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Chapter Text

The Mangleboar Effect

The Mangleboar Effect refers to when a large number of witches and demons share a false memory, originally attributed to the existence of multiple universes.

It has its origin in the common phenomenon that many witches and demons believe the animal depicted on the Beast-Keeping Coven sigil wasn’t always a Mangleboar, when in reality, it has been the same since the Coven’s foundation.

What if you were a girl from the Boiling Isles? What if there was this thing?  What if that thing wasn’t just any insignificant thing? What if this thing were a living person? What if this living thing was someone very special to you because they managed to impact you in such a way that it substantially changed your life for the better? What if the person was a girl so beautiful on the outside as much as on the inside that her mere presence was like a shining light to everyone whom she considered a friend? What if she is so good to you, even after everything you have done, that would make you deserve everything but her? What if you had hopelessly fallen in love with this girl?

What if this girl suddenly disappeared?

What if the entire world seemed to have completely forgotten this girl?

What if no one around you knew what to think of you anymore?

What if your mother tried so hard to “fix” you, while your father just stood by insecurely?

What if, with all that time passed, you could no longer tell if this girl was real, a dream, or a nightmare?

And on top of all that, what if this girl were a human?

What if...

What it would feel like to be this girl from the Boiling Isles, however, is not a story to tell (yet). Before that, we will go back a little to a certain day at the Emperor’s Castle.

Chapter Text

“Here at the Emperor’s Coven, we require members with sophistication, elegance, and grace”, Kikimora proudly explained to the Hexside student. As the group was crossing the hallway to the main entrance, on their way to the next wing of the Emperor’s truly enormous castle, the big gate swung open with a loud bang.

A very disheveled Lilith could be seen standing in the doorway, now allowing some natural light into the building. It created a strong contrast to her black hair and ankle-length black dress, which was part of her usual attire as the leader of the Emperor’s Coven, contributing to her overly dark appearance.

“Ah! Make way for Ms. Lilith Clawthorne, students.”, Kikimora pointed out in a tone that was dripping with mockery.

The appearance of a witch this famous created a little commotion within the crowd of students. It was the perfect opportunity for Luz to silently escape the attention of their guide.

After the quiet expressions of awe and amazement over the Coven Head faded away the Emperor’s assistant continued, “Yes. And if I am not mistaken, she is on her way to see the Emperor himself. Let’s all wish her luck.” just as if she knew that Lilith’s luck was everything but good at the moment.

At the collective ‘Good luck, Ms. Lilith!’ from the students, clearly instigated by that vexing gremlin, her face turned a little red. Partly out of embarrassment, partly out of anger towards the ever-petty Kikimora. However, after Lilith took a second to recollect herself, she retorted, “Thank you, students. Good luck with puberty.” With this, she made her way to Emperor Belos, too distracted to directly realize someone was following her.

“We are soon arriving at the personal training grounds exclusively accessible to the Coven Heads to enhance their strength further so they can be of utmost service to the betterment of the Boiling Isles”, Kikimora elaborated, continuing the tour.

“Hey Gus!” Willow quietly addressed her friend with a worried expression on her face. Gus, who was currently marveling at the prestigious wall and ceiling decorations, only nodded half-listening, “Yeah?”. Willow pulled him a little further behind to catch his full attention. “I think we missed Luz removing herself from the group!”

“Nah she was further ahead just a mome…” Gus couldn’t finish his sentence before he realized the absence of a certain human girl, as well. “Can you quickly create three illusions? It can’t be too far back that Luz managed to escape.” Willow asked, pressed by the crushing sense of dread that was setting in since their best friend was in the act of committing a crime against the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. On top of that, she was the only human here, so who knows what they’ll do to her if she gets caught.

Gus drew a light blue spell circle in the air before placing it around his wrist, as he also grew more worried by the minute. A copy of him and his two best friends each appeared, where the two witches were just standing seconds ago, continuing to follow the group led by Kikimora.

“If we’re lucky, we might even get to see some of the Coven Heads in action at the training grounds!” Kikimora touted to the students. Another turmoil of excitement went through the crowd.

It didn’t take much longer until they arrived at the training grounds. The students were met with a rather underwhelming sight. The courtyard inside the castle’s walls was pretty empty. You could only see a big well-trained man with dark skin, emerald eyes, and an outfit so clean and stylish you wouldn’t believe he was an Abomination witch, if he wasn’t using that magic to hold off a feral looking little ball of reddish brown fur with sharp teeth and claws, that was trying to stain his clothing with it’s very dirty hands and feet. The only other witch in the area was a slim witch with a vainly swinging tail, bright blue eyes, and clothing you would only expect in a combination with short dark hair that was this vigorously curled back.

The latter seemed to be even more interested in his own appearance than the Abomination witch, as he was staring self-absorbed into a handheld mirror.

“Seems like today is your lucky day, students. Here you can see head-witch of the Illusionist Coven Adrian Graye and the Abomination and Beast Keeping Coven Heads Darius Daemonne and Eberwolf.”, Kikimora pointed out, her somewhat cheery tone noticeably falling off at the mention of the last two witches.

Despite this rather mediocre view, the students still watched the occurrence in front of them with wondrous sparkles in their eyes. The secluded Illusion witch looked up from his mirror, as if he had sensed a presence that could give him attention, only to quickly lose his good mood when he realized the bewildered crowd wasn’t interested in him but much more in Darius’ and Eberwolf’s quarrels. It further dropped at the realization that the crowd was another group of students, who wouldn’t even be able to properly appreciate his magnificence.

With his mood ruined by a bunch of children, Adrian decided he should go somewhere else, where his elegance was actually appreciated. “Kiki! I see. You’re showing some more unacquainted witches the things you’ll never achieve. You are truly a delight to have ar…” Adrian picked at Kikimora before stopping in his tracks.

He sensed something more than just kids with the inability to recognize true grace if it stood right before them. His gaze lingered just a little longer on three students in the back before the Emperor’s assistant disrupted his train of thought with her shrilling voice.

“What’s the problem, head-witch Graye. Have you accidentally bitten your tongue?” Kiki replied, happy to not be the end of every joke for once.

“No, I just thought I saw something. Must have been the wind blowing away your relevance.” Adrian remarked calmly, while forming a little circle with his finger behind his back.

With an undetectable shimmer, Adrian returned to a neutral facial expression. Behind the veil of an illusion he had just cast, the Coven Head looked with an expression of disgust towards the children as they were finishing their tour through this awfully bland castle. While they were passing him, almost to his surprise, a particular dark-skinned little boy stuck out his tongue in the last moment to properly answer his repulsed look at the children.

“Very interesting.” Adrian thought to himself, feeling satisfied with his intuition for Illusion magic, once again not failing him. Annoyed that his time to work on his latest masterpiece of a screenplay had to wait a little longer, he figured, “I guess I have to take a little detour.”

Chapter Text

Luz was glad that Lilith showed up because it gave her a good opportunity to slip away. Even though she had a mission right now, her train of thought could not come to a halt with how roughened Lilith looked just now. Luz’s head brimming with a constant chaos of thoughts, and her natural curiosity prompted the human to follow her mentor’s sister.

The leader of the Emperor’s Coven made her way through twisted staircases and long corridors, making it hard for Luz to grasp whether she was actually ascending or descending inside the fortress. A short glimpse through a window from time to time made the human realize how big this castle truly was.

Slowly but surely, it became apparent to Luz that she was following the black haired witch towards the top of the castle’s tower. The higher she went, the more pipes seemed to be installed connecting with other arrays of tubes, which appeared from the ground. Always combining to ever larger strains of pipework.

“Normal visitors probably don’t get to see this part of the castle.”, Luz wondered over the much less refined appearance of these corridors, not realizing she had caught up to Lilith a good bit. Passing a corner where Lilith was standing in front of a large door. Luz had to quickly get back into hiding to not blow her cover.

Lilith stepped in front of the entrance to the Emperor’s throne room when she heard a noise behind her. On her guard, she looked to check for any bad surprises, to find nothing.

“Maybe that nightmarish bird-tube from Eda’s door affected me more than I thought.”, the pale witch considered facing her exhaustion.

Lilith brushed the last tokens of defeat from earlier today out of her hair and braced herself for the incoming commerce with Emperor Belos, which would be all but pleasant for her.

After Luz had closely avoided her exposure, she waited a second to make sure another look would be safe. There, Lilith stood, probably preparing to enter the room before her. Luz knew that a gate this huge could only mean a boss fight on the other side. However, since she wasn’t in a video game right now, the thing that would come closest to that would probably be the throne room of the Emperor.

The human’s assumption was proven right mere seconds later when Lilith inhaled like you would do before entering the main villain’s lair, and the door swung open on its own, revealing a frightening but intriguing sight to Luz.

Behind the door was a large hall filled with Coven Scouts and a huge throne at the end of the room. Luz couldn’t get a proper view of the person sitting on that throne, but much more eye-catching was the enormous heart mounted over the throne. It was still beating with a deep and resonating sound.

The short time it took the Coven Head of the Emperor’s Coven to enter the room was enough to further pique the human girl’s interest. She closed the distance towards the door to take a peek through the door’s keyhole.

Luz’s eyes fell directly onto the large heart. Luz’s questions about the pipes and tubes were answered in this moment, as she discovered that they were all connected to this heart.

Now with Eda’s sister further inside the room, Luz could get a better view of the rest of the throne hall's interior. The human could count at least six Coven Scouts surrounding the platform the throne was set upon.

There was another masked soldier or guard positioned right at the side of the Emperor. Luz couldn’t quite make out what his deal was, but from his distinctive uniform, he certainly seemed important. The last person in the room besides Lilith was an eminently robed witch who appeared very big.

The Emperor must be really big, as he was already towering over the scouts and Lilith while sitting on his throne, hunched over with his head in his hand.

“I am at your service, Emperor Belos,” Lilith exclaimed subserviently, whilst she knelt down in front of him.

The witch she had pledged her servitude to breathe heavily. Another Scout appeared and delivered a little wooden lizard on a plate to Belos. The little carved critter reminded Luz of Owlbert. She couldn’t help but ask herself, “Was that maybe the Emperor’s Palisman?”

“Just a moment, Lilith.” The tall witch spoke in an unexpectedly light and calm tone. He was sitting upright by now, which only increased his presence in the room.

With a disgusting crack, Belos slid the finger of his metallic gauntlet into the Palisman’s wooden exterior, cutting it open. You could hear the Palisman’s life exit its small body with a ghostly howl. The decapitated reptile’s body was dripping with a green, viscous liquid. Releasing a quiet scream of agony every time a drip fell out of its hull onto the ground, vaporizing with the sound of death.

“Ah. That’s better.”, the Emperor stated with a voice as collected as if he hadn’t just killed a living being and poured its innards into the hollow eye-sockets of his matte golden mask, as the Palisman disintegrated into dust. All that was left was the vicious green glow of Belos’ eyes slowly fading back into the default black void behind his mask.

With a shocked gasp for air and a sick feeling in her stomach, Luz decided to get going to her initial goal.

“How’s the hunt for the Owl Lady? I heard you attempted a raid this morning.” Belos demanded a report, like he didn’t already know the rather clear outcome of said raid.

Lilith tried to explain, “Yes, but we were—”

“—Unsuccessful? That was obvious enough.” Belos quickly cut her off. His patience was running thin. He has been pursuing his goal for such a long time now and still hasn’t found the last piece to this seemingly impossible puzzle.

The strongest wild witch in this god-forsaken land is not backing down, and Belos feels his stability slowly dwindling. It is only a matter of time until a theoretical rebellion is something he can no longer handle.

“It’s been a little over a month since you promised to bring me the Owl Lady. Well, where is she?” the Emperor pointed out while standing up to further underline his point with his towering presence.

Still holding on to the last sliver of hope that resided deep within Lilith that maybe, just maybe, she could reach a point where Eda and she could return to how things used to be. She wouldn’t have to buy time after every empty-handed retreat to the Emperor’s castle.

But Eda was just too stubborn. She has always been like this. Why couldn’t she just see how them two getting back together again would fix everything? And yet here Lilith was, having to wager some more postponement.

“If I just had more time, I—”

“I’m getting bored of your excuses, Lilith.”, Belos told Lilith, who developed a frown on her face, in a tone that was declining in calm temper. He noticed Lilith’s growing concerns.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you the time you need,” he assured her, sitting back down because he felt more in control of the situation again.

The full effect of the Palisman was finally setting in, and Belos felt more energized to continue his speech. In a much calmer but stricter tone, he continued,

“Bring the Owl Lady to me by twilight. She’ll join the Emperor’s Coven, and in return, I’ll heal her little curse.”

The Emperor shortly imagined what would happen if Lilith were incapable of capturing the Owl Lady, and what that meant for his plans. It infuriated him. His grip on the chair tightened to the point of scratching its surface with the sharp tips of his fingers, activating the increased pumping he had constructed into the heart.

“But if you fail…”

“You do know what happens to coven-less witches, don’t you?” Belos asked Lilith, knowing that he indirectly threatened his subordinate with inflicting one of the worst kinds of deaths on her.

His tone was frighteningly calm, which underlined his point towards Lilith even more, as she immediately thought of all the wild witches whose agonizing screams still resounded in the back of her mind. Belos was undoubtedly a witch you would not want to upset.

“I… I understand. I will not fail.” Lilith obeyed, intimidated by the renewed reminder that if she failed to bring in her sister, the curse would be her lesser suffering. Keeping up her facade of control over the situation as long as possible, the head of the Emperor’s Coven made her exit.

On her way out, just like her luck, she encountered a person who would probably make it into the top 5 on a list with the least favored people to meet after a more than sub-optimal report to Emperor Belos.

A well-dressed witch with his narcissistic attitude shamelessly on display walked towards the throne room Lilith had just left. Adrian Graye didn’t even make the effort to ask how it went. He simply grinned with satisfaction that his news would definitely be overshadowed by whatever Lilith just disclosed to the Emperor.

The Head Witch remained in front of the closed gate for a short moment before it opened. Adrian stepped forward to Belos’ throne. “I am at your service, Emperor Belos.”, he compliantly spoke.

“Adrian. I wasn’t expecting a report from you today. So what brings you to me?” the Emperor inquired of the witch kneeling before him.

“I come bearing ‘interesting’ news.”, Adrian replied, emphasizing ‘interesting’ with a devious smile. After Emperor Belos lifted his arm from the armrest to request elaboration with a hand gesture, the Coven Head resumed,

“As I was finishing off my heavy training session today, I ran into another group of students who came here to appreciate the grandeur of your holy citadel. When I walked past them, I sensed that someone had used illusion magic. I reassured my suspicions and could confirm that three little witches must have left the guided tour without permission and covered this up with three rather shoddy illusions.”

Adrian could only see through that kid’s illusions with significant tricks on his side. These illusions were anything but shoddy. Although he would like to give them some deserved recognition, looking good in front of the Emperor had higher priority.

“This means three students were capable of successfully leaving Kikimora’s supervision undetected and are now roaming the castle?” Belos attested.

“I assume that is correct.”, the illusionist replied. Belos appeared to be annoyed by this new revelation and only waved his hand to send Adrian away before contemplating how to proceed.

Content that this audition went better than expected, Adrian departed from the throne room before the Emperor changed his mind on his reception of this information.

Intruders were the last thing the Emperor was tolerant of right now. Especially because the capture of the Owl Lady was such a choke point for the completion of his plans. The Emperor rose from his seated position. Belos made his way out and waved his hand, beckoning the Golden Guard to follow him.

Once in private chambers that are only guarded from the outside, the Emperor turned to the comparatively much smaller masked individual. “Hunter, I need you to inform Kikimora that she should extend her tour to the Oracle Coven’s crypt. Report back immediately after finishing that.”, Belos commanded. “I’ll take a look after our intruders in the meantime.”

“Yes, unc-… I mean, Emperor Belos.” Hunter accepted his order, already knowing that this slip-up would have consequences later because even though Belos punishes him every single time, he never seems to get it inside his head to not treat him like family.

“You see this ring on my wrist?” Gus pointed at a glowing light blue ring that was floating around his wrist. The ring began to open in a clockwise direction. “When this ring runs out, my illusions will vanish. Till then, we have time to find Luz and help her.”

“Why don’t you just create a timer that shows the exact time that is left?” Willow wondered as they tried to avoid a few non-stationary Coven scouts that roamed the corridors.

“Because I created my illusions to respond to external events so they seem more life-like. That, however, consumes more magic. This way I can definitely tell when they are about to disappear.”, the younger witch explained.

“Wow. You always display new skills that explain why you were able to skip classes. Good job, Gus.”, Willow replied, once again acknowledging that her best friend was an exceptional illusionist.

Both children grew more anxious the further they paced through the hall. Gus noticed that the ring on his wrist had almost completely disappeared. “Are you sure that we should help Luz with stealing something out of the Emperor’s castle?” he asked in a worried tone.

“Of course, Luz can’t steal the Healing Hat, but she can borrow it. And considering how bad the situation with Eda sounds, I think it’s validated.”, Willow answered with a determined but cautious smile. Her reasoning made a lot of sense to Gus, so he prepared himself to continue upholding the illusions manually soon.

As the two students made their way towards the artifact display hall, they noticed a tan-skinned student with a rainbow colored Hexside school uniform. The girl's curly, dark brown hair hung out of her hood. Her golden brown eyes anxiously fixated on something outside the window.

Willow moved her extended index finger to her lips to signal Gus to be silent as they were approaching their human friend.

Luz had left her hiding spot behind a curtain to look out the window. From there, she saw the rest of the Hexside students approach an ominous-looking building outside the direct surrounding area of the castle.

Luz had learned in one of her classes that, considering the giant eye insignia next to the building's admission, her friends were probably entering the Oracle Coven’s crypt.

Luz daydreamed, “Oh, how cool it would be to be able to experience that, too.”, before quickly coming to the realization, “Oh no, she wasn’t with them. Her disappearance could attract attention very soon.

Luz dared to take another look, “Please don’t notice I’m gone, please don’t notice I’m... Entering the crypt?” The girl let out a confused sound as she didn’t quite understand what was going on here.

Suddenly, a hand tapped on her shoulder. “Crap! She was caught.” Luz’s head screamed at her with fear, and she let out a startled scream. To her surprise, behind her were no other than her two best friends, but Gus was focused on upholding the illusion, and the expression on Willow’s face showed a mix of disappointment and worry.

Luz had to explain herself right here, right now. Willow was faster and cut her off, knowing what was going on. The plant witch pulled out Luz’s sketchbook with her genius plan on it.

“You were planning on taking the Healing Hat, weren’t you?” Willow asked in a concerned tone. Luz had to admit that her plan to sneakily execute the scheme of healing Eda had failed.

The human was sure her weirdness and impulsive actions had driven away her friends classmates once more. But it was different this time. She had to do it for Eda. Luz at least had to explain the situation to Willow and Gus, even though she fully expected this to be the last straw for their relationship.

So Luz explained herself, and the response was almost what she knew where this was going.

“Luz, no matter what, you can’t steal this hat.—”, ”But you can borrow it.”, Gus chimed in, copying Willow’s saying from earlier. “Hey. I wanted to say that.”, the witch girl replied jokingly before turning to Luz again, “We learned about Eda’s curse from your notes. We’re totally gonna help you.”

Luz was washed over with a sudden burst of comfort as she realized that, lost in her past experiences, she forgot that Willow and Gus had truly become her friends. Her first real friends.

“Thanks, guys.” Swiftly regaining composure, Luz got hyped that her plan for a heist could be accomplished after all. “I know exactly what we gotta do. It’s time for a heist!” the human girl exclaimed while striking a pose you’d expect from a cartoon bank robber.

Chapter Text

Hunter had just left the room when Belos retreated into his personal chambers. He sat down and collected himself. Things were starting to get out of control. He had to concentrate; spreading his presence throughout the castle always took a lot of magic.

To his luck, all of Belos’ inferiors were absent and didn’t demand any orders. The Emperor’s all-encompassing structure of control worked at enforcing his will and carrying out his plan like the well-oiled machine he had constructed it to be. And yet Belos’ power was slowly fading while he still hadn’t closed in on his end-goal.

Without further distractions, he had to take a look at the intruders who entered his domain. The towering figure inserted his staff into a socket in the floor and closed his eyes. In advance of gaining visual presence, their conversing could already be heard. It sounded like they had already made their way to the artifact display hall.

“Now we can cure Eda and get this hat back before anyone knows it’s gone,” a young girl said.

The Emperor was forced to intervene before shutting them in because if some rebellious teenagers were able to invade the epitome of his century-long efforts, his control was dissipating faster than he expected. Belos needed to demonstrate his dominion.

“I will know,” he let his metallic voice resonate within the room.

“We need to go. Now.” The visual presence for Belos was finally established, and he could see that this statement was proposed by what appeared to be a tan-skinned little witch girl with a suspiciously colorful school uniform.

The same girl who wanted to steal the Healing Hat to cure the Owl Lady’s curse. The Emperor could not deny that this connection intrigued him about how these witches managed to get this far. Perhaps the Owl Lady’s threat to his monarchic reign was bigger than he could manage. As the security measures were activated, he decided to continue watching them for a moment.

Surprisingly, the students were only temporarily intimidated. The plant witch quickly jumped to action, trying to bust down the enhanced gates with the Green Thumb Gauntlet. She actually managed to do so, which was another moment of dismay to Belos. Being able to control the power of a Magnum Opus at such a young age foretells great prospects if it weren’t targeted towards his position of might.

Just as the children were about to escape, and the Emperor would have had to intervene personally, he was reassured that all the work he had done for so long wasn’t for nothing. Lilith entered the scene and stopped all three in their tracks. The appearance of his most loyal subject calmed him down, but at the same time reminded him of the fact that Edalyn Clawthorne was still a problem to be dealt with. With the stagnation of his plans caused by one simple missing glyph, it was a problem that would ultimately ruin his chance for revenge and renown. It was only a matter of time.

“Why, if it isn’t Eda’s human pet. How perfect.” Lilith ascertained. Belos, caught in a state of shock he hadn’t felt in decades, needed a moment to process the events he bore witness to undetected by anyone. This changed everything. The Emperor’s mind was racing with considerations and conceptions of what was possibly the best way to handle the situation. But everything didn’t matter because Lilith had unknowingly put it best. 

How perfect. 

This other human was the opportunity of a lifetime, which was exceptionally special considering Belos’s time in this hell. He had just found the acquaintance that would surely complete the task he had set upon himself a long time ago.

The human exclaimed, “Stay away! If you touch us, Eda will come after you so fast —”

“—That’s the plan.” Lilith cut her off.

Belos was starting to form a strategy that would accomplish all the different challenges that had to be met in this current situation. Against the nature of his usually calm and calculated plans, this one would be risky, but if it was to succeed, he had a guarantee for the culmination of his end-goal. The risk would be the means to the optimal end. In the immediate situation, he just had to try.

The fight that was so determining for this plan to work at the moment looked very promising. Lilith had just defeated the two witches accompanying the human and was now approaching the brown-haired girl.

“Now, that doesn’t belong to you,” the raven witch pointed out in a condescending tone. She cast a spell and ripped the Healing hat out of the human girl’s hands, destroying it in the process.

“No! I needed that to heal your sister,” the girl shouted.

A sad concession to Belos. The human wanting to cure someone who was born sick only implies that she was already manipulated by these monsters. Perhaps he could save her. Perhaps he should help her. No one else would. The more the Emperor thought about it, the more he lost his doubts that the salvation of this girl by virtue of him was another burden to overcome towards absolution.

“If you wanna see your friend again, deliver this to Edalyn,” the black-haired Coven Head told the two other students as she captured the human. Her staff flew towards them and picked them up.

Knock

Belos’ concentration broke, and his presence in the display hall was gone. Someone was at his door. Someone bold or incompetent enough to knock even once. It could have been only one person. The one that was the Emperor’s last hope in completing his objective until a few minutes ago. Nonetheless, he could still be of use.

Under normal circumstances, Belos would be livid right now, but his mood was thoroughly improved by recent revelations. He opened the door. Before him stood the Golden Guard.

“Emperor Belos, I have delivered the message to Kikimora, and she’ll perform the procedure,” the boy in similar attire to Belos reported.

“Just in time.” Belos started, “New information has reached me and compelled me to act quickly. I need you to intercept a package Lilith has sent to her sister. Bring it directly to Kikimora in the crypt and give her the order to bestow said package with the same gift as the other visitors from today. She should be informed about the rest by then.”

“Understood,” Hunter replied, a little perplexed. Emperor Belos never acted quickly and was certainly never compelled to act quickly. This was new. Hunter hated when things weren’t going according to established paths. He had to make sure not to attract his uncle’s ire after his latest slip-up.

“I-Is there anything else I can do?” the significantly smaller individual asked carefully.

“Actually, yes. Please consult Lilith to see what her actual message was supposed to sound like because the conveyors she chose are momentarily disabled. Then continue and deliver that message as accurately as possible. I have to prepare something, so I am likely gonna be unavailable for several hours. When you return, please make sure nothing disrupts my work. Thank you.” Belos explained.

Hunter was taken aback again. His uncle rarely even says ‘please’, now he even commends in advance. Something very positive must have happened. The boy had to hurry now to still be able to catch Lilith’s package, whatever Belos meant by that.

Outside, Hunter quickly noticed the pale white raven staff that was flying away in the sky. He assumed it would be fast. What he didn’t expect was what revealed itself when he was closing in to get into dashing range. On that staff, barely holding on, were two little witches. A dark-skinned boy who appeared still quite young, and a girl with Asian facial features and large glasses. The girl didn’t look much younger than him.

“Were these two maybe the troublemakers that Adrian told the Emperor about?” Hunter asked himself. His train of thought continued: “Weren’t there three intruders?” Hunter realized he wasn’t quite there yet. He needed to focus and stop questioning what was going on. Who knows what the information Belos received contained. Maybe it was finally time for his big top secret plan. Maybe Belos would finally tell Hunter about the thing he had been working for as long as the boy remembered.

Right before the staff was about to exit the heavily controlled airspace in the ribcage towards the right arm, Hunter could get close enough to dash in such a way that he could safely get the two targets away from the staff.

Willow and Gus were trying to hold on to Lilith’s staff, which was flying pretty swiftly. They were glad they went with Luz that one day when they tried to get to the Grudgby match against Glandus High. This way, they at least had some experience with sitting on a staff besides training rods.

ZAP!!!

With a blink of an eye, someone had pulled them off the staff and was descending back towards the Emperor’s castle. Both knew it would be equivalent to a death wish to try and start fighting this high in the air.

Closer to the ground, the two captive students exchanged looks that said more than any strategy meeting. They initiated a countdown to start a synchronized attack before getting interrupted by their golden masked captor.

“Don’t even try to start anything. I can and will drop you right here.” Hunter warned them as he slowed his descent to underline his point—or rather to hide his vulnerability better. He could sense that both, but specifically the plant witch, were powerful individuals, and as a magic-less witch, he was severely handicapped while using the artificial staff to fly.

Fortunately for the Golden Guard, his tactics took effect. The two witches ceased their impending assault. After a short time, the trio reached the floor. They had arrived at a building Willow and Gus had only seen from inside the castle so far. They stood in front of the Oracle Coven’s crypt.

Hunter held his staff at their back with a threatening motion. “Go on, enter the building,” he commanded, following close behind, keeping his guard up.

Inside, Kikimora waited at a closed door. She looked to be performing some kind of spell or ritual. Even after Hunter had come close enough for the Emperor’s assistant to definitely notice him, she still pretended not to perceive his presence. It was painfully obvious that Kikimora was trying really hard to ignore the Golden Guard’s proximity up till the point he demonstratively cleared his throat.

“Ah, pardon me Gol-den Guard. I didn’t see you approaching, and who do we have here? Are you the little escapees?” the little demon said with false remorse and annoyed aversion.

“Belos gave the orders to bestow them with the gift.” Hunter specified.

Something about this whole interaction rubbed both Willow and Gus the wrong way. After all, Luz was still held captive by Lilith. They had to help. Gus drew a concealed illusion spell circle. As he was doing so, Willow immediately noticed it and realized Gus was pressing his eyes shut. The dark green-haired girl knew exactly what her friend was going to do, so she followed suit.

A moment later, and with the spell circle complete, a bright flash of light appeared in the middle of these four. It was their moment to escape and save Luz. Unfortunately, their plan quickly and quite literally hit a stone wall.

Hunter had reacted fast enough and sealed the exit by using construction magic to lift the floor. Both fugitives were barely able to decelerate and soften their impact on the solid wall.

Then an upset voice rang out from behind them. A voice they knew and a voice that made clear they were going nowhere else now. They turned around to shrink under Principal Bump’s infuriated gaze.

“What did you think when deciding to wander off on your own inside the Emperor’s castle?! THE EMPEROR’S CASTLE!”

“Worry not, my revered educator. These children were merely ardent for more knowledge about our great Emperor Belos’ tremendous feats of magic.” Kikimora reassured the stressed teacher.

“This young and inexperienced Coven Scout found them and mistook them for intruders with malicious intent. Gladly, he decided to ask me for clarification so I could clear this misunderstanding up,” the petty gremlin continued.

Hunter was fuming underneath his mask, not only because obviously this little cretin couldn’t speak two full sentences without attacking anyone else, and especially him, but also because he just didn’t understand her. The boy never understood how anyone could switch up their social facade so quickly and just lie without a second thought. A thing Kikimora was exceptionally good at, probably also the only thing she was good at.

With a much calmer demeanor, the principal turned back to Willow and Gus: “Ok, if this situation is cleared up, you can still join the rest of the class. The presentation by the Oracle Coven is not over yet.”

Willow retorted: “But Luz is sti—”,

”—I know she got sick and was picked up by Lilith to get her back to the Owl House.” She was quickly shut down by her teacher.

Principal Bump placed both his hands on their backs and directed them into the crypt. The last thing they saw before the door closed behind them was Kikimora grinning horrendously. 

They were trapped by a lie that might be less dangerous than reality, but would worsen the situation tenfold if exposed. A terrible sense of discomfort intensified in the stomachs of Luz’s friends.

“I really don’t like this. What do you think is going on, Gus?” Willow whispered to her friend.

“I don’t know. Also, what do they mean by bestowing a gift? I highly doubt this is the souvenir shop.” Gus replied, partly sarcastically, partly concerned.

Chapter Text

“Let me go!” Luz screamed as she struggled to free herself from Lilith’s grip. “What are you even trying to do here?” the human continued, but her panicked questions were left unanswered.

“Coven Head Lilith.” A masked individual appeared in the room. Lilith seemed to be startled by his arrival, which gave way to an opportunity to escape. One that Luz was determined to take. She kicked the sister of her mentor in the stomach and hit the ground running to get to the nearest exit that wasn’t blocked by the Emperor’s Coven soldier.

With a painful grunt, Lilith gestured for the Golden Guard not to do anything as she clearly had everything under control.

“I am not here to clean up your mess anyway! Or at least not this mess,” the Golden Guard pointed out with raised hands to give the impression of modesty.

After she quickly recovered from the initial hit, the Raven witch started drawing a circle in the air and continued: “Then what is the reason you came to me?”

The boy behind the mask explained: “I was tasked to replace the message you were sending to the Owl Lady since your messengers are temporarily disabled. So what was it your were you trying to communicate?”

“The fact you came to ask me directly makes me assume the Emperor sent you personally,” Lilith observed. She wasn’t going to question Belos’s authority and, by that extent, the Titan’s will. Therefore, she explained her plan to the Golden Guard.

“I spy with my little eyes something coming this waaaay!” Hooty told the inhabitants of the Owl House.

Eda was sure Luz was coming home. Perfect time to show the girl that stumbled into her life roughly two months ago and improved pretty much every aspect of her days and nights with her mere presence, the appreciation she deserved.

What awaited at the door was the exact counterpart of Eda’s wonderful surprise for her human student. Before her stood an Emperor’s Coven soldier. Why was he here, and why had he knocked instead of ambushing her? Both questions were well worth it to be answered, but there was no time for that right now.

Eda summoned Owlbert to repel the intruder. She attacked with a rush, but the Golden Guard dashed out of the way with a red blink.

“I am not here to fight!”

“Then why are you wearing that uniform?” Eda quickly responded to the pathetic attempt at peace from that Emperor’s bootlicker.

“It’s about your student!”

A statement that stopped the Owl Lady dead in her assault and created more dread in her than any fierce opponent could ever do.

Who in the Emperor’s Coven knew about Luz and was spineless enough to get to her through her student?

“I am h̶̦̀e̴͓͐r̶̊ͅe̵͓̊ ţ̵̗͓̭̈́o̵̳̗͑̓̽͝ d̵̛̹̪̥̳̑̒͐́̄̃́ë̸̪́͐͒͠l̸͉̑̌̎̒͘i̷̠͇̾v̸̨̖̬̹̼̲̲̭͐̇̀̀͊̃̌̚͝e̶̢̛̫̹̼̙͂͑͒̀̒̃͗̐̕r̷̠͖̿̏͊ ẗ̸̰̯̳̻́̓̑̓́́h̸̲̼̿̍̑̅͌͗͝ì̷̧̢͉̺̟̭̰̝̠̐̓͘͜͜ͅs̷̰͕̰̪̙̣͈̣̮͚͂͑̈́̈̎̅͜͝ .̶̢̛͙̺̬̥͓͚̟͔͕̉̑̎̏̈́̉͑̉̑͘͜͠.̶̢̧̜͇̟̥̰͓̠̈̎̋̕͘.̷̨̤̟̅̉͛̊̂̍͝͠.̴̥̻̬̠̳̊́̑̀̀͛͒̀̾̓̈́͘͝.̵̠͉̌́̒̓̿͘”

The rest of the Golden Guard’s words were swallowed by the static in Eda’s ears as she came to the conclusion of who the only possible culprit in this situation was. The pale witch felt immense rage and hatred building up inside her. She wasn’t sure she had ever felt emotions this intense before.

It was an ugly mixture of unbelievable dread that surpassed the terror the Owl Beast inflicted on her and incredible rage that was blocking out everything else until she knew Luz was back home. Without even realising she had subconsciously called the Owl House the human’s home, Eda knew what had to be done.

The Golden Guard wasn’t sure how to react in this situation. He studied the Owl Lady to scan for more signs of an incoming attack. But the Owl Lady seemed to have lost all interest in him within an instant.

She must have lost her mind. She didn’t react to any word in his message at all, and her body tensed up to a level he had never seen before.

Hunter started thinking: “Was this student more than just a small pastime to the Owl Lady, like Coven Head Clawthorne said?”

Although he wasn’t able to finish that thought because, with a bright golden flash, Eda flew towards him, or more accurately, she flew in the direction of the Emperor’s castle, ignoring anything in her way, which happened to be Hunter.

The Owl Lady was so fast that he had barely any time to react. Hunter was able to just partially move himself out of the witch’s path. This way, the Golden Guard was hurled towards what he assumed was just some bushes, but instead, he hit his head directly on a certain wooden bird-tube, which was currently inspecting an odd-looking stick lying on the ground.

With the memory of the surprised face of an owl, Hunter lost consciousness.

Liltih thought that the Emperor would watch over her final chance to bring in the Owl Lady, but he was nowhere to be seen, which made Liltih fear he had already assumed her to fail and only increased the stress she was currently experiencing.

“Come on, Edalyn.  You would be late when I need you most.” and right on queue with a thunderous snap, Eda the Owl Lady appeared, hovering above Lilith on the castle’s bridge with anger in her eyes.

Even after Lilith had cursed her sister, she had never seen her this furious before, but she was glad that today was the day Eda’s suffering would end. However, Lilith wasn’t as strong as Eda, so she had to calm her down a bit before starting the negotiation.

Against the black-haired witch's expectations, she was barely able to finish her opening sentence before her adversary in this witch’s duel started the attack.

This was gonna be a harder fight than anticipated. Edalyn was quickly continuing her barrage of magic projectiles paired with physical attacks, which Lilith had to deflect with a slight struggle before she was able to summon her staff.

“Where is she?”Eda demanded.

“Was this temporary means of entertainment that important to Eda?”  the raven witch wondered.

“Easy now.”

Eda stopped at the hope of Luz’s well-being.

“The human is safe,” Lilith exclaimed while summoning the prison ball the human was kept in.

The human called out to Eda, which was great because it would persuade her to accept Lilith’s conditions.

“You can have her back, provided you do as I say. Renounce your wild ways and join the Emperor’s Coven.” Lilith ordered. She had to convince her. It would fix the one big mistake she ever regretted without having to admit to it.

“He can help heal your curse.”

“Don’t believe everything that bonehead tells you. He doesn’t wanna heal me. He wants to control me.” Eda retorted.

Lilith had had enough of her sister always thinking she can get what she wants simply because she is capable of doing so.

“Then I will take you in by force.”

Eda resumed:

“You’ve always looked down on me because I’m wild,—

“No, it wasn’t because you’re wild,—”

— but fortunately, that just made me work harder than you.”

“— it was because you didn’t work harder than me.”

Simultaneously with Eda’s statement, the eyes of her Palisman flashed, and Eda drew a spell circle with her staff and slammed it into the ground, creating a giant erupting manifestation of an owl, which enhanced her magical prowess to the point where the air around her was crackling with little golden lightning bolts.

Lilith was able to cast a spell shield just in time to soften the blow from the charge by the enraged witch that launched her high into the air. Eda wasn’t usually this all-out, which resulted in Lilith taking another hit in the air after her sister successfully predicted one of her dodging dashes.

Soon after the initial hit, Lilith quickly regained her composure in this fight and realised it was no longer a witch’s duel. It had transformed into a full-on witch’s battle. A battle that would call for both witches to give it everything they got. Unfavorably, Eda was more powerful than her, so she had to improvise.

Eda’s human pet was the perfect thing for this. Lilith created a little suspension to act, so she cast a jet of blue fire targeting the ball holding the human.

“Luz!” Eda screamed, forced to save the human from a death in the castle’s moat of spikes with fast shifting of the bridge’s floor boards.

This created a window of opportunity for Lilith to come down and separate the human and her mentor again, with a powerful strike.

However, Eda was quick to react and pointed her staff towards Lilith, summoning controllable copies of Hooty to restrain her. This was gonna be Eda’s final blow that would settle this now decade-old conflict between the sisters.

The Owl Lady channeled a huge magical attack by spinning Owlbert and thus creating many overlapping spell circles.

Just as she fired that magic attack, Lilith once more surprised Eda with a new and unexpected low. The Head of the Emperor’s Coven flicked her finger in a swift motion and moved the prison ball right between them. The wild witch could only redirect the big blast of golden fire with exhausting effort.

“Stop hiding behind Luz, you coward.” Eda groaned tiredly.

Eda just couldn’t see what Lilith was trying to do for her. Emperor Belos could heal her, but instead, she was still so focused on continuing this pathetic game of hide-and-seek with her two pets. Lilith was furious, but she couldn’t show that, of course.

“It’s sad to see you slowing down, sister. Tell me, is it the curse?” Lilith asked, knowing very well that it was a low blow given the circumstances, but to bring her sister back to her senses, desperate measures were needed.

“Maybe it is the curse.”

“I know it definitely is your curse.”

“But then how pathetic are you that you can’t best me at my worst?”

“If I am pathetic, then why are you the one insulting me?”

After that, the younger Clawthorne sister opened several spell circles to open fire with a magical siege while simultaneously securing the prison ball with more Hooty copies, forcing her older sister into a defensive stance.

“You think you are so strong for outrunning the Emperor’s grasp so far.”

“Maybe you are stronger than me, but that made me work smarter. I became sharp, crafty.”

“A lapdog for a tyrant!”

“Bold to say for someone enslaved by their own affliction!”

“You always thought you were better than me, that I could never beat you in anything.”

“I am better than you!”

“Then why were you so easy to curse!?” Lilith shouted, realising mere seconds later that this one wasn’t supposed to slip. With a panicked gasp, she tried to recover this as if she didn’t just spill some firebee honey on the meadow of their relationship.

“And I have the power to remove it, if you would just let me explain.”

Eda couldn’t quite fathom what she just heard. Lilith had again and again dropped lower than what Eda could expect from her today. It was over. She was taking this despicable excuse of a witch out. NOW. No matter the cost. All she could bring out was a pained scream that emanated tremendous levels of hurt and betrayal.

“Ḛ̴̩̖͙͈̺̮͎̬̭͖͔̽͂͋͜d̷̟́͆̔̆̈́͌͠ä̵̧̢̢̡͎̠̜̮̺̳̦͆̓͋͝,̴͖͙̟̂̒̈́̅̍̋̅́̇͊͗͝ ̸̩̓̓ş̷̛͚̠̺̲̲͖̆̍̿̈́̀́̀͝t̵̢̧͉̻̻͚͉̺̗̣́͆̑̍̆̏̂̆̇͗̉ͅọ̸̢̧̺̮̣͎̳̮̯̅̄̅͠p̸̮͖̆͊̃͂͒!̶̭̪͙͙̖̫͉̈́̅̆͊̓͗̋̍͆̄͒͑ ̴̘̪͈̹̭͍͇̬̙̋̀̃̊̽̀̃ͅY̶̤̬͈͍̥͎̥̼̜̠̍͑̃̄̀̕o̶̢̠̟̲̺͉͆͘u̵̱̲̜̝̠̘̰͕͐r̶̛̞̣̀̅̿̆̀̈̆͐͊͝͝ ̸̛̛͕̼̱̉̒͑́̇̑m̴̢̘̦̝̭̹̆̎̑͊́͂̍͆̚̕͘̕̕ȁ̸̡̧̛͈̰͇̰̥̤̖͙̜̗̯̈́̇͛̈̕͜g̴̢̻͓̦̯̲̖̠̤̙̈́̒̏ͅi̸͕̬̖̠̔̓͂c̴͉̬̝̲̤͍̖̯̞̘̉͝!̸̡͖̜͕̣̹͊͋̃̅̄͋̂̍͆̒̾”

Luz screamed, now audible after she broke free of her prison, but instead was silenced by Eda’s rage.

The Raven witch had recovered a little from her impact on the wall. Her sister clearly was too focused on this human pet to join the Emperor’s Coven. It seemed to tie her down, so maybe that was the key to getting Eda to submit.

“Human, that orb was for your protection,” Lilith exclaimed to the human and threw it over the edge of the bridge.

“Luz!” Eda snapped out of her anger and started a spell to keep her kid from getting impaled at the bottom of the moat.

“Oh, right, that was its name,” Lilith remembered, but Eda was still only focused on the child, so she was forced to help out a little with cleansing Eda’s priorities. Lilith knew if she actually presented her sister with the choice of keeping her powers and saving this human, the decision would be easy.

While those two were talking to each other, the black-haired witch watched and then drew a small spell circle to project her clawed hand over the human to make recovery impossible.

“Come on, sister, I know you want to be together again just as much as I do.”

“Eda, no, no, no!” the human begged.

With a shaky voice, the Owl Lady started:

“All right, kid. Listen to me. I’m going away, and I don’t know if I can bounce back this time. Watch over King. Remember to feed Hooty.”

Her student watched in horror as Eda’s eyes filled with black.

“Please. No,” she pleaded.

“And, Luz, thank you for being in my life.”

Lilith was right, the decision between keeping her powers and saving the human was easy for Eda, but not in the way she thought. Eda let out a tormeted scream before the rest of the magic that was in her body burst out with a shockwave.

Owlbert freed himself from the staff and used his own magic to levitate Luz long enough until he could grab her by the collar and fly her to safety on the bridge.

Edalyn used up her entire magic and was transforming into the Owl Beast as the human rushed to her aid. Although Lilith did not expect this, it wouldn’t be a problem for Eda to still join her.

The beast was starting to approach the human, and as interesting as it would be to watch if her sister would be able to differentiate her pet from her food in the curse form, it was enough. At long last, Lilith had achieved her goal and was able to repay a long bygone debt.

“You monster! I won’t let you take away Eda!” Luz protested.

“I am not taking her away. I am returning Eda to her real family. However, I will be taking you with me.” Lilith exclaimed while grabbing Owlbert out of the air and casting another restraining spell on Luz.