Chapter Text
1st of June 2018
1st of Rapada 1000
The quiet calmness of the forest around Gravesfield, Connecticut was a stark contrast from New York City, and something that always made her smile with joy.
Luz took in a deep breath, savoring the clean air and the sounds of the forest before taking her sling ring off and making her way towards her Mama's house. It was a short walk, but she always loved it as it helped her adjust from the fast pace of the Sanctum and New York to the slow steadiness of Gravesfield.
She held her bag to her chest, the odd shape of all the books in there comforting as they pressed against her chest. Unfortunately, she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and tripped on a tree root, sending her and her backpack stumbling to the ground. By the time she got up she watched a little owl-like creature hop up to her bag, grab the strap, and begin hopping/flying away!
She sprinted after the little owl-like creature as it dragged her bag behind her, towards one of the many broken down shacks that dotted the edge of Gravesfield. She watched the owl hop through the front door and become bathed in a bright white light before disappearing from her field of view.
She stopped at the stairs leading up to the shack unable to see past whatever was making the light. She thumbed the sling ring around her neck and debated calling her Maestro. Bright lights and weird animals were usually indicative of something magical going on.
On the other hand, getting help would take time and would draw attention to the fact that she had taken some books that she probably shouldn’t have out of the sanctum.
She flexed her wrist, fiery sparks and golden light coming together to form the intricate patterns of her Tao mandalas around her forearms and in front of her fists. “No time like the present,” she muttered to herself.
With a deep breath, she stepped into the light,
And found herself in a massive purple tent filled with odd knick knacks and books. “What the-” she said as she spun in place, trying to take everything in. One part of her brain noted the odd door with a singular reptilian eye on it that was giving off the bright white light, while the rest of it was driven on by her curiosity.
She walked towards the opening in the tent, seeing the silhouette of a tall woman. A red bandana bound a mane of off-white hair over her ears. Next to this woman was a wooden staff with a figurine that looked oddly similar to the little owl creature that had stolen her bag to begin with.
She watched as the woman began shifting through her bag, pulling out her possessions and sorting them into piles. She shoved down her anger and nudged her mandalas from a shield spell to a retrieval spell. They wavered and flickered before settling.
Carefully, she snuck out of the tent and released the spell and everything that she thought of as hers, which in this case was everything in that bag, flying into the bag and back towards her.
The woman turned around and she caught sight of yellow eyes staring at her in surprise. She couldn’t help herself and gave a little wave and a smile to the startled woman before dashing back into the tent and heading towards the weird door.
Unfortunately, she watched as the door closed and folded in on itself, the large reptilian eye bulging from the lid of the door turned briefcase and staring her down.
No matter, she summoned the Winds of Watoomb to lift up some of the fabric and allow her to duck under and avoid the woman who was apparently chasing her. She heard her mutter what sounded like a curse in a language she didn’t know as she got herself unstuck from the tent.
It gave Luz enough time to dart between some more tents and stalls, noting that it did not seem like she was on Earth anymore. The smell of rot and sulfur, like someone had left a bunch of meat and some eggs outside of a fridge, was really the first thing that gave it away. The other tells where in how the ground pushed back against her feet like she was running on a sponge, or how massive trees that looked unlike anything back on Earth were filled with brilliant red leaves.
She saw people with multiple eyes or with horns or wings or tails and that wasn’t even including the beings she saw that looked nothing like a human.
She came to a stop at the edge of a cliff, looking over what seemed to be an entire town nestled in between what looked like giant mountains of white rock.
“Welcome to the Boiling Isles, kid.” The woman from earlier stood next to her, breathing deeply from the run. A part of her noted her accented English, as if she didn’t speak it often. Her Abuela had had a similar accent when she was a child.
“I’m not on Earth anymore, am I?”
The other woman snorted, “Not by a long shot.” She placed a hand on her shoulder and steered her back the way she came. “I’ll get you some water and then we can figure out how to get you back to your realm. Humans don’t belong on the Boiling Isles.”
An hour later Luz sat on a small stool, watching the owl thief from earlier - Owlbert - hop around on the table as the woman - who had introduced herself as Eda - sold a small tv to a four eyed humanoid with red skin.
They began packing up and Luz watched as Eda twirled her finger, a golden light trailing behind her equally golden nails.
The big purple tent seemed to lock itself down and everything out in front of it shrunk down and folded up into a green sack. “Come on kid, we’re gonna head back to my house to drop this off and then I’ll take you back to the Human Realm.”
Eda stopped suddenly and looked at her peculiarly. “You do have somewhere to go right kid?”
Luz nodded. “I’ve got my Mama and my Maestro that I stay with.”
“Good,” Eda said, tying the green sack to the end of her staff. “Now hop on and hold on tight.” Luz did as she said and muffled a scream as Eda took off at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. She buried her head into Eda’s back as the woman talked but she couldn’t hear anything on account of the wind rushing past her ears.
After what felt like an hour of traveling, although it was likely a lot shorter, Eda landed on the ground and Luz tumbled off. She clutched her stomach as she dry heaved, working desperately to keep her meal down from earlier.
“You good, kid? I guess I didn’t realize that you wouldn’t be used to flying on a staff. Sorry about that.”
Luz was about to answer when a horrible grating voice spoke up from near her. “Hoot! Who’s this, Eda? A new friend? Hoot Hoot!” She jumped back on instinct, two small Shields of Seraphim covering her hands as she looked at the giant undulating bird-tube-worm thing.
This time she wasn’t able to keep her lunch down.
“Hooty go on look out, I’ve got to get Luz back to her realm, and I don’t need any distractions.”
That grating voice filled the air again. “Eye-Eye Eda! Hooty reporting for duty.” She watched as the thing's body undulated around the house like a living periscope.
Eda crouched down next to her and put a hand on her shoulders. Luz could feel the other woman’s (honest to god) claws through her shirt. A part of her was in awe with all the peculiarities of this dimension. “Sorry about Hooty, he can be a little disorientating if you’re not used to him.”
Luz nodded as she sat up. “That was some good reflexes though kid, are you a sorcerer?”
“Yea,” Luz said, nodding. She followed Eda towards the giant house. It looked a little misshapen like multiple people had designed it without any sort of cohesion. The chipped gray paint on the house didn’t match the cold stone tower that seemed to grow from behind the place. The blue roof had a few shingles hanging down by some sort of gooey substance that she didn’t want to think about.
Above the front door was a massive stained-glass window shaped like the eye on Eda’s door briefcase thing. She could’ve sworn that it blinked at her as she stared at it. “My maestro has been teaching me since I was little.”
Eda pushed open the heavy wooden door and walked in. “What's this ‘maestro’ thing kid? I only learned English from your realm.”
The inside of the room was even more chaotic than the exterior of the house suggested. Giant red curtains were secured in each corner of the room. Candles lined a shelf near the ceiling, which seemed to be decorated with glowing lines that looked vaguely reminiscent of constellations. Books and scrolls lined the walls and floors, and she could’ve sworn a few of them looked like they were in Sanskrit.
In fact, the titles of the books she didn’t recognize also looked like Sanskrit. Curious.
“Kid, welcome to the Owl House!”
Luz walked throughout the living room, still taking in as much of the place as possible. It had that feeling of sentience that almost all magical buildings had, although that might’ve been because of the bird-worm-tube thing attached to the front door.
A loud sound roused her from her thoughts, and she turned to see a furry little creature that was vaguely dog-like - if a dog walked on two legs and had a shiny white skull with one and a half horns - clutching Eda’s stomach. Her green sack-like bag containing everything from the stand was on the ground behind her.
Eda looked down at the demon with a soft smile. “Hello King, I take it you missed me,” Eda spoke in Isket. Luz just watched the conversation not quite understanding what was being said but she thought the little guy's name was King.
The demon, nodded before sliding down Eda’s body and looking at her. She had to contain a squeal as she got a full look at the little guy.
He was just so freaking adorable!
“Mom, who's this?” He said in English, his yellow and black eyes looking her up and down. She knew the moment he spotted her ears as he jumped back behind Eda’s legs. “A human?! Where did you find one of those? I thought you only collected their trash?”
Eda laughed as she bent down and picked up the little demon. “She's the one who came through my door. We only came here to drop off the stuff from the stand before I take her back.”
She watched Eda look out the window like the setting sun would solve whatever question she was debating with herself. “I’ll have to make dinner and get King off to bed before I can go out into the Human Realm. It might be better to just wait until tomorrow to get you back.”
Eda looked back at her, the older woman's yellow eyes piercing her soul.
“What do you say kid? I can set you up with a room to sleep in for the night if you’ve got a way to contact your family on the other side?” Luz chewed on her lip, thinking about what she could do. She wasn’t confident that she would be able to get enough cell reception in the Demon Realm to contact her Mama, so that was out.
That left astral projection, despite how difficult it was to cross dimensional boundaries as a spirit.
Luz nodded. “I’ll reach out to them later tonight after dinner?”
Eda nodded, “Sounds like a plan. Now come on you two, I’m going to need help with dinner.”
Luz spent much of the time peeling and dicing things that didn't look that dissimilar from foods from Earth. Potatoes with real eyes, leeks with teeth, stuff like that.
Pretty soon the whole kitchen was filled with the aroma of cooking meat and simmering vegetables, reminding her of nights spent in the kitchen with her Mama as they cooked a bunch of food to take to the nearby homeless shelter.
King spent most of the time talking about his day while she sat on a stool near the mother and son and just watched them work in the kitchen. She used the time to mentally review the process for her astral projection later that night. It shouldn’t require much but she should do it wherever she was sleeping, that way she didn’t have to worry about moving afterwards.
Dinner itself was a peaceful affair, despite her having to run off to the bathroom a few times after eating manticore meat. Despite it tasting like ground turkey it did not sit well in her stomach, and she spent the rest of the night eating only the potatoes and vegetables on her plate.
She spent the time after dinner helping King clean up the kitchen while Eda cleaned out one of the spare rooms in the tower for her to use that night. The older woman apologized several times for not having a spare bed, but apparently there was a King approved chair in there that she was kind of curious to check out.
Luz sat on the floor of the little room that Eda had given her. It was small and a little drafty, but it was at the top of the tower attached to Eda’s house and gave her a great view of the surrounding area. Plus, there was a ladder leading up to the top of the tower. She hoped that she would be able to check it out tomorrow morning.
The room was chock-full of random stuff that told Luz that Eda and King mainly used this area for storage rather than anything else. The ‘King Approved Chair’ turned out to be one of those huge nest-like chairs that was pretty much just a beanbag on legs. It was really soft though, so she didn’t mind.
The chair was already filled with some blankets and pillows that Eda had apparently brought up for her, along with a set of pajamas. She quickly changed into the pajamas and realized it was clearly some of Eda’s old clothes, as the skirt pooled on the ground around her feet and the shirt felt more like a dress than anything.
She settled into her bed for the night and closed her eyes. Astral projection was still something she struggled with from time to time, so she wanted to make sure she did everything right.
She focused on herself, the feel of the pajamas on her skin, how the skirt draped across her lap and formed a little depression in the middle. How the shirt was a little scratchy and especially itchy around her neck. She had to resist the sudden urge to scratch there.
She focused on how the pillows and blankets felt beneath her, how she seemed to sink into their embrace almost like they wanted her to go to sleep. She resisted the urge and took another controlled breath.
She channeled energy through her, feeling the warm smoky feeling she always got when she did magic envelop her. Instead of directing it towards her hands like she normally would if she was going to form a mandala, she pushed it along her entire body, guiding the smokey feeling from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the same ceiling directly above her. For a second, she thought she had messed up the process somehow before she noticed that she was hovering in the air instead of sitting on the chair.
She twisted in the air and saw herself below her, enveloped by all the blankets and pillows Eda had put there.
She grinned as she spun around, getting a feel for controlling her direction before she glided out of the room. She wanted to get a look at the Boiling Isles before she attempted to cross the dimensional barrier.
She flew out of the tower; the cold stone passing through her and flew up as high as she dared go. Her concentration nearly slipped when she saw the land below her and she cursed herself for not focusing nearly as much on her Astral studies as she should have.
The Owl House was right smack in the middle of a forest, and in fact Luz couldn’t see anything other than Bonesborough nearby. The city's lights sparkled off of the two bone white mountains it was nestled between.
There was a giant mountain behind the Owl House that towered above everything else. Something about it didn’t feel right to her though. It didn’t look like any mountain that she had seen. It was like two giant pillars of rock that were leaning up against each other like an upside-down V. It made her wonder about the geology of the Boiling Isles.
Despite all the peculiarities she had seen today, this moment right here gave her a sense of home. The mountains weren’t nearly as tall as the ones back on Earth, but it still reminded her of days spent studying at Kamar-Taj under the shadow of the Himalayas.
She shook her head to dispel the thought. Sightseeing time was over and now came the hard part.
She closed her eyes and reached inwards grasping the sense of home, comfort, and family that was ingrained into her. As she did so, memories sprung to mind of the smell of their living room back home, the sound of rain striking the roof of their little house, of Gravesfield and New York, of ice cream shops and her dad’s homemade pizza, of busy days and quiet nights.
There was a great wrenching in her gut, and she felt like she was being threaded through a very small hole before being spat out. She tumbled through the air, spectral arms flailing as she desperately righted herself.
As soon as she was stable, she took a look around her surroundings and smiled at the familiar sights of Gravesfield below her. She quickly spotted her Mama’s house and floated towards it, ignoring the fire in her gut as she got further and further from her body.
She floated through the house and was unsurprised to hear both Mama and Doctor Strange talking to each other. She had technically gone missing after all. What surprised her was a third child-like voice with them.
She eventually found everyone in the living room and couldn’t tear her eyes off the long snake-like creature that was curled up around her Mama on the couch.
She pulled energy into her hands and thrust them forward, breaking the barrier between the Astral Dimension and the dimension her family (and the snake creature) was in.
The snake creature jumped and curled into her Mama’s side at her ghostly visage appearing out of nowhere. Her mom was more composed, but she could still tell that she had startled her. Doctor Strange on the other hand raised an eyebrow at her as if he had been expecting her sooner.
Which was fair, she didn’t have to wait until after dinner.
“Cariño! Where’d you go?! You had me worried sick!” Her Mama rambled off and Luz felt bad. She really should’ve done this before dinner.
Doctor Strange raised a hand to calm her mother and turned back to her. “Miss Noceda, care to explain where you are?”
Luz gestured towards the snake creature curled into her Mama’s side. “Only if you tell me who that is.” She felt a little jealous at seeing someone else cuddling her mother like that if she was honest.
Her maestro wasn’t impressed at her attempted misdirection and merely raised an eyebrow again. She hated it when he did that.
“I’m in some place called the Demon Realm, in a place called the Boiling Isles. As far as I can tell I’m the only human in this dimension and can’t spot anything that matches the definition of ‘demon’ that you taught me. I was walking back through the forest when I tripped and lost my bag. It was stolen by a construct maybe? I’m not too sure about that, actually I’ll have to ask Eda tomorrow. But anyway, I was chasing the thing trying to get my bag back and we ended up going into one of those abandoned shacks on the edge of town where I accidentally went through a portal and ended up in the Demon Realm.
After a little bit of confusion on my part, I met a woman named Eda, it was her portal I had gone through actually. She helped me settle in and she answered a few of my questions before taking me back to her house where I met her adopted son, and she made dinner for me!
Oh, and the magic here is fascinating! I think it's Personal based but I’m not sure about that. Eda compressed an area of space roughly the same space as from the couch to that chair over there into a green sack that she could throw on her back.” Luz pointed from where her Mami and the snake creature were sitting towards one of the chairs next to Doctor Strange. She felt a personal satisfaction when even her teacher looked surprised at that feat.
“She also has a ton of books and scrolls on magic and I kind of want to come back here at some point and read a few of them. I noticed what I thought was Sanskrit on some of the titles which was weird. Oh! And their language, Isket, when written looks remarkably similar to written Sanskrit so that’s something that I also want to look into.”
“Interesting,” Doctor Strange said. “I assume you’re safe for now?”
Luz nodded, “Unless I’ve read her horribly wrong, Eda won’t hurt me.”
Her maestro nodded, seemingly deep in thought. “Okay I, Wong, and your Mother will visit the same location you went through the portal yesterday. Make sure Eda is aware that we are coming and has the portal open for us at 18:00 our time. You have a watch on you right?”
Luz nodded again. Doctor Strange stood up, brushing imaginary lint off of his robes. “Good, make sure to watch the time. Now I am going to contact Wong. I’ll give you some time to catch up with your mother.” With that he left the room and more significantly left her to face her Mama's ire.
“Cariño! You gave me a heart attack when you didn’t come home! You can’t keep running off into whatever problems come up headfirst! This is Hong Kong all over again! You’re going to get yourself hurt! I have half a mind to pull you back to this dimension as soon as I find you and ground you for a year!”
Luz let her Mama’s words wash over her, an uncomfortable feeling twisting in her gut. She pushed that feeling to the side. “¡Pero Mama! ¡No puedes hacer eso!”
“I will do whatever I please in order to keep you safe! I can’t lose you too!” The admission made Luz stop and actually look at her Mama.
From her red rimmed eyes and shaking hands it was clear that she had been crying for some time.
The last time she had seen her Mama like that was in Hong Kong, was in a sterile room. Her throat swelled as she swallowed the words she was going to say.
“Lo siento Mama, I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
Camila walked towards her and rested her hand on Luz’s cheek. Despite being in her astral form, she could feel the spot where her mother touched her fuzz up, as if her soul was trying to pull her body to her so she could actually hug her Mama.
Luz leaned into the touch and closed her eyes, counting her breaths. When she felt a little better, she gestured towards the snake creature that was on the couch. It occurred to her that they had seen that entire argument between her and her Mama, and it made her feel even worse.
“Are you going to introduce me,” Luz asked. The look her Mama sent her made it clear that they were not done talking about this, but she accepted the change in topic.
Her Mama beckoned the creature over and said, “Come here Vee, I want to introduce you to my daughter.” They slithered off the couch until they came up to where Luz was floating through the air. Her form seemed to ripple for a second and Luz floated back in surprise as she suddenly found herself facing… well herself.
It was like her reflection had come to life.
“Shapeshifter,” Luz breathed. It was a very rare talent for a sorcerer to have and held by only a few people in Kamar-Taj. Even then they could only alter their looks, whereas it looked like this Vee had changed her entire form.
“She’s from the Boiling Isles,” her Mama said. “She said she was wandering around the market and found a portal that she went through. I found her not long after trying to look like you, mija, but I caught on pretty quickly when she didn’t know Spanish.” Her mother looked her hard in the eyes and Luz got the feeling that she wasn’t being told the full story.
“It’s not my place to speak about her past but she’ll be staying with me for the foreseeable future. Tu maestro is helping me file the correct paperwork to give her an identity here and likely adopt her.”
Luz processed that for a second. She was going to have a sister! Luz squealed and momentarily forgot herself as she sped forward to try and give her doppelganger a hug.
She instead passed through her body and could feel the shapeshifter shudder as she returned to her snake like form. That must’ve been the form she was born with then.
“I can’t believe I’m going to have a sister! Dios mio I can’t wait until I can actually hug you! I’m going to have so much fun introducing you to the Human Realm you’re going to love it there! Are you coming here tomorrow?”
The other girl? (She really did need to ask) tensed up. Camila placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and the shapeshifter leaned into the support. The uneasy expression on her face gave away that she wasn’t used to someone giving her unconditional support.
“It’s up to you Vee if you want to go.”
She looked at Luz. “Would we be going anywhere near the Emperor’s coven?”
Luz shook her head, filing that piece of information away. A story was starting to build from the little clues she had gathered, and she did not like what it was telling her.
“I’ll make sure we don’t go beyond the yard around the Owl House. We’ll be safe at all times.”
Vee took a shuddering breath. “Then I wouldn’t mind visiting again. Green plants just feel weird to me.”
Luz snorted. “That’s how I feel about all the red plants over here!” Her maestro chose that moment to walk back into the living room. Not for the first time she wondered how he timed everything so perfectly.
“Alright Miss Noceda, a few things. We checked the list of known Near Earth Dimensions and your ‘Demon Realm’ is not there. Until we can figure out why that is so, you are to remain on your guard until Wong and I get there.”
Luz nodded. She flinched as the burning feeling that usually came from being too far apart from her body made itself known again. “I’m going to have to go soon, I’m using up a lot of energy doing this.”
She gave a spectral hug to both her mother and new sister and waved goodbye to her teacher before closing the breach in the Astral dimension and allowing her soul to fall back into her body.
She was out before she even processed the fact that she was back in The Owl House.