Work Text:
The Boiling Isles, like any other place, had its own diseases. Some were unavoidable, like the bright maggots that lived at the Toes who gave you bright disease. Having your organs glow and shrivel up was not fun.
However, like any other place, they had ways to combat most diseases. Schools like Hexside required it. You can’t expect to deal with abominations, beasts, healing, multiple species of plants, and the occasional wayward potion and expect to come out completely clean.
So the worry of Luz having no papers or medical exams to speak of was bound to come up.
“We need to take her to a healer, Edalyn.” Lilith hissed, crossing her arms. “She’s human, she’s incredibly exposed to everything here.”
“Coming down with a little flu isn’t that big a deal,” Eda muttered, turning her head away and crossing her arms. “She’ll be fine in a few days.”
“She might, but what if it was worse?” Lilith persisted. “Hexside is looking for papers saying that she’s been vaccinated. They could kick her out!”
“Bump is a flexible guy,” Eda snapped. “Look,” She sighed, shoulders slumping. “It’s not that I disagree. Luz could get sick pretty easily. But like you said, she’s human. We don’t know how those vaccines are going to react to her.”
Lilith thought for a moment, pacing the living room. Luz had been sent to bed hours earlier after it’d been revealed she’d woken up with the Centipoodle Flu. Not typically deadly, unless you were very unlucky. But worrying all the same.
“Human biology isn’t all that different from witches, is it?” Lilith asked. “The shots are designed to fit a very broad section of witches, even half-demons can take those.”
“Well, she doesn’t have a bile sac, that’s a big difference.” Eda pointed out. “And…” She frowned.
“Actually, I think that’s the only issue.” She blinked. “I don’t think lack of fangs, rounded ears, and getting excited about hisses and growls do much.” She said.
“Her vocal cords must be different if she can’t hiss,” Lilith nodded. “But I doubt that will be a problem.”
“Okay, er, blood vessels or something?” Eda tried. “Those could be different. If she doesn’t have a bile sac, who knows what else she does or doesn’t have.”
“I really think it’ll be fine,” Lilith insisted. “I doubt that vaccines as modified as these will cause serious harm to Luz.”
“This isn’t a spell that’ll go away after a day, Lilith,” Eda growled, pacing around the living room table.
Lilith flinched at the obvious reference and cleared her throat.
“As hard as it seems to believe, I do want Luz to be safe.” She said, carefully keeping her voice low. “I understand she means a lot to you. But it will only get worse if she’s left to the elements on her own.”
Eda glanced back, scowling with her ears laying back.
“I’ll think about it.” She finally said. “We’ll see how she is when she gets better.”
“Thank you, Edalyn.” Lilith sighed, the tension releasing from her shoulders.
“But if she gets them, I’m making you take her.” Eda added, pointing an accusing finger at her sister. “Which gives me more leverage to bully you if she hates you. Those things are painful.” She winced at the memory.
“Uh huh, of course.” Lilith nodded, mildly amused. “And because I can at least pretend I’m not a wanted criminal?”
“That too.” Eda agreed. “Also, if you kidnap Luz, it’s on sight.” She warned, eyes narrowing.
“Why in the world would I want to…?” Lilith began to question before Eda gave her a deadpan stare and she slowly shut her mouth again.
“Right, of course. How could I ever forget?” She sighed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep reminding you.” Eda said cheerfully.
“Oh, I’m well aware.”
Luz had been better within a few days. Still a bit sniffly, but otherwise no worse for wear. Eda had finally relented to letting her get vaccines, and true to her word, Lilith was the only one who took her.
Of course, disguises were hardly needed. It had only taken a year for everyone to recognize the residents of the Owl House on instinct alone. Though Lilith did make illusions to make sure the Emperor’s Coven wouldn’t come around.
And the sheer intimidation of her existence was enough to convince the healers to usher Luz away to get her shots that, in the humans opinion, looked a lot like leeches and hurt way more.
Aside from a somewhat numb arm full of leech bite-marks, Luz returned to the Owl House with no problems, despite Eda’s best efforts to prove otherwise.
Lilith, incredibly smug, said that really, the worst that would happen was that Luz would get sick for a bit and need checkup, but nothing more.
With that, Luz had gone to bed to read her books with King before passing out like she always did.
Eda could never push away a small lingering quiver of worry.
Eda was awoken at six in the morning to the sound of something, very loudly, crashing down the stairs.
And since she was used to interruptions like these, and heard plenty of muffled giggling and thumping after the fact, she wasn’t overly worried as she pulled herself out of her nest.
“Luz, did you sneak in a baby griffin again?” Eda called, walking down the hallway towards the stairs.
“Eda, Eda,” Luz’s giggling drifted from the bottom of the steps. “Eda I can feel colors.”
Eda paused for a brief moment, slowly processing what she heard her say.
Then she broke into a near-sprint as she stopped at the top of the stairs, spotting Luz in a tangle of limbs at the bottom, giggling like a madman.
Eda hurried down and pulled the kid up, checking for any broken bones or sprains, which thankfully there were none of.
“Eda, colors feel weird.” Luz whispered, looking up at the witch. “Really really weird. But also kinda cool?”
Eda sucked in a breath at the sight, letting go of Luz.
Her pupils were heavily contracted. Like she was staring right into a flashlight. While she spoke, her left pupil had suddenly expanded and began growing and shrinking at the speed of a broken lightbulb.
“Oh boy,” Eda breathed, worry creasing her brow. “Do you feel alright, kid?”
“Thirsty,” Luz said, her head slowly falling to the side before she jerked it back up again. “And excited! I don’t know why, but I am! Everything’s really bright but also not?” She said, looking around.
“Christ, I haven’t seen a trip like this since King ate moondust.” Eda murmured, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head.
“Hmm?” Luz hummed, clearly only half paying attention.
“Just, go sit on the couch, please.” Eda sighed. “I need to get Lilith.”
“Okay!” She said, overly cheerful.
And then she just stood there, blinking fish-eyed at Eda, still smiling.
“Uh, kid? Couch,” Eda said, pointing off towards the door to the living room.
“Oh, yeah,” Luz said, shaking her head and stumbling, slamming into the doorframe on the way out.
Eda watched Luz leave for a few seconds before growling and storming her way back up the stairs.
King had awoken from where he was in Luz’s room and sleepily poked his head out, half-awake.
“Keep an eye on Luz,” Eda instructed him as she walked by. “Don’t let her touch anything.”
“Oh, someone's in trouble,” King sang before scampering out of Luz’s room.
“You bet she is,” Eda hissed, stopping in front of the makeshift storage room they had made into Lilith’s room.
She didn’t even bother to knock, she just threw the door open.
Lilith was already waking up from the noise, her hair a mess and rubbing at her eyes. She looked up, saw Eda furiously standing in the doorway, and let out a sigh.
She calmly picked up her glasses from an old table she’d made (Eda had insisted she get her glasses back since she had no reason not to use them anymore), put them on, and slowly stood up, mentally preparing herself.
“What happened this time?” She asked calmly.
“Luz! Luz is what happened!” Eda shouted. “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought she’d snuck into the Night Market!”
“And by that you mean…?” Lilith asked slowly.
“She looks drugged, Lilith.” Eda hissed. “How long is this going to last, exactly?”
“I don’t know, I’m not a healer.” Lilith shrugged, clearly trying to hide an amused smile. “Let me see her, I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“Don’t eat the glyphs, Luz!” King’s yelling from downstairs reached their ears. “Don’t--Luz that’s fire!”
Eda’s sneer grew and Lilith pointedly refused to meet her gaze.
Without a word, the sisters hurried down the stairs and into the living room, both mentally preparing to have to put something out.
Luz was in the process of eating a ripped up glyph, both pupils blown wide, blitzed out of her mind. King was stuck under one of her arms, holding the other end of the glyph he had probably been forced to rip to stop her from activating it.
“Eda, what happened to her?” King demanded, squirming in the human's grasp. “She thinks the glyphs are pancakes!”
Lilith snorted, stifling a laugh at the sight. Eda gave her sister a glare that would melt Emperor Belos himself, and her smile quickly fell.
“You’re right, you’re right, not funny.” She said matter-of-factly. “Did she wake up like this?”
“I assume so,” Eda said, walking over to the girl and picking her up from under her arms. “She fell down the stairs and said she could feel colors.”
“These have a lot of colors,” Luz giggled, pulling the ripped glyph out of her mouth and waving her around.
“...alright,” Lilith said slowly, placing her hands together. “Clearly, the vaccines had more of a side effect on her than we thought.”
“Ya think?” Eda hissed, holding Luz upright as she looked around at everything, her eyes nearly entirely taken up by her pupil.
“On the plus side, I doubt this will be permanent.” Lilith continued. “Most of the vaccines given to her were ones that wear off over time.”
“How long, exactly?” Eda asked.
Lilith pressed her mouth together in a thin line, weighing her options.
“...about ten years?” She said, raising her hand and tilting it. “Sometimes five?”
“Lilith!”
“It’s probably just her body reacting to the small bits of illness and magic,” Lilith said quickly, mildly nervous. “It’ll get out of her system eventually, I’m sure.”
“And how long,” Eda grit her teeth together, grabbing Luz’s hood as she tried to wander off. “Do you think this’ll last?”
Lilith frowned, thinking for a moment.
“A week at worst,” She decided. “If nothing changes by then...we may have to ask in a favor or two.”
“You are so lucky Amity likes you,” Eda growled, pointing a finger at her sister. “Or I’d do worse than send you to Hooty.”
“I didn’t know this would happen!” Lilith defended. “I genuinely thought it would be okay! You think I want her like this?” She said, gesturing to the girl with her hand.
Eda knew very well she didn’t. Lilith could be uncaring and annoyed with practically everyone around her, but she knew better. And, well, even she had admitted that using a child as a shield that one time was a bad move.
And, besides, her apprentice, as far as she knew at least, was friends with Luz. So that automatically put her higher up on Lilith’s list than others.
Didn’t change that Luz was even crazier than normal now, though.
“You insisted on this, you fix it.” Eda finally decided, pulling Luz closer. “This is borderline disturbing, even for her.” She said, looking down at Luz’s glazed, but still happy, expression.
“I’ll do what I can,” Lilith promised. “In the meantime, let’s hope being a little delirious is the worst of our troubles.”
“Don’t jinx us, Lilith.”
“So, we’re basically on Luz-watch now?” Willow asked, eyeing Luz as she downed her fifth water bottle in an hour like a shot.
“We’re all on Luz watch,” Eda corrected. “Lilith is off trying to find something useful while we gotta sit here and hope she doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Like being thirsty is a crime,” Luz huffed, her right eye half-lidded with a contracted pupil.
“Fascinating ,” Gus murmured, poking Luz’s cheek. “I never would’ve imagined something as simple as a few vaccines would cause such a severe reaction in humans.”
“Who knows? Maybe it’s just a Luz thing,” Willow suggested, holding her friend up as she started to heavily lean to the side.
The trio were all sitting on the floor in front of the couch in a semicircle. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think they were expecting Luz to start coughing up blood.
“There are lights everywhere,” Luz grinned, gazing with drooping eyes around the room. “They kinda hurt.” She said, her smile never falling as she squinted her eyes.
“You better not get worse,” Eda warned, crossing over to the kitchen. “You kids hungry? It’s still morning.”
“I had a snack on the way here,” Willow assured the witch.
“Has Luz eaten?” Gus wondered.
Luz stared at him blankly for a moment before Willow nudged her.
“Mm, not hungry,” Luz mumbled, her left pupil dilating for a moment before contracting to the same size as her other one.
“Are you sure you feel alright?” Willow inquired, frowning.
“Yes and no?” Luz squinted. “I’m like...feeling so great it’s uncomfortable. Does that make sense?” She asked, turning her head to her friend before almost falling over again.
“At least she can talk a bit better now,” Eda muttered, poking her head back into the room.
“Luz is going to get better, right?” Gus worried, peering over Luz.
Eda opened her mouth, shut it, thought about her words for a few moments, and inhaled deeply.
“Yeah, eventually.” She said, praying to the Titan she wasn’t lying. “We just don’t know when.”
“So does this mean I can study her?” Gus asked excitedly, eyes shining.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Willow said carefully, relenting to just always keeping an arm around Luz as she stared off into blissful space. “I doubt she’ll stay still.”
“I want to see what kind of symptoms she has,” Gus defended. “This is the only time I’ll ever get to know what some of our medicine does to humans!”
Eda flinched at the unintended reminder of Luz’s current situation. She was almost glad Luz could barely process any of the words being spoken around her, she was sure the human would’ve noticed as well.
“Just be careful with her, you hear?” Eda relented. “I’m not about to take her to a healer and risk this information making it to the Emperor’s Coven. A little studying will probably help us.”
“Yes!” Gus pumped a fist in the air and conjured himself a pencil and paper. “If anything, think of this as a recording of what’s going on. I doubt Luz will be able to remember all of this in clear detail.” He said, tapping his pencil on her head.
Luz jolted, looking towards Gus dumbly at the sudden touch.
“Hm, pencil isn’t very colorful.” She hummed.
“Where’s rich girl, anyway?” Eda asked, leaning in the kitchen door frame. “I thought she would’ve rushed over here.”
“She doesn’t even know this is happening.” Willow said. “You just called me and Gus, told us to hurry over, and then hung up.” She deadpanned. “We didn’t know the situation until we got here.”
“Eh, fair.” Eda nodded. “Poor girl would probably have a heart attack at the sight of her,” She gestured a hand to her apprentice.
“Amity would definitely have some choice words,” Gus agreed.
“Amity?” Luz suddenly perked her head up, looking around wildly like a puppy who’d been told they were getting a treat. “Amity’s here?”
Willow and Eda shared a knowing glance before turning back to the human.
“No, Luz, Amity isn’t here.” Willow said calmly.
Luz visibly drooped, disappointed.
At least they knew she could still feel other emotions.
“Do you want me to call her?” Willow asked the girl.
Luz rose up again, excited. Gus was reminded of an emotional yo-yo.
“Great, more children,” Eda muttered. “You two are handling her inevitable panic.”
“Fair,” Willow nodded, pulling out her scroll. “Gus, take Luz for a minute.”
“Huh?” Gus looked up from taking notes just in time to get crushed by Luz falling over him.
Willow dialed Amity, ignoring the strangled cries of distress from Gus. She picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, Wills,” Amity crackled through the scroll.
“Amity!” Luz trilled happily, sitting up from where she was crushing Gus.
“Is that Luz?” Amity inquired.
“Yeah, we’re at the Owl House.” Willow explained, holding Luz back from tumbling over her by holding a hand against her face.
“I can breathe!” Gus gasped.
“Hi, Amity!” Luz giggled.
“Hey, Luz,” Amity mumbled.
You could see Willow’s will to live leave her body. Eda gave up and went back into the kitchen to grab herself a snack.
“Luz is in a bit of a situation at the moment,” Willow said calmly. “Turns out our vaccines don’t clash well with her.”
“What? Is she okay?” Amity worried, and the sound of shuffling was heard from the other line.
“Yeah, just really blitzed out.” Willow assured. “She says she can feel colors and is excited to an uncomfortable extent.”
“Willow has a lot of calm colors,” Luz grinned, giving up trying to squish Willow and instead dropping her head onto her leg. “I like ‘em.”
“That...sounds concerning.” Amity said slowly. “I’m coming over.”
“We’ll be waiting,” Willow said, before hanging up.
“Yay! Amity’s coming!” Luz cheered, trying to raise herself to a sitting position and wincing. “Ow, too loud.”
“Too loud?” Gus repeated, trying to write something down. “What is?”
“Spoke too loud,” Luz whined, shutting her eyes.
“You...usually speak that loud when you're excited.” Willow raised a brow. “Are your ears alright?”
“Just round,” Luz snickered at her ‘joke,’ cracking open an eye. “Everything about me is round! Round ears, round fang teeth, round face,” She said, proceeding to squish one of her cheeks in her hand.
“Your round ‘cause your squishy,” Willow agreed, helping Luz sit up properly.
“Very squishy,” Luz agreed. “I am the squishiest.” She said seriously.
“Is your vision normal?” Gus asked, cautiously leaning closer to his friend. “No more spots?”
“Mm, less so.” Luz said, staring off at nothing. “And I think the couch is alive,” She said calmly.
The friends looked at the couch, and upon seeing it wasn’t moving, turned back to Luz.
“There’s...nothing happening.” Willow said slowly. “I mean, it could be alive, but nothings happening right now.”
“Are you sure?” Luz frowned, squinting intensely at the couch. “I swear the cover is like...rippling.”
Gus looked to the couch, back to Luz, back to the couch, and then back to Luz again.
“So she’s getting hallucinations,” He said, writing it down. “Good to know.”
“She what?” Eda called back, confused.
King poked his head through the kitchen door, his tail flicking.
“Eda wants to know what you said,”
“We heard her.” Willow sighed.
“Hallucinations. Luz thinks the couch is moving,” Gus said, not even sparing a glance up from her notebook.
“Oh, did it wake up?” King asked sincerely. “Eda! I think the couch woke up again!”
“The couch is alive?” Willow squeaked, pulling Luz closer and scooching away from it.
“Ha! Knew it,” Luz weakly waved a fist. “I knew it had to be alive.”
Eda reappeared soon after, double-checking that the couch hadn’t woken up. Gus was about to tell her the same information he told King, but the sounds of Hooty shrieking at someone caught everyone's attention.
They couldn’t make out his words, but it was hard to miss his high-pitched voice. Eda walked to the front door and cracked it opening, fully expecting to see Lilith or some random kid trying to find the Owl House again.
Instead, she saw Amity, hissing with fangs bared and looked ready to punch Hooty in the face. Which was understandable, considering he was continuously bugging her.
“Someone was anxious to get here,” Eda chuckled, swinging open the door and crushing a small piece of Hooty’s body between the door and the wall.
Hooty squawked and started harping on Eda, complaining and turning his attention away from Amity.
“Oh, hey, Eda.” Amity said, calming down and smoothing her hair back.
Eda could visibly tell Amity was trying to not breathe in too deeply, sure-fire evidence at how fast she had rushed to the Owl House.
“In here,” Eda said, letting Amity inside before shutting the door on Hooty’s complaints.
“Hey, Amity.” Willow greeted numbly.
Luz, who had previously been laying against Willow’s shoulder, popped up at a speed that made Gus concerned that her neck might’ve cracked.
“Hi, Ami!” Luz said cheerfully, her pupils immediately dilating so wide that you could barely see the whites of her eyes.
Amity paused, looking like she was about to be flattered before seeing the state Luz was in. She knit her brow together, clearly even more anxious as she hurried in, getting on her knees beside her friends.
“How long has she been like this?” She asked, hesitantly reaching out a hand before pulling back.
“Since this morning,” Gus said. “Eda said she’ll be fine.”
“That’s a relief,” Amity exhaled.
Eda mumbled something and slipped out of the living room. King was about to follow her before she spoke something quietly to him and left.
Instead, the demon pouted and sat at the door leading to the staircase hallway, his arms crossed.
“Oooh, you’re really colorful,” Luz said, grabbing Amity’s outstretched hand and pulling it closer.
“I--huh?” Amity stuttered, blushing.
“It’s so pretty,” Luz whispered, sounding not all there as she pressed Amity’s hand to her cheek.
“Don’t pass out on us,” Willow teased the furiously red witch. “I’d hate for you to die at fifteen.”
“Don’t test me,” Amity growled.
“Can you feel these ‘colors’ with other people?” Gus questioned the human.
It took a few seconds for Luz to react but she eventually looked back up at Gus.
“Mmm, yeah,” She mumbled. “Eda’s are weird,” She enunciated, swaying slightly.
Willow slowly held a hand on her shoulder to stop her from toppling. If Luz noticed, she didn’t comment.
“So, she’s really high right now, is what I’m getting at.” Amity said, looking over Luz, who still refused to release her hand.
“Pretty much,” Willow nodded. “At least the vaccines gave her a happy-high. I don’t know if we could handle a panicky or angry Luz.”
“Where’s,” Luz slurred for a moment, her right pupil contracting. “Where’s my, my,” She struggled for a moment, clearly forgetting what she was trying to say.
“You alright there?” Gus asked, trying not to laugh.
“¿Cuál es la palabra para eso?” Luz muttered under her breath. “Capucha...gato...gato capucha…”
“Is she speaking backwards or something?” Amity asked, alarmed.
“Oh, oh! Luz explained this to me once,” Gus said, perking up. “She said it was a human language...Spanish I think.”
“Hoodie!” Luz finally burst out before wincing and ducking her head, finally releasing Amity’s hand.
“Your hoodie?” Willow blinked. “Luz, you grew out of that four months ago.”
“Did someone say Hooty?”
Everyone groaned as the bird tube himself popped in through the window, happily chattering in his high voice.
“Did you guys miss me?” He yapped on.
Luz suddenly yelped and clapped her hands over her ears, doubling over into a ball. Her friends whirled back to her, startled.
“Is she still all weird?” Hooty continued, circling around them until his head was right by Luz. “Hi, Luz! Are you still being weird?”
Luz whimpered and curled into an even tighter ball, turning her head away from Hooty and squeezing her eyes shut.
“Quit it!” Amity snapped, shoving the birds face away. “You're scaring her!”
“Scaring?” Hooty repeated, though he did move back. “But I didn’t even do anything mentally scarring this time!”
King, who had fallen asleep at the door, was easily awoken by Hooty’s screeching. He noticed Amity pulling a balled-up Luz further away from Hooty, murderous intent in her gaze, and was quick to rush over.
“I’m awake! I’m awake! What happened?” He asked, skidding to a stop.
“I don’t know, but Hooty’s freaking out Luz.” Willow said, reaching out a hesitant hand to the girl.
“Hey! You! Shoo!” King snapped to the bird, waving his paws at him. “Don’t make me get Eda!”
“Alright, alright! Sheesh!” Hooty grumbled, slowly pulling himself back out the window. “I didn’t mean to do anything, gosh.” He muttered, frowning as he disappeared back to the front of the house.
“Luz?” Amity worried, looking down at the shaking girl halfway in her lap. “Luz? He’s gone now, it’s okay.”
Luz cracked open an eye, revealing it had contracted to a disturbingly small size. She slowly removed her hands from her ears and sat up, almost knocking her head into Amity’s chin.
“Are you alright?” Willow worried, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.
“Loud,” Luz whined, rubbing at her ear.
“Should I call Eda?” King worried, coming up in front of Luz. “I should call Eda. Hey, Eda!” He shouted, turning his head away. “Eda!”
Luz hissed and jerked back, shutting her eyes and covering her ears again.
King jumped back and covered his mouth with his paws. Willow was quick to wrap her arm around Luz’s shoulders.
“I’m so sorry!” King exclaimed, immediately covering his mouth again when Luz’s flinch revealed he’d been too loud again. “Sorry, sorry,” He whispered, taking another step back.
“Luz?” Willow worried.
“Loud,” The human repeated, burying her head in Willow’s shoulder. “It’s loud.”
The other three all looked to each other with concern.
“But...Hooty and King always talk like that.” Amity said slowly. “It...it’s never bothered her before.”
“She must have gotten more sensitive to sound,” Gus said, his voice lowered.
“Us talking normally must already be quite loud. And considering King and Hooty are naturally louder when they talk, she must think they’re screaming if they go so much as a few notes up.”
King sat on the floor, his paws still wrapped around his muzzle, his face full of horror and shame.
Rapid footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, and Eda was in the living room in a flash, holding her staff in one hand.
“What happened? Is everyone okay?” She asked, hurrying over.
“Luz is sensitive to sound,” Willow explained softly. “Hooty and King hurt her ears without meaning to, that’s all.”
“Great, another symptom.” Eda muttered, her staff vanishing in a flash of light. “How sensitive?”
“Anything higher than normal talking is painful,” Gus said, quickly writing it all down. “To her, it must sound like we’re already talking loud, but she’s putting up with it.”
Eda sighed and ran a hand down her face. Luz had recovered from King’s shout and peeled herself off of Willow, hands hovering by her ears in fear there would be another loud noise.
“I’m gonna go get Lilith,” She decided, watching Luz pitifully. “I need to know what else is going to happen to her.”
“What?” Luz blinked, looking around. “Why was everyone shouting?”
“Sorry,” King repeated again, shaking his head.
“You didn’t know,” Eda leaned down and ruffled the fur behind his head. “Luz, maybe you should go rest.”
“I’m not tired,” Luz said, becoming cheerful again. “Not at all! Hey, do you think I could climb the Knee and back?” She asked, turning to Willow. “I think I could do that.”
“Don’t,” Willow said, standing up and helping her friend off the floor. “We’ll stay with her.” She assured the older witch.
“I’d say don’t do anything stupid, but we all know that’s going to happen no matter what.” Eda said, crossing her arms. “Just don’t do something overly stupid.”
“Understood,” Amity nodded, scooping up King as she and Gus stood.
Luz paused before whirling her head around, nearly falling over at the force if Willow didn’t catch her in time.
“Ami?” Luz blinked blearily. “When did you get here?”
“This is going to be a long day,” Eda sighed, shoulders slumping with the weight of a sky.
“We’ll try to get through unscathed,” Gus said, glancing at Luz as she started staring at and inspecting her own hands, confused.
“Key word; try.”
“I think I swallowed another light spell,” Luz groaned, face-down on her sleeping bag.
“You didn’t. We would’ve seen it.” Willow said, glancing back at the girl.
“I must’ve,” Luz muffled through the bag. “I feel like it.”
“Huh, so she’s hallucinating sensations, too.” Gus said, sitting cross-legged by the window and writing in another page of his notebook.
“Or she could just feel awful,” Amity pointed out, leaning against the wall behind Luz. “I certainly would, considering the state she’s already in.”
“Please don’t throw up like last time,” King begged, his voice barely above a whisper as he placed his paws on Luz’s arm. “That was disgusting.”
“Water,” Luz mumbled, raising a hand and grabbing at air. “Need water.”
Amity picked up the water bottle on the floor beside her and crawled over, placing it in Luz’s open hand.
“Humans can’t die from drinking too much water, right?” Gus asked, looking up from his notebook.
Luz looked up and tilted the water bottle, never raising her head off of the floor. She opened her mouth and let the water trickle out and into her mouth.
Her friends all watched her, mesmerized at the sight. Luz’s grip on the water bottle loosened after a few minutes and it fell and hit her in the face, causing her to hiss and water to spill.
Amity muttered before pulling Luz into a sitting position by her shoulders. The girl was still staring off blankly, like this outcome was completely out of the blue.
King came back with old clothes Eda never used and Willow mopped up the water with them, barely batting an eye.
“Aw,” Luz finally reacted, mournfully watching her forgotten water bottle which was now only a quarter-full. “My juice…”
“Luz, you're getting soaked.” Amity sighed, grabbing one of the unused shirts and dabbing at Luz’s shirt and face.
“Like it, it’s cold,” Luz said, though she did nothing to stop Amity.
“Cold? Are you feeling too warm?” Willow asked, glancing up.
“Uh,” Luz stared off for a moment. “Yope.”
“Yope?” Gus echoed.
“Nes? Yo? Noes? Sio? Ni?” Luz tried out a bunch of different words, often slurring them together.
“Luz, what are you saying?” Amity sighed, trying to get the worst of the water off her shirt now.
“What’s yes and no combined?” Luz questioned Gus. “You’re smart, you know.”
“Maybe?” Gus tried, raising a brow.
“Maybe?” Luz frowned. “How can you be ‘maybe’ smart?”
“You’re maybe too warm?” Willow reiterated.
“I’m like…” Luz spaced out for a moment before snapping back to reality, both her pupils at different levels of dilated. “Hot and cold?”
“That’s mildly troubling,” Gus spoke, flipping to a new page in his notebook.
“I feel like I have a weird fever,” Luz sniffled, blinking her eyes rapidly. “You know? You know like...like when you're so sick you're too extreme in both temperatures.”
“I think I had that once!” King raised his paw excitedly before quickly lowering back down when he saw Luz flinch at his voice. “I had frostbite on my fur after I ate a fire-twig. I couldn’t stop moving for like, three hours.”
“Mood,” Luz nodded solemnly.
“I’m...pretty sure that’s not an emotion…” King said slowly.
“So, do you want like, extra blankets?” Amity suggested.
“I want to die,” Luz whined, almost flopping over onto her face again before Amity grabbed the back of her shirt and held her up. “And everything smells like those weird street corners.”
“Smells fine to me,” WIllow said, laying the wet clothes on the ledge in front of the window. “Do you want to change into a non-wet shirt?”
“Oh,” Luz nodded after a few beats. “Yeah,” She said, grabbing the hem of her shirt and pulling up.
Amity, who had previously been tossing the damp cloth away, turned back around just in the nick of time.
“Not right now!” She squeaked, frantically grabbing Luz’s hands and forcing her to shove her shirt back down.
The other three whirled back to the girls, startled by the sudden noise.
“Ow,” Luz complained, removing her hands and rubbing at her ears. “Loud,”
“Sorry, sorry,” Amity whispered, jerking her hands back.
Her ears were pressed down, and she was a bright red from the tip of each ear.
Willow rolled her eyes but made no comment as she stood up and offered a hand to Luz. The human stared at it for a moment before Willow took the humans hand herself and helped her up.
“I’ll ask Eda if she has anything that’s not covered in dust,” Willow asked her, gazing around at Luz’s room. “Somehow, I doubt she keeps her clothes on the racks in here.”
“I,” Amity shook her head to clear it. “I think she has a chest in the room down the hallway.”
“I’ll check it out,” Willow nodded, keeping a hand on Luz’s shoulder and guiding her out of her room.
Thus leaving Amity, Gus and King to their own devices.
They all looked at each other.
“You wanna cut holes in Eda’s raggety clothes and stitch them together?” King asked casually.
“Yeah I do!” Gus grinned, throwing his notebook and pencil aside.
“I’m picking the fabric,” Amity said matter-of-factly. “You guys will just make an unholy abomination.”
“Says the girl in the abomination track,”
“Maybe...if we split my head open...the pain will stop.”
“I’m not cracking your skull like an egg for a headache, Luz.”
“Do you think zombies would like that?” Luz asked, raising a hand in the air. “Would it be like scrambled eggs?”
“That’s disgusting, Luz.”
“Not to the zombies,”
Luz was laying across the couch, her head hanging off the armrest, holding a warm washcloth against her forehead. Willow was sitting on the other end, with Gus perched on the armrest beside her. Amity was sitting on the floor in front of Luz with King in her lap, making sure she didn’t slide off the couch.
“Some guy did it once,” Luz continued, her eyes covered by the washcloth as she wildly waved her other hand around in the air. “Some god or something. Head split. Woman popped out. It was a whole thing.”
“Wait, really?” Gus gasped, eyes shining excitedly.
“Gus, she’s high.” Willow deadpanned. “I don’t think we can trust most things she’s saying right now.”
“It was a thing!” Luz insisted, trying to sit up and failing. “Learned ‘bout it...Big Z got a nerdy war daughter. Like…” She paused for a moment. “Like Amity, but a goddess.”
Amity made a few strangled choking sounds, and King glared up at her. Though he didn’t try to move out of her lap.
“I’m writing it down anyway,” Gus said, scribbling furiously.
“How’s the headache?” Willow asked.
“Killing me slowly,” Luz said, rolling her head to the side on the armrest so she was nearly falling off the couch.
She moved the washcloth further up, revealing her pupils going off the fritz for a few moments before appearing to pulsate in size.
“I wanna run laps and then curl up on the floor,” Luz said, eyes glazing over in that way you knew she was focusing on nothing at all. “I wanna slam into something.”
“Wh...why?” Gus said slowly.
“No idea,” Luz shrugged, her voice sounding far too cheerful. “Maybe if I run into a wall I’ll start feeling normal. I should try that.” She said, beginning to sit up.
“Absolutely not,” Amity snapped, her voice a bit strained as she sat up and sharply pushed Luz back onto the couch. “You’re not getting any more brain damage today.”
“Eda told me she already fell down the last few steps on the stairs,” King piped up.
“Few?” Luz repeated, blinking. “I fell down all ‘em.”
There was a few seconds of silence where everyone soaked in her words.
“You fell down the entire flight of stairs?” Willow repeated.
“Yeah?” Luz looked between her friends, perplexed. “What?”
“Didn’t that hurt?” Amity winced at the thought. “You’re lucky you didn’t break anything!”
“I didn’t feel a thing,” Luz shrugged, completely uncaring. “Felt like falling in a ball pit.”
“You fell down wooden stairs, and you felt nothing?” Willow gaped.
“Nope,” Luz smiled.
Her friends stared at her for a few moments, all in different states of concern.
“Oh, her pain tolerance shot up, too.” Gus spoke, breaking the silence. “Her ears and head must either be incredibly painful or they don’t work the same way.”
“I’ve never felt more terrified for Luz in my life,” Willow near-wheezed. “She could have a cracked bone right now and we wouldn’t even know.”
“I’ll be fine,” Luz waved a hand. “Mamás a doctor, I know things...many things.”
“I know Eda is a lot of things, but I doubt she’s a doctor, whatever that is.” Gus said, confused as he looked up.
Everyone froze. Gus realized who Luz was talking about a moment too late.
Luz squinted and stared down at the couch, washcloth slowly sliding off her head. Her left pupil expanded before slowly shrinking. She looked like she was trying to reboot her brain, and swayed slightly.
“Hey, Luz!” Amity quickly sat up, giving her friend a nervous smile. “You wanna dress up King in that weird patchwork shirt we made?”
“Uh, yes!" Luz went right back to smiling.
A silent sigh of relief swept through the room.
“How could you?” King cried, lowering his voice a second into his outburst. “Haven’t you tortured me enough?”
“It was a cupcake, King.” Amity said, standing and scooping up King in her arms.
“And you crushed it mercilessly!”
Willow glanced back at Gus, who’s ears were flicked back. He was staring at his notebook, looking like a toddler who’d been caught trying to steal food from the counter.
“Sorry,” He whispered when he caught Willow’s look. “I wasn’t paying attention…”
“It’s alright,” Willow sighed, watching as King squirmed in Amity’s hold and Luz tried to sit up. “We’re all trying to get used to it.”
“King, c’mere,” Luz cooed, putting her hands on the armrest and trying to pull herself up.
Before promptly losing her grip and falling face-first off the couch.
“Are you okay?” Amity worried.
“Feeling nothin’,” Luz said, giving a thumbs up as she raised her head. “Never better.”
Amity cringed back at the sight, and King made an ‘ew’ noise, curling closer in the witches arms.
“She gave herself a black eye, didn’t she?” Willow sighed.
“Yeah…”
“Titan save us, she’s not gonna last a week.”
“Oh don’t cha dare look back, just keep ya eyes on me, I said ya holding back, she said shut up and dance with me,”
The quintet were all sitting around the kitchen table. It was well past noon, too late for lunch but too early for dinner. But King had gotten hungry and so everyone had eaten at what Luz had called ‘dinunch’ or ‘lunner.’
Well, everyone aside from Luz. She vehemently refused to eat anything. So she’d resorted to laying upside down on her chair, her head on the floor, and singing some human song nobody at the table knew.
“This woman is my destiny, she said oooooh, shut up and dance with me!”
“I’m going to lose it,” Gus whispered, staring at the table with the gaze of centuries of pain.
“Ha! Luz it,” Luz giggled. “McLuz it. Puns,”
“Shouldn’t Eda be back with Lilith by now?” Willow asked the demon sitting on the table by Luz’s chair.
“Eh, she may have just started studying at the library with her.” King shrugged. “Or they’re busting themselves out of prison, either is plausible.”
“We were victims of the night,” Luz continued humming. “The chemical, physical, kryptonite.”
“At least she’s not whining about headaches,” Amity shrugged.
“Helpless to the bass and the fading light, oh we were bound to get together, bound to get together,” Luz tilted her head while on the floor, eyes closed.
“For your sake, I hope you don’t remember today all that well,” Willow said, rubbing her temples. “Luz, are you keeping that ice on your eye?”
“She took my arm!” Luz trilled, though it was no louder than regular talking. “Don’t know how it happened, we hit the floor and she saaaaaaid,”
“Luz,” Willow repeated.
“Oh don’t cha dare look back, just keep ya eyes on me, I said you’re holdin’ back, she said--”
“Luz,” Amity said, peering under the table.
Luz paused, blinking open her eyes and holding them on Amity. One of her hands was splayed out by her head, loosely holding a wet towel with no ice in it.
“What happened to the ice?” Amity sighed.
“Huh?” Luz blinked, her pupils fritzing out for a moment. “Oh, I ate ‘em.”
“You ate four cubes of ice?” Willow cried, standing up suddenly. “Why? Why in the world…?”
“Wanted to see what it’d taste like.” Luz said earnestly. “Tasted bad,”
“Then why’d you eat all four?” Gus raised a brow, also peering under the table.
Luz looked at him blankly.
“Shut up and dance with me!” She went right on singing. “This woman is my destiny, she said oooooh,”
Everyone at the table couldn’t look more tired. Willow sighed and got up to get more ice for Luz’s black eye, which had swollen to the point where it could only open halfway.
“Okay, you’re making me nervous from that position, please sit up,” Amity said, getting up from her chair and standing by Luz, who was still singing on.
“A backless dress and some beat up sneaks,” Luz sang. “My discotheque, Juliet, teenage dream! I felt in in my chest as she looked at me,”
Amity gave Gus and King a look of utter pain and confusion before crouching down by the human, snapping her fingers to get her attention.
Luz jolted to attention and rolled her head to the side, looking up at Amity.
Her pupils dilated wide before one flickered slightly smaller.
“Can you get up?” Amity asked her.
Luz opened her mouth to reply before slowly shutting it again. She did this a few more times before turning her head to the side and avoiding the witches gaze.
Amity sighed and resigned to helping her up herself. She picked up Luz’s feet and took them off of the back of the chair, setting them to the side at a very awkward angle, considering Luz refused to move.
“Lost my place,” Luz mumbled.
For a second Amity thought she was complaining about her current position being shifted, but as her friend started singing again, she knew she couldn’t care less.
“She took my arm, I don’t know how it happened,” She hummed. “We took the floor and she saaaaaaid,”
Amity leaned down and took Luz’s hands, pulling her up. She was now facing off the side of the chair, finally sitting in a normal position.
Luz looked up to her, blinking innocently. One pupil contracted and she broke into a goofy grin.
“Take me home tonight,” She sang on, keeping a hold on Amity’s hands and trying to pull herself to a standing position. “I don’t want to let you go till we see the light.”
Amity stepped back, unconsciously helping to keep Luz standing, watching her in confusion. She glanced at the others, but Gus wasn’t paying much attention, just glad Luz wasn’t singing the same lines over and over again. King barely spared them a glance, much more interested in notes Gus was looking over.
“Take me home tonight,” Luz grinned, pulling Amity’s hands back till she was nearly nose-to-nose with the girl.
It likely would’ve been a lot more romantic if Luz’s eye wasn’t swollen and black. Plus her pupils that were still fluctuating.
“Listen honey,” Luz chanted. “Just like Ronnie said,”
Amity slowly drew her head back, beginning to flush brightly. Luz giggled and gave her a lopsided smile.
“Luz...Luz what are you--”
“Be my little baaaaaaaby,” She snickered, placing her head on Amity’s shoulder and continuing to give short laughs.
“Luz?” Amity stuttered, trying to get her hands out of Luz’s grip. “Listen, you--” She swallowed. “You need to sit back down…”
“Is everything okay?” Willow asked, appearing with more cubes of ice wrapped up in a washcloth.
“Oh don’t you dare look back!” Luz suddenly shot back, snatching Amity’s arms and tugging her along. “Just keep your eyes on me!”
She misjudged the distance between her and the table, smacking her back into and crumbling to the floor, not as steady on her feet as everyone thought.
The back of her head hit the table as she fell. She didn’t make any noise of pain, simply toppled over and landed on the floor before roughly sitting back and knocking against the table leg, looking dazed.
“Luz!” Amity cried.
Gus and King jerked up as Willow rushed over, crouching by Luz along with Amity.
Luz still looked almost to be in a state of shock, but it was hard to tell from how her head turned and pupils contracted. Willow reached out and turned her head to inspect the damage.
“Yeah, it’s bleeding.” Willow winced.
“How much?” Gus asked, peering over the table.
“Uh,” Willow pulled her hand back, revealing Luz’s blood coating it.
Amity sucked in a breath and her eyes went wide. She quickly turned Luz’s head to see for herself as Gus and King hurried around to them.
She couldn’t tell where the cut was under Luz’s hair that she was beginning to grow out, but it was bleeding rapidly. A large patch of her hair was dark red with blood gushing out.
“Call Eda, call Eda!” Gus exclaimed as King rushed to Luz, worrying over her.
“Call the healers!” King insisted over the witch.
Luz winced and covered her ears, whimpering at their frantic shouting. Willow quickly pulled out her scroll and began dialing Eda, clearly just as freaked out as the others.
Amity was in a state of shock. She was sitting on her knees at Luz’s side, just staring at the blood beginning to trickle down Luz’s hair and onto her neck. Her pupils were slitted into thin lines, and her breathing had become heavy.
Luz opened her eyes, but kept her hands over her ears because of the shouting. She gave her friends a hurt look before noticing the stilled fear on Amity’s face.
She frowned and nudged Amity’s leg with her foot. When the witch didn’t respond, she turned to King, who was sitting closest to her, and nudged his back with the same foot.
King turned, and everyone's shouting paused.
“Guys?” Luz said, one eye dilating as the back of her shirt grew soaked with blood. “I think something’s wrong with Amity...”
Lilith sat on the couch, looking over as many medical papers she could. She finally wore her glasses, and she had notes lay strewn about on the coffee table. She was exhausted, and words were beginning to blur together.
It was almost one in the morning, but she couldn’t stop yet.
After a study session and quick escape from Kikimora yesterday, Eda had been called and informed by panicked teenagers that Luz had hit her head on the table and was heavily bleeding on the floor. Lilith didn’t think Eda could get that scared in such a short amount of time, but you learn something new every day.
Thankfully, Luz had turned out fine. Her head injury wasn’t all that serious, it just turns out humans bleed more from head wounds than witches.
But considering that in just a few hours Luz had managed to get said head injury, a black eye, and traumatize her friends, Eda was quick to shoo them away.
Lilith hated the pained expression plastered to Amity’s face.
She couldn’t be mad at Eda, not really. Her little sister was scared for Luz, and who wouldn’t be? Having to deal with three more kids was far from her to-do list.
Luz had been patched up by very concerned healers, leaving Lilith to insist that, no, they had not drugged a child, she was just having a bad reaction to vaccines.
Her friends had come back the second day, but Luz was on constant surveillance watch by them and Eda alike. Not much had changed from the first day, though Luz had somehow managed to get her head stuck in a cardboard cylinder.
She was glad when they left before dinner. The constant terror flashing in Amity’s eyes worried her beyond belief.
Technically speaking, Lilith supposed, it was the third day now. But she was too busy focusing on finding anything useful to dwell on it.
She heard creaking steps and didn’t bother to glance up. It was probably Edalyn. She was awake at all hours and was probably off to grab a snack.
She heard heavy footsteps and eventually something flopping down at the edge of the coffee table.
A moment later, a head was placed on it.
Lilith looked up then.
Luz was sitting on her knees at the end of the table, her chin resting on the end with her arms loosely dragging in the floor. She had bandages around her black eye and head, and, according to her, making her look like ‘a pirate.’”
“Luz?” Lilith blinked, setting down her pen. “What are you doing up?”
“Not tired,” Luz said, her eyes turning to the witch.
Her right pupil expanded, nearly taking up all the color in her eye.
“Well, you should try to sleep,” Lilith said simply. “I have tea to help calm you down, if you want.”
“Nah,” Luz said, looking back to the papers. “Whatcha doing?”
Lilith, already tired and not thinking completely straight, decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to humor the human.
“Studying,” She said simply. “To help you.”
“You are?” Luz perked up, raising her head off the table.
“Um, yes?” Lilith raised a brow. “I have been for a while now. Did you not know?”
“Nobody told me!” Luz shook her head, placing her hands on the table and holding herself up. “You found a lot on the human...human thingies,” She commented, gazing at the papers.
Lilith suddenly understood, and she felt a twinge in her chest. She decided not to think about it for too long.
“Oh, no, no, I’m not studying for that.” She explained. “I’m studying how to make you feel better, not the human realm.”
Luz’s smile instantly fell. She slumped onto her elbows and glomily lay her cheek on the table.
“Oh,” She said sadly, letting out a sigh. “Okay,”
Lilith frowned, her chest suddenly feeling just a bit hollower. She thought she must’ve been feeling the weight of her exhaustion, but she was quick to realize the real issue.
Lilith sighed dramatically and ran a hand through her hair.
Great Titan, she’d begun to truly care, hadn’t she?
She bit her lip and glanced back at Luz, who was still sorrowfully staring at her papers, her pupil now contracted to half the size of a dime.
“But,” She said cautiously, catching Luz’s attention. “I suppose I could help you with that...once you feel better, of course.”
“You will?” Luz shot up again like a rocket. “Thank you!” She smiled.
Lilith gave a small smile and chuckled.
“You’re going to regret all that happened these last few days when you gain control of yourself again,” She said, going back to flipping through the pages of a medical book she found. “I know I would.”
“Why?” Luz asked, tiling her head curiously.
“Wh--Luz, even you must realize you’d never be like this in your normal state.” Lilith said matter-of-factly. “You hate me, remember?”
Luz stared at her blankly for a moment. She crossed her arms on the table and rested on them, giving her an innocent look.
“No I don’t,”
Lilith paused. She slowly glanced over to the girl, confused.
“You do,” She said firmly. “In case you forgot, I used you to lure Eda to the Emperor’s Coven and could’ve gotten you seriously hurt.”
“You did?” Luz asked, before realization dawned on her. “Oh yeah! You did,” She chuckled. “I used to have nightmares about that.” She said casually.
Lilith flinched and turned away, focusing her attention on the paper she’d read over and over again.
There was a stretched silence for a few moments. Lilith thought Luz had fallen asleep, but she was still staring at her.
“Don’t hate cha,” Luz said again, her pupil flickering. “Ya no, al menos,” She mumbled.
“And why’s that?” Lilith sighed. “If you’d care to enlighten me,”
“You try,” Luz said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I mean, I definitely have favorites,” She said, turning her head on her arms. “But you’re off the hate-list. Hate file. Hate...paper.” She stuck out her tongue.
“Luz, with all due respect, I’m finding that hard to believe.” Lilith said simply. “You’re in a deleriated state, and I don’t trust your words at the moment.”
“I know stuff!” Luz shot back, glaring.
“What’s six times three?” Lilith asked.
Luz stared at her for a moment. She looked down at her fingers and began quietly counting on them.
“...twenty-three?” She suggested hesitantly.
Lilith gave her a deadpan stare before sighing and setting aside another paper.
“My point still stands,”
“But I don’t,” Luz whined, pounting.
“Not to be unappreciative, but Eda is far more deserving of you than I ever will be.” Lilith said simply, ears flicking back.
“Eda’s not perfect,” Luz muttered. “She made me break into the crema...the...tori...prison.” Luz muttered. “Prison break.”
“She made you break into the conformatorium?” Lilith jerked up.
“First day,” Luz grinned, raising a finger. “For a...a lil crown.”
She suddenly lit up, happily facing Lilith.
“Hey, hey,” She started giggling. “Did you, did you know Warden Wrath,” She could barely hold back her laughs. “Wrath had a crush on Eda?”
Lilith’s eyebrows raised, and she searched Luz’s face with hesitant interest.
“I did not…” She said slowly.
“It was weird,” Luz giggled. “And, and she forgot my name!” She said gleefully. “Had to remind her who I was.”
“She did?” Lilith said, slowly setting her pen down.
“And she laughed at me,” Luz added, resting her chin on the table as she thought. “And told me to dig through trash. And almost killed me while cursed.”
Lilith visibly flinched, turning away. She had never heard that Eda transformed while Luz was stuck in the house with her.
How Luz made it out unscathed, she wished she knew.
“And she made me cheat at the covention,” Luz continued rattling off. “And Eda swapped our bodies because...petty I think. And made me shove moss up my nose. And she sold some of my old stuff,”
Luz visibly frowned slightly at that one.
“And she taunted me by saying I was fragile. And a bunch of other things,” She continued, her pupil spazzing for a moment. She visibly winced before it calmed to enveloping half her eye.
“That’s...quite a bit.” Lilith said slowly.
“Yeah,” Luz nodded, before placing her hands on the table again and raising herself up.
“But I still love her,” She said cheerfully. “She did good things, too.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about those, you don’t need to list them.” Lilith quickly assured the kid. “Eda boasts about her accomplishments all the time.”
Luz smiled and began messing with the pen Lilith left on the table, rolling it around as her eye followed it.
“You’ve done good, too.” She said quietly. “I like that you try,” She said sincerely, looking up. “I try.”
Lilith watched the girl for a moment. She offered the tiniest of smiles and glanced down at her hands, looking them over.
“Thank you,” She said quietly, holding her hands close. “I...I appreciate it.”
Luz ditched the pen and held herself up higher, looking proud.
“And if I’m honest, I’d almost think you weren’t as affected as we thought,” Lilith raised a brow in amusement. “Are you sure your not actually high?”
Luz blinked at her, tilting her head in confusion and frowning. She looked down, then looked back to Lilith.
“I’m on the floor,” She said.
“...never mind.” Lilith sighed, shaking her head. “You’re a wonder, Luz, you know that?”
Luz puffed out her chest with pride and brought a hand to it. She was about to say something, but she had been resting all her weight on her hands, and with one removed, she promptly slipped and cracked her chin against the coffee table.
“Are you alright?” Lilith exclaimed as Luz groaned and held her chin, falling onto the carpeted floor.
“Ow,” Luz whined.
Lilith muttered under her breath and took off her glasses. She got up and walked over to Luz, helping the girl to her feet.
“At least you can feel pain again,” She murmured. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Luz didn’t respond, but she allowed the witch to guide her out of the living room, still whimpering about the pain.
Lilith had gotten to the bottom of the stairs when Luz leaned against her side, holding her arms. Lilith looked down at her before wrapping an arm around the girl and gently leading her up the stairs.
Her studying could wait.
“Des-pa-cito,”
“Day three into Luz’s descent into madness,” Gus droned over Luz’s singing. “And I’ve lost my will to continue on.”
“Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito,” Luz sang deliriously, though at least she seemed to be having fun.
The friends were all sitting on the living room floor, with Eda and King messing with some glyphs on the couch.
“Where’s Lilith?” Amity wondered, eyeing Luz, who was laying on her back on the floor.
“Holed up in her room studying on something,” Eda waved her hand casually. “Don’t know, don’t particularly care. Unless it's useful to us right now.”
“Deja que te diga cosas al oído,” Luz hummed. “Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo.”
“When Luz said she was going to distract herself from her headache, I wasn’t expecting this.” Willow said calmly, already glazed over from three days of putting up with this.
“It’s not that much different from yesterday,” Amity insisted.
“Des-pa-cito!”
The green-haired witches expression, however, proved that she was tired of dealing with Luz’s shenanigans as well.
“Quiero desnundar--”
Luz suddenly cut herself off, staring at the ceiling. Amity glanced over, noticing a crimson on Luz’s face as her unbandaged pupil contracted.
“Luz?” Amity asked.
“Nope, not saying that.” Luz said, still staring at the ceiling.
Amity raised a brow and glanced at her friends. They only gave her clueless shrugs. Not like any of them knew Spanish.
“I’m too hungry to put up with this,” Eda grumbled, getting up from the couch and ditching the fire glyph she was trying to draw. “You kids want lunch?”
“It’s three PM?” Gus said, glancing up.
“Time is an illusion and so are you,” Eda responded, walking by the kids. “You hungry or not?”
“I am,” King said, scampering after her.
“A bit,” Amity nodded, standing up. “C’mon, Luz.”
“Not hungry,” Luz said simply, turning her head to watch as her friends all got up.
“I know for a fact you haven’t had lunch today,” Eda said, stopping and looking back. “You gotta eat, Luz.”
“I’m just not hungry,” Luz whined. “Wake up not hungry, stay not hungry.”
Eda frowned as Amity offered a hand and helped Luz to her feet.
“Didn’t wake up hungry?” Eda repeated. “Did you eat breakfast?”
“No,” Luz said bluntly. “Wasn’t hungry.”
“Luz!” Willow scolded.
“What? I’m not!” Luz huffed, crossing her arms.
“Luz, when was the last time you ate?” Eda sighed.
Luz paused. She scrunched up her face for a moment before beginning to mutter and count on her fingers.
You could see the fear spike through everyone in the room.
“Uh, not yesterday,” Luz mumbled. “Not...yesterday-yesterday…”
“You haven’t eaten anything in over three days?” Gus exclaimed.
“Ow,” Luz grumbled, pointing to her ears before her pupil contracted. “But...yeah, think so. Wasn’t hungry,” She shrugged like it was no big deal.
“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Eda groaned, disturbed. “Come on, Luz, you’re eating something.”
“But-”
“No buts!” Eda snapped, grabbing the back of the girls shirt and tugging her into the kitchen. “You not feeling hungry in three days is the most worrying thing you’ve said. The no-pain thing is definitely second.”
“I swear we thought she ate before and that’s why she wasn’t hungry,” Gus said, hurriedly following after.
“Not your fault, I should’ve paid more attention.” Eda shrugged, dumping Luz into the kitchen chair where she pouted. “Add that to the list of vaccine symptoms.”
“No wonder she keeps falling over,” Willow murmured, casually shoving Luz back into her seat when she tried to get up. “I would too, if I was functioning on no food.”
“Shouldn’t she have gotten better by now?” Amity asked, pacing on the opposite side of the island counter. “Eda, when did you say she’ll get better?”
“I…” Eda paused, one hand on the fridge door as she thought. “...a week. A week at most.” She said, glancing back. “We’ll be seeing progress between now and the end of this week, I promise.”
She almost winced at her own lie. Which was a rare sight for the con-artist.
“I’m fine,” Luz grumbled, slumping onto the table. “I’ve had worse,”
“While you weren’t inebriated, Luz.” Amity deadpanned. “It’s one thing when you get yourself into trouble on your own, this is worse.”
“Dramatic,” Luz muttered, but didn’t comment further.
“Willow, you're the strongest, right?” Eda asked, turning and placing a bowl of leftover meat chunks on the table.
“Yeah?” Willow blinked. “Why?”
“Hold her down,” She instructed the witch. “Because she will fight back.”
Willow didn’t react for the first few moments, allowing Eda’s words to sink in for Luz. She started to shoot up and make a break for it, but Willow quickly snapped out of it and shoved the human back into her seat with little difficulty.
Luz flailed and even tried to bite Willow, but it did practically nothing. A sharp shoulder squeeze at the human wincing and obediently sitting still.
“Is this...common?” Gus inquired.
“No, not really.” Eda shook her head. “I just figured since Luz was having such an aversion to eating for three days, she probably wouldn’t be inclined to now just because we asked nicely.”
Luz tried to mimic a hiss as Eda set down the bowl in front of her. Gus giggled at the sight, since it was more like her saying the word hiss than the actual noise witches made.
“Every day, I lose more of my sanity in this house,” Amity said, stepping away as Luz tried to struggle again and Eda searched for a fork.
“Welcome to the club, kid.”
Luz had been sent to bed three hours earlier.
It was the end of the third day.
Eda, for some reason, was wide awake.
This wasn’t out of the blue. She was usually up at odd hours due to her curse. She felt less inclined to do so now, but thirty-year-old habits die hard.
She figured she woke up on her own, so she got up to get a snack like usual, and to check on Luz in her room.
But when she left her own room and looked down the hallway, she saw that Luz’s door was wide open.
Panic seized her for a brief moment before she forced herself to calm down. An open door didn’t mean anything, get yourself together.
Eda poked her head inside Luz’s room and looked around. Sure enough, her sleeping bag was left abandoned, and the human was nowhere to be seen.
Her first thought was Lilith. Nothing specific at all, just that Lilith was responsible.
She shook her head and looked back towards Lilith’s ‘room.’ The light was still on.
She opened the door a crack, seeing Lilith was sitting on the floor, ready to pass out. She had books and papers strewn out before her, half of them medical, the other half everything on humans and their realm she could find. Eda knew Luz and Gus had already read through those before.
She felt the tiniest twinge of guilt at the immediate blame before silently shutting the door.
Maybe Luz had just gone for a snack, like her. It wasn’t too unusual for her to creep out at midnight.
Granted, she wasn’t on the verge of toppling over at every step those last times.
Eda walked down the stairs and looked around. She checked every room, seeing no trace of the human anywhere, her anxiety growing by the minute.
She pulled out a fire glyph and lit the candles around the kitchen, forcibly keeping her breathing normal.
“Hello?”
Eda perked at the sound of the girl's voice and pricked her ears up. She saw that the back door was wide open, explaining why Hooty hadn’t noticed anything. He was asleep at this point, anyway.
She could see the outline of someone standing well outside the house, nearly at the treeline.
“Luz!” Eda called, rushing out the door. “What are you doing out here, kid?”
Luz whirled around, eyes wide and scared.
The bandage around her head was gone, revealing the injury on her head was at nasty clotting phase. Her eye was still dark and swollen, but she could open it far better than before. The healing glyphs had sped up the process, while they had been on.
“Luz?” Eda slowed, coming to a stop a few meters from the girl, the kitchen light from the house giving her a shadow that stretched out right towards Luz.
“It...it’s her,” Luz said, slowly turning her head back around to face the forest. “I can hear her.”
“Hear who?” Eda said, taking a step closer.
“Listen,” Luz said simply.
So, Eda did. She angled her ears to listen towards the forest, silent and still.
The only sound that greeted her was the wind through the trees.
“There it is!” Luz suddenly perked up. “That’s her!”
There hadn’t been a sound.
Eda knew her hearing was well more developed than Luz’s, all witches ears were. So the fact that Luz claimed to be hearing something even she couldn’t was...concerning.
“Kid, I can’t hear anything.” Eda shook her head.
“You’re not listening,” Luz huffed, her left pupil dilating. “It’s her! She’s somewhere out here, I know it!” She said, looking around.
“Who?” Eda demanded. “Who can you hear? What are you talking about?”
“My mamá,” Luz said, still scanning the treeline. “I can hear her.”
Oh.
Eda felt a painful twist in her chest. For a moment, she thought her gem was acting up, but it was still the same inky black as before.
“Luz,” Eda started gently, walking closer to the girl. “Your mother’s not here.”
“Yes she is, I hear her.” Luz said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I think you need your ears checked. She’s somewhere out there, I just need to--”
Eda grabbed Luz’s shoulder and she whirled around, startled. Her eyes flickered and spazzed, reflecting Eda’s face before shrinking again.
“That’s not her,” Eda said softly, looking down at the girl. “You’re hallucinating again, kiddo.” She said sorrowfully. “There’s nobody there.”
Luz looked up at the witch, her brows knitting together in a frown. She suddenly jerked back to the forest, head raised.
“But I hear her…” She said quietly, a crack lacing her voice.
“I know you do,” Eda said, wrapping an arm around the teens shoulders. “But there’s no way that can be her. She’s back in the human realm, remember?”
Luz stared up at Eda with wide, searching eyes. She looked back to the forest, her body tense. Eda knew that look and tightened her hold around Luz’s shoulders, her hand placed just below Luz’s collarbone.
“Mamá!” Luz shouted, straining against Eda’s hold. “Mamá! I’m here!” She cried, raising a hand to grab Eda’s, but she didn’t try to pull her off.
Eda realized that the shouting must’ve been torture to Luz’s ears. She could even see the human wince every time she shouted. And yet, she kept calling.
Luz waited, listening intently. Eda sighed and gently tried to pull the human back.
“She’s not there. She would’ve heard you.” She said.
“She must be stuck,” Luz insisted. “Mamá!”
“Luz,” Eda breathed. “Please, she’s not--”
“She has to be!” Luz persisted, straining again. “She...she has to be...I can hear her…”
The girl looked back at Eda, tears shining in her eyes and already beginning to roll down her cheeks.
Eda’s ears pressed back and she let out a breath, drawing up her other hand to gently grab Luz’s arm, her expression full of sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Luz.” She said softly. “I’m so sorry, but that’s not her.”
Luz sniffled and hiccupped. She opened her mouth to shout more, but all that came out was a strangled gasp. She quickly closed her mouth again, shutting her eyes as tears freely rolled down her cheeks.
The girl turned and buried her face in the crook of Eda’s arm, her hands tightly clutching Eda’s dress as she tried and failed to muffle her sobs.
Eda enveloped the girl in a hug, feeling every shake her body gave as she wailed. The human flinched at every loud noise she made, but was unable to stop it.
Eda offered hushed whispers, holding the girl up and placing a hand on the back of her head. She stared off into the trees, only being greeted by the empty shadows.
The only sound now was Luz’s cries.
The witch, keeping her arms around Luz, began to guide her back to the house. Luz stayed clinging to her side, her face streaked with tears.
It was awkward maneuvering around her, but she didn’t complain.
Luz’s sobs had quieted to choked cries by the time Eda stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.
She debated trying to turn off the lights, since she couldn’t rely on her magic to do that for her, but she decided to let the candles burn themselves out instead.
“Can you walk, kid?” Eda asked the girl.
Luz sniffled and nodded, slowly peeling herself off of Eda’s side.
“Come on, let’s hit the hay, eh?” She offered, nudging the girl in front of her. “When’s the last time we got a good night's rest, am I right?” She said, trying a half-hearted joke.
Luz paused at that, wiping at her eyes as she thought.
“I don’t think I’ve slept the last two days,” Luz said, glancing back.
Eda stared at her, praying that the girl was joking. And as hard it was to take Luz seriously with one pupil blown wide and the other taking up her entire iris, she knew very well she wasn’t joking.
“Great Titan, kid,” Eda sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Alright, my nest. Someone has to keep an eye on you.”
Luz nodded and began to climb the stairs, holding her hands together to try and stop their shaking. Eda stayed right behind her, fearfully shifting every time she saw the girl sway slightly.
Eda caught Lilith’s door quickly shutting when they made it up the stairs. She wasn’t surprised, Luz hadn’t necessarily been quiet.
Luz stumbled down the hallway, Eda hovering right behind her. She looked away for a moment to look at Lilith’s closed door, noting that the lights were off now.
She heard a thud.
Eda spun around, tensing.
Luz had fallen mid-step, crashing onto the floor in a heap. In a flash, Eda was at her side and pulling her up, terrified something bad had happened.
Instead, she was greeted by Luz’s soft snores.
“Of course,” Eda sighed, scooping her up into her arms. “Just my luck you’d pass out before we even got to my room.” She muttered.
Effortlessly, she carried the human to her room and kicked the door shut behind her. She lay Luz in her nest, leaning her head on the edge to keep it propped up.
Eda searched her room for a moment before finding the spare gauzes and healing glyphs she kept for emergencies. It was awkward trying to wrap up Luz’s head, but she managed and placed two healing glyphs on her, one over her eye and the other on the back of her head.
She searched her nest for a moment before pulling out an old blanket she rarely used. She wrapped it around Luz and lay her back down before slipping into her nest beside her.
Luz twitched in her sleep, but aside from that, she didn’t stir.
Eda lay on her stomach, her head squished against the edge of the nest. She glanced at Luz beside her before wrapping one arm around her, keeping the girl close.
“I’m sorry, kid.” Eda sighed quietly. “You never deserved any of this.”
All that greeted her was deafening silence.
“Are you sure you feel fine?” Gus asked for the eighth time that morning.
“Yes, Gus,” Luz sighed. “I swear that I am completely conscious now.”
“Guess your prediction was right,” Eda mumbled to Lilith, standing off to the side from the group. “Been a week, and she’s nearly normal again.”
“Thank goodness!” King breathed, slumping over Luz’s crossed leg. “I couldn’t handle being smothered by you again.”
“Sorry,” Luz winced, giving a sheepish smile. “I take it I…” She raised a hand and felt at her eye, which, while less swollen, was still noticeable. “Caused a bit of trouble?” She guessed shyly.
“Your hallucinations weren’t fun,” Willow nodded. “Or your unending thirst for every water bottle you could find.”
“And your refusal to eat and sleep,” Eda added.
Luz rubbed the back of her neck, hunching her shoulders and offering nervous smiles.
“Sorry, guys.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.” Amity assured her.
Eda casted a sideways glare at Lilith, who looked away and held her hands behind her back.
“At least you’ll get to freely move around the beast keeping track now,” Willow added. “Viney will appreciate the help, I’m sure.”
“Oh, yeah!” Luz perked up. “No more sick day excuses!” She pumped a fist.
“Which means you’re helping out with the trash slugs now,” Eda reminded with a grin. “Because now you don’t have excuses.”
“Getting vaccines doesn’t mean she’s immune to all sickness, Edalyn.” Lilith grit her teeth and sent a glare towards her sister.
“Yeah, but she won’t get, like, ones that’ll kill her.” Eda waved a hand casually.
“Aw,” Luz slumped.
“A moment of silence for Luz.” Willow said solemnly.
“Do you wanna read about what happened?” Gus asked excitedly, already pulling out his notebook.
“Am I going to regret it if I do?” Luz turned to Amity.
“Fifty-fifty,” Amity tilted her hand. “I’d skip the part with the broken window and dumpster-diving.”
“And the kitchen incident?” Willow added, giving Amity a smug look.
Amity gave a guttural growl and lowered her ears.
“I’m already worried,” Luz said, anxiously glancing between her friends.
“How about we hold off on the trip down memory lane?” Lilith said, walking around and slowly pushing down Gus’s notebook that he was pulling out. “Luz, aside from the usual symptoms, is anything different?” She questioned the girl.
“Uh,” Luz frowned and thought for a moment. “A mild headache is normal, right?”
“Yeah, you got those all the time.” King nodded.
Luz hummed and thought, tapping her fingers on the carpet before perking up.
“Oh, I think I’ve got a better pain tolerance now.”
“I thought that faded?” Amity exclaimed, panicked.
“That was an issue?” Luz blinked. “I mean, it’s not that bad. I kinda fell down the stairs earlier but all I got was a regular bruise instead of a small gash like three weeks ago.”
“You really need to fix the stairs if this is a common issue,” Lilith turned to Eda.
“Oh, that’s not as bad.” Willow relaxed. “Your pain tolerance used to be so high that when you cut your head you didn’t feel a thing.”
Luz gave Willow a wide-eyed, very concerned look.
“Wasn’t fun,” Amity shook her head, shuttering.
“Yeah, no, my tolerance is nowhere near that high.” Luz assured them. “And I can sort of feel the magic from my glyphs? I dunno, it’s hard to describe.”
“Probably the magic the vaccines had,” Eda shrugged. “That might last a while longer.”
“Cool,” Luz grinned. “Oh, and my vision feels weird sometimes, but I think I’ll be fine after a few hours.”
“Yeah, that's normal. Your eyes acted up a lot.” Gus nodded. “It was really funny, your entire eye would be just black.”
“...human pupils can’t dilate that much.” Luz said, concern lacing her tone.
“They can now,” Eda snickered. “With the,” She broke off in a fit of giggles. “The power of witch drugs.”
“I’m going to admit,” King raised his head. “Now I’m curious what actual drugs would do to you.”
“You have drugs in the Isles?” Luz exclaimed. “Like, illegal ones?”
“Course we do,” Eda chuckled. “You can find them at the Night Market for, what, ten snails?”
“That’s the cheap ones.” Lilith corrected. “The very illegal ones go for fifty or more.”
“And you know this because…?”
Lilith stiffened and cast a fearful glance at the children all watching her expectantly. Aside from Amity, who looked very worried.
“...I used to catch a lot of people selling at the Night Market,” Lilith said, crossing her arms. “It’s hard not to take notice of how much they were going for.”
“Plot twist of the century, ex-coven leader Lilith Clawthorne snorts fairy dust.” Eda giggled. “Oh how the masses would love that.”
“Edalyn!” Lilith gasped.
“Am I wrong?”
“And this is our cue to leave,” Luz whispered to her friends as the sisters began their daily bickering.
Her friends didn’t argue, they just quickly got up and shuffled towards the door. Willow carried King with them in her arms like a football, much to his silent complaints.
Luz opened the door and guided her friends out, quietly shutting out the arguing sisters.
“Hi, guys!” Hooty chirped.
Luz winced and pulled away, rubbing at her ears.
“Ow,” She muttered.
“Are your ears still sensitive?” Amity worried, shooting Hooty a glare that made him shut up.
“Only a little,” Luz offered a smile, stepping away from the front door. “Anyway, what did I miss while I was out of it?”
“Nothing much,” Gus said, beginning to walk off as the rest followed. “Aside from, like, a ton of homework.”
“I expect nothing less,” Luz muttered, pain etched into her face.
“You want me to ask Principal Bump to loosen up on you for a bit?” Amity asked.
“Teachers pet privilege,” Willow whispered under her breath.
“I heard that!” Amity snapped.
“Just a little,” Luz nodded. “I’m still emotionally recovering from being basically unconscious for a week.”
“I still have the notes if you want to read them,” Gus said, slowly pulling out his notebook again.
“On one hand, yes,” Luz said. “But on the other hand, I’m scared of what I’ll find.”
“It’s mostly just filled with you falling over a lot and singing random songs on repeat.” Willow shrugged.
“I have all of them stuck in my head at the same time and I can’t get them out,” Amity whispered, looking horror-stricken.
Luz chuckled nervously, rubbing along the edges of her black eye.
“You know, I think I’m glad I don’t remember much.”