda felt at the admission. Eda pushed forward, trying to get everything out while she still had the momentary burst of confidence.
“After I was cursed everyone treated me like I was some weird monstrous thing that needed to be either put down, locked up, or poked and prodded at until they could figure out what was wrong with me.”
Eda felt the beast stirring beneath her skin but instead of fighting it, she let it come to the surface. The wings slowly sprouted from her back as her voice started to become distorted.
“But Raine was never like that with me... and that honestly scared me more than anything, cause I really couldn't control it back then and I was so scared of hurting them.”
She didn't explain how she’d barely let them in to begin with after what happened with her father. She was already having a hard enough time sharing what she was with Luz.
“So you pushed them away to try to keep them safe?”
“Not just them, I was trying to protect myself too. I couldn't bare the thought of them hating me for something I couldn’t control... so I tried to get them to hate me for something I could.”
“Well...” Luz started cautiously. “It seems like you failed to make them hate you... and now that you and the owl beast have come to your... arrangement there shouldn't be any issues with that moving forward so what’s to stop you from trying now?”
Eda chuckled, her fingers coming to a rest in Raine’s hair as she struggled to put the situation into words a fourteen year old would understand.
“I mean, I still hurt them, Luz. I may have had my reasons but I still did it and I wouldn't want to make a move if they weren't comfortable and wanted me too... it’s better for them to come to me... if they’re even still interested after all this time.”
“I’m no expert but as the person in this room who’s in a relationship...”
“For two weeks,” Eda interjected.
“As the person in a relationship, ” Luz reiterated. “Sometimes it’s best not to assume you know what the other person wants. Sometimes you destroy all the romantic things in the Tunnel of Love because you’re scared they’re too cheesy and will make the other person hate you and then they think you’re just aggressively rejecting them even though you just wanted it to be perfect and really all you needed to do was just like... sit back and enjoy the ride with them instead of getting all caught up in the details?”
Eda blinked in confusion.
“I think I understand what you’re trying to say kid, and I’ll... try.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Luz shrugged as she stood and climbed out of the nest, nearly tripping over her own feet as she did so. “I’d love to stay and chat some more but I’m supposed to be meeting up with Amity to get some more information out of the echo mouse. She said she bought a whole wheel of cheese just for him!”
Eda chuckled.
“Alright, kid. Go see your girlfriend, but no funny business in the house, understand?”
Eda watched on in amusement as Luz’s brain stuttered to a stop, the girl turning bright red and stammering over her sentence which was probably supposed to be telling Eda off in some way but came off more like shut… no… gahhhh before she left the room in a rush, leaving Eda cackling noiselessly behind her.
“Wow, you’ve resorted to bullying teenagers.”
Eda nearly missed it so caught up in her own mirth but she froze as the words registered in her brain.
“Raine?”
She pulled back and found them lying there, their eyes were still closed but a small, soft smile was playing across their face and if Eda squinted she could see the tell-tale signs of a blush starting to form on their cheeks.
“Yeah,” their voice cracked from lack of use but it was unmistakably them.
“Oh, thank the Titan,” Eda leaned out of the nest and after a moment of frantic searching found what she was looking for. “Come’re.”
Eda pulled Raine up, getting them to lean against the side of the nest while she opened up the canteen of water she’d just grabbed and slowly poured some of it into their mouth.
“Thanks, Eda,” Raine coughed weakly. “I was… really worried I wouldn't be able to find you in my condition… I wasn't sure the spell I was using was actually working.”
They still looked terrible, and if anything getting them sitting up so they could drink had made them even paler than when she’d found them. They still hadn’t opened their eyes and their body was drooping like they were ready to collapse back into a sleeping puddle any second.
But at least they were alive.
And here, with her, where she could take care of them.
“Of course I found you, Rainestorm,” she said as she gently tussled their hair, causing the little smile to return to their face. “Do you need anything?”
“Just rest,” they coughed and Eda slowly tipped more of the water into their mouth before placing the canteen next to them and moving to stand.
“Alright, I’ll give you some space th-”
“No,” they muttered, cutting her off. “Please, stay.”
Eda froze, her heart simultaneously flipping and melting in her chest at the request.
“O-of course.”
It took a moment of awkward maneuvering to get Raine settled comfortably, their back leaning against Eda’s chest with her arms wrapped securely around their waist and her wings folded around them like a shield. Raine leaned their head back onto her shoulder and sighed, the last of the tension seeping from their body as they melted into her.
“For the record,” Raine whispered, nodding off. “I still love you too.”
Eda found she couldn’t get any sleep that night.